As he sat at the end of the table he thought of all that had led him to this point. It had been a long first three years in the magical world. Perhaps the only thing he could thank the Dursleys for is that they had at least helped to prepare him for it.
It had all started when the sorting hat decided to help him on his way to greatness.
Hmm, not Slytherin eh? Well then I guess you'll have to thank me later.
SLYTHERIN
The first month or so hadn't been that bad really. Sure, he'd made no friends and the upper years seemed wary of him, as he learned later because most of them thought he was going to be the next dark lord. That however wouldn't last. It had started with little things disappearing from his trunk, then moved on to his school work being tampered with, then they had begun coming for him while he slept.
It was never anything Harry could prove, much like how things had been with Dudley. The items taken never reappeared with anyone else, his essays would look like he had spilled ink on them, and what they did while he was asleep, well safe to say Snape didn't care.
He had learned though. Warding wasn't something taught at Hogwarts other than the very basics in Charms class toward the end of one's 7th year. Given that it was a subject that required both runes and charms work he didn't know why warding wasn't taught other than it seemed most families didn't like telling everyone how they were protecting their homes, imagine that. The library however contained many books on more common and even some more ancient wards. Harry enjoyed some of the Norse wards used to protect Viking kings' burial hordes. The punishments those wards extolled were discreet but damaging. After several fourth years, had ended up in the hospital wing for a week Harry no longer had to worry about any of his stuff.
The added benefit for him was that the more advanced reading he had done on wards and ward theory made his charms class easy. Making a feather float became child's play when you had to build series of interwoven spells interlocked with runes. While he didn't always understand everything, he was reading, the books came with step by step guides, and trial and error was as good a teacher as he could find.
This had also led Harry to read ahead in several of his other subjects. Potions was one he had been doing so in after Snape's humiliation in his first class. Harry was sure that no one else was expected to know the entirety of their potions text prior to any lessons. Though that too had lead him to a rather interesting read titled Ingredient Interactions for Idiots by Preston Prince. Harry was of the opinion the man was rather full of himself, but his instructions had worked out spectacularly. With the added benefit of infuriating his professor along the way.
Harry's reading ahead in several of his other classes hadn't led to much. While Charms never required that much in the way of power, but rather in the subtlety of application and understanding, meaning one could conceivably work ahead, subjects like Herbology, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts didn't work in the same way.
Herbology as far as Harry could tell was something he had to wait on simply for larger more dangerous plants to be introduced. So far it was nothing more than learning the basics of gardening, with magic. Honestly knowing which plants grow best in dragon fertilizer and which only sprouted in Unicorn dung wasn't something challenging or all that interesting. Combine that with the copious amounts of yard work his aunt had, had him doing since he was five and he was utterly bored in said class.
Transfiguration on the other hand still required too much power for Harry to excel at. He learned that the magic of a person would need to grow sufficiently to complete the more taxing magic required. While it wasn't as though the power needed was all that significant if one could properly form the image in their mind of what they wanted to accomplish, doing so at scale and with reliable accuracy required more magic. From the same book, he learned that around fourteen magical people hit what could be called magical puberty. During this time the way they interacted with magic would become easier and the amount which they could control safely would become greater. So, while he could read ahead and learn the theory there was nothing to be done for performing the spells.
Defense was much the same. There wasn't anything to be learned ahead of time. The fact that each year seemed to be broken down into separate curriculums didn't help much either. While first year consisted of learning theory about hexes, curses and their counters, second and third year was all about dark creatures. Then fourth year pivoted again into purely the study of how to recognize dark magic. In the end Harry decided his efforts would be better placed elsewhere.
Another benefit to having been sorted into Slytherin other than pushing himself ahead had been the acquiring of strategic allies. He could hardly call them friends as most of them were only civil but the relationships were beneficial. Even if these allies were acquired from the other houses as no one in his own house seemed to want to acknowledge his existence.
He decided on Neville Longbottom after the second Herbology class. While the boy had been absolute rubbish at every other subject watching him in Herbology was to watch a master at work. The best for Harry was that the boy was more than willing to do all the work for him, essentially giving him a free period. Draco had provided him with the perfect way in. Stealing of the boy's Remembrall after his disaster at their first flying lesson had allowed him a way to bridge the gap between their Houses. Not to mention the fact that Flint had told him under no circumstances was he to miss the House Quidditch tryouts next year as he as to become the new Seeker. Something Malfoy had complained about loudly in the common room for a month.
