Just a brief warning: Haven't reread Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. There will be inaccuracies.
Number Four Privet Drive's family prided itself in their normalcy. Nothing absurd, strange, or unusual about their family except for the Missus' nephew, he was the only freak that disrupted their peaceful life. Not only was he the son of her bizarre sister, but he also woke up from dreams that either led him to screaming his lungs out into a pillow or waking up with a goofy smile on his smile. After all their freakishness dealt with magic.
Now the nephew, Mr. Harry James Potter, occupied the cupboard in the house where he usually spent nights listening or thinking hard about his dreams. He liked claiming the fact that his life in his dreams had hardly a difference between them except for the packaging. In essence, his dreams were similar to his life. One night he dreamt long and hard. Once again his dream life invaded his thoughts, causing him to shift restlessly in his comatose state.
"Oh Good Lord, you can't mean me can you?" A thick set young man with deep red hair sputtered. His wide, deep-set amber eyes stared at the other's green impossibly wider.
"Please," The other scoffed. "This is unbecoming of a young lord such as yourself. All you have declared is that you will defend the beauteous woman's honor in a joust."
The red head groaned. "All you've told me is that once I win the joust I've won her hand! This is marriage, 'Zar, it's bloody important! Circe, how thick can you get? After all you're not the one jousting and you've already had your chance with Lord Rivien's daughter."
"Don't fool yourself. You are the one who mistakenly defended her in the village square."
"If I had known it would lead to her hand in marriage I would have not!" The red head dropped to the ground flat on his bottom. "Curse my chivalry!"
The other coughed faintly into his leather gloved hand which sounded quite more a chuckle than a cough. "You always were bullheaded and headstrong."
Eleven year old Harry gasped, throwing the covers off of his sweating body. Slowly a smile overcame the overwhelmed features of his face. His silly dream friend had once again done something impossibly stupid and he felt like laughing about it. Settling once more on his ratty mattress, Harry wiped his face with the overly-large sleeve to remove the sweat and thought once more about that silly friend.
Before he could fall asleep however, Harry started to hear the clock chime in the living room. Instantly he got up and changed into more fitting clothes and headed out to start on his early more chores. Brekkie for his aunt, uncle, and cousin started up and he took to washing the table while keeping an eye on the sausage in the pan. Last night's dishes dried and placed in their proper places after Harry flipped the eggs and started on frying the bacon. Taking a good look at the clock, he found it to be fifteen minutes until his relatives awoke by their preset alarms. Putting the kettle on, he divided up the food onto the plates and set them on the table with their proper settings.
The obnoxious pounding of feet resounded from upstairs and Uncle Vernon had awoken, clearly ready for food. Quick as he could, Harry ran outside and took the paper from the yard. The second he ran into the house, he darted into the kitchen and set the paper right in front of Uncle Vernon's place setting.
Quickly he vanished out into the backyard to work on the personal flower garden of his aunt. While he took the garden rake and hoe out of the shed, Harry's thoughts drifted to his dreams.
It wasn't so unusual to dream about his adventures with the red hair man and his absurdities. After all if it wasn't for that crazy him, there wouldn't be a laughing smile playing lightly on his thin lips. A few nights before Harry dreamt of the two of them battling a wild vampire in a small village with magic. A wilder smile tugged at him. Something so forbidden as magic made his day impossibly better seeing as he was going to wizarding school today. And his Aunt Petunia positively hated magic.
"Boy!" Uncle Vernon yelled and when Uncle Vernon yelled it meant immediately.
Harry jumped up and raced inside, careful not to track dirt on the carpet.
"Grab your things." He gruffly stated, glaring at him. "We're leaving in a few minutes."
"Yes, Uncle Vernon." Harry nodded.
Harry grabbed his trunk with all his things in it. At first he had thought to bring along his dream journal but decided against it, after all the dreams were just that dreams. Moving his trunk to outside the door, Harry did go back and look at his journal but only to write down the one last dream.
"Let's go, Boy!" The rough voice bellowed once again.
Harry ran to the door with slightest of smiles on his face.
Today, Harry James Potter, no longer the Dursely's horrible cretin of a nephew, but finally just Harry James Potter, a wizard in training.
"You've got everything going for you, 'Zar," The man had once said. "So why have me around?After all you're cunning and smart and all I am is just strong and thick."
Harry recalled himself scoffing at his friend for that remark. "I could say the same about you, but somehow I doubt that you'd listen to me. But what you don't see in yourself others see. There is prestigious value in claiming your friendship but you couldn't be any closer to me than a brother."
Perhaps...Harry could find himself a dear friend, as close as a brother just like good ole 'Ric.
"You know," Harry's new friend Ron Weasley uttered a few days after they both found themselves situated in Gryffindor, "I almost feel as though I've met you before, Harry. It's sort of strange, but you remind me of someone or maybe a dream. Oh well."
Harry found himself blinking his green eyes at his friend. He closed his mouth swiftly and shrugged. "Well you never know, perhaps we have met before."
