Chapter 8: Chapter 8
Harry stepped into Dumbledore's office and was absolutely disgusted.
There was such a thing as professional upkeeping of one's office, and this had crossed the line.
With the man's various knickknacks and trinkets stood out as if they were there to keep the attention of whatever errant child had to enter into his office.
The only thing that was remotely acceptable was the multitude of books in his bookshelves, but even then, he didn't quite like having it all placed out in the open like this.
This wasn't the man's library, and the various titles he spotted in the bookcase were not those suitable for the Headmaster's Office.
But Harry was digressing.
The man's eyes twinkled behind his half-moon spectacles, and the headmaster tried to appear grandfatherly to poor little Harry Potter.
Make no mistake. Harry knew who had left him on his relative's doorstep that night, and he wasn't the forgiving sort.
It didn't matter what the man wanted now, because Harry would never be able to trust him, nor take him at face-value.
While he didn't have a terrible time at the Dursley's – on the contrary, it was quite pleasing in the past couple of years – that didn't mean that he had a great time there. Especially not before he discovered how to wield his power for himself.
"Hello, my boy," Dumbledore greeted.
"Headmaster," Harry greeted, lowering his head like the slightly meek Hufflepuff that he came across as. He didn't bother to let anything like admiration or awe leak into his expression, playing the muggle-raised Hufflepuff to perfection.
Inwardly was a different story altogether. He had to fight down the curl of disgust to his lips at the casual use of an endearment from the man, as if he would be that easy to sway.
It was utterly appalling.
When Harry entered the wizarding world, he'd expected to be wowed at every turn, but he found that people were still people in the end. And here, there was another person with delusions of grandeur.
Albus Dumbledore was a manipulator through and through, Harry could just tell. Good or bad, that didn't matter. No one controlled Harry Potter. No one.
Dumbledore relaxed at how malleable the boy seemed. He was the perfect picture of humbleness and goodwill like the muggleborns who stepped through Hogwarts' doors.
He was nothing like Tom Riddle, as he had suspected.
While he heard about the various glowing reports from the professors under his employ – besides Severus, of course, but then again Severus would never say anything good about a student – and Dumbledore had been terrified that the boy would turn out like a carbon copy of Tom Riddle, but he was anything but.
He was the perfect Hufflepuff, and that should have sparked some sort of suspicion in Dumbledore's mind about the supposed beacon of light that Harry was supposed to be, but so ingrained he was in his delusions that the man never once suspected anything of the sort.
So lost the headmaster was in his grandfatherly façade that he never noticed the smirk on Harry's face.
While most of the portraits missed it, one of them did not. However, he did not call the boy out, instead looking at him appraisingly.
By the time Dumbledore finally let Harry go, the boy was this close to finding a way to spike the damn old man's lemon drops with poison to let him die slowly.
He was sure he'd be able to do it over a period of time without him realizing what was wrong with him.
With the way the wizard ate them every couple of minutes like he had an everlasting amount of them, whatever poison he willingly ingested would be a step closer to one less person annoying Harry.
He didn't know what the other man wanted, trying to portray himself as a grandfather to Harry. There had to be an ulterior motive, and he clearly wasn't calling others out to sink his hooks into… but what?
Harry's eyes glinted coldly.
It mattered not. If the man kept trying to control Harry, he would have no qualms about doing away with him.
After all, the man was rather old… it would be easy for almost everyone to believe that he'd passed away quietly in his sleep.
The man had been through so much, after all. Losing his loved ones, fighting in the war… surely it would all take its toll on the man?
Draco and Ron were waiting for Harry inside the Hufflepuff common room, slightly worried though they didn't know why.
Why was it that the headmaster had called Harry and only Harry to him?
If that didn't speak of an ulterior motive, then Draco's pureblood training to go into Slytherin had been useless.
Ron had been for the most part, oblivious until he saw how worried Draco was.
While he didn't think that it was anything as big as the other Hufflepuff made it out to be, he couldn't deny that the more time passed, the more he felt his worries creep up on him.
Draco hid his relief when he saw Harry enter the common room.
"Let's go up to our dorms."
Heading up, Draco started casting spells to prevent any eavesdroppers.
Ron's eyebrows shot up. "When'd you manage to learn all that? We've only been here for two days!"
Draco huffed. "Honestly, Weasley, it's like you've never practiced magic at home before you came to Hogwarts."
"You practiced magic before Hogwarts??"
Draco and Ron looked at each other with visible confusion, forgetting about the reason why they'd re-entered their dorm rooms in the first place.
