Author's Note: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling, as such all rights, royalties, characters, and settings belong to her.

The Son of Prongs and the Snitch and Stone

Chapter 2: The Wolf's Lair

Many things had changed since Sirius Black had brought young Harry Potter home ten years earlier. The dark wooden dressers and thick coats of dust that had marred the home upon his first arrival were gone, cleared away with magic and elbow grease. In their place, light wooden dressers had been assembled, the black doxy filled curtains had been stripped and burned, the dark artifacts sold or burned. The ostentatious silver and gold place settings had been sold to a muggle jeweler for rather lavish sums. They'd been replaced with plain wood, plastic, and steel.

The carpet had been removed and a great deal of sanding and magical stripping of the wood beneath had been done to transform the floors from an ebony shade to a brighter rose-wood color that seemed to spring beneath young feet.

Pictures decorated the white walls of the foyer, showing Harry and his parents before that fateful night, the marauders in their school robes, and images of the growing young Potter fishing in a lake with Remus and Padfoot, standing with the two outside a movie theater with an enormous bowl of popcorn, or playing fetch with Sirius in his animagus form.

At that moment, Harry was asleep, holding tight to his pillow in the room that had been his since his arrival. A broomstick sat beside the bed's trunk and dozens of toys both magical and muggle were scattered on the dresser. A tiny golden ball with two small wings zoomed around the room, fluttering like a hummingbird.

With a crackle, the radio atop the dresser suddenly began to blaze out music and Harry Potter opened his eyes, squinting at the daylight pouring through his windows. The radio announced, "The Weird Sisters" would be live in concert in two weeks at a hall in Diagon Ally before bursting into a loud barrage of rock and roll.

"Harry? You up yet?" Sirius Black's friendly voice barked through the door.

Harry sat upright and swung his feet out of the bed. "I'm up!" Excitement flooded his voice as he began to pull open the dresser and grab some clothes. He selected a bright white T-shirt and long khaki pants from the dresser and quickly changed. He pulled on his trainers and a moment later pulled open the door and half-ran down the hall to the kitchen, which was already filling with the smells of bacon frying and omelets sizzling in a skillet.

Remus glanced down at him and smiled faintly, his face looking a bit more haggard than usual. "Morning Harry."

"Morning Uncle Moony." Harry said as he skidded to a stop beside him. "Can I help?"

"Sure, watch the bacon for me will you?" Remus said as he stepped aside and focused on the omelets. He grabbed another frying pan from the rack overhead and dropped it onto the stove, a gas one of muggle make that Sirius had bought with the small fortune in muggle money he had made from selling the gold and silver trinkets that had filled the house. Harry knew Sirius had applied a couple charms to get it to work but the result was a kitchen counter that Remus knew how to use with practiced ease and very well cooked food.

"I wonder how many other wizards have gas stoves." Harry said as he took a spatula and flipped the bacon carefully.

"Most muggleborns and half-bloods I imagine." Sirius said from his seat at the kitchen table. "They do make magic stoves but only pure-bloods would bother with that when a couple simple charms on a muggle one make it work just as well. Of course, most of them don't know how to operate in the muggle world so buying an appliance would be troublesome."

Lupin laughed lightly. "The old family pure-bloods usually don't know how to cook. They've got house elves for such menial labor, as if they ever actually do any work or anything." He glanced at Sirius sitting at the table. "Eh Padfoot, can you cook?"

Harry snickered as Sirius rolled his eyes. "Sorry Moony, but I was brought up as a pure-blood princess. Good thing I didn't take to it that well." Sirius unfolded the paper and leaned back in his seat. "Bloody Ministry still is looking for me. Now it's a hundred thousand galleons for any information leading to my capture."

"Maybe we should Remus, what would you do with a hundred thousand galleons?" Harry said grinning lightly.

"Buy new robes, maybe a car instead of a motorcycle…" Remus smirked slightly. "A couple dogs…"

"As if me and the pup aren't already more than you can handle Moony." Sirius said as he shut the paper. "The Longbottoms are in the news again, another capture for the best married team of aurors in the books. I wonder how their son is doing."

Remus smiled. "Neville's his name. Seems a bit of a bashful sort the couple of times I met him. Diagon Ally is still too crowded to take you there Sirius, unless you want to brew up some polyjuice again."

"I'll just go as Snuffles. No one seems to mind a dog being with you and 'Lawrence'." Sirius said with a grin. "We should probably go sometime soon. Harry needs a wand."

