Skull became known as the "oddball Slytherin" due to the simple fact that despite being a member full of "backstabbing snakes", he was generally upfront and honest about his intentions. It was rather baffling to the teachers why the Hat would place him in Slytherin because he seemed as genial and honest as a Hufflepuff with an intelligence to rival anyone from Ravenclaw. He was bright and rather cheerful, which was a distinct difference from his housemates who generally looked at everyone with suspicion and always had ulterior motives when it came to favors.

The fact that he had taken his almost-Squib cousin and made her his Steward despite the fact she would have great trouble being more than a hedgewitch was one of the bigger shocks in the school. It wasn't that big a secret that "Camellia" barely managed to make the requirements to earn a spot in Hogwarts and would have to maintain a strong grade point average just to graduate at all.

Skull honestly didn't give a damn about his reputation, had little to no interest in politics, and was generally an "all around nice guy" which made his sorting very baffling.

He found it amusing that as a result of his "nice guy" persona, the entire school apparently decided to treat him like a Gryffindor who had the bad luck of being sorted into the wrong house. Even Dumbledore lowered his guard. Keeping up the "clueless and impressionable" Harry Potter disguise was exhausting, but at least he was allowed to drop it once safely inside the walls of the Slytherin dorms.

They had quickly figured out that while most of his mask was genuine, the "act" he put on in front of the school was the perfect disguise to keep the Headmaster and most of the teachers from looking too deeply at what he was really doing in the shadows.

Like the fact that by the end of the first month, he had met with nearly every muggleborn and half-blood raised in the mundane world and explained reality to them of what they would be facing inside the English enclaves.

"I'm going to be perfectly blunt about the reality you'll be facing once outside of Hogwarts. The English magical enclaves may seem backwards and outdated to you, but you're simply coming at it from entirely the wrong angle and it's pissing off those who have lived in it their whole lives."

"What do you mean, the wrong angle?" asked one Ravenclaw.

Skull thought of how to put this, then went and got a blackboard.

He drew two circles, one smaller than the other.

"Let's say this is Rome and this smaller one is a gypsy group that lives in the underground. Now on the surface, Rome has all the familiar laws you're used to, all nice and civilized. However on the other side is the gypsies, who have a unique culture that occasionally clashes quite violently and doesn't like ideas that seem too progressive or that step on centuries of traditions, values and religion. So when people from 'Rome' are accepted into the gypsies as tentative 'fresh blood' to keep the bloodlines and old ways from dying out..."

One Ravenclaw looked rather intrigued, than offended.

"You're saying that this is a case of a smaller subculture clashing with a larger, more wide spread one. Like the Native Americans when the European settlers showed up and started making a mess of things."

"Exactly. The magical enclaves are a small subculture that live side by side with the larger, more tech-heavy non-magical culture that you're familiar with. Trying to bring something like a computer or electricity here is the equivalent of trying to install such things in a secluded old world village where the culture and people have been set in their ways for centuries. Never mind how expensive and labor intensive such a thing would be, but the locals would fight you every step of the way simply because they all have the same attitude of 'this is how it's always been done and we're not going to change because an outsider finds it outdated' mindset," said Skull, nodding. "It really, really doesn't help that Dumbledore has been screwing over those coming in from the non-magical side of things for years now."

That got a shock from everyone.

"What do you mean by that? He's Dumbledore!"

"He's also made no effort to give new bloods and half-bloods from the mundane side of things a proper chance to integrate into the subculture to the point they have an actual chance at getting a proper job. And because of the lack of normal education, anyone graduating from Hogwarts is only going to walk out with a few fancy tricks and far too much catching up to do in order to pass their A-levels. And let's not get started on the fact that everyone is so hung up on the House system that everyone is automatically painted with the same brush as the common image of their house," said Skull flatly. "Take Slytherin for example. Just because there have been a few bad apples and a 'dark lord' from that house in the past hundred years, everyone is immediately biased against them as if they're evil and up to no good, while they openly gloss over the fact that it wasn't just from Slytherin that the man recruited from. I know for a fact there was at least ONE Gryffindor who took up the Dark Mark before his fall."

That seemed to shake the others up, hearing that there had been a Gryffindor who bore the Dark Mark.

It was the talk of the school and most of the English enclaves. Hell, there were quite a few people talking about it overseas. What had started as a rather interesting Quibbler article by a wizard with an unusual pen name quickly gained attention from the Daily Prophet. Within a week of the article it was being reprinted in the more accepted newspaper and read by almost everyone.

