Teamwork

15 -- Return to the Chamber of Secrets

Harry wanted to start right in on looking for the room after dinner, but Draco pointed out that they had spent all day with each other, and probably both had housemates to placate. "Besides," he said, "I need to get some work done. I have another five inches to write for my Ancient Runes essay. I suggest tomorrow morning, before breakfast. No one else should be about then."

That, Harry decided, as he heard a distant meow, had not accounted for the strange schedules of cats. Draco met his eyes. There was a door up ahead -- perhaps even the one that they were looking for -- and they hurried to it and checked inside. It was the storeroom, cluttered with hideous junk, just as Myrtle had described. They stepped in, Harry cast a freshening spell down the corridor, and they closed the door.

"Harry, if you don't mind my asking...."

"Removing our scent. To a creature that's used to wizards, it should seem like we took a portkey."

"Oh." Draco looked a bit put out. "Good thought," he said, without much enthusiasm.

Harry grinned. "Thanks, but not mine. It's something Snape taught me."

"Why would Severus wish you to evade Mrs. Norris?"

"We were discussing Nagini, actually."

"Ah. That makes more sense." Draco perked up a little. "Now that I think of it, that may explain your claim that he tells you more when I'm not present."

"Oh?"

"Well, he fears what I will do with it, of course."

"Do?"

"You're expected to use such things against the Dark Lord."

"Oh, right. That could be it." Not, Harry added to himself, that Snape is under any delusions that I don't evade school rules as well.

They spent a minute just looking at the room. It was dimly lit by a single high window on the far wall. Harry spotted the bath Moaning Myrtle had mentioned, and the folding bed, which was near the wall to their left. He pointed. "Along that wall, do you think?"

Draco frowned. "It depends on whether the cupboard is the next thing down this corridor, or along another corridor. Get out your notebook, and I'll go and find it."

"You're volunteering to risk Filch?"

"I," said Draco grandly, "am Head Boy."

Harry sighed. "Right."

The cupboard turned out to be along a perpendicular corridor, but still backed up against the left wall. Warmer, Draco wrote, as Harry started towards the back of the room. As Draco used the proximity spell to detect any change in his distance, Harry worked his way along the wall, stepping around random things on the floor. The worst was a mummified kappa in a candle-holder cage, but there was also a lectern of piled skulls -- the top two of them human-looking -- and a bronze chandelier in the shape of intertwined cobras, hoods raised and glass eyes glittering. Next to that, oddly, was a child's table shaped like a big, sparkly pink daisy. He was just past the crocodile-head folding bed when Draco wrote cooler. Harry stepped back. That's it, Draco confirmed, and Harry touched the wall. Draco was right here. The chute could be right here. Or, he realized, the chute could be to one side or the other of the cupboard, in the corner made by the cupboard and room.

Draco returned, and they began their investigations. Draco used a hole-cutting charm that they had found the previous night. A section of wall about an inch and a half in diameter came out in an even cylinder, but it was nearly a foot thick. They couldn't see anything through the hole.

"Lumos?" Harry said doubtfully.

"The wand will just block more. Besides, will yours reach? Mine won't."

Harry drew his doubtfully and laid it against the cylinder. "About the same length," he said. "I couldn't really keep a grip on it if I put it far enough in."

Draco snorted. "And you have a long one," he commented, which made Harry smirk.

"That? Haven't you seen Ron's?" He held a hand several inches past the tip of his own wand, making Draco snigger.

"Never looked in that detail," he said. "Not that I want him poking it in our business," he added.

Harry looked at the hole again, his expression sobering. "Susara could look."

"I thought you weren't willing to send her into the walls?"

"Well, not to, you know, explore. But this would just be looking with me here."

Susara had begun to move sleepily at the mention of her name, and now she spiraled down his arm and slipped her head out the sleeve. "Master?"

"Hello, beautiful. Would you do me a favor?"

"Of course," she answered, but he could feel a little uncertainty behind it. He raised his hand to the hole so she could see.

"We have formed this hole, but the wall is so thick that we cannot see through it. Could you go until you can just see out the other side, and tell me what is there?"

