Summary: From within the intrigue and drama of Slytherin house, Harry must navigate the perils of his first year- friends, enemies, blood politics… and in the middle of it all, Lord Voldemort is hunting the Philosopher's Stone hidden in Hogwarts.
You're a liar but I'm a coward so I can't throw a stone
Part Three
The days after the exploding potion and leading up to the first Gryffindor/Slytherin flying class were… tense was the only word for it. Something had shifted in the atmosphere of Hogwarts, something intangible and yet incredibly influential. Muggleborns, and even half-bloods, found themselves slinking around the school with their eyes open for trouble more and more blood purists were cunning and underhanded, and they hunted in packs.
After a few days, Eryn and her friends appeared to stop associating with Tracey and Harry. Harry watched them in the halls as Eryn performed her prefect duties; whenever she caught sight of him, a brief glimpse of regret would flash across her face before she turned away. Ravenna and Freya followed Eryn's lead in avoiding the two first years.
The first time Eryn snubbed them in the hallway, Tracey had approached her, asking for help with some particularly difficult Charms homework. Eryn had swallowed hard, turned on her heel and walked away, the eyes of many of the other students on her. Tracey had been devastated, and Harry had no idea what to do when she started sniffling, high little noises originating from the back of her throat, and then she was flat-out crying and he didn't know how to deal with it… there was a girl crying in the hallway and then she was grabbing his robes and leaning over and burying her face in his shoulder. He gave her some awkward pats and everyone in the hallway was watching them. The hair on his arms, on his neck, they were all raised. Some of them disbursed, and then Cedric was arriving, some Hufflepuffs in tow, and putting his hands on Harry's and Tracey's shoulders- spots of warm comfort- and guiding them away.
"Hey," the older boy said, his voice soft and quiet. He was focusing in on Tracey, he had gently pulled her away from Harry, and he was calming her. "Hey, Tracey, what's wrong, can you tell me what happened?"
Tracey sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve, leaving a streak of snot on it.
"I- I wanted to a-ask Eryn for h-help, but she- she j-just walked aw-way!" she hiccupped her way through her explanation, and as soon as her final word died in the air, Cedric pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her.
"Hey, hey, it'll be okay, don't worry, you'll be fine," he murmured to her, rocking her back and forth, and Harry felt a small stab of jealousy in his heart. He started to turn away, but Cedric must have had super senses, because he released Tracey and then pulled Harry into a hug.
Harry didn't relax into it, not for a few moments, but then he found himself melting into the embrace, relishing the warmth of Cedric's arms around him.
"I don't know why she walked away," he said, and Harry pressed his ear to Cedric's chest and listened to the vibrations of his voice. "All I know is that, sometimes, with the noble families, the heads require that politics come first. It's not fair, and it's not okay, but that's the way it works with those families and I'm sorry that the two of you were on the receiving end of it."
Harry nodded into Cedric's chest, feeling his hair becoming even more mussed up. Tracey sniffed a couple of times and then voiced a small, broken "okay" before diving head-first into the embrace.
The other Hufflepuffs exited the room, taking care not to let the door-disguised-as-a-bookcase slam shut and disturb the moment.
Harry couldn't remember ever feeling so warm and safe in his life as he did at that moment with Cedric's arms wrapped around him and Tracey, the brunette girl crying into Cedric's robes again, but her presence was still warm and comforting next to him. Tracey and Harry had long since had their last class of the day, so when the comforting session was finished, the three of them dove right into their self-protection studies, Cedric introducing them to diletigo, a handy spell that would flood an area with fog for a minute or two. Tracey and Harry, after weeks of spell casting, had achieved the point where they could both successfully cast the spell they were learning within an hour or two. Mastering the spell still took a couple days, and they still couldn't try any spells too powerful without draining themselves too quickly, but Tracey was ecstatic at their improvement and Harry was secretly pleased.
"Diletigo!" Tracey shouted, brandishing her wand and causing an explosion of fog from the end. She produced enough fog to fill the room, and Cedric laughed. The three of them remained in their spots and waited the minute and a half for her fog to dissipate. Then it was Harry's turn, and he said "Diletigo," in a normal voice with much smaller wand movements than Tracey. His fog billowed from the tip of his wand, not quite filling the room and not quite lasting as long as hers had.
Cedric nodded and rested a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't be disappointed if your magic isn't as strong as hers," he said, smiling softly. "Everyone has different strengths and talents. I'm proud of the progress you've made." He looked at Tracey. "Both of you."
Harry might've been getting addicted to Cedric's presence, to the teenager's steady, solid presence in the room, to his kind words and ready praise. He was becoming accustomed to Tracey's constant presence beside him.
Even with the horrible treatment by the blood purists, he loved it at Hogwarts. He had people who cared about him at Hogwarts, like Tracey, like Cedric, like Hagrid, whom Tracey and Harry visited the day after they learned diletigo. The autumn air was growing crisp, and the pumpkins by Hagrid's hut were swelling. The leaves on any deciduous trees had been brilliant colors, but an early frost had fried their leaves and now the ground was covered in brown husks of leaves. Stately evergreens towered, full-foliaged, over the rustic hut. Tracey kicked the thick wooden door in order to actually make enough of an impact to make noise, and Hagrid opened it, his face breaking into a colossal grin as he caught sight of them.
"Harry! Tracey! Come on in, make yourselves at home!"
The two first years stomped their feet on the rug outside the door and then entered the warm hut. Hagrid prepared them a couple of hot, steaming mugs of tea and they sat down, the man telling them about his work all over the grounds with the various creatures and plants.
