Mastermind
by Teddylonglong

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC.

It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Reviews are very welcome, as they inspire my muse. Thanks a lot to the kind readers who commented on the previous chapter!


"Professor Dumbledore," Ronald spoke up, trying to remain calm. "Harry and I've become friends ever since we met on the Hogsmeade Express, and I'm not going to spy on my friend. Why don't you call Harry here on a regular basis and ask him how he's doing?" he suggested, turning his head to the phoenix who began to trill an encouraging melody.

"Very well," Dumbledore replied in a much sterner voice, the twinkle gone from his eyes. "In that case, I'll have to obliviate you concerning our meeting."

Before the old wizard even reached for his wand, Ron wandlessly and silently brought his protection charms up, noticing in relief that nothing happened, when the headmaster cast "Obliviate."

Having studied what the after effects of a memory charm were, he looked at Dumbledore feigning a confused expression, before he excused himself and left the office, feverishly thinking what he should do, as he returned to the common room.

'I'll speak with Croaker,' he finally decided.

HP

"What did Dumbledore want?" Harry enquired, who was sitting in the common room studying together with Tracey and Daphne.

Ron shook his head, not even having to feign confusion, as he was just engrossed in a mental conversation with Croaker. "I don't know," he finally said, matter-of-factly. "He's totally strange."

"That he is," the girls agreed, unconditionally, while Harry cast him a surprised look.

"I thought he was so well respected in the magical world," he commented in a small voice.

"That he is," Daphne agreed.

"Because he's a meddling old coot," Ron added, feeling extremely angry at the old wizard.

"Who's a meddling old coot?" Draco enquired, as he passed behind their table. "Dumbleduck?"

"Yeah," Ron confirmed and made a sudden decision. "Let's gather all the first-years in Harry's and my room, and I'll tell you what he wanted," he suggested, thinking that it might be safer for everyone to know. 'Who knows who Dumbledore is going to ask instead.'

HP

Five minutes later, Ron checked Harry's and his room for possible spying spells and vanished two before casting a silencing spell around the room.

"He asked me to friend Harry and spy on him, and even offered me payment," he admitted, casting Harry a hesitant look.

"What?" Harry blurted out in disbelief.

"Well, you're the boy who lived," Draco spoke up, smirking, "but still, it's unbelievable."

"When I refused, telling him that we were friends anyway and that I wasn't going to spy on my friend, he tried to obliviate me but somehow failed," Ron added, grinning.

"Well, we'll just have to be extremely careful around Dumbledore," Blaise said, pensively. "Should we tell Snape about it?"

"Better not," Draco replied, sighing. "Severus owes Dumbleduck, and we can't be sure that he'd keep it from him."

"Dumbledore has tried to manipulate Harry's life from the beginning," Ron said, angrily. "He placed him with abusive relatives who hate magic. Maybe it would be good if he had an adult at Hogwarts who'd look out for him."

"I'll go and speak with Uncle Sev in private," Draco replied in apparent determination. "He's my godfather, and maybe he's willing to swear a wizard's oath to not inform Dumbleduck about the conversation. I'll tell you how it went later on."

HP

To Draco's relief, Severus gave him the wizard's oath and patiently listened to his godson's ramblings. He remained pensive for a moment, before he finally said, "First of all, ten points to Ronald for declining the headmaster's offer, and five points to you for bringing the matter to my attention. Unfortunately," he continued, "I'm not able to do anything against the headmaster."

"I thought so," Draco mumbled, sighing. "Apparently Dumbleduck was the one who placed Potter with his abusive relatives. He didn't even know about magic until a few months ago."

"It's Professor Dumbledore, Draco," Severus said, slightly reprimanding. "The headmaster sent me to Harry's relatives' house to help him buy his school supplies a few weeks ago, but Harry apparently didn't even need my help. Someone had cast a spell or charm at the Dursleys to tell me that he went to see the Queen," he added, smirking.

"Oh, maybe that was on his birthday," Draco replied, thoughtfully. "All the pureblood first-years were invited to Buckingham Palace for his birthday."

"What?" Severus asked, incredulously. "Why would Harry know the Queen?"

"I think," Draco said, slowly, "that there's an Unspeakable in our year. The invitation was signed by 'Mini Unspeakable Mastermind'.

"That must be Weasley then," Severus quickly concluded. "That's why he was able to save himself from being obliviated. The headmaster's spells don't just fail you know."

Draco nodded in understanding. "Probably yes, although it's hard to believe that a Weasley would be an Unspeakable. That might explain why he was sorted into Slytherin then. Oh well."

"Draco, you know that you mustn't speak about this with anyone else," his godfather told him in a stern voice. "It could be life-threatening for him if people knew, and if anything happened because of you talking about the matter, you'd at least be expelled from Hogwarts if not worse."

