Harry Potter and the Memories of a Sociopath, Ch 11: Winning and Losing

Here's how it is:

During his second year at Hogwarts, Harry is still concerned about the fate of the world, but has made significant progress: Hermione has obtained a phoenix and destroyed Azkaban's dementors, and Acting Chief Warlock Bones is grudgingly taking his cues on national policy. Progress toward a functional Philosopher's Stone based hospital at Hogwarts has stalled due to ward incompatibilities and a temporary solution has been set up in the now-abandoned Azkaban tower.

Sprout received a mysterious gift, the long-lost and apparently cursed Hufflepuff Cup, and displayed uncharacteristically aggressive behavior afterwards. Moody detected evidence of dark magic on her but it was inconclusive. Since then, Moody has researched more specific spells for detecting horcrux effects and, as one might expect, Hermione tested positive. Draco, after finding the Riddle Diary, showed some very dark-wizard-like thoughts and behaviors such as working to amass power and followers for himself, and brutally knocking down anyone who gets in his way.

Luna demonstrates uncanny knowledge even though she's obviously not a real seer. Moody has hypothesized that Defense professor Gilderoy Lockhart is incompetent and relying on liquid luck for his accomplishments. Bellatrix is still at large and able to appear in public despite topping Magical Britain's most wanted list.

Harry has a relatively long list of things he intends to investigate, including big picture items like Merlin's Interdict, prophecy, time-turner paradoxes, magic-technology interactions, and helping Dumbledore, as well as smaller scale things like looking into Ravenclaw's Diadem or whether the potion liquid luck is a real thing or a cover story. Magical interferences with technology are proving more difficult to pin down than he had hoped.

"You ssaid no time," came the snake's hiss, "but plan iss for you to rule country, obvioussly, even your young noble friend hass undersstood that by now, assk him on return if you wissh...

"Learn all that I have to teach you, Mr. Potter, and you will rule this country in time. Then you may tear down the prison that democracy made, if you find that Azkaban still offends your sensibilities. Like it or not, Mr. Potter, you have seen this day that your own will conflicts with the will of this country's populace, and that you do not bow your head and submit to their decision when that occurs. So to them, whether or not they know it, and whether or not you acknowledge it, you are their next Dark Lord...

"To free yoursself, to gain power in Britain, you musst again be sseen to defeat the Dark Lord. You are kidnapped from Hogwartss to public location, many witnesssess, wardss keep out protectorss. Dark Lord announcess that he hass at long lasst regained physical form, after wandering as sspirit for yearss; ssayss that he hass gained sstill greater power, not even you can sstop him now. Offerss to let you duel. You casst guardian Charm, Dark Lord laughss at you, ssayss he iss not life-eater. Casstss Killing Cursse at you, you block, watcherss ssee Dark Lord explode -"

"Casst Killing Cursse? " Harry hissed in incredulity. "At me? Again? Ssecond time? Nobody will believe Dark Lord could posssibly be that sstupid -"

The snake swayed thoughtfully. "Could write different sscript for play, if you wissh. Whatever sscenario, sshould leave open posssibility Dark Lord might return yet again - nation musst think they are sstill dependent on you to protect them."

"Too rissky," Harry said simply.

"If my plan iss not to your tasste, what iss yours?"

"If necesssary - sstay at sschool ssix yearss and sstudy. Hogwartss sseemss fine place to dwell. Bookss, friendss, sstrange but tassty food." Harry wanted to chuckle, but there wasn't any gesture in Parseltongue for the kind of laughter he wanted to express.

The pits of the snake's eyes seemed almost black. "Eassy to ssay that now. Ssuch as you and I, we do not tolerate imprissonment. You will losse patience long before sseventh year, perhapss before end of thiss one. I sshall plan accordingly."

