Corruption

CHAPTER ONE

Ice

Harry stumbled down the stairs and into the great hall, broomstick clutched under his arm. He collapsed into his seat, panting heavily.

`You look a bit tired,´ Ron noted, shovelling corn flakes into his bowl.

Harry was just going to reply when he heard familiar footsteps behind him. He set himself and turned to face Malfoy.

`What do you want now?´ Harry snapped coldly.

`Oh, I just want to see you. Watching your life as it sucks is enough for me,´ Malfoy told him, smiling sweetly.

`Malfoy,´ said a voice behind him. Harry hadn´t heard it before, but that wasn´t saying much in a school this size.

`Ryder,´ Malfoy hissed, without turning.

`Why hasn´t someone killed you yet?´ the voice asked, and as Malfoy moved, Harry could put a face to the voice.

A tiny girl stood behind Malfoy. She was about shoulder height on him, and had icy blonde hair. Her dark blue eyes were impossible to look at, and she fixed them on Malfoy with a glare that could shatter glass. Harry almost found himself feeling sorry for the blond Slytherin boy. Almost.

`Ah, you see, there are so many girls who would be rendered incapacitated, were I to leave. I just couldn´t do that to them,´ Malfoy shrugged.

`Don´t worry, Dragon. Here´s one girl who wouldn´t mourn you,´ the girl told him, walking away, with a flick of her white-blonde hair.

`Who was that?´ Harry asked Malfoy.

`Lara Ryder,´ Malfoy hissed, staring after her angrily. `I´ve known her most of my life. I thought she was living in Norway.´

`Must have moved back,´ Harry suggested.

`And thus, the boy lost faith in God,´ Malfoy sighed theatrically, pressing the palm of his hand to his chest and seeming to address the ceiling. Then he saluted Harry and walked off after the girl.

`Malfoy seems bearable when someone else gets one up on him,´ Hermione frowned, looking up from the book propped against a jug.

Harry scratched his head. Malfoy had an enemy who wasn´t Harry. It was odd. Harry just supposed that Malfoy might leave him alone for awhile. He thought the girl would be the least of his worries.

~*~

Lara Ryder soon gained a reputation as the nastiest girl in the school. She had, it seemed, joined Slytherin when her family moved to England. She had been at Durmstrang, but was now taking Hogwarts by storm. She was mean to everyone except Pansy Parkinson, who was her firm friend. Harry often turned corners to find a large crowd of people gathered around the tiny little blonde as she told malicious jokes about someone. She had a slight Scandinavian accent, and with her clear voice it sounded even more cutting.

But she wasn´t too perfect herself.

Harry kicked himself as he walked to his transfiguration detention. He hadn´t meant to forget his homework. Mcgonagall had been in a mood, and had detained him. As he lined up outside the classroom he crashed into someone small. Lara´s pale, sharp face whipped around.

`Watch where you´re going,´ she told him, turning back.

Harry was taken aback by her fervent reaction. Her navy eyes looked like tunnels in snow. Her skin was almost lilac it was so pale. She wasn´t really pretty; she could have been though. If she just stopped scowling then she would have been quite attractive, physically. She was small, but perfectly formed. She had a very erect carriage, and...

`Just quit staring at me, scar boy!´ the object of his scrutiny shouted, spinning again, whipping him with her hair. He stepped back, blinking quickly. `What do you want?´ she asked him concisely, hunching slightly, her eyes glinting dangerously.

Harry decided to be disarmingly honest. `I was thinking how pretty you´d be if you stopped scowling,´ he told her. At this, she did for a second. She looked oddly vulnerable, and Harry had an urge to hug her. She looked like a tiny child.

Then the scowl returned.

`Never look at me again, whatever your name is,´ she commanded.

`Harry Potter,´ he supplied, but he ended up saying it to the wall, as she walked into the classroom.

~

Professor Mcgonagall was handing out sheets as they entered. She pointed to a desk for each of them.

