Author Note:
Where are my reviews? Come on people I need your input. Fan fiction writers are fuelled by reviews. They are badly needed. I provide this work for free you know!
War Sage
Thank you its nice to be appreciated.
douchiesnacks
If all goes to plan there should be a lot more. Not sure if there'll be as many chapters for this year as there was for the last as I do really want to speed things up so we can get to the sex, action and evil bits.
I used ten chapters just to get from one start of year train ride to the next I never intended that many and I don't think it will happen again.
It's a bit mad this fan fic. Its going from one scene to the next without any proper planning. I normally at least have an outline for my fics but for this I didn't. I planning this chapters while loading the dishwasher for crying out loud.
Anyway enough ramblings from this crazy writer. Igor get me the plans this fan fic must live!
The First Gothic. Book One. A Wizard In Training. Part 11.
The Room Of Requirement. Hogwarts School. Scotland.
Expulso!
A burst of blue light left my wand and blasted the practice dummy to bits. Then with a lazy twirl of my wand I repaired the dummy and watched it come back together until it looked as if I had never fired the curse at all.
"Cool" commented Neville "but why are we learning to blow stuff up, Damien?
"Yeah the Snakes are being well behaved for once" supported Ginny "and you said that Black might not the murderer he seems to be".
I sighed and wondered if I should become a Dark Lord just to avoid having followers who ask to many questions, but I dismissed the idea as a silly one if no one asked questions how I would show how smart I am?
"Black could still be dangerous" I explained to the group "he spent over a decade in prison with the Dementors all around him. I don't think he's actually guilty but he could be crazy".
A collective shiver passed through the room as the Outcasts imagined having to be near the soul suckers for years on end.
"And if he is crazy and going after Harry Potter than you two might be in the line of fire" I reminded the two Lions.
They both gave me puzzled looks and I realised that the expression 'line of fire' had to with getting in the way of bullets.
"I mean you guys might get caught between Potter and Black" I clarified.
Neville, Ginny and Luna were Purebloods who had little knowledge of the Muggle world and its expressions because unlike me they had been raised in what was really another civilization. It was easy to see Purebloods as ignorant or stupid for not knowing stuff about Muggles but Muggles in general didn't even know that magical folk were real.
"So we might need to take Black down" figured Neville.
I nodded.
"Right Nev. And Black could be still be guilty even if the evidence doesn't add up".
This was alternative universe after all I couldn't take too much for granted. Events and people could be quite different from the mainstream version. My friends certainly were.
"It seems to add up to me" insisted Gin "lots of Muggles saw what happened and they had no reason to lie. Black was the Secret Keeper he betrayed the Potters to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He must have otherwise You-Know-Who could never have found Godric's Hollow".
It was on the surface of things pretty black and white. Eye witnesses on the scene had reported what Wormtail had said to Black. People had been told that Black was the Keeper (in order to protect Wormtail ironically) and the Blacks were a well known 'dark' family also Sirius' brother was a well known Death Eater so it all made sense to the Wizards and most Muggle detectives would agree, at least I thought so.
"He never had a trail" I pointed out "they just tossed him into jail without even bothering to question him".
Nev and Gin exchanged glances. They both trusted me but I could tell that they thought I was grasping at straws here.
"There's just something about Black that doesn't make sense" I said trying to convince them of my point of view "why come after Potter now he's been a the school for a couple of years so why didn't he escape sooner"
Luna was remaining quiet but Ginny and Neville expressed their opinions loudly.
"He's a Dark Wizard!" they shouted "he used Dark Magic to escape!"
I could see why science was never studied by Wizard kind. Witches and Wizards just accepted things. They didn't question things enough.
Any Muggle with half a mind would be asking 'what Dark Magic spell did he use?' and if asked why they wanted to know the muggle would say 'so we can make sure nobody else is able to escape the same way' But logic and magic rarely went together it just didn't seem to work that way.
I really needed some open minded Muggleborn friends but sadly my efforts to make one seemed rather pointless as even Granger seemed to accept that Black was a Dark Wizard who used Dark Magic to escape his confinement.
It was such a shame to see a brilliant mind like that go to waste but the blow was softened by the fact that Luna and I were now the top students in the school.
We'd discovered this when the exam results were posted in the Ravenclaw Common Room. Unlike the other Houses the Claws cared about how the whole House was doing not just in comparison to the other Houses but also compared to the students who had taken the same exam last year.
