Malfoy. And Ravenclaw. Then Malfoy again.
"Potter."
Harrison looked over his shoulder, arm frozen in the air where it had been stretched up to get a book on one of the higher shelves. He dropped back onto the heels of his feet, dropping the same arm.
"Malfoy." He greeted with a far more civil voice than Malfoys.
The boy looked around the empty library. It was Wednesday morning, so not many people hung around the library unless it was exam period. In fact, Ron and Hermione weren't even in there. They'd decided on going to Myrtles' bathroom to practice Animagus forms. Hermione still hadn't found hers yet, and Ron was still riding the high of finding his form.
Harrison had decided on spending the morning looking into the Hogwarts Founders, hoping to find information about the heirs. He'd spent a night looking around Godric Gryffindors' Room/Quarters, seeing if there was any information there, but there wasn't. So until he could find another Founders' room, he was stuck looking through the library. The pass for the forbidden library was still valid, thank Merlin for Remus, but he wanted to check the main library first, just in case.
"You're alone."
"Very well spotted."
Malfoy scoffed, "What did you mean?"
Harrison waited for him to elaborate, and when he didn't, he spoke again, "What did I mean, when?"
"Before."
"Right. Very specific aren't you?"
"When you said befriending Slytherins wouldn't be so bad. What did you mean?"
"I do not sound like that."
"Yes, you do."
"You make me too high pitched."
"Stop avoiding the question."
"I thought you were supposed to be smart?" Harrison arched a brow, turning back to the bookcase to reach for the book again.
Malfoy, however, stopped him, grabbing his arm, "Humour me."
With a sigh, he said, "It means exactly what you think it means. I'm happy befriending Slytherins. Fuck the houses. I'm... Rebelling against the status quo. I'm starting a revolution, a rebellion."
"Funny."
There was a pause, in which Malfoy gave Harrison a studying look. Looking for any hint he was just playing him.
"You're really serious."
"Well, yeah?" Harrison said, confused more than anything. When will people start taking me seriously?
"Why?"
"Why?"
"Why?"
"Because the house system is complete bullshit. I mean, how can someone be just brave? Or just loyal? Why can't someone be cunning and intelligent? I know more Ravenclaws at the bottom of their class than any other house, but they're seen as the 'smart' house. It's just complete rubbish. And the fact that you're sorted into Slytherin at eleven and suddenly your deemed evil. I mean, come on. We're still children."
Malfoy stared at him as if he'd grown six heads, threw on a tutu and started Irish dancing across the staff table during the beginning of the year feast. He kind of wished he was, just to see Snape and Dumbledore's reactions.
"You can let go of my arm now, by the way."
Just now realising he was still holding onto Harrisons arm, he dropped it like it burned to touch. Ouch? When Malfoy still hadn't said anything after 10 seconds, Harrison said, "If you're just going to stand there in silence, could you make yourself useful and get me that book there? You're taller."
Snapping out of his thoughts, Malfoy looked between Harrison, the bookshelf, and the stone wall. He looked a bit flustered. If Harrison wasn't seeing things, that is. "Uh..." He cleared his throat, "Which.. one?"
"The blue spine and silver foiling."
"Right..."
He hesitantly took the book off the shelf, probably expecting it to start eating his arm, maybe even hoping it would, before shoving it into Harrisons chest, and, in a flash, disappeared.
Blinking, Harrison looked at where Malfoy just stood, holding the book to his chest from where it had been pressed into him. "Well, thanks then?"
He then turned and walked to the alcove, ready to forget the encounter and look for more information on the Hogwarts Founders and their heirs.
Turns out, there's very little. In the books he'd found that morning, they'd only consisted of how the castle came about, their power, influence. Nothing on the family magics, or anything family related at all. The only family mention was Helena Ravenclaw and her tragic death, and Helga's love for family. Not exactly helpful.
So, having just finished Divination, and haven walked the way with the lovebirds to their Time-Turner point, he decided on going to the forbidden section.
Walking in, it was as chaotic as always. Book here weren't organised. Not by topic, not by alphabetical, not by author. There was just no organisation. There were books on the floor for Merlin's sake. It took about twenty minutes to find the first book on the Founders, a lot shorter than he thought it would be in all honesty.
He returned back to the alcove with three books, after two hours of searching. Hermione was mediating in the alcove, back pressed against the wall as she sat on the window ledge. Ron was doing Charms homework.
