CHAPTER SEVEN
Harry awoke on the first day of September in a good mood, his excitement at returning to Hogwarts, along with the amount of spells he had found in his textbooks that he could use on the Weasel, caused him to be very chipper. He had a calm breakfast with the Malfoys, who had forced Harry and Draco to pack the night before, and was then apparated by the Malfoy adults to just outside the Train station. Draco, who shared Harry's good mood, practically skipped through the barrier between platform nine and ten, much to his parents quiet amusement. The two boy stared up at the giant red train, excitement bubbling, before they turned back to Draco's parents. Mrs Malfoy pulled Draco into a hug and made him promise to write, she then turned to Harry, who smiled at her,
"Thank you for having me over this summer, Lady Malfoy, it has been the best summer I've ever had!" he said, green eyes bright. Whatever reservations Mrs Malfoy had possessed towards the friend of her son's, seemed to crumble at these words, as she pulled Harry in for a tight hug.
"Do come again." she said, Mr Malfoy laughed slightly, and ruffled each boy's hair affectionately. The whole display was highly unusual from the generally cold family, and Harry boarded the Hogwarts express with a smile on his face. Harry and Draco set up in an empty compartment, and Greta slid up and around Harry's neck, disliking the cold of muggle London. They were promptly joined by Blaise and Theodore, the two boys were awestruck by Harry's trunk, disappearing into one of the room sized compartments with delight. About half way through the train journey, their compartment door slid open and Tracy and Daphne joined them,
"Where have you been?" asked Draco, Daphne rolled her eyes,
"With my sister, Astoria." she said, "She's starting this year and is already making bad decisions, she was sitting with a Weasley." Draco perked up at his nemesis' name,
"Which one?" he asked,
"The girl, honestly, their mother must be a baby making factory." Theodore choked on his pumpkin juice at that.
"She's not that bad." said Harry, slightly defensively, Draco snorted,
"Ignore Harry, he's just got a soft spot for her because she defended him against her brother." he said, Harry cast him a dirty look, "What? It's true!"
"No it's not." he said, "Just because one Weasley is bad, doesn't mean all of them are." Draco rolled his eyes and didn't bother to argue with his friend. Tracy's dark eyes came to rest upon Harry's trunk and widened,
"Neat trunk!" she said, coming closer to look at it, "How many compartments?" she asked, Harry grinned
"Seven, two are rooms." he said, the girl nodded, and Harry opened it so she could peer into the room.
"That's awesome!" she said, "You could so so much in there without anyone knowing!" Harry frowned,
"I guess, but what would I be doing that I wouldn't want anyone to know about?" for the second time that evening, Theodore choked on his pumpkin juice,
"I don't know…" said Tracy thoughtfully, "maybe you could practise duelling?" the two broke off into a discussion about how a duelling set up could be put into the room. Their ride to school passed without incident, and finally they were back in the great hall, with lightening flashing in the enchanted sky above them. The first years were a miserable looking bunch, it had been raining outside, and all of them looked like drowned rats as they lined up to get sorted. Harry paid them little attention, staring sadly at his plate as he waited for food to appear. He tuned into the sorting as
"Greengrass, Astoria." was sorted into "Slytherin.", causing Daphne to let out a loud whoop, and her friends to cheer loudly. Harry once again lost interest in the sorting as it continued, suddenly there was a loud amount of booing, which had Harry glancing up once more,
"What happened?" he asked Blaise, who gestured towards the sorting hat,
"A Weasley in Slytherin." he said. Ginevra Weasley was pale as death as she approached the Slytherin table, her brothers, who were sat as far as could be from her, seemed personally offended by her sorting, shrieking in protest. Harry had been around the Weasley twins for a year, and was aware that their booing was more likely humour then real anger, but felt pity for the girl who was gaining so much attention. He cheered loudly, casting a glance at his friends, who joined his bellows of support. Astoria Greengrass, the first year Slytherin, cast him a grateful look as she too cheered. The red-headed girl slid in next to her quietly, face flushed. No one else really stood out to Harry, there was a small boy who had clearly fallen into the lake, and was sorted into Gryffindor promptly, along with a girl with upside down sunglasses on, who twirled into Ravenclaw, but Harry barely paid them any attention. Dumbledore stood up, and delivered a speech which Harry couldn't hear over the growling of his stomach, before, finally, food appeared.
