A/N: hey guys, hope you enjoy this chapter! Things will steadily start to get more action packed from here on (at least I hope so).

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

The noise in the Great Hall was deafening, the hundreds of students all waiting eagerly for the feast, talking loudly. For Draco it was a total nightmare, sitting as far away from anyone he knew on the Slytherin table, trying to ignore the ringing in his ears.

The sorting took up the same boring process, terrified looking first years sitting down on a stool and having the Sorting Hat placed on their heads. It would yell one of the four houses and the hall would break out in applause as the child went to their respective house's table.

Draco was scanning the teacher's table, eyeing up the new man sitting there. He raised an eyebrow, before locking gazes with his godfather, who was watching him carefully.

Once the sorting had finished, Dumbledore stood and cleared his throat. "Welcome, students and staff, to another year at Hogwarts! I hope you've enjoyed the marvellous feast prepared, and, as per usual, some minor changes have been made to the staff. We welcome back Professor Horace Slughorn, who will be taking over the post of Potions Master for this year."

Whispers of confusion ran around the hall, Draco's frown deepening as he locked gazes with his godfather, eyes full of confusion. He winced as he tried to reach some sort of telepathic communication with the man to make him explain, but he immediately regretted it as a sharp pain ran through his head.

"And Professor Snape will be taking over the Defence Against the Dark Arts position for this year. Now, onto the rules for the first years, and a few other students I must admit. The Forbidden Forest, is, as always, out of bounds to all students."

Draco tuned out, glaring at his godfather. He wanted to know what was going on, and why this random man had taken his position.

******

The majority of the walk back to their shared dorm was silent, Draco frowning at the floor as he walked, Harry knowing he was thinking and not wanting to disturb him.

The black wolf on their portrait had it's teeth bared at them as they reached it, harry ignoring it and muttering the password, holding the door open for Draco.

"I'm just going to unpack and go to bed, I'm really tired," Draco said, massaging his forehead, waiting and hoping to be rid of the pain soon.

"Okay," Harry nodded, wrapping his arms around Draco neck and leaning in, kissing him softly. "Goodnight."

Draco smiled, kissing Harry's cheek before ascending the staircase to his bedroom, pushing open the door and managing to cast a lighting spell, watching as the candles lit and cast a glow over the room. His bed was made, his raven sitting in its cage against the outcropping in the wall, his trunk at the foot of his bed. His desk hadn't been touched, still covered in books and random pieces of parchment.

After unpacking and letting his raven out of its cage, he climbed into bed and pulled the duvet over himself, snapping his fingers and watching as the room was cloaked in darkness. Exhaustion and a worryingly bad headache slowly forced him to shut his eyes, feeling himself slip quietly into unconsciousness.

******

The halls of the house were dark, but not so that Draco couldn't see. The house looked old, wallpaper tearing, floorboards rotting and creaking beneath his uncertain footsteps. There was no noise, he couldn't sense any other presence.

Slowly he neared the end of the corridor, finding himself standing at a window, a spiralling staircase leading up to the second floor on his left. It was raining outside, he could see the small drops of water running off the glass, yet he could hear no sound of it.

"We wondered when you'd be getting here," a voice rang out, a man's voice. It wasn't one Draco recognised, and he whirled around in a panic, searching for whoever had spoken. He saw a figure sitting on one of the steps in the staircase, and slowly drew closer.

"How do you know who I am?" Draco asked, frowning at the sound of his own voice. It sounded echoey.

"We know all about who you are," the man said, finally lifting his head.

Draco did a double take, eyes widening. The man looked oddly like the vampire he had the privilege of calling his own, yet seemed much older. He carried Harry's prominent jawbone and round glasses, yet he had some stubble around his chin and his hair seemed tamer. His skin was pearly white, and Draco gulped, knowing instantly who this person was, and that they were most definitely dead.

"You're Harry's dad, aren't you?' Draco asked shakily.

"I was his father. James Potter," he spoke in the same, emotionless and empty tone.

"You said 'we' before, is there someone else here?"

James looked up the staircase, and a woman descended, leaning on the banister. She was pretty, skinny, and had long hair. Draco guessed that it once would've been red, and her eyes would have been green, but all the colour seemed so drained here it was hard to tell.

"And you're his mother," Draco bit his lip, trying to remember her name. "Lily, right?" She nodded. "What do you want from me? Why am I here?"

