Harry Lord of Slytherin

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/28744458.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: F/M, Gen, M/M
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Relationship: Relationships to be added, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Harry Potter &
Slytherin Students, Harry Potter & Malfoy family, Theodore Nott & Harry
Potter, Harry Potter & Salazar Slytherin, Theodore Nott/Harry Potter,
Draco Malfoy/Fred Weasley, George Weasley/Blaise Zabini
Character: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Albus Dumbledore,
Gringotts' Goblins, Salazar Slytherin, Ginny Weasley, Molly Weasley,
Godric Gryffindor, Ignotus Peverell, James Potter, Ernie Macmillan,
Narcissa Black Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Minerva McGonagall, Theodore
Nott, Bathsheda Babbling, Regulus Black
Additional Tags: Betrayed Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Ron Weasley
Bashing, Hermione Granger Bashing, Ginny Weasley Bashing, Molly
Weasley Bashing, Inheritance Test, Other Additional Tags to Be Added,
Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Alternate Universe -
Canon Divergence, Red-Haired Harry Potter, Mentor Salazar Slytherin,
Good Slytherins, Not Beta Read, Good Narcissa Black Malfoy, slight
Rubeus Hagrid Bashing, Good Draco Malfoy, Smart Harry Potter, Good
Percy Weasley, Good Fred Weasley & George Weasley, Adults acting
like adults, Slight Neville Longbottom bashing, Genius Theodore Nott,
Regulus Black Lives, Idiots in Love
Collections: Dark n Light Pairings, Why I’m up all night
Stats: Published: 2021-01-14 Updated: 2021-09-22 Chapters: 18/? Words:
70405

Harry Lord of Slytherin

by Graydove71

Summary

After blowing up his Aunt Marge Harry spend the rest of the summer before his Third Year
in Diagon Alley. Having heard about Inheritance Test he decided to take one only learns
about the betrayals from his friends. Only to find out that what they had done caused even
more harm they could imagine.

Notes

I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the characters. Nor do I write this for anything other
reason than to get it out of my mind.
See the end of the work for more notes
 Betrayal and Lordship
Chapter Summary

Harry finds out he has been lied to after going in for cleansing and tries to claim his
Heir/Lordship rings.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Harry was utterly furious and devastated as he looked down at the results of the Inheritance Test he
had just taken. Having arrived at Diagon Alley just last night, after he had run away from home
after blown up his Aunt Marge, Harry had decided to head to Gringotts to take the test. Having
overheard Seamus telling Dean that by taking the test it could reveal if the Muggleborn boy's
absent father was in fact Magical as well as line he might belong to. Harry decided to do it in hope
of finding out more about his family than what most people tended to tell him, which usually was
that he looked like his Dad but had his Mother's eyes, or that his dad was good at Quidditch.

He had gone in to take the test his second day in the alley which seemed to make the Goblins
happy as they told him they had been trying to reach him for the last two years but each of their
letters to have been returned unopened. Harry had been mystified for he had not known of any mail
that he had not gotten from the Magical World after his Uncle had tried to outrun his Hogwarts'
letter. Harry was lead into a back room where the test took place before the Goblin left him alone
with his results to set up a cleansing for him.

Harry James Potter

Parents:

James Potter (Deceased )

Lily Potter nee Evens (Deceased)

Godparents:

Sirius Lupin-Black (Wrongfully Imprisoned-Escaped)

Alice Longbottom nee Bismarck (Mentally Compromised)
Gregory Smith (Deceased)*1
Narcissa Malfoy nee Black

Family Lines:

Potter
Gryffindor
Peverell
Slytherin (by right of conquest)
Enchantments/Potions on the person in order of age:

Horcrux (bonded to Soul)

Magical Core Blocked 58%
Poor Eyesight jinx
Hair/eye Color Changed Jinx
Martyr Jinx
Distrust of Authority Jinx (except for Albus Dumbledore)
Mail Ward
Wand control Jinx*2
Glamor
Eros Blade (Keyed to Ginevra "Ginny" Weasley.
Hatred Potion Keyed to anyone in Slytherin House, a Dark Core
Trust Potion Keyed to Albus Dumbledore, Gryffindor House, Rubeus Hagrid, Ronald "Ron"
Weasley, Hermione Granger, Molly Weasley, Ginevra "Ginny Weasley,
Intelligence Dampening Potions (Once a Year since July 1991)

Vault discrepancies:

1,500 Galleons a Year transferred to the vault of Albus Dumbledore starting in November
1981
500 Galleons a Year transferred and exchanged into Muggle currency to the accounts of the
Dursley family starting in November 1981
500 Galleons a Year transferred to the personal vault of Ronald "Ron" Weasley started in
July 1991
500 Galleons a Year transferred to the account of Hermione Granger starting in October
1991
Numerous tomes and books removed from family vaults to the possession of Hermione
Granger in October 1991
600 Galleons a Year transferred to the personal vault of Molly Weasley starting in July 1992
400 Galleons a Year transferred to the personal vault of Ginevra "Ginny" Weasley starting
in July 1992
Sword of Gryffindor was not returned to the vault after its removal by Harry Potter taken
into personal possession of Albus Dumbledore in May 1993

Harry could not believe that his two best friends have been stealing from him since before they
even became friends, let alone Mrs. Weasley and Professor Dumbledore who had shown him more
love and kindness than any adult he had ever meet. Also, he could not figure out why there was a
spell on him to change his eyes or hair color and what it could accomplish. Harry of course knew
about the Glamour spell being on him having applied it on himself before he had gone to his First-
Year at Hogwarts to hide the signs of abuse his family had done to him. He was glad that the
Goblins had offered to give him a cleansing just based on the length of his results as he was to get
the cleansing. As he was getting ready to go through the cleansing a Goblin informed him after he
woke back up he would also be given his Heir/Lordship rings which should have been done during
his first visit giving him another reason to distrust Hagrid more than just having the large man
being on his results of someone he was enchanted to trust.

Seething with anger at all the betrayal that had been done to him Harry fell unconscious to go
through the cleansing. He was still angry when he woke up in a warm bed and the smells he
associated with the Hospital Wing. Other than the anger he was still filled with Harry felt lighter
and more powerful than he ever felt before. Swinging his legs over the bed he was on he saw that
someone had set up a mirror beside his head. Climbing to his feet he walked over to the mirror and
gasp at seeing his normally black rat nest hair now a deeper red than any of the Weasleys and now
hung smoothly down to his shoulders. The only other change he saw was that his eyes were no
longer vivid green but bright blue it took him a few moments as he took in his new look before he
realizes that he was not actually wearing his glasses. Unfortunately, the lightning bolt scar was still
there, as were several scars given to him by his Uncle peaking out over the top of his shirt. He
wished he could apply his Glamor but did not want to cast underage magic and get in trouble again.

"Ah Heir Potter you are awake I hope you feeling better now," a Goblin in pale green robes said
peeking their head into the room. "If you follow me Account Manager Fangtooth is ready to give
you your Heir/Lordship rings." Harry followed what he assumed to be a Healer Goblin to an
ornately carved door and pushed who pushed it aside to reveal a well-dressed Goblin behind a desk
with four rings, one black, one gold, one silver, and the last one an emerald one.

"Welcome Heir Potter I am the Account Manager of the Potter Family, Fangtooth. You are a little
late in getting your rings but as you Humans like to say no time like the present," Fangtooth said as
Harry took the seat across from him. "Now as you place each ring on your finger you will be
judged by it to see if it accepts you if the ring takes to you you will gain your proper position in the
family line. As most of these lines are close to ending leaving you as the only person that can claim
them. We shall start with the Potter family ring," Fangtooth said as he pushed the black ring
forward.

Harry lifted the ring finding it rather cold as he slips it onto his left ring finger. For a moment it felt
as if large needles were being jammed into the finger making him pass out.

"I can't believe you, son," a voice said making Harry snap his eyes open and look upon the face he
only recognized from the photo album that he got at the end of his First-Year.

"Dad?" Harry asked.

"Yeah hello," James said with a smile that quickly fell of his face. "I was chosen of all the family to
talk to you since I would be the only one you would know. If it was up to me I would let you take
the ring, but unfortunately, I can not since you had money taken from you and trusted the thieves."

"So does this mean I am no longer a Potter since the ring is to be denied to me?" Harry asked.

"Not yet the family has some guidelines if you wish to prove your place in the family you must
either get the money back with no help from the Goblins or make them pay for taking it for you,"
James said before he vanished.

Finding himself back in the normal office Harry slipped off the Potter ring and set it aside while
the Fangtooth looked surprised as he pushed the second ring towards him. Once more the ring was
cold as he slipped the gold band around his finger. Rather than needles this time it felt like his
finger was being bitted off as he once more lost conciseness.
"How dare you let someone claim my Sword," a large muscular man wearing furs called out as
Harry opened his eyes.

"Godric Gryffindor I assume," Harry said.

"Don't be an idiot. You want to lead my family get my sword back and gain some allies which can
help you stand against your foes," Godric said as he smacks Harry waking him back up.

"Again how strange," Fangtooth said as he placed the Gold ring back into the box next to the black
ring of the Potter family. Taking up the silver ring Harry was not feeling good as he felt the
familiar cold before placing it on his finger. This time he felt nothing at all but still passed out.

"To think my family line came to this," a tall skinny man said.

"Who are you?" Harry guessing this was the representative of the Peverell family.

"I am Ignotus Peverell and if you wish to take your place in our family you need to hold multiple
lines that come from my family lines you have failed in gaining any as of this moment but there is
still a chance to get one line," Ignotus said as he gently pushes Harry who found himself back in
the Goblin's office

"This has never happened before," Fangtooth said running a hand over his head. "If this ring does
not take I am sorry to say I will have to cut you off from all your vaults." Harry was not sure about
this ring even if it was his last chance not wanting to be associated with the blood supremacist. As
he picked up the ring, however, unlike the others he found it slightly warm to the touch, and as he
slipped the ring onto his hand it felt warmer yet.

"Ah hello, young Heir I hope you take your role in our family more seriously than your immediate
predecessor did," a slim man in a dark green robe said smiling as he leaned on a short cane.

"Salazar Slytherin?" Harry asked.

"Indeed young Heir you have gained your place with talent with Parslemouth, and your victory of
the previous Heir and my Familiar, Sharus. Not that I like that but after how the previous Heir
corrupted him away from his real purpose of protecting the school."

"You had a giant serpent whose very gaze could kill someone as a protection for school children?"
Harry asked.

"Well he was not to be around the students but there in case some outside force ever tried to
attack," Salazar explained.

"So you did not have an issue Muggleborns?" Harry asked.

"No of course not my own mother was what you call a Muggle," Salazar said making Harry's
mouth fall open at this fact.

"As Lord of my House, you can claim one-fourth of Hogwarts Castle and enter Slytherin portions
of Hogwarts without having to use any passwords. And since I sense you do not know such things
wearing a ring that has you have bonded with it will let you know if someone is trying to dose you
with any potion or cast a spell on you without your knowledge. The ring will also protect you from
them short of the Unforgivable Curses," Salazar said.

"Unforgivable Curses what are those?" Harry asked.

"Wow, the teaching at the school has gone downhill since we started it," Harry heard Salazar
mutter to himself. "Alright, there are four spells that are considered the worst of the worst. One
that kills another person which is Avada Kedavra which can only be stopped by an act of true love
from another person the curse is cast on within one day. The next is a spell that causes pain to a
person's body in ever-changing ways. that can drive someone insane if it is used long enough
called the Cruciatus Curse. Third, there is a basic mind control spell which if used makes the
person it is used on becoming the caster's puppet known as the Imperius Curse, and only by having
a strong will and some great luck can this spell be stopped. The last one's status has been changed
from my day but it is a spell which akin to the Imperius Curse, but rather than make someone a
puppet changes their personality to make them fall in love with someone known and is Know as
Eros Blade. This spell only needs to be cast once on a person and the only way to remove it is
through the most powerful cleansing.

"Would that include a cleansing done by the Goblins?" Harry asked recalling such a spell being on
his results.

Salazar tilted his head to the side for a moment before responding, "You don't have to worry to get
rid of the Horcrux the Goblins performed a cleansing that rid you of that spell. One last thing
young Heir if ever you need help that you think I can provide rub your ring and call my name and I
shall come," Salazar said before bowing to Harry.

"Ah at least one ring has accepted you that is good," Fangtooth said as Harry once more found
himself back in the Goblin's office. "However, as I am not in charge of the Slytherin Vaults I must
take my leave of you."

"Wait while the rings were judging me I was told that I could have a chance to take my place in the
families later how do I do that?" Harry asked as the Goblin made to leave the room causing him to
stop as if hit by a freezing spell.

"Did they now? How interesting," Fangtooth said stroking his chin. "If that is correct if you pass
some challenges or do some task that the ring approves of it shall appear for you and you shall
resume your place in the house."

"Thank you," Harry said.

"Don't mention it Heir Slytherin may the blood of your enemies floo like rivers at your passing,"
Fangtooth said.

Harry was horrified by what the Goblin said but the response entered his mind with a warm flash
from his ring, "And may your coffers never be empty." Fangtooth smiled at him as he left the
room, but as Harry was not told if he should head out as well he stayed in his seat.

It turned out good that he did as the door opened a few minutes later and a second Goblin came in.
 "Hello Heir Slytherin I am Bonecrusher your Account Manager I have been told that you have had
quite a bit of money taken from you I assume you would like my help getting it back," the Goblin
said taking the seat that had been vacated by Fangtooth.

Recalling his father's task to earn his place in the Potter family Harry said, "No thank you I think I
need to do this on my own."

'Very good Heir Slytherin, though I might suggest you find some allies to not go at it alone,"
Bonecrusher said leaning forward.

"I think that is sound advice," Harry said nor revealing that that was one of the tasks he had been
given to claim the Gryffindor Heir/Lordship ring.

"Good now is there anything else you might need today?" Bonecrusher asked.

"Yes according to my results my Godfather Sirius Lupin-Black was wrongfully imprisoned and has
now escaped is there a way to prove his innocence or to contact whomever he married to take care
of it?"

"I will look into it Heir Slytherin is there a place I can reach you for the time being?" Bonecrusher
asked.

"I am staying at the Leaky Cauldron for the time being before I head back to Hogwarts," Harry
said as the Goblin took down the room Harry was staying in.

"Anything else?" the Goblin prompted.

"Yes is there a way I could get a Glamor cast on me to hid the signs of abuse I had one in place
myself but the cleansing clear it from me," Harry said. Bonecrusher just leaned forward and spoke
some words that Harry assumed were his species language before he felt his Glamor return on his
body. "Thank you, Master Bonecrusher, that is all I needed," Harry said and slowly got out of his
chair in case the Goblin had anything to add before he left the room.

Heading back to the Leaky Cauldron he spoke to Tom the landlord to explain his change of
appearance before heading up to his room to take a nap. As he laid in the bed he tried to think of
any allies he had, but Ron and Hermione had basically cut him off from everyone else in
Gryffindor House. The only one that they had not seemed to mind him spending time with, other
than themselves had been Neville, but while there had been nothing on Neville in his results the
pairs seeming alright with the other boy raised some flags. He hoped he could see some of his
classmates in the alley before it was time to head back to Hogwarts to hopefully start making some
real friends or at least some allies.

Chapter End Notes

*1 I just needed a second male to be Harry's Godfather so it is just a dead NPC

*2 A spell that forced him to only bond with a certain wand.

So it seems I have picked up a troll on my stories, so I am going to explain a few

things. First, all troll comments will be deleted without a single second of thought.
Two I tag very clearly my couple and usually who is the top and who is the bottom in
the relationship, I prefer a bottom Harry, so if you do not like it do not read it. Also
since the troll has assumed my gender I will reveal I am a Cis-male who is a
Homoromantic-Asexual.
 Some new allies
Chapter Summary

Harry takes another trip to Gringotts and makes some new allies.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

As Harry slept he was once again visited by Salazar Slytherin. "Alright just to let you know I can
access some of your memories, so I know to gain the Potter Heirship and future Lordship you
could not ask the Goblins to get your money back from those that betrayed you. This does not
mean that you should let the payments continue," Salazar said leaning on his cane.

"I guess I did not even think about that having other things on my mind," Harry said.

"Now that is understandable my Heir which is why I am bringing it up now. You should also grab
some books dealing with the duties of an Heir/Lord as well as some on the procedures of the
British Wizengamot. Not to mention a brand new wand since the one you have now was forced on
you," Salazar said.

"Alright I shall pick them up with my school books for the coming year," Harry said before
pausing for a moment. "I think I should also make some changes to my classes as I chose all my
electives based on one of my betrayers."

"Just make sure you write a change of class form for your Head of House," Salazar said.

"I don't think that will be enough I think the best way to do it would be to contact all four Heads,
through the Owl Post in the alley and send a second letter to Professor Flitwick through Gringotts
having heard some of the older students say he had some Goblin blood in his line," Harry said as if
making a plan to storm a castle.

"Ah, there is the stereotype of our family line at work. Good work my Heir," Salazar said lifting
his cane to hold with his arms as he clapped at Harry's idea.

"You can just call me Harry, Sir," Harry responded.

"Alright Harry as long as you call me Salazar," Salazar said.

"Alright than Salazar," Harry said holding the hand in which the Slytherin ring was on to shake the
man's hand.

"Now all you need to do is wake up Harry," Salazar said giving his hand a single pump as the
sound of the alarm clock in the room he was staying in went off.

As Harry turns onto his side to shut off the alarm he is shocked as his magic shots out and smashes
the thing flat. Harry gulped having not meant to do that and afraid of an Owl from the Ministry
come flying into the window. For while the Minister himself forgave Harry for accidentally
blowing up his Aunt Marge he did not think it would happen again from just trying to turn off the
room's alarm clock. When no Owl came flying in as he laid in bed for nearly five minutes he
finally decided to climb out of bed and hastily threw a cloak over his form lifting the cowl over his
face. Doing his best not to get noticed by anyone, Harry left the pub and made his way down the
street and into Gringotts. "I would like to see Bonecrusher if he has time," Harry said once he had
made his way to a free Goblin. The Goblin was about to ask what the human wanted with the
current Goblin Prince only to notice that the hand Harry was using to keep his cloak on tight
showed the Slytherin ring.

"Ah, Heir Slytherin I was about to send for you. There have been some developments,"
Bonecrusher said as Harry was shown into the Goblin's office.

"I have something to discuss with you as well Master Bonecrusher but I used some Underage
Magic so I might be getting an owl at some point," Harry said.

"Where did you do this magic?" Bonecrusher asked.

"Um in the room I am staying at the Leaky Cauldron, by accident mind you, I went to turn off my
alarm and accidentally crushed the clock," Harry explained.

"Ah, that deals with one of the things I wish to discuss with you today. It seems that Fangtooth had
been so distracted when the three rings did not take to you he forgot to give you this," Bonecrusher
said pulling out what looked like a simple leather cuff covered in runes before passing it over.
"Due to you having some of your Core blocked off for a while you will have trouble controlling
your magic. This Modulator Cuff will help you control it as well as slowly allow you to get used it
your higher lever. As soon as you can fully control your magic the cuff will instantly return to us
here at the bank. As for the worry about using any underage magic that can only be detected areas
with a low level of Magical use such as if you are alone in the Muggle world."

"So I could have cast the Glamor yesterday myself?" Harry said astonished.

"You could of, thought based on your magic it is a good thing you did not who knows what may
have happened," Bonecrusher "now was there another reason for you to come back?"

"Um yes while I would like to get the money stolen from me back for myself I forgot to mention
that I would like to stop all payments that they are using to steal from me,"

"Easily done," Bonecrusher said not even making any form of a note. "I actually stopped the
payments last night after you left. I would also like to teach you how to access your funds. Now
unfortunately since you could not claim the rings of the Potter, Gryffindor, and Peverell lines all
you will be able to access those vaults, for the time being, is the trust vaults your parents had set up
for you. If you can not claim the rings before you come of age, that is seventeen years old, you will
be unable to claim your lines and the main vaults. You do have full access to all Slytherin Vaults
which not only includes a trust vault but three main vaults all of which have well over 71 Billion
Galleons in them as well as numerous family heirlooms and artifacts that belong to the Slytherin
line, which if you choose to sell could be up to over 849 Trillion Galleons," Bonecrusher said
making Harry's mouth fall open in shock at how much money was in the vaults. He had thought
that the money in the vault which he now guessed was the Potter Trust Vault had been a lot of
money but that could hardly be more than 100,000 Galleons. For the next ten minutes,
Bonecrusher showed him to both make out a money order and use a Vault key to make a purchase,
after giving him a whole new set of keys for his trust vaults. As well as how to use his Slytherin
ring to make even larger purchases than could be done by money order such as buying properties.
After Bonecrusher had finished his explanation he moved on to the next order of business. "Now I
have some good news and some bad news Heir Slytherin," Bonecrusher began. "Unfortunately, we
were unable to locate your Godfather's husband nor would the Ministry listen to our claims that
Sirius is innocent. We were, however, able to find your parent's Wills which for some reason have
been sealed which we think would clear his name."

"That is good news," Harry said smiling at as Account Manager only for the Goblin to shake his
head sadly at him.

"While that is good news we can not open the wills for whoever sealed them made it so they could
only be opened by the Potter family ring so until you can claim the ring they are still blocked from
us," Bonecrusher said.

"Well fuck," Harry said.

"My thoughts exactly Heir Slytherin, but I do have some good news we were able to get in contact
with the last of your Godparents and they are willing to come to the bank and meet with you. They
have scheduled the meeting for around noon if that is alright with you," the Goblin said. Harry was
sort of conflicted having never really gotten along with Malfoy at school, plus what his dad had
caused with the opening of the Chamber. He could not figure out why his parents would have
chosen Mrs. Malfoy to be one of his Godparents, but he knew the only way to find out was to
actually meet with her so he agreed to meet with her.

"Um before I go do you know of any other place that sells wands besides Ollivanders?" Harry
asked.

"Well there is Master Treyco, but his shop is in a different alley, there is also Crone Ophelia but
she tends to add a little darkness into each of her creations letting her have some small access to a
person's wand. But we Goblins also know some Wand craft if you wish to get one from us,"
Bonecrusher said.

"I think I would prefer to get it here then," Harry said.

"Very good I will send for one of our Wandmakers," Bonecrusher said as he left the room to go get
one of the Goblins who could craft magical artifacts such as wands. He did not say it but the wand
purchased from the Goblins while being a little bit superior to a human-made one was a lot more
expensive though he knew the boy could afford it, not that it mattered as due to what they had
failed to prevent in the theft of the young Heir's property. The Head of the European Gringotts
Branches had decided that the cleansing, as well as any issues on the boy's results, would be free of
charge if take care of by the bank.

Four minutes after Bonecrusher left a Goblin came in dressed in red robes with the symbol of a
magnifying glass with a gemstone under the "glass." "Ah Heir Slytherin I was told you wished to
have a wand created," the Goblin said.

"That is correct," Harry said bowing to the Goblin.

"Alright I am Artifector Slashvolt and I am here to guide you in the creation of your new wand,"
the Goblin said as he pulled off a bag and placed it onto Bonecrusher's desk. Harry assumed the
bag was magical as the Goblin began to pull numerous large cases out of it placing them before
Harry. "Now unlike Human Wandmakers rather than blindfold you and have you find items that
call to your magic all you have to do is place your wand hand on each of these cases. Each case has
an undetectable expansion charm on it so anything that can be used to create a wand is inside it.
Once you place your hand on the top of the case your magic will summon the item itself to you,"
Slashvolt stated as he pushed the first case forward.

Taking a deep breath Harry placed his right hand on the case and barely two seconds later he felt
something thump into the lid under his hand. Slashvolt reaches out and taps the case with a single
gnarled finger as a panel opened up and he pulls out two chunks of wood. The same thing was
repeated for each of the five cases some of which he was unable to collect an object. When he was
done Slashvolt informed him that his magic had selected both Cedar and English Oak as the wood
for the wand to be crafted out of. Harry's wand would not only have two kinds of wood but two
cores as his magic drew forth hairs from a Grim as well as a Thestral with the last item he had
brought forth which Slashvoly had told him was a focusing Gem and was a rare crystal that was
both black and white looking like a Yin-Yang symbol. After he collected all the items that would
be used in his new wand's creation the Goblin also took some measurements from Harry to
determine the wand's length and flexibility. Slashvolt informed him that by the time he returned for
his lunch meeting with his Godmother the wand would be finished.

Leaving the bank Harry feeling hungry as he had left the Leaky Cauldron this morning without
eating, and had spent almost the entire day yesterday at the bank due to his cleansing he had not
really eaten since the morning before. Stopping a small café Harry ordered a full English breakfast
as he wrote the five notes to inform his change of plans for his electives with him dropping out of
Divinations and Care of Magic Creatures in favor of Study of Ancient Runes and Arithmancy.
Harry sealed each letter addressing two to Professor Flitwick and the other three to one of the other
Heads of House apiece. As he finished off his meal he went to the Owl Post and sent all but one of
the letters for Flitwick out using the last of his physical money.

Once his letters were sent he decided to go get his books heading into Flourish and Blotts and was
nearly pushed aside by one of the shopkeepers. "Coming for your new books?" the man asked as
he started to put on some heavy-duty gloves.

"Um yes though I am not sure of my full list," Harry said making the man pause and turn to look at
him.

"What do you mean?" he asked one glove held in his arm.

"Well I recently decided to drop two of my class choices and take other subjects," Harry said.

"What subjects," the man said with a small wince as the sound of tearing was heard from the front
of the store.

"I decided to add Ancient Runes and Arithmancy just this morning so I do not know what books to
get," Harry said and saw the man break out into a smile as he put the gloves aside.

"Oh thank Merlin I was afraid you were taking Care of Magical Creatures the fool who is teaching
it this year chose the Monster Book of Monsters to be their coursebook. Nasty things I know the
owners do not wish to stock them ever again," the man said as he used his wand to separate said
books two of which were trying to pull apart a third. "As for finding books for those subjects don't
worry Hogwarts as well as other local schools send us their book list so if anyone loses theirs we
can help them get the right books," the salesperson said as he helped Harry pick out all the books
for his new classes.

Rather than go to check them out Harry put his books into a basket and went to go search for the
books that Salazar had mentioned he should get. Finding an entire section he had never noticed
before dealing with duties of an Heir/Lord/Ladyships as well as about the Wizengamot he began to
look for ones that he thought could help him. As he skimmed through the numerous volumes he
was not really paying attention to his surroundings so he ended up bumping into someone. "Sorry
about that," Harry said rubbing his head where he had bumped into the person.

"It is alright," a familiar voice said making Harry look up to see Ernie Macmillian.

"Oh hey, Ernie," he said.

"Do I know you?" the Hufflepuff asked taking a good look at Harry's face. "Bloody Hell Harry?
What happened to you?"

"Oh had some time so I went to Gringotts and underwent a cleansing," Harry said.

"Why did you need a cleansing?" the normally pompous boy asked.

"Well it seems I had had some spells and potions placed on me after my parents had died," Harry
said seeing the other's mouth fall open in shock. "Oh by the way it turns out you were right after all
I am the Heir of Slytherin, though not by blood but by Rite of Conquest.":

"Seriously Bloody Hell," Ernie said, "but you were not the one sending the monster after everyone
right?"

"I was not," Harry said.

"Can you tell me who was, I mean Headmaster Dumbledore said you had taken care of it but had
never told us anything else?" Ernie asked. Harry almost hesitated not wanting to talk about it
before he realized that the truth might be a way to get some revenge against Ginny.

"Oh sure, the truth was that it was Ginny Weasley," Harry said.

"Really but wasn't she taken into the Chamber by the person who had opened it?" Ernie asked
confused.

"Well in a way you see somehow Ginny got a cursed book which over the course of the year she
had written in letting the spirit resting in it to take over her and opening the Chamber," Harry
explained.

"Wait over the course of the year? So it did not happen all at once and she did not report it?" Ernie
said sounding both angry and shocked.

"She said she was worried that she would be kicked out and did not want to get into any trouble
having wanted to come to Hogwarts since her eldest brother went there," Harry said hiding a smile
as he sees the Hufflepuff's reaction to the news.

"That does not make it right. From what my Mother told me, apart from Hermione and Heir
Clearwater, the students who had been petrified had to either repeat the last year or go through
tutoring over the summer," Ernie started only for Harry to interrupt him.

"How would your Mother know something like that?" Harry asked.

"Oh she is a member of the Hogwarts' Governors," Ernie said with his old pompoms attitude.

"She is a Governor so you were threatened last year to be cursed?" Harry asked a little shocked.

"Wait What?" Ernie asked once more sounding confused.

"After getting out of the Chamber, Ron and I took Ginny and Professor Lockhart to Professor
McGonagall's office where Dumbledore was waiting. When Draco's father came in wondering
what Dumbledore was doing thereafter he had been voted out," Harry said doing his best not to call
the man Dumbles or any other childish nickname in front of the other boy. "The Headmaster said
he had come back after all the Governors apart from Mr. I mean Lord Malfoy had begged him to
come back. He said that the Governors told him that Lord Malfoy had threatened to curse the
families of his fellow Governors if they had not voted him out in the first place."

"The bloody idiot he was voted out fairly, from what my Mother told me and only brought back by
the narrowest of margins," Ernie said as he balled his hands into a fist. "As I was saying how is it
that Ginny did not get any punished for not reporting the cursed book? She should have at least
been suspended for a couple of months."

"Yeah instead she joined her family on a trip to Egypt," Harry said recalling the article Ron had
sent him with his birthday present.

"That is correct. I know she is your friend but I think I should have to talk to my Mother about this
so she does not get off scot-free for not reporting her interaction with the book,"

"Go right ahead no one is above the rules," Harry said. As he said this he noticed something from
the corner of his eye causing him to look to the side, where what looked liked the Potter and
Gryffindor rings be on one of the shelves for just a moment before they vanished.

"You know I was not expecting that," Ernie said, "by the way why are you looking at the Heir and
Wizengamot books?"

"I just trying to figure out my what to do as an Heir only finding out I was one yesterday," Harry
said shocking Ernie more than when he told about Ginny being the one to open the Chamber.

"You did not know, but we were always told you were informed about our world.... by the Muggles
you lived with. Wait that makes no sense now that I think of it," Ernie said.

"Yeah I was told nothing about it even by the Weasleys," Harry said. "I don't even know what is
happening to my families' seat.

"If I had to guess, it is just a guess mind you, is that whomever your Magical Guardian is the one to
cast your family's vote," Ernie stated with a small shrug of his shoulders.

"A Magical Guardian?" Harry said in confusion.

"If memory serves I think the Headmaster is your Magical Guardian," Ernie stated. Harry saw red
thinking that the man that was responsible for stealing and enchanting him was also in charge of
his votes in the Wizengamot. He hoped that the Goblins could help him remove the man from his
seats in the Governing body. With Ernie's help Harry was able to take some of the better books for
Heirs/Lordships and the Wizengamot and add them to his order before wishing the Hufflepuff boy
goodbye Harry decided to go get some new robes since all he had was his school robes and if he
was an Heir he should probably get some better quality and different robes like all the Magicals on
the books of the Wizengamot were wearing.

Avoiding Madam Malkin's since he did not actually need any new school robes he went to a robe
shop he had found on his first day of expiration of the Alley called Radagast's High-Quality Robes.
Stepping into the shop he had to groan a little for just like his first time in Madam Malkin's shop
standing on one of the platforms and getting measured was none other than Draco Malfoy. "Isn't
this place a little out of your price range Weasley or are you finally starting to spend Potty's money.
I should warn you Mother and Father said he is staying at the Leaky Cauldron so he might see you
and wonder how you can afford shopping here."

"Does everyone knew they were stealing from me?" Harry asked feeling flabbergasted.

"Potty?" Draco asked his eyebrows shooting up into his blonde hair.

"Malfoy," Harry responded.

"What happen to you?" his school rival asked for once with no hint of his normal arrogance in his
voice.

"Let see, inflated my Muggle Uncle's sister, rode the Knight Bus, meet the Minister of Magic, took
an Inheritance test, found out my so-called friends were stealing from me and I had been enchanted
oh, and your Mother is my Godmother, so nothing much," Harry said laughing a little at both
Draco and the sales people's expressions after his statement.

"So that is why Mother brought me here today," Draco said after he composed himself and Harry
had taken the platform next to him to get measured for his new robes.

"Yes I have a meeting with her around noon," Harry said as the salesperson began to takes notes as
the magical measuring tape took his sizes.

"Why would anyone enchant your hair and eyes though, apart from making sure you don't look like
a weasel?" Draco asked.

"Your guess would be as good as mine, to be honest," Harry said with a small shrug earning him a
disapproving look from the salesperson.

"So I am guessing it was the bunch of Blood Traitors that enchanted you then since you have not
got on my case for referring to them as Weasels?" Draco guessed.

"Well they did not all do it but I was evidently slipped Potions which would make me trust some of
them as well as Granger," Harry said.

"I did warn you about them if you recall," Draco said smirking over at him.

"Yeah yeah, what you want a cookie or something," Harry shot back.

"A cookie is that some sort of Muggle tradition? Being proved to be wrong give the person who
told you so a treat?" Draco asked actually making Harry start to laugh.

"No it is just an expression," Harry said after he was able to compose himself.

"Muggles are rather strange," Draco said shaking his head.

"You will get no argument from me on that one though of course Magicals are just as strange,"
Harry pointed out.

"True," Draco said, "you know it feels strange to be both agreeing with you on something but also
not changing barbs."

"Indeed," Harry said as the bell at the entrance to the shop rang out.

"Draco dear are you not done yet it is almost time for my meeting at the bank," a voice called.

"Just about but don't worry about it," Draco said shooting Harry a look.

"Now you know how I feel about punctuality Draco we can not be late for this meeting," a woman
who Harry now assumed was Narcissa Malfoy said.

"It will not matter if you are late Mother," Draco said looking as if he was stopping himself from
laughing.

"Why do you think that Dragon?" the woman asked as Harry took her in seeing she was around six
foot tall with her hair, which was both black and white in color, in a braid that hung down to the
middle of her back and was dressed periwinkle blue robes.

"Cause the person you are having the meeting with is standing right beside me," Draco said who it
seemed had reached his limit and began to laugh which much to Harry's surprise included a couple
of snorts.

"Ah yes, very funny Draco, I was told I was meeting my Godson I know you are not a fan but that
is no reason to try to make me skip the meeting," Narcissa said looking anything but impressed
with how her son was acting.

"He is not lying Lady Malfoy your meeting is with me," Harry said turning to her and lifting his
bangs out of the way so she could see his lightning bolt scar.

"Good Avalon,*" Narcissa said clutching at her chest.

"Sorry about that Lady Malfoy," Harry said in apology "I know I look rather different than what I
have done before now."

"You have your mother's hair and your father's eyes," Narcissa said in shock.

"Yeah I still don't know why anyone had them reversed," Harry said stepping off the platform
since the worker was done taking his measurements.

"If I had to guess it was for Severus," Narcissa said after a moment of thought as Harry began to
pick out some material for his robes to be made from as well as the color of them.

"Why?" Harry asked looking away from a forest green that matched his old eyes.

"Well both Severus and myself were your Mother's best friends while we were at Hogwarts, but he
always hated your Father so it could be that someone wanted him to see James rather than Lily in
you," Narcissa hazarded a guess.

"So that is why you were chosen to be my Godmother you were her friend?" Harry asked.

"Indeed it was and we would have taken you in if nor for," she started only to realize where they
were "maybe we should head to the bank before I continue."

"Okay," Harry said a little mystified as he placed his order for his new robes which would
hopefully be done by the time he returned to the bank.

"So how is Gregory Smith?" she asked as Harry and the two Malfoys walked to the bank.

"Who?" Harry said recalled having seen the name on his results but never having heard of the man
before.

"Gregory Smith, the person you were sent to live with after James and Lily died. We were told for
your protection you were to live in the Muggle world and as Gregory was your mother's favorite
Uncle he had been chosen to take you in.

"Um I was brought up by my Mother's sister, Petunia, and her family," Harry said as Narcissa
stopped in her tracks.

"Not Tunafish, Lily would never have wanted you anywhere near the beast. Not after the
childhood, she had," Narcissa said shaking her head solemnly as Harry tried not to laugh at the
nickname for his Aunt.

"I don't know what happened I just know they took me in and according to the Goblins my Mom
and Dad's Wills are sealed so they can't tell what was really meant to happen to me after they
died," Harry said. Hearing this Narcissa grabbed both his and Draco's hands and speed to the bank.
She did not even wait for a free Goblin as she leads the two mystified thirteen-year-olds out a back
door and down a corridor to a well-appointed meeting room.

"Ah Lady Malfoy you are early and I see you have found your Godson as well," Bonecrusher said
looking up as the three entered.

"I have indeed now what is this about Lily and James' Wills being sealed.

"As I explained to Heir Slytherin since they were sealed so long ago they can only be opened by a
Potter family Heir or Lordship ring which he, unfortunately, does not possess," Bonecrusher said "I
am surprised you had not mentioned that to her Heir Slytherin."

"It had not come up yet," Harry said slightly blushing.

"Wait you really are Slytherin's Heir?" Draco asked his voice rising a little in shock.

"What do you mean he does not possess a Potter family ring?" Narcissa asked.

"It did not accept me, neither did the Gryffindor or Peverell rings only the Slytherin ring that I
gained through the Rite of Conquest accepted me. I was given some task to take care of before I
earn the right to them though," Harry said seeing both Malfoy's mouths fall open in shock.

"Alright fine I can only assume this is the reason you called for this meeting today Prince
Bonecrusher," Narcissa directed at the Goblin.

"Indeed it is Lady Malfoy," Bonecrusher said before turning to Harry " do you mind if I share with
her your results.

"Might as well it would save us some time," Harry said as the Goblin pushed over a copy of the
results of Harry's Inheritance test followed by a glass of what looked like water as her face paled.

As Narcissa read the results and took time to calm down Bonecrusher also passed over Harry's new
wand which was eleven inches long and highly flexible. "Master Bonecrusher is there a way to
remove the Headmaster from the control of my family seats in the Wizengamot even if the rings
rejected me?" Harry asked.

"There is a way but it is slightly underhanded," Bonecrusher said with a savage smile. "As of right
now only the four of us plus Fangtooth knows that the Potter, Gryffindor, and Peverell rings did
not accept you. And while you are not an Heir your status could be considered a trial family
member which still gives you the highest claim on the seats. And while you can not claim them for
yourself until you are the heir or Lord of the House you can decide who can use them, or in this
case not use them."

