The door to the Headmaster's office knocked twice. A hard purposeful knock—not the one asking for permission, but one demanding attention. A loud and clear 'Come in, Harry' answered the knock as Harry felt the wards of the room granting him access.

Willy old man! Putting an intent-based ward in front of his office and knowing who is entering before they enter. A simple act asserting dominance over the entrant.

Opening the door, Harry walked in and stood in front of the Headmaster's table. "I received your note, Professor."

"Ah yes, I wanted to talk to you about some... issues, Harry."

Harry stayed expressionless.

If the headmaster was annoyed at the lack of response, he did not show it. Instead, he smiled and continued. "You might be interested to know that your aunt and uncle are not living at Privet Drive anymore."

Harry was ready to counteract any kind of arguments that Dumbledore might put forward about the need to return to Privet Drive, but this... this threw him off-guard.

"Excuse me?"

Dumbledore nodded offhandedly. "I admit even I was surprised by the sudden development. Your uncle and aunt have been facing a huge financial crisis. That and because of the complaints of the neighbors, they have been forced to relocate somewhere else and have sold the house off. I was wondering if you already knew about it. But your reaction shows you didn't expect this coming."

"I- I didn't know anything about this," Harry answered, hastily adding a 'Sir'.

Dumbledore nodded again, his moustache quivering. "Tell me Harry. Is there something, you wish to tell me? Anything at all?"

"No sir." Harry felt that the 'no' was much quicker than he would have liked. His eyes wandered towards the shelves, were Fawkes and the sorting Hat sat, with the crimson phoenix trilled sweetly.

"I thought about our... conversation at the Weasley home. As much as I would like that you should stay in a properly guarded property, I understand that Potter manor is guarded well enough for you to stay there. As such, I will allow you to exercise your discretion and stay there as you wanted."

Something shifted across Harry's face. Had Dumbledore noticed it, he would have deciphered that emotion as cold fury. "Headmaster, I am confused."

"I am sorry?"

"You should be, but that's not the point." Harry shot back. "Need I inform you that I am emancipated and the Head of my family already? Why exactly do you think that you hold any kind of...control over me?"

"Harry, all I am trying to do is for your own good." Dumbledore tried in a defeated voice.

"My own good?" Harry enunciated slowly; raising his palms in front of the old man in front of him, and began stating points one by one, crossing off fingers as he finished one point. "You dropped me at the Dursley residence where I was tortured and enslaved for ten years. The filthy muggles hated me for what I was. For six years, I knew that my name is Freak, until Petunia informed me that my name is Harry Potter. I was belittled, I was manhandled, and I was made to slave from dawn to dusk. I was told that my father was a drunkard and my mother a whore; that they got themselves killed in a freaking car accident. They mocked me every single moment they could, kept me unfed for days at times, and all of that for ten damned years."

Dumbledore sat aghast at the description he was getting from the boy. While he knew that the muggles were not kind to the boy, but never had he anticipated that, they had been so... inhumane in their dealings with the boy. He had thought that Harry had exaggerated previously but this...

"Harry, I-" he tried.

"Oh I am not done yet. My first year, I almost get myself killed four times. My second year, thrice. Not to mention the fact that you let the whole school treat me as a pariah despite knowing that I was innocent. Third year, you kept it secret from me that Black was my godfather, and see... my parent's true betrayer actually stayed in my dorm for three years. If this is, what you think is for my own good, I would like to try something bad, now. I don't see if it could go any further worse than what it already is."

Dumbledore shook his head. The meeting had digressed from its initial purpose. He had brought the boy to try to figure out the changes in him; but here the boy had put him off-guard. Perhaps another meeting was in order... later on, he mused.

"You may go, Harry."

"Thank you, Headmaster."

"Harry?"

Harry stopped midway, without turning back and asked, "Yes sir?"

"Did you see the death eaters during the world Cup?"

"No sir, I was busy... The frightened people swayed me. I even lost track of where to go, but luckily, I found Hermione."

Albus Dumbledore looked at him with a queer look, his bright blue eyes twinkling merrily. "Very well, you may go."

