AN: This is literally my first fanfiction. Don't expect high quality content because I certainly don't. In the future I will probably read this and think it is a piece of garbage. But right now, I am proud of it. Therefore, advice is not only allowed but encouraged. I shall also warn you, I am going to change most canon events, so don't expect the timeline to be precise.

On a happier note, please join the Haphne server! Link: discord dot gg/pKSdvJQvhU
We do several weekly activities such as a discussion club, Care of Magical Creatures lessons and and our own movie/anime club!

2nd of September 1992, Gryffindor 2nd year dormitory

Harry woke up after one of his best sleeps he could remember. And, as soon as he opened his eyes, he came to the realisation that he was already at Hogwarts. The familiarity of his four-post bed as well as the crimson curtains was his main clue, of course.

Today would be quite an interesting day. There was high chance of him having a class with one of the new teachers (professors Lockhart and Greengrass) and there was also the fact that he would be starting the whole 'rivalry' thing as well. He had read the book a couple of times, but he still thought it would be better to wing it.

He opened the curtains to see that he was the only boy awake in the dorm. He could definitely take advantage of the situation. Harry hurried into the bathroom, and prepared for a nice, long, warm shower to start his day.

When he came out, he found that Neville was already up and running, and that Dean was ushering Seamus to go to breakfast. Ron's snores could still be heard, so he threw him a pillow to cause a reaction out of him.

"Uuuargh!"

"Come on Ron, or we'll be late for breakfast." That was the best tactic he had come up with to activate Ron in the mornings, and it was proving itself effective once more.
"Okay Harry, I'm up."

He waited for a few minutes, and Ron and him were prepared for the first day of second year. They entered the common room to find that Hermione was already waiting for them, as usual.

"So, boys. Are you ready for today?"

Harry decided it was wiser for him to be the one answering. "Yes, I honestly believe we are both ready, even though someone would like some more rest."

"You know that I am not a morning person. So don't ask for miracles that will never happen."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, but Hermione answered this time.

"It may never happen, but it does not mean we should give up hoping."

This said, they all decided to go down at the Great Hall to have breakfast. That way, maybe McGonagall could give them the timetables already, so they knew what classes they were taking today.

Great Hall of Hogwarts, 5 minutes later:

Harry and his friends sat down at their regular spots. They did not enter a conversation however, since food appeared immediately. Ron may be the hungriest of them all, but none of them could hold truly civilised conversations before breakfast. Unless it involved Hermione and classes, that is.

Just as they were pondering about the new professors and their possible teaching methods, a new voice joined them.

"Ugh, I hate mornings."

"Good morning, Astoria. Sleep well?"

"Could have been better, Harry. I guess I am not used to Hogwarts yet."

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it eventually. Have a seat, the eggs and bacon are really good."

They continued their breakfast talking amicably. More and more people were pouring in the Great Hall, and all the tables were filling up nicely. Harry was in the middle of a conversation with the Weasley twins, when Professor McGonagall approached them:

"Good morning, everyone, I am here to deliver your timetables. If you could pay attention, please." She then started delivering them around the students, and she finally gave one to Harry.

"I am glad to see that you arrived at Hogwarts successfully Mr. Potter. Here is your schedule and try not to get yourself in much trouble."

Harry looked at the piece of Parchment in his hand to find out that he would have Potions first thing in the morning. It would be followed by History of Magic and Charms. Unfortunately, he wouldn't have a DADA class until tomorrow. Harry thanked his Head of House, and returned to his argument with the twins, about how much Quidditch torture Oliver Wood would set them through. Their argument was interrupted once more, by a voice that Harry had not heard since the end of last year.

"Potter what did you do?"

Harry turned around to find out that none other than Daphne Greengrass was staring at him. And by the look on her face, she was not a very happy witch right now.

"Excuse me, I don't know what you are talking about."

"I am referring to that" She said, while pointing at Astoria. Astoria was eating a sandwich and waving to her sister.

"Well, this is Astoria. I think you already know who she is, considering she is your sister and all that." The longer they spoke the more people that looked at them. Right now, Professor Greengrass was looking at them with amusement in her eyes. Daphne still answered, though.

"What I want to know is, why is she here?

"Well, she got sorted here last night, you saw it."

"I know exactly why it happened. YOU CORRUPTED MY SISTER, POTTER!"

"She was supposed to come to Slytherin with me! But nooo, mister Potter here decided that she would be better off with the Gryffs!"

"I will get you back for this one Potter, mark my words! Come on girls, we are leaving."

She said this to the two girls behind him, Parkinson, and Davis. Having studied the book, Harry deduced Daphne must have declared them her goons, decided to help her against Harry. Or at least that is what the book said. Harry could not think about it that much, since Hermione had already started her process of interrogation.

