IMPORTANT!!! IF YOU'RE ONLY GOING TO READ ONE A/N IN THIS FIC LET THIS BE THE ONE!!! The other story I put up under the name Intent was only a teaser to see if people liked it, and they did so I've started the story from the beginning and this is what happened, what you saw under the teaser, which I left up to help avoid confusion, will happen, but later in the story...this will lead more gradually into the plot and probably give you more information...though I will admit this is not as grabbing as the teaser was...but whatever, this is the real story and the teaser is sort like and outtake until I get there in this story...
Intent
Harry smiled paternally at the first years from his place at the Gryffindor table, and then returned his attention to the newest addition to the Hogwarts staff, Residius Morton. Professor Residius Morton looked a bit down on his luck; his robes were a bit old and slightly off-colored, but nothing belying a complete and utter lack of funds. Morton also appeared to be a good fellow with nothing off about him, besides his rather sincere smile, but there were certainly worse traits to possess.
But Harry wondered just what it was about the man that qualified him for the rather lack-luster position of Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor, because there was no way the man made it in by being a nice, normal guy. Harry knew there had to be something not quite right about the man, and he was not looking forward to unearthing such a mystery, but unfortunately his inherent curiosity would lead him to find out before he ever faced Residius Morton in class.
"Harry," Hermione whispered to him, prodding him not-so-gently in the arm, "are you listening to what the sorting hat is saying?"
I most certainly am not, Harry thought in reply, but turned and looked at the singing hat to appease Hermione. The stupid hat had an ego bigger than that of Lockhart, Dumbledore, or even—yes, Harry would admit it—himself. The hat simply loved to hear itself talk, and Harry would certainly never bring himself to listen to the damn thing, mainly because he had no interest in speaking to inanimate objects.
"That's very deep," Harry replied somewhat contritely, when Hermione looked at him sharply, "I think it's making a good point. I wish I'd paid attention to the rest of it…"
Hermione gave him a suspicious look and Harry smiled his best charming smile at her, and she melted enough so that Harry could return his attention to the so-called Residius Morton for a few seconds more. No, he definitely didn't trust the man to be a perfectly normal person.
Not that Harry could, in any way, in this universe, be considered normal.
Then the first child was sorted into Hufflepuff and, old habits die hard, Harry had to remember not to applaud enthusiastically. Hermione shot Harry another look, and Harry realized he was going to have to be more careful around her, she was beginning to notice more things about him—probably Dumbledore's doing.
But Harry simply gave her his very best smile and returned his attention to the sorting. The poor children looked mortified; Harry definitely would do a better job of sorting and leading the children into Hogwarts. Hagrid did a good job of setting the mood for entering the magical place, but McGonagall clearly frightened the kids.
The first child was sorted into Gryffindor and Harry applauded along with his fellow Gryffindors, while the flushing girl hurried her way over to an empty seat at the table.
And it hadn't been beyond Harry's notice that there had never, ever been an empty seat near him during a sorting, apparently his peers found having Ginny nearby preferable to coddling and teasing first years…goes to show what they knew. Harry decided it was high time he ended this ritual, and what better time to do so than his seventh year at Hogwarts.
But, that would go against all that was Harry Potter…well, it didn't have to.
"Hermione," Harry said thoughtfully, "they look so uncomfortable, wouldn't it be best if we could do something to make them feel more comfortable?"
"You've never been concerned before," Hermione told him somewhat coldly and suspiciously.
"Well, they've never been so small before," Harry replied, quirking his mouth into a grin, "look at them, they're so little and vulnerable." He turned his very best pout on Hermione and asked, "Don't you remember when we were getting sorted?"
Hermione huffed and acquiesced, and Harry had to pat himself on the back for his mad skills.
"But, where are they going to sit?" Hermione asked, "Did you think of that when you came up with your plan to be a mentor?"
"I did indeed," Harry replied, distractedly glancing over the gathered students and picking out the future Gryffindors, and wondering which would be sorted first. "And the rather simple response is…"
One of the kids Harry pegged as a Gryffindor was called up next, and he waited for the hat to call out the girl's house, Gryffindor exploded into applause, and Harry shoved Hermione to the side, making a space between him and Ron and beckoned the girl over. She flushed and sent a quick look down the table before scurrying over like a terrified little rabbit.
Harry smiled brightly at the girl as she sat down beside him, her head shyly ducked as she looked covertly at the older students around her.
