"Thank you again for doing this… I know you have like a hundred people competing for your time right now, and some of them pay better." Susan sighed, weakly slumping into her notes in defeat.
She wasn't wrong exactly since finals were almost upon them, and Harry's ability in Transfiguration made study time with him a very high-demand commodity. Which was nice as it made him feel very wanted and popular despite the fact he was very aware people were just using him for a better grade.
She was also very right in that Slytherins sure as heck did pay better, and while she wasn't very buddy-buddy with them in general, Susan was one of the few non-snakes who paid attention and respected how that particular house operated. She probably took after Madam Bones quite a bit in that despite being a Hufflepuff, she was very aware how the whole politics and favor-trading thing worked and didn't automatically hate them for it, merely respecting the game for what it was despite not wanting to play herself. It was nice she recognized that Harry could get quite a lot of things by trading his study time with the Slytherins, but instead he was happy to spend time with non-Slytherins for free—or friendship and the pursuit of knowledge, which the other three houses would appreciate a lot more.
He laughed off her comment easily, stretching a bit since they'd been at this for quite a while now. "Who says I'm not getting anything out of this?"
"You know I hate it when you do that." She groaned, setting down her own quill too, thankful for the break.
"Do what?"
"Scheme or whatever."
"How am I supposed to get anything done without a scheme or two?" He defended himself flippantly, not even bothering to pretend he wasn't a devious little shit when he wanted to be. Susan was already very well aware of that fact, after all.
Truth was, despite how he liked the power trip of having pretty much everyone he knew beg for his time, he also got tired of it really quickly. He had no desire to spend from dawn till dusk studying, and no matter how much he liked Transfiguration, having the same conversations about first, second, and third year level Transfiguration skills when he was already several years ahead of that got so unbelievably boring.
Also, basics of supply and demand was that if there was low supply, the demand would be even higher. With that in mind as they reached the homestretch of time before finals and their professors started layering on the homework and prep-work for the exams, he'd very purposefully pulled back on the amount of time he spent doing last-minute Transfiguration lessons with people. At this point he was really only studying with his roommates (sans Ron, obviously) and had a two hour mini-lecture of his own once a week in an empty classroom with all his collected first years, of which he'd managed to gather some from all four houses, including Lake and Alden representing the snake house as always. The constant exposure and strict no-fighting environment Harry had cultivated during their time together seemed to slowly but surely wear his little Gryffindors down and he was happy to say that at this point they didn't seem to care at all that they were sharing a classroom with Slytherins anymore. They certainly weren't friendly exactly, but being completely apathetic of each other's existence was a good first step.
In reality, most people who could plan ahead of time to think to ask him for help had already gotten their time in—meaning Slytherin and Ravenclaw had already done study sessions with him on spells that had given them trouble during the semester as they were learning them, and no longer needed to binge their notes to prepare for finals (though the eagles definitely were still doing that). He had put together nice little packets of relevant spells, easy explanations, and references if needed that were quite handy if he did say so himself, particularly as the twins happily helped him with a duplication spell to make dozens of copies since that was a bit above his skill level in Charms. He'd handed them out to his first years already, done a few last-minute favors with his year mates, and even had a third-year packet for some upper years who were willing to swallow their pride and ask for them. He was really thrilled that he even snagged a few third year Slytherins who paid extra in their trades just to be sure he never let anyone know about it.
The packets meant he could still help people without needing to actually spend time studying with everyone, so it was a win-win on all fronts. Neville was an angel who Harry would be studying with on all subjects so he was immune to that arrangement, and he also owed Dean and Seamus far more than he could ever truly pay them back for as they played mediators between him and Ron, so clearly they were exempt as well. Draco probably would've been an exception too, but he actually didn't need the help—again, they'd studied together throughout the semester and so he seemed to have his finals pretty much in hand; the blond didn't seem worried about it at all.
In fact, Draco seemed to be extremely preoccupied by something else entirely, something Harry had originally assumed was the exams but that apparently wasn't it given he had no interest in studying with anyone right now, not just him. It felt like they hadn't seen each other in forever but he also didn't want to disrupt whatever his friend had going on right now as he obviously had his mind set to it. Since they weren't going to see each other over break Harry was just assuming he was working on a new scheme to fill the time and let him be for now.
All in all, he wasn't as busy as a lot of people assumed he'd be. He was studying his ass off on his own subjects beyond Transfiguration since he was by no means a prodigy in anything else, but he wasn't accepting offers to study with anyone new right now unless the deal was too good to pass up.
Studying with Susan now was a bit of a special situation, in that she was really struggling with the Hystrifors spell, which was transfiguring a porcupine into a pin cushion. She could actually do the spell decently well, but they were probably going to be quizzed on the theory behind it too and she was struggling to wrap her mind around it despite having his notes packet, having asked McGonagall for another explanation, and studying with her housemates about it too. Some things just weren't as easy to learn as others and he could tell she really needed the assistance so he made an exception to help her through this one spell.
It was different than someone else asking because they wanted help—Susan had honestly tried every other option available to her with no great success, so her ask was a bit more out of need than convenience—with that in mind Harry was only too happy to be of service, this time genuinely as a friend.
I mean… he would've done it for that reason alone, the power of friendship and whatnot… but he also knew having Madam Bones on his side was going to be critical for, not just saving Sirius Black, but pretty much every other goal in life he had right now. She was the lady in charge of law enforcement and a fellow Dumbledore-hater, so maintaining an immaculate relationship with the Bones family was high on his list of priorities.
He also loved Susan to bits, but he wouldn't be the lion that almost got put in the snake house if he didn't keep that key fact in the back of his mind as he operated too.
He felt less bad about that mindset than if he'd had those thoughts about anyone else, since he was fairly certain Susan also kind of realized he was in contact with her aunt more than he was outright telling her. Nepotism was seen as normal in this world after all, and despite how nice Susan was she was also a pureblood who probably didn't think twice about using her aunt's connections as her own—nor would she think it that outrageous that Harry would use their friendship to get close to her aunt if need be. Susan always seemed to be on her toes and very conscious of who she was talking to at all times: she never excluded anyone but Harry knew for certain that if she didn't trust him or his scheming as he put it, then Madam Bones would be getting a letter and all contact would cease without Susan actually needing to break off the friendship herself.
