Three weeks passed since Harry visited Diagon Alley for the first time. The alley was so narrow and crowded that he would have surely gotten lost if he had been on his own. Thankfully, with Minerva McGonagall around, buying everything he needed for school did not take too much time.
However, not everything went smoothly...when Harry finally arrived at Ollivander's shop, he encountered a rather troublesome situation: none of the wands he tried wanted him! Upon seeing the first dozen of wands not giving any good signs, Ollivander has almost wanted to ask if the boy was not actually a non. But Ollivander's doubts about Harry's ability to perform magic vanished when the next wand Harry tried set the counter aflame.
Since none of the wands Harry tried were responsive to him, in the end he chose a wand just byby looking at its appearance. He bought a 13 inches long wand. It was made of ebony and it that had a dragon heartstring as its core. Ollivander was utterly ashamed and said that in the centuries of existence of his shop, never had a client left unsatisfied before...but there was not much he could do without further research and large sums of money.
...
Even now, at three weeks after purchasing his wand, Harry had not managed to get a reaction from it. Despite that, Harry was not too worried. There have been other things on his mind...like the fact that he used to be nearly illiterate!
When Harry had run away from the orphanage, he had been only 8 years old. And after he had become a runaway, Harry had naturally stopped going to school as well. Although he had no trouble with performing basic mathematical operations like adding, subtracting, multiplications and dividing (he was forced to learn them because he need them to manage the money he used to steal), Harry was severely lacking when it came to reading and spelling. As for common knowledge about History, Geography and Science...these were nothing more than vague concepts for him.
However, professor McGonagall has been very helpful to him. Not only did she help him buy everything he needed for school, she had done a lot more than that: she arranged with Tom from Leaky Cauldron to rent Harry a room until school started and she also hired someone to tutor him for the rest of the month.
It had been very hard for Harry to get used to studying for the first few days but after these three weeks, he got the hang of it and, to his tutor's pleasant surprise, Harry proved to be a very fast learner.
But during one of his sessions of studying Harry accidentally came upon the truth behind his fast learning and his ability to study for even 10 hours straight without feeling tired at all. Normally, anyone would start to feel tired after about 3 hours of serious studying, let alone 10! And even if they would not get tired, they would surely get bored...especially if they were just 11 years old.
The secret behind this feat was in fact the Gorgoneion he wore hanging from his neck! How did Harry come to this conclusion?
It was the middle of August and it goes without saying that it was boiling outside. After a few hours of study Harry decided to take a small break and indulge himself with a cold shower...but after undressing just as he took off the stone pendant from his neck to get into the shower, a feeling of nausea flooded his senses and he barely managed to lay on the cold stone floor without losing his consciousness.
The dizziness subsided after a few moments, only for a terrible headache to appear in its stead. It was so painful that even being punched in the head with a pair of knuckledusters didn't hurt that much (and yes, he had experienced something like this during the years when he roamed through London's streets).
Out of instinct, Harry touched the Gorgoneion laying on the floor and, to his relief, a calming energy spread through his body, giving off the feeling of a soothing caressing.
Not sure what to think about said incident, Harry made some experiments afterwards: he broke the contact with the pendant a few more times after a long day of studying – resulting in experiencing the same consequences – and he also took off the pendant in the mornings, before he started doing anything – which in turn didn't make him feel any different.
Having his suspicions aroused, Harry decided after a few days of testing to try studying without wearing the pendant. The result clarified the Gorgoneion's effects completely: after just an hour of reading out-loud, not only that his throat was hurting from so much continuous talking but he also got bored to death; he has been reading Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy. It was a book solely concentrated on enumerating and describing the genealogy tree of all the Pureblood families in The United Kingdom...
Which 11 years old boy would actually give a damn about something like this? Maybe the heir of an old Pureblood family would sometimes skim through the book to boost and inflate his ego...but a nearly illiterate and former street-rat like Harry caring about something like this? Maybe when the hell would freeze over.