Harry slowly opened his eyes, then closed and rubbed them. He sighed. Voldemort's claimed goal for him bore an uncanny resemblance to the current reality: he had apparently defeated Voldemort, though he'd given Hermione public credit. He had a seat on the Wizengamot (and was secretly its Chief Warlock). He had access to a surprising amount of powerful magic (including the Philosopher's Stone, the Mirror, two Deathly Hallows, two phoenices, and Hogwarts itself). Harry decided to raise his probability estimate for the hypothesis that Voldemort was still... active, which also raised the probability estimate that he was responsible for the events at Hogwarts.

Voldemort had once promised (in Parseltongue) not to harm him, so long as he didn't attack Voldemort. Even though Voldemort had apparently planned for Harry to attack him and then kill Harry (or have death eaters kill him) all along. Had that deception been carefully worded enough to be permitted by Parseltongue, or was it evidence Voldemort had found a more general way to lie in Parseltongue?

Even if Voldemort had heard a prophecy implying Harry would do something apocalyptic, prophecies weren't known for providing useful specifics, like names and dates. Therefore Voldemort would've had to consider every possible interpretation, including the possibility that either the subject of the prophecy was someone else or the meaning was something else. And Voldemort had already guessed that Dumbledore had a source of information about the future, so it should have raised a red flag that Dumbledore (who'd let his own brother die rather than negotiate with Voldemort) would sacrifice himself for Harry (and not even to guarantee Harry's safety, but to give Harry a chance as a hostage of a mass murderer rather than a certainty of being locked outside time). Strangely, Voldemort had not only been unsurprised, his plan had depended on Dumbledore's decision. In retrospect, it couldn't have been more obvious that Dumbledore considered Harry the most important person in the world. And Voldemort had predicted that somehow. Had Voldemort determined details of the prophecies Dumbledore had heard by observing his prior behavior?

Harry's eyes widened as he bolted upright. Temporary memory charms existed; Dumbledore had used them to hide Narcissa. Voldemort had used a confundus charm to beat the ancient mirror. Obliviation would beat veritaserum. Was that all it took to lie in Parseltongue?

Harry let out a brief laugh despite himself; it would be even more interesting if memory charms didn't fool Parseltongue because searching for differences between what one believed and what one could hiss out loud would provide a way to detect memory charms. Harry decided he needed to test this at his earliest convenience.

Harry rolled out of bed, deciding to put off homework until after breakfast. He wanted to spend a few hours practicing analytic charms and working on spells for some charmed objects he'd need later in the week. Because if Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres entered a competition, he meant to win.

An artifact that just turns off lights? Why would Dumbledore make this? He could already dispel any magical light, extinguish any fire, cool anything incandescent, and interrupt any electrical circuit using basic charms. For him, such things wouldn't normally require anything close to his full power level. The object's existence was senseless.

At least Harry's vow was no longer pushing for its immediate destruction, as he was sufficiently convinced that directing it at the sun wouldn't disrupt solar fusion.

Knowing Dumbledore, it was probably a necessary component of some Rube Goldbergesque plan, without which all life would be doomed. Harry sighed, resting his forehead on his palm, and dropped the object into his pouch.

Harry cleared his desk, re-shelving a few books and leaning a long wooden rod against the wall. He pulled a hooded cloak from his pouch, spread it out on the desk, leveled his wand at it and began to concentrate.

"What in Merlin's name did I ever do to you people?", Neville asked exasperatedly. Facing three upperclassmen alone was the scariest thing he'd experienced in a while, but he was trying his hardest not to show it; Harry would never show fear.

Derrick smirked, "Your choice of friends offends me. Also H-"

Neville had been practicing dueling all summer, but he wasn't anywhere near this good. Luckily he'd planned ahead. "Earmuffs", he instructed his pouch. "Sorry, guys, Listening to idiots is bad for my health, so..." He quickly backed up and ducked around a corner, avoiding several spells which impacted the opposite wall.

After pulling on the earmuffs, all he could hear was the sound of blood rushing through his own ears. He clearly wasn't missing anything because the Slytherin, who had now turned the corner and faced Neville, was yelling enough to turn his face red.

