Dear Draco,

I have to admit, I was a bit shocked to receive an owl from you, and even more so to hear that you had been sorted into Gryffindor! However, do not take that last sentence as any kind of insult, I was overjoyed to hear from my nephew who I haven't seen in years and who I have missed quite dearly.

I am doing well, thank you for asking. It's a bit chaotic at home nowadays with your cousin, Nymphadora (do not by any means let her find out I called her that), having finished her NEWTs last year and being home practically all time. She's become even more of a troublemaker than she was before, which you would've thought would have happened in the opposite way considering she is studying to become an auror. Then again, James Potter was an auror and he was one of the biggest troublemakers I ever knew, so perhaps your job cannot change your personality and hobbies all too much. Speaking of him, you're in Harry's house, I believe? Does he cause any trouble around the school? I sure hope if he is, you aren't being dragged into it as well. The last member of the family who got mixed up with a Potter didn't exactly end up having the best fate.

I will spare you the details of that, you needn't hear them. I'm sure they would rather alarm you, and seeing as this is the first time we've spoken in so long I would much prefer not to scare you away.

Anyways, moving on to other things, how have your classes been? Is there anything you despise, or rather enjoy, as of yet? I remember particularly hating Transfiguration at your age for reasons I don't exactly understand anymore, the spells we learned there just seemed so pointless, and we had to share that class with the Ravenclaws, who loved to show off. Then again, most classes included students trying their best to make all of Slytherin house feel rather terrible, so I suppose it may not have simply been because they had a desire to show everyone they were smart.

Have you made any friends at Hogwarts yet? If you have, would you mind telling me about them? I don't mean to be pushy or anything of the sort, I would merely enjoy getting to know you a bit better. You are free to tell me you have no interest in that, I will take no offense, I promise. I do hope to at least hear back from you at some point, even if it is only a short note.

Until next time, I hope,

Andromeda Black-Tonks

Despite the unsettling events that had transpired just a week or so prior, Draco couldn't help but feel excited about the upcoming Quidditch match. Even though he had wished he were in Slytherin for most of the first month of school, the blond now wanted nothing more than for the House of the Snakes to be beat by Gryffindor. However, the freezing cold weather outside that had slowly been getting steadily worse and worse would likely mess up both teams' chances, and it also made Draco at first slightly hesitant to go to the match. Hermione seemed to have thought about that though and, despite the fact that it was probably against the rules (which she surprisingly seemed to become more lenient with after the troll incident), had found an empty glass jar and spelled magical blue flames into it to keep them warm.

They carried the jar around with them whenever they went outside, huddling around it, or standing close to each other with the flames at their backs whenever a professor or prefect walked by them. They had gotten themselves into enough trouble already over the past two months with the troll, and flying around outside of lessons, they didn't need to add carrying fire around with them to that list of things they got caught doing. One of the days they did this was the day before the first Quidditch match of the season, and they had almost been caught by Professor Snape.

The first year Gryffindors all had a free period on Fridays, and Draco, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were all standing outside in the courtyard, for reasons Draco didn't really know, talking with their backs to the blue flame filled jar so they didn't freeze. Things at Hogwarts had been mostly uneventful since the troll, besides the fact that Harry and Ron seemed to have decided they really didn't care that much about their homework anymore. Hermione and Draco were berating them both on this, telling them they needed to at least do it, even if they didn't do it perfectly, because they needed to know what they were learning, when out of the corner of his eye Draco spotted the Head of Slytherin house walking through the courtyard.

"Professor Snape." He hissed, interrupting Hermione as he nodded subtly in the teacher's direction. Immediately all four of them moved closer to each other, hiding the sight of the fire behind their backs and hoping he would pass without paying them any attention. They of course had no such luck, and the Potions Master immediately started towards them, looking angry. Draco quickly noticed the fact that his godfather was limping, favoring his right leg over his left, and the blond frowned in confusion, though he tried his best to hide it. What could Severus have done to hurt himself?

"What do you have in your hand, Mr. Potter?" Professor Snape asked, obviously not having noticed the jar of fire behind them, yet still looking for some kind of excuse to get the four gryffindors in trouble. What did he have against Harry, exactly?

