A huge thank you to Coyoyotie for being my Beta for this story. You do a fantastic job working through the plot and silly mistakes with me!

Also, thank you to everyone who to the time to review/follow/favorite this story... I'm glad it is interesting you guys!

I keep starting chapters, hoping that they turn out at least 5k words, but that hasn't been happening. So... here's another short one. Don't shoot me.

Enjoy!

"You can talk?" Harry stared at his familiar, flabbergasted.

Merlin scoffed. "Of course I can talk, silly. I've always been able to talk. I just sensed your magic acting abnormally, so I came to check on you. Imagine my surprise when I saw that you are a wild cat."

The Slytherin's mind was racing. It was obviously no coincidence that he was able to hear his familiar after completing his Animagus transformation. He would have to spend some time in the library researching bonds between Animagi and their familiars.

"You are a handsome cat, if I may say so. You coat patterns are very striking. And your eyes are so green." Merlin padded over to the stall that Harry had slowly come out of to admire him up close.

"Do you understand me in my human form?"

"Of course. You're the one that's too daft to understand me."

There was nothing about this situation that Harry didn't find intriguing. This turn of events could definitely be used to his advantage in the future.

"So you can sense my magic, too?"

"I said that, didn't I?" Harry scowled at his familiar's attitude. If looks could kill, Merlin would have died. Harry's ocelot form looked fearsome with the expression on his face.

"I guess I'd better change back now before I chase you through the castle for your snarky replies."

Merlin chuckled, but it came out more as a purr. With a huff, Harry concentrated on the animal flowing through his magic, and began drawing it back, reining it in. He was essentially caging the beast, his Animagus form. He slowly felt his bones shift and grow. His beautiful fur was replaced by skin and clothing.

"I'm sorry I can't hear you in this form, Merlin." Harry smiled at his familiar. "Although I'm not sorry that I can't hear your snarky attitude."

The boy saw his cat basically roll his eyes. His mind was tickled by the sensation of exasperation. Harry's eyes widened. He was definitely not exasperated. That could only mean…

"Was that your emotion?" The exasperation was replaced with amusement, again not his own. The foreign emotions were weak, but they were definitely tangible.

"I will definitely have to research the bond we share." Merlin padded around Harry's legs in agreement before making his way out of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, flicking his tail in goodbye.

"See you later, Merlin."

Harry grabbed his things and headed straight to the library. He had come to the hypothesis that Merlin and he could not actually speak to one another when he was an ocelot. Instead, they were communicating telepathically. That would also explain why he had felt his familiar's emotions, if only vaguely, when he transformed back into his human form. Perhaps the initial transformation had triggered the mental bond between the two, at least from Harry's end. Merlin had implied that he had been able to understand Harry and maybe even feel his own emotions. His cat had also mentioned feeling his magic acting up when he transformed into his animal.

Harry pulled all of the books off of the shelves of the Hogwarts library that had to do with mental bonds and hunkered down, in his favorite corner by one of the enormous windows, to research. He had already prepared for his end of term exams, which he knew he would pass with flying colors, since he had taken the courses already. Studying had consisted of reading through everything that he had covered once, simply to refresh his memory of the subjects.

After several hours of reading, Harry's mind began to wander to his blond friend.

Draco was goofing off with Blaise and Pansy, whom Harry could stand. Blaise was tolerable, but Pansy was just plain annoying and girly. Harry did not see how or why Draco put up with her. The blond had told him that he had grown up with the other two Slytherins, so it only made sense that the three had a deep bond of friendship. It made Harry slightly jealous. He had never had friends as a child. His cousin Dudley had made sure of that.

But what if, since Dudley was dead, Harry had actually made friends in his first few years of school? He did not remember Petunia mentioning any friends, and no one had knocked on the Dursley's door and asked if Harry could come out and play. Harry knew it was a good possibility that he had been labeled a freak, even without his cousin there to instigate the bullying. It wouldn't surprise him at all, considering that the only friends he had had were forced by Dumbledore to befriend him.

A sudden realization dawned on Harry. Draco Malfoy was his best friend. He had never had anyone with whom he could truly be himself. Even with Weasley and Granger, he had been forced to keep up his façade of the Boy-Who-Lived. The Golden Trio, when he had been a part of it, had been a real friendship, but it was nothing like what Harry felt for Draco. He felt happy and had more fun doing the simplest of things with his fellow Slytherin than he had ever had with either Gryffindor.

It was becoming harder and harder for Harry to withhold the information of his - time travel? He still did not know exactly what to call it. Draco deserved to know about Harry's past eventually. The brunette knew that he would have to start revealing information to Draco sometime within the next year, if for no other reason than his own sanity.