However, wanting to continue the experiment, Harry put on the Gorgoneion back, around his neck. In the next moment, the soreness of his throat vanished and he tentatively started reading again (still out-loud to improve his pronunciation) from the book.
Half an hour has seemingly passed in the blink of an eye and, before Harry realised it, he had gotten so engrossed in the book that he nearly missed again the fact that none of the things he had just read have faded from his memory. It was an amazing feat because who would normally be able to memorize a few hundreds of names (and some very weird ones at that) after reading them only once?
With newfound appreciation and awe at the magical artefact he had had the fortune of being bestowed with, Harry took a full advantage of the benefits it brought. Following the confirmation of the pendant's attributes, Harry read all the books in the curriculum of the First Year students and - at his tutor's recommendation - he also bought from Flourish and Blotts Modern Magical History, Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century and Hogwarts: A History.
After reading all these books, Harry's horizons have broadened even more! He learned about the Dark Lord Grindelwald's reign of terror in the entire Europe and – to his fright – about the Dark Lord's defeat at the hands of Albus Dumbledore...the very same person with the old man that Harry had attacked a few weeks before. In that moment Harry understood just how much of an important person Dumbledore was. For the British Wizarding Society Dumbledore's standing was almost the same with that of Queen Elisabeth II in the eyes of the British non-magical people...for such a big shot like him to personally come in order to invite an 11 years old boy to a boarding school, was ridiculous. Even an idiot would clearly understand that something was fishy about this entire situation. But as of now Harry could only choose the "wait and see" approach since he lacked the necessary information to make a good decision.
Besides learning about Dumbledore and Grindelwald, Harry had also read about the Blood War which had ended only a decade ago. And what caught his attention the most was that seemingly all-powerful Dumbledore had been unable to do anything major against this new Dark Lord...in the end it was actually a one year old boy that brought an end to Voldemort's reign – Neville Longbottom! (and yes, Harry had had to beg of Tom to actually tell him the name of "You-Know-Who" and "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named")
Learning about this left Harry with an incredulous expression on his face: how could an infant possibly defeat one of the most powerful wizards alive at that time? Harry refused to believe such a thing, it smelled too much like a bedtime story for children.
'At that age, Neville Longbottom was still shitting his own pants...only an idiot would actually take seriously such a fairy tale' – was what Harry thought.
What Harry seemed to have forgotten was that until just a few weeks before, many of the things he was seeing on a daily basis now, had been just a myth for him as well. In a world where dragons and hippogriffs still existed and humans could casually fly on charmed broomsticks, conjure living beings from nothingness and teleport to places hundreds of miles away, Harry should have had a mind more open to the seemingly unbelievable stories. But how could you hold it against him? In the end, he was just like a new-born in the eyes of the Wizarding World.
Through the reading he had done, Harry discovered another very interesting thing: apparently, the attributes of the Gorgoneion he was wearing were not unique! There were a few enchanted items in the recorded history that had had the ability to improve one's concentration and mental capabilities, with the most notable of them being Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem.
However, very few of the magical artefacts he had read about were coming anywhere close to what his Gorgoneion was capable of in terms of ability – fact that made him aware even more of just how precious it was and how lucky was he to possess it. Because of that, he decided at that moment that he would keep secret the pendant's existence no matter the cost!
During his years spent on London's streets, Harry had seen with his own eyes once a teenager stabbing another one to death only for a few hundred pounds. If people are capable of killing even for such a small amount of money, what would they be capable of doing once they learned of his pendant's abilities? And given how chaotic and dangerous the Wizarding World seemed to be – what, with 2 Dark Lords rising in less than 50 years – Harry had all the reasons to fear for his life in case that anyone got wind of what he possessed.
Back with Harry, in the present, he was finally going to go out after three weeks of intensive studying. His recent behaviour was so unlike him that he was getting embarrassed at the thought of how he holed up like a nerd to study for weeks. Because of that, he felt an even bigger desire to go wander the Diagon Alley and spend his time in leisurely, just like in the "old times".