"You'd think we starved him…" said Draco, as he watched Harry hoover up food.
"Shut up, I'm hungry!" Harry protested. When the feast concluded, Harry stood up with his housemates to leave, when Dumbledore's voice called out to him,
"Mr Potter, would you please stay behind?" Harry exchanged a confused look with his friends, before sitting back down,
"Do you want us to wait for you?" asked Draco,
"Nah, don't worry about it, I'll see you guys later." he said, watching the other houses file out, Dumbledore approached Harry with twinkling blue eyes. Harry looked at him in slight awe, this was the closest he had ever been the renowned wizard. Harry suddenly recalled the incident of the previous year's house awards with no small amount of bitterness, and suppressed his wonder.
"Mr Potter," said Dumbledore, "May I speak with you in my office?" Harry nodded and followed the man as he lead Harry up several flights of stairs before stopping before two gargoyles,
"Sherbet Lemons." he said, and the two gargoyles parted to reveal a set of revolving stairs. Harry couldn't suppress his gasp of surprise and the old man smiled at him before leading him to his office. The room was large and lined with many spinning trinkets that had Harry unsure where to look first. Dumbledore slid into a seat behind his desk and gestured with a wizened hand for Harry to take the seat opposite him. "Mr Potter, I am sorry to call you away from your friends on the first day of school, but it has come to my attention that you spent your holidays with them, rather then with your Aunt and Uncle." Harry nodded, unsure where the conversation was going, "Whilst I am sure you enjoy spending time with your friends, do you not think it would be fitting to spend some time with your blood relations?" the man asked, Harry frowned, beyond confused,
"Sir, I, uh, I got permission from them, I let them know where I was going well in advance, I don't think that they felt in any way cheated by the arrangement." he said, Dumbledore's gaze didn't flicker, if anything, the twinkling intensified,
"Be that as it may," he said, "there are certain protections that come from you staying at a blood relative's house that cannot be replicated anywhere else, I'm afraid that I must insist you spend your next holiday, Christmas, as well as the summer with them."
"What kind of protection?" Harry asked, eyes narrowing as he ignored the voice in his head which told him to kick up a fuss at the man's demands,
"There are blood wards, created by your mother that are enforced when you spend time around her relatives." the man said, Harry nodded as though he understood,
"Thank you for your concern, sir, but I think that I'm going to stick with my friends rather then the Dursleys, I mean, it's not like they care where I go, and forgive me sir, but it's really none of your business where I stay outside of school time." The old man leaned back in his chair, smile gone,
"I was afraid that you would react this way, Mr Potter." He said, nodding in acceptance, "You may go to your common room." Harry stood up, nodding politely to the headmaster.
"Thank you, sir." He said, before making a quick exit.
When he got back to the Slytherin common room, his friends were waiting up for him, all clad in pyjamas as they sat by the fire,
"What happened?" asked Theodore, and Harry relayed the tale. Once he was done, Draco stood up,
"I'm going to write a letter to my father, Dumbledore shouldn't be showing such an interest in the lives of his students." he said pacing back and forth, Harry smiled gratefully,
"Thanks Draco, but it's not necessary, unless he does something other then try and talk me into staying with the Dursleys, it's nothing more then irritating." he said, the blonde boy sat back down, and Blaise sneered,
"The audacity of the man, trying to send the Potter heir to stay with muggle scum, because it's somehow safer then with pureblooded families. Can he hear himself?" Harry snorted,
"It's not worth thinking about." he said, resting his eyes as he sat back in his chair, "Tell me something interesting to distract me." There was a pause, before Draco said,
"Weasley started crying during the prefect speech, it was hilarious." Harry cracked open an eye as the boy continued, "No Slytherin would cry in front of all of their housemates, the hat obviously made a mistake." Theodore rolled his eyes,
"That's what you said about me, too, Draco." he noted, "Though I'll admit the tears were a surprise."
