Emperor of Slytherin 7

Palpatine cackled once again as he ambled down the torch lit hallway towards Transfiguration as he thought of the Acklay from Vendaxa that waited inside the crate. No doubt the stormtroopers had a devilish of a time catching the creature as they were quite outgoing. Still, the students would have one heck of a lesson tomorrow. He reached the classroom and moved to one of the seats in the front. He seated himself carefully and stretched his legs out before him. He wasn't too sure what this class was about but he was eager to find out. The other students filed in and soon the room was filled.

An elderly woman with her gray hair piled on top of her head in a neat bun walked to the front of the room. She peered over her glasses for a moment and then cleared her voice. "Welcome to Transfiguration Three. I'm Professor McGonagall, as most of you already know. Today we'll be practicing turning a leaf into a coil of rope…"

Palpatine's hand shot up into the air.

"Yes, Mr. Palpatine?" McGonagall said as she focused her gaze on him. "Do you have a question?"

"What do you mean turn a leaf into a coil of rope?" Palpatine asked, clearly confused.

"Well, Transfiguration is the branch of magic where you turn one thing into another. It's what we learn in this classroom." She explained as she picked a bright red maple leaf off her desk and held it up so the class could see it. "Now if there are no more questions we'll continue…"

"That's impossible!" Palpatine snorted. "How can you turn a leaf into rope?"

"With magic." McGonagall replied matter-of-factly. "I assure you it's possible. Now does everyone have a leaf? Good. Get out your wands and say Intaglio!"

Palpatine gawked open-mouthed as the leaf turned into a long coil of rope.

Draco snickered, pleased that there was something the old zombie didn't know. But the gloated expression didn't last long as he thought of what he had seen outside. The sight of the strange vehicle coming down out of the sky had both confused and scared him. And he had heard the whispers among the other students, the one about aliens. What exactly was an alien? The blonde Slytherin scrunched up his face as he tried to understand exactly what the Muggle word meant but he just couldn't grasp it. Another word had gone along with it something called Outer Space. His gray eyes shifted to Granger who just happened to be sitting at the next desk over and he seriously considered actually asking her if she could explain it to him. The sight of the Muggles in the black-and-white armor had unnerved him and he was clever enough to realize that it could be dangerous taking on something he didn't fully understand. Yet the resentment of being beat in Herbology still lingered. So what was more important, getting rid of Palpatine or being seen talking to Granger?

"Granger!" Draco hissed as he leaned towards her.

Hermoine stuck her nose up in the air and pretended she didn't hear him. She waved her wand and pointed it at the green and orange maple leaf that rested upon her desk. "Intaglio!"

She grinned triumphantly as her leaf instantly transformed into a neat coil of rope.

"Granger!" he hissed again. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a purple jellybean and threw it at her. The candy bounced off her bushy head and clattered to the floor.

Hermoine turned her head to glare at him angrily. "Stop it!"

"What's an alien?" He asked as he leaned even closer to her, both hands clinging to his desk.

Hermoine ignored him and determinedly stared straight ahead at the blackboard. Two more jellybeans bounced off her head and she shifted in her seat to glare at him. "Stop that or you'll get us in trouble! Mind your own business!"

"I just want to know what an alien is!" Draco hissed as he focused his eyes on her. "Just tell me."

"They don't exist!" Hermoine rolled her eyes and returned her attention back to the front of the room. Professor McGonagall sat behind her desk and appeared to be looking at some piece of parchment and she was glad that their conversation had so far gone unnoticed. The last thing she wanted was to get in trouble because of the annoying git! Why couldn't he just leave her alone?

Determined to get an answer, Draco peered towards the front of the room. Satisfied that the old cat was busy, he slipped out of his seat and dashed the few steps to Hermoine. He crouched beside her desk and gripped her wrist tightly with his long slim fingers. When she turned to look at him in surprise, he glared at her. "Now tell me what an alien is!"

"What are you doing?" Hermoine cried, horrified. "She's going to see us! Go back to your seat!"

"Answer me!" Draco insisted, his voice rising. Merlin, why did the Mudblood have to be so stubborn? It was like pulling teeth from a dragon or something! Stupid Mudblood!