Back in the Gryffindor Dorms...

"Hey Neville? Are you intending to put your name as well?" Seamus teased. Neville look at him embarrassedly before muttering a small 'No' before busying himself in finishing his potions homework. "You know Neville, you could even get selected, but in case they put some dangerous creatures on your path... just summon Harry and then sit on the sidelines..." Dean added to the conversation. Seamus joined in instantly, "yeah, poor bloke has had to fight so many creatures the last few years... I have even lost count."

"Dementors," Ron added, still a bit upset over Harry's decision. Dean's eyes popped up at the comment, "you mean he seriously fought off Dementors the previous year?" Ron had barely nodded when Neville joined into the conversation. "He fought off a troll in our first year to save Hermione."

Ron was almost going to shout out in indignation that he too had helped defeat the troll when Dean supplied, "let's not forget the Slytherin's monster he faced in our second year." Ron's face reddened a bit over that comment. He had stayed on the sidelines and had no practical part in Harry's adventure down the Chamber of secrets. The fallen rock archway was too much of an obstruction for that.

"Who do you think is going to be selected?" Neville put in, unable to keep himself off from what seemed like an interesting discussion. Dean spoke out, "Well considering that Dumbledore said- ('he promised' Seamus interrupted) - "right, so as Dumbledore promised that he would put safeguards, I am not sure if anyone less than seventeen could get through it."

"Hear! Hear!" Seamus nodded, cheering up with his glass of butterbeer, "I think Angelina will be selected, or maybe Alicia...as long as it is a Gryffindor, I will not mind."

"Angelina was really interested when old man talked about the tournament." Dean broke in. "You would know," Dean began, "you are the one who keeps staring at her b-" Seamus punched him on the shoulder before Dean could finish that comment, while the rest chortled.

"So it won't be Harry, that's for sure, though with his luck, you never know." Neville mumbled, getting nods from the rest as he gulped down butterbeer off his glass. "Besides the bloke- Harry!" finding said boy walking into the dorms towards them. "Hey guys!" Harry wished, immediately being handed over a glass of butterbeer from Seamus. "Partying are we?"

"We are having an important discussion about the future prospective Triwizard Champion." Dean replied, his voice swaying. "Ah!" Harry deadpanned. "I dint know you even knew the word 'prospective'" Seamus butted in, much to Dean's consternation.

"Well guys, thanks for the butterbeer, I will now go and take a nap." Harry exclaimed, already feeling tired after the extenuating circumstances since morning. "Good night guys!"

"Bloke can't get a rest!" Seamus exclaimed while Ron sat silent, gulping in more butterbeer.

The next morning...

The Gryffindors were busy with their breakfast when Mcgonagall began distributing their new yearly class schedules to the fourth-years. Reaching Harry, she stood for a moment, thinking again on her talk with Potter the previous night, before forwarding his new schedule. "Here Potter, I changed the slots for Divination and Creatures with Runes and Arithmancy. I have consulted with the respective professors and they have allowed you to take one week off for revision if you wish, before appearing for the test."

Harry denied and looked up, "No thanks professor, I am ready when they are." Mcgonagall raised her eyebrows at the comment. Potter's wordings may seem like a boast, but it was more of a statement—a strange sense of confidence from knowing that he would be able to not only pass it, but more like breeze through it. She wondered what might have caused the changes in him.

"Very well Potter. I will inform them of your decision."

"Harry, I know you said that you studied Arithmancy and Runes, but don't you think you are being too overconfident about this?" Hermione put in. "Arithmancy is really tough, you know."

"I will manage." Harry commented offhandedly.

"If you say so," Hermione answered, not believing in her friend's words. "At least don't waste your time and come to me after you face the reality. I have my last year's notes and can help you understand them." She replied condescendingly.

"I will... keep that in mind, Hermione." Harry replied, a strange expression on his face.

"You are more than qualified to enter the fourth-year class, Congratulations!" said Septima Vector, the professor of Arithmancy.

