"Does anyone remember how the Transfiguration formula works?" Ron asked one evening in November, dropping onto the seat next to Draco and plopping his parchment and textbooks on the table. Hari, Draco and Hermione were busy charting that night's sky for Astronomy homework.

"Oh, Ron. We've gone over it loads of times now," Hermione complained, though she carefully shifted her chair around the table to sit closer to Ron and began explaining it to him once more.

Hari and Draco exchanged knowing looks across the table, muffling their laughter. Hermione shit them both a glare, eyebrows furrowed, which only added to the effect of making them laugh. Hermione huffed, throwing a crumpled ball of paper at Hari's head while Ron remained unaware of the exchanges as he scowled at his paper.

Hari glanced at the workings scribbled on Ron's paper. "You know, the unknown variable that impacts the transformation is represented as Z and not X, Hermione," Hari pointed out, jabbing the additions Hermione had made to Ron's paper in her neat writing.

Hermione stared at him, blinking. She glanced at Ron's paper and back at Hari, looking confused. It wasn't a look often seen on her face. "What do you mean? It's X, Hari. Why would it be Z?" she remarked stiffly, gripping tightly to her quill.

Hari shook his head. "No, it's Z. I remember Minnie saying so on multiple occasions," Hari insisted, reaching into his bag to pull out his own homework and laying it out on the table. Hermione picked it up, eyes roving over the paper rapidly.

"I hate to contradict you, Hermione, but Hari's right. For once," said Draco, throwing a grin Hari's way.

Hermione only relented her insistence when Draco showed her both his own work and the Transfiguration textbook that proved her wrong. She spent the rest of her explanation to Ron with clenched teeth and frequent glares at Hari and Draco's direction. Eventually, they left Hermione and Ron at their usual table and moved over to the free seats next to the fire for a game of Exploding Snap.

"Oh, come on, Potter! Really?!" Draco exclaimed after Hari beat Draco yet another time. Hermione and Ron had yet to join them several hours later, still going over homework Ron had no doubt put off to the very last minute.

Hari laughed, reshuffling the cards again. "I'm not doing it on purpose! I don't control the explosions." Hari began passing out the cards between them for another round, but Draco covered his hand with his own, shaking his head.

"I'm sick of this game. You must be cheating," Draco announced, flopping back against the couch and tilting his head up towards the ceiling, eyes shut. He tilted his head, facing Ron and Hermione bent together at the table across the room, bickering again. "I don't understand them at all. They're always arguing about something."

Hari glanced over his shoulder at their arguing friends. "I dunno. That's just how they communicate, isn't it? They can never talk without arguing," Hari replied, sitting back on the couch as well and mirroring Draco's movements.

"What was that Muggle series you were telling me about the other day?" Draco asked, leaning his back against the arm rest and pulling his knees up to his chest. "The one with the creepy evil stuff and the monsters."

"Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark?"

"Yeah, that one. I want to read it," Draco stated. Hari snorted. "What? I do! It sounded funny!"

"Alright, I'll give you one when we get upstairs, is that good or do you need it right now?" Hari teased, leaning over and poking Draco in the side. He squirmed, slapping Hari's wrist. Hari grinned mischievously. "Are you ticklish, Malfoy?"

"Don't you dare."

Hari pounced. Draco yelped as Hari dug his fingers into his sides, pinning him to the side of the couch with his knee as he prodded and tickled all over. Heads turned towards the two boys wrestling and shrieking on the couch, Hari's glasses crooked from Draco swatting him away. Hari ignored the looks, digging his fingers tighter in Draco's side until they both toppled unceremoniously onto the carpet. Draco's head nearly slammed into the stone hearth until Hari's hand reached instinctively to keep him from hitting the stone.

Heaving and wheezing with dying laughter, Hari rolled off of Draco and onto the carpet beside him. They stayed like this, lying side by side on the ground, washed over with the heat of the roaring fire. One of Hari's arms was draped slightly over Draco's stomach from the tickling incident and he kept it there, eyes shut in continuing laughter.

"What are you doing?" Hermione's voice came from above them. Hari cracked an eye open to find Hermione and Ron standing over them, Ron looking amused and Hermione fuming. Her arms were crossed and her eyebrows were furrowed, bushy hair falling into her face.

"Potter is assaulting me, can't you see?" Draco said beside Hari, smirking. Hari elbowed him roughly in the side. "See? His violence is inescapable!"

"I was tickling you,

Hari retorted with a grin.

Hermione groaned and stamped her foot on the carpet. "No, what you were doing was distracting everyone with your screaming! Some people are trying to do their work, you know!" Hermione jabbed her finger at both Hari and Draco, huffing when she was met with more laughter.

"Work that you got wrong, you mean?" Draco wiggled his eyebrows, sneering teasingly.

Ron snorted, earning a fierce look from Hermione. "Fine. I'll just be going to bed then! See if you fail for all I care!" she exclaimed. She packed up her school work from the table and disappeared up to the girls' dormitories, footsteps echoing all the way down into the common room.

