The Power of the Quill

Author\'s Notes:

Hello to all readers and faithful reviewers. Your response to the last chapter was great. I\'m so happy everybody liked Narcissa character. As for the question I asked, it was split nearly fifty, fifty on weather I should bring Sirius back. One reviewer made a very good point that I should do anything until Wormtail is caught. If I do decide to bring Sirius back, it won\'t be to the very end of this story.


Once again the Queen Goddess of the universe Nakhash Makashefah beta\'d this chapter beautify for me. My Hagrid sounds like a Lawyer and she pulls him right back into character. The bitch is really good is what I\'m trying to say.



Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter and Co. I own nothing.



The Power of the Quill.


Chapter 14. The power of Money.

Harry had a splitting headache as he made his way down the main staircase of Black Manor. He had awoken alone, twenty minutes earlier, in the master bedroom with a severe hangover. Even after a quick shower, his headache still remained.

He had to squint his eyes shut as he entered the dining room. All of the large window drapes had been opened. Bright sunshine filled the room. After his eyes had adjusted to the light, he noticed Narcissa sitting at the long table sipping orange juice and reading a stack of parchments. She wore light blue silk robes that seem to perfectly fit her form. Harry sat down in the chair next to her and poured himself a large glass of juice.

\"You\'re up early. I didn\'t think you\'d wake \'til noon. Not after that performance you gave last night,\" she said to him, without taking her eyes off the parchment she was reading.

\"What did you give me last night?\" Harry asked, as he rubbed his forehead. \"I woke up feeling like I slept with a dirty gym sock in my mouth all night.\"

\"Just something to guarantee last night was both successful as well as enjoyable,\" she answered.

\"What do you mean successful?\" Harry asked, sounding a little confused.

\"Successful in achieving our goal, Harry,\" she said, as she looked up at him from her parchment. \"You didn\'t expect me to leave it to chance, did you?\"

\"Do you mean you\'re already pregnant?\" Harry nervously asked.

\"Of course,\" she answered. \"Our daughter should be born at the end of next spring.\" Harry anxiously took a large gulp of juice. He couldn\'t believe how fast things seemed to be changing.

\"You know, I\'m pretty sure it\'s the male who decides the sex of a child. My father only had a son and so did his dad. It might be a boy,\" he told her. Narcissa looked up at him as if he had a huge dunce cap on his head. Her look was a perfect mix of both McGonagall\'s impatience and Snape\'s antagonism. It made him feel like he\'d just asked what a wand was used for.

\"Potter, you really need to learn more about the Wizarding world. It\'s a witch\'s magic that determines the sex of a child. Not the male seed, like Muggles,\" she impatiently told him. \" Besides, I\'ve already checked. It\'s definitely a girl.\"

\"What if the next one\'s a boy? Will you get rid of it and try for just daughters?\" Harry asked. Right away, Harry knew he\'d asked the wrong question. Narcissa just stared at him with a look of cold fury in her eyes.

\"I would never give up other child, Potter. Not even if the Dark Lord himself was the father. No one will ever force me to do that again,\" she angrily stated through clenched teeth. Harry began to suspect that a lot more had happened in her marriage to Malfoy than she let on. She tried to act calm, but being married to a Death Eater for eighteen years must have taken its toll.

Deciding it was best to change the subject, Harry asked the real question that was on his mind. \"Did you really mean what you said about my father last night?\"

\"What do mean?\" she asked, giving him a confused look.

\"Last night, just before you fell asleep. You said that I was better than my dad,\" he told her.

\"Oh that. Of course I meant it. James was fast on more than just a broom. If you know what I mean,\" she mischievously said, with an evil smile on her face.

\"You slept with my father?\" Harry agitatedly shouted.

\"As I already explained to you and your friends, there were very few wizards our own age for my sisters and I to socialize with when we were young,\" she told Harry.

\"When did this happen?\" Harry uneasily asked her.

\"The same year as Bella and Sirius,\" she answered. \"James and I weren\'t just going to sit around my Aunt\'s house all summer and watch my sister and Sirius paw at each other.\"

\"I can\'t believe that you were once my Dad\'s girlfriend,\" Harry said in a disgraceful voice.

\"James and I were never boyfriend and girlfriend. We were just bored that summer,\" she told him.

\"Were you each other\'s first?\" Harry asked.

Narcissa let out a snort of laugher and said, \"Oh Merlin, no. James was well known for having two or three girlfriends at one time by, then. I had a steady boyfriend named Claude Morties back at school at the time.\"

\"Did you two ever do anything after that summer?\" he asked her.

\"No, not after the fiasco with Sirius and my sister,\" she answered. \"I guess I should count myself lucky that I wasn\'t accidentally crushed under the weight of a four hundred pound stag.\" That brought a very disturbing picture to his mind. Harry wondered if his father ever had any accidents like Sirius.

\"Enough about the past, Harry. We should be concentrating on the future,\" she said, trying to change the subject herself this time. \"We have some financial matters that need to be discussed.\"

\"I read the contract. It said I don\'t have to give you my money,\" Harry sharply told her.

Narcissa just smiled at him and said, \"I married you for your blood, not your money, Harry.\"

\"You had to marry me,\" Harry reminded her.

\"Of course, I did,\" she agreed in a mocking tone. \"It\'s the future of the Black estate we need to discuss, not yours. I was left with just the properties and their contents. The money in the Manor\'s personal vault will only last a year or two at most. I must liquidate some of the assets so that we can make investments that will rebuild the Black family fortune.\"

\"What\'s that got to do with me?\" Harry asked.

