The rest of the day was rather uneventful.
As promised, Zabini spent the rest their free period giving Harry pointers on how to fit in more easily in Slytherin. However, most of his advice boiled down to: always look your best and try your best not to offend anyone, neither of which seemed particularly difficult to Harry.
Still, Harry took the time to write down some of the more… 'interesting' bits of advice, such as: 'You're not going to be able to make allies of everyone in our house, so instead focus your attention on the few allies you've got', 'Farley is trying to get on your good side for some reason, so be wary of her', and finally 'try to avoid drawing the ire of the older students… they know a lot more magic than you and can make your time here very difficult.'
At dinner later that night Zabini helped him with his table manners, allowing Harry to feel much less self-conscious when eating there. Moon just smirked at them from across the table as Zabini showed Harry how to properly hold his fork and knife. Malfoy remained mostly silent, his cheeks still burning from the detention he had been given earlier, but he still chortled every time Harry made a mistake, and Zabini had to correct him.
Astronomy was mostly boring to start with, as Professor Sinistra spent the period introducing them to the subject. The latter half of the class was mostly spent learning how to properly operate their telescopes, which Harry found he had little trouble with.
The catalogs and bank statement he had ordered came the following morning, and Harry hastily packed them away in his bag before anyone could see them.
Today they had Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs, then a break before lunch and another Herbology class, again with the Ravenclaws in the afternoon.
As Harry had suspected, he had been quite right to think that Professor McGonagall was not one to be crossed. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they had sat down in her first class.
"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said while peering at them all sternly. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."
Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time.
After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Theodore Nott had made any difference to his match; Professor McGonagall showed the class the rather intricate looking needle that Nott had managed to transfigure.
"Five points to Slytherin," Professor McGonagall said simply. "For completing a Transfiguration in your first class, Mr. Nott."
Nott had blushed but didn't say anything else, and a few minutes later the bell rang and Professor McGonagall waved them out of her class, just giving them practice for homework.
Harry, Zabini, and Moon took the opportunity of a break before lunch to head back down to the dorms so Harry could check out the catalogs… and his bank statement.
"I still don't see how books are going to help me become great like Dumbledore," Harry muttered as they made their way to the Common Room.
Moon sighed. "Just trust me, Potter. Dumbledore is a great wizard because he is powerful, and he is powerful because he is knowledgeable. There's an old saying: Knowledge is Power, and that is particularly true for Wizards and Witches like us. The more you know about magic, the more powerful you'll become. Trust me."
"There are no shortcuts to greatness, Potter," Zabini pointed out. "Greatness is earned… and it's going to be a long time before you measure up to someone like Dumbledore."
Harry had nothing more to say to that. Farley had said the same thing.
Harry wasn't certain what he had been expecting when the Hat had said that Slytherin could help him on the way to greatness, but it wasn't this. Honestly, it was starting to feel like it would be a lot of work. That wasn't to say that Harry was lazy, he was perfectly willing to put in the time if needed… he just hadn't expected there would this much of it.
"Besides," Zabini continued. "Dumbledore is also a genius. He basically rewrote the book on transfiguration, and aside from Nicolas Flamel, he has contributed more knowledge about alchemy than any other Wizard in history."
"I'm pants at transfiguration," Harry muttered.
"We're all pants at transfiguration right now," Moon pointed out.
"Nott isn't," Harry pointed out.
"Nott is a bookworm, and I'm sure his father gave him a few pointers before he came to school," Moon sighed with annoyance, before giving Harry a bracing look. "It'll get better, don't worry, but if you really want to excel, you should probably read ahead and put some practice in. Carpe Diem."
They had arrived at the Slytherin Common room. Without much fanfare, Harry lead the other two to their dorm, studiously ignoring the stares he was getting. When they got to the dorm, Harry sat down in his armchair.
"I wish they would stop staring at me like that," He muttered while rubbing his eyes.
"They'll get used to you being here eventually, I'm sure," Moon said bracingly.
"It's not just Slytherin," Harry sighed. "It's the whole damn school. Everyone keep staring at me everywhere I go, and the people from the other houses keep looking at me like I kicked their puppy or something."
"Well, you are the Boy Who Lived," Zabini pointed out. "And you only just joined Slytherin two days ago. People are still getting used to the idea that you're in Slytherin."
"What business is it of theirs what house I'm in?" Harry snapped angrily, looking between the two of them. "Why does it matter so much that I chose to be in Slytherin?"
Zabini and Moon looked between Harry and each other. Some silent communication passed between the two of them, and Moon stood up.
"I think I'll give you two some space," she said quietly, before walking out.
The silence lingered between Harry and Zabini for a long moment after she left. Eventually Zabini sighed.
