Harry woke on the 1st of September, and with a groan, he rolled over onto his side and slowly opened his eyes. He looked up at the sunroof which showed him a gloomy rainy morning, and he thought, Same. He just stares up at the roof, thinking deeply about his life and what it used to be like living in literal hell with the Dursleys, being abused, starved, tormented, and bullied by Dudley. But now he has a happy family, an incredible boyfriend, and the best of friends, so he can't be feeling depressed again. Though he knows it's normal to feel depressed every now and then, especially for him, it depends on what triggers him.

The bedroom door opened, and Remus walked in. He had a smile on his face, and Harry just looked to his side at him and forced a smile. "Good morning, pup," he says lightly, and he sits down on Harry's bed. He notices how down the boy looks and sighs. "What's wrong?"

Harry covers his face with his red blankets to hide himself from Remus and the world. He just wants to stay in bed all day in the dark and not do anything. It sounds nice anyway. "Depressed," he answers, voice muffled by his blankets. "Been thinking too deeply about life and things."

Remus nods. He understands deep thinking and its effects. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asks gently, but Harry shakes his head from under the blankets; he doesn't want to talk to Remus about his intrusive thoughts. "Let's at least get some food in you." He reached into his pocket and fished out a bar of chocolate, and Harry, being a little curious about why Remus hadn't left his bed and his bedroom listened in. "Chocolate is what I call food therapy."

At the sound of chocolate, Harry removed the blankets from his head and peeked over them at the chocolate Remus was holding. Chocolate? He knows it usually doesn't work for him, but he will try it again to see if it'll help him somehow. "I guess," he deadpans.

"Accio chocolate!" it was Severus standing by the door, wand pointed at the chocolate bar in Remus' hand. The chocolate bar flew into his hand, and once he had it, he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Remus. "No chocolate before breakfast. Fittingly similar, there's no dessert before dinner."

Harry sighs and gets back under his warm blankets, and Remus frowns at Severus as he wants his chocolate back. It made Severus realize that something was wrong. Harry always loved getting ready to head back to Hogwarts. It was his seventh year after all. It should be exciting! "I'll bring you breakfast," he says at last, "but you must get yourself ready. Draco will be waiting for you at Platform 9 ¾ by eleven. We can discuss how you're feeling during breakfast."

Harry brings his head out from under his blankets and nodded tiredly at him.

After a tiresome breakfast of talking, which he didn't want to do at all, he heads back to his bedroom to get himself ready. The enchanted sunroof is still showing a rainy morning, and Harry couldn't help but stare blankly at it.

He packed his trunk yesterday so he was free all morning, and so he collapsed down onto his bed and sighed. Why must I feel like this? He was thinking to himself. Why, out of all days, must it be today that I feel like shit?

He rolls over and just stares at the wall, wishing to see Draco, but then again, he doesn't want to, and now he just feels guilty for thinking these things and feeling worthless and so many things at once. Why can't these emotions and thoughts just stop?

The talk during breakfast didn't really help at all. It was just the usual, how he's loved so much, and how there's so much to life that he hasn't seen or experienced yet. All that ya-da ya-da. He knows all of it already. He just wants to be alone to wallow in his tears, and self-pity, hug his pillow and think it's Draco.

"What should we do?" Remus stood outside Harry's bedroom with Severus, and he looked at the blob on Harry's bed that was Harry with worry. He wished he knew how to help his pup.

"As they say, sometimes you require time to yourself until you come back out into the light," Severus says quietly, leaning against the door frame and frowning at his son who can't even get out of bed and stay out. He just hopes he can get Harry out of bed when he has to catch the Hogwarts Express at eleven. "Come. We need to give him space."

Remus nods, and with a last glance into the bedroom, he follows Severus back out.

Harry gives a little sigh as he has peace and quiet again, but it doesn't make him feel any better. He feels as if nothing can make him feel better. Not even Draco or his warm hugs and breathtaking kisses he knows could make him feel better. He wants his bed to swallow him up and get rid of his body.

Remus made an appearance in Harry's bedroom again because he just needs to say a few things, and give Harry chocolate as he missed his opportunity earlier this morning. "Listen," he says softly. Harry sluggishly turns over to face him but kept half his face hidden by the blanket that he tried snuggling into. "I need you to know... that you are an amazing person." He walks over and sits beside him. "I know what you're feeling right now is not very good, but just know, that you are one important person to us. And even though you may feel like nobody loves you, that's not true." He reaches into his pocket to pull his second bar of chocolate out as he always keeps a spare. "There are so many people that love you and care about you, and that includes us. We're all praying for you, and I know once you get through this, you're going to realize how many people are here for you. So, take the time you need to heal. Just know that when you're done, we're all going to be here waiting for you."

Harry slowly sits up and nods his head as that's all he can do right now. He doesn't know what to say. He doesn't exactly want to say anything. "Thank you," he eventually says, and he leans over for a hug. Remus was a little surprised at first, but he accepted the hug happily.

The hug lasted a few seconds before Harry pulls away, and he takes the chocolate from Remus with a quiet "Thank you."

Remus smiles at him and reaches up to ruffle his hair. Harry groans and leans away from him as he takes off the wrapper to the chocolate and stuffs the chocolatey deliciousness into his mouth. It didn't help as much as he hoped it would.

Remus sighs and gets back up. "Remember the train leaves at eleven," he tells him, and Harry nods his head. "Good. Make sure to be out by ten thirty." Harry nods, then covers his head in his blankets, hoping he can fall asleep in the darkness.

"Harry, do you even know what time it is?" Remus asked the blanketed head that reminds him of a Dementor but red and soft. Harry shakes his head. "It's nine fifty-seven. You slept in for quite some time."

"I only got around two hours of sleep last night, Remus," Harry replies at once in a flat voice. He took off the blanket from his head, his black hair messier than it ever has been. "What do you expect?" Remus raises an eyebrow, and Harry realized that sounded a little rude. "Sorry," he mutters.

"That's okay," Remus says gently. "Now, I expect you out of bed soon. Understand?"

Harry nods. "Yep, I understand," he deadpans. "I'll be out by ten."

"Good," said Remus, and then he turned and left the room.

Harry crawls over to his pillows and faceplants into them, and his arms wrap around them tightly. He closed his eyes, and his train of thoughts darkened as he begins to remember some of the punishments he had gotten from Uncle Vernon and the ugly words that came out of his big mouth that had once hurt him terribly. His life used to suck ass, and now it doesn't, but he feels as if it still does.

He just lays there, contemplating life, and he wonders what this year will bring him. Will Neville grow another head? Will Peeves do something hectic? Will Hagrid bring a Dragon into the school for the students to learn about? He knows he must get out of bed, but it's just so hard. It should be easy to get out of bed.

After some time, Harry manages to get out of bed, grab his trunk and Hedwig, and head out of his bedroom into the kitchen. He placed his trunk and Hedwig's cage by the Island. He slumped down on the stool and rested his hand under his chin over the island counter.

Severus was leaning over the other side of the island counter facing Harry, drinking his tea, and reading the Daily Prophet which lay flat on the island. Remus was seen in the lounge room reading by the fireplace on Severus' favourite armchair.

Severus looked away from the new article in the Daily Prophet and at his son who he can see looks very depressed, and he sighs at him. He decided to just drop Harry off at Malfoy Manor to Draco just so Harry's not alone for the next thirty minutes, and because he and Remus have to get to Hogwarts as soon as possible. "Let's go, Harry. It's time."

Harry nodded slowly and thought to himself, it's time to go already? He grabbed his trunk and Hedwig's cage and followed his father to the Floo, green eyes blank and movements automated.

Severus handed Harry the vase, and Harry reached into it and grabbed a handful of Floo powder. "To Malfoy Manor, Harry."

Harry looked at him. "What?" he drawls, face blank of any emotions. "I thought..."

"You're meeting with Draco," Severus tells him and places a gentle hand on Harry's back. "Remus and I have to return to Hogwarts now, so we conceive it's best to drop you off at the Malfoys. We'll see you at dinner in the Great Hall."

"Oh," mutters Harry. He quickly wraps an arm around Severus and squeezes him. He knows he will see him later, but he just wants a hug, though he knows it wouldn't help him. Severus smiles as he wraps his arms around Harry and rubs his back. Harry leans away, grabs his trunk and puts Hedwig's cage under his arm as he walks into the Floo, drops the Floo Powder to his feet and says, "Malfoy Manor!"

He walks into the lounge room of Malfoy Manor, smells the burning candle scents in the air and the burning of firewood, and he looks around. He doesn't see anyone around, so he puts down his trunk and Hedwig's cage by the coffee table and slouches down onto the couch. He can't be bothered with walking around the manor helplessly in search of either Draco or Narcissa. "Misky?" he calls out to the only other elf he knows. He then thinks about Dobby and starts missing him.

A familiar crack was heard and a gentle "Hello-"

Harry jumps a little in fright and swiftly turns his body around to face whoever disturbed him. It was Misky the House Elf. She looked much better than when he last saw her. She even had a little light blue bow headband on her large head, and to match the headband she wore a sweet little light blue dress.

"Misky does not mean to scare Harry Potter," the house elf says quickly, both her index fingers poking tips quickly with nervousness. "Misky only wanted to see what was needed by the future Malfoy – Misky means-"

"Wait..." said Harry slowly, knowing that the elf said something she either shouldn't have or didn't mean to. "What? The future what?"

"Nothing," says Misky at once and slaps her hand over her face. "Bad Misky!" she mutters, and Harry grabs the elf's wrist to refrain Misky from hitting herself again. "Misky just jumbled up Misky's words, that's all."

"Right," Harry mumbles and lets go of the elf's wrist. "Well... As much as it's a pleasure to meet you, I'm actually here to see Draco. He and I are going back to Hogwarts today, you see."

"Of course, Harry Potter," said Misky with a bow, smiling when thinking about how happy his master will be to see Harry. "Misky will be back soon." With a crack, Misky disappeared from the room, and Harry collapsed down onto the grey lounge chair and stuffed his face in the grey pillows with a sigh.

He listens to the crackling fire in front of him, and the wind blowing against the Manor outside which is quite peaceful to him. It always has been, but he knows it's best when it is raining. Just as he closes his eyes to focus on the scents and sounds around him, Draco's handsome face appears over the back of the couch, and with it, a smile.

"Harry!" Draco beams and walks around the couch for a snuggle, but when he sees the depressed demeanour his boyfriend is showing, he frowns and just sits down at Harry's feet. "Darling, talk to me. Please?"

"There's nothing to talk about," Harry mutters, and he thinks that his voice was too quiet for Draco to hear, but he doesn't want to repeat his own words. It's like having a sore throat, but it's too hard to even talk or breathe. "Just been thinking about my past. That's all."

Draco nods, understanding him and he gently rubs Harry's ankles. Harry's stuck in the past; he needs help to get back out of it. "If you need to talk, I am always here for you," he reminds him softly.

"I know," Harry replies, and he makes himself sit up and crawls over to Draco. When face to face with the blonde, he leans closer and kisses him in hope that it would make him feel better. When Draco kisses back, it makes him feel a little lighter like Draco's kisses always have to him, but he still feels like crap. He leans away, locks eyes with silver, and slowly wraps his arms around the Slytherin, his heart rapidly beating against his chest at the feel of the other bloke so close to him again. "I love you, Draco."

Draco smiles in the hug and tightens his arms around him. "I love you too, Harry Potter."

They snuggle on the couch together until Narcissa walks into the lounge room, smiles at the two, and wakes them up with a little rub on the shoulder. It was time to head off to London to drop the two off at the train station. "Come on, boys," she says gently. "Time to go."

Harry groans quietly, not wanting to get off the couch and just stay stuck to it all day but he eventually got up after a few seconds at the hands of his lover who pulled him up. He grabs his trunk and Hedwig's cage, and when Misky pops Draco's trunk into the lounge room to them, Narcissa apparates them to the nearest alleyway in London close to Central Station.

On platform 9 ¾, they bid their farewells to Narcissa and gave her departing hugs.

"Goodbye, mother," Draco says and kissed her forehead; she smiled delightfully. "And yes, I'll write to you every two weeks or three."

"Good, good," says Narcissa, smiling brightly at her son and Harry. She sighs happily as she looks at the two grown men in front of her, though what saddens her is the sight of Harry looking so down. Of course, she noticed Harry looking depressed earlier but kept her worry inside. "Both of you, do your best. It's your last year." She starts tearing up. "Oh, I'm so proud of you both."

"Thank you, Narcissa, and I'll try my hardest this year," Harry says and forces a smile, his trunk in his hand, and Hedwig's cage in his other.

"I will too," Draco says to her, and he runs a fast hand through his hair. "You know I always strive at doing my best, mother."

"I know, my darling son," Narcissa says sweetly, her smile only widening as she ushers the two towards the train. "Now go. You've both got some friends to catch up with on your journey to school."

Draco linked arms with Harry and boarded the scarlet steam engine with him. Instead of finding a compartment together, they entered the one with Pansy, Blaise, and Neville. Pansy was sitting by the window alone, while Blaise and Neville took up the other seat together, but Neville was petting his cactus plant and Blaise was reading a book.

"Greetings, friends," Draco says, making his and Harry's presence known to the other three, and he sits down next to Pansy. "Ah, Pansy, how are you and where's Daphne? You're always with her. The two of you are inseparable."

"She's somewhere on this train, but I just don't know where," Pansy says, distractedly looking out the window at the station slowly moving away. "But what I want to know is..." She looked at the two curiously. "How's Ivy? I heard you found her, alive and well with Lavender Brown. How did you find them?"

"Ivy's doing well," said Draco, a smile on his face when remembering his cousin singing her heart out on stage where she's meant to be. "We found her at a muggle carnival. She was up on stage singing. Vincent and Gregory were there too, and the same was Theodore Nott."

Neville looked up at Draco at the mention of his ex boyfriend.

"They were brainwashed," Harry tells them flatly, his eyes on Draco's hands which were intertwined with his own. "Ivy and Lavender don't remember Hogwarts or even Draco and I when they saw us. But Ivy knows she's a vampire. We didn't get a chance to talk to Gregory, Vincent, and Theodore though."

"How are Vincent and Gregory anyway?" Blaise asks, not looking away from his book at the chapter he was reading. "Did they seem alright?"

