Chapter 3. Talks, part two

The Potters and Harry arrived at the Platform 9¾ at 10.35 am with the entire Weasley clan. That was one of the rare occasions Harry allowed himself to whine, albeit silently.

The Weasleys arrived early to the Potter manor and the two families used James's car, as it was enlarged to fit more than a dozen people. For the duration of the road to London Harry had to listen to meaningless conversations between Eric and Ron and then gibberish of the Weasley twins.

Ginny Weasley was an interesting individual, Harry decided. The girl adored his brother. Knowing Eric, Harry was sure that the boy would screw everything up. He would not even notice Ginny. And the poor girl's heart would be broken. Then Harry comes and helps her… Hello spy in Gryffindor number two.

By far, the worst experience was with Mrs. Weasley. The woman was obnoxious and extremely nosy. The gargoyle tried to discredit Harry's friends by calling them children of death eaters. As if. Harry had known that little piece of information since he met Theo and Blaise. In the end Lily actually saw her elder son's annoyance and engaged Molly in a conversation about some pest or nuisance that plagued wizarding homes.

On the train Harry found himself a compartment in the beginning of the train, near to the prefects' cabin. He was positive that most of the students wouldn't have the guts to come here… except for the likes of Granger. Ten minutes into the ride the door into his compartment opened and Theo and Blasé stepped inside. Harry flicked his wand and the door closed.

"Good to see you, Theo, Blaise." Harry nodded.

"Hello, Harry." both smiled.

"We need to discuss something about the Crown." Harry said. "It's a short conversation, so let's make it quick and get onto more pleasant topics. We are going to expand somewhat… Meaning, we will need structure and headquarters."

"Structure is mostly just names for different positions…" Theo said thoughtfully. "Like leader, second in command, secretary, inner circle, outer circle…"

"Well, I'd like to do it without needless association with dark lords." Harry said dryly. "But you are right, Theo, mostly it's just a matter of names. It will be pretty easy at first. I'm the leader, you both are my seconds and then we will assign different tasks to each member. I'd like to have different names for circles. But that can wait. We will not officially accept anyone until October." he sighed. "Now, the headquarters is a nasty piece of work. We will need a couple of classrooms, located near each other that we will be able to ward and use as our base of operations. Any ideas?"

"Um, isn't it a bit risky?" Blaise asked. "To have HQ outside our dorms and common room?" he looked at Harry then at Theo. "We are no warders, what if it is found out?"

"Nothing will happen." Harry calmly said. "We will not store any documentation there. We will only use this room as our personal common and meeting room."

"Alright. We will look for it." Theo nodded.

xxx

Harry sat at the Slytherin table, finishing his drink, when Dumbledore stood up and all the food vanished. All except for Harry's goblet.

"Very well, now that we are all fed and watered, it's time for our customary announcements." Dumbledore spoke merrily. "First of all, Mr. Filch-" Harry tuned the man out after this, he had more pressing matters to think about.

"Now then, off to bed with you all!" headmaster spoke. Everyone stood up, except for Harry, who continued sipping his pumpkin juice. When the last Slytherin was about to leave the table Harry stood up as well and put his goblet, completely empty, on the table.

xxx

Harry walked into the Slytherin common room just when Snape was making his announcement. Theo and Blaise were already standing in the line of the leaders. When Harry came, they backed away. Despite Snape's talent for keeping a crowd's attention, this particular crowd was looking at Harry as he stood and looked back at them calmly. When he had enough of attention, he raised an eyebrow at his head of house who was glaring at him.

"As I said," Snape continued, "Slytherin house-"

Harry smirked. It was so easy to manipulate people when you set the stage right. And now the stage was almost set.

xxx

Daphne and Tracey were walking from Transfiguration lesson. McGonagall was ruthless with animate-to-inanimate transfiguration, half the class felt like their heads were close to blowing up, another half was successfully hiding the same. Only Harry, Theo and Blaise seemed relaxed as usual.

Second year Slytherins slowly filled the charms classroom right before the Gryffindors came. Daphne took out her notebook and found a small piece of paper in it.

5th floor, western corridor, classroom 5, 18.00, both ASAP

The note slowly disappeared, not leaving even a shadow of trace. Daphne frowned. Why was this ASAP, the year had just begun.

"What was that?" Tracey asked curiously.

xxx

When Daphne and Tracey entered classroom 5 in the western corridor of the fifth floor they saw Harry already in there, surprisingly enough alone.

"No sidekicks?" Tracey asked.

"Cut the chatter." Harry said. "I need information."

"What kind of information?" Daphne asked carefully.

"The war." Harry said simply. "I want to know everything you know."

"Well, it's as it was the previous year." Daphne replied, clasping her hands behind her back.

"Yeah, same here." Tracey replied, looking at the ceiling. "Though we can't keep fighting now. We've got changes in leadership. It's Richard Danton now, sixth-year. His position is fragile at best though."

"We've got temporary leader. Our former viceroy, Linda Rockford." Daphne added. "But she is weak, everyone knows it, it's just a matter of time when her authority is challenged. "

"Thank you." Harry replied. "You are free to go. I will tell you more when I have a plan."

"Alright." both girls nodded and left.

"Tricky little snakes." Harry heard. He looked around and saw Millicent Bulstrode rose from under the table.

"I know." Harry said. "The poor fools think I wouldn't notice them lying to me."

"Think they switched sides?" Millicent asked.

"They got ambitious and started playing their own game." Harry replied. "Don't make the same mistake, Millicent." he said, walking out.

