A Darker Form of Magic

"There cannot be seven hundred ways of committing a foul in this damn game," Harry cursed disbelievingly, as he, Theo, and Blaise sat on one of the couches in the Slytherin common room, the cold making it far too chilled to be outside anymore. But Theo only nodded as he flipped through Quidditch Through the Ages . The smaller boy groaned and flopped his head into his hands. "You have got to be shitting me."

"You learn quickly that it's best not to question Draco when it comes to obscure Quidditch facts," Blaise said, earning himself a glare from the boy flush against his side.

November had continued on, bringing the cold with it as it did. The lake had chilled into something resembling muggle steel, driving fish and the such down into its depths. The boys had seen the squid more times in the last week or so than in the past three months prior due to this change. Every morning that the school grounds were painted with frost, the older Slytherins took turns casting warming charms every morning on those that had to go outside during the early morning classes for Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology, and teaching the younger snakes how to cast them themselves on Fridays.

With the cold came the official start of the Quidditch season, and the Gryffindor - Slytherin game that was set for early Friday morning. The main reason that the three had gotten roped into reading the damned book on the sport by their blond friends was because Harry had no idea as to why the school would willingly choose to base it school around a sport, going as far as to leave Fridays devoid of classes.

Though Theo and Blaise had known more about the sport than Harry had, the blond Slytherin had been aghast to hear that none of them had read Quidditch Through the Ages and had say the trio down on the couch with the book, forcing them to read it in the posh Malfoy voice of his that sounding oddly like a scolding mother.

"The referees turned up months later after going missing in the Sahar desert of all places," Theo read, his academic mind causing him to have far too much fun with all of this as the other two listened to him quietly summarize.

Harry looked at the other boy with an unabashedly perplexed expression, something that the smaller Slytherin was still learning that he was allowed to so openly express if he wished. "How the absolute fuck does someone go missing in the middle of a sporting match that they're apart of?"

The smallest Slytherin looked between both boys but only groaned once he saw that neither of them had an answer for him. Blasie just patted Harry's knee in a silent shoe of support - or a preemptive farewell - as they listened to Theo tell the pair of all of the horrific ways that the younger seeker could potentially get hurt, some of them would damaging the black haired in a way that even he hadn't been before.

If it was possible, Harry would think that the other Slytherin wanted him to play even less than Harry himself did at the moment. But Blaise has always been a tricky one for the Slytherin boy to read so he didn't put much stock into the idea.

The fire burned well into the night and in the morning Harry was drug by an exatable Draco down to the Great Hall at a time that the smaller Slytherin didn't fully believe was even appropriate to call dawn yet.

"Remind me to kill you for this later. Please," the dozing boy growled as he shook off the other's grip. Draco at least had the decency to look slightly concerned.

Food was shoved onto a plate in front of the seeker and after a pointed look from Blasie, Harry attempted to eat most of it. Though he was eating a lot more than he had at the start of the year, Harry knew that it was still less than all of the others his age.

He decided to let the other boy worry about that for him though at the moment, the other Slytherin already did anyways.

"Well, if it isn't the little sneaky seeker," a voice said from Harry's left, already too mischievous for so early in the bloody morning.

"You sure you don't want to transfer to Gryffindor?" An almost identical voice asked from the younger boy's right, drawing closer.

"Be a lot better than bloody Cormac McLaggen."

"Annoying."

"Arrogant."

"Stupid."

"Boarish."

"Vile."

"Sounds like your typical Gryffindor," Blasie cut sharply into the back and forth between the twins as Draco snickered. Even though the blond tolerated the pair of Weasleys, Harry could always tell that he got a sense of satisfaction from times like this, no matter how rare they were.

Harry kept his face blank as he looked at the dark skinned boy, genuinely confused as to why the other was speaking with the twins in such a way. He knew that they hadn't interacted much, but the last time hadn't been unpleasant for anyone but Ron who had gotten that blasted Howler.

"Sorry Fred, George," the Slytherin said, looking at each twin in turn, "but green really is a much better color in me. I think that I would lose brain cells just from stepping into the Gryffindor common room, so I'll be sticking with Slytherin." Harry smirked as the twins' mock expressions of insult, though he figured that they probably knew that their house shared one brain cell. Hell, they most definitely knew it the best since the two seemed to steal it away the most for pranks and the like. "See you lot at the game," Harry said to the other two Slytherins before walking out to the pitch to get changed early.