Luna and I were both not only ahead of where Granger was last year we'd actually beaten everyone in overall scores for our year. Luna had beaten me in Charms, Transfiguration and Astronomy but I'd beaten her in Herbology (mostly thanks to Neville and his greenhouse lectures) as well as Defence, Potions and History. So I won by one class but I'd failed flying so it was declared a draw over all.
It could have been worse The Defence and Potion exams had nearly been cancelled due to the teachers of those two subjects having been memory wiped but it seemed that this version of Hogwarts had better management as an outside exam board had been called in to deal with the exams for those two subjects like they did for all the OWL and NEWT exams. If they hadn't Luna would have wiped the floor with me in terms of grades.
Overall the exams for both subjects had been rather low scoring for everyone (not that anyone was surprised) aside from the Outlaws who I noticed had rather high defence scores. I only got a high potion score because of the Half-Blood Prince Book. Many might consider me using that book as cheating but really it was no different from if I simply researched the subject by reading a Potion's Master notes. Actually in a roundabout sort of way that was what I had done.
Unfortunately these high scores combined with my actions on the train and the fact that I was now the richest bachelor in Britain had drawn a lot of attention towards me.
Teen Witch Weekly (the version of Witch Weekly aimed at teenage girls) actually had me down as the man to snag and I'd somehow won their junior award for best smile or some such rubbish despite the fact that they had no photo of me smiling.
Worse was the fan mail that stuff made me want to change places with Potter because he never got fan mail. Someone must be screening his post and I was wishing they would do the same for me.
One of these days I'd have to ask him how he dealt with fan mail it would at least be a laugh when he realised that he should have fan mail because I was just the flavour of the month he was actually famous for doing something.
I'd gotten a few requests from parents wanting to marry their daughters. Oddly one person had offered me an arranged marriage to their son which was strange because while gay marriage was illegal in the Wizarding World. It wasn't illegal to be gay it was just sort of frowned upon and rarely mentioned. No actually prejudice as far as I could tell it was just ignored.
I most certainly wasn't gay I'd seen enough photos of naked and nearly naked women to test my sexuality. Much to Luna's displeasure.
Thankfully the Wizarding World had a Victorian mindset so even the nude images were tasteful nudes rather than anything pornographic. Wizard porn was rather softcore the most scandalous thing I'd seen was a nude ballet dance. Magical photos moved so the ballet dancer did some interesting things with her legs but compared to what I'd seen on the internet it was all more erotic than outright pornographic.
What hadn't been tame was the fact that there had been photos of girls much too young to showing of their bodies in with some of the letters. I'd felt great levels of disgust as its one thing for a woman to try and get a man's (or even boy's in my case) attention by showing him what he could have in bed with him its a totally different thing for parents to make kids not much older than me do it. If it weren't for the fact that the Wizarding World lacked social services I'd still be writing letters to them now.
As it was it had taken me days to reply to all the letters telling people that I was taken but that I would keep them in mind should my situation change. I'd returned the photos I didn't want to keep but for the pictures I'd kept I'd added my thanks as it was polite thing to do.
Neville had been a big help with all that. He'd explained that had I a magical guardian he or she would of dealt with this and that people would of met with the guardian to get their permission before writing to me or more likely anyone that the parent or guardian approved of would of met me at some social function. But lacking anyone to look out for I'd ended up being nearly murdered by an irate flock of post owls.
At least it wouldn't happen again. Neville's grandmother had written to me explaining that she would act as my proxy for this matter as well. Few people would cross Lady Longbottom and try the photographic seduction route again.
If only the Wizarding World had lawyers I would love to sue people for this sort of thing but that particular evil had spared Wizard kind its presence so I couldn't do anything. Even I did have a lawyer it might not do me any good as I didn't even know if there were laws against child pornography in this society and if there were laws there was no social services to deal with these issues anyway.
In fact from what I understood most crime breaking only resulted in paying fines in any case. Unless the secrecy laws were broken or Dark Magic was used the Ministry was happy to fine and move on.
Also as this was a society were everyone knew everyone else either directly or via a friend a lot of matters like abused or orphaned children tended to be handled by simply having the child go live with a relative. So even if I did expose the child pornography issue it would be dealt with quietly with a few fines and then some young girls would be sent to live with their grandparents or aunts and uncles.
Not having any other means to vent my frustration I ended up blowing up some more dummies and found out that even curses not considered 'dark' could be made a lot more destructive if you were angry enough when casting.