It was in this dreadfully transparent dishonesty that he never bothered to hide that he was up to something with her, despite never actually giving her the full picture of what it was. She didn't ask though, seeming content not to know—perhaps for now only, and one day she'd come collecting. Harry would really have no way to lie to her when that day finally came, though he trusted her enough at this point he would probably be okay telling her the truth eventually.
Which was rare, he hardly told the truth if he could help it. But Susan was so solid and discrete, the true definition of a reliable Hufflepuff, that he was sure his secrets would stay safe with her even if she disagreed. They probably wouldn't stay secret from Madam Bones though, given how he'd seen them interact so far, but he thought he and the head of the DMLE had very like-minded goals so that probably wouldn't be the worst… so long as it happened in the future, preferably when Sirius was free of Azkaban for good.
"I suppose if you weren't scheming I'd be more concerned at this point." She allowed.
"If I weren't scheming I'd hope that would mean I'd finally reach inner peace. When that day comes please congratulate me instead of reporting me to the authorities for being suspicious." He snipped and she rolled her eyes with a grin, the tension in her shoulders leaving some. The struggle of studying this spell had clearly been getting to her when her genuine hard work had not been yielding fruit; Harry couldn't only sympathize.
"Still, thank you for doing this."
"Your gratitude is making me blush. Maybe this is why I don't do things without trading for them—sheer embarrassment."
"Embarrassed to be seen as a nice guy?" She challenged with a snicker.
"I dunno, I've never really considered if people think of me as nice or whatever. I care more on if they think I'm a celebrity or an asshole—of which I'd like to be neither. If being seen as overly nice means I can't take people to task for being pricks though then I'm not sure being nice is good for the image," He ranted a bit, never really having given any of this thought before.
What people thought of him?
… on the most part people who walked up to him with pre-conceived notions of who the "Boy Who Lived" was, he immediately just didn't have time for them. If they approached as a friend he had never really thought twice about what they thought of him… he was usually more concerned about if he liked them and if they were going to cause problems or not. 'Were they a threat or a friend' was the question at any given time, and that most he considered what someone thought about him as a person were people like Draco and Neville.
He cared about his reputation because he knew Slytherin was watching him with a bloody magnifying glass about things like that to see if he was worth letting sit at their table for meals, but reputation never meant the same thing of if they liked him or not.
Prime example was Theo. Harry was pretty sure the quiet snake didn't really dislike him as a person, not even last year where he'd refused to speak to him—that front was all about that bad rep he had in being THE Gryffindor according to the reputation that preceded him. He knew for a fact that Blaise liked him a lot, but should he ever become of ill reputation, he was sure he'd get dropped like a sack of potatoes in favor of survival.
Slytherin held his attention most days as they needed that attention—if he took his eyes off the situation over there for a second he'd have sharks circling him immediately, since they could smell weakness like a Great White could smell blood from leagues away. The other houses though… they didn't have nearly the same emphasis on reputation, what they had was something closer to gossip that changed weekly with the wind. He cared less, or should he say he was less wary of them and what they thought because nine times out of ten they'd get over their whispering and juicy rumors if Harry just ignored it and made himself known in each house by playing quidditch and football with them all like nothing was wrong. The whole parselmouth thing had proven that pretty well.
Or, well, he thought he understood the situation until Susan's expression got a little softer at his words, like she was pitying him?
What's that about?
She glanced around almost as if to double check they weren't going to get overheard, since they were in the Great Hall right now, but the other groups had self-distanced enough to give everyone enough space to work independently. Hagrid had been making trips all afternoon to put up the decorations and drag in each of the 12 Christmas trees one by one, and since dinner was still a ways off and finals had everyone occupying every corner they could in study groups, the Great Hall was a popular place as you could talk about topics with others without feeling like you were intruding on people's study space compared to if you were trying to study with others in your dorm, the common rooms, or the library. Also a bonus to studying here was that his tea cup was never empty or cold as he now knew Nodky was keeping watch on him here so he could keep working always refreshed.
Happy the nearest group at the Hufflepuff table was far enough away to not be eavesdropping, she gave him a sympathetic look that he did not understand at all.
"I hope you're not taking what they say to heart." She gave him a frown, tone clearly saying she was here if he wanted to talk.
Harry though, just blinked at her.
"…what they say?" He repeated, not computing.
Why do I feel like they're not saying nice things going by her tone?
She seemed to realize in an instant and her face dropped into a look of shock.
"Are you serious?" She demanded indignantly, taken aback.
"Um… Neville told me apparently if it's not nice I have the superpower of being able to just tune people out." He admitted, and she rolled her eyes, sympathy disappearing in a huff so she only looked exasperated now.
"Must be nice." She complained in a tone that caught his attention, titling his head some.
"… are you taking what they say to heart?"
"'What they say'?" She repeated with another eye roll and he gave her that one.
"I mean I haven't heard anything bad but going by that reaction I feel like I need to have a conversation with someone."
Susan gave an amused chuckle at that, but actually smiled at the (only half joking) offer. Even if that smile was kind of sad looking… so he shut up and let the silence speak for itself. She eventually worked up to get what was clearly bothering her off her chest.
"…don't tell anyone, but sometimes I envy the Slytherins." She admitted with a slight wince.
"Eh?" He blinked again. "That's completely not what I was expecting you to say. Not sure what I was expecting but it definitely wasn't that."
All she could do was shrug a bit. "I wouldn't tell this to any other Gryffindor but of all people I'd think you'd get it."
"I guess," He allowed, not really seeing how she could be just randomly jealous. He did like the snakes, obviously, but he hadn't ever sat there and earnestly wished he'd been in their house instead or ever regretted his decision to be in Gryffindor.