"So I can just declare that Albus Dumbledore does not have access to the Potter, Gryffindor,
Peverell, or Slytherin seats and he can't use them?" he asked.

"Actually by saying it like that you just did," Bonecrusher said with a rough laugh which would
have been creepy to Harry but for the moment found himself laughing alongside the Goblin.

"You said I could also put someone in the seats as well," Harry asked "What happens if I just leave
them vacant?"

"Well as the Headmaster had used those seats to gain his Party's Majority in the Wizengamot the
Light Party would drop in ranking and ousting him as Chief Warlock," Narcissa said having finally
calmed down.

"Who does that leave in charge?" Harry asked.

"It usually goes to the eldest person of the leading party and since the Dark Party was just a few
seats lower than the Light Party that would mean Lady Greengrass would be the new Chief
Warlock. That is unless you wish to add your seats to another Party," Narcissa stated.

"I think for right now I will leave the seats vacant. Let's make him wonder what's going on for a bit
and give me a chance to find someone I can trust to fill them," Harry said.

That is surprisingly devious," Draco said nodding in approval.

 "So what were you saying in the Radagast's earlier about why you did not take me in, besides
having me live in the Muggle Worlds? Harry asked.

"Ah yes you see most people thought and well still think that my husband was a Death Eater, a
supporter of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named," she added seeing his confusion. "But in truth, he was
working as a spy for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for one of your father's old
friends, Amelia Bones." Harry suddenly recalled Ron talking about Draco's Dad being always in
the Ministry.

"Um, if he was a spy why did he use Riddle's Diary?" Harry asked.

"Ah well, some of the Death Eaters remained free and had put pleasure on him to use it, so to keep
his cover he had slipped it into the cauldron of one of the Weasleys knowing that Arthur being
head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office would have instilled on his kids to report the Diary
once they noticed it was enchanted. He never would have imagined that it would have actually be
used to open the Chamber," she explained.

"Yeah I was talking about that with someone earlier but it seems we all overestimated the
Weasette," Harry said making Draco laugh at the nickname he had started for the girl while his
mom tried to give Harry a disappointed look that was ruined with a twinkle in her eyes. "Oh that
reminds me," Harry said snapping his fingers "it may be too late for this now but it would be a
good idea to clear out the chamber beneath the drawing-room."

Both Malfoys' eyes widen at his words as Narcissa asked, "And why shall we do that?"

"Well, when my former friends and I thought Draco was opening the Chamber the Weasel and I
used some Polyjuice Potions to sneak into the Slytherin dorms as Crabbe and Goyle. Draco you
told us about the Ministry raiding your place and then let it slip about the hidden room. I know for
a fact the Weasel was going to send a letter to Mr. Weasley but we were busy so I don't think he
ever did it but he might have told him this summer. And since you say Lord Malfoy is still working
as a spy for those Death Eaters which are still free it would raise some concerns for people who
don't know his status."

"Why thank you Harry I shall let him know when we get home," Narcissa said bowing her head
slightly.

Chapter End Notes

*akin to saying Good Heavens sort of like saying "for the love of Merlin/Morgana"
would be "for the love of God"
 Breaking Free and Putting on a Show
Chapter Summary

Harry leaves Diagon Alley to stay with his Godmother before going to Hogwarts

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

"Speaking of homes where are you staying at the moment for I do not see Tuna Fish or that rotten
apple of a husband of hers letting you come to Gringotts and finding all this out," Narcissa asked
tapping the results of Harry's test.

"I have been staying at the Leaky Cauldron after I accidentally inflated my Uncle's sister, Marge,"
Harry said.

"By yourself?" Draco asked with a hint of jealousy in his voice.

"Yes, after the Minister let me go for my use of underage magic," Harry said.

"That man always has been a fool he left you with no protection or minder?" Narcissa asked
rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Well he did say that Tom was going to be keeping an eye on me," Harry said.

"Oh yes, for the man has so much free time running a bar/inn that he can keep track of you as you
got through the alley. Yes, he is worried about you being found by Sirius but there are actual Death
Eaters that still walk free. Not to dismiss your skills Harry, but you are still a kid, and it would not
take much for them to hit you with a spell to force you to follow them down a deserted side street
and harm you. I know you may not fully trust me or members of my family but I would like you to
come to stay with us for a couple of weeks before you head back to Hogwarts," Narcissa said
patting his arm.

"But won't I get in trouble the Minister himself told me to stay here?" Harry asked.

"You will not if anyone tries to I will point out that I am your Godmother and we had recently
found out about it. If they still have problems with that we can have them talk to the Goblins about
it," Narcissa said as Bonecrusher, who was working in the corner to not interfere with their
conversation, gave a nod of confirmation as he cracked his knuckles.

"If you are worried about staying with us we have plenty of room so you don't have to even see us,"
Draco said misreading Harry's silence.

"What do you want in return?" Harry asked knowing that most people would want something for
taking him in.

"Nothing," Narcissa said sounding horrified that he had felt the need to ask. "We have House Elves
to take care of most things all you need to do is be a kid for once in your life."
"But won't Lord Malfoy be angry at me for freeing Dobby?" Harry asked since she brought up
House Elves.

"Who?" Both Malfoys asked giving him confused looks.

"Dobby the Malfoy family Elf who warned me about Riddle's Diary as well as trying to keep me
away from Hogwarts," Harry said wondering if they were really these so-called Death Eaters and
were trying to trick him to come to their home.

"Bartholomew," Narcissa said leading to a House Elf pop into the room. Harry looking at the Elf
saw the way he was dressed was vastly different from Dobby for rather than a toga this Elf was
dressed in a small smartly dressed suit with what he assumed was the Malfoy family crest on his
right breast pocket.

"You called for me Madam?" the Elf asked letting Harry notice another change as Bartholomew
spoke in a slightly posh voice.

"Yes Bartholomew is there an Elf named Dobby as part of your crew?" she asked.

"Not to my knowledge," the Elf said snapping his fingers and summoning a roll of parchment, and
began to look through it. "No Madam I have no record of a Dobby. Is this a new Elf you would like
to add to the crew?"

"No thank you just checking on something," Narcissa said.

"But he accompanied Lord Malfoy to meet with the Headmaster at the end of the last term I freed
him when I handed him Riddle's Diary with my sock in it," Harry said mystified.

"No Elves accompanied Master Malfoy to Hogwarts the current Headmaster does not approve of
Elves that do not work at the castle to be on grounds young Master," Bartholomew explained.

"Um, just out of curiosity could you cut off the barrier between Platform 9 3/4 and the rest of
King's Cross, cause a Bludger to single a person out, or take letters from a person with a Mail Ward
on them?" Harry asked the Elf.

"I could maybe do the letters if it was a member of my Master's family involved but the others one
would need overall permission from a high placed member at Hogwarts to shut off the barrier or
have access to a Hogwarts' Bludger," the Elf said.

"What is up Harry?" Draco asked finding the whole line of questioning strange.

"Those are the ways that Dobby tried to keep me away from Hogwarts last year, he collected
letters from people who sent them to me trying to make me think I had no friends, which turned out
to be true I guess," Harry said. I was rescued by the Weasel and the twins, but when we went to get
on the train the barrier did not let us through, and then you recall the Bludger in our match last
year."

"So this Dobby was working for Dumbles," Draco guessed.

"I can only assume," Harry said with a shrug before turning to Bartholomew and asking "are you
treated alright?"

"My entire crew is all treated very nicely," the elf answered with a small smile growing to like this
human.

"Alright I will stay with you though I need to pick up the robes I had just got measured for as well
as the rest of my stuff in my room," Harry said.

"Very well Bartholomew be a dear and get a room ready for Harry. Maybe in Abraxas' old wing
for the time being," Narcissa said dismissing the Head Malfoy Family Elf. "Now we shall go get
your robes and show Fudge that he made a mistake by not leaving you any protection by spiriting
you away from here right under Tom's nose." Narcissa suited actions to words as she leads Harry
and Draco back to Radagast's shop to pick up both Harry and Draco's robes before they headed to
the back door of the Leaky Cauldron where she told them her plan.

Her plan had Harry going up to the room he was staying in while she stayed outside and Draco
made himself the center of attention in the pub complaining about how dirty it was and being a
basic brat. Once in his room, Harry would only collect his Invisibility Cloak and bring it outside to
Narcissa where she would put it on and follow him back to his room. She would shrink all of his
possessions for easy travel. Harry would once more leave the pub, with Narcissa invisibly holding
onto his shoulder to go get some ice cream and work on some homework as Draco walking out,
unless he had already been tossed out, and join the pair of them at the side street leading where the
trio would Apparate away. Narcissa's plan worked almost to perfection though Draco was thrown
out of the place when Harry walked out the first time to deliver the cloak to Narcissa, which they
both saw had the Blond smiling as he was lead out by Tom.

Arriving at the gates to Malfoy Manor Narcissa led Harry up to the front doors where they were
greeted by both Bartholomew and Lucius. "Narcissa dear? Lucius asked sending a look at Harry
who was looking in wonder at the large foyer which could have fit both the bottom floor of the
Dursley's home as well as their attached garage easily inside.

"Lucius honey I would like you to meet Harry Potter," Narcissa said seeing her husband's eyes
widen at the redheaded boy's identity. "It seems we have been lied to, Luci, Harry had not gone to
stay with Lily's Uncle in fact he is dead. It could have been from natural causes or not I haven't
looked into it yet. And I was not just going to let my Godson stay at the Leaky Cauldron with only
the barmen to look out for him. So he will be staying with us until term starts," Narcissa said in a
tone that broke no argument. Harry actually had turned back to see if Lucius would but saw him
slightly cowered by his wife.

"Yes dear," Lucius said before turning to Harry. "I assume my wife has informed you of my status
as a Ministry Spy within His ranks?"

"Um yes Lord Malfoy," Harry said.

"Good, now every once and a while some Death Eaters who are free stop by the manor so you will
need to be out of view during their visits," Draco's father said.

"It is alright I have plenty of experience doing that," Harry said thinking of the times his Uncle
would either lock him in his old cupboard or just shut him in his room while there were
"important" guests over. "If I may ask if you are a spy and you know they really supported Him
why are they still free?"
"Ah well, some believe that the man did something to stave off death and would come back so
Madam Bones and I agreed to let some of the less powerful of them walk free in hopes that they
will lead us to whatever form he may be in at some point," Lucius explained. "Also since I am a
spy I have to act a certain way even in public so I apologize for the way I treated the Weasleys I
know from what Draco has told me you are fond of the family," the man said evidently trying to
make Harry comfortable in his home.

"There is no reason to apologize for how you treated them, even if you were acting some of the
family deserve it and more some," Harry said clenching his fist.

Lucius was about to ask more when Harry, who had not had lunch yet stomach began to growl.
Bartholomew stepped forward and offered to take him to the dining room which after a nod from
Narcissa let himself be lead away. "What was that all about?" Lucius asked his wife and son after
the door closed behind their new temporary ward and the Elf.

"It seems that what we were told was partiality true for he did grow up with Muggles but rather
than Gregory he was living with Tuna Fish," Narcissa explained making Lucius groan having
heard stories about the Muggle woman from both his wife and Severus. "But what is more having
run away from her he had decided to get tested, evidently not doing it before his First-Year due to
the Headmaster I suspect. Anyway, it seems that Molly and her two youngest, as well as the
Muggle girl who is near the top of their class, have been stealing from Harry along with the
Headmaster himself." Lucius felt his skin crawl and saw his wife's Godson had been right about the
Weasleys deserving worse than what he had given them it was a clear case of Line Theft that even
a new lawyer could not fail at winning a case with. The only problem was to retain his position as a
Spy he could not take the case or bring it up within his firm without questions being asked. He
doubted even if he could play it off as him trying to free Harry from Dumbles control to bring him
to His camp for there were still many Death Eaters who wanted to kill Harry just cause that is what
He wanted. "There is some good news, however," Narcissa said with a smile.

"What is it?" Lucius asked worriedly knowing full well what that smile sometimes meant.

"Dumbles is no longer Chief Warlock," she said laughing a little when his mouth fell open in
shock. "Yes, it seems he had been using Harry's seats which Harry has now claimed and left them
vacant, for the moment. Lucius felt like dancing knowing full well what that meant for while some
claimed that the Dark Party was full of Death Eaters who had wiggled out of getting caught in truth
only maybe one or two members were actual supporters of Him. The majority were normal
Magicals who had Dark Cores and were trying to keep Magical Traditions alive and those with
Creature blood free from persecution.

Harry marveled at the dining room as he was brought into it and fed, what Bartholomew had
called, a simple meal which to him had been a real feast chatting with the Elf to find out more
about his kind. Bartholomew seemed to like the positive attention as he cleared up some of the
things Harry had learned from Dobby. Yes, a House Elf could be freed by presenting it with
clothing, but no the clothing had to be knowingly given nor did it apply to large amounts of
clothing. Harry was slightly disappointed to learn that bit for when Dobby had told him clothing
could free Elves he had pictured Draco being forced to do his own laundry. Neither did the House
Elves consider their service as a form of slavery but as a form of duty to their families which took
them in. Harry listened in fascination barely paying attention as he ate as the Head Malfoy Elf told
him that unlike most beings Magical and otherwise House Elves were sustained by Magic itself
and while they could live off pure Magic it sometimes caused them to get sick so they would turn
to Humans and other Beings who used Magic so it would be filtered through them before reaching
the Elf. Harry suddenly had the vision of Draco as a coffee filter and Bartholomew taking the
coffee from the pot after it had been made. Harry snorted a little into his food leading to the Elf
giving his back a could of smacks as he nearly choked on his mashed potatoes.

A few days later Harry saw that Draco had been right about the size of Malfoy Manor for even
without trying to he had not seen another living human for hours on end. Though he did see the
Malfoy family Elves quite a bit as they would help make sure he did not get lost as he moved
about the place. Not that he did no his first full day there having only gone to one out of seven
libraries, according to the Elves, that the manor contained so he could finish off his Summer
homework. Even then the room was so large he had not realized that Draco was doing the same
thing until they had both went searching for the same book. Thereafter the pair decided to work
together to finish their work that much sooner with each helping the other out Draco correcting
Harry's Potions work and Harry pointing out some of the mistakes Draco had made in his Charms
paper. If someone told him on his birthday that he would start to see Draco as a friend he would
have told them to go see Madam Pomfrey, but it was happening even if they still traded barbs with
each other now and then.

In the short time that Harry was at the manor, he had been told to keep to away from the main
rooms, due to "visitors," no less than four times not that he minded for having finished his
homework and having the potion to reduce his intellect out of his system Harry had taken to spend
a lot of time reading books. It had started with the books Salazar and Ernie had him check out but
he soon finished them as he also discovered he had a near-perfect memory when not enchanted
making him able to recall the majority of the books. After finishing his homework, the books on
being an Heir/Lord, and on the Wizengamont Harry just started going through the library nearest
the room he was staying in and taking out piles of books on various subjects to read. Some of
which he wished he had read earlier like William Chang's The Muggle in Court: A Muggleborns'
Guide to Pureblood Society, or I Cast You Out: a Study in the Historical/Philosophical Use of Spell
Casting and Crafting.

That did not mean to say he avoided the others as every couple of days he would join Draco on the
Malfoy Family Pitch and the pair would just fly around some times in a quick Seeker's game but
mostly just showing off their skills on their brooms to each other. When Narcissa was free, having
learned that she was a high-ranking Healer at St. Mungos, she would tell him tales of his parents
during their time at Hogwarts as well as later in life. She even told him about meeting both Vernon
and Marge as she had accompanied Lily to Tuna Fish and Vernon's wedding. "They were a nasty
lot I can tell you," she said taking a sip of her hot cocoa "Marge keep harassing your mother and me
just cause I came as Lily's date, this was due to your father being called away for a surprising
training session. For some reason, the woman just kept calling us dikes?" Narcissa said shooting
Harry a questioning look but he preferred not to explain having dealt with the Homophobic
leanings of the Dursleys for years.

It had taken him time to get over it and admit even if it was just to himself that he fancied males
rather than females. It had confused him when he would sometimes get a feeling in his gut around
Ginny at least until his results and Salazar telling him about Eros Blade. For a while, he thought he
might be Bisexual but with the spell cleared from his system he was pretty sure he was only into
males. Though of the males he spent the most time with he did not see himself falling for them for
one Ron had never been his friend and was most likely in it for the money and fame that came
from being his "friend." The twins while nice he just did not see happening for sometimes they
were too wild for him. Percy while being calmer and collected, not to mention rather handsome,
from what he heard had a girlfriend and even if he did not most likely would not want to date
someone so much younger. Neville while also calm was too timid in Harry's mind for whenever
Harry pictured himself going out with someone he could not see himself taking the lead all the
time, and he had to admit that might have been from the Dursleys. Then there was Draco and while
they were becoming what, frenemies, he could not see himself dating the blonde due to both their
history but also how active Draco was. Harry could admit his ideal date, at the moment at least,
would be to snuggle up with someone as they read books together, or maybe his partner reading to
him.

He did not really interact with Draco's dad that much usually at meal ties when no visitors were
there and most of the time they just shared polite, but overall meaningless, conversation about what
had happened that day. Though one day a group of visitors had been to the manor arriving at nearly
eight in the morning and leaving well past midnight the man had shown up to the room Harry had
been sleeping in. Lucius had then proceeded to show Harry something he called a "Dark Mark"
which looked like a Skull eating a python tattooed onto Lucius's right forearm. Lucius explained
that all of His servants were marked thusly though he and a few others had found some ways to
alter the mark a little. "If you find someone with an altered mark it means like me they are one of
the various spies against Him. I know of only two others, besides myself, who were spies Severus
who worked for Dumbles and Regulus Black who was working for his own Father after his mother
had forced him to join," Lucius explained pointing out the differences between a real mark and his
altered one in great detail letting Harry memorize it all.

On the day that Harry and Draco were to head back to Hogwarts Narcissa brought Harry and Draco
in as soon as the Barrier would allow thus getting Harry there with few witnesses to him being with
her and Draco. Rather than find a compartment right away Harry decided to take out one of the
books he had borrowed from Malfoy's library and began to read it giving other students a chance to
arrive. After nearly an hour spent reading Harry finally started to look for a place to sit as the train
was only a half-hour away from leaving the station. He did not want to sit by himself, just in case
Ron and Hermione showed up and somehow able to know it was him despite his new look, so he
skipped all empty compartments. He also skipped a compartment that had ragged looking man
placing his luggage up in the rack not trusting why an adult was taking the train. He of course
avoided Draco's compartment as well to keep up the idea that they did not get along. He was just
wondering if he should find some random people to sit with when he found Ernie's compartment.
"Hey Ernie mind if I sit with you guys?" he asked sticking his head in.

"Oh hey Harry fine with me anyone has a problem if he joins us?" Ernie asked his friends, which
Harry saw included Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, and Justin Finch-Fletchley, who all gasped at his
new look but agreed they had no issue of him riding with them.

"So why are you not going with Ron and Hermione?" Susan asked as Harry lifted his trunk into the
rack.

"Well I have spent the last two years with just them, basically, I thought it might be a good idea to
meet and hang out with some new people," Harry explained.

"Oh Harry I never got a chance to tell you I was sorry to think you were the Heir of Slytherin,"
Justin said reaching out to shake Harry's hand. Both Harry and Ernie let out a small chuckle at that.
"What?" Justin asked as Susan and Hannah also looked confused.

"Sorry over the Summer I had an Inheritance Test done and I found out I am actually the Heir of
Slytherin by Right of Conquest. It seems that He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named was the previous Heir
and when he came to kill me and was stopped I claimed the title," Harry explained only to see the
three other students begin to shiver in fear.

"Are you saying He was responsible for opening the Chamber last year?" Hannah asked her voice
coming out in a sort of croak due to her fear.

"No it seems that the Chamber was opened by a cursed object which enchanted Ginny Weasley to
do it," Ernie said. "I heard from my Mum that when that bit of information was shared and Ginny
not receiving any punishment from the Headmaster the Governors were beside themselves in
anger."

"So does that mean she got punished?" Harry asked shocking them with a hard glint in his eye.

"Yes according to my Mum she got a six-month suspension as well as mandatory meetings with a
Mind Healer, not only due to the possession but also to find out why she never reported the object
in the first place," Ernie said seeing Harry's face break into a huge grin.

Harry had the most fun he ever had during that trip getting to know the four Huffelpuffs thinking
that if he had done this before they would not have suspected him of being the one to unleash the
Basilisk on the Castle. Thinking maybe that is why the Headmaster made his former friends
basically prevent him from getting close to anyone else so that they would turn on him just like
they had the last two years. He was going to make sure it did not happen this year at all making a
vow to himself to follow Godric's directive by making some friends or allies in each of the four
Houses. He decided the best way to start it off was to tell Ernie and his friends the truth about what
he had gone through not only with entering the Chamber but also the events of the First-Year and
the stone.

He must have lost track of time for the train seemed to be stopping, but he saw Ernie look at his
watch and Susan wipe the window showing that rather than Hogsmead Station the train was in a
forest. Harry and the others watch as the window seems to frost over as with a sudden stop the
lights go out, well most of them. Justin gasp as he points at Harry's hand making him look down to
see that the Slytherin family ring was glowing slightly giving off a greenish light in the almost
pitch black cabin.

Harry was about to ask Salazar what was going on only for his body to suddenly feel as if he had
jumped into a freezing lake. He almost felt as if he was about to pass out when his ring glowed
even brighter and what looked like a shield surround his entire body letting the heat come back to
him. Harry and the others watched in horror as a skeletal hand pulls their door open revealing a
dark creature in a black covering making Harry think of the Muggle idea of the Grim Reaper. The
dark form took a ragged breath as if trying to suck the very heat from all of them. Seeing the four
Huffelpuffs beginning to shiver Harry reached over and took Susan and Ernie's hands which
seemed to expand the shield to them as well. Justin and Hannah were soon brought in as well as the
five of them stared down the creature which floated before them for another minute before leaving
them alone. "Thanks for that Harry," Susan said squeezing his hand before she let go. "I wish my
Aunty had told me the Dementors would be searching the train."

"Why would they do that?" Harry asked thinking that no child should have been put in such a
situation as meeting one of these Dementors.

"Why to search for Black of course," Susan said, "though I do admit I wish they did not need to."

"Are you alright in here?" the man who Harry had seen earlier storing his trunk asked as he stuck
his head into their compartment.

"Yes sir we are fine," Justin said in a slightly shaking voice.

"Here have some chocolate it should help," the man said snapping off a bit of chocolate and
handing it to Justin before offering some to the others. Harry only took some when he saw Justin
relax a little after eating his piece, and not getting any type of warning from his ring. He was still
having the old "not taking candy from strangers" lessons in his head which he was going to keep to
not get enchanted again.

Arriving at the station Harry joined the four in the horseless carriage up to the Castle. "Will you
guys help me pull a prank?" Harry asked as an idea came to him.

"Doing what?" Susan asked not wanting to do anything that would cause a lot of trouble.

"Due to my new look I know that not many people would be able to recognize me so I just want to
sit with you at the Hufflepuff table to see how long it takes for them to see I am gone," Harry said
giving her a gentle and innocent smile.

"I guess that does not sound too bad," Susan said as the others agreed to let him sit with them. In
truth, Harry was doing it to see who would be the one to report him being missing as well as how
long it took. If Ron and Hermione were the ones to report it, Harry saw it, as them letting Dumbles
know they lost track of him, but if they let someone else report him being gone, it showed they
were not really his friends. So no matter what happened the pair were doomed, but if someone else
did it it would show where he could find allies if it came from Gryffindor House.

Arriving at the castle Harry walked with Ernie and his friends over to the Hufflepuff table and sat
down as everyone talked about the Dementors on the train. Harry sent a glance and Draco catching
the blonde's eye and giving a small wink. Draco gave him an almost imperceptible nod of
understanding as he talked to his friends. Looking around the hall Harry saw the man from the train
sitting beside an even angrier than normal Snape, but when he got to the Gryffindor table he was
shocked to see Ron sitting alone making him wonder where Hermione was and causing him to
think without the funds she was stealing from him she might not have been able to afford to come
to the school.
 Hermione, unfortunately, did show up as Professor Flitwick put the Sorting Hat away, Professor
McGonagall having also been absent from the event. As Dumbles stoop up to start the feast there
was a gasp as for the first time in anyone's memory he was interrupted. "Professor Dumbledore we
have a problem,"

"Yes, Mr. Weasley?" Dumbledore asked in a kind voice but Harry saw his eyes had turned to steel
as he gazed upon Percy Weasley who was standing up at the Gryffindor Table.

"It seems, sir, Harry is missing no one has seen him I am worried he has gotten hurt," Percy said
making Harry almost smile for while the twins playfully teased him, and Ron and Ginny made fun
of him in a negative fashion Percy was a good guy. This is why Harry had a slight crush on him as
he had been the person to finally get Harry to realize he was gay.

Dumbles' demeanor changed in an instant as his full "grandfatherly" persona was back and the man
next to Snape seemed to tense up a little. Dumbledore pulled out his wand and with a flick of it
caused two rolls of parchment to appear. The entire hall watched as he tapped both rolls with his
wand as they started to unfurl for a bit letting him read something on them. "Harry is listed as
being on the train as well as having entered the castle so he can't be too far maybe he has just gone
to use the bathroom," Dumbles said with a smile which Harry now saw as false as an American
three dollar bill. Looking over at Draco he saw the blond almost drawing blood as he bit his bottom
lip to stop himself from laughing. Harry wondered what Dumbles would do only for Ernie to nudge
him with his elbow making Harry roll his eyes a little before standing up.

"I am not missing I guess I was just got so wrapped up in my conversation I went to the wrong
table," Harry said running his hand over the back of his neck as if embarrassed as he headed to the
Gryffindor table. There were some laughs accompanied by gasp and mutterings as everyone took in
his new look as he walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down not next to a flabbergasted
Ron and Hermione but Percy and the other Seventh-Year Lions. Looking back up at the Head
Table Harry took in Snape's shocked look at his new look, while the man beside him gave him a
smile and a friendly wave. Harry had to imitate Draco and bit his lip to stop himself from laughing
seeing Dumbles who looked as if he had just downed two full cups of Skele-Grow with a Lemon
Drop chaser.

Chapter End Notes

By the way, Harry just has a slight childish crush on Percy this will not be who he
ends up with.
 Pest 1 and Pest 2
Chapter Summary

The first night in the dorms with Pest 1 and 2 being a nuisance

Harry ignored the talk about his new look as he took an open seat close to Percy and the other
Seventh-Years utterly ignoring his former friends though he once more caught Draco's eyes to see
the blonde also acting in surprise, winking at him when he saw Harry looking. It took Dumbles a
moment to remember himself as he starts spouting something about to banish the darkness all one
had to do was turn on the light. Harry just picked up the silverware before him as he waited for the
feast to start. Once the food finally appeared Harry began to load up his plate filling it more than
normal, as he was for once not having to wait a few days before his stomach could handle it after
being starved at the Dursleys.

"So how was your Summer Harry? I see that your family let you, oh what's it called? Oh yeah dye
your hair and give you I think they're called contacts?" Percy asked

"They did not I actually ran away from home," Harry said starting on his meal making the Seventh-
Years around him, apart from Percy, look confused having always told he lived like a Prince at
home.

"Why would you run away?" one of them asked.

"Well it all started with my Uncles' sister came over and started bad-mouthing my mom and dad
leading me to accidentally use some underage magic and inflated her," Harry said making one of
the Seventh-Year boys who he was sure was named Thomas Duncan snort into his mashed
potatoes.

"What did you Aunt and Uncle do?" Percy asked placing a comforting hand on Harry's back having
heard from the twins about how Harry had been living last year.

"I did not give them a chance to do anything as my magic unlocked the cupboard where they had
stored my stuff before doing a runner," Harry said as he told Percy and his friends all about ending
up in Diagon Alley and having an Inheritance Test. Letting them all know that he had been
enchanted but not the full extent or even the fact that Percy's Mother and youngest siblings had
been stealing from him. "So how was your Summer Percy? I think I read that your family went to
see your older brother in Egypt was that Bill or Charlie?" he asked after he had finished.

"We went to go see Bill, and it was fun at least until we got back," Percy said.

"Oh, how come?" one of the other Seventh-Years asked.

"Well it seems the board decided to suspend my sister for her part in opening the Chamber last
year," Percy said as his friends' mouths fell open. "And to be honest Fred, George, my father, as
well as my older brothers and I think she got off easy for they could just as easily expelled her for
not coming forward. This news came to us when we arrived at Diagon Alley to pick you up," he
said looking at Harry. "But when we could not find you Mum got even madder than when Ginny
got suspended and Dad was worried for you. If you do not mind me asking where were you?"
"How did you know I had been in the Alley?" Harry asked thinking there were two ways they
could have learned of it Fudge or Dumbles.

"I think Dad got a letter from Fudge asking him to have us take you to King's Cross due to our
previous relationship with you and Dad working for the Ministry. And you are avoiding the
question," Percy said arching an eyebrow at him making some butterflies seem to flutter in Harry's
stomach.

"Well, when I got the Inheritance Test the Goblins got me in contact with one of my Godparents
and I stayed with them for the rest of the Summer. They seemed to think it was safer than having
me stay with minimal supervision in the Alley." Harry explained making sure not to mention who
his Godparents were that he had stayed with.

"As long as you were safe," Percy said reaching over and giving his shoulder a quick squeeze
making Harry blush a little.

"There you are Harry we save you a seat. Why are you sitting by Perc?" Ron's voice called out
from behind him making Harry clench his hand under the table lest he acted out on his anger at the
other boy.

"Oh, I just thought I would sit by someone who actually noticed I was gone. I saw it was Percy
who brought up that I was not at the table, not you or Hermione," Harry said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, well I thought you had been told to talk to Madam Pomfrey having heard that you passed out
when the Dementors checked your compartment," Ron said trying to squeeze into the spot beside
Harry.

"I have no idea what you are on about Ron I did not pass out from them," Harry said shifting in his
seat so no matter what side Ron tried to sit on there was no room.

"I had not heard that anyone passed out from the Dementors either," Percy said arching an eyebrow
at his youngest brother.

"I heard Malfoy and his cronies laughing about it," Ron said which Harry knew was a lie for while
he and Draco were not great friends, at least yet, the blonde would no longer come up with a story
like that about him.

"Well then he needs to get his facts checked and you should know not to believe everything he
says," Harry said turning back to his meal.

"Oh come on Harry, Hermione wants to see you," Ron said placing a hand on his shoulder. As
Harry shrugged it off he felt a small tinge from the Slytherin Ring which he recognized as a
warning that some spell was being cast on him.

"Well she can see me later after all the feast is nearly ended," Harry said before turning back to the
Seventh years around him. "By the way Percy Congratulations on becoming the Head Boy. I hope
you can handle it."

"Handle it?" Percy asked confused.

"Well, I know your N.E.W.T.S. are this year so you will be studying for them as well as being one
of the top students in the castle I don't want to see you overwork yourself. Just remember to
delegate if you need to," Harry said giving Percy a somewhat shy smile.
"Thanks, Harry that is very kind of you," Percy said giving him a smile in return making the
butterflies in his gut feel like they had become a tornado.

Ron looked like he was about to say something but Dumbles got to his feet and gave a small cough
to signal his start of term announcements forcing his former friend to head back to the spot by
Hermione. As the man spoke Harry started to zone out a little at the same old messages, only to
snap his eyes open as he heard the new teachers. Hagrid and someone named Lupin, who he
guessed was the man sitting next to Professor Snape. Thinking back to his results he wondered if
the man was related to his living Godfather's Mate and made a mental note to ask him about it
when he got the chance. As Dumbles had them sing the school song Percy leaned down and gave
Harry the password to the Common Room so he could get in right away after they were dismissed
without waiting for a Prefect.

As soon as Dumbles finally let them go Harry left with the rest of the hoard of students and using
his knowledge gained from his late-night trips around the castle, as well as some passages ways
that seemed to appear as he got close to them, he was the first to come to the Fat Lady's Portrait
giving her the password Percy had given him. Rather than wait in the main Common Room for his
Housemates Harry rushed up to the now Third-Year male dorms and went inside. Seeing that his
bed was as usual between Ron and Neville's Harry called for a Hogwarts Elf. Rather than an Elf
with a Gryffindor crest on his uniform like what Narcissa told him would happen the Elf had a
Slytherin Crest. "How may Linka help you tonight Lord Slytherin?" the Elf asked with a slight
bow.

"Um hello, I was wondering if you could rearrange the beds so I am between those two?" Harry
asked pointing out his stuff before pointing out Dean and Seamus' belongings.

"It shall be done young Lord," Linka said snapping his fingers. "Are you aware that there are high-
level wards around your trunk young Lord?"

"I know Linka I had someone put it on so others may not go through my belongings," Harry said.

"I can help you with that as well young Lord," Linka said "I can put on a spell so that anytime you
touch them you will receive a report on who tried to access them, as well as making it that no one
else can shift the beds to how they were before."

"Thank you very much Linka," Harry said with a bow making the Elf beam at him before he
popped off. Harry then reached into his trunk and pulled out one of the books he had borrowed
from the Malfoy Family library, about famous Magicals from the time of Merlin and the Founders,
before heading back down to the Common Room.

Getting down there Harry saw people slowly coming into the room as he took a seat in one of the
back corners to start reading his book before Percy gave the start of term notices. He had learned
that in the other Houses, thanks to both Draco and Ernie, their Head of House gave these same
notices, but he guessed since Professor McGonagall was Head of Gryffindor House,
Transfiguration Professor, and Deputy Headmistress she could not find the time to do it herself.
As Harry read the book he felt something jump onto him making him peek over the cover to find a
large fluffy orange cat, that sort of reminded him of the comic strip cat Garfield, had curled up on
his legs. Not recognizing the cat, but knowing it had to belong to one of his classmates, possibly
bought over the summer Harry reached down and scratched its ears, producing a purr, as he went
back to his book. "Hey Harry I see you meet my new cat Crookshanks," Hermione said making
him look up from his book. He was actually surprised by this. Not only that she had gotten a cat,
but based on what happened when someone disturbed her reading that she would do it to him. He
gave a non-committal grunt before shifting his eyes back to his book and starting to read again only
for her to ask, "So have a good Summer?"

"Hermione I am trying to read before Percy gives the announcements for the year," he said sort of
wishing he could adopt her own tactics against her and using his book as a bludgeon on her.

"Yeah but we have not seen each other for the whole Summer," she said pulling a seat over to him
"I was surprised that I did not see you in Diagon Alley."

Harry shut his book with a somewhat loud smack and gave her a small glare. "Considering that you
get angry anytime Ron, or anyone else talks to you while you read you would think that you would
not talk to someone else as they are in the middle of reading," Harry said noticing some nods from
some of the people around him who had looked over as he snapped his book shut.

"Well that is because I read for our school work Harry," she said seeming off-put by his statement.

"Oh, I am sorry if my reading for my own enjoyment is not the same as it for you reading for your
homework. Merlin knows you have to be well-read so you can basically copy the material of the
book for your homework," Harry said glaring at her as he gently moved her cat off his lap before
leaving his seat. Hermione started to follow but the crowd closed up behind him as they let him
through to get away from her.

This time he headed towards where the Twins and Lee Jordan were sitting as the twins told about
trying to trap Ron in one of the tombs. Harry laughed at that as he sat down and greeted the three
as he was pulled into a tight hug by the twins. "Must say Harrikins loving your new look."

"Thanks, Fred," Harry said earning him a smile from both twins being one of the few people who
could tell them apart. Which granted did include the other members of the Gryffindor Team, Lee
Jordan, and Percy but that was about it in the House. He knew it sort of irked the twins that last
year Ron, Ginny, or even Hermione had been unable to tell which twin was which. "I must say it
was back luck that your plan did not succeed," Harry said giving them a smile making Lee let out a
laugh as George pulled him in and giving him a playfully noogie. George stopped as Percy got
everyone's attention and gave the start of term notices such as Wood still being the Quidditch
Captain and was trying to schedule time on the pitch for their first practice. To Harry's shock Percy
actually brought up Ginny's suspension, though that could be to explain her absence for those who
had not heard about it. There were some gasps as Percy told everyone the suspension had to do
with failure to report a cursed object with a reminder that if anyone found such a thing to let one of
the staff know about it right away.

As Percy sent them all to bed so that everyone would be well-rested for their first day of classes
Harry went to his dorms smiling as he got his sleep clothing out of his trunk and began to change.
"Nice new clothing Harry," Dean said who was now the bed on his left.
"Thanks, I got them over the summer and finally got rid of the circus tent that was my Cousin's old
clothing," Harry said slipping into the satin sleepwear Narcissa and Lucius had helped him pick
out when he started staying with them.

"Thank Merlin, those things looked sickening I was always afraid you would catch something from
them," Seamus said as he slipped on his own sleep clothing which had patterns of the Irish
National Quidditch team on them.

"Tell me about it I am just glad I did not get sick when I burned them," Harry said making Dean
and Seamus laugh.

"What's going on who moved our beds?" Ron asked as he stepped into the room to find that he was
on the opposite side of the room's heater from Harry's bed, between Dean and Neville's beds.

"How would we know it was like this when we got up here," Dean said rolling his eyes.

"Yeah maybe Hogwarts decided that since we are in our Third-Year it would change things up a
little," Harry said hiding a smirk as he climbed into his bed and picked up where he left off in his
book. When Ron would not stop grumbling and basically begging Dean to change beds with him
Harry just rolled his eyes and closed the hangings around his bed before dong a low-level Warding
spell which would block out all the noise from the room as he could finally read his book in peace.

The next morning feeling well-rested since he had not stayed up late with Ron as his former friend
liked to do the day before their first classes for some reason. Harry got out of bed and quickly
dressed in his school robes leaving the room without bothering to wake up Ron at all as he headed
down to breakfast. Sitting with Dean and Seamus, Harry was a little shocked to learn that just like
Ernie, Seamus' Mum was a member of the Hogwarts' Governors. Seamus told them about the vote
to suspend Ginny, which according to his mom had been rather close and suspension had just
barely beat out her getting expelled. Harry had to bite his lip a little to not laugh at the thought of
the girl getting expelled for what had been done to him with the Eros Blade spell as well as the
"Singing Valentines" from last year. As the three were talking Hermione came into the hall half-
dragging an annoyed Ron behind her as the pair sat in the last open spots on the table, which were
thankfully far away from Harry, Seamus, and Dean.

