VI - Of Snakes and Cats

September flew by for Harry. His classes were blissfully simple, although defence was painful with the clearly incompetent, Lockhart, teaching them. After a couple of days, the rumours about him and Ron had died down significantly. Harry had also managed to become good friends with Neville, who unlike Ron, never put down anyone and, with a little bit of support, had shown himself to be a more than capable wizard. Harry spent a lot of time with the two Hufflepuff girls, who managed to find new ways every day to make him blush. It had confused him, especially when he found himself dreaming about the two witches. He fancied them both but he had no clue which one more so he hadn't made a move based on his feelings yet.

Before he knew it, it was his least favourite day of the year once again, 31st of October. The day Voldemort was defeated 12 years ago and the day his parents had died. No one ever remembered that part when they laughed and congratulated him. The whole holiday made him feel sick to his stomach, and that was why he found himself floating above the quidditch pitch at 7 o'clock in the morning. He just wanted to be alone for a bit and the wind relaxed him as he hovered on his Nimbus.

It was Sunday so there would be no classes today, and that also meant the general school populous would likely still be in bed for a while. This should make avoiding his friends easier but there weren't an awful lot of places to hide in Hogwarts. He wondered where he could try and hide. It hit me instantly! If anyone knew a place where someone could hide without being found, it would be the house elves. Harry headed towards the kitchen, which he had been told about by the Hufflepuff girls. Underneath his invisibility cloak, no one bothered him and he soon made it to a painting of a fancy fruit bowl, he tickled the pear and walked into the kitchen. He was met by a few house elves, who insisted they fix him up a small feast for breakfast. When he sat down to eat the meal, he looked around the kitchen briefly, catching the eye of an elf, who was trying very hard not to be seen. Unfortunately for the elf, Harry recognised him in an instant and made his way towards the squealing elf.

"Dobby! What are you doing here?" He asked wondering why the small elf was hiding in the Hogwarts kitchens of all places. After all, he had an awful master, did he not?

"Dobby was checking up on the Great Harry Potter Sir, making sure The Great Harry Potter was safe." The elf replied, looking afraid of Harry's reaction.

"Oh…thanks Dobby. Are you going to come eat with the other elves and I?"

"The Great Harry Potter offers to eat with Dobby! Like Dobby is a friend." Dobby remarked his eyes widening in surprise.

"Err, of course. You are a friend Dobby."

Another squeal from the tiny elf rang out as Harry just stood there, confusion evident on his face.

"Actually, Dobby could you help me with something?" Harry asked the excitable creature.

"Dobby will help his friend the Great Harry Potter with anything!"

"I need to find a place where I can be alone. Do you know of anywhere?"

"Harry Potter needs to find the come and go room." Dobby replied going into quick detail about a room on the seventh floor, opposite a painting of Barnabas the Barmy.

With a squeal, the small elf popped off muttering to himself about being here too long. Harry took that as his cue to leave as well, thanking the other elves for the meal and heading upstairs, in the hope, that Dobby was telling the truth.

}-{

He made it to the seventh floor and found the painting with little effort. Harry began walking down the corridor repeatedly thinking to himself 'I need a place where I can study in peace.' Repeating his need, he passed the painting for the third time. Out of nowhere, a door appeared, leading to a comfortable room, similar to the Gryffindor common room. It contained sofas, a small library, and a few desks that he could use to do his homework.

Harry remained in the room for several hours, revelling at the lack of distractions and other people. He had managed to complete his Charms essay, Transfiguration essay and was close to finishing his Runes when the door opened and another figure strode into the room. She looked over towards him and let out an audible sigh at the sight of the young wizard.

"Potter." Daphne said looking towards him in disgust, before heading towards one of the desks in the corner and sitting down and beginning to work on a project of her own. Harry ignored the intrusion and went back to his essay, finishing it quickly. Smiling to himself, he realised he had no more assignments to complete. With a quick tempus charm, he found it was only just past 3 o'clock, so he reached into his bag taking out one of his more advanced books one on becoming an Animagus, and began reading. However, he was only a couple chapters further in when he heard a couple of exaggerated huffs from the corner of the room. He turned to look at the Slytherin and struggled to contain his smile at the sight of her screwing her parchment into a ball and setting it on fire. He continued to watch for a minute as she kept writing a few lines on the parchment before each piece got the same treatment as the first.