"I won't," Draco promised, inwardly rolling his eyes at the warning.

"I'll still keep it in mind, and if there's anything that I can do, trust me I will," the professor promised. "Please keep me informed if there's anything else."

"We will," Draco replied, smirking. "Thanks Uncle Sev."

HP

After Draco had left his office, Severus remained in his seat, overthinking the most interesting conversation which he just had with his godson. 'Weasley of all first-years an Unspeakable,' he thought, incredulously, wondering if he should summon the boy and offer his help if he needed it. 'Considering that he and Harry are both snakes, maybe I should do that. I owe it to Lily to protect her son.' From the question of the Unspeakable, his mind wandered off to his first real friend. 'I can't understand why Albus was able to send the boy to Petunia anyway. Did Lily and James not make a will, even if knowing about the prophecy and that the Dark Lord was behind them?' he wondered. 'Maybe Weasley will be able to check that out,' he thought, returning to the topic at hand. 'I just hope that the boy won't obliviate me if the finds out that I know about him being an Unspeakable. Hopefully, he'll hear me out and accept my wizard's oath for secrecy,' he mused.

HP

Ron inwardly groaned in annoyance, when his head of house strode behind the Slytherin table and uttered, "Weasley, please come with me."

'Oh Merlin, what is it now?' he wondered, while he followed Snape to the dungeons, almost having to run to keep up with the professor's fast pace.

"Are we not supposed to study with our study groups after dinner?" he enquired, once they reached the Potions Master's office.

"This rule is only valid during week days," the professor informed him, smirking.

"Oh all right," Ron replied, wondering why he had missed that part, as he lowered himself into the indicated seat in front of the professor's desk.

"Mr. Weasley," Snape began to speak in a soft, baritone voice. "Usually, the headmaster's spells don't fail. If he obliviates someone, no one gets out of his office to tell the tale." He quirked an eyebrow in silent question.

"I don't know what happened," Ron stammered, not wanting to tell the truth. "Maybe I did something with accidental magic."

The professor smirked. "Highly unlikely," he commented and asked, "If I swore you a wizard's oath to keep your secret to myself, would you be willing to tell me the truth?" He held up his hand to stop Ron from replying immediately, before he continued, "I'm merely asking, because I believe that you might need an adult's help for some occasions, and I'm willing to provide assistance if needed."

Ron's thoughts went haywire. 'He knows that I'm an Unspeakable,' he realised, 'but why?'

"Excuse me sir, but who told you about it?" he asked in confusion.

"No one explicitly told me," Snape admitted, "but it came out in a conversation with my godson, who told me that a first-year Mini Unspeakable had invited all pureblood first-years for Harry's birthday party with the Queen. You're the only of the first-years who I deem capable of being a Mini Unspeakable." He raised his wand and gave his wizard's oath to not reveal the matter to anyone.

"I've been a Mini Unspeakable for about fifteen months," Ron finally admitted. He told the professor of everything that he deemed important from the fifteen months, still stunned that the professor had so easily found out about him. "Sometimes, I have to go to the Unspeakables office in the evenings, sir," he added. "Will I please be excused from the study group for these times?"

"Speak with your group and arrange that you make up for it during the weekends," the professor advised him. "You don't have to explain why you don't have time on certain evenings. Some students have Quidditch practice and are thus unable to have their study groups every evening."

"Thank you, sir," Ron replied, feeling very much consoled, as he had already spent a few hours worrying about the matter.

"Concerning your earlier meeting with Professor Dumbledore, I suggest that you consider speaking with Amelia Bones about the matter. The head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Snape advised him, causing Ron to nod his head.

"I know her, and well, I've already informed Croaker. He'll probably tell me on Monday evening if he did something with the information and what. I'll keep you updated, sir."

"Thank you Mr. Weasley," the professor said and dismissed him.

"Thank you for offering your help," Ron replied and returned to the common room, feeling strangely reassured by his conversation with his head of house.

When he let the conversation pass review later the same evening, he was still oblivious to the fact that he was going to need the professor's help rather sooner than later.

HP

On Monday evening, Ron had just returned from his meeting with the Unspeakables, when Draco entered his and Harry's room.

"I need one of you as my second," he spoke up, giving the two boys a questioning look.

"Second?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Yes, I'm going to have a wizard's duel against Finnegan from Gryffindor," Draco explained, "at midnight."

"Tonight?" Ron asked, incredulously.

"Yep," Draco confirmed.

"All right, I'll be your second," Ron agreed.

"Thanks Ron. Harry, you can still come and watch. In fact, most of the first-years will," Draco replied, smirking.

HP

At fifteen minutes to midnight, all Slytherin first-years left their common room, unaware of the wards that the Slytherin head had placed around their house to notify him if one or more of his snakes left the house during the night.

