Fate's Rewrite

I felt no concern as I closed the door behind me, leaving Susan alone in my room. Not because I trusted Susan -or Merlin forbid, Daphne- but because I had not kept anything dangerous in my room. Hogwarts had too many secret passages and other alternatives, and I didn't want to take the risk of someone raiding my room while I was absent.

Of course, just in case, I had also placed several muggle recording devices around the room -including the shower Susan was currently using- as well as several spells of my invention that had worked in similar functionality. I would be easily able to validate anything Susan had done in my room.

Daphne was waiting for me at the entrance, a frown on her face. "Miss Greengrass," I said as I gave an exaggerated bow. "Would you accompany me to breakfast?"

"Of course," she said kindly, but her expression didn't agree, still looking at my door.

"Susan still has some work to do," I explained. "She needs to clean up a bit."

From the way her eyebrows crossed in a fit of momentary anger, it was clear that Daphne had understood what I had done, but it didn't bother me. If she didn't want her friend to be molested, she shouldn't have sent her to my room wearing what amounted to be a fetish costume. "So, anything I should be careful about politically?" I asked as we walked toward the Great Hall together, both of us doing a great job of ignoring the whispers and pointing around us, more than one person muttering the name of Nott.

Even more interesting was the way some of the girls looking at me, with a mixture of arousal and star-struck. Moreover, it wasn't limited to Slytherin but spread to all four classes, though they were particularly few amongst Gryffindors. It was an amusing development, I decided. Apparently, with Potter's absence, people were looking for a new hero, and my 'courageous' actions gave them an option.

Altogether, I wasn't exactly dissatisfied.

"You seem to have a newfound popularity," Daphne said, despite her attempt to look blank, a small curl appeared on the edge of her mouth, confirming that it was Daphne that made sure to spread the events -possibly with some embellishment in terms of my attitude- therefore solidifying my position against Nott and other traditionalist Slytherins.

I leaned in to whisper into her ear. "I appreciate all the effort you put on my behalf," I said, but despite the contents of my words, my tone was ice-cold. I squeezed her arm just enough to hurt for a moment. "But, if you try to play politics by my name again without checking with me first, gifting a sexy redhead might not be enough to buy my goodwill…"

To her credit, Daphne didn't skip a step despite the sudden fear in her eyes, once again realizing that I wasn't the same Malfoy she had been dealing with for the last six years. "You have changed," she murmured respectfully. I nodded. I changed, of course, but I doubted she could guess the extent of the change, or the reason for it.

"I don't have a problem with your objectives," I explained just in case. "Just make sure to run anything important by me before implementing," I added, and Daphne nodded. It seemed like a small thing, but actually, it was even more patronizing than asking her to involve me with the planning. With this, I basically claimed the right to approve or reject any plan she might come up with, neatly positioning myself higher than her in her little political conspiracy.

Of course, whether it would take hold or she would try to circumvent it, it was to be seen. For the rest of the way, I limited the discussion to casual topics, not bothering to micromanage Daphne, something no doubt confused her. Of course, I simply didn't have any interest in her schoolyard plans, I had much more important things in mind. If it wasn't for the coincidence of Nott selecting my cabin for his action, I wouldn't have to get involved with the argument.

The breakfast itself was much more interesting. I sat at one end of the table, and Daphne chose the opposite end, reminiscent of a king and a queen taking control of the table in a feast. Nott wasn't even in the breakfast, nor was his followers, no doubt ashamed of showing their faces. Amycus Carrow, on the other hand, was sitting on Snape's seat and trying to look strong, but his dancing eyeballs and not-so-subtle sweating betrayed his nervousness. No doubt he was caught flatfooted by the absence of Snape, who was by far the best dueler between them, leaving them a touch outnumbered against Dumbledore loyalists.

His worries were empty, of course. McGonagall and other Dumbledore loyalists might be strong and brave, but also they lacked the sense of initiative to act without a charismatic leader. With Dumbledore gone, that role was left to Potter, and Potter was currently busy conducting a useless search for Voldemort's Horcruxes, unaware that I either already took possession of them, or knew their location and ready to swipe them in a moment's notice.

Maybe I would organize a resistance later on, just to cement my fake-conversion to the light side in case Hermione's assurances about my double-agent status were not enough. I had no intention of languishing forgotten after Voldemort's demise, and the title of the Savior of Hogwarts had a nice ring to it.

Then, I noticed a shift of expression on Amycus' face, particularly when our eyes met. His panic was replaced by frustrated anger. Not surprising considering he belonged to Senior Nott's clique -who was not having a good time, still searching for the leaks that resulted in Muggleborn camps being raided thanks to my little frame-up job- and he needed to explain why Nott Junior's vaunted position had lost all of its impact before he could even step into the school. With Snape's absence, it was Amycus that needed to deal with that particular detail, much to his distaste.

