A/N: MUST READ…well, not really. But I really have to say at least, that I HATE the House system at Hogwarts. I was thinking about it today, while coming up with a new Hufflepuff OC for a HP role play I joined and I've decided the whole think sucks. All it does is draw lines and fosters stupid rivalries that wouldn't exist otherwise.

Why is it that the Hufflepuffs are pissed with Harry in the 4th book? Because their House rarely gets any recognition. Not because they feel bad for Cedric or anything. It forms large clicks for no reason I can think of. Stupid. Just stupid.

Anyways, that's mostly it. Please don't kill me for Voldie's joke or for the way the chapter ends. I really didn't feel like writing anything at all, but my sister forced me to.

That's all folks.

"Master! My Lord!" Wormtail's muffled, reedy voice disrupted the decades of neglect and diligent spider's work.

Voldemort frowned, anger flickering in colorless eyes. There was absolutely no excuse for the annoyance!

Nagini hissed from her spot, curled up beside the empty fireplace and Wormtail recognized the warning for what it was, rearing back in fear.

"M-master," he blinked rapidly in the dim light. "Master, I f-found it."

Voldemort paused, considering his servant's words, stalling Nagini's own motion with a thought and allowed his voice to cool of its fury. "Oh?" Icicles sparkled on each syllable. "Did you?"

Again Wormtail pulled back, stuttering into silence. As Voldemort waited for him to either scrape together enough courage to speak his message or leave, he swept his gaze over the room.

Whitewashed stonework, dirty with age and neglect, provided a strange backdrop to the scenes played out here. Thin sheets of medium blue fabric hung from the walls and windows. It was silk and had probably shone and glimmered once, but no longer. Overlaying it all was a collection of furniture that was whimsical, fun and altogether too feminine.

The Dark Lord found it somewhat ironic that the only place with the comforts and view he required would be the women's solar.

But not that ironic.

And as it was he wasn't bothered by the femininity of the place, as everything beyond the general shapes and colors were lost to him.

With his physical form in shambles to the point of nonexistence focusing was…well, impossible.

No, Voldemort corrected himself, not impossible, per say. Just long, complicated and excruciatingly painful. Nothing was impossible for the Dark Lord.

Nothing.

At least not once he got his body back. Nagini hissed again, this time in angry pain, as Voldemort ground her teeth together in his rage, his mental grip unshakable.

Damn Potter. And even as he thought it, Voldemort wasn't sure which one he meant…all three had brought him down to his current state. The rest of the world cried praise to the little one, but little did they know the true events….

"P-Potter, m'Lord?" Wormtail stammered, his hands clenching against each other in anxiety.

Voldemort drew in a hissing breath. So he'd spoken aloud. It wouldn't happen again. His control would not follow his body into oblivion.

"You have news?" he snapped.

"Y-yes Master…b-but, Potter! He's th-the k-key, Master."

"The key?" he repeated. "I thought he was the Boy-who-lived."

Wormtail did not get the joke….as usual. "Yes Master. The key to returning you to your body!"

Voldemort felt something inside him begin to stir with fury. If Potter was involved, any Potter for that matter, it was all bound to go wrong! "Oh is he, Wormtail? Do tell."

Wormtail quite literally squeaked in horror as his Lord smiled down at him and the Dark Lord felt his fragile sanity fraying. Damn coward! Where is my Circle when I need them! Dammit where's Bella and 'Dolph!

As it was he had to wait a full seven minutes and twenty two seconds for his one remaining servant to gather himself enough to speak. The Dark Lord knew….he counted.

"It was in the books Master." His voice quavered again, but at least, with any luck, he'd finish what he came to say before it gave out again. And at least he wasn't stammering.

"The books?"

"From Jackle's apartments m'Lord. I thought I had it days ago, but then it panned out to nothing again so I didn't say anything, but then I found it. The way to make it work!"

Voldemort calmly let Wormtail ramble. While nothing close to an academic genius, the one redeeming quality of the useless creature was his ability to retain a terrific amount of knowledge at once. What came out of his mouth was only a distilled version of it all.

"It's really just a spell to return something stole from you where you bring together the person stolen from and the person who had stolen the item and cast a potion over both alone with a simple spell…but it wouldn't have been powerful enough to bring back your body because your body doesn't exists elsewhere in the physical world. But as I read through those books on blood magic I found it-"

"What books on blood magic!" Voldemort cut in, frowning again and trying to remember.

"There were four of them wrapped in brown paper with the name 'Alex' on it, Master, along with a note saying, 'I hope these will help to complete your collection.'"

Sitting in his chair Voldemort watched Wormtail for several nervous minutes before the other realized he was supposed to continue.