Which was encouraging to realize actually, as people had been making a lot of comments about how he should've been in the snake house these days. It was honestly kind of refreshing to realize that he himself did not for a second think he was actually wrong to be in Gryffindor, which was a surprisingly well-adjusted attitude he didn't expect from himself.
Huh.
Susan was obvious to his internal revelation here as she frowned, putting words to her own struggles as she confessed, "Sometimes, it's hard to tell if people even care about what they're saying. Like, they're nice or friendly but also… are they talking because they're being friendly or do they actually want to, like, talk?" She ranted a bit, and yeah it really did feel like a guilty confession so Harry just shut his mouth and nodded along. "Slytherins never say anything unless they really mean it. Even if maybe it's not nice or they sit in silence… at least when they do say something it's because it means something to them."
She clearly hadn't spent a lot of time with Blaise, which was, you know, good for her mental health so he wasn't going to bring that up. Instead:
"Trust me there are some nonsensically chatty snakes over there, but yeah, I do think I get what you mean. Not a big fan of pointless small talk, huh?" He allowed.
"Not really." She slumped into her notes a bit listlessly.
"If you wanted to talk about more serious stuff…?"
"That's not it either, I don't have some big troubles to share or anything. I'm sure if I really needed to talk through something serious or had some trouble my housemates would be more than happy to support me, which I'm thankful for… I just wish normal conversation had more weight than it feels like they do."
He did get that somehow… Gryffindor did talk a lot with nothing really important coming out of it most of the time. It was fun and 'nice' and all that, talking about essentially nothing like chatting about today's classes or recent quidditch news, whatever was in the paper or the weather…
Honestly, when put into perspective like that, Harry could not name what his dormmates had talked about at breakfast last week—it was literally gone from his memory for good now, as it had not been important enough to remember something like that. They'd probably talked about the football season being on pause because of the snow, probably about their homework given its notable increase lately… but the specifics? Harry couldn't repeat them if he tried.
But he could recall literally every word said at the Slytherin table for lunch two weeks ago, as Daphne had spilled a lot of critical information about some pureblood drama that Harry suspected he would one day care about if he ever attended a tea tasting or something like that. Also, the witty banter between her and Blaise was one of his favorite past times from how clever it was, so the whole thing had stuck with him. Words within the snake house just had this… as Susan put it, weight that other daily conversations didn't.
Not that he wouldn't have gone insane if that's all he did, should he have been put in Slytherin. Sometimes he liked talking about nothing and just being chill with people without it needing to be so critical all that time… which was probably why he split his time between the two houses as much as he could, to mix it up maybe.
"Maybe that's petty." She misinterpreted his silent pondering over that as judgement, but he waved her off quickly.
"It's not wrong though." He acknowledged genuinely. "I think Slytherins come to mind because they're a bit backhanded—everything they say has double meanings and they consider it a sport to say one thing and have it mean multiple other things. Maybe you're picking up on that."
"Even if I tried to replicate that, it means little if no one else picks up on it." She complained lightly, and speaking of schemes… he really couldn't help himself as he got an idea.
"True… but instead of wishing something different of your current friends, you could just add some friends to your arsenal who would." He offered as diplomatically as he could, and she blinked at him this time.
"What?"
"I'm saying, why don't you get some Slytherin friends if you're craving some mental mind games?" He grinned and she stared at him like he'd grown another head.
After a brief pause to absorb that:
"You say that like I can just pick up friends at the store." She said it in a deadpan but Harry could tell she was partly amused too. He shrugged.
"I mean that's what I do. Just go up and adopt one of them, trust me it works great."
"Why do I just not believe you?"
"What about Daphne?"
Susan almost did a full double take before her face flickered some. "Greengrass huh…"
"You play against each other all the time in the football club, don't you? If she's a worthy rival surely she's a worthy friend right? And Davis hates me but I have a suspicion she'll at least give you half a chance if you're on good terms with Daphne. You not being a Gryffindor means you're already way ahead of me in making them like you!"
She looked like she was honestly tempted by this suggestion, but then suddenly shot him an exasperated look at that last part.
"See, this is why I don't trust you—'making them like you' is not how people typically talk about making friends."
"Excuse me, the results speak for themselves! You're my friend right?"
She gave the mother of all eye rolls and sent a very clear message about what she thought of that.
"Oh, I highly doubt I would've given you the time of day if Hannah didn't have a massive crush on you last year."
Wait what?
He did his own double take that time as… that made no sense, did it? Susan paused too as she realized he had no immediate response to that and froze.
"… excuse me?" He asked. Not so much because he hadn't heard but more… because what?
Her face flushed as she balked, getting angry but clearly because she was now completely mortified she'd let slip something he didn't already know.
"How the hell do you not notice these things!?"
"Excuse me?"
"Do not tell her that I was the one who told you that! Also she got over it like immediately so this is dead news! Don't get worked up over it!" She explained before forcibly dropping her voice into angry whispers less they be overheard, still blushing hard as she realized she'd slipped up.
"Oh my god," He was just… flabbergasted.
Maybe he was kind of flattered, but honestly he was more just shocked.
Hannah had always just been his friend… although in hindsight, them trying to just watch the football club from the sidelines last year rather than participate until he'd forced them by ultimatum suddenly made a lot more sense.
Susan suddenly got over being embarrassed and gave him a very critical warning look. "You don't have to look like she's the last girl on earth you would've ever considered liking, you know." She defended her best friend and he fixed his face immediately even if was just bottling up the reaction instead.
"Sorry, that's not what I meant. I do like Hannah— as a friend is all! Literally has never crossed my mind to date anyone to be honest, it's not about her specifically!"
"I've seen you flirt with a Slytherin or two though." She pointed out in a near disapproving tone, but she just made his world shift to the left five degrees.
"Excuse me?" He exploded once again, unable to bottle that reaction up for sure. She sighed a very world-weary sigh, putting her face in her hands.
"Why are you like this."
"What!? Susan what? If you're talking about Blaise then it's a complete joke, you do know that right!?"
