Harry Potter 1. The Plan

My name is Ayilis Aven. A short, 5 word sentence, but the web of lies hiding behind that one sentence would make any persons head spin, human or not. See, while my name is Ayilis Aven it also is not. I was born as Harry James Potter, a plain name for sure, but one that would become known in every wizarding household in England. It seems sad now when I look back on the beginnings of my life that it should end like this, born to parents Lily Evans Potter, a '_muggleborn'_, and James Potter, a pureblood, both strong fighters for the _'light'_. The _'light'_, there is no such thing as the '_light',_just a bunch of idiots running around like chickens with their heads cut off with a manipulative bumblebee leading them. I'm getting off track though. It all went down October 31st, 1981. What happened that night is the one and only thing that has made me famous, everything else that happened to me was just a consequence of what happened that night, but to tell you what happened that night I'll have to tell you another story.

This story is also about a boy, but this boy is nothing like me. This boy was brought up in a large house on top of a hill that over looked a small town. The boy's family was rich, but his father gambled too much, which caused them to lose the family fortune except for the house and the gardener Malay, who was pregnant. The boy eventually grew into a man and left the house to travel the world and find a way to get more money. On this trip he fell in love with a girl who happened to be a veela, which is a magical being which can seduce the male form and can change into a giant bird when angry. This veela wanted a family and decided to have one with the boy. When the veela was 3 months pregnant she told him about the wizarding world. He was very welcoming about it and they went back to the house and had the child. When the child they had was 1 year old the veela realized she wasn't ready to become a mother yet and left the boy turned man, with the child. The man sank into depression and neglected the child because he reminded him of his love. The only time the man talked to his child was to warn him about the wizarding world and all the people in it, which caused the boy to hate all things magic. The boy's name…Richard Riddle and his son's name Thomas Riddle.

I told you that story to tell you this story. Thomas Riddle grew up and fell in love, like most men do, except the fates weren't done with the family yet. He fell in love with a girl who happened to be a descendent of Salazar Slytherin, a famous dark wizard. She got pregnant with his child and 4 months into pregnancy she told him she was a witch. Since Thomas was brought up his whole life to hate all things magic he did to the only thing he could think of, he left her. She died giving birth to their son Thomas Marvolo Riddle, 'Thomas' after the father and 'Marvolo' after her father. Tom Riddle, as it was shortened to, was given to an orphanage. He grew up belittled and abused because of the weird things that always happened around him. So when he found out he was a wizard he had thought he had finally found his place. Unfortunately, he was placed into Slytherin house at Hogwarts which caused him to be belittled and hurt even more. Slytherin is known for its 'pure-blood' status and didn't take kindly to it being taken away by the half blood, or the muggle-born he was thought to be. Because of this, Tom grew into a very hateful man and eventually, after that, a Dark Lord. Now this certain Dark Lord had become very powerful in the wizarding world and was known to be the worse Dark Lord in a century ago. He then heard a prophesy about his downfall from one of his followers so he went to the house of the person who he thought would cause his downfall.

This leaves us back where we started October 31st, 1981. It was on this night that a certain Dark Lord came to my house and killed my parents then tried to kill me. I was the child in that prophesy. As you know my parents were fighters for the_'light'_so it was no surprise that Voldemort, the Dark Lord a.k.a. Tom Riddle Jr., came kill them. They died never knowing about any prophesy or the real reason they were killed. And it's all because of that stupid bumblebee. See, since the bumblebee knew they were going to be in trouble he wanted to make sure that when they died he could say that he tried to help save them. The fact of the matter is that he wanted them to die. Well, after my parents were killed he then did what he had come to do. He tried to kill me and he failed. I became the first and only person to ever survive the killing curse the reason is still unknown. After that I got sent to my Aunt's house but she hated my mother because Lily got all the attention in the family for being a witch. She had a major case of jealously and her husband Vernon, after hearing the stories that she told of the wizarding world, agreed that I shouldn't live in their normal family. I spent 2 years in an orphanage before bumblebee found out and made them take me back.

Now, you can see that one thing leads to another which leads to another. A baby isn't born evil, a person grows through experiences and trials, a child grows into who they will be based on who they are surrounded with. So whose fault is it that Tom Riddle Jr. became a dark wizard? No ones, but our own. Everyone has a reason for doing what they do, maybe you were brought up to believe something, maybe you just react the why to are taught or the way your instincts tell you, but whatever the case may be you sill have to live with what happened because of your ill judgment. Thomas Riddle Sr. reacted the way he was brought up by when he found out about the witch. The muggles beat Tom Riddle Jr. because it it's most people's nature to try to hurt and harm anyone whose different because they don't understand why they are different. The pure-bloods in Slytherin belittled Tom because they were brought up to believe that they were better than him. There are stories behind all these reactions, but the result is the same.

Why is this though? Can the world really not understand and get along with people of other races. The muggles are killing themselves out along with all the life forms of the world. They destroy the environment, kill brothers, slay friends, and its no wonder that the wizards are scared enough of them to hide, but then again the wizard population are no better. A corrupt government and people who believe anything that an official says and go along with it, but even as bad as the muggle world is I still believe that the wizarding world is worse. It is worse because it doesn't accept the future, it doesn't accept the muggles and it doesn't accept other magical beings. They try and cover up all of their faults by thinking that they are better than everyone else, even though they are worse.

What is the point of my rambling you ask? I'm getting there. The reason I think all of this has come to pass is because of no leadership. That's right, in both of the worlds there is no leadership. There is no one to lead the generation just a bunch of corrupt politicians that care about getting money more than caring about what will happen to the world in 10 years or 20.

This is where I come in…or where Ayilis Aven comes in. I'm going to be the leader that the wizarding world needs which is ironic because I hate the lime-light, but I've always had this hero-complex as Granger likes to call it. So I'm going to save the world by creating a new one. I'll explain my plan a little later though because I'm sure you're wondering how I know all this information. I'll tell you I didn't get any help from my _'friends'._

_Tuesday, May 14th, 1996_

Harry smirked as he walked through the dusty forgotten hallways of the Hogwarts. He had finally done it. He had finished the potion and now was the time. It took him forever to find the right solution, but he had done it and now he was getting his spoils. His stupid friends and Umbitch couldn't stop him now. He smirked softly; the time was here it only took him 4 and half years to do it.

Contrary to popular belief at 11 years old Harry Potter was not a stupid boy, in fact he was quite smart for his age, but you wouldn't know it by the way he acted. He had even known about the wizarding world before he was welcomed into it. Not odd at all, he found out from a book. The book was found in a library this also, not odd, because most books can be found in a library. But what was odd was that the book was found in a muggle library not even in the fiction section, it was almost as if it had a spotlight on that said **"READ ME".**

Now at one time Harry had spent all of his time at the library, sometimes skipping school to finish a book, this was, of course, before he had too many chores. Now Harry was not normally that curious of a boy and knew when to keep his nose out of others business, but you would be a little curious too if a book named "The Wizarding World: For Muggle-borns" was in the non-fiction section. Of course, Harry had not know at the time but the book had a strong notice-me-not charm on it to keep away all muggles, but Harry hadn't known and was thus so intrigued by it that he picked it up and read it. It took much longer than he expected though, 3 months was spent reading the book, or as Harry liked to call it 'The Encyclopedia of All Things Magic". By the time he finished it his brain felt like it had been blown apart by a nuclear blast and then put back together by a werewolf slave camp (notably the worst kind of punishments were given in these camps, note to self: if you are a werewolf in the early 1600's, don't get caught).

Although it was an encyclopedia it was more of a history book. The reason for this was made very clear in the front of the book. The ministry of magic covers up the wizards own history. Every wizard or witch in England is sent to Hogwarts, there are all taught by the same teacher, a ghost called Binns. This ghost is under a spell that makes him teach anything and everything that the ministry says. This has been going on for centuries.

So, Harry had learned. The book was, unfortunately, only about the Wizarding world's history and its laws. Yes, it was a self updating law book also, that took up most of the room.

The book had many sequels or expansions, there were some spell books and more books on how to act around certain animals so that they don't kill you, there was also one on the blood-lines of the pure-bloods which strangely enough was also in the library in the science section. In fact to Harry it was starting to look more and more like the magical version of the Britannica. Of course, it proved it self to be in the adult section when talking about some of the horrible things that the wizarding world had done. Hearing about the werewolf camps was enough, but they went into detail when talking about ways to kill a vampire or Shkell (a magical being that looked like an angel because of its white wings that could control the weather, supposed to be extinct but of the hunts for them in 100BC). In fact, some of the stories it had to tell were so bad that Harry actually went mute for the 3 months when he was reading it at 7 years old, not that he talked much anyways.

The book also talked about how to get in to Diagon Alley and some of the secrets to get around easily, as it had many allies and secret passages to get around faster.

After he had finished reading the book he actually went to Diagon Alley, just once, but that was all it took.

* * *

_January 23rd, __1988, Diagon Alley_

Harry had a hard time believing that all the stuff in the book was really true, it did sound a little far-fetched, but now that he was here everything seemed right, like he belonged here. That was until he saw a 5 year old child get kicked out of the candy store and then having "filthy blood, we don't service your kind here" yelled at him. Harry was of course mortified, but that didn't stop him from going to the kid and helping him of the ground, and then giving him a once over with his eyes, that's when Harry noticed something different about the kid…he had fangs. Harry of course had the natural reaction of gasping and taking a step back, but as soon as he did the child looked up with tears in his eyes. It was then Harry realized what he had to do. His eyes hardened, he didn't notice the flinch that the vampire made. He softly grabbed the hand again and marched right into the shop.

"What did you want?" Harry whispered to the boy. He pointed at the stand filled with the stand filled with a kind of red lollypop with a sign above it that said "Blood Pops". Harry gave a small smirk. He walked up and picked up two of them and went to the front desk where the man was that had just thrown out the kid.

"I'll have this please." Harry told the man. The man turned around and suddenly got all red.

"DIDN'T YOU HEAR WHAT I JUST TOLD YOU? WE DON'T SERVE YOU THINGS HERE." The man was going to continue until Harry cut him off.

"Yes, I think everybody heard that, but I am not a vampire and I most certainly am not a 'thing' and nether is he, so I think it would be best if you shut up. Now, you are going to give me these candies and you are going to give them to me for free. You know why? Because I heard this story once about a man that angered a clan of vampires by hurting one of their children, you do know what a vampire clan is right? It's the vampire's family the one that turned them or bore them and the people that also got turned by the same person. They are family held together by the same blood, so the man hurt one of the children. It was hard that he was tortured for three weeks in which time he died 3 times and was brought back just so they could kill him again and again. Now I don't think that you want that to happen to you do you? So do you comprehend?" The man slowly nodded his head. Harry smiled and left the store.

He had later learned that the child was named Vladimir and was originally from Russia. Harry hadn't gotten to know him well because he had a bus to catch if he was going to make it home in time for dinner.

* * *

_Tuesday, May 14th, 1996_

So Harry, with knowledge of what he was going into, he wanted to change it, but unfortunately it wasn't as easy as Harry imagined. The wizarding world was much more complex than he had first thought. The web of lies stretched so far back he wasn't sure if his brain could hold so many lies, and after a while, the lies became the truth. The saying is true that "the victors tell the story." The wizarding world won, and so they got to make up the story of how they won.

He then spent the next 4 years dedicated to learning all he could to help the wizarding world. That was, of course, when he wasn't doing his chores. He found all the books he could on the wizarding world by scouring pawn shops all around town; he knew that he couldn't go into Diagon Alley again because right after he went he found out from the TWWFM (the wizarding world for muggle-borns) that he was famous. As hard as it was for him to believe, the book had never lied to him before.

He found quiet a few more books than he first thought he would find, most of the owners of the pawn shops got so used to seeing him around that many just gave him the books for free. Unfortunately, most of the books he found were not beginner books, they were advanced, so Harry had to figure out how to do most of the magic by himself. There were books on runes, wards, rituals, transfiguration, lots of potions journals, battle magic, magic's history, Elvin culture (which really was an odd find), metamorphagus (no one told Harry you had to inherit the trait), defense against the dark arts, and even some of the dark arts themselves. Harry couldn't take most of the books home so instead he took them to the library where he studied them in a dark corner. It's surprising that so many books went without the muggle's notice. It was like they would see what was really going on until it hit them in the face.

It was only when he was about 8 that they started making him do a lot of work, such as mowing the glass and cooking all the meals. Harry had already learned so much that by the time of his 8th birthday he could afford to have some time off from reading. Sadly, Harry grew up a lot in those last 3 years, the Dursleys didn't only start giving him more chores but they also took away meals when he didn't do all of the chores for the day. Harry found a lot more information on the wizarding world and even found some books that had nothing to do with the wizarding world, but had spells in them so he read them, tried and succeeded at them. Harry never had much time for reading though so he searched for a way to have more time, when he was 10 he found a ritual that cut back on the time he needed for sleep, he preformed it and used all the extra time he had into practicing more spells.

About 2 months before his 11th birthday he realized something, he was a child, a child that had no influence in the world except for the fact that he had survived a killing curse. So, Harry not knowing what to do decided that it would be better to act totally clueless about the wizarding world. After all, who would expect him to know anything they _had_sent him to the Dursleys. He almost decided to drop the act when Hagrid seemed so angry about it, but thought it would be better not to because people would underestimate him.

He met Ron, his first 'friend' on the train; he had known the Weasleys were set up to be there because no pure-blood wizarding family would be stupid enough to talk so loud about muggles in a muggle train station.

Harry didn't find out until he was already in Hogwarts that the book he had learned everything from was actually a banned book and was supposed to have been destroyed along with the other books written by the same author, who had in fact been hanged.

Harry used all the extra time he had from the ritual to search through the Hogwarts library for something that could help. He didn't find anything the first year, but when he went back to the Dursleys in the summer things got easier for him because he didn't have people always watching him. He snuck out that summer and went to Diagon Alley, where he had a meeting with a goblin.

* * *

_June 14th__1992, Diagon Alley_

Harry smiled under the hood of his jacket as he walked down the cobblestone path to Gringotts. It was a beautiful day to be outside especially when you had spent the last 2 weeks locked in a cold dark room. He nodded to the two goblins that opened the door for him. He went up to the desk of one of the goblins and waited until he caught their attention, about 5 minutes later the goblin looked up and asked in a snide voice what he wanted.

Harry just lowered his hood and smiled at the goblin, "I would like to talk to the goblin in charge of my account please." After all, it was too nice of a day to be mean.

The goblin looked surprised for a second before sneering at Harry, "Your name", more of a demand then a question. Harry merely lifted the few stands of Harry covering his scar and smiled at the goblins surprised and frightened face. "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't recognize you."

"I could tell." Said Harry sharply, "Now where is my manager?"

"This way, sir," He put a closed sigh at the booth and waved for Harry to follow him to the back. He walked to the door that said _Frinsor Jublin, Account Manager_on it. He nodded to Harry and walked away. Harry stared after the other goblin for a second before he went into the room. The room was filled with filing cabinets and shelves of odd trinkets, Harry had only enough time to see the word Potter on one of the filing cabinets before he was joined by a shorter than average goblin who automatically sat down in the big chair at the desk.

"Is there anything I can do for you young mister Potter?" said, who Harry assumed was, Frinsor.

"Yes, I would like to know the status of my vaults, a list of the properties I hold and I would also like to visit my family vault."

"Yes, sir, I can do that, but first I would like to know would you like a list of all your vaults or just the Potter vaults and properties?" Frinsor said while shuffling through papers on his desk.

Harry was surprised, "You mean there are more families that I am the head of."

Frinsor nodded, "You must not understand, in the last 80 or so years there have been 2 really horrible Dark Lords, together the death toll accounts to the decimation of a little less than half of the wizarding worlds population, Voldemort himself took about 2/3 of those lives, so of course the wizarding world was grateful to you for getting rid of him. The only thing the Voldemort hated more than muggles were people who didn't chose a side to fight on at all, almost all of the neutral pure-blood families were wiped out, there are only a few left, for example the Zabinis I think you have one of their family in your year at Hogwarts right now. Well, most of these families were wiped out before you were born, but since they were neutral they didn't want to give their money to the ministry so all of them left in their wills that their money would go to the person that defeated Voldemort, the ministry declared that you were the one to defeat Voldemort so you were the one that got all of their things. This accounts for all of your vaults except one, that vault was set up by the ministry for you because there were so many people that wanted to thank you for defeating Voldemort and they didn't want to bother you with all the stuff that was being sent to you that they set up a vault that anyone can donate to and that you own and can look go to at any time. That vault was recently upgraded to a bigger vault that only you and a goblin with your permission could get into."

Harry took a few minutes to calculate this in his head and then looked to Frinsor. "I would like a list of _all_ the properties that I own as well as a list of all the vaults, I would like to go to the Potter family vault as well as the ministry vault and would like to see a list of the families I have." Frinsor got up and searched through some of the shelves.

He took out two scrolls and laid them on the desk. "This", he picked up a scroll, "is the list of all the vaults you have in the order of family names and this", he picked up the other, "is a list of all the properties you have. You can not let these get into the wrong hands, as some of these are used as safe houses for the ministry and others and I'm sure you don't want everybody knowing how rich you really are. I will spell these to always be small unless you say a certain word while holding them in your hand, they will look like two small fangs and you can attach them to any necklace, or put them in a safe." Harry nodded and picked up the two scrolls before following Frinsor out of the room. Frinsor lead them to a tunnel and got into one of the carts waiting for them. Harry immediately got in after him. They sped through the tunnels and after about 5 minutes they can to a stop before a door that had the number 1193 above it. "Put your hand on the door and say open mister Potter."

Harry did what he was told and the door opened to a cavern filled with innumerable objects. While Harry was busy studying everything in the room Frinsor pulled him over to an empty part of the wall and put is hand there and said "map". Frinsor then gave Harry the piece of paper that came from the wall, "As you can see this is the vault given to you by the ministry and as there are so many different objects we have sorted them by type. You have a huge library and quite a few weapons, though some people were sane and gave you many different trinkets for each year you were born, it will take quite a while to go through everything, though might I say the line for people donating things to you on your birthday is very long."

Harry merely nodded speechless and walked through the many isles of objects every once and awhile putting things in a bag he had brought with him for just this purpose. The bag, while not bottomless, was charmed to hold more than it looked and weigh less. After an hour of this walked back to the door saying quietly to Frinsor that he would come back later, Frinsor nodded and led him back into the cart. This time though the cart went up instead of down. The cart stopped in front of a very large set of double doors that had 'Potter' on them as well as a very intricate set of carvings.

Harry looked at Frinsor questioningly to which Frinsor replied, "The Potter family crest." Harry nodded and did the same thing to open these doors as he did to the last set. The size of the cavern looked about the same but that was the only similarity. There were piles of gold, silver, and copper anywhere you looked. "The objects are in the back." Frinsor said as if reading Harry's mind.

Harry walked through the small path between piles and smiled when he came upon the many objects. Harry looked through them quickly as nothing really caught his eye and he did need to go soon, but one thing drew his attention. It was a worn and beat up chest that sat in the corner under a pile of useless junk, almost as if it was hiding from him. The only thing on the chest was a carving of the letters PHA and under that LME. Harry got Frinsor to shrink the chest and put it in his bag.

The ride back to the ground floor of Gringotts was uneventful and Harry soon left after Frinsor gave him the necklace with the two scrolls on it.

* * *

_Tuesday, May 14th, 1996_

Harry smirked once again as he walked to the second floor girls bathroom books under arm, life was made so much easier with that trip. In fact, all of the objects that ha once filled the ministry vault now filled one of the trunks he was bringing with him, along with many of the objects from the many family vaults he now owned. The other trunk he was bringing with him had his personal effects; these were the things that he used in everyday life, a wardrobe, his library, his notebooks, and other things like that. He quickly jumped down the hole that opened where a sink used to be.

He bounced off the cushioned floor and kept walking past the clean rooms and into the huge cave that was the Chamber of Secrets and it was well named. The chamber had many secret rooms and nooks that all held a piece of the picture that was the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry paid no noticed to the statues that lined the main pathway, but instead took a left turn at the end of the pathway and walked through what looked to be a solid wall. He went through one of the doors into a potions lab and put down his books on one of the tables. He checked the two potions sitting on the table before turning off both fires and taking two vials and filling them with a different potion.

Harry's second year was much less eventful than his first and all the extra time he had from not running for his life was spent searching through the chest that he had found in his Gringotts vault.

* * *

_September 3rd__1992, secret room Hogwarts_

Harry smiled as he walked into his room at Hogwarts; it was so good to be back. After a horrible summer being locked up at the Dursleys, then being constantly watched at the burrow it was good to be able to get away and just be yourself as well as he could finally look at that mysterious chest. He pulled the bag from where it was tied around his belt.

He poured out everything in the bag on one of the tables. He sorted through everything until he came upon the miniature chest; he carefully placed it on the ground before getting out his wand and saying the counter curse to the shrinking charm. As soon as the chest was fully sized he opened it he was surprised of course when he saw a envelope that said 'Harry' on it. He picked it up suspiciously and opened it.

_Dear Harry, My beautiful baby,_

_Harry if you are reading this it means that I am dead and couldn't raise you. This is your mother Lily Evans or that's what you were told. I hope that when you are reading this you are surrounded by family and you can look to them for support because this will probably surprise all of you_

_You see Harry I'm not the muggle-born everyone thought me to be. No, it fact I probably the purest one at Hogwarts. You see, baby, I am an Aven, said to be the first pure-blooded family and defiantly the richest. I was born in the 1930's but my parents chose to send me to the future._

_My elder brother was a squib and that fact meant that he couldn't inherit the family fortune. Since I was magical my children would have heir status before any of his children, even though I am a girl, so is the way of the wizarding world. My parents decided to send me to the future to my relatives the muggle family that derived from the Avens, a family that my squib brother started, the Evans. I became the younger sister to Petunia and daughter of Gill and Hamial and gained the name Lily Marie Evans._

_You, my sweet beautiful baby, are the heir to the Avens fortune and by default the Merlin vault as well. In this trunk you will find all that I left behind from my school years and the time turner that changed my life and will change yours as well. In this chest there are many secret compartments and if you find them you can open them, I will give you the first hint, put you hand at the bottom of the chest and say 'Inheritance'. I love you my sweet and always remember that._

_Lily Marie Potter nee Evans, formally Pemida Henima Avens_

Harry did what she said and found small compartment filled with books about the Avens family. Many of them turned out to be autobiographies and journals. Harry read all of these books as well as many others he found in the library, he had already known a little about the family thanks to the pure-blood family book he found in the library when he was younger.

* * *

_Tuesday, May 14th, 1996_

The entire second year of school was dedicated to learning more about the Aven family and in that he succeeded, not only did he know the big things like one of his family created the 'Expelliarmus' curse, but he also knew the small facts, like everyone of his family was known for their blood red hair and interestingly intense eye colors.

After the basilisk fight in 2nd year he had very little time to do anything though before he was shipped back to the Dursleys for another horrible summer. The summer wasn't as bad as the last, but was no where near fun.

Then the whole Aunt Marge ordeal happened, but it did give him more time to check out the different shops in Diagon Alley. He found some very interesting things while he was there, he found an store that sold many different types of magical glasses as well as some magical contacts, he bought a few pairs of each because you never knew when you would need to disappear in a crowd and his bulky glasses did stand out quite a bit. Harry bought a few other things, but not much.

Harry's 3rd year at Hogwarts was a bit more hectic, after all he did have a serial killer after him, but he did get a lot more chances to sneak away to the Chamber of Secrets. Harry got interested in potions though because he learned that many of the Avens had a talent at it. He spent much of his time when everyone was asleep down in the potions lab he found in the chamber. The end of the year was when he found out about his godfather being innocent and also when he found out about the time turner and a plan started to form in his mind.

Time is one of the only things in the world that doesn't change, it is constant. There is no going back and changing time, what happens happens and there is no changing it. That's what got Harry thinking, what if he could change it. Would everything really be easier if Voldemort didn't exist, would it be easier if Harry didn't exist? If he could really go back and change everything would he really what to? The answer Harry came to was yes. Everything would be easier if none of this had ever happened. So, all Harry had to do was change time, not an easy thing to do. Only one man had ever succeeded in changing time and he doesn't even remember doing it, he went back in time to stop himself from going back in time. The whole thing took about 5 minutes and by the time it was done the only person who remembered it was a person that wrote down a note in the future and when he went back to the past left the note.

The man who happened to do it was an unspeakable and happened to be part of a family that Harry was now the head of, this means that he has all of the man's notes. Through the course of the summer after 3rd year and the Tri-wizard Tournament he studied all of the notes he could find on the subject and did several experiments where he went back in time and left himself a note, every time he did this he got more information on what he would need to do and close to the end of 4th year. The only problem he had was deciding when to go back, after all he wanted to get rid of everything he recognized so when to go. His answer came to him in the graveyard staring at the snake-like creature that used to be human. To stop everything that he knew from happening he would go back to when Tom Riddle was just starting school.

So, Harry, happy with his answer spent all of that summer making the potions and arrangements needed to go back, then came the problem of how he was going to stop Thomas Riddle Jr. from becoming the Dark Lord Voldemort and change the Wizarding World as he knew it as well, it wouldn't be an easy task especially since Tom was very smart from what he had gathered from the diary. The only answer he thought of to become a Dark Lord instead of Voldemort and make Tom into his follower. This caused Harry to spend a few more months in his 5th year than he planned to by also making a potion that made him 11 again. He would need all the help he could gaining Tom Riddle's trust and who was going to think anything of an 11 year old. After so long, it was finally happening and Harry couldn't have been happier.

* * *

AN/ UPDATE: Hello everyone just trying out this story. I thought that I should warn you, now before you get any further. This story is AU, very AU. If you don't know what that means, it means Author's Universe, or Another Universe. I have twisted Harry Potter and placed my own Universe in. Now, I like these kinds of stories, but I respect if you don't. Now I request that you give the same respect in kind.

This might be hard for some of you to believe, but I have no interest in getting flame reviews (reviews that just tell me how bad I am) or in getting "I'm not reading this story because..." reviews. You don't have to like my story, though I hope someone does, but if you don't like me story that's great, fine, and dandy _you DON'T HAVE TO READ IT!_

I'm telling you this now in a very stern type of voice: I like my stories, and I try to write them well. That being said, it's rough to say the least. I'm writing because I need the practice. There are better stories on this website and I grantee that you will find something to your liking. There are a lot of amazing authors in the world and I am doing this because I want to become better myself and the only way to do that is practice.

So I will repeat once again, you don't have to read this story and don't try and make me feel bad about writing a story not up to you "amazing standards". I have found worse and better, go bother someone else.

If you do like the story though, the few who might, please review, it soothes the soul,

~Rain


	2. The Details

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 2: The Details

_Tuesday, May 14__th__, 1996_

Harry carefully placed the two vials of potion on the table of the small stone room that he was in, the ritual room in the Chamber of Secrets. It was directly beneath the giant Salazar head at the back of the entrance hall. The room was odd; there were no cracks in the wall, no separate stone pieces. It looked like the center of a large boulder. The room looked more like a sphere than a cube. The floor was curved and the only way in or out was a small hole in the bottom of Salazar's mouth that was covered by a wooden trap door, in fact if you didn't recognize the room right away you would probably think it was a dungeon or prison cell because no magic worked while in the room.

The ritual room was a creation that had been around centuries before Hogwarts. It's very hard to make because you need a certain kind of stone, this stone rare to find in the large pieces that you need to make a ritual room. The stone absorbs magic. The room is not used to keep magic out, but more to keep it in. It was once used when a wizard or witch comes into his/her power, to keep them contained for a few days to let the magic settle, but wizards have become so weak that now no one uses them because there is no need.

The ritual room was more used for the reason of its name though. Many rituals needed to be performed in very stable areas and nobody could interrupt. The ritual room was created because if you did a ritual you would have a lot of excess energy and magic pouring off you. The ministry of magic banned all rituals sometime during the 1200's because many wizards or witches that weren't powerful enough tried to do the rituals and got themselves killed. The ministry decided that if one person couldn't do it than nobody should be able to.

AA

_August 13__th__, 1995_

15 year old Harry Potter scowled as his cereal. It wasn't that he didn't like his cereal it was more _where_ he ate it. Number 12 Grimwald place was not a pleasant place to stay especially because the place was crawling with the exact people he didn't want to be around. Harry had recently found out that his friends had never really been his friends to begin with, when Harry was picked up from the Dursleys he had assumed that it was because they wanted him around. He had been sorely mistaken.

They wanted to protect him from the outside world and lately all it had been doing was making him feel like he was in a small metal cage with no exit, the only high point was that Sirius was there with him, but the longer he stayed here the more it seemed like Sirius was avoiding him and Harry was quickly becoming sick of it.

Just last night Harry had pretended to go to bed early and instead put on his invisibility cloak and snuck down stairs to see what his friends really did without him there. It isn't paranoia if they really are after you. What Harry had found was them getting briefed on what happened at the Order meeting they had missed when sitting with him. Harry wasn't exactly pleased, but was able to keep his temper and not rush through the door and start making accusations.

Harry looked up from his angry musing at the sound of the door opening to see Sirius standing there in the doorway. Sirius walked in the door and hurried to the counter to pick up some coffee that was made earlier that morning. Sirius quickly poured some and hurried out of the door again as if there was a vicious monster standing behind him.

