A Place to Call Home

Book One: The Snake's Lair


Chapter Three: The Children of Salazar

"Lily,how's the plan going?"

It was now late October and Lily and Jormy were starting to make plans on how to take control of Slytherin House. The first weeks in Hogwarts and the Slytherin's treatment of her had woken up memories best left buried. She refused to be pushed around, especially by the likes of Malfoy, she had to be the one on top, it was the only way to ensure safety. Lily's ambitions ran much further, but she had to take one step at a time. Jormy was pissed that he still had to keep to the room. He said he was entitled to prance around wherever he wanted in the House of the Snake, but Lily thought it was just an excuse for biting a couple of her housemates. Lily was sure the primary reason he was so enthused in her taking over Slytherin was so he could bask in the Common Room's hearth's glow.

"Quite well, Luna likes me a lot, and she is kind of indebted to me since I cursed the crap out of some bints in Ravenclaw that were bullying her. She deduced it was me and is trying to make up for it."

"From what you tell me I like the kid, she has some really weird kind of irony with those fantastic creatures, but what's her use?" He asked.

"Her dad owns the Quibbler, which is a satirical newspaper."

"From what you tell me, most of these people don't even know what satire means. What's the point?"

"You're not wrong, but it also turns out that the Quibbler is the only privately-owned newspaper in the country. Apparently during the last war the ministry appropriated the Daily Prophet and Wizarding Wireless and bought out all other news media, except for the Quibbler since no one read it. There's still Witch Weekly and all the academical journals like Transfiguration Today, of course, but none report news."

"That's brilliant, Lily. A newspaper would be invaluable."

"Of course it's brilliant, who do you think you're talking to?" She said smugly.

"It would be more impressive if you actually approached the girl due to her connections instead of finding out after the fact." The snake did his best impression of a smirk.

"… You're a jerk." She pouted.

"Maybe, but I'm not wrong. Now, what about the rest of non-Slytherins?"

"Potter's stopped being a pest, he's mostly leaving me alone, but his pet Weasel is proclaiming to the four winds that I'm the second coming of Voldemort. He'd shit his pants if he knew I was a parselmouth."

"Interesting. Leaving Weasley's bowel movements aside, what else?"

"I don't have any contacts amongst the Puffs, they're too passive to be of any value. However, as I know I should have people everywhere, I've got my eyes on one Zacharias Smith. The guy is as arrogant as Malfoy, apparently his family are direct descendants from Helga Hufflepuff, which is the only reason he's in that House since he's a textbook example of a social climber. He'll be easy to control once I've got control over Slytherin."

"What about Ravenclaw?"

"They're true neutrals, so I don't see any angles yet, but I admittedly know few people there, they're mostly antisocial. I've got Luna on the inside, which is something, I guess."

"Allright, good enough. What about Slytherin?"

"Malfoy and the sixth years are still bitching around. The seventh year prefects have their eyes on me since the first time I entered the common room after the sixth years had changed the password." She chuckled. "As if you could keep a parselmouth out of here."

"That's great news, they'll be the first ready for a shift of power. What about the lower years?"

"The Carrows know better than to cross me, and the Greengrasses are neutral on the whole blood issue, so Astoria is mostly ignoring me. The first year boys are completely irrelevant. As for the second years, besides Malfoy and his goons I seem to have the attention of Blaise Zabini. From what I've seen the guy's a true Slytherin, he knows I'm more than the eye shows, but he seems to be waiting for me to make a move. He's probably the one controlling Malfoy. I've noticed that one of Malfoy's goons, Crabbe, is not what he looks like. Unlike Goyle he only appears stupid, but I've got the feeling he's actually quite capable. I don't like it at all, he gives me the creeps for some reason, I'm staying away from him. For the girls, Parkinson is a gold-digger, Greengrass and Davis keep to themselves and Bullstrode will follow whoever's got the best hand. Nott is a non-factor, the guy's a textbook Ravenclaw, he only cares about his books."

