Chapter 14

Tedium of Classes

It started with a little girl with green eyes. She was alone in a black void, and then a white snake with red eyes slithered out of her forehead and coiled around her body tightly. The snake bit her, but she bit it back, and both seemed to be happy with arrangement and stayed together. The girl kept walking until she came upon a locket.

She put the locket around her neck and opened it, and out slithered a second serpent. This serpent was black instead of white, but it shared the same eyes as it's fellow. Before it could fight, the girl bopped it on the head and made it stay with her, and the girl was now covered in two snakes.

The girl looked ahead on the path and saw that there were more snakes waiting to be gathered, but they tried to hide from her. Despite their hiding, she knew where they were, and it would be no trouble to hunt them. There was a crown, a ring, a cup and book, all hiding her snakes. But there was another snake she did not expect, hiding in the back of a skull. As she drew closer to the snakes, they hissed. Just as she wanted to collect the snakes, the snakes wanted to collect her instead.

Alice awoke from her strange dream feeling as though her dream were important somehow, but as she tried to remember the details they slipped away again. It was frustrating to awaken with that feeling of something important being just out of reach, but it would not take long for the tedium of her schooling to make her forget she had even dreamed at all.

Alice would not have some of the difficulties her fellow students had when traversing the castle. She knew most of the tricks of the place, and knew where everything was, including a few secret rooms no one else would discover in their lifetime. Few knew the castle like Tom, and Alice would benefit greatly from that memory. The castle was meant to be confusing, of course, since it was meant to defend from outsiders in case the castle was ever infiltrated.

Alice had known that going to Hogwarts when she had the memories of a boy who had passed his NEWTs with flying colors would likely be dull when it came to the classes themselves. There was only so much she could distract herself with the differences between the current staff and the one from Tom's days, and in the end that didn't really keep her from being vastly overqualified to turn a matchstick into a needle on her first try. She felt rather like Tom had cheated her out of the wonder and excitement of learning magic like it was all new.

But at least she could use his previous knowledge to benefit her fellow first year Slytherins when it came to certain things. For example, before History of Magic, Alice tracked down and had a bit of a conversation with the ghost that taught it.

Professor Binns was a horribly detached individual, as most ghosts were, and had not been a great speaker towards the end of his life. In death, his lectures were utterly dull. But a young Tom had learned that it was possible to break through the detachment of ghosts and get them to act a bit more lively with just a bit of personal interest.

It was a wonder what a little invested charm and interest could do for a ghost who usually never paid much attention to the living anymore. Usually, Professor Binns was well known to simply deliver a monotone lecture to the class, and with his detached nature, he often seemed to slip into any of a number of lectures that at this point he knew from memory, often delivering the wrong lecture to the wrong years. Some classes had only ever even seemed to hear the same exact set of lectures on goblin rebellions year after year, but so few paid enough attention to notice after their first year.

But instead what the first year Slytherins were treated to was a slightly more lively Professor, by the standards of ghosts. He smiled at the nice young Miss Potter who had shown so much interest in the subject, and actually started off with the correct introduction that few first year classes ever actually heard.

"History of Magic," he began, his voice more enthusiastic then anyone had heard in nearly fifty years, though the ghost still had a dull tone even when he was trying his best. "An ongoing story of where the Wizarding World came from. Unlike most stories, however, there is no current well defined idea of where and when magic began. As long as mankind has existed, so too have a special few of them had magic, though there is some evidence that magic existed before us and will likely continue to exist without us.

"However, for European Witchcraft and Wizardry, we can trace back the brunt of our current magical understanding to two civilizations. Can anyone name them?"

The Slytherin class looked stunned for a moment, no doubt hearing that this class did not have much interaction with it. Alice, however, had expected this, and knew that to keep the class on point she would have to keep Binns engaged. So, she raised her hand and answered. "Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece."

