"Why you?" Sprout asked "not that there's anything wrong with you but do you know why he only ever talks with you, Longbottom and the twins? The only other people I can think that he gets along with are the quidditch team"
"I know why miss" Ginny spoke softly "Harry never played with anyone when he was younger, than all of a sudden he discovers quidditch and they treat him like a king, he likes it because he's actually getting praised for something he thinks his earned. From what I understand the team members treat him like a younger brother, I had convinced Harry to give the twins a chance. Because they also treat him like a brother, and the fact that they're nice to him really helps.
Harry chose Neville because he thought that Neville was genuinely nice and trust worthy even though he's very shy. When I asked Harry why he liked me after my brother told him he could have any girl in the school he told me it was because he trusted me. Harry said that his past had given him an ability to know when people are being honest with him." Ginny then told them Harrys story about his first friends being spiders and how that girl had tricked him. The teachers were half divided between sympathy for harry and the desire to rip Dumbledore's beard off of his face.
"All I'm asking is you don't judge Harry" Ginny concluded "after all he's been through I think we should be fortunate he hasn't completely isolated himself. Please just treat him like you normally do, Harry trusts you, if you break it then you won't be able to fix it" With that Ginny left.
Harry after flying around for a bit had decided to do something he had been putting off long enough, it's about time he said hello to Salazar's Basilisk, if Harry remembered right its name was Ellie. Harry had promised Salazar that he would check on her and Harry figured he'd do it now while everyone had left him alone and he didn't have to worry about Ginny coming down with him.
Once he got into the chamber he and prepared his wand, he had recorded the sound of a rooster. He trusted Salazar when he said she wouldn't harm him and her but he decided not to take the chance, fortunately for him a basilisks gaze couldn't harm him, unfortunately the massive teeth could. Harry called the basilisk and out of the statue slithered a massive green sixty foot snake.
"Hello Ellie" Harry greeted the snake in parsletounge.
"You know my name?" Ellie was pleasantly surprised, the last person she had to listen to simply referred to her as 'it', 'basilisk' or 'giant snake'.
"My name is Harry potter" Harry introduced himself "I'm the heir to Merlin and all four founders including Salazar, he asked me to bond you to me so nobody else can control you."
"Did he?" Ellie flicked out her massive tongue
"Yes but I won't do it unless you want me to, I won't force you to do so"
"Really?" Ellie asked, failing to mask her surprise, not only was this boy Salazar's heir but he also asked her opinion "What would you say if I refused?"
"Shame" Harry shrugged "I wouldn't force you and as long as you stayed here and didn't harm anyone then I wouldn't complain"
"Really?" Ellie would have raised an eyebrow if she had one "what if I attacked you?"
"Salazar said you could be trusted and I believed him, however I did record some roosters with my wand, just in case you had gotten any funny ideas" Harry then became one of the very few people who ever saw a basilisk laugh, admittedly to anyone else it was just very fast hissing and frantic head movement.
Ellie had agreed and Harry promised that he would occasionally drop by and bring some foot with her, he'd instruct his elves to bring some meat as long as she promised to close her eyes when she they came.
Later on Harry had met up with Ginny and told her about the basilisk, but he left out how he knew about it. Both of them knew that Harry kept secrets from her, normally Ginny would pester someone over something like this but she knew that Harry told her everything. If he didn't tell her now then she'd likely know later, all she had to do was be patient. If Harry didn't want to tell her than she'd have to trust that he had a good reason.
After the duelling club disaster Lockhart could no longer make Harry attend, he had tried to but the other students seemed less than willing to participate if Harry was there. It was almost like they worried about getting hurt. Hermione and Ron got out of the hospital wing the next day, sadly because it was duel club they broke no rules by interacting with Harry and Ginny. Draco Malfoy was not so lucky, his burns were healed but he had to wait for his hair to grow back naturally which meant he had to spend the remainder of the year with no hair on the top of his head and a well-deserved fear or Harry. To make matters worse Snape took away fifty points and gave him detention for the rest of the year.
Eventually everything calmed down; people were still a bit cautious about Harry but were no longer acting like he was the next dark lord. Harry at that point decided that though pranking Lockhart is what gave his year life, he had outstayed his welcome. So one day Snape and Harry decided to work on some truth serum, somehow it ended up in Lockhart's drink, not that either of them knew anything about how that happened. And by coincidence, it happened the exact same day that a ministry official and reporter visited, Lockhart confessed to obliviating people and taking credit for their findings.
Eventually a couple of aurors came to take him away, however not before four more pranks activated. The aurors ended up dragging a wart covered, green haired Lockhart whose mouth was stuck smiling and revealed teeth that were blacker than coal. Harry and Snape were incredibly smug and pleased with themselves, fortunately Ginny and the other head of houses were the only ones who noticed.
On the train ride back Ron ignored the two again, Malfoy didn't show up either, he just needed Hermione to stay away and everything would be perfect. Alas, it was not meant to be.
"Harry" Hermione spoke slowly "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for not believing you about Lockhart" she bit her lip, waiting for a response
"Okay" Harry spoke in a neutral tone
"And I was rather hoping that we can forgive and forget, I admit that I should have listened to you about Lockhart. And Ginny I'm sorry for how I've been treating you, I was hoping you and me could make up. It'd be nice to have a friend, especially one who's a girl. I'll see you two later" Hermione walked off, no sooner than she had harry put up some locking and privacy charms.
"What did your instincts say about her?" Ginny asked.
....
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