Once she was gone, Hari, Ron and Draco burst into fits of laughter. Ron fell onto the couch, clutching his stomach while Hari accidentally rammed his head into the bottom corner of the fireplace. Draco sat up on the carpet, laughing into a cushion, pale face bright red with continued laughter. They ignored the glances and glares from the others left in the common room, too absorbed in their childish giggles.

¤¤¤

Breakfast a few nights later, Hari, Ron, Draco and Hermione were in the midst of guessing the contents of the mysterious package Minerva collected when the owl post came in. Draco had already taken to tearing up his letters before even reading them and the others paid no attention to the owls coming in. Most of the people that could write to Hari were already in that very room and if Remus had anything important to say, he would usually speak to him in the fireplaces.

However, they were startled to see none other than Hedwig landing next to Hari's plate of toast, holding out a rolled up bit of parchment tied to her leg. Hari gave her a nibble of one of his bits of toast as Hermione removed the letter from her ankle and handed it to Hari. The letter was written in Hagrid's familiar messy scrawl, the edges faintly burnt:

Hari,

It's been too long since I last saw you. Why don't you bring your friends down to my hut for a cuppa this afternoon?

Hagrid.

Hari grinned and read out the letter again to the others, searching for Hagrid at the staff table. When he caught Hagrid's eye, he gave him a thumbs up over his head and grinned.

As soon as they finished their last class of the day, Hari dragged Hermione, Ron and Draco with him down the hill towards Hagrid's hut. Draco was complaining about having his sleeve set on fire during potions after Seamus Finnigan's cauldron exploded beside him again. Ron still hadn't stopped laughing, teasing Draco for his rather impressively high-pitched scream when it happened.

Hari knocked on the door. He heard Fang's familiar bark inside and then Hagrid's shaggy head appeared in the doorway, grinning. "Good ter see yeh, Hari! Thought you'd forgot me!" Hagrid said, opening the door to allow the foursome enter the hut behind him.

Hari sat down in his usual seat around the table while the others joined him and Hagrid made a pot of tea. "We could never forget you, Hagrid! We've just been really busy with school work and I wasn't sure if you were too busy as well," Hari replied as Hagrid passed them all mugs of tea. "Cheers, Hagrid. I've seen you doing stuff out the window of our common room all the time."

Hagrid swatted his hand. "Ah, that's nothin'. Why don't you four tell me about classes?"

Of course, Draco took over the first few minutes to complain about his burnt sleeve, but was quickly interrupted by the other three. Hermione told him all about the most fascinating textbooks she found in the library and Ron talked about the upcoming Gryffindor versus Slytherin quidditch match and Hari complained about Smith hexing him under the table during Herbology after getting detention from Minerva.

"Well, it sounds like you four've been keepin' yerselves busy! No wonder," Hagrid replied after Draco and Hari finished recounting an incident involving Mrs. Norris getting her tail transformed into a tentacle by someone. "What else? Anything not related ter classes?"

"Oh, yes. We've been trying to find out what was in the package Minerva collected at Gringotts the day someone stole it," Hari replied casually, finishing the last of his tea. Hagrid choked on his own drink, spraying the table with tea.

"Yeh're what?!"

"We want to know what that huge three headed dog is guarding," Draco replied.

"How do you know about Fluffy?" Hagrid sputtered, struggling for words.

Draco shrugged. "We ran into him," he replied shortly. "And what kind of name is *Fluffy?* You named that giant fanged monster Fluffy?"

Hagrid slammed his mug on the table with a thud, shattering the cup and splashing more tea all over the table. Hermione jumped away from the splash, but Ron got his lap drenched in the stuff. "You four have no business going anywhere near that dog, yeh hear? What Fluffy is guarding is between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel!" Hagrid froze in his rant. The four eleven year olds, meanwhile, exchanged wide eyed grins. "Forget I said anything! I shouldn't've said tha'. Blimey, Dumbledore will have my head…"

"Who's Nicolas Flamel, Hagrid?" Ron asked, shifting in his seat.

"None of your business!" Hagrid bellowed, getting up from his seat. "Right, yeh've all finished tea, now get back to the school before it gets dark out." He shooed all four of them out of their seats and outside the hut. "And I don't want to hear any mention of Nicolas Flamel from any of you four, yeh hear?"

They agreed with nods before setting off back to the castle together. Once out of earshot, Draco muttered to the other three, "Yeah, he won't be hearing any mentions of Nicolas Flamel from us, but that's because we won't mention him in front of Hagrid." The other three snickered, still making for the castle together.

One thing was for sure, they wouldn't be listening to Hagrid's advice to stay out of it.

¤¤¤

Naturally, none of the four Gryffindors took Hagrid's advice. In the coming weeks, they spent much of their free time looking up Nicolas Flamel in the library. But no matter how many books they went through, none of them had found any mentions of Nicolas Flamel. By the time winter holidays were rolling around, they still hadn't even scratched the surface yet.

