Rodrick sighed as he filtered into the lesson, they'd been back a couple of days. Their usual routine returned, although a slight change was the young blonde sometimes showing up to eat with them, much to the rest of Slytherin's dismay although it seemed her being friends with Rodrick who was friends with Malfoy kept them neutral, especially after Malfoy's special addition to the Quidditch team.
It was their first Transfiguration lesson of the week, one they, unfortunately, shared with Gryffindor. The previous lessons had proven an irritation for Rodrick, most of it stemming from the girls in his group. They were upset that Gryffindor had taken the lead in house points, it seemed the boys in their year had already deemed it a lost cause to bother with the house cup, the girls did not.
He could see the real source of his irritation in one bushy-haired girl. His friends were relying on him to stack up their points for them as he was unanimously and without his choice named their de facto leader, even Malfoy seemed to agree to it although more out of amusement than anything. There were two huge problems with this, one he didn't want the spotlights, spotlights got people like Dumbledore to pay him more attention, two he was only better than Granger in particular subjects, most of them practical, such as the one they're currently heading into. Perhaps doing his best in the previous year's exam was a bad idea after all...
Daphne eyed him closely, which unnerved him a great deal as she was sitting right next to him. He could see Blaise talking with Nott and for a second contemplated that perhaps his friend had the better option... Seeing Blaise's face scrunch up soon after proved that wrong. In a surprising turn of events, Tracey seemed to be sitting next to Malfoy, that really was unexpected, he wasn't sneering at her, but that was probably more out of her being his friend than anything.
He still hadn't figured out what to do with Malfoy after what he'd told him on the first day back. He had yet to talk to his grandfather about it; it seemed the man had decided to take a vacation from Rodrick's mind as soon as school started. Perfect.
"Don't let us down now..." Daphne drawled next to him, Rodrick nodded his head absentmindedly. There really was no winning with her; he can at least pretend to try.
Their lesson today involved turning beetles into buttons because beetle lives apparently didn't matter, Granger was the first to succeed somewhat; naturally, she had probably practised the entire book by now, although she looked slightly put out it wasn't perfect. The professor had given her 10 points, and his friends had glared at him.
Rodrick mused doing the same as Granger to beat her at the end of the year exams but decided the effort wasn't worth it, maybe if it won him the house cup... Daphne had managed to do quite well herself, as did Blaise and Tracey for that matter. Their practice over the summer was showing. No one had managed a perfect transfiguration yet, there was always something that didn't transform completely, in Daphne's case the button still had a patch of skin from the beetle on it, Granger hadn't managed to change the color, and Tracey's had an antenna on it. Blaise's button had an eye on it.
His friends were eying him at the moment; even the professor seemed to be waiting for his turn. He swished his wand and transformed his button into Granger's copy.
"Well done, 10 points to Slytherin," The professor's voice echoed, although to Rodrick's surprise she looked somewhat disappointed. 'Was she expecting something else?' He thought with a frown.
She was about to turn away before a voice suddenly filled the room.
"See I told you he couldn't do better than her,"
Rodrick closed his eyes and sighed, it was Ron Weasley speaking, there was an almost smug smile on his face as he talked to Potter. Something about the tone of his voice agitated him 'Were they betting on how I would do?' The fact the guy was criticizing him with a broken wand and having crushed his beetle instead of transforming it only made it worse.
Rodrick turned his button back to a beetle earning the professors attention, and pretty much everyone else's. Granger was eyeing him warily. He then put his wand down and waved his hand over it, if he was going to try he was going to make sure he won, the beetle transformed into a black and green striped button, it had intricate snake designs going down the middle. The look of shock on Weasley's face was almost worth the unnecessary problems he'd just brought on himself.
He looked up to see the professor with a sparkle in her eyes as she stared down at his spellwork, she quickly picked it up and appraised it with her hand. His friends were openly gawking at him, Draco was smirking towards a pouting Granger. Honestly, it unnerved him how accepting Malfoy was; he'd expected him to be jealous instead.
"Wonderfully done, you have an excellent talent for this, especially to do it without a wand! 25 points to Slytherin," Spoke the professor. All hints of fairness was gone... She almost seemed to revert to a child when she saw potential. "I am a little put out you didn't want to try at first, but I will be expecting this level of success in your future," 'Nevermind she was just trying to get me addicted to success,' Rodrick thought with a chuckle. The sparkle in her eye seemed to grow bigger and bigger, and Rodrick found himself falling lower and lower, the entire class was staring at him. The Slytherin's were practically glowering at the Gryffindor side; he had after all practically given them 35 points, they all assumed he copied Granger the first time to get extra points. 'What have I done?'
You'd think Occulemency would help him avoid this sort of thing...
Rodrick contemplated things for a moment before shrugging.
