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Chapter Text

Harry's Pov

Harry was quietly walking through the halls of Hogwarts. The feast had ended, and he didn't eat much. Luckily no one noticed, but who would ever noticed anything unusual about him. he's their saviour, so of course he's fine!

Clenching his fists together and biting his lip, he took a few deep breaths.

Harry was about to turn around and go back to the common room, until he heard a small whimper. He immediately stopped walking and turned to where the sound came from.

What he saw was horrible.

There were two boys, a Gryffindor and a Ravenclaw who looked to be in Harry's year, pointing their wands towards a small Slytherin who looked to be a first year.

Wasting no time, he quickly grabbed his own wand, stepped between the first year and the 5th years and pointed it towards the boys.

"I suggest you leave." he growled out, trying to keep his anger in check.

They stared at him with Distaste clear on their faces.

"Why are you defending this snake? They're evil. we're doing everyone a favour!" The Ravenclaw spat, venom coating his tongue.

Harry's eyes narrowed as his lip curled up in disgust.

"Not all Slytherins are bad. Attempting to hurt someone else because of a stupid opinion like that is exactly what one of your so called evil Slytherins would do, wouldn't they? you're just as bad as death eaters." He spat out, meaning every word.

A slight Twitch of an eye was the only warning he got before the Gryffindor said, "Stu-"

"Expelliarmus!" Yelled Harry, effectively knocking the want out of the other's hand.

He turned to the Ravenclaw, but before he could get another word out, they both scrambled away, the Gryffindor shakily grabbing his wand from the floor.

Taking a deep breath Harry slowly turned around as to not startle the little Slytherin. He saw the first-year girl backed up against the wall and shaking.

Recognizing the symptoms of a panic attack starting, quietly, he said, "Is it okay for me to touch you?"

A small nod of confirmation was all he needed before placing a hand on her shoulder to ground her to reality, and to carefully comfort her without overwhelming her. He has experience with his own panic attacks, and he knows that being touched everywhere while in a state where you're barely focusing on anything else is awful.

He slowly grabbed her hand, all his movements visible to her, and placed it on his chest. He took big, exaggerated breaths, and soon she was following his breathing.

Seeing she was more aware of everything he said, "Would you like help getting to the dungeons?"

The girl nodded her head still looking a little shaken up. Giving her a sweet smile, he stepped back a little.

"Would you like to hold my hand?" He spoke softly and held out his hand.

She nodded and slowly grabbed it. They started to make their way to the dungeons, Harry making sure to not walk too quick, and staying at the pace of the girl.

As they got there the girl let go of his hand and mumbled out a small thank you.

Harry gave a gentle smile before replying with,

It's no problem. No one should be picking on anyone anyways."

Harry stood back and turned around.

"I need to go now, but make sure to stay safe. Goodbye!"

As Harry walked away, he was fuming.

'What the actual fuck!? Does that always happen to Slytherins!? It's horrendous! I can't believe this is the first time I've ever seen this! This might be a bit excessive, but I need to start looking out for them more. If I wasn't there, who knows what could've happened!'

Harry soon arrived at the common room. Trying to cool himself down, he grabbed the essay for Transfiguration that was assigned to do over the holidays and went through it all, purposely making small errors.

Ron always liked slacking off, and Hermione hated when people got better grades then her. He really didn't want to lose his friends over something he could do so easily, and so he kept changing his grades to make them happy.

Not to mention in primary school, Vernon and Petunia hated when he got better grades than Dudley. When he did, he would always get another beating and get locked in his cupboard without any food for a week.

He's been changing his grades for so long that it isn't hard to do it now.

Harry was born naturally smart, and before Hogwarts, he was always in a library, reading everything he could get his hands on.

He first started going to the library to get away from Dudley during his 'Hunting Harry' games which always ended up with harry bruised and bleeding, but once he started reading, he got addicted.

Once he found out about Hogwarts and went to Diagon Alley, he got as many books as he could, learning about everything and anything.

He first started out with books he thought was necessary, like introductions to Hogwarts, and wizardry as a whole, but once he finished them, he started reading more interesting and higher-level books.

He even started reading higher into the curricular, now onto 7th year books.

As said before, Ron always liked slacking off and for Harry to slack off with him, so to keep up this pretence, he did.

He usually read books at night when he can't go to sleep because of his stupid insomnia. He found reading much more productive than sleeping anyways.

He usually just put up a Glamor to hide his eye bags, and he also did it to hide his scars that he got from the Dursleys.

Harry shivered as he remembered the fresh scars he got over the holidays before school. Vernon wanted to give him a *gift* before he went off to Hogwarts, which was a beating. A really bad one. Harry's wounds were still bleeding, and he had to now carry around fresh bandages for when the blood leaks.

Sighing, he wondered where Ron and Hermione were. They were supposed to meet up in the common room.

'You should be grateful they're still your friends.'

He was right. They put up with him and haven't left yet. They shouldn't have to deal with someone like me every minute of the day.

Sighing again, he packed up his stuff and went to his dorm.

If he was lucky enough, no one would come get him for dinner. The thought of food was nauseating right now, but with his rotten luck, someone was bound to come get him.

________________________________________________________________________________

Slytherin Common Room

Draco was halfway through his rant to the other 5th years about how they don't make enough good quality hair gel, when a group of four first-years came running up to them in a panic.

Draco, seeing the panic on their faces, immediately stood up, the rest of the 5th years copying the motion.

Pansy was the first one to speak.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?"

The first-years all started talking over each other, words jumbled.

"Woah, woah, woah. One at a time." said Blaise

The group all took a breath before the one at the front of the group spoke up.

"We were walking to the Dungeons, but Lilith got lost in the crowd and we don't know where she is."

By now the whole common room was listening, and they all wore the same expression of fear. Slytherins were always supposed to walk around Hogwarts with at least one other person, since other students tended to hurt and curse them.

A Slytherin all alone was practically shark bait! It was silent for a bit before Draco spoke up.

"Okay. How long ago was this?"

"A couple minutes ago." Spoke the girl at the back of the group.

Daphine spoke up.

"Okay. It hasn't been that long, so how about we wait 5 minutes, and if she's still not back then we'll go looking. Does that sound like a plan?" She prompted to the Slytherins.

The common room all agreed.

4 long and gruesome minutes passed, and everyone was restless. As soon as the fifth minute struck, Draco, Pansy, Blaise and Daphne, as well as a few older Slytherins were about to leave and go looking for Lilith, until the door to the common room opened.

The Slytherins all immediately looked up, and relief flushed their faces as they saw it was Lilith. The Slytherins all rushed up to her, giving space in between as to not crowd her.

Pansy walked (ran) up to her, and started inspecting her body, checking for any injuries.

"Lilith! Are you okay!? You're not hurt, are you!?" Cried Pansy.

Draco chuckled before saying,

"Pansy, she's fine by the looks of it. You don't need to go all mother mode."

Pansy shut him up with a fierce glare.

"Shut up Draco. You'd probably go all protective mode on Pooter, wouldn't you?"

A crimson red blush appeared on Draco's face.

"S-shut up! I would not!"

"Totally would." Said Blaise.

Daphne chuckled, before turning to Lilith.

"Anyways, are you actually okay? Did anything happen?"

The Slytherins all looked at Lilith expectantly. She spoke in a quiet tone.

"Well, these two 5th year boys cornered me, and they were going to curse me until this other 5th year boy saved me... He even walked me back here... his hands were so soft.." She mumbled the last bit more to herself.

The Slytherins all had surprised expressions on their faces. Draco spoke up.

"Do you know who this 5th year boy was?"

Lilith shook her head. Pansy was in thought for a moment before saying,

"Gregory, go grab parchment and a pen. Lilith, can you describe this person?"

Lilith nodded.

Once Gregory got back, Pansy said,

"Lilith is going to describe the person, and you'll draw it. Lilith, can you please start?"

Lilith took a breath before starting.

" It was a boy, and he had black hair and green eyes. He was in Gryffindor-"

She couldn't finish her sentence, as all the Slytherins yelled, "WHAT!?"

Blaise spoke in disbelief,

"You mean to tell us, a Gryffindor helped you!? A Slytherin!?"

Lilith nodded again. Daphne sighed in exasperation.

"Never mind that. Please finish what you were saying."

"Well, the boy had really messy hair. That's all I can remember. Sorry."

Draco took the drawing from Gregory, and upon looking at it, his eyes narrowed.

" Lilith, did this boy have hair covering the top-right of his face?"

Lilith nodded, and Draco's eyes widened.

"Oh my Merlin-!"

The Slytherins all looked up in confusion.

Draco spoke again, voice tainted with surprise.

"It's Potter. He's the boy."

Chapter Text

It was like you could hear a pin drop. Hearts were racing, and breaths were constricted. Slowly, Daphne spoke up.

"... Draco... Are you sure it's Harry...?"

Draco scoffed at her, rolling his eyes.

"I think i know Potter when I see him."

"Yeah, because you're so blinded by your love by the golden boy, aren't you Draco?" Said Pansy, rolling her eyes as well.

Draco was about to spit out a retort before another voice spoke up.

"Guys! This is not a playing matter! Draco, pass me the drawing." Said Blaise in a tone that screams authority.

Draco rolled his eyes, yet handed over the parchment that contained the drawing. Everyone stared at Blaise, waiting for his confirmation or denial. Blaise's eyes widened as he looked up. The rest of the Slytherins gasped as Blaise nodded his head, clearly too stunned to speak. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he stumbled out some words.

"It is Potter."

It was silent, before the drawing was ripped out of Blaise's hands by an older Slytherin. Pansy ripped it out of his hands, and it had a sort of dominoes effect, since soon everyone was trying to get their hands on the paper.

Once everyone had at least a small look at the drawing, they just stood in silence. No one knew what to do with this information. This news was crazy, considering the Gryffindor golden boy helped out a Slytherin. Whatever they had expected, it had not been this.

After a minute of silence one of the older Slytherins started speaking in a low drawl.

"Soooo.... What now?"

Suddenly, there was a shout from the back of the room.

"Let's make a plan to figure out if he'd do it again or if it was just a fluke!"

They were about to object, but as they thought about it, it wouldn't be such a bad idea. Pansy spoke up quietly, hesitating slightly.

"But... how would we do it? If i hear correctly, you're insinuating we purposefully leave one of the Slytherins out to possibly get hurt, just to figure out if what Potter did was a fluke?"

Draco bit his lip in thought.

"... I need to know if it was him. If it was him who helped the Slytherin from being cursed. I need to. How about, we stand guard. Out of view so Potter won't be suspicious, just in case something goes wrong. Just... please. If he did, then maybe..."

They could all hear the unspoken words of Draco. 'Then maybe we'll have a chance to be together'.

An older Slytherin piped up, her name Rosilyn or something. She's one of the prefects.

"If we are going to do this, we need a Slytherin to volunteer. I will not go through with this if someone is being forced."

There were murmurs of agreement from the rest of the Slytherins.

Blaise cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention.

"I have a good plan idea. We will get the volunteer, and they will walk out near where Potter is. This will be after Potions tomorrow at the end of the day, as if anything happens we can go straight to the common rooms and don't miss class"

"If a Slytherin is alone, someone is surely going to come, meaning that we get to see if Potter actually does something." Piped up someone from 4th year.

They all nodded, agreeing with that statement.

Draco hesitated before speaking. "Who's going to be the volunteer? It's most likely going to have to be someone from a younger year, because I think Potter knows that anyone older than him knows more and they can protect themselves."

It was silent as everyone looked around the room. Suddenly, a voice spoke up from the back of the room.

"I will..."

Everyone whipped their heads around to where the voice came from. Walking to the front of the group was a 2nd year boy named Joseph. He was one of the quieter kids that barely spoke to anyone outside of his friend group, unless it's to ask for help. Pansy bit her lip, eyebrows furrowed in worry.

"Joseph, are you sure? You don't have to."

The boy nodded his head, a determined look on his face. "I'm sure. I don't really understand the reason we're doing this, but it seems like something that you really want to do, and i would like to help."

Pansy dropped her head and sighed. Daphne put a comforting hand on her shoulder and gave Joseph as sweet smile.

"Thank you. Would you be able to meet us down at the dungeons room as soon as your last class ends?"

He nodded, feeling more content at the smile that was pointed towards him.

Now that the plan was made, the Slytherins were starting to get back to what they were doing.

Draco cleared his throat to get the attention of the other 5th years.

"Anyways, as I was saying, they really need more good quality hair gel because my hair deserves only the best-"

"Silence." Called a voice from the Dungeons door. Draco was angry at being cut off for the second time today, but that anger immediately disappeared as he saw who was there.

Snape was walking in, robes billowing behind him as he stepped in front of all the Slytherins with a smoothness only he could achieve.

His eyes scanned the room, searching for something they did not know.

"Good. Now, for the first years, I am Professor Snape, and I am your head of house. You must know that in Slytherin, I do not accept Tardiness. I will also not accept troublemakers, so expect to get a years worth of detention if you try and start something." He said, glaring at the first years that he noticed were quite silly at the welcoming feast.

