Beta: Cloudy
(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*
Professor Snape did indeed throw away my Christmas present for him. I noticed it in the trash bin during my next class with him. He gave me an extra stink eye all day.
Yeesh. At least I tried, I thought. It wasn't terribly surprising he threw it out. Professor Snape had issues out the wazoo. Fenrir was disturbed, but a lot easier for me to understand and anticipate what I needed to do for him. Fenrir was focused on discrimination and wanting to better himself and werewolves. Professor Snape was just a terribly bitter man.
Maybe next year. Surely I can wear him down enough to be a step above deplorable in his eyes.
Exams were easier than expected. Everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was done.
Some might have even cried tears of joy. Mostly the upperclassmen.
And Millicent. She was overjoyed that she knew most of the answers.
With that big hurdle out of the way, I could properly enjoy the remaining time at Hogwarts.
At least until Voldemort and his puppet made their move.
(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*
I hadn't been keeping watch on the corridor or anything of the sort. I knew something happened when DADA and all other classes were canceled. I could only conclude one thing: Voldemort made his move.
I bet he ran off with the mirror. That shit shoulda been melted into the ground or something, I thought. Welp, time to go save the day.
Iris draped herself around my neck like a scarf as I headed off to the staff room. I made it a point to know every location in Hogwarts that I could learn about. There were going to be rooms I wouldn't find, or I would miss, but I could at least try. Important stuff like where the teacher's offices were or the staff room felt mandatory.
The staff room could be entered through the Great Hall—in fact, it was the passageway to the left that the professors usually came in from. Nearing the room I heard a lot of raised voices, and when I knocked loudly everyone got quiet real fast.
The door was furiously swung open by an enraged Professor McGonagall.
In my head, she was my adopted grandma so it was worrying to see her so upset. It couldn't have been good for her health. Peering around her I could see the paled faces of all the professors, except Quirrel who was noticeably absent.
"What's wrong?" I asked, amusement in my tone. "Did a certain teacher run off with something valuable?"
"What—?"
"What do you know, Potter?" Professor Snape demanded, his voice sharper than a knife. His complexion had paled considerably. What a shame he through away my gift, it was filled with yummy delights than would have brightened anyone's day.
"Did he?" I asked again, looking at Professor Dumbledore who looked extra stylish in his brown robes with owl-prints on them. I hoped one day to have the confidence to pull off such a look when I reached his age.
"He took the mirror," he answered me, twinkling eyes looking at me with curiosity.T To my delight, I felt no attack or intrusion into my mind. Professor Dumbledore was refraining from using his Legilimency against me. I wasn't sure if that was a mark of favor in my way, or if perhaps he had enough morals to no want to use such an ability on a child.
Had he used such an ability on Tom at the start, I wonder how differently things could have gone.
"A good thing I'm such a brilliant queen, then," I said with an air of smugness that made Snape grit his teeth. I pulled out the Philosopher's Stone from my pocket. "Your traps were laughable."
"YOU—!" Professor Snape's face turned purple as he trembled. He was at a loss for words with how utterly furious he was with me. The other professors were torn between anger and relief.
"When did you—?"
"How?!"
"What in the heaven's were you thinking?!"
"Christmas break," I answered, then nodded at Snape. "Really disappointed the potions weren't all traps."
The way his face immediately twisted told me: I wanted to. I really did.
I nodded in understanding. Yeah. I bet Dumbledore didn't let him.
Professor Dumbledore walked over to me, and I placed the stone in his outstretched hand. He had such a wide smile on his face. It was impossible not to smile back when Professor Dumbledore grinned at you. "You've done very well, Miss Potter."
"I wasn't alone. Fred and George helped me," I said, sensing he was about to give some house points. Professor McGonagall's face contorted like she bit into a sour lemon when I said that. She looked especially Done™ with the twins that year. Poor lady. On the bright side, as soon as I placed the stone in Dumbledore's hand Professor Snape visibly relaxed. Already I could see color return to him. The man was plainly terrified of having to go back to Voldemort. I couldn't blame him, I wouldn't want to be anyway near a wizard who was trigger-happy with Unforgiveables.
