A/N: Sorry about the delay. Hope that everyone had Happy Holidays! I would have gotten this out sooner but with the holidays, my niece's birthday on New Years' Eve. Having the flu, and having our hot water heater go out right after Christmas, this past week or more has taken its toll on myself and my family. But I have a feeling that this New Year will be better than the last.

Chapter 4: The Other Heirs

Harry returned to the Room of Requirement totally exhausted. It felt like he had spent hours in the room with the orbs but in reality it had only been two. As exhaustion set in he barely had enough energy to ask Dobby to meet Hermione and Neville inside the Shrieking Shack and bring them to him. He asked Winky to wake him when Dobby left. He then promptly passed out.

For all of his exhaustion he still had a strange dream. He dreamed Salazar, Godric, and Merlin were showing him the wandless spell that would combine all their wands powers together, into one wand. Which would help against Priori Incantantum. Then he dreamed of what he wanted in the future, a family. A wife and children, lots of children. It was what his heart desired. Just as he was kissing his dream wife, who looked a great deal like Hermione, he was woke up to Winky's gentle shakings.

"Harry Potter must get up. He has asked his Winky to wake him and that is what Winky is doing."

"I'm awake Winky, I'm awake" mumbled Harry. He put on his glasses and got a good look at what the elf was wearing. A set of royal purple robes, elf sized. A crest of a lion and a unicorn reared towards each other, and held in their mouths, a snake. A crown rested above them and the words Veneratio Fidelitas were inscribed underneath. "What are you wearing?"

"Winky belongs to Harry Potter and these is what Winky and Dobby wills wear. Winky dids not knows that Harry Potter is almost King. Winky is proud to belong to Harry Potter. Does Harry Potter like?"

"Yes I like them very much, Winky. Much better than a tea towel. Now how about you get me and my friends some breakfast. I want you and Dobby to join us. There is a lot that I need to explain and I really only want to do it once."

"Winky will do as Harry Potter asks." The little elf left the room and he got up to shower. Ten minutes later he headed out of the bedroom, feeling somewhat human, and into the main room. He barely saw that the table was already set when he saw the door open, revealing Neville and Hermione.

"It's about time you got here. I've only been waiting ten seconds."

"Such a long wait, Mr. Potter. One would think that you shouldn't have to wait for anyone." smirked Hermione right back. She was glad to see Harry in a good mood after what Fred and George had told her. Her own anger and feeling of betrayal was nothing compared to Harry's.

Harry waited until they sat down, including Dobby and Winky, before taking a seat himself. They made idle chit chat while eating as Harry didn't want to spoil the other's appetites. Once done he started with a full explanation from the time he left King's Cross up to the present, including the events from the night before. The others looked stunned. It was almost too much to process.

"Let me get this straight. The Weasley's, minus Bill, Charlie, Fred, and George, betrayed you. Dumbledore is still alive. You gained several magical boosts and powers from Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Merlin last night, as well as the Crown?" asked Hermione, trying to wrap everything around her mind.

"Yeah, that about sums it up."

"Sums it up!?! Do you have any idea just how much power and influence you have now? You could basically remove the existing government, both magical and muggle, and start over. Not to mention what your power will do to Voldemort now."

"Unless I really have to, I have no intention of taking over the muggle government. The magical one I just might have to. It's too corrupt. As for Voldemort, I plan on taking him out as soon as I can. It's Dumbledore that I need to worry about. He lied about the Horcruxes and he wants me dead so that he can be seen as the hero. I bloody well am not going to let that happen."

"What do you want us to do?" asked Neville, speaking for the first time. Harry noticed that he sounded more sure of himself than he ever had before.

"You two need to follow me to the chamber that held the orbs." Both looked back at him in shock. Harry rolled his eyes and both elves giggled. "Yes you two are the other heirs."

"Can we go now," asked an excited Hermione, finally coming out of her stupor.

"We can go when ever you want. Dobby can you get me a couple of Pepper-Up potions please?"

"Does you want Dobby to takes them from Nurse lady or Greasy Git?"

"Greasy Git?"

"What Harry Potter calls Potions Master, Professor Snapie."

All three teens burst into laughter. Never had they heard of anyone but the students call Snape that. It was extremely funny to hear a house elf say it.

Harry finally gained control and said weakly, "I don't care which as long as you don't get caught." Dobby vanished from sight and Winky cleaned up the table. Harry went to get the map and invisibility cloak. Dobby returned with the requested potions and handed them to Hermione before helping Winky clean up. Both elves were in heaven now that there were two more to care for.

Once the three were covered up and outside the room, Harry activated the map. Hermione kept the lookout on it while Harry steered them through the passageways. Soon they came to the room. Neville and Hermione went inside, while Harry stood outside keeping watch. Half an hour later a very pale Neville and Hermione emerged from the room. Harry handed them each a potion and motioned them to be quiet until they returned to the Room. Once back Harry watched as the other two all but collapsed onto the sofa.

"You went through that THREE times last night" asked Hermione.

"Yeah, but I had a Pepper-up potion and then after Merlin's orb had something called Ambrosia."

Hermione's jaw dropped. "They gave you Ambrosia?"

"That's what Merlin called it. It really had no taste but it did warm me up and really gave me some strength to talk. I don't think that I could have done anything after taking Merlin's powers last night. It was ten times more painful then either Gryffindor's or Slytherin's."

"Harry, I now know why Voldemort fears you." said Neville.

