CHAPTER 15: Slytherin Manoeuvres (Part 2)

Room of Requirement

October 8th, 1995

5:45 p.m.

The room was brimming with energy, the loud conversations in the usually quiet room almost deafened him as he watched everything happening from the corner. He wasn't exactly thrilled about it, the idea of sharing the Room with other people made him a little bit sick. It had always been the place for him to escape, the one place where quiet dominated, where there was no one to bother him, the one true place inside the whole castle that felt wholly safe. He was still the only person who could open up the room, the only one who truly would ever have access to it, but it still felt as if the sanctity of the room had been taken away the moment other people had stepped inside.

There were fifty-two people crammed inside, and the vibe was completely different from what Hogwarts had become in the past month. Most of the cloaks had been completely discarded and piled up on a basket he'd quietly asked the room to create, even the most formal and traditional of his peers had taken the opportunity to free themselves of the strict uniform for a few hours. Sleeves were rolled up, shirts untucked, ties loosened - Umbridge might just have a heart attack if she could see it.

People actually looked happy for a change, the grim faces he'd seen as they marched around the castle had been replaced with bright smiles and relieved expressions. And the oppressive silence forced on them was completely gone, something he had thought would be unpleasant but was oddly comforting. It felt as if he'd travelled back in time, back before Umbridge had made her ten thousand commandments and taken over as the castle's tyrant.

Neville had begun the first official meeting of the DA nearly ten minutes ago, awkwardly commanding everyone to practice the most basic defensive spells that even a first-year could do. Longbottom's lack of control of his students was just as clear as their lack of talent. Spells were flying everywhere but their targets, it was obvious that they had not even the most basic instincts on how to duel, much less aim. Some of them couldn't even manage to actually cast the spells, their wands producing meek sounds while others laughed at them.

Most of his peers had stopped trying after a while, none of them had been successful, but that didn't deter them from talking with their friends rather than continuing practising. The whole thing was a complete shit show, and he was beginning to doubt if making this group was even a good use of his time, especially with everything going on at the moment.

"Hey," Hermione called out - breaking him out of his musings after she had mostly avoided him ever since he helped her gather all the students inside the Room. "Would you mind?" She nodded behind her.

"You look to have this covered," He commented before laughing when he saw one of Abbot's jinxes fly all across the room, somehow missing everyone, before hitting Weasley straight in the face.

"At least join the group," she insisted. "You're only making things worse by standing here, doing nothing."

"Hey, it's not my fault Longbottom is a shit teacher." Harry snapped. "I thought you knew what you were doing when you made him the teacher."

"He is the right choice," Hermione defended heatedly. "He knows more about the dark arts than any of us here and has seen things most people here won't even see in a lifetime. He's just…"

"A shit teacher."

"He's shy."

"Well, toughen him up or something, I don't know! How do you expect him to teach everyone when he can't even teach one person."

"Just join the others, I'll try to talk to Neville."

"Yeah… that's not happening."

"What?"

"Are you kidding me? Just because these bozos don't know how to use their wand doesn't mean I'm as stupid as them."

"That's what everyone is saying," Hermione rolled her eyes at him.

"Yeah, but I'm not everyone, am I? Or have you forgotten I beat our dear teacher in a duel a month ago?"

"You didn't do anything, Neville sabotaged himself. You couldn't beat him in his worst days."

Harry snorted, but Granger kept staring at him, determined. It was almost funny, how she thought she was baiting him into doing something she wanted, while he had been waiting for this moment ever since that day at the Hog's Head. "As you wish," he grinned at her, stretching his arms and grabbing his wand.

He walked straight past the mass of students, feeling Granger's eye following him as he took his place in the dead centre of the room. The sound had dissipated as the room's full attention was on him, just as he wanted. If he was going to do this, he'd make sure everyone saw it.

"Potter?" Neville asked bitingly.

"Everyone stand back."

Whether it was out of interest or amusement, Harry didn't know, but everyone followed his command, leaving a vast circle in the middle of the room. Raising his wand and making sure to whisper, Harry traced its borders and created a dome around him, making sure none of the spells would escape the makeshift arena he'd made.

"Honey, you know what to do."

The words had barely left his mouth before four Death Eaters suddenly materialized around him, sparking chaos around the hall as screams of terror resonated all around him. But Harry paid no mind to them, smirking as he was finally allowed to practice his calming hobby.

"Reducto! Confringo!"

The two spells were launched on completely opposite sides, the former exploding one of the Death Eater's head - though he'd made sure the dummies were less realistic than before and no actual blood was spilled. The second one crashed against the shield the other had created, obliterating it and sending him flying backwards, hitting the magical wall before falling limp on the ground.

