Black rose from his chair and started to pace the kitchen. "I can´t believe you, Albus! You allowed my godson to be raised by a deatheater and used another one as his security net! They could have tortured him, killed him! Merlin knows the brain wash the boy underwent! No wonder he´s an arrogant git!"
"Sirius!" Mr. Lupin cried indignantly. "You´re talking about James´s son!"
"I´m talking about the little whippersnapper who´d call himself Malfoy if only he could come up with a legal reason! James would deny having anything to do with the little brat if he were here!"
"Sirius Black!" Molly Weasley raged. "This is a cruel thing to say to a child about his father! Take it back! Now!"
The rest of the order followed the exchange with interest, Ronald Weasley with glee.
Harry wished the floor would open and swallow him. Black had managed to humiliate him in front of the whole order again.
"James Potter is a dead man," he shouted defiantly. "I don´t remember him. My Father is Lucius Malfoy!"
"There!" cried Black. "Why don´t we send him back? He could worship their Dark Lord with the rest of the lot! Oh! I forgot! He can´t, because that monster would kill him on first sight! You know what? I understand him!"
"Sirius, what has become of bonding with the boy?" asked Mr. Lupin.
"I tried! I honestly tried, but he won´t even talk to me! Arrogant little snot!"
Harry couldn´t take any more. "Next time I see Father I will point out to him he forgot to teach me how to converse with a criminal!" He stormed out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
"Come back and apologize, you little...!" he heard Black cry behind him, but of course Harry ignored him.
Once in his room he paced in front of the small bed. It was ridiculous, two paces to the right, two paces to the left, but Harry felt the need to move.
"What upset you, little snake?" asked Phineas from his portrait.
Harry collapsed on the bed and covered his eyes with his forearm. "I´m stranded with people who hate me. They worship the ground my biological father walked on and resent me not being like him. I want my family!"
"You said your presence would put them in danger," Phineas pointed out.
"I know I have to stay, but it is so hard!"
The former headmaster hummed softly in understanding. "Why don´t you read for a bit? No use brooding over what you can´t change."
Harry scrambled up from his lying position. Phineas was right. He had to do something to distract himself.
-x-
Reading was not good enough. Harry put the book back to its hiding place under the bed and rummaged in his school trunk. Homework! That was it! He had to do something that required him to concentrate properly. It would make him forget Black and the Weasleys for a little while.
The boy decided to start with his Charms assignment. Professor Flitwick had assigned them a lenghty essay on mood changing charms. Harry rummaged for parchment and a quill and was surprised to find one eagle feather quill practically bouncing in his bookbag.
With a jolt of excitement Harry realised it was the quill he and Draco had used to cheat with homework. Was the spell strong enough to work over a long distance? Was Draco trying to contact him?
Harry unrolled some fresh parchment and set the quill on it. Never had he felt so happy as when the elegant feather danced over the parchment and left a message in Draco´s handwriting.
Hello! Are you there? I can´t write for long! Please be there! the quill wrote.
Draco? Harry wrote back.
Who else, stupid? Harry could imagine the blond´s smirk as he wrote this.
How are you doing? I´m caught here with Black and his friends!
Stop! Don´t tell me!
I won´t. Harry was not going to put Draco in danger. He must have a reason not to want to know the details.
I´m barely more than a prisoner here. I can´t even do magic. I got a warning from the ministry. Do you have any idea how they found out?
I guess they suspected Father of letting us do magic. They know you were removed from his household and probably surveilled you extra carefully. I wouldn´t put it past them to give you a warning on mere suspicion. Can they prove you did magic?
Harry thought about it. Several underage wizards had been present, but probably none of the Weasley boys had ever done magic at home. Gryffindors normally played by the rules. That made them so easy to get the upper hand of.
Now that you say it they probably just suspected me and Black affirmed it by not going against the warning. I have a moron for a godfather! How are Father and Mother?
It took Draco a while to answer that question. Probably he needed time to think what was safe to put in writing. Not so good. Father´s former associate turned up at the door and Father has been extremely worried and busy lately. Can you believe it? That associate is 16 at the most! I asked Father whether the guy had been a baby last they worked, but Father wouldn´t answer. Mother misses you dearly. They both told me to tell you they love you.
