Across the hall, Harry sat blissfully ignorant of what would soon befall him, courtesy of two devious Slytherins. "Can you two stop arguing and make up already," he cried frustrated, "It doesn't matter if Ron copied your essay Hermione, next time hide it." He got up from the table, "Come on, we have Potions and we can't be late, we're already behind in the house points as it is." They walked out of the Great Hall unaware of the two sets of eyes following them.

They got to the classroom in the dungeons and sat in their usual seats at the back. Snape swept into the classroom, robes billowing about his ankles. He flicked his wand at the board and instructions appeared, "Begin the potion, the instructions as you brats should already know are directly in front of you, read them carefully and do exactly as they say or you will be very sorry tonight in detention."

His eyes lingered on Harry and Ron as he said that and they both glowered back at him. His sneer grew and as he turned back to the board he said, "You may begin before the century is over." The seventh years gathered the ingredients to chop and mesh up.

As Harry started slicing the dead slug in front of him he asked, "So have you guys kissed and made up?" He received two blushes from either side of him and promptly grinned but he also felt sad at the same time, this meant that he was going to be alone this evening while his two best friends had some quality time together.

They continued their potion while Hermione told them about her Head Girl duties. "I have to patrol every night with Malfoy," she said, her lips curled up with distaste. "Why with the ferret?" asked Ron. "Well he is Head Boy," she said, "And I hope he takes his duties seriously because I 'm not going to be doing it for hi…"

"Undoubtedly fascinating your conversation must be, Miss Granger, I am afraid I must a stop to it so you three can actually do something," a silky voiced growled.

The three of them looked up in astonishment as they heard Snape's voice. "Miss Granger move your caldron to the seat bedside Miss Parkinson, Weasley beside Nott and Potter between Malfoy and Zabini."

Ron got up muttering angrily and the other two followed suit. Harry wheeled his cauldron up the aisle where the two Slytherins were sitting. Zabini moved out of the way so Harry could get between them and then quickly got back to his potion, all the while smirking at Harry. Harry turned to Malfoy confusedly, were the planning to prank or humiliate him?

Malfoy was also smirking. "Weird," thought Harry, "I had better watch out."

He continued stirring his potion. Fifteen minutes later he looked up in time to see Malfoy nod at Zabini, he was going to get paranoid sitting in between them like this. "Merlin," he thought as he pulled his cloak away from his sweaty body, "It's really hot with all these fumes."

He heard a groan and looked up to see both Malfoy and Zabini staring at his body; he looked down and saw that because of the sweat his clothes were now sticking to him like a second skin. He quickly pulled his cloak shut and blushed.

Draco watched the blush with as much fascination as Blaise had in the morning. He now knew why Blaise wanted Potter, the boy was absolutely gorgeous. The black hair clashed with his creamy skin, the delicate nose and high cheekbones, the relatively small and lithe body beneath those robes.

Draco remembered that Potter was one of the most powerful wizards alive at the moment. Draco fully approved, the Malfoys had always been known to be attracted to power and beauty and Potter had both. Time to put their plan into action.

He waited until Snape was at the opposite side of the dungeon scolding Longbottom about his potion, it was orange goo instead of a colourless liquid, and then started to slink closer and closer to Potter. Harry looked up for the next instruction when he noticed that both Zabini and Malfoy seemed to be closer to him than before, he ignored them and continued to brew his potion. He looked up again and knew that they had definitely moved closer. They were both almost touching him on either side now!

"Um... excuse me if you guys want to talk or something why don't you just write notes so I won't know," Harry said nervously not looking at them. "Oh no Harry," said Malfoy's voice next to Harry's ear and Harry jumped and tried to back away from the close proximity, but the next table was just behind them so he was trapped.

Draco almost laughed when he felt Harry jump. He trailed his fingers up Harry's arm who yelped at the touch and pulled his arm away and turned and bumped into Blaise. Blaise put his arm around the waist of the boy in front of him, he almost groaned as he felt the lithe body against him. Harry felt different from Draco, for one Harry was smaller and Harry was innocent. Blaise had an insane urge, like the urges he felt for Draco, to protect Harry from anything, to protect the small innocent gorgeous boy in front of him.

Harry struggled, "What's wrong with you two today, did someone slip a personality changing potion in your breakfast this morning?"

Blaise finally let him go and Harry stumbled back. The green –eyed boy turned to Malfoy who was back in front of his cauldron serenely adding ingredients. He looked back at Blaise who was stirring his own potion.

Confusion washed over Harry, "What was the purpose of that," he wondered, he felt his arms, "I'm not hurt, they didn't humiliate me." He turned back and started stirring his potion again, "All they did was touch me," he thought in bewilderment.

Draco sneaked a glance at the perplexed boy next to him and fought back a smirk and then frowned, Potter was thin and small, slimmer than most people their age should be, he shrugged, "Maybe his parents were short people," he thought.

"So Potter, are you going out with the Weaselette?" he asked watching the boy closely. Harry blushed brightly and said, "That's none of your business Malfoy." Draco smirked, "But it is Potter, everyone wants to know what our great savior likes." "But why do you want to know Malfoy?" Harry countered, "Unless you want to ask her out, I frankly don't think you're her type at all Malfoy and anyways Neville would kill you if you touched her, not to mention Ron."

"Why would Longbottom have anything to do with the Weaselette, unless he's the one going out with her," finished Malfoy. "So Potter," said Malfoy with genuine curiosity on his face, "Who are you going out with?" "I don't see how this any of your business but it's not like it's a huge secret, I'm not dating anyone at the moment," he looked back down to add batwings to his potion and missed the victorious grins that the two purebloods exchanged.

