Two weeks after Halloween, Harry had pulled Longbottom over to sit between him and Draco during potions class, again. Tensions among the Gryffindor first years were running high, and Longbottom had somehow managed to get himself caught in the middle of it.
Longbottom gave Harry an apologetic half-smile as he sank into his seat, then turned to give Draco a stiff nod.
Draco nodded back, with a mischievous glint in his eye. Harry shot him a warning look, but Draco just shrugged. There was blood in the Gryffindor waters, and Draco now had an informant to help him sniff it out.
Harry watched the Gryffindors as they took their seats. Weasley seemed to have gathered a bit of an entourage, with Thomas, Finnigan, Patil and Brown following his lead and laughing at something he said. Finnigan seemed more pleased with this shift in power dynamics than Thomas was, though, especially when Finnigan took a seat next to Weasley over the one next to him. Brown and Patil also seemed less interested in Weasley himself, than in aligning themselves with him against his preferred topic of scorn, Granger.
The bushy-haired know-it-all sat alone in the front row of the Gryffindor side of the room, her posture stiff and defensive. She pointedly ignored her classmates, up until class was about to begin, and she turn to snap harshly at the other Gryffindors to shut up and get ready for class. This was meant with jeers and Weasley flicking a pickled lacewing fly into her hair.
Draco elbowed Longbottom. "What happened in the lion's den? Since when is Weasley so popular?"
"He's not, not really," Longbottom muttered. "He's just leading the charge against Granger."
"Granger's always been insufferable. What's changed?" Draco prodded.
"She tattled on Ron after the troll attack, after losing us a lot of house points for skipping classes that day. She had done the same thing after that time Filch caught us out after hours. Everyone's pretty mad at her."
"That's a little harsh, isn't it?" Harry asked. "She almost died."
A deep blush colored Longbottom's cheeks, and he shook his head. "I think that's part of the problem. I don't think anyone came to visit her in the hospital wing, while she was recovering. She's been pretty mad about it, I think. She keeps picking fights with everyone, while being really self-righteous about the whole thing. It's driving everyone crazy, but the more people push back against her, the worse she gets. This morning, she yelled at me in front of the whole common room for displaying 'improper decorum' because I had some ink stains on my fingers. When I tried to defuse the situation, and apologize for not visiting her in the infirmary, both Ron and Granger got mad at me. I don't know what to do."
"It'll blow over," Harry said reassuringly. "Just keep your head down for a while."
Draco huffed. "Don't keep your head down, just ignore them. It's stupid for you to have to cower around your own common room just because those two idiots are having a pathetic little pissing contest. You don't have to give them that kind of control over you, Longbottom. Rise above it all."
"Oh, I dunno," Longbottom mumbled, curling into himself.
"Draco's right," Harry said, sitting up a little straighter. "Just ignore them. The next time one of them is being unreasonable, just start listing off plant names in your head, or something."
Longbottom smiled, then paled as Professor Snape swept into the room.
"That goes for him, too, Neville," Harry whispered.
Longbottom looked at Harry as if he was crazy, and poised his quill over his parchment, the perfect picture of submission and readiness to learn.
Professor Snape frowned, when he spotted Longbottom between Harry and Draco, again. Harry gave his professor a pointed look, and placed a protective hand on Longbottom's shoulder. Professor Snape raised his eyebrow, but didn't comment, or give Longbottom a hard time. Harry took that as a win.
The Slytherin first-years practically raced to the library to get their weekend homework finished as quickly as possible. Now that they had learned enough magic to have a little fun with it, they had all rushed to get their essays and reading assignments done and over with, so they could focus on unleashing charms and jinxes all over their common room – and at each other.
The Slytherin common room was utter chaos. Between Harry and Draco's toy broom seeker's matches, spell practice devolving into impromptu, unstructured duels, a large dose of physical rough-housing, and pockets of older students gossiping or attempting to do homework, there was always something going on in the common room, and that didn't even count the political discussions that Harry kept encouraging.
He had been working on his research and categorizations, but there was a lot of complicated ideas to sift through, most of which were layered beneath volatile emotions and generations of prejudice and feuds, and backed by claims that were proving difficult to either prove or disprove, due to the lack of structured research and statistics available.
Harry had anecdotal evidence that muggleborns were not inherently inferior with magic, but pointing to Granger or his own mother was hardly going to win a debate, or change anyone's mind. He needed something more substantial than that, and he needed to figure out how to get past people's natural defensive backlash when one of their most deeply held beliefs was challenged. Throwing a text book titled 'You're Wrong' at Avery's head was not going to do either of them any good.
