Chapter 2: (1866 words)

"Well," Harry gave her an adorable little smile, oh how she missed her most wonderous nephew. It wasn't like she saw much of him when he was a baby, but he was absolutely adorable when she did get the chance to sneak in and see the child, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Auntie 'Rora."

She grinned at her new nickname; Lily had always called her 'Rosey', and practically everyone else called her 'Thorn' or something along those lines. She might be as kind and caring as a Hufflepuff but damnit could she get ferocious real quick. Being the proper pureblood that she was (despite not truly caring about such things), Aurora stood up and helped her little nephew up too. She then proceeded to show him how to stand correctly and how to properly greet someone.

He didn't seem to mind the constructive criticism - if anything, he seemed to get happier every time he heard some. Were the Dursleys truly treating him that bad? If so, she needed to do something.

She wasn't sure what she was doing in that street. As she sensed no magic at all nearby, she judged it to be a muggle street and promptly transformed into a fox. It was so incredibly rare that it was practically unheard of, but she was a shapeshifter. Lily was rather unlucky in that aspect and wasn't, though there was the extremely unlikely off chance that she passed it onto little Harry here. Perhaps that was the power that the Dark Lord knew not? It was possible, she supposed. She just trotted down the street and had just been wondering why she had even bothered to come through this way in the middle of the night when she caught a glance of the last family member that she could truly declare herself related to.

"Harry?" she began, tentatively. Maybe Harry didn't see her as someone he could go and live with...

"Yes, Auntie?"

"Umm... well, you see... I was wondering if you'd like to not live here anymore. Sirius declared you the next Black Heir, so you might as well be raised where me, Sirius, and Regulus, his younger brother, were raised, right? I will have to explain things to Walburga's Portrait first though, before she starts screaming bloody murder," she mumbled the last part to herself, though Harry heard anyways. He didn't really understand what she meant by the portrait of the woman who raised her and was the mother of the other two Blacks.

"I'd love to come and live with you, Auntie 'Rora," he gave her one last smile, and she nodded before picking him up. She said nothing on how light he was, deciding that she'd merely express her opinion on that when she fried the Dursleys alive. Maybe she should make a truce with Voldemort and have some help? That would be fun.

Now that she thought about it some more, she couldn't help but be taken by the idea: she and Harry would be safe, and Voldemort would take the chance of the only thing that could defeat him on his side with open arms.

She could also see all of her 'relatives' again, they were all firmly in the Dark, after all. And Severus was like a brother to her anyways. She knew he was on the Dark side as well, despite working for Dumbledore. He only did that to try and save Lily's life, and she didn't blame him. All of these people thought she was likely dead, as she had practically disappeared off the face of the Earth the second after her graduation. Only Lily and Remus knew she was alive, and no one knew her location, which actually changed from Slytherin Castle to Number 12 Grimmauld Place every few days.

She looked at him and warned him, "This is called apparation, it's basically a cooler word for teleporting. It makes you feel a bit nauseous once you arrive, but it goes away straight after, so, y'know, just a warning."

"Alright, Auntie 'Rora," Harry nodded to give her the okay.

She apparated to Slytherin Castle, and it was very appropriately named in her opinion: it was massive! Aurora put her beloved nephew down and they held hands as they walked up to the beautiful black gates and fence, which were three times taller than her. The gates hissed though both aunt and nephew understood every word, "Good Evening, Lady and Heir Slytherin."

Aurora's smile widened as Harry jumped, it seems he's a Parselmouth like she suspected he'd be. She turned to the gates, "Good Evening, Slytherin Castle. I request access and a change of the wards, if you will."

"And what shall that be, Lady Slytherin?" the gates responded in the same hissing voice.

"I wish for my nephew, Heir Harry of the Noble and Most Ancient house of Slytherin, to be allowed access to Slytherin Castle at all times. He was born with the sacred language of snakes in his blood and will be able to speak to you," she returned, and Harry's eyes widened: the sacred language of snakes?

"Your request has been granted, Lady Slytherin," the gate spoke one last time and then slowly open, not one creak from it, showing how the castle has been treated properly these past few years.

"Harry, I know this is a bit sudden, but since your mother was my twin and knew Parseltongue, which is the language of snakes, you were born with it too," she told him.

Harry nodded excitedly, "Are there any other languages that aren't found in the non-magical part of the world?"

Aurora smiled, "First of all, Harry sweetie, the word for non-magical is muggle. Second of all, yes, there are many different languages in the magical world, the most common being Gobbledygook, the language of goblins, and Mermish, the language of the mermaids. However, there's a lot more languages, such as Nymph, Fairy, Elfish, and many more, including Parseltongue."