"Correct, Miss Potter," he said, getting a student's name right for the first time in nearly half a century. "Five points to…" He seemed to hesitate as he stared at the color of her robes. So he still had lapses in memory, it was still an improvement. "Slytherin. Yes, while there have been many cultures that had their own magical traditions, these two civilizations codified much of what would become the European standard of magical understanding, from the use of staves or rods as foci, standards of magical apprecticeships, warding, ritual magics, the breeding of magical creatures, and more. Throughout the year we will be going over many individuals of these civilizations that helped our world become what it is today.

"In these ancient times, most magicals lived either solitary lives, in family groups, or became cultural leaders of their people. The first attempts to unify magical peoples together came from the Roman Empire as they conquered most of Europe. This helped spread a more unified idea of Witchcraft and Wizardry, though Roman persecution of magical peoples would eventually see most magicals becoming reserved and secretive around their muggle neighbors.

"While several individual magicals were very powerful and knowledgeable, Witches and Wizards as a whole lacked organization outside a few scattered groups and covens. With a rising divide between magical and muggle, several Witches and Wizards sought to unify with their fellows. One great step in this process was with the building of schools, the greatest of which is often thought to be the very one we reside in today, Hogwarts.

"With the advent of these institutions as both safe havens and places of learning, several young minds were honed into impressive Witches and Wizards, including one Merlin, who along with attempting to build closer ties to muggles also founded the first far reaching Wizarding government, known then as the White Council, whose influence at its height went from the British Isles to France.

"Eventually, the White Council would become the Wizzengamot, and keep its influence here. But that is a lesson for a different day. As I said, this year we will focus on Ancient Egyptian and Greek Witches and Wizards. Any favorites anyone would like to start with?"

"I always thought Herpo the Foul was a fascinating individual," said Alice. She bet Tom wished he had discovered how to make Binns a better teacher earlier, because now Alice thought there might be one class where she could potentially learn something that Tom didn't.

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"After all the stories I've heard, that class was not nearly as bad as I expected," said Eris Lestrange to the girl she was not quite befriending just yet. "What exactly did you do to get him to not just yammer on about Goblin Wars like he's known to do?"

"Engaged him in conversation and implied I was looking forward to his class," said Alice simply. "I simply figured if I could get him to at least remember my name then maybe he would keep in mind what lesson I was supposed to be on. I don't think a lot of other students try to get the ghosts to acknowledge them very often. It seems to work wonders."

"Well, don't be too pleased with yourself," warned Eris. "I think a couple of students were looking forward to being able to get away with napping in class. They aren't as likely to get away with it with a more engaged ghostly professor."

"Too bad for them," said Alice, waving the issue away without a care. "I'm here to learn and we're too old to need a nap time anyways. Besides, no one should be sleeping through a lecture about Herpo the Foul."

"Any particular reason he's your favorite?" asked Eris. She had to admit, she had some fascination with the first known historical Parselmouth and original breeder of basilisks now, but then Eris was a Parselmouth herself. She would have imagined Potter would be repulsed by the idea of Parselmouths, since the last well known one had been the Dark Lord who killed her parents.

"Oh, many reasons," she said. "He's one of the first wizards we ever categorized as specifically Dark, invented several curses, but most of all… I've never read how he died." Alice smirked slightly as though she knew something that most books didn't talk about.

Eris paused at that thoughtfully. "I suppose Binns didn't mention him dying either. I assume some heroic figure defeated him in some great duel. Isn't that how most of these things are said to happen?"

"Well, yes," said Alice. "Except with Herpo, there are three different records of his death that are several years apart from each other. And even some claims that the man was immortal and legend has it he could still be alive today." Eris looked sharply at her not-quite-yet-friend at this pronouncement before the girl giggled. "But that's just a myth."

"You seem to know a lot about such myths and legends for someone so fresh to our world." Eris found a lot of things odd about the Girl Who Lived that bucked her preconceived notions of her.

"I like to learn," replied the Potter girl casually.