With a wordless feeling of consent, she slithered into the hole until just the tip of her tail -- curved to one side -- showed.

"Is there space?" he asked.

"It is dark."

"Hold still. I will make light." Carefully, he slid his wand in above her, as far as he safely could, and then cast a mild, focused Lumos. Her tail-tip flicked.

"Some space," she said. "Would you like me to go further?"

"No. I want to know if there is enough space for me."

A wave of constrained motion came down her body. "There is a large metal basin. If you made the hole in another place, there is space in this room."

Harry sighed. "Okay. Come back." As she coiled around his wrist, he turned to Draco and shrugged. "This goes straight to the cupboard, apparently, behind the sink. The chute must be to one side or the other."

Draco sighed. "Well, I suppose we can't expect to get it on the first try."

Suddenly, his head snapped to the side, and in a sudden move, he pushed Harry against the wall, just by the crocodile bed.

"Wha--"

"Shh!" Draco's hand covered Harry's mouth, and Harry realized he must have heard something. That was disappointing; there were better reasons, Harry thought, to be in this position. After several seconds of nothing happening, Draco began to relax. Harry stretched his tongue out and dragged the tip of it against Draco's palm. With a strangled sound, Draco stepped back. "My mistake," he said coolly, his expression haughty. Harry, who could recognize that as discomfiture, tried to repress a smile.

"So," he said, to cover for it, "which way along the wall?"

Draco looked back and forth, and finally pointed to the bed. "Behind that," he said. "It would be the most convenient, anyway."

"To hide a door?"

"Yes, exactly."

"It doesn't look like anyone comes in here," Harry pointed out. "The further we get from the door, the dustier everything is."

"Which is why we want a place not visible from the door."

They slid the cylinder back in the wall and rejoined it with a repair charm, and moved further down. There was room for only one of them behind the bed.

"Let's move it a few inches further out," Harry suggested. "That shouldn't be obvious from the door."

"Is there room?" Draco looked doubtfully around the bed.

"Sure. We just need to shift this chandelier--" Harry reached over. As his hand closed on one of the wrought brass cobras that formed the chandelier, it softened in his grasp. Then it hissed.

"Shit!"

"Petrificus!"

"Stop!" Harry tried, in Parseltongue, as Draco's target clanged to the floor. The snakes had all unraveled from their ornate knot, and were advancing menacingly. They paused at his command, raised heads wavering uncertainly side to side, but then slowly began to descend. The fastest one resumed its approach. Harry glanced at Draco, who jerked his head to the side. Understanding, Harry began to back into the center of the room, while Draco retreated along the wall. That caused a little more head waving, and they both got off another Petrifaction hex. The problem was, there were a lot of cobras, and their uncertainty lasted only a moment. Each serpent -- darkened bronze with streaks of verdigris -- slipped across the floor towards one or the other of them. Seeing one aimed for him twining through two snakes headed towards Draco, Harry tried a Corrosion hex.

As he had hoped, the three snakes stuck together. Their untangled parts still moved, if jerkily, producing a horrible clanging as they banged together. The tangle slowed the advance of another snake behind the mess, but cost Harry the time to cast a Muffling charm. He risked a desperate look at Draco, who was standing on the pink daisy table, his wand raised, while at least four snakes wove around it, trying to get high enough to strike him over the wooden petals. That was all that Harry had time to see before he had to fall back and petrify another snake that was after him.

No sooner had the petrified snake fallen than it rose in the air, a frozen squiggle. Harry ducked its tail and watched open-mouthed as it joined back into the chandelier construct with most of the others. His three corroded ones couldn't detangle and shape properly, but Draco cast another two spells, and soon they were back where they belonged. Carefully, Draco levitated the chandelier a little back from its original location, and just as carefully, Harry levitated the crocodile jaw bed a foot back, to where he had wanted it. They looked at each other.

They were too far apart to speak without being audible from the corridor. By silent agreement, they met back by the wall.

"We will need to redistribute the dust," Draco remarked. His eyes widened as he continued. "D-U-S-T, dust."

Harry choked back a laugh.

"Prat!" Draco snapped. "P-R-A-T, prat."