"Nice analysis Lily. If all goes as planned, I think you should seize control somewhere around January, after the break. If you did it before the break it would give their parents a lot of time to set a course of action for them. Keep them on their toes." He hissed

"Sounds good, Jormy. Now, I've got to go, tomorrow I have Potions with the Dorks first thing and I'm looking forward to seeing Snape bully the crap out of them."

"Good night, Lily."


"Oh, hi Luna." She said, sitting in their table at the library.

"Hi, Lily." Luna answered in her typical aloof tone. She was doing an essay on transfiguration. "How come you weren't at Transfiguration today? It isn't the same without you there, I love to see your housemate's faces when McGee gives you points instead of them ."

"Oh, Snape gave some speech, apparently someone blew up the Weasley twins' kneecaps with a bone breaker. They claim it was a first-year Slytherin girl, but there is no first year that matches their description or can cast a bone breaker, so he just warned us." Lily explained.

"I can think of someone who has a liking for bone-breakers. What did the idiots do that pissed you off so much?"

"They tried to hex me. At the moment I was wearing a glamour, so it's impossible they could possibly have any reason since it's the first time they saw that face. They hexed me because I was a Slytherin, and clearly any Slytherin eats babies and kills puppies, even an eleven year old girl that has only been there for two months." She snarled.

"The Weasleys are as bigoted as the Malfoys, just on the other end of the spectrum. It doesn't surprise me at all." Said Luna with a sniff.

"Yeah I know. Anyways, did you bother Potter in my absence? It would make up for having to listen to the bat for over an hour."

"Mother or child?" Luna asked.

"Either or." Lily answered with a smirk.

"Both, actually. I commented on the unusual amount of nargles around her, and asked if that was the reason his son wouldn't even look at her, fear of infection. I've got myself a detention with Filch." She said with a perfectly innocent face.

"Damn, Luna, you're quite brutal." She smiled. "I'm going to invite you to pudding, let's go to the kitchens." Lily said, getting up.

"Yay, pudding." Luna said. "Anyways, why do you disliked her so much? The wrackspurts refuse to tell me. Not that I mind, she is quite harsh."

"Petty revenge. I just dislike happy families, and Potter in particular." There was no point in mentioning that Potter Jr. was most likely the reason she was an orphan, she didn't think much of Lord Voldemort's paternal instincts, but it had to beat the orphanage. "What did you do to our glorious saviour?" She asked as they were arriving to the kitchens, where the elves were delighted to serve. She was really glad she had spent so much time exploring the castle, even if the snake portraits refused to tell her about the chamber.

"Oh, he heard about what I said to his mother and confronted me. I told him that it was not his fault that his mother couldn't stand the sight of him, it was just the humming wandilocks he had around all the time." She said between mouthfuls of pudding.

"I swear you make up those creatures on the go." Lily commented.

"I will neither confirm nor deny it." Luna said.

"Anyways, what did they do about it?"

"Weasley almost hexed me, but Potter just sneered at me. He almost lost it when I said he looked remarkably like Snape, Granger had to hold him back." She shrugged.

Lily couldn't hold back her laughter.

"Now that you say it, I don't think I've ever thought about why Snape hates Potter so, besides the obvious petty grudge to his father, I mean. There's got to be something juicier behind it, I'll have to keep a look on him." She said, starting her machinations.

"As long as there's pudding, count me in." Luna said with a smile.


"Oh, we're all here, good, good." Said Dumbledore. It was the middle of October, which meant it was time for the midterm staff meeting. "Let's start, shall we? Why don't we talk about our seventh years and make our way down?"

"The Head Boy and Girl are adequate and complying with their responsibilities, as are the seventh year Gryffindor prefects." Commented McGonagall.

"What about the rest of the prefects, are they doing a good job?" He said.