As Professor McGonagall handed him his schedule Harry looked at it with a small scowl seeing
that he was still down for Care of Magical Creatures and Divinations. "Um, Professor didn't you
get my message saying I was dropping these classes and taking up Ancient Runes and
Arithmancy?" Harry asked pointing at the classes on the schedule.

"I did not but it is too late now the last day to change classes was a week ago," she said sharply as
she handed Dean and Seamus their schedules.

"Professor Flitwick, did you get my message about them?" Harry asks as the Charms Master
moved past handing out his own Houses schedules at the next table.

"I did Harry though I could not figure out why you were sending the message to me through the
bank," Flitwick said looking over at him.

"I did it just in case this happened," Harry said showing him his timetables.

"Ah, I see," the Charms Master said "very prudent of you I assume you sent one to Professor
McGonagall as well?"

"I actually sent one to each Head of House not sure whose permission I would need to approve the
change. And just to be on the safe side I also sent you two one through my Account Manager and
the other through the normal post," Harry explained.

"How very interesting," Professor Flitwick said "I will have to check on that, but in the meantime
hand over your schedule and I will fix it for you."

"Now Filius just a moment," Professor McGonagall said as Harry handed his document to the Head
of Ravenclaw who tapped it with his wand to fix it.

"He sent the message to us almost a month ago which is in the proper timeline to change courses
Minerva, it is not our fault that we did not receive them. It is just a good thing he sent out more
than one request form in various ways," Professor Flitwick said as Harry bowed to him in thanks.

"I have no issue with that Filius. I was more thinking that as his Head of House I should also be
involved in looking for the reason I did not receive his notice," Professor McGonagall said. The
two Heads decided to look into it together as they passed out the rest of their students' timetables.

Looking down Harry saw that he had Arithmancy first thing in a classroom on the sixth floor west
side of the castle. Saying goodbye to both Dean and Seamus who were both taking Divinations
Harry made his way to his new class. Despite heading out as soon as he got his schedule he was not
the first to arrive as he noticed a familiar blond head of hair sitting at one of the seats. Harry had
known Draco was taking this class due to their talks over the Summer he just wished he knew who
else was going to take it. By the people Draco was sitting with there were at least three Slytherins,
besides Draco, but there was a scattering of Huffelpuffs and Ravenclaws as well. Knowing that
Hermione had shown interest in the class Harry decided to sit among the Slytherin students to
hopefully ward the pest away from him. As he sat down he got an arched eyebrow from Blaise
Zabini and Millicent Bulstrode, while the last Slytherin, Theodore Nott II did not even seem to
notice him with his head already in the class book. Giving Draco a gesture the pair had come up
with over the Summer to say "Hello" Harry also took out the coursebook and waited for class to
begin.
 Star Wars and Bogarts
Chapter Summary

Harry's first day of classes of his Third-Year.

Chapter Notes

I used the class schedule for Harry for Thursday as shown in

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/588233-third-year--
schedules#:~:text=THIRD%20YEAR%20SCHEDULE%20Number%28s%29%20before%20each%20cla
4%20Charms%20Friday%3A%201-2%20Potions for reference

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Ignoring the looks most of the class was giving him Harry took the seat behind Theodore both for
him being the only Slytherin, beside Draco, who had not reacted to him coming over and the hopes
that his larger size would hide him from Hermione if she ended up taking the class. As Harry
waited for the Professor to come along to start the class he pulled out one of the three-course books
and began to peruse it one-handedly while bringing out a notebook and some quills. When the
Professor, who introduced herself as Septima Vector, came in she called the class to order right
away informing everyone of them that as her class was more intellectually bent than most at the
school they usually would not require their wands. Professor Vector then explained how she would
be grading their homework, most of which she assured them would be projects they could do by
themselves or in a group of no more than groups of five.

She was just handing out her class syllabus which showed what topics they would be covering for
the month when the door opened and Hermione walked in. Most of the students arched their
eyebrows at her while Professor Vector told her off for being tardy, however, Hermione did not
even seem to take offense at being told off as she saw Harry in the room. After being told to take a
seat the bushy-haired Witch started towards Harry only to take in who he was sitting next to and
angle towards the area by the Ravenclaws. As Professor Vector finished with her introduction she
gave them all a simple worksheet to do where they had to use Arithmancy, with help from the first
chapter of their books, to set up a ritual circle permitting them to work in groups if they wished.

As everyone got started Hermione got out of her seat and came over, "Why don't you join me
Harry after all we are the only two Gryffindors here, plus you will need my help to pass the class."

"Yeaaaaaah, I am gonna have to have a hard pass at that Hermione," Harry said.

"What why?" she asked seeming startled by his refusal, as were Blaise, and Millicent.

Harry really wanted to bring up what he found out over the Summer but knew it would put
Dumbles and the other bastards in his life on the edge, so he said "I know we spend a lot of time
together but I think I need to make some friends in the other Houses. You know for when we leave
Hogwarts."

"But that is still years away," she said as if he was an idiot.

"True but as the old saying goes it is never too early to start," Harry said as he turned away and
tapped Theodore on his shoulder.

"Um yes?" Theodore asked turning around.

"Do you want to work together on this?" Harry asked knowing it would really irk the Witch off as
Theodore and she was always ranked in the top spots of their year.

"You want to work with me? Why?" Theodore said arching an eyebrow as if expecting some sort
of prank from Harry.

"No reason just thought it would go faster," Harry said with a nod of his head showing that most of
the other students in the class were working in groups as well.

"Very well, but if you hold me back I will end it," Theodore said.

"I would have it no other way," Harry said before looking up at his former friend "is there
something you need Hermione if not let us work." The bushy-haired Witch grunted annoyance as
she headed back to her seat to start on her own form.

Harry actually had a great time working on the measurements of the runic circle with Theodore,
who told him to call him Theo. It seems without both the Intelligence Dampening Potions and not
caring if he out-performed Hermione, he had no issue with the work. So despite the pair of them
starting after all but Hermione they were the first to get their work done. As Professor Vector
informed them earlier that if they worked in groups she would cast a charm on any group projects
handed in to make sure the members were pulling their share of the work. When they handed it
over to them she smiled seeing they had both had done near equal work, though Theo had done a
bit more having written everything down so it would be more legible, and gave them a passing
grade for the day. As there was still a few minutes before the class got over with Harry asked about
the book Theo had been reading before class, since it had not looked like a coursebook. Theo had
blushed as he pulled out a well-read copy of Star Wars Heir of the Empire. To say Harry was
shocked would be putting it mildly as he looked at the Muggle book the other was reading. He of
course knew about Star Wars but had never had a chance to see any of the movies or read any of
the books and comics about it, and Hogwarts was not a place he would have expected to run into it.
"Is it a good book?" he asked as Theo put it away.

"I guess, I mostly read it for the villain of the series reminds me of Sherlock Holmes," Theo said
with a shrug. "Also the last book in the series just came out so I started to reread the others two
before starting it."

"Do you read other Muggle books?" Harry asked making Theo actually scoff at him.

"As if the world of literature is divided into Muggle books and non-Muggle books. I know most
families have large selections of books written by Muggles that they will read for fun," Theo said
which confused Harry who had not come across any in Malfoy Manor but of course, he had spent
most of his time in only one of the seven libraries of the place.

"I guess that makes sense," Harry admitted, "does Hogwarts also have some I have always wanted
to see what the fuss was all about Star Wars."

"You never read or watch Star Wars, but I thought you lived with Muggles," Theo said with his
turn at being shocked.

"Yeah and treated like a House Elf," Harry said.

"Not sure if Madam Pince has any of the books from the Universe but I will write home for my
dad or Granddad to send me a copy. No one should not know Star Wars," Theo said as the bell
rang to end the class. Harry offered him a quick thanks, giving a quick sign to Draco as he headed
to Transfigurations.

Harry was glad that he had somehow lost Hermione on the way to class as he entered most of his
classmates already there. As it was a plain Gryffindor-only class he was the last person to enter
seeing Hermione somehow having beaten him to the room and was now sitting next to a scared-
looking Ron. Just a month ago he would have asked what was wrong with him but instead just
headed to one of the empty seats in the room by Dean and Seamus. It seems the entire class was
distracted as Professor McGonagall performed some spell which amazed Harry but the others did
not even seem to notice in the slightest. Asking about it Parvati mention that the rest of the class
had come from Divinations. Professor shocked everyone as she asked who was going to die, which
Harry thought was a little harsh for how casual she had said it. She then explained that the
Professor from the class would always start the class by predicting one of the student's death a
year. In Harry's mind, her explanation seemed to show that whoever was teaching the class was as
big as a fraud and Lockhart making him glad he had dropped it. However, the rest of the class was
unconvinced as Parvati whispered to Lavender something about Neville and a cup. If Harry had to
guess based on Neville's history the teacher had guessed Neville would break a glass or something
and it had happened which had "proven she could see the future." Harry wanted to roll his eyes but
rather just got back to the lesson.

After Transfiguration Harry situated himself in between Dean and Seamus as they headed down to
Potion. For the first time since his first Potions class, Harry did not have any trepidation making his
way down to the dungeons. He was the only Gryffindor feeling that way he soon left the others to
fall behind going as slowly as they could to put off the time with Professor Snape and the
Slytherins. Thus Harry was alone as he walked past a blank stretch of wall and his ring glowed.
Stopping in place, he wondered why the ring was glowing when he suddenly realized he was at the
hidden entrance to the Slytherin Common Rooms. Recalling Salazar mention that he would be able
to access portions of the castle without Passwords he wondered if he could enter the Common
Room itself. He almost checked it out raising his hand towards the wall only for the sound of his
trailing classmates to reach his ears. Quickly lowering his hand Harry hurried on to the classroom
with his left hand safely hidden in his robes to hide the glow.

Entering the classroom and seeing that the Slytherin students were already there Harry made his
way over to one of their tables to once more not sit by his former friends. It was only after he had
sat down did he realize that he was once more sitting beside Theo, Draco, and Blaise. "Again
Potter?" Draco said in an annoyed voice that Harry was sure would not fool anyone since the
blonde had called him Potter other than "Potty" that he normally would call him

"Hey I meant what I said in Arithmancy about spreading my wings and making friends in Houses
other than Gryffindor, Malfoy," Harry said loud enough that the Slytherins who had not been in the
class with them would know why he was seated next to his nominal school rival.

"Very well, but don't expect us to fawn over you or help you with your Potions," Draco said with a
board-sounding drawl.

"Like I could trust you to give the proper help you would tell me the wrong thing just so I would
ruin my Potion," Harry shot back hiding a small twinkle in his eye.

"As if you need my help with that," Draco said with an answering twinkle.

"Oh would you two just knock it off already," Theo said in an exasperated voice rubbing the bridge
of his nose. "Draco if you don't stop I will no longer help you in History of Magic, and Harry
though I don't really interact with you if you keep it up you can forget about borrowing A New
Hope."

Draco and Harry pretended to hesitate for a moment before they gave in and quickly shook each
other's hand as Theo gave a sharp nod of approval and Blaise looked on in shock as if he had just
witnessed a miracle. Truth be told Harry and Draco had been trying to think of a way for them to
look as if they buried the hatchet in front of everyone; they just had not expected it to happen so
soon. As Harry and Draco ended the handshake and brought their hands back to their sides the
members of Harry's House finally entered the room and looked on in shock to see him sitting
beside Theo across from Draco and Blaise. Through their shock was nothing compared to when
Professor Snape entered the room to see Harry sitting with his Snakes rather than his fellow Lions.

For the entire lesson, Professor Snape did not seemed to know how to treat Harry, though Harry
was not sure if that was based on his new look or where he was sitting. In the end the Potions
Master ended up acting as if the seat where Harry was at was vacant like it normally was making
Harry shoot a look at Draco who gave him his usual superior smirk having guessed that would be
the man's reaction. Harry also found that without Snape breathing down his next, or the Slytherins
messing with his work, something that Draco informed him they would often do during a
conversation the pair had at Malfoy Manor, Harry was actually able to produce the desired results
of the day's assignment. Once more Professor Snape surprised Harry by not taking points off
accusing him of cheating off of his tablemates but just marked it down with an EE, the highest
grade Harry had ever received in the class.

Harry was looking forward to the afternoon, as he left the Potions class since after lunch all he had
was D.A.D.A before having the rest of the day off as the Study of Ancient Runes did not meet until
tomorrow right after lunch. Harry had thought about packing his bag slowly letting his former
friends leave before he did but saw them also going slowly evidently waiting for him. Changing
tactics Harry finished packing in a hurry as he walked up to the Great Hall with the Slytherins
asking Theo about Star Wars. As they walked Harry realized he had never really heard the tall
pale-skinned male speak that much. For though just like Blaise the pair were considered, at least
among his fellow Third-Year Housemates, part of Draco's "gang" neither boy had joined in teasing
or bullying the other students as Crabbe and Goyle did. Harry found Theo's voice quite nice just a
tad low and clipped but also formal making him think of Percy when he was explaining the rules to
someone, usually the twins, in the Common Room. Harry was almost disappointed to say goodbye
as they reached the Great Hall for lunch. Spotting the twins and Lee Jordan already at the table
Harry made a beeline towards them and without even asking the twins made a space between them
for him to sit.

"So young Harry how are your electives going?" Fred asked.

"It is going fine," Harry said making himself a plate of food of two, foot-long hot dogs in buns and
some ranch flavored chips.

"Oh don't tell me old Trelawney picked you as this year's death?" George asked.

"Who?" he asked

"I thought you were taking Divinations with Ron and Hermione?" Fred asked a spoon of the soup
he was having halfway to his mouth.

"Oh no I dropped that class before school started and took Arithmancy," Harry said causing the
three Fifth-Year students to let out low whistles as he wondered about Hermione taking Divinations
since she had been in class with him that morning.

"Well hope you do better at it than we did," Lee Jordan said "the three of us barely lasted a month
before we had to drop the class based on how tough the classwork was.

"I don't see myself having a problem I always did well in Maths back at in my Muggle school and
the assignment for today my partner and I got the only O in class," Harry said making the three
mouths fall open in shock.

"Good on you Harry," George said slapping Harry on the back. "But if you think that is good wait
until you have your Defense class."

"Why," Harry asked as he took a sip of his drink.

"Well for one Professor Lupin is actually competent, and for another well, we don't want to ruin
the surprise," Fred said raising an eyebrow at Harry's reaction to the Professor's name.

The only downside of lunch was while Harry sat between the twins and Lee was across the table
from them when Ron and Hermione showed up they sat next to Lee. Ron started to complain about
Professor Trelawney finding the Grimm in his teacup. Having no idea what that even meant but
guessing, by the twins and Lee's expressions that it meant Ron was this year's student who was
going to die, Harry just ignored the other boy. To his slight surprise, Hermione did not ask about
Ron's problem not being in the class as well. in fact she did not mention anything about their class
either. Which Harry saw as a good thing for it meant she was not getting on his case for getting the
O with Theo while she had only managed an EE.

After about only ten minutes of non-stop complaining, unless one counted the moments Ron was
shoveling food into his mouth as if it was about to disappear from the table Harry had had enough
so he pulled his bag onto his shoulder and left the Hall heading up to the D.A.D.A. classroom.
Though as he got closer he realized he could also use his early arrival to ask Professor Lupin if he
had any siblings which might be his Godfather's spouse only to find the man was not there. At least
on the upside, the man had kept the single desk arrangement like Lockhart had set up the room
rather than the small tables from under "Quirrellemort." Granted that would do nothing to stop Ron
and Hermione from sitting next to him it would offer some space between them. As an added
precaution Harry took the seat in the front row at the end so he could only be blocked to the side of
his non-writing arm and the back. If it was another class he might have sat in the back row to
prevent say Ron from sitting behind him and kicking his chair, but he actually liked Defense
Against the Dark Arts even after the two horrible teachers they had had so far in the subject.

As he had predicted Ron took the seat behind him and Hermione to his left when they entered the
room before the class started. Thankfully they were barely sitting five minutes, which Harry was
able to avoid any conversation as he pulled out one of his Arithmancy books and looking through it
until Professor Lupin showed up. After quickly greeting the class he had them put all but their
wands away and follow him out of the room. For once Ron and Hermione did not act like pests as
they along with everyone else wondered what was going on. Professor Lupin just smiled at them as
he leads the group to the teacher's lounge and had a quick and terse talk with Professor Snape
before the man left. The Potions Master once more gave Harry a strange look as if not sure what to
do about him any longer as he left making Harry miss a little as Lupin tried to build Neville's
confidence. Telling the class they would be facing a Boggart which after hearing about what it was
made Harry sure it was the inspiration to the Muggle boogeyman. Without really paying his full
attention Harry was able to answer one of the questions the Professor put to him about the creature
before they were told to think about what scared them the most.

For less than five seconds Harry thought about Voldemort, but that was soon replaced by Dumbles
who himself lasted just under ten seconds. Harry decided what he really feared was disappointing
his father and losing the three family rings that had rejected him. Sure he felt as if they were being
a little unfair since he had no control of getting hit by the spells or douse by the Potions he had
been under, but he knew they were acting on old family Magic, according to Narcissa, which failed
to take into account his special circumstances. It was still a scary thought that he would let his
father and the other Rings down but he could not figure out how to make them less "scary" besides
proving his worth. Something he did not want to show in front of a class that contained two maybe
three of Dumbles's pawns.

Thankfully when it was his turn and the Bogart started to change forms from the Mummy who had
found both their feet wrapped together Professor Lupin leaped forward to become the next person
the Boggart focused on. As the class looked around his Boggart was spotted as an orb floating just
above his head. When Professor Lupin cast his spell in a board voice Harry was confused why the
others felt that the item had been a crystal ball when it was obviously a representation of the moon.
After all how many crystal balls floated above one's head and had what looked like clouds around
it. At his spell, the Boggart was sent back into the wardrobe from whence it came so that the other
four Houses could tackle it before the Professor let them go. As Harry was the only student who
did not have to rush off to his next class, with this one being his last one for the day, he stayed
behind to talk to the Professor.
 "If you are wondering why I got in your way Harry I just did not think it would have been a good
idea for Lord Voldemort to appear within the school grounds," Professor Lupin said once the pair
of them were alone in the room. Harry was slightly shocked to find that the man actually said the
Dark Lord's chosen name rather than He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named or some such thing.

"Actually he was not the thing I felt scared me the most, and I had not come up with a way to face
it, at least one that I wanted to show everyone," Harry said making the man give him an odd look.

"Than what is it Harry?" he asked.

"Do you have a sibling or cousin perchance?" Harry asked.

"Um, not really I am an only child and all my cousins are Muggles like my father had been before
finding out he could do magic. Why do you ask?" the man asked.

"Well before school started I got an Inheritance Test and it listed my Godfather as Sirius Lupin-
Black so I was wondering if he was your brother-in-law or something," Harry said seeing the
shocked look on the man's face. "Well if he is married to one of your Muggle cousins or something
you can let them know that according to my results he was wrongfully imprisoned," Harry said
before he left the stunned man alone in the room.

As he left Harry, he was unaware of the battle going on inside the mind of his newest D.A.D.A.
Professor. For the man knew the only person that his old friend could have married to gain the
name Lupin was himself, but he had no memory of ever getting married at all. He also marveled at
the fact that Harry had stated Sirius had been wrongfully imprisoned though the only way that
could be possible was if Peter had betrayed Lily and James. Biting his lip a little he wondered if
someone had somehow placed some enchantments on him despite how hard it was to cast them on
a Werewolf. Though of course, it was only hard not impossible, and as the old Professor who
helped him gain his Mastery in D.A.D.A. liked to say, "With Magic, even the Impossible becomes
Possible and Hard is nothing but a walk in the park." Deciding the next chance he got he would go
in for his own test Remus Lupin headed back to his classroom for his next class.

Chapter End Notes

If you could not guess at the moment I am leaning towards a Theo/Harry pairing not
tagging it as of yet so I can build their relationship a little.
 Blood Traitors and the Slytherin Alarm System
Chapter Summary

Harry enters the Slytherin dorms and learns some facts about the Magical World.

As he had no class for the rest of the day Harry decided to go test to see if he could actually get
into the Slytherin Common Room without knowing the password, or if his ring had just glowed to
let him know where it was located. Thinking that most students would have a class now, such as
Draco who was taking Care of Magical Creatures using the book Harry had gotten for his birthday,
Harry headed down to the dungeons. Reaching the wall in which the Slytherin Dorms used as an
entrance his ring began to glow again. Working from the memory of last year Harry put his hand
on the wall. As he laid his hand flat on the stone the Slytherin flashed green and Harry once more
found himself before Salazar.

"Testing out the family ring already?" Salazar asked with a slight smile.

"Yes for you told me earlier that I could access Slytherin parts of the school without having to use
passwords, so I was checking to see if the ring's glow is just pointing out such spots or if it is also
the key to them," Harry said simply.

"Very well reasoned Harry, also you do not need to worry about the glow, as I sense you have
doubts about in your mind, only you and anyone you chose to can see the glow at all," Salazar
explained. "Now are you sure you want to go into the dorms there will be no going back from
this?"

"I am sure after all from the way Ronald and Dumbles speak they tend to easily make enemies of
your Noble House so where better to get some allies," Harry said as he once more spotted a flash of
the Golden Gryffindor Lordship ring before it vanished. Rather than answering Salazar used one
hand to tap his walking stick on the floor while he snapped the fingers of the other making the fake
wall open up to let Harry inside.

Harry had barely passed the threshold when he saw that unlike what he had thought would be an
empty room held several older years as well as Blaise and Theo. Harry bit his lip knowing not to
show any weakness as he walked deeper into the room as bold as brass. "Potter?" Marcus Flint
asked crossing his arms over his chest right below both his Slytherin Quidditch Captain and
Prefects Badges. "Now how in Morgana's sagging sports bra did you manage to get into this room
without setting off any alarms?"

"Alarms?" Harry asked confused recalling no alarms going off last time when he and Ron had
snuck in under the Polyjuice Potion.

"Yes alarms, Potter, you know the kind that goes off if a student enters a dormitory that is not
theirs. Now stop playing dumb and answer the question," Marcus ordered cracking his knuckles
menacingly.
"First off I am not playing dumb I never knew about any sort of alarm like that. And secondly as to
how I got in," Harry said with a smile as he lifts his left hand and shows off the Slytherin Lordship
ring.

"Holy Milking Sith," Theo ejaculates as the whole Slytherin House went silent at the sight of their
Founder's ring on the Gyrffindor's Golden boy.

"Rightly put," Marcus said running a hand over his forehead. "So you really are Slytherin's Heir?"

"Only by conquest and I only found it out this last summer," Harry said slowly lowering his ring.
"Would that prevent the alarms from going off?"

"It would since as the Heir or Lord of Slytherin this would be considered part of your domain in the
school," Marcus said seeming to be in a state of shock that prevented him from even thinking about
lying.

"Um, would the alarm go off if I was not wearing the ring or say under the influence of Polyjuice?"
Harry asked.

"That was oddly specific why do you ask?" Theo said who seemed to be the only one beside
Marcus who seemed to be able to process Harry's new position.

"Well last year when everyone thought I was Slytherin's Heir I and a former friend snuck into here
under a Polyjuice Potion.

"Alright first of all not everyone thought you were the Heir, no one here ever believed it, which is
why they all seemed to have trouble with it now," Theo said the last part in a whisper as he
indicated everyone else in the room. "As for being under a Polyjuice Potion if you had not been the
Heir, yeah the alarms would have gone off as soon as you entered, but as it were you were not only
able to pass but bring Weasley in as well."

"How did you know I meant him?" Harry asked giving the other boy a searching look.

"Elementary my dear, Harry," Theo said making several of the students roll their eyes at him
making Harry think he was witnessing a normal event from the normally quiet boy.

"Seeing how you have reacted to Ronald so far this term, as you went out of your way to sit with
Draco, Blaise, and myself, plus the fact the cold shoulder you gave him at the opening feast makes
it easy to spot that you had a falling out with both him and Granger."

"Remarkable," Harry said impressed.

"Child's play," Theo said waving away the complement though Harry noticed with a slight blush
and beginnings of a smile. "It was also easy to spot that you and Draco had become sort of
friendlier towards each other based on the looks he sent you during the feast and how quickly you
both accepted to shake hands and makeup during Potions earlier." At each statement, Harry nodded
along showing that the almost six-foot-tall Third-Year was correct.

"While that is all rather interesting why did you come here in the first place?" Marcus asked to
hope to end more of Theo's analyst over Harry's relationships.

"Well when Slytherin's ring accepted me I was informed that it would allow me to have access to
Slytherin parts of the castle without trouble and I wanted to test it out," Harry explained.

"Fascinating, but wouldn't you find it easier to do the same with the Gryffindor ring since the
Potter line is derived from it?" Theo asked. Harry wanted to know how the other boy knew that,
based on startled looks from the others in the room showed that it was not common knowledge, but
instead shared his story of what he had learned over the summer as well as the three family rings
rejecting him based on what had been done to him. Many of the Slytherins believed the Potter ring
had acted too harshly since being raised by Muggles he would never have had access to his own
Vaults, and when he did he had been closely watched by those who were betraying him. And while
they disliked how the Gryffindor ring reacted they did see it having some small point in getting
angry at Harry turning over such a priceless artifact from the House to the Headmaster.

"So let me get this straight," Blaise said after Harry had finished his story, "the Potter ring said
YOU can not rely on the Goblins but what about a secondary party working through the Goblins?"
Harry was not sure so he rubbed the Slytherin ring in hopes of some form of confirmation or
denial.

When he saw in his Mind's Eye Salazar smiling and nodding at him he said, "That could work but
who would want to do something like that?" To his surprise, almost every person in the room
raised their hands. "What why?"

"Well to think a Muggleborn, and several Blood traitors stealing from a Noble family is just
sickening," Theo explained.

"Not all the Weasleys did it," Harry pointed out.

"Wow, the Headmaster did not want you to know anything about our world did he?" Marcus asked
shaking his head with a look of shock. "While Ron and that banshee of a Mother of his like to say
their whole family is blood traitors it is in truth just a few of them. The Twins, Headboy Percy,
their older brothers do not have that stigma attached to them. Mr. Weasley has only a partial stigma
attached to him since he utterly refuses to take up the Position as Lord Weasley letting his upstart
second-cousin hold the position."

"Why does that matter?" Harry asked getting rather into this having never really learned what was
the direct cause of the Blood Traitor stigma.

"Well, his second-cousin in hopes of holding onto the position of Lord Weasley tires to besmirch
Arthur's name in the vain hope that it would prevent Arthur from taking the role from him. Not
that it would work for if he wanted to Arthur could easily claim the position which would make
the current head into the real Blood Traitor, but from what you said Arthur might not take it to keep
the power and money of being Lord Weasley away from his wife and two youngest kids," Marcus
stated.

"So how are Fred, George, Percy, and the others not considered Blood Traitors while Ron, Ginny,
and Molly are?" Harry asked as he moved to one of the chairs in the room tired of just standing in
place during this whole conversation.
"Well, let's see, I believe Molly earned her status as a Blood Traitor when she got pregnant with
Arthur's kid while they were still in school thus forcing him to break a Marriage Contract with the
Greengrass Family," Blaise said.

"Wait if the contract was broken by Percy's eldest brother why was Mr. Weasley not given the
status as well? Harry asked looking around at everyone.

"Well when a contract is broken it also shows if one or more of the people involved were under the
influence of any spells or Potions," Marcus said "from what I recall hearing about it as my mother
gossiped about it at a party a few years ago. Mr. Weasley had been under a love potion which had
led him to produce the child with Molly, now if he had left her and the child everything would
have been fine, but he could not bear to leave his son alone so had agreed to marry her. From what
my mother had shared at the party, every couple of years after the child's birth she would douse
Arthur with another potion to produce another child evidently thinking he would come to love
her." Harry recalled the time he had spent at the Burrow the summer before last and in hindsight
saw that while Mr. Weasley loved his children there was some tenseness between him and his
"wife."

"Another reason Molly, Ron, and Ginny have earned the stigma as Blood Traitors is their turning
back on our old customs for even without Arthur being the Lord of the house the rest of his kids
pay tribute during all the major holidays and have made pledged themselves to the House of
Weasley. Molly and your two former friends have not, following our Dear Headmaster's belief in
getting rid of the rituals and pledges for a more "equal" society." Theo said using finger quotes as
he said "equal."

"Wouldn't that make me a Blood Traitor as well since I have never taken part in any of the rituals
or pledged myself to my House?" Harry asked a hint of worry in his voice.

"Not actually," Theo said gently "since you were Muggle raised some exceptions are given to you
until you are of age. Also as a Lord of a House, you do not pledge to it you control it."

"I guess that makes sense," Harry said nodding when suddenly an alarm went off.

Thinking of what Marcus had said when he had first entered the room he turns to look at the
entrance but saw no one there. Rather all the students in the dorms had become tense as they turned
to look at a small desk in the corner as a Quill without a hand holding it wrote something down
before it returned to an inkwell. Marcus used his wand to summon the sheet over to him and
quickly read it to himself before turning to Blaise and Theo. "Draco has been sent to the Hospital
Wing you two better get going."
Without a word, Blaise and Theo got up and rushed out of the room, as Harry followed them
wanting to make sure Draco was alright.

"What was all that about I thought the alarm rang if someone from a different House entered?"
Harry asked as he caught up to the other two, who due to their larger sizes were moving quicker
than he was. Theo looked around before nodding to Blaise as he pulled Harry into a nearby empty
classroom.
"You are correct about an alarm being raised if an intruder enters the dorms but due to how
Slytherin students are treated by several people in the Castle ever since the Headmaster had come
to this school spouting how evil our House is. At the start of each year, the Head of House cast a
spell that lets us know if anything happens to a member of the House which lands them in the
Hospital Wing, apart from Quidditch injuries.

"That sounds like a good idea," Harry said receiving a sad smile from Theo.

"You do get I am only telling you this due to you being Slytherin's Heir right. This is not to be
spread around for some students might look for a way to bypass the spell and attack us out in the
main school. It is also for this "fear" of attack," Theo said once more finger quoting on the word
"fear" before he continued "that has Professor Snape tell us to always travel in groups as we go
about the castle."

"That is horrible that people do that," Harry said recalling last year when students had sent curses
and jinxes his way whenever he traveled alone and was out of sight of a teacher.

"I have a feeling you know of that yourself," Theo said making another observation.

"I do and don't worry I will keep this to myself no one should fear just going to class or walking
around the castle," Harry said getting a nod and another smile from the dark-haired boy, which to
his slight surprise made butterflies flutter in his stomach like when Percy smiled at him. Doing his
best to prevent a blush from forming Harry nodded to the door to signal they should get moving.

Arriving at the Hospital Wing Harry saw that all the Third-Year Slytherins were waiting in the
room as Madam Pomfrey worked on, who he assumed, was Draco behind some curtains. Beside
Blaise the gathered students gave him a weary look as he entered the hall right beside Theo. Pansy
gave him a quick once over before she said with a dark tone,

"You can leave now Potty just cause your Blood Traitor friend told you about Draco does not give
you the right to come and laugh at him just caused you skipped the class."

"First of all Ron can jump into a boiling cauldron of poison ivy and frog livers, secondly I did not
skip the class I had dropped it, and finally I would never laugh at someone's pain no matter how I
feel about them," Harry said not even raising his voice.

"Yeah right Potty being all noble and everyone's friend, get lost," Pansy sneered.

"Drop it, Pansy," Theo said sharply making the pug-nosed girl goggle at him.

"Oh does Theo have a little crush on the Boy-Who-Lived?" she asked in a mocking tone.

"You know my preferences Pansy, and Harry is correct he did not learn it from Ronald he was with
Blaise and me when the message came through," Theo said quelling the girl with a look through
making some of the other gathered students start when he mentioned the message. Harry had a
feeling they would have asked for some more information if they were not gathered in the Hospital
Wing. Harry himself could not help but wonder what Theo had meant by "his preferences" but did
not want to ask it leaving the group just standing around in awkward silence waiting for the Matron
to finish working on Draco.

It took Madam Pomfrey almost a full twenty minutes, from when Theo and Harry entered, for her
to finish up with Draco and let them all come forward to see him. She did arch her eyebrow at
seeing Harry in the group but made no mention of it as she headed back to her office to give them
all some privacy with the blonde boy. "How are you doing Drackypoo?" Pansy asked in such a
love-sick voice it was all Harry could do not to start laughing as he saw Theo and Blaise roll their
eyes at her.

"I am fine, well not really but it was not my bloody fault," Draco said giving them all a series look.
As Pansy moved to fluff his pillow she sent Harry a look as if she expected him to start making fun
of what had happened to him.

"So how did you get hurt?" Harry asked.

"It was that former friend of yours complaining that you were not in class doing a perfect imitation
of his mother," Draco said as everyone looked at Harry to see his reaction to the dig at Ron.

"And his shrill voice caused the creature to attack you?" Harry asked.

"Well, no but he made it hard to hear "Professor" Hagrid as he told the class that the creatures we
were working with were proud beings who answer any insult with deadly force. And when he
called for volunteers no one stepped forward, though more than a few stepped back leading to my
being chosen. It was all going well, I bowed and got a bow in return and was just petting the
hippogriff when I accidentally insulted it leading it to slash open my arm," Draco said holding up
his arm in a cast, which thankfully was not his wand or writing hand.

"I am so glad I decided to drop that class you know I did tell you it would not be worth it," Harry
said shocking the Slytherins which had not come from their Common Room.

"And I told you I need the class so I can become a Wand Maker, just cause you thought taking up
Warding would be fun does not mean I would," Draco said making Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle
goggle at seeing the pair's almost playful banter. Which only increased as Draco's parents entered
the hall and actually greeted Harry with smiles on their faces.

"Draco how could you have done something so unintelligent?" his father asked.

"It was not my fault I did not hear all the instructions or even volunteer myself to meet the
creatures," Draco shot back to his father.

"Draco honey why are you in a cast your arm should have been easily healed," Narcissa asked as
Lucius threw an arm around Harry's shoulders to not overcrowd Draco on the bed who was being
looked at by her.

"Madam Pomfrey said that a hippogriff's talons sometimes have a paralyzing agent on them so just
until she can make sure it did no lasting damage to me she is making me wear the cast," Draco said
with a slight shrug.

"Very well but just make sure you drink plenty of orange juice to replenish as well as eating foods
with high concentrations of vitamin E and iron," Narcissa said finishing her quick examination of
him.

"I know Mother," Draco said somehow pulling off a bored and happy tone at her overbearingness
when it came to his health.

"And I know you know but I can't help myself," she said ruffling his hair a little making him blush
as it was done before all his friends and Housemates, even though no one apart from him and Harry
looked the slightest bit disturbed by the interactions between mother and son. Harry for his part felt
like he was intruding on a private event and hastily made an excuse to leave the room.

As it was nearly time for supper Harry decided to just head back down to the Great Hall for the
meal. Walking in he received some discreet nods from several Slytherin students as he took a seat
next to Dean and Seamus. A moment later he wishes he had chosen to sit by the twins as Ron and
Hermione showed up followed by Neville. Ron had instantly started to share while laughing
harshly, the story of how Draco had gotten hurt in Care of Magical Creatures. All the while
Hermione had gotten on his case for skipping classes as well as taking some that he had not signed
up for at the end of last year. Harry did his best to ignore them both, which was hard when Ron
was sitting beside him elbowing him wondering why he was not laughing at Draco's misfortune, or
as Ron put it the bloody snake getting what he deserved.

Harry had finally had enough after about just five minutes as he caught Ron's elbow from going
into his side again telling the redhead to knock it off before setting Hermione straight about his
change of classes. She scoffed and said he should not be able to change it after he had selected it
making him just shake his head and stand from his seat and go over to the twins who quickly made
a space for him between them letting him have his meal in peace. As he ate to not look at
Hermione and the youngest Weasley he turned his attention to the top table and was shocked to see
Professor Lupin was not there making him believe that the man must be out of the castle passing on
the message he had given him after his class. Thinking of messages he thought that both the Twins
and Percy had a right to know what he had learned over the summer so in a voice that he knew
would not carry to any other student asked them to meet with him after supper in the closest unused
classroom to Gryffindor Tower and to bring Percy along as well. The Twins shared a look before
they both shrugged, in unison, and told them they would meet him there.
 Coming forth and Coming Out
Chapter Summary

Harry shares what he learned over the summer with the twins and Percy

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

As Harry having done most of his homework in class it did not take him long to finish what he had
left, so he headed up to his dorm room to avoid Ron and Hermione who were still doing their own
homework. Going to his trunk Harry started to open it up and take out his cloak, but as soon as he
touched it a roll of parchment appeared on top of his stuff. Unrolling the parchment Harry saw that
both Ron and Hermione had tried to access his trunk making him thankful that Lady Malfoy and
Linka had put protections on his stuff. Unlocking a new hidden compartment where he had started
to store the Invisibility Cloak. He had been worried that he would be unable to use it since the
Potter Ring had rejected him, but during a conversation with Salazar over the summer, he had been
informed that the cloak was not from the Potter Family but came from the Peverell Family, and
that not only was Potter a branch from the line but so was Slytherin.

Throwing the cloak over his shoulders Harry closed the chest and feeling thankful that the Third-
Year male's rooms were at the top of the tower and the only door between him and the Common
Room would not be able to be seen as Harry walked back down to the room. Going over to the
twins he passed behind Hermione who was for some reason was doing, what he assumed was,
Divination homework. His first thought was that she was "helping" Ron with his work but then he
noticed that she had signed her own name on the paper's top. Deciding to look into it later, Harry
went over to one of the twins and whispered, when Fred was not writing something to cause him to
make a mistake, that he would be waiting for them in the classroom.

As he was under the cloak Harry had to wait until a student came in before he could leave the
dorms undetected. Thankfully he had only had to wait two minutes before the back of Fat Lady's
Portrait swung open letting Neville into the room. As Harry made his way past the other boy he
tried to once more think about what he felt about him, for while he was not listed as someone
Harry had to be loyal to, he was the only person Harry had really hung out in his own year thanks
to Ron and Hermione keeping everyone else away. Just by that fact alone for whatever reason for
the forced "friendship," Harry was inclined to not trust him at least for now.

Once he was out of the Gryffindor Dorms Harry did not take off his cloak until he was actually in
the classroom before he settled down to wait for Fred, George, and Percy to show up. He was glad
that he bought a book along with the results of the test as it was another thirty minutes before the
three Weasley siblings to appear. "Sorry it took us so long Harrykins but we already have a
mountain of homework thanks to O.W.L.s," Fred said.
"And then we had to convince Percy to step away from his own homework and duties as Head
Boy," George added.

