Chapter 135: Intrigue in the Great Hall
"He is quite simply a great wizard and I am not just talking about magical ability," Angela replied. "as his vassal he could order me to do much more than what I have already done, he knows he can. Most boys his age would have, but despite that fact he doesn't demand, he asks. You've all seen him defend the first year Lestrange boy, you all know that he went into the chamber last year." The girls slowly nodded at that, Harry hadn't been willing to give them all of the details but they did know that he had rescued a few people from the chamber, they only didn't know how he did it and the names of the people he had rescued.
"He is a great wizard and he deserves the best," Angela continued. "I want to make his life as good as possible, and I will do so. However, what I am waiting on is for the two of you."
"Us two?" Daphne blinked.
"Yes," Angela rolled her eyes. "it is obvious to me that you both like him, I am waiting for one of you two to pluck up the courage to ask him to be your boyfriend. In fact it would probably be better if both of you did it."
"Both of us?" Tracey blushed.
"Yes," Angela said as if it was an obvious choice. "you would both be good for him. The point I am making is that it's my desire to keep Harry as healthy and happy as possible, if I have to use my body or even all of the money in my vault then I will do so. I am not Harry's girlfriend before you ask. And do not judge Harry for what we do together, despite how great he is he is still a thirteen year old boy, do you really expect him to refuse what I was offering?" Angela paused, waiting for an answer, the girl's remained silent but Angela understood well enough. "Also, this conversation will not go beyond the three of us - unless Harry asks - is that clear?" She said in a warning tone, matched by the look on her face. Daphne who had been glaring at her had taken a small step back at that look, while Tracey didn't even bother to hide the fact that she moved away.
"We understand." Tracey said.
"Good." Angela smiled before she cancelled the privacy spell and walked away.
At the great hall the next day Hermione Granger was sat with the Gryffindor's in her year during breakfast, she was looking over in the direction of the Slytherin table and saw an older Slytherin girl putting some food on Harry's plate despite his light and half-hearted protests. Hermione knew that the older girl was called Angela Zabini and that she had a brother in Hermione's year, a brother who also happened to be Harry's best friend, or at least the best male one. Hermione couldn't help but feel jealous as she looked at the two of them.
Angela Zabini was a very attractive girl, one who could turn the heads of boys with a simple smile, and she didn't just possess irritatingly perfect looks but she was also very smart and Hermione knew that the girl was always in the top five of her year. Hermione wished that when she had grown more that she could be at least close to gaining the same popularity, and hopefully also look just as good. It infuriated Hermione when she had learnt that the girl had become Harry Potter's vassal, a rather well known fact throughout the school.
So much intelligence and potential and she was forced to be a slave! No...that wasn't quite right, and Hermione knew it. She had asked several teachers about it, including Professor McGonagall, the teachers mostly just repeated or agreed with what Professor McGonagall had said. Her conversation with Professor McGonagall had been a very long one, but by the end of it she had been told two main things that she was to remember. The first being that a vassal has to willingly become one, they can not be forced into becoming one, not even by their parents or magic. They had to want it, which also kind of annoyed Hermione as it meant that Angela had chosen to be a slave. The second thing was that it was not any of her business if Angela was Harry's vassal or not.
Hermione didn't quite agree with that but Professor McGonagall had made it clear that if Harry had been breaking school rules or the law in any way or form by having a vassal then one of the teacher's would have punished him. Hermione didn't agree with the idea of vassals at all but there was not really much that she could do seeing as it involved a ritual that magically connected the two and that was unbreakable, meaning Hermione could rant and shout as much as she liked but it wouldn't be able to change anything.
Then there was the other person on her mind: Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived and best student in her year.
Hermione liked to think that she held the edge when it came to theoretical work but Harry was close enough to her in theory while clearly surpassing her in the practical portions of the lesson. It was quite simply annoying how he would nearly always get the spells before she did. If it wasn't for the fact that everyone knew that he had been raised by muggles then she would have guessed that he had been privately trained before coming to Hogwarts.
Unfortunately she couldn't make herself feel better by saying that, no...Harry Potter was just that good. But he was also a bit of an enigma for her, in more ways than one. Firstly everyone had been expecting him to be a Gryffindor, the boy-who-lived - and son of two of the most famous Gryffindor's of all time - becoming a Gryffindor just made sense, like water being wet. Except he didn't do that, he had become a Slytherin, came into school with a snake and was a parslemouth of all things. Now Hermione, being muggle raised, hadn't grown up with the belief that 'all Slytherin's and parslemouths are evil' like Ron had liked to say.
In her second year Harry was accused of being the heir of Slytherin, she could understand why, he openly admitted to being a parslemouth and as far as the school was aware he was the only one so it made some level of sense to suspect him. But then he did something that Hermione would never in a million years dream of ever doing, he went in front of the whole school and actually told them off for their behaviour. She couldn't believe it at the time, she struggled to believe it now, she sometimes wished that she could do the same and tell off all the people who insulted her to her face and behind her back but knew that she likely never would.
As Hermione was deep in thought her hand reached out absently to stroke Crookshanks, only for her to blink when she realised that he was no longer on the table. She looked around and her eyes widened when she saw Crookshanks climb up onto the Slytherin table and stop in front of Harry. She was filled with a sense of dread when she saw Harry's snake, which was sat on his shoulders, eye up her cat.
"Oh, hello," Harry greeted Crookshanks. "Crookshanks? That's your name, isn't it?" Harry asked, instead of responding Crookshanks reached down and began pulling on Harry's sleeve, "Oh, you want me to come with you?" Harry asked.
"I'm so sorry," Hermione said as she came over and quickly picked up Crookshanks, missing the disappointed noise coming from him. "he got away from me, I'm sorry." She quickly said just before noticing every nearby Slytherin eye her.
"Relax Granger," Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to do anything just because your cat comes over."
"R...right, thank you." She said before quickly turning and going back to the Gryffindor table, scolding Crookshanks as she did so.
Once she was gone Harry was about to turn back to breakfast when Hedwig suddenly flew down with a red envelope and a white envelope, she dropped down in front of Harry.
"Oh, hi girl." Harry smiled as he petted with her one hand while using his other hand to take the envelopes. Hedwig hooted happily, enjoying the attention she was getting from her master. Harry saw the white envelope and saw that it was from the Tonks family, this would be the first letter he had got from them since the whole threatening a blood feud business.
"Harry, is that a howler?" Blaise asked as he looked at the red envelope.
"I..." Harry was cut off as the red envelope rose up into the air, changing shape so it looked like it had a mouth. "...guess so." Harry finished, the whole hall looking in his direction, wondering what would have happened to result in Harry Potter getting a howler.
"Harry..." Tonks's voice began in a rather normal tone before the envelope moved next to Harry's ear. "I LOVE YOU!" She shouted, causing Harry and Jet to flinch back. "Also read my letter, see ya little bro." The howler added, once again in a normal tone before it tore itself to shreds.
"Well...that was..." Blaise trailed off, not sure what to say, he then glanced at Harry and was surprised to see the boy grinning. "and why are you happy?"
"She loves me." Harry shrugged, grin not leaving his face.
....
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