Our Choices Define Us

Chapter Five

“Potter?” Draco asked, his eyes slightly widen in surprise. The entire table was staring at Harry. Harry’s name had never been announced to the Hall, but was heard by everyone when Dumbledore was speaking to him.

“Yeah,” Harry replied, raising a pierced brow.

“Am I correct in saying that there is a lot to all of this than we know?” Blaise asked calmly.

“Yup, but now is not the time or place to talk about it. For now you’ll have to live with the fact that a hell of a lot has changed, including Harry. He’s no longer the Gryffindor Golden Boy.” Emily said firmly. She reached for the potatoes and began eating. The others soon followed suit.

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After dinner Harry and Emily let themselves be led to the Slytherin Common Room.

“Not exactly homey, but I like it.” Emily said as she looked around the Common Room.

The Common Room was decorated, of course, in black, green, and silver. The couches and arm chairs were black leather with green and silver throw pillows on them. The tables and chairs were made of red mahogany. The room was lit by candlelight, of which wasn’t much. The portraits and tapestries on the walls were of battles between different species, thunderstorms, and dark castles.

“Hasn’t changed much,” Harry noted with a smirk, waiting for the question.

“When have you ever been here?” Pansy asked nastily.

“Second year, I used the Polyjuice Potion to be Goyle to see if Draco was the heir of Slytherin.” He smiled at Draco and sat on the couch nearest to the roaring fireplace. The rest followed him, Emily plopping next to him.

“Where shall we start?” Emily asked. No one answered the rhetorical question. “Well, I’m assuming you guys want to know why Harry’s here and not with the Gryffindors.” Everyone nodded. “Well, to tell you that, we’d need to tell you a whole bunch of shit that we really can’t tell in one night. So the short version, Dumbledore told the Weasley’s to befriend Harry. Being Dumbledore worshipers, they did. When Harry became friends with Granger, Dumbledore invested time in her and convincing her that Harry was an attention-spotlight-seeking bastard and the future Dark Lord. He also convinced her that she and Weasley needed to report to him everything Harry did in order to keep him off the path of darkness.” Emily rolled her eyes. “We basically found all this crap out over the last month of summer plus a lot of other shit. Harry decided to get out from under Dumbledore’s thumb, starting by getting away from his soldiers and into his rightful House.”

“What other things did you find out?”

“What do you mean ‘rightful House’?”

“The other things we discovered aren’t something that we’re going to go into right now. The Sorting Hat originally wanted to put me in Slytherin, but I fought it, so I ended up in the next best House, Gryffindor.” Harry answered Blaise and Theo’s questions.

“Where are the dorms?” Emily asked, looking around the Common Room.

“Girl’s are down the left hallway and the boy’s are down the right.” Draco answered, nodding his head to the left of them. “The doors all have plaques on them with the owner’s names.”

“Thanks,” Emily acknowledged Draco and got off the couch and went down the left hallway.

“Well, I think I’m going to turn in as well.” Harry said hastily.

Being around the Slytherins without Emily made him kind of uneasy. She was undoubtedly the mediator between him and the Slytherins. He knew for a fact that he wouldn’t be accepted with open arms, and he was right. Harry could feel an underlying sense of caution and not being trusted. They’d been enemies for the past five years, hadn’t they?

Harry got up and walked over to the right corridor. As he went down the long hallway, he scanned the plaques. Not only were the names on them, but the year as well. It seemed that the first years were at the beginning of the hallway and went on from there. Harry also noticed that no more than two people shared a room and you only roomed with year mates.

As he neared the end of the hallway, he slowed and began paying attention to the names on the doors. “Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini. Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle.” He murmured aloud. The next door belonged to two seventh years, so he turned to his left and he felt a sense of excitement and dread.

Draco Malfoy, 6th Year
Harry Potter, 6th Year

How did he know that he would be sharing a room with Malfoy? Harry shook his head and opened the door.

The room was very spacious. It had two double beds, two desks with chairs, and two wardrobes. The bed sheets were black and made of what appeared to be silk. The pillows were green and silk as well. The comforter was green with silver accents with the Slytherin crest in the center. The hangings were black.

The perks of being a Slytherin, Harry thought as he observed his new room. He noticed a door on the far side of the room. He went over and opened it to see the magnificent bathroom.

It was done in black marble. It contained two sinks, two shower stalls, and a tub to rival the Prefects, with just as many taps. He exited the bathroom and changed into his pajamas. The bed was as soft as a cloud. Yes, he was going to like it here.

