Chapter 5 Harry Potter and the retconned chamber of secrets.

Rodrick looked up from his leather seat, ahead of him was the headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore. The man was sporting his favourite half-moon specs, wearing a bright pair of purple wizard robes, star outlines patterned all over it. He actually looked like the muggle definition of a wizard with his long white beard.

They were currently sat in a separate room, away from the others. Dumbledore had asked for privacy regarding their discussion, although displeased, the elder Greengrass couldn't refuse the man, he simply had too much authority.

Plus he asked politely.

The professor had spent the past few minutes appraising him, neither had said a word since they'd entered the room although he did notice the old man place a privacy charm around them.

"Professor..." Rodrick opened his mouth, unsure.

"Yes? Dear boy?" the man replied in a grandfatherly voice.

Something that made him tense. Gellert had undoubtedly warned him about that.

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at the boy; the tension was flowing off of him, it was almost as if he was scared? No, wary was the better word. He still couldn't understand the reason for all of this.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, I am only here to check up on you after your recent troubles," Albus spoke kindly.

Rodrick relaxed slightly.

"I believe your lack of a guardianship has been sorted, although I was quite surprised to find out how quickly it was done," Albus spoke, a twinkle in his eyes.

Rodrick nodded along uncertain, "I met Mrs Malfoy at the orphanage by chance, she helped me out."

Albus narrowed his eyes slightly, he knew it was no coincidence but what he didn't know was the reason.

"Yes, that was quite kind of her, I must admit," Albus spoke, but before he could continue, Rodrick raised a hand.

Rodrick sighed slightly, shocked at what he was about to do.

"Sir, can we avoid beating around the bush, I am not nearly Slytherin enough to enjoy it." He knew it was a bad idea, but he really didn't know how long it would last before they reached the point, he knew they eventually would.

Best get it out of the way as soon as possible lest he accidentally reveals too much himself.

Albus Dumbledore brows went up before he started chuckling. Yes, the boy really was extraordinary. "I am quite amused, I must say, I am not sure I expected that," He remarked, a smile on his face.

Rodrick made to roll his eyes but managed to stop himself; the action only amused the headmaster even more.

"Oh very well, if you insist," Albus started, "I was quite worried about Malfoy's particular interest in you, I heard from Hagrid about his involvement regarding your invitation, I was slightly put out you didn't mention it to me," When the man finished, to his surprise he found the boy far more relaxed than before.

"Sorry but we really didn't have a lot of time at that point, I still had plenty of packing to do to get ready..." Rodrick excused himself; he wasn't putting much on it being believable.

The headmaster merely nodded along agreeing.

'He definitely didn't buy that.'

"No harm was done, although I must ask you to be careful when dealing with the man. Do you have any idea on why he seemed so interested?" He questioned, but the look in his eyes set Rodrick on guard.

The man knew something, he was testing Rodrick, lying right now might be a bad idea, but what could he have known?

Rodrick's finger went to his chin, imitating a thoughtful expression, he was facing the floor, trying to avoid the headmaster's gaze. He wasn't sure on what he should tell the headmaster, in all honesty, his grandfather still considered it a folly to reveal his name, merely due to the fact he would be watched much more closely. He sighed, there really wasn't anything he could say without causing himself any problems.

The boy was troubled, he was certainly trying to hide something, especially considering he was hiding his own face. Something about him suggested it was a matter of preservation; he wasn't the first orphan to be admitted to Hogwarts, there were plenty over the years. Almost all of them adopted a particular sense to avoid everyone else, none more so than Voldemort, although he did it for very different reasons to the rest. What the boy in front of him however showed wasn't simply a sense to hide but more out of survival instincts. Knowing this, Albus once again broke the silence that etched on.

"Rodrick, there really is no reason for you to feel unsafe at Hogwarts," The moment he spoke the words, however, Albus regretted them, he saw the boy stiffen completely, anger coursed through his eyes. What on earth could result in such a reaction?

"Forgive me headmaster, but it isn't my Hogwarts years I am afraid of. It's the rest of my life."

Albus Dumbledore felt wary, he understood the issue at large, he had considered it the moment Malfoy took an interest in the boy, but he had hoped it was otherwise. He knew it was delicate ground; he simply couldn't let the boy feel safer with the Malfoy's it was asking for trouble.

"I assure you, no harm will come to you for your family name."

Panic screeched through Rodrick at that, 'He knew!?' When he gazed towards the headmaster's eyes, he saw a confused look; there was no caution in them, the twinkle had disappeared.

He relaxed slightly, he was guessing. Rodrick decided to play it safe. "I prefer privacy on the matter; I have no reason to let everyone else know, it would only complicate my life."

Dumbledore frowned, he understood the boy's point and agreed with it somewhat, but it wasn't a healthy mindset.

"Hiding yourself from the beginning will only make it harder to accept everything when it's too late, there will come a point when you will have to confront everything," Memories of the first war had surfaced his mind. He had avoided that war as much as he could and at the end, it was brought to him anyway. If he had to involve himself anyway, why did he wait so long? He had spent long days thinking about all the lives that could've been spared...

Rodrick sighed before he locked eyes with the headmaster, a dejected look on his face.

"I know."

Dumbledore felt bad for the boy; he had originally planned to bring up the troll incident and the child's use of dark and without doubt illegal magic. But the look on his face simply broke any will; the boy clearly did it out of pure intentions even if he used and knew the wrong kind of magic. At the end of it all, he must've learned such magic simply to protect himself. Albus sighed, tired, that brought up an uneasy point for the headmaster, who could have taught a child younger than 12 an unforgivable curse? And exactly how far did they go in teaching him... He would need to ask Rodrick at some point, but he could not do it today.

"I presume you are fine then? With the Greengrass family taking guardianship of you?" It wasn't a bad point really, the family was wealthy enough to afford it and were one of the Purebloods not to support the dark lord, they had stayed neutral to avoid any consequences. Something Albus could understand, he had done the same for most of the first Wizarding War.

Rodrick's eyes lit up at the change of subject before he quickly agreed. The headmaster smiled at him once before he reassured him that if there was anything he was worried about, his door was always open.

The old wizard had spoken to the elder Greengrass after that before he left, he gave his goodbyes to his two students and met the future one. 'Children truly were the delight of the world,' Albus thought fondly.

"He's weird," Astoria broke the silence, earning amused looks from the people around her. Her attention quickly changed to the night's desserts.

"I think she'll love Hogwarts, but only for its feasts," added on a bemused Rodrick.

...

Summer seemed to rush through too quickly for Rodrick's liking, he had enjoyed it immensely with the Greengrass, it helped that they lived quite a good lifestyle. There was still no luck in the housing department, although Cyrus was certainly trying. He and his friends had taken to meet up several times a week, it was quite easy through Floo Travel, each time the group met, they did one or another thing one member enjoyed the most.

Rodrick found himself least enjoying Tracey's ideas as they involved flying, he hadn't gotten any better and he doubted he ever would, he was the only one using a training broom. Daphne's parents had brought her a brand new Comet broom to use and had offered him one as well, he had, obviously, refused. No need to add fuel to a raging fire.

Blaise's idea of fun involved Rodrick teaching them advanced spells or more specifically, curses. The girls had, of course, rebuffed the curses and got him to focus on less dark magic. The boy sulked but accepted none the less, he did seem happy when he realized even the more neutral spells could be used 'effectively.'

Rodrick took to potions practice much to everyone's chagrin, he had on more than one occasion changed their appearance accidentally or in Blaise's case definitely on purpose. The changes ranged from Robe colours to hair and in an unfortunate incident with Tracey, nose enlargement. All of it was contained quickly enough, after the laughter stopped anyway. Daphne's entertainment involved homework, although the others unanimously agreed it was more due to her parents watching her.

...

His grandfather had been drilling him on his lack of movement during duels; shield charms were not the only way to avoid getting hit by a spell.

He didn't always see his grandfather, he'd received stranger dreams as the summer went on; He kept on seeing a red-haired girl running away from something in the castle. At first, he had thought the girl to be Tracey, but found the colouring wrong. The dreams never lasted very long; he was certain he'd have to look into it once the year started, there was no need to worry about it now.

The family had been having breakfast, served by a house elf, when their letters from Hogwarts had finally arrived, listing all the things they would need for the year. Rodrick was quite glad knowing he would have a brand new set this time. He didn't mind using secondhand things but he was in Slytherin, they looked down on that sort of thing, at least this time he won't need to hide any of his clothing or personal things.

"We'll be studying using Gilderoy Lockhart's books!" Daphne squealed.

Rodrick groaned, the girl had spoken about the famous wizard one too many times over the summer. When he looked up, he saw a similar look on the girl's mother. 'Like mother like daughter,' thought Rodrick grimly. He did note with amusement on the crease of annoyances on her fathers face, Astoria couldn't care less, not unless Gilderoy was a brand of chocolate.

"Rodrick, will you be fine with the books?" Roxanne questioned fondly.

Rodrick was a little taken back before he nodded with a smile.

"Hey Rodrick, you can finally read them with me this time!" Daphne spoke towards him with a sparkle in her eyes.

"I highly doubt that, you couldn't get me to read them all summer," Rodrick replied, he noted with amusement the frown on Roxanne's face, she seemed to be quite a fan.

"The boy has good taste," Cyrus quipped.

Daphne rolled her eyes, "You have to! Its part of the course for this year!"

"I'll willingly fail, my last year's results will balance it out and let me advance to the third year," Rodrick spoke half serious. The two Greengrass adults started laughing at his antics.

"That's not how it works," replied Daphne.

Rodrick winked at the girl before he continued his meal.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She narrowed her eyes slightly at him.

