Taming ones inner Slytherin – Chapter two
Author: Simbele
Pairing: HP/DM (And more to come, obviously.)
Rating: MA (R) just to be sure.
There might be cursing and/or snogging, you never know.
Disclaimer: It's the Plot Bunnies fault, not mine! They kidnapped the characters artfully created by JKR and then stuffed them in my head. What was I supposed to do?
No, but seriously. Don't own anything, never will, 'cept my phone bill and Damien. It's all hers. Now shove off.
A/N: And also, one of my friends acted off when I told her that I was using Pansy Parkinson in this story, as one of the more main side-characters. It would seem that the general opinion of Pansy is ugly and mean. Thus, I am remaking her. Suck it up or leave. It's my sandbox.
The reality of being a Slytherin sunk in when Harry woke up to the sight of green bed curtains, and the fact that no one was yelling at Ron to get up. (This was actually kind of nice.) Sitting up and putting on his glasses, Harry took his time to properly view his new dorm. It was a very stylish, oblong room done in a sort of less-is-more fashion, not quite Spartan, but a very clean and yet luxurious decoration. It was almost the dead opposite of the Gryffindor dorms, which were a whirlwind of red and gold and brown and pillows and soft carpeting and whatnot. Harry still hadn't decided which one he liked best.
Left of Harry was Seamus bed, and on his right was the ex-Hufflepuff, Damien...What's-his-names', Harry still couldn't remember. Across from Seamus was Draco, and on his left, Crabbe and then Goyle. Further down on the left, beyond Seamus bed was the door to the showers.
Pushing aside his covers and getting out of bed, he slapped a still sleeping Seamus on the arse (The only one who had ever allowed him to do so, since they were both bisexual) and headed for the showers. As soon as he opened the door though, he was confronted with the sight of a blond God clad only in a pair of black jeans, shaving himself in front of a semi-steam covered mirror. Trying not to drool, Harry ripped his eyes of Draco Malfoys back and made to get himself a towel. He turned his back to Draco while changing to prevent more embarrassing staring, and thus didn't notice the other boy turning around and dropping his chin to the floor.
Neither did he notice the blonde going beetroot red and practically fleeing the shower room.
Seamus, who was just entering to shower himself, however, did.
After cleaning up and trying not to notice Seamus smug smile, which more often then not meant that he was up to something, Harry ventured back into the dormitory and pulled on a simple brown T-shirt that said 'What the hell are you looking at?' and a pair of stone washed jeans. He wasn't much for clothes and fashion, though it was a relief to be out of the Dudley hand-me-downs. Hermione had somehow found out how much money he was sitting on and had forced him to buy new clothes. It hadn't been quite as unpleasant as he had expected it to be, but he still wouldn't take it up as a hobby. And as Dean Thomas had claimed that Harrys hair wasn't messed up, it was "manga", he could let that one go as well. After all, no respectable wizard would know what in the name of Merlin manga was.
While pulling on his school robes, once again examining the snake and the new colours on his tie declaring him a Slytherin, he managed to get a good look at Damien, the other new Slytherin. Damien O'Callaghan to be precise, since he had just learned the other boy's last name from Seamus while they showered. He was obviously Irish, just like Seamus, and the two of them had hit it off the night before when Harry was having his revealing chat with the Slytherin Prince. Damien was obviously proud of his heritage as harry noticed some spectacular tattoos on his arms and back. If he swung that way, Seamus was going to have a blast. He loved tattoos.
Together they all trooped down to the Great Hall for breakfast. All went well except for when Harry made for the Gryffindor table before Damien grabbed him by the back of his robes and pulled him in the right direction. Harry just laughed about it, and Damien smiled secretly at him. Drinking his morning coffee and waiting for the mail and the Daily Prophet (which he threw away after glancing at the front page. He only read it if there was nothing about him on the first page. This morning it said 'Boy-Who-Lived sorted into Slytherin' in huge block letters)Harry found himself nudged in the side by Seamus, who was still sporting that damn smug smile.
"What's up Seamus?" Harry opened with a neutral tone of voice. He was desperately trying to get a simple conversation going, even though he knew it was a futile attempt.
"Oh, not much, Harry. How are you, my friend? Feeling alright?" Seamus smile got wider and wider by the minute, Harry could swear on it.
"I'm fine. Why are you grinning like an idiot this morning?" He tried with his most conversational tone.
