DISCLAIMER: THE BOOK BELONGS TO J. I HAVE ONLY BORROWED BOTH CHARACTERS AND PLOTLINE.

Norbert is actually a girl!(Thanks for noticing RogueNya) Crap! I've just happily changed the dragon's sex But, it's too late for me to make the change no. In my head he is already male, forgive me :)

CHAPTER 46

It had been several weeks since they had been at the Academy and everything had felt so different from Hogwarts. Here they were amongst students who were much older, bigger and experienced than they were. Nobody had paid any attention to them except for a few curious glances thrown their way initially, otherwise they had been completely ignored.

Here there were no houses, no divisions; just informal terms that the students themselves had come up with;

Harry and Draco were 'Newbies,' the youngest and most inexperienced.

Those ranked above them were called 'Stand-In's', the pawns in battle.

Above them were the 'Fore-Runners' who held more significant positions and finally the 'Warriors' or 'Prodigies' who ruled the school. They were the gifted wizards, the ones that ultimately won the battle.

Since the students were so few in number the teachers were able to take classes for three to four students only at a time, able to provide individual attention to each of them. Harry and Draco were trained separately from the others as they had so much to learn starting from scratch in subjects like Arithmancy and Runes. Here none of the teachers were kind and expected immediate results from them. It was like being taught by a bunch of Snape's, each one more punishing than the other.

The only relieving part was when classes for the day were over and they finally could fall on their beds completely exhausted. Luckily for them, they had been given a room to share and though in the beginning it had been awkward, as they were so used to the ways of Hogwarts, they quickly came to appreciate each other's presence so that they could crib and bemoan over their unforgiving fates freely to one another.

Unfortunately for Draco on the first day, after they had eaten breakfast in the mess, a house-elf had dragged him off to meet with the Headmaster, later on he had come back to Harry looking pale and a bit shocked "I've just been told that I'm a seer" he said.

"And…?" Harry prompted not at all surprised,

"Lady Cassandra, the Academy's own seer has taken me on as a pupil, so now apart from all the regular classes, whenever she feels is the right time, I have to go and train with her" he sighed .

Harry nodded sympathetically; he had just gone over their stuffed schedule and was flabbergasted at the lack of breathing space between classes. The headmaster had not been kidding when he'd said that they'd have to work harder than the rest, their classes carried on till late in the evening each day with the only break being on weekends.

Their Shields and Wards class was being taught by a rather mean and grumpy goblin, a Mr Odin, who took great pleasure in sneering at them every time they messed up. His favorite line was "What imbeciles are being produced in Hogwarts these days?" It had almost become his chant every time he so much as lay eyes on them.

They studied relentlessly, but there was always something to fault, "Really" Draco said "There is no pleasing the goblin" he moaned into his book at two in the morning.

Only that morning he had been practicing shields, when Mr Odin had snuck up on him and had thrown a stinging hex his way without any warning. The hex had passed through the barrier like it was made of water and stung Draco making him feel angry and irritated, especially after the goblin had started to cackle madly as he vigorously rubbed his stinging arm

War strategies and planning was being taught by Alexander Ranklin, an old, rather kind looking man who threw scenario after scenario at them making them come up with many plans to thwart the enemy. This had been going on peacefully until Harry had very politely tried to disagree with the professor about his strategy when the man had instantaneously turned an ugly shade of red and snatched Harry's parchment and marked every single mistake in bright red.

There were exactly twenty eight ways that his plans could go seriously wrong! And then the vengeful turncoat neatly tacked up the offending piece of parchment on the wall adding a few fairy lights to it making it very prominent, letting it remain for a week so that everyone else passing by could snigger and point at it making Harry feel decidedly embarrassed.

The only subject that either of them were getting any better at was Basic Healing. That was probably because the Healer, Audrey Daniels reminded them of Professor McGonagall. She was fair and strict but was more open to questions and ready to repeat her-self, so by now they could prepare all the basic potions and perform most of the basic charms that they would require during a battle.

Used to studying together, they spent most of their evenings holed up in their room throwing questions at each other or laughing hysterically when Draco had accidently produced a rebound shield causing a Jelly Jinx hex to rebound and singe the top of Mr Odin's hair leaving him frantically rubbing the clean bald patch it had left behind!