Tell them I miss them!
I will! I have to stop now. I heard the door. It seems Father and that guy are back. I don´t dare write while he´s here. He´s creepy!
Harry stared at the parchment waiting for Draco to write more, but he didn´t. The boy wasn´t sure whether to be happy or scared. He had found a way to communicate with Draco, but it seemed Lord Voldemort had taken up residence at Malfoy Manor. Harry felt uncomfortable knowing that his family was so close to the evil wizard. Had he found out yet that Father had taken Harry in?
The thought of Father being hurt scared Harry. And Draco! Harry was so worried! He couldn´t find the strenght to write about mood changing charms. But he definitely could do with one himself.
-x-
In the end having talked to Draco outweighed the fear and for the first time in weeks Harry fell asleep happy. He couldn´t find the strenght to destroy the parchment Draco had written on although he was aware that it would be the Slytherin way of action. So he tucked it under his pillow and fell asleep with a smile.
When he woke, Harry was determined not to give Black the satisfaction of belittling him any further and stayed in his room despite Mrs. Weasleys calls to breakfast. It was past lunch time – nobody had cared to call him for lunch after he had missed breakfast – when there was a soft knock at the door.
Harry didn´t respond, hoping the person outside would go away if he stayed quiet. Of course, he should have guessed that no Gryffindor would understand a subtle hint like continued silence. The door opened without invitation and Mr. Lupin walked in. The man carried a small tray, which held a plate with buttered bread and a glass of pumpkin juice. The fitting meal for a prisoner.
Mr. Lupin set the tray on Harry´s desk and sat on the chair, uninvited.
"You don´t gain anything by starving yourself," the wizard started the conversation Harry was determined not to participate in. Mr. Lupin smiled kindly. Harry was startled by how young the man looked when he smiled. He had always thought of him being older than Black, somewhere between Mr. Weasley and Mr. Moody in age, but now the looked younger than those two.
"How old are you?" Harry heard himself ask before he remembered he wanted to stay silent.
Mr. Lupin chuckled at the question. "33. I was at Hogwarts with your parents."
Harry hung his head. Another person who worshipped his biological parents. A person who expected him to do the same although he didn´t remember them.
"This is not easy for Sirius," said Mr. Lupin, "and even less so for you."
Harry looked up and met the man´s eyes.
"James was Sirius´s best friend. They were closer than any of them was to me or," he hesitated, "Peter." For a moment, Mr. Lupin looked incredibly sad. "You, Harry, look so very much like James. Has anybody ever told you?" He pulled a small frame from the pocket of his shabby jacket and handed it to Harry. "You are James´s spitting image, but for the eyes."
Harry took the picture frame hesitantly. A man and a woman were in it. The man looked like Harry was certainly going to look in a few years. He had the same black hair in need of a decent haircut, the same nose, the same mouth. The only difference was that the man had warm hazel eyes, not Harry´s green ones. The woman in the picture had Harry´s eyes. They went well with her wavy red hair and her light – nearly pale – skin. The woman in the picture held a small brown teddy bear. She and the man beamed at the photographer, then looked down at the bear and turned to each other to share a loving kiss.
"It was taken the day they learned Lily was expecting," said Mr. Lupin. "We celebrated all night, and to be honest, James, Sirius, Peter and I were quite drunk once we were done welcoming you. Lily wouldn´t touch a drop. She was so protective of you from the first moment on."
Harry swallowed hard. He didn´t remember these people, but it was more difficult not to care now that he had seen their picture and heard about them. He extended his hand holding the picture.
"No, Harry, keep it." Mr. Lupin smiled weakly. "I have them in my heart. I understand that you don´t remember them and that you filled their spot in your heart with people who were there for you. But they don´t deserve to be entirely forgotten."
"Thank you," Harry returned the smile shyly. Nobody had ever spoken about his biological parents to him like that. Like they were people, not heroes.
