Hi everyone. Welcome to The Slytherin Stand. I hope you enjoy my story, and remember that JK Rowling owns everything (except for Star Trek, Metallica, Princess Leia, Dave Mustaine, Nintendo, and any other aspect of Muggle culture that gets referenced)
Prologue
Harry Potter flopped onto his bed at Privet Drive and sighed, allowing the pages of the Daily Prophet to fall from his hands and scatter across the floor. The loss of Sirius seemed too much to bear sometimes, and now hearing how those responsible were dodging justice seemed like a personal slap in the face.
Lestrange was nowhere to be found after the attack; neither were any of the other newer escapees. A lot of the other Death Eaters had also escaped, and between escaping and being found by the Aurors had acquired air-tight alibis. Once again, it was Harry's word against theirs.
Unlike last summer, Harry read the Prophet religiously; he longed to see some sign that the opinion of the Wizarding World had changed, that he had been vindicated, that now something would actually get done about Voldemort.
He held up the mirror and looked longingly at his reflection. "Sirius" he called, no longer believing that he'd get any kind of response "It makes me sick Sirius, they killed you, and now Malfoy walks free. What is wrong with everyone?"
He slowly sat up, and gently placed the precious mirror that he had found too late onto his bedside table. Then in a fit of rage he kicked the scatted pages of the Prophet and stamped his feet in frustration until Uncle Vernon shouted from downstairs for him to shut up.
Great Harry he thought to himself as he sat down on the floor, now you're acting like an angry little kid; Sirius would be so proud.
Absentmindedly, he picked up the closest page and stared it down as if this single piece of paper that was the source of all his problems. As he actually focused on it though, he realised it was actually some good news. Old Peter Nott hadn't escaped from beneath the shelves of prophecies. At least some Death Eaters were paying for what happened in the Department of Mysteries.
Though should he really be so happy about Nott being arrested? In the picture he simply looked like an unkempt old man with two grown daughters flanking him on either side. The caption identified them as Jolene Selwyn and Estelle Harper. Harry had never heard of them, but he knew that this was the family of one of his classmates; Blaise Zabini's best friend, an extremely quite boy named Theodore Nott. Nott and Zabini had been the most skilled Slytherin students in the DA last year. Harry had never been that friendly with them, but Hermione knew them from the library and Arithmacy. After Harry and his friends got back from their battle in the Ministry, the two Slytherins had been the first to visit them in the Hospital Wing. Zabini had pretended to cut off his hand, and with Madam Promfey distracted Nott had walked over to them. He asked Hermione if she was alright; it was the first time Harry had ever heard him speak to her.
Was Young Nott suffering because of what Harry had done in the Department of Mysteries? Whenever Nott had actually spoken he had always been kind. Not at all Slytherin-like. And Hermione insisted that he was a nice guy.
Harry found it impossible to imagine Nott as another Draco Malfoy-Death-Eater-in-training. Would it turn out that after all this, the only Death Eaters that would end up getting arrested would leave behind family members that weren't themselves Voldemort supporters? Family who would miss them? What a terrible lose-lose situation this was.
Aunt Petunia was calling him now, saying that dinner was ready. Harry didn't feel like eating though; instead he crunched up the page and threw it towards his wastepaper bin. The shot was way off, but Harry didn't care; he picked up the mirror and called Sirius's name again.
"I wish I could have found this a earlier" Harry whispered to his dead Godfather "I'm so sorry Sirius."
Meanwhile;
Commander Chakotay was recuperating in sickbay after his ordeal with the Vori. The Captain and The Doctor were both with him, when the Kradin Ambassador entered. Chakotay had been shown enough evidence to know that the Kradin had helped save him, and were not the "motherless beasts" that the Vori's brainwashing propaganda training had led him to believe. Yet as the Ambassador spoke it was obvious that Chakotay was disturbed. He politely excused himself and left sickbay, with Captain Janeway following close behind, asking her first officer if he was ok.
"Captain" He replied "I just wish it was as easy to stop hating as it was to start."
"Now that was an awesome episode!" Theodore Nott said to Camille Zabini as the end credits of the Star Trek Voyager episode began to roll.
"You've said that about every Voyager episode so far" Camille replied.
"I didn't really like 'Threshold' that much" Theo said.
"But it was funny. Fine, every episode except one. Want to watch some of Next Generation now?"
"Sure" Theo said "How about something from the first season?"
Before Camille and Theo could get out the Star Trek Next Generation videos though, Camille's twin brother Blaise stormed into the room calling Theo's name and waving a copy of a kitty-litter covered Daily Prophet around.
"Look Theo, your father is in the Prophet!" Blaise said as he shoved the page in front of Theo's face "he was arrested over the incident in the Department of Mysteries!"
"Oh" Theo said as he read the article.
"What's wrong with you Blaise?" Camille snapped at her brother "Why are you such an insensitive git all the time?"
"Oh it's ok" Theo said before a petty fight started between the twins "I mean, I haven't spoken to him since I was thirteen, and even then it wasn't like we were close or anything, though, so like, why should it upset me? It's not like I'm distraught and going to miss him. I'll be fine."
"Don't tell me it doesn't hurt Theo" Blaise said "the old bastard wanted you to drop out of Hogwarts to help take care of him right? Well if he was really as old and helpless as he made out to be then, he wouldn't be running around with Voldemort now would he?"
"That's not the point Blaise" Theo protested.
"It's exactly the point!" Blaise argued back "you've been beating yourself up over this for three years, but his fine! He was just trying to use you, and if you didn't leave you probably would have been arrested with him!"
"I don't really want to talk about it" Theo said, subconsciously touching the Comm Badge he always wore on his chest.
"Next episode is ready" Camille chimed in as she quickly shoved a random tape into the machine.
"Ok let's watch" Theo hit the play button on the remote, causing the opening theme to play. Annoyed, Blaise grabbed the remote and hit stop.
"Guys this is important!"
"Go away Blaise we're watching Star Trek!" Camille snapped at her brother as she grabbed the remote and tried to pull it from his hands"
"Star Trek isn't going to go away Camille!" Blaise complained as he struggled to keep hold of the remote.
"Well you two will have plenty of time to talk at Hogwarts!" Camille protested.
"Oh stop acting like it's such a big deal!"
At this stage, Theo was sitting on the lounge with a bowl of popcorn on his lap and the Zabini twins on either side of him fighting over the remote. He smiled to himself, for he had long since gotten used to the craziness of the Zabini house. The fights between Blaise and his sister would never grace the halls of Hogwarts, since Camille was a student of the Wizarding Acadamy of Dramatic Arts. So Theo savoured them whenever he could. He had also had only spasmodic exposure to Muggle technologies like TV before coming to the Zabini household, where Mrs Zabini and her Muggle Husband - a cheerful mechanic from Italy - mixed magic and technology together.
Theo savoured it all, because this was the closest he had come to being part of a real family since the death of his own sister Alice.
"Oi kids" Mr. Zabini appeared in the doorway "stop doing that or you'll break another remote."
"We're not kids" Blaise said "in fact we'll be legal adults in February!"
"Well dinner's on the table anyway. Come and get it before I feed it to the cat!"
As soon as there was any mention of the cat being fed, Leia, Blaise's pregnant Burmen cat, got up from her spot on the sofa and waddled into the kitchen.
"Ok guys, lets call this one a draw" Theo said as he got up and followed the cat.
"Ok" Camille said "hay, what were we fighting over again?"