Magically Binding
Fandom: H*rry P*tt*r
Chapter 1: An Interesting Revelation
Dumbledore snatched the paper out of the air. He looked at it in shock. He muttered something to himself, then louder, so the entire hall could hear, announced, “Harry Potter!”
Harry sunk down in his seat, trying to hide.
“Would Harry Potter please come up here at once!”
Harry continued trying to hide. He didn’t want this. He just wanted a normal school year, just this once.
Hermione nudged his arm. “Go.”
Harry looked at her in betrayal.
“It’ll be worse if you don’t. Just get this over with.”
Harry took a deep breath. Hermione was right, of course, as usual. He slowly stood up and walked up to where Dumbledore was standing, trying to hide his shaking hands by stuffing them in his pockets. All around him, students were whispering.
“Attention seeker.” “Spoiled brat.” Harry wasn’t any of those, he just wanted to be normal and left alone.
“Of course, he’s Harry Potter, he can do anything.”
Harry stopped in front of Dumbledore. “I didn’t put my name in the cup, professor. I- I don’t know how-”
Dumbledore’s face softened. “I know, Harry. We’ll try to sort this out, but for now, just go join the other champions.”
Other champions. Harry didn’t want to be a champion.
Harry slipped into the room, trying to be silent so maybe the champions wouldn’t notice him. No luck.
“What is it?” Cedric asked. “Do they want us back out?”
Harry opened his mouth to respond. “I- I- the cup…”
He was interrupted by Bagman. “Simply amazing. Absolutely insane. Lady and gentlemen, may I present: the fourth tri-wizard champion.”
Harry wished he could be anywhere else right now. Like Australia, that was pretty far away, right?
Fleur looked bewildered. “But surely there ‘as to be some mistake? ‘E is too young.”
Bagman was quickly followed by Crouch, all three headmasters as well as professors McGonagall Moody and Snape.
“His name came out of the Goblet of Fire,” Crouch said. “He is bound to compete in the tournament.”
Fleur turned to her headmistress. “‘Eadmistress, they are saying this little boy ‘as to compete! Surely there must be some mistake?”
Crouch puffed up pompously. “His name came out of the cup, the Goblet of Fire constitutes a binding magical contract. He must compete or forfeit his magic.”
Wait, what?! Lose his magic? That could not happen.
Harry started breathing hard, the room around him seemed to fade away. If he lost his magic, he would need to return to the Dursleys. Permanently.
“Well maybe someone is hoping Potter will die in this tournament. He does have a lot of enemies, as you are no doubt aware, Headmaster Karkaroff,” Moody said.
Risk of death? Harry could handle that, he was used to it by now.
“What exactly are you trying to imply, Mad-Eye?” Karkaroff shot back.
Moody shrugged. “It’s no secret that not all of the Dark Lord’s followers were ever caught. Any one of them could wish death on the boy.”
That made sense. Too much sense.
“Alastor, enough,” Dumbledore said. “We will investigate why Mr. Potter’s name came out of the Goblet. For now, as much as I loathe it, the rules are clear: he must compete or lose his magic.”
Bagman clapped. “Right then! Instructions! So, the first task is on November 24th. You will not be told what you will be facing beforehand, we will be testing your ability to face the unknown. You will be armed only with your wand. Good luck, tri-wizard champions.”
Harry didn’t feel like partying. The other Gryffindors felt otherwise. He just decided to push through and go right to bed.
“So how’d you do it then?”
Harry turned to Ron in confusion. “Do what?”
Ron scoffed. “Come off it, Harry. You can drop the act around me. How’d you, ya know, get your name in.”
Harry sighed. “I didn’t, Ron. I- I don’t know what happened.”
Ron scoffed. “Sure. Just… why didn’t you tell me? Even if I hadn’t been picked, we could have at least done it together.”
Harry flopped onto his bed. “I didn’t put my name in. Believe me or not, that’s the truth.”