"Other than that, do come to the prefects or your head boy or girls if you're experiencing a problem, although if you find the problem is much bigger than some missing homework, do come to me. Although, do expect detention if it is something useless." Scanning the room once more, he turned on his heel and walked out gracefully.

It was silent before Draco spoke up.

"... As I was saying, my hair deserves-"

"Oooh! I just noticed the snake painting!"

"OH MY MERLIN!! CAN'T I JUST FINISH MY SENTENCE WITHOUT BEING CUT OFF!?!"

Chapter Text

Harrys POV:

Harry had just changed his bandages and put the glamour on himself, and after getting dressed and grabbing his stuff he was walking out with Ron and Hermione.

They were on their way to the great hall, Harry just trailing behind the pair. They were talking about something he couldn't bother listening to and completely ignoring him.

'Stop being a selfish freak. They're allowed to ignore you, you deserve it. You should be glad they didn't just leave you.'

Harry bit his lip and tried hard to ignore the stinging in his eyes. He's right anyways, he's just a freak. He doesn't deserve them. He doesn't deserve anything.

Pushing away his thoughts, he saw they had arrived at the great hall.

Sitting down across from the two, he felt bile rising up in his throat from all the smells of food. At the Dursleys, he was never allowed to eat much. He got about 1 piece of bread every 2 or 3 days, and if he was naughty, he wouldn't get anything for a week. That's part of the reason why he is quite dangerously skinny and why he can never eat lots of food.

Harry grabbed a piece of toast and put some butter on it, taking a bite. He ate about 3/4 of the toast before feeling sick again and put it back on his plate.

He watched as his two friends chatted with each other, desperately wanting to talk with them too but not wanting to burden them anymore than he already does.

Harry was about to say something about their first class which was charms, until he saw Professor McGonagall walking over to him out of the corner of his eye.

As she got closer, he turned around to face her.

His head of house had a surprised expression on her face that he noticed her coming, but quickly changed it to a small smile.

"Potter, if you could please follow me to my office, that would be appreciated."

Harry raised an eyebrow and looked over at Ron and Hermione who were still talking and didn't even register the new company. Knowing they wouldn't even notice if he left, Harry nodded and grabbed his bookbag, standing up.

He followed McGonagall all the way to her office, fidgeting nervously with his hands and biting his lip hard enough to nearly draw blood.

As soon as she walked inside, Harry trailing in behind and closed the door, she sat down at her desk and pushed a plate of Ginger Newt Biscuits towards him.

"Please have a biscuit Potter, as i believe this conservation is not the very happiest of ones."

Harry gulped nervously as he slowly pulled a biscuit from the plate and put it in his mouth. Being with an adult has never been pleasant before, so he doesn't expect it to be now. He tensed, waiting to be hit or hurt in some way.

I guess old habits do die hard.

McGonagall was studying him, until she sighed.

"There's no easy way to say this Potter, but as you got expelled earlier on the holidays, we have only just now realised the school had taken you off the list of attendees. We put you back on, although you do have to be resorted"

Harry went wide-eyed. Resorted? The hat already wanted him in Slytherin the first time, and now that he's getting resorted, he's almost definitely going to be put in Slytherin!

"The resorting will happen at the dinner feast. And not to worry Potter. I am sure you'll be sorted back into Gryffindor, so there is nothing to be worried about"

The thing is, Harry's not so sure he will.

______________________________________________________________________________________

At charms Harry was currently walking into the charms classroom which he has with Ravenclaw.

After giving Professor Flitwick the note from McGonagall explaining his tardiness, he sat down next to Ron and Hermione.

They startled and looked wide-eyed at Harry. Clearly, they hadn't even realised he was missing in the first place. Seeing their questioning faces, he answered the question that was on their minds, not wanting to make them wait and then they be annoyed at him for not talking. If he didn't speak when someone wanted him to at the Dursleys, he would most definitely get a beating.

"McGonagall brought me to her office to tell me that i was taken off the Hogwarts list when I got expelled on the holidays, and I will be resorted at dinnertime."

They looked even more shocked, and they were about to ask questions until Professor Flitwick told the class to quiet down and started explaining their O.W.L's which they will need to work hard for this year. Harry already knew everything he needs for his O.W.L's, curtesy of his intelligence and reading ahead, but to keep up the charade for his friends he will need to act like he doesn't want to study and that he's struggling.

If Ron decides to try and work hard this year, he may be able to bring his grades up to an 'A' or possibly an 'E' with his so-called best subjects. (He's amazing at almost every subject, but no one knows that).

After writing down some notes on parchment and Flitwick explaining the importance of O.W.L's, class had ended and now they're on their way to Transfiguration with Hufflepuff. They got basically the same lecture about O.W.L's from Professor McGonagall. He's guessing they'll get it from every class they go to.

After listening to the same boring lecture, having gotten it before in the last class, they made their way towards the great hall for lunch, Harry trailing behind the duo like usual.

He always hopes that one day he'd be able to walk next to them and be included in some of their conversations.

They got to the great hall and Harry didn't eat anything, still feeling sick from that bit of toast he ate at breakfast, and proceeded to just think about their next class, which was double potions with the Slytherins.

Now, Harry actually enjoys potions. He finds making them quite soothing, and they keep his mind away from less than pleasant things because he's busy focusing on specific ingredients, measurements and stirs.

There are only a few things bad about Potions class, and one reason is because Ron always likes to stir trouble with the Slytherins every chance he gets.

Since they have potions with them, he always feels the glares on the back of his head. Not that he has never experienced being glared at, as he did live the Dursleys, but getting glared at during Potions when his mind doesn't have to think about anything bad is never joyful.

Another thing is Professor Snape.

He's always lurking around, and he feels the venomous stare from him every time he walks in the room.

Snape is very smart with Potions, and he wasn't named the youngest Potions Master for no reason. He is so good at Potions, and Harry would absolutely love to learn from him, if only Snape didn't hate him.

He knows that Snape hates him because he looks like his father as per the comments he's made about him being the spawn of James, and that he is exactly like James, but he just doesn't understand why.

How could he be like someone he doesn't even know?

The last thing that's awful, is that he can't even do well in the class.

As well as trying to not get good grades because he wants to keep being friends with Ron and Hermione, Dumbledore also expects him to do bad in the class.

He wouldn't want the saviour who saves people and is as light as light can be, to be good at a dark subject like Potions that the mean teacher Snape teaches.

No. Dumbledore does not want him to do good in that class.

The only class he's allowed to excel in is DADA, because the saviour is obviously going to be good with protective spells. And it's a subject Ron likes, meaning he can act like he's working harder with it. He still has to down his grades at least a bit though as to not be better than Hermione.

Silently sighing, Harry started fidgeting with his fingers, needing something to do to keep his mind off of upsetting things.

Soon, Ron and Hermione stood up, ready to leave to double Potions, so Harry got up as well, trailing behind them as they walked.

Weird. He thought he could feel people looking at him.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Slytherins

The group of 5th year Slytherins had just finished their lunch, talking quietly between themselves.

They watched as Potter and his friends walked out the great hall, most likely to Potions, and that was their cue to get up as well.

For some reason, they couldn't stop watching Potter. It seems they were anticipating the moment they set their plan into action.

During Potions as Professor Snape was explaining the importance of O.W.L's (They already heard this speech two times today!), and how he would not hesitate to get rid of anyone who got anything lower than an 'O', they couldn't keep their eyes off of Potter.

They were watching him like a Hawk.

Draco always watched him during class, because of his crush on Potter, but now almost everyone one the Slytherin side of the class was watching him.

Draco was obviously not jealous that other people were looking at him. Totally not.

The rest of the Slytherins were watching Potter, holding their breath as if something was going to happen, yet Draco wasn't even thinking of the plan.

All he could think about was those beautiful eyes and that messy hair that he longed to run his hands through. Oh, how he wished to hold him and whisper sweet nothings into his ear, knowing that Potter was his and no one else's.

Prying his eyes away from the handsome boy, he listened into what Professor Snape was saying. O.W.L's were going to be extremely hard, and he didn't have time to slack off. Even if it was to stare at someone as perfect and gorgeous as Potter.

When the class was dismissed, the Slytherins all rushed out the room, ignoring the confused looks from the Gryffindors and the hidden confusion from Professor Snape.

They all rushed out and waited near the next hallway for Joseph to arrive. As soon as he did, Pansy walked to him.

"Okay, are you sure you want to do this? You can back out now if you want. No one will mind."

She sighed as she got a determined nod from the boy, Vincent moving him into the hallway that Potter was most likely going to walk through.

After some reassurances from Daphne and Pansy that they will be just in the next hallway watching and will come out if it looks like he's going to get hurt, they moved into their position in the hallway, watching Joseph from the shadows.

Almost immediately, they saw older kids who looked to be a 5th year Hufflepuff and a 6th year Gryffindor.

They held their breath and were about to go out of their hiding spot and help, not wanting to just watch, until they saw Potter walk out of the classroom, Hermione and Ron walking just in front of him.

It was time to find out once and for all.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Harry was walking out the classroom behind Ron and Hermione, carrying his bookbag and looking down slightly.

Ron and Hermione were chatting casually about what seemed to be their O.W.L's, and Harry was working up the courage to insert himself in the conversation ('As if you deserve to join the conversation you freak. You don't deserve anything you useless freak-'). Looking up slightly, he was about to say something, until he heard chuckling that had just a hint of malice in it.

Looking over to where it came from, his eyes widened.

The chuckling came from a 6th year Gryffindor and a 5th year Hufflepuff, their wands out and pointing towards a Slytherin who looked to be in either 1st or 2nd year.

He will absolutely not let this happen.

Furrowing his eyebrows, he was grabbing his wand and was about to step in between the younger boy and the older boys, until he felt a hand grab him.

He froze up, fear running down his spine as he turned and tensed, expecting to be hit. He was back at the Dursleys house, and Vernon was calling him a freak, and he was about to get hit- no. Ron was holding his arm.

Letting himself relax slightly, he took in Ron and Hermione's confused faces.

"Mate, what are you doing?" Spoke Ron in confusion.

Harry glanced over at the older boys who were still laughing and looked back at the duo.

"Those boys are bullying that kid. I'm going to stop it."

Hermione looked confused. "But why? The kid is a Slytherin. They clearly caught him doing something evil and are simply punishing him."

Harry froze.

... what?

He spoke up hesitantly, stumbling over his words, tone a sort of desperation.

"B-but, it's bullying! Bullying is not okay! And not all Slytherins are bad!"

Ron and Hermione both furrowed their eyebrows at him, an emotion he couldn't recognize in their eyes.

"Mate, are you seriously going to help this evil Slytherin?" Said Ron, spitting the word 'Slytherin' out like it was disgusting.

Harry spoke, this time more confident. "Yes, I-"

The duo both glared at him. Ron let go of his arm and his own crossed, Hermione copying his action.

"Listen mate. Come with us and leave the Slytherin, or else." He spoke with finality.

Harry took a sharp breath in. Is Ron really inferring what he thinks he is...?

Harry hesitantly looked over at the Slytherin and the older boys, who have now stopped laughing and pushed their wands closer to the smaller boy.

Making his decision, he made one final look at Ron and Hermione before quickly running over to the group, ignoring how Ron and Hermione left to go who knows where.

He stepped in between the Slytherin and the two boys, wand out and glaring fiercely at the two taller students.

"Leave. The. Boy. Alone."

Chapter Text

Harry's continued POV

"Leave. The. Boy. Alone." He said sharply, pausing at every word so that it would sink into their brains that he was not playing.

The 2 boys stared at him in confusion, but soon, sly smiles slipped onto their faces.

"Oh, yeah? What are you gonna do about it?" The Hufflepuff said, the Gryffindor boy laughing.

Harry scowled, but pushed down the feeling to punch them right in the face at that very moment.

"And what are you guys going to do about me? Hex me? Curse me? Yeah right. You can try." Harry said, egging them on. He knew that if they attacked him first and he attacked back, they would be the ones to get in trouble since Harry would be attacking them in self-defence.

Quite cunning indeed.

The Gryffindor growled and pointed his wand at Harry, preparing to say a spell. Just as he was about to shoot a hex at Harry, the Hufflepuff grabbed his arm and shook his head.

"Don't. He's egging you on. Let's just go and try to find a different Slytherin." Spoke the Hufflepuff in a low whisper, trying not to let Harry hear.

It, of course, Didn't work as Harry has good hearing. He needed it to be able to tell when Vernon is walking to his room, or to listen to the sound of his footsteps to tell if he was angry or not.

The Gryffindor glared at Harry, shaking off the Hufflepuffs arm. The Hufflepuff looked exasperated but composed himself pretty quickly, deciding to just stay silent and watch.

The Gryffindor stepped towards Harr and with a quick motion, his wand was on Harry's chest, and he was spitting out a hex.