Unknown to Draco and Hermoine, all the eyes in the classroom was watching them. Professor McGonagall rose from her seat and moved to stand in front of Hermoine's desk. She rapped her wand on the desk's surface several times to get their attention. Both instantly turned their heads to look at her. "Mr. Malfoy! You can propose to your girlfriend later but not in my classroom! You'll both serve detention tonight!"

"Girlfriend!" Draco shrieked as he dropped Hermoine's hand and leaped away from her, horrified at McGonagall's words. "I wasn't, I mean how could you think…"

Hermoine's face grew scarlet and she wished she could just disappear. And detention! Why, she hadn't received detention since First Year! The git was ruining her clean record! She turned to glare at him as hard as she could. "This is your fault!"

"You filthy little Mudblood! If you'd just have answered the question we wouldn't have detention!" Draco shot back at her.

"Mr. Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall cried. "There will be none of that language in my classroom! Fifty points from Slytherin!"

Draco spun on his heal and started to head back to his desk, having forgotten about the jellybeans he had thrown at Hermoine. His shoe stepped on one and it rolled. His foot slid out from underneath himself and he crashed to the floor, a loud yelp coming from his mouth.

"Mr. Malfoy! Now what are you doing?" McGonagall demanded to know, her hands on her hips. "Really! All this attention seeking! Please return to your seat and stay there!"

Groaning and rubbing the back of his head, Draco crawled back to his desk. He sat down and grumbled under his breath. He'd get that Mudblood to tell him what an alien was or it'll be the last thing he ever did! She wasn't going to push him around! He was a Pureblood and way better than she was! The longer the day went on the worst it grew and he was thankful that this was the last class of the day. He didn't think he could stand another.

And it was all Palpatine's fault! If that old zombie hadn't come to Hogwarts he'd be ruling Slytherin and having it out with Potter like the previous years. But no, the old corpse had to come from Outer Space, whatever the heck that was. Well, he'd just have to send him back. Fuming, the blonde Slytherin turned his eyes to the front of the room and was momentarily pleased to see the old guy still hadn't changed his leaf to rope.

"Change! Change!" Palpatine cried angrily as he pounded on his golden maple leaf with a fist. The table shook and rattled ominously, threatening to fall apart. "I command you to change!"

Spotting the new disturbance, McGonagall hurried to the front of the room. "Mr. Palpatine! That is quite enough! You're supposed to use your wand, not your fist!"

Palpatine's red eyes stared at her defiantly, but he reached into his bag and pulled out a wand. He really didn't see how a stick was going to help him…he had never needed a stick before. He poked at the leaf with the wand's tip, the Dark Side flowing through him and into the wand. There was a red flash of light and the leaf exploded into flames. Within a moment the table Palpatine sat at also caught fire.

"AAAhhhhh!" McGonagall shrieked, horrified as her bony hands flew to her face. In all her long years of teaching there had never been a fire in her classroom. Fires in Potions or Charms, yes, but not in Transfiguration.

Palpatine pushed his chair away from the burning table and stumbled away. When he stood at a safe distance he watched the burning piece of furniture and cackled gleefully. He had never realized he could produce fire with the Force until this moment. He glanced down at the slim wand in his hand and gripped it tightly. He had learned an important lesson today and one he'd never forget, either: that a wand could focus your powers and allow you to do incredible things. And he was sure once he had mastered this new ability he'd be able to reproduce it without a wand; for he was no foolish wizard who suddenly became weak and defenseless just because someone had taken his wand away or because it had broken, no. He was the Sith Master and the Dark Side obeyed his every whim.

Regaining her composure, Professor McGonagall quickly put the fire out with a spell. But the burning table had done its damage. The room was filled with the stench of smoke and several students were coughing, tears in their eyes. Many others had leaped from their seats at the first sign of fire and they now hovered fearfully near the open door. She waved her wand to open all the classroom's windows to let the fresh air in. Glancing up, she saw a dark cloud of smoke hung around the ceiling and she frowned. The table shouldn't have burned so quickly and as she examined it now she was shocked to see that very little was left. "Class dismissed! And remember to practice that spell tonight for your homework!"

