Hari and the rest of the Gryffindors quickly got into a routine over the next few weeks. Seamus, who had witnessed the whole scene with Draco storming out of the Great Hall, was thankfully much more amicable towards Hari and Draco afterwards. He was still a bit awkward, obviously guilty about his reaction, but had thankfully stopped glaring daggers their way. Hari even saw him joining Draco at one of the benches in Herbology sometimes.

Already halfway through October, Hari, Draco, Ron and Hermione were making their way towards Gryffindor tower after dinner one evening. Draco had been sulking most of the day after getting another angry letter from home, dragging his feet as he walked just behind his friends with his hands in his pockets. The others were trying to cheer him up, Ron even going so far as to get the twins to prank someone in front of him, but it had been no use all day.

Hari was so preoccupied with Draco's sulking that it took him a moment to notice the strange whimpering noise coming from around the corner. When he processed the sound, he froze. Ron, who had been bickering with Hermione about not doing his Potions homework, rammed right into the back of Hari, stumbling back.

"What are you—?" he began, staring at Hari incredulously.

Hari shushed the group, holding a finger up to his lips. "I heard something," he whispered, straining his ears and moving in the direction it came from. He perked up. There it was again. Someone down this corridor was definitely crying, sort of begging to someone.

"Is someone crying?" Ron murmured, following Hari down the corridor. He nodded, careful not to be heard as he moved towards the noise.

"Guys, come on. We have to get back to the common room," Hermione chastised, though she followed the rest of the group. Draco, still silent, followed along, eyebrows knitted.

The group moved silently along the corridor, huddled together, ears strained. The crying seemed to have stopped, but no one had come back down that hallway. They neared one of the doors, edging closer and closer. But then, suddenly, Hari felt a violent pain in his forehead, as though someone had suddenly hit him directly in the face.

He gasped, slapping a hand over his forehead and scrunching his face up in pain. "Ouch!" The other three turned to look at him, eyes wide.

"Hari? What's wrong?" Hermione asked, reaching out to touch his shoulder. Hari shrugged her away as the pain seemed to get worse the farther along they went.

And then, around the corner came a deafening scream. Ignoring the pain in his forehead, Hari began running in the direction the shout had come from. He could hear the others following behind him. A door slammed violently and the screaming seemed to get farther and farther away. They turned the corner and came across an empty hallway. Hari's head, thankfully, stopped hurting except for a faint prickle.

"Here, I think they came from this doorway," Ron said, moving towards the nearest door.

Draco grabbed his wrist. "Don't open it! What if there's something inside that made someone run away in terror?" he snapped, pulling Ron's wrist away.

"But someone was crying like someone was being mean. What if they're still in here!" Ron protested, brushing off Draco's grip and turning to open the door. When he tried, however, the door wouldn't budge. "It's locked!" Ron exclaimed.

"Oh, move it!” Hermione ordered, pushing Ron aside and pulling out her wand. She pointed it at the door handle and stated clearly, ”Alohamora." With a satisfying clicking noise, Hermione was able to open the door.

They stepped inside the room. And then they all stopped dead. Instead of a simple empty classroom or some bully, they were standing face to face with a massive three headed dog. All four of them screamed in unison as all three heads barked and snarled, spit flying in large puddles.

"RUN! GO!" Draco shrieked, throwing the door open and shoving everyone outside. He slammed the door shut behind him and all four of them sprinted back down the corridor, panting heavily and hearts racing with sheer terror. They did not stop running until they reached the portrait of the Pink Lady and Draco gasped out, "'Gernumbly!'" The portrait swung open and all four of them slid inside, hurrying into the common room.

Those still in the common room looked up in surprised at the four first years that had just come sprinting inside the common room, looking terrified. "Window seat—go—now," Draco panted, pointing at the empty seats next to the window that they often sat in. They ignored the stares as they moved towards the far corner of the room, dropping into seats and gasping for breath.

Once they had their breath back, they began whispering furiously, heads bent together.

"That was the forbidden corridor. How did I not notice?" Hari wondered incredulously, messing up his dark curls more than usual so they stuck up at the back.

"What in bloody hell is Dumbledore thinking, keeping something like that locked up in a school?" Ron blurted under his breath, looking incredibly unimpressed and red in the face.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Well obviously it's guarding something. Don't you two use your eyes?"

Ron and Hari shared a look, gaping at Draco. But Hermione butted in instead. "It was standing on a trap door. Draco's right. I think it's guarding something under that trap door." Draco nodded in agreement.

"How did you guys even see that? I was too busy focusing on, I dunno, its three heads?" Ron snapped, a little too loudly for comfort. The other three shushed him but no one else seemed to have been paying attention.