"Engorgio Skull-!"

"Expelliarmus!" Shouted Harry, cutting off the Gryffindor and making his wand go flying across. The Gryffindor didn't run away though.

He ran towards him.

In a quick movement, Harry dodged the punch thrown at his side, but the Gryffindor's other hand punched his face, nose thankfully not breaking but blood starting to drip down his face from it.

Harry barely registered it, having been used to much worse pain, and grabbed the other boy's outstretched arm. Using it as a support, he kneed the Gryffindor in the crotch, making the boy fall to the ground in pain, holding his crotch in pain, his face scrunched up.

Harry turned to the Hufflepuff who, at his stare, quickly grabbed the other's wand and helped the Gryffindor up, walking them both away.

Harry made sure to keep his eyes on the two boys as they walked away, and as they disappeared from his view, Harry turned back to the Slytherin whose eyes were now impossibly wide.

Harry's anger at the boys immediately disappeared, his scowl turning into a sweet smile.

Giving the boy a sweet smile, Harry sat on the floor in front of him, legs crossed, now eye level with the boy.

"Hello. Are you okay? They didn't hurt you yet, did they? What's your name?"

The boy continued to stare at him, but slowly he spoke up in a soft and quiet voice.

"Yes, I'm okay... they didn't hurt me yet. My name is Joseph."

Harry smiled again, giving him a small nod.

"My name is Harry. It's nice to meet you, Joseph. Where were you headed? If you want, I could take you there. Only if you want me to though. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable in any way." Harry said in a small voice, not wanting to yell or scare the boy.

"I'm headed to the dungeons to the Slytherin common room... and it would be nice if you could take me please..." He said in a small tone, Harry was standing up and holding out his hand.

"Would you like to hold my hand?"

...

"Yes please..." The boy replied, looking down slightly as he places his hand in Harry's.

They silently walked through the halls, the silence not awkward, but instead comforting.

As they made it to the dungeons, Joseph reluctantly pulled his hand away from Harry.

The boy stared up at Harry's face, and Harry was confused for a moment before remembering getting punched in the nose. Bringing his hand up to his nose, he swiped underneath it and looked at his finger which now had blood on it. Harry smiled at Joseph again, not wanting to worry him ('As if anyone would worry about a stupid freak like you. It's your fault you got hurt anyways. You should've been able to dodge that, but you didn't because you're a weakling and a freak-').

"I'll be fine. My nose isn't broken, so I'll just wipe away the blood when I get back to the common rooms." Harry said reassuringly.

Joseph nodded, finally prying his eyes away from his face and looking down again. The boy looked up once more, staring into Harry's eyes and saying,

"Thank you."

Joseph then turned and spoke the password to the Slytherin common room, walking inside. Harry just stood there, but eventually started walking back up to his own common room.

He should be happy with himself that he managed to protect someone, but that wasn't what he was thinking about.

Ron and Hermione.

Ron said to come with him and Hermione or else. What could that 'or else' be? Are they really going to stop being my friend?

'About time. You should be glad they stayed friends with you for that long. They dealt with you, so why are you upset you freak?'

No matter how much he thought about how he shouldn't be upset, he couldn't stop the burn in his eyes or the single tear that fell down, mixing with the blood still on his face.

As he got back to the common rooms, he was already in too deep with his thoughts. He could barely breath, and more tears fell down his face as he choked back sobs.

He immediately ran to his dorm room as fast as could, not wanting anyone to see him right now, and pulled out a blade out of his trunk and rushed to the bathroom.

Harry slammed the door shut and locked it, practically falling onto the floor.

Now that he was away from everyone, he could let out his sobs. And let them out he did.

He cried, pained screams coming out his mouth as he messily grabbed the blade, sitting up with his back leaning up against the wall.

He pulled up his robe sleeve, taking off the glamour to see the some-what healed scars on his arm from all the other times he couldn't stop drowning in the endless pit of his thoughts.

Not wasting another moment, he dug the cold blade into his skin, blood leaking out and falling onto the tiled floor.

'Useless freak. It was your fault they left. And you know it.'

Cut.

'Of course a freak like you wouldn't be able to keep his friends.'

Cut.

'If only you had been quicker. The Slytherin wouldn't have been cornered at all. It's all your fault.'

Cut.

'What about the other girl? She was having a panic attack. It's all because of you. You weren't fast enough to keep her from freaking out.'

Cut.

'Useless freak. You're so useless. Everything's your fault. Remember Cedric? It was your fault he died. You know that better than everyone else. Why weren't you fast enough? Why weren't you good enough? You freak. You're not good enough. You're supposed to be the boy-who-lived. The saviour. Stop being a freak. You aren't enough. You aren't enough. JUST DIE ALREADY-'

Harry let out a gasp as he accidentally dug the blade in harder than usual. He watched as a bit too much blood poured out of his arm. Deciding he did enough for today, he stood up and walked towards a sink, blood falling and trailing on the floor.

He turned on the water and put his arm under it, watching as the blood was washed out of his arm and into the sink, clean water mixing with blood.

Seeing that the water no longer carried any blood, he turned the tap off and dabbed his arm dry with the end of his robe. Harry grabbed out the bandages from his robes (He kept bandages on him at all times in case his wounds bled through his bandages throughout the day) and expertly wrapped his arm, as he's done many times before.

Harry grabbed out his wand that he previously placed in a separate pocket of his robes and murmured a cleaning spell under his breath to clean up the blood that had fallen onto the floor.

Seeing there was no blood left on the floor, Harry placed the bandages and his wand back into his robes, splashed water on his face to get rid of the tear tracks and walked outside.

Realizing how hoarse his throat was from screaming before, he realized that he would have to wait until dinnertime to get a drink.

He suddenly remembered that his resorting was supposed to happen that dinner, and he doesn't even have Ron and Hermione to confide in.

'I guess I'm going to dinner alone.'

At least it's less people that watch him not eat.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Slytherins (After Harry started walking to the dungeons with the kid hand in hand)

The Slytherin 5th years were stunned in their spots

No words were spoken, and none were needed, as there was only one sentence going on in their minds at the moment.

'What the Fuck'.

They all looked at each other in silent agreement, and soon they were trailing Potter and Joseph.

They were hiding in one of the split-off hallways near the door to the Slytherin common room, watching Potter reassure Joseph that he was fine. As soon as Joseph walked inside the common rooms and Harry turned and left, they rushed out their hiding spot and into their common room.

All the Slytherins stared expectantly at them, clearly wanting to know how it want.

The only thing the 5th Years could do was slump down onto the couches, a mix of emotions rushing through their bodies. One of the older Slytherins spoke up.

"How did it go?"

They all looked at each other before Pansy gestured to Vincent for him to explain.

Vincent nodded and turned to explain what happened.

As soon as he was finished, the rest of the Slytherins were wide-eyed. None of them could speak, but soon the shock wore off, and they all split off into their friend groups to either discuss the information that the Gryffindor Golden Boy Harry Potter truly did help a Slytherin, while others just continued what they were doing previously such as homework or writing letters to their relatives.

Some of the other fifth years just started doing their homework, considering they got a lot since it is their O.W.L year, but not Draco, Pansy, Blaise, Daphne, Gregory and Vincent.

Blaise spoke up, voice still tainted with disbelief.

"What the fuck was that."

As, yes. The question that was on all their minds.

Pansy sighed starting to play with Draco's hair, to which Draco slapped her hand away, mumbling something about how he spent ages trying to get it to look this good. Pansy simply rolled her eyes at him, but started speaking anyways.

"Is it just me or did Weasley and Granger seem..." She said, trailing off.

Daphne nodded. "They said to for Potter to come with them or else. Potter didn't and decided to help Joseph, and they just walked off. Did they... just end their friendship? They wouldn't, right...?" She spoke, worry in her voice. Wait- worry? Why was she worrying about Potter?

Maybe because he actually helped a Slytherin. Twice.

Draco paused, his heart suddenly pumping with worry and... fear?

"Isn't Weasley and Granger like, his closest friends!? If they actually did stop being his friends, then who does he have? We all know that almost everyone hates him because they think he's lying about... Voldemort's return. I mean, you should have seen how everyone was scowling at him and ignoring him."

Everyone paused. Pansy spoke up again, voice somewhat hesitant.

"Draco, I think you're the only one who pays that much attention to him, as we didn't notice that. But, if what you're saying is true, then... he probably doesn't have anyone right now."

Draco sat up, looking down to the floor, feeling like there's a whole in his stomach for some reason.

"Do you guys... think he's okay? I mean, he did see that Diggory boy die, and V-Voldemort being brought back... And now Weasley and Granger?"

It was dead silent.

For once,

No one seemed to have an answer for that.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Slytherins (Great Hall)

After thinking for a long time, the group had realised it was time to go down for dinner, and so them and the rest of the Slytherins walked down to the great hall together.

Everyone was piling food onto their plates and chatting with their friends, but with Draco, Pansy, Blaise, Daphne, Gregory and Vincent, their only thoughts were on Potter.

The group sat and ate their food in silence, just thinking.

All too engrossed in their thoughts, they got startled by the booming voice at the front of the hall.

"Hello Students! I hope you students have had a wonderful first day. Now, over the holidays there have been a, let's say mishap, and so one of our 5th year students has accidentally been expelled. Now, everything else has been sorted, but the only thing is that this student will need to be resorted!" Dumbledore spoke in his sickingly sweet voice.

The group paused at that.

Who was the student? Do they know them? They're in their year, so they must of at least hear of them once.

"Now, may Harry Potter please come up now for the resorting."

...

Silence.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Harrys POV

Harry held his breath as he stood up and walked to the front of the hall. He hated everyone staring at him. It was bad enough that people hate him this year, and now he's put as the centre of attention. Again. Why does he have to be the one to get all the attention? He doesn't want it. Oh, right. It's because he's the boy who lived.

Sitting on the stool, he closed his eyes, not wanting to see the stares, glares or scowls pointed his way.

As the sorting hat was put on his head, he could feel the tingling sensation of the magic inside.

He just hoped he wouldn't get Slytherin. But, he's Harry Potter. When have his wishes ever come true?

'Hmmm... Harry Potter, interesting one indeed. It's rare I get put on a students head twice, let alone three times. You are quite unique Mr. Potter.' The hat said to Harry.

Harry took a breath.

'Listen, I know you wanted to put me in Slytherin first year, but please don't this year! I've made friends in Gryffindor, and I'm supposed to be the Golden boy!' Thought Harry, practically pleading.

The hat chuckled.

'I'm sorry Mr. Potter, but my job is to put students where they will fit best, and you already got out of it first-year. I will not do it again. So, now with my decision made,'

Harry held his breath, knowing that he cannot change the hat's decision.

He just hopes the hat is right.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Chapter Text

Harry's POV

"SLYTHERIN!"

With those words spoken, the previous silence that drowned the hall turned into shouting and yelling.

It was so loud.

Faintly, he could feel the hat being taken off his head, and hesitantly, Harry opened his eyes.

Looking at the great hall, he could see people standing up, shocked, and even some disgusted looks coming from the tables. The only thing is, Slytherin is the only table that doesn't have anyone shouting or standing up. They just looked shocked.

Prying his eyes away from the Slytherin table, he searched the Gryffindor table for his ex-friends. When he found them, he saw they were still, but they had shocked, disgusted and betrayed looks on their faces. Funny how, with everyone staring at him like that, their stares hurt the most.

He saw how they turned away from the front of the great hall and absolutely refused to look his way.

Harry could feel the stinging in his eyes, but he pushed it back down. He will not break down in front of everyone.

Out of the corner of his eye, he looked towards the staff table.

It was as expected, everyone looking shocked and stunned to their spots, but he realised Dumbledore had a disappointed look on his face. He's still not looking Harry in the eye, but that face of disappointment was enough to make Harry feel a pang in his chest.

What was he thinking? He should've tried harder to get back to Gryffindor. He basically just wrecked Dumbledore's view of him as the Gryffindor Golden Boy, the saviour for the world! He's supposed to live up to people's expectations, and he just crushed it!!

Then why, at the back of his mind, did he not feel truly upset at destroying Dumbledore's views?

Harry's eyes unconsciously made their way towards Professor Snape, his new Head Of House (Why did that kind of excite him to think about? I mean, he is the youngest potions master in the world. Maybe he could learn something from him if he's his Head Of House?), and saw he had a look of horror on his face.

The view would be funny, as Professor Snape barely ever shows emotion other than mad or concentration, if not for the circumstances it is under.

Slowly, Dumbledore stood up. Seeing that everyone was still shouting, he yelled,

"SILENCE!"

Everyone immediately stopped talking (yelling), the few that were standing up sat back down, and stared at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and walked to his podium that was next to Harry ('Gross, why do I have to be next to this bastard?'), and started talking, a solum look on his face.

"It seems we have some... unexpected results, but it would be greatly appreciated if you could please quiet down."

