Chapter Five: Classes and Revelations
Sure enough, just after breakfast the next morning, Raiden found himself being escorted by Emma to Professor Snape's office. They were quiet on the way down, Emma knew that Raiden wasn't in trouble but she was curious as to why Snape wanted to talk to him on the first day. She knocked on the door and then gave Raiden a small push when the door opened.
"Go on Harry, he won't bite" she said softly, before blushing as a voice from inside said, "Much" in response to her comment. Raiden held in a smirk and entered the office, looking around curiously. The various pickled items almost made his stomach return his breakfast but he kept control of it by a narrow margin.
"Mr Potter, sit down. I trust you had a good night's sleep," Professor Snape asked. Raiden nodded wordlessly, trying to get comfortable. Snape noticed this and subtly flicked his wand, making the chair slightly more comfortable to sit on.
"Thank you Professor," Raiden said, relaxing a bit but taking care to not fully relax. Snape noticed this and his curiosity went up a notch.
"What are you afraid of Mr Potter?" he queried. "I'm not about to harm you, weren't you listening to the prefects last night?"
Raiden stiffened. "I'm not afraid of anything and I was listening Professor. I was just always taught to be alert so no one can catch me by surprise. Plus, I'm always wary around those that I don't know very well yet."
"Especially adults it seems," Snape noted.
Raiden flushed slightly. "Most adults haven't really cared about me and those that have couldn't outwardly show it. My relatives didn't exactly promote the idea of trusting authority figures."
Snape was looking shrewdly at him. "Did they ever hurt you Mr Potter?"
Raiden stiffened again and hissed agitatedly. "I'd rather not answer that question Professor. I can say that they did slap me a few times, and gave me all the chores to do while their own son did none. I was also their son's punching bag while they turned a blind eye. I was treated like a house elf basically."
Snape nodded. "That doesn't answer my question of why you have Occlumency shields that rival my own though. Care to explain that?"
Raiden smirked. "Let's just say that I acquired a mentor at age eight who taught me how to use my magic. I was picking up the thoughts of everyone around me which was driving me insane so my teacher taught me to build mental shields round my mind to block them out. The fact that the shields hide my secrets as well is a bonus."
"What secrets?" Snape pressed. As Head of Slytherin, he didn't like surprises and wanted to know everything about Harry Potter before the year began.
Raiden looked undecided. "I'm not sure I can tell you. I'd need to discuss it with my mentor first before I tell you," he said, playing for time. He wanted to tell Snape, he recognized that he needed an adult ally inside the school but he wasn't sure whose side Snape was really on.
Snape sighed. "Mr Potter, can you tell me in vague terms what you were taught by this mentor without naming names? It would help me to understand the situation."
Raiden narrowed his eyes. "Fine. When was eight I had done all sorts of accidental magic, and I was outside doing my homework when I met my mentor. He helped me control my magic and stopped the outbursts."
"Outbursts?" Snape queried.
Raiden smirked. "I was able to Apparate to the school roof when my cousin and his gang were chasing me once, and I was levitating and breaking things when I got angry or scared. My relatives hate me because I'm magical and I wanted to learn to control the magic so it didn't break out like that. My mentor taught me that, plus how to heal myself when Dudley and his gang beat me up."
Snape put a quill on the table in front of Raiden. "I suspect you were taught more than healing. Try levitating this, wandlessly."
Raiden looked at him and then smoothly levitated the feather before banishing it and summoning it back. He then sent it in an upwards spiral before causing it to become invisible and then visible. After that he let it settle back down on the desk.
"Does that answer your question sir?" he asked respectfully.
Snape was working hard to hide his shock. Once he'd got himself under control he said, "OK, that's one reason you've got good Occlumency shields. What else?"
Raiden raised an eyebrow and then Snape felt a slight pressure on his shields, before his student smirked at him and said, "Did you have a feud with a group of students that included my father?"