Rodrick wouldn't reply, the girl kept on asking, feeling more and more flustered. Roxanne was slightly confused herself. Cyrus gazed at the boy with new found respect; he had actually managed to change the subject.

...

The family had just left Gringotts bank, The Greengrass's had needed to take out some galleons to spend, Rodrick was quite surprised to see the vault they owned, it was much larger than his family vault and certainly lacked the curse element. It seemed that the Grindelwald vault owed its high-level security due to its contents rather than its wealth. It had more than enough to warrant a good lifestyle for several generations, but it was nothing compared to the Greengrass one, gold-wise anyway. He himself had plenty left from his last visit.

The group made their way to Flourish and Botts, Astoria would make them stop every time they went past a particular sweet she found appetizing which was all of them, it seemed the adults simply didn't know how to refuse the bubbly girl. Rodrick asked Daphne whether her sister was likely to turn into another Bulstrode from their class. Strangely, Daphne flushed. It was then that her parents mentioned that she'd had a similar sweet tooth to Astoria before she'd received her Hogwarts letter. Rodrick stared at the girl trying to hold his laughter at the image of a Daphne throwing a tantrum over sweets.

He saw the bookshop in the distance; he felt himself stiffen slightly when he saw who was approaching it from the other side, much closer than they were. Rodrick subtly craned his neck to get a look at Cyrus and his wife and noticed a scowl on their faces. 'This ought to be good...'

Rodrick sped his pace up. If the others noticed they didn't mention it. When he entered, he found Lucius Malfoy talking down someone, the man himself blocked his view.

His entrance, however, seemed to catch the man's attention as he had turned around the moment he passed through the door.

Lucius was surprised when he heard someone enter after him; he was even more surprised to see who it was. Rodrick Grindelwald, this put him in an awkward situation. He knew very well that Greengrass was most likely with him. It wouldn't due for him to be seen acting anything less than noble, with Weasley around that was somewhat difficult. He barely noticed Rodrick grab the book from his hand.

...

Rodrick eyed the book in Lucius's hand, a first-year book, it looked second hand, considering the company surrounding the Malfoy, Rodrick could guess what was going, he quickly took the book from man, best to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand. Lucius was surprised but made no reaction to having the book taken. Draco was eyeing him curiously. He moved further into the store; he felt his irritation rise as he noticed how crowded it was, no one was paying him any attention, it seems Malfoy and Weasley hadn't quite caused a commotion yet.

"Strange gift to be giving me Mr Malfoy, I believe I've already finished my first year," Rodrick spoke up as he walked past the man, he heard Draco scoff, Malfoy raised an eyebrow at him but subtly moved to let him pass. As he walked past Rodrick saw who had been behind him, it was a girl, red hair... His breath hitched; She was a copy of the one he saw in his dreams. His eyes widened slightly before he caught himself, she was eyeing the book in his hand. 'Must be hers.' He quickly dropped the book into her not so empty cauldron earning stares from the rest of her family. "Thanks," he heard her murmur to him quietly.

"Rodrick?" Daphne's voice came up from behind, Rodrick turned to see the Greengrass family had caught up.

The three families stood in silence, unsure of where to go from that. It seemed the elder Weasley had calmed down after the younger one had gotten her book back, he was currently gazing at Rodrick curiously. Harry Potter was eyeing him warily, he wasn't sure what to expect of him, he was a Slytherin who had helped them but had used advanced and illegal magic in the process, he had just helped Ginny get her book back but he also seemed to be on good terms with the elder Malfoy, he did just let him take the book without saying anything after all. He was quite positive he was friends with Draco.

Ron Weasley was eyeing the boy's new looking clothes annoyed; He was fairly certain remembering him in secondhand clothing, where did he suddenly get the money? Did the Greengrass family help him? The idea irritated him, accepting charity so readily... Sure he might need it but he should have some pride... The most irritating part of it all was perhaps that Draco had another thing to use against his family, he could just imagine the blonde making fun of his family about how an orphan can afford better things than them.

Rodrick kept on moving ahead before he found a queue stopping his path, it was too long, he wasn't sure how long he could stay around with this atmosphere. Ahead of him, however, he saw his answer. his mouth twitched up slightly into a smirk.

Daphne had reached Rodrick before she saw the smile on his face... A sense of dread settled into her stomach.

She could vaguely hear her parents conversing with the Malfoy, Weasley was more intent on talking with the Hogwarts gamekeeper who had just arrived. Hagrid was confused at all the tension there was, probably Malfoy's fault. The man's voice disappeared after he gave Harry quite a loud goodbye.

"Say, Daphne," Rodrick started quite loudly managing to outdo the half-giant, he got the attention of their classmates, even some of the adults seemed to release a breath at his voice, specifically the Weasley patriarch, Lucius Malfoy and her parents. 'They're paying attention to him?' Daphne thought slightly confused, her parents and perhaps even Malfoy she understood, but Weasley was surprising. Daphne reluctantly turned her face towards Rodrick, aware he was about to do something most likely idiotic.

"You know what the big deal is?" Rodrick questioned he was waving his hand around indicating his surroundings, it was loud enough to grab everyone's attention, particularly one Gilderoy Lockhart, Daphne narrowed her eyes at him dangerously, she knew what he was about to do, and she had almost no way to stop it.

Everyone's attention fell to the man in question; he turned his eyes over towards the source. 'Someone who doesn't know me? Preposterous.'

Daphne prayed he wouldn't fall for the bait, it really wouldn't look good for him. She saw the man in question start to walk up towards them, the queue in front of him moving away. She sighed.

"That my dear boy would be about me, after all, I am the one and only Gilderoy Lockhart!" the man spoke with so much confidence it was almost unnerving. The females in the room smiled at the showmanship, Malfoy sneered, Cyrus had a calculating gaze towards Rodrick, wondering what the boy was trying to do. Weasley was still currently trying to get a read on Rodrick. Most of the students there, minus Hermione who was beaming at the man and Ginny who was more curious than anything, rolled their eyes, considering it was mostly male students it wasn't a big surprise.

Rodrick locked eyes with the man in question and felt confused when he saw the man wince at his eyes. He knew it set people off, the Occulemency shield he had on himself set people on edge, those with Legillenmency almost always got roped into using it on him when they met his eyes for the first time, and if they didn't know the art, they simply felt their magic react in some way. He was fairly sure the headmaster had accidentally used it on him, he was the only Professor at Hogwarts he'd accidentally caught eyes with. It helped give him an idea of the person in general, if they visibly winced it spoke measures of how weak they were, a good wizard could hide it properly. The man in front of him had flinched quite openly. If his books were anything to go by, he should've easily held himself.

Rodrick saw his opening; the man had managed to part the queue for him. He quickly looked away and moved forward, past the wizard. Whatever it was, it didn't matter to him. He had planned to make another scene of it but just lost his drive, it really was pointless, Of course doing so earned him glares from what Rodrick assumed where the man's fans, you don't just disregard a celebrity after all. The man in question, however, gave no reaction, he simply let him pass.

Gilderoy was panicked, it was almost as if the boy had seen through him completely, he had just moved past him without a care in the world, perhaps... No, it was too risky to try and obliviate him, best to get this over and done with, he simply turned to his crowd and gave off a dazzling smile.

"The boy's in a hurry to learn about me it seems," Gilderoy joked, the glares on the boy had quickly turned to amusement and understanding.

Rodrick smirked, that helped make things easier, he could get his required books and leave. He stared up at the counter and asked for a set of books.

Draco on seeing his chance to get his things quickly followed Rodrick to the counter, everyone else was still distracted by the celebrity in the middle. Daphne seeing both Slytherins up front, shrugged and turned to her father to get some gold. She turned back and went forward; she couldn't help smiling when Lockhart noticed her approaching, however. He had an amused smile on his face after seeing the three students so eager to get his books.

Percy was currently scowling at the line jumpers but said nothing. He saw his brothers attempt to skip the queue, but a glare from their mother had them stay in place, he heard Lucius scoff at them. His father surprisingly, however, had his attention elsewhere from the Malfoy, it was directed at the one that had caused the disruption in the first place.

"Very curious," Arthur muttered to himself. There was something oddly familiar about the child.

Rodrick stared down at the three set of books in front of him and his two Slytherin friends. He turned to see a smirking Malfoy, delighted he got the books before the Weasley's.

Rodrick knew the thoughts likely going through his head at that. 'This only proves my family is better,' most like. When he turned to Daphne, however, he saw her fidgeting and staring at the books and towards Lockhart, it took a few seconds before it clicked for Rodrick. He turned to the man in question.

"Can you sign my set?" Rodrick asked.

Gilderoy's eyes lit up at that before he quickly nodded and proceeded to write down his signature on the books.

Rodrick saw a look of envy on Daphne's face. To everyone's surprise and some people's shock. The three booksets shrunk down. Rodrick subtly took and pocketed Daphne's set; the girl stared at him frantically before she saw him wink at her, she gave him a grateful smile and pocketed the signed set. Malfoy stared ludicrously at the small sized books and his housemate's actions of putting a book set in a robe pocket... He shrugged and copied them anyway. He was pretty sure Rodrick was responsible for shrinking the books but said nothing. The three quickly made their way back to their families, a look of indifference on their face although Draco did glower at the Weasley's when he passed them.

Lucius Malfoy was very amused, the situation turned out better than he thought, he managed to put the book in that blood traitors cauldron, thanks to Grindelwald got what he needed without humouring that celebrity show off and the best part, it looked like his son managed to take advantage of a situation to make the Malfoy's look like the better off family, it helped that Greengrass played along. It gave off the message; money can go far. Something the Weasley were certainly incapable of doing.

And all these people, even a few reporters would make some sort of big deal out of it. It was in their nature.

"Another day, Greengrass," he gave his goodbyes to the Greengrass patriarch.