"Well, you see, I happened to notice a few things this morning when I entered the showers and for how long have you wanted to get into Malfoys pants, hmm?" came his response without preamble. This was unusually blunt, even for Seamus. Harry tried his hardest not to spit his coffee all over Damien, whose smile now matched Seamus. Was he in on it too?
"What are you on about, you nutter? Me liking Malfoy?" Harry noticed that his voice had gone up a few decibels and looked around nervously to see if anyone had overheard their conversation. He continued, this time barely whispering.
"That's just.. completely.. I'm not!"
"Then why were you undressing him with your eyes in the showers this morning?" Seamus retorted with what he claimed was his 'Dirty talk – voice'.
"Leave off, Seamus, I most definitely wasn't. You're beginning to imagine things. "
Seamus dropped the subject, but smiled knowingly at Damien, who smiled back. Harry might be slow, but once you've planted the seed in his head, it had no other option but to bloom.
Harry shook his head at his friend's antics and fixed his eyes on Sevvie coming down the table handing out schedules to the students. Their eyes met in a moment of understanding and of pain, though why the Potions Master was troubled, Harry didn't know.
Though all thoughts of his or his mentor's problems flew Harry's mind once he got a good look at his schedule. He groaned, loudly enough to draw glances to him from all around his new House table. He had always disliked Mondays, but now he was going to bloody well hate them. He started off with double period of Potions (which he still sucked at, no matter how friendly Severus was with him), then transfiguration, then lunch, then Double period of History of Magic after that. Stupid Snape. Stupid Binns. Thank the Gods it was Friday. He was getting off easy today. Care of Magical Creatures at first, then double period DADA, and the rest of the day was free study periods after lunch. Nice. Especially since for the first time since Riddle had cursed the position, a teacher was returning for the second time, and it was none other than Remus Lupin.
The very same night as when Harry had taken out Mouldy-pants, Bellatrix Lestrange had gone completely off her rockers and gone after Harry, at Grimmauld Place. The entire Order had been there and she had been captured and sent to Azkaban without a trial. She was now what the guards called 'a screamer.' This had somehow lit a spark within the old werewolf and he had decided to finally accept the money that Sirius had left for him in his will. He had guided Harry through the mental shock that came after the drinking and celebrating and helped him set things straight. It was Remus that first made it clear to Harry that his life was now fully and truly his own. Together they had captured Wormtail and got Sirius pardoned. They had a stone set up in his memory in place of a grave.
And now, Remus was back at Hogwarts teaching again to everyones joy, save maybe Sevvie and Draco. Though if that too had been part of the Lucius-Says game that the blonde had played, Harry wasn't sure. It struck Harry that Remus might be the source of Severus pain this morning. Damnit, one day he was going to force Sevvie to let by-gones be by-gones and forgive his newest Godfather.
It seemed that Gryffindors and Slytherins were paired to share classes seemed to be a rule, so after a wave in Hermiones direction Harry located Ron and they all went down to Hagrid's hut more or less together. Outside the Grand Entrance though, the group discreetly split in two, and the smaller one –with Harry, Draco, Ginny and Pansy- dropped back and took a longer rout that went behind the green houses. It was a suitably long route if one wanted to do something forbidden, like have a fistfight or smoke. Draco borrowed Harry's Zippo with an appreciative glance at the family crests, and Ginny did what she usually did- she blackmailed Harry into giving her a cigarette or she would tell Molly. Harry always gave in.
Sitting on two well hidden stone benches, they chatted idly about classes, and Draco was surprisingly honest about the fact that he was scared shitless of Hagrid. When Ginny asked him about the new 'care-and-share' Malfoy, he adopted a smug expression and shook his head.
"You're Slytherins now. Every Slytherin has an outside-face and an inside-face, and only other Slytherins get to see the inside face. But that's probably going to change now, considering there's no war. Plus, I always fancied you people to be my arch-nemesis', so why would I tell you anything about me?" He then took one last drag and tossed his cigarette in the bushes, then grabbed his bag and walked in direction of Hagrids hut. "Come on, we're going to be late." Pansy shot Ginny a comforting look when the red head seemed stuck in shock and then linked her arm in Ginnys and together they followed the blond boy.
The two of them had apparently been up until very late last night (or early, considering) and their friendship was no longer a thing in the making, but an established one.
