A/N: This is kind of a transitional chapter, so I hope it doesn't seem too slow. I'm working on graduating for the next two weeks, so I don't know how fast I can get new chapters up, but this is going to be long - very long - so patience will win out. :-)

Thank you soo much to the reviewers!! You have all given me such warm fuzzies, especially since I haven't written much AT ALL in the past four years. It's a like a drug, now, though – once I started again, I can't stop! Oh, one comment to SophieB - yes, most of the Slytherins are OOC, because I'm really trying to play on the idea that Slytherins have two sides, and we've only really seen one up until now. I'm probably not doing it too well yet, but I've got loooots of fic to go, so I'll be working on it :-)




Another Sunday night, more on The Prince, thought Harry. Machiavelli was inspirational at the very least, and Harry found himself looking forward to the Sunday evening seminars in the common room.

But that was later. Right now it was a quarter til three in the afternoon, and Sirius was working with him on the Animagus transformation. There was a long incantation that had to be used the first seventeen transformations, pronounced in exactly the right way, and Sirius was having him practise it repeatedly. Harry gritted his teeth. He had assignments to finish, plus he and the others were supposed to meet for Imperius practise at three, and tonight, after the seminar, both Blaise and Millicent would be joining him in bed. Harry smirked; his godfather would be appalled if he so much as guessed at what went on in the dungeons.

Harry started then, feeling the touch of the Imperius Curse. Harry threw it off after a moment, smiling at Sirius when he looked at him questioningly. Draco must be impatient, Harry grumbled to himself, AGAIN. He quickly muttered a few words that would cause Draco's mark to tickle. Harry thought it rather stupid to cause your friends and allies pain, so he merely made his laugh. He stood then, taking his leave. Sirius, I have to go. I made plans for three and I'll be late if I don't leave now.

Is it almost three? We've been here for two hours? No, no, go on. I have to meet with Dumbledore this afternoon myself. Keep practising the pronunciation. I may be gone for a few weeks this time, so take care of yourself and maybe we can move forward by the time I get back.

Harry smiled. 'Kay. Be careful, Sirius.

I will, kiddo. 'Bye.






Harry entered the common room and headed directly over the corner where his dormmates were sitting. Getting impatient, were we?

Draco looked up and scowled. It's not like you couldn't throw it off easily.

Harry rolled his eyes. Come off of it, Draco, does it really hurt if someone sees you laugh? Harry asked, correctly guessing the real source of Draco's foul mood.

Draco glared. Just for that, I'm going to send a nice tickling charm to you in Transfiguration one day. Harry groaned. His former Head of House was quick to take points off of him, as if to prove that Harry Potter had no ties to her Gryffindors.

Okay, you two, stop it, kiss and make up. Harry and Draco both glared at Blaise, then exchanged a quick glance before grabbing the other boy and pinning him down on the couch.

So it's kisses you want, Blaise? asked Harry. Couldn't wait until tonight?

Draco was smiling. Ooh, Harry, are you busy tomorrow night?

No, why?

You, me, and Blaise here?

Harry pretended to think, then nodded. Could be fun. Are you up to it, Blaise? he teased.

Blaise nodded, his eyes wide, and, laughing, the other two let him up. Come on, guys. Let's go out by the lake. Harry led the group outside, where they sat down a few feet from the water. So. Draco can obviously cast Imperious over some distance, but weakly. I think we ought to start here in the open, where we can see the other person, and slowly increase the distance. Greg, you and Blaise work together, and Vince and Draco, the three of us will work together.

Groups assigned, Greg and Vince headed for the other side of the lake, and Harry moved back towards the castle, he, Draco, and Vince forming the vertices of a triangle. Harry decided to wait before attempting Imperius, but he almost laughed when two hit him at the same time. Instructions from the two conflicting, he easily threw them off, and sent one back towards Draco, as well as giving Vince a good case of tickled thigh. He felt Draco break the Imperius after about a minute and a half, and then nothing towards Harry for a bit, so he assumed that Vince and Draco were otherwise engaged. He decided to send Imperius at Vince, just to see who was controlling who. It would quite interesting to control Imperius through Imperius! After a bit he realised that Draco had thrown off Imperius, but he used his own control of Vince to have him cast it once more. THIS was heady stuff, thought Harry. Very powerful, very cool.

After awhile longer, Harry summoned the other four back to him, and they talked about their success. Greg and Blaise were fairly evenly matched, it seemed, and Harry made a mental note to break up the pairings somewhat the next time. He glanced at his watch and swore. It's nearly time for dinner and I need to work on that assignment for Astronomy before tonight.

We'd best go in, then, Draco commanded the other three. Can't have our illustrious leader doing poorly in Astronomy, now can we? he smirked, and even Harry had to join in the laughter. The five walked back into the castle and Harry raced back down into the dungeons to write a bit on his essay before running up to catch a quick bite of dinner. He smiled at Hermione's wave as he walked in and ignored Ron. After the first morning in Potions, Ron had steadfastly ignored Harry and all of the other Slytherins, and Harry had returned the favor. The good news was that many of his old acquaintances, such as Seamus and Parvati, were still willing to be seen talking to him.

Harry ate quickly; he had arrived late and he still needed to work a bit more before Severus came in to lead the seminar. Harry thoroughly enjoyed the seminar; more and more of the House had stopped attending, so they were left with a core group of about 35 students, mainly 5th year and up, and the seminar usually turned into a discussion group, debating various ideas. It was almost intoxicating to Harry, and always arousing, which meant that Sunday nights were usually the most enjoyable for him. He hadn't been with Blaise yet. Millicent was a good fuck; she was a bit shy in bed but was quite pleasant. All in all, the night promised to be a good one.




It was a couple of nights later when Harry cast a silencing charm around the dorm and faced his dormmates. We need to decide who we're going to bring in next. We're going to have to do it very, very carefully and slowly, especially if we pick anyone in Slytherin. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Draco spoke up. We can start working on our housemates, but we really need people from other Houses. People might trust you, Harry, but you're still a Slytherin now – and should've been the whole time – so I doubt that goodwill will get us very far.

That was Greg. He had a penchant for calling out random answers. They were usually right, but sometimes even he couldn't figure out how he'd gotten there, like in Arithmancy. Still, having Greg around generally meant that you got an answer for everything, whether you wanted one or not.

Charlie Weasley? Greg, you've got to be crazy. He was a Gryffindor! Blaise was incredulous.

So was Harry, Vince pointed out. Maybe Charlie just didn't see the need to get ReSorted. Or have his family dismember him. The others laughed. If a Slytherin had two parents, like most normal students, they typically didn't treat them as other children were treated, and the threat of dismemberment or bodily harm if a student was put in Slytherin was usually a good sign that the unfortunate witch or wizard in question should have been in Salazar's House.

Harry spoke up then. I think Charlie's a good choice. He's already nicer to Slytherin as a whole than any other Gryffindor, past or present. We'll go slowly, but with any luck, we can have a faculty member in our ranks by the time Christmas holidays come around. All of you play up the fact that we shouldn't have to hide dragons and that kind of thing. I'll work on the sympathy angle, much as I hate to exploit anyone's personal pain, even if it is my own.