Chapter 7

Tracy Davis was sat in the common room, it was late at night, she was thinking. She wasn't the smartest out of her friends but she was smart enough to see that things had changed, big changes as well, even Crabbe and Goyle could tell that things had changed. It all came back to one boy.

Harry Potter.

Every person knew him as the boy-who-lived, defeater of you-know-who, though a few believed it was actually his parents that defeated him. She was one of them, until recently. She hadn't known Harry Potter for that long yet she had already seen him beat an entire common room full of students with ease, it didn't even look like he was trying.

The strange part was that while she was scared, she somehow felt like she wasn't the one in danger, like she wouldn't be targeted. She felt more scared for other people than herself, it was at that moment that Tracy believed it was possible for Harry to have actually defeated you-know-who. She wondered what the limits of his powers were as she stared at the wall that he had disappeared into, the room for Slytherin's heir, she still couldn't believe that he spoke parsletounge, maybe he actually was the heir.

Though Harry has also affected her on a personal level, she wasn't sure what he had done to Isabella but it appeared to be a mixed package. On hand the girl was happier and more healthy than before but on the other hand she was acting totally different, though most the time she was just shy and quiet so maybe this was just how she acted when she had some confidence. But now Daphne was also getting closer to Harry, she saw the looks that Daphne gave Harry. Not as crazy or devoted as the ones Isabella gave but it was still obvious that she liked him.

Tracy couldn't help but feel let out, her friends were changing, they were changing without her. Was it all because of Harry? Well...he was a pretty good looking boy, he had lovely hair and beautiful eyes and a handsome face. He was also kind to her and the girls...when he wasn't scaring the crap out of Slytherin house. He was also strong, powerful, rich and famous. He had many good qualities, but that wasn't just it. He stood out somehow, for some reason she just felt drawn to him.

"Are you alright Tracy?" A voice asked, she jumped in her seat and turned around to see Harry sitting in a chair that wasn't there before "You know that Daphne and Isabella have a similar habit of thinking at night on that exact spot. I'm curious as to whether it is a girl thing or a best friend thing?"

"I'm fine" Tracy said "and...probably a best thing, we're a lot alike."

"I can see that" Harry nodded "you three are beautiful and smart girls, you're very powerful as well, I think you three have the potential to be very great wizards"

"Uh...thank you" Tracy said, a slight blush on her cheeks "I...I was wondering..."

"You were wondering what's happened between your friends and me" Harry finished for her.

"That obvious huh?"

"To me at least" Harry smiled "Daphne was worried I would hurt Isabella, I will tell you something similar to what I told her. I would never hurt your friends, I value them too much."

"Value?" Tracy asked.

"Yes" Harry nodded "you see, I see your value just like I saw Isabella's and Daphne's. You see, in this world, you have a few choices. you can be piss poor, you can get a job at the ministry that's likely low paying and spend years working up to a high value position or the easiest option of finding a nice pureblooded boy and marrying him. Those options disappoint me personally, I mean look at you, you have so much potential to be a great witch but it doesn't matter to people because you're a half-blood witch. I mean most of the women with high paying jobs in the ministry are purebloods, the half-bloods and muggleborns aren't as lucky.

But that's a discussion for another time. You see, I care for your friends, they're mine now. Would you like to join them?"

"W...what?" Tracy blurted.

"Would you like to become like them?" Harry asked as he leaned forward "Happy? Protected? Free? Do you want that?"

"W...well...y...yeah...b.."

"Excellent" Harry smiled right before placing his hand on Tracy's, a wave of excitement shot through her body. Her eyes briefly turned green as she felt better than she had ever done before, her head leaned forward just as Harry gave her a soft kiss on the lips.

'I've got the set' Harry thought with a mental grin.

"Th...that was amazing!" Tracy exclaimed once they had finished.

"Really?" Harry asked dryly before he kissed her again.

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Tonks was sat on her bed, thinking, thinking about what she had found herself thinking about a lot recently. Though if you wanted to be accurate then you would say she wasn't thinking about a thing, no, she was thinking about a person. Harry Potter to be exact, the boy-who-lived and most famous student in the school. She didn't know what to do with him, it all started with her meeting him on the train and somehow ending up in a snogging session, a brilliant one if she was being honest.

