The Rebirth Of The Deceptive Deity

 Loki looked around. Everything was grey. He got a feeling of dèjà vu. But this time it wasn't necessary to die in order to end up here. He noticed a familliar skinny figure of a man sitting. This time around the table was larger, he was eating pizza. There were two plates and two steaming cups of coffee on the table.

"Greetings, Death. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Death looked up from the plate, tilting his head, "well, hello mister Loki." A chair appeared on the other side of the table. Loki sat on it, straightening up. "What is it exactly that you wish for me to do?" Death looked down to the two pizzas on the table. "Grab a slice." Loki complied.

The former God tasted the pizza. This pizza was very good. He watched as Death smiled in victory. "So, how do you like your new life so far?" Loki shrugged. "You see, it's been fun." He smiled–"I quite enjoyed living with the professor, he's nice." Loki continued. "I feel like I'm finally bring seen for who I really am, not for what I have done... for now. I'm not being judged for every single movement I make." Death looked at Loki somewhat sympathetically, then he nodded, taking a bite out of another slice.

"Mister Loki, you have to live your life like you want. I gave you this choice to make you shine, let you feel something other than pain, betrayal and loneliness." Death stared into Lokis eyes. "You deserve to have a second chance, because nobody has ever given you one." Loki closed his eyes and let the emotions fade to nothingness.

–"and ofcourse because you'll entertain me." A smile was brought out of Loki. "Why exactly is it that I still have my seidr?" Death rook his coffee mug and drank. "Coffee?" He offered. "I'm more of a tea enthusiast. I hate bitter things ." Death stared at him like he was crazy, then he nodded, "if that's how you feel...okay then." Loki felt a little guilty for making the man go from looking like an important authority figure to looking like a kicked puppy. "It's okay... I just don't like coffee, not a big deal."

Death sighed dramatically. "I sympathize with you, mister Loki. I couldn't imagine a life without coffee." Loki looked at him with an awkward smile. "I see."

Death asked Loki about his thoughts regarding Snape. One question was all it took, he started spilling his thoughts out about how caring and kind the man was. Death seemed indulged by Lokis enthusiasm about this topic. Loki spoke about his first day  how that felt. Also, he added more about Beauty, Hermione and Neville before declaring how much he already loathed the headmaster.

Then a question popped up in his head. "Tell me Death: do you know that guy in turban who looked very pale and sickly? The one who had two separate souls inside of his body?"

Death smirked, finally Loki had his full attention. "So you do know him." Concluding. "Who is he? He leaves a bad feeling to me." Death tapped his finger against the table. "He's someone you'll need to keep an eye on... but nothing to worry about now."

The liesmits eyebrows furrowed, Death continued. "I told you. No need to worry yourself now, mister Loki. You can change your fate as Harry Potter. I know you can do it."  Understanding that pressing for more questions would be in vain, Loki just filled his mouth with pizza. After finishing, he asked "About the question I asked before..."

Death caught on about what Loki was asking right away. "You mean the one about your magical abilities." Loki waited. "Honestly  what fun would it be if you had to use a wand to do a basic magic spell? Besides, you know more magic than anyone on the planet will ever know." Loki felt his ego being boosted. Norns, it felt good to be complimented by Death.

Death lifted his left hand and glanced at the watch on it. "It's about time." Loki was about to ask Death what he was talking about when Death got up and stood next to Loki. His eyes shot up, "time for what?"

"Good morning mister Loki... and yes, I'm always watching." Death tapped Lokis shoulder like he did previously and Loki woke–now as Harry–in the comfortable bed he fell asleep in last night.

Loki woke up before anyone could crack an eye open, get sleepy and go back to sleep again. It was 5 in the morning, just like Harry used to wake when living with the Dursleys.

Getting out of bed, he took a shower, dragging Beauty to clean her too, then he dressed up and got ready. Loki took it up on himself to give Beauty her first mission. "Beauty, I need you to learn how to hunt and acquire food on your own. I'll enchant you with some protective spells just in case. You need to be safe."  He put the spells on Beauty just as he promised. Beauty sulked for a little while before her sense of hunger won and she slithered out of the room.