Neville was brushing a finger against the pouch; Harry had taught him that he could retrieve objects by spelling rather than saying them. He lifted the pot with one hand, while uprooting the mandrake inside with the other. The other students instantly fell over, stunned.

Neville hit each one with a stupify, just to be safe, before carefully replanting the mandrake and returning it to his pouch. He then collected their wands and applied sticking charms between their hands and the ground. "That should hold them for long enough."

As Neville walked away, Draco stepped out from behind another corner, muttering to himself, "And I thought it would be suspicious for two second years to defeat more than three upperclassmen at once. I have to stop overestimating my minions. And think of some better plans. Enervate."

As they woke up, he continued, "Well, that was a waste. How am I supposed to rescue Neville from you people if he can handle you on his own? But because I am a reasonable lord, I will release you from the trap you got yourselves stuck in. This time. Finite incantatem." He walked away.

"Um, what happened?"

"Where are our wands?"

Neville walked toward the Great Hall, passing the Weasley twins along the way.

"Hey, Fred, George. Do you guys have any fast-acting glue?"

Fred narrowed his eyes, "Yeah, what do you need it for?"

"Trust me, if this works, you'll want to see it."

George shrugged, "Well, I'm curious."

"Me, too", Fred agreed.

Neville pulled out the three wands and set them on the floor. He held the first wand by its handle in his left hand and applied a liberal coat of glue to about a third of the opposite end. He used his own wand to cast a hover charm at it and propelled the wand to the ceiling. After holding it for thirty seconds Neville canceled the hover charm, "finite incantatem... Cool, that actually worked."

"Why did you only put glue on the front of the wand and not the handle?"

"Well, snapping a wand is one of those things you just never do to someone. But if they're stupid enough to snap their own wands by yanking on them hard enough, that's not technically my fault."

Fred and George stared at the ceiling for a second, blinked, then simultaneously exclaimed, "My turn!", grabbing one of the remaining wands. A minute later, all three wands were solidly glued to the high ceiling of the Great Hall.

"Neville, that was brilliant!"

"We really need to step up our game."

"It's too bad Filch isn't still around. He always deserved anything we came up with."

"Maybe we should check up on his replacement?"

"Uh, Neville, whose wands were those anyway?"

Blaise set up a poster containing a large grid and yelled out, "Bets! Place your bets here!"

Members of the Gryffindor quidditch team arrived at the front of the crowd, betting on Ron by between one and three seconds.

The Hufflepuff team evened things up a bit, betting anywhere between Harry by two seconds and Ron by two seconds, except for Cedric who bet on Harry by two to three seconds.

Gregory bet Harry by three to four seconds, which Vincent matched. Theodore followed them, betting on Harry by four to five seconds.

Gregory frowned, "Ron's flying a Nimbus 2000. No matter how well someone can fly, I can't see them beating a Nimbus by more than maybe three and a half seconds on a flight this long. Do you know something I don't or are you just hoping to win the pot if Ron falls into the lake or something?"

Lavender added, "Yeah, I know Harry's good at flying, but he can't be that much better than Ron."

Theodore shrugged, "I don't know anything you don't. But it is General Chaos."

Padma added, "Yeah, Harry will always do something unexpected."

Gregory appeared offended as Seamus bet next, on Harry to win by five to six seconds, and Tracey bet on Harry by six to seven. "What are you people thinking? You know how brooms work and-"

Lavender interrupted, "Wait, if you expect him to do something unexpected, then is it-"

Dean interrupted, "At least you're all allowed to bet. Stupid conflict of interest. That's what I get for agreeing to help."

Percy and Penelope walked over and inspected Blaise's betting board.

Penelope frowned at Blaise, "There are rules against betting on Hogwarts sporting events."

Blaise smiled broadly, "While this competition may or may not meet the definition of a 'sport' (which by the way, is not clearly defined in the Hogwarts handbook or supporting documents), it was neither organized nor sanctioned by the school and is therefore not a Hogwarts sporting event."

