9 January 1993, Hogwarts
The Court of Slytherin was one of the few mysteries of the school that Harry didn't fully know about. Oh, he knew about the members and the politics, but the history of that particular group was absent from any book in the castle. The Potter scion was better off reading diaries that students threw away in the Room of Hidden Things, to find any information on how the Court was created.
To be perfectly honest, that information was the only reason that Harry would even consider joining the court, and honestly, it wasn't that important to him in the long run. But to have the opportunity just come in front of him, Harry didn't see the issue to take a peek at the proceedings of the court.
The truth was apart from the general knowledge about the court, there was no specific information about the court. They were like the eyes in the dark, that punished those who had broken the unwritten rules of Slytherin. They did it discreetly, from the shadows. They knew everyone's pressure points and acted on them. Harry honestly thought that there might be someone with a modicum of intelligence in this group, and it was an exciting thing to see.
So, considering the way the court has operated previously, summoning Harry like this was an irregular occurrence. For one, it was commonly known that they did not involve themselves with younger students, especially not the first and second years. The occasional third year that goes too far might get their attention, but as far as Harry knows, the court shouldn't care about him.
And the second thing was that the court often dealt with people discreetly. They didn't send letters to the common room to summon other students, or Harry would have heard about it. So, the conclusion is easy to make and inevitable.
With a cheeky grin on his face, Harry followed the green light, which brought him to the entrance to the ritual room. Harry walked down until the light seemed to get inside a hidden door behind a stairway. His Arcane Hearing could pick the faint warding scheme on the door. It didn't come close to the actual wards of the castle, which had a lot more flavour, if he had to put it into words.
Anyway, the wards picked up the magic coming from the wax seal and allowed him entry. Huh, that was pretty unsafe way to put anyone into the wards; it would be somewhat simple to copy the magic from the wax and get inside easily. Harry's abilities made it somewhat easy to do that, but any amateur curse breaker had to master the skill, even if it was a lot harder for them to implement and necessitated a lot of advanced arithmancy.
Anyway, Harry decided to enter the room, and the moment he stepped in, the door behind him melded into a wall, blocking the entrance. Interesting, an intimidation tactic…
The torches lit up by their own, revealing a corridor, and Harry walked towards its end and saw a door that was almost as large as that of the Great Hall. The Potter scion spread his senses and noticed that the enchantments on the door were far more powerful than the ones on the previous entrance.
The door itself was imposing; it was made of polished stone and had engravings that felt alive, with a faint ethereal light that illuminated the markings. Serpents slithered and entwined in a dance of magic, their eyes glowing with an otherworldly intensity. They were staring at him as if challenging him to enter the room behind it. This was what he wanted to see. Something new. Something truly magical. Interestingly, when the Potter scion looked closer there were exactly twenty snakes.
The serpents didn't really try to see if he was allowed to enter, and the door opened from his own. Oh, they had opened it from the inside. When he peered into the room, Harry saw almost two dozen people wearing green wooden masks of various snakes and sitting in what looked to be an amphitheatre. In the centre was a chair that was almost filled to the brim with restraining charms that would immobilize the person that sat on it in seconds the moment they were activated.
Oh, so it was this kind of meeting. Well, that changed things.
The man sitting at the helm spoke up first, "Harry Potter. Take a seat so that this hearing would proceed."
He was wearing the biggest mask with scales surrounding him, with yellow eyes and horns. A Basilisk, then, the King of Serpents, so that must be the king of the court. When he spoke, the serpent moved his mouth with him. His voice was deep, modulated, and filled with authority.
Yeah, Harry wasn't going to sit down in that death trap of a chair, "You know what, I'd prefer to stand. You know, they say that sitting is one of the biggest causes of death in developed nations. Plus, standing has proven to be healthier, increases productivity, and just looks cooler."
"What?" the man just sounded confused. It was just so funny to see this illusion of intimidation fall apart with a single question.
Harry clapped his hand, pretending that the man just didn't understand what he was saying, "Well, picture someone doing something heroic. Now, was he sitting or was he standing? That's exactly my point. It's also a lot easier to think while walking around."
"Just sit down, Potter!" one of the people wearing an Ashwinder mask on the right yelled out.
Harry just raised an eyebrow, "Well, I tried to be polite, but if you think I'm sitting anywhere near that deathtrap of a chair, then you're very mistaken."
"Potter," a woman in a dark horned serpent mask, who was sitting at the right of the king, responded, "this is a hearing to decide your guilt in breaking the unwritten rules. Having you sit on the chair is traditional for court hearings for centuries."
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