Mr. Lupin left without another word. Harry put the small picture on his bedside table and then sat at his desk to eat the meagre meal the man had brought. He looked over at the happy man and woman while he chewed his bread. In midchew, Harry jumped up and removed the picture to stuff it into his trunk. It was just wrong, having a framed picture of strange people on his bedside table while he didn´t have one of Mother and Father.
-x-
Harry returned to the kitchen the next morning. Nobody mentioned his absence for a day. After breakfast, Harry nicked the society part of the Daily Prophet. He leaved through it back in the safety of his room.
There! Mother and Father smiled from the newspaper. Harry cut the picture out and spent most of the day making a frame for it. It was difficult without his wand, but by dinner time he had a makeshift picture frame standing on his bedside table. Harry viewed his work happily. Content with the result, he retrieved the picture Mr. Lupin had given him from the trunk and set it beside Mother and Father.
The Potters had a more beautiful frame, which felt a bit wrong, but Harry promised the Malfoys silently to improve theirs once he was able to use his wand. He pushed the Potters a bit back to make up for their advantage in framing.
-x-
Uncle Severus showed up during dinner. He looked paler than Harry remembered seeing him and only then the boy remembered Black calling the potions master a deatheater. Had Uncle Severus been to see Lord Voldemort? Had he seen Father?
Mrs. Weasley placed a plate in front of Uncle Severus and the man nibbled at some of the food. Harry watched him, worried. He didn´t think the potions master´s lack of appetite had to do with Mrs. Weasley´s poor cooking abilities (potatoes for the third time within a week and it was only Wednesday!).
After the meal, the children were sent to the library. Normally Harry would have hidden away in his room, but he wanted to ask Uncle Severus about Father, so he followed the Weasley boys to the library.
Percival sat in an armchair with a book on the History of Magical Law. The twins lay on the rug with a game of exploding snap and Ronald sat on the sofa. He stretched his bad leg and sighed. Harry walked to the book shelf and chose a tome that would not give the other boys reason to pick on him. Hogwarts a History seemed harmless enough.
When he returned to the group, Harry realised that he had to either sit on the rug with the twins or share the sofa with Ronald. Of course, Malfoys never sat on the carpet (unless with other Malfoys), so there wasn´t really a choice.
"Not so high and mighty, are we?" Ronald said maliciously when Harry sat. "How does it feel to realise that you were raised by the enemy? Deatheaters, all of them. They may even have helped to kill your family."
"My Mother and Father haven´t killed anybody."
Ronald laughed mirthlessly. "Your father was a deatheater the first time and he will be one the second time. That monster killed my sister, but your father," he spat the word as if it was a curse, "will worship him for it. And Snape!" Ronald smirked. "He´s You Know Who´s lapdog just like your father! They probably only took you in to give you to him when he returns."
"They didn´t!" cried Harry. His family loved him.
"They did. You will see." That said, Ronald got up and limped to the book shelf. He returned with a huge tome on hippogryffs behind which he hid without so much as looking at Harry.
-x-
Uncle Severus came to the library late that night. The Weasley boys had long retired and even Harry had been considering giving up. The boy could barely keep his eyes open.
"Harry," Uncle Severus sat on the spot Ronald had vacated half an hour earlier.
"Is it true?" Harry asked, desperate to hear the potions master deny it, "Are you and Father deatheaters?"
Uncle Severus hesitated. "You deserve the truth," he said after a short pause. "Please, hear me out. I am a deatheater and so is your Father. I joined when I was very young and I soon realised my mistake. I worked as a spy for the headmaster since before the Potters died. You know that I worked to protect you all those years."
Harry bit his lip. Was Uncle Severus telling the truth? Or was he just saying this to gain Harry´s trust and be able to bring him to his Dark Lord at the first occasion? True, the potions master had always been kind and Harry loved him dearly, but had it all been a clever plan to fool Harry and get him killed? Harry was not fooled by the fact that the man had spent years keeping up appearances. Slytherins were sly and cunning and they bade their time if they had to. Years were nothing to a Slytherin on a mission as long as the mission promised wealth, power and glory.
