Chapter Six

When Bart finally came to, he found himself in yet another infirmary. As the infirmary appeared to be covered in what was gradually but inexorably creeping sunlight, Bart deduced that it must still be early in the morning.

Two first days; two infirmaries. Just my luck, Bart thought ruefully to himself, as the memory of his expulsion from Ilvermorny haunted him once again. At least there don't seem to be any teachers waiting to expel me this time…

Just to make sure, he tried turning his head. He succeeded but found that doing so sent him into a world of hurt that sent the memories of the rather brutal previous evening rushing through Bart's mind like a freight train.

The sight he saw was one for sore eyes, however; it was Gemma, asleep on a chair. In Bart's eyes, she looked as pretty as ever, with not one strand of her wavy brunette hair out of place, nor any blemishes on her perfect porcelain skin.

Bart's groan after turning her head caused her eyes to open, before she turned towards Bart and looked at him like he was The Bloody Baron, Slytherin's blood-stained, taciturn ghost. She then broke into a weak half-smile.

For Bart, that expression signalled her distress, because typically she gave Bart one of those stunning Cheshire Cat smiles that had been honed by years of practice schmoozing people.

"You're awake. How do you feel?" asked Gemma.

"Like I just went 50 rounds with Drederick Tatum", instinctively responded Bart. Seeing Gemma's perplexed frown, he winced and thought, Oh crap, that's right. Daphne and Tracey told me not to mention anything No-Maj in front of the other Slytherins.

"Speaking of which –", Gemma began.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. No talking about Muggle stuff or Muggles in front of Slytherins."

Gemma looked surprised, as if she didn't expect Bart to correctly finish her sentence.

I need to change the subject just in case she asks me how I guessed what she was going to say, Bart thought frantically. "So Gemma, why are you still here? Why do you care about me that much? How did you even find me?"

Gemma considered her response briefly, not wanting to reveal too much of her plan for Bart, before replying, "Bart, I'm a Prefect. I have to care about younger Slytherins. Besides, as I said I love the idea of nurturing a great talent like yourself. To do that, I need to make sure you recover from any attack."

Bart wasn't entirely convinced by her response, but his infatuation for Gemma led him to set his misgivings aside. He nodded at Gemma, inviting her to continue, to her relief.

"After I finished my prefect duties, I came into the common room and tripped over what turned out to be your disillusioned body. I performed a quick Homenum Revelio – a spell that reveals people within a certain area", she clarified after seeing Bart's quizzical countenance, "and then found you. Merlin's beard, Bart – what happened? Didn't you use those spells I taught you about?"

Seeing Gemma's cross expression, Bart hastily clarified the situation. "They were hidden. They hit me with a curse that made my body freeze up and then I fell over, then they punched and kicked me when I was down. Then Drain-boy came up and threatened me before knocking me out. He said that you couldn't stop him and that I should expect to be beaten up some more if I showed him up in class again."

Hearing this made Gemma seethe, making Bart wish that Draco was with him so that he could receive the bitter medicine Gemma looked ready to dole out. "That little bastard", she growled.

She then considered her options. The Malfoys were politically more powerful than the Farleys due to their greater wealth, so Gemma could not use her family's political influence to bring Draco's father down and diminish Draco's hold over the other Slytherins, nor could she really bribe Slytherins who openly sided with Draco against Gemma and Bart.

No, in her mind, the best way to proceed was to figure out exactly who had attacked Bart, besides Draco. There were two possible ways of doing this: by using Veritaserum or Legilimency, respectively.

Although he treated her relatively favourably due to her being a top student in his Potions classes, Gemma nonetheless found her head of house, Professor Snape, to be at best taciturn and at worst unpleasant to talk with. He also doubted that he would simply give her a restricted substance like Veritaserum, even if she explained her reasons. It would also take her too long to try and brew.

No, she would have to attempt Legilimency. Unfortunately, she wasn't particularly proficient at the practice. She had rarely received more than scattered, random memories whenever she tried it on her father and she had been learning since 3rd year, to try and probe the minds of Slytherin students who might want to harm or harass her and avoid them accordingly.