Snape now lost all composure as he stared at Raiden. "How the hell did you get in, you shouldn't have been able to…"
Raiden grinned. "That pressure you felt was me exiting. I can get in relatively easily but I'm not quite as skilful with the exit. Sorry."
Snape was shaking his head. "Mr Potter, no one has been able to do that to me, not even Voldemort. Kindly don't make a habit of this, people's thoughts are supposed to be private. Is this all the secrets that you're hiding in there?"
"Nope but I can't tell you the rest until I know you better. Oh, and you don't want to know what I'll do if the Headmaster finds out about this."
"Threats Mr Potter?" Snape asked silkily.
Raiden shook his head. "No, Professor. Promises."
Raiden rose and left, after getting a nod from Snape that gave him permission to do so. Snape watched him leave, thinking that Raiden was going to be as much trouble as his father, just in a different way.
Raiden was heading back to the Slytherin common room, thinking furiously. He had to speak to Voldemort soon but how? He couldn't blow Quirrell's cover or his master would be extremely displeased and Raiden didn't want that. If there was one thing he hated doing it was disappointing or annoying his master. Shaking his head he found himself standing in front of the Slytherin common room entrance.
"Gryffindors are morons," he muttered. The wall slid aside and he entered, sitting down on the couch, and frowning as he tried to work through the problem. He looked up when he sensed the presence of Draco and Daphne in front of him.
"Hi guys," he said.
Draco sat down on one side, with Daphne on the other. "What's going on, we heard that Professor Snape wanted to talk to you this morning. Is it bad news?"
"No, it wasn't. He just wanted to ask me a few questions. It's nothing bad don't worry," Raiden said reassuringly.
Draco smiled. "OK. Do you want to go exploring? We might run into a few mudbloods we can harass."
Raiden winced. "Don't call them that please" he muttered. Seeing his friends' shocked looks he snapped, "My mother was muggleborn alright. I shouldn't have called Hermione that, it's basically insulting my own mother."
"Fine" Draco grumbled. "Why did you say it on the train then, if you don't subscribe to that viewpoint?"
"I wanted her to leave and said the most hurtful thing I could think of at the time," Raiden admitted sheepishly. Getting up he stretched before continuing, "I think a wander is a good idea. Get acquainted with the layout of the castle before lessons tomorrow. Let's go."
Draco and Daphne joined him readily enough and the three first years had fun exploring the castle. They never went up to the third floor though, just navigating the maze of lower corridors was confusing enough, and when they finally found the Great Hall again after two hours of going round in circles, they were happy to collapse at the Slytherin table, exhausted.
"Phew I'm glad the prefects are going to show us the way to classes," Daphne muttered. Draco and Raiden nodded agreement, not yet recovered enough to talk. They sat in silence for a few more minutes until Raiden spied Hermione Granger walking into the room. Without saying anything he got up and walked over to the Ravenclaw table, hoping to make friends with her. She seemed like she'd be good with research and other book type things given her obsession with books.
"Hermione," he said, not allowing the nervousness he felt inside show itself. Hermione looked up, and her expression became guarded upon seeing the boy who had been so horrible to her on the train.
"Yes," she responded coolly.
Raiden winced and then said, "Can I sit down, I'd like to talk."
Hermione was shocked, but reluctantly agreed . Raiden sat with a smile and then shocked her even more by saying, "I'm sorry for what I said on the train, I didn't truly mean it."
Hermione threw Draco's same words back at him when she spat out, "Then why did you say it?"
"I said it because you barged in on us and then went on and on about how famous I was and how excited you were to meet me and everything without thinking that I'm only famous because of my parents' deaths and furthermore, that it might be a touchy subject for me. I wanted you to stop and go away so I said the most hurtful thing I could think of at the time."
"OK I accept that, but what caused your change of heart, apart from that reason?" Hermione asked curiously.
Raiden gave her a crooked smile and replied softly, "My mother was muggleborn, insulting you is like insulting her and I refuse to do that."
