Too Important To Die

                After classes that day, Harry waited impatiently with Hermione in the Gryffindor Common Room for Malfoy's owl to arrive. At first, Hermione had been extremely skeptical about the blond, but she said she trusted Harry's judgement. Besides, she was one of the few who knew about his magical abilities and therefore knew that Harry would be able to defend himself just fine if it came to that.

       Normally, Hermione would be doing her homework and studying in the library, but Harry knew she was worried about what Ron would do once he found Harry to be alone. Harry had scoffed at the idea of Ron trying to hurt him, but a part of him knew that her worries weren't completely off whenever he looked at the red head and saw the furious looks he would get.

       Currently, Harry was rapping his fingers against his homework and no doubt annoying Hermione to death. Suddenly, a beautiful barn owl swooped into the room and landed on Harry's outstretched hand. Harry was surprised to find out that the letter was from Malfoy, only because he had expected the blonde to have a more majestic owl. Harry liked the barn owl, however, and quickly gave her a few treats.

"Well, aren't you beautiful..." Harry said absently as he unrolled the parchment. The owl hooted happily and then took off again, obviously not needing a reply.

'Potter,

Meet me outside of the Slytherin Common Room after curfew.

-DM'

"Outside of Slytherin?" Hermione asked, having read the letter over his shoulder, "He wants you to go to their Common Room?"

"I guess so..." Harry said, trying to figure out what this could possibly be about.

"Maybe you shouldn't go, Harry..." Hermione said slowly, worry evident in her tone, "Maybe it's not such a good idea..."

"I'll be fine, 'Mione... I always am"

"I know..." she sighed, "I just worry."

"I know." He said with a smile, giving her a hug in appreciation for her caring about him so much.

"You should finish your homework now, you only have a few hours before you're to meet him," Hermione said as she sat back down in her seat.

       Harry groaned, realizing there was no getting out of the homework. He looked around the room and noticed Ron glaring at him intensely. He must have seen me hug Hermione... he thought, Now he's going to be even angrier... Harry decided to forget about it and just finish his homework like 'Mione had told him to as he waited for curfew.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

       Finally, it was past curfew and Harry quickly rushed to his room to put all of his school work away and grab his invisibility cloak. He double checked that his wand was in his pocket and then headed out the portrait hole, oddly excited to meet up with Malfoy.

       When he got there, Malfoy wasn't in sight, so he observed the portrait of a snake that was obviously the entrance to the Common Room. He was going to ignore it when the snake started moving, flicking its tongue out and turned to face him head on.

'I can ssmell you; show yoursself.' It hissed.

       Harry took off his invisibility cloak before answering, 'Ssorry, I am waiting for ssomeone to meet me here, I did not mean to ssneak around'

'You sspeak parsseltongue?' the snake asked incredulously, 'Why are you not in my house, young Sspeaker?'

'I was supposed to be, but I had no knowledge of the Houses and someone from Slytherin had insulted my friends, so I chose not to be put here.' Harry said. 

'Do you wish you had chosen Sslytherin now?' the snake asked curiously.

       Harry thought about it for a long while, wanting to give an honest answer, 'I'm not entirely sure; I'm not sure if my life would have been easier or not in Slytherin... It's sort of complicated.'

'What iss your name, young sspeaker?' the snake asked, eyeing him intensely.

'Harry Potter'

'The Harry Potter? Suppossed to have been in Sslytherin? Now I see why it iss complicated...' The snake mused.

'And what, may I ask, is your name?' Harry asked politely.

'My name, young speaker, is Serpens.'

'Rather fitting,' Harry said.

'Yess, I do believe it iss.' Serpens said with a small hiss-like laugh. 'Do you need in?'

'But... I'm not a Sslytherin and I do not know the password.' Harry said, surprised.

'Ah, but you are a sspeaker who was meant to be in Sslytherin, so I will grant you access when you wish.'

'But I'm in Gryffindor... They have alwayss hated Slytherinss... How do you know I'm not going to hurt them if you let me in?' Harry asked, confused as to why Serpens trusted him so much.

'Young speaker, the fact that you just said they instead of we proves to me that you sshall be able to get over thiss feud ssoon enough. Bessides, are you not here to meet one of my sstudents?' Serpens replied confidently.

'Well, yess... But we have been enemies for yearss...'

'And yet, here you are about to have a friendly meeting with him.'

'I supposse you are correct...' Harry replied, unable to say differently.

'Of coursse I am correct... I feel as though you will do great thingss, young sspeaker... Perhapss it'ss time you became a Sslytherin and sstopped pretending to be a Gryffindor...'