"Wow," Harry whispered, amazed.

Nodding, Aurora continued with a smile gracing her features, "Yes, it is rather amazing. Anyways, there are creatures that serve wizard kind. Most muggles would see it as slavery, but it is not, it is just the way our culture works. House elves serve happily and in return we give them some of our magic, since theirs is too unstable, so if they don't have a master to serve, they die within the week due to, most likely, an explosion caused by their magic."

Harry's eyes widened, "Really? Well, I guess it's understandable if you put it that way."

They reached the front door of the castle, and wow was it massive. The walls were made of ancient looking stone that almost glowed in the moonlight, and the castle was absolutely massive, easily fitting in hundreds of people inside. "Well, I shall introduce you to some of the house elves, there's rather a lot of them, you see."

Slowly nodding in understanding, Harry followed his saviour into the castle, his new home. When they walked in and the massive doors closed, four little beings popped right in front of them. Harry would have jumped in shock had his aunt not warned him. One of them walked forward, looking wrinkly and having large, bat-like ears, with a male sounding voice, "Mistress Slytherin. We have sensed a different magic to yours and recognised our most wonderous Heir."

Aurora nodded happily. She despised how wizards didn't take the time to grow bonds between their house elves. If they showed them respect, then they will happily follow your every command with joy. She also took the time to teach them how to speak properly, and they taught their children, making it rather easy for her. "Yes, Nippy, this is my young nephew, Harry James Potter, though I'm hoping he is agreeable in adding a few more surnames to that. He is your Heir and could you please treat him with respect, he means a great deal to me."

The four elves nodded, and another one stepped forward, a female this time "Would you like for me to make a small snack for your young Heir, Mistress?"

The Lady of the castle looked at her nephew, who looked surprised and overjoyed at the mentioning of food, and she nodded, "Thank you, Callie. Just a small one, we must be getting to bed soon."

The elf named Callie nodded and popped away, with the one named Nippy soon doing the same. The other two elves walked forward, "Mistress, would you like for us to prepare a room for the young Heir?"

She nodded to the female elf, "That would be most wonderful, Flonna. Could it be done with blacks and dark blues, with touches of green and red, please?"

Flonna nodded and popped away like the previous two elves. The final elf stepped up, it seemed smaller than the other three, perhaps younger. It had a male voice, from what Harry could hear anyway, and spoke shyly to his auntie, "Mistress, may I be the Heir's personal elf?"

Aurora smiled kindly towards the elf, and nodded, "That would be fantastic, Slithy. I wish you the best of luck at your first job. Do keep an eye out towards Harry, would you? I have a feeling that he'll be exploring quite a lot the following few days. I don't want him getting lost." The elf nodded like a man on a mission and popped away. Aurora then turned to Harry, "You just need to call his name and he will appear before you. If you need anything, and I mean absolutely anything, then call him. If you need me, call and ask him to take you to me."

Harry nodded with tears in his eyes, "Thank you, Auntie 'Rora. No one's ever done this for me before."

She nodded kindly, "You're most welcome, sweetie. I'll get back to you on the name change thing tomorrow, we need to go and meet some portraits. See, they're kind of alive in the magical world. I'll explain later tomorrow. Come now, we need sleep."

Nodded, Harry let out a large yawn, "Yes, auntie. Can I eat first, though?" He froze, as he dared to ask a question, but blinked, surprised, when his new relative nodded kindly.

"Yes, of course Harry. Off you go, the kitchen is down there. The snack should already be ready. Once you have finished, call Slithy and ask him to take you to your new bedroom, it should be done by now, and it should be right next to mine. I'll give you a tour tomorrow. Good night, sweetie, I'm exhausted!"

Harry giggled tiredly, "Yes, good night, Auntie 'Rora." She then transformed into a large falcon-looking bird, with white feathers with black spots on her wings, and she promptly flew away and up the stairs. Harry just stood there for a moment, wondering how his auntie was so weird and awesome at the same time, before heading to the kitchen, down the corridor his auntie said it would be in.

He wasn't sure what he's just walked into, but he had a feeling that it definitely wouldn't be boring, that's for sure.

A/N: Ta da! Next chapter's finished for you all, so here you go. :)

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything these past three weeks or more, a lot of things have been going on and I haven't had the time to write, but I had mostly finished this before everything happened, so I wrote the last bit and posted it. I hope this makes up for my absence…?

I really have nothing else to say, so have a nice day, all of you! I have a couple of ideas but I need to weave them all together which is working to be tricky, so I don't know how long the next chapter's going to take.

Enjoy!