Loki went on a walk, exploring the castle. He bumped into an unexpected person. It was the pale man storing 2 souls in his body. "Hello professor." Harry Said and got a response that smelled fake. "H-hello, m-mister P-Potter." Harry felt the urge to use one of his spells to find out why the man was faking his stutter, but he was still in the enemy territory, so he pushed the urge away.

Harry made himself look as innocent and blind to the act as possible. "Tell me m-mister P-Potter, what a-are you doing w-wandering the school at a time like t-this?" Harry smiled, "I woke up quite early and couldn't fall back asleep. I decided to explore Hogwarts myself."

Then Loki made himself look like a shy first year, who can't ask a simple question, in fact just wanting the answer quickly. And Loki sure as hell wasn't shy."By the way, professor. What's your name?"

The mans lips twitched, like he wanted to stop pretending already, but no, fooling a child it was. "My name is Quirinus Quirrel. I teach defense against the dark arts."

Loki smiled politely, "Professor Quirrel, why are you faking your figure of speech?" The man seemed surprised by the question at first, then he said, "w-what are you talking about, m-mister P-Potter? I'm not faking anything, you must be mistaken."

Harry mirrors the smile of Quirrel. "Oh. Okay then. If you're so sure professor." The man nodded, clearly suspicious of Harry. Then the boy looked down at the watch on his wrist which he made using illusions the moment he came across the pale man. Then he sighed. "Professor, I must apologize, chatting with you is not an option at the moment. See, I need to go wake up my roommates, they asked me to. See you next time." Then he walked away.

When Harry was walking away, he noticed a slight change in mister Quirrels eyes. They became red and colder. Maybe it was just his imagination.

Harry really needed to have his eyes fixed. Even with the contact lenses Snape got him, his eyes played tricks on him.

After exploring the building for long enough, he got back to the common rooms, seeing that everyone had woken up, he became anxious. What if Beauty came back and they spotted her? Because right now they were all staring at him. "What is it?" He asked, not showing his cards. 

They didn't answer. "Do I have something on my face?" He said, acting dumb. Blaise stepped forward. "You have a lot of explaining to do." Someone Blaise looked like he couldn't care less. 

Harry looked around cautiously. "What happened?" Draco gritted his teeth. "I know you don't like us... but this is too much."–"Just tell me what you want from me, Malfoy." Harry braced himself for whatever it is to come. Draco glared at him. "Why were there dead rats on my bed?"

Harry couldn't help but laugh out loud. The blond seemed even more mad now, so Harry raised his hands in surrender. "It wasn't me. It was probably my pet." Draco pinched the bridge of his nose. "Don't try to fool me Potter. Owls are smart enough not to bring their dead prey in someone else's bed, unless their owner orders exactly for that." He said with a victorious smirk. 

So Loki decided to do the only thing he could to get out of this sticky situation, he was already mistrusted by the Slytherins, he didn't want them to bully Harry because of a misunderstanding. What more could he lose?

"It wasn't an owl." Harry sighed. Blaise crossed his arms. "What do you mean?" Harry smirked and admitted, "It was my other pet, Beauty... she isn't an owl." The Slytherin students surrounding him didn't seem convinced. Then Harry tried another approach. "Beauty. Come to me." He hissed out in parseltongue.

Everyone was caught off guard by Harry's sudden change in voice intonation and language, they've probably never heard it before. 

Beauty crawled out from under Harry's bed and Harry, being the amazing owner he is, descended to her level and pat her head. "This is Beauty, my pet... this was her first hunt." Then he switched to parsel, "it's okay little one, they won't hurt you while I'm here."

Draco looked paler than before... how is that even possible for the blond? The other slytherin students were stunned, whispering between one another. Blaise was a little shocked at first, but later accepted the fact in front of him. "You are a parcelmouth." Blaise concluded. 

