Thank you all for your continued support!

Lots of fun in this one so i hope you enjoy!

lots of love,

Z.


The next week whizzed by in a jumble of classes, midnight meet ups, social interactions and homework sessions. Between lessons, Draco had been taking the opportunity to play catch with Harry at every opportunity. Unfortunately the boy had now learnt that the small glass balls were actually green paint bombs.

Unfortunate, in that one accidentally hit the wall outside of the potions classroom. That was, though he was loath too admit to it, his own fault. His fingers had brushed the glass as it sailed by, watched in slow-motion horror by every Slytherin, and bemusement by the Gryffindors.

Every green clad student dived away dramatically, as the ball shattered against stone. In the next moment, green dye exploded across the corridor and into the face of Severus Snape, as he stood motionless in the doorway.

No one moved.

Severus's eyes trailed across the students; the Gryffindor's rooted to the spot in terror, the Slytherins dramatically laying on the floor at the other side of the corridor, Harry pale as anything gulping like a fish and then finally Draco.

Draco was standing in the centre of the mess, dripping from head to toe in bright green ink. "Oh hey Professor." He said jauntily flashing him a smile. "How's it going?"

Needless to say he received a detention, but the high-fives he got from almost every student on his way to lunch that afternoon made it worth it.

Harry, however, was a little less enthusiastic. "Professor Snape is gonna hate me! He knows I threw it! I know he knows. He kept glaring at me all through the lesson." He whined, shooting Draco pouty looks. "I can't believe they're filled with paint, did everybody in Slytherin know?"

Draco grinned at him cheekily, opening his mouth to answer.

"Yep," Blaise interrupted, putting his arm around Harry and pulling the poor boy into a headlock. "That was beautiful Potter! I can't believe you got Draco and Snape,"

"Professor Snape" Hermione chimed in, whilst giving them all a disapproving look.

"Professor Snape" Blaise mimicked back slightly high pitched, before sticking his tongue out at her. "Straight in his face! This will be a very treasured memory, that I will look back on during the dark days and smile."

Blaise was awkwardly dragging Harry along, towards the great hall. "I didn't do it on purpose!" He whined, letting his arms flop dramatically. "I didn't know about the paint!"

Completely ignoring Harry's protesting, Blaise kept gushing over the incident, elbowing Draco with one arm and dragging Harry along with the other. Draco was starting to feel sorry for the poor sod.

"Alright Blaise let him go, you'll knock his glasses off if you keep it up." Draco shoved Blaise's head slightly and the boy released a slightly dishevelled looking Harry.

Draco fell back as the rest of the class jostled along the hall, joking and laughing together good-naturedly. Hermione joined him seconds later; she shot him a glare before rolling her eyes.

"Got something to say there Minister?" He grinned at her impishly, bumping his shoulder into her own.

"Two weeks in and you've already got a detention. What will your parents think?" She smirked at him.

"Says the woman who had a detention first week." He shot back.

"Touché."

They parted at the entrance to the great hall.

Shooting quick glance to the head table, he saw Severus watching him intently. Sending his grumpy head of house a quick salute, Draco dashed to the house table for food.

His detention wouldn't be until after dinner, so he still had the two free periods after lunch. He was debating on whether he should take this opportunity to write home to his parents. It was a weird thought, considering how tense things had gotten with them in the future. Astoria always hated visiting them, he didn't much like it either and tried to keep the pair away from Scorpius as much as possible.

Couldn't hurt to try to keep the relationship good now though right? If they managed to destroy Voldemort before he gained a body, then his family wouldn't suffer like they did in the past, or the future.

A sharp punch to his arm drew his attention to Blaise, who had apparently been trying to get his attention for the past couple of minutes.

"What the hell Blaise!" he rubbed his arm and glared as his friend.

"Oh here now are you? Punching gets your attention, Quick Theo!" he shouted pointing to the boy sitting opposite them, "write that down!"

Theo dramatically mimed rolling out parchment and scribbling down furiously. "Yes sir!"

"Ha ha you are so funny," Draco couldn't help smiling at them, "was just thinking about writing home."

"Ah. Yeah." Blaise shot a furtive glance to Severus and back again, "Think you'll get a howler?"