"They looked quite well-groomed and happy, so I guess they're doing fine, "Draco says, leaning back and putting an arm around Harry who, like Pansy, was a little quiet and looked just as depressed as he did earlier this morning. "But that's not the point here. They had most of their memories erased. They don't remember who we are or even that their wizards and witches."

Blaise frowned, and so did Pansy as she keeps looking dazedly out the window at the city becoming farther and farther away. It was incredible to hear that their friends are alive.

"So... is anyone going to do anything about the memory-erased problem?" Pansy asked the window, but she eventually looked beside her at Draco, and then at Blaise and Neville. "I want my sister back. And the two slime balls of yours, Draco. Even Theodore, though he's quite annoying."

"We don't know," said Draco quietly, shrugging lightly. Harry stayed quiet, leaned his head on Draco's shoulder and wanted to hide himself away from the world. "We told Professor Snape and Professor Lupin about it, and they forwarded it to Headmistress McGonagall. I dunno what they're going to do about it. Maybe they'll mention it through the Feast."

"Maybe," said Blaise. "But I hope-"

There was a knock on the compartment door. Hermione Granger already in her school robes peeked in with Ron behind her, and she opened the door and walked over to Harry. "Harry!" she says happily, but then notices his true emotions but doesn't stop looking happy. She sits beside him, and Harry forces a smile at her and leans towards her for a hug. Hermione's smile widens as she wraps her arms around him and squeezes him tightly in her bear hug. "It's so good to see you again, Harry. We love you."

"I love all of you too," Harry says, his face covered with Hermione's bushy hair but he doesn't mind, even if it somehow comes alive and decides to strangle him. He wants his alone time anyway to wallow in self-pity.

Hermione rubs his back and kisses his cheek before leaning away with a short sigh. Harry keeps his face blank, thinking that even if he winces he will upset her. Looking at Draco and Pansy, Hermione nods her head towards the compartment door. "Come, you two," she says at once. "We have Prefect duties."

Draco groaned, wrapped his arms tightly around Harry and shook his head. "Not going anywhere," he says quickly, and he smiles as he successfully makes Harry chuckle a little. "You go. Pansy can just tell me the important information after."

"No, Draco, you're coming too," Hermione says strictly, crossing her arms over her chest and adopting a non-indulgent look. "You can see Harry afterwards. He'll be here while we're at Prefect meetings with Blaise and Neville."

"Fine," Draco mutters, and he looks at Harry with a smile. "Babe?" Harry turns his head to look at him, his face still blank and empty of emotions. Draco cups Harry's face and kisses him softly, wanting to give Harry all his love and happiness for as long as he can. Harry sighs in the kiss, giving Draco all he has, and he wraps his arms around Draco's waist.

Pansy quietly gets up and exits the compartment without looking at anybody, her eyes looking down at her white French-tipped nails.

Hermione rolls her eyes at the couple but smiled. She got up and walked out of the compartment after Pansy while Ron stayed behind to make sure Draco does get up and go to the meeting.

Draco leans away after a while, his cheeks pink, his heart beating rapidly in his chest, and his eyes shiny with love. "I care for you so much, Harry," he whispers.

"I care for you too, Draco," Harry replies back quietly, his lips moist and pink, his heart thumping against his chest, and he was a little breathless from the kiss. "You should get going. I don't want you to miss out on anything, and I think Pansy needs someone to talk to. You saw how down she looked."

Draco nods. He had noticed Pansy looking sadder than she had after the breakup with Hermione last year. "I'll see you later then," he says, gives Harry one last kiss, and then leaves the room with a smile on his face.

Harry sighs and leans back on the compartment chair. He felt Neville and Blaise's eyes on him, but he didn't mind. He thinks that maybe they want the compartment to themselves. Whatever. He gets up, doesn't look at the two and exits the compartment. Hmm... what to do? He can't join the prefect meetings. He doesn't want to disturb Luna and Ginny. How about Seamus and Dean? Nah, they're probably snogging their faces off. With a sigh, he just walked up and down the train until he hears singing.

"A whole new world... A dazzling place I never knew.."

He peeked into the compartment and sees two young girls singing together with smiles on their faces, and they were obviously first years and either muggle-born or half-blood as they know about the Aladdin song. He moves along and sees five young children in a compartment on a white rectangular mat with large coloured dots on all these weird positions. He understands what it is though. Dudley has one. Its Twister. He has never got to try it though. It looks quite fun. But why were they playing Twister on the bloody train?

He walks away from that compartment and just continued walking down the train carriage. He ends up in the bathroom and enters in. He turns the taps on, splashes his face with cold water and looks at himself in the mirror. He sees the dark-haired boy that was tormented and abused but grown up, glasses still round, his lightning bolt scar pink and healing.

Suddenly, he gets flashes of his past from living back at the Dursleys. All that emotional and physical pain he remembers triggers him, and he starts feeling an emotional breakdown and panic attack starting up. Trying to stop it from happening, he squeezes his eyes shut tightly, grabs the sides of the sink constricting with his hands and rocks back and forth while thinking of all the happy things that have happened in his life. It doesn't help, even a little.

He leans against the wall right from the sink and slides his back down the wall until seated on the floor, his knees at his chest, and he wraps his arms around them and rests his forehead on his knees. He starts shaking, though he doesn't know why when he's not hyperventilating. Am I dying? He asked himself. Should I go get help? This could be serious... But he didn't want to get help from others. He wanted to stay here, in the small bathroom, alone, to wallow in his self-pity.

His deep thinking darkens, and he begins thinking about the possibility that he could somehow mess things up with everything. He sees himself being pushed away by his friends and losing them, Draco breaking up with him because he's a freak and just can't be happy with life at all, losing Narcissa as another mum but also as a good friend, disappointing Severus and Remus from the possibility of his future grades... now he's going to deep.

He looks down at his long sleeve-covered arms, warm tears flooding his eyes, knowing it has been too long since he last cut. He doesn't remember where he kept his blades. He rolls his sleeve up, and he notices the scars from his old cuts healed and pink. He wants to see his red blood dripping down his wrists again. Blinking away more tears, he scratches hard at his wrist and arm, seeing his skin turn raw and red, and then he suddenly feels the slight numbness he's been secretly craving.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the bathroom door.

Harry stayed quiet, besides the quiet sobs of internal pain he was letting out from within. When the knock was heard again, Harry forcefully bumped his head on the wall behind him. "Go away!" he says at once, warm tears running down his cheeks.

"Harry?" came a voice on the other side of the door, and Harry couldn't mistake that strong Irish accent for anyone else. It was Seamus Finnegan. "Is that ye?"

Harry didn't want to say anything. But Seamus knows he's inside the bathroom. "No," he chokes out and quickly rolls down his sleeve. "Harry's not here."

Seamus sighs. He knew it was Harry by his voice. But what worried him was why Harry hasn't come out of the bathroom yet. He doesn't hear the sound of using the toilet, or the running water from the tap. He has a feeling that something's not right. "Harry, if yer not using the toilet, can I?"

Harry didn't want to leave Seamus busting to go. But he doesn't want to leave either. What he wants is to just lie down somewhere and sleep through the day, and then the week and hopefully not wake up ever. "Alright," he eventually says, voice tired and muttered. "I'm coming out." He's picturing his escape. When he opens the door, he will rush away and down the train carriage to the nearest open compartment to lock himself in. He sluggishly got up to his feet, wiped his wet eyes on his jumper sleeves, and walked slowly to the door. He sniffs, unlocks the door and opens it up but looks down and away from Seamus' face.

Seamus looked at Harry when he came into view, and it was easy to see that Harry had been crying. He frowns at Harry and wraps his arms around him for a hug, though he isn't much of a hugger, besides when hugging Dean. Harry doesn't hug him back. He just lets his hands frail at his side and lets Seamus hug him. "Harry, I know yer not okay, and I just want to tell ye that it is okay to cry and be upset," he says softly, rubbing Harry's back soothingly. "And to include to that, ye are loved by so many people, even Dean and I care for you. You're like a brother at Hogwarts to us, and a good mate out of Hogwarts. Now..." He lets go of the hug and leans out, but grips Harry's arms so Harry has no chance of possible escape. "I don't want ye going anywhere alone, so I'm going to take ye to Dean. I do still need the toilet though."

Harry just nods, and when Seamus lets go of him, he gets guided back through the train carriages until they reach a compartment. Seamus opens the door, and Harry walks in slowly, seeing Dean sitting in the corner with a blue book in his hands and chocolate frog containers all around him on the seats, and around a spot where Seamus would have sat before.

Dean looks up at the two walking into the compartment, and although his eyes go straight for Seamus, he still sees the gloomy look on Harry's face. "Oh, Harry," he says lightly, and then pats the space next to him on the compartment seat. "Come sit with us."

Harry hesitates for a second, knowing they would be asking him questions. Questions in which he doesn't want to answer. He sits down next to Dean, and keeps his eyes on his feet or the floor, not wanting to look anyone in the eye at all.

"Harry, can you tell us what's wrong?" Dean asks, placing a gentle hand on Harry's shoulder. "It doesn't have to be too descriptive. Just... what's going through your head at the moment."

Harry's thinking, Trust me, you don't want to know what goes on in my head. Why can't I just be alone and at peace? He suddenly cannot wait to get to Hogwarts so he can fuck off from the rest of the students and teachers and just hide somewhere for the rest of the night. "I've..." he starts in a muttered voice, "been thinking too much, about life and everything. Negative thinking, to be precise."

Dean nodded. "Okay," he says, and he squeezes Harry's shoulder to keep him from zoning out. It's something he learnt over the holidays with his younger sister who has been zoning out of reality every so often. "How are you dealing with your deep thoughts and depression? Do you have a way to distract your mind?"

"I don't," Harry drawls. "I don't deal with it. I just... let it happen. I don't know where my blades are, so I haven't used them in so long, but I guess that's a good thing." He stopped talking. He said too much.

Dean nodded, and Seamus opened another chocolate frog, but the box fell on the floor. "Fuck," he says quietly and reaches down to grab it off the floor. He looks at the two right as he stuffs the head of the frog into his mouth and bites down. "Sorry. Excuse my language."

"No worries," Dean says to his boyfriend, a smirk rising on the corner of his lip. Seamus uses curse words every day now, not that he minds.

Seamus nods with a smile. "And ye love it when I swear," he says, grinning with his teeth. Then he sighs as he munches on the frog's head. "But back to the important topic..."

"Yes, back to that," Dean says at once. "Harry-"

The compartment door opened. Draco stood there, breathing a little heavily, staring at Harry with a mixture of relief and panic. Behind him was Ron, who sighed in relief when seeing his best mate looking alright-ish, and Hermione had tears in her eyes. After the Prefect meeting, they had gone back to the compartment where they left Harry, Blaise, and Neville, to find no Harry in it. And when asking around, a young Hufflepuff student said she saw Harry go into the bathrooms, looking all down and depressed, and not come out at all. It worried the three entirely that they were about to organise a search party.

Draco walked into the compartment and kneeled in front of Harry. "Merlin... don't scare me like that," he says softly to the Gryffindor above him. "Please, if you're not feeling yourself, can you at least inform someone who knows me personally where you're going so I know just where you are?"

Harry nodded his head slightly. "I will," he mutters, his green eyes staring into Draco's silver eyes unblinkingly." No, he will not do that. Alone has a meaning, and he prefers that the meaning should stay the same. He wants his alone time every so often, and he wants them to understand but he just can't be bothered saying anything.

"Good," said Draco, and he rose to his feet and leaned over to place a kiss on Harry's forehead. "I love you, Harry." He sits down in between Harry and Dean, though Dean stands up and walks around them so he can sit next to Seamus again. Harry leans his head down on Draco's shoulder, and Draco smiles and reached his hand up to run it lightly through Harry's dark messy locks.

Ron and Hermione walk in and Hermione closes the compartment door behind her. They take a seat on the other side of the four boys for the extra company if needed.

Harry closes his eyes and feels the need for sleep wash over him. Would sleep help him at all? Maybe so. Just as Draco leans back against the seat, Harry began to just let the tiredness take over him, and soon enough as everyone continued being quiet, he was falling asleep.

Hermione was looking out the window, but not at the landscape. She was watching her best friend's reflection against the glass window sleeping soundlessly. "So..." she says in a quiet voice, "how will we know Harry will be okay and not hurting himself in Hogwarts?"

Draco couldn't shrug without the risk of waking Harry up, so he just pursed his lips in thought. "We'll just have to keep a close eye on him," he whispers back and looks down at Harry's sleeping face.

"We can do that for you," Dean replies softly while he has his arms around Seamus. "We'll make sure Harry doesn't walk out of the dorm room during the night."

"And how will you manage that?" Hermione asked them at once. "How will you make sure Harry doesn't escape during the night to who knows where and possibly find sharp objects around him?"

"I'll cast a simple spell on his pillow, so when he lifts his head off the pillow at any time during the night, it'll make my wand buzz and wake me up so I know Harry has woken," Dean explains it to them, and he watches Seamus happily munching on his chocolate frog's leg. "It's pretty much like an alarm."

Hermione nods her head in approval. "Smart," she mumbles. But she does have her doubts about it.

"So we know Harry doesn't have his tools in hurting himself," Ron says quietly, moving his hand over Hermione's lap to her hand just to hold it in his. "Unless he conjured up more somehow. George still has the ones he found in Harry's bedroom back at the Dursleys, and the ones he confiscated off Harry with Fred during that night they found him in the bathroom."

"I'm sure Severus and Remus would have made sure their house was blade-proof," Draco tells them flatly, unable to even imagine if the adults wouldn't have made sure Harry couldn't get his hands on anything sharp.

Harry wasn't asleep. He had heard the conversation. In fact, the conversation actually brought him out of his daze. So George has his blades? How can he get them back without it being suspicious? That was a plan he would have to figure out tomorrow. He has to Play Sleep still. Though, it was a little hard when he has the urge to slice through the skin on his wrists with a cold blade. But eventually, he did manage to fall asleep once the conversation died down between the five other students.

Harry woke up to warm hands sliding down his cheeks. He opens his eyes to see Draco looking down at him, silver eyes glimmering with love, and an adoring smile on his face. God, he's so beautiful. "Hello," he drawls, sitting up and looking over at Hermione and Ron.

