"Huh... This is the Imps, huh...?" Harry murmurs after 'tickling the pear' and stepping into the kitchen, finding a literal army of House Elves erratically moving about the place to complete their respective jobs.
Nanthisk raises his head and idly licks at the air frightening the nearby House Elves who quickly back away when they notice him.
"M-Master student p-please take youses snakey aways!" one Imp steps forwards and exclaims.
Harry just ignores him however, "I want to contract some of you." he expands his magical power, allowing his eyes to glow and showing the barest hint of demonic magic. "Who among you will accept?"
The surrounding creature's eyes glaze over, their bodies stock-still as the tainted magical energy mingles with those closest to him. The breath of the elve's affected hitch, their eyes closing as they try to submerge themselves in the unnatural yet comfortable sensation.
"Who will serve me?" Harry repeats, finally bringing the elves back to their senses. Immediately the entire front row of the group throws themselves at his feet, pleading to enter his service while the others watch in utter bafflement and confusion.
He looks down at the ten elves at his feet and nods to himself, happy with the number. He could probably take more, or all of them if he had half the mind, but he didn't want to alert Dumbledore of his intentions so quickly. Losing the most important workers of Hogwarts would definitely draw his attention...
Harry draws his fingertip across his wrist, slicing it with magic and kneeling over the supplicating creatures. He draws a number of demonic runes on their forehead before presenting his wrist, "Drink." he commands while channelling small amounts of demonic magic through the wound, and they do as told. Almost ravenously lapping up the blood dribbling down his arm.
Their eyes flash green as they imbibe, their veins throbbing across their gaunt bodies as a burning sensation grips their organs. Some let out whimpers, while others stay silent and endure. Unfortunately for them, this process would neither be quick, nor painless.
"Hide yourselves, I will call for you tomorrow." he states, wanting to send them off with Kali to undergo the mutation under her watchful eyes.
With a *pop* they vanish, leaving him alone with the other, uncontracted house elves who were still staring at him dumbly. "I was never here. Understand?" he hisses, utilising some Parseltongue to get his point across, Nanthisk assisting in that regard.
The elves shriek and all simultaneously pop away, vanishing. With that done and sometimes left until lunch, Harry makes his way to the library to see if there's anything worth reading.
-------------------------
Draco approaches the bedside of Crabb and Goyle, his raised brows mixed with his look of utter disappointment. "What is wrong with you two? I told you to just throw it, how on earth does that end up like this!?"
"H-he must've done something..." Goyle mutters, "No way I threw it wrong..."
Draco scoffs, "I was watching him the entire time, he didn't move a muscle... Wasn't even looking at you! What would your fathers think if I told them of your incompetency? Or my father?"
The duo's eyes widen in fear at that, getting punished by their fathers was harsh enough, but getting punished by their fathers on behalf of Lord Malfoy? They hadn't experienced worse pain in their lives.
"W-we'll do better..."
Draco nods grimly, "You will, the Malfoy family does not suffer failure."
----------------------------
*Thud*
Harry drops another book onto the evergrowing pile, another worthless book to add to the tower on his table. Perhaps it said something that many of the books in Hogwart's library were written by unknown authors about unsubstantiated theories that he had personal experience saying the contrary...
What there a reason to mix these books into the actual educational books? Or was Dumbledore and the library too incompetent to properly manage the school and the content it delivers?
He lets out and sigh and rests his face against his palm, Nanthisk slithering around at his feet. He feels movement around him, along with the shuffling of cloth, prompting him to raise his head. A couple female students in his year and higher let out squeaks as he lays his eyes on them, causing them to quickly retreat, much to his chagrin.
"Annoying..." he mutters.
"What's annoying?" another voice asks, jolting him into alertness as he finally spots the boy sitting opposite him. Neville Longbottom, was it? Kali said something about him, he recalled...
"What do you want?"
The boy sheepishly rubs the back of his neck, "Ah, well... I've been hearing a lot about you, just wanted to see if there was anything to the rumours, -ah! I'm a big fan of your books! I've read almost every one of them!"
"They're all lies." he quickly retorts, causing the boy's enthusiasm to die down.
"Uh... Really...?" he sadly mutters.
"I'll ask again, and you will either answer or leave me alone... What do you want?"
...
"Sorry..." the boy says, standing and quickly making his way out of the library.
Nanthisk slithers up Harry's body and pokes his head over his shoulder, "What happened to making friendsss...?"
...
Yeah, he may have forgotten about that... He wasn't trying to ignore Kali's words but these children were just so damn annoying.
"I'm trying to be selective, choose the ones who might be worth something." he answers, hoping Kali would accept that.
"What about that female...?" the snake hisses, obviously referring to Hermione.
"Clearly, she wasn't a fan of my opinions about my parents. That's fine though, just shows she wasn't worth the effort of knowing anyway." he explains, though, still somewhat sour at how quickly she'd abandoned him.
How were you even supposed to make friends if they left as soon as you gave your true thought? If you had to hide everything, were you even friends in the first place?... Was lying a requirement to make connections outside of contracts?
...
Maybe Kali was right about this whole 'socialising' thing.