Chapter 6: Insubordination

Draco sat beside Hermione, Neville and Hagrid, much to the displeasure of his house. But he was far more focused on trying to keep a protective eye on Potter than silly house rivalries, and anyway, he knew how good Harry was. Slytherin stood no chances unless they took Harry out and he'd deal with anyone who tried to do that, cheating be damned.

Thankfully he had managed to get his magic somewhat under control in the weeks since school had begun. His spells were still ridiculously overpowered, but he could adjust the power to a minute degree. He was considering going to Gelund again and asking if he could procure some metals and make as magically inert wand as was possible. Theoretically, the power bleed-off from trying to cast with it would balance with his obscene reserves, allowing him to perform at normal levels.

It was only when Hermione gripped his arm and whimpered that he realized he had drifted out and he refocused to see Harry bucking on a wildly bucking broom, far too high in the air. His entire being froze, his eyes wide. Had this happened last time? Bloody hell, he couldn't remember. If it did, Harry would be fine, but what if some minor thing he did had sweeping repercussions and already things were different and Harry was going to fall off his broom and die and why the hell were those idiot twins forcing him higher and oh Merlin, someone call for time out, someone notice, please!

His magic shook under his skin, drowning him and washing away any rational plan as his panic kept rising, his eyes not actually seeing anything but the inevitable. Harry was barely hanging on now. He'd slip, the twins wouldn't be able to catch him. He wouldn't be able to catch him. And then the broom stopped its wild bucking and Harry plummeted and oh Merlin, now he's choking and . . . the game was over. Before his rational mind could catch up to his body, he was racing onto the pitch and shoving Wood out of the way to grip Harry's shoulders and frantically look him over.

"Draco, I'm fine," Harry laughed, used to his friend's protective streak that bordered obsessive.

Draco's eyes roamed Harry's body one more time, checking for even the slightest scrape. Then he drew Harry into a tight hug, trembling with relief and the sudden lack of a calming draught between him and adrenaline. It was only when Neville and Hermione came over that he let go, and proceeded to immediately take Harry's broom and drag the three Gryffindors away, ignoring the protests of the celebrating Lion House.

Once they were away from everyone else, he glared at the broom. He knew Harry wouldn't willingly give up the team, he loved flying too much. But that didn't mean he was going to let Harry go unprotected. So he began casting diagnostics over the broom, weaving in anti-jinx and various other protective enchantments into the matrix that made the broom work. Finally he turned to Harry. "Next time something is going on, you call the match. Immediately. No school sport is worth your life."

Harry nodded, very likely just humoring him. None of them mentioned what Draco had just done to the broom, either, all of them used to his odd smattering of highly advanced knowledge by now as well.

Draco later snuck back down to the pitch and cast a cushioning charm across the entire green. The next game had to be delayed as they tried to dispel the charm that was solid enough to walk on and several feet thick. In the end, they simply made the goal posts and stands taller.

X|X

By the time Christmas holidays rolled around, Draco was reluctantly agreeing to leave Harry's side once again, mostly because Harry had pointed out that practicing spells was a lot harder when he kept getting dragged around to the other two Gryffindors so Draco could keep an eye on him.

Despite how difficult his guarding made practicing, Draco was delighted with the progress the three were making. Neither Harry or Neville bothered to read their books cover to cover, so they had no idea that the spells he was teaching them ranged from end of curriculum first year spells all the way to early third year, and if Hermione knew, she didn't mention it. He had also insisted that the three learn basic healing spells, citiing Harry's tendency to get roughed up during Quidditch practice (though the frequency of anything worse than a scrape decreased significantly when Draco scared Wood near witless while trying to impress upon him that lives weren't worth the cup).

He'd also solved the short lived mystery of why Neville's spells were so subpar. He had been very confused by that, since he remembered the man Neville Longbottom turned into. It wasn't anything to do with his magical strength, since puberty didn't cause that much growth. Nor was it anything to do with his self confidence. Already Neville was immensely more confident than he had been last time around. So finally, Draco asked about Neville's wand. It was his father's. He had Neville try casting with their wands and was only marginally surprised at how well Harry's wand worked for him. Draco's wand, on the other hand, Neville swore he would never touch again. Apparently (and Harry and Hermione confirmed it) his wand, rather than the non-reaction of an incompatible wand or the warm rush of a compatible one, gave off such a feeling of not that it scared the three of them, with Hermione describing it as feeling like she was empty of magic.

Still, with the cause of Neville's lackluster performance solved and a promise from the boy to talk to his grandmother, he was able to focus on his training plans. He knew – well, knew was a pretty strong word. He had a suspicion that he remembered that he had at least three more years to get his Gryffindors leaps and bounds ahead of their peers. He already had plans to spend a little time with them over the summer, once "Marius Rowe" purchased a property outside of Lucius's influence. This he planned to take care of over Easter holiday, and hopefully it would be ready by summer. His plans for Hermione would also hopefully be ready by then, as he had already sent Dobby to drop off a letter for her parents.

