Chapter 5: Accusations & Flirtations

"Uh, my Lord? What are you reading?"

Emerald eyes peered up from behind the Muggle written book, "It is a book on psychology, I purchased a few during last summer for something to do during the train ride."

"Oh, but why bother wasting your time on Muggle books?"

"Because Wizards do not have any books on psychology."

"Psychology?"

"Study of the mind, it is rather interesting."

"I see, so what is the plan for this year now that Slytherin has nearly been united under you?"

"Now we begin expanding into the other houses Draco. The world is not dominated by only Slytherins."

"Ugh, please tell me we will be limiting our interactions with the Gryffindors though?"

"You did not seem to have a problem with Neville at the end of last year."

"Well... I mean yeah but..."

"So I fail to see what is so wrong with the 'brave' of us. I am far more interested to see who our new Defense professor will end up being."

A 'dreamy' sigh echoed through the carriage, earning a quirk of Harry's eyebrow towards Pansy, while Malfoy sneered in response. "Lockhart, the fraud."

"Oh please Draco, you are just jealous of the man."

"J-jealous!? The man is a complete moron!"

"Because his hair looks better than yours?"

"No! Because he is... he is... argh! My Lord tell her!"

"Tell her what Draco? I do not even know who this 'Lockhart' person is."

The girl gaped at him in shock. "M-my Lord, how do you not know who he is?"

"Does it look as though I keep up on current events? Besides that is what I have Draco for."

The blonde boy's chest puffed out a bit at the praise. "See Pansy, our Lord knows who to place his trust in."

******

"Welcome students, to another year at Hogwarts!" As the Headmaster began his introductory speech Harry's attention diverted to far more important tasks, mainly that of assessing the students of other houses. Neville was already on his side, and gaining more confidence by the day it seemed. He also had ideas on recruiting a few other loyal, if a bit easily manipulated, Gryffindors.

Hufflepuffs weren't terribly exciting, but would also be the easiest to mass recruit once the rest of the school fell in line.

Ravenclaw would likely be the most difficult, they tended to be far more socially isolated and unwilling to care about what the other three houses would value.

Regardless, Harry was anything but worried, this was turning into more of a 'school project' for himself rather than a task that he had to accomplish. Something to occupy his time with, considering he had already memorized every book the previous year and could cast the spells without effort.

Hopefully whatever 'danger' Dobby had warned him about would end up being interesting at least.

******

"Mr. Potter, after you are unpacked could I speak with you in my office please? The password is 'Razzle Berrys'."

The boy nodded, allowing the older man to return to the professor dining table, and earning curious glances from the rest of Slytherin house.

"Something you want to share with us Potter?"

"Odd, I wasn't aware that my comings and goings were any of your business Flint."

The boy winced, before muttering an apology, much to the surprise of the first year students. Draco merely grinned. "You will understand later tonight, do not worry about it for now."

******

"Ah Harry my boy, I trust you had a good summer?"

"It was... productive sir, and yours?"

The older man's eyes twinkled happily, "Very good I must say. I am sure you noticed that we have a new Defense teacher."

"I saw, hopefully he is a bit more confident than Professor Quirrell was. I found it quite difficult to understand the man through all of his stuttering."

"Completely understandable, a lapse of judgment on my part in regards to that choice. Would you care for a lemon drop?"

The boy nodded, and took one of the offered sweets, much to the man's delight. "Oh, before I forget sir I have a small gift for you."

"A gift? Harry my boy you shouldn't have, it is the job of adults to provide for you, not the other way around."

"Perhaps, but I suspect this is not something you can normally obtain." With that the boy enlarged a bag he had been carrying, much to the elder Wizard's surprise, and gently laid it on his desk, before gesturing for the man to open it. Inside was a wide assortment of various Muggle candies and chocolates.

"Oh my, I do believe you are correct Harry my boy, it is most difficult for me to find the time to buy treats of such varieties. I do so hope you did not spend too much money on this."

