Chapter five (TWDL)

Beta read by: W.Y. Traveller.

September 12th, 1991:

I was calmly walking down the front steps of the castle, followed by Blaise, Draco and Crabbe and Goyle. We were heading to our first flying lesson. I was hoping there would not be a repeat of last time's drama. I really didn't want to waste my time on an idiotic unimportant children's game. I had too many obligations already. We finally arrived near the lines of brooms. We were the first ones there.

"Must we always be the only ones early?" I asked in annoyance.

"Well, here come the other Slytherins," Draco said. I quickly looked to where he was looking and saw the rest of our year coming.

"Yes," I said, dismissively. Several Slytherins simply feared me enough to not cross me, though I really did need to extend my influence. A study group perhaps. Iknew I needed to begin considering candidates for wives. It was generally better to seize early opportunities before they were all taken, though I had contingencies for that.

"Harry, you're scheming again," Blaise said, getting my attention. I gave him a raised eyebrow. "You had your scheming expression," he added, to Draco's amusement.

"I don't have a scheming expression," I said in annoyance.

"Yes, you do," Blaise said as the Gryffindors neared us.

"We'll continue our discussion of you being wrong later," I said, making Blaise smirk and Draco snort in amusement.

"Oi! Potter! What are you doing, befriending Slytherin's?" Ron called out, stupidly.

"Because I am a Slytherin, you idiot," I said, to his anger and my house's amusement.

"You watch your mouth, Potter," Ron said threateningly.

I made a show of trying to do so and amused everyone.

"Oh. Are we telling each other to do impossible things?" I asked, in obvious false confusion. "In that case, lose weight, quit being stupid, lazy, useless, a waste of life and magic. Oh, and quit being a squib," I said, making my entire year laugh and succeeding in humiliating Ron. Ron moved to try and attack me, like a filthy muggle.

I allowed him to take a swing and I dodged. I punched him in the nose and heard a sickening crack. I repeated the process on his jaw, getting the same result. I watched him begin crying with disgust.

"Aww, he's cwying. Somebody get his mommy, he needs his hand held!" I said, making all the Slytherins laugh.

"At least he has a mom," Seamus Finnigan said with a sneer.

"You know, if I wasn't dead inside, that would probably hurt my feelings," I said, as Ron got up. "Are you through embarrassing yourself yet?"

Ron took another swing. I ducked, spun and kicked him in the abdomen and pushed magic out of the soles of my shoes. I knocked him back into Seamus and they both went flying back two more yards.

"What happened here?!" Madam Hooch asked angrily.

"Weasley attacked, I defended myself. Everyone here can verify that claim and I can even provide a memory for a pensieve."

"You will be coming with me to Headmaster Dumbledore's office, Potter," Madam Hooch said, before levitating Ron and Seamus. "None of you are to move while I take these boys to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch'. Come on Potter," Hooch said, walking away.

I followed her to Dumbles' office and began fortifying my mental defences.

The gargoyle let us in when we arrived.

I followed her up the stairs and inside.

"What happened?" Dumbles asked in concern.

"He attacked me, I defended myself," I said, getting a look of shock and surprise. "Do you have a pensieve? That would probably make this easier and then I can get back to my classes."

"I do. Madam Hooch, you may take Weasley and Finnigan to the hospital wing." She nodded and quickly left. "Now, Harry, do you know how to withdraw memories?" Dumbledore asked.

"I do. I read about it and experimented," I said, to his concern. "It wasn't dangerous," I said, before I drew my wand and withdrew the memory. I placed it in the offered vial. Dumbledore walked to the cupboard, where the Pensieve was stored.

"Join me, Harry," Dumbledore said.

"Alright," I said, walking over.

We entered the memory.

"Oi! Potter! What are you doing, befriending Slytherins?" Ron called out, stupidly. Dumbledore frowned at his blatant, antagonistic behavior.

"Because I am a Slytherin, you idiot," I said, to Ron's anger and my house's amusement.

"You watch your mouth, Potter," Ron said threateningly.

We observed me as I make a show of trying to do so, amusing everyone. Even Dumbledore looked amused.

"Oh. Are we telling each other to do impossible things?" I asked, in obvious false confusion. "In that case, lose weight, quit being stupid, lazy, useless, a waste of life and magic. Oh, and quit being a squib," I said, making my entire year laugh and successfully humiliating Ron. Ron moved to attack me, like a filthy muggle. Dumbledore gave me a disapproving look but remained silent.