The air hadn't warmed much by the time that the result of the Slytherins had finished changing out, sans Higgs who hadn't been able to keep high enough grades to be allowed to stay on after all. Warrington glared at Harry from across the changing room, but the slight boy only stared back, a harsh look in his eyes they spoke of violence to anyone that thought it wise to touch him; housemate or not.

"Save that energy for our opponents," Gemma chided as she looked between the two scarred boys. Harry just nodded at the prefect and tried his attention to where Flint had moved to the center of the room, broom raised high in his hand.

"The Gryffindors expect us to lose," the older boy said, scowling as if the idea alone was completely absurd. "Let's go out there and uphold our tradition of disappointing and pissing off all of the other houses or else the next practice I'll have you lot running laps instead of flying them." More than one Slytherin shivered at the threat, knowing that the captain would do just that if they really were to lose. "Harry," Flint called out, drawing all of the attention to the team's youngest member, "no one wants to freeze their asses of today. Let's make this game a quick one."

Harry brought two fingers to his brow in a kick salute and stood, broom in hand, the older snake only rolled his eyes.

The feeling of wood beneath his fingertips was a welcome distraction as the team walked out onto the pitch. The broom was a Nimbus 1998, a cast off that Harry had bought off one of the older Slytherins on the team so that he wouldn't be using one of the school norms all year. Technically, the broom was still the older Slytherin's, as first years weren't allowed to have their own brooms, but the mint had already traded hands a while ago.

The two teams filled in the circle that was painted at the center of the field as Madam Hooch stood at the center of them all, broom in hand and bird - like eyes especially piercing. Hasty couldn't help but wonder if the eyes were natural or a side effect of a potion gone wrong. He'd seen McGonagall turn into a cat a few times prior and knew that turning into an animagus was possible, just hit without its risk.

"I want a nice clean game, from all of you," the witch said, her eyes carefully studying the fourteen players, though Harry noticed that her gaze seemed to linger longer on Flint than anyone else. Which Harry admitted was, while fair, a waste of time since the boy in question was locked in a string contest of his own with the Gryffindor captain, Oliver Wood. "Mount your broom, please."

Moving quickly, everyone clambered onto their brooms, nervous smiles and ruthless smirks chattering in the cold as the students that had come out to watch shopped and hollered as the players took to the sky.

Higher and higher, Harry rose, going abi e the opener players enough to watch the sky and the ground below, to watch for that particular gleam of golden light.

"And Johnson immediately takes the Quaffle for Gryffindor - what an excellent chaser she is, rather attractive too-"

"Jordan!" Professor McGonagall screamed, making Harry snicker as the Weasley twins' friend, Lee Jordan, had to apologize before continuing to run commentary on the match. The Slytherin boy felt as if it was some sort of karmic justice that the witch got stuck with monitoring him when she spends most lessons either ignoring Harry or watching the boy as if he was a bomb just waiting for the right time to go off.

Harry glided in lazy circles above it all, with only a little boy of attention as Jordan spoke, keeping an ear out for points that the margin wouldn't set too close. The snake watched the Quaffle get stolen by the chasers of each team and blocked just as mercilessly by the keepers, but he almost growled out loud when the Gryffindor seeker, McLaggen, made his way over to Harry and started following close enough that the Slytherin could stop suddenly, and be run into only a moment later by the other boy.

Eyes flickering quickly over the field, Harry leaned into his broom and began a steep dive, McLaggen following just behind him like some sort of hideous shadow.

"It seems that first year Slytherin seeker, Harry Potter, has seen the Golden Snitch," Jordan said as he saw the sudden movement form the pair. "Cormac McLaggen is following closely behind as they approach the ground and - ouch !" Harry had changed the angle of his descent so that he was level as the pair had gotten closer to the ground, the two seekers neck and neck the entire time. But he had turned up sharply as the pair had reached the inside walls of the pitch, so sharp that McLaggen hadn't been afforded the time to do just the same and was now sticking into the Hufflepuff crest like some sort of misshapen arrow.

"Merlin! What are they teaching these first years? So - after that obvious and brutal bit of cheating-"

"Jordan," McGonagall all but growled once more at the Gryffindor boy.

