Harry Potter and all associated characters and situations are the property of J.K. Rowling. I make no claim to ownership.
CHAPTER 26: Slytherin Maneuvers (Pt. 2)
The majority of the student body left for the Hogsmeade train station that afternoon around one o'clock. Just after five, Harry sent Hermione a message via their enchanted parchments, apologizing for their earlier argument and asking that she and Neville bring Jim and Ron to meet with him as he had some new information about "Hagrid's little problem" as well as an idea for solving it that was better than Ron's proposal. She accepted the apology graciously, and just after dinner, Hermione and Neville physically dragged the obviously reluctant Jim and Ron into an empty classroom near the entrance to Gryffindor Tower. Harry was already waiting, sitting on the teacher's desk while twirling his wand absently.
Jim's face darkened angrily as soon as he saw Harry. "No. No way. We are not involving the snake. We don't need him."
"Oh, yes, you do, Little Brother. You do indeed." Harry jumped off the desk. "Because your plan has already failed. Draco Malfoy knows about the dragon and your plan for smuggling it away from Hogwarts. The only reason he hasn't tattled already is that he wants to catch you in the act, as dragon smuggling, as I've already informed Hermione and Neville, is a much more serious crime than mere dragon breeding."
The Gryffindors all looked horrified at Harry's news. "How did Malfoy find out?" Hermione asked anxiously.
Harry shrugged. There was a small part of him that felt bad about how easy it was to lie to his best friends in order to get them to abandon Ron's foolish scheme. He consoled himself with the knowledge that he was also lying to Jim Potter and for a good cause to boot.
"No idea. I only know because he's an arrogant braggart and I overheard him gloating to Crabbe and Goyle. If you proceed with Ron's plan, then Hagrid and all of Charlie Weasley's friends from the dragon sanctuary will probably be arrested for dragon smuggling, and any of you who are discovered to be involved will risk expulsion. At the very least, you will suffer a catastrophic loss of House points, and I can't even imagine what sorts of fiendish detentions you'll get over it."
The four Gryffindors looked at one another unhappily. Finally, Jim spoke. "And you've got an alternative plan?"
"Yes. One that deals with the dragon problem without risk to anyone involved including the dragon itself. It's not illegal. It's not even unethical. Who knows – someone might even get House points out of it."
"Okay, so what's the plan?" Jim asked.
Harry folded his arms. "No," he said simply. "As you have reminded me repeatedly this year, I am a slimy Slytherin snake, and you don't get the benefits of my slimy Slytherin snakiness for free. I want something, something only you can give me."
"What is it?" Jim asked angrily.
"The cloak," said Harry. Then, he put up his hand as Jim's face quickly started to turn purple. "Not permanently. I only want to borrow it over the Easter break. I'll return it next Monday."
"No! Absolutely not!" Jim exclaimed.
"Harry!" Hermione interjected sharply, as if offended that the Slytherin would demand something in exchange for his help.
"What, Hermione?" he asked in obvious annoyance. "Is it wrong for me to ask for the temporary use of a Potter family heirloom in exchange for my help, but acceptable for Jim to selfishly refuse even though it's his friend we're saving?"
Then, he turned from her to address the other Lions. "Are you all that afraid of the awful threat posed by an invisible Slytherin? Would it help if I promised that while I have it I won't do anything illegal or criminal or even against school rules? If I promise that I won't use it against the Gryffindors or the other Houses? If I promise that I won't even use it outside the Slytherin dorms because I only need it to deal with an internal House matter? Because all of those things are true."
"What kind of internal House matter?" asked Jim suspiciously.
Harry glared at him. "One that should not be discussed with outsiders, Jim. Hence the word 'internal.' If you absolutely must know, it has to do with that same subject matter we discussed last Christmas. Beyond that, I can't say. So do we have a deal or not?"
Jim returned his glare and then looked pensive. If by subject matter Harry meant Theo Nott, then it probably meant the other boy was in trouble, and Harry needed the cloak to protect him. "You promise to return it Monday?"
"I would swear on my family name and the honor of Slytherin House, but somehow I don't think you would take either of those seriously. But yes, I do promise to return it completely intact and undamaged on Monday."