"I don't know, but I don't like the sound of this," Hari replied, remembering the horrible looking beast. His head prickled at the memory and he pressed his fingers to his head. He caught Draco following the movement. "I wonder why my scar started hurting right before it. That was really strange…"

"Your scar was hurting?" Draco's eyes widened.

"Yeah. When we came around that corner, just before that–that thing, my scar started hurting really badly."

The other three exchanged worried glances. Hari shifted uncomfortably in his seat, hating the way his friends were looking. He hated being worried about.

"Would you stop looking like that? I'm sure it was just a coincidence. Maybe… maybe it was just my head hurting from stress, but I thought it was my scar," Hari suggested, though even he could admit that it was unlikely. Hermione looked at him with a grimace.

"Maybe your scar can sense danger nearby. It could have been your scar sensing that thing nearby," she suggested, looking worried.

"Can curse scars do that?" Draco asked sceptically. "They can't be that sophisticated, can they?"

"What if it was You-Know-Who nearby, Hari?" Ron's voice was high and worried and he couldn't quite meet Hari's eyes. "I mean, You-Know-Who gave you that scar when he tried to-to kill you. Maybe there's a connection…"

Draco scoffed, shaking his head. "Don't be stupid, Ron. The Dark Lord is dead. Hari made sure of that when he was a baby," he snapped, rolling his eyes.

"But lots of people think he's not. What if Hari's scar can sense when You-Know-Who is nearby because he gave him that scar," Ron continued, adamantly ignoring Draco's retort. "We can't know for sure. Nobody's ever survived the Killing Curse, so anything could be true."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully, covering Draco's mouth with her hand to keep him from snapping at Ron again. "There's no use arguing about what Hari's scar hurting could mean until we know more," she said, glaring all three of the boys into silence. "I'll go look up curse scars in the library tomorrow, but for now we should all go to bed." She removed her hand from Draco's mouth and strided out of the common room, disappearing up the spiral staircase and leaving the three boys gaping after her.

"She's mental, that one," Ron remarked as they made their own way up to bed. Draco snorted and caught Hari's eye and they both laughed at Ron's comment and irritation at their friend. Hari shoved Draco, grinning and pushing inside the dormitory.

"One thing's for sure. She's the most likely to figure out what's up with my scar."

¤¤¤

Hermione, of course, spent the following weeks almost entirely in the library during free periods, scouring the shelves for books about curse scars. Ron often begrudgingly joined her, mostly in an effort to skive off doing his actual coursework along with his worries for Hari. Of course, seeing as Hari was the only known person to ever survive the killing curse, very few of the books could explain the scars acquired from the Killing Curse.

Meanwhile, Draco and Hari took interest in whatever the three headed dog was guarding. Even more so, after news came out that a vault in Gringotts had been unsuccessfully stolen due to the vault being emptied that very same day. Hari and Draco, who had gone down to the vaults with Minerva that same day, saw her collecting a small parcel that she refused to tell them the contents of.

However, the foursome's excitement and curiosity surrounding curse scars and trap doors and three headed dogs was swiftly trumped by Halloween.

Hari, who spent last year's Halloween festivities with Remus, visiting his parents' graves, hadn't been to one of the famous Halloween feasts in almost two years. He spent the days leading up to the holiday telling his friends repeatedly about what sort of food or treats or surprises they might expect.

On Halloween morning, the Gryffindors' first lesson of the day was Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. Hari was reasonably good at the subject, having spent a good portion of his early childhood following Pomona Sprout around, asking endless questions about the plants she showed him. He also generally enjoyed most of the Hufflepuffs in the class, chatting with them while they potted plants and gossiping about different things.

The one Hufflepuff Hari couldn't stand, however, was Zacharias Smith. A selfish, cynical boy, he never failed to speak his mind about what he thought of the other students, casting jeering looks at people he disliked. This often fell onto Hari's friends, particularly Draco.

Draco, who was getting almost weekly letters from his father and had rarely heard from his mother at all since joining the school, had spent the better part of the night before Halloween ranting about his father after getting another rude letter. Seamus gladly set it on fire for him, but it did little to ease his discomfort and resentment. As it was, Draco was still sore by the next morning.

Hari and Draco were partnered up for trying to destroy a spiky bush and were, much to Draco' distaste, next to Smith and one of his other Hufflepuff friends. Hari strategically tried to place himself between the two boys, talking to Draco endlessly about Quidditch in the hope that he would be distracted enough by Hari and the spiky bush to hear Smith's incessant talking.

"You know, I think this school has really gone to the dogs, now," Smith was telling his friend loudly, eyeing Hari and Draco trying to light the bush on fire to avoid getting spiked. "I mean, letting such dark people in in the first place was enough of a disgrace, but to sort them into Gryffindor of all houses?"