"Erm…uh.. oh yes. In the books there's a potion that will combine part of you with the willing offering of flesh by someone else to create a body, then you do the stealing spell and it will return that body to you. And Harry Potter is the key because without him we can make you a new body but we won't be able to give it back to you."

It was, towering, majestic and powerful. It was home. And he was Lord Bellmonte, king of this castle. The Great Foyer was a favorite place of his at this time of day, huge and half full of shadows. Echoing in its emptiness. He smiled as the silence of it enfolded him.

"Franklin!"

Most people would've asked if their loved one was home, but not his wife. She demanded that he be there. His smile widened into a grin, which he covered with his hand. "Yes my love?" he called, already moving towards the Library, where her voice had come from.

"Franklin," she said softer, looking up from the book she was reading, "how was your day?"

"Thrilling."

Deanna sent him a Look at his wry tone.

"I spent the day with Lucius," he leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms, "did you expect me to have fun?"

The fading sunlight softened her hard edges as she shook her head and Franklin once again found himself thinking wistfully about other children. But he knew better by now. It was the price one paid for marrying a Bellmonte. You spent the rest of your life living by a bunch of rules even they hated.

"And how is Lucius?"

It was his turn to send her a Look. "You needn't ask a question if you already know the answer, darling mine."

"Tell me anyway."

Sighing he crossed the room and joined her, picking up a small cookie from her cold tea tray. "He has been acting exactly as is normal for him these days. Which is to say, strangely." Franklin frowned. "Jumpy isn't the word, but it's close. He seems jumpy, agitated, on edge…but excited also. Like he knows something is happening and he isn't sure if it'll be good or bad."

Deana nodded slowly, frowning herself. "Narcissa is much the same, though I think she hides it better."

"Lucius always did have his emotions on his sleeve."

She smiled nostalgically. "True. A pity he doesn't have any better emotions to show these days."

"Jackle's murder shook him up. It shook all of us up." Franklin crumbled the cookie to bits and let them drop back onto the plate. "That anyone would dare kill such a man."

"He was under our protection," Deana said bitterly. "ours, the Malfoys, the Zabinis. I think even the Cromwells championed him. He was one of us, or near enough. That should have been enough!"

"It should have." He agreed. "But it wasn't. Somewhere, with someone, we lost the power we had."

"Not for long!" It was a promise. Revenge was in the air and Franklin almost flinched at the blazing fury in his wife's eyes. Someone, somewhere would pay for this.

"It's also disturbing that whoever it was, they knew about his personal books. The Aurors didn't. they reported that 'nothing was missing'. The fools."

The subtle change in top worked better than he'd hoped, Deana latching onto it.

"And Alexandria, will she be held up without those books?"

"I doubt it. She was merely thinking ahead and ordering the books before she needed them. That's why I was picking them up for her."

"Mmm. Our daughter."

Franklin felt a flash of apprehension about his only child. "What about her?"

"I've been hearing rumors lately. About her. About her actions at Hogwarts of late."

"Rumors only." He pointed out, "What sort of supposed actions?"

"For one thing she's taken an interest in Tania Dethart."

"Dethart I know but Tania is…?"

"Kent's youngest. The only girl."

"I see." He trailed off on purpose, 'considering' the issue.

"She knows what kind of social climber that man is, Franklin! Don't insult my daughter's intelligence with your silence."

"Of course, Deana. Alex knows enough to keep her head….but that's not what has you concerned."

"No."

She said nothing, glaring death at her teacup. He fought growing worry and waited for her words.

"It would seem," she said finally, "that Alexandria may be getting…involved with someone."

"Who?" Franklin Bellmonte snapped.

"Draco Malfoy." Lady Bellmonte smiled coldly.

"Ah." And, as it sunk in, he began to wonder if she really would be able to keep her head.

"I'm going to order dinner." Deana said, standing and sweeping out, calling for the kitchen elves.

Outside the huge windows the sun was finishing its race for the horizon and in the dark a stray bit of poetry popped unbidden into his head.

Do not speak to me of hell

Until you hear this tale I tell

Darkest night

A soul's Bain

Listen well

This tale of pain

Strangely it seemed appropriate.

"So…how do I look?"

Alex threw her head back and laughed at the sheer absurdity of the question. They'd put two days into the preparation for their plan, which, boiled down, meant this look. It was plotted, planed and designed to perfection and once they applied it, their goal would be handed to them on a silver platter.

Walking down the stairs into Common Room was an experience, or rather the arrival in Common Room was. Somewhere between glancing up to see who was coming and registering the two of them every male mind in the place stuttered to a halt.

Alex' hair was hanging loose, slightly rumpled with a hint of messy, falling down around her shoulders and emphasizing the hint of pink in her white cotton shirt. The shirt itself was tucked into tight black jeans that were stylistically worn in places to make them look comfortable. The black belt had a hint if silver stitching in it and she was wearing her three-inch heel boots.

