Harry slammed the door to his –Salazar Slytherin's- personal hideaway. He had not apparated far from the school. In fact he was in the Forbidden Forrest. The homey little cottage was folded between time and space, only accessible to the outside world from the space between two trees that were barely two feet apart. It had been so long since he had had to use the place that it took him two tries to get through the trees. The first time he had been facing the wrong direction.

Salazar had retreated to this lonely place in the forest the first time he had been run out of Hogwarts. He spent months nursing a broken heart and fighting back the instinct to take revenge on his friends. He had eventually gone back to Hogwarts and even became the headmaster, sort of… History never told, but Headmistress Arisa Valentine had in fact been Salazar Slytherin.

Inside the cottage there wasn't a speck of dust. The well maintained front room had a single chair facing a small fireplace. Bookshelves lined all four of the walls. Thick carpets covered the wooden floor haphazardly except around the small stove and cooking/potion making area in the corner. Harry sighed and flung his cloak onto the chair. He wondered if the tea would still be good after a thousand years. He fished around in the pantry until he found the jar he was looking for. Breaking the preservation seal he leaned down and sniffed the contents. The tea was fine. He took a moment to congratulate himself on casting a spell that had lasted so long.

Harry went about his business not knowing that he had completely dropped the act of a shy, emotionally abused teenage boy. The strong will and determination that Harry had always had were still there, but Salazar Slytherin was not one to stay a victim for long. He pondered for a moment, going back to Hogwarts and challenging Dumbledore to a duel. He would win of course and set himself up as the headmaster. He could just damn (quite literally) anyone who got in his way. He smiled ruefully. There was no way he would fit himself to the mold of The Boy Who Lived and so will not fit himself to the centuries old lie of a power hungry megalomaniac. He had been power hungry sure, but Salazar had had a more discerning pallet than world domination could satisfy. Power was not something one could hold, but a game to be played, pure and simple. Those who were said to have power played the game well; those who didn't did not.

Harry's right to be at Hogwarts would have to take second place behind destroying Voldemort. He took down a book on telekinesis without even thinking about it. The darkness had her own way of pointing him in the right direction. Everything from a gentle nudge to a hearty push off a cliff, literally. Harry flipped randomly through the pages until one caught his eye. He was not surprised to see that it was the chapter that crossed telekinesis with blood magic. Another of the forbidden arts: cross different areas of magic.

Harry sat in the chair, waved his hand to start a fire in the fire place, and began to read. The beginnings of a plan started to form in his mind.

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Draco walked through the library with a frown on his face. He had killed his father and that was great, a real adrenaline high, but no one seemed to be able to keep up a pleasant or even tolerable mood the past couple of days. Not even the delusional Hufflepuffs could pretend that nothing was going on. It was like there was a cloud of gloom hanging over the castle that one could almost see. The torches were dimmer and the halls were actually dusty. It had gotten so bad that the house elves responsible for the dusting could be seen at work during the daylight hours.

Draco found that the only way he could get through the day without doing real violence was to suppress all emotion as he was doing no. He had more important things to do than give in to the prevailing mood of the castle and everyone in it. He rounded the end of a shelf and walked into one of the more secluded study alcoves. Colin Creevy was waiting impatiently at the table tapping his foot in annoyance. The very sight of the boy made Draco's vision go red. "Stop that." He snapped. "What have you got for me this time? And it better be good."

"The Gryffindors are pissed." The boy answered with uncharacteristic venom.

"Everyone is."

"Not like this. A fight breaks out in the tower every five minutes. Ron storms around ranting about how the Headmaster is a self-righteous bastard, and Hermione slaps anyone that comes with in range."

"So."

"So Harry is gone."

Draco stared at the other boy. "Gone. As in packed his shit and left?" He frowned at his use of language. He was really more cultured than that.

"No, the 'shit' is still there, but Ron says Harry isn't coming back that it's all Dumbledore's fault. There are also rumors that the Aurors are not here to protect the school, but to arrest Harry if he shows up again."

Draco processed that bit of information. "That's insane. Dumbledore announced publicly that Harry had been kidnapped by Deatheaters."

"Not from Ron's version of events. He was there, you know. He said that Harry started to scream at Dumbledore and then apparated."

Draco was angry now. "That little shit left! I'll kill him." With that he stormed off.

"You're welcome for the information Your Highness." The sarcastic parting shot rang in Draco's ears. He quickened his pace and practically ran to the Slytherin common room before he turned around and pummeled the smaller Gryffindor. It would not do to be in detention now. He had plans to make.

