The days onward from that potions lesson consisted of Snape barking insults at the boy, assigning him detentions and never once handing out a compliment of his work, although most times he actually did not deserve them anyway. The only one to have enjoyed the moments that Snape used to make Harry feel worst was Mathew Lark, the Slytherin classmate who had officially made his dislike of the boy-who-lived known since the second day of school when he'd shoved into Harry as he'd passed and tried to trip him again later that same day. Draco sealed their rivalry by shoving the boy back, although he would have done more if Harryand Ron hadn't of restrained him to some point.

Harry and Draco had officially been at Hogwarts for almost a whole month when they finally adjusted to sleeping in their own beds although if either had a nightmare than that was not the case. But things were going okay, besides the incidences with Snape that is.

Ron, Harry and Draco spent a lot of time together and before long they got to know Neville, Hermione and Cameron a lot more but not quite enough to classify them as close friends like Ron was. The other students had been talking about Harry and his "defeat" of the you-know-who while others (mostly Slytherins but also a few Gryffindors) were muttering about Draco Malfoy being in Gryffindor and how his parents had betrayed he-who-must-not-be-named. But the boys had gotten used to the chatter and it soon died down quite a bit over their time there and the Gryffindors became rather accepting once they saw how close Draco was with Harry and how Ron etc were friends with him. If he'd been sorted into Gryffindor than surely he was on their side, so they figured and from then onwards he was just another Gryffindor like they were.

Harry and Draco had no real problems at Hogwarts, that was...until Halloween.

It had been raining in the morning so most students spent their time in their house common rooms or the library (like Hermione) but once lunch was over, the sun was shining brightly and almost everyone decided to go outside. Ron, Harry and Draco were amongst them, just lazing around near the lake and talking about Quidditch as well as the unfairness of first years not being allowed to be on the school teams.

That was when Mathew Lark and his buddies approached, looking sickened by something as they looked the group over as though they were made of filth...but in their eyes Harry and his friends were filth.

"What do you want?" Ron asked as he saw Mathew and the Slytherins approach.

"Well..." Mathew smirked. "A new broom would be nice, but seeing as it would probably cost more than your whole house I wouldn't stress yourself" He said and the Slytherins laughed while Ron blushed but said nothing else.

"What is your problem?" Harry asked while Draco merely rolled his eyes.

"I want to sit here" Mathew pointed to the tree in which Draco was now leaning against boredly.

"It's taken" Draco muttered in annoyance, being strongly reminded of Dudley and judging by the way Harry clenched his jaw; he was too.

"Oh really?" Mathew sneered. "Well I don't think so."

"Whatever, come on" Harry said and turned to the others, who nodded and followed him away but Mathew stepped in front of the boys and blocked their path.

"Okay seriously, what is it?" Harry growled.

"So you're just going to throw away all that Gryffindork courage and give up?" Mathew taunted.

"It's a stupid tree" Draco reminded him in a mocking tone. "I do believe we'll live without it."

But Mathew was aiming for a fight, so he shoved Harry lightly to try and provoke a response and he got one...but not from Harry.

"Sod off!" Draco said loudly, shoving the boy out of his way as he passed, effectively knocking him back into another Slytherin boy.

"You'll pay for that!" Mathew said.

"He's Barmey" Ron shook his head as Mathew pulled out his wand but the other three did the same mostly for if they had to defend themselves, but neither of them knew any real spells that they could use.

"What's going on here?" A seventh year Hufflepuff approached and eyed the groups that had their wands out and dislike shown clear on their faces.

"Come on, don't get yourselves in trouble over nothing...go on, be on your seperate ways now!" He said, moving his hand in a "shooing" motion, his expression showing that he was serious or else points will be taken and detentions handed out.

Mathew cast the Gryffindors a look that clearly stated that it wasn't over and then strolled away with his little gang of Slytherins.

"Whew" Ron said as he put his wand away and Harry did the same but Draco stared at Mathew's retreating form and scowled; he hated bullies and he wasn't going to take this lying down. Dudley had been larger than them and there were far greater consenquences from Vernon or Petunia if they fought with him. But Mathew was only a few inches taller and he certainly wasn't going to go running to the Dursleys. If he picked a fight again...Draco was going to consider retaliating

That hadn't been the worst of it that day nor had it been the end of Mathew's desire to cause trouble and make things worst, just as he'd said.

