It was the day before the first Quidditch match. Hermione had taught me her spell to create a portable fire and I was sitting in the courtyard together with Zabini and Nott and acted as if it was my own discovery that I wanted to share with them.
Harry came towards me with Ron in tow. At first I just ignored him but when he cleared his throat I looked up at him.
"Uh, Charles, could I... could I have a word with you?"
"Afraid you'll fall off your broom tomorrow, Potter?", Nott said grinning. "Wanna say goodbye to family?"
"Shut up, Nott!", Ron said angrily.
Theodore stood up, fury present in his gaze.
"It's alright", I said calmly. "Theo, Blaise, would you leave us alone for a moment?"
The two Slytherins gave another sharp look at the Gryffindors. Eventually though they nodded and left without thinking. I already had them as far that I could sent them away instead of just leaving together with my brother. I smirked because it showed just how much they had already accepted me as their leader.
"What is it this time, brother?", I asked slightly annoyed. "You know that I expect payment for predictions? If you want to know how tomorrows game ends..."
"It's not about that", Harry said angrily. "Although that would be... Never mind. No, it's about this."
He pulled out an old newspaper. Just one look at the front page told my everything I had to know. It was the article about the break-in in Gringotts.
"Ah. That."
"What do you know about it?", ginger wanted to know.
"The question is, what do you know about it?"
"Remember when Professor Snape took us to Diagon Alley? You didn't come with us to the vault but we didn't only visit the trust vault. Snape went to another one, taking with him a package around this big." He showed me with his hands. "I asked what it was but he wouldn't tell be. In this article it says that the vault with exactly that number was being emptied the day before. Snape must have taken the package and brought it to Hogwarts. I bet it's in that forbidden third corridor."
"Why do you think that?", I asked lazily.
"Because after what you told us the other day we asked Rons brothers about – what was it?"
"A hell hound." Ron shuddered. "It seemed Fred and George went to the corridor in their first week and there was a giant freaking Cerberus in there! It was guarding a trap door."
"But that's not all", Harry continued. "Remember Halloween? We had heard that Hermione was not at the feast because... well... and so we went looking for her. We couldn't find her but the troll found us. Ron knocked him out with its own club and -"
"Yes, yes, I know about that."
"Well, yeah but we noticed that when all the teachers headed for the dungeons Snape actually went in the direction of the third floor. And just today I was walking by Filchs office because Snape took my book and I wanted to have it back and – and you should've seen it! His leg was all bloody and stuff. He even mentioned something about it being impossible to watch for all three heads at the same time."
"Snape tried to steal what's in that corridor", ginger concluded, "it's the only explanation."
"And why", I asked tiredly, "wouldn't he have just left when he had it in Gringotts?"
"Well...", Harry said hesitantly, "I suppose Dumbldedore sent him to get it. If he had just left everyone would have known it was him. Now he can make it look as if an outsider took it."
"That... is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Get it out of your head."
"I told you he wouldn't care", Ron said angrily to Harry. "He's Snapes favorite after all. Even if he knew he was up to something he would cover for him."
I snorted. "I most certainly would not."
"Do you know what the dog guards?", Harry asked.
"Hm... Maybe, maybe not. I'll tell you what I know if you pay me."
Harry sighed. "What do you want?"
I pointed at Ron. "I want his rat."
They gaped at me. "What?!"
"You heard me right. I am in need of new pet that I can... experiment on. You give me the rat, I give you the info."
"No way!", ginger cried. "Scabbers is mine!"
"You're probably just setting us up anyway. When we give you the rat you'll just say 'nothing' 'cause you promised us you would tell us what you knew."
"Well, that might me true... or it might not. Suppose you'll never know."
"Come on Harry. We're only wasting out time."
I watched the two boys head for the castle again and snickered. Seemed as if the storyline was still intact. Time for phase two.
The next day the stadium was filled to the last seat. Everyone wanted to see the first match of the season, Gryffindor against Slytherin. I was dressed in Slytherin colors with a green-and silver striped scarf around my neck and, for the sake of this special day, Notch had come out with me. I had found a spell that made him actually look like a tattoo. Together with my ability to change colors he now seemed to be a black serpent made out of fire-like patterns that originated somewhere on my chest and wound itself around my neck up right onto my face where his head laid onto my right cheek. I though it looked incredibly cool.
