"..Slytherin. My choice is Slytherin." There was audible pin drop silence before Harry heard the proverbial left shoe drop as he picked up the pet carrier and cage. From the Gryffindor table several kids made outraged comments calling him a traitor for picking Slytherins over his parents 'school family' legacy. "SILENCE!" The sneer painted on his face was so dark and sinister that everyone obeyed instantly. "You want to talk about me betraying my parents?! I never got the chance to ever know them because one fucknut decided to murder them when I was one year old or have you inbred idiots & half bred sycophants forgotten that!? The only family I do know thought it was fine to beat and abuse the 'freak' til he was on the brink of death! I refuse to trust a pack of lions when they are known to turn on their pride in the wild when things are even the very first sign of desperate. At least in nature snakes only do the same as a last fucking ditch effort when everything else has been exhausted thoroughly."
Several of the Slytherin students glanced between themselves weighing Harry as he took a solitary seat near the end of the table. Something about the way the boy had said 'The only family I do know thought it was fine to beat and abuse the 'freak' til he was on the brink of death!' didn't sit righ... Eyes widened drastically and shot over to a blonde wizard whose blue eyes were hard as saphires.
"Muggles. Some idiot left a Pureblood Heir in the hands of magic hating muggles" the boy said with a tone that would freeze hell over and eyes sharp enough to make obsidian look dull. He had originally thought the Potter boy would be as 'Light' orientated as they came and dumb as any Gryffindor lion but this, this was a welcome albeit unexpected turn of events. "Greengrass, Davis, MacNair, LeStrange- we have a brother in arms to convince onto our side."
Said children, three girls and two boys, raised an eyebrow at the blonde boy. If he truly thought he could make a true Dark Snake out of a Light bred family scion the young blonde was barking mad. Then again one look to the LeStrange and Greengrass girls with the calculating looks dawning in their eyes brought reconsideration. Perhaps it wasn't entirely impossible if the Potter Heir was truly ignorant of his place in their world.
Harry was ignoring the announcements, fobidden items and off-limits places were of no importance to him, as he paid more attention to his creature companions. "Yes I know you both want out but trust me ok? Soon I promise. At least for you Artemis, I'm sure when we get on our way to the dormitories we'll pass an open window so I can let you out into the night air to find the owleryon your own" he said rubbing the owls breast feathers appeasingly. "And as for you ya little trouble maker" his eyes turned to the carrier beside him sat on the long bench as Zeus seemed to huff in indignation at the comparison "as soon as I get into the dorms & my things put down I'll let you out to stretch your paws. I knows its cramping in there but rules are rules. Even if they are centuries old and treat all creatures like you're mindless animals when many of you are as intelligent if not more so than most humans."
"You know, the muggles say the first sign to losing your mind is talking to things thats don't or can't speak back to you."
Harrys eyes turned slowly to look at whoever chose to approach him as food appeared on the table. The girl who approached was cute on a level if you liked the prissy looking princess types. Long blonde hair fell past her shoulders, dark blue eyes like Atlantic sea storms and pale skin were the immediate things that stood out to him as he fixed her with a thin lipped and empty smirk. "Then by that definition call me certifiably gone. My family, and I use that word in the lightest way possible, made it quite clear early on 'freaks' like me weren't capable of human thought. My best friend is the voice in my head who finds the memories of the suffering I put them through starting from the age of seven to be as... titalating as I do" he said.
The witch cocked a mental eyebrow and sat opposite the young Potter. 'Perhaps he isn't so Light after all' she thought as her eyes briefly looked to the two creatures with him. The owl was a rather beautiful bird with sharply intelligent eyes though her eyes were more drawn to the canine. Something about the eyes told her that even though it was small now it was best to be on the side of its master before it got older. "Muggles never did learn their place in the worlds power structure. Perhaps if they did whoever stuck you with such..." she paused for a moment to pick the right word "trash then you would have grown up here in our side of the world where you belonged in the first place."
