'So what do you think?' Daphne Greengrass asked once she had locked the door to the empty classroom behind her and cast a few layers of Silencing Charms on it. The four Slytherin girls had left the Great Hall soon after Harry Potter had gone to the Gryffindor table to avoid Draco Malfoy, who had been strutting pompously towards them.
'Didn't we just say what we think? We agreed to have a look at this group, didn't we?' Astoria said to her sister, looking confused.
'Yes, we did. But what about Potter's plan to spy on the Death Eater kids? Are we really willing to do that?'
They regarded each other in long silence before Tracey said, 'I am. I'm just a half-blood, and in their eyes, I'm little more than a Muggleborn what with my father being a Muggle. If it weren't for you and Thea, I'm pretty sure I'd be a complete pariah; I'm the only Slytherin fifth year who isn't a pureblood. Malfoy and his thugs haven't been nice to me at any rate anyway.'
The others nodded at her words, knowing only too well exactly how Malfoy treated Tracey when they were away from the eyes of the other houses. Daphne looked at Thea, who was cleaning her glasses with the sleeve of her robes.
'What about you, Thea? Your father is…' Daphne trailed off, not knowing how to say what she wanted in a way that wouldn't hurt her friend's feelings.
Thea, however, smiled sadly as she said, 'He's a bigoted pureblood supremest. You don't have to put things lightly, Daphne; I know exactly what he is.' She paused for a moment before she continued, 'I don't doubt that he would join the Death Eaters if given half a chance; with my mother gone, there's nothing stopping him this time.' She sighed. 'I think I haven't been giving Potter quite the credit he deserves, not from what I saw and heard today; he seems to genuinely care about other people's wellbeing, and it also looks like he's thought things out quite a bit. I don't think I'd mind doing something for such a person, especially if it helps me keep the people I care about safe.'
'Yeah, I think we were all surprised by what Potter had to say -'
'I wasn't - not really, anyway,' Astoria interrupted. 'I've kind of been wanting to get a chance to speak with to for a long time. I hear Malfoy go on and on about what an arrogant and attention-seeking blowhard Harry is, but I always thought that it was strange coming from Malfoy, who's as arrogant and attention-seeking as someone could possibly be. I guess you didn't notice it before because you're in his year; you always have to listen to Malfoy go off about him and watch the two of them try to rip each other apart, but when I see him, he always seems to be nice to anyone he can manage. I remember you telling me how the whole school turned against him when the Chamber of Secrets was opened, but he didn't hold it against anyone. When he got into the Tri-wizard Tournament, people alternated between loving him and hating the very idea of him, and he still didn't lash out at anyone. And now, the Ministry and Umbridge are doing everything they can to make his life miserable, but all he's thinking about is helping people where he can - people who most likely think him insane or a liar and are only siding with him to have a chance at passing their exams.'
The older girls digested Astoria's words with thoughtful expressions, looking as though they were each revising their opinions on Harry Potter.
Astoria continued, 'I don't think he's at all what most people make him out to be. We thought he hated every Slytherin just on the basis of their being in Slytherin, but you heard what he said. I think he was being sincere.'
Daphne shook her head. 'How could you see all of this while we couldn't?'
'Like I said, you've all been around Malfoy too much, and the only interactions you've really had with Harry would be laughing at him or his fighting with Malfoy,' Astoria explained. 'All the Slytherins in fourth year and upwards seem to detest him, but most of the younger students, across all the houses, almost worship him, though I doubt he knows that. The younger kids all talk about how nicely he treats them.'
'Don't let Potter hear Astoria talk about him or he really might have his head inflated,' Tracey said to Daphne, who mirrored her best friend's smirk. Astoria snorted and rolled her eyes.
'What about you two?' Thea said, gesturing towards the Greengrass sisters. 'Are you willing to spy on the Death Eater kids and report to Potter?'
Daphne and Astoria looked at each other for a moment before Daphne said, 'I have absolutely no love for the Death Eaters or You-Know-Who. Our family stayed neutral in the last war, but we might not be so lucky this time; it'd be good to have a few backup plans, and I've noticed that Potter seems to be very close to Dumbledore - more close than any student and Headmaster should be. A few alliances here and there wouldn't hurt, so yes, I am willing.'