It was almost surreal for Harry how much his life changed in only 3 weeks: he found out he was in fact not as special as he used to think (there were millions of wizards on Earth) and what left him somewhat at a loss of what to do, was that he didn't need to steal any longer in order to survive...One would probably scold Harry if he knew his thoughts, but what Harry felt was only natural...He had been living by stealing for almost half of the life he remembered (which started since around the age of 3). (1)
Now that he had suddenly been thrown into a life where he had nothing to worry about, it made Harry almost feel like he had lost his purpose in life. Before, his purpose was to steal in order to survive; it was simple, and it kept him busy. He had something to strive for: to become rich!
But now, he didn't have a goal anymore...he was already filthy rich! Yes, Harry learned about his heritage without Dumbledore's help. When he read Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy, Harry also found his own name written in there!
Thus, he learned that his father was James Potter and that he had a quite the privileged status in the wizarding world. From there, Harry deduced that a family as old and noble as the Potter family could not possibly have nothing left stored away! Following this conclusion, Harry rented Tom's owl and sent a letter to Dumbledore in which he asked about his heritage...
Well, Harry didn't really ask, he more like bluffed by demanding an explanation. His words have been something among these lines: "I have learned about my parents and my heritage...How nice of you, headmaster, to offer to pay up for all my necessities when I'm actually filthy rich. If I didn't know any better I'd think you purposely hid these things from me.."
The very next day, Harry received his reply in which Dumbledore predictably explained that he didn't wish for Harry to start worrying about money from such a young age...and yes, apparently the headmaster was thick-skinned enough to actually tell something like that to a child that had practically had to think about money on a daily basis for the past three years.
But the envelope from Gringotts that Dumbledore sent attached to the letter, made Harry to not particularly care about his poor-made excuses. In the end, he knew very well that they were just empty words anyway. It had been obvious that the old wizard had not had in mind initially to disclose that piece of information because only a few weeks before, he had used it as a bait for Harry to convince him to attend Hogwarts.
Long story short, Harry had enough money to live like a sloth for the rest of his life, there being no need for him to work even a day. Of course, Harry had been very ecstatic and he was still feeling very happy about this discovery...but deep down in his heart, Harry felt...unfulfilled. This wasn't what he had had in mind when he had been dreaming about becoming rich. He had wanted to get everything with his own two hands, to fight for his goal.
Harry sighed softly to himself and after changing his clothes to a pair of dark blue jeans and a black short-sleeved T-shirt, he left the Leaky Cauldron and entered the Diagon Alley along with another group of people that came to buy for their children what they needed to start the new year at Hogwarts.
Having already bought everything he needed, Harry wandered through the shops aimlessly. He went to the Quality Quidditch Supplies Shop and gazed curiously at the broomsticks exposed, along with other few tens of excited boys around his age and he even stopped at the shop with the magical instruments. But eventually, he got bored and after buying a delicious ice-cream from Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlor, Harry headed towards the Knockturn Alley. However, after only taking a few steps, Harry turned back and changed directions immediately...that place was giving off a dangerous vibe, not unlike to that one would get when walking at night through one of the ill-famed districts of a big city.
When he turned back, Harry decided to go visit the Magical Menagerie as well. It was a pet shop, selling all kind of animals.
Upon entering through the door, a very chaotic scene welcomed him...the shop was filled with people who ogled at the animals which in turn made then restless. The air was filled with feathers from all kinds of birds, cats were meowing loudly from every corner of the shop and the snakes were hissing from behind their glassed cages angrily...only for the snakes to quiet down at the same time, instantly, when he stepped through the door.
A large Boa snake behind a cage made of glass which was spelled with an Unbreakable Charm lifted its head slowly and hissed towards Harry:
"Are you our massster?"
The Gorgoneion at Harry's chest throbbed and heated up and in that moment Harry stepped back frightened. The shop was full of people, but Harry just knew that the snake has been talking to him!
By then, the nearby people also noticed the snakes' uncommon behaviour and were throwing curious glances around the room to see which was the reason for it.
