Never Again 5 – Pre Beta (since I don't have one)

Disclamer: Don't own. Don't have a beta(no one has volunteered). I write when the mood strikes me, which so far has turned into one chapter every six months...sorry guys. Well, really last one was the same day but that doesn't count! Lol

Anyway, please forgive my misspelling or any mistakes I make. I am still looking for a beta so if you even wanted to try being one, here is your chance!

This chapter is a bit short. Every few chapters I will have one with a letter in it so it will be shorter than the rest and it will always be posted with the chapter before that. So, hey, two chapters in one day! Enjoy!

Chapter 5: Letters from Hogwarts and Overgrown Rats

September 6th

Mother,

I am doing as well as the circumstances could provide. As you might already have heard, my cousin is proving to be a bit harder to crack, his friendship with Potter being part of it. In fact, I am pretty sure that there are some things he really doesn't care to choose between. I still hold to the thought that it was a bad idea to invite him here but that was father's decision and I will support him as far as he wishes me to.

We have a new DADA teacher by the name of Montgomery. She is a bit mysterious and her moods change as fast as a dragon's temper. Supposedly, she is from the Americas. I wonder how she got the job from that fool of a headmaster.

Professor Snape is back to teaching Potions and it seems that Potter was granted access to the class even though I am completely sure that he did not pass with the needed grades.

I am studying hard and will be starting training for Quidditch next week. This year I have been moved to a captain. The first match will be Ravenclaw vs Griffindor and we will play the Ravenclaw's after that.

I hope you are doing well.

Your son,

Draco L. Malfoy

~*~*~

Harry was having a pretty normal day. As normal as the last few had been, really. It being Saturday, he didn't really plan that many things to do today. The weather was nice and he planned on taking his broom and flying for a bit before Quidditch training officially started.

Harry slept in a bit later than usual and by the time he made it to the Great Hall, it was lunch time. It didn't really matter. He had already told Dimitree that he was going to be flying today and his two best friends weren't talking to him. Really, it was just Ron that wasn't talking to him and avoiding him. Hermione was being sneaky about talking to him, not very effectively, but she tried for Ron's sake. It was obvious they all knew she was talking to him but they all pretended for Ron, including Ron himself. Harry thought that Ron knew very well what he was doing was silly and childish but left him to it.

It wasn't that bad, really. He missed joking with Ron and having someone that he connected on a level that didn't contain any confusion but it also meant that Ron didn't notice the fact that Harry never got up when everyone else did. He was either really early up and dressed, or he was late. Ron was also not noticing things like where Harry spend his free time, or when he really went to bed. In fact, Ron ignoring him was proving partially a blessing. If he had noticed everything that was different about the way Harry behaved, he would have mentioned it to Hermione and then the questions would start. He didn't want to answer questions. Dimitree was good at sensing that. He didn't give any answers either so in a way it was fair, even if it frustrated Harry to no end. He didn't like mysteries. Mysteries were dangerous and could kill you. Dimitree was a mystery to him and Harry was ready to resolve it someday if he had to hunt down Malfoy and get information out of him to do it then so it be. Fat chance of getting anything out of Malfoy, of course, but it was a thought. At lunch, since he was mostly late for that as well, there weren't a lot of people hanging around. Most of them were lazing around their common rooms, enjoying the first weekend after the first week of classes.

On his way out of the castle's doors, Harry thought that the ones that weren't in their common rooms were most likely by the lake. There seemed to be quite a few people there, all in little groups.

It was sunny, if a bit chilly. Harry wore a long sleeve mostly because he knew that the wind would cut through him if he flew and because he had been wearing only long sleeves since he came back to Hogwarts. Long sleeves hid scars better than anything else.

Harry was half way to the pitch when he heard his name being called. Turning around, Harry was confused for a minute. There was a tall boy with long, dark brown, hair running towards him. The Slytherin tie he was wearing made Harry tense and wait for an attack. He didn't know why a Slytherin would approach him alone. They usually moved in packs. He also called him by first name and that was strange as well. It took the Griffindor a moment to figure out that it was no other than Dimitree. Harry relaxed and then burst out laughing right as Dimitree caught up with him.

