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Book 2

Chapter 17

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Appearances and other deceits part 2

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Before

"Impossible." Percy sat in the Room of Requirement with Xander. The two were alone, which was fortunate, as what they were saying would have anyone with even a nuance of sense up in arms.

"Think about it, Percy."

"I refuse to believe it."

Xander sighed and sat back in the seat that the Room had provided for him. He decided that it was time the two had a chat man-to-man. "The Chamber of Secrets has been buried under Hogwarts for a long time; hell, you can ask Professor Binns!"

Percy scowled. "The Ministry's never wrong."

"You wanna place a bet on that?"

Percy sighed.

"Look, you helped me out with Hagrid against all of your principles when you didn't have to; you trusted me then, trust me now." Percy looked at him but remained quiet. "There's a war coming Perc; I'm going to need allies and you're my best bet; you're going to be hated by your family and by those around you, but you'll be doing the right thing."

Percy nodded. Xander could be very persuasive when he wanted to. "Tell me everything," Percy conceded.

Xander did, well, almost everything.

"The first thing Voldemort's going to do…"

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Gilderoy was stunned at what Harry had just told him. "The Chamber of Secrets… you know where it is and what's down there?"

"Yes." Xander nodded. "You're going to help me defeat Voldemort's soul, you're going to help vindicate Hagrid and soon, Sirius Black and you are going to become even more famous than before and we're going to become the best of friends."

Gilderoy liked the sound of it. "But it'll be dangerous."

"Where there's risk, there's cash." That spoke to the man.

"Okay, I'll do it, but I don't know much magic." Gilderoy smiled ruefully, "I only really know Memory Charms."

The boy nodded slowly, a certain twinkle appearing in his eye. "I know; there's a lot I know about you. Your Memory Charm is going to come in useful. You do as I say, exactly as I say and I promise you'll be a true hero, and will be rolling in dough by the end of the war."

Gilderoy leaned forward with eager eyes and ears.

"Do me a favour though," Xander said, and Gilderoy nodded in acceptance. "Stop offering advice on things you know nothing about."

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Since his little talk, Gilderoy had become more popular with the staff. Instead of offering useless crap, he had started getting to know the teachers better; anything useful he found out he made notes upon and put in a diary for Xander to read at a later date. For the moment, he concentrated on earning himself a good reputation. After classes, he practiced in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, referring to books that Xander had given him. Firstly, he started with simple spells and, a lot like Neville, the quicker he gained his confidence, the better he became. He had to learn to walk before he ran, as Xander stated.

Xander gave Gilderoy a list of things to acquire, things that wouldn't look suspicious as he was a teacher and could easily say that he was giving a demonstration in class. Dumbledore never questioned anything he did, but Xander noticed that Snape kept a close eye on the man.

When Xander had spare time, he was able to help train Gilderoy, teaching him first the Lumos spell and then Shield Spells, slowly getting to the more powerful ones. 'By the end of the year, Gilderoy would become quite adept at wand work,' Xander thought, however, he advised him against planning a dual with Snape.

Gilderoy publicly apologised to Ron in front of the whole school at dinner and announced that as Ron's wand had been broken during his class, he would be buying a new wand for him, and that he would personally take him out to the shop, with his parents' permission, of course. Xander had a smile from ear to ear as Gilderoy walked up and shook Ron's hand while winking roguishly at Hermione causing her to blush bright red.

Quidditch practice picked up easily at the beginning of term, and every free moment they had was spent out on the pitch; in-between lessons with Wood and Lockhart, Xander's timetable was quite full. He was keeping a discreet eye on Ginny who was getting quieter and quieter as a result of what he knew was happening with her, the diary and Tom Riddle. He was sad that he couldn't do anything about it for her, but it was necessary to let some events take their course.

They walked out on the pitch with their brooms; Wood had them gathered around him and was mid-way through talking tactics when the Slytherin group trudged on like an army of soldiers.

'Or Deatheaters', Xander thought grimly.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" the Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint said aggressively. Xander nudged Ron who followed his line of sight and saw Malfoy standing smugly amongst the Slytherin Quidditch team. Fortunately, this time around, he wasn't going to have to put up with Colin, as their little chat had seemed to work. At this rate, Xander figured he was going to have to talk to the entire school.