Along with Neville came two witches from Hufflepuff, Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones. While the Abbott girl was of little political significance other than her father worked in enchanting, and was quite well off, Susan Bones was the heiress to the noble house of Bones. She also let slip in their first meeting that her Aunt was the head of the DMLE, something Harry filed away under for later use.
His next ally came from Gryffindor House. Hermione Granger had been trapped in a bathroom with a troll. Harry found himself lucky enough to there only because he had been avoiding the Halloween feast. He never did enjoy Halloween, while he understood its magical significance he wasn't a fan of his parent's death. While the rest of the magical world celebrated the closeness of the spirit world, it only served as a reminder of how far away his parents were. In any case Harry found levitating a troll's club to be only slightly more difficult than levitating a feather, canceling the charm let gravity do the rest.
By the first week in November Harry had begun to piece together a group that met infrequently but enough for Harry to begin to call them more than just classmates. The group rarely met all at once, and often other students from the houses not represented by a snake would join them in the library.
While Neville wasn't any help outside of anything Herbology related Harry was confident that Neville was going to be a steadfast ally. The fact that Harry also found the boy to have a pureblood lineage dating back generations also meant he wouldn't have to deal with certain members of his house disapproving of the friendship.
Befriending the Granger girl however, was one he had to defend against even though having Hermione around was like having his own personal librarian. Her muggle-born status was the comment of many of his housemates whenever he was in earshot. While he was put off by her nosiness and propensity to nag, her ability to find books and relay him knowledge was unparalleled. This allowed him to continue reading ahead in the subjects he wanted to, without falling behind in those that couldn't hold his interest.
While Harry had never considered himself studious his early troubles in Slytherin taught him that knowledge was power. Especially when that knowledge is of magic. Thus, he decided that he would learn all that he could to gain that power.
First year wrapped up rather eventfully as the Defense professor disappeared towards the end of term, rumors stated that he died at the hands of whatever it was that lay beyond the Cerberus on the third floor. Harry's personal favorite was one being spread by the redhead twins from Gryffindor. That the professor had gone to feed the Cerberus, and his turban always smelling of garlic had enticed the beast to eat him instead.
Second year had been far more interesting as far as Harry was concerned. He became the Seeker for the House for all of three practices until Draco's father had bought the entire team brooms. Flint had politely told him that while he was a better flyer and had more skill at Seeking the team was better off with all new brooms than they were with a better seeker. Harry thoroughly enjoyed watching them get trounced by Gryffindor in the first match.
Harry also made his first inroads within Slytherin as far as friends was concerned. The second week of term had seen Daphne, Tracey and Blaise approach him with an offer for a mutually beneficial relationship for all parties concerned. They would help him navigate the politics of the House, to which Harry found himself completely ignorant, as well as teach him about the ways of the wizarding world. All he had to do was to quote Blaise show them,
"How you make every class look so bloody easy!"
Harry's group of allies grew, and so did his knowledge of the world he was entering. He learned that there were different factions within Slytherin; the conservatives, the blood purists and the traditionalists. While the wizarding world also had a group of progressives he was informed that none of them were in Slytherin and tended to end up in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff mostly.
The conservatives were a group whose goals were rather unclear in that all they wanted was less interference from the Ministry but who consistently made political moves that were in opposition to that. The main point he got from Daphne's lesson on the matter was that they constantly preached about how much better things used to be, without ever specifying what was better or when exactly they meant. Despite this they were the largest political group in magical Britain.
The Blood Purists were easy as far as Harry was concerned. Their goals were easy and spotting them was easy as well. They looked down upon all muggle-born and half-blood witches and wizards. They didn't think any of them deserved to be taught magic and that magical learning should be exclusive to those of pureblood. That group made up most of Slytherin, with Draco's father heading the entirety of the faction at the moment.