After he left Harry glared at his cereal again, _why _he thought _why is he running away from me?_

Harry put his half eaten bowl of cereal in the sink and walked up to his room without looking at anyone except to glare at Fred as he tried to block his way on the stairs, Fred looked as if he wanted to say something but kept it to himself fear of making Harry more angry than he already was.

Harry flopped on his bed when he got to his room and sighed. He reluctantly rolled off his bed to get a book out of his trunk. After he had opened his mother's chest he had quickly made to find all of the secret compartments and in within 4 days he had found her secret stash of books. The Aven's were a family that liked to share information, this was probably because they were all firm believers in the saying 'You can't trust anyone except family'. While they weren't known for being spell-crafters there were quite a few in the family that had made spell that were not shared with the rest of the world. These were spells that the family only taught to one of its own, you had to born or married into to get a hold of some of the spells, but only the head of the family knew all of the spells and this was more for the protection of the family.

As Harry was the last of the Aven line he was automatically the head and had access to every spell in the Aven repertoire. His mother also had access to this collection and this was probably the reason she knew so much even though she grew up in the muggle world.

He picked a defense and offence spell book and locked the door. It wouldn't do well for someone to walk in on him when he was reading something he shouldn't have known of. After, 2 hours of reading he closed the book roughly and dropped it on the table. He stood and made his way through the door to the Black library. Although the Aven library had a larger selection if you really wanted to get specific information on one subject, the Aven's library couldn't help you. He all but slammed open the door and hurried over to where he knew the book he was looking for would be.

In his rush he failed to notice that someone else was sitting in the room. Though as he was on his way out with the book he needed he was momentarily stopped by the sight of Ginny Weasley curled up in a chair, nose firmly lodged in a book about blood heritage. He was slightly surprised but not enough to get him out of his bad mood and stalked back to his room without a second glance. As he sat back down in his chair he took a moment to wonder about Ginny, but pushed it off as another thing that his friends were keeping from him.

He didn't get up from his place until an hour later when he was dragged down the stairs to lunch by an over-protective Mrs. Weasley. He rushed back to his room afterward and didn't even come down for dinner to the chagrin of Molly. The only other time he left his room was that night was for a trip to the bathroom that night. On his way back he was stopped by the angry voice of Sirius coming out of a nearby room.

"No you listen to me you old coot! Harry should know what we are doing, this is his life we are talking about, why not let him join in on those fighting lessons that you little pets Weasley and Granger do. You are manipulating everybody, they think that they are helping Harry by following you, and you don't even let them tell Harry about it. It's there own fault for being so stupid, but you had to do something to convince them!" Sirius near shouted.

Unfortunately, Harry couldn't hear what else was said except for a few words, " calm…for his own good…should be…Dursleys…don't say anything unless…dementors…trial…Azkaban…prophesy" and "glad you see it my way, goodnight Sirius." Harry heard the floo before the door opened and he saw and very shocked Sirius. Harry was backing away when Sirius's hand suddenly shot out and dragged Harry back in the room; he looked out in the hallway for anyone else, but shut and locked it when he found nothing.

The room was dimly lighted with only the fireplace for light, but that didn't stop Harry from taking in the entire room. There were two large armchairs in front of the fireplace with two glasses of what looked to be whisky sitting on the table between the two. The room was filled with a desk and chairs as well as a few bookshelves and empty picture frames. Sirius led Harry to one of the armchairs and sat him down. He looked him in the eyes.

"Harry how much did you hear?" Sirius asked calmly.

"Ron and Hermione are having lessons without me?" Harry replied blankly, Sirius let out an expletive.

"Harry," Sirius forced Harry's eyes to meet his again, "listen Ron and Hermione are just doing what they think is best. They want you safe, although I don't agree with it there is nothing I can do as of yet." Harry nodded slowly. "Harry you just have 2 more weeks here and then your back to school, Do you think you can survive with this knowledge that long and let nobody know?" Again Harry nodded still in shock, Sirius smiled back at him and stood to walk out.

"Sirius what prophesy?" the whispered words stopped Sirius in his tracks.

"Now where did you hear about any prophesy?"

"I over heard it in your talk with Dumbledore."

"Yes, well, that is something I am not allowed to tell you, because according to Dumbledore it is dangerous information for you to have." Sirius replied with his back turned to Harry.

"Is that the reason you have been running away from me?" Sirius nodded silently and walked out.

AA

_Tuesday, May 14__th__, 1996_

Harry took the salt in one hand and the chalk in the other. He started drawing the ritual circle that was going to be required for the spell. When he had started researching ways to go back in time he had realized a few things. One he had to go far enough back in time that no one would notice that he looked exactly like James Potter, long enough that Dumbledore wouldn't be suspicious of him.

You became a different person when you went backing time, everything changed about you, your smell, voice, even personality. This was because there couldn't be two people who were exactly the same. So if he was a different person, time wouldn't care if he killed off Harry Potter because he wasn't Harry Potter anymore. At the time Harry learned this he just shrugged it off as something he didn't care to ask questions about. What worked and what didn't in time travel is difficult to understand and that's why people don't mess in it, but if according to time you could kill your younger self and not die because you weren't him, then who was he to question time?

Another thing he found out was that there was no spell that could take you as far back in time as he wanted to go, but there were a few rituals, rituals that had been banned by the ministry, but who was he to care if he was doing something illegal, it wouldn't be the first time or the last. He carefully drew the pentagram and started drawing the runes in some of the corners, once again lost in his thoughts of the past.

AA

_September 4__th__, 1995_

Three days back at Hogwarts, and Harry was already getting restless. He was currently out on one of his midnight walks that happen when he can't sleep. It seemed like Hermione and Ron were spending a lot more time by themselves now a days and if he hadn't known better he would have thought that they were going out. Instead he was stuck by himself doing homework, while his two "best friends" were getting lessons in fighting from the order. His feet lead him on the familiar path to the second floor corridor girl's bathroom. Moaning Myrtle was no doubt sulking around the castle at this time so he was thankfully left to himself when he jumped down the tunnel to the Chamber of Secrets.

The Chamber had become more of a home to him than anything else ever had. He had a bedroom and study, there was a library and potions lab, alchemy chamber, work room, anything and everything that was needed to survive could be found somewhere in the Chamber. The first time he was ever in the Chamber he didn't have the time to search, but after a few times the Chamber was easy to navigate.

When Harry had started forming the idea of time travel in 4th year he had needed some place where he could be alone to think, the only place he could think of that the headmaster didn't have an eye in on was the chamber, however it took until after Christmas break to get the nerve to walk into the Chamber again. After the 60ft. basilisk Harry was afraid of what else could be in there, but after waiting around for such a long time he decided to use some of the Gryffindor courage that he was known for.

Harry walked into the library; the chamber had a large library the only problem with it being about a thousand years old. The preservation charms on the books had made them look as though they were brand new, but the information packed in those books was very old. Thankfully the wizarding world hadn't changed much in that period, but there were a few crucial things that had changed. One being the way people spoke was very different from what it had been. It took Harry 3 months before he could read one of these books as fast he could read one of the books from the library upstairs.

The main factor in him learning to read faster was one of the rituals he found in an old diary. The diary also contained the blueprints to the chamber and that is how Harry found the ritual chamber. It was a small room but it was perfect for doing smaller rituals without anyone knowing. The first ritual he did was to increase his brain capacity and organize his mind. Harry realized that he didn't need a ritual to do this, but it would save him time and give a good example of what doing a ritual was like before jumping into some of the harder ones.

The second ritual he preformed was one to fix his eyesight. His glasses had proved to be a major inconvenience in the past and he knew that if he went into battle and lost he glasses his would be dead before he even cast _accio_.

Harry passed all the books in front that were set there to make a person think that there was nothing important in this library, all it had was cleaning charms and small hexes, the further you went into the shelves of the dusty library the darker the books became and the rarer they became. At the very back there was on bookshelf that was filled with scrolls and parchment that had been decaying. On that bookshelf there was one scroll that if you pulled it out would open a door that would lead into Slytherin's personal suite. Complete with office, bedroom, bathroom, and small study. If you searched long and hard in this room, as Harry had done, you would find a trap door in the floor that lead to a small room that only had one bookshelf. On that bookshelf there were 15 leather bound journals. Four sets of four all in different colors red, yellow, green, and blue.

Harry sat down next to the shelf and pulled out one of the green journals that he had been carrying in his bag. It hadn't taken him long to find out that these were the founders journals. When Harry had first found this room he had tried to pick up one of the books it hadn't worked so he tried again with a different book and surprisingly he could. You could understand his confusion, but this was soon figured out by the colors. He could pick up the red and green books but he couldn't pick up the yellow and couldn't even touch the blue.

As soon a he started reading one of the books he figured it out, the journals would only allow the heirs of the founders to pick them up. So, Harry was confused, why could he pick up the green ones if Voldemort was the heir?

AA

_Tuesday, May 14__th__, 1996_

Harry finished the last chalk rune just as he heard the trapdoor in the ceiling open once more. A red colored blur was all he saw until he flew a comfortable weight on his shoulders. The red blur was a bird that was in fact…not a bird at all. The 'bird' jumped from his shoulders onto the floor and transformed until a beautiful red haired woman was standing before him.

"I thought I told you to be here on time," Harry turned back to the diagram on the floor without another glance and the woman.

"Aww, where's the fun in that Harry-kins. I just love a good entrance. Besides without me you wouldn't be able to do this so soon." The woman started morphing once again until a small red haired girl who looked to be around eleven peered at Harry.

"Ginny, I have no time for your jokes, this need to be perfect before we start or else…" Harry never got to finish that sentence before he was tackled to the floor by Ginny as she started tickling him. She carefully avoided any of the lines and runes in the circle as she finished her tickle attack.

"Cousin, there is always time for jokes, besides you need to loosen up a bit if we are going to pretend to be eleven. You are acting far too grown up." She wasn't surprised as the body under her started morphing until a younger version of Harry showed, except this Harry had no glasses and shoulder length blood red hair. Ginny stood up and helped Harry up. She dug in her pockets and pulled out three miniature boxes which she put on the floor. She pulled out her wand and resized the trunks until they were full size again.

"So have you picked out your name yet Ginny?" Harry asked while looking over the runes once more.

"Yes, I have decided I am going to be Jinseri Pemida Aven and what about you, my beloved cousin?" The now christened Jinseri asked.

"I have chosen Ayilis Pollux Aven; it fits me does it not? Are the trunks filled?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I have taken all the money from your vaults and put them in this one trunk," she pointed to one of them, "the other two are filled with the many object and weapons that your vaults are filled with." She patted the other two boxes. "I left out the stuff in the Aven vault because there is no use in having 2 of everything and it could get confusing." She said down on the trunk next to her and pulled out another small box. After she resized it she sat on it. "This is my personal suitcase that is carrying everything I could possibly want."

Harry pulled out another two boxes and threw them at her. The first was his mother's trunk and the other was his personal trunk.

"Harry… I mean Ayilis are you sure this is what you want to do. This could very well make another universe. As far as we know there was no Ayilis Aven that ever showed up in 1938 with his cousin. This could be a mistake." She cut off at the look that Harry was giving her.

"Cousin, I know very well what could happen and as far as I am concerned this is the best thing to do. I can not destroy Voldemort. He has succeeded in making himself invincible, but I can stop him from ever coming into power and that is what I intend to do. Either you are with me or you are against me and I have come too far to stop now. I will stop the world from going into chaos even if it means I have to lead it into a new era." Harry stopped his rant and stared at Ginny, this was her chose.

"Ayilis, I am with you and will always be with you. You are my only family and I will follow you to hell and back." Jinseri waved her hand at him, "So let's this get this started."

Harry smirked at her, he remember how startled he was when he found her in the chamber's library.

AA

_January 11__th__, 1995_

Harry sprinted down the hallway as fast as he could. Hermione had been on his trail all day and all Harry wanted to do was have some time alone. He turned a corner and leaned against the wall to catch his breath and check his surroundings. The students had just gotten back from winter break and Hermione wouldn't stop hounding Harry to find more about the next task. Harry laughed to himself. He was on the 2nd floor right outside of Moaning Myrtles bathroom. He pushed himself off the wall and went inside the bathroom. He looked around for Myrtle but didn't see her. He went to the sink that had the snake carved on it and softly hissed 'open' to it.

He had been in the chamber recently when he had cleaned it of the dead basilisk and most of the dirt. He had also explored it quite a bit since the first time he went in and had found a library, a potions lab, a study, a workroom, and a weird room that magic didn't work in hidden under a trapdoor.

He slid down the now clean pipe and landed on the padded floor. He had learned after the first time that landing on stones after speeding down a long pipe can be very bad for your bum. He walked through the doors leading to the inner chamber and made his way to the library.

He had turned the corner to the library and suddenly stopped. The door was opened. Harry remembered closing it the last time he was here. Did that mean that someone else had found their way into Harry's sanctuary? He took out his wand and snuck up to the door quietly. He conjured up a mirror and levitated the mirror in a way that would allow him to see who was inside the library. He was turning it carefully when he saw her. She had dark orange hair, brown eyes, and freckles. She looked to be about 13 in age and was curled up in a chair reading a book. Harry shook the confusion out of his head. He aimed carefully and using the mirror as a reflector shot the stunner at the mirror. The stunner bounced of the mirror and hit her. She slumped in her chair and the book dropped out of her hands.

Harry carefully checked the rest of the room for others before going over to her. He picked up the book that she had dropped. It was a beginners Dark Arts book that Harry had finished translating a week before. He transfigured the chair to grow shackles and searched for her wand. He checked his supply of potions that he had stored in his cloak and brought out a tube that had a clear liquid in it that looked a lot like water. Harry opened her mouth and dropped in three drops of the liquid and revived her. She sat up straight and looked at him with blank and milky eyes.

"What are you doing in the Chamber of Secrets Ginny?" Harry asked calmly.

"Studying the Dark Arts" Ginny said blankly.

"Why?"

"So that I can talk to Tom." Ginny said. Harry eyes flew open in shock.

"You want to join Voldemort?" Harry asked.

"No" Ginny replied.

"Then why do you want to talk to him?" Harry asked.

"I don't"

"Who do you want to talk to?"

"Tom Riddle"

"Why?"

"So that I can tell him I miss him and want to be with him even if it means my own death."

"How did you get into the chamber?" Asked Harry.

"Parselmouth"

"You are a Parselmouth?"

"Yes"

"Would you do anything to talk with him?" Harry asked while contemplating something.

"Yes"

Harry Carefully titled her head back and dropped 3 drops of anti-Veritaserum in her mouth and sat down on the chair opposite to her. Harry was thinking about what to do with her when she suddenly spoke.

"Harry I can explain. I know you aren't the friendliest person with me but you have to listen. I believe in you and I want to help you. You probably won't believe me after what you heard, but it's true. I fell in love with Riddle when we talked so much through the journal that year and even though I know he is gone and all that's left is Voldemort I still want to talk with him. Though, I realize that it's only a dream. I don't love you, but I do want to help you defeat Voldemort. I think that whatever darkness that has taken over Tom has destroyed the man I love and I want him gone. So please believe me I don't want to join Voldemort and I never will."

AA

And as startled as Harry had been when he saw Ginny for the first time in the chamber he was even more surprised when he found out why she was there. It turns out that as much as Ginny gave her life over to Riddle, Riddle told her even more about his life. Ginny, as it turns out, actually had quite a crush on Riddle. As the years went by Ginny's crush didn't dissipate, it grew. Ginny had been searching through the library to find a way to go back in time and tell her feelings to Riddle. Harry used this to his full advantage and was going with her, both with the idea to change Tom Riddle.

Harry and Ginny had studied a lot of the books in the Chamber and outside of the Chamber. They had done many rituals to get used to the idea of using one to go back in time. One of the many rituals that both he and Ginny had preformed had been to reawaken dormant powers that their blood lines held. As all pureblood families were intertwined there were many abilities that had awakened in both of them, one being metamorphagus.

The chamber's library was filled with all sorts of books as well as the largest selection of rituals books ever. Rituals had been banned by the time of Slytherin and Salazar made it a point to study all magical arts including illegal ones.

Harry smiled as he placed both his hands on the circle and smirked again as Ginny copied his movements on the opposite side. The middle of the circle was filled with the 6 trunks and 2 bags that were carrying everything that meant anything to the two time travelers. Harry and Ginny started chanting the ritual song. A wind started to pick up in the room with no idea as to where if came from. The circle with the pentagon and runes started glowing as the magic filled the room. Harry and Ginny both lifted their left hand at the exact same time. They grabbed to two vials of potions and slammed them against the floor in perfect harmony with the chant.

It was starting, after many years and hundreds of books read, it was happening, he was going to change the world, he was going to the great things that Ollivander had told him about so many years ago. Suddenly the world shifted, the room lit up and the ground started shaking, but it stopped as soon as it started.

The ground stilled and the wind stopped all that was left was a knocked over table and books scattered across the floor.


	3. The Express

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

**Recap**: Harry set up a plan to go into the past and become the next Dark Lord. He found out that his mother was a time traveler and that he was the head of the Aven family, a rich and powerful wizarding clan. He set up a ritual to take Ginny and himself back to Tom Riddle's first year at Hogwarts. He took on the name Ayilis Aven and Ginny took the name Jinseri Aven.

Chapter 3: The Express

* * *

_September 1st, 1938_

Ayilis and Jinseri quickly put their trunks on the trolley. King's Cross Station was particularly busy today, as it was the first day of Hogwarts and the train station was filled with students. Harry smirked. Everything was going according to plan.

The two time travelers had arrived in mid-May, giving them plenty of time to arrange everything satisfactorily. The newly christened Ayilis had had no problem in becoming the official head of the almost-extinct Aven clan. Jinseri had informed Headmaster Dippet of the return from abroad of two school-age purebloods, which resulted in the delivery of acceptance letters in July. The three Aven trunks were safely stored in Gringotts, and Jinseri and Ayilis were packed and ready to re-experience their first year at Hogwarts as Slytherins.

Harry pushed the trolley through the barrier. The platform was bustling with students and parents giving tearful goodbyes. Harry and Ginny pushed their way through the crowd and onto the train. They picked a compartment to the back of the train and pushed their trunks onto the racks. Harry had just sat down on his seat and pulled out a book when he was distracted by a commotion outside his window.

A small boy wearing what appeared to be rags was getting pushed around. The bullies had already pushed over his trunk and all of his supplies lay spilled on the ground. Harry walked quickly off the train and over to the scene. After pushing his way past the spectators into the center, he turned to the main instigators.

"What is going on over here?" Harry said in his best better-than-thou voice.

"Just showing the Mudblood his place, you got a problem with…" the spokeman's voice trailed off as he spotted the ring on Harry's finger. The ring showed the Aven crest as well as the symbol that stood for the Head of a family. The boy paled and tried to fix his mistake by slightly bowing to him. "I apologize, Lord Aven, I didn't know that you were starting school this year. I should have spoken with more respect. Please forgive my behavior."

Harry nodded and waved them off. He leaned down and held out a hand to the fallen boy, saying, "I must apologize for them. The world would be a better place if there were not as many wizards of that type. My name is Ayilis Aven. May I ask yours?"

"Tom Riddle," the scrawny boy replied. Harry smirked, pulled Tom to his feet, and casually waved his other hand at the trunk. It immediately righted while the scattered school supplies neatly and economically packed themselves. "Why did those boys react to you like that?" Tom asked curiously.

"Oh that, well, I am the head of an ancient and powerful pure-blood family known as the Avens." Harry smirked again and Tom gasped. "That is why they called me Lord Aven."

Tom's eyes widened and he quickly gave a sort of half bow, "I'm sorry. You shouldn't have wasted your time on me."

"Nonsense, you are a wizard, aren't you?" After Tom's nod, Harry said, "Well, then, it is my duty as one of noble wizardry line to welcome you into the wizarding world." Harry waved his wand and started floating the trunk onto the train. "Let's go then. I will help you get settled." Harry and Tom got onto the train and went to the compartment Harry had already picked out. Even with three people, it looked almost empty. In fact, the entire train looked bigger, and then Harry remembered that more than half of the wizarding world had been wiped out by Voldemort and his predecessor, Grindlewald. There were bound to be more wizards today than in the future.

Jinseri only looked up from the book she was reading when Tom sat down next to her. She smiled happily and slipped a little closer to him.

"So what's your name?" She asked while putting her book in the bag she had next to her.

"Tom Riddle. What about you?" He answered while scooting away from her.

"Jinseri Aven. I'm this idiot's cousin. So are you excited about going to school?"

"Only a little bit," Tom answered, looking every bit like he was scared out of his wits by the thought of going to school. "But it will be better than staying at the orphanage."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jinseri lied.

"So, what house do you think you will be in, Tom?" Harry cut in.

"I think I would like to be in Slytherin, although I heard that they don't normally accept Muggle-borns."

"Oh, nonsense, I sure that you will get into whatever house you want to be in."

"So, know any wizarding games yet?" Jinseri asked.

"No, I didn't even know there were wizarding games." Tom looked nervous.

"Well, of course there are. Let's start with exploding snap." Jinseri looked excited as she started digging in her bag.

Just then the compartment door opened and the three saw what looked like another first year dragging her trunk behind her.

"I'm sorry to barge in like this, but every other first year compartment is full and I couldn't find anywhere else to sit. Is it okay if I sit here?" The girl had brown hair and enticing violet eyes.

"Of course, I could never deny a lady a seat." Ayilis stood up and shook her hand. "My name is Ayilis Aven," he pointed to Tom, "this is Tom Riddle, and that lummox in the corner that hasn't even looked up is my cousin, Jinseri."

"Nice to meet you," she answered as she pushed her trunk onto the rack, "Oh, I'm so sorry, where are my manners? My name is Kinslo Vandom." Just as she was sitting down the door opened again, this time showing a boy and a girl.

"Hello, come in and sit down. There's plenty of room in here," Jinseri said after finally finding the exploding snap cards. She helped push the two trunks onto the rack and shook both the girl's and boy's hands. "My name is Jinseri Aven, and that is my cousin, Ayilis. The other two are Tom Riddle and Kinslo Vandom." Tom and Kinslo nodded at them and moved aside to make more room on the benches.

The girl spoke first. "My name is Domino Txildo, and this is my maternal cousin, Myles Henston. We are both purebloods." She pushed her black hair out of her deep blue eyes after she said this and sat down stiffly.

"And my name is Myles, if you didn't guess, and don't worry about her. She's just stiff around new people." The boy was much more casual and charismatic. He smiled and ruffled his strawberry blond hair.

"Well, now that the introductions are finished, why don't we sit down and start this game of exploding snap?" Jinseri smirked and passed out the cards.

The group seemed to get along fine. Everyone was a pureblood except Tom, and they all seemed to know each other from various dinner parties that they had attended as kids. They all seemed to think they would get into Slytherin and were surprised when they heard that Tom also wanted to be a Slytherin.

"You know, it's unusual for a Muggle-born to get into Slytherin," Kinslo remarked.

"I know, but I really think that I would fit in there. I would like to be dorm mates with you guys." Tom was surprised when the others laughed at him. "What's so funny?"

"Tom, there are no dorms in Slytherin." Myles answered.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the other houses have to have dorms because there isn't a lot of room in the towers, but Slytherin has most of the dungeons to itself. Everyone in Slytherin gets their own room, but you have to fix the rooms up if you want to live in them. On the first day of the year and the start of every semester afterwards, every Slytherin gets to pick a new room. There are very few furnished rooms, and if you want one, you will have to fight to get it. The seventh years usually get the best rooms because they have the most power and knowledge, but Lord Aven here could probably get a good room easily, because no one will want to get on his bad side," Myles explained.

Domino then took over. "Every pureblood is raised to know how to fight so that when they go to Hogwarts, they will have a better chance of being higher in the hierarchy."

"There is a hierarchy?" Tom said nervously.

"Yes. Every year has its leader, and the others of that year usually follow what the leader does outside the common room. However, inside the common room, it's survival of the fittest. The leader must be the strongest of the group, so there are fights at the end of the semester to see who gets what spot." Domino continued.

"This is designed to prepare you for the real world. It is very harsh inside the common room. In the other houses, house elves pick up after you, but in Slytherin, you have to earn the luxury. You have to learn to make it to the top. If you aren't the smartest or fastest or strongest, you have to have something else to help you get to the top, like blackmail or a certain skill no one else has," Myles said.

"It's dog eat dog." Kinslo finished.

"I don't believe that." Everyone looked, surprised, at Ayilis. "I think the best skill you can learn is making and keeping powerful friends. People you can trust to protect your back while you're fighting the front. Sometimes you can't be the leader, but you can back up someone else while they protect you. It's a win-win situation."

"I agree with Ayilis. I would follow him to hell and back because I knew that nothing would happen to me while I did," Jinseri added. The group sat in silence for a few minutes, cards forgotten while thinking over what the two Avens had said.

Finally, it was Myles who spoke. "I guess I never looked at it that way. I was raised to think that you had to be on top no matter what, but I wouldn't mind following you, Lord Aven." Kinslo and Domino nodded as if agreeing to what Myles said. He put out his hand. "Let's see how you do. You know that most of the year won't just follow your lead automatically you will have to prove to them that you are worth the loyalty." His eyes sparkled as if he too was looking forward to the first semester fights.

Ayilis smirked. _Not even at Hogwarts yet and I have my first follower. Not too bad, Harry, not too bad at all_. "I gladly accept your offer and will make sure that I prove to you that I am a worthy leader." Harry took his hand and was surprised when another hand fell on top of theirs.

Kinslo smirked widely at him. "What he said." She nodded over to Myles. Domino and Tom placed their hands on the pile next. Jinseri finished it off. They all smirked at each other for the next few seconds before they let go.

"Now, let's finish this game," Jinseri said. They all let their carefully constructed masks break for a second while they laughed. A feeling of camaraderie grew as they picked up their hands again.

An hour later, they finished their first game and took a break before starting the next one. Jinseri used this time to make her way to the bathroom and was surprised to hear some crying in one of the stalls. Jinseri opened the door to that stall slowly. A brown haired girl was crying her eyes out inside. Jinseri carefully sat down next to her.

"What's the matter?" Jinseri asked softly while patting her back. Unfortunately, this only caused the girl to cry harder. "Shh, it's ok; just tell me who to beat up." That got a choked laugh out of the girl.

"It's nothing, just my sister," the girl whispered into Jinseri's shirt.

"If it were nothing, you wouldn't be here crying, would you?"

"Helda told me that I'll never make it into Gryffindor. And she's right, I won't because I'm such a coward. Then my parents will be really mad at me, and Helda will make fun of me and tell people that I'm the stupid twin again." She began sobbing again.

"It's fine," whispered Jinseri as she began to rock the girl. "You're not stupid, and you're not a coward. Who is Helda, anyway?"

"She's my twin, but she was born first so she's the heir and I'm just a stupid little extra person that nobody really wants or needs, especially not my parents. She makes fun of me a lot. But she's right. I'll never get into Gryffindor, and I'll probably be in Hufflepuff or something."

Jinseri hugged the crying girl closer. "There isn't anything wrong with Hufflepuff; it's as good as any other Hogwarts house. However, as your parents obviously don't realize how great you are, you will need to show them. Become a Slytherin with me. My cousin Lord Aven will protect you. Don't go running back to your sister. You are better than her and you should know it."

"You really want to be friends with me? But I'm so weak; I won't be any help at all."

"That doesn't matter; I'll show you how to help. Come on." Jinseri helped the girl off the floor and wiped off her tears. "Follow me." Jinseri walked out of the bathroom and to the compartment with the girl right behind her the entire way. She pushed open the door and pulled the girl in beside her. "This is…" Jinseri just noticed that she still didn't know the girl's name.

"Hilda Moonstone." She said shyly.

"Right. She will be joining us for the rest of the trip." Jinseri sat down in her spot again and gestured for Hilda to follow. Hilda made her way to the seat and then suddenly tripped, falling face first onto the floor. Ayilis got up off his seat and offered her a hand.

"Welcome to the group, Hilda. You will fit in perfectly, I'm sure." Ayilis helped her off the floor and into her seat. "Now where were we? Ah yes, I was just passing out the cards."

"What house do you want to be in, Hilda?" Kinslo asked softly while taking her cards from Ayilis.

"I was thinking about Slytherin, actually." She smiled at Jinseri.

"Great, you'll be with the rest of us then."

"I just had an idea. Domino, you said that the entire dungeons made up the Slytherin rooms, right?" Ayilis cut in.

"Yes, I think that every room that is connected to one of the Slytherin common hallways can be used as a room," Domino replied.

"Well, I was thinking-why don't we pick out a hallway and make all of the rooms into a little hideaway from the rest of the Slytherins? This way we won't have to fight for the good rooms, and we'll be away from the hustle and bustle of the power players of the hierarchy," Ayilis said.

"Hierarchy?" Hilda spoke softly. Domino and Myles took over and, once they introduced themselves, repeated what they had said before.

"So, all we would have to do is find an unused hallway with a lot of rooms attached, and we could make ourselves a common room of our own for just us seven. We would have a place where the other Slytherins couldn't spy on us or find us easily. What do you guys think? We could prove that Slytherin isn't all about being a loner," Ayilis said.

"I think it would be a good idea." Myles said. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

The rest of the trip passed quickly as the septuplet talked about their hobbies and played more card games. The boys walked out of the room when the girls were changing, and the girls gave the boys the same courtesy. Once they got to the train station, they lost each other in the large crowd.

"First years over here! Calling all first years to the boats!" The voice wasn't the same as Hagrid's large bellow, but it was very commanding in its own way. The man belonging to the voice was a tall (to an 11 year old) blond man. He didn't give any explanation to the large crowd of children surrounding him. Harry did a quick head count and rounded off the number of first-years at around 70, give or take a few.