"What about Ron Weasley then?" Hermione asked.
Raiden snorted. "He has been nothing but insulting to the first real friends I've ever had, Hermione, and he has immediately decided that I'm evil just because I'm a Slytherin. I'm not going to put up with that." Raiden frowned, remembering the hateful glare the redhead had shot at him and the muttered whisper of "Traitor" and other insults as he walked past the line of unsorted first years to get to the Slytherin table the night before.
Hermione nodded, and then looked rather nervously over towards the Slytherin table where Draco and Daphne were glaring at her. "Um, Harry your friends are glaring at us."
Raiden looked over and shrugged. "They'll get over it. They knew I was going to try making friends with you, I think they just want me to go back to them instead of spending a lot of time here."
"Are you going to?"
"Maybe. I want to know something first. Slytherin and Ravenclaw have a neutral history together, do you want to be friends and bridge the House barrier?"
Hermione grinned and then said "Yes."
Upon hearing that, Raiden grinned and rose, saying, "I'll see you in classes then, and prepare for grade competition." Hermione gave him an answering grin and then Raiden walked back over to the Slytherin table, sitting down just as lunch started.
"Harry why were you talking to her?" Daphne hissed. Raiden glanced over at her with an amused smirk and replied, "Jealous Daph," he teased. Seeing his friend's glare he sobered and continued, "Seriously, I'm not about to turn into a Ravenclaw. I just think that she could be useful in the future, and she's a Ravenclaw, they're supposed to be almost allies right? There's no sense in alienating a potential resource. And I felt bad for insulting her earlier. I'm not about to suddenly be friends with every muggle-born."
"OK I was just wondering," Daphne muttered, wondering why Harry talking to Hermione had set off such a reaction in her. It wasn't just the House boundaries; it was something else that she didn't know how to classify at present. Shrugging she decided to shelve that issue for the moment, and work on being Harry's friend. The boy intrigued her, and she wanted to know more.
Draco ignored the minor spat between his friends, although he filed away Daphne's jealousy for later examination. He turned to talk to Blaise, who had sat down beside him. Blaise was quiet but seemed nice enough, and Draco was interested in making as many friends and potential allies as he could. The fact that Raiden was also his friend was a bonus and Raiden was agreeable to adding Blaise into their group if he was.
"Hey Draco, get lost around the castle this morning?" Blaise asked.
He was rewarded with a growl from Draco, and a groan from Raiden. "Don't ask Blaise. Do you know what we're doing later?"
"I thought we were going to do some text reading to get ahead for classes tomorrow," Blaise replied, before digging into his meal. Raiden shrugged, it wasn't quite what he'd had planned, but it would do. He looked up as a faint ache began in his scar, and saw Quirrell making his way over to their table.
"Mr P potter, c c could I see you after lunch?" the professor enquired.
Raiden nodded and replied, "Certainly Professor, in your office?"
Receiving confirmation of that, Raiden dug into his lunch and was soon finished. He got directions to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, and was told that the teacher's office was at the back of the classroom. He found his way there easily enough, as he had a specific destination and wasn't just wandering aimlessly. He walked in to see Quirrell sitting in the office.
The professor looked up as Raiden entered, before flicking his wand, locking the door and putting up a silencing charm. With that done, he dropped the façade of the scared stuttering idiot and smirked at Raiden.
When he spoke, his voice was that of Voldemort, and his eyes were red. Voldemort had taken over his body in order to talk to his apprentice.
"Well, I see you got into Slytherin my young apprentice," he said calmly.
Raiden nodded. "Yes I have, Master. The looks on the staff's faces were amusing. What did you want to talk to me about?"
"I wanted to see whether you'd completed the tasks I gave you, and to give you some more information about this year and what to do regarding certain people."
Raiden nodded and sat down when Voldemort waved him to a chair. "OK Master, I'm listening."
