Tensions Rising

A blue arc of magic hit both students at once and knock the two boys back into the grounds. The spell was slightly modified to act like an arc and not a beam. It was part of the second-year curriculum about basic spell manipulation in defence of the dark arts.

Harry heard the two boys groaning in pain to make sure they were alright. Well, apparently Longbottom was now an enemy. The last Potter simply shrugged and walked back to the castle. He was getting hungry anyway.

Harry's return to the Slytherin common room was met with cheers from his classmates. Malfoy and Parkinson had come to congratulate him for his 'victory' for some reason, and Draco even exclaimed that he had 'known that there was a Slytherin hidden underneath all along'. Apparently, Longbottom had loudly complained about him in the Gryffindor common room, and now everyone knew, at least a version, about Harry's encounter with Longbottom and Weasley.

These kids were weird, and Harry just ignored them in favour of exploring his magic. He had found no mention of the melodic heartbeats he heard whenever he was near magic. It was extremely useful when perfecting a spell or even modifying it slightly. It had even helped him sense and dodge the spells from the two Gryffindor boys that attacked him. He did try to look at magical gifts that wizards often had, but magical families tended to be very secretive, unless it was an extremely noticeable one, like Parseltongue, for example.

Still, Harry was surprised when he was cornered by Blaise, Tracy, and Daphne, in the common room. Daphne had given him a severe look, "So, we are formally against Longbottom and his lackeys."

The green-eyed boy tilted his head, "What are you talking about?"

"The duel with Longbottom and Weasley, Harry," Tracy explained.

"What about it? They attacked me when I was reading outside the castle. I tried to talk to them, but they wouldn't listen, so I retaliated. It barely qualified as a duel. Hell, I didn't swear vengeance or anything. I just knocked him around so that he would stop trying to attack me."

"Well, Longbottom does, and now Malfoy thinks you're supporting his group," Blaise replied.

Harry was aghast by the implication, "I'm not supporting anyone. I can barely stand being in the same room as Malfoy. And I sure as hell am not going to follow his lead and attack Gryffindors for no reason. As far as I'm concerned, the entire thing is entirely illogical and frankly moronic. Look, after an attack or two from Malfoy, Longbottom will forget all about me, and he'll focus on him. As far as I'm concerned as long as none of us gets attacked for no reason, then I'm not going to involve myself in any of this."

The three of them visibly relaxed when he told them that. Had they really thought that Harry wanted to get into childish fights with Gryffindor all the time? This house rivalry was getting too far. Harry could understand that it might help motivate students to do better and to behave, but this was getting out of hand. He only hoped that they would calm down.

A week had passed and it didn't look like they would. In fact, the conflict seemed to have escalated to include the second and third years as well. Harry didn't expect the Gryffindor-Slytherin spat to turn into an all-out war and yet it did. It was becoming common to walk around the school and see a duel happening between two students. Malicious pranks from the Gryffindors were met by curses from the Slytherin. And the worst thing was that no one seemed to care. The professors broke fights and took off points when they ran across one, but for every fight they stopped, there were ten that they didn't.

It was during his class with Professor Flitwick that Harry decided to ask a question. The professor was obviously impartial given that he was the Head of Ravenclaw. Harry could see that McGonagall was slightly partial to the Gryffindors, and Harry was sure as hell that he wasn't going to ask Snape about it. The man's behaviour was visibly colder compared to his classmates, something that everyone had noticed.

It was after Charms class about the colour changing charm that Harry stayed back and asked the half-goblin, "Professor, may I have a moment of your time?"

The jovial professor immediately jumped down and looked Harry in the eye, "Of course, Mr Potter, ask away."

"I'm a little concerned about the whole Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry that's going on. Does it always go this far?"

The professor's jovial expression fell slightly, "I'm afraid so. It wasn't always like this. Before the war, Slytherin were just students like everyone else. During the war, everyone was afraid and kept their heads down. It was after the war that things started to get this far. We indulged them at first, to get it out of their systems. You see, in the war, everyone lost a family member or a close friend, either to death or to Azkaban. I'm not sure which is worse, to be entirely honest.

"However, when the war was over, when people stopped being afraid, they started to get angrier and angrier. Until every year, first years end up fighting. We let them get through with it because stopping them now will mean that they will get it out of their systems when they're older and have been taught dangerous spells. You see that older students just don't seem to care all that much, and that's what we want. Although, this year, Neville Longbottom and Draco Malfoy, who are considered the heirs to the light and dark factions, have caused tensions to rise up, which is why the second and third years started to get involved. Don't worry, there is a teacher's meeting at the end of the week where we'll discuss how to deal with this situation."

"Thank you, Professor," Harry said after releasing a sigh of release. At least the staff weren't insane enough to let their magic wielding children run around sending nearly lethal spells at each other.

"You remind me of your mother, you know?" the professor asked with a fond tone.

.....

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