"Terry's a pratt," Ron said, taking a big gulp of orange juice. "He barely talked to me."

"Well did you make an effort to talk to him?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah I did. I didn't have Harry to talk to did I? Terry just kept acting like I was an idiot. He even said it was a wonder I was passing classes at all. He spent most of his time hanging around the seventh years during free time. I feel bad for Harry having had to spend two weeks in Ravenclaw."

"The others weren't like that," Harry said. "They tried hard to include me in things. They seemed kind of stuck up at first about Ginny and I being there, but they cooled down after the first day."

"Did you see the list of who's supposed to be exchanging into Gryffindor today?" Ron asked. He'd been too tired to look at it the night before because he'd been studying late trying to show up Terry Boot in classes.

"I did-" Hermione said, but she left it there.

"We'll find out in the next few minutes," Harry pointed out. Breakfast had just started but the new people coming into the house would be there soon. He and Hermione had both looked at the list to see if their names were there (they weren't).

Ron groaned a moment later as Draco Malfoy walked into the Great Hall and sat down at the end of Gryffindor.

"Ugh," Ron said, putting his hand up over his face. Draco would be in their dorms for the next two weeks.

"Seamus wanted to visit Slytherin," Harry said, "you know he likes that seventh year girl in Slytherin." Ron only groaned again. Seamus' bed was right on the other side of Ron's. Harry had a feeling Ron would be spending as much time as possible in the library or elsewhere out of Gryffindor tower for the next two weeks.

Harry glanced down the table several times at Draco. He seemed to be the only Slytherin exchanging in this time, and he was sitting alone. He wasn't sure if he should feel bad for him or not. On the one hand, Draco had always been stuck up and a jerk to Harry and his friends, so he wanted to forget about him and not feel bad for him being alone in Gryffindor at all. On the other hand, Harry had just spent two weeks trying to fit into Ravenclaw and knew how it felt to feel like an outsider, and he at least had had Ginny with him. He supposed it would have been miserable in Ravenclaw if the other sixth year boys hadn't been nice to him.

"Oy! Where are you going?" Ron asked when Harry stood abruptly.

"To sit with Draco," Harry said.

Ron tried to reach out for Harry's sleeve across the table to keep him there but Harry was too quick and was already moving down the table. Draco was watching his approach with a glare.

Harry didn't ask Draco if he could sit with him, he just did.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked cautiously.

"Sitting to finish breakfast."

"Why are you sitting here?" Draco clarified with a sneer.

"You traded with Seamus didn't you? Someone's got to show you to the common room and how to get in. You can't spend two weeks alone."

"I can," Draco insisted, but then narrowed his eyes at Harry. "Of course Prince Potter, leader of Gryffindor would try to be my ambassador. Think I need you to show me around?"

"Well you could probably get someone else to show you," Harry said, "but why did you sign up for the exchange if you didn't want to do it?"

"Mother made me."

Harry was surprised by his answer and by how unhappy he seemed to be there. "So you don't want to do it at all?"

"I only wanted to see Ravenclaw. Mother made me sign up for Hufflepuff too."

"But you're here-"

"It's nothing to do with wanting to see Gryffindor Potter. It was out of spite because Father backed mother up and told me I had to do what she said."

"So, you're going to be miserable in Gryffindor for two weeks to make your father angry?"

"It's worth it," Draco said smugly, but then he looked down at his food as if it were something unsavory.

Harry thought quietly for a few minutes, and then said, "If you're not going to eat, we should go to Gryffindor now before it fills up with people."

"Potter, I already told you I don't want anything to do with you or with Gryffindor."

"Come on anyway."

Harry stood up as if the decision was made, and waited for Draco to follow. Was it this hard for the Ravenclaws to get along with him? He was starting to sympathize with Ron about dealing with Terry Boot all of a sudden.

Draco rolled his eyes and finally stood up. Harry led him to the entrance to Gryffindor tower and gave the password, and the portrait opened to let them in, eyeing Draco warily as she did so. Inside, Draco's eyes roamed around the circular common room and lingered on the worn red furniture, which had a lot of frayed edges and patches where the color was faded.

"You live here?"

"Yeah, this is home," Harry said. The common room was large, but it was smaller than the Ravenclaw and Slytherin common rooms. It felt more cozy to Harry this way. There were only a few tables to study at, a few couches, and some worn armchairs. There were also several footstools and poofs people sat on.

"But- there's hardly any place to sit or study."

