Harry potter : Forgotten Lord

Naturally, the Deputy Headmistress not to be outdone, or perhaps just to stop her own house falling even further behind Slytherin, removed 50 points in retaliation and put Draco in detention for week with Hogwarts' resident cantankerous caretaker.

The end result was Ravenclaw gaining a comfortable lead of 100 house points over both houses, as the private house war between Gryffindor and Slytherin heated up.

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Personally, he found it very amusing how the fighting between the two houses would ensure they both ended up losing in the long run. The Puffs themselves were only 10 to 15 points behind the Lions and the Snakes, so it gave them a good chance to claim second. After all, all it would take was a single good lesson to grab the second place position.

Ravens as a whole were the best prepared, and didn't break the rules as often, so they only ever lost points from potions, and Snape couldn't take too many without his intentions becoming clear and his house suffering from the combined efforts of the staff working to level the playing field.

However, the other snake faction, made up of Daphne, Tracy and Blaise, just stayed in the shadows, rather than being drawn into the ongoing conflict. They were from neutral households, and had business links between their families. He had learnt from Blaise that his family links were primarily in southern Europe, mainly in Italy and Spain, whilst Tracy and Daphne's families had links around the British Isles, and Low Countries.

They shared mutual respect for one another, and would often join him in the library whenever one or the other was present. Daphne's reasoning was simple, and had resulted in her moving up in his mind's ranking. "You are far more preferable company than our housemates," she had said one time. He smiled inwardly at that, but kept his face passive, and said, "Likewise."

He wouldn't call them friends just yet, but they weren't enemies, either. In time they could be allies, or even friends, but like most things of value, it takes time to build trust. Plus, they had common ground being heirs to their own respective houses; hence they all were entering the same world of adult responsibilities, of gathering and forming alliances and learning politics.

Tracy's family wasn't in the same league and standing as her 'friends', but they had close links due to their parents moving within similar social circles and business interests, with similar political views.

Looking over at the Gryffindor table, he saw the quick-tempered Ron Weasley playing chess again. From what he saw the red-head was reasonably good, but Harry expected he could wipe the floor with him now. After all, if he was as over-confident as he was acting, then he would be easy prey to Harry's style of play. But, he would continue to wait and watch, until he was sure he could win, and had something to gain from beating Ron.

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Great Hall

The Great Hall was full as always, but she still felt lonely, even with the new friends she had made since arriving at Hogwarts. She had made a number of friends across the houses; however, she still missed her twin sister.

At first she had been happy when they had been sorted into different houses, since before Hogwarts they had always been a pair, both the same in everyone's eyes besides their parents. It had been the first thing everyone had noticed about them, they hadn't been allowed to be truly individuals, both were always given equal credit.

Padma herself took more after her father than her mother; she enjoyed a good book, or discussing theories, or some other type of mental challenge. Her father treated her more like her older brother, than a daughter, maybe that was because if anything happened to her brother then she'd be responsible for the line, not her sister, since she was the eldest of the pair, even if it was only by ten minutes.

Whilst Pav took after their mother in her love for beauty, her sister was still smart and sharp; she just had other focuses in life, hence Pav being the more social of the pair. However, she was also the more impulsive and reckless of the pair, and that probably was why she was sorted into Gryffindor.

But now she missed her sister; not being able to always talk, or share her feelings, or just being there had really gotten to her. Both were trying to still be there for each other, but both had different timetables.

Pav's friends were nice, but she was treated a bit like an outsider anyways. Her sister tried to get the group to be nice, but she was a Raven and they were Lions and that was that. Now it seemed like there was a barrier between them. The first one in their lives. Even when she sat at their table to talk to her sister she got the cold-shoulder from some of them, like she was diseased or something.

One small blessing had been her close friendship with Harry. He kept her distracted most of time, pushing her to do her best and then helping her when she was stuck, explaining any theories, effectively taking her under his wing, like a brother would. She even fell asleep on him a couple times when they had been reading together, which was extremely embarrassing. It made it easier on her, but he wasn't her twin sister ... plus he was cold ... not in the sense of body temperature ... just in personality.

Hopefully it would get better in time, as soon as they settled down into a routine most likely; hopefully the lions would open up to her, if she sat enough with them. She would have to talk to her sister during the holidays about it; and hopefully they would be able to come up with a plan.

Harry had given her some advice, 'We all grow up, and grow apart. It is the natural cycle of the world. Take comfort in knowing that your twin will always be there, no one can ever replace the bond between twins. If you ever truly need her she will be there for you. You just need time to adapt; at least she is still in the same building, not the other side of the world,' her first-year friend said sagely.

Sighing, she picked up a banana from the fruit bowl, before deciding to head back to her room.

Getting up from her seat, only to have her hand grabbed, getting her attention as her eyes fell on a pair of emerald eyes staring into her own hazelnut brown. "Are you ok Padma, you seem upset?" Harry asked his voice containing a surprising amount of concern.

"I'm fine; I just need a bit of peace and quiet for a bit. I'll be in my room reading; will you join me in bit?" she enquired, wondering how he seemed to know that she was upset, since she always thought she was good at hiding her emotions. She knew her sister could due to their connection, thinking it might be a family trait or ability.

"Sure Padma, I will be up in bit, I just want to head up to the library first to find a book, or two on magical creatures. I need a change of pace from reading just charm's theory," he answered with a smirk before pulling her into a light hug, before letting her go.

Padma couldn't help but be a bit embarrassed at the public hug, but it did feel nice to know he was concerned for her, and to notice that she was upset.

Whilst she was walking out of the great hall, she noticed several older students just smiling at her.

...

Library

Harry had heard rumours about the Cerberus on the 3rd floor, but had dismissed it as utter foolishness. He had only heard of such creatures in fictional stories before talking to Hagrid yesterday. If the creature was as dangerous as he expected then there must be a good reason for having it in a school full of children.

The groundskeeper had said that they were used to guard treasure by the wizards of old, but why then wasn't it in the bank under the guard of the goblins? Or did the headmaster need regular access to it or something and thus that was untenable?

Now standing, looking at the magical creature section of the imposing library, he realized that it was going to take a while to find the book he needed.

Sighing, Harry began his search. Hopefully it wouldn't be in vain, not noticing the blonde haired Ravenclaw watching him carefully from one of the circular study tables.

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