The rest of lunch went by smoothly—at least, as smooth as someone like Leo will ever have. The rest of the Slytherins have been eyeing him with judgment but, Leo noticed, the younger students seem curious about him. Maybe it's because they're not as used to this backward mindset as the older students. He's probably confusing them, too, on what Slytherin values should be. He may be a Slytherin but he might be an outlier.

Which is probably why the Slytherins and even his other classmates from other houses are eyeing him right now. Why?

Nott and Zabini told him that that class is done near Hagrid's Hut so he has no idea where that is. As his fellow Slytherins walk together to the hut, that's when he sees some of the Gryffindors walking as well.

"Yo, Hermione! Ron! Harry! You have Care of Magical Creatures, too?" Leo asks as soon as the trio is nearby.

Hermione laughs. "Good to see you, too, Leo," she greets.

"Yo! This is gonna be awesome!" Leo replies, slapping Harry's back since he was unfortunate to be the one nearest to him.

"We should warn you: Hagrid brings all kinds of crazy creatures," Ron adds.

"Well, that's awesome. I like crazy creatures as long as they don't kill me," Leo laughs.

"I dunno. I think Hagrid brings killer creatures, too," Ron adds with a laugh.

"Af'ernoon!" Hagrid says behind Leo who didn't realize they were already there. "Nice ter see yer in my class, Leo Valdez!"

Leo is honestly ecstatic to see the half-giant as their professor. He's seen him in the Great Hall, and Nott and Zabini told him about Professor Hagrid on the way to their class—that he was a half-giant. How does that work? Then again, he is a demigod, so he shouldn't be questioning at this point.

"Good to be here, Professor Hagrid, sir," he replies with a salute.

Hagrid laughs. "Polite one, 're ye?" He claps his hands. "Righ'! Last time, I promised young Malfoy 'ere tha' I'll teach yer why they're impor'ant." Hagrid continues on to talk about the use of Blast-Ended Skrewts.

And then his other classmates went on to their respective crates filled with Blast-Ended Skrewts to feed them.

"Valdez, come 'ere," Hagrid says near an unsupervised crate between Harry and a Hufflepuff.

Leo walks over to it.

They look like deformed, shell-less lobsters, horribly pale and no visible heads. There are about a hundred of them in each crate, he notices. Each of them are about six inches long, crawling over one another, bumping blindly into the sides of the boxes. Every now and then, sparks would fly out of the end of a skrewt, and with a small phut , it would be propelled forward several inches. [1]

"This crate 'ere is yer responsibility, Valdez."

"You can call me Leo, sir. And how do I take care of it, exactly?"

"Well, firs' yer got ter feed it. Now yeh'll wan' ter try 'em on a few diff'rent things—I've never had 'em before, not sure what they'll go fer—I got ant eggs an' frog livers an' a bit o' grass snake—just try 'em out with a bit of each." [1]

"Er, sure, I'll do that." And with that, Hagrid leaves him with a magical creature.

Nothing would top his excitement at his first time seeing a new creature.

"Be careful, Leo. They explode," Harry whispers beside him, "and sting… and suck your blood. We had to learn the hard way."

"I guess it's my time to learn the hard way," Leo replies with a smile.

"You're as brave as a Gryffindor," Harry says with a smile back.

"Or maybe I'm just stupid," Leo laughs.

"Probably," Harry laughs.

"Let's see what I can do," he says more to himself, rubbing his hands in anticipation.

Not noticing the others watching him since they all seem excited to watch him suffer as they did the first time they dealt with skrewts, Leo picks up a handful of frog livers.

He lowers them into the crates to tempt the Blast-Ended Skrewts, but to his surprise, the skrewts near him stop moving and slowly walk, not towards the livers but to his hand.

Eyebrows rising, Leo opens his palm and a skrewt immediately settles itself on his hand, seeming like a cat settling on a pillow.