5 sheets of parchment later, Daphne let out another exaggerated huff and held her head in her hands. Harry gathered his things and shoved them all into his bag before throwing it to the side of his sofa and heading towards the blonde. "Having trouble?" he asked putting on a straight face.

"Don't need help from the likes of you Potter." She replied her voice dripping with venom.

"Fine," he said putting his arms up in mock surrender, "Just thought I'd ask." He walked back towards his sofa, picked up his bag and walked straight out the exit without a second thought. He got halfway down the corridor when he heard her voice from behind him.

"Potter. I didn't mean that"

He turned and looked at the blonde, the corners of his mouth turning upwards at the sight of her discomfort. "What was that sorry? I didn't quite hear you."

"Prat" she hissed, turning on her heel and slamming the door.

After a second of contemplation Harry made his way back inside the room and set his stuff down opposite Daphne. "How can I help?"

"How the hell am I supposed to write 12 inches on Flobberworm Mucus?" she huffed, throwing her hands up to exaggerate her point.

It ended up taking the two a half hour to write the rough draft of Daphne's essay. Harry happened to help a lot more than he thought he would need to, especially since Daphne was the supposed Potions genius of the pair (ignoring the fact that Harry did almost all the work in lessons). It also helped Harry to talk to someone, even if it was a snake, just for some human contact. Especially someone who didn't mention what today was for the wizarding world. Harry, strangely actually found himself enjoying the blonde's company. When she wasn't stressed or around her friends, she was rather amiable, not friendly by any stretch of the imagination but she was nice. It also helped that she somehow looked even better outside of her school robes, and Harry found his eyes wandering several times during the evening, much to his embarrassment.

After they finished Daphne's draft, they began talking about Potions and his noticeable improvement in the class, as well as his overall change from last year. It surprised Harry that she was that forward with him and he wasn't sure of what to say, not wanting to delve too much into his home life with a stranger.

"Are you cheating or did you hire a tutor?" she asked for probably the third time.

"Neither; I've already told you."

"Ugh, what if we alternated truths? I'll even let you go first, but we have to promise to keep each other's secrets?" she asked whilst doing her best impression of puppy eyes.

"You're not going to let this go, are you?" he replied. After her nod, he continued "Fine, why don't you tell me why you decided to hex me after our first lesson?" he smirked at her discomfort and waited for the reply.

"I hate being beaten, and then you acted as if being partnered with me was the worst thing you could think of and saw red." She squirmed in her seat a little, "How did you block that spell so quickly? You weren't even watching me."

"You were predictable. I am sorry for how that turned out, by the way, but you were so intent even after I stopped your first two spells. Similarly, I saw red and I don't much appreciate being hexed when I'm not looking." he paused, pleased to see she looked embarrassed at that statement. "Why do you hate me so much?"

"I don't hate you…" she began, before being swiftly interrupted by Harry.

"Before that lesson, I don't believe we'd ever spoken but you decided then and there to be as hostile as possible with me."

"Well, when I got stuck with you, I thought that my Potions grade was ruined. Last year, you were horrific at Potions and I jumped to conclusions. I admit I was a bit of a bitch."

Harry burst into a fit of giggles, "bit of an understatement there…" he said with a smirk getting a very mature stuck out tongue in response.

"My turn again." She said and after a brief nod of his head she continued, "What caused your obvious change this year?"

"You're awfully persistent you know. Fine, I guess… I'll tell you." He replied looking briefly at his watch before breaking out into a huge smile, "Next time." He winked, flashed her a smile and ran out of the room.

"POTTER!" she shouted towards him as he ran towards the door. She sent a light tripping hex, just as he exited the room, that missed. "Prat" she muttered under her breath before beginning to gather her belongings and exiting the room herself.

}-{

"… Blood … Tear … Kill …" a cold, murderous voice echoed through the corridor. Harry sped up, heading in the direction of the strange rasping voice. "… Kill … Die … KILL …." the voice echoed through the halls. He turned the corner and his feet hit water, a huge puddle flowing out from a nearby bathroom. He looked up and saw that attached to one of the wall braziers was Mrs Norris, Filch's cat. Hung from the metal casing by her tail, completely still. Next to the brazier, written in large letters, in what looked to be blood, was a message: 'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware.' Harry had just enough time to read the message when a string of people rounded the corner, their respective conversations ending at the sight of the message and the dead cat.

