THE FRIENDSHIP OF RIVALRY
Notes:
Disclaimer - I do not own the setting of Harry Potter or any of the characters; those are the property of J.K. Rowling. I have however added a few new names, given that this story is centered on the time after Harry and Draco have graduated. The plot is entirely mine.
This story is a male x male slash so please don't read it if you don't like to read these types of fanfics.
Key:
"Thoughts"
"Speech"
Chapter 7: Settling in (Harry)
Harry glanced around the Great Hall and his gaze landed on the Gryffindor table. Some of the students noticed him watching them and they glared at him before settling back to enjoy the feast.
It felt strange to be on the receiving end of the venomous stares of the Gryffindor house and he realized that this must have been how the Slytherins always felt.
It plagued him to know that he had once been a part of the crowd who hated people just because they were sorted into the Slytherin house.
He returned his attention to his own house and noticed that their ties were stronger than that of any other house. A boy with brown hair called to him and he turned his attention to the seventh year. "Hey, Hadrian right?" Harry nodded. "I'm Jean Jacque. Don't mind them; they are always like that…"
Another brown-haired boy, whose name Harry vaguely remembered to be Theo Halt, nodded from his seat across from him then added, "Yeah they think being sorted into Slytherin automatically means that you are entitled to be evil."
Snickers sounded up all around them and Harry could see that even Draco was laughing. It seemed to be a common joke in Slytherin and a part of Harry felt ashamed that he had actually believed it during his previous years at Hogwarts.
Yeah, he was the savior of the wizarding world and all (according to most people), but he was pretty sure that it was more because of luck than anything else. People thought he was fearless when in reality, he just wanted to stand up for what is right.
In a dark corner of his mind he knew that killing another person or creature was wrong no matter what and yet, in essence, the wizarding world was actually praising him because did just that.
He took a life to save the lives of other people and nobody considered that through all its fancy titles and names, it was still murder. Not that he'd had much choice in the matter. It had been kill or be killed and he'd realized then why the sorting had wanted to put him in Slytherin.
A nudge on his side pulled his attention back to the present and he saw that Draco was staring at him in worry. Harry gave him a small smile to reassure him and then started to dig into the feast. The house elves always outdid themselves at the start-of-the-year feast and it would be a crime to miss out on any of it.
Once the feast ended and everyone had eaten their fill, Headmistress McGonagall instructed the prefects to show the first years to their dormitories. Harry already knew where the Slytherin dormitories were located from when he and Ron had snuck into the common room.
Harry allowed himself to grin slyly at the thought but Draco immediately noticed, because he pulled Harry back so they were following the group at a slight distance. "Uhm Harry? Please don't tell me you're thinking of doing something to any of the Slytherins, they're not that bad, I promise."
Harry grinned at Draco's worried face, but he shook his head. "Don't worry Draco, I was just thinking about the time Ron and I snuck into the Slytherin common room."
Draco looked confused for a moment before he demanded the detail in a hushed voice. "Tell me about it or I will never ever forgive you." Harry snickered at the bossy tone in Draco's voice.
"Well, Ron, Hermione, and I made a Polyjuice potion to get into the Slytherin common room. We took Crabbe and Goyle's forms." Draco looked panicked for a moment. "W-when did you do that?"
Harry shrugged. "Remember that time you asked Goyle why he was wearing glasses?" Draco nodded then seemed to connect the link. "You mean to say that you were Goyle at that time?" Harry nodded then waited for Draco's anger that was sure to follow.
But nothing happened. Instead, Draco simply threw his arm around Harry's shoulders and laughed. "I guess I can see why the hat wanted you to be in Slytherin. It takes cunning to wander into a den of snakes when you are an outsider, for the right reason anyway. Although I must admit that you suck in the self-preservation category." Harry grinned back at him. "So what happens when I'm an insider?"
Draco grinned back at him. "Well then you are part of the snake den and outsiders should remember that if they ever even think of touching you. Slytherins take care of each other."
