"Good morning Harry," said Katie as she took a seat next to him.
Harry turned to her and replied "Morning Katie."
"Good morning Harry," echoed Bianca as she sat down next to Katie.
"Good morning," Harry replied, though in a tone of voice and an expression on his face that suggested that the sixth year prefect addressing him had taken him by surprise.
"That's weird," muttered Bianca to Katie as Harry turned back to talk to Ron "It's like he doesn't know me."
While it was true that before this year Harry and Bianca had barely said one word to each other, since the prefects' meeting on the Hogwarts Express a week ago friendship had begun to blossom between them.
Katie gave Harry an enquiring look before turning back to Bianca and whispering "Why is he talking to Ron?"
"Dunno," replied Bianca "I thought they had fallen out."
"They had," said Katie "Hang on… Harry's supposed to be eating with the Slytherins this morning. Remember, we were poking fun at him yesterday for it."
"Hey, yeah!" replied Bianca "Something's wrong."
Katie frowned and then took out her wand. Surreptitiously she cast a few of the spells that Harry had shown them at the start of term feast and next to her Bianca did the same. Everything showed up as being laced with some kind of potion.
"Morning girls!" said a bright voice.
Bianca looked to her left and saw that her fellow prefect Geoffrey Hooper had joined them. He grabbed a fork and speared a sausage onto the end of it. Bianca stretched out her hand and grabbed his wrist. He gave her an enquiring look to which she gave a slow shake of her head.
He was about to ask what was going on when Katie gave a furtive nod towards the person sitting beside her. Geoffrey looked past her and spotted Harry. Just as he was about to ask "So?" the reality of the situation sunk in. Harry Potter was talking to Ronald Weasley again.
In a low voice he asked "What's laced?"
"Everything," Bianca whispered back.
"Look," said Katie in a low murmur, nodding towards the Hufflepuff table.
The other two looked up and saw Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Ernie MacMillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley getting up and leaving the Great Hall. A few moments later Wayne Hopkins, Sally Anne-Perks and Lilith Moon followed them.
"Come on," whispered Katie and the three sixth year Gryffindors stood up and walked out of the Great Hall, doing their best to look as inconspicuous as possible.
Pansy Parkinson, like Hermione Granger, had been having a rough week. Her world was being turned upside down and she was struggling to remain upright. The prefects were now answerable to Harry Potter and if he found them lacking he could strip them of their badges. Draco had already lost his and it looked like he might be out of Hogwarts for good if he kept up his act. If she didn't change her ways, Pansy was sure that she would follow. She already had one strike against her as it was.
Professor Snape was no longer there to protect the Slytherin way of life. He had been called out on his behaviour by people who actually had the power to do something about it and he had subsequently been demoted from his position as Head of Slytherin. Professor Sinistra seemed to be a sure fire bet to replace him and while she certainly was an alumnus of Slytherin House (Pansy had checked) she did not seem like the type to let her students get away with bullying others.
Pansy's own standing within the house had taken a hammering this past week, not only through her earning a strike against her position as prefect but also through her relationship with Draco, someone who was seriously risking Harry Potter's full wrath being brought down upon Slytherin House.
Up until this year, life in Slytherin House had been ruled by a simple structure. Each year had a dominant boy and girl whom the others treated as their leader. There were, of course, leaders of the leaders whom everyone answered to and thus the status quo was maintained.
In first year Pansy had been quick to establish herself as the dominant girl amongst her dorm mates and Draco had done the same amongst the boys. They had different set-ups however.
Draco had Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle as his two goons. He put the mudbloods and blood traitors in their place and if any of them thought of fighting back, Crabbe and Goyle were there to get them to think again. Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini were backup for when Malfoy needed to put on a real show of strength.
Pansy on the other hand had all of the girls with her all of the time. She would taunt and tease and the others broke down in sycophantic laughter. If things got a bit out of hand, Millicent Bulstrode was there to look intimidating and Daphne Greengrass, who was effectively Pansy's second in command, was there to keep the girls in check.
Now there had been a power shift. In the very year that Draco and Pansy had become prefects, thus securing their right to rule, everything had gone awry. With Draco out of the castle, the boys were leaderless. Nott and Zabini were vying for the position but neither had the support of their year-mates. Crabbe and Goyle were simply lost without Draco around to tell them what to do.
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