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Alice often had to hide her boredom in her classes as they continued. She could honestly say that most of the teachers were doing just fine in their subjects, but Alice was mentally too far ahead to care. The worst was by far Defense Against the Dark Arts. The curse had done too fine a job and lowering the standards of the class, and the stuttering twit could barely be understood as he went through his lessons. His own subject terrified him.

She found herself often zoning out while staring at the man's turban, a strange longing to take it off and see what he kept hidden under there. More than once she found herself fantasizing about gnawing at the back of his head, and she didn't rightly understand where that thought even came from.

Alice thought Severus was not quite so good a teacher as Horace Slughorn had been. The man was a strict disciplinarian to the Gryffindors who shared the class period, and perhaps even a bit of a bully to them. Poor Longbottom was a nervous wreck within the first ten minutes of the class, and while the man said nothing bad about Granger's work, he said nothing good either, while he had plenty of praise to deal to his own Slytherins, including on occasion Alice herself.

Alice had not been sure before school started whether Severus Snape would resent her as a spawn of James Potter or treat her well in memory of his lost love Lily Evans, but it seemed the former Death Eater was leaning more towards the latter. It took a great deal of willpower to not lash out at the man sometimes when he was near, but Alice was able to hold her tongue and appear as happy with the favoritism as the rest of her classmates.

After all, there was no possible way Alice Potter could know anything about the Prophecy, nor who told Voldemort about it and marked her parents for death. Or rather, one parent in particular. Severus could act repentant to the younger Potter if he wanted, but Alice Riddle would not be so quick to forgive.

One surprise in her first week at the castle was an invitation brought in by her beautiful owl, Circe, to a cup of tea with Rubeus Hagrid. The invitation said that he had been a friend of her parents, and had been looking forward to meeting her. Alice debated on accepting or not, but in the end thought she had little better to do with her time, despite the feelings of guilt she had for Tom's actions against the half-giant man.

On Friday afternoon, shortly after Potions, Alice went off alone towards the hut near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. She knocked on the door and was greeted by the barking of a large dog that had her unpleasantly remembering Ripper from times before she took on the name Riddle. "Back, Fang!" cried the giant. A few moments later and he opened the door and looked down at her, his face surprisingly warm and friendly. It would be so easy for the man to look intimidating at over ten feet tall and lots of muscle, but his facial expressions were quick to show he was as far from hostile as it was possible to be.

"Ya look a lot like yer mum, but you got yer dad's wild hair, eh? Maybe some of your grandma in ya too, now that I get a good look at ya. Come on in, make yerself at home. Tea's almost ready."

She slowly made her way in and sat in a chair as the dog, Fang, came up beside her. She let him sniff her hand, and he seemed rather friendlier then Ripper so she patted his head a couple times. "So, you knew my parents, Mr. Hagrid?"

"Ya can just call me Hagrid, mos' people do," replied the giant as he began. "But ya, I knew 'em. Good a witch and wizard as I ever knew."

"I'm afraid I don't know much about them," admitted Alice. "Aunt Petunia wasn't really close to my mum near the end, so I mostly just know a little of what she was like as a child and what she did for… for me." She rubbed her scar self-consciously. In truth, Aunt Petunia avoided saying anything about her mother, but that was what Legilimency was for.

What followed was nearly two hours of stories about her mother and father during their school days, and with good eye contact she also found herself in the giant man's memories, getting images to go with the tales of the trouble maker James Potter who eventually learned how to be more responsible, and the spirited Lily Evans who had friends in every house and was always so clever. Alice enjoyed every moment of it, and her rather guarded heart allowed a bit of room for the half-giant to find a place in it.

After that, she spent another hour getting to know him better. While Tom's memories were not wrong for thinking him an easily manipulated man with a strange fascination with dangerous monsters, Alice found she had more respect for the simple minded and seemingly fearless ex-Gryffindor. Especially when the discussion went from his desire to own such dangerous creatures as dragons, to similar dangerous creatures he already had a hand in raising.

