Chapter 88: 8th September 1991, Sunday: Part 3

George looked to his left and right and noticed the two boys, who had been talking to Theodore, hadn't run away with him. They were both boys who were quite short for their age but they had large physiques to compensate. Their hair and eyes were the same light brown colour, George wondered if they were brothers. The main physical difference separating them was their hairstyles, one's hair was long and well-combed and the other's hair was very short like a military buzz cut.

He spoke to them politely, "I remember you two guys from the greenhouse, I rudely butted into your conversation with Theodore.

I really meant what I said to Theodore and I'm sorry for being such an arse. Can you guys forgive me?"

The two boys looked at each other whilst smiling which greatly befuddled George. He was expecting them to act similar to Theodore, they should have either run away or gotten angry.

The boy to his left with the buzz cut said, "don't worry about it, we would have reacted the same in your position. We heard about the accident you had in the Great Hall during the Sorting Hat Ceremony, it sounded like you fried your brain pretty good. That, plus all the pressure of being a muggle-born in Slytherin would drive anyone crazy."

George was taken aback by how understanding these two boys were, they were acting far more mature than someone their age ort to. It seemed there was no need for him to give some elaborate performance to justify his actions since they had already done that for him.

George smiled and held out his hand, "I was starting to think I wouldn't have a single friend in the Slytherin house. As I'm sure you're already aware, I'm George Linwood."

The boy with the buzz cut shook George's hand, "nice to finally meet you George. I'm Grant Rylan and my cous…"

The boy with the long hair interrupted, "I'm Quinton Thane. I was wondering when I would finally get the chance to talk to the infamous George Linwood."

George shook Quinton's hand and he had a significantly firmer grip than Grant, it felt like Quinton was testing his strength. If Quinton was looking for a show of might, then he picked the wrong person. George could probably break this boy's fingers if he squeezed hard enough. Instead, George matched the boy's strength and slowly increased the pressure from there until Quinton stopped squeezing. He had to give some credit to Quinton, the boy didn't give in until his hand started turning purple. As unusual as the 'handshake' was, George was far too distracted thinking about their names, they seemed familiar to him. He searched through the list of important figures in his memory and couldn't find anyone with their surnames.

Quinton shook his aching hand a few times before saying, "weirdly strong, eats like a starved animal and sleeps all through the day. Maybe Theodore was right about you."

At that moment their name's finally clicked in George's mind, the answer should have been obvious since Theodore had been spending so much time with these two.

George snapped his fingers and pointed toward them, "I share my dorm room with you guys, right? I can't believe I've only just met you two."

The two similar-looking boys looked at each other before breaking out into laughter. Grant seemed particularly amused as he grabbed George's shoulder boisterously and shook him.

"You have to be joking? Are you trying to tell us that you've only just worked that out? It's been like a week", Grant sarcastically asked.

George shrugged off Grant's arm and retorted, "how could I have known? You've never been around when I go to sleep or wake up. This is literally the first time we've met."

Quinton rebutted, "that's because you go to sleep before anyone else and always wake up late. I had to tell Theodore to throw a shoe at you just to make sure you didn't miss breakfast."

Now George knew where Theodore had gotten that idea from, he had his other roommates to blame. Hearing Theodore's name reminded him why he was talking to these two in the first place, he recalled what Quentin had said just before he had realised who they were.

George asked Quinton, "what was that you were saying about Theodore? Something to do with him being right about me."

Quinton and Grant both smirked after hearing George's question, their attitude appeared to be far more relaxed than his.

Quinton leaned forward and spoke quietly so only their group could hear, "Theodore seems to think you're some sort of monster posing as one of the students. Get this, he told us your eyes turned red during the Sorting Hat Ceremony. We thought that he was joking at first, but we quickly realised he was genuinely terrified of you, he really thinks you're not human."

George was right and Theodore had indeed seen his eyes change colour, it appeared Theodore had come to his own conclusions which were surprisingly accurate. The important question was if these boys had been influenced by Theodore's speculation.

George asked them nervously, "you don't believe him, do you?"

The two boys chuckled yet again before Quinton said, "we're not idiots. Of course we don't believe him, who would? Just because you got a little angry once doesn't mean you're some sort of man-eating beast.

Theodore's just a bit freaked out after your breakdown, give him a few more weeks and he'll probably be fine."

George was relieved to find out that his secret was safe for the time being. Hopefully, Quinton was right and Theodore would eventually convince himself that he had been seeing things when George's eyes changed colour. He would have to double down on his nice guy persona around these two for the foreseeable future. Since Quintin and Grant were being quite friendly with George, he decided to try and use them to manipulate Theodore on his behalf.

George asked them apprehensively while scratching the back of his head, "do you think you guys could, I don't know, talk to Theodore for me? Maybe try and help him understand. I don't like the idea that I'm sharing a room with someone who's petrified of me because they think I'm some sort of monster."

Grant stepped forward and reassured George, "no problem. We've already been trying to convince him that Hogwarts is one of the safest places in the country, there is no way the professors would let monsters wander around the corridors let alone pose as students. Don't worry about it, we'll keep an eye on him."

Since that was probably the best George could ask for under the circumstances, he felt it was a good point to end his first conversation with his dorm mates. He still had a potential explosion in the shape of an alarm clock sitting in his pocket. Of course, he would have to exchange pleasantries before politely getting on with his day.