\"Now that I\'m marry again, wizard law requires that my husband co-sign any property sales or investments I make,\" she informed him.

\"That doesn\'t sound fair,\" he told her.

\"It isn\'t,\" Narcissa answered sounding bothered. \"Unfortunately, wizards outnumber witches three to one in the Ministry\'s Legislature. The Ministry is still a patriarchy, for the most part.\"

\"What will I have to do?\" Harry asked.

\"Just sign some papers once I have things arranged,\" she answered.

\"Are you going to sell this house?\" Harry asked, as he looked around.

\"No, I will not sell the Manor. There are three other properties that belong to the Black estate. I plan to sell two of them. We have the Mediterranean Villa in the south of France, which I plan to keep. But the Swiss ski lodge in the Alps and the plantation in Jamaica will be sold,\" Narcissa informed him.

\"How much are those worth?\" Harry curiously asked.

\"If I sell them both fast, I\'ll probably get about half a million Galleons for the two. Maybe another fifty thousand for their contents,\" she said.

\"Wow, that much. I guess you won\'t have to worry about money for the rest of your life,\" he said to her. Narcissa just raised her eyebrow and gave him another McGonagall slash Snape look. \"What, you don\'t think that\'s enough?\" he asked.

\"Of course it isn\'t enough,\" she told him. \"Simply having enough to survive won\'t do. It takes a considerable fortune to gain any real kind of power, these days. Our family has enemies on all sides now. We will need to buy influence, in several different parts of the Ministry, if we are to survive,\" Narcissa seriously told him.

\"You want to start bribing people?\" Harry skeptically asked.

\"That\'s the way it\'s done, Harry,\" she informed him. \"There are several different ways to influence people. A direct bribe is useful if you need a certain kind of task done. Throwing lavish parties, then inviting the right people, is another.\"

\"Sounds like a complete waste of money, if you asks me,\" Harry cynically told her.

\"According to your financial records, it would appear that you\'re a very poor judge of what is and isn\'t a waste of money. I don\'t understand; how can a student confined to a school most of the year spend as much money as you do?\" she incredulously asked.

\"What are you on about? I spend hardly any money at all. I only take money out of Gringotts once each year. Just enough for my school supplies and to buy a few gifts for my friends on the holidays,\" Harry firmly told her.

\"Not according to your Gringotts bank statement,\" Narcissa told him, as she pulled a parchment with a Gringotts logo on it out of the stack on the table.

\"How did you get that?\" Harry suspiciously asked her.

\"I have some influence of my own,\" she said, as she as began to scan the parchment. \"According to this, you spend all of the money that is transferred into your Muggle account each month.\"

\"What Muggle account?\" Harry asked, with a confused look on his face.

\"The one you had for nearly fifteen years now,\" Narcissa answered, as she handed Harry the statement. \"It\'s a standard child support account. It was probably meant to guarantee that your Muggle relatives could properly care for you.\"

Harry read the statement. Sure enough, there had been a monthly transfer of money to a Muggle bank in London. The transfers had started in November of 1981 with a monthly deposit of 150 Galleons. It had slowly increased over the years and was now up to 450 Galleons a month. That was about 2250 pounds a month. The account had three names on it. The first name was his, but the other two were Vernon and Petunia Dursley. It was obvious to Harry that his parents had set this up so that he would be well cared for without causing any financial burden to his caregiver. The transfers would continue until his eighteenth birthday.

Harry\'s hand began to tremble with rage as he study the parchment. Memories of all Dudley\'s birthday presents and the new car they always got every two years began to burn in his mind. What bothered him most was how his aunt and uncle always accused his mother and father of being deadbeat parents that forced them to take food out of their own child\'s mouth to feed him.

Narcissa let out a snort of laughter as she place a hand over her mouth. \"What\'s so damn bloody funny?\" Harry angrily asked.

\"The expression on your face when you read that parchment. It was just priceless, Potter,\" she answered with a giggle. \"To think, the boy who lived could be outsmarted by a couple of Muggles.\"

\"There is nothing funny about having to live in a cupboard under the stairs for ten years,\" he heatedly told her. \"They always told me how much better their lives would have been if I wasn\'t there. The truth is they were living a lot better because of me.\"

\"The Ministry recognizes that you are of age now that you\'re married. If you wish, you can cancel transfers,\" she informed him.

\"I\'m of age now? Does that mean I can do magic outside of Hogwarts?\" he asked.

\"Of course,\" she simply answered.

Harry wished he knew how to Apparate. He had the sudden urge to go straight to Little Whinging, Surrey, and start hexing number four Privet Drive until there was nothing left but rubble. Unfortunately, a voice in the back of his mind told him it wasn\'t such a good idea. The voice sounded a lot like Dumbledore\'s. \"How do I get the transfers to stop?\" he finally asked.

\"Just send a request by owl to Gringotts,\" she told him. Harry planned to do just that as soon as he reached Hogwarts.

The sudden flutter of wings took his attention off the bank statement. A large black raven entered the Dining Hall with a newspaper in it talons. Harry recognized it as the bird that had pulled a hunk of his hair out four days ago. \"Ah, Moriarty has the morning Prophet,\" Narcissa said, as she took the newspaper from the bird. Harry instinctively put a hand on his head as the bird took off and flew out of the room. Narcissa just smiled at him as she unrolled the paper. \"There should be an announcement of our marriage in the Prophet. The Ministry would have informed them as soon as the contract was consummated,\" she told him. Harry guessed that would have been just before nine the previous evening.