"Zabini? No, stop, I don't want to know," She snapped her head up in alarm before immediately deciding against following that line of conversation. "You're telling me you don't even have a crush on anyone right now?"
"I'm twelve?"
Why did that come out as a question?
He shook it off immediately.
"I figured there'd be an 'eventually' for that kind of stuff but uh, no?" He defended himself. He'd really been underestimating how much girls talked about this stuff apparently.
He also did not understand the look she was giving him.
"Well… if you ever do figure it out you have to tell me who you're crushing on because I'm dying to know what your type is."
"Susan what?"
"It's a girl thing." She shrugged like his shock meant nothing to her.
"Okay? I guess?" He just went with it, mind too frazzled by that many shocks in a row to really absorb any of this. "What is even happening right now?"
"As fun as this is, we're really off topic. Going back to this spell really quickly… be honest with me, what are my chances on it?" She changed the subject rather tactlessly, which he didn't appreciate because he had a lot of questions right now… but also, something told him he was probably happier not knowing, so he let it drop with a reluctant grunt to announce his displeasure.
"Fine… so far as your chances? It really depends on what the question they ask is. Luckily for you though…" He turned around the parchment he'd been writing on while she took notes and slid it in front of her, and Susan wilted a bit when she realized.
"That hopeless, huh?"
He gave a little shrug. "I'm pretty sure you'd get it eventually, but you've got other classes to study for and spending so much effort on one spell seems like a waste. At this point just cut your losses and flat out memorize that instead."
He had done enough poking around McGonagall to know generally what kind of question they were going to be asked about this question, meaning how to compare the theory of how it worked to other animal-based transfiguration spells. Susan really had put in the effort to try and learn this but sometimes it wasn't that easy… and she could do the spell just fine, so this muddling over theory wasn't going to be that important for her in life in general. She'd put in her dues and it just hadn't yielded results so he was fine simply handing her the answer she could memorize for the exam instead of wasting brainpower on this one sticking point. He'd been sure to copy the wording she'd been using as they talked about this too, so it wouldn't sound like his words. He was pretty sure McGonagall wouldn't notice as he had a rather distinct method of writing at this point and he'd paired the paragraph he'd just handed to Susan way down to make it realistic it'd come from her instead.
Besides, with the amount of his notes floating around Hogwarts, he was 100% sure McGonagall would notice those he'd helped study compared to those producing entirely unique essays. Since she knew Harry and Susan were friends it would only make so much sense that Susan was probably regurgitating something Harry had told her during one of their study sessions. He was sure people like Seamus and Dean would also have quotes of something Harry had said in their essays, just because that's how they learned some of their Transfiguration principles, which meant if everyone was clearly pulling from his knowledge then Susan would blend right in and not be overtly noticeable copying him instead of citing him. It was only one question after all.
She slumped but accepted it, hanging her head in defeat. "You're right… thank you for this."
"No problem at all! Sorry to not be of more help."
"It's a me-problem at this point. I'm not sure why I can't wrap my head around it," She pouted, but did seem relieved to finally close her notebook, hiding the parchment within its pages for safe keeping.
"Some things are just like that… I mean, I've got Transfiguration down, but don't ask me how my Charms final is going to go," He sighed dramatically and she smiled a bit more reassured at that.
They finished gathering their things now that the session was silently being called to an end, Susan stretching some pointedly while he packed his books away, keeping an easy pace as they left the Great Hall. He leaned back, putting his hands behind his head as they made their way back through the castle, but it felt nice to have nothing urgent to do anymore, work done and now it just being a matter of what kind of play they wanted to do.
"You know, you never really answered me about whatever they are saying about me that I've apparently missed." He pointed out.
"Do you really want to know? Aren't you happier not knowing?"
"Depends… how bad is it?"
"Hmmm… knowing you, maybe not that bad? If you actually cared about this kind of stuff that would be new." She suddenly let out a laugh, seeming amused by her own realization. "Actually, maybe I shouldn't tell you more for their safety than your feelings."
He instantly figured it out.
"Let me guess, it's the anti-Slytherin sentiment that really freakin' hates me because I have breakfast with them sometimes?"
"That's pretty much it. I'll spare you the specifics of the nasty things I've heard they're saying, but essentially it sounds like a group of upper-year Gryffindors aren't thrilled about you in general. And yeah, mostly about the Slytherin thing."
"If they wanted Harry Potter the celebrity then I can't say I'm that upset I disappointed them." He made a face and she just gave him a vaguely amused look like she had expected that.
"I'm not entirely sure what their exact problem is. The fact they haven't just confronted you is a little weird, given I would've thought that'd be Gryffindor's thing." She admitted.
"Honestly me too… maybe they're just hoping the rumors or whatever will get to me eventually?"
"Joke's on them given you didn't even notice until I flat out told you. And I'm not even in your house!"
She snickered and he had to smile at that, even if it was a hit to his ego somewhat.
"I had always figured I had no power with the upper years… like our classmates sure, and I can bully first years into playing nice, and even the twins are great allies to have in the fourth-year area… but older years who've already spent most of their time at Hogwarts picking on Slytherins until there isn't just prejudice but genuine bad blood between them probably wouldn't ever really work."
Susan turned from where they were walking to give him a genuinely perturbed frown.
"You've actually given it that much thought?"
"Of course! The goal is to be at peace here, and I can't be at peace if everyone around me is hexing each other. Also my Slytherin friends would not be nearly so chill if like, Seamus sitting right next to me was going around calling them slimy snakes or something, so getting everyone on board was always the plan."
"I didn't realize it was a real conspiracy here, you schemer." She grumbled.
"A conspiracy of one, but yeah whatever." Harry waved her off uncaringly. "You can't judge me, you're benefitting from it too! It's not just Gryffindor and Slytherin, although they're the worst for sure, but you hanging out with Lu and being free to sit at the Ravenclaw table is also a side effect of me deciding house lines were bullshit you know. You wouldn't even know he existed if not for the football club given he's in a different house and a year older."