The next morning, Ron was up before Harry, which was unusual. Fine by Harry, he didn’t feel like trying again to convince Ron of the obvious. Or anyone else for that matter. He quickly dressed himself, and ran down the dormitory stairs and through the common room to the portrait hole, which opened just as he arrived, revealing Hermione, who was holding a stack of toast.
Hermione smiled. “I grabbed breakfast for you,” she said. “Figured you wouldn’t want to sit in the great hall with everyone staring at you.”
Harry smiled back at her. “Thanks, Hermione. You’re the best.”
Hermione blushed. “It’s just toast.”
The two of them walked through the halls together, Harry munching on the toast. Hermione had gotten him some strawberry jam. His favourite.
“So Professor Moody thinks someone might be trying to kill you?”
Harry nodded. “One of Voldemort’s old followers who was never caught, yes.”
Hermione sighed. “And if you didn’t compete, you would lose your magic.”
Harry stopped walking. “Yes.”
“Seems a bit convoluted for an assassination. Do you think there might be something more going on?”
“What do you mean?”
Hermione stopped and turned to face Harry. “I mean, what if this isn’t just about having you killed? After all, there isn’t even a guarantee this succeeds, and there are definitely much simpler ways to kill you.”
“So are you saying they might want me in the tournament for other reasons?”
Hermione shrugged. “Possibly. Also possible that this is just the least traceable way to have you killed.”
They resumed walking.
“D’you think we could find a way to get me out?”
Hermione bit her lip. “Well, if the people organising this say you can’t, I’m not hopeful, but…” she trailed off.
“But what?”
“We could ask the Gringotts Goblins. There’s no one who knows magical contracts better than them.”
“Wait, how would we do that?”
“This Saturday is a Hogsmeade weekend. We can sneak off to Diagon then.”
Harry’s eyes widened. “What?”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “You heard me. We sneak out and go to Gringotts, see if we can figure out a way to get you out.”
Harry opened and closed his mouth without a sound coming out, then said. “I can’t believe-”
“That I’m suggesting breaking the rules? I’m pretty sure I’ve done that many times before.”
“But…”
“No buts. We’re doing this, Harry. I will not have you dying in this tournament if we can prevent it.”
That Saturday, Harry and Hermione found themselves sneaking off to the Hog’s Head. The bartender gave them a suspicious look, but didn’t bother them as they used the floo to head to Diagon Alley.
Harry stumbled out of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron, being caught by Hermione, who helped steady him.
“I hate doing that.”
“It’s not exactly pleasant, yes.” Hermione grabbed Harry’s hand and started walking him out back to the alley.
The two wayward students strolled quickly through the alley, both wearing hooded cloaks to avoid being recognized. Once they reached Gringotts, they quickly got in line to see a teller.
The line moved quickly, and it was finally their turn.
“And how may I help you two?” the goblin at the counter practically growled at them.
Harry gulped, but Hermione’s voice was steady. “We wish to talk to a contract expert.”
“And would you happen to be able to pay for such a service?”
Harry nodded, pulling out his coin purse. “Yes.”
The goblin smiled (or scowled, it was difficult for Harry to tell), and called over another goblin.
“Grimsnare! Take Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger to see a contract expert.”
The other goblin wordlessly lead Harry and Hermione down a short side hallway, and up to a door labelled ‘Rustlebrass Cragglebark - Contract Master’ and knocked on the door, which immediately swung open.
“Ah, Mr. Potter. We’ve been expecting you,” said the goblin - Rustlebrass - behind the desk.
Harry and Hermione stepped up the desk, Grimsnare bowing to them and leaving the room, the door closing behind him. “Uh, you were?”
Rustlebrass nodded. “Of course. Please, sit.” The goblin gestured and two chairs appeared behind the two students.
“So, you were expecting us?”
Rustlebrass nodded. “Yes. We read the papers too, Mr. Potter. We figured you would come here to ask about magical contracts.”