"Your hair!" he was able to wheeze between his laughter.

"I know!" Snapped Dimitree. "I look like an overgrown rat!" That send Harry sprawling on the ground laughing and holding his stomach.

"Hurts!" he tried to get out while still laughing hard enough that it seemed he wasn't breathing at all.

"It's not THAT funny!" Dimitree was not only snapping at him but he looked ready to hex him.

"'tis too!" came the wheeze from the ground.

"Snape decided that wearing," and here Dimitree took on the voice of Snape "freakish hair makes my house look like a circus! I will not have clowns in Slytherin house unless it is their heads on the walls!" Through out the whole impression, he was flipping his hand back and forwards and swishing his cloak with his left hand. Harry felt like his stomach would split and he started coughing since he hadn't been able to breath for more than a several seconds.

It took Harry another 15 minutes to calm down enough to be able to listen to Dimitree's rant without laughing. The hair was a pretty normal color now and from Dimitree himself, Harry learned that it is his natural color. Apparently he had been dying it since he was 12. His father had found it amusing and let him do as he wished. It seemed it was just a way of getting attention, to Harry, and so far he had figured out that Dimitree liked to be in the spotlight. Snape had threatened with lots of detention and he had to make it look normal again. It didn't really match Dimitree. Maybe it was the fact that the whole week he had known him, the foreigner had always had that dark green hair. The brown seemed too normal for him. It was like meeting a magical creature and hanging out with them for a week and then one day they show up and they look like a human. Suddenly they become a bit more boring.

The feeling didn't last long, of course. Even when he was ready with answers for his hair, Dimitree still refused to speak about his family or give him answers about anything that wasn't happening at the moment. After half an hour Harry gave up, took up his broom from the bleachers beside him, where they had moved to talk, and after showing Dimitree where he can find a school broom, he took flight.

Dimitree seemed like a pretty decent flier. He refused, however, to race to compete in any way. He claimed to find Quidditch interesting but he even refused a makeshift game.

He likes being in the spotlight, but he doesn't like showing off, decided Harry. It was like he liked pissing people off, so far only Malfoy and Snape that he knew of, but he didn't like showing anyone up. Dimitree had a very strange sense of honor is all Harry could come up with. It didn't matter for long, of course. Harry was flying for the first time in three months and he as definitely happy. Here, in the air, nothing mattered. A few glances told him that Dimitree was flying calmly through the air but his moving lips and frown told him that he was still pissed.

"I guess Snape decided to get back at him." decided Harry and then he was back in his bliss made of air.

~*~*~

Draco was having a great day. His plot had turned out to be brilliant. Most likely his cousin didn't even suspect him. Why should he, really, it wasn't him that told him he had to dye his hair. Snape had done all the dirty work and all Draco had had to do was mention it to his head of house while he was having tea in his office and discussing extra projects he would be doing during the semester. It seemed that Snape hated the Zahariev as much as Draco did. Not that he said it, of course, but right after Draco left his office, Snape hunted down Dimitree, who happened to be in the common room and told him, in no certain terms, that he was a clown and a freak and had made him change. The best part was, Draco had been there to see it all. Including Dimitree's face. If there was one thing, that Draco knew of, that Dimitree treasured and was proud of almost as much as his family it was his hair and the strange colors he picked every year.

The first time Dimitree had shown up at their door with bright pink hair, Lucius had almost had a heart attack. He had been in a meeting with Dimitree's father and when Dimitree had not only barged in on them but had dyed his hair a color that Lucius would kill Draco before he lets him out of the house to shame their family with. He had been about to reprimand him when Dimitree's father had congratulated his son on his new color of choice and had continued his side of the meeting without another thought to his son's hair or the fact that he had barged in as if he owned the place. Lucius had been furious for days taking it out on the house elves and on Draco himself. Now, it was payback time.

"The next one will be better." murmured Draco satisfied and headed outside to enjoy his day in the sun.