Draco led the group straight into the trophy room, where they arrived at exactly midnight. However, there was no sign of Seamus Finnegan.

"Draco, are you sure that it's not a trap?" Harry enquired, worriedly glancing around.

"We'll see," Draco replied, smugly.

About ten minutes later, Seamus Finnegan finally showed up, accompanied by Dean Thomas and the Weasley twins.

"Sorry for intruding…"

"… but we thought…"

"… that you'd need two responsible, impartial judges," the twins greeted them, causing the Slytherins to nod.

"Thanks Messrs. Weasley," Draco replied.

Shaking his head at the Gryffindors' insolence of arriving ten minutes late, Ron took his position as Draco's second, while Dean announced that he was going to be Seamus' second.

The duel began, and at first, Draco and his opponent exchanged a couple of easy spells, which Ron recognised as those which were listed in their first year Defence Against the Dark Arts book. However, when Seamus resolved to use more complicated spells, Draco began to cast dark spells.

"You idiot," Dean suddenly shouted, after Draco had hit Seamus with a cutting spell, and while Draco dodged a stunning spell cast by Seamus, sent the Expelliarmus spell at Draco.

"You're the idiot here, Thomas," Ron growled and decided to also interfere in the duel. He quickly cast a wandless and soundless stunning spell at Seamus that hit the boy squarely in the chest.

"End of the duel…"

"… Draco Malfoy wins," the twins spoke up, causing the Slytherins to cheer.

Ron quickly enervated Seamus, before the Slytherins retreated from the room, unaware of the disillusioned figure of their head of house who was lurking in a dark corner of the room. "Twenty points to Slytherin for the first-years' display of house unity," he mumbled in a barely audible voice, unheard by his students.

HP

Only a few weeks later, Ron and Harry heard from Hermione and Neville that Seamus and Dean had got lost on their way from the trophy room to the hospital wing and had ended up on the forbidden third-floor corridor, where they had to face a three-headed dog that seemed to be guarding a trap door.

'The Philosopher's stone,' Ron realised and immediately informed Croaker of his suspicion as well as about the fact that Harry's scar began to hurt every time he was near Professor Quirrell.

"Don't worry, the Unspeakables will surely be able to help you," he promised his friend. "They have the means to research and find out things."

Unfortunately for Harry, the result of the Unspeakables' research, which came out a month later, was all but pleasant for him.

"We believe that Professor Quirrell must be possessed by Voldemort and that Harry's head must be housing one of Voldemort's Horcruxes," Croaker informed Ron during their usual meeting in the Unspeakables Office. "Since we've destroyed what we believe to be all other Horcruxes, this must be his last one, and thus we urgently need to take it out before something happens and Voldemort possesses Harry."

"Oh Merlin," Ron muttered in shock.

"You told me that Professor Snape knows that you're a Mini Unspeakable, is that correct?" Croaker enquired.

"Yes sir," Ron replied in surprise, wondering how the Potions Master would be able to help.

"I shall go and speak with him," Croaker decided. "Come with me."

Together, they popped right in front of the professor's office, and Croaker knocked at the door.

"Professor, please excuse the disturbance," Croaker apologized, when Snape allowed them inside, raising an eyebrow at their Unspeakable attire. "I'm Head Unspeakable Croaker and this is Mini Unspeakable Mastermind," he introduced themselves, before he explained what they had found out about Professor Quirrell and the Horcrux in Harry's head.

Snape remained thoughtful for a while, before he asked, "Do I understand it correctly that you know how to take out the Horcrux?"

"Yes sir," Croaker confirmed.

"Then I suggest that we meet here in my office on Saturday morning after breakfast," Snape suggested. "Since I'm not certain if the headmaster has Harry's best interests in mind, we should do this in secret. If we use my guest room, Harry can remain over the weekend if necessary."

"Thank you very much, Professor," Croaker replied. "One of my colleagues and I will come here at nine o'clock on Saturday morning." Turning to Ron, he added, "Mastermind, please bring Harry here at the same time and explain everything to him, but not beforehand. We don't want him to worry about it unnecessarily."

"Mastermind, come right after breakfast, then we can explain the matter together," Snape instructed him.

"Yes sir," Ron said in understanding. "Thank you for your help, Professor."

Snape merely inclined his head, and the two Unspeakables left the Potions Master's office, contented with the offered solution.

'If that's done, then it should be possible to kill Voldemort, and if it really has to be Harry to do it, then we'll just have to make a plan and teach him accordingly,' Croaker thought to his young colleague, once they had left the office.

'I won't be able to remain very long on Saturday morning, as the Queen will be waiting for me at ten o'clock,' Ron replied.