Nods from the other three Heads were his answer, and he moved to the next question.

"Alright then, let's go to the sixth years." He said jovially.

Flitwick scoffed. Of course he wouldn't care about how the students dealt with the NEWT study load, or their concerns about future career paths. It's not like Dumbledore had cared about the students for a long time, more so now that Potter attended. And of course, the Deputy wouldn't say anything about it, McGonagall was firmly in Dumbledore's purse.

The questions and answers were quite insipid, as was to be expected, until they reached the year Dumbledore was interested in.

"What about the second years?"

"My lions are keeping their grades more or less at the same level than last year." McGonagall said. "Ms. Granger is still top of her class, the girl is brilliant."

Snape scoffed. Of course she would say they were at the same level and see nothing wrong with it. Her muggle-raised students should have seen an increase in grades now that they had gotten used to Hogwarts. But of course, the only muggleborn Minerva cared about was that insufferable Granger. The one who merely vomited the contents of her textbook on a meter long piece of parchment. He couldn't care any less who passed or failed his class as long as no one died in an explosion, but for all his colleagues cared, they didn't seem to understand the difference between knowing the answer and understanding it. Nor did they seem to value capacity of synthesis in an essay, as he was the only one who didn't gave Granger an O for her mile-long essays straight from the book. All the same except for her.

"I see, good to know Ms. Granger is on her path to be the brightest witch of her generation. She might very well be your successor, Lily" Dumbledore said.

Lily Potter snorted.

"Please. The girl merely has a good memory and too much study time on her hands. She doesn't know the difference between knowing and understanding, she just reads whatever she finds on a book and recites it like a recording. She also believes everything written as law without cross-referencing or testing it. Kid will go as far as a desk job, but she's completely unsuited for research." She huffed.

"Come on now Lily, it's no time for envy, she's only twelve after all." Dumbledore said. Lily seemed ready to bust a vein, but kept quiet. "What about Mr. Potter?"

"Same old, the kid is cocky and arrogant, and doesn't put any effort on his work." Said Sprout. "No offense, Lily."

"None taken." She answered with a shrug.

"No need to be so harsh, Pomona, boys will be boys." Dumbledore said with twinkly eyes. "Filius, Minerva?"

"His work and work ethic are mediocre." Flitwick answered without going into details.

"He's good at transfiguration, reminds me of his father." McGonagall said with a smile which drew twin sneers from Lily and Snape, who continued ignoring each other. Dumbledore skipped both and asked the Defence teacher.

"What about you, Gilderoy, what do you think of young Harry?" He asked.

"He's a great kid, I'm teaching him what he needs to be a hero of the people, of course, and I'm helping him dealing with the heavy burden that is being famous. But worry not, for I'm leading the lad through his problems and I see a bright future ahead of him." The man-peacock said with a dramatic flair, ending in a blinding smile that had to be charmed.

"Thank you Gilderoy, now what about the first years?"

"I've had a problem with one of our first years, Headmaster, Ginny Weasley." Started Lockhart.

"How so? She's a sweet girl from a loving family." Came McGonagall to the defence of her lion.

"In our first class I passed a test, and she used her answers to try and ridicule me. But don't worry, I already dealt with the situation and the girl seems quite subsided on my classes now, she has learnt the error of her ways." He said, nodding fervently.

"I've seen her crying a couple of times, Gilderoy, perhaps you should have been softer on her." McGonagall said with fury on her eyes.

"Er… I assure you, it must be unrelated. I'm, before everything, a gentleman, and I try to protect the feelings of every lady that-"

"Whatever, any student worthy of notice?" Interrupted Lily.

"Why, yes, Lily, dear." Lockhart said with his best smile, which crumbled at the looks that Lily sent him. "Erm… Right. Ms. Hyde is quite a brilliant child, she resolved a situation on her first day."

"Oh yes, our muggleborn Slytherin. How is she adapting to her House, Severus? I know for a fact that some of them might be… opposed to having a muggleborn on their midst." Dumbledore interjected.