"A technicality-"

"Not at all, the rules ban gambling only in certain specific circumstances, such as Hogwarts official sporting events, or when and how Defense professors will turn evil. That implies that gambling in any other context is acceptable. Also, I'm donating 10% of all bets to a charity. You wouldn't want to deprive those war orphans of food would you? I can tell you wouldn't do that; you're definitely not a monster."

Then Percy asked, "Your options only go up to the 'nine to ten second' box. What happens if no one wins? You keep all the money?"

Blaise frowned, "It's impossible for anyone to win by more than ten seconds no matter how badly they screw up. I suppose the giant squid could grab one of them or something, but I'm sure in that case, they'd re-run the race."

Percy replied, "Then you should say you'll refund all the bets if someone wins by more than ten seconds. Or, if you change those boxes to say 'nine or more seconds', I'll put a galleon on Harry."

Blaise and Penelope looked at Percy, surprised. Blaise replied, "Oh, sorry, I didn't realize this was a business negotiation. I'd be happy to let you place that bet." He inked a quill and quickly amended the 'nine to ten seconds' heading to 'more than nine seconds' and Percy handed him a galleon.

Penelope looked at Percy questioningly. He shrugged, "He's right; it's not actually against the rules. And how often do you find a sure thing?"

Fred and George glanced at each other, then handed Blaise more coins, gesturing at the 'more than nine seconds' box.

Tracey, Seamus, Nott didn't have more money on them, but attempted to change their bets.

"No refunds or transfers", Blaise announced. "Also, betting is now closed; it looks like the race is starting."

Dean attempted to yell over the multiple conversations until Harry cast a sonorus charm on him. Dean's voice then carried easily, "Okay, today we're going to have a broomstick race out and back over the lake. I'm Dean Thomas and I'll be the judge and announcer for this event. Ginny Weasley and Colin Creevey are line judges at the far side of the lake; one of them will throw red sparks when Ron reaches the edge of the lake, and the other will throw blue sparks when Harry gets there. Oh, right... Your contestants for today are Ronald Weasley of Gryffindor on a brand new Nimbus 2000, and Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres of Ravenclaw on a... something that looks more like a coat rack with a bowl stuck to it than a broom?"

Harry lifted the broom and pointed. Dean reads out, "It's apparently a model 'UR2L8'... oh, I get it... Anyway..." Dean lifted into the air on his broom and called, "Contestants to their starting positions!"

Ron called 'up' and quickly darted to where Dean indicated the starting line.

Harry held out his broom and tapped it with his wand. He then climbed onto it, rotated the parabolic pusher plate to point down and quietly cast 'ventus' against it. He slowly rose into the air after them and, after some maneuvering, took his place at the starting line, though he wasn't quite pointed in the correct direction.

Ron pointed and laughed, "Beating you on that... piece of trash won't even be fun. I thought you delayed this race so you could get a real racing broom."

Harry shrugged, "It's a magically propelled vehicle. If you'd like to challenge whether it meets the rules, please do that now, before the race."

Ron just scoffed.

As Dean called the start of the race, they both shot out over the lake. For the first few seconds, they were dead even, though Harry's broom fish-tailed disconcertingly. Then Ron's Nimbus reached its maximum speed and Harry's broom pulled ahead, still accelerating.

A moment later, Harry saw the blue sparks around him and the broom instantly stopped. Then it accelerated backwards, spinning around and oscillating briefly before stabilizing. Harry rotated the pusher plate to the left and cast ventus against it, giving him a larger margin of safety from Ron's flight path as they quickly approached each other. Harry passed the finish line and immediately stopped. He then turned the parabola upward and cast ventus into it, causing the broom to slowly descend.

A moment later, Ron landed, yelling, "You cheated!"

Harry sighed, "I told you that's what you would say; that's why I made you write out the rules. And I haven't broken even one of them."

