Succession
"Where you going Diggory?" Someone sniggered tripping the tall handsome boy up as he walked with a full bag through the halls of Hogwarts. He tumbled to the floor, while large teeth twisted into a grin. A grin which stemmed from the fact he, Marcus Flint had three friends by his side.
"What do you want Flint?" Cedric Diggory got to his feet in the end, he was a fifth year prefect and yet even he was a target for the older Slytherin boys.
"You know what Diggory, I'm glad you asked. Boys remind me what that little birdie said," Came his instructions, and indeed the two round faced, well built boys chuckled but obediently answered.
"He said some puff was giving our brothers in the fourth year detention." The first barked, all of them were facing Cedric with a gleam in their eye, a sadistic one which many Hufflepuffs had faced before. Though all of them had learned to stay not to run, running made you something to hunt, running made you exciting; staying at least meant they would leave you alone for a while. Though Cedric knew he was a target, a prefect and someone who was able but had never once fought back. Years of prior abuse by other Slytherins had ensured that.
"Yes some puff, now I don't really know how many puffs became prefects but we've only been here a week. I'm worried some of you have forgotten how this school works." Flint spoke as if he was speaking to packed audience of supporters.
"Can't have anyone forgetting the rules." One of his cronies commented shaking his head from side to side with a disapproving tone.
"So we thought we'd have a chat right boys, but then you were rude. It doesn't bode well, at least I don't think so."
"Right Flint, no one can disrespect you like that." The boy to his right spoke up nodding in agreement with his superior's words.
"Exactly, because now I'm getting worried you lot are getting a bit big headed." Flint continued in his domineering tone which he took delight in using.
"We don't answer to you." Cedric groweld and that's when he knew he had made a mistake, they wanted him to fight back, they wanted a reason to fight.
"Oh really? Well maybe we can convince you otherwise, right boys?" The way he said that was a threat, a threat Cedric knew would come true.
"Three against one hardly sounds fair." A voice all of them had fleetingly heard before filled the hall, it had been empty which was the reason the boys had chosen it but now they turned. Turned to see a boy in his third year who would be almost unremarkable if not for the much older redhead at his side.
"And who exactly are you?" Flint boomed hoping to scare both this boy and the girl away, though this time neither of his friends would back him up. They frowned and just before they spoke it clicked as to just who this person was.
"Harry James Potter de Bourbon." His voice was ice cold and his name alone made Marcus Flint shiver, he froze. Not sure what to do.
"Do any of you know what regicide is?" Harry asked walking towards the scene while his security guard's hand hovered ever so close to her wand.
"Regicide is attempting to kill a Monarch, now all it would take is one spell, punch or kick and you might be able to start a fight. Odds are with only one of me I would lose." Harry admitted intentionally excluding Alice from his speech.
"But then I could say you wanted to kill me, the Lady Regent of my island would order your deportation and your family name would be meaningless." Harry spat lowly, his voice a whisper creeping through those opposing him.
"I have ultimate power over sentencing and I would see you found guilty of Regicide under the grounds of no facts, I would then sign your warrants for execution but I would be fair. You can choose now, do you want the gallows or the guillotine?." Harry spoke so softly it seemed to chill the very air.
"Or you could turn around and walk away now, and we all forget this." Harry offered and after a few long seconds of glaring into the calculating eyes of his opponent did he see the result. All three of the boys turned around and sulked away.
"This isn't over Diggory." Flint vowed and Harry said nothing, only letting out a relieved breath when they were gone. Alice was glaring at him but she would be dealt with later,
"Thanks." Cedric muttered after a moment looking down towards the floor "My Lord."
"Harry please, are you ok?" Cedric seemed surprised by his genuine concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Harry noted his surprise but did not say anything about it, "Why didn't you fight back?"
"Because doing that makes you a challenge, they'll come after you." He warned and noted the woman behind Harry, who was stood clearly apart, stiffened.
"I'm sure they will but I think another little speech on what I could do to them might just shut them up for that little bit longer." Harry smirked and was met with a curious stare from the older boy.
"Could you actually have that done to them?" His question seemed reasonable but Harry did not answer, he would rather everyone suspect he could do it than one person realise he could not. His Grandmother would of course be furious if someone gave him trouble but she would condemn a person of good blood for a mistake, at least a childish mistake; the woman had condemned hundreds of people in her time, some of whom were noble stock.
"Why did you help me?" Both Harry and Cedric had been walking for a few moments before the question was asked.
"You shouldn't have to take that, no one should." Harry answered thinking, the girl; Luna had been more right than he knew. Slytherin targeted Hufflepuff on a mass scale, making sure they didn't fight back, keeping them weak.
"Most of are used to it." Cedric sighed in a defeated, rejected tone.
"You've tried to fight back before." Harry muttered and while he got no answer he could see many of the younger years trying to stop Slytherin, trying to fight back and then as the years went by they would lose the will to fight. Stopping all threat.
"Why doesn't any of the other houses help?" Harry wondered aloud, he was talking to Cedric particularly but the boy answered.
"They don't want Slytherin to turn to them next." Was the answer but Harry didn't see it like that, there was something he had missed, something he wanted to find in the boy's words.
