Disclaimer: I do not own any of this…
Chapter 8
"Hi, how are you?" How many times have you heard that? Thousands? And the answer is always the same.
Let's assume for a second that I'm talking to a stranger, and instead of the normal answer; "I'm fine, thanks, how are you?" started to tell the truth; "Oh, my owl died yesterday and I failed my transfiguration test and…" My conversation partner would stop listening half way in. They would just not be interested in me or my life.
When did the things happening inside our brains get more important than the ones happening before our eyes? When did the evolution lead us to a point where others no-longer matter? We tell ourselves that it's ok, the stronger must survive and the weaker can perish; the rule of nature.
A sudden accident and 20 wizards and witches die. We cry and feel horrible, but not because they passed away. We cry, because it happened so close to us. It could have been us dying there. Outside our little social system thousands of people die every day because of starvation, illnesses, and war. But why should we care? It doesn't concern or affect us and they must have done something wrong to deserve the misery.
And then we have a little problem. For us, it's huge; it could start a war among us! And we ask for help. But they DARE to decline! We are people in need, they are lower rank, and they should help us! This all could affect them as well!
Not once does it cross our minds that we have been ignoring their needs for centuries. We cut the strings to the world outside and made them the strange, bad people. After a few generations the difference grew, and what happened? We became two separated races, hating each other, never understanding.
The development could go backwards; we could start building our connection again. After all, we still are human beings, who should take care of each other. However, our arrogance gets in the way. No one is willing to start working for it…
And what do we learn out of this? You may not learn anything and I already knew it since I was a toddler. Never believe or follow blindly in the public opinion. Trust only your own eyes and brains, because sometimes, it's necessary to look beyond the big picture.
For the first time since arriving to Hogwarts Harry stayed in the boy's common room until his room mates woke up. Normally he was gone hours before any of them even considered waking, but that morning was different. Mainly he stayed because Blaise had forced him to do so, but he was also a bit curious.
He had been watching them with half an eye now for nearly three weeks, but the conversation in the train had been his only connection to them this far.
Finally the blond boy started to show signs of waking. His eyes twitched and they opened completely. For few moments he just stared at Harry before realizing who he was. Confusion written all over his face he lifted himself to a sitting position.
"Morning Malfoy, good thing you decided to wake up." Harry greeted him as Malfoy only continued his staring. The other boys in the room started to wake up as well, but were not cause of concern yet.
"Potter…" It looked like the blond boy was fighting an internal battle against the feeling that something was off. "What are you doing here?" He finally managed to ask.
"You may not have noticed, but I sleep here, have been doing so since the school started." Harry answered and hid the mirth that was crawling to his voice. It seemed Malfoy wasn't a morning person at all, but Harry's answer seemed to wake him up at least a bit. The sleepy confusion faded and the normal Malfoy arrogance replaced it.
"I should reshape my question. Why are you still here? You never stay behind and wait for us to wake up." Malfoy finally managed to kick himself totally awake and form understandable sentences. 'Better have it done now than later' Harry thought before answering.
"I just realised that we haven't been around each other that much and it seemed like a good time to learn to know my roommates. After all we are going to be stuck with each other for the upcoming seven years if I haven't understood wrong."
"Of course! You have finally understood the power me and my family hold. Too bad I'm a bit busy at the moment. My father always said that appearance is the most important things when associating with others. Now, if you excuse me, I have to get ready for the day, but perhaps I can find time to have a chat with you later. I can't describe how delighted I am to notice that you have finally found the judiciousness in sticking with the Malfoy's." While talking, the blonde collected all his clothes and disappeared to the direction of the bathroom.
Harry could only stare after him. He felt like hanging this jaw open and popping his eyes out, but settled to look a bit (or a lot) confused. That was definitely something he had not expected and Harry shivered at the thought of having another chat with the boy.
"It will take about an hour before he'll be back. What did you want to talk to him about?" A smooth voice asked behind him. Harry turned around and nearly had a heart attack. Crabbe and Goyle were standing behind him and asking him a reasonable question.
"Oh, nothing, I was just having a nice little chat with him. Getting to know boys of my age, you know?" Harry answered trivially and faced the bigger boys. To his major surprise they started laughing. He had never seen those two show any impressions expect total confusion and ignorance. He had assumed like the whole other school them to be just Malfoy's brainless guard dogs. It seemed he had done mistake by not paying attention to them…
"Oh, don't mind. It's the point behind the whole act; so that others will not notice." It seemed the two boys had noticed Harry's confusion. "We've been trained our whole lives, we are the masters of being unnoticed, even more than you. And I truly believe you were not just having a nice chat with Malfoy." Goyle said and shot a pointed look at Harry.