Late one night, a few days before the break was coming up, Hari was sitting up in bed, thumbing through a copy of The Greatest Magical Discoveries of the Century by wand light while Draco was in the next bed over, feet up on his wall. He was reading through one of Hari's books and whispering frequent commentary across the gap in their beds.

"Honestly, the things they come out with. You'd think they never actually met a ghost," Draco muttered now, rolling his eyes. He read out a passage in the book to Hari in a mocking tone, scoffing between sentences and trying to catch Hari's reactions over the top of his book.

"Draco, I very much doubt they have seen a ghost. Pretty sure they tend to avoid Muggles as much as they can," Hari replied once Draco had finished his read through.

"Can you two please stop talking so loud? Some of us would like to actually sleep." Seamus' voice came from behind one of the other curtains. Hari and Draco both muttered apologies.

Hari was just moving onto another section of the book when he heard footsteps beside him. Draco was standing next to the bed, clutching his book. "Budge over. We can talk easier this way," he whispered, pushing Hari's shoulder with his hand. Hari rolled his eyes but scooted over to let Draco clamber in under the covers, shoulders pressed together in the bed. Draco closed the curtains on either side to block their voices out further. "Any more leads?" he asked, peering over Hari's shoulder at the book in his lap.

Hari shook his head. "Nothing at all. He doesn't seem to be in this book either," he replied sadly.

"He's bound to be somewhere. I mean, why else would Dumbledore be guarding something with that ferocious beast?"

Hari huffed in frustration, shutting the book with a slam. Draco raised an eyebrow, smirking, watching Hari place the book down on the floor and fold his arms. Draco bumped their shoulders together, huffing a laugh. "Don't pout. You'll get wrinkles," he said, poking Hari's cheek.

Hari swatted his hand away, scowling deeper. They sat in silence for a few minutes like this, shoulder to shoulder, just enjoying each other's company. Neville's snores, as usual, created a sort of buzzing ambiance across the room.

"Are you staying here for the holidays?" Draco asked after a while.

Hari nodded. "Yeah. Minnie signed up to stay, so I'm just gonna stay as well," he replied. The air turned colder and awkward suddenly. Hari cleared his throat. "Are you, er, staying here?"

Draco glanced to the side, cheeks pink. After a moment, he nodded silently, fiddling with the pages of his book in his lap. "I doubt they'd want me staying more than necessary, really," Draco replied shyly.

"They don't know what they're missing out on, then," Hari said, giving Draco a small smile. It probably looked more like a grimace.

"I wish I didn't have to face them in the summer. They hate me."

"I'm sure Minnie'll let you stay with us for at least a few weeks in the summer." Hari bumped their shoulders again. "Or maybe Severus?"

Draco scoffed at his next suggestion. "As if my family would let that happen. Severus might be my Godfather, but my family wouldn't possibly let me stay with him." He frowned, scrunching his face slightly and ripping one of the pages slightly. He shook his head, eyes closed and turning away from Hari. He could tell Draco was trying to hide his tears. "I just wish Mother would write to me. She hasn't even… she hasn't even said anything since I left for Hogwarts. Nothing. I miss seeing her handwriting. It was like an extension of herself and now it's like she's—gone." Draco's voice cracked on the last word, tears beginning to fall quickly down his face.

He buried his face in his hands, hunched over, shoulders shaking. Without even thinking, Hari wrapped both of his arms around the other boy and pulled him closer, letting him cry into his shoulder and soak his t-shirt. He didn't say anything, just shushing him quietly and rubbing his hand up and down his back while he trembled. Hari's heart ached tenfold like this, wishing he could just do something to help alleviate his pain.

Draco pulled away a few minutes later, sniffling and puffy eyed. He wiped his face on the sleeve of his pyjamas. "Sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"It's fine, Draco. I just wish there was something I could do."

Draco smiled softly, eyes still glassy. "You're here at least. That's something," he muttered, dropping his head onto Hari's shoulder. "I feel silly crying."

"Everybody does. But you're not silly."

Draco hummed thoughtfully. Hari could feel the vibration against his shoulder. "Perhaps. It's just gross being covered in tears and the rest of that," Draco said, wincing. Hari laughed, nearly banging his head on the wall behind.

"Yeah, I guess it is a bit. Just don't go wiping it all on me." Hari elbowed Draco lightly in the side, grinning mischievously.

"What? Are you saying you're not my own personal tissue then?"

Hari retched dramatically and pushed Draco away from him. "Ew. You're like the troll from Halloween with how gross you are." Draco gasped, clutching the front of his shirt in offence. He slapped Hari's arm, pouting. "Don't pout or you'll get wrinkles," he mocked.

"You're mean," Draco said as he scooted lower down in the bed and yawned.

"Yeah? Well, so are you." Hari scooted down as well, turning off the light and turning onto his side away from Draco. Draco turned over as well, back almost against Hari's as they both fell asleep to the sounds of each other breathing softly.