"It's not so much of a matter of what we want from you," James said, his eyes unblinking. "More of what would be in your best interests to do."

Draco didn't reply, just narrowed his eyes into a frown, waiting for an explanation.

"Ever heard of a vanishing cabinet?" Lily asked, her voice taking up the same cold and nonchalant tone as her husband's. Draco nodded slowly, mind flashing back to the one in the Room Of Requirement. "There is one inside Hogwarts that you tried to fix when you were younger, correct?"

"How do you know this?" Draco snapped, feeling more than a little threatened. Neither of the people in front of him answered.

"The magical connection between the two cabinets is failing. You are the only one who knows that the cabinet is there, and you're the only one who can fix it," James spoke.

"B-But it would take extremely powerful magic to reestablish a connection," Draco muttered, looking slightly fearful. "I can't do magic that powerful, not now at least."

"Well then, you'd better recover quickly," Lily said calmly.

"Why should I fix it? What do I get out of this?" Draco asked, raising his voice. He felt panicked now, knowing deep down that there was no way he'd be able to fix that cabinet without enduring excruciating pain, unless he did manage to recover soon.

"Safety for you, and for Harry."

"You'd harm your own son?" Draco asked, staring at Lily with wide eyes.

"We are not his parents," they spoke in unison, making the werewolf jump with fright. "We are mere figments of your imagination."

"Then why should I do anything? This is just a dream, right?"

"You could choose to do nothing," James said coldly. "And bad things will begin to happen, we can assure you of that. It would also be for the best if you didn't mention this to him."

"What sort of bad things?" Draco said quietly, watching as James and lily both began to grin. It was the first expression that had graced either of their faces, and it was horrifying.

******

Draco awoke in a cold sweat, breathing deeply as he sat up. His duvet lay in a crumpled heap on the floor after he must have kicked it off.

He nearly screamed as he saw blood flooding down his bare chest, his breathing quickly becoming erratic as he panicked. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he realised his nose was bleeding again. After quickly looking at the clock (6:00am) and pulling on a pair of trousers he dashed downstairs.

Harry was already sitting on one of the couches, well, more doing his odd way of lying upside down on one of them.

"Any tissues around?" Draco asked, frowning at how funny is voice sounded as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"On the table," Harry replied, pointing to the coffee table he was partially leaning is head on. "Why?"

"Nosebleed," Draco replied, walking over and grabbing a handful.

Harry rolled over, staring at him for a few seconds, Draco feeling his cheeks heat up at Harry's gaze. "My god, you look hot covered in blood." There were a few seconds of silence, in which Harry frowned. "Did I just say that out loud?"

"Yes," Draco replied, rolling his eyes and beginning to wipe the blood off his chest and face.

"Oh," Harry said, looking sheepish.

"What're you doing awake so early?" Draco asked, trying to change the subject as quickly as possible in hopes of saving the little dignity he had left.

"Didn't sleep well. Still trying to make myself sleep at night instead of during the day. I scrapped most of my routines during the holidays," Harry sighed, sitting up properly. "It's going to be difficult to get everything together again."

Draco nodded in understanding, throwing the bloodstained tissues in the bin and grabbing a blanket off one of the couch arms, quickly realising it was Harry's by the Gryffindor crest emblazoned on the red material. Not caring, he wrapped it around his shoulders and flopped down onto the couch opposite Harry.

"I have double potions this morning with that new professor," the werewolf struck up a conversation. "I still don't know why Severus got his position changed, though."

"Well he's always wanted the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, hasn't he?" Harry replied thoughtfully, staring into the fireplace, the green flames crackling quietly. "And I have free periods."

"I'm doing potions with the Gryffindors though," Draco frowned. "Aren't you supposed to be there?"

Harry shook his head. "Didn't get a high enough grade to take potions this year. I only got an E. I'll probably just hang around the dungeon corridors, maybe intimidate some first years."

"Sounds fun," Draco muttered. "Now I have to put up with stupid people in a dark room without you even there to lighten the mood."

"It's not like I did much anyways," Harry said with a small grin. "I spent most of the classes just staring at you, I'm lucky I got an E."

Draco rolled his eyes, letting the conversation slip into a comfortable silence. He glanced at Harry every now and then, his mind finally finding its way back to his dream. It hadn't been like any other dream he'd experienced, he remembered every single detail. Fix the vanishing cabinet, but why?