'Screw it, what's the worst that could happen?'
If only he knew.
After the lesson had finished, the professor had asked him to stay back for a few minutes, Rodrick was grateful, it meant anyone besides his friends wouldn't be waiting for him outside... Hopefully, his friends were waiting... 'Ah, insecurities... What would I do without you?'
McGonagall had asked him whether he wanted to move on ahead by himself to attempt the more advanced stuff, she thought he might feel bored with what they were currently learning.
Rodrick quickly shook his head and stated there was always something to learn, even from others not managing to do it properly themselves, it gave him a different kind of learning experience. The answer seemed to light up the professor's eyes, even more, she spoke wistfully about whether he'd been sorted into the right house or not, suggesting Ravenclaw perhaps to be the better option.
He quickly denied the thought, he'd had a nightmare with their riddles,
She quickly waved him off to his friends when she saw Tracey sticking her head over the door window to peek inside, she was taller than Daphne and looked more innocent than Blaise.
After explaining what the professor had asked of him, the group of four quickly made their way to the great hall although Blaise did add that if Rodrick transferred now, he could spy on Ravenclaw for them. The idea had merit, the glare on the girl's faces suggested otherwise, how else would they win without him? Rodrick wondered if the girls ever realized that as long as Harry Potter was in Gryffindor, no one else would be winning in his time at Hogwarts.
...
The group was currently on their way to their first Defence lesson. Something Rodrick was looking forward to, Daphne had spoken nonstop about the teacher all summer, Rodrick was looking forward to seeing what was so special about him, so he could judge him quietly because he didn't have any Gryffindor blood in himself to do otherwise, he had enough Slytherin to make the teachers faults obvious enough though. Blaise was on his side at this. Tracey was too much of a Hufflepuff to go against Daphne or them, so she was essentially neutral. Malfoy was just being a pain; he'd gone back to Potter bashing to everyone but Potter himself, ever since the Greenhouse incident he'd been practically insufferable, although that show was quite amusing, to say the least. Rodrick taught his friends silencing spells over the holiday; it was most likely why there wasn't a commotion between Malfoy and Tracey at Transfiguration.
Rodrick walked into the lesson and took a seat; he saw at the front of the classroom a desk piled with papers and a single covered cage. Daphne decided to flank him once again and took one next to him. As soon as the teacher showed up, the girl started Dreamily staring towards him.
"Yup. Nope," Rodrick sputtered, earning sniggers from the male Slytherins. He quickly took his stuff and moved to sit next to Blaise; he saw Tracey replacing him on his seat,
"Long time no see, I was wondering when you would grace me with your company." Blaise mocked cheerfully.
Rodrick got up again and sat next to Nott. Earning an amused smile out of the boy, Blaise looked genuinely hurt before he started laughing at having driven him away with a sentence.
"My name is Theodore Nott, pleased to meet you," Nott started sarcastically, Rodrick was about to get up again before he saw no seats available unless he wanted to go next to a Gryffindor and he wasn't that desperate yet.
"I am afraid you're stuck with me," Nott spoke with less sarcasm.
"So it seems, my name is Rodrick by the way," He replied a slight smirk on his face.
Nott rolled his eyes before they turned their attention back to the teacher in front of them. It took five minutes before Nott turned back to Rodrick with a serious face and asked.
"So how do you think he did it?"
"I am sorry? Did what?" Rodrick replied slightly confused.
"You know, all his accomplishments," Nott replied evenly.
Rodrick raised an eyebrow, "I presume with a wand and a bit of magic," Draco who was a table behind them snorted.
Nott rolled his eyes again only more dramatically, "You know what I mean." He whispered, no doubt to make sure Malfoy didn't hear.
Rodrick looked ahead to make sure the teacher wasn't near them before he whispered to the boy's ears.
"I think he killed the people who actually did it and took credit for it."
Nott's eyes widened slightly before he nodded along saying it was a good theory, his eyes however quickly narrowed. "But then he'd need to have some talent in magic to kill them."
They both stared up at the wizard in front of them before they both shook their head.
The professor had shown up at their table causing their conversation to die out quickly. He handed them a small test. When they saw the questions, they both quickly sighed. The man gave them 20 minutes to answer the questions, Rodrick had given up on question one and convinced Nott to mess around with the paper, he'd been wary stating they may get into some trouble but Rodrick assured him there wouldn't be any and if there was he'd give him 5 Galleons, at the end of the test they both swapped papers and read each other's answers out.
The professor was too busy appraising one of his portraits.
For the question regarding his favorite color, Rodrick wrote white to match the state of his mind, blank. Nott wrote red to match the stains of the wizards he'd killed. For the question regarding his dream, Rodrick wrote it was 'To convince the wizarding world he was minister for magic appropriate instead of his current recommendation, first-year student.' Nott wrote his dream was 'To find his original body and take over it again,' stating the current one was goblin made. For his greatest accomplishment, Rodrick put down 'Getting hired by Dumbledore.' Nott had 'Convince the world his books were true.' The rest of the questions followed their same pattern.