Draco's raven-haired friend raised the copy of Quidditch Through The Ages that he had borrowed from the school library (he had made Draco show him where that was a couple weeks ago) to show the teacher, seeming to think there was no reason he could get in trouble for it. For some strange reason that once again left Draco wondering what Harry had done to him to make him hate him so much, Severus's obsidian eyes narrowed and he snapped in an angry voice:

"Books from the library are not allowed to be taken outside. Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor." Draco's jaw dropped in shock and he blinked in confusion at the teacher. He was taking the same amount of points they had received for defeating a troll, because of a book?! How did that make any sense? The teacher took the book from Harry's hand and then stalked quickly away, leaving them all standing there in various stages of anger and shock.

"He totally just made up that rule! I know every rule this school has, and there is nothing about taking books outside." Draco snapped the second his godfather was out of earshot, clenching his hands into tight fists.

"What do you think was up with his leg?" Harry asked instead of saying anything in response to Draco, though the blond could see the anger at the unfairness of everything burning in his gaze. Draco shrugged slightly in response to what Harry had asked, taking a slow breath to calm his anger and slowly unclenching his fists.

"No idea, but I hope it hurts." Ron said, his voice having an unsettling edge to it that made it impossible to doubt the honesty his statement held. His blue eyes glinted with a surprisingly menacing look and his lips were pulled down in an angry scowl.

After dinner the four young Gryffindors had all once again claimed the table by the window as their own, with Hermione now filling the empty seat in front of the window. Harry and Ron had, mainly just to get the other half of the quartet off their back, finished their Charms Essays that were due on Monday, and were currently 'allowing' Hermione and Draco to proof-read them. The Common Room was loud, which made sense since it was a Friday night and the night before the first Quidditch match of the school year, but it certainly made it a lot more difficult to concentrate on anything. At least, in Draco's opinion it did, the other three didn't seem too bothered by the noise, as if they were used to it. It made sense that Ron would be, he had three siblings that were still at Hogwarts plus three others who had either already graduated or would be in their first year the next year, so his house was probably pretty loud over the holidays. Hermione, as far as Draco knew, had no siblings at all, so where would she have gotten used to the noise from? And Harry… Draco knew he had a cousin, but considering who Harry was, it seemed unlikely to Draco that he or either of his parents would bother The-Boy-Who-Lived.

Suddenly, when Draco was about half-way through reading over Ron's essay, Harry stood up from his seat and grabbed his bag from the floor beside it. "I'm going to go ask Snape for my book back." He said and the other three gryffindors looked up at him in surprise.

"He's not going to give it back to you any time soon." All three of them said at the same time and then looked at each other, slightly unsettled expressions on their faces. Harry looked at them with a slightly confused furrow in his brow before he simply turned around and left the common room without another word.

"Snape really isn't going to give him that book. He seems to hate him more than anyone else in the school." Ron said once the raven-haired boy had left, a scowl tugging at the corners of his lips as he looked at the now closed portrait hole.

"I doubt he hates him, Ron." Hermione said, immediately going back to Harry's essay, which she had been scribbling a tiny note onto before he had decided to leave. Draco however just shrugged and fidgeted with the quill he had in his hand, knowing that what the redhead had said actually held quite a bit of truth. Though Severus wasn't around all too much because he worked at Hogwarts, Draco knew him well enough to be able to tell that he did indeed at least somewhat hate Harry, why though was a completely different thing and the blond could only guess.

"No, Hermione, he really does hate him." Draco said, looking over at his bushy haired friend and missing the surprised expression on Ron's face at having him agree with him.

"Why do you think that? I thought you'd agree with me. He's a teacher, what possible reason could he have for hating Harry?" Hermione looked up from the parchment in her hands again in shock and quite a bit of confusion, an expression which looked unusual and out of place on her face.

"He -" Draco broke off before he could say anything that would reveal anything about how the Potions Master was his godfather, he really didn't want them to know that little detail about his life just yet. "My parents know him, are friends with him if you want to go into a bit more detail, and he used to come over quite often. He often complained about how everyone was always patronising Harry, and how insufferable he was bound to be when he got to Hogwarts. Don't… Don't tell Harry this, but he mentioned his father quite a few times, and insulted him. I'm not sure why exactly, but he obviously has some kind of… hatred towards Harry's dad, and he seems to have now transferred those feelings onto his view of Harry. At least, that's what I'm guessing. No matter the reason though, I know he hates Harry."