"I suppose I can't argue that." She allowed a bit grudgingly. "Well, in any case…. how much specifically do you want on these rumors exactly?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like… you want to know, but how many details? There's anti-Slytherin sentiment of course but…" She trailed off pointedly.
He pressed his lips together as he considered it but… as negative as it'd probably be, he wanted to know. And it was probably better to hear it from someone who represented the general Hogwarts student body better than someone like Blaise while he had the chance.
"The short version, if there is one." He decided.
"Well, it sounds like they're not really over the 'you being a parselmouth' thing. Given the timing with this chamber opening and also learning about your ability, they think it too obvious or suspicious."
He sighed, but even he could see how that had happened.
"I mean, I never hid the fact I could talk to snakes, I literally didn't know that wasn't a normal wizarding-world thing until Draco pointed it out."
"We know." Susan just shrugged it off. That was right, they'd talked about it in the football club when it had happened, so most people who were familiar with him on some level already knew it wasn't some grand secret to him, it just so happened to have worked out that way. The fact the timing was so close to the chamber thing was… unfortunate, but if he were to be the culprit, letting that information get out would've been a really bad play as it'd do exactly what these upper years fell for: tie him too closely to the Slytherin bloodline.
Luckily most people had reached their own assumption that being a parselmouth wasn't actually tied to being Slytherin's descendant before the 'Slytherin's heir' warning was written in blood on the wall, so even if it had crossed some people's mind how ironic or suspiciously related those two separate events were, they hadn't voiced it.
Except these upper years, obviously.
He was happy they didn't seem to be getting much steam in the rumor mill with this perspective, but he wanted to be sure to discredit them if he could.
"I thought the idea of the Chamber of Secrets actually being opened was still up for debate though? Like Slytherin itself thought it was a hoax given writing in blood on the wall is frankly a lion thing to do for how dramatic it was."
"Not to Marcus Flint." Susan just gave a simple shrug and Harry pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.
"God damn Flint… you do know his own house hates him, right?"
"I picked up on that, yeah. Upper year Gryffindors who are forced to share classes with him while he's going on and on about how Slytherin's monster is gonna get all the filth apparently did not pick up on that."
"So he's running his fat mouth and his year Gryffindors are now of the belief that this mythical chamber has opened and that Slytherin's heir is running around siccing a monster on muggleborns?"
Susan gave him a pointed look.
He balked but then burst out laughing.
"Oh my god, they think it's me!?"
"Yep."
"The hell?"
"You're a parselmouth, seems to be all the explanation they need. They're clearly of the camp that you have to be Slytherin's descendant to have that skill."
He snorted bluntly, but he had to give them an ounce of credit there.
Technically, they're not wrong. No one knows about that though, and it was clear Blaise did that on purpose so I'll let it be for now. It helps me right now in any case as it splits people—if everyone knew I was actually distantly related to Slytherin then their horrendous theory that I'm this 'heir' would get far more traction than I'd like.
With that being said, he decided to lie instead.
"I'm not saying they're right, but I guess I do see how they logic-ed that one out. Stupid as it is there's a train of thought there I suppose."
"They also think that's why He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named couldn't kill you."
"Eh?" His head snapped around to her in surprise, but relaxed when she didn't seem that bothered by it, merely relaying news she'd heard without being concerned over it. That was good… it had even less credence than their Slytherin's heir theory then.
"That you already has some dark and twisty power protecting you from his dark and twisty power or something." She elaborated, but even as she said it, Harry could tell she thought it was just as ridiculous as she was making it sound.
On one hand, he'd never heard anyone speculate about how he'd survived the dark lord as an infant, so it was kind of a shock to hear something like that brought out of nowhere.
On the other hand… that was a pretty fucking ridiculous theory. If he had some dark and twisty power that was strong enough to vanquish a dark lord, then why the hell did a bunch of muggles give him so much trouble?
He couldn't help but laugh loudly, perhaps slightly hysterically at the ridiculousness of it all.
"I take it all back, they're dumb as trolls." He decided loudly for Susan and the empty hall around them to hear.
She gave a gentle laugh of her own when she saw he wasn't offended by any of this. "Luckily they seem to be a loud, and frankly ignored minority. Most people who've actually met you and talked to you for three seconds would know that if you had control of this monster you'd immediately use it to kill whoever actually attacked Colin."
"Excuse me?" He was about to be offended before she locked him with another look. He suddenly realized her point and immediately gave in. "Okay that's a fair. I'd like to think I wouldn't kill them… but turnabout's fair play, I'd totally petrify them if I could."
"Figured."
"What exactly is my reputation again that everyone thinks I'm that violent?"
"You bully first years as a hobby."
"Why does everyone keep bringing that up!? I also teach them Transfiguration and dueling!" He exclaimed jokingly.
"That doesn't balance anything out you know; life is not a game of scales. You can't do something bad to someone and then also something good and expect them to cancel out."
He had to pause—as in, physically stop walking for a moment— and tilt his head to the side as that hit home with him.
…huh.
"What a blunt way to put it." He complained, immediately wincing as he put together that… perhaps he thought a bit too much like that in trying to 'make things up' to people sometimes.
Remus… Neville… Draco… Seamus, Dean, Hagrid, even Susan right here and right now—anyone he'd ever wronged or lied to he'd always told himself he'd 'make it up' to them one day or by doing 'this' or… any manner of things. Some mythical day when he had control of his own life and could get things he wanted or things he thought others would want in the end too, if only they could silently forgive his dishonesty and lies by omission…
He shook it off quickly, realizing those were some dark thoughts he'd start spiraling into if he didn't keep it light for today.
"Realizing some things?" Susan teased, ignorant of the slight crisis she'd triggered and he only just barely managed to squash.
"Shut up." He made a show of petulantly pouting but was relieved when she let it go easily, not sensing his hesitation there. The fact they'd stopped walking for a moment caused Susan to actually look at there they were standing though and did a double take.
"Wait a second, where are we going?" She suddenly realized their aimless direction while they were chatting.
"Gryffindor tower?"
She blinked and then looked at him… and blinked again.
