Thoughts: 'Blah. Blah. Blah.'
Flashback: Blah. Blah. Blah. ( [END]FLASHBACK before/after them)
Hedwig: "Blah. Blah. Blah."
Parseltongue: {Blah. Blah. Blah.}
Letters/Articles/Writing: Blah. Blah. Blah.
Chapter 15
Harry can't breathe. He takes note of this fact quite quickly after he regains consciousness. There is a pressure on his chest which must be the source of his current dilemma. However, and this is the most pressing issue: He must open his eyes to solve the mystery that is his current inability to take in oxygen. And that, that just won't do. 'I guess today is the day I die. So long cruel world, take me away from this mortal plain of existence.' Suddenly he feels a pecking on his forehead. 'Oh.' Yes, yes, he knows. Stop being melodramatic, Harry. Start being concerned about your own health, Harry. Be normal, Harry. Blah, blah, blah. Rubbish, all of it.
Harry cracks an eye open, attempting to put as much heat and aggression as possible into his one-eyed glare. From Harry's perspective, he is absolutely terrifying. From everyone else's perspective, he just looks like an idiot. "What." Harry's words are full of malice and directed towards the creature who has just pulled him from his blissful slumber.
"Nothing. I just felt like annoying you for some reason." Hedwig preens, laughing at Harry and his ineffective scare tactics.
"I hope you know how much I hate you." Harry shoos Hedwig from his chest and sits up, checking the time which reads 6:04 am.
"Aw, Hatchling, I love you too." Hedwig trills loudly.
"Hush, would you? If you wake the others up there'll be hell to pay." Harry quickly shushes his familiar, hoping to avoid any sort of conflict with an enraged, sleep deprived Draco Malfoy. Been there, done that, have the postcard.
Harry decides that there is no use trying to fall back asleep. Either way, Harry has the distinct feeling that Hedwig won't let him and will probably end up sitting on his face this time instead of his chest just to prove a point. Which Harry understands. If he were an owl, he would probably do the same thing. Don't question it, just walk away and accept the crazy.
Harry actually hasn't spent much time with his familiar since school began. With his investigation into Nicholas Flamel, on top of the mounds of homework his professors seem to enjoy dishing out, he just hasn't been able to find a moment of peace. Now that he thinks about it, this is probably why Hedwig woke him up like this. 'Great, an intervention. Just what I need.' If Harry had the energy to roll his eyes he would, but as it is he is just too tired for his sarcasm to function properly. It's a shame, really. He'll probably look back on this morning later today and find dozens of missed opportunities.
Harry fumbles his way out of bed and pads down to the deserted Slytherin common room, Hedwig trailing behind him. He sits at his usual spot by the fireplace and makes himself comfortable as Hedwig takes her place on his shoulder. Through their bond, Harry feels an underlying hint of unease among Hedwig's usual mischievous personality.
"So what's really going on?" Harry asks, his voice barely above a whisper in an attempt to keep everyone soundly in their beds.
"We are stronger together, Hatchling. Your understanding of this is more important now than it has ever been. Your enemies are closing in, ready to block you off on all sides and I won't be able to help you unless you trust me." Hedwig turns her intelligent amber eyes toward Harry as she speaks, further enforcing her stern declaration.
"I do trust you!" Harry seems to forget that he is trying not to wake anyone because he lets loose an indignant shout in response. He realizes his mistake and tenses, freezing in place as he strains his hearing for any sound of movement. He hears nothing and quickly turns his attention back to Hedwig. "I do trust you." He repeats, this time softer, his voice losing the indignant tone.
"Then start acting like it." Hedwig states simply, maintaining eye contact.
"You're right; I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, I do miss you." Harry brings his hand up to stroke the side of Hedwig's neck. Hedwig nips at his finger playfully, trilling softly.
"I must go now. I will see you soon." Hedwig spreads her wings and takes off, heading for the owlery. Somehow, Harry misses how she exits the common room, only adding to the mystery.
'One day I am going to figure out how she does that.' Harry walks back down the stairs to his dormitory, finding Draco awake and sitting on the side of his bed.
"Morning!" Harry chirps at his friend.
"Yeah." Draco rasps out, voice heavy and slurred from sleep. Draco furrows his brows and then slowly opens his eyes, his blurry gaze taking in the still dark room. Once Draco's brain regains the ability to function at a semi-acceptable level, which takes longer than the blond would like to admit, he takes in his friend's oddly chipper mood. Not that Harry is generally bathing in a pit of neverending melancholy, quite the opposite actually, but he is definitely not known for being what one would call a "morning person". Draco has the scars to prove it. Metaphorically, of course. Well, except for that one time toward the beginning of the year when the ravenette had sent him flying half way across the room, landing him squarely on his bed, where he then proceeded to flip over himself and onto the floor in a comical display that sent his other two roommates into a fit of what could only be called "giggles". Yeah, that's a mistake you only make once.