Unfortunately, Filch had also rounded the corner and surveyed the scene and saw his pet hung on the wall. "You'll pay for this, mark my words! I'll see you hung for this!" the grizzled caretaker yelled at Harry, visibly shaking and reaching to strike the young wizard.

"That'll be quite enough, Argus" the headmaster's voice rung out. Dumbledore commanded the students back to their dormitories with their respective heads. Harry and Filch remained however, the latter still ready to throttle the raven-haired wizard. Dumbledore inspected Mrs Norris and assured the caretaker that she wasn't dead but merely petrified and could be cured with time and some mandrakes. This calmed the caretaker somewhat but he was still shaking and muttering to himself as he stalked off down the corridor to mourn the loss of his companion for the time being.

Harry was taken to the headmaster's office, still incredibly confused and cursing his terrible luck with this day in particular.

"Harry, my boy, I've been meaning to talk to you. I'd like to enquire about your living situation over the course of this summer." The headmaster started, ignoring what had just occurred downstairs, instead focusing on this new and completely unrelated topic.

"I don't see that it is any of your business sir, my living situation after all is not something you must be informed upon as headmaster of this institute." Harry replied in an almost bored fashion.

"Now, Harry, there is no need for such hostility, is there? As for it being part of my job, it does in fact happen to fall under my duties as your magical guardian." The older man continued his eyes twinkling all the while.

"I'm sorry Headmaster but you are misinformed. I do not have a magical guardian; I have been deemed of age by the Goblins of Gringotts." Harry smirked as the twinkle died in the headmaster's eyes.

"I was not made aware of this, but I must implore you to tell me of how this came about." The headmaster said rubbing his temples and taking off his glasses. Harry felt an alien presence in his mind, the headmaster was using Legilimency to invade Harry's mind and attempt to pluck the information from his head. Harry was not a very skilled Occlumens, however he was skilled enough to feel the invasion and he wasted no time in sending a body bind hex at the headmaster, who simply batted it aside with a flick of his wrist.

"You dare invade my mind without my permission!" Harry screamed at the Headmaster, "Fetch Professor McGonagall immediately; I do not feel comfortable alone with you."

"I'm sure there will be no need for that Harry; it was a simple mistake on my part."

Harry didn't listen however and instead strode out of the room without another look at the Headmaster. Entering McGonagall's office minutes later and informing her of what had occurred, not trying in the slightest to hide his disgust and hatred of the situation. To say that the deputy headmistress was angry would be tantamount to saying that losing a limb was as painful as a sharp prod. Less than 3 minutes after Harry found himself in her office she was running out of it muttering a very colourful stream of profanities as she headed towards the old fool's office.

}-{

Harry, tired and wanting nothing more than to sleep, walked into the Gryffindor common room to the all too familiar hushing of voices as every head in the room turned to him. It was Ron in the end, who broke the silence.

"You really have changed, haven't you Harry? Why would you kill the cat?" he asked snidely.

"Why would I kill the fricking cat, you brain dead fuck?" Harry snapped back at the redhead.

"That's what we're all wondering scar face."

Harry looked around the room and saw the looks on the faces of the gathered Gryffindors. None of were backing him up, instead each one seemed to be waiting for his response. "You seriously all believe that I'm responsible for that?" he asked looking at his supposed friends and housemates with disgust. None of the assembled spoke out or defended his innocence. All unsure of what to do or say in this situation. Harry stood there in shock, last year he thought he'd gained a family, friends that would stand by him. All of his housemates were happy to leave him to himself, the only upside was that Hermione was nowhere to be seen so hopefully she'd stay by him. Harry found himself filled with disgust at them all, struck with a sudden loss of any House spirit he'd ever had.

"Well scar face? What do you have to say for yourself?" Ron attacked Harry once again.

"You all make me feel sick." Harry whispered, his voice carrying in the silence of the room. "From this moment onwards, I am no longer a Gryffindor; I refuse to be associated with you people. Therefore, I am resigning from my position as Gryffindor seeker and any points I receive in any classes, I will refuse on principle." He said with icy conviction as his eyes scanned the room, making contact with everyone he had considered a friend. He turned on his heel, sped up the stairs to the boy's dorm and his eyes misted with every step he took. He jumped on his bed, closed the curtains and collapsed in a fit of tears in his silenced bed.

-I own nothing-

Thanks to Haphne24 the beta for this story. :)