Harry Potter and the Den of Snakes

Christmas Interactions

Predictably, the entire school spent four days speculating wildly about the first-floor bathroom that smelled like cooking rotten meat, the troll that hadn't actually been in the dungeons, and the supposed involvement of Harry Potter, Theodore Nott, Neville Longbottom, and Hermione Granger.

Harry and Theo fended off questions from their housemates by saying they got caught up in the crossfire when a Gryffindor did something stupidly brave for a friend. The other Slytherins sniggered and believed this excuse quite readily. Granted, it was true.

The Ravenclaws asked sharp questions, and Justin watched Harry wearily retell the story with clever eyes, and Harry was pretty sure at least Justin and Sue could tell he was downplaying the story—he was in fact, very much so, since he didn't want to get a reputation quite yet as the sort of person who burned trolls alive in bathrooms—but they didn't push, for which he was grateful.

Theo was actually the hardest to deal with.

"I thought I saw you drop your wand," he said one day, randomly, while they were working on an essay for Charms.

Harry hoped the slight flinch of his hand went unnoticed. "Yeah, but I picked it up again. Obviously."

Theo looked at him with glinting eyes and stopped asking questions.

In all this, Harry had almost forgotten about his ongoing feud with Jules.

He was forcibly reminded in Defense a week after Halloween when Jules loudly and pointedly struck up a conversation with Weasley in which Weasley repeatedly drew attention to Jules' Seeker status. And how young he was. And how everyone said he was so spectacularly talented. And how he was going to carry the Gryffindor team to the Quidditch Cup for the first time since Charlie Weasley left.

Harry spent three hours in the library looking up the various anti-jinx protections on Quidditch brooms and how one might conceivably get around them.

The next Saturday was the first Quidditch game of the season.

The entire first-year Slytherin cohort packed into the stands together. Even Malfoy and Harry's rivalry (Harry had not forgotten Malfoy tripping Neville in potions) was set aside for the sake of cheering Slytherin House.

They were all decked out in green and silver, and one of the fifth years came around and taught them a charm that sprayed green and silver confetti from their wands. This almost instantly resulted in a game that involved spraying confetti in each other's hair. Malfoy was particularly dismayed when Greengrass dumped a load of it directly onto his perfectly slicked back blond head.

The Weasley twins' friend, Lee Jordan, was commentating. He announced the Slytherin team— "Flint, Pucey, Wright, Higgs, Bletchley, Derrick, and Bole!"—to loud cheers from the Slytherin section with mingled support from Ravenclaw, and the Gryffindor team— "Wood, Spinnet, Bell, Johnson, Weasley, Weasley, and Potter!"—to even louder cheers from all the other students. Harry rolled his eyes at the favoritism and lost himself watching the game.

The teams were neck and neck for ages. Flint fouled Jules in a collision that Harry was pleased to think would probably leave his brother bruised. Spinnet nailed the penalty shot, unfortunately. The Gryffindor Chasers were a machine, and their Keeper was a maniac, and the Weasley twins weren't called the "terrible twins" or "Weasley terrors" around the Slytherin common room for nothing. And then there was Jules, who was clearly a natural on a broom even if he did look shockingly small compared to Terence Higgs.

And because apparently every aspect of Jules Potter's life just had to be as dramatic as possible, someone started hexing his broom. "Someone" being Professor Quirrell. Harry aimed his binoculars at the teacher section as soon as Jules' broom went bonkers, assuming correctly that only an adult killed in the Dark Arts would be able to jinx a well-warded high-end broom. Sure enough, there was Quirrell, maintaining eye contact and muttering under his breath—but Snape, too.