"Yeah but I think I'd remember meeting you, Harry. You're that kind of person you just don't forget." Ron continued munching on his slice of roast at lunch.
Harry didn't reply only thinking hard about everything.
Every since he had met Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger at the train, something just felt better. What felt better though, he had no idea. And seeing Hogwarts and walking inside was like he had walked into a mother's embrace, as if he knew everywhere and everything inside as he did the back of his hand. Everything felt so familiar but...still something or someone went missing from all of this homeyness.
His dreams only grew more and more vibrant every time he fell asleep. He could see 'Ric's face clearer than before. His hopeful bride, he could see her slapping his face at his slight stupidity. Meeting 'Ric's bride, a gorgeous young woman, a year younger than all of them. The four of them setting out. And after all of that had been dreamt away, he dreamed no more of 'Ric or Rivien's daughter or 'Ric's love, as they finally admitted after all of them had set out.
After the issue with the troll and Hermione, Harry quite forgot about the dreams and settled for dealing with his brand new friendships instead. Steadily he became close friends with Ron and Hermione who they had originally insulted but now all three were close.
Hermione had been incredibly helpful especially as all of this nonsense with Professor Snape cursing his broom during Quidditch, and the Philosopher's Stone, especially when he landed in the secret chamber with all those traps. There was no way Harry could have made it without her.
And without Ron and his support and clever head (at times), Harry doubted he would have been able to solve the puzzle or even have considered that Snape might have done it. In fact without Ron, he probably wouldn't even have thought about it fully. Ron, despite sometime's being a git, was someone he couldn't get along without.
Second Year, Harry returned to the comfort and home that was Hogwarts. With Ron and Hermione, Harry felt pretty comfortable thinking that this year was going to be better than the rest. Despite having Gilderoy Lockhart as DADA professor, life fell in line pretty well. Nothing truly unusual, or at least at the beginning.
Running into Luna Lovegood and her friend, Ron's sister, Ginny Weasley though was purely accidental.
"S-sorry about that," Harry bent down and picked up Ginny's books that spilled on the ground after he had ran into her. Inwardly he felt like cursing 'Ric's silly chivalry that had worn off of him.
"It's okay," Luna dreamily smiled at him. "After all with all the Nargles in the air, it's not surprising that you don't recognize us."
Harry blinked. "What do you mean? I saw you at the Welcoming Feast and a little on the Hogwarts Express."
Handing the books to Ginny, Harry looked at Luna he giggled. "No, no, you don't see with glasses very well."
"S-sorry about Luna, H-harry." Ginny evaded his surprised look at her, turning pink at the ears and cheeks. "B-bye!"
She gripped Luna's hand and pulled her along hurriedly.
His dreams returned that night.
The second time he met Luna was in the library. She held her book upside down and read it with quite the serious look on her face. Harry paused slightly before sitting down at the table near her.
"Can you see yet, Green Eyes?" Luna chirped, turning the page.
"I'm sorry, Green Eyes?" Harry gaped at her. Narrowing those green eyes, he frowned. "Who are you, Luna?" No one, and he meant no one, called him Green Eyes except for Rivien's daughter, his fiancee in those dreams.
Luna frowned. "She's sad, you know. All she wanted was for the lost ones to come home and very few realize who they are. But do you know who you are, Harry?"
"Why did you call me Green Eyes?" Harry demanded lowly. Dangerously, he simmered underneath his skin. Only Rivien's daughter Rowena called him Green Eyes, no one else could call him that, no one, not even in his waking life.
"Because that's what they are." She shrugged simply, easily slipping back to her book.
Seeing as he wouldn't get anymore answers out of her, he went back to doing his school work at the table. Though he couldn't concentrate. Everything that Luna told him stuck with him and he couldn't think or focus on anything. The library became suffocating so he left almost as quickly as he came.
And all in his dreams did he only hear Rowena's voice scolding him for being absurd while he defended himself meagerly. When he woke up the next morning, his heart ached horribly. Ron took one good look at him and told him he looked like a bloody mess. The only thing staying clearly with him was the phrase, 'They're all lost, Green Eyes.'
Sometimes Harry really hated his dreams.
The whole fiasco with Slytherin's heir left Harry quite muddled. Almost all of the school accused him of being this so called heir when Malfoy summoned a snake at him. His Parseltongue slipped out as a easy as the wind through trees. With a Basilisk loose, Hermione petrified, and blood on the walls, everyone respectfully freaked out. Inevitably, it led to the discovery of the Chamber of Secrets in Myrtle's bathroom.
"Open," Harry hissed willfully.
He and Ron attempted to go save his sister from the clutches of the Basilisk only to be stopped part way by the git Lockhart. Thankfully he couldn't even Obliviate properly.
A putrid stench hit his senses with force of rot and decay over time. But deftly, Harry maneuvered through it, gaining in on Ginny. The stench and mission didn't let Harry miss the scenery however. Something just clicked for him here, angering him about the Basilisk being set loose far more than he ever thought capable.
