A/N: This chapter is a much shorter one, so I apologize for that. The next one should be longer, but seeing as I'm only about half done with writing it at the moment, I'm not positive. Anyways, onto the actual chapter!

The week before their finals was rather uneventful at Hogwarts, and for once the castle actually seemed like a school. Everyone spent most of their time studying, even the Weasley twins, no matter how surprising that was. The library became full, every table taken almost constantly, and the Great Hall was filled with students quizzing each other during meals. Hermione was one of the most hectic with all of this, and had begun quizzing Harry, Ron, and Draco whenever she could. She did it while they were trying to take a short break and Ron and Draco played a game of chess, while they were walking from one class to another, even while they were finishing their last few homework assignments. It got rather annoying after the first three days, no matter how useful it was. They only used the Bertie Botts game when they were in the back corner of the library where they were mostly left alone, and it seemed more like just a bit of fun than studying because they at least got to do something amusing as well.

The day before their first exam they spent most of their time in the unusually empty Common Room, finishing their last couple essays and randomly asking each other questions that they suspected would be on the tests. The only sounds in the room had been their voices, the scritch-scratching of their quills against parchment, and the sound of pages being turned in books, until a different scratching noise coming from the window beside their table caused them all to flinch and look up. Draco froze when he saw the owl that was flying in place just outside, waiting for someone to let it in, and it took the blond a good twenty seconds to shake himself out of his daze enough to stand up and open the window, his hands trembling ever so slightly.

His father's owl flew in a circle around the room and then landed on one of the stacks of textbooks they had piled up on their table, holding out its left leg. Draco stared at Thoth in horror for a few seconds and slowly looked down at the envelope attached to the owl's leg. It wasn't bright, scarlet red as the last one had been, but that barely made the blond feel any relief. If his father had sent him a letter, it couldn't mean anything good.

He gulped slightly and then, with trembling hands, clumsily untied the envelope from Thoth's leg. The envelope was made of parchment, like his Hogwarts letter had been, and the dark green wax seal on the back had the Malfoy family crest pressed into it. Draco stared at the letter in his hands for at least half a minute before slowly turning it over in his hands again and splitting the seal so he could open it. His hands seemed to tremble even more as he slipped the letter out of the envelope and he almost dropped the parchment as he unfolded it, letting the envelope fall onto the table. None of his friends said a word as he slowly began to read what his father had written.

Draco,

I am not writing this letter to apologize to you in any way, I am still very disappointed in you, and your recent behavior at school has not helped this in the slightest. This was written so I could inform you that, while I may have in a sense said otherwise in my last letter, we are expecting you to come back to the Manor for the summer. Dobby will pick you up from King's Cross station after the Hogwarts Express brings you there and I expect you to behave and follow the rules of our household over the summer.

I hope you do not disappoint your mother and I even more with your grades, as do I hope that your sneaking out in the middle of the night was a one-time thing, and not something you do on a regular basis. You have brought enough shame on our family simply by being sorted into Gryffindor of all houses, Ravenclaw would have at least been acceptable but the house of the "brave" is just disrespectful, we do not want you to be known as one of those no-good student who goes off on "adventures" and pulls pranks on their professors simply for a laugh.

That being said, I think that is all.

- Father

P.S.: I apologize for your father's unwillingness to take back his disowning of you, you are our only heir so we cannot strictly disown you without sentencing the family name to end after us. I would like to say that I hope your year has been enjoyable so far, and that while I am disappointed in your choice of sneaking out after curfew, it is a part of school that I remember. Until this summer. - Mother

The last paragraph was written in both different ink and very different, more loopy handwriting that Draco recognized immediately. For a few seconds all the blond did was stare at the piece of parchment that was slowly becoming a bit wrinkled and scrunched up in his hands which were forming fists. His chest tightened painfully, though whether it was from anger or anguish, he couldn't tell. The two emotions felt rather similar most of the time, especially when he was pretty sure he was feeling both.

"Draco?" Harry's voice pulled him out of his momentary daze and he looked up from the letter, noticing that his vision had gone slightly blurred when he did so. Draco let go of the parchment with one hand and rather angrily rubbed at his eyes with the back of his left hand, feeling tears make it wet and roll down into his palm and down his arm. "Are you okay?" The blond took a deep breath and nodded, even though he knew he probably didn't look okay. The tears in his eyes wouldn't stop coming, even though he didn't know what exactly was causing them in the first place. His father had said much worse things in the Howler he had sent Draco on the second day of school, what he wrote in the letter shouldn't hurt, so why did it?

