Authors note: There were a few questions last update about why Harry didn't name Snape as one of the worst bullies he had ever known. This is certainly a valid inquiry, as Snape is very much a bully both in the books and in the movies.

The best way I can explain is that while the book does know the factual truth about certain things (birthdays, parents' names, etc.), when it comes to anything subjective it leans heavily on the truth according to that particular person. It was established in the books that veritaserum can be fooled if the subject truly believes a lie to be true (i.e, if they thought they killed someone, but actually hadn't, and were then asked under veritaserum if they were a murderer, they would respond in the affirmative). The book works in a similar way. When Harry asked the question, he had just spent an entire chapter or so being taunted and bullied by Draco, and had spent time comparing Draco and Dudley already. In addition, he had just had a moment of understanding with Snape, where Snape was being merciful. Harry isn't thinking about Snape at that point in terms of being a bully, but he certainly is when it comes to Draco. And at that moment he truly believes that Draco and Dudley are the worst bullies ever.

This is also the reason that when Draco attempts to name Harry as a bully, it doesn't work. Because Draco doesn't really believe deep down that Harry is a bully.

Okay, I think that's enough interjection from me. Enjoy the chapter!

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Chapter 7

It took a moment for the potion master's words to register for the Boy-Who-Lived. Harry turned slowly toward the professor - his breath caught in his throat, his eyes seeing the page flash gold but his brain not quite registering it.

"You're lying." He said accusingly, rising to his feet.

It couldn't be true. It just couldn't.

"Obviously not." The man replied carefully, his eyes darting down to the book and then back up to the Gryffindor.

Harry's gaze didn't falter. "That can't be true." He said, putting his thoughts into words – as if speaking the statement out loud would make it real. "Everyone knows you dabble in the dark arts. You altered the book or … or something. Cause if anything, you're the bully! You're constantly criticizing me and terrorizing other students, and what's worse, you protect bullies in your own house." The raven-haired teen gestured toward Draco, though his eyes remained on the instructor. "My father –"

"Your father" Snape snarled, cutting off the Gryffindor mid-rant, "was an absolutely swine."

The man rose from his chair and, as he spoke, he moved slowly toward Harry, who was still standing on the other side of the coffee table. The teenager's heart rate quickened.

"He would swan about the school with his little gang of miscreants. Oh, the professors adored him," The Slytherin sneered, "but they did not see what he was like when their backs were turned. He was pompous, and arrogant, and he treated those who were different from him like dirt under his heel."

The professor's words were laced with venom, and Harry could feel his own self taking fast breaths – as if his body were working in overdrive to keep up with the pace of the instructor's tirade.

The man continued, enunciating each word with exacting malice, "James Potter was a stain upon this world, and if you ask me, it is a better place now that he is no longer in it."

"Shut up about my dad, you slimy git!"

The professor's expression darkened considerably.

"Take care how you speak to me, Mr. Potter, lest I decide to rescind my decision to not have you expelled."

The two of them stared at each other, each clearly fuming. Snape had a dangerous gleam in his eye, but Harry was beyond the point of caring. The boy dropped his gaze and clenched his fists at his sides, trying in vain to control his temper.

What right did this man have to speak about his father like that? His father, who had died fighting Voldemort? Who had died to protect Harry?

Snape had to be lying.

But then Harry's eyes found the book. The page had not yet been turned, and there, staring up at him from his own question about bullies, was his father's name. And the page had flashed gold.

It was too much.

Harry turned on his heels and left the room. Behind him, he heard Draco's drawl.

"Since when is he not being expelled?"

Snape's response was sudden and sharp. "Since when is it your concern how other students are disciplined?"

The Gryffindor moved down the hall and into the bathroom, locking the door behind him before sinking down onto the cool tiles and taking his head in his hands. He felt as if his world had been turned upside down; Nothing made sense, and yet, at the same time, everything did.

I thought my father was a hero.

He had always assumed that Snape hated his father because he was jealous of the elder Potter's popularity or because they were from different houses. But now, Harry knew why, and it was like a knife to the gut. James had been the potion professor's Draco or Dudley. The intense distaste the man had when he looked at Harry; The snide comments about his father; The assumptions that Harry was arrogant, and proud, and full-of-himself – Snape's behavior made sense now.

I wanted to be like him. I wanted people to tell me I was like him.

He hugged his knees. Am I like him? Is Snape right to see his traits in me?

Harry sat there for a long time, trying to puzzle out whether he was as arrogant, and proud, and full-of-himself as Snape so often claimed.

He was pulled from his thoughts by a rap at the door.

"Open up, Potter." Came Draco's annoying lilt through the polished wood.

