I do not own Harry Potter, the story will be a hell of a lot darker

Hello everyone, Badger here. Back again. I hope you are all okay, I'm not, University has been kicking my ass.

But, I've finally finished another chapter for one of my stories. This one is the shortest I've written for this story so far, but I think you'll like it. Other chapters are slowly being written, so look out for them.

Now I do have an announcement to make. I'm thinking about joining Ao3. Now don't worry, I'm not leaving this site, I'm just thinking of joining Ao3 to make non Harry Potter FanFiction. I've tried to do that in the past on this site, but with a fan base that seems to be mainly HP, they didn't go down so well. If and when I do join Ao3, I'll let people know, if you're interested in any non HP fanfics.

But for now, you know the drill, read on, enjoy and I will see you at the end.

…

Chapter 3

Reflections And Resentments

…

There was a chill in the air, as the cold wind slashed against Harry's face as he raced across the Quidditch Pitch, one hand keeping a tight grip on his broom, whilst the other hand held the Quaffle firmly under his arm. Today was the first Quidditch match of the school year, Gryffindor vs Slytherin. Unfortunately for the House of Lions, Slytherin were currently in the lead with 160 points whilst Gryffindor only had 70 points. This was due to Harry's skill and finesse on the Quidditch pitch, as Slytherins top Chaser, as he flew circles around the Gryffindor Chasers and dodged any Bludgers that Fred and George had sent his way and scoring the most points for Slytherin. Harry had been a thorn in the sides of the other Quidditch Captains, who worked tirelessly to find ways to counter Harry, with little success.

Harry as Chaser, along with Draco as Slytherins Seeker, made Slytherin a powerful opponent on the Quidditch Pitch. An opponent the other Houses still haven't defeated.

After dodging another Bludger and racing past a Gryffindor Chaser, Harry launched the Quaffle into one of the Gryffindor hoops, scoring another ten points for Slytherin. There was an eruption of cheers within the Slytherin stands as the students cheered for Harry whilst Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Keeper and Captain, glared at him. Harry couldn't help but give the Gryffindor Captain a small smirk, before flying away again. As he flew, Harry recalled the day he had qualified for the Slytherin Quidditch Team.

He remembered it like it was only yesterday.

…

A 12 Year old Harry Potter yawned to himself, as he made his way into the Slytherin Common Room after a rather long day of studying. It had only been a little over a month since Second Year started and already it was a lot different to his First Year. The Professors have been challenging the students a lot more now that they were no longer fresh faced First Years. As such, Harry had been studying more and more. That wasn't a problem for Harry, as he rather enjoyed studying. No, what was a problem was that Harry couldn't have a moments peace whilst studying, as people would constantly come up to him and congratulate Harry for making it onto the Slytherin Quidditch Team.

A few days ago, Harry had went to the Quidditch try outs for Slytherin House and was selected to be the new Slytherin Chaser. Once the news broke out, it was all anyone could speak about. Harry had only qualified for a Quidditch Team, yet people were treating him like he had discovered the cure for cancer. Draco had also tried out for the team and became the Slytherin Seeker, to replace Terence Higgs who had graduated the year before, yet no one was speaking about that.

It made Harry role his eyes at how absurd he found it.

Walking through the Slytherin Common Room, Harry ignored other students trying to get his attention as he made his way into his dorm room, where straight away his attention was directed to a package that was waiting for him on his bed, with a letter attached. Based on the sloppy and haphazardly wrapped packaging, Harry guessed that Sirius had been the one to wrap it. His Godfather was many things. A delicate gift wrapper was not one of them. Harry couldn't help but scoff in amusement, before he started to unwrap the brown packaging, being careful to not accidentally tear or break whatever may be inside. It had taken a few minutes to tear through the several layers of paper, but once he got through and saw what had been sent to him, Harry's eyes widened in surprise.

Inside the package, was a Comet 260 broom. At the time, the Comet 260 was one of if not the fastest broom in the market, sought after by many who played Quidditch professionally. Harry couldn't help but look at the broom in awe. Harry had always been fascinated by flying but had yet to see a proper broom in person as, until now, he has only been used second hand or school brooms that were really showing their age, in both function and style.

Putting the broom to one side and discarding the brown packaging with a quick Vanishing Charm, Harry picked up the note that had been attached to it and read through its contents.

Harry,

I am so proud of you! We just received word that you had made it onto the Slytherin Quidditch Team. I was so excited, Remus had to use some Anise herbs to calm the dog in me and prevent me from dashing around the room. Which only worked for a short time, before I was bounding across the living room in my Animagus form. Remus had to hit me with a Stunning Charm to get me to stop. However, though he may not act like it, I think he is equally as ecstatic and proud of you.

