Author's Note: As this story draws to a close, set to end at the end of the school year, I hope you all have continued to enjoy my story in which I expand on the canon Slytherins in Harry's first year. It is my plan to start on either Chamber of Rituals or Noble Honor after this story is complete. That being said, I think I've got a couple more chapters to bring this story to a good conclusion.


Chapter Ten The Kindling Alight

Theodore Nott was something that was very rare in Slytherin, a bookworm who could care less about Quidditch. With the number of first years involved, and the help that Victoria Malfoy had given the first year, however, there was no way he was going to be able to skip the game. He may have been the loner in his year, and would much more prefer to be reading in the Common Room, but there were certain things that one couldn't get away with missing.

That was why he'd found a seat about midway up the Slytherin stands, a bit more towards the East, rather than the center. It was not where the Quidditch fanatics sat, that was at the top of the stands, where the viewing angle was considered the best, just a little above the top of the hoops. It was not where those who wanted to be seen sat, that was a couple rows below the front row. It was in the area where you'd usually find clusters of friends, occasionally in or out of house. They were spread out enough that a few loners could find places where they bothered no one nor were bothered by no one.

At least that's what Theodore had thought. He'd arrived just a bit early, having accompanied Draco and Pansy out of the castle. He'd then picked up a book, a murder mystery, a wizarding classic featuring the famous Auror Detective Memphis Morton by Archie Thaitags. He certainly didn't expect that a maybe three-and-a-half-year-old boy would wander down to him and sit down.

"Is that the latest Memphis Morton?" the boy asked.

"No, I'm about three behind," Theodore said as he looked up at the boy. He looked a lot like Malfoy, but with hair that was more golden that platinum. "Are you Malfoy's brother."

"Half brother, Jupiter Romulas, but call me Junior," the boy said. "I'm the one who was mostly dead."

"So you still have your loose change?" Theodore said. "Theodore Nott."

"No, my twin sister stole my lucky tuppence," Junior said. "Is that one good? I need a new series for rainy days."

"You're not even four, it's probably too advanced for you," Theodore said.

"My twin sister's nine. I was five when I died. I spent the last three years as a ghost tied to her, but unable to become visible outside of magical areas. It was so boring. Not to mention frustrating, but once Victoria got to Hogwarts, I discovered that I could manifest here and talk, and she got me hooked on mysteries, mostly muggle ones. As a ghost I could go through a page at a time, and I really went through a lot of books. I read a lot above my old grade level."

"So what brought you to Hogwarts?" Theodore asked, putting down his book.

"Dad's a governor and since both Victoria and Draco are playing their first game, I convinced him to take us."

"No, I convinced him to take us," a young girl about nine said as she came to sit on the other side of Junior. "I'm Julie, his twin. Dad is talking about that stuff with the professors. You're right that it's boring."

"Is Judy bored yet?" Junior asked.

"No, she found a professor who is willing to play chess with her," Julie said. "You must be Theo."

Theodore looked straight across Junior to glare at Julie. "You can call me Nott," he growled. He may have let Draco call him by his first name, but he wasn't going to let this little girl get that familiar.

"Nope, you're Theo," Julie replied. "I will address you, and you're not a chipmunk."

"Chip monk?" Theodore replied puzzled.

"Alvin, Simon, Theodore!" Junior and Julie chorused. The two Malfoys looked at each other. Their expressions were sudden amused.

"No experience of the muggle world?" Julie asked.

"No," Theodore said. "Not unless you count football."

"Marginally," Junior said. "Draco says football only is here because of the better Slytherin / Gryffindor rivalry. You'd totally miss all my Star Trek or Doctor Who references."

"Doctor Who?" Theodore queried.

"How did Victoria put it when Claudio Cattivafede accompanied his father to the Manor during Easter break?" Julie looked at her brother, then back at Theodore. "You lack the context for me to begin to explain an almost thirty-year-old science fiction television series. Since you are a pureblood without muggle experience, thirty-year-old is probably the only thing you know what means in that statement that might tell you a bit why you don't know about it."

"Cattivafede came to visit Malfoy Manor?" Theodore asked. Knowing the conflict between Victoria Malfoy and the Cattivafede heir, the idea of the two being in the same room at one of their homes was quite foreign, especially when you considered that Victoria had just given birth at the time.

"Apparently his father's firm is the family's legal representatives," Julie said. "His father had to apologize to me for something he did that will not entirely forgive, and Victoria really let into him for. Victoria can be very scary when she wants to be."

"You're not wrong about that," Theodore remarked, recalling a few encounters between third years that Victoria had swiftly ended in the common room.