We watched him take a swing and me dodge. We watched me punch him in the nose and hear the same sickening crack, and me repeat the process on his jaw, getting the same result. We watched Ron as he started to cry. I still deemed him pathetic.

"Aww, he's cwying. Somebody get his mommy, he needs his hand held!" I said, making all the Slytherins laugh. I could tell that Dumbledore wasn't pleased with my mockery.

"At least he has a mom," Seamus Finnigan said, with a sneer. I'm pleased to see that this angered Dumbledore.

"You know, if I wasn't dead inside, that would probably hurt my feelings," I said, as Ron got up. Dumbledore looked concerned. "Are you through embarrassing yourself yet?" We watched Ron take another swing and him get dominated. I could tell Dumbledore was impressed by my wandless magic, channelled out of my feet.

"What happened here?!" Madam Hooch asked angrily.

The memory ends.

We exit the memory.

"As you can see, Weasley started harassing me. He escalated to violence," I said, reiterating my defense. "He didn't even use magic."

"You're not in trouble, though I do not approve of your remarks in retaliation."

"Understandable, they were harsh, but true. I won't ask how he's still at Hogwarts given his appalling behavior and two instances of assault. I doubt you would explain it, given that it's none of my business."

"You may go, Harry," Dumbledore said.

"Quick question," I said, to his interest. "Is it possible to self-study or hire tutors in Defense Against the Dark Arts and History of Magic? I ask because the current level of instruction is unacceptably low quality and I don't learn anything. I would like to ideally take my O. in them early and spend the time that I would have spent in those classes, preparing to take the N.E. in them early." I asked politely. I, of course, already knew it was possible.

"It's possible, though few do so. I encourage you to enjoy your Hogwarts years," Dumbledore said, making a token effort to dissuade me.

"I will. I just want to have plenty of career options and to make sure I get an excellent education. I prefer to spend my time wisely and constructively," I said to his approval.

"Well, if you decide to pursue this, feel free to come to me for advice."

"I'll consider that. I would be able to skip those classes if I get my O. and eventually my N.E.?"

"Yes, Harry. You can skip classes until then, but you have to take exams."

"Thank you, Headmaster. I have been studying ahead, though I'll likely wait and take the exams for first and second year at the end of the year. Anyway, goodbye and it was nice meeting you, though I wish it could have been under better circumstances." I said, beginning my walk to his door.

"Nice meeting you too, Harry," he said. I nodded, exited and closed his door behind me.

I began my walk back to class.

I arrived back minutes later and saw Madam Hooch nearing the group too.

"Now," she said. "Everybody stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

I quickly did so, eager to get it over with.

"Stick your right hand over your broom," she ordered, "and say 'Up!'"

"Up!" I said calmly, and it jumped into my hands.

Madam Hooch then showed us how to mount our brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting our grips. Mine was perfect, of course.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," she said. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle - three - two -"

And there Neville went again.

I watched history repeat itself, but this time, I discreetly caught him with telekinesis and spared him from injury.

It was dinner time and the Weasley's were due to perform their prank soon. They should expose the forbidden items and get expelled, then I would be one step closer to turning Hogwarts into a Weasley-free zone. It was times like these that caused me to wish I had a better evil laugh.

"So, about your scheming expression," Blaise said, to the amusement of my expanded group of hangers-on. Now consisting of Pansy and her gang, which consisted of Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, and Millicent Bulstrode. Beating and humiliating Ron really did wonders for my influence, which was surprising, considering I used muggle fighting.

"My non-existent scheming expression," I corrected, to their amusement.

"Uh huh," Blaise said sarcastically. "Did you plan to beat Weasley that badly?"

"Not really, though I do leave room in my life for happy accidents. I just knew I had just cause and could get away with it," I said, in amusement, which they shared.

"I hear Weasley won't be able to talk for weeks," Draco said with a cruel smirk.

"What a tragedy," I said with obvious sarcasm, making them laugh. "Well, at least I made Hogwarts a better place. And they consider Slytherins evil; we perform just as many acts of kindness," I said, mocking the public opinion and making my new sycophants laugh.

"So," Blaise said, getting my attention. "When you have that expression, are you scheming?"

"No," I said, in slight annoyance.

Any further chatting was interrupted by the Weasley's prank. All the Quidditch players were charmed to be in house colors, with green skin and silver hair for Slytherin, blue skin and bronze hair for Ravenclaws, yellow skin and black hair for the Hufflepuffs. I watched those idiots laughing it up, along with most of Gryffindor.