"Hardly sir, with Halloween being the next holiday Muggle stores tend to sell such things in bulk supply, that bag was cheaper than a nice meal would be in a Wizard restaurant."

"Well then I suppose this means I owe you dinner at a nice restaurant at some point my boy. Perhaps over the winter holidays?"

Harry nodded, "I will take you up on that offer sir."

"Now to another topic I wished to speak with you about. I have been attempting to find you a suitable family to live with but with Death Eaters still in hiding or being exempt from prosecution I am afraid that if I try to get involved..."

"The Ministry will relocate me elsewhere. I completely understand Headmaster."

"I wish I could do more for you my boy, I truly do."

"I know, and that is all that matters. If there is nothing else I would like to get some rest. It has been a long day."

"Of course Harry, of course."

The boy rose to his feet, gave a slight bow before departing to the door where he paused for a moment. "Headmaster, if you have any free time in the next few weeks I would not be opposed to another one of these chats. I have always found the company of older, and wiser, individuals to be rather thrilling."

The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes reappeared at full force.

******

"Welcome class to your first day of actual Defense class! My name is 'The Great Gilderoy Lockhart' and I will be the one conducting you through this magical journey."

The boys groaned

Most of the girls giggled

Harry rolled his eyes, trying not to cause the man's intestines to explode in the middle of class... but it was just so very tempting.

"Now then first we shall... oh my, dost my eyes deceive me!? Harry Potter, I thought it was you! It has been ages since our last encounter!" The boy-who-lived idly wondered if the man actually believed that they knew each other, or that if he smiled enough everyone else would just assume he was correct.

"I do not recall ever meeting before." Since if they had Harry was quite sure that the older man would be lying dead in a ditch somewhere.

"Oh of course we have! It was during our encounter with the Vampire of Venice, do you not remember?"

The not-so-subtle wink made the urge to kill the man even greater.

"I do not believe..."

"Well regardless, I am pleased that you have accepted my tutelage once more. We shall begin this class with a light homework assignment, and then a practical demonstration. I want you all to read 'The Vampire in Venice' for your studies this week and write me an essay on how my technique has changed the fundamental ways that we hunt the 'creatures of the night'."

Draco nudged the emerald-eyed boy, before gesturing down at the paper that lay between them. On it was scribbled a short message.

I will give you ANYTHING to murder this prat

Giving a light chuckle the Potter heir returned his attention to the man, who opened a large cage with a flourish. "Defend yourselves!"

Pixies surged into the room, earning screams and shouts from the students while Lockhart suddenly found himself overwhelmed and retreating back to his office, calling out something about not forgetting homework assignments. Papers were being thrown about, children picked up and tossed across the room, obscene gestures drawn on the blackboards. Yet through it all Harry remained unharassed and seated, idly wondering if he should bother stepping in or not. Fortunately for the Pixies themselves, whom he was contemplating just burning alive, a certain bushy-haired witch cast a spell, slowing them down in the air and allowing the class to round them up.

******

"Can you believe her? The first week of class and the know-it-all is already acting like she is better than everyone else. I wish she would have just stayed home and left us in peace. It's not like she has any friends anyway." Ronald Wealsey complained as he made his way through the halls with some of his fellow Gryffindors.

Meanwhile Hermione, who had overheard the conversation, had already ran into a nearby bathroom to hide her tears.

Unbeknownst to the others, a student stood in the shadows watching the entire incident as a smile slowly formed on his face.

******

Harry Potter let out a deep annoyed sigh. Why in the world did it have to be this bloody obvious... again! First year it had been a professor with an obvious dark aura eclipsing his own, and focused around his soul. It had taken less than a day for Harry to figure out it was possession.

This year it was slightly more interesting... but even more blatantly apparent. A young redhead, Ginny Weasley if he recalled correctly, was sitting by herself, muttering and glancing around every few moments in fear before writing a bit in some plainly evil book. Seriously, had no one ever heard of the concept of 'hidden nature'? Why couldn't the 'dark forces' at least try to make it a challenge for him to figure these things out.

