If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone Chapter Tweleve: It's His Fault Summary: What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive?What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R
A/N: okay, I haven't updated in over a year.. Literally. Please forgive me. With the release of the HBP I have become re-inspired. Please enjoy the continuation of my story. And thank you, in advance, for R/R
"Snape said he'd have my neck if I mentioned it to anyone, so don't let it slip.. or else"
"Or else what, 'The Prince' will have my neck?" Blaise mocked in an obviously unworried and humored - yet still dark and calm as always - voice.
"This really could be something serious, after all, it did have a three-headed bitch guarding it." Draco chimed in. It was breakfast and Harry had just finished keying in his most trusted friends on the package he had witnessed Snape remove at Gringotts.
"We don't know that's what the thing is guarding, you know. We're not Gryffindorks, no need to jump to rash conclusions."
"Oh come on Audrey, someone broke into the most secure bank in the world and attempted to steal something from a vault that had been emptied that day. The same day me and Snape The Dickhead emptied a vault there, with him threatening me not to relay the information to anyone. And now, incidently, there is a monster three floors above our heads sitting atop a trap door. Don't tell me you can't add two and two together. I don't know about you, but I wanna find out what was in that package. Anything that's having dark wizards break into Gringotts to steal must either be very dangerous or extremely valuable."
"Oi, ok. Keep it down though, Harry. We don't want any Weasels listening in and getting any ideas." Blaise said, pointedly eyeing Ron Weasley who was standing suspciously near the Slytherin table, eyeing Harry with a look of confusion.
"Hey Weasel-Wack! Fuck off." Draco called out. Ron sent them a nasty look and sauntered off towards the Gryffindor table.
He had not been gone long enough for Harry to finish off his morning coffee (which Audrey had taken to scolding him for, insisting it would stunt his growth) when with a loud swoosh of noise, the owls swept in to deliver the morning mail. Harry paid no attention, seeing as he didn't know a wizarding soul outside of Hogwarts, he didn't expect any mail.
Instead of peering for his owl, the dark haired boy was focusing on sending a heating charm down towards Flint's orange juice. Over the last week or so, Flint and the Quidditch team had continued to make the evening practices a living hell for Harry, insisting it would build his character and prepare him for the first match of the year. Fortunately, Flint had managed to scrounge up some gear for Harry, although he still was flying an old beat up school broom. To Harry's satisfaction, just then Flint took a large gulp from his goblet, only to spew the contents out all over the table.
"Ugh, that shit was hot!" He exclaimed, and immediately began searching the faces of his friends, obviously suspecting one of them had pranked him. Harry concealed a smirk and averted his gaze, no use letting Flint have reason to suspect him.
"Eh, what's this?" Audrey asked, pointing up in the air. Harry glanced up to see what she meant, only to see three brown school owls descending towards the Slytherin table, a long package tied to their feet. The group of owls was gaining attention around the Great Hall, students all around were pointing at the large package curiously.
"Reckon it's heading this way?" Blaise questioned, although with his cool tone of voice, it sounded more like a statement. Indeed, seconds later Harry was quite surprised to see that the owls had landed in front of him, holding out their legs for him to untie the long package.
"I bet I know what that is." Draco said, an expectant smirk flying across his face.
Harry quickly grabbed a note off the front of the box and scammed over it quite quickly.
This was a pretty Galleon. Serve Slytherin well.
S.S.
"What's it say?" Audrey asked, flipping her dark hair out of her face as she reached for the note. Harry let her grab it as he curiously, yet quickly threw the box open. There was a resounding gasp all around Harry. One Hufflepuff, who was standing up to get a good look at what the package contained, called out loudly so the entire hall could here "Potter's got a Nimbus Two-Thousand!"
And Indeed he did. Harry smirked. This would definitely give him an upper hand over the Gryffindor team come the first Quidditch match. He reached into the box and held the broom up in the air, not thinking twice of letting the entire hall get a good look at it.
"Bloody brilliant, not too shabby." Blaise muttered.
"Just as I thought." Draco said, a smug look on his face.
It wasn't long before everyone trying to get a good look at his new piece of equipment got quite old to Harry. He sent a few death looks at some Ravenclaws across the hall who were standing up on the table in attempt to get a better view of his broom. "This is getting old, I'm gonna go stash this before class." Harry stood up and grabbed a hold of the broom and made a quick exit from the Great Hall, doing his best to ignore the blatant whispers and stares that followed him.