Rodrick and Nott both quickly sent small bits of papers flying to each of the Slytherin tables, telling them to watch Gryffindor lose points. Once again the professor didn't even notice. Most of the Slytherin's interest piqued up at this, especially Malfoy. Daphne and Tracey were more wary, although the former was still too busy staring at the golden-haired idiot to really care. As said teacher came up to collect the tests, Nott silently panicked wondering whether Rodrick would deliver on his side or not.
When the teacher touched Rodrick's paper, he let out a nonverbal transfiguration spell to change the name on two specific papers in the teacher's hand as well as alter the names on their own paper.
Nott was staring frantically at the papers in the teacher's hand, he turned towards Rodrick about to speak but relaxed when he saw a grin on the boy's face.
"Done?" he questioned.
Rodrick's nod let him sigh in relief.
The professor read through each paper. When he'd come across Hermione's and Daphne's, with a smile on his face, he awarded both girls 10 points for their good work. The Slytherins were still waiting with baited breath although Daphne looked quite cheerful already.
When he got to the two bewitched papers... A confused look quickly turned to anger when he spotted the two names at the top.
"Ronald Weasley! Dean Thomas! Detention after class, 20 points will be taken from your house for disrespecting your teacher!"
The Gryffindors looked horrified before they started glaring at the two students, Granger was practically melting Weasley with hers. Daphny was staring towards Rodrick, with a certain glint in her eyes.
The Slytherins were ecstatic, laughing at the sudden turn of events, having expected such a thing to happen they weren't overly shocked. Malfoy glared daggers to the two responded with a look that demanded an explanation and how it was pulled off, no doubt wanting to do something similar. Nott was almost smiling with glee, he turned towards Rodrick and flashed a grin.
In all, honestly, it looked freaky as hell. That face was not suited to grinning.
Ron Weasley and Dean Thomas were staring frantically at their professor, trying to explain their innocence, to the amusement of the Slytherins.
The next part made it all the better.
The paper in the teacher's hand caught fire, shocking him into dropping it to the floor, within moments the evidence disappeared leaving only Seamus Finnigan's paper untouched, the student's history with fire no doubt forewarned by the other teachers. Gilderoy quickly turned his glare towards said boy and removed a further 20 more points and gave him a detention. 'How dare he ruin my lesson?'
Tracey wasn't sure what she should feel. Daphne was annoyed at her paper burning, happy Gryffindor lost 40 points, relieved the evidence to blame it on Rodrick was gone. She was certainly not going to let him sit with someone else again.
Nott turned towards Rodrick and whispered.
"You are definitely showing me how you did that later." he echoed Malfoy's frantic whispers, His face was beaming in the spotlight from his fellow Slytherins at having made all the previous points earned obsolete, they were in the lead, they knew it didn't matter, but it felt good either way. Rodrick planned on telling Malfoy... Under a single condition, he was aware that Malfoy was more than capable of coming through with it, albeit reluctantly. He didn't promise anything to Nott causing the boy to roll his eyes.
Rodrick chuckled slightly to himself, although for a different reason, Nott been next to him made it easier to act out, he could always push all that light towards him, and he knew Nott wouldn't mind at all.
Malfoy was put out it wasn't Harry Potter that was in trouble but thinking about it correctly; the teacher probably would've never believed it.
It had taken 10 minutes before the teacher had calm down enough, having echoed his 'thoughts' out to the three delinquents about how rude they were for interrupting such a beneficial lesson. Half the class scoffed, the half that didn't were Gryffindors who were openly glaring at the three troublemakers who had just thrown their lead. Even Harry Potter looked upset for once, no doubt Malfoy will be talking about that for days to come.
The next part of the lesson started off rather intriguing for Rodrick and slightly worrying, turning to his side he saw Nott in his own little world. The fact he had the Slytherins glancing towards him every now and then probably had something to do with that.
The professor had gotten everyone's attention by speaking about some supposedly dangerous creatures, when he took out the cloth from the cage Rodrick was disappointed, he expected something a little bigger. Some of the students were dumbfounded before they started laughing, the grin Lockhart's face grew. Rodrick didn't like this.
The next few moments were filled with pure mayhem, the teacher released the creatures and let them run amok through the students, he attempted to fix it all but his spell, if it could be called one, failed miserably. Rodrick might have immediately fixed the situation if he wasn't laughing so much. He had his head on the table unable to control his laughter, students all around him were harassed non-stop, he saw one of the pixies take Ron's broken wand and let loose chaos with accidental sparks of magic. Most of the Slytherins used their brains and hid under the table, Rodrick couldn't care at all. One pixie tried to annoy him, but an Expulso sent it crashing straight into Harry Potter knocking him off balance, he knew Malfoy would love him for it.