The question now was, should he intervene, or wait to see what happened? If he had waited a bit longer the previous year he might have been able to face off against an immortal Dark Lord, the thought of which lit his blood aflame and sent excited shivers down his spine. On the other hand he also would have lost out on a rare magical artifact that, despite not finding a use for it quite yet, would undoubtedly be worth something in the future.

Perhaps the book had some sort of ulterior motive... maybe it was after another powerful artifact he would be able to claim? Or maybe it was just a way of attacking the Weasleys. Either way Harry found himself a bit interested in the situation. He would wait for now, and see how things played out. He could always rescue the girl at a later date and have her indebted to him.

She was rather cute after all.

******

"Psst, Harry what are you working on?"

The emerald-eyed boy glanced over at the blonde Slytherin whom he had been partnered up with for Potions class. "A project I started thinking about over the summer. I do not expect it to be done this year but it gives me something to do in order to pass the time."

"Something other than receiving perfect marks on literally everything?"

"Yes"

Draco rolled his eyes, before returning to his own potion, which he noted was not quite the same shade of red as his Lord's was.

******

Severus Snape gave another discrete glance over at the Potter heir's work station. The potion he had made was, again, perfect and now he was working on something else. The idea of trying to make a fool out of the boy was immediately stamped out though, he had tried such a tactic before and more often then not it just proved to raise the boy's skills even higher in the eyes of his peers.

No, what the Potion Master was far more interested in was what the boy had been so studiously writing for the past twenty minutes. How to get the paper though? If he directly approached him the child might make changes or even destroy the evidence 'by accident'. What he needed was a distraction of some kind to make move.

Thankfully some Deity or another was listening, and a ruckus from the back of the room gained everyone's attention as Weasley's cauldron boiled over, earning several screams as students moved out of the way.

"What a surprise Mr. Weasley, still unable to mix even the simplest of potions. What is even more surprising is that Ms. Granger was not observant enough as your partner to stop you." the man called out as he strode towards their shared table. On the way a simple Wandless spell had copied whatever his target had been writing down onto a blank piece of parchment on the man's own desk.

By the time he had reached the pair his secret mission was complete, and he was able to divert all of his attention to scolding the two students, earning snickers from Slytherin and embarrassment from the preteens themselves. The class ended shortly thereafter, with the students packing up their supplies and leaving in their normal disorderly fashion. One, however, paused at the doorway and glanced back at the man seated behind his desk at the front of the room.

"Professor"

"Mr. Potter?"

"If you wanted to see my notes so badly all you had to do was ask, no need to be secretive about it." and like that he left, leaving a dumbfounded, and slightly frightened, spy behind.

******

"My Lord did you hear the news!?"

"I don't know, what is the news?"

"I made seeker! You are looking at the new Slytherin House seeker for Quidditch!"

Pansy gave a gleeful cheer, before hugging the blonde boy with a slight blush. Several others of their year also gave congratulatory nods or pats on the back as well. Harry himself merely smiled and gave a nod.

"D-does this mean you will come my Lord? To our games I mean?"

The previous year Harry had, usually, avoided the Quidditch fields. They held no interest for him and the game itself seemed rather 'simplified' for what it could have entailed using magic. Still Draco had dragged him to one or two games, which Slytherin naturally won, and he had not protested.

"I suppose so, I can't exactly ignore my chief adviser now can I?" The blonde beamed in excitement at the acknowledgment of his 'role'.

******

"So is there anything else we need to go over?" Dumbledore intoned with his normal 'grandfatherly' voice. He did so enjoy these weekly staff meetings, and if they weren't so busy he would have insisted on having them more often. It was far too difficult to keep up with all of the activities and students that Hogwarts held while keeping his other positions sustained at the same time.

"Actually Headmaster I do." Snape replied, earning a nod from the older man while the Potion Master pulled out a piece of parchment. "It has come to my attention that a certain student has been working on a new 'project' in his spare time. Something that reeks of advanced magic and darkness. After retrieving his notes it is obvious to me that this is something we need to put a stop to."