"And Father?"
"As we told you earlier. He was a deatheater and he still is, but we think he loves you. His plan backfired on him. I saw him when I was called. He´s worried. The Dark Lord praised him in front of his deatheaters for the original plan to raise you and hand you over, but he´s not pleased about the turn events took. I don´t have proof, but I think the Dark Lord suspects Lucius´s new loyalties and practically made Draco his hostage for Lucius´s full-hearted service."
Harry gasped. The Dark Lord was a threat to his family! He had to help fighting him!
"What did you find out when you were called?"
Uncle Severus sighed. "The headmaster won´t be pleased if I tell you. You´re too young."
"I wouldn´t chose to join a war at this age," Harry admitted. "But did I ever have a choice?"
"No," admitted Uncle Severus. "So be it." He closed his eyes. "I found out the names of two dozens of deatheaters. Nobody new, of course, so shortly after his resurrection, but we were not up to date with deaths and who´s still in Azkaban and who not. Two or three reacted badly to finding their Lord a 16 year old boy. They are dead."
"How did he even know about his own organisation? Does he have his adult mind in that 16 year old body?"
Uncle Severus shook his head. "His mind is as young as his body. He made Ginevra Weasley check out a book on the first war from the Hogwarts library. Nobody thought to check when they examined her belongings. He escaped from the castle in the racket after the new writing was discovered. He wore an old school uniform, he probably used the book to look even more like a student. His colours were Slytherin. Nobody found it strange to see a Slytherin go downstairs although everybody else went up to see what had happened. It took him barely a month to read the book and investigate further. He turned up at Malfoy Manor only a day after his resurrection. You know what that means."
Harry nodded. It was difficult to speak, his tongue felt like lead. "He would have killed me if Dumbledore hadn´t acted so fast."
Uncle Severus nodded. "By using Black to hide you, the headmaster saved the Malfoys´ lives. Black was the only valid excuse for not handing you over to him immediately. Harry, this situation is very complicated. You have to be very careful and patient. It may take years to sort this out."
"I will be patient." Years were nothing to a Slytherin with the proper reward.
-x-
Harry´s thirteenth birthday was sad without his family. Black arranged a small birthday party, but as Uncle Severus wasn´t there (he was now called almost on a daily basis), Harry couldn´t have cared less.
Nobody really wanted to be there. People were being polite, but most of them did a poor job at showing a merry face. Harry was given a lot of rubbish (Mrs. Weasley had actually knitted him a jumper! The most scratchy thing he´d ever been forced to touch. Dobby wouldn´t even use it as a cleaning cloth.) and some sweets (the cheap sort) and no proper present at all.
The boy left the party as soon as it wouldn´t be considered more rude than necessary. He obediently thanked the guests for the presents, cut the cake (A sticky chocolate thing, probably made by Mrs. Weasley. Didn´t those people buy anything?) and then left for his room without taking any of his presents with him.
When he came down for breakfast the next day, the rubbish was gone. Probably thanks to Kreacher, who was the only living being with a sense of style in the house.
-x-
Harry´s only rays of hope were stolen conversations on pieces of parchment with Draco. The blond wrote whenever the evil wizard left the house, which wasn´t very often. Deatheater meetings were now held at the manor. Harry could imagine how much Mother suffered to have her ballroom turned into a torture chamber.
Draco mentioned the deatheaters bringing mudbloods and muggles to the house and that he heard screams. The blond didn´t sound so enthusiastic about blood purity any longer.
Harry tried to imagine what it must be like to be upstairs in his room and listen to the screams of those who had been captured.
The Order members sometimes mentioned deaths, but they always fell quiet when they realised one of the children was listening.
-x-
An absolutely miserable August gave way to what was going an even more miserable September. Harry had been looking forward to returning to Hogwarts as Draco was going to be there, but his hopes were scattered in the evening of August, 31st.
"Harry," Dumbledore said in greeting as he entered Harry´s small room. He watched the boy pack his trunk silently for a while. "Let me assist you," the old man finally broke the silence. He pointed his wand at Harry´s trunk and with dread the boy had to watch his Slytherin crest change to a Gryffindor one.