Wood stood his ground and crossed his arms angrily. "Flint, this is our training time. I booked the field for today."

"There's more than enough room for all of us Wood," Flint said with a toothy smile as he eyed one of the girls up. "In fact, I've got a signed note from Professor Snape." He pulled out a piece of parchment from his robes and began to read from it. "I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new Seeker."'

Xander snorted in amusement. "Hey, Wood."

"Aye?" The captain turned around with a pissed-off look.

"What's say we let them train; we could use the competition. I've been itching to try out a new move for a while now." Everybody remembered what had happened to the last Seeker.

Fred looked at the small blond-haired boy with disgust. "Aren't you Lucius Malfoy's son?" he spat.

"Oh, Malfoy," Xander said with a wicked glint in his eye.

Flint nodded with a smile. "Funny you should mention Draco's father," said Flint as the whole Slytherin team smiled still more broadly. "Let me show you the generous gift he's made to our team." The team brought out their brooms, which they had been hiding behind their backs until now, and proudly displayed them to the Gryffindors. Each player held a brand new Nimbus 2001.

Xander sighed, picked up his broom and kicked off without preamble; Wood looked upwards and saw Xander hover. "Draco, catch me if you can."

He was trying to avoid a confrontation.

Draco mounted his broom and kicked off into the air, following Xander closely. When the two got high enough so as to be out of earshot, Xander pulled up and hovered. "I don't know what you're playing at Draco, but your ass is mine."

Draco grinned.

"You don't frighten me, Potter."

Xander chuckled. "I've been practicing a new move."

He dropped from the sky like a stone. It was a simple case of think 'plummet', and that was what he did. The look on Malfoy's face was worth it; as soon as the ground started speeding up, getting closer and closer, he kicked off and shot forward over the heads of the Slytherins, shouting, "Catch me if you can."

Flint grinned, grabbed his new broom and kicked off with the intent of teaching Potter a thing or two.

None of them could keep up, since there were no rules regarding the use of Quaffle, Xander spent most of his time dodging rather than seeking. At one point during the match he caught hold of Fred's Bludger, and slammed one of the flying missiles with enough force to knock a Slytherin of his broom. The match would've ended up with a duel if it hadn't been for the fact the fact that Madam Hooch had come onto the pitch to break it up, in the end Wood couldn't have been happier.

The next day Ron, Hermione and Xander met up with Hagrid and had tea. They chatted away happily, telling him about classes and the things they had done that week. It was only small talk, really, but it made the half-giant happy no end. They were then shown the pumpkins, which were easily the size of Hagrid's large head. Xander had chuckled, imagining it replacing Hagrid's head. The group left the cabin and made their way up to the castle with ease, no distractions of fear of death, for the moment. Unfortunately as soon as they entered the castle the Transfiguration teacher spotted them.

"Potter."

The three of them had just returned to the castle from Hagrid's when Professor McGonagall cornered them. "Professor Lockhart has requested your presence in his office."

'D'oh!'

When he arrived, Gilderoy was in a good mood. They trained for an hour with their wands, once again practicing simple spells to see if Lockhart remembered them.

"Tactics are the wizard's best trick," Xander said. "A simple Summoning Spell can mean the difference between life and death."

"What would a Summoning Spell do against an Unforgivable?" Gilderoy asked.

"Accio Gilderoy's wand!"

Gilderoy for the second time that day lost his wand, which once again landed in Xander's hand.

"Oh…"

Xander paused midway through a lesson when he felt another presence. "Gilderoy."

"Yes, Harry."

"Tonight there's going to be a Petrifiction." Gilderoy blinked in confusion at how the boy knew things were going to happen beforehand. "I want you to look up everything you can on the Chamber of Secrets; ask Professor Binns for some old cuttings of The Prophet."

"Okay." Gilderoy seemed a little white. "You're sure its going to be so soon?"

Xander could practically taste the large serpent.

That nasty little smile that Gilderoy had come to associate with him, reappeared.

"Oh, yeah."