"For coating Severus in green ink? Doubtful, Father will probably be all 'respect your professors' and 'shame on the Malfoy name', whilst trying not to laugh." Draco chuckled.

"Severus?" Theo whispered, looking over his shoulder. Just in case their professor had swept down the hall to listen to their conversation.

"First name basis are you?" Blaise laughed out. "Wouldn't let him hear you call him that if I were you!"

"Oh, yeah…" Draco laughed awkwardly, "Father is close friends with, um… Professor Snape. Just slipped out, I guess."

"Best try and avoid it in future I'm thinking, don't want to be getting more detentions with our head of house! You'll make us all look bad!"

"Yes thank you, I shall endeavour to do my best in that regard. Is there anything else or can I get back to my food?"

"Easy Draco, just some friendly advice!" Blaise said with a laugh.

Theo spoke at the same time as Blaise. "Actually did you guys see the notice board this morning?"

"Yes! I'm so excited! Can't wait to start flying again. Of course I don't need lessons, my stepfather was a Quidditch player so I am already quite good but I do miss flying." Blaise loudly proclaimed. Not quite mentioning which of his mother's many ex-husbands it was that trained him in particular.

"Flying lessons already? Goes by fast doesn't it? Haven't been flying in a while, never found the time."

"We've literally been here two weeks Draco. You sound like such an old man." Blaise shoved Draco's head to the side, scoffing at him.

"Respect to your elders Blaise"

"Sod off you absolute twat" Blaise snorted.

"I hear we're with the Gryffindors." Theo smiled cheerfully.

"Excellent. If you ask my opinion, that lot are pretty cool. I thought they'd be right morons from what Mother was saying." Blaise shrugged. "Turns out they're alright, Neville makes a pretty good Potions partner. Bit jittery, but alright."

Draco chuckled to him self and shook his head in disbelief; if alternate 'them' could see 'them' now… Merlin, what a tantrum he would have thrown.


Hermione had written no less than twenty letters during her free periods that afternoon. She had taken up an entire section of one corner of the library. The one for her parents was written first, as it took the least time, having almost copied it from memory.

The other nineteen had been written to various members of the wizarding judicial system, ministry of magic and one Reeta Skeeta. It was a huge risk bringing such a foul, loathsome, evil little beetle into her planning. At this point in time however, Miss Skeeta had a devoted fan base and a lot of sway in the media.

She would be a useful tool.

With the hazy plan spinning round her mind, Hermione would need access to the Black family manor, for that she'd need Sirius Black and, unfortunately, Peter Pettigrew.

Getting hold of the rat would be the simple task, he could be found most days lying about the common room. It would be laughably easy to grab him; the difficult part would be exposing him as an Animagus. Sure she could cast the reversing charm to expose him, but that would raise too many unwanted questions. She needed someone else, somebody that would be infallible and quite likely to have figured it out on his or her own.

Hermione groaned laying her head atop the pile of letters. Her hands, completely smeared with ink, swung underneath the table limply. This would be so much easier if she were still Minister of Magic. She could just waltz into the Department of Law and throw her weight around. Maybe she could bribe Fudge? Oh Merlin, now she was thinking like Draco.

She huffed a laugh, before sitting up sharply and sweeping her letters into her waiting bag. No point waiting about, the faster she had Sirius the quicker they could go about purging Voldemort from the earth.

Marching quickly from the library she almost collided with an older Hufflepuff student. Skirting around him sharply Hermione headed towards the Owlery at the top of the castle. It was an arduous trek, and Hermione found herself cursing whoever came up with the idea. Why couldn't there be postal stations all round the school, or at least near the Library where most letters would probably be written?

"Hermione!" A female voice screeched.

Hermione jolted, spinning in place to witness one of her roommates, Kellah, sprinting towards her enthusiastically. The girl looked far too pleased to see her, Hermione couldn't remember doing anything that would warrant this kind of response.

"Hello Kellah," she said pleasantly, "I was just heading to the Owlery, so I'll just..." She indicated behind her and shuffled away quickly.

"Perfect!" Kellah exclaimed, falling into pace beside her. "I was heading there too! We can go together, oh I'm so glad you're here too!" Kellah was bouncing along the corridor, her satchel swinging as she went.

"You are? That's nice?" Hermione said uncertainly, eyeing the girl carefully.