Harry nodded. “Yeah, we were hoping to ask about that, and to see if you knew of some way to get out of it, especially since I didn’t actually enter myself.”
The goblin sighed. “Unfortunately, due to the unique nature of how the Goblet of Fire works, the name entered merely needs to be written by the individual being entered, they don’t even need to be the one to put it in or even know that it’s being done. It’s actually quite badly designed, unlike Gringotts’ magical contract system.”
Hermione frowned. “What do you mean?”
The goblin smirked (or scowled) at her. “Well, any contract created by us must be signed by all those who it applies to.”
Hermione narrowed her eyes. “But I’ve read that a head of house can sign a contract on behalf of their entire family?”
The goblin laughed. “While most wizards believe that, this is not the case. If they want something like that, it would need to be a magical treaty, which they could have us assist with, but the rules around those are very different, and the last time a magical treaty was signed was around 150 years ago. Most wizards seem to be entirely oblivious to there existence nowadays. Not only that, but they still seem to believe that two heads of houses can sign contracts that affect their children within this bank. They cannot. There are so many marriages that were done by contract that are, technically, not valid. Oh, the marriage is valid. The contracts, however, were not.”
Harry sighed. “Shame about the Goblet. Why are you telling us this?”
The goblin laughed again. “Curiosity. You have a great deal of influence, I was simply curious if you could finally get that information into the other wizards' thick skulls.”
Harry bowed his head. “I could certainly try. If that’s all, then we should probably not take up much more of your time. Thank you.”
Rustebrass inclined his head in return. “It was a pleasure. You were certainly much less disrespectful than most wizards.”
Chapter 2: Alyssa
After Hemione and Harry returned to Hogsmeade, they went about enjoying the rest of their afternoon. They spotted Ron at the Three Broomsticks, so opted to walk out to the shrieking shack instead. Unfortunately, it turned out they would not be able to find peace there either.
“Oh look who it is! Potter and his pet.”
Harry glanced at the person who said this sentence. “Malfoy,” he growled. “What do you want?”
“I simply wanted some nice fresh air. Unfortunately, you’re here.”
Harry sighed. “Can we not do this again, Malfoy? I genuinely don’t have the energy for this right now.”
“What’s wrong, Potter?”
Harry turned to face Malfoy fully, leaning on the fence to the yard of the Shrieking Shack.
Harry’s rival had grown out his hair over the past couple months. It now brushed over his shoulder. Harry didn’t want to admit it, but it actually looked kinda cool like that. Not only that, but Malfoy was wearing eyeliner. Whatever, none of Harry’s business.
“I just had confirmation that I do in fact have no choice but to compete in this tournament.” Ok, what the hell? Why was he suddenly being honest with Malfoy, of all people?
Malfoy snorted. “Uh, yeah. That’s old news. Magically binding contract and all that.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “See, that’s the thing. Most any contract, I would not be obligated to fulfil it since I didn’t enter myself. Just how the magic works in most cases. But the Goblet of Fire just had to be different. My usual luck.”
Malfoy looked taken aback. “You’re lying!”
Harry smirked. “About what? That magical contracts don’t bind people who don’t sign them?”
Malfoy had paled a bit. “That’s not true, heads of house can sign contracts for their family members.”
Harry laughed. “They do sign them, yes. And the goblins keep trying to tell them, every time, it doesn’t work that way.”
Malfoy opened his mouth, but no words came out.
“Up to you if you believe me, I’m just saying what I was told.”
Malfoy looked a little freaked out now, but quickly composed himself. “Ok, Potter. Let’s say I take your word for it. So that would mean my betrothal to Pansy is… well, not really anything. Fine enough, she’s not exactly my type. The bigger picture implications of this, however, are worth noting. Most agreements between families are generations old contracts, the people who signed them being long since dead. And since, apparently, the contracts don’t bind someone who never signed them, no one has any obligation to follow the agreements. Do you understand how much chaos this information could cause should it be true?”
Harry thought for a moment. Generations old agreements, huh? He nodded. “Yup!”
