After a brief scuffle, Harry and Draco were on their way to the head table. Actually, Harry had no idea where they were going, but he had a feeling that Draco would stop talking to himself and start yelling at him if they stopped. Thus, they were going to the head table, and as long as Harry kept on receiving information from the squawking that Malfoy was currently spitting out, all was good.
"So, the first issue is obviously going to be communication. Can't build a network without communication. However, it might not be possible to do this human communication thing—what with the issues Potter encountered with his friends, the teachers might have some inside plot going. Hm. In which case, we've always got animal communication. But—ug, that's an issue. We've got a totally black wolf with frighteningly unnatural green eyes and a venomous jet black snake. Physically, this is not good. Well, maybe if we keep it clean we can pass off as, like, noble black knights or something… except black knights are never noble. Shoot! And Potter, stop listening in, this is a private monologue!"
Harry flipped his ears forward again with amusement. A private monologue, eh… out loud and with Harry the only one who could understand him. Harry smirked inwardly—who knew what Malfoy was playing at, but it sure wasn't to keep Harry from listening.
"Thus—Potter!" Draco hissed at Harry's ears flipped back again, and wondered just how dumb Potter thought he was. His ears were more than a dead-givaway, and yet he continued to turn them back. Draco hissed thoughtfully, but was interrupted from the now inward musing about his partner as Harry spoke up.
"So, Malfoy… how long does this spell last?" Harry threw out as he took a gentle right. They'd reached the head table by this time, but Harry was hoping that if Malfoy didn't notice him wandering he'd at least get his answers before he got to throw the annoying git off. Malfoy really wasn't doing anything for him besides doing out-loud scheming… but Harry's head drooped as he remembered that Malfoy, by some curse of fate, was the only one who could understand him. So much for the abandonment idea.
"Steady," Draco hissed as the head he was resting on suddenly bobbed. "You throw me off, you get poisoned, remember? Plus you get to be all alone…" The head regained its previous altitude, and Draco settled back on again. "Hm… how long?" Draco said, now focusing his attention on the first question Potter had asked in a while. It was a valid inquiry, but telling him the flat answer might make Potter bolt. Then again, if he added some more information in with that, it would make him more dependant...
"Forever." Draco stated, gripping tighter as Harry suddenly stopped. "However," Draco spoke over Harry's voice, "it can be removed."
A whirlwind of thought was spinning through Harry's head, but the open ended question needed to be answered. Slightly annoyed at Malfoy for making him ask the obvious question before any others, Harry ignored the resentment and asked him anyway.
"Okay, Malfoy, how can it be removed?" he asked challengingly.
"That--" Malfoy said dramatically, and Harry could feel the snake's upper body rising to vertical, "is what I don't know!" he finished cheerfully, lying back down. Harry's blood began to boil.
"Malfoy, I need all the information you have, now." He heard, in a tone of steel.
Draco paused, thinking about it. However, at the warning quiver passing through underneath him, Draco decided that he would probably wait just a bit longer before arousing Potter's anger—it did not do to have him mad at him all the time.
"Well," Draco began, flicking his tail lightly against Harry's flank, who stilled but then obediently began moving again after Draco stopped, "I suppose I could tell you what I know. The curse placed on us is the Animagus Spell. Unoriginal name, I know, but at least it's self-explanatory. Just in case it isn't, however," Harry narrowed his eyes, hearing the smirk in the tone, but continued forging on through and around the pairs of animals loping unsteadily around him, "I shall explain that too.
"The animagus form itself is a manifestation of a person's personality into the animal that most closely resembles his or her traits. Distinctive marking on the person may also be transferred to the animal, thus rending each animagus, even of the same type of animal, unique. That's where the green eyes on your black wolf came from—however, in animal form, it looks creepy rather than normal, so in your case you should probably resent the distinctive markings thing."
Harry growled, but didn't stop walking. He needed this information, no matter the manner in which it was presented.
"Anyway, for the workings of the animagus spell…it was invented for the use of scholars wishing to see their animagus shape before they actually were able to become animagus themselves. The drawback of such a spell is that without a close friend to utter the countercurse the person remains stuck in the animal shape forever. It is not known why it must be a friend, or even a close one at that, but the scholars know that it must be and that's all I really needed to know. The good thing is that even if this friend is also in animagus form, he or she can release the form of the other.