"Unbelievable..." said Draco and sat down in a couch to think about what he just learnt about the not so golden boy. Harry hissed something to Beauty and looked at Draco. Beauty moved towards him and bowed. Harry smiled, "she apologized for storing her food in your bed. If it feels better, whe chose it because it was in the finest condition." Draco rubbed his forehead, then sighed, as if preparing himself for something horrible. "Okay. I accept the apology. Just tell her not to do it again." 

Harry delivered Dracos message to Beauty, that's when the unending dispute between Beauty and Draco begun.

It wasn't long before every Slytherin got accustomed to Harry being able to talk to snakes. In fact, they were proud of it. Because they were Slytherins, not some other houses that mistrusted the great serpent language. They told Harry all about how the majority of parceltongue speakers descended directly from Salazar Slytherin. 

And wasn't that cool? Harry wasn't even Salazars descendant. "Draco, i've gotten curious now. Did the dark lord speak parcel?" An awestruck Malfoy looked back at him. "I don't know Po-Harry."

Blaise to the rescue, "yes. He could indeed speak the serpent language, what of it?" Harry smirked. "I believe me being able to speak to snakes is because of him... he must've gave me his ability when he attacked me." He said proudly.

Well, now Harry has created a very gloomy atmosphere. Good thing they had a class to attend soon.

Harry, Blaise, Draco and Pancy Parkinson, who was apparantly a friend to the two from pureblood social gatherings, arrived to their first transfiguration class. They were on time ofcourse, there was a cat sitting on the professors desk. Others were confused by it, but Loki knew that this cat was actually professor McGonagall. 

He grinned as he and Blaise sat down behind Draco and Pancy. Blaise noticed Harry's sly smirk and asked what he was scheming. "I'm not scheming anything Blaise, just look at the desk... it's about time the professor arrived, isn't this strange?" Blaise raised an eyebrow, "so, what are you suggesting?" Harry took another look at the feline on the desk. "That's professor McGonagall." Blaise took another look at the cat and then smiled at Harry, "I see." 

Harry looked around the classroom. To his absolute disappointment, his Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff friends wouldn't be in the same class with him for at least a year... he'd have to find them on breaks.

Some Gryffindor student was complaining. "I heard our next class is going to be potions. I heard a lot of bad things about the potions professor. He isn't too fond of other houses except for Slytherin. He gives them special treatment while tormenting the Gryffindors. Isn't that unfair?" The girl he was talking to nodded and he continued. "I don't want to have potions now that I know."

Harry turned to the dark haired student gavs him a reassuring smile. "Calm down there, little Gryffindor. Just answer the professors questions, stay composed while brewing potions and follow instructions step by step." The Gryffindor student rolled his eyes, "easy for you to say, you're a Slytherin." 

Harry ignored the clear intention of this little brat to rile him up. Draco turned around with a raised eyebrow to look Harry in the eye. "Since when did you know so much about potions, Harry?" Harry blinked, "I've read some books." 

Draco sighed, "are you sure you weren't supposed to be in Ravenclaw? I mean, all your hobbies involve reading books or something." Harry stared Draco in the eyes, "want to find out why I was sorted into Slytherin?" Eyes widening, Draco acted as if he wasn't fazed, which would maybe work on others, but not Harry. Draco sighed, "there's no need. How can anyone doubt the sorting hat? It wouldn't have made a mistake."

Harry was starting to wonder if his guess about the cat being McGonagall was wrong after all. Time went by and she still didn't transform back. Or she was waiting for the proper moment...

They heard someone running towards the transfiguration classroom. The door burst open and a ginger boy came running inside. "Made it..." he exhaled while panting. Harry just observed slyly as the cat jumped off the table and transformed back into McGonagall. "Knew it." He shared a smile with Blaise.

The ginger was probably not expecting to be caught. He told her how amazing that was to slip out of the clear fact that he was late to her class. McGonagall offered to transfigure him into a pocket-watch, which was hilarious. Shame she didn't carry that one out.