"How are you feeling, Harry?" Hermione asks softly, a little smile on her face, her hand intertwined with Ron's. "Any better than before you went to sleep?"

Harry didn't want to lie. The sleep he got didn't help him at all. "A little better," he lies and adds a nod to assure her everything's okay, even though it's not. He looks out the window, noticing the train wasn't moving and was at the Hogsmeade train station. Students were piling out of the carriages, but Draco, Hermione, and Ron stayed in the compartment he and Draco were in. There was no sight of Seamus and Dean though. "Are we going to head up to the castle now...?"

"We should, yes," said Ron and stood up from the seat. "Let's go, Mione."

"Wait," said Hermione quickly when she stood up and was about to be pulled out of the compartment by Ron's hand. She went over to Harry and sat down beside him. "Harry..." she says, placing a hand on his back. "You can talk to us, you know? And don't forget that we love you so much."

"I know, Hermione," Harry mutters and snakes an arm around her waist for a side hug. "But you just have to..." he paused for a second to realize what he was about to say, "understand that maybe I don't want to tell you anything. Maybe I want to be left alone for a while. I know I'm loved, I can tell, and suicide isn't on my mind at all."

It took a minute for someone to reply. It was Hermione. "We're so glad you told us that, Harry," she says lightly, her voice soft yet filled with assurance. "It helps us understand a little about your needs when you're not feeling yourself."

"Yes, exactly," Draco replies and quickly stands up. He stands next to Ron by the door and looks at Harry a little sadly. "And if you really need your alone time, though I wouldn't want to leave you alone at all, then we will give it to you. But I would like to know beforehand where you're heading off to." Harry nods. "Good. Now let's go and get a carriage to the castle." He reaches out for Harry's hand, and Harry takes it, stands up and lets Draco pull him out of the compartment.

Hermione and Ron look at each other for a brief moment, knowing it is their responsibility to make sure Harry eats properly, gets schoolwork done, gets to classes on time, and doesn't disappear during the day or night. They then follow Draco and Harry out of the train and to the Thestral-drawn carriages.

Harry gets on the carriage first, then helps Draco up and sits down with him. They wait for Hermione and Ron to hop on before the carriage starts transporting them up to the castle.

Up in the Great Hall, Harry was poking at the food on his plate with a frown on his face. Nothing interesting was happening this year. No new DA teacher and he's quite happy with that. No Voldemort, no Tournaments, no Umbridge. But Professor McGonagall did say that there would be a Formal for all 7th years near the graduation, just like always.

Though Harry never actually heard of such a thing being mentioned at all when Percy graduated, or Fred and George, though they kind of dropped out after their N.E.W.T.S examinations anyway. A formal sounds fun though. Just like the Yule Ball, but fun wasn't on his mind at the moment. Only thoughts that he was letting weigh down on him.

He looks up at the Professor's Table and spots Severus and Remus talking to one another with McGonagall and Sinistra, then at the Slytherin's table and catches Draco watching him, who then smiled at him, which made Harry's heart do flips, and Draco got back to talking with Pansy and Blaise. Harry couldn't feel anything when Draco smiles at him. But oh, if only smiles and kisses could make him feel a lot better, that would be great.

Harry looks back down at his full plate when suddenly his fork scoops up some mashed potatoes on its own and levitates up to his mouth. He looks over the table in front of him at Hermione who had her wand raised with a serious expression on her face. "Harry, please eat something," she says at once.

Harry leans away from the fork, not wanting to eat anything at all. He just wants to head to Gryffindor Tower, find the dorm he'll be sleeping with Ron and his roommates, and get some sleep. If he can't, well... he will pay Myrtle a visit then.

"Mate, please eat?" Ron insists.

"Fine," Harry mutters, grabs the fork from mid-air and stuffs it in his mouth. He takes a few more bites of mashed potato, roast pumpkin, and chicken in hope that it's enough then pushes his plate forward and stands up. "I'm heading to bed. Goodnight." He hauls his one leg over the bench seat and starts walking away.

"Harry, at least let one of us come with you," Hermione says quickly, and Ron had stood up as if he had the same thought.

"I'm not a child anymore," Harry drawls as he turns around to face them. "I can take care of myself. But thank you."

"Harry, you don't even have the password to the common room," Hermione says, reminding him that one needs a password to enter the house's common room. "Let us come with you."

Harry stood there, arms crossed loosely. He knew she was right. The password, of course. "Can I have it then?" he asks flatly, though he knows he can just go to the Room Of Requirement, conjure up a bedroom, and just sleep there. He then came up with an idea. It was risky, and would probably get him suspended, but he wanted to do it.

Hermione hesitated to think about all this. "It rhymes with..." she begins, deep in her thoughts trying to be smart with this, and a little precise. "Oh, never mind. It's Wattlebird."

Harry nods slowly and turns on his heel, walking out of the Great Hall and making it seem like he was heading up to Gryffindor Tower when instead, he was on his way to the dungeons. More incisively, the Potions classroom. He knows his father has a Floo in his office, so he thought to use it.

The trip down to the dungeons wasn't as slow as he thought it would be, as he was walking quite slowly, though he didn't realize it. He was too distracted by his own thoughts to realize what was going on around him. Or who was around him, as he entered the corridor leading towards the dungeon stairs.

"Aw look," said a low merry booming voice. It was Peeves, and Harry wanted to know why Peeves wasn't in the Great Hall with the other Hogwarts ghosts. But he couldn't be bothered asking. "Potty Wotty's upset." He grins and pokes Harry's arm, though Harry had too much on his mind to feel it and Peeves was too busy making fun of Harry. "Oh, poor poor Potty. What could be wrong with the Great Potty who lived?"

Harry chose to ignore the poltergeist. It wouldn't do him any good in communicating with Peeves anyway. The Poltergeist would slow him down.

Peeves scoffed, looking quite insulted. "Well... I'll say," he says rudely. "Who taught you manners, Potty?" The poltergeist smirked as he floats around Harry when walking down the steps to the dungeons. "Surely your mother – oh, that's right. Potty lost his mother."

"Shut up," Harry mutters darkly, now thinking about how sad his life is without a caring mother in his life who should have raised him from birth, as well as a father to look up to. He wasn't thinking of Severus, Remus, or Narcissa then.

"Oh, Potty's mad-"

Harry opened the Potion classroom door and slammed it closed in Peeve's face, but he knew the poltergeist will just float through it. He rushed over to the bookcase he knew had the secret door to Severus' office behind Severus' desk, and he pulled down the old brown book from the shelf which opened like a door. He walked in, reached into the vase to grab a handful of Floo powder, and then stepped into the Floo. "The Burrow!"

The green flames engulfed him, and he stepped inside the Lounge Room of The Burrow. He made a run for the steps up towards the bedrooms but made sure he was alone in the lounge room. Mrs Weasley was nowhere to be seen, which then he rushed up to Fred – no, George's bedroom. He made it inside, and the first place he looked was at George's desk. There was loads of junk in the four drawers he searched, which probably were old experiments Fred and George made together.

Finally, under some parchment, and behind a long block of wood, he found the chocolate container he was looking for. He can feel the blades calling to him, to use them on his skin. But then he thought about if George moved his blades somewhere else. Biting his lip, he opens up the chocolate container. Relieved, he finds six blades, all his own stored in the container. Finally, he thinks to himself. The pain, all of it, will make me numb by these friends.

He pockets the container, and just as he was about to close the drawers up, he feels something small, a wand, as he can tell, touch the back of his neck. Well, shit.

"Turn around now!" It was the voice of Molly Weasley.

Knowing how much trouble he'd be in, he turns around slowly and raises his palms up. "Hello, Mrs Weasley," he says with a forced smile.

"Harry?" Mrs Weasley says, looking quite shocked as she lowers her wand. "What in Merlin's name are you doing here, in George's bedroom? You should be at Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione."

"I err... slept in," Harry quickly lies to her face, but it didn't hurt as much as he thought it would. "Severus and Remus thought I would be able to get up on my own and head off to Hogwarts by myself, as they said last night that they need to be at Hogwarts early for something." He just can't wait to lock himself in a secluded area and cut himself until he bleeds out. "I just stopped by for some help to get to Hogwarts."

"Oh," Mrs Weasley says, pocketing her wand. "Why, of course! You can just use the Floo to get back to Hogwarts. Headmistress McGonagall wouldn't mind, I'm sure." She crosses her arms and looks out the window, lowering her voice into a mutter, "It looks like I have to have a little talk with them about parenting, though."

"No, no," Harry says quickly. "That's okay. No one needs to know."

"Oh, alright then," Mrs Weasley says, and she pulls him into a side hug. "It's good to see you again, Harry. We miss you."

"I miss all of you too," Harry says, forcing his smile a little wider, but he doesn't know how well he did. Back in the lounge room, he quickly grabs some Floo Powder from the Flower Pot and walks in. "Bye, Mrs Weasley, and thank you!" He drops the Floo Powder down, "Defence Against The Dark Arts Office."

He walks out of Remus' office as he had a feeling Flooing to Sev's office wouldn't be very smart. What if Sev was waiting by the Floo down in his office? It was a risk he wasn't willing to take, as then he would have to start explaining where he had been.

He leaves Remus' office and peeks into the DADA classroom. Nobody was in sight. Good, thought Harry, rushing down the few steps into the classroom, then decided to take a few pit stops. The first pit stop is Gryffindor Tower in the dormitory, where he contemplated using his cloak to disappear during the day when he wants some isolation.

He finds his trunk and bed he'll be sleeping on, then searches his trunk for his invisibility cloak. He finds it underneath some books, and he decides to hide one of his blades in the larger of the three books coloured grey so that in case he loses one, he has that one.

He puts the cloak over himself, pockets the other blades, and walks out of the dorm room, the common room, and into the corridors of the castle. He thinks to himself why he's doing all this when he knows this would disappoint Severus and Remus, and also Draco and his best friends. Disappointing is something he doesn't want to do, but his blades are calling for him to use them. He doesn't know where his feet are taking him, but he ends up in front of a familiar large portrait of a fake corridor. He doesn't understand why his feet took him to the entrance to the Garden of Amare. Thinking nothing of it, he opens the entrance and walks on in.

It's exactly the way he remembers it. The gazebo, the flower fields, the forest, and the large maze in the distance. But he suddenly feels drawn to the maze. His last memory of the maze was having Draco find out his darkest secrets, but because of it, they've become much closer than they had been before. He follows the cobblestone path to the maze, not even realizing he still has his cloak on over himself.

He watches the maze get larger and larger the closer he walks to it through the forest. He ponders what the maze will show him this time, instead of his worst memories. He slips his cloak off just as he reaches the maze entrance, and then he hesitates and looks up at the hedges. Time to re-live his dark memories.

He enters the maze, his anxiety starting to claw at his skin, and he takes the first left inside the maze. The maze doesn't close up from behind him, and it doesn't get darker either. He would have preferred it to though, as he likes the darkness that surrounds him. He was sure the last time he was in the maze with Draco, it closed off the entrance.

He turns randomly through the maze, waiting for something bad to happen but nothing does. He twists and turns, and takes any direction until he comes to a dead end. But in front of him, down on the floor sits a lonely white fluffy bunny rabbit sniffing a daisy with its pink nose. What was it doing here?

Harry crouches down and extends his hand towards the bunny slowly. "Are you lost?" he asks the white ball of fluff. The bunny was minding its own business, sniffing the daisy happily, but it did seem a little lost in direction. It hopped up to Harry's hand, sniffed it, and the little gesture put a little smile on Harry's face.

Harry moved his hand around the bunny's fur, feeling its softness and texture. He slips a hand under the bunny's stomach, and he finds out it's a 'she' when he picks it up. The bunny starts whimpering and kicking its little feet, not liking being picked up and held. "Shh, it's okay," He whispers to the bunny and rests it on his chest, his other hand under its bottom, and he pets its ears down to its back. "I think I'll name you..." he looks up above him, "Cloudy. I'll name you Cloudy. I would name you Fluffy, but Hagrid already has that name for his three-headed dog."

Cloudy the bunny sniffed Harry's jumper, and she hummed a little like she was telling Harry that she likes the name.

Harry starts walking away from the dead end, back into the walls of the maze. He tries finding his way back to the entrance to take the bunny back to the forest where it belongs, but he wasn't able to find it and instead, gets himself deeper inside the maze. He ends up in a small dead-end area that has enough room for two picnic tables pushed up against the other.

He sighs, wondering if he will find his way out and if he doesn't, he knows he must call for help by sending his Patronus to either Draco or Ron and Hermione. He doesn't want to be found though. He likes this peace and quiet, especially with Cloudy.

Just as he turned to leave, a rectangular screen popped into his view in front of him, like a TV screen, but floating in midair. It's a memory of his that is showing, and he finds out. It was the day he met Draco, Ron and Hermione for the first time. It was the first happy memory he has and remembers. Even then, he thought that Draco would be like Dudley. Oh, how wrong he was.

The screen changed memories. It was him and Ron playing Wizards Chess for the first time while talking about the Philosophers Stone. Then the first time getting hugged by Hermione, his best friend, and is told by her that he was a really great friend. The first ever hug he was given that he remembers. Hermione tells him how good of a wizard he is, and he feels like he finally belongs somewhere other than nowhere. Then it was Mrs Weasley giving him his first motherly hug. Then it went on, showing him all his happy memories from his first year to now. The first time he and Draco actually got along, the first time they hugged and kissed. The first date, the first time in bed together, the time he met Draco's parents.

He knows he is loved and cared for and isn't suffering alone in his depression. He also knows he has a purpose in life, though he hasn't found it yet. Meeting Cloudy and seeing all this made him feel slightly better about himself. He walks through the screen as the memory of the dream Draco proposed to him last year in the Gardens of Malfoy Manor starts, and his smile widens as he hurries back through the maze through the twists and turns.

He knows he shouldn't be thinking about marriage right now, but he couldn't help it. The TV thing is to blame. Looking down at Cloudy's small beady eyes, he thinks of Draco and that charming smile he loves to see every day.

Harry keeps walking through the maze until he comes across a long corridor with a white wooden garden arch at the end of the hedge corridor with white roses and lilies decorating the arch. Suddenly, two figures appear under the arch, and the hedge walls shrink and become a large sunny area. Walking closer to the two figures, he notices that they're both male and are wearing robes. He couldn't believe his eyes. It was himself and Draco, not much older than he is now, and his other self was smiling happily at Draco.

