I've been getting people asking about what happened to Sirius, well, you'll have to see ~
huehuehuehue

Also, our favourite dragon gets introduced this chapter

Harry was shivering in his shoes as he trudged through the snow to get to the Hogsmeade platform to catch the Express.

'Fuck this, we should have stayed at Hogwarts', said Voldemort, 'Fuck this snow.'

Being too busy shivering Harry decided to not deign his best friend with an answer. Especially when he kinda, sorta, maybe agreed with him.

"-and then after we finish our skiing trip at Switzerland we'll move on to a weekend at Monaco at my father's estate, we traditionally only go there in the summer, but mother insisted we make a quick stop-"

Draco was still prattling on about his Christmas vacations. In all honestly, Harry was more than done listening to his bragging, but he'd also gotten fairly used to it throughout the year. Besides, Harry was kinda fond of Draco and his melodrama. Never in all his life had Harry been pestered as much as Draco had been pestering him till he gave him some attention. Not even Voldemort in his worst throes of melodrama had been able to beat Draco. It was truly remarkable.

When they finally boarded the train Harry moaned in comfort and shook off some of the snow that had piled on his shoulders and such.

"Harry!", Hermione greeted him with a smile.

"Hey Hermione, want to share with me and Draco a compartment?", Harry offered. Draco made a funny face, but that was probably due to the cold.

"Sure", said Hermione and soon the three were seated in their own compartment, happily chatting and away from the cold. During the ride Harry's other Slytherin year mates came by to visit and coaxed Harry into games of Exploding Snap and one or two games of chess.

Harry wasn't a big fan of chess because as soon as Harry accepted Voldemort would insist on calling all the shots. Voldemort was a really good player and Harry kinda wished he could also learn to be one someday, but he never got the chance to try the game by himself.

Upon arriving at Platform 9 ¾ Harry quickly bit his friends and yearmates good bye and went to fetch Jimmy from his Gryffindor friends. Harry was still very happy for his brother that he had been able to make a few friends. Seamus and Dean were decent enough too and often stood up for Jimmy when he got teased or insulted at school – which was a lot.

Sadly there wasn't much Harry could do about that so he mostly just tried to be there for his brother when he needed him, like when he had that terrible broom accident.

"Jimmy! Harry! Over here!", Harry saw James waving for them at the other end of the Platform and quickly guided his brother so that they could join him.

"I'm so glad to see you!", said James happily and then pointed at Harry, "You and I are going to have a chat once we get home Mister!"

'Ugh. Turn around and try to get back on the train, maybe we can sneak back into Hogwarts.'

Harry forced a nod and tried to look subdued all the way up till they were inside the Potter residence.

"My darlings!", greeted Lily and gave them all a slight hug, careful not to upturn her martini.

"Hi Mom", murmured Jimmy, looking genuinely happy to be back home.

"Excellent, Lily since you're already here we can start right away with what Harry did at the beginning of his school year", said James.

"Absolutely darling", said Lily and sipped at her martini.

"Harry, I know you've had a very difficult time adjusting to the world of magic, but just because you feel like you might be behind on some things does not give you the excuse to cheat at school! And even if you are in Slytherin I expect you to be an honest person!"

'Please kill me now.'

'I can't kill you, who will kill me then to free me from this?', thought Harry.

"-been a family tradition of honesty, fairness and honour-"

'Merlin he keeps going', thought Harry in horror.

'We should have tried to make Draco take us on his vacations. He's obsessed enough with you that it might actually have worked.'

"-and I know what you're gonna say, but that all sounds so Not-Slytherin, but hear me out-"

'He's not obsessed, he was just looking to make friends.'

'Uh-huh, whatever you say.'

Lily was throwing olives that she got who knows where into her martini. Her glass was about to overflow.

'Don't be an ass, Vol.'

'It's only the truth.'

'Nuh-uh.'

'Yes it is.'

'Nuh-uh.'

'It is!'

'Is not!'

Harry got disrupted by James placing his hand on his shoulder, "So you understand why I'm saying this?"

"Yeah, I'm also very ashamed of my actions. Professor Snape has been teaching me the error of my actions in my detentions", said Harry as he nodded empathically.

James pulled a face, "Well, yeah, don't take everything Snape says to heart, better listen to your old man, yeah?"

Stopping himself from saying 'that's Professor Snape to you', Harry nodded as he bit his tongue.

"Brilliant, now lets have some delicious dinner, isn't that so honey?", he asked Lily.

"Sure hun", Lily slurred and stumbled her way to the dining room.

