Hermione was not pleased when she heard what Harry had been up to over the past few days.

"Sneaking around all night and playing with dangerous magical artefacts?" she whispered shrilly at him, so as not to be kicked out of the library. "Harry, what were you thinking? I told you to be careful!"

"I was being careful," Harry tried half heartedly. "I didn't get caught -"

"Unless you count Dumbledore," Hermione said pointedly. "Which I do."

"I'm sorry, Hermione. I've already promised not to go looking for it again, and I promised Draco I wouldn't wander around at night without him anymore, so -"

"But Harry, I thought you promised me that you wouldn't do it at all."

Harry saw that Hermione was actually upset. It made him feel rather guilty. He realized, in retrospect, that telling her what Dumbledore had said about people going mad and wasting away in front of the Mirror probably hadn't been the best idea.

"I suppose you aren't going to let me go without another promise, are you?"

She shook her head, eyes narrowed.

"I'm really sorry, Hermione," Harry said sincerely. "I promise not to sneak around at night again unless I actually have a very good reason."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "That's the best I'm going to get, isn't it?"

Harry nodded with a small, charming smile he'd seen Draco use to get his way with Pansy.

"Fine." She marched into the stacks, and gave Harry enough time to worry that perhaps she was angrier than he'd thought, before reappearing with a few books.

She plopped them down on the table in front of him, and he looked up at her in confusion.

"About magical stones, remember? I said I'd find out about them?"

"Oh, right. These are it, then?" Harry looked at the books with renewed interest, and opened one curiously.

"Yes, but look at this one first." Hermione pulled out one of the bigger books at the bottom of the pile and put it on top of his book, before flipping briefly through the pages and pointing. "There's an entire huge section on magical stones, so I thought we should start there."

Harry walked down the stairs to the dungeons slowly. He'd spent the morning working, and the afternoon with Hermione, looking up various possibilities for Dumbledore's stone. They had decided it was to do with alchemy, since Dumbledore had done quite a lot in that area, according to Hermione. She was going to go back to the book she'd found that information in and see if there were any clues.

Harry entered the common room quietly, exhausted and planning on heading straight up to his bed, but he saw Draco and Blaise sitting in their customary chairs, heads bent together, whispering seriously. He didn't think he'd seen them at all today, so he went over to say hello.

"Hullo Blaise, Draco," he said tiredly, plopping down in a chair next to them. They both looked up at him guiltily.

"Hi Harry," Blaise responded.

"Where've you been all day, Harry?" Draco asked innocently.

"I was studying with Hermione just now," Harry said with his eyes closed. "She thinks she has a pretty good idea of how to find out what the stone is."

"Really?" Blaise asked. "That's great. So you did that all day?"

"No, before that I was with -" Harry froze. Anthony had gone home for Christmas. He'd been so tired he had forgotten.

"With?" Draco prompted. Harry opened his eyes and realised that both his friends were watching him closely.

"Er…"

"Anthony's gone home for Christmas," Blaise said, echoing Harry's thoughts exactly.

"I…er…"

"We know you don't hang out with him all the time, anyway," Draco added, eyes narrow. "Where do you disappear to, Harry?"

"We're your friends," Blaise said cajolingly. "You can trust us."

Harry sighed.

"It's personal, okay?" he tried. The portrait on the wall above the fireplace muttered something that sounded like 'rubbish'. Harry tried very hard to ignore it and looked at his friends for their reaction instead.

"Do you have a Hufflepuff friend you're ashamed to admit to?" Draco asked sympathetically.

Harry was confused. "What?"

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Blaise tried.

"Er, no…"

Draco tried again. "Do you have a Gryffindor friend you're ashamed to admit to?"

"You both know all my Gryffindor friends," Harry replied, a smile tugging at his lips.

"Are you under Imperius?" Blaise suggested.

"An affair with a house elf?" Draco tried with a grin.

"A boyfriend?"

"Are you having an affair with Hermione Granger?" Draco asked, looking suddenly worried.

"Do you secretly hate us?" Blaise asked mournfully.

"What?" Harry couldn't help but laugh. "No, no to all of those!"

"Oh, good," Draco said, relieved. "I was worried I might have been right about you having an affair."

"I'm eleven!" Harry said in exasperation. "And which one did you think you were right about? The house elf or Hermione?"

"I wasn't sure which one would be worse," Draco said teasingly.

Harry glared playfully at him and said, "I'll have you know Hermione is much less annoying and much less likely to cry all over the place than the house elves, but maybe that's because she doesn't have you demanding things from her every second of the day. I'd cry all the time too."

Draco looked like he wanted very badly to stick his tongue out at Harry, but thought he was too dignified to do it. Blaise intervened.

"Honestly though, Harry. We wouldn't have minded if it was any of those things. Could what you're doing possibly be worse? Just tell us. We won't tell anyone." Draco nodded along with him.

"Fine, fine, I'll tell you," Harry gave in. "Just… promise you won't laugh?"

Draco and Blaise both promised.