He found 'Tom Riddle', the diary that possessed Ginny, as well as Ginny herself. Ron, knocked out, was little help to Harry at the moment, though he longed for something that would be of some help.
"She's going to die." Tom smirked. "You can't stop this. I will return!"
"Kill him, my precious." Tom ordered.
Harry waved a hand in front of the serpent. "Stop!"
Torn between two masters of the serpent tongue, the Basilisk made a quick decision to side with Tom. Quickly Harry dodged the attacks as best he could but failed partway as a fang plunged through his shoulder. Somewhere in the confusion the Sorting Hat fluttered down with Fawkes carrying it. The phoenix cried tears over the boy, healing him gently.
He found Gryffindor's sword within the Sorting Hat, slaying down the Basilisk with it. The Basilisk fang, quickly taken by Harry, had been found to pierce the journal multiple times over, destroying the shade of Tom Riddle.
Harry quivered, looking all around him and especially at the sword. The golden, jewel-crusted blade was 'Ric's. He only ever carried that sword around with him, charming it every so often to up its protections and anti-rusting.
He dropped it. Everything clouded his head and he wanted to scream and the sudden compression but he didn't.
His dreams, 'Ric, Rowena, everything, they were real.
(Originally was going to end here but...)
"Pro-Professor!" Harry blinked waking up in Madame Pomphrey's hospital bed. "Is she okay? What happened? Is everyone all right?"
Dumbledore smiled kindly at him. "Quite so, Mr. Potter, all credit due to you."
Harry shook his head. "No, it was Hermione who discovered it was a Balisk." He tried weakly.
"Ms. Granger, Ms. Weasley, and a Mr. Weasley all want to see you." The Headmaster mentioned. "Do you want to see your friends now?"
"Oh yes!" Harry nodded with a bright smile on his face. Friends, he hadn't had friends in a long time, especially since 'Ric had...Harry subtly shook his head trying to forget about it. Instead he welcomed the familiarity of Hogwarts into his conscious.
Dumbledore left quietly, allowing for the four children to talk about what they wished. Joyously, Harry shared with them what he could about what happened, trying to numb it down for Ginny, who blushed when she thanked him. Hermione couldn't stop chattering on about everything and commenting about the difficulty of defeating a Basilisk. While their mutual friend Ron couldn't stop about how brave and daring it was. Harry had to disagree, there was nothing brave or daring about the whole nonsense. He had to rely solely on his intellect and stupidity at some points.
Once Ron had gone back to the dorm and the girls to their beds, Harry shifted in his bunk, staring at the ceiling. Idly, he twisted a lock of his hair and sighed. Who did he consider himself to be now? Now with some of the knowledge and memories of being Salazar Slytherin, Harry felt he could re identify himself as Slytherin, but...ever since that fight with Godric and their houses having been split because of it, he couldn't. Or at least he would wait to truly identify himself as Salazar at a much later time.
At some point Harry had fallen asleep with these thoughts burning in his head.
"I see the sun is shining brightly yellow this morning." A muddled voice slowly cleared as Harry opened his green eyes to look at Luna.
Her golden hair shimmered in the rising sunlight and her blue eyes glittered with secrets unknown. A quirky smile lifted her lopsided lips as she grinned brightly at Harry.
"What are you doing here?" Harry narrowed his eyes, reaching for his glasses.
Luna pressed a finger to his lips and giggled. "G'morn, Green Eyes."
Harry stopped. His heart failed to start, his lungs started to burn from the lack of oxygen, and he stilled completely statuesque.
A moment passed and another but still neither moved from their position.
Finally he breathed out quietly, "Rowena?"
"Hello 'Zar." Luna's happiness brightened her face in a more mature manner. She sat on the bed and hugged him closely to her. They moved apart slowly, still trying to understand everything, or at least Harry was. "It's been centuries since I last heard you call my name."
He chuckled fondly, a small smile fluttering, "I missed you, Rena."
"I missed you as well," She kissed his cheek. "Now have you had any Flidgets zooming about?" She questioned completely seriously.
"No, I haven't seen any, but 'Ric-" Harry paused, and smiled again, "You might want to check with Godric, I think he has seen infestation."
Luna's charming grin slipped off her face. "No, the Nargles are clearly clouding your thoughts."
"I'm fine, Rowena," He argued. "Now go, you'll be late for breakfast meal."
"I won't disturb them, they're sleeping soundly." Luna tilted her head.
He sighed. "Food is important, now go, it's almost the last day of the school year and you are in dire need of proper food."
She nodded. His underlying message heard loud and clear, 'We'll talk at a later time.'
As she stood up and started to walk towards the door, she paused. Turning around with a inquiring smile, she added, "You'll find promises among the strays."
Harry shook his head and lay back down to stare at the ceiling once more.
Salazar Slytherin was back and nothing was going to stop him.
I've been wanting to attempt this for a while now and now I have and I think I can present an interesting new angle to it hopefully. Just a warning, I will be infrequent with updating and I will be writing much longer segments for y'all.
Read and Review!