"I think you two would be good beaters." Harry said as he continued to talk with Crabbe and Goyle, the conversation had admittedly started a bit slow but now the two were talking with Harry as if it was just a regular thing for them.
"Do you think so?" Crabbe smiled.
"Yeah, I mean you two certainly have the muscle for it." Harry joked as he tapped both of their arms, both boys smiled and actually blushed at the compliment. "Though I think it's possible that you two could be chasers as well."
"Really?" Goyle blinked.
"Well...possible," Harry repeated. "it rather depends on how good you two are on your brooms, I know you both got the throwing strength but if you have the accuracy and are fast when you fly then you could probably be good chasers."
"Hmm, we don't like flying too fast." Goyle frowned.
"Ah well, each to their own." Harry shrugged. "So, we've talked about quidditch, what else do you both like? What's your favorite subject?" Harry asked as he looked in-between both boys.
"Um...not sure." Crabbe admitted with Goyle nodding to show that he was the same. "Um...herbology." Crabbe eventually answered.
"Herbology?" Harry blinked, that was not exactly the answer he was expecting.
"Well, you just do gardening, don't you?" Crabbe said, a little defensively.
"Hmm," Harry hummed. "I suppose it's simple now, though it will undoubtedly get much harder as we get older, but at least Professor Sprout doesn't make us write too much, so I can sort of see the appeal." Harry nodded to him before turning to Goyle. "And what about you? Same as Crabbe?" Harry asked.
"Uh...um...I like charms." Goyle said in a tentative voice.
"Hmm, much different from herbology but also a good lesson. Tell me if you two ever need help with it, I don't want to brag but I'm pretty good at it."
"Really?" Goyle blinked. "You'd help me?"
"Yeah, why not?" Harry shrugged before turning to Crabbe. "I'd offer to help you in herbology but it's not really my best subject, if you need help you should probably talk to Daphne or Tracy, they're better at that stuff than me." Harry admitted.
"Crabbe, Goyle," Draco said as he walked back down, "what are you two doing? Please tell me that you're not bothering Potter."
"On the contrary, me and the boys have been having a lovely conversation about quidditch." Harry said before either boy could reply. "By the way, thank you for you Christmas gift," Harry said before Draco could respond. "I have no doubt that it will prove its worth over the next few years." Harry said, hoping that the compliment would take away Draco's focus from Crabbe and Goyle, the last thing the two boys needed was for Draco to discourage them from talking to him again.
"I'm glad you liked it," Draco smirked as he sat down on a chair next to the sofa, apparently the compliment had worked. "mother and father saw your gift."
"Did they now?" Harry asked, he remembered sending Draco an action figure of a quidditch player from Draco's favorite team and some sweets, since he wasn't really sure about what else to get him. "I'm sorry if it wasn't a good one, I am muggle raised after all and have little experience with shopping for wizards."
"No, they liked it." Draco waved him off as the other Slytherin first years came back down, Crabbe and Goyle took the opportunity to get up and go to their room, allowing Daphne and Tracy to take their places. Jet moved off of Harry's shoulder and onto Daphne's as soon as Daphne had sat down. "My father told me to tell you that he's inviting you to come visit during the school holidays."
"Hmm, I'll think about it." Harry hummed.
"I think it's terrible that you don't know more about the wizarding world," Draco said, looking like he smelt something foul. "all because of those muggle."
"I still don't think they should be letting mud..." Pansy paused when Harry glared at her. "...muggleborns into Hogwarts." She corrected.
"Tell me," Harry sighed as he looked between her and Draco. "do you two really think that we shouldn't allow muggleborns into the wizarding world?" Harry asked in a calm voice. "Answer honestly, I won't get mad."
"Um...no, I don't think they should be allowed." Draco admitted with Pansy nodding in agreement.
"So you guys like purebloods better than muggleborns, correct?" Harry asked. The two both nodded in response. "If that's true then you two should like muggleborns."
"What?" Both blurted out.
"Tell me, a pureblood is someone who has at least two sets of magical grandparents, correct?" Harry asked.
"That's right." Theo nodded.
"Well then, what happens if a muggleborn has a child with another muggleborn?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It'd be a halfblood." Theo answered.
"Excellent Theo, now tell me what happens if that child gets married to the child of another pair of muggleborns, then what would happen next?"