"Uh huh, I don't like going up there on my own! That staircase is an accident waiting to happen! The steps barely have enough room to step on them, not to mention how twisty it is!"

"I see…" Hermione ventured, it is true that the stairs were rather small, however, Hermione was pretty certain that they were spelled for students safety.

"And then there are no windows up there! What if a breeze comes in and blows you down the stairs? What if rain comes in and makes the floor wet?" She shuddered dramatically, face scrunching up. "Then there are the birds."

"Owls"

"Owls, exactly!" Kellah pointed at Hermione. "Sharp claws"

"Talons"

"Sharp talons, vicious beaks, not to mention all that," she flapped her arms about in a rather accurate, yet comical, impression of bird panicking.

Hermione was starting to wonder if she was having some sort of surreal experience, nobody had ever sought her out or spoke to her in this manner the first time around. Harry and Ronald had been her closest friends, and that had a lot to do with the troll.

"So it's good to have a travel buddy." Kellah's voice broke her out of her daze.

"Right… Oh look, we're here." Hermione began marching up the stairs, before noticing that Kellah was hesitating and eyeing them nervously.

"You know Kellah," The girls eyes shot to meet hers, "I have a great book you might like to read, it tells you all about Hogwarts."

Kellah looked confused at the sudden change of conversation. "I don't... what?"

"It tells you all about the spells and enchantments used to make the castle safe for students. For example," Hermione took a deep breath and threw her body backwards on the stairs.

Kellah screeched and ran forward, but the stairs had already changed into a slide and Hermione slid down them ungracefully coming to a stop upside down in front of Kellah's feet.

"They also have cushioning charms on them." She said meekly looking at Kellah's frozen face.

The screech that came from Kellah's mouth made Hermione wince and echoed around the hall. "What the Hell!" It had a high-pitched frantic tone to it. "Jesus Christ!" Kellah dropped to the floor next to Hermione, "Warn a girl next time yeah?" she whispered patting Hermione's head absently.

The next second they were both giggling and gasping for breath, "Oh my God, to think I've been walking down the stairs this entire time, like a savage!" Kellah gasped. "Never again!" she lurched to her feet, "Come on Hermione! Lets send our letters, we have some sliding to do!"

Hermione followed behind as Kellah carefully walked up the stairs, one of her arms bracing against the wall.

Once in the large circular room Hermione immediately opened her bag and the letters within flew across the room and began attaching themselves to available school owls. Kellah was too busy approaching an owl near the window to notice Hermione's very impressive and very much not first year magic. Owls began swooping in every direction, shooting from the windows with impressive speed. Hermione nodded with satisfaction, before spotting Kellah squatting on the floor arms above her head.

Quickly she moved over and gently laid a hand on the girls back. She flinched before, glancing and seeing that it was Hermione.

"Oh Hey, just chilling down here. Don't' mind me" she laughed weakly, her cheeks going ruddy.

"Sorry, my fault. Here," Hermione helped Kellah back to her feet.

The poor girl had her letter clenched so hard in her hand it was crumpled and had torn slightly at the edge. Kellah hadn't noticed and her eyes were still darting about the Owlery. Gently Hermione eased the letter from Kellah's fingers and ran her palm over it, restoring it to new.

"Let me show you..." Hermione smiled encouragingly, handing the letter back.

"Okay."

Hermione politely asked an owl if they would deliver a letter for them asking it to come closer. Kellah was stiff as a board, eyeing the creature with wide eyes. Gently Hermione took Kellah's hands and showed her how to attach the letter, speaking calmly the whole time.

The owl was giving her an odd look, but held very still as though knowing Kellah was frightened. Before taking off it made eye contact with Kellah and gave her a soft reassuring hoot, ruffling its feathers gently as though making itself look cuddlier. It hopped comically across the perch before almost rolling out the window.

Kellah gasped and ran to the window, the Owl was circling and once it knew Kellah had seen, it flew off rapidly.

"Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, no doubt, no doubt." She said in a hushed tone. She turned around quickly nodding to Hermione, "You, you can come again, best travel partner ever." She spoke seriously arms folded.

Hermione felt herself fill with warmth at the girl's declaration. She grinned at Kellah then nodded to the staircase, "You want go first?"