The blond haired man led them to a fleet of boats that looked much the same as they did 60 years from now, rickety and old. Ayilis got into a boat and looked around for his friends. He spotted Jinseri and Tom, but the rest were lost in the tide of children rushing into the boats.

"Everyone, please get into a boat. Remember, only four to a boat." The Professor said as he directed them to the boats. When they got there, Ayilis, Jinseri, and Tom all got into a boat with a very scared-looking girl. Ayilis couldn't stop himself as he asked her, "What's the matter?" As soon as he said it, he regretted it, as the girl latched herself onto Ayilis and started crying on his shirt. Ayilis, surprised at the action, soon got over it and started rubbing her back and whispering small things to her that he thought would make her feel better. "Now, now there. What seems to be the problem?"

The girl, who had stopped sobbing and was now just sniffing, whispered into his shirt,

"I'm sorry about this. I just had a bad experience with water, and I haven't been near it in five years."

"It's okay. I hold crying girls all the time." The girl gave a choked laugh at this, and Ayilis went on. "Now, nothing seems to be a problem, besides the fact that my shirt is wet, and I can deal with that. So you just stay there as long as you need to. I will save you from the big bad water, ok?"

The girl gave another choked laugh and then snuggled up to Ayilis even more. Jinseri and Tom looked at him like he was crazy, and he just gave a small shrug. After all, why turn someone away if they might be useful in a few years? There was no reason for him to be stupid like Draco. You don't turn away potential allies. They sat quietly for a few minutes as the boat started moving. Jinseri, who was getting very uncomfortable with the silence, tried to make conversation.

"So what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Matilda Benosofits," she whispered into Ayilis's shirt. Jinseri coughed a little to cover up her laugh.

"So, Matilda, are you excited about going to Hogwarts?" Jinseri asked.

"Oh yes, very much. I couldn't wait to go here ever since my older brother got his letter." As Matilda said this, she looked up at Jinseri, but as soon as she did she saw the water and stuffed her head back into Ayilis's shirt.

"Oh, so your family is all magic?" This time it was Tom that asked; he seemed curious as well.

"No, my brother is and now I am. We weren't sure that I would be a witch, but I'm glad that I was. I was so looking forward to going here. My brother says nothing but good things about it. He's a 4th year this year. I wonder if I'll go into the same house as him. He's in Ravenclaw." Matilda said all this in one breath. As she finished, the boats arrived on the shore.

"We're here," Ayilis said softly to her. Matilda slowly looked up. When she saw that the boats had tied up, she leapt out of the boat and onto the shore. She looked as if she was about to start hugging and kissing the ground. The other three smiled at her antics and got out as well. Matilda blushed and looked down at the ground when she saw them looking at her.

"All students over here. Follow me." The professor led them all to the great hall, where they were greeted by a much younger Dumbledore. Dumbledore nodded to the professor, who took the hint and entered the hall.

"Welcome, first years, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am Professor Dumbledore, and I will be your Transfiguration professor. If you are sorted into Gryffindor, I will also be your Head of House. In a few minutes, I will come back and the sorting will begin. I suggest you all tidy up." After he said this, he went inside the door and everybody started talking about the sorting.

"So, how do you think we will be sorted?" Tom asked, and surprisingly, it was Matilda that answered.

"My brother told me in his first letter that he got sorted into Ravenclaw by putting on a hat. He also said that the hat sang first. I don't really think that's possible, do you? I mean, a singing hat?"

"Weirder things have happened before. This is the wizarding world, you know," Jinseri responded. "You know, I once heard you had to fight two trolls as a sorting ceremony." Both of the Muggleborns in the group started shaking. Jinseri and Ayilis started laughing. The two purebloods didn't have a chance to tell them that it was a joke before the doors to the Great Hall opened once again. Dumbledore organized everyone into a single file line and led them through the door.

The Great Hall looked much the same as it did in Harry's time. Even 60 years in the past it was the most beautiful part of Hogwarts. The sky was clear tonight, and Ayilis could see all of the constellations scattered about the night sky. As Hogwarts was out in the country, it didn't have a lot of city lights obscuring the beautiful night sky.

Ayilis was so caught up in the sky that he missed the sorting song, but he smirked as the boy and girl in front of him were quickly sorted into Hufflepuff and Gryffindor.

Ayilis stalked up to the stool as his name was called and bowed to the hat. By this time, the rest of the hall was whispering just as much as they had the time Harry Potter went to the hat. As the hat slipped over his eyes, the last thing he saw was the expectant looks of 500 children.

_Hello, time traveler. I didn't expect you, young Mister Potter._

_Well, I try to be unpredictable, Gilfred. _Harry smirked to himself.

_That you do indeed. I would ask how you know my name, but as you have blocked it from your memories, I am guessing that you don't want me to know._

_You would be guessing right, old friend. I know how much sway the Headmaster has over you, and even though Dippet won't think to ask, I am sure the next headmaster will not hesitate to use that advantage over you._

_I understand, but you do know I will have to repeat this conversation if asked, do you not? _Gilfred replied.

_I am well aware of this. I think that it is time, Gilfred, to sort me, and you know where I need to go, even if you don't want to admit it._

The voice seemed to almost sigh. _Very well. Goodbye, Lord Aven. I do hope that this turns out for the best. Come talk to me every once in a while. Goodbye, great-grand nephew. _"SLYTHERIN!" The shout came as no surprise to Harry, and he smirked as the hat was taken off his head.

Gilfred heard one last thought from Harry, and it was so quiet he later thought that it was a trick of his imagination. _Goodbye, Gilfred Gryffindor._

Harry approached the Slytherin table. The older students parted to allow him a spot, and he sat down without interruption. After all, why annoy a potential ally? Jinseri went right after Ayilis, and although he didn't know what was said, he could guess that it was close along the lines to his conversation with Gilfred.

"Benosofits, Matilda," was called next. After about a minute or so with the hat on her head, it shouted out, "**Ravenclaw."** Harry and Ginny clapped politely for her as she sat down next to an older boy who hugged her; probably her brother.

After two more sortings, the next girl caught Harry's eye. The reason she stood out so much was more because she didn't stand out. If Harry hadn't seen her standing in the first year line, he wouldn't have even guessed she was in his year. It was almost like a notice-me-not charm was cast on her. As he looked closer at her, he began to see an aura around her, and then suddenly the spell came into focus. There was a powerful spell around the girl-one that had the same result as a notice-me-not charm but was much, much stronger. Harry didn't think anyone, except perhaps Dumbledore, had the ability to see the spell, and Dumbledore was preoccupied at the high table. With average brown hair and blue eyes, there was nothing that really stood out about this girl except her name, which was called as Harry was scrutinizing her.

"Nzirv, Bziyilfts." It was an odd name, to be sure, but Ayilis was sure that this girl could be very useful. When the hat shouted **"Hufflepuff",** Harry smirked.

With the spell and a Hufflepuff tie, she was almost a custom-built spy. If Harry could get her to join his little group, she would be very good at gathering information on everyone in the school. With the charm, no one would notice her, and with a yellow and black crest on her robes, people wouldn't be suspicious of her. Harry noted her down as a person to befriend later.

Two more people passed into houses without Harry noticing, but once again his eye was drawn to the next first year, "Clauidous, Hemin." However, this time it was for the opposite reason. The boy strutted to the stool and stood arrogantly in front of the school before the hat was placed on his head. It was barely more than a second before the hat shot out **"Gryffindor".** Harry was only slightly surprised to see that he was in the enemy house. The boy walked and seemed so much like Draco Malfoy that it was scary. Harry felt an immediate antipathy to him.

The ceremony passed slowly, but Harry kept track of first years that he thought would be useful to approach or that stood out as people he didn't want to know. A pair of twins in particular looked like good allies as they each walked to the Slytherin table.

Myles was the next one in the group to get sorted, and the hat barely touched his head before it yelled "Slytherin". The line was getting shorter, and Harry eventually took out a book to write down the names of those he should approach. However, Harry came to attention as he heard a name called.

"Moonstone, Helda." Harry absently remembered her as the girl who had sat with them on the train and vaguely wondered if she would get her wish and join Slytherin. However, his attention was brought back to the girl when she walked up to the hat almost as arrogantly as Clauidous had. He was shocked when the hat called out, "Gryffindor", but regained his composure as the next name was called.

"Moonstone, Hilda." _Ahh, that would explain it,_ thought Harry. _They're identical twins. _The hat took almost 3 minutes to decide with the shy, timid girl that they had spent the train ride with, but finally it shouted out **"Slytherin".** It seemed that Harry had gained another follower, and he didn't even have to do much. Jinseri should be his recruiter more often.

A few more names passed by and Harry silently wrote down who he should look at. Harry once more jerked to attention when a familiar name popped up.

"Riddle, Thomas." Ayilis and Jinseri held their breath, but knew it was almost certain that he would join them in Slytherin. They didn't have to wait long to find out, and once again Tom was sorted into **"Slytherin".** Ayilis smirked. Yes, everything was going according to plan.

The rest of the sorting passed without incident, except for a few more people getting sorted into Slytherin. Domino and Kinslo both joined the group at their portion of the table. The last kid, "Yasmite, Isail", was sorted into Gryffindor.

Ayilis nudged Jinseri and passed her his notebook under the table. Jinseri quickly copied the list that Ayilis had been writing since the start of the sorting and pushed her list of recruits into her bag. They would look into those possibilities starting tomorrow. Headmaster Dippet stood up to make the customary beginning-of-year speech and smiled at all the students. He warned against pranks and spells in the hallways but, surprisingly, didn't mention the Forbidden Forest.

The septuplet ate dinner quickly and only made innocent small talk. As all Slytherins knew, conversations at the dinner table were apt to be overheard. As the first years finished up their meals, the dessert cleared from the tables. Ayilis glanced around and noticed that most of the people in the hall were done with their meals and seemed to be just waiting to get to their common room. In fact, it seemed like the only house that wasn't falling asleep at their tables was Slytherin House. Headmaster Dippet stood up while Ayilis was observing the hall.

"Once again, students, it's a new year at school, and I am happy to say that this year we have no new additions to the staff. Caretaker Hubert would like me to remind all students that there is a curfew and that all students caught out of bed will be punished accordingly. I would also like to remind students to respect the other houses and not to fight with classmates." At this he looked sternly at both the Slytherin and Gryffindor tables. "That is all for tonight. I would like to wish you a good year at Hogwarts."

The prefects stood up first and called the first years to them. Ayilis paid attention as an older Slytherin girl stood up. "Hello, first years. I am Cami Farien and I am a Slytherin prefect, so if you have any questions, please come to me. Now follow me. I will take you to the common room that will be your surrogate home for the next 7 years." The first years followed her down the stairs and soon found themselves at what looked like a blank wall in a dead ended hallway. "Independent thought," Cami said to the wall, which opened to a green and silver room.

The common room hadn't changed much through the years, it seemed. The room was still filled with green and silver couches and armchairs; there were also a couple of bookshelves placed against the walls and a large fireplace that many chairs were stationed around.

While the first years studied the room, many of the older students placed themselves around the room. From what Harry and the others could see, the seventh years got the chairs closest to the fireplace and seniority determined the proximity to the fire; all the way in the back of the room were the second years. Ayilis wondered silently why they were all staying in the common room and not moving to the dorms, but then he remembered that there were fights for the best rooms.

Harry was looking at the students trying to find each year's leaders when the entrance suddenly opened once again. This time, though, it wasn't another student, but a much older man who could have been very handsome if not for the scars that littered his face and hands. The scarred man walked to the center of the room with the grace that only a fighter could possess.

Once the man got to the center of the room, he turned sharply to the group of first years.

"My name is Professor Damon. I am the Slytherin Head of House as well as the Defense against the Dark Arts professor. I am here to welcome you to Salazar Slytherin's House. I will meet you at a later time to discuss all that you need to know about protecting yourself from the other houses, but right now the best thing I can do is give you one piece of advice. You will have to be the best you can be to make sure that the other three houses do not trample all over you. Anything that the other houses can possibly use against you they will, and they will not hesitate."

"You are considered by many to be part of the dark or evil house of Hogwarts, but this is false. You are neither dark nor evil, you are children. I am sorry to say this, but you will have to grow up fast. To help you develop your potential quickly, our house founder Salazar Slytherin himself created a program of training that we Slytherins rigidly adhere to today. It will teach you to be the strongest and smartest wizards in the wizarding world. Not only will you have to fight for the best rooms, you will also have to fight for the privileges and rights that come from being on the top."

"There will be tournaments every three weeks to see who wins privileges. If you are not skilled with dueling, don't worry because there are other contests. As first years, you will get one hour to look at all the rooms in the dungeons. If you find one you like that has already been claimed, you will have to fight for it. As Slytherin is the smallest house in Hogwarts and has the most dorm space, you will have a chance to get your own room. However, don't get too comfortable because every quarter someone else will get a chance to take the room from you. As you look at rooms, the older students will be in the dueling room fighting for rooms. When you are done and you have found the room you want, come to me and I will tell you if it is already taken and, if so, who you have to fight for it."

"One more thing: you don't have to fight for a room, but you must give payment of some kind to the other person if you don't fight. Good luck." After he finished his speech, he turned to the rest of the students and started talking to them about the fights that would be going on while the first-years looked at rooms.

Ayilis, Jinseri, Hilda, Kinslo, Domino, Tom, and Myles crowded around each other, and the other 8 first-year Slytherins started to wander about, looking at the rooms.

Jinseri started. "Ayilis and I have a lot of practice transfiguring and conjuring furniture and other things, so furnishing our rooms won't be a problem. However, we first need to find a place that will fit our needs. We have the entire dungeons, so it shouldn't be too hard to find something."

Myles took over. "Well, I guess we need a long hallway with 8 or 9 rooms and maybe a bathroom, if possible."

"I would like to have a fireplace in at least one of the rooms, and the hallway should be wide enough for two people to pass without touching," Ayilis said "So, that's basically what we're looking for. We should separate to go look at rooms; that way we can cover more space. Let's meet back here in 20 minutes and go over what we found." Everyone nodded to each other and took off briskly down a different corridor.

Twenty minutes later found most of them waiting around for Jinseri and Hilda. At the 22 minute mark, they were all surprised to see both Hilda and Jinseri running back to them, both with a large bag under each arm. They were smiling and laughing at one another as they arrived. Ayilis raised an eyebrow at them.

"Well, while the rest of you were searching old and dusty corridors that haven't been used in forever, we both managed to find the two corridors with the nicely furnished rooms in them. Let me tell you, they were worth fighting for. One of the best ones I saw had the same charm on its ceiling as the ceiling of the Great Hall has. All the rooms had really cool things in them. One room even had bookshelves covering each wall. So when we ran into each other, we talked for a bit and decided that the best course of action wasn't to fight for these rooms, but just take the best things out of them." Jinseri started laughing again as she said this, so Hilda took over.

"I know that it can be hard to do a lot of magic at one time, and I know it would be hard to make all of our rooms just the way we want them, so we have the entire contents of 11 of the best rooms in our bags, all shrunk and ready to be set up in whatever room we choose to put them in. I really want to see the faces of the winners when they walk into the rooms they fought so hard for only to find that they have no bed, dresser, or desk. We would have been along sooner, but I had to learn the shrinking charm, and believe me, I got plenty of practice." She and Jinseri fell into laughter again, and this time everyone else joined them. However, Ayilis cut them off after a minute because they still had to find a good hallway.

They spent the next six minutes running to each hall that was considered a maybe until they found something perfect. It was a long wide hallway that had 9 rooms and a bathroom at the end of the hall. Four of the rooms had fireplaces, and they were all about the same size, with one significantly bigger. The only problem with the hallway was that it was cut off from the main Slytherin common room by a five minute walk, but everyone agreed that it was better that way. Even though there wasn't an easy exit, it was perfect.

After Ayilis conjured a table in the largest room, Hilda and Jinseri carefully unloaded the bags and set the miniature versions of each stolen room on the table. As the other four crowded around the table, Ayilis cast anti-summoning charms on everything in the miniature rooms. Then they sat around the table and looked at the 11 shrunken room sets.

Ayilis was given first choice and decided to pick a dark-red room that had a very large desk and two bookshelves, as well as a few comfortable looking armchairs. Jinseri got next pick and chose a red and brown room that had a work table as well as potions shelves. Domino got a white and black room with a large white shag rug. Hilda chose a bright golden room that had her smiling. Tom chose a green and silver room that left no question as to where his loyalties lay. Kinslo went next and picked a tranquil blue room. Myles, lastly, chose a green and gold room. Of the 4 rooms left over, they decided to put the one with all the bookshelves in the largest room, which was the one that they were currently assembled in. It was also decided to use it as a main room as well as a library. They decided that the last empty room would be a potions and Herbology lab.

They all moved to their chosen rooms and began to set up the furniture. Ayilis, Domino, and Hilda had the only bedrooms with the fireplaces, but the main room also had a large one. As everyone else resized their furniture and started arranging their rooms, Ayilis walked to the entrance to the hallway and started casting wards.

In the few years that Harry had to himself before he went to Hogwarts, the two things that had always fascinated him were wards and ancient runes. Harry spent a lot of his free time reading books that focused around these subjects, and when he got to Hogwarts it was one of the many things he studied secretly on his own. He was disappointed that in the future he never got a chance to take Ancient Runes, but he had thought at the time that it might draw attention to the fact that he was smarter than he appeared.

Harry set up many of the easy wards he knew. The most important one was the notice-me-not ward that would hopefully keep away anyone he didn't want until he had the time to set up more complex wards.

The septuplet once again met in the hallway leading out to the main common room, and Ayilis explained the wards to them. He quickly showed them the wand movement and spell needed to key them into the wards, and after everyone was finished, they walked back to the common room.

The other 8 first years were already there looking nervous except for a pair of twins that were talking quietly about something and making big illustrated movements. As it was close to the end of the hour they had been given, many of the first years were really tired and ready to go to bed. Professor Damon didn't make them wait long and soon walked out of one of the doors connecting the common room with other parts of the dungeons.

He had a piece of parchment in one hand and a quill in the other. The other first-years quickly went over to him and started naming the rooms that they wanted.

Ayilis walked over calmly and waited patiently for the girl in front of him to finish describing her room. After she had finally left, he said, "Professor Damon, I have chosen a room in one of the unused sections in the back. I do not think it has a name, as it was very dusty when I went there." Damon just nodded and wrote something down. The others mostly said the same thing, except for Domino, Kinslo, and Jinseri. They each chose one of the better rooms, because chances were they were already claimed, and they each wanted to reinforce their images as ordinary first-years.

Jinseri was the first to be entered into a fight with someone else; she had chosen the room with the charmed ceiling. The dueling room was one of the largest rooms in the castle- almost the size of the Great Hall if Ayilis measured right. In the center was a raised platform covered in cushions and, from what Ayilis could see, many protection wards to completely protect the audience and protect the duelers from death or serious injury-after all this was a school.

Jinseri walked onto the platform and bowed silently to her opponent, a tall teenage boy with what looked like a serious acne problem. Jinseri wanted to lose to this guy, but she also wanted to lose believably-she was, after all, one of the infamous Avens, so she would have to know how to defend herself. The pimply boy wasn't surprised that a first year wanted to take the room, but he didn't want to hurt her in the duel. Jinseri could tell by the way that he was looking at her that he was underestimating her. That was all right because she wanted people to think she was weak. This would give her an advantage later if she ever needed to pull off the inexperienced-first-year pretense.

The duel started out slow. The older boy was just casting Petrificus totalus and Expelliarmus at her first year spells. Jinseri wasn't going to go down that quickly, though, and put up a shield to protect her. She pretended to wear out quickly and went down to a Stupefy. When she was revived, she shook the boy's hand and went over to the stands to sit next to Ayilis.

"Well, was I believable?" Jinseri questioned.

"Yes, you did very well at losing. I just hope that others can fail as believably as you have," Ayilis replied without even looking away from the platform where another couple was dueling.

Myles laughed at Jinseri's expression and said, "Don't worry. I think everyone believed that you were incompetent." Jinseri got a furious look on her face and stormed out of the room. Myles and Hilda laughed together while everyone else smirked.

Kinslo was supposed to go next on the dueling form, but instead withdrew herself from the competition after looking at her opponent. She didn't want to get hurt, but it worked because now everyone thought she was weak.

Domino had her duel next and went down easy to a well-placed Petrificus totalus to her legs. Afterwards, they all headed back to their rooms. It had been a long day and most of them were very tired. Ayilis was the only one who stayed awake.

He looked over the list and started putting names to faces. The twins he saw were named Ropert and Rupert Dismi. Myles, Domino, and Kinslo didn't seem to know them, but even so, that wasn't an indication that they weren't pureblood. Ayilis smirked and put away his list. He lit the fire and crawled into his warm red blankets. The time had come, and he was at Hogwarts. Part 1 was in motion, and he already had his first recruits. Time to get this on a roll.

* * *

Alrighty than, now this might be a personal record so don't get to comfortable with the update spend, but now that I've got a wonderful fantastic beautiful beta, mergirl, that will hopefully get my ass into gear about writing these chapters quicker, but please be patient with me. I know that this is hard, but I don't think is that big of a story anyways so hopefully there won't be anybody following this story religiously(just an expression, not a political statement). Okay, now that my life is officially over, I'm back at school, this time a boarding school, made with hard ass teachers who wanted me to find 45 books on one history topic.

But enough about me, tell me about you, drop me a line, just click on that little box in the left hand corner and I will get back to you, It's calling to you. Alright, that's all for now folks, till another day! Rain

P.S. Remember your unique just like everyone else!

Update: I have changed the hair color of Domino from red to black. I don't think anyone else cares, but I do. Sigh.


	4. The First Day

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

**Recap:** Harry after reading about the prejudices of the wizarding world and seeing it with his own eyes Harry decides to change it. He traveled through time to Tom Riddle's first year at Hogwarts. His plan is to befriend Tom and become the Dark Lord instead of Tom. He has made allies on the train coming to Hogwarts and after getting sorted into Slytherin he and the allies he made set up a group of rooms away from the others. He has become Lord Ayilis Aven, the Head of Ancient Aven family, a pureblood family with quite a reputation.

Chapter 4: The First Day

_Friday, September 2__nd__, 1938_

Ayilis gracefully got out of bed. The red silk covers slid away and Ayilis slipped onto the cold floor soundlessly. His eyes searched around the room surprised. Ayilis had gone to sleep the night before with his clothes and personal objects packed away safely in his trunk, but as he looked around the room now his books and clothes sat neatly on their shelves. He was still pondering this when the door opened to show Jinseri standing in the doorway.

"Wake up, oh cousin. You are missing the light of day." She practically yelled. Ayilis sighed he knew there was a reason why she was put in Gryffindor the first time around.

As Ayilis padded across the stone flooring to the rug he shrugged to her, "The light of day can wait." He opened the door to the large walk-in closet and sighed again, it wasn't fun being stuck in his 11 year old body again. What he did for the name of justice.

"Well, that's no fun cousin and right after I fixed up your room for you. You should be more grateful." Jinseri laughed out as she plopped into one of the chairs scattered around the fireplace.

"Thank you." Ayilis said in a very sarcastic voice. "Poor, old me couldn't have possibly put away all of _my_ things."

"I just wanted to help and I was bored with everybody still asleep I had no one to talk to."

"You could've read a book."

"Yes, but that's boring. Well, enough of this must everybody else is awake as well now. I thought maybe we could use this day to get to know each other better maybe even learn some useful spells. After last night I don't think the older students will be very happy with us." She burst into laughter.

"Very well," Ayilis pulled on a green button up and some black pants, "lets not keep them waiting shall we." He walked in front of the mirror and started fiddling with his hair.

Jinseri smiled at him and came up behind him, she was at least 2 inches taller than him, "Here, let me help you with that." She carefully pulled back most of his hair letting just a few pieces lie around his face. She started making a lose braid with his hair. As she was coming to the end of his hair she waved her wand and made the hair grow to mid back. She kept braiding until she ran out of hair and tied the ends with a black ribbon.

Ayilis's long red and black hair was now tied in a lose braid that seemed to keep all the hair out of his face. He thanked Jinseri and started making his way out of the room, but just as he got to the door he turned around and picked a book off of one of the bookshelves.

Jinseri smirked as she saw the title of the book, or as Harry had liked to call it 'The Encyclopedia of all Things Magical'. The both walked across the hall to the biggest room and walked in.

The hall was set up that Ayilis's room and the study room was the closest to the exit of the hall. Next to Ayilis was Jinseri and across from her was Tom. Domino was next to Tom and Myles was across the hall from her. Kinslo was next to Myles and Hilda was across the hall from her. The last 2 rooms were a bathroom and a study.

When they walked into the room all eyes suddenly went to Ayilis. Ayilis now feeling slightly embarrassed for some reason stalked across the room and sat down in a black leather chair that was closest to the fire.

"So why have we gathered here?" Ayilis asked calmly.

"I just thought it would be a good idea to get to know each other a little more than just our names." Kinslo explained to the group. "As you already know I'm Kinslo Vandom, I am from the Most Great and Cunning House of Vandom…" before she got any farther Tom cut in.

"What does that mean?" When the other's shot incredulous looks at him he shrank back in embarrassment.

Kinslo calmly explained, "All pureblood families that can trace their line back to more than the 8th generation have titles to their names. From 8th generation to 15th they are called Old, from 16th to 25th they are called Grand, from 26th to 50th they are called Great, and from 50th generation and above they are Ancient. There are only about 12 of Ancient families in the world right now; the most notable are the Blacks, Bones, and Avens." She nodded to Ayilis at that point. "That only means that they have not had a muggle or muggle-born in their family for as far as they can trace, but creature are still permitted. Blacks were known to have dark elf in their blood, and the Malfoy family while not an Ancient family yet is only 3 or so generations away, they have veela in their blood."

"And what about the second part?" Tom asked quietly.

"That is just the description of the House. Take the Blacks, their description is the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. They were once nobles under King Author's reign of the Magic community. I am as 30th generation Vandom, and the title for the Vandom's is cunning, not the most original, but we have never been known as smart. My brother, Henry, is the heir of the family, so no one ever pays attention to me. I am expected to be the good pureblood wife. I can dress, control the house, I have hosted parties and I am expected to be married and have a child by 18. Even going to Hogwarts is a privilege for me, because I never expected to go. I actually have my current place here to Ayilis. I am supposed to get close to him and marry." At this she blushed and looked down.

After a few seconds Kinslo continued, "I am well versed in traditions, religion, laws, knitting, fencing, and martial arts." At the last one everyone looked surprised, "My mother when marring my father insisted that I be taught at least 2 ways to protect myself without a wand. She hated my father, but she had an arranged marriage with him. She forced some of her own rules on him and forced his to comply. Even when she died so long ago my father was so scared of her memory that he let me have the lessons just like she would have wanted. Well, that's it about me who will go next?"

Domino took over, "I am the 49th generation in the Most Great and Inventive House of Txildo. My family is known to be Spell Crafters. Almost everyone has the ability to become a Spell Maker which is why the ministry employs _muggle-borns_ to do most of the work, but to be a Spell Crafter you have to be born with the talent. Part of the reason the Txildos are so revered because for others making new spells takes a lot of time maybe years, but my family can make spells in a week. This also means that my family is really sought after by ministries and companies." Domino took a breath and then continued.

"You may also have noticed that I am the 49th generation which means I am being pushed into marriage so that our family can become part of the Ancients. I have spent a lot of my life reading books and making prank spells and small hexes, but so far everyone in my family says I have potential. Luckily, my family doesn't have any rules about only males taking the heir title so I am the heir to the family."

Myles then spook up, "I am Domino's cousin from her mother's side. My full name is Winston Henry Lindsey Myles O'Reilly Hopper Henston. I am expected to take over my father's business of investments and have been trained in arithmetic, strategy, and English as well as being taught by my relatives in the business. While my family is not titled yet we only have 2 more generations. My mother wanted me to be a diplomat so I am fluent in 6 languages working on a 7th. I also have some skill in transfiguration. I also have a little sister named Mercedes that is 4 years younger than me." He broke out in a silly grin as he sat down excitingly asking Kinslo, the unfortunate person who sat next to him, if she wanted to see pictures of Mercedes.

Hilda was the next to speak, "My name is Hilda Julius Moonstone. I have a twin sister, Helda Moonstone, who is the heir to the family. My family's title is the Most Grand and Discerning House of Moonstone. My family comes from a long line of archeologists and explorers. Unfortunately, since my sister is the heir she is the one who gets all of the tutors and extra classes. She has learned to be a very good hunter, but being spoiled has ruined her for traveling and archeology. I learned after being ignored for the first few years of my life that if you want something you have to go get it. I have followed her workload and snuck into many of her classes. I think I am just as good as she is and I have a better knowledge of how to explore big buildings."

Hilda continued, "I know I am probably not as good of a dueler as some of the people here and I am not as good with fighting magics, but I am great at other subjects. I am great at potions and herbology, since you have to know many potions and antidotes to survive different terrains. I am good at sewing and cooking and some other household chores. I don't know much though and I am hoping that everyone can help me catch up. One more thing, thank you so much for accepting me into the group I am more grateful than you can imagine."

