Once again I will post the Alternate Universe warning for anyone not quite getting it the first time.
A major thanks to all the wonderful reviews, follows and favourites I have recieved. It makes writing a lot more enjoyable to me when I get such appreciation for doing it.
To Guest, the one asking about Portia, sadly she is but a figment of imagination from a particularly crazy wizard (Perhaps, Xenophilius Lovegood?) that seemed to catch on. This does not mean that Ronald knows that though.
To Lament, more about Albus's motives will be explained later on but I hope this clears some of it up.
To an unknown, Harry does belong in Slytherin but has a whole different personality, background and mentality than Hermione. Hermione kind-off overshadows him sometimes, you'll see that backbone of his I promise.
I won't make a habit of answering reviews in this story, so this is most likely an one-time thing, but if any of you have questions you feel have to be answered please don't hesitate to ask.
So, to all those enoying the story, this is for you.
Labyrinth
The mind of a prodigy is a scary thing. Hermione Granger's however is downright terrifying.
AU. Slytherin!Hermione, Slytherin!Harry
Chapter Two
Chess pieces
"How is this possible?" Albus Dumbledore said miserably as he sagged in his chair, conjuring a glass of firewhisky with a wave of his hand.
Septima Vector raised her thin eyebrows as she leant forward over the table, resting her elbows on the finely polished wood as she watched Albus, "but Albus, surely it is not such a big problem? Perhaps the boy can change the public opinion of Slytherin? They are known as the house where You-Know-Who went to and as for such are seen as potential Death Eaters, sorry Severus."
"No harm done," Severus said as he inclined his head to the black-haired witch.
"I too was surprised at first," admitted Minerva McGonagall, "but surely he is his parents' son? Lily could have been a Slytherin for all her ambition and some of James' pranks were rather cunning. They were such lovely people, James was so chivalrous and Lily was such a sweet girl, Harry must have inherited some of that. He could be cunning and ambitious but he remains a child of two great, good people."
Severus's eye seemed to twitch for a moment as his grip on the goblet of wine in his hand turned rather fierce, his knuckles white with the force he held on to the goblet.
"Yes," he forced out through gritted teeth as his black eyes stared at Minerva, "but ultimately they were Gryffindors, not Slytherins. I'm rather glad the Potter spawn ended up in a more noble house than the house known for its blatant stupidity. And don't delude yourself into thinking James Potter was chivalrous of all things, the man was an arrogant bully and I'll be sure to wring out any such behaviour out of his progeny."
"How dare you!" Minerva bristled as she made move to rise from her chair, her hands itching towards the pocket of her robe to grab her wand.
"Enough!" Albus interfered, rising his free hand in a stopping motion as he placed his glass of firewhisky on the table, "Minerva, Severus, we shall talk about this afterwards. Now, I bid you a good night and-"
"You are forgetting something, Albus," squeaked Filius Flitwick from his levitating chair so he could see over the table.
Albus looked startled for a moment before smiling at the diminutive charms professor, "what did I forget?"
"Little miss Granger, Albus, the other unexpected Slytherin," Filius explained in is high voice, "you do remember Daisy Winters from seven years ago?"
"Ah yes," the headmaster said as he stroked his beard, "miss Winters, she was a Slytherin, wasn't she?"
"Yes she was," Snape drawled, "but her parents withdrew her from the school before the first year even ended. Desdemona Tripe nearly hexed her arm off within two months, Albus, for being a muggleborn in the wrong house. And if you remember, this is the year with quite a lot of sons and daughters of known Death Eaters, blood purists and some neutrals and I do not wish to spend my year mollycoddling some muggleborn girl. "
"Ah yes, you'll just have to watch her and make sure is well protected then," Albus said absentmindedly as he waved the issue away, not really listening to the potions master, "we'll discuss the particulars on a later date. Now, you are all excused. Minerva, Severus, please stay behind for a minute."
The remainder of the teachers hurriedly left the office, mumbling goodbyes and goodnights as they went. Once the door closed Albus left his seat to stand by the window overlooking the Forbidden Forest.