"What happened Harry? I did not know you were on speaking terms with her at all. And what does she mean by corrupted Astoria? What did you do already?"

"Well, Hermione. Going by order: Greengrass just yelled at me for apparently disrupting her plans of a happy family at Hogwarts. I met Astoria yesterday on the train, and we just had a nice conversation about the Hogwarts houses. As for what I've done, I entered a rivalry contract/agreement with Daphne Greengrass at the end of last year and convinced her sister to join our house. Does that answer everything?" He wouldn't mention that he was in possession of an owl capable of murder, but he was sure that he hadn't done much else apart from that.

"Yes, it answers my questions, but I only have more doubts now. What happened with Malfoy? Weren't you in a rivalry with him already? And what do you mean by contract/agreement?"

"In order again: I got tired of Malfoy and his whole 'wait until my father/Snape hears about this' act. In addition, I don't think he is even able to take a piss without Crabbe and Goyle guarding him. I was not in a rivalry with him because he never bothered to declare himself my rival. And the agreement is just a way to make sure that none of us tries to kill the other or something insane like that."

"Alright Harry, but that does not mean we are done with this yet, ok?"

Their conversation was interrupted by Ron. Apparently, their discussion had lasted longer than expected and they would have to make a run in order to make it to potions on time. They decided to leave the argument for now and make sure to not lose points for arriving late.

Hogwarts dungeons, some minutes after that

Harry and his friends entered the potions classroom to notice that the teacher hadn't arrived yet, so they made a move for their usual seats. Harry was not able to notice his rival's glare, promising vengeance. The door banged open suddenly:

"Good morning class. My name is Persephone Greengrass, but you will refer to me as Professor Greengrass. I will be your new potions professor this year."

Harry was quite pleased for the first time in the dungeons. She may be her rival's cousin, but she didn't sound so bad.

"Today for our first lesson, we are going to do a Fire Protection potion! The instructions are on the board." The board filled itself with several lines of text, and the students began to prepare everything when the teacher spoke again:

"Before you start, I should warn you. Steps 2 and 4 are the most important ones in this process. Make sure to adjust the temperature correctly and add the ingredients in the exact order written in the board. If you do not, your cauldron is either going to melt, or explode."

All students started murmuring with each other. This was their first safety warning in a potions lesson after all. Harry once again cursed Snape, just to remember that he got what he deserved for that already.

"Alright, you may begin. You have until the end of the class."

Harry started fumbling his bag and got everything ready. This was going to be the most interesting potions class in his life.

Time-skip to the end of the class…

Harry finished his potion to a decent result. It was not the exact same colour of green as in the textbook, but it had the same soured milk smell. A much quieter class, as well as no attempts at sabotage definitely helped him. Looking around, he could see that Hermione had gotten a perfect potion (as usual) and Ron somehow ended with a grey mess. Neville's cauldron was still intact, and he even achieved a dark green potion by himself. Just as he was going to look at the Slytherin side of the class, Professor Greengrass started grading students.

"All right, Mister Malfoy. Nice colour, but both the smell and texture are off. E- for today. He seemed about to respond, but a glare from the Professor shut him up.

"Mister Longbottom. Not as good as Mister Malfoy, but clearly a pass for today. A+ for you." Most of the class thought the end was coming at that point. After all, Neville had never managed to get a decent potion before. Neville himself was so surprised, that Dean Thomas punched him because he had his mouth stuck open.

"Miss Granger, you get to be the first student with a perfect potion today. Full marks for you and five points to Gryffindor." Despite it not being her first perfect potion, it was her first perfect score; and her eyes were now the size of saucers.

"Mister Weasley, you pulled a nice effort by the end, but it was not enough today. P+. Though if you apply yourself from the beginning, I am sure you can get an E on the end of year exams."

"Now onto Mr. Potter here. Not a bad attempt at all. I was quite worried after seeing Mr. Snape's records from last year, but they are outdated. You will get an E+ today. Keep up with the good work and you can reach Outstanding."

Harry now understood Neville's feelings, considering he was on the same situation right now. He had gotten an E in Potions! Hell, it was a better grade than Malfoy! If that is what Potions is supposed to be, then he was definitely going to try this year. At least the effort was going to be worth it.

While Harry was busy celebrating by himself, he wasn't able to notice Daphne getting full marks as well. He didn't even hear her get 10 points for Slytherin either.
He was also oblivious at the glares coming from Malfoy, something that was promising a confrontation sooner rather than later.

That evening, at the Slytherin common room

Draco Malfoy wasn't a very happy kid. Yes, his parents had a lot of money, and yes, his father was very influential politically speaking. But ever since his godfather's unfortunate passing this summer, his influence at school had been severely hindered. And now he was going to show one of his detractors how things were made in the snake pit.