"So what was the official time?", Tracey called to Dean.

"Uh, technically, the race isn't over yet. No red sparks means Ron never actually made it to the far side of the lake." He turned to Ron, "Right now, you're thirty seconds behind. Are you planning to finish, or do you just want to give up now?"

Ron stormed off angrily.

Fred puts arm around Percy, "We need to get you to gamble more often", while George hold his hand out to Blaise, "You have our money yet?"

Percy pulled away from his brother and quietly addressed Harry, "So, we haven't covered brooms yet; what exactly is that?"

"Yeah, it's not exactly a normal broom. I used the hover charm from the target drones (which I assume brooms also use), added an 'arresto momento' to stop it, and other than that, there's just a spell that makes it accelerate north, and a spell that makes it accelerate south. I have to cast 'ventus' on it to do anything else."

What about turning?

"It doesn't. It just goes north and south as quickly as possible, which was optimal for the rules Ron wrote. It doesn't use spells to control its attitude either; these tail surfaces use aerodynamic forces to keep it pointed in the right direction once it's moving fast enough. Ron's rules only required it to be propelled magically, not for it to be stabilized magically."

Percy shook his head, "We'll have to discuss this again once we cover the broom chapter. It's suddenly more interesting to me than it was before."

"Yeah, I look forward to that."

Dean Thomas noticed Harry walking toward him and stopped, "Hey Harry, what's up?"

He then noticed Harry was carrying what looked likea torture device for candles: a wax cylinder with a long bolt running through its axis and into a motor and a needle sticking into the side of the cylinder. "And what's that?"

Harry smiled broadly, while holding the needle away from the wax and twisting the bolt. When finished, he gently placed the needle back onto the cylinder and started the motor, "... Harry, what's up ... nd ... ats ... that..."

"I can do sound recording and playback. It's not the greatest quality, but how well can you really expect wax to store analog audio data?"

"Cool. What does that mean?"

"The bottom line is, I don't know what will happen to a cassette player at Hogwarts, but it's definitely possible to play records here. So if you still want music, it's doable."

"That's great!"

"Also, I was wondering if you could help me with a related experiment."

"Uh, sure. What do you need?"

"On your trips home and back for Christmas break, take something electronic along and keep an eye on where it works and where it doesn't. I want to know as accurately as possible where the boundaries are. Electronics will work at your house, and not work at Hogwarts or the train platform. I'm not sure about the train itself or how close you can get to Hogwarts or the train station before things stop working."

"Oh. Okay, I can do that. Have you found anything else interesting?"

"I tried to make a telegraph. Everything worked, while it was in my office anyway. When I tried to connect a few different rooms together, everything inexplicably failed. It worked again when I dragged all the parts out into the hallway. I hypothesized that maybe circuits only work when the operator has a line of sight with all parts; most of the things that worked for me were basically laid out on breadboards, while my commercial watch and calculator are in plastic cases. But I quickly ruled that out because my AM transmitter didn't work, and that was on a breadboard. Then I thought about how radio waves travel through walls, and hypothesized that I may need a line of sight with all the effects of a circuit. But that still doesn't explain why ICs work despite being encased in plastic. I tried taking the circuit board out of the calculator, just in case that explanation was close to whatever is really going on, but that didn't help either. Next, I think I'll try to build a digital clock from components, then check individual sections of the circuit to see where it breaks down. But I think I'm going to take a break from circuits for a while. Some other projects I've been working on have been more rewarding recently."

Lockhart smiled brightly, "Welcome to the first meeting of the Hogwarts Dueling Club! We'll wait a few more minutes for stragglers to arrive, then get started."

Lavender smirked, "What is with that cloak? It looks ridiculous. Is that even a real color? I didn't know blue could look like that."

Harry nodded, "Yup. I'm aware of this."

Parvati added, "And you wore it on purpose? And what's with the triangles? Wait, they're not triangles, they're pyramid shaped dents. That's got to be uncomfortable."