Malfoy smiled. “Then let me give you some advice: tell Brown and Patil, Gryffindors in your year. Your friend should know them, she shares a dorm with them after all.”
Harry blinked. “What?”
“I’m telling you, get this into the Hogwarts rumour mill as soon as possible.”
“But… why?”
Malfoy shrugged. “Because, honestly? Fuck my parents. Fuck their ridiculous ideology. Those damn traditions.”
Harry gaped at the boy.
“Close your mouth, you look ridiculous.”
Harry snapped his jaw shut. “You are nothing like I remember.”
“I changed a lot over the past two months. Did some self-discovery. You should try it sometime.”
Harry then noticed something: Crabbe and Goyle were nowhere to be seen. “Where are your… friends?”
Malfoy scowled. “Barely counted as friends. They mostly stuck around me because of some politics crap that I don’t really care to explain.”
Hermione spoke up at that. “So… what happened?”
Malfoy turned to her. Harry expected him to call her a mudblood or something, but he just said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Hermione opened her mouth to respond, but thought better of it.
Malfoy turned back to Harry. “Tell you what. I’ll let you in on a little secret.”
Harry blinked. “A secret?”
Malfoy nodded. “Can I trust you two to keep it?”
Harry turned to Hermione.
She shrugged. “He’s being weirdly nice. I say we be nice too, and keep his secret.”
Harry turned back to Malfoy. “Yeah, you can trust us.”
Malfoy smiled. “Thanks. You don’t know how much I need to just tell someone about this. It’s killing me, keeping it a secret like this.” Malfoy took a deep breath. “I’m a girl. That is, I’m supposed to be a girl. I kept wanting to be one, but I didn’t know if I was allowed or something. But, turns out, it’s a common thing. So… yeah. I’m a girl, my name is Alyssa Malfoy… and I just told my deepest secret to my supposed rival.”
Harry was speechless. How do you respond to someone saying that? Although, it made him think. Something long ago that he’d forgotten. Intentionally forgotten. Every time she’d said anything, the Dursleys had punished him severely. So he forgot.
“Wait, so you're trans?” Hermione asked.
The apparent girl nodded. “Yup. I’m also pan.”
“Why are you telling us this?”
Malfoy shrugged. She seemed a bit less tense than before. “I needed to tell someone. I didn’t dare tell anyone in Slytherin, and I don’t exactly have any friends besides. Also, I know you two would keep this secret. You aren’t cruel or anything. Not… not like I used to be. And I’m sorry, by the way, Hermione.” She was looking Hermione in the eyes now. “I’m sorry for everything I ever said, sorry I called you a mudblood. Your blood isn’t dirty, it’s just… blood.” She laughed nervously.
Hermione glanced at Harry, then back to Malfoy.
“And, I’m sorry to you too, Harry. And also to Weasley. Speaking of, where is he?”
Harry scowled. “Ron and I… we aren’t on speaking terms right now.”
Malfoy - Alyssa - frowned. “What happened?”
“He thinks I entered my name myself.”
“Did you tell him you didn’t?”
Harry nodded. “Of course, I’ve been telling everyone. I just expected him to believe me.”
“And he should. He’s been your friend for 3 years, he should trust you.”
Hermione nodded. “That’s exactly what I said!”
“You should listen to her, she’s smarter than both of us.”
That was so weird, Malfoy complementing Hermione.
Malfoy glanced at the watch on her wrist. “Almost time to go back to Hogwarts. I’ll run ahead, you two follow. We don’t exactly want to be seen together as if we’re friends right now.”
Alyssa’s light blue nail polish caught Harry’s eyes. It looked so pretty.
“Wait, friends?” Hermione said.
Alyssa nodded. “I… I don’t have any friends, really. I have people who feel obligated to stick around me. None of them are exactly friends. I would like to at least try to form a genuine friendship. If you don’t want to be my friend, I totally understand.” Alyssa shifted, fiddling with her coat. “I was just hoping, you know?”
