Draco looked up at Harry as he came in, his face splitting into a huge grin. "You got made Seeker, Harry?"

Harry's grin became wider. "Better than that. I was complaining that Flint was a terrible captain and that I don't want to be harassed by him, so Snape (he was kinda desperate to have me as a Seeker) promoted me to a Captain status instead. Dumbledore approved, bending the rules a bit of course. I'm getting my broom next week."

Hermione looked up from a book. "Harry, that was really reckless of you. You could've been expelled!" Her voice showed genuine concern; she wasn't using her 'lecturing' voice like usual.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Granger, he won't get expelled. He saved a student's life! Plus the teachers wouldn't expel their star student." He leaned back against the steps of the staircase and stared up at Harry. "You always were a natural flyer. You could probably play for a Quidditch team right now."

"Nah, I want to be an Auror." Harry grinned when Draco gave him a shocked look. "What? It's fun to be part of the Auror office. A lot of adventure."

Hermione nodded. "True. Especially now when they need help rounding up the leftover Death Eaters. The Wizarding World is still trying to recuperate." Harry's expression darkened and she knew she said something wrong. "Harry? Did I say something wrong?"

Harry sighed. He was extremely close to the witch, and he didn't want to tell her about his past in case she turn her back to him. "It's nothing, 'mione."

"No, really. Tell me. I don't want to accidentally hurt your feelings just because I don't know anything about you."

Draco looked from one person to another, not knowing which side to take. Sure he would've preferred to side with Harry but Granger was right. She had no idea how bad Harry feels about her comment. Carefully, he said to Harry, "Harry, Hermione's right. She doesn't know how you feel about the subject. Besides, she is a...friend." Hermione looked at him in surprise, and Draco glared. She better not be thinking that he's starting to warm up to her.

Harry closed his eyes. "Hermione, you promise you won't hate me if I tell you my secret?"

"I promise."

"I'm Voldemort's adoptive son. And I'm the true Boy Who Lived. I was the first one to survive the Killing Curse. I was the one they called the Dark Lord's Right Hand. I was whom they all feared during the terror of Voldemort. No one knows my name, but they all fear me. The Death Eaters fear me more than Voldemort. Why? Because (excuse my un-humble statement here) I'm more powerful than Voldemort himself. I created spells to enhance my learning abilities, allowing me to gain and retain knowledge quicker, faster, and more efficiently. However, Voldemort was the one who raised me. How could I bite the hand that feeds me? There, Hermione, that's my largest secret. Run, now, if you want to." His voice was calm, but Hermione could see the vulnerable side of him through his eyes.

"I'm not running," she replied. Then she shivered. "But it's still kinda creepy to finally realized that I was friends with You-Know-Who's adoptive son."

Draco snorted, but his eyes shone...as if he finally saw Hermione in a new light. "He's too nice for his son though. He couldn't, or more likely wouldn't, hurt anything. Except the one time when he got really mad at me. Erm, let's just say the curse wasn't what you call painless."

Harry's eyes darkened again. "I'll never forgive myself for that. He had only been trying to help, and I cursed him. I could still hear his screams even 'til now."

Draco laid his arm around him. "I forgave you though."

"So? It still doesn't make it right."

Hermione smiled. "You two seem really close."

Draco nodded. "We are. He was my first true friend, and I'm his. It happened when he spared me from a fifteen-minute Cruciatus Curse. After we became friends, he started protecting me from the other Death Eaters and even tried persuading You-know-who to grant me pardons whenever I accidentally mess up his plans. I remembered one time when I made such a huge blunder that his whole plan would've backfired on us and got us all captured by the Aurors had Harry not apparated into the area and fixed everything. You-know-who had been so mad, he was thinking of getting me tortured, Muggle-style for days." Draco shivered. "Harry begged him to pardon me for hours. I was just standing there, hoping he could convince him to just crucio'd me for hours and then let me go."

Hermione leaned in closer. "What happened?"

Draco's eyes seemed to water and Harry patted him on the back gently. "Hermione, I don't think Draco wants to go on..."

Draco shook his head, and his voice sounded broken. "The Dark Lord told Harry that someone has to be punished for the blunder. Harry told him...that he'll take my punishment for me. You-know-who tried convincing him otherwise - that I was the one who committed the error and he was the one who fixed it, so I have to be the one punished for me to learn and he's to be rewarded; the Dark Lord had already pardoned me ten times. But Harry was firm. He was tortured and starved for four days, and later on, he could barely go up to his room even with my help. Harry wasn't allowed to heal his wounds - that way, the full impact of the punishment could be felt. The curse he cast on me was nothing compared to that." He shivered. He had always wondered what would happen had Harry just allowed him to take the punishments. Right now, Draco would probably be crippled.

