The next day Harry awoke feeling excited for the day, today was the first day of Defence Against the Dark Arts. Harry quickly got dressed, he was once again the first one to wake up in his dorm. Harry picked up his DADA textbook and slowly made his way downstairs. He picked up a little cushion from one of the couches and placed it on the windowsill, a nice little seat for him and his new reading nook.

Harry spent the next hour reading his textbook, he was completely absorbed by the new things he was learning, how to cure a werewolf bite, doing a knockback jinx and using them on imps. Harry was suddenly ecstatic to start learning all of these things during DADA.

Hermione was not the first to come down from the female dorms rather it was a seventh year who looked like she had no sleep at all. Harry gave her a polite smile and went back to his reading, the seventh year sat on a couch and stared at the fire in what seemed like a daze.

Hermione was next to come down, and she conveniently came down at the same time as Ron. Harry jumped up from the windowsill, he was starting to get hungry now and he wanted to get to breakfast as he could. After quickly going to grab his bag, they all left for breakfast, talking about how excited they were for DADA.

They ate breakfast, and unusually Professor Quirrell was not seen during breakfast, Harry hoped this meant that he was preparing an awesome first lesson. After eating, Harry once again saw Draco, but Draco was talking quite animatedly to a boy that he recognised but couldn't remember the name of.

His chest tightened a little.

Harry shook off the feeling which he wasn't familiar with, he took his eyes off Draco and continued to pay attention to Hemione was who talking about curing werewolf bites with a mix of powdered silver and dittany. Harry had read about that this morning, but he nodded along as if he didn't already know.

The trio lined up outside the classroom ten minutes early, they seemed to not be the only ones that were excited for their first lesson of DADA, there was already some Hufflepuffs excitedly talking about it. They all started to group together, speaking about things they were hoping they would be able to learn, and dark creatures that they wanted to see. Harry had heard about Boggarts before however, was let down by Hermione who said they were in the third-year curriculum.

The bell rang and the door opened, Professor Quirrell had a nervous smile on his face as he let the students in. Quirrell still had the same purple turban on his head and Harry wondered if the man was trying to make some sort of fashion statement or if he was simply afraid to show that he was bold. Harry when looking at Quirrell realised that the Professor was avoiding eye contact with him. Harry found this weird, no one had ever tried to avoid eye contact him, even Professor Snape who he had found was sometimes glaring at him.

"We-welcome all." Quirrell stuttered slightly.

Harry was a bit shocked to find the man sounded quite timid, for a Professor of DADA he would think the man would be quite more confident with himself.

"For your first le-lesson, we are… going to read from chapter one." Quirrell said than quickly sat down behind his desk and said nothing further. The class murmured slightly with one another; they had thought they would have more of an exciting first lesson than reading from their textbook. Harry and Hermione did not open their textbooks, they had already read the first chapter. The trio all looked at each other confused. This was not what they had expected.

One Hufflepuff braver than her Gryffindor classmates put her hand into the air.

Quirrell looked up, a little surprised to see someone's hand up.

"Ye-yes?" Quirrell stuttered.

"Um Professor are we going to be able to do anything a bit more exciting than just reading?"

The Professors eyes widened, he didn't look offended Harry noted, but he looked more like he was scared.

"I, I'm sure I can organise something." The Professor nodded, Harry and Ron both looked at each again, feeling even more confused than before. But they went back to reading, Harry and Hermione quietly discussed what they had read once more whilst Ron finished reading the chapter.

After most of the class had finished, the rest of the lesson was spent just talking. Quirrell didn't seem to mind the chatter and no one was really interested in him anymore. The bell went and everyone left quickly, wanting to get out of the boring classroom and discuss Quirrell without the fear of being overheard.

"That Professor is weird." Ron spoke first. Harry nodded in agreement, he didn't like to call people weird, he'd always been taught that everyone was different in their own way, but Harry couldn't help but feel there was something extremely unusual about that Professor.