Harry had come to realize over the months that he should have let the Sorting Hat place him in Slytherin, consequences be damned, the first time around. It was only know that he knew the invisible and eventually intangible burden being the Gryffindor Golden Boy had put on him. Still, he ached for his friends. His loss of his first life would forever haunt him, Harry knew that. The two Gryffindors had been his first friends.

Harry brought his mind back to the book in front of him and sighed. So far all he had been able to dig up about mental bonds between familiars and Animagi was the fact that they existed. Harry snorted. That tidbit of information was so very helpful. Sighing, he shut the book and began placing all of them back on the shelves.

That was habit a Harry had picked up in order to cover his tracks. He couldn't have anybody finding out why he was reading an ungodly number of books on Animagi. His form needed to be kept a secret. It was unheard of for a first year to become an Animagus, and Harry knew that he would have never been able to attempt it his first time as an eleven year old. Not to mention that it was illegal to become an Animagus without the Ministry's close supervision and advance approval. Harry needed to put off registering his form as long as Voldemort still prowled Britain.

.

June fifth was Draco's birthday. Harry had debated long and hard on what to get the blond, and decided that a handmade gift would suit the blond more than an expensive one. After all, his family had all the money in the world to buy him lavish things. Harry wanted his gift to be special.

He had made his friend a warded storage trunk for the blond's potions ingredients.

Draco had beamed excitedly when Harry gave him his gift. The hug Harry received was definitely worth the trouble he had gone to, to ward the trunk just right.

.

As Harry had expected, he finished his end of term exams quickly. He was certain that his marks would be nearly perfect. Now he had all summer to worry about Voldemort and to perfect his Animagus transformation.

Harry stood outside of the Potions classroom in the dungeons, waiting for Draco to finish his last exam as well, so that the two of them could go celebrate the end of the semester and begin packing their bags. He had been the first to finish the Potions exam, and Harry was expecting his blond friend to be one of the next few people that finished. To his surprise, it was a certain bushy haired Gryffindor who exited the dungeon classroom ten or so minutes after Harry.

"How did you finish so quickly?" Hermione looked exasperated, obviously not used to not being the first to finish her exams. Harry felt a pang of something akin to anger at the witch, and decided to hold his tongue. Instead, he simply stared at her cooly.

"How you hang out with that dreadful Malfoy is beyond me. You seem like such a nice boy."

Harry couldn't suppress a sneer. "Perhaps if you didn't judge everyone based on your little posse's opinions of others, you would realize that "that dreadful Malfoy" is actually a decent human being."

Hermione looked taken aback as she said, "I know how to think for myself!"

"Which is why you just had to befriend the Boy-Who-Lived, right? It didn't have anything to do with Dumbledore's orders to do so." Harry turned around and stormed off. As soon as he rounded the nearest corner, he spun around and punched the wall.

Damn it, Harry thought. Why did he have to let Dumbledore's involvement in his ex-friends – he had to remind himself constantly that they were, in fact, ex-friends – infuriate him every time it was mentioned? The Slytherin knew he needed to let it go, because the festering anger would become something much more twisted and dark if he did not. Somehow he couldn't bring himself to care. He was hurt, he was betrayed, and worst of all, he still missed Ron and Hermione.

The only time that Harry forgot about his loss of his previous life was when he was enjoying Draco's company. Regardless of what they were doing, Draco was a distraction from Harry's more turbulent and depressed thoughts. Harry knew that he would have fallen apart by now if it wasn't for his friend.

The sharp, throbbing pain in his knuckles brought him back to the present. He was sure he had at least cracked parts of them. Harry cast a rudimentary healing charm on his hand, knowing that he would need to visit the Infirmary sometime today. Deciding he might as well do something productive while he waited on his friend, he wrote a quick note for Draco and charmed it to levitate in front of the door and fly into the blond's hands once he exited the classroom.

Madame Pomfrey tsked at him when he told her that he punched a wall out of frustration. She thought the source of that emotion was the final exams, and he was not going to dissuade that notion. Let her think what she wanted. Harry knew that it was suspicious, and that Draco was catching on, that he could not look at the Gryffindor Trio for any extended period of time without getting agitated.

The Mediwitch fixed his swollen and bruised knuckles and handed him a potion to take before he went to sleep tonight that would complete the healing process. As Harry was exiting the Infirmary, he nearly ran into Draco.

"How did the exam go?" Harry grinned at his friend who looked slightly ruffled from the Potions exam.

"Fine," Draco said shortly. "Why were you in the Infirmary?"

"Punched a wall."

Draco snorted. "Why?"

"Granger insulted you, and if I didn't punch the wall, I would have punched her."

Draco flashed Harry an over exaggerated thankful smile, "Thank you for protecting my reputation."

"You're very welcome, Dray." Harry took off running when his friend shot him a look filled with mock ire and started chasing him.