The thing was, Harry could understand the girl’s position. He too had once desperately wanted a friend. Any friend. He could of course reject her offer, no one could blame him. But all the same…
“Ok,” he whispered.
Hermione turned to look at him, a questioning look on her face.
Alyssa smiled. “You will?”
Harry nodded. “I… yeah. I understand. Not having friends. It sucks.”
Alyssa nodded. “Quite a bit.”
“I understand too.”
They both turned to Hermione.
“I never had friends before Hogwarts. No one wanted to be friends with a bossy know-it-all. So, despite my better judgement… I’ll give you a chance, Alyssa Malfoy.”
Alyssa smiled even wider. “Thank you so much! I promise I will be a better person than I was.” She shuffled her feet. “Well, I guess I’ll see you around. Uh, maybe we could meet here again, next Hogsmeade weekend?”
Harry turned to Hermione.
“I don’t see why not.”
Alyssa drummed her fingers on her thigh. “Great! See you then!” Then she turned quickly, her shoulder-length hair flying around her head, and jogged back towards Hogsmeade.
When they returned to Hogwarts, Hermione told Harry to continue on to the dorms while she went to the library to study. They parted ways at the base of the grand staircase, Hermione heading down the corridors to the library, and Harry beginning the long trek up to the Gryffindor dorms.
His mind wandered as he walked. He thought about Alyssa. She had seemed so different to the Malfoy Harry once knew. So much more energetic and bubbly. And she got to just be a girl. Harry felt a weird feeling that he didn’t want to name, because naming it would open a massive can of worms.
Soon, he reached the portrait guarding the entrance to the Common Room, and gave the password before she said anything.
He looked around the Common Room. There were a few first and second years lounging on the couches, some playing various magical games with each other, others reading. He glanced at the girls’ dorm staircase, and noticed a couple girls heading up it, Lavender and Parvati.
Wait, Alyssa had told Harry to tell those two about the contracts thing, hadn’t she?
Well, nothing to it, Harry quickly moved to catch up with them, catching them on the first landing.
“Hey.”
The two girls turned around.
“Harry?” Lavender said, confused. “What are you doing up here?”
“I, uh, had something I needed to tell you. I need your help spreading some information. I was told you could help, yeah?”
Lavender nodded.
“We can help,” Parvati said. “What’s this information?”
And so Harry told them the story, about how he and Hermione had snuck out during the Hogsmeade trip to try and find some way to get him out of the tournament, about how while the Goblet could bind basically anyone, most magical contracts could only bind those who signed them, and most wizards didn’t actually know that and just assumed they could sign on behalf of others in certain situations.
Lavender raised an eyebrow. “That’s quite the information, Harry. We will definitely make sure this gets around before the weekend is over.”
“Now there’s just one other thing to address,” Parvati said.
“What other thing?”
“You,” Lavender said. “Or, more specifically, how you got up here at all.”
“I don’t understand,” Harry said.
“Boys can’t get up here,” Parvati said. “There’s an enchantment on the stairs preventing them from coming up.”
Harry frowned. “But Hermione’s been in the boys’ dorms.”
Parvati scowled. “Yeah, it’s a little sexist. Something about Godric Gryffindor feeling that girls were more trustworthy or something. Which is still stupid reasoning. Nothing stopping a boy from taking a girl up to his dorm. Point is, you’re up here anyway.”
Harry’s heart fluttered. Could it be? “Um, what could that mean?”
Parvati bit her lip nervously. “Well, I’m not naming any names, it’s not my place to tell you who specifically, but… well, the year before our first, a student who was supposedly a boy walked up the stairs. Well, it turns out she was actually a girl who was just trapped in a boy’s body, or something like that. Basically, she had to go to Madam Pomphrey, who got her some potions and whatnot, and now she stays in the girls’ dorms because… well, she is a girl after all.”
Harry’s mind was racing. Could she?
She named that feeling from earlier: jealousy. She was jealous of Malfoy. Did she have to be jealous?