"Harry!" Draco called out by near the common room's fireplace. "Come play some exploding snap with us."
Harry double-checked that he didn't have any volatile potion ingredient residue on his skin or clothes before flopping down inelegantly next to his friends. Vince had almost set the entire common room on fire when a flake of boomslang skin on his robes got caught up in a blast. It had taken a week for his eyebrows to grow back, and there was still a scorch mark on the mantle.
Draco cackled maniacally when he won his third match in a row.
"You're cheating, Malfoy," Pansy accused, darkly. "I don't know how, but I will find out, I will stop you, and I will get my revenge."
"I'll help," Bulstrode said, straightening her robes.
Draco grinned unashamedly. "I always knew it would be lonely at the top, but I'm still hurt that your comradery is so fickle, Parkinson. You won't abandon me, in the face of a few humiliating defeats, will you Harry?"
"Hey Pansy," Harry said, "I was just reading about a potion that will turn someone's hair Gryffindor red for a week. Apparently, it works best on blondes."
Draco gave a squawk so undignified, that the entire common room stopped what they were doing to turn and laugh. "You wouldn't!"
"What are you talking about, Draco?" Harry asked sweetly. "I was only telling Pansy about a beauty potion that I thought she might find interesting."
Draco glared at his friends. "I won't forget this betrayal, Potter. I know where you sleep."
Harry chuckled. "Who's read about more warding spells, me or you?"
Draco shot a stinging hex at Harry, who flung himself out of the way. "Nice try, Malfoy."
Soon, widespread warfare had erupted in the common room.
Harry ducked behind one of the sofas, before vaulting over it, shouting out a tripping jinx as he went.
One of the older students hit him with a stunner, which left him dazed, sprawled on the dislodged sofa cushions, as he tried to regain his focus.
A bright burst of light exploded above him, mesmerising him with its shimmering grandeur.
Someone shouted to his left.
The light was so pretty.
"Alright, that's enough!" Higgs shouted, with a laugh. "I swear to Merlin, you first-years are the most disruptive group we've ever had. Go run around outside for a while, if you've got so much energy."
"It's almost curfew," Gemma Farley pointed out, in fond exasperation.
Higgs pinched the bridge of his nose, in a motion so reminiscent of Professor Snape, that Harry could not help but laugh. "Fine, go destroy your own dorm rooms then, you little monsters. Just keep it down when you do, and don't even think about skipping the House Run tomorrow morning, no matter how long it takes you to fall asleep."
Harry lingered in the common room, as the younger years scrambled to their dorms, to continue their battles, and the older years dutifully set the common room back to rights, before settling down for more subdued conversations.
He smiled and ran his hand along the wall of this room that felt more like home than Privet Drive ever had.
His fingers brushed over a little serpent figure, carved directly into the stone of the wall. To Harry's surprise, it moved, uncurling itself and blinking up at him.
"Are you an Heir?"
Harry startled, as it spoke. "I don't know," he whispered back.
The snake nodded, as if that answered it's question.
"It has been a while since we've had an Heir. Tell me, Young One, do you have any requests of this room, befitting the Slytherin Ideals?"
Harry pondered the question. "Do you mean, things I wish I could change about the room?"
The snake nodded.
"I guess, I wish it was bigger. Maybe with separate spaces, so we could practice magic without getting in everyone else's way. It would be nice if there was a space for homework, a space for spells, a space for flying… just, somewhere where all of the students could practice their ambitions, you know?"
The snake hummed in approval. "Knowledge, Power, Skill. Those are admirable ambitions."
Harry smiled. "A place for debate, or formal discourse would be wicked, too. Maybe one for performance. I know Greengrass plays the cello, but there's never enough room for her to practice."
"Are you hissing at the wall, Potter?" Higgs asked, grabbing Harry gently, and guiding him to the dorms.
"I was just talking to the snake carving," Harry replied, distractedly. "Does it always ask so many questions?"
Higgs shot him a bemused look. "You're a strange kid, Potter. Go to bed."
Harry was halfway to his dorm, before he realized that the little snake carving might not have been speaking English. Mr. Malfoy had warned him against revealing his skill as a parselmouth to anyone before he was ready to face the consequences. Hopefully, Higgs just thought he was making a weird joke.