Damn Loopholes

Christmas - or Yuletide, as the purebloods called that time of year - was a few days away and Harry was happy with what was happening at the school. He was still being a prat - which was easier than he had imagined - and Hermione was spreading rumors - true rumors, mind - about Dumbledore.

Rumor One: Draco's first year, Dumbledore had let Voldemort waltz into Hogwarts back in 1991. How could Carina know what happened years ago? Why, her dear cousin wanted to make sure she knew what she was getting into before coming to this school.

Rumor Two: Draco's second year? A Basilisk, of all things! How could that possibly escape the headmaster's notice? Both times? Dumbledore had been present when the Basilisk made its appearance all those years ago as well. And not only that, the falsely accused person - Hagrid, the nice half giant, even if Dear Draco didn't like him - had had his wand snapped of all things and Dumbledore had done nothing about that nor had he tried to find the true culprit.

Rumor Three: And who took care of Voldemort and the Basilisk? A child the same age as her cousin and herself, not a teacher! How terrible! What that poor dear must have gone through. It's no wonder that he didn't come back this year.

Rumor Four: There was a mass murderer entering Hogwarts Draco's third year. And Dementors! Dementors at a school! Dumbledore must not have a single working brain cell to allow those creatures so near students. It just wasn't healthy!

Rumor Five: Their fourth year, they had a fraud defense professor who had been an active Death Eater. Unfortunately he hadn't been caught in time to stop a student's death.

Rumor Six: That same year, the poor dear who had saved the school his first and second year at Hogwarts had been forced to compete in a tournament that he wasn't even qualified for. The signature used for the magical contract had been from a work assignment turned into the fraudulent professor. Dumbledore should have taken that to be tested because the contract would have been nullified if the competitor hadn't signed up for the contest willingly. Also, since he was underage he needed his guardian's consent, which had not been given. Yet Dumbledore had done nothing and simply told the boy that he had to compete.

Rumor Seven: Talking about fraudulent teachers... that's been two in the last four years alone that the professors had connections to the Dark Lord. Was Dumbledore so lax in his hiring, or was he purposefully allowing these people in?

Rumor Eight: A woman used a blood quill on students! Draco hadn't known first hand, of course, and once he heard he sent news to his father to get word to the Hogwarts Board of Governors. And Dumbledore hadn't noticed? Had no one gone to him? Was the man not trusted by the students? By the staff? Did any of the staff know? Were the staff at Hogwarts simply unapproachable?

Harry snickered. The other Slytherins who were around him didn't even bother to glance in his direction, accustomed to his random moments of 'insanity'. He grinned, leaning his head on the back of the couch. Those weren't even the best parts, either.

When everyone heard that Dumbledore helped create the Philosopher's Stone, people had gone a bit barmy. Sure it was mentioned in the papers, but the paper never went into detail what the stone did. So when the kids heard - and their parents through them - that the stone gave the owner everlasting life and the stone had been kept in Hogwarts where their children were... well, people weren't happy.

Especially when they heard that the trap door had been guarded by a Cerberus. The door hiding the beast had been able to be opened up by a first year spell - knowledge given by the Gryffindors who had heard Ron speaking of it before being hushed by McGonagall.

Which meant that Harry was really happy and Dumbledore was floundering around trying to appease everyone:

"Hogwarts was the safest place." False: Children were around and therefore voided his point because in moving the stone to Hogwarts, it proceeded to place the children at risk.

"I wasn't aware that Voldemort was a shade and therefore couldn't prepare properly." False: He always claimed that Voldemort would find a way back and shades were similar to ghosts and Dumbledore was supposed to have wards up to keep malevolent ghosts and shades out of the school.

"There had been no hint of a Basilisk living under Hogwarts and he was deeply troubled that any child had been petrified." False: The moment the first child was petrified, the school should have been evacuated until the problem had been solved. Secondly: There had been a hint about Slytherin's monster years ago when similar events happened, but the ending had been different. That time a child had died, and her ghost still resided at Hogwarts.