"Welcome the Hufflepuff / Slytherin Quidditch game," the voice of the Gryffindor commentator end the conversation as all three turned to the pitch as the players exited from the Slytherin locker rooms, "with the all new team from Slyterin. Introducing the starting line up at Chaser, Captain Victoria Prince Malfoy! Also introducing at Chaser Michael Eddington and Fiona Portinmire ... At Beater Perrie Graham and Neve McFee ... At Keeper, Emerson Cox ... and at Seeker, the third youngest player to start at Quidditch ever, Draco Malfoy!"

Both Malfoys bent their flight path so they could pass by and wave at their younger siblings.

"And the return to field the Hufflepuff team, lead by new Captain and returning Keeper Herbert Fleet ... At Chaser Malcom Preece, Heidi MacAvoy, and Tamsin Applebee ... and Beater Maxine O'Flaherty and Anthony Rickett ... and at Seeker Cedric Diggory!


Pansy was the only reserve player on the new Slytherin team, and had been a bit worried about being the only person sitting on the bench. However, when the rules for substitution were explained to her, finally, she discovered that having a reserve required a non-player member of the team to be appointed to handle those substitutions and report them to the ref. Victoria had appointed Daphne to the role, by virtue of her being the next person to walk into the common room after she was informed of the need that hadn't been excluded from the role.

Daphne was still sulking a bit about that. Not that it meant that Daphne wasn't paying attention so she could catch Victoria's signal to bring Pansy in, if it every happened. In fact both girls had their eyes on the game. Pansy was paying close attention to the Hufflepuff chasers, but Daphne was following things more generally. "Fleet looks a little weak when he tosses to the right. He nearly hit Diggory. I think he was aiming for Applebee, but Preece got it."

"Preece seems to think that Portinmire is going to go easy. Oh boy. Did Fiona just pop that Quaffle right out Preece's grasp?"

"Yes," Pansy replied as Victoria intercepted the loose Quaffle and shot it past Fleet with barely any adjustment between the two actions. It was almost smooth.

Pansy was briefly detracted by Lee Jordon's commentary, "10 points to Slytherin, making it 70 to 40 Slytherin. And Potinmire has the Quaffle still, just around from the back and shooting across the hoops, behind Preece's head into the left hoop. What a beautiful shot. I don't think Preece even saw it."

The passing shot across the goals was not an easy shot to make, since you had to make it right as you turned around the goals. If you weren't careful with your angles, you'd get called one of several different penalties. If you did the turn too tightly, you risked Haversacking, and few chasers had been called for Blurting when they'd kept their course to the point that they collided with the keeper. Portinmire's score was very well executed, and none of the Hufflepuffs were positioned well to recover the Quaffle.

Madam Pomfrey was also sitting on the Slytherin bench. Pansy had heard that the healer tended to take a seat on the side that she most expected injuries on. First time players were apparently one of the big factors, as was anytime a Potter was playing, at least that's what she'd overheard when Professor Snape had been at the same time as she'd been in after she'd finally had her first period, the last of the Slytherin first years to get hers. She'd hidden herself against the wall the moment the door had opened. Talking about that was something she didn't want to do where anyone could hear.

"Time, Slytherin, for substitution!" Madam Hootch said. "Parkinson in for Eddington!"


Draco Malfoy did not expect that he would get the snitch. After all he'd heard from Percy about the game he'd played against the Hufflepuff Seeker Diggory the previous year. The Seeker duel of Diggory vs Weasley had been seen by many as a sign of the future of Quidditch at Hogwarts, then the Seeker Draco had replaced had, through a series of unsportsmanlike actions, ruined Quidditch for Percy, leading to him quitting the Gryffindor Team.

The Gryffindors had come out ahead in the matter, because Potter was a generational talent as Seeker. Even on an old Comet 220, he'd outclassed both Draco and Percy in practice. But Percy had a really unique talent as a Seeker. Percy had been taught by his older brother Charlie how to play other Seekers. There were limitations, after all, his imitations of other seekers were only as good as his own talent and equipment allowed.

With Cedric, Percy knew how his best childhood friend played. He knew every preference for seeking that Cedric used. He knew every tell that the Hufflepuff Seeker had. Draco had spent hours on the pitch against Percy playing Cedric.

It had not taken long for him spot those tells in the actual game. That is why that Cedric's feint, four minutes in, had failed. They had briefly both spotted the snitch, but their chase had ended when Graham had broken them up with a bludger that was shot intending on breaking up the Hufflepuff chasers. As both of them split wide to avoid, losing the snitch, he could tell it was successful as his half-sister shot upwards behind him, a newly caught quaffle in hand.