Harry bit his lip to restrain a snigger. It was only funny if they could stop it. "Try a sentence," he suggested.

Draco glared at him. After a moment, he raised his head. "The fucking table is fucking cursed. C-U-R-S-E-D, cursed. Ouch. O-U-C-H, ouch."

"Ouch?" Harry asked. "Oh, never mind."

Draco pulled out their notebook. My tongue hurts when I swear, he wrote.

Harry couldn't hold back the laugh. "Sorry," he gasped. "Curses for tots, damn!"

Fix it, Draco wrote, and glowered.

"How?" Harry asked. "I mean, I'd love to, but I haven't the faintest idea what to do. Madam Pomfrey--"

Draco shook his head. She might recognize the curse, he wrote.

"Point." Harry could not seem to stop his mouth from twitching. "It is rather memorable."

There must be something that stops it.

"Saying you're sorry?" Harry suggested. "Oh -- what happens if you try to spell something?"

Draco frowned. He straightened, standing as if he were presenting something in a lesson. "C-H-A-R-M," he said, and then his mouth opened again. His lips twitched and twisted, and he grabbed on to Harry's arm. "NO!" he shouted, then shuddered, and then relaxed. "I think...." He paused, waiting, his breath coming hard. "I think that did it."

"Great," Harry said, "Now let's hope no one heard you. I didn't bring my cloak."

Draco caught Harry's hand and pulled him behind the bed. "Don't touch it," he warned at a whisper.

"You're thinking that everything in this room is cursed?"

"Yes. I gather you've reached the same conclusion?"

Harry nodded. "It seems likely. How did you stop the snakes?"

"Reparo."

"That's it?"

Draco looked smug. "It took me a moment to think of, but yes. Repaired, they were again a chandelier."

"That's clever!"

For a minute, they were silent. Harry watched Draco -- his cheeks flushed pink, his eyes dark in the dim light, his smile sharing a secret accomplishment -- and wondered what would happen if he leaned forward, inviting a kiss. Just as he was about to try, Draco turned away.

"We're safe, I think. Someone would have come in by now -- or at least run by in the hallway -- if anyone had heard. Let's get back to it."

They made a new hole in wall behind the folded bed. This time Susara said Harry might fit, if he got in sideways.

"Do you mean on my stomach?" he asked.

"No." She had come back out and now her tail trembled in frustration. "It is not as big as one of your doorways. It goes down between the walls like the down-hole to the den you used last year, but it is narrower, and with no slope."

"The--" Harry figured out what she meant. "That is what we are looking for. The down-hole."

Her upper body drew back. For a moment, she hissed. "Silly master! You should tell me what you need! It is there." She turned her head and stretched it out towards Draco. "Put me down, and I will show you."

Embarrassed, he put her on the floor. She slithered through the dust, past Draco, and to the very edge of the bed. There she reared up, and flicked her tongue out at the wall. "Here," she said. "Or a little further."

"How can you tell?"

"It still smells of the great snake," she said matter-of-factly, "and of you, and of your mate. And I saw the slant of it from below, in the last place."

"Thank you," he said, and turned to Draco. "One more test hole. She thinks she knows where it is."

She was right. At the next hole, she told them that she was at the edge of the chute. Harry punched the air, and Draco sagged back against the wall in relief.

"Brilliant!" Harry said.

"And now for a door," Draco said, his eyes closing. "I have the notes on two spells. We should do a second review bef--"

Harry pinned him against the wall and kissed him. Draco's eyes flew open. "Mmph--!"

Harry decided that if Draco really minded, he would make it clear, and he concentrated on Draco's warm mouth and firm body against his own. For at least a minute, the only sounds were the soft whispers of skin on skin and fabric on fabric, and increasingly loud breathing.

Then Draco reached out and grasped Harry's arm, stopping him. "Harry." His eyes were promisingly unfocused, but he closed them and took a deep breath. "We cannot get caught here. We should always be in this room as briefly as possible."

That made an irritating amount of sense. Harry drew back with a scowl. "Let's get to it, then."