"Ms. Hyde grew up in an orphanage without knowing her parents, so it is possible she is not a muggleborn. Ms. Hyde is in excellent condition and has not been harassed in any way." He said.

"Come on Severus, you can't possibly believe that a muggle-raised wouldn't be hexed in your House." Scoffed McGonagall. "I'm sure Mr. Malfoy would be first in line to 'defend the Honor of the House' or some such idiocy."

"If you're going to publicly accuse one of my students of unruly behaviour, Minerva, I suggest you present proof first." Snape said icily. "As for Ms. Hyde, if she's been the object of any harassment she has no doubt dealt with it herself in a swift manner." He said, smirking. He had seen how the muggle-raised girl had completely avoided all conflict without lifting a finger, it was driving his godson mad. "She is also one of the few pre-NEWT students who might be able to brew decently."

The others raised their eyebrows at the compliment, traduced from Snape-speech that meant that the kid was looking forwards to an Outstanding on her Potions NEWT. Not unseen on a muggle-raised student, as Lily was proof of, but quite rare.

"She is indeed a very bright girl, top of her class along with my own Ms. Lovegood." Said Flitwick proudly. "They seem to get along quite nicely."

After the meeting was done Dumbledore retired to his study, mulling over the conversation. He would have to keep an eye on Ms. Hyde. After all, he was quite familiar with the fate of another student who had also been a brilliant muggle-raised Slytherin.


"So, Luna, Professor Potter seems to dislike McGonagall and Dumbledore a whole lot, especially Dumbledore."

"Yes. It seems to be personal by the looks he sends him. Her dislike for McGonagall is probably because she's Dumbledore's right hand." Luna answered, to which Lily nodded. "I've seen her send him death glares every time he looks toward the Gryffindor table, so I think it has something to do with the Git-Who-Lived."

"It's quite possible. But I wonder, why does she completely ignore Snape? She's not friendly or hostile with him, they just outright ignore each other. And Snape doesn't seem to like Dumbledore either." Lily added.

"He doesn't like anyone." Luna smirked.

"I mean more than usual." She specified, amused.

"It might be. Maybe they have a past, could you imagine? Lily was madly in love with Snape's giant nose and his endearing lack of hygiene, but Snape only had eyes for the Dumb-Old-Dork with the twinkling eyes, and she had to settle for that simpleton Potter." Luna said with a look of excitement and madness.

"Congratulations Luna. You're the first person to manage to make me lose my appetite. I truly did not think there was anything more disgusting than flobberworm entrails, but Snape doing the nasty with Twinkles takes the cup. I'm going to need a Mind Healer for the mental scarring." She said between shudders.

"Please, you know you love me." Luna said with a smirk.

"Maybe, but just for this I won't give you any more pudding." Lily deadpanned.

"Not fair!" Luna pouted.

As they laughed together they made her way towards the Halloween Feast which, while brutally raping any sanctity that the date could have according to the Old Ways, did have some incredibly looking food. She never was one to care for religious sensitivities anyways, but smirked at the thought of Malfoy. He would be so outraged; he was a stickler for traditions, as even for a pureblood heir. Seeing the Headmaster celebrating a holiday from a culture which had killed countless wizarding children instead of one of the most sacred magical holidays just so the muggleborns were comfortable would surely give him a stomach ulcer of pure hatred. Lily smiled at the thought as she sat at her table.


"You'll be next mudbloods!" Yelled Malfoy.

"What's the meaning of this?!" Asked McGonagall.

McGonagall made her way to the front of the group and instantly shut up, her gaze stuck on the wall. Lily followed and after a couple of well placed elbows finally reached the object of everyone's attention. Her eyes were widened beyond belief as she took in the flooded floor, the frozen cat and the dripping blood smeared on the rock.

"We didn't do it professor!" Yelled Potter.

