When Draco came bouncing into the room an hour later, Harry had put the journal away and was working on his Charms essay. Harry sat his quill on the desk and turned in the chair to face Draco.
“So, what are you wanting to do first?” Harry asked with a grin.
Draco frowned. “Don’t you have work to do? I can play by myself.”
Draco’s words made Harry frown as well. “You’re used to playing by yourself a lot, aren’t you?”
Draco shrugged his little shoulders. “I always play by myself. There’s never anyone else around.”
Harry scowled. The day would someday come when Harry Potter would kill Lucius Malfoy, and he would do it quite happily.
“Well, I’m around now,” Harry declared. “And I just so happen to want to play at the moment.”
Draco giggled at Harry’s feigned attitude, before turning to look at the shelves. “I don’t even know how to play with any of this,” Draco said. “I’ve got lots of toys and things, but not like these.”
Harry tapped a finger on his chin as he eyed Draco thoughtfully, before looking at the things on the shelves. “Well, I say we start with some of those block sets. I bet we could build some pretty wicked things judging from the pictures on those boxes.”
“They do look brilliant,” Draco said, nodding fervently.
“I say we’ll see what we can build together this morning and this afternoon you can see what you can build by yourself while I get some of my assignments done,” Harry suggested.
“Deal!” Draco said, grinning brightly.
They spent the rest of the morning painstakingly building the designs indicated on several of the boxes of blocks. Harry had bought a whole series of castle-themed legos and Draco was fascinated with them.
“Harry!” Draco shouted in excitement, shoving a box under Harry’s nose that he’d just pulled from the shelf. “This one has a dragon we can build! See it?!”
Laughing, Harry pulled the box back several inches so he could actually see it. “Wow! You’re right, Draco! I don’t even remember this one.” Harry gave Draco a rueful smile. “Then again, I don’t remember ninety percent of what we got since we were mostly just grabbing things in a rush.”
“Yeah,” Draco said absently, now staring at the pictures on the box. “Can we make this one next, Harry?” Draco asked.
“Of course we can,” Harry said, smiling at the little boy’s fascination with the dragon. Truth be told, Harry was quite fascinated with his own little dragon.
* * * * *
“Potter.”
Harry looked up at the man standing in the doorway. “Yes, sir?”
“The password to the rooms is ‘crushed snake fangs’. You will not give out the password to anyone,” Snape said, his voice holding a deadly warning. “You will not bring anyone to these rooms at any time. Is this understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Harry said quietly. He’d already figured this out on his own, not that Snape would have believed him if he’d said that. Harry knew very well that he was essentially rooming in isolation with Draco. And Snape.
“You will also pay attention when you leave for lunch so you will know how to return, as I’m not positive you were quite aware last night of your surroundings,” Snape sneered.
“Yes, sir,” Harry said once again. Snape stood in the doorway for a moment longer before turning on his heel and stalking away, robes billowing behind him.
Harry continued to stare at the open doorway. How could he have possibly thought that the man was loosening up towards him?
Draco tugging on the sleeve of his robes brought Harry’s attention back to the dragon they were still building.
* * * * *
“Where have you been, Harry?” Ron was asking, demanding, before Harry and Draco had even had a chance to sit down at the table.
Harry looked at his friend curiously. “Uh, Ron, you knew I was moving down to the dungeons.”
“Yes, but no one’s seen you at all since yesterday morning,” Hermione explained their worry.
Harry shrugged. “We were gone all day yesterday and then this morning I got a little of my assignments done and played blocks with Draco.” Harry winked at Draco causing the boy to giggle. Harry was enjoying the fact that he was hearing that sound more often as the days wore on.
“Well, why weren’t you at breakfast?” Ron demanded to know.
Harry was hard pressed trying to keep the grimace off his face. “We, uh, had breakfast with,” he glanced at Draco, “Severus this morning so he could spend some time with Draco.”
“Why did you have to stay there? It’s not like he wants to spend more time with you,” Ron said.
Harry flinched lightly. Yes, he knew very well their Potions professor didn’t actually want him around. “I was making things easier for Draco,” Harry snapped, more irritably than he’d intended.
Ron rolled his eyes. “Is everything going to be about him now?”
Harry glared at him. “Don’t start, Ron. Just don’t start.”
Eyes full of hurt, Ron stared at him. “It’s not my fault the Slytherins are more important to you all of a sudden.”
Draco was looking worried, but he piped up. “Harry said I was more important than work,” he said helpfully, not quite understanding what Ron was really upset about.
Ron was still looking hurt, but his lips twitched as he looked at Draco. “He said that?”
“Really,” Draco said earnestly. “I bet you’re more important than work, too.”
Harry dropped his head into his hands. He missed Ron looking curiously, almost hopefully, at Draco. He also missed the intent stare of Hermione turning into an eye roll at the slight absurdity of the whole conversation.
“Speaking of work, Harry,” Hermione spoke up. “I brought my potions notes so you can copy them this afternoon.”
“Yeah, she made me work on potions on a Saturday, just so you could borrow her notes today,” Ron said ruefully.
“It certainly didn’t hurt you to get your potions done early for once, instead of waiting until the last minute,” Hermione retorted.
“It did too hurt,” Ron muttered so only Harry could hear.
Harry snickered and thanked Hermione. He knew she recognized that his heartfelt thanks were for the potions notes, but also for helping to defuse the situation. The rest of lunch went relatively peacefully, with Harry and Draco describing their shopping trip.
* * * * *
“Potter.”
Harry was sitting at his desk trying to work on his assignments again. He’d gotten a fair amount done that afternoon, especially when Draco took a nap, but he had gotten behind during the week.