Dumbledore, without looking at Harry, said,

"Mr. Potter, if you would please make your way to your new table. Now, enjoy dinner students."

He said with finality and walked back to his seat at the staff table, the rest of the staff having gotten out of their shocked states and continued eating (Except Snape, but Harry didn't notice).

Harry took a shuddering breath and stood up slowly. With his head down, he walked towards the Slytherin table.

Looking up, he realised that the only available spot was next to Zabini, which was across from Malfoy and around Greengrass, Parkinson, Crabbe and Goyle. Mentally groaning, he made his way over there.

He silently sat down, fidgeting with his hands and staring at the table.

This was going to be a long year.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Draco's POV

What. The. FUCK.

Draco felt paralysed on the spot, the single word running through his head.

'Slytherin. Slytherin. Slytherin.'

It's not possible. It can't be. No way did Potter just get sorted into Slytherin. He's supposed to be Gryffindor's Golden Boy.

Draco felt blood rush to his cheeks as the realisation finally sunk in.

'Potter is going to be in Slytherin. In my house. In all my classes. Fuck- my dorm is the only 5th year that has a spare bed! HE'S GOING TO BE IN MY DORM!'

"Uh... Draco... are you okay?" Asked Blaise hesitantly.

Draco snapped out of his thoughts and looked up. He saw that the rest of the group was looking at him with confusion, and upon noticing his red cheeks, they smirked.

"Draco~ You okay knowing that Potter is in Slytherin now~?" Said Pansy teasingly, leaning in closer towards him with an evil smirk on her face. Oh no. He's going to get teased a lot more now, isn't he?

Draco huffed and crossed his arms, turning away from Pansy.

"S-shut up!" Spoke Draco, his face turning as red as a tomato.

Gregory then looked liked he realised something.

"Isn't mine, Vincent's, Blaise's and Draco's dorm the only 5th year boy's dorm that has a spare bed?" He asked.

Vincent then smiled smugly, turning to Draco.

"Don't worry Draco. I'll move to the farthest bed so that you can sleep next to your darling Potter~"

Draco kicked Vincent from under the table, but with Vincent still smiling, he guessed it didn't do anything.

The group all turned to the front when Dumbledore told everyone to be quiet. As Dumbledore dismissed them and went back to eating, they saw Potter walking towards the Slytherin table, more specifically near them.

They all wondered why he would choose to sit next to them, but then they realised that the spare seat next to Blaise was the only empty seat at the Slytherin table.

Draco tried hard to stop blushing as Potter walked over, but he found it extremely hard as Potter was just so beautiful. The way his hair fell in front of his face as he looked down, oh how he would love to run his fingers through them. And his skin that just looked so soft (Draco was totally not jealous at the younger Slytherins that got to hold Potter's hand. Nope. Definitely not). Everything about Potter was just so PERFECT.

Taking a breath, he managed to die down the blush to a more reasonable level. It was still there, but just barely. He watched as Potter sat down (And oh god, Potter was sitting across from him!!), but quickly pried his eyes away and continued eating. The rest of the group did the same, except Daphne, the nosy person she is.

A couple seconds after Potter sat down, she started talking.

"So, Potter. Slytherin ey?"

Draco watched as Potter startled and looked up, eyes wide. That's strange. Why would he be startled from a question?

Potter looked at Daphne and back down a few times before settling his gaze on the goblet in front of him. It looked as though he was hunching in on himself.

"O-oh, yeah..."

Daphne raised an eyebrow at the small response but continued talking.

"So, how did you even get sorted into Slytherin anyway? You're like, the Gryffindor Golden Boy. No one expected you to get sorted here."

Draco noticed how Potter seemed to hunch in on himself even more at the nickname and mentally frowned. Why does he keep hunching in on himself?

It looked as though Potter was contemplating something, but then he spoke up again.

"The sorting hat wanted to put me in Slytherin first, but I guess this time the hat got its way."

At that, the whole group froze, eyes wide and staring at Potter.

Blaise spoke up, still in shock.

"You mean to tell us that you were supposed to be in Slytherin!? How did you even get in Gryffindor anyway if the hat wanted you in Slytherin!?"

At his question, the whole group looked at Potter expectantly, wanting to know the answer as well.

Potter looked down nervously before speaking up.

"Well, I was raised in the muggle world, and I didn't know about magic or Hogwarts, and so when I got told about it, I was practically told that Gryffindor was good and Slytherin was bad. When the hat told me i would do good in Slytherin, i was scared that i would be put in Slytherin, i freaked out and basically begged the hat to not put me in Slytherin. It listened, and i was put in Gryffindor. Although later in the year I did learn that what I was told was wrong and stopped believing that Slytherin was bad, so yeah." He said, shrugging slightly and continuing to look down (why wont he look at them? At him? He just wants to see those beautiful green eyes).

At that, everyone's mouths were open, and their eyes were impossibly wide.

Gregory was the first to speak, having gotten out of the shock already.

"Well, that was some... Interesting information I guess."

Pansy snorted at that.

"Interesting? We just found out that Harry Potter, Gryffindor golden boy was meant to be in Slytherin! Hah! That's priceless!"

Everyone chuckled lightly at Pansy's words, all agreeing with what she was saying.

All except Potter, but he's not friends with them (At least not yet. God, I hope Potter will become friends with us. Maybe he'll like me and we can get together-) so it's normal he's not laughing.

Then why does Potter look upset? Or, at least, that's the emotion Draco can pull out.

But as quick as it was there, the emotion was gone, and Potter is just staring at a place on the table, having no expression.

Before he could ponder on it too much, Daphne spoke up, eyebrow raised and looking at Potter.

"Are you going to eat anything? I noticed the whole time you were here at the Slytherin table, you haven't grabbed anything."

Potter seemed to freeze at that, and Draco narrowed his eyes.

'What did Daphne mean that Potter hasn't eaten? Now that I'm thinking about it, I haven't seen him eat either.'

Potter seemed to mumble his next words,

"I ate at the Gryffindor table before the re-sorting, and plus, after what's happened, I don't really feel like eating right now anyways."

the group gave a non-committal hum, except Draco.

The thing is, Potter didn't eat before the re-sorting. Draco would know. He was staring at Potter's beauty from across the hall, and not once did Potter eat.

'Why did he lie?'

Biting his lip slightly, Draco sneakily grabbed an apple off the table and dropped it into his bag that he had brought to dinner (He forgot to leave it at the Common rooms, but no one needs to know that).

Pansy, being the observant girl she is, noticed him doing it and raised an eyebrow at him, but at Draco's discreet shrug she peeled her eyes away and focused on her own food which was nearly eaten.

From there, there were some quiet conversations, and once everyone had finished their food (Minus Potter), Vincent spoke up.

"it's getting late. We should start heading to the common room."

There was a murmur of agreement, and the group started to all stand up. Seeing Potter wasn't moving, Draco raised an eyebrow and spoke up.

"You coming Potter? Can't leave our new housemate alone to fend for himself" He said smugly, not looking Potter in the eyes as he knows he wouldn't be able to look away from those pretty, perfect... gorgeous... On no. He's looking at them. Draco, Look away!

Prying his eyes away, he could vaguely notice the look of shock on Potters face.

'Did he think we weren't going to show him how to get to the common rooms? Well, I guess I would too, considering we bullied him and his friends a lot. (Although we all know it was out of Jealously that Weasley and Granger got to hang out with Potter and not him)'

Potter mumbled a quick thank you, standing up, and as the group started walking, Potter was following behind them.

Looking at the rest of the group who were walking beside him, they all gave a nod to each other before slowing down to walk next to Potter. His eyes went wide for a second before going back to normal, looking down to the ground as he walked.

Pansy, the mother hen she is, manoeuvred her way to Potter's right side and gave him a small smile.

Surprisingly Potter gave her a smile back, and then the awkward silence turned almost comforting (That's weird? Why would Potter be comfortable with us, who have been mean to him and his friends the past years?)

They made it to the Slytherin common room, and spoke the password which was 'Serpens', the Latin word for snake.

The group made their way over to the couches in front of the fire and sat down, but Potter stayed standing. He was shuffling on his feet and looked as if he was going to say something.

"What's wrong? You look like you want to ask something." Daphne asked politely, sinking into the armchair more.

Potter stopped shuffling on his feet and hesitantly looked up to meet her eyes.

"Oh, uhm, I was just wondering if my stuff will have already been moved, and where the dorm is that I will be staying in." He asked quietly.

Blaise spoke up from his spot in the middle couch.

"I'm sure the house elves will have already placed your stuff in the dorm. And you're sharing with Me, Draco, Gregory, and Vincent. We're the only dorm that has a spare bed, so yeah."

Draco absolutely did not start blushing at the reminder he's sharing a dorm with Potter. Totally not.

Potter nods and looks around the Common Room, taking in the details.

Vincent, seeing Draco's face and remembering what he said at the table before, smirked and stood up.

"I just remembered I forgot to do something. I'll be back." He said with a face pointed at Draco that said 'I am going to swap my bed with Potter's so that you have to sleep in the bed next to him.

Draco glared at him, but didn't go to stop him. Sue him if he actually wanted to sleep in the bed next to Potter, his crush since 2nd year.

Once Vincent left, the group started talking about random things (Not Potter. He hasn’t talked once), and once Vincent got back from the dorms, he sat back down in his seat and the group got to talking about school.

“We got basically the same speech from every class today about our O.W.L’s! Like, we get it! They’re important! We heard it from our last teacher!” Whined Daphne

“And we’re probably going to get it from all our other class teachers tomorrow and the next day!” Replied Blaise.

‘Don’t we have defence tomorrow? Oh, right. We have that new teacher.’

“Hey, Guys.” Spoke Draco from his spot in the left armchair, soaking up the warmth of the fire. “We have defence tomorrow, right? With that new teacher. I wonder what she’s like.”

Pansy nodded her head.

“Yeah. She seems annoying. Like, yesterday at the welcoming feast she interrupted Dumbledore. And did you see her clothes!? They’re offensive to my eyes!”

The group nodded, brows furrowed.

Draco looked over to Potter, seeing his body barely moving and head down. Draco felt a pain in his heart. ‘Why is Potter not talking to us? I mean, we’re not that bad, are we? He’s been like this since the sorting… Is it because he’s in Slytherin? No… otherwise he wouldn’t have helped those Slytherins. Is he okay…? Maybe I should include him in the conversation, since he hasn’t talked yet.’

“Potter, what do you think of the new defence teacher? Professor Umbridge, I think her name is.”

Draco almost immediately regretted it, as Potter startled and looked up with wide eyes, an emotion he recognized as… fear? Why would potter be scared? And god, those eyes… No! Draco! Do not get lost in his beautiful eyes!

It seemed everyone noticed Potter’s reaction, as they are looking at him with concern. He helped the smaller Slytherins when they needed help, so of course he’s on the rest of the Slytherins good books. That also means that they want Potter to be okay.

“Oh, she was the lady who was at my hearing.” He spoke quietly, looking down again but body still stiff.

They all let out a collective gasp

“Hearing!? What do you mean hearing!?” Shouted Blaise.

Draco noticed the way Potter flinched at the sudden loud noise and got a sinking feeling in his gut.

“Dementors went after me and my cousin Dudley in the muggle world, and it was doing the kiss, so I used a patronus to save us. Since I did magic in the muggle world, I was charged with underage magic and doing magic in front of a muggle. I managed to get out free of charge, although during this I got expelled from Hogwarts because of this, so that’s why I had to get re-sorted, because I was taken of the list of students, but then put back on.” He said quietly, barely even taking a breath as he spoke.

The group nodded, understanding. Then Gregory spoke up, realizing something.

“Then does that mean she’s a Ministry worker? Are they seriously letting the Ministry work here!”

They all scowled (except Potter, although I think we have all realised that by now), thinking of how the Ministry is now trying to get Hogwarts under their control.

Daphne, with a thoughtful hum, cast a Tempus spell to check the time. Realizing it was near curfew, she looked to the group and spoke.

“It’s getting near curfew. We should start heading to the dorms. Boys, I trust you can get Potter settled in?” She said, raising an eyebrow at the boys in the group.

Once they nodded their heads, got up and started walking to the dorms, the boys leading Potter while he trailed along behind them with his head down. He seemed to do that a lot.

They opened the door to their dorm and walked inside, leading Potter in and shutting the door. Gregory, being the one to move Potter’s stuff to the bed next to Draco’s (Much to the rest of the boy’s amusement), showed him his bed.

They watched discreetly as Potter placed his trunk on the end of his bed and took out what seemed to be his Pj’s.

The other boys all changed in the dorm, but Potter went into the bathroom to change, locking the door behind him.

They all wondered why, but just thought he didn’t want to change in front of them because he was only just changed into Slytherin, and not used to changing in front of them.

Once Potter got back out the bathroom, all the boys got into their beds, drawing their curtains and getting ready for sleep.

The whole time Draco was laying in his bed and trying to sleep, he could only think of one thing.

