Harry Potter And The Unexpected Friend

"One of us would have to be dead for that to happen." Harry answered. "Believe it or not, I don't hate you Malfoy. If I did I would have let you die. We don't have to be enemies, we only will be if you force that to happen."

"We can't change what we are." Draco answered. "I am a Malfoy, you are a Potter. That is all that needs be said." With that he turned and walked out of the Owlery, leaving Harry and Daphne alone once again. Harry frowned and wondered if Malfoy really did believe that his fate in life had already been determined. Harry certainly didn't.

"What do you think will happen to him?" Harry asked a few moments later.

"I don't know, Harry." Daphne answered. "He's still trying to be his father. There's no hope for him unless that changes." Harry nodded in silent agreement with her. He no longer felt angry towards his former rival, he just felt pity. He wondered what would have happened to the boy if he had grown up away from the influence of Lucius Malfoy, perhaps he could have even been likeable. Harry took Daphne's hand as they walked out of the Owlery, but his brief conversation with Malfoy stayed on his mind for the rest of the day. In the end, he simply found himself hoping that the Slytherin would not follow his father's footsteps and force them to become enemies. He would prefer not to have to kill him.

...

Finally, after many weeks of studying, Hermione had a breakthrough. She had known that the creator of this ritual was a Greek wizard who had lived over 2,000 years ago and so many of the clues he left behind might only be recognizable to those familiar with his culture. So she began reading everything she could on the ancient Greek wizards and the society they had built. Her efforts paid off when she found a clue she had not even noticed before that identified which element corresponded to one of the runes. After that four of the others were easy to determine, although the last four were still a bit of a mystery to her. Despite that she felt closer to solving the Riddle of Heron than she ever had before and now thought it could be finished in a few weeks if she was lucky.

Happy with her progress, Hermione decided to take a break for the rest of the night. She was in the Room of Requirement and knew Harry and Neville would be coming in soon to practice Potions anyway. As she carefully closed the book she noticed that the page just inside the front cover had become unstuck. Destroying a book was unforgivable as far as she was concerned and immediately began trying to repair it. It was then that she noticed what she had assumed was one page was in fact two pages stuck together. Very carefully, she began to pull the two pages apart, She was quite excited because she hoped the first page would have the name of the author and when the book was written. She moved slowly so that none of the pages would be torn and after several minutes she was able to pull the pages apart far enough to notice a design on one of them. As she continued pulling more of the page was uncovered and she realized that the design looked very familiar.

The drawing on the first page was very similar to the crest used for Slytherin house, although this one did not contain any mention of Hogwarts. For a moment she thought that perhaps it was just an older version of the Slytherin symbol, but then remembered a fact from 'Hogwarts" A History' that it had not been changed since the school's opening, No, she realized, this wasn't a school crest. It was a family crest, meaning that the book she had been obsessed with was written by someone from Salazar Slytherin's family. Considering the age of the book, it could have even been written by Salazar Slytherin himself.

Hermione closed the book, unsure of what to do now. Did it even matter that the book was written by a Slytherin? She wasn't sure, although it certainly would explain the author's extensive knowledge on dark rituals. Hermione closed the book and went back to her chair to sit down and think about this new fact. As soon as she sat down though she heard the noise of the door being opened and two voices that she recognized as Harry and Neville talking, She briefly thought that perhaps she should hide the book, but realized there was no time to do that,

"Hey Hermione. What are you doing here?" Harry asked when he noticed her. "Did you want to help us out with our Potions?"

"Uhh, sure Harry." Hermione answered. "Actually, there was something I needed to talk to you about."

"What is it? Is everything ok?" Harry asked.

"You see I found this book." Hermione said and turned to point at the book on rituals she had been using. To her surprise though the book had disappeared along with the stand it had been laying on. She realized the room must have hidden it went she thought about hiding it as Harry and Neville came in. Hermione looked back at her friends who were now waiting for her to finish.

"It's probably nothing." Hermione finally said. "Just forget I said anything."

"Are you sure you're ok?" Harry asked, the concern for his friend evident in his voice.

"Sure, Harry. I've just had a lot on my mind lately" Hermione answered. It was just a book after all, wasn't it? And the book wasn't talking to her or trying to get her to do anything, so it wasn't evil in of itself. Besides the ritual, even if she did try it, wasn't the work of Slytherin. He was just trying to figure it out, and he clearly didn't even know as much about it as she did. No, there was no reason to worry and if she told Harry that is surely all he would do, It wouldn't even matter if she couldn't figure out the last four runes.

"OK. So how about helping us with Potions?" Harry asked, unaware of his friends train of thought.

"Sounds fun, Harry." Hermione replied as they began working.

....

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