"And just what makes you think that? Do indulge me a spell here and spell it out for me" Harry said as charmingly as he could be.
"Before I do, proper introductions since its obvious you weren't paying attention to the sorting. Daphne Greengrass, heiress of the Ancient House of Greengrass" she said offering a hand to Harry.
Harry almost scoffed audibly as he put his elbows on the table on either side of his plate before steepling his fingers and rested his chin on his hands. There was a visible shift in his demeanor as his eyes took on a sharp glint much like Artemis in her cage shooting dirty looks at the witch. "Heiress Greengrass, let me make myself perfectly clear if I may. It would behoove you not to treat me like an idiot or come across as the snooty pretentious Pureblood Princess no doubt your mummy and daddy raised you to be. I am perfectly aware of my station on this side of the social divide between us magically capable and those who aren't" he said with a rather clipped tone. "This whole playing perfectly.. I hesitate to call it an innocent act because this charade is strictly for the red and gold morons behind us."
Daphne was shocked at the one eighty Harry took in a moment but kept her mothers training in mind to keep her features stoically schooled. "If you understand precisely where you stand than I fail to understand why the chararde" she said slowly folding her hands in front of her. While their housemates were eating and paying attention to the conversation, those close enough to hear anyway, her eyes widened by orders of magnitude as Harrys explanation unfolded.
Albus Dumbledore could be characterized as a generally kind grandfatherly man but at the moment uncertainty chewed at his gut. Ever since the fiasco that was the Diagon Alley trip for Harry and Hagrid he had felt a sick knot in his stomach. Leaving the young Potter heir had never settled right with him but what other option had he had? Sirius Black murdered those twelve muggles and his former friend Peter Pettigrew after betraying the Potters location to Voldemort, the man had confessed to it under truth serum, and the only other couples left for Harry to be left in the care of were rather unsuited at the time. Alice and Frank Longbottom were at the time recently admitted to St. Mungos long term care ward due to extended torture under the Cruciatus curse while Amelia Bones, who had been Lilys choice as Harrys godmother, had been promoted from Chief Auror to Director of the DMLE & pushing sixty to seventy hour work weeks while caring for her own niece and dealing with the duties as Proxy for the Ancient House of Bones in the Wizengamot; simply put, he had NO other options. The many wards he had put around the property in Little Whinning had never once gone off for Harry being in danger. 'Perhaps my folly has come back to bite us, bite me, in the ass' he thought gravely. In a moment of clarity his chest seized with a cold fear. The wards he had put up were to alert him of magical danger since that had been the immediate threat to the young Potters life. Harry was perfectly capable of being physically abused under the wards and they would never trip letting him know of the boy being in peril.
"Albus, what is he talking about? You said that-"
"After the feast Minerva. Gather the teachers and heads of house for a meeting in my office. I fear our only option may have been a karmic blackhole forming in our faces" Dumbledore said grimly.
Daphnes eyes narrowed slightly as the explanation given by the Potter heir ended on a rather dark note. His understanding of their world was far from complete but his buying of texts outside the Hogwarts books made him fairly well read for having a basic idea of how to act and what the important laws were in a nutshell. "I guess then I have only two questions Heir Potter. One, what side of the political line are you going to side with? Two, do you intend to take advantage of being able to sit in the other houses?"she asked plating some chicken and veggies for herself at last.
Harry didn't answer at first as he cut into the roast on his plate and bit into the piece he speared casually. Emerald orbs did a mental once over trying to recall all he could about House Greengrass from his reading before boarding the express here for school. 'Politically Neutral family in the Wizengamot. Currently headed by a Liam Greengrass who maintains the family Neutral position but possesses more personal darker leaning. Their fortunes have been made in the fields growing and selling rare potion & alchemy herbs as well as underworld information' he thought as the tidbits surfaced. "Undecided on both counts for the time being but I may use the advantage to take of the knowledge no doubt hoarded by Ravenclaw students." He decided a neutral position was the best point to start. If the kids of power current power brokers wished to try and court him to their side bring it on; his knowledge was fairly incomplete about a lot of the older families but the books on politics had mentioned old alliences so he knew some of the families who wokred together in tbe past, what side of the Neutrality line they swayed and for what causes they championed. "Is this a personal feeling out behalf of the Ancient House of Greengrass or are you here as the feeler for a next generation alliance seeking to have the Ancient and Noble House of Potter name add its weights to sway the Wizengamot balance?" he asked casually after swallowing.
