The Rules of the Game

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Black_silken_kitty, who has been helping me and getting me to keep writing.

****************

Chapter 8
*****

Ever since that day when I lost control I caught Malfoy continuously observing me at random times and regretted not having obliviated his mind that day. It would be too obvious to do so now, I could of course still erase that day but his memories from that day were now entwined with his watching and other thoughts that he has been doing since then. If I was to erase it all it would be too obvious to him and inevitably he would seek help and arise more suspicion on me than I need.

But as time continued it was apparent that he would do nothing else on the matter so I let him be.

Draco wasn\'t the only one observing people though. I knew that these were the people that I would be \'betraying\' and facing later. Though how it could be betrayal when I never was on their side to begin with was beyond me. I would never be the golden boy that they wanted me to be; I lost the capacity to fill that roll a long time ago. And though I was able to remove myself from the memories of what went on at \'home\' to better deceive them, I would never forget. I would never suddenly believe that the world is good, and that those stronger are there to protect the weaker. Humans and their stupid ideals, even the stupidest of animals have figured out that it is the strong who should survive. It is a simple fact necessary for the survival of all species in this world and yet the majority of our population refuses to acknowledge it. In time it will mean the destruction of this entire planet, I just hope I\'ll be dead before it happens.

So over the first few days I observed the other students and found myself almost jealous of their carefree and naive ways. They were so caught up in their Quidditch teams, new prank items, and other frivolous things that it made me grit my teeth and want to get away from them even more. Were they that clueless, did they believe the world to be such a forgiving place? But it didn\'t matter, I knew better, and I wasn\'t about to waist my time on such things.

Most of the school\'s population had finally gotten the idea that I wanted to be left alone and had stopped coming up to me trying to talk; but I found Ronald Weasley with his gang of Gryffindors to be the most annoying. Weasley was the most idiotic, jealous, and bigoted person I had ever met. It seemed every time we met in the hall he attempted to be friendly and polite (a brief scan of his memories revealed that this was upon Dumbledore\'s orders) but after talking to me for two minutes he would always loose his temper. Then I would just watch amused as he would storm off, or even better, attempt to hex me and make an utter fool of himself. The Hermione Granger girl I saw often in the library, she had potential (for a Gryffindor) and I could sense that we would be able to work well together, the problem was the Gryffindor nosiness that was strongly ingrained in her as well as this annoying perception of right and wrong. More than anything I didn\'t want to have people nagging me, trying to do what they believed was best or right. A couple comments had already been made to me about how little I ate, if I ate at all, and it was enough to impress the decision that friends were simply bothersome.

Gradually Draco and I reached some sort of agreement though and he became the only student I would exchange any sort of conversation with. When this started once again Weasley sprouted off stuff about how I shouldn\'t hang with such traitorous trash, the \'conversation\' ended with him needing to go the hospital wing without a clue why he was covered in tentacles and boils.

The relationship that I had with Draco could barely be considered one of friendship (not that I knew what that was). Besides the fact that I wanted no friends, we didn\'t hang out together but everyone once and awhile we would sit in a class or at lunch (which was now the only meal I attended) and have a conversation or do homework near each other. Usually it was just Draco discussing some matter about some students, giving me all the secrets and insight to the others I needed, but every once and a while he would pull me into a debate about something in one of our classes. As far as I was aware, all Draco knew was that I was a bit above average in power and that the classes were fairly easy for me. He attributed this to all the time I spent studying, and I didn\'t enlighten him to the fact that I was actually studying fourth and fifth year material.

Since I already knew how to do everything in the classes I finished the homework quickly and then read one of the many books in the library. Often I would just end up reading the books in class as well (except potions) and though the teachers tried to catch me unprepared they never succeeded.

I had managed to break into the restricted section in the library by the third night, the wards and charms on the books were similar to the anti-theft charms on the books I had stolen so it didn\'t take long to get past them. I would take a few chosen books off the shelf in the middle of night and take them off somewhere to read. I was finding passageways all over the school because of my sensitivity to magic. I would just be walking down a hall and feel a cluster of magic on a wall or statue. After prodding the place I would be able to unravel and see how to access the area; it made getting to classes very easy. But during one of my random stops to seemingly stare at a wall Draco questioned if I was all right and after cursing myself but saying nothing decided I would have to ignore the areas until I could come back and examine them alone.

As I thought about it, it was a good thing that I had never gotten much sleep and my body was used to it. With all the reading, practicing my magic and searching the halls at night I rarely got more than 5 hours of sleep. But overall things were settling into a good routine, the only ones I felt I had to watch out for were Snape and Quirrell; Snape because he knew too much, and Quirrell... just felt weird. With all the people around I had had to put more shields up to prevent me from picking up on other\'s emotions, there were just some things I really didn\'t want to be picking up surrounded by hormonal teenagers, but with Quirrell I still felt something strange when I was near him.