No.
You can just be a girl.
“Harry?”
Harry focused again on the two girls in front of her. “Yes?”
“Are you ok? You seemed to space out for a bit there,” Parvati said.
“I uh… I have to sit down.”
Lavender grabbed her hand. “Come on then. You can talk to us about it in our dorms. No one else is there right now.”
Harry nodded, and they continued up to the next landing, and into the 4th year girls’ dorm.
“What the?” Lavender said.
“Where’d that come from?” Parvati added.
Harry looked up. “Why is my stuff here?”
The other two girls turned to her.
“Oh,” Parvati said. “That’s where.”
Harry walked over to the bed with her stuff. It was right in between a very messy bed that had candy wrappers strewn over the sheets and another bed that was neatly made, with a familiar bag on the floor next to it - Hermione’s.
“That bed wasn’t here before,” Lavender said. “Is it…”
“Mine,” Harry said quietly. “How?”
“Magic,” Lavender said.
Harry couldn’t help it. She laughed.
“But I only just figured this out! How could whoever moved this possibly know?”
She laughed some more, flopping down onto her bed.
“You ok?”
Harry continued laughing. “Very ok! I’m a girl!” She giggled. “Oh my God, I’m a girl!”
“Yeah,” Lavender said. “We figured, but it’s nice to have you confirm it for us.”
Harry sat up, shoulders still shaking from silent giggles. “Does this mean I’m a lesbian?”
Parvati smiled, sitting at the foot of Harry’s bed. “I suppose it does, yes.”
Harry smiled. “One more thing I have in common with my best friend!”
Which was true, Hermione had confided in her that she was gay near the start of term, mentioning that her roommates also knew. Only one roommate - Allison Barnes - had said anything rude about it, and she quickly got over herself after being reminded that Hermione had been sharing a dorm with them for 3 years.
Well, Harry was a lesbian too!
Lesbian. What a fun word.
“Lesbian.”
“What?” Lavender said.
Harry smiled. “Nothing, just a fun word. Lesbian. Lesssssbiannnnn.”
Parvati giggled. “Lesbian!” She laughed out loud. “You’re right, that is a fun word!”
Lavender laughed. “Great, another one.”
“Another what?” Harry asked.
Parvati wiggled excitedly. “Ooohhh, do you think she’s autistic too?”
Lavender shrugged. “I dunno. Seems so to me, but you be the judge.”
“What’s autistic?” Harry asked.
Parvati smiled. “That’s what I am. I have autism. It’s like… well my brain just works different from most people. I dunno, it’s hard to really explain. Like, a part of it is that sometimes I get overwhelmed by loud noises. Like most days I won’t have any issues, but sometimes I just need things to be quiet. Also, a lot of the time how other people try to communicate just doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s like there’s all these rules to conversations that I just don’t know, but people are for some reason just expected to guess on. Honestly, it’s so weird, how are people supposed to figure it out if no one ever tells them how it all works?”
Harry frowned. “Wait, you mean it isn’t normal to not understand that?”
Parvati shook her head. “Autism is normal. I mean, most people aren’t autistic, but it’s not super uncommon or anything. But no, most people are able to understand all of that. Somehow.”
“So you think I have autism then?” Harry asked.
Parvati hesitated for a second then nodded. “Yeah. Uh, you remind me of myself in a few ways. For example, the way you’re tapping your thigh right now. It’s a song, isn’t it?”
Harry glanced at her hand, which was indeed drumming on her thigh to the tune of a song she liked. “Um, yes.” Harry forced her hand to stop.
Parvati noticed. “Hey, you don’t need to make yourself stop. It’s ok. Anyone who ever made fun of you for it or anything, they’re the bad people. You need to stim.”
“Stim?”
