"More or less," Harry said. The statement was true in a way, just not exact; it was not that his Demented self had cared, but that it had been confused.
"I did not have any friends like that when I was young." Still the same emotionless voice. "What would have become of you, I wonder, if you had been alone?"
Harry shivered before he could stop himself.
"You must be feeling grateful to her."
Harry just nodded. Not quite exact, but true.
"Then here is what I might have done at your age, if there had been anyone to do it for -"
Chapter 50: Self Centeredness
Padma Patil had finished her dinner a little late, getting on toward seven-thirty, and was now striding quickly out of the Great Hall on her way to the Ravenclaw dorm and the study rooms. Gossiping was fun and destroying Granger's reputation was more fun, but it could distract from schoolwork. She'd put off a six-inch essay on
It was while she was passing through a long, twisting, narrow stone corridor that the whisper came, sounding like it was coming from right behind her.
"
She spun around quick as lightning, her wand already snatched up from a pocket of her robes and leaping into her hands, if Harry Potter thought he could sneak up on and scare
There was no one there.
Instantly Padma spun around and looked in the other direction, if it had been a Ventriloquism Charm -
There was no one there, either.
The whispering sigh came again, soft and dangerous with a slight hissing undertone.
"
"Harry Potter, Slytherin boy," she said out loud.
She'd fought Potter and his Chaos Legion a dozen times over, and she
...even though the Ventriloquism Charm was only line-of-sight, and in the winding corridor, she could easily see all the way to the nearest twist both forward and backward, and there was no one there...
...it didn't matter. She knew her enemy.
There was a whispery chuckle, now coming from beside her, and she spun around and pointed her wand at the whisper and shouted "
The red bolt of light shot out and struck the wall, which lit with a crimson glow that soon faded.
She hadn't really expected it to work. Harry Potter couldn't
The whispery voice laughed again, now on her other side.
"Harry Potter stands on the precipice," whispered the voice, now sounding very close to her ear, "he is wavering, but you, you are already falling, Slytherin girl..."
"The hat never called out Slytherin for
Again the soft laugh. "Harry Potter has been in the Ravenclaw common room for the last half-hour, helping Kevin Entwhistle and Michael Corner rehearse Potions recipes. But it matters not. I am here to deliver a warning to you, Padma Patil, and if you choose to ignore it, that is your own affair."
"Fine," she said coldly. "Go ahead and warn me, Potter, I'm not afraid of you."
"Slytherin was a great House, once," said the whisper; it sounded sadder, now. "Slytherin was once a House you would have been proud to choose, Padma Patil. But something turned wrong, something turned sour; do you know what went awry in Slytherin House, Padma Patil?"
"No, and I don't care!"
"But you should care," said the whisper, now sounding like it was coming from just behind her head where it stood almost pressed against the wall. "For you are still that girl whom the Sorting Hat offered that choice. Do you think that just choosing Ravenclaw means that you are not Pansy Parkinson, and will not ever become Pansy Parkinson, no matter how you conduct yourself otherwise?"
Despite everything, now, small chills of fear were spreading out from her spine and running over her skin. She'd heard
"But you'll spread vicious rumors about an innocent girl," whispered the voice, "even though it will not help you attain any of your own ambitions, and without considering that she has powerful allies who might take offense. That is not the proud Slytherin of the old days, Padma Patil, that is not the pride of Salazar, that is Slytherin gone rotten, Padma Parkinson not Padma Malfoy..."
She was getting more creeped out than she ever had been in her life, and the possibility was starting to occur to her that this might