Secrets and Lies

The plan had seemed so foolproof. Months of careful planning and hundreds of galleons. Only to have it foiled by one stupid hat.

The day had started fine enough. He'd arrived at King's Cross early, so as to get a seat on the train. Of course then a couple of Hufflepuffs had come in because there were no seats left, but he'd gotten around that by pretending to sleep for the entire journey, waking up only when the alarm on his watch went off to drink his potion. He claimed it was medicine.

Then when he'd gotten off the train, he had to get onto the boats with the half-giant, but it wasn't too bad. Actually, he'd gotten the whole boat to himself after the first-years on his boat all mysteriously fell into the lake.

Perhaps he had felt a little embarrassed at being sorted along with the first years, but old McGonagall had insisted he be sorted officially, so as not to arouse too much suspicion. He'd only listened to the song with half an ear, as he was busy scanning around the room for his old friends.

His name was called, and it all went downhill from there.

"Well, well, well," a small familiar voice whispered in his ear. "A returning pupil perhaps?"

"Just hurry up and sort me into Slytherin" he thought back.

"Patience young Malfoy, there is much that has changed about you," the voice whispered. "The last time I sorted you your desire to be in Slytherin was so strong that I couldn't even begin to see sorting you into a different house. Now something has changed."

"What in the blazes are you talking about?" he thought angrily, trying to ignore how the hat had penetrated his Occlumency so easily.

"Ah yes, you have grown much in the last year," the hat told him. "Indeed, I think you've grown more courage in your convictions."

"Don't even think about it," he thought furiously.

"Now this is a treat. The first Malfoy ever sorted into... GRYFFINDOR!"

The last word was shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. The table to his left burst into applause, but he merely sat there. Then he swore.

"Mr. Baird, you have to go to your house now," Flitwick the midget professor told him. He tried thinking insults furiously towards the hat, but the thing gave no response. Finally, he stood up and walked over towards the Gryffindor table. He sat down at the end closest to the staff table, as far away from anyone as possible.

His day was ruined even further when the first years all decided to sit beside him.

###

Harry kept a watchful eye on Matthew throughout the sorting. He seemed very upset with the result of his sorting, and wasn't speaking to anyone.

"What year do you reckon he's in?" Ginny asked, glancing round the table.

"He looks around our age," one of her friends answered.

"Yeah, but what's he doing here?" Ginny asked.

"Maybe he's a foreign exchange student," Ron suggested.

"Don't be ridiculous Ron!" Hermione exclaimed hotly. "If you'd have read Hogwarts: A History you would know that the foreign exchange program was outlawed in 1847 by the Ministry of Magic after several incidents involving students from European schools fighting with students from Hogwarts, including an incident in an Italian school when a Hogwarts student on exchange was savagely attacked by several students and a teacher."

"Funny, I must have missed that part," Ron muttered under his breath as Hermione continued to recite parts of her favourite book word for word perfect. Thankfully her tirade was cut short by the end of the sorting, and Professor McGonagall standing up to great the student.

"Welcome students, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" she announced, and her exclamation was met by much clapping and cheers, and even a wolf-whistle from the Hufflepuff table.

"As you are no doubt aware, I have been appointed your new Headmistress," she said, to more applause. She waited for it to die away. "And as such, Professor Flitwick has agreed to take up the role of Deputy Headmaster." More applause. "As such, our staff has faced a bit of rearrangement. We are delighted to say that Professor Slughorn has agreed to remain as our Potions teacher for another year." She gestured to the portly man sitting on her right, who received a polite spattering of applause.

"And now, to our two relatively new additions," she said. "Firstly to Professor Remus Lupin, who has kindly decided to take up his old post of Defence Against the Dark Arts temporarily until a candidate to teach the post permanently can be found." She then gestured to what Harry momentarily thought was a set of rags piled up in a chair, but a longer look showed the indeed familiar (and scarred) face of his old mentor.

"And finally to Professor Walker, who will be teaching you Transfiguration." At this she waved a hand to the young man sitting at the end of the table. Suddenly, Harry found himself reminded of Snape. Walker was a pale man, with black hair which looked almost as if it had been roughly hacked to shoulder length with an axe, and cold grey eyes which seemed to sweep across the room. He was scanning around the room, as if looking for a familiar face. Then his eyes came to rest on Harry for a moment, before passing over him.

"And now, let the feast begin!" McGonagall announced. Everyone around them made a grab for as much food as possible, only to find that most of the food seemed to have been magnetically attracted to Ron's plate.

###

"Mr. Baird, a word if you will," McGonagall said, beckoning him over after the feast. As the pupils around him made their way to the dormitories, he leaned into to speak to the Headmistress.

"I think you are almost as surprised as I was Draco," she said quietly so that only he could here. "I will, of course, escort you to the Gryffindor Tower where I will introduce you to your dorm mates."

