After classes, Harry had mostly gone back to his regular form. Black hairs had seeped into the curly brown and his eyes looked greener than blue. These changes were quite noticeable and were pointed out by Daphne.
"Uh, Alastair, your face," she gestured, pulling out her mirror. Harry gazed into the glass. His still-unrecognizable form was slowly turning back to normal.
"Oh, um, yah" Harry muttered, wondering what the heck he should do. On one hand, Harry could admit that he was the boy who lived. Unfortunately, that could risk his only Slytherin friend. On the other hand, he could always pretend to be Alastair for longer. After a moment Harry chose the former.
"Hey Daphne," he muttered, pulling on her sleeve.
"Yah Al," she said happily, skimming through her transfiguration homework.
"Um, I'm Harry Potter" he blurted.
Daphne blinked twice.
"I know," She said.
Harry gaped.
The Slytherin girl just shrugged.
"I just assumed your alter ego was Alastair, it was pretty obvious," she said.
For a minute they were silent. Harry coughed, snapping himself out of his trance.
"Anyway," said Daphne, "Now that you've cleared all this up-" she gestured at him "I can introduce you to my friends."
Harry had no chance to argue as she dragged him all the way from the library to the common room.
They soon reached the familiar stony wall. Harry was gasping for air, having run so much, but Daphne was smiling, not showing any signs of a heavy workout.
Daphne whispered the password and Harry was pulled through the tunnel. He was excited to see several Slytherin students reading or talking quietly.
It was oddly peaceful.
"Pansy!" Yelled Harry's friend, waving her over. The girl looked up from the comfy chair she inhabited, smiled at Daphne, and gave a questioning look at harry.
The black-haired-girl, Pansy, flicked her wand. At once squashy armchairs appeared, knocking them into the comfy green-leather, Another swish, and the chairs moved directly towards Pansy, stopping only when they were in a triangle.
"Hey Daphne!" the girl greeted.
"Hello!" The excited Slytherin girl said, finally letting go of Harry's wrist.
Harry gave Pansy a weak smile.
"Who are you?" said Pansy, not unkindly.
"Harry Potter," said Hary
Pansy looked from Harry to Daphne and burst out laughing.
"You look nothing like Potter," She giggled.
Harry looked at Daphne who shrugged and passed another mirror to him. Sure enough, he now had shoulder-length blond hair. He sighed, gazing at his reflection, willing it to turn back to normal.
The reflection obeyed. Quickly, his hair receded, the blond giving way for the shaggy black, Next, his blue eyes swirled, turned green, and his eyesight depleted.
"Accio Glasses" Harry muttered. His old frames flew from his cloak into his hand and he stuffed them on.
Pansy was open-mouthed. The shock was replaced by disgust, however, when she caught sight of Harry's frames. She snatched them from his face and gave them a once over.
She gazed up at Harry.
"Can I fix these abominations?" she asked in a tone that plainly said she wouldn't take no for an answer.
Harry nodded solemnly, hoping that they wouldn't be too bad afterward.
Pansy swished her wand around, charming the black frames to glimmer green in the light. She then jabbed her wand, placing two metal snakeheads just before the hinges.
"Scourgify," she muttered, pointing to the lenses.
She then handed them back to Harry who looked amazed.
"Now," she said, clapping her hands, "where were we"
Daphne snorted at Harry's face.
"We were making him a Slytherin" she stage-whispered.
Pansy smirked mischievously.
Harry gulped.
She then immediately started listing off Fabric for his new clothes, promising to take him shopping on the first Hogsmeade weekend. After Harry had sat through two hours of pure torture tactics for his old clothes, (burning, shredding, and even stabbing were considered.) they started discussing how to vanish his 'ugly lion tendencies'.
"A quick evanesco ought to do it," Pansy teased.
"I agree," said Daphne, eying the wide-eyed-and-terrified boy. Harry looked at them solemnly, he had always thought Voldemort would be his end, but Pansy and Daphne had gotten farther in the past 3 hours than Voldemort had the past 15 years.
"Draco, Blaise!" Pansy called. The two boys followed her over, grinning once they caught sight of Harry who was chained to the armchair.
"Potter," Blasie greeted.
"Potter" Malfoy greeted.
"Malfoy, Zabini,"
'Help me' Harry mouthed.
Harry watched as Zabini let out a chuckle and the corner of Malfoy's lips tilted upward.
"No can do," chuckled the dark-skinned Slytherin, "Once Pansy's got you only she can let you go"
Harry sighed in defeat.
"Besides," Malfoy smirked, "Now we can ask you about Umbridge,"
"The defense teacher?" Harry asked curiously, that old toad hadn't done anything interesting as far as he could see. Well, she had succeeded in putting everyone to sleep with her speech, but that was it.
Blaize nodded.
"Draco says she works for the ministry," He explained, "But none of us really no why she's here-"
"We have theories, of course," Malfoy interrupted, looking haughty, "But we thought the boy who lived could tell us more," Harry glared. Of course, they all suspected he would know everything, but nobody ever thought that maybe he was being kept oblivious.
"Well, she's senior secretary to the minister," Harry mumbled, squinting to remember her toad-like face. "So I would assume fudge sent her personally." Malfoy scoffed.
"Yes potter, surprising as it may seem, we had that bit figured out,"
Harry glared icily.
"Well, I don't know anymore-"
"It's fine," Daphne said, pointing reasonably at her schedule. "We have defense tomorrow anyway,"
They all nodded.
"Did you all finish McGonagall's assignment yet," asked Blaize enthusiastically, pulling out his paper? At once the attitude shifted, moving from tense to fun in a matter of seconds.
Harry smiled, perhaps Slytherin wasn't as bad as he thought.