"Greengrass, come here, now!"

Daphne Greengrass moved towards the angry boy. She already knew the type of conversation there would be, but she wanted to get on with it as soon as possible.
"What do you want, Draco?"

"I want to know what was that you did talking with Potter this morning!"

"Well, I wanted to promise my vengeance due to my sister's wrong sorting."

"What I mean is, why would you do that? It would be my job to avenge Slytherin, due to my past with him."

"Draco, you haven't been his rival for months now, it is no longer your job."

The boy looked extremely confused, but he countered her statement:
"What do you really mean by that?"

"It's like this, Draco. You've been replaced, Harry couldn't drop you quickly enough."

"Replaced" Draco squeaked. "By whom?"

"Me, of course." Her voice hardened.

"That is impossible How would you even do that?" He questioned.

"Quite easy actually. I just had to fill in the formal paperwork and send Harry a copy for him to sign." Daphne replied. "Two days after that, I received a letter from the Ministry communicating that our school rivalry was official."

"Is that so… Wait until my father hears about this then!" Draco yelled.

"Would you look at that?" Daphne addressed her goons. "The moment things start going south, dear Draco here has to start dragging his father into his issues."
Daphne didn't stop there:

"Your father may have influence in the Wizengamot Malfoy, but you no longer rule in here. Have you not seen that most of the students in this house have lost their respect for you?"

Draco looked around the common room to find that most people in Slytherin were looking at him with hatred. The only friendly ones he could recognise were Crabbe and Goyle, who were virtually useless. Even Pansy, who always stood with him, was now clearly on Greengrass' side…

"If you have not realised it yet, it is my cousin, not your godfather, who is teaching in Hogwarts. I could make things very difficult for you from now on. So, I am going to make it very clear:"

"Bother Harry or me ever again and I assure you the beating you will receive from my goons will be a most pleasant memory for all of us. Right now, I am going to make sure the message sinks in. Girls, if you may help me, please."

At her call, both Davis and Parkinson stood next to her with their wands drawn. Malfoy did not have enough time to react before he was hit. Unfortunately, he was hit with two overpowered stinging hexes in … let's just call it the land down under. He would not be able to walk normally for the rest of the day.

3rd of September 1992, Hogwarts' Great Hall

Harry was once again having breakfast with his friends. Astoria was sitting next to him and was busy talking with a boy called Colin. Harry had found him very annoying and had repeatedly told him that he was not going to appear on any photos. Thankfully, Astoria came to his rescue before the argument heated up.

Harry was enjoying a nice slice of bacon when Hermione started talking about today's lesson:

"This is going to be great! We have an internationally recognised author who is famous for his encounters against creatures! There is no way this could go wrong; he is definitely qualified for this!"

She did not know it yet, but she had just made the greatest jinx in the history of magic.

They entered the class minutes later, and Hermione dragged them to the first row, just in front of the Professor's seat. They were soon accompanied by the earliest Slytherins, with Greengrass, Parkinson and Davis leading.

Harry had no time to ponder about it, because soon enough, the class filled up and the door closed behind them.

"Good morning, everyone! My name is Gilderoy Lockhart, order of Merlin third class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, and the Witch Weekly's most Charming Smile Award winner for five times in a row." He was not finished with his speech. He suddenly lost his smile and became serious.

"But it is not with my smile that I was able to defeat the Yeti."

"Today we are going to keep it simple. I am going to give you a test, nothing really difficult, but just to see if you've read any of my books." As he finished saying this, several sheets of paper began flying and landed just in front of each student. "You have thirty minutes to finish this test, good luck!"

As soon as possible, Harry started reading his questions, only to find himself with the most arrogant test made in this school. All the questions were about Lockhart:

1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour?

2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's ideal gift?

…All the way until…

54. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's most secret ambition?

Harry pinched himself on his arm. What was wrong with that guy? This was either a prank (even though he doubted anyone would find it funny) or that the professor jobs were not chosen by interview but a Lottery.

He looked at Greengrass to see what she thought about it, and she looked as disgusted as him. Seeing her reaction, he decided to try something.

"Pssst... Greengrass?" he whispered. She was sitting a few feet on his right, but she heard him.

"What do you want?" she mouthed.

"Want to have some fun answering this?" he asked her.
She looked at him, and smirking, she answered:

"Alright Potter, you're on."

