Implementing Changes

"Ares!" Someone shouted in my ear.

"Huh?" I say intelligently trying to fight off sleep. History of Magic was the most boring class in Hogwarts, the only person able to keep awake is Hermione and no one can figure out how she manages it. Blaise is standing their with an amused expression on his face, "Class is over, you were the one who asked us to meet at the library, so come on!" He punctuates with a kick to the shin.

"Damn it Blaise, I'm coming!" I say while gathering my things and joining him on a trek to the library. We arrived early and I see that everyone else is here besides Luna. I motioned everyone to quiet down so that I can say something.

"Hey guys, I've invited someone else to our study group. Her name is Luna Lovegood and she is a ravenclaw first-year." I say before Daphne cuts me off.

"You mean that weird girl that wears corks as jewelry that looked like she was drunk after she was sorted? Black, this is political suicide, if Nott hears about it he'll use it to take over as Prince this year." Daphne said in irritaion. She had gotten accustomed to being over the competing group in our year and didn't like Ares risking their position.

Theodore Nott is who took over from Draco as our main antagonist. It was quite amusing to see how little loyalty he had from his friends compared to me. I wouldn't hold my breath about Daphne, she's much to Slytherin to throw her lot in with anyone completely. I always keep an eye on what I say around her. The rest on the other hand I'm fairly certain are loyal to me. Blaise is my right hand and didn't abandon me with everything that happened with the Prince's, Tracey will follow after Daphne but as long as I have her I'll have Tracey. Millicent is completely loyal since no one else would have her, whether for her looks or blood status.

"I know, but this is something I've decided on. Be kind to her, I don't care if you have to bite your tongue off. She will be a great asset to us later on down the road." I say while glaring at her to let her know not to challenge me on this.

She obviously didn't notice or didn't care, "And what use could we possibly have for her? A mascot?" She finished in a mocking tone. I snarl and stand up from my desk and her hand shoots to her wand. Blaise was glaring at her hard, while Tracey's hand had also slipped under the table while she looked at Blaise with a neutral tone. Millicent didn't seem to have noticed how tense the situation was and was eating a bag of chips.

Silence stretches over us as I say, "My decisions are not for you to question Greengrass," I say in a frigid tone. She flinched and I continued, "She has an incredible gift that I will leave a secret for now. But trust me when I say it will be undeniably useful." I finish while staring into Daphne's eyes. I let it go unsaid that it was only being kept secret because of Daphne.

Everyone perked up at the thought of an unknown gift. Mage Sight was an incredibly rare and sought after gift that would help us immensely. They usually use the sight for locating and identifying wards without great injury. Daphne's hand left her wand and everyone calmed down. I continued the conversation with them letting them know to treat Luna well. My suspicion meter has gone up a lot for Daphne. Some might say it I'm being paranoid, but they obviously don't understand Slytherin politics. What she did was challenge me to see if she could to see if she could manipulate me. If I had her take an inch, she's take a mile, and I won't let her decide how I run things.

Luna joined us soon after and everyone was cordial to her, except for Daphne who did her best to be as short as possible while bordering on rudeness. Blaise was a fast friend with Luna, he said that all people are weird and her being weird was just her being more open then others. Millicent and Tracey had the decency to be nice to her, though I could easily tell they were uncomfortable.

It was a tense situation the rest of the hour, but finally we packed up and went our separate ways. Me, Luna, and Blaise were the last to leave and she took that as a sign to speak up in her usual dreamy tone, "I don't think your other friends like me much Ares. Maybe it's the Nargles."

"No they don't." I say in an even tone.

Blaise choked before saying, "You must be tired because all your subtlety has left the building Ares."

I chuckle and say, "I won't lie to you Luna, I thought they were better than that. I feel that Millicent can grow to like you, but Daphne will dislike you out of spite of me, and Tracey will agree to whatever Daphne says."

I then explain what happened prior to her arrival." Yes I got that feeling as well, it's a shame about Tracey, but she's a vassal and needs to follow Daphne." Luna said and while Blaise looked surprised, I wasn't. They've kept it as secret as possible but Lucius has great connections and drilled me on the important people to get to know before I came to Hogwarts. Tracey's house is a Vassel to House Greengrass, which means that they owe a substantial amount of money to them and can't pay it within a certain time period, so they sold themselves basically to serve their family for a certain time until the debt was paid.

I glance over at Blaise when he sighs and he says, "So what do we do if Daphne betrays us?"

I take a deep breath. Betrayal was something I knew intimately and I'll be watching for it. 'I guess I'll add Obliviate to my lesson plan.' I think as I go over what I know of the spell. It's a memory charm that deletes certain memory from the target. It is a NEWT level spell so casting it with the amount of finesse I need will take a while to learn. Any spell that deals with the brain is always risky and one wrong move and your target is brain dead. Since I don't plan on adding a body count so early I need to get it right as soon as possible.

We leave for the common rooms before a charm that the Princes gave me warms. It seems like we'll be having another meeting soon, likely to discuss the incoming 1st-year Slytherins to watch for Prince. I've been to one other meeting since the first and decidedly laid low. I couldn't focus on such menial issues while my death was such a real possibility. Now I'm in a much more stable position to start implementing some changes into Slytherin.