Cyrus nodded, not trusting his words, Rodrick wanted this to end without any problems. He then turned to his daughter and ward and gave them a smile before leading the family out; his mouth twitched up when he saw his wife pout at leaving so soon, it reminded him so much of when they were younger.

Molly turned to her husband, Arthur's attention was still occupied by the boy, her family looked like they wanted to say something, anything at the treatment shown but found themselves unwilling to do anything, her famous glare made sure of it. Although even she seemed to expect Arthur to say something, for him to be so quiet... it was worrying. Harry Potter, bless him seemed to follow along so well, the boy really was well mannered. She would need to speak to Arthur later, ask him what was wrong. The black haired boy seemed pretty normal, why was Arthur so fixated on him? So much so he seemed to forget Lucius Malfoy existed!

"I was hoping to get his autograph though..." Roxanne remarked as they felt the breeze outside.

"If it's any consolation, Mrs. Greengrass, Daphne's set is autographed," Rodrick spoke, Daphne turned and gave him a beaming smile.

Cyrus watched this play out, Malfoy had already disappeared from the street, and so the atmosphere was a lot more positive.

"You really don't need to call me that you know, makes me feel so old!" complained Roxanne, earning a chuckle from her family.

Rodrick raised an eyebrow at this before a smile crept its way onto his face. "Would Roxy be better?" He questioned with as much a serious face he could.

Roxanne brows had raised at this before she broke out into laughter, "Oh, you really are a joy." she spoke fondly.

Astoria tugged on Rodrick's arm, staring at him.

Rodrick looked at the 10-year-old curiously, she was reaching his neck in height, Rodrick thought slightly put out, Ron had seemed to grow taller than him already. He himself barely reached Harry Potter and Draco's height. Daphne was only an inch or two shorter than him. "Yes Tori?" he questioned.

"Just curious why everyone's afraid of your eyes," She replied.

Rodrick stared at her before he broke into a chuckle, the girl was becoming self-aware, soon enough sweets won't be the most important thing in her head. "I don't know; maybe they look too much like a snake's..." He answered. He added on hissing sounds to prove his point. She wound up laughing at his antics.

The adult's stared at the interaction before shaking their heads in amusement, making the boy a ward was proving to be a better choice as time went on...

...

The Greengrass family's trip to Diagon Alley had taken longer than expected, Rodrick had suddenly remembered needing certain potions ingredients from an Apothecary when they'd reached back to fireplace office, it was a bemused Roxanne who had decided to take him back, Cyrus took the girls and floo'd them home.

Roxanne was eyeing the boy with amusement; he was pocketing most of the ingredients he bought. "You could just put them in a trunk you know?" Roxanne spoke kindly, trying to hold her laughter.

Rodrick blinked, "Didn't Daphne tell you? The classrooms a hazard. This is a safety measure,"

Roxanne frowned slightly before she shook her head as the boy let out the snort he'd held in. "Very funny."

"It's half true, can't hurt to have some things around in case you need them,"

The two quickly left the Apothecary and made their way back to the office before Roxanne suddenly gasped.

"I don't have the key!"

Rodrick tilted his head.

"How are we getting back then?"

Roxanne stared around slightly frantic before she sighed; there was no other way.

"I am not sure you'll like this," She admitted.

"What do-" Rodrick started before he felt Roxanne's hand on his shoulder and saw her mouth the words 'sorry' to him, before he could react he felt his body press hard from every direction, his breathing felt forced. It was like being pulled through a small tube. The next thing he knew he was back inside the Manor, he gazed around dizzy, uncomfortable and damned whoever invented that form of travel.

"Sorry dear," Roxanne spoke ruffling his hair slightly, "I'll have the house elf fix you a drink."

Rodrick nodded, still dizzy before he made his way over to one of the sofas and sat down. Daphne noticed his expression before chuckling and took a seat next to him.

"You look like you had fun." the girl teased, poking his face with her finger.

Rodrick flinched slightly before narrowing his eyes at the girl; this only prompted her to tease him more. Rodrick glared at the girl.

Daphne didn't bat an eye. Then she saw his expression slowly change towards a grin. She blinked. When she saw him reach for his wand she promptly got up and ran.

"It wasn't my fault!"

That didn't stop him.

"Rodrick!" She yelped as she ducked under a spell.

Roxanne stared at the scene bemused. "Rodrick you really-"

Rodrick instantly turned his attention towards her. An unassuming smile on his face.

"Yes?"

Beside him, Daphne screeched as the stinging charm hit her.

Roxanne blinked.

"Nevermind..."

"Mom!" Daphne yelled out as she made to run towards the backyard.

"You heard her," Rodrick grinned as he followed.

Roxanne shook her head.

...

The small family had arrived at the station later than intended; there were five minutes left before the train would leave. They quickly made their way through the wall and found themselves amidst groups of families hurrying about trying to get onto the train on time.

Rodrick levitated both their trunks earning a grateful smile from the girl and a look of amusement from the parents; they'd grown used to his wand-less usage over the summer. It was an effective way to override the trace he was supposed to have. Daphne was quickly pulled into a hug by the parents, Rodrick was waiting for her eyeing the family in front of him. When Roxanne turned towards him, hands outstretched, he took a step back, a lopsided smile on his face.

Daphne blinked a few times when she noticed. 'Oh...'

Roxanne smiled and nodded as she let them go, "Be careful now,"

"Will do,"

When the two disappeared into the train, Roxanne frowned.

"Makes you wonder what the orphanage must've been like... Doesn't it?" Cyrus questioned besides her.

"What?" Astoria suddenly questioned. Her eyes wide as she stared at her mom. "Why didn't you hug him? Probably jealous 'cos you hugged Daphne."

Roxanne sighed. "I don't think he likes it very much,"

"Why not?"

"It's hard to explain," Cyrus interjected.

...

Rodrick wondered what the coming year had in store for him, he'd been having strange dreams all over the summer, most involved the Weasley girl running from something and Rodrick himself burning. He'd made a habit out of wearing dragon hide gloves ever since.

After going past several compartments Daphne finally sighed in relief when she found Tracey and Blaise in one of them, she also found, to her distaste Pansy Parkinson there as well. The two entered the compartment and put away their trunks.

Pansy tried to glomp Rodrick. It was the last time she ever did it.

"Ah-" The girl suddenly exclaimed when she found a wand pointed at her neck.

"Don't try that again," He warned, his eyes narrowed.

Pansy gulped before nodding her head.

Daphne stared at the situation with a frown, when Rodrick took the seat by her, she turned to apologise.

Rodrick shrugged it off.

Tracey turned to Blaise, "What happened?" She whispered.

"I don't have a clue," Blaise answered bemused.

Pansy set herself on the other side with Blaise and Tracey.

It occurred to Rodrick that there might've been someone else who had sat here if everyone else had been on the other side... the only one that had the ego to require an entire side was naturally Malfoy. He saw a flash of blonde outside the compartment when he got up to check, his stomach churned, Malfoy was picking on someone. Rodrick debated whether he should go and stop the blonde or not. 'Slytherins stick together...'

Something nabbed at his head when he considered ignoring it. He quickly opened the compartment door, to everyone's surprise, he left before anyone asked him a question.

He reached Malfoy fast enough, he and his cronies were currently staring down someone inside the compartment, Malfoy had his distinct sneer in place, as soon as he noticed Rodrick, however, the sneer was replaced by a grin. 'Merlin help me if I get that kind of reaction...'

"Hello, Rodrick!" Malfoy greeted him enthusiastically, Crabbe and Goyle merely grunted at his approach.

Rodrick nodded at the Malfoy heir before he peered inside the Compartment, "Who are you bullying today?" he asked casually.

"We haven't started bullying anyone... Yet, although how long Potter and Ginger take to get here I am not sure if that will last." Draco nodded his head inside the compartment as he spoke.

Rodrick followed his gaze before his veins turned to ice, it was the girl he'd danced with at the ball. Rodrick turned back to the Malfoy heir and glared at him. Draco to his credit realized Rodrick must've known the girl.

"Not yet... Remember?" He spoke hesitantly although there was an amused grin there as well, Draco wasn't actually scared of him but more out of irritating his father. He had, after all, told him how important it was to keep good ties.

Rodrick's glare subsided before he entered the compartment with the lonely girl, she was, to his misfortune, wearing a strange pair of glasses, her clothes looked badly knit and were a mixture of different colours. Perhaps the most obvious problem was her upside down magazine and butterbeer necklace, plus the wand in her ear didn't help. It was no wonder Malfoy found her such a tempting target.

"Hello," Rodrick spoke first, trying to get the girls attention.

"Thank you," she replied confusing the boy.

"What?" He questioned, did he zone out again?

"You managed to get rid of quite a lot of Nargles by coming here," she added on in a dreamy voice.

Nargles?

What?

He sighed.

He knew there was likely no hope in convincing her to come to his compartment; he stood back up causing the girl to raise her head, he opened the door and found the waiting Malfoy.

"Strange ain't she?" Draco spoke, a small smirk lining his face.

Rodrick rolled his eyes before he ordered the two cronies to get his friends over to this compartment, they both looked slightly angered to be ordered, but a glare from Draco set them on their way.

Draco eyed Grindelwald with an intrigued gaze before he asked him why he was bothering with the strange blonde.

Rodrick raised an eyebrow at this before smirking. "Her dad owns a newspaper; I wonder how much it would hurt to have a bad article on Malfoy's."

Draco had narrowed his eyes before he explained that nobody actually bothered with the Quibbler.

"Someone has to. Otherwise, it would've died out a while ago," Rodrick shrugged before he turned and entered the compartment.

That set Malfoy back slightly, it was a good point, even if there weren't that many that read it or trusted it... Even if there was a few that did, it could still be a problem. Draco nodded his head slightly before he entered the compartment following a grinning Rodrick. It made sense as well... If by some miracle the girl found out his name... Well, all it'd take is one article.

