The Prophet
Chapter 10: The Prophet
The next morning the boys took turns getting ready for their big day back. Harry still wore his Gryffindor robe even if he was going to be an honorary Slytherin. It’s not like he had any other choice, he didn’t own any other robes anyways.
They both came out of their room ready to face the day, books for the day in their bags, both trying to pretend that it’s just another normal day even though it’s far from normal.
They noticed that Snape was already gone from their rooms so they looked at each other and nodded, this was it, this was the start of their new school life. Harry was just shaking a little out of nerves but Draco gave him a soft smile and led him out to the great hall.
Draco was a little nervous himself. He didn’t know how the other Slytherins were going to take all of this but he knew that he had to stand by Harry no matter what. Then he was a little nervous on how his father would take all of the news, he double checked he had it to pass to Snape to send to his father as discussed the night before.
Once they entered the great hall the first thing they noticed was the stares. Everyone was staring at them and whispering to each other. They looked up at Snape and he shook his head, obviously he had the same welcome when he showed up. They slowly walked to the Slytherin table and noticed that Draco’s friends made room for them both.
After they sat down all of the Slytherins turned to look at them, staring at them as if expecting an explanation right there and then. Harry blushed and looked down, hating all the attention he was getting. He could never get used to all the stares. Draco on the other hand just held high and ignored everyone, getting right into his breakfast. When he noticed Harry was ignoring the food he nudged him.
“Harry, eat, we have a big day and you’ll need the energy. Just ignore everyone, they’ll get used to you.”
Harry nodded and tried to do as Draco said, but his stomach wouldn’t let him settle enough to eat much but a dry toast.
“Draco, what is our first class this morning? Maybe I can just get started on reading ahead or something while you finish eating…”
But before Draco could try to reassure Harry the post came and with it came the Daily Prophet. Everyone looked up and grabbed a copy as soon as they could, Draco included. Harry though was not registered to get a copy since he didn’t enjoy the way they did the news like last year.
“Harry, don’t look. It’s not good. Oh Merlin, my parents… This is bad. So bad. They’re going to kill me…” This was not how he wanted his parents to find out about the bond.
“What are you talking about Draco? What’s wrong with the Daily Prophet now?”
Harry grabbed the paper and his face just dropped, he turned white and you could tell he was having a panic attack. Draco grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the table and towards the exit, he knew Harry shouldn’t have looked that the paper.
Snape on the other hand saw Harry’s reaction so he grabbed the paper from Minerva’s hands and just growled. He was not impressed. Getting up he warned the teachers that Draco and Harry may be late for their first class. Then he followed the two boys out of the hall while the rest of the students and teachers were busy reading the Daily Prophet and staring at the picture on the first page, a picture of Harry with all his scars holding Draco’s hand and semi smiling at each other while at the infirmary.
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The Daily Prophet
Potter, Nothing but Trouble?
No Longer The-Boy-Who-Lived?
An Honorary Slytherin?
By: Rita Skeeter
Picture by: Colin Creevey
Call me surprised but I got the strangest and most exciting news yesterday. A letter written to me about our very own boy-who-lived, Harry Potter, something that does not involve He-Who-Must-Be-Named but that will surprise you all when you hear of it.
Last week, a potions accident happened in the Slytherin/Gryffindor 5th year class. Unfortunately this happened during the making of the Binding potion, which as researched, has many many unexpected outcomes. Unfortunately for Mr. Potter, he has a saving people habit and couldn’t help but try to save Mr. Malfoy from the exploding potion, which caused him even more problems as this exploding potion affected them in a very spectacular way.
Now, for some background information on the binding potion; it binds things permanently in many different ways, depending on how it was applied. And when it comes to people, the potion can cause very odd reactions. For example, there was a witch back in the day who tried to use the potion to fix a vase that she accidentally broke, unfortunately for her she slipped and the potion went all over her hand. She went straight to wash it off but mixing the potion with water and soap just caused her hand to be permanently slippery as the soap was permanently stuck on her hand and never washed off.
This is just one example of what this potion can do. If you want more examples please turn to page 3 where we have a page full of different cases of the potion being misused.