The rest of the Christmas vacations were boring and uneventful for Harry. In all honestly most of the Wizarding World had become like this for Harry. Those few first days at Hogwarts before he was talked by Professor Snape into thinking about his safety and future had been the best Harry had lived since he left the orphanage, but ever since he'd barely had any sort of fun. There was no mischief or goal Harry was interested in at Hogwarts. Sure he had his new friends, which he actually liked and he had a twin brother that wasn't half bad, but he still found himself feeling listless and without clear motivation.

Voldemort mostly approved of how things were doing. Sure, it was boring as hell, but it might help in the long run to convince Harry to turn his focus into becoming the next Dark Lord. According to him it was only a question of time.

When Harry was finally back in the Express on its way back to Hogwarts he breathed in relief.

'Finally away from that thrice cursed house. Now go mingle with the other Slytherins, try to make some connections.'

'We're children, we don't make connections.'

'You've clearly not been paying attention to the inner workings of our House.'

'I don't really see much of a difference between the Houses, its mostly just sleeping arrangements and to help organize class schedules.'

'I stand corrected, you've clearly not been paying attention to the inner workings of any House.'

'But there really isn't that much to it!'

'You innocent child.'

Harry turned to Draco, who was in the middle of a game of chess with Hermione, and asked, "There really isn't that much of a difference between the Houses, is there? Except for, you know, sleeping arrangements and such."

Both Hermione and Draco stared at him. Blaise, Theo, Pansy and Millicent stopped their game of Exploding Snap to also stare at him.

'Told you so', said Voldemort, sounding way more gleeful than what Harry thought was fair.

'Oh shut up.'

"Harry-I-", Draco paused, "Are you being serious?"

Harry pouted.

"Merlin, he's serious."

"Quickly, help me get my trunk open, I have Hogwarts A History in there", said Hermione, completely abandoning her game of chess with Draco.

Draco didn't even protest, but instead helped her get down her trunk.

By the time they finally arrived at Hogwarts Harry was sick and tired of getting Hogwarts A History read to him and from people singing the Sorting Hat song intermingled with the Official Hogwarts Song, which somehow had managed to worse than a song composed by a literal hat.

Harry had been in the middle of taking Milly outside the castle for a bit of fresh air when he saw the giant that was always out and about on the grounds run out of the castle with a bunch of books towards a hut at the edge of the grounds.

"What's he up to?", he asked out aloud and was about to turn back to the castle when Milly jumped out of his arms and raced after the giant man.

"Milly come back!", Harry shouted, "This world is way to cruel for you! Milly!"

By the time he caught up with her he was almost at the giant's hut and Milly was visibly shivering.

"Oh no!", wailed Harry and hurriedly went to knock on the hut's door.

"Who is it?", the door opened only a sliver, allowing Harry to see very little of the person behind it.

"Could you please spare a blanket or an old cloth for poor Milly? She's all cold after she ran away into the snow and I'm afraid she'll get sick. She's only still a kitten!"

"Oh", the door opened a little wider, "Come by the fire then, no worries."

Harry smiled brightly, "Thank you Sir!"

The giant man waved him off, "Jus' Hagrid, no need fo' formality."

Harry had the inkling that he would like this man as he stepped into his hut.

Harry poked a sleeping Draco in the side, "Draco", he hissed.

Draco only grunted slightly in his sleep.

"Draco!", Harry poked him harder.

"Wha-?", Draco finally seemed to be awake, though only just barely, judging by the way he was looking blearily at Harry.

"Draco, I may or not need your help", said Harry, remembering his lessons about Slytherin communications.

"Wha-?"

"Draco this is imperative, I need you to cover for me in the morning. I'll owe you a one. I don't even know what one I'll be owing you, but I'll owe it nevertheless. This follows your Slytherin principles, right?"

"Huh?"

"Brill, I'll be seeing you by mid-morning's time. Cheers", and then he was off. Norbert needed him.

Norbert was currently in the stage that he was consuming brandy mixed with chicken blood by the bucket. Harry was there to help him as much as he could. Also to play with the playful baby dragon, who really enjoyed chasing Harry around the hut and falling asleep in Harry's arms as soon as he tired himself out.

Voldemort was constantly protesting the current state of affairs, but Harry had fallen hard for the little adorable baby dragon.

"Who's a precious wittle baby?", Harry cooed that morning after he'd fed Norbert his latest bucket of chicken blood with brandy.

'That thing is going to bite you and when that happens don't come crying to me!'

"I'll see you during lunch break baby", Harry cooed as he let the baby dragon rest in the nest Hagrid had made for it.

"See ya' later 'arry", Hagrid waved as Harry quickly and silently exited the hut and swiftly made his way up to the castle.

Harry walked up to Draco just before he had to enter the Charms classroom, "Hey", he greeted.

