Chapter five: Dumbledore's request

"What?" Draco asked curiously from the bed but Harry was already reading the letter and didn't answer him. Draco watched as his green eyes sped across the parchment. Once he was finished reading Harry handed the letter to Draco.

Dear Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy

Figures Potter's name would be first

How are you? I sincerely hope all is well. I have a request for the pair of you. Harry, I know that your birthday is quickly approaching and you will be seventeen, legally a man in the eyes of the ministry, but what I must ask of you cannot wait. I do believe that you will soon find yourself with quite a bit of free time, and I ask you use it wisely. I do believe that it would be beneficial for you and young Mr. Malfoy to train together during this time.

War, my dear boy, is approaching and we must prepare. I think you two could learn a lot from each other if you're willing. I ask that you put aside you differences and work together. I must also suggest that you two get to know one another. I think it would quite amaze you both at the things you could learn.

Harry, I trust you know what kind of things would help you best and I ask you to teach Draco.

And Draco, I know that you too have an extensive knowledge of spells and potions and I ask you to share that knowledge with Harry. Bless you both.

Albus Dumbledore.

P.S I do believe that Mr. Malfoy knows the proper wards to put in place that will enable Mr. Potter to use magic without the prying eyes of the ministry ever knowing.

Draco re-read the letter twice more. He couldn't believe that Dumbledore was asking this. He looked up at Harry who was watching him, his face blank. Neither said anything for a while. Harry finally broke the silence.

"Well…" He said, leaving off. Draco looked at him a bit confused.

"Well what?"

"Well, what do you think?" Harry asked a bit annoyed at having to spell it out for the Slytherin.

"What do I think? I think it's a joke of course. Don't you?" He laughed but quickly sobered as he saw the look on Harry's face. "You're actually thinking about doing this aren't you?" he asked shocked.

"I thought it was a good idea." Harry mumbled his cheeks turning a bit pink with embarrassment. He looked adorable.

"A good idea? A good idea?" Draco scoffed. "It's obvious now more than ever that the old codger has finally lost his marbles. He's completely daft, off his rocker."

Harry just looked at him. His jaw set in defiance.

Draco shook his head.

"I can't believe this! How can you have such blind faith in the man!" Draco cried in disbelief. Harry gave him a look as if he had just grown a second head and it began to recite Shakespeare.

"I don't have blind faith in him. Or anything for that matter, that would be foolish. I question everything. Sometimes there are so many questions going through my head that I can barely function." Harry's voice was soft and he was turned away from Draco. Then he turned back toward him. His eyes held a sort of conviction as did his voice. "But I do trust him, albeit a little begrudgedly. But I do. And I know that he's only asking what he thinks is best."

Draco stared at him. The fire in Harry's eyes was sending waves of warmth through Draco's body. What am I thinking? Now is no time for these thoughts! He mentally scolded himself.

"Potter, you cannot actually be considering doing this." Draco said.

"Why not?" Harry asked his eyes narrowing. "What is so ridiculous about it?"

"What's so ridiculous about it! Everything! I mean, come on. This is you and I that we're talking about. The golden Gryffindor and the vile Slytherin. How can you think this will work?" Draco asked.

"Oh come on! You've been here a week and we haven't fought that whole time until today." Harry cried.

"That's because you're never around!" Draco shouted trying to ignore the voice in the back of his head that told him that he sounded like a neglected girlfriend. "And you're not you,"

"What's that suppose to mean?" Harry asked anger evident in his voice though neither boy knew why.

"I mean…look at you. You're not the Potter who I see strutting around Hogwarts with Granger and Weasley."

"I do not strut," Harry broken in but Draco ignored him.

"You don't sleep or eat. You let those horrid muggles boss you around without so much as a threat under your breath. The first day I got here you didn't even flinch when I insulted your friends! You're not you anymore. You're not happy and now that I think about it, you haven't been you all year, last year."

Harry glared at him.

"Your still a right bastard, but you haven't exactly been yourself either, y'know." He told the blond.

"What, beside the 'right bastard' thing, do you mean?" Draco asked putting his hands on his hips.

"I mean," Harry said taking on a dangerous look, "That you haven't been you. Last year, you all but stopped talking, to everyone! Even, or rather especially, the other Slytherins. You never spoke in class, not even potions and I could tell that Snape was worried.

You didn't hardly say more than two words to me through-out the whole year. You didn't call Hermione a 'mudblood' once and you didn't speak to Ron at all. You just floated around school like some kind of ghost.

