Author's Note: I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed. I had no idea that I would get such a response from this, especially as they're all so positive. Perhaps it's about time, eh? So, thanks.

Kudos to RaquelAlexandra who was the first to figure out that Elddir is the reverse of Riddle. You won't get the explanation for why until later on in the story though.

Also, just to reiterate, this is not going to be slash. People keep asking me that…

"ss.Parseltongue.ss" Just so that you know.

Disclaimer: Not Mine. Talk to Rowling. Just borrowing them a while.


Last Time

Harry lifted the cub and placed him on his shoulder. Cin draped his slender body across his shoulders behind his neck, purring loudly in his ear. Harry scratched the Griffin behind the ears as he looked around him, wondering where Saire was.

That's when he noticed about half of the school's population out on the grounds staring at him. He stared right back, blinking rather stupidly.

"Eh, hello." He said.


The Founders' Heir

Part Seven


Ministry Discussions

"Good evening, Darion!" the Headmaster said walking over to join him.

"Hello, Albus. Er, Sorry for interrupting dinner."

Albus chuckled. "Not to worry, I'm sure they didn't mind."

Harry surveyed the crowd. The students and professors all wore varying degrees of surprise, shock or open astonishment. Harry grimaced. "I'm sure."

Harry looked around the yard, searching for the serpent. He found her a few yards away, making her way over to him. He stepped over to her and let her slither up his arm and back into his shirt.

"Hello, Cineris!" the Headmaster cooed, petting the Griffin on its head. Harry eyed him with concern. It shouldn't be natural for the man to actually coo. Cin snapped his beak irritably, though Albus didn't seem to notice the creature's annoyance.

"Severus seemed a little agitated at dinner; I don't suppose you know why?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Like you don't know what goes on in the school, Albus. You know very well why Snape is stalking around like a veritable thundercloud."

"I suppose I do." Albus chuckled. "Would like to join me for tea?"

"Sure. The longer I avoid the dungeons, the more likely I'll be able to keep my head attached to my shoulders."

Harry followed the Headmaster through the crowd and into the school. He glanced back at the still staring students. It was starting to get on his nerves. He couldn't figure out why they wouldn't stop.

"It's your wings, Darion." Albus chuckled.

"Huh?"

"Your wings."

"Oh!" Harry stretched his wings out a bit. He had forgotten that he didn't transform them away. No wonder everyone was staring at him. He paused and closed his eyes, changing back to his fully human form, minus additional appendages. He smiled at the Headmaster.

"Lead the way, Bill!"


By the time Harry got away from the Headmaster he was about three cups of tea and five sandwiches heavier. He smirked and tossed a bag of candies in the air from one hand to the other. And Albus was one bag of lemon drops lighter. He wondered how long it would take the old man to notice the missing candies.


Harry sat at the end of the Ravenclaw table the next morning half awake, and nursing a cup of strong tea trying to get the other half of his brain working. He wasn't all that fond of mornings, really.

He looked up as the owl post came. One rather ratted brown owl skidded across the table in front of him, sending bacon and eggs flying. Saire reared her head and hissed menacingly from his neck.

"ss.You stupid feather-brained fowl!. Learn how to land, or I'll be sure you don't fly again.ss"

Harry eyed the serpent, warily. She had a mean streak worse than he had seen in any other serpent besides Salazar's infant Basilisk. Harry ran two fingers down her head, calming her, and she settled down back into his robes.

Harry eyed the owl, who was trying to right itself from the middle of a dish of potatoes. He grimaced and plucked the clumsy bird from the table.

"Is this yours?" he addressed the young boy across from him. The boy nodded, eyeing the owl.

"Sorry about that, he's a bit loony really."

Harry chuckled. "No problem. Just let me borrow your paper when you're done, and all's forgiven."

"You can have it now, I don't usually read it."

Harry collected the rolled paper from the owl before handing the bird over to the boy. "Thanks." He mumbled, already skimming the front page.

There was a brief article on the bottom of the second page saying that the Boy-Who-Lived was still missing, and that the resources used in searching for him had - again - been cut in half.

"Well, glad to know that I'm worth the effort." He mumbled dryly.

To his surprise, and relief, there were no reports of Death Eater activity, or even odd deaths. There wasn't even an article about his rather unique entrance into the middle of the feast, though he had no doubts that the students wrote home to their parents about it. Voldemort was bound to hear of it soon, and the Dark Lord would have no problems recognizing him. 'Darion' was rather easy to identify, especially with his collection of scars and wandless ability. Harry honestly wondered if good ole Voldemort would be able to put two and two together and get four. Really, if anyone bothered to look at him, Darion did look remarkably similar to their lost golden boy. He personally thought that his eyes gave him away. They were the same unnatural shade of green as always. Perhaps his lack of glasses and long hair threw people off.

