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Chapter Text

It was a hot summer afternoon halfway through the summer holidays when the school owl came with a letter with instructions for all the school supplies they needed to get. Sirius and Remus promised to take Neville and Harry to Diagon Alley and asked them to ask Hermione if she wanted to come along, as she’d gone back to stay with her parents for the previous week, but would be back either later today or early tomorrow. She’d been spending a week at the Potter Manor and a week with her parents the entire summer; it was great!

Although Sirius was unhappy with the fact the Dumbles had been reinstated as the headmaster of Hogwarts as Fudge said there was no one else more suited for the job than him and thus had him put back with little consequences. Sirius was very mad and all the other members of the Wizengamot weren’t happy that Dumbledore was still the chief of the committee. He hadn’t been stripped of the title of head Mugwump of the international confederation of Wizardry. His order of Merlin's first class was still intact, as well.

Sirius chalked it up to him having many people who trusted him in high places and the fact that he had defeated Grindelwald, so people still saw him as the saviour of the wizarding world. Augusta had caused a scene at the Ministry of Magic when they hadn’t sent the old goat to Azkaban after finding out all that he planned to do to the children and how he planned to manipulate Harry and his friends to do his bidding. 

Harry thought that now that Augusta Longbottom was now the head of the board at the school, Dumbles would have been kicked out as soon as she was instated, but apparently, a few of the board members owe him a favour or two so they fought to keep him as the headmaster of the school. 

Harry had sent Draco an invitation to his birthday party tomorrow, but he hadn’t heard anything from him. He did however hear from Narcissa that they had settled down in their new house and that they were welcome there anytime and that Draco was slowly coming to terms with everything and just to give him time.

Sirius and Remus had been sneaking around planning Harry’s ‘surprise’ 12th birthday party (Harry had heard his two guardians speaking very loudly about it after having too many drinks that night). He did try his best not to listen to what they were saying, but it was difficult when everyone in the entire house was in on the secret except for him (supposedly anyway).

Hermione had arrived late that evening, Harry had gone to bed as he had a long day of flying and swimming and was exhausted. Neville had come downstairs when Daisy let him know that she had arrived. They then began to help direct Remus, Sirius and Daisy as to where they thought the decorations looked best and set up the activities for his party. Remus had made them go to bed after they helped for a little while. 

The adults and house elf had finished setting up everything and were off to bed when Sirius remembered James telling him something about a very special present they had gotten Harry for his 12th birthday and so went to their room to retrieve it. He was certain that Harry was going to love it and (he very much hoped) would use it to cause a lot of chaos and live up to his Marauder heritage.

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Harry heard muffled whispers when he woke up. Slowly he peeled his eyes open to find Remus, Sirius, Hermione, Neville, Blaise and Daisy standing around his bed. He slowly sat up and they all started singing happy birthday to him, which made him blush. When they were done Daisy produced a cake with twelve candles for Harry to blow out and insisted he does it, but not eat it as it would ruin his breakfast.

Remus kicked everyone out so he could get dressed and instructed him that they would be having breakfast on the patio overlooking the lake so he must meet them there. He had never gotten ready so quickly and almost flew over to the patio.

When he arrived at the patio he was quickly ushered to sit at the head of the table with everyone else sitting around him, with Sirius and Remus to his left and right. Daisy snapped her fingers and a mound of food appeared on the table. Sirius helped pile food on Harry’s plate as well as everyone else's. 

They all chatted and bantered all through the meal. Harry was having the second-best birthday ever. He even got to have ice cream and cake for breakfast, even though Remus complained about it. 

After the meal, Sirius made Harry go out to the small forest backing the lake, saying there was a surprise from his parents there and that only he could go collect it. 

He made his way through the forest, he wasn’t exactly sure where he was supposed to go, but Sirius said that he would know where to go when he walked through the forest. He walked aimlessly through the forest till he saw a flash of red light out the corner of his. He walked towards the flash and found a few small circles of ash with an egg in the middle.

On the outermost ring of the ash circles, he found a sealed letter. He picked it up and read that it was addressed to him. He recognised the handwriting as his mom’s. He smiled and then unsealed the letter. He couldn’t help but smile while he read the letter which was written by his mom but he could tell his dad’s influence was in there:

Dear Harrison 

Happy birthday, not so little Harrison. You’ve gotten so big and I wish James and I were there to see it. We knew for some time that we would die on that Halloween night no matter what we did because of Dumbledore, so your father and I started to write letters addressed to you for all the important milestones in your life. They will appear in your room from now on.

It was our greatest wish that you would always be safe and loved wherever you go, so we wanted to get you something that would somewhat keep you safe (James mainly wanted to get it for you so that you could cause chaos and have really dramatic entrances cause you are part Black after all).

This gift is very important. All you need to do is touch the egg and just let whatever you feel happen. It is all perfectly safe. You must take the gift with you to Hogwarts and your pet (if you have one), there is no rule against taking it with you. 

Your dad and I are so proud of you and both love you so much. We want you to keep trying your best and give everyone hell (again this is your dad: and give snivellus hell for me). You are brave and most importantly very kind (again this is your dad: if you’re anything like your mom I hope to Merlin you got her brains and kindness). 

We love you so much 

Lily and James Potter

He took the letter and slipped it into his pocket, happy that even in death that his parents still loved and cared for him. He wiped the tears from his eyes and then took a deep breath. He was excited to see whatever came out of the egg and knew that this would be an amazing gift that he would cherish forever because his parents got it for him.

He moved towards the egg making sure to not disturb the ash circles. He stood in front of the egg. He calmed his fast breathing making sure that he was calm before he touched the egg. He wanted to be able to be in complete control when he did this. He wanted to remember everything about this moment for the rest of his life because he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to experience this ever again.

He reached forward and made sure to touch the egg with his non-dominant hand. As soon as his fingertips touched the egg he felt his whole body become warm, but it wasn’t unpleasant if anything it was comforting and almost familiar. He kept his hand on the egg and just let the feeling come over him.

A bright light for several seconds blinded him. Before he was able to open his eyes he felt something in his hand and moved his other hand next to it to make sure whatever was in his hand didn’t fall. He also had a small cooing noise. He opened his eyes to find a large, grey and black baby bird in his hand, “Is this…” He was in complete awe of the tiny creature in his palms.

He wasn’t sure he was right. He’d only ever read about these creatures, but he’d never seen one up close even though the headmaster’s one often flew around the school. A newly hatched phoenix wasn’t the prettiest sight in the world, but Harry instantly felt connected to the bird and somehow knew that the bird was connected to him.

He stared at the baby in his hands and the little-ish bird stared right back. He thought it was almost smiling back at him, “Well you're gonna need a name, aren’t you? Well, you are a very interesting coloured phoenix, though I’ve only ever seen one phoenix and that was from a distance. How about…” He thought it over for a moment and looked at the details of the baby phoenix in front of him before coming to a firm decision. “Onyx, I’ll call you Onyx. Do you like your name?” The bird cooed at him, which he took as a good sign.

He noticed the sun in the sky was past midday and realised he had been out in the forest for some time now. He looked around the rings of ashes to see if anything else needed to be taken with him, but he saw nothing so he started to make his way back with his new companion in his hands.

🜋🜋

As he walked through the doors he found all his school friends as well as Remus and Sirius waiting for him. All his friends were stunned into silence when they saw what he had in his hands, but Sirius and Remus made their way toward him with warm smiles on their faces. 

Sirius crouched down to be at eye level with Harry, “Your mom was a little… overprotective of you even before you were born and when you were born that went up 10 notches. So she made your father find you a creature that you can bond with to keep you safe while you were at school.” He smiled at Harry and Harry with watery eyes smiled back at him. “It’ll take a few days before she’s grown to full size. What did you decide to call her.” Remus said as he placed his hand on Harry’s shoulder. He smiled up at his uncle and then looked back at his little phoenix, “Onyx. I’ve decided to name her Onyx.” Sirius brushed his fingers over her head, which she seemed to enjoy.

Soon after all his school friends came up to him wishing him a happy birthday and congratulating him on his new friend. Hermione was super excited because now she could study a phoenix (Harry had explained to her that she wasn’t going to need to because Onyx would be their friend but she was too excited to even listen to him).

Sirius had conjured up a stand for Onyx to sit on and Remus had brought Hedwig to introduce the two. Harry was nervous about this, but as soon as Hedwig saw Onyx he was certain she saw Onyx as her child and put her under her feathered wing to keep Onyx warm (not that she needed to but it was the thought that counted). He was very happy that both birds got along (He wasn’t sure what he would do if they didn’t), and now he could turn his attention back onto his guests. 

All of them went out to the lake where they found all the other parents or guardians lounging. Remus started up the boat and took the kids in turn around the lake while some swam in the pool. They were all having a blast and it got even better when Ernie started a water fight with all the kids soon, thanks to Hermione accidentally spraying Sirius, the adults became involved too and they ultimately won thanks to them being allowed to use magic, but everyone still had a great time. 

Harry thought that this was his best birthday yet and Sirius promised to take him to his parents' graves tomorrow so he could chat with them. He was exhausted from the number of people there, not used to being the centre of attention. Luckily, after their water activities, he was able to spend the rest of the day with his new phoenix so he didn’t have to interact with too many people the whole party thing made him slightly uncomfortable, but he understood why everyone wanted to throw him a party. Being around so many people made him tired. 

He appreciated that everyone wanted to celebrate with him but he still wasn’t used to being around so many people and having so many people being nice to him so it was still a huge adjustment for him to get used to all of the kindness and love he was being shown.

Chapter Text

“I’ll see you soon Mum and Dad!” Harry said to his parents’ grave as he made his way back to Sirius and Remus who were waiting for him at the entrance to the graveyard. He’d spent the last few hours catching his parents up on everything and thanking them for Onyx, who was coming to school with him (Sirius had written to McGonagall to ask permission for Onyx to come with as well as Hedwig, which she was happy to allow).

They apparate back home where Neville, Hermione and Blaise were waiting as they were going to Diagon Alley today to get all of their school supplies. Hermione was excited to get Gilderoy Lockhart’s books. Neville teased her about having a crush on him but she adamantly denied this and they all knew better than to push her on this (They didn’t feel like getting an hour-long lecture from her… again). 

Remus got the pot of floo powder and they all went over to Diagon Alley without any issues from the Leaky Cauldron, when they got there, however, the media was everywhere! Sirius made sure Harry took his hand to keep him close and out of the media’s prying eyes. “Lockhart must be here signing his books! I can’t believe that I forgot this! We need to get our books so we can get them signed by him! Come on, we need to go quickly!” Harry didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He didn’t want to be seen by the media today, but it looked like it was unavoidable today. 

Before she could run off Sirius managed to grab her, “Before you go anywhere, Brains we’re going to get all the other stuff before we go get your books.” (He said that she reminded him of Lily when she was younger, hence the nickname.) She pouted all the way along as they went to get all their other things. She did sprint to Flourish and Blotts when Sirius finally agreed to go get their books. 

There was a queue out the door with people with Lockhart’s books so they could get them signed by him. One of the attendants of the store was standing by the door guiding them where people should go. They ushered the group into the store and helped all three children get all their books. Hermione insisted that she would stand in line to wait for Lockhart to sign all of the books that she got. She dismissed everyone who wanted to stand with her as she wanted to do this herself.

Harry and Neville waited outside for her and Remus and Sirius went off to the Leaky Cauldron to wait for them. “Is that Draco with his mom?”Neville asked and Harry turned around to see Draco and Narcissa coming out of the Quidditch shop. Harry wanted to go over and say hello to them but knew that he still needed to give him space. Narcissa gave the pair a subtle wave to the pair and then walked off.