"The truth, Potter, is that everyone expected for you to follow your Parent's footsteps and go in to Gryffindor."
Harry frowned. He hadn't known his parents were in Gryffindor. "Why?"
Zabini rolled his eyes. "Well, you vanquished the Dark Lord. Nobody knows how or why, but you did. For most people, you're a savior. My mother told me that the Dark Lord was on the brink of taking over the Ministry when he was vanquished. He definitely already had the Taboo in place, and people who spoke his name started disappearing."
"Taboo?" Harry frowned.
"A powerful piece of magic that the Dark Lord created himself," Zabini explained. "When it was in place, anyone who said the Dark Lord's name would be known to the Dark Lord. He would know who they were and where they were, and what kind of protective enchantments they were hiding behind. That's why everyone's so afraid to say his name, you see."
"I see," Harry nodded. Truthfully, the Taboo did sound pretty scary.
"Anyway, while most of the Wizarding World breathed a sigh of relief when the Dark Lord was vanquished, many of his supporters were still around. Most of them managed to stay out of prison by claiming they had been put under the Imperious Curse, and so they're still out there, perpetrating the Dark Lord's ideals, but through legal means rather than Illegal.
"Truthfully, Harry, our world is deeply divided, between people who believe in Blood Purity, and people who don't. Those that believe in Blood Purity tend to go into Slytherin or Ravenclaw, and those who don't tend to go into Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. This divide has lasted for a very long time, so that is why it was such a shock when you joined Slytherin. To many people, by joining Slytherin, you were basically declaring that you believed in Blood Purity, and thus was not a friend to the side that didn't."
"But, I don't?" Harry said with confusion. "I didn't even know about Blood Purity until Farley explained it to me, and I certainly don't agree with the idea."
Zabini sighed. "I know, Potter. However, the people in the other houses don't know that. To them, it's as if their savior slapped them in the face and kicked them back in the dark. Truthfully, no one outside this dorm is certain what to make of it."
Harry frowned. "Not even Moon?"
"Especially not Moon," Zabini nodded. "Remember, she joined this alliance opportunistically, but I would say that she's still sizing you up. She's waiting to see if you can measure up to the potential that the hat said you have."
Harry felt his ears burning; it was a sharp reminder that technically, Zabini and Moon weren't actually his 'friends', they were 'allies'.
"What about you, Zabini?" Harry asked curiously. "What do you think of it?"
Zabini just gave him an enigmatic smile, then without another word, he stood up and walked out of the room.
Harry found himself staring at the green fire in the fireplace, turning Zabini's words over in his head.
The idea that the Wizarding world saw him as their savior didn't sit right with Harry. As far as Harry knew, he didn't know how he had vanquished Voldemort. It was a mystery to him.
Despite that fact, the whole wizarding world seemed to think that he already was a great wizard, that he somehow knew some secret, deep magic that had allowed him to survive where so many others had died, so they had built up an image of him in their heads… and when he had finally returned and was sorted into Slytherin, that image had been brutally crushed.
The dorm room suddenly felt hot and airless to Harry. He had to get out, he had to get some space.
Quickly, he stood up and dropped his book-bag on the bed, before walking out. Without much fanfare, Harry walked out of the dorm, out of the common room, and out of the dungeons. He didn't know where he was going, he just needed to get out.
He needed to get some air, he needed to breath. He needed… he needed…
Not much later, Harry found himself somewhere on the grounds, near the lake. There he sat down under a tree, his arms around his folded up knees… and he was crying.
It seemed that all of the emotions that he had been suppressing for the last three days were finally coming out, and now that the dam had burst, he couldn't hold them back…
He was in Slytherin and Ron was in Gryffindor… and now Ron hated him. He had no friends, just alliances. His Head of House hated him… the prefects fleeced him for money every time he needed help with something. The house he was in was full of dark wizards like everyone had warned him it was, and now even the Hat's promises seemed like lies designed to lure him into a place he was never meant to be, and to top it all off, the whole of the wizarding world would now surly hate him as well just for the house he was in.
If this is what Hogwarts what like… what was he even doing here?
His parents were dead and the Dursleys hated him. That's why he was here. And now everyone expected him to be their Savior, or else…
"Harry?" a voice said to his left, interrupting Harry's spiraling thoughts, and he looked up to see Hagrid standing there.
"H- Hagrid?" Harry blinked and sniffled.
"Oh Harry," the giant said with sympathy. "What's wrong?"
Harry shook his head. "Everyone hates me…"
Hagrid frowned, before he sighed. "Al'right, yer coming with me."
Then without another word he scooped Harry up and carried him away.
