Chapter 2: Power first

AN: Hi! It's been a year since I posted the first chapter on ffn ( although it's only been a while on ao3 ). Btw. Thanks for the comments from AO3! This chapter is a bit longer than the first one.

This is the first part of the second year. I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Am I stealing this type of disclaimer from Silently Watches? If so, I don't own Harry Potter.

June 31, 1992

Not much happened: I had to work for the Dursleys as a house elf for a month. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten my confiscated textbooks or wand back yet. And Blaise hasn't written to me yet! Has he forgotten about me?

Now a client of Uncle Vernon's has come to dine with the Dursleys to discuss some business - of course I don't exist and mustn't make any sound.

This is fucking crazy! A house elf came in, introduced himself as Dobby, confessed to stealing the letters Blaise sent, and then ruined the Dursleys' dinner. And he did it by violating the Statute of Secrecy by levitating the cake - the Ministry then sent me a warning, which made the Dursleys realize I wasn't allowed to use magic (like I could without a wand - wait, can I actually? I didn't need a wand for accidental magic, I'll have to look into that later) and they locked me in a room.

August 10, 1992

I've been locked up for almost two weeks and I'm hungry. The worst part is that no one has to find out about it! If I hadn't told Blaise that I was leaving Hedwig in the warts, he might have at least suspected that something was very wrong, but this way no one will know until I am missing on September 1.

I've already tried to see if I can do the unlocking spell without my wand, but unfortunately I can't. Either it's impossible or I'm doing something wrong.

August 18, 1992

I'm getting desperate! The damn muggles are still holding me - Vernon told me I'm done with my magic and he's not going to let me go to school. He may be bluffing, but this is unbearable!

I can't cast alohomora without a wand, I just can't. But I'm not giving up, I have to escape.

August 29, 1992

I got it! I've escaped the muggles! The Dursleys went off somewhere and I started trying to cast the unlocking spell again. I knew I was running out of time, Hogwarts starts in 3 days. I couldn't do it, and out of frustration I started pounding my fists on the door until my blood was flowing. I wanted so much to open the damn door, and suddenly it clicked and the door unlocked. I don't know what happened, but I immediately got to the closet under the stairs, grabbed my stuff and ran.

Now I'm in Diagon Alley, I got the Hogwarts list from Tom the bartender (apparently something like this happens to someone like me once in a while). I bought the stuff with the money I took out of the Gringotts' account - even though I don't have a key, a few drops of blood are enough to verify my identity. In addition to the Hogwarts stuff, I picked up a few books - something about the Grindelwald War (it's an interesting period, and the only war between multiple magical countries in modern history!) then a book on duelling (in case Malfoy gets any ideas) and a couple of other books.

August 31, 1992

Hogwarts starts tomorrow! I've already managed to read the book on duelling - definitely interesting, practiced the basic stances and moves as instructed. Plus I found out that the Ministry can't monitor whether I'm casting magic if there are multiple wizards around, so of course I've been practicing new spells.

While exploring the alley I also wandered into something called Knockturn Alley - supposedly you can get dark artifacts etc. I went there under an invisibility cloak, and the stuff they sold didn't seem too bad - sure, some of it seemed to be on the edge of the law, the alley is much poorer than the Diagon, but if there was something dark going on, the aurors would have stopped it by now, right? I only found one interesting thing in the alley: the local bookstore - there are books there that Flourish and Blotts can't be found - books on powerful magic, all sorts of esoteric and obscure spells, etc. I bought a book there that should be about spells that don't use wands, I need to learn at least something without a wand, I don't want to repeat this summer. I also grabbed a couple of random books, one of them is Guide to Magical Combat by Vinda Rosier - from what I hear the second years in Slytherin are already involved in the power struggle in the house whether they want to or not, and I don't want to be caught off guard. I think the author of the guidebook also wrote that book on magical theory I read last year.

1 September 1992

Finally at Hogwarts! I got to the platform from the Leaky Cauldron via the Letax - annoying thing, but I want to know how it works - is any fire enough, or do you need a fireplace? Does it have to be specially enchanted somehow? And what's the letax powder anyway? I need to find out about it.