"They'd have a pureblood baby." Tracy guessed. "Because that child's baby would have two pairs of magical grandparents."
"Good," Harry smiled at her. "now can someone tell me what happens if a muggleborn had a child with a pureblood?"
"The child would be a halfblood," Daphne answered. "but then he or she could go on to produce a pureblood child."
"Exactly," Harry smiled and looked around at all of the Slytherin's, Harry noticed that a few nearby students from other years had been listening but he chose to act like he hadn't noticed. "muggleborns might not have pureblood but they do give us the opportunity for the wizarding world to gain more purebloods." Harry looked around, he could see that most of them were thinking on his words, even if Parkinson was looking like he had just suggested they each start French kissing a cow. "By the way, are any of you guys up for a duel?" Harry asked suddenly. "I haven't practiced against anyone in a long time."
"No," Blaise said quickly with the others nodding in agreement. "you've already beaten everyone of us, we're not doing it again."
"Wimps." Harry said under his breath as he rolled his eyes.
The next day Harry walked into the great hall with the other Slytherin's, Jet was on his shoulder as always. As Harry walked in he glanced at the Gryffindor table.
"You guys go ahead." Harry said to the other Slytherin's. "I need to talk to someone." He added, he walked off before any of them could respond.
"Hey," Harry said as he stopped at the Gryffindor table. "Longbottom, I need to talk to you, in private." Harry said to the Gryffindor who now looked like he was going to have a heart attack.
"What do you want with him?!" Ron demanded as he glared at Harry.
"I want to talk to him, not that it's any of your business." Harry said in a bored tone.
"It is my business if you're going to bully him!"
"When have I acted like I'm going to bully him?" Harry said, trying very hard to not roll his eyes. "I simply want to talk to him."
"About what?" Ron asked in suspicious voice.
"It's between me and him, do you know what that means, numbnuts?" Harry asked, this time giving into his urge to roll his eyes.
"Numbnuts?" Ron repeated in an offended voice.
"It's an insult." Hermione Granger explained.
"I know it's an insult!" Ron said to her in an annoyed voice before turning to Harry. "You should get out of here, nobody here wants to talk to a snake like you!"
"Okay, you're basically a broken record," Harry sighed before turning back to Neville. "like I said, I want to talk to you in private."
"A...about what?" Neville asked, his face paler than usual.
"I'll tell you when it's just us talking together without your entire house listening in." Harry said as he gestured to the other Gryffindor's. "For Merlin's sake, I'm not going to hurt you." Harry added when the boy looked hesitant. "I want to talk to you in private, if you want to tell everyone what happened after the conversation is over then that's up to you."
"The boy looks like he's going to have an accident." Jet hissed into Harry's ear, causing Neville to jump in his seat.
"Longbottom, my patience is limited, are you coming or not?" Harry asked in an impatient voice. For a second it looked like Neville was about to get up but that changed when Percy Weasley walked over.
"What's going on here?" He spoke in a pompous voice, puffing his chest out, undoubtedly to show off the prefect badge he was wearing. Harry didn't bother looking at Percy and instead kept his eyes on Neville who seemed like he wasn't going to leave his seat after all.
"House of the brave?" Harry snorted before walking off and heading towards the Slytherin table.
"What was that?" Daphne asked when Harry sat down.
"Disappointing." Was Harry's answer.
Most of Harry's first year passed quite quickly, he continued to be at the top of his class for most subjects, much to the annoyance of one Hermione Granger who wanted that spot for herself. While she was slightly better than Harry at theory, she still was unable to match him when it came to practical use of magic. The Slytherin team also dominated the quidditch pitch, taking full advantage of Harry's skill as a chaser.
Harry chose not to approach Neville again, if the boy was so scared of him that he wasn't going to even talk to him in private then Harry wasn't going to bother. Ron had the sense to try and avoid Harry for the rest of the year, though Harry suspected it was more a case of the other Gryffindor's doing their best to keep him out of trouble since he was already killing their chances at winning the house cup. The Weasley twins on the other hand tried a few more times to prank him but it never really worked out for them for multiple reasons.
Firstly because Harry was already experienced in avoiding pranks thanks to Dudley, secondly because the house elves were no longer allowing them into the kitchen. The elves did not like the fact that they were tricked into pranking students, so had refused the twins entry into the kitchens and would no longer put things in the students food like before. The third reason would be because any pranks that Harry missed would be picked up by Jet. Though the twins had to give up after the third time they were caught trying to prank him, likely for the same reason as their little brother.