Harry was all too happy to read his book while they communicated.
"Of course I've practiced magic before Hogwarts! What if you fall behind during classes? How else are you expected to maintain your grades?"
"How would I practice without a wand?" Ron asked, baffled. "Besides, don't wands have the trace on them? The Ministry would know!"
Draco made a disgusted sound. "Obviously, you use a wand that doesn't belong to you! Or to your parents! At the very least, you have to practice the pronunciation and wand movements, don't you?!"
Ron still looked gobsmacked. "But my parents told me that the Ministry would be able to know."
"Of course not!" Draco refuted heatedly, his face darkening when he thought about how behind the other boy be in his schoolwork. It was like he'd never cracked open his books before entering Hogwarts. "Since you live in a wizarding family, the ministry's wards register that there's magic going on, true, but they'd never be able to tell whether or not the person using magic was underage or not!"
Draco turned around with a fierce look on his face. "Harry, tell him!"
Harry looked up from his book. "Tell him what?"
Draco looked at him with exasperation. "Tell him how I'm right, obviously!"
Harry shut his book, looking at them calmly. "Draco, Ron, you may not know this, but I was raised by muggles."
Draco looked aghast, then he looked like he was about to faint. "Muggles!" he muttered under his breath.
Harry pretended he didn't hear him. "That means that there's still many things about the wizarding world that may seem like common sense to you but are new to me. Which is why I make it a point to read up, and why I'm always seen with a book in my hand."
Ron and Draco looked at the book that was conveniently in Harry's hand and nodded understandingly, their eyes filling with admiration.
Harry hid a smirk. So easy.
Ron eyed Harry's book contemplatively. "So… Can you help me learn?" he directed to both Draco and Harry. For the first time in a long time, his budding passion for learning started to be rekindled.
This time, Harry did smirk. "You only need ask," he said smoothly.
Draco sniffed. "So long as you read the material first before asking."
"Sweet," Ron said with a grin.
Draco turned to Harry. "Anyway, confess. Now," Draco demanded.
Harry's eyes darkened, and he stared directly into Draco's grey eyes. "First of all," Harry said silkily, "Do not ever demand things of me." Harry's magic started to rise and fill the room, and the feeling of it was so intense and overwhelming that the two other boys in the room all but choked on his magic, not used to it.
Draco paled, shivering. This was the first time that he'd felt such powerful and intensely concentrated magic coming from someone, and while it filled him with both terror and shock, there was a part of him that felt awe and worship.
Something in him purred at the feeling of Harry's magic against his own.
Ron, on the other hand, felt completely light-headed. He felt as if he was drowning under Harry's thick, overpowering magic. His magic core resisted against Harry's magic, leaving him feeling as if he couldn't breathe.
Unbeknownst to him, the light magic in his core was slowly flickering, being seduced over to the dark side.
Harry's brows raised when he realized what was happening to Ron's core, and something in him burned with curiosity about whether or not he would be able to convert someone to the dark side.
Then, as sudden as it appeared, it disappeared.
Ron and Draco collapsed to the floor, panting for different reasons.
Harry's magic was like a siren's call, and they were its unwitting thralls.
"Now, what is it that you want to know?" Harry said like nothing happened.
Ron let out a startled laugh. "Blood hell mate," he said, his tone disbelieving.
Draco righted himself, brushing off imaginary lint on his robes. "We just wanted to know whether or not that meddling old man did anything to you. If he did, there will be hell to pay."
Somehow, the blond felt himself feeling right at home here. Even though he had been technically threatened by what Harry just did, he didn't see anything wrong with it.
Ron, on the other hand, wasn't so accepting. "Are you really just going to let it pass like that-"
"Ron," Draco said sharply, silencing the redhead. "I've already chosen my loyalty, and it's to Harry. I even came into Hufflepuff with the two of you not because its expected of me, but because I chose to. I went against my father and everything I've been taught because I chose to do so."
Ron fell silent. The depths of Draco's loyalty to Harry was startling to him, but… he could see how Harry could inspire such loyalty within someone.
"Okay," Ron said. "Okay. Then, as long as you never betray me, I will never betray you," he swore.
Slowly, Harry's lips curled into a deep smile.
"Very well. I accept. The two of you belong to me."
Harry could hardly believe how well it worked out. They weren't even a week into school yet, but he'd already managed to acquire two people loyal to him. This was fantastic.
It seemed like his magic was more powerful than he thought. This bode well.
"Now, let's go for our flying lesson."
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