Back to the main story, the letter I got was from two very close personal friends’ of Mr. Potter’s who were very shocked and unimpressed with the results of this so called accident. In their minds Mr. Potter shouldn’t have been anywhere near Mr. Malfoy when the potion exploded and they believe that Mr. Potter may have jumped in for no reason, causing him to receive permanent scars and an unfortunate outcome involving Mr. Malfoy and Professor Snape.
In fact, the three of them are now involved in a permanent bond.
That’s right folks, Professor Snape, Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter are now stuck together in a three way bond. From what the duo told me in the letter, the bond is an Alpha, Beta, Omega bond and they already know who is connected to which roles. According to Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger’s letter the roles are as follows: The Professor is the Alpha, Mr. Malfoy the Beta and our-boy-who-lived is the omega. That’s right folks. The boy who has been saying that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back and that he even battled him, is an Omega.
For those who are not aware, the A/B/O relationships are usually a sexually involved type of relationship. Most often the Alpha is the one in charge, the Omega is the child bearer and the Beta is basically in the middle. Now there are more to this relationship than what I just mentioned but I’m sure those in such a bond would rather keep that to themselves.
Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger seem to be of mind that Mr. Potter caused this bond to formulate since he couldn’t help himself but try to be the hero. Now the left side of his face is apparently completely covered in burn scars, including his left arm and so he stands out even more with more scars. Even Mr. Malfoy has some scarring on his face and Professor Snape on his hands. But according to the duo who wrote the letter, if Mr. Potter didn’t jump into the explosion this bond would not have happened and everything would be extremely different.
Miss Granger even says that the accident caused Mr. Potter to turn homosexual and in her words “He was perfectly normal beforehand, he had a crush on this girl in school and everything. No indication that he liked boys at all and then all of a sudden he says that he has just realized he was gay but there’s no way he can be like that…” Mr. Weasley on the other hand just said “He’s now stuck with Slytherins, he can’t be who he was if he’s now the Slytherin ‘Sub’*.” (*We had to translate the wording that Mr. Weasley used as it was not appropriate for the public.)
Well. We can only say that we at the Daily Prophet don’t fully agree with the duo. There is nothing wrong with bisexual relationships or A/B/O relationships and we support those relationships completely.
We do believe that Mr. Potter is partially at fault. His saving people habit seems to get him in trouble very often. Plus add his disturbed thoughts and lies regarding the Dark Lord (see previous newspapers for more information) and how can we trust anything that Mr. Potter does or says?
Now poor Mr. Malfoy and Professor Snape are trapped in a so called relationship with The-Boy-Who-Lived. Hopefully this means that Mr. Potter will be in under control and will no longer spread his lies and cause any more trouble for our ministry.
One other thing that was stated by Mr. Weasley is that Mr. Potter can only be separated by his partners for a certain length without being in pain. According to him, this means that Mr. Potter is now an honorary Slytherin as he has to stay close to his bondmates (who are both Slytherins themselves) and this was the best way to stop his pain. Mr. Weasley even confirmed that Mr. Potter no longer sleeps in the Gryffindor Tower, which Mr. Weasley states is fine with the Gryffindors as he is not welcome there at this time.
As claimed by Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley: “Harry is a parseltongue and has always shown Slytherin habits. We are not surprised that he is now part of their house. What does make this a little surprising is that he hasn’t fought it at all and that is why we are no longer supporting him as a Gryffindor. Any true Gryffindors would have fought this situation tooth and nail and would rather suffer than be a Slytherin.”
“He’s a traitor. That’s all there is to it.”
Headmaster Dumbledore had this to say to the school: “Dear Hogwarts, we have had a serious accident in potions a few days ago. Unfortunately, as most of you are aware, Potions will be postponed for the next week as Professor Snape helps Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter to recuperate. Regrettably the three of them have been caught in a situation that is, as we can tell so far, permanent and unexpected. Due to this mishap, Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy and Professor Snape are now bonded and shall share the Professor’s rooms until we can tell more about this bond.
At this time the boys are still healing and not much is known but from we can see Mr. Potter will be considered an honorary Slytherin and shall be no longer considered a Gryffindor. Unfortunately this will change some things for both houses but we shall have to make the best to get used to this new situation.”
Obviously at that time not much was known yet about the relationship, but the basics were announced and now we know more to confirm for your information.
We will keep an eye on this situation and keep you updated!