"The only problem with this," Draco went on, dropping the lecture tone but still speaking, "is that I don't know the countercurse. I know the ray of light is blue….but that doesn't really help me much. In addition to that, the spell is cast on each individual person, not on a specific area, so escape from the castle won't affect our forms at all.
HOWEVER--" Draco pushed out as Harry opened his mouth. "I also have reason to believe that it can be addressed by potions. If the animagus potion is taken over the spell, all calculations point to it returning the human to their natural form. It's never been tested, of course," Malfoy finished, snake-shrugging, which felt to Harry as a somewhat uncomfortable sliding but tickled mostly.
Harry opened his mouth, then left it open suspiciously. Malfoy ran over him much too much for his liking. When nothing emerged from the animal above him, Harry began questioning, only vaguely calmed down by the other alternatives.
"So, being that we aren't friends and you don't know the countercurse, that wouldn't work. You're saying the only way to solve this is with experimental potions brewing."
"Well, that, or you get your Mudblood to incant it for you. Unfortunately for you, the teachers have quite taken care of that idea with their communication limitation."
"Don't call Hermione a Mudblood. And I stand by my point—you want to do experimental potions brewing. Is there any other way to do this?"
"She is a Mudblood. Even you're half-pure. And to the query; no."
"Shoot."
"Indeed."
…
Harry and Draco next sat through the speech that the teachers had finally decided to deliver to them, but only picked up a few facts they hadn't figured out for themselves. The white owl that both Harry and Draco had suspected was Dumbledore confirmed their suspicions as he explained that communication would be impossible between unlike species… except for one other cross-species student. The first different animal a student touched would become their 'partner' if that animal hadn't already been chosen. They would be able to communicate, and all this plotting would be in the name of three things—the Ministry, school testing and unification, and Voldemort.
"Those reasons are stupid," was the first thing Harry proclaimed when Dumbledore finished speaking and pairs around them loudly broke into unintelligible chatter. "The Ministry's stupid, the school unification is stupid… even the Voldemort thing is stupid. The ONLY idea there that might not be stupid is the school testing. Testing ingenuity could be useful."
"What about school unification?" Draco asked curiously, interested in Harry's logic. "Voldemort too. I mean, it does protect us if he and his army enter the castle—then they wouldn't be able to use magic being transformed as they are."
Harry rolled his eyes. "For someone named smart, you sure are stupid," he stated flatly, ignoring Malfoy's incensed writhing. "First of all—Voldemort. You think he's a good enough wizard for silent casting? Yes, he is most definitely a good enough wizard for silent casting. He's a Dark Lord—come, on, Malfoy, you know that he's super powerful. And as much as his army's going to be transformed into different animals—which you didn't tell me, by the way, that the whole castle's warded—they are going to be much stronger than what we are, probably. Giants, for example. You know a typical giant's personality animal? I don't, but it would probably be something like rabid hippos, which are ginormous. They'd crush us—I mean, look at Dumbledore."
Draco did glance at the serene owl. The serene, tiny owl. Some of the cats here could eat it in one bite.
"Fine," Draco acknowledged grumpily, but was cut off.
"House unification," Harry went on, nonplussed. "Wouldn't happen. Being that we were at our table when we all kneeled over and then woke up, almost every single student would have touched the student next to them. That's House unification—but that's not different House unification, which, I'm pretty sure, is what the teachers were going for. It was incredibly unlikely a Slytherin would slither all the way across the Great Hall, not touch anybody on the way there, and touch a Gryffindor first. And it's even more unlikely because sane people would not want to go through the whole process, unlike my little leech here." Harry glared upward, and Malfoy just sneered back.
"Well, it obviously could have happened," Malfoy just said arrogantly, withdrawing into his affronted frame. "But now, it's time to work. There are two goals we need to accomplish. First, networking. I expect us to be top of the school in a week if the teachers don't interfere. Second, potions. We're heading into the Forbidden Forest or Snape's storeroom as soon as possible."
Harry just blinked at the change of subject, but didn't protest. However, he did protest once he absorbed what had been said. "Networking?" he demanded. "Networking is a focus? As in, trying to make ourselves popular? I already have friends!"