"So a family of daileans moved in- beautiful birds, really, they're the prettiest iridescent orange you can think of, but we just can't have them on the grounds, even if they're all the way out in the middle of the forest. Parents would get in a snit if they were discovered on the grounds- their screams are so loud they rattle the bones to bruise every muscle in the body- except the tongue, but if you don't watch yourself you could bite it clean off," he explained, and Tracey blanched.
"Oh," she said, and quietly sipped her tea.
"They're not mean, though, they only scream if they feel threatened- so long as you're gentle and careful they'll let you approach and even pet them," he tried to save Tracey's opinion of the birds, but it was already long past the salvageable point.
"I think they sound neat," Harry piped up, smiling at Hagrid, ducking his head and then meeting the man's eyes. Hagrid grinned again.
"They're very neat. But enough about me and my job- what about the two of you? How's Hogwarts been treating you?"
"I really like Hogwarts," Harry replied. Tracey declined to say a thing. "But some people are really confusing."
"Stupid noble houses," Tracey said, frowning and hitting the table with her fist. Hagrid's brow wrinkled and he frowned.
"Eh, don't you worry about the noble kids," he said, his features smoothing out. "Sometimes their heads of houses require they do certain things for the politics. Don't mind them."
"I've heard that advice a million times," she muttered.
"Well, your first flying lesson is Monday, with Gryffindor, isn't it?" Hagrid asked, and Harry was thankful for the subject change.
"Yeah," Tracey replied, perking up. "I wish I could join the Quidditch team first year." Her tone grew wistful.
"So you're a Quidditch player then? What position?" Hagrid asked.
"I like playing chaser," she replied.
"What's quidditch?" Harry asked, ducking in his seat and blushing as Tracey whipped around to look at him.
"It's only the best sport ever," she said, dead serious. "I don't care about quodpot or football or any other sport. Quidditch is the best." She launched into an explanation of the many great parts of Quidditch, including a long-winded speech about which team she supported and why it was the best. Since Harry had money with which to do that, he knew he had an idea for her Christmas present from him- maybe he could use his (hated) fame and get Blythe Sumner, a chaser for the Holyhead Harpies, to sign something for Tracey.
All thoughts and talks of Quidditch were stopped after dinner for their time with Cedric. They were still working on diletigo, using their time towards mastering it and adding it to their repertoire. Sunday they spent most of their time either in the library or wandering the grounds talking about other magical sports. Every time the two Slytherins returned to the library, Hermione was still sitting at the same spot at the same table, still working her way through a the same huge old book. Small twinges of concern fluttered in Harry's chest when he thought of her, alone in the library with nothing but the books, sour Madam Pince, and the comings and goings of uninterested students. But Tracey continued hauling him around the grounds, and he probably wouldn't have even approached her in the first place.
The times that Harry saw Malfoy, the blond boy acted weird- Harry could see something had changed in his eyes, in his mannerisms, but he didn't know what and it irked him.
The older blood purists continued their harassment of non-purebloods, which naturally included Tracey and Harry, and if the two first years were in the same house as most of the purists, well, who would even care about two half-blooded little Slytherins that had no friends?
Cedric had to cancel their normal session on Sunday because he had detention. A couple of his classmates hunted Harry and Tracey down themselves.
One of the Hufflepuffs, a girl, stopped the two of them.
"Hey, you're Tracey and Harry, right?" she asked, and the two Slytherins nodded. "I just wanted to come find the two of you and let you know that the reason Cedric has detention tonight is because he overheard a couple of fifth years talking really nastily about you, and since he's, well, Cedric, I figured he probably wouldn't tell you. Anyways, you know you have us, too? Cedric likes you two a lot, so if we can do anything to help, just let us know." She smiled sunnily at the two eleven-year-olds and strode off, her male companion rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, she's always like that," he said, and followed her away, leaving two dumbstruck Slytherin first years behind them in the corridor.
"Well, don't just stand there looking like fools," a portrait of a fool said. "Go release your friend from his imprisonment!"
Tracey and Harry glared at him and then hurried off, heading straight for where a group of girls- and some boys- from all houses liked to congregate. They lurked at the edges until they heard what they wanted to hear.
"Cedric Diggory got detention from Flitwick for attacking a couple of Slytherins unprovoked!" A Gryffindor girl said to a Slytherin girl, who scowled.
"The filthy half-breed's probably trying to cull favor from a noble family," the other girl replied. "No way did Cedric Diggory attack anyone. He is more laid back than anyone I have ever met."
"He's never had a detention before!" a Hufflepuff girl interjected.
The two first years hurried off with the information they needed and set up camp outside of Professor Flitwick's classroom. They were there, playing tic-tac-toe and hangman with each other, for an hour and a half until the door opened and Cedric and Professor Flitwick left the classroom.
When Cedric saw them, his eyes widened.
"What are you two doing here?" he asked as Tracey threw her arms around his torso.
"We heard you had detention," she said, and he smiled and rubbed her back.
"Yeah, I did, nothing too serious," he replied.
"Cedric you have never had a detention before," Harry said flatly, all in one breath. The teenager looked amused.
"And where did you learn this information?" he asked.
"Gossip loop," Tracey replied, and Cedric chuckled.
"Of course. Where else? Come on, you two," he said, guiding Harry and Tracey away from the Charms classroom and leaving Professor Flitwick standing there with a contemplative look in his eyes.
2100 word chapter for you guys- Finals are done, finally, which is great. I have one concert next week and I'm volunteering at the foodbank on Thursday so there's those, but I'm no longer feeling completely stressed!
Please review, tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, what you want to see more of, what you want to see less of... Reminder that I am plantsing this, so suggestions are always welcome!
With love,
Kit