"Good. Did you do the research I asked you to do?"
"Yes Master. Your name means Flight of Death or Flight from Death depending on how you translate it. My chosen name is Raiden."
Voldemort nodded at this. "Good, very good. Raiden it is then. Have you made friends yet?"
"Yes, Draco Malfoy, Daphne Greengrass, and Blaise Zabini. Hermione Granger is a tentative acquaintance who may turn into a friend later on once I trust her more."
"Muggleborn?" Voldemort queried sharply.
Raiden nodded. "Yes Master, but she is smart and will be a powerful witch one day. We need muggleborns to keep the magic gene pool from becoming too small. I recognize your grievances with muggles but really, if we allow the powerful ones to intermarry with the half bloods and purebloods, we can keep the genetic pool diverse and the magic strong. We can sort out the problem of secrecy later."
"Hmm, I suppose you're right. Just be careful with her, I don't want you telling her everything and then her turning on us later."
"OK Master I will. What did you want to tell me?"
"The Philosopher's Stone is being kept in Hogwarts, in the third floor corridor on the right side. It will give extended life to anyone who drinks it's elixir of life. If we acquire it, I can get my body back, and we can start creating our new world."
"Brilliant. I can't do much about that now so may I have the year to work on it, Master?" Raiden asked this respectfully, he knew how much his master wanted his body back, but knew that he wasn't supposed to know this information and it would look suspicious if he asked questions at this point. Voldemort nodded, he'd been following Raiden's thought processes and agreed with him.
"Yes you may. I also want to say that you may trust Severus Snape with our secrets. If he enquires again, tell him what he wants to know. He can help refine your Occlumency and Legilimency skills as well. You'll learn a lot from him if you allow yourself to learn. Apart from that, pay attention in class and don't worry about Quirrell, he stutters the way he does due to me. Just read your textbook and practice the spells in there, do them with your wand and the incantations when you're around others, and practice them wandless when you're alone. Try wordless as well if you want but that will be taught at sixth year level anyway so you don't need to worry so much about that if you're having trouble."
Raiden nodded and then stood. "May I go back to my friends, Master; I need to read up for classes tomorrow." At Voldemort's nod, he exited the room, noticing that the silencing charm and locking spell were taken down as soon as he stood up to leave. Walking down the corridor he bumped into Ron Weasley.
"What do you want, Weasley?" he sighed, not in the mood to worry about combative idiots.
Ron seethed and then yelled, "You're a traitor Potter, I'll bet you were leaving traps up here for the rest of us."
Raiden sighed again. "Listen Weasel, I know my parents were Gryffindors but the simple fact is my personality was more suited to Slytherin than Gryffindor. Your rude and insulting behavior is not appreciated. For your information, I was just coming from a conversation with Professor Quirrell about classes, and I am now heading back to my common room. Stop insulting me and leave me alone and we'll get on fine. For now, please move."
Ron glared but stepped aside. As Raiden passed him and walked on down the hall he kept alert for the tingle of magic that would signal a spell being cast. Sure enough he heard a shouted, "Furnunculus!" and red sparks shot at him. Spinning round, Raiden saw Ron with his wand out, and hissing at the red sparks that had come out instead of a curse.
Pulling his own wand he lazily pointed it at the redheaded bully and said, "Obviously you're not very bright, Weasley, so here's a lesson for you. Read the textbook before casting new spells and pay attention to the pronunciation. The curse you were trying to do is this.
Pointing his wand at his new enemy, Raiden muttered, "Furunculus!" and watched in satisfaction as a red jet of light shot at Ron. Ron froze; not having the sense to duck, and the spell hit him.
Raiden smirked as his enemy doubled over with a severe case of boils on his face and hands. Retracting his wand, he said, "You'd better go to the hospital wing, Weasley, those boils look nasty." Turning around, he continued his trek to the Slytherin common room, where he joined his friends in studying their textbooks for classes, and getting advice on History of Magic, which amounted to sleep in class and read the textbook later. They were all reading up on Potions ingredients and the different ways they could interact when dinner time rolled around. Happily they packed up their books and left for dinner, after which they had an early night as they wanted to be awake for their first day of classes.