He watches himself reach into the pocket of his dark red robe and pull out a... ring box. Draco's eyes gleamed as Harry opens the box up to show the two silver wedding bands, and Harry grabs the ring closest to himself and passes the ring box to Ron who appeared beside him in crimson robes but Harry never looks away from Draco. "I, Harry Potter, take this man-"

"Nope," said Harry quickly, petting Cloudy's ears gently and walking backwards away from himself, Draco, and Ron with a slight giggle. He doesn't want to see his future, though he kind of does. He wasn't seeing where he was going, and backed into something hard. He looks behind him to see a white chair, no, a line of chairs, five chairs in a row, with a second group of chairs beside the others facing the front. In the first row, from the middle sat George, Molly, Arthur, Charlie and Bill, and in the second front row sat Remus, Severus, an empty seat, and Narcissa. Lucius was up the front, standing tall and dandified beside Ron and the priest. Hermione was opposite Ron, her long dress crimson and white. Harry was glad to see Lucius at the wedding, looking nice and posh as usual.

Harry still couldn't believe he was seeing this. He hopes this was his future, as he can tell his older self looks so happy and excited to start that new chapter in his life with Draco. He wants that new chapter too but in a few more years' time.

Shaking his head at this beautiful picture, he walks around the arch, himself, Draco, Ron and Lucius, and takes a left back into the maze. What an odd maze this was, he thought the moment he knew he was back in the deep centre of the maze. He kept to his gut in finding his way out of the maze, and eventually, he does make it back out and into the forest with Cloudy still resting on his chest.

Harry walks a few feet into the forest, crouches down beside a tall birch tree and places Cloudy on the grassy floor. "Well, goodbye... I hope to see you soon," he eventually says to the bunny with a deep sigh, and Cloudy begins to hop around her surroundings, sniffing everything and listening closely to the sounds of nature.

He stands back up and watches the bunny hop around for one last second before walking out of the forest and toward the exit of the Garden of Amare. He just wanders the corridors of Hogwarts alone until he makes it up to Gryffindor Tower, where he finds Ron lying in bed with his hands covering his face, Neville sitting in bed hugging his legs, Seamus falling asleep while sitting up with Dean by his side, and Draco Malfoy pacing the room in circles.

As soon as the floorboard underneath his feet creak, all eyes turned on him. Then Draco rushed over to him, his arms wrapping around Harry tightly, and he lifts Harry off his feet. Harry laughs softly and hugs him back just as tightly, and he was lowered back down onto his feet. Draco leans away, looking Harry deeply in his green eyes and he smiles and ends the space between them in a gentle kiss.

Harry sighs in the kiss, his head tilting to the side to deepen the love he was giving to Draco through the pleasurable lip-locking. He loosens his arms around Draco and moves his hands up to cup Draco's face, the tips of his fingers lightly touching the start of the Slytherin's side hairline. He leans away after he hears – either it was Dean or Neville - wolf-whistling at him and Draco. "I'm sorry if I scared you with my absence," he says when looking deeply into those silvery eyes he loves. "I just needed some time to myself to feel a little better."

"It's okay," Draco replies, his smile wider than ever as he's glad Harry seems to be a little happy right now, and he is glad to have Harry back in his sight. "As long as you do feel better now. But I do want to know where you've been, Harry."

"The Garden of Amare," Harry tells him quickly. From the corner of his eye, he sees Dean with his hand on Seamus' chest lowering Seamus down flat onto the mattress. It reminds him of something he encountered last term back at Hogwarts and in this very room. "I... thought a walk through nature would help, and it did indeed help." He didn't want to say what actually was going through his mind at the time. "Oh, and I went through the maze by myself and you wouldn't believe what happened and what I came across."

"You'll have to tell me about this," Draco says, and he leads Harry backwards to Harry's bed. "How about now? I'd love to hear about everything that happened." He sits down on the side of Harry's bed, opens his legs out and pulls Harry closer. "You seem happy, so I'm guessing the maze contributed to your emotions. I remember that last time, it made you feel worse."

Harry's looking down at Draco, and he rests his hands on Draco's shoulders. "I will tell you, but not right now," he says, and he tries to not feel uncomfortable in this position. If Draco leans forward, goodbye innocence and hello horny. "I have a matter to discuss," he glances over at Dean who was snogging Seamus, "with someone."

"Alright," Draco says suspiciously, raising an eyebrow as he turns his head to look over at where Harry was looking. Seamus and Dean. What matters need discussing with those two? "I can't wait to hear all about it."

Harry looks back at him, smiles, and leans down to plant a kiss on his forehead. The Slytherin's citrusy hair gel filled his nostrils, and he couldn't be more happier standing in front of the love of his life. Then he walks away and over to Seamus' bed, and clears his throat loudly. "Ahem!" He couldn't help himself but glance down at Seamus' fingers for a special something. Unfortunately, the item he hoped to see was not there.

Seamus and Dean break out of the kiss and look at Harry, the Irish Gryffindor seeming a little annoyed at Harry for disturbing them.

"Dean, May I speak with you...in private?" Harry asks, his eyes looking away from Seamus' fingers and back at Dean quickly.

"Um... certainly," Dean says with a little nod, and he lightly pets Seamus' open palm before standing up. "But what's this about?"

"Err..." Harry says and gestures putting a ring on his finger, but to him, it looks a little sexual. It makes Dean laugh, and Harry blushes a little in embarrassment and leads Dean out of the dorm and down to the common room. They take a seat by the large arched window, away from the other few students who are closest to the warm fireplace.

"So um," Harry begins, his voice a little lower to keep from eager ears overhearing. "I've noticed no ring on Seamus' finger, mate." Dean rolls his eyes, and Harry just grins at him. "You seemed pretty eager to propose to him the last term, so did something happen?"

Dean shook his head. "Really Harry?" he asks him flatly but sounded a little amused by the topic. "You bring me all the way down here to talk about when I'll propose to Seamus and why I haven't done so yet?" He shakes his head again with a smile. "And no, nothing bad happened, if that's what you thought. I just didn't think it was the right time when Seamus and I met up over the Holidays." Harry nods and brings his leg up to his chest, his arm resting over his knee. "We do have our own lives to live, you know. Like I have a small job at a Coffee shop just to make some cash if Seamus and I do go out together for lunch or dinner dates, and he goes fishing with his dad, shopping with his mum, and church with his parents every Sunday."

"Seamus goes to church?" Harry asks him in disbelief. He shakes his head, remembering hearing sometime and somewhere that Seamus' parents were Christian. "Never mind that. So... are you going to propose to him anytime soon?"

Dean looks down at his knuckles to distract him, then turns his hands around and looks at his palms. "We will see if that time comes," he tells Harry and leans back against the cold thick glass window. "In the meantime, I want to focus on my studies more than what my life will become after Hogwarts."

Harry nodded. That was understandable. He takes a look around the common room, spotting Hermione, Luna, and Ginny sitting by the fireplace chatting with each other. He caught Hermione's eye and smiled at her, though she looked at him worriedly but eventually smiled back. "Let's head back," he says after a minute, and he stands up, looking back at Dean.

"Of course," Dean replies quickly, eager to see Seamus again.

They return to the boy's dormitory to find Neville and Ron already tucked into bed ready for sleep. Draco was seated on Harry's bed still, but lying down with his head on the pillows. Dean heads to his bed which Seamus was now lying on, on his stomach with his legs twined behind him. Harry walks over to his bed and climbs on. He crawls over Draco and sits on Draco's groin, his legs on either side of Draco's hips. He could feel Draco underneath his arse.

Draco places his hands on Harry's hips, totally not picturing Harry rutting on him. He looks up into emerald green orbs and smiles, and when Harry smiles back at him, he bucks his hips up. Harry smirks at him and leans down, pressing his lips tightly on Draco's for a kiss, and Draco sighs as he kisses back and gently strokes Harry's waist up and down.

Eventually, they pull away and Harry drags Draco to the bathrooms for a warm shower, but Draco didn't have his towel or pyjamas with him so he had to stop Harry halfway there. Harry let Draco head off back down to the Slytherin common room because he knew that's where Draco should be on the first night back at Hogwarts.

Though he would have loved to shower with Draco, he had his alone time, dressed in his warm maroon pyjamas, he headed back to the dormitory. Before he got into bed, he quickly glanced around the room, seeing Seamus and Dean making out, Ron sleeping, and Neville reading. He quickly took out the chocolate frog box from inside the pocket of his robe and hid the blades in different locations inside his trunk. Two inside one sock, one inside a flap of one of his books, and the last two he hid underneath his clothes. Then after that, he closed his trunk and crawled onto his bed and got underneath the sheets. He thought of Draco and felt himself drift off into sleep as soon as he closed his eyes.

*****

Ah, the first day of the last year of Harry's schooling years. He couldn't wait, but then again, he wanted the year to go slowly. Besides, what could go wrong? Oh, how he was so wrong to think that. even on the first day, things went pretty wrong. Neville lost Trevor again, Pidwigeon woke everyone up at 3 am with his loud screeching even though he was supposed to be asleep at the Owlery, Harry knocked his glasses off the table after trying to get them, and later on, Neville stepped on them but he offered to fix them with a Reparo which fixed his glasses completely, Ron was half asleep and searched the wrong Trunk (Seamus') and found a but-plug and actually touched it. He kept running off to the bathroom washing his hands over and over again until breakfast, even though Seamus told him clearly that he makes sure whatever toys he and Dean use are clean before and after. Ron doesn't believe him.

Harry exited the dorm room quickly and found Hermione walking out with Parvati. He caught up to them, looking pretty exhausted from all the rushing around and laughter that happened earlier in the dorm room. "Morning, guys."

Hermione glances at him, noticing his tiredness and smiled. "Didn't you get enough sleep last night?" she asked him.

"Yes, I had a great sleep," Harry tells her, slipping his fingers under his glasses, and rubbing at his eyes from under his glasses. "It's just... my morning was a little hectic. The same was Ron's, Seamus', and Neville's. I'll err... tell you during breakfast."

Hermione nods, and just as she was about to walk out of the common room, she turns as she hears Ron call out her name. She grins and flings her arms around him for a hug, and Harry rolls his eyes at them and heads down to the Great Hall by himself since Parvati was still very shocked and sad that her best friend Lavender was out there in the world, alive and well but just doesn't remember her.

Parvati had been told by Hermione all about how Harry and Draco found Lavender and Ivy in the muggle World last night. Parvati had asked Hermione for an update on her phone last night about where Lavender is in the world, and Hermione searched it up online and lent Parvati her phone to watch the video of Ivy performing in Birmingham on a large stage with Lavender behind Ivy near the backstage area looking her best in a long dress and grinning at her girlfriend. She really wants her best friend back, but she's happy just seeing Lavender on screen.

Halfway to the Great Hall, someone grabs Harry's hand from behind and pulls him into a dark corner of the corridor. Then he catches sight of silver eyes, the most beautiful shade in the world, almost a stormy grey colour in the darkness of the corner the Slytherin pulled him into. His hands are pinned to the wall so he has no escape, and he's just waiting for Draco to lean in, but he doesn't. Draco just stares at Harry and looks him up and down, which makes Harry blush a little. "Are you going to kiss me or...?' he whispers to his boyfriend.

Draco lets go of Harry's right hand, but as Harry tries bringing his hand down to Draco's waist, Draco quickly grabs it and pins it back to the wall. "Ah!" he says firmly, his book bag slipping from his shoulder. "Leave it there. I just wanted to look at you for a moment to appreciate my wonderful handsome man, and then kiss you before breakfast."

Harry's blush returned and became a little darker. "Then kiss me already," he says at once, but a little quieter, wanting his hands all over his boyfriend to feel him again. Draco smirks and gives Harry what he wants, a breathtaking kiss filled with passion and love.

"Merlin," Draco says in between kisses. "I love you."

"I love you too, Draco," Harry replies and rests his forehead against Draco's to catch his breath. "Come, let's head to breakfast. I'm starving." With a nod in reply from Draco, they go on their way to the Great Hall. On the way, Draco slipped his hand into Harry's and twined them together, and Harry smiles at him and bumps his shoulders into his. Draco bumps back, earning him a laugh from Harry and adjusts his book bag strap higher onto his shoulder.

They enter the Great Hall and decide on eating at the Gryffindor table. There was a bunch of students, Ginny and Luna included, who surrounded a young Gryffindor male and female. They scootch closer to the group to see what was going on.

Harry thought they looked like siblings as they were both blonde, but the girl looked quite embarrassed, and Harry thought she looked a little like Madonna just without makeup and grey reading glasses. The male looked like Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance but nerdier and had curly hair.

"How can Transfiguration seemingly create or destroy matter?" asks the young male to the group, his eyes darting from face to face, eager to get answers.

Harry snorted and quickly grabbed himself a piece of toast. What a nerd, he thought as he buttered his toast with strawberry jam. But he couldn't judge him. Hermione was quite a nerd too, just without glasses.

"What do you mean, Tyler?" asked Ginny, tucking a strand of her ginger hair behind her ear. She looked at Tyler's fraternal twin sister. "Rosette, do you know about this confusing nonsense your brother is telling us and what he means?"

Harry understood what Tyler was getting at. It was confusing to him when he watched Professor McGonagall transfigure a living bird into a water goblet in his second year. But he just came to the obvious conclusion that it was magic.

"It just does create and destroy matter," says Luna, braiding parts of her blonde hair. Everyone around them looked at her. "It's Transfiguration, which is the magical act of changing one object into another. One of the Muggle Laws of Nature is the Law of Conservation of Matter, also known as the Lomonosov-Lavoisier law. This law states that, in a closed system, matter cannot be created or destroyed."

Harry had to interfere. How does she know about muggle laws? "Wait, you know about muggle laws?" he asks her curiously.

Luna nods her head. "Oh, yes," she says lightly. "Ginny's father has lots of books in his shed. Muggle and wizard. The muggle ones are quite intriguing though, and I prefer to read them." She sits on Ginny's lap with a wide smile. "So how does this work for conjuring and vanishing? Surely that is the creation or destruction of matter? Not necessarily. The term "closed system" can be interpreted very liberally, and for our purposes, the universe can be considered a closed system. It contains all the matter it will ever contain and all the matter it needs to sustain itself."

