84 Chapter 84
As much as Chad had changed the timeline with his meddling, Remus Lupin still rode the Hogwarts express to the start of year three of Harry Potter's magical schooling.
Though admittedly, there were no escaped Azkaban prisoners or Dementors to worry about with Sirius free and Pettigrew dead. Though Chad was just as on edge as his canon counterpart was at this moment in time.
But the difference was that he was not concerned about escaped prisoners, if there was going to be a jailbreak, it would be him doing it! No, it was the unknown that had him scanning his surroundings for threats.
Chad had been complaining about being bored last year with no drama popping out to distract him and Phoenix Tears solving most of his projects. Now he just wished for hints about what Dumbledore was scheming.
"Boredom is the downside of control, the inevitable moment of boredom you reach when nothing is unexpected, and everything goes according to your plan all of the time."
This was a quote from a fanfiction he read in his previous life, and he could absolutely relate. When he had everything under control with his foreknowledge, things did become dull.
However, the opposite of boredom was entertainment, but unfortunately, Chad was always involved in any excitement to be had. Rather than watching on from the sidelines, he was dragged into life-threatening situations.
It had been okay for that main character, he was a four-thousand-year-old immortal Vampire. Chad had an average human body, albeit a little more robust thanks to slight magical adjustments, but still squishy and mortal.
There was a fine line between wishing for something to happen for entertainment and having a perverted old man weaving webs of intrigue around your life.
For the umpteenth time, Chad lamented about not just offing the old bastard when he had the chance. But he liked to be methodical in his plans, and creating a power gap from the Dark Lord's death would cause more problems than it was worth.
The potential death of his house-elf minions in such an operation aside, if Dumbledore was mysteriously murdered, and then Chad had Rita denounce the old man as an evil Dark Lord, the people would focus more on the killer than any of Dumble's past misdeeds.
Not to mention, there was no evidence, not even anecdotal, of the man's transgressions. Nobody was going to come forward and incriminate themselves with nothing to gain by doing so.
Chad had wanted to manoeuvre himself into the perfect position to take over all of the old man's power-base first, not just give it to some upstart with dreams of grandeur for free.
He also had to find out if Dumbledore had a Horcrux hidden away. Chad wouldn't put it past him considering his lack of morality, access to Phoenix Tears and the knowledge to do so.
And this wasn't even touching on all of the 'Dark' wizards that were mostly kept in line from the deterrent the extremely powerful old wizard that faced off against the previous two Dark Lords presented.
Lucius Malfoy would be a lot more active if there was no one to fear keeping him in line, and he certainly didn't fear the Ministry of Magic. He owned it after all.
No, even with how badly Dumbledore had been b*tch slapped in court, he was still the boogeyman for the 'Light' faction that kept everyone toeing the line. In Chad's opinion, a Dumbledore in the wind was probably even more fearsome as he wasn't held back by his positions and titles.
Still, as Chad watched the hobo that was apparently their new teacher try and time it so that they shared a carriage ride to the castle, he couldn't help but be on guard.
"We will get the next one, sir, please go ahead." Chad politely offered the vagabond werewolf.
"Its no bother, plenty of room for all of us," Remus responded amicably.
When Neville and Hermione were about to move forward to accept the man's suggestion of sharing, Chad held their robes and gently pulled them back.
"That's awfully kind of you, but I'm afraid there are private matters I wish to discuss with my friends. See you at the feast, sir."
And with that, Chad steered his two minions towards another carriage being towed by Thestrals. With all of the death and slaughter Chad had witnessed in his second life, their appearance was guaranteed.
Remus not being entirely made retarded by Dumbledore's brainwashing, let them go. Trying to force the issue would only make matters worse.
"What was all of that about Harry? You didn't want us to share a compartment with the unfortunate man on the train either." Hermione asked, hinting at her disapproval in shunning what she thought a pauper once again.
"Before you get all defensive of a stranger, that man is our new DADA Professor. He was a friend of Sirius and my parents back in their Hogwarts days, and I rather have as little contact with the man as possible." Said Chad, preempting any argument about being kind to those less fortunate.
Remus really needed to update his wardrobe and have some self-respect, his 'down on his luck' fashion statement really gave a poor first impression. Surely Dumbledore could spare a few Galleons for a wardrobe update, especially considering his penchant for flashy robes!
"But if he was a friend with your parents, why don't you want to talk to him?" Asked a confused Neville.
With his tragic parental situation, he couldn't comprehend not wanting to associate with people that admired the parents idolised. Chad should probably get around to curing Neville's mum and dad soon, maybe after another year of conditioning the boy.
Although he was coming along nicely and his mindset was slowly changing to suit Chad's ambition, he didn't need the two people he revered coming back and derailing all the hard work he had done training Neville to be his right-hand man.
"That would be because he worships the ground Albus Dumbledore walks on and left Sirius and me to our fate without ever once checking in on us. The man is a traitor as far as I am concerned, to treat your best friends like that, I shudder to think of how he treats his enemies."
With them now shocked silent, they grabbed the next available carriage. Once everyone was seated, and the supposedly magic-powered carriage took off, the conversation resumed.
"So what secret did you want to tell us, Harry?" Asked the lovable dork that was Neville Longbottom.
"That was just an excuse Neville, Harry was trying to be polite when refusing the new Professor." Hermione helpfully informed the boy.
'Yes, there was definitely still a lot to work on with Neville.' He thought to himself.