Hermione gave him a bit of a skeptical look and then turned back to the essay she was editing, shaking her head slightly. "No matter the reason you think that, I'm positive he doesn't hate Harry, dislike him, perhaps, but him actually hating him is just ridiculous."

After that none of them said anything to each other, though Draco and Ron did share a look of agreement and annoyance at Hermione's inability to believe a teacher could do anything but enjoy students and do good things. It was as if she thought they were all perfect or something, which was a rather ridiculous view to have on them.

About fifteen minutes later the Fat Lady's portrait swung out again and Harry practically sprinted inside, panting slightly as if he had run all the way back from the teachers' lounge. He immediately made a beeline for them and all but collapsed into his chair with a relieved sigh as he dropped his bag and ran his left hand through his dark hair. His glasses were crooked, eyes alight with adrenaline and cheeks flushed a rosy pink color, adding to the previous assumption of him having run back to the common room.

"Did you get it?" Ron asked urgently, though Draco could hear the hint of disbelief in his voice, obviously not expecting Harry to say he had. Indeed, the raven-haired boy just shook his head, looking defeated but also a bit scared, as if he had seen something bad. A small frown tugged at Draco's lips as he noticed that last bit and at the same time as Ron asked:

"Are you okay?"

Harry glanced around nervously for a moment, as if looking to see if anyone was listening in on them, and then turned back to face them. His green eyes were slightly dark with fear, and his hands clenched and unclenched six times before he finally answered the question in a hushed voice.

"I went down to the teachers' lounge, I assumed if I asked in front of the other teachers he wouldn't be able to not give me the book, but when I knocked nobody answered. So, after a few more tries at getting an answer, I… opened the door to see if maybe they just didn't hear me." Draco opened his mouth to protest, or at least tell Harry he was an idiot for doing that, but decided quickly against it and pressed his lips firmly together at the sharp look Hermione sent his way. "I saw Snape, he was in there, but not with the other professors like I expected. Filch was in there with him, and…" Once again Harry glanced anxiously around at the other Gryffindors in the room, none of which were really paying them much attention. "Snape was hurt, on his leg. It was bad, blood all over, and Filch was helping him bandage it, that's probably why he was limping earlier. Just before they noticed me, Snape said something about how difficult it was to keep an eye on all three heads at once.

"You guys know what this means, right? He tried to get past the three-headed dog on Halloween. He was heading there when we saw him - whatever that dog is guarding, Snape wants it! And I'll bet you my broom that it was him who let the troll into the castle, to distract everyone else!" By the end of that Harry was slightly out of breath, looking at them expectantly as he waited for their responses.

All Draco could do however was shake his head slightly while Hermione stared at the raven-haired boy with wide eyes and Ron had a thoughtful expression on his face, contemplating if he could be right. There was no way his godfather would have done something like that, Draco tried to convince himself, his thoughts mirroring those he had when they had spotted the same professor in the corridor heading towards the third floor corridor. The evidence Harry had was surprisingly good, and strong, but the blond still wouldn't let himself even consider the idea. His parents had already both turned their backs on him and turned out to be different people than he thought, he couldn't handle finding out his godfather was like that too. No, he couldn't completely lose him too. He just couldn't.

"He wouldn't do that." Draco and Hermione said at the same time, though the second the blond realized this he stopped talking and allowed the brunette to continue on her own. He had already told them about how he knew Snape, if he told Harry just yet, he would have to explain it as well, and Draco wasn't sure he could explain it again without slipping up. "I know he isn't particularly nice, but he wouldn't try to steal something Dumbledore is protecting."

Ron scoffed at that, shaking his head and rolling his eyes in a mix of annoyance and amusement. "Honestly, Hermione, you act as if all teachers are some kind of saints. I think Harry's right. I wouldn't put anything past Snape." A bit surprisingly, he sent Draco a brief apologetic look that was quickly broken off before Harry noticed. "But what's he after? What's the dog protecting?" All the blond could do in response to that was shrug, he had no idea.

The Quidditch match started the next morning around eleven, and Draco could've sworn the only other time he had since this many of Hogwarts' students together at the same time was at the beginning of the year feast. It looked as if the entire school had crammed themselves into the stands surrounding the pitch, and how everyone fit without literally standing on each other's toes and being squished into the sides of those beside them, not even Hermione seemed to know judging by her shock and slightly confused expression.