       Harry thought about it for a while, before the portrait door swung open, showing Malfoy to finally have decided to come out and meet him.

"Oh, Potter! Sorry I'm late, I had to break up a fight between Blaise and Pansy again." The blond said easily, rolling his eyes at the mention of Zabini and Parkinson.

"It's no problem, Malfoy, I was just speaking with Serpens," Harry replied.

"Serpens? Who's that?" Malfoy asked, confused.

       Harry rolled his eyes before he closed the portrait hole in order to show Malfoy the portrait of Serpens. "That is Serpens, of course. Honestly, how do you not know the name of the snake which guards your Common Room?" Harry questioned with a roll of the eyes.

'He doess not undersstand uss, of coursse.' Serpens explained before Malfoy could say anything.

       It was obvious that Malfoy was going to ask what Serpens was saying, but Harry stopped him by answering the snake, 'Right... I forgot about that.'

"I forgot you could speak to snakes, Potter," Malfoy said, a glint in his eyes. "Well, are you ready to go?"

"There's just one last thing I must say to Serpens," Harry said to Draco before switching into Parseltongue easily. 'Serpens, switching Houses is not an easy thing and I have friends in Gryffindor and only one of them would switch with me, so I must, unfortunately, stay with Gryffindor.'

       The snake bowed its head slightly while he responded, 'Of coursse I understand, young Sspeaker... But know that the offer sstill standss and that you may sstill enter without a password if you sso dessire.'

'Thank you Serpens, I sshall keep that in mind.' Harry responded, bowing completely before turning back to the blond beside him who looked thoroughly confused and awed at the same time.

"That was pretty brilliant..." Malfoy complimented.

"Thanks. So where are we going?" he asked.

"Oh, into Slytherin of course, you will be coming with me to my room."

"Why?" Harry asked skeptically.

"Because it is the most private place I know of," Malfoy responded simply. "Look, I can't give you the password until I know I can trust you, so I'm going to put up a silencing charm around me so you can't hear it, alright?"

       Harry couldn't help but laugh lightly at that. "There's no need, Malfoy, Serpens already assured me that I don't need a password to get in, that he'd just let me in if I asked."

"What? But-What? I don't believe you." Malfoy said incredulously.

       The look on the blonde's face was priceless, making Harry laugh even more. He hissed to Serpens to please open the door for him and Malfoy, which only proceeded to make Malfoy look even funnier when the portrait swung open to admit them both. The two of them walked into the Slytherin Common Room, Harry doubled over in laughter and Malfoy smiling slightly with an awed expression on his face.

"Only you, Potter, only you!" Malfoy laughed.

       Finally, both boys calmed down enough to look around the Common Room. They found plenty of confused and incredulous faces looking back at them, obviously not having expected Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy to be laughing with each other rather than at each other.

       Malfoy led Harry towards the stairs, ignoring the stares from the other Slytherins, "So how did you manage that, Potter?"

"I have a way with snakes," He said with a laugh, watching as Malfoy rolled his eyes at him in response.

       They made their way up the stairs until they were at the very top, where he then followed the blond into a room the same size as the one he shared with five other boys. The main difference was that the colour scheme was in greys and greens and that there was only one bed in the room, rather than multiple. The room had a decent sized fireplace with a rug in front of it and a couch and a few chairs settled around it. There was also a door on the wall opposite the sitting area that no doubt led to a bathroom. Straight across from the door they had entered was a desk with shelves on either side of it. As Harry ventured further into the room, he noticed that there were various potions ingredients on the left shelves and books on the right ones.

"How did you manage this?" Harry asked.

"They had a bunch of extra rooms since there aren't as many people in Slytherin, so I was lucky enough to have gotten a room to myself," Malfoy explained simply.

"Merlin, I wish I had gotten a room to myself..." he mused.

"Really?" the blond asked, sounding surprised, "I would have thought that, being a Gryffindor and all, you would enjoy rooming with your friends..."

"Well, it's great and all for the first few days, but it gets old quickly. I enjoy solitude more."

"Hmm... sure you're not a Slytherin, Potter?" Malfoy asked with a laugh.

       Harry smiled to himself, thinking of the reaction he would get out of the blond if Malfoy knew the truth.

"I never said I wasn't," he said, smirking when Malfoy became confused.

"What-"

"So, why am I here?" Harry cut him off.