‘Since Potter is in Slytherin now, maybe… just maybe… I have a chance to be with him.’

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Snape’s POV (Right after the sorting)

There was only two words that could describe Severus right now. And they are ‘Fucking Shocked’.

Now, Severus wasn’t one to show lots of emotion, as he was more reserved and keeps his emotions to himself. It was an important trait for a spy. But nothing could have prepared him for this revelation.

Potter, Jame’s clone and spawn of Satan, In Slytherin.

This can’t be possible. Potter had every trait of a Gryffindor (The Marauders). He was Brash, a Troublemaker, and had no care for the school rules at all (Why is he just describing James?).

The arrogant little brat is as Gryffindor as Gryffindor gets, so why was he sorted into Slytherin!?

The worst part is the fact that he is now the head of house for Potter. Of course is has to be him that has to deal with Potter!

‘Is this Dumbledore’s revenge because of me being the reason the idiot James and Lily (Lily… I’m so sorry… I’ll never forgive myself for being the reason of your death…) are dead?’

Seeing Dumbledores face of disappointment (Of course he’d be disappointed that his perfect Golden Boy is in Slytherin now), he quickly shoved away that thought.

But, If Dumbledore isn’t the reason Potter is in Slytherin, then how is he?

Realising he still had the look of shock (And horror. How could he not be horrified that he has to be the head of house for James spawn), he immediately put the emotion behind his occlumency shields that he has perfected.

Taking in his surroundings again, he noticed that the room had gone back to it’s normal volume (He suspected it had something to do with Dumbledore). Grabbing his cutlery and eating his food with proper etiquette, he kept his eyes on Potter.

As much as he hates Potter, he truly was baffled (Baffled. He hated the word) and needed to find out the answer to the puzzle Potter is.

No matter how long it takes, Severus will get his answers.

(And if he manages to care for the boy along the way, then that’s no ones business.)

Chapter Text

Harry woke up screaming, drenched in cold sweat as he tossed and turned in his bed.

The realization of where he was put so much fear into his body that his screams were drowned out by the blood pumping in his ears.

He’s in a Slytherin dorm room with Malfoy, Zabini, Crabbe and Goyle.

‘Oh god, What if they heard me!? How do I explain this!? Fuck! This is the end! People will find out, and then Vernon will punish me, Oh god I’m dead-!’

He gasped for air, the panic restricting his breathing and causing more fear. His eyes frantically searched the curtains of his bed, ready to see an of the boy’s faces, but none came.

His fear slowly died down as the realization sank in, remembering his actions last night.

Flashback

As soon as Harry heard everyone’s breathing slow down, indicating they were asleep, he jumped up out of his bed as quietly as he could (although he was almost silent as living with the Durleys does teach you a few things) and he started putting up silencing charms over his bed.

Merlin forbid he wake up screaming from another nightmare and waking up all of his new dormmates. They would think he’s a freak (And they would be right), and he would lose his chance of being able to make friends! Not that he can blame them if they don’t want to be friends. He wouldn’t want to be friends with him either.

He looked over to his wand that was sitting on the desk across the room. He could just grab it quickly and use it for the spells, it would be easier than wandless magic (Not that it’s hard for Harry. He can easily do it, it just drains more of his energy), but he’s too tired to walk over and grab it. He’s always tired, yet is it his fault he can’t get any sleep?

He also put some protective spells on his bed, although since they’re quite easy spells to get rid of and in no way are the Slytherins dumb, he decided he was going to put some runes on his bed.

Grabbing his blade from his bad that was next to him, he knelt down to the bed post and started carving some Runes on them. Hermione had selected the Runes elective (Not Harry though. He learnt Runes from when he was reading), and she had complained how it was so hard. Harry couldn’t understand what she was talking about, since he found it so easy. Harry wouldn’t dare tell her about his opinion though. She would hate knowing Harry knew more than her!

He felt a pang in his heart as he remembered his friends dropping him, and their disgusted and betrayed faces when he was re-sorted into Slytherin. Shaking his head, he finished off the Runes and knowing they needed his blood to activate, used his blade to make a small slit on his hand and pressed it against each Rune (He could’ve just used a small spell to make the cut on his hand, but he needed the pain. He deserved it).

He knew they were activated by the way the Runes were now glowing. He would have used bandages to wrap up the cut, knowing he deserved the pain of having open wounds, but since this was on his hand it would be hard to hide it, and he didn’t want anyone to see (As if they’d care. No one cares about you, and no one should, since everything is your fault. And you know it, you freak).

Quickly using a healing spell (Non-verbally might I add), he placed his blade into his trunk after using a cleaning spell on it, getting back into his bed to hopefully get at least a little bit of sleep. Placing his glasses on the bedside table, he pulled the blankets over himself and laid down, closing his eyes.

End of Flashback

Harry grabbed his glasses, put them on and got up, casting a wandless tempus to check the time. The spell said it was 1:00am, and he fell asleep at roughly 11:00 (He got into his bed at 9:30), meaning he only got about 2 hours of sleep. He was lucky to get that much of sleep, even if his sleep was plagued by nightmares of the Dursleys, Cedric, the Dursleys, Cedric. He always had nightmares of the Dursleys from a young age, but Cedric is new. He deserved the nightmares of him saying it was his fault. He knows it is. He doesn’t even deserve to be upset, Cedric’s death was his fault. All his.

It doesn’t help that he had developed Insomnia, meaning that the little sleep he actually does get, he wakes up only an hour or two later from his nightmares. What luck he has.

Grabbing his school robes (The Gryffindor logo had already been changed to the Slytherin one, most likely from the house elves when he was asleep) and a hairbrush, he walked to the bathroom, closing the door behind him and locking it. Even if it was late at night (Or very early morning), he couldn’t risk any of the boys coming in and seeing him. His body. The body that is scarred beyond healing, and holds many secrets.

Harry can’t even look at himself in the mirror if his glamor is off. He can’t stand it. Looking at his tainted body makes him feel disgusting.

Harry put the robes and the hairbrush onto the edge of the sink, hand hovering over the items a bit longer than what was needed.

After covering the mirror with a towel, he puts his glasses on the edge of the sink and he peels off his sweaty clothes, as well as his blood-soaked bandages (That’s always the worst part), and takes off his glamor. He has to take it off before his shower so that he can clean his wounds without fear of missing any. Not that he would forget where some are. He remembers each one. Each hit and each yelp of pain that he tried so desperately to not let out because Vernon doesn’t allow freaks like him to make a sound. Making any noise other than the pots and pans clashing as he worked day and night to make them food and do all their work would guarantee another beating. He remembers all those nights where he traced his thousands of scars with his small fingers gently, wondering how much more could he take. How many more meals he could miss or how many more days of working to the bone before he died.

He wished to die back then (Still does. It would be better for everyone anyways), to free himself of all the pain and suffering (Even though he knew he deserved every bit of it. Surely they wouldn’t punish him if he hadn’t done anything wrong, right? He’s just a freak, and they know this, so they’re just helping him), yet his small 10 year old body didn’t even know how bad life could get.

Taking in a shuddering breath, he turned on the shower and stepped under the running water, holding in a whimper as his wounds inflamed, white hot pain running through his whole body. Looking down, he could see the clean, transparent water turn red from all the blood pouring out his body. The worst wound he had has to be the one on his back. It went from the bottom of his right arm all the way down to his left hip. He got it with the ‘gift’ from Vernon, and it still hasn’t closed up yet, much like the others. The others wounds weren’t as severe, as they were smaller (Not extremely small though), but they still made him lose a lot of blood.

Harry is pretty sure that the only reason he is alive right now is because of his strong magical core that he can constantly feel slowly healing him up and replenishing his blood. Although with how many beatings and new wounds he gets, it’s not nearly fast enough to completely heal him before he gets his next one. His magic is just barely doing enough to keep him alive. But for Harry, that’s fine (Although maybe it’s not. Why can’t he just die already? Oh, right. He needs to kill Voldemort and be the saviour of the wizarding world. He can’t disappoint Dumbledore, or anyone else).

Seeing the water finally turn clear again, the blood not running out his body constantly anymore, he turned off the water and hopped out the shower, dabbing the water off his body (And getting a bit of blood with it too). He grabbed his bandages out his robes and wrapped up his wounds again. Harry pulled on his underwear and school robes, trying his hardest to not rub his wounds as much. Once finished, he put on his glasses and took a minute to take some deep breaths, leaning on the sink. There are times when he just needs a moment.

Pushing himself off the sink, he grabbed the hairbrush and started trying to brush his unruly hair. No matter how long he tried brushing it, his hair didn’t look any neater. Giving up, he just flattened it as much as he could and held the hairbrush in his hand as he walked towards the door.

Harry unlocked and opened the door of the bathroom, walking inside the dorm room and being as quiet as possible to not wake his dormmates. As he was walking to his bed, he noticed a green apple on his bedside table and a piece of parchment. Thinking back, he remembers seeing this apple a bit after getting into the dorm. He walked over and picked up the parchment, reading the note.

Dear Potter,
I got you this apple from the great hall during dinner just in case you were hungry, since you didn’t eat anything after the sorting.
Regards, one of your Slytherin roommates.

Harry blinked. He blinked again.

… what?

Did one of the Slytherins get him some food just because they didn’t see him eat? No one has ever done that before. He feels… strangely warm inside. That’s not right. How could he feel like this to someone he just met. Harry doesn’t even know who gave it to him, so he can’t thank them. The handwriting is very neat and cursive and has a fancy touch to it. It’s very elegant. Like the person actually cared when writing it.

How can anyone care about him?

Harry stared at the apple, the moonlight reflecting off of it from the slightly opened curtains. How could something so beautiful make him feel so sick? He really didn’t want to eat, and it was bad enough that because now he’s with new people, he has to come up with new excuses on why he isn’t eating, but if he eats this apple now, he surely won’t be able to down anything for at least a day. But someone was kind enough to do this for him, so he at least needs to have a couple bites.

Bringing the apple up to his lips, Harry bit down, trying not to gag at the flavour coming in full force on his tongue, he chewed and swallowed. It tasted bitter, like cardboard, but that could just be his imagination. Everything tastes bitter these days.

Harry had a couple more bites, but once he had his 4th bite, he practically had to force the bile back down his throat. Vanishing the rest of the apple, he placed the note back down on his bedside table. Turning around, he walked to the end of his bed and knelt down, opening his trunk. He put the brush back in and then started going through it, looking for something.

After rummaging through his trunk for a bit, he pulled out two books. The first one is the one he is currently reading, called ‘Defence Against The Dark Arts, Guide to dark defence, The silver edition for seventh years’. The other book he grabbed out is something his is interested in, called ‘The Dark Arts, A new age’.

Harry had been scared when picking up this book, and the many others that are a similar concept to this one he has. He was supposed to be light, the saviour, the chosen one. He’s supposed to defeat Voldemort. He knew that if anyone saw he had this book, they would hate him. Dumbledore would hate him.

Harry doesn’t want Dumbledore to hate him.

Dumbledore was the first person to ever praise him or say anything good about him. No adult has ever thought Harry was good. Not that any adult had been wrong to think that. He’s a bad child, and he’s spent his whole life knowing that. He was always a Nuisance and a Burden, and always will be. Harry knew he didn’t deserve the praise he got from Dumbledore, but is he wrong for so desperately wanting it?

Yes, said a voice in the back of his mind.

After the Dementor attack and when he got expelled from Hogwarts, Harry was taken to number 5 Grimmauld Place. Apparently it was the house of Black, and Sirus is lending it to Dumbledore’s group called the Order Of The Pheonix. Harry did feel a bit betrayed at finding out Ron and Hermione were there the holidays and didn’t even write to him, while he was suffering at the Dursleys. (No. You don’t deserve to feel betrayed. If anything, you deserve what happens to you, you freak. Freak. Freak. Freak. Freak. FREAK-)

Just before he got to Grimmauld place, he had just gotten his “gift” from Vernon, and his whole body was inflamed and everyone talking and being there made his head spin. Especially with everyone hugging and touching him. He will never forget the feeling of everyone crowding him, giving him hugs and ruffling his hair, slapping his back in a cheerful manner which only made him more overwhelmed and made his freshly received wounds on his back scream in agony.

He had to get away, so when everyone was asleep, he explored the house and found a secured door. It was locked with magic, and so he used the strongest unlocking charm that he knew of on it. He had to push lots of his magic into it which drained him, as it took a lot, but it was all worth it in the end because as he walked inside, he saw a library that held thousands of old and ancient books, all of which he felt the magic of. That was another thing. He could physically feel the old magic radiating off them. Finally founding what he needed, he shut the door and buried himself in books.

There was books on normal subjects, yet most of them were about the Dark arts and so-called dark magic. Having found something new and interesting to learn, he immediately started reading them all. The rest of the holiday for Harry at Grimmauld place was spent either eating meals with everyone (Or in his case, not eating more than a couple bites and after he got some concerned glances, ate a decent amount and vomited it up later. The things he does to not worry people), or up in the Black’s library. He also suspected there was some kind of notice-me-not charm on the door, because when he was in there and people were most definitely looking for him, there was not even a tug on the door. It was better for Harry though, so he wasn’t complaining.