Harry nodded as they walked through the maze in which the dungeons reside and Harry saw a lot more passageways than he could remember. He had to admit to himself that he and Ron had actually just been following Draco at that time and now the whole place suddenly seemed a lot bigger and even more confusing. "Draco, whose idea was it to make the dungeons a maze? I think if I took a single wrong turn in here then I will be lost for weeks."
Draco chuckled then pointed out a few symbols on the roof that seemed more like decorations than anything else. "It was Salazar Slytherin's idea. Those snake symbols show us the way from the Great Hall directly to the Slytherin common room. When you come to a crossroads in the halls, just look to where the snake symbol's tail is pointing and follow it."
Harry felt like he was more confused than ever. "Why not just follow the head of the snake? Won't that be easier to remember? I mean, if you follow the tail of the snake instead of the head, then it's like you are following an arrow that's pointing left and you turn right instead."
Draco nodded. "It's Slytherin logic. First years always look at the ceiling to find their way and so we need to make sure that no one can use the symbols to get to our common room. Think about it like this, the head of the snake is a lot more dangerous than the tail and so you would naturally want to follow the less dangerous route, wouldn't you? Besides if you follow the head of each snake then you will find yourself back at the Great Hall. That's why people don't search for our common room anymore; they always find themselves back where they started. Also, note that some snake symbols have a small 'x' underneath them, which means that you should ignore that symbol and repeat the move you made from the snake on the previous symbol."
Harry finally understood, but he didn't know why such an elaborate scheme was needed to hide the Slytherin common room unless it was to try and keep them safe from the rest of the school. "Well, I guess this is going to take some getting used to. Here I always believed you were the big bad Slytherins and now I find out that you are only trying to protect yourselves behind a scary reputation."
Draco seemed like he was about to snap back with some witty comment but Harry held up his hand to quiet him.
"How about we show the rest of the school what Slytherins are really made of?" The idea had slowly taken a hold of him and now Harry itched to do something about it. Draco however, looked like he had just been asked to groom Buckbeak.
"I don't think that's such a good idea Harry. Things have been this way for years and changing it now could only bring trouble. Another problem is that we would stand out if we tried anything and then we will fail the mission."
To Harry's disappointment, Draco was extremely reluctant to change things, but he wasn't going to give in. He hasn't been this excited in a long time and it was a very welcome change.
"Come on it won't place anyone in the spotlight and my plan will make it easier to gather information. All we would need to do is act like we are a pair of extremely hard-working students. We use our knowledge to do well in our classes and we meet up in the library whenever we can. We could then start helping other students with their work in return for any news about things happening in and around Hogwarts. Students from the other houses will then get to know the true Slytherins and we can tutor the Slytherins in defensive spells if they need it."
Draco shook his head in exasperation. "Harry, even if this little scheme of yours works, we are still technically only first years and it could easily tip off the culprits as to whom we are. No real first-year student in their right mind would attempt something like this."
Harry couldn't keep himself from smirking. "They would if it was a pair of students who had the urge to learn as much as they could for as fast as they could. Correct me if I'm wrong but many of the Slytherin students lost one or both parents when they were sent to Azkaban after I defeated Voldemort. We both know that this is because most of them were trying to protect their families and not because they believed that Voldemort was right. So we can use the excuse that we are trying to bring honor back to our families."
He heard Draco sigh, but he relented with a nod. "Fine, Harry. It's not like we have anything to go on at the moment anyway. We just need to make sure that we don't draw too much attention to ourselves. It has to be a slow-building thing and we first need to act as if are reluctant to help at first."
Harry was glad that Draco had at least given some thought to his idea. So he would take what he could get. Harry glanced up as they neared a giant basilisk statue and the prefect spoke the password 'venomous serpents'. The door slid open and he glanced at Draco in confusion.