Draco was one of the first ones to hurry from the room before the stench of smoke settled into his robes. Once out in the hall and a safe distance from Transfigurations, he leaned against the wall and patiently waited. He knew Hermoine would come this way and sure enough there she was. The bushy headed Gryffindor stalked along quickly, her heavy bag of books biting into one shoulder. An angry expression was pasted to her face and she ignored the calls of her two friends who struggled to keep up to her. Draco's arm snaked out and he locked his fingers around the front of her robe, turning her around and pushing her up against the cold wall. His gray eyes narrowed and he pointed his wand at her. "You're going to tell me what the heck an alien is and you're going to tell me now!"

"Let go of her Malfoy!" Harry threatened as he hurried up to the pair and shoved his wand at Draco's cheek.

"Stay out of this, Potter!" Draco snarled as he kept his eyes glued to the girl in front of him. "This is none of your concern."

"When you threaten my friends it is my concern!" Harry replied quickly and shoved his wand harder against the blonde's pale cheek.

"It's all right, Harry. I'll just tell him and then he'll go away." Hermoine realized that was the easiest solution to the entire problem. "An alien is a creature that comes from another planet. Muggles have movies and books about them but it's all made up. They can look like anything, I suppose…"

Draco stared at her, confused. "What do you mean, another planet?"

"Well, contrary to what you believe, they are other planets. Surely you heard of Venus, Mars and Saturn, didn't you?"

He nodded and loosened his grip on her robe now that she was cooperating. "I'm not stupid, Granger! Of course I know about them!"

"Well, Muggle scientist have proved that there are other planets as well in different solar systems. These planets circle around a different star. Our sun is just another star, really. It only looks so big and bright because we're so close. Anyway, there could be life on those other planets and to us that life would be an alien. And supposedly if these aliens are intelligent and far advanced with technology they could build a ship that could travel between stars. And such a ship, called a spaceship, could come here." Hermoine explained as she warmed to her subject. "It's all quite preposterous, really. Aliens don't exist; you see them only in movies! You know, like that one that eats people and has acid for blood?"

Draco's narrow face paled. "They eat people?"

Ron and Harry had also been listening and now they exchanged nervous glances.

"It's just a movie!" Hermoine laughed at Draco's serious expression. "It's not real!"

"Like magic wasn't real until you got your letter?" Draco asked as his gaze bore into her.

The smile vanished from her face. "Well, I guess you do have a point there…"

"Of course I do! And that old guy is not from around here at all. Father would have heard about him. You saw that thing that came down from the sky. Do Muggles have things like that?"

"Well, no." Hermoine admitted. "Muggles have airplanes and helicopters. Helicopters can come straight down like that thing but then they have a big spinning blade on the top that makes it fly. That thing didn't have anything and yet it failed to crash to the ground!"

"So it really could have been one of these spaceship things?"

"I suppose." Hermoine admitted as the thought began to take hold in her mind. And it came as a big shock, too. Like when she had first discovered she was a witch, it rocked the foundation of her world. To think that aliens really existed! And that they had landed here at Hogwarts! What did they want?

Draco released Hermoine's robe as a frown appeared on his face. He had just realized he had not seen his Father in Transfiguration. "Where's Father?"

Hermoine shrugged, as did Ron.

"I saw him outside before…" Harry offered.

"I know he was outside, Potter! He talked to me while we were both out there! But he's supposed to be following that old creep around and he wasn't in Transfiguration. What if something happened to him?" Draco's frown increased in severity as the possibilities rolled through his head. He was pretty sure he had heard that aliens like to kidnap people for medical experiments. What if that big black one had kidnapped his father, the one that had made those loud breathing sounds? He had looked especially dangerous. Worst, what if the Mudblood was right and the aliens ate people? "We have to find Father! I don't want some freaking alien to eat him!"

"Draco, I'm sure they don't eat people!" Hermoine tried to reassure him. She reached a hand out to comfort him as she would Harry or Ron but the Slytherin would have none of it. He jerked away from her grasp and stalked off towards the Great Hall.

Just as Transfiguration was starting, Lucius picked himself up off the grass outside and stared up at Vader's black mask. Lucius was tall and there were not very many people taller than him but Lord Vader was one of the few. Of course, Lucius had no idea that years ago Vader had had his real legs burned off by lava and the ones he saw before him were built of steel instead of flesh. If he had been privy to such information it would have astonished him to no end but he didn't know. In fact, most of Vader's body was a machine, his limbs made from metal, circuits and wires. The Dark Lord of the Sith had more in common with Muggle cars or computers than he did with his fellow men. And this would have really shocked the Pureblood wizard; as such an idea was totally foreign to him.