Harry laughed at the absurdity of his life and picked up his pace to catch up with the others. As he caught up, Ginny gently dislodged herself from the group, and made her way over to Herbology with a promise from Pansy to sit together during lunch.
They reached Hagrids hut just in time, so when Harry sidled over to Ron to be paired up with him, he only got a sniff of his clothes and a stern look instead of a Hermione-worthy lecture on how smoking was going to kill him. Harry smiled his biggest smile at him and then got out his COMC book from his bag. Ron sighed and did the same.
When assigned their animals for today's class (some sort of wonky looking, rather obese cat with big red sports all over, that acted like a drugged bear) Harry and Ron sat down in the now sun-warm grass and started taking notes while catching up on what had happened since their separation. Ron was rather upset that he only had Neville and Dean left in his dorm, since they hadn't got any new seventh year Gryffindors, only sixth and fifth. He also claimed he hadn't been able to sleep from worrying about Harry and his dilemma of being with the slimy snakes. Harry had to stop himself from making a very angry retort, and instead calmly told Ron about his first night in the dungeons. Ron listened and seemed reassured, momentarily at least. But soon he started back on about the hellish evil that was Slytherins, and Harry had to somewhat irritably reminded him that Harry too, was a Slytherin. Ron looked like he had had a horrible revelation, but then shook it off again. "You don't count mate, you're a Gryffindor by heart. You're Harry Potter." Ron Weasly, the master of denial.
And even though Harry could joke about it, it still stung a bit that every one presumed him to be the Golden Boy, the true Gryffindor. He was sick of having to put on a brave face and be just and never make snide comments 'cause he was having a bad day. He had only ever told Seamus about this, and on the way up to the castle he walked along side of Seamus to yet again hear his thoughts on the matter. Seamus, always happy to help, cave it some careful thought. "Well, Harry dear, I think.. well, you just might have spent to long being a Gryffindor and now you're inner Slytherin is dying to come out and play. I suggest you let it, it's never good to suppress.. urges." At that, the Irish boy got a certain glint in his eyes, and the smile from earlier was returning.
"Seamus, come off it! I'm not into Draco. Seriously." To his dismay he felt his cheeks flame, and Seamus winked at him.
"'course not, Harry dear."
"Jesus, Seamus! I'm not-"
The other boy stopped walking and turned around to face Harry, standing right in front of him. "Okay, Harry, I get it. You loath Malfoy and you don't want to get into his pants. But what I was trying to say earlier is, that even if you have spent all your years here being the poster boy for teenage moral and angst, this is your life now. The Dark Lord is gone. You killed him."
Seamus eyes filled with a rarely seen glow at this, a glow he only got when he spoke of the war. The Irish boy had nearly lost his mother in a Death eater attack. He had expressed his gratitude to Harry for killing Voldemort only once, but Harry had nearly cried when Seamus had shown up at Grimmauld Place sometime in August, just to say thank you.
"This is your life now, just like Remus said. Your life, your choices, your say in things that concern you. You can say what you want, wear what you want, eat what you want, hang with whomever you want.. and shag whoever you want.." he added as an afterthought. At that the glint returned and Seamus shot him a smile and turned and fled, just as Harry realised what he had said. With a frustrated, but relieved sigh Harry resumed his walk back to the castle. After all, he wouldn't want to miss the first DADA-lesson.
Remus was his happy, just and teacher-y self, and handed out as many house points as he took. He had started the semester with teaching them invisibility charms, not just the chameleon kind, but the ones to actually make you invisible for as long as you could sustain the charm. When Harry was the first to succeed no one was surprised, but he still got some slaps on the back from both Gryffindors and Slytherins. When Draco was the second to succeed, he got house points from Remus. Harry slapped him on the shoulder and they shared a smile which made Harry very happy. It was genuine smile, not a sneer or a smirk, but a satisfied and honest-to-god smile.
Before the war, it had been a very rare occurrence to see Draco Malfoy smile. Harry could only remember the once or maybe twice he had seen the blonde smile, and it had both been times when he thought he wasn't seen by anyone. The first was in third year, when Harry had spotted Draco in the Hogsmeade post office. The younger Malfoy had received a huge package, and Harry had seen his eyes light up and a smile grace his face as he read the letter attached which Harry guessed was from Malfoy Sr. But all too soon the eyes had dimmed and the trademark Malfoy sneer had replaced the happy smile, and Harry had felt the first stings of the war.