X|X

Draco smiled as he waved to Neville and Hermione, who were leaning out the window of their compartment.

"Bye Harry, bye Draco!" Hermione called,, echoed by Neville.

Harry and Draco returned their goodbyes as the train began pulling away from the station, then Draco turned to Harry and smiled. He'd already warned the boy that he'd be busy with some Malfoy obligations during a portion of the break, so once they reached the castle entrance again, he made to part ways. "So I'm going to trust you to take care of yourself," he said. "Don't go flying without supervision, be careful on the stairs, don't do any brewing, don't go into the Forbidden Forest, don't go ice skating alone. If you go outside, wear a cloak, and-"

"Draco!" Harry was laughing as he covered his friend's mouth with his own scarf. "I'm not made of glass, I can survive without you!"

Sighing, Draco spat out a few strands of wool and shook his head finally. "Alright, fine. I'll see you at breakfast and dinner, and we'll open gifts together at Christmas, okay? You heading up to your common room?"

"Nah, I was going to visit Hagrid. See you, Draco."

"Remember warming charms!" Draco shouted after him. Harry just laughed and waved without looking behind him.

X|X

Draco quickly headed to his room and grabbed his trunk, shrinking it before leaving again to slip through a passage deeper in the dungeons, coming out on the seventh floor. Constantly casting the human revealing charm as he walked, and at intervals the animal revealing charm, he made it to the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy and in no time as in the Room of Hidden Things.

Merlin, he'd forgotten just how big the place was. Sighing, he commanded the room to alert him if anyone tried to access it as he unshrunk his trunk. Removing from it one of his blank journals and a dicta-quill, he turned to the nearest pile. "Let's get started," he muttered, casting all the curse revealing spells he knew at the pile as he conjured a thick pair of gloves.

X|X

For the next few days, Draco used the same system of casting detection charms on any item he found. Anything cursed was disenchanted, and he charmed the trunk and journal/quill to follow behind him, allowing him to make a ledger of every item found and easily store it away. Any uncharmed clothes, spilled potions and a majority of the furniture were vanished, though he briefly considered keeping an impressively large old-fashioned knicker collection complete with the name of the girl each belonged to. He hadn't wanted the collection for himself, of course, but one of the pairs belonged to an Alia Potter, and he figured Harry might like the gag gift when he was older.

By the time of the Christmas Eve feast, he had made pretty good progress, especially once he found a second mokeskin trunk and just began dumping cursed items into it to deal with later. The worst he'd found so far was a beautiful silver and sapphire diadem that radiated dark magic like a volcano radiated heat. Beneath the dark compulsion to put the diadem on and numerous anti-damage enchantments was an enchantment that could, as far as he could tell, implement a rudimentary mindscape and occlumency barriers into the heads of anyone who wore it. It was a fascinating bit of magic, and something he had never encountered before. All of this, however, was overshadowed by the presence residing in the object. He knew it well, and it terrified him enough that he didn't even touch the thing. Rather he conjured a large iron box, levitated the diadem into it, layered it with every single protective and locking enchantment and rune sequence he knew, then levitated that into the curse trunk. A calming draught later and he had stopped shaking enough to continue.

X|X

Christmas morning had Draco waiting outside the Gryffindor common room for Harry. The boy emerged with a small armful of gifts, beaming.

"Draco, look! I got presents!" He laughed happily.

Draco returned his grin, filing the undertone of surprised disbelief in the boy's voice away for later consideration and linking arms with him. "C'mon, Harry. I have your gift in my room. I hope you like green." He led Harry to the dungeons. "Don't mention to anyone that I let you in here, alright?" At Harry's nod, he gave the password and took point, as always.

"Woah, your common room is brilliant, Draco!" Harry commented, following the Slytherin to sit at the small, lavishly decorated tree in the corner. "Your windows are underwater!"

Smiling at Harry, Draco gestured to the wrapped packages in the boy's arms. "Well? Go on, you open yours first."

From Neville, Harry got a large box of chocolate frogs that Draco warned he shouldn't eat too many of before Christmas lunch. Hermione got him his own copy of Quidditch Through the Ages and Draco had gotten him a full set of wand holsters. As he helped Harry strap them all on, he explained how they were different than auror holsters. Rather than just dragon hide, Harry's holsters were sandwiches of kevlar, scale mail and dragon hide, thinned magically. He didn't mention, however, that he had made them himself or that they were the design used thirty-ish years in the future.