Draco had come up to sit with his other three dorm mates and Hermione in the highest seats possible for the students to watch the match. Together all of them had created a banner out of one of their dorm's drapes, which had been partially destroyed by Ron's pet rat, Scabbers, a few days prior to the match, and on it, written in gold paint was the statement: 'Potter for President.' along with an incredibly realistic lion head courtesy of Dean Thomas, who apparently had a talent when it came to anything artistic. What exactly the words on the banner meant, Draco didn't know, he assumed it was some muggle thing since Hermione and Dean had come up with it together. The moment they got up into the stands they unfolded the large scarlet red piece of fabric and Draco pulled his wand from his pocket, muttering a quiet levitation spell so they wouldn't have to deal with holding the thing up for Merlin knows how long in the bitter cold.

At about a quarter after eleven, both the Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch teams walked out of their respective locker rooms, one group in dark emerald green Quidditch robes, and the other in scarlet red. They marched out onto the field towards Madam Hooch, who stood in the very center of the pitch, her broom held in her hand, its end balanced partially on the grass. The fourteen Quidditch players all gathered around her and the falcon-like witch began speaking. It was basically impossible to hear her words due to how far away they were from her and that she was only speaking to the players, meaning she didn't enhance her voice.

Harry glanced up at them for a moment and Draco was pretty sure he saw a bright, confident smile flash across his face right before the teacher who was refereeing the game told them all to mount their brooms and they all flew off as she whistled so loudly the other gryffindors could hear it from all the way up in the stands. Harry headed upwards and began to slowly circle the field, obviously knowing exactly what he was doing. It made sense for that to be their strategy, have Harry seem harmless and just fly around so the other team didn't expect all too much from him and would underestimate him.

"And Angelina Johnson from Gryffindor immediately gets the Quaffle - what a wonderful Chaser that girl is, and besides that also rather attractive -" Drao jumped slightly as the voice of Lee Jordan echoed through the pitch, quickly followed by Professor McGonagall's voice calling the third year's name, sounding angry. "Sorry, Professor." He answered, though the tone of his voice suggested he really wasn't all too sincere about that apology.

Lee's commentary faded into the background slightly as Draco turned his focus to the players zooming around the field on brooms. All thoughts of his parents, his house, Snape, and everything even remotely similar seemed to disappear from his mind, replaced only by the game being played in front of him. The unease and slight fear he had been constantly feeling since the first day at school was finally replaced by joy and the feeling of familiarity. Even though he himself wasn't on the pitch flying and throwing goals with a Quaffle, the feeling was familiar and just made him feel comfortable there, despite how cold it truly was, in fact, even that seemed to have faded away for him.

The match started out good for Gryffindor, the first goal was thrown by the Gryffindor Chaser Lee had mentioned before. Cheers rose up all around him, and for once in his life he didn't care about the noise, it just fueled his excitement and he cheered with them, grinning widely. If my father were to see me this happy because the house of the brave was winning at Quidditch… Draco wasn't sure where the thought came from but the grin flickered slightly and his cheers died down. If his father knew he not only had been sorted into Gryffindor but now actually enjoyed it, there was no way he would ever get another chance at him accepting him again. But then again, maybe that wasn't quite so bad, maybe him being disowned wasn't… terrible… in the sense that it meant he no longer had to try extra hard to become who his father wanted him to be. He had no chance of being that anymore, so what was the point of trying when he could just be… himself? The idea sounded almost more difficult than pretending, but it also gave him a slight feeling of relief, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

With that thought, and that relief, he pushed the rest of his thoughts away and returned his focus to the game again, only to, moments later, become distracted again when he heard the loud, booming voice of Hagrid telling students to make room so he could get through. Draco looked over in surprise at the same time as Ron and Hermione and he grinned again, though for a different reason than before. Sure, he had been hesitant of the man who seemed much to toweringly tall to be completely human, but over the past two months filled with pretty much weekly visits to his hut on the edge of the woods he had grown to like him. Of course, he was still rather intimidating, but he didn't seem mean or aggressive in any way, so the initial fear and nervousness had quickly disappeared around him.

"Hagrid!" The three of them yelled (okay, maybe Draco didn't fully yell, just spoke loudly, but it's not like anyone there could tell the difference), and all scooted over a bit in their seats to make room for him to sit as well.

"Was watchin' from my hut," Hagrid said as he sat down and briefly showed them the abnormally large pair of binoculars hanging around his neck. "But it's just somethin' different to actually be here. Still no sign of the snitch, right?"