Hermione widened her eyes. "Harry took your punishments for you?"

"Yeah, when my errors were too harsh to be pardoned. I kept trying to convince him to let me take some of my punishments, but he always refused."

Hermione turned to Harry. "You must really love him, don't you? To take all his tortures like that."

Harry nodded. "I do. He's my friend. Hey, you guys want to go into the Forbidden Forest tonight again? Let's finish up our Animagi training and then we'll see what to do from there."

Glad for the change of topic, they both nodded.

...............

Draco was lying against Harry's chest again, feeling safer than ever. It was his favorite place in the whole world. Sometimes he wondered if Harry had ever gotten tired of him lying against his chest like that. He remembered when, after taking his punishments for him, Harry had returned to his room and, finding Draco there, looking guilty, had wordlessly motioned for him to take his favorite spot on his chest. It had hurt Harry, but it had eased Draco's terror of Harry's potential anger at him (though it did made him felt guiltier). "Why didn't you let me take some of the punishments?"

Harry smiled and not taking his eyes off his book, he replied, "You trust me. How can I let you get hurt when you trust me to protect you from harm?"

Draco shifted uncomfortably. Now he understood why Harry was so peeved with him when he told the Hufflepuffs at the Sorting that he'd rather be smart and clever than loyal. Harry had been loyal to him, and Draco had basically said that he would abandon Harry to save his own skin when Harry had been doing the exact opposite. If Harry had been smarter than loyal, Draco would probably be maimed for life. If Harry had been smarter rather than loyal, he wouldn't've taken Draco's punishments onto his own person.

"Something wrong, Dray?" Harry whispered concernedly.

And even 'til now, Harry still cared for him. After all Draco said and done, Harry still cared for him. It made him want to cry. No one had ever cared so much about him before – not even his own parents. His father was always so emotionless, and his mother rarely has time for him. Harry cared more for him than anyone else in the world and shows it; he was sensitive to Draco's feelings and knows how vulnerable he is but never takes advantage of it; he was patient with him, sometimes even allowing him to let out his frustrations on him even though he had nothing to do with Draco's frustrations; and, most importantly, Harry was a very trustworthy person. Though he won't tell others his secrets, they could tell him. He would know exactly how to fix it or how to react. Draco could tell him anything and not be afraid of his innermost secrets running loose all over Hogwarts or being ridiculed.

And how did he repay the boy who changed his life? He gets in the way, messes up, and gets in trouble, the latter paying for his mistakes. Draco sighed. He wished he could find a way to repay Harry for all he's done for him. "It's nothing, Harry," he muttered. He didn't want Harry to worry about him.

"Right. Sure it's nothing." Harry's voice was filled with gentle sarcasm as he put his book down. Then, just suddenly, he realized how small the blond is compared to him. Harry's greatest fear could possibly be summed up in Draco (or Hermione) getting seriously hurt, and (second greatest fear) Voldemort dying. As he believed Voldemort had already died, this leaves his greatest fear. Hermione and Draco were the people closest to his heart, and it gladdened him today when the two have become closer to one another.

Draco suddenly jumped out of bed although he wanted nothing more than to stay in Harry's warm arms. The Slytherin House had the notion that the two were 'together' although they were no more than really close friends. "C'mon, Harry, we promised to meet Hermione in the Forbidden Forest, remember?"

"Yeah." Harry got up and changed as well and they both walked over to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Hermione was there, clad in her thick cloak. "'Kay. Let's go." As they walked through the forest, he asked them casually, "You guys know what animal you're going to be?"

Draco sighed. He liked the idea of becoming an animagus, only he hated his animal. "A ferret."

Hermione giggled. "Interesting. I'm an otter. What are you, Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "A dragon. I thought I would be a stag like my late father, but…"

Hermione blinked. "You-know-who was a stag?"

Harry chuckled, "For the magic of Merlin, no! My biological father – James Potter!"

"Oh. And I suppose you-know-who is a…?"