Draco swivelled around immediately, "What the hell Harry?!", he hissed, "Where have you been?! We had to tell McGonagall that you're feeling under the weather!"

"Thanks mate", Harry grinned and filed into the classroom with his yearmates.

"Where have you been?", Draco hissed once more as soon as they were both seated together.

"I'll show you after classes, we've been needing an extra hand anyways."

"What? Extra hand? Harry what are you up to?", Draco looked preoccupied.

"Don't worry Draco, its nothing bad", Harry smiled reassuringly at him.

Draco didn't look reassured.

"What the fuck Harry."

Draco wasn't reassured when he first laid eyes on Norbert either. Harry wasn't sure why.

"Lookit Norbert, this is your new friend Draco, geddit? You almost share a name baby!"

Norbert responded by almost setting Harry's sleeve on fire.

Harry had to put the dragon down to pat down the fire. When he looked back up Draco was looking at him funny.

"That's baby Norbert, he's still a baby. That's why he needs loads of care. Come, help me give him his evening bucket of chicken blood and brandy solution."

Draco looked downright horrified at this, but Harry was nothing if not stubborn when it came to that caretaking of his pets so with some coaxing and cajoling Harry was able to teach Draco how to properly feed a baby Draco before it was curfew.

"You did a really great job", Harry was congratulating Draco as they made their way back to the castle, "I'm sure that by tomorrow you'll barely spill anything, nor shriek whenever Norbert sneezes at you."

"He sneezes fire!", wailed Draco, "That thing is a monster! They're illegal!"

Harry snorted, "No being is truly a monster. Besides, how can a dragon be illegal?"

"You can't have a dragon, that's what's illegal!"

"Yeah, but we're not keeping him, we're only gonna raise him."

Draco covered his face in his hands and gave a muffled scream.

Harry patted his shoulder.

The next day when Harry was dragging Draco back for the second time that day to the hut they came across Hermione and Draco launched himself on her.

"Please help, he's lost his mind and no matter what I do or say he's not listening to me!", said Draco, acting forever like a drama queen.

"What? Draco what's happening?", Hermione asked as she held Draco by the shoulders. She narrowed her eyes at Harry, "Harry what did you do to him?"

"Nothing! But I guess I can show you my secret, we need more help anyways. He keeps getting bigger every day."

"He? What?"

Two days later Harry was forced to drag his twin brother out of the library and down to Hagrid's hut.

"PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN TALK HIM OUT OF THIS!", shouted Draco the moment he saw Jimmy, latching on to him like he was his only hope and salvation.

Hermione, who had been stirring a bucket of chicken blood and brandy, winced when she heard the shouting, "Keep quiet!", she hissed, "You know he just fell asleep and he gets cranky when he gets woken up rudely!"

Jimmy blinked at Draco, then Hermione and finally settled on Norbert, whose nest had been upgraded by Harry, Hermione and Draco the day before and was now double the size it used to be to reflect the current size of its occupant.

"Harry?", Jimmy asked, sounding unsure.

"We need you to pluck these chickens", said Harry as he held out three dead chickens to Jimmy.

A few hours later they were all sat on the floor of the hut, watching Norbert down three buckets of chicken blood and brandy in a row.

"Harry", Jimmy started, hesitated and then continued, "Why can't we just tell somebody so they can take Norbert to other dragons?"

Hermione sighed, "Here we go again."

"Because of Dumbledore", said Harry seriously, "What is Dumbledore known for Jimmy? Aside from defeating Grindelwald?"

"Um, his work with Nicholas Flamel?"

"No! Well, yes, but aside from that what did he do?"

"Um, oh! He discovered twelve uses for dragon blood!"

"Exactly! If he were to find out about Norbert what do you think he would do to my poor baby?! He'd tap him dry! And then he'd put out some new use or two for dragon blood and nobody would be the wiser of the death of an innocent baby!"

"I keep tellin' yeh Dumbledore would never tha'", said Hagrid from where he was opening another crate full of brandy bottles.

"Hagrid, I think we can all agree you're too pure and innocent for this world", declared Harry.

"Uh, thank yeh?"

Jimmy looked at Draco and Hermione, who looked more resigned than anything else and figured there was nothing else he could do or say, so he simply settled on, "Okay."

For the next week whenever somebody asked Harry what he was doing he would immediately draft them to help in the caretaking of Norbert. Harry was mostly taking the night shift though, since the larger Norbert grew the more he needed a firm hand to help reign him in.

Harry set Spot loose on Norbert once or twice while Hagrid was out murdering chickens by the dozen and after those occasions Norbert quickly learned to respect Harry and would only rarely try to bite and burn him.