After debating the two spells, they settled on the one that would make a section of the wall temporarily intangible -- though still visible -- at an assigned word or phrase. After they had discussed several possibilities and discarded them as being either too obvious or favoring one of them too much, Harry suggested "bats", and Draco agreed. That made "snitch" (or rather, Draco corrected, "snitches") the obvious counter-incantation.

That done, they opened the passage down to the chamber.

It was, after everything, that simple. Draco pointed his wand, zigzagged it back and forth, and said a two-word incantation, and then met Harry's eyes.

"Bats," they said in unison.

The wall looked just the same. Of course, it was supposed to. Harry reached a hand out to it. His fingers disappeared into the stone.

"How does it feel?" Draco asked.

"Cold. No, cool. Like mist, not like a ghost."

He brought his hand out and looked at it. It was fine. Shrugging, he put his head through. He couldn't see anything. Of course I can't! he chided himself, pushing back alarm. It's dark. He cast Lumos. It was the chute, slanting steeply down from the left, their vine ladder still lying against the rock wall. At a tug on his ankle, he pulled back through the wall.

"Well?" Draco demanded.

"We're here. It's one of the more slanted sections. Our ladder's still there, by the way."

Draco covered a smile with a sniff. "I wouldn't trust it, at this point. We should Vanish it and cast a new one. That will keep us from climbing too high, as well."

"Good point. Shall we go?"

Harry vanished the ladder. Before he could cast a new one, Draco had done it. "Not as severe a change of energies," he explained. "It wouldn't matter if we were just using it for a day or two, but...."

Harry nodded. He hadn't heard that before, but it made sense.

Draco looked hesitantly into the gloom. "Perhaps you should go first," he said. "Coming in not through the official entrance might trigger something, and--"

"And you'd rather I faced it?"

"And I expect it will require a Parselmouth, like the other tests."

Harry frowned. "Isn't it sort of risky, relying on the same trick for all the entrances?"

"It's a very rare talent." Draco hesitated. "And there was the basilisk."

"I suppose." Harry couldn't help thinking that was yet another Parselmouth trick. He might be able to sway a basilisk now. "I suspect he just didn't know much yet. He was only sixteen."

Draco turned out to be right. They descended the ladder unmolested, but as soon as Harry set foot on the corridor, there was a creaking of stone, and a large, black snake slithered out of either wall.

"Who comes?" they hissed, in stereo chorus, each staying to its side.

Harry thought quickly. Claiming to be Tom might trip him up -- he was reluctant to lie at all -- but he had better sound like he belonged here. "The heir to the Chamber of Secrets."

They hissed and writhed and tested the air with flickering tongues, but slowly settled. "You did not use the door."

"It is watched. I made another."

They relaxed further, coming together so he might have taken them with one blow. Harry settled himself, trying to project confidence. "I no longer need your services," he said firmly.

"Are we released?" The question was eager enough to give Harry second thoughts. Still, he did not want them.

"You are released."

They hissed with harsh pleasure, coiled about each other ... and crumpled under the contact. As Harry stepped forward, the last withered remains fell into dust. He froze.

"Harry?" Draco's voice wavered. Harry couldn't blame him. "What did you do?"

"I ... I said they were released."

"Merlin and Morgana." Draco shuddered, but stepped forward. "I'm so glad I didn't join that madman."

"Yeah. Me too."

The rest of the walk was uneventful, and they met nothing larger than non-magical spiders. Still, Harry felt a thrill of fear when he commanded the great door to open. Draco, apparently similarly nervous, held his wand forward, and lit the torches as soon as there was enough of a crack to point through. Flames flared to life, showing still water and grand stone, but amidst the vast space, a green and orange plastic sofa, shaggy throw cushions, a stone coffee table, and two folded blankets. Scattered rubbish littered the ground beside the sofa and the surface of the table: crumpled parchment, empty bottles and sweet wrappers, and a broken quill or two.

Harry grinned. Draco sniggered.

"We left rather a mess, didn't we?"

"Yeah," Harry admitted as they stepped in. "It didn't occur to me to clean up, for some reason."

"Or to me," Draco pointed out, with a shrug. "The perils of doing without House Elf service." He looked around critically. "Collect the empty bottles," he said, "and I'll show you something Severus taught me."