"So why did you want to meet us here, Harry," Percy asked with a gentle smile on his face making
Harry gulp a little.

"As I told you earlier that during the summer I took an Inheritance Test, but I found out more than
just my appearance had been changed. I had been under some spells that forced me to trust various
people. I am sorry to say include your mother, and younger sibling," Harry said expecting them to
get mad a little maybe deny his accusations as he reached for his results, but was shocked when the
three older males just nodded a little as if his news was nothing new to them.

"I know it might seem out of line but do you mind if I look over your results?' Percy asked.

"I was planning to show them to you all anyway in case you did not believe me," Harry said
handing the results over to them.

The three older Weasley siblings leaned in close to each other to read through the list as Harry sat
somewhat uncomfortably until they finished. He could tell just from their body language that the
more they read the angrier the three were becoming. Percy himself felt a moment of both clarity
and actual full-blown rage at what had been done to Harry. "What is a Horcrux?" Fred asked after
a bit causing all three to look to Percy.

"I don't know I have never come across the term," Percy said with a slight shrug. Suddenly Harry's
ring began to flash attracting all their attention to it.

As Harry rubbed the Slytherin Ring he was surprised as an image appeared out of the ring so that
he could be seen by the three Weasleys. "I can actually answer that Harry," Salazar said shocking
the three Weasleys. "A Horcrux is an old piece of the evilest magic that a Magical could ever
create. It involves an ancient ritual, which I would never share, nor would I feel most sane people
would, which allows a Magical to transfer a part of their Soul into an object."

"Not to be rude but who are you?" Percy asked shaking his head at the man's appearance.

"I am Lord Salazar Slytherin, but that does not matter at the moment, Messer Percy Weasley.
What you need to focus on is that to be able to transfer a part of a person's Soul it has to first be
broken," Salazar said as he shows that he had been a teacher as he let the four reach the next
obvious question.

"How does one break their Soul?" Fred asked earning him a smile from the Founder.

"There are two main ways to break a Soul, the first of which is using an old Magical Bonding ritual
which would allow you to exchange parts of your Soul with another thus making you Soulmates.
Using this method will not make it easy to create a Horcrux. The second method would and that is
killing someone. Now I know that sometimes during a duel, battle, or in defense of your own life
you may accidentally kill someone, and while this would break your Soul over time it would heal.
If, however, you kill for your own pleasure the damage to your Soul takes longer to heal, and if
you perform the ritual in such a state the smaller bit of your Soul would be transferred to another
object," Salazar explained.

"So that is how he survived since he had a part of his Soul in Harry so even if his body was gone he
could still come back," Percy said.

"If Harry was cleansed of this Horcrux does that mean that he really is gone now?" George asked
gripping Harry's shoulder gently.

"I wish that was the case Messer George Weasley but it seems the man who had been my Family's
Heir before Harry took his place as Lord of my House had other created. I know of at least two
others that the man had created," Salazar said.

"How can you know of them?" Harry asked.

"Well I know of one from your memories I can access, the item being the Diary you destroyed in
my Chamber for that is the only way that the object would be able to access the Chamber and
overlap young Ginevra is if it contained a part of the man's Soul. As for the other object while I
have no recollection of it being actually made there is proof of its existence for a few generations
after I died the main Slytherin Line died out changing into a family known as the Gaunts. This
means since you had gained power over my House you should have also gained that House as
well. Since you did not I can only assume that the one you call Voldemort had used the House
Ring to hold a piece of his Soul for whatever reason. That fragment within the ring would prevent
it from passing over alongside mine from your Right of Conquest,*" Salazar said which he
evidently thought was enough as his form vanished back into the ring.

"Alright too much info about Hocrux and old Voldyshorts than I ever wanted to know, to be
honest," Fred said before he turned back to Percy. "But what is this Eros Blade?" At the name of
the spell, Percy clenched his fist wanting to attack both his little sister and most likely his mother.

"It explains something that I had wondered about," Percy said as his mind shifts back to the
summer before his Sixth-Year at the castle.

Flashback (Percy's POV)

Percy unlike most of his younger siblings was an early riser, but he also knew that if his mother
spotted him as she made breakfast he would be forced to help her. So most mornings he would
either stay in his room doing his summer homework or sneak downstairs and hide in the single
chair that could not be seen from the kitchens and just read one of his books. So it was that Percy
was reading a book as his three younger brothers snuck into the house accompanied by Harry. For
once it seems the twins were not careful enough as almost as soon as they walked into the place
their mother appeared and began to scream at them. Percy being used to this took the time to study
Harry wondering how he had gotten their catching small bits of information from his brothers.
Percy could not stop his eyebrows from lifting in shock as he heard the twins say Harry's family
was starving him and then Ron mentioned bars being on his windows. Their mother responded
that Ron better hope, she did not put bars on his windows. Percy, as well as the twins, knew this
was not a true threat. Since Ron lived at the top full story of the Burrow it was pointless to put
bars on the windows. especially as the family ghoul would most likely just break them anyway.
But no matter how their mother was acting now all three older Weasley boys knew that she would
never seriously punish either Ron or Ginny for they were her precious "babies" who could do no
wrong.
Percy did look to see how Harry took the threat and saw that the small boy thought their mother
was being utterly serious about it. As their mother turned to Harry, Percy saw him back away from
her not towards Ron but to the twins, but she did not get on his case acting all sweet to him as she
had him sit at the table to make him some breakfast. Percy knew he could join them now if he
wanted to but decided to sit and observe a little more something feeling off to him. As the twins
tried to get her to listen to them again about how Harry had been living at his relatives' house she
just told them to quiet down with the promise to tell their father.

When their Dad did arrive home at the time that their mother had filled Harry and Ron's plates
while placing very little on the twins Percy decided to enter the area as if he had just come
downstairs to see how what his mother would say to their Dad. Taking his place at the table Percy
just arched an eyebrow as if just noticing Harry as he listened with half an ear to how his mother
would explain his presence to their Dad. Rather than talk about bars on his window or his family
starving him his mother just told their Dad that the twins (with no mention of Ron) had flow the
car to Surrey and back to pick him up. Only to get mad at her husband when he became excited
asking about how the car had handled. Percy tilted his head seeing a small easy-to-miss smile on
his mother's face seeing she had distracted her husband and the twins from the talk about the abuse
Harry had received at his home. He was about to bring it up himself when Ginny showed up and
upon seeing Harry at the table caused a small scene causing Ron to laugh and their mother to give
the twins, Ron the "punishment" to de-gnome the garden. As most of the family saw the activity
as a game there was only minor muttering, due to the trio's lack of sleep, as Harry followed after
them as he volunteered to help out. As the four younger males left the table Percy once more
turned to his Dad to tell him about what the twins had said about Harry's living conditions at home,
only for his dad to let out a large yawn and head up to bed to sleep off a long night.

Percy had found no further chances that day to try to talk to his Dad that whole day and was
thinking maybe he could tell him tomorrow since it was a full day off for his Dad, As usual Percy
had woken up early and had once more gone downstairs to read in his chair when by chance he
looked out the window to see Harry leaning against one of the posts to the small cordoned off area
his siblings had set aside to fly. Wondering why Harry was up so early Percy waited until his
mother was distracted by a part of her cooking and snuck out of the house to go talk to the younger
boy. "Your up early," he said leaning against the post next to Harry's.

"Actually I slept in for once I am usually up much earlier than now at home," Harry said not
looking at him.

'Why is that?" Percy asked hating to pry but wanting to hear about the other's home life in his own
words.

"I tend to make my family breakfast each morning," Harry said simply still not looking towards
him but to the sun as slowly rose over the horizon.

"Even this summer when they put bars on your windows and locked you in your room?" Percy
asked gently seeing the young boy start and wrap his right arm over his body and grab his own left
elbow.

"How do you know that?" Harry asked in a voice almost too low to be heard.
"I was in the living room when Fred, George, and Ron showed you in yesterday morning. Is
everything right at home Harry?" he asked.

"No," Harry said but said no more.

"Have you tried talking to someone like Headmaster Dumbledore, Madam Pomfrey, or Professor
McGonagall?" he asked.

"I tried to tell the Headmaster when he was visiting me in the Hospital Wing at the end of last year
but he just said it was best I go back for my family loved me they just had a hard time showing it
properly," Harry said making Percy actually given an undignified snort.

"That is not love, Harry, no one locks someone away or forces them to make their meal while they
starve. That is abuse plain and simple," Percy said gently putting a hand on Harry's left arm. "Is
that the only reason you are up so early, and out here?" Percy asked.

"Well when I got up I headed down to the kitchen out of habit and found your mother cooking, I
even offered to help her but she said she did not need it," Harry said which confused Percy a little
for apart from his Dad, Ron and Ginny if his mother caught someone in the kitchens while she was
making food they would always be roped into helping her. "So I decided to just come out and
watch the sunrise having never really watched one before.'

"They are lovely," Percy said throwing an arm around the younger boy's shoulder and feeling him
tense up a little before he relaxed a little.

"Hey, Percy can I ask you something?" Harry asked after a moment of silence as the pair watched
the sky brighten over the hill.

"You can ask me anything Harry," Percy said with a smile thinking he wanted to know something
about Hogwarts or the Magical Worlds since he had been raised by Muggles.

"Is it wrong to like different sorts of people?" Harry asked his voice going low again as if ashamed
of his question.

Percy did not really understand what was being asked so he tried to better understand what Harry
meant. "Do you mean people from different Houses at Hogwarts, or Muggle and Magicals?"

"No well you see...." Harry said as Percy noticed a slight blush on his face. "Before coming to
Hogwarts there was one person in my school who hung out with me that my cousin could not
frighten away. I had felt that I saw him as a friend but one night I had a dream where we, um,
kissed," Harry said.

"And?" Percy prompted.

"Well one of my Uncle's favorite activities to do besides punishing me was to complain. A few
days before my dream he had this long rant about Homosexuals. Having never heard the term
before I looked it up while hiding from my cousin in the library. It was the night after I found out
it meant people who liked the same sex as themselves that I had the dream about my friend. Does
that make me a freak in the Magical World?" Harry asked looking up at him with pleading eyes.

"Oh Merlin, Harry no, I have heard Dad talk about some of those beliefs that the Muggles carry
and for the most part Magicals are more accepting of almost any relationship," Percy said as he
began to tell Harry about Magical Triads and Mateships of various sizes, how there were some
Magicals which only preferred to "mate" when they were in their Animagus form. "And then there
are people like my older brother Charlie who is an Asexual so while he may end up with someone
he has no actual sexual desires, he prefers Dragons, um but not to mate with. So no liking someone
that is the same sex as you is not wrong." Percy saw Harry relax a little at this news.

"But what if I also like females as well as males?" Harry asked.

"That is what is referred to as being bisexual and it is also perfectly normal," Percy explained.

"That is good for I have liked the dream but was too afraid to tell anyone," Harry said.

"What about the dream with girls?" Percy asked wondering if he was prying too far into Harry's
personal stuff.

"Not girls per se, for while I have had the dream with kissing various males over the years I had not
really had one about a girl, but for some reason, I had one last night involving Ginny," Harry said
looking away again.

"You have never dreamed of a girl before last night?" Percy asked a little alarm bell going off in his
head.

"No, just the one with your sister," Harry said confused by the question. Percy did not like the
sound of that as he knew growing up his sister had gotten rather attached to the idea of Harry
before even meeting him at Kings Cross last year. And from what Harry said it sounded like he
had drunk a low-grade Love Potion keyed to his sister.

"Um I going to see if breakfast is ready yet," Percy said and quickly headed back to the house.
Once there he peeked in to make sure his mother was distracted again before going over to a
Healer's case and pulling out a Cleansing Potions that his Dad keeps in stock due to the twins
sometimes experimenting on Potions for their pranks. Hoping it would clean any Love Potions the
younger boy might have drunk he pocketed the vial and made his way back to Harry again. "She
said it would be a few minutes but felt from what the twins told her you should drink some of this,"
he lied handing out the vial of Cleansing Potion. It sort of broke Percy's heart knowing what his
relatives were like that Harry was so trusting when he took the clear Potion from Percy and
downed it in one gulp. "So how do you feel?" he asked.

Harry just gave a small shrug and answered, "Mostly the same." Percy was rather confused by that
for the Cleansing Potions his Dad kept in stock were actually quite potent for while his mother
disproved of the Twins and their pranks, Dad did not and showed his support by making sure they
did not get too hurt as they test out their own product. The Potions themselves were part of the
twins' allowance for the stuff they did around the house over the summer and were thus the best
the twins could afford, or even make themselves. Thinking that maybe Harry had some other
Potions in his system that were more harmful than the Love Potion the Cleanser worked on them
first. Percy hoped it would not be something too powerful otherwise the cleanser would be unable
to get it out of Harry's system no matter how many the younger boy drunk. He knew the cleanser
the twins focused on was the anti-poison variety and while false Love could be considered a
poison of the heart and spirit the Cleanser might not be keyed to work that way. What he needed
was a real Love Potion antidote but he would only be able to get it at Diagon or one of the other
Magical Alleys. Plus they were rather expensive more than the money he currently had on him at
the time. He guessed he would just have to wait until they went to Gringotts to pick up some
money from his personal vault.

That turned out harder than he thought for when they all went to pick up school supplies it had
been a disaster, first Harry who had never used the Floo Network before was made to go by
himself rather than have someone guide him, and had nearly gotten lost coming out in Knockturn
Alley. And when they went to Gringotts his mother directed the Goblin to only take them to
Harry's vault and for some reason his older brother Bill's old trust vault. Percy was not the only
one in their family that was confused as the twins shared a look as they arrived at Bill's old vault he
had used to go to school which due to not having been used since he had left Hogwarts had barely
anything in it. Percy still could not understand why they did not go to the main Weasley family
vault which while not as stocked as many other old families still kept them all slightly comfortable
for how many people were in their family. Not knowing what their mother was playing at but not
wanting to get into with her about it Percy tried to think of another way to get the antidote that
Harry might need.

He did find a clue on how to make such an antidote in a use book store in a book about Hogwarts'
Perfects latter careers as one such Prefect was Professor Snape and had been the youngest Potions
Master in a century had gone through a process to revamp the current Love Potion antidotes, but as
Percy turned to the page where the Potion had been written out he had found a giant smudge
making the process unreadable. Percy then decided to just ask the man himself when they got back
to Hogwarts but one thing after another made him forget it all.

End Flashback

I know you both know what a Love Potion is correct," Percy asked the twins.

"Sure it makes someone fall in love with someone," Fred answered cheekily.

"Actually it all depends on the strength of the potions a low lever one makes the drinker feel as if
they have a crush on the person the Potion is keyed to. While at the other end a full-strength Love
Potion makes a person fall madly in love with the keyed in person. There is also a variant known
as a Lust Potion which does not have a certain person in mind so that when it is drunk it fills the
drinker with an urge to have sex with the first person they see no matter the personal preference,"
Percy explained.

"Kay," George said hesitatively "and what does this have to do with Eros Blade?"

"Well, the Eros Blade is an old spell once considered so bad it was in league with the Unforgivable
Curses. For not only would someone enchanted by it love someone, but it also had the power to
change their own preferences. Now Asexuals are immune to all forms of Love Potions, except the
lowest leveled one, can be made to love and want to have sex, even if they are sex-repulsed like
Charlie, with someone if they are under this spell. It is nearly impossible to break only able to be
taken off someone if they go through a full cleansing at Gringotts for even St. Mungos can't do it,"
Percy said making the twin finally understand and become as mad as he was. "Um Harry do you
mind if I share with is our Dad?"
"But won't your Mom also see it then and let Dumbes and the others know I am aware of what they
have done to me?" Harry asked narrowing his eyes in mistrust for a moment.

"Oh don't worry Harrykins we have a special way to send letters to Dad that she does not know
about," Fred said cracking his knuckles.

"Yeah we normally use it for advice with our pranks, since Dad was a prankster himself at
School," George added also cracking his knuckles. When Percy still saw Harry was unsure he set
the results down on one of the desks in the empty room and tapped it with his wand creating a
copy of the document. Unlike the original, the copy did not show Harry's name on it at all but just
showed that section dealing with Vault discrepancies and only those that dealt with the Weasley
family.

"Is this better?" Percy asked passing over the original as he showed Harry the copy.

"I guess," Harry said before all there of the males pulled him into a tight hug.

"We want you to know we had no idea whatsoever that this was being done to you at all," Percy
said as the twins gave sounds of agreement.

"Thank you," Harry said with some tears in his eyes as he placed his head on Percy's chest.

"But now we come to a small problem, as Headboy I am not comfortable with letting you sleep in
the same room as someone who you were enchanted to react to in any way," Percy said breaking
away from the hug as the twins still held Harry between them. "I would like to talk to Professor
McGonagall to see about you getting your own room, and since you are the Heir of both Gryffindor
and Slytherin it should be no problem."

"Actually I am just Lord of Slytherin House the other three lines rejected me," Harry said stopping
Percy in his tracks as he was pacing before them.

"Wait what your own family line rejected you?" the twins as in perfect sync with each other.

"Well at the moment though each of them did give me a task or two to do," Harry said before
explaining the task he needed to perform. To his surprise, the twins smiled as he said he had to get
Godric's Sword back from Dumbles office. "How is that something to smile about?" he asked
them.

"We think we have something that will help you not only know when the office is empty but how
to get into it," the twins said with smiles of unbridled chaotic plans in their eyes.

"You do?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes we do we don't have what we need on us at the moment but it will help," Fred said rubbing
his hands together.

"Yeah, it is getting too late to us it tonight as it is," George said.

"By Merlin, you are right, look at the time I will have to talk to McGonagall tomorrow maybe you
should join either me or the twins in our rooms tonight," Percy suggested. Harry almost agree
thinking about spending the night with Percy in his rooms, but as the spells on his trunk showed
 the betrayers would still be after his stuff.

"I think I have another idea about that," Harry said simply

"Which you are not going to tell us about right?" Fred asks teasingly.

"Nope," Harry said with a smile.

"Alright as long as you get some sleep," Percy said.

"Don't worry I will," Harry said as he started to pull his Invisibility Cloak over his shoulders.

"Wait before we go we need some nicknames for each other," George cried out.

"Um, why?" Percy asked.

"Well that way we can speak without little Ronny and Granger know of our plans," George said.

"Fine but nothing over the top alright," Percy said with an air of having done this sort of thing
many times with the twins.

"Right as usual I am Chaos and George is Random. Percy you can be Balance and Harry how
about Fang due to you living after being bite by a Basilisk," Fred said as Percy just rolled his eyes
and Harry smiled in approval.

Harry gave the three one last goodnight as he slipped on his cloak and made his way down to the
Slytherin Dorms again. Reaching the entrance to the dorms he placed his hand on the wall and let
it open up. Several people looked over to see the opening but saw nothing as Harry hastily entered
while still under his cloak and made his way to the Third-Year male rooms. He was a little
shocked as they were separated into two with Crabbe, Goyle in one room and Draco, Theo, and
Blaise in the other. Turning the nob to Draco's room he entered before pulling off his cloak.

"Merlin, Harry what are you doing here," Draco said with a start at Harry's reappearance.

"Sorry do you mind if I crash here tonight?" Harry asked to the utter shock of the room's
inhabitance.

Chapter End Notes

*A shout out of thanks to 1LetieryElias who pointed out that since Harry had gained
the Right of Conquest over the Slytherin Family he should also be in control of the
Gaunt Line as well. Rather than editing early chapters to bring it into the work, I
decided to explain why Harry had not been given the line.
 Sleepover and meeting with McGonagall
Chapter Summary

Harry spends the night in the Slytherin dorms and his second day of class

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

To Harry's surprise rather than ask any question right away, the three moved away from their beds
as Draco pulled out his wand and gave it a small wave. All three mattresses floated away from their
frames as space was made in the center of the room. As the mattresses came to rest in the newly
cleared space Draco and the others started to arrange the blankets and pillows on them creating
four spots for each of them. Only after the combined bed was finished did Draco ask, "So what do
we owe you staying over tonight, Harry?"

"Well I just told my tale to the Twins and Percy," Harry said missing a look shared between the
three Slytherins as they noticed a slight blush creep onto Harry's face when he mentioned Percy.

"And?" Theo asked sitting on one edge of the combined bed*.

"Well they said they would contact their father for me, but Percy thought it would be a good idea if
I did not sleep in the same room as Ronald tonight," Harry said.

"So why not sleep in the other dorm room?" Blaise asked taking the corner parallel to Theo.

"The girls? I don't think that would be allowed at all, plus that would just put me in with
Hermione," Harry said shaking his head at the other.

"No I mean the other male Third-Year dorm," Blaise clarified.

"We don't have one," Harry stated.

"They have all five of you in one room that has to be tight," Draco said taking the next corner,
wincing a little thanks to his cast, leaving the last one for Harry.

"It is even without the room's heater in the middle," Harry said sitting down at the last corner.

"Ouch," the three Slytherins said at the same time.

"So you not spending the night there is going to be noticed," Draco said wisely.

"Oh that reminds me," Harry said before calling for Linka to collect his trunk so he would have his
stuff. "Percy said he would talk to Professor McGonagall about getting me my own room since I
am Lord of one of the Founders he thinks it should be easy for me."

"If that does not work you could always request a re-sort," Theo said as with a flick of his wand
summoned a pile of books that he read from before going to sleep.
"A re-sort?" Harry asked confused.

"It is an old practice where a student who no longer feels like they belong in their House ask for a
transfer. According to the school charter, one can only ask for a re-sort in their Third-Year, but
after the re-sort, a student can not request another one so it is considered a last resort as it were,"
Draco said with a small laugh at his own joke as the other three just rolled their eyes.

Rather than comment on the blonde's attempt at humor Harry, Theo, and Blaise started to get
ready for bed. Harry was further shocked as the Slytherins allowed him to use an Ensuite bathroom
to change so he would not have to do it in front of them since they were basically strangers to one
another. Harry nod at them in thanks as he grabbed his sleep clothing, thankful that during the
summer Narcissa had taken him shopping for some actual pajamas rather than being stuck with
Dudley's old clothing. As he changed Harry wished that Gryffindor had a similar setup rather than
having to use the bathrooms on the landings between the Gryffindor dorm room floors. Once he
was done and went back into the main room he saw that the corner of the mattresses which he had
sat on a color change charm had been cast to make the dark forest green sheets take on the deep
ruby that the bedspread he was used to. Slipping under the covers Harry also found a book resting
on his borrowed pillow. Just by looking at he knew it had to be from Theo for it was the novel
version of Star Wars: A New Hope. "I am just letting you borrow it got it," Theo said with a smile
as Harry nodded his understanding.

Before he started to read the book the four boys chatted for a bit letting Harry get to know Blaise
and Theo a little better. Thus he learned about Blaise' Mom, Adriana, and the truth about her
infamous reputation of the so-called Magical World's Black Widow. Blaise shared that his mother's
first husband, his father, had been the love of her life but had been killed by a jealous suitor,
something that his mother had not discovered until the man had killed off her next four husbands.
Finding out what was happening to the men she had fallen in love with Adriana had finally married
the suitor and had bided her time for a full year before she had turned him into the Italian Ministry
of Magic leading to his death. Since then she had stopped dating for a while to focus on a
campaign to become the Minister of Magic for Italy. Blaise confirmed that his family had been
neutral during the last seven or eight wars between the so-called Dark Lords and Light Lords of
Magic.

As for Theo, Harry learned, that his mother had died during his birth leaving him to be raised by
his Father, Theodore Nott the first, and Grandfather, Legvistus Nott. Theo explained that just like
Draco's dad his father had been a spy within Voldy's ranks, but rather than working for the
Ministry the elder Nott actually worked for the ICW due to both Legvistus' connections overseas,
as well as his late wife's family being from Switzerland, the primary location of the ICW
headquarters, had ties with the organization. Theo had told that while his dad had to act like he
believed the blood purity junk Voldy would spout their family actually spent a lot of time in the
Muggle world which is where Theo picked up his love of both Sherlock Holmes and Star Wars as
well as an interesting series called the Magic of Xanth. Hearing the taller pale skin boy go on about
the books made Harry anxious to actually read one, something Theo picked up on leading him to
call it quits for the night and began his own reading, giving Harry an excuse to start reading A
New Hope.
Harry only got through about ten pages before he found himself falling asleep making him hastily
create a bookmark from a scrap from an old notebook from last year. He had always hated it when
he would read a library book to see someone turn the corner of a page down to mark their place
and had no desire to do it to Theo's book which while looking well-read were in great condition.
Placing the book over the side of his corner of the combined mattress Harry rolled over and was
soon fast asleep.

Later that night as Severus was doing his rounds checking to make sure all his students were asleep
on time, something he did nightly for the first week, before dialing it back to only one day a week
at random. As he checked in on the Third-Year male's dorm he saw the mattress on the floor
making him smile glad that Theo and Blaise were being so supportive with Draco in his cast. He
knew that to the rest of the school his students tried to act aloof and cold to the other Houses to
protect themselves, but they were still kids after all and he never judged them for doing this as a
means of combatting homesickness or showing each other support. He was about to close the door
when the shift of his body let in some light letting it fall on one corner of the bed revealing a mane
of red hair. Severus had to rub his eyes thinking he was just tired, for there was no way Potter or a
Weasley would be down here. When he shifted his body to get a better look at the sleeping redhead
Severus could make out, just barely the famous Lightning Bolt scar. This only confused him more
for not only should Potter not know the password to get into the Slytherin Dorms, and even if he
did there would be no way he, or Draco for that matter, would be sleeping peacefully in each
other's company. Yet after rubbing his eyes the boy was there still on one side of the combined
mattress his body outstretched a little with one hand above the covers mere inches from Theo's
hand as if the pair had been holding hands when they had gone to sleep. He was about to go into
the room to wake the four boys up when he suddenly recalled the strangeness of both Lucius and
Narcissa in the last month before school had resumed on how they had not wanted him to visit
them due to a guest they had staying at the manor. It had confused him at the time for Severus
knew all their contacts and friends and no one would have an issue with him visiting them, but
seeing Draco and Harry able to get along well enough to somehow sleep in the same room as well
as where Potter had sat during Potions made him think his old friends had hosted Potter at the
Manor. For his own sanity, Severus decided to leave the room and try to get in contact with either
Lucius or Narcissa despite the lateness of the hour.

Harry woke up to the sounds of other people getting ready forgetting for a moment where he was
and wondering why it was so quiet, for a moment, before he recalled coming down to the Slytherin
Dorms and spending the night with Draco and his friends. Not knowing how late or early it was
Harry hastily changed into his school robes, underneath the covers, before he shrunk his trunk and
put it into an inner pocket of his robes he joined the others in leaving the room. Since he had
packed his Invisibility Cloak after Linka had brought it last night he was not wearing it as he left
the Third-Year dorm making several students, who had not seen him yesterday in the Common
Room, eyes widen in shocked surprise. Paying no attention to them he ask Theo if he wanted his
book back but the other boy told him to keep it until he was finished, create further shock from the
Slytherins for Theo hardly let others borrow his books unless it was for class.

As Harry went to the Great Hall for breakfast he found himself in the center of the Slytherin,
something that years previously would have scared him but now he felt safe as if they had all
adopted him as one of their own. There was some muttering from the Slytherins but it was more of
them passing on what Harry had told many of them the day before to those who had missed it.
Arriving at the Great Hall the Slytherins let him pass as he headed towards the Gryffindor Table
raising a few eyebrows from the students of both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw House before he sat
down once more by the twins.

"So that is where you headed last night," George said in a conspiratorial whisper.

"How did you manage to get inside?" Fred asked. Harry just smiled at them and tapped his nose
with the finger the Slytherin Ring was on making them both laugh.

"So how was it in the Tower?" he asked.

"Well our dear brother," George said emphasizing the words "dear brother" as he spoke them
"raised quite a fuss when you and your trunk were missing."

"Put Percy stepped in and put a stop to it," Fred said.

"So do you have this thing which is supposed to help me?" Harry asked the twins.

"Not now," George said.

"And defiantly not here," Fred added "if you do not return to the dorms tonight we will find you
tomorrow,"

"How?" Harry asked but only got matching grins from the pair as a response.

The Potions class first thing after breakfast was much the same as it had been the day before with
Harry sitting at the same table as Theo, Blaise, and Draco. The only real difference was that he was
helping Draco, under the blonde's complete supervision to prepare all the ingredients for the
second stage of the Potion they had begun the day before. Draco had started to tease him that he
took direction well before he suddenly realized why Harry did so making the smile slide from his
face with a quick apology. Harry had just given him a shrug as he focused on cutting up one of the
roots for the Potion. Harry was actually quite thrilled for this setup as under Draco's direction he
was learning the proper ways to actually prepare the ingredients; even more so when he had been
tutored when he had been staying at the Manor since he had to do it perfectly by himself. And even
though he and Blaise had basically switched Potions for the lesson Harry according to Draco had
brewed something that should earn them both either a high EE or a low O grade for it.

After class Harry made his way up to Charms wishing his new friends from Slytherin goodbye.
Thankfully this year Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were taking Charms together letting Harry sit with
Ernie and his friends so he could avoid the pair of pests. Since it was the first class of the year
Professor Flitwick began with a quick refresher course on some spells that they had been taught in
the previous years which they would be shown a new way to cast during the year. It seems that this
year Charms only meet once a week on Friday so even though it was basically a review class they
were given plenty of homework to do before the next lesson.

At lunch hoping to throw his former friends off by not sitting with the same people over and over
again went to sit by Oliver Wood to talk Quidditch. Oliver had smiled at him as he went into an in-
depth report of some new strategies he had in mind for that year. "I see you are spending some
time with the Slytherins that is not going to be a problem is it?" Oliver asked.

"Of course not Oliver just cause I have friends in other Houses does not mean I will give less than
my best during a game. You are not the only one who wants that cup," Harry said making Olive
laugh as he thumbed Harry on the back.

"That's the spirit Harry," he said with a large grin on his face. The pair were soon joined by the rest
of the Gryffindor team, who had thought it would be a good idea to get any information out of the
way so things would not happen like last year. When Oliver had woken them all up at the crack of
dawn on a Saturday and had spent four hours going over strategy. Surrounded by his team Harry
smiled as it gave no chance for Hermione or Ron a chance to sit by him once more.

After lunch, Harry headed to the sixth floor for his first Study of Ancient Runes class. Seeing the
class had single desk seats again Harry took one along the right-hand wall far from any windows.
He was not sure if he would like the class for the course books to be historical as well as guides to
how to "write" runes, so he did not want a seat by the window to hopefully focus more on the class.
As his fellow students began to show up he noticed a majority of them were Ravenclaws, but after
a while, Theo showed up as well and took the seat next to him which was just as well for shortly
after he arrived Hermione showed up, though she did take the desk right behind Harry. Shortly
after the last student arrived Professor Bathsheda Babbling showed up bounding into the room with
an arm full of books and rolls of parchment as she introduced herself. Professor Babbling was a
Witch who appeared to be in her early fifties, though it was hard to tell with Magicals who had a
longer life than Muggles did, with her golden blonde hair in a French braid down her back and a set
of startling deep red irises. She also had a face that showed she was more likely to smile than frown
as she handed out the books in her arms to everyone as well as a roll of parchment. "Well I think
the best place we can start is to see how well you can do in producing a rune," she said with a
voice like a gentle wave hitting the shore. She had them open up to any page from the book she
had just handed out and try to follow the steps on it to produce the rune it showed. She told them to
write the page number they were using on the back of the parchment so she could check it against
their final results.

Harry had not had any set idea in mind just opening the book at random to find out his rune was
one for home protection. Laying out his parchment he stuck his tongue between his teeth and
began to follow the directions as best he could, wished he had a Muggle protractor so he could get
the angles right within his design. He did his best to focus on his own work even somehow
managing to cut off Hermione randomly kicking his chair as she worked behind him. If he had
been aware of it he might have noticed that her kicks were planned when he came to an edge of his
design as she tried to throw off his work, but after all the times he had to do choirs at the Dursleys
where Dudley would randomly come around to interfere with him his hands remained steady as he
worked at his task.

After about halfway through the hour-long class Professor Babbling clapped her hands together to
have them stop. "Don't worry I will not be grading any of these," she said with a laugh as she used
her wand to collect everyone's work. "I will just be checking to see how well you can both follow
directions as well as transcribe a rune." Harry's rune was not as cleanly done as some of his
classmates, mostly due to his somewhat sloppy handwriting, and Hermione kicking his chair, but
he was not discouraged as Professor Babbling showed the rest of the class his work pointing out a
few minor mistakes but saying that whoever transcribed the rune since she was not giving out
anyone's names, would do well in her class. According to the Professor no one had made a perfect
rune, not that she had expected them to, and only one had shown no actual talent in transcribing
runes due to the rigidity of their work. Harry had been able to tell the work that the Professor was
showing off, due to how often the same such penmanship had ended up on some of his homework
over the last few years, belonged to Hermione making the girl huff in her seat.

For the next part of the class, Professor Babbling gave an overview of the different types of runes
they would be covering that year before assigning them a roll of parchment for them to discuss the
type of rune they had transcribed in class to be done by their next class Tuesday morning. As the
last D.A.D.A class of the day was a Gryffindor/Slytherin joint class Harry and Theo walked to class
together discussing their runes. Harry was surprised to find that his new friend had been the one to
transcribe the rune that Professor Babblings had said was nearly perfect, as he congratulated the
other boy. Since they had their practical lesson yesterday today's class was the history and other
knowledge related to Boggarts. Harry was not the only one who noticed that Professor Lupin
seemed a little distracted during class as he sometimes lost his place in the notes he had prepared
and at other times stuttering a little making them all recall Quirrell. He finally managed to pull
himself together with only five minutes of class to go much to almost everyone's annoyance as he
did it right before telling them about their homework due on Monday.

At supper, Harry sat with even more different people as he sat next to Lavender, Parvati, and Lily
Moon knowing that Hermione hated her dorm mates. Knowing the trio were also the Queens of
Gossip in their year Harry got to find out what people were saying about his new look and attitude.
"Well from what we hear Harry," Lavender said when asked "most people like your new hair."

"Yeah we can actually see the board if we sit behind you for once," Lily teased playfully punching
his arm to show she did not mean it.

"That is good to know," Harry said rubbing his arm where the green-haired Witch had punched
him.

"But what is more everyone is surprised that you seem to be avoiding Ron and Hermione," Parvati
said.

"Well, I have hung out with them, basically alone for two years now and not really anyone else. I
just want to get to know everyone a little better," Harry said having no desire to let these three, at
least, know the real reasons for him getting away from his former friends.

"Yes but the Slytherins?" Parvati asked incredulously.

"I know Ron was always going on about them being evil and on He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named
side but come on we are all kids here. Do you really think someone our age could do anything that
would be classified as really evil?" he asked.

"Well someone did send the monster out last year," Lily pointed out.

"Yes and they have been caught, dealt with, and the person who allowed it was punished," Harry
said arching an eyebrow a little surprised the three did not know the story about it yet.
"They were?" the three girls said in unison.

"Wow I thought you would have heard it by now," he said actually shocked and not just play-
acting.

"We have not so spill it, Potter," Lavender said warningly. Harry once more spent the rest of
supper telling the tale of Ginny being possessed by the Diary and that being the reason the younger
girl was not at Hogwarts for the moment being suspended. Seeing the looks on their faces he was
sure this would be the last time he had to tell this particular story as they most likely would spread
it to the rest of Hogwarts.

As the meal ended a note appeared beside his plate, and opening it up he saw a quick message
from Professor McGonagall asking him to stop by her office. Thinking it had to do with him
sleeping in the Slytherin dorms last night he quickly placed his plate in the section of the table
where it would be sent to get cleaned before he headed to see his Head of House. She wasted no
time, for barely had the door closed behind him than she started, "Mr. Potter first off I have found
no reason why no one received your letter about your class change. But I have received some
troubling news is there a reason you were not in your dorms last night?"

"Didn't Percy come to see you?" Harry asked.

"I have not seen him today no," she answered lifting an eyebrow at him.

"Last night I shared with him about things I learned and he thought it would be better if I did not
stay in my normal rooms tonight and even said he was going to talk to you about me getting my
own rooms," Harry said.

"And why do you think you deserve your own room Mr. Potter?" she asked sternly. Seeing nothing
for it and hoping she was not too far in the Headmaster's camp Harry slid over the results of his
test, as well as the scroll of parchment that showed that both Hermione and Ron and tried to get
into his belongings the night before. Harry sat silently waiting for her to finish reading
absentmindedly spinning the Slytherin ring around his finger hoping he could trust her not knowing
what to do if she turned out to be another of Dumbles' pawns.

"That is rather disturbing, no doubt," Professor McGonagall said her stern manner vanishing in an
instant when she had finished with both bits of parchment. "And while you as an Heir of a Founder,
let alone two, you would have access to a private room there is one small problem," she said.

"Let me guess, said problem has half-moon spectacles, a large white beard, and no fashion sense
whatsoever?" he said and saw her trying to fight a chuckle at his description of the headmaster.

"Unfortunately yes he made it a rule a fell years ago, actually right before you started here, that the
only students who could have private rooms are the Headboy and girl," she said giving him an
apologetic look.

"So you can do nothing?" he asked.

"I am rather sorry Harry," she said and truly looked it.

"So my only options are to stay in the same room and House with those that betrayed me or ask for
a re-sort," he said making her gasp.
 "Are you sure about this Harry?" she asked.

"I don't see I have much choice I already know I can not trust them and since I can't get away from
them any other way unless I sneak out each night a re-sort is my best option," Harry stated as
matter of fact.

"Speaking of sneaking out where did you sleep last night Harry?" she asked reaching across the
table and placing a hand on his arm. He gave her a smile touched by how worried she sounded for
him.

"It was not bad I did not sleep in an empty room or anything like that. Since I hold the Slytherin
Family ring I went to their dorms and slept with the other Third-Years," he said and saw her eyes
shoot open in shock.

"And Severus did not find out," she said a little amazed she had not been told about it from the
Potions Master who she knew checked in on his students after they fell asleep at the start of the
term.

"I don't think so, no," Harry said with a shrug.

"Well as a re-sort has to be done in the Great Hall during a mealtime if you go down there to sleep
tonight let him know about it," McGonagall said as she began to fill out the paperwork for a re-
sort. She had only filled out a few lines when she stopped wondering why Severus had not
informed her that Harry had spent the night in his House last night. After all with the man's feeling
for the lad, he would have raised a might stink about it, and knowing the man's habits of checking
on his students almost religiously during the first week of class she just did not see how he had
missed Harry in the Third-Year male dorm room.