In the shadows of the stands I was leaning against a pole. In front of me a jam glass stood on the ground, in it a flickering blue fire.
Right on time another figure came towards me hidden under the wooden structure of poles and pillars of the stadium. Blaise Zabini had the hood of his winter cloak with silver trimming pulled up so that his face laid in the shadows.
"Arriving on schedule as always", I said, nodding approvingly in his direction.
"Tardiness is for the lazy and the irresponsible", he said sneering. "I heard that you have a...", he licked his lips nervously, "...mission for me."
Indeed in order to make me appear as mysterious as possible I no longer gave the more important commands by approaching my fellow students myself. Instead I commanded others to relay the message for me. I could have just used owls but this was to show my power.
For the Slytherin first years, at least those I planned working with in the future, I had slowly leaked rumors about my new mission and quest system. Still I was careful. As of now aside from Hermione only Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini, Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass knew. That was more then half of my serpent year mates and the rest was only excluded because of their stupidity.
"Indeed I have." I nodded towards the glass jar.
Zabini kneeled down to inspect it. He recognized it as the portable fire I had shown him the other day. Still he stayed on the ground while holding it, like a knight kneeling in front of his Lord.
I felt like a bad ass leader giving orders to an assassin. Talk about boosting my ego.
"Should you succeed with this mission you will be my right hand at the first meeting of my new founded group in three days. Should you be discovered after completing the mission you will likely earn detention for a few weeks. Should you however fail... Then I will make your life in Slytherin hell for you before ripping you apart, painfully, slowly, bit by bit. The mission is that important. Do you understand?"
"Yes I do", Blaise whispered hoarsely. I could see the fear in his eyes. My confidence made me an excellent actor.
"Good. Now I want you to go over to the southern side of the stadium. Climb to the fifth rank, make sure no one sees you. You should then find yourself directly under the teachers box. From that point out I want you to observe not the game but the opposite side of the stadium. At one time of the game a great flag will be swung that carries the serpent of Slytherin. You will be able to tell it from any others because it is silver with a green serpent, not the other way around. Upon seeing this sign I want you to release this fire at the hem of Professor Sprouts robes."
Blaises' eyes widened. "You want me to set a professor on fire?"
"Yes, that is exactly what I want."
"Why?
"Do not question, do not doubt. Tell no one. Those are the three rules everyone who wants to join me has to follow. Are you implying that you are not ready for this?"
Blaise shook his head slowly and stood. "No, I'll do it. I just... I do not understand."
"Everything will become clear in due time. And if it doesn't... then you don't have to know. Now prepare yourself. The game is about to start."
Blaise left in a hurry. Slowly I made my own way up to where Draco was saving me a seat. I had told Daphne and Tracy to get a flag of the desired design. Of course they had no idea what it was for.
The game itself was boring. I really had no interest in Quidditch. However I had still arrived early to see exactly where the professors sat. In the books Hermione had accidentally knocked over Quirrell on her way to Snape. In the movies Snape had stood up after realizing he was aflame, knocking off Quirrell himself. It seemed now that the stoyline followed the first line. In front of Quirrell sat not Snape but Sprout.
Of course it would have been just as efficient to set Quirrell aflame but that could make a certain someone suspicious.
"Hey Charles, what is your brother doing up there? Dancing?", Malfoy said chuckling and pointed up into the sky. Sure enough there was Harry fighting with his cursed broom.
I did not answer the blonde, instead watching my brother struggle.
"He's going to fall off his broom", Daphne stated neutrally. She gave me a look as if to check if that bothered me. By now the Weasley twins were circling under him. A little more...
"I think someone is cursing his broom", Hermione murmured. "Shouldn't we... Shouldn't we do something about it?" However since she wasn't friends with Harry she did not rash into actions like she did in canon. She was actually pretty cool about it.
"Calm down, Hermin. Everything's under control", I told her with a smirk.
