Slippery as a Snake
Harry Potter and the strange Hufflepuff
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Harry's POV:
The meeting with Davies and Greengrass had gone smoothly. Both had accepted and joined the court of underclassmen. The five of them were now making their way to the greenhouses. Theo and Blaise had both been in an ecstatic mood since the court had been expanded. Harry' mind was occupied, though. While Davies and Greengrass had many valuable qualities (or else he wouldn't have bothered requitting them) the court needed older members. His conversation with both Warringtons had to be sooner rather than later. They stepped into the cluttered greenhouse. Herbology was a class shared with Hufflepuff, which meant maybe having a chance to speak with Elowyn before their meeting. Harry and the rest of Slytherin waited patiently before the first Hufflepuffs begun to show. Elowyn walked in as the first with a group of nine following behind her. A rather large group, but from his observations alone it was expected of Hufflepuff to enjoy larger groups. Though he recognized none of her nine companions he noticed the fact Elowyn seemed to be in the center of the group and based on body language leading the conversation. While he was examining the group Elowyn managed to catch his eyes and winked. Whatever she told the group next have them moving in their directions.
"Merry met Heir Potter, Heiress Greengrass, Heir Nott, Heir Zabini, Miss Davies."
"Merry met Heiress Bones," the five snakes responded.
"May I introduce Heiress Sally Smith, Mr Stephen Cornfoot, Miss Megan Jones, Mr Wayne Hopkins, Mr Kevin Entwhistle, Mr Roger Malone, Mr Oliver Rivers, Miss Sophie Roper, and Miss Irene Denholm." Elowyn gestured to the person she introduced as she went along. Afterwards she turned to her housemates. "May I introduce you to Heir Potter – who doesn't need any further introduction, Heiress Greengrass – a childhood friend of mine, Heir Nott – who you shouldn't play chess against if you are not prepared to lose, Heir Zabini – who I have on multiple occasions caught staring at his spoon to watch his own reflection, and Miss Davies – who I had thought would join me in Hufflepuff." Everyone politely greeted each other and turned back to Elowyn.
"I might have coerced Professor Sprout to reveal that today's lesson will be in groups of five, since we are ten and you are five, we wanted to mix our groups a bit to know each other better since we share two more classes and might share more in the future. Does that idea sound beneficial to you."
The idea was rather beneficial since Slytherins were never given many chances to socialize with other houses due to their reputation, therefor a chance like that should not be passed on. Furthermore, it would depict the court better in the minds of the other badgers to be seen working together across houses. The professor would surely also appreciate this behavior since it was her former house they got friendly with. It was also a political move to the other Slytherins because there laid enormous power in being well-connected and respected in other houses which many Slytherins struggled with. It would even make the court seem more open and inclusive to their housemates. There really was only one answer.
"Your offer seems very advantageous to us, therefor we accept."
"We are pleased by your acceptance. Allow me to present the combination we were considering. I would be in the first group would consisting of Heiress Greengrass, Miss Roper, Mr Malone and Mr Rivers. The second group would consist of Heir Nott, Miss Davies, Mr Hopkins, Mr Entwhistle, and Miss Denholm. The final group would be Heir Potter, Heir Zabini, Heiress Smith, Mr Cornfoot, and Miss Jones. Any adjudgments you would suggest?"
Harry thought about it. Elowyn had truly thought about the group she placed him with since it included no muggleborns. Instead, the group consisted of three heirs, one pureblood who was the younger brother of the heir and a halfblood who despite her bloodstatus was influential since her father was the head of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. The other groups were both made of two heirs, two halfbloods and a muggleborn. Daphne was the only one from the court placed alone and she was placed in the same group as Elowyn so she would have company enough.
"The groups are adequate, Bones, I have no sugestions. Heiress Smith, Mr Cornfoot and Miss Jones please join Blaise and me at this table." A tall girl with sandy blonde hair and forest green eyes moved to follow him. She had a few freckles on her face. The girl smiled at him and gestured to a boy and girl to follow her. When the five reached the table, she introduced herself as heiress Sally Smith and asked them to just call her Sally. It was clear that Daphne, Malfoy, Elowyn, Theo and Blaise all had been raised differently to be the heir. Their emotions were mostly concealed, their etiquette outstanding, and their demeanor controlled. The Smith girl wore her heart on her sleeve. Her etiquette and mannerism were not controlled or perfect. She simply moved with an easiness and grace that made her seem more open, approachable and honest. He had recalled being told there were multiple ways to take on the role as heir, but it was his first time observing it.