"Oh? And who is this student Severus?" Albus gently asked, silently praying that it wasn't who he suspected.

"Harry Potter"

The groans were far from silent from the other staff members, even from Lockhart. It went unnoticed by none that the Slytherin Head of House had an issue with the young boy, whom everyone else saw as a near perfect student and role model.

"Severus my boy we have talked about..."

"JUST TAKE IT!"

Letting out another deep sigh the elder Wizard did as was demanded of him, and glanced over the notes inscribed in the young boy's handwriting. "Hmmm, I suppose I will have to agree with you Severus."

It looked as though the man had just won the lottery based upon the way his face lit up.

"It certainly is advanced theory. If I had not been exposed to examples of his work due to everything you have brought to me I would have thought this was done by a far older Wizard such as yourself."

"Wh-what!? No! Headmaster please look closer at the..."

"Filius, would you please take a look, there is some rather advanced Charms work that I could use your consultation on."

The diminutive professor nodded, before taking the paper and looking it over himself. "Interesting..."

"Not interesting! Dark! Headmaster surely you see the implications of this!"

"I see an advanced piece of work, although the true goal has not been made clear by this."

"Perhaps" Minerva growled out, sending a glare at the greasy-haired man, "we could simply call the boy in to ask him rather than making blind guesses? Unless of course Severus doubts his ability to tell whether a twelve year old is lying to him or not."

******

"Ah Harry my boy, thank you for joining us."

"Of course Headmaster, Headmistress, Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape." The boy greeted each in kind with a slight boy, the other professors having left some time beforehand.

"We do not want to take too much of your time Mr. Potter, but there are some things we would like to clear up." The Charms professor replied happily after finding the boy's respect more than a little refreshing.

"Of course sir, anything I can do to help."

"It has come to our attention that you are working on a bit of a side project, one involving quite a few areas of magic at the same time."

Turning to McGonagall Harry gave a smile and a nod of confirmation. "I have, I hope that I did not offend anyone during class. I was trying to focus on it only during my free time but I have become rather... excited by it."

"Mr. Potter, your grades are the highest we have seen since even before Albus went to school. There is no reason to apologize for taking on work that keeps you interested during class. I am only sorry to say that we are not challenging you enough."

The boy gave a helpless shrug, "I just find everything to be a bit easy. Plus reading the books before school started certainly helps."

"I am sure that it does my boy. But back to this project of yours. Would you mind explaining it to us?"

Nodding to the eldest Wizard the boy took on a slight thinking pose. "I bought a book about Runes over the summer for some light reading," here several of the professors gaped slightly. Runes were a fairly advanced subject that were difficult to simply read about and understand. Usually a student required verbal instruction, examples, and written text in combination to get the full picture. "What I found inside was the idea that most important areas have wards placed over them. Usually these are done by Runes to create the physical dimensions of the magic and to give it lasting effect. Considering this I began to speculate that if Charms could be incorporated with Runes then other fields of magic could as well. With this in mind I have begun small experiments to see if Potion effects could be expanded, and how they could be combined at the same time."

"Your studies mention Leylines. Why are you messing with those Potter?"

"Oh I haven't even approached that yet. It was merely speculation that if these channels could be used like Muggle waterways, if so we could potentially use them to create larger area of Runic or spell influence."

Before anyone else could interrupt Snape barged in once more, "And to what purpose Potter?"

"Well, I suppose one could use large diagnostic Charms or even healing Potions in response to a catastrophe. Perhaps using them to prevent natural disasters as well... but I suppose I got into this project simply because no one else has tried to yet."

Any retaliatory remark that the Slytherin Head of House could make was cut off by the smallest man in the room. "One hundred points to Slytherin, for continuing the development of Magic. Without new ideas and innovations we would not have the wonders of this day and age."