"Who said anything about friends?" Malfoy said vaguely. "That's what you're doing too, using me because I have skills you don't have. It doesn't mean I'm a friend… but it means you're networking. And since the Great Hall door is firmly closed, and our dear headmaster does not seem willing to open it anytime soon, that's the option that's left to us."
Harry was silent, evaluating his own actions as well as Malfoy's. Draco was silent too, waiting.
"Fine." Harry finally announced, wearily. "Let's get networking."
…
This has got to be one of the most embarrassing things I have ever done in my life.
Curiously, the thought belonged to both of them, though Harry was showing it much more through his upset twitching. They were currently sitting in a dark corner, yet again, and Harry was listening to Malfoy perusing the 'candidates'. Malfoy wasn't all too pleased by it either, to go by his dialogue.
"My god, Potter, you have no idea how to choose contacts. I have never had toTEACH anybody how to become popular! Come on, boy, LEADERSHIP! You've got it naturally, now get it together! If you were trying to make a group to go against the Ministry, who would you talk to?"
Harry was quite astounded that Malfoy thought he had leadership talents, but besides that his next excuse was bleak.
"I would…" Harry started, wilting under the expectant silence Malfoy was giving him, "I would just go on my own and people would come with me whether I talked to them or not."
Harry was met with a tail snap, much as he had expected, and thus he didn't really move once the motion was complete. "Come ON, Potter!" Malfoy said exasperatedly. "I know you would go on your own! You're animagus form is a wolf, for heavens sake! But what do you do to get people to come with you? Why do they come with you? Come on, Potter, I know you can do this."
This was the oddest conversation he had ever had with Malfoy in all his years since Harry had met him. The tone was almost—friendly, or teacherly, to be precise, pushing him to figure it out for himself. Unfortunately, this kind of treatment from Malfoy only made him more confused. "Um…" he paused, thinking frantically. What does Malfoy want from me? What kind of answer? Networking, networking… Harry's mind spun, alighting gratefully on any kind of thought whatsoever.
Ah! He said… he said I was networking him. Except he chose me, not the other way around! I don't know, okay, I don't—
And then it all clicked. Malfoy had come to him. And it always worked that way; people always came initially. They were usually left behind or—Harry shuddered—disposed of—later, but they originally came without him having to ask them about it. They were just his friends. Harry bit a lip, surprised when the fang left blood, and tentatively answered the for once quiet Malfoy.
"Is it… I network by being polite to people, and they kind of just flock to me on my own."
"Finally." Draco said, and was smiling inside. Harry heard a bit of it but didn't comment, especially after Draco immediately changed his tone to a more condescending one.
"Close, Potter." He said next, and Harry listened attentively for his partner's magical leadership psychological reasoning. "Actually, the first step in your being a leader is not a conscious one on your part—you're the famous Boy-Who-Lived. People pay attention to you, whether you like it or not. Then you're friendly to everyone, so the initial jealousy is dissolved and they approach you like a magnet. The final step you make in your sort of networking is you go off on a trip alone, all noble-like, and after you've been kind to everyone and shown what a good hero you are, people take your lead and follow on, to both protect you and see what it's like to be brave themselves. It's all unconscious, I believe, but your personality is bizarre enough to make it work. Now, onwards—now that you might understand the tiniest bit why and how you always have people defending you, I spot a pair of Ravenclaws that'll react to you perfectly. Draw a lightning bolt on the ground with your claw to identify yourself, then just sidle up and be your awkward self. They'll love you."
Draco disappeared into his fur, and Harry was left even more astounded than he was the first time Draco had been observant. But this is beyond observant, Harry thought confusedly as he trotted off to the pair Malfoy had pointed him to. This was… Harry didn't even know. But that Malfoy would pay so much attention to him… wait. If Malfoy watched him so much and knew his supposed strategy inside and out, why wasn't he taken in by it? Malfoy had approached him as no one else had that first day. He'd made it so easy to be his friend—if Harry had only accepted it. But then again, he'd been rude and arrogant—ah. Malfoy hadn't known the strategy then, his personality at all. He would have been unprepared… and even the original question was ridiculous, Harry realized. Malfoy wasn't taken in by his strategy because Harry had not been friendly to him. Still, this new revelation was all very confusing… Harry frowned, but he had arrived at the Ravenclaws, a pair consisting of a darkly colored orangutan and a swan sitting quietly in the monkey's lap, his hands around her. Harry didn't know the reasoning behind why Malfoy had chosen this pair, but it was obvious even to Harry that they were a least a good choice.
