It was drizzling outside by the time the student's left the magical green house where they had spent their entire Herbology class looking for Invisible Snookets hiding among the flowers. Harry shivered in the mild cold.

"Right miserable weather," Ron lamented.

Even Hermione agreed with a silent nod, rubbing her arms.

"I saw you didn't find a single Snooket, Potter. Must be going blind," Draco's sneer was audible.

The trio shared annoyed looks, but kept walking forward. It was usually best to ignore Malfoy, but this time he wasn't going to be shook off so easily.

"Those muggles of yours didn't seem to take very good care of you. I suppose it must be their fault. You're probably pretty happy they're dead, huh?" the blond hair boy said in a teasing tone.

Harry stopped in his tracks, just inside the castle square, and turned slowly to face Malfoy. The Gryffindor's face was white and his hands were clenched at his sides. Ron and Hermione took a stand on either side of their friend, ready to help if things escalated.

"What did you say?" Harry asked slowly, his voice deceptively calm.

Draco looked a bit taken back by the pure rage in Harry's green gaze, but it was too late to back down without looking like an idiot. Malfoy shifted his weight and stuck his chin up in the air.

"You heard me. You're glad they're dead. Hell, you're the reason they're dead anyway. The Dark Lord-"

That was as far as Draco got before Harry roared and rushed forward, wand forgotten in the rush of anger that filled him. He might not have liked the Dursley's, but their deaths had weighed him down for months. All of the pain and guilt that had been festering inside all that time finally had an outlet.

Harry's first punch landed squarely on Draco's nose. Blood gushed down the front of the blond boy's robes, but Harry was beyond the point of caring. He kept hitting, knuckles connecting time after time with the Slytherin's face, neck, upper torso.

"Harry, stop!" Hermione shouted.

"C'mon, mate, that's enough!" Ron added, his eyes wide. "Stop before you kill him."

That was enough to make Harry hesitate and that was all the chance Draco needed to spring away, drawing his wand. A spell shot through the air and missed Harry by inches.

By now students were yelling, a circle forming around the two fighters. Ron and Hermione were trying to both hold back the Slytherins and reach Harry.

"Hey, What's goin' on 'here?" a booming voice interrupted.

Hagrid lumbered into view and stepped into the circle just as Draco let off another spell. Instead of hitting its intended target, the purple magic collided with the half-giant who had taken another huge step forward. Draco made a "meep!" of horror before being dragged backward by Knot and Goyle. The blond boy's face was a mesh of bruises and oozing cuts, blood still trickling out of his nose.

Harry, untouched, stood breathing heavily and staring at Hargrid. Something was happening. The purple light of the spell was growing to encompass the large man's entire body.

"Wha's this?" Hagrid had just enough time to ask before a brilliant white light flashed.

The students shielded their eyes from the blaze of light. When it faded, only the half-giant's clothes were left, collapsed in a pile of brown and gray cloth. Harry was the first to see movement inside the clothes. Gasps rang out in the square when two huge blue eyes peeked out of the shirt's sleeve hole.

"Where's mum?" a scared, little voice asked.

Hermione's jaw dropped open as she realized what had happened.

"Great bloody Merlin, he's been deaged!" Ron exclaimed a moment later.

Panic erupted as students screamed, ran, or cried in response to the obvious truth. The boy in the clothes couldn't have been more than five, but he was tall for his age and chubby around the cheeks.

"Mum?" Tears were starting to sparkle in the corners of little Hagrid's eyes. "Where's mum? Mummy!"

Harry ran forward and knelt next to the boy. "Shh. Shhh, it's going to be okay. Do you know who I am?"

"Deaging means a regression of all memories, Harry," Hermione spoke up, coming to stand next to his shoulder. "Hagrid won't know anything more than he did at that age. We need to get him to Pomfrey."

"What is going on here?" Snape swept into the square, looking around at the panicking students. His gaze froze on Harry, little Hagrid, Hermione, and Ron. The headmaster's face fell and he strode over to them with a resigned sigh. "Who deaged him?"

"Draco!" Harry spat the name, his anger returning full force.

"Harry, calm down," his father commanded sternly.

The boy took a calming breath and then another, but it only helped a bit.

