Chapter Text
Harry glanced quietly at Ron and Hermione. Hermione sat, staring intensely at Snape, practically hanging off every word he so strenuously pushed out in slithers of speech. On the contrary, Ron was in his own world. Things were quite tense, Harry had worked out.
For some reason, Ron was upset, being standoffish and all around the clock unfriendly. What really tipped Harry off was when Ron dragged Hermione to the furthest bench from where Harry had placed his books when the three had entered potions, leaving him to endure another boring lesson alone.
"Mr. Potter, would you be so kind to find your group." Snape slowly slid the sentence off his tongue, eyeing Harry quite intensely.
"Huh?" Harry rudely replied, snapping out of his monologue.
"10 points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter."
Echoes of Gryffindor students groaning commenced, before stifling as Snape repeated the instructions Harry hadn't heard.
"For the end-of-term assessment, you will find a group of 5, but obviously, you were not listening, so you'll be in the group that's one person short, to make a high-level potion, the higher the level the better grade, which I'm quite sure you will not be able to achieve with your listening skills."
"Yes sir..." Harry gulped before scanning the room to find the group with 4 students, his eyes going over green and red uniforms. He was quite nervous, as the class was a half Gryffindor half Slytherin mix.
Shit.
His eyes landed on a group of four, possibly the worst group he could've gotten. Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott and Draco Malfoy, locked eyes with him. He was done for.
"Sir!" Harry turned, trying to plead.
"It is not my problem that you were too busy daydreaming to properly pick a group. Now go to their bench." Snape ignored Harry's desperate begs, strutting back to the front of the class.
Trudging, Harry made his way over to the Slytherins, who were practically staring through his soul, examining his whole figure judgingly. He placed his books on the edge of the bench, the smell of rich and potent perfumes swirling around him.
"Well Pottah, had a nice daydream?" Draco spat the words out clearly unpleased that they were being forced to work with Harry, "Look at where your carelessness has brought you."
"Please, he's glad he's here. Even with Hermione, he'd be flunking this class without us." Blaise added in snarkily, earning a chuckle from the other 3.
"Upset I won't mindlessly follow you like your little cult here?" Harry retorted, although the comment didn't hit nearly as hard as it should have, with the fight being a 1v4.
"Potter, does your hair always look like that?" Pansy asked, leaning closer to Harry's side of the bench.
"Like what?" Harry's mouth was dry, he smacked his lips a few times waiting for the joke her knew was coming into play.
"Like you've done it with a house elf's broom." She cackled, the rest joining in. Harry didn't find the insult all that witty but easily moved on with the thought of how house elves even cleaned manors to begin with, with their short statures.
"Don't go all day-dreamy on us now Pottah, we actually have some work to do." Malfoy sneered.
Harry half-heartedly responded by shifting his body towards the group, where Blaise was jotting something down in his workbook.
"Okay, we'll meet up daily in the library. We'll study the highest level potions we can find until we come upon one we think we can make." Blaise asserted, looking at his Slytherin peers to hear any objections.
"Uh? Everyday? Urm." Harry questioned, not wanting to have to spend more time than necessary with the group.
"Potter does make it kind of hard. We were planning on just doing this in the Slytherin common rooms after dinner or in the library during lunch." Pansy lightly chewed on her nail in thought, before quickly giving up.
"Well, he's not getting out of doing the hard work." Draco reminded, seemingly trying to figure out his own solution.
"We could ask Professor Snape if we can let him into the Slytherin common rooms?" Blaise suggested offhandedly.
"Letting the Golden Griffindor boy into the common rooms? Blaise, have you gone mental?" Draco looked terribly mad at the mere suggestion of Harry entering the sacred room.
"It's not a terrible idea, but everyone else in Slytherin probably won't feel safe with him in there." Pansy tried to settle Draco, placing a hand on his overpriced robes.
"They wouldn't feel safe? If anything I'd feel uncomfortable! Being trapped in a room with the entirety of Slytherin? Count me out." Harry shivered uncomfortably, imagining how Slytherin students would stare at him while he tried working on the project. Theo stayed in his silence, simply nodding and making faces to communicate.
"There's a lot you don't know, Chosen one." Pansy snapped, irritated.
"Still, Potter can't just miss out on half our study sessions. We're not going to just let him pass because we did the heavy lifting." Blaise argued.
"I don't care what we have to do, we're just not letting him in." Draco complained, rubbing his temples due to the arguing.
"Letting him where, Mr. Malfoy?" Snape, seemingly out of nowhere, had appeared at the front of the group's workbench. A heavy nervousness weighted Harry down, the same dread that accompanied Snape since the first year. However, it was not the same case for the Slytherins, who seemed quite comfortable being around such an ominous presence.
"We're not sure what to do about him," Blaise gestured to Harry, 'We were going to do extra study time in the common rooms, but he isn't in Slytherin," Blaise explained the situation apprehensively, trying to ignore Draco's burning stare.
"I don't see why it would be an issue to let Mr. Potter in. Only for a short bit of time, and he must end up back in his dorms by curfew." Snape, surprisingly, didn't object to having the Golden Boy enter the Slytherin rooms. He waited a few seconds to see if anyone wanted to protest his decision, before heading back to Hermione's desk, as she had had her arm raised for a large amount of time.
"Now look at what you've done Blaise!" Draco huffed angrily, brushing one hand over his slightly stiff hair. Harry had noticed the change in Draco's appearance, although it was slight. He'd stopped gelling his hair, opting for a hairspray to keep things gently in place. His hair was looking healthier, and a small yet noticeable black strand was starting to sneak out of Draco's once perfectly platinum hair.
"So do we really have to bring him there now? Every night?" Pansy looked almost shocked, trying to wrap her head around the idea.
"I mean it fixes the problem?" Blaise said sheepishly, not expecting his passing idea to actually move into action.
"So now I'm stuck in the Slytherin dorm rooms, working, instead of being able to relax in mine?" Harry asked rhetorically, clearly just as displeased as Malfoy.
"We keep him in the common room at all times. No one take your eyes off him." Nott finally spoke up, a heavy Roman accent lacing his breath. Nott was a man of few words, so hearing his unique accent (to Hogwarts at least) always struck Harry.
"Trust me, I wouldn't have it any other way." Draco, who hadn't yet come to accept this newfound reality, was happy to keep Harry on a tight leash in the dorms.
"Meet us at the Slytherin table when you're done with your food potter, we'll take you to the dorms ourselves." Pansy instructed.
"Sure." Harry no longer felt like protesting. This was going to be a long six weeks.