Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Draco's Gift
His friends still weren't talking to him when they returned after the holiday. Ginny looked sad, Hermione stiff, and Ron and the twins still angry. Harry had tried to approach them, but the twins' stern looks and Ron's glare were enough to send him away without even asking how their Christmas had been. His only comfort was that he was warm for the first time in his remembrance, and each time he zipped up his soft blue coat, he was reminded of Professor Snape and the letter from Santa. Someone cares, he said to himself, but as the first few days turned into a week, and then two, he had a harder and harder time believing it. Sitting alone all the time without anyone to talk to or joke around with had taken him right back down to the bottom of things again. He felt lower than he usually did when he was with the Dursleys, because he used to know he at least had his friends to go back to. That wasn't the case anymore.

His friend's chilly attitudes towards him and his new warm clothes weren't the only things that were different for Harry though. On the first day of term Draco had tried twice in the halls to goad him into throwing some sort of rude remark at him, but knowing now that Draco had given him a coat one year as a gift, Harry didn't feel like going back to their same old routine. Draco seemed disappointed but also curious as he tried for several more days to taunt Harry, but Harry wasn't budging. Harry's behavior in turn lead to some interesting results that he would never have expected.

School had been back in for three weeks, and Harry was trying not to let himself get used to being alone again. He didn't want to feel like he had growing up with his aunt and uncle, even though the feeling of hopelessness and despair was slowly beginning to overwhelm him again. He was aware that Snape was watching him like he had promised he would, but hadn't been aware of the other Slytherin eyes on him as he walked from class to class with his head down and eyes firmly on the ground. It wasn't until a Transfiguration class with the Slytherins that Harry started to notice that things were changing for him in a peculiar way.

He was the last one to walk into class, and Ron had sandwiched himself in between Hermione and Neville, leaving no room at their table for Harry. Trying to hide the hurt from showing on his face too much, Harry lowered his head and started to head to the back of the room, but was stopped when a hand shot out from the Slytherin side of the aisle and gently stopped him. He looked up and found Pansy Parkinson (who he'd never spoken a word to in their five years there) looking at him.

"You can sit here," she said, and she moved her bag from the seat between her and Draco to make room for him. Harry looked around the room and noted that Ron and the other Gryffindors seemed stiff, and that some of the Slytherins did as well, but Draco gave him a nod. What have I got to lose, he wondered to himself. He didn't know why they wanted him to sit with them, but he was so desperate to have any kind of companionship at all at this point, that he was willing to allow himself to be pranked if that's what they had planned. He didn't get pranked though, and at the end of the class, though none of the Slytherins smiled at him, they didn't complain about him sitting with them either.

Harry had to sit alone in his next class, as they had it with the Ravenclaws, but was surprised after lunch when Draco motioned for him to join a group of Slytherins at a workbench in Herbology. Pansy did give him a smile this time, and though Teddy Knott seemed cautious, he didn't say anything about Harry joining them again.

They were allowed to talk in Herbology as they planted and experimented, and Harry was interested to hear how the conversations the Slytherins had were similar and different to what he was used to with the Gryffindors, though he hadn't been included in any conversations at all with the Gryffindors since before Christmas. Teddy talked to Draco about Quidditch (Teddy didn't play but had a lot of interesting ideas about how to manage the team), and Pansy huffed with irritation that all they wanted to talk about was some stupid game that nobody cared about. Finally Draco asked Harry from across the table, "What do you think? It's not a stupid game. People make a lot of money playing Quidditch."

"Uh-" Harry wasn't sure at first that Draco was talking to him, but all three of them looked up at him as if waiting for an answer. "I like it," he said, feeling shy all of a sudden. He looked back down at his snapping tuber pods and turned red, feeling awkward.

Pansy pulled a weed out of her pot and said, "It figures he'd say that. He is a Seeker. None of you ever thinks about how long Quidditch careers last though. So many players get hurt they're lucky if they get two years. The ones who last longer are usually only around for five. And then what?"

"Oh stuff it Pansy," Teddy told her. "I'm going to be a team manager. I'll make a career out of bossing Draco around."

"I'm not playing for any team you're managing," Draco said to him. "You're too demanding. Besides, I'd rather work at the Ministry."