His friends had shown up although annoyed at him. Rodrick took his seat opposite the blonde witch, she had long since put down her newspaper and took her wand off of her ear after Rodrick warned her it could be easily taken away, she hadn't believed it at first. Malfoy swiped it in an attempt to prove his point, she eyed them both warily but a smile from the black-haired boy put her at ease, it was the same one he used when she'd danced with him. Malfoy had surprisingly given it back to her quickly enough.

Later on, he would tell Rodrick he was afraid of contamination.

"You forced three of your closest friends to come all the way here for a stranger," Tracey spoke slightly annoyed and interested in the blonde to her right.

"You mean three of his only friends?" added on Blaise, he had taken a seat to Tracey's left, they were both in the middle.

Rodrick frowned slightly mockingly, "I'll have you know I have four friends Blaise!" he bit back exasperatedly.

"There are at least seven people in this compartment Rodrick," Malfoy remarked, half smiling half serious. he was seated near the door opposite him, Crabbe and Goyle had decided to wait outside to stop others entering.

"I wonder which of you lot he considered friends," Spoke a dreamy voice, everyone turned towards Luna, it was the first time she'd spoken after everyone's arrival.

The people in the group then turned their attention to Rodrick, waiting for his response.

"All my friends are in Azkaban unfortunately," Rodrick nodded his head solemnly. The others stared at him incredulously, Luna surprisingly just nodded thoughtfully before she apologized for his misfortune.

"He's joking id-" Malfoy almost insulted the girl.

Luna raised an eyebrow as she stared around the compartment trying to see if there was any truth to the words.

"He's right; my friends are all dead," Rodrick spoke again, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

His friends rolled their eyes while the rest chuckled again.

"That's terrible, what happened?" Luna genuinely asked the boy, earning more laughter around the room. She sighed quickly when she realized it must've been a joke.

"Well, it involved a train accident on their way to Hogwarts in their second year," Rodrick added on. The group looked at him slightly unnerved at the proclamation; Daphne raised an eyebrow at him.

They set into a small panic when they heard something crash onto said train.

...

Their group spent the rest of their journey subdued, weary of themselves. Daphne who was sitting next to him pinched his arm roughly trying to get him to explain, Rodrick winked at her, he honestly had no clue.

Pansy thankfully was too worried about dying to really do anything. Luna didn't have a care in the world as she stared at the boy in front of her, wondering how much of the future he could see. She had no reason to be worried, she didn't count as his friend and wasn't in her second year.

Rodrick looked outside the window; Daphne was still tugging at his arm every now and then trying to get him to explain, although she had stopped considerably ever since Tracey got her into a conversation with Luna.

As Rodrick stared at the window, he slowly saw his eyes reflecting back at him, the movement of the train was echoing through his head, and slowly but surely he saw the eyes start to expand, his imagination was taken hold of him, the eyes reached a particular size before he saw a certain glint form up inside. He quickly shook his head, the image disappeared but to his shock he found his arms and legs slightly stiff, almost unable to move, it took a bit of effort before he found himself back to normal. Everyone else had been busy talking to each other; even Daphne hadn't noticed.

Luna, however, was peering at him, her silver eyes seemed to pierce something. She cocked her head to the side as if trying to figure something out. She soon looked away when Rodrick noticed her staring. 'Strange,' 'He thought, 'Did she see me act like that? or was she seeing something else?'

Luna wasn't sure what to make of the boy in front of her, she'd locked eyes with him once before she pictured a giant Phoenix ordering her away, it was quite an amusing sight, it gave her a sudden urge to start jumping around although she found that there wouldn't be enough space to do so.

...

Rodrick and his friends split off from Malfoy's group; Pansy had decided to follow the Malfoy heir, Luna went along following the first years before she gave off a cheerful goodbye to him and his friends. They were currently led towards several carriages, Rodrick stared around trying to see if there was anything that would be pulling them before he considered the fact they were bewitched to move on their own.

"I kinda miss the boats," Spoke a wistful Tracey as she stared at the black lake.

"I don't, it's not good for my hair," remarked Blaise with slight disdain.

Rodrick and Daphne stared at each other at that before chuckling.

"You barely have any," They spoke at the same time.

Blaise frowned, he was about to retort before he saw Tracey laughing along with them and decided three against one weren't excellent odds. He scowled mockingly before making his way inside the carriage. Rodrick followed him and took a seat opposite the boy; Daphne was the next one, she took a seat next to Rodrick and Tracey went opposite her.

"Where do you think Malfoy went?" Asked a bemused Tracey.

"Potter hunting most likely." Retorted Rodrick, he sighed before resting his head near the carriage windows.

Tracey shook her head; she was always the most sensible of them.

"Weird they didn't appear on the train, don't you think? Even Weasley didn't show up."

Rodrick narrowed his eyes when Weasley was mentioned; he had nothing against the family, more against the youngest male. The night after they'd gotten their books for the year Rodrick had a dream remembering the troll incident from the previous year.

"Don't mention that moron," Rodrick scoffed.

The three others stared at each other confused before they turned back to Rodrick.

"Ron Weasley?" asked Tracey.

He nodded his head.

Daphne moved a little closer to peer at his face before she spoke.

"Did something happen between you two?" She asked carefully even though she had an idea of what the problem could be...

Rodrick turned his face at her, a confused look on his face.

"Don't you remember? I am fairly certain the club didn't hit you..." He stated uneasily as he took his wand and started scanning her head.

Daphne blinked at the action before pushing the wand away, "It wasn't that b-" She stopped as she remembered the fact an Unforgivable had been used.

"Oh, don't worry about that! You were there to save the poor witch in distress!" Blaise mocked. That earned him two angry looking glares from the girls.

"Sorry..." He quickly added on.

Daphne turned back to Rodrick and saw him still eyeing her.

"If you say so," He shrugged

Daphne chuckled, shaking her head. He had an odd way of caring for people.

...

It didn't take very long to reach the castle.

Tracey and Daphne were both trying to hex Blaise for some odd reason. Rodrick wondered what Blaise could have possibly done to deserve that. He sighed at his friend's actions before he followed the group of students into the hall.

Things had gone on similarly to the previous year, although Rodrick had noticed their head of house was missing and unsurprisingly it was Malfoy who noticed that Harry Potter hadn't turned up either. Rodrick's friends quickly started throwing out random theories on the matter, Rodrick had been about to join his friend's ridiculous ideas before one from Theodore Nott had raised the bar too high.

"Maybe they couldn't pass through the platform and had to come here in a flying car, got caught by the ministry and are now in Azkaban."

The second-year side of the table was staring at Nott before some broke out in laughter attracting some of the other years as well.

"It's possible..." Nott murmured to himself.

"Yeah, and Dumbledore used to be a dark wizard," Retorted a sarcastic Blaise.

Rodrick snorted when he realized how much truth there was to that; his grandfather had filled him with some quite interesting stories. Daphne sighed while Tracey giggled on with the rest.

Their attention was quickly taken away when the Transfiguration Professor walked in with a group of first years behind her.

When the sorting started, Rodrick turned his attention elsewhere, he focused when people of interest came up, Luna and Ginny, but otherwise left his eyes to wander. He wasn't surprised to see the Weasley girl go to Gryffindor but was a little surprised to see Luna go to Ravenclaw, Malfoy had almost gasped when that happened, he hadn't expected that at all. Rodrick wasn't too surprised, the girl was surprisingly very self-aware. His attention quickly went towards the great oak doors before his eyes found Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, his eyes widened slightly before he pointed his friends towards them. Malfoy sneered when he saw them, he'd hoped Harry wasn't showing up this year. Nott looked disappointed his theory wasn't true. Everyone else in their year and below was mostly curious and the older years didn't really care.

He watched his head of house quickly lead the two boys elsewhere.

"Wonder what's happened?" Rodrick questioned no one in particular, that unfortunately set everyone off to create even more stupid theories. Rodrick noted amused even Daphne had decided to join in that time.

The rumours quickly sorted around; the two idiots had shown up in a flying car.

"Yup... not sure what I expected." Rodrick deadpanned

Nott had never looked so happy, his theory was half true, but it was still something. Malfoy had never looked so upset. They didn't get expelled after all.

"Come now Malfoy, if McGonagall really expelled Potter, there's no way they'd win the house cup," Rodrick remarked, a bemused smile on his face. It sent most of the people around him to either laugh or roll their eyes, but all of them knew it was true. "Besides... It only means we'd be able to get away with more..." he left the meaning up to everyone else to decide although Malfoy did look considerably happier at that.

The Slytherins were quickly escorted down to their dungeons; the prefects gave their usual lecture to the first years before they finally told everyone the password. "Mudblood," Rodrick really didn't want to ask who thought that was a good idea, it was the prefect's decision to pick a 'suitable name.' He was fairly certain their head hadn't known, he'd been quite busy during the sorting. Even Daphne and Tracey looked put out, but they could never really show that around their Slytherin classmates, most of them smirked at the choice, Blaise, Rodrick noted slightly relieved, was indifferent. Malfoy was ecstatic; he looked high on a cheering charm.

Rodrick gave his goodbyes to the girls before he marched up to the dorms, Blaise and Malfoy in tow, Malfoy's two bodyguards were still lounging around the common room, no doubt spying for him. Still, Rodrick was surprised Malfoy would give him the lead so easily, 'What did his father tell him exactly?' He thought. Blaise seemed confused whether to appear too friendly with the girls or not, Rodrick had no issue there, he didn't really have a reputation to worry about. It seemed that his reputation simply couldn't go bad, Grindelwald charisma was hard to hate. Rodrick chuckled to himself at the thought.