"The younger years usually sit on the floor by the fire or over there in the corner by the bookshelf. We have desks to study in our room."

"So do we," Draco said.

Harry led him to one of the archways leading out of the common room. "This one leads to the boy's dorms," Harry said. "Boys bathrooms are here," he pointed to a door at the bottom of the stairs just inside the archway, and then led him up the stairs to the door with a 6 on it.

"You're in Seamus' bed. It's that one. This one is where Ron sleeps, and here's mine. You share a desk with Dean, it's that one, and this is the wardrobe you share with Dean. Neville has his own desk and wardrobe over there.

Draco opened the lid of his trunk which was at the foot of Seamus' bed and sneered. "Lovely," he muttered, lifting out his robes which now had the Gryffindor crest.

"You can probably come to Quidditch practice with us if you want," Harry said. "Ginny and I practiced twice with the Ravenclaws."

"You would let me come?" he asked skeptically.

"I'm not the Captain, I'll have to talk to Katie, but I heard they let Rylee French practice with them while she was here."

After almost half an hour of sitting in the dormitory quietly, (Draco had pulled out a magazine and flopped down onto Seamus' bed and Harry had pulled out his homework), the door opened and the other three sixth year boys came in. Ron looked incensed and seemed to be looking around the room to see if Draco had messed with any of his things or destroyed anything, but seemed to settle when Dean saw what Draco was reading and said, "I haven't seen that issue yet."

Draco looked up from the magazine. "It's garbage," he said, and tossed it to Dean who caught it.

"Thanks," Dean said. Most of the Gryffindor boys shared what they had, sometimes even between years. Ron was always letting Harry borrow one of his coats and warm winter hats, and sometimes one of the fourth or fifth years came up to their door to ask to borrow books or other things. Once Harry even let a seventh year borrow his broom to tryout for the Quidditch team. It seemed to go over well with the other boys then that Draco had been willing to share his Quidditch magazine.

Neville rummaged in his trunk for a moment and then came out with a different Quidditch magazine and asked Draco, "Have you seen this one yet? Gran just sent it to me. She went on a trip to France and brought it back." He handed it to Draco who looked at the cover and then began flipping through it's pages.

"I haven't," Draco said. He didn't thank Neville but at least he hadn't snapped at him.

* * *

Draco seemed to keep mostly to himself that first day, but by Sunday he'd been through every Quidditch magazine he and the other boys in the dorm owned, and seemed to be getting bored.

"We're going out onto the grounds," Harry said, "if you want to come."

"What are you going to do? Smuggle another dragon's egg into school?"

Ron grumbled something unhappy but no one could hear what, and then said, "I'm going to the library if he's coming," and left the room.

"Are you coming?" Harry asked, pulling one of Ron's coats out of their shared wardrobe.

"Fine." Draco got up and put his own coat on. "Isn't that Weasley's coat?"

"He lets me borrow it," Harry said.

Hermione was waiting in the common room for them.

"Ron said something rude and then went to the library," she said. "He's being awfully sour about this entire exchange program."

"He's not the only one," Harry joked, and then they both looked at Draco.

"I'm here, aren't I?"

"Yeah but you're not going to have any fun while you are," Harry said.

"Whatever Potter."

Out on the grounds the three sixth years wandered to the lake, Harry and Hermione talking about Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and Draco being totally silent, and then skirted the edge of the Forbidden Forest before making their way to Hagrid's. When Hagrid opened the door and saw a blond instead of a red-head, he seemed surprised.

"Come in then, a wind is whipping up out there."

Hagrid fixed tea and served burnt biscuits, which Draco declined with a look of disgust. Draco listened disinterestedly in the conversation Hagrid was having with Harry and Hermione about the time they'd spent in other houses, until Hagrid finally asked him, "What about you Draco? How are yeh liking Gryffindor?"

Draco opened his mouth and looked like he was going to say something rude, but then closed his mouth and turned to look out the window. "It's ok," he said, causing Harry and Hermione to look at each other and grin. Harry supposed it was the closest thing to a compliment they would get.

Draco did attend Quidditch practice with Harry and Ginny later that afternoon, and he and Harry had a mock race to find the Quidditch first. First Harry caught it, then he released it and Draco caught it a few minutes later, and then Harry caught it again. A fifth year Ravenclaw Chaser was also practicing with them and wanted to try catching the Snitch, so they had a race three ways for the rest of the practice.

