Succession

"Ok Luna Lovegood, I've seen things from the outside but the question is how do I change them?" He came to her the very next morning, after spending almost all night wondering and mulling over his theory ,there was only one person who could help him the most. Luna turned to him the second he had sat down next to her.

Her eyes must have realised he was tired, in the middle of the night he had been woken up and told about a series of arrests over the night. Apparently a scandal had been unearthed and he was forced to read through a number of case files, they were not pleasant. He already had a dark feeling he would be sent papers of a sinister kind in a few days.

"You're conflicted." She stated immediately but said nothing more of it.

"So you've seen it?" She asked with a smile, her head moving from side to side in a lopsided manner, her tone reflected a sense of disbelieving that took a few moments to decipher.

"Oh I have but not just the bullying, I've seen a barrel of gunpowder. I want to know how to use it." Indeed since Cedric he realised what he was dealing with, all it would take was one spark to whip Hufflepuff into a fury but with daily bullying what was a spark?

"So you did see everything, well done." there was a tone of perhaps surprise in her voice "I did wonder if you would, but the question of a spark now that's tricky." Harry said nothing, wanting her to continue in her usual roundabout way.

"Though it's a lot more interesting, but before the answer a question why do you want to light the spark?" Her directness was disturbing somewhat,

"I don't like injustice." Harry muttered not wanting anyone else to hear him, Luna smiled albeit darkly and her eyes fogged over somewhat.

"Here's the question, are you willing to create an injustice to solve a larger one." It was an odd question but in a creeping sense Harry felt a need to answer, something which crept through him.

"I need to help Hufflepuff," he replied eventually and for a second he feared the girl would reject his answer, however she did not make any indication of either approval or disapproval.

"So the needs of the majority surpass those of the minority, an interesting outlook and one I fear might come in handy." She paused for a few moments, perhaps she had forgotten the original topic of the conversation.

"The spark." Harry stated hoping to snap her back to reality, she looked at him with a raised eyebrow; scarily it reminded Harry of the disapproving look his grandmother would shoot him from time to time.

"I know what we are talking about, but how to explain it. It is like the camel explaining the a sandstorm to its rider. Of course you know what it is but you don't feel it the way I do."

"You are no camel." Harry chuckled softly, the girl didn't even giggle.

"But you sit atop none the less." Whether her remark was intended to be a jibe, joke or anything else there was no time for it. Instead Luna Lovegood took a single drawn out breath.

"A spark comes in two forms, the first is a quick fuse which blows out in a second. That happens every day in this school, the most a spark causes is a stern telling off. Though there is another, a slow burn which finalises itself in one big boom." She whispered towards the end and said that last word in a giggle and made a popping movement with her hand. She edged slightly closer to him.

"I need the second one," Harry answered, his plan was ambiguous to say the least but he needed somewhere to begin, then the path would be clear.

"I know you do, but the question is how." she repeated his question with an air of oddity, "A confusing question, looking in we can see that they put up with a lot. So how do you get someone who takes everything to not take something?"

"I was hoping you would tell me." Harry pointed out sitting back ever so slightly, hoping that she would unlock the way forward. Luna for her part frowned deeply and looked thoughtful for a few long moments.

"I could, I know ways that would get the whole school up in arms but you tend to send the perpetrators of those actions to a guillotine so that's a no." Luna looked at him, her eyes glazed over as she discussed a two hundred year tradition in Azkaban which Harry knew only too well. Anyone convicted of sex offences could be sentenced to death by guillotine, there was no minimal crime either; any sex offence could merit it and in his time Harry knew it had happened under the regency almost a dozen times. Only three of them he had signed off on.

"Let's try to keep it legal." Harry half pleaded and Luna shook her head.

"That won't work all in all, however there is another way. One that would spark in the way you want and allow you to manoeuvre in whichever way you please." Luna told him and Harry allowed himself to smile. Though neither of them ended up speaking for quite a long time.

"Are you going to tell me?" He asked eventually and received an odd look, a puzzled one which was directed not at him but internally.

"I don't know, I'm not sure if that breaks the rules." She muttered loud enough for him to hear, and yet quiet enough for it to be clear she was not entirely talking to him.

"Rules?" He asked, where rules governing what she was saying? Was she being influenced or told to do this, her sudden beam sent any thought of that far from his mind.

"No silly, the rules of telling; I don't want to spoil anything." She answered as if it was the most normal thing in the world, perhaps for her it was.

"Well don't tell me too much." Harry sighed rolling his eyes at her, she narrowed her gaze.

"I won't, instead I'll leave you with this. Look for the untouched." Once again she turned around and slipped away before Harry had a chance to even formulate a question, he watched her for a few long moments before she slipped out of the door. She had to be the strangest person he had come across, and also the most helpful.