"Find anything?" Ron asked absently, mid-way through his essay.
"Three books, one of all founders family's, one on Hogwarts. There were a few books on the other houses, but I didn't think searching through a book about the Hufflepuff family would be very productive, so I didn't stop until I found one on Ravenclaw. So I also have one on Ravenclaw." He said, closing the curtains to the alcove and sitting down.
He was honestly considering adding some pillows to the alcove, make it comfier. The wooden chairs were very outdated. At the very least, he will transfigure them into comfier chairs.
The books were... sort of helpful. The first one, wasn't. It was basically 'Hogwarts: A History' with a different title. It was also self updating, with some powerful spell bound to it, which honestly made it hard to look at for Harrison. He did find out Hogwarts was a 'She' though, reminding him of French Class back in Primary, when you had to remember what gender a pencil case and glue-stick was in order to not fail.
The second, the one on all family's was a bit more helpful. It didn't have specifics necessarily, but there were a few things he gathered from it. Heirs were able to feel the magic of Hogwarts, and Lords/Ladies were able to utilise it. The Wardstone, which controlled the enchantments encased around the school, only allowed the Lords/Ladies of the houses, and the Ghost of each house near it, and was hidden somewhere in the castle. He was unsure if the Wardstone was also gendered. There was also a portrait somewhere within the castle, with something hidden behind that too. There was a password, one undisclosed in the book, and what was actually hidden behind the portrait was undisclosed as well. In fact, there wasn't even a description of the portrait, just that an Heir would 'know'. Lots of hidden things. Lots of mystery.
Its a good thing the trio loves that shit.
The third book was the most helpful, but also the oddest. Ron had tried to open the book when he finished his Charms essay, but was unable to. But when Harrison opened it, it was as easy as opening any other book. The ginger also tried reading it, but said he couldn't understand a word, like it was in another language, but Harrison could read it perfectly fine, as if it was English.
Upon further reading, he discovered the book was written in some old Avian language and that all four houses had some genetic language. Slytherin was Parsel, and the only one actually known. So, that was cool. Maybe that's why he and Hedwig got along so great, why he always felt he could understand her.
There was a lot about the history of the family within the book, starting from Rowena's Grandmother and working it's way down to the last known Lord, who was a squib, before he disappeared and it was unknown if he ever continued on the bloodline. Well, turns out he did. Ravenclaw was an old house, the oldest of the four founders. Ravenclaw also had a secret. Well, a secret place at Hogwarts that is. There was probably tons of secrets unwritten of Ravenclaw that Harrison would never be able to know. But, Ravenclaw, and he assumed all houses did, had a secret just like the Chamber Of Secrets.
Not only did he have Rowena's bedroom to find, along with probably Helena's, he had an unknown portrait and password to find, and a secret room he had no idea what it could possibly be, as well as the Wardstone.
Finishing reading, he learned that Heirs and Heads of the Family got fucking abilities once the title was claimed. And, of course, none were stated. It was a mystery.
"I need to make a new list."
Malfoy started becoming a daily in Harrisons life. It started with that day in the library. Then, two days later, they'd been partnered again in Potions. Snape hated giving him a good grade, so was probably doing this to make excuses for himself to give Harrison one.
Then that Friday, they were paired in Care of MC. They didn't see one another during the weekend, Harrison spending the time in the common room doing homework, studying, and creating the new un-named map, so in random parts of the empty school. But they were paired again in Care on Monday, and found each other in the library on Tuesday.
Wednesday Harrison didn't see Malfoy, but Malfoy saw Harrison searching for transfiguration books. Then Thursday, they were paired again. And Friday, they were still paired for Care, sharing the same creature to take care of.
"Malfoy, your stirring it in the wrong direction."
"No I'm not."
"Yes you are."
"Well maybe if you wrote clearer, I could understand the instructions better."
"You told me to hurry up."
"You take too slow."
To anyone else, like Snape or anyone other than Ron, Hermione, Harrison, and Malfoy, they probably looked like they were arguing. But it was more... bickering? Harrison didn't really know honestly. But the words weren't rude, they weren't mocking. They were teasing and humorous. In a way only they get, he supposed.
They weren't even friends. Just, interacting with each other in class, and only in class. They were civil now.
And yet, they found themselves saying 'Hello' to each other in the Library when passing. Nodding to each other on the way to class, or across the Great hall during meals.