The trio quickly found their new dorms; they were warmer than the previous year.

"Think the first year ones are cold to get them used to the environment?" Nott asked, he'd showed up from behind Malfoy.

"Nah, they can get used to that by talking to Malfoy," Rodrick replied back.

Nott snorted at the answer, before smirking at Malfoy's scowl.

"Hilarious! Rodrick..."

To Rodrick's surprise, Malfoy seemed to want to say more but held his mouth. Rodrick stopped walking up, earning a confused look from Blaise. Nott had ignored him altogether and kept on going.

"Go ahead; I'll join you in a sec," Rodrick turned his attention towards Draco.

Blaise nodded warily before he made his way up, Malfoy was about to follow before a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Malfoy turned to face Rodrick's eyes, slightly unsettled.

"Wha-" He was about to ask before Rodrick cut him off.

"What did your father tell you?"

Malfoy eyes widened slightly, he thought for a few seconds before giving off his answer.

"He told me you're dangerous."

Rodrick's eyes narrowed slightly before he let go of the boy's shoulder and made to enter the dorms.

"Is he wrong?" Asked Malfoy, he was still standing on the staircase. He had a defiant look on his face.

Rodrick for a split second remembered his grandfather's words, 'Only fear can bring down someone like Malfoy.' He closed his eyes, he still somewhat disagreed with the words, not because it wasn't true but more... He sighed. At the end of the day, he was a Grindelwald; nothing would ever change that. He doubted morality was something his grandfather agreed on.

Rodrick sighed, he quickly focused his magic, he wasn't even sure how effective it was. His grandfather had shown him how to focus his magic to his Occulemency shield but it was hard to pull off, it felt like forcing magic to his head, it always gave him a headache when he tried. He turned back, his eyes locking themselves to Malfoy's. 'Well here goes nothing... Worst case I have to show him the killing curse as proof,' thought an amused Rodrick, that would probably always work.

"How much are you willing to risk to find out?" Rodrick asked in an emotionless voice. His magic amplifying the shield behind his eyes.

Malfoy flinched, the boy's demeanour changed too quickly, it was almost scary. He had been doubtful about his father's words, after the train incident he was left even more unsure of it, but he went along with it... His father was always right after all. But now... staring at the eyes in front of him... Malfoy didn't know how or why, but he felt dread oozing from them. He was quick to turn his gaze; there was something unsettling about them... His father was right... Definitely right, he made the right choice in befriending him.

Malfoy smirked but said nothing; he didn't know what he could say at that point.

Rodrick raised an eyebrow before he shrugged and continued on his way up. It apparently seemed to work.

Malfoy followed him up quickly; his father had urged him to get close to the wizard, only now could he see why.

The next day proved to be a wonderful start for Rodrick, Ron Weasley received a howler, one that sent half the hall into laughter and everyone at the Slytherin table.

Their head of house was quite angry at the password but naturally, no one owned up to it. It was the Slytherin way.

...

Rodrick sighed as he filtered into the lesson, they'd been back a couple of days. Their usual routine returned, although a slight change was the young blonde sometimes showing up to eat with them, much to the rest of Slytherin's dismay although it seemed her being friends with Rodrick who was friends with Malfoy kept them neutral, especially after Malfoy's special addition to the Quidditch team.

It was their first Transfiguration lesson of the week, one they, unfortunately, shared with Gryffindor. The previous lessons had proven an irritation for Rodrick, most of it stemming from the girls in his group. They were upset that Gryffindor had taken the lead in house points, it seemed the boys in their year had already deemed it a lost cause to bother with the house cup, the girls did not.

He could see the real source of his irritation in one bushy-haired girl. His friends were relying on him to stack up their points for them as he was unanimously and without his choice named their de facto leader, even Malfoy seemed to agree to it although more out of amusement than anything. There were two huge problems with this, one he didn't want the spotlight, spotlights got people like Dumbledore to pay him more attention, two he was only better than Granger in particular subjects, the practical ones, such as the one they were in at the moment... Perhaps doing his best in the previous year's exam was a bad idea after all...

Daphne eyed him closely, which unnerved him a great deal as she was sitting right next to him. He could see Blaise talking with Nott and for a second contemplated that perhaps his friend had the better option... Seeing Blaise's face scrunch up soon after proved that wrong. In a surprising turn of events, Tracey seemed to be sitting next to Malfoy, that really was unexpected, he wasn't sneering at her, but that was probably more out of her being his friend than anything.

He still hadn't figured out what to do with Malfoy after what he'd told him on the first day back. He had yet to talk to his grandfather about it; it seemed the man had decided to take a vacation from Rodrick's mind as soon as school started. Perfect.

"Don't let us down now..." Daphne drawled next to him, Rodrick nodded his head absentmindedly. There really was no winning with her; he can at least pretend to try.

Their lesson today involved turning beetles into buttons because beetle lives apparently didn't matter, Granger was the first to succeed somewhat; naturally, she had probably practised the entire book by now, although she looked slightly put out it wasn't perfect. The professor had given her 10 points, and his friends had glared at him.

Rodrick mused doing the same as Granger to beat her at the end of the year exams but decided the effort wasn't worth it, maybe if it won him the house cup... Daphne had managed to do quite well herself, as did Blaise and Tracey for that matter. Their practice over the summer was showing. No one had managed a perfect transfiguration yet, there was always something that didn't transform completely, in Daphne's case the button still had a patch of skin from the beetle on it, Granger hadn't managed to change the colour, and Tracey's had an antenna on it. Blaise's button had an eye on it.

His friends were eying him at the moment; even the professor seemed to be waiting for his turn. He swished his wand and transformed his button into Granger's copy.

"Well done, 10 points to Slytherin," The professor's voice echoed, although to Rodrick's surprise she looked somewhat disappointed. 'Was she expecting something else?' He thought with a frown.

She was about to turn away before a voice suddenly filled the room.

"See I told you he couldn't do better than her,"

Rodrick closed his eyes and sighed, it was Ron Weasley's voice, there was a smug smile on his face as he talked to Potter. Something about the tone of his voice agitated him 'Were they betting on how I would do?' The fact the guy was criticizing him with a broken wand and having crushed his beetle instead of transforming it only made it worse.

Rodrick turned his button back to a beetle earning the professors attention, and pretty much everyone else's. Granger was eyeing him warily. He then put his wand down and waved his hand over it, if he was going to try he was going to make sure he won, the beetle transformed into a black and green striped button, it had intricate snake designs going down the middle. The look of shock on Weasley's face was almost worth the unnecessary problems he'd just brought on himself.

He looked up to see the professor with a sparkle in her eyes as she stared down at his spellwork, she quickly picked it up and appraised it with her hand. His friends were openly gawking at him, Draco was smirked towards a pouting Granger. Honestly, it unnerved him how accepting Malfoy was; he'd expected him to be jealous instead.

"Wonderfully done, you have an excellent talent for this, especially to do so without a wand! 25 points to Slytherin," Spoke the professor. All hints of fairness gone... She almost seemed to revert to a child when she saw potential. "I am a little put out you didn't want to try at first, but I will be expecting this level of success in your future," 'Nevermind she was just trying to get me addicted to success,' Rodrick thought with a chuckle. The sparkle in her eye seemed to grow bigger and bigger, and Rodrick found himself sinking lower and lower, the entire class was staring at him. The Slytherin's were practically glowering at the Gryffindor side; he had after all practically given them 35 points, they all assumed he copied Granger the first time to get extra points. 'What have I done?'

You'd think Occulemency would help him avoid this sort of thing...

Rodrick contemplated things for a moment before shrugging.

'Screw it, what's the worst that could happen?'

If only he knew.

After the lesson had finished, the professor had asked him to stay back for a few minutes, Rodrick was grateful, it meant anyone besides his friends wouldn't be waiting for him outside... Hopefully, his friends were waiting... 'Ah, insecurities... What would I do without you?'

McGonagall had asked him whether he wanted to move on ahead by himself to attempt the more advanced stuff, she thought he might feel bored with what they were currently learning.

Rodrick quickly shook his head and stated there was always something to learn, even from others not managing to do it properly themselves, it gave him a different kind of learning experience. The answer seemed to light up the professor's eyes, even more, she spoke wistfully about whether he'd been sorted into the right house or not, suggesting Ravenclaw perhaps to be the better option.

He quickly denied the thought, he'd had a nightmare with their riddles.

She quickly waved him off to his friends when she saw Tracey sticking her head over the door window to peek inside, she was taller than Daphne and looked more innocent than Blaise.

After explaining what the professor had asked of him, the group of four quickly made their way to the great hall although Blaise did add that if Rodrick transferred now, he could spy on Ravenclaw for them. The idea had merit, the glare on the girl's faces suggested otherwise, how else would they win without him? Rodrick wondered if the girls ever realized that as long as Harry Potter was in Gryffindor, no one else would be winning in his time at Hogwarts.

...

The group was on their way to their first Defence lesson. Something Rodrick was looking forward to, Daphne had spoken nonstop about the teacher all summer, Rodrick was looking forward to seeing what was so special about him, so he could judge him quietly because he didn't have any Gryffindor blood in himself to do otherwise, he had enough Slytherin in him to make the teachers life a living hell though. Blaise was on his side at this. Tracey was too much of a Hufflepuff to go against Daphne or them, so she was essentially neutral. Malfoy was just being a pain; he'd gone back to Potter bashing to everyone but Potter himself.

Ever since the Greenhouse incident he'd been practically insufferable, although that show had been amusing, to say the least.

He walked into the lesson and took a seat; he saw at the front of the classroom, a desk piled with papers and a single covered up cage. Daphne decided to flank him once again and took one next to him. As soon as the teacher showed up, the girl started dreamily staring towards him.

