Ch 7 - Christmas

or

Malfoy became queer?!

..

Cho Chang was not the main seeker, she was not even a reserve which is why Harry did not notice her. After all, it was only her first year on the team, and she was not called Harry Potter. I believe she will be the seeker in the third year.

Now, why was I talking about her? It is because I just passed near her friend's group, and a few girls started giggling. Girls will be girls it seems.

My direction was Potion's class, today we would have a random partner class for the practical part of the lesson, and knowing my luck I would end up with either Crabbe or Goyle.

...

"Mr. Wielding and..."

"Ms. Greengrass" declared Snape and I sighed heavily a bit weary, could have gone worse I thought. Then I looked at the young girl and found her glaring at me, she noticed my sigh, and I knew she misunderstood it, that's just how these things go. I had no intention of explaining myself anyways.

My predictions were made true when she asked me: "thinking I will slow you down Wielding?"

I am I simple man, I like teasing and having fun "eh... I was just thinking it could have gone worse" I paused, looked at her in the eyes, and then said "could have been Crabbe or Goyle" hinting that I consider her

to be just above them, which I didn't btw.

She was about to answer when Snape interrupted "Ms. Greengrass you will be the one making the potions while Mr. Wielding will prepare the ingredients."

"" Yes Professor "" to add salt to the wound I then whispered to her "Try to not make a mess"

I could see her getting angrier by the second but we had a potion to make.

We worked well together, I adjusted to her pace and prepared the ingredients on time for her to do the necessary work.

While waiting for the second part of the potion to begin she asked a question while I was preparing the mixtures "I thought you would be breathing down my neck through every move since you consider me so bad at this" careful there young miss, you might spit venom on the potion.

I looked at her and chuckled both at my own joke and at her clear irritation "never said you were bad though"

That might have ticked her off a bit if her clear indignation was a clue so I added "I try to trust those who work with me with the job they are given"

She raised an eyebrow "what if I ruin the potion? What if I make you lose house points?"

"Bold of you to assume I care about house points" I paused briefly to finish working the ingredient then continued "In any case, if you ruined the potion because of carelessness you will lose my trust in everything regarding potions and your value in my mind will drop drastically".

That finally shut her up, I don't want anything to do with the Greengrass family, they are a literal can of worms to deal with. She is very cute though, and she may grow up to become very beautiful in the future.

We finished the potion with no trouble getting a nod for our efforts and Daphne getting a "well done" and 15 points. She looked at me and then left without a word. Weird ass girl if you ask me.

...

Christmas was right around the corner.

I and Harry acquired this habit of not being able to sleep sometimes, so we would just stay up near the window to talk about life, right now Harry was telling me what happened with Hagrid earlier today while I was in the RoR.

"Malfoy being a brat again uh? Why am I not surprised?" I asked Harry

He looked so done "Uhh, he is getting more and more annoying, Snape is always there for him. Why is McGonagall never there for us?" he asked exasperated while petting his Hedwig.

"Because McGonagall is fair or tries to be" I simply answered and he replied with his trademark confused face so I felt obliged to continue "If you noticed Snape is the only one giving points to his house only, don't tell him I said this but I think Snape is trying to give his house more points to combat the prejudice everyone has towards Slytherin." I looked at Harry as he widened his eyes.

"Prejudice? But..." he started and I interjected knowing his argument

"Have you ever been shunned because you were different, or because people thought you were a bad person without trying to get to know you better?"

Harry stayed silent for a while, he probably remembered his Aunt and Uncle "Yes..." he finally muttered.

"Well see, when it comes to house fighting each other it is always three versus one, everyone hates Slytherin, everyone thinks Slytherin is evil just because, nobody tries to understand them, nobody cares. Only Snape and the professors who try to be as fair as possible" I paused a second to see I'm frowning, so I continued "I worked on a Potion with a Slytherin the last lesson, she was great, truly good at the craft, and good company as well, but her family would be a bit of a hassle to deal with if I tried and befriend her since they are purebloods."

Harry nodded after a while "So Snape is trying to..." he couldn't continue so I helped a bit "Trying to lessen the prejudice they feel by giving them more points, and, sadly, widening the gap between houses once more. That is also the reason why Slytherin always stay together and only occasionally interact with other houses, especially the first few years, they have nobody else after all"

"Thank you, Chris" I looked at him surprised

"For what?"

"For these talks, and for the tips, you give me from time to time, you always seem to know what is going on in my mind" I just chuckled

"Happy to help Harry, you are a good friend, never doubt that" he smiled and went to sleep much to the disappointment of his Owl who then took off.

I stayed up a bit more than him, today was my sister's birthday in the other world, and I cried a little bit.

I miss her. A lot.

My owl Blackie as if understanding my mood nuzzled me on my cheek from her perch on my shoulder. What a sweetheart she is, albeit a bit too jealous if I look at or pet other owls. I chuckled and letter her some more.

...

Finally, Christmas came and I knew there would be no presents for me, not that I cared honestly.

Harry was ecstatic with his new sweater and Invisibility Cloak, Fred and George loved their Christmas as well, I still couldn't differentiate the two of them considering they probably changed the sweaters with their initials on them.

"Hello guys, up to something as always?" I asked the group already up and unpacking.

"Chris!" Boomed Fred and George "We finally figured out the prank, expect to see a grumpy Malfoy this morning" they laughed and zeroed in on Percy who had just shown up

"What's all this noise."

Percy Weasley stuck his head through the door, looking disapproving. He had clearly gotten halfway through unwrapping his presents as he, too, carried a lumpy sweater over his arm, which Fred seized.

"P for prefect! Get it on, Percy, come on, we're all wearing ours, even Harry got one."

"I -- don't -- want to," said Percy thickly, as the twins forced the sweater over his head, knocking his glasses askew.

"And you're not sitting with the prefects today, either," said George. "Christmas is a time for family."

They frog-marched Percy from the room, his arms pinned to his side by his sweater.

I turned to the dazed faces of Rob and Harry, "what a loud family you got Ron" I laughed and the two started laughing as well, the joy was contagious.

"Well then, let me get some food, I'm famished, want something as well?" Almost succeeding in going out

"And where do you think you are going?" asked Ron and I stopped confused "You have a present to open," he said with a grin.

I absentmindedly looked at the Christmas tree, and there seemed to be one pack for me and they looked very similar to the ones owned by Ron, Harry and the rest of the Wea... sleys.

"You seem to have gotten a Weasley sweater as well said ton laughing" I immediately darted to the red-haired kid and hugged him.

He looked weirded out at first before tentatively reaching his hands behind mine. Harry soon followed as well.

"This is a great present thank you Ron. I will also need to thank your mother via Owl later" I could feel him smile and it was genuine. He was a good guy, I was now sure.

However, the greatest birthday present was seeing Malfoy going around with rainbow-colored hair sparkling every time he got irritated. Eye for an eye, Malfoy, you try to attack me, I answer in my own ridiculous way.

...