Ah, the unwritten rules of Slytherin. They were the only way the entire house didn't collapse because of infighting, and they were also enforced entirely by the court. The rules were simple, Slytherins are to be united outside the common room. Slytherin politics are not to involve the faculty or the members of other houses. You are not allowed to go back on any deal you make without reparations decided by the recipient. You are not allowed to divulge the secrets of the house to anyone outside the house, and finally, you are not to purposefully harm the house in general.
That was it. The rules that stopped the house from imploding spectacularly. The house was filled with politics. Sabotage and manipulation, trading favours and dismantling your rivals were routinely seen in the common room. It was basic training for the politicking that awaited a lot of the members of the house the moment they graduated. It was an environment that was perfect for heirs to grow and learn, hence why most families favoured Slytherin as the house for their children to be sorted in.
However, if people started to get other houses involved, these rivalries would turn into actual encounters, and the factions would turn into gangs in everything but names. Hogwarts didn't need conflict on a scale like this, so the rules were made. Also, the reputation of the house was negative ever since Lord Voldemort was a thing, so staying united and avoiding the rest of the school was a good survival mechanism.
Now, this was all well and good, but it didn't explain a lot of things with this encounter. Harry shrugged, "Well, good luck with that. I'm not sitting on the chair, and let's just stop kidding ourselves. You don't bring people down here to judge anything. You thrive in anonymity. If I really broke one of the rules, you would have dealt with me discreetly. And I'm a second year, so you normally don't really care about us yet. You think we're too troublesome and immature for you to deal with."
"But you're not immature, are you, Potter?" the woman, probably the black queen, asked.
"I'll admit that I'm more mature than the average twelve year old, but I'm definitely troublesome to deal with, especially when you're trying to take advantage of me."
The entire court shifted, and the woman, "And how are we taking advantage of you?"
The Potter scion snorted, "That's fairly obvious. You summoned me here, which meant that you wanted to speak with me. If I had done anything wrong, you wouldn't have done that. You would have just punished me or just ignored it. That meant that you wanted something from me. But what could I give you that you don't already have? It's not gold or rare artefacts. I don't owe anyone favours, so the answer is simple. You want knowledge. But not magical knowledge, since all I know can be found in the library and I'm too young to use my family crest. So, it has to do with something recent, something I know. Tell me, am I close?"
Harry grinned to himself as they all looked around each other and the Black Queen took a deep breath, "Fine. We have cancelled the security enchantments. You can sit down."
Harry heard the oppressing song surrounding the chair fade into nothing. There was still magic mixed in with the chair, but it was faint and pretty mild compared to how it used to be. Of course, the King could reactivate it at any time, but Harry would have the time to sense it and negate any ward cast, or just leave the chair before it takes hold since they usually need a couple of seconds to activate.
Rolling his eyes, the Potter scion sat down on the uncomfortable chair, "So, how may I help this illustrious court?"
"Alright, the court is in session. For formality's sake, what is your name and when were you born?" the other queen asked.
Immediately, Harry felt something try to invade his mind. Ah, some kind of truth field that added a compulsion to whoever sat on the chair to say nothing but the truth. They probably thought that they had tricked him or something. The Potter scion suppressed the urge to snot and just responded, "My name is Harry Potter, and I was born on the Thirty-first of July 1980."
The white queen nodded, "We are here to discuss the actions regarding Neville Longbottom's infiltration of our common room. Did you allow them to infiltrate our common room?"
Harry shook his head, "No."
"Did you give them any advice or was involved in any way in their infiltration?"
"No, I was not?"
"But you immediately realized that these were imposters," the White Queen pressed.
Harry nodded, "I did."
"And how did you do that without any prior knowledge?"
"Their body language was different, the way they spoke, the questions that they asked, were not typical. I wasn't absolutely certain at first because they could have been dosed with something, or under some kind of spell, so I asked a few questions, and it was easy to tell that they were lying. I touched them discreetly and found that the transformation was physical, which meant that it was either human transfiguration or Polyjuice potion. Considering the fact that the intruder probably wasn't a transfiguration master, the potion was used to impersonate the victims."
"So, you knew that they were imposters, but not that they were Longbottom and his cohorts."
"No, I immediately knew who they were. The identities of the victims meant that they were somewhat familiar with them. The only people who really knew about those three were in our year, and the only people who had the balls to break into the common room in our year were the Golden Trio. Their little adventure last year made them feel invincible and they would think that they were above the rules. Since there were three intruders, the conclusion was evident."
The Queen pressed on, "And what did they ask you about?"
"The Chamber of Secrets, mostly."
"And what do you know about the Chamber of Secrets?"
"I know many things about the Chamber."
"Like what?"
Harry grinned to himself, "Like the fact that it was built by Salazar Slytherin."
His voice echoed in the chamber. The entire court was just speechless by his answer. Yeah, if they're going to try to mess with Harry, it was only right that he would do the same to them.
"Are you being curt with me, Potter?" the White Queen growled back.
"Oh, I'm just answering truthfully…"
The White Queen looked like she wanted to explode but was stopped by a motion from the king who asked in his baritone voice, "You figured out the truth Ward."
Harry shrugged, "Before I even said a word. Interesting ward. Not a particularly strong one, to be honest. I'm guessing it's new, at least compared to the other enchantments on the chair."
"Why are you being so difficult, Potter?" the Black Queen asked.
"Because we both know that you brought me here because you wanted to know something, but you already know exactly what I said to Longbottom and his friends. So, why don't we just save some time and get to the point of things."
The woman stiffened, "And how do you know that?"
.....
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