Gabriel rode up with Severus, Regulus and surprisingly enough Neville's father Frank.
Frank was a nice enough guy, and Remus had told him of the open truce between him and Gabriel in concerns to getting evidence before deducting points.
As someone who wanted to be an Auror when he graduated, Frank liked that Gabriel wanted proof before he punished someone.
The two got into an in-depth discussion of plants, and the effectiveness of raising them in different ways to improve their efficacy in potions.
Frank seemed very intrigued about growing plants entirely in water with only minimal soils. Gabriel knew the basics of it, but he had never tried it.
Gabriel forced Bellatrix to stand in front of the newest crop of Slytherin firsties. When he had offered to give the traditional welcome to Slytherin speech, the other Prefects had jumped on his offer. They hated dealing with the sniveling firsties.
Gabriel smiled at the crop of wet-behind-the-ears first years.
"My name is Gabriel Black...I am the Fifth year prefect. This is Bellatrix, but unless you're from a very noteworthy pure blood house I would recommend avoiding her if possible," said Gabriel. Bella sneered at her 'adopted' cousin. The firsties noted she didn't deny his claim.
"Now, before we all go to sleep, there are a few unofficial rules of this house you should be aware of. First, we keep all fights between our housemates in house. We prefer to have a united front in the school, so if you have a quarrel with a friend, do yourself a favor and wait until you're in the common room first. Second, there are no boys allowed in the girl dorms, but girls are allowed to visit the boys. As you're still only eleven we don't expect you lot to get up to anything. Third, if you run into a group of fifth-year Gryffindors who call themselves the Marauders, make sure there is an older student nearby. For some reason they dislike our house greatly and they might target you simply for being Slytherins. For future reference I will have a photo of each of them on the common room bored until you can identify them on sight."
The first years looked alarmed, but the fact that no one was disputing this claim only told them he was being entirely serious.
"Now on to more pleasant matters. There is an open-house study group available to all houses and years lead by Professor Flitwick every Saturday, so if you're having homework trouble feel free to come and ask. Another note is that chances are you'll fall asleep in History of Magic, and some of the upper year Ravenclaws aren't above selling copies of their notes for some coins. If you want to get a decent grade, I'd recommend buying a copy of the notes and using a silencing spell on your ears so you can use History as a free period. Any questions?"
There were none. The other prefects were impressed at how deftly Gabriel had handled the first years without terrifying or offending anyone, all while insuring that he would be the first person they bothered for advice. If he wanted to be friendly with a bunch of brats, they weren't going to stop him.
True to his word, Gabriel had posters of all four Marauders and one of Lily Evans with a warning of why they should avoid them.
The firsties took note of James and Sirius, who were the primary offenders, and of Lily who had a bad habit of taking out her frustrations on the younger students.
As much as Gabriel would love to know his mother, there were some things he would have preferred not to know about. And here he had thought only Petunia could be that bitchy when that time of the month came around...
Once they were at breakfast, Gabriel implemented the first part of his year-long prank against the Marauders. Or at least Sirius and James.
The second McGonagall turned her back on James after handing out the schedules, Gabriel mimicked his father's voice and used a little slight of hand to hide the fact it was his mouth that was moving with a glass of hot tea as he said loudly from James' general direction "Nice ass Professor McGonagall!"
The Great Hall went dead silent in seconds as McGonagall whirled around to find a gaping James.
"Detention Mr. Potter!" she hissed.
Gabriel grinned evilly as he heard Sirius exclaim over what had just happened and ask why his best friend had said that so loudly.
Severus slipped Gabriel three sickles. He had bet his friend that he couldn't get James into detention on the first morning without getting busted, and he had never been more amused to be proven wrong.
Gabriel was collecting several bets from the other Slytherins who had figured out who had been responsible without being told, and walked away a far richer man.
Normally he would worry about someone ratting him out about that trick, but he had openly informed the upper years about his planned prank that should last the entire year and the idea was too amusing for anyone to blab about it.
It was about time someone gave the Marauders a dose of their own medicine, and besides, it was harmless fun compared to half the things they pulled on the house.