She was more accomplished in Occlumency, in which she had received lessons from her father since she was in her 3rd year, not just because they feared Voldemort's return, but because some older boys from Slytherin, less than pleasant ones at that, expressed both romantic and sexual interest in her. She needed to be able to shut them down without losing control of herself and thus displaying weakness for them to prey upon.

Gemma also practiced Occlumency regularly when attending pure-blood events, shutting down negative emotions. Since these emotions were not disrupting her thought processes, this enabled her to appear calm, polite and professional underneath her dazzling smile. A few potioneers in fact, were impressed by Gemma's manner and decided to enter into business with the family apothecary.

Bart was a prodigious talent, but he was also an excitable, expressive Muggleborn and those typically weren't resistant to Legilimency of any kind. Now all she had to do was have him open his mind up to her, necessitating his trust.

Luckily, the Matron Poppy Pomfrey concluded that Bart was free to leave, at which point, rather than going to the feast, Gemma led them both towards the Hogwarts Kitchens. After all, Bart needed to have a full stomach before she entered into his mind.

"Gemma, do you even know where we're going?" Bart asked with bemusement, to which Gemma responded with an amused snort.

"Bart, I'm a Prefect, remember? I'm meant to know my way around the castle. Anyway, in my younger years at Hogwarts, a Slytherin student served detention down in Hogwarts kitchens. I don't remember what his name was. But he told the rest of my grade where we could go if we wanted free food at any time, including how to enter the kitchens.

Most of my fellow students laughed at him because they see house elves as nothing more than beasts of burden and so don't want to even see them, much less be around them for long. I have nothing against house elves; my house elves have always been faithful, loyal servants. They're only unpleasant if you abuse them."

"Do they get paid?"

"No, of course not. They just enjoy serving their master", Gemma responded with consternation.

Lisa would have reacted very angrily at this revelation and to be honest Bart wouldn't have blamed her. It reminded Bart of slavery, which he knew to be wrong.

"Bart, what's wrong?" a perplexed Gemma asked.

"See in Muggle America, the houses that have servants actually pay them."

"So it seems that there's a cultural clash between the Muggle and wizarding worlds going on. No, house elves get insulted if you try to pay them. To them, bonding to a family and doing work is payment enough."

"Different str-I mean, different wand swishes for different folks, huh?" leaving Gemma utterly flummoxed.

"Oh damn that's right, no more Muggle talk. I guess that pay is rewarding in some cultures and insulting in others. Like you said, there's a cultural difference. It's not bad or good. It just is", Bart rationalised.

"Very good, Bart. By the way, in higher wizarding circles you should not use the word 'damn'. It is seen as low-class. Also, be very careful of associating with any Gryffindors. We might not be so different than them in some ways, but our rivalry is so intense that openly associating with any of them will see you branded a traitor to Slytherin House and then brutally attacked the way you were last night."

At that prospect, Bart winced as if he was staring straight into the sun.

"What about Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs?"

"Ravenclaws are mostly OK. Hufflepuffs and Slytherins don't have a formal rivalry, but their mind-set is very different from ours and we don't relate to each other very much. I would be very selective regarding whom you talk to in that house.

If you talk to a Muggleborn as a fellow Muggleborn, then Slytherins will assume that you are working with other Muggleborns to undermine Slytherin. Really stupid, but that's the mind-set that you will have to deal with in Slytherin."

Bart rolled his eyes contemptuously at that 'reasoning' but let Gemma continue.

"There are also other reasons to be careful about interacting with students from outside of Slytherin. How familiar are you with Professor Dumbledore?"

"Headmaster Dumbledore? He came to my house and took me to Diagon Alley to get my stuff, then came and took me to Kings Cross Station", Bart explained.

Gemma cursed inwardly as she realised that the wizened wizard was already aware of Bart's talents. She had no doubt he was planning to keep an eye on Bart throughout his time at Hogwarts. No doubt he thought that he could mould him into somebody who could take care of any threats to the aged mage. After all, Gemma planned to use Bart for much the same reasons.

"What do you think of him?" Gemma innocently asked.

