Chapter 17

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Back in the Gryffindor sitting room, Harry immediately found himself in the clinging arms of his so-called friend. Miss Granger forcefully dragged the young man to their favourite spot. Ron was already sitting there in one of the armchairs, with Neville sprawled on the couch next to him. Many of the classmates looked at the three boys who had been transformed over the summer with curiosity. In their memories, Longbottom had been a clumsy fat boy, Ron Weasley a rough-looking redneck, and Harry Potter a shaggy, scrawny little bastard with glasses. Now there was a striking change in their appearance. All three of them were taller, dressed in expensive, high-quality clothes, and generally looked as if they had stepped off the cover of a glossy magazine. Lavender and Parvatti looked at the boys and giggled stupidly and flapped their eyelashes vigorously.

- Harry, you owe me an explanation," Hermione said sternly, pushing the boy who had winked at Brown into a chair.

- What do you want to know, Herm? - Potter asked, sitting back in his chair.

 The Gryffindor skewered the Gryffindor.

- How many times have I asked you not to call me that nickname! - Granger took a convulsive breath, trying to calm down and continued. - Harry, you gave everyone a real scare this summer. Where have you been? What happened to your relatives? I don't believe what was in the papers. They certainly couldn't have been that bad.

- Okay, stop, Hermie," Potter held up a hand, stopping the flow of words from Granger's mouth and genuinely enjoying the way she skewered him again when he shortened her name. - 'I already know everyone was worried, but after all, nothing terrible happened to me. As you can see, I came back to school alive and well, and also, it should be noted, for the first time truly rested this summer. In fact, I didn't go anywhere and spent the holidays in England, but I have a new guardian who, unlike the Dursleys, treats me well. And as for my dearest relatives... The papers told the real truth. Muggle newspapers are different from magical newspapers, they mostly write verified facts. Hermione glanced irritably at Harry. The same suddenly remembered how his nemesis in THAT life had treated everything Muggle. After the war she had become even worse than the purebloods, hating everything that was even the smallest part of the world she had been born into. But worst of all, she had denied her roots, cut her own parents out of her life. And now the boys could see on Granger's face the beginnings of the hatred that had blossomed in her by the time she was twenty. Before, in THAT life, Harry wouldn't have been able to see it all on his friend's face. Now, however, he saw it as clearly as he could. Maybe he only saw it because he knew exactly what he was looking for.

- Why didn't you text me about where you were and who you were with? I've been worried sick! - The Gryffindor said accusingly, deciding to close the Dursle question temporarily.

 Harry smirked, watching the girl try to take control of the situation. She had been very good at it before.

- If you were so worried about me, why didn't you write to me? - Potter asked a counter question.

- Well, I was with my parents in France, among the Muggles, how would I have contacted you? I couldn't run into the woods to catch an owl," Granger shrugged, absolutely certain that it was normal not to write to a friend you were supposedly worried about.

- But you found out about my disappearance somehow, didn't you," Harry pointed out that she had a connection to the magical world after all.

 Hermione's cheeks flared as the young man rubbed her nose in her own blunder.

- Ginny wrote to me and I've been reading the papers.

- Here, with one of the post owls, you could have easily sent me a letter. All you had to do was pay her. Or get Hermes to deliver a message to me," Harry decided that telling Granger would be a very good idea.

 He hoped that by doing so, his former friend, if indeed she had ever been one, would get away from him for at least a few days. It was too hard for him to keep in touch with her.

- But those owls only deliver newspapers! They're not slaves to be chased around! - Hermione said indignantly.

- Those owls deliver letters for a fee. Haven't you ever seen some students using them as hired postmen? It happens every day in the Great Hall. And there's no question of slavery. Slaves don't get paid," Harry continued to smirk as he looked at his fellow student.

- Hermie, do you think Harry is a who's who? - Ron chimed in, frowning slightly at Granger.

- What?! Why would you say such rubbish! I never said such a thing! - Hermione's cheeks flushed bright red with indignation.

- You did," Neville's lazy voice came from the sofa. - And just now, it hadn't even been a minute.

 The Gryffindor shifted her gaze to Harry and saw him nod in confirmation.

- But I really didn't.

- You said you didn't want the owls to go anywhere. I mean me. So that means I'm nothing to you. I thought we were friends.

- Don't twist my words!

 Harry mentally rubbed his hands together in anticipation, seeing that Granger was already on edge. Just a little bit more and his scheme would succeed....

* * * * *

 Draco retreated to the corner of the bedroom he shared with the rest of the boys in his class. Pointing his wand at one of the chests, he cast an unlocking spell. How right he had been in deciding that it was a good idea to stay away from the chest the moment it was opened. What Crabbe and Goyle hadn't realised was that something as innocuous as unpacking luggage could be quite traumatic. The lid of the trunk opened as if someone had set off a firecracker. Immediately, this object of transport and temporary storage began to spit its contents. Cloaks, like huge birds, flew all over the bedroom, trousers and shirts hung on bedposts and open wardrobe doors, light, silk underwear, pyjamas and dressing gowns, smoothly swirling, dotted the floor. Shoes, on the other hand, whizzed by at the speed of light and rained down on Vince and Greg. Nott and Zabini came into the bedroom and stood at the door with their jaws hanging open and their eyes goggling. Crabbe, grunting like an old man, rose from the floor, rubbing his bruised back, while Goyle lay unconscious. Both of them, as if on cue, had bruises under their left eyes, in addition to Vincent's cheek and Gregory's forehead in the centre of his forehead.

