Prejudice
The peace lasts exactly for two weeks.
Right up until after the first Quidditch match of the season, which didn't even involve either of their houses. The match was Ravenclaw against Hufflepuff, but for some reason it ends with both of the boys in the hospital wing.
If you ask Harry, it was a complete accident.
If you ask Draco, it was most definitely Harry's fault.
If you ask Snape, it was another of his reasons for wanting to quit.
It begins with little letters that a school owl has started delivering to Malfoy. Without a fail, with every apple-porridge that Draco eats, or tries to eat. An owl drops a letter right into it, you could say apple-porridge with a side of letter. Malfoy is meticulous about keeping the writer a secret, no matter how much he is prodded by his peers his well-crafted mask doesn't reveal a thing.
The only thing that does change, is his mood.
Without a fail after receiving his (by now) daily letter the Slytherin's mood worsens until he is downright twitchy. Snapping at anyone who dares to so much look at him wrong. Though snapping is probably the wrong word, he just ices them out. They basically seize to exist and most Slytherins follow suit, just to avoid the ire of the blonde.
Now one could be so bold and assume those ridiculous and persistent letters were from a certain Gryffindor seeker. A Gryffindor who apparently doesn't use his head to think...
Their last (peaceful) conversation had left Harry very confused if not downright distracted.
Every time he catches sight of his so called nemesis Harry is reminded of their train-conversation. The defeated look was etched into his brain because such an expression should not be on Malfoys face. He was prideful, arrogant and smug but not defeated. Not even when he loses in Quidditch or doesn't place first in class. He might look offended and like he wants to object but never defeated or hopeless.
Harry just couldn't understand why Malfoy said what he said. Obviously, Slytherins are Wixen as well, everyone who goes to Hogwarts is a wizard or witch or else they wouldn't be here. If anyone is being an idiot about it, it's Slytherins who are being dicks about blood-status and old-school traditions.
So if anyone is discriminating someone it's them!
They were the bullies.
right?
In the end he couldn't convince himself that his perspective was the true one. He did try to subtly ask his friends and peers what they thought about the snakes, at least as subtle as a Gryffindor like him could be. Luckily, most of the Gryffindors were used to Harry talking about Slytherins, mainly a certain obnoxious blonde Slytherin who is a downright prick.
Unfortunately, nobody could give him any insight into another perspektive. Their opinions mainly overlapping with each other as well as his own. Not really surprising, given he had mainly asked Gryffindors and the occasional Hufflepuff.
Which is why he is currently standing in front of his godfathers door, like his other godfather always says: "In doubt ask Moony, he always knows what's going on." Simply stepping in because he knows the other doesn't have class right now and is either in his rooms, or be back soon. Luckily Remus is sitting at his desk grading papers, which he puts away with a smile.
"Hadrian! It's not Thursday yet is it?"
They have a weekly lunch-dinner- thing every Thursday, Sirius was the one to name it with the proudest expression: "reversed brunch". The name did stick and soon enough everyone of their friends was using it, as much as Harry and Remus rolled their eyes in the beginning.
"No..no its not moons. I just ..have a question or something."
Inviting his godson inside he just smiles patiently, gesturing for him to sit down if he wanted.
"What's on your mind cub?"
Harry is thankful that he always got his parents full attention whenever he needs it, Ron likes to joke that they had a 'Harry needs attention sense' which was instilled in them as soon as he had been born.
He refuses to sit and instead paces around the room trying to work off some energy while he speaks.
"It's just...technically it's your fault anyways ugh- or Snape's!"
"Professor Snape Harry"
"Whatever, that's not important right now! It's your fault that we were in that stupid compartment in the first place. If it wasn't for you two interfering, we never would have been there, and then we never would have ... talked and it's your fault"
Contrary to what you would believe, Harry isn't one to gesture with his hands, he just walks up and down while talking before sinking into the chair Remus had pulled out for him and sulking quietly. Though his godfather definitely knows that he's not done ranting about a certain blonde, at least that is what he has gathered for now.
"okay, let's pretend it's my fault...why is it so bad that you two talked?"