Harry blushed slightly. 'Lawrence' was the name of the alias that his two guardians had constructed for him over the years. Lawrence Lupin was Remus's supposedly muggleborn cousin that he was teaching about the wizarding world in preparation for Hogwarts. The fact that the boy hadn't appeared on the student register for Hogwarts only made his cover a bit suspect for McGonagall and Dumbledore but Remus had assured him that everything would work out.

"Well, living under the Fidellius means we can give him some practical lessons before Hogwarts." Lupin said with a grin. "He's already quite good with potions and… our other signature bit of magic."

Harry blushed even more at the mention of the 'other' bit of magic he'd been taught. He'd practically demanded to be taught the animagus transformation and while it'd taken him four years of constant frustration at the difficulty of what he was being taught, he'd finally managed a total transformation a month ago.

He was an animagus, a wizard that had mastered the ability to transform almost instantly into an alternate form… in his case a black wolf. There'd already been lots of conversations around the table about what his Marauder name should be, and while none of them had really stuck… Sirius's pet name for him of pup seemed to outlast every other suggestion.

"Well, it's a good thing you're teaching him potions Remus, especially with Snivellus as Potions Master." Sirius folded the paper and leaned back. "He's not likely to learn much with that overgrown bat swooping around."

Harry grinned. "Potions are fun, but I can't wait to get a wand and start doing real magic."

"Ha! You can do the animagus transformation already Harry, most wizards never learn it. You're what… the eleventh wizard to learn it this century!" Sirius grinned at Harry whose cheeks had flushed and he glanced bashfully down at the bacon. "That's real magic there Harry, you'll make your mum and dad proud at Hogwarts. We didn't get the transformation until fifth year."

"Well you didn't have personal lessons from another animagus either, did you?" Harry smirked. "I bet that helped me a lot."

"That and just how powerful you are… I've never seen any other kid blow up so much china." Sirius smirked at that comment and shook his head. "Anyway, what you got for plans today pup?"

"Well, Uncle Remus was going to show me a new potion and I got all my muggle school work done already." Harry said as he dumped the bacon onto a plate and set it on the table. "Miss Franks said she would recommend me to a private school… I told her I already had one lined up."

"Yeah, you're going to Hogwarts." Sirius said with a smirk. "Even if we don't get a letter, I suspect the Fidellius might prevent it."

"It might." Remus agreed as he set an omelet before Black and turned back to the stove. "I've already arranged for Lawrence Lupin to have a ticket aboard the express, just in case. Once he's at Hogwarts he can drop the alias."

Harry sat down as an omelet was set before him by Lupin. Sirius set to work on the omelet as Lupin sat down beside him with a plate for himself. The three ate in companionable silence and once the table was cleared Harry helped with dishes.

After that Remus led him into a room just down the hall across from the loo. Inside a vast open area filled the room. It had once been a ceremonial meeting hall, but now the large wooden tables were laden down with various instruments of Harry's training in the magical and mundane arts and sciences. At one long table an enormous chemistry set was laid out complete with beakers and a massive collection of various elements, minerals, metals, and reactants. Muggle chemistry books sat side by side with alchemical tomes that Sirius had purchased by owl order from various sources. On the table opposite a number of large cauldrons were stacked and at one end a vast cupboard was stocked with various potions ingredients.

At the next two tables a wide variety of muggle objects made an appearance ranging from mirrors and other simple objects to electronics that Sirius had long been attempting to charm to function without electricity. A large white cloth had been hung along one side of the hall, and a film projector sat atop a cart along with dozens of movies in film reels as testament to his success.

Remus settled beside a large cauldron and set a fire beneath it. Harry pulled up a stool beside the man and stared into the cauldron filled with water. "Alright Harry, we've gone through most of the more basic potions you'll encounter so I think we'll start on something a bit more advanced today, and something I've had to make for you and Sirius far too often: Pepper-up Potion."

"I heard that, I don't need it that often…" Sirius said as he walked over to his collection of devices and picked up a mirror, pulled out a long scroll of parchment and scribbled a set of notes.

Harry snickered a bit and turned back to Remus. "I do suppose I catch a cold often enough."

"It's the school, you're exposed to all those kids and if one of them has a cold everyone ends up with it." Sirius said with a snort. "That's one bit of the muggle education system I could do without."

