Warnings: contain character death and slash in later chapters. Will not be OotP and/or HBP combatable.

Disclaimer: I own none of Potterverse. It's all owned by the wonderful Ms. J. K. Rowling

Feedback would be much appreciated as I'm a relatively new writer.

Chapter 6. All Hallow's Eve

The confusion of the first few days over, time flew by as the first years familiarized themselves to the school. The excitement of new classes changed to grumbles of homework. Intriguing spells changed into long lectures on spell theory and spell history. In a word an adventure changed into plain old school.

Severus thrived in this environment of hard work and intellectual challenges. If for some reason homework was too much, he could always go play chess, exploding snap or other games with Harry. It was heaven for him.

Harry had collected an impressive amount of friends in the few months they'd been at the Hogwarts. To him there seemed to be no house borders, if he liked you, you were his friend for life or till you insulted Severus. Severus was grateful for this loyalty. He'd never expected it, but was grateful for it everyday. Harry it seemed didn't know a limit to his friendship.

Sirius was also one of Harrys many friends, so was Remus, Peter and to a lesser effect James. James had apologized to Sirius and the Slytherins on his outburst and been forgiven. He was still wary of the Slytherins, but in the company of Sirius managed to keep his prejudice to himself. Severus instead never really forgave James for those words and their effect on Harry.

Antonio was perhaps the only Slytherin who remained friendly with Severus and Harry. The other first year Slytherins were still too wary of the older Slytherins to openly consort with the Gryffindor lovers, as they were spitefully called by some.

A third year called Lucius Malfoy was especially vicious. An old line pureblood, he and his cohorts proudly displayed their hate for the mudbloods. Never in front of Professor Slughorn, as the man hated prejudice, but as twisted slights and vicious words in the common room. The Headboy, Moody punished them severely when he caught some of the words used, but even he couldn't be everywhere at once.

Winter was approaching with a startling speed, as the school started to prepare for All Hallow's Eve, a traditional feast planned by the school community. Severus and Harry were both looking forward to it.

All Hallow's Eve was said to be the day when the veil between the two worlds was at its thinnest. The world of the living and the world of the dead. Magic was especially potent at that time. Many great spells and wards were weaved on All Hallow's Eve. Some even speculated that Hogwarts great wards were weaved on that day.

The morning of All Hallow's Eve, at least started unusually enough. Severus, Harry and their sometime companion Antonio arrived at breakfast early that morning to a strange sight, there was a dragon in the courtyard. Harry snagged Severus' hand and dragged him to look from the side window. The teachers and Hagrid, the groundskeeper were trying to prevent the dragon from entering the school.

"Hey, isn't that the same dragon we saw from the train?" Harry whispered astonished to Severus.

It indeed seemed to be the same dragon. A bit healthier looking than before, but the same none the less.

The dragon swung his head towards Harry as if it had heard the whisper. Its eyes seemed familiar for some reason to Severus. The color, he realized, it was the same color of brilliant green as Harrys. No wonder it seemed familiar!

The dragon's attention seemed to be fixed on Harry for some reason and Severus was beginning to become distressed. What did it want with his friend? Harry had also caught on to the dragon's interest and was slowly inching his way toward the doorway. Severus snagged Harry by the arm and hissed furious:

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I thought that I could help, it seems to be interested in me, so why not help?" Harry grinned unashamed, a bit rumbled by Severus' tight grip on his arm, but fine none the less.

"No! You're not going out there! What if it's just hungry and you caught the interest of its sweet tooth?" Severus snarled incensed.

"Why, Severus is that your way of saying I'm sweet?" Harry giggled.

"Be serious! You could be killed!"

Harry went quiet and really looked at Severus: "You're frightened? For me, I mean?"

It was clear that Harry hadn't realized that Severus could just be concerned for him. He was touched clearly by Severus' concern, but it was just as clear that he was determined to help.

"I won't do anything dangerous, I'll just see if I can help." Harry said quietly.

Severus looked, really looked at Harry and seemed to calm down.

"Just be careful, you don't know how dangerous a dragon can be." Having said that Severus let go of Harrys hand and stepped back. There was nothing he could do; he'd just have to pray that Harry's idiot luck would hold out once again. Severus had already noticed that Harry it seemed could get into the most dangerous situations and survive just on pure luck, three herbology accidents, five potions accidents and an unsolved mystery of a disappearing lion had clearly demonstrated that effect in no uncertain terms.

Harry opened the door and stuck his head out. None of the teachers noticed anything until the dragon just stopped in its tracks and sat down. Harry watched the dragon uncertainly and then straightened his shoulders and just – stepped outside.

The dragon sat there quietly not doing anything else. Just staring at Harry. By now the teachers had noticed that something was going on. They quickly glanced to see what had caught the dragon's interest. Professor McGonagall's eyes widened in dismay. She had noticed the same effect as Severus for Harry and his trouble finding tendencies. It was clear that she wanted to curse but couldn't get the breath to try.

Harry walked slowly toward the quiet dragon.

"Hi! What are you doing here?"

Severus closed his eyes in dismay, only Harry. Only Harry would just walk up to a dragon, greet one and expect an answer.

"Shshuii…shshshhhhsiiihsh" hissed the dragon.

"You're looking for me?" asked Harry curiously, tilting his head like a confused puppy.

Harry it seemed found nothing odd about understanding the dragon and the astonished looks he was getting from everyone else.

"Why'd you want to find me? I'm just Harry. You can find lots of Harrys in Scotland." Harry earnestly inquired.

"Shhhhhshuiiii – shushushshhhhsh. Sveshshshhshuuu." The Dragon hissed in mild distress.

"Oh… OH!" Harry it seemed had finally caught on to what the dragon was trying to convey.

He turned to Professor McGonagall and said:"He's supposed to guard me for some task, that's really important and when I'm older make me a fennsey or something like that. I didn't really understand that word."

By that time all the professors eyes were wide open and staring at Harry in disbelief.

"A FENNSEY!" screamed Professor McGonagall. "There hasn't been a fennsey for close to three hundred years and never a dragon fennsey." She was feeling a bit faint by now and just wanted to sit down. She'd just known that Harry Finnegan would be trouble, she'd just known. All those little accidents in class, a lion for Merlin's sake. The boy would be the death of her, thank Merlin he wasn't a Gryffindor. At least in Slytherin he'd learn some caution.

Harry it seemed was an accident waiting to happen, thought Severus in amusement. This could be fun, if he'd survive that is.

TBC…

AN: Updated at last. Schools pretty hectic, so the plan is that I'll try to update weekly and with longer chapters like this week. If you'd prefer shorter and more frequent updates, let me know, I'll try that instead. Thanks to all the reviewers, love you to pieces. Haven't really answered anyone, but the goal is to answer back on my lj. Not yet, but maybe by the next update.