Harry was glad to see Draco's backside. It had only taken not responding for what seemed like hours, but was probably only about thirty minutes. I shouldn't hold this against him. He's an only child, and a spoilt one at that. What kind of a Slytherin doesn't pick up on hints?

The answer struck him like a bolt out of the deep. The kind that has a lot to learn.

Harry closed his door, not needing any other distractions. Everything in his life had just changed, and he needed to figure out what to do.

Worse, he had to put all the choices on the table. Even the scary ones, like becoming a practitioner of the Dark Arts and maybe losing his mind. There were a lot of things he'd need to do, just to stay alive. But, the big choices? They were important, and needed to be made now. If you didn't know where you were going, how would you know when you were lost? turned around? headed backward?

Harry wanted to stay in the Light. Walk in the light, wherever you may be. Walk in the glory of the light said he, in my old leather jacket and my shaggy shaggy locks, I am walking in the glory of the light said fox.

It wasn't the only choice, and in Slytherin, it was a fraught and fractious point.

He could try and strike a path that was Grey - or was that Gray? Harry couldn't spell, half the time. It was frustrating.

When it came right down to it, Harry was afraid - afraid of losing his mind, of making choices that weren't really his. Idly, he wondered if that was why Snape always seemed wound so tight. Guarding against one's own mind seemed a particular version of hell...

Harry Potter could ask his Head of House, the ever formidable (Scary!) Severus Snape.

However, he found himself unable to talk himself out of the "He'd spank me!" argument.

Knowledge was power, sure, Harry thought, And if you want knowledge, you look to the Ravenclaws.

Or to Hermione Granger, Harry thought with a grin.

It would be ... hard... to be friends with Hermione, wouldn't it?

Snape had had such a hard time being friends with Lily, hadn't he?

Hard never stopped Harry, though. If Malfoy wanted to make something of it, Harry would burn any nascent friendship to the ground.

And then salt the earth beneath.

But, if Draco Malfoy is truly just a stupid eleven-year-old with a Father Complex...

There was always another path, and Harry wondered, just for a moment, if he could actually take it.

Ron didn't matter, Harry thought in a perplexed tone. This was a new thought for him, and a very painful one. He wasn't going to get Ron back. Ron hated Slytherins, and Malfoy in particular.

And Harry couldn't afford to alienate Malfoy, not right now.

[a/n: review?]