"We probably should be on guard with Lupin, though, he is a werewolf after all." Chad supplied, helping Neville regain some dignity from the faux pas.
"Seriously, his last name is Lupin, and he's a werewolf? Is this a wizarding Family thing, or did he change his name after becoming a werewolf." Asked Hermione in disbelief.
"Why does his surname matter? I don't see the connection." Asked a confused Neville, missing the wolf reference.
Even though most spells in the wizarding world used a bastardised version of Latin, very few actually studied the language. Whether it was to keep them from unintentionally casting spells or just laziness was unclear.
"Lupine comes from lupus, Latin for 'wolf', and its related adjective Lupinus, 'wolfish'. If it was unintentional, then it is a huge coincidence. A surname one letter away from meaning wolf when you are a werewolf, how droll." Answered Hermione, going into teaching mode.
"That's not including that one of the mythical twins that created Rome, purported to have suckled at the teat of a she-wolf, was named Remus," Chad added.
Hermione gazed at Chad fondly, impressed by his knowledge of historical legends as well as his good looks.
With Chad then commenting that it was as if an uninspired fiction writer supplied the family name, they launched into an amusing conversation about it until they arrived at the castle. They had already exhausted talking about their future subjects on the train ride.
Chad had talked Hermione out of attending every elective offered to students in their third year at Hogwarts. Growing up in the muggle world, what need could she possibly have to take that class? Well, other than to laugh at the outdated curriculum being taught.
She had ended up taking the same subjects Chad had chosen, Study of Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, and Care of Magical Creatures. Even Neville had ended up choosing them, but whether it was out of personal desire, to share classes with his friends, or because Hermione browbeat him into it, was unclear.
Because Hagrid was missing in action thanks to Dumbledore's schemes, Professor Silvanus Kettleburn was still the teacher for Care of Magical Creatures and had put off his retirement.
The man sitting at the teacher's table looked like a chewed up piece of meat thanks to all of his injuries, so it could be his last year teaching. McGonagall must be desperately searching for his replacement.
From the way that the Ravenclaw students were whispering about the new DADA teacher, it seems Chad's earlier thoughts on the man's clothing choice had been correct. They all thought it would be another year of self-study thanks to an incompetent teacher.
Though the books described Remus Lupin as a competent Professor, Chad wasn't going to hold his breath. This version of Lupin appeared to have been more thoroughly 'altered' to suit Dumbledore's agenda, anything was possible.
"He is surrounded by Wrackspurts, I hope he is okay." Came Luna Lovegood's dreamy announcement.
The whispered gossip came to a brief halt as the Ravenclaw students took the time to stare at the blonde-headed girl calmly snacking on pudding after saying something so outlandish.
"What's a Wrackspurt?" Asked one of the first years that had just been sorted, ignorant of Luna's eccentricities.
"Don't listen to Loony Lovegood, she's mental." Said Terry Boot.
"Wrackspurts are invisible. They float in through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy, I thought I felt some zooming around in here." Replied the petite girl while once again staring at Remus, unconcerned with the derision and mockery coming from the older students.
This was the first time they had been brave enough to publically tease her and at the welcoming feast no less! The holidays must have made them neglectful of punishment from Professors, that or they had become brave after a year of no repercussions to their bullying.
Luna Lovegood was a bit of a touchy subject for Chad. Not because he didn't like her or was worried about any reputation hit from associating with her.
No, it had more to do with the numerous fanfictions that painted her as a seer or a prophet. Chad was unwilling to risk exposure by associating with the girl that gave off an aura of being mildly insane. Even if she was more amusing in action than Lockhart was.
So he had continued to watch her from afar. It was a good thing he could hide with spells, otherwise he would look like a creepy stalker the few times he curiously spied on her.
Just like with all other students, he had been cordial in the few instances that they had actually talked. His reputation as friendly and accessible to those that asked for aid, firmly entrenched now after the second year of polite helpfulness.
But as he witnessed the slow ramp-up of isolation and bullying of the poor girl, he had confirmed that she was not prophetic like had been assumed by fans, she was just a girl traumatised by her mother's death. She was also overly candid with her views and opinions.
Nothing that suggested she knew Chad was borderline evil and wanted to take over the Earth politically and economically. That was made clear by her only blurting out how the Nargles were hiding her stuff, and not how Chad was trolling Professor Lockhart for his own amusement.
Chad had expected the bullied girl to try and come to him for help, seeing as he was renowned for being a hero and accepting of all students no matter their station in life. Particularly when the teacher had not done anything about the overt bullying.
But to his surprise, Luna Lovegood had just calmly accepted the horrendous treatment by children picking on the person amongst them that was different, and just continued to skip along the halls of Hogwarts, learning magic spells that were questionable at best in their usefulness.
With her not being some overpowered seer, her devil-may-care attitude only made her more interesting to Chad and plans to befriend her soon started to develop, or at least stop actively hiding from her.
But just like with Neville and Hermione, jumping in and helping her too early would see him lose half of the goodwill obtained than if he would have waited a bit longer.
And so he had waited and continued to watch Luna Lovegood skip through the halls while slowly being disillusioned of House unity by her fellow Ravenclaw housemates' persecution.
They stood by and watched other Houses tease and denounce her as a lunatic before they laughed and then joined in. During this time, Chad made absolutely sure he was not seen anywhere near the confrontations.
If she noticed him ignoring her, it would label him as just another person complicit in her exile. That would make all of his waiting for nothing if she viewed him in the same boat as her other tormentors.
That was, until now.