Hermione frowned in his direction and stood up from her chair, going over to the blond and swiftly wrapping her arms around him when he began to tremble slightly. "It's going to be okay." She said softly and he turned around to hug her back, wanting to hide the tears that just seemed to be coming faster. Then suddenly he felt another person join the hug, and then another.

"Yeah, mate, if over the summer you need to get away from your family, you're welcome at my house." Ron said and Draco pulled away a bit to look over at the redhead in shock, sure he had misheard him.

"I can?" He asked, his voice strangely quiet and weak. Ron nodded without hesitation, the slight glint in his blue eyes showing that he thought it was obvious that he meant what he said.

"Of course. My mum said all of you could, you just have to ask and then you can come over, stay however long you want. Hermione, you'd probably have to sleep in Ginny's room if you stayed longer than a day, but either way you're all allowed to come to Burrow whenever. Though, I'd suggest not coming immediately because the first two weeks back are always super hectic and mum is very… if I say clingy and she finds out, I'll probably be in a lot of trouble, but she is. She gushes over everyone who comes back like she hasn't had any contact with them for over a decade." The redhead rambled slightly and Draco felt the stinging burn in his eyes begin to dull, tears no longer rolling down his cheeks.

A small smile tugged at his lips and Ron grinned in return, looking satisfied like he had done what he intended to. "I'll be taking you up on that offer at some point this summer. Even if my mother is as kind to me as she used to be, which I kind of doubt she will, my father will be pretty… terrible, I think." The blond mumbled and his red-headed best friend nodded, as if he expected that.

"If I can, I'll take you up on that too…" Harry said and Draco looked over at him to see his green eyes glinting with slight uncertainty. Ron did as well and smiled at the raven-haired boy, nodding.

"Mum'll be happy to have more people to stuff with food. Just owl me whenever you want us to get you away from your muggle relatives. Well, don't just owl us for that, you better keep in touch over the summer." The redhead's blue eyes glinted with a steely sort of look and he met Draco's eyes as well, obviously intending for him to get the message to do the same.

"Course I will, I'll keep you up to date on everything stupid my cousin does, and whatever… interesting things happen at my aunt and uncle's house over the summer." Harry said and grinned, even though it seemed a bit forced.

"Good. You… good now, Dray?" Ron asked then and the blond he was addressing rolled his eyes and shoved him away, even though a grin was tugging at his lips and his grey eyes, once filled with tears, glinted with amusement.

"I thought I told you not to call me that." The redhead simply smirked in response and then stood up, walking back over to his seat and sitting down. He looked down at the Charms essay he had been writing, a small scowl replacing his smirk.

"I hate homework with every ounce of my being." Ron muttered and the other three gryffindors snorted, shaking their heads as Harry and Hermione went back to their chairs as well. Thoth, Draco's father's owl, had flown off through the window again at some point, like the school owl's not waiting for a treat. Somehow when he glanced down at the letter from his father that was still crumpled in his hand he didn't feel the tightening in his chest anymore, in fact he didn't feel anything. Even though his friends had only said a few things, most of which weren't even about the letter, he felt better, and a small smile spread across his face as he went back to his Transfiguration essay that he had abandoned when Thoth had shown up.

Dear Aunt Andromeda,

I know I owled you a few days ago, and that I haven't even received a response from you as of yet, but I feel like I need to.

First off, even though I already asked this in my last letter, how are you? I am doing alright, considering we have our final exams starting tomorrow and the reason for why I'm writing this. My father sent me an owl earlier today, informing me of, what I suppose is good news, the fact that I am still coming back to the Manor over the summer holidays. He also made sure to point out that I am still a disappointment to him, which I suppose shouldn't have come as much of a shock considering he sent me a Howler informing me of that on the second day of school simply because of my house. It hurt, but it helped me realize that over this past year my friends have become more of my family than he and my mother are.

That probably sounds rather ridiculous, and my father would say that there is nothing more important than your blood, but still, it's the truth. They've stuck around even though I wasn't very nice to them at first, and they're still friends with me after all these months.

Ron told me I could come and stay with his family for as long as I want over the summer. I never expected to have a friend who would offer something like that simply because my parents don't exactly like me at the moment. Before Hogwarts none of my friends ever even invited me to their houses for more than the day, which now that I think about it is slightly strange. Anyways, that is beside the point.

I think Harry may be hiding something about his muggle relatives. The closer we've gotten to summer, the more on-edge he's been, and I don't know if it's just because his scar's been bugging him ever since the detention in the forest, or if it's something else. He never speaks about his relatives unless it's necessary and when he does he's always very vague about everything, like he's nervous that if he says something more we'll be scared off or something.

Okay, that is all I think I wanted to say… I'm looking forward to your letter.

Draco