The rest of the class went on without any casualties. 

Next, they were guided to the potions classroom. Harry sat in the first row with anticipation of seeing his potions professor. He looked around. The classroom was dark, it had lit candles distributed on the desks of all students. There were jars of potion ingredients around them. 

The students heard footstept approaching. The door opened and Snape entered the classroom with the dramatic flutter of his black cape. As he walked, he also spoke, "there will no foolish wand waving or silly incantations in this class." He stood there, scanning the classroom. Then his eyes fell on Harry. Green eyes staring at him curiously. 

Harry noticed the little smile on the mans face before he masked it away. "As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the art of potion brewing." He looked at the students and continued. "However, for those select few..." he looked at Draco, "...who possess the predisposition..." and glimpsed at Harry. 

The potions teacher straightened up. "I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death." Then he raised an eyebrow as his gaze fell somewhere between the students. 

"Then again, maybe some of you have come to Hogwarts in possession of abilities so formidable that you feel confident enough to sleep at the start of my class!" Harry looked back to the student who had his head on the table, sleeping soundly, his ginger hair was unforgettable. 

This boy got into trouble a lot, didn't he? "Mister Weasley!" Snape said with a raised voice, but not enough for it to count as a shout. The Weasley boy took his time stretching and yawning before looking in the direction of the voice and sitting up properly. Snape frowned very noticeably, then he clasped his arms. "Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" 

The ginger boy stayed silent. "You don't know? Alright." Snape looked at Harry and demanded, "the answer, mister Potter?" Harry gave an immediate response. "If powdered root of asphodel is added to an infusion of wormwood, a powerful sleeping potion called the draught of the living dead is made." Snape nodded, "correct. 5 points to Slytherin." 

Snape returned his gaze back to the ginger. "Mister Weasley, would you find me a bezoar if I asked you to?" The red-head shook his head. Snape looked at Draco, expecting an answer. The blond smirked, "a bezoar is a rock that is taken from a goats stomach." Snape continued, "what is it used for?"–"it is used for saving people from poisons." The professor replied, "accurate, mister Malfoy. 5 points to Slytherin." 

Once again, the man asked the Weasley. "What's the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Right now, if you saw Weasleys face, you'd be surprised to see a shade almost similar to his hair.

"2 points from Gryffindor for not paying attention to what a teacher was saying and 3 more points for not answering a single question I asked." Snape looked the blue eyed boy in the eyes and added, "5 points in total if you can't do the math, mister Weasley." 

Once more, Snape wanted to know Harry's answer to the question and Harry gladly answered, "there is no difference. Monkshood is otherwise called wolfsbane or aconite." 

"It looks like you've done your research this summer, mister Potter. Another 5 points to Slytherin." Snape eyed the classroom and raised an eyebrow, with a serious tone, he asked, "now, why aren't you all writing this down?" And everyone grabbed their quills to quickly write down in their notebooks.

Thorough the class, Harry had a smile plastered to his face as he watched Snape provided a thorough explanation of the forgetfulness potion.

The class was over. Harry told Blaise and Draco to go on without him. He used the excuse of asking the professor some questions about the forgetfulness potion to properly talk to Snape. They went ehead to eat.

"Professor." Harry said with an innocent face of a first year student. "I really liked your class... could you mentor me for the following years? I want to become like you." He joked and couldn't hold in the smile when the man got up, moved away from his desk and wrapped his long arms around Harry's small frame. "Stop joking around, Harry. I know you don't like potions that much."

He himself ofcourse clung to this hug, because he never felt the warmth of a hug after Frigga...

"But ofcourse, if you were serious, I'd he happy to give you more knowledge of potions making."

Just as quickly as they hugged, they got back to their original positions. "I don't have much time, professor. I have to go to the great hall... you know how observant Slytherins can be when they want to." He said. Before stepping out of the rooms open door, Snape told him, "you know I'm here for you whenever you need me, right Harry?" 