"He seemed nice enough, but I don't trust authority figures or teachers very much. My kindergarten teacher made sure of that. Besides, I was born a rebel and I'll die a rebel, baby", Bart answered flirtatiously.

Gemma giggled outwardly but inwardly she felt like doing a jig, realising that Bart was most unlikely to choose Professor Dumbledore's interests over Gemma's should they inevitably collide. Now to make sure that Bart didn't ally himself with the meddlesome Professor.

"Bart, do you know why Dumbledore came to collect you?"

"He just said that I was a really gifted wizard", came Bart's concise response.

Sighing, Gemma explained, "Bart, Dumbledore wants to spy on you and bring you around to his way of thinking. Then he'll use you against whatever opponent he's fighting against.

Listen, in my pure-blood wizarding circles - "

"By pure-blood do you mean all wizards?"

"Yes, now please listen. In these circles you hear things about other wizards, and that includes Dumbledore. I heard that, in his youth, he had been planning to not only dominate the wizarding world, but also the entire world, enslaving Muggles like your parents and having wizards like Dumbledore rule over them. He apparently used many wizards to try and achieve these goals", Gemma explained.

Bart looked absolutely mortified. He might not like authority figures as a matter of principle, but he was seriously struggling to connect the kindly headmaster that he had met with the megalomaniac that Gemma had just described.

"So-so how come he hasn't been executed or jailed for life?" Bart stuttered as he asked.

"Simple. He was originally working in concert with a Dark Lord, Gellert Grindelwald. Think of Grindelwald as being like the…Voldemort…of his time", Gemma continued, not wanting to utter Voldemort's name.

"However, it became apparent to Dumbledore that Grindelwald, rather than jointly ruling the world with Dumbledore, merely wanted to use Dumbledore to achieve world domination and then dispose of him. Dumbledore couldn't have that, so he defeated Grindelwald in battle and was hailed as a hero.

Over the years, he's become so influential, popular and powerful, that anyone who tried to seriously expose his past would at best be shunned and reduced to poverty. At worst…well, I think you can guess. Besides, how can anyone say such bad things about such a kind man?" Gemma rhetorically asked Bart with a cold smile.

She smirked as she surveyed Bart's reaction of complete horror to her words, knowing there and then that she had hooked him like a fish. However, she had only told Bart part of the truth. She had heard rumours that Dumbledore sympathised with Grindlewald's desire for world domination, but not necessarily that he had seriously tried to help him dominate the planet, much less use countless wizards to achieve that goal. Nor had she heard stories about him doing anything nasty to any public detractors, much less 'disappearing' them.

That didn't matter to Gemma, though. All that mattered to her was moulding Bart into a weapon that could help her to destroy and subjugate her enemies and if compelling him to distrust Dumbledore was necessary to achieve that goal, then so be it. Anything to prevent her family from being placed in a compromising position again. Besides, what Bart didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

"S-so, which families or students should I look out for in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff?" Bart croaked.

"Well, in your year, these students' families have been reputed to be close to Dumbledore in some fashion – Padma Patil, Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, Ernest MacMillan, Zacharias Smith, Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot. Bones in particular, because her aunt tried to have my parents prosecuted for assisting…Voldemort", Gemma replied venomously.

Boot and Goldstein? They can't be related to Seraphinus or Professor Goldstein, can they? Bart wondered, with those surnames rendering him near-catatonic with shock.

"Did your family help him?"

"My parents avoided prosecution for that very thing, so I would say not", Gemma replied, taking care not to provide Bart with too much detail, lest that affect his trust in her.

Bart was so busy contemplating her reply that he didn't notice his foot sliding into a four-legged creature. Bart looked down and saw a scrawny, skeletal-like cat looking up at him with bulging yellow eyes. In a flash, she ran off.

"That's Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat. We need to disappear because Filch will be here in a moment", Gemma hissed.

"If she's Mrs. Norris, then who the hell is Mr. Norris? Filch?" Bart querulously asked.

Ignoring Bart's question, Gemma quickly and non-verbally disillusioned and silenced them both. A moment after she did, Mrs. Norris came back with Filch.

