THE FRIENDSHIP OF RIVALRY

Notes:

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Missfroogy – Both Draco and Harry obviously like each other, but it's still going to take a while for their relationship to progress to the point where they can actually confess their feelings. All your other questions will be answered in this chapter. Thank you for your review.

Disclaimer - I do not own the setting of Harry Potter or any of the characters; those are the property of J.K. Rowling. I have however added a few new names, given that this story is centered on the time after Harry and Draco have graduated. The plot is entirely mine.

This story is a male x male slash so please don't read it if you don't like to read these types of fanfics.

Key:

"Thoughts"

"Speech"

1 September

Chapter 6: The Sorting (Draco)

Draco slowly woke to the smell of breakfast and for a moment he was confused as to where he was. Then he remembered the previous night which jolted him fully awake and he looked around to find that Harry wasn't in the room.

The sound of a shower switching on hinted to him that Harry was in the bathroom and he slowly got up and made his way to his own room. He quickly showered, got dressed and brushed his teeth, and made his way to the dining table where Winky was setting up the last dishes for breakfast.

Harry stepped into the room just as he sat down and Draco could see by the expression on his face that he was on a mission.

"Morning, slept well?" Harry nodded with a faint blush and sat down. "Yes, I did thank you, although I must confess that there are still a few things that are bothering me about the plan." Draco arched an eyebrow then started placing food on his plate as he wondered why Harry was questioning his plan now of all times.

He didn't say anything until they both had food on their plates though. "What is it about the plan that is bothering you? I thought it was pretty much straightforward enough to understand." Harry swallowed a mouth full of bacon before reaching for his orange juice and looking at Draco. "I know you said that the Ministry only expects us to contact them once we catch the culprit or when we really need their help, but why would they risk us going deep undercover without expecting us to at least let them know what's going on?"

Draco gave Harry a pointed look then shook his head. "Think about it Harry, the Ministry itself doesn't know who to trust in their ranks. They would rather risk not knowing than helping a spy that could easily monitor our progress and who would then be able to stay out of our reach every time we try and catch the ones responsible. It is also for the same reason that we will not be revealing ourselves to anyone in the school. We don't know anything yet so the only thing we can do at the moment is to play our parts as two innocent first years and sneak around until we are able to find some clues. It is a good thing that we are registered as each other's guardians for the purpose of this task however since we would be able to watch each other's backs more closely."

Harry thought for a moment. "You're right, it was a brilliant idea to place our original selves under the cover of another identity and then to make these forms their offspring. No one would suspect that both forms don't exist if we write to each other as such." Draco grinned and nodded. "That is the plan."

Harry nodded and they finished eating in silence as they each thought of the task ahead. Once they were done, Winky cleaned the table and they went to their rooms to pack the last of their stuff and to make sure that they had everything they needed.

Draco placed his stuff together then went to Harry's room to see if he was finished. The now blonde brunet looked up as Draco entered his room and he was surprised to see two small metallic snakes on Harry's bed. One of the snakes was silver and the other snake was bronze.

As Harry spoke what seemed to be parseltongue, the bronze snake unfurled itself and crept up his left arm until it curled around his wrist and before freezing once more in a bracelet form. "Uhm Harry? What are those?" Harry looked up and motioned him closer until Draco sat next to him on the bed with the silver snake in between them. "Hold out your arm close to it."

Draco did as he was told and held his right arm next to the silver snake. Another command from Harry made the snake crawl up his arm and then curl around his own wrist in a bracelet identical to Harry's. "I had the bracelets made for protection. As you said, we don't know what or who were are going to face so I thought we should at least have something we can use to get out of trouble. No one will be able to remove the bracelets since they can only be removed with a command in parseltongue and they can shield against most spells and curses. They also have a portkey function, but it can only be used once since it was made to break through any ward unnoticed."

Draco had to admit, he was impressed. "Will it stay undetected when we pass the wards at Hogwarts?" Harry nodded. "I charmed them myself using that book. The bracelet will use your magic to power it once it's needed, until then it will stay dormant and appear like any other uncharmed piece of jewelry."

Draco felt himself grin. He really wanted to get his hands on that book. Who knew, it could be filled with all kinds of potions and spells that he could use, but for now, he had to focus on the mission. "Thanks. I never expected you to be into snakes." Harry smirked back at him. "There's a lot about me that you don't know Draco."

Draco wanted to ask what he meant, but he knew they would be late if they lingered any longer. It was almost 10:30 and they still had to get to the station. Luckily they were able to shrink their suitcases before they apparated to an abandoned part of the station, making sure that no one noticed that two 11-year-old boys had just apparated.

