The next day onwards, he was treated as had expected after the heated conversation with the supposed Slytherin Prince. Nobody in the house talked with him. Everybody sneered at him whenever he was near someone. But to his own amusement, he was enjoying the immature behaviour of the people around him. And honestly, he preferred to be shunned in front of everybody rather than being backstabbed by some supposed best friend. Nonetheless, he enjoyed and utilised the alone time he got, by spending it in the library, researching about the murders and crimes of Voldemort to get a further hint about his Horcruxes. He had the twenty years old affairs related to Voldemort open in front of him in the library table. The one he was looking at now, was a mysterious murder, which was committed years before Voldemort had rose to power. She was a witch named Smith, and very suspiciously, no money had been stolen from her. On further reading about the article, he deduced that only two things were missing from her house; the Helga Hufflepuff cup and the Slytherin locket, which were in her possession at the time.
Harry needn’t to be told twice that they were currently two other Horcruxes of Voldemort. Till now, he had found out about five horcruxes; the Gaunt ring, the Hufflepuff cup, the Slytherin locket, and he himself. He had discovered the fact that he’s a horcrux, last year, when he had been able to look inside Voldemort’s brain. He accepted that he was a Legillimens, but he didn’t think himself to be such a good one that he could look inside Voldemort’s head. He had to do his part of research to know that. He had accepted that he will have to die. But before that, he will make sure that he is able to take Voldemort with him and throw him into Hell.
“I’ll not let you live so happily dear...You are going to have a hard life ahead...” Harry muttered to himself before taking his wand out and waving it lazily to pack up the files and put them away in the rack.
“What are you researching upon, Potter?” a voice asked from behind. Harry jumped around to find James, Remus, Peter and Sirius standing there.
Harry rolled his eyes. “Couldn’t you have been a bit expected? I mean, you could have made a bit of sound as a precaution that someone’s present over here.” He said putting the files away.
“No, how could we be? We needed to sneak on Harry Potter; had to be a bit unheard.” James said with a smug look.
“What were you doing anyway?” Sirius asked.
“Checking on Voldemort’s achievements; he has quite a long list of records.” Harry said shrugging.
James, Remus and Sirius fixed their gazes on the boy standing in front of them standing so nonchalantly. That was the only guy they had seen who had the audacity to speak his name. But Peter instantly flinched.
Harry raised his eyebrows at Peter. “How brave of you Pettigrew; true Gryffindor.” He said shaking his head.
“What are you talking about?” Peter asked a bit nervously.
“What are you, scared of the name Voldemort? Don’t worry; he’s not present here to bite your scarred arse.” Harry said smiling.
Peter flinched yet again. Harry flattened his lips at his persistency and rolled his eyes.
“You are not afraid of him?” Remus asked with raised eyebrow.
“Nah, he’s my distant cousin, so...you know, I will be doomed if I’m afraid of my own cousin.” Harry said in an amused tone.
They all looked at him bewildered. “Cousin?” they asked aloud together.
Harry shrugged. “I have heard that the Potters and the Gaunts are related to each other from the Peverell line.” He said.
James nodded. “I see that you know many things about the Potters. Yet you don’t know your parent’s name?” he asked raising his eyebrows in taunt.
“I have tried to find my name quite a few times in the Potter family tree. I don’t know whether the ones I got were accurate or no, but I never got my name there. So now are you satisfied with this answer, or should I make an effort to make out another excuse?” Harry said jerking his shoulders.
“You really don’t know who your parents are?” Remus asked.
Harry rolled his eyes. “Mo—Lupin, I guess it’s very rude to ask an orphan about their parents repeatedly.” Harry said, quite aware of his accidental slip.
James, Remus, Peter and Sirius looked at him with wide eyes. They had definitely caught his slip. “What were you about to call him?” Sirius asked carefully.
Harry shrugged. “Whatever you think to quench you suspicion.” He said before walking out of the library.
Remus definitely caught this as a confirmation that he had full knowledge about their Animagus forms and in his case, about his condition. “He knows James. He knows all about us; I can smell that in his tone.” Remus said with fearful eyes.
“But how; how does he know about us? Who would tell him? And it’s not like anybody else knows about us.” James said in a frustrated tone.
“What if he tells the whole school about us? We’ll all be expelled; especially me.” Remus said in a shaky voice.
“Remus, we won’t let him tell anything about us. I and Sirius will look after that.” He said assuring, putting a hand on his shoulder; even though he himself was getting a bit nervous.
“Don’t worry, Remus; we’ll be together wherever we go; expelled or not.” Sirius said smiling.
Remus gave them a sad smile. He was happy to have such great friends with him.
But the thing they didn’t notice was a silhouette at the door of the library standing and smiling affectionately at their conversation. He had tears in his eyes. He reached out for his pocket and took out a chocolate frog. He kept the packet on the nearest table available, and left the room wiping away the unshed tears from his eyes.
The next day, the Marauders were walking down a deserted hallway. They were just thinking about a way to catch hold of the other Potter, when they heard hushed bickering from the other end of the hallway. They heard some sick thuds, when they ran to the direction of the sound.
