Malfoy's Promise

"Who's there?" Snape asked irritably, staring into the distance with his vacant eyes. A centaur was walking beside him!

The centaur's eyes were thoughtful. "Perhaps a student is out of bed. The Forbidden Forest gets plenty of visits from children, too. But I have something important to discuss with Dumbledore tonight."

"Hmph. I hope you really do have something important to discuss. Otherwise, the Merpeople who knocked on my window and interrupted my potion brewing won't get off so easily." Snape looked away. He had no interest in students out of bed—that was Filch's job.

"I'm just a poor Potions professor. I want to get back to tending to my even more pitiful potions, not waste my time here with you."

Snape faced the stone statue at the entrance to the Headmaster's Office. "Sherbet Lemon!"

The door slowly opened.

"Go on in, centaur who's disturbing a wizard in the middle of the night. I hope you know the way out."

With that, Snape swept his robes around and strode away, his footsteps clattering on the stairs until they gradually faded.

Firenze paid no attention to Snape's attitude and walked into the Headmaster's Office.

Just before the Great Tree's portrait, Breeze stopped and fixed Malfoy with a sharp look. "Are you asking me to go sleep on the roof with you, Malfoy?"

"Hmph." Malfoy looked flustered, but his tone was almost pleading. "You have to let me hide. That was Snape!"

"He's not the sort to meddle. He's probably already left. You can turn around and go back without being seen." Looking at Malfoy's even paler face, Breeze could only feel helpless. He couldn't believe that fearless Malfoy was afraid of Snape.

"Oh, no, you don't understand. Snape hates catching Slytherins in the middle of doing something wrong. The problem is, he's friends with my father, and I'm trying to get my father to buy me a new broom. You have to help me. I absolutely can't let him catch me right now!"

So now Malfoy knew how to be afraid. Where had that sense of danger been when he'd set Harry up earlier?

"So?" Breeze said coldly. "The roof isn't big enough for two."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous." Malfoy looked at Breeze haughtily. "Do you think I don't know you? You're Slytherin's resident big eater and sleepyhead. You're always the last to arrive for breakfast and you eat the most. You must be doing just fine living on the roof."

"Clatter, clatter, clatter!"

At the sound of approaching footsteps, both Malfoy and Breeze changed expressions.

Malfoy's eyes widened. "Hurry, go! I know why your eyes are red!"

Red eyes?

"You'd better be telling the truth."

Breeze hurried over to the Great Tree's portrait and tapped a brick with his wand. The portrait opened, and Breeze and Malfoy slipped inside. It closed behind them.

"Mars told me it sensed the presence of nature..."

Firenze walked up to the Great Tree's portrait and examined it carefully before continuing, "Mars says nature doesn't welcome its attention and warned it in the Forbidden Forest... Well, Hogwarts has stood for a thousand years. It's always been full of mystery."

Firenze slowly left the Seventh Floor. He had already told Dumbledore what he'd seen tonight. After handing Dumbledore the letter, he was ready to leave. If not for Mars's guidance, he wouldn't have stayed.

Breeze knew there was Natural Magic Power inside him, but he still hadn't figured out why his eyes turned red and his hair turned white. He knew it had something to do with Natural Magic Power, but he didn't understand what lay behind it.

He hoped Malfoy was telling the truth.

"Oh, so this is where you found a rundown Owlery."

Malfoy glanced around the empty first floor and curled his lip in distaste. Breeze ignored him and only went upstairs once he was sure Snape wasn't going to open the portrait.

Malfoy followed right behind him.

"Breeze, who's this?"

Faner stared at Malfoy. Breeze took the Green Apple Tree out of his pocket, realizing he'd forgotten to take it out earlier.

"Stay here and don't move. I'm going to plant an apple tree."

Malfoy raised an eyebrow at Faner, who was hissing as he spat lamp oil, but said nothing.

When Breeze returned from planting the Green Apple Tree not far from the Four-Leaf Vine, he found Malfoy gripping Faner by the tail and snarling, "How dare you breathe fire on my hair!"

Seeing that Malfoy had managed to protect his hair, Breeze took Faner back.

"Don't make a fuss. Stay here for a while. Snape can't keep watch forever."

"Hmph. I don't want to stay here."

When he saw Breeze still watching him, Malfoy spoke with an air of superiority. "I'm a Malfoy, from an ancient noble family. Naturally, I have some books and know a few secrets. For example, the traits of Slytherin's descendants."

"Yes: red eyes, black hair, Parseltongue..."

"You might be a Half-blood, and a descendant of Slytherin, too. If you can speak Parseltongue, that would make it even more certain. One of the books in my family's collection says Slytherin had red eyes, but many of his descendants didn't inherit them. Only those with exceptional talent showed some signs."

Was that really so?

A descendant of Slytherin?

Salazar Slytherin, a noble Pure-blood wizard, had founded Hogwarts a thousand years ago with three other great wizards, giving shelter to young wizards who were under threat at the time...

But Salazar Slytherin had been hostile toward Half-blood and Muggle-born wizards. He believed they didn't deserve to learn magic. Later, he clashed with the other great wizards and left Hogwarts, never to be heard from again.

Breeze rubbed his temples. He couldn't agree at all with the classification of Pure-bloods, Half-bloods, and Muggle-borns. It was nothing but the hysterics of incapable Pure-bloods.