"And they just let you come and go?" she asked, never hearing of Acromantulas being quite so kind.

"Well, I raised their da', so they know me. Any friend of mine'll be fine with them."

Alice wasn't quite prepared to test that theory but she nodded anyways. "I've never heard of anyone being friendly with Acromantulas before. Any other pets you have running around in the forest?"

"I look after the school Thestrals, o' course, and I have a few Hippogriffs. Fluffy was out there until I had to send him into the school," said Hagrid.

Alice was not quite sure she liked the idea of sharing the castle with a monster besides the old family pet. "What kind of animal is Fluffy?"

"Oh, he's a great big, beautiful Cerberus I got off a Greek chappie," said Hagrid fondly, missing Alice flinching. "He's plenty friendly, especially the right-most head of 'im, though he takes his guarding job seriously."

"What's he guarding?" she asked. She hadn't given much thought to the strange warning Dumbledore had given the school about the third-floor corridor until now. Now that she knew that the man had allowed a Cerberus into the school, and apparently to guard something, her curiosity peaked.

"Oh, uh," stammered the Gamekeeper as he realized he was talking about something he definitely shouldn't talk about with students. "Sorry, Alice, top secret, that."

Alice smiled warmly. "No problem, Hagrid, I understand," she said, while looking him in the eye. What followed were several rather interesting events flashing into her mind. She kept her face even as she easily stole the secrets out of her new friend's mind. "Anyways, tell me more about Fluffy."

As she spent a while listening to Hagrid talk about his wonderful and friendly (to him) beast, Alice's mind was reeling from her discoveries. Albus Dumbledore was guarding the Philosopher's Stone for his friend, Nicolas Flamel. The very day he had sent Hagrid to remove it from the vault at Gringotts, an unknown Dark Wizard had attempted a robbery at the bank and the incident seemed to be connected. Hagrid didn't know how Dumbledore had predicted the attempt to steal the stone, and that was likely to remain a mystery to Alice.

It seemed that her Deliria Lovedoll persona would be having a rival to the title of up and coming Dark Lady. Anyone with the skill to break in and out of Gringotts without getting caught had to have some impressive skill, and going after the Philosopher's Stone showed quite the ambition. That was worth keeping in mind, and she would have to look deeper in the shadows to see if there were any other signs of this mysterious attempted bank robber.

Perhaps more important, Alice now knew the Philosopher's Stone was in the castle. The things she could do with that stone, no one but Flamel was known to ever play with the possibilities, and people only knew a couple things the thing could do. The alchemist had kept it hidden well, and if anyone else ever made one, no one else ever announced it.

When she came out of the hut, she was smiling. Not only had she made herself a new friend, but now she had something new and interesting to spend some time on while she was at school. Because before the school year was done, she was going to steal that stone.

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As she couldn't do anything about the Stone immediately, Alice thought it best to devote the weekend to getting better ingrained with her fellow Slytherins. She had been somewhat lax on that throughout the week of school, though it was known the Lestrange had been friendly enough for them to be in something of a preliminary alliance, and if Alice was going to have just one relationship in her own house, it was that one she wanted to know better.

Alice was not the only one slipping on the social battlefield, as while she had expected Lestrange to be center stage as the popular girl, it turned out Parkinson had been excelling on that front. The girl might be full of herself, but she was actually decent at making other girls default to her opinion. Bulstrode, Runcorn, Davis and Greengrass had started gathering around her. Nott and Malfoy seemed to get along with Zabini well enough on the boys end of things.

The only one who had not seemed to find a place quite yet was Lily Moon. It wasn't very hard to see why, as she often had a rather absentminded look about her like she was always thinking about something else. She recalled Pansy had tried to acquire the girl, but Moon had just looked her in the eye and told her that she wasn't quite leadership material. She was certainly not the usual sort of Slytherin.