“You are an abomination to the Slytherin House. You insult us with your presence.” A boy’s voice said.
“You don’t deserve to be in Slytherin; bloody Gryffindor lover.” Another voice spoke up.
When they reached the spot, they saw that almost five to seven students were encircled around another figure, which was lying on the floor all curled up and bloody. All of them were Slytherins, from their robes.
“Hey, what are you doing to him?” Sirius called up.
They all looked up and rolled their eyes.
“Look your friends have come to rescue you...bloody scrap.” One of the boys said and kicked the lying figure again.
As though a gesture, they all followed him and started kicking him.
“Hey, I said stop it!” James shouted. They didn’t seem to hear him.
“Stop hitting the boy, or I’m calling Dumbledore right now.” Remus said.
They all stopped at the mention of the name of the Headmaster. The boys looked at the Marauders and gave their ugly scowl before strutting away leaving the guy alone.
The boys hesitated for a moment before reaching the curled up guy. They were shocked to see that even the boy was Slytherin.
“Are you fine?” Remus asked kneeling down beside him.
The boy rolled to his back. The Marauders gave a gasp as they saw who the boy was.
“You,” James asked.
Harry gave a breathy laugh. “I’m super cool; but please don’t call Dumbledore.” He said smiling.
Remus took in the injuries on his face. His lips were bleeding, his forehead had a deep gash and his cheeks and eyes had turned blue. Sirius crouched down next to him too.
“Are you crazy? What were you doing with them?” he asked as he checked the injuries himself.
“Anything but trying to pull their legs,” Harry said trying to get up.
As he tried to stand up, his legs gave in and he stumbled towards the wall. Sirius and Remus immediately caught him from both sides.
“Um, it is okay, I can walk.” Harry said nervously.
“Yeah, we can see that.” Remus said keeping his hold on the small boy.
“Why were they beating you?” James asked from behind them. Harry looked at the tall man standing behind him. He smiled.
“Slytherins don’t reveal their secrets to everybody.” he said playfully.
James rolled his eyes. “You need to go to the hospital.”
Harry’s eyes instantly went blank. His gaze averted to the floor. Suddenly, he pulled away from the grasp of the two Gryffindors and stood straight, without any difficulty. “I’m fine; thank you.” he said before walking away. Surprisingly, he walked as though he just got up from his bed after a good night sleep.
“Potter, wait, we need to—“James started, but he was already out of sight.
“What happened to him?” Peter spoke up.
James looked at him with a slight opened mouth. He blinked a few times and said, “Peter, later; not now.”
He shut his mouth with a snap and looked away as though aware that he just sounded too stupid to belong in the Marauder’s group.
“Something is definitely up between the other Slytherins and him. Either they are just bullying him, or they must have out casted him.” Sirius said.
“He’s been out casted; without a doubt. They didn’t like the fact that he talked with us smiling. They obviously didn’t know what he was actually saying, so they thought that he was being friendly with us.” Remus stated.
“But, why didn’t he go to the Hospital? They have beaten him black and blue. He didn’t even look injured after we mentioned hospital.” Sirius asked confusingly.
Remus pursed his lips. “He’s hiding a lot of things from the world. We need to know about him as soon as possible.”
They all nodded in agreement and walked away to the way Harry had gone.
The Marauders were walking through the hallways when they heard three voices talking in there. As they rounded the corner they saw that it was the same boy that was beaten a few minutes ago along with Snivellus and another Gryffindor Lily Evans.
“What happened to your face?” Lily asked with concern.
“Oh it’s nothing Evans; a flock of deranged sheep just trampled me. Nothing I can’t handle. Their keeper must have fed them less or have not given them proper attention. So they went somewhat berserk.” Harry said in his usual calm tone with a smile plastered on his face.
James, Sirius, Peter and Remus have to control themselves from laughing out loudly at the comparison with great difficulty. They have never seen any Slytherin who can be so openly humorous and cheerful. Moreover he seems to not care that Lily is a muggle-born.
Severus just eyed the condition of the boy with cautious eyes. Being a Slytherin he knew the art of hiding emotions under a false facade. He can tell that the boy was in a lot of pain, but then also he never seems to care about the traditions. He has very much caught the reference of sheep and keeper and understood its meaning.
“You should give a visit to the hospital.” Severus said cautiously after looking around to ensure that no other Slytherin was nearby.
“Snape, never bother me. I’ve grown up to take care of myself efficiently. Orphanages cannot afford medications every time and I also had my fair share of encounters with bullies. And try to be more cautious before talking to me next time, you never know when someone is under a disillusionment charms. I happen to know a woman whose animagus form is a red beetle. So......, “Harry said smirking.
Severus’ eyes grew wide at those possibilities. Before he could say any other thing, Harry has started walking away.
“What was he saying?”Lily asked. She was eyeing the boy with bewilderment. The boy looked so much like James Potter but was totally different from him in every other ways.
“I don’t know. I just remembered something important, I have to go now. Bye Lily.” Severus said. He walked away in an abrupt high speed.
Lily looked at the direction in confusion. “What happened to him?” she asked to herself.