Draco dropped behind Pansy, using her to block, briefly, the sun, a technique that Harry had shown him. He spotted the fluttering snitch, as Cedric passed behind it. Off he shot, faking like he was trying to catch the small winged ball. Cedric wove slightly as he caught Draco's acceleration towards him and curve as he adjusted his path to the movement of the snitch. The movement of the snitch and Draco's adjustments seemed to convince Cedric that Draco had spotted the snitch to his right, and Cedric adjusted and slowed, attempting get inside the curve to the left and up that Draco was taking.

Time seemed to slow, as Draco closed, making slight adjustments that didn't really feel like adjustments at all, but at the speed he was going, the slightest adjustments would change his course by meters in seconds. He didn't slow as he approached the snitch, even as it slowed. His hand reached out ...


Victoria caught the shot that Pansy made on the center hoop, as Lee Jordan called, out "10 points Slytherin! Hufflepuff up by 20! That's three scores in under minute. The gap is closing again. Badgers, the snakes are threatening your lead."

The Hufflepuff team had caught on to Portinmire's trick much earlier than Victoria had expected, and detailed a chaser to play the scoring area, trying to keep Slytherin from catching their score when it went through the hoops. The trick actually required a bit of skill, as only the chaser with the quaffle could enter the scoring area around the hoops. The trick was that it was enter the scoring area, and didn't say anything about exiting the scoring area, so one chaser would enter, turning what appeared to be a shot to a pass back to the other chaser. It was generally center and either right or left chaser, rarely both outside chasers.

To play the scoring area, the opposing chaser actually had to be tight on the first chaser to enter the zone. Otherwise a penalty would be called on the opposing chaser for two chasers in the scoring area. Hufflepuff had been called on it six times, but Slytherin had only converted two of those to scores. Practice on penalty shots was now on her list.

Suddenly Hootch's whistle blew long, in the game over pitch. Victoria turned towards the center of the pitch, and spotted her half-brother's arm raised. Lee Jordan announced the score, "320 to 150, Slytherin wins!"

Victoria immediately headed for the center of the pitch, where her team was gathering around Draco. She had not expected to win. This was a team that was barely a month old, yet they had won by a snitch.


Severus Snape managed to get to the Slytherin Common Room ahead of much of his Slytherins. There were some special passageways that were only open to heads of house. He needed to do so, as he had honors to give his Slytherins before the party got wild. The former members of the team were still under Filch's supervision, meaning that there were only three of his Slytherins seated in the Common Room, including his sixth year male prefect, Tavish Ross. Ross had drawn the short stick among his prefects, as there always had to be one prefect in each house that didn't attend the game.

There was also Contessa Tripe, busy frantically going over her notes because of a rumored Transfiguration Test on Monday. Snape wondered if the girl was even aware that there was such a thing as Quidditch, and she might have been the only non-Ravenclaw girl in Hogwarts who didn't attend the game. Victoria's story had a good portion of Gryffindor cheering Slytherin, something that Snape had never thought he would hear. Lions cheering snakes was something that was just not supposed to happen.

And finally there was Warren Lament, whose grandfather had actually been Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, but could care less about the sport. Frankly, Lament was one of those Slytherins that Snape had wondered why he was sorted into Slytherin.

"We lost didn't we?" Lament asked.

"Surprisingly not," Snape said dryly, as the rest of Slytherin began streaming through the entry to the Common Room. "320 to 150, Draco Malfoy caught the snitch." In the press of the returning students, he spotted the former Quidditch Team members sneaking in, apparently planning on joining the party.

"Mister Wyndhame, Mister Wymane, Mister Averille, Mister Backburne ... to the fourth year study lounge with you."

"Sorry, sir," Blackburne said. "May I stay long enough to hear the team stats for the year. I know I'm banned from playing, but my little sister has charged me to write a letter on the game."

Snape considered the matter. Backburne had been the least involved of the four, and he'd seen signs of genuine remorse from the boy. Perhaps some reprieve would be appropriate. "You may stay, but you are restricted to the table next to the study room door, where I will be sitting."

Snape waited until the vast majority of his Slytherins had arrived before getting their attention. It wasn't just students in Slytherin, either. It looked like Julie Malfoy with her father, had been allowed in, as had the Gryffindor prefect Weasley. "Slytherins and guests. Today something happened that has not happened to this house since Seventeen-Fifty-Two. Not a first time Quidditch Captain winning a game, that actually was even longer ago, Seventeen-Seventeen. No, for the first time since the Gryffindor-Slytherin opener that year, Slytherin had a game with zero fouls.

