HARRY POTTER
And the Alliance of the Houses

Part Two: The Sixth Year
Chapter One: Independent

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and the universe belongs to JKR. This is fairly obvious, as it says on the front of the books: J.K. Rowling, so I'm just going to assume that it's her…

Summary: Part Two; It's Harry Potter's sixth year and he finally realises something. Albus Dumbledore sees him as a tool. A weapon against Voldemort, to be put into danger to prepare for the battle, and shoved in storage for the summer. Just how many secrets has he been keeping from Harry…

Life's a song, you don't get to rehearse, and every single verse can make it that much worse.

Harry Potter's summer had been mostly uneventful so far.

The first week back at the Dursley's, he had received so many owls with letters enquiring as to his good health (asking if he was dead or suicidal yet), that he had ended up sending extremely rudely worded howlers back to anyone writing to him apart from Remus, Serena, the twins. He was even fairly civil to Bill and Charlie Weasley, as he had just sent them rudely worded letters, with a nice sentence at the end politely asking them to not ask about his health again if they knew what was good for them. He had even sent a howler to Hermione, after her fifth letter of the week that had been filled with titles of self-help and anti-depressant books, which had, quite frankly, annoyed him on the first one and he had actually kept his temper, enduring four more before he snapped. After that, only the six people he was civil with continued to write to him frequently.

On the second week, Harry had decided to start running around the neighbourhood for training, as he always seemed to end up running for his life sometime in the school year. The third day of his training had commenced as usual, but when he got to the park he almost stood on an innocent snake sitting out on the grass sunning herself.

"Oh damn! I'm sorry, are you alright?" Harry asked it anxiously, barely even noticing himself slipping into Parseltongue.

The snake looked at him with unusually dark amber eyes (unusual for a snake, that is). The fairly long snake appeared to be a python of some kind., but Harry had never seen one like this. The serpent tilted it's head to the side in an unusually human expression.

"Apology accepted. I am perfectly all right. If you had actually stepped on me, then you would probably be dead by now," the snake told him in a rather feminine voice, a small amount of humour displayed in her eyes.

Harry had never seen a snake do that, or heard one say something like that, either. "Er… ok then. I'm Harry Potter, nice to meet you, even though you did deliver a death threat… sort of… I think."

"I am known as Amber-Eye, Harry Potter. It is nice to meet you, also. Most humans don't speak a proper language like you do, and I must say that I find it… interesting."

Harry smiled. "Would you mind if I just called you Amber? You can just call me Harry. It's easier to talk to someone when you aren't using a person's… or snake's full name."

"You may call me Amber, if you wish, it is fine. I do like to talk. Most other serpents I meet do not like talking to others. To me they are all very boring. Could I ask you a favour, in exchange for not biting you after you nearly stepped on me?" Harry nodded, wondering what a snake could possibly want from a human except to be left alone. "Would I be able to come with you to your burrow, or is it a hooom? I can't seem to remember what it is that those human females were talking about. It is going to rain, I can smell it, and I do not like rain. Actually, I could say that I… um… hat it," Amber said, looking slightly disgusted at the thought of it (if a snake can look disgusted).

"Hat it? Oh, you mean 'hate' it. I suppose you can come if you want to," Harry answered, grinning maniacally at the picture in his mind of the Dursley's faces when they saw his new companion. "I would be delighted to have you come to my house."

"Thank you. I do not suppose that you would consider allowing me to travel there on your arm?" Amber said hopefully. "I may be long, but I am not that heavy."

Harry nodded and leant down closer to the snake, holding out his left arm for her to climb onto. Because of it being summer, Harry was wearing a short sleeved black shirt (he had gotten some money from his vault exchanged for muggle money and had bought some clothes that fit him, god forbid), which stopped a little less than halfway between his shoulders and elbows. The long snake slithered up his arm, wrapping herself around him firmly, but loose enough for him to have a circulation in his arm. When she was settled, she went from the bottom of his shirtsleeve to midway between his elbow and wrist, so he had to be careful not to bend his arm too much. She settled herself down and, if Harry didn't know better, he would have sworn that she was an extension of his shirt, apart from the large amber eyes that were glowing out from the blackness of her scales.

"I have just one question, Harry. What is a 'house'?"