"Hello there," Harry greeted brightly, "Name's Harry, what's yours?"
"Emily," the girl replied and Harry suddenly felt much better because he was finally back in his element.
"That's a very pretty name," Harry told the girl, "are you excited about school?"
She flushed at Harry's compliment and replied, "Yes."
"Well, I hate to be the bearer—" Another kid was declared a Gryffindor and Harry shoved Hermione further down and beckoned the boy over and continued, now with a first year on each side, "of bad news, but in Hogwarts you have to share a room with four other people…half of whom probably snore."
Harry turned to the boy and quickly introduced himself before continuing, "Take Ron and Dean for example," he pointed out both boys to the first years, "both of them snore something awful, and Ron also tends to talk in his sleep."
"Now," Harry continued brightly, oozing confidence and charisma to the first years who just ate it up. "some of you might think sleep-talkers would be a rather annoying thing, and believe me they are, but Ron here happens to have some very interesting dreams, like just on the train here Ron dozed off and had a very in-depth conversation with Merlin about the forty uses of spider in relation to causing the end of the world."
The little first year girl snickered; just as another Gryffindor was welcomed to the house, and Harry beckoned the boy over and guilted Hermione into scooting down to make room for their new house-mate.
Harry introduced himself to the boy who revealed his name to be Simon Powers. As far as Harry could tell there appeared to be a good deal of muggleborns in Gryffindor this year if the three kids he already had by him weren't pure or half bloods. It would definitely be better if he got all the muggleborn kids by him though, that way he could help them better adjust…
Or some crap like that. But he really didn't feel like putting up with some brat of a pureblood that had decided that they were the fundamental expert on him, just because they went to school with the famous Harry Potter…of course there was always the chance there could be another Creevy in this crowd…
The sorting continued, and Harry managed to get all the first year Gryffindors in his general area, including the first one to be sorted, and discovered that there were, in fact, a rather large number of muggleborn children in the also large group of fifteen. Harry's paternal behavior hadn't gone unnoticed either, all the upperclassmen in the school were giving Harry strange looks and Dumbledore was twinkling down on Harry approvingly, though he clearly had no idea what Harry was up to.
It was rather fun throwing everyone for a loop, and also disappointing that all the hints he dropped were never picked up by anyone.
"Are you really famous?" a girl who wore a large, well-worn hoodie over her robes asked shyly and sleepily, blinking her long eye-lashes.
"Unfortunately," Harry replied just as an obnoxious, pureblood boy—Harry sure could call 'em couldn't he?—declared, "of course he's famous, he defeated You-know-who!"
"Who's that?" the shy girl asked, rubbing her face with a hand covered by the too-long sleeve of her hoody, Harry could tell she was going to get into trouble because it violated the uniform...at least Snape would take points because of it.
"He's an evil wizard," Harry replied, "he's been out to kill me since I was a baby."
"Why?" a few of the children asked curiously.
"Because—" the outspoken boy replied and Harry cut in and replied, louder:
"Because of something I know that you don't know anything about," Harry replied staring the boy down, "honestly, Voldemort"—the boy and the three other purebloods/half-bloods of the group flinched—"is just an utter madman, and the main reason he wants to kill me is just completely stupid."
"Then why haven't you told us what it is?" a little girl asked as she popped her gum.
"Because," Harry said with a wink, "if I told you, you'd loose all respect for me, it's so stupid."
She smiled and then blew a bubble with her gum. The sorting finished with a small mousy androgynous child that went into Ravenclaw and Dumbledore stood up.
"Who's he?" the girl with the large hoodie asked, and Harry just barely managed to beat the obnoxious boy to the answer.
"That's Headmaster Albus Dumbledore," Harry replied, nonchalantly. "He's also famous for destroying a dark lord."
"I always thought it was funny," a girl whose fingernails were painted black said softly from behind a book, "that no one ever says that you 'killed' or 'murdered' a bad person, it's always destroyed."
"Never thought of that before," Harry commented, "very astute of you."
She rolled her eyes and returned to her book.
"But yes, Albus Dumbledore is definitely more than a little crazy," Harry continued. "As are all the rest of the teachers, but he's definitely the craziest."
"Is it proper to insult your teachers like that?" one girl asked.
Harry grinned in response and replied, "Only if they don't know you're doing it."
Dumbledore finished with whatever it was he said and food appeared before them. The muggleborn first years gasped in amazement, excluding the girl with the book who simply rolled her eyes and placed her book on the seat next to her.