Harry sighed and Neville patted his shoulder, “Has he tried to contact you during the holidays?” Harry shook his head sadly. He wanted so badly to be friends again, but when he spoke to Sirius about his feelings he validated Harry’s feelings and that he had every right to feel what he feels, but Draco needed some time before they start being friends again and Sirius advised to give him space and let him make the first move.

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It had been almost an hour since they left Hermione inside the book store, “How long is this going to take?” Neville was starting to get impatient. He wanted to go home and go swimming with all the inflatables that Hermione’s parents had bought for them to play with. “I don’t know but I’m starting to get worried. You want to come with me to check on her?” He nodded and followed Harry into the store. 

Harry pulled Neville with him to Hermione who was nearly near the front, “Alright, Mione?” She beamed up at them. “Oh, this is so exciting! Getting to meet such a great wizard who’s so good at writing is like a dream!” Harry could tell that she was about to burst with excitement. He wanted to say something but was dragged away by a man with a camera and stuffed next to Gilderoy Lockhart, who put his arm around Harry's shoulder.

He tried to squirm away but Lockhart had his arm tightly wound around him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Neville run out of the shop as soon as this happened and went to get Sirius and Remus. He saw multiple camera flashes and just hoped the pictures came out okay (Hermione said he was very, unfairly, photogenic and had no bad sides). 

Once the cameras’ flashes had stopped he felt Lockhart's arm loosen around him, “Ladies and Gentlemen,” Harry already disliked this man as he waved over everyone, “What an extraordinary moment and a perfect time to make a small announcement! Young Harry here walked into Flourish and Blotts only wanting to buy my autobiography which I will happily give to him free of charge and signed,” he clicked his fingers together and someone handed Harry the autobiography. He would be burning the book as soon as he got home. 

Sirius had gotten the wards back to their original state and now the Potter manor, from today onward, would be unplottable and was under the Fidelius charm and had Sirius as its secret keeper. This also now meant that underage wizardry could be performed and the ministry would never know that underage wizardry was performed, which Harry was excited to do he could also experiment with the potion recipes that his mom had written in her books as well as brew the potions in the school textbook where she made notes and now he could use his magic to burn this awful book (if Hermione let him).

“He also will be seeing a lot more of a magically me, him and his school peers. Yes, that is right ladies and gentlemen I will be the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts this year.” The press was all over this and Harry made his escape and found Hermione looking extremely delighted at this news.

They made their way to the back of the shop after giving Hermione the book, “Oh you loved that didn’t you, Potter.” That was the one voice Harry wanted to hear. Ronald walked down the stairs to confront him. He didn’t feel like getting into an argument with the youngest Weasley son, but he feared this was unavoidable, “Well Ronald-'' Before he could even reply a dark figure stepped into the store. Harry thought he was very brave to show his face in public after the whole New Year's party debacle.

“Well, well if it isn’t heir Potter-Black basking in his fame for defeating the Dark Lord as a mere infant.” Lucius Malfoy was being very careful with his words but the tone of his voice was full of disdain for him. He knew that he couldn’t do anything to Harry; his status in the wizarding world had fallen significantly since it came out what he did to his wife.

“Lord Malfoy, I didn’t think you would be showing your face publicly for a long time. Need I remind you of where you stand in the wizarding world?” Harry raised his eyebrow as if taunting him to try something. Hermione looked very shocked by this power dynamic (Harry was always mild-mannered around their friends so to see this was quite shocking). Lucius gave a tight smile back and before he could say anything else a small ginger girl was standing next to him, “Leave him alone.” The girl glared up at him. 

Lucius looked down at the small girl, “Well what do we have here,” He reached into her cauldron which held her school books, “Second hand, only natural for the blood traitor Weasleys.” Harry knew the Malfoys and the Weasleys hated each other but didn’t know the extent of their hatred for each other or why they did.

“Harry there you are!” Sirius walked up to him and brought him into a side hug. Lucius took a step back and tried to make himself look taller and more confident, but failed when Sirius looked him square in the eye which made his false confidence falter. “I thought you’d never show your face in public ever again after I humiliated you so badly.” He smiled smugly at Lucius. He shrunk back, “I shall remember to stay clear of a place you may decide to visit. Farwell Lord Black and Heir Potter Black.” With that, he walked off and Sirius ushered Harry and Hermione back to the Leaky Cauldron for supper.

Chapter Text

Daisy was once again trying to climb into Harry’s trunk to come with him to school, but this time Neville caught her and kindly told her she couldn’t. Harry felt that until he finished school at Hogwarts this would become an annual event (He wasn’t sure if he was looking forward to doing this every year, but he loved Daisy too much so he would indulge her). Even Sirius didn’t know what to do with the Potter elf and just shook his head at her and quickly got everyone into one of the cars and drove off before Daisy could start crying… again.

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Platform 9 ¾ was as busy as always with lots of families trying to get their kids on board with all their things as well as saying goodbye. They avoided the Weasley family but Harry waved at the twins and they gave a mischievous smirk. Harry knew that this year they were going to be pranking a lot more people because Ginny was starting Hogwarts this year and they were going to prank all the people who tried to mess with their little sister. 

Sirius and Remus had helped to get everyone’s things on board but were struggling with Onyx, she wouldn’t stay still in the cage and Harry could see that his snowy owl was slowly getting annoyed with her. She didn’t want to be in the cage with Hedwig, she liked Hedwig but she preferred to sit with Harry or on a bird perch. Unfortunately, she had to be in the bird cage as per Hogwarts rules when transporting a bird. 

Harry wanted to just let her fly to Hogwarts but was worried that if she went there before them that Dumbles would do something to her. So even though she was unhappy she stayed in the cage after Harry spoke to her about why she needed to stay in the cell. That next year she would be able to fly, as Sirius had promised when she had grown to be about a year old her magic would be strong enough to protect her from more things.

Finally, everyone’s things were on the train and they finally started to say their goodbyes, “Be safe, pup and if you ever need Remus or me I’ve always got the mirror in my pocket and you should also always keep it in your pocket, okay?” He hugged Harry tight and ruffled his unruly hair just for good measure. “I promise to always keep the mirror in my pocket. I have a funny feeling Hermione and I are going to be calling Remus a lot this year with Lockhart as our teacher.” He rolled his eyes just at the thought of him being their teacher. Hermione had insisted that they read all of his books and they read more like stories than actual textbooks, so he wasn’t too excited to learn anything he taught.

He heard Remus chuckle as he moved over to hug him in a group hug, “You can call me if you need to, but give him a chance before you judge his teaching ability. You never know he might be an excellent teacher for all we know.” He huffed at his Moony, “I’ll give him a chance, but if he’s bad I’m calling you. You are the best DADA teacher I’ve ever had!” Remus smiled down at him and patted his head. Giving each of his uncles one last hug he climbed on board and found Hermione, Neville, Blaise and Susan in the compartment with Hedwig, Onyx and Trevor.

He gave Blaise and Susan a hug and then hung out of the wing to wave goodbye to Remus and Sirius as the train moved off. He sat back down and Susan looked at Harry, “So you want to give a bit more of an explanation about your phoenix or…”

He smiled and stroked Onyx through the cage with a small smile on his face. He put up a silencing charm over the compartment, “Before my parents were killed by Voldemort they somehow knew that Dumbles and Peter were going to betray them, but they couldn’t leave the cottage in Godric's hollow cause of all the warding that he had put up around the house which prevented them from leaving without Dumbes being notified so they wanted to get me something that would protect me no matter what and I’m not sure how they managed it but they got me a black phoenix which has now bonded to me.” He stroked her head through the cage.

He looked up at his friends and saw a mixture of sadness, rage and determination in their eyes.

Susan then looked Harry straight in the eyes, “He needs to be punished and the system we have does nothing to do that. It needs to change and the older generation has no power to do that so we need to do that.” He knew he was going to be good friends with Susan and this just solidified that for him. “In our year how many heirs are there and how many are going to be getting a Wizengamot seat from their parents?” They needed to figure out who their allies were going to be.

Susan started to count, “I hold two seats Susan, the Potter and Black. Neville will have the Longbottom seat. You’ll have the Bones seat. So out of the around fifty seats, we hold 4.” Susan nodded, “Unless you feel like getting any other titles before we turn 17 that would help us a lot.” The rest of them started laughing, “Well meet, heir Bones.” and he gave her a cheeky grin after.

Sirius had been teaching him all about the wizarding high society and all the social etiquette he needed to uphold when he was representing the Potter and Black households and there were a lot of things he needed to learn but he was slowly getting the hang of everything.

Blaise gave him a proud smile. After their swimming lessons over the summer, he had been helping Harry with the lessons Sirius was giving him and gave him some tips to help him. Even Mrs Zabini, who insisted that Harry call her Aunty Elle, was helping with this cause even though Sirius was a great teacher he was a little more abrasive and because he was representing two very old houses he needed to get everything correct.

They all laughed at Harry’s sudden formality, “I know for a fact the Dumbles is several people’s next proxy as well as Lucius Malfoy. All we need to do is find out who and persuade them into not giving the two of them any more political power.” Susan nodded with Harry’s reasoning, “Well thanks to your god-father Lucius is less trusted than he was before since his marriage was nullified so publicly. He did that on purpose didn’t he?” He smiled at her knowingly. She disliked the eldest Malfoy because of all the stories her aunt had told her about him evading the law so often because of his money and connections.

“Well, we Blacks are nothing if over the top and dramatic.” This made Neville vigorously nod his head (he also had Black blood in him, which Sirius joked about a lot) and Blaise sighed with understanding. “Well with that I am going to go find some of the other heirs. We’re going to change the wizarding world, you and me Potter.” He smiled and nodded at her as she left the compartment.

Hermione and Blaise wanted to say something but knew better, “Do you think we’re going to ever have a quiet year?” Hermione said as she sighed into her book. “We go to Hogwarts, there's no such thing as a quiet year. I just hope that this year the stairs don’t try to kill me!” Neville made everyone laugh. One day when they were late Neville had been running down a staircase when it decided to move and Neville flung off the stairs but luckily Harry levitated him up and onto the stairs.

The rest of the journey was spent with Hermione defending Lockhart and the boys saying he wasn’t a good person. Hermione had memorised all the books that Lockhart had made them get, but the rest of them, besides Harry who she made read the books, hadn’t even bothered to buy the books, which upset Hermione very much, but Harry told them that Remus was as happy to help them if needed, which Neville and Blaise were grateful for. 

🜋🜋

There was a lot of chatter in the great hall after the sorting ceremony, as there always was. Dumbels had given a speech, which Harry didn’t pay attention to as per usual. Lockhart had tried to give a speech about how amazing he was and how lucky all the students were to have him as a teacher, he felt very sorry for the 5th and 7th-year students who were taking all those exams but was cut short by the twins throwing a dung bomb at his face which made nearly everyone laugh, except those who liked him.

Hermione made her way over to the Hufflepuff table and sat down with him and Neville, “I can’t wait for our first lesson with Lockhart tomorrow! He’s going to be able to pass on so much knowledge to us! We’ll get to hear all about his adventures!” Harry rolled his eyes, “I highly doubt that, Mione.” This was going to be a long year of this nonsense.

She looked at him with disgust, “Harry! You can’t just assume that he’s going to be a horrible teacher over one interaction! I for one think that he is going to be a great teacher!” He knew that her view that teachers were without any fault was blinding her from the truth and her crush on him. 

“Are you willing to bet on that? If I’m right you owe me a favour any time I want and if you are right I’ll owe you a favour any time, deal?” He wasn’t sure she’d go for the deal, but she nodded her head, “Fine, but when I’m right I do hope you realise that the favour I will ask won’t be a small one either, right?” He laughed and nodded, but he knew she was going to lose and couldn’t wait to hold this over her head for years to come. 

Gabriel was guiding the first years Hufflepuffs to the common room and Lilac was talking to Professor Sprout about who knows what. Neville and Harry were both exhausted as they made it into their dorm room and passed out, excited for the next day and the year ahead at Hogwarts.