Down the table the blonde wizard saw Daphne begin to sweat, sweat for her that is given away by the certain cue of muscle tensing, under the gaze of Harry Potter. What had the boy said to get under the stoic girls skin? "Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini with me." Without waiting for confirmation he got up, plate in hand, and marched up to the area the two were sat. "Greengrass, pleasant surprise to se-"
"You can drop the act. I already assumed either she was either here on behalf of her House or an alliance of next generation children of alliances past. I can safely assume you are the one responsible for sending her?" Harry asked keeping his eyes on Daphne. "Blonde slicked back hair, blue eyes, ferret like thin build- you must be a Malfoy."
Daphne watched Dracos eyes narrow before the boy forced a calm expression. Draco must really be set to get Harry Potter on their side if he was willing to let a ferret comment slip aside without so much as a veiled threat.
"Heir Draco Malfoy at your service" he said taking the empty seat beside Harry not occupied by a pet carrier. 'Bringing pets to the Hall, he must have neen raised by muggles in a barn or something' he thought wrinkling his nose.
"Make a comment about my owl or familiar being here Heir Malfoy and consider this parley a wasted endeavour." Harrys eyes closed as he let his fork rest against his plate. "Perhaps I should change over to the Ravenclaw table instead. Your aura is quite putrid in its condescending shadow clinging to you" he said drumming his fingers on the table in impatience for dinner to be over so he could get some rest and let his companions free to stretch their limbs.
Up in the Headmasters office the four Heads of House alongside the other teaching staff were looking expectantly at Albus. They had all heard loud and clear what Harry had said, the whole Great Hall did, and they wanted answers. Some of the teachers, professors like Minerva and Filius who adored Harrys mother Lily as their star pupil, wanted to know why Harry would claim being abused by relatives to the point he nearly died while others were far too curious about the Potter Heir as a whole. His sorting had taken nearly half an hour in real time and to be sorted into a 'Fifth House' created by the Founders recognizing that those with all four Founding Houses qualities in spades were in Harry; they couldn't NOT be curious.
"My fellow educators and Heads of House, I have a terrible story to tell you. A story I had never hoped in my worst nightmares would happen but it seems to my grim shock it has. This story begins on the night of Halloween when You-Know-Who attacked the Potter family in Godrics Hollow" Dumbledore began as he took a seat in his throne like chair behind his desk in his office. He would tell those not part his Order the edited truth. They needed to know that much to be ready to deal with a seemingly Dark Harry Potter. Now he could only hope to steer the boy to the light or into the neutral grsy zone as a worst case scenario.
A/N: short sweet and to the point of satisfaction. Thenext generation of 'Dark' and Grey children already seek to court Harry for his support both because of the weight of his families name but no doubt also for the wealth. Dumbledorr tells those not in the know parts of the truth and his fears of what has happened to their saviour. THE BIG QUESTION TO BE ASKED: WILL HARRY BE SWAYED BY MALFOY AND HIS ILK OR DOES OUR BUDDING DARK PRINCE(I LIKE THE SOUND OF IT SO DON'T READ INTO THIS AS HINTING HARRY GOING FULL DARK LORD LATER ON, REFER TO THE CHALLENGE PROMPT IN CHAPTER 1) HAVE IDEAS OF HIS OWN.?!
Oh and for those who are going to say Harry didn't buy political books about the important families, laws & what not about the magical world? Just because I implicity write his extra bought books were on runes DOES NOT mean they were the only extra cirriculat books he bought.