"I needed Harry in Gryffindor," the headmaster sighed sadly, "but what is done is done and the sorting hat refuses to give his reasons for sorting Harry in Slytherin. Severus, you'll watch out for the boy, right? Make sure he doesn't stray to the dark and have him connect with the more open minded families. The Weasleys, for example."
"I'll guide the boy to the best of my abilities," Severus gritted out through clenched teeth.
"And treat him well, Severus, you should really get over your pathetic feud with James," Minerva added as she sent him a seething look.
Severus glared right back, "I'll threat the Potter spawn the way I see fit. If you'd excuse me, I need to look after my students and make sure the girl hasn't been murdered yet," the potions master hissed before he walked out of the office briskly, pitch black robes billowing behind him.
"Minerva," Albus addressed the transfiguration professor with a sad smile, "try and get young mister Weasley to become friends with Harry would you? He needs connections to the light or the war may very well be lost."
Minerva crossed her arms in front of her chest as she frowned, "you believe he is back then?"
"I believe that he has never been gone in the first place."
"I'll try, Albus," Minerva said slowly as her frown morphed into a stern look which she directed at the headmaster, "but don't try to turn him into something he is not. He is a child, Albus, not one of your chess pieces. You shouldn't meddle with people's lives, I disapprove of your decision to leave him with the Dursleys and I disapprove of this." With that said she too exited the office, leaving Albus alone in the room.
Albus sighed as Minerva left the office and vanished the empty glass of firewhisky he was holding in his hand. If only they could see that what he was doing was for the greater good! If only they could understand that wild cards had no place at the complex game of chess he and Tom Riddle were playing. Harry Potter was a wild card now, instead of the white pawn he intended for the boy to be. A pawn that would reach the end of the board and transform into a queen and would defeat the black king. But for that the boy would need to be a Gryffindor! A hero! The perfect champion of the light! But now the boy was in Slytherin, where the dark reigned supreme, where he might just dabble in the dark arts and shatter all his carefully build plans. Right now the boy was a liability, a problem that needed to be resolved.
Albus summoned another glass of firewhisky and downed it in one go, the fiery liquid leaving a burning aftertaste in his mouth as he set the empty glass down on his desk.
If only Harry was sorted into Gryffindor. This new turn of events might just make them lose the war and condemn the world.
Albus sighed and lowered himself back in his ornate chair, new plans already forming in his head. He needed to know more about Harry Potter, was he light or was he dark? If he were to be the latter, he would need to be taken care of.
It was for the Greater Good, after all.
oOoOoOo
Harry found himself disliking one of his dorm mates. The pale, blonde haired boy with his expensive robes kept bothering him about why he would sit with a mudblood instead of with respectable purebloods.
"Draco," Harry began pleasantly as he sat down on the bed he claimed as his own, "if you don't shut up right now I'm going to break both of your arms."
It was Hermione's trick, she taught it to him before the whole magic mess came along, back when they were Harry and Hermione and they were special. But now, after being introduced to a whole world that was equally 'special', he felt average. Hermione told him that he wasn't a freak but that he was special and now that was taken away from him. He was one of many, he and Hermione both were, and he didn't like it at all. He was another face, another name and another grey blob in a mass of grey blobs. He was famous for something he didn't even remember doing.
He would make a name for himself, he and Hermione, something other than 'The Boy Who Lived' and 'Mudblood'.
Harry grinned as he remembered the sorting hat's words, he did belong in Slytherin after all.
oOoOoOo
The glass figurine, a snake of course, that one of her roommates had brought with her exploded in a shower of glass.
"I'm so sorry," Hermione said in a rather flat voice, "I don't know what happened! One second I was listening to you insulting me and the other …" her voice trailed off as her eyes watched the girl's faces.
"It's fine," Pansy Parkinson hissed as she stared at her broken figurine before shooting a dark look at Hermione. The pug-faced girl waved her wand around and mumbled something as the figurine reassembled itself, the glass shards merging seamlessly as they once again formed a snake coiled to strike.
Hermione just smiled an innocent smile at the girl. Her approach might have been direct and Gryffindor-like but it had to be done, she needed to show them she was not to be trifled with. She wrote their behaviour off to the sudden appearance of a muggleborn in the Slytherin house, something that happened rarely, but knew that if it continued it would be plain bullying.
