See chapter 1 for notes, disclaimer, and everything…
IMPORTANT NOTE: I've finished writing this story (153 pages!!), but I need to format scenes to post them here. Stay tuned.
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Harry sat under the Hat.
"Um… There was a dual heritage in you," the Hat said, making reference to his biological parents' magic and to the curse that Voldemort had aimed at him – and that Kitty had fully countered with elf magic the night she'd helped Ducky heal Harry's magical scar. "And your heart is torn between Gryffindor and Slytherin."
"Could you, please, send me to Slytherin?" Harry begged.
"Why not Gryffindor? Your parents were Gryffindors."
"Yes, but Aunt Minerva, Uncle Remus and Sirius can teach me things about Gryffindor. Sev is the Head of Slytherin. I'd like to spend as much time with him as possible. We don't share blood, but he's my parent, too," Harry pleaded.
'Harry is pulling a Draco,' Remus whispered to himself after the first minute.
However, Harry's sorting didn't take as long as Draco's.
"I'm going to send you were you'll learn what you need to face the Darkness that is approaching and looking for you, Harry Potter," the Hat thought.
Harry beamed when the Hat shouted, 'Slytherin!'
Severus blushed and applauded with the other Slytherins, who welcomed the famous Harry Potter to their table.
'Congratulations, Sev,' Remus said. Severus glared at his friend, which prompted him to add, 'Erus.'
Ronald Weasley was rather nervous when he sat down on the stool.
"Ah! So you want to prove yourself, young man. You don't want to be like the rest of your family. The entire family of Gryffindors," the Hat said.
Ron nodded.
"Are you sure?" the Hat inquired.
"Yes!"
"All right, then. The best house for you to stand by your friends will be a great adventure," the Hat promised. Then it yelled, 'Hufflepuff!'
Percy, Fred and George stood as if frozen by a spell. Ron was the first Weasley not to be sorted in Gryffindor.
Ron was happy to do things differently. He vowed to work hard for his house.
Albus made a quick speech for once, and the feast began.
The new Muggle Studies teacher leant towards Severus and said, 'You must be happy to have the famous Harry Potter in your house.'
'Potter is like any other student, Professor Quirrell,' Severus answered neutrally.
Remus had an odd feeling about their new fellow. He decided to have a word with Severus on the topic later that night.
In the beginning of the feast, a few Gryffindors were wary of Draco because they knew that his father was most certainly a Dark wizard and a Slytherin through and through – in the worst possible way. Fred and George decided to show their friends how different Draco was from the average Slytherin, and long before pudding, the twins managed to have the other Gryffindors adopt the kid. The fact that Kelly was introduced, by the Weasley twins, as Harry Potter's sister played a part in her near instant integration by the other Gryffindors, even though she made it no secret that she was American.
Hermione and Ron were delighted with their respective houses. Hermione had been instantaneously adopted by an older Ravenclaw who wanted to become a librarian; the Hufflepuffs thought that Ron must feel a bit lonely, and they all welcomed him and tried to make him feel wanted and at "home".
Pansy and her friends kept taking care of Neville. A few Slytherins, who leant towards the Dark side, were a bit distrustful of the son of two famous Gryffindor Aurors, but most Slytherins thought that the Sorting Hat knew its job. Harry was so happy to be in Severus's house that he was beaming.
One of pansy's friends, Blaise Zabini, noticed Harry's happy grin and his looks towards the Head of Slytherin, and he asked, 'Why are you so happy to be a Slytherin, Potter?'
'Well, you see, my Protector became Severus's dad,' Harry began to say. He paused and added, 'Okay, I'm going to need your help, because if I keep calling our Head by his name, he's going to take points off.'
'Don't worry, Harry, we'll smack you if you're about to slip in front of him,' Pansy promised with a merry chuckle.
'Thank you, Pansy,' Harry said.
'If you grew up with our Head, you must have a bit of Slytherin in you in spite of your heritage,' Marcus Flint, the Quidditch captain said.
