Ever since he had learned he was a Parselmouth, Harry seemed much more panicked and insecure for the next few days, not eating much, not sleeping much. Y/N suspected that he was starting to believe that he could be the Heir of Slytherin, but Y/N knew that was just Harry over-thinking things as usual, the possibility was less likely than Lockhart's stories turning out to be one-hundred percent true.
But Harry was starting to get nightmares, and it became clear to Y/N that he could not handle the pressure of the possibility of Slytherin being his ancestor, and the fact that people were starting to suspect that it had been he who had opened the Chamber of Secrets definitely wasn't helping his paranoia. So Y/N decided to do something about it, before Harry cracked under the pressure.
On the last day of term, Herbology had been cancelled, much to Neville's dismay and Y/N's delight, so the second years had a free period. Harry used this this time to look for Justin Finch-Fletchley in the library, and inform him of what really happened at the Duelling Club, however, he had found Y/N already there, listening in on the conversation of a few Hufflepuffs.
"So anyway," a stout boy was saying, "I just told Justin to hide up in our dormitory. I mean to say, of Potter's marked him down as his next victim, it's best if he keeps a low profile for a while. Y'know, at first I thought it was L/N who was responsible for the attacks, but Potter knows Parseltoungue. He pretty much gave himself away, and he was there when Mrs Norris was attacked. L/N and the rest of Potter's gang are probably just his apprentices, helping him out whenever they can. It makes a lot more sense, but it could easily just be the both of them. L/N wouldn't miss a chance to attack Muggleborns, especially with his parentage."
"You defiantly think it is Potter or L/N, then, Ernie?" said a girl with pigtails anxiously.
"Hannah," said the stout boy solemnly, "he's a Parselmouth. Everyone knows that's the mark of a dark wizard. Have you ever heard of a decent one who could talk to snakes? They called Slytherin himself Serpent-toungue."
There was some murmuring at this, and Ernie went on, "Remember what was written on the wall? Enemies of the Heir beware. Potter and L/N had some sort run-in with Filch. Next thing we know, Filch's cat is attacked, and did you hear? Apparently L/N's cat is always stalking Filch's one, almost as if it's hunting it, that's not normal behaviour amongst cats now is it? That first-year, Creevey, was annoying Potter at the Quidditch match, taking pictures of him while he was lying in the mud. Next thing we know, Creevey's been attacked."
"Harry's always seemed so nice though. I get why you'd suspect L/N, he's like the creepiest guy ever, but Harry? He can't be all bad can he? After all, he made You-know-who disappear." said Hannah
"Doesn't the fact that he's actually friends with that bastard seem suspicious? Why else would Potter befriend L/N? What do they have alike? Potter's always acted like a decent bloke, but L/N's always cold and blunt with people. And people are even saying that Potter only survived the attack from You-know-who due to dark magic."
Y/N glanced at Harry, who looked white and was shaking with rage and fear. The poor boy was already terrified at the thought of actually being the Heir of Slytherin, and these Hufflepuffs had the backbone to make his fears worse by chatting shit about him? Not if Y/N had anything to say about it. He knew exactly what had to be done.
Harry finally seemed to have enough, because he cleared his throught loudly. Every one of the Hufflepuffs looked as though they had been petrified by the sight of Harry and Y/N, and the colour was draining from Ernie's face.
"Hello," said Harry. "I'm looking for Justin Finch-Fletchley."
The Hufflepuffs looked as though their worst fears had been confirmed.
"What do you want with him?" said Ernie, in a quivering voice.
"Oh, Harry doesn't want anything really," said Y/N, in a dangerous growl, "He just wants to tell him what really happened at the dueling club-"
Ernie bit his white lips and interrupted. "We were all there. We saw what-"
Y/N's hand suddenly reached out, fast as lightning, and clamped over Ernie's trembling mouth, shutting him up.
"You didn't let me finish." whispered Y/N in a low, creepy voice. "That wasn't very polite of you, was it?"
All the Hufflepuffs whimpered at Y/N's intimidating tone. Ernie looked like he'd faint.
"As I was saying." Y/N continued, "Harry doesn't want anything with him. I, on the other hand, wish to rip off his ungrateful head."
Harry looked at him, perplexed.
"W-why?" Ernie squeaked.
"You already know don't you? You've been going on for the past five minutes how sure you are about either me or Harry being the heirs of Slytherin haven't you? You're a clever boy. Figure it out."
"W-wait - are you saying that you are -"
"I'm not saying I am anything." Y/N hissed. "If you wish to interpret it that way, and spread more nasty little rumours about me or Harry, then that's your problem, and whatever happens to you after that is your fault."
Ernie was still trembling, but spoke up stubbornly. "Are you threatening me?"
"Uh-huh."
With that, Y/N grabbed Harry's arm and strode out of the library, dragging Harry with him.
"Y/N, why the hell did you do that?" Harry exclaimed. "Now they're going to think you're the most likely to be the Heir of Slytherin!"