"Maybe… um, maybe you'd like too?"

Laughing Hermione threw herself down the stairs, feet first this time. Kellah's answering laugh echoed down the spiral staircase as they spun down the slide.

"This is just like a helter-skelter!" Kellah let out a whoop of joy; they both shot out into the hallway a pile of giggles and flailing limbs.


Snape was watching him intently. Draco had been cleaning caldrons for the past fifteen minutes and had not uttered a word to his Godfather. Unless you count 'good evening Professor Snape, what a lovely dungeon office you have here', to which he had been told to work in silence.

There was something particularly disgusting in these caldrons and Draco suspected that Severus was trying to make a point. Still, he had been asked to work in silence and silence would work perfectly well for him. The fewer questions he was asked by his potions master the better. The man was a wizarding lie detector.

He could even understand why Severus had students clean the pots by hand. As a brewer himself he knew the importance of keeping unnecessary magical traces from the equipment. Even house elves left traces on things they cleaned, which meant you had to let them sit to allow the magic to dissipate from the objects, it was a nuisance and so Draco was used to cleaning by hand.

He glanced up again and met the dark eyes of his professor, still staring at him. He huffed slightly, trying very hard not to roll his eyes. Before returning to meticulously cleaning the caldrons.

An unidentifiable amount of time later Draco checked looked to Severus again, to find that the man was now working on what looked to be some poor unfortunates homework, red ink everywhere.

Draco went back to scrubbing and wondered idly how long it was until midnight. Maybe Hermione would offer him sympathy. Maybe she'd let him do today over, to avoid having a detention on his record so early in his school career.

Probably not, he'd wandered passed the library earlier in the afternoon and seen her furiously scribbling letter upon letter, her fingers stained with ink and hair frizzing about her head. He'd left her to it, knowing that interrupting would only cause strife, for him.

He laughed softly, picturing her flinging the inkpot at his head.

"Something amusing Mr Malfoy?"

Draco froze, he'd quite forgotten where he was, his hands automatically following the muscle memory of cleaning.

Shit.

"Perhaps cleaning caldrons in not a severe enough punishment for you. Perhaps it is how you enjoy spending your free time, you are very competent at it." Severus was standing next to him now, eyes glowering mouth tight.

Ah. He had probably thought that Draco was laughing at the incident earlier today. Draco's face went blank and he said nothing. Sever… Professor Snape had not given him permission to talk yet and no way was he going to add more fuel to the fire.

"Well, out with it. What was so funny that it distracted you from your task?" Professor Snape practically spat at him.

"Hermione Granger" Draco said in a panic, truth was probably the best option here right?

"What, pray tell is so funny about Miss Granger?" Snape looked less likely to explode now and was at seething level.

"Well, sir, I was walking past the library earlier, and I know how much she likes the library. So I went in to see if she was there, because that is where she usually goes during her free time." Draco babbled.

"To. The. Point."

"Right yes, well, um. She was sitting there, writing letter after letter and she had ink all over her hands and her hair was doing the frizzy static thing it does. And I thought about going over, you know to say hello." Annoy her, "And I thought that if I did she'd probably throw the ink pot at my head, so I went the other direction. And it just came back to me now, Sir, the image of her throwing the inkpot at me."

Professor Snape was now gazing at him in a way that suggested Draco had lost his mind. The man took a deep breath, as if to speak, then stopped. He stood frozen, staring straight through Draco. It was very unsettling. Not even three weeks into school and he had broken a professor.

"Sir?"

"You may go." Snape said abruptly, turning and pacing back to his desk in clear dismissal.

Not one to look a gift griffin in the mouth, Draco promptly dropped what he was doing and pelted it out the door.

It was only later at his 'midnight rendezvous' with Hermione did he learn about Severus's love for Harry's mother.

"He probably sees them in us, me the muggleborn Gryffindor and you the Slytherin version of himself."

Draco scoffed, "Only much better looking."

"And inbred."

"Wealthy."

"Snobbish."

"Sophisticated."

"My, My, Draco such big words, please talk slower."

They parted with laughter and a quick hug. Draco watched her vanish from sight before checking his book and trotting down to his Common room.
Once he settled in bed Draco lost himself in thought, flying lessons were on Thursday and he needed a plan.