The group had been leaving the Great Hall later that day when Mathew's voice called to them.

"Hey!" Mathew said with a unpleasent smirk set on his face.

"Y'know Malfoy, I'm surprised you get along with blood traitors so well, seeing as your parents were supposed to be pureblood Slytherins, but I suppose growing up like a worthless muggles does that to you" He taunted as though he'd somehow known that Draco was going to be the most likely to respond.

"Shut up about my family!" Draco growled, stepping forward with his hand clutching his wand that was resting in the pocket of his robes.

"But it's such an interesting topic!" Mathew added. "I mean they can't even pick whose side they're on! What about you? Whose side are you on?"

"Draco!" Harry grabbed a handful of his robes to stop him from lunging at Mathew. "He's not worth it."

"He's worth my fist!" Draco snapped, struggling against Harry but Ron joined in and he was outnumbered.

Mathew stood there laughing and neither of the four were aware that they were being watched, and not just by a group of various students that had been wandering by.

"I bet they just gave up, or wanted to die...which is why they went to the Potters!" Mathew said, although it was rather annoying that he seemed to have information on their family but they didn't...it still managed to stir Draco even more and Harry wasn't too calm either but he knew that if he released Draco than there would be consenquences...there always were.

"Did the muggles treat you like one of them?" Mathew continued his mocking and teasing. "I bet you felt right at home there Draco, oh how your father would be so proud!"

"SHUT UP!" Draco roared and broke free of his restraints, sucessfully charging at Mathew who was now caught by surprise and sensed the caution. But was too late. Draco tackled him to the ground in an entangle of fists, robes and limbs.

"Draco!" Harry said and tried to pull him off but ended up having to defend himself against Mathew as well for while the Slytherin wasn't nearly as threatening as he'd thought; the boy could certainly throw a punch.

"ENOUGH!" A loud voice broke through their yelling and fighting. The invisable force of a spell tore each of the three boys apart and left them gasping on the floor. Draco was supporting a viciously bleeding lip, Harry a brusied cheek and Mathew a black eye, but that was nothing compared to what they felt when they looked over at the owner of the voice and cold dread filled within them.

"Just what exactly is going on here?" Snape barked although he knew perfectly well what had happened for he'd been watching it from an unsuspecting distance.

"They jumped on me, professor!" Mathew instantly started to defend himself and blame the Gryffindors as he straightened up.

"He was taunting our families!" Draco added furiously.

"Do you actually believe that I care?" Snape looked from each of the boys, noting the way that Harry's head was already bent in defeat and how Draco appeared to be lacking oxygen, whilst Mathew just looked like a typical first-year trying to get out of trouble and worrying about detentions.

But Snape shook off the fact that something was a bit off with the two boys and glared at all those around them, effectively easing away their audience.

"Ten points from Gryffindor. Each" He said sternly and Mathew smirked slightly while Ron angrily protested so he too lost ten points.

"Each of you will serve detention with me tomorrow at 7pm, understood? If you are late I will double it" He told the three boys and they nodded reluctantly although Mathew looked shocked as though he had been purely innocent but Snape knew he hadn't been, although he hadn't deducted points because techincally the other two had indeed caused him to defend himself...no matter how justifed.

"That git!" Ron said as the boys left the scene and headed for their common rooms, although the boys didn't know if he was refering to Snape, Mathew or both.

"Yeah" Draco nodded, rubbing his shoulder awkwardly.

"Harry?" Ron asked as he shoved past them and sped up his pace, turning away from them and didn't say a word.

"What? Wait!" Draco ran to catch up with him but Ron went to stop him.

"Get off, he's my brother!" He pushed Ron back and tried to catch up to Harry.

"You couldn't help it, could you?" Harry asked, spinning around to face the blonde.

"He's just another Dudley and everything we do ends up with trouble. Why can't you just let it go?" He scowled, looking as though he'd been offended.

"Forget it, just leave me alone for a bit" Harry sighed and turned away again, leaving Draco standing there stunned and uncomfortable.