The last group is the one that the three Slytherins claimed to belong to. The Traditionalists they said didn't care if you had magical ancestry or not. All they wanted was to be allowed to practice the old ways. Magics pertaining to rituals, sacrifices and blood were all outlawed because they were dark in nature per the current ministry. Harry was told this was wrong, that they weren't in fact dark, only extremely dangerous if performed incorrectly.
All in all, he felt like he was making great strides both in the classroom and now in his common room. By the middle of October Harry felt far enough ahead in all of his subjects to begin researching ritual magics. He quickly discovered that most of the rituals found in the library were not only extremely easy to do but were in fact commonly performed not that long ago. As such he decided on a ritual to increase his sensitivity to magic, which if he completed it before hitting his magical puberty would only increase the expected gains in magical strength.
Harry also made plans for a few other rituals, ones not necessary but still on his to do list. They included ones to fix his eyes, help him grow stronger, and even one to sharpen his mind. But given that they all required more magical input on his end, as well as some basic runes he knew he would have to wait a while to get to them. Unlike the warding books he had found the year previous these books required you knew which runes were which, and how to use them properly.
So, on Halloween night Harry found himself in the forest executing the magical sensitivity ritual. He was quite glad he discovered rituals in time to do it on this date as it was one the most magically potent. The results had been incredible. It was like having your eyes opened for the first time. He felt the magic now not only of the castle, but the forbidden forest and the even individual people.
His year then took quite the turn as the monster of Slytherin was set loose on the castle. And while it never killed anyone it petrified many students. This had led to wild speculations as to what exactly the Heir of Slytherin was doing to petrify the students in a manner so difficult to fix.
The general consensus around Slytherin house was that whoever the Heir was they were doing the right thing. Something Harry found more than slightly disturbing. How anyone could find what was going on as something to be applauded he couldn't begin to understand.
That all changed rather abruptly when Harry revealed his ability to speak parseltongue. How was he to know it was an almost unheard of gift outside of the Slytherin line. That slip up had changed the way he was treated in his house. Where before he had been largely ignored by everyone now he was purposely given a wide berth wherever he went and most of the house treated him with the same fear the other three houses did.
Dealing with the entier school thinking he was the Heir of Slytherin had for a rather trying rest of the year. Lockhart the defence professor had loudly proclaimed one class that should Harry attempt to attack him he would be dealt with handily. And the Weasley in his year, Ron, had taken to following him around the castle outside of class while refusing to leave him alone with his allies from Gryffindor. It was most irritating.
Harry began doing research into the mythical chamber of secrets on his own time. He surprisingly found that the chamber had been opened only 50 years previously, and that there was a ghost of a girl who had died still inside the castle. Really Harry wondered why no one thought to ask her if she knew anything.
That was until he had tried to talk with the ghost girl. As soon as he brought up the subject she had taken to wailing uncontrollably and promptly flooded the entirety of the second-floor bathroom which she occupied. Still the trip hadn't been a total waste as it gave him a starting point from which to search for the Chamber.
It had taken him the rest of the year but he found the entrance when he followed a red-headed first year Gryffindor girl glassy-eyed and muttering in parseltongue. He stunned her as soon as she had opened the Chamber and lifted a book off of her that had a feel of utter wrongness about it. The book was promptly stored and locked away in his trunk for research at a later date, and the Chamber sealed with the hope no one else would find it.
Thankfully his third year had been far less eventful for him. Harry had spent his summer progressing his knowledge far beyond his third-year material. Class's that weren't his new electives, rune and arithmancy, were now just a formality. The only bit of interest had been the dementors stationed at the school to protect the students from the escaped Sirius Black. Who had broken into the school and attempted to stab Ron Weasley in the Gryffindor dorm before fleeing. Which Harry had found most intriguing considering the madman was supposedly out to kill him.
But none of that mattered now as Dumbledore was looking at him pointedly. A fourth champion for the Triwizards Tournament was just ridiculous. There had to have been some mistake. His best guess was that this was a rather well played prank by the Weasley twins, who were notorious for pranking Slytherin house.
The longer Dumbledore stared at him the more resigned to his fate he became. If this was a prank Dumbledore seemed to think it was serious. So he stood quietly and walked to that antechamber that held the other three champions amid the whispers of the rest of the people in the Great Hall.