"As no one can have a nice chat with him. I suppose we could make deal of some kind. You see, we are already hanging all the time around him, which is quite boring, but informative. His father trusts him too much and the little junior can't keep his mouth shut. We can save you from spending time with him, if you inform us about your plans and doings in future. We saw you having a chat with the Baron…?" Crabbe half stated, half asked.
Harry evaluated the situation for a moment. Those two were trusting him with their secret and were definitely great allies. They had managed to make the whole school think them as idiots and nobody was paying attention to them. Moreover, they were going to follow Harry's movements no matter what…
"He was telling me about a possible third force" Harry said and nodded to the other boys in the sign of agreement.
"Good. Malfoy is going to be back in few minutes, if you don't want to spend the breakfast with him, I'd suggest you to leave now. " Goyle said with a smile and nod of his own. Harry quickly dressed and followed his advice.
"You had a conversation with Crabbe and Goyle? They actually manage to form sentences?" Blaise was staring at Harry in disbelief. They were making their way to the breakfast and Harry had just informed his unofficial secretary and friend about the chat with his roommates.
"You heard me; I'm not going to repeat myself." Harry said sharply as they entered the Great Hall. "Where are you going?" He suddenly asked when Blaise grabbed his arm and turned sharply right, towards the Ravenclaw table.
"Oh, I had to discuss with Anthony about the Herbology project and our plan. I decided it wouldn't hurt you either to sit with the Ravenclaw's just for this one breakfast." Blaise said cheerily and dragged the now blank faced Harry towards the Ravenclaw's. Every one of them stopped eating for a few seconds when they saw the two Slytherins approaching, but soon returned to their books and conversations. Blaise boldly sat down opposite to a light brown haired boy and pulled Harry to sit next to her.
"Hi 'Thony! Have you finished finding out the information about the Alihotsy? I went to the library yesterday, but couldn't find a single piece of information!" Blaise let loose a dramatic sigh making the brown haired boy laugh a bit nervously. "I totally forgot! 'Thony, this is Harry Potter, Harry, meet my Herbology partner Anthony Goldstein."
It wasn't like Harry didn't know the boy's name; they did share a few same lessons. He just wasn't too keen on learning to know the other boy. His first intent was only to stare at the Ravenclaw student, but as he saw Blaise looking at him expectedly and mouthing "the plan", he knew he had no way out. Forcing an oddly true looking smile on his lips he shook Anthony's hand and repeated his name. It was 100 sure now, with Blaise on his side, the week was going to be torturous.
It was already near the curfew when Harry slide out of the common room to visit his head of the house. It had been exactly one week since they had their little chat and, hopefully, Snape had managed to find him the kind of snake he was looking for.
When Harry got closer to Snape's office he started to hear quiet music. Fist he thought he was hearing things, Hogwarts didn't seem like a place to cultivate normal music, but as he reached Snape's door it became clear that the music was coming from there.
Silently Harry stepped inside the office, but noticed it to be empty. The door to the left instead was slightly open. Harry walked to it and peeped inside. He froze to the doorway as he saw the most unimaginable view he could think of.
The greasy, unemotional, and stony potions' professor was sitting in the middle of the room playing a cello. And the tune was not still and creepy, as one might have thought, but lively and full of passion. The professor's head was bowed to listen to the music and his hair was hanging loose on his cheeks covering his half closed eyes. Snape's long fingers danced on the fingerboard with unbelievable speed and accuracy.
The tempo slowly increased and the music got louder until it suddenly stopped. The bow cracked to the floor as the Professor noticed his audience.
"Potter!"
"Hi Professor, I assume you forgot to put on the silencing spell?" Harry answered innocently. He was still a bit shocked inside. Severus Snape, that gloomy person was actually able to create something beautiful. And voluntarily on top of all.
"You speak of this to no-one, or your will be sitting with me in the detentions for the rest of the year!" Snape yelled still a bit shocked. He was becoming too careless.
"If my dear professor doesn't want me to talk about this, of course I keep this as a secret! But, you see, I might accidentally slip something at the Great Hall…" A mock of sorrow entered Harry's face. Before coming to Hogwarts he wouldn't have even thought about talking this straight to someone above him. He would have stayed silent, but kept the situation in his mind. Blaise had taught him to take advantage of every single chance, even if it was slightly risky. "But well, I think I'll manage to keep my mouth shut, for now. We will see what happens in the future… And the reason I came here tonight; the snake?"
