That night, almost as soon as he had found out one of his friends was a parselmouth, Draco had written a letter to his uncle asking for advice.

Dear Uncle N,

Hope you are well and that your cold is clearing up. Since I last wrote there has been another attack – a first year Gryffindor. He was petrified. Harry, who was in the hospital wing when he was brought in said it was because he was looking through his camera. We also went to a duelling club earlier today where Harry and I demonstrated in front of basically the whole school. I summoned a snake and Harry spoke parseltongue to it- any ideas?

Not to get sidetracked, Gryffindor won the quidditch match against Slytherin- Harry made a brilliant catch of the snitch, but a bludger had already broken his arm-hence he was in the hospital wing at the time of the attack. Nothing else much is happening here, but I'd like to thank you for the box of sweets you sent-I shared them out at the celebration party after the match. Managed to keep the truffles between me and my dorm-mates though!

See you!

Draco.

P.S. I was thinking of staying at the castle over Christmas – My mate Harry's not got any family to go to, so it might be nice to keep him company and do some "work".

The reply came back quickly, though not without the customary large box of sweets.

Dear Draco,

All is fine here- my cold has nearly gone, into that annoying sniffles bit at the end now. Good news about Gryffindor winning the match. Hope you enjoyed the duelling, the little I've done has been, if a bit dangerous, rather good fun – afterwards anyway- but I must confess surprise at the news that your friend Harry is a parselmouth- thought any of them would have been sorted straight into Slytherin, wouldn't you- anyway, have headed to the upstairs library and had a bit of a nose round. Couldn't find anything so had a look in the other library. No mention of any Potters being parselmouths. An obscure reference said that He-who-must-not-be-named was one, and given Harry's history- well, who knows what happened that night.

As for Christmas, if you want to stay at the castle, no problem- I have a new project coming up for the ministry (all rather hush-hush) so I wouldn't have been about much anyway.

Have enclosed another box of sweets, which has extra truffles. Keep me informed about the attacks.

Take care.

Uncle N.

Draco read the letter and immediately burnt it- it wouldn't do to have Harry know that he was getting his uncle to snoop up on him, but he felt strangely comforted by it. No Potters had been parselmouths- Harry probably wasn't the heir of Slytherin after all. That night, only Draco and Harry slept soundly.

Throughout the rest of the school, everyone was now staying away from Harry with the exception of the Weasley twins, who seemed to find it all extremely funny.

'Way! Make Way for the heir of Slytherin!' They would call when Harry walked by them.

On one occasion they even accosted Professor Snape.

'Move, Sir! Harry's in a hurry!'

'Yeah! He's off to the chamber of secrets to have high tea with his monster!'

Although he tried to hide it, Snape gave a chuckle and promptly took ten points off of Fred and George.

Even they became a bit wary of Harry though, when he was the first person to find a petrified Nearly-headless Nick and Justin Finch-Fletchley. That had earned Harry a visit to the headmaster's study, but somehow, just somehow, Draco was sure that it wasn't Harry. Nonetheless, the rest of the school seemed rather relieved that they'd be getting away from Harry soon, as the end of term rapidly approached.

The last few lessons of the term were severely disrupted by the vast dump of snow that fell overnight. They couldn't get to Herbology and potions in the dungeons was so cold, that they huddled close to their fires to try and keep warm as they simmered their velvety, green potions.

As it turned out, all of the Weasleys and Hermione had all stayed over the Christmas holidays. Christmas morning dawned, bright and cold, with a fresh coat of crisp white snow covering the footprints of yesterday's snowball fights. Hermione burst in the boy's dorm at half seven sharp.

'Morning!'

'Hermione, you're not supposed to be in here.' Yawned Ron.

'And a Merry Christmas to you' retorted Hermione, 'I've been up for an hour adding lacewings to the potion, yours too Draco, they're ready.'

'Are you sure?' asked Harry.

'Positive.' and with that, Hedwig flew in to the room. Everyone took this as a cue to open their presents, even Hermione who had brought hers with her.

Harry had gotten Draco a large box of fudge, whereas Ron had gotten him Quidditch for squibs, a wonderfully detailed guide on tactics, strategy and trivia relating to the wizarding world's favourite sport. Hermione had gotten him a muggle chemistry book.

'So you did it then!' said Draco, beaming. Hermione and he had had a discussion about potions. Draco said that it was something muggles hadn't replicated; Hermione said it was just a different form of chemistry. She had threatened to buy him a textbook on the subject so he could find out for himself. And so she had.

The best present Draco got came from his uncle. It arrived a bit late, carried by a large owl Draco recognised at once. As soon as the bird had delivered its burden, it took off into the early morning. What it left behind was something that Draco hadn't seen before. It was wrapped up in brown paper, not that that was of any interest, but what it was, was a miniature probity probe.

Dear Draco,

Merry Christmas. Hope you are happy and well. Enjoy yourself! I have sent a miniature probity probe to you. It can detect concealments and other things which have been magically hidden. Hopefully it might be able to help keep you safe from the thing. It should fit neatly in a wand pocket, but isn't quite as powerful as the full size version.

I intend to end this missive on a happy note, but one more bit of misery first, Draco – keep your friends close. There is nothing like a friend to help keep you safe. Anyway-Happy New Year to you! I will of course be about so if you need anything, owl me.

