Chapter 3 – Judging Reality

(A/N: These flashbacks will not be in order; there might be one that's before the time this one is taken from and so on, just thought I'd tell you to minimis confusion)

~*Flashback*~

"What are you doing?" they turned to look at him and for a moment he thought he saw a guilty expression flash across Hermione's face, why would she feel guilty? He shrugged it off as his imagination.

"So, what do ya think about the 'Cannons chance this year Ron? I mean, they'd got that new seeker, I feel sorry for the old one, running into a bludger is a bad idea, I can tell you from experience. Think he'll be any good?" he paused and grinned "Reckon I should have tried out for seeker?" he didn't notice how Ron's hands clenched at his side. Ron was his friend, so what if he clenched his fists?

Something in that sentence made him stop short.

"Where are we going guy's, I don't think I've been here before" his voice was suddenly not as innocent as it should have been. It was not simply curious. It was, in fact, almost accusing. This time he didn't miss the furtive look they shared, however, he didn't let them know this.

He turned his head to look into the forest.

"It's dark in there" out of the corner of his eye he could see the guilty expression flicker across Hermione's face again. Something inside him was flashing a warning. Red; it was a warning about something bad. He agreed with it wholeheartedly.

"I think I'll go back now, we've got Quidditch tomorrow, and I have to finish of the rest of my defence homework" he paused to turn around but stopped as Ron grabbed his arm. For a moment they looked each other and Harry felt saddened by what he saw his friend's eyes. He knew what was coming, and he pitied them more than himself.

"You're not going anywhere mate"

~*End Flashback*~

Sebastian snarled as the memory came to him. He had thought he knew what was coming; he had been wrong. He banished the memory from his mind. Not now. He had important things to do; he really shouldn't be getting worked up over such pathetic excuses for humans.

He snarled again. Idiots.

When had it started? That was a question he had pondered on many a rainy day, and many a sunny one too. When had it all started? He thought he knew the answer, but he couldn't be sure, only Ron and Hermione could tell him that.

He was sure that Dumbledore's disappearance, and his later death, had been the thing to set it off. Everyone had blamed him. It was his fault Albus had died. Wasn't it always? Whenever something bad happened, hey, let's blame it on the boy-who-lived! Then we won't have to take any responsibility and he will! It won't affect him; he's the boy-who-lived!

If only they knew he thought savagely, smiling in sublime satisfaction. If only they knew. He paused; the sun had just come out from behind Hogwarts and it was blaring a joyous welcome, he grinned softly, his savage smirk fading into a real smile; his quarrel was with the magic community, not Hogwarts, he felt as if the large castle was welcoming him home.

His smile did not last.

He quickly walked up to the castle, aware that most people would be at breakfast or getting ready for classes. It wasn't that he didn't want to be seen, he just didn't want to be gawked at.

He looked around, unsurprised that nothing seemed to have changed the Hogwarts grounds. The whomping willow, still whomping, the giant squid, still squiding and generally being squidish, and the quidditch pitch still standing tall and giving the appearance of a qudditch pitch, which it was.

If only things had not turned out the way they had… If only… if only… But they didn't… If only… If only…

The doors to the entrance hall opened for him automatically and he strolled into the large room looking as if he owned the place. What most people didn't know; was that he did. But that's another story, not for now.

There was minimal commotion as he swept through the hallways, robes billowing behind him in a very Snape-ish manner. He slowed as soon as he realised this, it wouldn't do to look a thing like Snape; bad things might happen; the curse of Snape…

He sniggered at this thought, enjoying the mental image of Snape cloning himself and half a million Snape's running around making people's hair greasy and insisting that everyone only wear black robes. Wait… he thought mentally this is bad! Millions of Snape's! Disaster! Different thoughts please brain! This is traumatizing! I could be stuck in a hospitable for the rest of my life!

He was still sniggering as he turned up in front of the stone gargoyle. His thoughts immediately flew to all the lollies he knew, he was about to start guessing when he realised that whoever the currant headmaster, or mistress for that matter, was, it was very unlikely that they would have such an obsession with muggle candy as Dumbledore had. Very unlikely indeed.