After calming down, Remus and I gathered the money needed to buy you one of the best brooms we could get on the market. How else better to congratulate you, then gifting you a broom to thrash the other Houses on?

I hope you enjoy it,

Sirius.

Harry smiled in mild amusement as he read through Sirius' letter. He wasn't surprised that Remus had stunned the man after he got too excited. It wasn't the first time Remus had hit Sirius with a Stunner for one reason or another. Mainly for some peace and quiet. After folding up the letter and putting it inside his robe pocket, Harry picked up the broom and started making his way out to Quidditch Pitch. His first Quidditch Match was a few weeks away, but Harry would be foolish to not get some practice done, before dinner.

…

Since that day, Harry had proven himself as one of the best Chasers that the Slytherin Quidditch Team has had in years, having scored nearly 4000 points in total in just a few short years. However, he was proving to be a more formidable opponent on the pitch, thanks to his brand new Nimbus 2000. A gift he had recieved from Lucius Malfoy, before the school year began. It was currently the fastest broom on the market to date and it showed. Harry had never gone this quick before. He was also quite thankful for the gift. The Comet 260 was decent enough but it had served its purpose and now it was currently mantled on his bedroom wall back home.

Harry was brought out of his day dreaming, when he saw a Bludger heading towards him from the corner of his eye. He immediately flew in a loop to avoid it, where he saw Fred giving him a cheeky smile as the red head flew by. Harry rolled his eyes a little, a small smile on his face. Despite the Twins airy and carefree demeanours, the two could get quite competitive when it came to Quidditch. After steadying himself on his broom Harry flew back into the match, where he had been able to score a few more points for Slytherin, before Draco was finally able to out speed the Gryffindor Seeker in grabbing the Snitch earning Slytherin the victory, 340 – 90.

There was an eruption of applause throughout the Slytherin stands as they cheered for their House, Harry especially, as the teams started flying back to their respective locker rooms, with Oliver Wood looking particularly disgruntled about the whole ordeal.

…

Over in the Gryffindor stands, Nathaniel watched his older brother fly back to the Slytherin locker room with a scowl on his face. It was bad enough that Slytherin had won the match, but it was made even worse when Nathaniel had to stand and watch his brother score point after point, with a smug look on his face, all the while the crowd was cheering for him. Nathaniel couldn't stand it. He had hoped that one of the Bludgers would hit his brother off of his broom, but unfortunately Nathaniel wasn't lucky for such a thing to happen.

It didn't help that Nathaniel was already in a bad mood already as Hogwarts hadn't been living up to his expectations, so far. Before the school year began, Nathaniel had been expecting to be praised by anyone and everyone, for him defeating You-Know-Who all those years ago. He had dreams of fan girls fawning over him and people running up to him, asking and begging for an autograph and to be his friend. Nathaniel had specifically brought a special quill with him for when such occasions happened. But it never did. There were no praises from other students. No fan girls fawning over him, or trying to get his attention. No one running to him for autographs. Nothing. They just treated him like any other student. Everyone was too busy praising and fawning over Harry and his little group.

Nathaniel just didn't understand it. He was the Boy-Who-Lived, not his brother. Nathaniel should be the one getting the attention.

Yes, students would talk with him, but his only friend so far was his best mate Ron Weasley. Nathaniel enjoyed having Ron as his friend, especially as the red head was a bit of a yes-man. However, it wasn't enough. When it came to his first lesson of the year, Transfiguration, Nathaniel had taken the opportunity to try and show off his magical skills to impress everyone. His attempts, however, had backfired. Not only was he the only one in the class to not even turn his matchstick into a needle, but during his attempts he even had his wand fly from his hand or even be sent flying across the classroom himself, causing everyone to laugh at his misfortune.

Within an hour the entire school had been informed of his various mishaps during Transfiguration and people still laughed at him about it.

His mishaps with magic didn't stop there either. All throughout the last couple of weeks his misfortune had followed him. Melted cauldrons in Potions Class. Damaged property in Charms Class. Failure to perform the simplest of spells and answer questions correctly in Transfiguration Class and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Due to his less then adequate performance, Professor Dumbledore had requested for Nathaniel to be given extra curriculum and lessons to improve. Nathaniel had been furious at the idea. In his eyes, he was the Boy-Who-Lived. He didn't need all these extra lessons. However, Dumbledore's words had been final.

