"Look at this," Draco smirked, scanning the Daily Prophet.

"What?" I asked, biting into an apple. He looked at me for a moment, gaze lingering until I tilted my head at him questioningly.

"Weasley's father is in the paper," he looked back at the prophet.

"Good or bad?" I asked.

"Depends on who you're talking to," Draco had his gaze trained on the doors of the Great Hall. I looked back and saw the trio leaving. Almost a second later, Draco was on his feet, headed towards the doors.

"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!" Draco called, sauntering over. Pansy, Blaise, and I followed, along with two idiotic looking Slytherin's named Crabbe and Goyle.

"What?" Ron bit out.

"Your Dad's in the paper, Weasley!" Draco waved the Prophet, the volume of his voice attracting a lot of attention.

"Listen to this! Recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, and still unable to account for the disappearance of one of its witches, the Ministry was plunged into fresh embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?"

The entire Hall had its eyes on us. I was torn between gloating with Draco and putting a stop to the whole thing. Draco continued to read the article that included something about Arthur having to erase muggles memories because Moody raised the alarm and Arthur went to help, only to discover it was a false alarm. Putting it all together, I'm assuming the real Moody did raise the alarm and call for help, but by the time Arthur got there, Barty had taken his place and the Ministry thought it was a false alarm. Well this is interesting now isn't it?

"And there's a picture Weasley! A picture of your parents outside their house. If you can call it a house! Your mother could lose a bit of weight, couldn't she?"

"Draco," I scolded quietly. Weasley looked absolutely furious.

"Get stuffed, Malfoy," Potter snapped and then glanced at me in disapproval.

"Come on, Ron," he muttered, pulling Weasley back.

"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you Potter? So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?" Draco sneered and Pansy and I shared a suffering look. As if he thinks this can possibly end well.

"You know your mother, Malfoy? That expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?" Potter glared.

"Oi!" Pansy and I snapped at him. I took a defensive stance and Pansy stepped forward threateningly. I was standing next to Draco at this point. Potter looked between us with narrowed eyes.

"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter," Draco snarled.

"Keep your fat mouth shut then," Potter said, turning away to drag Weasley out of the Hall. Draco's wand was out in a flash and a loud bang echoed around us. I raised my eyebrows and then sent Draco a look when I noticed he'd missed Potter. Draco looked at me for a moment, looking just as irritated, and then another bang filled the Hall and Draco was gone. I screamed and stepped back, noticing a white ferret on the ground.

"Oh no you don't, laddie!" Moody came hobbling down the stairs and I felt my face heat up.

"Did he get you?" Moody asked Potter. I understand that Moody has to gain Potter's trust but what the fuck kind of stunt is this?

"No, missed."

I rolled my eyes and knelt down to pick Draco up or possibly try to change him back.

"Leave it!" Moody snapped at me and I stayed kneeling on the ground, glaring up at him.

"Professor," I started saying.

"Unless you want to end up the same," he threatened. Draco scurried over and burrowed against my thigh, but I made no move to pick him up.

"No, no, you aren't hiding behind her. Up, Loveland!" Moody grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet.

"Hey!" I snapped, stumbling backwards. Draco took off running towards the dungeons, but Moody raised his wand and Draco shot up into the air before smacking back down on to the floor.

"You're going to hurt him!" I yelled, storming over to Moody, but Pansy grabbed me and held me back. Moody kept bouncing Draco up and down.

"Never...do...that...again," Moody said with each bounce.

"Professor Moody!"

McGonagall came into the hall, looking utterly shocked. Moody stopped bouncing Draco and I pushed past him to scoop the ferret into my hands.

"What are you doing?" McGonagall asked as Draco tried to hide against me.

"Teaching."

"Teaching? Is that a student?"

"Yup."

"No! Miss Loveland, set him down," she instructed me, looking absolutely outraged. I did as I was told and with a flick of her wand, Draco was back, hair disheveled and in obvious pain. I took his arm and started fussing over him. Pansy finally unfroze and came over as well.

"We never use transfiguration on students! We give detentions or speak to the offenders head of House!"

"I'll do that then. Snape your Head of House, boy?" Moody glared. Draco nodded once, looking humiliated.

"We'll get him back, don't worry about it. Potter, I mean. Not much we can do about Moody," I stood on my tip toes to speak to Draco quietly.

"And what are you over there whispering about, Loveland? Both of you are coming with me to Snape's, let's go," Moody grabbed Draco's arm and I immediately followed after him. Once we were alone I flipped my shit.

"Are you insane?" I yelled.

"Slightly."

"You could have killed him!" I snarled.

"I didn't," he continued to drag Draco along.

"And let go of him!" I grabbed Moody's hand and pried it off of Draco. Draco looked at me in shock.

"Why do you care, Loveland?" Moody looked at me searchingly.

"I don't know, because we're friends?" I glared fiercely.

"You're really mad," Moody chuckled.

"Mad? I'm fucking furious!" I seethed as we walked into Sev's office.

"And what is going on here?" Sev asked.

"Uncle Sev he turned Draco into a fucking ferret!" I yelled.

"Leah watch your language."

"He almost killed him!"

"Now she's being dramatic," Moody growled.

"You brought him ten feet into the air and then smacked him down onto the stone floor!"

"Leah, sit down. Do not make me give you a calming potion. Now, we're going to have to erase Mister Malfoy's memories because you cannot control yourself. There's no explainable reason for you to be yelling so harshly at a professor," Sev looked at me and then over at Moody.

"I can do it," Moody said.

"I won't say a word. Not a single word. You don't have to obliviate me, professor," Draco said quickly.

"I think we ought to."

"I think you'll end up erasing all of his memories, and not just the ones from five minutes ago! You are not doing a single thing. Put your wand away!" I ordered and surprisingly he listened.