After hesitating for some time, Jim signed in resignation. "Okay, I'll trust you ... but only for Hagrid's sake. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Jim left the room, leaving Ron, Hermione and Neville behind. Ron was openly disgusted by Harry, while Hermione seemed angry with him for having the temerity to demand something in exchange for his help. Harry resisted the temptation to ask her how many dental patients her parents treated for free. For his part, Neville didn't seem angry with him, merely somewhat disappointed.
Minutes later, Jim returned with his book bag, pulled the cloak out of it, and handed it over to his brother who folded it neatly and placed it into his own bag.
"Okay," said Jim. "What's your brilliant plan?"
"Well, it seems to me that the biggest problem for Hagrid – aside from the inherent silliness of raising a fire-breathing dragon in a wooden hut – is that he's acting without the legal right to either breed or raise a Class XXXXX creature. Luckily, there is someone around here who holds a Ministry license for both those things – namely, the school's Care of Magical Creatures instructor."
"Kettleburn!" exclaimed Hermione.
"Professor Kettleburn, Hermione," said Harry smugly. "Who, as it happens, worked for several years at a dragon sanctuary in Canada prior to coming to Hogwarts."
"That's it?!" said Jim angrily. "That's you're brilliant Slytherin plan? You want us to just tell a teacher?!"
"I don't want you to do anything at all, Little Brother. I've already done it. I spoke to Professor Kettleburn this afternoon just after lunch."
The Gryffindors stared at Harry, shocked.
"You scumbag!" yelled Ron finally. "I can't believe you just ratted Hagrid out like that!"
Harry laughed. "Actually, Weasel, I didn't even get the chance to rat Hagrid out. I got as far as asking to speak with Kettleburn in confidence and telling him that, hypothetically, I might know of someone who had acquired a dragon egg without understanding the legal issues that might result. At that point, he interrupted me to say, and I quote – 'Oh Sweet Morgana's tits, what has Hagrid done now?!' – unquote. In other words, Hermione, I was completely correct this morning. This is actually something Hagrid does routinely and the staff just continually bails him out. Though to be honest, even Kettleburn was astonished he got hold of something like a Norwegian Ridgeback egg."
"Anyway," he continued, "Kettleburn said not to worry and that he'd take care of it. He has some friends in the Ministry who will backdate an authorization form allowing him to incubate a dragon egg that's been donated to the school until it hatches and then to raise it for a few months until it is old enough to be safely transported via apparation. Apparently, there's an 'educational purposes' exception to the normal rules on dragon-breeding. In a day or so, once the paperwork is complete, Kettleburn will take custody of the egg from Hagrid, who will still be allowed to assist the Professor and the NEWT-level CoMC students through the rest of the hatching process and then with raising it until after exams. Then, they will ship it to the sanctuary in Romania through perfectly standard and legal procedures sometime this summer."
He slung his book bag over his shoulder and headed for the door. "Oh, and I also won five points for Slytherin for bringing this to his attention and handling the matter with such discretion."
"Hang on a minute!" said Hermione angrily. He stopped and looked back at her with a bland expression. "You met with him this afternoon? That means you already had this whole situation resolved before you even contacted me!"
"Naturally. It would have been quite embarrassing to have presented a plan as simple as 'talk to a teacher' and it not actually work."
"So what would have happened if I refused to let you borrow the invisibility cloak?" Jim asked testily.
Harry looked thoughtful. "I suppose I would have done a good deed and helped Hagrid out of a very serious jam and then gotten nothing in exchange except a few House points and the satisfaction of knowing that I was a better person than the Boy-Who-Lived." And then, he turned and walked out, leaving four speechless Gryffindors behind him.
15 April 1992
The next day, Hermione watched the door of the Great Hall impatiently, but Harry never showed up for breakfast. She had sent him several parchment messages, but he never responded. By lunch, there was still no sign of him, though Ron would flinch every time he felt a breeze, convinced that Harry was sneaking up behind him invisibly for some nefarious purpose. Jim was not as paranoid, but he was continually anxious. Part of him was terrified that he'd lost forever the precious heirloom his father had entrusted to him. That afternoon, Hermione sent yet another parchment message while studying in the Gryffindor common room but then jumped when her parchment finally dinged in response. The message, however, was not one she was expecting.