Potions

"So it appears we have a Lord amongst us, should we start jumping for joy or kissing your feet?" A man walking with billowing robes and greasy black hair directed the first comment at him. Harry paused, looked up from his desk and frowned at the unusually pale man who was glaring at him with increasing contempt.

"Neither." Harry answered icily, he knew the man as Severus Snape but only as the head of Slytherin House and nothing else. While the man was a potions teacher this would be his first lesson and he was spending it with both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

He could see the divisions already, the Ravenclaws sticking to themselves; ignoring the Hufflepuffs completely and the parallels to the decadent and uncaring French aristocracy arose in his mind once more. It didn't take much for him to work out the house was going to play no role in his "spark" after all to spark anything the house needed connections and they clearly did not have them.

"I see, a modest Lord. I want to make it clear that just because I can't give you a detention doesn't mean I won't punish you." Snape pulled Harry from his thoughts with another remark Harry had known something about that; his grandmother did not want anyone to punish a Lord. Instead all complaints would go to her and she would take action, though he doubted she would ever read them; most likely a number would be taken and she would vaguely reference it.

"I didn't ask you not to." Harry stated much to the professor's distaste, an air of hostility had already developed between them and the question to Harry was how? Of course he saw the man as the leader of an abusive house he was going to fight but why would he attract dislike already?

"Oh so your grandmother was simply fighting your fights before you had them, I'm glad to see the royalty of Azkaban are still relying on a matriarch." Snape smirked and from across the room Harry saw the Chang girl with an almost smug smile on her face. Harry looked at her and gave a slight smile back, she was loving the idea of a Lord being taken down a peg but while in many ways that was the case Harry was also being treated like any other student. Though his playing a leading role nonetheless.

"Find a content man in this world who does not rely on a woman professor, the best of us do." He had no idea where that retort had come from but its sharp nature provoked an admiring glance from the rest of his class.

"I should have expected this, well I did actually, a boy who thinks he is already the better of his peers for the mere virtue of being born." Snape hissed in a dark tone,

"An ailment that has struck far too many of members of your house I dare say." There was no comparing him to an ignorant monarch without a reference to his house's attitude which resembled that of a long dead king.

"Dare away, let us see how many times the Lady Regent can ignore your behaviour. though I dare say the amount of times will be somewhat extraordinary." His cold voice taunted, though silently Harry considered if he was right. His grandmother probably would not worry herself with what teachers said about a Lord, though in fairness Snape did not worry himself with the dealings of the Slytherins.

"Now for the rest of you who stand half a chance of learning during this class I would welcome you to your third year, this year will be taxing as all years thus far have been..." Snape droned on and Harry was too easily distracted by a sudden pulling on his blue sleeve.

"That was a brave." A girl with long platted red hair told him with a genuine smile, "My Lord."

"Harry please." He whispered not wanting to annoy Snape too much further,

"Oh, I'm Susan." Her name seemed to fit, Harry could not describe exactly why. She was certainly pretty in a sense, quite slender and held a certain warm quality which seemed to draw everything in.

"Nice to meet you." Harry told the Hufflepuff with a nod,

"Why is he not allowed to punish you?" she asked with a degree of confusion nodding towards Snape who was by now scribbling down instructions on a blackboard.

"A long story, the person who is actually in charge of Azkaban doesn't want a teacher telling me off, it's quite fun." Harry smiled and the girl suppressed a giggle.

"As a note it's annoying him." She told him, yes that did come across during his monologue to Harry though Harry had a dark feeling he had annoyed the man a lot more.

"I think it's annoying quite a few people." Harry looked over at the ardent, now gossiping republican. Susan smirked slightly,

"It's rare we do anything but annoy those lot." She commented with a smile, though once again Harry was brought back to his idea of an aristocratic Ravenclaw, though eventually he put it out of his mind and changed the topic; his goal was not the end of Ravenclaw. Well not yet first he had to deal with the oppressors, then he could move on to the others.

Great Hall

He had chatted with Susan almost all day, they had been in a few classes together and Harry had found her to be an interesting person, he had also found out that her aunt was a senior legal professional and one with links to Azkaban.

"So do you get any attention from the Slytherins?" Harry asked, they had both mentioned the topic but neither had directly discussed it. Susan ran a single hand through her long red hair,

"A few insults sometimes but family matters around her, that's what the untouchables get." Her casual reference set off alarm bells in Harry's head.

"Who?" he asked and then his attention was drawn to a group of five or so girls entering the Great Hall. His eyes widened as not a single Slytherin got in the way or even said anything towards them,

"A group who don't get much attention because their families are in quite high positions." Harry heard his newfound friend speak but already he was thinking of Luna, somehow these five were the key to his plans.

"Everyone likes them though, they try to be nice so no one hates them for not getting ... well." She trailed off and Harry wondered for a few seconds why Luna had mentioned creating an injustice, though he saw it. Was this group somehow his spark? The questions were piling up one by one and yet he was determined to see them answered.