Harry turned around, facing the man with a sweet smile. I know. "Thank you professor, I'll keep that in mind." And he left the classroom.

On the way to the great hall, he got crashed into by a larger figure than him, knocking him to the ground.

When he rolled over the ground while trying to get up, he grunted in pain and opened his eyes. "Bloody hell." His glasses were somewhere on the ground and he couldn't find them. "Looking for these?" Came a voice from the direction the culprit who sent him flying to the floor was standing, offering Harry his glasses. 

He adjusted them and looked up to get a good look of who was running around so carelessly. The first thing that caught his attention was the same ginger hair the Weasley kid had. The second thing was definitely the feeling he got from this older student... the feeling of someone of the same kind, someone who understood the art of mischief. He could see it from the boys face.

The taller boy offered him a hand and pulled Harry from the ground. "Sorry. I wasn't really looking where I was running to. Mrs Norris was chasing me." Then his eyes widened, "blimey, she's going to catch me now." Harry wondered one thing, "who is this Norris you're talking about?" The boy chuckled and said, "she is Filch's cat. But she isn't one to be reckoned with."

A cat... oh well. The older boy was absolutely devastated, so Loki helped in the only way he knew how, showing him a way. Harry closed his eyes. His eyes glowed green. Then he opened them and said, "there's a secret passage close to us." Harry gave the tall boy a detailed location of the secret passage. 

The ginger boy listened to it with an awed expression, then he stopped looking fascinated, instead he let the gratitude appear on his face and extended his hand for a handshake. Harry accepted it and asked the ginger, "are you by chance related to a first year Gryffindor Weasley?" 

And he watched as the boy started laughing. "Yes... that's my younger brother, Ron. My name is Fred Weasley." Harry nodded. Then he felt something getting closer to them, so he tapped Fred on the back and whispered, "quickly go, I'll meet you later... if you don't get caught that is." Fred doesn't have time for a comeback, or else Loki is sure that he would have said something back. 

At least Harry got to have some amusement while the other students got to eat in the great hall. Oh, right... I was heading there. That completely flew out of my head.

Harry arrived in the enormous hall and sat in his chair next to Blaise. "What took you so long?" Asked Blaise. "Well you know... an older student crashed into me and I had to stand there, listening to excuses." It wasn't entirely true, but it would do, even thought he liked the older Weasley brother. 

Before eating the apple he so professionally cut in four pieces and set on his plate, he looked to the Ravenclaw table and saw Hermione, who was reading a book and sharing her many thoughts with her peers. 

Then he tried to look further to the other side of the hall, to the Hufflepuff table and saw Neville. He, similar to Hermione, was getting along with his new friends. 

Okay... he might've been happy for them if he was Harry Potter, but Loki was not having that. They were his friends first, and that was final. He sent a mental message to them, startling them both. "I see you guys... I'm observing you. I'm pretty hurt. Did you two forget about dear old me already?"

Hermione answered in her head, "we'd never do that, Harry. There was just no way for us to meet. Slytherins always have classes with Gryffindors. Ravenclaws with Hufflepuffs. We can't change that. However, we can hang out on breaks and meet up in the library from time to time." Neville agreed with Hermione, "and we can talk about our houses." He added.

The mental communication was over quickly after they agreed on meeting in the library the next day after classes. 

When Harry was about to return his gaze to the apple on his plate, his eyes were caught by a familliar face and ginger hair. Fred? But that wasn't possible. The taller boy had to be out of breath at the very least. How could he manage to end up here from Norns know where. 

Loki was eager to know, so he got up from his seat, grabbing the apple and taking a bite. He walked over to the Gryffindor table and stood next to the ginger. "Fred... you're an exceptionally fast one, huh?" The boy turned to him with a raised eyebrow, but then he changed that confused expression to a smily face. "Yes. One of my many charms." A lie detected.