So before you start lecturing me about not being myself why don't you take a look into the mirror?" Harry panted after his passionate re-enaccountment of Draco's bizarre behavior over the course of the recent school year.

Draco was a bit shocked. He didn't know that anyone besides his fellow Slytherins and his Godfather, Severus Snape, noticed. He sure as hell didn't expect the bloody Boy-Who-Lived to notice.

Draco, of course, knew that he hadn't been himself. How could he be? His father was in Azkaban, his mother, who despite her frosty upbringing had always been caring and nurturing to Draco, was going mental and drinking away any sanity she might posse, and he had just switched sides and he was driving himself bonkers trying to figure out if he had made the right choice.

He knew that he had cut off contact with his housemates. But how could he not? They knew nothing of his switching sides and they couldn't or else Draco would not only be murdered for a traitor but he would be utterly useless to the Order. He had volunteered himself as a spy. Besides he was sure that his connection with the Order would eventually lead the Death Eaters straight to Snape and he couldn't stand if anything happened to the man who had been more of a father to him than his own.

It hurt Draco to be around his housemates. Though it wasn't thought to be Slytherin nature and maybe it wasn't, but Draco did care for those he called his friends. Most thought a Slytherin only befriended those who could be beneficial to them and in some case that was true. But Draco thought of them as more than tools. He had known Blasie, Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle since he was in diapers.

How could you not grow attached to someone who had been with you through teething and potty training?

Draco also knew that he had made it a point not to be around Harry unless necessary. He avoided the Gryffindor and his friends like they were the plague. In truth Draco just didn't know how to act around them any more. They were now on the same side but no one was to know. It hurt Draco's head to think about it. So he didn't.

As for not speaking in class, well the answer was the same to most other questions about Draco's silence. He was afraid. Actually, he was terrified. The reasons of course varied with each situation. He was afraid his housemates would find out about his betrayal, he was afraid that the school would find out that he wasn't such an 'ice prince' as they all thought, and he was positively scared shitless that Harry and his Gryffindor gang would find out anything about him and he was actually more ashamed than afraid of Snape finding out about his…method of coping.

Draco knew that his mental and emotional walls were deteriorating. He knew that overexposure to anyone would be sure to break them. So he drew into himself. He worked through the school year to build them up and reinforce them.

During his summer at home he was able to keep his composure with little effort. He had thought he was safe. He thought wrong. And he was afraid.

Fear is weakness his father's voice taunted him. Anger began to bubble up in him. At first it was at himself for being weak, then it was at his father for being a great big prat and then it was at Harry for causing him to feel these things and to be weak. It's his fault; it always is Draco snarled mentally.

His face twisted in anger and he began to shout.

"Who the HELL do you think you ARE! WHY do you keep acting like you know ANYTHING about me? Dammit Potter! I've told you before: YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME!" He screamed at the stunned Gryffindor."What do you WANT FROM ME!"

Harry was angry now. His eyes were an emerald fire.

"I don't want anything from you Malfoy. At least nothing that your willing to give me " Harry yelled back. Draco's eyes narrowed. "I want to understand, for Merlin's sake! I want to understand you."

"Yeah, whatever, Potter. Like I believe that," Draco snorted viciously, "This whole thing, it's probably just some Order trick to get me to spill all my Death Eater secrets,"

Draco knew that was a lie, but Harry didn't. He was just so damn angry!

"Well sorry to disappoint Potter but I will never tell you anything," he said then smirked "without a price," he added.

Whatever reply Harry was going to make was interrupted by a series of loud thuds approaching the room. Neither boy moved. They stayed in their spots, glaring at each other.

Then the door swung open and a very red-faced and angry Vernon Dursley was bearing down on the two.

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE? WHAT IS ALL THE RACKET ABOUT?" He roared. Draco gave Harry one more long stare before turning around to face his uncle.

"We're busy," he said in a brisk and cold manner giving the man a hard shove that took him unawares and caused him to stumble out of the room. Draco quickly shut the door and applied a locking charm to it.

"Silencio," he said with a flick of his wand. Harry was still surveying him. A long silence followed before Harry spoke.

"Alright, we'll do it your way," he said. Draco was a bit taken back. He didn't except the Gryffindor to say that. And he forgot what they had been talking about but fortunately for him Harry elaborated. "We will train as Dumbledore asked and we will get to know one another. But you set the terms. Meaning, you ask me any question you want and I will answer. Than you will answer the same question. That way you can avoid anything you wish but it's still fair to me seeing as you can't ask me anything you yourself don't want to answer." Draco had to admit it did make sense. But he still didn't want to do it.