"That's what I wanted." said Y/N calmly.
"What?! Why?!"
"I've seen you these last few days. You're cracking under the pressure Harry. You can't deal with the stress of feeling like you're the one responsible, which you're not. And it's unfair that everyone is adding to your feelings of self-doubt by spreading these childish rumours."
"But now they're going to spread rumours about you!"
"Of course they are. But since when is that anything new?"
Harry opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again. He understood. He himself couldn't deal with this kind of pressure, it just wasn't in his nature, but Y/N, he was used to the whole school hating him anyway. So Y/N was trying to help Harry by putting all suspicion and hatred upon himself. In doing so, Harry would be relieved from the stress and self-insecurities of being Slytherin's Heir while Y/N just went on with his day as normal, not a care in the world that the whole school despised him because they already did anyway.
Smart move.
However, it didn't sit right with Harry. He knew Y/N was strange, different to other children his age. He always thought logically, regardless of what situation he was in. In his previous school, he had been a loner, no friends at all. And he was okay with that. Because in his opinion, people were just faces passing by on their way to their graves. He had a weird perception of the world, and seemed to think the only way to survive in this world was with logic. Regardless of people's opinions or feelings of said logic.
For example, in this situation, he had logically helped out his friend, by making his social status even worse than it originally was. Sure, he didn't really give a crap about it, but the flaw in his plan was that he had failed to see how his decision would affect his friends. He may not know it, but seeing him so hated amongst his peers really upset his three friends.
It was really a miracle he had friends at all. People who actually understood him.
And it wasn't even the first time he had done something like this. The previous year, he had placed all blame upon himself when they were trying to sneak Hagrid's dragon, Nobert, out of Hogwarts. And he done so for the same reason, because he didn't want his friends to be hated, so he placed all the blame upon himself, someone already hated.
Harry knew one thing for certain, Hermione wasn't going to be happy when she heard about this.
He was so absorbed in his thinking, he didn't realise that Y/N had stopped in his tracks to greet someone, and walked right into said person, knocking himself backwards onto the floor.
"Oh, hullo, Hagrid," said Harry, looking up.
Hagrid's face was entirely hidden by a woolly, snow-covered balaclava, but it couldn't possibly be anyone else. A dead rooster was hanging from one of his massive, gloved hands.
"All righ', Harry? Y/N?" he said, pulling up the balaclava so he could speak. "Why aren' yeh in class?"
"Cancelled." said Y/N, helping Harry up. "What're you doing here?"
Hagrid held up the limp rooster.
"Second one killed this term," he explained. "It's either foxes, or a Blood-Suckin' Bugbear, an' I need permission ter put a charm round the hen-coop."
He peered more closely at Harry from under his thick, snow-flecked eyebrows.
"Yeh sure yeh're all righ'? Yeh seem as though yeh've been thinking about somethin' important."
"There's a first..." Y/N muttered.
Harry shot him a glare. "It's nothing." he said. "I'd better get going, Hagrid, it's Transfiguration next and I've got to pick up my books."
Harry walked off, unaware that Y/N was no longer with him.
It wasn't until Harry had made it all the way to the common room before he realised he was alone. Shrugging, he entered the portrait hole to find Hermione also getting her stuff.
Feeling this would be a good time, Harry decided to tell her what Y/N had done.
"He what!" she exclaimed, after Harry had finished explaining.
"Yep. He seems to think he should put all suspicion upon himself so nobody suspects me."
The two if them left the common room and made their way to Transfiguration together.
"I mean, it's not like I'm not grateful," Harry continued, "I'm actually relived, the stress was really getting to me. But Y/N needs to value himself as an individual more, its almost like he's completely given up proving that he's not like his mother."
Hermione groaned and smacked a hand to her forehead. "When will he learn?" she grumbled. "He may not care about himself, but I - er - I mean - we do. He can't just go around making himself look like the bad guy just to protect us."
Harry nodded in agreement.
"Hey - what's that?" he suddenly pointed ahead of them."
Hermione looked in the direction he was pointing, ahead of them, was a massive crowd of students and Professors, all forming a circle around something, some of them were stunned into shocked silence, and some were yelling. Ron was among them, his face white.
Peeves was hovering overhead, grinning wickedly, surveying the scene, and then he broke into song.
"Oh L/N, son of Mandeville, what have you done?
You're killing off students, you think it's good fun-"
As McGonagall barked at Peeves, Hermione turned to Harry, the colour draining from her face.
"You don't think-?"
Before she could finish, Harry grabbed her arm and pushed through the crowd, making it to the front with Ron, and, just as the the two of them feared, Y/N stood in the centre of the crowd, his icy white cat, Coconut, at his heels, hissing at all the yelling students.
He stood, remarkably calm given the situation, over two petrified bodies, Nearly-Headless Nick, and Justin Finch-Fletchley.
"Caught in the act!" Ernie kept shouting, over, and over again.