"You were different…" Draco tried to explain, "I made fun of you because you were always disorganised and late and running around, at least you knew pureblood customs."
"And she doesn't?" asked Harry,
"Nope." Draco said gleefully, "She won't last five minutes."
Later that night, Harry sat up in bed, his wand illuminating what he was doing as he hastily scrawled a note. He recalled himself in his first year, with no idea how to behave, and felt a wave of pity for the Weasley girl, who didn't have his advantage of being the heir to several fortunes or famous.
Dear Ms Weasley,
I am a member of your house, and I know this might seem strange, but I am
only trying to help. This book will teach you pureblood customs, which are a necessity
in Slytherin house. If you follow the rules in the book, then you will do fine. I ask you to
avoid reading this in public, as you will reveal me as the person who helped you to my friends.
This could make things difficult for me. Good luck in Slytherin.
A friend
P.S. Don't call anyone by their first name without their permission.
Harry read through the note, and half debated whether to discard it and forget the whole thing, before the recollection of the Gryffindors booing her sorting re-entered his head.
"Greta" Harry hissed, his snake peered up at him, "Could you do me a favour?" The serpent almost smiled up at him,
"Just name it, and I will do my best." she hissed,
"Could you give this to Ginevra Weasley, you remember her from the book shop, right? I'll make it weightless, but if you could leave it by her bed before morning-"
"Anything for you, Speaker…" the snake hissed, dark tongue flitting out to brush his cheek in an odd kiss, Greta slid from his person soundlessly, and was soon disappearing into the dark, book and note dragged awkwardly behind her. As she slid around a corner, Harry heard her parting words, "Damn, this floor is cold." before he drifted off into sleep.
When Harry awoke, Greta was back around his neck. Their dormitory was cast in a familiar green glow, as sunlight filtered through the murky water outside their window, Harry glanced at his watch, it was barely six. Stretching until he heard his back crack, Harry clambered from his bed. He padded bare footed down the hallway, sliding into the showers and embracing the familiar scalding temperature. Outside of the shower, Greta was hissing about all of the spiders in the castle, distaste colouring her tone. When Harry finally exited, the green snake wound up his arm once more and the boy and snake ambled back down the hall, hissing a greeting at the passing Draco, who shuddered but didn't respond.
Harry threw open his trunk, pulling out a large text book before settling into bed. Blaise, who was always up from some ridiculously early time in the morning, peered at the cover,
"Animagus Studies?" the boy asked incredulously, "Harry, why?" the boy glanced at him, green eyes eager,
"I got Ancestry tested, and apparently I am capable of becoming one, its a really difficult process, but I reckon I'll be able to master it by my fourth year!" he said, excited, Blaise leaned forwards, eyes flickering over Harry's book curiously,
"Mind if I join you in your study? My test says I'm capable too." he asked, Theodore's curtains were swung open and a bleary eyed boy peered at them from under heavy lids,
"Me too!" he cried drowsily, staggering from bed, "I wanna' become a sheep…" the boy tottered off down the hall, presumably to shower,
"I guess we should ask Draco, too, then." said Harry with a grin, "Make it a group effort." the two boys continued to pore over the text book for several minutes, before Harry pulled out his wand, "Geminus", he tapped the book twice, and another copy appeared, he did the same thing two more times before handing Blaise one of the copies. When Draco and Theo eventually returned, they were each presented with a book and leapt at the opportunity to learn to become animagi.
