A/N: I'M BACK! RL has settled down and I have always felt bad about abandoning this story. However, going back and re-reading it, showed me it needed major revising. Therefore, I started a revised edition with slight changes (major outline will remain mostly intact). I'm also going to try and make Harry not quite such a Gary Stue. The story is under my profile with the title "A Different Path".

Below are are various scenes that don't fit in the story.

Chapter 16: Excerpts from Year 1

Soon it was the fifth week of school and Harry, not having gotten much sleep the night before, was not looking forward to Potions that morning. Snape may have been a decent teacher, but he had little patience for his students and his animosity towards Harry seemed to grow as the semester went on. Also, unlike other students, who were left alone once they proved a minimum level of competency, it seemed the better Harry became at potions, the more the potions master hated him.

Dragging himself to class, Harry walked in two minutes before the bell and took his customary seat against the wall, about halfway back from the Professor's desk. Torin sat next to him as per usual and they shared a grim smile when the door slammed shut at the start of class.

"Today we will be brewing a mild numbing potion," announced Snape, before flicking his wand, causing the instructions to appear on the blackboard behind him, "Begin."

The class worked quickly and quietly, not wishing to attract the Potion Master's attention. Throughout the period Snape walked among the cauldrons inspecting the potions criticizing some, ignoring others. Finally, near the end of the period he circles back around to where Harry and Torin were diligently brewing. Harry's potion was almost perfect, only a half-shade off the color it should have been and much closer then Torin's, but it was enough for Snape to take advantage of and with a quite "evinesco"vanished the contents of the cauldron.

"Zero, Mr. Potter."

"Sir, that was almost perfect. It was better than most of the potions in this room!"

"5 points from Hufflepuff for your cheek Mr. Potter and do you think you are more competent than I?" Harry opened his mouth to say more but Snape's expression clearly stated that he would love nothing more so he snapped his jaw shut and glared, causing Snape's mark to flare painfully.

Just then the bell rang signaling the end of the period. As everyone else rushed to bottle their potions and scamper out of class. Harry hung back to talk to the Professor, knowing he would have to make up the potion. Soon enough Harry and Torin were the only students left. Snape seemed to study Harry with and indecipherable look for a moment before curtly saying "Detention, tonight at 7 o'clock. You will make up your potion then" before striding out of the room, leaving the three Hufflepuffs to scramble to their next class.

The rest of the day passed in a blur as Alex thought about what to do about Snape. His friends had all seen the way Snape had baited him and initially tried to cheer him up. When that didn't work they left him to brood, figuring he would be better after the detention was over and done. Before he knew it, Harry was standing outside Snape's office. Taking a deep fortifying breath to help him shift mindsets, Alex knocked firmly on the office door.

"Enter" Alex calmly walked in with an arrogant smirk, stood in front of Snape's desk, and waited. He was not disappointed.

As soon he stepped into the classroom wearing that arrogant smirk, looking identical to James Potter, Snape began his lecture. "You Mr. Potter are a complete arrogant trouble maker. Because you seem to think that you are better then I you will remake this potion and it will be perfect or you will begin again. Once you have managed to create this simple potion to my standards, you will then start your detention." Snape then pointed to where a desk was set up, but when Alex did not move Snape lashed into him once more. "Is there something in my instructions that your feeble mind failed to grasp? Go work on the potion."

"No, I don't think I will Severus" Alex smirked as the Potions Master began to gain a truly ugly shade, but having heard enough yelling, and knowing that anymore and his patience would truly snap Alex caused His Prince's mark to flare, not as a summons, but as a warning that he was overstepping a boundary.

Snape was in an almost apoplectic rage with the disrespectful refusal of the student standing in front of him, but he was not quite insane enough with range that he didn't react instinctually to the warning of his mark. He stopped dead, mouth open to castrate the boy in front of him and stared, his mind working furiously.

"That's right Severus, not everything is as it appears, is it?"

This time there was no denying the voice and speech pattern. Ignoring what his eyes were telling him, Severus listened to the voice and paled dramatically. "My Prince" he murmured as he knelt in supplication, he knew that his ignorance was no defense and that pleading would more then likely make things worse if he was reading the young lord correctly.