Lily was too stunned to even respond to that. She could not take her eyes from the writing in the wall. 'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware'. She breathed deeply and clamped her Occlumency shields down. She was close to mastering control of her emotions, and had noticed an increase in clarity when she was not as emotional as usual.

'All right, Lily, check facts' She thought.

'First: The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, so there might be a Basilisk roaming the castle.'

'Second: There is another heir of Slytherin in school, and he seems interested in using the Basilisk to kill mudbloods'

'Third: As far as everyone knows, I'm not only a muggleborn, but I'm staining Slytherin's house, which makes me target #1'

Lily clamped down on the fear that was trying to rise to the front of her mind and kept staring at the writing.

'Fuck me.'

When Lily reached the common room she ignored the taunts and the laughs, she ignored the whispers and the glances, and simply set for her room. As she entered, she barricaded the door with the strongest, nastiest spells she knew and sat in the small space between her bed and nightstand, holding her legs to her chest. Jormy instantly noticed something was wrong and took no time in wrapping his coils around the child.

"What's wrong, Lily?" He hissed.

"Change of plans Jormy. We're not taking over the house anytime soon." She said and hugged the huge snake close to her.

After calming down for a while she had explained everything that had happened. Jormy agreed with her on the matter of Slytherin House, it wasn't time to call attention to her, a Basilisk was indeed a fearsome creature. She had to find out who this heir was without the heir discovering her. If he found out he might take her out just to be uncontested. Assuming there was a Basilisk indeed, approaching it was a no-go, as control over it might be first-come first-served, meaning it would attack her on orders of the other heir, and even then she had yet to find the Chamber. She needed to investigate further before committing to any risky move.

"Allright Jormy, let's think. The heir must be an actual heir, that is, a parselmouth, for him to open the chamber, so that means he's descended from Slytherin. The only one we know descended from Slytherin is the Dark Lord, and me, of course." She started.

"So that means that whoever the heir is, he's either a relative of yours, or somehow the Dark Lord has come back to life in one form or another." Jormy replied

"Unlikely, I figure he would have better things to do if he was back. Though it could be him indirectly. He's the only heir of Slytherin that we know of so it's a starting point."

The snake nodded.

"Well, then you can start by researching him in the library. He must have attended Hogwarts at some point, so maybe we can find something in the yearbooks."

"That's a good point. He rose to power during the 70's, so if he attended Hogwarts he did so between the 20's and the 60' 's worth a shot."

"See? There is no reason to be afraid, you'll figure it out, and when you find the bastard I'll sink my fangs in his neck." Jormy said with a smug voice.

"You always know how to calm me down Jormy." Lily hugged her snake.

"Yeah, it's quite easy child, I just have to threaten someone with a painful death." He snickered.


The following weeks passed by pretty quickly for Lily. Tensions were running high in the castle, and had she not broken the Weasley Twins' legs they would be "pranking" every Slytherin in sight. She had more trouble than ever sneaking around, but it didn't bother her as much as she spent most of her time in the library. She had managed to recruit Luna's help to search the yearbooks, but so far nothing had been found.

The most important happening of November was the aftermath of the first Quidditch game of the season, Slytherin-Gryffindor. She didn't attend the game, but she had heard that a rogue bludger had tried to kill Potter, and then Lockhart had somehow managed to vanish all the bones in his arm. What she did see, however, was Potter's mother crying and hugging the boy, smothering him with affection. Even Potter Sr. busy as he was being an Auror and part of the Wizengamot, had been to the castle a mere hour after the fact. Lily had just mastered her Occlumency exercises on controlling emotions, but still could not smother the envy and grief that seeing that ponce showered with affection she lacked brought her.