"…serpent. Yes. At least his patronus. He's not an animagi. He could produce a patronus, but he doesn't need to. Dementors don't affect him the way they affect normal people." Harry stopped at the clearing. "Alright then, after all the practice we had, I think we're ready to begin our transformation. Ready? One, two, three, go!" Harry felt something protruding from his shoulders and gasped as blue bat wings spread out wide. His limbs turned scaly and his fingernails and toenails sharpened and elongated into cruel hooks. The bones on his spines multiplied until his body was sleek, his neck long, and a tail was whipping the trees down. His sight became clear and he could see Draco as a ferret and Hermione as an otter even as small as they are. "I feel really tall."

Draco grumbled and muttered, "What use is a ferret? I go around, hunting rodents! What's the use?"

Hermione giggled and walked up daintily to the foot of the Giant Squid's pond. She gracefully leaped in and swam around the edge. "This is fun!"

Harry wondered if dragons could swim and decided to find out. He carefully stepped into the water, and miraculously, webs appeared between his claws. And he could feel gills taking the place of his lungs. Of course, there are water dragons… "Draco, join us!" He called back to Draco, who was looking miserably at his reflection in the water.

"No, the giant squid's going to eat me!" he squeaked back.

"Oh, puh-lease," Harry rumbled.

Hermione's laugh rang out as she came up to Draco and wrapped her strong otter arms around him and dropped him into the shallow end of the pond where he spluttered and squeaked indignantly, "I'll kill you for that, Granger!"

Harry narrowed his eyes as in the distance, he saw something silver-ish galloping off at a distance. A black mass was chasing after it and was gaining fast. Spreading his wings, Harry took flight, speeding up at the black figure and roaring. The unicorn was stumbling and finally fell, panting against a tree, watching the scene hazily. Harry slashed at the figure and its robes tore. In the moment, Harry transformed back, his wand up and ready. "Who are you, stranger?! Killing a unicorn to drink its blood are you? Show yourself!"

Then, to Harry's shock, a familiar hissing voice whispered back at him, "My son…Harry…don't you remember me?"

Harry gaped. "F-Father? I thought you were dead…" He lowered his wand and tucked it away. Then he came over to Voldemort and bowed his head in respect.

Voldemort gave a dry hiss of a chuckle before whispering with effort, "My son…the Sorcerer's Stone is at Hogwarts…third floor corridor…get it for me, so that I may return to power…I trust you…" With that the figure flew away.

Harry stared. The Sorcerer's Stone? At Hogwarts? He must get it. If not for himself, then at least for his fatherly figure. Voldemort was alive; that was all he needed. Third floor corridor. That will be easy. He turned around to see Hermione and Draco running towards him.

"Harry! Why'd you run off like that?" Hermione panted.

Harry paled, remembering how much Voldemort hated muggleborns. Should he retrieve the stone for him? A headache was coming to him. His parent or his friends?

Draco peered at him worriedly. "C'mon, Harry. You've got a game tomorrow. You look as pale as a ghost!"

Harry nodded. He turned to Hermione warily. "I'll explain everything tomorrow, 'kay?"

……

Draco snuggled into Harry's chest. "What did you see, Harry?" he whispered.

Harry closed his eyes. Draco would be terrified at Voldemort returning to life. It was probably better to lie to him…Harry winced at a sharp pang of his conscience. Lying to Draco hurt; Draco trusted him so much. But still, Harry couldn't bear to scare him. Keeping a cool face, he whispered, "It's nothing, Draco. I just saw a unicorn injured. It was nothing."

Draco could tell that there was more but decided not to push the topic further. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep. He couldn't help but feel that Harry was troubled. He was so used to Harry being the strong one in any situation that he had forgotten that his friend was only a human, just like himself. Finally he fell into a deep sleep, dreaming that Harry left him though he tried desperately to stop him.

Harry sighed. So many times, the lives of hundreds or even thousands were put into his hands. He was scared to make his own choices sometimes, knowing full well that one mistake could cost lives. Everyone expects him to be perfect, but don't they realize that he was only human? But whenever he looked at Draco and his trusting eyes, he felt the weight of the whole world but also felt the strength to follow through. Everything he had done, he had done it for Draco. He sacrificed his body to protect him physically, and he hid himself in order to protect Draco.

Harry looked down at Draco's face and smiled. Draco's face was angelic, pure, and looks so trusting. Suddenly, Harry knew that he could pull himself through this situation. He turned to Erykah, his snake, and ordered it, "Go down to the third floor and explore it for me, will you? Take Hedwig with you."

The two animals nodded in understanding and went out the door. Harry hugged Draco close to him. He needed all the strength he can muster.