"Yup. Nope," Rodrick sputtered, earning sniggers from the male Slytherins. He quickly took his stuff and moved to sit next to Blaise; he saw Tracey replacing him on his seat,

"Long time no see, I was wondering when you would grace me with your company." Blaise mocked cheerfully.

Rodrick got up again and sat next to Nott. Earning an amused smile out of the boy, Blaise looked genuinely hurt before he started laughing at having driven him away with a sentence.

"My name is Theodore Nott, pleased to meet you," Nott started sarcastically, Rodrick was about to get up again before he saw no seats available unless he wanted to go next to a Gryffindor and he wasn't that desperate yet.

"I am afraid you're stuck with me," Nott spoke with less sarcasm.

"So it seems, my name is Rodrick by the way," He replied a slight smirk on his face.

Nott rolled his eyes before they turned their attention back to the teacher in front of them. It took five minutes before Nott turned back to Rodrick with a serious face and asked.

"So how do you think he did it?"

"I am sorry? Did what?" Rodrick replied slightly confused.

"You know, all his accomplishments," Nott replied evenly.

Rodrick raised an eyebrow, "I presume with a wand and a bit of magic," Draco, who was a table behind them, snorted.

Nott rolled his eyes again only more dramatically, "You know what I mean." He whispered, no doubt to make sure Malfoy didn't hear.

Rodrick looked ahead to make sure the teacher wasn't near them before he whispered to the boy's ears.

"I think he killed the people who actually did it and took credit for it."

Nott's eyes widened slightly before he nodded along saying it was a good theory, his eyes however quickly narrowed. "But then he'd need to have some talent in magic to kill them."

They both stared up at the wizard in front of them before they both shook their head.

The professor had shown up at their table causing their conversation to die out quickly. He handed them a small test. When they saw the questions, they both quickly sighed. The man gave them 20 minutes to answer the questions, Rodrick had given up on question one and convinced Nott to mess around with the paper, he'd been wary stating they may get into some trouble but Rodrick assured him there wouldn't be any and if there was he'd give him 5 Galleons, at the end of the test they both swapped papers and read each other's answers out.

The professor was too busy appraising one of his portraits.

For the question regarding his favourite colour, Rodrick wrote 'White to match the state of his mind, blank.' Nott wrote 'Red to match the stains of the wizards he'd killed.' For the question regarding his dream, Rodrick wrote it was 'To convince the wizarding world he was minister for magic appropriate instead of his current recommendation, a first-year student.' Nott wrote his dream was 'To find his original body and take over it again,' stating the current one was goblin made. For his greatest accomplishment, Rodrick put down 'Getting hired by Dumbledore.' Nott had 'Convincing the world his books were true.' The rest of the questions followed their same pattern.

Rodrick and Nott both quickly sent small bits of papers flying to each of the Slytherin tables, telling them to watch Gryffindor lose points. Once again the professor didn't even notice. Most of the Slytherin's interest piqued up at this, especially Malfoy. Daphne and Tracey were more wary, although the former was still too busy staring at the golden-haired idiot to really care. As said teacher came up to collect the tests, Nott silently panicked wondering whether Rodrick would deliver on his side or not.

When the teacher touched his paper, Rodrick let out a nonverbal transfiguration spell to change the name on two specific papers in the teacher's hand as well as alter the names on their own paper.

Nott was staring frantically at the papers, he turned towards Rodrick about to speak but relaxed when he saw a grin on the boy's face.

"Done?" he questioned.

Rodrick's nod let him sigh in relief.

The professor read through each paper. When he'd come across Hermione's and Daphne's, with a smile on his face, he awarded both girls 10 points for their good work. The Slytherins were still waiting with baited breath although Daphne looked quite cheerful already.

When he got to the two bewitched papers... A confused look quickly turned to anger when he spotted the two names at the top.

"Ronald Weasley! Dean Thomas! Detention after class, 20 points will be taken from your house for insulting your teacher!"

The Gryffindors looked horrified before they started glaring at the two students, Granger was practically melting Weasley with hers. Daphny was staring towards Rodrick, with a certain glint in her eyes.

The Slytherins were ecstatic, laughing at the sudden turn of events, having expected such a thing to happen, they weren't overly shocked. Malfoy glared daggers to the two responded with a look that demanded an explanation and how it was pulled off, no doubt wanting to do something similar. Nott was almost smiling with glee, he turned towards Rodrick and flashed a grin.

In all, honestly, it looked freaky as hell. That face was not suited to grinning.

Ron Weasley and Dean Thomas were staring frantically at their professor, trying to explain their innocence, to the amusement of the Slytherins.

The next part made it all the better.

The papers in the teacher's hand caught fire, shocking him into dropping it to the floor, within moments the evidence disappeared leaving only Seamus Finnigan's paper untouched, the student's history with fire no doubt forewarned by the other teachers. Gilderoy quickly turned his glare towards said boy and removed a further 20 more points and gave him a detention. 'How dare he ruin my lesson?'

Tracey wasn't sure what she should feel. Daphne was annoyed at her paper burning, happy Gryffindor lost 40 points, relieved the evidence to blame it on Rodrick was gone. She was certainly not going to let him sit with someone else again.

Nott turned towards Rodrick and whispered.

"You are definitely showing me how you did that later." he echoed Malfoy's frantic whispers, His face was beaming in the spotlight from his fellow Slytherins at having made all the previous points earned obsolete, they were in the lead, they knew it didn't matter, but it felt good either way. Rodrick planned on telling Malfoy... Under a single condition, he was aware that Malfoy was more than capable of coming through with it, albeit reluctantly. He didn't promise anything to Nott causing the boy to roll his eyes.

Rodrick chuckled slightly to himself, although for a different reason, Nott been next to him made it easier to act out, he could always push all that light towards him, and he knew Nott wouldn't mind at all.

Malfoy was put-out it wasn't Harry Potter that was in trouble but thinking about it correctly; the teacher probably would've never believed it.

It had taken 10 minutes before the teacher had calm down enough, having echoed his 'thoughts' out to the three delinquents about how rude they were for interrupting such a beneficial lesson. Half the class scoffed, the half that didn't were Gryffindors who were openly glaring at the three troublemakers who had just thrown their lead. Even Harry Potter looked upset for once, no doubt Malfoy will be talking about that for days to come.

The next part of the lesson started off rather intriguing for Rodrick and slightly worrying, turning to his side he saw Nott in his own little world. The fact he had the Slytherins glancing towards him every now and then probably had something to do with that.

The professor had gotten everyone's attention by speaking about some supposedly dangerous creatures. When he pulled the cloth off the cage Rodrick was disappointed, he expected something a little bigger. Some of the students were dumbfounded before they started laughing, the grin Lockhart's face grew. Rodrick didn't like this.

The next few moments were filled with pure mayhem, the teacher released the creatures and let them run amok through the students, he attempted to fix it all but his spell, if it could be called one, failed miserably. Rodrick might have immediately fixed the situation if he wasn't laughing so much. He had his head on the table unable to control his laughter, students all around him were harassed non-stop, he saw one of the Pixies take Ron's broken wand and let loose chaos with accidental sparks of magic. Most of the Slytherins used their brains and hid under the table, Rodrick couldn't care at all. One pixie tried to annoy him, but an Expulso sent it crashing straight into Harry Potter knocking him off balance, he knew Malfoy would love him for it.

Looking around, however, he stiffened quickly, some of the pixies were ganging up on Tracey, they'd pushed her out of the table and were slowly levitating her, matching the Longbottom boy. The laughter had stopped from him; it was replaced by anger. Tracey was frantic in the air trying to swat away the Pixies; he saw Granger on the floor trying to find her wand, Harry Potter near her, He must've accidentally pushed her there after the Expulsified Pixie hit him. Rodrick got up on top of his table, the eyes of every creature, human, and pixie, went to him. He raised his wand to the air.

"Carpe Retractum," Ropes of light flittered out of Rodrick's wand in the direction of every Pixie pulling it towards him, when the ones lifting the two students up were pulled, the students fell. Rodrick cast out a wandless Levitation charm on both to stop them from getting injured. The pulling spell had grabbed hold of every Pixie into a small group of crying furballs, all of them held together by a long rope.

"Expulso," Rodrick shot out at the group of Pixies aiming it towards the open cage, once the Pixies were put inside, he cast out a locking charm to prevent their escape.

Everyone around was staring at him; the Slytherins were grinning one of their own had managed to fix the situation, Rodrick looked around at the awed looks before he shrugged and got off the table. Tracey ran up towards before thanking him quickly. Daphne was currently staring at him with a fond look; she felt giddy he'd managed to fix another problem again so swiftly and efficiently. However that look was changed to a disappointed one as she stared at Lockhart, 'He should've been able to handle that.'

Rodrick heard one Gryffindor question why he couldn't have done that sooner. He turned his gaze before smirking, "It was too funny watching you Gryffindors struggle around like." He had after all only intervened when one of their own had been put into trouble.

"Ah yes well, well done Rodrick, another 15 points to Slytherin for your quick thinking! I believe that will be all, everyone but the three troublemakers from earlier can leave." The points really were the icing on the cake, Slytherins were practically beaming as they left the defence classroom with the sulking Gryffindors behind them, Granger looked near in tears. Slytherin had earned 60 points, Gryffindor had only won 20 and lost 40. Snape was going to be very happy when he found out.

Rodrick and his friends found themselves surrounded by all the second years for the rest of the day. He had managed to slip Malfoy a piece of paper telling him his condition for showing him the spell used in the papers; the boy had frowned slightly before looking up to Rodrick and nodding his head. He had a smile on his face for the rest of the day. Even Daphne couldn't be mad at him for his underhanded tricks, she had encouraged him after all to get more points, and they were both in Slytherin at the end of the day, cunningness was expected.