"I wish he was more exciting; I was so excited to learn about DADA." Hermione sighed, then they all sighed in unison. With the mood so low they kept walking to the Gryffindor tower in a sombre silence. Harry was about to say something when Draco unexpectantly stood in front of him.

"Oh, hello Draco." Harry said surprised.

"Yes, hello Harry, I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time?"

"Uh… yeah that should be fine." Harry gently smiled. He turned to Ron and Hermione who were both giving him identical curious looks.

"I'll be back in a minute I guess." Harry gave them a reassuring smile before following the direction that Draco had already started walking away in.

"Hey wait up." Harry lightly jogged, Draco was walking extremely fast for somehow who typically liked to save face. Draco slowed down and turned to Harry a more relaxed expression to his face.

"So… Whats up?" Harry asked, now in sync with Draco.

"Nothing really, I just wanted to say hi." Draco said, looking away from Harry.

Harry chuckled a little, "you didn't have to seem you were about to tell me the worst news in the world."

Draco gave him the side eye, "sorry I guess I got a bit nervous talking to you whilst you were with your friends."

Harrys heart squeezed in his chest slightly, Draco was nervous.

"You don't have to be nervous around them Draco, they already know we're friends."

Draco stopped walking. "You think we are friends?"

Harry felt a slight pang of pain go through his chest. "I uh do, aren't we?" Harry asked, he could feel the slight blush of embarrassment crawl up his neck.

Draco paused for a moment and seemed to be thinking pretty hard.

"I suppose we are." He said nodding. Harry felt the instant rush of relief. Then laughed, trying to change the mood to something lighter.

"Why did you have to think so hard about that?" Harry turned away and kept on walking, it seemed they were walking towards the greenhouses. Draco quickly caught up with him, and once again they were walking in a natural unison.

"I don't know, it's a bit odd for me to be friends with you I suppose." Draco shrugged lightly.

Harry turned to him curious, "why is it odd?"

Draco's greys eyes went darker, "its my stupid father, he's always one to have high expectations and certain standards that I must uphold, and I don't think that one of his expectations is for me to become friends with you."

Harry didn't really know what to say to this, he never thought that firstly, he was seen as someone that would be a bad friend to have and secondly, that Draco thoroughly confused him.

"Wait so if you weren't sure if you wanted to be friends with me then why did you try becoming my friend on the train?"

Draco cocked his head to the side, and Harry was immediately reminded of a puppy, however Draco's face didn't really hold that adorableness of a puppy, it was too pointy.

"I'm not really sure, I think I wanted to show off by showing I could easily become friends with The Harry Potter."

Harry barked out a laugh and Draco glared at him.

"Well I guess we're friends now anyways so it doesn't really matter does it." Harry said, bumping his shoulder against Draco's in a friendly manner.

"Yeah I guess we are." Draco smiled. Harrys heart raced; Draco's face completely transformed when he smiled. Suddenly, he went from a too pointy and sharp face to a soft and gentle boy. Harrys breathe caught in his throat and he had to look away before he was caught staring too long.

They didn't speak for a while, Harrys head running in circles thinking why he felt these weird and confusing feelings for Draco, he had never felt like this for anyone else before and he didn't know how to make sense of them.

Draco seemed to be thinking about something too and Harry desperately wanted to know what Draco was thinking about, he suddenly wanted to know everything about Draco at that moment, but he knew that Draco would instantly close himself off. Harry had to go slowly.

They stepped outside into the fresh air, Harry breathed in and felt a bit calmer. Draco seemed more refreshed in the fresh air. They then began talking about little things, trying to get to know each other more. In turn doing this they came up with a game. If you avoided answering a question, then the next question asked had to be answered, if you refused to answer still then a serious punishment was administered, they hadn't come up with the punishment yet though.

They played this game for a while, finding a dry spot in the grass and just talking the lunch away. Then the bell rung and neither the boys had gone for lunch. "Oh no." Harry said when the bell rang. Draco mischievously smiled at him, "want me to show you a secret?"

