By that point, the two had arrived at the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room. "As I have said, Potter, you have a distressingly strong Gryffindor streak within you, which is unfortunate but understandable given your lineage. That said, I must confess that I am thus far pleased to see how well you have harnessed it and bent it to a Slytherin's wisdom. Five points to Slytherin." Those were the first points Snape had given Harry since the start of school, and the boy smiled appreciatively and thanked his teacher with suitable humility.
With that, Snape gave the password and the door to the common room slide open. Inside were the majority of Harry's house mates who had only just arrived after the all-clear was given. Rodney Montague was the first to meet Snape and Harry at the door.
"Mr. Montague," drawled Snape. "I return the last of your charges to you. His punishment for leaving the Great Hall after you had ordered it sealed has already been addressed. No further comment on that matter is necessary."
Montague looked back and forth between Snape and Harry. "Very good, sir," he finally said.
"And for what it's worth, Mr. Montague," said Harry, "I sincerely apologize if my rash actions caused you any distress."
The boy looked up at the prefect with such a mixture of respect and perfect innocence that, for a second, Montague almost thought he was sincere. Snape exited the common room, and Montague, after looking strangely at Harry for a few seconds, rounded up the other prefects to let them know what Snape had said. Harry walked over where an anxious Theo was waiting off by himself. He warmly thanked the boy for his help and shook his hand, discretely palming the ring back to him in the process. Theo nodded bashfully. Then, Harry headed off in the direction of the First Year dorm rooms when his way was blocked by Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. The rest of the First Years (and a dozen or so from the other years) were near enough to observe but were not actively interfering.
"Unbelievable!" exclaimed Malfoy. "When my father hears that the Heir of an Ancient and Noble House snuck away, in defiance of the prefect's orders, in pursuit of a blood traitor squib and a mudblood ..."
"BINGO!" shouted Harry loudly. All the Slytherins nearby were startled by his outburst. "Sorry. That's a Muggle thing. You finally managed to work mudblood, blood traitor, and my father into a single sentence. I thought if I pointed it out first I might win a prize." Somewhere in the background, he heard Theo snigger briefly before getting control of himself.
"You are such an embarrassment to this house, Potter. How many points did you lose us with that stunt?"
"Well actually, I gained fifteen. But then, Professor Snape took five from me not obeying the prefect's orders. But then, after I explained my reasoning for my actions, he gave me back five for demonstrating what he referred to as Slytherin wisdom."
"You're lying," snarled Malfoy. "Ask him tomorrow," replied Harry cheerfully. "I. Dare. You."
"When my father..."
"WHY ARE YOU HERE?!" interrupted Harry with an angry shout. Draco was taken aback and several other Slytherins moved closer to the arguing group.
"Because someone needs to put you in your ..."
"No! Not 'why are you here, right now, annoying me?'! I mean 'why are you in Slytherin House at all?'! Yes, you're a rich Pureblood. So what. So is Zacharias Smith and he's a Hufflepuff! We've been in this house for two months, and I haven't seen you display anything I'd call cunning! You're certainly not subtle! And I don't think you have any ambition beyond strutting around like a peacock flaunting the wealth and privilege you've gotten from an inheritance that you've done nothing to earn. And you talk like one of those Muggle dolls that spouts prerecorded messages if you pull a string out of its back. It's all 'Mudblood-This' and 'Blood Traitor-That' and 'Wait till my father hears.' It's pathetic!"
"Why you filthy little Halfblood...!" Draco furiously started fumbling for his wand.
Harry's eyes lit up almost deliriously. "Finally!" he thought. He'd gotten his wand and his holster on July 31st, and spent thirty minutes every night for the next month practicing how to quick draw it because he'd foolishly thought that such things were a factor in wand usage. When he got to Hogwarts, however, he discovered that, outside of aurors and professional duelists, wizards didn't seem to care about such things. In fact, he was the only First Year who'd actually paid for one of Ollivander's overpriced wand holsters instead of just tucking his wand away in the pocket of his robes like everyone else. He still kept practicing with the holster for several minutes each day though ... for this exact moment.
Harry flicked his wrist down, and his wand shot out of his holster with a soft "snikt"and landed in the palm of his hand. Instantly, he snapped it back up directly into Malfoy's face, nearly touching the tip of his nose. The entire maneuver had taken half a second, not even one of Harry's better times, but it was lightning fast compared to his opponent who was still fumbling for his wand. Malfoy froze in surprise, while Crabbe and Goyle backed away nervously. There were gasps all around at Harry's effortless speed. Few of the young Slytherins watching had ever been exposed to real dueling, and from their limited experience, Harry's reflexes appeared superhumanly fast.
"You know," said Harry easily. "My friend, the Mudblood Granger, taught me this neat fireworks spell. I bet at this range it would really hurt." At that, Rodney Montague finally stepped forward. "Potter, that's enough. Stand down."
"It's okay, Mr. Montague. We're fine. We're all fine here. Aren't we fine, Mr. Malfoy?"
Draco looked up from the tip of the wand to peer into Harry's eyes. And like James Potter before him, he suddenly realized that Harry's eyes were the exact same color as the Killing Curse. "Yes, Montague," he said with a dry swallow. "We're ... we're all fine here."
"Yes, perfectly fine. By the way, I mentioned that I won fifteen house points but forgot to say what for. You see, the Mudblood Granger and the Blood Traitor Squib Longbottom and little old Blood Traitor Halfblood me, well, we found that mountain troll that caused Professor Quirrell to faint like a little girl. And then ... we beat it into a coma."
There were even more gasps at that, and Zabini exclaimed "No way!" in a surprisingly Muggle manner. Harry made a mental note to look into that.
"Yes way!" he replied with a grin. "I, with the help of two other First Years that most of you look down on as dirt beneath your feet, took down a fully grown troll by ourselves. So, Mr. Malfoy, I invite you to consider whether or not I should be intimidated by your weak magic and your father's money and your two henchmen. Because the correct answer is... I'm not." Then, he took two steps back and raised his wand. With a subtle flick of his wrist, the wand snapped back into its holster with an audible "zip" that made half the Slytherins in the room flinch. "Now then, I'm tired, I've had a long day, and I think I have troll blood in my hair. So, I'm going to take a hot shower and then go to bed. If you want to continue this discussion at some point in the future, Malfoy, I'd be happy to oblige. But before then, I think you should sit down with a piece of parchment, write down all your assets, and then write down what you think my assets are. And then, double the points you put down in my column, because I promise you haven't seen half of what I can do. And then, Malfoy? If you still want to take me on, go for it. We'll see who rusts first."
Finally, he broke eye contact with the visibly shaken Draco to look around the room. Some were intimidated while others merely looked thoughtful. But everyone had been transfixed by Harry's performance. He smiled. "Good night, Slytherins," he said mildly as he walked around Goyle towards the dorms. As he left, he was alternately whistling and humming a strange tune that the Slytherin students found at once both unnerving and unearthly. Had there been any Muggleborns in the house, they would have instantly recognized it as the theme from "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." Over in the corner, out of everyone's view, Theo Nott watched as his first friend strolled away. And for possibly the first time in his life, Theo grinned from ear to ear.
——————————————————
Don't want to wait?
Get the full chapters and extra content in my PDF store.
——————————————————
https://ko-fi.com/cmrowling