"Who's there my swEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET?" Filch screamed as his body thrust itself bolt upright. Mrs. Norris looked at her master in alarm, with Bart taking advantage of her being distracted to whip a stink bomb out of his pocket, toss it up in the air and transfigure it into a rat.

Mrs. Norris might have been an exceptionally intelligent cat, but a cat she still was. The scrawny creature bolted after the rat, with Filch limping behind her as he yelled "Come back, my sweet!"

When they were both gone, Gemma removed the charms on both herself and Bart.

"Bart, that was absolutely brilliant! What did you DO to Filch?" she asked, shaking with laughter.

"Oh, I just gave him a wedgie to end all wedgies. It'll wear off in a bit", Bart answered nonchalantly as Gemma burst out laughing.

They went down a staircase and into a stone basement corridor. Gemma tickled the pear on a painting depicting a bowl of fruit and, when a green door handle materialised, led Bart into the kitchens. Bart couldn't believe his eyes at what he saw; a multitude of tiny creatures with bat-like ears, bulging eyes and rags for clothes.

"These are house-elves?" Bart asked, agog, as they saw them and surrounded them. One tugged at his robe and asked him, "Does student want food?"

After a moment, Bart replied, "Yes, students want food."

In a flash, they were sat down at a table and given a sumptuous meal.

"Talk about quick service", Bart quipped.

However, they were not undisturbed during their meal, as a pair of stocky twins with distinct red hair and freckled features gambolled into the room. When they saw Bart and Gemma, they stopped.

"Well, well, well! Well, well, well!" they both exclaimed in a rising pitch, to the point where their voices sounded like they were both castrati in a helium-infused room at the end of the last 'well'. "If it isn't Slytherin's first Muggleborn student for at least 500,000 years, and Percy's fellow pestering Prefect, Gemma Farley. What's Percy like to work with, Little Miss Prefect? As insufferable as he is to live with?"

"Every bit, Weasleys", Gemma noted sourly. "What are you even doing down here? Shouldn't you two be at the feast?"

"We finished early and came down here to collect some goodies. Never thought I'd see Slytherins down here – they're all bullying gits who think that they're too good to deal with house elves, unless they're beating them", one of them jibed.

Not rising to their bait, Gemma brusquely replied, "Well hurry up, otherwise I'll give you a detention."

"Oh, we wouldn't want that, your Highness!" came their rejoinder as they collected their sweets from the house-elves before leaving.

Unfortunately for Bart, Gemma heard his chuckling. "They're a real barrel of laughs, aren't they?" she asked coldly, daring him to say yes as he gazed into her burning brown eyes.

Bart hesitated and noted, "I get the feeling that you don't really like them."

"Well, they annoy their ponce of a brother, the one that caught us on the train, so they're not all bad, but they constantly harass Slytherins. They even turned my hair a rainbow colour once!" to which Bart tried not to snigger.

Hmmmm…these twins seem like pretty cool dudes, Bart thought, but as he was doing so Gemma's hand suddenly took his wrist as she whisked him out of the kitchens, took him into the stone corridor, transfigured a couple of chairs using a couple of knuts and made him sit.

"Now Bart, I am going to find out who attacked you, besides Malfoy, so I can punish them accordingly. To do that, I am going to have to join your mind to mine so I can see actually what happened", Gemma explained.

"What, you mean like mind-reading?" Bart asked, recalling that time at Ollivander's, when Headmaster Dumbledore had previously probed his mind.

At this, Gemma sighed before explaining herself. "No Bart, the mind is not like a book. I mean, I can't start at Page 1, or the first day of your life and proceed chronologically from there. My experience with Legilimency is that you have to navigate the mind and search for certain feelings or memories. In the case of other Slytherins, I was searching for feelings or memories that indicated a desire to harm or harass me in some way."

"So basically, you have to try and think about the incident as best as you can after I cast the spell. The process might be uncomfortable, but it is the best way to let me help you so we can get this whole business over and done with", Gemma finished.

Bart nodded, relaxed and focused upon that memory before Gemma looked him in the eyes, cocked her wand towards him like a pistol, and uttered, "Legilimens!"