"Let that sink in. In a perfectly fair game, with no cheating, Captain Victoria Malfoy and her entirely new team met the ambitious goal I gave them to be foul free, and still won when no one gave them a chance."

Snape paused as his Slytherins cheered that fact.

"And that, with Captain Malfoy's first game victory, is not the only Slytherin streak or record ended today. Our chasers set a record in Hogwarts play, that Professor McGonagall says also would be a record in professional play. Victoria Malfoy, Fiona Portinmire, and Pansy Parkinson had the shortest time between all three Chasers playing scoring points. A recorded that actually been broken when Portinmire had scored, though with Eddington as the first chaser involved. Going into the match, three minutes and sixteen seconds was the record for all of Hogwarts, but with Eddington, it dropped to two minutes forty-six, and when she came out, and Pansy came in, that trio brought it to fifty-two seconds.

"You had Jordan shocked. He was not prepared to believe just how good our team was. A team built from scratch, in less than two months, a team seen as misfits who would never make the team before Easter, that played fair, played hard, and lived up to the ambition of Slytherin."

Severus looked towards the door, and noticed the arrival of the Seeker, Beaters, and Captain of the Gryffindor Team. The Beaters were levitating cases of butter beer. Wood had a stack of snack trays following him, his wand pointing over his shoulder. As for Potter, it seemed that he'd managed to somehow secure a dessert selection already on a table that he was pushing into the common room.

"I see the Gryffindor Team has brought us some party food."

"We figured that no Slytherin who wasn't on the team knew how good then were, so we prepared just in case to make sure that good sportsmanship and hard training on the Gryffindor's eternal rivals were rewarded, sir," Oliver Wood said. "It was Potter's idea, and he brought the Weasleys and myself into it."

"I see. Mister Potter, I believe ten points to Gryffindor, each, would be appropriate," Severus said. "Please set up on the left of the door. Crabbe, Goyle, and Bulstrode, clear the way for them."

"Aye sir," Potter said, his eyes wide in surprise at receiving points.

"Now, it is tradition, after the last game of the year for Slytherin, to acknowledge the accomplishments of the members of the team who will not be returning next year, on and off the pitch."

Snape looked over at that seventh year, who had already gathered her toddler into her lap, opening her robes enough so that the little girl could nurse. "So, Michael Eddington, or as she's been know among this house since her third year, the female one, as her parents chose to name both their first born daughter and son with the same name. It is one of the many things that have led me to question the sanity of her parents.

"Seven years ago, Eddington was in the first year that I started as Head of Slytherin. In fact she was actually the first girl sorted into my house under my oversight. There is no way that I was truly prepared for what she brought to Slytherin here at Hogwarts. I certainly was not prepared for many of the female problems that she brought to me. However, this is about her accomplishments. Eddington was the first student that I took to the Hospital Wing, though no fault of her own. Every time she arrived through her fifth year, I ended up taking her there, due to her abusive parents.

"In her first year, Eddington finished ninth in her year, first among this house. Every year since then she's maintained her ranking in Slytherin, and increased her rank in her year to the point that for the last two years she has led her year, and shows no sign that she's relinquishing that for her final year.

"She's been a prefect since her fifth year, and has preformed admirably in that position, despite the fact that she returned to start her fifth year pregnant with the current terror of the common room. There is nothing that Eddington is willing and able to overcome. This past summer, she took the reigns of the Eddington family ousting her father and two uncles in duels that they insisted on being to the death. I submitted her for Head Girl, as Slytherin's candidate this year. Unfortunately, the Headmaster chose differently.

"Then, when the call came out for the new Quidditch team, she tried out. Professor McGonagall wanted to know where she'd been, as her attempt at trying out in her third year had not gone well, but had shown promise. The Gryffindor chasers will tell you that they're all glad that they will not be playing against her unless they and she go pro. Madam Hooch believes it is possible, even with the fact that today's game was her only game at Hogwarts.

"There will be no second game for Michael Eddington, as this was the last game for Slytherin in her final year at Hogwarts. She took her second chance and threw herself into it as hard as she threw the Quaffle. Hogwarts has been her second chance at life since she arrived, and I can say as she leaves Hogwarts, Slytherin will be sending it's best out into the world.

"It is with the permission of the Headmaster, that I can say that her name will shortly be joining Hogwart's the Founder's Roll of Honor. Eddington, you have shown the ambition of Slytherin in academics, practical and theoretical; taking control of your future; and now athletics."

Severus turned to pick up a Slytherin broach, modeled off Slytherin's own, but with the name "Eddington" arced around it's base. He walked over to where Eddington had collapsed into a chair, and pinned it to her robes. "Wear this with honor." Almost imediately her toddler reached up and touched the broach, causing it to glow.