`Potter, failing to complete homework. Two hundred lines. "I will do my homework for transfiguration".´ She gave Harry a couple of parchment sheets, and he started to write.

`Francis, bad behaviour. One hundred lines, "I will not behave badly in transfiguration lessons".´ She handed parchment to a second year boy, trembling madly.

`Ryder, getting a minus mark in a class test. Retest, until you get it all right,´ Mcgonagall said, breathing heavily through her nose. Lara groaned and took the page. She began to work in silence.

Ages later Harry peeled his hand off the desk and stretched his sore fingers. He packed away his things and took the sheet of lines up to the teacher. She looked up from her work, half moon spectacles perched on the end of her nose. Harry held out his painful punishment.

Without saying a word, Mcgonagall took his work and threw it in the bin beside her. Harry almost wanted to cry. She didn´t even glance at it. He picked up his bag and walked to the door. He glanced back, and saw Ryder sitting at her desk. She was biting her tongue and frowning, not writing anything. Harry gave her a small smile when she looked up, then left.

~*~

Lara melted into Hogwarts life before long. She seemed to have replaced Malfoy, and that made him very angry. Harry couldn´t help thinking she was funny, but he didn´t like the things she said. Ryder and Hermione had a run-in about a week after the detention. Harry was standing next to Hermione at the time.

`I think you should leave everyone alone,´ Hermione told her, hands on hips.

`And who are you to tell me what to do?´ Lara asked, stopping in mid flow.

`I don´t know, but don´t you see that it´s mean and horrible?´

Lara gestured at her crowd of fans. `I don´t see anyone standing behind you, laughing at your every word. I´m popular, that´s all that matters.´

`You aren´t popular with the people you´ve been horrible to,´ Hermione said, drawing herself up, and ending up a good deal taller than Lara.

`That´s why I´m only nasty to gimps, and people I don´t want to be seen dead with,´ Lara explained.

`I can´t believe you!´ Hermione said hotly.

`I don´t like Mudbloods,´ Lara told her, as though she hadn´t heard. `You would be advised to keep out of my way.´

`I don´t like you, either.´ Hermione then shocked Harry and Ron by whipping her wand out and pointing it at Lara. As she started a curse, Lara dropped to a crouch and looped Hermione´s legs out from under her. The bushy haired girl crashed to the ground with a cry. Ryder stood up and brushed the dust off her knees. She flicked her long, slightly curly hair and smirked.

`Mudbloods can´t curse,´ she told her. `It´s one of their many defects.´

Ron drew his wand quickly as Harry helped Hermione to her feet.

`Say that again,´ Ron growled.

`No,´ Lara smiled. `Because if I do, you´ll take my head off with that pointy bit of wood you´re holding.´

`I will anyway,´ Ron told her, pointing his wand directly at Lara´s head.

`Go on, then,´ Lara shrugged, spreading her arms wide. `I haven´t got my wand with me, I´m a perfect target.´

`I´m not like you,´ Ron said coldly, putting his wand back into his pocket, and storming away, grabbing Hermione´s arm on the way. Harry jogged after them, and laughter echoed down the corridor. Ryder´s cold voice rising above it all.

~*~

There did seem to be some Gryffindors who weren´t suffering at the hand of Lara Ryder. Seamus had gone so far as to become one of her groupies. He even stood right behind her as she prowled the corridors, in the most prized position. He spent lots of time outside the common room now, usually out with Lara´s lot. There were two sides of the argument, and even the upper school had joined the war between those who liked Lara, and those whom she didn´t like. This was the first situation ever in which Slytherins, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Gryffindors joined up against a common enemy, and each other. Teachers refused to participate, saying this was a matter for the students, but the `war´ got quite intense before long. Often fights broke out. Lara seemed to be training other students to be horrible too, and these disciples roamed the school, tripping up anyone from the other side. The Ryder side saluted each other, and wouldn´t sit anywhere near the `Others´. Seamus, Lavender and Neville had all joined Lara. Oddly, she had taken to Neville, and promised that they would protect him from harm. He was gratified, and stayed with her.