"Anyway, I trust you've got that copy of Potions Made Easy, it's on page two-ninety-three." Remus said quickly as Harry pulled out a rather battered tome and flipped through the pages to the right one. Harry quickly skimmed the ingredient list and headed over to the cupboard.

Harry pulled out a mandrake root, a bicorn horn, and a vial of powdered octopus liver. Then he set to work chopping the mandrake root. Remus watched over him, occasionally commenting with suggestions or warnings as he prepared the ingredients. Then he added them slowly stirring the cauldron clockwise then counter-clockwise as Remus watched.

Suddenly a shout came from where Sirius was working and the man jumped up from his workplace and did a rather bizarre jig beside the table, gesticulating wildly with the small mirror in his hands. "It works!"

"What works?" Harry asked as he glanced at the book before lowering the heat to a simmer.

"The mirrors, I got them to communicate with every other one that's charmed! They're not just two-way anymore!" Sirius continued to do a little jig as Remus watched with an amused smile.

Harry pulled out the stirring stick and set it aside before glancing at Sirius. "Have you added the other stuff you planned yet?"

"Not yet… but if we can send you with one of these, who needs an owl?" Sirius said before sitting down in the chair and smirking. "Plus, Remus will need to help me for the map bit."

"Lily did her part too, she was a brilliant witch." Remus said with a slight smile.

Harry grinned. He loved the little anecdotes the two dropped about his parents. The stories they told of how his father had begged and pleaded with his mother to go out with him. The pranks the Marauders had pulled and how his mum would sometimes catch them or help them out. He may have missed them, especially when the other kids talked about their mum and dad in school. It gave him a connection to who they were, just like his animagus form and the mountain of muggle things Sirius charmed to work around the house. His mum had been muggleborn after all.

Harry glanced back at the cauldron and saw that the potion had finished turning a magenta color. The burner beneath snapped off and Remus ladled up a serving and examined it for a minute. "Good job, Harry, but it seems a bit off color. Another time or two with it and you'll have it perfected I'm sure."

Then Remus pulled a pocket watch out and flipped it open. "We've got a few hours yet till lunch, how about a bit of an impromptu Herbology lesson?"

"Sure." Harry said as he snapped shut the book slipped off the stool. He followed Lupin out the back into the working garden and greenhouses that they'd assembled the year before. Once inside Harry shut the door behind him and glanced at Remus.

"Well, let's see…" Remus glanced around at the various plants in the room. "Herbology is often closely related to potions. Do you know why Harry?"

"Uh… a lot of the plants in herbology provide ingredients for potions?" He said as he glanced around at the plants.

"Quite right, a good potions master often times will have done extensive study of both herbology and magizoology, often times harvesting the ingredients for his potions himself." Remus drew his wand and flicked it to a place just before a towering plant covered in lily blossoms. A pair of stools suddenly materialized and clattered onto the stone for a moment. "Go on, sit. Now what can you tell me about this lily?"

Harry sat down in the seat and stared at the beautiful white lilies before him. After a moment he remembered the flower from a page in his potions book. "They're Asphodel, we use the powdered root, stem, and…" He frowned for a moment. "Stigma?"

"Right the stigma… the little female portion of the flower. Its fruit can also be used. The plant's scientific name is Asphodelus ramosus though it is also known by the names Branched asphodel or Royal Staff. Among pure-blood families the giving of an asphodel has the symbolic meaning of 'lifelong regret' or that 'their regrets will follow them to the grave'." Remus pulled a small knife from his and cut off a single blossom. "In potions it is used to create a 'death-like' state in the consumer so it's one of the main ingredients in the Draught of Living Death."

A tiny voice crept into Harry's mind at that moment. "Here little mousy… one little bite and it'll be all over… I don't think it'll even hurt."

Harry suddenly stood and glanced around the greenhouse. "Remus? Did you hear something?"

"No." Remus said as he glanced at Harry. "Did you?"

"A voice…" Harry said glancing at Remus. "It said… 'Here little mousy…'" Harry sat down and shrugged. "Maybe it was my imagination."

Remus slipped the blossom into his pocket and nodded. Then he stood and walked over to a tall group of plants that to Harry's eye looked almost like some sort of weed. "Harry, can you tell me what these are?"

"Wormwood." Harry answered immediately.