All in all, the last few weeks has left Nathaniel in a foul mood. Hogwarts wasn't shaping up the way he expected it to. Something had to be done about all this. Nathaniel had decided that once his lessons were done for the day, he'd write a letter to his parents about everything that had been going on since the start of the year.

Hopefully they could do something about all this.

…

Inside the Slytherin locker room Harry spent a good half hour in the showers, ridding all the sweat and dirty from his skin, as well as soothing his sore muscles. After drying his body, he failed to tame his hair before he left the lockers where he found his friends waiting for him. As soon as he arrived, Fred and George was by his side putting him into a headlock with matching toothy grins on their identical faces.

"Well done Harry!" Fred said, jovially as he ruffled Harry's hair

"Gryffindor may have lost, but you gave us an extraordinary challenge!" George added, doing the same

"As always!" They finished in unison

"You're welcome you two, now get off!" Harry replied

Harry's other friends laughed and chuckled, as Harry smacked their hands away as he freed himself from their headlocks, though he too had a small smile on his face. Straightening himself, he ran a hand through his hair which had been even more messed up then usual, before brushing his robes off.

"How did the new broom feel Harry?" Draco asked, as the group started making their way back to the castle

"Nothing like I've felt before, it's much faster then the brooms I've used in the past…" Harry replied

"It looked like it…" Roger spoke up, "I look forward to Ravenclaws first match against Slytherin, so I can see it for myself…"

As the group made their way through the castle courtyard, Harry felt his scar begin to prickle and burn, as he saw someone from the corner of his eye. He looked to see their robes disappearing around the corner of the castle. They were moving too quickly for him to see who it might have been. As soon as they had disappeared, however, the burning feeling in his scar had stopped. It made Harry stop in his tracks, for a moment. He wasn't sure why, but he felt uneasy.

Was someone watching him and his friends?

He doubted it, but he didn't like the feeling of that possibility.

His friends stopped, upon noticing that Harry had halted and made there way back over to him, wondering what had caused Harry to stop. Susan had placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, gaining his attention.

"What's wrong Harry?" She asked

"Just thought I saw something…" Harry shrugged, "It's probably nothing…come on, let's get to the Great Hall, dinner is starting soon and I'm hungry…"

His friends shared a look before nodding in agreement, as they continued walking into the castle heading straight towards the Great Hall. They were all feeling quite hungry.

…

The silence of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom was interrupted, when Quirrell burst through the door where he stormed into his office. Once inside his office, he started pacing back and forth in thought. Over the last few weeks he had been searching every possible location where Albus Dumbledore could have hidden the Philosophers Stone. The old fool thought he was so clever, but he wasn't clever enough. After plenty of searching, Quirrell believed he knew where it was.

The Third Floor.

An entire floor of the castle that was constantly under guard by various staff members. Any student that attempted to approach, was ordered to leave as it was out of bounds for seemingly no reason. For Quirrell, Albus Dumbledore may as well just have put a massive arrow with a bold sign saying: PHILOSOPHERS STONE HIDDEN HERE. It was almost laughable how foolish a man like Albus Dumbledore could be at times. Then again, he had been making a lot of mistakes recently and now that he knew the location of where it could be in the castle, it was just a matter of searching the third floor corridors. However, he wouldn't be able to do so with staff members constantly on guard. Quirrell was going to need a distraction. And Quirrell believed he had an idea. An idea big enough to distract the staff members long enough for him to scurry to the third floor, find the stone and bring his Master back to his former glory.

Once that was done, his Master will then look into recruiting Harry to their cause.

As his Master had ordered, Quirrell had been watching the Potter boy whenever possible. Watching from afar. Eavesdropping from the shadows. The boy was clearly talented when it came to magic. The other Professors also enjoyed to gossip amongst themselves, proudly talking about the boys progress in their classes, excelling every task given to him without any difficulty. Quirrell had also seen the boys talent himself, when the boy was in his classes. Harry was always the first one to cast any spell, answer any question, hand in any test. The boy had talent and power. That much was clear.

It made his Master positively giddy, at the thought of how that power could be put to a better use once the boy was a part of their cause. But first, Quirrell needed to set up his distraction to ward off the other Professors.

All in good time.

…

Across the castle, Albus Dumbledore stood alone inside an empty classroom. A classroom long forgotten amongst the castle corridors, like many others. A classroom where students once sat, the scratching sounds of quills on pieces of parchment as they listened to their Professor give their instructions for their days lessons. Now mere memories. Nothing more then a dark room, covered in years, possibly even decades worth of dust and cobwebs. However, Dumbledore wasn't thinking about that. His mind was too busy, focusing on the large ornate mirror in front of him. The only thing that resided the room.