"Okay, but why am I going to Gryffindor tower? I'll head back and see you later then," She made to turn around but he instantly looped his arm around her's and made a show of pouting—none of which she bought for a second.
"Noooo Susan come oooon—we just studied for hours let's play a game of exploding snap or something!"
"In Gryffindor tower!?"
"Why not?" He gave her his best devilish grin and she made a hard face.
"We just talked about upper years hating you for not being lion-like enough and you invite me right into the den? You really do have a few screws loose, don't you?"
"No, you said they hated me for being too chummy with Slytherins, and you're not a Slytherin! What the honest to god hell would they have to say about me being friends with a Hufflepuff?" He demanded.
"I really don't think you get the nuances here. The implication was they hate you for being chummy with Slytherins, but you not keeping to your house in general doesn't earn you a lot of points with anyone."
"With anyone?"
She paused, and allowed a slight correction. "With Gryffindor."
Harry had to slump some, because he'd kind of expected that answer but at the same time… it was one of those things is wasn't ignorant of, he just really, really didn't want to pay it any attention in hopes it'd just go away.
"…am I actually that stupid or have I never really noticed how isolationist Gryffindor is?"
She relaxed, giving him another pitying look. "I mean… no one likes to think they've got prejudice or that they share something in common with their enemy. Both Slytherin and Gryffindor are pretty isolationist, yeah, said from the perspective of an outsider. I've never had any trouble talking to a Ravenclaw but… you're by far the friendliest Gryffindor I know. Everyone else kind of keeps to their own little in-house cliques." She admitted, and seemed genuinely uncomfortable with needing to say it.
'Friendly' probably wasn't the right word. The lions had a great reputation of being 'the good guys', but they didn't actually mix out-of-house any more than Slytherin did. You could have a conversation with a lion and they come away thinking you a great person, but they wouldn't pick a non-lion as their best friend or invite them to meals or do anything more than have some small talk-level conversations every now and then.
The football club had been going a long way for that, but in hindsight even Dean and Seamus didn't really hang out with Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs now that the season was paused due to the snow. They'd chat for hours about upcoming games but hadn't exactly seen them in a Ravenclaw study group this month. They were definitely in their own little bubble, and Harry had an unkind thought to wonder if that's why they were putting so much effort into Ron instead of bluntly ignoring his existence like Harry did—he was still a Gryffindor, so even if they didn't like him they were trying to make it work.
Family before everything else, and Gryffindor had this unspoken ideal that their loyalty to each other was more familial in nature than other houses. No matter the conflict, you sucked it up and forgave each other because you were all Gryffindors and that meant more than anything else in the end.
But Harry was also blood related to people like Salazar Slytherin and Petunia Dursley—and honestly he didn't know which one was worse. He knew next to nothing about his father other than that he played quidditch and was a prankster, while Dell Monroe felt like a long lost sister to him through her journals.
The blood purists in the snake house might clutch their pearls to hear him say it, but blood ties meant nothing to him.
Words like 'family' meant nothing unless you gave it meaning. This… unspoken expectation that he had to put effort into anyone just because they were 'one of them' itched at the defensiveness he always got when people tried to boss him around like a bad case of poison ivy.
Ironically, his rejection of ideas like blood and family would probably have both Gryffindor and Slytherin mad at him. Maybe he found that deeply amusing in a dark way, but he wouldn't go talking about this too openly in either snake or lion dead.
Luckily he was talking to a badger who was much more straightforward than most of his other friends.
"Lame." He decided bluntly, and true to his suspicions Susan just laughed softly at his reaction. "But I mean it's not like anyone would put up a huge fuss to see you there, right? Come on, play a round of exploding snap at least!"
Susan had softened slightly over the course of this conversation, but he could tell she wasn't that swayed. Instead, she got a glint in her eye.
"I mean… I might say yes to a game or two but we don't have to go to Gryffindor exactly if you wanted to—"
"Wotcher there Harry!" A bellowing voice caused them both to jump a bit, needing to move immediately from where they were standing blocking the hallway to make way for a huge form that came round the corner suddenly. Hagrid, who'd been in and out all day carrying those big Christmas trees and other decorations into the castle, came bustling by in a huff holding yet another load…
Although Harry had to do a double take in disgust for a second.
"Oh my god Hagrid—why are you carrying around a bunch of dead chickens!?" He exclaimed, and the giant man paused in whatever mission he'd clearly been on to give a crumpled look.
"Oh, somethin's been killing my roosters all year and I've 'bout had enough! Gonna see if Flitwick has a charm or so ta catch the little bugger," He complained, certainly looking upset.
"Did you need to bring the dead rooster with you to show him?" Harry half joked, indicating the iridescent feathers falling to the floor around them, but surprisingly Susan piped up.
"I mean a fox or some predator would've eaten them right? That's not even bleeding." She pointed to the dead bird in the groundkeeper's hand, seeming very unperturbed by the sudden scene for someone not that familiar with Hagrid herself.
"Aye, tha's what's been botherin' me—it's been happening' in broad daylight and I'd figure if it were some other critter tha's just the way life goes, but I'm pretty sure these poor fools 'ave been strangled like someone's gonna cook 'em up," He complained, certainly sounding like a toddler upset his toy had been broken… if he were eight feet tall and talking about murdering chickens while holding their corpses.
"Wait, you think it's a person?" Harry startled. Particularly because, given their conversation topic just now, the only other animal killer of recent history had gone after Mrs. Norris and could also somehow petrify things apparently.
Susan, for some reason, was much less surprised.
"I mean, it's a rooster. If it were waking people up at ungodly hours, sleep deprivation can do crazy things to people. I can empathize although I probably wouldn't resort to killing them."
"Holy shit Susan—are you serious?" Harry gaped at her, but she could only shrug.
"There've been some incidents in Hufflepuff caused by some serial snorers. Don't ask."
"Like hell, I'm absolutely going to ask," He exploded but she pointedly ignored him.
