(A/N: Hello everyone, I'm sorry for the long hiatus that happened with this story. I have decided to come back to it after seeing the reviews and the number of people who had followed and were waiting for more. That being said, as it was started in 2019, I am doing a complete rewrite of the chapters that were previously published before continuing with the story! So, I hope you all will enjoy the refreshment on the previous chapters and what's to come in the new ones!)
Chapter 1: A Serpent in Lion's Clothing
Harry James Potter did not seek attention. He did not enjoy being paraded around and treated as some sort of show animal. Attention had never meant anything good when Harry was younger and lived with the Dursleys. Drawing attention at that time often meant yelling if he was lucky, much worse if he wasn't. It didn't become better when he began receiving it in the wizarding world either.
He quickly learned that the Daily Prophet and all of the papers like it were fickle and prioritized a sensational story that would sell over the truth. This had been made all the clearer to him during his second year at Hogwarts when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened. Harry wished at the time that he would have realized how uncommon his gifts as a parseltongue were and kept them under wraps. When rumor had spread that he could speak to serpents, the papers had gone wild with speculation.
His particular favorite had been a column from the Prophet by Rita Skeeter herself. It had been titled 'Is the Savior of the Wizarding World Actually a Serpent in Lion's Clothing?' He was sure she was incredibly proud of that supposedly clever headline. He'd laughed hysterically upon reading it himself and had only managed to make it through about a fourth of the story before he'd set the paper ablaze. He couldn't help but wonder what the wizarding world would say if they knew his true sorting results, how the hat had thought he would excel in Slytherin.
Harry often wondered if he had made the wrong choice in asking the hat to change his house. Maybe it had been correct and he would have been happier in the serpent's den. He remembered his first year and Draco's offer of friendship. Sure, the blonde had been a bit of an ass, but hadn't Ron antagonized the other when laughing at his name? They had only been twelve at the time after all. Thinking about his interactions with the Slytherin since then, Harry could admit that he had never given the blonde a chance to act any different after that first encounter. He had begun to antagonize the other alongside Ron and the blonde answered in kind by antagonizing back.
Ron was another matter Harry had been thinking about quite a bit recently. The ginger was once again excluding Harry and accusing him of being an attention seeker like he had their second year. This had begun as soon as Harry's name had come from the Goblet of Fire. He had tried explaining that same night when Ron asked how he got around Dumbledore's age line. Upon his denial of doing so, the ginger had gotten a snappy attitude with him and accused him of wanting the spotlight and not wanting to share. Harry had given up trying to convince him otherwise when he failed to understand that Harry could potentially die during this tournament. Contrary to popular belief, Harry was far from suicidal and didn't really enjoy his yearly near death experiences.
Hermione was quick to choose sides when they were still at odds a few days later. Predictably she had sided with Ronald and had demanded that Harry apologize while simultaneously scolding him for lying to Ron and putting himself in unnecessary danger for attention. He had responded calmly the first time, reaffirming his innocence in his name ending up in the Goblet. Using the logic that said witch prided herself on to point out that they were saying a teenager was able to outsmart magic put in place by Albus Dumbledore himself. She of course brushed this aside and continued to defend Ron, seems logic completely ceases to exist if it means that either of them could be wrong.
The next time he was approached by them together with the demand of an apology and admittance of guilt, he had been far more colorful in his response. Quite clearly telling them both where they could shove their ridiculous idea of him apologizing for something he didn't do. Needless to say, things were frosty in the boy's dorm of Gryffindor and the Common Room. He had taken to avoiding both areas as often as possible. He now spent many evenings sitting in the astronomy tower, as he was currently, or in the owlery with Hedwig.
