It had been months since the Christmas holidays, Rodrick's mood had improved significantly after the first couple of weeks. For the first time in the whole year, it seemed his friends had finally decided it was time for some actual studying. To top it off Blaise hadn't complained at all!
Rodrick found himself confident enough for each exam aside from Herbology, And god did he hate that subject... He wasn't overly fond of Astronomy either, but still spent some time on it in the library with his friends. He helped make sure each one was ready for their own struggles having long given up on his; he figured merely passing his distasteful subjects would be enough.
Strangely he'd been approached several times while in the library by a group of Gryffindors, particularly one called Harry Potter. The boy had asked him numerous times to help teach him a certain illegal spell. Each time Rodrick rebuffed them stating they had no business knowing dangerous magic. They were persistent though.
They'd tried to stop after their unfortunate incident that resulted in them losing a large number of points. It didn't last for very long though, they returned once more on this day and pleaded for him to show them. Granger, however, wasn't in sight. Rodrick had threatened to tell on them asking about the Imperius curse, Ron Weasley had in turn rebuffed him, telling him that he would be in far more trouble having already known it. Daphne had returned to the table at that point and threatened to hex the boys if they didn't leave. Harry had stomped off with a glare on his face.
"What did they want?" she questioned.
Rodrick raised an amused eyebrow at her for acting Gryffindorish, rushing in without information.
Daphne's cheeks tinged slightly before she remarked: "It clearly didn't look pleasant, I figured it was the gingers fault."
Tracey, as well as Blaise, had returned with more books, a majority of them were on potions and History, their struggles respectively.
Rodrick explained what the two Gryffindors wanted; the reactions were mixed. Daphne frowned at them openly talking to Rodrick about the Imperius curse, Tracey gasped at the recklessness of the boys wanting to learn an illegal curse. Rodrick was amused by her reaction the most, considering he knew two spells far worse.
Blaise had ranted on that Rodrick had no right to teach them the spell seeing as he hadn't even taught his friends. In simple terms, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. Rodrick chuckled at his friend's antics; sometimes he wasn't even sure if they were serious or not. Well, he was sure Blaise was never serious, it was the girls that he had trouble with. The group started discussing the upcoming Quidditch game at which point Rodrick promptly shut down his brain and put his head on the table; Daphne patted him playfully while laughing.
Malfoy's little group, (Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy) had decided to join their table at that point; he'd been on more civil terms with Rodrick ever since the party at Malfoy Manor.
However, since the forbidden forest incident, Malfoy had been unbearable, even his friends seemed to groan when he started complaining about some plant he'd stepped on or whatever.
He'd taught his friends a silencing spell so they could tone out his complaints, it made for funny instances but also tended to make Malfoy angrier, even worse was when Malfoy's own friends had asked Rodrick if he could teach them that spell. Blaise seemed to dislike the two burly boys, though Rodrick couldn't blame him. Tracey got on well with all of them. Daphne couldn't stand Pansy Parkinson although Rodrick failed to understand that part. The girl was on good terms with him after all. He'd asked Tracey once why Daphne seemed to hate the other girl and all he got was a laugh from the red head. Even Blaise seemed to notice, but the boy refused to indulge him, he called it payback, although for the life of him he couldn't figure out what he could've possibly done to the dark skinned wizard to deserve any form of revenge.
It took five minutes before Pince promptly kicked them all out. The groups split off at that point, Rodrick's group decided to go back to the common room to finish their studies, Malfoy's went... somewhere, Rodrick hadn't really paid attention. When they reached the locked door, Rodrick's stomach growled, earning sniggers from his friends.
Rodrick sighed, "I'll join you guys in a bit then, I am gonna get something to eat."
His friends nodded along before they uttered the password and went in.
...
Rodrick went back towards the great hall. On his way, however, he stumbled on an open classroom, thinking nothing of it, he passed it by before he heard someone whimper. Rodrick recognized the voice; it belonged to his DADA teacher. He felt his spine stiffen slightly before he decided to back trace his steps but stayed hidden, when he peeked inside he found an unsettling sight. Professor Quirrell was talking to himself. Rodrick was torn between confronting the crazed Professor or reporting it to the headmaster; it was hardly a good quality for a teacher to have.
His thoughts froze.
