Chapter 7
After five minutes of guessing the password with the other Professor’s the door finally opened. Voldemort (Quirrell) thought it was foolish to even have a password on the headmaster’s office doors, nonetheless, make all the professors guess it till he gets bored of waiting. Entering he and the other Professors sat down. Almost immediately Severus’s gaze shot at him, Voldemort suppressed a scowl. Voldemort knows Severus is just doing his job, he knew if Severus knew who he was he would help him collect the stone. When they did Albus stood up with a warm smile and said, “Hello, thank you for attending your annual meeting. Let us start at the beginning of our first-year list, Neville Longbottom…”
At this Voldemort tuned out the rest of the meeting and occasionally giving feedback on the students to not seem too suspicious. He quickly became aware when they were talking about the Slytherins, Draco Malfoy has been described as a powerful, but arrogant wizard for his age. Not too surprising as his father is Lucius Malfoy, an extremely loyal but arrogant death eater. Though his arrogance isn’t as obvious as the youngest Malfoy. Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle seem to just be average strength wizards but incredibly stupid. Or as Minerva put it “Less gifted in intellect” that isn’t too surprising either as their parents are the exact same. Lastly, Harry Potter’s name was brought up, he noticed the distinct sneer in Severus’s face.
“Mr. Potter is just like his father, when I respectfully asked him a question. Not only did he answer my question rudely he gave me cheek on how I was ‘targeting’ him. He clearly is no Slytherin as he gave himself detention FIRST DAY! He then proceeded to make a less then subpar potion; he is clearly a weak wizard.” Severus growled; Voldemort stared at him in shock. Whatever Severus was describing was a completely different boy then what he had met.
Minerva then looked offended and snapped, “Who on earth did you meet? Mr. Potter has not been anything but respectful in my class, and I refuse to believe the boy is weak.” She dug through the pockets of her rose before pulling out a small metal rose and she continued, “Mr. Potter made this after trying to give his needle a rose design. Not only was he the first one the complete the task but he transfigured this, and it stayed in its position all day! Yes, it may have been accidental but still a sign that he is obviously a powerful wizard.” At these words Severus remained quiet but glared at the metal rose. It was beautiful, it may be a bit pointy and lopsided but for a first attempt it was a miracle.
“Y-yes h-he h-h-as b-been p-p-proven to be a-a-a re-respectful s-student. I-I w-was e-even i-i-impressed.” Voldemort said with a fake stutter.
“Yes, I agree Professor Quirrell though I cannot have been the only teacher to notice something is off with him… Mr. Potter has not spoken to anyone unless he needed to, Mr. Malfoy seems to be the only one he has willingly spoke to.” Filius Flitwick mentioned, Voldemort tried not to glare at the goblin looking man. He knew this would have been mentioned at some point, but he did not want Albus being around the boy as much as possible. He did not want Potter being manipulated by the old coot; Voldemort shudders at the fact if the boy turns light, he may actually be a problem. Not that he is scared, he’s practically immortal with all of his horcruxes but it could still be an issue. Soon the talk about Potter faded away as everyone seemed to agree to ignore Flitwick’s comment about the boy. At this Voldemort completely tuned it out, he did not care if the youngest Weasley seems to be a bit of a bully.
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Harry is in the library reading a book about shields with his friend Malfoy who seems to be more interested in a potions book. They both sat in a comfortable silence when Draco finally speaks up, “Hey Potter, I was wondering how did you do that thing to Pansy? It was quite terrifying to witness.”
“I just stared at her and thought about how much pain I wanted her in. It’s really tiring to do, I felt so tired when I returned to my bed.” Harry states matter of fact as he flipped to the next page not bothering to look up at Malfoy who was staring at him with wide eyes.
“So, uh you did that wandless? What else can you do wandless!” Malfoy beamed when his senses came back. Harry just rolled his eyes and got up to put his book back and returned to Malfoy and said,
“C’mon Malfoy we should get to the common room before Professor Snape gives me another detention. Mind you he gave me a morning detention, so I have to wake up and head to his office immediately before school starts.” Malfoy just nodded and followed the smaller boy who was proving to be more interesting day after day. In the halls they fell into a comfortable silence, when they were near the dungeons they were stopped by a rather familiar red head.
Harry was the first one to speak as he said politely, “Hello Weasley, is there anything you need? Malfoy and I were just heading to our common room so do make it quick.” The youngest Weasleys face reddened, and Malfoy sniggered at the sight. Before the two Slytherins could speak the red-faced boy grabbed his wand and pointed it at them. Malfoy’s eyes widened, but Harry’s remained cold and neutral.
“Weasley, I do not understand what makes you think this is a good idea. Nor do I know WHY you’re choosing to do this, so please lower your wand before a teacher catches you.” Harry said raising his arms, then motioned for Malfoy to do the same thing. Malfoy was about to fight back until he realized what he was planning. Malfoy smirked and raised his arms and then spoke loudly enough for the other students in the hall to hear,
“Potter and I are unarmed Weasley, it would not be very noble to hurt us for no apparent reason.” At this most of the kids in the corridor stopped to see the two Slytherins arms up and a Gryffindor pointing his wand at them.