Harry grinned. "That's what you want to do first?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. He turned and sealed the door behind him. "Here?" he asked, leaning against it. "Together?"

Draco sucked on his lower lip. Harry licked his upper one. "How about showing me how good you are at transfiguration?" he suggested huskily. "Maybe that sofa would make a nice bed."

Turning his face to the side didn't stop Draco from keeping his eyes on Harry. "I have something better," he said suggestively.

"Oh?"

"Yes." Draco reached into his pocket. "I've been exploring this summer," he said. "And practicing size changes." From his pocket, he pulled what looked like a dollhouse version of a Hogwarts bed -- a four poster with blue curtains. "I hope you don't mind Ravenclaw colors -- it had the best mattress of the surplus ones. Where should we put it?"

"You expect me to make design decisions when you're holding a bed?"

"Well, it's not good to shrink and expand something too many times."

"All right. Past the next pillar?"

"As if it's another room?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Draco smirked over his shoulder as he turned away. "Are we playing happy families, then?"

"Mm." Harry caught Draco around the waist as he straightened from putting the bed down. "This is the part where the children are busy somewhere else."

With a bright laugh, Draco stretched back to give him a kiss. "Very busy," he agreed. "Let me just...." With a quick spiral of his wand, he cast an expansion spell, and the bed wavered and whooshed out to its full size.

"Brilliant," Harry said. When he reached out a hand to Draco, he could feel that he was trembling. Twining his fingers through Draco's helped. He had to swallow before he could speak again. "Shall we?"

He led Draco to the bed as if they were walking on eggshells. Draco sat down and tugged his hand, so Harry sat, half-facing him. For a long moment, they just stared at each other, and then both of them laughed tensely.

"Circe!" Draco's face was pink. "This is worse than the first time."

Harry nodded. "Well, we'd been sitting and kissing for a while, then, right?"

"Right," Draco said decisively. He toed off his shoes and scooted back against the headboard. "Come on, then. Let's kiss and not worry about it."

Harry tried to crawl up to join him, but his school robes got in the way. He pulled them off as casually as he could, and in trousers and a jumper, joined Draco at the top of the bed.

"Very nice," Draco said, running a hand covetously over his shoulders.

"The jumper?" Harry teased.

"No, the jumper is horrid."

Harry kissed him.

Draco's lips were soft, but moved hard against his own. Harry pulled him closer as they went on. This, at least, was familiar to the point of safety. He had to pull back a moment, afraid of laughing in Draco's mouth.

"What?"

"I was just remembering...." He had to think how to phrase this so Draco would understand he wasn't reluctant to do more. "The first time we kissed, it felt so dangerous. And now it doesn't."

"Good," Draco said fiercely, drawing him back.

Kissing was good, but very soon, it wasn't enough. Harry worked a hand between them to undo Draco's robes, and Draco immediately responded by sliding his hands up under Harry's jumper. Unease fell away in a surge of lust, and having opened Draco's robes, Harry went straight for the front of his trousers, and when he couldn't get them open, started working his hand under the waistband.

"Harry--"

"Want you."

"Let me...." Draco's trousers were apparently held closed with hooks, which he undid with two practiced pinches of fabric. Harry immediately pulled them down to Draco's knees. For a moment, he knelt there, distracted by the view. An uneven pitching of Draco's hips turned out to be Draco kicking trousers and pants off the rest of the way.

"Yours now," Draco insisted, reaching ineffectively. He pouted. "It isn't fair if I'm the only one undressed. I can't even reach your trousers."

"All right." Harry moved back off the bed and stood to push the offending garment down. He was very aware of how on display he was, even with the jumper still on. It didn't cover much of importance. "Better?"

After a shaky exhalation, Draco lifted his chin and pretended he hadn't been staring. "Yes. Now come back here."

Harry crawled back onto the bed, but only as far as he'd been before. He nudged Draco's legs apart to kneel between them, and returned to blatantly looking.

"Want to touch you."

"Go ahead."

Other sounds became loud in the absence of words: Harry's breathing, long with control, and Draco's, growing quicker and higher; the whisper of skin on skin; the unmistakable squelch of wetter contact. Harry wondered distantly if proper breeding sex sounded as vulgar, but he didn't pause to speculate.