'Oh right, I almost forgot. Oh well, Harry should be in good hands with Professor Snape,' Croaker reassured him, before he took his leave.

HP

On Saturday morning, everything went well, and while Croaker and Snape talked to Harry about the plans for the near future, Ron went to see the Queen, who was also very interested to hear everything about Harry, Voldemort and their life at Hogwarts.

While the Unspeakables were still researching how to kill a possessing spirit, something happened that made all their research useless. During the Halloween feast, a troll attacked Professor Quirrell, who was taken to the hospital wing in a very bad shape.

HP

"I'm not sure if he'll make it through the night," a teary-eyed healer informed the headmaster, only to notice in the morning that the young wizard had surprisingly well recovered. His turban was gone, and he was not even stuttering anymore.

Not fully trusting the headmaster, Poppy decided to not tell him that her patient's magical signature had changed overnight. Instead, she informed the Potions Master, who was not only a good friend to her, but also the person whom she respected and trusted most.

"His magical signature has changed?" Severus asked in disbelief, before he explained that Quirrell had apparently be possessed by the Dark Lord. "That can only mean that the Dark Lord has taken over Quirrell's body," he added, pensively.

"It's the only reasonable explanation," Poppy agreed. "What are we going to do? Shall we inform Albus?"

"Please give me some time. I'll speak with the Unspeakables and ask for their advice," Severus replied, thoughtfully. "I'll inform you as soon as I know more. For the time being, please find a plausible sounding reason to exclude Harry Potter from his Defence Against the Dark Arts class."

Poppy let out a snort. "Find something that still allows him to fly but prevents him from attending Defence Against the Dark Arts?" she asked, frowning. "That's not easy."

"I know," Severus replied, sighing, and promised, "I'll think about the matter as well."

HP

During the first-years' Flying class, his Quidditch captain, Marcus Flint, had observed the new first-years and had decided to bring Harry Potter into the Quidditch team as their new Seeker, and Severus had efficiently managed to convince his colleagues to abolish the rule that first-years weren't allowed to be on the house teams.

Severus had observed his team's practice a couple of times and was convinced that Harry Potter was the best Seeker that Slytherin would ever be able to get in the foreseeable future. 'We have to think of something else. I don't want to pull him off the team,' he mused on his way back to the dungeons. He decided to seek out the Unspeakables' assistance.

"Cicero," he called his house elf, once arriving in his office. "Please call Messrs. Weasley and Potter here," he instructed the elf, pondering the situation while he was waiting. 'The Dark Lord at Hogwarts in person, not only as a spirit,' he thought, when a suspicion crossed his mind. He hurriedly rolled up his left sleeve, only to realise in shock that the Dark Mark was back on his arm with full power. 'It's as black as it was ever before Harry vanquished him,' he thought, letting out a deep sigh.

HP

After hearing the story from his head of house, Ron decided to summon Croaker right away, and the Potions Master quickly re-told everything for the Head Unspeakable, only to add, "His body might still weak from the ordeal, so maybe it would be good to proceed as soon as possible."

"Very well," Croaker decided and directly addressed Harry. "Harry, I suggest the following. You join me in the Unspeakables Office this afternoon, and I'll teach you a spell to kill Voldemort, which is not an unforgivable curse. Then we'll both go to the Great Hall together, which means, you're going to hold my arm, which is very important. As long as you don't let go, you'll be invisible, which will enable you to simply cast the spell at Voldemort."

Harry immediately agreed, and Snape offered his support if it was needed.

"Thank you Professor. We'll be back here and follow you into the Great Hall tonight," Croaker replied and took Harry's hand, popping themselves away.

"I'll go with them. Maybe I can help," Ronald said to the Potions Master. "Thanks for everything, sir."

HP

During the afternoon, Croaker practised the spell with Harry and Ron on a dummy which was always used for the Unspeakables' training. After two hours of practice, Harry managed to efficiently kill the dummy that was fortunately charmed to gain full health again after a minute.

"Croaker," Ron spoke up, pensively. "I know that Harry has to be the one to kill him, but would it perhaps help if I stunned him, so that Harry could more easily vanquish him?"

"It won't hurt," Croaker agreed, smirking.

HP

'Everything sounds too easy to be true,' Ron thought, when he followed Snape as well as Croaker and Harry, who were invisible like himself, into the Great Hall. He silently cast a wandless stunning spell at the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, sensing the magic coming off Harry, when he successively cast the spell that killed the evil wizard.

A moment later, Ron and Harry took their seats at the Slytherin table, while the teachers fawned about Professor Quirrell only to realise that he was dead. He absentmindedly observed how Snape unobtrusively rolled up his left sleeve only to stare at his arm in clear horror.

'I think he's not gone yet,' Ron thought to Croaker. 'He must have had at least one Horcrux left.'