Slytherin had just scored the fifth goal when I addressed Tracy, without letting Harry out of sight.
"Tracy, dear, that flag you brought..."
"Ah, yes... I had forgotten all about that."
"Swing it now."
"Now?", she asked confused. It didn't seem to be the right time with the entire stadium concentration on Harry, who was only holding onto his broom with one hand.
"Yes, now!" I put enough venom in that one word to kill her if she didn't obey instantly. Fearfully Tracey grabbed the silver flag and swung it high into the air.
Blaise seemed to be focused on Harry too, causing him almost to fell off. However in the last moment the broom suddenly became very still and Harry managed to pull himself up again.
Hermione sighed in relief.
One to zero for me, Moldyshorts.
It was November 7th and a small crowd had assembled in the trophy room. The Slytherins were there, including Malfoy, Zabini and Greengrass. Susan Bones and the Patil twins represented the purebloods from other houses.
The muggleborns were Terry Boot and Lisa Turpin from Ravenclaw, Justin Finch-Fletchley from Hufflepuff and Dean Thomas and my brother from Gryffindor. I had made sure that the numbers (not counting me) were even. Although Nott had been terribly disappointed that he was left out on the fun. I promised he could replace the Slytherin who behaved the worst on this meeting next time.
"Attention please", I called when the time was up. I revealed myself only now. Since I had won Slytherins acceptance all the snakes in various paintings obliged to me. Those paintings knew the castle like no one else. Add to that that I could enter one bathroom in the dungeons and fly up the pipes into every tower (I now always carried a shrunken broom with me) I was able to turn up at every spot in the castle at any time.
The whispers died down and people looked at me expectantly.
"I am happy to see that so many of you want to take part in my new little club. As I have announced before in our group called 'Outtakes' pure-bloods will teach muggleborns about wizarding customs. In order to make it easier for you to understand we will compare it to muggle ones. But even if after the lesson you are still more comfortable with muggle means I have to ask you to learn the magical alternative nonetheless. The world will not change itself from one day to another simply because you cannot adept. We will hold those lessons for one and half an hour. Then there's a fifteen minutes break and after that we will come to our second part, the dueling practice. I think that it could do for a fabulous new sport. Since we are only first years the teachers though we would need no supervision. No one of us is able yet to do any damage that could not be fixed by bringing the student to the hospital wing. Theoretically though, since we aren't an official dueling club a student could be punished if he hurt another. Therefore if anyone is accusing another club member for something he did during lessons he is automatically excluded from any further meetings. Same goes for everyone who can't behave. I don't want any serious fights, be it physically or verbally. I am the leader of the Outtakes and those are my rules. Any questions?"
"Yeah", a Hufflepuff asked, "how do you expect us to duel here without damaging anything?"
"Oh, we won't duel here. I simply wanted to give anyone who had last doubts the chance to drop out before I lead you to our meeting room."
"What's with all the 'only one chance' crap? And that not everyone can join?"
"Those are lessons from purebloods to muggleborns. Of course halfbloods would already know all of that", I answered calmly. "Therefore, there is no need for them to come. I want to keep the group small for the beginning. When we have more experience, they will be invited for the second part at least."
"How exactly do we know that you're not just trying to raise a mini Death Eater group?", a brave Ravenclaw asked.
I looked at him pointedly. "Really? Do they look like Corpse Crunchers to you? Because if they do, Moldyshorts must be pretty pathetic." I looked around. "No more questions? Fine then. Zabini, please lead the group to our new room. I will be with you guys in a minute. Have some last-minute preparations to do."
The group followed Blaise out of the room while I headed in the other direction.
I had no last-minute preparations to do. In fact, I only wanted to show off my arriving at the seventh floor before everyone else when they where supposed to take the shortest way. And no, that's not just because I'm an arrogant brat and want to see their stupid faces. Its really all about showing power.
Plus Hermione was already in the room. She had done all the preparing so now I could walk in front of the doors just thinking 'I need to meet Hermione.' I had let her in half an hour ago again without her having a chance to see how to access the room. Now all I had to do was leaving the door open a little bit. Those where first years we're talking about. They would just think this room one of many. However if I wanted to ditch one of them he would never be able to find that room again since it was always me that let them in.