"Harry," Draco implored. His cries rose, until Harry could hear him on the edge. He pushed his hands up Draco's sides and grabbed his nipples, squeezing tight, and Draco cried out and arched up in pleasure.

Harry stilled his motion, only then realizing that he had been rocking against the mattress. Shakily, Draco tugged at his arms, urging him up.

"Here. Wann' touch."

It was immensely satisfying to have broken Draco's diction. Harry grinned as he crawled up to lie beside Draco. There wasn't much room on the bed for two, but they didn't need any space between them.

"Good," he said quickly. "Want you to touch me." Draco hesitated, so Harry caught his hand and moved it to where he wanted it.

"Just that?" Draco asked, stroking him.

"Yeah." It took Harry a moment to find the breath for more. "Do that."

"As you wish." Draco wrapped a leg over Harry's, pulling their lower bodies closer together. In a low, sexy voice, he began to detail exactly what he liked about Harry in bed, until Harry was made with arousal. He moaned and started sucking on Draco's neck, unable to find words of his own.

"Just like that," Draco murmured. "Love the way your control dissolves, and you thrust and moan...."

He didn't get to say more, because Harry's control went to nothing at that. He grabbed Draco's arse and pulled him tight into a motion he couldn't stop until he came, roaring, and everything slowed to a blissful overload. He dissolved down, still tangled with his lover.

For a moment, they just breathed.

Draco shifted to a slightly more comfortable cuddle and Harry moved to accommodate him.

"Mm," Draco commented.

"Happy?"

"Exceedingly."

"Me too." Harry squeezed him briefly. "If anyone had told me, last September, that the place I would feel safest was in this room, I would have thought they were raving." He kissed the most accessible part of Draco, which was somewhere near his shoulder. "And if they'd said in Draco Malfoy's arms...."

Draco's breath went pleasantly shaky at that. "Then?"

"Oh, protests that nothing but the foulest of Dark Arts....." Harry kissed again, a suddenly tightened muscle. "And it's something so simple as love," he whispered, and Draco melted against him.

"Harry."

"I love you."

"I love you too." Draco rolled towards him. "I'm so glad to be back here."

"Our place."

"Yes." Draco sighed. "But we'll have to bring others, this year, I suppose."

"We'll find somewhere else," Harry promised recklessly.

"No. If Weasley's going to do divination for you, for example, this is the only place I'd trust."

Harry sighed. "Can we blindfold him for the entrance?"

"I find that idea entirely agreeable." Draco frowned. "If we're going to discuss this, might we get out of bed?"

"We don't need to discuss it."

Sitting up, Draco shook his head. "No. We ought to. Let's get dressed and collect the rubbish, and then we can sit properly and strategize."

"If you insist," Harry answered, rolling his eyes, but he realized Draco was probably right.

Draco walked about incinerating bits of paper, and Harry collected empty bottles -- one cognac, a large number of butterbeer, and to his surprise, one of orange fizz. When did I bring that in? Draco dumped out their rubbish, which had another two cognac bottles and perhaps a dozen of butterbeer. "Those too," he said, as he magically separated the burnable items out from plastic. "Put all the clear ones on the table."

Curious now, Harry did as he was instructed. Draco came over to sit on the sofa. "Hm," he said. "That's quite a lot of glass. Let's see...."

Drawing his wand, he began to rotate it next to the bottles, which rose, spun, and melted together into a liquid blob. At a word from Draco, the blob stabilized in the air, and he used his wand to draw out a smaller ball of it. He lengthened that to a rod and expanded one end into a bubble, slowly pushing the space down. When he was finished, he had a glass mug that he settled on the table.

"Not crystal," he said smugly, "but not transfigured. It will be perfectly stable, even under a Reversion hex."

"That's brilliant!"

Draco flushed with pride. He made four clear glass mugs and a glass ewer, and then swirled the rest of the clear glass in with the brown and green to make four plates and a number of floating candle holders which he levitated over to the reflecting pool.