"Fred and George Weasley!" Dumbledore called out.

"This should be good..." I said, in interest. The twins walked up there with arrogant smirks. My mental reconditioning seemed to have worked, they were remorseless and thought themselves untouchable. Dumbledore walked closer to them and began verbally chastising them. When he finished, he made eye contact; he was obviously using Legilimency on them and possibly saw their secrets. He gave Snape a look and Snape walked over to join him.

Snape walked off and Dumbledore lead the twins out, with McGonagall following.

"Maybe those annoyances will finally be expelled," I said coldly.

"Doubtful. The Weasley's are strong Dumbledore supporters," Draco said.

"Hmm. Perhaps his tolerance for their stupidity has a limit. We can hope so, at least," I said, somewhat hopefully. "He did lead them out of the Great Hall, so maybe it's our lucky day."

"Don't get your hopes up, Harry. The Weasley's are a disease that has no cure," Blaise said, in amusement.

My witty reply was cut off by the arrival of the Evening Prophet.

The owl dropped it in front of me and flew away. There, on the front page, was the caption: "Ariana Dumbledore: Obscurial?"

"Interesting," I said, beginning to read.

All the information that I provided her with was presented in the article; reasons she could be an Obscurial, descriptions of her episodes, and it built up to the next article.

"This seems to imply Dumbledore killed his own sister. Interesting."

"Yeah. An Obscurial, though, that's amazing. I wish I could have that kind of power and control it, of course," Draco said ignorantly.

"The Ministry would probably try destroying you anyway, Draco," Blaise said with a smirk. Ha! Not if it wanted to continue existing. That would cause the noble families to be concerned.

"They actually couldn't; with the amount of influence his family wields the Ministry would be ruined. Draco is eligible for the Black and Malfoy Lordships. Even that much influence is enough to threaten the Ministry with," Daphne said, impressing everyone with her knowledge and political acumen. I had found myself a wife!

"Interesting. Is that all it really takes to bully the Ministry?" I asked, already knowing the answer from experience.

"Yes, Harry. It would show the other important families that the Ministry is a threat to their existence and control," Daphne explained, though not insulting my intelligence.

"Good. I do love manipulable governments," I said, though only Blaise and Daphne seemed to have noticed that I didn't mention the need to acquire more power.

"It says here that someone robbed the Hogs Head, Three Broomsticks Inn, and Leaky Cauldron of all of their alcohol," Draco said, before continuing. "As well as my family's apothcary of all of its Superior Red wine," he added angrily.

"I'm sure they will catch whoever did it," Pansy said, attempting to soothe him.

"Assuming, of course, they didn't throw a massive party and drink all the evidence," Blaise said, unhelpfully. He got a glare from Draco. The rest of us were concealing our amusement quite poorly.

"That's not funny, Blaise!" Draco said harshly.

"It's a valid point, though," Blaise said, though Draco did not look placated.

I saw Dumbledore enter the Great Hall, followed by Cornelius Fudge, Lucius Malfoy, Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour. He walked near the High Table. Ah, he was going to give a speech.

"Attention, everyone. Messrs. Fred and George Weasley have been expelled!" Dumbledore said. His next words were interrupted by most of the hall breaking into cheers and applause. Malfoy and Fudge looked quite pleased. The others look surprised. Dumbledore waited for them all to settle down, though he did not look happy to do so.

"As I was saying... They were found with massive quantities of stolen alcohol as well as other... objects in their possession."

"What kind of objects?" A first year asked.

"You don't want to know," Dumbledore said, his disgust obvious.

"Now I do want to know," I said, to my pet sycophants.

"No, you don't want to know, mister Potter," Dumbledore said. I quickly looked at him in surprise, to everyone's amusement.

"How bad can it be, sir?" I asked in amusement.

"Yeah! How bad can it be?"

"We can handle it!"

"Tell us!"

"We could have been in danger. We deserve to know!" A seventh year called out.

"Enough!" Fudge called out. "The objects were of a sexual nature."

"What's sex? Is it a form of Dark Magic?" A first year asked. I quickly used my Occlumency to avoid laughing. Most of the hall were not so lucky; they laughed hard and that poor first year blushed and tried to hide in her seat.

Fudge seemed to have realized the effect of his actions too late and looked to Dumbledore for help.

"We will not explain what sex is. That is a question for your parents. After you finish dessert, please return to your dorms," Dumbledore said. They all left, no doubt so Dumbledore could try getting the Weasley's out of further trouble.

That would not do.