Harry padded down the hall looking for familiar markers. Nothing was the same six inches off the ground. He had to crane his neck until it popped to see anything recognizable. Otherwise all he saw was the feet of some suits of armor. It all added up to the fact that he was completely lost. Well, he thought. When in doubt go down. He headed toward the nearest stair case and bounded down it, He missed the trick step by pure luck.

Harry bounded down two more stair cases until he was sure he had found the Great Hall. At least it looked like it; there were a lot of table and bench legs at any rate. He ran around the edge of the room trying to avoid the teachers or even worse first years. He remembered the time a pack of Ravenclaw first years had found a hamster. The look of terror in the creature's eyes haunted Harry to this day.

He found the door Snape used to make his escapes from dinner and pushed passed it. "Meoww," he heard from behind him. Harry turned to find Miss Norris standing behind him. He answered with a mew of his own only to get a hiss and growl in return.

Oh crap! Miss Norris was glaring at him in a very unfriendly way. The hair on her back rose as she let out another challenging hiss. Why me? Harry asked no one in particular. At this point Miss Norris had decided that she had given enough warning and pounced. She wrapped her claws around Harry's neck and bit ferociously at his ear. Harry did the only thing that would have been appropriate in such a situation and started howling. Getting bitten on the ear is a painful experience.

Harry finally snapped out of the pain and sank his claws into the back of Miss Norris' neck, and then he yanked. She shrieked, letting go of his ear. Harry then started the counter attack: jumping up and attaching all four claws to the female cat's back. Miss Norris tried to shake him off but only succeeded in hurting herself more. Harry happily started to chew on her ears. He had never been able to physically take down a bully before; Dudley had always been some eighty pounds heavier than he.

In a final desperate attempt Miss Norris rolled over. Harry hit the hard stone floor on his side knocking the breath out of him. But Miss Norris was no longer interested in protecting her territory she shot off down the hall.

Harry lifted his head to watch her go a very smug look on his face. He got back on his feet and did one of those feline stretches that started with arching the spine and moved through every muscle in the body. Never thought I would get into a cat fight. He thought opening his mouth in a wide yawn. He laughed to himself in the cat way; a couple of quick burst of air through his nose. I'm the first student to ever get back at Miss Norris for alerting Filch and getting so many students in trouble. Fred and George will be so jealous. I should write them a letter.

Harry continued on down the hall until he came to the bare stretch of wall that was the opening to the Slytherin dorms. Now all he had to do was wait for Draco to let him in later that night. He could have been bored for the six or so hours that he had to wait, but cats never waste their time being bored. So he did what all cats do when there is nothing better to do, or just whenever they feel like it. He went to sleep.

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He was woken up by a flurry of young Slytherins chattering their way up to the great hall. Harry watched the Slytherins with interest, especially the young girl dressed as a cat. He found it particularly interesting that that cat could walk on its hind legs and he could not. Harry shook his head. He had been a cat for too long he was loosing his grip on self. Still being a cat wouldn't be so bad. All he had to do was act cute and some little girl would take care of him and pet him, especially that itchy place right between his ears that would be nice. There would be no cameras or reporters or Voledmort to worry about that would be nice too.

NO! No, no, no. Must kill Voldemort. It was my fault he came back; I must take care of him. Keep it together Harry. By this time other Slytherins had started to ascend to the Great Hall. Harry supposed that he still had an hour or more to wait for those who wished to be fashionably late. He had never understood the concept himself seeing as it only annoyed those waiting for you, but self-important people seemed to like it.

Finally Draco came out of the dorm. "Potter," he whispered, "Potter." Harry considered making him wait. Years of resentment and rivalry telling him to come out of hiding only when Draco was crawling around on hands and knees looking for him. Then the rational part of his mind kicked in. Draco would never get down on his knees, and the wole plan would go up in flames.

Harry stepped out of the shadows all let out a soft mew. "There you are." Draco strode over to him, much like Snape would. Draco plucked Harry off the floor holding him under his fore legs. Harry mewed in protest. It really hurt tobe heldin such a way."Shut up." Draco huffed and stomped through the entrance to the Slytherin dorms.

The Slytherin common room had not changed much since Harry had infiltrated it in his second year. In fact it had not changed at all. There were still green couches and chairs scattered around the room. A few tables for studying and the mostly stone floor added to the chill décor. Draco lounged in one of the over stuffed chairs and waited for the late party goers to leave. The brave ones came over and asked why Draco was not dressed for the costume party. He replied in haughty tones that if they wanted to mingle with mudbloods they could, but he had standards.

Harry listened to Draco with some fascination, only now realizing how much of the blonde's life was an act; he needed a friend. An attitude adjustment using some of Filch's wilder torture ideas would be nice too, and much more plausible at this point. Maybe something with screws. I've always been the creative type. Harry thought as Draco chased a third year off with another scathing comment. The boy had only wanted to "pet the kitty."

But Draco had forgotten for the moment who he was and was scratching Harry behind the ears. Harry purred that thought over for a moment before turning his head all of a sudden and bighting Draco on the hand.