I strode into the King room with as much of a pompous attitude that I could muster and sit in the chair marked two. The others trickled in as Lyra Macnair's eyes never left me. Once everyone was seated they discussed a couple of things ranging from the Quidditch team, to the new Prince, who they have decided would be Flora Carrow a pureblood that just sorted here. Lyra told us to watch her and see if she displays the traits we are looking for in a Prince. I chuckle at how they don't even use Queen or Princess for the female members of the higher echelon. It really shows how backwards they think and how blindly they'll follow traditions. Lyra must have heard me chuckling and asked in an annoyed tone, "Is there something you would like to add Black?"

"Yes I believe it's time to implement my first decision that you've all agreed to back." I say with an emotionless smile. They all tensed at the reminder. I let them sit on edge for a couple of seconds before saying, "We are going to rescind the inter house ban of sitting with other houses to allow us to foster more relationships with the differing houses."

Yelling and screaming followed my statement as everyone was appalled at my order. Lyra snarled as she said, "Slytherins struck together, if we do this it will inspire traitors to our house!"

I look at her like the fool she is and say, "Traitor to what? We are literally 11-18 years old, we don't have any other allegiance than to the school. You only want to isolate Slytherin so that you can then spread the nonsense that we are inherently better than all the other houses. Don't take me for a fool, I know that this is the first step that you all use to conscript people to the pureblood movement."

Everyone was silent at that as it was true, with children isolated they'll reach out to their house and if the main philosophy of the house is Blood superiority then they will join under it to fit in at least somewhere. With this rule rescinded, they'll be able to keep their friends in other houses and people will be less suspicious of them if they don't see them sitting beside the bullying upper years.

Rosier didnt care for what I said and couldn't help muttering, "So what we should allow our house to affiliate with Mudbloods and Blood-Traitors."

Lyra looked with an expression that screamed that he'd said the wrong thing, "Rosier, shut up." She said in a calm tone.

I perked up at his reluctance and said, "I wasn't aware you were in a position to do anything. I hold all the cards here, don't forget I can make all of your families lives miserable. Don't forget that I run this house now."

They all looked furious but nothing else was said. In truth, I only had as much power as they allowed me and they knew that. I don't dare push too much and I'm only asking for small things at a time, but I don't need them to know I'm aware of how precarious my position is. If I play it up big then they will underestimate me come time for me to act.

We adjourned the meeting and Lyra said they'd make the announcement before breakfast in the morning. I decided to go for a walk to clear my head. Today had been trying with Daphnes rebellion and the Prince meeting. As I'm walking I hear some commotion outside the common room. I walked over to see what first-year pissed off an upper-year and why, when I see Theodore Nott making snarky comments while Crabbe and Goyle beat my little brother. Annoyance flashed through my eyes, I knew that this was going to happen but I thought I would be able to ignore it better. I sigh and lament Harry infecting me with his 'saving people thing'.

"Hey, let him up he's had enough." I said and grimaced, that was certainly true. Draco had a broken nose with blood dripping all over his face. His expression wasn't focused and he looked to have a concussion. His clothes were rough and tattered, a sharp contrast to his usual luxury clothes. I assume he's been staying in an orphanage since no other family would associate with a No-Name.

Theodore looked over and saw me and scowled, "What do you want Black? Are you really going to help this little shit that acted like a tyrant all of last year."

"I said he's had enough, Merlin you'll kill him if you keep it up!" I say getting irritated at how nothing seemed to be going my way today. Why couldn't he let Draco wallow in his misery for a couple more weeks. I hate looking like some kind of savior, and I know my brother won't appreciate it.

"Why don't you make me Black?" Theodore said with malice in his tone. It seems that his new position has gone to his head and is now looking to topple me as well. I sigh at his foolishness and my wand shoots into my wand, "I guess I'll get to test that new spell Grand Uncle showed me."

Nott's wand shot into his hand as well. 'Well, at least he knows better than Draco.' I think as I cast before he can open his mouth, "Agumenti!" I say shooting water at Theodore pushing him against the wall. The stream ended leaving a pool of water at our feet. Theodore sneered and said, "That didn't do anything but annoy me Black. You sure you haven't lost your touch? Where's all that ruthlessness you showed your brother?"

Crabbe and Goyle fell in line behind him and raised their wands towards me. I gritted my teeth and said, "Oh I was just preparing the stage. Have a taste of an original spell by the 22nd Lord of House Black. Glacies Acus!"

Hundreds of needles rose out of the water and took on a light blue color. These ice needles cost a lot of magic to use, but their viscous to use against your opponent. They won't kill him but they can pepper him with injuries and if he isn't careful he can bleed out or pass out from the pain. Some wizards have affinities for the natural elements, Grand Uncle wanted to see if I did over the summer and made me cast one spell of each of the elements. Turns out I'm pants at earth magic, which would explain why I struggle a bit with Herbology, but I excel with ice spells. It just so happened that Arcturus also had an affinity with ice and taught me as much as he could over the summer.

The three boys looked like they were going to ruin their pants as they turned tail and ran. I sighed in relief as they turned a corner and let the spell fall. That spell isn't battle ready as it wipes me out every time I use it, and is meant to continuously rain down needles until the target is down. I probably would have ran out of Magic within ten seconds of use. I've gotten some basic ice spells I know but I wanted to go for shock and awe.

I turned to Draco who was passed out and sighed and picked him up and started dragging him to the infirmary.

"Come on Drake, let's go see the good doctor."

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