Since then she couldn't stop thinking about him, their last meeting didn't help. It made it worse if anything, she didn't know what to do. He was constantly on her mind, she always felt a pit of jealousy and anger when she saw those blonde girls hang on to him. Her mind was currently divided into to parts, one part argued for him and one part argued against.

He's too young, I can't have sex with him. It's against the law.

Only by a few years, plus he only has a few years to go since the wizarding world's age is thirteen because the boys mature faster than muggles.

People will judge me, they already do so because I'm a metamorphamgus and related to two of you-know-who's worst followers.

They judge you anyway, besides who would have to know? You don't need to worry about them, if their opinion was so important then you'd be a plain haired regular student instead of a pink haired and happy student.

But what if he doesn't want me? I am not asking an eleven year old for more snogging just to be rejected? Plus...what if he thinks I am a freak? What if he is like every other boy I've met?

What if he is not? He kisses better than any other boy, and he already said that he wasn't interested in just my looks, plus he's a metamorphamaugus as well, he probably understands me better than every other boy and girl in this school. Plus it looks like he's control is better, he could probably even teach me.

Tonks slammed her head into her pillow with frustration and groaned, eventually she decided on a course of action. She would write to her mother and ask her for advice, though she'd leave the details out of it. If her mother found out that she was crushing on the boy-who-lived then she'd get teased constantly at best and disapproval and lectures at worse.

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Harry Potter was currently sat in the library, he decided to let the girls have some time to their selves, now he had Tracy included in his little...group...though he supposed he could call it a harem. Would he call it harem? Yeah...it probably was. He supposed it'd be better if he got more girls added into it, three is a pitiful number for a harem. Though he supposed that he'd add Ginny to the list once she came to school, and soon Tonks would be an official member.

Harry was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the sound of someone opposite him. He glanced up and saw Hermione Granger. Hermione Granger was a bushy haired girl with buck teeth, Harry thought that the girl could become quite a looker if she just fixed her hair and used magic to shrink her teeth, however this was one girl he would not be adding into his harem, his magic did not want him to have her and his magic was the only voice in his head worth listening to besides his own.

"Can I help you?" Harry asked in a polite voice.

"Just reading" Hermione shrugged and turned to her book, Harry was doubtful as there were plenty of free desks yet she chose to sit and share a desk with him. But for now he decided to play along, he returned to his own book, more than ready to play the patience game. He hated being patient, he much preferred just taking and doing whatever he wanted. But for now, he would wait, he would be patient and he would... "can I ask you something?" Hermione Granger looked up at him, apparently she was even less patient than him.

"You just did but go ahead" Harry replied as he looked at her.

"How are you so good?" Hermione asked.

"At what?" Harry asked, pretending to be confused.

"At lessons, you know all the answers, how do you know them all?" Hermione asked, to any other person she looked like a normal but eager to learn child. Not to Harry, he could see the real her, the desire to learn, no the demand to learn. He saw it in her eyes, the need to learn as much as she can, he had no doubt that she was the type of person to do whatever it took to complete her goals. He imagined she would have no problems with justifying any actions she takes as well.

"I study" Harry shrugged "simple learning and a good memory along with a healthy diet and body, it works wonders not just for the mind but also the soul."

"Don't lie to me" She replied, Harry could detect the small bit of anger in her tone "there's obviously more to it than that. I study more than everyone here, I am in the library more than everyone here."

"My goodness, do you really struggle with classes that much that you need so much more library time than everyone else?" Harry asked with a straight face.

"I do not struggle" Hermione glared at him "I am smart, and I study more than you so there is no way that you should be getting higher grades than me."

"You're not really smart" Harry responded.

"Yes I am!" Hermione said, incredibly offended by his words.

"You see, I don't think you are, you're not smart. You just have an eidetic memory, like me."

"Wait what?!"

"You see, I don't think you are, you're not smart. You just have an eidetic memory, like me. Harry repeated. "You're not smart, you just remember and repeat everything verbatim to the teachers. You always give the textbook answer while I make an actual effort to understand the material, you don't, you just repeat it. You're basically an organic recording device, you're fine in school but you're ruined as soon as you get in the real world."

"H...how did you know I had an eidetic memory?" Hermione asked, a little shaken at the way he casually admitted to knowing something she hadn't told anyone yet.