He sighed and self-consciously ran his hand through blond locks. Before staring briefly at the door, daring it to move; it did so with grudging acceptance. He smiled slightly at its display of power; it was quite big… for a statue. Still sniggering slightly he stepped inside and up to the headmaster's, or mistresses, office.

When he arrived at the top he was both disappointed, and pleased to note that the office had clearly not been touched for all the time he had been away, since Dumbledore's 'death' as it was seen. He grinned as he walked over to Dumbledore's pensieve, suppressing the urge to walk faster so he could get there quicker, this would prove his theory; prove that he was right…

He grinned in triumph as he saw the silvery substance which filled the structure; that meant that… his trail of thought was interrupted by a rather dusty painting of Dippet, one of the previous headmasters of the school, when he shouted a rustic welcome. Harry turned smiling to the beaming painting.

"Professor" he dipped his head as a sign of respect, not as low as it should have been, but none the less, Harry had a little less respect for this man than his fellow co-workers. But everyone made mistakes, Dippet had only been human, however much his mistake had cost, he had only been human.

"Harry! It's been such a long time! Where have you been?" Harry looked at the painting with a raised eyebrow.

"Here and there, you know; around" he paused and looked around again. "So… it was nice of them to leave Dumbledore's office alone, as a memorial I suppose" Dippet looked momentarily confused, it didn't last for long Harry thought wistfully as the small wizard started talking again.

"Ahh, but Harry, didn't you know?" there was a pause as Sebastian's thought ran along the lines of Well… NO

"No, I didn't" he tried to keep the impatience out of his voice, and virtually succeeded; only the pretending to be sleeping form of Phineas Nigellus. Sebastian raised a delicate eyebrow at the snorting cough that came from the frame.

"They haven't been able to; couldn't open the door, no matter what. Similar to in your fifth year I do believe" Harry blinked.

"They haven't been able to get in?" he sounded absolutely delighted and couldn't help the small satisfied smirk that payed across his lips, revealing sharp white teeth, Dippet, still oblivious, nodded in confirmation to his question.

"Quite. They were very annoyed, loud too, kept on bothering Phineas, shouting at him to let them in or some such. Most annoying. However, as you have probably noticed there was a reason for not allowing them in" Harry was surprised by the shrewdness in the old mans eyes, there was a reason he had become Headmaster after all, Sebastian had been beginning to wonder.

"Yes, of course" in his mind he could see them pounding on the door, screeching, begging Phineas, he would have liked that, but… wait… he turned to Phineas's picture frame and looked at the sleeping figure, wondering absently if it was his hobby to pretend to be asleep.

"But, if I may ask Phinease, what were they doing in Grimmould place to begin with?" Phineas Nigellus was suddenly sending him a very sly smile, and Sebastian couldn't help but return it.

"Ahh, well, I might have asked them except they seemed so convinced that you were dead…" he was interrupted by the mad teenager below him.

"THEY WHAT?!" Sebastian seemed so mad that he was incapable of talking, his face however stayed the same pale golden colour, only a faint tinge of pink on his cheeks giving his anger away, at least, until you looked into his sapphire eyes.

A thought occurred to him and he visibly calmed himself.

"Well. That wasn't very nice of them was it?" Phineas snorted loudly. Sebastian glared at him and the painting went back to quietly observing.

"But, out of curiosity, how did you know it was me?" Phineas snorted again, this time not so noisily or loudly, but all them same. Sebastian ignored him, turning to the other paintings in the room; they all looked back at him calmly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He rolled his eyes "Well?"

"Only you and Albus can enter the room, and, apart from some similarities you are in fact very different" Sebastian nodded thoughtfully before a smile spread across his face.

"How interesting… and convenient" he smiled again somewhat silkily at the paintings and they smiled a bit nervously back at him, he hardly noticed, his brain was clicking over with ideas and just as quickly squashing them out of existence.

"Well, I had best be going, I'm late after all" still deep in thought he waved cheerily to the pictures and made his way out of the office. Phineas Nigellus watched him leave sadly and wiping a fake tear from his eye turned to the other paintings.

"He should have been in Slytherin"

~^.^~