Gabriel was prepared to do it a second time three days later, this time on Sirius. He had insulted his cousin in full view of Bellatrix who immediately demanded that he do something about it. Gabriel had people place bets on how long he could get him detention, and the next morning mimicked Sirius' voice rather loudly to compliment a rather 'hefty' girl from Hufflepuff about her 'assets'.
Not only did he get a detention, but he also now had a date for the first Hogsmeade weekend with a girl he never would have looked twice at because of how quickly Gabriel had mimicked his voice before he could say a word otherwise.
Narcissa's pride avenged, she was able to enjoy the horrified looking Sirius go out with a no-name Hufflepuff for the first Hogsmeade weekend.
After that, it was an almost all-out war between the two Marauders to find out who the hell had pulled that particular prank on them.
Gabriel handed Remus two vials of animagus potion one morning at breakfast.
"One is for Sirius, the other is for James. I would hand you three but frankly I don't think Peter could manage it without bungling it up and blowing our cover to McGonagall," said Gabriel flatly.
"What is it?"
"The potion Severus and I have been working on all summer. It was a real bitch and a half getting it to the castle without it being ruined. Ask Sirius about it...he should know what I'm talking about," said Gabriel.
Sirius, when told the potion was ready, took it from Remus and they headed to their usual place for pranks where he told James what it was.
Gabriel might not like their pranks on his house, but he didn't seem like the type to stoop to poisoning people. Besides, he was way more subtle than that and he had handed the potion in full view of the great hall.
Sirius downed the potion first, and a few seconds later he turned into a large black hound the sized of a bloodhound.
Remus had helpfully taken a few pictures once he got over his shock so Sirius could know what he was turning into. He had already borrowed the book on how to do it from the Black family library and he knew Gabriel had bought his own copy while in Knockturn.
James looked at the vial in his hand dubiously, before he knocked it back as well. He turned into a rather impressive stag.
Peter only looked mildly disappointed that they only had two vials, but felt better when he reminded himself that James and Remus could always brew another batch.
"Well?" asked James.
"Stag."
"Ha!"
"And what about me?" asked Sirius.
"Dog, roughly the size of a bloodhound or maybe a mastiff," said Remus.
Sirius grinned like a loon. He liked dogs, the bigger the better.
"What do you think Snape and Gabriel got?" asked Remus.
"Who cares?" said Sirius. He was still surprised that Gabriel had shared such a useful potion with them.
"Well?" asked Severus that night.
"Black hawk. I took several pictures from multiple angles."
The better the picture, the easier it was to change into the animal later. Besides, Gabriel had a secret weapon in his trunk which had appeared without warning in his new room at the Black house.
He had books on the biology of multiple animals, allowing an in-depth look at their insides. Gabriel had been planning on becoming an animagus like his father for over a year, ever since he first learned about it when Sirius had told him. So he had spent quite a few pounds on biology books he had double-checked from the local library to insure he didn't get anything wrong.
He didn't know how his trunk got into his room, nor did he particularly care.
And he had checked repeatedly for any notes or letters to indicate why it had shown up. He just chalked it up to his magic knowing what he really, really wanted and bringing it to him.
Gabriel took the vial offered, downed it, and waited.
A few seconds later Severus was giving him an odd look, though the camera had flashed in his face a few times.
"Well?"
"A fox...I think."
"You think?"
"It had more than one tail. Last I checked, foxes only had one."
"How many?"
"I counted two, at least."
"Too bad we can't have a do-over."
The potion was a one-time thing, and Gabriel had given up the last two samples to Sirius and James. However when he took a good long look at the pictures, he figured out almost immediately what it was.
"A kitsune? Weird," said Gabriel.
"Kitsune?"
"Japanese fox spirit. Noted for it's ability to shapeshift into humans and have control over nature. Is the messenger of Inari, a harvest god in Japan," said Gabriel.
"And you know this how?"
"What? I don't just read the Avengers comics, I also read a little known genre called manga which is Japanese graphic novels. Remind me to show you some of the collections I have," said Gabriel.