Remus is quite certain that Harry and the young Mister Malfoy could actually get along if they looked past the mask each of them wore. As of right now, he does understand that two teenagers had better and more important things in their lives, than reflecting on their own behavior and how it might have influenced their shared interactions.
He had seen it once before, after all.
"Just... Malfoy! He's just so…so …so infurirating!! He always acts as if he's better than anyone else, right? Always trying to be the best of the best because it's his birthright or some shit...he had the gall to accuse me... ME?? Of being prejudiced! Can you believe that?"
Remus actually could, hence why he's so carefully schooling his face.
"Saying shit like how every house just hates them. Funny, right? They are the ones hating everyone else... of course, nobody likes them. It's their own fault that we see them as evil and shit, because they are!"
Finally, he sat down with a little huff as he kicked the table with a huff.
"So, is there something you need me to say or do you just want me to listen to you?"
The teen groans, just grumbling into his nonexistent beard before tugging his tie lose and giving in. "I want your opinion, my classmates all shared a rather...uhm limited view on them...so yeah, what…do you think? I mean, it's always been like this...right?"
"Depends on how you look at it, Haz. You know there is never a right or wrong side. For instance, during our time at Hogwarts, Slytherin got along rather well with the other houses...aside from Gryffindor, but that has always been a little rocky."
"However the war changed a lot, you have to understand Haz...the war was hard for both sides, it always is. I didn't understand it back then, and pads still struggles sometimes, but sometimes you don't have a choice."
"But you always have a choice! You taught me that!"
"We did, but imagine making that choice would leave you utterly alone in this world. No friends who will have your back, no family which will love you unconditionally, no one to turn to keep you safe, no money, no home...nothing. In the Wixen world, everything. If your family name most of the time, if they chose to go against family...you saw how that turned out for Sirius. If the Potters hadn't turned him in, he would have had to live on the street or go to a muggle orphanage. In his case, he probably could have stayed with his uncle or estranged cousin, since they were alienated as well, but many wouldn't have had this choice. It's either live the way you are supposed to or go to the muggle world and live as one of them."
Harry tried to understand what Remus was telling him. He had heard versions of this story before. He knows that he technically has an uncle, Regulus, who wasn't all bad, who was a good kid with limited choices..who didn't know he had a choice.
"But the war is over, it's not like that anymore, right?"
"Are you sure it's over, Harry? Think about it, the Slytherins are alienated from the other houses. You have study-groups and meetups which are open to..." the professor purposely trails off to let Harry come to the conclusion himself.
"...everyone but Slytherin."
"If one of the other houses is playing against Slytherin during the Quidditch season, who are the houses which aren't on the pitch supporting?"
"...never Slytherin."
"Hmm, and if something happens, an altercation between a student who happens to be Slytherin and, let's say...a Gryffindor, who does everyone think started it?"
"...the Slytherin student"
"and let's imagine there were a lot of witnesses seeing this altercation, a lot of people who saw the Gryffindor hexing the other student first. What would your first thought be... be honest with yourself Harry, I won't judge you. Not while you are here asking for help to understand this."
"That, that they deserved it..."
"I'm not telling you all of this to convince you they are innocent every single time, but prejudice goes a long way on both sides. Quite frankly, the Slytherins have the excuse that they don't know any better, that their parents isolated them and taught them certain beliefs and traditions and, quite frankly, as adults, we don't have the same influence on teens as peers have. So, instead of helping them to unlearn some of that behavior, let's say in some sort of cultural exchange, you just prove them right in what they have been told. Which then goes on to validate the prejudice on both sides...and it festers ...and grows over generations.
Harry couldn't do much more than listen to his dad tell him about all of this. It was a lot, but it unfortunately makes a lot of sense. It's kind of like a circle. They assume the Slytherins are evil, and so they only see the evil in them, which proves their assumptions true and validates their actions. He tried really hard to think of other impressions, something that any of the Slytherins did that he could remember in a good light, but he came up short.
"You should ask Draco about all of this. I'm sure someone who is a Slytherin can offer even more insight into this issue."