Alex looked down at the prostrate man and knew that his point had been made; he also knew that for Severus to change his attitude dramatically would cast suspicion on both of them. "You may rise, Severus, I realize that you had no former knowledge and a deep seated grudge against my parents, but your hatred blinded you to many clues that would have shown you either that Harry Potter was not quite as golden as he should have been or that he was not as spoiled as you believed. This lack of observation could have cost you dearly had I been anyone else. You will be making it up to me, never fear"

"As you wish my lord. How do you wish for this to proceed? Am I to continue as I have been, to shift overnight would be suspicious."

"I am aware of the dangers and you will neither continue your current grudge, nor will you cease as you have been. Dare you interrupt?" Severus had opened his mouth, possible to question him, but quickly closed it looked down again submissively. "As I was saying, you will cease this level of hostility towards Harry Potter slowly and gradually, until you treat him only slightly more contemptuously then other students. This will also allow you to continue to assign detentions to me at which I will be doing very little detention type activity unless there is someone else around. Do you understand?"

"Of course my lord. Do you wish to discuss something else in particular now or would you prefer to be left alone to do some homework, I shall give you the grade your potion earlier deserved, corrected for the fact that you had to remake it of course."

"Fine, fine. As for discussion, we shall be discussingyour lack of respect towards my person."

An hour later a much more relaxed Alex left the dungeons and headed back to his common room slipping quietly inside and into Harry's bed to finish the last minute touches on his Transfiguration essay.

It was a couple weeks after Halloween and Harry was relaxing around the lake with the other Hufflepuffs when Hermione came over towards there group. This wasn't unusual by itself, what was odd was she wasn't alone. Trailing along behind her was the plump Gryffindor they had occasionally seen tagging along behind the other Gryffindor boys.

"Guys this is Neville Longbottom, Neville this is the 'Puff gang" introduced Hermione. The group quickly became friends with the shy boy and slowly dragged him out of his shell. By the end of the afternoon he was an integrated member of the 'gang' and happy to have true friends for once.

A few weeks later Neville ran into Alex alone in the library. "Hey Harry. Where's the rest of the gang?"

"Hmm? Oh, I was working on some outside research and they decided they'd had enough. I was just about to finish up."

"Oh. Ok."

"Why, what's up?"

"The other boys were picking on me a little again, most of the time they let me in on their games, but I knocked over the card house they were building and the deck exploded, so the kicked me out for awhile. Figured I'd get some work done."

"Ah, well do you need any help?"

"No thanks, I just have to write a Herbology essay, so I know what I'm doing."

"Alright, well I'm gonna put these books away and go find the gang, your welcome to tag along."

"Sure." Together they got put the books away in a hurry and started out of the library.

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"What were you looking up the last war for?"

"I wanted to know more about what got my parent's killed. Did you know that the Potter's were not even that large a threat? I mean, my dad was a quick rising Auror, but there wasn't really any articles about him making high level arrests, I mean he was still too young to be very senior. I just wondered why the He-who-must-not-be-named came after us. It doesn't make sense. That and Dumbledore was the one who left me with my relatives even though it was clearly stated in their will that they didn't want me to go to them. It made me wonder what kind of power and influence the Headmaster really has, you know?"

"But he's Dumbledore. He defeated Grindewald, maybe he didn't know about your parent's will."

"No, I saw it when I was at Gringotts this summer. He was one of the witnesses, so he not only knew it existed, but he knew what it said. And just because he defeated the last Dark Lord, does that really mean he knows what's best for everyone? I mean look at all the catch-up work you have to do. The other kids told me about how they're so far ahead, that they don't have to study, until maybe mid year. That's not fair is it? For the so many kids to be that advanced? I mean in the muggle world you take placement tests so that those who want to can learn more, like Hermione or the purebloods who could afford tutors."

By this point they had reached the Hufflepuff common room. "Just think about what I said" asked Alex and the two slipped into the common room where they were quickly dragged into a game of gobstones.

Very unbeta'd. Good bye and farewell!