Harry ducked and rolled away from the incoming spells shot by the other two Death Eaters, conjuring a lasso from the tip of his wand and whipping it against one of the dummy's hands - the wand with his wand. It circled around it, gripping it tightly, and Harry pulled it towards the other Death Eater just as it was about to send a curse at him. The red spark flew past his shoulder and hit the dummy behind him, ripping his wand out of his hand, sending it flying across the dome, and the dummy fell to the ground - defeated as it had lost his wand.

Transfiguring the lasso, changing its composition so that it was fully made out of fire, Harry burnt the Death Eater's arm, pieces of it falling to the ground, creating a small pile under him. He pulled him towards him, slamming him into the ground.

With the four dummies beaten, Harry let out a satisfied chuckle as the other fifty people gawked at him from outside the borders of the dome. Even Longbottom and Weasley had their jaws near the ground, and Granger watched him with an impressed look, one that seemed genuine, and had taken away the smug smile she had been wearing.

It had only taken five seconds to show everyone who the real leader should be, and he doubted any of them would forget any time soon.

Slytherin Common Room

October 9th, 1995

12:15 a.m.

"Noooo," Theo gasped later that night. "You're joking."

The three of them were sitting on the couches near the fireplace as Harry explained the events of the DA meeting, while making sure to avoid falling in the pitfalls of breaking the contract Hermione had made him sign. Thankfully the contract had been worded weirdly, it was one that made sure you couldn't reveal the identity of any member of the group nor its existence, but so long as you didn't mention this you could talk vaguely about some of the events that happened.

At first, Harry had been curious about the wording of the contract, until he realised why Hermione had made it that way. It succeeded on its purpose of hiding the existence of a group and protect the identity of the members there, but you could somewhat talk about certain things that happen so long as it didn't incriminate anyone so that some buzz could be created around it, and make it possible for it to be able to grow and for new members to be able to find how to join if they knew where to ask.

"Yep," he said proudly, leaning back against the dark, sea green cushions.

"How can you even do that!?"

"Do you think I've been sitting on my arse for the past four years?" Harry scoffed.

"Yeah, pretty much." The boy laughed and Harry threw one of the arm cushions at him.

"It was smart that you did that," Pansy commented without taking her eyes from her copy of The Most Complex and Gruelling Potions of the 15 to 20th Century. "You made an impression on the other houses, and not just one that has vague implications. You showed them just a taste of how powerful you truly are. People will pay attention to you now more than ever, I doubt Longbottom was pleased."

"He certainly wasn't," Harry laughed. "But since Granger thinks she's the one who goaded me into doing it, it's not like he can do anything about it."

"It's not like he can do anything either way, mate." Theo snickered. "I think you showed everyone you could destroy him with a blindfold on and your hands tied behind your back-

"If only you could've done that with Montague" Parkinson muttered.

"What did you say?" Harry asked her darkly.

"You heard me," she shut the book loudly. "I don't think I need to tell you the whole house knows how you almost fainted when he confronted you."

Of course she didn't. Ever since that day, he'd seen Malfoy snicker at him every time he passed by, and he wasn't the only Slytherin who had seemingly lost the respect they had for him. It was infuriating, and he hated the fact that his body had been weak and had suddenly decided to act as if it was still four years ago.

"I didn't faint." Harry said bitingly.

"Did you know that I saw him talking to Greengrass earlier today?" She pressed.

"Do you think she's trying to ally himself with him?" Theo asked.

"It makes sense, Montague is from a pretty powerful house, as well as being the Quidditch Captain."

"It would show she's desperate," Harry pointed out.

"Maybe," Pansy conceded. "But then again, I think Daphne wants to finish this quickly, and since you basically told everyone that Montague can still easily get into your head-"

"It won't happen again." He said tersely.

"I hope so, for your sake. You know better than most, Montague isn't one to fight fair."

4 YEARS AGO

"Where are we going?" Harry asked as he followed his new friend outside the castle and into the grounds.

It had been two weeks since Montague had stepped in and saved him from the other Slytherins. Ever since then, he had stayed mostly at his side at all times, except during classes. They talked all afternoon in the common room, and the boy constantly helped him with his homework and managed to outright stop all the bullying from the others.

It was so nice to finally have a friend inside the house, Harry couldn't believe it was even happening, and with one of the most popular boys in his year! Montague had taken the role as his pseudo-big brother, introducing him to everything wizard-related, that being anything from sweets and food, to magic and the culture itself.

It just felt so right, he imagined this would've been how things turned out if Dudley and the Dursleys had actually been a real family to him. How it would feel to have someone looking out for you, and teaching you how the world worked. He'd spent so many times thinking - wishing - and now that he had it, it was much better than he could've possibly imagined.

"Just wait, you'll see." Montague grinned, and Harry couldn't help but smile broader.

