lomonaaeren

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Chapter Nine—Swaying in the Breeze

“It’s unfortunate, isn’t it?”

Harry blinked and looked up from the book in front of him. He was having problems expanding his potions repertoire this term, and he didn’t really know why. Most of the ones he had chosen to study on his own were simply more complex versions of ones he had already brewed.

The girl standing in front of him was the one Harry had beat out for the Seeker position in practice. Something Fawley. Ariel? Harry thought that was it. She had intense dark eyes and the kind of sneer that proved purebloods who thought they all had superior intelligence were fooling themselves.

“It’s unfortunate, isn’t it?” Fawley repeated herself.

“What are you talking about?”

Fawley flushed and said, “That the Heir of Slytherin should have returned right before your first game for Slytherin?”

“Oh. I suppose so.”

“Don’t you care that you’ll be a target as a Mudblood, Grayson? Especially since the Heir of Slytherin would want to make sure that you, in particular, don’t sully their noble House?”

Lots of people were listening now. Harry sighed. He supposed he had to deal with this.

“Of course I want to make sure that I don’t shame Slytherin,” he said. “But if you think I have some common cause with other Mudbloods, of courses I don’t. None of them were wise or clever enough to be Sorted into Slytherin.”

In truth, Harry would be very surprised if there weren’t a few older students masquerading as half-bloods who were really Muggleborns. But that wasn’t his problem.

“You—you don’t care about Mudbloods?”

That was Adrian Pucey, also someone on the Quidditch team. Harry turned to look at him, keeping a calm expression fixed on his face. “Why would I?”

“They’re your—people. They share your heritage.” Pucey sounded a little more confident about that second statement than the first one.

“But not all purebloods care about other purebloods, do you?” Harry asked, and let his eyes widen in fake confusion. If they knew it was fake, all the better, honestly. “You don’t care about blood traitors.”

In reality, Harry didn’t know what “blood traitors” meant. It seemed to be a name that some of the Slytherins applied to anyone they didn’t like, such as the Weasleys, for being poor and not continually acting like the people using the name were superior.

But that wasn’t his problem, either. His problem was surviving.

Fawley and Pucey exchanged uncertain looks. Flint was the one who laughed, leaning forwards from his chair by the fire. Everyone in the common room quit talking and turned towards him.

“Told you that Grayson didn’t give a shit about the other Mudbloods,” Flint said casually, and waved a hand. “You might as well stop testing him. You’re not getting the Seeker spot just because you have the right blood, Fawley.”

“I was good!”

“Not as good as Grayson.”

Harry hid it well as he watched the interaction, but he felt as though someone had just jabbed him with a needle loaded with Euphoria Elixir. This was the first time he had ever seen a pureblood attempt to act superior to him and be humiliated for it instead.

He intended that it not be the last.

And he didn’t intend to be caught or destroyed by the Heir of Slytherin, either. But that ought honestly to be easy enough. He wouldn’t stay out late, or without purebloods around him. Giving up his private brewing in the dungeon was a wrench, but he was pretty sure he had earned enough goodwill from Theo and Draco by now that they would stay with him while he brewed.

From the way he saw Theo and Draco looking at him across the common room, he was pretty sure that he wouldn’t have to convince them.

*

“He just dismissed their concerns like it was nothing,” Draco muttered. He felt a little shaken. Despite the fact that he’d been gleeful when the message about the Heir of Slytherin appeared in blood on the wall, it was still a message in blood targeting the Heir’s enemies. He had made his statement about Mudbloods partially to prove that he wasn’t one of those enemies.

“Ever think he should have been in Gryffindor?” Theo breathed.

Draco looked at Theo from the corner of his eye. Harry had told Draco about Theo’s attempt to offer him a broom. After Draco had stopped laughing, he had to admit that Theo was a more serious rival for control of Grayson than he’d thought. A broom was still expensive.

Draco had thought Theo would be willing to spend some money, but not that much. Even the Galleons that had bought Grayson’s broom had come from the Malfoy vaults, not Draco himself.

“Harry? Are you joking?”

“It was brave to stand up to Fawley and Pucey like that.”

Draco shook his head. “All he did was ask a few questions. It was cunning, to make them remember that he really is a Slytherin even if he’s a Mudblood, but that’s not really the same thing.”

Theo frowned harder. “What happens if Grayson becomes too independent?”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s cunning in and of himself, you said. He’s good enough to get a spot on the Quidditch team, and Flint just spoke up for him. He doesn’t mind the word Mudblood. He’s a great Potions brewer. What if he steps away from us because someone else offers him a better alliance?”

Draco was the one to frown harder this time. He honestly hadn’t considered that. Harry had just seemed—content to follow him and Theo around, to accept their gifts, to give them gifts of his own. He had been perfectly proper and humble when he was at Malfoy Manor. He worked for his Galleons, and that made him lesser, so he had never tried to assert equality with Draco’s ancient family who could take the time to enrich their lives without having to work.

