5 September 1992, Hogwarts
However, Harry just scared him and motivated him at the same time. A boy with such a large ego would do his best to not be humiliated by the public, and that's not even counting his competitive desire to defeat his rival. Yeah, the boy was going to train night and day to make that happen.
This was how Harry was able to give the entire castle a vacation from Malfoy for at least a couple of months. Yeah, you're welcome, Hogwarts.
By the time Harry arrived in the Great Hall, he was congratulating himself on the way he dealt with Malfoy. It was so simple. He didn't need to intimidate the boy or threaten him. Just confuse him and distract him with someone else. A boy like him was given everything he ever asked for, only treasured things he earned. Oh, he was still prone to a tantrum if he was ever refused anything, but giving him a challenge, something that means something to him, like proving to the entire school that he was better than Longbottom, but also threatening his pride if his performance is disappointing. The carrot and the stick and at the same time, where his own pride is enforcing both. And to do it, he'll need to be too dedicated to bother stroking his ego with his little taunts and bullying since he has a lot on the line.
Yeah, Harry was proud of coming up with this in a second, and it showed with the smile he was wearing on his face as he sat next to his friends. Tracy looked at him and grumbled, "What are you so happy about?"
She was always grumpy in the morning, that one, and Harry was too good of a mood to let that ruin it, "I just took care of something rather annoying."
Blaise snorted, "Speaking of annoying, have any of you seen how Malfoy's been strutting around ever since he bought his way into the Quidditch team? I really wanted to punch his face."
"Yeah, he spent the entire day saying that he was the new leader of our year and that we all had to listen to him," Daphne complained.
"Guys, he's not that bad. It's just some posturing because he's happy. It'll blow over quickly," Harry said.
"I don't know why you're so unconcerned about it, Harry. You're the one Draco is trying to dethrone."
The Potter scion raised an eyebrow, "What are you talking about?"
"As the leader of our year," Daphne answered slowly like he was dumb or something, "You must have noticed that we all keep following your lead, that's not just our group, but all of our Slytherin classmates. You're in a prime position to get a good position in the Slytherin court next year, while Draco has done nothing but lose confrontations with you and throw his father's name around."
Yeah, the infamous Slytherin's court. Honestly, he didn't know anything concrete what it was, no one did unless they were part of it. There had to be privileges and responsibilities that came with it. As far as he could tell, the court was in charge of making house laws and punishing the people who break them, they arranged for the yearly rituals and protected the younger members of the house from being bullied. People still had grudges against members of the House of Snakes because of Voldemort's war. But outside of that, they were a basic smuggling ring of sorts. You paid them to court with a favour or something of equal value, and in exchange, you can ask for anything, be it information on another student, help on an assignment, an illegal ingredient of sorts, or banned books on forbidden magics. Everything had a price in the house of snakes and the court embodied that characteristic.
To be perfectly honest, it wasn't really that big of a deal to Harry who was mostly preoccupied with discovering more about magic as possible, but it could give him enough contacts when he tries to raise the Potter name in the future. His magic would be enough, but old magical families still had enough pull to make things difficult for him.
People fought tooth and nail to be part of the court, even in the lower echelons. The positions were based on chess, oddly enough. The game was pretty popular in the House of Snakes, and there were tournaments for people to showcase their skills, but those were limited to upper years. As for the court position, there were exactly twenty positions in the court. It's made up of eleven pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, two queens and a single king, the undisputed leader of the house, not that anyone knows who any member was. Outside of the pawns and the king, the positions are named after black and white. For example, there was a Knight of Black, and a Knight of White, taken in by two different people.
As stated before, the King was the one that commands the house and makes the rules, the Queens are his ambassadors, in a way. They rule when the king is not there. The Rooks are the enforcers, they are charged with the protection of the house's interest and enforcing its unspoken rules, the bishops are the researchers, which are involved whenever a magical matter is needed, like adding in a ward or an enchantment. The Knights protect the members of the house from outside threats, like bullies from other houses. Finally, the pawns are just there to help in any way, and should they prove their worth, they are upgraded to a higher piece with better responsibility.
Now, the entire upper court (all the pieces aside from the pawns) votes for the candidature of the next pawns. They also vote for promotions from any piece to one of the Queens, and when a King leaves the castle and graduates, which Queen to take their place.
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