Rosette and Ginny began to lose focus on the topic of Luna's boring conversation, but Ginny kept listening as hard as she could. Even Draco was uninterested and was about to fall asleep sitting up. Tyler and Harry were quite interested in the topic though.

"The earth itself contains all the elements of the muggle periodic table, and even the "thin air" around us consists of matter: predominantly nitrogen and oxygen, but also carbon, hydrogen and trace elements," Luna continued like she's conversed about this topic before. "Considering this, every element required to construct any object thinkable is right there at one's fingertips! All a wizard or witch needs to do is call it together. Matter is held together by electromagnetic forces. In brief, the particles that atoms are made of, protons and electrons, are electrically charged."

"Einstein much?" Harry teases her with a simple smile.

"Um, who's Einstein?" Draco leans to his side to ask Harry in a quiet voice. Harry laughs softly, and Luna just continues with her scientific explanation to Tyler.

"In order to conjure an object, the wizard summons the magical force inside him or her, focuses on the object to be conjured and drives the force outside his or her body through their wand," Luna says, and she transfigures Rosette's spoon she had used for her porridge, and turned it into chopsticks then turned it back to a spoon. "In the case of conjuring, this force is most likely of electromagnetic nature, attracting the correct atoms from the surrounding environment and rearranging them into molecules, materials and finally, objects. Hence, although objects are created out of thin air the actual matter required is not. Vanishing would be the reversal of this process. To vanish an object, the wizard needs to break the bonds between the molecules of the object, so they can be reabsorbed by the environment. There are many different forces that can break molecular bonds - heat, laser, sonic - and the magical force required for vanishing could be any of these."

"Whoa," says Tyler wondrously. "That's incredible! But then with Apparition, is it a faster-than-light sort of thing or like a wormhole?"

Rosette rolls her eyes. Here we go again.

Draco was nearly asleep. He just doesn't understand why this Gryffindor boy must complicate things when Transfiguration and Apparition come so naturally to him.

"Einstein's Theory of General Relativity states that space-time is curved by the presence of matter," Luna says, leaning back on Ginny as she feels Ginny try plaiting the back of her hair. "Very generally speaking, this means time is not necessarily a linear concept. You could imagine space-time as a piece of fabric, with folds and waves and wrinkles. Put an apple under it and you get new wrinkles and curves."

"Theoretically, one could connect one fold in the fabric with another by pulling a piece of string through it, creating a shortcut from one point to the other." She reaches sideways and grabs a buttered Crumpet. "It has been hypothesised that such shortcuts could exist in space-time, and these shortcuts are generally called wormholes." She takes a bite out of her crumpet and licks her lips. "A wormhole could connect one location in the four-dimensional space-time with another like a worm would eat through the core of an apple and come out the other side.

"Through a wormhole, it would be possible to travel from one place to another in less time than it would take a ray of light to travel that same distance outside the wormhole," Luna explains it clearly, but nearly everyone listening besides Tyler and Harry was confused. "For example, around the apple. In sum, Apparition through specially created wormholes may be theoretically improbable, but it is not necessarily impossible."

Harry just blinked at Luna. How does she know so much? He hasn't an idea. That's just typical Luna Lovegood. He looked beside him, seeing Draco half asleep, his eyelids fluttering shut, and he shakes his head over a chuckle.

"Jesus Christ, you're like a human dictionary and history book in one," Tyler says, his mouth slackening a little. The little compliment made the group surrounding him laugh. "But then... when did wizards develop the Artificial Intelligence required to make wizarding paintings talk, move, and react to their surroundings?"

"Merlin..." Draco mutters, groaning as he lowers his head onto Harry's shoulder. He's heard enough. He doesn't want this child ruining his brain with muggle nonsense.

Harry pets Draco's head, telling him that it's all okay and the confusing questions will hopefully stop soon. He needs to get his book bag from the dorm room anyway before heading off to class, whatever he has first.

By then, Headmistress McGonagall and Professor Lupin had gotten up and started handing out every student's timetables for the year.

"I expect to see you on the Quidditch team this year, Mr Potter," Professor McGonagall says as she hands Harry his schedule. "And I hope you'll keep up your captain role too. You're a true leader."

"Thanks, Professor," Harry says, giving her a quick smile. "And yes, I assure you I'll be on the team this year, and that I'll be captain."

McGonagall nodded with her own smile and passed Draco his schedule.

Once Draco had his timetable, he quickly studied it and grinned. "We have... Potions and Transfiguration together today," he tells Harry happily. "That's a change. Usually it's Charms we have together. Oh, but on Wednesday and Friday, we have Charms together. Yes! Do you still take Herbology? I have it tomorrow morning and Thursday afternoon."

Harry sighs. "At least I'll be able to see you during those classes, and during meal times," he says after a second of reading his timetable again. He still has no clue what he wants to do after Hogwarts. An Auror with Ron? Meh. It sounds like his life, which is helping people in the face of danger if they need it.

"Yeah," Draco replies and puts his timetable into his book bag. "We've got Potions first all the way through until lunch. Then I have Arithmancy, and then Transfiguration's with you."

"I would have Divination with Ron when you have Arithmancy, and Hermione would have Ancient Runes," Harry says, studying his timetable for the year and he poured himself a goblet of orange Juice. "I do have Herbology still, same with Divination. Just not today. Tomorrow and on Friday."

"Okay, but seriously, what's the WIFI password?" Harry overhears Rosette says. "I've been trying to figure it out since yesterday evening."

"What's WiFi?" Ginny then asked. Nearly half of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Table went quiet from what she said. The muggle-borns and Halfbloods at Slytherin and Ravenclaw that would have heard her didn't.

Tyler and Rosette gasped and stared at her in horror. "What's WIFI?"

"Mandrake," Hermione says, sitting down on the other side of Harry, and Ron joins her too. "The WIFI password is Mandrake, but it'll only work in the Room of Requirement at the moment. But I haven't tried using the Network outside of the Room, so you could try now. The WIFI name is H-0-g-w-4-a-r-t-s."

Rosette smiled and grabbed her phone from inside her Robe pocket. She typed in the Password and nearly squeaked in excitement. "I'm in! Be right back, gotta tell the others!" And she ran off down the table to a group who were all eating their breakfast and chatting.

Harry sighs and mutters, "Muggle-borns."

"Hey!" snaps Hermione and hits him on the shoulder with her book. "We Muggleborns are the superior species."

Draco didn't agree with her there, although he admits Muggleborns can be quite cool. The few he's met anyway. It's still taking him some time to get used to thinking that Purebloods like himself aren't the superior bloodline, however, muggle-borns should not be looked down upon any more and are treated equally and fair. He's still gradually getting to the point where he just doesn't care either way if someone's Pureblood or not. It's just a blood type anyway.

"So-rry," Harry replies back quickly, though he sounded a little sarcastic, and he takes a quick sip of his juice. His tummy rumbled with hunger after successfully making it seem like he ate that piece of toast but he really just left it on a plate. At least he drank something though. "Anyway, I need to grab my book bag before Potions starts, and my cauldron, quills, and parchment." He stands up in a matter of seconds, downs his juice in one go and hauls his legs over the seat. "Ta Ta!"

"Oh, wait for me!"Draco says quickly, removing himself from the table to follow his boyfriend to Gryffindor Tower. "Though you should have known to gather what you need for class before breakfast, Harry."

"I know, but I just couldn't be bothered," Harry replies when they exit the Great Hall together. Draco rolls his eyes and links their arms together. "So what did you get up to on the last five days of the Summer Holidays?"

"Not much," Draco tells him, looking out the large castle windows at the view of the mountains in the distance. "Just talked with mother a lot. Went to France for an afternoon mother-son shopping spree. Oh, and she said we can go visit my father whenever we want, as long as we have an Auror accompanying us."

"Oh, that's brilliant!" Harry says at once, beaming a smile at him. He totally hasn't forgotten about Lucius and how he is in Azkaban. He hopes the Dementors aren't giving him any trouble.

"Yeah, it is, but I'd prefer to see him over the Holidays," Draco says, sighing when he spots three Eagle Owls flying freely in the sky around the castle. They're free to roam anywhere they want, unlike his father who he wishes were free. "I was thinking the Christmas Holidays so I can give him a gift. How about your last few days?"

"You wouldn't believe this, but Kreacher actually invited me, Remus, and Severus over for Tea," Harry tells him, grinning with his teeth at the disbelieving truth he told Draco. "It actually was pretty lovely. Kreacher told us about Sirius growing up, and how apparently he was a troublesome child. Oh, and he mentioned Regulus too."

"I'm sorry, Regulus...?" Draco asked, confusion written all over his face. He has heard of the name before but doesn't remember what and where from that he heard it from.

"Regulus Arcturus Black," Harry says, thinking about what life would be like fifty years ago in the Noble House of Black. "He is Sirius' younger brother. Kreacher said Regulus was the brains of the family, took pride in his house, didn't have many friends, and did his best in Hogwarts. But he did end up following Voldemort until he realized it was a mistake and got himself killed."

Draco winced when hearing the last part. "How'd he manage that?" he asks flatly, though he was curious to hear about it. "What did he do to get himself killed?"

"He stole one of Voldemort's Horcruxes," Harry answers after a beat, but he didn't think about if Draco knew what a Horcrux is. "It's the one and the only Salazar Slytherin locket which has part of Voldemort's soul trapped inside."

"Part?" Draco says, a little shocked to hear about Voldemort having parts of his soul in inanimate objects. "Does that mean he can come back from the dead? How many other Horcruxes are there exactly?"

"There's seven, but only three had been destroyed," Harry says, scratching the back of his neck at the thought of Tom coming back. "Tom Riddle's Diary, The Gaunt's Ring, and Nagini. I disposed of the book and Nagini, and Dumbledore got rid of the ring. All that is left is... The locket, and err... I dunno the others. And no, he cannot come back. He's dead. Kingsley says he is now bones and ash somewhere at the bottom of the ocean."

"How very...profound," Draco drawls. "As long as he is dead, then that's all that matters."

They reached Gryffindor Tower, and once up at the dorm room, Harry searched his trunk for his book bag. He puts in his quill and ink pot, books for today, and some parchment in it, and then with Draco, walks out and heads to their first class of the day. Potions.

They line up outside the classroom, just like they always had, and waited for everyone else in their class to arrive. Professor Snape was the last person to arrive, a bouquet of red flowers tucked under his arm, and his large Potion book in his other hand. The bouquet was a mystery to the students, though they knew the bouquet would have probably been from Professor Lupin.

He stalked past his students and opened the classroom door for them. Most of the girls were whispering about the bouquet and giggling, though the males just smiled at their professors as they enter the room and took a seat in the classroom with their mates.

Professor Snape kept a straight face as he walks to the front of the classroom, places the bouquet and his large book on his desk, and then swiftly turns around to view his students.

There wasn't anything special about the first lesson. It was usual for a first class, but having been told of how important N.E.W.T. examinations are, what to expect in them, and when the dates of the examinations are. What intrigued Harry was hearing that in the near future, he will learn how to make Veritaserum and Wolfsbane Potion. He didn't do much in class, besides writing some notes down.

Harry heard Hermione sigh from in front of them. "I miss writing in notebooks," she says quietly. "It was so easy, and I miss my colourful pens."

"Um... A pen?" Ron whispers, leaning over to her.

Hermione quickly covers her hands over her notes, which has become a habit now. She had added extra notes about the dates of the N.E.W.T.S. and when she should start studying. "Yes, a pen," she replies back. "It's like a quill, but you don't have to dip your quill in the ink repeatedly."

"Oh-"

"Mr Weasley, Mrs Granger," the professor snapped, looking at them from his desk at the front of the classroom. "Is there something you'd like to share with the class?" He would have been ruder and took points off Gryffindor for talking, but he decided to keep his "kind" act up.

"No, professor," Hermione spoke up, face full of guilt and regret. She knew it was her fault and would gladly take the blame." We were just..."

Severus rose an eyebrow. "You were...?"

"We were discussing our future study dates together," Ron had said, and nearly half the class were snorting in disbelief and giggling at what he came up with. Hermione hid her face in her open Potions book, her face a shade of pink from embarrassment.

Then finally, it was lunchtime. Hermione hurriedly packed her stuff up and dragged Ron out of the classroom by the sleeve of his robe. Harry smiles at his best friends leaving the room and turned to Draco who was putting his items away in his book bag which he then swung over his shoulders. Harry gave the blonde a cheek kiss, and the Slytherin smiles at him and blushes.

"Let's go, Harry," Draco says. "I'm starving."

They link hands and head to the Great Hall for some lunch. Harry's not that hungry, but he grabs himself a tuna sandwich and decides to leave the Great Hall. Draco was behind him, talking to Pansy and Blaise, though Harry could hear Pansy laughing at the mention of earlier in Potions class with the mysterious bouquet of flowers that were supposedly from Remus. He'd like to know all about that too.

Right as he enters the common room, he hears a group of people quietly singing, "I knew you were trouble when you walked in..." He stops halfway in the entrance and thinks Oh no, should I turn around or keep going? Then his ears are blasted with "NOW I'M LYING ON THE COLD HARD GROUND!" And then mass screaming was heard and he had to cover his ears up as he continues through the common room, spotting Christina, Emilie, and two other girls seated by the fireplace in a circle, still singing the song. He decides to ignore them, goes to the noticeboard to quickly write his name down under Quidditch Team, and then carries on up to the dorms, still hearing the girls singing from the staircase. He felt as if he's heard of that song before, but he forgot the artist's name.

To his surprise, he finds the dorm room empty. Too empty. He is used to seeing Dean and Seamus making out on their bed, naked in bed, or undressing. He would find that normal. He goes to his bed, discards his bookbag on the end of his bed, lies down, stares up at the ceiling and begins to think about what this year would hold. He closes his eyes and memories start resurfacing in his mind. They were memories that he tried his best to forget over the years.

Flashback

Harry was ten and locked away in his cupboard for the morning. He hasn't eaten in days, he wasn't allowed to anyway, and it was all because of Aunt Marge. It was a Sunday when Marge was over, and the Dursleys and Harry went out to town for a little bit to the shopping centre.

"Boy, hold this," said Aunt Marge quickly, shoving her handbag at Harry's chest as they walk into the mall. Harry quickly grabbed it and put his arm through the straps. He didn't mind holding it, not really. It wasn't that heavy, and he has carried Petunia's handbag and groceries before.

