When Dick retired for the night, it was smug.

The food at dinner had been delicious- not as good as an Alfred meal, but a solid second- and the scorning looks thrown his way only improved his mood.

Apparently no one at his house's table was allowed to be ginning cheerfully. Who knew.

After dinner Dumbledore announced some sort of tournament thingy, which Dick was still considering entering. There was an age restriction, but assuming it was enforced magically he'd probably still qualify.

Step one was in action. Step one, of course, being letting his particularly contagious brand of crazy spread around the house, infecting person by person until he'd gotten them all on his side.

His housemates, while giving him distrusting looks and hateful glares, didn't confront him, so it was with a smile that he entered the shared dorms and bounced onto his bed.

He grabbed a notebook and pen and scribbled down a quick to-do list.

-Project House of Evil

Slytherin's reputation, the house of evil. Not for long, if Dick had anything to say about it. Then he looked at it again and snickered. Project HOE.

-Tournament thingy

Yeah, that was still under construction.

-Get laptop to work

To help pull off pranks, of course. Not to hack the League database and cheat in his Minesweeper highscore. Nooo.

-Explore the castle

Now this was something that could take a whole year, judging by the look of the castle he'd gotten from outside. Although with the twins' help it would probably be shorter.

Dick decided to leave any actual planning for the morning and got ready for bed, not bothered by his dormmates' stares. Falling asleep was easy, as he was trained to, because with his hectic schedule he needed all the sleep he could get.

Before Dick knew it, the morning sun woke him- wait, how was there morning sun in the dungeons? Seriously, these dungeons were made for torture or something.

Dick groaned as he curled into a ball, blocking out the sun. He was decidedly not a morning person.

"Should we leave him there?" An uncomfortable sounding voice contemplated. "That's not right, is it? He might miss breakfast."

"Well what do you suggest, wake him up?" Another voice snapped impatiently. Dick recognized it as one of his yearmates, a blonde who was very loud at dinner yesterday.

There was a hesitant silence, and finally the same voice spoke again. "Come on. If he's late that's his own fault."

Dick heard their footsteps go out of the room and down the stairs, and he yawned, sitting up.

He got ready leisurely, enjoying the silence and keeping an eye on the time. He hummed softly under his breath as he walked downstairs, not looking where he was going, and ended up extremely, impeccably lost.

That was a bit irritating. He'd like to eat breakfast today, thank you very much, not to mention that the schedules would be handed out this morning in the Great Hall and Dick doubted his classmates would take his. Well, take it maybe, but not give it to him afterwards.

After a bit of wandering aimlessly and asking some talking portraits for directions, because apparently that was a thing now, Dick saw a vaguely familiar girl about his age down the hall.

"Hey!" He called and waved, increasing his pace a bit. The girl looked up, and Dick realized he'd seen her on the train yesterday.

"Hi, I'm Dick, I just transferred here." Dick grinned charmingly and held out his hand for a handshake, surprised when the girl did a curtsy instead.

"Luna Lovegood." She replied dreamily. "You know, you have a surprisingly lack of Nargles around you."

Dick blinked. "Nargles?"

"They're a relative of the Nagel, and mainly prey on teenagers." Luna replied cheerfully, apparently unbothered by Dick's lack of knowledge.

"Cool." Dick grinned. "I'm actually hopelessly lost, can you tell me which way the hall is?"

"I don't know," Luna smiled, "but just walk towards the moon, you'll always get there. Here, I'll walk with you."

Dick was slightly confused. The moon had already dissappeared, how would you know where it is?

Eh, probably magic. He shrugged and walked with Luna.

Now that there was a comfortable silence, he took the opportunity to study Luna. She was smiling, her radish earrings complimenting the Ravenclaw tie she was wearing.

"Why were you in the corridors, anyway?" He asked curiously.

"I lost my necklace," She had a distant look in her eyes, though she kept smiling. "It usually turns up somewhere in the castle."

"You lose it a lot?" Dick asked, surprised.

"The Crumple-Horned Snorlaks like to play with it." Luna shrugged lightly. Dick opened his mouth to respond, but then saw the Great Hall's double doors.

"There it is!" He said instead, happily. "Thanks for your help!"

"Remember to watch out for potatoes!" She said before he opened the doors, and when he hesitated, she leant in conspiratorially and whispered loudly, "They're evil."

Dick nodded seriously and opened one of the doors, holding it open for Luna, who smiled a little brighter. He walked in after her, and to his own table, where a dark-haired teacher was just handing out schedules.

Today was a nice day, Dick noticed, enjoying the sun from the windows as he studied his schedule. First hour was History of Magic, then Charms, then Muggle Studies, which was one of the elective subjects Dick had chosen. That one and Arithmancy should help with getting Muggleborn technology to work with magic.

He noticed the twins waving from him and waved back, grinning. This was going well.

A/N So yes, it's been a while since I updated this fic, and my writing style has changed. Sorry if you don't like it anymore.

I read back what I wrote and it's actually not as bad as I feared it would be. The only really cringy parts are the naming of the Pack and... 'betted'. *shivers* Nice job, Past Me.