Narcissa\'s hands suddenly began to tremble as she read the front page of the Daily Prophet. Her face started to turn pink with rage. Her eyes were filled with fury. \"THAT BASTARD!!\" she suddenly roared. \"He and that son of a bitch, Fudge, had this planned all along.\" Narcissa furiously threw the paper down on the table and got out of her chair. She then began to pace back and forth while chewing the nails on her left hand. Harry picked up the paper off the table. He wanted to know what had upset her so much.

Harry let out a loud gasp as he saw the headline. He couldn\'t believe what he was reading.

HERO RELEASED FROM AZKABAN!
Muggle sleuth helps free prominent wizard from life imprisonment.

Under the headline was a picture of Lucius Malfoy shaking Minister Fudge\'s hand. Harry continued to read the article, trying to find something that would make sense of this.

Early this morning, Lucius Randolph Malfoy was released from Azkaban
Prison after evidence clearing him was presented to the Head Minister\'s
office. This evidence came from a very unlikely source. Desperate to
clear his name and regain his freedom, Mr. Malfoy employed the
services of a Muggle detective. In his trial, Malfoy had claimed that his
presence in the Ministry of Magic on the night of the Dark Lord\'s attack
was to try and apprehend the notorious mass murderer, Sirius Black.

Malfoy testified that he had received information about Black\'s planned
break-in at the Ministry a week in advance. Malfoy said the reason he
went to apprehend Black, himself, was because the Ministry\'s Auror in
charge of Black case, Kingsley Shacklebolt, refused to believe him.

Malfoy claimed that he had fought Black to the death the night of the
attack on the Ministry. But Shacklebolt and other witnesses testified that
Black was never present at the battle. Without any proof to back up his
story, Malfoy was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Malfoy\'s proof showed up at the Head Minister\'s office earlier this week.
A Muggle detective named Warren Garth was able to prove to the Minister
that Black had been present on the night of the attack. The proof came in
the from of a Muggle identifying technique called fingerprinting. The
Ministry only started fingerprinting its criminals fifteen years ago, after
the first fall of the Dark Lord.

Using this fingerprint technique, Mr. Garth was able to establish that
Black had indeed been in the Ministry on the night of the attack. Upon
receiving this proof, Minister Fudge issued an order of release for
Mr. Malfoy. Since all other evidence pointing toward Mr. Malfoy\'s
involvement with Dark forces came through the same Aurors that had
testified that Black wasn\'t present at the Ministry, Head Minister Fudge
dropped all charge against Malfoy and granted a full pardon. The Head
Minister\'s office has placed Auror Shacklebolt on administrative leave
until a full investigation into his testimony about Black can be completed.

Mr. Malfoy will find it hard to pick up the pieces of his life. Two months
ago, Ministry officials annulled Mr. Malfoy\'s marriage to his wife of
eighteen years. The former Mrs. Malfoy was betrothed to Harry Potter by
the Ministry\'s controversial new blood law earlier this week. The Daily
Prophet received confirmation of the Potter-Black marriage late last night.

When asked if he would try to seek an annulment for the Potter-Black
marriage, Mr. Malfoy avowed that he would not. He told this reporter that
he was very disappointed in his former wife. He failed to see why she rushed
to betray him after eighteen years of faithful marriage. \"Potter doesn\'t
deserve such a opportunistic succubus,\" Malfoy stated. This reporter must
agree with him. Continue on page A-4.

Harry lowered the paper in disbelief. He just couldn\'t understand how the Ministry would ever let Malfoy out of prison.

\"I knew he and Cornelius were up to something. This whole thing was his idea, the annulment and the marriage law,\" Narcissa said, as she angrily paced. \"I\'m sure it wasn\'t just a coincidence that he was released the day after we consummated our marriage.\"

\"Why would Malfoy want you to marry me?\" Harry asked.

\"I told you already that there was no divorce among purebloods. The annulment and our marriage have given him two things he couldn\'t have before. Freedom to marry whomever he wants and the Black estate,\" she angrily told Harry.

\"How can he take the Black estate?\" he asked.

\"After the annulment, I was made sole heir to the Black estate. If I die before giving birth, everything goes to my closeness next of kin. That\'s...\"

\"Draco,\" Harry answered for her.

\"Correct. And now that I\'m married to you, Lucius will have the help of every Dark Wizard out there to kill me,\" Narcissa told him.

\"Malfoy spent three months in Azkaban so that he could get an annulment and a shot at the Black estate,\" Harry said as he tossed the paper back on the table.

\"I seriously doubt Lucius ever set foot on Azkaban Island. He\'s probably been holed up on someone\'s estate waiting for us to complete our contract,\" Narcissa said, sounding very annoyed. She sat back down in her seat and said in a cold voice, \"Well, there\'s only one thing left to do; kill him.\"

\"You want to kill Malfoy?\" Harry asked, giving her a bewildered look.

\"Of course. It\'s the only way we\'ll ever be safe. You should ask Dumbledore and his Order for help,\" she suggested.

\"They\'re not killers. Even if they were, I doubt they\'d be interested in helping the ex-wife of a Death Eater,\" Harry informed her.

\"You\'re probably right. We\'ll just have to do this on our own,\" Narcissa said in a calculating voice.