Really wanting to vent I used the The Entrail-Expelling Curse on another dummy which caused the part of the dummy where if it was human the entrails would be to explode outwards.
"Damien!" shouted Ginny with concern "that's a dark arts spell".
If blowing up a dummy using a dark curse made me a Dark Wizard then I was fine with it because I didn't see much goodness in this society. They could label me whatever they wished they had no right to judge.
"Its just wood" I argued "its not real!"
I calmed down quickly and reminded myself that it wasn't all badness around here. My friends cared they didn't want me using Dark Magic because they were scared I'd become evil and hurt somebody. It wasn't about me venting anger using Dark Magic it was about what Dark Magic might do to me if I kept using it.
"Sorry guess I'm just stressed out" I apologised "I wouldn't use that on a person".
Which wasn't a lie because I didn't see the kind of people I would use that curse on as really being people at all.
Still I did see the point the 'light' wizards often made about emotionally fuelled spells. Dark Magic was rather thrilling to use it had been very satisfying to blow up the dummy using that curse which had required me to desire to inflict harm on another being rather than just destroy them in self defence. But if I lashed in anger all the time there would come a point when somebody did get hurt because I wouldn't be reacting out of fear I'd be attacking in anger.
Ginny seemed somewhat assured judging by how her red face was going back to its more pale colour but she stayed standing as if to watch over me.
"Please just be careful" she pleaded "you could really hurt someone with those kind of curses there not as easy to block being dark and all. You should never cast a curse like that if your angry".
I'd noticed that about the so called 'dark arts'. Anger driven casting was harder to block than spells cast with fear, which most offensive 'light' spells were cast with given that they were used in self defence when under threat, and spells that required hate were the hardest to block. The Killing Curse was a good example of this with that curse you had really had to want someone dead in order to make it work.
"Sorry" I apologised again.
"Its understandable" said Nev in support "I've wanted to curse more than a few people since started school Mostly Mrs. Norris and her pet Caretaker".
Neville knew why I was upset these days having seen all the letters. Luna hadn't seen those ones but she would of understood my point of view despite being a nudist herself as she wouldn't want to photographed when naked and then have those photos be looked out by strangers.
"We're all a bit on edge" agreed Luna "its the Dementors. Its hard to be happy when they're around".
It was possible that the Dementors were having an effect even from a distance. I still understood very little about magic but I could imagine that having a load of dark creatures around might have some sort of negative influence on me. Not just me either everyone seemed a bit on edge it was like a depressing aura was smothering the castle.
"I think I know what we can put in the Newsletter" I told the group "let's remind everyone that Dementors are evil monsters and that hundreds of them are around the school that all their children are currently living in".
My inner circle all agreed with this idea. The demons really had to go I'd much prefer to wipe them off the face of the Earth but there was no spell for that.
I suddenly smiled, but no one noticed given that I was facing the wrong way. I'd just remembered that my birthday was only a month or so away and I might be able to get something to deal with the soul suckers from the Traveller.
It was doubtful that he would kill them for me or even give me away to do it but there might be a way to kill them one at a time. Even a weapon would do as the Dementors didn't effect me as badly as they should so I could actually hit them physically if I needed to.
Thinking on that, had anyone ever tried to kill the Dementors with a physical attacks? They had a physical presence they couldn't move through solid objects like a ghost could so if say a roof collapsed upon a group of them would they be crushed?
Spells didn't seem to bother them or at least there was no mention of anything other than the Patronus Charm having any worthwhile effect. According to the books I'd read on the subject they can't be destroyed. Although what is interesting is that their numbers can be reduced if the conditions that they require to multiply are reduced so if the world because a utopia they'd if not die then at least fade away.
That made me wonder if they were in some way manifestations of some sort rather than actual living creatures. There existence could be sign of just how rotten the magical world was under the surface. But if someone was to right enough social wrongs and try to improve things then might the Dementors at least be reduced to the point were they could be safely contained?
Then again if they were manifestations of the evil of Wizard kind then they might always exist and Muggles might be partly responsible their existence as well. Building a utopia in order to get rid of the Dementors was a little out of my reach. I wasn't a god after all.
Well not yet anyway.
"So we point out that Sirius Black never got a trail and we mention that the Dementors are making our lives miserable" said Ginny who was now taking notes.
The notes always got left in this room as leaving them anywhere but here would end up with us being exposed as the ones who were writing the paper. All the physical evidence stayed in this room because unless somebody asked the room to show them the notes they'd never find them and if they knew that the notes existed in here then they had already found out who was behind the Outcast paper anyway.