.

"But really, why do you insist on calling me Dray all of a sudden?" Draco had been pestering Harry about it since he used the nickname almost a week ago.

Harry shrugged, like he had every time he had been asked so far.

The duo was sitting in the Hogwarts Express, waiting for the train to start its long journey back to London. Harry was not looking forward to spending the summer back at his aunt and uncles. He knew that it would be nothing like the summers he had spent with them before, but Harry was still anxious about it. September couldn't come fast enough.

He was sure that Petunia would allow him to see Draco whenever she drove into London for errands. It just wouldn't be the same as spending virtually all day, every day, with the Malfoy Heir.

"Harry," Draco whined. "Tell me."

Harry laughed at his friend, finally giving in. "I guess because I've never had an honest to goodness friend, I've always longed to have someone I could call some nickname."

Draco looked at him. "You've never been friends with anyone?"

"Not really."

"Not in Muggle school, before you came to Hogwarts?"

"Nope."

"I'm sorry, Harry. I can't imagine growing up without Blaise and Pansy to keep me company."

Harry smiled warmly at his best friend. Draco returned the warmth with his own grin.

"It's okay, Dray. At least I have a friend now! That's all that really matters, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Draco smirked. "And I'm the best friend you'll ever have. I'm perfect friendship material."

Harry laughed at the blond's fake haughtiness. "If you say so."

The long train ride was spent chatting and playing Exploding Snap. It seemed like the ride was shorter going back than it was going to Hogwarts at the beginning of the semester. Too soon, Harry and Draco exited their compartment and made their way to the platform outside. Harry hugged his friend before they stepped off of the train, knowing that Draco's father wouldn't take kindly to such emotional displays.

Seeing Lucius Malfoy made Harry nervous. It reminded him that he needed to find a way to destroy the first Horcrux, Tom Riddle's diary, before it could sink its claws into Ginny Weasley.

Thinking of Ginny made Harry realize how little he missed her in comparison to Ron and Hermione. It didn't really surprise the brunette. He had always felt that he had been pressured into being in a relationship with the ginger girl. Of course it was expected of him, the Golden Boy, to date and eventually marry someone from a Light family like the Weasleys. And Ginny had been too easy to be assigned that position, what with Harry's "best mate" Ron being her older brother.

Harry cleared his thoughts as he and Draco approached the blond's parents.

"Mother, Father," Draco greeted his mother with a hug and a peck to her cheek. He simply nodded at his father in greeting. "This is my friend from Hogwarts, Harry Potter."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Harry." Narcissa Malfoy embraced him lightly, smiling warmly.

"Mr. Potter," Lucius nodded at Harry coolly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, as well, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy." Harry could not believe he was having a conversation with a Death Eater and his wife. Narcissa seemed nice enough, but Harry knew that Lucius was the biggest influence on Draco so far. He would have to continue to plant seeds of doubt in Draco's mind about his father's convictions.

"I'll see you soon, Draco. I'm going to go find my aunt." He smiled at the blond, who returned the gesture. Harry excused himself from the Malfoys and made his way to the platform's exit. He knew that his aunt would never venture onto the magical platform.

Harry already wanted to tear his hear out in boredom. This summer was going to be horribly dull.

.

As expected, Harry was able to meet up with Draco whenever his aunt invited him along to London. They met in Diagon Alley and strolled through the busy shopping area. They had ice cream and browsed the many book stores and other stores filled with oddities. Harry had fun.

He was also able to buy several books on telepathic bonds and bonds with familiars, hoping that at least one of them would do more than simply mention the kind of bond that he had with Merlin. So far, none of the books he had found held any valuable information. They dealt mostly with artificial bonds and bonds that were forced, not ones that simply popped into existence, like with Harry and Merlin.

Since his initial transformation, Harry had slowly started sensing his familiar's state of mind vaguely. It was stronger when the Savannah cat was close by, but the bond was definitely strengthening as the days wore on. Harry had enough privacy in the middle of the night to practice transforming into an ocelot and back. He was even able to sneak out of the house a couple of times to roam the streets of Little Whinging with Merlin.

It was fun for Harry to let the wild cat take over. He hunted for small animals, mostly mice and birds, alongside his familiar. Their bond had progressed so much, that they could almost hear each other's thoughts if they projected them loudly when Harry was in his cat form.

As far as Voldemort's Horcrux was concerned, Harry was still at a dead end. He had no idea how to get his hands on the evil artifact without drawing attention to either himself or Draco. He needed to stay free of suspicion, or it would be exponentially more difficult for him to achieve his end game: defeating the Dark Lord.

He hated to wait for an opening, like he had with Quirrell the previous school year. But as of now, waiting seemed like his only choice.

Thanks for reading!