Honestly, I didn't even want to think about the mad red gleam in that fucker's eyes. The present day Voldemort was an abomination that needed to be scrubbed off the planet. I wasn't sure if someone liked him deserved redemption, but I had no intentions of finding out. If any pieces of him deserved a second chance, it'd be the closest thing to a child version, one where he had done no wrong and only needed to correct his line of thinking.
It would have been nice to have been born prior to his birth—and aware of the fact—then maybe I could have prevented a lot of needless deaths. I had browsed time magic in my free time at Hogwarts. Everything about it was in the Restricted Section. For the moment, what was mentioned in it went so completely over my head I couldn't understand most of it. I could vaguely recognize some equations used. It dabbled heavily in quantum mechanics which I did not study much in college, only my first two years as a "fun" elective. The rest of it kept mentioning ritual magic which I had no knowledge about and not only did Dumbledore remove them from the Restricted Section, but Sirius Black straight up ordered Kreacher to destroy any book related to ritual magic.
I could start using my contacts as Enáretos, but even if I obtained the books when would I have the time to read them? My only free time was at Hogwarts and it'd be difficult to read them privately without anyone noticing.
"It seems only reasonable that you each be rewarded 150 points, then."
Called it.
"That seems fair," I said with an easy smile. "And, uh, no detentions, right?"
Professor Dumbledore chuckled. "Perish the thought."
"Sweet. Next time you guys try to come up with traps, let me test them out for you."
"Should such an occasion occur again, I will be sure to call on you," said Professor Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "For the moment, though, I'm sure we would all love to hear about your daring adventure into the third corridor."
"In my defense," I said immediately as the other professors started to crowd me, "Paddy challenged my bravery because I was sorted into Slytherin and I had to put him in his place."
"Completely understandable."
"Where would you like me to begin?"
"The moment you decided to sneak in."
"Ah... yes... It was a rainy Wednesday," I began dramatically.
"Without the flair, Potter," sternly warned Professor Snape. Thankfully his complexion had drastically improved.
I frowned. "But that's the best part of the story. I was even going to embellish and add in a dramatic fight with the troll."
"How did you get past the traps?" Professor McGonagall asked, her tone dubious yet curious.
"The troll was easy. I lobbed a sleeping potion in its stupid mouth. The twins beat your chess board in like thirty minutes. I'm a Slytherin so obviously Professor Snape's puzzle was easy, but the twins also figured it out despite their lack of green and silver. Twins also caught the key. Mirror was odd, but it wasn't difficult to figure out," I explained before I began my lies. "The stone was a surprise. Clearly something would have been inside the mirror, or else why was it there? At the end of every dungeon there's supposed to be loot, you know. A quest completed deserves a prize. I wanted to know what it was—"
"And not use it," concluded Professor Dumbledore. "I see. And you did not share this with your professors?"
"I was going to leave it on Professor Snape's desk anonymously at the end of the year," I admitted honestly. "It was the thing stolen from Gringotts at the start of the year, right? That's why it was in Hogwarts—for the security. That meant someone was looking for it, so if I advertised that I had it, they'd come looking for me, right? Better to see how it played out."
Professor Dumbledore inclined his head, his eyes twinkling even harder. His smile only stretched wider as I went on with my explanation.
How the hell does he do that twinkling thing and can I learn it?
"Excellently thought out. Now, I'm sure we'd all love to hear the embellished version now—" Professor Dumbledore went on and I beamed in response, but Professor Snape glowered.
"The lies can wait. The stone is back with us, we should send her away before discussing what to do net," the professor coolly pointed out.
"Aww. Can I come to your office later to tell the story about how the troll was secretly a king of trolls and I had to fight off an army of them with the twins?"
"That sounds utterly delightful, Miss Potter. I will eagerly look forward to it."
I've officially adopted Professor Dumbledore as my soul grandpa. I love you, Soul Grandpa. Thank you for enabling me.
With a spring in my step, a smile in my heart, and the taste of sweet victory, I headed back to the Slytherin common room.