Malfoy and Hermione became the leaders of the opposition, and although they still didn´t get on, they were civil. It was quite a formal battle, mostly of wits. Ryder would send messengers to the Others, offering treaties, sometimes with messages for those she liked. A couple received these messages and burned them, but most couldn´t resist the offer of such popularity, and the ranks decreased.

Ryder didn´t seem to have a purpose, but this underground war gave people something to talk about. Harry was reminded of childhood games which he had never joined. It split the school asunder, but had the nature of a game. There were trials before you could enter either side, and many went about smiling. Ryder was often giving speeches in the great hall. The Others sent spies to these meetings, and when the Others held meetings, they were often infiltrated.

Before long, everybody took it as a joke, and Ryder was perfectly civil. Friends from opposite sides were friends again, and everything was normal, almost. But it was spreading. The teachers were beginning to get involved now. Friends weren´t the same as before. Everything had changed, perhaps irreversibly. Everyone knew things had changed, but they didn´t make any moves against it, despite the Truce. They were still in cults, and enjoyed the exclusive nature of them. Seamus came over to Harry on the third night of the Truce.

`Harry, sorry I went over. I wanted to stay here, but it´s hard to say no,´ he apologised.

`Oh, that´s okay,´ Harry grinned. `She liked you.´

`Yeah,´ Seamus blushed, fidgeting slightly, staring at his hands. `I... I like her quite a lot, too. And I wanted to ask, d´you think I should ask her out?´

`She´s your cult leader, not mine,´ Harry shrugged. `Do whatever you want.´

`Thanks, Harry. I´ll do that,´ Seamus nodded, plainly not hearing what Harry said. He got up and walked out of the common room, just as Hermione walked in.

`I can´t believe that girl!´ she sighed, slumping into an armchair.

`What now?´

`Well, she asked if she could help me out when I dropped my books. Then she carried the ones I couldn´t.´

`Never!´ Harry cried, faking astonishment. `Why is Lara being nice such a big thing?´

`She´s horrid. That´s why it´s such a big deal,´ Hermione frowned.

`Look, she got herself a cult, and raised a bit of a war. She was just testing what she could do with this school. Now she´s settled in and established her boundaries,´ Harry explained, only just that moment understanding it himself.

Hermione looked a little shocked. `Yes, yes. You could be right. Thanks, Harry.´ She put her books down on the table and began to work.

~*~

Lara sat on her bed, running through a booklet entitled `So You Suck At Transfiguration?´. It all looked like total bollocks to her, and she couldn´t take any more. With a growl she flung the book at the floor. There was a knock on the door.

`What? Who is it?´

`Seamus,´ called the person.

`Come in,´ she said, sitting back.

`Hi,´ he grinned, edging into the dormitory.

`Sit down,´ she offered, gesturing at a chair by her bed. `How are you?´

`I´m great, your Wonderousness,´ Seamus answered, sitting down.

`How can I help, minion?´ she smiled, sitting up and folding her legs to one side.

`I have something to ask you.´

`Fire away,´ she smiled.

`Well, I was wondering, if a beautiful girl like you isn´t already taken, that is, if you would go out with me,´ he mumbled, scratching the back of his head and gazing intently at a wall.

`I´d be honoured,´ she said.

`No, it´s okay, I don´t mind, I wasn´t expecting... what?´ He stared at her.

`Yes.´

`WOW! Great! Yeah! Oh God, wow! Thanks!´ he stammered, scrubbing at the back of his neck and blushing beet red.

`How´s tomorrow?´ she asked him, struggling to conceal her happiness.

`Great! Wow, yeah...´ he trailed off, gazing at her happily.

`I´ll see you around, then?´ she smiled, standing up to bid him farewell.

`Yeah, later?´

`Sooner?´ she smiled.

He grinned, and pecked her clumsily on the cheek before ambling off. She waited until he was well and truly gone before punching the air and dancing around the room, whooping for joy.

~*~