******

Harry couldn't help but chuckle as he made his way through a crowd of first years, all trying to find their way to classes. It reminded him oddly of the many times he and Ron had gotten lost in their first year at Hogwarts, watching all these short people bumbling around like utter idiots.

It was quite hilarious, in fact. The looks of amazement that they gave him when they recognised who he was, yet the fear that crossed their faces at his undoubtable aura of dominance. He scared them, and he was loving it.

He had to hold back hysterical laughs as a first year Hufflepuff wandered into the girls bathroom while trying to find his Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, looking beyond mortified when he emerged.

"Having fun, Mr Potter?" A voice Harry recognised rung out, the vampire turning to see Professor McGonagall standing beside him, looking skeptical.

"Yes indeed, professor," Harry replied with a smirk. "Was I ever this short? I don't believe I was, they're all so small..."

"Don't you have a class to be in? Your grade has potions right now, correct?"

"I didn't get a high enough grade to take potions this year," Harry replied. "Only got an E."

"Well, Professor Slughorn is willing to take students that achieved E's. I've already sent Mr Weasley down there, so I suggest you go as well," she said sharply.

Harry sighed, but nodded. "Alright. And that Hufflepuff kid needs to know where his classroom is; he's just walked out of the girl's bathrooms with the funniest look on his face."

******

Harry walked into the potions classroom, quickly finding Draco amongst the crowd of students gathered around the front of the classroom, watching a demonstration. "Sorry I'm late," Harry said. Slughorn gave him a brief nod of acknowledgement, although his eyes lingered on the vampire for a few seconds before he continued with the lesson.

"The draught of living death," Slughorn said, gesturing to the cauldron in front of him. "As this is your first lesson, there won't be any demonstrations. All the instructions to create this potion are in your copies of 'Advanced Potion Making'. This will be a simple test to see how advanced everyone's skills are. There is motivation, however," he informed them, holding up a tiny phial of golden liquid. "Felix Felicis, otherwise known as...?"

"Liquid luck," Hermione said, her voice making Harry simply want to drown myself in the potion in front of him, before he remembered he didn't have the capability to drown.

"Indeed, Ms Granger. Whoever manages to create the best potion today will receive one phial of liquid luck. Now, get brewing!"

Everyone immediately rushed towards the cauldrons, Draco making sure to save the spot next to him for Harry as the vampire went off in search of a potions book as this was an independent task. "Professor? I wasn't aware I was able to be taking potions this year, so I didn't buy a book..." Harry trailed off.

"There should be some in the store cupboard," Slughorn said with a smile. Harry nodded, walking over to the small room, and sighing as he saw the only copy of Advanced Potions Making left. It was beaten and worn, the cover faded and some of the pages were evidently ripped.

Nevertheless, he knew he could copy from Draco book should the need arise, so he grabbed the fossil-like object and walked back to his and Draco's shared desk.

The werewolf had already begun the potion, leaving Harry to flip through the weathered pages of the book until he found the correct one. It was a complex potion, and he frowned as he read through all the instructions. Along the margins, someone had scribbled in different instructions, even partially crossing out parts of the recipe. There were even what looked like spells written along the top of the paper, ones Harry had never heard of before.

Harry shrugged. He wasn't really supposed to be in this class anyways, so why not just do what the book said? He didn't really care if it happened to fail dramatically, he didn't need the liquid luck. Whatever he wanted could be achieved through other means.

Slowly but surely, he began to brew the potion. He skipped the directions that were crossed out, and followed the tips written in their place. It seemed that the recipe had mostly just been shortened, probably to save time, but there were some useful hints that even helped the potion quality itself.

He was finished before Draco, which was definitely an accomplishment. The potion seemed to be the correct colour, so he assumed he'd made it correctly. Draco looked too tired and too deep in thought to care that Harry had beaten him, and the vampire found it interesting to watch Draco make the potion without looking at the instructions or ingredients once. His book was still closed, Harry rolling his eyes. He may have beaten the werewolf time-wise, but Draco was still definitely better at the class in general.

Slowly Slughorn walked around the classroom, checking everyone's potions while the students talked quietly. He walked over to Harry and Draco's desk, and immediately grinned. "Perfect! Both of them! Now, I only have one phial-"

"He can have it," Draco nodded towards Harry. "He finished first."

Harry was about to interject, but Slughorn looked more than happy to give him the phial of golden liquid.

What Harry could possibly need a small bottle of liquid luck for, he had no idea. Yet he pocketed it anyways. It might become useful at some point.