"Um, Hi, Hermione, this is Theo. Harry asked me to tell you that he's ... oh, damn, how did he put it... off doing sneaky, underhanded unethical things that he can't talk to you about and that you'd just disapprove of because 'Gryffindor!' And also, he, um, has too much going on right now to worry about continually feeling like he's being judged for his lack of all-true-ism. No, I said altruism! ... Merlin, this thing really needs some kind of edit function. Anyway, just between us, I think you hurt his feelings last night. Well, you and Neville, but mainly you. No offense. Sorry. He just says he doesn't want to talk about it while he's ... doing important Slytherin ... stuff... that he can't share with you because, once again ... 'Gryffindor!'. Anyway, he'll see you next Tuesday after he's ... done with ... stuff. Now how do you send the bloody message again?..."
Both concerned and chagrined, Hermione showed the parchment to Neville who just shrugged.
"What do you think it means? And why is Harry avoiding us?" she asked.
"Oh, I don't know, Hermione," Neville said somewhat dejectedly. "Maybe because he was one-hundred percent right about how to handle the dragon, and we completely ignored his advice because it wasn't exciting enough? Maybe because he probably has the same right to use that cloak as Jim and the fact that he has to use trickery to get it is a reminder of how badly his parents treat him? Maybe because we sometimes take way too much pride in being the House of Brash Heroism and act like we're superior to the House of Cunning Pragmatism even when they get the job done better than us?"
Hermione looked down for a few seconds. "It's so strange. I'm as close to Harry as I am anyone else in this school, but at the end of the day, Gryffindors and Slytherins are just ... different, aren't we?"
He nodded. "Yes, we are. I don't think we have to be enemies like Jim and Ron – and Draco, I guess – all believe. But we really do have different ways of thinking about things." Then, he smiled with mild embarrassment. "You know ... I actually felt a bit ... disappointed in Harry for making a demand of Jim in exchange for helping him, even though I wouldn't have thought twice about any other Slytherin doing the same, not even if they asked for a lot more than Harry did. Honestly, I wouldn't have thought it out of character for a Ravenclaw to have asked for something in exchange for his help. I guess it is kind of unfair of us to expect Harry to act like he's a Gryffindor just because he's our friend. He's always going to be a Slytherin, so he's always going to have an angle, especially where the Potters are concerned."
"And yet ... he actually did help Hagrid, and more effectively than any of us could have, before he made his demands."
"Yeah, that's our Harry. He's the most Gryffindorish Slytherin I know of."
"So should we be worried that he's now avoiding his Gryffindor friends for ... Slytherin stuff?"
Neville frowned. "Let me see that parchment. By the way, I really need to get one of these. Can you link multiple parchments?"
"Not yet, but I'm working on it," she said as she handed the paper over and explained how it worked.
Seconds later, in the Prince's Lair, the mate to Hermione's parchment dinged softly, and Theo picked it up and read it aloud.
"Theo, it's Neville here. Please remind Harry that he can always call on me if he needs me for absolutely anything. And especially anything to do with what we talked about by the lake that afternoon when I came back after Halloween."
Harry looked up from the stack of ancient texts he was perusing as he considered Neville's message. Then, he turned to Theo, who sat on the opposite side of the ancient mahogany table, picking at a chocolate frog. "Tell him... Tell him this exactly: 'Things are a bit shady, but there's no real darkness so far. And thanks.'"
Theo crooked an eyebrow at the cryptic message and then relayed it as Harry wished.
18 April 1991
Rodney Montague angrily yanked open the door to his room and stepped out into the Prefect's Row, clad in nothing but an undershirt and black boxer shorts adorned with little green and silver snakes. It was the third night in a row that the Seventh Year Prefect had been awoken after midnight by what sounded like shifting gears and crumbling masonry just outside his door. And for the third night in a row, there was no sign of the source of the noise. Shaking his head in frustration, Rodney closed his door and returned to bed. He just hoped that he wouldn't be woken up again later by that godawful hissing sound that had recently started up at random intervals from some leaky pipes somewhere on the other side of his bedroom wall.
21 April 1992
Just before dawn on the last day of Easter Break, Blaise Zabini, whose mother had trained him to be a light sleeper, awoke to the soft sounds of the door opening and closing by itself. A few seconds later, Harry Potter materialized out of thin air, tossing the Potter invisibility cloak onto his bed. He looked as though he'd barely slept for days. This was probably because he'd barely slept for days.