Chapter Text

The morning had started as it usually did at Hogwarts, except for the fact that Neville was buzzing with excitement as their first lesson was Herbology and they were going to be working with Mandrakes. Neville had been writing to Professor Sprout over the holidays about all sorts of magical plants and she had let him know that they were the first lesson they were going to be handling them for the first lesson he was very excited to do that because his gran wouldn’t let him grow any at home.

Neville dragged Harry and Hermione to the greenhouse early so they could get to see the mandrakes before anyone else. Hermione and Neville were going back and forth about facts known about mandrakes, “And they are part of a cure for petrification.” He wasn’t paying attention earlier but now he was, “Petrification can’t be all that common, but knowing Hogwarts it would be good to have a few around.” The other two nodded as they entered the greenhouse.

Professor Sprout was happy to see Neville and had him start preparing bits and pieces for the lesson. He and Hermione helped where they could but Neville did it within a couple of minutes. 

The lesson went okay, besides Terry fainting and some of his friends take him to the hospital wing where he was then apparently berated by Madame Pomfrey for not wearing his ear protection properly. Sprout checked on him later as well.

Potions were as unbearable as usual, but Harry had been very busy over the summer holidays bettering his potion skill set and loved the shocked look on Snape’s face when he couldn’t take points off of his point as it was perfect (he thanked his mom and Potter ancestors for leaving lots of tips and tricks on how to brew potions with maximum efficiency and effectiveness).

The worst lesson of the day by far was Defence Against the Dark Arts. As he had predicted Lockhart was a horrible teacher and now Hermione owed him a favour as she lost that bet. This was decided 5 minutes into the lesson when he released cornish pixies into the classroom and couldn’t cast any spell as the cornish pixies took his wand. He ran away and left him and Hermione to clean up everything (Even though she admitted that he was a terrible teacher).

Neville had been hung up on the class chandelier by the pixies. Hermione immobilised them, “Why is it always me?” Neville was quite upset about the fact that nearly every time something went sort of wrong it would happen to him. Harry insisted that they could both go to lunch and that he would catch up with them shortly he just needed to give Lockhart his wand back and put the pixies away.

He got the pixies back into their cage, retrieved Lockhart's wand, took everything and knocked on his office’s door, “Umm Professor, I’ve cleaned everything up and I’ve got your wand.” The door opened and a very nervous-looking Lockhart opened the door and quickly grabbed everything and quietly thanked him and promptly shut the door and told him to leave.

He caught up with Hermione and Neville in the dining hall where Hermione was sulking with Lisa patting her back and trying to comfort her. Neville gave him a small encouraging smile which he returned with a grimace. Lisa took this as her cue to leave when he finally sat down next to her, “You alright, Mione?” He was very concerned about seeing how upset she was.

She sniffled and turned to face him, “I can’t believe I was wrong about him, Harry. I was sure all teachers were good and they would be who they said they were, except Quirrel, but I was so certain that he was who he said he was.” Tears continued to stream down her face.

He brought her into a hug. He hated seeing her so upset, but she needed to learn about this because she couldn’t go her whole life believing that teachers were above everyone else. Blaise gave him a puzzled look from the Slytherin table but he gestured that he had it covered. “Mione, teachers aren’t all that you think they are. You seem to hold them on some sort of pedestal as if they’re above everyone, but they’re human and will make mistakes and lie. I’m sorry that you had to learn this like this.” He handed her a tissue he conjured up without realising he had done so.

She wiped her eyes, “I just always hoped they were better than us but now I see that’s not it. I guess I now owe you a favour, so what do you want?” She wanted to get this over and done with but he wasn’t going to let the favour go so easily. “I’m saving it for an emergency, Mione.” He gave her a cheeky grin. She was not very happy with this.

She pounded on his back and started lecturing and giving him a lecture about whatever. He wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but he was just happy to see her not being upset and lecturing him again, as she always did. 

He looked over to the Gryffindor table to see that Ginny glared at him along with Ron. He knew why Ron didn’t like him, but he wasn’t sure why Ginny didn’t like him. She turned away from him and wrote something down in a book. He was going to steer clear of those two but he waved at the twins who looked like they were up to something that he didn’t want to be involved in. 

He turned back to Neville and Hermione who were debating about what Dumbledore was going to try and do this year to Harry and he joined in. He wasn’t sure about what was going to happen this year but he knew it would be okay, as long as he had his friends and family he would be alright.

Chapter Text

Quidditch practice was brutal. Anthony was gunning for another win this year as he only had this last year to win the cup so he and Estella were pushing them in hopes of winning two years in a row. Harry’s training was intense but because of all the swimming and flying he’d done over the holidays, he was able to keep up with the training.

Blaise wanted to keep up the swimming training, but Harry couldn’t do that because of the training schedule and the extra transfiguration lessons he wouldn’t be able to. He did promise that if he had free time he would join Blaise. 

Hermione was making a great effort to help him and Neville keep on top of their studies as with Harry’s very busy quidditch schedule and Neville was helping Sprout with the greenhouse more; they were both swamped with work and she was more than happy to help them keep on top of things.

She was especially grateful for Remus teaching the three of them actual DADA and not about Lockhart’s life and all his favourite things. Sirius had written to McGonagall several times about him, but again as she was not the headmistress and Dumbledore had faith that given his time he was going to be a great teacher.

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“Harry, you have to eat something! You haven’t eaten since yesterday and I’m worried about you.” Hermione was trying to get him to eat the dinner she had brought him up from the great hall. Neville was trying to encourage him to eat as well, but he just didn’t feel up to it. Today was Halloween and for whatever reason this year it hit him hard that he would never actually get to meet his parents.

He didn’t want to leave the Hufflepuff common room where he felt safe. If he went to the Great Hall he’d be getting a lot of pity looks, which is not what he wanted, “I’m not hungry, Mione. I’m just not up to it today.” He looked at the plate with all the different types of food on it and tried to see if anything made him hungry but nothing seemed good. Maybe if Daisy had cooked it he’d be hungry but just didn’t have an appetite.

Neville went up to their dorm and came back with the photo album of his parents that he was looking at earlier. He handed Harry the album with a small smile and sat next to the time on one of the large couches. Hermione sat on his other side,  “Will you show me them? Is that okay? I’ve never seen any pictures of them before.” He knew she was trying to distract him so he decided he would try and get his mind off things.

He opened up the album to a picture of him and his parents from when he was just a newborn, “Sirius said getting me to stay still for this was next to impossible and that he was glad that wizard photos moved or else they would have never gotten a good photo of me as a child.” She leaned over to get a better look at the picture.

She smiled at the photo, “Even as a newborn your hair was unruly.” He smiled and looked up at her, “I guess it's a Potter family trait.” Neville looked at him, “I think you just couldn’t care less so you don’t want to do anything to your hair.” Harry raised his hands in mock surrender to his best friend.

He was sad but he loved that his two best friends were trying their best to cheer him up. “There you guys are. I was starting to get worried when you guys didn’t come down to have dinner.” Blaise emerged through the door to the Hufflepuff common room.

It is a well-known fact that everyone was welcome in the Hufflepuff common room and dorm rooms if they needed to get away from their housemates or if something was wrong and they needed a safe place to collect themselves (The senior students of each house taught the younger ones how to get into the Hufflepuff house). Harry loved this and often saw older Ravenclaw and Slytherin students in the common room after a bad day.

Blaise sat in front of the trio, “What you got there?” Harry showed him the photo they were looking at and he gave Harry a warm smile. They continued to look through the album and Hermione had declared that his hair had a mind of its own and that it would never be tame, which made all of them laugh.

“I wonder what desserts they’ll be serving now?” Neville had a bit of a sweet tooth so he enjoyed the feasts as they always went over the top with the desserts. He didn’t want to make his friend miss the dessert fest, “Why don’t we head up there and go see what they have.” He stood up and started making his way towards the door. The other three sat there a little bit shocked but got up and followed him out.

As they made their way to the Great Hall and then he heard a voice, “... rip… tear… kill…” He looked around very confused and started to look around to see who was speaking. “... soo hungry… for so long…” He looked even more confused, “You alright, mate?” Blaise was starting to look very concerned about Harry. “Can you hear that?” He whispered in a small voice. “...kill… time to kill…” Then the voice faded away. He had gone pale hearing this. 

Neville and Hermione had walked on ahead of them and the corridor they turned onto was completely flooded “Looks like someone upset Myrtle again and she flooded that bathroom again.” Hermione shook her head, “Honestly, people should just leave her alone. She doesn't bother anyone much. They should respect…” Before she could finish what she was saying as they rounded the corner and they saw Mrs Norris, who was hung by the tail on a column.

They all stopped when they saw the writing on the wall:

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED,

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE.

“It's blood. It’s written in blood.” Hermione was shaking and was holding on to Harry and Blaise tightly. Neville had moved behind them and had gotten his wand out. Harry quickly got his mirror shard out of his pocket, “Sirius, Sirius pick up please.” 

Seconds later he saw Sirius and Remus looking very concerned, “What’s up pup what's wrong.” His face was deathly pale, which concerned both men. Without saying anything he turned the mirror around to show them the writing and Mrs Norris, who seemed to be dead, “We were just coming up to go get dessert and just found this.” They were all so shocked they didn’t know what to do.

“Harry, listen to me go straight to McGonagall's office, run there as fast as you can Remus and I will be there very soon. Go now.” With that, he hung up and Harry grabbed all of his friends and ran as fast as he could with them to McGonagall's office.

They got there and McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout were all standing at the door to the deputy headmistress’ office and a silver wispy wolf that dissipated when they arrived. They were all ushered inside and given some hot chocolate and blankets were put over their shoulders. “Potter, I know you are still in shock but can you tell me what you saw and what happened.” McGonagall sat down next to him and he nodded and started to explain what had happened with input from Hermione as well.

Flitwick at the end of the story starts to rush out to make sure everything is okay, but just as he was about to leave the room Filch runs in, “My cat. Someone’s killed my cat!” He looked around the room and then his gaze landed on Harry. His expression became furious.

He marched over to Harry grabbed him by his collar and pulled him up and close to his face, “You did this, didn’t you? You’ve always had it out for me! I’m going to make you pay!” Before he could do anything he was ripped off of Harry and flung across the room.

He was pulled into a tight hug. He recognised the smell to be Sirius, “What in Merlin’s name were you about to do to my god-son?” He took a look around the room to see that all the other teachers had their wands out. Sprout had her wand pointing at Filch.

He saw that everyone’s parents were there as well. They all look very concerned about what they just saw. “How often does he go after students and threaten them with bodily harm?” Fiorella was furious as she stood next to Blaise and started comforting him. 

Remus hugged Hermione and asked her if she wanted to see her parents, which she declined. She just wanted a hug which Harry happily obliged to do for her. “How long has he been allowed to threaten students like this, Minerva?” Fiorella was now visibly getting angry.

The teachers tried to calm her down and explain that they had reported him to Dumbledore multiple times but no action was taken against him, “So nothing has ever been done when he threatens children. You are aware Mr Filch that you have threatened to kill the heir of the Potter and Blacks houses as well as the Longbottom and Zabini houses, correct? I will not stand for that! A member of staff here at Hogwarts should not be able to threaten children with bodily harm daily! I want him removed from the Hogwarts staff members. I will not stand for him bullying my child and getting away with it with no consequences!” Fiorella, in the entire time that Harry had known her, was a calm person except when it came to her son.

She would do anything to keep her son safe. She loved him more than anything in this world and would do anything to ensure her son's safety and position in the wizarding world. Filch was going to either get fired from his job and live a somewhat peaceful rest of his life or he would still his job and be tormented by Fiorella and the allies of the Zabini household until he quit his job, either way, Filch would be leaving the castle sooner rather than later. 