Something was definitely unsettling him, Rodrick could've sworn there was a charm or two hidden inside the Professors turban but what really freaked him out was the fact he heard a very dark and hoarse voice respond to the teacher. Rodrick's mind froze at the voice; it settled on running, he did not come to this school to deal with a cursed teacher. He quickly moved away from the wall but wound up tripping. The sound alerted the DADA teacher; the man quickly turned before he made his way over to the door, bent on finding the source of the accident. Rodrick was currently on the floor hidden by a wall when he heard the approaching footsteps, he took out his wand and cast his strongest Disillusionment charm on himself.
The professor came out the room and looked around trying to find the source of the accident, seeing nothing the man seemed to give up but as soon as he was about to turn, the dark voice spoke again.
"He's hidden by magic!" the voice whispered.
The DADA teacher turned again before taking out his wand, he was about to cast a revealing spell before another set of footsteps were heard, the man quickly hid his wand and went away from the area when he noticed who the student was. Rodrick turned, still hidden, and saw Harry Potter slowly approaching. The boy looked about to enter the classroom before he changed his mind half way and returned the way he came.
When Rodrick was sure there was no one else around, he took off his charm and ran back to the common room, his hunger dead. He was torn between alerting the headmaster or his head of house; he ended up settling on Snape simply because the man's office was closer to the common room. The potions Professor took in his words before giving him an approving nod for bringing the matter to him instead of interfering; he told him he'd take care of it but made sure Rodrick kept the matter secret before sending him off.
Rodrick had no intention of bringing up this issue with his friends, who knows what kind of problems that door would open. Although he did still have a visible shake to himself when he finally saw them again, Daphne tried to question him about it, he blamed the cold, she didn't believe him, None of his friends did for that matter. Hell, even Draco, who was for the most part unhealthily obsessed with Potter had disbelief written on his face. But they all knew he was stubborn and so left it at that, except Pansy who decided to act like Madam Pomfrey all of a sudden, she continually tried to question him about it. Rodrick slowly but steadily lost patience, Daphne's face seemed to glow each time the girl asked him what was wrong. By the evening Rodrick felt compelled to send the girl directly to the cursed teacher, Daphne looked like she was about to explode from sheer amusement. Blaise decided to continue the questioning at their dorm throughout the night. Rodrick put up several silencing spells around his bed, Blaise prattled on without realizing Rodrick couldn't hear him. He felt a sense of satisfaction from that until the morning, where his laughter had died as he realized he'd missed Transfiguration.
...
The exams had come and gone quickly. Thanks to particular favoritism from a certain Potions professor; the Slytherin first years had somehow gotten their results early. Rodrick passed each exam quite well, in fact, if it hadn't been for Herbology and Astronomy he would've passed at the top of his year, he wound up second. Daphne came behind him followed by Tracey and Blaise, who'd almost failed his history exam.
Hermione Granger had gotten tied with Rodrick on most of the exams but had beaten him in Astronomy and Herbology much to the boy's dismay. Blaise had been unbearable about that particular fact until his history exam was brought up by Tracey. Even then his head of house had been quite happy with their group as each one of them had beaten Harry Potter, he simply refused to consider the 'Insufferable Know it all.'
Thankfully none of Rodrick's friend decided to point out that Rodrick was only behind by one or two marks and so qualified as an 'Insufferable Know it all.' Of course when the teacher wasn't around Blaise called Rodrick by his new nickname quite openly.
Draco was livid when he found out he did worse than Harry Potter.
...
The end of the year feast came by quickly for the students, to Rodrick's utter shock the DADA professor had been killed. When he'd first heard that, he'd been both impressed and frightened of his head of house. When the man said he'd take care of it, he wasn't kidding around...
It didn't take long before the real story came out, Harry Potter had, of course, came out as some sort of hero for stopping the cursed teacher from taking the philosophers stone.
Rodrick's mind had taken a double turn the first time he heard that story. When he'd realized Blaise wasn't crazy, he inwardly groaned. Gryffindor was going to win the house cup. He knew someone was about to pull a 180 on the Slytherins and lose them their cup. Democracy at its finest.
The different houses reacted differently to the story, the Gryffindors naturally took it as a godsend and tried to push their bravery nonsense down on anyone they found, the Hufflepuff's were relieved no evil wizard was at large. The Slytherins (Mostly Malfoy) were disappointed, Harry neither died nor was expelled for technically murdering a teacher. His female friends, Daphne and Tracey, were more inclined towards Hufflepuffs reaction.