"My…my uncle told me before I came here that I had to pay him back for my tuition and everything," Harry began. Draco and Blaise nodded, frowning. "And, I mean, I had no idea where I was going to get all that money, so I asked Filch and he said he'd pay me to help him around school, so I work for him now, and I think if I keep working for him, and maybe get a summer job when I'm older, I'll probably be able to pay it all back by the time I graduate, hopefully…"

Blaise and Draco were staring at him now, Harry noted nervously. Blaise appeared to be rather bemused. Draco was biting his lip.

"Harry," he said carefully. "I'm sorry." He had an odd look on his face. Harry was concerned.

"What?" he said. "No, it's fine, I -"

"No, I mean I'm sorry, I'm going to break my promise." Draco looked up at him and started snickering helplessly.

Harry glared at him. Blaise shrugged at Harry and grinned slightly himself.

"I'm sorry, Harry, it's just funny…"

"What wonderful friends you two are!" Harry said, standing up angrily. Blaise seemed to have realised that Harry had the wrong idea about why they were laughing and stood too, serious now.

"No, Harry, you don't understand! Let us explain, please. Trust me."

Harry sat down warily and waited for Draco's snickering to end.

"I'm sorry Harry, but how can you not know?" Draco asked with an incredulous look on his face.

"Know what?" Harry said icily.

"That you're rich of course," Blaise stated as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. Harry's jaw dropped.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"The Potters have always been rich, Harry." Draco explained. "I'd bet my magic you've got a trust fund hidden away somewhere. I'm sure if you'd asked about it before you'd have all the money you need and more by now."

"But no one's ever mentioned anything like that to me!" Harry said in shocked denial.

"Maybe they just assumed you knew…" Blaise mused. "People assume a lot about what you know, don't they?"

Harry flushed and wondered exactly how much Blaise knew about how confused he'd been the first couple weeks of school.

"So you've really been working for Filch all this time?" Draco asked. Harry nodded. "How does he treat you? Is he really nasty?"

"Actually, he's pretty nice. We exchanged Christmas presents, even." Harry didn't mention that Filch had given him Mrs. Skower's Scentless Magical Mess Remover. It was a thoughtful gift, and Filch had been more than thrilled at getting a present in return, even if it was just a new cat bed for Mrs. Norris, and that was all that mattered. "And we have tea sometimes, in his office."

Draco cracked up. "Honestly?"

Harry nodded, and Draco shook his head and laughed some more.

"I just can't picture it, Harry. I really, really can't."

"Maybe you should continue working for him," Blaise said thoughtfully. Draco and Harry gave him curious looks.

"Why on earth would he do that?" Draco asked incredulously.

"Well if he treats you well, Harry, it wouldn't hurt to keep his in his good books. Filch could be a useful ally."

Harry nodded. "He did say he'd take any detentions I get, and excuse them for me if they're scheduled during a practice."

Draco whistled. "I can see how that'd be useful," he agreed. "Do you think we could get in on this?"

"Not a clue," Harry said. "This might be a good idea, actually. It'll give me an excuse for having enough money to pay Uncle Vernon back and buy things for myself too. I'll just say Filch pays really well."

"Brilliant," Blaise said happily. "So you shorten your hours to, say, once a week, and see if you can figure out a way to make Filch warm up to Draco and I as well, and you get to have all sorts of extra money without your uncle catching on to the fact that you're filthy rich."

"Filthy rich?" Harry asked curiously. "Really?"

"Filthy stinking rich," Draco assured him happily. "Richer than Vince and Greg, at least. Probably both of them put together. Not richer than me, though," he added quickly.

"You've got, what? One more summer house than Harry?" Blaise deadpanned. "Oh wow, Draco, that's impressive."

Draco glared at Blaise, who had no issues with sticking his own tongue out at him. Harry was awed. "I'm really that rich?"

"You can't touch most of it yet, of course," Draco explained. "For now you'll have whatever trust fund your parents left you, and you might be able to look into how the goblins are dealing with your vast fortunes since you're probably the only Potter left for them to deal with, but when you turn seventeen you'll have total control of all of it."

"Wow," Harry said quietly. "I certainly never expected this."

Blaise and Draco both grinned at him. "And to think," Draco exclaimed, as if the notion Harry had been living under all his life was completely ridiculous, "That you thought you were…poor!"

"Not that it would matter if you were," Blaise reassured him, and Draco nodded along in perfunctory agreement. "Now you look exhausted. Go to bed."

Harry nodded and wished them both a good night before dragging himself up the stairs. He wondered who he was supposed to ask in order to gain access to his trust fund. This would make his life so much easier.

Christmas break was fast coming to an end on the day that a beautiful snowy owl swooped into the Great Hall and landed by Harry's plate at breakfast, holding out her leg to present Harry with a letter.

Harry took the letter curiously, wondering who would write to him, and fed the owl a bit of bacon. The owl hooted gratefully at him and settled in to eat Harry's breakfast as he read his letter.

"Who is it from?" Draco asked, petting the owl as Harry glanced over the note.

"They have a beautiful owl, whoever they are," Pansy cooed, stroking the owl from across the table. "You are a beauty, aren't you?" The owl preened and strutted along between the plates of food as Pansy praised it.