He would maybe feel worse if either of them had ever been a good friend to him, but in reality, when he thought back over the past four years, they hadn't. Ron had always viewed Harry as loving the attention his title of savior gave him. Ignoring the fact that said title had cost Harry the one thing he actually wanted, a family. Hermione was always quick to side with and defend the red head regardless of whether he was right or not and as smart as she claimed to be seemed to be incapable of logical thought when he was involved. They had abandoned him more than once even though they both claimed to be his best friends. The Golden Trio as Dumbledore and the other professor's like to call them.
And then there was Dumbledore. Harry had admired the older wizard at first, believing him to be a morally good and strong wizard just as the wizarding world at large did. The more he thought about his life though the more cracks he could see in this image. Why would Dumbledore leave him at the Dursley's after Harry had told him of his treatment? The end of his first year he had confided in the man about the abuse, neglect, and every other miserable part of residing in that house. What had the man done though? Told Harry that he shouldn't be making up such stories about his relatives. Harry had offered his memories as proof, surely those could show he was no liar. But the man had brushed him off again and told him that was where Harry was safest and that there was no room for further discussion.
He had accepted that answer until his third year, until he met his godfather Sirius Black. Upon Sirius escape he had broached the idea of his living with Sirius once he was settled somewhere. The man was his godfather after all and he deserved the chance to have family who didn't hate him. He had once again been rebuffed by Dumbledore though. It was after this refusal that Harry began putting the pieces together in his mind. Dumbledore didn't care if Harry was safe, he wanted Harry wherever he was more controllable. It began to become clearer when he thought about how often Dumbledore left out important information, only telling Harry after incidents had occurred.
The man was also very vague when Harry asked questions regarding Voldemort. Harry couldn't honestly say what the man was actually trying to accomplish because no one talked about what the dark side's goals were. He was given a noncommittal answer of blood purity at one point, but surely it went deeper than that. The Boy Who Lived was far from willing to fight a war that he didn't even know what the two sides were fighting for.
Voldemort himself was a mystery to Harry. He had met the sixteen-year-old version of Tom Riddle in the diary and that Tom had been charismatic and charming. Someone who likely would have done well in wizarding politics and been able to sway people to his side easily. What happened to the man that had led him to violence and murder as a way to make his points? Harry needed to figure it out. He needed to know what the man was actually trying to accomplish, surely killing him wasn't the man's only goal in life.
Harry honestly couldn't blame the man for desiring him dead either after finding out that a prophecy foretold that Harry would be the other's downfall. Although he did wonder about the credibility of it, considering Harry was open to fighting on the same side as the other. He knew that he wouldn't be able to get answers unless he could arrange a meeting with the man himself. Fortunately fate, luck, or whatever else you want to call it seemed to be on his side this year.
Alastor Moody had been brought in as their defence against the dark arts professor this year. Or would have been if someone wasn't impersonating him and likely holding him prisoner somewhere. Harry was fairly confident in his hunch about who the imposter was as well. He had seen the memories of Bartimous Crouch Junior being detained as a Death Eater. That nervous tick of his with his tongue was very telling if one knew to look for it. He was rather impressed that the man had been able to fool all of the other professor's with his impersonation. The raven doubted Dumbledore was fooled and was sure that the man was allowing this to continue for some goal of his own, but for once that benefited Harry.
He had confirmed via his dream a few nights ago that Crouch Junior was in contact with Voldemort. Perhaps he could use the man to get the meeting he so desired. The raven knew he would need to be clever about his approach. He assumed the goal was for Barty to kidnap him and bring him to Voldemort at some point anyway as the other had always made it clear he planned to kill Harry personally. He decided the best method would likely be approaching by letter first and seeing how the man reacted to him, if favorably then he could proceed with a direct meeting to discuss his desires to meet Voldemort.
He assumed a similar approach may be useful with Voldemort himself. Perhaps writing a letter with his intentions and questions to send along with Barty Junior would be useful. He supposed this would be his plan over the next few days and could only hope that it would yield the results he hoped for. As the raven tilted his head back to take in the starry sky above him, he huffed out a low bitter laugh. "A serpent in lion's clothing indeed."