\"What\'s all this we stuff? Malfoy\'s no more dangerous to me than any other Death Eater out there. He is your ex-husband; if you want him dead, you\'ll have to do it yourself,\" Harry told her.

\"He\'s a threat to our unborn child. Don\'t you care about the safety of your own daughter?\" she angrily asked him.

\"Of course, I care. But not enough to just go kill somebody,\" Harry explained.

\"If the safety on our child isn\'t enough, then how about revenge? Lucius murdered members of your child\'s family. Don\'t you want to see him pay for that?\" Narcissa asked.

\"That sound like a reason for you and Bellatrix, not me,\" Harry answered.

\"Oh, I see my sister and niece didn\'t tell you everything about my parents\' disappearance.\" Narcissa said, with a superior look on her face.

\"What are you talking about,\" Harry asked with unease.

\"When my parents\' boat disappeared, my father\'s two business partners and their wives were with them,\" Narcissa told him.

\"So?\" he anxiously asked.

\"My father\'s partners were Jonas McCray and Vincent Potter. Your grandparents were on that boat too, Harry,\" she informed him. Harry couldn\'t believe his ears. He knew his grandparents had died, but he had never asked how. Witches and wizards normally live to a ripe old age. Both his grandparents died in their late forties; he had always suspected Dark Wizards were involved.

\"I\'ll go talk to Dumbledore. Maybe the Order can do something about Malfoy,\" Harry told her.

\"Maybe won\'t be good enough, Harry. Lucius will try to act as soon as possible. His own ego won\'t let him live with our marriage for very long. He won\'t be able to stand the thought of me with another man,\" she said.

\"I thought Malfoy wanted us married?\" Harry asked.

\"He will still see me as his property. Property that you didn\'t pay for,\" she told him. \"He\'d rather I was dead than with someone else.\"

\"I want to see Malfoy pay for what he has done. But I just can\'t go kill him, that\'s what a Death Eater would do. There has to be a better way to handle this,\" Harry told her.

\"I\'m open to any suggestions,\" Narcissa pretentiously said.

\"We need to see what Dumbledore has to say before we do anything,\" Harry suggested.

\"Maybe it would be best if I handle this,\" Narcissa told him. \"After all, he is my ex-husband. Who knows him better than myself?\" Harry knew she wouldn\'t wait for help from the Order. He still didn\'t know this woman very well and feared that he probably would never get the chance. The coldness in her voice told him she was bent on getting revenge. Nothing he could say would stop her. He didn\'t want to see Narcissa get herself killed, even if that did release him from their marriage. She carried his child within her now; he wondered how that would affect his feelings about her once it had sunk in.

\"I need to get back to Hogwarts. I have tomorrows lesson\'s to revise for,\" he told her, after drinking the last of his juice.

\"Very well. I\'ll see you next Saturday, Harry,\" she said, as she began to look though her stack of parchments once again.

\"Saturday? Why Saturday? I thought we were done?\" he asked.

\"We have just started, Harry,\" Narcissa said in a calculating voice. \"I will expected you here at nine o\'clock next Saturday morning. You are married now, I will not have you neglecting your husbandly duties.\"

\"What husbandly duties?\" Harry asked.

\"Sex,\" she answered. \"I will not be neglected as I was with Lucius. Besides, as a young teenage wizard, you will need regular sexual release. Now that you\'re married, those teenage hussies back at that school are strictly off-limits,\" she warned. Even though she didn\'t say it, Harry had the feeling she might hex a piece of his anatomy off if she caught him with another girl.

\"Do you think you\'ll be safe here for the next week? Maybe an Order member should stay with you.\" Harry suggested, as he stood up.

\"I\'m quite safe inside the Manor, Harry. It has the strongest wards know. Not even Riddle could get through the gates if I didn\'t wish it. I\'m also an expert with a wand. The only one who has ever bested me was Bella when we were fifteen, and she only did it once,\" Narcissa informed him. Harry remembered how well Bellatrix fought with a wand. She defeated Tonks, Sirius, and Kingsley in one-on-one duels in the Death Chamber. She was even able to deflect Dumbledore\'s spell. If Narcissa was better than her sister, Harry would really have to watch himself around his new wife.

\"Well, goodbye then,\" Harry said, as he pulled his replacement wand out of his back pocket. Not knowing quite what to do next, Harry hesitated before quickly leaning down and giving Narcissa a peck on the cheek. She just looked up at him with a puzzled expression on her face. He snapped the wand in two before she could say anything.

Moments later, Harry stood in front of Hogwarts\' main gates. Several students were very surprised to see him appear out of thin air. Harry ignored the strange looks he was receiving and went through the gates. Minutes later, he entered the Gryffindor common room. To Harry, it felt so good to be home.

\"Harry,\" a voice called from behind him. Harry turned to see Ginny standing behind him with the strangest expression on her face. He was just about to ask her if something was wrong when Ginny stepped forward and placed both her hands on his shoulders. Without any warning, Ginny fired a hard knee into his groin. All the air in his lungs shot out his mouth and nostrils. Harry instinctively covered his crotch with both hands and slammed his knees together. As his eyes began to tear and his vision started to blur, he saw Ginny rear back with one of her arms and aim a fist at him. Just as he realized what she was going to do, Ginny threw the punch straight at his nose. Harry heard the sound of his glasses being crushed just before everything went black.

Twenty minutes later, Harry woke up in the infirmary with a broken nose, two black eyes, and a fire in his balls.

............................................................................................................