'I'm Slytherin enough not to answer to your taunt and Slytherin enough to remember each word,' Harry declared quietly.
Then and there, Harry's new fellows understood that he may have come from a family of Gryffindors, but he was a good addition to Slytherin.
The Feast was a great success. The students went to their dorms, and the Prefects led their younger charges to their respective houses.
Remus was waiting in Severus's quarters for his friend to finish his welcoming speech to his new students.
Severus was grinning like the Cheshire-Cat when he walked into his parlour.
'I take it it went well,' Remus commented with a warm chuckle.
'Quite. The dynamics of the house is going back to what it should be: strategy, not darkness,' Severus said. 'Did you call Kitty to tell my dad and Nana where Harry was sorted?' he inquired.
'I would never take that from you,' Remus protested.
'I've got him with me, in my house; I wouldn't have hexed you for telling Dad,' Severus pointed out amiably. 'Did you Fire-call Grissom?'
Remus laughed and said, 'Yes, and Hermione beat me to it thanks to her new Ravenclaw friends.'
'That witch will thrive in her house,' Severus declared.
'Shouldn't we warn Narcissa? And the Gibbses?' Remus suggested.
'Fire-call Narcissa to tell her that Draco is a Gryffindor; Abby might have something to tame Lucius. I'll tell Kitty to Apparate to Washington right after going back to the Burrow,' Severus said.
'Arthur and Molly are certainly going to be quite surprised to have their youngest son in Hufflepuff,' Remus said as he walked to the fireplace.
'I'm convinced it's the best thing that could happen to the boy,' Severus said.
They made their respective calls, and then settled on the sofa to share a drink.
'I find Quirrell a bit nosy,' Remus said.
'There's something about him that's bothering me,' Severus admitted.
'If only we could get away with giving him a few drops of Veritaserum to make him spill the beans!' Remus said as if jesting.
'Not funny, Remus!' Severus growled.
'Maybe he's just impressed to be a member of our staff. I bet I was awkward when I started working here,' Remus said.
Severus shrugged.
'So, who's sharing our little one's dorm?' Remus asked.
'Crabbe, Goyle, Longbottom and Zabini.'
Remus whistled and said, 'The castle has an interesting sense of humour.'
'It's a very good association, I think. Crabbe and Goyle are the sons of Death Eaters; it'd be good if their roommates could help them see a future different from the one their fathers wish for them,' Severus declared softly.
Remus looked at his friend and whispered, 'Too close to home, eh?'
Severus slightly nodded.
Remus held his glass up and said, 'Here! To a quiet year with a new generation of witches and wizards!'
Severus said, 'There's no such thing as a quiet year, and you should know it by now.'
'Then, to a new year with Lily's son in our classrooms,' Remus said.
Severus toasted to that.
The year was anything but quiet.
The last day of school, right before the end of the year feast, Severus was yelling at Albus in the Headmaster's office. Minerva, who was also present, was getting her share of being yelled at.
Mike was wisely on the other side of the room, petting Albus's phoenix.
'How dare you not tell us what you were planning to do to hide the Philosopher's stone?' Severus yelled at Albus. He looked at Minerva and added, 'And you helped Albus and didn't say a word to Dad! Abbs couldn't see your plans and warn us!'
'We wanted to protect you all without worrying you,' Minerva protested.
'The next time you hear that Riddle is back to England, but he's not in touch with Lucius – which would allow me to be informed of what's going on – tell us!' Severus growled.
'There, there, Severus. Harry should never have been in any kind of danger, and he managed to escape Professor Quirrell,' Albus said.
Mike winced as his companion dug himself in deeper.
Severus took a deep breath, not to calm himself down, but as to be able to reproach his boss and his fellow with everything he wanted to.
'Albus, it was not your fault if your hired Quirrell and didn't notice that he was helping Riddle. I can even understand your wish to keep your hiding of the stone secret,' Severus said. He paused and added, 'However, I do not appreciate that you gave Harry such a dangerous item as his father's Invisibility Cloak without telling me or Dad.'