"You have plans to entertain?" Harry asked pointedly, and Draco lifted his nose into the air.

"One should always be prepared for company."

"Huhn." Absently, Harry reached under the table and pulled out a bottle. "Shall we--"

"Where did that come from?"

"Um." Harry blinked. "The usual place?" he tried.

"But...." Draco stared at the bottle. "How is there cognac here? We didn't leave the grounds after Easter, and we haven't been--"

Harry shrugged. "Not until the day of the Leaving Feast. What did you think I'd got drunk on?"

Draco's stare lifted and bored into him. "You went to the Muggle village? Alone? During the day?"

"Well, yeah."

"You IDIOT!"

"I was very careful, Draco. I used a disillusionment spell, and kept the cloak on--"

"So you stole that?"

"I left money."

"Why not do it in Hogsmeade, then?"

"I'd be much more likely to get caught--"

"But less likely to get killed!"

"Draco," Harry said soothingly. "It was months ago. I lived."

"Merlin!"

Harry lifted the bottle slightly. "Would you like some? It's not as good as usual, but it's not bad."

"Promise me you won't be that careless again."

Harry snorted. "I wouldn't even believe that!"

Draco's eyes narrowed. "To be more specific," he said clearly, "if you are going to leave the Hogwarts grounds, talk to me first."

Harry bit his lip. "If you can afford to be involved, okay. I'd rather. But that one had to be mine."

After a long, audible breath, Draco responded. "Because it wasn't your house that would benefit."

"Yes."

"That wouldn't matter to mine."

"Well it mattered to mine a great deal." Harry looked away. Carefully, he poured two small portions. "And I believe it mattered to the Hufflepuffs, as well. The ones that were civil to me last year are still." He extended a glass to Draco. "Drink?"

"Wait," Draco said, even as he took the glass. "Don't drink any yet."

"It wasn't poisoned, Draco. I sealed the room when we left."

"I know! Just ... we should have a toast. For the year."

"Oh!" Harry sat straighter. Draco closed his eyes for a moment, his brow furrowing in concentration.

"Here," he said finally. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. "To our first year of adulthood and our last year of protection; to working and playing together; to victory."

Meeting his eyes, Harry smiled. Draco made a toast like he was casting a spell. "To us," he said simply, his glass meeting Draco's, and they both took a ritual sip of the amber liquid.

Draco's face scrunched up a little when he swallowed. "I'd forgotten," he said.

Harry laughed. "Snape didn't let you drink as much as your parents did?"

"Wine, often, but nothing distilled." Draco frowned. "And it's nowhere near as good."

Harry nodded apologetically. "It's the only time I bought something just to get drunk. I couldn't bring myself to get the cheapest thing available, but I also didn't want to drop what could be a week's rent on something I was going to waste a third of."

"We'll need to get something better in Hogsmeade."

"Oh, I have a lot of better stuff in my trunk; I'll bring some of it down."

Draco covered his face with one hand. "A lot of...."

"Not-- Just-- Look, some is for us, and some is for gifts, okay? I was out in Muggle London under polyjuice, and I went shopping."

Draco studied him. "I ... I don't mean to sound fussy," he apologized, "But I do want to know -- how much did you drink this summer?"

Harry frowned. "Just once, really. When I came home with this stuff, Fred and George were freaked out, so I gave them a bottle and we all had some. That's all. Nothing like before Easter."

"All right."

"Before Easter was because you pushed me, you know."

"I'm frighteningly aware of that. But in the steeple...."

"It wasn't that much either."

"Good, then." Draco took another sip. "Yes, you should bring something better down -- but I did mean it about finding more constructive things to do with at least some of our time, this year."

"Well, we have a list, don't we? Divination, war strategy, winning over our respective houses...."

Draco made a face. "You might have better luck with mine."

"Oh?"

"Well, it's not bad, really," Draco demurred. "The house is split, though."

"Over you?"

Draco gave him a look. "Over the Dark Lord, Potter. I'm just a symptom."

Harry grinned. "Ten minutes out of bed, and I'm 'Potter' again," he lamented.

"Only because you're being dense."

"So Slytherin is all either anti or pro-Voldemort?