THIS IS NOW OFFICIALLY A SEPARATING LINE, AS THIS HAS DECIDED TO BE ANNOYING :eye twitch:

Harry enjoyed the company of his new friend, though it seemed as though she had never had someone to talk to in her life and was making up for it now. The Boy Who Lived had been almost disappointed to see that the three Dursleys had gone out somewhere for the day, as he had been rather looking forward to seeing their reaction to Amber. It had been a week since he had found the long snake and she decided to stay with him, but surprisingly the Dursleys hadn't noticed her, which Harry decided was probably a good thing for Amber.

Harry glanced at his clock. Eleven fifty, ten minutes to go to my birthday, he thought. He had been counting every minute since eleven thirty, and, if you had been there, you would have either thought that he was very worried about something or paranoid that the clock would blow up.

"Harry? Why do you insist on looking at that… clock? every minute?" Amber asked him curiously.

"What? Oh, I'm counting down to my birthday, tomorrow," Harry replied, and went back to the copy of 'Healing Spells: Cures To Common Ailments' that he had been reading.

Eleven fifty-eight…

"So a birthday is the day on which you were born, is that right?" Amber asked after seven minutes of thinking.

Harry glanced up at her, amused. "Yes, Amber, that is right."

Eleven fifty-nine…

"What day is it tomorrow?"

"Tuesday the thirty-first."

"So every Tuesday thirty-first you have a birthday? That is a little strange."

"No, every year on the thirty-first of July I have my birthday."

"Oh. That is better thought out. July is the month, is it not?"

"Yes Amber."

Fifteen seconds…

"Harry? How can you be born tomorrow?"

Ten seconds…

"I mean, you are already alive."

Three…

Two…

One…

"YES! I made it to my sixteenth birthday! I was worried that I wouldn't live to see it." Harry told Amber.

Harry reached out and petted Amber's head, which he liked doing as she was nice and cool even in the warm summer months. Harry suddenly felt a magical feeling throughout his body, but not a painful one, more of a slight tingling, and then it was gone. What was that?

"Harry? Is sixteen old for humans? You do not look that old to me," Amber said.

"What are you talking about? Sixteen isn't old at all, although it is older than fifteen and… never mind. Why?" Harry rambled.

"I was simply wondering why you show signs of ageing for one who is so young," she replied.

"What?"

Harry quickly got up and walked over to the small mirror he had hanging up on his cupboard door. He looked at his hair, and was surprised to see a grey streak in his wild hair, which came down to his earlobes thanks to his attempt at growing it long enough to weigh it down and keep it a little neater (it didn't work, though). Harry moved closer to the mirror to take a closer look, and saw that the lock of hair was actually more silver than grey, as there seemed to be small sparkles shimmering in the streak.

"Hmph, that's rather depressing. I wonder why I didn't notice it sooner…" Harry said, curiously fingering the hair.

I wonder if my hair would even stop sticking up if I did grow it longer, Harry wondered idly. Suddenly, his hair started to grow rapidly, coming to a halt near his waist.

"Ahh! Damn! Undo or something! I don't have scissors! How the hell am I going to get rid of this!" Harry demanded the thin air, wishing for his ear length hair again.

His hair decided to play nice, and retreated back into his head, going back to its' normal length. Hmm, I wonder if… Harry decided to experiment, so he once again thought about longer hair and, once again, the hair changed length. He tried this a few more times before wondering if he could change the colour. He thought of a colour for his hair, and turned it red, then gold, then several other colours before reverting back to his natural black. The strange thing about the silver lock of hair, was that it kept on changing length with his hair, but it didn't change the colour except to become lighter or darker depending on the shade of hair.

"I must be a Metamorphmagus," he told Amber gleefully, thinking of all the different hair colours and faces he could have so that no-one would recognise him easily.

"Oh, that's nice," she replied, obviously not knowing what he was talking about. "But I thought you were human, you look like one."

"I am a human, it's just that I have the ability to change my looks if I want to. That's what a Metamorphmagus is," Harry explained to the snake.

"Ah, that explains it…" she replied, still oblivious.

Harry went back over to Amber, and reached over to pet her head again, but stopped when he saw something above her eyes that hadn't been there before. A small mark, in the shape of a waning moon, that was the same silver as his lock of hair was shimmering in the space in the middle of her forehead (or the spot that would be a forehead if she was human).

"Wha- Why do you have a… Never mind, I'll ask Hermione some time," Harry said.