It was, by far, the most "Muggle" outfit she owned, and one Pansy had helped her put to together. The point was to put together something that departed so radically from the elegant sophistication people expected from her.

And Pansy was something else entirely. Her deep brown locks were pulled up in something that looked simple, or would have if Alex didn't know that they'd spent forty five minutes getting it right, and left just a few wisps to frame the other girl's face. A black yarn-lace poncho covered a sleeveless red turtleneck and draped down over the waist band of the black gypsy styled skirt covered in red roses. It softened her hard look and all of a sudden they were the girl next door.

The very hot girl next door.

And considering that the boys of Slytherin were used to facing Ladies who could take them in a fight, it was really no surprise they reacted like that.

That didn't make it any less amusing though.

Alex tapped one pink tinted fingernail against the seam of her jeans and wondered when the effect was going to wear off. Beside her Pansy threw up her hands and sighed.

"Come on Alex. We have places to be."

She nodded. "Right. Let's go."

Linking arms the two girls left the room.

"Umm…"Blaise said into the silence that followed them, "when did those two stop hating each other."

"I…don't think they have, Zabini." Draco replied with a hint of fear. "I think they're just plotting something."

"Well, make them stop!"

"Would that I could. I don't think I could take even one of them right now."

"Neither could anyone else." A seventh year boy said soberly, completely missing the silencing look Tara Cromwell was shooting him. "And if they keep it up I think we should get Professor Snape."

And, for some reason none of the guys could figure out, that set off the biggest round of hysterical female laughter that Slytherin house had seen to date.

"I hate Divinations. I hate divinations. I hate Divinations."

Hunter looked up from his book and sighed. "Repeating your motto in life is not going to make the homework go away, Eddie."

His friend looked up and glared half-heartedly. "So? I hate divinations. That woman is a total nutcase."

Behind Eddie two vaguely familiar figures paused in the door to the Library, two pairs of eyes sweeping the room. Spotting his group they looked at each other, said something at the same time and walked over.

As they came nearer he finally figured it out. It was Pansy Parkinson and Alex Bellmonte…sorta. They were dressed normally, but somehow…they weren't.

No, Hunter thought to himself, they were dressed like normal people, not "normally".

"Hey guys." Alex smiled as they came up. "Can we join you?"

"Why?" Hunter turned to stare at Mark for the rude comment and saw a very interesting look on his face.

"Wh-" it certainly took the girl aback. She cast a look at Pansy.

"Because," Pansy put in smoothly, with a hint of annoyance in her voice, "Common Room is an absolute zoo right now and this is the only Slytherin group in the library."

"Oh Eddie, you have Mars graphed wrong." Alex leaned over his shoulder and tapped a finger against the planet chart. "If we're bothering you we'll leave."

"Oh hell no!" Eddie said suddenly, grabbing Alex's hand before she could move. "if you understand this crap, you're not leaving until I do!"

Mark started laughing and Hunter sighed in exasperation. Charlie, on the other hand, was a little more practical, reaching behind himself he snagged a chair from an empty table.

"I do not," Alex emphasized sternly, "'understand all this crap'. Professor Trelawny is an absolute fruitcake. But I do know how to draw correct star and planet charts."

"Oh good. Now fix it." He moved the chart under her nose. She just looked at him.

"Fix it…" Mark prompted after a second.

"Fix it, please Lady Bellmonte!"

"…Please…who?"

Poor Eddie looked more confused by her than the chart. Pansy leaned over as she took the chair Charlie offered her and whispered in his ear.

"Oh! Sorry. Please won't you help me Alex?"

She smiled at him, calling on her best dimple as she did. "Sure. It's easy, here, " she leaned over him again, placing one hand on his shoulder as she pointed with the other. "right there, you got the formula backwards. It's (1/16h-4)+mv5/(1612). Not the other way around."

"Really?" Mark leaned over and grabbed the page. "Bugger. I got mine wrong too."

"Would you like me to proof read it, Donovan?"

The whole table froze, every boy waiting for the typical outburst from Mark about his given name. But instead he just stood and pulled out his chair for her.

"if you would I'd be in your debt, Alex."

"Really?" she turned to look at him while sitting. "How much in my debt."

A/N: So, there we go. All done. With any luck next up will be the beginning of the Yule Ball. Keep your fingers crossed though readers of mine. Because a big Tania-Event will happen during the Ball and so Jaylyn wants us to post that part at the same time. Meaning, well, if she doesn't manage to fit everything into one chapter then I'll have to scrounge up some more filler from somewhere and maybe end up sending Blaise and Draco on a clothes shopping trip.(Oh joy! Imagine that one!) I really hope that doesn't happen.

Review.