They then easily weaved their way through the crowd until they came upon the wall between platforms nine and ten. As they stepped through the wall and onto platform 9 ¾, Draco had to admit that he had missed the simplicity of being young.

After they boarded the train, they un-shrunk their suitcases and stowed them away before closing the door to their compartment and shutting the blinds. They didn't want anyone to overhear their conversations so they cast a Muffliato spell as well.

They sat in silence for a while before Draco realized that Harry was grinning happily as he settled down. "What are you thinking about Harry?" He shook his head before seeming to rethink for a second before he answered Draco's question. "This is the first time I will be able to go to Hogwarts without having people stare at me just because they saw me as The Boy Who Lived. I can't wait to see what it would be like to go to class without everybody staring and whispering about something they heard, every time I enter a room."

Draco felt himself nodding. He understood what Harry meant since he had also been the center of a lot of talk and speculation in their Hogwarts years. He hadn't really minded it much at the beginning, but it became tiring to keep up appearances when all he wanted was a real friend. 'Well not that I had much chance to think about it at that time. It would have been great if I could have included Harry in my schemes in those years instead of plotting against him the entire time though.'

Draco wanted to remind Harry that they were going to Hogwarts for a mission, but he didn't have the heart to tell Harry just yet. He looked at the other boy and found that Harry looked more excited than he had in years. 'I'll remind him later. It's going to feel strange to go to school with someone who used to be my arch-rival.' The thought made him smirk.

It would have been the biggest scandal ever if the people had seen the two of them being friendly to one another in those years. He could almost imagine the headlines. 'Boy Who Lived and suspected Death Eater, Draco Malfoy, friends?!' Everyone would have probably thought Harry was turning evil, Draco thought wryly. Shouts sounded out around them as frantic parents hurried to say one last goodbye to their children and the last of the students hurried to get on the train. A quick tempus spell revealed that it was almost time for the train to leave.

Draco didn't expect anyone else to try and enter their compartment though, since everyone thought it was cursed. Harry seemed to pick up on the lack of footsteps near their door though. "Usually the compartments are overflowing, why isn't anyone knocking on our door?"

Draco just shrugged his shoulders, but Harry's curious gaze prompted him to answer. "They all think this compartment's cursed." Interest sparked in Harry's eyes and Draco inwardly groaned before adding, "No it's not really cursed, some previous student used that as an excuse to have a compartment all to himself. He charmed the glass on the compartment door to reflect a gruesome image back to whoever looks into it and even first-years who don't know the legend are easily scared away by the other students who know about it. Most students believe that it shows you the way you are going to die and others believe that it shows you the tortured souls stuck in the compartment."

Harry seemed really confused as Draco explained things to him so Draco sighed. "Would it help if I said that it was Severus who placed the spell on the compartment?" Shocked silence followed his words and Draco smirked at the stunned expression on Harry's face.

It was nice to catch him off-guard every now and then. "I know my godfather mentioned something about you seeing some of his memories once so I believe you know why." Harry nodded silently, but he didn't give any further explanation. Draco itched to know what Harry had seen since his godfather simply refused to tell him anything about his years at Hogwarts, but the strained look on Harry's face made him realize that it was probably not the best memory to bring up at the moment.

The train whistle sounded and they felt a slight jerk as the train started moving. Goodbyes sounded up all around them as the train picked up speed and soon Draco was able to open the blinds so that they could look at the scenery as it sped by.

He looked at it for a few moments before moving to the opposite bench and sitting next to Harry. "You know we never spoke about how we are going to work together if we are placed in different houses. I'm pretty sure the relationships between the Slytherin and Gryffindor houses are still as bad as ever so it's going to be hard to work together even though we would probably be able to cover more ground that way."

Draco watched Harry and wondered why he didn't look too worried. "You know if you have some kind of trick up your sleeve, that would get us into the same house, I really want to know about it now."

Harry just shook his head then smiled mischievously. "I'll tell you after the sorting. I would tell you one thing though; we will most definitely end up in the same house."

Draco huffed. "And how do you suppose you will get into Slytherin? We both know that I am going to be sorted there again and you were sorted for Gryffindor. It's not like the hat is going to change its mind."

Harry just shook his head with a smile to indicate that he refused to let Draco in on his secret, at least for now and it infuriated Draco, but he let it go. "Fine then, you remember what name you are registered under right?"

Harry nodded then thought for a bit. "You registered me as Hadrian James so I suppose I will easily remember it. I just didn't expect you to register yourself as Draconis Malfius. Any closer to your original name and you could be sued for impersonating yourself." Draco felt a smirk cross his lips. "Yes well, it would make it a lot easier to hide in plain sight since two in our year are already named Harry and Draco."