Draco glanced back at the pitch, just to make sure neither of the Seekers seemed to have gotten distracted in the few minutes he had been more focused on Hagrid, and then shook his head. "None." Ron said before he could, looking out at the game as well. "Harry doesn't have much to do yet." Draco just nodded, not wanting to say anything because he might just repeat something or not say anything besides 'yeah'.

"Stayed on the safe side so far, that's somethin'." Hagrid said and looked through his binoculars up at the sky, in the direction of where the small figure which wasn't fully discernable as Harry was hovering on his broom. From so far below it was difficult to tell if Harry had any expression on his face that could show if he had seen anything at all.

"Least he hasn't had a blu-" Draco's words died in his throat the second he noticed one of Ron's older brothers, who were both beaters for the Gryffindor team, racing up towards Harry. Just moments later a bludger came flying back from the two of them and almost knocked the Slytherin team's captain off his broom. "Nevermind." He said and Ron snorted slightly, trying not to laugh.

"Slytherin's got the Quaffle," Lee Jordan's voice cut through Ron's snickers and he stopped, a tiny annoyed scowl replacing it. It was almost funny how quick the change was, and if their opposing team hadn't just gotten the ball for themselves, Draco probably would've started snickering himself. "Chaser Pucey ducks under two bludgers, two Weasleys, and Chaser Bell and races towards the - wait a second - was that the snitch?"

Immediately Draco squinted in the direction of the Chaser, trying to spot the tiny gold ball with its lighting-fast wings, but Pucey was gone in an instant after having looked around for it, the Quaffle falling down into the awaiting hands of Angelina Johnson. It was too far for Draco to really see, but Harry immediately dropped into a dive, obviously having seen the snitch and knew which direction it was going. Just a second or so later Slytherins Seeker followed suit and raced in the same direction as Harry, catching up to him surprisingly quickly.

Everyone else playing seemed to have forgotten that they were, all they did was kind of hover in place on their brooms, staring at the Seekers. Harry sped ahead of his Slytherin opponent, Terence Higgs or something like that, his hand outstretched towards the small golden ball which Draco could now see, his fingers almost closing around it -

Suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, Marcus Flint slammed into Harry, almost knocking him off his broom, leaving it shuddering under him and Harry holding onto its handle for dear life. Draco, along with Ron, Hermione and many other Gryffindors jumped to their feet in outrage. That was a clear foul, even someone who had only ever heard of Quidditch could tell that.

"FOUL!" Practically everyone in the Gryffindor section of the stands screamed, Draco among. Seriously, if - the blond's angry thoughts cut off when Madame Hooch, who looked beyond angry as well, raced towards Flint on her own broom and stopped in front of him, loudly announcing Gryffindor got a free throw. Suddenly, kind of out of nowhere Dean started yelling:

"Throw him out of the game, Ref! Red Card!" Draco sent him an incredibly confused look, his eyebrows scrunched so tightly together they seemed to combine. His silver eyes glinted in the midday sunlight as he tilted his head to the side slightly in confusion.

"What in Merlin's name are you on about, Thomas?" He demanded, though he certainly had his suspicions. Dean was always rambling on and on about this muggle sport called football, where there was only one ball and it was played entirely on the ground. Honestly, how could muggles handle getting so dirty by playing a sport in the mud? Who would optionally do such a thing?

"This isn't football, Dean." Ron said, in a way answering Draco's question and also kind of telling Dean to shut up at the same time. "You can't throw someone out and replace them in Quidditch. And what exactly is a red card?" Draco nodded slightly, wanting to know that as well, but before Dean could even begin to explain Hagrid spoke up.

"They should change the rules, Harry almost fell off his broom because of what Flint did." Draco couldn't help but agree with that, and nobody else seemed to be able to disagree seeing as nobody denied it.

After that the game seemed to continue relatively normally for a while, at least until Harry was almost hit by a bludger for the second time. He seemed unable to get his broom under control after having swerved out of the way of the fast speeding black metal ball. At first it was just a minor seeming thing, and Draco was sure he was the only one who really noticed, but then the tiny shuddering turned into a full blown thrash, as if the broom was trying to throw him off. Slowly Draco started to stand, wondering if he could see what was happening better that way, but he couldn't spot what was wrong.