Jinseri stood next. "My name is Jinseri Pemida Aven and I am the cousin of Duke Ayilis Pollux Aven. I can cook, clean, sew, and do most any other household tasks that need to be done. I know a lot of the laws since the Avens are known to be diplomats. I have learned French, Latin, Spanish, and German. I am good at Transfiguration and Charms. I have an outgoing personality and I am a morning person. I will help you if I can and I only want the best for everyone. I was raised with Ayilis and have know him all of my life. So if you want to know some embarrassing secrets I have the mother lode."

Tom was next. "I am sorry if I'm nervous. I was raised in an orphanage and I don't know anything about my parents. So they could be wizards, but I don't know. I don't know anything about magic and I don't know what I will be good at. I know I like fighting and I am good at defending myself. I also enjoy chess, so if you want to play I'm open."

"Last, but not least my name is Duke Ayilis Pollux Aven. I am 11 years old and I am the head of the Most Ancient House of Aven. The Avens are known for being the best at their chosen profession. Most chose to be diplomats, writers, or researchers. I have a legacy that is hard to live up to and I will be challenged my entire life. My family is the head of 3 guilds and 22 major companies, only 18 of which are in the wizarding world. My family has long stood for magical beings rights and I have many non-wizarding allies. I plan on being the most well-known of Avens and plan on taking the world by storm. I hope that all of you will follow me on that journey. I am good at most magic, but healing gives me trouble. I have tried most magic fighting and hope to travel to different wizarding societies to learn their skills. Thank you all for choosing to join me and you won't be disappointed, I promise."

Tom spoke up, "No, Ayilis, I'm the one who should be thanking you. Without you, we would have never met each other. Kinslo wouldn't be here and I would still be bullied by those older students. Now can someone explain what guilds are?"

"A guild is gathering of old pure-blood families for one specific purpose, such as potions or enchanting. For example, the Vandom's are part of the Enchanters Guild and the Potions Guild. Guilds are a way of getting the pure-blood families that are good a particular thing introduced to each other. Arranged marriages often happen at guilds because families want heirs who are good at the subject." Kinslo answered.

Ayilis spoke up, "Tom I have something I want to borrow to you. It will explain the wizarding world in an upbeat way." Ayilis then pulled out The Wizarding World: For Muggle-borns, "I know it doesn't look very exciting, but it is very useful in explain the wizarding world to people who haven't grown up in it." Ayilis was cut off by Domino's gasp.

"Is tha-that what I th-thi-think it is?" Domino asked shakily.

Ayilis smirked at the tone in her voice, "Why yes Domino I think it is what you think it is, but let's share with everyone else what you think it is. That why I'll know for sure we are on the same page."

"That's a banned book. It was banned by the ministry 3 months after it was written because it caused so much controversy. It's supposed to talk about the entire history of the wizarding world, even the parts that the ministry covers up in shame. Can I read it next, please?"

"Of course you can, but Tom I have to explain to you that you can never bring this book out of the hallway. Do you understand? If you are caught with this book, the ministry will arrest you, burn the book, and stick you in Azkaban for the rest of your natural life?"

Tom nodded his head franticly and opened the book to start reading. That was everyone's sign that the meeting had ended. Kinslo went over to the walls of books and started to look for something to read. Hilda escaped to her room. Domino joined Tom and started reading the book.

By the time they had ended the conversation it was getting close to lunch time, so Ayilis, Jinseri, and Myles decided to go eat something. Before they left Jinseri decided to pick up the list of potential allies that they had made last night.

When the three got to the common room they were bombarded with older students who dragged Ayilis away from Myles and Jinseri to they could introduce themselves. Jinseri glared onto the group and was about to drag Myles away to go eat when she heard a chuckle from behind her. She turned around suddenly to see what looked to be a 5th year student reading a book. The student had a lean body and dark hair.

"What are you laughing at?" asked Jinseri angrily.

"Nothing, just the bloody, pure blood idiots who couldn't tell that Lord Aven didn't want to talk to them even if their heads weren't stuck so far up their arses." said the mysterious student.

"Well that is true. Hello, my name is Jinseri Aven I'm Lord Aven's cousin. Who are you?" asked Jinseri.

"It's my pleasure Lady Aven," at this he took her hand and gave a gentle kiss to the back of it, "my name is Maxwell Bones. I am also the unfortunate person who had to keep up with all of them before Lord Aven came along. I must say I owe a great deal of gratitude to Lord Aven for taking those gormless prats off my hands."

"Wow, it's really good to meet you. I'm sure Ayilis will want to talk to you. We were just about to go get something to eat do you want to come?" Jinseri asked.

Maxwell replied, "Sure, I think that is a great plan, but who is coming with us?"

"That would be me," Myles cut in a little pissed at being ignored for so long. "Hello, my name is Myles Henston. I think we've met before at a party."

"Yes, I think so." Maxwell shook Myles hand as he spoke. "So are we ready."

As Jinseri, Maxwell, and Myles were all leaving for lunch and joking Ayilis was still being attacked by many of the older students trying to introduce themselves.

"Hello Lord Aven, my name is Arthur…"

"It's such a pleasure. We should talk more sometime…"

"…good to meet you. I know we haven't met…"

Ayilis got so tired of it after awhile that he finally cast a sonorous charm, "You all should be ashamed of yourselves. Behaving like brainless twits. You are part of proud noble families and this is how you greet someone. I am almost ashamed to call Slytherin my house. I realize that you all want to get to know me and become my friend, and I don't care if it's your parents or your ambition, there are no excuses for forgetting all the lessons in etiquette that you have ever been taught. However, this doesn't mean that I don't want to meet you, but I will forget you if I meet all of you at the same time. I have a plan to meet all of you throughout the school year, since undoubtedly you will all be busy. Every day I will sit with a different group of student at the three meals of the day. I promise that I will give everyone the same amount of time. I will start with the 7th years and then go to the 5th years, since they are the ones that will have the hardest year because of OWLs and NEWTs, I will then go with seniority: 6th, 4th, etc. I will start this plan tomorrow and I will be sitting with my friends for today, thank you."

Ayilis climbed down from the table that he had somehow gotten onto during the tirade. He walked briskly back to his rooms, because an adult never storms off. He grabbed Tom, Domino, Kinslo, and Hilda to use as human shields if anyone else wanted to talk during lunch.

* * *

_Saturday, September 10__th__, 1938_

Ayilis moved away from the lunch table that had been his prison for the last 2 hours and hurried to the library to find Domino. The week had been busy, with everyone getting settled after summer break. Ayilis had been making friends all week in both his classes and meals. He almost never had any time to spend with his friends except for when they were all doing homework.

Jinseri had made a really good friend in Maxwell, who Ayilis had met when he ate lunch with them. Ayilis just made the bond they had stronger by telling Maxwell about all the rare plants that were at Aven Manor and inviting him to spend part of the summer with them. It turned out that he was really good at herbology and loved plants.

Ayilis had also introduced himself to the rest of his year mates. All those in Slytherin were already looking up to him and most in the other houses were too. The only real set back was when he introduced himself to Hemin Clauidous, the boy who was stuck up at the feast. It turned out that his uncle was Headmaster Dippet and according to him that gave him the right to rule the Gryffindors. However, that didn't mean that Ayilis turned him into an enemy. In fact Ayilis made Hemin think that they were the best of friends. Ayilis used the friendship to his advantage to talk to all the other Gryffindors. He met 5 people who he thought he could turn to his side. The house with the most people in his year was Hufflepuff with 21 people. Ayilis had initiated a friendship with everyone he could in his year and was working on getting everyone from Slytherin on his side.

However, gaining allies wasn't the only thing that Ayilis was doing because as it turned out a school does, in fact, have classes. None of the teachers were the same except for Professor Dumbledore who was the Head of Gryffindor house and the Transfiguration teacher and Professor Binns, the History of Magic teacher. The Charms teacher and Head of Hufflepuff house was a tall, lanky man named Professor Crove. He had a son who was in the same year as Ayilis in Hufflepuff house named Michael Crove. The Head of Slytherin House was Professor Damon, who was also the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher. The Head of Ravenclaw house was also the Arithmancy teacher, but Ayilis hadn't met her yet. She was apparently an old woman who was very joyful and was a trickster, but that's just was Matilda told them.

Surprisingly, the teacher Astronomy teacher was a Malfoy. Professor Denarius Malfoy wasn't like the other Malfoys that Ayilis had met. He was very outgoing and cheerful. He was in Ravenclaw house in school and was neutral in his political beliefs. He had 2 children, Abraxas and Livonia. Abraxas was the Head Boy and was the top of the Slytherin hierarchy. Livonia was in Ayilis's year and was in Ravenclaw like her father.

The herbology teacher was Professor Hun a short and bubbly Asian who had many scars and burns covering her hands. The most disgusting teacher was the potions teacher, Professor Slughorn. He even invited Ayilis to his 'prestigious' Slug Club which apparently he only invited the most influential of students to go to.

Ayilis hadn't met any of the rest of the teachers, but did know the names. The librarian was Mrs. Caesar a middle-aged woman who was always laughing at the students. The Caretaker was Mr. Hubert who wasn't as much of a git as Filch was. The groundskeeper was Ms. Janet Iris the heart throb of the school's boys. The flying teacher was Mr. Kingsley who might have had some relationship with the member of the Order of the Phoenix, but he really seemed to hate Professor Dumbledore so maybe not.

All of the teachers were different from the ones who taught Harry and all seemed to be better teachers, but Ayilis was actually paying attention this time around not just goofing off. The best teacher that Ayilis had so far was without a doubt Professor Damon. He was the best DADA teacher that Ayilis could ever hope for. Ayilis had taught himself how to fight with magic and had gone over every type of magic that he could find. He was worried that when he got to DADA he would be bored. However, this wasn't the case.

* * *

_Tuesday, September 6__th__, 1938_

Ayilis hurried out of the Great Hall after breakfast. He had lost track of time talking was Abraxas Malfoy and his friends. They had a lot of interesting stories to tell about the school and the secret passages in the Dungeons. Ayilis even heard of a few new ones and promised himself that he would explore the Dungeons more on the weekend.

Ayilis turned a corner and almost bumped into Matilda.

"Oh, sorry Matilda I didn't see you there." Ayilis apologized.

"No, it was my fault Lord Aven. I should also apologize for that whole mess on the way over the lake. I have knitted you a scarf that I wanted you to have to make up for it. Unfortunately, I don't have it with me. Do you think we could get together sometime after classes?" Matilda asked excitedly.

"I think that would be great. How about 4:00 in the library?" Ayilis asked hurriedly.

Matilda nodded and was just opening her mouth to say yes when Ayilis cut her off, "Again sorry, but I'll be late for DADA if I don't run."

Ayilis sprinted down the hallway with only a half wave as a goodbye. Ayilis made it up 4 flights of stairs in 5 minutes and got to class to class with 2 minutes to spare. He opened the door and walked briskly over to the empty seat that Jinseri had saved next to her. However, Professor Damon wasn't even there yet so Ayilis had a few minutes to calm down and clean up. The class was Gryffindors and Slytherins. The classroom looked like it was divided by an invisible line down the middle of the room with Gryffindors on one side and Slytherins on the other. Just as Ayilis was finishing setting up his note taking parchment the door burst open.

Professor Damon stride into the room as the door slammed shut behind him. He walked to his desk in front of the class and leaned against it.

"Welcome to your first class of Defense Against the Dark Arts. I am your teacher Professor Damon." The chalk wrote out his name on the blackboard behind him. "This class will be tough and I'm sure that some of your will be glad to drop it after your 5th year. But as it stands you will be with me for 5 years and there is nothing you can do about. I will push you to do your best and will always make you stretch your limits. This class will be a combination of the traditional DADA course of book reading, theory, and lowest level curses and a muggle Physical Education course. I've learned from my many years of travel that a well trained body makes using magic easier and stronger. Do not be discouraged. This is just first year. I promise I won't be making you do much fighting, but a lot of practicing moves." Professor Damon smiled wickedly at the class of frightened first years.

"Moving on, I will first introduce my assistant teachers for the year. The first is my former apprentice Ms. Kelly Dice. She will be your coach for many physical classes and believe me when I say that is what you want. She is an amazing teacher and will help you all greatly. The second is Mr. Gunivon Wimlbldon, a trainee Auror who will help you with your spells and theory. This is part of his training too, so I'm sure he will be great." The class clapped politely for both assistants, but was still in a slight shock.

"Now I have realized that there is a school rivalry between your two houses, but if I see any fighting in this classroom there will be severe consequences. Hopefully, there will not be enough time to be fighting, but if I do see anyone…" He left the threat open. "Now, to dissuade you from fighting I will be picking your partners. You will have to stay with this person the entire year so let us hope that you get along. Now everyone gather your stuff and stand against the back wall. When I call your name I will also point you to a desk that I will expect you to stay the entire year. Now let's get started."

"Isail Yasmite and Ropert Dismi"

"Steven Johnson and Domino Txildo"

"Jake Bumstine and Gemini Sevle"

"Kelly Thayer and Stri James"

"Helda Moonstone and Simito Avery"

"Cyan Teller and Myles Henston"

"John Smith and Lamoto Nichols"

"Hemin Claudius and Markus Pipter"

"Damen Christin and Rupert Dismi"

"Allen Stevens and Kinslo Vandom"

"Quin Jove and Ayilis Aven"

"Amanda Herbert and Tom Riddle"

"Senen Ethins and Jinseri Aven"

"Venston Taphine and Hilda Moonstone"

"Kevin Rosthorn and Mealon Thin"

"Jessica Amaston and Robert Lameion"

"Rinseve Luke and Penilaven Osborn"

All the desks were full and the students were getting to know there partners when Professor Damon started talking again, "There are seventeen groups in this room and all of them except for the last two have one Gryffindor and one Slytherin. The last two groups are both Gryffindors. I will leave this class period for you to get to know one another, but you have to read chapters 1-3 in The Guide to Self Defense in Theory."

* * *

_Saturday, September 10__th__, 1938_

The rest of that hour was spent talking to their Gryffindor partners. Quin Jove was Ayilis's partner. Quin was a half-blood whose father was a muggle and whose mother was a pureblood. She spent her child hood in a muggle school and was said to have to leave because she had made friends there. She was a very happy girl and a little of a tattle-tale.

Ayilis walked through the empty halls of Hogwarts contemplating the future. He hadn't really had much time to think about what he was going to do and was right now only concerned with making friends and allies with everyone he met. Ayilis stopped at the entrance to the dungeons. It was time to start exploring again.

Harry had always been afraid of what the future may hold, but Ayilis knew better. You can't stop the future, but you can manipulate the past so that the future will always be in your favor.

* * *

Hello loves,

Now I know what your thinking. "HOW COULD YOU!!" I know, Its been quite a while since I wrote last and I wouldn't blame you if you hated me for all eternity, but I would hope not. I do have an excuse, but just because I go to a boarding school doesn't give me the right to put off writing. I just want to apologize for being such a bad girl, but please don't hold it against me. I need you to review. If you don't then I won't write anymore and you really will be sad.

Ok, here is the set for the hallway:

Ayilis ( ) main room

Jinseri ( ) Tom

Myles ( ) Domino

Kinslo ( ) Hilda

Bath ( ) Study

In case I didn't explain it right. If you want to know more, ask questions, give constructive criticism, anything except flame PLEASE.

The little blue box is calling to you, you should answer!!

-- /A.N.


	5. The After Math, Quickie

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter Universe. I manipulate it to my advantage.

**Recap:** Harry after reading about the prejudices of the wizarding world and seeing it with his own eyes Harry decides to change it. He traveled through time, with Ginny, to Tom Riddle's first year at Hogwarts. His plan is to befriend Tom and become the Dark Lord instead of Tom. He has made allies on the train coming to Hogwarts and after getting sorted into Slytherin he and the allies he made set up a group of rooms away from the others. He has become Lord Ayilis Aven, the Head of Ancient Aven family, a pureblood family with quite a reputation. Ginny has become his cousin Jinseri Aven. After his first day at Hogwarts getting to know his new roommates and allies he sets up a system where he hopes to at least meet everyone in Hogwarts before the end of the year.

* * *

Chapter 5: 

_Wednesday, December 7__th__, 1938_

Ayilis panted as he sprinted to the finish line and passed a yellow line on the ground that marked the end of the race. He slowed down and fell to the ground in exhaustion. A yellow baton was in his tightly curled hand. He somehow got his panting body to crawl over to rest against a nearby tree and wait for the rest of his class to catch up. He didn't have to wait long for two more of his classmates, Cyan Teller and Ropert Dismi, to catch up and also fall to the ground near Ayilis's area. Tom arrived next. Then a group of about 5 others arrived including Domino's partner. Then came Ropert's brother Rupert Dismi. The next 2 were neck and neck, but Jinseri won against Kevin Rosthorn using the last bit of her energy. The last 5 trickled in slowly while the partners of the people who had already crossed the finish line also walked over.

"So how did you do Ayilis?" Myles still had his ridiculously cheerful smile on his red face when he asked.

Ayilis gave him a half-assed glare and replied with, "bugger off you overly happy git."

"Now where did that snarky reply come from? Not from my loveable, jolly friend I hope." Myles gave a cocky grin to Ayilis and slid down the tree next to him.

"How can you be so cheerful after that torture?" panted Jinseri as she fell down next to Ayilis.

"We just finished the mid-term test for DADA, my worst class and I passed. The real question is why you aren't as excited as I am?" Myles gasped out in one breath.

Jinseri just sighed and used Ayilis's leg as a pillow so she could relax more. The rest of the group was sprawled on the ground surrounding the two. They didn't get to rest very long before their tyrant of physical defense teacher; Assistant Professor Dice arrived to get them standing up.

"All right you wimps get your bums off the ground and do your stretches or you will really regret it tomorrow and then off to the showers. Stop your groaning this isn't a democracy and I will not miss dinner because you won't move your collective arses." As most of the students were struggling to move their feet Dice was starting to scowl at the slower ones. "I might have to remind you that I am extremely liberal with my use of the stinging hex." That caused even the slowest of them to scurry off to their respective dorms.

"So Ayilis will you be ready for the leader trails when you come back to school?" Tom inquired. The rest of their group nodded also curious and even the rest of their Slytherin year mates had an ear on the conversation.

"I am always prepared and that will not change with a new year. I look forward to seeing if anyone can best me. I do think that I will be the best at the tests since I have the most experience and the best team behind me. After all a leader with no one to lead is just a bossy person," replied Ayilis.

"I still don't understand what the big deal is having a leader for a year group." Hilda still did not think like a Slytherin, but the group didn't blame her, she had been raised by Hufflepuffs.

"Hilda, how many times must I explain it to you? The hierarchy system has been a cornerstone of Slytherin house since its conception. Salazar understood that students have arguments and to prevent any grudges from forming and a war between the members of the house he made a structure of leaders. Each year has a leader who has a deciding vote on any argument throughout his year. If the leader is the one involved in the altercation then the next year's leader get to decide and this happens throughout the years until the seventh years can call upon the Head of House in our case Professor Damon. This is also to prevent too much pressure and responsibility on the Head of House, because they have other work to be doing then sorting out every squabble that happens between members of his house." Domino described.

"Then what are the prefects for?"

"The prefects are the Headmaster's answer to the same problem. There are too many students for the professors to discipline all of the ruler breakers." Ayilis answered as they arrived at the dorms. "You forgot that it is also a competition and people study harder if there is a prize to be had." As the rest of the year mates separated to go to the common baths Ayilis and the rest of his group moved to their hall.

* * *

_Friday, __September 2__nd__, 1938_

Ayilis stumbled as a body crashed into him. The Slytherin common room had never looked so destroyed and the bodies of its upper year student had probably never been so bruised. After a long day of meeting people, pretending to get lost in the castle, and pretending that he was interested in the mystery of getting lost in castle all he wanted to do was go lie in the pool that was his bathtub and relax for a bit. Not take part in what looked to be a mob of bleeding idiots trying to bash each other's heads in which he personally had no problem with, but they were doing it in the way of where he had to go.

He pushed the body back into the mob and calmly turned around and stalked out of the common room to wait. Luckily he didn't have to wait long before Professor Damon walked around to corner quickly followed by one of the 6th year prefects that Ayilis had yet to meet. Ayilis waited a few minutes after his Head of House entered the room before following him in and leaning against the wall behind him.

"How dare you disgrace this house with your dishonorable behavior? I am ashamed to call you my students what caused this outburst of idiocy?" Professor Damon almost yelled. After the entire mob of them tried to talk at once, he had to quickly follow with a statement of, "one at a time if that is not too hard for your tiny brains to follow."

Abraxas Malfoy as the head of the hierarchy started, "Sir, there has been a problem with some of the rooms that were won at last night's challenges. They seem to have mysteriously lost all of their furniture."

"I see and when was this discovered and why didn't you come to me first?"

"Sir, it is my duty as head boy and leader of the seventh years to discover who had taken the furniture. I take full responsibility for not having told you, but I didn't want to disturb you on the first day back. I already tried to call some of the furniture back, but it didn't work. They must have put anti-summoning charms on it. The only people who access to the dorms before the challenges were other are the first years, but as far as we know none of them have the knowledge of such high level magic. The blighters who won the rooms got angry and started fighting."

The professor stood in thought for a second before smirking a bit. "That does seem to be a problem. After all you won the rooms fair and square, but there isn't one rule that says there has to be furniture in the room you won. If the furniture had been taken at any other time it would have counted as stealing, but since the furniture was taken before the rooms were won it means that you won rooms without furniture. Quite ingenious, I would applaud the Slytherin sly enough to think of it." He stopped for a moment to continue thinking. "This does leave some students without furniture which is a problem and since the challengers that won the rooms would have been expecting a certain prize for their fights I must award them." He clapped twice.

A house elf popped into existence surprising the few people that weren't used to them, "Yes, Master Damon, what can Flow do for you?" The house elf wasn't fidgeting like the other house elves he had seen and she was wearing a small purple dress with the Hogwarts crest over her heart.

"Flow, I will require replacement furniture for the rooms that had theirs stolen."

"Flow will get you furniture Master Damon." She bowed deeply and then popped out of the room again.

"There problem solved. I have not forgotten the fight and the entire house will participate in a detention in the Great Hall tomorrow after lunch. In an effort to keep daftness from spreading and house unity raising the detention will be for every member of the house, not just those that participated in the fight." As groans and angry voices rose from the mob Professor Damon quickly got sick of hearing them moan and followed with, "My hope being that if you don't learn your lesson from the detention you will learn it from your innocent housemates who no doubt be angry that you took away 2 hours of their weekend by your bloody stupidity." With that said the Professor stalked out of the room.

* * *

_Wednesday, December 7__th__, 1938_

The day after that was no cake walk or anyone as they were kept in line by their Head of House and his two assistants and forced to clean the entire Great Hall without magic. It is unknown whether it was actually cleaner after they were done, but the Slytherin house did gain a new respect for house elves that day. However, the three weeks of pranking the instigators the fight after that detention were very satisfying and really boosted house moral.

The boys pulled themselves out of the hot water of the pool known as their bathtub and dried off while talking.

"I think the best prank pulled on those 5 were the pink bunny ears and tail that they had for 3 days." Myles said enthusiastically.

"I don't know, I think the Gender-Bender curse was preformed spectacularly it stayed with them for an entire day that is almost unheard of." Tom inputted.

"But the guys seemed to enjoy it too much to consider it a punishment. What do you think Ayilis?" Myles asked.

Ayilis considered for a second, "I'd say the day after the detention was my favorite, you couldn't tell who or what they were just a big blobs of different colored stripes, multicolored hair, and beak noses on them."

The boys exited the bathroom and waved the girls in. The first thing they had done when agreeing to live on the same hall was to make up rules about what they were going to do after certain circumstances. The boys always got the bathroom first after physical exams because they were faster. The girls got the bathroom first in the morning because they were better at waking up early. Everyone would pick after themselves in the main room, but were allowed to keep their own room as messy as they wanted as long as they kept their doors closed.

They had other smaller rules about bathroom time and study times. They even made a study group to help each other out. Each of them had a talent that helped out the group. For example, Jinseri was really good at Transfiguration, Hilda was good at Herbology and Potions, Ayilis and Tom were good at Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Myles was the only one who could stay awake and aware during Binns history class.

The group worked well together and when they studied together they got done with homework quicker and did better work than the rest of their classmates.

Ayilis walked to the main room and plopped down in the chair closest to the fireplace. The chair was big and worn in. The giant fire place took up almost half the wall and could keep the room and nice warm temperature even on the coldest of nights in the dungeons. The rest of the walls were covered in book selves. Most of the bookshelves were filled with books that were copies of the books at the library, but one of the books they were lucky to get was an _Index_.

An _Index_ is a type of book that is made for particularly big libraries like the Hogwarts library. The _Index _is connected to a specific library and a specific bookshelf, all it has in the book are book titles, listed under genre or topic or title, there is also a search feature on some of the bigger library's _Indexes_. If a wizard hits a title of a book in the _Index_ that book automatically shows up in the bookshelf. This made studying for tests a lot easier and with no curfew in their dorms, they could find any book they were looking for. The books only stayed on the bookshelf for a week though, so if you wanted to keep a book you had to keep calling it back.

Each of the rooms had their own style and flare. Most of the furniture even came with its own tricks and unique characteristics. Domino's black and white room had a secret chess board hidden in the table with pieces that had been around for almost 400 years and were sentient enough to teach new players advanced techniques, needless to say, Domino became the best chess player in the group within a month.

Luckily for the group, it had been a month into school before the other Slytherin's had even noticed that half of their first years weren't in the regular dorm area.

* * *

AN: Hey guys just a quickie. not even 3,000 words. Sorry it has taken me so long, but my life has been one crazy mess until now. Graduation from High School and going to College. I have been busy. This was originally just the beginning of the chapter and I was going to fill in the rest later. More than this. I really wanted to get 10,000, but I will have to do that next time. I wanted to give you a gift on Halloween. Hopefully, you still are reading and haven't forgotten me completely. It's okay if you have. I haven't been a good writer.

Until Next time, (soon hopefully, sooner if you REVIEW!! PLEASE!!)

~Rain

PS. To the pu**y that wrote the flame review. Sorry that you are too much of a wimp to leave your screen name so that I can reply in kind to your stories. Unless you are really too much of wimp to even post any?? (afraid of flamers?) First of all, I do have people that review my stories and alert them so someone must be reading. Second, if you are going to criticize me at least be constructive about it. I know that I don't have the best story out there. This isn't about having the best story. This is about me practicing to be a better writer. I can take constructive criticism, I have already rewritten this story once. But telling me to "Go Kill Myself" isn't going to help anyone, especially me, A$$HOLE, I had someone very close to me commit Suicide this year. It isn't something to joke about. It really happens. Third, **you don't have to make me feel bad just to get your rocks off.** FOURTH, YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ!!!!! I don't know how I can make this anymore emphasized. This goes for all reader's out there. If you don't like someone's story/stories you DON'T HAVE TO READ THEM. Not only did you read this story... but my other one, that I haven't even looked at in years. OF COURSE THAT ONE IS BAD. I knew it. (It has now been removed) I work on stories hard. I try to get time lines correct. I like writing AU stories, but you don't have to read them.


	6. The Midwinter Festival

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter Universe. I manipulate it to my advantage.

**Recap:** Harry after reading about the prejudices of the wizarding world and seeing it with his own eyes Harry decides to change it. He traveled through time, with Ginny, to Tom Riddle's first year at Hogwarts. His plan is to befriend Tom and become the Dark Lord instead of Tom. He has made allies on the train coming to Hogwarts and after getting sorted into Slytherin he and the allies he made set up a group of rooms away from the others. He has become Lord Ayilis Aven, the Head of Ancient Aven House a pureblood family with quite a reputation. Ginny has become his cousin Jinseri Aven. After his first day at Hogwarts getting to know his new roommates and allies he sets up a system where he hopes to at least meet everyone in Hogwarts before the end of the year. As he finishes off the first semester he has to get ready for the Slytherin Leader trials.

**A.N: Before the chapter begins I want to apologize for the delay and say that this chapter was originally part of the Fifth chapter and as such it will start where the other left off. If you have forgotten, which is likely because it takes me forever to update, you should go back and read the ending of the chapter.

* * *

**

_Saturday, October 8__th__, 1938_

Ayilis moved his black rook to place Domino in check.

"You're getting better, sonny." His own king told him in a condescending voice.

"Thank you very much, my King." Ayilis mock bowed. The piece obviously didn't take it well because it gave him a cold shoulder for the rest of the game.

"So, how are the lunches going for you, Ayilis? Meeting a bunch of upperclassmen gits that think that they are better than you and you should worship them?" Domino said as she moved her piece out of check.

"They are very nice in their own way and they well become the future decision makers in the Wizengamot and other associations, I will not let these ties disappear. I will utilize my contact to the fullest extent like a proper Slytherin and I am surprised there are not others that are doing the same." Ayilis moved another piece on the board.

"Some of them are, but not to the extent that you are and never out in the open like you are, most of them use the common tools of black-mail and services to gain contacts and alliances, and 'check'". Domino replied.

"Well, that is their prerogative I suppose. I have made allies behind closed doors as well and it puts me in a better position to keep them if no one else knows we are allied, what better way to keep them hidden than to show the others a mask of openness." Ayilis moved another piece, but realized soon after that he had just lost the game.

"Checkmate, Ayilis." Domino's bishop overcame his king and shattered it. "So you have other allies that we didn't know about, huh?"

Ayilis's smirk was her only answer, "Well played, Domino." He got up and started walking out of the room.

"You don't just mean the game do you?" She said carefully picking up the pieces of the broken chess pieces and watched them nit together. Ayilis paused in front of the door for a second.

"It's all part of the game Domino." And walked out.