"The dementors were there for everyone's protection!" False: Sirius Black managed to escape from Azkaban which the dementors had protected and they had not hindered him. Not only that, Sirius Black had still managed to enter Hogwarts and the dementors invaded school grounds and had, in fact, harmed a child. Multiple times.

Needless to say, Dumbledore wasn't doing a very good job appeasing the world. Simple, obvious mistakes that everyone had been content to ignore... until the children started asking questions and the adults began to think for themselves.

Harry's snake - which he had named Adneval (it sounded medieval and he liked it) - was sleeping in front of the fireplace, causing a lot of the younger students to flee the common room. Apparently his snake was scary.

Harry hadn't actually thought of what he wanted to do with Adneval. For one, he couldn't actually speak with him until they left the school. Adneval had just been glad to leave the pet shop because it had been too loud.

Harry stood up and went over to his snake and picked him up. Adneval hissed in annoyance before slithering to lay around Harry's shoulders. Once his snake finished moving, Harry practically skipped over to Malfoy and grabbed his arm. "Lets go! Carina is waiting for us and you know what happens if we're late. Besides, we're going home!"

The Malfoy heir sighed before standing from his chair. He had been ready for the past hour but had been forced to wait because Harry felt like torturing him. Besides, what were they supposed to do once they got to the station? It wasn't like the station was near Hogsmeade.

The only reason Malfoy had wanted to go early was because he had wanted to ensure they would have a private compartment.

Harry's answer? If someone was in the carriage they wanted then they would remove them. How? Most people were scared of the twins or they would forcibly remove them, easy - problem solved.

When Harry glanced over at Elijah - who was on a couch further away - the younger boy peeked at Harry over the top of his book. Harry simply grinned, waving cheerily. "Keep everyone on their toes! Any and all houses are available to you! Though Slytherin only in the confines of the common room."

The other boy nodded and went back to reading. Harry wondered why the boy wasn't going home for the holidays, but decided that it wasn't his business and he didn't care enough to actually demand answers. Not at the moment, anyway. Maybe when they got back from the holiday.

"Now off to the train station!"

"Draco."

"Yes?"

"Draaaaaaaco."

"Yes?"

"Dray-co."

"What?"

"Drake."

"What?"

"Drakie."

"No."

"Dragon."

"Stop."

"Little dragon."

"Stop!" Draco narrowed his eyes and his lips formed a thin line. No one was in the compartment besides Harry, Hermione and the blonde Slytherin, which probably explained why the Slytherin said, "I have had it up to here," he placed his hand way above his head to emphasise his point, "with you this year! I will not stand for it anymore."

Harry pouted, looking over at Hermione, "Mummy dearest would be so angry at us if we obeyed our cousin, wouldn't she?"

Hermione looked up from her book to study the furious Malfoy before smirking. "Of course." She then turned her attention back to what she was reading.

Laughter danced in the young man's eyes as he looked up at Draco, "Draaaaaagon."

The mansion was bloody huge. No matter how many times he was going to visit, Harry was sure he would never become accustomed to the sheer size of the place.

Oh no, he was starting to think in large words... accustomed? Where had that come from?

"Kiddies!" Bellatrix came skipping down the front stairs, Sirius racing after.

He pushed her to the side before she could reach Harry. The elder man wrapped Harry in his arms and glared at his cousin, sticking his tongue out at her, "He's my godson."

She dusted off her robes, pointed her wand at Sirius and set his robes on fire. "He's my son." She rolled her eyes at him before looking at a scowling Harry. "What? I didn't harm him. It's his robes that are damaged."

Well... she kinda had a point. Damn loopholes.

Hermione watched as Sirius tried to pat out the flames. "Honestly, aren't you a wizard?" Her wand pointed at Sirius, she drenched him water, leaving the man spluttering.

Instead of waiting for Harry to calm down, she danced around him and spun around and around. "Now we get to have more lessons!"

No. No way in hell. He slipped his hand into his pocket and stroked Adneval's scales to calm himself.

However, Draco cackling as he led the way into the mansion did not help.

A/N Thank you all for all the love/reviews for the story! They are all appreciated and I read every single one :) You guys are great and look for a second chapter to be posted this evening!