"Who are you dating Malfoy?" he asked as he looked up, the curiosity in his eyes turned into confusion when he saw the exultant beam in Draco's eyes. Draco quickly composed his face and then looked at Blaise who nodded. "Blaise," the blond haired teen said simply. Harry's jaw dropped, "Blaise," he cried at the grins they wore "As in Zabini, you're both gay?" The two of them nodded, "But don't you two need heirs to continue your family name?" he asked.

"Really Potter, have you never heard of blood adoption, it would seem as the Muggles you grew up with didn't teach you anything…" he stopped at the look on Harry's face. The humour in the boy's eyes had disappeared and all emotion had simply been wiped away, the teen himself had turned back to his potion.

Blaise shot a confused look at Draco. "What about the Muggles brought a mask to the face of someone who was never supposed to wear one," they both wondered.

Harry and Ron walked to Divination after promising Hermione that they would meet later in her room to do their Potions homework together. Both Harry and Ron stifled their laughter when the Professor proclaimed that Harry would soon be in love. "With who?" Ron asked as he chuckled with Harry.

After dinner, they both trudged along the corridors to the Head Prefects Rooms and knocked. Hermione opened the portrait beaming brightly, excited for a night doing homework with her two best friends. They all settled in the Common Room beside the fire place.

After an hour of silent working Ron looked up, yawned heavily and scowled, "Trust Snape to give us a topic that's boring and impossible to find research on."

"Let's take a break," said Harry also yawning, "Why were you and Nott arguing about in Potions, Ron?" "He was insulting my family as usual," said Ron, "all the blood traitor nonsense." Ron leaned back on the couch," You, Malfoy and Zabini didn't hex each other today, I didn't even hear raised voices from your side of the classroom Harry!"

"They were really weird today," answered Harry, "weirder than usual, they asked me if I was going out with Ginny." "What," cried Ron, "You don't think he wants to ask her out, do you?" "Malfoy's gay, Ron," said Hermione. Harry looked at her with a raised eyebrow and said, "You know?"

"Of course I know, I can read the signs and anyways they disappear into his room every night, doesn't take a genius to figure it out." At that moment, the portrait door opened and in stepped the two individuals they were discussing. Draco looked at them with raised eyebrows and a smirk curled his mouth, "Since when did the Prefects room become the Lion's den?"

"You have Zabini here, I have Ron and Harry," Hermione countered instantly, "at least they don't stay the night," she said a pink flush to her cheeks. "That's something a hope to remedy," muttered Draco staring at Harry. They both disappeared into Malfoy's rooms. Harry, Ron and Hermione continued their essays in silence occasionally yawning and soon all of them had fallen asleep in front of the fire.

Hermione was sleeping on a comfortable chair while both Ron and Harry had fallen asleep on opposite ends of the couch. Inside Draco's room, "It's very quiet outside, do you think they've gone?"

"Let's go see," answer Draco and he opened the door d came across the three slumbering Gryffindors. "You would think that they would be more careful with two Slytherins in the next room," whispered Blaise, his eyes softening at the sight. Draco, however, was stepping closer to Harry, he stopped when he was beside the edge of the couch and looked down.

Harry's face was flushed with sleep, his expression open and his lips parted as if in invitation. Draco longed to bend down and taste those rosy lips. Blaise came to stand beside Draco and also looked down at Harry; he was once again struck by how small the black haired boy was. He tapped Draco on the shoulder and Draco looked up at him with those silvery grey eyes that always seemed to make him go weak at the knees.

"Come," he said, "I need to talk to you." Draco nodded, took one last look at the sleeping boy on the sofa and followed him back to the safety of his room. Blaise closed the door, turned to him and asked, "What do you know of his Muggle relatives?"

Draco blinked and then nodded again, so Blaise had also read the signs. "Not that much, during first year there were rumours of him being treated like a prince, but in the third year I overheard Weasley and Granger talking about sending him food every day, that probably means that the Muggles didn't give him much to eat." Realization dawned on Draco, "That's why he's so small, he's one of the smallest in our year even smaller than most of the girls."

Blaise was looking at him with clenched fists and Draco knew exactly how he felt. "How dare those Muggles starve a wizard child," he stormed. "Maybe they did more than that," added Blaise, "we don't know the extent of it but I doubt it, Potter does not act like an abused child."

"I'm going to find out though," said Draco with a determined expression. "And how will you do that, it's not like you can go up to him and ask "Did your relatives abuse you?"" Blaise continued, "he'll just deny it or ignore you."

"Come on Blaise, don't you want to find out, you like him too don't you, and we're two Slytherins, how hard can it be?"

"Very hard," returned Blaise dryly, "Considering that he's hidden the extent of it from his closest friends." "Come on, let's sleep, it's late," Blaise continued.

They put out the lights and fell asleep, arms and legs tangled, both dreaming of each other and a raven haired boy with emerald green eyes. Blaise woke up first because of the bright sunlight streaming through the windows, he yawned, woke Draco with a good deal of shaking and threats and they both left the room to go to the bathroom.

Potter and Weasley were still asleep but Granger seemed to have woken up. "You'd think that she would have woken them up," Draco commented. "I tried but Harry and Ron aren't light sleepers, though years ago Harry did wake up at the slightest call of his name," said Hermione frowning.

Draco and Blaise exchanged the tiniest of glances so as not to rouse her suspicion. Granger went to Harry and said, "Come on Harry, wake up." "Go away 'Mione," muttered the sleeping boy, turning around on the couch. His shirt pulled an inch to show a tantalizing view of a milky toned stomach.

Draco and Blaise both gulped, looked at each other and hurried to the bathrooms, they each had a rising problem that needed to be solved as quickly as possible by the other.