Thank you,
Rita Skeeter
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The whole school was so busy reading the news and gossiping they didn’t notice when the trio left. They just knew that Harry was now officially no longer a Gryffindor and that he was obviously trouble and a liar and now that he was a Slytherin he was dangerous.
The Slytherins were not impressed with the paper, Professor Snape had already told them all the truth during a meeting a few nights ago, so they knew that Potter was now one of them and that what was written was mostly the Gryffindor Duo trying to get people against Potter. Unfortunately it seemed to be working.
“This is going to make things even harder for us Slytherins. I mean the rumors were bad enough but this paper is telling the truth and making things public so now there’s no hiding from it…”
Pansy was not impressed. She knew the rumors, she knew that they were easy to dismiss and deny. But now, the Prophet has most of the truth and put them all in a bad view…
Blaise looked over the paper once more. Then he realized that Harry and Draco were no longer at their table.
“They left. I hope they’re ok.”
“Looks like Snape followed them. They should be alright.”
Theo and Blaise still looked worried though. Who knew how this affected them, the Slytherins didn’t even know how the three were dealing with this whole situation in the first place and now with having this happen they had even more going on.
“Pansy, what’s the gossip so far? What should we warn them about? I mean, if it were me I’d want to know what the school is saying.” Theo was looking at Pansy hoping that she knew more than he did about the rumors.
“Let’s just say that Harry being known as a Slytherin is not something the school is happy about. You know how they think of us; now imagine a powerful person being thought that way. I’ve heard the words ‘The-Boy-Who-Became-The-New-Dark-Lord’ a few times already. And the Gryffindors… They are so unsupportive. Most of them are calling him a traitor and a deserter, some of them are even angry at him just because they found out he won’t be able to play seeker for their team any longer. They’re all acting like he chose to leave Gryffindor for our house and that Harry wants all of this. It’s disgusting is what it is…”
Blaise, Theo, Pansy, Daphne, Millicent, Vincent and Gregory were all grouped together, unimpressed with everything going on. They had to find a way to support the boys. Slytherins stuck together and now that Potter was a Slytherin they now had his back.
The rest at the table were also in the same mind. Having been forewarned by Professor Snape they prepared to welcome Harry to their house, but having this happen they were prepared to help support and defend the three and their poor situation.
If only it was that easy…
Meanwhile, Harry ended up at a random stairway; he had to stop as the stairs moved before he could get on. Draco caught up to him and tried to catch his breath. Harry on the other hand still had tears coming down his face, you could tell he was heartbroken.
‘They went to Skeeter! What did I do that was so wrong that they had to go to Skeeter? Now everyone in the wizarding world are aware of what happened, even if it’s not the full truth… Everyone’s going to hate me, and talk about me and… It’s all just such a mess and we just started…’
“Harry, calm down, we can handle this. You are not alone and knowing the Slytherins they are on our side as well. Just breathe and relax a little, please.”
Draco was looking at Harry just full of pity and concern. Harry stared back and sighed. He knew that this would happen eventually, he just didn’t expect it so soon, nor did he expect it to be thanks to his ex-best friends... He sat down right there in the middle of the way and just put his head on his knees. Draco bent down and just put his hand on Harry’s shoulder.
“We got this Harry. I know it isn’t what we wanted but we can deal with this. And once I speak to my dad, after explaining everything, I know he’ll help us get the news on our side. We got this, I promise.”
Draco was certain of it. You could tell in his voice that he believed that he could take control of the situation.
“Boys, are we alright or do we need to go back to the infirmary for a calming draught?”
At that point Professor Snape made himself known. He was proud of Draco’s response to the circumstances, and considering everything tried to understand Potter’s state of mind.
“We’re good Professor, thank you, and thank you Draco.”
Harry was still unsure of everything and didn’t want to fully deal with the public but at the same time he knew that hiding would just makes things worse for him when he finally did show up. He took a deep breath and stood up with Draco’s help.
“Alright. Ready to handle the crowd? I believe you have Transfiguration first.”
Snape was feeling a new feeling regarding Potter; he had a small satisfying sentiment for the boy. It was not easy what he was dealing with, but it looks like he can handle it. Draco and Harry nodded and slowly went on their way, if they had looked back they would have noticed the Professor staring at them with a bit of a proud look in his eyes.