Chapter Three
Harry woke up to find the room completely void of his roommates. At first, he had been quite happy with that fact, but when he looked at the clock, he realized that they had gotten up extremely early. No doubt, they hadn't wanted to be there when Harry awoke and had purposely left him alone, showing him that he no longer had their support; that they wouldn't be there for him when he most needed them.
Harry got ready for the day slowly, not wanting to get to the Great Hall early and have to sit through so much hatred for so long. As his stomach started to growl a few minutes later, though, he decided to suck it up and find his Gryffindor courage. He walked down the stairs and as he entered the Common Room, it suddenly became very quiet. Harry had known something like this would happen, but it still hurt him nonetheless.
Just as he was starting to make his way to the portrait hole, he was stopped by someone. Luckily for him, it was Hermione. She was smiling up at him and gave him a good hug before she chatted about trivial things as they pushed their way through the crowd.
"I have never been so thankful to have you as a friend in my entire life, 'Mione!" Harry said gratefully.
"Yes, well..." Hermione said, blushing slightly at the compliment and at how sincere Harry had been when he'd said it, "It's what friends do"
"Not all friends..." he said glumly as he saw Ron coming towards him from across the hall with a furious look on his face.
"Well... Perhaps he isn't your friend, Harry." She said gently, knowing that Harry would be upset.
"He'll come around, he always does," Harry said enthusiastically, ignoring the look Hermione was giving him that clearly said Ron wasn't coming around anytime soon, if ever.
Just as Hermione was about to say something to Harry, Ron interrupted, "Who do you think you are?" spat Ron.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"You think you're so special? That since you're 'Harry Potter' you can just break all the rules?"
"No, I don't think that at all" Harry replied adamantly.
"You didn't even tell your best friend that you had figured out how to get past that age line!"
"I didn't put my name in that Goblet!" Harry exclaimed.
"No, of course, you didn't..." Ron said sarcastically. "I know why you didn't tell me. Because you are a self-centered prick who wanted all of the glory for himself!"
Harry was about to respond when someone else beat him to it, "Oh really, Weasley? Because it looked to me like he was scared half to death when his name was called." Malfoy said, making his Slytherin followers laugh behind him.
"No one asked you, Malfoy."
Malfoy simply walked away with his group of Slytherins, not once looking back. Harry couldn't help but feel a sense of gratitude towards the blonde at that moment. Though Malfoy had insulted him, he had told everyone that Harry had been scared, which would show that he had not put his name in the Goblet.
He didn't know if it had been intentional or not, but either way, the blonde had helped him somewhat. Hermione then dragged Harry away from Ron and they sat down at the end of the table, closest to the doors. Harry took a moment to briefly look up at the Slytherin table, to find that Malfoy was watching him. The blond gave him a nod of acknowledgement and then looked away.
So Malfoy was doing that on purpose... Harry mused, He believes me, then... But why on earth would he want to help me?
He didn't have much time to think about it, however, as he only had ten minutes to finish eating and get to class. He rushed through breakfast and hurried after 'Mione to their first lecture. It was Defense Against the Dark Arts with the new professor, Alastair (Mad-Eye) Moody.
As he and Hermione walked in, he noticed that the table he would usually sit at was occupied by Ron and two other Gryffindors. He looked around to find a new seat when he noticed some movement in the very back. Zabini and Parkinson had stood up and moved to another table, leaving Malfoy with two empty seats, one on either side of him. The blond gave him a pointed look and Harry wasted no more time, dragging Hermione with him.
"Why are we sitting next to Malfoy?" Hermione whispered in his ear.
"Just trust me," Harry replied, not being able to say anymore as they had reached the blond's table.
Hermione sat to Malfoy's right and Harry sat to his left. They stayed quiet, none wanting to speak since everyone else would hear what they said. The room was deathly silent until the door burst open to admit Alastair Moody. Harry half listened as Mad-Eye spoke about the Dark Arts, too busy thinking about what Malfoy was playing at.
