Silver Hourglass

Marcus' Dastardly Valentine Chapter 16

"No!" Harry cried, finally finishing the comic Death in the Family. He though it would be about Alfred dying, but no! It was Jason Todd! Harry's favorite, and only, Robin! The character who reminded him of his Draco! His boyfriend! Were they boyfriends? Harry still had to talk to Draco about that, but for now, he needed to grief for his favorite character. Harry was in the courtyard, bundled up and reading under the cover of roofed, open corridors. He was sitting on a stone bench and he had to bit his lip to hold back his tears for the fictional character. He sighed and looked around, aware of the students avoiding Harry and whispering about him. "There he is," he heard one Hufflepuff whisper, "the Heir of Slytherin!" There were a group of students just in Harry's hearing range.

"Of course Harry's the Heir! Look at him! Slytherin, and he's a Parselmouth!" Ernie, a Hufflepuff in his year, whispered.

"I heard he tried to have a snake attack Justin."

"Really? I would have guessed it. He's so small and frail looking."

"Well he killed You-Know-Who when he was a baby! Only a powerful Dark Wizard can do that."

"Yeah... he's probably going to become a Dark Lord after him."

"Shh be quiet! He's looking straight at us!" The group yelped in surprised and moved quickly from Harry, who frowned. It seemed that after the dueling club, everybody was avoiding him, even Ron and Hermione.

Whenever he smiled or waved at them for the past two days, they looked away, or walked by him, never talking to him or even looking. That saddened Harry greatly, even thinking about it got Harry sad so he stood up from his stone bench and went inside. He decided to check on the Polyjuice potion, and made his way to the third floor girl's bathroom, finding it was empty. He opened the stall where he and the two Gryffindors were keeping the Polyjuice potion and stirred it, checking the old book next to it to see if the potion was on target, which it was. He closed the stall behind him and heard footsteps coming his way. He quickly hid in the stall next to it, and locked it, standing on the toilet so whoever came inside wouldn't see him.

Harry wasn't surprised when he heard it was Hermione and Ron, but he was also sad. "Hermione, we should at least give him a chance..." Ron said, "Yeah he's a Parselmouth but maybe we could get past that—"

"Didn't you see him speaking to the snake at the Dueling Club Ron? Who knows what Harry was saying to that snake? I read up all on Parseltongue." Hermione said. "Did you know that Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth? For all we know, Harry could be a distant relative or something."

"But he's not Hermione. I agree, his snake talking thing is weird and creepy, and somewhat scary, but he's not a dark wizard like everyone else is saying! At least... I hope he isn't."

"But I have read up about Parseltongue Ron," Hermione persisted, relying on her faith in books. "Most of the Parseltongues in history, while only a few, have been Dark Witches and Wizards, and all descendants from Slytherin. You remember what Professor Binns told us about Slytherin. He hated Muggleborns. No wonder most of the Slytherin House follows after his prejudices."

"But this is Harry we're talking about, now some slimy stinky Slytherin." Ron argued, "There's no way he would be bloodist against you! Or any Muggleborn"

"I don't know, maybe the others are filling his head." Hermione said.

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked.

"Well... Malfoy and the others might be forcing their world view on him, and that might make him just as much of a purist as they are." Hermione said. Harry had to hold in a sniffle as he heard his friends talk about him like this.