I would tell the babeh snakes the embellished story. It would only add to my infamy.
(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*
Professor Quirrel was bound to die. He was on borrowed time since possession slowly destroyed the body. Once he was dead—I wagered a month at most—Voldemort would have to flee and try to come up with some new plan.
I felt confident that the Chambers thing would happen again, but anything beyond that would be a mystery. There was no one in Azkaban who could escape on their own.
Right? Right.
With no escapee Sirius Black hunting down Peter, he'd have no reason to seek out Voldemort and start up the Triwizard Tournament.
Right? Right.
Therefore, Voldemort wouldn't be resurrected that easily. Heck, he may not have even known about Lily's protection since it wasn't Harry nor I who killed him again. If we were lucky when he bothered to show up again we'd be able to take full advantage of Lily's sacrifice and poke him to death.
Right? Right.
Which meant after my second year I could fully focus on my dreams.
Voldemort didn't deserve a second thought in my head.
Right?
(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*
With a skip in my step I, and my snake babehs, made our way down to the end-of-year feast. Even with George and Fred scoring an extra 300 House points, and Gryffindor winning the Quidditch Cup, Slytherin had them beat.
By only 10 points, but by golly did we have them beat.
I could only hope that Dumbledore wouldn't come up with some last-minute points to dole out at the feast for Gryffindor to snag a victory. The fact that it was an honest possibility irritated me. I had worked damn hard to give Slytherin a new name.
Slytherin didn't bully a single soul outside the House! Not one! I put in blood, sweat, and tears (not mine, obviously) to make those snakes behave for a whole year. Damn it I deserved the House Cup.
I took a seat in between Draco and Daphne—Daphne shot a haughty look over at Theodore and Pansy, the two had tried to shove each other out of the way to sit next to me—and let Iris out of my pocket. She deserved to enjoy the feast with us.
The Great Hall was decked out in the Slytherin colors of green and silver, and a huge banner showing the Slytherin serpent covered the wall behind the High Table. I tentatively hoped it would stay that way.
More and more students filed into the Great Hall, babbling and chattering about too many things to discern. Only when Dumbledore arrived did the conversation fall flat.
"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully, your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts.
"Now, as I understand it, the House Cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place is Hufflepuff with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six, Gryffindor with six hundred and twelve, and Slytherin with six hundred and twenty-two."
A storm of cheering and stamping broke out at the Slytherin table.
"Yes, yes, well done," Professor Dumbledore said, his gaze settling on me. "Congratulations to the Slytherin House for another year with the Cup."
I gasped. He's—he's not giving it to Gryffindor? No last-minute points? Nothing? Truly?
Perhaps if puberty had hit me sooner I would have started sniffling and crying out of joy. Thankfully I had a couple more years, so I only grinned and gave him two thumbs up.
Never thought I'd see the day.
(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*
Then the year was over. Trunks were packed, goodbyes were exchanged, and promises to write were made.
I boarded the Hogwarts Express, the snake babehs arguing over who got to sit with me and Harry. With Hermione and Neville already taking up space, only Draco and Theodore were able to squeeze into the compartment fast enough. We were squashed together, but it was fine.
We had funny conversations on the way home. We laughed, played, and joked around with each other like perfectly normal children.
Like we were all actually friends.
Getting off the train was a chaotic mess, but when Harry and I saw Sirius there waiting for us, we ran to him. I sprinted and jumped into his arms and he swung me around while he laughed. Harry body-tackled into him, almost knocking him to the ground with his surprising strength, but Sirius stood firm.
"Welcome back," Sirius told us. "Did you have fun?"
"Yes," we said with a smile.
And so my first year at Hogwarts came to a quiet, but happy, close.
Time to get ready for Riddle. I hope he's not as hot as I fear he is.
(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*
***~***~***
ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ
It's a holiday in my country which means double update.
Answer: I'd probably get along best with Sprouts. I, like many, wish I could get along best with Snape.
Question: What monster from Harry Potter would you hate to fight?
Reviews are love!