Colin frowned. "That's strange advice coming from a…" Colin was suddenly unable to talk as Neville lowered his wand.
"Draco doesn't want Harry to know what he is yet," the older Gryffindor explained while Colin silently pouted.
"I'll tell him after he tells me what he is and not before," Malfoy glared at Harry in challenge.
Harry just shuffled his feet. "Erm…I'm not quite…well…"
"It's ok Harry," Montague saved him from his awkwardness. "Draco didn't tell anyone what he was for over a year, and I'm still not really sure what Hestia is over there."
A sixth-year Ravenclaw girl with dark hair smirked at Graham and threw up a rude hand gesture. "Children! 5 points from Ravenclaw," Snape drawled, still not looking up from marking.
"You realize this changes nothing outside of this room, Po—Harry," Draco raised an eyebrow at the new club member. "I still don't like you, and Montague is going to lead Slytherin to slaughtering Gryffindor in quidditch this year."
"And Draco will, as usual, insult my potions skills and intelligence," Neville laughed with a grin.
"So…we don't do any potions in Remedial Potions?" Harry clarified with a relieved grin.
"Severus insists on giving a lecture once a month," a second-year Gryffindor girl remarked with a distasteful wrinkle of her nose.
"Oh, hi, Eir! I didn't see you," Harry grinned at the girl he'd talked to a couple times the year before in the common room. She had a wicked sense of humor and was quite bright for her age. She smiled and nodded at him before rejoining a gobstones game with a fourth year Slytherin girl.
"Where are Brook and David?" Snape finally looked up questioningly, but with also a strange resignation in his eyes.
No one answered him, and they all looked around a little sheepishly. Draco smirked at his head of house, "Probably in a broom cupboard somewhere."
Snape sighed and stood with a glare towards Draco. "Don't kill each other while I'm gone," he sneered before leaving.
Harry sat beside Luna on a couch and turned to Neville and Mal—Draco. "So…how does this work outside of the club? Weren't you afraid of Snape, Neville?"
"Severus," Luna corrected as everyone seemed to settle into their normal activities. A few dispelled glamours like Neville had. Luna's ears were showing, but her wings were still covered, Colin and Dennis both looked like they had dark-druidic tattoos that were visible on their necks and arms, and the first year veela had large, black feathery wings out that she was stretching.
"Yeah, the first name thing is just weird," Harry shook his head and settled into the atmosphere. It was happy, but also calming, much more calming than making him hungry. It was a very pleasant feeling.
"After the boggart incident in third year, Severus sat me down and explained his treatment of me and some things about Potions and high elves in particular," Neville explained. "It cleared a lot up between us. I'm never going to be good at Potions, and we decided it was an acceptable area for him to pick at me to maintain our covers in the school. I mean, if we suddenly started to get along with my abysmal potions skills, then everyone would be talking, right?"
"Neville is scary good at magic, but high elves just can't do Potions," Draco clarified to Harry's shock. He thought he'd die before seeing Malfoy defend Neville to anyone, let alone himself. "High elves need to touch things to connect their magic with it. It's inadvisable to put your hand into a boiling potion."
"And just by cutting up my ingredients, I change their properties," Neville explained with a nod.
"Not all high elves have wizarding magic, but they do have their own brand of elf magic," Luna continued the explanation. "Neville is powerful because he can do both."
The Gryffindor turned pink and shrugged. "My parents could too, but Gran thought it might have skipped over me. But that's why I'm so good at Herbology; I can touch the plants."
Harry shook his head in amazement. "I feel like my whole view of the world is changing, but I definitely think I like the world better than I did a few hours ago."
"Don't worry, Potter. It'll all go back to normal once we leave this room," Draco smirked evilly.
"Harry!" Graham called out in admonition from where he was helping a third-year boy with his homework.
Harry jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at Graham. "And Montague helping someone with their homework and not trying to kill me is enough to throw me for a loop…not even taking into account whatever's going on here," Harry motioned to the Draco/Neville situation.
"You get used to it," Luna shrugged and leaned against Harry some, causing him to smile broadly at her. Draco raised an eyebrow at them but didn't say anything.
"And twenty points from Hufflepuff for making my eyes bleed!" Snape was ranting as he pushed two sixth years into the room. "Merlin, you're too young for this, or I'm too old to have to put up with it! Your species aren't even supposed to like each other!"
"Sorry, Severus," the boy remarked as they both scuttled into the room and joined a giggling group in the corner.
"Now, Po-Harry," Malfoy began with an eyeroll at the name. "What in Salazar's name did you do to the unicorns?"
Harry glared at the memory. "The bloody menaces!" He fumed. "They started it!"
"So, how was your first meeting?" Neville asked as he walked with Harry back to Gryffindor Tower after Remedial Potions, thankfully timing it right so they didn't have to walk with the over-excited duo of Colin and Dennis Creevey. Harry knew it was strange that he now thought Neville looked odd when he wasn't slightly green with pointed ears even though that's how he'd seen him for over four years previously.
"Brilliant!" Harry grinned at him happily. He hadn't been truly happy in a long time, or felt safe, and for some reason the club made him feel both. He could see why having a safe space for magical creatures in a school that was set to discriminate against them was necessary. "I can't get over Snape and Malfoy, but I suppose we're all hiding who we are in some way from the rest of the school. They just go about it differently than I would. I still fully expect Malfoy to hex me in the corridors the next chance he gets."
Neville punched Harry's arm playfully. "Well, I'm happy to have someone else in the dorm to go with. It's been a little lonely the past four years."
"Hey, mate…if you ever need a hug or a cuddle or something," Harry offered awkwardly as he looked at everything except for Neville.
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