"Well someone's bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning." Draco stands, breathing deeply as he stretches his arms above his head. Draco cranes his neck, trying to look at his friend who has descended to the floor on the other side of his bed.
Harry pops up from the floor just enough so that Draco can see the somewhat manic expression that has overtaken his features. "Why yes, Draco! And do you want to know why?" Harry's head disappears once more. "Because today-," Harry pauses, tossing something behind him, "-is a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and- Aha!" Harry cuts his tirade short, obviously having found what he's looking for.
Draco hears groaning from the other side of the room and turns around, noticing Blaise sitting up in bed with his eyes closed. "It is 6:30 in the bloody morning, Harry. For the love of everything holy. Shut. Up." Blaise flops back down and turns toward the wall, pulling the blankets up over his head to protect himself from the wrath of consciousness.
Theo unwraps his arm from the sheets and points it menacingly at Harry, whose head is once again visible. "What he said." Theo narrows his eyes at Harry, slowly drawing his hand back underneath the covers before following Blaise's lead and bundling his green comforter up around his head.
Draco looks back at Harry, he can still only see the idiot's head, and takes in his wide-eyes and open mouth. His gaze moves from Harry's face to his arm, which Draco has just noticed is suspended in the air about 3 inches above Harry's head. In Harry's hand is a medium length chain with a snake pendant attached to it. The emerald eyes of the silver snake glitter in the early morning light.
Draco looks at Harry, and Harry looks at Draco. Everything is silent…
Draco pounces. "I KNEW IT WAS YOU!" The blond vaults over Harry's bed and nearly lands on top of him, Harry having scrambled backward at the last possible moment. Draco collects himself and rushes at Harry who is attempting to get himself into a standing position. Draco pins Harry's legs down and Harry crashes to the floor, somehow still holding onto the necklace which is now clutched in-between both hands and pressed against his chest. Harry scoots back until his back is against the wall, kicking at Draco as he crawls closer.
"Give it!" Draco reaches for the necklace and it is swiftly lifted out of his reach. Draco tries to hoist himself up to grab it, but Harry puts his other hand on Draco's shoulder, effectively keeping in place.
"No!" Harry yelps indignantly, struggling to keep Draco on the floor with one hand while holding the necklace with the other.
Draco makes grabby hands at the trinket, propelling himself upward a small distance each time his fingers clasp together in an attempt to take it from Harry. "Give it to me!" Draco yells, louder this time.
"No! It's mine!" Harry easily matches Draco's volume as they continue to struggle against each other.
"No, it isn't! Now give it, Potter!"
"I found it!"
"It's Pansy's and you know it!"
"Who's Pansy?" Harry breaks free from Draco's grasp and scurries into a standing position. "I don't know that name, Draco. You must be confuse-" Harry is cut off when Draco grabs the necklace and pulls. Since neither boy lets go, they both end up sprawled on the floor, Harry half on top of Draco. The necklace goes flying. There is a pause in the chaos where the two boys alternate between looking at the necklace and looking at each other…
Harry lunges.
"Oh no you don't!" Draco follows suit and soon they are clambering across the floor toward the necklace, elbowing each other and pulling on each other's hair in an attempt to reach it first. They reach it at the same time, but before one of them can claim victory the shiny trinket it snatched from the floor and a set of bare feet stomp into view. Harry and Draco are laying flat on their stomachs, each with one elbow underneath their chest and the other poised and ready to strike with brutal force at their enemy. They slowly lift their heads, straining to see who is standing above them.
"If the two of you don't shut up I am going to lose my ever-loving mind! What the bloody hell could be so important about this ruddy necklace that it merits this level of dramatics at 6:30 in the morning!" Blaise has his hands outstretched, his right clutching the necklace and his left curled into a fist. Harry and Draco look at each other briefly before turning back to Blaise, saying nothing. "That's what I thought." Blaise growls out. He walks heavily back over to his bed, stuffs the necklace into his nightstand, and aggressively situates himself back in bed, all the while grumbling to himself. Harry and Draco have a hard time making out what he's saying, but they do pick "unnecessary melodrama" and "getting new friends because the ones I have are broken" out of his mutterings. They figure it shouldn't be overly difficult to fill in the blanks on their own.
Draco and Harry, who are still laying on the floor, turn in sync to look at each other. "Shall we take this downstairs?" Draco suggests.
