The Best, Worst Punishment Ever

As it was, Harry and Draco did happen to run into each other before their class together on Monday. Of course, it really was highly unlikely that they wouldn't see each other at some point, since the whole school took it's meals together. This encounter, however, did not happened by chance.

It was Saturday, and for once Harry was doing homework because he wanted to, and not because Hermione was forcing him to do it. He was sitting beneath a willow tree (Not the whomping willow, of course...) that he frequented when he wanted solitude. It was a very calming and serene sort of place, with the leaves hanging down in such a way that one could see out perfectly well, but you had to know what you were looking for to be able to see in at all. Harry had never seen another student in 'his spot' before, so he was quite surprised to hear footsteps behind him, and then a frustrated sigh. Harry didn't bother to look up, he knew who it was - he always seemed to know when Draco was around.

"Fancy meeting you here," the ebony-haired boy said, in a poor attempt at a bit of humor, "Do you come here often?"

"Yes," came the voice behind him, "but I didn't know that anyone else did. You were here first though, so I guess I'll leave." Harry could hear Draco turn to go.

He noted to himself that the blonde sounded quite tired, but didn't feel that it was his place to say anything about that. Instead he said, "No, that's alright, it's fine with me if you want to stay. There's certainly room enough for more than one person here."

Harry really surprised himself with his offer, but he was even more surprised that the other boy seemed to accept, and sat down beside him.

"Thanks, I guess, Potter," he said, which was more than Harry would have expected, especially since Draco seemed so exhausted, for whatever reason that he was so. Harry nodded and went back to his homework.

Several minutes later Draco interrupted the comfortable silence that had fallen upon the pair, asking, "What are you working on, Harry?" Draco himself had not brought anything with him to the tree.

Harry couldn't help but notice the use of his first name, but in keeping with the silence about Draco's apparent fatigue, he said nothing about it. "I'm doing my Magical Theory paper for Transfiguration... I need about six more lines, and I figured that I ought to finish it up today," he responded. "I decided to write it about why some spells work better for some wizards than others. A disposition thing, you know? What did you do yours on?"

Draco was silent for a few moments, and Harry could see him shredding a blade of grass into his lap, as if debating to himself whether or not he wanted to tell Harry what his paper was on. Finally he answered, "Heredity's relation to the magical power of a wizard."

Harry was caught off guard by his answer; he wasn't sure what to think. So he asked, "Why did you choose that?"

Draco was quiet once more, and Harry took the time to reposition himself, scooting back up against the tree they were under, his shoulder just barely touching Draco's.

"Eh..." Draco began in a very 'Harryesque' manner, "Some things happened this summer, and ever since then I've been trying to find ways do some research about, well, you know, the things that the Dark Lord stands for and advocates. I want to know for myself whether it's actual truth, or if I've been fed garbage information my whole life. I suppose that this essay gave me the cover that I needed to do that research."

The Boy Who Lived found this to be quite a bit to digest at once, but he had to ask Draco something else, "Do you plan to join him?"

"No," was the immediate response, "Not ever. Firstly I don't think I could ever just follow orders from someone, but mostly because Voldemort is filth itself. He doesn't deserve to lead the Wizarding race. That doesn't mean that the ideals he has aren't worth something, I just have to find out if they are or not for myself."

That made sense, Harry figured. At least, it made sense that Draco would reason it out that way. To be honest Harry couldn't blame the boy. He knew something bad had happened over the summer, though he didn't yet know what. Also, Harry realized, if he had been the one to grow up with Lucius as a father, he would probably be confused about what was right and what was wrong as well.

Apparently Harry had been thinking about all this for quite a bit of time. His essay lay forgotten beside him, and the sun was beginning to set across the lake. Harry liked sunsets, so he turned his attention to watching this one. He found it very amusing that he was watching what really was a very romantic sunset in his secret hiding spot with Draco Malfoy. No, he never would have predicted that. Nor would they believe him if he told them.

Harry nearly jumped when he felt something drop onto his shoulder. He looked and saw that what happened to be resting quite peacefully on him was Draco Malfoy's head.

The blonde had fallen asleep.

'Well,' Harry thought, 'That's an interesting development.'

He didn't do anything about it. He knew Draco was tired, and didn't want to wake the boy. He felt quite comfortable himself, with Draco's head on his shoulder, not that he would ever care to admit it. He closed his eyes as well, and soon drifted into sleep himself.

When Harry awoke about an hour later, Draco was gone.

**

It was halfway through Potions class the day after the 'incident at the tree,' as Harry liked to refer to it as, and things were proceeding fairly normally. Snape had taken a total of twenty points from the Gryffindors, mostly because they refused to stop breathing, and everyone was in the middle of brewing a perceptivity potion.

Harry was paying extra careful attention to his potion, because just a slight variation in ingredients or preparation could cause a vast change in the potion's effects. He joked in his mind that he needed to take the potion in order to make it. He was also trying to concentrate more than usual, because the filler of most of Harry's thoughts, one, Mr. Draco Malfoy, was sitting directly behind Seamus, who was on Harry's left, in the isle seat.