During his stay at Grimmauld, he was able to read a fair chunk of the library, learning lots of new things, but as he wasn’t able to read all of the books, he decided to put almost all of the rest (As many that would fit into his trunk without destroying them) into his trunk for when he got to Hogwarts.

Closing his trunk and securely locking it (He doesn’t want anyone to go through it and see all the books from the Black library on Dark magic and things similar), he got into his bed and tucked the blankets over himself. He made sure to keep his back off the headboard, to avoid any more inflammation to his wounds.

He spent the rest of the night (Morning) reading his books, managing to finish ‘Defence Against The Dark Arts, Guide to dark defence, The silver edition for seventh years’ and nearly finish ‘The Dark Arts, A new age’. Throughout his years of reading in the local Library to hide from Dudley, he had developed the ability to read quite quickly, which has really helped him read as much as he could, which is important to him since he is only able to read at nighttime.

He paused.

Ron and Hermione stopped being his friend, so does that mean he can finally do good on his schoolwork in anything other than defence against the dark arts? Harry quickly shook his head. If Ron and Hermione saw him doing good, they will probably hate him even more for lying to them. But almost all the Slytherins have high grades, so will I be letting them down by having bad grades? But would it be disrespectful to have bad grades while he was in Gryffindor, and only now that he’s in Slytherin he’s doing good? Or would they like that, since they would think they’re the ones who made him have good grades, and then they would feel good about themselves. But if he got high grades in the other classes, would Dumbledore be disappointed in him for holding back in class, or because he’s doing good in classes that aren’t necessarily ‘light’.

Harry groaned, putting his book down and putting his head in his hands. A few tears appeared in his eyes (You crybaby. Why is it you cry at everything? It just adds to your freakiness) as his head spun from all the theories. He only wants to do what’s best for others, but how can he do that if he doesn’t know how they feel.

But… wouldn’t it be better for the majority of people if they see their saviour and the chosen one doing well in classes, so that they know he has a better chance of defeating Voldemort? That’s a great idea! He can show people that they don’t need to be scared (Unlike him. He has plenty to be scared of. Not that he deserves to be scared. He doesn’t deserve anything). So does that mean he can read outside of nighttime? Yes! This will be amazing! And maybe this year he won’t disappoint a lot of people! (Shut up you freak. You’ve already disappointed Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, and the whole of Gryffindor. You’re such a disappointment and a FREAK-)

Finalising his decision, Harry grabbed his book again and continued reading from when he left off. Soon, he heard some groans and rustling of bedsheets, indicating that the rest of his dormmates were waking up. Harry was just about to get up and grab his stuff to go to the great hall (Just thinking of food is making him nauseas), so he placed his hand on the curtain and was just about to pull it open, when his eyes caught onto a scar on his hand. His eyes widened as he looked at the scars all over his hands and his bare skin.

He had forgotten to put his glamor back on.

Quickly drawing his hand back, he put the glamor on, watching as his scars disappeared from view, leaving a slightly shimmery look to his skin. That’s the thing, glamors do leave a glittery due if you have one on, but if someone isn’t actively looking for a glamor, then they won’t see it. Especially his, because his glamor is so powerful from all his magic.

Taking a deep breath, he opened his curtain and stepped off his bed onto the floor of the dorms. He slipped on his socks and shoes, and neatened his robes that have gotten a bit crinkled while he was reading. Harry grabbed his schoolbag and placed his pieces of parchment, quills & ink, his textbooks needed for that day and then stepped over to his bed again. He sneakily placed the book on dark arts into his trunk. As much as he would love to take it and read it more, he can’t risk anyone seeing it. He put the 7th year DADA book into his trunk, seeing that it is finished and grabbed out ‘7th year guide to the art of Transfiguration’. He was super excited to grab out this one, a small light appearing in his dark, green eyes that hold many horrors and secrets. It was weird to see anything other than darkness in them. How is it that anyone can stand looking at them? They’re Lily, his mothers eyes, or so he’s told. But, for some reason, he feels they’ve been getting further and further away from looking like Lilys. Such a shame. One of the only things he’s gotten from his mother doesn’t even want to stay with him. Much like everything good that he’s gotten in his life.

Gone.

This transfiguration book is the last book in the 7th year criteria (Including every single one of the electives), meaning once he finishes reading this, he’ll have more time to read things he finds interesting, including all the ancient books from the Black library! Putting the Transfiguration book in his bag, he turned around and started walking to the door. It felt weird, not waiting for Ron to wake up and get ready and then leaving the dorm to find Hermione, her lecturing us about waking up earlier when Harry was up for the past 5 hours and it was only Ron who can’t get ready on time. Harry always wanted to get to class on time, and he knew the perfect time to leave so that they can get to class a little bit before it started, although they never listened to him when he said it and made him leave with them at the time when they’re most likely to be late.

Harry was able to figure out the perfect time to leave when Ron was sick in 2nd year and Hermione stayed with him that day to take care of him. When Harry offered to stay and help as well, Hermione just told him that Ron would be fine and Harry wasn’t needed (That really hurt), and just said to write some notes during class for them so that they wouldn’t be behind. Harry tried his hardest to write really good notes for them, listening in class and writing really neat (Even though he already knew everything they were learning) for the pair. That afternoon when he gave the notes to Ron and Hermione, Hermione snapped at him and said “Why is it that the only day I am not in class, you write amazing notes. Can you really not be bothered to do work unless really needed, and just want to copy off me? You’re unbelievable!”. He only copied off Hermione because Ron did, and Harry needed to keep his act up of not knowing much and being on the same level as Ron. It really hurt listening to her, but he knew he shouldn’t feel hurt.

He deserves everything bad that has happened to him after all.

Harry opened the door and walked into the common room, seeing a bunch of different groups of people sitting around. Grabbing his wand that he had previously put into his robe sleeve, he cast a Tempus. People shouldn’t know he’s able to do wandless magic, since they might think he’s weird, and he really doesn’t want the extra attention. It was 7:30, and since classes start at 9:00, he has some spare time before he has to get going, since the perfect time to leave is around 8:30. Ron and Hermione used to leave at about 8:50, and since it takes forever to go on the right staircase and make it around the huge castle, they always end up at class late (Including Harry, but only because he doesn’t want to leave Ron and Hermione, even if they are always leaving him).

He decided he would just read during the extra time, so he made his way towards the corner of the common room which contained multiple different seats and couches, as well as a fireplace. Feeling the warmth sinking into his skin, Harry sat down on the ground in front of it. The Dursleys never let him sit on their furniture because he might give it his freak germs. Harry doesn’t feel like he deserves to sit on any furniture anymore.

One time when he was around five, the Dursleys went out to buy some groceries to make a good lunch for everyone (As if they would be the ones making it. Harry would. And as if he would be able to get more than a thin slither of meat. And that’s if they’re being generous). He was doing the gardening all morning since Petunia had decided he was old enough to start doing it. His body really hurt from it, since he wasn’t fully developed to do things like that at his age (He was five for gods sake. Not to mention being forced to sit on the hard floor every day for basically his whole life), and the couch just looked so comfy. He couldn’t control himself.

Harry had sat on the couch, and it felt so nice, so he relaxed his body. He was just thinking of what other things Petunia will make him do today when the door had slammed open. Petunia and Vernon saw where he was sitting, and it was bad. He had gotten screamed at (Squealed at in Petunia’s case), pushed off the couch roughly and got a really bad beating from Vernon, making him barely able to walk. He also got a lecture on how he can’t sit on their furniture because of his freakishness. He never forgot that day (As if he could forget any of the agonizing days in that hell).

It's safe to say he never got that bit of meat.

Harry got startled out of his thoughts from voices coming towards him. He tensed up, hunching in on himself as he looked up, trying to hide his fear. He saw Malfoy, Parkinson, Greengrass, Zabini, Crabbe, and Goyle walking towards him, chatting with each other.

They all sat on the different armchairs and couches in front of the fire (And Harry), but their chatting almost instantly ceased as they looked at Harry. Greengrass was the first to break the silence, giving Harry a warm smile (Why would she smile at a freak like him?).

“Morning Potter. I hope you slept well, being in the Slytherin dorm and stuff. Was the Slytherin dorm better than the Gryffindor ones? Oh, who am I kidding. Of course it was better!” She said, barking out a laugh as her pale hand went up to rest on her cheek, elbow resting on her knee.

The rest of the group let out small laughs, smirks on their faces. Parkinson spoke up next, her black hair bobbing around her face as she moved up on the armchair and leaned forwards.

“We were just talking about how boring our classes will be, since we’ll most likely be getting the same lecture about our O.W.L.S from all our teachers. We’re going to breakfast, so we were wondering if you would like to join us? You might not remember the way to the Dungeons, so you should stick with us. Only if you want, of course.” She informed Harry, a warming smile on her face. A drastic change from her previous smirk.

Harry looked at Parkinson with wide eyes. On one hand, he could barely even think of food right now without feeling sick, not to mention he already ate some of the apple before meaning he definitely couldn’t eat anything without throwing up. Although he could just say he can’t eat because of nerves or something. On the other hand, he can’t believe Parkinson is offering to let him come with them, and by her words everyone else as well.

Why would they want him to come with them, especially because they’re supposed to hate him. Shouldn’t they? He’s just a freak. A burden. He doesn’t deserve any of this, any of their kindness that they’ve been giving him. He hasn’t ever gotten this much kindness, so why is he getting it now?

Realising they’re all looking at him and waiting for a reply, he speaks up. His voice was quiet, yet has a hint of happiness. Although he’s sure no one can notice. No one ever notices things like that with him.

“Uh, yeah. That would be nice, thank you very much.”

Harry felt everyone’s magic become even more warm and happy. Although Malfoy’s had a higher sense of happiness, and another feeling he couldn’t recognize. Admiration maybe? But that can’t be right. Why would Malfoy admire him?

Harry realised in his first year that he could feel people’s magic. It allows him to know where people are (If they’re magical) because he can feel their magic. Not that he couldn’t already notice if people were near him. Living with the Dursleys gave him that skill.

It also allows him to gouge out people’s real intentions or emotions. It shows him what type of a person people are. Parkinson’s magic feels sharp and spiked, giving the idea that she’s mean or self-centred, yet the points are soft, giving the idea of someone caring and careful, although passionate.

Zabini’s magic feels straight, and occasionally has a little bump. It shows he’s blunt and willing to stick up for what he feels is right, but also has a playful side to him. Greengrass’ magic is ragged, showing that she is an overly enthusiastic person, yet means well. Crabbe and Goyle’s magic is almost the same, feeling wavy and giving the idea of funny and playful people, but Goyle’s magic gives the idea of being creative and Crabbe’s magic gives the idea of being loyal to what he believes is right.

Lastly, Malfoy’s magic. His magic feels stiff and complete, giving a sense of entitlement and self-importance, yet if you feel deeper, it’s warm and soft, showing he is helpful and supportive, willing to do anything for family and friends.

The group stood up, stretching out their limbs and letting out quiet groans. Harry also stood up, although quieter than the rest, and dusted off his robes, putting his bag over his shoulder. He noticed Parkinson looking him up and down with a slight smirk on her face.

“I knew it! You look way better in green than red, Potter. The Slytherin robes look ten times better on you” she said with glee.

Harry was taken aback by her comments, mouth opening slightly. He saw Malfoy roll his eyes at her before turning to him.

“Don’t worry Potter. Pansy is just obsessed with fashion, and She’s been saying since the 1st year that you would look better in green, and how much she needs to see you in green.” He said, shrugging.

A light pink then dusted over Malfoy’s cheeks, a big contrast to his pale skin. His eyes darted to the ground as he mumbled out a couple words.

“I also think you look good in green.”

Malfoy then turned around as everyone else looked at him with amused and teasing looks, which Harry didn’t really understand. He just felt shocked at Malfoy complementing him. Suddenly, a small smile made its way onto Harry’s face. He doesn’t even know why he is smiling, or why there’s a warm feeling in his chest.

And why do his words make him feel happy inside?

The group (Including Harry) made their way out the common room and into the hallways, chatting to each other as they walked. Harry was walking behind the group, as he did with Ron and Hermione, as they talked with each other, but he was shocked when the group stopped walking and made room in between them all, ushering Harry to stand next to them.

They all started walking again, this time Harry walking next to them instead of behind them, and when the group started talking again, they tried to include Harry into their conversation, not even getting mad at his short and hesitant answers. He couldn’t believe this. He has never been able to walk next to someone and talk with them, let alone someone not getting mad at him for one reason or another.

He's never experienced this much kindness before, and he feels as if he doesn’t deserve it. I mean, of course he deserves it. He’s Harry Potter. Yet this feels different. Why should he get this kindness from them if he hasn’t even been with them for less than a day?