"What are you doing?" cried Harry.
"We had to make some changes," the headmaster said matter of factly. "According to my sources, there´s a total of 21 children of loyal deatheaters in Slytherin house. You´d be in grave danger there. Therefore I used my privilege of headmaster to move you to Gryffindor."
"What?" Harry´s voice went up as high it would go.
"We can protect you in Gryffindor. There are no know deatheater children and your new housemates are brave. They will help keeping you safe."
"You can´t be serious!" cried Harry. "I like being a Slytherin! All my friends are there. Draco is there!"
"You have friends in Gryffindor, too, Harry. Just think of the Weasleys."
Harry snorted.
If the boy had thought that he had heard the worst, he was mistaken. At dinner, Dumbledore announced to the rest of the Order that they couldn´t come and go whenever they liked in the future. Sirius Black, master of the house, would not be at home.
"Sirius agreed to teach Care of Magical Creatures in order to be near young Harry and protect him." Dumbledore beamed. The Weasley boys cheered. The abominable twins had found a kindred spirit in Black. The headmaster waited for the applause to calm down before he continued. "And Remus Lupin will teach Defense Against the Dark Arts!" There were more cheers, but Harry felt like suffocating.
-x-
The ride on the Hogwarts Express alone didn´t bode well for the school year. Black and Lupin joined the students on the train and insisted Harry sat with them. The boy tried to sneak away to see Draco, pretending he needed the loo, and Black actually got up from his seat and went with him! All Harry could do was really go to the washroom. He saw Draco in passing. The blond looked pale, but at least he shared a compartment with Gregory, Vincent and Pansy! They were playing Exploding Snap. Not that Harry liked the game, but he would have given an arm for being able to join them.
-x-
Harry had to sit with the Gryffindors at the feast, and to his utter humiliation, Black ushered him to his chair personally! The Gryffindors smirked at their new house mate and the Hufflepuffs at the next table chuckled at the sight. From the other side of the hall Draco smiled, looking sorry for Harry.
"What are you doing here, Potter?" Granger sat beside Harry. "Did they finally catch up and find out that you´re not a pureblood?" She chuckled cruelly. "Well, you´ll find out too soon that we´re not as dense as you take us for. We know that you´re too snobbish and arrogant for Gryffindor."
"Believe me," Harry drawled back, "I´d not be here if I could help it." How he was going to survive in Gryffindor was beyond him. Well, at least he was going to see Draco in lessons. They had chosen the same subjects, Arithmancy, Runes and Care of Magical Creatures. Knowledge a young wizard of breeding needed to further his wealth and the influence of his family.
After the feast Harry followed Ronald Weasley up the stairs to Gryffindor tower. Their Common Room was quite nice, though not as stylish and elegant as Slytherin´s. Harry´s bed was the fourth in the third year boys´ dormitory. There were also Weasley, Longbottom and Thomas. Harry´s trunk stood in front of a bed in the far corner of the room.
Harry drew his wand. There was a spot big enough for his bed in front of the window, so why would he sleep in a dark corner.
"Don´t you dare!" hissed Weasley. "This is Seamus´s place!"
With a sigh the former Slytherin pocketed his wand. It seemed unwise to anger the boys in whose presence he had to sleep.
Things got worse the next morning. Professor McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor, handed out timetables. She smiled kindly at Harry when she handed him his. The boy remembered how offended she had acted when he had been sorted into Slytherin. As far as the transfiguration teacher was concerned, Harry had been returned to his rightful place.
"Madam!" Harry called after her after a quick glance at the timetable in his hand.
"Yes, Potter?" the witch returned to Harry´s seat.
"There´s something wrong with my schedule. These are not the subjects I chose!"
"I know, Potter. But seeing the circumstances, Professor Dumbledore allowed your guardian to change your choice after the deadline."
"What? I don´t want to change my subjects!"
"This is for your guardian to decide," the witch clarified.