Draco, who had been raising his wand to cast Incendio on the bush, froze. Hari made eye contact with Ron standing across from him, both having heard Smith as well.

"Who do they think they're kidding? Death Eater's children having free reign around Hogwarts?"

Distracted by Smith, Hari stepped too close to the spiky bush and felt a sharp sting in his cheek as one of its large, pointy needles pierced his cheek. By the time he and Draco managed to blast the bush with fire and unstick the needle from Hari's face, class was finishing and Smith was packing up to go.

The foursome started on their way up to their next class, Hari rubbing his cut cheek where the spike had caught him.

"Smith is such an irritating sod. Everything he says is just nonsense," Ron was muttering to Hari as they climbed the steps in front of Hermione and Draco. Hari rolled his eyes and agreed.

"I seriously don't see why Potter befriended him. I mean, his parents are dead because of Malfoy's family." Smith's voice carried once again over to the group, apparently still going on his tirade against Draco. "Honestly! He's just another future Death Eater in the making."

Draco stiffened at the comment, going extremely pale all over, as though he'd suddenly become a ghost. Before Hari, Ron or Hermione could react, Draco stormed away up to the castle, scowling. Hari spun around to glare at Smith. "I hope you're happy, Smith," he snapped, grabbing Ron and Hermione's arms and dragging them the rest of the way to class.

Draco didn't show up for the rest of the lessons. Hari spent his lessons staring morosely at the empty seats normally occupied by Draco, as if staring intensely enough might summon him back. But in every class, Draco still didn't show up. By the time they were making their way to the Halloween feast, surrounded by excited chatter about the feast, Draco still hadn't made another entrance and Hari was far from having any appetite that evening.

Shortly through the feast, while Hari, Ron, Hermione and Neville were discussing Draco's continued absence, Seamus told Dean, "I saw Draco in the boys' toilets. He's refusing to come out because of that Smith bloke in Hufflepuff." At Seamus' announcement, Hari raised his eyebrows in shock.

Before he could comment on it, however, the doors to the Great Hall burst open and in ran Professor Quirrel, looking terrified. "TROLL! Troll in the dungeons!" he cried, stopping just in front of the staff table. "Thought you'd ought to know." And then he fainted.

All hell broke loose in the Great Hall as every student began panicking about the prospect of coming face to face with a troll. People were getting up from their seats and screaming and shouting before Dumbledore called them to order and told the Prefects to get everyone safely to their common rooms. They joined the crowd following Percy towards Gryffindor Tower before Hari was suddenly struck with a realisation.

He froze, grabbing Hermione and Ron. "Draco! He won't know about the troll if he's still in the toilets! We have to go help him!" he cried, getting jostled slightly as people went past in a hurry.

"But it's a troll, Hari!" Hermione cried anxiously, "What if we run into it? We can't exactly defeat one!"

"Neither can Draco, Hermione. And he's all alone."

Hermione chewed on her lips, eyebrows furrowed. Ron cut in, "Hermione, why don't you go get a teacher and then Hari and I can go and tell Draco. That way we'll have backup."

Agreeing to the plan, Hari and Ron split off from Hermione and hurried along towards the boys' lavatory. As they jogged down the corridor, a horrible stench filled the air and a strange dragging sound echoed down the stone hallway. "It's in the boys' toilets!" Hari exclaimed, grabbing Ron's hand and pulling him towards the toilets at a heavy sprint, footsteps slapping loudly on the ground.

"Draco?" Hari called, stepping towards the door. The stench was even stronger in there, making Hari's eyes water from the foul, rotten egg scent in the air. A loud, boyish yelp sounded, followed by a crash and Hari and Ron burst into the toilet.

Just in time, they saw a massive ugly grey troll raising a large wooden club in the air, smashing it into one of the stalls. Draco shouted out once again, somewhere in one of the stalls. "Draco!" Hari called again, this time alerting the troll to their presence.

The troll turned its head slowly towards the new sound, zeroing in on Hari and Ron. It took a few steps towards them, dragging its club on the ground and groaning slightly. Draco appeared out from under one of the destroyed stalls, crouching down and face scrunched up in fear. Acting instinctively, Hari raised his wand in the air, preparing to cast a spell, but then the troll suddenly reached out and grabbed him. Hari's wand fell to the floor as he felt himself getting unceremoniously upended.

The next events occurred rapidly. The troll raised its club in the air, ready to strike, Ron raised his wand to cast a spell and then the door to the toilet burst open to reveal Minerva, followed by Severus, Quirrel and Hermione. Minerva and Severus both hit the troll with powerful Stunning spells, Minerva caught Hari before he got crushed by the falling troll and Severus grabbed Draco by the hand and pulled him to safety.