He had left most of his manga collection in his trunk, and now that he had that back he could share it with Severus. He was willing to bet his friend would love Hell Girl and some of the other dark stuff he enjoyed reading from time to time.
"Anyway, now that we have a general idea of what our primary animal form is, we study up on the animal itself."
"Primary animal form?"
"I've done quite a bit of research on animagi. I've read reports of people actually having two animal forms after mastering the first one completely," said Gabriel.
"Really?" said Severus in honest surprise.
"Yeah, but all my research suggest is that the potion shows you the strongest animal first, and that trying to use it twice is a really, really bad idea. The only way the people I've found could have two was that they meditated deeply and mastered Occulmency first," said Gabriel.
"Occulmency... I think I've heard about that. That's shielding your mind from mind readers, isn't it?"
"It's the counter to Legilmency, or the magical art of breaking into minds. I've heard rumors Dumbledore is a Legilmens," said Gabriel sourly.
Considering he had avoided the man's eyes since coming here, he felt justified for lying to him.
Gabriel studied the fox's body for nearly two months in between his ongoing prank war against the Marauders. Finally, when he felt he was ready to make his first attempt, he insured that Severus knew the spell that forcibly reversed the transformation by heart.
Finally he took a deep breath and pulled with his magical core.
He didn't try to fight the fox for dominance. This animal was as much a part of him as he was of it. The kitsune inside him seemed to understand that, as he visualized what he wanted.
With a sudden pop, Gabriel let out a bark of surprise and immediately went to the first mirror in the room.
There, looking back, was a dark silver colored fox with twin tails waving at him. It's emerald green eyes looked back at him playfully.
As an experiment, he tried to copy something he had seen years ago on one of Dudley's old games.
The tails began to spin rapidly and he fell with a thump on his ass from the sudden shock of taking off.
Severus snorted in laughter.
Gabriel shook his head and decided to change back. He concentrated on the way he looked and took it one step at a time. It was the weekend and he had no need to rush.
With a louder pop, he fell flat on his ass for a second time as the transformation came undone. But what he wasn't expecting was the sudden gasp of shock from his friend.
"What?"
Severus pointed at the mirror. Gabriel took one look and knew what had startled him.
"Dammit...of all the times for that weird color change to come undone..." he muttered, before he swiftly reapplied a simple color charm to both his eyes and hair.
His familiar black hair and green eyes had come back after he had returned to his human form.
"Gabriel...why..."
"Why did my hair and eyes change color? Or why did I look like a green-eyed James Potter?" asked Gabriel, giving voice to the two questions Severus had.
Severus nodded, mouth dry from shock.
"If you knew the truth, would you feel better after some senseless destruction that we won't be given detention for? Especially since I hadn't told you sooner?" he asked.
Severus thought about it. On one hand, he trusted Gabriel completely. On the other, after seeing something like that he would prefer something to vent on without getting into serious trouble. He nodded to Gabriel.
"Follow me. Good thing it's still early..."
Gabriel lead him into the secondary entrance (or more likely the primary one Salazar had used, since a girl's bathroom wasn't exactly discreet and this one didn't require a parseltongue password) that lead into the mythical Chamber of Secrets.
Severus stared at the snakes, and at Gabriel when he opened the Chamber.
"This...is the Chamber of Secrets. Inside that relief is Salazar Slytherin's pet basilisk, so you'll have to excuse me if I don't feel the need to wake it up just yet. The last time it got out, it killed the ghost that haunts the girl's loo on the second floor and Hagrid was framed for her murder."
"There's a basilisk in here?!"
"It's asleep. I've checked this place before and I found a stasis spell on the inside of that relief which put the snake into an automatic hibernation cycle whenever it's master didn't need it. A sort of safety measure to keep it from going after the children without anyone to control it."
"How did you know where the entrance was?"
"That's part of the reason I brought you down here. Now if at any time you feel the need to destroy something, you can take out one of those tacky looking snake statues. There's literally hundreds of the damn things around here," said Gabriel rolling his eyes.
"Who are you, really?" asked Severus.
"Me? My birth name is Harry James Potter, and I come from a few decades into your future."