Leo laughs and pats the weird creature on its body. Leo moves it closer to his face to inspect it and it starts to shake.

"Leo, move yer head away fr'm it!" he hears Hagrid.

But it was too late. The skrewt blasts some fire on his face and settles once more on his palm since Leo held on it too tightly so it doesn't get propelled.

The laughter from his classmates dies down when he turns to look at them.

"Are ye alrigh'?" Hagrid asks immediately, looking at him.

"Yes, sir. It caught me by surprise," he laughs before putting the skrewt down to its crate.

"Are ye burnt?" Hagrid asks worrily, looking all over his face.

Leo pauses in horror.

Shoot. They don't know I'm fire-proof.

"I'm fine. Honest," he says, doing his best to look down.

He hears whispers around him.

"Do yer need ter go ter the 'ospital Wing?" Hagrid asks again worriedly.

Leo raises his hands. "No need, sir. I'm A-OK!" He gives a thumbs up.

"If yer sure," the professor says before looking at an actual burnt Ravenclaw.

"You sure you're alright?" Harry asks beside him. "You don't look burnt, I guess. But your shirt's singed. How's that possible?" Leo thinks the last part Harry said was more for himself than Leo.

Leo, rather than waste his energy on the Mist, just tells him, "Actually, I still do some accidental magic, even at this age."

"This late? Do you know why?" Harry asks worriedly.

Leo shrugs. "I just never really know how to control it. It's either I'm the one exploding or exploding things just don't hurt me that much."

"That's… handy. I'm jealous," Harry laughs.

"Get hurt a lot, then?" Leo asks with a smile.

"Oh, you have no idea." Harry smiles.

"I didn't know you were a destructive troublemaker."

"The things Ron said we ended up doing in the past years may or may not be because I bring the two of them to trouble with me," Harry jokes.

"You run to trouble. Trouble runs to me," Leo laughs. "Guess we're twins now."

Harry laughs. "You literally just said we're opposites."

Leo nods. "Well, we both end up destroying or saving something at the end of the day, I bet."

Harry hums, "I'm starting to believe you have some stories to tell, too, Leo."

Leo hums in reply. "Ditto."

"Actually, I did some accidental magic last year, too," Harry says as if as an afterthought, looking at his own crate and not at Leo.

"Was it horrible?" Leo asks jokingly.

"Depends on who you're asking," Harry chuckles. "If you ask my Aunt Marge, she would definitely be saying yes."

Leo's brow lifts. "Uh-oh, what happened to her?"

Harry laughs. "I inflated her and she went flying in the sky."

Leo barks in laughter, which he controls after the many stares of everyone around them. "Man, what did she do to deserve that?" he laughs.

That shut Harry up. He looks away.

"Harry?" Leo asks in concern, surprised at the sudden change of mood.

"Sorry, I don't want to talk about it," Harry replies.

Leo shrugs. "No biggie. We all have our own secrets."

Harry smiles. "Thanks."

The rest of the class continued without further problems, which, to Leo, was another blessing. Leo is proud that he has managed to stay focused in the class since their hands are often preoccupied with the skrewts. He has come to enjoy the weird looking creatures, especially since they seem to like him.

Is it because he was made of fire like them?

I should have known , he laughs to himself. Harry and the Hufflepuff girl beside him named Susan are happy to have him help them with the skrewts. At their questioning looks on why he seems to handle it better than them, he just answers with, "I attract weird schist."

As soon as Hagrid finishes the class, Malfoy, along with Crabbe and Goyle, goes over to Leo who is laughing with Harry.

"Valdez, a word?" Malfoy starts.

"Why?" Leo asks coldly. At his peripheral vision, he can see Harry tense up at his word.

"It'll be quick," Malfoy adds, giving Harry a nasty glare.

Leo shrugs. "Fine." And he follows Malfoy around the hut and stays far away from gossipers. Crabbe and Goyle watch out for possible listeners. "What do you want?" he practically spits at Malfoy.