Trying to put on an innocent face, Harry left the shop before anything came out from this situation. As he hurried towards the inn, Harry recalled the information he got from Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century. In that book, it was said about "He-Who-Must-No-Be-Named" that he was a Parselmouth – that he could talk to snakes.
Apparently this 'gift' was not common among wizards and – at least in Western Europe – it was strongly associated with the Dark Magic and evil wizards.
'If these people are willing to believe that a one year old baby had gotten them rid of such a ridiculously powerful mass-murderer, it's not difficult to predict what would they think about an eleven years old child that can talk to snakes...'
That night Harry was still thinking about the incident from the Magical Menagerie Shop. What was vexing him was how did those snakes know he was a Parselmouth? He, himself, had not been aware of that until then. But when he replayed the scene in his mind, Harry remembered that when he stepped through the shop's door, the pendant around his neck pulsated and heated up.
'Could it have been because of you?' Harry rhetorically asked himself as he rubbed the surface of the Gorgoneion.
Harry thought that it was quite possible...after all, the Gorgoneion was a pendant which depicted a woman having snakes instead of hair; and given the magical abilities it demonstrated during the past month, Harry stopped being too surprised.
"You almost caused me a shit-ton of problems, do you know that?" he said as he held the stone pendant in front of his eyes.
"Well, it doesn't matter...compared to how much you helped me during the past month, this should not be even mentioned, right?"
If Harry was disappointed about the lack of a response, he didn't show it. After putting the pendant back at his neck – he never left it from his person since the day he discovered its value – Harry closed his eyes and let the sleep engulf him.
Scene break
A loud knocking on the wooden door startled Harry awake.
"Harry, you'd better wake up, the Hogwarts Express leaves in less than 30 minutes!"
Harry rubbed his eyes tiredly, not paying attention to what Tom said, but when the words sank in...
"Bollocks!"
He had been reading until past 2 am again last night and he would have continued to read if he hadn't taken off his pendant from his neck. By doing that though, all the tiredness accumulated from an entire day of reading and studying overwhelmed him and he fell asleep like a log.
Harry was immensely grateful to his pendant – yes, he wanted to believe that it had some sort of sentience – for all the help it gave him, but he noticed that wearing it all the time was influencing his personality too much...especially since he came into contact with the wizarding world. Until then (Harry had been in its possession for nearly three months before Dumbledore came after him), it had not given any signs of being out of ordinary. But after Harry came in contact with the magical world, the pendant suddenly became extraordinary.
And ever since it became extraordinary, the pendant started to change his personality at an alarming pace! Harry used to be nearly illiterate and had no interest in school, reading and any other similar activities. He used to be one of the future gangsters from London's streets, not some sort of nerd devouring information like a man in the desert drinks water after nearly dying of thirst.
It was somewhat vexing that even after taking off the pendant, Harry still felt the urge to continue assimilating information. His curiosity was almost maddening him if he denied it and because of that Harry was experiencing a minor case of an identity crisis.
Harry shook his head and started to hurriedly dress up. There was no time for him to get distracted, the train left in less than half an hour. Fortunately, he had prepared his luggage from the previous evening, so everything was neatly packed in his trunk – as neatly as someone that has never done that before was able to.
Fifteen minutes later, Harry was attracting odd looks as he ran on a platform at King's Cross, dragging behind him a very large dark green trunk. It wasn't because he looked weird – he dressed up rather nice according to the Muggles' standards – but rather because of what he was doing: an eleven years old boy was actually running while dragging behind him a trunk easily weighting over 30 pounds. At that age children could barely lift that weight, let alone run like Harry was doing... how could these people know that Harry was actually assisted by his magic which levitated the trunk just half an inch above the ground?
When Harry finally arrived to the portal that led to platform nine and three-quarters, he sped trough it fearlessly – fortunately for him, Tom had been nice enough to tell him everything he needed to know.
What greeted Harry on the other side of the portal truly was a sight to behold: a scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another and here and frogs could be seen trying to jump off from their owners' hands.
