Daphne reappeared with Tracey in tow. "We need to make our goodbyes to Lady Augusta." Harry nodded and led them over to Lady Augusta, Neville, and Hermione.
"Lady Augusta, Tracey and I want to thank you so much for including us at this special celebration." Daphne said.
"It was my pleasure Miss Greengrass, Miss Davis. Am I to assume you're leaving?"
"Yes, Ma'am, and may we say it has been an honor and a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Tracey stated.
"It has been a pleasure for me as well. Harry, are you escorting these young ladies?"
"Yes, I am."
"Well, goodbye then, I suppose I shall see you at the Yule?"
"Likely, Lady Augusta, quite likely." Harry was mildly amused to realize the cadre, except Hermione, had taken his planned exodus as their cue to leave and had lined up behind him to make their thank yous and goodbyes.
Lady Augusta was relatively pleased by Neville's choice of friends, with the exception of Miss Granger. After the girl finally departed an hour after the rest of the group, she eyed her grandson. "I find it interesting that most of your friends are from other houses. Shall I ask Rosmerta for some tea?"
"Please. I can't claim the credit for the mix though. They came initially to be friends with Harry."
"Does that bother you?
"Not really. Harry… he's attractive, powerful, and carries himself with purpose. He's intelligent and charismatic. People are drawn to him. He's also emotionally remote, cynical, and at times manipulative. He knows how to tell whom he can trust from those he can't."
"He trusts these others, therefore you do?" Augusta arched an eyebrow as she asked the question.
"Harry trusts them as far as it is possible for him to trust, mostly… I don't think I like Harry's aunt much."
"Tell me what you think about these friends of yours and about Harry's aunt."
"Harry is always a bit emotionally remote. He is very brave and loyal to those he calls friends. I'm kinda surprised he wasn't sorted Gryffindor. I think his relationship to his family is why. To them he's a means to an end. He's afraid of being rejected so he holds himself apart. I accepted him on the train that first year, despite his sorting I remained his friend and in return he is pretty completely loyal to me. And I to him.
"Hermione thinks of us as her friends and we do care about her, but as you may have noticed she's pretty backwards socially. Harry says it's from too little interaction with her peers when she was little and the the fact she is just so incredibly book smart. I suspect if Hermione took the class Harry and I took, she would probably ace the test since it tests straight knowledge. Hermione's weaknesses are: that she has trouble spotting faults in those in authority, she has a faith in books that doesn't quit, she tends to obsess over things she gets curious about, she believes she's always right, she almost always has an opinion that she's willing to fight for, and she tends to forget that muggle ways aren't magical ways. Harry says and I concur that most of her weaknesses stem from her greatest strength. She is without a doubt the smartest person any of us is likely to meet and her fabulous memory has made it so that while lots of people have let her down, books haven't. So she trusts them more. She's so smart, she's made few mistakes and she's forgotten she can be wrong. Harry drives her crazy by ignoring her much of the time."
"Blaise, Daphne, and Tracey are true Slytherins: political, self-interest driven. That's not to say they aren't intelligent or nice, they just always have an aspect of what's in it for them. They see how Harry has, or rather will have power in the future. They want to be connected to it. They also want to distance themselves from the Dark Slytherins like Nott, Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson, Bulstrode and Malfoy. Not that Malfoy will ever have lots of power after the way Harry has managed him, but he has the wealth to eventually be powerful. I just doubt he'll get as powerful as his father. They also enjoy the fact that by studying as a group we maximize our learning potential. Half of us are in the top ten of our year.
"Aaron is Slytherin as well. But unlike the others, he is loyal to Harry. He's from the branch of the Yaxleys that didn't follow He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in the last war. He has brittle bones, first year Harry rescued him from a beating by the MacLaggens. Then last year Cassandra found everything the muggles know about brittle bones which included information on how to make bones get stronger. Apparently it has helped Aaron's family."
"Muggles know that?" Augusta gasped.
"Gran, I know you don't hate muggles but the fact is the magical world is no longer as supreme as it was when you were a girl. If it every really was. Maybe we used to be but I've listened to Harry and Hermione talk about some of the things muggles can do now. Did you know that muggles have gone into space and have actually visited the moon? They have aeroplanes that can fly faster than the speed of sound. They still haven't got anything that beats pepper up for the common cold but they can fix all kinds of injuries and illnesses. Harry and Hermione use knowledge they gained in the muggle world to surpass many of the students in Hogwarts."
"Anyway Aaron is loyal to Harry. He's also why I'm doing as well in Potions as I am. Snape is rubbish as a teacher. Aaron takes us through the potions before we have to make them in class. He teaches us the things we need to watch out for, and makes sure we know the procedures. As result Harry and I usually turn in what Snape calls adequate potions. Hermione gets them on her own. Draco Malfoy is about the only one who garners a good from the Professor.