* * *

Draco was being very quiet, and aside from Ron's grumblings, things were going fine until Potions with Slytherin Tuesday morning. Neville sat with Draco and was brewing a passing potion for once with Draco's help, (for which he was thankful), while Harry sat with Ron. Snape seemed to be keeping a closer eye than usual on Harry after the previous week's exploded potion, and circled his and Ron's workbench relentlessly. When class was over, Harry was glad to be out from under the man's fiery gaze.

Harry and the others packed their bags to leave, but Snape told Draco to stay behind for a moment. Harry stayed behind too, unsure if Draco knew what the rest of their Tuesday schedule looked like, and not wanting to leave him behind.

"How have they been treating you in Gryffindor?" he asked Draco quietly at the back of the room. Harry strained his ears. If Draco wanted to get them in trouble, now would be the time, he thought.

"Ok," Draco said.

"Just ok?"

"It's fine. Their common room is a shambles but I expected it would be. There's not a lot of studying that goes on. They take walks and play games."

Snape was quiet for a few moments in thought. "Perhaps you should enjoy the time off then."

Draco frowned. "Time off? Is that what all this is about? You said something to mother and father didn't you? It's your fault I have to do this stupid exchange," he accused. Snape didn't deny it.

"There is nothing wrong with relaxing and taking a break every now and then Draco. Not everything has to be a stress-inducing situation."

Draco grumbled.

"I didn't hear that," Snape said.

"Nothing sir."

"You are certain you are being treated well?"

"I'm fine. Potter and Granger made me go on a walk on the grounds with them and they won't let me eat by myself."

Snape turned and gave a sneer to Harry then, who was still by the door waiting for Draco, and then turned back around to the Slytherin.

"You'd best get to your next class before you're late."

Draco hurried out of the room past Snape and Harry. Harry was about to follow but Snape stopped him. "If I hear one word of you mis-treating any Slytherins coming into Gryffindor, there will be a heavy price to be paid," he warned.

Harry turned and looked at him, jaw open a little. What did the man think he was going to do? Ambush someone in their sleep? Hadn't Draco just said he was eating meals with Harry and being included in activities?

"Be gone," Snape snapped, and Harry turned and left without a word.

Harry didn't mention what he'd heard Snape and Draco talking about to anybody, because he wasn't sure what exactly it had been about. It sounded like Draco had had some sort of episode in Slytherin or something. Harry didn't know, but Snape was the last person he expected to say that it was ok to relax. Harry could never relax around the man, and Snape had frequently called him lazy in class or written it on top of his returned essays and homework assignments in bright red ink. He would never tell Harry to take a break. In fact, Harry was certain Snape wanted every encounter with him to be ‘stress-inducing'.

* * *

Draco continued to sulk for several days, but by the weekend seemed to have relaxed a little. He played chess with Ron, of all people, and Ron didn't get angry when Draco won because Ron was always complaining about Harry's abysmal chess skills and how he wanted a real opponent. Draco continued to be quiet throughout the rest of his time in Gryffindor, but he didn't complain or protest when they ignored their homework to go for walks, go to the owlery, or go back to Hagrid's cabin for tea. When he had finally gone back to Slytherin after his two weeks were over, Ron said to Harry, "It wasn't so bad."

"You acted like it was going to be traumatic."

"It was... for a little while. I thought he'd be in here calling us names and cursing our stuff and hexing us. He did stick his nose up in the air at our furniture and stuff."

"Was he as bad as Terry Boot though?" Harry asked.

Ron looked like he was struggling for the answer. "Not when he was here, but I think it's because he was scared because there were so many Gryffindors and he was the only Slytherin. You know he's worse than Terry Boot the rest of the time because we hardly ever see Terry except in classes a couple times a week."

Hermione sighed. "Ronald, I'm not sure if I should be proud of you or think you're impossible."

"What's there to be proud about?"

"Well you weren't a jerk the entire time to Draco," Harry said.

"I didn't have a choice. Everyone else was nice to him, it'd be pretty rotten if I was the only person being mean."

"Impossible," Hermione finally concluded. "It'd be horrible if anyone were being mean Ronald."

"It's never stopped Draco."

"You're not Draco," she told him.

Hermione left Ron to his thoughts and when Ron looked to Harry to see what he had to say, Harry shrugged. She was right. Just because Draco had been a jerk so much of the time at school, didn't mean they had to be. Harry had tried very hard to be nice and ignore anything rude Draco said while he was in Gryffindor, and it had worked out alright, hadn't it?