Day 8:
Harry found himself following the sound of beautiful organ music and found himself in the owlery. He frowned, unsure why it would lead him there. He suddenly jumped when a female voice sang out from nowhere,
"Harry James Potter,
eyes so green
Lift up your eyes
and you will see,
Magic and wonder
A world beyond
And if I am lucky
Perhaps even a bond.
I've wanted to know you
and wanted to find
A piece of your heart,
your soul and your mind.
So if I am lucky
and if I am kind
Perhaps I will end up
with you as mine."
Harry felt his cheeks go red and started shaking. He'd not even closed the door when the music started, so people had followed to see what the commotion was. He closed the door behind him and shook his head. He didn't need this right now. He hated attention. Luckily the music stopped and nobody had made a big deal of it to him yet. He made his way over to Hedwig and pet her. "Hey girl. What is my gifter thinking?" He frowned and could feel himself shaking. He nearly had tears in his eyes. How could his person seem to know him so well, but then do something like this to him?
Harry sighed and nearly calmed down. Then he noticed the note attached to the wall nearby Hedwig and frowned. It had very familiar scrawl. He grabbed it and read,
"Harry,
Today my gift to you is the attention you deserve. I know you avoid attention at all costs, but for today please revel in it. Enjoy knowing that someone has true feelings for you. There will be surprises waiting for you throughout the day. Enjoy Harry Potter.
Santa"
Harry frowned, but felt a slight feeling of butterflies through his stomach and felt his cheeks redden again. Who could have feelings for him? Of the people who knew him, he didn't see a real future with any of them. He frowned and bit his lip. The least he could do was try to enjoy the gifts the gifter had set for him. Or at least try. He closed his eyes and just hoped that he wouldn't be too embarrassed throughout the day.
Draco watched as Harry closed the door in their faces and frowned. He saw a look of disappointment. He sat outside the door and listened to Harry talking to his owl and frowned. Had he made a mistake? He hadn't wanted to. He frowned and felt as if Harry had rejected him already. He stood up and made his way down the stairs. He would make it up for Harry throughout the day. Maybe he had embarrassed Harry, but in the end, he'd likely also embarrassed himself. If Harry didn't share feelings with him, then he would likely find himself threatened by Harry's friends once this event was over.
He made his way down to the dungeons in time for his next class. Draco walked into Snape's classroom a few minutes before class was to start. Harry walked in a few minutes later as Snape walked in. Snape glared at Harry, but didn't say anything as Harry sat down and didn't look in his direction. Did Harry know that Draco had been the one to gift him? Had he been too daring by being outside the door along with the other students? He just wanted to know what Harry would think. He looked over at Harry, trying to see his hands, but Harry had them hidden beneath his desk. He still wanted to see if Harry was wearing the rings, but Harry seemed to have a knack at hiding his hands whenever he was around the Slytherin. He frowned. He decided to pay attention to Snape.
Snape was in the middle of describing their next potion, which was one Draco had made many times. The first time he had learned it from Snape himself. It was a fairly simple medical potion that used leaves and herbs to heal broken skin without leaving a scar. He heard Snape ask what the potion does and looked around. No one was raising their hand and he frowned. Was his class really that stupid. All they had to do was turn their book to page 762 and they'd know. Nobody was though. He looked at Snape who was looking directly at him. He raised his hand and Snape grinned, an eerie look in the way he was looking at him. "Yes, Mister Malfoy?" He asked, and shook his head. "Answer correctly and I'll give you 200 points, since it seems no one else even seems to care."
Draco raised an eye and frowned. No one gave so many points just for answering a simple question. He sprouted off his knowledge, pretty much quoting what Snape had once said to him. Snape nodded and smiled. "Your knowledge is apparently beyond your year. To everyone else, turn to page 762. Slytherins gained 200 points for the utter incompetence I have viewed today." He shook his head and looked at Draco. "Congratulations for being the smartest in your year."
Draco looked over at Harry and frowned. He'd wanted to give Harry attention today and once again it had been turned back onto him. He wondered if he'd made a mistake. Harry was reading and for once had his hands out and holding the book and Draco noticed a silver ring. He couldn't help but feel a smile go onto his face. Most people would think it was because he'd just gotten points, so he allowed himself to smile a bit more before he composed a bit and went back to his book. He was wondering if he would make Harry's day with his future gifts.
The class ended on a high note for the Slytherins and they all walked out happy. If it hadn't been for Draco earning them 200 points, which put them in the running with the Gryffindors for the Cup, the class would have ended like any other. Today was a good day. He still had two classes and he knew it would be a long day. He had classes with McGonnagal and Firenze later that night, but until then, he would probably go up to his dorms and play some games with Crabbe and Goyle.
Harry made his way to his dorms and found himself being followed. He turned around and frowned. A group of first years was watching him. He shook his head. "Please stop following me." He asked. They looked at each other and frowned.
One of the girls stepped forward. "Mr. Potter, sir. My friends and I created a Harry Potter fan group at the beginning of the year. We respect you and are very proud of how brave you are. All we want is some autographs."
"Please." One of the boys asked. He held out a book about Harry Potter and Harry frowned. He knew there was Harry Potter memorabilia out there, but he never looked for it and didn't know people who did, until now. He looked at their faces, shining up at him. Harry just nodded and sat down on one of the steps, grabbing his quill out of his bag. He looked at the boy and asked, "What is your name?"
