Hogwarts' Unorthodox Chosen One?

"Ah, oh, okay."

Malfoy had been letting her thoughts wander, but now that she heard Harry's invitation, she hurriedly nodded.

Hehe, it looked like Harry wasn't angry?

"Say, Potter, before you started school, did you always live with Muggles?"

"Yeah, I didn't have anywhere else to live, did I?"

Harry adjusted his glasses, not particularly bothered by the question.

If Malfoy really wanted to look down on him, she could. It didn't matter; he didn't care much about that.

After all, before starting school, where could he have gone besides Uncle Vernon's house?

Of course, things turned out a little differently from what Harry had expected.

Malfoy was such an extreme pure-blood supremacist, clearly full of prejudice and contempt toward Muggles.

But for some reason...

Almost all of Malfoy's subsequent conversation with him was filled with pity for him.

She even more or less hinted that he could visit Malfoy Manor for Christmas.

After all, Malfoy said her home was quite big, and Potter could come over to play video games-no, to get some proper magic practice and such...

"Merlin's beard, is that really Miss Malfoy?"

Sitting at the Ravenclaw Table, Celia watched Harry hold Malfoy's little hand and help her step over the house bench, disbelief written all over her face.

"Yeah, her face seems to stay that red whenever she's around Harry..."

Ramos saw it and didn't even notice the egg falling off his fork.

Wait.

Did Harry really have some incredibly miraculous magic on him?

How could this be so ridiculous!

Wasn't the Malfoy family's young lady supposed to have an absolutely awful personality?

What kind of awful was this?!

Awful or affectionate? Make it clear!

"Damn it! Look, is Harry touching her leg?"

Prapus, otherwise known as Mr. Volvo, had just swallowed a mouthful of whole wheat bread when the sight before him left him stunned.

Wait, Harry actually dared?

Granted, Malfoy had been a little distracted and nearly fallen, and Harry had merely reached out to shield her calf from getting scraped by the bench.

But...

But someone had touched Miss Malfoy's leg. Wouldn't she fly straight into a rage?

And everyone had seen it clearly, not just Prapus.

The place Harry touched seemed to have been her thigh, too?

And yet...

"And yet she doesn't seem angry. She's even chatting with Harry again?"

They watched Malfoy and Harry leave the Great Hall together, talking and laughing just like that.

As they left, Harry seemed to have said something funny, making even Malfoy unable to hold back a laugh as she gave him a smack.

At that moment, the morning chat Cruz and the other three were having on the theme of "Hogwarts' Unorthodox Chosen One" came to a perfect close.

Only Cruz and Celia had thought there was definitely something going on between Harry and Malfoy last night.

Well, now...

Ramos, a Muggle-born wizard, and Prapus, a half-blood wizard, had no choice but to believe that something really was going on with Harry...

"Hey, forget it. Let's get to class."

"Exactly, we'll have something fun to watch in Potions Class, hahahahaha..."

"Say, if Professor Snape gives Harry a hard time, shouldn't we help him out?"

"Are you insane? That's Professor Snape!"

Yes, Celia's words expressed exactly what everyone was feeling.

After all, they had already heard a little about how awful Professor Snape was...

Even the Muggle-born Ramos had now heard plenty of negative stories about Professor Snape.

Putting students under pressure, assigning mountains of homework, berating them in class, favoring his own house...

He even gave students nasty, deeply insulting nicknames!

What left them not knowing whether to laugh or cry was...

Many of the negative stories the four of them had heard about Professor Snape were actually different...

That was quite revealing...

For different people to hear almost entirely different negative stories about her...

That was enough to show that Professor Snape's reputation at Hogwarts apparently wasn't very good...

Harry himself often wondered.

If the professors Dumbledore brought in later hadn't each been more bizarre than the last...

Professor Snape would never have had his turn to become a good professor...

After all, as everyone knew, Dumbledore had always had a very distinctive eye for choosing a Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts...

There was a fellow possessed by Voldemort, a master fraud who marketed himself, and that evil Pink Toad from the Ministry of Magic...

The ones who actually taught properly were a Werewolf and a Death Eater...

Forget it. Dumbledore probably had his own ideas. Best to respect them.

Having packed their respective schoolbags...

Harry's four roommates also headed toward the Castle's First Basement Level...

"...Right, where are you planning to sit during Potions in a bit?"

They were almost at the Potions classroom door, and Draco finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Good, I'd shaken off Weasley.

Today was great. We hadn't run into Weasley. The Potter Protection Campaign had been successfully completed!

Of course, to keep Malfoy from worrying, Harry had selectively chosen not to tell her.

Their second lesson, Transfiguration, was a joint class for Ravenclaw and Gryffindor House...

Harry's feelings were a little complicated now, too.

Surely I wasn't going to sit with Malfoy in Potions Class, then sit with Ronnie in Transfiguration?

Wasn't that being a bit of a player?

But...

But sometimes I really didn't know how to turn people down...

"You've already dragged me away. Do you think I can still sit with my four roommates?"

Harry shrugged helplessly and gave Malfoy a subtle glance.

Did I look like I had any choice now besides sitting with you?

"Hey! Potter!"

When Malfoy heard that, although she felt extremely pleased and thought her plan had succeeded...

She still refused to let Harry off verbally, leaving him no room at all:

"Do you think it's my fault for taking you in when you were all alone?"

Yes.

Setting aside scaring off your roommates, weren't you, Harry, all by yourself over there, lonely, solitary, with only your shadow for company and no one to rely on...

And then kind Miss Malfoy came over and graciously showed you mercy by becoming your friend and sitting with you?

"Oh my goodness, I was wrong, Miss Malfoy."

As soon as Harry heard that, the corners of his mouth twitched.

Fine, fine, I had nothing left to say.

I was wrong, all right?