It was a rather chaotic scene, but Harry didn't mind it. He had kind of missed London's tumultuous streets during his stay at the Leaky Cauldron. Now, he was glad to see some 'life' again.
With a small grin on his face, Harry headed towards the closest entrance of the train. Just as he arrived at the door, a buzz of excitement could be heard from the crowd of people and they all turned their heads towards the entrance of the platform.
There, from under the wrought-iron archway a middle-aged couple came walking in hurriedly, holding their two younger children's hands while the older one was coming along behind them with his trunk.
But the crowd's attention was not directed at the middle-aged couple, nor at their two younger children, but at the boy behind them. On the middle of his forehead, a lightning bolt-like scar was being shown rather proudly in Harry's opinion, seeing as the boy's fringe was neatly styled to the side in order to not obstruct it from view.
They didn't get to make five steps before a squad of reporters appeared in front of them seemingly out of nowhere and camera flashes began to blind the famous family.
"Move out of the way, please! Move to the side please! We don't have time right now!" was what the two adults were saying incessantly as they swam through the sea of people. And it was true, there were only 5 minutes before the train left.
Harry didn't ogle at them for too long; he also had to find a free compartment and settle down for the ride. He turned his back and without even waving his hand or wand (the wand was useless to him anyway), he levitated the heavy trunk into the train. To his small happiness, the corridors of the compartment were all empty seeing as all the students either gathered at the windows or came down from the train in order to see the Boy-Who-Lived.
Harry kept walking until he finally found an empty compartment. He entered it and, after taking out a book from his trunk, he levitated it up on the stand above his head. He took a seat and looked on the window at nothing in particular as he thought:
'So that pudgy boy was the saviour of the world? And I used to think that ordinary people are naive. Wizards, however...'
He let a small sigh and turned his eyes towards the famous boy once again. Neville Longbottom was grinning wildly at the cameras and waving his hand at everyone as he trudged towards one of the train's doors.
'He seems to enjoy his fame...well, who wouldn't do the same in his place?'
Harry shook his head to remove these useless thoughts. He opened the book he took out from the trunk and started to read again...but then he came to his senses. He took off the Gorgoneion around his neck and hid it in one of his jeans' pockets. The desire to read the book nearly disappeared and Harry put the book back into his trunk, to remove the "temptation".
Finally, a loud whistle could be heard and people all started to scramble towards their compartments.
Scene break
The train has already been moving for a little more than an hour and, surprisingly, no-one else came in the compartment; boys and girls went by looking for a place, as if Harry's compartment was not even there in the first place! It was almost like it was invisible- ...in that moment Harry finally realized just how hot felt the pocket where the Gorgoneion was stored away.
"Is this because of you?" Harry asked, looking at the stone pendant in his hands through narrowed eyes.
The woman's eyes glowed red for a second and Harry dropped the pendant and jumped back in shock. When he realized his reaction, he felt himself flush red with embarrassment...the Gorgoneion proved to be extraordinary again and again during the past month and he has even started to think it actually possessed some form of sentience. He should have not reacted like that..
But he has never expected the pendant to actually answer him! He picked it up again and asked with uncertainty in his voice:
"D-Do you understand me?"
The woman's eyes flashed red again and a strange feeling of happiness invaded Harry. Excitement came over him and he laughed gleefully.
"So you really are sentient?" Harry asked after the rush of excitement finally subsided, and the woman's eyes glowed red again.
Harry asked a few more questions but after a few minutes the Gorgoneion didn't show any signs of 'life' anymore.
'Could it be that it has run out of energy?'
Harry's guess has been on spot seeing as a sudden knock on the compartment's door was heard. Apparently, the ward the pendant placed around the compartment has become visible again. Harry suspected that the Gorgoneion had made his compartment invisible before, so that he doesn't have any distractions, to make him read again because of boredom. It did sound a bit far-fetched but this was the best explanation Harry could come up with.
Hearing the knock on the door, Harry hurriedly put the chain of the Gorgoneion around his neck and hid it under his green shirt.