So Alice decided to try her hand at acquiring the girl's allegiance, though at the moment she accepted a shared attempt with Lestrange as her pseudo-sister seemed reluctant to leave Alice alone for the weekend. They happened to bump into Moon in the Library. The blonde haired, light blue eyed witch was sitting alone, and Lestrange took center stage before Alice could get there. "Working on homework, Moon?" she asked casually, taking a seat. Alice took the next seat over; though she was annoyed Eris had decided to act first.

"Ah, I was wondering when the next collector would come," mused the girl softly, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them to stare into Eris Lestrange's eyes. "That's odd. Something in the way. Contacts, maybe?"

Eris blanched, and Alice blinked. Contacts… was that how Lestrange hid the eyes she had gotten from her real father? And more then that, how exactly did Moon know that at a glance? … Was the girl actually trying to use Legilimency? That would be rather impressive at her age, though foolish to admit out loud.

When Moon began to turn her head Alice's way, Alice brought her occlumency to full force, and then felt nothing. Lily Moon's eyes looked into hers as though staring deeply into her soul, but there was no pressure of another mind attempting to push its way into hers. Suddenly, very suddenly, her vision of Moon changed. She saw her as a girl with glowing eyes that saw more than they ever should. She was quite innocent, but lonely and intelligent enough to know she wouldn't be so innocent forever. Alice could practically see her magic. Moon flinched and the odd vision ended, though Alice couldn't see herself forgetting the sight any time soon. "Dangerous one, aren't you, Potter? Apologies, but I think you scared me a little. Not one collector but two coming after me, though, I am quite flattered." Well that just brought up more questions.

While Eris seemed stunned to silence, Alice decided to take the initiative. "What exactly did you just do?"

"Two things, one that I do automatically and the other I shouldn't have done at all, I think," the girl admitted. She allowed her eyes to travel away from both Alice and Eris, and adopted a rather dreamy expression that didn't quite reach her eyes which seemed somewhat… unsure? "Ever heard of a Perceiver?"

"No," Alice admitted, and it was rare enough that Tom's memories had lacked information on a magical talent or ability that she now needed to know. She rather wish the girl would look her in the eye again so she could just pick it out of her mind, though perhaps it was best to hold back that eagerness. She did not need to get caught breaking into people's personal thoughts.

"It's a rare talent, runs in my family," said the girl softly. "By looking someone in the eye we perceive something of what sort of person they are, and possibilities of what they can become. Some people think of it like a form of Divination, though that's not quite true. The things I see can change, while a foreseen future, supposedly, cannot be changed."

Alice didn't like that. She didn't need people seeing what she was like on the inside. "Strengths, weaknesses?" she asked casually.

"Personality," Moon added.

"And the second thing you did?"

Moon had an uncomfortable frown on her face. "Have you ever heard of a Soulgaze?"

Now that one Tom's memories had information on, and now Alice mimicked her pseudo-sister as she blanched. "That, Moon, is very illegal nowadays."

"Yes, people aren't supposed to know how to do it anymore," she mused, though her voice seemed calm, there was discomfort in her eyes that would focus on no one in particular. "I imagine that sort of blackmail will ease your minds a little."

Eris seemed to come back into reality with that. "Yes. Yes, quite. You won't be mentioning anything about anything, then." She glanced at Alice. "We won't say anything, yes?" The girl tried to sound intimidating, and if Alice wasn't mentally comparing it to Bellatrix and thinking the expression adorable it would work on most children quite well.

"Not a word to anyone," said Alice, who only barely remembered that what Eris was worrying about was her secret contact lenses hiding her true eyes. Alice couldn't exactly relieve her worries by telling her she already knew what her real eye color was. That wouldn't have helped. Eris nodded at that and then quickly left the table, eager to show no more hints about who she really was. Alice turned back to Moon, her wand out and flicking around them, and suddenly the outside world was utterly silent and no one could perceive the girls doing anything but talking amicably.