He walked into the common room only to see his least favorite thing, people. Pansy and Blaise to be exact. They were both studiously ignoring each other. It was obvious that they had had another fight, about him no doubt.

"Oh, Draco." Pansy whined in her high pitched voice when she saw him.

Draco winced. "I'm not in the mood to put up with you right now, Pansy. You either Blaise." He added as the boy smiled smugly at Draco's comment. Deciding that he would not be able to deal with the other two vying for his attention Draco did an about face and left.

"What was that all about?" Pansy asked bewildered. "Where is he going?"

"He's gone to workout."

Pansy sniffed. "You say that like Malfoy and work belong in the same sentence."

"You misunderstand." Blaise appraised Pansy's decidedly plump figure.
"But then you would. He has gone to tone up all those beautiful, lean muscles that make him, quite frankly, the sexiest thing to walk the halls of Hogwarts."

Blaise was right of course. Draco headed strait for the Room of Requirement. After a short but intense warm-up he spent and hour on the weight machines. First he had thought that the muggle contraption laughable, but then he had seen the results. It had pleased him.

He was running around the track trying to work out the frustration building just below the surface of his skin when the door opened. Ron walked in and gave Draco an appraising look. Without a word Draco went to his discarded robes and pulled out the knife he had taken to carrying.

Ron pulled out his own knife. Both of them faced off on the mat. Both knew that there would be blood this time.

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The castle was at a loss as to what to do. Her present mood was not at all hospitable and it was infecting her inhabitants. It would not worry her greatly if it were not for the two now facing off in a death match. Those two were always volatile when put together, like lithium and water. She watched in horror as her pet's best friend slashed into the blond boy. Blood splattered onto the mat. Outside the Room of requirement Professor Snape was making his rounds. The castle would have clapped if she could.

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Professor Snape was in a rare mood. He knew that most of the frustration and anger was due to an outside source, but he saw the situation as a golden opportunity. A good twenty percent of the student population had detention of some kind and at least ten percent of that twenty was given out by him alone. He was in a horrible mood and really wanted to torture some of the second years, but he learned long ago that beggars can't be choosers.

He stalked the halls every hour looking for unlucky students to terrorize. It was all fun and games in his opinion. Snape was very surprised when a doorway suddenly appeared on his left. He stopped to stare at it for a minute. He was about to move on, uninterested, when he heard a grunt and what sounded like a body falling to the floor.

Curiosity got the better of him, and he opened the door to two of his students trying to kill each other. He stared in shock, and then gathered his wits enough to start screaming. "Weasely, Malfoy, what the hell do you think you are doing?" Both boys stopped mid-charge to star at their seething potions professor. Neither seemed to be the least bit contrite, in fact, they looked angry at being interrupted. Snape was livid. "One hundred points from Gryffindor. One hundred points from Slytherin, Headmaster's office, now!" Both boys scowled at Professor Snape, but moved to obey. Being no idiot Snape took his wand from his robes. "Drop the knives." He ordered pointing the wand at the boys. They dropped the knives to the mat, and made their way to the Headmaster's office with Snape right behind them wand at the ready. To the other students it seemed that Ron and Draco were prisoners being escorted through the school.

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Headmaster Dumbledore sat behind his desk doing absolutely nothing, to the untrained eye. To anyone who knew what to look for Dumbledore was thinking hard. The wrinkles at his eyes were bunched in a stare of intense concentration. Every once in a while his right hand would twitch as if wanting to do something, specifically to stop the madness that had overcome the school. He was bending all of his considerable will into not splitting his desk apart with a lightening bolt, when Snape "escorted" Ronald Weasely and Draco Malfoy into his office at wand point.

"Severus, what is the meaning of this?" He glared at the potions master. He then glanced at the two boys and belatedly noted that both of them were bleeding. "Why are they not in the hospital wing?"

Unperturbed Snape pushed the students forward. Both boys had scowls on their faces. "These two were trying to kill each other in the Room of Requirement." Snape explained. "I thought that they would need to be punished for fighting, with knives no less."

"Knives? Where would they learn how to wield knives?"

"Harry taught us." Draco grimaced as Ron stepped on his foot for that comment. "But then you already knew that didn't you?"

"No, I did not."

"Then why else have him chased out of the school?" Draco flared.