As soon as he had exited the hall Harry was met with the only two desirable members of the Weasley family that he was yet to meet.
"Gred, Forge. How do you do?" Harry asked, in a mock polite and aristocratic voice.
"Ah, quite splendid my dear Mr. Potter."
"And how is the delightful morning treating yourself." The Twins replied, in an equally fake polite voices.
Harry let himself crack a smile. The two were hilarious even when they weren't trying too hard. He held up his broom in response to their question, adding "Not bad."
"Oh yes, we saw that excellent piece..."
"Of equipment being delivered, quite a..."
"Shame really, seeing as it gives us Gryffindors yet..."
"Another obstacle to overcome, adding to the fact..."
"That we have yet to find a decent seeker for the team." Harry shook his head, it was beyond him how the two could finish each others' sentences so eloquently.
"But your broom isn't what we're here to talk about Harry."
"Although, by the looks of you, in a couple years 'your broom' will be all that.."
"The female population will be talking about. In fact..."
"Just to warn you in advance, I would recommend steering..."
"Clear of our young sister. Quite a feisty one she is." Harry shook his head in amusement. He was just eleven years old, still far from the age when he would be worrying about girls.
"I'll keep that in mind, then." Harry laughed.
"Excellent. Now Harry, we would like to speak to you of..."
"Some obvious signs that you are shaping up to be an extraordinary mischief maker."
"Nowhere near as talented as ourselves, howerver there is potential..."
"Speaking along those lines, excellent work this morning with Flint's drink." Harry raised an eyebrow, he didn't think anyone would have noticed. George, or Fred... he couldn't tell the difference, smiled.
"Ahh yes Harry, we are always on the lookout for fellow mischief makers, and your little stunts have not gone unnoticed by us."
"In fact, we know that association with you may make us unpopular amongst our fellow Lions, however..."
"If you ever need any assistance, or just some company, in getting up to no good... well, you can always count on us. You make us proud Harry, young lad."
Harry smiled and shook his head. Those two really were a handful. "Well, thanks guys, but I need to get going."
"Of course you do, little Potter."
"Yes, run off to your little firstie class Harry. See ya around then."
After that Harry hurried on down to the Slytherin common room and stashed his broom. He wasn't stupid, and he was beginning to realize just how useful having friends in Gryffindor could become to him, and it looked as if Greg and Forge may be just the thing.
Harry was shocked to realize that he had already been at school two months, yet it was obviously true. It was the day of October 31, better known as Halloween. Classes were already over for the day, and Harry was sitting in his room way down at the bottom of the dungeons, picking away at his guitar. So far the day hadn't been any different from any other day of the year, with the exception of the exquisitely decorated Great Hall. Classes that day had been just as boring as ever, the only thing out of the normal that had happened was that the prat Ron hand down something to upset the Granger girl during charms, and she had ran off crying the rest of the day.
Not that Harry could really care of course, he had no sympathy for the no it all, although Ron's bullying did annoy him to no end. As Harry continued to play away on his guitar, which had quite a soothing effect on him, his mind began to wander away.
It was Halloween, a day which had always troubled Harry. He had never liked Halloween, and for good reason. It was the day his parents were murdered. The day he had survived. The day he had been pawned off on his muggle 'relatives,' if you could even really call them his family (something which he still hadn't forgiven Dumbledore for). Deep inside Harry a fire began to burn, a fire of rage and contempt. At first it was direceted at the memory of Petunia, Dudley, and Vernon... And then the rage shifted to Dumbledore for letting him live with them. Couldn't he have just let Harry grown up with some friends of the family?...or maybe grow up on the castle grounds, be watched over by the faculty?
Just as Harry was ready to storm out of the Slytherin common rooms and go find Dumbledore to tell him off, something clicked deep down in his brain. It's His fault. Harry's eyes flashed red as an incredible controlled fury built up inside him. He's not done yet... I'm going to find him and I'm going to finish him. It's His fault. Harry calmly set down his guitar and reached down in his pocket, withdrawing out his eleven inch holly and phoenix feather wand, running his long finger up and down it. "And you, my friend, are my connection." He muttered to himself.
Just the door swung open. "Oi, Harry.. what are you doing. It's time for the feast, let's eat!" Draco called out from the doorway.
"Right, coming." Harry said, all traces of the built up fury not evident in his calm voice, as he stood up and headed with his friends off toward the Great Hall.
A/N Ok, so i've started back on this fic again. Hopefully I'll update soon. I know not much happened in this chapter, but at least i've started writing again. Please R/R