Harry narrows his eyes at his friend. "We shall."
~~~Brief Time Skip~~~
"Harry, and I cannot stress this enough, 'it's shiny' is not a viable excuse for theft."
"But Draco, and I cannot stress this enough, IT WAS SHINY!" Harry gestures frantically above his head, nearly smacking himself in the face in the process.
"Harry James Potter, I am trying to have a serious conversation with you."
"Well, if you knew me at all, Draco, you would know that I am in fact being completely serious. The acquisition of shiny objects is no laughing matter. It's a life-long commitment that requires finesse and skill and- I'm rambling. My point is, it was shiny, it was left unattended, and therefore it is fair game. It's not my fault that Pansy's an idiot." Harry crosses his arms dramatically, mirroring Draco's position, cocked eyebrow and all.
"Let me make this perfectly clear. Once Blaise stops being moody, the necklace is going to mysteriously appear somewhere, I don't care where or how, but after that we are going to agree that this entire ordeal never happened."
"But-"
"No."
Harry heaves out a sigh before conceding. "Fine… You never let me do anything."
"That's because most of your ideas involve extreme amounts of stupidity." There is a brief silence before Harry snorts and begins cackling, shaking and doubling over. "What- What's so funny." Draco is trying not to join in. He fails. Miserably. Just in case you were wondering.
"Okay, okay. That's enough. We'll wake all of Hogwarts at this rate." Draco breathes deeply. "If it's any consolation, I am planning on making up for your lost treasure with your Christmas present."
Harry blanches. "You're giving me a Christmas present?" Harry is shocked and confused. He has never received a Christmas present before, and honestly he had completely forgotten about the tradition.
"Well, yes?" Draco replies, puzzled at his friend's unusual reaction. Then it hits him. With Harry's home life, he probably wasn't included in any sort of holiday festivities. "Harry, is this going to be your first real Christmas?"
Harry's cheeks turn bright red in embarrassment. "Technically, yeah. I guess it is my first Christmas." Draco opens his mouth to reply only to be cut off by the slow drawl of Severus Snape.
"And you'll be spending it with the Malfoy's." The two boys startle and whip around to face the Professor.
"What!" Both boys say in unison, eliciting an eye-roll from the dark man.
"I refuse to repeat myself. The both of you should be receiving letters detailing the situation. Consider it a trial run for you staying with the Malfoy's full-time." The Professor turns and sweeps from the room.
"Thank you, sir." Harry calls out to him, but by the time the words have left his mouth Snape is gone, leaving Harry and Draco to their own devices once more. Once Snape is surely out of hearing distance, and Harry will vehemently deny that this happened for the rest of his life, he lets out a high pitched, feminine squeal that echoes through the Slytherin common room.
"Did you pull something, or are you just naturally feminine?" Draco deadpans, unimpressed. Harry saunters up to Draco's side and flings his arm around the blond's shoulders theatrically.
"Don't be mad at me just because I've embraced my inner woman and you haven't. Just think of the possibilities, Draco! You would rock a pair of platforms." Harry swings his arm out, palm outstretched, as he says the word "possibilities", as if he is gesturing toward their future. As it is, the only thing Draco sees when he gazes in that general direction is the beady eye of the giant squid that resides in the lake. 'No, that's not creepy at all.'
Instead of fueling Harry's antics, Draco comments, "I think the squid's obsessed with you."
"Well of course!" Harry lets go of Draco's shoulder and walks over to where the squid is peering through the glass. "Me and Kalvin are very close." To prove his point Harry puts his hand up to the glass, prompting the squid to reach out one tentacle and smack it onto the glass where Harry's hand is placed. The giant squid, or Kalvin according to Harry, swims off in a flurry of bubbles, leaving Draco gaping at his friend.
"I- You- You know what? I'm not even going to ask." Draco stutters for a moment, ultimately deciding to save himself the trauma that will surely be inflicted by Harry's answer.
Harry's face goes blank and he blinks his eyes slowly before nonchalantly commenting, "That's probably for the best." Harry leaves the window and begins walking toward the stairs that lead to their dormitory.
"Where are you going?"
"Into battle; Care to join me?" Harry beckons Draco toward him expectantly.
Draco huffs, sounding exhausted despite the early hour. "You are in rare form today." Draco says, walking toward his friend and brushing past him to descend the stairs. "Did someone give you coffee? I thought we agreed that coffee would be on the 'never to be tried again' list."
"Oi, never to be tried again this year; Get your facts straight." Harry and Draco's banter halts when they enter the dorm. 'Just in case,' Harry reasons, 'Blaise is scary when he's tired.'