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“Psst… Harry,”

Harry grunted and cracked an eye open. He saw Emily about an inch from his face. “What da ya want?” he mumbled, still half asleep.

“Come on! We gotsta go run!” Emily said quietly.

“Now?” Harry groaned, the sun wasn’t even up!

“Yes, now. We start earlier here, so we have to run earlier in order to be on time. So up!” She poked him in the ribs.

“Ugh, fine.” Harry reluctantly agreed. He did need to keep up with his physical wellness. Besides, Emily wouldn’t be able to get up this early forever; she liked to sleep in just as much as he did. So until then, he’d go along with it.

Emily left the room to allow him to change. He got up and shuffled to the bathroom.

He quickly brushed his teeth and threw some cold water on his face to wake him up. He’d shower after running. He put on his running clothes, grabbed his iPod and left his room.

“Finally!” Emily said sarcastically. She got up from the floor and began hopping on the balls of her feet. “Let’s go!”

“How can you be so damn happy?” Harry asked bitterly. It was way too early to be that happy. He should be sleeping right now, not going to run in probably freezing weather.

Emily paused her skipping and thought for a moment. “I have no idea. Probably sleep deprivation.”

“How can you have trouble falling asleep in beds that comfortable?” Harry asked. It had taken him all of three seconds to succumb to sleep.

“Insomnia doesn’t care if you are sleeping on rocks or clouds, it comes when it wants,” Harry chuckled. “What’s funny?”

“No, it’s just you used the same comparison that I did with the beds.”

“Riiight,” Emily gave him a weird look. “Well, let’s go.”

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After two laps around the lake and a shower, Harry and Emily both went to breakfast ravenous. They sat with their year mates and piled food on their plates.

“Are you both going to eat all that?” Draco asked, slightly disgusted at the amount of food on their plates.

“Hey, you wake up at like five in the morning, run twice around that big ass lake and tell me if you think this is too much food.” Emily said and began her meal.

“You both ran around the lake twice?” Blaise asked, astonished. That lake was huge! They both nodded. “You’re both mad.”

“Nope, just awesomely cool.” Emily replied.

A few minutes later Snape came around handing out the schedules. When he reached their group he coldly handed out the pieces of parchment, glared nastily at Harry and moved on.

“Who was that and why did he give Harry the I’d-kill-you-if-I-could look?” Emily asked as she looked at the retreating back of their Head of House.

“That was Professor Snape,” was all Harry said. He looked over his schedule and groaned.

“What?” Emily asked as she looked across the table to get a look at Harry’s timetable.

“Potions with the Gryffindors first thing,” Harry glared at the parchment.

“Aww, it’s otay, Harry, we’ll blow up their potion and hopefully scar them for life.” Emily said with a large grin and turned to her own schedule.

“Is she serious?” Blaise asked in a whisper.

“No idea,”

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Breakfast soon ended and the Slytherins gathered their things and headed to the dungeons.

“Yay! I love potions!” Emily squealed as she jumped around the corridor.

“Well, Emily, Professor Snape will probably change that. He’s a right bastard.” Harry said disdainfully.

“Watch it, Potter, that’s my godfather you’re talking about.” Draco growled.

“Hey! No fights on the first day. It wouldn’t do to get in the negatives by getting points taken away.” Emily said sternly. She was extremely competitive and wasn’t about to get behind in the race just because of something so stupid. “Harry has one view of Snape while you, Draco, have another. Let it be and let’s go before we’re late!” She turned and began walking ahead of everyone.

“Emily, do you know where you’re going?” Harry called to Emily, who was quite a ways ahead of them.

“No!” Emily turned and waited with her hands on her hips.

They made it to class just before the door slammed and the Professor made his entrance.

“Today we will be working on the Blood Replenishing Potion. This is a rather difficult potion to make. I have taken it upon myself to make pairs of everyone in the class, in order to make sure there will be no mishaps,” at this Snape looked directly at Harry. “When I call out your name, move to your partner. Zabini, Weasley. Thomas, Nott. Granger, Alarice.”

Harry heard Emily swear Snape to hell and back as she gathered her things and went to the empty seat next to Granger. He gave her a small reassuring smile from across the room. Harry’s attention was pulled back to Snape when he heard his name.

“Potter… Malfoy.”

Great, he thought to himself sarcastically. He looked over at the next bench and saw Malfoy glaring at him, obviously not moving to sit next to Harry. Harry sighed and went over to sit next to his partner.

A/N: I had a very hard time writing this chapter and personally, think it is a pile of crap. Please review and tell me what you think!