"I told you to stay away from Potter and his goons. Why in Merlin's name did you get all friendly with them?" Malfoy sneers.

Leo replies, "I told you this morning, didn't I? They're my friends."

"I thought you were referring to the twins, though it would still be a bad choice of company."

"Look, Malfoy, you really have no say on who should or should not be my friend. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were the first people I met upon coming here and we hit it off. And unlike you, they don't care if I'm from another house. And believe me, it took a while for Ron to like me," Leo responds.

"You're tearing Slytherin apart!" Malfoy hisses.

"I'm not. You know, I can be observant, too, and I've noticed a lot of Gryffindors and Slytherins are friends in the school. It's only you and some handful of people making this a big deal. What are you? Their rival? For you to hate them so much?" he asks.

"They are."

"Then consider you mine as well. Not because they're my friends, but because you slandered my mother's honor. I'm not the forgiving type when it comes to my mother," Leo says, walking away from Malfoy with a huff.

With this new stress, his hands start fidgeting and he creates a tiny miniature skrewt with legs that can move with a push of a button from scraps of metal from his toolbelt.

As soon as he is in view of the classmates that stayed behind, Harry, Hermione, and Ron walk up to him.

"I made you this," Leo tells Hermione without looking at her while handing her the toy skrewt.

"Er, thanks?" she says, confused.

"What'd he do to you?" Ron asks as if he's ready to fight.

"He just wanted to talk," Leo replies with a shrug.

"That's not all, is it?" Harry says.

Leo laughs. "I told him that I am now his rival."

"Whoa, where'd that come from?" Ron asks, pleased.

Leo shakes his head. "Let's just say, he should know better than insult my mother again," he hisses angrily.

"Remind us not to anger you," Harry jokes.

Leo smirks. "Oh, you have no idea."

"Well, come on, we'll be late for Professor Moody's class," Hermione says, dragging them along with her.

"So his name really is Moody?" Leo asks as they walk.

"They even call him Mad-Eye Moody," Ron laughs.

"Seriously?" Leo asks in confusion. "Isn't that… rude?"

"He seems fine with it," Harry laughs. "I reckon Snape's a bit scared of him, you know. You'll see."

And see, he did. As soon as Professor Moody walked in, Leo knew immediately that something's not right with this dude. Especially since the class goes silent as soon as he enters. They seem… terrified.

"Ah yes, the new student. Valdez, was it?" Moody immediately calls out. "You missed out on an important class. The curses. Quick recap, what are the three curses most heavily punished by wizarding law?" [2]

No hands rise in the air but Professor Moody points at Harry.

Harry sighs. "The Imperius Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, and the—" he pauses to swallow—"and the Killing Curse."

Something heavy drops at the pit of Leo's stomach. Wizards have a Killing Curse? Oh Gods, I bet that's too convenient for murdering wizards. Even demigods can use too much of their powers. But if everyone is capable of using the Killing Curse? Then the Wizard World isn't safe.

"Right. The Cruciatus Curse—just to be quick—is complete and utter pain. You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse. The Killing Curse, pretty self-explanatory, not nice, not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. But of course, again, there's only one known person that has ever survived it, and he's right here," he explains, looking at Harry. [2]

Leo, jaws dropped, looks at Harry who's face reddens. "Harry?" Leo starts but Moody interrupts him.

"Now, the Imperius Curse—total control. Once done on you, I could make you do anything, jump out the window, drown yourself, anything. But it can be fought. As I told the others, I'll be teaching you how. And today, I'll be putting the Imperius Curse on each of you in turn, to demonstrate its power and to see whether you could resist its effects." [2][3]

"But—but you said it's illegal, Professor," says Hermione uncertainly as Moody clears away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room. "You said—to use it against another human was—" [3]

"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," says Moody, his magical eye swiveling onto Hermione and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. "If you'd rather learn the hard way—when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely—fine by me. You're excused. Off you go." He points one gnarled finger towards the door. [3]

Hermione goes very pink and mutters something about not meaning that she wanted to leave. [3] Leo wonders what in the gods' names did he enter himself into?

