Disclaimer: see prologue
Guide: "Talk", Thoughts, ~letters and other written stuff~, ~o~ for easier reading (hopefully)
Rating: M for sexual themes and language, slash in later chapters
Betas: jointheclub and Makoto Sagara
Update of beta-ed version: 13th August
AN: Sorry for the wait. I got side tracked when I got into Pottermore (which is now open to anyone if you are interested) last week, but now the chapter is finally finished and you will know how the students reacted to the previous announcement. Originally, I wanted to include Harry and Draco exploring their room but decided to have two short chapters with a shorter waiting time, instead of one long chapters in a week or two.
-~-~- Altair -~-~-
-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-
-~-~- Chapter 6 – Reactions -~-~-
"And at last Room Zero will be shared by Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter."
With this announcement, hell broke loose inside the seventh-year common room:
Some girls from Hufflepuff were talking in excited whispers to each other. They could not really believe that the two hottest guys in Hogwarts were not only sharing a room, but obviously would also engage in sexual activities. It would not be surprising if by tomorrow morning a new rumour had appeared in Hogwarts, declaring that the reason why Draco helped to lure Voldemort into the trap last term was only because of him being in love with Harry, and, therefore, he had wanted to support Harry in any way he could.
Another possible rumour to appear would be that Harry secretly always wanted to date Draco, but was afraid to ask him out, because the war had still been going on at that time, as well as being afraid to come out of the closet so to speak. So, he dated two female seekers, namely Cho Chang and Ginny Weasley, as substitutions, but in the end, they could not replace the Draco Malfoy. So, he broke up with them. Also, his new wardrobe was great rumour material, since it could be made out that he bought it to impress Draco.
It also would not be long before the girls from Hufflepuff opened a Harry/Draco-Yaoi*-Fanclub, which most of the girls from the other 3 houses would likely join and where they would have hour-long discussions about who of the two was the Seme/Uke* in the relationship, as well as composing a list of how their differences complement each other, like how Draco's straight blond hair makes a beautiful contrast to Harry's own wild black hair, and that they in general seem to be a mixture of light and dark. In short, let's just say that the majority of the seventh-year girls would definitely dream (aka. fantasize) about Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy that night. ;)
Contrary to the rest of Hogwarts' female population, Pansy Parkinson was unsurprisingly not happy about that pairing, and she announced her disapproval of the pairing to anyone in the room who cared to listen to her squealing: "Not Potter! Draco can't be paired with Potter! They must have made a mistake and mixed up Macmillan with Malfoy since they both start with a 'M'. Potter is far better suited for Macmillian than I am." Yes, that must be it, she thought, secure in her dream that she had come to the right conclusion.
"Professor Snape," she called to get his attention, "could you please check if you haven't mixed up Malfoy with Macmillian, sir?" she asked, full of hope.
Of course the answer was not to Pansy's liking. "I assure you, Miss Parkinson, that I did not confound the names. You'd better accept your roommate soon, if you do not want to fail your classes."
"No, the names must be mixed up! There is no way that I would not be partnered with Draco," Pansy exclaimed.
"How often do I have to remind you that the announced combinations are final? And if you had read the Altair letter attentively, you should have been aware that anyone out of your classmates could become your partner," Severus Snape said annoyed, asking himself: Why can't that girl accept that Draco won't be her partner?
Before Professor Snape could become even more irritated and start to take points away from his own house, Pansy's friend, Tracey, tried her best again to calm the girl down, leading her away from Snape and over towards one of the sofas.
~o~
Hermione, on the other hand, was very excited about the announcement. She gave Harry a big hug, talking rapidly. "Oh, Harry, this is so wonderful! I can't believe that you got assigned to Room Zero. You must let me have a look inside your room some time, since 'Hogwarts: A History' doesn't give away any information about the room's design. I can't wait to find out how it looks like and what makes it so special."
Harry himself was too shocked to react to anything Hermione said. He did not even hug her back. That was how shocked he was. He was only a little shocked that Draco had become his partner, not because it was Draco, but because in the train they had all joked about ending up together. And now who did we end up partnered with? Harry thought, positively shocked and amused at the same time about the course of his fate.
The main cause for his shock was something else though. Harry could not believe that of all the rooms, he would get assigned to Room Zero, of which existence and significance he did not even knew about half an hour ago. That he would be so lucky to not only receive a male partner, but to have someone with whom he is supposed to be highly compatible and therefore would hopefully be able to brew the Shërim Mendjen*. This thought made Harry unconsciously smile.
"You must be so happy. Being assigned to Room Zero will allow you to try to brew the Shërim Mendjen. You are so lucky, Harry" Hermione went on, after she had finished hugging him.
Hermione voicing his own thoughts brought Harry out of his shock. When he came back to the present, he finally noticed that his fellow classmates were already busy talking about him and Malfoy, coming up with the strangest things. Hearing the whispers, he realised that maybe having gotten assigned to Room Zero was not as fortunate as he at first thought it was, because now all of them would know that he was taking Altair electives and therefore would be sleeping with Draco Malfoy. The smile he had on his face before vanished. So much for whether you choose Altair electives or not staying a secret. I am lucky indeed.
"I really am happy about this chance to try to brew it, Hermione. And thanks to your previous speech about Room Zero, every single person in this room knows that I take Altair classes," Harry answered her, trying to take the situation with humour. After all the years at Hogwarts, he was now kind of used to people talking about him behind his back. Especially during his second, fourth and fifth years where they were not very kind to him, he had had to learn to get used to all the negative hype about his person.