Just after lunch, Hermione made her way down the cobblestone path toward Hagrid\'s hut. She planned to milk as much information about Snape out of Hagrid as she could get. Getting information out of the half-giant was never too difficult. Hagrid also seemed to be the only one at Hogwarts, besides Dumbledore, who actually liked Professor Snape. Every time someone accused Snape of something evil, Hagrid was always quick to defend him.

Hermione knocked twice on the cabin\'s door; she heard Fang make a low wolf sound from inside. The oversized door swung open and Hagrid filled the doorway. \"Afternoon, Hermione. What can I do fer yeh?\" the half-giant asked with a smile.

\"Good afternoon, Hagrid. I was wondering if I could have a quick word with you?\" she politely asked.

\"Sure thin\'. Hermione. Step inside, I\'ll put onna kettle,\" Hagrid answered. Hermione followed him inside. The smell of cooked pheasants and ham filled her nostrils. A large steak of green dragon meat lay on top of his scrubbed wood table. The piece of meat had to more than three hundred pounds. \"Harry \'n\' Ron aren\'t with yeh?\" Hagrid asked, as he poured water into a kettle.

\"No, Harry\'s in the infirmary and Ron\'s with Ginny in McGonagall\'s office,\" she told him.

\"Harry\'s in the infirm\'ry? He hasn\' been attacked, has he?\" Hagrid asked, with a look of concern on his face.

\"No, he wasn\'t attacked - well, not really. Ginny just showed him her displeasure about his sudden overnight wedding,\" Hermione informed him.

\"Can\'t say I didn\' see that comin\'. Reminds me of the time Molly caught the fella she was seein\' with a Hufflepuff forth year. She put Edgar Bones in the infirm\'ry fer a week. He continued teh limp fer the rest o\' that year. I guess Harry\'s lucky little Ginny has some o\' her father\'s restraint,\" Hagrid said, as he placed the kettle over the small fire. \"So, Hermione, what can I do fer yeh today?\" Hagrid asked, as he sat down in his oversized chair.

\"I wanted to talk to you about Professor Snape. I\'m hoping to understand why he is the way he is. You\'ve known him since his first day at Hogwarts; I was wondering if you could tell me a little about him?\" Hermione asked with a slight nervousness to her voice.

\"Well, I\'ve known Professor Snape a lot longer than his firs\' year at Hogwarts. Matter o\' fact, I was standin\' not ten feet away when Tasha gave birth teh little Sever. I helped Pomfrey clean the little fella off. He may not say much now, but blimey did he have a set o\' lungs on him when he firs\' showed up,\" Hagrid told her with a smile.

\"Little Sever?\" Hermione asked.

\" Well, that\'s wha\' I use teh call him. That pompous bag o\' manure father o\' his didn\' see fit teh give his son a proper name,\" Hagrid said, with a touch of resentment. Hermione could tell there was bad blood between Hagrid and Snape\'s father.

\"You didn\'t care for Professor Snape\'s father?\" she asked.

\"No one did. I never met a more arrogant bastard in all me life. Max was abou\' as vile as they come. He treated ev\'ryone he met like a house-elf. Even Tasha, his own wife, weren\'t nothin\' but another servant teh him. That man single-handedly destroyed the Snapes\' good name. He left his only son teh live with the mess he created,\" Hagrid angrily said.

\"You knew the Snape family?\" Hermione asked.

\"O\' course. My father used teh work fer Samuel Snape, tha\'s the Professor\'s granddad. I myself was born on Thunder Island,\" Hagrid answered.

\"Thunder Island, what that?\" Hermione anxiously asked.

\"Thunder Island, tha\'s where Castle Redstone is. The ancestral home o\' the Snapes,\" Hagrid told her.

\"Redstone, I\'ve heard of that. It suppose to be older than Hogwarts,\" Hermione said.

\"Aye, she\'s Hogwarts\' mother. Ravenclaw designed Hogwarts after the home she grew up in,\" Hagrid said.

\"Ravenclaw was a Snape?\" Hermione asked in surprise.

\"Yes she was. And every Snape tha\' has ever come teh Hogwarts has always been in her house. With one exception, that is,\" Hagrid informed her.

\"Hagrid, do you know why Professor Snape ended up in Slytherin?\" Hermione asked.

\"It had a lot teh do with his father. Max had a way of gettin\' on people\'s bad sides. He was always like that. Even back at Hogwarts, he treated people like dirt, especially Tom \'n\' me. He thought the other three houses were jus\' places where servants and criminals were trained. He once told Tom that Slytherins were just a pack o\' thieves,\" Hagrid told her.

\"Tom? You mean Tom Riddle?\" Hermione fearfully asked.

\"Yeah, me \'n\' Tom was mates up \'til my third year. After that, Tom let that bloody prefect\'s badge go teh his head, then he started teh show his true colors. Suddenly, I weren\' a good enough friend, anymore. He preferred that group o\' Slytherin lowlifes that wouldn\' give him the time o\' day the first four years he was in was their house,\" Hagrid bitterly said.

\"Max Snape hated Volde... I mean Riddle?\" Hermione asked.

\"Max \'n\' Tom were always in competition with each other. Tom hated Max because he thought Max had all the breaks. He came from a rich, powerful wizard family and was considered a genius before he ever set foot in Hogwarts. Tom didn\' have anythin\' and had teh work very hard teh gain the professors\' respect. Every time Tom did somethin\' jus\' as well or better than Max, Max would always say it was Slytherin trickery,\" Hagrid told her. \"Wha\' really sent Tom over the edge was when Max was offered Head-Boy.\"

\"I thought Riddle was Head-Boy when he was at Hogwarts?\" Hermione asked, sounding confused.