They walked through the usual shops, Clarke's, Levi's, and Adidas, looking through clothes the Dursleys would like, while Harry just dawdled behind and spent his time looking at the shops all around him and wishing he could buy something for himself. But he was a freak, after all. And according to both Petunia and Vernon, freaks don't deserve special new clothes or love. Oh, what a life. A sad life, that is.

Harry had a little peek inside her handbag, seeing the normal mints she would give to Dudley, her purse, a book, and some loose change.

"Oi!" spat Marge, and Harry watched her large figure rush towards him. He asked himself, what had he done wrong, as he takes a step back out of caution. "Are you stealing from me, kid!" Harry shakes his head quickly. "I leave you with my handbag for one minute, and the next thing you're trying to steal my money!"

"Why would I steal money from you?" Harry asks her flatly with a glare and gives her handbag back. He doesn't understand this. Why's he always blamed for things he doesn't actually do? "You can have your bloody filthy money. I don't want it!"

Aunt Marge's face turned to pure anger, and she slapped him across the face hard, in front of the many people in the mall, though only some stopped to pay attention to what was happening after the loud slap.

Harry's mouth dropped open, and he slowly pressed his hand over his cheek where it hurt the most. Then Uncle Vernon grabbed him by the hair and pulled him aside. "You listen here, boy," he snarled. "You better behave yourself. One more incident, and you'll be locked up inside the car until we get back!"

Harry liked the idea, of being locked in the car away from this family. He wanted to get away from them. But he doesn't want to get into trouble again. So he just kept his head down, kept quiet, and followed them around while ignoring Dudley's whine about wanting this and that.

"Ow!" said Dudley loudly, rubbing at his arm and glaring at Harry. "Why the hell did you hit me!"

"I did no such thing!" Harry hissed, shocked that he was to blame again, but then again, he wasn't really. His life is full of blame and lies. What's the point anyway? In life, he has nothing. No loving parents like Dudley or any of the kids at his primary school have, no friends, and no loving pets. No nothing. He's got nothing to live for, and he knows it.

"Right, that's it!" snapped Uncle Vernon, grabbed Harry by the arm and pulled him out of the mall and towards the car in the large half-full car park. "I've had enough of this, of you, boy! You're a handful! A bloody useless piece of trash. You get no food for a week, boy!"

Then get rid of me, Harry was thinking. Vernon unlocked the car, and Harry hurriedly got in. The door slammed close beside him, and Harry sighed and decided to take a little nap on the back seat, mumbling about how worthless his life is.

End of flashback

He remembers that day. He hated it. It wasn't the first time thinking his life was worthless back then. He knows that ever since he was nine, he had been feeling unloved and worthless, but he just didn't care at that moment. It wasn't until his second year of Hogwarts that he gave in to these feelings and let them bring him down.

He turns over and groans into his pillow. Then he remembers the time Aunt Marge gave him a beating. It wasn't as hard as Uncle Vernon's, of course. But it was quite painful and ended up stinging all weekend long. Dudley had made fun of him and called him weak. Harry just wanted to punch him in the face hard and yell, "How about you be strong about that! Try being beaten by your Aunt and see how it feels!"

Harry wonders what his cousin is up to now, and if he's got a job yet, or a lover. Oh, the questions he could ask him. But he doesn't want to get bullied again, called names, or hit. The horror if he returned to that house, has Uncle Vernon pull him into the house and get beaten again.

He turns over onto his side, staring over at Neville's bed, and sighs deeply. He remembers reading one of Dudley's emails years ago and finding out it was a group chat with all the students from his year 5 class, including Dudley, talking shit about Harry and calling him rude names. Well, innocent names children would know and use. He felt pretty left out back then and depressed.

Harry watches the door of the dormitory stay open and just waits for someone to enter, but nobody does. Where did Draco go? And Blaise and Pansy? He then gets a flashback to his suicide attempts, and he remembers how unstable he was then, feeling worthless, unloved, disgusting, stupid, dumb and freaky. Now he feels like shit from these memories.

He gets off his bed and heads to his trunk. He opens it, digs deep inside it and grabs the one thing he needs to use. Closing his trunk, he walks out of the dormitory and heads to the boy's bathroom. He makes sure the room is empty and goes into a stall, locking it from behind him. Rolling up his sleeves, he looks down at his pale arm, covered in healed pink scars.

Would he break a promise this soon? Yes, he would. He held his blade over his forearm, felt the urge rush through him, and so he dug the sharp blade into his arm and pulled it across his wrist. He hissed in pain, but felt more relieved than ever, and watched, mesmerised, as his red blood bubbled up on the cut and rolled down his wrist. It was... it reminded him of a bunch of red roses on a white table, so pretty. So he cut again, and again, wanting to see more. The red blood started dripping from his wrist down to the floor.

Satisfied with five cuts, he reaches for some toilet paper and dabs it over his cuts, watching the fluffy white paper soak up his blood and make almost a piece of art. After flushing the bloodied toilet paper, he then pockets his blade, unlocks the stall door, and heads back up to the dorm.

He stops in the doorway when seeing Seamus and Dean making out on Dean's bed. "Have fun," he mutters numbly, grabs his book bag from his bed and heads back out and down to the common room. There were more students in the common room than before, and the amount of noise they were making gave him a slight headache. He had to get out of there.

Not looking at anybody, not even glancing at Hermione and Ron who were watching him, he rushes out of the common room and just lets his legs take him anywhere through the castle. He ends up at the Divination Tower, right outside the classroom. He knew it was a little early, but he really didn't care. He was safe and away from others.

But knowing he still has around fifteen minutes left until class, he decides to hide in the place one person had known what it felt like to be depressed. Well, two people actually. The empty girl's bathroom on the second floor, also known as Myrtle's bathroom, is where he went to.

He enters the bathroom, and looks around for his ghostly friend but doesn't see her. He walks to the sink and looks at himself, not at all thinking about the Chamber of Secrets underneath him and the skeleton that lies underneath. He sees another reflection in the mirror, and it wasn't his. It was Myrtle, standing behind him, but peaking over his shoulder. He didn't mind if she was his company. He knew that she'd pop up some time. "Hey, Myrtle," he says flatly.

"Hello Harry," Myrtle replies, her voice soft and quiet. She takes a minute to look at him, almost in the way that she's reading his thoughts. "Oh, you've come here to escape from reality, haven't you? The many times I've done the same. Until I died." She sniffed.

"That's nice," Harry deadpans, placing his book bag on the sink. "Can I just ask... what is it like being dead? And why haven't you moved on to your next life?"

"Oh," Myrtle says, looking down at the floor and taking a moment to think about all that Harry asked her. "Well, I'm just dead. I still feel things like I had been when I was alive. I just cannot touch living things, like you, and bunnies, and cats." Tears well up in her eyes, and Harry fears she's going to start crying bucket loads. "Oh, I miss my bunny rabbit." She sniffed. "Oh, my little Mortimer. I miss him so much."

Harry sighs and turns around to face her. How can he comfort a ghost girl? He hasn't an idea. "There there, Myrtle," he says gently, forcing a quick smile. He feels bad for her. She died just so Tom Riddle could get his first Horcrux. Myrtle could have lived on, married someone, had kids, and lived her life the best she could but it was all taken away from her. "Considering you've been dead for around 70 or so years, I'm sure Mortimer's also gone. Nothing lasts forever, you know that."

"I know," Myrtle replies, and her shiny ghostly tears run down her face. She wipes them away quickly and sniffles. "B-But back to the topic, if you really want to know. It does get boring. Though flying, and having no gravity is quite fun." She floats up and over to the large rectangular window where she sat down and looked out at the grounds of Hogwarts below, watching the few students walking about. "I miss being able to eat though. I used to love berries, especially on cheesecake. I used to go walking around Hogwarts and around the forest, looking for edible berries with this girl I knew which we picked for ourselves to nibble on. She wasn't a friend, but I thought of her as one. Her name was Poppy. She was quite an animal and plant lover. Tried smuggling her chickens and dogs into Hogwarts once. She lived on a farm." She frowns and looks over at Harry. "I'm sorry, I'm going off-topic."

"No, that's okay," Harry tells her, shaking his head lightly. He walks over and sat down on the other side of her by the window. Myrtle crossed her legs and straightened out her skirt.

"And I don't think ghosts can move on," Myrtle says, glancing down at her dead hands. "I know some say people become ghosts when they die because they have unfinished business in the world, but I don't have anything I have to do, not that I know of. Sir Headless Nick wanted to join the headless Hunt, but he can't because he's not exactly headless. The Bloody Baron killed Helena, and Helena's been enraged by it since. Maybe if the Baron apologises to her, she might be able to go on, and the same as the Baron. I don't know. It's all very confusing."

Harry nodded his head, agreeing with her. He then reaches forward, a little curiously, and holds his hands over Myrtle's which rests on her lap. He can feel her ghostly coldness underneath him, and her blue aura around her.

Myrtle raises an eyebrow. "What are you expecting, Harry?" She asks of him curiously. "Think you'll be able to feel me? Although... I can feel your body heat. Very warm. I miss having blood and being warm by a fireplace with a nice cup of tea and a book in my hand." She sighs sadly, leaning her head back on the wall behind her and looking out at the sky. "I miss my bay window at home in Edinburgh, with its dark purple floral patterned cushions, and its dark purple velvet curtains. I used to always sit there when it was raining, either reading one of my favourite books or just contemplating life whilst staring outside at the street below."

"That sounds fun, not to mention relaxing," Harry says, distractedly trying to picture Myrtle being alive and living her life back in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. He was actually enjoying himself here, listening to Myrtle's life story. It intrigued him. He wanted to stay and chat but knew Divination was soon to start. But he thought, maybe a few more minutes. "What was it like in the twenties and thirties?"

"Oh, um..." Myrtle begins, her eyes not leaving Harry's hand that is still elevated over hers. She wished she could touch another person again. "It was cool, I guess. I was mainly brought up in the muggle world, as you know, me being muggle-born. The great depression, if you know what that is..." Harry nods. "That took place then, lots of unemployment. Cars and aircraft were being made then. In the late thirties, children had to move to the countryside to survive the bombings of the war. Films were black and white then, and I got to luckily watch a few of them. My favourite was Shirley Temple, I loved the Wizard of Oz and Snow White. Bride of Frankenstein, and Lassie as well."

Harry nodded his head. He's heard of World War 2 in primary school, and those shows she mentioned before. He looks her in her eyes, which are filled with ghostly translucent tears of the memories she once had. He wished he could comfort her, like give her a hug. She deserves one after all these years, especially when she was living. "Well, I really think I should get going to class," he says after a second. "Don't want to be late."

"Oh, okay," Myrtle says sadly, her shoulders drooping as she sniffed. She didn't want to be left alone again in this cold dreary bathroom. "I even miss going to classes... Anyway, what class do you have, Harry?"

"Divination," Harry drawls. "I have it with Ron. It's pretty boring. I dunno what I'll be learning this year. Probably palmistry again or something. Then after I have Transfigurations, Draco will be joining me then."

"How is Draco?" Myrtle asks suddenly. "And does he know you're here?"

"Draco's great," Harry replies, looking out the window and seeing a few blonde boys running around on the grounds. "And no, he doesn't know I'm here. I wanted to be alone, and he knows when I want my alone time, he'll give it to me for a while until he gets too bored and comes looking for me."

Myrtle smiled at that. "That's cute," she says lightly.

"Yeah, it is," Harry agrees with her, giving a little smile as he looks back at her. "He is." Hearing that made Myrtle giggle. "He's the best thing that's ever happened to me. He knows how to make me laugh and smile when I'm not feeling myself. He knows how to make me feel alive and not dead to the world."

"I understand how you feel," Myrtle says, wiping at her eyes yet again. "I was a little suicidal when alive. Was bullied since I first stepped foot into Hogwarts. I never cut myself though. Only scratched at my arms until I saw blood or buried my nails into my skin. I never used any razors like you and Ivy did that I could use."

"I'm surprised you knew about Ivy," Harry says, and the sudden memory of his 4th year, hearing Ivy singing while she cuts herself in this very bathroom. He remembers seeing Myrtle in the bathroom back then on that day.

"I knew her, yes," Myrtle deadpanned. "She and I talked a few times. She reminded me of myself, besides the really good singing voice and the pretty appearance."

"Hey now," Harry says softly, reaching over to gently grab at her upper arm which he squeezes. "I'm sure you can sing well, and you're not ugly. Don't believe what those bullies said all those years ago. It's not true at all. You're not ugly, you're not a crybaby, you're not stupid, not fat or pimply. I don't know if you know this, but everyone judges themselves. I judge myself, I know Draco judges himself but he doesn't show it. Hermione judges herself too."

Myrtle looks down at Harry's hand on her arm, then at his face with a look of disbelief. "Harry, you're touching me," she chokes out, feeling the warmth of his hand on her arm just above her elbow, and it reminds her of being alive.

"What—Oh, I'm sorry," said Harry, but then realized what she said. "What? I didn't-" He slowly moved his hand towards her, and Myrtle blinked at him and rubbed at her arm which Harry had touched earlier. Harry nudged her on the shoulder, feeling his finger touch the material of her school robe, and he swiftly moved back in shock at what he had done. "I can... touch you. But I can't – I mean, I shouldn't be able to. You're a ghost, dead – shit."

Harry swallowed down his disbelief and held up his palm so it faced her. Myrtle was a little shocked, and gradually lifted her hand up and extended her palm out until her hand and Harry's were inches away from touching. Harry closed the distance between their hands, starting from his fingertips touching hers, and then his fingers, then the rest of his palm.

"Whoa," he says in a quiet voice, and he shivers a little from how cold Myrtle's hands are. His life gets stranger every year. What's next? He'll sprout wings and be able to fly? Draco would come out as Transgender and go by she/her pronouns? Ron will colour his hair pink? Or Hermione will stop reading books?

"This is the first time having a boy touch my hand," Myrtle mutters, and Harry lets out a chuckle. "And having a boy as a buddy back in Kindergarten who then held my hand does not count."

Harry links their hands together and gives her hand a squeeze. "You're very cold," he says, glancing down at her translucent hands and nails, and suddenly remembers Ivy and her cold vampire skin. "Ice cold."