Interrupting the narrative the monkey was having with another; in fact the two had a whole ring surrounding them, and the swan was hooting occasionally into the orangutan's ear—Harry stepped in the ring, feeling Malfoy bury himself deep in his fur. That was probably a smart choice, he realized, being that Malfoy was a snake and his form could not be more obvious in proclaiming him a Slytherin. Harry shuddered at the idea of 'sidling' up… but he took comfort from Malfoy's, who at least knew what he was doing, and why, even, presence and cautiously drew a scratch in the floor in the shape of a lightning bolt.
Immediately looked upon by everyone in the ring, Harry turned awkwardly to address the orangutan. Yipping quietly, he lied sphinx-like before it, raising a paw in an awkward wave. Malfoy had definitely been right about one thing, Harry thought fondly, this whole thing is REALLY awkward.
Going with his instincts being what he had been directly, or at least in Malfoy language, instructed to do, Harry just went with it. When the orangutan gestured and nodded at the swan, Harry casually shrugged the tiniest peek of Malfoy out, exposing his partner only after he himself was recognized and acknowledged. The show then only increased the Ravenclaws' curiosity, and with a variety of more human gestures, them having fingers and bodies more customary to humans, they questioned him as well as they were able. Harry answered as best as he could, finding curious fun in communicating without words, and when he finally nudged his way out of the circle he found it was much bigger than what it had been in the beginning. Turning his back on the orangutan that now seemed to be directing and instructing his Housemates to spread out and introduce themselves to others, Harry whispered quietly to Malfoy.
"That all right?"
"It was amazing," Malfoy answered back, and Harry glowed in the praise.
"They're all doing it now—networking—and the Ravenclaws know it was you who started it. Or more like me, actually." Malfoy said, abandoning all modesty, but having trouble getting rid of the almost reverent tone he had adopted after seeing Harry marshal all those people. In all his years in Slytherin, Draco, though the leader, had never been able to get people to follow his example without any push whatsoever. He'd had to back orders up with threats, and delicately manipulate individuals so they would manipulate others. It'd been a very complicated process, and one difficult to maintain and control, while Potter had managed, after a push in the right direction, to get a whole House to abandon House rivalry—rivalry that had existed since each student's arrived at Hogwarts. And Draco himself had been introduced and exposed—without an uproar. Being the leader of the Slytherin house, Draco knew all about how alienated they were—and had long given up trying to fix it. There were too many difficulties within the House itself to try to work out a method with the Houses around them. And Harry…
Draco shook off the tone, questioning himself roughly. What was he thinking? He knew Harry had natural leadership—otherwise Gryffindor wouldn't have been as popular as it was. He knew all this already; it shouldn't be a surprise. And thus, having regained control once again, Draco was able to instruct Harry without too much difficulty.
"Nice job, the both of us," he said briskly, pulling slightly to the right and grinning internally when Harry automatically corrected his course. "Hufflepuffs are next—we already got the hard part done. After that you can conquer the Gryffindors, and then we'll be done for the day. Hopefully dinner'll be served after that, since we are in the Great Hall."
"We're supposed to network for eight hours?" Harry demanded incredulously.
"I don't see why not," Draco commented. "I've done it before and more. Besides, we need at least three pairs to get to for the Hufflepuffs—they're not nearly as organized as Chang and Diggory over there. Gryffindors'll need some time too—you'll need to ignore your two followers. They'll try to convince other you aren't Harry Potter—and they're too defensive already for you to do anything to change it. Now, onwards, Potter, we do have work to do."
And Harry trotted off, confused to how he had gotten in front of this pair of birds, but shrugged it off with a smile as one of the many mysteries of Malfoy he'd mull over later.
A/N--
Pleased? Liked it? Hated it? Not enough happening, too much happening, not canon enough, emotionally satisfying? I'm always looking for reviews !
Anyway, thanks for reading, the next installment should be up soon! hauntful yay