\"Tha\'s because Max turned it down. Max said he didn\' want teh waste his time bein\' an unpaid employee fer the school. The arrogant bastard always reminded Tom that he was the Headmaster\'s secon\' choice. I sometimes wonder wha\' Tom would\'ve turned out like if Max hadn\' tormented him all those years,\" Hagrid said with a little regret in his voice.

\"What\'s this got to do with Snape ending up in Slytherin?\" Hermione impatiently asked.

\"When You-Know-Who firs\' started causin\' trouble, Dumbledore went around teh all the top wizards \'n\' witches askin\' fer help teh fight the Dark Wizard. At that time, we didn\' know who You-Know-Who was. Only a few joined Dumbledore\'s fight; they were the start o\' the Order,\" Hagrid said.

\"Did Max Snape join the Order?\" Hermione asked.

\"No. The bigheaded arse said Dark Wizards had nothin\' teh do with him. Max\'s true enemy was the Ministry. He was always fightin\' with them abou\' somethin\'. He once accused the Head Minister o\' bein\' a thief when the Ministry refused to enforce one o\' his potion patents. Only when Dumbledore discovered that You-Know-Who was Tom, did Max agree teh help the Order, if\'n you call it help,\" Hagrid told her. \"Wha\' he really did was use the Order as guinea pigs fer his potions. Max came up with some ingenious potions to help the Order fight You-Know-Who. But mos\' the time he forgot teh mention the side effects. His Invisibility Potion worked fer six hours but left you with boils fer a week. An\' his Strength Potion was so powerful that it wouldn\' wear off fer a month. A simple handshake usually ended up in a few broken bones.\"

\"If his potions were so bad, why did the Order use them?\" she asked.

\"\'cause they worked and the Order needed them. Max was the only Potions Master helpin\' the Order. We were desperate fer his help. Some o\' his potions were bloody brilliant. His Flies Life potion was a godsend. It would speed yer reflexes up so fas\' that everyone else seem teh move in slow-motion,\" Hagrid said.

\"Flies Life potion? I\'ve never heard of that,\" Hermione said.

\"That\'s \'cause Max was a selfish tosser. He kept all his potions formulas a secret. The paranoid arse was afraid someone else would take credit fer his work. When Max died, he took all his potions teh the grave with him. The Order took a lot o\' losses after that,\" Hagrid resentfully said.

\"How did he die? My marriage contract said he died the same day as his wife. Were they both together,\" Hermione asked.

\"Yeah, they died in an explosion together. Max was workin\' on a potion that would stop You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters right in their tracks. This potion was supposed teh make whoever took it immune form the Unforgivable Curses forever. Tasha was the only person Max trusted teh assist in his lab at Redstone; one night there was some kind o\' accident and the entire lab was destroyed. No one knows what really happened; the castle wards closed up tight as soon as Max died. Thunder Island vanished right out o\' the sea and has never been seen since. Luckily, little Sever was staying with his grandmother at the time or he would have been lost too\" Hagrid told her.

\"What does any of this have to do with Snape being a Slytherin?\" Hermione asked, trying to get Hagrid back on track.

\"Well, by the time o\' his death, Max\'s feud with the Ministry had gone from bad teh worse. He even stopped payin\' his taxes and told everyone the Ministry was so corrupt that it should jus\' be dissolved. After his mysterious death, the ministry began to attack Max\'s name. They said he was in league with You-Know-Who and was tryin\' teh raise an army teh overthrow the Ministry.

\"No one in the Order was a big fan of Max\'s, but we didn\' like what the Ministry was doin\'. Especially when they suggested that Tasha was also a Death Eater. Dumbledore wanted to clear Max and Tasha\'s names but he was afraid of givin\' away the Order. I thought he made the right decision, until little Sever showed up at Hogwarts.\"

\"What happened?\" Hermione anxiously asked.

\"Those were bad times, Hermione. In bad times even good people can do bad things,\" Hagrid sorrowfully told her. He let out a low sigh before continuing, \"Ever since he was five, little Sever always wore nothin\' but black. When he got on the Hogwarts Express for his firs\' year, he was black head to toe. Soon, there was a rumor on the train that the son of a famous Death Eater was on broad.

\"From what I was told, a group o\' students confronted Sever jus\' before the train reached Hogsmeade station. Yeh have teh remember, Hermione, tha\' some o\' those kids had lost one or both parents teh Death Eaters. James had lost his favorite uncle only a week earlier,\" Hagrid regretfully told her.

\"What did they do to him?\" she asked.

\"They accused him o\' bein\' a Death Eater. It didn\' help that he dressed the part. Sever denied it, o\' course, but they wanted proof. They wanted teh check him fer any signs of a Dark Mark. Sever didn\' want teh cooperate, so a fight broke out. At ten against one, Sever didn\' stand a chance. I didn\' know anythin\' had happen \'til I came up with an empty seat on a boat. There were supposed to be seventy-six new firs\' years and I only counted seventy-five. Every now and then a student will fall asleep on the train and not wake up. So I went back teh the train teh check.