"Merry met Sally. My name is Blaise Zabini, I am heir to the Zabini family. I live with my paternal grandparents in Italy. You can address me by my first name too."
"I am Stephen Cornfoot, the second child of Lord Cornfoot. My house is fairly large; we are around 35 Cornfoots. Our family motto is Fortitudo in numeris, gaudium in unitate meaning Strength in numbers, joy in unity. You may call me Stephen." a lean boy with chocolate brown eyes and long chestnut brown hair arranged in a low bun. A house 35 strong was almost unheard of in Britain after both Grindelwald and Voldemort and Stephen was from the main line.
"My name is Megan Jones. My father is department head, and my mother is a metal charmer and has a shop in Diagon Alley. I do live in in muggle London. You have permission to refer to me as Megan," a girl with deep brown skin and a curly shag with bangs.
"Merry met Sally, Stephen and Megan. My name is Harry Potter, I am heir to the Potter line. I live with my Muggle aunt and her family."
"Near London?" Megan asked excited.
"Surrey," Harry responded.
"That is close. Surely the two of us must meet up in the holidays." Harry surprisingly found himself contemplating that idea. He would very much like spending as much time out of the Dursleys' house as possible. And Megan's parents both had interesting careers he could question them in. The head of the department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and a metal charmer. It would be nice seeing some more of muggle London after growing up listening to all the places the Dursleys took Dudley.
"I would be delighted to become acquainted with you over a holiday, Megan. It is very kind of you to offer such a thing," he looked Megan in the eyes while thanking her. The girl blushed at his words.
Their conversation stopped briefly as some of the other Slytherins stepped into the greenhouse. Harry met Malfoy's eyes daring him to do anything about it. The group watched in silence as Malfoy, Goyle, Crabbe, Bulstrode and Parkinson sat at the closest table to the door. Not the group Malfoy would have picked if he were to guess. Even though Goyle, Crabbe and Parkinson were all heir their families had sold their seats ages ago. All the influence they had once held were long gone along with any money they once upon a time must have had. So, they were technically heirs of their house, but the title meant nothing other than they were next in line to become head of house and not Lords/Lady. Bulstrode was the only one from a titled family other than Malfoy himself and her position in Slytherin was at its worse.
The rest of the Slytherins came in smaller groups and upon examining the rest of their house split into two groups of five. 3 minutes before the class started the other half of Hufflepuff including Elowyn's cousin and the Abbot heiress and MacMillan heir came in. Afterwards came Professor Sprout and the class started.
Harry Potter and the strange Hufflepuff
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Sally's POV:
"Ellie, please, just tell us what Professor Sprout said," Megan begged.
"Who says Professor Sprout told me anything."
"That grin on your face. You are obviously planning something."
After breakfast Elowyn visited their head of house to discuss her health as Elowyn had been very sick as a child. Many knew the Bones had lost more members than any other house. It had been attacked on three separate occasions with the Death Eaters killing Elowyn's grandparents first, her uncle and his wife and kids, thereafter her cousin Susan's parents. Her own mother being an auror at the time had asked her brother to watch Elowyn as well, meaning both Susan and Elowyn had been present during the attack. There had been added wards after the other attacks on the family and it is only that fact that saved their life, since it had led to aurors arriving in time to save the two children. Not before both were hit with a set of curses. Susan had managed to recover fully; in contrast Elowyn had always been a sickly child in and out of Saint Mungus. Upon her mother's request Elowyn had saugt out Sprout to give her the paperwork. It was clear to everyone as soon as she rejoined their group on their way to Herbology that Sprout had spoken to her of more. Ellie had a glint in her eye that according to Sally could only mean trouble. The question being for who?
"Did she tell you what the plan for the lesson was?"
"Not exactly, she may have hinted at it being a group exercise. And I was simply wondering if perhaps we are in the mood for a bit of comradery with our Slytherin year mates. Yellow and green goes well together. It will make us feel less excluded when figuring out groups," she suggested innocently.