George looked left and right down the corridor before asking, "I need to go to the Library and finish some homework I've been putting off, do you guys want to join me?"

Practically every student on the planet would avoid wasting their weekends doing homework and would much rather leave it until the night before. This rule was even more extreme when George considered this was the first week of term and all the first years just wanted to explore the castle. Only Hermione was mad enough to agree to his proposition, there was a high chance she was already in the Library. After hearing George's suggestion, both of the boys looked at him awkwardly.

Grant looked like he was about to say something, but Quinton spoke before he had the chance, "look... George, you seem really cool but we can't be seen hanging around with you."

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Grant quickly spoke after Quinton, "it's our parents, our mother's actually. It's hard to explain…"

Quinton jabbed Grant's ribs with his elbow to stop him from talking and whispered, "we're not supposed to talk about that."

Grant didn't back down as he insisted, "his problems are far worse than ours, it's not like he's going to go around spreading rumours. We should at least explain why we can't be seen talking to him."

Quinton appeared to be debating what decision to make, his face was scrunched up whilst he looked towards the ground. However, Grant didn't have the patience to wait and took the initiative whilst Quinton was indecisive.

Grant turned back towards George and started explaining, "we can't draw attention to ourselves because…"

"Not here", Quinton interrupted whilst covering Grant's mouth.

Quinton pointed towards a dark narrow corridor to their left, "we'll talk down there."

George, Grant and Quinton walked down the dark corridor until they were completely shrouded in shadow. George had become quite interested to hear what was so secretive that these two eleven-year-olds wouldn't talk about it in public.

Quinton took a deep breath before elaborating on Grant's explanation, "Grant and I are cousins and our mothers are sisters. We're also half-bloods since our fathers are muggles. You've probably already started to notice that Slytherin students don't really like wizards with muggle parents."

George confirmed Quinton's assumption, "yeah, I learnt that day one and that's why I don't hang around the Slytherin common room. But you're only half-bloods, surely it can't be that bad for you."

Grant complimented George's initiative, "it's for the best that you keep your head down, there are lots of people in Slytherin who are going to find any excuse to have you kicked out of the school. You should keep your eye out for Draco Malfoy, his father hates muggles and has a lot of influence in the ministry."

Quinton looked uncomfortable as he attempted to get the conversation back on track, "we can talk about Malfoy another day.

Anyway, you'd be right to think that half-bloods wouldn't be treated as badly but it's different for us…"

Quinton nervously checked over his shoulder to see if anyone was watching them from afar before he continued, "I can't tell you which but our mothers used to be part of a very elite pureblood family. Both of our mothers didn't like the way their parents treated muggles so they ran away from home and hid in the muggle world, that's where they met our fathers. Our grandparents found out about our mothers getting married to muggles and disowned them in response."

George nodded his head in understanding, "so you're worried that your mother's pureblood family might 'do' something to you guys whilst you're at Hogwarts."

Both Grant and Quinton nodded their heads simultaneously.

Grant smiled awkwardly, "you're currently the most talked-about first year in Slytherin at the moment, there are a lot of powerful people keeping a close eye on you. Our mothers made us promise not to draw any unnecessary attention to ourselves so we could avoid getting into trouble. That's why we can't be seen being friends with you, at least for the time being."

Quinton apologised, "we can still talk in private but not in the Great Hall or the common room. I know this is really uncool of us but we don't have a choice."

George surprised the two of them by holding up his hands and smiling. He understood the problem perfectly and was quite happy with their attitude. They had impressed him greatly with their mature perspective and self-discipline. He couldn't blame them for playing the game since he was doing the exact same thing. Also, George saw this as an opportunity. The potential to learn some dirty little secrets about the upper echelons of wizard society, count him in.

He reassured them calmly, "I totally understand, say no more. I would have done the same in your position. As long as you guys promise me to keep an eye on Theodore, I don't mind acting like Billy-no-mates. I have a few friends in Gryffindor anyway so I'll just sit at their table if I get bored."

Grant was looking at George in disbelief, "you're really okay with us pretending not to know you."

George merely shrugged his shoulders, "yep, that's fine with me."

Quinton asked hesitantly, "can you keep everything we just told you a secret?"

George chuckled, "who am I going to tell, my imaginary pure-blood friends? Your secret is safe with me."

Quinton relaxed after hearing George's guarantee, the idea of breaking his mother's promise must have put a lot of stress on him. The dark corridor fell into an awkward silence as nobody knew what to say next.

Then George clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "well, that homework isn't going to write itself. I better be off then."

Grant and Quinton anxiously smiled and nodded their heads.

George turned around and looked down the corridor, "I'll leave first. You guys should leave a minute after me so nobody sees us together. Sound like a plan?"

Quinton kept nodding while saying, "sounds good."

Without another word, George left the dark corridor and immediately headed towards the moving staircases without looking back. He hadn't considered his roommates in his plans besides Theodore, but, Quinton and Grant's circumstances might provide him with the leverage to turn them into useful pawns for his patron. He would have to do some research to try and find out who their mothers are and what pure-blood family they're related to. He knew that people would do anything to protect their families, Quinton and Grant should be no exception.

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