Harry started to answer the test, dedicating the amount of work it actually deserved:

1. His favourite colour is the one he uses as his hair dye.

2. A tooth whitening kit.

All the way until…

54. To become the most moronic Minister of Magic in the History of the country.

Harry smirked at his last answer, and was quite proud of being one of the first to finish. Hermione was actually bothering, and Harry suspected (even though he wished it was false) that she held some feelings for their new Professor. Ron hadn't really tried at all and with all honesty, Harry could not really blame him. Just as he finished looking around, Lockhart picked up the tests.

"All right everyone, time is up. Let's take a look…" Harry was paying attention to see Lockhart's reaction to his paper…

"Some of you should reread Year with the Yeti, I clearly state that my favourite colour is lilac. And I clearly say that my greatest gift would be peace between all magical communities. Though a bottle of Ogden's would make for a nice gift as well. You can find this in Wandering with Werewolfs." He kept commenting papers until his smile disappeared and his look turned sour.

"Some of you should do a general review of my writings…" He was clearly looking at Harry, there was no deny in that. But then, he turned completely pale, and stuttered.

"Yeeah… S-S-Some of you should re-re-review everything yeah…" He shot a look at Greengrass, who was currently looking very smug.

He gave a couple more comments, but Harry only paid attention to one person: Daphne Greengrass who was mouthing at him: "I win this round, Potter."

5th of September 1992, Hogwarts Quidditch pitch

Harry was currently sitting in the locker room with the whole Gryffindor Quidditch team. At this moment, he was probably the only one awake (apart from the captain, Oliver Wood). The reason why this happened is that Oliver had the brilliant idea to start training at 6, before the sun even rose. He was now trying to explain the new tactics he had come up with during the summer, but Harry couldn't make out anything. Katie Bell was reclining herself against the wall, completely asleep. Angelina and Alicia were using Fred and George as pillows respectively. And the twins had been the first to fall asleep, giving up after 30 seconds of Oliver talking.

So, a few minutes later, when Oliver finished, he had to wake them all up. None of them was on any condition to play Quidditch, but they were hoping that the breeze outside would help them stay awake. Just as they came outside, Harry heard Ron asking:

"Hey Harry, have you finished yet?" He did not know how to react, so he replied with honesty:

"Finish? We haven't even started yet!" He was not in the mood to talk, and he just wanted everything to be over right now.

Before they could even react, he heard a voice from behind him. "What are you doing here Wood?" They turned around to see Marcus Flint and the rest of the Slytherin team looking at them.

"What about you, Flint? I reserved the pitch for today!"

"Aaaah, Wood. But I count with special permission from Professor Greengrass to use the pitch today. Here look." He handed Wood a piece of parchment and he started reading:

"I, Professor Persephone Greengrass, allow the Slytherin Quidditch team to use the pitch today 5th of September 1992. This permission is granted due to the necessary training of their new seeker." Once he finished reading, Wood asked another question:

"New seeker? Who is this new seeker that requires training?"

"That would be me." Harry was surprised, but not disappointed, to hear Daphne Greengrass answering to Wood. "Plus, we all have to adapt to the new brooms Malfoy's father got us."

Harry could not really believe this so he spoke for the first time:

"How did you convince him to pay for all of this? I don't think he would give these gifts for free right?"

"Dear Draco was supposed to be seeker Potter, but since I kicked his arse so hard in the trials, I will be seeking instead." This commentary fell into Harry's expectations, and he had to give it to Greengrass, she was taking it really seriously. So he decided to warn her.

"If you expect me to go easy on you then keep waiting. I am going to make sure to beat you, even if it's the last thing I do."

She responded by saying: "Alright Potter, do your best."

8th of September 1992, location unknown

Ginny Weasley was currently walking towards the bathrooms. However, she was not the one taking the decision, and she was not the one in control of her body either.

Tom Marvolo Riddle was smirking. Well, he would if he could, but spirits trapped in diaries can't do that. The possession had finally been achieved, and today, he was controlling Ginny for the first time. He could now get to the Chamber and liberate his monster to purge the mudbloods and traitors once more.

Some minutes later, location still unknown:

Ginny Weasley was speaking to the monster. But the voice speaking was not hers, and the language spoken was not English either. Said monster had received an order to attack, and she would do as commanded.

The monster came out of the pipes for the first time in over half a century. Everything looked the same as the last time. As soon as she left the bathroom, she was smelling something…
She was smelling prey. Master had asked her to attack, and she was now going to follow the order. She opened her eyes and literally petrified the closest living being.

Ginny Weasley, or more accurately Tom Riddle, was feeling pleased with himself. The plan had gone accordingly. The attack had been successful, and despite not getting the correct target, the message would still be felt. The writing would be the perfect icing to the cake.

His first steps to return to his body had been completed. He only needed time, and hopefully he would be able to get himself a body, and claim his spot in the world, as Slytherin's Heir.