And Hermione Granger loathed bullies.
oOoOoOo
"This is Slytherin house, founded by Salazar Slytherin to accommodate those whose cunning and ambition outshines the rest," Severus Snape said the following morning as he stood in front of students from all seven years, "for seven years this will be your family but there will be rules. You do not, under any circumstance let a non-Slytherin student into the dormitory. Any arguments you have will be taken care of inside this very common room lest you want to face detention. And the last rule that will be followed is that you act as a Slytherin should. This may be too much asked for some people," Severus sent a heated glare at some of the students standing in the circle around him, "but we are not Gryffindors, we do not have random bouts of sheer idiocy."
"That said, I am Severus Snape, head of Slytherin house. Any problems will be taken up to me if they are worthy of my attention, this doesnot include missing pets, miss Dales. I will not hold your hand throughout your school years nor am I a fan of blackmail," Severus shot a piercing look at a now pale-faced sixth-year boy, "if you follow the rules we will have no problems for the next seven years, if you shame the name of Slytherin however I'll have you scrubbing cauldrons until you graduate. Regardless of age, sex, money or family connections. You will find that I am lenient with any Slytherin student in my class, others are not. Do not regard my leniency as something that transfers to any Slytherin student out of class. Regardless of what other houses might think, I do assign detentions to any Slytherin student out of bounds, I am merely more discreet." With that said the potions master swept out of the common room without a second glance.
oOoOoOo
"How are your dorm mates?" Harry asked Hermione as they walked the corridors in search of the promised library.
"Infantile, petty and rather disappointing," Hermione said as she re-adjusted the sleeve of her robe, "though I have some hope that with time they will adjust their behaviour."
"Mine are the same but two or three seem decent, though their view on muggleborns is rather radical," Harry admitted as they passed a ghost and he quickly stopped, "excuse me sir, are we on the right way to the library?"
"Ah, how lovely to see such diligent students this early in the year!" the ghost, a rather fat man with a bald patch and wearing nondescript robes, exclaimed. "Yes, you are on the right way. Just follow this corridor."
"Thank you sir," Harry said as he and Hermione continued their trek.
"Radical, you say?" Hermione asked calmly once the ghost had floated away again, "how so?"
"I'd say that if this worsens it might get to the point of escalating into a full-blown war in a matter of years, especially after their brief encounter of power when fighting for Voldemort. Sooner or later they'd try it themselves without needing another psychopath to guide them," Harry admitted, "but I doubt that they would win. They might have the element of surprise and uncontrolled brutality but there are far more muggleborns, muggleborns that have access to modern technology and if somehow all the muggles got involved you can bet that they'd be dead sooner or later."
Hermione nodded with a far-away expression in her eyes that Harry recognised as her having one of her moments in which she would put that brilliant mind of hers to good use so he kept quiet.
They reached the library after a minute and were given a calculating glance from the thin woman Harry guessed to be the librarian before they were given access after which they went to sit on one of the chairs surround a table.
"Well then," Hermione said as her eyes focused on Harry again, "we better get started, we have quite a lot of catching up to do."
Harry shot her a puzzled look, not quite catching her train of thought.
"Because if we want to beat them at their own game we'll need a plan, books and information. But for now we'll just have to learn, we have years of magical knowledge to catch up to. This is a whole new world Harry, we need to map it out before we can conquer it."
oOoOoOo
Dear mum and dad,
I'm writing you this during breakfast so it's kinda short, sorry for that.
Did you know that Harry Potter is at Hogwarts this year? I told Ginny he was but she thought he'd stay at his castle with his Veela, tell her she owes me a knut! A girl on the train told me he brought his Veela and even Portia! Portia, mum! His unicorn! I was so excited, but I couldn't find them. I think they have a special room in the castle somewhere. He was sorted in Slytherin though, but I think he's there to defeat all the slimy Slytherins like he did with that coven of vampires in Norway, blending in to strike when they'd least expect it! I think I'll try to be friends with him, like you told me to, maybe he'll let me see Portia!
Oh, I was sorted into Gryffindor.
Love,
Ron.
Thank you for reading.