- Malfoy, what happened here? - Theodore asked, coming to his senses, seeing his uninjured fellow student standing in the far corner of the bedroom.

- Nothing much," he shrugged, but couldn't stand the sight of his 'bodyguards' and grinned. - Maman was just checking that I had everything. I guess she thought I'd forgotten something.

 Draco waved his wand and gathered all of his things into a pile and levitated to the bed, then calmly began to sort them out.

- Oh, I see," Blaise stretched out and made his way to his bed.

 Neither of the boys had much to object to the blond's words; their mothers were not much different from Lady Malfoy in their desire to fully equip their sons. Vince, after standing over his friend for a few moments, turned to his leader.

- Draco, bring Greg to his senses, please.

 Malfoy raised his eyebrows and looked at his mate in surprise.

- 'Can't you do it yourself?

- I've got some time this summer... Well, you know," Vincent replied.

- Oh, right. I forgot, sorry," Draco nodded and cast a consciousness spell on Goyle, "By the way, how are you? How are you doing?

- I'm fine, thanks. I'm fine," Crabbe nodded and gave his friend a hand to help him up off the floor.

 It was clear from the look on the Crabbe family heir's face that he was pleased to hear the blond ask the question, because it meant that Malfoy was showing some sort of concern for him. If Vince answered that he wasn't coping, Draco would be sure to help him solve the problem. It was about that moment when magical power took a leap upwards. This was what happened to every wizard who reached the right age. In the next few months after the jump, the magic of the bearer was unstable and it had to be kept under strict control. However, it was mostly purebloods who knew about it, and no one was in a hurry to hold an information session for muggleborns and half-bloods who grew up outside the magical world.

- If you have any trouble," Draco glanced at Vincent, "let me know. I've been through this before, so I'll try to help.

- Thank you," Crabbe thanked him.

- Malfoy, where were you on the train? - Theo asked. - We've been all over the compartments, but we haven't found you.

- And we haven't seen Potter and Weasley either, by the way," Zabini added.

 Draco put the robe aside, which he was about to hang on the rack, and turned to his fellow students. Looking at them carefully, he chose his words carefully and said:

- You know that kinship is a very important thing in our world, don't you? - Seeing the nods of agreement, the blond continued. - So, as it turns out, Potter has a little bit of Black blood in him. His godfather is Sirius Black, and he's my maternal uncle. Anyway, over the summer, Maman decided to reconcile with her cousin. And Potter was staying with Black. And because of our kinship, we made a truce. The four Slytherins listened to Malfoy in silence. Finally, Blaise asked:

- So your war is over?

- Yes.

- Does his favourite Dumbledore know that you've reconciled? - Nott asked.

- 'Harry's opinion of the Headmaster changed a lot this summer,' Draco smirked. - The old man didn't even know about where and with whom the Golden Boy had spent his holidays. You've been reading issues of the Daily Prophet, haven't you?

- Are you saying Potter's finally getting his head round it? - Zabini raised his eyebrows in surprise.

- Not only has he. He got Weasley and Longbottom on the right track, too. So those three are no longer our enemies.

- Wait a minute, Draco. That thing you said about Parkinson's at the championships. You were already in contact with Potter. Didn't you learn about her from him? - Theodore squinted.

 Malfoy remained silent and only smirked. He figured that if the Slytherins thought it was Harry who had told them about the traitorous girl, there would be more credence to his words. After all, everyone knew that Gryffindors were too noble to lie.

- So Dumbledore's in for a surprise," Blaise concluded.

- Yes, unless, of course, someone chatty brings it to him sooner," Draco looked at his mates with a sharp glance.

- He won't," Crabbe said confidently, crunching his fingers together.

* * * * *

 Harry's calculation had paid off. Granger defiantly took offence at him. The boys only breathed a sigh of relief when she left for breakfast alone the next morning after the welcome feast, not waiting for Ron and Harry as she always did. Time passed and the rest of the students got used to the fact that the composition of the Golden Trio had changed. Granger's place was now taken by Longbottom. The three boys fully lived up to the name of their group. They perfectly coped with the role of the golden youth. And there was nothing surprising about it. All three were representatives of ancient families, even though the Weasley's were blood traitors, but no one cancelled the length of their lineage. What was surprising, of course, was that the redhead was now well dressed. But there was an explanation for that as well. Harry had mentioned in passing that he had offered his red-haired friend an interest-free loan, which he had agreed to and promised to repay when he finished his studies at Hogwarts and got a job. Potter hadn't overestimated the Gryffindor gossip girl's capabilities and within two hours the whole school knew about it.

 Pretty soon, the students noticed that the enmity between Potter and Malfoy, who had been enemies yesterday, had died down. Now the two bright representatives of the centuries-old rival faculties greeted each other in a dignified manner, or exchanged polite phrases about the weather or something insignificant. It made a lot of people wonder if the Slytherins were so bad that even the Boy Who Survived was talking to one of them.

And while the students were pondering this, the day of the arrival of delegations from the schools of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang approached...