Chapter Six

Draco's face flushed heavily, "Who the hell do you think you're talking to, Potter?"

The whole common room was silent as Draco bellowed. Harry sighed. He had wanted to do this quietly in their dorms. Hopefully it would've resulted in civility. It looked like that ship had sailed though. He turned back towards the blonde boy who was basically frothing at the mouth.

"I said, 'we need to talk, long and hard'." Harry said, as patiently as he could.

Still hoping beyond hope that he could salvage the situation. Perhaps he had approached the situation with more than a little hostility. Ah well, live and learn.

"Oh, you think you can just order me around?" Draco got up in his face, "Think just because your parents died to stop the Dark Lord, you're better than everybody?!"

Harry's face went hard, and the room cooled down noticeably just from his glare alone. His normally expressive jade green eyes were now hard and cold. Almost empty. Blaise rested a hand on his shoulder, but Harry brushed it off. Everyone else in the room subconsciously backed up from the argument. Everybody except for Draco who was so furious he couldn't feel the pressure that emanated from Harry.

He smirked, "What's wrong, Potter?" He spat, "Strike a nerve?"

"I would stop while you're still able to talk, Malfoy." Harry said coldly.

Draco's smirk widened, "Oh? What are you gonna do? You were raised by muggles; they didn't teach you any magic so you're practically defenseless." He started circling Harry with his hands behind his back and now was openly grinning, "I'm going to teach a lesson right here and now, Potter." He reached in his robe and started twirling his wand, "You cannot tell me what to do. Maybe if your stupid mother wasn't a mudblo-"

That was the last word that Draco managed to say before Harry whirled around and punched him square in the face. The blonde boy cried out in pain as blood leaked from his nose and he tumbled over onto one of the tables in the common room. Everyone in the room backed up even further and a few of them even pulled their wands out. They didn't intervene though; they were too shocked. Never before had anyone punched another Slytherin.

Draco curled into the fetal position and began to sob quietly. Harry felt kinda bad. But he had to make a point.

"Watch your damn mouth." He spoke.

He then reached his hand down to Draco. The boy flinched slightly, and then looked at his hand in shock. Harry could sense the confusion from him, and simultaneously the rest of the common room.

"You keep acting the way you have been, you're not going to have anyone but enemies. And eventually you'll end up alone. Nobody likes a bully." He reached out again, "But I'm giving you a chance. Not that we have to be friends. But this is your chance to make amends. No matter what you choose, I'll still be more than happy to knock you down a peg or two when you deserve it, but depending on what you choose will tell you if I'll help you get back up too."

Draco spent a few minutes staring at the hand and clutching his nose. Which was red and swollen. He then grabbed Harry's hand. He grinned and pulled the blonde up to his feet.

"I'll knock you down when you need it, too." He said, his voice muffled behind his hand.

Harry grinned, "I would hope so."

Draco smirked slightly, "The first time though, I won't help you up."

Harry chuckled, "That's completely fair." He nodded and then left the common room. Probably on his way to the hospital wing. Harry could feel everyone's eyes on him, so he turned and quirked an eyebrow, "What?"

They all returned to their business, as if whatever had just transpired didn't. Harry rolled his eyes and turned to his friends. Blaise was sitting in a chair with his eyes wide, Theo was staring at him intently, and Leon shot him a small smile.

"You'll catch flies if you don't close your mouth, Blaise." Leon muttered.

Blaise glared slightly, and then looked back at Harry, "Are we just gonna ignore that Harry just throttled Malfoy in the middle of the common room, and nobody did anything?"

Harry put his hand to his chin as if he was thinking, "Hmmm... yes, I would say so."

He then promptly sat down and ignored Blaise's pout.

He went to detention with Snape. Honestly the whole experience was boring. He spent the entire night scrubbing the cauldrons and listening to the professor complaining about every paper he had. Occasionally the man would mix it up a little bit and call him an insolent child. Harry was also pretty sure he heard him mutter a few untoward things about his father underneath his breath, but he wasn't gonna do anything about that. As the last cauldron was cleaned and the last paper graded, Snape stood up and glared at him.

"If there is ever another bout of insubordination of the magnitude it was at during class today, I will not hesitate to give you more severe punishments. Are we clear?" He growled.

"Crystal."

Harry then proceeded to walk away towards the Slytherin common room. As he walked down the hall, he heard some voices.

"Seamus, you idiot what are you doing!"

"We're pranking the snakes, Ron."

Another voice interrupted, "But... not many of them h-have been a problem. Actually, I'm pretty sure most don't even care."

A fourth and final voice piped in, "Neville has a point, Seamus. Remember Potter? He's done nothing but stand up for us, I get the feeling he'd do it for anyone."

Harry rounded the corner and leaned against the wall. The four boys stood in a huddle and were talking quite loudly despite the secretive behavior. He let them finish their conversation and then, he cleared his throat. Neville just about ate the ceiling with how fast he jumped out of his skin, Thomas went still, Finnegan whirled around to see him, and Weasley went deathly pale.

"Heya lads. What brings you around these parts?" His arms crossed over his chest as he looked at each of them.