When Draco rose from his seat to go get some extra frog's ears (which Harry of course, did not notice) Seamus subtly turned and dumped a small amount of ground dragon scales into Draco's potion. Harry was sure that he was the only one who noticed Seamus do this, and he only did because he was so busy not watching Draco look through the supplies in the back of the room.

Harry decided to pretend he hadn't noticed.

He had gone back to working on his potion, making sure that it would come out well, when he heard a startled yelp behind him. Harry's seeker-quick reflexes allowed him to turn around before anyone else could, in time to see Draco trip over someone's knapsack, and begin to stumble.

The next few moments were almost like slow motion for Harry.

He watched at Draco continued to half fall, half stagger towards his workplace, and everyone else's heads and body's turn to see what was happening. Harry watched as Draco hit his desk, and then his cauldron, and he watched as it knocked straight forward, spilling its contents onto Seamus. Harry watched as the altered potion began to work like a powerful acid, eating through Seamus's clothing, and begin to burn the poor boy's skin.

Almost immediately Snape was at their sides, and muttered a spell at Seamus, which caused the disappearance of the entire spilled potion. Harry gasped as he saw before him, Seamus, with barely any clothes on, and violently red marks all over his body. He looked horrible, and like he was in very bad pain. Snape then uttered another spell, which caused the boy to go unconscious, and float several inches above the floor.

Snape said, "Potter. Take Finnigan to the infirmary immediately, and explain to Madame Pomfrey what has happened. She should know what to do. Mr. Malfoy," he turned his attention to the blond, who was standing as still as a statue, with a look of horror on his pale face, "you will follow me. The rest of you will stay and finish your potions, I will be back before the end of the class period."

With that, Snape strode from the room, followed by a very pale and reluctant Draco Malfoy, a very stunned Harry Potter pulling a floating Seamus Finnigan behind him.

As they left, Harry heard the class break out in whispers. He really could blame them.

**

Soon enough, Harry had deposited Seamus in the Infirmary, and told Madame Pomfrey all that had happened. She had sighed, clucked, and told him that he better be getting back to class. Pomfrey said that Seamus would be fine as soon as she mixed up the right remedy. Harry trusted her word, so he left to go back to Potions.

When Harry reached the dungeons classroom almost ten minutes later, he saw that Professor Snape had not yet returned. Many of the students had finished brewing their potions, and had bottled the mixture. Several had already cleaned up and were talking with those around them about the incident. As he sat back down at his seat, noticing that someone had finished his potion for him, knowing that if they didn't it was likely to become harmful as well, several of Harry's classmates came over to ask if Seamus would be alright. After Harry had assuaged most of the students' fears and they had returned to their seats Hermione came over to talk to him.

"That's really awful, what happened to Seamus, don't you think Harry?" she asked him as she sat down in Seamus's empty seat.

"Yeah. At least it was an accident, though," Harry replied.

"Accident?" Hermione sounded puzzled, "But Malfoy knocked the cauldron into Seamus. Didn't you see him? How is that an accident?"

Harry furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Yes, but he tripped and fell into it. I saw it happen."

Hermione now looked perplexed. "How come no one else saw that then? After the four of you left all the Slytherins started talking about how smart Malfoy is and everything. No one even mentioned anything about him tripping. I think everyone thinks that Malfoy did it on purpose."

Had Harry been the only person in the class to witness the full events? Surely Snape would have seen what had happened.

Harry found himself hoping that Draco wasn't going to get in too much trouble.

Snape returned shortly before the end of class, and immediately asked, "Did any of you happen to witness the whole of what happened earlier?"

Several people raised their hands. Harry was among them.

"Good," Snape continued, "After class I want those of you who raised your hands to report to the headmaster's office. Be prepared to relay what it is that you saw happen. The password is pickled peppermint."

Several people snickered at this password. Harry, who had already known what it was, just sat calmly, thinking about what he would say to the headmaster.

"Those of you who go will be excused from your next class. Now. Everyone please bring up your finished potions, and remember: Your essays on the properties of the dragon scales that you used in these potions today are due next time we have class. As soon as I have your potions, you are all dismissed."

Harry absentmindedly turned in his potion, gathered his things, and started the journey to the headmaster's office, several students trailing behind him.

**

When the students had arrived at Dumbledore's office and gone up the winding staircase, they had been told to wait outside and go in one at a time to tell their account of the events. Three students had gone in and come out, and Harry was the next in line. Actually, he was the last person waiting to go in, and after the fourth student came out of the office it would be his turn to go in and tell the tale.

Harry had been going over what had happened in his head ever since he had arrived at the office. As far as he knew, he was the only person to have seen the event in its entirety, and everyone else thought that what had really been an accident, was done on purpose. The Gryffindor knew that if it was decided that Draco's acts had been purposeful, it was most likely that he would be expelled. Harry admitted to himself that there was something quite fascinating about the blond Slytherin boy, something that Harry found himself quite drawn to. He knew that he simply did not want Draco to be expelled, and was going to try his hardest to make people see that the incident wasn't Draco's fault.

The student who had been in the headmaster's office stepped out, and motioned for Harry to go in, before heading down the steps. Harry stood, brushed off his Gryffindor robes, and entered the office in front of him.