Harry looked up from the snake at the sound of a sharp tapping on his window. He walked over and looked out, seeing Hedwig with a small parcel attached to her leg. He opened up the window and what appeared to be a parliament of owls (that's what the group name is, right?) flew into his small room. Harry took the parcels and letters off the owls and then watched as they each flew off into the night, apart from his own Hedwig. As he took the parcel from Hedwig, he felt the same magical tingling as before, then looked up to see that his owl had a silver mark in the shape of a star on her head. So that must be what happened before.

"What are these?" Amber asked from the bed.

"Birthday presents. That's things that your friends and… well, your friends give you on your birthday to celebrate," Harry explained.

"Oh. Why have they all given you paper?"

"The presents are wrapped in the paper, and you open them when you receive them."

"Ah. Well open them then, I am curious to find out what it is that your friends and friends have given you."

By now Harry was used to strange remarks like this, but he still smiled at what she had said. He opened the first one, which was from Ron, and was surprised to find a book (even though it was 'Great Quidditch Teams: 1001 Foul Fouls') accompanied by a short letter saying happy birthday. Hermione had sent him a book on snake species (He had apologised to her for sending a howler, even though he wasn't particularly sorry, because Serena had told him how miserable it was making her sound in her letters), and Tonks had sent him a book on metamorphmagi, as he had been interested in them before and was even more so now that he was one, even though she didn't know that. Serena had sent a large leather-bound book (what is it with these books?) that had a silver snake embossed on the cover, and silver writing on the spine, entitling the book 'Magic, Spells, and Serpents'. When he found a parcel from Remus parcel, he saw that a small note only accompanied it on the side.

Dear Harry,

I hope that you're doing okay, and I know that you don't want any letters of sympathy, but I don't think that I could write one anyway, as I am currently rather depressed myself. Anyway, I'm just adding this note to warn you: If you ever even so much as think about telling Molly Weasley that I bought this for you, you will find yourself with a vicious werewolf out to get your blood. Happy Birthday!

Mooney.

P.S. Only twist the emerald if you are more than a meter away from anything.

Harry quickly unwrapped the package and found a small silver dagger with engravings of a vine twisting around part of the hilt and blade. A deep green emerald, almost the same green as his eyes, in the shape of a leaf was set in the end of the hilt. Harry placed all of his other presents in his trunk, then stood in the middle of the room and held out the dagger in front of him, twisting the emerald leaf around.

The emerald glowed, and the engraved vines took on the green glow as well, and then the vines of light shot out in a spiral pattern, before they stopped glowing and became metal again. Harry now stood in the middle of his room holding a longsword, but it wasn't for long. Unprepared for the extra weight of a sword, he dropped it, and the loud clang as it hit the floor echoed in his head.

"THAT BLOODY BOY!" came Vernon Dursley's yell from down the hall.

Harry quickly picked up the sword and twisted the emerald leaf back into place, making it into a dagger again. The teenager jumped back into the bed (going as fast as he could without squashing Amber), pulling the covers up around his neck and covering the dagger in the process. The door opened and he heard his uncle step slightly into the room, probably looking around the room for whatever had made the noise, mumbled a small "Hmph!", then pulled back out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Harry pulled the dagger back out and placed it next to his clock, along with his glasses and the three letters that he hadn't gotten around to opening yet.

"I'll just open them tomorrow," Harry mumbled tiredly with a yawn. "Goodnight Amber," he hissed to the snake.

The long snake didn't open her amber coloured eyes, but she did hiss a small "Goodnight Harry," back to him, which the boy didn't hear, as he was already asleep.

Author's Note

Sorry about the long wait, I've been having trouble with the internet, and I wasn't inspired to write this at the moment, my muse left me hanging. Anyway, thank you Laura, and Makotochi, plus my other reviewers if you haven't deserted me. And I have just found out that doesn't put up the bloody stars so now I have to redo 'Just Who Exactly Is Serena Rysendri' again, AGAIN! Ok then. is bloody annoying... I probably shouldn't say that on :looks around in paranoid manner and giggles nervously:

The chapter is short because I need inspiration to go further and my lack of readers is a bit depressing, but anyway…

:eye twitches: I have just found out that doesn't put up the bloody stars so now I have to redo 'Just Who Exactly Is Serena Rysendri' again, AGAIN! Ok then. is bloody annoying... :I probably shouldn't say that on :looks around in paranoid manner and giggles nervously: #>.. FINE I GIVE UP! ARGH!

I'm not sure how long I'll be before the next update, but hopefully it will be soon.

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