A/N: Hey guys, consider this the first part of my Christmas Present to those who follow me here. As always thanks for the reviewers who are encouraging me.
Starboy454: Yeah you've got Harry's weapon right, as you'll see in this chapter.
Fallen-Petals15: Don't worry he's not going to be in one anymore.
Anyway as always I don't own Harry Potter and I never will, likewise I'm making zilch from this. And on with the story...
Chapter 6
Monday 13th September 1993.
Thorne sat back at his desk, he was waiting for a group of second year Slytherins to turn up for their detention, and as usual they seemed to be late, as such Nova had gone looking for them, leaving Thorne to his thoughts. Despite the interesting week that he'd had Thorne got the impression it was going rather well. All the classes now accepted the fact that there were two people in the castle that were almost 1000 years old, despite the fact that both of them looked no older than 30 each, it was part of their immortality that made them always look, and in essence feel the same as they did during their peak years. On top of that the Guardian House itself seemed to be functioning as one unit, the close proximity seemed to have negated the old rivalries that the students had had, the Quidditch team seemed to be getting on well enough off the pitch, although on pitch things were a bit more tense, and it showed after the almost daily practices that Katie seemed to be putting them through. Almost every Guardian was joining them for morning practices, with the first years doing a form of Tai Chi taught by Su Li to help improve their natural magic, second years and above learnt how to duel using magic, whilst the third and fourth years were learning how to use weaponry on top of that, they were also starting to find their abilities and the natural magic they were proficient at. At the same time this training was helping them concentrate their magic and learn natural although very weak mind barriers, which Nova would improve upon to create proper Occlumency barriers once their training had progresses enough. Everyone seemed to have gotten used to the weapons they were using, apart from one, Harry Potter, who despite clearing being a natural with a bastard sword couldn't work with any of the swords that Thorne had collected over the years, it was something they'd have to talk about, and it was that that made Thorne nervous.
Hearing voices approaching the classroom Thorne put his thoughts into order and sat up straight, his last thought on the matter for now was to speak to Harry ASAP, getting the problem out of the way now rather than letting it, and Harry struggle on. Noticing the door handle turning Thorne stood up and strode over as Nova escorted the three troublemakers inside, taking on a more strict side of his personality Thorne took control of the situation, "Right give your wands to me then sit at a desk on your own, I know your all behind on your work so you have two hours to get all your essays done, if you've not done all of them by then, then you'll be helping Filch for one day per lesson who's work you've not completed. Understand?" Thorne looked at the three boys who nodded, "Good, your two hours have now started, so get moving." The three quickly gave Thorne their wands before rushing to a desk and getting on with their work, apparently the threat of Filch was enough in any case, it kept Thorne from thinking up punishments.
Two hours later the three boys left the classroom with a few days to spend with Filch, Thorne left a few minutes after that, slowly walking through the corridors, performing a mock salute to the first pair of prefects who had just started patrolling before moving through the statue that stood guard for the Guardian Wing. Entering the common room Thorne wasted no time seeking out the person he was looking for, thankfully Harry was studying at a table by himself, Hermione who seemed to never be far away was on a separate table to herself, the pure amount of books piled on the table only seemed to cement that fact. Pulling up a chair opposite Harry Thorne cleared his throat to let the young boy know of his presence.
"Harry, I've been meaning to have this conversation with you for almost a week now." Thorne started, harry on his part nodded and put down his quill, pushing the book he'd been making notes on and said notes to one side, realizing this conversation could take a while. Seeing that he had at least most of Harry's attention Thorne continued. "First of all is a topic that should be easy to cover. As an heir to three of the founders, alongside House Potter you will wield a large amount of political power, however from your background, or at least what I know of it, you've grown up in the mundane, or as you guys call it, muggle world." Harry nodded, "I didn't know I was an heir to anything before you turned up." Harry's words confirmed Thorne's suspicions. "Very well, I thought as much. Now Dumbledore as your magical guardian should of told you about your status as heir to at least the Potter house when you were eleven years old, I doubt he'd of known about you being a Founders Heir, but we'll never know. Now, this means you have no idea about Pureblood customs that you will need to know. As such Nova and I have been talking and we're going to ask one of your fellow Guardians to tutor you in Pureblood customs and etiquette." Seeing Harry's curious expression Thorne stopped as Harry asked his question, "Why couldn't you two? Your professors and as you've said you've lived for a thousand years so who is better?"