"And now, I believe that one of our school governors, Lucius Malfoy, would like a few words."

Lucius moved to stand in the same area where Severus had been standing, as Severus took a seat in his favorite chair in the Common Room, at the table that Backburne was already seated at. "You will pardon me if my first congratulations are to my eldest daughter and son, Victoria and Draco.

"Victoria, I know that being Quidditch Captain and winning for Slytherin was a dream that you'd thought lost last year this time. When I found you this past Yule, I told you to dream again. When I did so, I didn't expect your dream to come true so quickly. But with a little bit of encouragement, help from your friends and family, you brought a truly winning team to Slytherin.

"Winning at all cost may seem to be the height of ambition, but it not those who do so that seen to be worth of public praise and private admiration. It is those that work hard, pushing through adversity, those who when knocked down, faced with what would end anyone else's ambitions, and still succeed that are so worthy. Last year this time you were seen as a muggleborn, unknowing of your heritage, about to have the biggest blow against your ambition in your short life. Today, you left the pitch, a winner, secure in your position, heir to your house. You are the victory that your name fortold.

"Draco, my son, this year your life has been turned upside down. No longer are you the only child, a son of a pureblood family dating back to Norman times. You have had a family thrust upon you. You've helped your eldest sister give birth. You've taken your oldest younger sister under your wings, and even indulged Judith's chess genius. Since this year began you've not been the sole focus of the family for the first time in your life. Yet you've borne it well, and today you've shown me some talent that I had no idea you had. That snitch, still in your hand. I did not expect you to catch it. I'm pretty sure that Victoria didn't either. Julie said you would, and I now owe her a uniform.

"I've seen you since Yule becoming more than just someone relying on connections. You help your year, your friends. You play hard on the pitch, Quidditch and football, and today I can say, Draco, you are my son, in whom I am well pleased."

Severus was greatly surprised when Draco engulfed his father in a hug. This was not the formal relationship he'd long seen between father and son. High class pureblood males usually were a lot more restrained. At most there would be a pat on the shoulder for a first born son. It wasn't a short hug either, as Lucius whispered something to his son, causing Draco's smile to get wider.

When the hug was done, Victoria Malfoy claimed her own hug from her father. Lucius seemed to be reveling in his children's affection, something that Severus would have never expected of the man the previous year. Judging from his smile and comfortable posture, it appeared to be good for him.

Severus looked out to the rest of the common room. His Slytherins were starting to get into the party. He found a butter beer already there for him on the table next to his chair, and popped off the top. He wasn't much into the snacks that were provided, though he could probably be tempted with the treacle tarts that Potter had brought in. He took a deep slip of his drink. He'd always found butter beer to be one of the best things he'd discovered when he had arrived at Hogwarts.

As he glanced around the common room, he noticed that there didn't seem to be as much stratification as there usually was. Orpington, a pure blooded princess if there ever was one, was actually dressed in a football jersey as she chatted with Rodgers, a half blood third son of a store keeper in Hogsmeade. Over at the end of the drinks table, Dewar had managed to get Tripe away from her studying. Something she had just said had Dewar suddenly breaking out into laughter.

Julie Malfoy had somehow snared Oliver Wood, who had bent down a little, and was smiling at the third Malfoy child. The girl gave a quick hug to the Gryffindor before skipping across the room to where Victoria had retrieved her baby.

Lucius was heading over to Parkinson, who he gently tapped on her head with his cane, conjuring an awful sparkling pink crown on the girl's head. The school governor seemed to be stopping to chat with just about everyone, as Severus continued to observe everyone. At his table, Backburne had been joined by the two Michael Eddingtons, who had the official automatically updating Slytherin Quidditch Record, volume fourteen, open to the just completed game and were going over the summary.

Severus came to a decision about Backburne, as he watched the boy keeping to his seat with his black sack cloth uniform as the Eddingtons added detail to that summary. Backburne had some parchment out, which he was creating a summary for his little sister. It looked to be a pretty comprehensive one, and from what Severus could read upside down, it was indeed a letter to little Beckie Backburne.

As Backburne reached the end of the letter and signed his name, he looked up at Severus and said, "I've finished my letter. Shall I go to the study room now."

Severus met the boy's eyes. "No," he said, making a decision. "I want you to go to your dorm and change into something other than the sack cloth. Your punishment is now over. Then take that letter to the owlery, so your sister gets it as soon as she can, before coming back and enjoying the rest of the party."

Severus looked at the open mouths of Backburne and the Eddingtons, before stand. "If you'll excuse me, I see that there is still some treacle tart, and I need another butter beer."