He was brought out of his musings by the blond himself who had begun to lightly drum his fingers on the table to get Harry's attention. Harry looked towards the other boy and found that there was a piece of parchment next to Malfoy's fingers that was obviously meant for him to read.
'I know you didn't put your name in the Goblet of Fire.'
Harry breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that someone else believed him as well, even if it was his supposed enemy.
'How could you tell?' he wrote back and waited patiently for a reply.
'We'll talk later, expect my owl sometime tonight.'
'How do I know I can trust you?' Harry asked.
'You don't' was the simple reply he received.
Harry didn't bother writing back and started to pay attention to what Mad-Eye was saying. He decided that he'd think about what the blond had written later on, after hearing that Mad-Eye was talking about the Unforgivables. I thought we weren't supposed to learn about those, Harry thought.
Currently, the professor was speaking about what exactly they did and why they are considered so unforgivable. Suddenly, Moody took out a spider-like thing and proceeded to show the whole class exactly what the spells did by using them on the poor creature. Harry was horrified, to say the least. He couldn't believe that a Hogwarts professor was demonstrating the curses to a class. He saw the looks of horror on the other students' faces and noticed that some had stronger reactions than others. Harry looked to Malfoy and saw that he looked disturbed, but as if it didn't surprise him for some reason... I'll ask him about it later, he thought, deciding at that moment to talk to Malfoy later that night.
"Mr. Potter, come up here," Mad-Eye said.
Having not been paying as close attention as he should have been, he had no clue as to why he was being called up. As he looked around, however, he noticed that everyone else had confused looks as well. He stopped at the front of the room and went to turn around to face Moody but found himself unable to as he felt as though a fog was rolling into his mind.
This fog kept coming until it filled his whole body and Harry was unable to move. Suddenly, the fog parted slightly and showed him a path of what to do. It showed him that he needed to jump onto the table that Ron was sitting at, or else he would not be able to escape. The fog ensured that he could only see that one option, yet Harry knew that there must be other choices out there. He tried looking around, but could see nothing within the thick fog. He decided that, instead of following the path, he would make his own by pushing the fog away. He concentrated on remembering where Moody had last been and forced himself through the fog until he was facing the proper direction. Understanding that this must be magic relating to his own mind, as he should have been able to hear and see his fellow classmates, he focused his mind on pushing the fog away.
Harry closed his eyes and began 'pushing' at the fog. Once he opened his eyes again, he found Alastair was pointing a wand at him and had a very confused look on his face.
"Why didn't you jump?" Moody asked.
Harry could feel the fog trying to envelop his mind again, but this time, he pushed it away easily, with barely a thought, "Whatever you're doing to me, stop." Harry said firmly, surprising himself with his nerve.
"Alright..." Moody said, completely surprised as he stopped the spell, dropping his wand arm down to his side.
"What was that?" Harry asked once he was sure the fog had completely gone.
"That, Mr. Potter, was the Imperious Curse... Which seems to have no effect on you..."
"Wait, what?" Harry exclaimed. He cast one of the Unforgivables at me!? At a student? And it has no effect on me? "But... it wasn't completely ineffective... The fog tried to close my mind off, so I just pushed through it."
"You just pushed through it?" Moody said incredulously, "No witch or wizard has managed to throw off the Imperious Curse so easily, Mr. Potter... Well done."
Harry sat back down next to Malfoy, completely flabbergasted. "What just happened?" He whispered to himself.
"Obviously, you're more powerful than you thought, Potter," Malfoy said as quietly as possible towards him.
Harry contemplated that for a moment before looking back towards the front of the class. He wished he hadn't, however, as he saw the furious look that Ron was shooting his way. This can't lead to anything good... He thought to himself.
As class was ending and everyone was packing up to leave, he noticed Malfoy slip him one last note before leaving.
'Don't forget about our meeting tonight. I'll send an owl. –DM'