Once Harry had all of them properly fitted, he helped the boy pick which two felt the most comfortable, taking into account movement and inevitable growth. Setting aside the shoulder and forearm holsters, he discussed the enchantments that would be placed on each. Both he would enchant against spell and physical damage, and the shoulder holster would be charmed against notice and summoning charms. Harry had questioned why his arm holster wasn't also going to be charmed and Draco explained that the people who would be most likely to try to summon his wand were also the type to most likely immediately kill him if their summoning charm returned with nothing. To Draco's only minor surprise, Harry didn't question why he'd been given two holsters but had only one wand. Draco planned to take the three Gryffindors to get back up wands over the summer, though from what he'd seen with Harry at Ollivanders the first time, he felt he might need to take at least one of them to Gelund.

The only other gifts Harry got was a roughly carved, though nice sounding flute from Hagrid and an invisibility cloak from an unknown person. Draco had refused to let Harry touch it until he cast his full range of detection charms on it, the wrapping paper and the unsigned note. While there were no spells on any of them, or Harry for interacting with the package, he was quite confused over the fact that all the readings from the cloak said he was casting at empty air, not fabric and demiguise hair. Still, he reluctantly agreed that it was okay for Harry to have it, and he couldn't help but enjoy how happy the boy was to have something of his father's. He did make Harry promise (stopping just short of forcing him to swear an oath) to never use the cloak to sneak out at night.

Draco himself got chocolate from Neville as well, along with a gushing thank-you note for helping him with his wand. From Hermione he got a book on muggle teaching methods and from his parents, a thick wool cloak with a snake clasp along with a note from his father expressing continuing disappointment over his choice of associates. He set the letter aside to burn later and spent the rest of the day playing in the snow with Harry and the Weasleys. He and Harry teamed up to demolish the red heads, Draco unashamedly using the snowball fight to train Harry on battlefield tactics.

The next day he was back to the Room of Hidden Things, where he stayed outside of breakfast, dinner and sleep for the rest of the break.

X|X

The new year brought the return of classes. The first free period they had, Draco helped Hermione and Neville pick their own holsters. Neville took the forearm and belt designs, while Hermione matched Harry's preferences. Neville saw a remarkable increase in his spell casting, easily keeping up with the other two Gryffindors. They, plus Draco, were undoubtedly the top four of their year, with Draco trailing in fourth only because of his erratic spell power.

X|X

In late January, Draco was forced to realize just why Harry never seemed to be able to stay out of trouble. Apparently, he didn't want to. They were doing their Transfiguration homework in the library when Harry abruptly turned to Hermione.

"Hey Hermione? Do you know anything about Nicholas Flamel?" He asked.

Before she could answer, Neville perked up. "The alchemist?"

"Alchemist?" Harry gestured for Neville to continue.

"Oh yeah, you weren't raised wizard. Nicholas Flamel is the creator of the Philosopher's Stone."

"Philosopher's Stone? That's real?" Hermione asked.

"Woah, hold on. What's the Philosopher's stone?"

Hermione turned excitedly to him. "It's a stone that muggle legends say can grant immortality and turn lead to gold!"

Harry's eyes went wide and he paled. Draco leaned in, worried the boy might faint. "What brought this up, Harry?" he asked.

"Over Christmas break," Harry started, casting an apologetic glance in Draco's direction. "I asked Hagrid about what he picked up from Gringotts the day of the break in, and he said it was between Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel. What if the Philosopher's Stone is here in the castle?"

Draco groaned. "Harry. What does it matter? It has nothing to do with us! If Dumbledore wants to put something in the castle, he can put it in the castle. He's headmaster," he tried, inwardly cursing Harry's Gryffindor side. Would it really have been so bad for Harry to have been a Slytherin? Then maybe he would have learned some damn self preservation.

"But what if the troll on Halloween was some diversion to get the stone? Someone could have been seriously injured!" Hermione chimed in, flushing sheepishly when Draco sent a withering glare in her direction. "It's just, they found it by the girl's bathroom, Draco. If you hadn't come and gotten me . . ." She paled, and Draco sighed, pulling her into a brief, comforting hug.

"Very well. Who do you think is after the stone, then? It'd have to be either a teacher, someone who wouldn't go noticed wandering the school or someone who would have no hesitation killing witnesses. Now, if it's a teacher, we're marginally more lucky, since, as you seem to want, Harry, we may have a way to stop them: Going to Dumbledore.

"Of course, as we don't know which teacher it is, if we show our hand too early they may be told we suspect a teacher and take action against us. Unless we think the Divination professor is the culprit, how exactly do you expect to beat an adult with decades more experience?"

Harry frowned, then huffed. "We could probably beat Quirrel. He's scared of his pet lizard!"

"Ah, but you're forgetting that he escaped a coven of vampires and the only thing he has to show for it is a stutter, no injuries to speak of."