"But he signed me up for Divination and Muggle Studies! Care of Magical Creatures is the only decent subject left!" He brandished the timetable angrily.
"Mr. Potter," McGonagall whispered urgently after stepping closer so they wouldn´t be overheard. "Divination and Muggle Studies are the only subjects with no Slytherins in them and Care of Magical Creatures is tought by Professor Black himself. You must realise that everything is done for your protection!"
No Slytherins? Harry looked dumbfounded. He stared down at the timetable and his heart sank. There was not a single Slytherin and Gryffindor lesson the whole week! He was going to see Draco only twice a week, in Care of Magical Creatures!
-x-
The first lesson of the year was Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws. McGonagall ordered them to team up in pairs. The Ravenclaw students found their partners within their own house instantly and Harry was left to team up with a Gryffindor. Longbottom teamed up with Thomas and Weasley practically jumped at Brown in order not to be left to work with Harry. As a result Granger remained without a partner. She glared at Weasley and Brown angrily. Both shrugged at her and the girl sat with Harry grudgingly.
"Don´t you dare spoil this assignment! I intend to get top marks," the mudblood hissed at Harry angrily. The boy didn´t deign her with an answer.
"Today we´ll do some repetition from last year. You weren´t allowed to use your wands all summer, so better get yourselves reacquainted with it. Each pair receives a hazel nut to work with." At a swish of her wand a handful of nuts whooshed to the students´ tables. "On the blackboard you find a list of transfigurations I want you to perform. You will work on your nut in turn. So Mr. Weasley, you will transfigure the nut into a goblet, Miss Brown, you will turn the goblet into a stocking and so on. Understood?"
The class nodded.
"You have one hour to practice. We´ll use the last thirty minutes for a little contest. The pair to show all required transfigurations fastest will earn a reward. Start practicing!"
Harry pointed his wand at the nut and turned it into a goblet without waiting for Granger´s sign that she was ready. Just to annoy the girl, he performed the spell wordlessly. Father had started teaching him and Draco wordless magic at Christmas. Harry wasn´t very good at it yet, but certainly good enough to irritate the mudblood. He smirked when Granger´s eyes went big as saucers.
The girl recovered quickly however. She cried her spell and the goblet changed into a stocking, which Harry turned into a rubber duck immediately.
"We may have a chance to win," Granger pointed out after she had turned the rubber duck into a candle.
"Some of the Ravenclaws aren´t bad," Harry pointed out, transfiguring the candle into a quill.
The quill became a wizard´s hat. "We´re faster even though we speak between spells," Granger aimed at the quill Harry had just made and turned it into a key.
The Slytherin – Harry refused to think about himself as a Gryffindor – turned the key into cup like McGonagall had required. "For the reward´s sake, we should work together," he offered. It was the Slytherin thing to do.
Granger agreed and made a chamber pot from the cup.
At the end of the lesson Harry and the mudblood won a small bag of cheap fudge. Hadn´t it been for the fact that he didn´t want Granger to enjoy herself too much, Harry would have refused to eat any of it.
-x-
Still, Harry hadn´t seen the worst of his new life yet. It seemed that his life was on a steep slope and he was sliding down with increasing speed and no option to stop his fall.
In Charms Harry found himself in the middle of a row with no escape. Professor Flitwick, too, had assigned the class to work in pairs, but unlike in Transfiguration, the Gryffindors started a vicious fight over who had to work with "the slimy brat". The tiny professor tried to stop the commotion verbally first and, when that didn´t work, fired some minor spells at the quarrelling Gryffindors. He made Weasley of all people work with Harry and then went to the other side of the classroom to assist his Ravenclaws.
Unnecessary to mention that cooperation with Weasley was an impossible task. The redhead had no control over his magic if Harry was to judge. His cheering charms were too strong and sent the Slytherin into hysterics, much to the amusement of Weasley and the whole Gryffindor lot. Harry retaliated with tickling jinxes. Gryffindor lost a not too small amount of points for "fooling around instead of following clear orders".
On the way out, Weasley and every other Gryffindor boy ran into Harry ´by accident´, leaving the boy rubbing his hurting arm.