Harry shrugged, "The biggest problem is that it's too hot. I have to keep casting cooling charms on it."

Ron smirked, "It's still not as bright as Lockhart's robe. Maybe this is Harry's way of sucking up to the Defense professor this year."

Harry shrugged again.

"Where's Hermione?", Susan asked.

"She's not coming. I don't really blame her after her last experience with dueling", Padma opined.

Harry forced himself to nod along, despite strongly suspecting that Hermione would have loved a chance to show off; it was just too soon for her abilities to become publicly known and she wasn't that good at acting.

Lockhart clapped once and announced, "Okay, let's get started. For now, we'll just get a feel for where everyone is. First to disarm or stun your opponent wins, and don't use anything dangerous or you'll be banned from the club. All of you, line up along that wall. You and you, and all of you, line up there. Spread out evenly and face your first opponent. Let's start out at a distance of about 10 meters. That should be close enough to be a targeting challenge for some of you, but close enough that you'll have to dodge from the first shot."

Harry looked across the room and saw Ginny. He muttered, "Come on, is this a joke? Fighting a firstie? Give me a real opponent."

Lockhart was walking nearby and overheard, "We'll rotate in a moment. But don't underestimate. Rule #5: it's better to be lucky than good." Lockhart laughed as if someone had told an hilarious joke.

Harry rolled his eyes after Lockhart resumed walking. Then he smirked, pulled a book from his pouch, sat down, and began reading. He surreptitiously pressed his wand against a scrap of parchment he'd dropped a moment earlier.

Ginny frowned, "Are you forfeiting?"

"No, I'm still here."

"But you aren't ready. You aren't even standing up."

"Just do what you've got to do."

"But that's not a fair fight."

"I know, you never had a chance. Blame Lockhart."

Ginny scowled. As soon as Lockhart announced the beginning of the first match, Ginny cast a somnium while dodging. Harry ignored her and turned a page.

Ginny sighed and walked up to him, with her wand pointed at his head. Harry raised his arm in front of his face. Ginny called "Ma Ha Su", then yelped and dropped her wand.

Harry looked up, "That counts as a disarm."

Harry's next opponent introduced himself as Mike the Hufflepuff. Harry didn't remember him participating in an army the previous year and decided to stick with the same tactic. It was a calculated risk, as an upperclassman could potentially cast something that would win. But students hadn't seen Harry do anything impossible in a while and he felt it was past time to remedy that.

After Lockhart started the match, Mike immediately cast protego then expelliarmus. The bright pulse of magic struck Harry directly in the chest but reflected back exactly along its initial trajectory. While the magic flew back toward him, Mike tried to think of something better to cast while anticipating the spell dissipating against his shield. Unfortunately for him, it was his own spell, and he either forgot or didn't know to alter his shield harmonics. His wand flew across the room as his shield dropped.

Harry easily caught it and tossed it back, smiling.

Next, Cedric stood across from Harry, "That's interesting; I've never seen a shielded cloak reflect curses like that."

Harry nodded, "It's a useful property of mutually perpendicular mirrors. Actually, one of the first experiments that muggles left on the moon-"

Cedric continued, "But I wonder what its overload limit is? I guess I'll have to find out the hard way. That should make this match more interesting, at least. And thanks for that; dueling younger students so far has just felt wrong."

Harry smiled and stood up, "I don't think you'd have a problem overloading the shielding. Or dodging the ricochets. Even with the cloak, I know I can't beat you in a normal duel..."

Cedric's disappointment showed, "That's too bad."

Lockhart called the start of the third match and Cedric immediately cast a multi-layered protego shield. Harry gestured with his left hand, calling "Evard's Black Tentacles!"

Six tentacles sprouted from the floor inside Cedric's shield, wrapping around his torso, wrists, and angles, lifting him off the ground and pulling the wand out of his hand. Cedric exclaimed, "This isn't dueling." Harry simultaneously finished, "...so of course I wasn't going to fight a normal duel."

