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I can feel Snape looking at me, but I keep my eyes downward. Without a word, Snape spins on his heel and walks back into his classroom, leaving the door open in silent command to follow him.
Draco glares and mouths 'mudblood' at me and I chuckle softly in response before he turns and stomps into the lab. As we allow the rest of the Slytherins to file in, I catch the same raven-haired girl's eyes, which remains on me in an unreadable expression.
As her classmates in front of her make their way into the Potions lab, my eyes flicker down to note that she isn't wearing the badge, though there's no telling if she took it off when Snape had come out.
"You never told me you're a Muggleborn," Hermione whispers.
I turn to find her and Harry staring at me, and I look surprised. "I didn't? I guess it never came up. Besides, blood status doesn't really matter, does it?" I add the last with a smile.
"Of course not..."
"Thanks, William," Harry says quietly. "I wasn't planning on using a shield."
"I figured as much," I say, but we're about to enter the lab and I have a feeling Snape will be looking for a reason to take away points.
Hermione seems to realize that, too. "We'll talk later."
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"Sorry about your luck, Harry," I say, cursing myself for forgetting that he had to leave double Potions for the Rita Skeeter interview, and then the Weighing of the Wands ceremony. Had I remembered that, we could have avoided the encounter outside the Potions lab and I could have warned him about the little beetle somehow.
"You couldn't have known," he says, waving it away, but I could tell he was still upset about Skeeter.
"You never told me you're a Muggleborn!" Hermione whispers once again at the dinner table.
I grin at her once again. "I should have kept my cover story. Nobody would mess with the grandson of Dark Lord Sidious." I do my best Darth Vader breathing impression, then hold my hand, palm down, out in her direction. "I find your lack of faith disturbing—ow!"
"Don't you dare try to Force-choke me!" Hermione whispers furiously as I rub my wrist.
I laugh. "I wasn't going to—" A lightbulb goes off in my head. "Aww, can I please try to Force-choke somebody, Hermione? That would be so awesome!"
"No, William!"
I droop my head and pout. "Yes, Dark Lady."
"I wish I could Force-choke you sometimes."
"If that is thy bidding, my master."
Hermione huffs in indignation but ignores my continuing jibes. "So, back to being Muggleborn...was it the same way for you as it was for me when you first went to your school? What about the magical government, is it as backwards as it is here?
What was your reaction when you found out about House Elves and other magical creatures?"
"Hermione, Hermione, calm down," Harry says, patting her on the back. "Don't pester the man."
I try to answer her questions to the best of my ability without contradicting any backstory that I might have told her before, so I stumble through and shrug an awful lot.
"At school I got to see some granians like those winged horses that Beauxbatons used..." I trail off when I catch sight of a pair of icy-blue eyes fixed on me between Harry and Hermione's heads.
"Hermione, what can you tell me about that attractive Slytherin girl in our year with long, black hair and light blue eyes?"
Her head cocks backward. "Surely you don't mean Pansy—"
"No, I did say attractive," I interrupt with a smile. Actually Pansy isn't bad to look at, but I'm not going to say that to Hermione. "And she was back behind Pansy when the Slytherins stopped us outside the Potions lab."
Hermione furrows her brows a moment, then her face lights up when she comes up with the answer. "You must mean Daphne Greengrass." How about that, she might actually fit her popular fanfiction persona.
"I believe she's first in our year among Slytherins and something like fourth or fifth overall, but she's quiet so I've never actually heard her speak, let alone spoken to her myself. So I'm surprised you noticed her. I have seen her in the library occasionally, though."
"Hmm, interesting," I say, stroking my non-existent goatee. Hey, I almost forgot I could get away with not shaving at this age.
"Why?"
"She was looking at me strangely this afternoon outside the Potions lab, and while the Slytherins entered the lab, I noticed she wasn't wearing Draco's badge. I think she's been trying to catch my eye ever since then."
"Well, you should go talk to her," Hermione says in an uncharacteristically stiff voice.
Her tone snaps my attention back to her. She turns her face away as it reddens slightly. "Not yet. The table's crowded with Durmstrang students, so I wouldn't be able to sit down, and there's no telling if she'd actually speak to me in front of her Housemates."
"Why would you want to talk to a Slytherin, anyway?" Harry asks, perplexed at our exchange.
"I call it Operation Woo Slytherins So Harry Doesn't Have To Fight Them Later."
"I think Operation code names are there so you don't have to actually describe the whole thing every time," Hermione says with an eye roll.
"Hmm," I say, continuing to stroke my chin, "fair enough, then I'll call it Operation Snake Charmer."
"That sounds dirty," Hermione says, making a face.
"That's because your mind is in the gutter again. How about Operation Reptilian Redemption?"
She lifts an eyebrow at that. "That's...actually a good idea, promoting inter-House relations and all. I think Dumbledore and the other professors would approve." Then her eyes flicker to the end of the Head table, where Snape sits. "Well, most of them, anyway."
"And don't worry about Ms. Greengrass, Hermione. I'll always love you and Harry the mostest."
"You know it's really bizarre when you say stuff like that," Harry says.
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Hey guys if u like the fanfic and want to read ahead by 25+ chapters or just want to support take a visit on my patreon.
(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)
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