"Well?" asked Blaise. "Are we good to go?" His voice woke Theo, who was also a light sleeper for different family-related reasons. The two boys sat up in their respective beds to get a better look at their friend as he shucked his outer clothes and fell onto his bed without even changing into pajamas.
"They went for it," he said through a haze of sleep deprivation. "The vote was 4-2 with one abstention, which was closer than I'd have liked, but it was enough. We'll do it tonight after dinner. Wake me before lunch, please. I have some errands to take care of this afternoon before ... Malfoy ... returns..." His voice grew faint, but Blaise had one more question.
"And you're sure you don't want us in there with you?"
"Mmmmm. No – yawn – you two jus' stay out in ... Common Room ... observe reactions. Besides, might get – yaaaaawn – a lil' scary in there. I need to project total ... poise 'n confidence 'n stuff. Ruin effect if either of you gets ... jumpy ..."
Blaise scowled at the insinuation that he lacked poise and prepared a retort, when Theo interrupted him. "Let him sleep. Besides, he's right. You haven't been in there when they're all ... agitated." Theo shuddered visibly, and Blaise realized his friend probably had a point. Across the room, Harry started snoring softly.
Later that afternoon, as Jim was leaving the Great Hall, he saw Harry headed his way. He started to call out, but Harry glared and shook his head, and Jim's mouth snapped shut, as he was at this point terrified of doing anything to provoke his brother until he had the cloak back in his possession. Without saying a word, Harry walked past him, and at the last possible second, he smoothly pulled a small wrapped parcel out of his robe and passed it to Jim without slowing down, before proceeding on down the hallway. Jim looked back at his brother in confusion and then examined the package. As he turned it over, he saw a note with Harry's neat handwriting.
"For pity's sake, open it in your room!
Don't stand around gawking at it in front of people like an imbecile!"
Jim blushed slightly and tucked the package away within his own robes. Then, he walked as quickly as propriety allowed back to Gryffindor Tower, barely resisting the impulse to run in the halls. Once inside, he abandoned all restraint and sprinted up to the currently empty First Year dorm room. He sat down on his bed, and, with trembling hands, he carefully opened the package and pulled out the shimmering fabric of his family's ancestral invisibility cloak.
Shimmering fabric which was now a VIVID SLYTHERIN GREEN. And as he spread the cloak out, Jim began to hyperventilate as he read the four-inch-wide silver lettering that had been embroidered on the back, relaying a proud message now permanently engraved onto his father's most prized possession:
"SLYTHERINS RULE.
GRYFFINDORS DROOL."
Jim screamed in murderous fury. "I'LL KILL HIM!" Then, he jumped up from his bed and ran to the door, enraged at his treacherous sibling. As he opened it, however, he nearly ran straight into Neville Longbottom, who looked at his fellow Gryffindor with concern.
"Whoa! Jim?" he asked. "Are you okay?"
Jim Potter just snarled at the other boy who he knew was friends with Harry. "Like you care, Longbottom!"
Neville rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Forget I asked. Anyway, Harry just asked me to deliver this to you." He held out a wrapped package to the other boy. It looked nearly identical to the one Jim had just opened save that it had no writing on it. Jim was paralyzed for several seconds, his mouth opening and closing like a fish, as he made a strange gurgling sound in the back of his throat. Then, he snatched the package out of Neville's grasp and tore it open. His hands, which had been trembling before, were now practically shaking. Inside the package was the true cloak, looking exactly as it did the night he lent it to Harry. Jim clutched the cloak to his chest as if he would never let it go again.
Neville eyed him suspiciously. "You really need to learn to calm down and not get so overexcited, Jim. I hear meditation is good for that." Then, he turned and left, shaking his head as he did. Jim ignored him and practically staggered back away from the door to fall onto his bed. After a moment or two, he looked over and noticed that there was now just a piece of parchment laying on the bed where he'd dropped the false green cloak. On the paper, there was a large smiley-face with a winking eye. Jim stared at the parchment as his frantic heart beat finally slowed to a safer rate.
"MY BROTHER IS A BLOODY PSYCHOTIC!" he finally bellowed to the empty room.
The next update is scheduled for Friday, July 3, 2015 between 4:00 and 6:00 pm CST. "The Prince of Slytherin." Nuff' said.