A woman slid the door and asked with a large and kind smile on her face:
"Anything you want off the cart, dear?"
Harry, who had yet to eat anything that day, immediately jumped at the chance. He took out a small handbag full of galleons making the woman's eyes go round at him. You have to understand that the medium salary of a wizard was around 250 galleons...and in his brown leathery handbag, there didn't seem to be any less money than that.
Harry noticed the look she gave him and he narrowed his eyes at her as he closed the handbag. The woman felt embarrassed at being caught staring so blatantly at the money of an eleven years old boy, but she dressed her voice and urged him to buy what he wanted.
In the end, Harry bought two pumpkin pasties and four cauldron cakes. He went back to his compartment and after he slid the door back, he began to eat ravenously the food he had bought.
"Aww please, ma'am, I only need one more sickle!"
"I'm sorry, dear, I can't –"
"Pretty please?" Harry heard the voice of a girl insisting and in that moment a weird feeling came over him, making him almost choke on his food.
From how the voice of the woman sounded, Harry understood that even she must have become flustered as well.
"I-I...erm...can't you borrow from someone?"
There was a moment of silence, before the door was slid open and Harry finally saw who was the girl whose voice he had heard moments before... And for a moment there, he was rendered speechless at her appearance. He has never seen such an exotic and beautiful girl in his entire life!
It was an eleven years old girl, with straight and waist-length silver-white hair and pale white skin. Her eyebrows were silvery-white as well and a pair of blue eyes were partially hidden behind her long silver eyelashes. A small and cute nose and a pair of soft-looking pink lips completed the picture.
The girl looked condescendingly at Harry's reaction but smiled charmingly nonetheless.
"Hello, I'm Alice!"
"Erm..hi! I'm Hawry." He said with his mouth full.
The girl named Alice barely managed to stop herself from turning her face away from the disgusting sight of Harry trying to speak while food fell down from his mouth.
"Err, why don't you try to finish eating first?"
"Alright, I'm done... I'm Harry." he said again, wiping the corner of his mouth with the sleeves of his shirt.
The white-haired girl almost grimaced again but kept her expression in check this time as well.
"Nice to meet you!" she beamed at him and Harry almost felt something stirring his stomach at the sight of her brilliant smile.
"Y-Yeah, me too." he replied rather dumbly.
"I was wondering... could you borrow me one sickle, please?" Alice asked and Harry felt his blood boiling inside of him and his heart starting to hammer in his chest.
But at that moment, a pulse of magic rushed into Harry from his precious pendant and his mind cleared instantly. He abruptly sat up and he lashed against her with his magic.
Alice was now pinned to the door of the compartment and she felt a tremendous force pressing down her chest.
"What did you do to me?!" he shouted at her, still keeping her pinned in mid-air to the door.
The girl was now having trouble breathing and she began to trash around desperately. Realising what was he almost suffocating her, Harry let go of her and she collapsed on the floor breathlessly.
She had a frightened look on her face and she was looking at him terrified.
"What did you try to do to me?" Harry asked now calmly, but anger was still obvious in his voice.
"N-Nothing! I-"
"Don't lie to me, bitch!"
Because of the comics he had read when he was younger, Harry had a very clear idea about what telepathy was capable of. And ever since Dumbledore invaded his mind a month ago, he had been very jumpy and paranoid about other wizards/withes trying to mess up with his brain.
And now Harry was not only angry but also scared at the same time as well. That was because when Dumbledore invaded his mind, he was expelled instantly and rather brutally at that too by the Gorgoneion's magic...yet this time, a girl a century younger than the old wizard almost managed to manipulate him at her own will...and the Gorgoneion barely stopped it.
"I-I'm not! I didn't wa-"
But Harry was having none of that. He made a show of getting his wand out of his pocket and pointed it the girl, knowing that it caused the wizards the same reaction it would cause a Muggle by pointing a gun at him.
"Don't make me resort to violence!"