Harry's mouth dropped open in shock. "You're kidding me right?" Draco shook his head. As much as he wanted to be fooling around right now, it wasn't a joke. "We will have to keep an eye on them just in case the culprits think that they are us."

Harry was still gaping at him. "You know Harry; our rivalry was kind of legendary at school. The boys are brother's though, so I reckon that we used to know their parents."

Harry nodded but he still looked dazed. "If you keep this up I might think you are part guppy." Harry gave him a dirty look and closed his mouth, but it was obvious that he chose to ignore Draco's words instead.

A relaxed silence filled the compartment and Draco fished out his books to see if they would be studying anything new while they were in school. He wondered if he should tell Harry that Severus still taught potions, but he decided against it. Harry might not know it yet, but Severus wasn't the same man he had been before he nearly died.

Harry had saved a lot more than just Sev's life and he will be in for a shock once he got to know the real Snape.

Draco glanced over to Harry and saw that he was also reviewing their books, and then he grimaced slightly. "We will probably have to make a few mistakes during our classes, otherwise they will easily be able to pick us out." Harry just nodded in agreement before they both resigned themselves to revision.

It was dark when the train finally rolled into Hogsmeade. Draco and Harry made their way to where the first years gathered and they were the only ones who weren't surprised to see Hagrid. They followed him to the boats and waited patiently until they could finally board last.

They were alone in the last boat and instead of looking at the castle; they were looking into the dark water below. There was a reason why only the first years got to take the boat ride over the lake and that was because they didn't know about the giant squid yet.

Draco and Harry could both see a slight luminescent glow as the squid silently slid through the water beneath them. If one didn't pay much attention, you would think that it was only the lights of the castle reflecting upon the water, but they knew better.

The other side of the lake came into view and soon they were on solid ground again. Draco and Harry took their time as the students walked up to the castle gates in single file. They were soon met by Professor Flitwick who had taken over the position of Deputy Headmaster after Dumbledore's death. Flitwick explained that their names would be called and they would be sorted into their houses by the sorting hat.

Draco felt glad to be able to walk up the stairs and through the large doors as Harry's friend and not his enemy. They came to a standstill in front of the stairs that led to where the staff sat and waited patiently for Professor Flitwick to read through the list of names.

The sorting was pretty even, as each house gained about three students before Draco heard his name. "Draconis Malfius." Draco stepped forward and sat on the chair. 'Ah Mr. Malfoy, I see you have returned to take care of a little problem for the Ministry?'

Draco nodded while hoping that the sorting hat didn't reveal his real identity. 'Don't worry, I won't tell a soul. I see you dragged Harry along as well. Yes, this year will be interesting to watch.' Draco was about to tell the hat to just get on with it, but the hat was already calling out his chosen house, "SLYTHERIN." The Slytherins clapped as he made his way to their table. He sat down and anxiously awaited Harry's turn.

Luckily for him, he didn't have to wait long before Professor Flitwick called out Harry's name. "Hadrian James." He stepped forward and sat on the chair. Draco felt his heart hammering hard in his chest. Would Harry be in Gryffindor again? He sure didn't hope so. They would have a lot of trouble communicating if he was placed in Gryffindor again and that could lead to the failure of the mission.

The seconds ticked by and Draco decided with a huff that the hat was probably delaying the answer on purpose. But he couldn't keep his eyes off the apparent conversation between Harry and the hat.

Harry's eyes met his with a wink and Draco frowned in annoyance. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the hat seemed content to scream out Harry's chosen house. "SLYTHERIN." And Draco almost felt his jaw drop to the floor as Harry bounded over to sit next to him.

Only years of training in the Malfoy household kept him from doing just that, but as Harry sat down next to him, he found that he couldn't entirely hide his shock as one question poured out after another. "How? Why? When and WHAT?!"

Harry just smirked and leaned over to whisper into Draco's ear. "The hat first considered me for Slytherin in our first year, but after your behavior and Ron's warning, I asked the hat to put me anywhere but in Slytherin. So it placed me in Gryffindor."

Draco closed his eyes for a minute to realign his thoughts. "So if I hadn't been a snobbish idiot at that time, you would have been in Slytherin and we would actually have been friends?"

Harry grinned and nodded before adding, "I wouldn't have been one of your minions though." Draco laughed lightly before answering with a quick, "You wouldn't have been." before directing his attention towards Headmistress McGonagall who was now making the usual announcements.

"The Forbidden Forest is restricted and no student may enter it no matter what year you are in. Now let us feast, tomorrow the first day of school begins."

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