Harry gave a subtle nod towards Hermione who gave off a 'huff' all the same time trying to keep a smile floating on her face. For all her talents, Hermione Granger was pants when it came to controlling her emotions. It was a miracle that he never saw it in her. To be honest, he did; but he was too much of a brat to understand its significance the previous time round.

The Arithmancy class was the most underpopulated class in all Hogwarts, the current fourth-year only holding eight students in them. Harry and Hermione from Gryffindor; Su Li, Padma Patil and Antony Goldstein from Ravenclaw and finally Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis from Slytherin. The next class on the underpopulated list was Muggle studies and it still held fourteen students, majority of them being Hufflepuffs and some Gryffindors.

"Today, we are going to revise some of the concepts we covered in the previous year." Septima Vector began. The regal-looking woman, some fifty years of age indeed knew her subject. From the Potter journals, Harry had known that Septima Vector was a contemporary of his grandmother Dorea Potter nee Black, and was an accomplished Master in her subject.

Thus began a grilling discussion about the Arithmantic concepts of spells for the next two hours; the only difference being that one green-eyed student was being quite... interactive during the discussion. The dark lord Harry Potter was no Master of the subject, but he had studied advanced Arithmancy enough to breeze through his NEWTS if he wished. What started as a numerical analysis of standard spells turned into a comparative analysis of Arithmantic projections for defensive shields. At the end of the class, Septima Vector went up to him and asked the question troubling her mind straight away.

"How long have you been studying Arithmancy, Potter?"

Harry was about to give her the same answer he had given Mcgonagall but Vector cut him short. "Don't give me that load of tripe about you studying in the summer. I am a prodigy at Arithmancy and even I could not learn what you did in a single summer. So tell me, Harry Potter, how did you suddenly become an expert at Arithmancy?"

Harry sighed. Apparently, the claims of Septima Vector being highly intelligent were not unreasonable. "I have been studying the subject since my second year, professor."

"Is it so?" questioned the regal woman, raising her eyebrow.

"Yes." Harry shot back.

"Very well, I know not why you did not attend the third year class despite having a sound knowledge in the subject from your second year as you stated," Vector began but Harry cut him off, "I wanted to be with my friend Ron Weasley for Divination, professor."

Vector raised an eyebrow, eyeing him akin to an eagle. "No matter, now that you have taken an active interest in learning the subject formally, you are welcome to consult me in your forthcoming private studies; for I am sure you know the fourth-year subject matter already."

"Excuse me?"

"Do not mock me Potter," the stern woman continued, "your questions and the details in your answers clearly show an advanced and thorough knowledge of Arithmancy, something which I rarely find even in my OWL students. I do not know how you did what you did, but it is my job to make sure my students are fairly challenged by their syllabus. I shall be taking another test, in order to check your true knowledge in Arithmancy, and then depending on it, I shall hand you assignments that can pose as a proper challenge to you."

"As you feel right, Professor." Harry answered, cursing himself inwardly for falling into another problem. Vector eyed him curiously. "Tell me Potter, is your... private education limited to just Arithmancy or is Runes also included in the list?"

Harry swallowed for an instant, deciding how much information to reveal. He was already into deep shit with the Unspeakables, and had barely kept Dumbledore at bay for the moment. Vector had already surmised enough about his advanced knowledge, perhaps a bit of truth would help...

"Yes Ma'am," he added with a sigh, "Runes are also added to the list. In fact, I privately study almost all the core subjects extensively, though I hold back in exams." Lo! Take that! He thought.

Vector eyed him speculatively and asked, "May I know the reason behind your 'apparent' subjugation?"

Harry thought for a moment. "My relatives... they are not very keen when it comes to my education. I have always been taught to remain subdued and not display my talents. When I came here, I was instant friends with Ron and Hermione. Ron never studies and Hermione... she studies too much. I guess the constant presence of two extremes made me choose some sort of a middle ground."

"Hmm," Vector nodded, listening to his explanation, "be as that may, I expect nothing but the best from my students. Tell me, how far ahead are you in Arithmancy and Runes?"

Harry decided to give it a shot. "I am fair hand at developing new spells using runic matrices."