Even without the effect of her that weird feeling in play, Harry noticed that Alice still was ridiculously beautiful...but that didn't move his heart too much. During his days as a homeless little thief, he had seen more than once beautiful girls luring men into narrow alleys or shady buildings, from where they would be thrown out afterwards bruised and battered, barely conscious. He wasn't going to show weakness just because she was beautiful.
Sure, had it been a boy or a girl not as beautiful as her, Harry would have probably already started kicking the living daylights out of her. Giving her the chance to explain herself before beating her to a pulp – that was Harry already being lenient.
When Alice saw Harry pointing his wand at her face, she scrambled up to her feet and started screaming for help.
"Ohh, so you're that kind of bitch, huh?" Harry asked and black lines appeared on his forehead.
"At least let me give you a real reason to scream for help." Harry said and he threw a rather hard kick at her mid-section.
Alice grunted in pain and collapsed again on the floor coughing and crying at the same time.
It was not the first time Harry has hit a girl, he had been forced by the situation to do it a few times in the past. On the streets, be it a girl or be it a boy, you could anytime find yourself at the point of a knife, being threatened to hand over all of your money...you can't live amongst wolves by acting as a sheep. It might be an exaggeration – things were not always that bad – but "Eat or be eaten" was a fairly good saying to describe the relationship between those not affiliated with the same gang.
Now that the girl collapsed on the floor, Harry would normally kick her in the face hard, to knock her out and "seal the deal". At least this is how he acted against everyone that tried to harm him...but after looking at Alice' pretty face covered by tears, he felt like it was a real pity to disfigure such a beautiful girl...
He was undecided what to do, but in the end, Harry was 'saved' from making a decision seeing as the door was almost torn off when it was opened and a 15 or so years old red-haired boy came in with his wand raised.
"What happened here?" the redhead asked while glancing at the crying girl on the floor.
"This bitch tried to manipulate me with magic. I only taught her a small but valuable lesson." Harry said impassively.
The older boy went to the crying Alice and picked her up from the floor. Meanwhile, more students gathered curiously at the door of Harry's compartment, trying to find out what happened.
"You're going to come with me to the Prefects' compartment."
"And why should I do that?" Harry questioned, not backing away in the least.
"I'm Percy Weasley, I'm a prefect." the redhead said frowning at him.
"..."
"Do I look like I give a damn about that?"
Excited voices could be heard from the crowd gathered at the door of the compartment when they witnessed Harry's behaviour. When have they seen before a firstie having the guts to hold his ground against a fifth year?!
"You come here and, without even understanding the situation, you're already taking a decision...some prefect you are.."
Percy's face reddened until it looked like a tomato, but just as he was about to explode at Harry, a mocking voice snickered from the crowd.
"Well, he's a Weasley, what can you expect? Stupidity runs deep in their family."
At that moment, the group of students surrounding the one that has just spoken, even the ones not sorted yet, they all started to roar with laughter.
"So you're a Malfoy, aren't you?" Percy sneered back at him.
"So what? You can't even dock points from me, I'm not even sorted yet...and what if I end up in that useless house of yours? Will you take off point from your own already dead-last house?"
"Haha, Draco, don't even joke about something like this. Even Hufflepuff would be a better choice than ending up with those idiots." mocked a rather tall and muscular 17 years old boy from Draco's back.
"Says the retard that failed his NEWTs last year!" another redhead boy yelled from the other side of the door's compartment and even more students started to laugh this time.
It was not boring to watch the byplay , but Harry knew that this was 10 out of 10 chances going to end up in a brawl and he really was in no mood to be a part of it.
The mood became more heated with every passing minute, but then, a tall man wearing a turban came into the picture and made order. Fortunately, the girl previously crying has long since been taken by her friends, so Harry did not get in trouble seeing as no-one snitched him, not even Percy (though that may have been because two twin redheads were dragging him along with them, to prevent him from starting a fight against the muscular guy that insulted the Gryffindor House).
"Stupid cunt, I really hope I'm not going to end up in the same house with him!" Harry muttered darkly under his breath after everyone was gone and he was left alone in his compartment.