Moody begins to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. Leo watches as, one by one, his classmates did the most extraordinary things under its influence. One hopped three times around the room, singing what seems to be an anthem. One imitated a squirrel. One performed a series of quite astonishing gymnastics he seems to probably not be capable of in his normal state. Not one of them seems to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recover only when Moody removes it. [3]

"Potter," Moody growls, "you next." Harry moves forward into the middle of the classroom, into the space that Moody had cleared of desks. Moody raises his wand, points it at Harry, and says, "Imperio!" [3]

Leo watches as Harry's eyes seem to glaze over.

"Jump onto the desk," Moody says.

Leo watches as Harry bends his knees obediently, preparing to spring.

"Jump onto the desk."

Harry doesn't move in his position.

"Jump onto the desk."

He doesn't move.

"Jump! NOW!"

Leo tries to stop his laughter as Harry seems to injure himself for trying to jump and not jump onto the desk. Harry smashed headlong into the desk, knocking it over.

"Now, that's more like it!" growls Moody's voice. "Look at that, you lot… Potter fought! He fought it, and he damn near beat it! We'll try that again, Potter, just after Valdez. You, Valdez, up!"

Letting out a heavy breath, Leo goes to the same place Harry stood a moment ago.

Moody raises his wand to point at him, and casts, "Imperio!"

For a moment, it's the most wonderful feeling. Like a floating sensation as every thought and worry in his head is wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness. [3] But it quickly disappears.

"What the—" he hears the professor whisper, his wand still pointed at him.

"Uh, professor, what's wrong?" Leo asks.

"Let's try that again. Imperio!" the professor casts.

Nothing at all happens to Leo this time.

"Uh, professor, are you okay because the curse is—" Leo starts.

"Merlin's beard! You beat it! Very good, Valdez, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you and Potter!"

Whispers echo throughout the room. Leo looks back to look at Harry who is looking at him as well with equal worry.

"But to all of you, to see the difference in having its effect on you and fighting it. We'll go again with Potter. Now, pay attention—watch his eyes, that's where you see it."

Leo and Harry exchange positions, and Leo watches as Harry tries to fight off the curse better and better with each wave of the professor's wand. As he watches, his mind goes off.

I learned a lot of things today, Leo thinks to himself.

He and Harry seem to get along well from how they've interacted, and Leo can totally call him a friend. But he realizes now that maybe what magnetized him to Harry is he can feel this weird aura from him. Not literally, just a feeling. That he's gone through some schist like him.

There's only one known person that has ever survived it, and he's right here , the professor said about the Killing Curse. Harry survived a Killing Curse?

The things Ron said we ended up doing in the past years may or may not be because I bring the two of them to trouble with me , Harry said. What in Tartarus's name had Harry gone through that eventually got him to be hit with a Killing Curse and survive it?

One thing he's sure of: Harry is not just some guy.

Is that why the Slytherins hate him and his friends so much? Because he's more than just an average joe? Is that why Harry seems happy that he doesn't know him? That he asked for Harry's name? Is he famous?

But Harry doesn't seem to be using his fame. He's quite chill when it comes to fame and glory. To be honest, Leo can feel that Harry has some loneliness in him. Something he can tell because that's what he sees in the reflection.

What is Harry hiding from him? Is this what Nott and Zabini were talking about?

But he shouldn't judge.

He's hiding something from them, too.

He and Harry may be more alike than he thought.

—oOo—

FOOTNOTES:

[1] From Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 13 "Mad-Eye Moody", pages 195 to 196.

[2] From Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 14 "The Unforgiveable Curses", pages 212-213, 215.

[3] From Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 15 "Beauxbatons and Durmstrang", pages 230-232.