"Oww, damn cat!" Draco screamed slapping Harry on the nose. Harry's whole face went numb on contact. Everything was back to normal. "I think everyone is gone. Change back now." He smirked, "If you can."

Harry jumped off Draco's lap and padded across the room to stand in front of the fire place. Let's see, Harry Potter… He put a picture of himself firmly in his mind. Now comes the disturbing part. Unlike being transformed by another wizard, as in, poof, you're a toad. A self transformation involved a disturbing period where the wizard felt pretty much like a blob of wet putty. The magic pushing and molding you didn't help the feeling much either.

Harry stood in his true form in the Slytherin dorms. The world was much more familiar from this angle. "That wasn't so hard."

Draco on the other hand looked a little green. "Do you have any idea how disturbing that is to watch?" He had actually seen the morphing blob that had become Harry.

"Yeah, I wouldn't eat anything for a time."

"Dually noted."

Harry turned around and placed his hand on the fire place. He hissed a few words in Parseltongue, and a little compartment opened up in the back of the fire place. The fire burning merrily in the fireplace was little problem to a wizard with a good fire retardant spell. He pulled out a very old book. Pages falling out of the binding old. It was probably written on some kind of animal skin too.

Draco watched curiously. "What is that?"

"An old book on blood magic. My minor degree of premonition is telling me it will be helpful later." He held up the book. "Hopefully not too much later; this thing is about to fall apart."

"How did you know it was there?" Draco asked suspiciously.

Harry gave him a long considering look. He stared at Draco so long that the other boy actually started to fidget. Which Malfoys simply do NOT do. "If I tell you will you refrain from denying it?"

Draco frowned. "I would probably call you a liar is it was anything other than you snuck in here and stumbled upon it, because that is all I can come up with."

Harry turned back to the book. Carefully leafing through the pages. "Then you will just have to wait."

Draco clenched his fist. "And just how long do I have to wait?" He spat.

"Until about ten."

"Huh?"

Harry sighed. Draco could be so dense, and for a Slytherin that is a dangerous thing. "The younger years will be sent back to the dorms at ten."

Draco shook his head. "Wait a minute. You still plan on being here when the younger years get back from the ball? Are you suicidal?"

"Yes and No." Harry put the book down on a table and sat in the chair facing it. "I want to have a little chat with the Slytherin house."

"You're crazy. Why would you even try a stupid stunt like that?" Draco was getting angry. He felt that he was missing something, something very important, and he didn't like it.

"I am going to dissuade what's left of Slytherin from joining Voldemort." Harry leaned back in the chair and propped his feet up on the table next to the book. He gestured at a char across from him, playing the host. "Please have a seat. We have some time before the younglings get back."

Draco slowly sat down. "What do you plan to do?"

"Cajole, plead, threaten. In that order." Harry broke out into a grin at Draco's dumbfounded look.

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Draco was sitting across from Harry fighting, he thought valiantly, not to bite his nails. Not only was Potter going to get himself killed, making the deal they had obsolete; he was going to take Draco down with him. No one in Slytherin House, excepting Crabbe and Goyle, was stupid enough to believe that Draco had nothing to do with Harry getting into the dorms. Draco was going to be lynched.

He looked over at Harry. The other boy was still sitting with his legs crossed on the table, how uncouth, looking like he didn't have a care in the world. He was deep in enemy territory he should not have been so calm. Something was different about Harry. Draco just couldn't put his finger on it. Draco stared at the dark haired boy harder. Perhaps it's the air of confidence he's been exuding for the past couple of months, he thought.

Draco frowned at the book. It bothered him that Harry knew a secret about Slytherin that he didn't. One that had been right under his nose in the common room, no less. It didn't add up. As far as Draco knew not even the Dark Lord knew about that hiding place. If he had surely he would have retrieved a book on blood magic. That was yet another ting that was bothering Draco, Harry seemed to have some background with blood magic. Dumbledore's prodigy should not even know that blood magic existed let alone be leafing through a book about it at this very moment.

Draco jumped as the common room door opened and a group of students trampled in complaining loudly about being shuttled off to bed while everyone from fifth year and up got to stay at the party until midnight. The whole group, almost all of the younger years came to an abrupt halt when they noticed Draco calmly, on the outside, sitting at a table with none other than Harry Potter.

"Oi, what's he doing here?" One of the older boys at the front of the group demanded pointing an accusing finger at Harry.

"I really don't know." Draco answered dryly.

A slow smile spread across Harry's face. Draco watched as he stood and walked around the table to stand directly in front of the spokesman of the group. "Why don't we wait for the rest of you to show up then I'll explain." He said in a low reasonable voice.

The boy on the other hand was disinclined to be reasonable. "You're not supposed to be here." He yelled. "I'm going to go get Professor Snape." The boy turned and stomped toward the entrance.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Harry called in a high singsong voice. The boy answered by turning and giving him the finger. Draco raised his eyebrows. Cheeky little shit, he thought. Harry on the other hand was somewhat less amused; he flicked his wand at the retreating boy. The kid fell as ropes wound themselves tightly around his entire body. Then with a sweeping motion of the wand the boy was flung back against the back of an overstuffed couch.

Draco turned from the spectacle to see the last of the students file in. This was going to be a long night.