Snape's jaw dropped, no one had ever given his 'snakes' so many points at once before.

"Mr. Potter, if you need any help or a room to practice in do not hesitate to let me know... and Severus, if you do not want Mr. Potter in your House I would be more than happy to adopt him into Ravenclaw from you."

With a chuckle the Half-Goblin departed with Pomona Sprout, who gave a similar offer to the boy, thus leaving Snape, Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Harry in the room by themselves.

"Harry my boy, I believe that is all we need from you tonight." the old man replied cheerfully, before pulling out a hall-pass and handing it to the boy. "If by chance you are stopped by a prefect or Mr. Figgs simply show them this."

"I will, thank you sir."

"Oh and Harry, I would prefer you contact me before beginning any potentially dangerous experiments, especially involving Leylines."

"Of course sir, are we still on for lunch Sunday?"

"Indeed my boy, I am looking forward to it."

With that the student departed, and the scowl reemerged on Minerva's face.

"Professor Snape, if you would please wait outside of the office for a moment. I need to talk to the Headmaster about something."

Severus nodded, already knowing he had been defeated, before leaving.

******

Twenty minutes had passed since Snape began his waiting period. It was an odd sensation, sitting outside of the Headmaster's office on a bench meant for children. He felt almost like he was a student waiting for punishment than a professor. After another, what felt like decade, of waiting the door flung open as a furious Minerva McGonagall stormed passed him with a sharp glare.

"Come in Severus..." the old Wizard sounded tired, and every year of his considerable age.

After softly closing the door behind him, and taking the offered seat, Severus glanced up at the aged man before him.

"Minerva has made her opinion on your 'behavior' towards young Harry very clear."

"Headmaster I..."

"AND I agreed with her Severus. This blatant bias you have towards the boy is becoming worrisome. I understand that you had a conflict with his father. I understand that the man bullied you quite actively during your school years, and we both understand that we should have done more to prevent this from occurring... but the man has been dead for over a decade Severus. It is time to let this irrational hatred that you have passed on die with him."

"It is not bias Headmaster. The boy is up to something!"

"Yet you are the only one who sees it."

"Perhaps I am not as blind as the rest of you are." A sharp glare silenced the Potion Master, who now found his lap far more interesting than the man seated before him.

"You are creating evidence in your mind Severus. You see a studious and intelligent young man who looks very similar to someone who tormented you and thus you assume they are one in the same. Tell me, do you have any actual evidence of the boy's wrongdoing?"

"No but..."

"Exactly"

"But the circumstantial evidence..."

"Is irrelevant."

Snape fell into silence once more, before a conversation came to the forefront of his mind. "You are having meals with the boy?"

"I am, he is quite intelligent and I find him pleasant to be around."

"Then perhaps we can make an agreement? I will admit that I have been negatively biased towards the boy... if you admit that perhaps your own guilt over what happened and his living conditions has caused some bias of your own."

Albus fell silent, his eyes closed as he went over his own actions in his mind, before he gave a weary nod. "Very well, then we should approach this as an outsider. There is circumstantial evidence that seems to be mounting against him, but if we were to approach the DMLE with this nothing would come of it... so rather than shout accusations at every chance let us observe for now. If we find anything that can be direct proof we will build a case, until then though..."

"Until then I will ease my own prejudices. If I am unable to do so then I will be the first to recommend he be transferred to a different House where he can be treated fairly."

"Thank you Severus."

******

"Ah Harry how are you?"

"Very good professor Sinistra, and yourself?"

"Good, good you may just call me Aurora though when we are not in class. We are friends remember?"

The smile on the boy's face sent guiltily warm shivers down the woman's spine. "Aurora then."

Forcing away some rather unprofessional thoughts the woman cleared her throat, "And your classes Harry?" the woman inquired as she and the student continued walking down the hallway.

"A bit dull I am afraid. I have already read through all of the books and they seem to be much the same as last year. I was hoping for something different during this time."