Looking around, however, he stiffened quickly, some of the pixies were ganging up on Tracey, they'd pushed her out of the table and were slowly levitating her, matching the Longbottom boy. The laughter had stopped from him; it was replaced by anger. Tracey was frantic in the air trying to swat away the Pixies; he saw Granger on the floor trying to find her wand, Harry Potter near her, He must've accidentally pushed her there after the Expulsified Pixie hit him. Rodrick got up on top of his table, the eyes of every creature, human, and pixie, went to him. He raised his wand to the air.
"Carpe Retractum," Ropes of light flittered out of Rodrick's wand in the direction of every Pixie pulling it towards him, when the ones lifting the two students up were pulled, the students fell. Rodrick cast out a wandless Levitation charm on both to stop them getting injured. The pulling spell had grabbed hold of every Pixie into a small group of crying furballs, all of them held together by a long rope.
"Expulso," Rodrick shot out at the group of Pixies aiming it towards the open cage, once the Pixies were put inside, Rodrick cast out a locking charm to prevent their escape.
Everyone around was staring at him; the Slytherins were grinning one of their own had managed to fix the situation, Rodrick looked around at the awed looks before he shrugged and got off the table. Tracey ran up towards before thanking him quickly. Daphne was currently staring at him with a fond look; she felt giddy he'd managed to fix another problem again so swiftly and efficiently. However that look was changed to a disappointed one as she stared at Lockhart, 'he should've been able to handle that.'
Rodrick heard one Gryffindor question why he couldn't have done that sooner. He turned his gaze before smirking, "It was too funny watching you Gryffindors struggle around like." He had after all only intervened when one of their own had been put into trouble.
"Ah yes well, Well done Rodrick, another 15 points to Slytherin for your quick thinking! I believe that will be all, everyone but the three troublemakers from earlier can leave,". The points really were the icing on the cake, Slytherins were practically beaming as they left the defense classroom with the sulking Gryffindors behind them, Granger looked near in tears. Slytherin had earned 60 points, Gryffindor had only won 20 and lost 40! Snape was going to be very happy when he found out.
Rodrick and his friends found themselves surrounded by all the second years for the rest of the day. He had managed to slip Malfoy a piece of paper telling him his condition for showing him the spell used in the papers; the boy had frowned slightly before looking up to Rodrick and nodding his head. He had a smile on his face for the rest of the day. Even Daphne couldn't be mad at him for his underhanded tricks, she had encouraged him after all to get more points, and they were both in Slytherin at the end of the day, cunningness was expected.
Tracey thanked him once again outside the lesson only for Rodrick to quickly point out he would've done it for any of his friends...
Blaise asked him if he'd done it for him. Rodrick took a second to think before shaking his head sarcastically, earning laughter from the second years around them.
Nott and Rodrick were greeted like heroes to the dungeon later on that day; rumours state they saw Snape smile at them.
Malfoy was laughing along with the rest before he appraised the situation accurately, he stared ahead at Rodrick as he was surrounded by near everyone in the common room. Nott was currently the one answering the older years questions on what exactly happened in the class. Looking around Draco could see everyone eyeing the orphan, or well the Greengrass ward at this rate. Nott was speaking but their attention was on Rodrick, his three friends like always were never far away from him. Draco was confused; he knew no one else besides his family knew his real name, it was why they were so interested in him in the first place and yet somehow even without that... Rodrick had managed to get everyone in their house's attention and to top it off none of them seemed to dislike him or better yet... none of them wanted to dislike him.
Thinking about that made the Malfoy heir shiver, if he could manage that without a name... on possibly the hardest group of people in their school... What exactly could he pull off if he could use his real name openly? Just how far would their house go in supporting him? How far would he go for that matter? Already he'd managed to get a Ravenclaw to their table without any fuss although Malfoy knew deep down it was more thanks to him than anything. He smiled at the thought; his influence was certainly high enough after his father's donation. However that thought led him to Rodrick's request, he didn't mind it really, he knew it was easy enough... The fact he'd so quickly accepted it was another matter entirely, in fact, he found himself willing to accept it even without the spell Rodrick offered to teach him. Well, Father did tell me to befriend him...
Malfoy wondered how much he could use that excuse before it became void, he sighed slightly, Rodrick was slowly taking over their house without even realising it, his magical talent was like a shining ball of light, and the rest were moths, the worst part? It became clearer and clearer just why his father had so willingly followed Lord Voldemort. He wasn't sure if Rodrick held the same ideals as a Pureblood and he wasn't sure that would matter.
After all, power was beautiful even in the wrong places.