"How do you know this will work?" He asked.

"I don't Malfoy. But I do think it's worth a try." He said trying to appeal to the blond who wouldn't budge. "Look, it's not like I am asking you to trust me or to even like me. But we can call a truce. Dumbledore's right. Whether we like it or not, a war is coming and we have to be prepared. "

Draco once again, had to admit that the dark-haired boy was making sense. And Draco was never one to ignore common sense.

"Oh, alright, I will try it. But if I want to stop, we stop deal?" He held out his hand. Harry stared at it for a minute and Draco was afraid he would refuse him again.

When Harry grasped Draco's hand an electric shock went through both boys. It started at their joined hands and traveled up their arms and into their chests, to their hearts. It wasn't a painful jolt, more like a warm tingly feeling.

Draco wondered briefly if this is what it would've felt like all those years ago if he hadn't been a brat and if Harry hadn't refused him. Would they've felt this electricity between them? Or as it a product of years of animosity and hostility? Would they have been great friends or were they better at being enemies. Would Draco have had feelings for Harry or was it only an unhealthy obsession of a rejected boy? Would Harry have developed feelings for Draco as well if they had become friends rather than enemies or was it just a wistful fantasy of the Slytherin's?

All these questions and more raced through Draco's head in a nano-second. All questions faded as Harry made to pull his hand from Draco's. Draco resisted focusing his eyes on their joined hands he said a spell.

"Vera paciscor". A bright blue light engulfed their joined hands in an aura of light and sank into their skin. Under the surface of their skin they saw the light rushing up their arms and under their sleeves.

Harry quickly wretched his hand away. Draco's skin immediately objected to the retreating warmth. Harry's hand was so warm where as Draco's was so cold. His hands were rough and Draco's were smooth as marble. Harry was Draco's opposite. Harry felt so alive while Draco was dead…on the inside.

"what the bloody hell was that?" he asked his eyes full of distrust.

"It's called a truth pact." Draco answered.

"And what's that?" Harry growled in frustration when the blonde offered no more information.

Draco sighed.

"It's a bit of old magic. Back in medieval ages wizards and witches would cast a truth pact with someone else. All you have to do is willing join hands and say the spell. It doesn't require a wand. Most old magic doesn't."

"Wandless, old magic?" Harry asked skeptically.

"Yes. basically what the pact does is makes the people involved tell the truth." Harry's eyes widened. "But only to the other person involved in the pact" Draco said hurriedly trying to stop an explosion. But he seemed to have made it worse.

Harry's face was quickly reddening in anger.

"Oh, I'm not explaining this right," Draco panicked. He really didn't want to be one the receiving end of one of Harry's tantrums. He just wasn't in the mood for it tonight. "ok, Potter calm down and let me explain. With the pact, the idea is that you will answer truthfully whenever I ask you a direct question and the same goes for me. it's like Veritaserum but it only works between me and you. And it is run by the rules of our agreement. Meaning that I still don't have to answer any direct question from you that I haven't asked you, and you can still refuse to answer my question. But if you answer my question and then ask me it, the pact forces me to answer it, truthfully." He said in a rush.

Luckily for him Harry seemed to understand.

"Oh," was all the dark-haired Gryffindor said and Draco heaved a huge sigh of relief.

"I just thought that if we are going to be doing this thing we should at least know that the other is telling the truth. As you've said numerous times, we don't, cant, won't trust each other."

Harry nodded thoughtfully.

"Makes sense." Was all he said. He turned his back on the blonde and sat at his desk. Draco watched him for a while his mind blank except for one word. Maybe.

Maybe they would've felt this electricity six years ago in the robe shop or maybe it was a product of their rivalry. Maybe they would've been great friends or maybe they were better enemies. Maybe Draco would feel this way or maybe it was just a psychological issue. Maybe Harry would've had feelings for Draco or maybe Draco needed serious therapy. Maybe, maybe, maybe…

Draco hated 'maybes'

"Get some sleep," Harry called from his desk where he was writing in his notebook. "We'll start tomorrow."

(A/n; I did it! and in good time if I do say so myself. I know this chapter is a bit short but the next two I plan are going to be huge so it might take lil ol' one-handed me sumtime but I am working as fast as I can! Thanks for your support and reviews

Btw the words mean truth pact in case you were wondering

http/www.sunsite.ubc.ca/LatinDictionary/

and blue is the color of trust…odd bit of trivia for ya.)