Sometimes they simply played with gob stones, viciously flicking at the stones to vent their frustration out, or Draco listened to Harry belt out songs about shoving Ranklin's head into Norbert's mouth causing the next door neighbors' to knock on their door asking them to shut up or else...

Draco was called at odd times to Lady Cassandra's room where he was being taught things like interpretation of visions and controlling his ability to walk away from them when it became too much. On those days Harry would sneak into the dragon hold and surround himself with the dragons, talking with them, seeing images of stories about their race and discussing the bond that he shared with them.

It was on one such evening that Harry's routine existence was shattered.

He had been coming back from visiting Norbert in the evening when he heard a small noise ahead of him of leaves being stepped on. Looking around suspiciously he suddenly found himself being surrounded by four large boys who were leering menacingly at him, cutting off his way back into the safe confines of the school building.

It was Toby Baddock with his gang, a tall, rather ugly boy with yellowing teeth and a knife scar on the side of his face. He slowly approached Harry with a lit cigarette in his hand and in a threatening drawl asked "You are Darren Potter's brother are you not?"

Harry took an involuntary step back and nodded.

"Darren effing Potter, savior of Wizarding the world" he mocked and blew out cigarette smoke straight into Harry's face.

Harry swallowed and kept quiet, he knew these boys were looking for a fight and for the first time in his life he felt a sickening fear come over him. He had never felt such single minded hatred in his life, a wave of rage was rolling off the boy in front of him, paralyzing him.

He looked around desperately assessing the thugs in front of him and felt helpless. He had been completely outnumbered, they were huge, vicious and looked mercilessly at him with cold eyes.

"The Dark Lord was a gift to our kind. A man who truly understood power and that Muggles needed to be brought to their knees, begging for forgiveness" he said, his eyes gleaming wildly in the smoke that arose from the cigarette. "They persecuted our kind for centuries and needed to be taught a lesson. But then, before their time came, Saint Potter, a mere baby went and killed our one true avenger."

Advancing towards the smaller boy, trapping him against the wall behind him, he said, bringing his mouth close to Harry's ear in a harsh whisper "And now, you will have to pay for his crime."

Harry clenched his trembling hands and thought to himself 'these men were brutal and on top of that Toby was a 'Warrior,' his power was almost palpable, fueled by his hate. There was no escape for him.'

'Gurth' Toby's voice suddenly rang out and a deadly sword with jagged edges appeared in his free hand. He held it lightly and masterfully, pushing Harry further against the wall until he was standing on his toes with his face turned away in a poor attempt to avoid the blade that was being held against his throat.

"You will do everything we ask you to do and not breathe a word about this to anyone or…" as if savoring his next words he said "Malfoy your friend, gets it." He laughed in a low threatening manner, pressing the sword further into his prey's skin.

Gasping, a single bead of sweat rolled down Harry's face and he asked in a trembling voice "What do you want me to do?"

"Well for starters" Toby said and snapped his fingers, a pile of parchments appearing in his hands "You can do every single one of our assignments and it has to be thorough, without any mistakes or you'll pay."

One of the boys standing in the group snorted and uttered a foul word and said depreciatingly "Thirteen year olds in our school!" he spat "The arrogance!"

Toby turned around and said, his back facing Harry, "You want to fight?"

"I'll teach you what war is. I'll teach you the anguish it feels to be on the losing side" abruptly he made his sword vanish into thin air and sauntered off dropping the parchments on the floor carelessly behind him.

Harry was still standing against the wall, his legs trembling, threatening to give way "I've faced Voldemort himself" he thought "and won" so why did he feel so helpless and pathetic with this onslaught? Was it the surprise or the overwhelming hate and threat it had carried?

Covering his face, he sank to the floor and shivered "I'm such a coward" he thought "I should have fought back whatever the consequences" knowing now that his chance had slipped by.

Shamefully he began picking up the scattered papers one by one off the ground sighing about his sad predicament.

Today he understood about hate and the strength of its attack, he also understood implicitly that he was not as strong as thought he was and that he had enemies in places he had not known about.