By the month mark of this Pansy one day demanded, "What have you all be doing?! Its rude to exclude the ladies from your activities! We are no longer in the medieval ages!"

And since Millicent had nodded along Harry had happily taken them both to the hut. They needed people constantly on Norbert watch now that he was trying to hunt all the dead rats that they were throwing at him.

After Pansy had recovered from the horror of her first sight of what was going on inside the hut a few hours later she turned to Ron and asked, "And what the hell are you doing here?"

Ron sighed as he threw Norbert another rat, "Me and Nev peeked through the window over there and Malfoy saw us. Then we got drafted into this."

"I don't know how we could leave after finding out what Dumbledore will do to Norbert if he ever sees him", moaned Neville.

"Did you year then he secretly uses what's left of the dragons he experimented on as his stew?", said Theo as he stood closer, more than willing to gossip if it meant he could have a respite of rat lobbing.

"They say he took up the habit to become stronger than Grindelwald", gossiped Dean as he plucked the feathers off a chicken for Norbert's evening bucket.

"I bet that's how Hagrid got Norbert's egg, he rescued it from Dumbledore secret stash of dragon eggs", mused Seamus, also plucking feathers.

"That's awful", said Crabbe as swept away the feathers littering the floor.

Millicent and Pansy nodded, both looking horrified.

"I keep tellin' yeh tha's not true", said Hagrid from where he was bandaging his leg where Norbert had bitten him that morning when he mistook his leg for a dead rat.

"Ignore him", mouthed Harry at the others and went to open another crate full of dead rats.

By the end of the next week most of the Norbert caretaking had to put on halt since there was barley space left inside the hut for more than one child. Hagrid was sleeping in his pumpkin patch along with Fang by this point. The situation was critical.

"Okay folks, this is it, what we've been working so hard for. It's time to set Norbert free", announced Harry in front of the hut on one Saturday morning.

Draco promptly burst into tears. Harry patted his back, "I know it's hard to let him go, but it's for the best."

"I'm free", choked Draco through his sobs.

"This is great", said Ron, "My brother Charlie can help us with this, he works at a dragon reservation."

"What? Your brother's all the way in Romania, it'd never work out. What we're gonna do is let Norbert loose in the Forbidden Forest. Now, who volunteers to help me wrangling Norbert to the Forest? Hagrid is going to be busy opening and closing his hut's wall so we won't be able to count on him right away."

There was silence.

Harry furrowed his brows in confusion, "Is this the Gryffindor bravery talking or the Slytherin cunning talking? I'm confused."

'You're a moron.'

"What?", blurted Ron.

"Oh! Gryffindor bravery it is then!", Harry clapped his hands and grinned, "You guys will be in charge of the wrangling, while the Slytherins are lookout."

Dean, Seamus, Hermione and Neville gave Ron a look that made him shrink into himself. Jimmy just looked extremely worried.

"For now you can all go rest, but I want you all back by sundown. Have a big lunch, you'll need it."

Crabbe and Goyle grunted and immediately left for the kitchens if Harry knew them at all.

'This is a terrible plan.'

'Shush, Norbert deserves freedom.'

'Harry – no.'

'Harry yes.'

"Harry-", Hermione started.

"Harry yes!", he said and then caught himself, "Oh, I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

Hermione blinked at him, "Um."

Harry smiled encouragingly at her.

"Nothing", she said, "See you tonight."

That night things went off surprisingly easy. As soon as Hagrid had made enough space for Norbert to get out of the hut he jumped out and followed Harry, who was holding a giant piece of steak in his arms, extra bloody just for this occasion.

The Gryffindors quickly contributed to chasing Norbert towards the Forest and after Harry and the giant bloody steak.

Harry went as deep into Forest as he dared and dropped the steak and then made a hasty retreat, leaving Norbert to explore his new home.

"That went swimmingly!", enthused Harry, beyond happy with the results as he and his whole team of caretakers made their way back to the castle.

"I can't help but feel like the other shoe is about to drop", mused Draco.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Draco", said Ron, making a face at his own statement.

"Nah, Norbert has his new home now. Nothing can go wrong now."

About a week later the whole school was rocked by the mighty roar of a nearly fully grown dragon wreaking havoc in the Forbidden Forest.

"Well, will you look at that! Isn't nature wonderful? A dragon has come to thrive in this forest all on its own! Isn't that wonderful?", said Harry in front of the whole class as they huddled close to the window to see several of the older trees on fire.

Draco was giving him that funny look again though.

All comments are welcome, I'm writing as fast as I can so you might spot some grammar errors. Please don't hesitate to tell me! :)
Also, this is still under its working title, any and all suggestions for a new name are welcome