When the common room entrance opened, nearly every person in Slytherin house was gathered in groups and talking amongst themselves, though people moved between the groups. Draco blinked in surprise and came to a stop, Harry beside him. They were nearly barreled over by a fifth year prefect as he rushed past them and out of the common room.
Draco looked around puzzled, before heading toward where a group of fourth years had gathered in one corner of the room. Harry could see Draco headed toward a group of five girls and four guys all gathered together. Harry recognized Crabbe and Goyle easily. He also recognized Millicent Bulstrode and Pansy Parkinson, so Harry assumed it was a group of fourth years. He recognized one of the girls as the one who had ridden in the carriage with him yesterday, and vaguely recognized the other two boys in the group, but couldn't put names to faces. The other two girls were complete unknowns to him. Draco walked up to the group, and Crabbe and Goyle both immediately backed up to give him space to talk to the huddled group. Harry remained quietly at Draco's shoulder, though his attention was on all the different groups in the room.
Draco tilted his head curiously, "What's going on?"
Blaise Zabini turned his attention to Draco with a raised eyebrow. "Where have you been? Everyone has been out of bed for nearly half an hour because this." He gestured toward the first floor corridor. Blaise was a tall dark skinned man, with high cheekbones and slanting eyes. The expression on his face was one of aloofness.
Draco shrugged and kept his expression bland. "I was showing Ares around the castle." "This early in the morning?" Blaise demanded with narrowed eyes at Draco for a few seconds while Draco just shrugged in an unconcerned fashion. Blaise turned his attention to Harry and met his eyes with an evaluative look. "Pardon my rudeness, we've not been introduced, I'm Blaise Zabini."
Blaise held out his hand to Harry who after a moment's hesitation shook the hand politely. "Ares Flamel." Harry kept his tone formal and polite. He honestly couldn't remember what side the Blaise of his world had ended up on, nor what his fate had been. He thought it likely that Blaise had died with so many others during the Battle of Hogwarts.
It was one of the two girls Harry didn't know, who seemed to practically bubble with the need to share. She was an attractive girl with light brown hair that fell to just below her shoulders who seemed to burst in on the conversation. "Something happened to all the sixth and seventh years when they went to break into the first year's rooms this year!"
Draco glanced back at Harry before frowning curiously. "What do you mean? One of the first years stopped them from getting in this year?"
The brown haired girl shook her head quickly, "No, not one. All of them. The sixth and seventh years are all… petrified." Her voice dropped, the word petrified brought up remembrances of their second year where petrification's were occurring all over the school.
The girl seemed to snap back to herself as she looked at Harry and she blushed. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself. I'm Tracey Davis." Harry nodded his head in response since she didn't offer her hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Ares Flamel."
Draco brought their attention back to the topic at hand, "They're all petrified?" Worry battled with concern in Draco's tone as he once more glanced back at Harry, while his face was still a mask of blandness, his eyes danced in amusement.
It was the dark haired girl with deep blue eyes that spoke up this time. "They're not petrified. But close. They can't move. And we can't move them. They're stuck. Completely. And none of the fifth year prefects seem to be able to cancel the spell." She narrowed her eyes as she met Ares' eyes. "So you give your name to them?"
Harry shrugged, though he met the girl's stare unflinchingly, his lips quirking ever so slightly in amusement. "They introduced themselves first. Besides, you've clearly found out my name at this point." Harry watched as the bubbly Tracey Davis seemed to settle in contently next to the girl, though her attention was split between the first floor corridor and the conversation happening here.
The girl frowned before scowling and saying "I'm Daphne Greengrass."
Harry nodded as her name clicked. He had remembered her face vaguely but not her name, and certainly not what happened to her after the war broke out. "Pleasure. As you've heard I'm Ares Flamel." He found himself meeting her eyes for several long seconds before his attention was drawn by Draco.
"Have they tried to use a finite on them?" Draco asked curiously, bringing the attention of the room back. "One of the first things they tried. One of the fifth years ran off to go get Professor Snape." Blaise responded blandly. Or at least he tried to. Harry could tell that there was an air of amusement in his tone.
Only one person in the group caught the ghost of a smile that crossed over Harry's face for the briefest of moments at Blaise's statement, before his face returned to the polite and curious mask. Daphne's eyes narrowed ever so slightly at that, though she struggled to keep her face impassive. There was a great deal she wanted to find out about "Ares Flamel", however she needed to observe and figure out more things first before initiating any sort of confrontation. If her suspicions were correct, she would be asking him for a favor very shortly, and the stronger her negotiating stance was, the better. Harry looked around the common room for several moments his eyes taking in all the conversations, but since it seemed like it was nothing more than conversation he shrugged lithely and then moved away from the group.
Tracey frowned as he turned to leave, "Where are you going?"
"Shower and change before class. Nothing to do down here but stand around." Harry said in an offhand tone as he made his way toward the fourth floor corridor. Only Draco noticed the tenseness of his shoulders as he turned his back to the room.
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