The next morning, the prefects took them up to the Great Hall and gave them their schedules. Raiden took his and saw that it was well organized. Most classes were either double house classes, or single house. They had Defence Against the Dark Arts and Astronomy on their own, and shared Transfiguration and Potions with Gryffindor, while they had Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, and History of Magic with the Ravenclaws. Grinning, he gathered up his stuff and followed his year-mates out the door, where they all followed the prefect up to their first lesson of the year.
The week passed slowly, with the first years learning the way to classes thanks to their helpful prefects. The Slytherins couldn't help but be a bit smug when they realized that the other houses didn't appear to have this system in place, with the result that other first years had to get lost on the way, unless they asked another student.
History of Magic was a bore, and Raiden was quite happy to sleep through it, after setting up a Dicta-Quill which wrote down every word Professor Binns, who was the only ghost teacher on staff, said. The result was the other Slytherin first years wanting his notes, and the prefects commenting on the fact that they wished they'd had the sense to do that in their first year. Trasfiguration was interesting but difficult due to the mountain of complicated notes they had to take. After reading and rereading the notes, Raiden got frustrated and decided to do it his way. His way was basically imagining what he wanted changed and then letting his magic flow out his wand and over the matchstick that they were trying to turn into a needle. There was a moment's hesitation from the matchstick before it turned into a perfect needle. The rest of the class gaped at him before turning back to their matchsticks. Professor McGonagall looked at him for a moment before awarding him 20 points. Raiden was packing up at the end of the class when Professor McGonagall called out to him.
"Mr Potter, would you mind waiting for a minute please?" Raiden stopped and turned back to face her.
"Yes Professor," he said politely.
Professor McGonagall looked at him and then said, "How did you manage to do that transfiguration so flawlessly Mr Potter? Not many first years make any change at all to their matchsticks in the first lesson and you do the full thing. I'm not annoyed, just very curious."
Raiden shrugged. "I couldn't do it from the notes, Professor, so I just imagined what I wanted to happen and then I let the magic flow out my wand and it changed the matchstick into a needle. I found trying to follow the notes confusing and nothing was happening so I tried it that way and it worked. Did I do something wrong?"
Professor McGonagall was shocked at the explanation. "No, Mr Potter, you didn't, it's just an unusual way of doing it. Most first years don't have the necessary visualization skills to do it the way that you described. If it works for you then continue to do it that way, however, be warned that it won't always be this easy. As you continue to advance in your schooling, being able to visualize all the aspects of the change becomes harder until you reach the top, which is the animagus transformation. You'd better get to your next class now."
Raiden nodded politely and left with a slip explaining his lateness for Herbology. Herbology was interesting too, and Raiden didn't mind getting a bit dirty, while Draco did and protested vehemently against having to ruin his hands. This continued until Raiden pointed out the close ties between Herbology and Potions.
Astronomy was fun, although Raiden didn't like the late night Thursdays, even if he did like the chance to observe the night sky through his telescope. He thought it was funny that Professor Sinistra was half asleep during their daytime Astronomy lessons; she was far more awake at night. Raiden secretly speculated that if she were an Animagus, it would be an owl.
The rest of the classes were interesting although Defence was a disappointment. Although Raiden was pleased to be so close to his master, he thought that having a teacher who stuttered so badly they could hardly understand him was not conducive to a good education. In disgust, he vowed to read his textbook and learn Defence that way.
The rest of the Slytherins followed his lead on this, as they didn't like Quirrell either. By far the best lessons of the week were Potions, which showed Raiden very clearly why it would be a bad idea to be unprepared for class, and why he was very glad he didn't go into Gryffindor.