“Repeated movements or other things. Actually, us saying lesbian a bunch earlier was technically stimming. It’s just… a thing to do I guess. I get really excited and I need to do things like tap on my thigh or just… wiggle I guess. Sometimes I don’t notice I’m doing it. When I’m sitting around I often have some song stuck in my head, so I tap the rhythm on my thigh. And sometimes I just need to…” Parvati stopped speaking and suddenly quickly shook her head back and forth, causing her hair to whip around. “...do that.”
“You seem to know a lot.”
“I spend way too much time in the shower thinking about things. Hypothetical scenarios, super niche topics, that sort of thing.”
“She hogs all the hot water,” Lavender joked.
“There’s unlimited hot water, Lav.”
Harry shook her head back and forth. Her shaggy hair whipped around a little bit. It wasn’t as long as Parvati’s, but she liked it. She had grown it out over the summer, and for once her aunt hadn’t tried to make her cut it thanks to the threat of her ‘convicted murderer’ godfather.
Parvati was right, the hair whipping stim was nice.
“Hey, wanna try some makeup?”
Harry turned to Lavender. “Makeup?”
Lavender nodded. “Yes, makeup. You know, like eyeliner, lipstick, that sort of thing?”
“I know what it is.”
“Do you wanna try some then?”
Harry thought about it. “Why the heck not, let’s do this.”
That was how Hermione found them around 15 minutes later, with Lavender introducing Harry to everything cosmetic related. Not just makeup, but also cosmetic charms and the like (that facial hair removal charm was the best thing ever).
“Harry?”
Harry waved to her friend. “Hi Hermione.”
Hermione looked confused. “What are you doing here? How did… oh.” Realisation dawned on her face. “No that makes sense actually.”
“It does?”
Hermione nodded. “I mean, yeah. It wasn’t super obvious, but it isn’t exactly shocking either.”
Parvati giggled. “She’s also autistic too!”
Hermione snorted. “I sort of expected that. I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to be rude.”
Parvati sighed. “Hermione, if you didn’t know you were autistic, but someone else suspected you were, would you want them to tell you?”
“Yes, but-”
“Then it’s ok to tell other people if you think they might be autistic too, it isn’t rude.”
Hermione huffed.
Harry walked over to hug her friend. “Hey, it’s ok. Don’t worry.”
Hermione returned the hug. “I know, I know. I can’t help but feel bad though…”
“I know.”
Meanwhile, in the dungeons
Alyssa grimaced as she said the password to the common room.
“Pureblood.”
It was pretty dumb. The password did change, yes, but whatever enchantment did the choosing had a tendency to pick terms relating to wizarding nobility, which itself was a bit strange, but also given there were so few terms within that specific category, it had a tendency to repeat passwords, which Alyssa figured was just a massive security flaw.
She remembered around the end of last year complaining to the then head girl, Gemma Farley, about it (the repeating passwords specifically, she hadn’t pulled her head out of her ass enough to even start dealing with her own bigotry), and she had told Alyssa that there were a couple years earlier in Gemma’s education where the password was just the names of Sacred Twenty-Eight families cycled repeatedly. Alyssa was at least glad she had never had to use her own surname as a password, that would have just been too weird for her.
After stepping through the entrance that appeared, she spotted Pansy sitting near the fireplace. She seemed happy, but Alyssa could tell that she really wasn’t. Alyssa couldn’t blame her, but if what Potter - Harry - had said was true…
Alyssa turned to walk towards her dorm, then ran straight into Daphne Greengrass.
“Greengrass.”
“Malfoy.” The blonde girl smirked at him. “Fancy seeing you here.”
“My dorms are here.”
“Oh I know.”
“What do you want?”
Her smirk grew wider. “Oh nothing. Just a little birdie told me they saw you getting pretty cosy with Potter and Granger up by the shrieking shack earlier.”
Alyssa tried to prevent anything showing on her face. Of course Davis - who’s animagus form was a bird - had seen her.
“So?” Alyssa grimaced. That was a weak response.
Daphne just continued smirking at her. “So nothing. Have a nice evening, Alyssa.” And she walked off.
Her housemates were such weird people.