"You will take me to this St. Mungo's." Vader repeated in his mechanical voice.

"Yes," Lucius nodded his agreement and stood proudly before the man. "Can you apparate?"

"I have never heard of this word, apparate." Lord Vader informed him. "You will explain it to me."

"It's when a wizard magically pops from one place to another." Lucius tried to explain and he pointed at Hagrid's hut. "For example, you could be in that house and suddenly appear here without walking the distance. I would show you except we can't apparate on Hogwarts property. It's a safety precaution."

"Ah," Vader breathed loudly. "Instant matter transportation. We have never been able to successfully develop such a process. You will tell no one else of this."

Lucius agreed. "As you wish."

"If we were off the property you would be able to teach me how to apparate?" Vader asked.

"Well," Lucius paused, unsure of what to say. His grip on his cane tightened as he uneasily stood before the Sith Lord. "It takes time to learn how to do it properly and it can be dangerous. The Ministry of Magic usually tests young adults before they're allowed to apparate."

"I assure you I'm a fast learner."

"Perhaps we should use a portkey instead…" Lucius suggested nervously.

"You will instruct me how to apparate." Vader commanded as he pointed with a black-gloved hand at the ramp leading up into the shuttle, his desire clear. "My shuttle will take us off Hogwarts property."

"Surely you're not serious!" Lucius exclaimed as he backed away from the shuttle, a strained expression on his face. Did this Lord Vader actually expect him to go into a Muggle vehicle? The idea was preposterous! He was a Pureblood and detested Muggle things. But then he remembered how Vader had effortlessly choked him without using a wand, words or his hands. But how did he know the thing was safe? He had heard horror stories of how flying Muggle things fell out of the sky in fiery explosions and a chill went down his back. A lump formed in his throat when he saw Vader stood there unmoving, his hand still pointing at the ramp. And even more unnerving was the idea that somehow this mysterious man knew exactly what he was thinking and what he was feeling; without using a curse. Forcing the lump down, he walked forward and stepped onto the metal ramp. Head held high and secure in the knowledge that his wand was hidden inside his cane he boarded the shuttle.

The inside he discovered was darker and held many seats. Strange lights seemed to blink or glow steadily everywhere while a humming filled the air. The metal deck beneath his shoes thrummed and the vibrations traveled up his legs into his body. His nose raised, he sniffed the air cautiously. A strong chemical smell filled the air; the results of both cleaning fluids and the white smoke that had hissed out of the shuttle upon landing. He spotted the strangely dressed Muggles almost immediately and one of them pointed him to a seat. Lord Vader soon joined him and then the door closed. An odd sensation filled his stomach and he correctly guessed the vehicle had taken off, as it was similar to what one felt on a broom. Before he could really start to worry about being in the Muggle contraption, the door reopened and Vader led him outside. And just as the Sith Lord had promised they were now off Hogwarts property, the entire trip taking just a few minutes.

Lucius turned to face Vader. "How do you plan on learning to apparate so quickly? It normally takes lots of practice."

"I will take the process from your mind."

A shocked expression appeared on Lucius' face but he quickly hid it behind his usual mask of indifference. "You can do that?"

"I've done it in the past with my old Master. It is how I learned to Force-jump and do many other things." Vader reassured him. "Can you apparate somewhere and then return so I may study the process?"

"Of course." Lucius thought of Hogsmeade and disappeared. When he appeared in the town near Hogwarts he seriously considered not going back to the man in the black armor but quickly dismissed it. Vader was like Voldemort and only a fool disobeyed a command from either. He had no desire to be killed so he sighed loudly and returned to the Sith Lord. He stood there proudly with his chin raised. "Well? Did you study it?"

"Yes. Let us go to St. Mungo's." Vader reached out and easily took the image of the hospital from the wizard's mind.

With a loud pop, they both vanished.

To be continued…

AN: I took a few liberties in this chapter: I'm not sure what the white smoke from the Imperial shuttles are or if it has a smell, I based the fact of Vader learning to apparate so quickly on the SW novel "Rogue Planet" where he did learn to Force-jump from Obi-Wan's mind… hope that is OK. Until next time… OH, I made the leaf/rope spell up!