The Ravenclaws were disappointed such a priceless artifact would be destroyed. Blaise was disappointed because he didn't get to use the stone for his own selfish reasons. Rodrick was dumbfounded at the sheer stupidity of it all.
One, the professors apparently built defenses to the stone to keep it safe... Defenses three first years were capable of bypassing. Two, Dumbledore had decided to hire a teacher without a reasonable ID check. Three, Harry Potter had decided that the headmaster's defensive measure weren't good enough and figured a scrawny first year was more than strong enough to handle a DADA professor. Four, there was a giant three-headed dog hidden in Hogwarts, the last one he'd found out by accident.
...
He was currently seated with his friends; he'd been quite surprised when it had been announced that Slytherin would win the year's house cup, they were all toasting to it, enjoying the feast. Even Snape had the semblance of a smile on his face.
Five, the headmaster greatest ability was being able to troll the living daylights out of students. Rodrick stared in mock apprehension as he saw the headmaster stand up and begin his speech. Blaise was currently seated to his right; he turned to his friend before mouthing the words 'we lose,' to him. Blaise raised an eyebrow in confusion but said nothing. If there was any consolation in all this, it was that Dumbledore couldn't force the Quidditch cup to be given to Gryffindor.
Ron Weasley got 50 points for a chess game. Rodrick couldn't believe his ears, the headmaster was actually awarding him 50 points for something like that, he was sorely tempted to get up from his table and challenge the ginger to a chess game for the points, but unfortunately, he wasn't a Gryffindor.
He could see the sudden despaired looks on his housemates. Apparently getting passed a giant chess set meant cheating your way through a house cup, he takes down a troll and casts the Imperius curse successfully at 12 years old and gets nothing. He chuckled at the thought, imagine their reaction if he decided to shout that out. Blaise looked like he had a similar idea, but a stern glare from Daphne luckily put that out.
Dumbledore gave Granger 50 points with a pun, the headmaster's face was neutral, Rodrick heard Malfoy mutter about the Mudblood getting her due. 'Way to go, as if mud bloods weren't already under fire.'
"Third to Mr. Harry Potter,"
As soon as he heard that, he turned to his table and uttered. "For existing, I award you the house cup."
He wasn't sure if anyone else outside of that table heard him, he was certain they heard the Slytherin tables laughter.
...
When Neville Longbottom was awarded 10 points for standing up to his friends, Daphne huffed out loudly at it calling it unfair. That caught the headmaster's attention. 'Crap.' Thought Rodrick, his eyes widened.
The headmaster's eyes swept over the Slytherin Table trying to find the source of the sound; Daphne had shrunk down when she realized they'd heard her. Dumbledore found the source quickly, all the Slytherin eyes were on her after all, before he continued his speech and awarded the house cup to Gryffindor as he'd planned to the moment Harry was placed in it. Rodrick wasn't sure if that last part was true, but the evidence was all there.
Dumbledore turned his eyes back to the girl who'd spoken out; the girl noticed his gaze as she turned to face him for a split second. An image showed up on the headmaster's mind, an image of a troll. The girl quickly averted her gaze back in front of her, facing the boy he'd met before Christmas.
The old man's stomach lurched as his suspicions were confirmed. The boy had indeed taken care of the troll; he had used the Imperius curse. Dumbledore turned his eyes away from the table and focused on the feast, He would worry about this later, the Gryffindor table was celebrating loudly. Even the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaws were enjoying themselves, Dumbledore had a smile on his face, three quarters of the school's students looked to be getting along somewhat, but in the end, it was always the remaining quarter that worried him. Dumbledore turned his gaze to the orphan before anxiety increased, the boy was an enigma. One that could prove to be either dangerous or beneficial to the grand scheme of things. And yet something deep down told him the boy's path lay elsewhere entirely. An image was forming in his head, of another wizard, the boy seemed to be reminding him of, as the picture formed the face however, it disappeared. Dumbledore frowned, not because he didn't know who it reminded him of but because he knew it was no longer Voldemort. That thought unsettled him even more; it simply hit too close to home. If the boy's future reminded him of his old friend, he wasn't sure he could reject that dream once more, the first time had been difficult enough. In his remembrance of the past, Dumbledore had for that split second forgotten that the boy's face was covered by magic.
Later, Dumbledore would laugh when he realized why the boy had seemed so familiar.