"No" I disagreed "if we only mention that were all feeling depressed then the teachers will just start feeding use more chocolate or we'll get told to buck up. We need to highlight the danger we are all in from the nasty creatures who eat people's souls. The Ministry will assure everyone that the Dementors are under their control unless we make people think innocent children are at stake but we only need to get a few parents worried to make Fudge reconsider his popularity ratings are all that matter to him".
Well that and his bribes from Lucy 'isn't my hair really feminine' Malfoy but that ponce was dead now and I would have his money in a few years.
That stopped my normal pacing while thinking dead.
"I have his money" I said out loud.
The rest of the Outcasts looked at me like I'd gone a bit batty so I explained.
"We all known that Malfoy was a big wig around the Ministry due to his money, but that money is now mine I inherited it all. I even have Draco's trust fund".
Which was really morbid to think about.
"So your rich" said Neville slowly as if he trying to work out a puzzle.
"No I was already rich" I reminded "Mason family fortune remember"
Neville nodded and said.
"Its the same with me. I'll inherit my family fortune when I leave school as Gran wants to retire. You'll get yours at Seventeen but I'll of left school by then so what different does it make. I mean you'll be richer than me but what does it matter?"
Neville and I never talked about that fact that we were both going to very rich young men in a few years. The Lovegoods weren't that rich but they were a lot more financially secure than Ginny's family so none of us boasted about our wealth. Not that I would because it really hadn't sunk in yet just how disgustingly wealthy I was going to be in less five years.
"Yes but the Minister was controlled by Malfoy's money which is now my money" I said trying to still explain "so without Malfoy another Pureblood is going to have bribe the Minister to help keep the Purebloods on top but I'm now richer than any of them so I can bribe the Minister".
"Oh I get" it said Ginny
"The Minister is going to come to you" stated Luna.
"He'll wait to Christmas I'll bet and then make some sort of move once the lack of bribe money starts to hurt" I figured.
Luna nodded to confirm that she foresaw such a thing which made me think that Fudge was worryingly predictable for the leader of a nation. It was also rather worrying that Fudge would come to me for money because I would only be thirteen by Christmas. That was a little young to asking me for bribe money. But if I didn't make him an offer one of the other older families might get a person in as Fudge's new advisor.
So I'd have to depend on the Minister's greed. He must know I have the money or at least that I will have the money. It wouldn't surprise if Fudge offered me emancipation just so I could give him more money. If he didn't I could mention it and see what happened.
Not even the Wizarding World would ever emancipate an eleven year old but a thirteen year old might stand a better chance as in some cultures thirteen years old when was when a boy became a man even it wasn't in the legal sense. So it could work out and if anyone could make it happen it would be Fudge.
"If the impression I get from my Dad is anything to go by Fudge won't be above trying to get his hands of your money" agreed Ginny "He's not as subtle as he thinks he is when speaking".
I wasn't sure if Gin meant the Minister or her Dad but frankly either or both ways it could be true.
"Gran would say the same" said Neville.
"Daddy would agree" added Luna.
When Xeno was on the same page as the likes of Lady Longbottom then it must be true. Those two only had the same opinion on the most blatant of truths.
"So assuming he does make some sort of approach what do I ask from him and how?".
This was outside my range of experiences. I had no idea how to offer a bribe without being obvious about it. The arena of politics was not well known to me I hadn't even know I could vote until Madam Longbottom had told me.
"Well you gave Gran power of proxy for your seat" reminded Nev "So he can't ask you for that but the Minister controls enough seats anyway. So I guess if he tells you about a law passing and you like then you could 'contribute to his campaign fund' and if you don't want it passed then you would tell him you don't like it. But bribing him might not be enough you'd have to discredit or support the law somehow if it had public support. You could do that with more bribing I guess. Unless Dumbledore supported it strongly. In that case you'd to discredit the Headmaster like Malfoy did with the Muggle Protection Act".
I'd forgotten that Neville was going to get his own seat and my seat too since I wouldn't want to be sitting in the courtrooms while I should be preparing for my NEWT exams.
"I'll keep you on as proxy" I informed Neville "at least for year I'm still in school and your not".
"Thanks mate" replied Nev with a smile "I can show you what to do once your out of this place".
