Who Are You?

When Harry looked back to his table, he found Hermione and Ron bickering about their own pen names.

"Why can't I have my name to be Bookworm?" asked Hermione, already frustrated.

"Because it's too obvious. Everyone knows you're the only person who reads!" said Ron.

"Yeah! Like yours isn't obvious enough, Gryffindor Keeper!" Hermione shot back.

"Will you two stop arguing? You're giving me a headache!" said Harry, annoyed. "Just change both your names and get it done already!"

Hermione and Ron both scowled and kept quiet.

"See you guys in the common room, okay?" said Harry, getting up from his seat, ready to leave the Great Hall.

"Yeah, whatever..." mumbled Ron.

"See you, Harry!" said Hermione. "Remember to get your timetable from Professor McGonagall," she yelled; but Harry was already too far away to hear her.

They both got back to thinking of a less obvious pen name and the only sounds coming from them were the sound of scratching quills.

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Passing the Slytherin table, Harry saw Draco Malfoy asleep, resting his head on his next- door neighbour, Blaise, who was trying to push Draco's head away from him. Quietly laughing to himself, Harry left the Great Hall.

"That was a great opportunity to make fun of Malfoy. Why didn't I do it?" thought Harry. "Maybe I'm growing up!"

He reached the Gryffindor Common Room soon later (after tripping over one of the trick staircases and almost falling down the stairs).

"What a day!" he thought, and went up to his dormitory to find his trunk and Hedwig already there.

There was also a slip of parchment, exactly the same size as the one before, resting on his bed. He flipped it over and saw two words, in much better writing than his, written on it: Silver Snake.

In much tinier writing at the bottom of the parchment said:

This person will be your pen pal for the rest of the year. As soon as you have written your letter, sign off with your own pen name and your letter will be delivered to this person immediately. This procedure will be the same for the person writing to you. Letters from your own pen pal will be delivered to your dormitory and will be found on your bed, just like this slip of parchment. For any other questions, please report to me.

Sincerely,

Professor Dumbledore

Harry put the slip of parchment on his bedside table and went to sleep, thinking about the identity of this Silver Snake.

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Draco felt his head being pushed up and down, up and down. "Am I on a boat in the sea?" he thought.

"GET OFF, DRACO!" yelled someone in his ear.

Quickly, he shot out of his seat and jumped a few metres away from the table.

"Blaise?" he said, confused.

"Finally! You're awake! Did you know I've been trying to get you off my shoulder for half an hour? But you kept coming back. It was creepy!" he shuddered.

"I thought I was on a boat," said Draco, still confused. He looked around and saw that they were the only ones there. "Why didn't you wake me up? We have classes tomorrow, you know?" said Draco.

"I've been trying to!" yelled Blaise, getting annoyed. "Whatever. I'm going back to the common room. You can sleep here for all I care."

He left the hall and closed the doors behind him. Feeling rejected, Draco walked slowly back to his common room.

Stopping at the entrance, he said sleepily, "Pureblood." and waited for the entrance to open.

As soon as he arrived at his dorm, he changed into his pyjamas and lied down on his bed. Feeling something underneath him, he pulled it out and saw that it was a slip of parchment, just like the one at dinner.

"It must be the pen-pal thing," he thought. Ignoring the snores coming from Blaise and Theodore's beds, he decided to read the smaller writing at the bottom first. "This person will be your pen pal for the year, whatever. Like I need to know this stuff."

Looking to the bigger writing, he read out aloud, "Dark Rider."

"Cool pen name. Should have thought of that first," he thought.

He fell asleep holding the parchment in his hand and dreamt about the supposed Dark Rider until the sun arose.