The Mirror of Erised.

A mirror that shows one's biggest heart desires, when they looked upon their reflection. Within the glass of the mirror, Dumbledore could see his family looking back at him. Ariana Dumbledore, his sister alive and well, as innocent and pure as she was in life. Aberforth Dumbledore, his brother smiling fondly, as he once did before their falling out all those years ago. Gellert Grindelwald his long time friend turned bitter enemy, smiling, the way he was before he became corrupted and drunk with power. It disheartened Dumbledore, thinking about what could have been.

Standing beside Dumbledore, in the reflection, was a young man that Dumbledore didn't recognise. However the red hair, along with the scar on his forehead, told Dumbledore that this was Nathaniel Potter. Dressed in extravagant robes, irradiating respect and power, Nathaniel looked the very picture of the future leader of the light and Dumbledore's heir.

Dumbledore often looked upon the mirror, whenever he needed to take a moment to think.

In the last couple of weeks, Nathaniel hadn't been living up to expectations. Granted, it was still really early, so Dumbledore had been expecting for the boy to experience some issues when it came to magic. However, nothing as big as his staff had been reporting. Failing every class. Failing to perform even the most basic of spells. McGonagall had informed Dumbledore about Nathaniel's first Transfiguration class. How the boy was the only one in the class to fail to turn his matchstick into needle or, at the very least, something close to a needle. It had worried Dumbledore, the boys lack of progress, however he once again theorised that it was still early days and that Nathaniel's magical core was still taking its time to adapt.

However after a few weeks of the same results, McGonagall had suggested to Dumbledore that they put Nathaniel on extra curriculum and private lessons to get him to catch up with everyone else. The Headmaster wanted to refuse the idea, believing Nathaniel will be fine on his own, but he couldn't ignore the boys rather abysmal progress so reluctantly agreed. Nathaniel had been rather angry at the very idea, so Dumbledore had to put his foot down regarding the matter. If Nathaniel was to fulfill his destiny as the Chosen One, the future leader of the light destined to defeat Voldemort, he couldn't be viewed as a slacker when it comes to magic.

As Dumbledore stood there, he heard the door to the classroom open. Within the reflection, amongst his family, he could see McGonagall approach.

"Albus…" McGonagall said, "the last of the defences have been set up within the third floor…the Philosphers Stone is now fully protected…"

"Thank you Minerva…" Dumbledore said, "Please inform the rest of the Professors that I want at least one member of staff on guard within the third floor at all times…"

"Of course Albus…" McGonagall nodded, but she had more to say before she left, "Albus…do you really believe that You-Know-Who will send someone to break into Hogwarts for the Stone?"

"You saw the Daily Prophet, Minerva" Dumbledore replied, "No one, not even the desperate, would attempt to break into Gringotts willingly…now that the Dark Lord, no doubt, knows that the instrument he seeks is not in Gringotts, it won't be long until he sets his sights on the castle…we must be ready for when that time comes…"

"Of course Albus…" McGonagall nodded, before making her way out of the classroom

Dumbledore didn't spare a glance in her direction, as he continued looking into the Mirror of Erised. Despite the fact that the defences he had set up to protect the Philosophers Stone were now fully in place, it did little to stop Dumbledore's worries about the Dark Lord. No matter how simple or complex the defences may be, he couldn't underestimate Voldemorts intellect. Even as a student, he was smarter then the average wizard his age. Those smarts only grew with age. Which is why Dumbledore was keeping a close eye on Quirrell's movements. Dumbledore had noticed the Defence Professor has been loitering around the third floor corridors recently, making the Headmaster question if Quirrell had an idea as to where the Philsophers Stone was being kept.

A lot sooner than Dumbledore had been expecting.

If Quirrell had indeed discovered the location, then Dumbledore was going to need to be on high alert. He had no doubt that Quirrell would try setting up a plan to distract Dumbledore and the rest of the Hogwarts staff, so he could go for the Stone.

What that distraction could be, was another question entirely.

…

And that is chapter 3 done. Did you enjoy it?

This chapter was mainly filler with a little bit of story attached, but I think I did a good job of writing it.

Some of you may be a little surprised about Nathaniel and his over the top behaviour. I'll just like to say it's intentional. I want him to come across as an arrogant and spoilt brat, even if it seems a little over the top. But don't worry, he won't stay this way forever. I do have some ideas for Nathaniel's character development, but I won't say what it is.

Next time, Harry will be going up against a bit of a problem. A 12 ft problem to be exact.

I hope you all enjoyed and I will see you all next time, in whatever story I see you in.

Badger Out.

…