"But it's been months, maybe he's been healed?" Hermione suggested.

Neville shook his head. "Not likely," he interjected. "One of the reasons vampires and werewolves are considered dark creatures is that anything they do that breaks skin can never be fully healed. It'll always scar, like dark magic injuries."

"So," Draco continued. "we either have a teacher vastly more powerful than us with no problem unleashing a troll that could very well have killed someone, or a shadow who can get into the school undetected and has no problem unleashing a troll that could very well have killed someone and if we were to find them would most likely kill us. What do you suggest we do about the stone when faced with those odds?"

He stared intently at Harry until the boy sighed and slumped forward with a pout. "You know magic, Draco. Isn't there anything we could do?

Draco sighed and rubbed his temples. "Not unless we know where it is." He glared at Harry, not needing legillimancy to know what the boy was about to suggest when he perked up. "And no, we are not wandering the castle looking for it." Harry opened his mouth. "Not even under the invisibility cloak."

Slumping again, Harry sighed. "Fine, we won't do anything about the stone."

Draco relaxed but made a note to tag Harry with tracking charms later, not for a minute believing the boy had truly given up.

X|X

It was a few weeks after that when Hagrid sent them a note through Hedwig, inviting them over to see something special. So once classes ended for the day, they made their way down to the giant hut. Twenty minutes later, Draco was staring in horrified amazement at Hagrid. The man was, without a doubt, absolutely insane. On the plus side, he remembered a bit of what he'd forgotten. There was a dragon first year last time, too.

Beside him, Hermione was trying to talk Hagrid into seeing reason, but it was appearing to be a lost the half-giant casualy pat out his beard, Hermione tried again. "But Hagrid, how on earth will you take care of it? It's going to e a giant beast!"

"Nonsense!" Hagrid scoffed far too happily for Draco's liking. "T'won't be any harder than dealing with Fluffy," he insisted.

"Fluffy?" Neville asked almost hesitantly as he eyed the dragon.

"My cerberus! I told the guy I won the egg off of - we were playing cards at the pub - how everyone thinks they're such monsters, but play a bit of music and Fluffy goes right to sleep. He's a big softy!"

"Where is Fluffy?" Apparently, Hermione's curiosity about a cerberus temporarily won out over the fear off a dragon living at the school.

Hagrid beamed. "I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the third floor!"

Draco's head thumped onto the table, scaring the dragon into leaping back and setting the wood between them on fire with a tiny burp of flame. The creature was positively terrified of him for some reason. "Look, Hagrid, you know my family history, correct?" He asked as Harry hurriedly soaked the table with a water charm. "So you understand that the Malfoys are well versed in legality. Do you know how much trouble you can get into for having this dragon? Five years minimum in Azkaban. More if it can be proven it caused injury to a person. And Hagrid, it will hurt someone. Trained dragon handlers are expected to die on the job within ten years. You cannot keep this dragon. If you refuse to get rid of it, I'm going to the ministry."

He had a tense staredown with the giant man for several seconds until Hagrid finally looked away and promptly burst into tears. Draco sighed, putting a comforting hand on his arm.

"Where will he go, though? He's just a little baby!"

"Well," Neville began. "I know one of the Weasley boys is a dragon handler."

Draco smiled. "Wonderful. We'll write to him and ask him to take Norbert. He'll be much happier with other dragons, Hagrid, and I'm sure we can arrange for you to visit. Perhaps you could even help out during the summer."

That seemed to marginally cheer Hagrid up, though he still scooped Norbert into a hug, ignoring the dragon's attempts to chew through his arm.

X|X

So Draco had Harry write a letter to Charlie Weasley, having had gotten the name from the twins, and the next night a disillusioned Draco and Harry brought the dragon out onto the quidditch pitch. He spelled it to sleep and handed the crate off to a team of dragon handlers on brooms. Charlie had given him an odd look as he flew away, and Draco hoped it was because he was a Malfoy and not because he'd been seen spelling a dragon himself.

Immediately after sending Harry to bed, Draco went to the third floor, confirmed there was a cerberus and warded the corridor with a ward that was keyed to Harry and would activate if he got too close to the door, one that would stun Harry and alert Draco if the first ward triggered and a general alert ward if anyone tried to get into the room. Now if anyone tried to get through, he'd know, just so he could assure Harry if the child got anxious. He was certain nothing would come of this though, and looked forward to finishing the year uneventfully.

(A/N Spoon 1)

Shorter than usual, but this felt like a good place to end the chapter

(A/N Spoon 2)

Poor Draco. Trying to keep Harry out of trouble is like herding kneazels. It's really a lost cause.

(A/N Spoon 3)

We're coming up on the end of what I have pre-written, and I haven't had the chance to write much more. So I'm going to switch to updating every other week for the foreseeable future.