Chapter End Notes

* As I see the beds the students sleep in not really changing size during their time at
Hogwarts since they are all Third-Year students the three beds are more than big
enough for the four boys to sleep comfortably on.
Harry's schedule:

Monday:
Free Period
Arithmacy
Transfiguration
Lunch
Potions
D.A.D.A

Tuesday
Study of Ancient Runes
Potions
Lunch (and afternoon off)
Astronomy

Wednesday
History of magic
Lunch
Herbology

Thursday
Arithmacy
Transfiguration
Potions
Lunch
D.A.D.A
Free Period

Friday
Potions
Charms
Lunch
Study of Ancient Runes
D.A.D.A
 A Head's Duty
Chapter Summary

Minerva McGonagall starts to make life better not only for Harry but the whole
Gryffindor House.

Chapter Notes

I would like to thank my wonderful readers many of you were supportive of the
possibility of Harry getting a resort, but the truth is I had not really wanted to do it,
hence the whole class Schedule I had created for a Gryffindor Harry at the end of the
last chapter. That being said I would like to thank Euphoriapotion for their comment
which gave me an idea on how to keep Harry in Gryffindor.

Still finding it hard to believe that Severus had not come to report that Harry had spent the night in
the Slytherin Dorms she decided to talk to him about it before finishing the forms for Harry's re-
sort. Thinking it would be just a quick meeting she left the start of the form on her desk and made
her way to the dungeons to talk to the Potions Master before he went to bed. Heading right to the
man's room she knocked to be let in. "Ah Minerva this is a surprise what can I do for you?" he
asked as he let her in.

"I wish to discuss with you some events that happened last night Severus," she said entering the
room and taking the offered armchair before the fire.

"And what events are you referring to?" Snape asked from his personal kitchen holding up a cup
silently asking her if she wanted a cup of tea.

"No thank you. And the event I am talking about is one of my students sleeping in your dorms,"
she stated as he poured himself a cup with his back to her.

"That is quite impossible, as you know Minerva," he said not wanting to give voice to the strange
apparition he had seen last night of Potter of all people sleeping in the same room as Draco and the
others.

"Well it seems this student would not set off the alarm due to him being the Heir to the Slytherin
line so he could enter without setting off the alarms," Minerva said leaning forward.

"Potter can not be related to Slytherin neither Lily nor his father held those lines," Severus said.

"Shocking that you knew it was Harry since I had not told you which student had spent the night in
your dorms," Minerva said arching an eyebrow and a smile playing at the edges of her mouth.

"Alright fine I did see Potter but I thought it had been just due to stress with the new school year,
Lupin and everything," Severus said setting his cup of tea down on the small side table between
their two seats. "But in my defense besides the stress of the situation, it could have been another
one of my students coming to spend the night with the boys."

"Did you not count the number of students in the room Severus?" she asked with a smile

"Yes but that does not mean anything Messor Crabbe or Heir Goyle could have decided to spend
the night with them rather than Potter," he said and was shocked to see her confused face.

"Why would those two have a different room from the rest of their year?" she asked making the
Dour Potion Master give her a look as if she had just grown a second head.

"I would never expect you to joke like that Minerva," he said after he had taken a moment to
compose himself with a sip of tea.

"I was not joking Severus why do Messor Crabbe and Heir Goyle have separate rooms from the
other males in their year. Albus forbad the use of Heir and Lord rooms just three years ago?" she
asked giving him her normally stern look.

"Oh Merlin, you are not joking are you," Severus said running a hand over his face. "It is not an
Heir/Lordship room that the pair are in but due to their size and availed space in the rooms I had
Hogwarts create separate rooms for the group, just like I have done multiple times as Head of
Slytherin for various reasons."

"That is remarkable," she said.

"What are you on about?" he asked her. "All Heads of House can do it not just me. I know Filius
has had the castle create multiple rooms for his students during their Fifth and Seventh-Years so
they could easier study for the test, and Pomona has done it when some of her students just did not
get along with each other."

"I am going to have to look into that thank you for your time, Severus," she said with a nod as she
left the armchair to leave the room.

"If you like, since you do not seem to be fully aware of everything a Head of House can do,
something I blame both Albus and Professor Brinkmann for, how about I call the others over so we
can explain it all to you," he asked.

"That sounds like a good idea, but I need to head to my office for a moment I left some important
documents out thinking this would be just a quick chat," she said giving him a nod as she left his
rooms.

Knowing it would not take him that long to get the others she briskly walked back to her office
only to stop a short distance away when she saw the door open knowing she had closed it when she
had left. Thinking it might be Percy finally coming to see her like Harry had said he had been
planning she walked forward only to see not the redheaded Headboy but Albus sitting on the edge
of her desk looking over the re-sort form. "Ah Minerva I had been wanting to speak to you about
why you changed young Harry's classes, but what is this about Harry getting a re-sort?" he said
giving her a disapproving look.

"He asked for a re-sort after finding out some students in Gryffindor tower have betrayed him," she
said not saying anything more knowing that from Harry's results that the man himself was also
involved.
"I am sure it is just a simple misunderstanding. It is these interactions with his fellow students that
are all just part of growing up," the man said giving her his best Grandfatherly smile. She knew
that no matter what she did now he would do everything in his power to prevent Harry from getting
re-sorted, and with how most still saw him the one who stopped Gellert Grindelwald rise to power
and the only one He-Who-Must-Be-Named feared he would get his way.

"Alright than Albus," she said hoping Severus was correct about the power she had as a Head of
House. "As to why I changed his classes it seems that earlier this summer, and well within the time
frame where he could change classes, he sent multiple notes about wishing to change them.
Though for some reason only Filius had received the notice which is why he was still listed as
taking the classes he had dropped until yesterday morning." Minerva said thinking that the
Headmaster himself had prevented them from getting the messages of the change. Making her
rather thankful that Harry had sent a fifth message through Gringotts.

"Ah I see," the man said the twinkle left his eyes for just a moment "it is a good thing that one of
them got through then. I shall wish you good night Minerva I have a meeting with Warden Snoke
about the protections during the upcoming Quidditch game."

As soon as Albus left she waited a few moments before she shut, locked, and w\Warded her door
before she went to the fireplace and used the Floo to get back to Severus's rooms. The Potion
Master raised an eyebrow at her as did the others in the room as she stepped out of the fireplace. "Is
there a reason for the Floo?" Severus asked as he cleaned the soot from his floor.

"Albus made had some issues with Harry's schedule change but also made it clear that he would
not approve of a re-sort Harry had requested," she explained as she took a seat as well as the cup of
tea this time.

"He should not do that," Pomona said with a hint of anger in her voice.

"Harry requested a re-sort?" Filius asked at the same time.

"The reasons were shared with me in strict confidence through a Gringotts document, which as you
know means I can not go into any detail about it unless Harry clears me to," Minerva told her
fellow Heads of House. "Not that it matters for Albus basically told me that he would prevent
Harry from changing Houses making it seem as if Harry was just mistaken about what was on the
document. So please tell me as a Head of House if there is anything I can do for him," she asked
pleading with them.

"Well since Albus has got rid of the Heir/Lordship rooms those are out of the picture but nothing is
stopping you from adding rooms among the students. Severus has informed us you have never
done so?" Pomona asked.

"That is correct the rooms, while separate among different years, had always been one male and
one female room when I was a student and then after I took over as Head. I had thought that is just
how all the Houses were," Minerva said.

"That is strange I know for a fact Anna had two rooms for all her student while she was Head,"
Filius said rubbing his chin in thought.

"As I stated as soon as I took over each year had only the two rooms each, is it hard to add rooms?"
she asked.

"Not really as you know Hogwarts as a Magical building can add when it needs to but if you don't
want to have the students deal with learning new rooms you can also have the school's magic
separate them while still occupying the same space. Like the legend behind Rowena's workshop at
the school or the so-called Come and Go Room the Elves talk about," Severus stated.

"I think I will do with the second option," Minerva said agreeing it would not due to have the older
students now have to find new rooms within the tower. "Alright now tell me the rest of it what else
can I do as a Head of House?" she asked and sat back to listen to her colleagues tell her everything
that she could actually do as a Head. Some of which she herself had started when she had taken
over as the Head of Gryffindor only to have to drop when she was also promoted to Deputy
Headmistress. It was late into the night, or early next morning when the four finally ended their
talk making them all glad it was Saturday so that they did not need to get up early for classes the
next day.

That being said after learning everything she had Minerva decided to make some changes to her
House and the first thing she deiced that it was time to ask for some help in doing her job. So after
only a few hours of sleep and a Wakefulness Potion, she started to put her plan into order as she
sent a message up to both the main Gryffindor Common Room notice board but also each of her
Prefects and Percy. All notices relayed the same message that she would like to meet everyone after
breakfast in the Common Room for a House meeting. After sending all the notes she stopped by
the office of one of her old classmates to ask for help in the next part of her plan.

Apart from the meeting after Quidditch had been canceled last year a Gryffindor House Meeting
had not been called for since she had been promoted so it surprised the students who, while
complaining about it cutting into their weekend, still all showed up on time. "Hello everyone I
know you are all surprised that I call for this meeting," Minerva said as she stepped through the
portrait hole and into the room. "There is a perfectly good reason for this meeting, so I do
apologize for cutting into everyone's free time."

"Was Black, spotted close by?" one of the Second-Years asked sounding scared.

"I do not actually know if he has I am sorry to say. No the reason I called this meeting is due to the
fact I have let you all down," she said and saw everyone giving her shocked looks and even a
couple saying she had done no such thing. Minerva held up her hands to quiet them all down. "I
really have, but what is worse is that none of you may even be aware of it. I had Gryffindor House
stay the same way it was during my time at school, and what I thought had been under my
predecessor, but I was mistaken. First off due to the Magic of Hogwarts it should be possible for
each year to have multiple bedrooms for both males and females. Something I have decided to
change, but don't worry you will still use the same door to your rooms but you will no longer have
to share with everyone in your year. Starting next year I will allow you to choose who you will
bunk with, but this year it has been decided who goes to which of the two possible rooms due to
complaints I have been given throughout the years. Also with some help from Professor Flitwick,
we have made it so that in the rooms themselves you can raise partitions between your area and
your roommates rather than just close the curtains around your bed. The partitions are soundproof
which should make it easier if you wish to study in peace.
For that is another mistake I have made since I was promoted to Deputy Headmistress. You see
when I started as just the Head of Gryffindor I started both mandated study groups, weekly visits to
see if anyone needed any help in classwork, but finding it too much to look over I let both of them
slide to the Houses disgrace," Minerva said.

"What do you mean our disgrace?" Katie Bell asked.

"Well as the other three Houses do that they tend to do better in exams as well as normal
homework assignments. For apart from a few outliers Gryffindor is actually ranked bottom in most
academic areas. And I know while that does not mean much to some of you who think that your
grades here will make little difference out in the real world that is a lie for some tops spots in the
Ministry as well other high paying jobs like students with good grades. A good indication for how
bad Gryffindor does academically is the Position of Headboy and Girl," she answered.

"What about them?" Percy asked leaning forward a look of concern on his face.

"Well, the position takes not only from previous Prefects but can also be the topped rank of their
year. Now some of you might have noticed that apart from Headboy Percy there has been neither a
Headboy of Headgirl that has come from Gryffindor since Heir William Weasley had graduated
almost seven years ago. Think on that in seven years with two possible positions available not a
single one had come from Gryffindor between William and Percy Weasley." An utter silence meets
her pronouncement as the Sixth and Seventh-Years realized she was correct.

"Another indication of our standing with grading is points and the House cup. As I hope all of you
realize that most of the time one is rewarded points due to your activities in your classes. Points are
usually are taken from breaking rules but given all for classwork. Apart from the last two years,
Gryffindor had not won the House cup in almost a decade," she said producing another stunned
silence from her gathered Lions. "In fact, truth be told we did not deserve the cup the last two years
either," she said holding up her hands to stop any protest, yet none came as everyone was still
shocked at her news. "The Headmaster actually broke regulations by rewarding us all those points
during the end of term feast two years ago and if you check it out as the points had already been
decided the House Cup was still listed as going to Slytherin. And as for last year, he gave all the
points to us thanks to what a couple of students did, but he also gave them special rewards of
service to the school. An old bylaw states one can not receive both during the same school year,
and since he gave the rewards first the points that won us the cup did not officially count which
means the cup really belonged to the Huffelpuffs. I myself did not know either of these two cases
until I was informed last night by the other Heads of Houses, so I can honestly say I was as shocked
as you are.

I really blame all this with how much I have on my plate so I have decided to take on some help so
let me introduce you all to the new Co-Head of Gryffindor House Professor Babbling from Study
of Ancient Runes and Intro to Warding from Fifth-Year on up. As she was in her Fifth-Year when I
was a First-Year and is from Gryffindor she has agreed to step in as my Co-Head," Minerva said as
the woman bound into the room with a large smile on her face waving to various students who
were in her classes. "Now not much will change with Professor Babbling being Co-Head it just
gives you all someone else to come talk to if you ever need help. We have also agreed that we will
alternate weeks where after supper for an hour or two we will come here to see if anyone needs any
help on anything," she said before moving aside to let her new Co-Head speak.
"Hello everyone as Professor McGonagall said I am Professor Babbling or if you like, and we are
not in class you can all call me Bathsheda or Batty if you like," the woman said producing some
chuckles from students who had or were taking one of her classes. "I hope we can all get along
with each other if you need anything related to the House, or help with homework, apart from an
extension on something from me without a good reason, my door is always open. Eighth-floor
lakeside corridor 2C room #17. Even if you just want to chat I will shot the breeze with you though
depending on if I am grading papers I may ask you to leave. I do however have one rule that I had
put in place this year. Heir Wood, I know you like your team but I am sorry you must actually have
tryouts this year not just sticking with what you have," she said catching the Seventh-Year
Quidditch Captain's eye before taking a step back to let Minerva take over again.

"That is really all I, well we, had planned to share with you today. Though since we are here
anyone with plans to go to the village this year that is of age you can turn your forms in now rather
than wait for class to do so," she said as most older students got to their feet to get their Hogsmead
approval forms. Minerva caught Harry's eye and gave him a nod when he looked to hesitate at the
foot of the stairs and Ron bound up them two at a time.

Harry trusting Professor McGonagall since he had not been visited by Dumbles for his desire to
change Houses climbed the stairs and opened the door to the Third-Year Male's dorm. Even though
Ron had run up the stairs before him the redhead was nowhere in sight. As Harry looked around he
only saw two other beds rather than the normal five as he approached his trunk and pulled out the
approval form signed by his Godmother. He smiled as the door opened and both Dean and Seamus
walked into the room who smile back at the now less full space their room had become. Not
wanting to meet Ron going down the stairs Harry stayed around a bit seeing what looked like
stripes of red and gold between the three beds. Looking over his stuff he saw a little placard sitting
on his bedside table which explained how to summon/create the partitions. On a whim, Harry
performed the spell on the placard as the two lines nearest him shop up creating a red wall between
him and Dean and a Gold wall between him and Seamus. He let them stay up for a moment before
he did the Counter Charm to let them down. "Now that was wicked," Seamus said as he also tested
the spell out. "Did you hear anything?" the small Irish boy asked as his walls came down.

"Um, no should we have?" Dean asked.

"I was screaming curses out for no reason," Seamus said with a chuckle.

"Well we heard none of it," Harry said.

"This is sweet,' Seamus said before the three of them made their way down to turn in their forms.
As they handed them to Professor Babbling, since McGonagall was surrounded by the others the
three heard their fellow Gryffindors talk about the new bedrooms most of them sounding happy.
The only ones who did not sound happy that Harry could actually discern were Lily Moon who had
been forced to be Hermione's roommate, which only made sense as otherwise, Hermione would
have a room to herself. From what Harry had learned of last night at supper Lavender and Parvati
had not liked sharing with Hermione which had only gotten worse when she had gotten
Crookshanks, with Lavender being deathly scared of cats and Parvati being allergic to it. The other
one who Harry could not help but notice was Ron who was complaining that he was not in the
same room as Harry. Seeing Harry with Professor Babbling he tried to get Harry to change rooms.

"I am sorry Messer Weasley is it?" Professor Babbling said stepping into the conversation.

"That is correct Batty," he said as if seeing if she had been just joking around with them.
"Well, Messer Weasley as Professor McGonagall said you can change your room assignments next
year but this year we took into account various reasons why some students should not be roomed
together.

"But I am Harry's best friend," Ron shot back with a whine.

"You will have to speak with Minnie I mean Professor McGonagall about that she was the one who
mostly decided the room knowing you all better than I do at the moment," Professor Babbling said
with a shrug. Harry hid a smile of thanks at her as she caught his eye and made a slight motion with
her head. Taking it as she wanted to talk to him alone he got away from Ron, avoided Hermione,
and made his way out of the common room with a crowd of other students. Heading to the nearby
classroom he had met with Percy, and the twins in he waited.

A short time later both Professor McGonagall and Babbling entered the room. "I guess you got my
meaning then?" she asked with a small smile.

"I did Professor," Harry said perching on top of one of the seats.

"Well I have some bad news Harry," McGonagall said "before I had the meeting with my fellow
Heads of House Albus found the form for your re-sorting and blocked it from happening. Hence
why I made sure you are not in the same room as Ron."

"Why is that precisely? If you and Messer Weasley are such good friends as he said?" Professor
Babbling asked.

"I guess since you are also the Head of House now I should share it but please keep it secret,"
Harry said handing over his results of the page to her.

"I see," the new Co-Head stated as she finished the form and handed it back to him. "You can
count on me from keeping it secret I will also try to make it Miss Granger does not bother you too
much in my class."

"That you Professor," Harry said with a bow as he tucked the parchment into a hidden pocket of
his robes which Narcissa had made for each of his new school uniforms which would make it
impossible for the page to be summoned or detected and would allow only him to remove it.

"Also in case anyone asked you can inform them that I separated you and Ron due to your
perchance to get into trouble together. I will also tell Albus if he asks," Professor McGonagall said
directing her statement to her new Co-Head "that I separated all the rooms as a precaution just in
case Sirius finds his way into the castle." Even though the three of them knowing thanks to Harry's
results that Sirius had been falsely imprisoned. Harry thanked her for all her help as he saw the
Weasley twins peeking into the room and left the room to meet with them so they could tell him
how they were going to help get the sword back.
 "No Albus"
Chapter Summary

Harry sees the item which the Twins think will help him get his Ancestors' sword
back. While the Headmaster deals with not getting his way.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

With a nod and smile at his Co-Heads of House Harry leaves the room to find not only the twins
but Percy as well. Without a word he let the trio of redheads lead him away from the Common
Room in case Ronald or Hermione came out of it and started to look for Harry. The twins took the
lead making their way through corridors seemingly at random until to Harry's surprise they
stopped in the empty classroom that had once held the Mirror of Erised during his First-Year.
"Well, Harry you ready to find out our plan to help you get the sword back?" Fred asked with a
smirk on his face.

"Does it involve calling for the sword itself?" Harry asked thinking of the suggestion that had been
brought up when he had spent the night in the Slytherin dorms.

"No it involves this," George said as he pulls out what looks like an old bit of parchment.

"But if you want to try that calling thing go ahead," Fred said with a smile as George spread the rip
and stained parchment onto the one desk in the room.

"I would if I could, but the only time I had succeeded in doing it I had done it without thinking of it
while facing the Basilisk," Harry said crossing his arms and pouting a little. He was annoyed that
he had not found any sources either at Hogwarts or Malfoy Manor which had explained how to
summon a family treasure outside the use of a Blood Bound Ownership* form from Gringotts, but
that would require him to turn to the Goblins for help. Something which he did not want to take a
chance with, in case it worked against him in getting the Potter family ring.

"Well you may scoff but this thing has been more helpful than all the teachers combined," George
said tapping the map with his wand.

"I find that rather hard to believe," Percy said arching an eyebrow at the blank page.

"Well then you should know I Solemnly Swear I am Up to No Good," George said breaking the
twins' normal alternating speaking method as he talked again before Fred. Harry was about to ask
about the change in the norm only to get distracted as from the point of George's wand lines of ink
began to appear on the parchment. He was not the only one surprised as Percy goggled at the
filling-in item as well.

"It's a map," Percy said after a bit.

"Not only that is is magical and shows where everyone is at as well as the passwords to every
secret passage," Fred said as dots appeared on the map labeled as inhabitants of the castle.
Percy instantly snatched the map from the desk and took out his own wand before casting several
spells on it as the twins watched with bemused expressions. "Did you learn nothing from Ginny's
suspension?" Percy asked waving the map at the twins. "Who knows what type of mischief this
thing can do?"

"How dumb do you think we are we cast all the spells Dad taught us as soon as we first found out
how to access it," George said as Fred nodded in confirmation neither of them making any moves
to get the map back from Percy until he was satisfied.

"So far the only thing we have ever seen it do besides creating a map is to come up with some
rather good insults," Fred said taking out his own wand and casting a spell on the map making the
vanish as words began to form on the page.

Messer Padfoot thinks that Percy Weasley should stick with things he actually knows.

Messer Wormtail suggests Percy look into getting some contacts so he would look less like a red-
feathered owl.

Messer Mooney thinks Percy should keep his nose out of the realm of pranks.

"That is cool," Harry said grabbing the map to see if he could get insulted by it. As soon as he took
hold of it his ring flashed as the last of the creators of the map words came into being.

Prongs would like to say "Hello" to his future son. I am glad you found the map created by me and
my friends. I hope you know them all Padfoot is my brother in all but blood Sirius Black. Wormtail
is a friend out old family ally Peter Pettigrew, and Mooney is the one who brought us all together
in creating this map is Remus Lupin.

The four males looked in wonder at the words that had been written on the parchment until they
vanished returning to the map configuration. "Well that was new," George said before he and Fred
turn to Harry and began to bow to him.

"We are not worthy, young Prgonslet," Fred said as his and his brother's action make him think of
the American sketch show Saturday Night Live segment of Wayne's World meeting the celebrity
guest.

"Knock it off you two," Harry said with a blush. "So how does this actually help me get the sword
back by the way?" he ask to change topics back to the reason they had met.

"Like this," George said as he stopped bowing and took the parchment and used his wand to shift it
back into a map as well as shifting the section of the castle being shown. The new section was
labeled as Headmaster's office and for the moment was utterly empty. "See you can pay attention to
when old Dumblesnorts is out of his office for a bit and using your parent's map to get the
password to go into go and collect the sword. Harry thought that actually might work thinking
about doing it right then only for five dots to enter the office showing that Dumbles was meeting
with the now five Heads of House.
"Don't worry a meeting with the Heads doesn't usually take that long and then maybe he will leave
the office with them," Fred said seeing the look cross Harry's face.

Suddenly the door to the room opened making Harry and the three Weasleys jump and point their
wands at the door as Draco, Blaise, and Theo burst into the room with their wands aimed at the
three older students. "You alright Harry?" Draco asked keeping his wand pointed at Fred.

"Yes, why would I not be?" Harry asked confused lowering his wand, though he was the only one
who did.

"Well, we saw you surrounded by the Weasleys one of which seemed to be holding something
under their robes. We thought they had shown to be as bad as their younger siblings," Draco said
still holding his wand to Fred while Blaise was in a stand-off with George and Theo against Percy.

"It is alright, they were showing me something that will help me to get Godric's Sword and thus
earning me two more of the Heir rings," Harry said which caused his three new Slytherin friends to
finally lower their wands quickly followed by the Weasleys.

"So what is this that will help you?" Blaise asked only seeing a bit of parchment on the desk, but
due to the distance could not see what was on it.

"A magical map which shows where everyone is at so he can see when the office where the sword
is located is empty," Percy explained.

"That sounds like an interesting bit of magic," Theo said sounding impressed taking a step closer to
get a look at the map. "Fascinating, an updating monitoring charm and what looks like a spell to
bypass secrecy lockouts. Your work?" he asked turning to the twins.

"You can tell that from just a look?" George asked sounding impressed.

"I have partial Mage Sight which allows me to read spells on most magical objects," Theo
explained. "It also comes in handy during class when learning magic."

"That sounds rather cool," Harry said.

"That is strange," Fred said drawing everyone's attention to him.

"What is strange?" Percy asked.

"Well usually when Dumbles meets with the Heads, that we have witnessed on the map, it last only
a few minutes and usually have the four Heads seated around his desk while he paces before them,
but from the looks of it Dumblesnorts is seated and Flitwick and McGonagall are the ones pacing,"
Fred said pointing it down on the map.

"Does the map have ways to communicate either written or audio?" Draco asked looking down at
the map before looking between Theo and the twins.

"Not that we know of," the twins said in unison.

"I can't see anything like that on it," Theo added.

"Dang to be a fly on the wall to know what they are talking about," Draco said shooting a look at
Harry guessing the topic under discussion.

As Fred pointed out it was strange for Albus to be the one sitting during the meeting, but he was
more than sitting down he was getting dressed down by the five Heads. "No Albus I will not go
back on my decision on the student's dorms," Minerva said feeling quite angry at the man's
stubbornness on the issue. "Not only will the change make it easier for my students to study but,
Merlin forbid, Black breaks in it would make it harder for him to reach Harry."

"I am sure that the Fat Lady would prevent him from getting into the Dorms," Albus shot back.

"That makes no sense Albus. You had all those different protections on the stone a couple of years
ago now we have someone actively targeting a student and the only protection you have in place is
a Magical Door that as a former Gryffindor he knows where it is at. Minerva is right that this is a
good defense, but you really have no control of it as Head, well now Co-Head, of Gryffindor
House she could do what she wishes in regards to the House without any approval from either you
or even the board. The only one she would ever have to answer to would be a Lord of any of the
Founder's lines," Filius said glaring at the man.

"Yes, Albus you should know all this having been the former Head of Gryffindor House yourself.
Which brings us to our next point with you not informing Minerva about the tools she had at her
disposal as a Head of House," Severus said leaning against one of the books shelves doing his best
to hide a smirk as the Minerva and Filius dressed down the man as if he was a student rather than
the Headmaster.

"Well, as most of you are aware Anna's leaving as she did shortly after the attack on the Potters
happened during a time which was rather chaotic with all the trials and such," Albus said.

"Even with that being true, Albus, after all, that was over with you should have done your job and
told her or if you had plans gotten confirmation that Anna had done so," Pomona stated without the
normal smile on her face rather than lips set in a firm serious line.

"I had been told she had done it," Albus said.

"Oh come off it Albus you know what sort of woman Anna was she might have said she had done
it but until you had absolute proof, you could not trust her," Bathsheba stated.

"Batty is correct I had more students complain about her classes than any other, short of Lockhart,
that have been here since I started," Filius stated.

"She was a great teacher," Albus shot back.

"No, Albus she was not if she had been teaching anything other than Muggle Studies I think the
board would have just fired her. I recall students in her class complain that one day for no reason
she talked about cats, how she loved them but was allergic to them. Or another day when she
bemoaned the death of some of her friends and a family member and actually stopped the class to
pass out a "Sorry for your loss" card for them to sigh to herself," Filius said shaking his head at the
utter foolishness of the woman.

"Not to mention she was the only person who annoyed Argus more than Peeves did when she
would distract his Kneazles from their rounds around the school while she herself was meant to be
out on patrol after the student's curfews," Pomona said.
"Getting back to it due to your oversight the five of us have decided that once a week we will be
meeting to go over how each of our Houses is doing as well as any changes we might bring to the
board for improvements to them," Severus said.

"Now I am sure that is not necessary," Albus protested.

"Once more you are incorrect Albus," Minerva stated. "And one of the issues we will be bringing
to them is the rule against Heirs and Lord/Ladies no longer getting their own rooms while at the
castle. Do you realize what problems you may be causing by forbidding this? If some document a
student Heir, Lord, or Lady is working on for the Wizengamot is left around it could not only be
seen as a breach of security but we could get heavily fined."

"We will also be informing them that you decided to suggest that a student that had requested a re-
sort was to be denied. Do you know what that could do to the school Albus?" Filius asked.

"I am sure nothing too bad," the old fool said not knowing or really caring what would happen.

"Wrong again," Filius said cutting back his desire to add "you old fool" as he took a breath to center
himself. "If the Goblins ever heard you had prevented a re-sort after it had been officially called
for they could not only cut off our access to the school vaults but in fact close the school down
itself. Only opening, it back up after getting approval of the Founders' lines. And as of right now
we only know of two Harry due to the Potters being descendants of Gryffindor, and then there is
Tom Riddle who you take delight in saying is not dead, being the Lord of Slytherin. So you would
need at least their approval as well as any other living Head of the Founder lines approval to reopen
the school," Filius stated almost smiling as he saw the color drain from Albus' face.

"Surely not," Albus said his voice actually cracking.

"They could and most likely would show no hesitation in doing so," the quarter-Goblin Charms
Master stated with utter certainty.

Albus could not let that happen for his plans to work he needed both the power and prestige that
came from all three of his positions and with the mysterious events a couple of weeks ago which
ousted him as Chief Warlock and replaced him with High Lady Greengrass. He needed the school
to remain open and still under his control. Not to mention that as the Headmaster of Hogwarts he
could influence the next generation of Magicals towards his cause. He already had some proper
candidates at the school now, but some students took almost to their final year or after to turn to
him so he would help them get the jobs they desired, especially the students for Gryffindor due to
their lower grades than the other three Houses. "Very well I will allow Harry to get re-sorted if he
wishes it," Albus said with a smile knowing he had no choice in the end.

"Well, it seems that Harry decided to stay after I added the new room set up and he was able to get
away from a student that was mistreating him. Though if you try to find a way to revoke it he may
change his mind again," Minerva said with a half-smile seeing Albus actually breathe a sigh of
relief that Harry was staying in the Gryffindor House. It had irked him a little when he had
overheard a discussion between Harry and the Sorting Hat last year that the blasted thing had
wanted to send his weapon into Slytherin House which if a resort did take place the boy most likely
end up in. Which would have been bad due to all the rumors he spread about the inherent evilness
of the House as well as anyone who was in it.

Having nothing further to discuss with the Headmaster the five Heads began to head towards the
door before Minerva stopped. "Oh yeah I almost forgot after the meeting we collected all the
Gryffindor students' Hogsmead forms," she said taking a stack of forms and putting them on
Albus's desk. By some chance, Harry's form was on the top of the stack letting the Headmaster see
that he had been approved to go to the village by Narcissa Malfoy of all people.

"I do not think Harry should go to the village," Albus said stopping the Heads in their tracks and
having them turn around to look at him.

"And why not?" Bathsheba asked.

"Well as we discussed earlier Sirius might be after the boy I think it will be much safer for the boy
to stay at the castle. I am sure his friends can bring him treats and souvenirs from the village back
after their trips there for him," Albus said with a twinkle in his eye.

"No he is going," Minerva said simply.

"Now Minerva you were worried enough about the boy to change the set up of rooms for your
entire House why would you want to put him in danger by having him go to the village?" Albus
asked.

"Well for one Hogsmead as a Magical village would have people who would recognize Sirius if he
showed up and could do something about it," Minerva said. "And secondly when has death threats
and the like prevented someone from going to the village. I recall shortly after I became Head of
House many students who were found to have a relative that was a Death Eater would receive not
only death threats but also cursed letters, yet you had no problem with those students going to
Hogsmead." Albus wanted to curse of course she would remember that being all over-eager to do
her job and some of her new Lions getting some of the letters. It had been that plus those darn
study groups she had started that had led him to also promote her to Deputy Headmistress after
only a couple of years as a Head of House.

"Very well he should be able to go to the village," Albus said making the Heads turn to the door
again. "If you can tell me why his permission form was signed by Lady Malfoy,"

"What?" Severus asked in shock at the news.

"Well, that is actually easy to explain," Minerva said with a smile as she placed a comforting hand
on Severus' shoulder who looked rather startled by the news.

"Yes, what is it, Minerva?" Pomona asked intrigued as well.

"She is his Godmother," Minerva said.

"No his Godmother is Alice Longbottom, Merlin, rest her soul," Albus said as he bowed his head
for what happened to the woman.

"Albus there was a war going on James and Lily knowing that two of their Godparent choices for
Harry worked basically on the front lines against He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named had chosen two
others just in case. A Muggle relative of Lily, Gregory Smith, as well as Narcissa Malfoy who as
 you recall was a close friend of Lily while they were at school together," Minerva explained trying
to sound as if this was old news and not something she herself had recently learned thanks to
Harry's test results.

"Ah, but why not have Gregory sign it then?" Filius asked knowing that to keep Harry safe after his
parents had died the boy had been sent to grow up in the Muggle worlds.

"Gregory had died at some point leaving Harry to be brought up by Lily's sister," Minerva said
having researched all this after she had seen Lady Malfoy's signature on Harry's form even going as
far as contacting the woman herself.

"For how long?" Severus asked through gritted teeth.

"I would say he died before James and Lily did for Albus had me checking out Petunia the day
after the events at Godric's Hollow," Minerva said and saw the Potions Master turn to glare at the
Headmaster.

"You said he was taken care of and treated like a prince. There is no way in the nine realms of Hell
that Tuna Fish would ever do such a thing," Severus said making as if to head back towards Albus,
who actually gulped at the murderous expression on Severus's face, only to be held back by the
other four Heads of House.

"I was assured she did treat him right, he seemed happy during the times I visited him there," Albus
lied. Severus chewed on the inside of his lip for a moment, still being held back by the others,
before he turned on his heel and left the office muttering about needing to make a Floo call. With
the other Head leaving shortly after him leaving Albus alone in his office who for a long while did
not move from his throne-like chair.

"Well it seems like the meeting is over," Fred said as she sees the five Heads of Houses leave the
room during his time to watch the map. For even if Harry had turned out to be the son of one of the
Maunders he and George were reluctant to hand the map over to him completely yet. So as the
meeting had been going on the three Weasleys, Slytherins and Harry had taken terns watching the
map. Rather than just sit in awkward silence for who knew how long until the meeting broke up
the group had tried to hold some polite conversations with each other. Currently, Percy, Theo, and
Harry were discussing the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit books, a book series Harry had actually
read, Blaise and George had been discussing different Charms. And surprisingly Fred, while
keeping an eye on the map, had been having a rather interesting conversation with Draco on
potions.

Chapter End Notes

* read about this idea in the story Harry Potter has come to Durmstrang from
Anikley_lunagood and sounded rather like a good idea.
 Sword, Hat, and Rings
Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

While Harry and the others waited for Dumbles to leave his office after the Heads had headed out
they began to work out a strategy on how to get the sword. Harry, of course, had to be one that
went into the office but it was decided that Percy should come with him so Dumbles came back
they could use his position as an excuse for being there. Using the story that Harry had come to
Percy after overhearing Sirius Black was after him, Meanwhile Fred would be watching the map so
he if saw Dumbles approaching he would use his twin bond with George to get his twin from
pulling a prank near the office in hopes of distracting the man from returning. As it was a Twin-
created prank it was hoped that those in the office would be able to hear it and be prepared to wrap
it all up or expect the man from showing up.

"While that is all well and good what about us?" Draco asked.

"Well I did not think you would want to be involved," Harry said.

"Well think again Potter," Draco said as he reached over and flicked Harry's forehead "You have
earned our friendship it will take more than a spot of possible trouble to make us turn away. Plus it
would make sense that we were involved that way George has someone to pull the prank on."

"Plus, Theo's Mage-Sight might come in useful to see if there are any Magical protections on the
sword if he wanted to tag along," Percy pointed out.

"I would, plus as not may Slytherins get to see the Headmaster's office I have not been able to get a
full picture of the man yet," Theo said as Blaise and Draco roll their eyes a little.

"A picture of the man what more do you need after hearing what he did to Harry?" Fred asked.

"A reason why or how deep it goes into his psyche," Theo said simply.

"Theo can come if he is willing," Harry said with a smile at the three Slytherins.

The new plan had the twins working in pairs with Draco and Blaise. With George teaming up with
Blaise so as they waited for the signal to start the prank they could continue their conversation on
different charms that they found useful. While Draco would be helping Fred watch the map that
way they could keep track of both Harry's progress but also where Dumbles was. While Theo
would come up to the office with Percy and Harry though they were not sure how to explain his
presence if Dumbledore arrived back to find them inside.

'Why not just punch him?" George asked.

"What?" Harry and Theo asked.

"Yeah punch him make it one of the reasons Percy brought you both to the office as if you
overheard some Slytherins talking about Sirius Black not only being after you but also your
Godfather. You could have begun to freak out and ended up punching someone and Percy seeing it
brought you both to the office to give a report knowing what a close eye he tends to keep on you, as
well as Molly's orders," Fred explained.

"Do I really have to punch him though?" Harry asked.

"Yeah it is out of Harry's character to give in to physical violence it would be more incline for him
to maybe have a little panic attack so to help focus him I ended up having to slap him," Theo said.
"Or not," he added when he saw Harry's reaction to the suggestion "maybe Percy sees me about to
slap him and stops me before bringing us to the office." Harry smiled at the addition to the plan not
wanted to hit anyone or get hit himself.

"That seems like it would work," Percy said rubbing his chin in thought admiring the young
Slytherin with his change to the plan when he had noticed the small flinch Harry had done
involuntarily at the mention of getting hit. It was such a small thing that Percy would have thought
that only someone who was really paying attention would notice it that Theo did spoke volumes
about the young man for both noticing it but also giving a suggestion that made Harry feel better.

It was another fifteen minutes before Dumbles left his office leading to the group to watch him for
a bit more before they put their plan into effect. Harry headed up to Dumbles office alongside
Percy and Theo, with Fred and Draco following under the Invisibility Cloak, which Harry had
started taking everywhere with him. George and Blaise headed out separately to unused classrooms
near the man's office to start setting up the prank in case it was needed. When they reached the
golden gargoyle Fred took a look at the map before passing on the password "Chocolate covered
grasshopper" letting them up to the office while Fred and Draco moved a different empty
classroom on the office's other side to settle in and watch the map.

Theo was amazed as he rode the moving staircase behind Percy and Harry before they entered the
office itself. At a first glance, it looked rather impressive until one really looked around where they
would see all the impressive-looking machines were nothing more than perpetual motion devices
that would make random moves, noises, or unleash puffs of different colored smoke. Most of the
books shelves lining the various walls were either copies of similar books, Muggle phone books,
but also to Theo's surprise Dark Magic Books which were on the ICW most watch list.

"What do you think you students are doing here?" one of the Portraits of old Headmasters asked.

"I am sorry for disturbing you all but I have come for something that belongs to my family line,"
Harry answered.