He moved down the hall and exited to the Slytherin common room. He was just about to move to the hallway before he was stopped by one of the contacts he was just talking about, Henry Quilis. He was a 4th year and was just invisible enough to make a great spy. He was contacts with some of the upperclassmen in Hogwarts and was the person to go to if you wanted a rumor confirmed or started for that matter. He was even discrete enough to get a good position in his year because of his skill set and a great room with enough hidden passageways leading out of it that everyone was pretty sure that you could get anywhere in the castle in under five minutes from the room, perfect for a sneak.

"Ayilis," Henry stepped into place beside him so smoothly that if it was anyone else they might not have even noticed until he spoke up. "I have been getting some questions as to you living quarters and I was wondering if you had anything you wanted to share."

Ayilis kept walking steadily until he settled himself into one of the many shadowed corners of the common room, this one also happened to have a small notice-me-not charm on it to kept eavesdroppers from overhearing them. Henry raised an eyebrow slightly at his choice.

"I like my privacy Henry and I don't like people poking around where I sleep. I'm sure you can understand that. If you have noticed that I am not living in the normal sleeping quarters than you must also have noticed that there are other first years that are not in the correct place either. I know the type of customers you have and I know that you will start stalking me if I do not give you an answer so I will ask you once how much it will take to make these questions go away?" Ayilis asked calmly.

Henry contemplated for a moment, "Two favors for future use and a tour of where you live which I will keep to myself."

"Absolutely not, will give you the favors but not where I live. I know exactly what type of person you are and if I can buy you than some else certainly can." Ayilis looked down on his for a moment and thought, "Unless, you are willing to do something for me."

Henry perked up, maybe he get the information anyway. "What do you need to know?"

"No, no, nothing like that, information is not needed currently. No, if I am to show you where I live I will need some kind of insurance that you will not repeat it to anyone. A vow, if you will. Of course, it is up to you, but if you want to know where I live so badly you will give me this vow."

Henry considered it for a moment then nodded.

"Very well, repeat after me…"

The vow was quickly followed with a short tour of his living quarters. He only got to see Ayilis's room and the common area of the hall, but the smirk he had on his face after he saw that stolen furniture stayed on for weeks, it was the kind of grin that said, 'I know something you don't know'.

* * *

_Wednesday, November 9__th__, 1938_

Ayilis placed his feet in front of the fire and let them warm up for awhile as he waited for the rest of the team to show up. Myles was the first to arrive, quickly followed by Tom and Jinseri arguing over when was the best time to put the beetle eyes into the Fever Reducer potion. Then Kinslo and Domino walked in with their books talking about the Transfiguration paper that Professor Dumbledore had assigned the class. The last in was Hilda as always was just a little late.

"Alright, I hereby bring the meeting to order." Ayilis stood up and waved his wand for a second. The largest table in the room was moved to the middle and the rest of the furniture was moved against the wall except for the seven chairs that they were sitting one. Ayilis was at the head of the table and the other six were on each side.

"We have a few things to talk about before the winter break. Midwinter is a great time in Wizarding Culture and it has been dying out slowly every since muggleborns have been taking over part of our culture. We cannot lose this battle or we risk losing our customs and values." Ayilis pounded the table at this point; the rest of the group was making sounds of agreement. "To combat this I will be making a traditional Midwinter festival and feast to celebrate the winter solstice, as is my duty as the Head of my House. I was planning on inviting some of the Heads of the other families and important politicians in the Ministry. I would like your opinion on it."

Kinslo was the first to speak up, "I have the most experience with hosting a pureblood ball. I would like to be involved if at all possible. I believe this would be a great idea, a sort of coming out to the community. There are many families that are interested in meeting you and getting on your good side. You will have a lot of influence when you get older and your birth name already guarantees you a spot on the Wizengamot when you get older. I think this would be the perfect time to show you cards."

"I agree with Kinslo this could potentially be a great jumping off point for you into the political scene. If this is to be a traditional festival though it could be a big ordeal, do you think we can have it set up in time?" Myles asked.

"It could be difficult to get the proper items, but I know some people that would be happy to help out if they got an invitation to see the spectacle." Jinseri added.

"All great ideas, I will set up with your families so that you can all be over at my manor a week before the celebration. This should give us some time to make sure that everything is set up correctly. Okay, we have to make a plan first and then contact all the right people, so let's get started. Myles and Domino, you both have received invitations to these types of events before, so I would like to put you on invitation duty. Myles should know the right people to invite and Domino should have the base in spells to make our invitation look impressive. It should be sophisticated, but show new ideas. Look into the delivery of the invite. Next, Jinseri and Hilda, I want you to get together and study how the wizards of old would celebrate. What foods they would eat, what blessings they would make, where they would get their decorations all of that and more I will leave the details up to you two. Tom, you and I will both take the lead on finding a proper ritual to hold to finish off the night. And last, but the hardest part, Kinslo, you are the only one in the group that has experience hosting this event, I would like you to take the lead on all things having to do with the planning of this. I want you to sign off on everything and make sure it is appropriate for the tone of the evening."

"I know this will be a lot of work and with finals coming up we will have to work harder than we have before. Our study sessions should stay at the same time, but our free time will be severely cut short if you intend to do this correctly." Ayilis let out a deep breath, "So are you with me?"

Jinseri looked around the table and stared every single person in the eyes, "Yes, my Duke I think we are."

* * *

_Wednesday, December 7__th__, 1938_

Ayilis settled into his chair at the head of the grand table and said, "I hereby call this meeting to order. As this is the last meet before the break I want to know where we are with the festival plans and if anything needs to be altered."

As Ayilis sat down Kinslo stood up, this was her area of expertise and no one was prepared to take the spot from her, "The plans are coming along perfectly, currently everything is on schedule. There were one or two hiccups with the food stores, but everything turned out for the best and I think your house elves are now well past the competence they need to make this great. The group is coming allow with the dance, but Tom and Jinseri need to practice more with each other to become good at the dance. The invitations are by far the best invitations I have ever seen passed out and have raised the bar for how well this party has to do." At this point she took out her example invitation.

The invitation envelop had been spelled to only open if the correct person tapped it with their wand. The first part of the invitation was when you opened it, a song started playing, and the song was an ancient song of peace and blessings for the New Year. It was sung by part of the Hogwarts choir and a few others, Kinslo and Jinseri had convinced the majority of them to do the song, but offering free food and help on a few of their homework problems. The borders of the papers were covered in vines that held fruit and different types of food. The border was constantly moving and growing; each part was placed and replaced multiple times. The invitation itself was formal and sophisticated except for the fact that the ink glowed a little bit. When the song finished the bottom section of the paper started glowing and to accepted the invitation the person placed the tip of their wand lightly upon the glowing section and said the names of those that we coming.

The really impressive part of the spell craft happened after that. Other piece of paper would then pop into existence seemly out of nowhere. This smaller sheet of paper had small glowing swirls constantly moving around it, it could move anywhere on the paper, between words over the back of it. The invitation only put down the names that you had stated aloud when you opened the note and not a single person more. The invitation couldn't be expanded or changed unless the sent a note to Ayilis.

"This was very impressive Myles and Domino. Jinseri and Hilda have chosen certain decorations and events that should happen. I have approved almost all of them and the items necessary have been ordered and in some cases have already come in. The house elves have specific instructions from me about what to do with every single package that arrives. I think the ritual that you have chosen definitely strikes the right tone with the constituency that you have invited. Last but not least, who has accepted the invitations already: The Minister of Magic and several of his Undersecretaries have accepted, several prominent pureblood families including Malfoy, Bones, and Zambini have already accepted, there have been many others but not as important. There is one House that is missing and that is the Moonstones. I don't know if they plan to later, but they are still unaccounted for." At this point she sat down and shot a sad look at Hilda.

"As I see it, I didn't have to invite them anyways; it was out of respect for their daughter that I did it and if they want to dishonor her that is their mistake. I will not blame Hilda for it and as they have already accepted my plans for her to come over for the week before the festival and they have also allowed for a week afterwards. She will be a main proponent of this feast and it would not be the same without her." Ayilis paused to nod at Hilda for a moment. "This last bit of order for this meeting has to do with Tom's living quarters over the break."

"Tom, I realize you have grown up your entire life inside that _muggle_ orphanage and if you want I see no problem with you going back, but my home and manor is always open for you and I would like it if you accepted my invitation to spend the winter break in my manor with Jinseri and myself. I will also extend the invitation to summer break if you wish, but if you don't want to make plans that far in advance I understand." Almost before he was finished with his sentence Tom shout out.

"Of course. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else; if you will accept me, then I would love to go." Tom look sort of embarrassed after his outburst, but still had a small glow about him even though he tied to hide it under his emotionless mask.

* * *

_Wednesday, December 21__st__, 1938_

It was 1 hour before the guests would start to show up and everyone at the manor was excited, nervous, scared, and anticipating the hour to come. Kinslo was by far the most freaked out, for more than a month this had been her baby, the thing she thought about every night and worried about every day. After a week of being at the manor she had already completely freaked out the house elves. Everyone else was quickly becoming just as scared of her as the house elves were. She worked until she fell asleep and then got up to work some more. The only reason she had a full night of sleep before was because Ayilis drugged her dinner so she wouldn't be tired throughout the day.

The Aven Manor was in the best shape it had been in years which was saying a great deal, it was already one of the oldest and most beautiful manors of the Wizarding World and it used to be said that a person had not seen beauty until they had seen the manor. Situated on 40 acres of land that was completely unplottable and the Manor couldn't even be found on a muggle map. The Manor itself was five stories tall not including the dungeons that went down several levels as well. The Manor had almost as many secret passages and rooms as did Hogwarts.

The part that drew most people to the Manor was the garden. The garden was the development of several hundred years of plant experimentation. There were parts of that garden that didn't exist anywhere but there. The only way it had stayed alive after the previous owners of the mansion had died had been the house elves. There were gardener house elves that had been raised from birth to take care of these plants and they did a fabulous job at it. The garden wasn't just about the plants. It was also about the ecosystem. There were also animals in there that were considered to be extinct by the outside world. The garden covered almost 30acres of land and some were even specially enclosed in their own climate bubble to make sure that the ecosystem survived. To take care of it all 250 Garden Elves had been taking care of it for all of their lives.

That was on a regular day, this was not a regular day. The Midwinter festival was going to be taking place in the very large open field right behind the house. The entire place was filled with vibrant colors and lights everywhere. There were strings of fairy lights and element lights floating in midair to light up the bottom. There were booths around the entire area to showcase some of the wizarding world's greatest entertainments. There was a wine tasting booth with the some of the oldest wines from around the world. There was a booth the handed out Midwinter gifts to all of the families. The most important politicians and influential persons got an expensive bottle of wine and some even got a special plant that could only be found in the Aven Garden. There were other booths set up, but one of the biggest was the music booth with a full orchestra and choir they had been training for the traditional songs. The food was also very important to the night and had been set up on a long table on one side of the field with constantly refreshing food it was a sight to behold.

The entire manor had been decorated for the night and the parts that were off limits to the guests had been warded off. The garden was also open with some Garden elves giving tours around a closed off section. They would only travel through parts that didn't hold dangerous or rare plants. The elves themselves all had on a traditional Aven uniform of red and purple trousers and shirt with the Aven crest on over the heart.

Kinslo paced back and forth in front of the Manor standing calmly behind her was Ayilis and Jinseri both in the very best dress robes and underclothing. This was their shining night to show the world what they were made of and they were both ready. Although, they were just as scared as the rest of the group they were just better at hiding their emotions because they had more practice being in tough situations.

The first guests started arriving at 7:00PM on the mark and were immediately greeted by the house elves in charge of checking the invites and the people using them. Every invite was checked for magical signature and matched with the person's signature. Once they where let in the front gates they were welcomed by the sight of the Manor and Garden in its best shape and by Ayilis and Jinseri standing at the front door and welcoming them personally. They were then directed to the back by one or more house elves and shown around a bit.

At 7:30 the arrival of guests started dwindling and Jinseri decided to head to the field and enjoy the party. While there she also dragged Tom, Myles, and Hilda onto the dance area and showed off some of the traditional group dances they had been learning. They were pleasantly surprised when some of the older pureblood families also joined in with the style and soon a large group was in the center of the field showing off.

Ayilis was stuck at the front greeting people until 8:00PM that is when his speech took place to welcome everyone to the party. Ayilis slowly made his way through the crowd getting stopped by a few people and discussing the festival. He eventually made his way to the top of the stage where the band was set up and he took the mike as the music came to a halt.

"Greetings honored guests. I am humbled and astonished to be in the presence of the greatest Wizarding minds of our generation. We have set up many events throughout the night and I hope you enjoy yourselves. I might suggest that you try the food as it is some of the most delicious that I have ever had. The wine is also a specialty and some wines have even been brought in from across the world. The Garden can be viewed through special tours, but please do not go off route because there are many dangerous plants lurking around the corner. Thank you for coming and please enjoy the rest of the night." Ayilis then stepped down off the stage to applause and found his friends.

"Well said Ayilis, this should be a fun night. Do you think everything will go as planned?" Domino asked calmly.

"Hopefully so, but right now I can't worry about that, Kinslo and Jinseri can take care in everything right now I have to focus on the big shots in the party and get them talking to me. So can I have the first dance miss Domino Txildo?" Ayilis bowed low and placed a hand in the air. Domino laughed a little bit and took it with a deep curtsy of her own.

The rest of the group also joined in the dance and soon enough were swept up in the excitement lingering in the air. Ayilis didn't have the advantage of being able to dance the night away, while the rest of the group were enjoying themselves on the dance floor Ayilis escaped to talk to some of the more prominent guests. He met the Minister and several other members of the Wizengamot. His conversed with a couple other heads of prominent families, but the most interesting conversation was held with Headmaster Dippet.

The Headmaster was sitting off to the side on one of the many tables set up for eating and resting. The tables where coved with a noise blocking ward so that the people sitting could have a rest from the noisy dance area. His plate was full with some of the specialty meals of the night and his goblet was full with one of the richest wines being served tonight.

"Headmaster Dippet, I am so glad that you made it are you enjoying yourself?" Ayilis slid almost silently into one of the seats next to the Headmaster. He was still sober enough to have a conversation that would be remember the next day which is why Ayilis chose to seat with him now.

"Oh, Duke Aven, I did not see you there. Yes, this is probably the most fun I've had at a social gathering in the past 10 years. I don't know how you pulled it together when still in school." Headmaster Dippet took a large swig of his drink at this point.

"It was a lot of work, but I was helped by very talented individuals that believed in it. This celebration is not just about me or them. This was about showing the Wizarding World that we cannot give up our beliefs for anyone or anything. This was about illustrating the marvels of our History and what our future could be if we remember our past." Ayilis chucked, "That was a very long justification for having a celebration."

"No, that is a superb clarification of your reasons to have this gathering. I just hope that the rest of your generation cares this much about their beliefs as you do about yours."

"I was just thinking what a great idea it would be to show my fellow students the wonders of Wizarding culture." Ayilis mentioned casually.

Headmaster Dippet thought for a minute. "That would be a wonderful idea, but there is no way that Professor Binns would change his teaching plan for this part of history."

"Well, maybe be it doesn't have to be a teacher taught class, these things are best taught if they are discussed in groups. Wouldn't you agree?" Ayilis prodded.

"Maybe, you should start up a club, Duke Aven; you would be the perfect example of the History of Wizarding culture." Headmaster Dippet looked proud of himself as he explained.

"What a wonderful idea Headmaster, but there is no place in Hogwarts that is neutral territory, that all of the houses would be able to meet on so that we could have a meeting." Ayilis prodded again.

"Hmmm, well maybe I could set a place up, there are plenty of extra rooms in Hogwarts that aren't being used, and maybe I could set one up for you." Headmaster Dippet chuckled. "What a marvelous idea, I will set it up when I get back to school on Monday. Well, if you excuse me Duke I have to go try that other lobster dish I saw." Headmaster Dippet got up and without another word walked back to the food table muttering to his self.

Ayilis leaned back in his seat, everything went according to plan and he even made it so that Dippet thought that he came up with the idea himself. Ayilis allowed himself a moment of rest before getting back up from the table and joining the rest of the party again.

It was 11:00PM before he got to the stage again. The event was winding down and more than a few people were lazing to the sides half drunk on alcohol and half drunk on merriment.

"Greetings again my fellow Wizards, we are reaching the last stretch of the night and as is customary for these events we must end with the traditional blessing for the future. I will repeat the saying 7 times and feel free to join in, the more people the stronger the magic."

Ayilis waved his hand at the band and a soft tune began, "Slainte mhor agus a h-uile beannachd duibhi."_i_ After the first time Jinseri, Tom, Myles, Domino, Hilda, and Kinslo joined in. This wasn't the first time they had practiced it and they set the tune and beat for the rest of the ritual. After the third time the choir joined in and a few of the guests started singing as well. The fourth and fifth brought even more singing and with the end of the sixth almost everyone in the camp was singing.

A wind started building up and a feeling of power and expectation settled over the congregation. At the exact moment that the line was said for the seventh time the bon fires that had been placed conveniently to each side of the stage burst into even bigger flames and all of the fire elementals that had been in the lights got released at once. The elementals started flying through the air making swirls and small explosions of light fill up the sky. This was the wizarding fireworks and they were much more impressive than their muggle counterparts.

After the party finished most of the group went straight to bed after weeks of planning and worrying, everything had gone according to plan.

Ayilis sighed and leaned back in his chair in front of the fireplace. It was a good start to his political contacts and it was good to get started talking to people before the war started. Ayilis had not forgotten that in 1939 World War II began and now was not the time to slack off. He had come here with a purpose and as hard as it was to think about how many lives would be lost if he let history stay the way it was he also knew that if he changed this part of history then many other parts could change and he could potentially kill even more.

It was best just to let thinks play out the way they were supposed to until someone dragged him into something. No one would expect a kid to fight in a war…well, not this war at least. Ayilis smiled as he leaned back in his chair. _Yes, everything was going according to plan…

* * *

_

_i_ Gaelic blessing translation: "Good health and every good blessing to you!"

Okay....so story. I got hit with a writing bug, so here you go...I hope you like it, but I don't think it is some of my best work...Anyways, I am happy that someone is still reading this story...that is if anyone is actually reading this story. I'd like to know what you think.

Please answer the review box, I think it is calling to you,

~Rain


	7. The Slytherin Leader Trials

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter Universe. I manipulate it to my advantage.

**Recap:** Harry after reading about the prejudices of the wizarding world and seeing it with his own eyes Harry decides to change it. He traveled through time, with Ginny, to Tom Riddle's first year at Hogwarts. His plan is to befriend Tom and become the Dark Lord instead of Tom. He has made allies on the train coming to Hogwarts and after getting sorted into Slytherin he and the allies he made set up a group of rooms away from the others. He has become Duke Ayilis Aven, the Head of Ancient Aven House a pureblood family with quite a reputation. Ginny has become his cousin Jinseri Aven. After his first day at Hogwarts getting to know his new roommates and allies he sets up a system where he hopes to at least meet everyone in Hogwarts before the end of the year. As he finishes off the first semester he has to get ready for the Slytherin Leader trials. After an eventful winter break where he meet most of the current politicians in the Ministry Ayilis gets ready to go back to school and take part in the Slytherin leader trials.

"Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see, que sera sera. What will be, will be." –Doris Day

* * *

**A.N: Welcome, Welcome to another chapter, for your enjoyment…**

_Monday, December 26__th__, 1938_

Ayilis tapped the correct bricks to open archway to Diagon Alley, behind him Jinseri was pushing Tom along.

After the festival went according to plan almost everyone in the group went back to their homes for their own celebrations and gift exchanges. Before they went, Ayilis and Jinseri handed out their own gifts to their friends. Unlike normal gifts, such as candies and trinkets, everyone one of Ayilis's and Jinseri's gifts had a specific purpose and usefulness for the future. Ayilis had one gift that he gave everyone, a type of book that would allow everyone else with the same type of book to read what was written in it. This would negate the use of owls to talk and lessen the danger of the information getting out. This had been one of the many items that Ayilis had invented before ever getting to the past.

He had used a similar idea to the diary of Tom Riddle and the coin the DA used and developed spells that would allow the transfer of text to other books. The catch was that every book had be exactly the same make and model as the other, with extra spells covering the book that only allowed certain people to read them, the books were one of the most useful things that Harry had invented.

At the current time, all the 11 year olds would see is a neat way to contact friends when on vacation not the usefulness of having a way to get information to each other in secret way. Ayilis knew that once the War started there would be many more uses for the books.

Jinseri went the other way, she focused on the talents and traits of each of their friends and bought gifts that would help each of them advance in one or more ways. Domino had received a spell maker's workbook. It was a type of work book that would allow spell crafters to remember everything about a spell they were trying to make. For example, if Domino were to start working on a spell and then have to put it down for a few months to focus on something else, she would remember everything about the spell instantly whenever she opened the book.

Myles had received a book that could teach almost any language the user wanted, it would go through all the steps so that the person really learned it. The book even had a spell on it that could make people learn faster. It cost quite a bit of galleons for one of the booksellers in Knockturn Alley to sell it.

Kinslo received a wizarding dummy that knew martial arts. It could be set at different levels of skill and be used to teach certain moves. That type dummy was actually quite common, but not many of them knew martial arts so it was also a tough find.

Hilda received a book that taught the beginnings of ward breaking. The best thing about the book was to get to a new section of reading you had to break a ward that it talked about in the previous section.

Jinseri received her present from Ayilis, it was two different books. The first was the communication journal that everyone got and the second one was another of Harry's inventions. The book was blank, but it had a specific type of spell on it. Similar to the Marauder's Map which took a wizards magical signature and gave a name, and a Polyjuice potion which took a piece of hair and could change a person's form. The book took a piece of a person, such as hair, blood, saliva and showed certain aspects about the person. It would give the strength of the magical signature, how powerful they were, a picture of the person, their name and relation's, if you had placed any of their relatives in the book already, and what type of talents they would most likely have.

The book was another useful invention that Harry made because of the mess that happened with Pettigrew and his animagus form.

Ayilis's present from Jinseri was book on useful rituals that she had found hidden in one of the bookshelves of Knockturn Alley. Ayilis became absorbed in it for many days after the festival, but decided not to try any until he felt more comfortable with the time change.

The reason that they were in Diagon Alley was completely different. Tom's present from Jinseri had been a complete new wardrobe. Since, Tom had stayed over at the Manor during the break Jinseri had gotten to see exactly what casual clothes Tom had, which equaled three shirt and two trousers. Jinseri was shocked to see what a terrible selection he had and had promised him that before the break was over he would have to pick out an entirely new wardrobe that fit his new personality and status in the group. This was the day that it had to happen.

"Tom, I realize that you don't enjoy shopping, but stop acting like a child. Clothing makes a man; naked people have little to no influence on society. The same could be said for people that go around wearing rags. If you dress like a homeless person people will treat you as such. You will realize that having a good wardrobe can influence the people around you to take note of you or to ignore you completely. In this case we want you to start standing out. You are part of our team now and if there is one weak link on the chain then we could get broken apart. Is that what you want?" Jinseri stopped pulling him for a second while she lectured him.

"I believe he gets the picture Jinseri," Ayilis gave Tom a glace, "Your appearance when seen with us affects how everyone perceives us. Now, the best place to get a wardrobe is in Junis Alley." Jinseri nodded and they started walking again, this time with Tom walking behind them, still sulking a bit and suddenly finding his navel fascinating, but no longer needing to be pushed. It was 5 minutes before he spoke up again.

"What is Junis Alley, I've never heard of it before?" Tom asked straightening his back a little.

"Well, that is no surprise; the purebloods try to keep the Alley a secret from new comers to the Wizarding World. The Alley is one of the side streets to Diagon, but it is password protected so that only those that know it is there can see it. Junis is more expensive and has a much higher quality of clothing than what can be found in Diagon. The only reason that purebloods get their Hogwarts robes from here is because it is required that all Hogwarts uniforms are the same quality and style as one another. However you might have noticed that when older students open their robes they always have quality clothing underneath." Jinseri explained.

Tom nodded to himself and walked silently behind Jinseri and Ayilis. Ayilis took the lead and turned into one of the small Alleyway's off of Diagon and walked toward the brick wall at the back.

"May you live in interesting times."* Ayilis didn't move as the brick opened into another archway like the entrance to Diagon. This archway was quite a bit fancier though and the image that it opened up to was quite a bit more majestic. "Alright, here's the plan. Jinseri take Tom to Edna's Clothing Emporium; I will return in one hour to see if you are done. I will be visiting a few other shops to retrieve school supplies and such. Is there anything you need?"

"Could you get me two new note taking quills and more parchment for essays and don't spend too much money. Now enough dawdling let's get you some new clothes." Jinseri started walking away with a skip in her step again. Ayilis shook his head. After betraying her family and traveling to the past so she could be with a future dark lord she still had the same Weasley quality.

Ayilis allowed himself a small smile at her carefree behavior knowing that soon enough she would have to stop pretending to be 11 and go back to the hardened warrior she had become. These moments were few and far between, it was best to absorb them when they were still happening. Ayilis shook off the feeling after a few seconds and went on with the day.

At the beginning of the evening, Ayilis, Jinseri, and Tom were all relaxing in front of Clear Stone's International Wizarding Restaurant. After a long day of shopping and exploring all of them were ready to return to the Manor and enjoy the rest of their break.

* * *

_Saturday, January 7__th__, 1939_

"Pack", Ayilis waved his wand one time at his room and items from all over started falling into his suitcase. He was headed back to Hogwarts in the morning and was careful to check all around the Manor for missing objects before packing. He left out a change of clothing for the trip and let the rest pack up.

Ayilis walked downstairs to the private dining room and entered just as Tom and Jinseri started arguing over the use of a certain ingredient in some healing potion. He even smirked as he realized that the potion in question was a third year potion, Jinseri was certainly pushing Tom to be better. It was always a good way to encourage learning to discuss the different methods of getting something done.

Ayilis snapped his fingers and the dinner appeared in front of them. He even smiled more as the appearance of the food did nothing to deter the argument still going on.

"I'm telling you, there is no way that that putting the newt legs in after the stirring can change the makeup of the potion so completely." Jinseri argued.

"If the newt legs are put in after and the stirs are shortened from 10 clockwise to 7 counterclockwise then the teeth straightening potion will be more effective and it will only need two doses to be as effective." Tom replied while chewing on steak that had appeared.

"Ayilis, what do you think?" Jinseri asked.

"I think that such a big change in such little recipe could cause much change, but I don't know if it will have the desired effect." Ayilis told them softly and to stop the argument he added, "Have you both finished packing?"

Jinseri blushed a little, "Not exactly, but it is almost done."

"I just started. I meant to ask you want was the spell that you used on my things when we first met on the platform."

Ayilis smirked; Tom was starting to adopt the thirst for knowledge that had changed him into a Dark Lord so long ago. "I would be happy to show you the spell after dinner."

* * *

_Sunday, January 8__th__, 1939_

_Afternoon_

The platform was crowded when Ayilis, Jinseri, and Tom entered. Each of them had a scowl on their face because of the rushing around that people were doing. They made their way through the crowd as quickly as possible, even with 30 minutes until the train was due to leave there were students rushing about.

As soon as they got to the train they quickly found their compartment towards the back of the train, the same one that they had met each other in. They walked in to find Kinslo already in one corner reading a book. Jinseri brightened up and sat next to her.

"Kin-kin, how was the rest of your break?" Everyone in the compartment looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

"Did you just call me, _kin-kin_?" Kinslo asked shocked.

"Yeah, so, it's a good nickname, now answer the question." Jinseri said nonchalantly while putting away her trunk.

"It was fine, my brother has finally found a job, but knowing him I don't think he will keep it for very long." Kinslo went back to her book.

Ayilis and Tom had placed the trunks in their proper place and sat down opposite the two girls. Kinslo looked up again once they were settled.

"Oh, Tom, you look good, new clothing?" Kinslo asked. Tom nodded and took out a chess board.

Domino, Myles, and Hilda all walked in at the same time. Jinseri welcomed them warmly and the rest nodded. Domino immediately sat down across from Tom and started playing; both of them had gone without their playing partner for the past two weeks and were glad to get to play together again. Jinseri pulled out her exploding snap cards and soon enough the sounds of laugher escaped from the compartment as the septuplet discussed their how their breaks went.

Towards the end of the trip almost everyone had collapsed in exhausted happiness and was either dozing or full out sleeping on one another. Tom and Domino had finished 8 games and were tied in winning. Jinseri had won the exploding snap game every single time except for twice and one of those was because she wasn't playing the round. There were only two people still sitting upright, Ayilis and Jinseri. They both nodded to each other and extracted themselves from the tangled pile of limbs and exited the compartment.

"So, did you get the samples?" Ayilis asked calmly while closing the door and heading down the hall.

Jinseri quickly pulled the samples of hair out of her pocket and showed them to Ayilis. "What are you worried that your invention might not work properly?"

"My invention worked perfectly in 1995, I see no reason it wouldn't work in this time as well." He glowered at her.

They made their way into an unused compartment and locked the door behind them and put up anti-eavesdropping wards. Jinseri quietly pulled out her journal that she received from Ayilis at midwinter. The first piece of hair she pulled out was her own, she plucked it from her head and carefully laid it on the first page of the journal.

* * *

_Jinseri Aven:_ (aka Ginny Weasley)

_Birthday:_ August 11, 1981

_Gender:_ Female

_Hair Color:_ blood red, long straight.