"What did you see in my soul, Lily?" she asked in a rather cold voice as her eyes became glowing red.

Lily Moon flinched and her gaze went downward, submissive. Alice's inner Dark Lady liked that. "Two red eyed snakes coiling around a girl, one coming out of your scar and the other coming out of some necklace around your neck."

Alice vaguely thought she'd had a dream like that recently but she kept her mind on the present. "As far as I know, memories of such things can't be obliviated. I think that gives us a slight problem, Lily."

"I won't tell anyone," Moon said quickly, shivering slightly.

"Oh, I know, but the problem is some people can learn things without you saying a word," said Alice. "How is your Occlumency? Look me in the eye as you answer, and don't try to lie." Alice's voice was low and dangerous, though she kept a pleasant smile on her face.

Alice was beginning to enjoy the flinching and fearful nature. While someone having a deeper idea of what she was really like was troubling, getting to act out her Dark Lady side again was always a pleasure. The poor girl was quickly becoming terrified, and Alice wondered how detailed her perceptions were of people. "I have never practiced it. Most of us haven't, only Malfoy is very proficient in our year, and Nott has practiced some." So she could see that much. Interesting. She most certainly wasn't lying, and did not seem to notice the presence reaching into her mind, learning.

'Should I kill her?' wondered Alice to herself. She wouldn't do such a thing out in the open, of course, but it was an option. The girl had a very decent idea of what she was capable of doing now, as well as the sort of monster she would likely grow into by the time of her majority, and while she might not know what exactly her vision of Alice's soul(s) meant, she was uniquely capable of figuring it out. She could not have it getting around that she was claiming the soul of Lord Voldemort a piece at a time.

At the same time, Alice was not yet quite so far down the dark path that she took to killing as easily as Tom. Further, such a girl on her side could be a valuable asset, and the clever Slytherin had already hinted how she could be useful by telling her who else in their year had any gift in Occlumency.

"You referred to us as collectors," mused Alice calmly. "What's that mean?" Alice already had an idea of that, but she decided to get to know for sure while she thought on what to do with this girl.

"People who draw other people to them, leaders, people who weave social webs. In Slytherin there are two types of people, collectors and collections. I do not have what it takes to be a collector, but I would be a valuable addition to anyone's collection."

"I prefer thinking of it as Mistress and Minions," said Alice with a grin. "You will be avoiding the eyes of Professors Snape and Dumbledore, I think." Her red eyes faded back to green, which seemed to give Moon the impression that she could relax. "Consider yourself collected, Lily Moon."

The girl nodded as the charms against sights and sounds fell. "Understood, Miss Potter," she said, courteously, though she rather looked like she wanted to run for her life.

"Please, call me Alice," said the Dark Lady before whispering. "Though when alone you can call me Mistress if you want. I rather like that title." She waited a moment longer. "You can go if you want." Lily nodded and offered a soft goodbye before dashing off as quick as she could without drawing too much attention to herself.

Alice was about to go herself, but then another person took the recently vacated seat. "Hello, Alice, doing some light reading?" asked a bushy brown haired girl who despite bringing a tower of books with her seemed eager to see Alice anyways. A quick sweep of her mind told Alice that Granger had not yet built any other relationships with those in her house besides Longbottom. Alice wasn't entirely surprised considering her overeager personality.

"Started off with light conversation, though I was thinking about grabbing a book while I was here," lied Alice easily. "How has your first week at Hogwarts treated you, Hermione?"

The studious lion grimaced for a split second and then put up a smile. Ah, she was the type that didn't like to acknowledge her problems out loud, then? Understandable. "I find our subjects quite interesting, don't you? I was able to get my match really close to a needle in class, I think Professor McGonagall was pleased. A few people actually tried to sleep in History of Magic, can you believe it? Professor Flitwick-"

"Hermione, I won't disappear the moment you stop talking," giggled Alice. "And I don't need a full summery all at once."