The rest of the group arrived ten minutes later. The room now looked like an ordinary class room. There were two long tables at the sides for the purebloods and muggleborns. Ahead of them was a small desk for two persons and behind them a great blackboard. Knowing what to do Hermione and Zabini took their places at the desk.
"Muggleborns to the right, pure-bloods to the left please", I said while taking my place at the blackboard. "You will not need to make notes. Miss Greengrass has agreed to record the lessons with her enchanted quill that writes automatically. A copy can be given to anyone who desires it."
"Can I have one of those quills too?", Terry asked.
"I'm afraid they're rather expensive and we do not yet have any club funds. Now to the structure of these meetings. I have prepared subjects to be covered, however the order is up to you. Therefore we'll start with general questions. Who would like to start?"
Dean Thomas raised his hand first. "I had wondered, what do wizards do for a living?"
I nodded at Hermione. As the representative of the muggleborns she was to 'translate' their questions to introduce a subject.
"In the muggle world you can work in four different kinds of branches. First it's the producing of primary resources like farmers or woodcutters. Second are the industrials who use those goods to make products like furniture or spicery. Third is the service sector. There you can find doctors and wellness business and drivers and the police and so on. Most people in England work in that sector. Finally there's the information sector. You can find lawyers there and tax accountants."
Now Blaise explained: "The magical world isn't exactly organized like that. For example we don't have a production sector, except when it comes to farming magical animals like dragons. For the other though I'm sure we can find examples. Miss Bones, don't you have an aunt working as a lawyer?"
"Uhm, yeah", Susan said, a little flustered.
"Why don't you tell us something about her work?"
I smiled to myself. Blaise was doing this very good indeed.
"Well, of course there are always a lot of criminals in the world so when the aurors bring one in my aunt makes sure ge gets what he deserves."
"I'm sorry, but what's an auror?", Justin asked.
And from there on it stared. The lesson was spent quickly explaining about the inner workings of the ministry, the auror corps and the prison Azkaban. We found out that wizards got their primary resources from muggles. The Patil family was actually one of very few families that made it their job to buy these resources from great muggle factories and sell it over to pure-bloods who would not take it from muggles (that actually surprised a couple of Slytherins. They had never really bothered to know where their house elves got the food from.)
The producing provided a lot of jobs too. Everything from clothing to wands was produced magically. The price depended on the level of enchantment of course.
What was special about the service sector was that there was almost no competition. The ministry and the aurors of course formed the main body here. But it was for example very rare for a new shop to open. The shops in Hogsmeade where the same as they were a hundred years ago and even most adult wizards could only name those three locations for shopping; Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and Nocturn Alley. The reason for that was that wizards did not have to drive long hours from one place to another, therefore not every town or even greater city had a hidden magical passage at all. With two secret alleys and the magical village England was already one of the most organized magical countries of the world in terms of shopping.
Lastly the information sector was almost nonexistent too. Outside of lawyers the only jobs the pure-bloods could come up with that fitted that description were the Unspeakables and maybe inventors of new spells, but those were incredible rare.
A lot of things muggles would need to go to a professional (like getting a hair cut) wizards did for themselves. As such you had decidedly less choices in carrier.
The discussion was mainly lead by Hermione and Blaise. Just sometimes when no one knew what to say or how to continue I would cut in. In other situations I would deliberately change the course of conversation where I wanted to have it. Through the books I knew exactly what kind of information was necessary and what was not. These lessons provided me with an excuse. Should I ever drop a comment on, let's say Azkaban people now wouldn't wonder why a first year muggle raised student knew about the prison. Also a big part of the reason Harry Potter was such a pathetic hero who had to rely on luck alone (what did it say that he didn't cast a single spell in the entire first movie?) was that no one ever informed him of the important stuff. They just assumed he would know. Whatever I did my brother would play an important role in future events. It didn't matter to me whenever he would be on my side or against me. I didn't want him to be pathetic. That just wouldn't be good for my show.