"It's from Dudley," Harry said, still reading. It seemed Aunt Petunia was still unsure if she even liked Dudley anymore, so he'd had a pretty horrible Christmas. On the upside, Uncle Vernon had felt bad for him, and bought him more presents than usual, which was saying something. "My Uncle Vernon took him out a few days ago and bought her for him, apparently."

"This gorgeous owl belongs to your cousin?" Draco asked in disbelief. "He doesn't deserve a pet this nice."

"He's not so bad, lately," Harry said, thinking about the way Aunt Petunia had been acting toward her son before they left. Dudley didn't deserve that, even if he had been a horrid bully before Hogwarts. He was certainly improving now, having become a lot less bullying and a lot more friendly over the past few months, not to mention that Hermione's tutoring had gotten him up to average in just about all of his classes now. "Hermione is turning him into a pretty decent person."

Draco snickered. "I'd noticed her training him up. She doesn't let him take any more than seconds at dinner, you know. I've seen her slap his hand."

Blaise hooted with laughter. "Granger's got your cousin on a tight leash!"

Harry shook his head with a smile. He hadn't seen Hermione stop Dudley from overeating at meals, but he wouldn't doubt her ability to do so. She could be very assertive when she wanted to be.

"She's good for him, though," Pansy put in, allowing the still-present owl a sip of her pumpkin juice, to Draco's disgust. "He needs someone to boss him around, spoilt brat that he is."

"True, just look at this owl of his," Blaise said. The owl really was beautiful, Harry noted, watching Blaise stroke it's wings. "Did your cousin say what her name is?"

Harry scanned back through the letter again, re-reading the sentences Dudley had written about his new owl. "He says her name is…" Harry faltered for a moment. "…Whitey…"

"Oh, you poor dear," Pansy clucked sympathetically, stroking the bird and feeding it a bit of Harry's bacon. "Such a plebeian name for such a beautiful bird!"

"Your cousin is terrible at naming things," Draco said, his nose in the air. "I refuse to call her that."

Blaise laughed. "Well she doesn't exactly belong to you, Draco, so I doubt you'll get the chance to call her very much at all."

Draco made a face at Blaise. "I suppose you like it, then?"

Blaise gave a little mock shudder. "Not at all. But it's his owl to name, not ours."

Draco muttered something about Dudley having his naming rights taken away, if he was going to do such a poor job of it. Harry just shook his head. He had to agree that the name wasn't quite right, but he also agreed that she was Dudley's owl to name, not theirs.

"Harry," Blaise asked suddenly, "By the way, what are you going to tell your cousin about your recent discovery?"

Harry frowned. He had thought about it, and still wasn't sure what Dudley would do if he found out about how much money Harry had. Filthy rich, Draco had said, and Harry thought that Dudley would likely end up telling his parents about it, even if he didn't mean to do any harm, and they would immediately try to take all of it away from him.

"I haven't a clue," Harry said. "I thought about maybe bribing him, but I don't know if I can take the chance that he'd let it slip accidentally."

"Maybe you could have him swear an oath of silence?" Pansy suggested.

"Or just not tell him at all," Blaise added. "The best kept secret is the one you don't share."

"I don't know," Harry said thoughtfully. "I do sort of want to tell him. And you lot knew about it, didn't you?"

"It is common knowledge if you're not muggleborn," Pansy agreed.

"Right," Harry said. "So what's to say someone else isn't going to mention it, and he'll tell his parents without my even knowing it's a possibility?"

"Gossip does travel fast around here," Draco agreed. "You're right, you'd probably better make sure he knows, and make sure he doesn't tell."

"So an oath of silence?" Pansy asked.

"In order for it to work without a doubt, he'd have to know what he was swearing not to tell first, else it'd be too general and he could slip out of it," Blaise said pensively. "And what if you tell him, and then he doesn't agree to swear the oath?"

"Blaise is right, he could blackmail you over it," Draco said. "Unless you made him swear an oath that he'll swear an oath to keep the secret once you tell him, before you tell him what it is."

"Do you really think anyone would agree to being boxed in like that?" Pansy asked doubtfully.

"She's right," Harry said. "Even Dudley wouldn't agree to that, and if Hermione was there she'd never allow it even if he was willing."

"Maybe you could bribe him to take the oath?" Blaise suggested.

"But then he'd know how important it is to you and he'd take advantage," Draco reasoned. "He'd probably try to take half your money or something."

"He might..." Pansy agreed. "How about if you got Granger to convince him instead?"

"Thats an idea," Harry said thoughtfully. "She'd probably be able to convince him to take the oath..."

"Tight leash and all," Draco snickered.

"Alright, I'll talk to Hermione, and tell him when break is over," Harry decided, looking down at his now nearly empty plate and the decidedly full looking owl perched on the table nearby. "Pansy, did you feed her all my bacon?"

"I would never do such a thing," Pansy said defensively. "She took most of it on her own."

Harry shook his head and refilled his plate, and they managed to finish the meal in relative peace.