"I know all your secrets" Harry smiled, he then laughed, not a small laugh, a big laugh. Hermione Granger jumped in her seat when Harry Potter burst into maniacal laughter. She looked around and was surprised to see nobody else was reacting, they all went round their business like they couldn't hear him. In fact, it looked a lot like they couldn't hear him, they were all also looking everywhere but at the table that she and Harry were sitting at. Eventually Harry stopped, he looked at her with a feral smile that sent shivers down her spine. "I know all your secrets" He repeated.

"W...what...I..."

"I know all your secrets" Harry said in a sing song voice "your dirty little secrets! I know who you are."

"W...what?!" Hermione blurted out "But you can't! Nobody does! You can't know!"

"Well I do!" Harry laughed "Oh but don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone"

"You aren't" She looked at him with disbelief.

"Of course not" Harry looked at her like she was an idiot "I need to keep you around, I might get bored in the future. I need to be entertained. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about this conversation...in fact neither will you."

"What do you mean?!"

"You see, I can't have you going to Dumbledore...not yet at least. You might spring the old man into action and while I would love a fight, I already have a plan set for him. Sorry, but I think it's best if you don't remember this conversation"

"You can't..." Hermione Granger was cut off when she suddenly noticed Harry Potter's green eyes glowing.

Her eyes unwillingly focused on nothing but the glow of those bright and emerald green eyes. Harry easily sent a small tentacle of magic from his hand, it slithered up Hermione's arm and then up her neck before it burrowed into her skin and travelled up into the brain. From there Harry quickly replaced the memory of what had just happened with a memory where she asked him his secrets and he simply responded by saying he had natural smarts and studied hard. Harry removed the tentacle and got rid of it, his eyes stopped glowing, it took Hermione Granger several seconds before she came back to reality.

Hermione blinked rapidly, she then looked at Harry Potter who had returned to reading his book. She huffed and stood up, he was so rude for just going back to reading while she was talking. She left, a bit disappointed that she hadn't learnt anything useful. Apparently all he does is study and be smart, she didn't believe that, he must have cheated. Somehow he cheated, there was no way he was smarter than her.

Harry watched as she departed, a smile on his face, at least now he didn't have to worry about being bored all of his time at Hogwarts. Now he had some one to torment...play with. Of course he had to be careful how everyone else saw it, he might be an evil wizard but no reason to let everyone know just yet.

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"Alright girls?" Harry asked as he sat with Tracy, Daphne and Isabella at the Slytherin table. The other Slytherin's had taken the hint and stayed away, something that very much pleased Harry. It seemed they were at least smart enough to learn who to not piss off, pretty soon he would have to start training them to obey.

"Harry!" Isabella smiled happily and latched onto his right arm while Tracy latched onto his left.

"Well that's not fair" Daphne complained as she sat opposite the three.

"Tough" Tracy shrugged.

"Sorry" Isabella said sympathetically.

"Don't worry Daphne" Harry smiled at her "if you want then we can share a chair when we get back to the common room."

"Share a chair?" Daphne asked.

"Yes, if we can both fit on it then great. If not then one of us would have to sit on one of the arm rests...or perhaps I can sit on the chair and you can sit in my lap, which would you prefer."

"Lap!" Daphne answered immediately.

"That's not fair!" Tracy and Isabella complained.

"Tough" Daphne said to Tracy before giving Isabella a sympathetic "sorry".

"Girls, girls, remember to share" Harry said in an amused voice.

"By the way Harry" Isabella said as she leaned into him "perhaps you could teach us some magic, we need to learn"

"Ah, that's right" Harry nodded approvingly "you three will be members of my future inner circle, you'll need to be trained."

"You're going to have an inner circle?" Tracy asked.

"Of course, everyone worth listening to has an inner circle" Harry said as if it was an obvious fact "don't worry, I will get you three a great teacher"

"Why can't you do it?" Isabella pouted.

"As much as I'd love to, I do have several other things to do along with things I'll likely have to do in the future, but I will be monitoring your progress and you will be rewarded for your efforts."

"Who's going to teach us?" Daphne asked curiously.

"I have someone special in mind" Harry smiled "but I'm going to keep it a secret for now"

"Harry!" The girls complained while Harry smirked, the girls were nothing if not amusing.

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"Ah, my apologies" Harry said when he 'accidently' bumped into someone, he looked up and saw that person was Dumbledore.

"Not a problem, my boy" Dumbledore smiled back, he had 'accidently' bumped into the young Potter boy. This was a brilliant opportunity to learn more and form an opinion on the boy. "I'm Albus Dumbledore, it's a pleasure to meet you." Dumbledore said, extending a hand.

