Changing Ideals

Body



Disclaimer: I don\'t own these character, but I do own this particular story. That means I can make it slash...or an alien abducted me and now I\'m carrying their child story if I want to. Not that I\'m going to make this an alien abduction story, cause I\'m most definitely not going to.

Chapter 9: Punishments Dealt and Visions That Serve a Purpose

Sitting or standing in the common room, the Slytherins awaited their punishment from their Head of House, Severus. They truly didn\'t think it was fair that they were being punished, nothing would have happened if the Weasley\'s had not done what they did. They were only defending their pride, it had been brought down a notch or two when they were defaced like that in the Great Hall for the students and teachers to see.

\"I must say that I am highly proud and disappointed in you at the same time. I am very proud of you for defending your fellow Slytherins. That is something I must commend you on. However, I am disappointed because you all acted like a bunch of idiotic Gryffindors. This behavior is not suitable for any of my Slytherins, bar Harry because he\'s just getting into the Slytherin way. I expect better from you! You should have retaliated with a well thought out plan, away from the prying eyes of authority figures. If you had, I would not have to punish you now,\" Severus stated.

\"Now, your punishment is not nearly as bad as any of the other Houses. This is due to the fact that you did not start the altercation. The Weasley\'s did, but you should have known better. The other three houses are receiving a more severe punishment for not staying out of the fight. The three Weasley\'s have to serve the Gryffindor punishment and their own punishment as well. Your punishment will consist of various different things. I have paired you all up by year and level of difficulty. The higher year you have, the more difficult and time consuming your punishment will be. I will post the punishments on the board and I expect everyone to do them. If you don\'t, not only will youe toe to do the punishment later, alone, you\'ll have extra punishment on top of what you already had. If I could talk to the fifth year Slytherins, I\'ll tell them their punishment myself.\"

Walking over to Severus, the fifth years got ready to hear what it was they had to do. They could only pray that it wasn\'t too hard. \"Now, fifth years, since you were the first ones to jump into the fray, you\'ll be the most heavily punished group. Your punishment is to go into the Forbidden Forest and collect potion ingredients. Now, you n\'t \'t worry. You will all stay together and myself and Hagrid will be nearby at all times. I have a list for each of you and I expect to see you all down in the common room and ready come tomorrow evening. That means, don\'t make any plans and cancel any you might have. That\'s all, dismissed.\" Grumbling about how unfair it all was, the Slytherins made their way up to their dormitories to go to bed.

Well, I guess this means that I won\'t be having the chat with Dean this Saturday evening after all. Oh well, I didn\'t really want to. It will give me more time to observe his behaviors and see if he was being truthful. Damn, I almost forgot. I hope that the rest of the Heads of House and the Headmaster get back to me for permission to do my study group by tomorrow sometime. If they don\'t, then I\'ll have to spread word that Sunday\'s session is canceled. I\'ve already got Severus and Madame Pince\'s permission. Oh well, I\'m sure I\'ll get it.

Closing his eyes, Harry went to sleep, hoping for a nice dreamless sleep. If only he were that lucky. Shortly after falling asleep, Harry found himself in a splendid manor. He didn\'t have a clue as to where he was and he was sure this couldn\'t be a Voldemort related dream because his scar was not bothering him in the least. Maybe it was some type of vision. He could only hope that it wasn\'t a bad vision, he\'d like to get some sleep tomorrow because he\'d have a very busy day ahead of him trow.row. Pulling himself out of his thought, Harry started his journey through the manor. Noticing paintings on the wall, Harry made his way over. Maybe the pictures could give him some sort of clue as to where he was. The first thing he noticed was the strikingly familiar white-blonde hair on aristocratic features, giving away immediately where he had to be. He had to be in Malfoy Manor. Why did his visions always seem to revolve around the eldest Malfoy?

Making his way into what appeared to be a study, Harry saw Malfoy. He was swirling an alcoholic beverage around in some sort of tumbler or another type of glass, Harry wasn\'t too sure about that. He seemed to be in a daze, just staring into the fire. Just when he was starting to doubt the relevance of this vision, somebody tumbled out of the fthatthat had just flared a vibrant green, indicating a person traveling by Floo powder.

\"Ah, Severusow pow pleasant to see you again. How are things at Hogwarts? That dratted Potter boy being a nuisance? I hear that he\'s in Slytherin now,\" drawled Lucius, smirking victoriously at the annoyed look Severus gave him.

\"You could have warned me about the new safety measures you have put on people traveling by Floo to your manor. I don\'t fancy falling, in an unceremonious heap, on to people\'s floors. If I had known that the new wards would make me do just that, I would have apparated. Damn the mile I would have had to walk to actually get into your home. At least then I could have still entered in a dignified manner,\" came Severus\' indignant reply.

\"Well, while this is all well and good, I am rather anxious to hear your replies to my inquiries. If you don\'t mind, Sev,\" Lucius said as he handed a glass of liquor to his guest.