"Merlin, Harry… what are you doing?!" He hissed under his breath as Harry's broom began to get even more out of control. It started flying short, quick distances and then stopping so abruptly that the raven-haired boy almost flew off the front of it. Draco's frown grew and he glanced over at the other Gryffindors around him, wondering if any of them had noticed, only to see everyone distracted by Marcus Flint, who had once again gotten the Quaffle and was racing towards the goal posts. Harry's broom began turning in fast, uneven circles and even though the other boy was relatively far away again Draco could see the fear etched onto his face as he basically curled himself around his broom handle to keep himself on it.

"Something's wrong with Harry's broom." He said and Hermione, Ron, and Hagrid all looked at him just as the Slytherins scored. They all glanced up at Harry and seemed to finally realize that he was slowly raising higher and higher into the air, thrashing around more and more violently.

"How could somethin' be wrong with his broom? The only thing that can mess a broom up is dark magic." Hagrid said and Draco frowned as Harry's broom suddenly stopped moving, only to flip upside down a few seconds later. Harry almost fell off, only just barely managing to tighten his grip enough to hang from it upside down almost like a sloth. Draco's eyes widened in fear for his friend, no best friend, as his broom gave another viscous thrash, throwing Harry around so much he let go of the broom almost completely besides his one hand, which left him hanging there, hundreds of feet in the air, with a broom that looked like it was trying to kill him and only a very small amount of attachment to it.

"Someone must have bewitched it." Hermione and Draco said at the same time and the former snatched Hagrid's binoculars from him without even bothering to ask. She swept her gaze through the crowd of people watching until she finally paused, a strange mix of triumph and fear flickering across her face.

"What are you doing?" Ron demanded, but she ignored his question, simply continued staring through the binoculars at that one place in the crowd.

"I knew it…" She hissed suddenly, lowering them slightly so she could shove them into Draco's hands to force him to look as well. "It's Snape." For a few seconds all he did was stare at her in shock before the blond slowly raised the binoculars to his eyes so he could see what she was looking at and he felt his breath catch in his throat slightly. Just as Hermione had all but said, Severus was standing in the teachers' stands, his obsidian eyes locked on Harry as he mumbled under his breath.

"No… Why?" Draco shoved them roughly in Ron's direction, not capable of looking at his godfather any longer than that. He didn't… There must've been… Severus was probably doing something to stop whoever was trying to kill Harry, yeah, that's what must've been happening. Except he hated him, so why would he? No, there's no way he would try to kill Harry. Steal something, maybe, but kill an eleven year old? No, Severus wouldn't do that.

"What are we gonna do?" Ron asked after he himself had watched Snape mumbling hexes, or counter-curses. He sounded nervous, and even if Draco wasn't scared of his godfather, he was definitely nervous about Harry.

"I'll handle it." Hermione said and pulled her wand from her robes, heading in the direction the teachers' stands were located. She however froze in place when Draco called out for her, pulling his own wand from his pocket.

"I'm coming with." He said and for a second it seemed like she might protest, but then she just sighed and continued on her way, Draco following closely behind her. Part of him knew he was only going with to prove it to himself that yes, his godfather was hexing Harry's broom, and the other part went because he just wanted to see what his bushy-haired friend would do to stop the professor.

Together the two of them pushed their way through the crowds of people who were all slowly starting to realize there was something going on with Harry. It took them at least five minutes just to get there and Harry seemed to be getting closer and closer to having his grip on his broom slip, causing Draco to hurry up his pace. They stumbled through the crowds of teachers in the stand when they finally reached the proper one, Draco tripping over the foot of their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and basically falling into him as they did so. The man with a purple turban tumbled backwards over his seat and Draco grimaced slightly before rushing on after Hermione without apologizing. The brunette was heading directly towards Snape, who was sitting only a few seats next to Professor Quirrell.

"What if it isn't Sna-" Draco's brief moment of doubt was cut short by Hermione who glared over at him as she quietly knelt down behind Snape and mumbled the same spell she had used to create the blue flames they kept in the jar they carried around outside, pointing her wand at the Potions Master's robes. Immediately the seams of them burst into brilliant sky blue flames, though somehow it took Draco's godfather a solid thirty seconds to notice them and react. By then the damage was already done and Hermione quickly trapped the flames in a glass jar similar to the one they had kept the other flames in before, backing away so that Snape didn't know it was her.