Vector raised her eyebrows. "Indeed? What have you done so far?"

Harry grinned and whipped his wand out. "I have developed a single spell which will be able to be body-bind and silence a person simultaneously." Vector nodded, impressed by her student's prowess. While the two individual spells were quite simple and any third year could cast it with ease, the wand movements of both spells were almost opposite, making it tough to combine them together. To have done the same using a runic matrix was almost... extraordinary."

She drew her own wand and conjured a dummy. "Cast it on this." She said while casting an animation charm on the dummy, which made sure that it made a lot of noise as it moved. Harry waved his wand in a triangular arc and thought hard on the rune he had developed during his early days of studying advanced runic matrices. The triangular rune materialized in front of him as he shove his wand forwards. A single bolt of light crimson shot out of his wand and hit the dummy, making it bound and silenced.

"Well done!" Vector clapped happily, her earlier stern appearance vanishing on spot. "Though I must say, the spell needs some work if you want to use it during a duel." Harry complied, knowing very well how correct she was. Besides, he had developed the spell later on.

"This will be your new project, creating this spell from scratch. Apart from this, if you need any further references, my office and I are always at your service. Now off you go." She exclaimed, before heading towards her own office.

"Was that truly Harry Potter? There is no way that the odd kid-in-rags that we shared our classes with for three years is the same person we saw today. They are just too bloody different." Tracy remarked.

"Granger wasn't impressed. She was scowling almost throughout the class. That bint." Daphne agreed. Tracy let out a laugh. "Oh come on Daph, we all know that you hate her because she tops over you in Transfiguration and Runes." Daphne scowled at her, but said nothing. Tracy continued, "Besides with the way Potter was leading the class today, I think you will also lose Arithmancy on your list."

"Not helping, Davis." Daphne murmured, while Tracy chortled at her friend's plight. "You know," her face turning serious, "I thought about what you said last night, and it makes sense. Are you sure that there was an unspeakable there in the compartment?"

Daphne nodded subtly.

"Maybe we should go and talk to Potter sometime. Who knows, maybe we can even get something out of it."

"You are just saying that because you want to get him inside a broom closet." Daphne remarked. "Promises, promises, Greengrass." Tracy winked.

Finishing the Arithmancy class, Harry had headed for Astronomy after which he had Potions. Good old Snivellus! He mused, almost sarcastically at the fact at how Dumbledore hired a death-eater as a potential spy. Hiring Severus Snape was perhaps the worst decision ever made by the old man, considering how the man was ultimately responsible for his death. One of Harry's pet peeves was the way Dumbledore would go out of his way to trust an ex-death eater while he clearly withheld information away from trustworthy people like Flitwick and Mcgonagall. It was almost like a simmering cauldron, one more mistake and the entire cauldron would explode. The Ministry had forbidden corporal punishment; death eaters were free and out of prison by bribing the Minister; Dumbledore was busy handing out second chances to everyone and their uncle; a death eater was doing all he could to make sure that the Slytherins continued to bully everyone else, and go out of his way to defend Malfoy.

Entering the Potions classroom, he walked over to a corner and stood, waiting for Snape to zoom in like a bat, as he preferred. For a person who spent his time in the dark dungeons, Severus Snape was much more melodramatic than necessary. Harry wondered if the man was just bat-like, or did he actually have an animagus form of a bat. Knowing how sneaky Snape was, it was not an unreasonable thought.

Just as the bell rang, the potions master swooped into the class. Seven years at Hogwarts and still Harry had no idea where exactly the Potions master hid before swooping into the class out of nowhere. Deciding to find the secret out this time, he readied himself for another year of continuous altercations between himself and the 'greasy bat of the dungeons'. Of course, that was assuming that the man actually survived the year.

Severus Snape walked across the room, his cloak billowing as he walked- his wand waving as the windows vibrated and shut on their own, sealing the room in darkness as the lights activated on the walls. Settling himself beyond the table, the man looked at the students in front of him.