"Yet again, I ask what do you expect, when I'm a ghost," Myrtle says with a giggle, squeezing his warm hands back. She grins and looks at their twined hand. "Merlin, I feel alive again, kind of. Just being able to touch you. I cannot touch other alive people. I just float straight through them. I'm really wondering how this is...possible."

"I'm wondering that too," Harry replies, scratching the back of his head with his free hand. "I'll ask Hermione about it, or one of my professors and see what they think. I reckon they'll just say we physically can't touch ghosts or something similar." He gets to his feet and unlatches his hand from hers. "Speaking of professors... I really should get to Divination. I'll see you again, Myrtle."

"Alright then," Myrtle says, already thinking about floating up to the large round window by the bathroom stalls and moping about her terrible life while Harry's in class, but also thinking about what had happened. "Say hi to your friends for me."

"Will do," Harry replies with a quick smile, then turns on his heel to walk away, but he stops himself and looks back at her. "Can you come here for a minute? I have something to give you."

"Oh?" Myrtle says curiously. "I haven't had a gift in ages." She floats over to him, her arms crossed over her chest while in deep thought. "Well, a decent gift. The bloody baron once gave me a rat wrapped up in Christmas paper. I thought it was a hamster, and he said it was one. Shouldn't have believed him. The last gift I was ever given was on Christmas, and it was my own makeup kit. Used it once when my family and I went out for dinner one time. My favourite gift was from my mother and father for my birthday when I turned 12. It was a locket, and it had a picture of me, my mum and my dad in it. It had three little Myrtle flowers on the locket lid. One bigger than the other two."

Harry frowned at her as she began mumbling about the locket she once had. Now he knows what to give her this Christmas. But how could he get that necklace or anything of Myrtle's? He doesn't even know where she once lived, what house, street, and its name. If her parents were muggles, they'd probably be dead by now.

When Myrtle was in arms reach, Harry pulled her into a hug because he wants to, and he knows she needs and deserves one from all these years she's been dead. He feels like he's hugging a blanket filled with ice, a little awkward but he doesn't mind it. Myrtle gasped at what she realised was happening, but then began to cry and eventually wrapped her arms around him.

"Thank you, Harry," Myrtle chokes out. "For the talk, for visiting me. It's so lonely here. And thank you for this... hug. I haven't been hugged since before I left for Hogwarts for my 4th year by my mother." She cried in Harry's robe. "I miss her so much, and my father. They were the only reason I tried not to commit suicide because I know it would break them. I didn't want them feeling the loss of their firstborn."

Harry rests his chin on her head and sighed. Now that's depressing to hear. But he understands her. He knows Draco, Hermione, Ron, the Weasleys, Severus, Remus, and his other mates would be heartbroken to hear that he died, especially by suicide. But wait... "Hang on," he says after a beat. "You said first born... Do you have siblings?"

Myrtle nods slightly. "I do, but I doubt they ever liked me," she replies weakly. "Caroline is my younger sister and was around 6 when I was still alive. And Henry is my younger brother, aged 4 if I remember correctly. They always annoyed me, the little brats. Stealing my stuff and hiding it so I had to find everything myself."

Harry laughed at that. Myrtle's siblings seemed fine to him. It just sounds like what a normal day at the Burrow is like, with Fred and George stealing things from Ron's room, and Ginny too.

"It's not funny, Harry," Myrtle muttered, frowning deeply. "They were truly little brats. Don't know why mum and dad never put them up for adoption. They made my living life complete hell at home."

"Alright, I'm sorry," Harry then says, and he leans slightly away from the hug, his arms coming back to his side. He gives her a moment to calm down, just hoping she stops crying. "Do you remember where exactly you lived through? Where about in Edinburgh?"

"Oh um..." Myrtle turned around, her hands wiping away her tears, and she floated towards the sinks. She had to think about that. After all, it has been ages since she's even been to her actual home. "15 North Park Terrace, Edinburgh. That's where I remember I used to live. My house was 15 minutes away from my primary school, St George's school." She looks over at him. "Why?"

"No reason," Harry tells her quickly, giving her an innocent smile and he quickly Accioed his book bag to him. "Now I have to get going. It was really great talking with you, and I'll try my best to come to see you every day. See you!"

"Okay, bye!" was the last words Harry heard Myrtle say before rushing out of the bathroom and up to the Divination classroom.

"Mate, where have you been?" Ron asks at once when he sees Harry climbing up the ladder into the Divination classroom. " Class started about 5 minutes ago."

"Sorry, was with Myrtle," Harry replies back instantly, following Ron quietly back to a round table where they sat together. "She told me to say hi to you for her."

"Myrtle?" Ron says quietly, a sneer on his face as he remembers how mopey and whiny she is. "What were you doing with that mopey girl?"

"Ron, don't be so rude," Harry drawls, narrowing his eyes at his best mate. Of course, he's feeling defensive of Myrtle. He understands her like he understands Ivy and what she went through. And the poor girl, was bullied because of her looks and because she had to wear glasses, just like himself.

"Right... sorry," Ron then says, rolling his eyes and looking up at the front of the classroom to where Trelawny is.

Divination was pretty much the same as Potions. Harry, sitting next to Ron, was told by Trelawny that this year will include the acquisition of an odd Divination method of cracking eggs open to foretell the future, Numerology, Myomancy, Xylomancy, the use of Tarot Cards, and Fire-omens. How odd indeed.

"Ron, is it possible for something alive to touch something dead like... a ghost?" Harry asks after some time. Trelawny was handing out eggs and glass bowls filled with boiling water to everyone, so he had a guess that cracking eggs will be happening soon. He wanted to egg someone. If only he had a slingshot. Dean looked like he could deserve a runny egg on the head, but then he knows Seamus would get him back. But then again, he doesn't want to get a detention.

"It is as the yolks foretold..." says Trelawny, once again looking at the empty seat next to Parvati that once sat lavender Brown, one of her favourite students. "Today we shall be practising the art of Ovomancy. Try not to disturb the eggs before they are to be cracked. The egg can foretell a great deal if you know what to look for..."

Ron looks at him in complete disbelief, then shakes his head. "Yep, I think you're going mental," he says a little tardily, dipping his finger in the boiling hot water, hisses and takes it out, then does it again. "First, you're actually sticking up for Myrtle, and now you're asking if we can touch ghosts. I'm telling Hermione this too. Seems like you need some kind of pep talk or something."

Harry snorts. "Sure..." A pep talk? No. He just needs Hermione to remind him that he's still a normal wizard who dreamt of hugging a ghost for some reason. But he enjoyed listening to Myrtle and her life story before she died. Now he wanted to know more about Sir Headless Nick's past life, the Bloody Barons, and what they got up to when alive.

When the professor said so, everyone began cracking their eggs onto their plates. Harry opened his textbook Unfogging the Future and turned to the chapter on Egg Cracking for Foretelling the Future. He cracked his egg into the bowl of bubbling hot water, then looked at his book to see what shape his egg takes as an omen. Looking through the notes, and glancing at the egg which was taking shape of what kind of looked like the Eiffel tower but with more towers and lots of windows. It was confusing to him.

"Does this look like a Dog or a wolf to you?" Ron asks Harry, his hands folded across the table, his chin resting on his arms as he stares into the glass bowl at the egg yolk that's slowly taking form.

Harry glances at Ron's bowl and shrugs, though he does see a wolf. But what could that mean? "I believe I see a wolf," he says, then looks back at his own, which he still sees as the Eiffel Tower thing for some reason. He realises he sees both, the Eiffel Tower and a large building with lots of windows that looks kind of like a castle, but it isn't Hogwarts he sees. But what's that got to do with his future?

After telling the professor what he sees, Harry, Ron, and the rest of the class left the classroom and went to their next class of the day. Hermione joined them after walking out from a corridor to the right, and Ron pulled her aside and told her quietly what he heard Harry say.

Harry rolls his eyes but then frowns when he hears Hermione laugh. He's not crazy, and he knows it. He feels like she's laughing at him for asking earlier if living beings could touch ghosts. Oh, if only she was in the bathroom with him when comforting Myrtle and learning about her life story. He decides to keep on walking up to Transfiguration's and blocks out Ron and Hermione behind him who, if he could guess, were flirting.

Just as he reaches the top of the stairs, he sees Draco up ahead walking with Blaise and Pansy. He thinks, Finally, and jogs up to them. "Draco!" he yells.

Draco turns around with a smile on his face, and it widens when he sees Harry. "If it isn't my darling Harry," he yells back, wanting everyone to hear it in a mile's radiance, and he reaches out just as Harry closes the distance between them in a tight hug and a quick deep kiss.

"I left Hermione and Ron behind because they were flirting with each other," Harry says after the little kiss, which put a smile on his face. "Got a little gross, and I didn't want to listen to it all."

"Nothing wrong with a bit of flirting," Blaise tells him. "But I understand."

"They also laughed when Ron asked Hermione the question I asked him which was: is it possible for us living beings to touch ghosts," Harry says, giving Draco a squeeze, and then leaning away so he could just stare into those silver eyes he loves with all his heart.

Pansy and Blaise looked at each other, then burst out laughing at what Harry said. Harry glares at the two. He wants to show them, and Hermione and Ron that he can touch ghosts. Well, Myrtle. He hasn't tried with the other Hogwarts ghosts yet.

Draco just smiled, his eyes twinkling with an inner laugh. "You are joking about this, right?" he asks, grabbing Harry's hands. "You know we can't physically touch ghosts, Harry. It's impossible."

"Right," said Harry, nodding his head slightly. "I know that, yes."

"That's so stupid," Pansy says with a chuckle. "Why would you... Merlin."

"Yeah," Blaise agrees, smiling at Harry and Draco.

Ouch. Harry looked down and away from them, taking what they said seriously. They should know better.

Draco watched Harry's demeanour go from happy to down in a matter of seconds, and he swears it was the most heartbreaking thing he has ever seen in his life. "Oh, Harry," he said sadly. "You took that literally, didn't you?" Harry stayed quiet. Draco frowns and pulls him into a hug, while he glares at his best friends.

"Oh..." said Pansy, suddenly understanding what happened and how sad Harry looked. "I'm sorry, Harry. You're not stupid, just the question is quite silly."

"Sorry, Harry," Blaise says gently, stepping forward to pat him on the shoulder while the two hugged. "Come, Pansy," he says after a second, looking back at her guiltily. Now he felt bad. He knows what it feels like to be depressed. But he's never been bullied by anyone before. "Let's get to class."

Pansy nods, links arms with Blaise, and they leave Harry and Draco alone. The pair was alone for a few seconds until Ron and Hermione came walking around the corner, chatting amongst themselves. That was until Hermione saw Harry looking quite down. "Harry," she says softly, "are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I'm fine," Harry mutters, his voice muffled by Draco's robe. Hermione shakes her head in disbelief. "Go to class. I just need a minute."

"Alright, mate," Ron says, and leads Hermione away towards class. Though, he did give Harry a quick worried glance.

"Are you alright to go to class, Harry?" Draco asks after a beat of a second when he knows Harry's not so upset anymore, but he didn't truly know just how upset Harry was just by hiding his true emotions. "Or do you want me to take you to Severus? Or perhaps Madam Pomfrey?" He leans away and brings his hand up to cup Harry's face.

"I'll go to class," Harry says flatly, giving the Slytherin a little nod and leaning his face into Draco's hand. "Don't think I'll be paying much attention to the lesson though. End up zoning out again."

"That's okay," Draco reassures him with a little smile. "You can copy my notes, if there are any when you feel a little better. You don't need to worry about anything."

"Okay," Harry mutters, his face empty of any expression. Draco kisses Harry's nose, making Harry's cheeks flush pink.

Ron, Hermione, Pansy, and Blaise were already seated when Draco and Harry entered the Transfiguration's classroom, as well as a few other students like Neville, Dean, and Seamus. Professor McGonagall got straight onto the lesson, which consisted of reminding all students of the N.E.W.T.S examinations at the end of the year, and then the lesson began.

Harry didn't want to take notes, though he knew he should if it's the list of spells he'll be learning through the year. He just couldn't be bothered, but he tried anyway just so he doesn't regret it later and think of himself as lazy. Oh, the list of spells he'll be learning just goes on and on.

After Transfiguration's, Harry and Draco headed to the Room of Requirement for some alone time. Harry knew he needed some alone time with Draco. When they arrived, Draco asked for a cosy room filled with positive energy, and what they got from the Room of Requirement was a cottage-like room filled with hanging plants in pots, in the centre of the room a large wooden couch with yellow cushioning with two yellow beanbags each side, a large round window facing the couch that reminded Harry of the Shire, incenses and colourful candles on every little table around the room that held a plant and on the coffee table which made the room smell like peaches and lavender.

Harry flopped down onto the couch, groaning at both the comfort and how hard he hit it. He could stay here all night. Yeah, he wants to.

Draco laughed and sat down at Harry's feet. "Leave room for me too," he says and crawled up Harry's body until directly over him. He grins and leans down to give Harry a little kiss, and Harry watches the Slytherin close those pretty silver eyes and leans down, head tilting to the side and lips parting. Harry feels his insides melt as Draco kisses him gently with those delicious lips, and he gives Draco all his love in a slow loving kiss.

"Merlin, I want you," Draco whispers, leaning up and opening his silver eyes while slowly rutting on Harry's crotch. "It's been a week."

"Not today, please," Harry whispers back, sliding out from underneath Draco so it's just his legs Draco's sitting on. He doesn't want Draco to know he's cut anyway. It would disappoint Draco, and he knows it. "I just don't feel like it right now. I want snuggles, and snuggles only."

"Snuggles, I can give you," Draco says, smiling beautifully.

*****

On the weekend after the first week of Hogwarts, Draco and Harry got ready to head to the Muggle World to pick up Ivy and Lavender for their appointment at St Mungos. During the week, Draco had gotten an Owl from Ivy regarding when and where to meet up.

To Draco, my apparent cousin.

This is so fun! I can't believe wizards use owls to communicate with each other. Oh, and why does Henwig, or whatever this white owl is called, keep nibbling at our fingers? What exactly does she want? Food? I dunno what to give her. I dunno if she should have, but she stole one of Lavender's Maccas fries and ate it. I hope she's alright by the time she gets back to you with my reply. Oh, and meet us back at the Cafe we met at last time at around 10 am Saturday. We'd rather not attract attention by meeting at our hotel. We'll see you then!