"No Harry, you didn't remember the entrance wrong, Severus just changes the guardian of the Slytherin house each year to further confuse any outsiders that might make it this far. The wards also refuse to admit students who do not carry the Slytherin emblem on their robes."
Harry looked around as they entered the common room and he had to stop himself from letting out a shocked gasp. Even the common room was different from what he remembered.
The prefect spoke about the rules of the house and explained to the numerous worried first years about how the symbol system works. Snape then gave his own speech about how no snake should leave the den without friends or upper-year students to walk with them for the first week before allowing the students to go unpack stuff and settle in.
It was a shock to see that Severus Snape was still teaching at Hogwarts, but Harry felt a sense of nostalgia overwhelm him as the head of house turned with his signature move, making his robes bellow out behind him. He was also pleasantly surprised when he found out that they were placed around in groups of two and he was happy that he was going to share a room with Draco.
"So Harry, how do you like Slytherin so far?" It took a moment to realize that Draco was looking at him expectantly. "Well, the people are nice. 'Or at least the few I met so far were.' I just don't want to make a quick judge of character." Draco nodded then relented. "That makes sense. But I urge you to please keep an open mind. Things don't work the same down here as it does in Gryffindor." Harry nodded then opened his trunk to pack out his things. The sight of the neatly aligned bottles on the side of the trunk made him grin. Now was probably the best time to let Draco in on his other plan.
"Hey Draco, you wouldn't be opposed to the idea of someone inside the school helping us would you?" Harry saw the confused look in his face and waited until Draco could answer him.
"I wouldn't mind the help, but it would have to be someone we trust and we have to be absolutely sure that the person isn't under the influence of the imperious curse. We also have to check that it isn't one of the culprits with a polyjuice potion, before we reveal anything." Harry nodded then thought for a moment.
"Well tomorrow night is a full moon so we can use that to ensure that the person I'm thinking of isn't under the polyjuice potion and he would understand if I asked whether I could check whether he is under the imperious curse before we tell him anything." Draco seemed to immediately realize who Harry was hinting at.
"You want to go talk to Professor Lupin? Well, I guess that would help up a lot because we would have a teacher on our side, but I didn't see him in the Great Hall. The DADA seat was empty."
Harry nodded then looked at the picture of a full moon that was charmed onto the 'window' in their room. "Yes well it is near a full moon so he wouldn't trust himself near people at the moment. That's why there will be no DADA classes this week. Tomorrow night we will sneak out to where he usually had the change. I usually heal him after the change so he will know it's me. We can then check for the imperious curse and explain things to him. If he doesn't change tomorrow night then we know it's an imposter."
Draco nodded and as Harry closed his trunk he knew that he was probably wondering why Harry hadn't packed out anything other than his clothes. A silent parseltongue command made the trunk lock itself securely as two snakes wound around the lock.
It had been interesting to discover that parseltongue not only worked on snakes but also their inanimate brothers as well. "Come on let's sleep for now. We can't do anything at the moment anyway."
Draco nodded and they both climbed into their beds. It took Harry a long time to fall asleep though. His mind raced around the fact that he had almost been bored out of his skull a week ago and now he was on a mission with Draco and they were both back at Hogwarts to be able to complete it.
It felt good to know that he didn't have to dread the thought of going back to his horrid family every summer, but he had to remind himself that this was only a temporary reprieve.
After the mission he would probably find himself back at his cottage in the woods and the silence and tranquility he usually found in the place would turn into an obvious reminder that he was alone.
Maybe he would travel around a bit he decided. There were a lot of places he had never seen because he had simply just been too caught up in his isolation that he forgot that the world was so much bigger. An idea niggled at the back of his mind and he smiled.
Hopefully, Draco would want to join him in his travels. He knew that he would never pass up the chance to be able to examine new and exotic ingredients for Potion making. The thoughts swirled around in Harry's head until he finally fell off into a deep sleep.
Thank you to those who are following the story. If there is anything that doesn't make sense in the story, please let me know.