"I know it's an insult!" Ron said to her in an annoyed voice before turning to Harry. "You should get out of here, nobody here wants to talk to a snake like you!"
"Okay, you're basically a broken record," Harry sighed before turning back to Neville. "like I said, I want to talk to you in private."
"A...about what?" Neville asked, his face paler than usual.
"I'll tell you when it's just us talking together without your entire house listening in." Harry said as he gestured to the other Gryffindor's. "For Merlin's sake, I'm not going to hurt you." Harry added when the boy looked hesitant. "I want to talk to you in private, if you want to tell everyone what happened after the conversation is over then that's up to you."
"The boy looks like he's going to have an accident." Jet hissed into Harry's ear, causing Neville to jump in his seat.
"Longbottom, my patience is limited, are you coming or not?" Harry asked in an impatient voice. For a second it looked like Neville was about to get up but that changed when Percy Weasley walked over.
"What's going on here?" He spoke in a pompous voice, puffing his chest out, undoubtedly to show off the prefect badge he was wearing. Harry didn't bother looking at Percy and instead kept his eyes on Neville who seemed like he wasn't going to leave his seat after all.
"House of the brave?" Harry snorted before walking off and heading towards the Slytherin table.
"What was that?" Daphne asked when Harry sat down.
"Disappointing." Was Harry's answer.
Most of Harry's first year passed quite quickly, he continued to be at the top of his class for most subjects, much to the annoyance of one Hermione Granger who wanted that spot for herself. While she was slightly better than Harry at theory, she still was unable to match him when it came to practical use of magic. The Slytherin team also dominated the quidditch pitch, taking full advantage of Harry's skill as a chaser.
Harry chose not to approach Neville again, if the boy was so scared of him that he wasn't going to even talk to him in private then Harry wasn't going to bother. Ron had the sense to try and avoid Harry for the rest of the year, though Harry suspected it was more a case of the other Gryffindor's doing their best to keep him out of trouble since he was already killing their chances at winning the house cup. The Weasley twins on the other hand tried a few more times to prank him but it never really worked out for them for multiple reasons.
Firstly because Harry was already experienced in avoiding pranks thanks to Dudley, secondly because the house elves were no longer allowing them into the kitchen. The elves did not like the fact that they were tricked into pranking students, so had refused the twins entry into the kitchens and would no longer put things in the students food like before.
The third reason would be because any pranks that Harry missed would be picked up by Jet. Though the twins had to give up after the third time they were caught trying to prank him, likely for the same reason as their little brother.
It was near the end of the year when something interesting happened, Harry had been in his room and relaxing on his bed while reading a book with Jet resting next to Harry. Blaise had gone out to spend time with his sister, meaning Harry could spend some time alone.
"Potter." A voice called just as a knock was heard on Harry's door, "come down to the common room, Professor Quirrell wants to talk to you." The voice finished before the sound of footsteps was heard, letting Harry know that whoever had spoken had already gone back down.
"Quirrell?" Jet frowned as much as a snake could frown. "What do you think he wants?" Jet asked.
"Not a clue." Harry admitted as he stood up and left his book on the bed. "But I suppose we'll have to go and see." Harry added.
"Be careful," Jet advised. "there's something off with the idiot."
Harry nodded in agreement before picking up Jet and allowing him to hide inside Harry's sleeve. Harry walked down into the common room where he saw a few older Slytherin students and Professor Quirrell.
"A...ah, Mr P...Potter." Professor Quirrell said with his usual stutter. "I...I would l...like you to come with me." He said.
"Am I in trouble, Professor?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"N...no, of course not." Quirrell responded as he shook his head. "F...follow me, all s...shall be e...explained." He said, he walked off and out of the common room before Harry could respond. Harry let out a small sigh before he followed after Quirrell.
"So Professor, I think this might be the part where you actually start explaining." Harry said after following Quirrell in complete silence for a short while.
"M...Mr Potter," Quirrell stuttered. "all will be revealed s...soon." He said.
"We're not supposed to be here." Harry reminded him when they reached the third floor corridor.
"I...it'll be fine, Mr Potter." Quirrell said in a dismissive voice just as they stopped through the door. Though the first thing they saw when they entered caused Harry to pause.
"That...is a big dog." Harry said when he saw the giant three headed dog in front of them, it was thankfully sleeping, each head looked big enough to swallow Harry whole. In the corner of the room there was a harp that was playing some calming music.
"It...it's a cerberus." Quirrell told Harry just before he closed and locked the door, Quirrell opened a trap door near where the cerberus was sleeping. "What do you know of them?" Quirrell asked.
"Not much." Harry admitted. "Just that they're very dangerous and are used to guard stuff."
"You can k...keep them calm with music." Quirrell responded as he gestured to the harp across the room, that was before he calmly entered through the trap door just as the harp stopped playing. Harry saw the cerbrus was was waking up, Harry quickly realized that he had a choice, stay here with the giant three headed dog that would probably kill him or go down the trap door.
Seeing all three heads waking up had helped him decide and he quickly went down the hole before the heads could notice him when Harry went down he landed on something soft. He looked around and saw that he had landed on a large amount of vines, Quirrell was calmly sat a small distance away with vines wrapped around him.
"So Harry," Quirrell said as he looked at him. "d...do you recognize this plant?" He asked as the vines wrapped around Harry's legs.
"Devil's snare." Harry answered, remembering it from herbology.
"And how would y...you deal with it?" Quirrell asked.
"Well...it hates fire and sunlight...so...give me a sec." Harry said before pulling his wand out and hitting the vines with a flame blast. The flames rushed away from the blast, allowing Harry to fall through to the ground below, he was fortunately fast enough to hit it with a softening charm to make his landing far less painless than it could have been.
"Excellent M...Mr Potter," Quirrell said as he landed next to Harry. "well done."
"What is the point of all of this?" Harry asked in an irritated voice. "I just jumped down a trap door after getting past a sleeping three headed dog and now I just had to deal with devil's snare."
"Y...you are the best in your year at d...defense against the dark arts," Quirrell responded. "w...which is why I want you to go th...through these tests."
"What happens if I complete these tests?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"T...then you will be rewarded." Quirrell said with a grin.
.....
Can't wait to read more exciting chapters then what are you waiting for Join my patreon right now.
2+ FREE ADVANCED CHAPTERS FOR ALL FREE MEMBERS.
60+ Premium chapters.
Link: p#atreon.com/InfinityWeaver (Remove the #)