After lunch – Draco waved from the Slytherin table, but Harry felt so miserable, it wasn´t enough to cheer him up – Harry dragged his feet up to the North Tower, where the resident seer had her classroom. Although Harry, like most pureblood wizards, believed in prophecies and divination, he also knew that the inner eye was an extremely rare gift. Therefore, he was not going to believe in Sybil Trelawneys abilities lightly.
Five minutes in the classroom made it clear that the woman was a fraud. She worked with all kinds of tricks to build an atmosphere of secret and hiding. The air was heavily perfumed making everybody dizzy, the room wasn´t properly lit and every single item in it – be it furniture, decoration or a simple thing as a teacup – was unnecessarily fuzzy, laced, beflowered or gaudily coloured. There wasn´t a single straight line or something that could be counted as a colour concept. It was like being in a stinking, dense cloud. Harry supposed it was what muggles, mudbloods and people of low magical endowment considered a seer to be like.
To Harry, who had profited from a proper magical education from a young age, the woman herself made the impression of a crazy alcoholic. Maybe, he mused, the perfume was there to cover other scents.
The first thing the woman did, was read out their names and give everybody their little prediction. Weasley was going – according to the seer – to fall down a flight of stairs (not too improbable with his bad leg and annoying the resident Slytherin), Brown was to get bad news. Whatever happened to Longbottom would also concern his grandmother, and Granger was advised to beware of a snake (Shamira giggled in Harry´s sleeve when he translated the prediction in a barely hearable hiss).
"Oh, and Mr. Potter!" Trelawney cried in a hushed voice. "I knew you would enroll for the course late. I saw it in the stars that you were going to learn in this classroom before you entered Hogwarts." She stepped closer and grabbed Harry´s hand without asking for permission. Shamira attacked fast.
Trelawney jumped back with a shriek and cluthed her bleeding hand.
"The Hospital Wing!" Harry threw some of the floo powder from the mantle into the heavily perfumed flames. "Madame Pomfrey! Professor Trelawney needs the antidote to snake venom Professor Snape brought last week!"
The matron came through the floo and hurried over to see where the Divination teacher had been bitten. She administered a drop of the antidote, before she turned back to Harry. "Really, Potter," she scolded angrily, "you should have known better than to bring that snake to your lessons! The headmaster will have his say in this. Come!"
Harry couldn´t find it in himself to dread the meeting with the old wizard. Firstly, he was glad to escape the fraud´s classroom, and secondly, the headmaster wanted to keep him safe. Shamira was – all problems aside – a wonderful protector.
"You will be expelled, Potter!" cried Trelawney after him. "I´m not surprised. That´s why I didn´t prepare a teacup for you although I knew you would come to the lesson."
"Are we in trouble, Master?" Shamira asked, subdued.
"No," said Harry. "you protected me. The headmaster won´t be cross."
-x-
"This will not be discussed!" Dumbledore cut Harry short. "You can´t walk around the school with a dangerous reptile up your sleeve!"
"But she protected me! Don´t you want to ensure my safety?"
"You are perfectly safe at Hogwarts! I trust my teachers implicitely."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Quirrell?" he asked pointedly.
"That was an exception," muttered Dumbledore.
"Well, I´ll feel so much better to know it won´t happen again when I´m killed by an exception," sneered Harry, giving the headmaster his most arrogant Malfoy face.
"Harry," the headmaster said tiredly, "your snake nearly killed Professor Trelawney."
"She thought I was attacked!" Harry smirked. "Besides, I am the child of the prophecy. Professor Trelawney is a third-class witch who specialised in the one branch of magic where she hopes to be able to hide her incompetence." The boy sneered at the old wizard. "You won´t risk my safety for the old fraud, will you?"
"Professor Trelawney is a Hogwarts teacher. She deserves your respect!" Dumbledore scolded.
Harry snorted. "My snake did nothing wrong," he insisted.
Dumbledore stroked his beard, deep in thought. "If she bites one more person, she´ll have to go!"
Harry nodded. "I´ll tell her." He switched to parseltongue and explained to an anxious Shamira what the headmaster had said.