Hagrid seemed a bit perturbed by this conversation too, seeming to lose some of his steam in marching towards Flitwick's office. "Ah… perhaps I should be askin' Sprout for her input then,"
"I'm not saying it is a person, just that I wouldn't be surprised!" Susan defended herself and her house, although a lot less aggressively than one might think. "Roosters are really annoying Hagrid, maybe ask one of the professors to put a silencing charm on the next batch you have."
"Silence them to save their lives? I had no idea you were so brutal," Harry could not believe this conversation, but for some reason he was enjoying it immensely. Particularly when Susan gave him an annoyed look for his teasing.
"You are not one to talk, jerk. The whole school saw you stab Malfoy with needles, remember?"
"Point taken, but that was legal in a duel and murdering Hagrid's pets is a bit bigger of a deal than a detention—isn't that a literal crime?"
"Not technically if it was self-defense."
"Self-defense from a rooster?"
"They're pretty aggressive you know." Susan shrugged matter-of-factly. Harry hated to admit she had a point, and Hagrid specifically had a history of owning dangerous pets, one such incident technically ending in his expulsion of Hogwarts so there was no way that would hold much water as an argument.
Not that Susan knew that, but Harry was suddenly reminded sometimes that Madam Bones was pretty much the entire wizarding world's sense of justice and her niece had clearly inherited a strict and clear understanding of how the law worked in this magical society. He struggled to argue against her when she got like this.
Still, he crossed his arms over his chest half playfully.
"Susan, did you kill the roosters?"
"What!? No!" she shouted at him, instantly realizing what he was doing by his smirk and punched him in the shoulder. Which actually really freaking hurt, he realized as he had to clutch it harshly to fend off the incoming bruise. "You asshole! No I didn't kill them, I'm just saying it you want to catch whoever did it or at least stop it from happening, any professor could put silencing charms on them next time and Professor Flitwick also probably knows a ward or something to track who enters your property, or at least your chicken coop Hagrid," She explained, and the giant man seed to follow that… somewhat. He didn't seem 100% sure on if they were joking around with that conversation but then decided to believe that they were, and accepted her words instead.
"I'll go speak ta Filius then— thanks you two! Good luck with the exams if I don' see ya before then," He cheered as he continued his journey.
"Thanks Hagrid!" Harry called but sighed a bit at the reminder of the dreaded week ahead of them. He immediately yelped when Susan gave him a sharp kick to the shin once more for good measure. "Sorry, sorry! I just thought it was funny you were so chill about murdered chickens is all!"
"Baseless accusations like that aren't cool, you know how the rumor mill works around here," She huffed.
Harry couldn't deny that given his own position with the upper years of his own house, but thought they were safe enough given it was just them an Hagrid for that… although she did have a point, Hagrid had a habit of repeating things he may or may not fully understand. Should he go repeat any of that conversation given he'd clearly missed all the subtext and sarcasm, that could cause some nasty rumors to appear…
Huh… and Harry had been getting pretty cocky in his ability to choose his words carefully these days. Maybe that was a bit of misplaced confidence.
"Sorry," he apologized more sincerely. "Do you really think it's a person killing them though? Given the other pet killed we know of was the infamous one that hurt Mrs. Norris." He pointed out, and Susan sighed a bit.
"Honestly who knows. With the chicken thing the best bet Hagrid has is to set up a ward and catch them in the act next time. Aside from Veritaserum there's not a lot of good ways to properly convict someone of something they've already gotten away with."
"Wait what? So if I get away with something no one can retroactively punish me for it?" He frowned and she shot him a wary look.
"I mean… there are ways but it's difficult. The most pivotal are witness accounts, which is why baseless accusations are the bane of my existence," She pierced him with a glare which he put his hands up in surrender at. "If someone is accused of a crime, and there's no proof of the crime itself, the first thing to lean on is witness accounts of what they saw happen. If that's enough to convince the court then the Veritaserum is brought out and it's proven or not." She explained. "But we don't have any idea who or what killed those chickens, so without someone to accuse there's not much we can do since no one saw anything or even knows if someone did kill them or not."
Harry felt a twitch in his brain at how wildly this world's justice system worked.
"What's Veritaserum if it's the end all be all?"
"It's a truth potion, but one of the most powerful in existence. It's only legally used in a court setting to get confessions from people put on trial. There's a ton of arguments around it since it's a magic that takes people's will away and forces them to out themselves, like some other nasty dark curses that exist, so it's only used when absolutely necessary if a judgement can't be obtained through other means."
"So… it's dark magic. But because the Ministry uses it they don't call it that." He pointed out and she did a sharp double take, looking disturbed.
"Excuse me?"
Oops… she's a snake sympathizer but is not actually Slytherin enough to buy into that logic… duly noted.
"Er, never mind—it just sounds like it would solve a lot of issues legally and stuff if you could get people to confess that easily." He deflected.
"It's not 'that easy'—Veritaserum can only be made by potion masters, it's pricy and needs to be secured from tampering to be admissible in court. Then there's the ethical reasoning—it's one thing if someone asks for it to prove their own innocence but if you force it on someone who doesn't want it, where does that leave you?"
"I think I've had worse potions forced on me than one that makes me honest for a couple hours." He deadpanned, earning himself another glare that he wasn't taking this seriously. Thing was, he certainly was very invested in this conversation, for deeply personal reasons. "And seriously, what does cost or ethics matter compared to the general safety of the world in ensuring real criminals end up punished for their crimes? And for that matter, ensure innocent people don't end up in Azkaban."
Susan stared at him, uncomprehending.
"What do you mean innocent people? Innocent people would ask for Veritaserum and that would be that. Innocents don't end up in Azkaban." She said with the utmost of confidence that scraped at Harry's very soul to see displayed in front of his eyes so blatantly.
He opened his mouth but immediately had to reel it in… Mr. Greengrass had said secrecy was their friend until the time was right but… it was just so hard not to snap back as aggressively as he wanted to. All his hackles were raised but he needed to take a breath and realize her candor and assuredness in the justice of the world was not her fault—and half of him didn't want to ruin that belief for her either. Half of him really did, but the half of him that cared about his friend and didn't want to upset her so harshly on a random December day like this won out.