_Eye Color:_ dark brown, almost black

_Magical Talents:_ Transfiguration, Light Arts, Healing, Protection Spells, Metamorphagus, animagus (Northern Cardinal).

_Relations:_ Duke Ayilis Aven (formally Heir Harry Potter), cousin.

* * *

Jinseri was quick to place the rest of the hairs on different pages and quickly get an overview of their friends and what potential magical talents they could possess. After a few minutes of glancing through the pages at the useful information she showed the results of the book to Ayilis.

"Well, it works now what do we need to do?" Jinseri asked while taking the book back and putting it in her pocket.

"Do you still have the list from the beginning of the year?" Ayilis asked.

"You mean the list that I spent a week of my life dedicated to so that you would know who was most susceptible to manipulation and could be moved to our cause? The list that carries the names of students from 1st year to 7th year? The list that I always carry on my person so that if I see them walking around then I can spy on them and take information down in an organized manner? Do you mean that list?" Jinseri asked sarcastically while pulling out the list of names.

"Yes, that list." Ayilis took the page in one hand and then opened the book to a blank page. "I put an interesting feature into this little book that I am sure you will enjoy." Ayilis placed is wand on one of the names and then tapped the page. The name showed up on the journal page. He then drew his wand across the description that Jinseri had written and placed his wand on the page again. The information transferred to the page in the book and filled into certain slots just like in the previous pages. "This can be done for people that are already in the book as well as new people. Whenever you get a piece of the person you can attach it to a page that is already in the book."

Jinseri looked at him amazed. "You really went all out with this."

"You would be amazed at all the things you can do while secretly using your git of friend's time turner without her knowing." Ayilis replied smugly. "It was only for one year, but I am fairly sure that I lived another 5 months just by using that time turner. I learned so much that year, it was one of my favorites."

Jinseri nodded her head and switched to another matter. "Are you prepared for the leader trials? There are 3 other people trying out for this first year. Their names are: Simito Avery, Mealon Thin, and Myles Henston." Jinseri told him starring at him closely. "You don't look so surprised."

"I know Slytherins they will always follow the person that has the most power whether it is magical or political in nature. It is Myle's way to make sure that he made the correct choice in following me. The only way he will ever truly see me as his leader is if I beat him. He will learn though actions not words and I am not surprised that he is taking this opportunity to gage my skills. I would do the same if I were in his position. I am more surprised that Domino or Tom didn't try. I didn't think Tom would because he isn't fully settled yet, but Domino has a strong streak of independence and is not one to be a follower to just anyone. I believe that is we had not arrived in this timeline Domino would have taken the leader position for the first year maybe more until Tom takes over. I won't take long for Tom to develop a back bone and with a strong group of friends at his back he is moving along that path quicker than I expected." Ayilis replied succinctly.

"Well, you have this planned out more than I first thought." Jinseri replied shocked.

"While some of us were off playing with children, I was focusing on the big picture and setting up plans. In case you have forgotten there is a war coming to Britain this year and we don't have any time to waste." Ayilis stated.

Jinseri nodded solemnly, she opened her mouth to speak when they were cut off from a knock on the door. It was just a prefect taking his rounds reminding everyone that the train was arriving in 10 minutes. Jinseri nodded at Ayilis and shot him a look that clearly stated that the conversation wasn't over yet. She left the compartment and headed back to wake the rest of the group.

Ayilis gave himself 5 minutes of rest time before he joined the rest of his small group.

When the train arrived the group didn't waste time finding a cartridge and packing in. Everyone was still a little groggy from just being woken up, but it didn't take long until they were at the entrance to the great hall and had to hurry and tidy up.

The welcome back dinner was just as enjoyable as the opening feast and almost everyone was having a good time.

The Slytherin house had always been quieter at meals than their counterparts and most people by now took it for granted. Only Slytherin students really knew the reason for this, it wasn't good form to give personal information in a public setting, small talk was fine, but any talking of allegiances was strictly prohibited. The Slytherin table was quieter tonight than most others. Most of the students were contemplating the leader trials that were later that night and wondered what sort of upheaval in the hierarchy was going to happen tonight.

Throughout the many years that Slytherin had held this competition there wasn't a single one that had gone by without some sort of change of hierarchy, thus throwing alliances and rivalries in disarray. No year was safe from this upheaval and all the years had gone through it at one point or another.

Some of the students were focusing the energy on getting ready for the night, but most of the others weren't fighting and were instead wondering who would take the spots. Quite a bit of them were thinking about one year in particular. The first year leader competition had always been an important one, it told the older years who to look out for and what to expect from the new students.

The particular battle was going be very interesting, Duke Aven was the early favorite and some of the older students were contemplating the insanity of his opponents. It was against Slytherin nature to turn a potential resource into an enemy and many of the leader fights had resulted in rivalries between students. The 5th year students were particularly bad; there were two students that switched off leadership almost every time they battled. Everyone was looking forward to the coming night from the competitors to the spectators.

* * *

_Sunday, January 8__th__, 1939_

_Early Evening_

Ayilis looked up from the book he was reading. The common room had gone silent. In the doorway was their fearless Head of House, Professor Damon.

"All competitors are to follow me. Spectators will be allowed into the room in 15 minutes." The professor turned on one foot and swiftly walked out. Ayilis closed the book he was reading and placed a book mark in it to hold his place. He handed his book to Jinseri and nodded. He followed the professor quickly, but did not rush as some of the other uncouth children.

The room that they were lead to was about half the size of the great hall. In the center of the room was a large section that was covered by a golden dome you were able to see through it, but Ayilis had the suspicion that no spells would ever make it through the ward. On either side of the cordoned off area had benches so that the students could sit and watch. There were less benches on the right side and Harry suspected that this was so whichever fight was happening the year that that fight was about would be able to see the fight.

The competitors were lead to the back of the room where there were large comfortable armchairs positioned around a fireplace. This was a place that the competitors would relax before they fought and when they were waiting for their next fight to begin. This area also had a ward around it, but Harry didn't know what it did until he stepped inside it. What was once a see through ward turned into a completely enclosed space. No one inside the dome could see or hear anything that as going on outside of it.

"Welcome competitors, this will be the battles for Slytherin leadership for the coming semester. For those who are new to the competition this enclosed space will be where you will rest until your next fight. After the fight is done you will come back to the dome and sit either until your next fight. This ward is so that every fight will be as fair as possible. We are all Slytherins and that means that we will try and win by any means necessary, normally this is a trait that I encourage, but tonight is another story. Slytherins are just as much about duty and honor and you will not insult the name of Slytherin by cheating during this battle. This wall is so that the other fighters will have no advantage by watching your moves and style." Professor Damon stared into the eyes of every fighter to make sure they knew just how serious he was being.

"Now, the first to go will be the first years and the rest of the years will follow in order." Professor Damon turned to the 4 first years and seemed to nod. He waved his wand once and a bag showed up. He wasted no time in reaching into the bag and pulling out to scraps of paper, "Avery and Henston you two will be the first to go, with Aven and Thin will go next. Come out when I call you and may the strongest win." The professor billowed out of the room.

He group seemed to split up almost instantly. Ayilis took a seat near the fire and looked around, he caught the eye of Myles who seemed to be staring at him nervously. Ayilis waved his hand and patted a chair beside him. Myles lightened up instantly and walked over.

"I thought you would be made at me, after all I did challenge you." Myles looked at his feet shyly.

Ayilis chuckled and when Myles looked up at him shocked he answered, "Myles, I did not expect anything less than this. When I accepted your friendship and you followed when I set up the rooms I did not expect mindless following from anyone. I don't want henchmen dumb as rocks, I want teammates who have thoughts and ideas of their own. If you think you are better qualified to lead I want you to show me all you have. I won't hold back because I am your friend and I expect you to do the same." Myles jaw was hanging open in shock.

"We are _friends_?" Myles replied once he had picked himself together enough to respond. His face looked confused as if he was trying to figure out a great mystery of the universe.

"Of course we are. Don't be dumb Myles, you don't think I would let just any random alliance into my home when they could bollocks everything up, do you?" Ayilis chuckled again and the shocked look on his face." Myles had just put enough together to answer when the conversation was cut off by Professor Damon returning and calling the two first year boys together for the first battle of the night. Myles walked out behind Avery without turning around if he had he might have seen the smirk that covered Ayilis's face.

"After all, it is better to inspire loyalty than fear." Ayilis mumbled under his breath. He might have convinced Myles that he really was the leader that they thought.

Ayilis took the remaining minutes to composed himself and prepare for his first match. He wasn't worried, he did have 5 more years of experience than the little girl he was fighting, but he had to decide how he wanted to win. He had to appear strong, but not too strong as to give anyone suspicions. It was common for Slytherin pureblood parents to teach their children how to fight so that when these trials came up they would be ready. However, he had to hide the fact that he had years of knowledge that the other kids just didn't. Ayilis didn't have to wait long for his turn at the mat. Within 5 minutes Myles was walking back into the room looking a little tired but happy that he won.

Ayilis didn't wait and got up from his chair and headed to the door, he was met by Professor Damon walking in to call them and by his opponent. The professor just nodded and headed out the door again. Ayilis held back Thin when she went to follow him out. The girl was small for her age, but the blank look on her face made her look older. It was another thing that every pureblood was taught before they went to school, how to hide their emotions.

"I just want to wish you luck." Ayilis held out his hand, but wasn't surprised when Thin just looked at his hand and nodded back to him. Ayilis nodded back with a sort of smirk and walked out the door.

If he hadn't been prepared for it he would have stopped in amazement. The once large empty room was packed to the brim with every student in Slytherin eagerly awaiting the coming battle. There was a lot of noise filling the room and it was almost overwhelming from coming from a room that was completely silent. Ayilis didn't let it faze him and walked over to Professor Damon who was at the edge of the warded fighting arena.

"The next two to battle are first years, Mealon Thin and Ayilis Aven." Professor Damon made a motion at the two of them to enter the field. They quickly went to their sides of the field and stood at the ready. The professor made a motion again and they bowed almost in sync. The professor counted down and they were off.

Ayilis made the first motion he sent a tripping jinx at her and was almost surprised to see how quickly she raised her shield. Then he was impressed, the shield that she had raised was 2nd year knowledge and she had obviously studied a long to time make it work. That being said she didn't seem to have the power to keep it going for very long. Already with one spell it was faltering and Ayilis sighed softly to himself. This wouldn't take nearly as long as he had hoped. The girl had worn herself out with her first move and it wasn't even offensive.

Ayilis started sending low level spells at her quickly, not giving her any time to rest of look away from her shield; she didn't have enough experience to focus on two things at once. It only took a minute more for the shield to fall. She immediately dove to the side to get out of the way. She was so focused on the spell in front of her that she accidently dove into another oncoming spell that took her out.

The spell that she fell into was the disarming hex and without even her realizing for a few seconds, she was done.

Professor Damon entered the field and walked over to Mealon to check if she was alright. Realizing that everything was alright except for some magical exhaustion he sent her off the field and recognized Ayilis as the winner. Ayilis took a moment to sit down and rest for his next fight on the edge of the field. He even forgot that he still had the opponents wand until she walked up to him and asked for it back. He handed it back to her without a word. From his position he could even hear some murmuring of the crowd.

"Did you see that? He was so stoic and with and endless amount of spells coming from his mouth that is impressive. I know 3rd years that couldn't do as well as he did." A fifth year said to his friend.

"I know, but the most impressive part was when he took her out. At first I thought he had just missed a spell, it is common for first years to have bad aim, but when she dove right into the oncoming spell, so you think he is a seer or something?" His friend answered back.

Ayilis smirked; he had pulled that off nicely. Now he had to consider Myles. He didn't want to be unnecessarily mean, but he had to show without a doubt that he was the strongest in the situation. Ayilis seemed to get decided when Myles followed the professor out of the back room.

Ayilis stood up and walked quickly back to his side of the stage.

He waited for Myles to get to his spot, bowed when needed and waited for the count down with his eyes never leaving his target.

"3, 2, 1, begin" Professor Damon started the battle.

Ayilis let Myles make the first few moves. Every time a spell was shot at him he made small movements to get himself out of the way. Myles seemed to get a little more frustrated every time he did a spell and it didn't work.

"**Petrificus Totalus **", Myles almost shouted, "**Impedimenta**."

Ayilis side stepped both of the badly aimed curses, but his eyes widened at the last one, he hadn't known that Myles had know that spell. Getting tired of playing cat and mouse Ayilis suddenly snapped his wand forward and before it was even up all the way a tripping jinx was shot out of it. Before Myles even knew what was happening he was on the floor.

"**Expelliarmus**", a quick disarming spell had Myles out of the competition in no time flat.

Ayilis walked over to his friend without a thought and met the Professor Damon who had also gone to make sure that no one was too badly injured. Ayilis almost sighed with relief when he saw that Myles was uninjured, it was no use to him to lose a good ally to soon in the game, and one so skilled at hiding his true potential Ayilis smiled in his head.

"It looks like you are good to go." Professor Damon added. Ayilis quickly offered his hand the Myles. Myles who was still on the ground at his point smiled at him and grabbed his hand, the two walked over to the rest of their group who was sitting of on the sideline benches. As soon as they got close enough Kinslo was out of her seat and walking towards them. The first one she checked was Myles, looking him over and making sure that he wasn't missing anything important she turned her eyes on Ayilis next. Allowing her to worry over him was just another way to gain her trust and friendship.

Once they got back to the benches with the rest of the group the other girls were quick to follow Kinslo's lead and make sure their two friends were okay. Or course, they were a lot more discrete than she was too.

"Well, Ayilis you could have told me that you had dueling training, you arse." Myles put in lightly, his ego still hurting from the fight.

"Yes, but then you would only have a story of how good I am, not fact. By dueling you I showed you and everyone else a fact." Ayilis paused for a second.

"And what fact is that?" Domino asked.

"That I am not to be messed with and that hurting those under my protection will be met with the full force of what I can do." Ayilis nodded his head and the group watched the rest of the leader battles in almost silence.

The rest of the nights battles went quickly as well. The 3rd year class didn't have a battle, but every other year had someone fighting for the top spot. The only other battles that caught Ayilis's eye were the 5th and 7th year fights. Maxwell Bones won again keeping his spot as the leader of 5th year against what Harry guessed was his rival. It was probably the longest match of the trials and both of the competitors were tired by the end, but Maxwell held onto his spot. The 7th year battles were the most intense, as their last semester at school there was a tough battle to see who would graduate the leader of Slytherin. It did manage to stay in the hands of Abraxas Malfoy though.

Ayilis let out a large yawn and got to his feet. The room was already being emptied of people and he made sure that he hadn't lost his friends in the group. Just as he was about to exit the room his arm was caught by someone. He turned around to see that Professor Damon was holding him back. No one else in his group seemed to notice so he just let them go.

"Mr. Aven I expect you to be in my office tomorrow night at 7. Don't be late." He looked Ayilis in the eyes and then walked away quickly.

Ayilis watched him leave and then followed his dorm mates back to their room. Tomorrow would prove to be an interesting day.

* * *

AN: Hey, dudes and dudettes, it's your awesome author Rain…okay I know I take long time to update, but that's just how I rock and roll.

*Anyways, an interesting tidbit for your information, the phrase used to get into Junis Alley is actually a old Chinese curse. Yep, neat.

Anyways, just wanted to say hey, see how you're doing. Leave a review and I'll be sure to get back to you.

~Rain


	8. The First Contest

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter Universe. I manipulate it to my advantage.

**Recap:** Harry after reading about the prejudices of the wizarding world and seeing it with his own eyes Harry decides to change it. He traveled through time, with Ginny, to Tom Riddle's first year at Hogwarts. He has made allies on the train coming to Hogwarts and after getting sorted into Slytherin he and the allies he made set up a group of rooms away from the others. He has become Duke Ayilis Aven, the Head of Ancient Aven House a pureblood family with quite a reputation. Ginny has become his cousin Jinseri Aven.

After his first day at Hogwarts getting to know his new roommates and allies he sets up a system where he hopes to at least meet everyone in Hogwarts before the end of the year. After a festival at midwinter Ayilis and the crew are back at Hogwarts for their 2nd semester. He has won the trials and is now the leader of his year.

* * *

_Monday, January 9__th__, 1939_

Ayilis knocked on Professor Damon's office door. He carefully looked over his robes and shifted his tie which had been knocked out of place sometime during the day, after all first impressions were one of the most important factors in pureblood Britain. He adopted his blank mask when the door swung open.

"Ah, Mister Aven, please come in." Professor Damon opened the door all the way and allowed Ayilis inside.

The inside of Professor Damon's office was warmer than you might think. He had a large desk on the back wall with wooden seats in front of it. Large bookshelves covered one wall of the room; on the other wall was a large fireplace. There were armchairs and a couch around the fireplace and a table in the center. Some of the chairs were already filled despite the fact that it was 5 minutes till 7 and almost no Slytherin arrives early to anything.

"Hey Ayilis," Maxwell Bones waved to him from one of the armchairs on the side of the room. Ayilis had gotten acquainted with Max after Jinseri had started getting tutoring from him. Jinseri didn't really need tutoring, but it gave her an excuse to have a conversation with a older male of status in the Slytherin Hierarchy just another way of getting information. "So I see you have joined the illustrious Leader Club."

"Yes, I heard that it was the place to be." Ayilis nodded at him while staring at the other leaders.

At the top of the mountain was Abraxas Malfoy, 7th year and head boy. The next in line was Noah Guiles, a 6th year, not much was known about him, he was quiet and a loner, but apparently more powerful than others gave him credit for. After him was Maxwell and then came the last leader that Ayilis knew the name of Tigerous Nott III. Ayilis and Jinseri had made it a point in early months to meet or find out about every family that later had a member in the Death Eaters. They were spread out over the years, but every one of them was going to have a son or daughter around the same time that would be susceptible to recruitment by Tom.

Professor Damon opened the door one last time and let in the 2nd year Slytherin Leader and closed and locked the door once she was inside.

"Alright, now that we have all officially arrived, let's get this meeting started. Since this is the first meeting of the new semester it is customary that I explain what these meetings are. Its purpose is primarily the trading of information. While the position of leader is a privilege and greatly respected it is also a responsibility. I expect every leader to know each member of the year personally and be on friendly terms with them. I don't want to you to hold grudges against people that may have insulted you at one point in time. This is not about lording your position over your peers and if I find out that any of you has misused your position," at this point he paused to stare every single one of them in the eye. Just you make sure they knew how serious he was. "There will be hell to pay. Understood?"

"Good, then we won't have any problems. The duties of the Slytherin Leaders are often like that of prefects. I am unfortunately a very busy man and I am sometimes not in my office when a crisis arises, this means that I need to rely on someone to make sure that all of my students are not falling apart at the seams. We have this meeting every 2 weeks so that I can make sure that my students aren't running full speed into problems that I could help with. Our two new members will meet with me 3 times over the week or so and I will fill you in on how to spot troubles and arguments between your year mates." Professor Damon nodded towards Ayilis and the 2nd year student that Ayilis didn't know.

"Okay now that we have gotten that out of the way. You are probably already aware of the benefits of being a leader, having seen them in the common room, but I will repeat them. You are to settle and arguments that arise between your peers. You are also allowed to the restricted section of the library, but for the younger years I will ask that you give a proper reason before trying to get my signature. You have an extended curfew, but you are to be in the common room no later than 1:00am and 11:00pm for 3rd years and under. If you start slipping in any of your classes I will remove some of these privileges, are we understood?" Professor Damon stopped pacing and settled into a chair that seemed to be positioned to see everyone's face. It was at that point that Ayilis realized that the chairs had been set up into a very crude circle with Abraxas sitting closest to Professor Damon.

It was then at Abraxas started speaking and Ayilis realized it was about the fellows in 7th year. It was nothing personal, but about how they were doing and if anyone was struggling in their classes. Ayilis leaned back and started listening; this could be an even greater advantage than he had previously thought.

* * *

_Tuesday, January 10__th__, 1939_

For the second time this week Ayilis knocked on his Head of House's door. This would be his first personal meeting with the Professor, but by no means the last.

"Ah, Mister Aven, right on time." Professor Damon opened the door to his office. It was back to normal after the meeting last night and the Professor lead him to a seat in front of the fireplace. The Professor sat down directly across from him.

"So, Sir, what are we doing tonight?" Ayilis settled in.

"Mister Aven, you perhaps have the hardest of all positions and, yet, in some ways the easiest. You have the easier position because as a first year you have only been at this school for a few months and grudges, if you have any at all, will be easy to overcome. First years are usually very good about forgiveness. Unfortunately, you also have the hardest job."

"In what way, sir?" Ayilis asked.

"Because the first years generally come to this place with knowing anyone there can fall into a habit of not talking to anyone and being shy. You cannot allow this to happen; Slytherin is a family and is a shield against the prejudice of the other houses. Anyone person not protected by that shield can be targeted by other houses and bullied. It is a fault in this house that fight so much, but we as a family cannot ignore any of our own." The Professor made sure Ayilis nodded before he continued.

"This is why you have the hardest job, you must meet everyone in the year and keep track of them, make sure they have friends and are not being too shy. Can you do that, Mister Aven, can I rely on you to make sure that my snakes stay safe?"

* * *

_Saturday, February 4__th__, 1939_

Tom leaned back in the worn, but comfortable armchair that was placed in front of the group's great room fireplace. In front of him was a marble chessboard and Domino. The two were currently locked in an intense battle. Off to one side of the room was Kinslo reading a transfiguration book from the library.

"So, I have been wondering for a while what is up with most of the Slytherin pureblood's trying to get to know Ayilis. Even Lords of the old families came to the midwinter party despite the fact that he is still a first year." Tom stared carefully at Domino's shocked reaction storing the information away. Of course, being the stoic pureblood that she was she covered her reaction in seconds settling it back to a blank mask.

"Sometimes, I forget that you haven't grown up in this world." She shook her head and moved another piece. "Remember in the beginning of the year we had that conversation about pureblood families." She waited until she saw his nod to continue. "There are only 12 families in the entire world that are currently of ancient statue."

"This means that all of those families have been around for at least 1250 years, that they can trace back, and all of those generations had been wizards. Some of those families have been around longer, such as the Blacks which were nobles in King Arthurs time, and might even have known Merlin. This also means there were around before Hogwarts." Kinslo cut in and added to the conversation.

"Now, this might mean something to most purebloods, but that isn't the reason that Ayilis is looked up to. The one thing that all wizards appreciate is power. This has always been and always will be, it is ingrained in most wizards, light or dark to follow those with more power. The Ancient families knew this and because of this, a long time ago set to making sure that they would always be looked up to a revered." Domino added.

"The way they did this, would most certainly be illegal in current times, but it has served the families well. They developed a ritual. A ritual that would give power to their decedents and make sure that the family would continue to be powerful in generations to come. This ritual has been around for thousands of years and no one is really sure where it came from." Kinslo said and shivered a bit.

"Well, what does it do?" Tom looked at them excited, almost thirsty for this ritual.

"It is preformed on the Head of the Family and only effects the generations that come after it. The ritual takes about 4 percent of the power of the current Lord and gives it to the next lord once the current one dies. The ritual only needs to be preformed once and it will affect every Lord that comes after them." Kinslo had an almost lustful look in her eyes as she explained.

"Now this might not seem like a big deal in the short term and indeed only really starts effecting the Lords the 15th generation after it was performed, because some lords are less powerful and some are more powerful. However, you must realize that these families have been around for more that 50 generations, they have power and it is massive. The amount of damage just one of them can do is enormous." Domino added leaning back in her seat. "Comparatively, a normal wizard or witch to an Ancient would be like comparing an ant to dragon."

"For this reason, there is almost never more than 2 in the public eye at a time. There are 3 families situated in Europe, the Blacks, the Bones, and the Avens. There are 4 in Asia, 2 in Africa, 2 in South America, and 1 that is in North America, I believe they are part of a Native American tribe there." Kinslo said.

Tom leaned back and let his mask slide for a second, he was shocked. He had no idea, that his friend, the one boy that had ever stuck up for him in his entire life was so powerful.

"But how does Ayilis act to calm all the time, he ever shows off any more power than the rest of the first years." Tom asked.

"These families start to inherit their power at their 14th birthday and continue to grow in strength over the years. If there is no one else in the family the heir gains their power earlier to protect itself. If the heir would to get all of this power at once it would be a massive overload to their system and has on previous occasions driven someone insane." Kinslo answered.

"Now normally that would be enough explanation as to why the families follow his lead. However, Duke Aven is even more special. The Aven family is one of maybe three families in the world that only has the title the Most Ancient House. This is because he is the last of a line of people that have been wizards for as long as we know wizards existed. His family can trace back to before the written word." Domino said with awe.

"There are theories that say that, these three families were actually the first wizards ever born."

"Some say they are the last remnants of the lost civilization of Atlantis."

"Some say they are actually the gods that the Greeks spoke about."

"There is one family that lives in Africa that can trace its line through the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt."

"Now imagine that kind of power adding up through the ages and you've got a rough idea of just how powerful your fiend is going to be." Kinslo said.

"To give an example, the ancient families are forbidden from ever getting married or having children with each other, in the fear that their child will be too powerful to ever contain."Domino added helpfully.

"There are really ancient myths about the families that are actually really cool. For example, there is a story about the Aven family that says that they are actually the family that Gryffindor and Slytherin came from. Do you want to hear it? It was one of my favorites were I was younger."Kinslo asked.

"Sounds interesting," Tom nodded enthusiastically, the chessboard now completely forgotten in the excitement of legends.

"The Aven family is so old that now even the children who are not the heir get a bit boost to their power once they turn 17. This is important to the story." Kinslo nodded to Domino who lowered the lights of the common room to set a mood. Hilda and Myles walked in suddenly and seeing that a story was about to be told, they walked over and sat down next to Tom.

"Once upon a land, in a time long, long ago, twin boys were born. During the time of their birth, there was a war going on, and wizards from all over the country were caught in battle. On the night of their birth, the twin cries were met with the clash of metal and booms of magic. They were born in a castle under siege. Their father and elder brother were away defending their family and lands when they were born. Their mother passed out on the birth of the second child and did not wake until the next day. The only other person in the room at the time of their birth was the midwife."

"After cleaning up the children and mother, the midwife tried to keep the family safe until the Lord could return home. Unfortunately, she was struck down by a passing arrow in the middle of the night. Luckily, the castle guards were able to push back the attackers and secure the castle. When, Lord Aven and his heir returned the next day they were surprised to find their castle damaged and their Lady old cold on the bed. Next to the Lady's bed were the two cribs of the boys. The Lord Aven not knowing who was born first or second named both of his children his second sons." Kinslo paused for dramatic effect.

"They grew up as average siblings, but they always got into fights over who was the oldest and who was the better of the two. As soon as they both hit 17 they were sure that the issue would be resolved, unfortunately since the Lord named both of his sons, the second son, they were given the same amount of power as the other. However, that meant that the power they received had to be split to accommodate two people. Both sure of their power and angry that they didn't receive all of what they should of engaged in a battle. Whoever won would get the rest of the power and they would finally see who was the strongest. One boy used only the Light arts and was sure that the darkness would be defeated. One boy only used the Dark arts and was sure that he could crush his naïve brother."

"So came the first Light Lord and Dark Lord. The battle is known throughout time as the First Contest. The war went on for decades, the wizarding community getting worn down and dying out. So the brothers came together and decided that they need to stop for the sake of the wizarding world and never bring another battle to each other's doorstep. The former Aven boys turned away from their neutral family and each started a new family that would be focused purely on what they believed to be the best kind of magic."

"The boys grew and had children of their own; their heirs even became great friends with each other and at first shunned their father's way of thinking. The joined together and created the first magical school that taught all aspects of magic and let the individual wizard decide which was best. So the families of Gryffindor and Slytherin were born and the positions of Light Lord and Dark Lord were made." Kinslo stated with a dramatic flourish.

"So why didn't their father or their elder brother stop them?" Tom asked.

"The Lord could stand the thought of killing one of his sons. The Elder brother also never fully agreed with either side. The Aven family has always been on the neutral side, the balancers and only when the battles become too fierce or one side is completely eradicating another to they ever step in." Everyone turned around in shock when they hear Ayilis speak up. He had been listening on the end part of the story and finally decided to speak up.

"Oh, Ayilis I was just telling my favorite childhood story to Tom, he was curious about the Ancient Families." Kinslo said.

"Have you told him about the Council of the Ancients yet?" Ayilis asked curiously and sat down beside Kinslo.

"No, we got caught up in a story and didn't finish explaining." Tom now looked confused between the two of them.

"Well, Tom, the Council of the Ancients is made up of the Oldest 6 families all of them neutral. They are the deciding factor of many of the Wizarding Worlds Wars. They keep the balance you could say. They are the ones that decided that the Wizarding World as a whole should not be known to muggles. If anyone upsets that then the Council sends a representative to tell them to back off or quiet down. It the advice of the Council is ignored they send a soldier. If the soldier is ignored they will send a Lord to put down whatever rebellion is going on." Domino explained.

"The Council will meet every ten years or if an emergency session is called, but there has to be something huge happening for that to be called. It is the largest gathering of the most powerful people in the world and I will start being invited once I turn 18." Ayilis added. "As of right now the Aven family is starting to gain back it's positions of power, but after being gone for 9 years."

The group slowly started breaking up, Tom automatically headed to the library to start researching more, Myles and Kinslo headed to a table to finish homework, it was Domino that decided to pull Ayilis to the side to ask a few questions.