"I mean, after that revolting trick-"

" Jordan, I'm warning you- "

But Harry had stopped listening, rising into the air once more as the game carried on uninterrupted but with the Gryffindor seeker stuck in the ground pulling his broom out of the pitch coverings. The Slytherin knew that what he had just done wasn't a foul, not yet at least. He'd scanned the complete list of fowls committed during the Quidditch World Cup, looking for ideas on what to do if out into a pinch. The move had been one of the few that they had gotten around to doing back then. One of the very few, but it was still always better to know the rules so you knew the loopholes as well.

Flint nodded approvingly as Harry passed him and the younger Slytherin thought that maybe he'd be allowed to keep playing in the next match as even Warrington didn't look as pissed with the younger boy as he normally did. But that wasn't saying all that much there.

Harry glared at George as a bludger was sent his way, zooming dangerously past the younger boy's head like a muggle rocket. He raised his hand to flip off the older boy when his broom gave a frightening lurch to the side.

Panic filled Harry's mind as his broom continued to lurch and buck every which way, rising Harry higher and higher into the sky. The boy looked for anyone on his team, the twins, or even Warrington if it came down to it, but they were all out of earshot of the quiet boy.

The broom bucked more and Harry held on tingly, wishing now more than anything that wandless magic was allowed.

—-

People in the stands began to scream and point as Harry dangerously rose into the air, but Her I one wasn't one of them. The girl's gaze was glued onto where Professor Snape was watching the young Slytherin and saying something under his breath. Hermione had read all about jinxes from the books in the library, she knew what it meant to cast them and how the professor wasn't blinking at all.

Looking between the muttering potions Professor and the boy that had saved her life only about two weeks ago, Hermione stood quickly and ran under the stands to where the teacher's stands were and walked up beneath them.

Going against all of her better judgment, Hermione cast a small fire spell that she had learned, blue flames jumping from the girl's wand to the hem of her professor's robe. It took a good thirty seconds for the man to realize that he was on fire, but once he did, Hermione heard the potions master curse and saw him moving around to stomp it out, disturbing most of the other professors in the process of doing so.

Hermione only hoped that it was enough as she dashed back to her seat in the Ravenclaw stands.

—-

Harry grinned as he regained control of his broom and began to scan the field feverishly once more, a glint of golden light catching the boy's attention quickly near the ground.

Diving once more, Harry sped to the ground and reached his arm out, his fingers brushing and grabbing the snitch before his broom tipped over on the ground. Rolling out of it, Harry raised his prize high over his head.

"Potter had caught the Snitch," Lee Jordan commented, sounding more than glum. "Slytherin wins, two hundred and ten points to twenty."

Harry grinned as he looked up into the stands, watching his housemates jump around with much less decorum than they usually showed in public. There was a light feeling in the boy's chest that made Harry wonder if this was how it felt to do something right for a change.

—-

Harry looked up, confused as a shock of Ravenclaw blue sat down in front of the Slytherin first years for the first time all term. He glanced at the other members of his year, but found that they looked to be mirroring his own confused gaze.

"What are you doing here, Hermione?" Pansy asked, not unkindly.

The girl in question glanced between the Slytherins gathered around her with a look that spoke of her wanting to say something but not knowing how it would be perceived.

"Just spit it out, 'Mione," Harry said impatiently after the third worried glance.

The girl nodded and took in a deep breath as if for courage. "I think that Snape was trying to kill you," the Ravenclaw said hurriedly, her eyes falling on the smallest of the Slytherins who was staring at the bushy haired girl owlishly. "Look, I know he's your head of house, but I know what I saw and-"

Laughter rang out between the group as Harry slapped a hand over his mouth to try and contain it all. The others were looking at him with varying levels of concern and shock, but no one dared to speak. It was the first time that they'd seen him laugh in such an honest way before. In a way that could be heard and wasn't followed by a snear.

"That's completely absurd," the boy said once he'd calmed down enough to properly speak.

Hermione balked, not having expected that reaction from the Slytherin boy. The others gathered looked between the pair with something like concern. "Harry," she started, "I know a jinx when I see one and Snape wasn't blinking! " her voice, while remaining quiet so that those outside of the group wouldn't hear, was annoyingly insistent.

"Hermione," Blaise started drawing the girl's worried and frustrated gaze to him, "I know what you think that you saw," he said placatingly, "but Snape has been helping Harry for almost two months now, brewing headache potions so that he doesn't become ill during defense. That doesn't really seem like the actions of someone that wants to kill him."