With great difficulty he just barely managed to keep it to himself for the sake of his supposedly innocent godfather.
He couldn't just let that stupidly naïve statement go though.
"Given the court system seems to be a big game of 'he said, she said', how sure are you of that Susan?" He demanded rhetorically and was going to leave it there even if she argued more about it.
Which, surprisingly, she didn't… or maybe not that surprisingly because Susan seemed entirely stun locked by that statement and was just gaping at him like a fish that he'd actually said that to her.
Sharp and clear view of the world indeed.. anything that muddled the scenery seemed to paralyze her.
Harry felt only a little bad about it. The world was not black and white no matter how much she believed, and also maybe wanted it to be.
He felt they were probably going to keep staring at each other for a minute or so as they failed to figure where else to go with this conversation, but as he searched for something to change the topic, they were suddenly interrupted once again by a sudden shriek from down the hall.
Harry tensed, wand instantly in his hand before he realized it was just Peeves causing a commotion one hall over.
Then he realized what the poltergeist was saying.
He was sprinting before he even fully realized what his body was doing, barely thinking twice to following the screaming as fast as he could force his feet to hit the stone floor to get there an instant quicker. He whipped around the corner and needed a second to absorb what he was seeing but fuck when he did—
There was a student on the ground.
Nearly Headless Nick was floating seemingly above him, more still than any ghost Harry has seen in this school thus far, and not reacting to the chaos going around him.
Peeves was zooming around the hall shrieking up a storm but distinctly not in the light hearted way than he normally was.
And Alden Cork had whipped around to see the newcomer in the hallway, looking pale as death but only slightly not so afraid to see that it was Harry who'd gotten there first.
"I—I d-didn't—!?" He stammered, and Harry walked briskly to him and shoved him sharply behind him to examine the situation further, wand still in hand and hackles raised for whatever danger still lurked about.
Footsteps against the stone behind them preceded a sharp inhale of shock.
"Justin!" Susan had obviously followed him, recognizing the student on the ground. Now closer and drawing Alden back from him… yeah, the Hufflepuff was definitely petrified.
Harry listened, but other than Peeves and Susan's cries of alarm at what happened he heard and sensed nothing in the hallway but them.
"Slytherin's done it! Slytherin's little monster did it! Bad little snake eating up the muggleborns! Little monster, little monster!" Peeves was cackling in a maddening way and Harry had the sharp urge to use his raised defenses to shoot a spell at the annoying pest—he knew from experience it'd only make his annoying antics amp up though so just barely refrained from attempting to hex him.
It was then that everyone else who had heard the poltergeist screaming finally caught up and came to investigate. Students spilled into the hallway from wherever they'd been and started screaming, the commotion as they realized someone else had been petrified immediately becoming a crowd-control issue in minutes. Where had they even come from!?
"Justin!" Some Hufflepuffs clearly recognized their house member in despair, and Harry realized he was getting a lot of looks and questions shot his way too.
"Everyone back off! Someone find a teacher!" He shouted and that seemed to shake some sense into at least a couple people.
"What happened!?" An upper year Ravenclaw looked pale and almost afraid to come closer—no one wanted to walk over the no man's land where Justin was lying which put a weird space between them.
"I don't know, they were both like that when we got here," He deflected, hating the way people were looking up at Peeves as if only just realizing what he was saying and wanting to get on top of whatever the fuck they were thinking. "The three of us were just walking— Peeves shut the hell up! If you're going to pick someone to blame then blame me!"
"H-Harry?" Alden squeaked behind him but Harry just took a step back to ensure the first year was closer to his back and as far out of sigh as he could get him. Unfortunately he was small for his year and Alden wasn't, so it only partially worked.
The poltergeist above them seemed to pause at his words then got a truly demented look on his face.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh the lion is a liar!? Little lion liar, little lion lair!" He teased annoyingly, but Harry just rolled his eyes at the new name. Technically it was true and the piece of shit wasn't calling Alden a little monster anymore so it was an improvement.
Most people knew he was a lair anyway. What he was lying about was anyone's guess though and he wanted to keep it that way.
"Mr. Potter!"
Of all the teachers who could've reached them first, Harry was relieved it was McGonagall. He was less relieved by the look on her face and knew that him being her favorite didn't mean shit when another student was petrified in the middle of the hall and she had a crowd of students to deal with—but hey, at least it wasn't Snape.
"Professor," he greeted, taking her attention so it lay on him and not the first year behind him. "We really don't know what happened, I swear," He pleaded with her and she gave him a stern look before turning to the crowd.
"Everyone evacuate the area now! Prefects ensure the classrooms are empty and stand at the end of the hall to turn people away. Everyone move it, now!" She commanded them sharply. "Ten points from Ravenclaw for failing to follow orders—ten points from Gryffindor for the same reason! Everyone move!" her point deductions got people in gear and just as fast as people had started to gather they began to disperse—or more like flee to prevent their house from losing the house cup before the day was out.
As she snapped to the crowd to clear the area around Justin, Harry grabbed Alden's upper arm and pushed him back towards Susan who half-caught him in shock.
"Harry what-"
"Take him back to the Slytherin dorm. Tell no one what you saw." He ordered, as serious as he'd ever been.
They locked eyes for a second and he could see she wanted to ask.
He could see she was fundamentally against lying or deflecting or whatever the fuck it was he was doing but—
But she grabbed Alden's hand and then without a further word disappeared into the crowd like they were fleeing McGonagall too.
Honestly, that was a huge gamble as Susan was the rule follower to end all rule followers given her sense of justice. There was no reason she had to believe in him just then, much less do something against what she considered objectively right without an explanation or even a single good reason she should aide him in lying to a teacher.
He was thankful to her that she did it anyway. He owed her, big time for this.
She might not think life was a game of scales but either way, he definitely owed her one.
"Mr. Potter, follow me," McGonagall focused in on him again with a sharp command as the crowd situation got under control, and he straightened his posture in face of what was ahead.
"Yes Professor."