Before he could go into an endless spiral of his self-deprecating thoughts (even if they are the truth), the group were walking into the great hall. Harry saw how it was quite empty, a few Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Slytherins eating quietly and doing their own thing, but he couldn’t help but notice there were no Gryffindors here. It makes sense, since in his time of being a Gryffindor he noticed they’re always sleeping in or being lazy. Harry had tried saying that they should go to breakfast earlier so they could get to class earlier, Gryffindors always being the late ones, but he just got glared at. He never said anything related to the subject again.

He also noticed there was quite a few staff sitting at the staff table, eating their own breakfast. He recognized the teachers to be Professor Flitwick, Professor Mcgonagall, Professor Trelawny (He’s surprised with that one. She’s almost never here in the mornings), and Professor Snape. His eyes brightened up just a bit at seeing the Professor. He’s always looked up to him, even if Snape hated him. Not to mention that Professor Snape’s magic feels warm. A grounding presence to be around. Snape’s magic is sharp, yet smooth. It shows he has a bristle personality, yet is trustworthy and can compose himself quite well. Harry supposes that trait has something to do with his Occlumency shields. Snape must have really good ones.

Harry’s read about Occlumency a bit, and it’s something you do to close off your mind and true emotions or intentions from something called legilimency. Legilimency is magic that someone can do to read your mind, look into your memories. When reading about Legilimency, Harry felt scared that someone could see his memories of the Dursleys, of everything that’s ever been done to him, so he started trying to practice Occulemency.

He’s had about a year of practice, since he learnt about it last year in year 4 (When he was looking for ideas to help in the tournament. It didn’t even help anyways, Cedric still died. It’s his fault. He should’ve done something. Anything. He was so useless), so he’s gotten really good. Harry is certain that if someone tried use Legilimency on him at any time, even when he’s least expecting it, they wouldn’t be able to get into his mind.

As the group sat down, the original Slytherins were piling up their plates with lots of food, Malfoy having the excuse of needing lots of food to stay strong and to have strength to get ready in the mornings because “It takes a lot of work to look as good as me!” (Harry had to stifle a laugh at that, missing the blush that appeared on Malfoy’s cheeks for a split second). Harry made no move to grab anything. Just the smell of all the different foods on the table was making him feel nauseous and overwhelming.

A horrible feeling planted itself into Harry’s stomach, slowly rising up into his throat and nearly making him gag. He felt the bile rising up his throat, so he took slow and even breaths, breathing through his mouth so he didn’t have to smell the overwhelming amount of sickly scents, even if it barely did anything.

He saw worried glances coming from the group (Why would they be worried about him? Why should they care about him? He’s just a freak and a waste of space), but he tried to ignore them and focus on not vomiting at the very moment. Harry is very thankful that no one asked him about it.

Vaguely, Harry could feel a pair of eyes on him, yet he ignored it in sake of the problem at hand.

Fortunately for Harry, the group finished their food fairly fast and they all got up to leave, Harry letting out a small sigh of relief at being away from all the sickly scents of food in the great hall. Their classes for the day were History Of Magic with Professor Binns, Herbology with Professor Sprout, Divination with Professor Trelawny, and DADA with Professor Umbridge. He internally winced at the last one. Umbridge was a ministry worker, a high ranked one at that since she was at his hearing, and the Ministry aren’t really best buddies with him considering all the things the daily prophet is spouting. Something tells Harry that DADA won’t go very well. He’ll just have to keep his head down low and try not to cause anything.

They got to the History Of Magic classroom early, with a couple minutes to spare before classes started. They had this class with Ravenclaw, and Harry’s heart clenched as he wondered what classes with Gryffindor will be like. Will he sit with Ron and Hermione and will everything be like normal? But for some reason, remembering their betrayed and disgusted looks when he was sorted into Slytherin, as well as the rest of Gryffindors unpleasant expressions, he doubts it will ever be normal again.

Chapter Text

He was startled out of his thoughts, barely hiding a flinch as the door to the History Of Magic classroom burst open. He vaguely realised that the Ravenclaws had already arrived. Was he really stuck in his head for that long?

Making his way into the classroom, he sat down at an empty seat, feeling somewhat surprised as Malfoy sat next to him. Why would anyone want to sit next to him? And why would Malfoy specifically choose to sit next to him? Doesn’t he hate him?

Mentally shaking his head to rid his thoughts, he listened to Professor Binn’s boring drawl with his full attention, remembering what would happen if he didn’t give the teachers his full attention back in primary school. It was when he was 6 years old. He had to do so many chores for Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon the night before and in the morning, so his body was feeling achy and tired. He also had a headache from Uncle Vernon pulling on his hair and slamming his head into the wall hard. Harry swore he felt a bit of blood dripping down his head from that.

He couldn’t focus well during class, so he decided to just squeeze his hands together and look down at his desk, hoping the headache would go away. He thought the teacher wouldn’t mind since he told her about his headache before class. He thought wrong.

The teacher had yelled at him and dragged him out the classroom. He had gotten afterschool detention that day and a phone call to the Dursleys. Hell was waiting for him when he got back. He never made that same mistake again.

Harry dipped his quill in Ink and automatically started writing whatever Professor Binns was saying. Something about goblins? It doesn’t matter, Harry already knows all of this. But thank Merlin he didn’t have to listen to another embarrassingly long lecture about the importance of O.W.L.S. He’s sure he’ll get the same speech from the other teachers though, so Harry decided to just take this class for granted until further notice.

The rest of the day went as expected. Well, almost as expected. The group of Slytherins were for some reason always walking next to him instead of in front of him, Including him in all their conversations and asking for his opinions, and even telling a few Hufflepuffs off while they were walking through the halls to Divination (He had the class with Ravenclaw, and he hated himself for feeling so relieved at not being with the Gryffindors) because they were shooting slurs at him. It mainly contained things about how he should’ve died instead of Cedric. Harry agrees whole-heartedly with that statement.

He doesn’t understand why the Slytherins are being so nice to him. He was a past Gryffindor that they hated, and he was him. How could anyone care about him? A useless, pathetic, freak.

Harry thankfully managed to get a few bites down at lunchtime, even if he did want to puke from the amount of food he was eating (To normal people, how much food he was eating was really small, but to Harry it felt like a full course meal. Without the happiness and deliciousness of a full meal, of course). He missed the few concerned glances Malfoy and Parkinson gave him, more focused on not puking up what he had managed to eat.

But then came the thing he has been dreading all day. Defence Against The Dark Arts.

Now, Harry always loved Defence Against The Dark Arts because it was the one subject he didn’t have to hold back on as much as other classes since the saviour should be really good at Defence to protect the world from a snake looking monster who terrorizes the whole of wizarding society and even muggle society JUST BECAUSE OF A STUPID PROPHECY!

But anyways, he didn’t have to hold back as much in that class and could get good grades. It was even better that since he was expected to do good in that class, whenever he did exceed expectations (although not rarely, since he still needed to hold back just a little so no one would get suspicious), no one gives attention to it. Harry hates attention. Half because whenever he got attention from the Dursleys it was never good, and half because he only got attention since he was ‘The Boy Who Lived’, and not because of who he is (Why should he expect anything different? Nothing about him is good, and everyone deserves to hate him).

But the reason he was dreading the class that day was because it was with Gryffindor. He hasn’t seen any Gryffindors ever since he got resorted into Slytherin, much less Ron and Hermione (Why would they want to see him in the first place? He already ruined their friendship, and now even more since being put in Slytherin. God, he’s so useless! He can’t even keep a friendship!).

He didn’t know what to expect with them. Would they just act like normal? (Harry doubts that). Would they ignore him? Glare at him? Spit out slurs to him? Hurt him?

Harry squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath, walking towards the classroom with the group of Slytherins that have been with him ever since he was resorted (he still wonders why).

But the Gryffindors unexpected motives isn’t the only thing he’s worried about. It’s Professor Umbridge. She had been at his trial at the ministry, and she one of the ministry workers that was dead set on making him a criminal. If his theories are correct (He’ll never admit it, but they’re almost always right), then she’ll be looking to get him in trouble a lot this year. Now, he never purposefully does bad in class. It’s usually Ron being rude and then Harry just gets in trouble with him. And then Professor Snape (No matter how much pain it brings him to think this. His Professor is truly amazing and great at what he does) is doing everything he can to find one thing to yell at him about.

Harry is sure she’ll find one thing to get him in trouble for (just like everyone else in his life).

“Potter?”

The sudden voice immediately snapped him out of his daze, flinching back on instinct (Uncle Vernon would always get so mad if his head was in the clouds. He always lost a meal over that).

“U-uh, yeah? S-sorry, what were you saying?” Harry mentally cursed himself for stuttering.

He saw that they had arrived at the DADA classroom and were standing with the other 5^th year Slytherins. To his surprise, not one of the other Slytherins had sneered at him or said anything rude. They just nodded at him and some even gave him a small smile with an emotion akin to respect in their eyes. Why would they respect him? He’s useless and got a boy killed last year! (He’ll later find out that it’s because he protected the younger Slytherins the last couple times).

“Oh, Nothing. We just wanted to tell you we’ve arrived.” Parkinson said, flicking her hair over her shoulder at which Greengrass rolled her eyes.

“Really Pansy? Stop touching your hair, it already looks like a rats nest, you don’t wanna make it worse now, do you?” She said with a snicker.

“What do you mean my hair looks like a rats nest!? It looks amazing I’ll have you know! I spend hours on it!!” Parkinson spat back, crossing her arms like an angry mother.

“Oh, trust me, we know.” Zabini says in his usual nonchalant voice, not even looking at Parkinson and taking out a book to read while they wait. Parkinson was about to spit out another insult, but then stopped when she noticed the Gryffindors arriving. As if practiced, the Slytherins silly banter came to a stop, all of them crossing their arms or glaring with the so-called ‘normal’ sneer painted on their faces.

Harry almost got whiplash from how quickly they changed demeaners, although he supposed it was a Slytherin trait (He’s done it enough times for him to recognize it. The hat did want to put him in Slytherin 1^st year). He turned around and saw the Gryffindors walking over, talking so loud it had a bit of an echo, a stark contrast to the near silence the Slytherins have. Harry desperately looked through the pack, trying to find 2 familiar faces of Ron and Hermione, but he couldn’t see him. A disappointment settled in his gut. He hoped he could find them before class and try to fix their severed bond, but it seems that he won’t get to do that. He would do it after class, but Malfoy told him all the Slytherins walk to the common room together after class and he really doesn’t want to make them wait (That’s if they actually include him in that and don’t just leave him).

The Gryffindors all looked towards them and their loud chatter turned into low murmurs, sneers pointed their way, mainly directed towards Harry (And Harry’s fine with that. He’d rather him then the others. At least he deserves it). Parkinson stepped forwards in front of Harry, a smirk on her face.

“Look who finally arrived. There’s only two minutes left before class starts. We’re at Hogwarts, surely you can arrive a little bit earlier. Although, I’m not surprised. You are Gryffindors after all.”

The Gryffindors all sneered at her, spitting out swears. Seamus stepped forward, arms crossed, glaring all of them down.

“Oh, look at you, protecting poor Harry. We should’ve known he’s such a wimp to have Slytherins protecting him. Now that everyone knows who he really is, he decides to hide away like a pathetic little bitch!”

The rest of the Gryffindors start laughing at his words, clapping Seamus on the back, and Harry could vaguely register Parkinson or someone else from Slytherin spitting back insults, but all Harry could hear was the quick beating of his heart.

What Seamus said was harsh, even the way he said it caused shivers to run down his spine, but what he said was oh, so true. As soon as he was put in Slytherin, he did hide. He hasn’t talked to anyone else, barely talking to the Slytherins, and he’s such a coward. Why did he think he could run from this? (But how he wishes he can).

But then he saw something out of the corner of his eye, yet it wasn’t something. Ron and Hermione stood there, watching Harry with disgusted looks on their faces, walking towards the group of Gryffindors.

Harry’s heart broke as he looked at their faces, but that didn’t stop his determination. He started walking over, their names on his lips, when the door opened, Umbridge wearing all pink walking out with a sickly sweet smile on her face.

“Hello students. Please, come in. But I do have a rule. Different house cannot sit with each other. Slytherins are on the left, and Gryffindors on the right. Because of Slytherins and Gryffindors not having the… best relationship, this rule is for the better.”  She said, staring straight at Harry.

Harry knew she would be out to get him, but not this bad. Not allowing him to sit with Ron and Hermione since he was in Slytherin and they weren’t? (Not that they would want to sit with him anyways, his brain unhelpfully supplied). Harry could also feel Umbridge’s magic, and it was not nice. On surface it was smooth, but that only covered the sharpness of it. Umbridge’s magic told him that she deceived people with kindness and such but underneath she was horrible, and evil.

Yeah. He did not want to deal with that.