Everyone turned to look at Astoria, who was fidgeting and doing her best to avoid their gazes. 'W - Well, I don't think it's much of a secret that I have a little bit of a crush on Malfoy - when he's not making an arse of himself, at least. But I know he's wrong for me; he's the biggest pureblood bigot of them all, and I can tell that he'd love nothing more than to be inducted into the Death Eaters. I really don't want to be with someone like that, no matter what I might feel for them. Plus I'm really tired of how he always goes "my father this" and "my father that"; I'd like a man who doesn't need his daddy to prop him up, thanks.' Astoria smiled as the other girls nodded fervently. 'Keeping all of this in mind, I think I'd like to work with Harry.'
'Great, we all agree, then,' Tracey said with a smile. 'Now we need to figure out one more thing: what do we tell people Potter wanted when he came to sit with us?'
'Let's use my explanation,' Astoria said at once excitedly. When the older girls looked puzzled, she sighed and said, in a tone denoting the obvious, 'We'll say that Harry wants to date Daphne - end of dilemma.'
'Why do you insist on throwing wild monkeys into my life?' Daphne asked her sister with an exasperated glare.
'It's not like Potter's bad-looking, Daph - though his wardrobe certainly does need some long overdue work,' Tracey said with an evil grin, which was mirrored by Thea.
'But I don't want to date him,' Daphne insisted with a roll of her eyes.
'Good, because that would be the catch,' Thea said excitedly. 'Since you have no interest in him, it would be easy for you to say that you're just stringing him along, trying to find out all of his weaknesses before you put him down - the perfect story to get Malfoy or anyone else off our backs!' She clapped her hands.
'That's true,' Daphne acknowledged slowly after she had thought it through, 'but why me? You or Tracey or even Tori could do just as well.'
Daphne smiled when she saw the other girls' faces tense slightly; she knew that there was indeed no reason for any of them not to take up the task of convincing the rest of their house that they were still very much in the anti-Potter camp, rather than having migrated towards neutrality.
'Actually,' she continued, smirking evilly at her sister, whose eyes widened as she sensed danger, 'I think you'd be the best choice, Tori. Since Malfoy does indeed know you have a crush on him, it'll seem like you're derailing Potter because you want to impress the blonde ponce; that'll stroke his ego quite a bit, and I know that Malfoy loves nothing more than that. It'll make him blinder than he normally is.'
Astoria inwardly groaned at her sister's words, knowing that she was perfectly right since she herself agreed with her logic - as did Tracey and Thea.
'Alright, I'll do it,' she conceded. 'I may as well have a fake relationship while I don't have a real one, right?'
'You've gone barmy,' Ron said resolutely, convinced that he had hit the nail on the head.
Harry, who had been bent over his Astronomy essay, sighed and put his quill down. He sat back and turned to look at Ron; he could sense Hermione watching him keenly as well.
'No, I haven't,' he said. 'In fact, I think I'm seeing reason more than I ever have before.'
'You call going to sit at the Slytherin table reasonable?' asked Ron incredulously, his eyes widened in disbelief. 'Harry, there wasn't a wizard who went bad that wasn't in Slytherin; they're all just Dark wizards waiting to happen.'
'What about Wormtail?' Harry countered, a heavy frown on his face. 'He was a Gryffindor, but need I remind you that he's one of the reasons I don't have parents?'
Ron wisely fell silent at that. He looked to Hermione for help; she shook her head, seeming determined to remain an observer.
'I don't think it's fair to say that every Slytherin is Dark, evil or generally a bad person,' Harry firmly. He was very determined to get his point across to his friends and make them understand what he was doing and why he was doing it. 'Davis, Greengrass and Runcorn have never done anything to us.'
'Are you kidding me? What about all those times they laughed it up at us with Malfoy and his cronies?'
'Yeah, they have laughed whenever we've been embarrassed or anything bad has happened to us,' Harry said, 'but they themselves never instigated anything against us, did they? Everyone is suspicious of every Slytherin; wouldn't it make sense for them to group up with each other just to survive? That would hardly work if they were seen to be divided. I think it's just a show; there's no way they can all be friendly with each other - just look at me and Seamus - or Dark, or pureblood supremacists. Some of them are half-bloods, and I'm sure that there are a couple of Muggleborns there as well.'
'You're losing it, Harry,' Ron said, shaking his head. 'I've never heard of a Muggleborn Slytherin.'
'Well, of course you haven't; would you advertise that you were Muggleborn when you belong to a house where they're regarded as barely worth dirt?' Harry turned to Hermione, who was looking very thoughtful at Harry's words. 'Correct me if I'm wrong, Hermione, but I seem to remember that it was Gryffindor that came up with the Sorting Hat after Slytherin had left the school.'
'Yes, that's right,' the bushy-haired girl confirmed with a nod.