Harry was walking down the stairs back to the common room, giving everyone brave enough to look at him an icy stare. He though back to one of his most valuable assets and his secret weapon. Millicent Bulstrode was one of the most faithful spies Harry had ever had. That wasn't saying much, but still. The girl was perfect for the job. She was a child of a death eater, thus fitting perfectly into the Dark Mark, she had no ambition, aside from comfortable existence and she associated comfortable existence with freedom, which she thought Harry would give her. However, there was something else in her eyes when she looked at Harry, and he couldn't identify that something – it was irritating, but manageable.

The girl was valuable only because of that, however. She was a pureblood, that meant she had a nice little network of friends and allies. For Harry that meant a spy network. He chuckled. Most of the girl's friends were no doubt thinking that they were helping children of (former) death eaters, former elite of the Slytherin house and the crème la crème of the pureblood society. Fools. All this fancy little network was giving information to him and they didn't even suspect this. Oh, Millicent no doubt allowed a word or two slip to her groupmates, but she presented Harry with detailed reports on everything. The previous year they only exchanged information via listening charms on their quills, to make sure they were never seen together. After all, such a valuable tool could not be lost.

Now Millicent gave him so very much fresh and tasty information, that didn't add up with that of Daphne and Tracey. In fact these matching issues started in May, shortly after he heard from Millicent that the leaders started nominating their successors. What did these two have to win from this? They couldn't be nominated, so that could only mean they were involved in the power plays… And whoever their boss is, he or she wants something from him. How curious. That certainly warranted investigation. A very quiet and very thorough investigation. Perhaps it was time for him to recruit more members to his group.

xxx

In the comfort of Harry's dorm room Theo, Blaise and Harry himself sat around a small transfigured coffee table with two notebooks on it. One was titled "Basilisks", another "Harpies".

"So then, what are you going to do about it, Harry?" Blaise asked.

"Well, I personally am going to do nothing about it." Harry smirked. "But you two are going to approach these people: Rachel Borks and Alex Strum. Throw them bait. Tell them that I have information that would help them gain leadership in their respective groups."

"And what exactly is this information?" Theo looked at Harry curiously, only to receive a smirk in return.

"Oh, that's for me to know and for you to guess." Harry replied.

When the two friends of his left Harry remained seated, his expression turned thoughtful. "So many problems at once." He thought. "Davis and Greengrass decided to rebel. The war quieted down because everyone is busy fighting for leadership over their own groups. And then there are the first-years… I need the talented, one, two or three – the number doesn't matter. But how to find the talented?" Harry mused silently. Suddenly he grinned the sight was positively frightful. "Well, it seems I will just have to turn our problems into solutions. Let's get to work then."

xxx

"Have you talked to them?" Harry asked. Theo and Blaise both nodded.

"They said they would think." Blaise replied.

Harry was standing over his table, a big sheet of paper in front of him. It was divided into three sections: Basilisks, Harpies and the Dark Mark.

"Then let me thoroughly explain to you what is going on in our house, gentlemen." Harry said and motioned his friends to come over. "Linda Rockford, Harold O'Reill, Alex Strum – all want to lead the Basilisks. All are preparing their powerbases. O'Reil seems to be the one Daphne is working for. He was previously responsible for internal affairs. In May, Daphne became his deputy." he looked at the other column. "Richard Danton, Anna Woods and James Underhill struggle for leadership of Harpies. It seems Tracey is working with James Underhill, who is a friend of O'Reil. Tracey is Underhill's deputy as well." Harry paused. "That is no coincidence. Underhill and O'Reil knew that Davis and Greengrass were our spies and brought them closer to themselves. These two are to play us." Harry's look darkened. "I don't like being played. They think they can use us to gain dominance in this house. Well, let them try."

xxx

It was another potions lesson, well actually it was the first potions lesson in this year. Snape, however, looked like he already wanted to go on vacation. He was even more snarky than usual and docked points from Gryffindors for merely being present and double points for someone being absent. Harry honestly wondered if he man was a bit retarded. Who would want so many enemies?

The class was finally over and Harry left the classroom with his two friends, however he was stopped by Malfoy's voice in the corridor.

"Hey Potter!" the blond called. "Your little group's days are over. I'd watch my back if I were you." Harry's eyes narrowed. He walked to Malfoy, not at all concerned by the fool's bodyguards. Theo and Blaise had the gorillas pinned under their wands.

"Oh really, Malfoy?" Harry asked calmly. "Thanks for the warning, I guess." then he smiled warmly. "Do you know, Draco, how hard it is to repair something broken?" he asked suddenly. "I once spent half a month, trying to put the pages back into my book after it was ruined. Never accomplished it. So how is your family, I heard you had rough time after Voldemort's fall."

Malfoy's face turned scarlet. Harry smiled softly. "Are you threatening me, Potter?" he blurted.

"Oh," Harry brought his right and to his chest, "I couldn't possibly comment on this, Draco." he exclaimed. "Come, Theo, Blaise, McGonagall won't wait."

He might have just insulted Malfoy in the way the fool wouldn't even understand, but the warning did set off alarms in Harry's head. He had to check the journal he connected to the listening charm on Millicent's quill.

xxx

Later that day Harry found nothing in the journal. Which meant one thing - Millicent didn't have any information on possible attack. Well, frankly, attacking the Crown was futile and Harry made sure that every Slytherin knew it during the previous year. Nevertheless, the recruitment day was near and he couldn't risk the safety of his members, current or future. He would have to act fast.

So there's the third chapter. Thanks to my new beta Thundramon for proofreading it!