Draco glanced up towards Harry and was relieved (though terrified of the meaning behind it) to find his broom had stopped jerking around and he had somehow, despite his skinny and small arms, pulled himself back up onto it. The blond's tense shoulders relaxed and then the two gryffindors both quickly headed back to their stands, almost missing when Harry suddenly leaned forwards into a dive, plummeting straight towards the ground with his right hand outstretched towards a small golden ball. Just a few feet from the ground the snitch suddenly seemed to disappear and Harry quickly moved his hand up to his mouth as he practically crashed into the grass. He leaned forward, coughing and wheezing slightly as if he was going to be sick, only for a small glittering golden ball to land on the ground in front of him which he quickly grabbed and then stood up shakily, raising it high into the air above his head, yelling: "I've got the snitch!"

About half an hour later Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco were all sitting in Hagrid's hut with warm cups of tea on the table in front of them. After the game had ended (which Gryffindor won by 110 points) the Slytherins had begun yelling about how unfair it was, and even twenty minutes later they had not shut up, so the four young Gryffindors had all decided to just escape to the little wooden hut on the edge of the forest.

"It was Snape." Ron said suddenly and Harry looked up from his tea, a surprised and confused look on his face. "Hermione, Draco, and I all saw it. He was mumbling things to himself and putting curses on your broom, he didn't look away once." Draco opened his mouth to protest that he really still didn't want to believe Severus had done such a thing, but Hagrid cut him off, though it was to say the same thing as he wanted to.

"Nonsense." The giant of a man said, obviously both not having heard any of what they had talked about in the stands and also not accepting it like Draco. "Why would Snape do something like that?" Harry, Ron, and Hermione all looked at each other, while Draco simply looked down at the contents of his cup. He really didn't want to have this conversation at the moment, maybe the next day or so, after he'd been able to think for a while, but he honestly doubted it would be that soon. It was too hard to imagine losing someone else who had been a sort of parent to him.

"I found something out about him," Harry said suddenly and Draco looked up in surprise. Harry was telling Hagrid the truth?! What if he told Dumbledore, or worse yet McGonagall, they had been doing stuff they shouldn't have? "On Halloween he tried to get past that three-headed dog. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's protecting."

Hagrid almost dropped his teacup in surprise and he looked up so abruptly Draco partially expected him to have hurt his neck. "How do you know about Fluffy?" He demanded, his voice having more of a dangerous edge to it than the blond had ever heard from him before.

"Fluffy?!" All four of them demanded at once. How could something so dangerous and terrifying be named something like that?!

"Yeah, he's mine, yeh see. Got him off this guy from Greece about a year or so ago, - loaned him to Dumbledore to use as a guard dog for -" Hagrid broke off abruptly, his eyes widening at how close he got to telling them something they probably weren't supposed to know.

"Yes?" Harry asked, his green eyes shining excitedly at the thought of discovering what was going on after weeks, well months really, of being in the dark.

"That's enough, don't ask me anything else. This is all extremely secret, it is." Hagrid snapped instead of answering, looking guilty for having said anything in the first place.

"But Snape tried to steal it." Harry insisted.

"Nonsense." Hagrid said again and Draco forced himself not to say anything to show he agreed. "Snape is a teacher at Hogwarts, he would never do something like that."

"Then why did he just try to kill Harry?" Hermione snapped. It seemed her opinion on the whole Snape thing had changed the moment she had seen him mumbling hexes under his breath. "I can tell when someone's using a hex, Hagrid, I've read everything about it. You have to keep your gaze locked on what you're hexing, and Snape wasn't even blinking! I saw it!"

Draco looked away, trying his best not to say anything but failing only seconds later. "He could've been saying a counter-curse to someone's hex, y'know. You have to to do the exact same things." His voice came out quiet, and he could tell how obvious it was how scared of their reactions he was. His three friends all looked at him in shock, but before they could say anything Hagrid had begun talking again, still addressing Hermione.

"I'm telling you, you're completely wrong! I don't know why Harry's broom was acting that way, but Snape would never try to kill a student! Now listen to me very closely, you're getting yerselves involved in things that have nothing to do with you. Forget about the dog, and forget about what he guarding, this is a thing just to do with Professor Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel -"

"Aha!" Harry cut Hagrid off, grinning in a sort of triumph. "So someone named Nicholas Flamel has to do with all of this?"