Malfoy looked at Breeze. "You might be the child of a descendant of Slytherin and someone from the East. We don't know much about the Eastern wizarding world, except for Japan."

"Of course, it's all speculation. Unless you can speak Parseltongue and understand snakes, there's no way to be sure."

Parseltongue?

Breeze had come into contact with snakes, but had never heard them speak. He remained skeptical and didn't respond to Malfoy.

"Can I see that book?"

Malfoy ran a hand over his platinum-blond hair and nodded slightly.

"If you ask nicely..."

"Okay, thanks. It's getting late, so you can leave the Owlery. And don't tell anyone about this place."

As he watched Breeze's eyes slowly turn red and felt the increasingly powerful magical pressure emanating from him, Malfoy stiffly nodded.

"I'm not a blabbermouth." Malfoy left hesitantly. Soon, the Owlery was quiet again.

"Faner, do you know Slytherin himself?"

Faner shook his head. He had never left the Owlery. Even when the place's owner had been one of Hogwarts's first students, Faner had never met Slytherin.

"I don't know much. Also, that person earlier was a Ravenclaw student. He didn't have much of an aversion to Slytherin himself. In fact, since Alchemy requires powerful potions to support it, that fellow even asked Slytherin for help."

It was all too ancient. Breeze couldn't learn much from those scattered scraps of information.

Besides...

"Slytherin is Slytherin, and Order is Order. I'll never consider turning Order into Slytherin. That's my pride. I have what it takes to stand alongside anyone, and I have the confidence to match."

Breeze pushed the thoughts from his mind and tried to consider the matter rationally. Did he need the "glory" Slytherin had left behind?

The answer was obvious.

"Who else is descended from Slytherin? I can't find a single surviving family in the British Wizarding World. The 'Slytherins' who put self-interest first wouldn't bow down to anyone just because they shared a surname."

If he wanted glory, he would have to earn it himself.

"Get some rest, Faner. It's Monday tomorrow, and I still have to deal with that garlic smell. Quirrell really isn't a good person."

Monday's garlic class was no fun, especially when Breeze was trying so hard to keep up an act. He was usually lazy about socializing and only put on a mask when necessary. Now he had to play along with Quirrell for an entire class, and it was exhausting.

Hopefully Quirrell won't pay too much attention to me.

After Defense Against the Dark Arts...

"How did you put up with it? Heh."

Snape didn't have that many slugs for Malfoy and Harry to deal with. He mostly made them copy books or help Filch clean the castle. Breeze, on the other hand, had become Quirrell's assistant and had to face the man's smell head-on.

"Don't ignore me. The book will be delivered in a bit."

Only then did Breeze give Malfoy his full attention.

"Thanks, young Master Malfoy. I don't have any classes this afternoon, so I can read it and return it to you as soon as possible."

Breeze said it, but he didn't expect much from the book. He'd just take it as a chance to broaden his reading.

Malfoy said nothing, while Pansy beside him pressed her lips together, looking like she wanted to say something but couldn't.

The terror of Breeze's rampage through the Slytherin Common Room still lingered in many young snakes' minds. They all knew he wasn't someone to trifle with. But over the past while, Breeze had seemed not to exist in Slytherin at all. Aside from meals and classes, they rarely saw him, and gradually they'd settled down.

But now Malfoy had actually approached Breeze to talk. That was really...

Had Malfoy managed to get on Breeze's good side?

Even the older students hadn't succeeded when they tried to make peace with Breeze. Malfoy certainly lived up to his name.

Daphne and Pansy exchanged a glance, then followed Malfoy and Breeze without a word. Nott stayed silent, too. The other young snakes only dared to shoot Breeze a curious look before falling silent, each lost in their own thoughts.

"What a flashy peacock." Breeze laughed. He didn't care about Malfoy's little ploy. Perhaps it was Malfoy's awkward way of showing kindness, but making peace with Slytherin wasn't going to be so easy. At the very least, Breeze wasn't interested.

As lunch ended, owls began flying in through the windows on either side of the ceiling.

Malfoy's owl was a sturdy, tawny grey owl. Many people recognized it because it often brought sweets from his mother.

"Here. Take it." Malfoy didn't linger beside Breeze. He understood that he and Breeze were, at best, not enemies. Only someone Breeze considered a friend could pry into his affairs.

"Breeze, what did Malfoy want?" Cedric turned around in his seat at his own table and tapped Breeze on the waist, puzzled. "Did he give you a book with a blank cover?"

Breeze didn't refuse Cedric's concern, and answered his question, which wasn't all that important.

"It might have something to do with my origins, but I'm not sure."

Cedric blinked, as if something had occurred to him, then said, "If you need help, you can ask me. Diggory is an old family, too. My family might have books that can help you."

"Sure. Thanks, buddy. But I'm not really hung up on my origins. I can live just fine on my own."

"Oh, that's true. You don't have as many desires as the other young snakes. Keeping things simple is nice, too." Cedric smiled warmly, but he looked at the empty plates piled in front of Breeze with some concern. "Still, Breeze, you should give some thought to the future. Food isn't all that expensive for wizards, but..."

Breeze's expression stiffened. He didn't say another word to Cedric.