Love from Ivy and Lavender!

Harry and Draco had been given special permission from Headmistress McGonagall to leave Hogwarts on that Saturday. So they got dressed for London in their separate house dorms, met up in the Great Hall to get breakfast, and just spent some time together alone under the Willow tree until 9:40 am when they then headed down to the Hogwarts gates and apparated away.

When they arrived at Koha Restaurant and Bar after a nice walk from their apparition point, they looked into the restaurant's windows but didn't see Ivy or Lavender inside. Thinking the girls would arrive a little later, they decided to go inside, order coffee, and find a table to sit at until the two women arrive.

Harry noticed the worry etched on Draco's face after the waiter gave them their coffees. "Hey," he says softly and reaches for the Slytherin's hand resting on the table. "What's up?"

"I'm just thinking... what if Ivy doesn't want to get her memories back?" Draco says to him, his finger running over the edge of the odd muggle coffee cup that he's still not used to seeing. "She's got such dark memories of her childhood with her mother. I don't want to give those memories back to her. Her life was so dark growing up, I'm not sure she'd want to remember it all."

Harry nods slowly. He agrees with Draco. Why would Ivy want to remember such dark memories? "But I'm sure the doctor or whatever the Memory Rehab people are called, can help Ivy remember parts of her memory that don't include her real childhood. But just remember... those are her childhood memories. If she wants them, then she is allowed to have them."

They waited another thirty minutes for the girls, but they just didn't show up.

"Maybe Ivy has a concert going on," Harry suggests to Ivy and Lavender's lateness. "Or they're running late coming from a concert."

Draco shrugs, and he checks his nails out to make time fly for a while and to stop him from worrying. The gesture makes Harry smile. Draco notices the gorgeous smile on his boyfriend's face and smiles back. "What?" He asks curiously.

"Nothing," Harry says quickly, grinning with his teeth. Draco then grins wider, and Harry tries widening his grin just to challenge his boyfriend but he just snorts at whatever they're doing and they both end up laughing. "Anyway..." he says, taking a sip of his warm coffee. "How are Pansy and Blaise doing? I haven't seen them much, besides when Blaise is with Neville."

"Pansy's alright," Draco tells him. "She's a little err... she acts different when with Daphne for some reason." Harry raised both brows, and Draco notices and nods his head. "It's not that obvious, honestly. And Blaise is fine. He's great with Neville. They've been together for a little more than a year now, and I've been wondering..."

"If they've had sex yet?" Harry said, finishing his sentence. Draco nods his head. "Yes, they have." He smirked and looked down into his coffee. "I've seen Neville's bed rocking once since we got back from the Holidays. It was a night ago. I noticed Blaise enter the dorm with Neville that night. They used Silencing Charms, thankfully."

"I wonder if that was their first time," Draco says. "Blaise doesn't talk with me about his sex life. I'm glad, though." He wrinkles his nose. "Ivy used to blurt about her sex life to me."

Harry snorts. Ah, typical Ivy Black. "How nice," he says with sarcasm, and looks outside the window at the busy street, hoping to see two familiar faces but unfortunately didn't. He checked the clock on the wall above the counter, It had been half an hour already.

They decided to wait another half hour but go for a walk around the block. When they returned, Ivy and Lavender still weren't there. They didn't want to give up, but they had to get back to Hogwarts. At least it wasn't really a waste of time, since they were both there together so it practically was a date. It was a lovely date that they enjoyed, though they would have liked Ivy and Lavender to show up.

*****

Draco and Harry were on their way to Charms on a Wednesday afternoon, when Harry spotted Peeves floating around the roof carrying a basket of coloured water balloons. Honestly, where does the poltergeist get those items?

"Oi, Peeves!" Harry yelled out.

The poltergeist looked their way and grinned. "Ah, Potty and Mouthful," said Peeves, floating over towards them. "The "power couple" of Hogwarts. What can Lord Peeves do for the two of you?"

Draco glared at him. Mouthful? How dare he.

Harry just laughed at the nickname Peeves gave him. It never gets old. "Gimme one of those, will you?" he asked of the poltergeist, pointing at the water balloons.

Peeves just chuckled and threw a green water balloon at Harry. It got Harry right on the chest, exploding and covering Harry's robe in cold water. Peeves snickered.

"Ha-Ha, very funny," said Harry with narrowed eyes, trying his best to squeeze the water out of his clothes. Beside him, Draco was chuckling. "I mean it, though. Just give me one, please? No, actually give me two."

"Oh, fine," muttered Peeves, rolling his eyes but feeling curious about Harry's inner mischief. He flew over to Harry and gave him a red and green water balloon.

Harry smiled mischievously, and though he knew what was going to happen, he threw the green water balloon at Peeves. It flew right through, just as he expected. Peeves snorted and shook his head at the Gryffindor. Then Harry turned to Draco.

Draco raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Harry..." he said, a little curiously, his eyes darting from Harry and the red water balloon. He took a cautious step back. "What are you do-"

Harry threw the water balloon right at Draco's head, and it exploded on the blonde Slytherin's nose, covering his face in water and parts of the exploded red balloon. Out of shock, Draco fell backwards, landing on his arse. He blew at a strand of wet hair covering his eyes, and he looks up at Harry, who was laughing loudly. "Harry fucking Potter, you little rascal," he says as calmly as he could.

"I think he needs another balloon to the head," said Peeves, floating on his belly just above Harry's head. "Don't you think so, Potty?"

"Nah, give him the next one," Harry says, flapping his hand and looking up at the Poltergeist. "Pretty sure he wants to get us back."

"Accio basket!" snapped Draco, and Peeve's basket of water balloons flew into Draco's hands, who quickly got up off the floor. "Get you back, you mean."

Harry just grinned and raised his hands in surrender. "Yes, sir," he says, saluting the Slytherin. "Do it. I'm waiting."

"Alright," Draco says at once. He points his wand at the basket, and five water balloons float up into the air and aim at Harry. "You really should start running, babe. There's enough water in these balloons to flood the Great Hall." That was a lie, be he could do an expanding spell on the balloons.

"Hold that thought," Harry says quickly and walked over to the Slytherin. He cupped one-half of Draco's face and promptly kissed his cheek. Then he walked backwards back to Peeves, saluted to him, and said, "May we go down in slippery watery peace." Peeves saluted him back, but then Harry held out his palm. "High five?"

Peeves looked down at Harry's hands, shrugged as he knew what would happen, and slapped his hand down onto Harry's. His ghostly eyes widened when hearing such a sound he hasn't heard before in a long time and the feel of a living person's hand under his own fingertips. "What dark sorcery is this, Potty?!"

Draco stood there in shock. Harry was... touching Peeves, a ghost who's been dead for centuries. Harry's hand wasn't going through the poltergeist's hand, and he heard the definite slap of skin against... skin? "Harry James Potter," he says slowly, unable to piece all of this together, "I never knew you... can touch spirits. But that's impossible! How can you...?"

"I first found out a few Mondays ago," Harry begins with a sigh, walked over to the nearest window and sat down on the edge. "I wasn't feeling myself and wanted to be alone, so I went to the empty girl's Lavatory. There, I talked to Myrtle, and we actually had a really nice talk. I understand her, and how she feels... you know? When she began crying again, I felt like comforting her so I did. It was an innocent little rub on her arm, and then she and I touched fingers. It was odd, She's so cold just like Peeves. Before heading to Divination, I hugged her because...well... she deserves one from all these years of crying in the bathroom, feeling unloved and worthless."

"Oh," said Draco, lowering the water balloons from the air and putting all but one back. He slid the last one in his pocket, out of Harry's line of sight. He joined Harry by the window, snaked his arm around him and leaned his chin on Harry's shoulder. "I'm just wondering... How? How can you, a living man, touch the dead... a ghost?"

Harry shrugs. "I dunno either," he mumbles. Looking over at Peeves, he asks, "Can you keep this between us three, please, Peeves? I don't want the entire school or the Wizarding World to find out about this... thing I am able to do. I don't want any more attention than I already have, considering I'll always be the Wizarding Worlds Golden Boy."

Peeves the poltergeist nodded. "Certainly," he says, though he still was a little confused and amused with what happened.

Harry then was hit with a cold feeling of running water down his head and down his back, and he shrieked and took off running down the corridor, leaving Draco and Peeves rolling on the floor in laughter.

"Got him!" Draco says after his minute of laughing at what he had done to his boyfriend. "Oh, revenge is always sweet."

"It sure is, Mouthful," Peeves agrees. Draco glances back with a raised brow, and Peeves only shrugged innocently. "It's what I called your father when he strutted through the corridors of Hogwarts in his days. Luscious Mouthful."

Draco snorts. What a lovely nickname. "Oh, I am so going to use that on father when I see him again," he says, eyes glinting with amusement. But then he remembers where his father is. Azkaban. He feels himself frown, but he masks it from the poltergeist's eyes and puts on a smile. Suddenly, a water balloon exploded on his robe, and he immediately looks up to where they came from and sees two more yellow water balloons flying his way. Knowing he hasn't any time, but not wanting to get splashed again, he whips out his wand and shouts, "Arresto Momentum!"

It felt like time itself slowed down when he watched the Water balloons slow their journey until they were moving as slow as a snail, and Draco was able to grab them and send them back in the direction they came from. Precisely, the person at the end of the corridor was Harry Potter.

The spell lifted itself after a few moments, and Draco watched amusedly as Harry got hit in the back by one, but ducked in time so he didn't get hit twice. Damn it! "Nice try, Harry," he called out. He walked to the basket, crouched down and gathered four yellow water balloons. Going into Slytherin stealth mode, he kept his footsteps as quiet as he could, and ducked behind every tapestry while he searches for the Gryffindor. He finally spots him jogging up the stairs, and he throws a water balloon at him. It hits Harry on the arse, and Draco can't help but laugh.

Harry grunts and turns around, sending a yellow balloon right back at Draco which hits him on the waist. Draco shrieks and runs up the stairs after Harry, throwing a balloon back at him. Harry trips on the next step, and Draco laughs at him but trips over Harry's feet, falling on top of him.

"You're such a goof," Draco tells Harry quietly, smiling brightly down at him.

Harry grabs Draco's tie and pulls him down for a kiss, but too soon he realises that he and Draco are late for Charms. Just when Draco deepens the kiss, Harry gently pushes him off. "We've got class," he says quickly. "We're currently late."

"Oh, shoot," Draco says at once, getting up off Harry. He helps Harry up to his feet. He doesn't like being late to class. "Let's go."

Forgetting they're drenched in water, they enter Charms minutes later. Everyone in the classroom turned their heads to look at the couple.

"Sorry we're late, Professor," Harry says out of breath, running a hand through his wet hair. "We Ran into Peeves."

"No problem, please take a seat," said Professor Flitwick, pointing his wand at two empty seats behind Dean and Seamus.

"Tell me again how you figured out the whole touching undead thing?" Draco whispers as they sit down behind the two Gryffindors.

When the professor begins to tell them about what's to expect this year, Harry tells Draco again what happened with Myrtle, and a few things she told him about her life just so Draco's up to date with what he has been discussing with Myrtle.

Oh, what a hilarious lesson it was once the actual lesson started. The Blackboard Writing Spell. And what did Seamus Finnegan and Ron Weasley write on the professor's Blackboard when the tiny professor wasn't looking?

- Farts are just the ghosts of the foods we eat.

- Shut up, Seamus.

- No, You!

- Sweet dreams are made of cheese, who am I to disagree?

- How's that funny?

- It just is. :)

Parvati, bored out of her mind rolls her eyes at the boys and writes 'Be Happy' on the chalkboard. Underneath her writing, someone writes 'Don't tell me what the hell to do'. She giggles at that. She admits it, that is kind of funny.

Hermione even starts giggling, though she wants to be sensible. She writes 'If you boil a funny bone, it becomes a laughing stock. How humerus.'

'When life gives you lemons, ask for salt and Tequila' Harry writes at the top corner of the blackboard where it's empty.

Beside him, Draco snorts at what Harry wrote and writes ' Soup Of The Day: The Tears Of Our Enemies'.

Professor Flitwick turns around when seeing his students laughing at something behind him, and he sighs at his blackboard covered in writing. Teenagers...

*****

Hermione and Ron had been watching Harry closely through the first month of the year because they know something was up with him. They haven't forgotten about Harry's depression. It's an important thing they must look out for. Why wouldn't they keep a close eye on him? They're his best friends!

They notice when Harry looks quite depressed, which is pretty much every day, but sometimes Harry can mask his true feelings and give them a smile. A fake smile.

Whenever they could, they would remind Harry how much he was loved and cared about by giving him hugs every now and then, like before they head to bed, and in the mornings. They knew not to swarm him every minute, so at times they let Harry go off on his own to wherever, though they were always worried about his state and what he was going to do.

Harry didn't mind the affection at all. He loved it. But he still wanted to go off on his own for some time just to be alone, and in between, he visited Myrtle. Sometimes just by himself, and other times accompanied by Draco.

The first time he brought Draco to Myrtle's bathroom was really nice because Draco got to understand the part of Myrtle only Harry knew, and nobody else knew. Draco got to understand her a little more, and that she's not just a ghost who weeps and haunts the Girl's bathrooms.

Myrtle had told them more about her life before death, how she used to play the violin before she ever went to Hogwarts (and was quite good at it too) as she thought she could do something more important in the Wizarding world as she has grown up. But that sadly never happened. She used to go on long walks around town, even when feeling deeply down and suicidal, just so she can watch the birds fly, watch the kids play at the park, and listen to the sounds of nature in King George V National Park and the Sundial Garden. She did so to remind her of the beauty she'll miss in life if she died. Myrtle even admitted she liked walking through the cemetery so she can contemplate life and what it would be like to be dead or live a happier life. She had talked to the few ghosts that haunted the cemetery near where she lived too to know what being dead was like.

When Harry gave her a hug before leaving, Draco had too tried hugging her but instead, went right through her. He still asks himself How! like a typical normal person would when seeing a living being hugging a ghost. He had to remind himself that he wasn't going crazy. He thinks it's cool to be able to hug ghosts though.

*****

Fun fact: Jason Isaacs Wanted to Play Gilderoy Lockhart Instead of Lucius Malfoy.