Just as McGonagall was about to say something Albus Dumbledore walked into the room, the picture of calm. He had a twinkle in his eyes. He had planned this whole thing. Harry knew this, but he knew something bad was going to happen this year and Dumbles was going to let it happen to try and control Harry so that he could use him as a chess piece in his insane mind games. 

“Let us be calm, Madame Zabini. Mr. Filch was merely upset about the state of his cat. Don’t worry Argus I have examined Mrs Norris and she is merely just petrified. Pomona I have already spoken to Severus and he will be preparing a potion to reverse the petrification process he will just need some mature mandrakes.” Professor Sprout looked horrified.

She thought for a moment longer, “But Albus, it’ll take several months before the mandrakes we have will come even close to being mature! And with the chamber being open I’m sure you’ll want us patrolling the corridors at night to…” She was about to continue but was stopped by Dumbles raising his hand, “I do not think this is anything more than a silly prank done by some students. We have nothing to be worried about.” The way he spoke was very odd and it seemed to calm the present staff members and made them all agree with him.

They had been either spelt or potioned to follow Dumbledore's command, which was extremely illegal. Harry shared a concerned look with both Sirius and Remus, but before they could comment, Agusta Longbottom walked through the fireplace. She had a very stern look on her face, “Actually, Albus, as the head of the board of directions I do think that this should be a number one concern. This is the first mention of the chamber being opened in 50 years and should be taken very seriously.” 

Sirius muttered under his breath, “I’m Sirius.” which made Harry have to stifle a laugh. “Mrs. Longbottom, I do think we need to focus on the problem of the potion to reverse the petrification of Mr. Filch’s cat. Our mandrakes are just a bit too young for usage so we need to rear them a bit before they can be used.” He was trying very hard to calm the Longbottom house's matriarch.

“What if we outsource the mandrakes?” Neville said in a quiet voice. Mrs Longbottom looked impatiently at her grandson, “Speak up, Neville we can not hear you!” Harry gave him an encouraging nod and smile, so he took a deep breath and squared off his shoulders before speaking again, “What if we outsource the mandrakes? Some supplies can give us mature mandrakes that we can use to make the potion because the mandrakes we have will take several months to even get close to maturing and this won’t help if there is another attack.” Neville was now looking at his feet, not feeling very confident.

Agusta almost had a smile on her face. She almost looked proud of her grandson, “That is a good idea, Neville. I hope you will see to that soon Minerva. And you Albus are being removed for the time being as headmaster because of how lightly it seems you intended to take this situation. The other board members and I have agreed to have you removed and put Minerva in your position until further notice. Let us get going, Albus.” The old man knew better than to put up a fight so stepped into the fireplace and disappeared and then so did Agusta seconds after.

“I do hope we don’t have to see him anytime soon,” Remus said as he started to cast many spells over each of the professors, each spell more complicated than the last. Slowly each one of them blinked and came to realise what was happening, “Thank you, Remus, dear.” McGonagall was now hugging Remus tightly and he just froze not knowing how to react.

Sirius was chuckling and so were the other professors, other than Filch, “Well is he going to face some consequences for his actions or not?” Harry knew that no matter what or how many times they explained to him that he had nothing to do with the petrification of his cat he wouldn’t believe any of them. “Mr Filch it is you who should be explaining your actions. Now that I am headmistress I have the power to dismiss you, which I will be doing immediately and before you ask who will be taking over for you I already have someone in mind who I will be contacted as soon as I am done here.” With that, she turned around and began walking out.

Before leaving she turned around, “When you are all done checking on your children please kindly floo out from this room and do not roam around the castle there's been enough panic. We don’t need the Weasley twins knowing that two of the Marauders are in the castle, yes?” A very cheeky grin came over Sirus’ face, “Anything for you Minnie!” She rolled her eyes and walked out and was followed by the other professors and a very shocked-looking Filch.

The adults kept checking over the children and even Sirius recommended that Hermione see her parents soon. Still, she insisted they didn’t need to know about this and that they were already freaked out about the fact that she was attending a magic school and would probably want to pull her out of the school if they knew that this was happening. Reluctantly they relented but still encouraged her to sit down and have a conversation with them about their feelings and her feelings.

“What is the Chamber of Secrets, Sirius?” Harry wanted to know what it was and why the message was written in blood. Sirius sighed and pulled Harry closer to him, “My mother told me about it once. My family comes from a very long line of Slytherins and it was expected that I would be one too so she wanted to prepare me for the Slytherin life. Supposedly before Salazar Slytherin was kicked out of Hogwarts he was becoming increasingly worried about the school being attacked as at the time the church was hunting down witches and wizards so he wanted to have the last line of defence where the students could hide and supposedly there was something he had in there that would follow his command and protect the school if he wished.” This surprised all the children in the room.

“No one knows what the monster is, but it is a well-known fact that Slytherin was a Parselmouth so it could be some sort of snake. People aren’t sure, but the last time the Chamber was opened was 50 years ago and a girl was killed. She was killed in the bathroom and her ghost is apparently there.” Sirius finished as he rubbed Harry’s back in a soothing motion to try and calm him. 

Hermione thought for a few seconds, “Could the ghost be Moaning Murtle? She is a ghost that lives in a toilet in one of the girls’ bathrooms and no one goes in there because of her being there and constantly flooding the toilets.” Remus and Sirius shared a look while Fiorella looked puzzled; she had mentioned previously that she went to Beauxbatons and only sent Blaise to Hogwarts because it ranked the best school for magic at the time and continues to do so. 

“I’m not sure, Hermione but I don’t think you’ll have anything to worry about with McGonagall as headmistress for the short while she is. It's to be expected that Dumbledore will be able to worm his way out of this somehow so let us know the change and please keep each other safe.” Remus finished by getting Sirius to stand. They all said their goodbyes and soon all the adults were gone and Professor Flitwick came into the room to escort them all back to their houses. 

They all said goodbye to one another as Harry and Neville made their way up into their dorm room, “You’re not going to let this go, are you?” Neville asked as they quietly got ready for bed. “Not a chance. I’m gonna check this out tomorrow.” Neville sighed and grumbled under his breath as the pair went to sleep. Tomorrow things would get intense and Neville knew that there was no stopping Harry. He would have to join up with his shenanigans to keep him safe, after all, they were best friends.

Chapter Text

Blaise, Neville and Harry were standing in the corridor waiting for Hermione to finish talking to Myrtle. She had insisted that it would be alright for them to come in because no one ever uses the bathroom because of Myrtle but they had refused. They didn’t want to violate the girls’ privacy.

Hermione emerged from the bathroom. Harry cast a privacy charm over them and quickly dismissed it when he saw her, “She said she had gone into the bathroom cause some boy had upset her. She was crying on the toilet when she heard some hiss and assumed it was a boy so she opened the door to tell him to go away, but as she opened the door she saw a pair of bright yellow eyes and then she died.” She looked quite concerned about this. 

“It must be the monster that only an heir of Slytherin can control so it must be something that a Parselmouth can talk to, so that’ll help narrow down what it is.” Blaise thought out loud. “Well, then it looks like we're off to the library. Luckily it’s a Friday afternoon so there won’t be too many people there.” Harry said as he and the others started making their way over to the library.

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“Look at this!” Hermione came running over to them with a very ancient-looking book, “Here I think this is what we’re looking for.” The page read that the creature which was a huge-looking serpent with bright yellow eyes and very sharp-looking teeth was called a Basilisk. It was classed as an XXXXX creature and was a known wizard killer. It was described to be king of all serpents and if you looked the Basilisk directly into their eyes would cause instant death, but looking at its reflection would cause petrification. The beast couldn’t be controlled by someone who was a Parselmouth but if they were a powerful enough witch or wizard who was a Parselmouth powerful they would be able to control it to a certain extent.

“What are these squiggles on the side here?” Neville asked. Hermione shrugged, “Madam Pince said it had been there for a long time and no matter what she did it won’t come off.” Harry looked at the squiggles which somehow made sense to him. He read them out loud to his friends it said, “Use the Basilisk to get rid of the…” He didn’t say the rest as the word was too vile for him to say.

Neville and Hermione looked very shocked. Blaise was the first to speak up, “Harry you didn’t tell us you were a Parselmouth! You just read parselscript!” Blaise said to him looking rather impressed with him. He looked at his friends very confused, “What do you mean I just read the sentence you guys, it reads,” again he said to them but this time he was more aware of his speech. He was hissing. “Harry being a Parselmouth was a known trait to Salazar Slytherin. You could be a descendant of his or someone else who was a Parselmouth! We need to keep this between us. Others will think that you are the Heir of Slytherin and opened the chamber.” Hermione said in a hushed voice.

He was shell shocked, “So that voice I heard last night must have been the Basilisk before it tried to kill Mrs Norris but she didn’t die because of the reflection of the water. Also, Blaise what is parselscript?” Hermione nodded in agreement. Blaise started to rub his back, “Mom told me about it when she was telling me about the founders. It’s parseltounge but written and only those who can speak it can read it Salazar Slytherin was a parseltounge.” 

He nodded his head. Neville then spoke up, “It was If Harry’s a Parselmouth does that mean if the monster is let loose on the castle  he could control it and stop it before it harms anyone else?” He turned his head towards Harry.

“Maybe… But if the monster belonged to Slytherin doesn’t that mean it’ll only answer to an heir of Slytherin's house? Do you know if the Potter or Black House have any direct relations or marital relations to the Slytherin house?” Harry shook his head, “Sirius wanted to take me to the Potter and Black house vaults this coming summer and show me the bloodlines and teach me more about my family. He said he went into the vault with my dad a few times and he knew about everything in the vault and its history… he doesn't know as much as Dad did but he knows some bits about it all.” He gave a small smile thinking about how Sirius spoke about his father.

“You could give him a call and ask him to check it out for you. I’m sure he won’t mind and he won’t ask too many questions either.” Neville said as he looked back at the book, “Because if he’s able to control the Basilisk then we should not only be able to control it and maybe find the chamber of secrets and close it and stop the attacks before more people get hurt or even end up like Myrtle.” Harry was on board with this.

“That’s a good idea, Neville!” said Harry excitedly. “I need to figure out how to speak Parseltongue and maybe get better at magic and then I’ll be able to control it, but if I can’t we need to figure out how to defeat it.” Hermione then pointed to the bottom of the page.

“A rooster's crow seems to be its only weakness.” The boys all shared a look, “For one of the most deadly monsters in the wizarding world it has the dumbest weakness.” Blaise said with a confused look on his face, “Well it certainly makes our lives easier if it comes to having to defeat the bloody thing…” Hermione said as she continued to read about the Basilisk. 

“We need to carry something around that can make a reflection. Harry, you already carry your piece of mirror around but I’m not sure if the Basilisk's gaze will affect the magic so carry another mirror or anything else reflective and that goes for the rest of you.” They all nodded.

“Do you think people will believe us if we tell them that a Basilisk is roaming around the castle trying to kill the students?” Neville asked with a defeated sigh accompanying his question. “I don’t think so but if we tell our friends and or allies they might not ask too many questions,” said Hermione with a defeated sigh.

“I’m going to be very busy for the few weeks with Quidditch and studying as well as all the extra Transfiguration lessons with McGonagall so I won’t be much help with this.” Hermione then pulled their homework out of nowhere, “Speaking of homework we ought to get this done and we need to work on a plan for you to make amends with Draco. He looks miserable every day and I don’t think he’s strong enough to make the first step.” He sighed because he knew she was right, she was always right.

“The people that he hangs out with in Slytherin are people whose families are known death eaters so I’m not sure how safe he is now that his dad has been outed to the world,” Blaise explained as he began his herbology essay with Neville helping him. “Right, so we need to work on that plan ASAP so help him. I just hope he’s come to terms with his feelings and understands why keeping the title was so important to me.” He sighed as Hermione was already beginning to correct his transfiguration essay even though he had only written two paragraphs. 