I was lucky that he didn't know I was responsible for Snape's disappearance as well, or he might have reacted more explosively than just a few angry glares.

Still, I made sure to send him a mocking smirk before avoiding his gaze, just to underline that I wasn't afraid of him. It looked like a stupid pride thing Draco might have done, but actually, it had a reasonable driver. Since we were already in conflict, my confidence would force him to assume I had a reason to be. Considering Snape was mysteriously away in a mission, and he was very close to my family, I even had a perfect alibi for my confidence, ensuring Carrow twins wouldn't bother me a lot.

Then, my gaze slipped over the teacher's, only to stop when I arrived at the seat of the Flying Instructor. The seat was being held by Cho Chang rather than Madame Hooch. I smirked at the possibilities. I was already planning to seduce Ginny, but stealing Potter's old girlfriend as well had a certain appeal, not to mention she had a killer body and an exotic beauty.

The school year was going to be interesting.

My first period was a free period -more accurately, the history class with the resident ghost, which, according to Draco's memories, was even more boring than I had assumed, so I skipped it- so, I decided to go to the library.

However, there was still a particular issue, namely, Nott's absence from breakfast. After the beating he had received, he should be smart enough to raise his head. Still, better safe than sorry, I decided as I slipped to an empty classroom and pulled the map, checking the location.

It was good that I did so, because I saw Nott and several of his supporters hanging around my new rooms -well, technically his, but it was his fault for being too weak to defend it. I would have ignored it, but Susan was still there as well, walking around the suite, probably preparing for the class. Likely, her shower ran a little too long. The problem, she would come across Nott after leaving the room, and while she was probably a decent fighter, not good enough to fend off an ambush from overwhelming numbers. And no doubt Nott would have some interesting humiliations in mind for her.

I sighed as I pulled the Invisibility cloak around myself, using a secret passage to cover the required distance in less than a minute. When I arrived, Susan was yet to leave the suite. I could have removed Nott and his team easily, but being the hero had a certain appeal as well. I stayed hidden while the door opened and Susan left the room, her amazing figure unfortunately hidden behind Hogwarts' boring robes.

Nott and his team followed her -quite ineptly, I might add- and revealed themselves the moment she arrived at a relatively concealed corner, grabbing her and dragging her into an empty classroom. I slipped in before they could close it.

"You made a big mistake, Bones, by deciding to believe Greengrass' words," Nott started gleefully as he raised his wand, while his supporters stayed a step back, their smirks dirty and excited. However, what I found most interesting was no all of them were Slytherins. No, two of them were actually from Hufflepuffs, and one from Gryffindor. Nott had surprising depths.

"What, I should have listened to you and be your Hufflepuff whore," Susan, quite bravely considering she didn't have her wand. He turned two Hufflepuffs who stayed behind. "You two are a disgrace."

"Well," Nott said. "You should have listened to me and stayed in your own Dorms," Nott said gleefully. "That way, you only needed to serve my two good friends here," Nott said, patting the shoulders of the two Hufflepuff. Now, you need to serve a larger crowd first as a lesson, maybe starting with me."

Susan looked brave, but I could see fear dancing behind her green eyes despite her best effort. I decided to cut her suffering short, and removed the cloak. "So, is this a private party, or everyone can join?" I said. Nott and his retinue turned immediately, trying to catch me hard, but they had paid for their laziness. My wand was already out, and I was casting disarmers. Pain filled the room.

Of course, they were shouting in pain because of my choice of disarmers. I decided to go with bone breakers rather than expelliarmus. It counted as disarming if both of their arms were broken, keeping them from picking their wands, right? Of course, if one or two wands was also destroyed irrevocably, costing them months as they tried to establish a bond with a new wand… Well, it wasn't exactly my problem.

I walked toward Nott, whose pained cries were less loud compared to his friends, which could be considered as an achievement. Something I was glad to inform him about. "Impressive, Nott, unlike your friends, you're not crying like a little girl," I said with a smirk that made him blanch even worse than the pain he was suffering. "But let's fix that, right," I added before sending two more bone breakers, this time to his knees, earning the cries he let out. "This is your second warning. The next time, I stop being nice!" I warned him, then looked around his wounded friends. "That applies to you as well."

Only after every single one of them avoided my gaze I turned to Susan, who was looking at the scene with a shocked expression. "Shall we," I said even as I presented her my arm, and we walked out. I had to give credit to Susan. When I put my hand on her arm, I could feel her shaking badly, but she managed to exert a royal aura nonetheless.

When we were outside, she tried to pull her arm. "It's okay, let me accompany to back to the suite," I said.

"I need to go to my class," she replied.

"No, you don't, not after what you have experienced. You're holding very well, but you're going to crash badly in a few minutes. And you need a safe space for it," I said. I might not be the kindest man, but I took care of my prospective allies. It was just common sense.

Of course, the fact that the said ally had the most amazing tits I had ever seen might have played a small role…