Sally rolled her eyes. Only Elowyn would want to do group projects with the Slytherins. Half of Hufflepuff was absolutely terrified of the house. Only Elowyn would propose such a ridiculous idea. Luckly, she did not need to extinguish Elowyn's light. Roger was more than capable of that.
"I get what you mean, Ellie, I really do. But the Slytherins are dangerous, they may curse you for even proposing such an idea. You know, most of their parents were death eaters, they might have taught them some real scary stuff," Roger Malone advised her. The grin completely disappeared from Elowyn's face.
"Their parents, that is the keywords. We can't judge people on who their parents are, Roger. And would it just not be better to be friends. I mean, if we befriend them now, they will like us more than the other houses, and voila they won't have any animosity towards us. It also feels kinda mean to exclude them due to their house. Imagine how they must feel about those rumors. Like then people say Hufflepuffs are weak. We know we are stronger than they say, so why can't they be sweeter than they are made out to be. I mean, Daphne and Tracey are Slytherins, we have known them since forever. Come on, they are just like us."
Sally guessed Elowyn was right. Daphne and Tracey weren't that bad, the two might be a little emotionless at times, yet that was just the way, they were raised. If Hufflepuffs were strong, Slytherins could be kind. Ambitious didn't mean ruthless. They really shouldn't judge before speaking to them. She could see in the other badgers' faces that they also began to see the truth in Elowyn's statement. It was always great to make more friends and allies. Maybe the snakes could add a new perspective. Roger still seemed against it."
"I am telling you this is a terrible idea."
"I only have the greatest of ideas, dear Roger."
"I am not sure about that, dearest Elowyn."
"We will have to work with them eventually why not on our own terms. First of all our head of house is present, secondly in the groups I am planning we outnumber them, thirdly we come across more genuine than if we were forced to work with them, and finally it would be nice."
"All right, I will go along with another one of your endless schemes," Roger after much back and forth decided.
"I couldn't dream of doing one without you."
Sally noticed Elowyn winking at poor Roger. Most of them had grown up with Elowyn and been friends since childhood. Therefor Elowyn's true personality didn't clash with their as much. They were used to her doing all sorts of crazy things and getting away with it. Roger, however, was a halfblood who had only started becoming a part of the group just before starting Hogwarts. He possessed some misguided faith in himself being capable of stopping ELowyn in going through with her ideas. Much to the groups entertainment as he would voice all their concerns in their discussions.
"Just let me do the talking. We will be fine, I promise," Elowyn said, and Sally couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes. So typically, Elowyn. They went into the greenhouse and Elowyn proceeded to do just that. The Slytherins, though hesitant, seemed to accept the offer gratefully. When Elowyn picked the groups, placing Sally (along Stephen and Megan) with Potter and Zabini. Arguably the two most interesting Slytherins due to it being Harry "Boy who lived" Potter and Blaise "Too many stepfathers to count" Zabini. The group introduced themselves leading to Sally noting Potter lived with muggles. Now Sally didn't really have anything against muggles. She just disliked the motion that one of the most well-known and perhaps targeted wizards lived with people who couldn't really defend themselves against magic. What if some uncaught Death Eater or Death Eater wannabe (Merlin knew there had been many of those) accidentally spotted him with his aunt in London and AK'ed him. That was assuming the house was warding, which would be hard to maintain without a wixen of age. It was just so irresponsible of the ministry. Maybe she should talk to Elowyn about it considering her mother's position. Especially since a lot of families would love to take him in as a thanks for what he and mostly his parents had done. Perhaps Sally should ask him about the situation at a later point. She wouldn't want to make him more uncomfortable than he already was from people asking him weird questions.
As Sprout entered their conversation stopped. She noticed all of the Slytherins had stopped talking. Sadly, a few moments passed before the last Hufflepuff, embarrassingly enough, her younger brother included, fell silent.
"Class, I am so excited to see all your faces. If you don't know me, I am Professor Pomona Sprout. We will at a later day have the opportunity to get to know each other more, something I am looking forward to. Today's lesson will, however, be time-consuming and practical so it will have to be our next lesson. Instead of starting by expanding our minds by diving into our textbook and theoretical part of the class, we will start by one of the most important skills. Correctly identifying plants. I will give each group a list containing 6 herbs, which can be found on school grounds. By reading the passages in the textbook concerning those herbs you will have to find and bring back a pound of each. Upon my inspection of the brought back herbs the quickest team will gain 50 points."