She loved the quills that he had gotten her for Christmas. She thoroughly enjoyed correcting everyone's essay with all the different colours and the quill never hurt her hands so she could spend hours writing without any issues. He was slowly starting to regret getting them for her for Christmas, but she loved them and he couldn’t bring himself to ask her to tone it down. He loved seeing her so happy and she was at her happiest when she was doing anything academic and he couldn’t do anything to take her happiness away.

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“Right guys, the first friendly match of the season is tomorrow against Slytherin so we’re going to have one final fly-around before the match tomorrow so we can iron out some of our formations and other bits we need to perfect so we just…” Before Anthony could finish the whole group saw the Slytherin team walking in their direction.

“We’re off to the pitch Anthony. Here’s a letter from Snape saying we're allowed to use it.” Flint, the captain of the Slytherin team, said with a smirk on his face the entire time. Harry couldn’t help but notice that the team had a new broom, the Nimbus 2001. Sirius had wanted to get him the same broom when it initially came out but he didn’t want a new one as he liked the one he had and flew well on it as well so there was no point in getting a new one.

“It said here you need to train your new seeker?” Anthony questioned him which made Flint smirk. Neville and Hermione had made their way towards them as a crowd had now started to form around them. “That's right. We’ve been ironing out some rough edges to iron out before our first match, hey Draco?” To his shock, a very smug Draco stepped forward. 

He didn’t know how to react. He knew Draco liked Quidditch but he always saw him more as a chaser or even a beater, not a seeker, but what would he know he hadn’t been spending time with him lately so he couldn’t just assume anything, “Congrats on making the team, Draco. I know you’ve been wanting to be on the team for a while.” He smiled at Draco and before he could reply to him Flint spoke.

“We also have these wonderful new brooms thanks to Draco’s father. He’s just such a generous man you see.” He smiled with his horrible teeth. Harry looked at Draco with a lot of shock. “You bought your way onto the team, Draco?” Hermione asked, her tone making her distress known to everyone listening to her.

Again before he could reply to her Flint spoke, “Oh, shut it you filthy mudblood. No one cares about your opinions anyways.” He saw red when the words left Flint’s mouth. “You have just insulted a charge of the Potter-Black house, heir Flint. I hope you will be prepared for the repercussions of doing so, as I’ve heard your family has been experiencing some issues of late. Your family shall be receiving a formal letter of complaint from my family and I am sure the Longbottom house will also be joining me in this regard?” He turned to Neville who nodded his head.

Flint had gone pale. In regards to power, the Flint house was nowhere near as powerful as the Potter house despite not being part of the sacred 26, but with the added power of the Black and Longbottom houses, they were insignificant. He was royally screwed and he knew it. “I apologise heir Potter-Black and heir Longbottom. I wasn’t aware that Miss Granger was part of your charge.” He looked like he wanted to continue grovelling, but he had screwed up and there was no escape from it.

“Nothing you can say will fix this, Heir Flint. Not only did you insult my charge, but you also used an extremely decorated term against one of the smartest witches in the entirety of Hogwarts. I will also be reporting this to headmistress McGonagall as well as our head of houses so that an appropriate punishment can be given for this appalling attitude that you have displayed.” Neville started to feel the wind blow harder so he patted Harry’s shoulder so he would know to calm down and stop freaking everyone out.

Whenever Harry got very angry he lost control of his magic and Neville was sure when he turned 17 as he would be receiving all of his family's magic and the binds that underage magic held over his magic would be broken so he would be even more powerful and he already is and that he might explode with magic.

The rest of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin quidditch team looked very shocked and some of the spectators looked slightly afraid. Everyone knew that Harry Potter was a powerful wizard, but they didn’t know just how powerful he was until they saw him visibly affect the weather around them. He was probably going to be the most powerful wizard of their age if not ever and now people knew not to piss him off unless they wanted a lightning bolt in their backs.

Harry took a deep breath to calm down and then spoke again, “I hope this will be the last time you even think of doing something like this or next time I won’t be so nice, understand Heir Flint?” Flint gulped and nodded. He called the rest of the Slytherin team and told them they wouldn’t be training on the pitch today but on the grounds. Draco looked at Harry one last time before he followed his teammates away. 

“Remind me to never piss off Harry, alright Adam?” Seth said as he slung his arm over Harry’s shoulders. “Mate, we knew you were powerful but, excuse my language children, shit I didn’t know you had that much magic in you!” Callum said as the team started making their way to the pitch. “Well at least we know Slytherin is now afraid of pissing you off so we won’t have to worry about them trying to pull anything over us,” Estella said as they finally made their way over to practice.

Chapter Text

“Harry, you need to eat something!” Justin said as he put a small piece of toast on his plate with some bacon. “He’s right, you know. You need your energy so you can kick Flint's butt today and I have a bet on Hufflepuff winning so would appreciate it if you won, mate.” Wayne said as he continued to eat. Harry had come to find out that Wayne and Justin had always bet on Hufflepuff winning and because Harry is always there and they just wanted Hufflepuff to win, no pressure or anything.

Hermione and Lisa came and sat with them, “Before you ask, Mione no Harry hasn’t eaten and yes we have tried but he’s very nervous and I honestly don’t think he can stomach anything.” Neville said as soon as she sat down, as he knew she would try and lecture Harry into eating something, but after yesterday he’d been very nervous to play this match. He was worried Flint would use a form of underhanded tactics to try and hurt his teammates.

In a defeated sigh Hermione buttered some toast and put it on Harry’s plate and gave him an expecting look. He knew better than to argue and began to eat the toast. Hermione looked very satisfied that he was eating and everyone else knew not to question anything. They were too scared of receiving a lengthy Hermione lecture.

“I’ve got to go so I can warm up with the rest of the team. I’ll see you guys after the match!” He got up and made his way to the quidditch pitch to get ready.

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The match was intense, more so than usual. Slytherin was using more underhanded tactics than usual and was getting away with it because they did it within the rules so Madam Hooch couldn’t do anything. Anthony told Harry to stay out of trouble this match and that's what he was doing. He hovered above the actual stadium and continued to look for the snitch. He noticed that Lucius Malfoy was in attendance, which he thought was weird as Draco had expressed to him that he didn’t like his father attending anything important to him so he was concerned, to say the least.

A bludger came racing towards him. Narrowly he dodged it. But something was off about it. It seemed that it was targeting him specifically. It followed him around so now he was flying around to try and avoid being hit when he saw the snitch and dived after it. Draco saw him do this and followed him but was very far behind. He stuck his left arm out to grab the snitch but the bludger hit it and he felt it break and so with all his strength he grasped the broom with his left hand and quickly stuck out his right arm and grabbed the snitch, which he was successful in doing and he even managed to dodge the bludger.

He was now flying up so he wouldn’t hit the ground but the bludger hit his broom and he went flying off it and hit the ground hard. He could hear people panicking and when he opened his eyes he saw the bludger try and hit him in the chest but he rolled to the left and it missed him. He then proceeded to the right to avoid it again. “Finite Incantatem.” He heard Hermione yell and as the spell hit the bludger it stopped and exploded.

Hermione and Neville got to him, “Harry your arm!” Neville yelled in shock. “I think it's broken. I need to get to Madame Pomfrey.” Neville and Hermione nodded and helped him sit up. “Not to worry, my boy! I know the exact spell that will mend that immediately!” Lockhart said as he made his way over to the trio. Blaise was also running over now with Draco and the rest of the Hufflepuff team to check on him.

“No! I don’t want you to do it! Madame Pomfrey will heal it in one go, who knows what will go wrong if you do it!” Harry was now trying to get on his feet so he could get away from Lockhart but the professor had a firm grip on his right arm and he couldn’t get away. He was about to do something but was stopped by a loud caw. 

“Onyx!” His phoenix must have felt how distressed he was and immediately flew over. She landed between the two and was now, as best as a phoenix could, menacingly glaring at Lockhart to stay away from her wizard. This was her first public appearance so many people were stunned to see a phoenix but on top of that, she was an extremely rare black phoenix. 

Lockhart backed away as the phoenix fire on Onyx started to grow, “Thank you, Onyx but you have to let me get to Madame Pomfrey to heal my broken arm okay?” With that, she turned around and saw his broken arm and immediately put out her fire and then proceeded to land on the shoulder of his unhurt arm. She wasn’t as heavy as a large bird normally is. He and his friends and the rest of his teammates (with Draco trailing behind them) made their way to the hospital wing.

He had tried to convince Onyx that he was going to be okay and that she could go back to the Owlery but she refused and accompanied him to the hospital wing. She even came inside with them and Madame Pomfrey didn’t even bat an eye when she saw the phoenix, which he was grateful for. 

“I’m grateful your phoenix showed up when she did, Potter. If that Buffon had tried to heal you, who knows what might have happened! Honestly, the only reason why Minerva hasn’t gotten rid of him yet is that no one else will take the blasted job!” She ranted as she quickly healed Harry’s arm. She gave him a quick check-over and deemed him in great health. She did recommend using more magic in his daily life so then he won’t feel as much pressure build up in his chest, which he didn’t know wasn’t normal so he promised to do so.

After she had fired Filch from his position she hired an old student of hers. Their name was Agreth Tempest they are excellent at both transfiguration and charms and they had a very bubbly personality and were friends with the entire castle already. They were doing an amazing job at looking after the castle and the students there. They followed the rules but had a much better way of enforcing them and getting the students to follow them as well. Everyone (especially the teachers) was much happier with Agreth than they were with Filch.

“I’m glad you’re all alright, Harry! I don’t know what we would have done if you weren’t! We have our first official game against Ravenclaw in 2 weeks so we’ve got to start preparing for that from Monday!” Harry was now understanding why the Weasley twins compared Anthony to Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor quidditch captain; they both wanted to win the quidditch cup badly and would do anything to win it.

Once again he tried to get Onyx to go back to the Owlery but she wouldn’t so for the rest of the day she sat on his shoulder. He did use her to make a very dramatic entrance into the Great Hall at dinner time. Neville had taken the mirror out of Harry’s pocket and had shown Sirius and Remus and Sirius couldn’t have been more proud of him, “I always knew he was a true Black” Sirius had said with a wide grin and Remus had walked off while rubbing his temples.

Onyx even slept that night in his dorm room and luckily there was a perch for her waiting when they got up. She warmed the room with her phoenix fire which Justin and Ernie were grateful for as they got really cold at night and asked Harry if she could just sleep in their dorm room from now on and wouldn’t mind if Hedwig did the same. He was happy to do this and let Onyx go fetch her sister. He was pleased to have both of them with him at night and the other boys were just happy to have extra warmth in the room.

Chapter Text

The next morning they were shocked to find out a first-year Gryffindor student had been found petrified in one of the school corridors that previous evening, “His name’s Colin Creevy and he’s the one that always carries that camera around. Poor guy, it's only his first year.” Justin said as he ate his breakfast greedily. Harry knew him as he’d taken his picture a few times, which he didn’t mind.

Harry and Neville shared a look. They both were growing concerned with the Basilisk. He knew that McGonagall was doing her best to get rid of it but they didn’t know where it was coming from or where it hid. For such a large animal it was doing a great job at hiding itself from them.

“Attention students!” McGonagall called out as she made her way to the podium on the stage in front of the great hall, “In light of recent events quite a few students have come to me saying they feel unsafe, so I have asked Professor Flitwick to start a mandatory duelling class for each year. This is not up for debate. Each year will have to spend at least 2 hours a week at this new duelling club. I have drawn up a schedule and today the second years will be having a lesson with…” She was about to read out the name but was interrupted.