"Leave me alone, Malfoy."

There was an audible sigh. Then, "I have cake."

Eyebrows rising in question, Harry pushed up off the floor and approached the door. He unlocked it and opened it a crack to find Draco on the other side with two plates of cake in his hand.

"Where'd you find that?" The raven-haired boy asked. Even if Draco knew how to bake – and Harry was very doubtful of that – there was no way he had done so in the time Harry had been locked in the bathroom.

"It was on the pantry shelf. Just take it already, will you?"

Harry eyed the dessert with uncertainty – what if Draco had done something to it? – but reached out and took it anyway. He went to shut the door only to have the Slytherin block that attempt and push his way inside instead. The blond closed and locked the door behind him.

The Gryffindor didn't have the energy to fight the other boy's intrusive presence, so he just rolled his eyes and went to sit in his previous spot on the floor. Draco chose a spot across from him and slid down the wall into a sitting position. The position seemed out of place for the pompous Slytherin, and Harry couldn't help but wonder if the boy had ever sat on a bathroom floor before.

"You know," Draco said after several moments, slicing his cake with his fork and lifting a bite to his mouth, "we can't continue until you stop whatever sulking-fit this is that you're having in here."

"I'm not going back out there." Harry said, testing out the cake with a small bite of his own.

The Slytherin scooped up some frosting with the edge of his fork. "Why's that?" He asked, lifting his eyes to the raven-haired boy on the other side of the small room. "Because you found out your dad's a prat?"

Harry's fork stilled on his plate as he tried to find the words to explain his thoughts. How was he supposed to explain this to Malfoy of all people. He sighed. "I've always looked up to him. People have always told me how great he was – everybody but Snape. And now – now I feel like my entire view of him has been turned on its head."

"So what?" Came the sharp retort.

Green eyes rose to meet imperial grey, and Harry couldn't keep the puzzled look off his face. So what? So everything!

Draco's fork crashed onto his plate as the boy rolled his eyes in exasperation. "You're Harry bloody Potter. At a year old, you were more famous than your father would have ever dreamed of being in his entire lifetime. Don't get me wrong, you're a prat in your own way – you're annoying, and self-righteous, and you've got that stupid scar as a constant reminder of how you 'saved' the entire wizarding world – but you're also noble to a fault and brave to the point of being a bloody moron. You took on a basilisk for crying out loud!"

Harry sat frozen at the other boy's words. Had-had Draco just complimented him?

"What I'm trying to say," the blond continued, "Is that it doesn't really matter what your father's reputation was, because you've already got your own – Scarhead." He added the last word as a mumble.

As the Slytherin returned his attention to eating his cake – rather intently, the other boy noticed – Harry bit back a smile. He actually felt a bit better, and it wasn't lost on him that it had been the words of Draco Malfoy that had done it. After a moment, the raven-haired boy found his voice.

"So, Snape was being bullied by my dad – explains why he hates me."

The blond looked up, a small smirk on his face "Well, it explains one reason." He said, popping his final bite of cake into his mouth.

Harry ignored the remark. "And I guess he was bullied in his own house by Sirius Black."

Draco was busy scrapping any remaining frosting onto his fork. "Actually, my mother told me that Black was sorted into Gryffindor. It was quite the scandal, apparently."

The raven-haired boy's eyebrows rose in surprise. His dad and Sirius Black had both belonged to Gryffindor house at the same time?

"Do you think Black and my dad might have been … friends?"

The blond shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe? I'm certainly not besties with every Slytherin in my year."

They lapsed into an almost comfortable silence. Several minutes passed before Draco spoke again.

"So, Snape isn't going to have you expelled."

"Nope." Harry didn't feel the need to elaborate further. If they got out of here the last thing he wanted to hear was Draco taunting him for the next two months about his detentions.

The Slytherin tapped his fork on the plate. "Just as well." He said finally. "I doubt Dumbledore would have allowed it, you being his golden boy and all."

Harry narrowed his eyes at the other boy but decided to let the comment go. It was probably true, no matter how much the Gryffindor didn't want to admit it to himself. "How much longer do you think Snape will let us stay in here before threatening us both with detention?" He asked after a moment.

The question was answered less than 15 seconds later, when the potions professor rapped on the door.

"Unless you two dunderheads would like to spend the night sleeping in the bathroom, I suggest you return to the parlor at once so we can continue this idiotic exercise that has us all at each other's throats.

The two teenagers raised an eyebrow at each other.

"Bloody bat." Draco said under his breath as he rose from the ground.

Harry couldn't help but laugh as he stood as well.

Together, they exited the room.