Sally's eyes light up. A practical lesson exploring the grounds. That sounded like her kind of lesson. Looking at Stephen and Megan matching grins it was their kind too.
"Megan, will you pick up an herb list from Professor Sprout," Potter asked giving Megan a warm smile when she agreed.
"Sally and Wayne, can you bring something to collect the herbs in and with."
"I have magical scissors and some herb knives," she answered.
"I have some glasses for the herbs."
"Very well. Blaise and I will each bring our books since bringing more would be unnecessary."
That sounded like a plan. Sally nodded satisfied with his reasoning. Overall, the Slytherins were way nicer than people gave them credit for. Zabini, despite his mother's terrifying reputation, and Potter both seemed kind. Though their faces betrayed almost no emotion their words and actions had told Sally that much. Megan came back with the herb list.
"We need to find; asphodel, nettles, dittany, wormwood, mandrake root, and aconite."
"At first we have to determine where each herb can be found," Potter stated.
"The book says asphodel is known to grow in special well-drained soil, since it is not native to Great Brittain. So, the grounds would be my best guess," Stephen remembered. Potter nodded acknowledging the answer.
"Nettles likely grows in the garden, my father grows nettles in our garden," Megan suggested.
"Dittany will perhaps be in one of the greenhouses along with the mandrakes. Like the nettles wormwood will also be found in the garden," Potter explained to them.
"Aconite can be found in the forbidden forest according to this," Zabini pointed at a passage in the textbook.
"So, tow herbs in the garden, one in the grounds, two in the greenhouses, one in the forrest," Sally summarized.
"I say, we collect mandrakes and dittany in greenhouses first."
Zabini nodded in support of Potter's idea. The three Hufflepuffs so no problem with getting the greenhouses out of the way. Sally looked over Megan's shoulder to get a glimpse of the list.
"Since Professor Sprout has written that all necessary tools will be provided to each plant, we simply have to find earmuffs to find the greenhouse with mandrakes," Sally stated proud with herself for figuring it out.
"Good job, Sally, let us look, we will find dittany after."
The group started their search quickly locating three pairs of pink earmuffs in greenhouse.
"A mandrake root weights a pound so one will root will get the job done," Zabini remarked.
"Three of us will do it, because earmuffs are necessary. The other two must leave the greenhouse. I think, Cornfoot shall remain due to him carrying the glass for the root and Sally has the tools to cut the leaves off our root. I would volunteer to be the person yanking the mandrake out of the pot and onto our worktable, where Sally cuts the leaves off, afterwards you collect it into the big glass and closes it so no sound can escape."
Megan and Zabini quietly walked outside the greenhouse while the three of them started adjusting their earmuffs. They tested them by screaming at each other to secure no sound was led in and the others were far enough away from the mandrakes to not hear them. After determining that they proceeded to follow Potter's plan flawlessly. In no time the mature mandrake was bottled up in a glass jar.
The rest of the lesson went nearly as effortless with them harvesting dittany from the greenhouse next to theirs. They even found asphodel on their way to the garden. They were there able to collect the nettles and wormwood needed, although the amount of nettles Potter calculated weighed a pound was astonishing. That left only the forbidden forest.
The five of them went in. Zabini, Potter and Megan with wands ready to shoot at any creature that came in to close contact with the group. Sally and Stephen ready to collect the last herb on their list. She was looking around seeing the foreboding forest she likely never would walker further into. It was dark, the trees too tall and close together to allow much sunlight. The smell of the forest added onto the uneasiness of it. The stank of rotting wood mixed with decay hit them more brutally the longer the spend in there.
Once in the while one of them, mostly Stephen, would step on a fallen branch or a small twig and make most of them jump. The one contradiction being Potter. The others would step in the ground to harshly and therefore snap a twig or make some shuffling noise. Instead, Potter moved with a grace and soundlessness that both confused, scared, and amazed Sally. Sometimes due to not hearing him she would not know where he was until he appeared in her vision again. A withered tree caught her eyes. On the rough gray bark was a peak of silver.
"What is that?" Sally asked.
The group stepped closer to the tree. The five first years stood there observing the fluid drop down the tree.