"Oh, sorry," she said, looking embarrassed.

"It's fine," said Alice, waving it off. "I don't have much experience with friends outside of a couple, but I think it's best if my new one allowed herself to breath and take her time." Alice could see the girl brighten at the light assertion that they were friends, as it would have been obvious even without legilimency that she hadn't really had many of those before, if any.

Alice decided to relax into the chair and let her Saturday go to the girl who she mentally accepted as her pet lion. Two minions equaled a Saturday well spent in her opinion.

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It took a while for Eris to realize that no one would be able to realize her secret merely from knowing she had lenses on her eyes. In fact, she now knew that that the contacts did a little more than advertised and kept out certain nosy abilities from getting a better idea of her in the first place. Moon started hanging around Alice.

The mystery that was Alice Potter had only deepened from that strange event in the library. What secrets was she hiding to break her usual public mask of friendliness and grow so cold and intimidating? Eris wished she had stuck around to eavesdrop, but she had only thought about it later when she'd recovered from the shock.

To further the needs of her curiosity, Eris continued to associate herself with the girl for the next week, which now came with the advantages of sharing Lily Moon's company as well. The carefree way in which she scanned the school on Alice's orders was a little creepy to think about, and her oddly detached persona when she wasn't.

"I fail to see how the Muggleborn will be capable of accomplishing much of anything. The girl can't even seem to make a friend."

Alice rolled her eyes, as she had made it rather well known how she felt about blood status. "Sure she has," she replied. "She's my friend. The only thing Muggleborns lack is a background in our world, something I am sympathetic to with my background, though Hermione also lacks a bit in social graces at the moment. She'll learn, though."

"Certainly," said Moon in her usual soft tone that was somewhere between thoughtful and dreamy. "She loves to learn. Though her adherence to authority figures may work against you in future."

"Nah," Alice said with a casual brush of her hands. "I merely need to tilt that sense of authority from everyone with a title to just me. That can't be too hard. So, does her future potential match her current above average talents?"

"I would say so," mused Moon. "Her magical power will be above average, though not monstrously great, but it is her mind which is likely to overtake even most of the Ravenclaws with magical knowledge. Though if she can't find it in a book, she won't take to it easily."

Eris could tell Alice was plotting and scheming as she went quiet, thinking of how best to mold her pet mudblood. She really needed to rescue Alice from this notion that a muggleborns could be made into something in their society, though she had to consider how to tactfully approach the subject. It was clear the girl took the stance mostly in memory of her mother, Lily Potter, and as Draco had learned, was very aggressive about it if even so much as the word 'mudblood' came up.

"It'll be hard to turn the girl into anything in modern society," she said. "Even if muggleborns gained some ground after the war, they still won't give the best jobs to them."

Alice chuckled. "Like I want to lose anyone to something like Ministry work, anyways," she said. "Besides, society can change rapidly with the right leaders in place." The girl had the strangest smile, which Eris thought made it seem like the girl wanted to rule the world. Then Alice looked at Eris and sighed. "The Malfoys really put those Blood Purity lessons in thick, didn't they?" The look she gave was pitying.

Eris felt insulted, but kept herself from hissing a response. Instead, she kept her voice even and calm. "It is well known fact that purity of blood makes a difference," she defended. "If we allow our bloodlines to all be tainted by muggles, we might all squib out in just a few centuries of such lesser breeding."

Moon's attention became more focused as Alice gained a sharp look, either curious or fearful of how this debate would go. Eris wondered if the other girl would lose her cool, but she saw Alice gain a thoughtful expression for a moment, as though deciding how best to speak. "Do you really believe magic to be so… weak?"

As counter-arguments went, Eris could admit she hadn't been expecting that. "Of course not," she defended instantly. "Magic is power, it's what makes us better." She wasn't even sure how the two subjects were related.

"And yet you think that a bit of muggle blood can destroy it?" Alice said in a rather cold, mocking tone. "Hell, you think any amount of muggle blood can destroy the spark of magic in us?"