The resultant sensation was not painless, like when Dumbledore probed his mind. Indeed, it forced Bart's head back as he gasped in pain and shock, with the memory of the incident flittering before his eyes like a motion picture on fast forward. The sensation soon ceased as quickly as it began and Bart's head lurched forward.

Gemma touched his left shoulder and tenderly asked, "Are you OK?"

Bart felt like firing back an insult, but held his tongue and merely uttered flatly, "Yeah, fine. Who else can do that? I mean, besides Dumbledore?"

Gemma responded, "The other teachers might be able to do it, so don't look them in the eyes. On another note", Gemma said with a warm thin-lipped smile, "I've managed to identify your attackers. The blond who called you a Mudblood was Lucian Bole, a Beater on Slytherin's Quidditch team. I doubt that the Quidditch captain, Marcus Flint, sanctioned Bole's involvement in this attack. He might be a thug, but he's also a 5th year, so he knows that I have been protecting you and that I would magically eviscerate any 5th year Slytherin who acted against my interests.

Remember, in Slytherin, power means strength, and I'm one of the most powerful witches in the school. As for the 6th and 7th years, they're too pre-occupied by their upcoming final exams, or N.E.W.T's, to worry about feuds between first years, even influential ones like Malfoy.

I think that Bole participated because he has all the brainpower of a particularly inbred troll." At this crack, Bart chuckled, before Gemma continued.

"Two other participants are named Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle; you might know them as Malfoy's dunderheaded associates. Merlin knows why they became Slytherins; they're more like thuggish Hufflepuffs. The rest were all 4th years and below, so younger than me."

"What are you going to do to them?"

"Well, let's just say that when I get my hands on them, they will be serving quite a few night-time detentions, with Malfoy's going on top of his existing ones. Plus they'll all mysteriously come down with some rather searing gas pain at the same time I give them detentions", Gemma nastily chortled as she winked at Bart, to which Bart smiled evilly, before she continued.

"However, I do recommend learning the Homenum Revelio, or human revealing, charm so you can scope around corners in the Slytherin common room or dormitories, just in case somebody else wants to attack you", she advised, quickly showing Bart the charm. Showing his adaptability and resourcefulness, Bart mastered it in mere minutes.

"The second, more permanent method of dealing with this problem is to challenge Draco to a wizard's duel", Gemma explained after successfully tutoring Bart.

"You mean fight him with magic?"

"Yes. There is a place called the Slytherin Duelling Dungeon which helps to resolve disputes and power struggles between fellow Slytherins. Both prestige and respect are on the line. Should Malfoy lose, the older students might not join your side on account of you being a Muggleborn, or approve if the other first-years sit with you, but they will stop doing his bidding on account that he isn't a respectable enough wizard, even with Lucius' influence. We'll have it on the second Sunday from now, at 12pm, as per Slytherin tradition. I'll also place a notice on the noticeboard while you tell the rest of the first years", Gemma explained.

"Let me guess, you'll teach me a few curses in that time while Drakey-Wakey is too busy serving detention to learn anything. Who said Slytherins had to fight fair, huh?" Bart slyly noted, to which Gemma gave him a knowing smirk.

"Well, somebody has to teach you. I don't think that gibbering fool Quirrell will. From what I saw of him yesterday, he stutters so much that he can barely form complete sentences, much less teach anything", Gemma sneered.

Bart was accustomed to dealing with incompetent teachers and, hearing Gemma's description of the man, smirked, as in Professor Quirrell he saw a mark that could easily be thrown off guard.

"Speak of the devil, looks like I have Defence Against the Dark Arts next", Bart remarked.

"Wonderful. I should make sure you get there, being a Prefect and all. We will meet in the Slytherin Common Room at 8pm tomorrow and then we will walk to the correct room together. Be there", she warned as she walked Bart to his Defence Against the Dark Arts class.

Author's notes for Chapter Six:

A Slytherin serving detention down in the kitchens is a reference to Hogwarts: A Mystery. The person serving detention is the Player Character, who can be of any house.

The Slytherin Duelling Dungeon exists in the Chamber of Secrets video game.