This event had significant fallout, as apparently Potter Sr. had raised a stink big enough for the ministry to approve placing a couple of aurors in the castle so as to prevent any further incident. Dumbledore said it was to prevent further attacks form the Heir, as a first year Gryffindor had been found petrified the day after the match, but anyone with a bit of wit knew that the higher ups didn't give a damn about muggleborn children. What was interesting is that one of the aurors was the Head Auror himself, Lord Sirius Black. While he probably had better things to do, it was obvious that the ministry would kneel before Potter's demands where the Golden Boy's safety was concerned. Lily had sneaked a couple of looks at the patriarch of her family and she had to say she was impressed.

Sirius Black looked the part of the pureblood Lord in posture, expression and presence. He was intimidating and had an aura that inspired respect. However, instead of having the typical high-end robes most purebloods would wear, or even the standard Auror robes, he wore a simple but sturdy dragonhide vest over sporty muggle clothes. It seemed like a wardrobe designed for combat instead of ceremony, and both it and Black's expression made Lily sure that this man had fought in the frontline in the last war.

Over the next weeks, she had been able to observe the man further, and how he interacted with the staff. The first thing she noticed was that the man had a lot of hate to give around. She had seen him send looks of disgust to Potter Jr. and McGonagall, and straight up looks of loathing to Lily Potter and Dumbledore. As for Snape, he seemed to have the same deal with him that Mrs. Potter had, as they both ignored each other completely. Surprisingly, he was cordial enough with the rest of professors - except Lockhart, for obvious reasons.

At first Lily thought that this was due to his family's politics. It made sense for a Dark family to be at odds with the Potters and Dumbledore, but there was evidence that it was much more. When Black had first arrived at the castle, Potter Sr. was still around. Once they met face to face, Potter had looked with disgust at Black, but the look that Black sent back was one that would make a Dementor fear for his life. She had not seen such hatred ever before. Perhaps for the best, Black was able to restrain himself and walked away, but Lily remembered that face. She decided to look into it; after all, it would not do to be uninformed on the Lord Black being Lily a Black herself. It was about time to look into her family history anyways.


"What are you doing here?" Was said with disgust.

Lily didn't need to raise her head to know who that was.

"What do you want now Weasley? I thought you were allergic to books." She said to the redheaded boy who was, as usual, flanking Potter, same as Granger.

"That's not important, what are you reading about, eh? I'm sure it's Dark Magic."

"I'm actually reading on the mating habits of the Crumple-horned Snorkack." She said with a totally serious face.

Weasley seemed to be thinking about it, as he froze on the spot.

"What are you reading on anyways? It's not even close to the final exams, and you don't see many Slytherins here even then, and yet you're always here." Asked Granger.

"Of course you don't see many Slytherins here. Why read up on something when you can blackmail or torture the information out of a Ravenclaw?" She said with a deadpan. "For your information, Granger, most Slytherins keep to their dormitories when studying since it's more comfortable, quieter, and you don't have ruddy Gryffindors accusing you of Dark Magic every twenty minutes." Lily said exasperated. "Will you tell me what the hell do you want, since you obviously won't leave me alone otherwise?"

"What do you know about the Heir of Slytherin, Hyde?" Asked Potter before Granger could continue.

"What makes you think I know anything?"

"You're a Slytherin, you must know something." He said neutrally.

"Yeah, It's Malfoy, isn't it?" Interrupted Weasley.

Lily had to laugh at it.

"You really think that out of my entire House, the one to claim the name of the Heir of Slytherin would be that ponce? He's probably the least Slytherin-like of us!" Lily said, irritated.

"The hell do you mean, Malfoy is a slimy snake if I ever saw one." Potter said, and both Weasley and Granger nodded.

"Snakes. Are. Not. Slimy." Lily sighed and pulled a piece of parchment from her bag and started to write. After a while he handed the sheet to Weasley.

"Read that." Weasley looked dumbly at his friends. Potter shrugged, and the redhead started to read.

"Malfoy, you're just a slimy snake, and you look like a prat. My Dad says that when Dumbledore finally gets his way your whole family will go to Azkaban for being Death Eaters." He read.