Eventually the boys went down to breakfast, and were handed their schedules by a scowling Professor Snape. Harry glanced at his before letting out a loud groan, causing people to look at him in surprise,
"Double defence, first period…" he despaired, "I'm too young for this torture." Draco patted him on the shoulder,
"It will all be over soon, my child." he crooned,
"Um, why is defence a bad thing?" came a girl's voice, Harry and Draco looked up to see a girl with black hair tied into a french braid down her shoulder, large blue eyes looked at the boys inquisitively, "Gilderoy Lockhart is meant to be an amazing wizard…"
"Listen here, short stuff." said Draco menacingly, brandishing a finger at the girl, who's brow furrowed in confusion, "I don't know who you've been talking to, but Lockhart is a complete- Daphne!" Draco's aggressive manner disintegrated before the blonde girl, who was looking at the boy's innocent facade with suspicion,
"Hello Draco, you've been talking to my sister, I see." she said,
"Your sister!" he squeaked, looking at the girl he had referred to as 'Short stuff', in alarm. Harry laughed into his breakfast.
"Yeah, Daphne, Draco was telling me what he thought of Lockhart."
"He's a fraud." came a quiet voice from beside Astoria. Harry finally noticed Ginevra Weasley's presence beside the dark haired girl. The two first years had matching braids and the small red headed girl seemed to regret speaking as everyone's attention focused on her.
"What do you mean?" asked Blaise curiously, the girl reluctantly pulled out several Lockhart books from her bag, flipping the pages, she showed them the dates in the books,
"Lockhart's stories all overlap, the dates don't add up and he talks about things that don't exist, like, a spell to cure werewolves and stuff."
"I knew it." Draco sneered, the girl seemed to shrink back but the blonde boy was paying her no attention, "Just wait until my father hears about this, that'll teach him not to force Harry into photoshoots." the table resumed it's previous chatter, before Astoria clambered to her feet,
"We best be getting to class, come on, Ginny." she said. The two girls disappeared from sight and Blaise nudged Harry,
"Longbottom and Granger are staring at us again." he said, "Group death glare in three, two, one," the four boys looked up in sync, giving the two Gryffindors their dirtiest looks.
"Remind me to never get on your bad side…" said Tracy, "That was creepy." The Slytherins got to their feet and together headed down to their defence class.
Lockhart's lesson was even worse then Harry had feared. The man gave them a quiz on himself, laughed at his own jokes, and used Harry for every live action scene in his stories. By the end of the first week, Harry was seriously considering lodging a formal complaint.
The Quidditch try-outs were on the first Sunday of the school year. Harry and Draco wandered down to the quidditch pitch, Nimbus 2001s held tightly in sweaty palms. Upon walking onto the pitch, Harry was overwhelmingly relieved that he had opted to apply for a position as chaser, there was only one other candidate for seeker, Terrance Higgs, but said boy was several years above Draco, and was clearly prepared to defend his position viciously. Draco gulped audibly from beside him. Harry patted him on the shoulder supportively, before going to stand with the other chaser applicants. The Chaser try-outs went first, and each player had to play with two of the previous year's chasers, attempting to score as many goals as possible in three minutes. Harry stepped up to the challenge with a grin, he was beyond confident on the quidditch pitch. His flying skills, which had been great from the first time he touched a broom, had been honed over the summer, and with the added advantage of his broom, he mopped the floor with the competition. He was informed that practise was on Monday and Sunday mornings from six, and he wasn't to be late, before he was sent away. Harry slid into a seat in the stands, and watched with baited breath, as the trials for the seekers were announced. Three snitches were released onto the pitch, before Draco and Higgs were told to catch as many as they could. Whoever caught the most, won the position. Harry sat back to watch the competition, when a bright flash of light made him jump. Harry turned sharply, to see a first year boy sitting beside him with wide eyes, in his hands was the source of the flash, a large camera.