Albus Dumbledore: Cultural Icon or Disaster?

By Midnight Marauder

Albus Dumbledore, defeater of Grindlewald has been lauded for all of his contributions to magical society. He is over a century old and surely has many, many things to share with our youths as Headmaster.

But people have been blinded by his public image to the point they've failed to notice the damage caused by laws he knowingly allowed to be passed since You-Know-Who's fall ten years ago.

Fact: the Dumbledore family was only ennobled after he defeated Grindlewald. Every witch or wizard from that line has never shown a single bloodline gift since they first appeared in the magical society.

Fact: Dumbledore has shown a very limited tolerance to the so-called 'Dark magics' which can included parseltongue, blood runes, and a disturbingly large number of older rituals, which until the past twenty years, were used successfully and with great benefit to our magical culture.

Fact: Parselmagic (the use of parseltongue in place of human languages) is a well known green magic. It is only in the UK and certain areas of Europe that the magical language, which is well known as a bloodline gift, that it is considered "evil" because of the actions of a few. In China parselmouths are so revered that they are often taken into the Emperors court to help maintain the Chinese Fireball Sanctuary. In India parselmouths are known to be great healers and ward masters.

Fact: Since Dumbledore became headmaster, Hogwarts rankings as a school for magical study has slipped to alarming levels as important classes have been deliberately cut, citing "budget issues" or to "follow Ministry guidelines". Guidelines Dumbledore would have a personal hand in writing. Among the lost classes from the past thirty years are Occulmency training (the art of protecting one's self from unwanted intrusion from so-called "mind readers"), basic potions prep, several language courses, and most notably classes which would give our heirs a proper grounding in magical artifact creation.

Fact: Hogwarts has allowed several key classes to slip below acceptable levels, up to and including Potions, Magical history, Divination and Muggle Studies. While Severus Snape is indeed a premiere potions master worthy of respect in his art, he is much better suited to training the older students who have already passed their O.W.L.s and already have a grounding in how to brew properly.

Fact: There have been no Masteries or follow up study in magical history since Binns had become stuck on the same loop when he died. One can literally pay one of the older Ravenclaws for notes, as Binns has yet to deviate from when he died. We are losing knowledge and memories of centuries of rich magical history that is so much more than the goblin rebellions.

Fact: there are no classes that would allow the muggleborns to properly integrate into our society, and because they have no understanding of magical culture they are left to fall by the wayside and create a strain on our resources, as they are unable to return to their mundane roots due to lack of proper education.

Fact: Dumbledore has actively encouraged muggleborns to continue spending their gold without giving them any basic information. Many are mistakenly encouraged to believe that they can become Minister or other high profile career when they graduate.

Fact: The number of Squib births has risen to alarming levels in recent decades. England has become such an insular country that we are considered a joke among the other magical enclaves. Hogwarts graduates are quite literally laughed out of jobs outside Europe regardless of blood status the moment they say which school they graduated from.

Fact: according to ICW records, the school that is considered the premiere institution for magical education is in Japan. Hogwarts is not even ranked among the top twenty.

The question remains whether our beloved community has lost it's way following a leader who has little to no actual background in basic magical culture and seems determined to force us to integrate with the muggles, rather than instructing our youths in traditions and values that have stood us through centuries of trials and tribulations against all odds.

For a list of laws passed and denied by Dumbledore, see page three

For a validated genealogy on the Dumbledore line, see page four

For a listing of classes dropped since his election as headmaster, see page five

Skull had to fight the urge to grin like the Cheshire cat. He had set the niffler in the vaults with this stunt. The best part was there was no way in hell Dumbledore would be able to sue him later for slander, because he had backed everything up with solid research. Granted, it was done after the war, but he had been able to cite his sources regardless and had set Susan Bones and a good chunk of the bored Ravenclaws on finding out which laws Dumbledore had passed or denied since he joined the Wizangamot. Then he had the Ravenclaws look at the impact said laws would have on certain old traditions, gifts and bloodline heritage.

The results were beyond damning, and it hadn't taken long to secure both houses to his side.

Gryffindor was up in the air, but he had three-fourths of the school on his side and no one had any clue he was anything other than a 'misplaced' Gryffindor.

After all, how could such an "open, honest and cheerful" person be a manipulative bastard like every other Slytherin?