"Does that sound anything like you?" Lily asked.

"Kind of. All of it is true, of course." Ron nodded.

"Very well. Let's change a couple of words, shall we?" Lily smiled. "We change Malfoy for Weasley, Dumbledore for the Dark Lord, a couple more… And finished." She started to read. "Weasley, you're just a stupid Gryffindork, and you look like a pauper. Father says that when the Dark Lord comes back your whole family will be killed for being blood traitors" She finished. "Sound like someone you know?" She paused at the lost look in Weasley's face.

"What this means, Weasley, if you can't understand simple words, is that you and Malfoy are very alike, just opposite sides of the same coin. And I consider you the perfect example of a Gryffindor, so you'll forgive me when I say that no, Malfoy would never qualify as a heir of Slytherin." She finished with a sly smile.

Potter was trying to hold back his laughter as Weasley grew redder and redder with each sentence, and he looked ready to explode, so Lily defused the situation by turning to face Granger.

"Granger, I know logic is not exactly your fort, but if you think about it for a minute you'll find that it's not one of the lower years. By proclaiming his presence to the school, the Heir is either a really stupid and self-important prat like Malfoy, or trying to divert attention from his real objective. In the first case, he would have wasted no time in proclaiming his heritage to the four winds and we'd all know who he is, so it's obvious that it's the second one. He's not interested in killing muggleborns, although he'll probably still do so to divert attention from his real goal." She explained. "I'm fairly certain that none of the lower years in all four houses is the heir, but I don't know everyone, so I could be wrong. I'd say it's probably an older year who recently discovered how to open the Chamber."

"As shocking as this might sound, Potter, Weasley, there's no reason why the heir is a Slytherin. He could have been ignorant of his heritage and have been sorted elsewhere." Lily continued. "Or I could be mistaken and it indeed is a lower year, in which case he might have been sorted elsewhere on purpose just to avoid suspicion. Then again, this is just speculation, we don't even know if the Chamber has been open at all, he only said so, but there was no proof. He could be attacking people on his own and blaming Slytherin." She smirked.

"So in short, you know nothing." Summarised Granger.

"Exactly." She smiled.

"And why didn't you say so? We could have avoided all this nonsense." Said Potter, while Weasley still looked enraged from her earlier comment and looked like he was trying to think of a retort.

"It's funnier this way." She winked at him. "So, who do you think it is?" She asked him.

"We thought it was Malfoy." Potter said. Lily snorted at the thought. "Well, the attack just coincided with Sirius Black coming to the castle, and everyone knows how Dark the Black family is, and Malfoy's mom's a Black, so we thought that it's Malfoy and Black is helping him."

Lily laughed yet again at the stupidity.

"So the Blacks are a Dark family. Would you say that all their members are evil, slimy Slytherins?" She asked mischievously.

"Of course!" Interrupted Ron, who jumped to the chance to reaffirm himself as completely opposite from Malfoy. "Everyone knows that anyone from that family is rotten, they all sided with You-Know-Who." Potter nodded along, while Granger looked unsure.

"Oh, that's interesting to know, Weasley. Do you say these things in front of your Grandmother? What about you, Potter?" She asked.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Potter asked narrowing his eyes.

"Well, considering Cedrella Weasley and Dorea Potter are both Blacks, I'd say they'd take offense." She smirked.

"My grandmother is not a filthy Black! Take that back!" Weasley yelled, which won him a sush from Madam Pince.

"It's public knowledge, you idiot. Here." She showed him one of the books she was reading, which contained a genealogy of the best known Wizarding Families. Potter and Weasley both paled when they saw that she was right.

"So this is what you've been reading about?" Asked Granger with suspicion.

"There are other things to read about than schoolwork, Granger." Lily smirked.

"Hey! It says here that they disinherited her, so she's only a Black in name, she's not like the rest of the family!" Said Weasley proudly.