Panting heavily and supporting a sore head from being battered by the troll, Hari stumbled against Minerva as they all stood staring at the unconscious troll. Draco was cowering slightly in the doorway while Ron stood frozen, arm slack with his wand in his hand.

"What on Earth happened here? How did you three manage this?!" Minerva exclaimed, glowering at Hari, Ron and Draco. "Miss Granger came to inform me that she was worried the troll might get to Mr. Malfoy in the toilets and the next thing I know, you seem to be trying to fight it! I thought I raised you better than this!"

Hari's face burned violently, stomach dropping to the floor. "We weren't trying to fight it! We were—"

Draco cut him off, stepping forwards, head held high. "It was my fault, ma'am. They were just trying to get me before the troll because I was too cowardly to get to safety," Draco stated, voice steady and gaze unwavering on Minerva. She blinked.

"And what were you doing in the toilets when there was a troll on the loose?"

"I didn't know about the troll until it got to me. I've been in here all day."

Hari interrupted once again. "Zacharias Smith was being a prick about his dad all Herbology class," he blurted.

"Is this true?" Minerva asked Draco, raising an eyebrow. She looked strangely unsurprised.

Draco hung his head, nodding. "Yes, ma'am. I—I got another angry letter from my father yesterday and then today Smith accused me of being a 'future Death Eater' and I couldn't face it." Hari thought he saw something wet fall onto the floor from under Draco and felt a strong urge to reach out to him. He stayed still however, glancing at the teachers' reactions.

Severus' lips curled and a muscle twitched somewhere in his cheek and Minerva's eyes were as fiery as Hari had ever seen them. Quirrel, however, was still staring at the unconscious mountain troll in terror. Hari watched as he stared at Severus, eyes falling to his robes. Only then did Hari notice a large gash in Severus' calf. Quirrel turned away from the troll finally, head turned away from Hari and he felt the same painful searing in his scar.

Unbeknownst to Quirrel or Hari, the others continued their conversation. "You spent the whole day in the toilets because of a student's ignorant comments about you?" Severus asked. Draco flushed and nodded. "Don't listen to him, then. The opinions of others do not matter. All that matters is what you do and feel and clearly you are not your father, so it would be foolish to assume you were."

"As it stands, we still have a bit of a problem here," Minerva pointed out. "Smith's comments were simply out of line and he should be punished for it." She turned to Draco, gaze softening slightly. "We do not tolerate that here, Draco. Whatever the importance of his thoughts, clearly they had an impact and I will speak to Professor Sprout about dealing with this."

Hari was still watching Quirrell, holding a subtle hand to his aching forehead. Could it be related to Severus? What if he was attacked by that vicious three headed dog? But what would he be doing there? And why did Quirrell look so terrified?

"Well, I believe it is high time you four made your way to bed," Minerva announced, shooing the four students out of the toilets finally and towards Gryffindor tower. "I will take them, Severus. You should get that looked at." She eyed Severus' injured leg and began leading them down the hall.

Hari threw one last suspicious look over his shoulder at Quirrel, Severus and the troll and then turned back to the front. The five of them walked all the way up to Gryffindor Tower in complete silence, Hari practically itching to comfort Draco. He looked utterly exhausted and miserable, dragging his feet as he made his way to bed with the others.

Minerva gave Hari a meaningful look as she left them at the opening portrait hole and they stepped inside the common room.

They said good night to Hermione and walked up the long staircase to bed. Seamus, Neville and Dean were already fast asleep in bed. Ron threw off his robes and got into bed without his pyjamas, disappearing behind the curtains. Hari snorted and got ready for bed as well, mind reeling from the events of the last few hours.

Hari was struggling to fall asleep, twisting and turning, mind racing with images of the troll and Severus' bleeding leg and Quirrell's face and his aching scar and Draco.

He was just starting to fall asleep when he heard footsteps next to his bed and the curtains around him moved aside to reveal the very same blond that was plaguing his thoughts.

Draco's shoulders were hunched, head hanging and cheeks noticeably wet even in the darkness. "Can I sleep here tonight? I couldn't sleep…" he asked, barely a whisper. One of his hands was clutching the drape tightly in a balled up fist, trembling slightly. He sniffled.

Hari rolled over and lifted the corner of his duvet up to allow Draco to climb in beside him. He pulled the blankets up to his chin, so close to Hari he could feel the heat radiating off of him like a furnace. The entire bed shook with the force of Draco's crying and Hari moved to wrap an arm around the other boy's shoulders, letting him cry silently into the fabric of his pyjamas until he eventually calmed down, but made no move to leave.

Both boys fell asleep soon after Draco stopped crying, wrapped up under the warm duvet covers and listening to the soft white noise of Neville's muffled snores a few beds away.