"What do you think you're doing?" Harry asked sharply, irritated at having his photo taken so abruptly. The small boy seemed to bounce on his seat,
"You're Harry Potter!" he squeaked,
"I know I am." Harry said, peering suspiciously at the boy, who was clad in the traditional red and gold of Gryffindor, "But that doesn't mean you can just snap photos without asking." the boy flushed, but his eyes were still wide and eager,
"Sorry." he said, "I'm a muggleborn, you see, and my dad didn't believe me when I said you were at Hogwarts, and I promised I would try and get a picture and-" the boy got faster as he spoke, and Harry blinked, startled,
"It's ok, I guess, just ask next time." he cut the smaller boy off. The small mousy-haired boy nodded frantically, a wide smile overtaking his features,
"In that case," he asked, "would you mind if I took a picture of you smiling?" Harry shrugged, the boy was harmless, he smiled politely at the camera, blinking to clear his vision as the bright light flashed. He glanced at the Quidditch pitch in time to see Draco brandishing two of the three snitches in his opponent's face, whooping in delight. The blonde boy made his way over to Harry, a delighted flush decorating his cheeks,
"I'm on the team!" he cried, as he made his way to Harry, his eyes flickered to the boy beside him and his expression soured slightly, "Is this kid bothering you?" Harry felt his friend's eyes take in the boy's Gryffindor uniform and opened his mouth to answer when the boy said,
"I'm not bothering him, I just wanted a picture, we were having a perfectly normal conversation before you butted in acting all protective." The boy was looking at Draco with intense dislike, and Harry realised that the boy's neutrality towards Harry being in Slytherin was more to do with his celebrity status then a lack of house bias. Draco seemed to make the same connection as a sneer overtook his features,
"Listen here, you little runt-"
"My name is Colin Creevey." the boy cut in, Draco's eyes narrowed and Harry wished he couldn't see the path that his friend's mind was taking, wished he didn't know what Draco was going to say before he said it,
"I don't give a crap what your name is, you filthy little mudblood, who do you think you are, talking to me like that?" Creevey gasped in shock, and Harry wondered in the back of his mind how the boy knew what a mudblood was so early into his stay in the wizarding world, "You come to our quidditch practise, and bother my friends, then get aggressive with me? You're lucky I don't hex you." The blonde boy turned to Harry, "Come on, Harry." he said sharply,
"I… I wasn't bothering him, I just wanted a picture!" the small boy exclaimed, "Harry, tell him I wasn't-" whatever the boy wanted Harry to defend, he would never know, because Harry wordlessly followed Draco from the pitch.
"The nerve of that kid!" Draco cried, once they were out of earshot, "Why, I ought to-"
"I don't like the word mudblood." Harry interrupted, Draco turned to him in surprise, "I more then don't like it, I hate it." he clarified,
"I know you don't, Harry." the blonde boy said apologetically, "Because of your mum and all, but-"
"No, not just because of my mum." Harry but him off again, "Why do you think people hate Slytherin so much? Why do they assume we're dark? Because we continue to entertain these ideas that muggleborns are inferior, all it does is prove to the other houses that we haven't changed." Draco's eyes narrowed angrily and he opened his mouth to retort, but Harry cut him off before he could, "And yes, I know how you feel about them, I'm not exactly fond of muggles either, but whether you like it or not, muggleborns are still part of the wizarding world, and all using words like 'Mudblood' does, is ostracise us." he took a deep breath, the words lifting like a weight from Harry's chest, Draco glowered at the ground sullenly,
"Why are you getting so passionate about this, you heard the way Creevey was talking to me?" Harry stared at his friend, who seemed flushed under the weight of his reprimand, he felt his resolve weaken, this was his best friend.
"I don't give a crap about Creevey." he said, finally, "And I'm not asking you to give up your beliefs, but surely you can see that words like 'mudblood' do nothing except cut us off from the rest of the school." Draco nodded, but didn't speak again as they walked to their dormitories, he seemed to be lost in thought. The two boys retired to bed silently, and when they awoke, Draco greeted him as though nothing had happened the previous day, but his dark-haired friends words had left a lasting impression on the Malfoy heir.
Whoooo! Ginny is in Slytherin! Most people guessed that that was what was going to happen. Anyways, thanks for reading, please leave a review, let's see who can guess Harry and the gang's animagus forms...!