"I'd never say no that." Harry smiled, Draco then started hurrying towards the stairs, they both scurried downstairs, narrowly missing a Hufflepuff prefect going to class. They both giggled as the prefect walked into her classroom, Harry felt like he was high on sugar.

Draco lead Harry into a corridor that was covered with paintings of fruit, Harry found this weird as he had yet to see paintings in the corridors that weren't of people. Draco ushered Harry over to a painting that had a pear in a bowl sitting directly in the middle of the painting. Draco put his finger over the pear and rubbed it, Harry watched curiously wondering what this would do. Then the pear giggled and Draco quickly took a step back pushing Harry along with him, the painting swung open and there was a small entrance.

"What's this?" Harry asked.

"It's the entrance to the kitchen you idiot." Draco teased and he popped through the hole.

Harry laughed and shook his head, quickly following Draco in.

The both semi crawled through the small entrance, there wasn't enough room for them to stand up straight so they had to bend quite far down to shuffle through. Thankfully the little tunnel was short and soon Harry found himself situated in a giant kitchen buzzing with little creatures, Harry took a moment to remember that they were house elves.

"Welcome to Hogwarts kitchen." Draco said proudly beaming at Harry.

"Wow." Harry said lost for words. The kitchen smelt amazingly like Remus's home cooking and the lighting cast a warm soft glow on everything.

"What does it smell like to you?" Draco asked.

"Huh?" Harry said, confused by the question.

"What does it smell like, the kitchen smells different to everyone."

"Um, it smells like my uncle is cooking dinner at home."

"It smells like my garden for me." Draco said, his eyes softening with gentle memories.

"Your garden?" Harry asked.

"Yeah well, my parents don't cook so I'm not really sure what a nice home cooked dinner smells like, and the next best smelling place in my memory is my garden." Draco shrugged. Harry stored this piece of information into a safe place in his brain, this felt like it was something that Draco wouldn't tell another person.

"What does your garden smell like?" Harry asked further, his yearning to want to know everything about Draco slightly shining through.

"Hmm, smells like roses, and fresh dirt, and maybe grass being freshly cut."

Harry closed his eyes and thought about what Draco had said, once he could think about it, he nodded, his smell smelt really nice.

"I like that smell, makes me want to really smell it now."

What Harry had said hung in there, for there was something left unsaid that they both understood.

Then before either could say anything an elf popped in front of them.

"What would the masters be needing?" The elf asked, she seemed slightly annoyed that her work was being interrupted, but she was too polite due to her job to say anything about it.

"We would be liking some lunch as we missed some." Draco said in his posh voice.

The elf nodded and was about to leave, but Harry felt bad for the lack of manners so he hurriedly said, "just anything you can get please." He smiled, sending her an apologetic smile. The elf a little bit surprised by the sudden use of manners smiled at him and popped away.

Draco gave him a confused look, "you don't have to be nice to them you know, they're just elves."

Harry shook his head, "I think you should be nice to everyone, no matter if they're a creature or not."

Draco just shrugged and didn't say anything further, but Harry knew Draco had soaked this information in.

Harry when he thought about it, liked that he was influencing Draco to be nicer, he didn't know too much about Draco's upbringing. However, for what he could tell so far his parents didn't do much in terms of teaching him good morals and having equal respect for others, Harry knew that he couldn't change Draco in a heartbeat and he didn't want to change Draco tremendously, he just wanted to make him a slighter nicer person.

The elf didn't take long to pop back in front of them, and she had a basket full of what looked like food for a picnic. Harry looked at the food with his mouth wide open, he had expected maybe a few sandwiches, not a basket fit for a romantic picnic at the park.

"Oh, this is far too much." Harry laughed awkwardly, the elf frowned and Harry realised he had made a mistake.

"Oh no no its fine we'll take it." He said hurriedly. The elf smiled and handed him the basket, Harry took it and nearly dropped it due to how heavy it was.