"Why's that?"

"If you went through what I went through just to get Hufflepuff's powers then you have to be into pain or something. No sane person would willingly to go through THAT three times. Voldemort could throw every curse at you and it would probably just tickle."

Both Harry and Hermione stared at the quiet young man before bursting into laughter. Neville rarely joked but when he did it was always over the top. They spent the rest of the day quietly. Harry showed them the rooms. Just as he predicted Hermione was enthralled with the library. She didn't want to leave it and if she did it was only to go the potions lab. Winky had placed her things in the other bedroom and Neville's in with Harry's. He found out that Hermione had received the element of air and Neville got the element of earth. Both received the gift of Occlumency so that they couldn't give their secrets away.

The next morning Harry awoke to Hedwig ruffling her feathers. He saw the package that the twins had sent sitting on his night table. He thanked her for delivering his package for him and sent her off to the owlery. He unshrunk the package and was glad to see that everything that he had ordered was inside. Several rare potion ingredients, dragonhide vests and boots, as well as a wand holster. Several books that he needed to read. Especially the ones dealing with magical law and history, not the history that Binns taught, but actual magical history. He needed to know when the crown stopped ruling and what he had to do to return it to its position.

Breakfast was served in the main room. It was Neville who asked if they could look for the founders' rooms that day. He seemed to not want to stay in the Room of Requirement. Harry thought that they might as well look then as not.

It was actually fairly easy to avoid the professors. Harry would have thought that since there were no students that they would be easy to spot but they didn't cross one professors' path.

After searching for almost an hour they found Hufflepuff's rooms. The doorway was guarded by a portrait of woodsman chopping down trees. It seems that the woodsman knew that Neville was searching and was simply waiting for him to arrive. Neville set a new password and the portrait opened. The three teen found the rooms dirty, but livable. A house elf named Dreamy popped in announcing that she was the house elf assigned to the heir of Hufflepuff. At first Neville was shocked, but soon he came out of it and asked the elf to make the rooms presentable by the end of July. He would move in after his birthday. It was Hermione that asked the elf if she had to report to Dumbledore or not.

"Dreamy doesn't tells anyone thats yous is here, Miss. Dreamy belong to Master Neville now. Dreamy has trains since youngling for when the Heir of Hufflepuff returns. Dreamy is very glad yous is here." She gave Neville a hug before starting to clean the room. She brought Neville Hufflepuff's wand.

Leaving Dreamy to her cleaning the three started to search a little harder this time. It was Slytherin's room that they found next. Harry should have realized that it would have been Salazar's idea of a joke to use a toothless vampire as a guardian. The vampire told him that they could go in but the room was unstable and unlivable. They went in carefully and saw that many of the timbers were indeed rotten. Harry saw the remains of a dead house elf under one of the fallen beams. Calling for Dobby, Harry asked that he carefully pack what they could and place it in his room for now. Also to take care of the house elf's remains. Dobby found Salazar's wand and personal dagger first and handed them to Harry.

They found Ravenclaw's rooms behind the statue of Morgan Le Fey. They, too, were unusable and Winky was called to pack everything up. She handed Hermione Ravenclaw's wand.

It was Godric Gryffindor's rooms that were the hardest to find. Finally they were found behind a portrait of a lion seated on a throne, near the Gryffindor tower. They went into Harry's ancestor's rooms. Harry found that they were much larger than the other founders' rooms and the faced the Quidditch pitch. There was a main room, a study filled with books, a small potions lab, and three bedrooms with baths. On a side table, near the doorway, lay Godric's wand and personal dagger. Harry picked both up. He held all three wands, his own, Salazar's, and Godric's. Setting the wands down together on the side table he remembered the dream. He cast the silent wandless spell causing the three wands to braid themselves together, forming one wand. Picking up the newly formed wand Harry felt the power radiating off of the wand.

"What did you just do, Harry?" asked Hermione. She looked excited and horrified at the same time.

"I had a dream last night after I received all those powers. In it Merlin taught me a spell so that I could combine all three wands together. It's an advantage over Voldemort, since they aren't true brother wands anymore."

"Can you do the same for me?"

"If you want, but I can't reverse it."

Hermione nodded and laid her wand and Ravenclaw's wand down on the side table. Harry repeated the spell and she picked it up. She, too, noticed the power increase. Not to be outdone, Neville placed his and Hufflepuff's wand down and waited for Harry to do the spell again. Never had he felt so much power from a wand before, unless it was Harry's.

Harry looked around the room. He liked the size and the location. "Dobby?"

"Yes, Harry Potter, sir?"

"Can you clean these rooms up and gradually move all of my things into here? I think that I'm going to use these rooms instead of living in the tower when term starts. Hermione do you want one of the rooms?"

"If it's not too much trouble. I think I wound be safer here instead of in the tower." Harry agreed.

"Give her the largest bedroom, Dobby."

"Yes Harry Potter sir."

"Harry, that's not necessary." But Harry shushed her and turned his attention to Neville

"Neville, do you still want to use Hufflepuff's room or would you rather stay here? There's plenty of room."

"I think I'll stay in Hufflepuff's. I like the location and I felt something while I was in there. Besides it might throw Dumbledore off." The other two had to agree with that

Slowly they made their way back to the Room of Requirement. Little did they know that Harry's disappearance would soon be noticed.

A/N: Veneratio = Honor

Fidelitas = Loyalty