Draco shrugged. "The upper years, at least." He thought. "Well, no. Pro or neutral, mostly. I can only think of a few who are genuinely opposed to him. Of course, Millicent seems to be firmly pro-you -- I'm just not convinced she's noticed the corollary. Her family is neutral." With a sigh, Draco turned slightly away from Harry, but only to settle back against him. "Do you know what's up with Hermione? She's ignoring me."

"Oh." Harry wondered how to explain.

"You're not surprised."

"No. Well, disappointed, maybe. Have you really tried speaking to her?"

"When we first got back. I said 'good morning' and she nodded and said it back like someone was holding a wand to her throat."

"You may have to try a few times."

"Why? We were friends in June. I haven't done anything since then." Draco's voice grew sharp. "Did she expect letters?"

"No, it's-- She gets the Prophet at her parents' house--"

"And?"

"They read some of it. About the trial. And she had to say yeah, that was me, and I'd been in a lot of trouble, and yeah, you were the boy she'd talked about before...."

"Why would she talk about me?"

"Because you called her names? Because you wished awful things on her?"

"Oh." Draco went pink. "That before."

"Right. So you may need to remind her you actually have changed. She may have convinced herself that you were just using her, last spring."

"Well, I was using her," Draco pointed out, "but not just. I mean, I became fond of her during it."

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm having trouble with her too."

"Hm. Maybe I should bring her to see the quiris." Draco shot Harry a challenging look. "You too."

"I'd expected that earlier."

Draco nodded. "I couldn't. It was too disturbing for them when everyone returned."

"Yeah?"

Horsyr said they were like this with even small groups of wizards, at first. They get used to the energies -- She's managing to take Keeba and her daughter through city neighborhoods, now."

"Interesting. So do they become less sensitive to Dark Arts?"

"At a distance, yes, they learn to ignore some of the residue. But she doesn't think the time aspect changes."

Harry nodded. That was interesting, but not useful. He sipped his drink. Draco sighed, and leaned back, relaxing against him again.

"All right," he said. "Special projects. Do we have time?"

"Bleh. It depends how seriously I take Hermione's study schedule."

"Hm. Perhaps we should ask her advice on projects. It might kill two birds with one stone. "

"Then she's with us."

"Yes, but we can be alone here. And if we do a project with McGonagall, that might be three birds. I'm sure she'd soften a bit if she saw me working with Hermione."

"True, but a project with Snape -- without her -- might give us time to consult with him without it being questioned."

Draco waved the thought off. "You forget, he's my spellfather. We can go to his rooms."

"Professor McGonagall won't approve if I start visiting there."

"Ah." Draco tilted his head. "Hm. Can we do one with each? Perhaps the one with Severus could be largely fictitious."

"He won't allow that."

"Oh, all right. Conceded. But he would agree to something easy, if he understood the purpose."

"Maybe." Harry laughed at his own doubt. "I suppose you'd know better than I would. We shouldn't meet more than once a week, I think."

"If that. Very well. Let's both think about it and discuss it again on Tuesday."

"Tuesday?"

"I had thought every other day, again?"

"All right. But it will have to be after my Quidditch practice, so we'll miss dinner."

"I'll bring food," Draco said promptly. "Next item -- Weasley. When?"

Harry groaned. "Give me at least a week or two."

"Your relationship is still tenuous?"

"Yeah. Better than last June, but ... shaky." Harry smiled wryly. "At least they've changed the damn match rotation. Gryffindor's up against Ravenclaw first. Worst case, I should be fine with him after that."

"Early October?"

"Yeah." Harry wrapped an arm around Draco's chest and pulled him close. "But I mean that about 'worst case.' I really think a week or two should do it, if I don't do anything he hates."

"We'll need at least that to complete research on the first potions, and I suspect at least a weekend to make them."

"Oh, right -- what do you have for that?"

They discussed the divination potions until Draco noticed that it was time for lunch, and then raced upstairs, pausing only as needed -- for Harry to seal the chamber behind them, and once for Draco to set a monitoring charm in front of their new entrance to the passage and close it, and for Harry to blow the dust around to hide their tracks. They walked into the Great Hall late and together.