"And I suppose you're going to play Quidditch?" Pansy asked Harry. Draco and Teddy exchanged a look when Harry looked up, startled that they were talking to him again.

He cleared his throat. "Um... I don't think so."

"See, at least he's sensible," Pansy said, looking smug.

Harry wondered why they had invited him to sit with them in classes that day, and was still waiting for some elaborate prank or plot to unfold, but it never materialized. They invited him to sit with them in Potions the next day, and again in Herbology and Transfiguration the day after that. Ron seemed to be even angrier with Harry even though he still wasn't talking to him. Ron took all of his things out of their shared desk and wardrobe and moved his things across the dorm room to share with Neville instead, who had always had a desk and wardrobe to himself. It stung Harry more than he thought it would. Dean and Seamus and Neville didn't seem angry with Harry, only cautious, and he'd never really been friends with them anyway, so they weren't used to inviting him to play games, or get involved in conversations. He didn't expect them to include him, but after a few more days of sitting with the Slytherins, he was beginning to expect them to, though he still had no idea why.

One day, his curiosity finally got the better of him when Draco and Teddy crossed the Great Hall to sit with him at the far end of Gryffindor table, where he'd been sitting in his usual isolated spot. Harry looked at them, startled as they began putting food on their plates, ignoring the shocked and irritated looks of the students around them.

"What- what are you doing?" Harry asked carefully. He was aware that most of the hall was staring at them and that his friends... former friends looked more than irritated.

"It was becoming painfully obvious that you weren't going to cross the hall to sit with us," Draco said. "I thought you were a Gryffindor. Where's the courage?"

"Sit- sit with you?"

"Come on Potter," Teddy said. "Don't look so shocked. If you sit with us during classes, you should sit with us at meals too."

"But I'm not Slytherin," Harry said. He gave an involuntary look down at his robe sleeve to make sure that it was still red, and Draco snorted into his cup of pumpkin juice.

"But you are our friend," Teddy said seriously.

Harry stared at him, face blank.

"What do you mean?" This was it. They were finally going to burst into laughter and try to embarrass him, he was sure of it. They'd been trying to get his hopes up for three weeks and now they were going to pull the plug on their operation and say, ‘did you ever think we'd want to be your friend? Who would want to be anywhere near you?'

Draco looked at him like he was dense. "Those gits down the table, they aren't your friends. They left you alone for Christmas, didn't send you any gifts, and still won't talk to you now."

"We had a fight," Harry mumbled, but Draco shook his head.

"Doesn't matter. I got into a fight with Crabbe last week, and we're still friends today. Teddy and Pansy argue all the time, and they haven't stopped being friends. Crab and Goyle get into fist fights twice a month and still give each other Christmas gifts. I don't know what you fought about, but if they stopped being your friends over it they weren't good friends to begin with. Did you really fight with all of them anyhow?"

"Only Ron," Harry said.

"So you fought with him? Big deal. If this is what it means to be Gryffindor, then being Gryffindor sucks."

Several second years scowled from a few feet down the table at Draco's words, but Harry wasn't paying attention.

"But- why are you saying you're my friend? You hate me." Harry was still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Because you need a friend Potter," Draco said plainly, and Harry met his eyes. He did need a friend. Hadn't he written to Santa asking for anyone at all who cared about him? Snape had replied and said that he had cared (and he had tried to check in with Harry a few times since Christmas, even though Harry hadn't told him much), but it was too much to hope that even one person could care about him, let alone a group of people.

"But you can't just decide to be someone's friend," Harry tried to protest. It didn't make any sense. They were Slytherins. Slytherins hated Gryffindors. Crabbe and Goyle usually taunted Harry and his friends in the halls and threatened them with violent gestures. Teddy had never been one much for snide remarks or name calling, but Draco had.

"Not everyone wants to be your friend," Teddy agreed, "but when Draco pointed out to us that your friends had abandoned you over Christmas, it irked us. People just don't do that."

"So just like that-" Harry paused, trying to work out what they were saying to him. "you just decide to be friends?"