Blaise had to discreetly raise his goblet to him. A nod of a move well played that was doing untold damage to Dumbledore's reputation in a way he would have intense difficulty counterattacking.

The article appealed to the older pure bloods who believed in centuries of traditions and values by the way it heavily emphasized how Dumbledore did not have the proper background to appreciate their culture. It appealed to the muggleborns because it spelled out in painful detail that they had been mislead by someone who they were supposed to trust and had let them down quite spectacularly.

Both the Light and Dark factions would read it and find truths that Dumbledore had tried to hide for years, and they would become pissed upon realizing how badly Dumbledore was damaging their proud culture.

Not even Lucius Malfoy would argue that Dumbledore was a disaster to their heritage and tradition.

It was painfully clear that Harry Potter was more of a Black than anyone could have ever anticipated. A Black in all the best possible ways, while maintaining a persona that kept people from looking too hard at what he was actually doing.

It was ironic, but while everyone had assumed Draco would become the Prince of Slytherin, they had had a King dropped in their lap instead.

Blaise waited for one of the many, many days Black would be relatively alone after consulting with Camellia.

"Black."

"Zabini," he nodded in greeting.

"Do you have a Cloud yet?" he asked.

Black choked on his morning drink, before looking at Blaise with a disbelieving expression on his face.

"Are you a Hel-damned idiot, talking about that here?!" he hissed in perfect Italian.

Zabini's eyes shot up in shock.

"You speak Italian?"

"And you apparently seem to believe I'm a Sky for some bizarre reason," he snapped back.

Blaise threw out everything he knew about Black before he cautiously asked "Omerta?"

"Vindice," said Black without any hesitation.

Blaise wanted to sink into the nearest couch. Black knew of the Cosa Nostra. Hell, was almost certainly a member of it already!

Harry checked that they weren't overheard, before thoroughly insuring it.

"I was eight when I took out my mundane relatives to insure I would be able to slip out of the old goat's cage. Not only that, but I made very sure my 'uncle' made the mistake of pissing off his Family to the point they put out a hit on him and then collected the bounty once it was confirmed," said Harry bluntly, making damn sure to use Italian only.

"What's your Flame?" asked Blaise, looking positively dazed at this revelation. He wasn't appalled by the knowledge Black had deliberately manipulated his uncle into pissing off his famiglia and then collected the bounty for it. Far from it... it meant Black was willing and ready to get his hands dirty if it meant dealing with an issue.

Harry grinned, before holding out his hand and briefly showing off distinctive purple flames streaked with another color that moved too quickly to be caught. But they looked either a Sun yellow...or more likely, considering how easily he had taken control of the Slytherins, a Sky orange.

A strong Cloud with a possible Sky secondary. Dumbledore was screwed if he tried to contain Black.

"Camellia is my acting Right hand... but I do have a position for a very subtle Left," said Harry. "At the very least I can help you get connections within the Cosa Nostra that will come in very useful later once we leave England."

Blaise smirked. Black had gone from potentially interesting to a very terrifying ally. No way in hell was he passing up partnering up with the boy now.

"Allies?" he asked, holding out his hand.

Harry shook it without hesitation.

"It'll be fun to work with you, Zabini. Your family scares the hell out of me when they get creative," he said dead serious.

"You know of us?"

"I know you're one of the more powerful families in Italy, yet have the brains to avoid the Alliance. I swear, the Vongola propaganda about Flames is almost as bad as the crap people come up with based on what house people came from," said Harry rolling his eyes. The Italians were always trying to emulate Giotto and his generation, and quite honestly he found it ridiculous.

Blaise snorted in open agreement, glad that Black at least didn't fall for the same trap most families did.

At the very least he wouldn't have to hide nearly as much as he had assumed in the school.

"Wait... how is it that you're so open and loud all the time if you're a Cloud?!" said Blaise incredulous.

"Inverted. That and Dumbledore tried to force me into the general mentality of a Lightning without knowing a thing about Flame types," said Harry in disgust. "Too bad for him I have plenty of training in hiding my real behavior behind a mask until I strike from the shadows."

Blaise looked at him with open sympathy, needing no other explanation. Lightnings (next to Storms) were almost the epitome of everything Gryffindor currently portrayed. Brash, idiotic and far too quick to jump into danger without a single plan.

All because the mafia had it in their head that Lightnings were supposed to attract damage, rather than actually use their brain based on some half-assed description of the Vongola's first generation from four hundred years ago.