"Ayilis, I've been meaning to ask, because people have been wondering for a while…" Domino trailed off looking nervous.

"What is it Dom?" Ayilis prompted.

"I mean normally Ancient families don't like the spot light, but the Avens were normally an exception to that, until almost 9 years ago they just disappeared. Well, what I mean to ask is…what happened?" Domino was looking more nervous, but quickly covered it up with a pureblood expressionless face.

"Dom, it's not that I don't trust you, but it is not yet the time for me to tell that story." Ayilis nodded to her and walked out of their great room again.

* * *

_Wednesday, February 15__th__, 1939 _

Mealon Thin moved quietly into her seat at the Slytherin table. It was right at the end of the table where no one was set to bother her. She opened her book at started to review for the Transfiguration quiz Professor Dumbledore set for today. She was drawn out of her book by laughter near her. She sneaked a peak over the top of her book at the people who were making the noise.

Jinseri Aven was making large hand gestures in front of her face miming something that was obviously amusing because the faces of her friends were all smiling in enjoyment. She sighed to herself and turned back to her book it was no use crying over something she couldn't have.

She was most surprised when she felt someone sit down next to her. She peaked over her book again and then shot back down. It was Ayilis Aven, _the_ Lord Aven sitting next to _her_.

She saw a hand move and push down her book. Aven's bright green eyes stared into hers.

"So, you must be Mealon, I've been trying to track you down for quite awhile. Keeping a low profile?" Ayilis asked. She just started back at him and nodded her head slowly. "I'm trying to meet everyone in House as you probably know. You are one of the few people I haven't talked to yet." He gave her a little smile and she relaxed a little more.

"Now I've noticed that you don't really sit with anyone at lunch or dinner. Am I correct?" Mealon almost fainted Lord Aven had noticed _her_.

"I don't norm-m-ally, sir." Mealon almost hit herself, if her father heard about her reaction to Lord Aven she would have hell to pay at home. She was surprised when Lord Aven just stared laughing.

"Please, don't call me sir, I'm the same age as you." Ayilis grinned back at her. He surprised her again by grabbing her hand and standing up. "Well, it's time we changed that I would like to introduce you to someone. She is like you, very much a loner, but she needs a good friend just as much as you." He pulled her a little ways down the table.

Mealon was surprised to see a small, blond haired girl sitting there with her head in a Transfiguration book. Aven let go of her hand and tapped on the girl's shoulder.

"Strim James, I would like you to meet Mealon Thin." Ayilis nodded to the two of them. Mealon put out her hand and the girl shook it quickly.

"So, studying for Professor Dumbledore's quiz?" Strim nodded slowly and her eyes widened when Mealon showed her the same Transfiguration book that she had been looking through a second ago.

"Would you like some help?" Strim asked quietly. Mealon smiled and nodded, Strim moved over on the bench and handed something to her, "Biscuit?"

Ayilis smiled to himself and walked back to his group and Jinseri's goofy story.

* * *

_Sunday, March 12__th__, 1939_

Kinslo moved quickly and with purpose. The leg was swinging towards her face, through practice she knew if it hit she was have a good sized bruise the next day. With a simple twist of her body she was ducking under the invading limb, at the same time moving her leg in a sweeping motion. For a second the dummy was caught off balance moving slightly to slow and by the time it had recovered it was too late. Kinslo was on top of it. Hands moving with speed and grace; now wasn't a time to slip.

She gathered the offending hands quickly before they could grab a hold on any vital part of her body. With a twist of her legs the dummy was pinned to the ground. She moved very quickly and pressed one of the buttons on the back of the dummy's neck. With a groaning sound the dummy collapsed on the floor not moving.

Hearing a clapping from behind her she turned quickly.

"Oh, Ayilis, blimey I thought… never mind. What do you need?" She moved to the dummy and placed him back into the container that he came in. The gift from Jin was one of the best things she had ever received.

"I had no idea you were so skilled." Ayilis settled down into the chair at her desk. The blue rug that covered the majority of her floor was moved back into place with a flick of her wand.

"Yes, I have been working at personal defense almost all of my life. It would be amazing if I didn't know how to do that." Kinslo smiled at Ayilis. It was weird to think in another month or two they would be back at home. The group had become more of a family then any blood relatives ever had. With so many members of the group having bad home lives it was nice to finally have people to rely on.

"I was just going about talking to everyone about summer and I was wondering if you would like to spend some of the summer at the Manor." Ayilis asked while playing around with her sewing materials that were lying out on her desk.

Kinslo felt a rush of happiness knowing that Ayilis and Jin wanted to spend the summer with her, but as soon as it came it rushed out with the disappointment of knowing that she couldn't say yes. "Wow, you don't know how much I would love to, but my father would never give me up for the summer. In his letters he has even been saying that I may get pulled from school because… anyways it's not your problem." She turned around quickly and kept putting away her training materials.

She was turned by a hand on her shoulder, "Kinslo, don't you think for one second it wouldn't be my problem. If you father doesn't let you come back it is a problem for all of us. This is your family, and family sticks together no matter what. I will send a request to Lord Vandom about you spending a few weeks at the Manor this summer."

She smiled sadly and hugged him, "Thank you, Ayilis you have no idea how much this means to me. I doubt it will change my father's mind, but thank you for trying. I will try not to be a bother."

Ayilis shook his head, "You could never be a bother to me or Jin. Enough with the hugging, I came to ask you a favor and I could pay you if necessary."

"What is it?"

"I would like to me taught in self defense, after the physical exercise in Defense class I realized how much I need to work on stamina. I know that you are well versed jujutsu and I would like to be trained." Kinslo tried not to show her shock.

"Not to be rude, but why? You are going to be very powerful in a couple of years, so much so that people probably won't be able to even get close to you."

"It is more about exercise than self defense, but nothing in life is sure. If even one person gets close enough and wants to hurt me bad enough. Better safe than sorry."

"Well then, my Leader, let's see what we can do for you." Kinslo smiled at him and moved the rug out of the way again.

* * *

A.N.: Hello again my pretties. Okay, that sounded creepy. I have noticed that the reviews have been stuck on 99 for awhile. Just one more and I will reach 100! Yeah me.

Enough of my sad lonely life. It is summer now which gives me time to write, but I am never the most reliable about these things. I hope you understand, but I also hope that some one out there cares enough to wait for me to update. _Anyone? *cricket cricket*_

_~Rain_

_*Sigh*_ Okay, you know you want to, just press the green button right here:


	9. The Ritual

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter Universe. I manipulate it to my advantage.

**Recap:** Harry after reading about the prejudices of the wizarding world and seeing it with his own eyes Harry decides to change it. He traveled through time, with Ginny, to Tom Riddle's first year at Hogwarts. He has made allies on the train coming to Hogwarts and after getting sorted into Slytherin he and the allies he made set up a group of rooms away from the others. He has become Duke Ayilis Aven, the Head of the Most Ancient Aven House a pureblood family with quite a reputation. Ginny has become his cousin Jinseri Aven.

In his first semester at Hogwarts he was getting to know his new roommates and allies. He set up a system where he hopes to at least meet everyone in Hogwarts before the end of the year. After a festival at midwinter Ayilis and the crew are back at Hogwarts for their 2nd semester. He has won the Slytherin Leader Trials and is now the leader of his year. He has asked Kinslo for help learning self-defense and is slowly integrating into life in the new time line.

* * *

_Saturday, April 1__st__, 1939_

Ayilis hit the stone floor of the Slytherin dungeons with a smack.

"Again! And less sloppy", Kinslo yelled from above him. He pulled himself off the floor of the group's workroom floor with a groan and tried to get his sore body back into the correct position before he was destroyed by Kin for the 15th time that evening.

"Okay, I'm rea…" He didn't get to finish the thought before his back hit the ground again. "Merlin, Kin, do you really need to hit that hard?"

"Well, I wouldn't but someone can't understand the lesson I am trying to teach and therefore must have it pounded into his thick skull." Kin replied just before she drove him to the floor again.

"It's been less than a month, Kin. It's not necessary to speed through training. We have all the time in the world." Well, that was a lie because the war was approaching faster than he liked and it would only be a matter of time until self defense would no longer be a hobby, but a necessity. As far as Kinslo knew they weren't going to need these skills soon.

"You don't know that Ayilis. My father could pull me out of school this summer, in all of his messages he's been complaining about how much money he's spending on my education and the fact that the house has turned into a mess and it's somehow my _bloody fault_." Kinslo made a particularly hard punch at this point that Ayilis quickly moved to duck. He grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"Kin, I request that we take a break because while letting out your frustrations is a good thing, letting it out on me will not do you or me any good." He moved her to the bench that had been pushed to the side of the room. "I know you are worried, but do not fret I told you that I have it under control and I do."

Kinslo waste no time plopping down on the bench and hugging Ayilis, "I know, but I am just worried I down want to leave. Hogwarts has become more of a home to me than my _real_ house ever was. I just want to say thank you." She got up quickly. "Now I have to clean up, because we have a group meeting tonight and I am all sweaty."

It was only later when Ayilis was taking his own shower did he realize that he had wet spots on his shirt that had nothing to do with sweat.

Kinslo and Ayilis walked into the group's common area together. Tom and Domino were already there playing chess and Jinseri was in a large armchair going over her notebook. The two of them still hadn't told the rest of the group about the book that contained the information of almost every student in the school.

Ayilis gingerly took a seat at the head of the long table that was mostly used for studying. The group was having its bi-monthly meeting. They used this time to discuss personal problems and study schedules. They also used the time to catch up on any gossip that they had missed.

"Alright, now that we are all here I call this meeting to session." Ayilis was about to go on when he was interrupted by Jinseri.

"Okay, we have lived together for almost a year I think we should name ourselves." Jinseri stated.

"Well, this was brought on quickly what made you think about it?" Myles asked.

"I have been thinking about it since the start of the semester. I mean every other group out there has a neat name." Jinseri stated as a matter of fact.

"Everyone that thinks naming ourselves is a good idea?" Ayilis asked. Everyone at the table sat thinking for a while before they started to nod. "Very well, I guess we could do that. Anyone have any suggestions?" There was silence for a few minutes while everyone thought.

"How about Circle of Life and Death?" Myles suggested. He blushed in embarrassment as the rest of the group looked at him like he was insane. "Okay, maybe not…"

"Defense Association?" Jinseri smiled at Ayilis, while the rest of the group looked at her strange.

"No, that wouldn't do. We need something that is both descriptive and non-descriptive." Ayilis thought for a few minutes and then smiled. "What about Sodalitas? It means a secret society in Latin."

The rest of the group thought about it for a few minutes before they all nodded.

"That sounds great Ayilis, we are Sodalitas." She stopped and giggled. "That sounds a bit ridiculous you realize. A bunch of school kids running around calling themselves a secret society is a little ridiculous." The rest of the group stopped and laughed as well.

"I don't know, I think it is fun. The best part about the name is that no one in their right mind will believe that a bunch of school kids made a group called Sodalitas. Hey, maybe we can call ourselves _sods_." Tom started laughing again.

"Yeah, how about it, we are a bunch of Sods. Come, my fellows, we need to commemorate this occasion." Myles laughed along with the rest of them. "How are we going to celebrate this? The anniversary of the day we named ourselves?"

Ayilis thought for a moment before speaking up.

"I have the perfect idea." Ayilis stood up suddenly and started moving furniture out of the way. "Remember the singing we did at Midwinter?" Everyone nodded, but stayed seated. "Well normally that would happen in a circle or the closest approximation to one with the amount of people you have. I thought it would be easier on everyone if we just sang the blessing instead of doing the entire ritual, but I believe we can do something similar now to commemorate the moment. There are 7 of us here, which is a very powerful number. Help me get this stuff out of the way."

The rest of the group got together and moved the furniture out of the way. Ayilis paused and then called Jinseri over to him.

"Hey, Jin, you know where I keep my ritual chalk in my room?" Ayilis asked Jinseri. She looked surprised at him for a moment before nodding slowly. "Could you go get it?"

"Do you really think they are ready for that yet? Rituals have been banned for hundreds of years; the majority of them will not agree to do a Ritual." Jinseri asked concerned.

"The majority of them don't even know what a ritual is. If we show them how safe it can be, and the benefit you can get from doing one correctly." Ayilis looked at Jinseri's concerned face. "I am powerful enough to over ride the ritual if something goes wrong. I won't let anything happen to them Jinseri, they are too useful."

"I just hope you know what you are doing." Jinseri left the room to go get the chalk and other tools.

Ayilis watched her go and then started to think about the ritual that he wanted to perform. He had only started looking into Rituals to get to the past, but once he found out about them… he couldn't let go. He had preformed dozens of Rituals by himself and with Jinseri. Some were just to connect more with the magic of the Earth that his ancestors knew so well and more to honor the changing of the seasons or blessings of a new property or coming year. Though, there were some, like the one he wanted to perform with the group that did a lot more than that.

Jinseri returned and the floor was finally cleared. Ayilis walked to the center of the room with his kit and picked up pieces of chalk. He gathered the different colored pieces of chalk that he needed and spelled them. He made a picture in his mind of a seven pointed star and the runes that surrounded it. Every point was a different color and at the center was a pentagon. In the pentagon was a circle that had seven runes, one for each point.

Ayilis waved his wand and concentrated on the picture in his mind. The different colored chalk began to draw never once lifting off the ground once they got there. All the colors joined together in the center and ever one went around the circle once before lifting of the ground and drawing the seven runes in the center. Each rune was a different color and connected to a point of the circle. Once it was done Ayilis gathered the chalk back in his hand and stepped out of the start careful not to disturb anything.

"Alright, I need everyone to go exactly where I tell them". Ayilis started moving people to stand on the points of the stars and then went to one himself.

"This ceremony is about joining us together, each point of the star for each person and each rune in the circle for each point. Jinseri, you have the bronze point and the rune that means Togetherness. Tom, you have the green point and the rune that means Cleverness. Domino, you have the black point and the rune that means Intelligence. Hilda, you are on the yellow point and have the rune the means Nurturing. Myles, you are on the white point and you have the rune for Openness. Kinslo, you are on the blue point and have the rune meaning Protectiveness. I am on the red point and my rune means Leadership." Ayilis paused to let this soak in.

"This ceremony is about joining us together in friendship, through good times and hardships. May we never forget our connection to each other or betray each other's trust. This ceremony should help us along that path. Anyone opposed to this should leave now." Ayilis paused in his explanation. Of course, he never mentioned that the Ritual had side effects, or that it was a Ritual at all. He looked around the circle and was surprised to find that everyone there was looking at him with confidence and loyalty. Maybe it was for the best that he didn't tell them all of the side effects. "All right then, if you are sure." Everyone in the circle nodded. Ayilis sighed, but let it go. Maybe he should put this off until they were older…no, he couldn't do that. He needed to trust these people and they needed to trust each other as much as they trusted him

"Everyone, this is how it will work: I will start and we will go around counter clockwise promising something in the creation of Sodalitas. I can be anything you choose. I will not decide for you, but only ask that it be from the heart and not because of a perceived obligation. I will start now, everyone ready." Ayilis paused for a breath and saw the anticipation gather in the room along with the growing magical tension. "I, Ayilis Aven, as the Leader of Sodalitas do solemnly swear to protect every member of Sodalitas to the best of my ability. I swear to always put the needs of the group before my personal needs. I swear to be the best leader I can." Ayilis stopped and then turned to Jinseri and nodded.

"I, Jinseri Aven, as a member of Sodalitas do solemnly swear to help members of Sodalitas in their times of need. I do solemnly swear to protect each member of the group to the best of my ability. I swear to always follow the decisions of my Leader no matter the consequences." Jinseri grinned at the group and nodded to Tom.

"I, Tom Riddle, as a member of Sodalitas do solemnly swear to use my abilities in the interests of Sodalitas. I swear to respect each member for the assets and perspectives they bring to the group. I swear to follow the decisions of my Leader no matter the consequences." Tom smiled at Ayilis and then nodded to Domino.

"I, Domino Txildo, as a member of Sodalitas do solemnly swear to use my abilities to advance Sodalitas's interests. I swear to try and understand the faults of the members and not judge too harshly. I swear to always follow the decisions of my Leader no matter the consequences." Domino looked straight into Ayilis's eyes at this point. To challenge Ayilis, if only for a second and to assure herself that she was not making the wrong decision. She then turned and nodded to Hilda.

"I, Hilda Moonstone, as a member of Sodalitas do solemnly swear to nurture and love every member of Sodalitas. I swear to use my skills to further the interests of the group. I swear to always follow the decisions of my Leader no matter the consequences." Hilda turned and nodded to Myles.

"I, Myles Henston, as a member of Sodalitas do solemnly swear to honor the privacy of my fellow members. I swear to protect the rights of my fellow members from outside influences. I swear to use my skills to further the interests of the group. I swear to always follow the decisions of my Leader no matter the consequences." Myles shivered as he said the last bit. Not because of the cold, but because of the growing magic swirling throughout the room. He nodded to the last member of the group, Kinslo.

"I, Kinslo Vandom, as a member of Sodalitas do solemnly swear to protect my fellow members from anything that seeks to harm them to the best of my ability. I swear to use my skills in the defense of any member of Sodalitas. I swear to always follow the decisions of my Leader no matter the consequences." Kinslo starred at Ayilis who nodded at her and then made eye contact with every person in the group.

Then like a kind of compulsion came over them they all started to speak at once.

"We, the members of Sodalitas, do solemnly swear this." Everyone of the group felt a rush of magic and a burning feeling on their upper right arms. The gathering of magic drew together in the middle of the circle and then rushed back out at every single member.

The most amazing sensation came over us. We were joined in the most intimate way. We were one with each other. We knew our faults and attributes, our skills and failures. It was amazing our joint minds and if only for an instant we weren't as alone as we thought. We were Sodalitas.

All at once the magic dissipated till there was nothing left. Several of the group collapsed on the ground, even more clutched their upper right arms, but no longer in pain, it was more of a tingling feeling. The only one who wasn't was Ayilis who had fallen to his knees and was clutching his chest. He had never felt anything like it before. He knew instinctively that the members of the group were all in this room and even some of the emotions flowing through them. Before he shut down his mind completely he felt the back door that had opened into the other member's minds.

Jinseri was the first to rush to one of the fallen members. Kinslo, Domino, and Ayilis had all fallen to the ground. Jinseri had rushed to Ayilis who was the closest. She looked at him clutching his chest and gently helped him to one of the couches that had been pushed against the wall. She pulled up his shirt and for a second just starred in shock at the skin over his heart. There printed right above his heart was a perfect picture of the seven pointed star and circle that had been drawn on the floor. Every point was a different color and they were all pulsing slightly with the magic in the room.

Jinseri then took a moment to gather her thoughts and then conjured a mirror. She rolled up her sleeve and looked at her arm. There on her arm was a pulsing bronze image of the seven pointed star. It was only bronze in color as opposed to Ayilis's.

"Oh, cousin mine, what did you do?" Jinseri shook her head at Ayilis.

"I did what I had to. I needed to know I can trust them and they are still easy to influence at this age, never thinking long enough into a decision to figure out its consequences. You know this Jinseri, no matter how much you like to pretend that you are 11 years old we both know that this is not the case. We have both learned the hard way about consequences and now they are about to as well. They made their choice. I didn't influence them or pressure them. What they swore was their decision alone. I hope they can live with it." Ayilis sighed and for a second Jinseri could see an old man in his eyes.

"I understand Ayilis, more than anyone, but they just seem so young, too young." Jinseri looked him in the eyes.

"It would have happened eventually with or without our influence, except it would be Voldemort that marked all of these people as _slaves_. You must know that I wouldn't do this if I could help it. The Wizarding World is out of balance and we need to fix that. We both agreed when we came here, are you starting to disagree now of all times." Ayilis asked tiredly.

"No Ayilis, I made my decision long ago. I would follow you to hell and back. I would follow you to hell and let's face it going back to World War II… I did." Jinseri and Ayilis put their heads together for a few seconds.

Ayilis then smiled and touched Jinseri's shoulder in comfort. The instant he did, he realized it was a mistake. Jinseri fell to her knees in front of him. With his hand touching her newly made mark he could feel the magic flowing through the both of them. That wasn't all, he could feel her emotions and from the look on her face he was guessing that she could feel his. Happiness, comfort, and, was that, satisfaction?

"Ayilis, did we just….?" Jinseri looked at Ayilis surprised and gasped as she could feel the emotions changing to inquisitive.

"I believe that the Ritual has bonded us through the marks. Go check and see what happens with the others." Ayilis said.

It was at that point that they both decided to look around the room for the first time. Kinslo and Domino were on the other couches surrounded by the rest of the group. Tom had been the first of that group to look at his new mark and to Ayilis's surprise was looking at it with happiness and openness. Harry could almost feel what he was thinking, what most of them were, 'For the first time, I have a real family'.

Jinseri got up and walked to Tom. She gathered her courage and then touched his new green mark. She gasped at the emotions sweeping through her, Tom's emotions. She saw Tom looking at her weirdly and then grasped his left hand and placed it on her mark. The look that crossed Tom's face would be forever etched in the groups mind. The look of childish joy and wonder, and satisfaction at finally belonging to something was written all over his face.

They stood together for a few minutes before breaking apart. It was a look of sadness that crossed their faces next. For a short time they were intimate with each other and both were sad to see it go. After a second they turned to the rest of the group that was looking at them weird.

"Everyone I would like you to look at your upper right arms." Ayilis said from his spot on the couch.

Everyone in the group took at mirror that Jinseri was passing around and rolled up their sleeves. Ayilis heard gasps of joy and confusion.

"Ayilis, what are these?" Domino asked softly. She was stroking her mark as she said this. Ayilis could feel the caress through the black point on his chest.

"This was an unexpected side effect of the Ritual that I just lead. Kinslo and Domino were affected the most because of the promises they made to the group and I got the most of the magical backlash that is why I currently feel like going into hibernation. Domino, you might start to notice something different about your abilities in the coming weeks and I want you to tell me as soon as that happens okay. Nothing bad was going on, by doing powerful magic like this can have unexpected consequences, you as well Kinslo. Now about Jinseri and Tom…" Ayilis nodded to them. Without a second thought both of them choose members of the group and grabbed their marks. Ayilis smiled at the group's looks of wonder as they discovered what touching another mark did.

It took several minutes for them to each greet each other in their new fashion. It was like meeting again for the first time. Every member felt as connected to one another as to a parent, even more so in some cases. It was like getting back an integral part of yourself that you never knew was missing. By the time they all finished Domino finally realized that Ayilis wasn't taking part. She walked over to his couch.

"Ayilis, where is your mark?" She asked in confusion as she saw his blank arm. He smiled and pulled down his shirt to show her the multicolored mark over his heart. She gasped and went to touch it, but was surprised by Ayilis's firm grip on her hand.

"No, Dom, it is not settled enough for anyone besides me to touch it. I took a lot more magic off the Ritual than you did, because as the leader it was my job. I also have many side effects from this that I am still trying to sort out. I don't want you to go messing with things we still don't fully understand."  
Ayilis grinned at her and let her hand go. He then reached up and touched her mark for the first time.

Just as Jinseri did she fell to her knees in front of him. She even started crying.

"Please…please stop." Domino gasped out. Ayilis frowned but let her go. She was panting at this point and flushed. "That was so intense, your magic…your emotions…" She trailed off.

Ayilis didn't tell her why she could feel his emotions more intensely than anyone of the group. He was the leader and he had control over all of the marks. With enough practice he could make them feel anything he wanted with just a touch.

"All right then, I believe that is enough commotion for one night. Let's head off to bed. I hereby call the first meeting of Sodalitas to a close." Ayilis helped Domino to her feet careful not to touch her mark and everyone went off to bed.

Ayilis grinned when he got back to the room. That went much better than he thought it was going to and even Domino did not question the fact that he called it a Ritual. He was just getting changed for the night when he heard a knock on the door. He was pretty sure who was there. He opened the door with his shirt still off.

"Good evening, Tom, is there anything else I can do for you?" Ayilis asked. Tom was looking shocked at his chest, he had no doubt heard about the mark from Domino and Jinseri, but wanted a look himself.

"Ayilis, I was just wondering…I mean…tonight at the meeting you touched Jin and Dom…I was just wondering….oh….never mind." He was about to turn and go before Ayilis grabbed his hand and pulled him into the room and shut the door.

"Tom, if you need anything from me all you need to do is ask." Ayilis stated calmly.

"Well…I was just wondering if…perhaps you could… touchmymarkaswell." Tom was blushing at this point embarrassed.

Ayilis considered it for a second, but decided not to embarrass Tom anymore. "Oh course I can." Ayilis reached out with one hand and touched his mark. Just like the two before him he gasped and fell to his knees. He looked conflicted for several seconds before he finally gave into his tears. He had finally found what he had been searching for his entire life without even realizing it.

He had found acceptance. He had found his family.

* * *

_Tuesday, April 4__th__, 1939_

Ayilis walked softly down the hallway to the Headmaster's office. He had gotten a note this morning and decided to go after class that day. The note said that it wasn't a big deal and to go when ever her had time, but it was best to get things out of the way early.

As he was walking down the hall he saw Kinslo and Myles meet each other in the hall. It had become a common sight at this point for one of the Sods, as they were calling themselves, to greet each other by grasping the other's upper right arm. The cloth between the hand and the mark lessened the impression of emotions, but it allowed members of the group to reassure themselves all day long that they were still part of the group. Harry had even watched an entire conversation take place between Jin and Tom with them continually touching the other's mark.

Some had started to notice the irregular greeting between the members, but no one had mentioned anyone yet. Ayilis had been worried when he noticed Dumbledore looking at the group weirdly from the head table, but the Professor soon forgot about it, he had much greater things to worry about, like the Wizard rising to power in Germany. The only person that was left out of this group handshake, so to say, was Ayilis. He could grab another's arm in greeting, but they couldn't touch his mark. So Jin had started off a ritual that instead of greeting him by grabbing his arm, she touched her own chest over the head. It was a kind of salute to Ayilis the official leader of the group. The rest of the group picked it up as well and now it was another common sight in the halls.

It was only the first three member of the group that he touched that felt the full influence of his greeting. After the first night he had figure out how to limit the greeting as to not overwhelm any of the group that he was greeting.

Ayilis smiled to himself as he walked down the hall. He had done what it took Voldemort years to figure out and instead of causing pain to his followers he could cause joy and good feelings to arise in them. It did however cross his mind that he could also you the mark to call his followers or to punish them. He now had a way to reward and punish his followers and he didn't even have to use an Unforgivable.

Ayilis spook the password to the gargoyle at the door, 'Juniper' and entered. He followed the staircase up to the Headmaster's door and knocked.

"Ah, yes, Mr. Aven, please do come in." Headmaster Dippet spoke from beyond the door. Ayilis entered and sat in one of the chairs in front of the Headmaster's desk.

"Headmaster Dippet, you wanted to see me?" Ayilis asked.

"Yes, indeed, I have been working on trying to set up a school club like the one you mentioned over Midwinter, wonderful festival by the way, and I have finally gotten the governors to agree. It would be a club meeting open to all students. Does this sound good to you?" The Headmaster was ruffling through papers on his desk.

"I didn't it would be up and running until next year. Would it be okay if we started this with the New Year? That way we can get everyone started at the same time." Ayilis was surprised that the Headmaster had gotten it up and running so quickly. Either he had really liked the idea, or a more likely option, he was trying to gain favor with the new head of Aven.

"I think that would be a great idea. It is getting close to the end of the school year anyway; we can just put it off until the next year. I will set aside a room for you in the coming year. Do you have a preference?" Headmaster Dippet asked.

"I believe I saw this great room on the third floor. I can take you there now if you have time." Ayilis fake smiled at the Headmaster. _Yes, I do indeed know the perfect room…

* * *

_

AN: Hello, my pretties. Okay, it has been a long time since I updated and this I know. Stuff has happened and I have been _very_ busy with school. If you haven't noticed by now...I have a new story up.

It is called Iskola Preparatory Academy and I love it. It is a Harry goes to another school story, but I do hope it is different from other's that are out there. I love the story and I have been working really hard on it. If you like this story you will probably like my other story.

I am excited! I have finally reached my 50,000 word mark with this story and I hope you are liking it. As always if you want me to update more...send me reviews!

Thank all of you, You are my inspiration,

~Rain


	10. The Last of First Year

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter Universe. I manipulate it to my advantage.

**Recap:** Harry after reading about the prejudices of the wizarding world and seeing it with his own eyes Harry decides to change it. He traveled through time, with Ginny, to Tom Riddle's first year at Hogwarts. He has made allies on the train coming to Hogwarts and after getting sorted into Slytherin he and the allies he made set up a group of rooms away from the others. He has become Duke Ayilis Aven, the Head of the Most Ancient Aven House a pureblood family with quite a reputation. Ginny has become his cousin Jinseri Aven.

In his first semester at Hogwarts he was getting to know his new roommates and allies. He set up a system where he hopes to at least meet everyone in Hogwarts before the end of the year. After a festival at midwinter Ayilis and the crew are back at Hogwarts for their 2nd semester. He has won the Slytherin Leader Trials and is now the leader of his year. He has asked Kinslo for help learning self-defense and is slowly integrating into life in the new time line.

He has named the group he and Jinseri formed Sodalitas. He has marked his new followers with a seven pointed star on their upper right arms. Every person has a different colored mark except for Ayilis: he has a multicolored seven pointed star on his chest. The group is now magically bound to each other and when they touch each other's marks they can feel the other person's emotions.