Blaise was disgusted by what the muggles did to me, he says we'll have to find a way to communicate without owls if I have to go back to the muggles (I'll do anything to keep that from happening, but Dumbledore is apparently my guardian in the magical world and he seemed pretty adamant, though I'm hoping to convince him given what happened over the summer).

Malfoy gave me a strange look tonight, I'm sure he's up to something. He probably wants to impress the older years by humiliating the boy-who-survived. Just let him try.

September 2, 1992

Classes today were Herbology, Transfiguration, Potions, and DADA - not much, I'm tired of getting stuck in the dirt, Transfiguration is okay, Snape, even though he only ignores me anymore, is a terrible teacher, and Lockhart is a narcissistic idiot - seriously who gives a test on themselves in first class?

I expected Malfoy to do something, but not on the second day of school - he waited until I was alone in the afternoon and then ambushed me with his two trolls. Needless to say I won - I dodged his Slug-vomiting Charm and cursed him with my most powerful spell - stupefy (it's a fourth year spell, my most advanced spell). Unfortunately, Crabbe and Goyle ran away before I could stop them. Malfoy on the other hand... He'll be lucky if he wakes up before midnight, I hid him in the broom closet so he'll have to walk half the castle after curfew - if he loses points on the second day of school, good luck building a reputation in Slytherin.

September 3, 1992

Malfoy keeps a low profile, unfortunately he's been caught by a Slytherin prefect, so I haven't damaged Malfoy's reputation that much. Defeating him felt just as good though.

I haven't made much progress in researching wandless magic - the book I bought in Knockturn Alley doesn't say much more about it than what I've already read: only an extremely powerful wizard can do true wandless magic, and even then he's limited by basic spells like levitation, etc. What I learned new though is that there are fields of wandless magic that don't need an extremely powerful wizard but a talent or something else: there are talents for mind magic (occlumency and legilimency both need to be learned, the description of those abilities sounds cool), shape shifting (animage, metamorphomage), death magic (necromancy etc.). These abilities can be mastered to some extent without talent, but it's extremely difficult. Then there are other fields of magic that don't require a wand, nor an immense amount of power: rituals (power comes from runes and sacrifices), runes, and blood magic - I have yet to find anything on this one, it supposedly (among other things) boosts the magic you use with the life force of a blood giver, amplified runes, and a bunch of other disciplines. Supposedly many similar disciplines using blood, combined under one name. But the main thing: I think that's how I opened the door when escaping from muggles - if I remember correctly, my hands were messed up and I was bleeding when I did it.

September 14, 1992

I started practicing dueling with Blaise, and he keeps winning because his mom hired a tutor over the summer to teach him the basics of dueling. He's incredibly smug! Friend or not, I'm gonna wipe that smile off his face. I mean, when I learn how to fight...

Over the weekend, we found an old classroom in the basement where we set up a dueling arena. I learned the Notice-me-not spell, so our arena is protected from unwanted attention. Unfortunately, the spell will only last me about two days. Apparently, spells can be permanently anchored with runes. I say that a lot, but I need to learn. Unfortunately, I don't have the time yet.

8 October 1992

Malfoy is planning something again, I guess he managed to make a deal with Flint (captain of the Quidditch team) after he bought a spot on the team. Nott seems to be trying to form a faction as well. Neither of them are a good thing to me, they both support the Dark Lord's agenda, though Malfoy's father is trying to distance himself from the Death Eaters and gain power in the Ministry according to Blaise.

Damn, I guess I'll have to network with someone other than Blaise if I want to have any chance in Slytherin. The whole Slytherin revolves around power - magical, personal, political, whatever, it's the power that matters. I'm going to have to get some, because from what Dumbledore said last year, Voldemort will be back, and that could be a problem considering I'm the boy-who-lived.

I might make Malfoy make his move in front of the rest of Slytherin and get ready for it. If I show that I'm capable of resisting Malfoy, I'll probably be able to (at least according to Blaise) make an alliance with the only other classmates in my year who haven't sided with anyone yet - Greengrass and Davis.

October 29, 1992

We've been watching Malfoy for a few days, and we're pretty sure he's going to challenge me to a duel. Pretty straightforward for a Slytherin, but what do you expect from Malfoy. Anyway, I've seen him practicing the Organ Liquefaction Curse, we assume that will be his last chance. He was assisted by older Slytherins Flint and Montague. The curse can't be stopped by anything easier than a shield protego. I've almost got the spell, but I need to refine it.