"I see, unfortunately you cannot take the Electives, such as Astronomy, until third year. Even then you will only have time for one or two. I do hope you consider my class though." Her last statement had been implied a bit too huskily before she realized it. Part of her prayed that the boy would not pick up on it... but a small portion of her mind hoped that he might actually...

"It was my first choice. I don't think I would be able to go another year without regularly seeing you."

Maybe he did know what she was doing, but Aurora's knowledge of teenage flirting was more than a little limited.

"Perhaps we could see a bit more of each other this year? Although I am rather busy most evenings I have always found myself to be a 'night owl' and if you find yourself without anything to do on a Saturday or Sunday evening we could always start Astronomy a bit early, the view from the tower is quite lovely after all."

"That sounds nice, thank you Aurora. I look forward to seeing the rest of you as well." with that the boy entered his next classroom, leaving a stunned woman standing in the hallway, before blushing and swiftly moving off to find a place to cool down, and perhaps take a cold shower.

******

"It seems like you have been getting even more attention this year Harry."

The boy turned around, glancing at the white haired girl sitting at the end of his bed. "Whatever do you mean Hedwig?"

"Don't lie to me Harry... you can lie to anyone else, deceive them, manipulate them... just don't do it to me..."

The teasing smile fell and he rose to slowly walk towards her. "You are referring to the sexual attention I am receiving from quite a few women."

"Yes..."

"Have I not told you that you cannot be replaced?"

"You have but..." Before she realized it the raven-haired boy was standing inches away from her, his arms on her shoulders as he pushed her torso back onto the bed with little effort. Any protest was silenced as he moved forward so that his hips were between her legs which still dangled from the side, his pelvis grazing her own and sending shivers through her body.

"Quite a position we find ourselves in hm Hedwig?"

"I-I... I said no teasing..."

"No you did not. But who said I am teasing you." he leaned forward a bit, his hand on either side of her head as his face was was close enough for her to feel his breath on her lips. "What if I am not teasing you right now..." he whispered softly, igniting a fire in her. "What would you do? Would you kiss me back? Would you raise your hips and allow me to remove the few barriers between us? Would you give yourself to me?"

"I... Harry I... we..."

"Tell me we can't. Tell me no and I will stop. You know I would never force you into anything..."

"Harry... please..." she whimpered pitifully, and gasped as his lips found the side of her neck.

"Please what Hedwig? Tell me what you want, what you need."

"I... I..."

"Excuse me my lord, but it appears Draco Malfoy is requesting your presence." It was the portrait of Salazar Slytherin that interrupted their moment. Since no one save for a Parselmouth could open the chamber the room itself was designed so that it would alert anyone inside if someone wanted access.

"Ah of course." the boy replied, before pulling his torso away from the girl who was panting on his bed. "It appears you will have more time than you thought to make your decision but..." His hands found her hips, and he rubbed himself up against her junction, earning a soft moan as the pale legs spread farther to encourage him.

"What a lovely feeling... hopefully we will be able to explore it a bit more later..." With that he departed, allowing his companion to catch her breath, calm her emotions, and take stock of her undeniable feelings.

******

Harry Potter wandered through the hallways alone, and he found this far more desirable than spending his evening in the Main Hall. Last year he had made a mistake and was forced to deal with an evening long celebration about the destruction of the Dark Lord... and thus his parents' murder.

By the end of the evening he had been rather close to snapping the first person's neck that he ran into, luckily for him a Troll had been snuck into the castle, thus allowing him to relieve his annoyances by turning a boy into a puddle of blood and various other fluids.

This year there wasn't such an opportunity, and although it was a rather enticing idea to find someone to murder it would also make his remaining years a tad more irritating than they would normally be. He could only hope that whatever 'danger' he had been warned about made itself known soon, otherwise drastic measures would need to be taken in order to bring some excitement into his life.

Upon turning the corner the boy froze, and a cruel smile emerged on his face. Before him laid a student, frozen in place. They appeared to be alive... but petrified.

Finally, something interesting happened.

******