~o~
To say that Ron was not happy at all with this announcement was an understatement. So, when Harry and Hermione had finished their short talk, he began to make his opinion known to them. "First, you did not tell me that Hermione had signed up for Altair electives, and now I have to find out that you signed up for them yourself! Great friend you are, Harry!" Ron shouted at Harry.
Then, Ron redirected his attention to Hermione, not giving Harry the chance to explain the situation to him. "That is why those two Slytherins came to our compartment before, isn't it? You already knew that you would be paired together," Ron accused them both, but blamed Hermione mostly because, in his opinion, if someone would know beforehand who their partner would be, it would be the know-it-all Hermione.
"How could we have known who our roommate was before it was announced? Must you see everything as a conspiracy against you? The two of them only joined us on the train because Draco and I had some Head Boy/Girl business to clear up. You really need to grow up, Ron," Hermione defended herself, annoyed with Ron's childish behaviour.
It is a good thing that Hermione broke up with Ron only a short time after they got together, Harry thought. Otherwise, Ron most likely would have added some more accusations along the line of 'Sneaky Slytherins stealing his girlfriend'. Although Hermione said at that time that she did not end the relationship to be free to register for Altair subjects, but because Ron was acting childish and immature (which Ron is totally proving right now), I still believe that it was an additional reason for the breakup. I can't imagine Hermione being in a relationship with someone while she is sleeping with someone else to perform Sexual magic, even if no feelings are involved.
"You know what? I am fed up with the both of you. You are as bad as the Slytherins you are paired with," Ron announced angrily, storming over to join his new roommate Neville.
"Somehow, I am reminded of our Fourth Year. Ron being angry with me and quitting our friendship, all the attention and the students talking about me behind my back," Harry said in a sad voice to Hermione. He was sad that Ron could not overcome his prejudice against Slytherins and left him because of such a silly thing as who his new roommate was.
"Let's hope that Ron comes to his senses again. I hope he will realise that he is wrong sooner than in Fourth Year though," was Hermione's answer. She was sad too that Ron was not mature enough to leave the prejudice behind.
~o~
Blaise received the announcement with calm, wondering about Snape's earlier look at the pair. Maybe Snape wasn't necessarily looking at the two of them before because he thought that they would complain about their assigned partner, but because he couldn't believe that they, of all people considering their history of hostility, would be paired together and be highly compatible at that, to have landed in Room Zero.
Or maybe not, Blaise corrected himself when he looked over at Harry, whose face screamed shock. When he noticed the smile crawling across Harry's face some moments later, he had to correct himself, again. Maybe Potter is not as much against being paired with Draco than I previously thought. He could have been shocked because of the significant of the room rather than who his partner is, Blaise mused.
Belatedly, Blaise remembered that the other Room Zero occupant was standing right beside him. Looking over at the Head Boy, Blaise was not surprised to see that Draco's face did not give away anything. Jepp, just as I thought Draco has the composed Malfoy mask on.
~o~
Behind the famous Malfoy mask of calm, Draco was astounded and very happy to have gotten Harry as his partner. Not only was I paired with Potter, but we were actually assigned to the famous Room Zero. I cannot believe my luck. But I have to say that Potter has taken the announcement rather calmly. I would have thought that he would have a small outburst at least, but then we were joking about ending up together on the train, and he was not appalled by the suggestion at that time either. So, maybe we will get along quite well.
But Weasley seems to make up for a lack of outburst from Potter, judging by his facial expression. Here it goes, Draco thought, smirking just as Ron started to yell at Harry.
~o~
Severus was not the only teacher who was astonished that those two students had been paired together. All the other Heads of House, as well as the Headmaster, were more than surprised when they heard Severus announcing the last pair of the night. Unlike Severus, they had not known beforehand who the pairings would consist of, not even Minerva McGonagall had known it since Severus was in charge of the whole Altair pairing process and only gave her a list with the names of the students, the courses they would be able to take, the gender of their partner and, occasionally, also which courses they may take too if their partner agreed to take them as well. The news that they are even compatible enough to be in Room Zero resulted in some open mouths from the teachers. It was unfortunate that no one had a camera to take a photo of Minerva with her mouth wide open in surprise.
Dumbledore was the first one of the adults to compose himself so he cast a Sonorous on himself before saying "Silence!" to shut up all the noise. "As much as I appreciate your joy to hear that we, after over one hundred fifty years, now have another compatible pair assigned to Room Zero, I believe you are all grown up enough to handle this information like adults and will respect the privacy of those two young men. Since you all know your rooms now, off to bed you go. I will see you all early tomorrow morning." With that, he made a shooing motion. And Snape glared at any stragglers to get them all up to their rooms.
Ron did not hesitate to get away from all the 'bad Slytherins' and dragged a helpless Neville up the stairs to room sixteen.
Blaise turned to Hermione and asked her "Shall we go to our room too?" while offering her his arm, which she accepted.
And so, gradually, the common room became empty.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Yaoi: The Japanese term for slash.
Seme/Uke: Japanese again. Seme refers to the dominate partner whereas Uke refers to the submissive one.
Shërim Mendjen: Albanian for healing/recovery of the mind, see chapter 1 for further information
-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
AN_2: I hope you had some fun reading about the different reactions to this announcement. ^_^ And I believe that I better stop writing what will come next since half of the time I end up with something else instead because the chapters seem to have a life of their own.
By the way, I opened a poll on my profile page to find out with whom Hermione should end up in the end. It will be open for some months though since this story is far from finished.