"And what makes you think you have the right to do that?' another asked with the name of
Headmistress Reinbeck.

"Well as I said it was from my family but also without knowing its connection to me I was the one
to hand it over to him," Harry said.

"Ah so you are taking back a gift you handed to the school there are proper procedures in place for
that," another shouted.

"Show them your ring," Theo suggested without looking away from his inspection of
Dumbledore's desk and chairs. Harry held up his hand showing off the Slytherin Lordship ring.
"Fascinating, utterly fascinating," a portrait of a dark man in Slytherin colors said leaning forward
with a nameplate of Phineas Nigellus Black. "I was unaware that there has been any donation of
Slytherin Artifacts to the castle in recent years... or ever actually."

"Well I am also a member of Godric Gryffindor's Line," Harry said.

"Than why present us with the Slytherin Lordship ring?" Phineas asked.

"Well, it seems that since I gave up his sword to the Headmaster the ring of Gryffindor would not
recognize me until I got the sword back," Harry said noticing from the corner of his eye that Theo
had finished his examination of Dumbles desk and was now giving the Sorting Hat a strange look.

"Well that makes sense," one a Headmistress with the nameplate of Helga Ravenclaw said.
"Sounds like something Uncle Godric would have on his ring he loved that sword." Percy perked
up hearing her refer to one of the Founders as Uncle that along with her name might mean she was
one of the first Heads at the school after the Founders. Distracted by her words and the
implications of them he almost missed as she made a gesture to above their heads. Turning to look
Percy saw what had to be Godric's sword in a glass-fronted case right above the door to the office.

"Harry I found the sword," Percy said indicating the sword above the door.

"Thanks, Percy," Harry said pulling out his wand to cast Alohomora on the lock a the bottom of the
glass case, but as he lifted his wand Theo reached out and took hold of it.

"Don't Harry, that lock is a fake it will actually activate a caterwauling charm," Theo said who
thanks to his limited Mage-Sight had seen the spell but also the real lock. "Aim your spell here,"
Theo said aiming Harry's arm and wand at the blank upper left-hand corner of the case. Though
after what he had been found out what had been done to him one would think Harry would find it
hard to trust people, yet, he was learning to trust the taller pale-skinned boy as he cast the spell at
the exact point from where Theo had aimed his hand. As the shot of reddish-white magic hit the
unmarked part of the case went through the Glamor Dumbles had in place as with a click the glass
front fell forward on a hinge letting them have access to the sword.

Harry gave a smile to Theo, who missed it as he had gone back to staring at the Sorting Hat as he
bit his lower lip, as Percy stood on his tiptoes and was just barely to touch the sword to bring it
down. Percy had explained about this during the planning stages that since Harry had not been able
to call the sword back to him like he had the first time it would seem Dumbles, or the
enchantments that were natural to the sword, might have made it that it could not be summoned by
Magic, and would have to be handled by a physical way. Feeling like the situation called for it
Percy held the sword of the Founder of his House by both the hilt and, with extreme caution, the
end of the blade before he presented it to Harry.

Harry reached forward and wrapped the fingers of his right hand once more around the hilt of the
sword as he took it from his older friend and crush he felt a wave of magic wash over him. When
the magic wave ended Harry noticed a familiar gold ring just sitting at the edge of Dumble's desk.
Reaching forward with his left hand Harry slipped his middle finger, the same place the Slytherin
Ring was, into the band. Unlike last time where it had felt as if his finger was being bitten off,
there was a gentle warmth coming off the ring.
"Very good young Heir you accomplished your task I had set aside for you to take your place in the
family," Godric said as Harry once more found himself back in the Judging space for the Rings.

"Thank you, sir, I could not have done it with allies I had made," Harry said.

"Too right one should never stand alone against an enemy force. I would also say it would be a
good idea to follow the issue your new friend is dealing with at the moment," Godric said as he left
bringing Harry back to himself in the Headmasters' office.

"What's up Theo?" Harry asked seeing the other boy still looking up at where the Sorting Hat was
stored.

"I am not sure I think there is some spell or something on the hat," Theo said.

"Wouldn't that be the spell that allows it a sort of mind that allows it place the students in their
House?" Harry asked.

"Yes but it seems more than that. The last time I was this close to the Hat was during my sorting
before my Mage-Sight came in, so it could be that spell but something tells me it is not," Theo
said.

"A bee in your bonnet young man?" The Hat asked making Theo actually jump a little having not
considered the Hat could say anything other than the names of the Houses out loud.

"I guess I was just wondering about the spells on you," Theo said after he collected himself again.

"You are correct some of the Charms on me were placed after the Founders created me to help
sort the students of this fine institution,' the Hat said.

"And the others?" Theo asked after a bit of pure silence.

"That I can not say," the Hat said but it seems he would not or could not go into further detail as
the flap near the top that functioned as its mouth stopped moving.

"Is there a way to take the additional spells off or are they helpful for Sorting the students?" Percy
asked.

"That I can not say," the Hat said.

"So in other words no. Otherwise, you would not have an issue with stating what the spells on you
were," Theo reasoned.

"I am afraid I can not say," the Hat said again seeming to wilt a little.

"You know there are stories that the Sorting Hat once belonged to Godric maybe your new ring
would work," Percy suggests. Harry shrugged as he reached for the Hat and once he touched it
there was a flash of a golden aura of Magic that went from the ring through the hat. Suddenly the
old dusty look of the hat changed making it look like it was new of a light baby blue shade with
multicolored stars along its pointed top with a black rim.

"Jolly good it has been ages I felt like myself again," the Hat said with what sounded like a laugh.
"Thank you Harry Potter seems sending you to Gryffindor rather than Slytherin worked out in the
end. Now I should be able to send the students where they are truly meant to be such as your
companions."

"What do you mean?" Theo asked.

"Well young Theodore Nott II both you and Messer Percy Weasley both could have ended up where
I sent you but also have done quite well in Ravenclaw. I would have had a hard time placing you if
not for several enchantments Albus has placed on me. One which would cause all children of Molly
Weasley nee Prewett to be sorted right into Gryffindor. Which is a shame for your younger twin
brothers I had seen would have been better in Slytherin. As for you Theodore Nott II you ended up
in Slytherin for having both a parent which was a member of the Death Eaters, even if he was a
spy and for having a Dark Magical Core," the Hat said.

"Bastard," Theo said always wondered why so many of His supporters had ended up in Slytherin
even though some always seemed to be better suited for one of the other Houses. Like Marcus Flint
for instance who when he was not playing Quidditch was one of the nicest students Theo had ever
meet and had always thought should have been in Hufflepuff.

"So you can re-sort everyone then?" Harry asked.

"I am afraid not for while you banished the spells that had been placed on me I can not re-sort
someone until they call for it, and from what Albus was saying last night he would make sure no
re-sort would happen anytime soon lest someone discover the spells he had put in place," the Hat
said.

"Wouldn't he see that they are gone as soon as he sees you looking like that?" Harry asked.

"Good point," the Hat said before making a sound like a whistle. "Fawks be a dear would you
good chap." At the call, the Phoenix took flight from its perch and flew over the Hat letting one of
its tail feathers rub over it.

"Um nothing seemed to have happened," Harry said as Fawks flew around the room and came to
rest not back on its perch by Harry's shoulder.

"Ah but that is because I am allowing you to see past it. Now pay attention, my lads," the Hat said
as for an instant it changed back into its former ratty appearance.

"A Glamour I dare say," Percy said impressed having never seen one so well made.

"More than that is the Magic of the Castle to protect itself again with the approval of Godric and
Salazar's Heir," the Hat said giving Harry a little bow as he also used his tip to point at the glass
case where the sword had been making them all look. If Harry was not still holding the sword in
his right hand he would have thought that it was back in the case; for with the case closed there
appeared a duplicate Sword of Gryffindor.

Harry was about to say more when a large explosion was heard from below. "I am guessing that is
George and Blaise," Theo said as they all paused to listen only for the three students to hear
someone climbing up the stairs.

"Bloody fools if Molly would not throw a fit I would get rid of them," Dumbles' voice said as the
footsteps got closer.

"What do we do? He does not seem to be in a good mood and the Prank did not stop him?" Harry
asked the two taller boys.

"Easy," the Hat said, " Theodore Nott II and Percy Weasley if you would be so kind to take hold of
young Harry Potter it will be quickly sorted out." Following the Hat's suggestion having no time to
come up with one of their own. The three Humans were startled as Fawks spread his large
multicolored wings and with a flash of Phoenix Fire whisked them away and into the classroom
Fred and Draco were watching the map.

"Bloody Hell how did you manage that?' Fred asked as he and Draco moved apart from where they
had been standing shoulder to shoulder looking at the map.

"What's with the Phoenix?" Draco asked as both Harry and Theo noticed a small blush in his
cheeks.

"This is Fawks I was told that he was Dumbles bird but I think he is actually connected to the
school itself," Harry said as Fawks gave his shoulder a quick squeeze which Harry read as his
guess had been correct as he flashed back to the Headmaster's Office. As the Phoenix vanished
Harry felt something roll down the shoulder Fawks had been using as a perch and slide into one of
his robe pockets.

Reaching into the pocket Harry was shocked as he withdrew the Silver ring of the Peverell family
and slipped it on. "Very good my lad as you have gained control of the Gryffindor Line that brings
up your total of two of my family's branching paths letting you take your place as Lord Peverell use
it well," Ignotus said with a smile having not bothered to enter the Judging space but appear before
everyone in the room.

"Well Godric approved you getting the sword I see," Draco said approaching Harry from the left
side and giving the sword a wide birth.

"He did now all that leaves is what to do with the Sword?" Harry said as the Gryffindor Ring
flashed a little as Godric appeared before him.

"I would suggest you send it back to my Vaults like it had been resting in before you pulled it out
of my hat in Salazar's Chamber," Godric said as all but Harry stared in amazement at him.

"Um, good idea how do I actually do that without going to the bank?" Harry asked.

"Gods the teaching has gone downhill since I left hasn't it. Use a Transference Ritual and have the
endpoint be at Gringotts they will see to it, especially if you attach a note," Godric said with a
slight huff.

Harry was about to point out he had no idea how to perform such a ritual when the others spoke up
saying they would help him perform it. So as they waited for George and Blaise to get back from
their prank Harry watched as Draco, Theo, Percy, and Fred began to use some leftover chalk to
place a large rune on the floor. While he had perused much of his class book on runes he did not
recognize the one that the others were putting into place making him think it was a common one
that Magical Families might use from time to time. When the rune was complete the others had
Harry step inside of the design, making sure not to smudge any of the design, before he laid the
Godric's Sword in the very middle of the rune. Harry was then instructed to kneel before the sword
and place his left hand, since it had his rings on it, on a specific place before he was told to repeat
after them. "I Harry James Potter Lord and Heir of the Bravest House of Gryffindor transfer this,
my ancestor's sword back to the vaults of the British branch of Gringotts Banks," once Harry stated
this there was a bright flash as the sword vanished as did the markings on the floor.

Performing the Transference Ritual also took a bit of his magic making Harry places his head in his
hands and take a few deep breaths to regain his strength. As his head was down he also witnesses
the three rings on his finger merge with the single ring seeming to flash between the looks of all
three rings before it stopped and looked like the Slytherin Ring again. The ring flashed making
Theo, and Draco gasped as Salazar appeared in the room. "My Great Granduncle Iggy, Godric, and
I thought it would be best to make it look like you only still had the ring you have been wearing
rather than a new one," Salazar said once Harry was able to lift his head to look up at him.

"Thanks," Harry said still a little breathlessly as he tottered in place. Before he could fully collapse
the others rushed forward and pulled him up as Percy transfigured one of the room's desks into a
couch and laid Harry in it. "And thank you, Percy," Harry said with a smile as he closed his eyes
when his body entered a meditative healing state.

As the group had agreed to all meet up together after going after the sword as Harry rested the
others waited for Blaise and George to arrive before they left the room. After a while, the door
creaked a little as George's voice stated, "I think we have a problem Dumbles entered his office a
while ago and even left it again but there has been no sign of Harry, Percy, or Theo."

Without opening his eyes Harry heard what sounded like a blow to flesh making contact with other
flesh before Fred's voice stated, "It is alright they are back you can come in."

"How did they get past us?" Blaise asked as the door opened and the sound of footsteps was heard.

"It seems besides getting the Sword Harry made a new friend," Draco's voice explained. "They got
a lift from a Phoenix." This statement was followed by the sound of a whistle forcing Harry to open
his eyes to glare at them a little.

"Yes Fawks seemed rather happy to help out once the Sorting Hat asked him to," Harry said
pushing himself into a sitting position on the couch.

"Fawks and the Sorting Hat seems your part of the plan was interesting," Blaise stated.

"And how did you two get off? We heard the Headmaster come right up the stairs after your prank
go off so you did not manage to keep his attention," Percy asked.

"Yeah and it was such a waste since I had the prototype swamp go right off when he was in the
middle of it, but all he did was wave his wand and get rid of the grime covering him. I think in our
version we should make it so they can not be affected by magic," George said.
 "At least that is an easy fix," Blaise said, "all would be required would be adding an over-reaching
Anti-Magic Charm on the swamp in its inert state."

"So he just let you go without punishment that seems unlikely," Percy said arching an eyebrow at
the pair.

"Well he didn't but Filch certainly did," George said with a larger smile than most would have
while relaying the news of getting detention with the man.

"And that is a good thing is it?" Draco asked.

"Well his idea of a detention was for us to come back tonight and clean up the mess we made
without using Magic," George said still beaming.

"Apart from that meaning the swamp is left in front of Dumbles office until then I don't see it,"
Theo said while Fred started to laugh a little.

"You see as we do some of the work on our products at home which means we had to find out a
way to get rid of everything quickly before Molly would come and try to confiscate all of our
work," Fred explained.

"That explains why no one could ever find out the sources of bangs and noises coming for your
room," Percy said impressed with both the twins' foresight and ingenuity in their work.

After they finished congratulated themselves on a well-executed plan the group decided to head
back to their respective Common Rooms, for now but promising to meet up again having found the
whole experience rather fun. As Harry and the older Weasley made their way up to Gryffindor
Tower he was filled with hope since only the Potter family ring was left to collect meaning he just
needed to either get his money back or make those that had wronged him pay for their actions
against him. As they approached the Fat Lady's Portrait rather than wait for them to give her the
password Harry's ring flashed causing the entrance to open on its own. The twins shared a look as
they hardly patted Harry on the back before moving in to shield him just in case their younger
brother or Hermione was in the room. Thankfully, they were not, letting Harry reach the door
leading to his new room and go inside. As soon as he walked into the room the wall behind Harry's
bed began to glow a little making it look like the shape of a door before it vanished. Thinking it
was odd that a door just happened to appear when he returned to his room after he gained the
Gryffindor ring. Wishing he had the map to see if Dean or Seamus were anywhere close to
returning to the room Harry walked over to the area and pressed his palm on the wall on in the area
as the outline had been. As soon as he touched the wall it swung open, and even though he was in
the tallest room in the tower which only had a single wall between the room and the outside he
found another room on the other side of the open doorway.

Chapter End Notes

Ending it here for while I know the room Harry found is the Founder's room I don't
have any idea of how to decorate or what should be inside yet.
 Room for a prank
Chapter Summary

Harry enters the Heir room and later George and Blaise decide to pull a prank together.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Harry just marveled at the magic of Hogwarts as he took in the room that should not be where it
was unless of course he and everyone missed a room the size of a hotel suite attached to one of the
tallest towers of the castle. Inside the room turned out to be a full-on study with empty bookshelves
lining the walls. As he stepped into the room the door slide shut behind him Harry looked over his
shoulder to see at least on this side the door looked like a real door with a nob and everything.
Moving forward to take a look Harry took a step back as a podium appeared out of nowhere in
front of him. He had to snort as he read the cover which listed the book as a sign-in book. Flipping
open the cover Harry read a list of names in various hands which not only stated who had visited
the room but also had which Founder line they were associated with. The pages of the book began
to turn on their own until it stopped on a page that only was half filled out. With a start, Harry saw
that one of the last people who had signed the book was his own father seeing that just like him
James had the same looping strokes on his "a" and "p." Taking up the quill that was laying under
the book Harry signed his own name right under the last name that had been signed into the book.
As he finished signing the book shut itself as it and the podium it was resting on vanished as the
bookshelves began to fill up with volumes with red and green covers.

As he grabbed one of the books at random he found that they appeared to be journals from a past
student. As he had grabbed a red-covered book he decided to take down a green one as well and
found that just like the Hogwarts Houses the journals were color coded with the red covered being
written by the Heirs of Gryffindor while the green was from Slytherin. Wanting to take some time
to read them he looked around for a place to sit he suddenly laid eyes on a comfortable-looking
chair which he knew had not been there a moment ago. Deciding it was part of the Magic, of what
he wanted to call the Heir Room, Harry just walked over to the chair and settled into it. Opening
the book he began to read about a Gryffindor Heir that had been sorted into Hufflepuff. He was so
lost in the journal and Kieran Potter and her time at school and beyond that, he has unknowingly
created a desk so that he could read the book in a better position. Once he became aware of the
new item Harry took a moment to study the desk finding it was made of solid redwood and large
enough that he could lay out and open all of the Hogwarts' school books he owned and still have
room to spare to do his homework on it. Right now, however, there was only one book laying on
the desk. Seeing a bookmark next to the book Harry marked the place in Kieran's Journal to take a
look at the book. As Harry read the new book he saw that it was about the room, which evidently
based on a room created by Rowena Ravenclaw herself, would create almost anything an Heir
would need to study for classes. That at least explained the desk and chair appearing when he had
wanted them to. The room itself could only be called for from either the Heir's dorm room or from
the location where Rowena's Room was located, though the book did not state where the room
was. There was also an asterisk leading to a note that specified that the room could only be
accessed when one had access to all Founder Heir status that they held, which explained why the
room had not appeared to him before today. To stay hidden the room could not be opened if others
were in the main dorm room, at least conscious. Though as the book stated the room was to be
used for study only and while it could create most things it was prevented from creating a bed for
the Heir to use as a secondary dorm.

Reaching the end of the short book Harry was surprised to find an insert like a poster that he had
seen come out of game guides Dudley would get. Pulling out the insert Harry opened it up and
found a magical map like the twins had in their possessions, but unlike theirs, it showed the
Gryffindor's new divided dorm rooms. Harry spent some time watching the map and seeing the dot
labeled Ronald Weasley go in and out of the door to the dorms making Harry guess he was trying
to get into Harry's room. Each time Ron left his dorm room and tried to gain access a speech
bubble would appear over the dot as Ron tried to cast a different spell trying to get inside. Harry
could only guess that someone had given the redhead the spells for he recognized none of the
spells his former friend was casting thought that means they could be from Hermione, his mother,
or Dumbles. Watching Ron move back and forth he noticed that the redhead was not alone as the
dot with his name attached to it was larger than the others that Harry could see in the main
Gryffindor Common Room.

Wondering why Ron's dot was bigger Harry saw if he could get the map to zoom or something by
tapping it with his wand. He could not help but smile as he saw it actually worked as the surface of
the map moved to cover only the stairwell and the two Third-Year male dorms. Now with a more
focused view, Harry was able to see that Ron was not alone someone by the name of Peter
Pettigrew was with him. Recalling the name from the twins' map, which had to be either based on
or inspired the one he now held. Well, at least that explained the spells Ron was using Peter must
be sharing them with his former friend. Harry decided to talk to the twins later to find out how their
younger brother knew Peter, but also seeing Dean and Seamus coming up the stairs Harry put the
map down on the desk and left the room lest he gets trapped in the Heir room until the pair left or
fell asleep, which based on the time it was Harry thought was the more likely outcome. Either that
or Dean and Seamus would spend time worrying about where Harry was which could lead to some
complications.

Back in the dorm room Harry takes out A New Hope and went back to reading it on the bed as if
he had spent the day like that. Knowing that Ron had been trying to get into the room Harry looked
up as the pair walked in to see if he could see the redhead on the stairs. Shifting his body a little
and repositioning Theo's book so it would not seem strange that he was looking at the door he was
able to catch a small glimpse of red hair but no one else seemed to be there beside him making him
wonder if Peter had an Invisibility Cloak or another way that made it so he could not be seen. With
the door, open Ron started to follow Seamus and Dean as he started to say, "Hey Ha.." Only to
vanish from sight as he stepped through the door. Harry had to smile at these new rooms and the
Magic of the Castle for it really knew its stuff.

As Harry settled in to read some more of the book he had borrowed from Theo, and his roommates
got ready for bed George and Blaise were being directed by Filch to clean up the Portable Swamp
they had set off a couple of hours ago. "I have other students working off detentions elsewhere in
the castle so I shall leave you two to it, but be warned I will be back randomly to check your
progress," the man said with a sneer before turning a corner waiting ten seconds and popping back
again. "I am always watching," he said pointing at his eyes and them a couple of times before
leaving for real. To keep up the charade that it was hard to clean um George and Blaise were using
the provided cleaning supplies to scrub the floor for a bit before George pulled out the Marauder's
Map to make sure the caretaker was far enough away before he moved over and made the swamp
revert to its carry stage.

"So how do you suggest we spend the time?" George asked the dark skin Slytherin boy once they
had placed the Anti-Magic Charm on the inert swamp.

"Well we could read a book," Blaise suggested with the corners of his mouth raised in a small
smile "or we could pull a prank."

"Really Slytherins prank?" George asked with a small laugh.

"Of course we do we just are better at not getting caught, and for good reason," Blaise said smugly.

"Oh, and what reason is that?" George asked.

"An old Slytherin House bylaw that if a student gets in trouble from any member of staff other than
our Head of House we have to serve a detention with them as well the next night," Blaise said
going to sit down on the box containing the inert swamp.

"So you have detention tomorrow with Professor Snape?" George asked with a wince thinking if he
had known that he would not have tried to get Blaise in trouble as the distraction.

"Not really for I was not the one who pulled the prank I was only given a detention for having "set
it off" so Professor Snape said I did not need to serve a detention," Blaise explained with a small
shrug.

"Yeah who would guess that you were part of the planning stages with me," George said sitting
down next to the younger student marveling again that the Slytherin was a little taller than he was.
"So what type of prank do you have in mind?"

Blaise smiled as he reached into his robes and pulled out a bottle of what looked like clear water.
"While talking with Draco and Theo after supper tonight we thought about using this on the old
windbag's Lemon Drops," Blaise said passing over the bottle.

Taking it George popped the top and gave it a sniff only to not smell anything before asking,
"Alright I will bite what is it?"

"This is a time-delayed truth potion, it does not have the strength of say Veritaserum, but it would
get the job done," Blaise said taking the bottle back and putting the stopper back in place. "We
brewed it after we left you guys earlier it is both odorless as you saw, but it also has no taste. We
thought if we dose the lemon drops the windbag is always popping into his mouth we could get
him to spill the beans on random stuff. We put a time-delayed on it in case he takes one before bed
or right after waking up."

"An interesting idea but I think I can improve it a little," George said rubbing his hands together
making Blaise believe what the Sorting Hat had told Theo about the twins suited for Slytherin was
correct.

"Yes and?" Blaise prompted.

"You said you helped brew the potion right," George asked leaning in and pressing his shoulder
into Blaise's.

"Yessss," Blaise responded hesitantly.

"So you would be able to tell me if the potion would have a negative side effect if it was combined
with a Babbling Hex?" George asked with a smirk making Blaise start to laugh as he realized what
George had in mind.

"Oh, that could work," Blaise said still laughing a little as he handed the bottle over to George
again as he glanced at the map. While George added the spell to the potion Blaise, seeing Filch
returning on the map pulled George off the box and reactivated the swamp using his broader body
to block any splash from the swamp so it would not hit either George or the Potion.

Blaise then went back to "scrubbing" the floor clean of the swamp as the caretaker popped around
the corner as if expecting them to be goofing off. Thankfully with some of the aspect of the swamp
blocking him from view, George was able to finish enchanting the potion and get back to "work"
before Filch saw him. Filch stayed to watch them for a bit giving them orders like "but your back
into it" and "I want this floor clean enough to eat off of." Or just generally complaining that
Hogwarts never should have gotten rid of punishments like hanging the students by their ankles or
whipping them. This confused both teens who had Parents and Grandparents who had gone to
Hogwarts but had never mentioned any punishments like that. As Blaise was cleaning a bit of
muck by the wall he sort of figured out why Filch wanted those types of punishment as he noticed
the caretaker eyeing George's backside as he had the redhead scrub some grime off the floor. For
some reason, Blaise wanted to knock the man's lights out seeing the lecherous look he was giving
his new friend. Especially as Blaise saw the man lick his lips as George, who was having trouble
getting rid of a bit of grim was putting some effort into it making his robe-covered bottom wiggle
back and forth. Blaise had a feeling that if Filch was not a Squib the man would be using magic to
take advantage of the students he had to watch over during detentions and then using memory
charms on them to make them forget he had done so.

Having enough of the man's basically fucking George with his eyes, Blaise went to get some fresh
water for his mop bucket only to "accidentally" drop his bucket containing dirty swamp water near
Filch and messing up the man's pants and shoes. Filch glared at him saying he should get another
detention for his actions before the old pervert ran away to put on some clean clothing. As soon as
the man was gone Blaise reverted the swamp again and told George about what he had noticed
from the caretaker, making George shiver in revulsion before turning to where the man had left
from and made a rude gesture. The pair made sure Filch was actually heading to his office/room on
the first floor rather than heading somewhere else to get cleaned before they checked on where the
windbag was. Blaise let out a small curse seeing the man was still in his office before George
pointed out that the Headmaster's office was more aligned with Filch's since it doubled as the man's
rooms as well, unlike the other members of the staff who had both a room and an office.

George and Blaise huddled together over the map as one watched Filch and the other Dumbles to
see what they were doing. George seeing Filch move to a small room inside his office thought the
bastard was possibly taking a shower to clean the swamp water off of himself. George could not
help but smile a little at Blaise's actions making the man leave for lewdly checking George out.
Said male, was watching the old windbag and saw a speech bubble appear over his head as the
man cast "Nox" in one of the rooms in his office. When the man's dot stayed in the same spot for a
while he assumed Dumbles had gone to bed and wished he knew how long it would take for the
man to fall asleep or how deep a sleeper he was.

As both the caretaker and Headmaster's dots stayed in the same spot for over ten minutes the pair
decided to go douse windbag's lemon drops. Which thanks to the Hex George had put on them
would make the man unable to stop spewing the truth even if no questions were asked of him.
Making both males think of it as diarrhea of the mouth as he would be unable to stop it. George had
even added an Anti-Magic Charm, after making sure that would not alter the potion with Blaise so
that the fool would have to wait for the potion to run out of his system. That plus the potion being
activating only after a certain amount of time would make it hard for windbag to know how he had
got it in his system.

As they approached the Gargoyle which blocked the entrance to the stairs leading up to the office
George snapped his fingers with a bout of inspiration before casting both a Notice-Me-Not Charm
and a Muffling spell on the pair of them so they could get into the office without the Portraits that
the others mentioned being in there from noticing them as they doused the lemon drops. Blaise
gave him a nod of thanks as they used the map to check the password to the office. Rather than ride
the moving stairway both ran up the stairs smirking as they found that Dumbles in his arrogance
did not even have any charms or protections on the door to the Headmaster's Office/rooms letting
them go right in rather than have to use an Alohomora on the door. Both winced a little as the door
squeaked but as no other sound was heard they went into the room.

Unknown to the pair was even with the spells they had put in place to not be seen or heard had no
actual impact on the inhabitants of the Portraits on the walls. However, as they were not the only
students to ever sneak into the Headmaster's rooms they assumed the pair were in the middle of
some prank, which depending on its nature they would not interfere with. Most of the Portraits
actually smiled to see that once again rather than just students from a single house. Such as the
times the current Head met with the young bushy-haired witch and the two young redheads, who
appeared to possibly be younger siblings of one of the pranksters. These two like the young Heir's
party were from different Houses. Seeing one of the pranksters pull out a bottle of potion one of the
Portraits, that of Helga Ravenclaw, surreptitiously used their wand to make sure the contents of the
bottle were not poisonous; Getting the results back on her wand she gave a slight head nod to her
fellow Portraits to say it was alright while trying not to laugh having seen what the Potion would
do if ingested. She had to actually bite her lip as she saw the pair go to Albus's desk and pull out
the man's supply of lemon drops. The dark-skinned student pulled out a small bowl from inside of
his robes and the pair poured the entire bag into the bowl before having them soak in the Potion.
Seeing this the Former Head who had made sure the potion was not a poison had to go visit one of
her other Portraits so she could actually laugh finding her sides were starting to hurt from keeping
the laughter in. By the time she had returned the pair of pranksters had poured the enchanted
candies back into their original container before they left the office. Knowing that Albus put up
silencing spells so he did not have to hear anything going on in his office when he slept the other
former Heads began to bombard her with questions asking what the potion had been. When Helga
told them the whole lot burst out laughing, having long ago lost any respect for the current head of
the Castle. Well, most Portraits laughed the only one that did not was Albus' immediate
predecessor, Armando Dippet, who Albus feared telling the truth about how Dibbet had been
forced out of the school, in the end, had placed a Silencing Spell on his Portrait. Dibbet did smile
 though at the news of what the candies would do to the man thinking it was just dessert, as it were.

Chapter End Notes

A small shout out to Rowenasheir for the idea of using truth potion-laced lemon drops,
even if it was for another one of my stories.

Also, the whole idea of Filch's preferred punishments to the students made no sense to
me as we had never heard about it ever happening during any scene or story that takes
place in the time before Harry was at the school. With tales of James and Sirius using
the mirrors to stay in contact with each other during detentions. Or even times during
Tom and Hagrid at school no such punishment was ever talked about. This makes me
think Filch just wants to do it to bind up the students for either a power play or his own
twisted pleasure hence the lecherous stare at George's ass as he cleaned.
 Dumbles' Confession #1 Family Matters
Chapter Summary

George and Blaise's prank starts to pay off.

Chapter Notes

As you can guess from the chapter title I am planning to do multiple chapters of
Dumbles having to spill the beans due to the truth potion on his lemon drops. This
way I can keep the story going longer rather than having the man tell-all about
stealing from Harry and his minions.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The day after George and Blaise doused the Headmaster's lemon drops during their "detention"
they let the others of their group know about the prank, and since Dumbles was asleep coupled
with the time release of the potion it would not come into effect no earlier than at lunch. George
and Blaise also brought up the idea of meeting up again in the Mirror of Erised room after
breakfast to their groups. While Harry, Fred, Draco, and Theo were amenable to the idea Percy
could not make it due to having a date scheduled with Penelope where they would use the fact that
they were both of age to go to Hogsmead. Harry felt a shot of jealousy at the Ravenclaw girl but he
knew Percy would never see him as anything other than his younger brothers' friend.

"Alright first things first," George said as the group had assembled in the room. "You three have
proven worthy so I think you need to get some codenames like the rest of us."

"And what would those happen to be?" Draco asked bracing himself as if fearing the worst.

"Well Fred is Chaos, I am Random, Percy is Order and Harry is Fangs," George said showing that
once again when they were with people they really trusted they would not alternate the speech
patterns as twins.

"So what do you have in mind for us than " Random?" Theo asked rolling his eyes a little.

"Well, let's see we want names that fit with your characters but can be misinterpreted by others. So
I was thinking for Draco we go with Hairspray, Blaise can be Muscles, and Theo as Bookwyrm
that is W Y R M, not W O R M," George said.

Surprisingly it was not Draco that raised an issue with his codename but Theo. "No absolutely not,"
Theo said crossing his arms and glaring at the redhead.

"And may I ask why not?" George said having thought the name was rather clever.

"A Wyrn is a water dragon," Theo said as if his issue was easy to see. "Water and books do not go
well together. So if you want to go with my love of reading go with a Literary Drak or LD." George
looks mystified at the explanation while Harry could not help but start to laugh.

"Alright, Theo is Literary Drak or LD than anyone else have any issues with their code name?"
Fred asked for his still mystified twin.

"Fine by me," Blaise said with a smile flexing an arm.

"Sure whatever," Draco said.

"That settles it then we are really allies," George said holding his hand out to shake the Slytherins
students' hands.

"I have a question for you," Harry said turning to the twins.

"Shoot," Fred said arching an eyebrow at him.

"How does Ronald know Peter Pettigrew?" Harry asked.

"Why would he know Peter, the man's dead Harry," Draco said.

"That was one of the creators of the map, and friend with your Dad right?" Fred asked at the same
time

"I don't think Peter is dead," Harry said before he shared with everyone about finding the Heir
Room and another version of the map in which he saw Ron trying to get into his room alongside
the man.

"Let us check that out," George said as he pulled the map from where it had been secreted within
his robes. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." At the code phrase, the map began to fill out.
Once it was fully rendered Fred and George activated the search function to find their younger
brother. Just like Harry had seen on the map in the Heir Room the twins saw that Ron's marker was
a little larger than the others on the map. Fred reached down and tapped the map with his finger
causing it to zoom in on Ron's name showing that once again the redhead was not alone but was
with Peter Pettigrew.

"How is that even possible?" Blaise asked.

"I don't know but maybe Professor Lupin would since according to the map he was also one of my
Dad's friends," Harry said leading them to search their new D.A.D.A. Professor but the man it
seemed was not in the castle for after searching for five minutes they had been unable to find him
at all.

After being unable to find the man the group decided to go their separate ways to not raise
questions from the other students wondering where they were and making someone come to look
for them and find them all together. Harry wanted to spend some time in the Heir Room with more
of the journals, but he did not want to head back to Gryffindor Tower lest he ran into the pair of
pests. So he decided to head to the library and see if it contained any other books on Lordships or
maybe see what "Muggle" books the castle had. He found that Theo had been correct about there
being no Star Wars books, but Harry had found the other book series Theo had mentioned as he
pulled down the first book to see how it was. Thankfully with the Intelligence damping potions out
of him, Harry had already finished all his homework for the weekend so he could just read the
book he had found. However, he also knew that if she did not find him in the Common Room
Hermione might come to the library to do some of her homework so he had to make sure that he sat
at a table that either had no room for her or with people she would never join. He knew she would
not join if he sat with some Slytherin students, but he wanted to play into the idea that he was
trying to gain friends/allies in other houses. Spotting a table mostly filled with a mixture of
Ravenclaw and Huffelpuffs reading non-class books. After making sure they were not having a
meeting or something he took one of the open seats and began to read the story. If either pest had
shown up Harry was not aware of it as he read the book until the others left the table to head to
lunch.

Recalling the words of the twins Harry headed to the nearest open seat by the Head table to see if
he could see if Dumbles had taken any of the Truth-Potion dosed lemon drops, where he was soon
joined by the twins as well as Percy, while at the Slytherin table Draco, Blaise, and Theo also sat
as close as they could to the man at their own table.

Albus was in a bad mood after the meeting with the four well now five Head of Houses the day
before. After the meeting, he had to head out to the Hogshead to get a free drink at his brother's
pub. He was a little tipsy when he got back but that did not stop him from easily going past the
swamp that one of those blasted Weasley twins had created before his office. Still too distracted to
do much work he had stewed for a bit before he had called it a night. Waking up he noticed all the
portraits in his office were giving him strange looks but he had learned not to pay attention to them
much long ago. Feeling as if he had deserved it he grabbed two lemon drops and popped them into
his mouth. Deciding to skip breakfast Albus worked for a while to find any sort of way that would
allow him to bypass a Head of Houses' powers to make his weapon take the classes he needed to
take to both stay ignorant of the Magical World and for him to hear the second "Prophecy" from
Sybill about Voldemort coming back. He also wanted to make sure that Harry was moved into the
same room as Molly's brat and his secondary weapon. Yet by lunchtime, he had failed to make any
headway in finding the bypass so he decided to take a break for lunch in the Great hall and maybe
use Minerva's normal seat next to him to put some compulsions on her.

"Hello, Albus how are you doing today?" Minerva asked in her normally friendly tone.

"I still feel a tiny bit guilty about killing my little sister, Ariana when I was younger," he said only
for his eyes to widen when he realized what he said.

"What was that?" Minerva asked.

"I killed my sister when I was younger and for some reason, I feel a little sad about it," Albus said
unable to stop himself.

"Okaaaaaay," the Deputy Headmistress said.

"It was during an argument with my toerag little brother shortly after I graduated Hogwarts about
spending too much time with my boyfriend, Gellert Grindelwald. He wanted me to take care of
Ariana rather than look for the Deathly Hallows. Getting sick of him and that mind-addled sister of
mine I pulled out my wand to just end them. I only managed one spell in the chaos but it still killed
her. I was easily able to convince both Gellert and my brat of a brother that they were her possible
killers making Gellert flee the country, which was good for me for he was starting to bore me,"
Albus said figuring out that he must have been slipped a truth potion in his meal and would have
one of the House Elf's heads for this,

"Um okay I guess in the heat of the moment you could have just made a mistake," another member
of his staff said.

"Oh, I knew full well what I was doing. It was all because of her I could not travel the world and
meet some of the Magicals I had been corresponding with at school. Though I guess it was a good
thing for after she died I was able to at least get out of the house and use my inheritance. Even if all
it allowed me to do was gain an apprenticeship with a Master in Charms. I helped him find out the
twelve uses of Dragon Blood but before he produced his results I sent the list to some of the people
I had written letters to in school leading to them giving me the credit for it. And rightly so I might
add," Albus said wishing he could stop but he found that not only did he keep speaking but was
unable to bring up his hands to block his mouth.

"Are you feeling alright Albus?" Poppy Pomfrey asked.

"I did not see Gellert until years later when I was called to put a stop to his darkness. It was actually
quite easy as I played on his love for me, the fool, and the idea planted the idea that he had killed
Ariana leading him to not put up a fight letting me easily stop him and claim...." Albus found he
could control his mouth again making him snap it shut before revealing he had possession of the
Elder Wand. Albus decided to play the whole thing off as if he had been pranking his staff as a
means to get them back for disagreeing with him yesterday as he pushed aside his tainted food and
left the hall.

George caught Blaise's eye seeing the dose of Truth Potion end with a slight sigh of
disappointment seeing that the fool had not shared about messing with Harry's life or why he was
relying on Molly, Ron, and Hermione, not to mention his former reliance on Ginny, to help pull it
off. The twins knew they had to find out a way to keep track of what Albus let slip after each time
the potion took effect. George thought about the prototype object he and Fred were working on but
he doubted the Extendable Ears would work. First off it would show that they were behind the
potion but also as the man could be anywhere when he spouted off the truth the ears would be
hampered if Dumbles was in his office.

