The next day, Harry was back in school. Luckily, because of his reputation as the scary 'Boy-who-died,' he didn't receive nearly as many sympathetic looks as his brother did, and for that, he was definitely glad. He did however, have to bear through the looks of pity Zach and Justin gaze him.

As he walked into the charms classroom they shared with the Slytherins, Harry braced himself to have to pretend to be all torn up over his father's death in front of his friends. However, the moment he sat down next to them, he was in for a surprise.

"Hey Harry," Millicent said casually, "You really spent a whole week celebrating the death of that git you call a father?"

"Yeah," added Draco, a bitter grin on his face, "I know how much you must've hated him, and all that, but a whole week? Really?"

What? Wondered Harry, he'd never mentioned his father in front of them. How did they know that he hated James? Unless...

"So you know." Stated Harry, visibly deflating.

"Yes, Harry, we knew," sighed Blaise, dropping the sarcastic act.

"For how long?"

"Well..." trailed off Draco, exchanging looks with Millicent and Blaise, "I guess we've kind of suspected all along. I didn't know for sure until I asked my father." How Draco managed to sound snobbish even then, Harry didn't know.

"How does your father know?" Harry wondered.

"A lot of people know, Harry. Including your brother."

Harry was reeling. Luka? He knew.

"We asked him ourselves," Blaise said, a slight trace of pride in his voice, "We planned on having polite conversation, but the fact that he knew about the abuse and did nothing ticked us off, and it sort of turned into a fight."

Harry blinked.

"So that's what the fight was about,"

Draco nodded. Harry put a hand to his eyes, "Wow. This is...mind blowing,"

He didn't get to hear their reaction to that, as Flitwick started class.

As he tried to make his frog tap dance down the table, he wondered if just maybe, these many secrets he kept close to his heart were in fact unnecessary. After all. They would all come out some day.

—x—xxxxx-xx-xxxxx—x—

Later, that evening, Harry had settled himself into lounge chair that was a not so morbid shade of yellow. Zach and Justin stuck to nearby chairs, and they all worked through their piles of homework together. The teachers had started increasing their workload to prepare them for the final exams coming up the next month. But when the calm buzz of noise suddenly crescendoed, Harry was forced to look up from his parchment.

"What's going on?" He asked Zach, but he needn't had. The object of attention was walking steadily towards him.

"Come on, Harry," hissed the Slytherin, his elegant shades of green and silver contrasting heavily to the dark tones of the Hufflepuff common room.

"What are you doing here, Draco?" Harry asked with wide eyes.

"I'll tell you later, let's just get out of here first," Draco's face was tinged ever so slightly with pink, and Harry was probably one of the few who could tell that he was embarrassed. He hides it well, Harry thought, impressed.

"You do know that curfew is in little less than an hour, right, mate?" Came Justin's high pitched voice.

Draco sneered, "I have a watch, thank you very much."

Harry bit his lip while trying not to laugh.

"What-I-" before Justin could embarrass himself any more, Zach cut in, "Oh, no, Malfoy. We don't doubt your ability to tell the time. We just thought that maybe your old analog watch is a bit outdated and might not work right."

Oh Merlin. Was that just an veiled insult to the Malfoy's Aristocratic ways? Draco went pale, his eyes narrowed with coldness.

"Ah, well at least my watch will be carry on through thick and thin. Unlike your new 'hi-tech' battery operated digital ones that eventually fizz out."

Yep. Now Draco's insulting the Smith's Meritocracy views.

But Zach wasn't daunted, "I suppose so, yes. The newer ones 'fizz out' but they can be fixed. They can always be fixed. Can't say the same about yours. Broken once, and that's it."

"But-"

"What's going on in here?" The Huffelpuff prefect interrupted, staring down at the first years menacingly.

"Oh, nothing much. Just a heated argument over whether digital or analog clocks are better. What do you think, Sir?" Justin asked, innocently. Harry was surprised by his cunning. He hadn't expected it from Justin.

But as sly as Justin's comment was, the prefect didn't fall for it. "You are much too young get involved in this," he said, successfully evading the question with a tight lipped smile.

"What about you, Harry?" Zach asked, with raised eyebrows. Harry met his gaze head on.

"I find a certain beauty in those gothically steampunk analog clocks, don't you?" He said, voicing his alliance though he knew he would regret it later.

There were gasps hear from those whom were listening to the conversation, and understood the meaning behind the metaphors. Even Zach looked shaken. He clearly expected him to side with the meritocrats. Justin was louder about his outrage.

"What? You can't possibly mean-" Luckily, Zach interrupted him again, "I, Zacharias Damien Smith challenge you Draco Lucien Malfoy to a modified duel-"

"I'm his second." Stated Justin. Ignoring Justin, Zach continued

"-the modification will be that, it ends at injury only, not death. That is when the second takes over. Do you accept?"

"I accept." Draco seemed to glow. Harry knew how Draco had always dreamed of having a duel. That was what pushed Harry to say,

"And I'll be his second."

Draco gave him a thankful nod, while Justin seemed betrayed.

"You may state the time," Zach said, breaking the tension.

"Midnight." Said Draco. And Zach

Harry rolled his eyes, "So melodramatic!"

"Now that we've got that taken care of, can we go now!" Draco said impatiently.

"Okay, Okay, I'm coming,"

They left the common room, grinning at each other. As they passed the door, Harry was struck with a question, "How did you get inside in the first place, Draco? I never told you the password,"

Draco put his hands in his pockets in a typically unmalfoyish way, "I have my ways," he said, mysteriously. Then he looked at said old fashioned watch, and cursed.

"We're going to be late." He said, walking faster. Harry tried to catch up.

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know. Snape told me to go fetch you and come to him in less than 30 minutes-"

"-that was not what I said, Draco, you fool!" A silky voice said from behind.

They spun around to come face to face with their favorite potions Professor.

"That's not what you said sir?" Draco frowned.

"I said to stay there for at least 30 minutes!"

"But why sir?" I said, voicing the question the both of us were wondering.

"Why! Because there's a death eater recruitment going on in the Slytherin Common room, and I didn't want you to be there. But you two idiots went around voicing your political views and one of the death eaters had happened to overhear. Now they want to recruit you,"

"Wait-you're a death eater," Harry glanced at draco who was obviously not surprised. He knew.

"Yes, and by the end of the day you will be too,"

"We can't. We're eleven for Merlin's sake!"Harry said, indignantly. Whether what happened in his dream was true or not, he could tell that both versions of death eaters were not people he wanted to become.

"Well maybe you should have thought about that before you went around being so loud. Damn It Potter, this is why we told you to keep your head down!"

Then what Harry figured was the door to Slytherin Common room swung open, and a masked, hooded woman appeared. Snape transformed from the panicked teacher to emotionless death eater in less than a second.

"Lestrange," he greeted.

"Send them in, Severus," her airy voice said, "We'll be starting shortly."

Harry and Draco had no choice, but to step into their doom. Or did they?

A/N: Sorry to end this on a cliff hanger, but I have more action planned the next chapter, and wanted to give you time to wrap this around your heads. Read and review please.