Hari (Harry) Lily Potter the girl who lived is abused by her only living relatives. To them, she is just a deaf freak, who as unnatural accidents. Apparently, her hearing and speech had been lost in the same car crash that had killed her worthless p...
The double attack on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick turned what had hitherto been nervousness into real panic. Curiously, it was Nearly Headless Nick's fate that seemed to worry people most. What could possibly do that to a ghost? people asked each other; what terrible power could harm someone who was already dead?
Most people blamed Hari, and were very wary of her. Fred and George, however, found all this very funny. They went out of their way to march ahead of Hari down the corridors, shouting, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil witch coming through ......"
Percy was deeply disapproving of this behavior. "It is not a laughing matter," he said coldly. "Oh, get out of the way, Percy," said Fred. "Hari's in a hurry." "Yeah, she's off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with her fanged servant," said George, chortling. Ginny didn't find it amusing either. "Oh, don't," she wailed every time Fred asked Hari who she was planning to attack next, or when George pretended to ward Hari off with a large clove of garlic when they met between classes. Hari enjoyed it, it made her feel better that Fred and George, at least, thought the idea of her being Slytherin's heir was quite ludicrous. But their antics were scaring Ginny, so she eventually made them stop. Oddly Hari was one of the few people who could actually make the twins do anything.
At last the term ended, and a calmness deep as the snow on the grounds descended on the castle. Harry found it peaceful, and enjoyed the fact that she, the twins and Ginny could do whatever they wanted whether it was playing Exploding Snap without bothering anyone with the explotions, or practice dueling in private. It also gave her more time to escape and just go read somewhere, sometimes accompanied by Draco. Studying together had turned into a habit as Ron and Hermione were the only people she really talked to in her class, and they were usually busy. She still barely spent any time with Ron and Hermione, as they spent most of their time brewing and planning.
• • •
Hari found out when they would be pulling off the Polyjuice, warning Draco that on that day, to pretend that he didn't know, but not say anything he wouldn't want all of Gryffindor tower to know.
Christmas morning dawned, cold and white. Hagrid had sent her a large tin of treacle fudge, which Hari decided to soften by the fire before eating; Ron had given her a book called Flying with the Cannons, a book of interesting facts about Ron's favourite Quidditch team, Hermione had bought him a luxury eagle-feather quill, and the twins had gotten her pranking supplies. There was also an anonymous note saying 'meet me after the whole spying thing' that Hari was sure was from Draco. She would meet him later, the anonymus notes were a common thing now, often just a scrap of paper with a time on it. Hari opened the last present to find a new, hand-knitted sweater from Mrs. Weasley and a large plum cake.
The Great Hall looked magnificent at lunch. Not only were there a dozen frost-covered Christmas trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe crisscrossing the ceiling, but enchanted snow was falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. Dumbledore led everyone else in a few of his favourite carols, Hagrid becoming redder and redder with every goblet of eggnog he consumed. Percy, who hadn't noticed that Fred had bewitched his prefect badge so that it now read "Pinhead," kept asking them all what they were sniggering at. Just when Hari was pulling a cracker with Fred, she saw Ron and Hermione leave the hall. She looked strait at Draco, then nodded her head towards them, he got the message.... It was time. Then she went strait back to having fun with the twins. She saw Ginny leaving and ran to catch up with her. The handed her her Christmas present. Ginny opened it to find several muggle novels and a bracelet. 'I'm sorry, I didn't get you anything.' she signed, looking embarrassed.
'It's alright, I just wanted to make you happy, you've seemed down lately. Are you alright?'
"I'm alright, I think, I'm writing in this - " She froze for a second her expression going blank, "Never mind, I have stuff to do." and ran off. That was odd, Hari thought, as she made her way into their usual unused classroom by the dungeon stairs, and got out a book to read.
[Draco POV]
The idiot Gryffindors had finally left, their hair changing colour in front of him, and he'd made his way back to the bottom of the stairs. He opened the door to find Hari peacefully reading a book. He stood in the doorway for a few minutes, just appreciating the calmness of the scene, before walking forwards. She always seemed to be in her own world, free from the chaos that was this one. She didn't even notice as he sat down beside her. There was something calming about being around her, she was the one person who he could just be himself around, the one person who wasn't constantly judging him. He wished they could openly be friends, not just in secret, but knew they couldn't.
[Hari's POV]
She felt something brush her head, and looked up from her book to see what it was. She jumped, Draco was sitting beside her playing with a strand of her hair, how long had he been there? He smiled, "Merry Christmas," handing her a small wrapped box. She opened it to find a tiny snitch necklace.
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'It's beautiful, thank you.' She hung it around her neck, resting it against her skin, the wings fluttering lightly in time to her heartbeat. 'I'm sorry I don't have anything as beautiful for you, but I thought you'd like these.' She handed him a box, which he opened to find the complete works of Shakespeare, Tale of Two Cities, and Oliver Twist.
"These are muggle books."
'Yes, but I think you'll really like them.' Hari smiled, she truly enjoyed Draco's company, he was the only person who really knew her, the second closest probably being the twins, but they weren't the type of people you could relax around. There was a long pause as Draco read the back covers.
"Your two friends are idiots." He said, all of a sudden. "They kept breaking character, and Weasley's hair turned red before my eyes. Granger was carrying a book, Goyle CAN'T READ.... what was she thinking?"
Hari chuckled silently, 'I told them it was a stupid idea, but they didn't listen. hopefully they'll be satisfied now.'
"I hope so, I told them everything they wanted."
Hari enjoyed her after noon, just sitting there, reading and playing chess. It was a nice calm Christmas.