But now, Dracos' smiles came freely it seemed, and Harry realised he itched to find out what the real Slytherin Prince was like.
But not over lunch, it would seem. As soon as class ended and before Harry had even managed a quick word with Remus about the next full moon, Ron had grabbed Harry by the arm and dragged him away to the great hall. Not that Harry minded, but he felt that maybe he should show his support for the Slytherin house and not make it seem like he only wore their colours but still wanted to be a Gryffindor. But it seemed that inter-house unity was on Dumbledores' schedule this year, for in the Great Hall there was now two more tables added to the other five. No sign of special house colours were visible anywhere on them, except for the Hogwarts insignia on the tablecloth. Students from random houses sat paired together for lunch, sorted more by year that house. Mostly it was couples that came from two different houses that appreciated the new tables, and Harry couldn't help but smile a little when Ron sullenly dumped his bag on stone floor beside the bench and sat down. But then again, the Gryffindor was the master of denial. The word 'implications' wasn't even in his vocabulary.
Harry sat down next to his bets friend and reached for the meatloaf while absently scratching his shoulder. He was trying to save his nicotine patches for emergencies only, like the N.E.W.T.s or a very long lesson with Binns, and now he was feeling the need for a cigarette. He hadn't had time for a smoke between COMC and DADA, and he was throwing longing glances at his bag. Ron noticed and raised an eyebrow at him so Harry ignored his cravings for now. He settled for trying to get under Rons skin and find out what had his knickers in a twist.
"So.. we sure seem to be getting a lot of homework this year. Think it'll be tough?" Harry tried the first angle he could think of, but Rons' only answer was a grunt and to shuffle some more potatoes on to his plate. He sure ate fast. OK, so what else?
"How are you holding up without me and Hermione in the dorms? Is it lonely? Bet you miss Hermione more than me though.." he gave it another shot. This one provoked a slightly more enthusiastic response, but still. It was all about potatoes.
Harry sighed and tried again.
"So.. Quidditch try-outs coming up soon. Got any nice strategies for your team?"
This seemed to hit home. Rons eyes darkened a bit and he mumbled down into his food.
"Yeah, I might, but I can't tell them to you can I, now that you're on the Slytherin team."
Harry felt a sting at that. He might have become a Slytherin, but he had only been one for about 20 hours. Was Ron expecting a huge personality disorder by day two?
"Ron, honestly." Harry put a lot of emphasis on the latter word. "Do you really think I would use you? Use our friendship for something as unimportant as fucking Quidditch?" the last part came out more forcefully than he intended, but he was so sick of it all, of people expecting things of him. When he was a Gryffindor he was the truest of hearts, never to harm a good soul. Now, it seemed he was expected to do a 180 and steal the throne of Slytherin from Draco.
Ron's face looked like someone had slapped him, and he had seen it coming for awhile.
"Well, you can't say there isn't reason for me to not trust you." He spat out, his eyes dark.
Harry got so shocked he could hardly speak. "What?!" was all he could muster.
"Face it Harry, you got brain washed faster than my Aunt Tessie at a shoe shop. The second you set foot in that dungeon, you changed!" Ron was shouting now, and Harry was shouting right back.
"Ron, you arse! I haven't changed at all! You are seeing things!"
"Like hell, Harry! You are standing up for the lot of them now." Ron was standing and gesturing towards the Slytherin table, from which the entire seventh year was watching with a silent interest. Harry looked around and realised the entire Great Hall was silent and listening to their argument, everyone holding their breaths, waiting for Harry's response.
Harry closed his eyes for a short moment, came to a conclusion and stood up as well. He grabbed his book bag and took a step back from the small table.
"No, Ron. I am not standing up for them. We are standing up for ourselves." With out any preamble he turned and walked away. Passing the Slytherin table on his way out of the Great Hall, he looked at Draco and nodded, who in turn nodded to Ginny, Pansy, Seamus and Damien. They all folded their napkins correctly, stood and left the Great Hall in search for their Housemate.
I want to thank the first few reviewers! It means a lot to get feedback on a story, especially one I haven't really got the feel of yet. But the planning is going well I have plans for our young magicians.
Since there was more than one person who wanted a update, here you go! It was slightly delayed by a vacation trip to France and the release of Book 7 and Movie 5, but here it is and I hope you like it.
And please, more review! Let me know what you think, what I should or shouldn't change. Lots of love!
Simbele