*****

I had only been in this new world for a week when I was dragged into one of the wizarding pass-times that I felt wasteful, I would have avoided it but this one was mandatory. We were to be getting flying lessons, why it was necessary to learn to fly on a freakn\' broom when there were plenty of other modes of transportation that were much quicker was beyond my comprehension. So it was reluctantly that I was outside in front of the school, where it was an annoyingly cheery day, but worst of all was that I got to spend this \'joyful\' time with the Gryffindors.

As we were waiting for the illustrious Madam Hooch, I pretended to listen as a first year Gryffindor girl, Lavender or something, flirted with me as she prattled on about her brother\'s flying ability. I continued my façade of giving a fuck while I pictured using this dark curse I had read about the other night where all the bones in someone\'s hand continue to break until the hand is just a mutilated mass, I was sure this girls voice would not be so nearly annoying then.

\"Hey brat, beat it.\" I heard a voice say and looked up to see Draco without his goons glaring at the girl.

\"You\'d best go, you don\'t want to get on his bad side.\" I whispered to the girl making a show of it. She gave me a flirtatious smile, before giving Draco another weary look and scurrying off.

\"Well that has to be the first time that you did something to encourage these little talks between us.\" He said softly as we stared over to the other children that were waiting impatiently for the lessons to start.

\"We couldn\'t have Ms. Brown unable to use a wand now could we?\" I told him cryptically in a dead voice. He turned to me confused for a second and then saw a smirk grow on his face.

\"So does that mean you owe me for getting rid of her?\" He asked, traces of hope evident in his voice.

\"No.\" I said plainly and walked over to the rest of the class, seeing as how the instructor had arrived.


\"Welcome to class children, today we\'re going to learn the art of flying.\" I tried to restrain my annoyance at the fact that this was wasting time that I could be using to continue my research on spells that should be illegal but aren\'t. It seemed that everyone around me was excited about the prospect of flying, except for me, Granger and Longbottom. When the time came to begin our pathetic attempts, to my surprise the broom jumped eagerly to my hand. After more instructions the class rose up to a few feet above the ground and once satisfied that we could all handle it to some extent Madam Hooch allowed for a few of us to \'get a better feel for it.\' I was about to land but Draco told me that I\'d have to stay out here anyway, so why not stay in the air. Truthfully the feeling of flying wasn\'t as aggravating as I had previously anticipated it to be. There was a sense of freedom, relaxation, and danger that intrigued me. Though I could see eliciting pleasure from this, the fact remained that this would get me nowhere; it did nothing to improve my knowledge or power so what was the point? I had wandered away from everyone a bit when I heard a commotion and glanced back to see Draco and Weasley in the air shouting at each other. I over heard bits from Draco about how Wealey should watch where he was going and that it was clear he didn\'t know how to fly, because he probably couldn\'t afford a broom. I smirked, not so much at the insult (average really) but at the color of Weasley\'s face, who knew one could get so red.

A response of \'fuck you Malfoy,\' came from Weasley before he carelessly shot forward to punch Malfoy in the face. It was so unexpected (mainly because it would only take a complete idiot to do such a thing) that none of the goons could do anything and Draco only had time to lean back enough out of the way that the hit would miss him. Or at least it would have if Weasley had any control over a broom but he lost it mid punch and his broom went berserk. Evidently a broom can have more success than a Weasley because in a flash it slammed into Draco\'s chest and with another wild jerk smacked him across the face throwing his body to the side where Draco just managed to grab hold of his broom and stay on it. Still out of control Wealey shot towards the ground, most likely about to crash into it, but it was something near Malfoy that had my intention. Though my eyes couldn\'t clearly see the small thing, my magic told me exactly what it was.

~flashback~

\"Harry, how many rat spleens for the shrinking potion again?\"

\"One, Draco.\" I said absentmindedly but glanced up at the boy across from me finishing his essay. As he leaned over the table again something slipped out from beneath his shirt, displaying an intricately designed snake. The interesting part though was that it was glass and had a swirling liquid inside. I stared at it for a moment, curious, until I heard someone clear their throat. For a second I was back at Privet Drive, cleaning the dishes when a throat clears behind me, the only warning to what will come...

\"Severus gave it to me for my birthday. I\'ve had it for years, it\'s sort of like a good luck charm now I guess. Inside is evidently the most powerful healing potion in existence, just incase you know?... it means everything to me,\" I gave a nod of acknowledgement, while I hid the pain of my memories, along with the fact that I had never received a gift before.