Hm... interesting. Loki decided to catch this "Fred" in a lie. "So, did you like my gift, Fred?" He asked with a smile. The seated ginger chuckled, as if he knew what Harry was talking about and told him, "I loved your present, it was very nice of you." Another lie.  Harry smirked. Got you. He hummed, "weird... I never gave Fred a gift... so who might you be?" He asked, inquisitive about the gingers identity. 

The boys reaction was absolutely priceless. He had a mixture of shock and intrigue. Later, he regained confidence and with a careless smile, he introduced himself. "My name is George Weasley, Fred's twin brother." Harry nodded, "from the start I knew something was weird. Because Fred wouldn't have arrived here without the barest amount of exhaustion from all the running."

George got confused, "why would Fred be running?" Harry shrugged, "he told me he was running from someone's cat." George snorted. "He definitely pranked Filch again." Harry got called from the Slytherin table by Draco. He turned to George and said, "well, it was nice meeting you, George. I hope to get to know you and your brother better, we would get along perfectly." 

Harry left a little surprise card he conjured in George's food before taking off to reach the Slytherin table. The card says, "they say the opposites attract, but they never said three tricksters couldn't unite in a trio, did they? From yours truly, H.P"

But the other Weasley twin had to finish his food first... which would slightly change his hair colour to make his card more valid.

The twins were definitely interested in knowing more about pranking... some mischief. Harry would be more than happy to teach them... if they wanted to, naturally.

He sat in his chair and got a look from Draco. "What is it, Draco?" He asked with an amused face. "You were being all friendly to that Weasley just now. What was that all about?" With a letdown demeanor, Harry leaned over to the table and supported his chin with his fist, "you see, Draco... when people have something in common, they try to get to know the other better. I saw our similarities and introduced myself to George." 

He took a bite out of his forgotten apple piece. "Are there any problems?" His green eyes sparked dangerously to the blond, so he decided to retreat, "uhh, no. I was just curious as to why you'd want to hang out with him rather than us." 

Harry's look completely changed. "You got jealous of him." He concluded, making the pale boys blue eyes widen and bringing some colour to those pale cheeks, "what? Absolutely not." That's when Blaise decided to step in, "let me break this whole thing down before it turns into a debate battle. Draco was totally jealous." 

Harry has never seen Draco look more childish than in this moment. Blaise seemed to enjoy teasing him. Harry didn't mind that either. "Don't worry, Dray. You're still one of my closest friends. Don't be jealous. I won't leave your side." The blond haired boys solution for this was leaving the battlefield, in this case walking out of the great hall with Crabbe and Goyle, his student bodyguards.

Harry chuckled, Blaise just studied him keenly. "Tell me the truth, Harry. Why did you really stay in the potions classroom?" Harry bit his apple and said, "I was interested in the speech he gave to the first years while I was absent." Blaise didn't seem that convinced, so Harry put on his best acting face. 

"Blaise... Beauty was there." Blaises eyes widened. "What do you mean?" Harry sighed, looking down. "She was looking for me and... she snuck in somehow. I had to get her out." Nodding, Blaise pat Harry's shoulder. "Where is she now?" The other Slytherin student fixed his glasses. "I told her to go back to the common rooms." And their conversation came to an end there.

Subsequent to leaving the great hall, they went to their next destination, which was outside. Currently Loki was wondering why they wanted for the students to be out here... was it a sort of sport game?

Loki wasn't wrong, but he wouldn't call it right either. Since when was flying on brooms a sport game?

They were lined up. Slytherins on the right and Gryffindors on the left. Each of them had an old broom on the ground. Madam Hooch instructed them to step up left to their brooms and say "up" and in time someone would make it.

Loki shrugged, he thought It was easy enough, which was a right thought, because the broom crashed into his palm right as he said "up." Draco followed right after. Harry decided he was bored, so his eyes scanned the students to find something, anything fun.

Fate was against Harry's happiness, so nothing interesting happened. Rather, they were told to mount their brooms, so Harry did, followed by a bunch of other students doing it. "When I blow my whistle, I want you all to kick off the ground."

