His mask is slowly slipping (A drarry story)

"This year is gonna be normal...right"

Harry's pov

After the drama of returning to the Great Hall, we all settled into our tables, chatting while we waited for the first year's, though some people had tears threatening to fall while others looked grief stricken and pale , some even looked sick.

I was asking Neville questions about the succulents he sent me when I felt a couple of familiar gazes, I pointedly ignored them in favour of not starting anything with one of them and not wishing to over step the boundaries of the other ones.

While Neville was in the middle of explaining the right amount of water for each of the succulents per week , the doors of the Great Hall opened, revealing Mcgonagall leading a considerably smaller group of first year's.

Don't get me wrong there were still an awful lot of them , just less than usual, my guess is it has something to do with the war.

Zoning out , I didn't notice that the first year's got sorted nor did I notice that the food appeared , until Ron gave me a kick in the shin to snap me back.

Giving him a greatfull smile I tucked into some chicken wings and salad, when dessert appeared I ate some apple crumble, ignoring Hermione whose trying to get me to eat more. Apperantly.

Once everyone finished thier meals, the new 8th years were told to stay behind while the 1st years were lead by some of the other prefects.

Once the Hall had been emptied out Mcgonagall stood and ordered us to follow her. Silently and obediently we all followed her , after all she's still our Transfiguration teacher and extra Homework on the first night was a no go, not to mention she's the new Headmistress ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ were doomed aren't we?

I can feel my face start to pale as our predicament finally set in, then commen sense decided to join the party, reminding me we are not first year's, and have far more common sense and sense of responsibility, the colour started to return to my face, until I saw seamus shove Dean into a wall for saying something jokingly.

Trying to push those probably unnecessary thoughts out of my mind, I focused on where we were going, as well as how everyone was, many still look zoned out and will probably need help finding the  entrance to our place of residence tomorrow.

After a while we found ourselves infront of a painting of a lady playing a harp while a bunch of young girls seemed to be playing something similar to Ring a ring a Rosie, a few feet away from the lady.

The lady looked up a kind smile resting upon her face , "Hello darling's how are you lot hmm? I hope you guys find comfort within the walls of your residence, Password Minerva Dear?" Her gentle voice resembled luna's.

" Hello Dear, "Together as one the past, comes undone", the painting opened to reveal  a common room much like the one we had in Gryffindor Tower, but had accents of the Slytherin Common room I came to enjoy and I'm assuming designs from both the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw common rooms too.

While I was looking around I didn't notice that Mcgonagall had left until Ron pulled me away from staring at an oddly familiar painting.

He was giving out about something to do with the room arrangements but I wasn't really listening since I was trying to figure out why that painting was familiar, that is until Ron practically shoved me onto the bed I'm assuming is mine and started ranting about Hermione being far too stressed about the year that hasn't even started yet, the teachers decided it would be better if the students took a week to get used  to being back at Hogwarts, well except for the first year's their classes start the next day. While it's understandable that they most likely also had some sort of traumatic experience last year, they don't have traumatic experiences to do with the school and wouldn't profit from the time off.

Being back is probably gonna be really hard on everyone this week, looking around I realise there's 4 other beds in the room, only two of them are Gryffindor red the rest are Slytherin green, mine included.

Looking around confused I Questioned Ron.

"Hey Ron , why are the beds like this?", he tilts his head then shakes it slightly, he then says " Oh we have assigned dorms and beds,  they are all inter House mixed ,well...up to a point, luckily this means we can be roommates again!".

I nod and laugh, I forgot we didn't share dorms the last year we were here, "wait a second, who are our roomates?"

Looking down, Ron took a deep breath and said, " Neville, Theodore, Blaise and...Draco, I won't be that hard Harry we'll get through this year just fine we don't even have to talk to them if they don't want to talk to us!"

I flop down and groan, " let's just worry about one thing at a time , we'll get to them later right know we got someone else to worry about and you were just ranting about them"

He sighed and laid down on his bed, with a tired voice he asks "This year is gonna be normal...right?", as much as I hope it is, all I can answer is "As Normal as it can be at Hogwarts"

An hour later me and Ron are laughing about the time Hermione turned into a cat when the rest of our roomates bustled in, once our laughter fully ceased a tension could be felt rising to the air.

I couldn't bare the tension so I pulled the curtains round the bed, got up and grabbed my 'charms for defense' and hid away behind the curtains till I heard everyone else fall asleep.

Silently pulling open the curtains, I made sure not to make a single noise in hopes of not waking anyone up, I somehow forgot that I was a wizard who is perfectly capable of casting a silencing charm. Oh well.

Creeping down to the Common Room, I sat down next to the fire place and stared at the painting trying - and failing- to remember why that painting is so familiar, eventually my eyes became drowsy and the world became dark.

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨
Hey guys I'm so sorry for not being very active , I have a lot of school work and I was very sick over Christmas but I will upload more often I promise!!!, happy 2023 everyone!!! Hopefully it's better
This year!!!

💗💖💗💖Remember to love who you are my lovelies💗💖💗💖