Pansy nodded along with the other Slytherin, having been told of the conclusion of that day that she and Blaise brought Harry down to see the professor in question. "Besides," the girl broke in, "Draco and Harry are good at potions, they get us most of the points for the class even without favoritism."

The Slytherins could tell that the Ravenclaw girl was growing more and more frustrated by the moment, but none of them really believed her to be right.

"Then how come when I set his robes on fire, Harry's broom returned to normal?" Hermione asked, crossing her arms like a small child.

The Slytherins looked between one another, none of them having expected that to come out of the normally tame girl's mouth. Everyone in the castle knew how much of a stickler for rules the girl was, this wasn't in the realm of possibilities for them.

Blasie whistled as Harry raised a brow.

"Bloody hell, Granger," Draco cursed, looking at the girl as if seeing someone completely new. "I didn't know that you had that in you."

Daphne nodded in agreement. "That's a lot more spine than I thought that you had," she easily admitted.

"Though preferably," Tracey cut in, looking proud of the Ravenclaw girl's blatant disregard for the rules that she normally follows so strictly, "I wouldn't go boasting it so openly if you want to avoid detention."

"Or possible expulsion," Daphne added, nodding once more with Tracey. "A little more Slytherin discretion would do you some good here."

Harry watched with amusement as Hermione looked between each of the Slytherins as they spoke. It was funny the girl that had been so against the house before coming to Hogwarts now being surrounded by them and encouraged to act like them.

"Maybe what you saw," Theo said, bringing the conversation back to the topic at hand, "was Snape performing a counter jinx," the boy suggested. "They share the same elements of staring at the affected like you described."

The girl nodded slowly, considering the point. "Then how come when I broke his concentration it got better, not worse?"

Blaise tapped a finger against his lip in thought. "I suppose setting someone on fire as you did would create a commotion in of itself," the boy reasoned at last. "It's likely that by playing the role of arsonist, Snape distracted the real culprit while trying to put the fire out."

Though she nodded in agreement, Harry could tell that Hermione wasn't fully convinced by the Slytherin boy's explanation of the events, but no one felt like figuring on it anymore, so they collectively pushed the topic aside.

They'd get an answer soon enough

—-

Harry grinned as he walked into the Slytherin common room after dinner that night. Music was already playing loudly as some of the older students cast muffling charms on the door and walls so that no one roaming the halls would hear it. The long tables were pushed to the side and laden with enough booze to give half of the castle a hangover just by being in the same room as it all. Silver and green orbs floated through the air like little lanterns, but Harry could see them pulsing in time with the music, playing songs by some wizard band that he didn't know.

Harry thought about just going up to the dorms to hide out until the party was done, knowing that it wouldn't be all that fun sober, but chose to stay once he saw space being created for dueling. He couldn't wait to see rne mess that the normally composed older years would make when blind drunk and trying to cast spells at one another.

Smiling, Harry places himself down unceremoniously next to Blaise on the couch, grinning subtly as the other boy knocks their knees together in a silent greeting before turning back to Pansy. The smaller Slytherin turned to Draco, who was on his other side - a space in the couch having been instinctively left for the seeker - and started talking tactics that they could use next year if Draco made chaser when one of the seventh years graduated.

"Flint and Wood need to pull their heads out of their asses," Harry heard Blasie say, drawing the attention of both of the scheming boys.

"I know right!" Pansy agreed almost conspiratorially as the pair gossiped.

"What are you two going on about now?" Draco asked, looking annoyed that they'd stopped talking strategy for this.

"Flint and Wood," Blasie supplied easily. "They were basically flirting the entire game."

"Were not!" Draco argued, looking scandalized that someone would do so during a match. "Harry, tell them."

Harry shook his head. "You don't have to be down there with them," the boy complained with a long suffering sigh that was only going to get worse as the next few years passed. "They couldn't take their eyes off of one another."

"Ha!" Pansy exclaimed, pointing at the blond Slytherin with a victorious smile.

"I mean, did you see the way that Flint was showing off on all of his shots?" Blaise asked.

"Wood was no better, blocking them."

Harry leaned back and let the conversation flow around him and laughed along with the others as a pair of sick years fell over one another trying to hex the other. Both ended up with rainbow colored skin from the spells reacting poorly with their drink castors and one another. Harry thought that maybe he could get used to living like this, even if it did make him a freak. He's never really been one for being normal anyways.