Eris blinked. She had never quite thought of it like that before, though she supposed that the idea of muggle blood suppressing magic would be close to saying that muggle blood overpowered magic itself. This revelation rocked her slightly, and she grew quiet as she mulled it over.

Alice took the silence as permission to move forward with her own theories on the subject. "According to studies, most muggleborns, if not all, are in actuality the descendants of squibs. Squibs are just as common among purebloods and halfblood children. I postulate that the problem of squibs is an entirely separate issue from the interaction of mundane bloodlines with magical. Though squibs are an issue that should be further researched and stopped if possible, magical blood has no need to fear the muggle blood."

Alice gained a rather venomous stare as she declared, "Muggles will never be able to stamp magic out of our bloodlines no matter how much of their blood runs in our veins."

Eris continued to silently stare at the declaration as she worked it out in her brain. "I'm not afraid of muggles," she found herself murmuring, wondering how all her beliefs about blood purity could seem so much like cowardice in the face of a muggle threat. She had simply never thought that way, and more importantly, she was sure Uncle Lucius and Aunt Cissy didn't think that way either.

"Our magical world as it stands today if founded on such fears Witches and Wizards have for the muggle population," Alice declared. "Fear of witch hunts, though they only rarely ever caught the real thing, fear of oppression, fear of numbers. When we separated ourselves and hid magic from the Muggle World, they outnumber us by a factor of a thousand to one, and we knew we would never win an outright war against them. Nowadays they still outnumber us by closer to four thousand to one, and they have advanced faster than us. The things muggles are capable of now would shock you to your core, Eris Lestrange, and we have purposefully handicapped ourselves against them for those fears. We cannot continue on this path as we continue to believe the Statute of Secrecy will somehow defend us against them. And our first step towards defeating our fear of muggles is to remove our fear of their blood."

The impassioned speech brought only further silence in its wake, as both Moon and Eris were deep in thought over the assertions by their not-quite-friend Alice Potter. Alice seemed to contemplate what to do about this silence before she switched gears. "So, I hear we'll be starting Flying lessons this Thursday."

HPHPHPHPHPHPHP

While Eris took a while to apparently recover from Alice's impromptu lecture and mission statement., Alice found herself back to the boredom of the usual class schedule throughout the week. She wasn't really excited about flying, since she already knew how to, and Tom had never taken much to a broom. He never really liked relying on too much equipment, which was why he had been working on a theory on how to fly without a broom or similar medium, which was supposedly impossible.

Alice knew she would eventually perfect Tom's theory, though first she had to at least feel what flying was like all on her own. She was sure it would help her to better craft her technique if she took a few sessions to feel out using the medium first.

So, on Thursday, the Slytherins and the Gryffindors met on the grounds with Madam Hooch. She started with the usual stuff, and Alice easily commanded her broom up into her hand. That part was always pretty easy, she remembered. But before she could get up the air, Longbottom went zooming off and had himself an accident.

If Moon hadn't told her the boy really did have incredible potential, that incident would have been the last chance Alice gave him for ever being worth befriending. Honestly, what could shatter a boy's confidence so completely? It would take a miracle to build that boy up into something decent. Alice was annoyed at having to wait for Madam Hooch's return, and further annoyed by Malfoy's attempt to find humor in the situation.

The boy lacked subtlety at the moment, and it threatened to make lions pride up and begin an attack. He was about to snatch up some stupid rememberall Longbottom had dropped when Alice waved her hand and summoned the glass orb to her hand. "Useless sort of trinket, really," she mused, before tossing the ball towards Granger. " Make sure Neville gets that back, Hermione."

Alice was not going to have her lessons interrupted by petty bullying attempts. When Madam Hoock finally returned, they once more took to their brooms. And when Alice kicked off the ground, she quickly discovered something else that was different between her and Tom.

She liked flying a hell of a lot more then he had.