Ruthless

SIX

Something was wrong with the Headmaster.

Harry saw it from where he sat beside Theo at the Slytherin table.

But Dumbledore was not the only change. There were more than a few holes were students should have sat at the Slytherin table. And the Slytherins were not the only ones to suffer losses to their numbers.

Harry wondered if that was a good choice of the parents. Where the students truly safer away from Hogwarts? There had already been several reported attacks by Death Eaters in the last month.

Perhaps they knew something he did not. Or perhaps they left the country entirely.

Harry returned his solemn gaze to the Headmaster, studied the way the man no longer looked him in the eye.

When it was announced the their Head of House was the new Defense professor, life was finally breathed back into the silent Slytherins, as they stood with a riotous cheer.

Harry looked at Theo instead as the boy clapped, and remained firmly seated.

-O-O-

Defense class with Snape was perhaps the best Harry had experienced. He enjoyed the mans acerbic comments on his classmates stupidity; he quite agreed with him.

Snape never directed his sharp tongue towards Harry; In fact, at times, Harry felt as if he was invisible. It was an enjoyable sensation, and allowed him to relax. The relaxing in turn made him tense.

A rule: a wise man seeks to put his enemies at ease, the better to strike at them from behind.

Hermione didn't like that she liked Snape's teaching style. Harry saw her struggle with it, the choice to be happy or angry or depressed.

She liked the harder material. She hated the mans teaching style. She liked the no nonsense attitude, hated the insults.

Hermione was a walking contradiction, and Harry wondered how she kept upright, even as he found it fascinating.

Harry did not hold her hand. When he walked through the halls, she still walked behind him beside Theo, his two shadows, nothing changed. Harry did not exchange the pleasantries he saw other couples do; He choose anonymity for reasons both complex and simple.

He was selfish of her; He would not share any part of her with anyone else, even the sight of her kiss.

Theo knew.

The Slytherin watched them with envious eyes, and told him that Greengrass was under a betrothal contract. Most Slytherins did things in such ways.

Harry could see the wisdom in such a choice. He merely wondered why the parents thought their children would choose to follow it.

-O-O-

He chose to lay aside time to obsess over her. Time that was theirs alone, free of Theo or study or choices.

Instead, he taught her that there were more ways to communicate than with endless wasteful words strung together. That at times words were not necessary and even useless.

And Hermione taught Harry what it meant to be truly speechless.

-O-O-

The material should have been more difficult that year. Instead, Harry found himself doing his own research, his own studies, his mind progressed so far beyond Hogwarts that at times he thought the classes his true payment for the room and board.

Harry focused on advanced wand techniques, delved into rituals, began practicing wordless and wandless magic. His shadows followed behind him, each branching in their own directions, expanding on his own path. Hermione made potions in an abandoned classroom from books in the restricted section. She was now the new potions professor, Slughorn's, star pupil. Theo bought a dagger and drew runes onto his cheek that allowed him to see magic, then had to have Harry devise a glamour strong enough to cover the scars he could not see. Harry did not ask what other scars the boy already bore out of sight.