\"After checking the train fer my missin\' firs\' year, I spotted somethin\' small and pink under one o\' the station\'s benches. It was little Sever, curled up in a ball; naked as the day he was born. It took some coachin\', but I finally got him teh come out from under the bench. He was soaking wet; I guess they decided he needed a swim in the lake. He wouldn\' tell what had happen teh him. When I asked where all his clothes and things were, he jus\' pointed towards the lake. A third year Hufflepuff girl, who was the last one off the train, lent me one o\' her nightshirt so that Sever would have somethin\' teh wear on the boat ride teh Hogwarts.

\"By the time I got him across the lake and into the Great Hall, the Sortin\' was over and the feast had already begun. Professor McGonagall had teh bring the Sortin\' Hat back out fer Sever. There he was, standin\' in front o\' the entire school, half soaked, wearin\' a girl\'s pink nightshirt with yellow daisies on it. It took Professor Dumbledore five minutes teh get all the students teh stop laughin\' at him. I don\' know what kind o\' hateful things were goin\' though his mind at the time, but McGonagall didn\' get the Sortin\' Hat within five feet o\' him before it shouted out Slytherin,\" Hagrid sadly said.

\"That sounds horrible. Did you ever catch who did that to him?\" Hermione asked, with a sympathetic look on her face.

\"Yeah, we did. They all admitted it,\" Hagrid answered. \"Yeh have teh remember, Hermione, everyone thought the Snapes were Dark Wizards. The only ones that knew different were the Order and the Death Eaters. Most o\' the school hated Sever fer bein\' somethin\' that he weren\'.\"

\"Sounds like he had it pretty bad when he was at Hogwarts,\" Hermione said.

\"Yeah, he spent a very lonesome seven years here, that\'s fer sure. Dumbledore \'n\' me tried teh keep an eye on him the best we could. He was a tough kid anyway, and he really did love it here; I think it reminded him o\' his home. And none o\' the other students treated him as bad as Max did, not even James \'n\' Sirius,\" Hagrid said to her.

\"Didn\'t he have any friends in Slytherin?\" she asked.

\"Nah, the Slytherins all thought he belonged in Ravenclaw. They said he was too much a bookworm teh be in Slytherin,\" Hagrid told her.

\"I can relate to that. People are always saying that I should have been in Ravenclaw,\" Hermione said.

\"Nonsense, I\'ve seen yeh teh do things Godric himself would have thought twice about. And the Professor is sneakier than Salazar ever hoped teh be,\" Hagrid said with a smile.

\"Hagrid, do you know why Professor Snape became a Death Eater?\" Hermione seriously asked.

\"I think that best come from the horse\'s mouth,\" Hagrid suggested.

\"I don\'t think it\'s a good idea for me to talk to Snape right now. Did you hear what happened yesterday morning between him and my parents?\"

\"O\' course, Professor McGonagall told the whole staff about it - three times. She said yer dad really laid one on him,\" Hagrid cheerfully said.

\"It was actually a three-way draw; no one really won. I just know it\'s almost impossible to talk to him without it turning into a fight of some kind,\" Hermione said.

\"The Professor can be a real pain in the arse at times. He\'s got a lot o\' his father in him, but he has his mother\'s heart. And I haven\' met a finer woman than Tasha. Not that that Troll-Slug she married ever noticed,\" Hagrid irritably stated. Hermione had the sneaky suspicion that Hagrid might have had a crush on Mrs. Snape. It would explain why he hated Snape\'s father so much.

............................................................................................................


Hermione continued to discuss Professor Snape with Hagrid for another hour. After choking down one of his rockcakes and two cups of tea, Hermione decided that she had gotten all the information about Snape that Hagrid had to offer. She politely said her goodbyes and headed back to the school.

On her way up the path, she went over what she had learned from Hagrid in her head. She knew Snape had had an unhappy childhood. She knew that already from Harry. The fact that he came from a long line of Ravenclaws, and even Rowena herself, was news. Hermione found it hard to picture Snape as anything but a Slytherin; he was even Head of Slytherin. Did what happen to him on his first trip to Hogwarts change him that much? Or was he always going to be a Slytherin? The more Hermione thought about what she had been told, the more questions she had.

As she reached the fork in the path that led to the Quidditch pitch, Hermione saw a lone figure carrying a broom approach. As soon as she recognized the blond Slytherin, she pulled out her wand. Draco seemed to be concentrating on the new Firebolt Two in his hands and didn\'t notice her until he was just ten feet away.

Finally taking his attention off the racing broom, Draco looked up and stopped in the middle of the path. A wicked smile crept its way across his face as he recognized her. \"Well, well, well. What do we have here? It\'s Potter\'s little Mudblood, out here all by herself,\" Draco evilly said to her.

\"Well, if it isn\'t Lucius Malfoy 2.0, perverted rapist wannabe,\" Hermione fired back. By the confused look on his face, she could tell the 2.0 crack was lost on him. \"Where\'s your goon squad, Malfoy? It\'s not like you to travel around without your shadows ready to protect your pompous arse,\" Hermione sarcastically asked.

\"They\'re in the dungeon cleaning my room. I just came out to give my brand new broom a try. How about you, Mudblood, care for a ride on my broom stick?\" Draco sardonically suggested.

\"I would rather perform the Killing Curse on myself than let a sick freak like you near me,\" Hermione said, with a disgusted look on her face.

Draco just smiled and said, \"That\'s too bad, because I really do like Mudblood virgin pussy. Especially the scream you Mudbloods let out as I force my way in. It\'s a shame that you\'re only good for one fuck. After I finished with the last one, I couldn\'t even give her away to Crabbe and Goyle.\"

With fury in her eyes, Hermione tightened her hand around her wand. She couldn\'t believe Draco would dare throw Pansy in her face. \"You will pay for what did to her, Malfoy. No matter how long it takes, you will pay!\" Hermione angrily stated.

