Chapter 5

The Welcoming Feast was at the lowest spirit Hogwarts had ever seen in at least ten years. Ravenclaw was the first to recover and dug into the food, followed by Hufflepuff. Then came the Slytherins, sans Draco. The Gryffindors were staring in shock and trying to process the fact that their Golden Boy had just joined the enemy forces. The Weasleys were still standing and gawking at their step-brother.

Draco was so ashamed.

Merlin, he could just see it now. Percey would ignore him in the halls or reprimand him with his newly awarded prefect honor. Ron, being the anti- Slytherin that he was, would sneer and treat him like a contaminated piece of meat. The twins would play pranks on him as usual, except with real malice instead of brotherly humor.

And at home...

Ginny would probably cry at first, then give him the cold shoulder like Percey, except it would hurt so much more. Bill and Charley hopefully wouldn't hear about it. Ever. Dad would probably shake his head sadly and walk away, disappointed. Mum... Draco sighed. Mum would cry.

He really hated making her cry.

Gradually he realized someone was trying to talk to him. Raising his head a little in acknowledgement, he glanced sideways to see the speaker.

It was Harry.

"Everything will be alright," He said softly, and immediately Draco felt a little better, "the feast has started, and I think you should eat some." He gently nudged a piece of bread onto Draco's plate. "Here."

Draco nodded gratefully and ate in silence, Harry a comforting presence beside him.

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It was only after the houses went their separate ways when Draco started to lighten up. "I'm in so much trouble," he whispered to Harry as they followed the crowd to the dungeons.

"How come?" Harry asked, although he already half knew the answer. It wasn't like Ron was hiding his feelings, and a brief glance around kind of hinted at the obvious shadows looming over this house. Not to mention that Skinny and his thugs were here as well.

Oh, and of course, their head of house. Professor Snape.

During the feast, he had felt a sharp pain at his scar when he saw the man, and had winced. He didn't know if Draco had noticed and didn't mention it, but he knew in that instant that he was in the presence of a man who hated him.

But this was his choice, to be in Slytherin. He could handle it.

Draco answered his question with a dismissive shake of his head, and whispered apologetically, "I'm sorry I got you in the middle of this. I bet my--" his frown deepened and he bit his lip for a second, trying to hold back some strong emotion, "--family all hate you now, for associating with me." At the strange, disbelieving look Harry was giving him, he added sheepishly, "well, and for being sorted into Slytherin."

Harry cracked a smile. "Everything will be alright." And for the moment, it was.

By then, they had reached the common room, and the necessary explanations had been given. The first years retreated to their assigned dorms, and upon arrival Harry noticed that his and Draco's beds are on opposite ends of the room. Draco shrugged, and simply called it "surrounding the enemies on both sides".

Suddenly, Harry noticed Skinny and his gang snickering sinisterly by the corner. He nudged Draco, "I think Skinny's up to something."

Incomprehension flashed across his face, then he laughed, "Skinny? You call him Skinny?" The boys chuckled a bit. "Don't worry about it, Harry," Draco said finally, "if they do something to us tonight, then that just means they are too dumb to take time and make a decent plan, or too dumb to realize that good pranks require making decent plans." He winked, "I would know."

Momentarily mollified, Harry bid Draco good night and went to his bed.

"I'm finally away from the Dursleys," he thought with an intake of breath, "and I'm a wizard." On that note, the Boy-Who-Lived fell asleep.

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In the mornings, Draco Weasley always woke up with a jolt. He had grown accustomed to the twins doing something horrible to him in the middle of the night, having shared a bedroom with the terrible duo. Often he would wake up with colorful abnormalities that needed fixing. When he turned eight, the twins formally inducted him into their prankster group (since he was the one and only addition, the twins turned his skin purple and called it the baptizing), and instead of snapping out of sleep due to a prank he was snapping out of sleep to play a prank. In any case, the habit stayed.

He sat up and yawned, noting that all the other students were still asleep, except by the far corner, Harry.

The boy was sitting by the side of his bed, eyes glazed over, no glasses. He stood up unsteadily and took two steps, then stopped, snapping out of his daze. He mumbled something to himself ("I don't need to make breakfast"), and a happily surprised look appeared on his face. He reached beside his bed for his glasses, but came back empty. A confused look was plastered on his face by the time Draco walked over.

"Er," Harry mumbled, squinting at Draco, "I can't find my-- Draco? Is that you?"

"Yeah," he replied.

"Um, your hair is um... different."

Draco raised an eyebrow, then moved to find a mirror.

There was a moment of silence. Then, Draco's voice, laced with a hint of surprise, rang out.

"I have rainbow-colored hair."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," came the confirmation. Then a moment later Harry spoke again. "Um, can you help me find my glasses?" He squinted helplessly up at his friend.

Draco looked around a bit, then turned back to the boy. "I don't see it anywhere, but let me try this spell. Mum uses it to take away the twins' gadgets."

Clearing his throat, he enunciated, "Accio Harry's glasses!"

There was a moment of silence and nothing moved. He considered doing it again when suddenly pieces of black flew out from under Crabbe and Goyle's bed and into his hand.

It was Harry's glasses, broken beyond recognition.

"Oh, wonderful," Harry remarked sarcastically. He carefully picked up the pieces from Draco's outstretched hand and set them on the table. Then he turned back to the boy and took hold of his hand. "You didn't scratch yourself holding that did you?" He leaned close and squinted into the palm, examining it. "It seems fine, but then--Draco, stop fidgeting-- my vision isn't all that great. You should go to the nurse and double check that there's no glass stuck in your hand. It hurts like hell and takes forever to heal."

Nodding dumbly, Draco took his hand from Harry's grasp and examined it himself. "Ah, I didn't feel anything cut me," he said, "I'm alright, I think." Then suddenly his demeanor changed, and his face scrunched up into a snarl. "How dare those imbeciles. They have no idea who they are messing with. Come on, Harry, we'll show them what real pranks look like." He took a step toward their sleeping roommates when Harry interrupted.

"Um, your hair is still, you know..."

"Oh." With a wave of his wand, Draco's blond was back. He rolled his eyes, "hair color tricks are so overused." Then he turned to Harry's broken glasses. "Um, that spell that Granger girl used, what was it... ah!" he tapped his wand, "Oculus--"

"Wait," Harry interrupted, "let me try." He took out his wand, cleared his throat, and pronounced the spell.

Nothing happened.

Undeterred, Harry tried again. After the third try, the pieces finally began to fidget and form together, the shimmering lights fading away to leave his glasses perfectly new again.

Harry grinned as he put on his glasses, and Draco grinned back.

"Now," the blonde said, "our revenge."

"Didn't you say not to be too hasty in these things?"

"Hm," Draco paused, "you're right." He thought for a moment and the evil glint reappeared. "But this is our counter attack. The real prank is going to come later."

Harry blinked. "Counter attack?"

"Yes. And the essential purpose of counter attack is," Draco sneered at the sleeping students, "instant gratification."

...tbc!

just a note, this won't cover the WHOOOLE first year, and I doubt I'll do all five years (geeze, me the lazy ass doing that much work, as fun as it sounds? I can't keep my mind in things for that long periods of time... But I will do snippets of things that I find important, changed, etc etc...) um... there WILL be a sequel, where both boys turn to hot hot men, and have hot hot romance XD kya. Oh and in case people are wondering, no. The Malfoys are NOT dead. insert forshadowing heh heh heh....

ps- sorry for the short-ish chapter...