Angel – I think it's a wonderful move…now we just need Lucius to fall for Varyssa and…x

All knowing Alien – Twill continue! Twill! x

Cithara – Thank you, love the name by the way…pretty x

ESP – Don't think I'll go down the lemon route for this, it's all about feelings x

Magick Moon – Thank you x

Cordy – Cordy you...you're waging war on the porn without purposes? No Cordy please! I love them! x

Mpreg spirit – I say nothing hee hee LONG LIVE M PREG! x

Rinoakes - …harry? Hermione? Naaaaaah…harry Draco whoo hoo! x

Chapter 2 – Somewhere Only We Know

Draco Malfoy sat in the back row of the potions class, not his usual seat but no one was going to say anything, no one dared to argue with him. No one ever did. Malfoy had arrived early just to get that seat, a seat where he could become invisible and just be ignored.

The rest of the class filed in around him and no one paid any attention to the blond sitting in the darkness. Crabbe and Goyle slipped into their usual seats, but when they noticed that their ringleader was sitting in the back they moved immediately and without question. Malfoy rolled his eyes, just once he would have liked to be alone, though there was little chance of that in a lesson.

The class had settled and right on time Professor Snape swept in. His eyes passed over his star pupil for a moment, noticing that he had left his usual front row seat and taking the seat that usually belonged to Longbottom or someone else who wanted to be ignored by the potions master. He didn't say anything and began talking the class through the syllabus of the year approaching which of course was going to be the most important year of their lives.

Malfoy paid little attention to the lecture, instead he was looking over at Potter in the rows in front. Like Malfoy, Harry wasn't paying much attention to Snape either. Harry was in a world of his own and Malfoy knew why.

Summer had come and gone and Voldemort with it. Voldemort's campaign had stepped up at the end of the last term and Harry had been the one to stop him, finally doing the duty that everyone expected of him, last summer Harry Potter had killed Lord Voldemort.

Lucius Malfoy had been incarcerated and was not to be released, narrowly escaping the death penalty along with many other death eaters. Oddly enough it had been Dumbledore who had stood up to the Ministry's decision to introduce the death penalty to death eaters. Now Malfoy was not to see his father except on visiting days, all three of them a year and that was pushing it for someone who was on a life sentence and treated as a highly dangerous prisoner.

Draco Malfoy wasn't exactly upset about the situation, Lucius Malfoy had very high expectations of his son and Malfoy often felt the pressure of meeting them and the keen sense of failure when he didn't. Being a convicted death eater however didn't stop Lucius Malfoy trying to bargain his way out of Azkaban through his friends in high places but as of yet that was having little or no result.

That wasn't why Malfoy was depressed though. It had started on the train to Hogwarts. Malfoy was reading the thirtieth odd edition of the Daily Prophet since Voldemort's demise, amazing how even though months had passed since the event Harry's face could still be plastered all over the Prophet, Malfoy was truly surprised that the papers could think up new material every day, each time glorifying the Boy who Lived, The Chosen One, The One who defeated the Dark Lord into some king of super hero. Malfoy was sick of it and it was only when he saw Harry on the train he noticed that he was sick of it too.

Malfoy had been patrolling the train as was his duty as a senior prefect when he saw Potter sitting in a compartment, oddly enough on his own. The door was closed, though Malfoy couldn't help opening it to make a snide remark about the copy of the Daily Prophet in his hands or perhaps the fact that he was indirectly responsible for Lucius' imprisonment. Malfoy had barely slid the door open when Harry turned to look at him, the Daily Prophet in his hand had been mutilated with a marker, the picture of Harry smiling had been scribbled over obviously by Harry's own hand. The part that got to Draco more than anything was the look that Harry gave him. Harry was far from the happy, smiling, jubilant boy that the papers were constantly talking about, he may have defeated the man who killed his parents but now he was left to continue in the world without those parents he had lost as well as the friends who had died in the battle with Voldemort, on top of that he hadn't had a chance to properly mourn the death of Sirius two years ago. Malfoy had seen Harry depressed before, but this went beyond depressed, the boy looked as though he were about to overdose on the first potion he could lay his hands on. That look stopped Malfoy where he stood and he couldn't bring himself to say anything. He almost wanted to comfort the boy, but of course thought better of it.

Now, sitting here in this lesson after watching Potter over the past few days he was more angry than depressed. Why he was depressed in the first place he didn't have a clue but watching Harry made him feel irritated if not furious. Those hypocrites who called themselves his friends, Ron and Hermione who were supposed to know Harry better than anyone, who were supposed to stand by him through thick and thin and support him through his ordeals whatever they may be, they had been with Harry since the start of school and yet they were still blind to his mental state.

It was obvious to anyone and everyone that Harry was far from ok, well…obvious to Malfoy at least. He had lost something, he had lost a spark, something within Harry Potter had died along with Voldemort and his two closest friends couldn't even see it. It was annoying, it was frustrating, it was…

"Malfoy!" Snape's voice cut through the air like a knife, Malfoy looked up and looked around. The class was pulling out ingredients to make the first potion of the year and yet Malfoy, potions genius hadn't moved. Malfoy jumped slightly and found that the only space to set up was along the same row as Potter, something that often happened within the potions lesson, Malfoy was used to it, he just got on with his work, turning his nose up at anything Potter or Granger concocted and throwing in the odd boasting remark.

But today he didn't feel like boasting, in fact he was so annoyed with Ron and Hermione for not noticing Harry's feelings that he just wanted to grab them both and point it out to them, instead he found himself just making the potion with whatever concentration he could muster. He could hear Snape muttering something under his breath when he passed Malfoy's far from perfect cauldron but Malfoy knew Snape wouldn't announce his failure to the rest of the class, he was after all a Slytherin who also happened to be a senior prefect.

The professor was about to criticize Longbottom's potion when the class was distracted by a loud gurgling followed by a hissing as Harry, with his mind on other things allowed his potion to bubble over onto the desk.

"Mr Potter," Snape announced, approaching the desk and looking at the wreckage as Harry tried desperately to clean up the mess. "Did you not realise that in order to stop this particular potion from boiling you have to ensure the potion is kept simmering?" Harry scowled and said nothing as the professor made him clean the potion up himself knowing full well Harry would have to make contact with the potion which would consequently bring his hand out in a painful rash that would last for twenty four hours.

Crabbe and Goyle laughed at the misfortune but were silenced by a glare from Malfoy who rather than laugh or scorn Potter, instead he offered a cloth to him. Harry looked at the cloth and then at Malfoy unsure of what to make of it, until he turned away and went back to cleaning the potion his own way, ignoring the Slytherin's subtle peace offer. Malfoy sighed and went back to his own cauldron receiving strange looks from his posse as well as the other Slytherins and of course, Ron and Hermione, Harry's 'loyal' friends.

TBC