"I will be good," promised the snake. "But anybody who attacks you, will have to answer me!"
"Shamira, let me defend myself first and bite only when you see that I´m losing the fight and my life is in danger."
The snake promised to do as Harry ordered and the boy was allowed to return to his class. By the time he got there, the lesson was nearly over. Trelawney had him drink tea and hand over his cup.
"As there´s not enough time left for you to uncover the future yourself, I will do it for you. You will look up what I used and write an extra foot of homework on it," the witch ordered. "Aaaaargh!" She dropped the cup and jumped back. The cup shattered on the floor.
"Oh, you poor, poor boy!" the seer muttered.
"Professor, what did you see?" asked Brown, eager to hear bad news for Harry.
"Potter, you have the Grim! – I assume it will be that reptile who will cause your early death."
The present Hufflepuffs – Divination was never taken by Ravenclaws or Slytherins – gasped, the Gryffindors smirked.
Harry was glad that the last lesson of the day was to be Potions. At least he was going to see one reasonable human being.
-x-
Uncle Severus didn´t mess around with letting the class decide who was going to work with whom. He waved his wand at the blackboard and a list of teams appeared. Harry smiled at the older wizard. Leave it to the Head of Slytherin to look out for one of his little snakes.
The boy went to sit with Ernie Macmillan, a Hufflepuff pureblood.
"Hello, I´m pleased to work with you," the other boy greeted Harry rather pompously. "You´re said to be good at potions. I hope we´ll do well together."
"I will certainly do what I can to earn us top marks," Harry replied equally earnestly and hinted a bow like Father had taught him to acknowledge the presence of a wizard of proper breeding.
Ernie smiled and started to lay out his tools on their worktable. Harry followed the other boy´s lead. Uncle Severus meanwhile replaced the team lists with a potion recipe.
"Furuncle salve?" Ernie muttered. "Bet on Snape to not give us time to readjust to school. I´ll get the herbs we need. Would you mind getting the rest?"
Harry walked over to the store cupboard silently and picked powdered chalk, cat whiskers, ink of squid and goldfish scales.
Ernie was back with several pouches of dried herbs when the boy returned to their table. The other boy had already put up a cauldron with water and stood by the mortar, waiting for his partner to return.
The boys worked in comfortable silence. Ernie was a diligent worker and appreciated Harry´s suggestions with small smiles. It was not as good as working with Draco would have been, but it definitely was an improvement to working with Granger or Weasley.
"Good work," praised the Hufflepuff when they had handed in a vial of their brew for grading. "It was a pleasure to work with you and I wouldn´t mind repeating it."
"The pleasure would be mine," replied Harry. At least Potions wasn´t going to be a problem.
"Mr. Potter, please stay behind," ordered Uncle Severus when the class filed out of the dungeons classroom.
Harry obeyed gladly. He hoped the wizard would be able to tell him about his family.
"Harry," Uncle Severus said when the last Gryffindor had closed the door behind him. "I heaerd from Albus that you´re not doing too well in Gryffindor. Is it true?"
"How can I do well when I´m surrounded by mudbloods and near-squibs, blood traitors and fools?" Harry asked bitterly. He wanted to return to Slytherin, where he felt at home and where his brother was.
Uncle Severus smiled sadly. "I know it is hard for you, but you have to be wise! Harry, you are a Slytherin! Don´t pout about your enemy´s weaknesses, use them! Make them your friends, let their strengths work for you! Didn't Lucius teach you anything? You're a Malfoy by education, not a moping little boy!"
Harry hung his head. The potions master was right. He should have used his Slytherin cunning! Instead he had spent the summer grieving his situation and not doing anything to improve it. Determined to change that, he squared his shoulders.
"That's better," Uncle Severus said softly. "You know, a Slytherin can act for a Gryffindor, but never the other way round. Use your brains, use what Lucius taught you. – And be careful with that snake of yours. The headmaster will order her killed if she hurts another person."
"I will," Harry promised solemnly. Feeling slightly better, he set out to find his new housemates.