“With me and Professor Snape of course!” Lockhart made his way forward onto the stage. If looks could kill Lockhart would have been six feet under by now, but McGonagall took a deep breath and gave a tight smile and nodded her head, “The rest of the schedule will be on the left of the doors into the Great Hall. If I hear that anyone has been skipping these lessons there will be severe consequences!” The school was very quiet when she announced this.

McGonagall was a woman of her word so if she said the consequences would be severe they would be. 

As his friend group got up to leave so they could make their way to the duelling club McGonagall waved him over, “Potter, please do us all a favour and hand that buffoon his arse today? I know Remus and Sirius have been teaching you how to duel so please for the love of Merlin humiliate him. I’ve already told him to use you as a duelling partner.” She looked down at him with pleading eyes.

“It would be my utmost pleasure to do this for you, Professor. Also, have I mentioned that you’re my favourite teacher?” He said with a sly grin on his face. This made her chuckle, “Don’t let Professor Sprout hear you say that. It’ll hurt her feelings. Now off you go and remember Potter make me proud!” He smiled and ran off to catch up with his friends.

“What was that all about?” Neville asked as he finally caught up with them. “Just some very ethical instructions from Professor McGonagall that's all…” He was grinning like a Chesser cat as he walked through the doors of the duelling club room. Neville grinned at him, “Give him hell for all of us, yeah?” He nodded at his friends as the whole of the second-year students shuffled their way into the club room.

At the centre of the room was a long platform, which resembled a catwalk. He remembered Petunia used to watch fashion shows on the telly and complain about where fashion was heading to.

The lights dimmed everywhere except the ones on the stage. “Can you all see me? Can you all hear me?” Lockhart said as he strutted onto the stage in his duelling outfit (Harry thought it just looked tacky). “Now Professor Snape was supposed to be helping me but has decided just to observe the class to make sure that no student injures themself while casting these spells against one another! So I have the liberty of choosing a student to help me.” His eyes began to search the room for Harry.

Everyone knew that he was going to choose Harry, as he would become more famous for defeating the Boy Who Lived, even if he was just a 12-year-old, that didn’t matter to anyone. “Ah Harry my boy, would you care to join me?” He took a deep breath and made his way onto the stage.

“Now I know you’ve had some previous training in duelling so I assume you know how to begin and conduct yourself in a duel?” He nodded and then made his way to the other side of the platform.

“Now children I want you to watch as Harry and I have a proper duel. Please save all your questions for after the duel. I’ll have to concentrate so that I don’t go overboard with young Harry here!” He chuckled to himself and Harry just sighed.

They bowed to each other and the duel began. Harry immediately put up a protective shield as he didn’t know what would happen if Lockhart cast a spell at him. Lockhart tried to disarm him but the spell bounced back and he moved out of the way of the spell at the last second. He thought for a second before using a spell Remus had taught him over the holidays, “Flipendo Tria!” He yelled as what can only be described as a miniature tornado came out of his wand and knocked Lockhart to the ground as he fell he let go of his wand and it flew over to Harry, who caught his wand with ease.

Harry looked at him with boredom and then threw his wand back at him. He could tell that everyone was trying hard not to laugh at the professor who was still seated on the floor. He looked over at his friends and Neville gave him a thumbs up, Blaise a wide smile. He saw Justin give Wayne some money and Hermione looked conflicted but smiled at him when she saw him look at her. “Well done Harry, good spell, but in normal circumstances, one would wait for their opponent to be ready before casting a spell of that magnitude, but good try.” He rolled his eyes at this statement. If he wanted to he would be doing chain spells and then the daft man wouldn’t be able to keep up at all. He could practically hear Snape’s eyes roll.

Remus taught him how to do chain spells that summer and had been helping him learn more spells at his request. He wanted to learn about the magical world as he missed out on it for nearly his whole memorable childhood so he wanted to learn as much as he could. Neville was also there when he learnt how to do this but struggled as his wand wouldn’t always listen to him, as it was his dad’s wand. He tried to convince Neville to get a new one but he told Harry that his gran would probably try and kill him if he did.

Harry thought he would have given up on him the first time he was defeated but no the daft man said it was a fluke and made Harry duel with him several more times before calling the whole thing off, but not before he raised his wand high as if to cast a spell but then looked around the platform and stopped because each time he lost to Harry even though he cast only one spell at the professor.

As they made their way out of the room Draco called out to Harry, “Harry! Can we umm… talk?” He looked very anxious to speak to Harry. “I’ll catch up with you all. Go ahead, I'll see you in the library.” His friends nodded and made their way out. Susan wanted to meet today to discuss their plans to dismantle the wizarding ministry, so he knew he’d have to make it to the library eventually. Neville gave him an encouraging smile and Hermione nodded at him showing her support as they exited the room.

“Umm…” Draco began. He knew not to interrupt as this was a big thing for him so he sat on the platform and patted next to him and Draco came and sat down next to him. “I’m sorry for being a complete and utter arse to you Harry. You were my first friend who treated me like a person and not an heir or child of a death eater and I nearly threw that all away cause I was acting like an entitled brat. I was just so used to getting what I wanted and it took me nearly losing one of my best friends to realise that the way I was acting was wrong.” He was choking out the words while he looked down at his fidgeting hands.

This was a big step for him and Harry knew that he shouldn’t interrupt and let him express himself fully before saying anything, “I don’t want to lose your friendship, Harry. I realise I made a mistake in trying to take something important to your family away from you. I didn’t realise just how important that title is for you. You didn’t have someone like my mom growing up in that horrible house and the title means a lot to you cause Sirius, your family gave it to you, so I’m sorry and I understand if… if you don’t want to be friends anymore.” Draco had tears welling up but he wasn’t crying, yet.

Harry smiled at him, “Hey your family too! We’re both Blacks, aren’t we? And Draco I never wanted to lose you as a friend. Thank you for understanding what the title means to me and why I feel it's important that I keep it. We’re family, Draco and don’t you forget that.” He turned to hug his friend, to which he returned.

“I'm sorry again Harry. I was a huge prat.” He sighed as Harry slung his arm over his shoulder as they walked out together. “That you were but you came around and that's the important thing. Now we need to go to the library. Susan wants to see all the heirs and their allies for something very important.”  Harry said as he dragged Draco with him.

This meeting was the first step they needed to take to stop Albus Dumbledore’s schemes and Voldermort from rising to power again, so they would need all the help they could get.

Chapter Text

The pair arrived in the library to find the group in the corner. Hannah and Susan were there and discussing something with Hermione. Blaise and Neville were looking at a piece of paper, “Hey guys sorry we’re late we just did some catching up.” He saw Hermione smile at him and Neville looked relieved at his, “Bout time mate. Took you long enough! He’s been wanting to apologise for weeks but thought Harry hated him so he couldn’t bring himself to do it.” Blaise said with a smirk and leans back in his chair.

Draco became bright red and sat next to Hannah muttering something, “Great now that we’re all here we can start our talk. Harry, if you would please put up a privacy temporary ward that would be great.” He took out his wand and did just that. “You know because of his mild nature I forget that Harry is probably THE most powerful wizard in the entire school sometimes…” Hannah said as she pulled out a paper and handed it to Susan.

The spell he cast wasn’t an easy one and required a lot of magical power to run but it was simple for him and honestly didn’t affect him much and helped ease that feeling of pressure in his chest the longer he had it up.

“Yes, which is why he’s gonna be the face of our little coup. He’s strong and has a large following because of his status as the Boy-Who-Lived and Defender Potter, a nice one that my aunt sends her thanks for putting Snape in his place. My Aunt doesn’t like him.” He nods in understanding why Susan’s aunt wouldn’t like him. “My uncles don’t either. He was obsessed with my mom and wanted to keep her as a possession so they were creeped out by him. They also call him Snivelous if you need any names to throw at him.” Hannah smiled at him and Susan just nodded her head.

“We’ve drawn up a list of all the heirs attending school and what year they’re in and who holds seats in the Wizagemont and which of those are part of the sacred 26” Hermione handed him the list. “We’ve also made a list of lost lines whose seats still exist in the Wizagemont chamber but are currently inactive. They won’t be able to hold a voting number but will help influence others into what choice they are going to make. We’re currently trying to find the last known trace of each line and then are going to try and find the person who is supposed to be the head of that line and then the plan is to make them an ally.” She handed him another piece of paper.

All the Hogwarts founders' lines were on there as well as a name Harry recognised, “I’ve seen the name Peverell in the Potter family vault before…” Hermione turned her head. “Harry, you saw something in the Potter family that belongs to the Peverell line?” Everyone at the table's attention was now on Harry. “Yeah in the Potter family book, it said that one of my ancestors was called Ignotus Peverell, but I didn’t realise he was an important figure in the wizarding world…” He was met with silence.

“Harry, you could be the only direct living descendants of the Peverell line! One of the most powerful wizarding families ever! That means you are the sole heir as well! That makes you the Potter-Black-Peverell heir! You now have two very influential and powerful seats in the Wizegamont and on top of that you are part of an ancient line that we thought was lost! We can use this to our advantage cause the Peverall brothers held a lot of influence in their day…” Susan looked happy and started to add things to her list. Her trailing off confused him but he knew he could ask her later 

She then looked up at him, “Do you know anything about your mother’s parental line?” He shook his head. “My aunt never spoke about my mom only to tell me that she died and that she was a freak so unless I speak to her again I have no idea.” He looked back down at the list of names of the heirs. “I swear if I ever met your aunt she’ll be in a world of hurt,” Neville said, which shocked everyone at the table into silence. 

Out of everyone at the table, Neville was the most mild-mannered so for him to say that gave everyone a good gauge of just how horrible a person his aunt was, “I can ask Sirius and Remus to take me there during the summer break. Sirius has been wanting to take me for a while, but he’s been hesitant to take me.” The group nodded their understanding. Family vaults were very personal to each family so it was obvious that Sirius was sad that James wouldn’t be the one to do this with him.

Susan wrote down something in her notebook. “Right, let's get back to why we're here. Together we hold 5 seats. Two of those belong to Harry. In our year 11 people will inherit seats in the Wizegamont. Out of the 12 seats that we’re set to inherit, 8 seats are on our side, again Harry holds two of those seats but I’m not sure when Lord Black will be giving you the seat.” She continued to scribble down on her book.

“Make that 12. My father sent me a letter saying that no matter what happens I will be inheriting the Malfoy seat. He’s trying his best to win me back and I think this is a way he’s trying to control me and by extension my mom as well.” Draco said with disdain in his tone. Susan nodded and continued to write in her book.

“Have you got protection charms on that book?” Hermione asked her. Susan continued to write, “Aunt spelled this book herself so that only I can see what's written or even open it and if someone does manage to open it without my permission whatever is written will disappear from this book permanently and reappears into another book with the same spells on it, so all the information will be safe.” They all nodded, amazed at the level of magic this small notebook held.

Hannah placed a book on the table, “I’ve worked out how many people are on each side. Death eaters are at 10. Neutral is at 10 and the light side has 10. I haven’t included Dumbledore because that man has his own agenda and I haven’t been able to figure out what he wants to do, but I do know that it has to do something with the ‘Greater Good’ Dad says he’s obsessed with it.” Harry knew what she was talking about. He looked over to Neville and Hermione who gave him a slight nod.

It was his story to tell, but today wasn’t the time for it. They were beginning to plan a coup of the Ministry of Magic that was the priority right now, “Are there any other people in this school whose family holds a Wizegamont seat?” He glanced at Hannah who nodded. “Cedric Diggory and Marcus Flint, everyone else on the Wizegamont has either recently graduated and don’t have children, the seats were specifically made for them or they are the last of their line.” Still, that didn’t leave too many options to change people’s minds.

“I know Cedric’s dad is on our side and Cedric supports me and I support him so he’ll be on our side no matter what.” Hannah nodded and added that to her notes. “The Lestrange seat and the Travers seat are open because all the members of each family are in Azkaban, but isn’t Lord Black related to Madame Lestrange?” Susan asked as she drew lines to indicate whose loyalties lie with who.