"Correct, its proper name is Artemisia, and actually refers to an entire genus of plants. Fortunately except for a few with specific names they share almost identical properties. This one hasn't budded yet, but its blossoms also hold the meaning of great 'regret' or 'absence' among pureblood witches and wizards."

"And among very old fashioned muggles…" Sirius's voice answered from just behind them. "It seems the flower language of the pure-bloods actually is identical to the muggle tradition of 'victorian flower language' as to which came first… no idea." Sirius shrugged as he stepped past a large bush and over toward the plants. "I got the movie listing for the day, Terminator 2: Judgement Day is in town!"

"Sweet!" Harry said and grinned at Remus.

"Isn't he a bit young…" Remus started as he stepped toward Sirius. "I mean…"

"I want to go!" Harry said glancing between the two of them.

"Be quiet! I'm hunting wabbits!" A voice hissed and Harry froze.

"That voice!" Harry glanced around the garden again. "I heard it again."

"Did you hear hissing?" Lupin suddenly asked as he pulled his wand from his pocket and pushed back one of the thick clumps of wormwood. Harry gasped as a mottled black snake looked up at them from behind the plants. "Ah… an Adder."

"Shit, humans!" Harry's mouth gaped as the snake suddenly coiled up in fright.

Harry swallowed. "It's alright, we won't hurt you…"

"Speaker?"

His two adult companions suddenly gasped as the snake relaxed. "Parseltongue? Harry!" Sirius suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him back. He felt the grip tighten painfully. "Explain!"

"Calm down Sirius, you're scaring him." Remus said as the snake suddenly started slithering beneath the low wall and out of sight. "It's not like he's a werewolf."

Harry glanced between the two adults. "What? I don't understand. I just told it we weren't going to hurt it."

"Really is that what you said?" Sirius snapped.

"You heard me didn't you?" Harry asked.

"I heard parseltongue, snake language… not English!"

"You're a parselmouth Harry, you can talk to snakes." Remus said quickly. "I don't know how, it's supposed to be hereditary."

"Lily and James weren't parselmouths." Sirius said quickly. "The only one of modern times was Voldemort." He ran a hand through his wild hair and sighed. "Another question to look up… I'm going to need to get some more defense books and maybe a couple things from Knockturn Alley."

Harry felt a shiver run down his back. He didn't even realize he was speaking another language. How could he be a parselmouth?

"Okay, this is getting a bit too intense. Let's go see that movie and forget about this for a while." Sirius suggested.

Harry was immediately relieved by the mindless entertainment provided by a muggle blockbuster movie and the accompanying ride into town on Sirius's motorcycle. The three of them then grabbed a bite to eat at a café in town before heading back up the road toward the Wolf's Lair.

As the night descended, Harry sat down in the small living room that Sirius had managed to furnish in a muggle fashion. There was even a television that had been charmed to work without electricity and Harry watched a soccer match as he thought about the day. The look of near panic that had been on Sirius's face, sent a chill through his spine. Could being a parselmouth convince him to be dumped by the two? No, don't think like that. He stood and headed for the kitchen hoping for a snack before bedtime.

"I'm worried Remus." Harry froze as he heard Sirius just around the corner. "He shouldn't have that ability, it's hereditary so unless Lily had it and never told us…"

"Maybe it's tied up with the scar. You know we still haven't figured out how Harry survived." Remus's calm voice felt like a warm blanket descending on his shoulders. "Voldemort was the last parselmouth in Britain. Maybe he picked up some of his powers."

Harry leaned against the wall and sighed. I have some of Voldemort's powers... He shivered and suddenly felt as if he'd been drenched in mud and slime. "Bloody hell…"

"Harry?" Sirius's voice echoed from the kitchen, Harry pushed off the wall and headed back toward his room. He slammed the door shut behind him, walked to his bed, and dropped atop it.

He starred up at the ceiling and sighed, hugging his pillow to his chest. I'm not like him. His mind thought back to that terrible night and the bits and pieces he remembered. A whimper slipped out between his lips and he felt tears fill his eyes. It's just powers right? I'm not like him am I?

Such tormenting thoughts pursued him before he slowly drifted to sleep. An old nightmare of a high cold laugh and a flash of brilliant green light woke him early the next morning. As he climbed out of bed and wandered to the loo, he saw Sirius brushing his teeth. "Morning Harry."

"Morning." He murmured back. "Umm…"

"Just a minute, I talked to Remus last night and… we're going to Diagon Alley today. It's time we got your wand and everything."