"Oh, right... Have a seat, Potter." Malfoy said, taking one of the seats next to the fire. Harry then took the one opposite to him and waited for the blond to begin, "Well, as I've already told you, I know you didn't put your name in the Goblet of Fire."

"Right, and how exactly do you know that? Even Ron couldn't tell." He asked curiously.

"It was quite obvious to anyone who was paying attention. You looked petrified and confused. Not even I could have faked such a reaction so well."

"Alright... So what does you believing me have to do with me being here?"

       He watched curiously as the blonde started to shift uneasily in his seat, obviously uncomfortable saying his next words for some reason, "Well... Look, Potter, believe it or not, us Slytherins don't hate you and worship the Dark Lord... And... Oh, forget it..."

       Harry studied the other boy intensely before realizing that Malfoy was telling the truth, "Keep going, Malfoy; I believe you." He said simply, causing the blond to look up with confusion in his eyes.

"Why? Why do you believe me?" Malfoy asked doubtfully.

"For the same reason as to why you believed me, I suppose." Harry said, "Continue with what you were saying."

"Al-alright... Well, we figure that you will not be welcomed so much in Gryffindor now and we realize that you will need some allies if you are going to succeed in this Tournament."

"And the Slytherins want to be my allies?" Harry questioned.

"Well, yes."

"But... why?" He speculated.

       He watched as Malfoy rolled his eyes at him. "Oh please, Potter, you are much too important to die. If you were to die, then the Dark Lord would take over and we'd all be screwed."

"Ah, I see now. Self-preservation. I should have known." Harry replied with a smirk.

"Well of course... We are Slytherins after all." Malfoy responded with a matching smirk.

"So what is it that you and the Slytherins wanted to happen out of all of this?" he questioned.

"We want a truce. We want you to know that we are on your side and that you can come to us for help, just as we can come to you for help." Malfoy said in all seriousness.

       Harry sat and thought about it for a few minutes. He knew that he would get a lot of hate from the other Houses for creating this truce between him and the Slytherins, but he also knew that he may need their help for the Tournament since he couldn't very well ask Hermione to do all the research for him. Plus, he knew it would be a good idea to have people on his side who had no qualms about breaking school rules...

       As he thought, he noticed that Malfoy was getting more and more restless. It was obvious to Harry that the blond didn't expect him to accept the truce. He probably expects me to blow up at him and decline the truce completely and then tell the whole school about it the next day... It's not like I probably wouldn't have done it before all of this happened... Harry decided that he didn't need to think about it much longer, so he instead decided to put Malfoy out of his misery and give him an answer.

"Alright, I accept your truce," Harry said, holding his hand out to have the blond shake it.

"Really?" Malfoy said, looking at the offered hand incredulously. "You do realize that any of us would be able to ask you for help, right?"

"I know, as long as it doesn't endanger other people, I'd be happy to help," Harry said with a small smile.

"Alright then," Malfoy said, smiling back brightly, before shaking the offered hand.

       Both boys then stood up and began walking back down the stairs towards the Common Room. He was surprised to find that all of Slytherin were waiting for them there, apparently wondering how it had gone. Zabini was the first to speak as he obviously saw that they weren't at each other's throats.

"So, Potter, you accepted the truce, then?" Zabini asked bluntly.

"Yes, I did." He responded simply, nodding towards the other students there as well as Zabini.

"And Draco told you about helping us out?" Parkinson pitched in.

"Of course he did and I agreed to that as well." He said, shocking the other students. He sighed before saying, "Look, I have come to an understanding about all of you and so I am willing to help, especially since I know I may very well be needing your assistance with the Tournament."

"Of course we'll help" Parkinson and Malfoy said together, flashing each other a quick glare.

"Okay, well I'm going to bed now. Keep in touch, Malfoy." Harry said with a smile.

       He received a smile in return from the blond and couldn't help but notice that Parkinson glared menacingly at Malfoy for whatever reason. He shrugged it off, however, when he couldn't come up with an answer and quickly hid under his invisibility cloak before leaving the room, closing the portrait hole behind him.

'Goodnight, young Sspeaker...' he heard from Serpens as he walked down the corridors towards Gryffindor Tower.

       He quietly snuck into the room he shared with five other people and then slid into his bed, wanting to make as little noise as possible. He lay there for a while, thinking of what had just happened. He was sure Hermione would be pleased with his decision to make peace with the Slytherins, but he knew it would no doubt be the last straw for Ron. He thought back to how civil he and Malfoy had been towards each other and decided that he rather liked the blond much better that way.

       As he fell asleep, he made a plan of a way to help the Slytherins out.