* * *

**Last Chapter: **_Tuesday, April 4__th__, 1939_

* * *

"I will set aside a room for you in the coming year. Do you have a preference?" Headmaster Dippet asked.

"I believe I saw this great room on the third floor. I can take you there now if you have time." Ayilis fake smiled at the Headmaster. _Yes, I do indeed know the perfect room…_

* * *

**Chapter 10: The Last of First Year**

* * *

_Thursday, April 20__th__, 1939_

Ayilis lounged in the back study room after classes. After the official naming of the group everyone had gone crazy naming things. They had officially named their hallway Domus and their meeting room was named Asua. Soon enough Harry figured out why though. The Ritual had affected them more than Ayilis had originally thought.

He had known that the Ritual sometimes had the side effect of connecting everyone through a magical bond, but didn't know that the Ritual would also cause emotions to rise in the group. The Ritual had the unexpected side effect of making the group into more of a family than ever before. The Ritual had sent feeling of belonging through all of them, Ayilis included.

Ayilis rubbed his new mark. He didn't think he would actually be including in the marking, but apparently the magic had decided to give him extra connections to the rest of the group. He had to keep his mind magic protection at full strength for a week just keep out the others' stray thoughts. It didn't help that the rest of the group wanted to do more Rituals. After just one taste they wanted more. Ayilis had to be careful about letting them learn about the magic that was really going on. They expected that after naming that they did he would want to do a Ritual, but it was difficult enough just trying to figure out what the first ritual did.

The newly christened Domus needed to be blessed according to Jinseri and Domino, who had figured out exactly what kind of magic they had been performing. Ayilis had been trying to put it off until he got the hang of his new mark, but after an entire week of trying to find out all the abilities of the new mark he gave up on figuring it out right away. It was put on the back burner because of more pressing problems.

The summer break was almost upon them and Ayilis was having a difficult time getting permission from all of the groups' parents on their visit to his house during the break. Tom had been easy with just a quick trip off campus to his old orphanage and a handy memory charm. Ayilis doubted that Tom's fellow orphans would even remember him after being gone so long. Domino had been another easy pass, she had written a letter to her parents about the change in her summer plans and had gotten approval the next day. Myles had a tougher time trying to convince his parents, but after a month of writing letters and debating he was going to join them for a month long during the summer.

Kinslo and Hilda were proving to be the toughest of the group. Hilda had originally thought that her parents wouldn't care if she went away for the summer, but sometime in the last school year they had decided that they wanted both of their daughters back for the summer. Hilda had written them many times, but they had constantly denied her. At this point Ayilis was tempted to write her parents himself to convince them to allow Hilda to stay over if just for a few days. Though the hardest by far was Kinslo, She was having a hard time convincing her father to let her come back for next year let alone the summer break. As the only female in her family she was pushed into the traditional roles that women held in pureblood families. From what Ayilis had learned from Kinslo about her father and brother he understood it would be a hard fought battle to bring her back for next year.

This was one of the few times that Ayilis had almost given into his anger at them and caused an incident. He had already gotten to work on finding a way to remove Kinslo from her family's influence, but it was unheard of in this day and age for a person to break off ties from their family. Those that did were shunned or looked down on. He groaned and rubbed his eyes again. He had started writing letters to Kinslo's father about 2 weeks ago to see if he would cave under the influence of a superior wizard, but so far he had weaseled out of any major insults to the Aven family.

He put quill to parchment again and thought about what his next letter should say.

_To Lord Vandom of the Most Great and Cunning House,_

_ I am writing to offer your daughter a part time job at my house for the summer. While at school I have noticed the form of defense which she uses to keep fit and I am intrigued by it. She has offered lessons to me and in exchange I can offer quite a sum of money. The job would only be part time, but I feel it is a skill that I need to learn for the coming years. The full amount is up to you, but I would be willing to pay handsomely for the service. Should you be interested please write back as soon as possible. I realize going without your daughter is an inconvenience for the summer and I would be willing to reimburse you for the time lost._

_Duke Ayilis Aven, Head of the Most Ancient House of Aven_

He placed the quill down and read over it quickly fixing the few grammar mistakes he made with a flick of his wand. It was one of the best spells that Myles had taught him. When he learned it he wondered why it wasn't taught to all incoming students and then wondered if Granger had ever known about it. The letter was short and to the point, just like him.

He closed the letter in an envelope and waxed his crest onto the back as a seal. He had just pushed the owl out of the room when Domino walked in.

"Ah, hello Domino, I have been waiting for this conversation for awhile. What would you like to know?" Ayilis sat down in one of his armchairs and motioned for her to do the same.

"Ayilis, I would like to know where you learned that ritual and what exactly do these marks do?" She sat down in the chair offered.

"Right to the point aren't you? Yes, well to the first question, I learned about the ritual in a book and after performing several of the lower level rituals by myself I decided to try a group one. I did not know the full consequences of the ritual, but I cannot say I am displeased by them." Ayilis motioned to her arm that held her mark.

"I can't say I'm really saddened about it either. The mark was a little disconcerting at first, but after a time I really started to like the look and feel of it. It makes me feel like I am bonded to something important, but I do not think that you chose that ritual completely by accident." She looked expectantly at Ayilis.

"Dom, you are one of the few members of the group that I trust with this information at this point. The marks were not done by accident, but I did not expect the other effects that the marks would have. Let me ask you a question, in the past few days have you felt an emotion that you didn't fully understand where it was coming from? Sadness or joy or grief?" He asked.

She sat for a few moments in thought.

"Well, yes, now that you mention it there have been a few times since the ritual that I have felt an emotion not my own." Domino said.

"One of the many unexpected side effects from the ritual, the emotions weren't yours at all. When other members of the group are experiencing intense emotions the others can feel it too. This is useful in times of trouble because it allows you to figure out which of your friends is in danger."

"What about you Ayilis? Your mark is in a different place than ours and when you touch other marks…well…" she blushed and trailed off.

"Yes, well as the leader of the group I have some advancement to my mark that you don't have to deal with. One is the transfer of emotions through the bond by touch. I can make any of the members feel what I want with just a touch of their marks. Another I believe you will not like, but you deserve to know. I have a backdoor into everyone's thoughts. I have been trying to hold up my mind defense and not listen, but it has proven difficult to block everyone out." Domino's shocked expression was gone in an instant.

"You mean you can get into anyone of our heads anytime you want to?" Domino asked worrying.

"Yes, but I really didn't want this power. It's hard enough just keeping you out. I have been working hard on fixing my defenses and I will start teaching Occlumency in the summer, or try to." He rubbed his eyes again.

"I have been taught the basics, but I will look for books on the subject for you. Anything else I should know about?" Domino asked. She looked satisfied. Without even trying the reason popped into Ayilis's head, she was happy that he had chosen to trust her with this information.

"Just one, is everything ready for your trip to our house this summer?" Ayilis asked.

"Mostly, my parents still want me home for a week or two in the summer, but they are both busy with work and will send me their holiday schedule so that we can coordinate visits. Did you need something?" She asked.

"Well, I need a spell and I have looked to see if one exists that does what I wanted it to, but I have fallen short. You said that you are well versed in spell crafting and I was wondering if you could help me." He looked at her. He got up and grabbed the papers off of his desk. This particular problem had been following him for about 3 weeks and he was having a hard time figuring out a solution.

"Maybe, what's the problem?" She looked excited.

"There is a spell that exists already that only allows certain people to read what is written on a document and I need you to modify it. Instead of needing to know the person, I want it to be based on personality. Only people with a certain skill set or open mind would be allowed to read it. Do you think you could do that?"

Domino looked over the documents and hummed to herself. "I think I can do something with these. You will need to give me a few weeks, but I might be able to pull something together." She shuffled the papers and turned back to him. "It will have to wait till after exams though. Speaking of which, are you going to come to the study session that Jinseri is hosting in a few hours?"

"I will be there." Ayilis nodded to her as she left.

Ayilis quickly closed up his remaining letters and decided to send them off. He moved out of the room and left the dorm.

Ayilis walked through the hallways with purpose. He was headed to the Owlery at the top of the west tower. He fixed a determined look to his face to dissuade people from disturbing him. He was moving along quickly when he heard a sound coming from a nearby room. He paused for a moment and listened. He almost sighed aloud when he realized that the noise was muffled crying.

He straightened his robes and moved to the doorway. He waited a second before knocking softly on the door and entering. He was slightly surprised to find a Gryffindor first year crying to herself in the unused part of the castle.

"Excuse me, Miss, are you alright?" Ayilis always tried to be kind to the people he met because you never know when people will reappear in your life.

"Yes, I'm fine. Please, go away." The girl almost whispered to him. Ayilis nodded and moved closer to her. He recognized her from Defense Against the Dark Arts, if he remembered correctly her name was Cyan Teller.

"Now, now, that wouldn't be very gentlemanly. It would be bad form to leave a pretty lady such as yourself to cry alone." Ayilis smiled lightly as he came up behind her. "What has got you so troubled like this, right before the summer?"

"It's nothing really." She sniffled.

"Come now, don't be like that. It is good to get these things off of your chest. Has someone hurt you?" Ayilis finally sat down next to her and looked at her face. He froze, getting more angry as the seconds passed. "Who did that to you?" He grinded his teeth together.

She turned away from him and faced the other wall. "It's not a big deal honest."

Ayilis grabbed her hand and rubbed softly. With his other hand he grabbed her chin and gently turned it toward him. The red hand print shone brightly from her cheek.

"Bollocks. That, my dear, is a very big deal." Ayilis wiped the tears from her face. "Now tell me what happened."

Cyan blushed, which only made the handprint standout even more.

"I can take care of it. No one else seemed to care." She rubbed her cheek a little.

"Nonsense. Tell me what happened. I care and I can fix it." Ayilis smiled at her a little.

"Well...It's just... Clauidous was being mean." She looked down. "I was just correcting him on a wand movement and..." She trailed off.

"Tell me." He could feel his anger at the boy rising and knew with an almost certainty that before the day was out he would have his first rival. He had been careful so far, trying not to make enemies too soon, or to let go of the tight leash he had on his magic.

"He called me a stupid mudblood and then slapped me. The rest of his friends just laughed and nodded, so I just ran off, but I got lost. I was just trying to get away from it all, but now..." Cyan looked into his eyes for the first time and Ayilis realized where she got her name. The strange bright cyan color of her eyes captured him for a moment. Then he took in what she said and the small fire of angry inside him grew to an inferno.

Cyan looked confused for a second when she felt the heat in the room rise by several notches, before Ayilis got control of himself again.

"I am sorry, my dear, that you had to see such ugliness in the Wizarding World. His like are the disgrace of noble wizards and witches everywhere. We need people like you in this world and anyone that doesn't think so is grievously mistaken. I hope that you can ignore the ramblings of an insecure little boy and realize that not everyone is not prejudiced or small minded. I am sure that if anyone else in your house heard of his grave insult they too would be ashamed of his behavior." Ayilis told her.

"No, Clauidous is the Headmaster's nephew everyone is trying to get on his good side, they just ignore me." Cyan sniffled once more.

"They are the house of the brave, if they would ignore one of their own for a perceived future favor they would be Slytherins. Now, we are going to the Great Hall and I will make Clauidous deeply regret his slight against you."

It was a slow walk through the halls, but one filled with purpose. Ayilis remembered the bullying he had undergone when he was 'just Harry' and the fact that his old house was just as prejudice as his new one was thought to be...to say he was unhappy would be an understatement.

As they entered the Great Hall nobody paid much attention to them. Ayilis was known to hang out with members of other houses, so it wasn't that unusual. It was unusual for him to start heading over to the Gryffindor table.

Cyan was walking slightly behind him at this point, but he paid no mind to it. He had found his target and the pompous laughter of the slightly overweight boy was getting on his nerves. He walked a little faster as Cyan fell behind him to be protected. That's when the rest of the hall started falling silent. People had noticed that Ayilis wasn't headed to his normal spot and that was cause for concern.

" Hemin Clauidous!" Ayilis stopped behind the chair of the boy and the rest of the hall had turned to look at the action, "Turn around and face me like a man."

Hemin Clauidous wasn't that attractive, but he had a certain charisma about him. Ayilis knew that in the future he was headed to politics, but would die early because of his eating habits. The fact that he was also the nephew of the current Headmaster gave him a certain above the rules mentality that the rest of the students lacked. As the boy turned in his chair, he just sneered at Ayilis.

_"Who are you?"_ Clauidous asked snidely.

Ayilis turned his gaze into the eye's of the boy and starred with intensity.

"_I_ am Duke Ayilis Aven, Head of the Most Ancient House of Aven, the only person in this entire room that is on the Ancient's Council, and right now, very annoyed. And _you_ are a bug in my presence, a speck of dust on my otherwise clean house, and you should be careful, very careful."

"Oh yeah, and why is that?"

"Because if you hurt another person in this school again I will go out of my wayto _squash you_." With that Ayilis turned around to leave, but he caught sight of the handprint on Cyan's face and felt the angry rise again. So he turned back, "But, before I leave."

And slapped him.

* * *

_Saturday, May 6__th __, 1939_

Domino had finished her assignment. She looked over the spell she had made once more to double check. It was all she had been doing for the past week. She wanted to make sure that the spell did exactly what Ayilis asked of it. This was the first request that she had ever gotten from the man who was her leader and she wanted to make sure it was perfect.

It was weird to think about him in that context, but the fact was the Domino had somehow pledged to serve a man and she was even happy about it. Her life had been simple to this point. She had been raised by a governess who taught her the beginnings of spell-crafting. She had parents who loved her whenever they were around. She had spent most of her childhood locked away in the family library learning the secrets that the family had kept for centuries.

It was during that time that she read about the Aven family. She had heard the family mentioned in other books, mostly history because they had played a major role in the Wizarding World since the beginning. It was weird to read about a major magical event in which the Aven's weren't somehow part of. However, this book told legends and myths that surrounded the family. It was the first time that she had ever run into the Ancient's Council. The book explained that the Aven's were actually the creator's of the Council and had been the first family to use the spell of power that pureblood's everywhere now used.

Domino had been fascinated. She absorbed the book and then tried to find more stories, but the stories of the Aven family were few and far between. They were one of the most important families in the history of the Wizarding World and, unfortunately, they were also one of the most private. She didn't learn of their disappearance from the Wizarding World until she was 9 and at that time they hadn't been heard from in 6 years.

She let go of her dreams to meet one of the family. It seemed an impossible wish. Then she had gotten on the train to Hogwarts and all that changed. It was pure coincidence that the first compartment she went to had the two people that she wanted to meet the most.

However, she was raised Slytherin and didn't let the excitement show. It was weird how they acted though, both seemingly older than they appear, like her in a way. She was quiet and kept to herself, just observed.

Myles was enough of a talker for the both of them. So Domino watched and waited. She looked for anything that would prove that there was a legend sitting before them and yet none appeared. He was just another 11 year old boy and Domino sighed and almost let her hopes go. The boy was just a boy, there didn't seem to be any difference between him and the other ambitious Slytherin first years. Domino was patient though, she would wait out a year and if nothing extraordinary happened she would drop the group.

It continued that way for awhile, just getting through the first year even though she already knew the material. She was glad she stayed with the group though because she did get satisfaction from helping the others with their work. It was then that she started noticing the facts.

Ayilis and Jin weren't working either. They also appeared to know most of the material. The only part they struggled with was the physical education like everyone else. There was also the fact that Ayilis and Jin always seemed to know what was going on. It didn't matter where it was in Hogwarts or the rest of the world, it didn't matter who it was that was having the problems, they were always there. Ayilis more so than Jin, but they both had a sixth sense that told them were the trouble was and even how to fix it.

Domino felt elated for a second and then the feeling disappeared. She absentmindedly rubbed her mark. The feeling had come from Kinslo. She was getting better at sorting out the feelings she was getting from their connection. The only people she never felt were Jin and Ayilis.

The Ritual hadn't been the first surprise that the two Avens had given her, but it was certainly her favorite. She had taken one look at the chalk diagram on the floor and knew exactly what she was about to get herself into. At the time it seemed like a calculated risk. Ritual magic was dangerous, but only if you did it improperly. After the skill Ayilis had show during their leader trials Domino had trusted him.

In the end it was probably the best thing that had ever happened to her. She wouldn't be able to explain her feelings to another person not in the group, but as soon as she got her mark there was this collective feeling of trust, of belonging. It was the first time that she had ever felt she belonged to a true family and she was happy.

For the first time, in a long time, she was happy. Ayilis and the group had made her belong, made her useful, and appreciated everything she did. Just as she appreciated everything they did.

She remembered when Ayilis had touched her mark. She blushed and smiled again the feelings that went coursing through her body were probably the most amazing she had ever felt and when Ayilis had told her later that he trusted her with the secrets of the Mark. Domino blushed again and then starred at the spell sheet.

Maybe if she was really lucky Ayilis would like it enough it touch her mark again.

Domino smiled and checked over it again. She had tested it before and it seemed to work, but until it was used for a real purpose it was still in final check phase. Domino got up from her desk and headed out of the room. She moved slowly still going over the spell in her head. It had to be perfect. This was her first order from her leader and she wanted it to be as good as it could possibly be.

She had been making spells since she was 6 and this was the first that she had ever been truly proud of. She had never thought that her first year would turn out like this. She had never thought she would be following one of her classmates. She was independent and strong and over the course of 2 semesters had become part of something bigger than herself. She had become part of a family and she would do anything to keep it that way.

"Hello Dom." Ayilis said from his chair in front of the fireplace. "Did you finish the spell?"

"Yes, Ayilis. I thought it turned out well. Here," she handed the spell sheet over to him and watched him look over it. She seemed surprised that he even understood it. He nodded at some parts and his eyes widened at others.

"This is really well done Domino. Good Job." Ayilis placed the spell sheet down on his desk. "Please, sit. I have another job for you if you are ready."

Domino's eyes widened. "Already?"

"Yes, it can wait a little while, but I do really need it done as quick as possible. It will be a rather large project though and will have to be done in parts." Ayilis wrote something down and then looked at her.

"I'm ready for whatever you would like me to do." Domino smiled at him.

"Okay, I need you to make a shield that protect from physical attacks. For example, someone throws a rock at you. I need a shield that would protect you from the rock."

"What do you need it for?" Domino asked while thinking over the basic set to use.

"Domino, I need you to trust me. Do you trust me?" Ayilis looked very serious.

"Yes, of course, I wouldn't have done the Ritual otherwise." Again she rubbed her mark.

"Good, then I need you not to ask questions. I know this is hard to understand, but believe me that one day I will tell you everything you need to know."

"Okay, I guess I can do it. Are there any specifics that you need the shield to cover?"

"The shield needs to be able to rise fast, as quickly as possible. It needs to be able to hold against the impact of a fast moving object."

"How fast?"

"As fast as you can make it. Just remember to keep it light. Also start learning about wards and how they are made." Ayilis looked at Domino. "I know this is a lot to ask, but I will help when I can I know a bit about warding and I think I will be able to get some help for you soon. If all goes to plan, very soon."

"I hope you know what you are doing." Domino said quietly.

"I hope so too. Have a good night Dom." Ayilis turned back to his work and Domino got up to leave. "Oh before I forget. Come here for a second."

Domino moved closer slowly. When she got near to Ayilis he suddenly shot out a hand and touched her mark. Domino lost sight of the room for a second, all she could feel was the magic from the bond overcoming her. The appreciation, happiness, and satisfaction washed over her. It was bliss and she wanted to stay there forever. As suddenly as it appeared it was gone and Domino found herself kneeling on a cushioned floor.

"Good job, Dom, I don't know what I would do without you." Domino could see the approval in his eyes and was content.

"Goodnight, Ayilis."

* * *

_Monday, May 8__th __, 1939_

There was still a month left of school, but Jinseri was already making plans for the summer. She had filled up the book that contained information on all of the students here and was already making another. This time focusing on the witches and wizards that populated the Ministry of Magic. She was working quickly and quietly, only Ayilis knew of her plans to infiltrate the Ministry.

Though, while she had been working hard at picking up information Ayilis had been doing something else entirely. Something that even she had not known about and it was covering an entire page of the Daily Profit.

_Egnever Productions_

_NOW HIRING!_

_We are looking for skilled workers in any profession. All Races, Creature Statuses, or Blood Purities accepted. If you are skilled in a profession like, but not limited to:_

_Warder / Curse Breaker_

_Legal Profession_

_Potion's Research_

_Spell Crafting_

_Defense or Offensive Magic_

_Elemental Magic_

_Mind Magic_

_Construction_

_Herbologist_

_Medical Profession_

_Then we are looking for you. Please come to one of our many information sessions listed below._

_Warning: Be prepared to give an Oath of Silence upon job offer._

Jinseri glared down at the paper below her. She wasn't aware that there was a new business opening up in the Wizarding World and there was only one reason she wouldn't have that knowledge. Ayilis Aven was in trouble.

She was angry and as she stalked away from the Great Hall to the Dormus she considered how best to torture her _cousin_.

Jinseri slammed open the door and entered Ayilis's room.

"Hello Jin." Ayilis turned the page of the book he was writing in. "What can I do for you?"

"You know _exactly _what you can do for me. You can explain _what_ you were thinking, or should I say _not thinking_." She shoved the advertisement under his nose. "Bloody Hell, Ayilis, this changes things!"

"Jin, please," Ayilis sat up and starred at her again.

"Tell me _why_, why in Merlin's name did you decide to possibly change the entire future of the world."

"Don't be so dramatic, Jin, your mother is showing up in you."

"Really! My _mother_, you had to mention her didn't you?" Jinseri grabbed the front of his shirt. "_Why did you do this?"_

"Jinseri, will actually give me time to explain or do you want to continue to make baseless accusations?"

"_Baseless?_" Jinseri forced herself to take a breath. She wasn't that foolhardy Gryffindor anymore and she wanted to know what Ayilis was doing. "Alright, what do you have planned, my _Leader_." She spat.

"Jin, there was a reason I didn't tell you my plan, because you would have fought me every step of the way and this needed to happen. As for why I changed the future... As I think you may have forgotten, I will remind you. The only reason we came here was to change the future. This is one of the ways to do that. We need a workforce Jinseri, people that will help us fight the coming battles and I can't wait until the fighting is already in full swing. I put off this phase long enough."

Jinseri collapsed into the chair by the fireplace. "What are you going to use it for?"

"What do most people do with businesses? I'm going to make things. The first thing I'm already working on. I'm trying to make a ward that will withstand the impact of a bomb. The Wizarding World is naive to the ways of muggles and they will be destroyed by the Blitz if we are not careful. Anyway, that is just one aspect. There will be different departments to set up and get going. I'm thinking of a research and development department and a Offensive and Defensive Department." Ayilis sighed, but closed his book for a second.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Jin asked softly, she had lost the anger quickly.

"There were many reasons or excuses, but mostly because I wanted you to enjoy the off time. This was the first time you could have a real first year at Hogwarts and I didn't want to take it away from you. Can you blame me?" Ayilis asked.

"No, I never can." Jin smiled. "Alright, what do you need help with?"

"The set up of the Departments."

_Wednesday, May 24__th __, 1939_

_To Duke Aven, Head of the Most Ancient House of Aven,_

_ I am willing to part with my daughter for a few days a week, for a tidy sum, of course._

_Lord Vandom of the Most Great and Cunning House_

Ayilis closed the letter and nodded to himself. The man was a problem, but one that he could deal with. His title was a joke and all the rest of the purebloods knew it by now. He had been slowly spreading rumors about the family throughout some of his trusted contacts and it was starting to take effect.

All that was left was waiting. The man would do something stupid and leave himself venerable. Ayilis would take that vulnerability and show the rest of the community why Kinslo should be taken away from him and he would win. However, he was willing to pay for the company and protection of one of his Sodalis in the time being.

He pushed another stack of papers into the outbox that the Frinsor, his Account Manager, had provided him with. Starting a company was definitely one of the most challenging things he had ever done, that included evading a dragon on a broom.

The amount of paperwork alone was staggering, but luckily he had enough contacts in the ministry to get everything approved quickly. No one seemed to care that he was only 11 and for that he was happy. He stood and stretched a little.

He thought about his friends for a second and knowledge came flooding into him. Kinslo was practicing next to the lake outside trying to absorb the picturesque view of Hogwarts because she might never see it again. Domino was bent over a stack of papers very unlike his own trying to figure out the spell he had assigned. Myles and Hilda were studying for the transfiguration final. Jinseri was teaching Tom how to play Blind Amputee Deaf, which was a card game that had become popular sometime in the 1980s. Ayilis thought to go yell at her, but from the looks of things Tom wasn't even paying attention. He was just nodding from time to time to keep Jin happy.

Ayilis stretched some more and one look at the stack of papers he had yet to sign had him backing out of the room to go take a walk. He needed a break and this was the first time he had in 3 weeks. Ayilis walked out of the common room and started walking the halls aimlessly, letting Hogwarts take him where she wanted.

It had been awhile since he had done this, but it had been a staple in his previous timeline. The castle was close to sentient and often time Harry would be headed someplace and the castle would guide him to somewhere else completely.

He concentrated only on the feel of the stone beneath his feet and the smell of the old castle. She was content, but sad at the coming month. They would be gone soon for the summer and the castle was already preparing for the hibernation.

_BANG. CLONG. CRACKKK._

Ayilis stopped. He was still in the dungeons and he was fairly sure that wasn't a normal sound. The sounds of duel curses also gave it away. He looked for the cause of the noise and noticed that one of the doors had purple smoke billowing from the edges.

"I told you not to put in the salamander skin."

"I know, but it thought for sure that would work.

"Well obviously you were wrong. The worst part was when you actually said 'What could go wrong?' Are you an idiot? That is just asking for disaster, you brought this upon yourself and worse _me_."

"Look, brother, I'm sorry I messed up, but is this really worse than the spinach cake disaster of 1937?" There seemed to be a coughing fit.

"Why did you bring that up? I thought we promised never to mention it again?"

"Well, I needed to prove that we are both wrong sometimes."

Ayilis walked to the door and opened it while simultaneously moving out of the way. The smoke rushed out of the room without stop. Ayilis waved his wand and cast a clearing spell and a bubble head charm. He entered the mess of the room. The entire room had been exploded and to one side lay two twin brothers who were stuck together to the floor by a strange purple goo.

"Look, someone to see our miserable attempts." The brother to the right said.

"Well, we wouldn't have been in this mess if not for you..." The left brother glared.

"Hmmm, how curious, what is that liquid your covered in?" Ayilis bent above the boys to look at it. He had recognized the brother's from the Slytherin common room. The twin brothers Rowle and Rulf Rosier, they were twin brother in their final year at Hogwarts. They were also cousins to the twin brother's in his year Rupert and Ropert Dismi.

"It's a new recipe for a containment gel. It's supposed to be used to contain dangerous magical artifacts. This means that it absorbs all magic that touches it. It is also the reason we are currently stuck here." Right brother said.

"Need help?" Ayilis asked and without waiting for an answer he used the cutting curse between the boys.

Both boys rolled out of the way as quick as possible and backed away from the goo and shook off.

"Thanks for that Aven." The left brother said and patted his head. "I'm Rowle and that's Rulf. What are you doing in our neck of the woods?"

"I was taking a break. How did you get yourself in such a predicament?"

"Well, it's a long story that ends in a rather embarrassing situation, but now that it's over we can all go on with our lives." Rulf stated.

"Would you be able to make it work? Ayilis asked. The two brothers looked at him shocked for a second.

"Well, yes, it's been slow work without funds and school's almost out so we won't have our workplace anymore, but yes we could make it work."

"Well, that's an intriguing problem you have that I might have a solution to. Have you seen the advertisement in the Daily Prophet?" Ayilis asked still looking at the mess, the house elves would have a field day with this.

"Yes, we were considering it, but it said skilled professionals and I don't think we are there yet. We aren't even potion's masters."

"I think you are just what they are looking for. I know the owner, I'll put in a good word for you if you apply." Ayilis nodded to the boys. "Now, if your excuse me I think Hogwarts is done with me for the day." Ayilis sighed and headed out, not noticing the calculating gazes on his back.

* * *

_Friday, June 2__nd __, 1939_

The Hogwarts Express looked just as red as it always did, but somehow it didn't feel that way. This school year had been his least life threatening and most important yet. The action was just getting started though. This summer would be moving by fast and he had to make the most of every day, because unlike the other children boarding the train with a carefree, excited attitude he knew what was coming.

The war was headed this way in less than 4 months and they weren't prepared at all.

The first order of business as soon as they got home was start the business up and running. He had to push Domino to get the shield done and work on making wards. He had to get Jinseri into the Ministry to spy. He had to start teaching the Sodalis about Occulmency and Legilimency. He had to ward his property and start a 100 other small projects.

Ayilis moved to the corner of the compartment and watched the laughter of his friends. At least, someone was going to be having fun this summer.

He would make sure of it.

* * *

Hey Team! Remember me? No?

oooookaaaaaaaay. :'(

I'll just be over here. Not writing a story and you can go back to not reading my story.

But if perchance you did read my story, and if mayhaps you even _liked _my story. Then I encourage you.

No, I implore you to press that little button down there. V

You know which one I'm talking about. And don't even think of just putting me on alert. If you like it enough to alert, you should like it enough to review. Then again, I would be a black pot if I said I never did that.

I will apologize for any big grammer mistakes, I still don't have a beta. If you are good at it I need one.

If you realized that grammar is spelled wrong in the previous sentence then you will probably do.

Thanks for reading, please review.

Please. =)

~Rain


End file.

Harry Potter, Adventure