"This year we will be working on much more complicated draughts and potions, and hence I will be dividing you in pairs. The assignments will be different for every group, and as unfortunate as it is, the lack of due diligence of some-" his onyx eyes rested on Harry for a while—"will likely affect the performance of others."

The class looked at each other as they automatically shifted into groups of two. Snape gave a sneer and continued, "For the cause of inter-house cooperation, our esteemed Headmaster has decided that the groups should be of a mixed nature. I will be naming the groups and you all will shift accordingly. Is that clear?"

Silence.

"Good. Now the names... Hannah Abbot and Theodore Nott, Lavender Brown and Justin Finch-fletchley, Susan Bones and..." the names continued until... "Padma Patil and Blaise Zabini, Harry Potter and... Daphne Greengrass."- Tracy and Daphne glanced at each other as Tracy passed a grin at her friend while Daphne merely frowned, and looked up at Potter who was merely standing casually, not even looking at her.

After the groups were made, Snape assigned them individual potion recipes and set them off. Harry walked up to where Daphne and Tracy were standing, murmuring to each other. "Miss Greengrass, Miss Davis..." he wished, nodding his head subtly in Pureblood manner.

If the girls were shocked, they did not show it. Curtsying him back, the girls looked at each other before Tracy took her leave to accompany Antony Goldstein, leaving Daphne alone with him. "I suppose you will want to work at your station?" Harry suggested, while Daphne nodded curtly.

"You are quite different from what I thought you were, Potter." Daphne murmured loud enough for Potter to hear her while working on her station. She had begun to cut the buds while Harry had undertaken the job of crushing the twigs. "A lot of people would agree with you, Greengrass." Harry answered, a casual expression stuck on his face.

"Indeed," she agreed, before taking over the stirring part of the potion making process while Harry focused on extracting the juice out of the shriveled buds. The Invigoration Draught was a nasty piece of work if one did not know what to do. Dark Lord he might be, but Harry Potter was never meant to be great at Potions. Thankfully, Daphne was doing a good enough job for the both of them.

Snape had already begun to roam across the rows, often stopping and sniffing into the cauldrons, the frown almost fixed to his face as he walked. Eventually, he reached Harry's station. Checking the progression, he commented, "Miss Greengrass, I offer my condolences that you have to work with one quite...neanderthal at potions, but you are doing well enough. Good work."

Harry looked up at Snape for a moment and smirked, before turning down to face the simmering cauldron. Snape waited for a moment, waiting for Potter to demonstrate his well-known arrogant defiance. However, it never came. Deciding to step it up a little, he went on. "Twenty Points from Gryffindor, Potter for not working and letting your partner do all the work."

Harry looked up at Snape, a cruel smile forcing its way upon his casual expression, as he looked at Snape in the eye, almost taunting him to try his Legilimency on him. As expected, Snape's hatred for the boy got the better of his instincts as he cast a powerful Legilimency foray into Potter's mind. Knowing how pathetic Potter's mental shields were, it would be terribly easy to bypass his shields and figure out what the blasted brat was thinking in that hormonal cesspool of a mind. The problem was, the shields never rose.

Instead, Severus Snape found himself getting further and further diving into a hole of eternal darkness, and felt the gravity sink him deep and deep enough. It was almost a never-ending pit of inky blackness, and the gravity seemed to become more and more as he felt his consciousness drawn inside. After what seemed like eternity pass, Severus Snape felt himself forlorn and truly lost.

"What is this? POTTER?" He raged, trying to break through the mindscape he was in. He knew it was merely some kind of illusion, just as all mindscapes were, but the gravity... it felt so real. It was almost... tangible. "POTTER! Let me out of here!" he shouted, whipping his wand up in his hand as he tried to weave through the inky blackness.

"Hello Snivellus!"

Snape gasped, as he turned back, shocked to find a splitting image of James Potter standing opposite him, his wand twirling in his palm. A whip of the mahogany wand, and Snape was lifted up by the ankle as he felt his clothes vanish away. Naked and embarrassed, he tried to fight his way out of the charm, but nothing seemed to happen. He tried to caste some magic, but still nothing happened.