“YOU ARE A BLOODY TRAITOR, POTTER! YOU ARE ALREADY DARK YOU SLIMY SNAKE!” Before Harry could respond he saw two other Slytherins walk up and blocked Harry and Malfoy from the sight of the red head. He could recognize one of them, Marcus Flint, a fifth year and a nameless third year.
“Careful Weasley” Flint said with a sneered as he stared at the paling first year. The third-year boy chuckled and said with a dark menacing voice, “Indeed wouldn’t wanna piss of the ‘slimy snakes’ as you call us. Now go away before I curse you.” With that the youngest Weasley ran away, Harry could swear he heard a squeak coming from the boy as he ran. Chuckling he held out his hand for the third year and said,
“I know probably know this by now, but my name is Harry Potter.” The third year smiled a toothy grin and grabbed his hand tight and said in a cool tone,
“Names Ricky Verner, heir of the Verner family.” He then let go of the handshake and continued speaking, “I’m not really an old pureblood family, but we are one, nonetheless. Though call me Rick, I hate the name Verner.” Flint stepped in and held out his hand for Harry to shake, which Harry took his hand gracefully and firmly.
“Pleased to see you in our house Potter, though be careful with the Gryffindors. As you saw they hold a form of resentment towards you for not being in their house. I’ll inform the headmaster of out house. Goodbye. Come now Rick we shan’t take too much of their time.” At that Rick and Flint hurriedly left. Malfoy smirked and they promptly walked into the dungeons. Soon they sat down on the leather couch simply watching the fire burn.
“Hey Potter, call me Draco.” Draco said randomly breaking the silence between the two. Harry looked at Draco who looked back at him.
“Sure, Draco. Call me Harry then, Potter is too formal for me anyway.” Harry said turning his attention back to the fire. “Do you know what Flint and Rick were doing? They should have been going to the common room like us.” Harry said coldly curling himself in a ball, he felt oddly gloomy as if he was six and was forced to live in the orphanage again.
Draco seemed to be the opposite as he smiled and said, “Harry what do you know of the dark arts?” Harry immediately straightened his posture and looked at Draco suspiciously, Draco oldy rolled his eyes and said, “Don’t worry Harry, I won’t say a word to anyone if you practice it. Anyway, were did you grow up? Surely with a pureblood family, though to be honest that’s pretty young to be learning the dark arts…”
“I’ve never personally practiced it, but I have a book on it. I bought in Diagon Alley, Headmaster Dumbledore said it was barley legal though. I’ve only read a couple of pages. So, from what I know of the dark arts is that some of it is highly illegal, but it is surprisingly uncommon to see a fellow witch or wizard practice it. Some magical people can even fledge themselves to it and become dark wizards and witches, while some practice it occasionally.” Harry stated leaving out the fact Professor Quirrell will send him a book of spells on the subject.
Draco’s smirk seemed to have widened to a full smile and said, “Okay well as its clear that you don’t mind it too much, I feel comfortable with stating that Verner and Flint are going to preform a special blood ritual that you can only do at the beginning of every school year. Basically, they are going to kill a unicorn and mix their own blood with it, it will make them live two times longer than the average wizard! Though I personally don’t recommend doing it as the side affect makes them have a cursed life.” Draco and Harry both shuddered at the thought. Harry was about to respond but Draco’s friends came in the room.
Getting up and saying a quick goodbye he dispersed to the boy’s dorm room. It’s not that Harry disliked the other Slytherins, its just that too many people make him uncomfortable. He doesn’t like being outnumbered, even if they are friends and not foes. Sighing Harry quickly gets his pajamas and dashes for the shower, as he happily takes a long hot shower. Twenty minutes later he gets out and gets dressed and snuggles into his warm bed. The gloomy feeling however did not go away, so he did his best to ignore it. Though the new thought that was forcing itself in Harry’s thoughts was how nervous he was for Professors Snape’s detention. He did not know the man very well, he seems like the person to support corporal punishment. He just hopes then school banned the method.
Sighing Harry closed his eyes and soon fell asleep.
A few hours later Harry pulled awake violently shaking, he usually has dreams of the Dursleys of the orphanage, but this was different. He was walking around in a void of pure darkness, his wand in his wand as well when he dumped into a dark figure. His scare hurt tremendously, and the dark figure gave him and evil grin and whispered, “Come” over and over. Though each whisper was slowly getting louder until it was all around him piercing his ears. Sighing Harry looked around, everyone seemed to be in bed still and his clock said it was 5:06 Am. Deciding that there was no way he will be able to sleep again tonight he got up and walked over to his trunk. He quickly grabbed his clothes for the day and put them on. Flopping back on his bed he grabbed his wand and thought of light, soon a small blue light flickered out of it, and he grabbed his “Theory on the Dark Arts” book and proceeded to read.
For what felt to be only few minutes turned out to be over an hour as he heard his fellow Slytherins wake up. Looking back at his clock it said 6:30, quickly put his book away and went to the common room to read his book on potions. At 7 AM all the Slytherins seemed to come out at the same time, Draco with his assailants, Crabbe and Goyle. Soon they all headed to the great hall for breakfast, while Harry walked over to Professors snape's office. When he arrived at the door he knocked, and the doors flew open revealing his professor sitting on his desk reading assignments. He turned to look at Harry and sneered,
“Come in.”