\"Ahll, ll, Draco is doing rather well. He and Harry have become quite good friends. I\'ll have you know that Harry is quite the little Slytherin. It\'s almost as if he was never in Gryffindor. I was amazed at how quickly he made the transition and how quickly he made friends with the Slytherins. You know how they don\'t trust anyone outside of Slytherin and although he had been in Gryffindor, they trust him. Sure, he\'s still friends with the know-it-all Granger and the four Weasleys, but the majority of his time is now spent with other Slytherins and the occasional Ravenclaw. It took a good deal of apologizing on Ron\'s part to get Harry to even speak civilly to him, let alone be friends with him again. I also think that he is on speaking terms with the rest of the Gryffindors now. And while the Hufflepuffs aren\'t openly hostile any longer, they still don\'t speak with Harry. Not that it bothers him any. I don\'t think he ever really had any friends from there.\"

\"Ah, well that\'s good. I was...\" Lucius was cut off in the middle of his sentence when his doors were blasted open. \"How the hell did anyone manage to get through my wards without activating my alarms?!\"

About twenty Death Eaters stormed into the room he and Severus were in with their wands drawn. They never stood a chance as they were quickly bound and brought before Voldemort.

\"Did you honestly think I wouldn\'t find out? SPIES! THE BOTH OF YOU! EVEN YOUR SON! No, I most definitely found out. You will pay for your transgressions against me, and you will pay dearly. First I\'ll torture you, then I\'ll bring your family and friends in and torture them before your eyes. By the time I\'m done with them, you\'ll be begging me to kill you so you won\'t have to watch any more. But your pleas will fall on deaf ears, I\'ll kill them first! Then I\'ll kill Draco, I know how much he means to both of you, then and only then will I grant you release. I\'ll kill you then!\" Maniacal laughter met Harry\'s ears before he bolted upright in bed.

Oh my. That had to have been a vision of the future. I\'m not that good of friends with Draco
yet, and I\'m definitely not friends with Ron or any other Gryffindor, besides Hermione. I think I had better get up and tell somebody. Wait, it\'s only 1:30 a.m. Maybe I should wait. I\'ll write it down first, then I\'ll tell Severus tomorrow. Hopefully I get to him before our meeting with the rest of the Slytherins. With that thought in mind, Harry got up and gathered the needed items to write out his letter. After he finished, he put it in the top of his trunk and laid down to try to get more sleep.

Sunlight was peeking through his bed hangings causing Harry to open his eyes. He was greeted by the sight of a grinning Draco, who laughed at the indignant look Harry gave him. Startled, Harry asked what the time was and nearly had heart failure when he heard there was only one hour before the meeting was suppose to start. Launching out of bed, Harry gathered a fresh pair of clothing and his shower supplies and was finished getting ready in record time. Grabbing his letter to Severus, Harry quickly headed to the room their meeting was to be held. Luckily, he still had forty-five minutes before it was suppose to start. He could only pray that Severus was there already.

Vaulting into the room, Harry was met with an amused glance from the man he was hoping to see. Not waiting for the man to say anything, and not giving an explanation, Harry thrust the letter into the man\'s hands, startling him out of his amused thoughts. He watched as the relaxed face became drawn in worry and anger and as blazing, obsidian eyes met his.

\"Your sure? Absolutely positive that this is what you saw?\" Receiving a positive head shake, Severus started to stalk out of the room. \"Oh, please tell the others that, unfortunately, I will not be able to attend this little meeting. Something of the utmost importance has came up and I expect them to be able to act accordingly and to be able to handle this without me.\" Not bothering to wait for a reply, he swiftly left the room, robes billowing out dramatically before him.

Damn, he\'s kind of sexy when he looks amused. Oh hell no! I did not just think that! I mean, I\'m straight, aren\'t I? I liked Cho last year. Analyzing these thoughts, Harry realized that he had only beetractracted to Cho because he viewed her as a worthy Quidditch opponent. His attraction was no longer there. Hmm, guess I\'m not as straight as I thought.

Harry was jolted out of his thoughts by the entrance of the rest of the Slytherin fifth years: Blaise, Draco, Greg, Millicent, Pansy, and Vince. Smiling up at them, he told them of Severus\' absence and how it was of the utmost importance that they be mature enough to hold this meeting without him. They wouldn\'t want to disappoint him so soon again.

As everyone sat at the table, food started to appear and the students had to thank the house elves for not skimping out on them. About every breakfast food was on the table. They had toast, pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, French toast, and other various mouth watering entrees. To drink, there was milk and a variety of different juices. Not wasting any time, everyone dug into their meals.

\"Well, I have to say that there actually isn\'t all that much I want to know. In just two days you have managed to prove, to all of us here, that you are truly Slytherin material. I\'m just astounded that you made it for all those years in Gryffindor. I think that we should actually spend this time coming up with ways to retaliate against the Weasleys. Ways that won\'t be traced back to us,\" came Greg\'s intelligent reply.

\"I agree with Greg on this. We\'ve all already accepted you. If we hadn\'t, then we wouldn\'t have stood up for you in the Great Hall the other day. Even the rest of the Slytherins sided with you. There really is no more that needs to be said. Anything that you want us to know about yourself, you will tell us when you\'re ready. Besides, I figure you\'ll tell us individually what you want us to know, not as a group,\" Vince said.

Receiving similar comments from the remaining four Slytherins, Harry smiled. He was accepted, truly accepted for who he was, not what his status was. He had never felt more understood and a part of something as he did now. Getting to work, Harry and the rest of the Slytherins spent until lunch coming up with a good enough plan to get back at the pranksters. It was full proof, there was no way that it could possibly be traced back to them. Smiling sinisterly at each other, the conspirators went on their own separate ways.

TBC

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Myk