"Whatever their reasons why does no one fight back? I mean surely not everyone in your house can be compliant in this?" Harry asked, Cedric smiled sadly and cast a single glance towards the floor.
"Not everyone is ok with it, we often talk about rising up and fighting them the but the people who don't get picked on because their either too big or too well connected don't want to make themselves a target. The others who don't get the full force of it don't want to get any more involved and everyone else is a target and its normal. The worst we ever do is tell a teacher and then Snape does a quick speech to both houses how it needs to stop and that's it." Harry noticed Cedric was shrugging, there was an air of defeat about him but it didn't seem too strong. Harry had seen a flare of resistance only a few moments before. Maybe it could be exploited.
Great Hall
"Hermione." Harry caught up with her at dinner in the end, the girl had not spoken to him or even acknowledged him beyond the odd nod. The girl seemed surprised he was actually talking to her and it seemed most of her fellow Gryffindors were just as shocked.
"My Lord," She reverted to that then
"Harry please, look can I talk to you?" He asked, he needed to talk to a Gryffindor about all he had seen and she was the only one who had an insight into the house that he knew off, and a person who didn't kiss up to him of course.
"What about?" She asked looking ready to scamper away "you really don't need to talk to me you know."
"Slytherin." Harry spoke softly ignoring her comment, she still seemed to think she was causing him some kind of trouble.
"What do you want to know?" Another voice he didn't quite recognise made him turn towards the Gryffindor table, a red haired boy was slouched on it, sitting with two others who looked interested by his presence. Harry did not have much option whether or not to talk to them, Hermione scarpered away and he took a seat.
"Who are you?" He asked first not knowing any of them, they seemed somewhat popular with the rest of their year but cocky too, and a flare of dislike went through the redhead's eyes the moment he mentioned the word Slytherin.
"Ron Weasley, do I have to say My Lord?" Came the response and yes Harry senses a cockiness to the boy but then again he was showing the blind obedience others in his year had,
"Not at all, in fact call me Harry. Who are you two?" He asked nodding to the boys on the left and right of the boy up close he found to be slightly overweight but possessing a frame which was not shameful, the other boy was dark skinned and seemed warmer than the other who spoke with a slight Irish accent.
"Seamus."
"Dean."
"Now now we've got the introductions out of the way what do you want to know about the snakes and why?" Ron asked in a tone that suggested some form of business transaction, though Harry elected to answer; he had a chance of finding out more about the school after all.
"Let's just say I have an interest in clipping a few wings." The boy seemed unsure of what that meant but he shrugged it off.
"As long as that means you're going to disrupt the slimy gits that's fine by me, now what do you want to know?" He laid back , speaking in a relaxed tone which made Harry wonder if it was arrogance and not cockiness he had first detected.
"Who do they target, the bullying ones I mean?" Harry realised he only knew about what was going on because of Luna, a self confessed outsider who floated around in her own strange world.
"Anyone they can, they're nasty all of them I mean." Harry silently noted Ron's clear prejudice.
"Not all of them." Dean corrected but was met with a shaking head,
"Hey we have one house in this school were we send all the bad eggs, they're all bad." Harry smiled at Dean, impressed not everyone shared a sense of crusader-like hatred for other houses.
"Ok, so why don't you guys stand up to them. Stop them bullying I mean? Aren't you the house of the brave?" His question was obviously difficult as it took a few long moments of consideration.
"We try, I mean if they bully one of us then we jump in. Once we had a kid with a camera who a few of them were picking on, so a few of us marched over to them and warned them off. Trust me we do stand up to them."
"So you stand up for your own house." Harry commented and the boy took this as Harry encouraging their actions.
"Of course, we even try to stand up for other houses but only when we need to. I mean it's really hard to help everyone and it's not like school's forever. People get to move on afterwards." Ron's words gave Harry a sense of familiarity, one he could not quite shake.
Azkaban Dormitory
He had been searching for nearly an hour when he found it, that feeling had persisted for longer and longer until he began scouring the library for what he wanted, then he found it.
The French Revolution Now he knew the event, well of the event as his grandmother had not wanted it to become part of the wider education for the people but she had said it would be important for him to understand it someday. Though he had read about it a few times, there was something he wanted to check, something he wanted to find.
The Great Estates , that was it. The people in France were oppressed by a number of forces, the King, Aristocracy and in many ways the clergy. The King would tax and exploit the people, the Aristocracy just didn't care and the clergy would try to force acceptance onto the people while being mostly immune from the taxing powers of the King. So why had he thought of this? It seemed odd until he began to draw parallels.
In his mind was Hufflepuff the oppressed masses? Was Slytherin a corrupt self proclaimed King lording its power over Hufflepuff? Did Ravenclaw consist of those who allied itself somewhat with Slytherin while not caring about those their ally hurt? So in theory was Gryffindor a clergy? pretending to be the enemy of Slytherin while really mostly ignoring it and only fighting to save its own interests. Harry knew he was generalising, there was good and bad within each faction but maybe his idea had merit but where did that leave him? What role did he play and perhaps that was the main question, a question he was determined to answer while being even more determined to change the world he had seen. Though the new question in his mind was simply; how?