"That's not even a real spell", a nearby student interjected, appearing offended by the seeming violation of magical rules.

"Sure it is, you just watched me cast it. Maybe you should spend more time in the library. It was invented by the great wizard Gygax the Dungeon Master, and perfected for use in combat by Milo Naturalis-Viginti."

"Those aren't even real people!"

"You're going to tell me what in Merlin's beard that was, or we're going to have a problem", Cedric demanded after Harry let him down.

Harry walked over and lowered his voice, "That's what happens when I don't have to cast any spells for two matches in a row, when there's plenty of time to prepare a transfiguration. I transfigured this scrap into a thin, transparent layer covering the floor, then reshaped the part you were standing on into the tentacles."

"That's a massive transfiguration for a second year to shape that quickly even with the prep time. And more massive than you should have been able to hold for even fifteen seconds or so."

Harry smiled, "Not as massive as you'd think. They were inflatable, so I only transfigured the outer skin. Stretching and tensioning that skin made the tentacles move."

Lockhart loudly announced, "As you'd expect, many of these duels have been pretty one-sided. Let's try some closer match-ups. For example, we seem to have two undefeated second-year students. Harry and Draco, if you wouldn't mind stepping over here and giving us a demonstration."

The two students stepped into an empty area in the center of the room, while everyone else gathered around. They watched each other carefully.

Lockhart smiled, "Alright, ready... go!"

Draco didn't bother casting a shield, but instead quietly cast a variety of relatively harmless, low-powered spells as quickly as he could, with an occasional shield-breaker thrown in. Harry cast a stupify, which Draco easily side-stepped. Harry attempted to dodge most of the spells, but his cloak was able to reflect those he couldn't avoid.

Then Draco roared, "Serpentsortia" and a large constrictor landed about halfway between them. They continued casting spells and dodging as the snake shook itself off and began closing the distance toward Harry. Draco continued to conjure snakes whenever the opportunity arose, making them smaller and putting them closer to Harry each time.

Harry's room to move quickly decreased as the snakes surrounded him and closed in. Getting frustrated, he hissed, as quietly as possible, "go harasss the annoying blond child", while subtly gesturing at Draco.

As the snakes turned and moved away, Harry dove and rolled, came up casting a levitation spell, which he swept from left to right, catching Draco's legs and knocking him on his back. A follow-up somnium kept him there.

Harry let out a sigh and stood up then looked around and saw everyone staring at him. Over the silence, one quiet voice was audible, saying "Go away... Please go away." Everyone turned and saw the half-dozen snakes backing Luna into a corner. Neville quickly cast a series of sleeping spells until they stopped moving.

Lockhart called out, "Well, I think that's enough excitement for today. You should all get back to your common rooms for the night."

Gregory walked next to Draco and whispered, "You look surprisingly happy; you know you lost, right."

"Potter won the game he was playing and I won the game I was playing. But my game was better."

A few hours later, Vincent waved Daphne and Tracey into the room, "Mr. Malfoy was delayed. He should be here for the meeting in just a moment."

"Okay. Theodore and Millicent should be on their way from the common room."

Daphne walked in and sat down, while Tracey went to the desk, "Looks like Draco just started his homework for Transfiguration. I didn't picture him procrastinating more than I do."

"What are you doing?"

"Looking. Oh, Draco keeps a diary. I didn't expect that either."

"Stop snooping", Daphne hissed.

Tracey turned, pushing her bag behind her back and trying to make the movement look casual. She stuck her tongue out at Daphne, while slipping the diary into the bag.

"And stop acting like such a child."

"Fine." Tracey walked over and sat down next to Daphne, "Not being a child is boring. So, another Silvery Slytherins meeting. When is this group going to do anything interesting or useful, anyway?"

Daphne rolled her eyes, "If you don't understand it, why are you here? Anyway, it's important to improve the reputation..."

The next morning, a dead unicorn was found in the Forbidden Forest.