“She’s his cousin… that means he has the right of proxy over the Lestrange seat while all the members of the Lestrange family are in Azkaban so that means we have 14 seats for our side.” He was starting to like the odds they had now. “The issue we have at large is the neutral people. They follow the path with the least resistance and they are more likely to take bribes from the death eaters so we somehow need to get most of the neutral parties to support our side. Whose everyone who claims neutrality?” Draco asked. He made a lot of sense, but with his mother (who probably knew British wizarding law better than anyone else) it made sense.

“Barty Crouch senior, but it’s been rumoured that he does lean towards our side when the option is available. Cornelius Fudge goes for the path of least resistance and one that keeps him in power, also the one that gives him the most money. His assistant, Dolores Umbridge, always agrees with what Fudge says. Griselda Marchbanks is very old and just goes with what is most agreed with. Lord Bulstrode is supposedly neutral, but a lot of his decisions could be that of death eaters so he’ll be trouble and I’m not sure what Millicent is like.” Susan looked at Blaise with a raised eyebrow.

“She seems to be truly neutral and only wants what's best for her family. She’s never outright said anything that would make me think she supports the death eaters either.” Blaise explained. Because of his mother’s high status in wizarding society, most people were either his friends or good acquaintances with him as everyone wanted to be friends with the Zabinis. Hannah wrote this down in her notebook.

“The Fawley seat does have a holder, however the Grim Marshall Fawley whose supposed to take the seat is in the process of becoming unspeakable and as per wizarding law he is only allowed to take up his position when there is an extremely important law to be decided on and the Fawley family is historically neutral. Ernie's dad, Lord Macmillan, is neutral and leans towards our side and seeing that Ernie is a good friend of Harry’s I think they could be swayed to completely come to our side.” Harry nodded his agreement. He had helped out Ernie multiple times and could tell that Ernie had a good heart. His family just needed a nudge in the right direction. 

“Ollivander doesn’t ever show up to meetings so we can’t count on him and his vote. Felix Rosier is a Dragonologist so he’s hard to get a hold of and even when he’s there he just agrees with whoever has the most votes. Ducan Slughorn is probably the most truly neutral person on the council; he's probably going to be the hardest person to bring over to either side. Lastly, Millicent Bagnold the previous Minister of Magic is also neutral and wants to just brush everything under the carpet so she’ll also take the path of least resistance.” Susan looked over at Harry with concern.

Millicent Bagnold was the minister who allowed Sirius to be thrown into Azkaban without a trial so they could hold that over her head. “So we need to figure out how to get them on our side before the death eaters do,” Hermione said as she read the list of all the death eaters. “We can work on that another day. Madam Pince looks like she’s wanting through us out. We need to find a more private place where we can talk about this without fear of getting caught.” Harry pointed out that Pince was standing at the far end of a bookshelf and was glaring at them.

“Good idea, but where in the castle is even private enough for that to happen?” Blaise questioned, “There’s nowhere that I know of that the teachers don’t have access to.” He continued as he helped clean the table up. “We could always say this is a study group and then we are entitled to a private room,” Hermione suggested. Susan interjected, “No, those rooms are monitored at all times by the heads of each house and I don’t think just a basic privacy spell will be able to keep them out.” She said as she finished packing away all her things.

“We can look around for someplace and until then the privacy spell is used works pretty well we’re not going to involve more people right now so until then we can keep using the library,” Harry said as they left the library. “How about we try and do this once a week? This helped me understand things a whole lot better.” Blaise said as they exited the library in their group.

“Yes I think that will be great then we can continue to stay on top of things as time progresses.” It was odd to see Draco initiate something but Harry liked to see that his friend was back and was ready to help him and all their other friends. They all agreed that from now on that on a Sunday afternoon they would meet up and go over their plans to stage a coup. The ministry would soon feel the force of a bunch of wronged teenagers and they would never even see it coming.

Harry was making his way to his quidditch practice when he noticed a pair of shoes hanging from the ceiling and just as he was about to get his wand out to get them down he heard a familiar hoot. He turned around and saw a familiar snowy owl. He stretched his arm out to let her land on it.

“Hey girl, missed you.” He stroked her head and she appreciated the affection. He pulled out his wand and levitated the shoes up and Hedwig flew up and grabbed them. She brought them down and placed them in his hands while she settled on his shoulder.

The shoes were very small and were covered in splotches of dirt and  paint, “I wonder who these belong to?” He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the shoes or why someone would put their shoes in such an odd place.

“Those would be mine.” A small dreamy voice said behind him. He turned around to find a small Ravenclaw girl with very light blonde hair. She had a dreamy smile stretched across her face and stretched out her arms. He gave her the shoes, “I’m Harry, by the way. I don’t think we’ve met before?” He was pretty sure he had never seen this girl before. Hedwig began to preen herself on his shoulder and the girl smiled at the sight

“I don’t think our paths have crossed, Harry Potter. I’m Luna Lovegood and I am only a first year.” That would explain why he’d never seen her before. First-year Ravenclaws tend to keep to themselves and their house, but as they get older hang out more in the Hufflepuff common room.

“May I ask why you put your shoes up there?” He wasn’t sure why but he felt an overwhelming urge to protect her like she was his younger sister. Her smile never faltered, “Oh, I didn’t put them there the nargles did though I’m not sure why they keep doing it.” She still had that same dreamy tone in her voice. Hedwig had stopped preening herself and looked up at Luna curiously.

Harry wasn’t sure what nargles were but he was pretty sure it wasn’t magical animals hiding her stuff from her. He had to be delicate in how he approached this, “And these ahh… nargles why did they put your shoes up there?” Her dreamy smile never left her face as she turned the shoes around in her hands.

“They don’t seem to like me much. They keep hiding and taking my stuff from me, but it always seems to find its way back to me… Thank you Harry Potter for getting them for me…” But before she could leave Hedwig flew off his shoulder and onto her head and became to preen her hair, which made her smile.

He was gobsmacked at this because although she was a very friendly owl she had never done anything like this before. She must want to look after Luna and in her way, she was doing that. “She’s never done that before. She must like you.” He smiled at the small girl who seemed to be enjoying getting her hair cleaned by an owl.

“She seems to be very intelligent, your owl. What’s her name?”

Chapter Text

Christmas time was nearing and Hermione’s parents had asked if she could stay with Harry over the holidays as they had to go out of the country for a dentist conference and promised to look at all their teeth when they got back. Harry, Hermione and Remus were the only ones not freaked out at the prospect of having their teeth looked at and cleaned (Neville was nervous to try it but wanted to do it to see how muggles clean their teeth).

Their weekly meetings were going well, but Harry wasn’t always able to attend because he was very busy with quidditch and the extra lessons that McGonagall that she was giving more and more of as her N.E.W.T students had asked if they could have more lessons as they were nervous for their upcoming exams. To say he was exhausted would be an understatement.

He was in the common room with Neville, Wayne and Ernie. They were waiting for Justin to come back to the common room. He had gone out after dinner and hadn’t come back. They were worried because Dumbledore had come back to school as the headmaster a little while ago. No one was sure how he’d gotten out of the clutches of the goblins but it was publicly known (not that most people believed it) that he had stolen money from multiple of his proxies and the goblins had tried to get him to pay but, yet again, he had somehow gotten away.

“What are you guys still doing up?” Gabriel walked down the stairs making the group turn their heads to him. “Justin hasn’t come back yet and we’re worried. He always comes back an hour before curfew; he's too nervous not to.” Ernie explained. Gabriel looked very concerned and proceeded to ask them all about Justin’s daily habits. They explained that he had acted the same as always; it was just his not coming back that severely concerned them.

“Okay, stay here. I’m going to contact the professors and see what’s happening. Stay here. We’ll figure this out okay? I’ll be back, okay?” They all nodded and then he was gone. It was a suspenseful few minutes. They all sat in silence wondering if their friend was okay or if he was hurt or worse… 

Gabriel walked through the passageway with Professor Sprout and Professor McGonagall who all had solemn looks on their faces. “Boys this news may come as a shock to you but Mr Finch-Fletchley along with the Gryffindor ghost was found in a corridor petrified shortly after we were notified that Mr Finch-Fletchley had been missing for some time. If you would like to go see him in the hospital wing.” Professor Sprout was very gentle with her words. She knew how deeply the Hufflepuffs cared for each other and just how upset they would be hearing this news.

“Please can we go see him,” Ernie asked both professors. He was probably the closest to Justin and was the most upset by the news. He was barely holding it together. Sprout nodded, held her arms out, and placed her arm over Ernie's shoulders. Harry just felt numb; he wanted to see his friend and see that he was alright. Luckily they had kept the potion so he would be back to normal soon.

The walk was quiet and both teacher and prefect made sure to keep their wands out in case something happened. “Come in quickly. I have a feeling Dumbledore already knows what’s happened and is going come down and try to stop me from administering the potion, for Merlin knows why.” Madame Pomfrey said as they walked into the hospital wing. 

They all quickly walked in and McGonagall cast some spells, presumably to keep Dumbles out. Madame Pomfrey ushered them to Justin who was wide-eyed and lying on a hospital bed and looked terrified. Near him was Nearly Headless Nick floating in the corner with a shocked expression on his face. Ernie was severely upset at the sight and was now crying at the sight of his petrified best friend. “Not to worry Mr Macmillian once I’ve given him the potion he will be back to normal but I will have to keep him for observation for a few days to see if anything is wrong.” She said as she gave him the potion.

Everyone watched anxiously as they waited to see if anything happened to him. Harry and Neville were standing next to Ernie and Wayne were on the other side of Harry. Seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours as they watched their petrified friend. What felt like an eternity later Ernie gasped, “His fingers are twitching.” He whispered. Madame Pomfrey moved them all to the side and McGonagall and Sprout kept them back as she worked. 

Justin let out a scream and tried to jump out of the bed but the rest of his body hadn’t been fully mobile yet so he almost fell off the bed, but Madame Pomfrey caught him and placed him back on the bed. He looked very panicked but slowly started to calm down as she gave him some calming draught. She continued to check over him and then nodded and allowed the boys to come to talk to their friend.

“Justin,” Ernie said as he pulled him into a tight hug. Both of them were shaking. They eventually let go and they all ended up hugging him. “I thought I was going to die, those yellow eyes were so scary. Luckily Nearly-headless Nick was there if not..” Justin didn’t finish his sentence, too terrified to carry on. “Boys, I know you want to talk to your friend and spend time with him, but it is very late and we need to get you back to your dorms before anything else happens.” McGonagall gently told them. They were all reluctant to leave their friend but Madame Pomfrey assured them that Justin would be okay and the extra wards McGonagall had cast would help protect them if anything did happen.

They all, albeit reluctantly, left and were guided by Gabriel and McGonagall back to Hufflepuff's house. Gabriel guided them to their dorm and asked them to not sneak out and try and see Justin. They promised they wouldn’t so he went back to his dorm and promised them that they could see him in the morning. 

“What the hell is Dumbledore doing? Another student nearly died and he probably just let it happen. Even better question: what the hell is the monster that tried to kill Justin?” Wayne was pacing up and down the room as he said this. Harry glanced at Neville who gave him a nod.

“I think I might know, but I could be wrong…” He said to the other two boys. Ernie nodded for him to continue. “Well after the incident with Mrs Norris myself, Neville, Hermione and Blaise went to the library to see what creature could petrify people and we thought because Salazar Slytherin was a parseltongue that it would be an animal that was a snake and we found out that a Basilisk could petrify people if they weren’t directly looking at them but if you look them right in the eye it would kill you. Hearing from Justin that the monster had yellow eyes confirms this cause the book said it had bright yellow eyes.” He finished and looked down at his hands and then back up at the two.