Luckily, both Blaise and Theo are up and moving. Well, okay, "moving" may or may not be an accurate descriptor, but it's the thought that counts. Blaise glances up from when he is perched on the side of his bed to glare at Harry and Draco. However, most of its heat is lost in translation due to the pillow indentations on Blaise's face and his atrocious bed-head.
"Hello!" Harry waves at Blaise enthusiastically and Draco smacks his forehead with the palm of his hand.
"You are so lucky it's Saturday." With that, Blaise collapses back onto his bed, effectively ending the conversation before it even had the chance to begin.
"Rude." Harry comments to Draco, walking over to his trunk and taking out the book on ancient bloodlines Lucius Malfoy had bought for him back in Diagon Alley. He figures that if he's going to be staying with the Malfoys he should make an effort to understand and respect their way of thinking. And who knows, maybe he can learn something about his family while he's at it.
Quite suddenly, Harry feels something heavy and cold slam into the side of his face. He looks down to find Pansy's snake necklace at his feet. He turns his head toward Blaise, the obvious culprit, and sees him smirking at Harry's expense. "Double rude." Harry says, rubbing his cheek absentmindedly. Harry picks up the necklace and places it in his pocket for later, already planning on making it "mysteriously appear" in the most inconvenient place imaginable. 'Maybe I'll hang it from the ceiling…'
~~~Time Skip~~~
Harry is wandering the halls of Hogwarts looking for something to cure his boredom. Draco is off doing… something (honestly, Harry wasn't paying much attention to what he was saying) and he needs something to do. As he passes a cracked doorway he sees two red flashes, quickly drawing his attention in the fully gray corridor. Curious, he peeks through the door, spotting the Weasley twins. They seemed to be in a heated discussion, about what, he wasn't sure as he couldn't hear them. 'They must have put up a silencing spell,' Harry surmised.
He notices that each twin has a different coloured aura. The one on the right had a dark core while the other was light; He remembers reading that magical twins always have opposite auras, or cores at birth.
He leans more into the room, hoping to hear what they are doing, when he trips over NOTHING. How that happened, he doesn't know. What he does know is that there is a lot of red in his field of view.
"Look Freddie, a little firstie!" The one with the dark core, who he now knows is George, says, looking to the twin to Harry's left.
"I see, what should we do with him Georgie?" The light cored twin answers, Fred.
"You're Weasleys aren't you?" Harry pipes in.
"Is that a bad thing?" The twins ask together, both tilting their heads in opposite directions.
"What? No!" Harry yells, scandalized. "I didn't mean it like that. I just… you were with Ron the other day. You didn't look very into the conversation."
The twins stare at Harry for a second, looking at each other then back down, large grins on their faces. 'That's not creepy or anything.' Harry mentally shudders.
"So little firstie," Fred starts.
"what's your," George continues.
"name?" They finished together.*
"Harry." He says simply. "What were you guys doing?" Harry asks as he stands, just now realising he was still on the floor.
The twins eye each other again, apparently having a silent conversation with one another. They seem to have come to an answer as they say, "We were planning a prank."
"Can I help?" Harry questions quickly. He had always loved pranks but never got to play them in case he would get in trouble.
"We don't see why not!"
"So what prank were you planning?" Harry asked curiously.
"We were going to change some random students' hair colors!" The twins answer.
"Which students? I think you should pick one or two per house. That way everyone is equally targeted, throws off suspicion."
"You know Harrykins this may be the start of a beautiful friendship!" The twins exclaim, wrapping their arms around Harry before pulling him to a couch he hadn't realised was in the room.
The boys plan out how they were going to pick random students, "Ask the house elves", when they were going to do it, "Dinner", and how they were going to pull it off, "Maybe a potion".
They boys part ways, bright smiles on their faces. They enjoyed their planning and can't wait to pull it off. The looks on people's faces will no doubt be absolutely priceless.
~~~(POV Albus Dumbledore)~~~
Albus Dumbledore is seated at his desk, his hands steepled at his chin in thought. He looks down at a list of names, the top of said list is labeled "Student's Staying At Hogwarts'. The list only has a few names, most students planning on going home for the winter holiday. Albus is not concerned with most of the students on the list, however, what he is truly concerned with is the one name that has been scratched off of the list: Harry Potter. 'He would never choose the Dursley's over staying at Hogwarts.' Albus concludes that he must be staying with the Malfoy's for Christmas. He sits up in his chair, glancing around at the former Hogwarts headmasters. 'This can't happen; I will make sure of it.'
*This is how the twins will be indicated if they aren't specified as who is talking later.
A/N: Thank you for reading! We hope you enjoyed the chapter. As always comments and feedback are encouraged.
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