I suddenly wondered if political power might be the best power to try and obtain. I didn't like the way this nation was run so reforming it from the inside might work. It would have the added bonus of being legal as well no need to hide out in hidden bases when I could change the Wizarding World while sitting in a nice office.
It was then I that I realised that I could still be a Dark Lord and work with the system. Palpatine had done it on a galaxy wide scale so in comparison taking over one country should be a piece of cake. I'd need an apprentice to do the not so legal stuff like killing people who didn't support my rise to power and I'd need an army of some sort to keep order if I did turn Wizarding Britain into an evil empire of some sort.
No it wouldn't work I'd forgotten about the rest of the world. The other magical nations wouldn't stand by and let Britain become a dictatorship that could threaten them.
As for the army of followers well I'd need a group like the Death Eaters to keep help order once I took over. That was actual possible I could afford an army and like Voldemort I had the ability to attract followers.
I shook my head and started pacing again. That whole idea was silly. I didn't have the kind of power or resources a Palpatine like take over would require. Plus Dumbledore would be able to stop me.
Besides I'd need something like the Clone Wars to take place in order to distract people from what I was up to and to keep in office but there was no way I could use the coming civil war that way. Not unless I was able to delay it by at least ten years.
Then again I could always create the threat. I'd need a group like the Death Eaters which would be a just cause for the creation of a Wizard army. I'd then have to bring the leaders of this Wizard army around to my way of thinking but that was again possible.
On the other hand if I could create two armies it would be easier to try and conquer the Wizarding World. I cared not for Blood Purity but a magical master race where only being able to use a wand mattered would suit me.
But I wasn't a Nazis either plus it might led to genocide which was never a good thing as the Muggles would be the Jews in this case and they outnumbered magic using human tens of thousands ,if not more, to one. Add in the fact that the Muggles had all the best weapons and well it wouldn't end well for anyone.
I stopped that trail of thought when I realised that the Dementors might be influencing me or at least I hoped that this was the case. If not then I was becoming a Grade A megalomaniac.
Needing to distract myself I recapped the meeting with my fellow Outcasts.
"Right then so this is the plan until Christmas. The Newsletter will focus on Black mentioning that he never got a trail but otherwise just stating the facts. We will also mention the Dementors and how dangerous they are around children they boarded the train so can spin that to our advantage".
"Hannah and Susan want to write about you" informed Ginny.
I was shocked.
"They can't interview me" I pointed out "that would expose us".
Ginny gave me a look that said 'of course not you silly boy'.
"No they just want to mention that you didn't singly handedly drive off ten Dementors from the Hogwarts Express saving all the First Years. The bits about you being rich and single is true after all".
"I'm twelve" I reminded everyone "I'm too young to be dating".
"For now" replied Ginny "your nearly thirteen and all the girls know it".
Damn it.
"Okay fine mention me and what really happened" I allowed.
"What about exorcising Binns?" asked Neville "are we still going to be doing that".
"Yes" I said "We'll need to find his grave if there isn't a spell to just exorcise him".
"Aren't you suppose to help a ghost move on?" questioned Luna "we need to find out what is keeping him here".
I snorted and said.
"It would not shock me to discover that he doesn't even realise he is dead".
The staff would never tell him. Why would they he was teaching for free after all. Exorcising him would require the school to actually pay a teacher to teach History Of Magic.
"Okay we can try telling him he is dead" I told the group "and if it doesn't work then we can try finding out why he is still here. Ghosts only exist if the person fears death so he must be scared of something. Assuming he isn't just so stubbornly teaching that death didn't even slow him down".
"If he's tied to the school it might be a problem" explained Luna "some ghost are attached to a place. Getting rid of some ghosts requires destroying the place they are attached to and we can't destroy the school".
Or to a job I realised. Binns had died and then stayed to teach and kept teaching he didn't haunt the castle not really he'd just never stopped doing his job. So the answer there might be to fire him or to somehow get him to quit. I could send him a letter from the Board of Governors telling him that History of Magic was no longer going to be taught at the school. He might move on if he no longer had the job or at least thought he didn't.
"I'll try something before we take any extreme measures" I informed everyone before adding "its getting harder to met so why don't we have the next meeting during the Christmas Holidays. I'm sure can all met at Luna's".
I was spending Christmas there and I had no choice in the matter. Luna wanted me in bed with her again this Xmas. I got the feeling that this was going to be a tradition from now on. And given the way I was ploughing through puberty like a freight train these days it wasn't going to be as comfortable as last year.
Stupid hormones.