'I wouldn't put it past Gryffindor, who definitely didn't agree with Slytherin's ideas on blood purity, to leave blood status out of the way the Hat sorts students, so it stands to reason that there must be or must have been a few Muggleborns in Slytherin House. Slytherins are supposed to be cunning, though, so I'd bet that its Muggleborn members would learn very fast not to reveal what they are; they're probably masquerading as half-bloods or purebloods whose families don't reside in Britain. No one would have any way of proving otherwise short of forcing them to show everyone where and how they lived.'
'You seem to have thought a lot about this, Harry,' Hermione observed, watching the bespectacled boy closely.
'I have,' confirmed Harry, smiling in her direction. 'Actually, I've been thinking about a lot of things ever since that lecture you gave me after I shouted at you about the Defense group.' A pink blush crept up into Hermione's cheeks, which only served to widen Harry's smile. 'I'll tell you all about it, but first there are some things I'd like to do.'
'Harry, we can't have Slytherins in the Defense group,' Ron said pleadingly. 'They'll rat us out to Umbridge -'
'Ron, Umbridge already knows about the group, remember?' Hermione said. 'She'll suspect that we're going to go on with it despite the Educational Decree, so it really wouldn't do us any harm if someone does tell her, will it?'
'Exactly,' Harry said even as Ron glared at Hermione for refuting his statement. He wasn't about to give up, though.
'There are Death Eater kids in Slytherin,' Ron insisted. 'You'll teach them, and they'll use what they learned to hurt us, Harry.'
'Like I said, the Slytherins can't all be bad - that's literally impossible, Ron. Besides, isn't this all about teaching people to defend themselves and people they care about? Doesn't everyone deserve that chance, Slytherin or not?'
'Mate, they'll ruin everything,' Ron tried again. Harry, however, had thought this through quite a lot, and was not going to allow himself to be swayed.
'You can't possibly be sure of that, Ron; you and I are both rubbish at Divination, you know.' That caused Hermione to snicker and playfully roll her eyes. 'You wanted me to lead this group, and that's exactly what I'm doing: I'm making a decision. I won't allow myself to become biased against people when I don't even truly know them. If I did that, we'd have a lot fewer members than we already do.'
Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see that Hermione was regarding him with no small amount of pride, whereas Ron looked faintly like he was about to be sick.
'I don't know, Harry, I don't think I can work with Slytherins,' he said, shaking his head.
'For pete's sake, Ronald, this isn't about house rivalries; it's about passing our exams and protecting the things we hold close to ourselves.' Hermione, it seemed, had had enough; she was now glaring at Ron as though she would dearly like to slap him. Ron did not seem at all cowed; in fact, he looked even more sure that he was right.
'Look, I'm going to bed. We'll talk later, okay?' And with that, the youngest Weasley boy got to his feet and went hastily towards the fifth year boys' dormitory.
Harry smiled sadly. 'I'd wanted things to go a lot smoother than that.'
Hermione gently put a hand on his arm. 'He'll come around,' she said with a smile of her own.
'Yeah, I hope so.' Harry went back to his Astronomy essay, quite aware that Hermione kept glancing at him every ten seconds or so. He knew that she wanted to talk to him, but was nervous to do so. He also had something to say to her, but it would have to wait for a while; there was someone else he needed to speak with first.
They had worked in silence for about half an hour when the person he was waiting for finally appeared in the common room. He must have visibly tensed for Hermione was now staring at him with worry written on her face. He gave her a reassuring smile as he pulled out his wand and said, picturing the very best results he could, 'Orchideous!' A vibrant bouquet of red roses burst from the wand tip and he smiled even as Hermione frowned in confusion. Harry got to his feet, took a deep breath, well aware of the possibility of everything blowing up in his face, and strode towards his target, flowers in hand.
'Hi, Parvati,' he said, trying to sound as confident and cheerful as he possibly could.
'Hi, Harry,' Parvati said with a small smile as the group of four girls looked up at him and eyed the roses curiously. 'Are those for me?' she asked jokingly.
Harry would have smiled at that if he weren't so nervous. 'As a matter of fact, they are.'
Just like at dinner with the Slytherin girls, Harry would normally have laughed at the expression that came over Parvati's face. He was, however, determined not to screw up, and so kept his mirth down as much as he could.
'Are you serious? You're giving me flowers?' the Indian girl asked incredulously, eyes wide as the other girls began to whisper among themselves.
'Yeah. You see, I was recently on the receiving end of a Hermione lecture -' The girls smirked at this. '- and I took a long hard look at myself as a result. I realized that I leave a lot to be desired, and decided to try and better myself. As part of that, I'd like to sincerely apologize for how I treated you last year at the Yule Ball. You didn't deserve that at all, and I really am sorry. I have no excuse, and I'm willing to give you a free shot at hexing me or anything else to make it up to you.'