"He's right," Ron spoke up, "Draco did cast the spell, but...well...I'm not sure if he knew what he was doing exactly."

Snape pinched the bridge of his nose and squinted over at Harry who looked abashed. "You'll tell me everything that happened, but, first we need to get Hagrid into the infirmary and-Holy Goddess! Draco!" The headmaster's usual calm slipped when he caught sight of Draco's swollen, damaged face.

Knot nodded his chin in Harry's direction. "He did this! And Draco didn't do nothing to deserve it neither."

Harry ducked away from his father's horrified look. Snape took a moment to replace his mask of cool indifference. "Hermione, Ron, Knot, Goyle, Harry, Draco, and Hagrid to the infirmary. The rest of you report to your next class. Dismiss!"

The student's scattered leaving behind only the seven students he had named. They looked different degrees of guilty and angry, except Hagrid who had burst into loud sobs with fat tears pouring down his face. Snape came to a decision and, with not a little displeasure, picked up the young half-giant and carried him inside. The others followed mutely.  

 Pomfrey shared her glare between Draco and Harry, her mouth set in a firm line. She hadn't spoken since learning what had happened. Hagrid had needed a calming draught and he was happily snuggled up in a bed, sucking his thumb between light snores. Harry and Draco's friends were currently being questioned by the headmaster which left them together in the infirmary. With one last scathing look, Pomfrey retreated to her office and shut the door.

Draco studied his hands with the one eye that wasn't swollen shut. His whole face felt like it had been ran over by the Express Train. Harry refused to look over at the blond boy and instead stared at Hagrid's sleeping form as if doing so would somehow turn him back to his adult self.

"Why that spell?" Harry asked finally. "It's a stupid spell. I'd of only turned into a kid and you would have gotten into loads of trouble anyway."

Draco gently probed a dark purple bruise on his chin and grimaced painfully. "Well, I wasn't thinking clearly now was I? Someone had knocked the sense out of me. Prat."

"Bitch."

They fell silent once more and remained that way, looking anywhere but at each other, until Snape returned half an hour later. His glare had turned into an obsidian smolder behind half-lidded eyes.

"I've gotten the story from your little friends. Now it's time to, as they say, face the music."

Both boys tensed.

"Draco, you will stay here for the night and get your wounds healed, but starting tomorrow you will be grounded and taking your meals from the great hall."

"Classes-" Draco started to protest.

"Yes, you still have to attend classes, but then immediately back to your dorm. You will also have detention with me every night for a month." Here Snape paused and searched Harry with a penetrating look. "Son, you will come with me. We will talk about this in our quarters."

Stomach curling into knots, Harry nodded and followed his father out of the infirmary. It did not take long to reach the headmaster's quarters. They were specifically arranged to be equally distant from each house in case of emergencies. Once they were inside, Snape pointed to the sofa and Harry sat.

"What you did was very stupid, Harry, and I am disappointed in you."

The words were spoken softly, but they cut through the boy like a knife. He felt tears burn the back of his eyes, but he refused to lose his composure. He deserved this, after all, for what had happened to Hagrid. Crying wouldn't change anything.

"I expect a response," Snape said.

"Yes, sir."

"Why did you let him get to you?" the headmaster asked. He drew a chair up in front of the boy and sat down, leaning forward so that their knees were almost touching. "Why did you do it, Harry?"

"You know what he's like. Fucking Malfoy," Harry said bitterly.

"Language," Snape admonished, "You're already skating on thin ice as it is."

"Yes, sir." Harry sighed in defeat and let his head fall, pulling down his shoulders. "I just didn't like what he was saying."

Snape considered his words carefully. "I can understand that, son, but that does not give you the right to beat someone to a bloody pulp."

Harry opened his mouth to protest before remembering Draco's swollen, purple face, and his mouth snapped shut. He really had lost it with the other boy. Shame burned through his stomach and Harry hugged himself. Snape saw and his stern expression softened somewhat.

"I will be punishing you, Harry, but not because I am angry at you. I am not angry," Snape said firmly.

Harry looked up then, for the first time since entering their quarters, and was shocked to see the truth in his father's eyes. It was sometimes easy to forget that the painful punishment the Dursley's doled out was not normal. Still, Harry's mouth went dry.