"Is that blood?"
The consistency of the fluid would perhaps suggest so, considering that it was rather thick and reminded Sally of the one time her younger brother with accidental magic gave their mother a rather big cut on her face for not buying him the newest broom.
"Based on the color it might belong to a unicorn," Potter stated.
They all shivered at that news. A hurt unicorn.
"We should follow the blood stains and help it. I mean it probably hurt itself and just needs to close the wound. We could get the groundkeeper or perhaps professor Sprout." Megan sounded convinced in her conviction.
"Look Megan. I know you just want to help the poor unicorn, and I am all for that except there are many flaws with that plan. The unicorn has obviously lost a lot of blood, we will likely be too late to save it. Secondly, I doubt it is wise to wander further into a forest, which is the home to many dangerous creatures, when we are first years who have never been in the forest before nor have enough experience and knowledge of spells should something happen to us. Thirdly can you with confidence tell me you can not only find a teacher but lead them back to this position in the forest? Finally, we are in class competing for house points, this will not only slow us considerably it will lead to us losing points for exploring the forest. It is just not worth it," Zabini explained.
While Sally could agree with the logic and points presented by him it just seemed a bit too harsh on Megan.
"Let us compromise. We split up shortly. Some will go after the unicorn and the others after the last herb and the rest after help. I propose that Sally and Cornfoot find the last herb since they have the supplies. Blaise and Megan would go after the teacher since they must navigate the forest twice and explain the situation. I would go after the unicorn since I can cast turris lucis."
"What?" Stephen asked.
"Turris lucis. It is a spell that creates a tower of colored light that can easily lead you to the caster."
"Sounds like a plan," Megan said with a smile on her face obviously happy about helping the unicorn.
"Should we get Sprout or Hagrid?" she asked.
"Probably Professor Sprout, she is far more competent," Zabini said. Potter nodding his head in agreement.
It was rather kind of him to venture into the dark forest all alone for Megan's fault. Sally had grown up with stories of the hero boy-who-lived and in that moment, she could see it. Protector of the innocent. Elowyn was right the Slytherins were not bad or evil. They might be kinder than the lions and most the ravens.
Harry Potter and the strange Hufflepuff
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Harry's POV:
The others followed his plan and left him alone in the forbidden forest after little to no discussion much to his amusement. As much as Elowyn's idea of integrating some of the Hufflepuffs with the Slytherins was one he enjoyed and benefited from the Hufflepuffs worked differently. In Slytherin you followed the most powerful, influential or highest-ranking person with no question. The Badgers were always questioning every little thing until as he was learning you gained their trust. Though he was thankful for Elowyn introducing him to them and making him seem more approachable which made it easier for him to gain their trust should he ever need it, he found himself grateful for some time alone free to do as he pleased.
Yes, he had to locate the unicorn and cast the spell, however, no one said he would refer from doing anything else in the forest, after all no matter what the Hufflepuffs seemed to believe he was not doing this out of the goodness of his heart. No, when presented with an opportunity you had to take advantage, that was a lesson he had learned at the muggles' house, and he would likely never forget it. Not only did he manage to separate himself from the others, in the three Hufflepuffs eyes he came across as selfless, powerful and kind, most importantly he had bought himself some time for searching. If he on the way towards the unicorn happen to come across a lake with leeches it would be sad not to use such a opportunity. Harry had found out then asking Theo and browsing around some catalogues that it required permits to buy leeches in an attempt to control certain potions they were ingredients in. Being underage meant he would likely never be allowed to purchase the ingredient making a pit stop to a lake all the more necessary. Harry could indeed think of many potions he could brew.
Harry studied the unicorn blood and positioned his wand. While reading in the library he had come across an interesting book with a wide selection of spells where he had found the turris lucis and another one. Though he had no chance to try it out.
"Appare Vestigium!" Harry tried copying the wand movement of the spell. A glimpse of gold appeared.
"Appare Vestigium!" Harry tried again with no result. It should have worked. Harry tried the wand movement without the spell a couple of times before deeming it flawless. Afterwards he repeated the spell a couple of time before noticing the problem. He put stress on the wrong syllable. Vestigum was pronounced with stress on the tee sound.
"Appare Vestigium!"