"He'll be fine once he cools off" Ron said, watching Harry leave as well.

"No, he won't" Draco replied and turned to walk away in the opposite direction of this brother, deciding to leave harry alone but no longer wanted to be around anyone else.

--

While Draco headed to the common room and then the dormitory to keep to himself, Harry made his way to the library for he wasn't sure where else to go.

He sat at a desk and hunched his shoulders, resting his chin on the cold wood as he felt downright horrible.

He had a book with him so it looked like he was just reading but to the lirbrarian, Irma Pince...she knew better.

She watched his shoulders shook slightly and the way he squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists. While her mind nagged her to rescue the book from possible harm, she decided against it and approached the boy. She stood behind him and touched his shoulder but was startled by his reaction.

The moment her hand had made contact with his shoulder, Harry jerked upright and flinched away as though her hand had been white-hot. His eyes stared at her as his face paled and a sense of dread filled within her as she hadn't seen anyone react that way since....well, since her son whilst he was undergoing abuse at home.

 Irma knew that Harry was unlikely to be in the same situation but his violent reaction, his defensive stance and the terrifed look in his eye...that could not be ignored.

"The library is a place for reading, Mr Potter" She said in her usual tone and placed her hands in her pockets, mostly to demonstrate that she wasn't going to touch him again.

"Yes ma'am" Harry said a bit robotically and gathered his book before rushing out of the library, brushing tears away from his cheeks with his sleeve as he went.

"This is rediculous" Mathew crossed his arms as he waited outside Snape's office just before 7pm that night, trying to ignore both Draco and Harry as they stood nearby.

"I am forced to agree" Snape's voice made them all jump as he appeared behind them. "Enter" He indicated towards the classroom beside his office.

"You will each be scrubbing down cauldrons tonight...without magic" He informed them and scowled when Mathew groaned loudly. But Harry just looked as though he wanted to get it over with whilst Draco hung his head slightly.

"We never escape it" He heard Draco mutter to Harry as they walked past and the raven-haired boy nodded with a sigh.

Snape had intended to mark schoolwork while they scrubbed away but instead he paced the room lightly and kept a stern eye on two of the boys in particular.

"Mr Malfoy" Snape said as he was scrubbing too furiously but not productively.

He didn't know what motivated him to do so, but Snape reached out and touched the boy's shoulder lightly, surprised by the reponse he received from it. Draco jerked away from the touch and stumbled, knocking his brush off the table and whacked his elbow on the corner of the table. His eyes were wide and fearful but the expression vanished as he contacted with the wood and yelped. Harry had reacted to Draco's movment by instinctly reaching for him but stopped himself short.

"Sorry" Draco told the professor hurridly while Mathew laughed, until Snape gave him a stern glare and he got back to work quickly.

"And what did you think I was about to do?" Snape frowned but there was a nagging amount of worry within him as he eyed the boy.

"You just...startled me, sir" Draco said, hanging his head slightly as he flushed with embarrassment.

He then bent to retrieve his brush but Snape saw the way his hands were shaking for a moment and cast a glance at Harry, who was effectively trying to hide behind his cauldron.

Snape walked away, not trusting himself to say anything and went to inspect Mathew's cauldron.

"I hate it when people sneak up on us" Draco hissed to Harry in annoyance while Snape listened in but pretended not to notice or hear them.

"I know. It happened to me today as well" Harry replied as though he and Draco had never had a moment of seperation hours earlier.

"With who?"

"The librarian, of all people. But hey, it was quiet in the library" Harry defended with a slight huff in his tone.

"What were you doing in the library?" Draco question curiously.

"Forget it" Harry dismissed. "Are you okay?" He glanced at the bruising elbow.

"Honestly, you're asking me?" Draco rolled his eyes and gave his brother a small but somewhat sad smile. "I've had worst, you know that."

"Yeah but...whatever" Harry sighed and started working on his cauldron again.

"And I'm sorry about today, I'm just tired of always having to fight and of always having to defend ourselves."

"No, I shouldn't have reacted" Draco bowed his head, his brush long forgotten beside him. "He just reminded me of Dudley and since Vernon's not here I figured...well that we'd be okay for standing up for ourselves."