"What are you going to do?" Harry asked.

"You will be joining Malfoy in his detentions."

"What?" Harry exclaimed, wide eyed. "You want me to spend more time with him after what I did?"

"Yes," Snape said simply.

"But, why?" Harry couldn't understand his father's thinking.

"Because you need to learn self-control. If the Ministry learns that you are beating up fellow students they might start to think you're...." Snape trailed off.

"Turning into another Voldemort?" Harry finished for him.

"Unfortunately." His father nodded.

"Well, I'm not," Harry said.

Snape smiled. "I know that, Harry."

Mollified, the boy rested his arms on the sofa. "What else are you going to do to me?" he asked the question without meaning to, an undercurrent of fear entering the words.

The headmaster grimaced, a pained look on his face. "Harry, I'm not your uncle." He reached out and took the boy's hands in his own. "The fact that I love you is not going to change just because you chose to use Draco as a punching bag."

Now it was Harry's turn to grimace. He really had let himself get lost in the grief and anger of losing his relatives. The boy licked his lips.

"You are my son and I want you to do the right thing, but making mistakes is part of being human and I won't punish you for that. Although I'm sure the detentions will drill home the point I want to make, there will also be lines."

Harry groaned and let his head fall back against the sofa. He hated lines. "Yes, sir," he ground out.

"Good." Snape released the boy's hands and stood. "Now I think you should go to your room. I will call you when dinner is ready."

Harry did as he was told, but turned back to his father after a moment. "Dad, what about Hagrid? What happens to him now?"

A bark of laughter escaped Snape. "Ah, yes. I had almost forgotten our little problem. Deaging spells are notoriously unreliable and may last for minutes or years."

"Years!" Harry squeaked.

"Sometimes. I dare say that we must simply wait it out. There's not much else that can be done."

"Oh. Pomfrey can't give him a potion or something?"

"No. The reversal must take place naturally. Until then, don't think that you are not going to play any part in young Hagrid's care."

"Yes, sir." Harry turned and escaped into his room. He wondered exactly what Snape had in mind.

-

The first detention was as awkward as Harry had expected it would be. They were tasked with cleaning out a spare teacher's suite for Hagrid. Draco had immediately gone to the furthest part of the room to begin his part. Harry followed suit without a word. For the next two hours neither boy acknowledged the other's presence. Finally, Snape arrived with Hagrid in his arms, sitting on his hip. The little boy looked around the sparkling clean room with wide blue eyes. At some point Hagrid must have realized his mother was not coming, because he had stopped asking. Snape set the boy down on the floor.

"These are your rooms," the headmaster told the child.

"Wooms?" Hagrid asked shyly.

"Yes." Snape smiled in what he hoped was an encouraging manner.

Hagrid trundled off to explore while Snape turned to the two boys in front of him. He seemed not to like what he saw, because he gave a heavy sigh and pointed to the door.

"Off with you, Mr. Malfoy. Harry, you'll stay here and look after Hagrid while I attend to some things."

Harry paled. "What?" he asked, horrified.

Draco pranced out of the room, throwing a smirk over his shoulder at Harry. The Gryffindor ignored it, looking instead between his father and the little boy who was trying to pull a large book off a shelf. Harry felt out of his depth.

"I don't even know how to watch a baby," he protested.

Snape rolled his eyes. "Five years old is hardly a baby, Harry. I'm sure you'll do fine. Just keep him out of trouble and try not to break anything. I'll be back before supper."

Before Harry could protest further, his father had walked out. Alone with little Hagrid, Harry gulped. It couldn't be any worse than-

A loud crash interrupted his thoughts. Harry swung around and saw that Hagrid had succeeded in dislodging the heavy book which was now laying haphazard across him where he lay sprawled out on the floor. Harry rushed to the little boy's side.

"Are you okay?" he asked, looking for any bleeding or injuries.

Hagrid sat up, blinking great big blue eyes. "'Kay," he said with a smile. "Book."

"Yes, you have a book," Harry agreed.

"Read?" Hagrid held out the book in both hands. "Pwease?"

Unable to say no, Harry took the book and read the title Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them. He chuckled and sat down, drawing Hagrid onto his lap. Little fingers brushed the pages as he read.