Better Be Slytherin!

sweets, but stranger things had happened -- before he discovered who the culprit was.

Hermione Granger, his library study partner.

He was surprised, though he realized he shouldn't have been, really. She was nice and they got on well in the library, despite him being from Slytherin, and the way most Gryffindors treated the Slytherins. When he had been scrounging for every second he could study, she had been helpful when they worked on the same subject at the same time, and she was quiet, like he was. He liked quiet people. Noisy people reminded him too much of the Dursleys. But the quiet . . . he'd had quiet when he was in his cupboard, except when Dudley was being a prat and stomping up and down the stairs. He had treasured the quiet. It was one reason he still liked to study in the library when he could.

Thus, when he discovered the identity of his anonymous gift-giver, that afternoon in mid-October, he smiled shyly at her.

'Mind telling me what spell you just cast at me?' Hermione said, not looking up from her book.

Harry startled, then laughed softly. 'Shoulda known you'd catch me. You don't miss a trick.'

'Not with magic,' she said, and finally lifted her gaze to meet his. Her expression was one of curiosity, not anger, and he nodded.

'Thank you for the sweets,' Harry said, instead of answering her question.

'What sweets?' she asked, even as her cheeks turned as red as her Gryffindor tie.

'The chocolate frogs you sent me when I was in the Infirmary. Both times.' He grinned. 'You could have signed your name and saved me and Teddy a bunch of work.'

She grinned back. 'What fun would that be? This way, you learned some new spells and counter curses and everything.'

Harry gaped at her. 'You knew what we were going through? And you just let us keep going and going . . .'

She shrugged, still smiling.

'You could be in Slytherin!'

'Perish the thought,' she said and shuddered dramatically. 'That's the only House the Hat didn't consider for me.'

Harry didn't get more than a tiny bit annoyed about Hermione's prejudice about Slytherin House; he was well aware of his House's reputation amongst the rest of the school. He also knew it was, for the most part, completely undeserved, but now was not the time to argue that with Hermione. 'It considered all of them for me,' he admitted.

'Why'd you choose Slytherin then?'

'I didn't so much choose,' he told her, recalling the short conversation with the ratty old Hat a month and a half ago, 'as the Hat decided I'd do best there. I just . . . I wanted somewhere to belong, where people would accept me for me.'

Hermione nodded, looking a bit wistful. 'I think sometimes I might have been better off in Ravenclaw. They would understand,' she gestured to the books strewn across the table and her many parchments and quills and notes, 'all this.'

'Why'd you choose Gryffindor then?' Harry asked, throwing her own question back at her.

For some reason, Hermione's cheeks grew even redder. 'Truth?'

'Well, yeah.'

She wouldn't meet his eyes as she said, very quickly, 'I thought you would be sorted into Gryffindor.'

'You chose it because you thought I'd be in it, too?!'

She nodded, then hid her face in her hands.

Harry didn't know what to say. No one had ever desired his company like that before. He was just a Freak, just 'that idiot, Harry,' and not a person anyone wanted to spend time with. He had learned that lesson over the last ten years, if nothing else. And he liked Hermione all right, but that she would choose a house to be near him . . . Finally, he asked the only thing he could. 'Why?'

She mumbled something into her hands, and he had to stop her. 'I didn't catch that,' he said.

Lifting her head, she sought his gaze, almost squirming in her seat under the weight of his regard. Then she cleared her throat and plowed ahead. 'When I met you on the train, I knew you were someone I could be friends with. That I wanted to be friends with. I saw how you shared all those treats with Ron Weasley, and you didn't laugh at me when I was being so . . .' she shrugged, 'you know, overbearing with all those book facts.'

Harry had to smile. 'I didn't think you were overbearing.'

'See?' she said. 'I knew you'd be a good friend.'

It was Harry's turn to blush. He could feel his ears getting hot. 'Thanks,' he mumbled, and hunched his shoulder a bit.

Hermione pointedly looked away until he was back to himself, then she said, 'I still really want to know what that spell was.'

Harry laughed, and then showed her.

As Halloween neared, Harry was wishing for some free time to just kick back and relax. His schedule was very full, what with Quidditch practice -- the first game was just over two weeks away -- and his study sessions with Professor Snape, which were held every evening except when he had Quidditch, in which case, they were in the afternoon, as well as regular classes and study group meetings and making sure he got to each of the three meals each day. Sometimes he felt he had no time to himself. And even when he was alone, he wasn't really. The Bloody Baron was always nearby, his gaze impenetrable, even when his words were soothing and full of concern.