Draco snickered at him and started to walk away, but Harry quickly nudged him, "say thank you." He hissed. Draco rolled his eyes but turned to the elf.

"Thank you, Biffy." Draco said. Harry was a little shocked to find that Draco knew the elf's name, he kicked himself for thinking that Draco was completely heartless to others below himself, of course he wasn't a horrible person and Harry should've known otherwise.

"Merlin where should we go to eat, we've already wagged* half of third period might as well wag the rest." Harry said dragging the picnic basket along.

"Just use a levitating charm." Draco said and with zero effort casted Wingardium Leviosa. Harry watched with his mouth wide open.

"How can you do that? We haven't learnt how to do the practical yet in Charms!" Harry said amazed.

"Harry do you really think my father would let me attend school without having a proper understanding of the most basic of charms?" Draco said looking at him with a are you stupid expression on his face.

"Well I guess not, but I thought we weren't allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts." Harry said feeling a bit stupid.

"Well yes, but we're the Malfoys, we don't have to follow all the rules." Draco shrugged, keeping his concentration on the floating basket. There was a moment of silence as Harry thought.

"You know when I was little, some kids used to say to me how I could just get away with everything because I was Harry Potter, and I really hated that. I wanted to be like everyone else so badly, I started to really hate my name for a little while. But then my uncles told me its okay to be different as long as you remain as the person you want to be the most then that's okay." Harry smiled back at the memories of the constant reassurance that his uncles would give him when he was having a bad day, it suddenly made him miss his uncles all the more.

"That's…that's really nice." Draco said, keeping his eyes on the basket.

"I miss them." Harry sighed.

Draco nodded but didn't say anything about missing his parents.

Harrys decided to test the boundaries slightly.

"Do you miss your parents Draco?" Harry asked, keeping the tone light.

"Of course, I do!" Draco defended, but when he looked to Harry and saw that he meant no harm, he relaxed a little. "Well of course I do… its just home is sometimes very suffocating, trying to be who my parents want me to be and here at Hogwarts I don't have to try so hard, so it's nice."

"I don't really understand so I'm not going to say I understand you, but I'm here and I'll always listen and try to understand." Harry said giving Draco a tentative smile.

Draco smiled back with his eyes soft, "thank you."

They both continued to walk in amicable silence, not really any aim to their walking, just walking. When unfortunately, the loud sound of footsteps made them suddenly remember the sort of situation they were in.

"Oh shit." Draco mumbled, Harry wanted to laugh at his use of swearing, but he was too nervous to even make a sound.

"Quick this way!" Draco took Harrys elbow and pulled him into a classroom that was thankfully unlocked, Draco not looking where he was aiming his wand accidentally shoved the basket into Harrys face trying to get into the door. They had no time to close the door so they both stood behind it, Harrys back against Dracos chest, both holding their breathes and hoping that whoever was walking by wouldn't investigate the room.

The person did pause and stepped slightly into the room, they seemed satisfied as they looked around so they closed the door and walked away. Both Draco and Harry released their breathe, their hearts were bounding so much that Harry was sure that Draco could hear his. Harry stepped away and giggled quietly, the adrenalin still rushing through his veins, Draco too started giggling and soon the pair were in fits of laughter that they had to try and keep quiet and every time they looked at each other or snorted or made a weird noise they were set off again. Eventually Harrys cheeks and stomach ached too badly that he had to force himself to calm down before he pulled a muscle. He took his glasses off and wiped away the tears that had formed, Draco too was wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

"That was good." Harry sighed, plopping down at a table.

"I haven't laughed like that in ages." Draco said, still smiling.

"Me either." Harry agreed.

They both started to tuck into the picnic basket, they were too hungry to continue talking so they just continued to eat with laughter echoing in their minds and cheeks aching.

AN* lowkey wanna keep this here as its what we Australian use for 'skipping class' adds a little touch of me in it I guess, btw I used this totally unironically I've only just realised whilst editing XD