"And if you bothered to look for two seconds longer, you'd realize that Sirius Black was also disinherited for being sorted in Gryffindor, and the only reason he's Lord Black is because everyone else died. For being so 'Dark and Evil' as you put it, in the last generation only two of the Blacks were Death Eaters, while another two were disinherited by consorting with blood-traitors. So it's more of a fifty-fifty kind of deal, Weasley, not that I'd expect you to understand that children can have different opinions that their parents, since you come from a family which is proud of having every single member in Gryffindor."

"And what the hell is wrong with that!"

"Too long to explain, I'd say ask Granger but I doubt she'd get it either." She paused. "Anyway, you've come here to figure out who the heir is and I'd say you're less certain now than before. So do you have any other theory you want me to dismantle or…?" She raised her eyebrow.

"Let's just leave." Said Potter, and finally left her alone.

She huffed and went back to the yearbooks. It looked like it would be a long while yet until she found what she was looking for.


"Duel club?" Asked Lily.

"Yes, I saw the announcement on the notice board at the common room." Answered Luna. "But don't get your hopes up. I asked Flitwick if he had anything to do with it since he was a duelist champion, and he said that he didn't organize it. Which means…"

"Lockhart." She sighed.

"Yep." Luna answered, popping the p.

"Ugh. Like the ponce needed any more attention. We're not going to learn anything from it, but it could be nice for some laughs."

"I don't doubt it, someone will hand Lockhart his ass. You need the fun, you've been cooped up in here even more than Granger."

"Creevey." She simply said.

"I know." Sighed Luna. Indeed, Lily was the perfect target for the next attack, and the petrification of Colin Creevey had proved that the Heir wasn't playing around, and that there was indeed a Basilisk in the castle. "We'll find something, don't worry Lily."

"I don't worry, worrying is pointless." And indeed she didn't, Lily was very glad she had taken the time to learn Occlumency. Her actual defenses against Legilimency were not quite there, but she wasn't applying herself as much as she should due to the Heir situation. It still came to her far faster than the book said it should, so she wasn't very worried. "Anyways, I'm going to practice a bit of defense for the Duel club. It will be fun to belittle the other Slytherins."

"Good idea, Lily." She smiled, going back to the yearbook. "Oh, look here!"

"What do you got?" Lily said excited, going over to Luna's side of the table.

"It's not about the heir, but it's very interesting. It's the 1968 graduating class." Luna said, pointing to the photo. "Look at the Gryffindors."

And indeed there was something interesting with the Gryffindors. In the middle of the picture were the Head Boy and Girl, James and Lily Potter (then Evans). What was worthy of mention, however, was the young man who had his arm draped around Potter's shoulders, Sirius Black. It seemed like they were the best of friends.

Not long after, Lily and Luna were looking at the yearbook for 1961. Indeed, Sirius Black and James Potter, along with two other Gryffindor boys seemed the best of friends. Something had to have happened for a friendship of seven years to break so hard, and it seemed it was Potter who was at fault.

"Oh god, Lily, look at this." Said Luna, who started to snicker violently.

"What is it?" She was merely passed the yearbook. In one of the photos, you could see two students, a girl and a boy. The boy was merely scowling, but a hint of a smirk could be seen at the corner of his mouth, while the girl was in tears of laughter and had the boy in a one-armed hug. It would be a seemingly normal picture if it wasn't for the fact that the boy and girl were a Slytherin and Gryffindor, respectively. And even more disconcerting were the names below: Severus Snape and Lily Evans.

"God, it's like he was born looking like a bat." Luna gasped between fits of laughters.

Lily however was not as interested in laughing at Snape. It seemed these two had also been the best of friends and something drove them apart, but the yearbook was not enough to figure out what exactly had gone on.

Lily sighed and went back to her search of the Heir. The mysteries piled one over the other and she had so little time.