"You were there, Mr. Malfoy. Harry used some very questionable magic to kill the Deatheaters that attacked Hoggsmeade." Dumbledore stood. "Mr. Potter is a danger to this school and those within it."

"Yeah, right," Ron yelled. "He's saved this school so many times just so he can kill us all later. Harry's doing what he thinks is right. He only left because you gave him no choice, and don't think that I haven't noticed that the bad mood the school has been in started right after Harry left. You screwed up." By the end of his speech Ron was standing right in front of Dumbledore jabbing his finger into the old man's chest. He whirled around and stormed for the door. Draco followed behind him. Snape surprisingly stood aside and let them pass, only raising an eyebrow at the headmaster.

Out in the hall Draco sighed. "I defiantly missed something out there. Did the headmaster really throw Harry out of the school?"

Ron shook his head. "No, but what would have happened if Harry had come back with him would have been worse."

"Sorry I missed that."

"Why? You're not Harry's friend."

Draco pinned the taller boy with a stare. "Information is the greatest weapon of all." Both boys were silent the rest of the way to the hospital wing.

Later Ron was sitting on his bed alone in the sixth year dorm reading a comic book when he heard a tapping on the window sill. He peered out the window at the night but saw nothing that could account for the noise. He was about to turn around when the tapping sounded again. Confused Ron opened the window. He jumped back in fright when a part of the night condensed into the shape of a bird. He quickly got a grip on himself. The only person who could possibly do this was Harry. He cautiously held his hand out to the bird and it flapped silent wings landing on Ron's outstretched arm. He felt nothing. If he was not looking at the bird perched on his arm he would have sworn that nothing was there, and he was holding out his arm like an idiot.

Then Ron noticed the slim piece of parchment inside the bird's chest where the heart would be. It seemed to be held in place by pieces of thread. His brain stuttered for a moment. This was a difficult spell, and a really cool one. He still had no idea what to do. He reached out to touch the bird on the head, but his hand went strait through it. Ron blinked. He reached out again, this time for the paper. His finger brushed the edge of the parchment. He pinched his fingers around the parchment and, the bird dissolved instantaneously. He felt a momentary sadness for the loss of the bird. But the parchment became much more interesting when he reorganized Harry's writing.

Meet me at the edge of the forest on the far side of the lake tomorrow at 2:30 a.m.

Ron flipped it over there was nothing else on it.

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Harry waited patiently at the tree line of the Forbidden Forest. There was no moon in the sky and only the light from a few of the window broke the black of the night. Harry liked the night. He always had, though he preferred a full moon over a new moon. Even if he would never have a privet meeting on the night of a full moon; it made things too visible. With his newly acquired vampire sight there wasn't even a need for any light. Except maybe one, he thought as a pinpoint of light headed in his general direction. That would be Ron.

Harry stepped out of the trees as Ron came nearer. "Over here," he called softly. The light stopped then turned toward him. "Where you followed?"

"How would I know?" Ron hissed.

"Never mind that, put out your wand and take my hand."

Ron paused for a moment then shrugged. "Nox." The light went out. Harry grabbed his hand and apparated. When he felt the night air around him again Ron spoke up. "Can I use the light again?"

"Yes"

"Lumos." Ron moved his wand around trying to get a grip on his bearings. "Where are we?"

"In the western corner of the Forbidden Forest."

"Really."

"Yes, I have a hideout here."

"You mean that Salazar Slytherin has a hideout here."

"Same thing."

Harry led Ron through the two trees.

"Cool."

"I'm glad you like it."

Harry led Ron through the front door. Ron looked around with interest. "Cozy, but why am I here?"

"I need your help."

"With what?"

"There is a location spell that I need to do that takes two people, and I also need you to watch my back."

Ron ginned. "Okay, I'm in." A look of consternation crossed his face. "What about 'Mione?"

Harry froze. "Ummm."

"We have to have her here too." Ron practically screamed. "She's going to be pissed if we leave her out. She'll kill you." Ron ran his hands through his hair dramatically. "Me, I don't even want to know what she'll do to me. I am her boyfriend after all. I have obligations."

Harry hunched over. "I forgot." He whispered. He was not going to tell Ron who would then tell Hermione that he had slipped into Salazar's one thousand year old way of thinking, and deemed Hermione, as a young woman, too fragile for what he had planned. Ron would have tolled Hermione to save his own skin, and then Harry would be dead for sure. "Ummm. This never happened. We go back to Hogwarts; you get Hermione and come back." Ron nodded feverishly.