"Tobias Eng, sir." He said and smiled. Harry nodded and wrote,
'Tobias,
The world is bright beneath the darkness. Follow your own light and you will find your way.
Harry'
He handed the book back and reached for the next child's book. He found himself looking at the children and wondering what made them fans of his. Sure, he had caused Voldemort to disappear for a bit, but why did that make him a hero? He was a baby when that happened and he'd made many mistakes since, including being a part of why Voldemort was back. People knew that and still saw him as a hero. Why? He couldn't understand it, but he was not about to disappoint some kids who saw good in the world. He even noted that two of the kids were Slytherins. If he could make a big enough impact that even Slytherins followed his lead, then he wanted to be the hero they saw. By the time he was done signing things, he had the biggest smile on his face. They had told him about their personal reasons for liking him. It was a real eye opener. In the Slytherins case, their explanations came from their heart. They couldn't tell their parents, but they felt free to make their opinions known in a secret club at school. Harry asked if he could attend one of their meetings in the future and the kids happily agreed. He found himself looking at his own world in a different light. Hogwarts was not only his safety net, it was other's too.
Harry made his way up to his dorm and saw Hermione sitting in the corner, writing. Ron was nowhere to be seen and Harry frowned. He'd been hoping to play a game with Ron and get his mind off of the attention he was getting. He walked over to Hermione and smiled at her. "How's it going?"
"Oh, Harry." She smiled and looked up at him. "Going well. I am just working on a personal project." She said and looked at the notebook once more in front of her. "Did you need something?" She asked and set the notebook down, upside down so he couldn't see. He shook his head. "I've just had a very weird day already." He said. "Why would my santa want me to have attention? It's like they're trying to torture me."
"Is it really torture to know that you are cared about Harry?" She asked, looking confused. "I mean, if someone cares about you, they want you to see yourself the way they see you. Obviously the person who has you cares about you and wants you to know just how much you are cared about by the school. It's not just Ron and I who know you are an amazing young man Harry."
Harry frowned and nodded. "I just don't like the attention for something I feel isn't something to be noticed for."
"Does it bother you that you are getting attention or that people view you as a hero?" She asked and looked him up and down. "Because I think I know you better than anyone and your reasons are not as obvious as some people assume. Your gifter may view you as shy, but what I think they don't know is that your true reason is that you have NEVER viewed yourself as the hero you are."
"I'm not a hero Mione." Harry said and rubbed an arm, feeling insecure that his friend knew that much about him. He'd probably made that much obvious, but hearing it said out loud made him sound more insecure than he wanted to be.
"Whether you believe it or not, you are Harry. You don't get to decide what makes someone a hero. You probably have at least one person who would make you feel as special as you deserve to be treated and you haven't even let them in yet. I, for one, am excited to see who your gifter is, if you'll let us know."
Harry nodded. "I will let you know as long as it is ok with them."
Hermione smiled. "Thank you Harry. If you don't mind..." She looked down at her notebook. Harry grinned and stood up. "Enjoy your project."
Harry walked up to his room and looking around, he saw no one and decided to dig in his trunk and grab one of the stuffed animals to sleep with. He closed the curtain and smiled, hugging close the stuffed dragon. He yawned and thought about how his other gifts would go down that night. While he didn't have any more classes tonight, Draco did. He smiled and found himself falling into a nice nap, thinking about the grey eyes of his dragon.
"Harry." Hermione's voice came from behind the curtain not long later. He quickly hid the dragon toy below his blanket and opened the curtain. "Mione?" He asked, confused as to why she was there to wake him.
"I wanted to let you know that apparently Draco was given 500 points by McGonnagal today for doing a 'good deed'. Nobody knows what it was, but that put the Slytherins ahead of us. I have never seen McGonnagal do something somwthing like that against her house!" Harry shrugged. "Obviously something. She doesn't give points unfairly."
Harry tried to hide his smile. He had opted to talk her into it the day before. He'd pointed out that in the previous years the teachers had treated Slytherins with less respect, but especially Draco. They'd been unfair. And Harry knew how much Draco's house meant to him. He'd get another 100 points before the night was done and Hermione would be none to happy. But so long as Draco was, Harry would be. He shook his head. "Maybe he deserved them."
Hermione harrumphed and crossed her arms. "Doubtful."
Harry shook his head. He'd known Hermione wouldn't take his gift well, but he didn't expect her to bitch to him about it. Did she know it was him who did it? Hermione was a smart witch and he wouldn't be surprised if she could figure out more than he hoped she would. "It had to be a Gryffindor who asked her." She bit her lip. "Why would they do that? Knowing McGonnagal would do something for her house and using it against them."
Harry shrugged. "I dunno Hermione. I was asleep."
She frowned and nodded. "I know. For some reason, I just feel betrayed. I..." She frowned and bit her lip. "Part of me feels like I wish I'd thought of doing something like that for House Unity. The other part of me feels like I could have prevented it."
"I dunno Mione. I doubt you could have stopped it. It obviously was going to happen either way. She shook her head. "Only because of this event." She said. "I'm sure of it."
"And if it is?" Harry asked. He lay his head back and yawned. "May I go back to sleep? We have quite a few classes with the Slytherins tomorrow and I feel like they are going to gloat."
Hermione nodded and sighed. "Sure. Sleep well Harry."
Harry nodded and felt bad lying to her. He was going back to sleep, but only because he was going to be up early, planning out his next days gift.