“You think he would?”

“Flint was the one who spoke up to free him from suspicion this time. We didn’t. You think he might turn to Flint?”

“That won’t happen.”

“Why not?”

“We’re in the same year as Harry. Flint is so much older, and he’s going to pass his NEWTS at the end of the term and leave. Surely,” Draco added a little doubtfully. Professor Slughorn might care less about some of their House than others, but he cared enough to make sure that everyone would pass their exams.

“Yes, but someone else in our year might steal his attention and convince him to be their ally.”

“Who, honestly, Theo? You know that Millicent and Tracey aren’t that cunning, Pansy’s blood purism won’t let her, and Daphne has—better things to consider.” Draco shuddered a little. Father hadn’t been kidding when he had baldly warned Draco that Daphne Greengrass, a budding necromancer, was to be avoided. Her magic was getting colder as she aged, and sometimes it was uncomfortable to sit next to her in class. “And do you think Crabbe and Goyle would do something like that?”

“What about Blaise?”

Draco paused. He had actually forgotten to include Blaise in his list of the second-year Slytherins, and of course he should have. Blaise was cunning, capable of much more than he let on.

He hadn’t looked at Harry yet, and Draco had thought he was like Pansy, his blood purism getting in the way. But he was one of the people staring thoughtfully in Harry’s direction now, after that byplay with Pucey and Fawley.

“You think he would?”

“He might.”

Draco scowled. Yes, now that he thought about it, that would be just Blaise’s style. He would ignore Harry for a while, out of genuine lack of interest or because he was a strict purist, but he would take an interest just to deprive Theo or Draco of someone whose allegiance was worth winning.

“I know something we could do.”

Draco glanced at Theo.

“If we pooled our efforts,” Theo said, leaning forwards with a faint smile in his eyes, “if we made sure that we were the ones taking advantage of Harry’s brewing efforts and showing him that we knew and understood his worth despite his blood? If, instead of competing against each other, we competed against Blaise?”

Draco paused. He hadn’t thought of that, mostly because he and Theo had competed for a year and it had seemed all they would do in the future. But it was true that it would be fun to cooperate with him for a time.

If only to vary things.

“I think that you might be right,” he said slowly. “But what happens if there’s no indication that Blaise is interested in using Harry himself?”

“Then we could always go back to our competition.”

Draco inclined his head in response. He was hiding a smile, and he was pretty sure that Theo was as well. Draco, in fact, intended to feign friendship with Theo so well that he would have the edge when their competition resumed in the future.

He won’t know what hit him.

*

Theo smiled at Draco and thought, He won’t even realize I’m getting ready to curse him in the back.

*

“And ten points to SLYTHERIN!”

Harry leaned sideways to make his broom swoop through the maze of Bludgers. The Weasley twins on the Gryffindor team were always hitting them towards him, although he thought that the heavy balls kept booming towards the stands for some reason. He didn’t really care why, though.

He would make sure that he got the Snitch.

The boy serving as the Gryffindor Seeker was a fourth-year, heavier than Harry, taller, maybe more experienced, but with less skill—or at least it seemed like that, with the way he was flailing and grasping at flashes of light that had nothing to do with the Snitch. Harry had seen the Snitch only once so far, but it had been on the completely opposite end of the pitch from where the other Seeker was.

Harry hadn’t indicated that he’d seen it, since Gryffindor was still ahead in points, and the little golden thing had darted away again.

Another Bludger stormed past Harry. He rolled underneath it, grinning as he heard a few of the Gryffindors complain in loud voices. They really didn’t like that the Slytherins had Nimbus 2001 brooms.

Harry could imagine a life where he would have cared about something like that, where he would have found this unfair, but he had learned a lot about unfairness in the year since he’d been Sorted. And there was far more of it related to his blood status and his House than to the ordinary matter of expensive brooms.

“It’s after Longbottom!”

Harry watched the Gryffindor Seeker’s neck wrench around so far that he almost toppled from his broom. Harry swung to the side so he could see the Gryffindor stands better without actually hurting himself like his idiotic opponent, and shook his head as he watched a Bludger nearly strike Longbottom in the head.

There’s always something happening around him.

The Snitch abruptly appeared in front of Harry, fluttering its wings, as though taunting him to chase it. Harry dived in response, and rolled upside-down as he reached out for the small golden thing.

His hand closed on it, and although a Bludger whistled past his head a moment later, he thrust his hand into the air and yelled, and other people started yelling, and Flint blocked a final Quaffle tossed from the Gryffindor Chasers, and the game ended in a rush and roar of noise.

The Bludgers had been subdued, Harry saw when he glanced around, and apparently Longbottom had been hit by one of them and had a broken arm. Harry half-shrugged and turned around as Draco pulled his broom to a stop in the air next to him.