"Apparently not" Harry said. "We're meant to be cast aside, remember? Hated, ignored and treated like rubbish...I thought Hogwarts would be different" He admitted.

"So did I" Draco said.

"I do not hear any scrubbing!" Snape barked, thinking he'd let them talk enough and his voice made them jump and Draco had even dropped his brush again.

Snape couldn't deny it any further and now those words from Lily's son were going to haunt him,

"We're meant to be cast aside, remember? Hated, ignored and treated like rubbish".

Snape sat at his desk and kept an eye on the time, once two hours had passed he dismissed them and headed to his private quarters to mull over what he'd witnessed and overheard.

As Harry and Draco sat at their desks during yet another potions class, Snape watched them intensely but a classroom was no realistic place in which he could judge their behaviour, but he had no intention of pulling them aside and trying to startle them.

Although his observations did allow him to really notice how close the boys appeared to be.

They seemed to know what the other was thinking without talking, they cared little for brushing the other's hand accidently or recieving assistance from the other, they even showed a level of trust that Snape didn't see commonly when one friend reaches across and drops something in the other's potion.

Harry was better at stiring while Draco prefered chopping, so the boys tended to help each other out in those aspects and Snape continued to wonder why he never stopped them for it happened regularly and obviously, for Hermione and Ron cast them glances at times and didn't appear at all surprised by the co-ordination.

Clearly no one knew how different the boys parents had been and how opposite their raising methods would have led to as well.

He had a feeling that while there would be potential, neither boy would even be friends had their parents lived and raised them.

"He suspects something" Draco hissed to Harry as he dropped some chopped roots into their potions.

"Who, Snape?" Harry asked, not looking up from his textbook.

"Yeah, he keeps staring at us" Draco sounded rather nervous by that fact as well as annoyed. "Just because I made an idiot out of myself when he'd touched me."

"It was survial instinct" Harry sighed. "You could't help it."

"I know, I'm not stupid" Draco rolled his eyes. "But now he's looking us both of us funny and it's getting on my nerves. What if he saids something?"

Harry perked up at those words and glanced at Draco worridly.

"He hates us, or at least me, so surely he won't bring it up to anyone else?"

"He's a teacher, Potter" Draco rolled his eyes once again. "They have a duty of care or whatever involving these sort of things."

"Well what are we supposed to do, Malfoy?" Harry asked with a frown and all focus on his potion was lost.

"We're just going to have to get a grip on our reactions, learn to anticipate" Draco shrugged. "I don't know but we have to hide it somehow."

"I don't even know I do it" Harry shook his head. "How are we supposed to hide it?"

"I don't know but we have to!" Draco hissed loudly enough for it to carry to Snape's ears as he strolled nearby. "If he finds out we're gonna be in for it."

Snape glanced over as Harry nodded to Draco and sighed as though he was grieving for something. It surely wasn't a matter of rule-breaking the boys were covering for? Perhaps he had been too obvious in his observations...and he was supposed to be a Death-Eater-turned-spy?

--

As the class was dismissed shortly after, Snape once again directed his gaze to the boys but more discreetly as they gathered their things.

Ron and Hermione went ahead of them, discussing one thing or another and the boys were not far behind them.

"Ow" Draco rubbed his arm as it collided lightly with the desk and instantly jerked it away, but thought nothing of it and hurried after the others although Snape knew that the boy hadn't his his arm hard enough for it to actually hurt.

He suspected the boys had it rough, but after watching them he was sure of it. But so what? He couldn't do anything about it surely, and so far he was yet to see much evidence that Potter was in the same position as Malfoy. But if it was the case, he still wasn't going to get involved because he wasn't about to take his godson in and he needed more than a few bruises and flinching to convince himself to take Harry in as well.

Snape stared around the empty classroom and pondered on those later thoughts, wondering why he'd even considered taking the boys in...it was crazy, surely. They didn't know who he was to them, they thought he hated them and was he really fooling himself to think that he could possibly make their lives any better and raise them?

No, it was best to leave the situation alone. Snape knew he wouldn't be able to but ruled out taking any action unless he truly deemed it necessary...for now.