"What happened Professor? Too far away from your core to cast any magic?" The voice belonged to none other than Harry Potter himself, one who was now walking towards him.

"Potter! You detestable brat! Let me out of here! A hundred points from Gryffindor!" He yelled vehemently. Harry smirked cruelly at looked at the detestable man-child in front of him. "Pity! Pity! You Severus Snape, hoisted and naked, and yet your arrogance knows no bounds, Professor. I believe it is time you experienced some of the humiliation you like to give out so much." The figure of Harry Potter vanished and James Potter took the stage, casting a succession of stinging spells at the bound body of Severus Snape as he lay hoisted, inverted above what seemed like a never-ending blackness all around.

"Enjoy your stay! Professor!" A disembodied voice belonging to Harry Potter resonated throughout the darkness as Severus Snape felt himself tortured and humiliated by his all-time arch-nemesis repeatedly.

Daphne watched with surprise as Potter looked up at the Potions master and looked at him directly in the eye. She rolled her eyes at the boy's lack of self-preservation. Knowing how much Snape loved to peek into the minds of others, she knew that the brat was doing nothing except giving Snape a free ride into his deepest secrets and memories; but then, things suddenly turned interesting.

Snape's eyes widened as the thinly veiled smirk wiped off his face, and an unusual expression formed on it. An expression, which later gave rise to a vacant expression on the pale face, almost as if he were sleeping with his eyes open. It was almost as if he were... dead. Daphne internally scoffed at the ridiculous idea. For all the annoying forms of precociousness that Potter might have displayed in the recent years, he did not have a basilisk's gaze of all things. For the second time, Daphne Greengrass stood stunned as Severus Snape fell flat over the floor, his body falling with a brief thud as the vacant expression still held onto his pale face.

Shrieks of fear and anxiety broke out in the classroom, as the Slytherin students formed a big group around them, most of them trying to understand what had happened to their Head of House. Most of them were giving odd looks to Potter who still stood there with a nonchalant expression on his face; one that was slowly turning into a fake worried expression.

"Are you all right, Professor?" Daphne heard him say. Just as she expected, there was no answer. Her fears of something being wrong about Potter, her observations at the Train, the interaction with the Unspeakables and everything else came to the forefront of her mind, but she quickly hid them behind her solid mental shields. If her suspicions were true, something had happened to Potter. There was either something very wrong with Potter, or this was not Harry Potter at all.

"What have you done to Professor Snape, Potter?" Malfoy lashed out. Crabbe, Goyle and the rest of his henchmen stood behind the blonde as a show of his support. Potter put on a confused expression and answered, "Me? I was just doing my work. Greengrass here knows it, don't you, Greengrass?" He turned towards her, much to her surprise.

Never in her dreams had Daphne believed that Potter would suddenly pull her into the event like that. She glanced at Professor Snape's fallen body, and at the anxious face of Malfoy, and then into the bright green eyes of Potter, which glinted... for a moment. Her entire psyche wanted to scream out that she agreed with Malfoy's accusation, but something held her back. When she did open her mouth however... "Potter is correct. I saw it. He did nothing."

Malfoy looked at her in fury, but did not continue the matter. A couple of anxious shouts later, Malfoy and his cronies levitated the fallen professor and darted off towards the Hospital wing, cursing loudly as they departed. The rest of the students too followed suit. Daphne decided to join them but then something happened that shot up a cold shudder up her spine. She looked back and saw Harry Potter holding her hand and gesturing her not to leave. Swallowing, she stopped trying to escape and stood still, feeling his palm leave her arm. Her outer mask remained as tight as usual, while she was shivering in fear inwards. However this was, it was not Harry Potter. Almost all of the class had left for the Hospital wing, and now she was alone in the room, with a very deadly wizard who was not Harry Potter.

### Well that was it. Please read and review. Once again, I am having some serious beta-issues, and hence there might be some typo errors in the chapter. Please forgive me for that. Anyways, all always, your reviews and suggestions work wonders for my muse (Speaking of which, I have been having some muse problems lately).