She was a friend and ally, he told himself; therefore, he would respect her privacy, even if their friendship wasn't on the best of terms at the moment.
However, if their friendship suddenly ended tonight, he would feel free to spy on her, but for now he would respect her privacy, he silently vowed.
...
That was one of many things he was learning now after setting up several more enchanted mirrors around the school; specifically, that he needed to learn to respect other peoples' privacy. This was for several good reasons. The first was that he was spending more and more time watching them, like a drug addict looking for a fix, watching them for any secret of value to exploit now or in the future, instead of prudently focusing on his grades and his other more pressing side projects.
The second reason was that he hated the thought of being spied upon himself, so therefore he was being rather hypocritical for doing so on others... But at the same time, he understood just how powerful such an information network could be; therefore, he was unwilling to just totally stop his activities, regardless of the ethical implications.
After all, he had already learnt from the spy glasses that the Headmaster had his own spy network over the entire school. He shuddered to think at how long he would have remained ignorant of the old thief's capabilities without the mirrors, or how many of his plans might have been discovered and countered before he caught on.
In the end, he had looked for some type of middle ground to assuage his guilt over the spying and the sheer usefulness of such information, something to justify the creation and existence of the spy network he was developing and planning to deploy on a much wider scale.
He finally settled on a promise to himself; that he would only use the network sparingly, and that its use would be limited to spying only on his enemies and rivals, rather than the general population of Hogwarts. Naturally, if you weren't his friend, then you were a possible rival and competitor, so that gave him a rather large loophole, if needs be.
Nevertheless, his original objective had been achieved; he now knew that the idea of the enchanted spy mirrors forming an information network worked and could be deployed outside the walls of Hogwarts in the real world, where much more valuable information waited. The concept had been proven handily. He sat down on the floor next to Penny's bed to continue his wait, his head gently resting back against the covers.
Another half an hour passed before his friend finally turned up, but he put the half hour to good use while sharpening his mind magic and organizing and filing away some of his more recent memories. As soon as she walked through the door, he looked up to meet her eyes, registering the surprise they held. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked carefully, with a hint of nervousness, testing the proverbial waters as he took a closer look at his friend.
Several seconds passed before Penny finally answered him, her voice faint, showing signs of fatigue. "I'm fine, Harry. What do you want?" she answered, while she closed the dorm room door.
"I wanted to talk to you," he voiced sincerely as he stood up from the floor, fighting off the leg cramps as he met her striking eyes. "I want to find out what I've done wrong. What's causing you to avoid me? I want to mend the bridge between us; I want my friend back."
"Harry, please, can we do this another time? I'm very tired," Penny expressed.
"Just so you can avoid me for another three weeks?" he asked rhetorically. "I just want to know what's up. I want to talk to my friend again." He decided it was time to swallow his pride. "So, I'm sorry for whatever I've done to upset you; can you please forgive me?"
"That's the thing, Harry," Penny expressed with a sad smile. "I don't believe you."
"Why?" he demanded, his anger swelling and growing under her sad, pitying eyes.
"You lie, you manipulate, you steal... so easily," Penny's voice accused, whilst looking down at him with a hint of pity. "You play with people like they are chess pieces, always measuring their worth and value to you alone. You're always scheming, always looking for some type of advantage and benefit to be gained in every situation.
I would bet all the gold in my purse that you even have something planned out for Luna, your student who has thrived under your teaching, who even now looks at you with such loyalty and adoration. Even for her, I bet that somewhere in the back of your mind there is a scheme involving her somehow."
"So? I judge people, weighing their positive merits against their negative ones," Harry defended with a hint of anger in his voice, whilst wondering why it was wrong. After all, people did this all the time on a subconscious level; it was a basic instinct, honed by millions of years of evolution. "Everyone does it; I'm just honest about it rather than hiding that fact. The Slytherins recognize that intrinsically; they would say that that's simply the way the real world works," still not seeing the issue at all.
"What am I to you, then? What am I worth?" Penny asked, stepping closer to him, casually putting her book bag to one side. "Am I worth more or less to you than Daphne? Am I higher or lower than Tracy? Or am I merely a long-term investment, just like one of your businesses? All this year you've made it clear to me that the Head Girl position is one of your goals for me, but you never stopped and asked me if I wanted it, just assuming I would take it."
"No, you're my friend, Penny," he expressed carefully and quietly. "I just want you to do well; I want you to reach your full potential. I don't want the backward nature of the Ministry or this prejudiced culture to hold you back; I just want you to do well."
"You're lying, Harry," Penny expressed, her sorrowful blue eyes meeting his own. "I may not be able to read your thoughts with magic, but I know you, I know your little tells. How could I not, after watching you so closely this last year?" Silence fell across the bedroom. "Do you know what a friend really is, Harry?" she suddenly asked. He thought about the question and what his answer might be.
"Because I don't think you truly do," Penny added sadly. "Because a friend doesn't judge a person simply by their value to him or her, nor by their individual skills and abilities that might be useful to them down the road. They do it by how they make them feel."
"Someone you care for," Harry offered with a smile, not sure how he would explain what a friend was to him without thinking of benefits and alliances.
"That's vague, Harry, even for you," Penny expressed with a disappointed half smile. "I want a friend who doesn't think of me as some tool, or as an asset to exploit, who doesn't constantly measure me against everyone else," she explained, her hand resting on her chest as she spoke.
"Who won't manipulate and play me like you did last year into stealing that stuff, or into taking that gold. Or this year with the polyjuice potion. You used me as a tool, and all tools eventually get replaced and discarded when they've lost their usefulness. I want a friend who wants to be with me, for me. Not because I currently benefit them, not because I'm some type of asset to use and exploit."
"Have you not benefited as well from my friendship? Has the knowledge I've shared not helped you in myriad ways?" Harry asked, trying to understand Penny's mind.
"Yes, it has," she admitted easily. "But it's like you're handing out rewards, like a treat to a favoured pet," Penny voiced, before once again facing him, her eyes burning with a hint of anger. "I am not a pet, Harry; I am my own person."
"Then you stole that special map from Neville and his friends. Neville and his friends had a falling out about that. Their trust in one another has been broken, and they'll probably never get what they had back. Your actions have broken and irreparably damaged another person's friendship, but you don't care about that at all."
...
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