A swirl of gold erupted from his wand and circled the area until footprints appeared. Instead of showing just the unicorns footprint a second pair was present. A human looking pair. The attacker of the unicorn was likely a wixen. Judging by the size of the print it was likely a man, well, at least someone physically bigger and stronger than himself. Who would attack a unicorn? Especially this close to school grounds. Harry decided to follow the trail, quickly throwing a silencing charm at his feet in hopes of sneaking up on the scene.
After trailing the prints for a couple of minutes he came to a clearing, the prints seemed to continue in that direction, so Harry hid behind a tree and peeked his head to observe the area. In the center of the clearing was the unicorn, it looked like it had been mauled by a bear but judging by the hooded figure hovering above it that was likely not the case. It was however alive, just barely, but it was moving slightly. Who could the hooded figure be?
Harry quickly thought about it, if he casted the spell alerting the others of his location and tried to identify the stranger they would likely be there in about 5 minutes since they were not far into the forest. He assumed that the stranger while a wizard was most likely not magically powerful since the unicorn had been capable of running this far away from him. Harry would have liked his odds better if he had company, not because they would do much, but because of human nature. You were less likely to target a group than an individual he had learned from his days of Muggle school with Dudley. Also why expanding the court would be an excellent choice.
"turris lucis" Harry whispered a collum of light broke out of his wand. Looking back at the figure he seemed far to occupy at whatever he was doing with the unicorn to notice the collum of light.
Harry stood still a plan forming to wait the teacher out. When he heard someone approach, he would make a break for it and surprise the attacker. As he stood there he might have been confused with a statue. However, that is when the perpetrator started seemingly talking to himself. Harry had known you would be crazy to kill a unicorn but hadn't thought it would be that kind of crazy.
"Master, I have gathered enough blood for you." Not only was that an odd and suspicious statement to make, but the voice was familiar. It belonged to professor Quirrell, the defense against the dark arts teacher. Though Harry had always found the professor unsettling this wasn't the things he imagined the professor got up to. Noticeable was the fact that the stutter was gone, so most likely an act. But the pieces of the puzzle didn't really fit together. Based on Quirrel's very own statement he was serving a master and speaking to said master, leaving to options either he was delusional, or the master was present. Harry would guess the second option seeing as he hadn't experienced prior signs of Quirrell being delusional and being delusional didn't make normal professors becoming unicorn killers. No clearly something was very wrong with him.
But the possibility of the master being present was also terribly confusing. The master must be more powerful than Quirrell for him to follow and kill for him, yet if he was so powerful why let the unicorn wrong so far away and why bring Quirrell to do the deed for him. That is when Harry remembered the page in the potions book about non-useable ingredients mentioning unicorn blood forcefully taken as a way to stay alive. So, if the master was clinging on to life the current lack of strength and unicorn blood could be explained but why would the master go to the forest. And if the master was that sick, why wasn't he or she at the hospital and how could Quirrell help them.
No matter, what Harry had learned was invaluable. Even though he would not get the leeches he had been given something greater. He knew one of his professor's secrets, all that was left to do was figuring out the whole truth and decide what to do with it. Currently, he had enough blackmail material on Quirrell to use given the need for such a thing appeared. Having a professor under your control could be very useful. Not only could he write Harry permission slips to the restricted section but authorize use of classrooms and breaks of curfew. He might even be able to take detentions with Harry from other teachers though Harry doubted he would let himself get caught to deserve such a thing.
So, he suddenly heard the noise indicating a teacher was approaching Harry deliberately made a high sound, so the professor had time to flee the scene. After he left Harry approached the unicorn and sat down beside it. Truly the creature was beautiful, and many would perhaps call it sad that it had been killed. But it had to be killed for Harry to learn that Quirrell was hiding something big. He placed a hand on its chest the heart was still beating but slowly. He had to admire the unicorn's strength in being able to run this far from Quirrell despite the horrible wounds.
"You have been very strong to survive this far, you didn't go down without a fight. The pain will stop soon, and you will be free," he said.
Harry kept his hand on the unicorn as its head turned facing him. The unicorn proceeded to turn around and expose the wounds on its side while looking at him intently. And only then did Harry understand it was offering him some blood willingly. An offer that generous had to be taken. Harry found two vials and collected blood from its wounds like Quirrell had minutes earlier. Hearing footsteps he quickly hid the vials.