Tracey thanked him once again outside the lesson only for Rodrick to quickly point out he would've done it for any of his friends...

Blaise asked him if he'd done it for him. Rodrick took a second to think before shaking his head sarcastically, earning laughter from the second years around them.

Nott and Rodrick were greeted like heroes to the dungeon later on that day; rumours state they saw Snape smile at them.

Malfoy was laughing along with the rest before he appraised the situation accurately, he stared ahead at Rodrick as he was surrounded by near everyone in the common room. Nott was currently the one answering the older years questions on what exactly happened in the class. Looking around Draco could see everyone eyeing the orphan, or well the Greengrass ward at this rate. Nott was speaking but their attention was on Rodrick, his three friends like always were never far away from him. Draco was confused; he knew no one else besides his family knew his real name, it was why they were so interested in him in the first place and yet somehow even without that... Rodrick had managed to get everyone in their house's attention and to top it off none of them seemed to dislike him or better yet... none of them wanted to dislike him.

Thinking about that... Draco shivered. If he could manage that without a name... on possibly the hardest group of people in their school... What exactly could he pull off if he could use his real name openly? Just how far would their house go in supporting him? How far would he go for that matter? Already he'd managed to get a Ravenclaw to their table without any fuss although Malfoy knew deep down it was more thanks to him than anything. He smiled at the thought; his influence was certainly high enough after his father's donation. However that thought led him to Rodrick's request, he didn't mind it really, he knew it was easy enough... The fact he'd so quickly accepted it was another matter entirely, in fact, he found himself willing to accept it even without the spell Rodrick offered to teach him. Well, Father did tell me to befriend him...

Malfoy wondered how much he could use that excuse before it became void, he sighed slightly, Rodrick was slowly taking over their house without even realising it, his magical talent was like a shining ball of light, and the rest were moths, the worst part? It became clearer and clearer just why his father had so willingly followed Lord Voldemort. He wasn't sure if Rodrick held the same ideals as a Pureblood and he wasn't sure that would matter.

After all, power was beautiful even in the wrong places.

...

Rodrick had just left his dorm; it was the weekend, he and Daphne were supposed to meet at the common room before Breakfast started. They were expected, more like supposed, to go to the Quidditch pitch to watch Slytherin train their new seeker, Malfoy, and chaser, Tracey. Rodrick was quite disheartened being forced to attend, Blaise had managed to avoid it since, well, no one told him.

Rodrick had only agreed to attend on the condition Blaise found out on his own; it was always fun messing with him. Rumours of the defence incident and Rodrick and Nott's involvement had quickly spread about the castle, although with literally no proof, the blame couldn't be passed to them although it certainly changed the way the Gryffindors viewed them, most of them disliked them and felt wary.

Fred and George saw them as the bright side of Slytherin.

The day before, Tracey had practically stormed up to Rodrick asking him why the Quidditch team captain had deigned to 'invite' her into the team. From the way Tracey looked, it was more that he put her in without her knowledge, his reasoning being that, since she already had experience on the new broom, she was suited to play for them.

Rodrick had simply told her the truth; she was bound to find out anyway. He had practically cajoled Malfoy into inviting her into the team, by inviting, Malfoy took that to the meaning of forcing. Tracey looked upset, saying she only got in because of him and not her skill. Daphne had saved him there stating it was unlikely for them to consider a girl considering Flint's personality.

That had managed to lighten the girl's mood; it was then he saw the smirk on her face that Rodrick regretted getting involved, he was 'invited' to watch her training sessions. She did genuinely look happy about it at the end of the day though.

Teaching Malfoy the spell used in Defence proved to be impossible, the boy was hopeless with Transfiguration; he barely managed to put a letter in on a piece of parchment before he accidentally ripped it, Rodrick settled on teaching him the burning charm used instead.

He was currently sitting in one of the sofas, the only people that were currently up right now were a few sixth and seven years studying their books. Rodrick hadn't meant to wake up so early, but a strange dream had gotten him out of his sleep. He saw someone running around what looked like the first floor; they were short, every time Rodrick tried to look at their face it would get covered over by a strange darkness. After a while the running would stop, only for the person to get covered up by a large shadow, that was the moment he woke up.

Rodrick shook his head trying to forget the dream; he had nothing to go on aside from it been on the first floor. He decided to open up a book on Herbology; it was one of the subjects he struggled on.

He almost fell asleep again by the time Daphne showed up, he wiped his eyes trying to get rid of the tired image his face was taken, looking up he saw Daphne staring at him a bemused look on her face.

"Did the others kick you out of the dorm last night?" she joked.

It took a few seconds before he understood her meaning and shook his head, he really was too tired right now. She chuckled at his expression before she pulled the book from his hands and threw it towards his robe pocket.

She was amused to see it automatically shrink in mid-air.

Tired as he looked, he could still manage wandless magic. Sometimes it really hit home just how good he was with magic.

"Imagine if I failed to shrink that..."

"It probably would've hurt." Daphne deadpanned. "Let's go then, Tracey should already be out practising." She added on.

Rodrick sighed before he followed the cheerful girl.

"Can we get something to eat first?"

Daphne frowned before agreeing but only on the condition he took it outside. Rodrick nodded, and the two set off towards the great hall.

"Are you sure we shouldn't tell Blaise?" She asked once they'd left the dungeons.

"Whose Blaise?" Rodrick questioned, leading the girl to shake her head with a smile on her face.

"You're so childish sometimes you know that?"

"Well, I am a child," He spoke, "You are as well last I checked."

Daphne had blinked at this before she started laughing.

Rodrick raised an eyebrow at her before the girl shook her head and latched onto his arm.

"You're right," she spoke with a cheerful voice. She froze at the action, making to let go...

Rodrick shrugged and walked on.

"You're going to keep doing that aren't you?"

Daphne blinked. "Yes?"

...

Reaching the Great hall, they found they weren't the only ones up early. Daphne eyed the two familiar second year Gryffindors, but Rodrick's attention was elsewhere, towards the Ravenclaw table. He furrowed his brows when he saw two people messing around with Lovegood's food when she wasn't looking; the girl had stopped putting her wand on her ear after Rodrick had taken it playfully several times while passing by. He turned to Daphne and told her to wait for him there; she raised an eyebrow to which he pointed towards Luna. A look of understanding as well a hint of anger had crossed her face before she agreed.

Rodrick made his way over towards the Ravenclaw table, startling some of its members. The second years eyed him warily; they had something against him for the previous year. He was after all one of the two only students to beat the rest of their house in the exams. He quickly made his way over to the other side where he saw the two second years picking on Luna, when they noticed him they shifted their attention from the girl. They'd each taken a seat on Luna's sides and had been using magic to disrupt her when she tried to eat.

Luna looked slightly startled at her food before a smile made its way onto her face. "It finally stopped moving on its own!" she cheered in a dreamy voice. The students around her sniggered. Rodrick frowned, she wasn't even aware they were bullying her? She turned around when she noticed him behind her.

"Hello there, nice to see you again," she spoke in her faraway voice, although the smile on her face grew.

"Hello Lovegood," he replied. He turned his eyes towards the two bullies. "Would you two mind leaving her alone?" He cut to the chase, he didn't exactly have a lot of time.

Their eyes stormed at him; Luna looked a little confused at this, she was about to speak before Rodrick motioned towards her food.

"Oh... I thought it was something else..." She stated quietly.

"What? Another one of your crazy friends?" the one to her right snorted, his voice filled with disdain. The one on her left started laughing. Luna frowned but before she could speak, the left one stood up.

"Listen here Rodrick, this has nothing to do with you, so why don't you run back to your little den of snakes." The student's voice filled with disdain.

Rodrick chuckled darkly, earning confused looks.

"What's so funny?" The boy questioned, they'd managed to get most of the table's attention, he could see Daphne waiting at the edge of the Slytherin table.

Rodrick stared into the boy's eyes causing him to flinch and turn his gaze slightly. "I am flattered you took the time to memorise who I was..." A small smirk lining his face, "Unfortunately you don't actually stand out, so I am gonna need you to tell me who you are." the words had earned repressed laughter from some of the students around the table. The boy in front of him looked about to turn pink; even Luna found herself smiling. Whether it was because of them or something else entirely, Rodrick wasn't actually sure.

"My name is-" The pink-faced boy started, his words ringing louder as he went on, however, Rodrick raised a hand to cut him off.

"Hang on; there's a problem." Rodrick started.

The boy's eyes narrowed at him. "What!" he almost yelled.

Rodrick glared at the other boy causing him to squirm; he'd used the same thing on Malfoy. He spoke in a menacing voice, surprising the students around him. "I. Don't. Care." Each word calm and devoid of emotion. "Leave my friend alone, or else!"

The one in front of him had almost melted at the look; he could practically feel magic pouring out of the person in front of him, he turned his face slightly unwilling to look at him. Luna was staring at him with wide eyes, a smile on her face. The other student was a little more defiant, he got up and walked towards Rodrick. "Or else what?" he deadpanned although slightly unsure of himself.

Rodrick's lips curled upwards distastefully, unnerving the boy, he leaned in slightly and whispered.

"You really want to find out right now?"

The boy gulped slightly, before taking a step back, the defence rumours still in his mind, the glint in Rodrick's eyes scared him.

He silently thanked human Transfiguration; it helped him emphasize his facial expressions. The look on Luna's eyes however changed, they were gazing thoughtfully towards his face, a light of understanding quickly appeared in them.

Rodrick waved amiably with a cheerful smile towards the two he'd just threatened before leaving, the act only unsettled the people around them more, "What is wrong with that guy?" he heard someone mutter.

Rodrick chuckled to himself; people really couldn't handle it when someone's personality suddenly switched. The blonde quickly finished up her food before she followed him back, Rodrick raised an eyebrow at her and saw her smile falter.