A commotion at the other end of the table broke Harry out of his thoughts. He glanced down towards the noise, noticing that a number of students had leapt away from the table with a yell. Others were perched precariously on their benches, their feet tucked up under them, and glancing fearfully under the table.

"What is going on?" he mumbled, watching as the wave of disorder progressed towards him. He heard a rumbling growl from below the table and he felt his stomach sink to the general vicinity of his feet.

He bent over, and peered under the table in time to see a streak of dark fur leap at him.

His heart joined his stomach.

The ball of fur collided with his chest, and Harry was propelled backwards. He scrambled wildly for purchase and let out a startled yell as he fell to the floor. He lay staring up at the ceiling in a daze, wondering why his chest felt constricted.

"Uh, are you ok, mate?"

Harry blinked and focused on the concerned face of one of the younger Ravenclaw boys. Harry nodded and lifted his head to look at the weight on his chest. He groaned and let his head fall back to floor.

"Cin!"

The Griffin gave an excited yelp and pranced around on his stomach.

"ss.Imprudent, brainless hairball!.ss" Saire hissed menacingly.

Cin shot a low hiss at the snake, which Saire returned quite happily.

Harry blinked for a moment. He didn't know the Griffin could make a hissing noise. He put a hand around the serpent's neck, restricting her from biting the Griffin cub.

"Cin, get off!" Harry waved his hand at the cub. "What do you want, anyways?" Harry watched with amusement and some trepidation as Cin jumped up onto the table and started to pick through the dishes of food.

"Hey!" he scrambled to his feet to stop the wayward Griffin. Sensing his intentions, Cin leapt into the air, flapping his wings furiously to avoid Harry's wild grab, knocking over dishes and plates in the process. "Cin, stop that, you're making a mess!"

"Good morning Darion!"

Harry turned from his position on top of the bench, and looked at the Headmaster.

"Morning, Bill. What can I do for you?" Albus glared at him over his spectacles, an image that Harry wasn't sure he had ever seen before. Harry blinked. "Uh, Headmaster?" Albus smiled. Ah, so that was the problem. Harry smirked. Albus still didn't like being called Bill.

"May I steal you away for a bit, Darion?"

"Yea, sure thing." Harry darted a hand out and nabbed the Griffin from where he was perched on top of the table. Cin twisted his body around to wrap his claws and talons around his arm. "You can struggle all you want, Cin, but you're coming with me." Harry motioned for Albus to lead the way before whispering in the Griffin's ear with a smirk. "Besides, this way you can terrorize Fawkes for a while."

Cin stopped struggling and let out a low cackling growl. It was an eerie sound to say the least.

Harry followed the Headmaster to his office silently, making sure to give an adequate glare to the statue guarding the entrance. He didn't trust the stone beast to revert back to its old aggravating ways. For some reason the statue never really like him much.

He still held to 'fact' that it was the statue's fault, and that he hadn't started it.

He had himself all but convinced, too.

"Tea, Darion?" the Headmaster asked, sitting behind his desk.

"No thanks, Albus," Harry smirked, "I don't need a calming potion this early in the morning."

The man looked mildly affronted and Harry's smirk widened. He wondered how many people figured that their benign old Headmaster laced his tea with potions. He would bet that Snape was one of them.

"How are you getting along, Darion?"

"Fine." Harry sprawled himself across an armchair, and let Cin do his own thing. "It's a little odd being here without the Founders, but I'm getting used to it, slowly."

"You have only been back for a couple days."

Harry nodded. "I'm fine."

"Good, good."

Harry glanced at the man. It was hard seeing his once friend over a century older than he remembered. In his own view, Harry had last seen Albus – the younger version – two years ago. For Albus, though, it had been nearly 150 years since they've been together. But for all of Albus's changes over the years, he was still Albus, which meant that he was still the manipulative little sneak that Harry had learned to love as a brother. They had made quite a team, once Harry was able to get the boy out of his rule-following stinch.

He liked to think that he had been a good influence on the future Headmaster.

It must have been the Marauder blood in him.

Harry shook away his thoughts and decided to get to the point. "So what's being done about Voldemort?"

"The Order is working in the shadows of the Ministry to restrict the movement of Tom's forces. Cornelius is restricting the range of the Auror division, though he has updated the defenses around the Ministry building…"

"You mean Fudge is being a self centered bigot and taking half the Auror division for his personal guard, claiming that he's important and vulnerable as the Minister or some such rubbish, and the Order is trying to pick up the resulting slack, and finding themselves sorely lacking."