"Alright, Miss Leah, what do you propose?" Moody crossed his arms. I feel like I'm being tested.

"Leave him alone. He can be trusted. Give us two weeks' detention for the stunt in the Great Hall. No more spells," I looked at Moody firmly and he nodded.

"Very well, then. Two weeks of detention it is," Sev folded his hands, leaning forward on his desk. I almost missed it, but I did see Moody and Sev share a proud look.

"May we leave now?" I asked, looking between them coolly.

"Yes, I suppose you may," Sev smirked and I immediately stood, not checking to see if Draco was following. When I was about halfway down the corridor, Draco grabbed my arm.

"What the fuck-"

"I clearly remember hearing you say that you wouldn't say a word about what you just saw," I cut him off.

"No, Leah, who the fuck are you?"

"Do you want to be obliviated?"

"Tell me!" he snapped, spinning me around to look me in the eyes. I clenched my jaw and glared.

"I have nothing to tell," I pulled away from him harshly, "now go to the infirmary and leave me alone."

***

"Hey, are you alright?" Pansy hurried up to me as I entered the common room.

"Peachy."

"Where's Draco?" she asked and Blaise came over as well.

"Infirmary. Go on, go check on him," I waved my hand. Pansy nodded and practically ran out of the room. Blaise crossed his arms and eyed me for a few moments.

"You're a girl of very few emotions," he said and I met his gaze.

"Oh?"

"Generally you're cool and disconnected. From what I've seen. Today you broke that when Draco was in danger. Now you're back to being cold. There's something off about you. It's one thing to portray yourself like this to the outside world, but us Slytherin's are your family now. We all show who we really are in this common room. So what's up with you? And this includes the love potion incident. That adds to the whole 'no emotions' thing."

"Blaise, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. However, I do know that this common room is the outside world for me. I didn't grow up here. This isn't my home. You are not my family."

"Whatever, Loveland," he rolled his eyes and left the common room.

"Well, I like you," Hestia Carrow shrugged.

"Yes, come sit with us," Flora cleared a space on the couch for me. I silently joined the twins and Daphne by the fire.

"Trouble in paradise then? Don't worry, Blaise and Draco are drama queens. If things aren't going exactly as they want them to, the people around them are the problem," Daphne rolled her eyes.

"Meaning Blaise probably wants to hook up with you, but you clearly aren't interested," Hestia grinned.

"And Draco?" I frowned.

"He wants to be in control around here. Be the leader of the Slytherin's. He wants the power. I reckon you're a threat to that," Flora shrugged.

"Is he the one with the power then?" I asked.

"He was. I think we can all sense the shift in that power, though," Daphne smiled over her cup of tea.

"I'm not here to start some sort of Slytherin Civil War," I raised my eyebrows.

"Oh no, there won't be a Civil War. We'd have to be stupid to go against the one who holds the power," Hestia said.

"And darling, you have it. Heard you successfully cast the Cruciatus Curse today," Flora commented.

"I did, yes."

"Well, that's settled then. You're the new leader. Draco will just have to deal with that. Force him into submission if you must. He will fight back, but subtly. He won't defy you, but I reckon he won't just give up his positon so easily."

"We'll back you up, certainly. Let the younger years, as well as older years, know there's been a shift in power. Flora and I are the leaders of the seventh years. We have pull, we can get the House to follow you easily."

"I've been here maybe a week and you're already changing leaders?" I asked.

"Surely you were born to be one," Daphne laughed.

"We can damn near sense the power that radiates off of you. I can't imagine not following you," Hestia smiled. I let this information sink in and then smiled slowly. Well, this is certainly one way to be like dear old Voldemort himself. What a useful little Death Eater I'm already proving to be.

***

"We might have a slight bit of a problem," I said, sitting in Sev's office with him and Barty.

"Oh?"

"I am now the leader of Slytherin."

"How is that a problem?"

"Well, Draco isn't going to like that, and his father was one of the top Death Eater's. I need his trust if I'm going to get him to back me when it comes to it. I imagine he'll be a Death Eater one day. If I want to work my way up to the Dark Lord's right hand girl, I can't have the son of his right hand man hating me."

"Draco will get over it once he realizes the immense power you hold," Severus dismissed my worries.

"The real problem here, as I understand it from Severus, is that you come off as emotionless. The love potion incident doesn't help your case," Barty said.

"Yes, Blaise mentioned that. Why couldn't I smell anything?" I asked, looking at Sev sharply.

"We will discuss it at a later date. What we need to focus on now is you pretending to be attracted to people. Pretend you have emotions. Put on the act of a regular Pureblood teenager," he said.

"That Malfoy boy is said to be the Slytherin Sex God. Be the counterpart to that," Barty suggested.

"No," Severus and I said together.

"She's fourteen years old," Sev glared.

"That and I don't want to fuck my entire House."

"You don't actually have to, you idiot. Just seduce them. Flirt. Act like a slut and then turn out to be nothing but a tease," Barty said.

"Enough, Barty," Sev curled his lip in disgust.

"She needs to do something to make them believe she isn't cold blooded."

"Fine," I said before Sev could argue back.

"I'll act like a normal teen. But I'm not going to unnecessarily flirt or fuck," I glared at Barty.

"Besides, I'm perfectly capable of not being a bitch, I just don't want to. But for the sake of my reputation and to cover up the fact that I'm a Death Eater, I'll let my walls down."

"There, problem solved," he said.

"You are supposed to be gaining Potter's trust!" Severus reminded me angrily.

"So I'll make Potter my friend as planned. According to Pansy, Draco, and Blaise, Boy Wonder already likes me."

"Just be careful, Leah," Sev warned.

"I will."

***