With a sigh, he walked into the classroom, sitting on the left as Professor Umbridge had said. He got the end of the table near the middle, Malfoy sitting on his left and Zabini sitting on Malfoy’s left. Parkinson and Greengrass sat behind them while Goyle and Crabbe sat behind Parkinson and Greengrass. The rest of the Slytherin 5^th years sat neatly in the other seats behind and in front. Harry didn’t look to see where which Gryffindors sat where. He didn’t want to know. It would only hurt him more (He deserves to be hurt).

Everyone started pulling out their wands, read for defence when Umbridge suddenly stopped them.

“Put those wands away, you won’t be needing them. Grab out your books!” Spoke Umbridge, her voice chipper and high-pitched. Her smile was much similar to a toad, Harry thought.

Hermione’s arm immediately shot up after Umbridge finished speaking, already talking without being called upon. Harry shivered. He did it once in primary school, Happy that they were talking about a subject he liked, and he got sent to the principles office, they called the Dursleys, and you could probably tell what happened once he back to the house (He would never call that place home).

“But Professor Umbridge, why won’t we be using our wands?” she blurted out, hand being dropped back down onto the desk.

“5 points from Gryffindor for speaking without being told to,” Hermione’s face turned beet red and her cheeks puffed up. “And the ministry has decided that practicing spells would be too dangerous, and so you will not be using your wands at all this year during defense.”

At her words, the mood in the room dimmed significantly. They had O.W.L’s that year which are very important, but if they don’t practice their spells, then they’re all sure to fail DADA!

Hermione’s hand raised again, and she quickly spoke.

“But what about when during our O.W.L exams!? There’s a practical part and that’s half the grade!”

Umbridge’s face got a bit more stern.

“10 more points from Gryffindor from calling out despite being told not to,” Hermione face got even more red in embarrassment and she clenched her fists. “And you will be able to use your wands during the exam, just not in class.”

“But-“

“15 more points from Gryffindor.”

“How-“

Hermione’s sentence was cut off by someone from Gryffindor hitting her head, muttering about not getting rid of anymore points.

Hermione was angry but finally got the clue and stopped talking.

“Anyone else have any more questions?” Professor Umbridge asked before scanning the room, eyes lingering on Harry for a little bit longer than necessary. Harry knew that she probably wanted him to speak up or something so she can get him in trouble, but Harry knew better. Not that he would speak up anyways since that always got him in trouble in Primary school.

Harry had learnt from a young age that being silent and never talking, never asking questions, never speaking out of turn would keep him safer (Never safe. He’s never safe).

Umbridge smiled again as turned to look at the class.

“Now this year you have your O.W.L’s, which are some of your most important exam’s, so I expect you all to study well! In this class and others. Now I have noticed that your Defense teachers have all been quite incompetent and haven’t taught you the proper curriculum,” Harry denied that in his head, because he thought that Professor Lupin was a great teacher, the best defence teacher they had, but he held his tongue. “So we are going to go over it all from the start, so please open your books and read from page 1-50.” She finished, her stubby fingers clasped together and in front of her body.

There were grumbles from the Gryffindor side (Not the Slytherins, they all just obliged and opened their books silently), but they eventually did as they were told.

Harry would be able to read the 50 pages in less than half of class, but even though Harry is good at DADA (and he was expected to be good at it too), Harry isn’t supposed to be a fast reader. Harry always tried to slow his reading down so that no one would suspect a thing, but habits are hard to break, so even though he had made it to a little bit past half-time of class, he had finished it, but no one else has.

Tensing up, he tried to pretend like he was still reading, but it seems like he can’t deceive everyone because he felt Professor’s Umbridge’s magic get sharper, and maybe even hold an evil happiness, and he just knew it was aimed at him.

He tensed up when he felt Umbridge stand up and walk towards him, arms crossed.

“Mr Potter, just what are you doing? It doesn’t look like you’re reading,” She said, staring Harry down, eyes burning holes in his head. Harry hesitantly looked up, tensing at the fierce look on the Professor’s face.

He tried to speak, but the words got caught in his throat. He was never good at talking to angry people. Although the thought of making an angry person angrier terrified him more than anything, so he forced the words out.

“I-I had just f-finished reading the required pages, a-and I was simply buying time, Professor,” Harry said with his head down low and body tensed. He could sense everyone’s magic flare up in curiosity, so he knew they were all looking at him. Though the familiar magic of Ron and Hermione which he can’t seem to escape didn’t give off a sense of curiosity. It gave off a sense of joy and satisfaction. They were happy to see him get scolded.

And that punched a hole straight through his heart. He doesn’t think they’ll be his friend anymore.

“Don’t get smart with me, boy!” Spat out Umbridge. And didn’t the word ‘boy’ just bring up some terrific memories. “There’s no possible way you could’ve read 50 pages of this textbook in just over half of class time!” And then he felt Professor Umbridge’s magic give off toxic joy. Whatever she’s going to say next is going to be horrible.

“For getting smart with me and lying straight to my face, you get a week’s detention!” She said, and Harry could practically feel the smug smirk on her face. But, wait. That isn’t right? It’s just a detention, why is she so excited for it?

“Yes Professor,” Harry spoke softly.

“Now go re-read all the pages, and this time actually finish it instead of lying, Mr Potter!” She said before turning on her heel and walking back to her desk.

 Harry just bit his lip slightly in worry about what the detention could possibly be and flipped his book back to the start. During the rest of class, harry could feel everyone glancing at him, but he refused to look up or do anything other than reading. He’s good at reading. He could just do this for the rest of class. That’s fine.

The bell rang, signaling the end of class, and Harry immediately shut his book (Not loudly), put it in his bag and stood up, ready to leave. Although his eyes roamed over to the Slytherin’s for a moment, who were packing up. They did say that he should walk with them, but he didn’t think they would want him to. Especially because he got in trouble during class. Surely they saw how bad he was and don’t want to deal with him anymore.

But if he just left and they did actually want him to walk with them, then that would be rude and he doesn’t want to be rude to the only people who are being nice to him. But then his eyes went over to Ron and Hermione who were talking together, packing up and getting ready to leave. He so desperately wanted to walk over to them and talk to them. To sort things out. To become friends again.

But then he looked back at the Slytherins. His eyes kept flicking between the two groups, a panic settling in his chest. What should he do? What’s the best choice? What would they want him to do?

He was broken out of his overthinking state by Greengrass speaking to him.

“Potter? You doing okay?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. That was when he realised the rest of the Slytherins had packed up and were looking at him. He froze up even more and stuttered a response.

“U-uh, Y-yeah, s-sorry,” He said sheepishly, his eyes roaming to Ron and Hermione who were just leaving the room now. He bit his lip.

Daphne’s eyes followed his own and realised quickly what he was thinking.

“Go ahead and talk to them. We’ll wait for you outside the classroom. Make sure to come back though because it’s dangerous to walk alone,” Greengrass said with a smile, Parkinson nodding beside her.

Harry smiled in thanks to them and turned to chase after Ron and Hermione. Thankfully they had not gotten far, so Harry didn’t have to move far from the classroom.

“Ron, Hermione!” He called out, moving in front of them, stopping them from going any further. He would apologize, but he really needed to talk to them.

“What do you want?” Said Ron, crossing his arms and upturning his nose. Hermione nodded in agreement beside him.

“Yeah, what do you want? You shouldn’t be stopping us. We need to head up to the Gryffindor common room, unlike you, so there’s no reason for you to be near us right now.”

Harry bit his lip, thinking of what he should say. He quickly stuttered out a response, not wanting them to get bored and leave him.

“I-I apologize for g-getting in your way, but we need to talk. Please,” He said, the last word spoken in a tone of desperation.

His two former-friends (he would say friends, but he doubts that’s the case now) looked at each other before Hermione scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“What is there to talk about? We don’t want to talk to a filthy traitor anyway.” Harry froze at her words, the word ‘traitor’ ringing in his mind, but he pushed through. He needed to talk with them.

“I’m sorry for what I did and not choosing you guys, but the poor kid was going to get hurt. A-and it’s not like I chose to be in Slytherin, the sorting hat just-“

“The sorting hat put you there because you are a Slytherin! You obviously asked the hat to put you in Gryffindor first year so you could trick us! You slimy snakes are always sly like that!” Spat out Ron.

“But I-“

“Shut up! We don’t wanna listen to your lies anymore! Come on Ron!” Said Hermione, already starting to walk.

“Please! I just want to be your friend again! I promise none of what you said was true-“

“So you’re calling us liars now?” Hermione said glaring at Harry.

“No! I promise I didn’t mean it like that! I’m so sorry!” Harry said, heart pumping in his chest. Why don’t they get it? Why are they saying this? He didn’t mean to call them liars! What are they talking about!

“Do us all a favour and leave us alone you evil Slytherin-“ Ron started, but was cut off by Zabini stepping in front of Harry, his tall figure covering Harry as Parkinson and Malfoy stepped beside Zabini, Crabbe and Goyle flanking the three and Greengrass just behind Parkinson. They were almost like a wall, Harry noticed. He also felt their magic flare up in annoyance. But that doesn’t make sense. Why would they be annoyed on his behalf? Or maybe they’re annoyed at him. That wouldn’t be new.

    (Similar to this positioning)

            Ron  Hermione

          Draco Blaise Pansy

 Crabbe           Daphne    Goyle

                   Harry

“Wanna finish that sentence, Weasley?” Zabini said, the corners of his mouth twisting up into a smirk.

Ron’s face turned beet red as he clenched his fists and peered his head just passed Zabini to look Harry dead in the eyes.

“Got your snake friends to back you up did you? Imagine being so pathetic that you have to have other people backing you up!” He spat out, Harry’s breath getting caught in his throat. Ron was about to spit out another insult when Zabini stepped left, blocking Ron’s view of Harry again.

“I suggest you shut your filthy mouth before you say something you’ll regret.” Malfoy said, sneering at the two Gryffindors.

“Shut up Malfoy!” Said Hermione, stamping her foot and puffing up her cheeks. “No one asked!”

“And no one asked you, Granger.” Parkinson said, her arms crossed.

“YOU-!”

Greengrass spoke up, effectively cutting off Hermione. “Come on guys. We shouldn’t bother with these Gryffindors. I’m losing braincells just looking at them.” She said, leaning on Parkinson’s shoulder.

There was multiple hums and words of agreement between the group, already walking off and paying no mind to Hermione and Ron behind them. Harry stood frozen for a second before Greengrass looked back and nodded at him to follow, to which Harry immediately obeyed, keeping his head down.

It was mostly silent between the group on the way back, yet Harry noticed it wasn’t an awkward silence.

It was comfortable.

Not only that, but all their magic is giving him the feeling of protectiveness. It doesn’t make sense. Why would they be protective over him? He’s just a stupid freak.

None of their actions make sense to him. They stepped in between him and his two former friends when they wouldn’t listen to him, they’re walking with him instead of in front of him, the whole time he’s been in Slytherin they’ve been welcoming and nice, not even pretending because he can tell they’re intentions by their magic. They’re being so nice. To him.

At those thoughts, he couldn’t help but have a small smile on his face as they’re walking.

This is new. This is confusing. He definitely doesn’t deserve it. But…

Maybe he can enjoy it for a little while before they inevitably turn on him.

He’s allowed that, isn’t he?

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Snape’s POV

Severus stormed into his office, shutting his door with a little bit more force then necessary. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he sat down, sensing the incoming headache.

Of course Potter just had to cause trouble yet again. Just like his idiotic father.

Not even one week into the school year and he’s already got detention. A whole week to be exact. Not even those Weasley twins have done that!

Well, they have, but that’s not the point!

And now that Potter is in his house, Slytherin, (which he is still seething about), he has to deal with it.

Severus is going to shut whatever this is down before it can even start. He’s already got enough paperwork to do, he doesn’t need to add any more.

He grabbed a quill, dipping it into ink and wrote a reminder on a piece of paper to have a meeting with Potter about his behaviour so far.

He should have the meeting with him today, but Severus does not want to deal with that right now.

Putting his head in his hands for a minute, Severus stood up and left his office, heading towards the potions room. Dumbledore had asked him (told him) to make some more potions for the Order, and he needs to get them done soon or else Dumbledore will have his head.

It’s not like he joined the Order on his own free will. He’s only doing it so that the dark lord can finally be defeated.

Plus, why would he want to join a group containing the old fool Dumbledore, that dunderheaded dog, a brainless werewolf, Weasleys, and aurors who work for the same ministry that is denying the dark lord’s return.

It’s honestly pathetic.

Pulling out the needed potion ingredients, he got started. Purposefully putting all of his attention on potion making, he drowned out the thoughts of Potter, The Order, and everything else.

This is what he truly enjoys.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unbeknownst to everyone, Dumbledore was seething in his office.

His perfectly crafted plan keeps cracking in places. And it’s all because of Harry Potter.

He is no longer a pawn under Dumbledore’s thumb.

He needs to fix this, now. He needs to get Harry under his control again. No matter the means.

And it all starts with getting Harry away from those Slytherins.