Anyway, the plan is to enrage Malfoy into challenging me to a duel in front of as many Slytherins as possible, and to put a restriction on Ministry-approved magic among the terms of the duel. Ideally he'll use that dark curse in an attempt to avoid defeat which would break the rules of dueling and he'd have to agree to pretty much anything I ask him to do (not anything extreme of course, but I'm sure he won't like it). If he doesn't use the curse, I win, and even if he doesn't get humiliated as much, it still teaches him a lesson.

I'll have to plan my fights with Blaise properly, but today I beat him in 12 out of 18 duels!

October 31, 1992

I felt different all day today, even though most of the day went completely normally. I skipped the feast tonight, I don't feel like celebrating Halloween, especially since it's celebrating the defeat of Voldemort, thus celebrating the death of my parents. Blaise says that there used to be a feast called Samhain, but in the last 150 years, they've been turning away from the old feasts and since Dumbledore is Headmaster, they're not allowed to celebrate in the Hogwarts. Anyway, instead of a feast, we were practicing dueling when I heard whispers coming from the walls. Blaise didn't hear anything. We pulled out our wands and followed the whispers carefully. After a while we heard a rustling sound and for some reason I stayed put for a while before we continued. And it was a good thing: we found Filtch's cat petrified and written next to it in blood, "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, Beware.". Before we could disappear, more students showed up. There was a panic and Malfoy said in front of half the school, "You'll be next, Mudbloods!". Luckily, Dumbledore didn't accuse me or Blaise of anything.

When we all returned to the common rooms, Prefect Fawley reminded the Slytherin of the legend of the Chamber of Secrets: In short, Salazar Slytherin had a disagreement with Godric Gryffindor over whether to accept muggle children into the school. He thought they were a security risk, but Gryffindor had his way, so Slytherin built the Chamber of Secrets and placed a beast in it that only his heir could control, in case the castle was attacked. Shortly afterwards, he disappeared. And the Chamber of Secrets has supposedly been opened about three times since then, mostly by one of the mad Gaunts, who supposedly used the beast to kill muggleborns.

As bad news as opening the Chamber was, it offered a good opportunity: all the Slytherins were in one place, and I had a good excuse to provoke Malfoy. In front of Malfoy, I mentioned to Blaise how stupid Malfoy was for laughing at the possibility of petrifying his classmates in front of the whole school and that I didn't understand how he could be in Slytherin. Malfoy got angry as I suspected and challenged me to a duel, saying that I wasn't worthy of being a Slytherin, to which I replied that obviously he wasn't a proper Slytherin since he was laughing at petrification in front of the whole school. His 'allies' from the upper years convinced the prefects to oversee the duel as referees and to enforce the conditions.

He chose Crabbe as his second and I chose Blaise. According to the agreement between the seconds, if he wins, I'll have to do his homework for the rest of the year (he didn't get a pass on forcing me to swear loyalty to him for the duration of my stay at the school). If I win, he'll have to admit to at least two people from each house that I'm a better wizard than he is. Prefect Fawley has been appointed as the head judge of the duel, and it has been decided that the rules will be simple: the duel ends with the opponent being disarmed, and no spells that cannot be easily healed may be cast on the opponent, and certainly nothing classified as dark magic.

Then came the duel. He's... not bad, but I was superior. When I pushed him against the wall, he threw a serpensortia, probably thinking I'd panic. But I dealt with the snake using a lacaro and knocked Malfoy to his knees with a flipendo. And that's when I finally pushed him to it: Malfoy cast an Organ Liquefaction curse, I blocked it with protege and disarmed him with expelliarmus. Not only did I win, but Malfoy broke the rules of dueling. He used a potentially lethal curse banned by the Ministry. Even though I had the right to break his wand, I agreed with the referee and Malfoy that I would return his wand, he would have to publicly say I am a better wizard and swear an oath to return a favor of equal or lesser value to his wand.

AN2:

Although it took a long time, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm not entirely sure yet, but I'll probably make the story pretty AU, you can only guess how :). Also, feel free to post some suggestions and maybe I'll build them into the story!

Stay tuned for the next chapter next year! (joke (I hope))