Snape only frowned before gently putting the cello away and standing up. Without a word he exited his private chambers and returned to his office. As Harry followed Snape he saw him pull a square box from one of the shelves. Carefully Snape removed the red velvet cloth covering the box and signed Harry to step closer.
"This is Sistrurus ragutius, Crevice Snake. It actually belongs to the same house with the rattlesnakes, but is magical and more poisonous. It was nearly impossible to find, and I'm not going to risk loosing it here. Take a look." Snape lifted the top just enough Harry to see a glint of the snake. It was black with silvery blue markings and was only about one foot long.
"Do not let it escape when or if you open the box and remember that it's highly poisonous. I will personally hunt you down and make sure you get expelled if that thing of yours bites anyone. Understood?" Snape quickly handed the box to Harry. It seemed he was eager to get rid of it and Harry was only delighted to help him in that.
The speech astonished him a bit, though. If the professor thought him planning murdering someone or to be stupid enough to let dangerous snakes roam around the school, why had he agreed to give it to him? Well, it didn't matter anymore; he had what he wanted as well as some blackmail material for future use.
"By the way professor, why on earth are you playing cello?" he further asked when he was leaving the office.
"Some potions need acoustic waves to be brewed right and I don't quite trust my ability to sing the right notes…" the mumbled answer raised a smirk on Harry's lips, but luckily he got away from the office before Snape could see it.
TBC (?)
Two weeks is such a short time, you don't really have time to do anything during it, right? Ok, I know, it's just a matter of organizing the time . But here it comes the 8th chapter. It's a bit longer than the last one. The Snape part doesn't actually belong to this chapter, but it's there anyway. Do not ask about the cello, it has (?) an explanation.
Reviewers, Thank You! At least I know you are still reading, now I don't have to fish for reviews anymore. However, I still want to hear if something is wrong, good etc.
First thank goes right where it should go: to Dahlias! My life-saver (and should be yours as well, as you are saved from most of my grammar and spelling mistakes… )
C. Rose: I'm sorry for the length, but as I said, I write as much as fits to the chapter, I try not to force them to be longer than they want to be. Harry is going to choose only some of the names and there are families there.
Smartchic: It's actually totally AU (thought I'm not sure how one defines AU… (?))
Lord Master Omega: thanks, that explained it. I'm kind of new to this whole system…
loopy dane I just love the freedom!
captunivI THINK it was one, do not speculate too much :) the identity of the sender of the books will be revealed in the future. (is that even a sentence?)
lmill123: Gray is good, really good indeed…
aowyn: thanks for easing my mind!
nightwispno matter whether you did or not review earlier, thanks!
full moon waningthe quotes are written by me, they are actually Harry's thoughts... or they should be…
TopQuarkonly first year, Harry's only 11! So no any kind of romance for a while…
nonjonwow! reads it again WOW! Thanks for posting it, I enjoyed reading your "novel" and you were right ( I think) and managed to ease my mind. No making conclusions on the number of reviews :)
Shadowed RainsIt's going to start changing slowly, I hope I can keep your interest up
Debx: no plot revealing! But you are free to make guesses… ;)
Yzliose: Blaise thought mentioning Gryffs was irrelevant. They come along if they do, but it's no use try to turn them…
samuraiduck27 who said anything about not hanging around ron and hermy... :D ok, not likely…
Naruto-sama the kyuubiNo romance for a while, but I consider it in the far far future.
Limar: No runespore or basilisk, too showy for Harry next chapter you see just what kind of a snake he got…;)
pazedThanks! I try to update always when I can, but life is sometimes a bit hectic :)
SmeagleThanks for mentioning! I'll correct it when I repost the story, for now readers have to try to deal with it… I have to admit I didn't know the difference, so… sorry.
HecateDeMort:D I was kinda overestimating my 100-10 000, I do it a lot. I promise not to write shorter than 400 words / chapter.
And thanks to the following as well! For making me happy happy happy…
ERMonkey Burner of Cookies, i live in darkness9, 0.o, FroBoyDragoneroShadowfaceeternaltrekieNight-Owl123blazingfirewolfAnders1irgovagaul1anniePADFOOTpadfootstwin2EmySabathinsanechildfanficCamartsKaleena MasonSierra-FallsFangfoot
PS. I have some trouble with the format, it's always changing... help anybody?