Parvati looked simply gob-smacked as Harry handed her the roses. Buying herself some time, she smelled the flowers, and Harry was pleased to see her eyes close in appreciation of their scent. By this time, he had gathered the attention of most of his fellow Gryffindors, and he could feel their eyes piercing into his back. He mentally smiled as he heard them begin to whisper, no doubt talking about how full of surprises Harry Potter was today.
'Thank you, Harry,' Parvati said earnestly. She stood up and promptly hugged him; feeling very self-conscious but determined to have everything go well, Harry hesitantly wrapped his arms around her. When she broke the hug, he saw that Parvati was beaming as though she had been declared Minister of Magic and he immediately knew that he had done the right thing by apologizing. 'I don't want to hex you, but maybe you could do me a favor?'
'Sure,' Harry said with a smile, privately praying that it wouldn't be anything that would get him in trouble; he really didn't need to be more firmly in Umbridge's grip than he already was.
She looked a little nervous as she said, 'This isn't anything against Ron and Hermione, Harry, but I think we'd all like it if you were a little more friendly with the rest of us. We've been in the same house for four years and I barely know anything about you.'
Harry smiled again. 'That's actually part of my "be the best Harry Potter you can be" plan. I'm sorry if I've seemed…snobbish in the past.' He said this last part looking around at the girls Parvati had been seating with, who he knew were all in his year. Parvati's request did, however, make him aware that she had carried genuine feelings for him and he once again berated himself for his behavior at the Yule Ball. He decided that another small gesture was in order, if only to allow him to stop kicking himself. He gave them a courteous nod, bid them a pleasant evening and went back to sit next to Hermione.
She was beaming as widely as Parvati.
'You apologized for how the Yule Ball went.' She wasn't asking. Harry confirmed the statement with a nod and turned to look at her. She must have seen something in his expression, for she suddenly looked a little unsure of herself.
'I think I owe you an apology as well, Hermione,' he said.
'What? Why?' his bushy-haired friend asked, eyes wide.
Harry paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts, and explained, 'I haven't really been the friend that you deserve; I realized that after the lecture you gave me. You've always been there for me, helping me wherever you can, but I haven't done the same for you.'
'Harry -' Hermione began. She stopped when Harry raised a hand, asking her to let him finish. When she nodded, Harry continued, 'You've always done your best to help me when I've been down in the dumps, so focused on feeling sorry for myself that I don't actually do anything about what it is that's bothering me. You're always looking out for me, and I haven't thanked you enough for it. When you got the Firebolt confiscated by Professor McGonagall in third year, I got angry at you instead of seeing that you only wanted to keep me safe. I was a prat. Last year, I didn't stick up for you when Ron laid into you about dating Krum, even though I knew Ron was wrong. I was a prat again. This year, I've been doing a lot of whining about Dumbledore, the Order, the Ministry and Umbridge, but you're the one who actually did something about it - your idea for the Defense group. I was an insufferable prat. You're always helping me come up with solutions to my problems, Hermione, but I've never actually been there for you, never helped you with your problems. I'm really sorry. I won't be that guy any more; I promise I'll be the friend you deserve from now on.'
Halfway through his speech, Hermione had started to cry silently. The sight of female tears still made him uncomfortable, but he was again determined not to foul up his attempts to rectify the mistakes of his past. He was very ashamed of how he had been taking his rage and dissatisfaction out on his friends, and resolved to lay the blame exactly where it should be - and do something about the situation when it so obviously irked him.
Before he knew what was happening, Harry had been enveloped in a tight hug eerily reminiscent of Mrs Weasley. He hugged Hermione back as she cried with what he hoped was joy; she occasionally sniffled but was otherwise silent. He could feel everyone's eyes on him again and idly wondered what sort of rumors would start going around about him this time. When Hermione pulled back from him, she was smiling widely. 'Thank you, Harry. You have no idea how much those words mean to me.' She then gave a little laugh and asked, 'What's happening to you?'
'I have no idea,' Harry answered with a laugh of his own.
'Well, whatever it is, I like it.'
Harry smiled and turned back to his Astronomy essay. He needed to finish it as quickly as possible; he had a few short letters that he needed to write before he went to bed, as he needed them to be delivered with the morning post. He also needed to talk to Ron and make him see that he was trying to do the right thing.
'Wait a minute, how come I didn't get flowers?'
Harry laughed.