The Slytherins were sitting down quietly, having organized their ingredients, cauldrons and parchement and ink neatly on their work stations. Draco and Raiden were sitting together, as were Daphne and Blaise. The Gryffindors seemed nervous and twitchy being in the dungeons which was Slytherin territory. Raiden sensed Snape's presence mere seconds before he swept through the door and closed it with a bang.
What followed was the best lesson Raiden had ever had. Snape, like McGonagall had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort, and his speech about bottling fame, brewing glory and putting a stopper in death was inspiring. The Slytherins then choked with silent laughter as Snape began the questioning that their prefects had warned them about.
"Weasley," Snape snapped, "what would you get if you added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" As Ron stammered that he didn't know, Snape smirked cruelly before saying, "You don't know? Well here's an easy one since you're mentally challenged, where, Weasley, would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
Ron went red as he couldn't answer this question either. Snape shook his head and then sighed in mock regret. "Weasley, you really are incompetent if you can't even look at your copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi to find the answers, or did it fall apart due to being handed down from several brothers already?"
Turning round, Snape caught sight of Raiden's smirk and asked, "Mr Potter, perhaps you can enlighten your classmates as to the answers?"
Raiden straightened up, not wanting to embarrass his housemates, or his head of house. He mentally reviewed the Potions information he'd learnt the previous night and then smiled slightly.
"Yes sir. Powdered root of asphodel combined with an infusion of wormwood creates a sleeping draught known as the Draught of Living Death, and a bezoar is the stone found in the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons."
Snape stared at him shrewdly and Raiden felt a pressure against his shields. He reinforced them and shoved the presence away, while never breaking eye contact. Snape looked at him for a second before inclining his head slightly.
"Very good Potter, ten points to Slytherin. Could you also, perhaps, answer this last question for me, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
Raiden grinned and answered, "Certainly sir. There is no difference between them; they are the same plant which is also called aconite."
Snape nodded, awarded another five points to Slytherin and then snapped questions at random class members, trying to find out who had prepared for class and who hadn't. Once he'd finished, he set them to making a potion to cure boils, staring hard at Raiden as he gave out instructions. Raiden smirked slightly, obviously Snape had heard of what he'd done to Ron Weasley. He and Draco efficiently went to work, and had their potion bubbling nicely when Snape came round to inspect.
"Very good both of you, it should be almost finished." He then moved away to harass the Gryffindors, and as Raiden and Draco were bottling their potion there was a horrible hissing noise. Looking round, Raiden quickly levitated himself up off the floor and hissed at the Slytherins nearest them to get up onto their chairs. He himself held onto his chair to give the appearance that he'd just climbed on top of it.
The reason for this action was quite clear, Neville Longbottom, one of the Gryffindors that was the most nervous around Snape had managed to melt his cauldron and the potion was sliding over the floor. Snape snarled at the mess, before vanishing it with his wand.
Growling, he sent Neville up to the hospital wing, along with his partner, Seamus Finnegan, before snapping, "All those who were burnt by the potion go to the hospital wing. Those who weren't, finish your potions and don't melt the cauldrons."
He heard a soft snicker from Ron Weasley who was sitting just behind where Neville and Seamus had been. Spinning round he advanced on the Gryffindor, dropping his voice to a low, silky drawl that sounded extremely menacing.
"Why didn't you tell Mr Longbottom not to add the porcupine quills until it was off the fire Weasley? Did you think that you would look good if he got it wrong? Ten points from Gryffindor."
As Ron spluttered and choked with indignation, Snape turned to the rest of the class and announced that they were to bottle their finished products and bring them to the front for grading. Raiden and Draco took theirs to the front and then walked out of the classroom, along with the other Slytherins, who were all talking about how great Snape was in class.
As Raiden sat down to dinner that night, he thought that if this was what the first week had been like then he could definitely like being at Hogwarts and one other thing was certain, he loved being a Slytherin.