Thorne chuckled, "Quite a few people are better than us Harry, remember we've been in exile for the last 500 years, and even Pureblood culture has advanced in that time. Also we may not always be here, we have other jobs as well as being Professors remember, and so a fellow Guardian will be here more often than us. Add the fact we're thinking of getting someone from your year if possible, as that has added bonuses in itself."
Harry nodded, understanding where Thorne was coming from. "OK" he agreed, speaking after about half a minute's silence, "So what else do you want to talk to me about?"
"Two more things Harry." Thorne said. "First and some may say more vitally is Sirius Black." Harry visibly flinched at the name. "Don't worry Harry, three reasons here. One we know of the Blacks, or at least the Blacks of old, despite mainly being Slytherins they were known to be more loyal to their allies than many Hufflepuff's, and from the records I've seen it hasn't changed, now Sirius may have been the black sheep of the family, pardoning the pun, but I that streak of loyalty wouldn't have left him, so that made me look into him more, and it's this that made me want to raise the second point. What do you know of his trial?" Harry shrugged, "Nothing." He replied, a little shocked when Thorne smirked at the answer, "Exactly, that's what everyone on this earth knows." At Harry's confused expression Thorne explained, "There wasn't a trial, he was simply thrown into Azkaban, No one even asked if he was guilty." Harry's mouth now hung open in shock, "For all we know he isn't even a killer" the words eventually sprouted from Harry's mouth. "Exactly" Thorne replied, "Which brings me onto another point about him. Do you know he is your Godfather, and is meant to be your legal and magical guardian instead of Albus Dumbledore?"
"No" Harry replied in disbelief, the world as told to him by Albus Dumbledore seemed to already be frayed around the edges, and now even more so."
"Good to see the points are adding up Harry" Thorne joked, "Now onto why Sirius escaped and came after you, if as I believe he isn't a murderer." Harry nodded and Thorne continued, "These are copies of the paper found in Sirius' cell after he escaped" Thorne bought a copy of the Daily Prophet out of his robes, it was one Harry had seen before, with Ron and the Weasley's standing outside Gringott's after winning the money. Apart from these were marked, a circle was slightly off of Ron's head, whilst another circle outlined the fact that Ron was Harry Potter's best friend. "Looks like Sirius is more after Ron than you to me." Thorne said bringing Harry out of his thoughts, "Like he's trying to protect you from Ron, until you look closer. Look at the circle that's off centre of Ron's head, most would assume that it's a badly drawn circle, but look on Ron's shoulder, there's a rat."
"Scabbers" Harry exclaimed
"So that's his current name" Thorne said, "It's obvious that Sirius thinks that this rat is a danger to you, and by extension so is Ron and potentially the Weasleys. Now, as to how a rat could be a danger worth risking your life for there is only one explanation that fits, it's an Animagus."
"A what?" Harry asked.
"An Animagus" Thorne repeated, "A human that can turn into an animal but still retain it's right mind, me and Nova are two, as you can remember." Harry nodded remembering after the Quidditch try-outs. Thorne then continued, "OK, so all I can say right now is that this is speculation, until we can catch Sirius we have no way of knowing, however if we catch Sirius we must do it alone, the ministry would just give him to the dementors before letting him talk, also this means I want no-one else to know of this OK. Nova, you, I and Su Li are the only ones who know this right now, but we're going to be telling Susan in the morning, so that we can have Hogwarts help us at its full capacity. Before you ask, Su Li is our battlemaster, basically she's the next in command after me and Nova if we ever go into war, Susan on the other hand can only know this as heir to Hufflepuff, but we are also hoping she can slip some of this information to her aunt, Madam Bones, who is the head of the DMLE, especially as they are one of the two branches of the ministry we've ever got on with, I won't tell you the other, they need to remain a secret right now OK?" harry nodded, "Right I need you to take an oath of silence on this matter until it's resolved. This'll mean that you can only talk to others who know about this about this. Sorry that sounds confusing but it makes sense if you think about it." Thorne said, Harry agreed before repeating after Thorne as he took the oath of silence. "Good, now to the final topic and the one I'm most interested in. Your sword, it doesn't fit you but then again none of our weapons fit you perfectly and that's rare. Tell me Harry have you ever wielded a sword before?"