Meeting up in their now normal room George brought up how to make sure that they were able to
know what Dumbles said anytime the truth potion took effect. Fred agreed the ears were a bad
idea, but Blaise suggested detaching the ear from the line and enchanting it with a Parrot charm so
that the ear itself could repeat in the man's own words what he said back to them. "If you do that
why not change it from being an ear to something less noticeable?" Draco suggested.

"Yeah since the Parrot Charm does not need to be on a large object why not cast it on some ABC
gum that Dumbles stepped in or something," Harry added.

Snapping his fingers Fred came up with an idea as he pulled out the prototype joke product and
transfigured it into a small box that could easily be slipped into someone's robes. Casting the spell
to attach the Parrot Charm on the box Fred held it aloft and pronounced, " Let me introduce you to
the Chatter Box, name and product not final or for sale."

"Give me that," Blaise said snatching the box from him adding a couple of spells to the object.
 "What did you just do?" George asked.

"I made it breakable. Rather than slip the box into Dumble's robes we set it in his path so that he
steps on it. Where it will change into nothing so much as a stain on his boots while still keeping
the Parrot Charm in effect. I also added a recall function so that by casting the right spell it will
appear before you, in box form, that way you don't need to collect Dumbles' shoes just to see if he
spouted off more truth. Then all you need to do is either make a copy or use a Quick Quotes Quill
to get his hidden secrets before you set the box before him again. I also added another charm that
prevents him from getting rid of the stain by either Magical or Muggle means," Blaise said simply.

"Damn," the twins said as they and even Percy look impressed at his spell work making the dark-
skinned Slytherin blush a little.

"I also think we should slip some Truth Potion to Filch to see if what I saw last night was correct or
not," Blaise said.

"What did you see?" Percy asked having never liked the man.

"Well to put it honestly he was having George work on a particularly hard to clean bit of floor, but
rather than looking at the cleaning job his eyes were locked on George's ass in a lewd way that I
am quite familiar with due to the suitors for my Mom's affections," Blaise explained.

"We also want to find out why he keeps threatening students with BDSM punishments as a
detention as well," George added as the pair had discussed this in length after they had doused
Dumbles' lemon drops and waited for Filch to return to dismiss them from their detention.

"The bastard," Percy said shocking the twins and Harry for the older redhead was not one to swear.
"Agreed and since he does not have the protection of Dumbles lofty position or much public
support let's hope this gets him fired and maybe even arrested."

Chapter End Notes

The group is doing the Truth Potions route with Filch not knowing if the man has
Dumbles support or not so want concrete proof of the man's nature rather than say
telling Professor McGonagall or one of the other Heads.
 Another Heir
Chapter Summary

The crew plans to douse Filch some Truth Potion and Harry meets another Hogwarts
Heir

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Having heard from Blaise about Filch's lewd looks to George made the group decided to see if they
could slip him some Truth Potion to the man as well. Fred laughed when Harry brought up making
a second Chatter Box for the man. "What is so funny," Harry asked.

"We won't need that. We just need to share with Peeves about him getting the Potion and I think
the Poltragist will do the rest," Fred explained making the others laugh as well.

"There is just one problem," Draco said leaning a little into Fred's body.

"And what is that, Hairspray?" Fred asked looking down at the blonde who Molly had always said
had come from an evil family.

"Hairspray?!?" Percy asked confused letting the others fill him in on the nicknames given to the
three Slytherins while he had been on his date with Penelope Clearwater.

"Well while the old fool has his lemon drops habit that made them an easy target for the potion,
what does Filch have?" Draco asked making them all draw a blank.

"Maybe we should actually bring in Peeves now, for if anyone knows about the man other than
Mrs. Norris it would be him," Theo pointed out.

"We'll do it," the twins volunteered, "after all, we sort of have a working relationship with him."

"I don't even want to know," Percy said rubbing his brow.

"Might be for the best, Order," George said.

"We could brew up some more potion, might have to tweak it a little just in case he shares the item
we douse with Mrs. Norris," Draco said.

"As well as adding the Babbling Hex during the brewing so that it will last longer unlike what
happened to the Windbag," Theo added.

"And what would Percy and I be doing during all this?" Harry asked.

"That is all up to you, Fangs, maybe you should just go into the castle while doing your best to
avoid Granger and our delightful little brother," Fred said.

"Yeah and, Order, should take care of his Headboy duties," Draco said.
"That is a good point I have sort of neglected them lately," Percy said with a slight blush.

"For shame," the twins said "tsking" at him in a playfully teasing way.

"Oh put a sock in it you two," Percy shot back though with a smile on his face making Harry and
the three Slytherins chuckle a little at the friendly relationships between the Weasly siblings since
Harry and the others were all only children.

As the group broke up to take care of business Harry decided to just explore the castle for a bit,
making sure he greeting everyone he came across no matter the year or House they were in. His
real purpose was to see if he could find Rowena's room that had been mentioned in the book he
had found in the Heir room. As he could search for it on the way to his classes come Monday and
he had not found it on the way past the library to the meeting room, he decided to check out areas
of the castle he did not travel to that often.

Having heard from Dean and Seamus about the out-of-the-way place the Divinations classroom
was he decided to head to that one first since it was in a location he would never have a reason to
go to. He was just traveling through a seven-floor corridor on his way to the room as the wall
opposite a tapestry of a man getting beat by Trolls in tutus the outline of a door appeared. Making
sure no one was around Harry pressed his hand to the spot on the outline where a doorknob would
be on a real door. The door swung open at once revealing the same room that he had found in his
dorm room. With one small difference. "Hey, Harry, I was wondering when you were going to
show up. I was expecting to see you before now," Ernie said getting up from the seat he had been
in as the bookcases along the walls started to add red and green books to the yellow-colored books
that showed that the boy was Heir to the Hufflepuff Line.

"Your name was not in the sign-in book," Harry said a little confused.

"Oh, from what my mother told me it is old protection to prevent the Heir's identities secret from
each other just in case over the years some bad blood developed between the four Founder Lines,"
Ernie explained. "So our names, as well as Ravenclaw's Heir if they are at the castle, will not
appear until we actually leave."

"I guess that makes sense," Harry said. "Did the book that appeared explaining the room have a
map to the school in it?"

"You mean this thing?" Ernie asked pulling out the parchment from his robes. "Yeah what about
it?"

"Well I was wondering if it appeared to me due to my father had created a similar map, or if he and
his friends based their map after this one," Harry explained.

"If I had to hazard a guess I would say Hogwarts took its cue from your father since my mother
made no mention of such a map being in the Heir room when she had come here," Ernie said
looking at the map with some new appreciation.

"Can I check something,' Harry said as he had the room bring the map back since he foolishly not
taken it when he left the room last night.
"What's up?" Ernie said as a desk appeared so he could roll the map out on top of it as Harry's soon
joins it.

"Well, when I was looking at the map I found last night I saw someone who I have been told is not
alive. Granted I have not checked out how or even if the ghost appeared on the map I wanted to see
if your map detects them as well," Harry explained as he used the search function for Peter
Pettigrew on his map. Once more finding the man's dot hanging around his former friend. Seeing
the location Harry's map had focused on Ernie directed his map there as well to find the same thing
of Peter and Ronald being so close their dots had merged.

"You are correct that is strange, and having used my map since our First-Year I know they are hard
to fool," Ernie said.

"Can I see your map for a moment," Harry said thinking of something else when Ernie share he
had access to his map for two full years.

"Um, sure," the other boy said moving out of his way. Harry gave him a quick nod as he moved
the map's focus away from Peter/Ronald and to the place on the map where the Chamber of
Secrets was located only to find it blank.

"What?" Harry asked feeling confused.

"What's up Harry?" Ernie asked.

"Your map does not show the Chamber of Secret on it," Harry said pulling his map over and laying
them on top so Ernie could see the Chamber on his map.

"Strange... Do you have Helga's study on yours?" Ernie said shifting the focal point on his map to a
small room located behind a space labeled Kitchens. Harry shifted his map to the same spot but
found no evidence of the room on his.

"Huh," Harry said as a thought came to him. "Maybe they don't appear on our Maps due to we
don't come from those Lines."

"Makes sense," Ernie said with a nod, "is there a special room for the Gryfindor Line?"

Thinking it was a good question Harry had Ernie help him look over his map to see if they could
find any such room. After a while, the pair was almost ready to give up having not found any trace
of it within the castle itself before Ernie directed the map to show the grounds, though Harry could
not see how a special room could be located anywhere but inside the castle. He was thus shocked
as they located such a space in what looked like in the middle of the Dark Lake. The only issue was
that the map did not show any way to actually reach the room itself. "I wonder if anyone since
Godric has been able to access it?" Harry said looking up at the red-colored books lining the walls
of the room.

"Why not ask him yourself?" Ernie questioned.

"I keep forgetting I can do that," Harry admitted as he called forth the Gryffindor ring and
summoned Godric.

"Ah hello young Heir Hufflepuff it is good to see the line still going strong," Godric said bowing
slightly to Ernie as the boy gave him a bow in return. "So from your memories I see you both wish
to know how to access my personal study," Godric said seeming to tap his sword on the floor.

"That is correct Godric," Harry said.

"Well good on you, but unfortunately it can only be accessed one of two ways. The first is having
an aquatic Animagus form such as I had, or the use of my familiar," Godric told them.

"Well, we have not learned how to become an Animagus yet so who is your familiar?" Harry
asked.

"You've met them both times after you have handled my sword," Godric said arching an eyebrow
at Harry as if saying he would not share anything else around Ernie.

"Is there any actual reason I need to go into your study?" Harry asked not wanting to take his
chances of sneaking into the Headmasters office again.

"Not really no, but I would suggest you at least try once before you graduate," Godric said as his
form began to fade out.

"Wait, Lord Gryffindor," Ernie called out causing Godric to turn to him.

"Yes, Heir Hufflepuff?" Godric asked.

"If you don't mind me asking what was your Animagus form?" Ernie asked.

"Ah, I was the original Giant Squid that was in the lake. I had used it so often that my form had
become a main part of the school so before I died I found a family of the creatures and brought
them to the lake where they have flourished," Godric explained.

"Fascinating," Ernie said rubbing his chin as Godric faded out once more.

After Godric faded away Harry summoned his own seat as the pair began to talk about being Heirs
to the Founders. Harry was saddened to learn that while Ernie was considered an Heir he could
never be considered the Lord of the House, due to an event when his mother was young when the
last Leader of the House his Great Aunt Hepzibah Smith had died unexpectedly without naming an
Heir. While that was not good it got worse when Helga Hufflepuff's cup had vanished. The entire
family had gotten together and had decided that to be named the next Lord/Lady to lead the
Hufflepuff Line they had to gain possession of the cup, making Harry think of how he needed
Godric's sword to take over that line. But at least Ernie and the rest of his family still had Heir
status in the Hufflepuff line which allowed his new friend access to this room.

As Harry met Ernie in the Heir room the Weasley twins meet with Peeves to see if the Poltragist
wanted to help them rid the castle of Filch. "Oh what a delightful idea, but I can't help but wonder
why now?" Peeves asked floating upside down before them.

"According to one of our sources he was lewdly checking out some of the students," George
answered.
"And by sources you mean young Heir Zabini who saw the caretaking ogling you out last night?"
Peeves asked shocking them both.

"Fine yes but we also think it is a good idea due to him always saying he wants to hang any trouble
maker by their ankles and whip them," Fred said as his twin blushed.

"You know it was all so noble of Heir Zabini after he saw Filch eyeballing you last night. Due to
my nature, I can read you, humans, like a book, and Heir Zabini, looked as if he wanted to curse or
throttle the man yet all he did was dump swamp water on him," Peeves teased.

"That is neither here nor there, will you help us or not?" George said blushing even deeper hearing
about what Blaise had wanted to do to the perverted caretaker. George could admit to himself that
the young Slytherin was rather handsome, well hot if he was being honest to himself, and sure
unlike his twin he tended to be more submissive but Blaise was just acting on their new friendship
with the Slytherins.

"Of course I will help you get rid of the man I have been trying for years," Peeves said.

"Really?" the twins asked in unison.

"As I just stated I saw his treatment to you during your "detention" last night. I do the same thing
anytime a student has detentions with him due to his threats," Peeves answered showing he was
being utterly serious as he turned his body so he was floating right side up and appeared to be
floating above one of the desks in the room they had found him in.

"Why have you never told a member of the staff about this?" Fred asked eagerly since the pair of
them had gotten a detention a month since they had started Hogwarts.

"I tried, I really did," Peeves said shocking them as he placed his face in his hands. "But I gave up
when Headmaster Dumbeldore informed me that he thought I was lying to get the man fired, and
even threatened to exercise me from the castle if I did not stop. As I could not exist outside of
Hogwarts due to the Founders creating me to give the school a sense of child-like glee mixed with
mischief I had to submit. This did not stop me from making the man's life a living hell for trying to
mess with my students," Peeves said lifting his head from his hand and giving them a look filled
with righteous fury.

"The bastard," Fred said balling his hands into his fist for even after hearing all he had done to
Harry it still shocked him that the Dumbass would willingly allow a man such as FIlch to be
around kids and young adults.

"Why the fuck would he not get rid of Filch?" George asked filled with even more anger than his
brother.

"It took me years of asking myself that same question before I found out myself," Peeves said
making the twins who had started to pace stop and look over at him.

"Well don't just keep it to yourself out with it Peeves," they said in unison.

"The reason the Headmaster keeps FIlch around is since he is his father," Peeves said shocking the
twins for out of everything they had expected that was not it.

"Mother Fucking Bitch Ass Cunt Sucking Assholes!!!!," George said shocking, Fred who has
never seen his twin lose it like that for George was usually the more gentile and kinder of the pair
of them.

"Rightly so," Peeves said lifting a hand as if he was toasting the redhead.

"Alright just to let you know we are also working to get rid of the Dumbass as well," Fred said as
George punched one of the walls to help calm himself down.
Peeves chuckled at the twins' name for the Headmaster before he asked, "Is that why he was
spewing out about killing his sister at breakfast?"

"Yes we slipped him some Truth Potion along that had a Babbling Hex so he would be forced to
admit messing with Harry's life," George said through gritted teeth from both the anger he felt at
the man but also the pain in his hand for punching the wall.

"Oh, you never aim low do you, boys?" Peeves asked giving them an approving laugh as he tipped
his hat to them.

"No we do not, not when our friends and family are involved," Fred said gently taking George's
hand and casting a simple healing charm on it to help relieve the pain.

"So I take it you are trying to dose Filch with a similar Potion as well?" Peeves asked.

"Yes as soon as our friends brew it and we can find something to use it on," George said as he
arched his eyebrow at the poltergeist as a question.

"Well unlike his daddy Dumbass our dear caretaker likes to pop two kinds of Muggle treats. A
nasty marshmallow thing called a Peep, and a pure sugar item called candy corn. The man has
filled the bottom drawers of his desk with both treats and when no one is around he will gobble
them down like there is no tomorrow," Peeves informed them.

"Thanks for the info Peeves," George said as he turned to the door thinking they should inform
Blaise, Draco, and Theo about the item in case the trio need to alter the potion.

"Would you mind helping us out a little with the Dumbass as well?" Fred asked having made no
move to the door.

"What do you need?" Peeves asked.

Fred pulled out the Chatter Box from his pocket. "We just need you to place this somewhere where
Dumbass will step on it. It will allow us to keep track of what he lets slip when the Truth Potion
activates. We will also use one on FIlch after we douse him with Potion as well."

"Remarkable work. A little bit better than your usual items but I am guessing that has to do with
the spells Heir Zabini placed on it?" Peeves asked wiggling his eyebrows at George who blushed a
little.

"Yes he is helping us out a little at least in this," Fred said. "So will you help with this bit as well?"

"Oh yes, threaten to expel me from the castle which would kill me, not to mention not properly
caring for the student's safety. I hope you do your worse/best on him boys," Peeves said as he
snatched the Chatter Box from Fred's hands and zoomed away to place it in the Dumbass's path.
 The twins trusting Peeves would do what he said he would and not place the Chatter Box in a place
where it would be used on someone else they pulled out the map and located Hairspray, Muscles,
and L.D. both a little surprised that on the map the trio's names had actually shifted to display the
codenames. Taking note that the three Slytherin Third-Years were in one of the secondary Potions
Labs they also checked on Percy and Harry to see if their names had changed as well.* They were
easy to find Percu, seeing his name had changed to Order, as their older brother was in Gryffindor
tower surrounded by a group of students. The pair guessed Percy was leading one of the new study
groups as the names around him showed them to be a mix of First and Second-Year students. But
of Harry there was no sign, they were worried for a moment before they saw the Third-Year male
dorm in Gryffindor showed their younger brother and Granger inside it. Having found that the map
only showed one of the now two rooms per year inside Gryffindor tower the pair thought Harry
must have headed up to his room to avoided the pair.

Making sure no one saw them Fred and George slipped into the room where their new Slytherin
friends were brewing the Potion for FIlcih. The pair almost chuckled for it seems Draco was doing
most of the Brewing while Blaise handed over the ingredients and Theo just sat reading a book.
Though they had made no noise entering the room, even closing the door without an audible snap
both Draco and Blaise looked up at them and smiled. What was strange was as soon as the pair
were noticed without a word being said between them Fred took Blaise's place in helping with the
Potion as he quickly informed the blonde what items the potion would be used on, while Blaise
had gone over to George. "So did Peeves agree to help us out?" Blaise asked as he and George took
seats at a nearby table to give Fred and Draco room to brew.

"He did, as well as some interesting news," George said sharing what they had learned about the
caretaker's relationship to the Headmaster.

"What happened to your hand?" Blaise asked as George curled his hand into a fist again on top of
the desk.

"I punched a wall," the Fifth-Year redhead said with a small blush. Blaise just shook his head as he
pulled out his wand and cast a healing spell on George's hand which heal the damage done to it
from the punch as well as getting rid of the last hints of pain that had not been soothed from Fred's
earlier spell. "Thanks," George said blushing a little deeper but making no move to remove his
hand from Blaise's and actually leaning into the taller younger boy as the pair watched Fred and
Draco switch places as Fred took over brewing the Potion with as Draco worked on preparing the
ingredients for the final potion.

Chapter End Notes

* This is due to an enchantment I see that is on the Map where it will show the name a
person thinks about the other is called when they look at it. I see this enchantment
being put on it when the Marauders learned that some Hogwarts students did not like
the names their parents gave them so had chosen their own names. Such as in the case
of Andromeda who preferred to go by Andy or any student who had a deadname from
being born the wrong sex than they knew they are.
Thus as the twins were just discussing their plans to oust Dumbles and FIlch
everyone's nicknames replaced their real name.
 Black Message
Chapter Summary

Several teachers leave a message for Sirius with the Fat Lady's Portrait.

Chapter Notes

Some of this chapter is a flashback from after Remus learns about Sirius.

Gladys is the name I am giving to the Fat Lady, which I think is strange, and slightly
rude that she is never given a proper name.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

While Harry and his friends waited on the Chatter Box they had placed in Dumbles path and the
chance to slip the Truth Potion mixture to Filch, Professors McGonagall and Babbling were
planning what to do about it Sirius. Since they both knew the man was innocent they could not
think of why he was heading to Hogwarts. They had decided that maybe he was trying to reach
Harry to prove his innocence somehow. Also, since they had separated the dorm rooms, they had
gotten rid of the nameplates meaning Sirius if he managed to get into Gyrffindor Tower could end
up in any room. "Maybe we should prevent him from entering the tower at all," Batty suggested.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Minerva asked.

"Well on the off chance he manages to make it into the castle he would most likely try to do it
when the path to the tower was clear. So why don't we leave a message for him with Gladys?"
Batty asked.

"That could work. I really don't trust Albus's protections to prevent him from entering the castle nor
the Dementors not going overboard," Minerva stated. "Gladys could at least pass on a message to
meet us at a certain location to find out what he really wants."

"I would suggest your office Minnie, after all, he would recall you from his time as a student as
being the only Head of House," Batty said.

"Why my office and not some random classroom?" Minerva asked.

"If we plan a classroom we would a) have to pick one of the numerous unused rooms, b) have to
Ward it which might attract someone's attention, and finally c) we can never be sure which rooms
students don't use themselves. While if we use your office it would not seem strange for you to
Ward it. Plus as we have no idea when Sirius will show up so would not know when to check the
classroom," Batty explained.

"While if he went to my office he would either find me already there or I would find him soon
enough," Minerva finished seeing the logic of the plan.
"Precisely," Batty said with a smile.

As most at the castle still believed Sirius was one of He-Who-Should-Be-Nameless Minerva and
Batty waited until after curfew as well as a time when there were not Preferts or other teachers
whose patrol routes were nowhere near Gladys's portrait. "Isn't it a little late for a House meeting,
or is this a surprise inspection?" Gladys aka the Fat Lady asked,

"Actually we came to see you so you could pass on a message to Sirius Black if he ever showed
up," Minerva said.

"Ah, so you want me to raise an alarm and summoned someone to come take him in?" Gladys
asked.

"Actually no," Minerva said. She then used something she learned from the other Head of House
as she said, "By order of the Head of Gryffindor House I hereby override the entrance to
Gyrffindor Tower." At her words, Gladys appeared to go into a trance.

"How may I work to protect the students of Gryffindor House?" Gladys asked in a monotone voice.

"If Sirius Black shows up you are to give him the following message," Minerva said.

"Speak the message to be recorded," Glady said in the same monotone voice.

"Sirius I have learned you are innocent, but going after Harry will not solve anything. Please go to
my office and wait for me there. If I can I will help you but only if you come to see me. From
Minerva "Minnie" McGonagall. Please repeated the message back," Minerva ordered. She then
watched as Gladys opened her mouth but rather than either her normal voice or the monotone voice
she had been using Minerva's own voice came out to deliver the message she had left, all without
Gladys actually moving her mouth. "That will do Gladys you are to forget this conversation or any
meeting with Sirius Black," Minerva ordered.

"Isn't it a little late for a House meeting, or is this a surprise inspection?" Glady asked as she came
back to herself.

"We thought we would just come to check to see how the students were dealing with the room
change," Batty said with a smile as Gladys's portrait opened to let them inside.
While they did not know it Minerva and Batty were actually second to leave a message for Sirius
with the portrait the guarded the entrance to Gyrffindor Tower. The first had been Remus shortly
before Batty had become the Co-Head of House.

Flashback

It had all started when Harry had informed Remus about Sirius being both innocent and married to
a member of the Lupin family. Remus had waited until his last class of the day had ended before he
left the castle as if he was heading down to Hogsmead to check out the village again, but as soon as
he passed the protective line of Dementors stationed outside the Hogwart's Wards he had
Apparated to Trap Street. For while the main branch of Gringotts in Brittian was located in Diagon
Alley, Trap Street was more accepting of Magicals with creature blood both inherited or forced
such as his werewolf. Not having to hide what he was Remus had headed to the small branch office
of the Magical bank. Another good thing about Trap Street was the fact that the bank knowing that
some creatures were ostracised and did not have access to funds that other Magicals did offer some
services free of charge that other branches would charge for.

"Hello sir, how may I be of service today?" the Goblin asked when Remus had made his way to the
front of the queen.

"Hello, Master Goblin. I was wondering if I could get an Inheritance Test today," Remus said
pulling out some of the money he had received for taking the job at Hogwarts and placing it on the
counter before the Goblin.

"You are aware sir, that an Inheritance Test is free for a Creature Blooded Magical at this Bank
correct?" the Goblin asked making no move to take the money before him.

"I am aware but I also want a more in-depth test than a simple test will show," Remus explained.

"May I ask the reason for getting this test today?" the Goblin asked still making no move to take
the money, though seeing it sidelong looks.

"I had one of my new students inform me that he had a test done at a different branch which stated
one of my old friends was not only innocent of some charges against him but also that he was
married to a member of my family. As I don't see this old friend being with a member of my family
due to it being mostly Muggle, they could only be married to me, but I have no memory of it
happening," Remus said.

"I see," the Goblin said taking some notes on a pad before him, "just for our records can you give
us the name of the student who informed you of this."

"Nothing will happen to them for me sharing this information will it?" Remus asked.

"That all depends sir. If they gave you accurate information nothing will come of it, but if they
mislead you we would have to charge them for causing you to waste your funds which could be
seen as bigotry against you," the Goblin said smiling up at him.

"I don't think he was lying, after all the person who told me this is the son of another old friend,
Harry Potter, is his name," Remus said.
Hearing the name the Goblin looked up at him with a startled expression. "Very well sir, please
pick up your money and follow me," the Goblin said getting down from his stool and heading to a
door in the back of the room. Bemused at what was happening Remus grabbed his money, placing
it back in his bag, as he went to follow the Goblin.

Remus had been surprised as he was led into a room with a Goblin travel mirror as his guide got in
contact with someone on the other side of the mirror. After a quick conversation with the Goblin
on the other side of the mirror his guide turned to look at him, "Go on through Mr. Lupin, Prince
Bonecrusher will explain everything," Remus had to duck a little to get through the mirror as he
finds himself in what appears a more prosperous branch of Gringotts.

"Hello, Mr. Lupin please follow me," a Goblin, Remus assumed to be Bonecrusher, said as he
turned on his heel and left the room. Remus was shocked to find as he left the mirror room that he
was in the main British branch of the Magical Bank based on the decor in the corridor he was
walking through.
"Um, Master Bonecrusher, I don't mean to be rude but what is this all about? I just came in for a
simple Inheritence Test?" Remus asked catching up to the Goblin.

"About a month ago a young Magical came to the bank to also go through what was meant to be a
simple Inheritence Test, but after running it to our shame we found that we had failed in our duty to
protect our client. My father, King Bonecrusher the Sixth, decided that any issue that was listed on
this young Magical's test would be taken care of by us free of charge. So when you came in for an
Inheritance Test by stating it was my client who directed you to do so based on information from
his own test you will be given the highest quality test we can give you," Bonecrusher explained
leading Remus into a well-appointed office. "Now normally test done at his branch are done using
a treated silver blade but as you are a werewolf we will have to get creative," Bonecrusher said
taking a seat at his desk and pulling out a small blade that appeared to be made of a single piece of
a red crystal which Remus could not identify. "This is a special material known as Red-Steel and
has similar properties to our silver blade but would not hurt you due to your wolf," Bonecrusher
explained seeing the look on Remus's face. Remus took the blade from the Goblin using it to make
a small cup in his wand hand's palm. Being told to let no less than ten drops fall onto an enchanted
document, Remus did as he was told and watched as his results began to print themselves on the
document.

Remus Jarrod Lupin-Black

Mate;

Sirius Lupin-Black (Wrongfully Imprisoned-Escaped)

Child (Sire)

Romulus Regulus Lupin-Black (Name changed after illegal Blood Adoption to Neville
Francis Longbottom)

Family Lines:

Lord Lupin (Claimed but later abandoned)

Lord Ravenclaw (Claimed but later abandoned)
Consort Black (Claimed but later abandoned)

Enchantments/Potions on the person in order of age:

Trust Potions keyed to Albus Dumbledore, Peter Pettigrew

Memory Charm keyed to Mateship with Sirius Black, Lordships, and Consort status of any
House, Birth of Romulus Regulus Lupin-Black, blood being taken by Augustus Longbottom
for Blood Adoption of Romulus Regulus Lupin-Black
Spelled to isolate self from other Werewolves, and straight Magicals (Due to the isolation
and loss of mate, child Inner Wolf worked into a feral state during transformations)
Spelled to not seek out Harry James Potter or Romulus Regulus Lupin-Black
Wolfsbane Potion (off and on over last four years further damaging Inner Wolf)
Incorrectly brewed Wolfsbane Potion (for the last month forcing Inner Wolf to become more
Feral)

Vault discrepancies:

1000 Galleons a year transferred from Lupin family vaults to vault shared by Agustus and
 Algie Longbottom starting in November 1981
500 Galleons removed from Lupin family Vault by Albus Dumbledore July 1993 (some of it
returned as "payment" for working at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry)
2000 Galleons a year transferred from Black Family vaults to vaults shared by Agustus and
Algie Longbottom starting in January 1984*

Remus was so mad he could not even think of a proper adjective to explain his anger as he looked
over his results. No wonder his change had hurt him so much as he had been forcibly separated
from his family. But the fact that he was being paid to work at Hogwarts from his own vaults made
him want to rip Albus' throat out with his bare hands even though he was in human form. "What
about my son?" Remus almost growled at Bonecrusher who did not even take offense.

"Longbottom, Longbottom," Bonecrusher said obviously in thought as he tapped one gnarled

finger against his bottom lip. After a moment the Goblin prince began to tap his fingers on his desk
as if it was a Muggle computer keyboard. Remus thought this was another way the Goblin was
using to gather his thoughts until after Bonecrusher finished "typing" a roll of parchment appeared
on the desk in a puff of smoke. Bonecrusher unrolled the document and read to himself for a bit.
"Now according to this shortly after Lord Frank Longbottom and his wife were attacked by Death
Eaters causing them to lose their minds, Dowager Longbottom came to the bank with their son. She
said that her son and daughter-in-law had not had the time to introduce the boy to the Magical
World before the attack. It seems that the Goblin they saw ran a blood test and it showed the child
was her grandson," Bonecrusher said. "Now it could be that since your test shows that you had
blood taken from you for a Blood Adoption Dowager Longbottom or someone could have used the
blood to dilute the results of the boy's test which if mixed with her own blood during the adoption
process would make it read that he was her grandson. Let me see if I can find who she dealt with
during this visit. Troubling very troubling," Bonecrusher said as he found the Goblin who had been
in that meeting.

"What is troubling Master Bonecrusher?" Remus asked.

"Well according to this the Goblin Dowager Longbottom met with was Griphook, who after the
test of young Harry we found was the one who had helped steal from his vaults. He has since been
executed, but if he was the contact with Dowager Longbottom he might not have run a full test but
faked it so that it shows he was Lord and Lady Longbottom's Heir," Bonecrusher said. This bit of
news actually made Remus feel a little better for he was having a hard time thinking of either Frank
or Alice doing this to his family.

"I would like a cleansing and to reclaim my Lordship rings if at all possible," Remus said.

"Very well and since this is still technically connected to issues found from young Harry's results it
will be free of charge," Bonecrusher said standing up.

"No," Remus said still seated.

"What was that?" Bonecrusher asked a little shocked at Rems's denial at the process being done to
him free of charge.

"While it is a generous gift Master Bonecrusher I will not accept it," Remus said. "As I am going
through my cleansing I will want the funds taken from by vaults returned and the bill for cleansing
and money transfers can be sent to Dowager Longbottom."

"Oh that does sound like a lovely idea," Bonecrusher said with a smirk as he rubbed his hands
together as he thought of a way to list it on the old bat's bank statement that would not immediately
make her suspicious. By the time Remus had finished getting cleansed and reclaiming his Lordship
and Consort rings it was well past midnight, which was too late to talk to Severus to find out why
the man had brewed the Wolfsbane potion incorrectly, as well as ask why his results showed the
normal potion was hurting his wolf.

Being cleansed of what had been done to him caused Remus to have a fitful night's sleep as he
tossed and turned while his dreams were filled with Albus arrived at his and Sirius's home after
Sirius had gone to check on James, Lily, and Harry. Albus informed Remus that Voldemort had
been defeated by Harry, making Remus wonder if he and Sirius would be getting Harry to be
brought up with their son. It never happened, however, as he found himself facing Albus's wand
and getting enchanted by the bastard. Due to his lack of sleep, Remus had to rely on his notecards
to teach his classes. He did not have any issues until his last class of the day in which his kidnapped
son and Harry were in attendance. He was a little sad to see that Romulus and Harry were not great
friends, with Harry seated with the Slytherins rather than his own Housemates.

Remus planned on meeting with Severus after supper that night but when he went to go see his old
schoolmate he found Professor McGonagall on her way to see him. Thinking he would talk to the
man later if Severus would speak to him, that was, since he had been trying to apologize for his and
his friends' behavior from their time as students at the school but had only received the cold-
shoulder from the man. While Remus had not really kept up to date on current events, due to the
spell that forced him to become isolated he had only recently learned about the reasons for his
mate's escape from Azkaban. Having read the article which stated Sirius had escaped to possibly
kill Harry, Remus assumed that his missing Mate would be coming to Hogwarts. Though both his
and Harry's results stated Sirius was innocent of the charges that sent him to Azkaban in the first
place made him wonder why Sirius was coming at all. As Harry was in Gryffindor if Sirius was
coming to see his Godson for some reason he would head to the tower Remus thought of a way to
get to Sirius first.

That night while he was patrolling the castle Remus would check on the portrait of the Fat Lady
which unless things had changed since he was in school still guarded the entrance to Gryffindor
Tower. At nearly one in the morning, his vigilance paid off for the Fat Lady had left her portrait.
Not sure how much time he would have Remus approached the empty portrait and used a spell he
and his friends had come up with to pass messages to each other when they got locked out of
Gryffindor Tower while exploring Remus left a message for his Mate. "Hey Bambi, I don't know
why you are trying to reach Harry, or maybe our own son, but the way you are doing it is not
helping your case. I now know of your innocence come see me rather than do anything reckless.
Love your Wolf-Daddy." Remus actually blushed a little using their old pet names which had come
about after Lily had taken them all to see the Dinsey movie Bambi mixed with Sirius having
always been the submissive one in their relationship. Keying the message to play when Sirius
showed up even if the Fat Lady was present or not Remus quickly hurried away.

End Flashback
 Harry and the others were disappointed when they listen to the first Chatter Box they had attached
to Dumbles. For while they did learn that the man had enchanted his own brother to make him
unnaturally fixated on goats so he would not share how their little sister had died. While the story
was interesting it revealed nothing of why he was messing with Harry. Fred had wondered if the
bastard had submerged the memory and thoughts about it and would only tell the truth when he
was asked directly about it. If so it made finding the man's plans for Harry's life almost impossible
to find out since none of them were willing to ask him directly. Harry did share some good news
with the group, which had started to call themselves the SG workgroup in case someone overheard
them talk about meeting with each other. Theo, Blaise, and Draco asked about it as Harry took off
his backpack and turned it around.

"What you got a new accessory for your backpack so what?" Draco asked looking at the new
addition to the pack.

"Well, it is more than an accessory. Think of it as a pest repellent," Harry said as he and the twins
let out a chuckle.

'I don't get it," Blaise said tilting his head to look at the stuffed tarantula now hanging from Harry's
backpack.

"While I applauded you for the idea isn't it going a little too far to use Ronald's biggest fear in such
a way," Theo asked rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I am not using it to chase him away or anything I am just keeping it in plain sight so he will leave
me alone. After all, fear can be a powerful tool as Tarkin said," Harry responded. Harry felt rather
proud of the tarantula which was a stuffed copy of the pet of the twins' friend Lee Jordan's
tarantula.

"Fine but you better not go all the way with the Tarkin Doctrine and try to blow up a planet," Theo
said making Draco and Blaise's mouths fall open in shock to see Theo joke around in such a teasing
manner.

"Oh, yes that is so on my to-do list right after I get the Potter ringback and dance down the main
staircase in my underwear," Harry teased back.

Chapter End Notes

* As Remus is the Consort of Sirius any issues with the Black Family holdings are
listed after his own holdings.
 From the eyes of the Watcher
Chapter Summary

Sirius shows up at Hogwarts and gains an ally.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

He hated his owner, sure she had given him a reason to leave the Magical Menagerie and not be
sent back to it. The only reason he had ever been there in the first place was after forcing his way
through an Anti-Apporation Ward he had almost drained his Magical Core. Worried about his
safety from both the forces of Voldyshorts and Fumblebore he had used what little magic he had
left to change into his Animagus form before passing out. Due to his Animagus form as a mix of a
Muggle cat and a Kneazle when someone had found him passed out they had brought him to the
Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley. He really admired the shopkeeper of the place for taking care
of him using her own funds to bring him back to full strength. Unfortunately, she also seemed to
have bonded to him as she healed him and when not trying to sell him to a good home she brought
him home with her at the end of the night not giving him a chance to return to his normal form.

He had thought that once someone "bought" him he would finally have more freedom and would
be able to get away so he could become human again and find out if his task had been finished
successfully. It seemed, however, that he came on too strong and scared everyone away. That was
until just under a month ago when resting on the top shelf of the Menagerie he had seen a pair of
customers come in to have the shopkeeper look after a pet rat. As soon as he saw the rat he not only
recognized a fellow Animagus but what was more he actually knew who the rat really was.
Knowing that the man had been a supporter of Voldyshorts he could not help himself as he
pounced on the rat. The shopkeeper pulled him away as the boy who Peter was pretending to be
the pet of left. He breathed a heavy sigh figuring that the shopkeeper was going to put him in his
"basket" leading to another day where he could not try to get someone to "purchase" him, but to his
surprise the girl who had come in with the boy who was looking after Peter. The girl actually
decided to purchase him, and based on her clothes she was a Muggleborn which would make it all
that much easier for him to get away.

Things did not go as planned for the shopkeeper through in his "basket" when the girl "bought"
him. The girl it seems was staying overnight at the Leaky Cauldron before heading to Hogwart the
next day. The girl, who he learned was called Hermione, evidently had never had a pet before for
she went to sleep she locked him in the basket. It was bad enough he had to be trapped in the
basket overnight without having access to a bathroom, but the fact that the next time he was let out
was on the actual train to Hogwarts. He wanted to curse and rage for he recalled special Wards had
been added to the school to register an Animagus changing within the castle after Peter had
graduated from the school, why they were added then and not before he had never been able to
figure out. Hermione and the boy Peter was acting as the pet towards, who as it turned out was the
youngest Weasley boy were both complaining about Harry being nowhere to be found and had not
come to their compartment. Hermione's main complaint was that the missing boy was being very
rude and disrespectful, while Ron seemed to rage against the Slytherins which had been his old
House so had to prevent himself from growling at the boy. Rather than revealing he was more than
a Kneazle to the pair of young Magicals he started to watch Ron's pocket detecting Peter's scent
coming from it and ignoring the pair's conversation.

