Jealous?
The following morning, Harry woke up in Ravenclaw's new dormitories, which, staying true to Hogwarts tradition, were still shared by five students. In his year, they were the same as always: Draco Malfoy, Terry Boot, Michael Corner, Anthony Goldstein, and, of course, himself.
Though unlike before, the rooms were much more spacious, even featuring their own study area, sofas, and surprisingly luxurious furniture.
Not to mention the perfect view through the huge windows that let the bright morning sunlight pour in, overlooking everything from the Black Lake to the Forbidden Forest, now from an even greater height than before.
Perhaps the House that had benefited the most from Hogwarts' reconstruction was Slytherin. They no longer had to live underground near the dungeons, as one of the new towers had been built specifically to house the serpents. Another tower had been built for Hufflepuff, though they didn't seem nearly as enthusiastic as the Slytherins, probably because they were now a little farther away from the kitchens.
Though it wasn't as if the Hufflepuffs couldn't solve that problem simply by filling their common room with snacks.
Harry stepped out of his dormitory and briefly crossed paths with the ever-busy Hermione and Draco, who were once again gathering the first-years to explain how their classes worked and all those Prefect duties Harry couldn't care less about. He simply gave them a quick greeting before leaving the common room, once again glad he'd let Draco have the Prefect badge instead of taking it himself.
"Morning, Potter," several Ravenclaw girls greeted him as they saw him walk out.
"Morning," Harry replied with his usual friendly smile.
It seemed that over the past few months Harry had grown a little taller again, and now he looked even more handsome than before. Perhaps that was why the girls who had greeted him let out tiny squeals when he smiled back.
By this point, Harry was already used to it.
The Boy Who Lived.
Heir to House Potter.
Hogwarts' genius.
Triwizard Champion.
Titles like those couldn't help inflating his ego just a little too much, so, purely for his own amusement, he gave them another smile.
All it accomplished was earning even more squeals before the girls hurried away with flushed faces.
"I see you're still quite popular, Potter."
The voice came out of nowhere, making Harry turn his head.
Standing there was Fleur, wearing an elegant smile... though it was a rather cold one.
Especially considering the poison with which she'd said Potter.
"I'm beginning to understand why one of your titles is playboy. I think it suits you much better than Great Villain... perhaps," she added.
"Passive-aggressive comments. I thought we'd already moved past that stage of our relationship," Harry replied, giving her an amused look.
"Our relationship?" Fleur repeated with a faint smile. "What an imagination you have, Potter. Especially now that I'm technically a teacher. It would be rather unprofessional to encourage rumours."
"Rumours? What rumours?" Harry asked with an innocent smile. "As far as I remember, you accepted the position to improve your English. It's only the first day, and you're already nowhere near the library. You're awfully close to the Ravenclaw common room for that to be a mere coincidence."
"What a coincidence, isn't it?" Fleur replied as naturally as ever.
"Well, now that I think about it... you moved into the house directly across from mine, and now you've gotten a job at my school. Should I be worried? Maybe I ought to ask the Headmaster to look a little more carefully into the backgrounds of his new teachers and castle staff."
Fleur looked at him intently, as though considering how to answer, but before she could, they were interrupted when a group of girls approached again with excited smiles.
"Hi, Harry," one of them greeted him. "We had a little party in our dorm, and we thought you might like some chocolates," she said, offering him a small box filled with handmade round chocolates. It even had a little ribbon tied around it, along with a floating balloon.
"Oh, well... thank you, but I think it'd be better if you girls ate the chocolates yourselves. I'll accept the balloon, though," Harry replied kindly.
For a moment, the girls looked a little disappointed. They exchanged glances before nodding with smiles.
"Bye, Harry," they said, waving to him with sweet smiles.
Harry raised one hand in farewell while holding the balloon in the other.
"Oh? So you don't like chocolates now?" Fleur asked suddenly.
Harry turned back to look at her.
"Oh, I do like them. But Draco and I are both a little traumatised when it comes to accepting things from girls. Sometimes they might contain... Amortentia. And if they come from Daphne, it'd probably be a transformation potion. What? Do you think I should've accepted them instead?" Harry asked, returning to that innocent tone of his.
"Well, perhaps that's the problem with being so popular," Fleur replied before turning to leave. But just before taking her first step, she looked back at him, suddenly walked up, raised her hand...
And popped the balloon with her fingernail.
POP!
Only then did she walk away gracefully.
Harry held back his laughter before raising his voice.
"So, what had you come to the tower for?"
"It doesn't matter anymore," Fleur called back without turning around, walking away at a brisk pace while the sound of her heels echoed a little louder than usual.
Harry covered his mouth for a moment, unable to hide his amused smile, before heading toward the library. He felt like doing a bit of reading that day, and it just so happened to be in the same direction Fleur had gone.
...
As he walked through the corridors, Harry couldn't help noticing several magical creatures wandering around peacefully, as though they were simply part of the school's ecosystem.
Many of them were residents of Red's little kingdom.
So those were the ones Sirius had been talking about during the welcome feast.
Especially the group of young hippogriffs, who had apparently learned from Red how to cause trouble. And, just that morning, they'd seemingly declared war on Hagrid's pumpkins, leaving them in complete ruin.
Harry searched for Fleur with his eyes again.
Curiously, she wasn't walking quite as fast as before anymore, though she still didn't turn around.
"Well... at least it looks like I won't be bored," Harry said with a smile, quickening his pace slightly.
But for a moment, his attention shifted when he noticed one of the castle's new faces.
If he remembered correctly, he was one of the four new trainee teachers Sirius had hired to assist the Heads of House. In this case, Professor Sprout's assistant.
He was a relatively young man, tall and quite broad-shouldered.
Yet his face was surprisingly ordinary.
There wasn't a single particularly memorable feature about him, as though he were one of those people who could disappear into a crowd the moment you looked away.
No... in fact, despite his imposing build, he somehow managed to do exactly that.
Harry had only realised he was there after he'd already walked several metres past him.
The professor seemed to notice Harry's gaze, so he turned to look at him and gave him a polite nod accompanied by a courteous smile before continuing on his way, passing right beside Harry.
Harry stopped for a moment and looked back, staring at the new professor's retreating figure.
Then he slowly tilted his head to one side, watching him with quiet curiosity.
He kept his eyes on the professor's back for another brief moment before deciding it wasn't worth dwelling on.
"Yeah... this year definitely wasn't going to be boring," Harry murmured before picking up his pace once again.