Neville was the first to speak, "W-well, you see Harry... We... uh... we... were coming here to prank the Slytherins, I mean specifically Seamus was, Dean, Ron, and I were trying to convince him it was a bad idea, but he didn't want to listen."

Harry was actually impressed by how quickly he spat out that confession. His mouth must've moved faster than his brain, because the blonde boy turned bright red in embarrassment as he covered his mouth. Seamus glared at Neville and the boy shrunk back. He noticed that and glanced at Seamus out of the corner of his eye.

"So, Finnegan... Tell me, because I'm curious. Why do you want to prank the Slytherins?"

The Irish boy opened his mouth and then closed it, and then opened it again. And then closed it. He honestly looked a bit like a fish. Harry couldn't help but snicker.

"Look mate, I don't care that you want to do it. I would just watch out for the people that do, y'know? I think it could be funny." He then slid between the shocked redhead and dark-skinned boy, "Anyway, goodnight lads. Stay out of trouble."

He winked and then rounded the corner towards the Slytherin common room. Honestly, he thought this whole house rivalry thing was annoying, but it could lead to some funny instances. So he'd let it pass. He muttered the password and stepped into the common room, making sure that the Gryffindor's weren't following him. He strode through the common room and just as he almost reach the hallway to his dorms he heard someone clear their throat. His shoulders slumped. He's hoped he wouldn't have to deal with anyone and could just sneak off to his room and sleep. With a sigh he turned and saw none other than the girl who'd been a source of confusion to him for the past 24 hours. Daphne Greengrass.

Grand.

"Hello Daphne, what can I do for you?"

Her nose wrinkled at the use of her first name, but she glared at him. Her icy blue eyes stared into his soul.

"Are you like... incapable of speaking?" Harry grunted.

She gasped, "I'll have you know, that I am very eloquent."

This was the first time he had heard her speak, and it wasn't an awful experience. Her voice was soft and melodic, but also harsh. Which wasn't a surprise if you took into account how she'd acted towards him thus far. He blinked though, genuinely shocked that she had responded. Her face was obviously offended, but he didn't really know how to fix that.

"Alright then, then why have you just been staring at me and not saying anything?"

She looked slightly hurt, "Do you... do you really not know?"

"No, I'm kinda new to this whole wizard thing."

"Oh."

"Yeah." He sighed, "Look can we talk about this tomorrow? I'm tired and want to go to sleep."

She nodded and got up. She looked slightly lost. Like she'd been expecting a certain interaction between the two of them. He had no idea what was going on, but he was sure he'd figure it out. So without really sparing a second glance to the strange girl he just walked down the hall to his room, and passed out on his bed.

Something felt off. He couldn't quite place it, but it was as if he was somewhere he shouldn't be. He was in a large office, many portraits decorated the wall, looking around at a group of shadowy figures. He felt blood leaking from wounds all over his body, and pain flared in his leg. A strong protective instinct welled up his chest, a tight feeling. As if he didn't do something his life would be over.

One of the figures reached out for another and he took off running towards him and tackled him to the ground. Or what would have been the ground if the endangered figure wasn't standing right next to the window. His body ran on instinct. But he had no regrets when his thoughts rejoined with his actions. With a crash, he was out the window with the aggressor in his grasp.

The scene changed and it's as if he was younger. He shot a glimpse towards a figure, smiling softly.

"I'll be back in a bit, yeah?"

"You better be."

His smile turned into a chuckle and he walked off towards the Forbidden Forest. He stepped up towards a group of shadowy figures and one phrase was said, and with a flash of green the scene changed again.

He sat crying over the body of an older figure. Anger burned in his chest. He had never experienced anything like the rage he felt right now. Slowly, he stood up and glanced at the shadowy group. The sickly green struck again, but this time he countered with a headstone, the script was difficult to make out. His rage boiled over and became calm again. The vibrant green flashed from his wand.

A symbol flashed before his vision. A bisected triangle with circle in the center. A cold echo of a voice he craved to hear spoke out above the roaring in his ears.

"One for each. No more, no less."

He shot up with a cold sweat.

"What the hell was that?"

Heya! I do in fact exist and am not dead. Unlucky for me, huh?

All jokes aside I'm so sorry I neglected the stories in my catalogue for so long. I've just been a mixture of incredibly busy and disgustingly depressed and unmotivated lmao. I've recently forced myself out of whatever funk I was in, and am ready to attack this story with bloodlust! I am diverting all of my creative talents to this story specifically. Which means unfortunately for those of you that enjoy my other stories those are going on pause just until I feel confident with the placement of this story.

As you can tell this story is going to be taking a bit of turn, huh?

What could that dream mean?

I promise you it's not as obvious as you think it is. At least I hope it isn't, because that would be embarrassing haha. Let me know any thoughts and opinions on this new direction we're taking! I will admit I wrote specifically the last bit of the chapter first. Probably around the time my depressive stint started, which is why it might seem bleaker than the rest of the chapter. Again, I'm so sorry this story has taken several years to even get off the ground and I've no doubt lost a lot of peoples interest with my sporadic and infrequent updates, but I will do better.

Pinky thumb kisses.

I've already started on the next chapter as of the writing of this A/N, so do with that what you will.

Okay, see you around (I tried to put a heart here, but for some reason ffn doesn't like that).