He was happy to find out where the Gryffindors had their Common Room and actually being
inside it something no one in the seven years he was a student had managed to do from Slytherin
House. An hour later, after the Welcoming Feast, the current Gryffindor students started to show
up at the tower, One of the first was to arrive really caught his attention for the boy looked like
James Potter, though with Lily Evens's hair color. He was so shocked as he watched the boy head
up to his rooms for a bit before coming down and starting to read in one of the armchairs. Knowing
this had to be Harry Potter based on what he had heard from Sirius about his Godson he hopped on
the boy's legs and curled up. Harry had smiled down at him before scratching his chin and
returning to his book. Unfortunately, Hermione showed up and began to get on Harry's case
leading Harry to gently lift him off his lap before getting away from Hermione. As several
Gryffindor students prevented Hermione from reaching Harry, he was able to see a dark look flash
across the girl's face as she went to sit next to Ron and have mutter conversation with him as they
ignored what appeared to be the Headboy and older brother of Ron. He wondered why Professor
McGonagall was not giving the messages rather than leave it to the Headboy.

At least that night Hermione did not store him in the basket, thanks to one of the girls in her dorm.
He did see that the other two girls in the dorm were avoiding him with looks of fear on their faces.
Not wanting to cause them any discomfort in their rooms and as a way to get away from Hermione
lest she wait until the others were asleep before putting him in the basket he ran from the room.
Wanting to finally get free he ran from Hermione's shared bedroom, down the stairs, and
thankfully out of the dorms.

Not wanting to shift back into his human form inside the Wards and raise attention for
Fumblebore, he used his knowledge of the castle to make his way outside and headed to the forest
knowing it was only a few meters past the start of the trees where the Wards ended and his human
form could be achieved. He was almost to the tree line when he came to a stop as a form stepped
out from behind a tree. As the moon shifted out from behind a bank of clouds he recognized the
form instantly and rushed forward. he was once brought up short as Sirius barked at him saying it
was alright and he would not hurt him. Fearing that something had happened to Sirius's mind or
had been enchanted, he could not speak as Sirius explained he was after a rat hiding at the school
going into Peter and what he had done. It broke his heart to hear that James and Lily had been
killed thanks to Peter, but what was worse it seemed Sirius had somehow forgotten that he was
married and had a child of his own. He instantly agreed to help Sirius reach Peter in the dorms
even though it would mean that he would have to stay as Crookshanks a while longer. But when
the family needed you a Black would never turn away from them and while Sirius had left home
thanks to their mom, Regulus was not going to hold it against him.

Regulus tried to reach Peter over the next couple of days, but the man showed he was just as ratlike
as his form as he avoided him every time. His take got even harder when Professor McGonagall
came to the tower a few days later and made some changes as she added a Co-Head of House. Now
every time Regulus tried to reach Peter's dorms he found he was sent to Harry and two other boys'
rooms. Regulus wondered if it was due to Harry being Siriu's Godson that caused Regulus only
able to travel to Harry's room. What was worse Peter seemed to understand Regulus was hunting
him and had not left Ron's room alone, and the redheaded boy was on his guard whenever Regulus
was around.

After a second meeting with Sirius, where his slightly mind-addled brother shared with Regulus his
belief that Peter was planning on kidnapping Harry at some point to turn over to the Death Eater.
Regulus, not sure how his older brother's mind would take his true identity, shared the news of the
split bedrooms and his inability to reach Peter under the guise of Crookshanks. Sirius had ranted
and raved at him for a bit after learning the added protection to Peter but there was really nothing
either of them could do about it.

Surprisingly something changed the very next day as Regulus was exploring the castle as
Crookshanks, avoiding Mrs. Norris lest the true Kneazle realize he was really a human, Regulus
came across his older brother's husband pouring over a document in the D.A.D.A. Professor's
office. Wanting to see if Remus had his mind messed with or enchanted like Sirius, Regulus had
lept onto the desk and got in the way. While Remus had not seemed to detect who he really was
Regulus had gotten a quick look at the document Remus had been looking over and had seen they
were the results of a Gringotts' Inheritence Test. What was more it mentioned his nephew was
actually sharing the same room as Peter and Ron. As Regulus had been working under the
assumption that the reason he kept being sent into Harry's room was the boy's relationship with his
older brother, Regulus wondered what would happen if he entered the Third-Year male dorm
rooms now.

That night after Hermione and Lily Moon, who Regulus liked more than his "owner," had gone to
sleep he had slipped out of the room and headed up the staircase to the male dorms. Reaching the
very top of the tower Regulus used his squat and flatten nose to push the door open as usual only to
stop as before him, lay two identical paths with a second set of doors at the end of them. Not
wanting to make the wrong choice Regulus relied on his enhanced scent of smell due to his form
and gave both paths a sniff. Having spent time around all males in the Third-Year, Regulus was
able to pinpoint which path Ron had used and bounded down it and pushed open the door. As he
had never really tried to get Peter when the students had been asleep before the dorm rooms had
been separated Regulus was fairly shocked to see Ron, who he was coming to dislike as much as
Hermione, was actually sleeping with Peter in his arms as if the rat was a teddy bear. Regulus was
glad that he actually had a more robust stomach than a human for he was sure he would have
barfed seeing the redheaded boy snuggle up with the transformed man who was old enough to be
his father based on the fact that Ron and Harry were the same age and Peter had been James's
school mate.

Regulus moved as silently as he could his eyes locked on Peter to make sure the man's ears did not
twitch from possibly hearing him. If the situation was not so serious Regulus would have laughed
as he felt like he was playing the old childhoods game of Weeping Angle as he froze anytime,
either boy moved or Peter so much as twitched any part of his body. It took almost half an hour to
 reach Ron's bed as Regulus readied his body to spring into action when he came up short for he
realized Ron would most likely wake up if he landed on him giving Peter a chance to escape. For
the next ten minutes, Regulus stayed where he was trying to work out what to do when an idea
came to him.

Throwing stealth out the window Regulus ran from the room to the area of the two paths. He was
not sure i this area was protected by the Hogwarts Wards or not which would register him changing
back, but he was not planning on doing that anyway. Once he was sure the door to his nephew and
Ron's room had closed Regulus sent a silent call to a Black Family House Elf. A pop sounded as
none other than his personal House Elf Kreacher appeared. "Who calls for Kreacher?" the Elf
asked looking around before spotting Regulus. As Kreacher had helped Regulus in gaining his
Animagus form after learning that Sirius and his friends had done it at school the Elf knew what he
looked like. "Master Regulus you is alive," Kreacher cried out with tears in his eyes and he
scooped Regulus up and gave him a tight hug. "Where have you been? Why not contact Kreacher,
oh I knows youse upsets I failed at task youse given me." Regulus placed a paw on the Elf's chest
to help ground him and help him focus. This also helped them communicate a little better since
Regulus could not fully talk like a human in this form.

"Calm down Kreacher it is alright," Regulus sent him. "We can worry about that later I have
another task for you to do."

"But what if I fail it like I did the last one?" Kreqacher asked with a sniffle.

"This task is easier," Regulus sent in a comforting way. "Beyond that door is my nephew who has
been enchanted so even knot knowing your connection your bond should be strong within. Also
inside is a rat that is really Peter Pettigrew I need you to collect him and use some of your Elf
Magic to prevent him from changing form on his own as well as block any Wandless Magic skill he
may possess. I want you to collect Peter and take him to the Black Family Account Manager at
Gringotts and explained what he really is before changing him back into a human and leave him
with them," Regulus ordered.

"I shall do it, Master Regulus," Kreacher said gently placing Regulus on the ground and entering
the room to follow his new orders. Regulus quickly ran to the door and peeked around it as he saw
Kreacher easily enter the room and summon Peter to his outstretched hand. Regulus smiled to
himself seeing his Elf had cast a spell to silence Peter who had woken up as he zoomed through the
air yet had made not a single sound until his small form impacted against Kreacher's hand.
Unfortunately, Kreacher did not leave the room physically before he popped away making Regulus
flinch a little, but at least Ron had not woken up. The same could not be said for Regulus's nephew
who sat up at the pop and looked around the room. Regulus quickly back up letting the door close
with a small click which he hoped the boy would misread the pop and door closing as Professor
McGonagall or Batty doing a room check as they had done the night before.

Chapter End Notes

I recently watched a video talking about random HP theories that some fans have
shared and after hearing about this one I wanted to add it to one of my stoires.
 The Origins of Filch
Chapter Summary

Harry and his allies hear Dumbles talk about the birth of his son.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

While Madam Bones had basically given Peter Pettigrew on a silver platter she and a few trusted
Aurors were keeping it a secret as they researched everything they could think of before they made
it public knowledge. Regulus made sure to keep his ears open knowing that when the news of Peter
being found and being the Potters' Secret Keeper was made public he would hear about it. He
would then be able to pass on the news to his older brother which would hopefully allow both of
them to resume human form and stay that way.

Not knowing this Harry and his friends still met at least once every couple of days in the empty
classroom that once held the Mirror of Erised to listen to any Chatter Boxes that had been filled up.
After they had gotten the first Chatter Box back and found it had only contained a small bit of
Fumbledork spilling some secrets while the rest was his normal day Blaise had helped George
enchant the boxes so that it would read the small bit of magic that would be given off as the truth
potion left the man's mouth when it was activated so they would only have to deal with his basic
confessions on random shit.

Albus was both annoyed and furious for even after checking every food and drink he had taken in
these last few weeks he had been unable to find the cause of him sharing his secrets. He had been
rather lucky so far as only the first instance had been in front of witnesses after that he had either
been alone or had been able to slip into an empty classroom as he found himself being unable to
stop speaking. Adding to his annoyance was that when he was being forced to speak he could not
cast any type of spell to end it, speaking obviously was easy to see why but even when he was
screaming in his own mind telling himself to shut up he had been unable to cast non-verbal spells
at all.

He had even gone to Poppy to check to see if she could find out what was going on. He had no fear
of her outing his issue knowing her loyalty was absolute. When she had informed him that she
could not find the source of his strange affliction he almost stomped all the way back to his office
and swallowed a literal handful of his lemon drops, missing the smirking faces of the previous
Heads of Hogwarts as he did so. "It has to be her fault somehow," Albus said his mind focusing on
Poppy as the Truth Potion laced lemon drops latched onto that as the next topic of his forced
confessions
A few hours later Albus was walking the ground of Hogwarts having felt something shift in the
Hogwarts Wards the night before and was making sure none of his changes had been effected.
Thankfully all of his additions to the Ward that he had added over the years were still working,
including the one he had added for this year alone which if Harry was taking part in a Quidditch
game it would allow the Dementors to breach the Wards and hopefully target the boy. That way
his weapon would go about trying to find out about the Patronus Charm giving him another
weapon to use against Tom's forces when the man eventually returned. Albus was just walking
around the lake on his way back to the castle when the Truth Potion kicked in with a focus on
Poppy.

"I knew I should have just gotten rid of the bitch. I mean how dare those old fools that ran this
place think that she would have been a better Headstudent than I was," Albus said screaming inside
his own mind as he starting speaking and unable to stop himself. "It had been a dumb rule anyway.
The Headboy and Girl could not be from the same house to not show favoritism. If that rule had
not been in place this would never have happened, or if they chose me instead of that goody-two-
shoes Mary Poppins. But they did so of course I had to correct their mistake. It was not even that
hard after seeing her on the shortlist during the last meeting of our Sixth-Year to become the Head
Girl, ranked higher than I was on the list for Head Boy. Just a Confundus Charm on her as we
boarded the train and told her that it might be a good idea to look at her father's records to see
which Muggle families had signs of a child coming into Magic soon.

It was almost too easy to get her confounded mind to brew some Aging-Potion to appear older and
got and show the kids some magic that would be part of their lives. Even better thanks to my ally
Griselda Marchbanks placing the straight Muggle family Banks at the top of her lips. That had
been a fun summer even when I had to use some Polyjuice Potion to watch her cast magic around
the Banks family which she had moved in with for a time. As they were a straight Muggle family
the Ministry would not send her owls warning her against the casting of spells until she had left
them.

I know one of the kids actually passed the story on and the Muggles even made a movie about it
getting her in even more trouble. It was funny as hell when she wrote to me telling me that thanks
to over forty warnings, as well as cease and desist orders from using Magic in front of the Banks
family she had been kicked out of Hogwarts and had her wand snapped. I had of course consoled
her while smiling internally as with her out of the running my name rose to the top of the Headsboy
list. I even talked her into saving the pieces of her wand and placing them in her parrot-headed
umbrella, something I would mention to Hagrid as well years later.

Due to her breaking the Statue of Secrecy even if it had been only to a couple of prepubescent brats
and a crazy Squib chimneysweep everyone started to shun her making her rise to power grind to a
halt before it even began all thanks to me. But it got even better as she turned to me for help just
cause I consoled her after she had gotten in trouble in the first place. It had been almost child's play
to convince her to let me place her under a stasis spell until everything blew over as I lied to her
saying I would try to convince everyone it had all be a big mistake. I, of course, had no such plan
rather I began to cast far-reaching enchantments on her making her utterly loyal to me to such a
high degree her own wants was suppressed as long as she made me happy. Also not wanting to deal
with her goody-two-shoeyness anymore I suppressed her morals. Not wanting her to awaken with
the same intelligence as she had before I confounded her. I knew that she had always taken the
number one ranking to my second-ranking during our test I had also cast an intelligence leech on
her expanding my intelligence helping me develop several of my plans as well as ways to trick
others if they had the audacity of making discoveries before me so I could take the credit away
from them. The best thing was I was able to access her intelligence even when I had her under
stasis even though the spell I used to put her under prevented anything else from happening even
her aging normally had stopped.

After I got done enchanting her I also took some time creating a new identity for her knowing that
she could no longer go around as Mary Poppins so I used part of her name to form her new
persona. I felt so fiendishly clever making her new being Poppy Pomfrey knowing no one would
ever compare the two one being the top of her class and one whose records I created made it look
like she barely passed. Mary many believing would follow in her family's footsteps and one day
become the Minister of Magic, while Poppy aimed to become a Medi-Witch just because I needed
one that would take care of the students I wanted her to and in the way I preferred.

Though I had not planned on that the enchantments on her would lead her to become a sort of
stalker after I finally brought her out of stasis and got her a new wand. I can say she sure proved to
me that I had no interest in women, especially waking up one night to find she had paralyzed me
and had her way with me so I could give her a child.* I still shudder at the thought of it but it did
lead me to lesser her love and devotion to me after that. Too bad it was already too late finding out
later that she had put herself on fertility potions so that one night was able to get her pregnant.

I still have no idea if the brat she gave birth to was born a Squib due to the enchantments I had put
her under, or if it happened due to her trying to force the birth with a gay man/ Whatever the reason
I instantly hated the brat placing Memory Charms on "Poppy" again so she would forget about
ever giving birth and sent the brat to an orphanage. I could never have even imagined that he
would have been adopted by a magical family due to them detecting some magic on him. Even
worse the family that took him in did not disown him when they found out he was a Squib letting
him get enough training and education that he could actually apply to work at the castle. I of
course knew who he was the moment I laid my eyes on him. I almost didn't hire him until he
started rambling about wanting to punish the students by basically torturing them. Seeing this as a
way to make me look like the kind-hearted old man who stood between them and his punishments.
And if certain students like those with Dark Cores ended up getting his chosen punishments I
would just cast a spell on them to make sure they could never talk about what really happened in
their detention. I am rather glad that I never told the Squib this for I had found out the reasons he
wanted to torture the students besides being jealous of their magic was to try to molest them
making him just like his mother. Thankfully I was actually able to prevent him from doing this to
any of the students; though I was tempted several times just to reward him for his service at what
he did for my reputation among the students."

Later when Harry and his allies listened to this they were horrified at Filch's origins. None of them
 could figure out if they should feel sorry for Dumbles getting basically raped by someone he
enchanted. Harry of course was shocked having heard about the Dinsey Movie about Mary
Poppins and never would have guessed she had been a real person let alone a former student at
Hogwarts. Percy had even proved this by using his Headboy status to summon a book that listed all
precious Hogwarts Prefects. Using a search spell they had found Mary Poppins had been a Prefect
in Gryffindor at the same time as the Headmaster and according to records within the book really
had been the top-ranked student at the time and was on her way to becoming the Headgirl only for
criminal charges being laid against her before he final year got her expelled.

Chapter End Notes

After the chapter dealing with the idea of Regulus being Crookshanks, my mind went
back to another theory of Mary Poppins having gone to Hogwarts.

* Though Dumbles does not state it due to having high protections yet in place to
discuss any secret involving Harry. This action leads him to choose Ginny to get
together with Harry.
 Reappearance of the Brothers Black
Chapter Summary

News of Pettigrew's capture is revealed leading to Regulus to go collect his brother.

Harry was still dealing with the fact that Dumbles had turned Mary Poppins into the Madam
Pomfrey, who after talking to his new friends in the other House found out that she ignored a
student from other Houses for a set of time. In his distraction, Harry sat in an open spot at the
Gryffindor table and not by Fred, George, Dean, or Seamus. This allowed Ron and Hermione to sit
beside him for the first time in a while as they sank into the seats on either side of him. Hermione
began to tell him off for changing his classes without letting her know and saying he should drop
them and take up his first choices. Ron for his part spent a lot of his time stuffing his face with any
food he could get his hands on, seriously Harry had to cast a Warding charm the twins had taught
him to prevent the redhead from taking food from Harry's plate. When Ron was not eating he was
complaining if not about how Harry was treating him and Hermione, it was about how he had not
been able to find Scabbers at all that day. Just for some peace and quiet from the pair ganging up
on him, Harry latched onto some news he had heard from around the Common Room. "So does
that mean that Crookshanks finally got him?" Harry asked. Ron's mouth fell open in shock having
never even thought of that scenario.

"He better not have," Ron growled looking past Harry to glare at Hermione. "Where was your
blasted cat last night or this morning Mione?"

"I don't know out of the room as usual," Hermione said.

"You let that little monster wander around without keeping track of it," Ron shot back his ears
going red in anger.

"It is not my fault, Lily Moon prevents me from putting it in its basket every night," Hermione said.
Under the table, Harry clenched his fist in anger that Hermione would do that to her pet and made a
note to himself to find some way to thank Lily Moon for preventing such animal abuse. It did take
all his willpower not to tear into Hermione for doing something tantamount to what the Dursleys
had done to him to her cat.

Harry almost smiled to himself as the pair of annoyances spent the rest of the meal bickering with
each other about their respective pets. Neville did show up at one point but he just sat in silence
eating his meal, though he did say hello to Harry. Still not sure about the other boy Harry
responded in a gentle tone finding the quiet boy at least a break from Ron and Hermione's grating
voices. There was a sound of shock as for the first time in all student's memory there was a flock of
owls burst into the hall when breakfast was not being held. All the owls turned out to be those
carrying issues of the Prophet dropping off issues to both students who got the paper but also issues
that parents sent to their kids. The conversation at all tables came to a halt as everyone bunched up
to see why the paper had been sent.
Darkness's Return

Never in the memory of anyone short of the late Nicolas Flame, has an Order of Merlin ever been
rescinded after it was awarded posthumously, that is until now. Early this morning Madam Amelia
Bones received a visitor from Gringotts Banks. While this is not a new event as the Goblin Nation
often passes on any forms dealing with possibilities they have noticed to Magicals tampering in the
bank. Such meetings had led to several arrests since the Goblin Nation started to be allied with
Humans. Madam Amelia Bones was shocked as rather than the normal Goblin who would show up
to deliver the notices from the bank. She was greeted by Prince Bonecrusher and Account Manager
Spikehammer, for those who do not recognize that Goblin they manage the vaults of the Black
Family. Madam Amelia Bones while shocked did not hesitate to ask about their presence. The pair
of Goblins informed her they had come to deliver a gift to her from an unnamed source before they
pulled out a small cage. From what was told to this writer she was confused at seeing just a
common variety rat inside the cage.

When she asked about it the pair of Goblins placed the caged rat on the floor of her office before
using some Gobbledegook to create a ritual circle around the cage. Madam Amelia Bones had
informed me that the rat being awake was busy chewing the bars of its cage as if trying to get free
but after a few more words in Gobbledegook from Account Manager Spikehammer, the ritual circle
glowed a shade of green as the cage and rat vanished. This writer was surprised to have Madam
Amelia Bones let out an embarrassed laugh at this point in our interview as she told that her shock
at what happened next caused her monocle to fall from her eye. For in the place of the rat and cage
was a long thought dead hero Peter Pettigrew. Peter Pettigrew, once he had returned tried to run
away only to be thrown back by the Wards surrounding the Ritual Circle.

After Madam Amelia Bones was finally able to recover from her shock at the man's presence she
turned to ask him where he had been all these long years. Getting no response from the man who
was still fruitlessly trying to escape from the Goblin's Ritual circle she asked the two
representatives from the bank. Account Manager Spiikehammer took over as he informed her that
last night one of the House Elves that held allegiance to the Black Family arrived at his office with
the rat. The House Elf informed the Goblin that a member of the Noble House of Black had found
evidence that the escaped Prisoner Sirius Black was innocent and the rat was the proof. The Elf
proved his statement was correct as he used magic inside the bank to change the rat into Peter.
Normally these actions alone would cause said Elf to face Goblin Justice but having learned of
Heir Sirius Black's innocence earlier this summer and allowed it to correct what they saw as a
mistake made by the British Ministry. As the House Elf had suppressed Peter Pettigrew's ability to
use Magic the Goblins were easily able to take the man in for testing to prove his true identity.

Account Manager Spikehammer then produced Peter Pettigrew's results and shared them with
Madam Amelia Bones. The results showed that the rat was Peter Pettigrew, and the only spells
and enchantment which had been in his system were those that would come about when one spends
too much time in their Animagus form. The test also showed that Peter Pettigrew had been the
Potter's Secret Keeper after all thus proving Sirius Black never held the position.
Armed with her new knowledge Madam Amelia Bones summoned some Veritaserum to use on
Peter Pettigrew. Using some low-powered version of the potion she asked only a few questions.
Through one question she found out that it had been Sirus Black who had tracked down Peter
Pettigrew after the death of the Potters. Peter had then used his wand that he had hidden behind
his back to cause the eruption of a Muggle gas line while used some wandless magic to cast an
overpowered cheering charm on Sirius Black before he had shifted into his rat form and escaping
into the sewers leaving behind a finger he had cut off beforehand. This information caused Madam
Amelia Bones to rescinded the man's Order of Merlin, but her questioning was not done. She asked
about the man's plan in regards to the vanquished Dark Lord. Under the truth potion, Peter could
not but share that he had taken He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named's wand out of the Potter's ruined
House. He had managed to hide it away before Sirus Black caught up with him. Madam Amelia
Bones did not share the location Peter Pettigrew had given her she did share with me that she had
sent some of her officers to collect the wand, which has now been destroyed by Fiendfire. Peter
Pettigrew also shared the belief that his master had not died but was still alive somewhere, while
he was speaking his own truth but with no proof, Madam Amelia Bone sent one of her officers to
the Ministry office of Life and Death to check on his claims.

It is my unfortunate duty to inform all my readers that He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named's Death

Certificate was not found. This news sent the Ministry into alert status as workers were sent to
search for any signs of the man's continued presence in Brittian. As this was going on Madam
Amelia Bones asked her final question to Peter Pettigrew about where he had been hiding all this
time. He mentioned informed her that he had been staying with a Magical family but as far as he
knew they had not been aware of his true identity so Madam Amelia Bones would not share the
identity, though she would be questioning them just in case this was proven incorrectly herself.

Vincent Cheswick: Daily Prophet Correspondent

As there had been no one who received an issue of the Prophet anywhere near them Harry, the two
pests, and Neville had no idea what was going on. As a way to get away from his former friends,
Harry left his seat to ask someone who had the paper arrive to find out what was going on. And to
make sure the pair of pests did not follow him he headed to ask Theo, under the guise of talking
about one of their joint assignments in Arithmancy. Slipping into place at the Slytherin table
between Theo and Draco asked a random question about the class before seeing if he could read
the article everyone was talking about. Passing over the paper to Harry, Theo found himself
leaning closer to the Gryffindor in what he told himself was to read Harry's reactions to what had
been revealed. As Theo suspected Harry showed no reaction to the reveal that the man who killed
his parents was still alive, but of course Harry had told them all about facing a Parasitic version of
the man at the end of their First-Year attached to Professor Quirrell's body. Theo noticed the only
reaction from the article was the mention of Pettigrew leaving a finger behind at the scene of his
escape. "Do you want to discuss our project somewhere else?" Theo asked knowing that some in
the hall were giving them strange looks.

"Oh yeah sure," Harry said suddenly becoming aware of the same thing as he followed Theo out of
the hall and to the library to "work on their assignment."

"So care to explain your reaction to Pettigrew cutting off his finger?" Theo asked.

"You saw that and knew exactly where I was at in the article," Harry said sounding impressed.

"You continue to be impressed by something anyone could do if they put their minds to it," Theo
said though with a small bit of red in his cheeks.

"And I say you are wrong not everyone has the mind of a Sherlock Holmes," Harry said.

"I shall take that comparison as a compliment, and you still have not answered the question," Theo
said.

"Can I ask you a question?" Harry asked.

"Always," Theo stated.

"The article stated that Pettigrew cut off one of his fingers which finger was it?" Harry asked.

"I believe it was his right pointer finger, why?" Theo asked.

"Well that clears up how Peter was with Ron on the map," Harry said before clarifying, "Ron's rat
Scabbers was missing that corresponding toe on its right front paw."

"So the family Pettigrew was staying with was the Weasleys?" Theo asked.

"I can only assume for Ron was complaining Scabbers was missing through lunch when I accident
gave him room to sit beside me," Harry explained.

"Oh I would love to see his reactions when he finds out Pettigrew was his rat," Theo said.

"I don't I hate vomit," Harry said seeing a confused look on Theo's face. "While Ron had a cage for
"Scabbers" he rarely used it and mostly slept hugging him like a teddy bear."

"I see your point he is going to react even worse than I first thought, my Watson," Theo said
catching even himself by surprise by the nickname.

"Elementary, Holmes," Harry said smiling at him.

"Well isn't this a lovely scene?" Blaise asked making both Harry and Theo jump a little being so
wrapped up in their conversation they had neither realized the others had approached nor how
close they had been to each other.

"What's up Blaise? Harry asked

"Well, you guys said you were working on that assignment for class we thought we would come as
well since we had not finished it yet either," Draco said sitting down at the table.

"And we asked the twin terrors for some tutoring in the subject," Blaise added as George sat down
beside him and Fred took the last seat on the circular table between his twin and Draco.

Harry opened his mouth to point out that Fred and George had dropped the subject during their
Third-Year only for one of the twins to start speaking. "So do either of you want to share what you
were talking about that you could not do in the hall?" Fred asked as the group began to pull out
their books and supplies to make it look like they were studying.

"Thanks to Theo, I was able to figure out why I had seen Pettigrew's dot merged with Ron's on the
map. He was not invisible as we suspected whispering spells into Ron's ear as your brother tried to
reach my dorm," Harry said.
"So what was going on?" the twins asked in unison leaning forward to put their hands on the table.
Both blushing a little as Fred's put his right hand on Draco's and George his left on Blaise's hand.
Theo took a moment to register a blush come to Draco's smiling face as well while Blaise smiled
did not blush at the unintentional hand contact from George.

"It seems that Pettigrew's rat form was Scabbers," Theo answered them.

"Oh dear, Molly is going to have kittens when she is informed of this," Fred said as he and George
leaned back into their seats but without moving their hands from the young Slytherin boys' hands
they had accidentally grabbed.

"Yes, her poor little baby sleeping with Pettigrew," George said.

"When you say sleeping with?" Blaise said shifting his hand so that his hand was on top of
George's while still holding it.

"Like a teddy bear," Harry, Fred, George, and Theo all said at the same time.

"Harry just told me," Theo explained seeing his friends raise their eyebrows at him.

"I am shocked your father did not have Wards around your place that could detect him, after what
happened last year," Draco said turning his hand around but keeping it under Fred's so he was
grabbing it.

The twins were about to respond but stopped as they saw Madam Pince coming around one of the
stacks. "Now that is what I like to see a little inter-house unity," she said as she began to straighten
some of the shelves around their table. With the librarian being so close the group turned their
discussion to classwork and let go of each other's hands. As she worked on her precious books
Madam Pince smiled to herself seeing the group of students acting overly normal and quickly
moving their hands apart as many new couples she had seen during her time at the castle who had
come from different Houses. Not wanting to interrupt their group date, she worked as quickly as
she could to let them be alone again.

"We went on vacation over the summer," Fred said once Madam Pince was far enough away.

"And when we got back we received word from Fumblebottom that Harry was in Daigon Alley so
we went there," George said with a slight blush on his face reached over under the table, and took
Blaise's hand again.

"Father was rather mad about that by the way," Draco said biting his lip as he debated with himself
to see if he wanted to take Fred's hand again.

"Why?" Fred asked as he reached over and took Draco's hand himself giving the blonde a coy
smile.

"He got mad once he learned that rather than getting punished for the Riddle Diary your parents
took Ginny out of the country for a vacation," Draco said his pale skin turning a deep red with a
blush as Fred began to use his thumb to rub circles into the back of his hand.

"That was Molly's idea she thought Ginny need it, after what she had gone through last year, Dad
was against it but he has always had a hard time saying no to her," George explained. Harry felt a
little jealous seeing the others resume opening hands while he and Theo just sat there but he still
had not worked up the courage to ask about the "preferences" that Theo had mentioned to Pansy
after Draco had been injured in his Care of Magic Creatures class.

Up in the Gyrffindor Common Room Hermione and Ron had stopped bickering about their pets as
they leaned in to read over a discarded copy of the Prophet they had taken from the Great Hall.
Both were in shock to find He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named was alive, sure Headmaster
Dumbledore had told them this as to why they were to hang out with Harry, but this was the first
real proof they had on the subject. Neither of them had believed Harry had faced the man in the
First-Year to prevent him from getting the Philosopher's Stone having thought that it had just been
Professor Quirrell who had wanted the stone for the unlimited gold it could produce. They also did
not think Harry had stopped him with Hermione sharing with Ron that Quirrell had made a mistake
that had lead to his own death and Harry being the arrogant prick they both saw him as just took
the credit. Having read the article Hermione had instantly concluded that the Pettigrew had been
hiding out as Scabbers since Ron's rat was missing and knowing her cat had not done anything to
it. It was rather easy to work out after all thanks to the missing finger/toe on the same appendage
along with the rat's disappearance.

She was debated with herself over to tell Ron or not just so he would lay off her pet, and by
extension her, but also knowing how close Ron was to it she did not want to handle the fall out of it
along with everything else she had to deal with taking every single class. She had thought she
would easily be able to handle it while remaining in her top position in her year. This would have
been easy if not for the special tutoring session with Professor McGonagall and Batty had everyone
in the dorm take. Hermione now had to work even harder to stay in her place meaning she was
working on two and a half hours of sleep a night, something she had not planned to happen until
the time for their final exams, so she was finding it hard to focus some of the time. Instead, she
focused on another part of the article. "I wonder what Professor Dumbledore is going to do with
Sirius being freed?" she asked not bothering to keep her voice low since they were the only humans
in the room.

"What do you mean?" Ron asked making her roll her eyes at him.

"Don't you recall some of our meetings with the Headmaster, Harry has to stay with his Muggle
family so he will act the right way and they can help make sure they slip him potions during the
summer?" she asked,

"Oh, yeah," Ron said as if he had not completely forgotten the fact.

"So what do you think he will do?" Hermione asked trying to stop herself from losing her cool and
yelling at the idiot, sure Ron was good at aspects of strategy but when it came to usable
brainpower his mind was akin to a slotted spoon.

"Well if I had to guess he will try to work out that due to the time Sirius had been in Azkaban he
might not be in the right mental state to take care of Harry," Ron said surprising Hermione while
making Regulus who had been listening in the corner to hiss at the redheaded bastard for the slight
against his family. Regulus was glad to hear the pair talking about his brother being proven
innocent as he made plans to go talk to his brother that night.
Back in the library Fred and George were rather impressed as Harry, Theo, Draco, and Blaise
started to work on their Arithmancy homework seeing that unlike them the four younger students
had no problem understanding the work of the class. As if sensing the twins' confusion Blaise and
Draco leaned into them and began to walk through their current assignment in a way that the twins
could understand. The four of them sending hidden smiles as Harry and Theo also leaned towards
each other working on their assignment together who had worked in unison since their first day of
class. Harry and Theo were talking in soft voices as Theo, as usual, filled out their assignment their
bodies so close that if either boy looked up they could easily share a kiss. Blaise was almost
tempted to kick the back of Harry's chair to bring it about but while he knew Theo was starting to
like Harry after spending time with the Lion he could not be sure how Harry felt about Theo. Draco
also wanted to kick the back of Theo's seat to get the pair to kiss, but while he suspected Harry
liked Theo, having gotten to know some tells from Harry when they were together over the
summer. Along with knowing that Harry had worked his way into Theo's Demisexual heart, Draco
knew he could not do it for he did not have enough strength to move Theo's body enough to get the
kiss to happen, and at most his kick would possibly ruin the scene.

When the study session ended and everyone put their stuff away in their bags to head down to
supper, Fred, Draco, Blaise, and George wanted to bang their heads on the table for the pair of
oblivious idiots having caught both Theo and Harry give each other happy looks if they would
look up from their work without the other one being aware of it. As if wanting the pair to finally
make their moves to each other as they headed down to the Great Hall Blaise held Georges's hand
and Draco wrapped his arm around Fred's shoulder. The four only let go of each other when they
were a floor up from the hall lest they be seen by Ron and have to deal with the issue he would
make. Fred and George placed Harry between them as they sat down at the Gryffindor table
finding open places that were parallel from where the other three sat down at the Slytherin table so
they were all facing each other from across the room.

When Ron and Hermione had left the Gryffindor Common room for supper Regulus slipped out
behind them and using his knowledge of the castle made his way down to the Front Hall and
managed to slip through that door as Hagrid came in for the meal. Flat out running to the forest
Regulus tried to think of where his brother might be at the moment for the pair had usually only
met after student's lights out. Finding no trace of his older brother's Grim-form at their normal
meeting spot. Regulus spent a couple of moments pacing the clearing trying to think where Sirius
might be at the moment. After concluding that if he remained in the forest Sirius would have to
remain in his animal form lest he is found by either Hagrid or any intelligent creature that called the
forest home his brother would be somewhere else. It only took Regulus a moment to recall the
secret passage that led to the place the school sent Remus when he changed. It took him a few
more moments on how to get past the Whomping Willow to reach the passage which he had been
able to work out on the way to the Willow itself.

Due to his small size, Regulus was able to move below the notice of the Willow itself and get into
the passage spotting the knot in the bark he would have to press to freeze the tree if Sirius was at
the end of the passage itself. As he walked down the passage Regulus felt himself pass through the
Hogwarts Wards making him stop in place. Sirius in his mentally addled state had come to
recognize his Animagus form he was not sure if his older brother could take his human form any
better, but maybe that could work for him as well. Taking a deep breath Regulus let his magic flow
through his body as he felt the fur being pulled back into his body as his limbs began to lengthen
and change into normal human arms and legs. When the change reached the time when he could
stand on just his feet Regulus sighed as he stretched out and popped his back a little as his clothing
separated from his flesh. With a large smile on his face, Regulus wiggled all his fingers before
checking his pockets as with a sigh of relief pulled out his twelve inches Elm wand casting a quick
spell to check on the state of his magic. Seeing the spell go off perfectly like normal Regulus
pocketed his wand again and finished working down the hidden passage.

"Hello Sirius," Regulus said softly finding his older brother back in human form gnawing on some
chicken bones.

"I must have finally snapped," Sirius said looking up at him with almost dead eyes.

"You have not brother," Regulus said moving slowly over to the ragged-looking man holding out
his hands as if approaching a strange dog.

"You are dead," Sirius said simply, "what is next, are Lily and James behind you so you can all
remind me of how much of a mess I made?"

"No, for I am not dead, but I have come to bring you back. Pettigrew was found and your name has
been cleared," Regulus said.

"And Harry has been named England's most eligible bachelor," Sirius said sardonically before
turning back to the chicken bone as he tries to get more sustenance out of it having decided
Regulus was a figment of his imagination.

"I don't think they would award that to a thirteen-year-old," Regulus said as a joke but Sirius just
ignored him. "Oh, for the love of," Regulus said as he cast a spell to dump a bucket's worth of
water on his brother's head like he had done sometimes to get him up during the summer when
they were kids. Sirus sputtered a little shocked at the water before looking up and seeing no hole in
the ceiling above him.

"Regulus?" Sirius asked in a small quiet voice as if he still did not believe it.

"Hello brother, are you ready to come home?" Regulus said before wincing thinking his words
could be misread as if Sirus was dead and Regulus was there to take him to his afterlife. "I mean
do you want to head up to Hogwarts to see Harry, and everyone?"

"Harry is there?" Sirius said in a sad voice making Regulus see that his brother had come to the
conclusion Regulus was escorting him to the next life.

"Yes, he is," Regulus said no longer fighting it just hoping his brother might follow him now.

"How do I look, I mean I know I must be bad but if I am seeing Harry, James, and Lily I have to be
presentable," Sirius said standing up and tugging his robes to reduce the wrinkles in them.

"I will fix you up once we go through the passage," Regulus said feeling if he cleaned them now
by the time they got past the Willow they would just get dirty again. Sirius gave an understanding
nod as he followed Regulus out. Not wanting to change back into "Crookshanks" again Regulus
cast a stunner on the Willow once they reached the Hogwarts end of the passage and led Sirius out
into the open air.
 Moving Sirius out of the Willow's reach Regulus first cast a simple cleaning charm on his brother's
clothing making them feel freshly pressed and warm which produced an almost moaning sigh from
Sirius. While his brother was distracted rubbing his hands over the now clean robes Regulus
summoned an issue of the Prophet and handed it over to Sirius to read. As the former escape
convict read the paper Regulus took hold of his arm and led him up to the front doors of the castle,
seeing by both the lights and sounds coming from the Great Hall collecting Sirius had not taken
that long. Sirius looked up from the paper a look of surprise on his face just as the pair reached the
bottom of the stairs leading up to the front doors. Regulus just smiled at him as they walked up the
four stairs to the door and pulled one of them open and entered the castle. While Regulus was more
of an introverted person than his brother he was still a member of the Noble House of Black and
thus knew how to make an entrance. Letting go of Sirius's arm Regulus placed both hands on the
double doors to the Great Hall and pushed them open with such force they banged off the walls
drawing everyone's attention to them. Sirius gulped a little seeing everyone turn to look at them but
Regulus said in a loud carrying voice, "We are the brothers Black, and we have returned!"

End Notes

The idea of this story came from the fact is that in the stories where Harry goes up to get
either his Heir or Lordship rings, at least in the stories I have read, the rings always accept
him. This lead to an idea of what if the rings did not accept him, at least right away.

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