~end flashback~

Before my mind had fully come to the decision I had gone flat to my broom and shot forward towards the falling object. My mind narrowed down to that one thing, it did not register the people around me as anything more than obstacles that I shot by, nor the voices screaming around me, it also didn\'t register the ground. It wasn\'t until my hand clutched gently around the delicate figure that I realized I was going about 50 mph and was about 20 feet from the ground. Grabbing the handle of my broom with my free hand I jerked backwards, pulling up with all my strength and leveled enough to skim gently along the grass.

\"Fucking Weasel.\" I mumbled to myself as I pulled my broom to a stop and shakily stepped off, my muscles protesting against the sudden strain I had put them through. I opened my hand to make sure that the little snake was fine right as a shift in air alerted me to company (thankfully only Draco).

\"Bloody hell, Harry. Why didn\'t you tell me you could fly like that?\" Draco asked with a weird look in his eyes.

\"Like what? And this was my first time flying so how would I possibly know if I could or not? Here, take care of this better if it is so precious to you.\" I told him and walked away, once again ignoring the looks and whispers, not caring about the fact that we hadn\'t been dismissed yet, I was through with that crap.

***

It wasn\'t until later that night while doing homework when I was surrounded by Draco, Marcus Flint, Draco\'s goons and a few others whose names I hadn\'t bothered to catch yet.

\"Potter, Draco here says that you\'re an amazing flyer. He has talked to Professor Snape and it has been decided that you will be allowed on our team to be seeker... if you prove yourself to the rest of the team.\" He said with a sneer, clearly saying what he thought of the chance of that.

\"Don\'t bother yourself, I\'m not joining your team.\" I told them and turned my attention back to my work.

\"What! Harry, you\'re a natural, with your skills we would win for sure.\" Draco argued.

\"Thanks, but as I said, I\'m not interested.\"

\"But Harry...\"

\"Enough.\" I growled standing up and grabbing my book and work. \"I\'ve made my decision, I\'m not going to waist my time on some stupid game played on brooms.\" I could see and feel that most of the people around me were pissed about my statement but I ignored them and pushed past them and out the common room, hoping to find privacy somewhere else.

***

Over the next couple of days Draco seemed torn between being pissed at me for my refusal and comments about Quidditch, and being grateful for what I did. I remained indifferent to him as always but it was pretty amusing, or it was until he brought a new factor into it.

***

\"Potter, stay after class, we have something to discuss.\"

I glanced up from cleaning my potion station confused at what it was that Snape wanted. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Draco looking back at me as well and narrowed my eyes at him, *that bastard.* I thought with a growl, dragging my tongue along my teeth, using the slight pain to suppress my anger.

When the class cleared I walked to the front of the room and waited until the professor had shut the door and returned to facing me.

\"Draco came to me and told me that you refused to join the team.\"

I remained silent. It wasn\'t a question in the first place, and I was still upset that Draco would go to Snape in an attempt to get me to join the team. Seeing that I wasn\'t going to say something like a stupid Gryffindor, he continued.

\"Are you going to explain yourself?\"

\"I don\'t see what there is to explain, I\'m simply uninterested.\" I said uncaringly.

\"Why? From what Draco says you\'re a natural, and the team needs someone like you. We have kept the cup from the Gyffindors for a few years now and I would like for that to continue.\"

\"Quidditch is pointless, so for the last time, I\'m not interested.\" I told him and gathered my bag again to leave.

\"Then what does interest you?... You are average at all your classes and yet everyone knows that if they wish to find you you\'ll either be in the library, or the common room studying. You\'re always working with books and finish your homework faster than anyone, though that is usually not beyond average either. What are you doing with all those books?\"

\"I guess I just have to work hard because I\'m so feeble minded.\"

\"Do you always avoid questions?\"

\"Only those I don\'t have an interest in answering... and those that are aggravating or imprudent.\" I added with a smirk.

\"So you are looking for power?\"

\"Why would I be after power professor? I\'m a Slytherin.\" I asked sarcastically

\"And you think that Quidditch will take away from your time researching.\"

I didn\'t answer him but kept my gaze steady, no emotion evident on my face.

\"If you wish to be powerful it isn\'t just your mind that you need to hone, but your body as well... Quidditch can be your tool to do that.\"

I hadn\'t thought of that. I had always been relatively in shape, and continued the training that I had learned from my sensei in school when I had the chance. But perhaps I could use this to obtain more physical strength and endurance that I would need in the future. Bloody convincing wanker.

\"Fine. Practices?\"

\"Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, 4-7.\"

\"Done.\" I told him and walked out, trying to ignore the smirk I could feel behind me.

*********

A/N: That\'s all hope you enjoyed it, please review and all that.