"Look, you're a Gryffindor, we don't expect you to understand," Teddy said, sounding a little irritated. "But that's how it is in Slytherin. You stick together. You help each other. You don't abandon anybody for any reason, even if they've done something wrong. So if we need to make you a Slytherin for a while, or even forever, so be it. We're not going to stand around and watch you sitting alone all the time feeling sorry for yourself. Now you've got us, and you've got nothing to feel sorry about. No pity. That's what Professor Snape says. The moment you start to pity yourself, it's all over."

It did sound like something Snape would say.

"Did he put you up to this?"

"He didn't have to," Draco said.

They ate the rest of their meal in silence, and Harry pondered on what they'd told him about Slytherin house. Hadn't the hat said something about loyalty? If Gryffindors were all courage, and Slytherins were all loyalty, then what was it like in the other houses? He sort of wanted to know in a way he never had before. He used to try to imagine what the other house common rooms and dorms looked like, but his ponderings had always stopped there. The words ‘this is what it is to be Slytherin' had brought back those ponderings though. To be Slytherin wasn't all about making snide remarks and bullying people apparently. There was more to them than that.

* * *

Teddy and Draco were not at dinner. They'd been sitting with Harry at meals at Gryffindor (and sometimes Pansy had also) for a few days now. Harry stood on the threshold of the Great Hall with his bag slung over his shoulder. Teddy and Draco weren't at their usual spot at the end of Gryffindor table, and neither were they at Slytherin, though Pansy was sitting there laughing at something Milicent Bulstrode had said. He looked over at Hermione and Ginny, and felt a pang to realize how down Ginny looked. Hermione looked up and caught him staring, and he looked away quickly, suddenly interested in his shoes.

‘Where's the courage?' came Teddy's voice from days before. What had they said? That it was obvious he wasn't going to cross the hall to sit at Slytherin? Well they weren't even there, so why should he? He felt bad though. They'd taken it upon themselves to include him seeing that his own friends had abandoned him, and he wasn't even courageous enough to go over and sit with them. Even if the other fifth year Slytherins weren't keen on making friends with him, they were keeping their mouths shut, and seemed neutral to his presence either way. Making up his mind, he stepped into the hall and put one foot in front of the other, intent on going to sit with Pansy. They'd surprised him so much, maybe he'd surprise them for a change.

He was just pulling even with Gryffindor table when Ron stepped out in front of him and blocked his path. Wordlessly, he held out a hand to Harry's chest, though not touching him, to stop him from going any further. They stared at each other for long moments, Ron's face hard and Harry's uncertain.

"You can't go over there," Ron said. "You're not one of them."

Harry didn't know what to say to that. He wasn't one of them. He had liked being a Gryffindor for all of these years, but the last two and a half months had made him less and less sure about his choice to go to Gryffindor instead of Slytherin as the hat had suggested. ‘A family?' it had asked as it covered his eyes. ‘If it's a family you want, you would do well in Slytherin.'

"Maybe not," Harry said, looking his friend in the eyes. "But if abandoning friends and punching them and then getting mad when they fight back is what it means to be Gryffindor, then I don't want to be Gryffindor anymore."

Ron looked taken aback, and he heard a few gasps because several people (including Hermione) had been sitting near enough to hear him. Harry stepped around Ron and continued his walk to the other side of the hall, the eyes of staff and students alike following him. Pansy looked up at him with a smile when he stood next to her at the end of the table.

"Hi Harry. You can sit if you want. Teddy and Draco are in detention until after dinner. They got into it with a pair of Ravenclaws over which Quidditch team is better."

Feeling more courageous than he had felt upon entering the Great Hall, Harry sat down. "Which team did they say was better?" Harry asked. Crabbe and Blaise gave each other a look and then went back to their food, but Milicent spoke up and said, "Draco likes the Falmouth Falcons and the Ravenclaws like the Cannons. Teddy hates the Falcons but had to side with Draco."

"He did?" Harry asked, wondering why, but Blaise rolled his eyes and decided to explain it to him in much the same way as Draco and Teddy had done days ago.

"It's a Slytherin thing Potter, you wouldn't understand."

"Well," Harry said, aware that a lot of the Slytherins on their end of the table were now listening in on the conversation, "being Slytherin doesn't sound too bad."

Pansy smiled at the shocked looks on her friends faces, and Harry chose to smile at that moment too as he began putting food on his plate.


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