It was near the end of the year when something interesting happened, Harry had been in his room and relaxing on his bed while reading a book with Jet resting next to Harry. Blaise had gone out to spend time with his sister, meaning Harry could spend some time alone.
"Potter." A voice called just as a knock was heard on Harry's door, "come down to the common room, Professor Quirrell wants to talk to you." The voice finished before the sound of footsteps was heard, letting Harry know that whoever had spoken had already gone back down.
"Quirrell?" Jet frowned as much as a snake could frown. "What do you think he wants?" Jet asked.
"Not a clue." Harry admitted as he stood up and left his book on the bed. "But I suppose we'll have to go and see." Harry added.
"Be careful," Jet advised. "there's something off with the idiot."
Harry nodded in agreement before picking up Jet and allowing him to hide inside Harry's sleeve. Harry walked down into the common room where he saw a few older Slytherin students and Professor Quirrell.
"A...ah, Mr P...Potter." Professor Quirrell said with his usual stutter. "I...I would l...like you to come with me." He said.
"Am I in trouble, Professor?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"N...no, of course not." Quirrell responded as he shook his head. "F...follow me, all s...shall be e...explained." He said, he walked off and out of the common room before Harry could respond. Harry let out a small sigh before he followed after Quirrell.
"So Professor, I think this might be the part where you actually start explaining." Harry said after following Quirrell in complete silence for a short while.
"M...Mr Potter," Quirrell stuttered. "all will be revealed s...soon." He said.
"We're not supposed to be here." Harry reminded him when they reached the third floor corridor.
"I...it'll be fine, Mr Potter." Quirrell said in a dismissive voice just as they stopped through the door. Though the first thing they saw when they entered caused Harry to pause.
"That...is a big dog." Harry said when he saw the giant three headed dog in front of them, it was thankfully sleeping, each head looked big enough to swallow Harry whole. In the corner of the room there was a harp that was playing some calming music.
"It...it's a cerberus." Quirrell told Harry just before he closed and locked the door, Quirrell opened a trap door near where the cerberus was sleeping. "What do you know of them?" Quirrell asked.
"Not much." Harry admitted. "Just that they're very dangerous and are used to guard stuff."
"You can k...keep them calm with music." Quirrell responded as he gestured to the harp across the room, that was before he calmly entered through the trap door just as the harp stopped playing. Harry saw the cerbrus was was waking up, Harry quickly realized that he had a choice, stay here with the giant three headed dog that would probably kill him or go down the trap door.
Seeing all three heads waking up had helped him decide and he quickly went down the hole before the heads could notice him when Harry went down he landed on something soft. He looked around and saw that he had landed on a large amount of vines, Quirrell was calmly sat a small distance away with vines wrapped around him.
"So Harry," Quirrell said as he looked at him. "d...do you recognize this plant?" He asked as the vines wrapped around Harry's legs.
"Devil's snare." Harry answered, remembering it from herbology.
"And how would y...you deal with it?" Quirrell asked.
"Well...it hates fire and sunlight...so...give me a sec." Harry said before pulling his wand out and hitting the vines with a flame blast. The flames rushed away from the blast, allowing Harry to fall through to the ground below, he was fortunately fast enough to hit it with a softening charm to make his landing far less painless than it could have been.
"Excellent M...Mr Potter," Quirrell said as he landed next to Harry. "well done."
"What is the point of all of this?" Harry asked in an irritated voice. "I just jumped down a trap door after getting past a sleeping three headed dog and now I just had to deal with devil's snare."
"Y...you are the best in your year at d...defense against the dark arts," Quirrell responded. "w...which is why I want you to go th...through these tests."
"What happens if I complete these tests?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"T...then you will be rewarded." Quirrell said with a grin.
A.N: Was that the best place to end the chapter? Yes? Okay.
Thanks for reading, I know I gave a sort of update timetable last time but like I had said that was what I hoped would happen. Reborn is taking longer than I'd like and this chapter was half wrote already so I finished it and uploaded it, also I have started another story for those who don't know. It's called 'Wands and Claws', it's my second try at a HP/X-men crossover, I had tried it before but I had abandoned my first attempt. I'm hoping the second one goes better.
Thanks for reading, feel free to leave a review.