"This is all a terrible mistake," Draco snapped at her. "I'm a Slytherin. Even a Hufflepuff could tell you that."

"Now Mr. Baird," McGonagall said sternly. "They won't tolerate that kind of behaviour towards Hufflepuffs in your new home."

"No, as long as I'm only bitching about Slytherin everything will be fine," he muttered. McGonagall surveyed him for a moment, something he remembered Dumbledore used to do.

Ignoring the rising guilt at the thought of Dumbledore, he gestured to Professor McGonagall.

"Lead on oh wise one," he said, bowing slightly.

"I wouldn't do that in your new tower if I were you," McGonagall told him. "For one thing, I'm not sure that they would all understand the concept of sarcasm." Draco smiled, and followed the woman as she led him out of the now empty Great Hall.

###

Harry and Ron took their time in wishing goodnight to Hermione and Ginny. And as such they walked up the stairs to their dormitories grinning from ear to ear. When they got into the dorms Ron walked over to his bed and promptly collapsed into it, but Harry surveyed the room. Something was different.

"There's another bed this year," he said. Indeed everyone seemed to have lost a little space around their beds.

"It must be for that new guy," Seamus called from behind the curtains of his four-poster bed.

No sooner had he spoken than McGonagall swept into the room, followed by the new guy.

"Right boys, pay attention," she snapped at them. Seamus immediately drew his curtains back. "Mr. Finnigan, put some clothing on!" she snapped at him. "Right, this is our new student, Matthew Baird. He will be in seventh year, therefore you will be his classmates. This will be as much his room as it is yours." She gazed around at them sternly, stopping for a moment on Neville. "Now you'd all best get some sleep, no doubt you'll have a lot of catching up to do in the morning."

She swept out of the room, leaving Matthew standing in the doorway.

"If you don't mind, I'll hop into bed then," he said, scowling at Ron as he marched over to the empty bed. He quickly disappeared behind the curtains of his bed.

"What's up his butt?" Dean asked, with a look that suggested he might like to join it.

###

At breakfast the next morning Hermione greeted Ron a little more enthusiastically than anyone wanted her to. Harry settled for kissing Ginny on the cheek.

"Timetables," Hermione said happily, handing the timetables Lupin (who had for some reason been appointed Head of Gryffindor house, despite his job being "temporary") had given her around the table.

"Not too bad," Ron said, surveying the timetable. "Plenty of free periods!"

"Speak for yourself," Ginny said grumpily. "Sixth years have to spend their free periods in revision classes for their O.W.L.s."

"I wonder what subjects Matthew's studying," Parvati Patil said dreamily.

"He never said a word last night," Harry told her. "And he was gone whenever we got up this morning."

"It's odd isn't it?" Hermione said. "I'm not sure I like this mysterious new classmate."

"What are the odds he's in Potions then?" Ron asked.

True enough, Matthew was sitting in the front row whenever Ron, Hermione and Harry arrived. Slughorn was the only other one there, and he rose to greet Harry enthusiastically.

"Harry m'boy!" Slughorn beamed, grabbing Harry's hand and shaking it. "How have you been?"

"Fine sir," Harry said, ignoring the enormous scowl on Matthew's face.

"Excellent. Well, it's not every day you defeat a Dark Lord is it?" He chuckled. "Well, sit down and get your books out!"

The rest of the class arrived soon after, including Ernie Macmillan sporting his Head Boy badge. He and Slughorn greeted each other very pompously, before Ernie came over to sit beside Harry and shake his hand vigorously.

Once the rest of the class had settled, Slughorn stood up to address the class, before noticing that Matthew was sitting at the front on his own.

"Now this won't do at all," he said with a smile. "Why don't you go and sit beside your classmates over there?"

He gestured to the empty seat beside Blaise Zabini, who looked very much as though the idea of a Gryffindor sitting beside him was a great offence. He ignored it in the presence of his Head of House though, and allowed Matthew to sit beside him.

"Now, today we'll be doing something simple, as it's been so long since we've been together," Slughorn told them. "As I recall in our first lesson we made a little Draught of the Living Death. Let's see how you handle this one. Turn your books to page forty-eight. We'll be making Harkins' Sleeping Draught today. It's not quite as strong, but take care not to inhale too many of the fumes!"

The class set about to work, and Harry took out his new copy of Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage. He briefly cast his mind back to his previous copy of this book, and briefly wondered what had become of the Half-Blood Prince...

###

For miles around nothing could be seen save for a small rowing boat and its two occupants.

"Come on Wormtail! ROW!" the tall, hook-nosed man barked at him.

"It's too hard, Snape. I've only got one hand!"

"Well you should have thought of that before you let the Aurors take your silver one," Snape snapped at him. "Or the very least you could have sold it on eBay so we could have bought a bigger boat." He sneered. "Now row, damn you! And we shall seek our fortune in the New World!"

The little boat moved very slowly through the mass of water, stopping only occasionally for Wormtail to rest while Snape berated him.