They were quiet for a while but then Ernie spoke, “Why didn’t you tell us? I mean this would have been really helpful information if you told us earlier.” Ernie never raised his voice ever but he was now speaking in a very stern voice. “Would you have believed us if we told you that a giant killer snake was roaming around the castle that could potentially kill us all?” Neville asked them. Ernie and Wayne looked like they wanted to say something as they both opened their mouths and then closed them. “Exactly, no one would believe that a bunch of 12-year-olds had figured out what was going around attacking muggle-born students!” That made Harry stop and think. The Basilisk had only attacked muggle-born students.

He looked at Neville and his friend had the same realisation. It was targeting students so someone must be controlling it and giving it orders and they only knew two people who could speak parseltongue. He and Voldermort so he had to somehow be in the castle giving commands to the Basilisk to make it target muggle-borns. 

The other boys' eyes were wide. There were a lot of muggle-born students in the castle and the fact that they were being targeted was alarming, “No one is going to believe us if we tell them, huh?” Ernie said solemnly. “I get it now, why you didn’t tell us. It sounds crazy and we’re only 12 so that lessens the chances that we’re even heard.” Wayne said as he curled into his bed. Harry crawled into his bed along with the other boys. Neville came and sat on his bed and they waited for Ernie and Wayne to fall asleep.

It didn’t take for the other 2 to fall asleep and when they did Harry and Neville quickly closed the curtains around Harry’s bed. He cast a silencing spell around them and he pulled out the piece of mirror and called for Sirius and Remus. “Pup, what’s wrong?” Sirius answered and Remus also looked concerned as he entered the picture, “You both are looking very pale. What's happened?” Harry began to explain what had happened and what they suspected was happening. He also showed them that he was a parsel mouth.

“Bloody hell… I’m going to kill that old man with his beard.” Sirius was fuming when they finished explaining what had happened the last few hours. Remus was equally as upset. “Both of you need to keep safe. Sirius and I will come up with a plan to try and stop these attacks and try and get Dumbledore removed again, but who knows if that will work or happen. In the meantime, you two need to keep each other and all your friends safe. Travel in groups and make sure before you walk around a corner that you use something to look around them. Be safe.” Remus looked as if he was ageing while saying this.

Sirius was quiet the entire time. It was odd to see his god-father so quiet. He usually was loud and voiced his opinion and was quick to jump to the most ridiculous solution with Remus telling him off. He took a deep breath and Remus put a hand on his shoulder and gave him an encouraging look, “You boys need to keep each other safe. I know you want to try and figure this out and I know I won’t be able to stop you, but all I ask is that you stay safe and think before you jump into action, okay?” He must have been working a lot with his therapist to be able to be completely calm in his words.

“We’ll be careful, but we’re coming home soon so we won’t be around the castle for a while so we’ll be safe at home.” Harry was trying to calm his guardians down and it seemed to work, but he wasn’t sure it did. “You’ll be home in a few days. Please stay out of trouble for those few days, okay?” Remus asked and the two boys nodded and agreed to do their best to stay out of trouble but sometimes trouble just found them.

A few more days and they would be back home. Neville would be spending Christmas with his gran but then he would be over for New Year. Blaise said his mother wasn’t going to be hosting a New Years party this year as they were going back to Italy to see some old family members who were wanting to see them, so they were going to have a peaceful New Year as they wouldn’t be attending any other parties that were being thrown. Harry couldn’t wait to go home for the holidays and he had asked Daisy to buy all his presents for his friends and family so he wouldn’t have to do any last-minute shopping this year. He was very excited to have his second Christmas with his family and he was very excited to have Hermione there as well.

Chapter Text

Platform 9 ¾ was as busy as usual. Harry had said goodbye to Draco, Blaise and Neville and was now trying to spot Sirius with Hermione. “There you two are! I couldn’t see you with everyone here. Come on, let's move on.” Sirius said as he found them and started to usher them out into Kings Cross.

Even the muggle station was busy so they moved as fast as they could to the car, “Harry, I’m just going to warn you Daisy has been cooking up a storm since this morning. She’s been missing you and is extra worried about your safety so don’t be alarmed if she attaches herself to you for the duration of your holiday stay.” Harry groaned when Sirius finished speaking. Hermione giggled at his frustration.

Daisy loved Hermione but was always very concerned about the safety of her young master and was determined to keep him happy and safe. She always secretly followed him around the manor to make sure that he was alright. She had lost her other masters and she wouldn’t be losing this one no matter what.

The manor was already covered in snow when they arrived. It was going to be a white Christmas that year and he was excited to be able to spend it with the people he considered family. 

The second he stepped out of the car he was tackled onto the ground by Daisy, “Hi Daisy, it’s good to see you too.” The house elf hugged him tightly. “Master has come home! Master must eat! Those other house elves is not knowing the master's favourites. Come I’s has already cooked all your favourites!” She saw Hermione and hugged her too. 

They all made their way into the house and were ushered into the main dining room where a feast was waiting on the table with Remus sitting at his chair. He welcomed the children home and got them seated and Daisy came and sat with them and ate dinner. Sirius looked up at Remus who gave him a nod. Sirius cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. Remus got up and stood behind him and placed his hand on Sirius’ shoulder, “Remus and I have something very important to tell you pup and you, Hermione,” He looked nervous.

Harry had never seen his God-father nervous before so he knew that whatever he was going to tell them was going to be important. “Remus and I have a… ahh… complicated history especially when I was thought to be the traitor. We drifted apart because of that, but my therapist said it would be a good idea for him to come with me to one of my sessions so we could talk about our feelings in a safe space and umm…” He looked as if he didn’t know what to say next.

Remus squeezed his shoulder and Sirius placed his hand on Remus’ hand and smiled, “We talked about our feelings and our experiences and realised that we had some remaining feelings for each other from our childhood and have decided…” He took a deep breath as if he was gathering his courage.

“We have decided to be in a relationship with each other and wanted to let you know that we’re very serious about this relationship and each other.” Remus finished for him. The older men looked for a reaction from the younger two but found nothing. There was no reaction at all. They just carried on eating as if a bombshell wasn't dropped on them. “I always thought you two were in a relationship if I’m being honest with you,” Hermione explained to them who just looked shocked.

“Mom and Dad wrote in their letters to me that you guys were in a relationship back in your Hogwarts days and that when Voldemort rose to power your relationship sort of fell apart because of various reasons, they never went into details why, but they always thought that you two would get back together because you were made for each other so it's not surprising that you two got back together,” Harry said as he dished up some more food, Daisy’s food was always the best.

Both men were still very shocked that both children were taking the news well and with literally no reactions. Sirius started chuckling and then burst out laughing while Remus just sighed and then chuckled. “You know James and Lily had the same reaction when we told them we were dating back in 5th year in Hogwarts,” Remus told them.

Harry smiled slightly and Hermione looked happy, “Well there's nothing wrong with you two loving each other and besides same-sex couples are more accepted in the wizarding world than in the muggle world, but I don’t see any issues with it.” She told them. Remus kissed Sirius on the cheek and tried to ruffle his hair but his hand was caught and twisted before he could even try.

This made everyone but Sirius laugh, “Don’t mess with the hair, Moony. Last time you tried that you ended up in the hospital wing for a week.” Remus paled at the memory, making Harry and Hermione laugh. Remus took Sirius’ hand and kissed the top, muttering an apology and promising not to do it again. 

Harry was amazed by their display of affection towards each other. His Uncle and Aunt never showed any affection towards each other in the slightest so it was a wonderful thing to see that his parental figures loved each other so much that they would happily show off their affection for one another. He promised himself that he would be just like them with his future partners no matter what and would always let them know that he loved them no matter what.

Dinner carried on as it always did, loud and full of laughter and none of them would have it any other way. Harry felt his life was now even more full of love and two of his favourite people in the entire world were also happily in love with one another and this made him extremely happy that he was now going to be his life.

🜋🜋

Christmas morning was colder than normal because there was at least a metre of snow on the ground, though the house was lovely and warm because of all the warming charms that the manor had plus the fireplaces were all lit making the manor nice and toasty. Daisy had made him and Hermione hot chocolate with their breakfast, despite Remus saying it was far too early for them to have it while Sirius ‘secretly’ put more whipped cream and marshmallows on top of both of their hot chocolates (“I swear there is only one adult in this house” Remus complained loudly).

Everyone insisted that Harry open his presents first but he eventually got them to let him and Hermione open their presents at the same time. Hermione apologises over and over again for her parents gifting them all sugar-free sweets and chocolates (“This is a crime” Sirius said while pretending to faint. “This is why I love you.” Remus chuckled). 

Hermione was grateful to have gotten several magical items to help her with her everyday life from nearly everyone and Harry had gotten her a first-edition copy of several Jane Austin books that she had told him that she loved. He loved seeing her smile and would do anything to see her smile.

He had gotten a lot of quidditch-themed gifts this year and as well as some more clothes and a fashion guide from Draco and Sirius promised to take him shopping and would show him how to style himself for his body type in the coming summer. He would send letters later thanking all his friends for the gifts and ask if they liked the gifts that he had sent to them.

Daisy had made them yet another feast for their Christmas dinner and had wanted to prepare some snacks to take with them as they were going to meet Neville at St Mungo's to see his parents and then Neville was going to come back with them. They had also planned to go visit Godrick’s hollow to visit James and Lily that day so they needed to get a move on if they didn’t want to be late, as Dowager Lady Longbottom’s temper had gotten worse that year, according to Neville.

As soon as they were all ready they apparated to London just outside of where St Mungos is, “I’m nervous, Harry.” Hermione whispered to him as they entered the hospital. “It’ll be okay. Neville’s parents are nice and they ahh… don’t speak much, unfortunately, his gran is a bit much sometimes but she mainly speaks to Sirius and Neville and only generally acknowledges that I’m there so don’t worry too much I doubt she’ll say anything.” He hoped he was right and that she wasn’t in a particularly bad mood to chastise Neville because then Hermione would say something to the current head of the Longbottom house.

Neville was quick to spot them when they walked into the waiting room, “Hey guys! Merry Christmas!” He gave Harry and Hermione a hug and then Sirius insisted on getting a hug too (He felt left out). Remus just gave him a handshake. Agusta walked over and her facial expression was as if she was constantly smelling something bad. Her hat somehow looked even worse than the last one Harry had seen her wear. It looked like there was a turkey attached to her black hat and it looked like it was crying out for help.

He gave Neville a side glance and his friend just slightly shook his head. He didn’t know why she wore those ridiculous hats but she did and no one could stop her so what they said didn’t matter anyways. She and Sirius exchanged formal greetings and she nodded her acknowledgement of Harry and Hermione. 

A healer called for them and guided them to the room where Neville’s parents were staying. Harry noticed that Hermione was doing her best to not cry as they entered the room and so did Remus who came by to comfort her. Neville introduced Hermione to them and that Harry was there too. They looked like they almost recognised him and Neville. His mother brought over candy wrappers for all three of them.

A healer came over and said that they were the same as always and that it was highly unlikely that they would ever recover even with the best healing magic they could offer. Their minds were too far gone to do anything for them. Neville scoffed under his breath. He had told Harry over and over again about his plan to help his parents. He’d found a squib who specialised in PTSD recovery for wizards that had gone through a lot of trauma because of the wizarding world, she mostly worked on muggle-born students but in her letter to him, she said that she would do her best to help his parents.

Agusta Longbottom cut their time together short and said she had other things she needed to do and handed him a pouch, “All your things are in here and make sure you don’t get into any trouble or do anything to sully the Longbottom name.” With that, she walked out without even looking back at him. Sirius shook his head and sighed, “I’ll never understand that old woman.” He said that Neville could stay as long as he like and that they would all wait in the main area for him.

Neville stayed for another half an hour before he came out and said he was ready to go. Remus apparated with Hermione first and then came back and then with Sirius they all apparated home.