Albus looked momentarily taken aback, but recovered quickly and nodded slightly.

"I thought as much." Harry let his head fall back and stared up at the vaulted ceiling. "When are you going to get rid of the incompetent fool anyways?"

"Cornelius may be somewhat lacking in the area of preparing for such a situation as we are currently in, but he is still an able politician."

"Cornelius Fudge, oh Minister Extraordinaire, is an idiot." He deadpanned. "And you know it. How much good is he really doing in office besides being someone whom you know you can maneuver to your ideas?"

"If Cornelius is removed, the Ministry would be in a weakened state, and Tom would be too tempted to take advantage of it. We cannot afford the lapse in regulation to instate a new Minister."

"Yes I see your point." Harry said sitting up and meeting the man's eyes. "But the benefits from putting someone in office that will work with us, rather than simply not against us, would out way the possible consequences."

"Providing we can influence the selection."

Harry sat back to think about it. Fudge was at best a self serving politician who would cooperate, so long as he got something good out of the deal and retained his public image. Replacing him with someone who was sympathetic to the Order, or even better, a member of the Order would make collaborations between the two factions much easier. Plus, the Order would no longer be restricted by the Ministry. However, Albus had a point in saying that the Order may not be able to influence the candidates who would run for the position if Fudge was gone. There was always a chance that someone could be elected who supported Voldemort. A rather large chance, regrettably.

"Alright," he said flinging a leg over the arm of the chair again, "I concur. The risks are too great right now to throw Fudge out on his arse, but we should keep close tabs on him still."

"It's already being done. Arthur had a few of his loyal workers switch departments, and are watching the Minister. We also have one of the Order members within his personal guard."

Harry nodded. It would have to do for the time being.

"Any chance that you know where Voldemort is hiding out?" he asked.

"No."

"Expected, I suppose."

"Did Salazar tell you how to defeat him?" Albus asked. Harry blinked and looked at him.

"No. He only told me that my task as an Heir was to get rid of Voldemort, he conveniently left out the part of how."

"Do you have any ideas?"

"Some, most of them are obscure, and I'm not sure about any of them." He ran a hand through his hair, pulling it out of its neat tie. "It would help if I knew all the rituals that he put himself through. I highly doubt a simple killing curse will be effective. It didn't work last time."

"You never know. The killing curse was rebounded off of you, so it's possible that it lost its full power by the time it hit him."

"That's true. I didn't think of that." Harry looked at him. "Though I think I would rather not test it and find that it rebounds back on me. That would not be pleasant."

"Indeed, it wouldn't."

Harry smiled grimly. Not knowing how to defeat Voldemort was his biggest problem. The fact that the Dark Lord had the resources to make his life very difficult, if not non-existent, didn't help matters any. As simple as Salazar's task for him had been, sometimes it seemed awfully near impossible.

A loud crash and angry squawks startle them both from their thoughts. Harry stood and whirled sharply, his hand outstretched ready to cast spells. The sight that greeted him made him freeze for a moment in shock.

Fawkes' brass bird stand lay across the floor, no doubt the source of the clatter. The Phoenix was hovering in the air, eyes blazing as he snapped his beak at the little Griffin cub, who was also currently hovering in midair, though less steadily.

Harry groaned.

"Cin!" he stalked over to the two magical creatures, keeping a wary eye on the Phoenix. Fawkes was usually a mild mannered bird, but for some reason the two creatures really didn't get along. Apparently a century of aging on Fawkes' end did nothing to dampen the easily roused hostility. Harry was sure that most of the trouble stemmed from the problematical Griffin. Cin was, simply put, trouble with a capital T.

The creature was worse than a human two year old.

Harry ducked as the two circled each other over his head. Fawkes was glaring menacingly at the young Griffin, while Cin chirped back at the bird, clearly enjoying the confrontation. He would, Harry thought.

"Honestly!" Harry exclaimed, "Can't you two just get along?" He jumped up and grabbed the cub's tail, yanking him out of the air. Cin let out a strangled yelp before Harry clamped a hand over his beak. "You antagonistic, little twerp. Don't you know that Fawkes could fry you to a cinder?"

The Pheonix circled Harry's head once before landing on Albus' shoulder, who was sitting comfortably in his chair.

"Thanks for your help." Harry said dryly.

"Ah, I'm much too old to get into the middle of such heated squabbles."

Harry stared at the Headmaster, mildly shocked and a little concerned. He narrowed his eyes suddenly.

"Sure, you admit it when it's convenient for you, huh, old man?" Harry smirked.

Albus just twinkled.