The two walked down the hill, making their way past the weird hut that was on the edge of the grounds as they headed towards a large stadium that stood on the edge of the woods.

"Is this…"

"Yep," he responded proudly. "It's the Hogwarts Quidditch Stadium. Come on, it's empty."

"Can we go in?" He asked cautiously, the last thing he wanted was for Snape to suddenly show up and send him on the next train to London.

"Yeah," he waved him off. "Don't fret about it, everything's gonna be fine."

As he walked towards the centre of the field, Harry couldn't help but feel like a baby at a coliseum. Everything was huge, the lowest stands were over three hundred feet in the air, and the large hoops were so high, he could barely even see them.

"What are we doing here?"

"Today, you're going to begin learning how to fly a broom."

"I already know how to fly a broom," Harry said plainly. "I've been having class with Madam Hooch for weeks now."

"Yes," Montague pulled out two tiny sticks from his pocket before pulling his wand and enlarging them into broomsticks. "But that's just basic flying, if you're going to be on the Quidditch Team, you need to start practising right now."

"You really think I can make it into the team?" He asked, wide-eyed.

"Of course," Montague answered without hesitation. "But you need to practice first, that way you could try out next year. Up you go, let's see what you can do."

For the next three hours, Harry did his best to impress Montague, and he seemed to have succeeded at it. His friend watched with marvel as he flew faster than ever before, moving in the sky like a small falcon, agile and right at home in the air. Montague had already explained how Quidditch worked before, so they could get right to actually practising and playing rather than just learning how the game worked.

First he tried beater, Montague set the Bludgers lose and Harry tried to hit them with accuracy, and while he managed to do that fairly well, it proved to be too much of an effort for someone like Harry, given how that position was usually occupied by more bulky players. After that, Harry played keeper while Montague played chaser, completely obliterating him and destroying any chance for him to play that position in the team.

The other two proved to play to his strengths. As a seeker he excelled, managing to capture the golden snitch both times it was let loose on the field in just under fifty minutes. And as a chaser, Harry proved to be good enough to hold his own against Montague, managing to execute some plays the older boy had suggested as they scored against the empty hoops with an exhilarating ease.

"That's it, you're going to be a chaser!" He had proclaimed with a playful shove.

With the decision made for him, Montague began to teach him some of his favourite techniques for the position. There was the Porskoff Ploy, which involved rising as high as you could with the Quaffle before passing it straight downwards towards a teammate, and the Reverse Pass where he would pass the Quaffle to a teammate that flew from behind him. But by far the hardest was the Sabryn Steal, which involved jumping from your broom from the right side, stealing the Quaffle mid-air, and then landing on your broom on the left side.

The first two he managed to learn surprisingly easily, which made Montague almost giddy, but he could never manage the Sabryn Steal. He did try it a few times, but he never managed to actually steal the ball, or even land on his broomstick again. If it hadn't been for the older boy, he would have fallen to his death more times than he was comfortable with.

As the sun began to set on them, and it became almost impossible to see anything, the two of them were forced to stop and head back to the castle. They left the stadium silently, and as they made the way up the hill, Harry was incredibly thankful no one had found them.

"Trust me, next year, once you get into the team, it's gonna be great." Montague was telling him. "We can both be Chasers, we'll have so much fun kicking Gryffindor arse all year!"

"A-Are you sure I would even be allowed to be on the team?" He asked shyly.

Montague stopped and turned back to him, an odd look on his face. "Are you joking, Harry? You're a natural! I've never seen someone as at ease on the air as you."

"But what about the others? Will they let me in? People… people don't really… like me. You- you're my only real friend."

The older boy knelt in front of him, making it so that they were at the same level. "Of course they'll let you in, and they'll like you, too." He promised. "Don't pay attention to Malfoy and his goons, they're not worth it. I've seen how they treat you, and they aren't your friends, not really. If they try to do anything like before, just tell me, and I'll make sure they don't try that ever again."

Harry could feel his heart in his throat, and a sniffle escaped him as he smiled lightly. Overcome by a sudden rush, he acted on instinct and did something he had never done before, he jumped on Montague and hugged him.

"Thank you," he told him, his voice cracking as tears began running out of his eyes. "Thank you for being my friend."

"You don't have to thank me," Montague told him, hugging him tightly. "I'm your friend, I'll always be your friend."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

I hope you liked this chapter, I know it was mostly set-up and character exploration (again), but things will begin picking up in the next chapter, which will include the Quidditch Try-Outs, as well as Harry's fight for power becoming more prominent rather than just hearing about it. This chapter was actually supposed to be a purely flashback chapter, but since that didn't do anything other than explore Montague and Harry in the past, I decided to add these two scenes that were important to the plot but didn't really deserve their own solo chapter.

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