"Um I wanted to come with and your friend," she spoke, a finger pointed towards Daphne, the black-haired girl flushed slightly before she turned away thinking she was caught staring.

"You don't even know where we're going," Rodrick pointed out.

Luna blinked at him before stating that as friends it didn't really matter.

Rodrick chuckled, "That's not how friends work."

Luna cocked her head to the side, "Well I've never really had one before, so I wouldn't know much about it." she answered. Daphne had reached them by this point, having heard the whole conversation, she quickly looped her hands through Luna's. "Well I can always show you," she spoke cheerfully.

Luna blinked as she stared at the girl.

"She does that a lot," Rodrick pointed out.

Daphne's face tinged.

"I don't remember being friends with you," Luna added on.

Daphne turned red.

"I don't really mind," Luna added on with a smile causing the girl to sigh. Daphne turned her face to Rodrick. "Must you always get the strange ones as your friends?" she spoke, no doubt referring to Nott.

Rodrick raised an eyebrow before reminding her she was the first one, Luna started laughing. Considering she was staring ahead of them, Rodrick wasn't sure once again what she was laughing about. He quickly levitated some pieces of food from one of the nearby tables. The two girls eyed him as if he was a strange creature.

"I am hungry," Rodrick shrugged before taking Luna's left. And adding on, "In case you try to steal my food."

Daphne rolled her eyes while Luna chuckled before she swiped two of the doughnuts he'd levitated and handed one to Daphne. The glare on Rodrick's face only made the two girls laugh. Daphne had a triumphant look on her face.

"I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship," She said smiling at the blonde, as she bit down into the stolen doughnut.

"Wonderful," Rodrick drawled sarcastically.

...

The three made their way over to the Quidditch Pitch where they were quickly waved over by Tracey. Malfoy raised an eyebrow at the floating food before he quickly took one for himself, a smirk on his face. He shrugged at Luna showing up with them, Rodrick was probably right about the whole newspaper thing at the end of the day.

"Will you people stop stealing my food?" Tracey then promptly took the last piece left.

Rodrick twitched. The rest of the Slytherins eyed them indifferently, having already gotten used to all of them, even the Ravenclaw. Markus Flint pointed them over towards some of the cheering stands to sit at. As they neared said stands they started hearing some argument startup. They turned around midway and saw that the Gryffindor team had shown up.

The three stared at each other; Luna looked more interested in something that was apparently hiding in Rodrick's hair, before long they heard the teams arguing and so started rushing back towards the group of players. They reached them in time to hear Granger speak, the girl and her Weasley friend had shown up with the Gryffindor team it seemed.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in, They all got in through skill."

Rodrick saw a frown go over Tracey's face; she'd been so excited about practising earlier on... After he'd helped her out the previous year... She insults one of his closest friends?

Malfoy was about to retort before he saw the anger on Rodrick's face show.

"You barely made it into Hogwarts," He spoke glaring at the girl, "Don't go around judging those who grew up with magic!" Rodrick spat, surprising everyone around him, the venom in his voice shook the girl. Daphne would've frowned if it weren't for the fact Tracey had also been insulted. Luna stood behind the girl, avoiding the tension.

Rodrick could see some of the Slytherins adopt smirks at his words; the Gryffindors glared at him. Harry Potter, surprisingly, had seen why Rodrick was angry and kept his mouth closed, he was defending the other person mentioned in that signed slip, not Malfoy. He could see Ron rile up quickly though.

"What was that!? You're just a jealous git! Besides she's right anyway, no way your friends would have made the team without any money." He spoke, confident. His friends were nodding on with him.

Rodrick's glare darkened, he almost released his Transfiguration. The Slytherins around him were waiting to see his reaction. He locked eyes with the boy before he spat out, "I think the jealous one here is you, always hiding behind someone else's shadow for some sense of purpose. You neither have skill or money, you've no right to judge a muggle let alone them." He finished pointing backwards.

The Slytherins surrounding him started cackling at the look on the boy's face.

Ron was purple in the face; he looked about to explode, he took out his wand and was about to utter a spell before he stiffened, he'd blinked and found Rodrick's wand at his throat, his eyes glaring at him, daring him. One of the twins seeing this took out his wand and shot off a spell at Rodrick, which he silently redirected towards Ron Weasley with a shield charm, although to everyone else it had looked like the twin had hit the wrong target.

Ron fell to all fours vomiting nonstop. Rodrick put his wand away and moved away, Weasley's friends quickly held him up and took him away, twins in tow apologizing. The Slytherins howled with laughter.

"Thanks," Tracey murmured, a pleased smile on her, Rodrick nodded before he moved past the Slytherin team to go to the stands, Malfoy was still laughing with the rest at the twins failure to aim. When he'd finally calmed down he gave Rodrick a curt nod before he followed the rest of the team, surprisingly Tracey seemed to fit in better than he'd thought she would, she certainly looked more at ease. The Gryffindors had quickly given up on the pitch when they'd lost their seeker and two beaters.

"You're a really nice person you know," Luna surprised him.

Rodrick blinked at the girl slightly put out before he joked about what part of that was nice, she simply smiled knowingly with a faraway look, she didn't say anything. Causing the two to stare at each before they shrugged, she was weird; it was fine.

Rodrick eyed Daphne slightly warily, wondering what she might think, she caught his stare before giving him a smile. "I am glad you stood up for her, besides who knows how bad it might have gotten if Malfoy had said anything," Rodrick relaxed slightly when he heard the words, 'So she saw Malfoy about to speak as well?'

"I did point a wand at Ron's neck though..." Rodrick mentioned warily.

Daphne raised an eyebrow before chuckling, "Good, who knew what he was going to hex you with," she spoke smiling.

"Besides... that wand... who knows what kind of damage it could've done." Luna shuddered. 'I wonder how many Wrackspurts were fizzing inside his brain to make him think it was safe?'

Rumours naturally passed around about the day, Rodrick had to deal with a few new nicknames, the Slytherin Badger, Hufflepuff snake, and his least favourite, Bird Whisperer. It lasted two weeks before it stopped, the number of students he'd hexed and gotten into detention through, wandless and or nonverbal magic, reached a new record for the first month of Hogwarts. His birthday was the worst.

Blaise seemed to enjoy doing it the most; he was quite upset when he found out about the practice session he wasn't invited to. It was his way of sulking.

His three first friends had gift wrapped their gifts with Hufflepuff colours, no one else knew it was his birthday.

'Looks like I'll be buying them more books,' He thought unamused.

...

The next few weeks, however, dampened Rodrick's mood greatly, he was looking paler and paler as time went on. Even his Transfiguration couldn't hide it. His dreams were becoming more and more vivid; they were happening far too often. They'd shown him more and more each time; he had gone from waking up as soon as the shadow appeared to see the figure kill something.

He wasn't sure what was going on, all he knew was that something was happening in the first corridor, he didn't know when or what. His friends had all been worried about him. Even Malfoy seemed slightly concerned, they were urging him to visit Madam Pomfrey, but Rodrick refused each time stating he was fine.

His classes weren't helping; he had no issue with Transfigurations, Charms, and Potions. He found himself caring less and less about showing off which only managed to excite the teachers more and more, besides Snape. The house points were racking up, although it was mostly from Snape, with each lesson much to the other houses annoyance. It quickly ran around the castle that he was, in fact, responsible for a lot of Slytherins points, he had more and more people disliking him with each day.

Not that any of it mattered, Rodrick simply couldn't find the energy to care. The dreams were taking their toll on him; his brain racked itself trying to figure out what was going to happen, he knew it wasn't good. The classes he had an issue with were Herbology, Astronomy, and Defence, the first two he had trouble with, he found himself spending more and more nights working on them. While Defence he had to control himself far too much so as not hex the teacher to oblivion, it was made even harder with Daphne next to him as she practically idolized the man.

He fell asleep in every History lesson.

His friends were worried about him. That was an understatement. Blaise was worried enough not to be sarcastic, Tracey was anxious about his health and Daphne was frantically chastising him each day, Rodrick threatened not to buy her any gifts if she didn't stop. She slapped him in response before she hugged him as a strange form of apology.

Rodrick could not for the life of himself understand the other gender.

Honestly, he felt more comfortable with the slap. That, he was used to.

Some of the older years nodded in understanding towards his bewildered face when they'd seen it, Malfoy thankfully, wasn't there when it happened. Nott was there but didn't care; he was more focused on whether Dumbledore was syphoning magic out of the students to prolong his life.

He'd seen his grandfather off and on, but the man had nothing to say to him regarding those dreams other than calling them visions of something, seeing no help there Rodrick gave up asking regarding it and focused on his duelling.

As Halloween came closer, however, his dreams seemed to come by less and less, they were simply longer each time. It wasn't until one week before Halloween before his face finally went back to its healthy outlook, something his friends were relieved in, he, however, wasn't. He knew the day his dreams were referencing. It really should've been obvious, Halloween, just like the previous year. He'd seen something stuck out under a rope, bloodied, with Ginny Weasley trapped next to it. It looked like she was in danger. Rodrick sighed. He had nothing against the girl; he was contemplating if he should interfere or enjoy Halloween for once.

Who was he kidding, he already knew his answer, he wouldn't live with himself if something happened to her and he knew and could've stopped it. Besides if she owes him he'll be able to use her against her brother. He settled on that, no need to worry about it any further, come Halloween he would visit the first-floor corridor and see what in Merlin's name was going on.

It was then he remembered something... Daphne's birthday was on Halloween. He wondered how bad of an idea it'd be to skip out on her birthday.

Rodrick sighed. 'Well... Honestly, what's the worst that could happen?'

Rodrick sighed again; he really needed to stop provoking life.