Harry nodded, "Yeah the sword of Gryffindor, it came to me last year in the Chamber of Secrets."
"Ok I'm going to need to hear this story, but that's good news, now do you know where the sword is at the moment."
"Yeah it's in Dumbledore's Office." Harry replied, "But only he or I could touch it last year."
"Yes that often happens" Thorne said, "Now at least I know where it went. Anyway that sword is bonded to you, meaning that you own it and only you can wield it. It allowed Dumbledore to wield it last year as he was the closest person to the founders, but that chain has been snapped. However for you to wield it you must be known to be Gryffindors Heir, although I doubt anyone knows that anymore."
"So what does this mean" Harry asked, "Especially as I haven't got it."
Thorne's smile cracked open and he started chuckling, "Well we have to get it don't we." He laughed, "I'll go and ask him for it tomorrow morning, if that doesn't work we'll just raid his office."
Harry looked worried at first, but seeing the confidence on Thorne's face made him feel like Thorne could do this thing backwards with his eyes shut "OK, I'm in."
"Good, I almost hope he denies us it just to let you in on your first mission as a Guardian." Thorne chuckled before turning serious again, "Now tell me, how did you end up in the Chamber of Secrets last year?"
Harry spent a good hour telling Thorne of his adventures last year, watching as Thorne's face grew darker and darker. At the end of the tale Harry looked up and saw a single tear in Thorne's eye.
"I guess I owe you an explanation. Now as I may of hinted in History of Magic last week this castle, Hogwarts is actually Slytherin's, that is why he has a secret chamber and none of the other founders have one. It's also why he was sometimes called the greatest of the Hogwarts four, or the founders, as it was his castle that let their dreams happen. Now the Basilisk you fought down there was a defence mechanism, if the enemy ever got into the castle then Slytherin's heir could call upon Ilid, as the Basilisk was called to help defend the hallways of the castle, however Riddle must of corrupted it to make it think that muggleborns were a sleeper enemy in Hogwarts. Whatever the case is, it's sad that Ilid is no longer with us." Thorne bowed his head respectfully for a minute, "However with her gone as it is we do have an extra bonus on our side, the various parts of the basilisk can be sold for huge amounts of money, and the hide can be used for armour much like the kind I always wear. We'll go check on it tomorrow, as I can't speak Parseltongue, we can also explore the Chamber in more detail again, I know for a fact that the area you were in was just the antechamber."
Harry yawned before agreeing, "I'd like to explore with you very much, I suppose it could be part of me learning more about my past."
"Exactly, we can also add that into your Pureblood lessons, the Potters were allied with a few houses that I know of 500 years ago, Nova or I can check to see if any still are and stuff like that."
"Thank you for all of this." Harry replied.
"Don't worry" Thorne said as he stood up, it's part of the job. Now get up to bed before you fall asleep." Thorne watched as a very tired Harry slowly climbed up the stairs to his dorm area, his bag hastily packed on his back. Looking around the common room Thorne shepherded the last few students into their own areas to get ready for bed, waking up a few who had gone to sleep in front of the fireplace. Making sure everyone had gone Thorne walked into the training room, watching as Nova packed up the last of the equipment in there before looking up at him, he already knew what the question was going to be and answered it prematurely, "The sword is back in use, we just gotta get it from Albus' office, whether through force or talk I'm not sure but we'll try the soft approach first this time."
Nova nodded, "I'll do the soft approach and we both know I'm better at it." Looking at Thorne's face again Nova noticed how serious it still was, "So what's up bro?" she asked.
Thorne looked back, "I was right about my guesses, we need to set the ball rolling."
Nova simply nodded back, now a lot more serious as she knew what Thorne was obviously worried about. "Let it begin."
A/N: Once again keep the reviews up, they help me with the work and let me know it's appreciated. I'm starting to maneuver people into places so that I can carry on, as you can probably tell Daphne is going to make her official starting appearance in the next couple of chapters, as will Katie who's oging to be more like a sister to Harry. I'm sorry to the Harry/Hermione people out there reading this but I'm putting off the start of the relationship itself until the end of third year. Anyway onto other points, what are Thorne and Nova planning? Will Sirius make an appearance? Will Dumbledore let Harry have the sword? Stay tuned to find out.
And for those wondering why Ilid is called Ilid and can't work it out it's based off of eyelid.