\"You should be more concerned about what I\'m going to do to you, Mudblood,\" Draco threatened. \"What I did to that piece of shit imposter will seem like a picnic in comparison.\" Hermione couldn\'t believe the arrogant little shithead would threaten her here, right out in the open. She quickly looked around and noticed that no one was in sight. Anything could happen and no one would hear or see a thing. A huge sinful smile appeared on her face. \"What\'s so funny, Mudblood?\" Draco asked, with a puzzled look on his face.

\"What we have here, Draco, is a glass half empty-half full situation. It\'s half empty for you, because you left Dumb and Dumber back in the dungeon. It\'s half full for me, because my friends aren\'t here to stop me from kicking your arse,\" Hermione said, with an evil smirk on her face.

\"And what makes you think that a filthy Mudblood such as yourself could ever take me?\" Draco mockingly asked.

\"It\'s very simple, stupid. We had a nice chat with your mother last night. She told us your limp dick father was shit with a wand. And since you\'re only half the man he is, you\'re probably double-shit with yours,\" Hermione informed him with a smile.

\"SHUT YOUR FILTHY MOUTH, YOU MUDBLOOD WHORE!\" Draco angrily spat, as he took two menacing steps towards her.

Hermione pointed her wand at his chest and he stopped. \"How moronic of you, Draco. Bringing a broom to a wand fight,\" Hermione said, as she kept her wand trained on him. Draco looked down at the broom in his hands. \"I\'d be willing to bet that you stuck your wand deep inside your Quidditch boot, like an idiot, before you came down her. Am I right?\"

Hermione knew she was correct as soon as he looked nervously down at his feet. \"You really are too stupid to be a Slytherin; you know that, Malfoy,\" she disrespectfully told him. \"They should start a fifth house for fuck-ups like you. It should be called Malfoy House and have a horse\'s arse as a mascot.\"

\"YOU BITCH!!\" Draco shouted, then raised his broom in the air like a club.

Hermione quickly pointed her wand at the center of the broom and shouted, \"Totalus Scalpi.\" The severing hex cut the broom in half. The back half of the broom fell over and landed on Draco\'s head. He staggered backward a couple of steps and placed his left hand on top of his head. Draco looked in amazement at the front half of his broom he still held. He began to tremble with rage. \"THAT WAS A FIFTEEN HUNDRED GALLEON BROOM, YOU CUNT!!!\" he shouted at her.

\"YOU CAN BILL ME, DICKHEAD!\" Hermione shouted back.

\"AAAAHHHHH!!!\" Draco screamed, as her charged her.

Hermione took direct aim at the charging Slytherin and yelled, \"Magnitudo Descresci.\" The orange blast of light from her wand tip knocked Draco off his feet. He quickly got back up and said, \"Is that the best you got, bitch; I barely felt it,\" Draco angrily shrieked at her.

\"It wasn\'t meant to hurt, dumb-ass. Let\'s just say it will broaden your perspective of the world around you,\" Hermione cruelly told him. Suddenly, Draco began to quiver; his body began to shrink inside his own clothes. Within seconds, he was reduced to the size of a house-elf.

\"What did you do to me?\" Draco screamed in a very high-pitched cartoon voice.

\"It\'s a shrinking spell I invented,\" she answered. \"It still needs more work. You should have started shrinking right away.\"

\"You filthy Mudblood bitch!\" Draco squeaked at her. He then began to dig through his ridiculously oversized clothes, apparently trying to reach the wand in his boot.

Hermione raced over to Draco and picked him up by the back of his collar. As soon as she lifted him in the air, he began to thrash about, clawing at her with his wee hands. Both his boots stayed on the ground where he had stood. Hermione threw the Mini-Draco over her shoulder and then bent down and picked up the front half of his broom. \"I\'m going to do what your mother should have done a long time ago,\" Hermione forcefully stated, as she walked over to a large rock. She sat down on the rock and pulled the struggling blond munchkin off her shoulder. She then forced him over her knee, Draco continue to squeak obscenities at her. Keeping one hand on the back of his neck, she used the other to pull both his oversized trousers and underwear down to his knees. Hermione picked the broom handle back up and took aim on his perfectly white little cheeks. With as much force as she could muster, Hermione began to wale on Mini-Draco\'s virgin arse.

Draco\'s obscenities were quickly replaced by cries of pain. For a full minute, she hammered away at his butt. She only stopped when her arm was too tired to swing anymore. Draco had been reduced to a sobbing toddler. Hermione looked at his bright red arse. She just wished there was a way to make this more permanent. She decided to flip him the other way so she could use her fresh arm. \"Time for round two, Dirtbag!\" Hermione said, as she raised the broom handle in her opposite hand.

\"Miss Granger, what on earth do you think you\'re doing?\" came an angry voice from behind her. Hermione turned to see the irate face of Professor McGonagall standing there.

\"Aaahhh bullocks,\" Hermione said in frustration.

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Next chapter coming some.


Thank you for reading. Now please review.

It has always bothered me that his parents left nothing for his care. I really think the Dursleys got something to help raise Harry.


Here\'s another question for my readers. What should Harry do about the Dursleys cheating him? Should he find away to get them back or just forget about the whole thing?