With love

Uncle N.

xx

Draco put the probe in the wand pocket, sewn into the inside of his robes and headed down for breakfast. By lunchtime it had already come in useful, stopping Draco from being surprised by Fred's attempt to pull a prank on them all. For this Draco was grateful – he hadn't had his hair dyed bright blue like Harry, Ron and Hermione- but it did make him suspect that Fred, or maybe George, would try just that little harder next time, which was not a comforting thought.

Christmas dinner at Hogwarts was truly excellent. It started off with a starter of smoked salmon, just a couple of slices, with a bit of Melba toast and a wedge of lemon. The main course was spectacular. On every house table appeared a ten bird roast. On the outside was a large turkey, still pretty much intact and on the inside of that were the breasts of a whole host of other birds that Draco couldn't recognise by sight. There were roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, stuffing, red cabbage, roasted vegetables, parsnips, mashed swede, peas and carrots, all topped off with gravy.

Draco began to load his plate, perhaps a little greedily as Percy Weasley carved the bird. They all got generous slices of the roast. Draco thought he could taste duck in there somewhere; there was certainly goose and turkey. By the end of the main course, Draco felt like he was stuffed to the gunwales.

Then Dumbledore waved his hands, and dessert appeared. There was some chocolate thingy, rich and gooey for those who wanted it but the highlight was the Christmas pudding. It sat in the middle of the table, gently flaming and black as the ace of spades. Then, as suddenly as it had caught fire, the flames went out, cream and custard appeared on the table and Draco helped himself to a goodly wodge and smothered it in double cream so thick he had to dig it out of the jug with a spoon.

The cream began to gently thin, although melt might have been a better word to describe it, on top of the Christmas pudding and Draco began to eat. The rich effusion of flavours filled his mouth.

'Oh.' He groaned, 'That's gorgeous.' as he slowly devoured his dessert, savouring every gorgeous mouthful.

When they left the hall, Harry and Ron hid in wait for Crabbe and Goyle, in order to get their 'bit of whoever you're changing into.' while Hermione and Draco headed up to the lavatory where they had decided to brew the potion. Hermione already had her bit –some of Millicent Bullstrode's hair whereas Draco didn't need any- they didn't know any other Slytherins who were staying other than Crabbe and Goyle- obviously it was no good impersonating Nott, he'd see straight through that- so Draco wasn't going. And he couldn't go as someone else from their year, for Millicent Bullstrode to be 'returning' was improbable enough, and might well give the game away, two Slytherins returning unexpectedly was just asking for trouble.

Draco couldn't disguise a small smile when Harry, Ron and Hermione ran away to the toilets to throw up. When Ron and Harry stepped back out again, it was almost as if his childhood friends were in the room with him.

'You coming, Hermione?'

'No. I don't think I'm feeling well enough.'

Flustered by this sudden change of plan, they dithered. Draco made a snap decision.

'You guys head off, Father always talked about the Slytherin common room being down in the dungeons, behind some wretched Gargoyle. I'll stay here and look after Hermione.'

'Alright, see you!' said Harry-or was it Ron? And the two left the bathroom. As the two boys left, another person arrived. Moaning Myrtle, a ghost who haunted the lavatory where she had died, came through the door from the cubicle where Hermione was. Disturbingly, she had a smile on her face.

'Hello, Myrtle! You seem happy.' Said Draco.

'Oh yes,' Myrtle cackled, 'you should see her,' she gestured at the cubicle where Hermione was with her thumb, 'it's awful!' she glided away to the other side of the room, over to where the sinks were, giggling maliciously. This worried Draco.

'Hermione, are you all right?'

'Go away!'

'No, Hermione if something's gone wrong we ought to get help.'

Draco sat there for another hour trying to persuade Hermione to come out. She refused, saying she come out when Harry and Ron were back. Eventually they returned.

'I can't believe it! After all that and it isn't him!' Harry, it was definitely Harry this time, practically shouted.

'So I take it the polyjuice worked?' Draco inquired.

'Yeah, but unfortunately we didn't find out anything – is Hermione still in there by the way?'

'Hermione! Harry and Ron are back! Are you coming out now?'

'No!'

'Ahh' said Draco, he lowered his voice so that Hermione couldn't hear him, 'Guys, I think we have a problem. You take the shoes and stuff back to the real Crabbe and Goyle, I'll try and get Hermione to the hospital wing – I think something went wrong with the transformation. Meet you in the dorm afterwards.'

Once the other two boys had left, Draco tried to persuade Hermione to come out of the cubicle.

'Come on, Hermione it can't be that bad, whatever it is, we'll just go to Madame Pomfrey- she normally keeps pretty hush-hush about things anyway.'

'I don't want to.'

'Come on, Hermione, you can't stay in there forever you know.'

The lock slid back, Hermione had her robes up, covering her face.

'What's wrong? Still got Millicent's nose or something?'

'No. Promise not to laugh.'

'I promise.' Said Draco and Hermione lowered the robes down to show her face, which was completely covered in fur, her eyes had turned yellow, and sticking out of the top of her head were two small pointy cat's ears. Draco struggled, not entirely in vain, to stop himself from even raising a small smile, but he knew he couldn't keep it up for long, he could suppress a laugh, but he needed to smile, so he did the only thing he could. He ran over to Hermione and gave her a hug. There, with his face safely behind her back, he let his face do what it wanted to. Then he looked down.

'Hermione, don't worry about it,' he started,' it's nothing to worry about at all. What's that? You've got a tail? Come on, the sooner we get you to Pomfrey, the less chance there is that you'll be seen by anyone.'

'Thanks Draco.' said Hermione, entirely unamused.