Harry began piling food onto his plate, keeping up the light conversation with the first years, but he spared one more glance up to Morton and decided that he would most definitely be sneaking into the man's office and classroom later tonight.
It had been about a few hours since McGonagall had broken up the back to school party. Harry had been secretly pleased that he now had a good excuse to leave the party, which had not been any fun at all because as far as Harry was concerned, it was not a party unless you had to worry about turning different colors every time you risked food…and since the Weasley twins were now two years gone this was quickly becoming common practice.
Harry pulled his wand out from under his pillow and popped the blood lollipop out of his mouth long enough to whisper the time spell. Nearly four…Harry licked the lollipop and popped it back into his mouth; he would have to leave at four and be back before five, lest some early riser find him.
Harry didn't worry about an hour being to short a time to search, he'd found out everything he'd needed to know about Remus in under thirty minutes…all the werewolf paraphernalia had given him away fairly easily and the absence after the full moon had confirmed it. Now, Moody, it'd taken Harry a good part of a month just to break into the man's office, and even longer to get into his rooms…the man would always just nearly catch him. Quite a pain, really...
Harry slipped out of bed and began to get ready to do his ritual spy on the DADA teacher, quietly sucking on his lollipop and moving stealthily through the dorm to keep his dorm mates from waking up.
Finally, Harry was ready and he tossed his invisibility cloak over his shoulders and slipped out of the room. Slipping out of the Gryffindor common room was, as usual, obscenely easy and Harry was quickly on his way down to the Defense classroom. It was probably the easiest place to begin.
The journey to the classroom was the best part of the annual trip, in Harry's opinion; Hogwarts was completely transformed at night. Strange glimmers of light would shine down the slightly chilled hallways; all the portraits were silent and sleeping, or wary with guarded eyes. The stones echoed the quiet shufflings of Harry feet and whatever other creatures there were hiding just beyond view. Windows would gleam large rectangles of pale light onto the floor periodically, and from the castle at this time there was a vague glimmer of fog, visible only in the moonlight.
But beyond all of this was the silent peace that filled Hogwarts, her children were safe and asleep, well-fed and warm and she was content with their content, and all was well and that was all.
Harry trailed his hand down a wall as he passed, and felt the full contentment of the castle and a smile easily made it onto his face. The rest of the trip went smoothly and he was before the door to the defense classroom before he knew it.
Harry tested the doorknob and mentally groaned when he discovered it was locked. This clearly required other tactics; he placed his hand, flat, against the door and whispered, quietly, "Help me out?"
Harry only response was a soft trill of magic fluttering across his skin, and he tested the door once more and this time it was unlocked. Harry smiled and patted the wall next to him, softly, before easing the door open and stepping into the dark classroom, softly shutting the door behind him.
The curtains had been pulled and the only light in the room came from under the door and around the heavy drapes of the windows.
Harry waited a few moments for his eyes to adjust, or adjust well enough so that he could pick out desks and other things that he might trip and fall on. Slowly but surely the room gained shape and Harry was pleased to discover that Morton's desk was right before him and unwarded…this looked like it was going to be a relatively simple search.
Harry made his way over to the desk and opened a drawer, murmuring 'lumos' softly so that only a small glimmer of light emerged from the tip of his wand.
"Show yourself, errant student!" a voice Harry had only ever heard in recordings yelled, and Harry was so startled the light on his wand fizzled out, and the room was dropped back into darkness. "Breaking into a classroom in the middle of the night? Tsk, tsk."
Harry slowly rounded the desk, not able to believe what he was hearing.
"That's grounds for detention," a female voice added, and Harry couldn't place this voice as easily, but the sound of it niggled in the back of his brain…but recognizing it wasn't a big problem because Harry was pretty sure he knew who it was.
"Two hours," the first voice agreed, matter-of-fact, "strung up to the ceiling by your wrists. Not quite a bad enough offense for toes."
The woman murmured her agreement and Harry, moved slowly from the desk to the wall and found his hands slipping over the familiar feeling of magic, wards…wards he well-recognized. Harry trailed his fingers over the smooth magic he hadn't felt in years…
"Well, there's a person here, because someone's feeling me up," the woman commented nonchalantly, and Harry jerked his fingers away as the two people laughed. Harry gripped his wand and allowed the tip of it to slip out of his invisibility cloak.
It was time to face the music.
"Lumos."