"Harry Potter sir" Harry smiled and shook Dumbledore's hand "you're the headmaster aren't you?" He asked, despite knowing the answer.

"Why yes, yes I am" Dumbledore chuckled "though I am guessing that you already knew that"

"Yes but I wanted to make sure" Harry gave him a sheepish smile "I didn't want to accidently call the wrong person 'headmaster', I mean what if another wizard went around with a similar look to you but wore a fez instead?"

"Ah yes, I can see your point Mr Potter" Dumbledore smiled, so far he had seen that the boy is polite and well mannered. Curious too, that could be good depending on how curious he was. "Where are you heading off to? If you don't mind me asking."

"Not at all sir, I am just heading back to the Slytherin common room" Harry answered.

"Ah, and how are you settling into Slytherin?" Dumbledore asked, very interested in knowing the answer.

"Quite well, at least I think I am settling quite well. I've made some friends"

"Ah yes, that would be those three lovely ladies you hang out with. Miss Malfoy, Greengrass and Davis correct?"

"That'd be them sir" Harry grinned.

"They seem awfully attached to you if you don't mind me saying so" Dumbledore said, and it was true. The young Malfoy girl was especially attached to Harry and that worried him, what if it was some ploy that Lucius Malfoy had came up with to lure Harry to the dark side? He would not allow that to happen, especially when he hadn't even finished trying to lure him to the light side.

"Ah yes" Harry nodded in agreement, before he took on a bit of an awkward look "well...uh...there is a reason but...I'm not sure if I should say sir...I mean...they might not like me telling it."

"I assure you my boy, I won't tell anyone" Dumbledore smiled benignly. "Learning to keep secrets is one of the many things that I have learnt over the years." He added hoping that it would help convince Harry.

"Well sir.." Harry looked like he was struggling before he's face took on one of reluctance. "...I don't think they get along with their families" he said with a whisper, acting like it's the biggest secret he ever kept "I think they're just glad to have a friend. Please don't tell anyone I said that!" Harry added the last part in a worried voice.

"Do not worry my boy, I won't" Dumbledore said, he was rather happy after talking with Harry.

The boy was so polite and kind, honestly, caring about his friends so much. Exactly what Dumbledore wanted in a saviour, kind and caring and willing to help others. It also appeared that the boy was easy to guide, judging from the way that he listened to him. But Tom was also a 'kind and charming boy', now he's Voldemort. Dumbledore quickly dived into Harry's mind, not wanting to take a chance like he had with Tom. He looked in Harry's mind and saw mainly worry and guilt for revealing information about his friends.

He also saw the boy taking the time to comfort each girl, he as glad that Harry appeared to be a really nice boy. He quickly exited his mind, not wanting to take too much time.

"Well it was good to see you my boy" Dumbledore smiled and patted Harry on the head before he walked off

Harry kept a smile up until he was sure that Dumbledore was out of sight, his smile immediately turned into a scowl. He was rather livid that the old man had decided to just go through his mind, Harry was tempted to take the man's mental probe and just break it, causing the man extreme pain. But he played along for now, the old man seemed to take the fake memories at face value and knew he had to get out before he was discovered.

'Definitely have to keep an eye out for him' Harry thought.

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"Wakey wakey" A soft voice brought her out of her sleep. Her eyes blinked as she raised her hands and wiped the dust away from her eyes. She blinked again when she saw somebody standing in front of her. How did he get in here?! The door was still locked, she was sure of it. Even when she was asleep she should have been able to know if someone was coming, the footsteps always woke her up. She looked at the intruder and her eyes widened when she realised that it wasn't an adult, in fact it was a boy. Eleven to thirteen she would guess.

He had black messy hair that appeared to blend into the shadows of the night and the darkness of the room, she could only barely see it. Though she managed to see it thanks to the light, not light from a window, no...light from the boy's eyes. His emerald, glowing eyes. Suddenly she began feeling overwhelmed, power radiated from the boy. It was intense, it was strong and it was intoxicating!

"What are you doing here?" She asked, once his power had lowered itself, allowing her to breath. But it was clear that he could just as easily bring it back.

"I need your assistance" Harry smiled at her as he leaned forward, she gasped when she saw his scar and recognised who he was. "Ah, I have your interest now, don't I? Good, let's talk."