"Please sit here, Harry," Dumbledore said gravely, motioning with a hand to the seat Harry had sat in the last time he was in this office, not to many days before.

Harry sat, and wondered where Draco was. The dark haired boy waited for the headmaster to begin.

"You say that you witnessed the whole event in the Potions classroom, Harry?" Dumbledore spoke calmly, as though nothing more significant tan a student/teacher conference was occurring, "The last four students that said that they have gave me roughly the same story, but were unable to account for several aspects of what has happened. Are you sure that you know more than any of them?"

"Yes sir," Harry replied with the same calm tone, "I am quite sure that I saw more of the occurrence than anyone else did."

Dumbledore gave a very small smile and said, "I have heard the effect that the potion had on young Mr. Finnigan, and Professor Snape assures me that there is only one thing that could have happened to the potion to have caused those results." Then he asked, "Can you tell me what happened to Mr. Malfoy's potion?"

"Yes sir. Quite a bit more of the crushed dragon scales than was needed happened to be added to Malfoy's potion."

"Really now? That's exactly what Professor Snape said would have had to have happened," Dumbledore seemed to be getting quite curious about what Harry had to say, "Can you tell me how the extra powder got into his potion? Once I told the other students of this, they seemed to think that Mr. Malfoy had put it there himself, so he could later dump the potion onto Mr. Finnigan."

Harry knew that he would be able to stop Draco's expulsion now, "Actually, Headmaster," he said, "That's not what happened at all. As loathe as I am to admit that one of my fellows, and good friends is capable of such an act, I must tell you that I saw Seamus himself dump the extra into Malfoy's cauldron."

Harry knew that sucking up to the headmaster would, once again, be a very good idea.

Dumbledore seemed quite intrigued by this new information, "Is that so? So if Seamus had in fact, not tried to sabotage Draco's potion, than he would not be in the situation that he is in right now. He just would have been a little messy. Interesting." The headmaster then seemed to consider something else for a moment. "One last thing, Harry, did you perchance, happen to see whether or not our young Mr. Malfoy happened to knock over his own cauldron accidentally, or purposefully?"

Harry sighed with relief when he heard this question, "It was an accident, Headmaster. Malfoy happened to trip on someone's knapsack. I'm not sure whose it was, but I saw him do it. He stumbled a bit before falling forward and into his cauldron. Not that I'm saying he'd never do anything like that on purpose, but I know for a fact that he didn't in this case."

Dumbledore then sat and thought for several moments before speaking, "Well, dear Mr. Potter, I am quite inclined to believe you. However, I find it difficult to believe that others will be so willing to accept what you have just told me as true. Thusly, while I have decided that an expulsion is definitely NOT in order, I must do something to assuage people's tempers."

Now it was Harry's turn to be curious. He found himself unusually anxious as well, especially considering that it was Draco Malfoy's fate that was about to be decided. But perhaps it was because it was Draco Malfoy he found himself anxious.

"What do you mean, sir?" Harry asked.

"What I mean," Dumbledore replied once more in his almost annoyingly vague way, "is that I must find a way to punish Draco without actually punishing him. I'm sure that what I have decided to do will look like quite a horrible punishment from everyone's point of view."

Harry was quite exasperated that the headmaster wouldn't just hurry up and get to the point. "What are you going to do?" he asked, hoping to speed things up.

"I have decided that from now, until the end of the year, Mr. Malfoy will reside in a room in Gryffindor tower."

Harry was speechless. Instead of trying to find something to say, he resigned himself to sitting back in his chair and waiting for the rest of an explanation. He had never heard of anything like this happening before.

"As I'm sure you have guessed, some things occurred over the summer to change the way Draco has been acting. Because of those things, Professors McGonagall, Snape, and myself feel that Draco is no longer totally safe among his peers, some of whom have... eh, different views on certain matters than, perhaps, you and I do. This incident today provides us with a viable excuse to get Draco further out of harms way. We will move him to Gryffindor Tower under the pretext of a punishment, and trying to improve his relations with your house, while at the same time, we will be keeping him away from possible danger."

Harry just nodded, dumbfounded.

"No one is to know of this, Harry. It would threaten Draco even more than he already is. Even he will not know the true reasons for this move. The reason that I am telling you this Harry, is because I have a favor to ask."

"Yes?" Harry asked, finally finding his voice.

"Even though Draco will be moving into your house, and taking meals and classes with you, he will still be a Slytherin, officially. I am sure that you are aware that this situation will not be liked by many, and what I wanted to ask of you, is if you could possibly be a friend to him. The both of you will need all of the friends you can get in the coming months and years, and I have a strong feeling that, if you let yourselves, you could become irreplaceable assets to each other. I am sure that people whom Draco can trust will soon be in short supply. He will need all the friends that he can get."

Harry thought about this. Did he want to risk ridicule in his own house for befriending Draco? He knew that he couldn't explain to them why the blond was really staying in Gryffindor, or tell them about his innocence, but he found that for some reason, he really DID want to become friends with the Slytherin. So, he decided to agree with the headmaster's wishes.

"Alright, sir, I can do that."

And Harry found himself smiling as he said it.