At the sound of the whistle, Harry kicked off, feeling the wind brush against his face, making his long-ish hair flutter. "Well done, mister Potter. Now students, follow his example." They didn't need to be told twice, one by one the students started floating in the air while gripping the broom to not fall off.

Draco casually flew up to Harry. "How are you good at everything you do?" He said with a spark of admiration in his eyes. Harry felt himself getting shy from the attention... wait, shy? Him? Loki has never been shy in his thousand years of life... except for when him and Thor played "get help," but that one was different.

Harry shrugged, "I don't know, honestly. I just follow the instructions." Draco sighed, "Potters..." he said and flew back.

The flying lesson was soon over, so now they could all do whatever they wanted.

Harry searched everywhere for the tall ginger twins. It was odd, he thought the letter would work and they'd be first to seek Harry out, not the other way around.

Afterwards, he was tired from searching for them, so he chose to retreat to the Slytherin common rooms and failed because of the moving stairs. He could teleport... but there was a high chance of someone seeing him or sensing the magic, so he just followed the stairs that led to the third floor. The place was dark, dusty and creepy. But it didn't spook Harry as much as a cat appearing out of nowhere and mewing at him. That must be Mrs Norris.

Harry put a sleeping spell on the cat and walked ehead. There was only one door that caught his attention. It was huge and locked. Loki simply unlocked it and stepped in. To his surprise, there was a giant, three-headed dog asleep in the cramped room.

When the heads started waking one by one, the creature didn't look too friendly towards Harry, so he decided it was best to make it drift back to sleep.

Loki knew this giant dog was protecting something, most likely the door underneath its feet. But he had no interest to finding that out now, he'd rather do it later when he wasn't exhausted.

Loki was too lazy to go back to the Slytherin rooms normally, in the end, teleporting right in front of Draco, making him stumble back and fall. Harry offered the boy a hand and lifted him off the floor. "What the hell, Harry?" He said while rubbing his back. Harry looked around and gestured for Blaise and Draco to gather around him.

When they finally got enough privacy, Harry spoke. "You two can't believe what I just saw on the third floor." Draco pinched the bridge of his nose, "the headmaster warned the first year students specifically not to go there." Harry rolled his eyes, "then he shouldn't have said anything about it."

He continued, "I was out searching for the Weasley twins when I got tired and decided to come here, but the staircase moved and I had no choice but to keep moving. There was only one door there. And to hide from Filchs cat, I unlocked it and hid there. Only to find a huge, three-headed dog in there guarding a door underneath."

The two Slytherins were staring at him with wide eyes. "Yes... and I ran out of there almost immediately." Blaise quickly returned to his usual neutral face and said, "So there's a creature like that kept in our school..." Draco shook his head, "unthinkable. Dumbledore kept it there. Why would he want to do that?"

Harry smirked, "I already said that it was guarding a door underneath... it must be something very important. By the way, no one is telling their parents." His gaze fell on Draco, who nodded. Blaise crossed his arms, "what do you offer we do, then?" Harry shrugged, "we find out whatever our dear headmaster is hiding from us ourselves."

And that was it. Their small talk over, plans made, now the children had to sleep.

When they laid in bed, Harry called Beauty to ensure she was there and sighed in relief when she slid out from his pillow and wrapped herself around Harry's wrist. "Sleep well, Beauty." Draco whispered to Blaise about how creepy it sounded at night. "What are you talking about, Draco?" He could feel the blue eyes widening in the darkness. "Nothing, Harry. I was just telling Blaise how nice it is to hear your parcelmouth before going to sleep."

"Good." Harry said and raised his right arm to bring his pet, who just decided to murder Draco closer to his face. He hissed, "Draco is just jealous he can't talk to you." Beauty calmed down, the other Slytherins fell asleep and Harry read a book before he felt his eyelids closing and put the book away.

This time, he didn't arrive at the grey place when he fell asleep. But he felt cold... really cold as he walked the familliar place in the dream.