Professor Sprout came into the clearing followed by Hagrid. They both had a grim look on their face as they observed the scene.
"I came into the clearing shortly after it had been attacked. I think I saw someone run away from it when I came so I waited a little to make sure they were gone before using the spell."
"Mr. Potter, it was very brave of you to venture into this forest to safe the unicorn but also incredible dangerous. But I can hear you took good care of yourself. Your mother would have done the same."
"Don't you mean father. James was always running around breaking school rules and exploring the grounds with his friends," Hagrid tried correcting the herbology professor.
"No, I meant Lily. She was a very compassionate girl who would have run after a hurt animal to. But quite like Mr. Potter she didn't break school rules nor risk her life unnecessarily."
Professor Sprout took his hand and began walking away with Harry, while Hagrid examined the dead unicorn. Harry decided the best option was to play the orphan card and hope she forgot him going further into the forest.
"Thanks, professor. I don't know much about my parents, they sound so nice, I wish I could remember them."
The truth was that Lily and James Potter meant nothing to him, yes, his mother had given her life for his, but it would never have been necessary if they didn't participate in the war. Simply, Harry found it quite selfish for them to have a kid well knowing the chances of them dying. It was their fault he was stuck at the Dursleys, however, others seemed to have liked them much so playing it up was for the better.
"Aw, I know, Mr. Potter. I can ask around for some pictures if you would like to see them, your aunt must not have many since she wouldn't own magical pictures."
"You can just call me Harry, professor. My aunt does not have any pictures sadly, so I have never seen them. I would really like to."
"Of course, Harry. And excuse me if I am overstepping but have your ever visited their graves."
Harry decided to gain even more sympathy from the professor. He stared off in the distance and tilted his head slightly down.
He whispered barely loud enough for the professor to hear, "My aunt did not like my mother much or me. She told me they were unemployed delinquents who died drunk driving. I did not know anything else about them before my letter came." He ended the sentence by looking up at her through his eyelashes. Harry knew how he looked. With his large vibrant green doe eyes, mocha brown curls framing his face almost artfully messy and tanned skin from doing yard work over the summer he knew he was what could be labeled cute or as his English teacher had said angelic. The fact he was pure muscles and no fat thanks to using many days doing hard labor or running from Dudley and his gang or the Dursleys. He planned on getting rid of his glasses over the weekend by owl-ordering an eye correction potion. He just had to maintain an innocent and childlike persona around the professor, and she would be unknowingly under his thumb.
She stopped and got down on her knees in the middle of the forest in what was likely meant to be a comforting gesture, however, just made Harry that much mad at the Dursleys for never giving him enough food to grow. He hated being this short.
"Your aunt should not be mad at you for being your mother's son. That is not alright, I hope you know that. Harry, if you want to talk to me about your homelife I am all ears. No one should feel disliked in their own home, sweetie."
"Thanks, professor Sprout, I don't wish to trouble you. Professor Snape and I have talked about it after my medical exam. He was really nice. I just whish I didn't have to go there during the summer holidays since it is so nice being away from there. However, the headmaster said I must return during the summer holidays."
There it was done the seed was planted; Dumbledore would not get away with leaving him at the Dursley's doorstep.
"Aww, Harry, you could never trouble me, and no need to be all formal just call me Pomona, sweetheart. As lovely as it is to hear you, and dear Severus had a nice talk my door is always open for you. And I think you would like to hear that your group won the scavenger hunt and not only that, but for finding the unicorn and using spells far beyond your age I will award you 75 points."
75 points was a lot so clearly playing Sprout was paying off, or Pomona now. That was definitely unexpected and if he had not heard from Blaise that Pomona was into the stern Professor McGonagall he might have found it creepy it had worked so well.
"Thanks, Pomona, I promise I will come by if I need to," he added a shy smile just to seal the performance off.
The two walked the way back to the greenhouse with Pomona occasionally pointing out specific plants for Harry and him impressing her with his knowledge of plants. It worked well to read all the books through beforehand and thanks to his eidetic memory he easily recalled the facts. It may also have helped that he found potions interesting and therefor had been researching different ingredients. He had to admit that he quite appreciated Pomona Sprout especially after coercing her to sign a permission slip to borrow a book about potions ingredients from the restricted section. She was alright.