“You grabbed the Snitch,” Draco said, sounding surprised.

“I managed,” Harry said, and ducked his head. “I wouldn’t have managed if not for the all the time that you and Flint put into helping me in the practices.”

Draco preened, and they landed in the middle of the rest of the team, who were laughing and clapping him on the back. Harry wondered idly if Draco even noticed how Flint and Warrington and the rest were paying attention to Harry, reevaluating him with clear speculation in their eyes.

They weren’t looking at Draco that way. Draco was a known quantity, a pureblood whose family was his strength more than any particular character or talents he had on his own. They weren’t congratulating Draco as a Chaser.

Harry hid his smile on the inside, and acted humble, and watched minds around him change in a way that was in his favor.

*

James leaned back in the stands with a shudder. The moments when he’d watched the Bludgers nearly slam into his son as Harry skimmed above the pitch on one of the fastest brooms in the world were the worst he’d experienced. His heart was still jumping far more than even the last time he’d been on an Auror case.

“James?” Lily whispered, leaning against his shoulder.

James wrapped an arm around her and turned his head so that his lips rested against her ear. “I kind of resent the little bugger for forcing me to cheer for Slytherin.”

Lily laughed with a catch in her throat. “You might have half-wanted them to win, but you were cheering for Gryffindor. I don’t think anyone’s going to notice the times that you were gaping at Harry.”

“Well, half the crowd was.”

And that had been the case, James thought as he stood up, his heart still throbbing hard enough to make his chest hurt. Even with the Bludgers going after poor Neville for some reason, even with the regular Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry, Harry’s Seeker talent shone out and commanded everyone’s attention.

James could remember that when he was a Chaser, when people had stared at him with their mouths open. But even then, it had only been a fraction of the attention Harry was getting.

I only had a fraction of his talent.

James swallowed and kept his arm wrapped around Lily’s shoulders as they turned to head back to the school. He kept his gaze resolutely away from their son. If they were going to find a path to reach Harry through Quidditch, they couldn’t act weird, the way he had thought they were so far.

But we’ll reach him. He’ll know, in the end, where he belongs, and how much we love him, and where his talent came from.

*

“I want you to know that you can come to me if you want, Mr. Grayson. For anything at all.”

Harry just nodded politely. Professor Slughorn was upset, he thought, because a Muggleborn kid, Justin Finch-Fletchley, had been found Petrified yesterday. But Harry was still traveling everywhere with other people, and Theo and Draco had agreed to escort him when he brewed in the distant dungeon classrooms without much prompting. “Yes, sir.”

Slughorn sighed gustily and patted the air in front of Harry rather than actually on his head, which Harry was grateful for. “If you know how much I have wished to encourage the presence of Muggleborns at Hogwarts, and how little I’ve been able to do as the years have passed…”

Harry nodded and smiled, and then stepped out of the classroom, relaxing when he saw Draco and Theo waiting for him. The bad part of Professor Slughorn wanting to talk to him was that he might have had to travel back to the common room alone.

“Theo and I were talking,” Draco began in that self-important way he had, before they’d got around the first corner. “What if we helped each other?”

“I thought we were.”

“Well, I’ve helped you, and Theo has helped you, and you’ve helped both of us. But so far, Theo and I haven’t done much to secure a mutual alliance.”

Harry blinked as he thought about that. Then he shrugged. He supposed that it might make Theo and Draco more comfortable, since they would have someone else around who was a pureblood. “All right?”

“This is a bigger deal than you might realize,” Theo interjected, turning around in front of Harry and staring at him intently. “Traditionally, Draco’s family and mine are rivals in the Wizengamot.”

Harry might have wanted to say something about the difference between the Wizengamot and the school, but he knew that he would only cause trouble if he did that. Besides, he’d spent months now guarding his tongue in the presence of purebloods. He looked demurely at the floor.

“Oh,” he said. “I didn’t realize.”

“You’re only a Mudblood, how could you?” Theo was waving a hand when Harry looked up at him again. “But this kind of alliance will cause both me and Draco to have to work to the top of our abilities, while also preserving our families’ interests.”

Harry concealed a frown. He didn’t know why it would make them have to work to the top of their abilities. Didn’t they already do that? And Draco was more talented than Theo in Potions, and Theo more talented than Draco in Defense.

It sounds like a competition by any other name.

But that wasn’t Harry’s problem. He shrugged a little and smiled. “Sure. Sounds fine.”

*

I knew that Grayson would agree, Draco thought. And in the end, he’ll see that I’m more cunning than Theo, and more able to get him favors like the Quidditch team’s protection and the ability to stay at my house. Theo would never dare invite him to his home, with Mr. Nott there.

*

I knew that Grayson would agree, Theo thought. And in the end, he’ll see that I’m more able to give him what he wants. I can talk anyone around, even Father. Draco has no cunning at all. I can get Harry an exalted position.