'I didn't want to distress you,' Albus said.
Severus sighed this time. 'Albus, I healed. I can even talk about James with Harry. Lily and James are gone, but Harry is mine to love and protect. I know you thought you were doing the best for Harry, but using the cloak caused him pain, and then it literally endangered him – and his friends,' Severus declared.
'What do you mean?' Minerva inquired worriedly.
During the prior summer, an old friend of Albus, the famous alchemist Nicholas Flamel, had contacted him to warn him that a strange wizard had been inquiring about the astounding Philosopher's stone that the alchemist had made centuries ago. Flamel and Albus concluded that there was someone working for the Dark Lord.
When Lord Voldemort had tried to kill Harry, he'd been hit by Lily's Protection spell, and he'd lost his body – however, since he'd been taking drastic steps to reach immortality, Lord Voldemort didn't die. It took him years to gather enough power to try anything to improve his state, but determination – and madness, possibly – gave him enough patience to wait for his magical power to make things change. He ended up meeting a young, ambitious wizard, who was such a coward that he didn't dare refuse to help the Dark Lord. That was how Quirrell managed to find a job at Hogwarts as he was harbouring the spirit of the Dark Lord and kept the physical manifestation of the Dark wizard hidden under a turban.
While Quirrell was finding a way to get inside Hogwarts as a staff member, Albus had agreed to hide the Philosopher's stone on the school grounds. He'd even asked a few of his teachers to help place traps and protections around the stone. Minerva was one of those who knew what was going on.
It had been rather difficult to hide what was inside the castle from Severus, but Albus had taken advantage of the fact that Severus was emotionally linked to Harry to distract him from the hiding place.
Once inside the castle, Quirrell had been urged by the Dark Lord to locate and steal the stone. The Dark wizard knew a potion that would allow him to recover his body if the alchemic stone was added to it.
During the Hallowe'en feast, Quirrell had let a young troll inside the castle. His plan was to have the troll create a diversion which would allow Quirrell to enter the place where the stone was, but his plan backfired. The troll went too close to the place where the stone was, and the teachers – and a few students as well – interfered. Severus began to suspect that there was something strange going on at Hogwarts. It became obvious to the entire school that Harry and his friends didn't really care for house etiquette. Harry's dorm-mates and Pansy were often seen working in the library with Hermione, Ron, Draco and Kelly. Those kids understood that there was something odd going on, and they'd all ended up hunting for the stone and finding ways to go through the various traps set there. In the end, Harry had been the only one to go through the last trap, and he'd bravely faced Quirrell – and Riddle.
'After Christmas, after you gave him James's cloak in secret, Harry used the Floo network between the Burrow and my quarters to come and see me as I spent time with the few Slytherins who stayed over the break. A few times I was too busy to take care of him properly, and he went to explore the castle under that cloak. I don't know what possessed you to use the Mirror of Erised to hide the stone, but he found it before you stored it behind all the other traps. My poor boy ended up with headaches because of it, and he was completely torn when I found him in front of it,' Severus growled.
'What happened? What did he see in the mirror?' Minerva asked.
The magic of the Mirror of Erised was to make whoever looked in it see one's deepest desire. The magical device had been known to be addictive.
'He was crying when he told me!' Severus spat. 'He saw himself with Lily and James, and then he saw me with Lily, and he wasn't an only child! He was torn between two lives!'
'Did you look in the mirror?' Albus wondered.
Severus shuddered slightly and whispered, 'I couldn't face my deepest desire.'
Fawkes, Albus's phoenix, felt Severus's deep sadness, and he sang a few notes that calmed the Potions master down a bit.
Severus went on more calmly. 'Harry was distressed. On top of that, he told Granger, Parkinson and Zabini what he'd seen, and the children concluded that something was going on. They gathered clue after clue and ended up following the trail to the stone. Last night, Harry made several trips and, hiding under that darn cloak of his, they all worked together to go after the stone. The kids are bruised, and Harry had had to kill Quirrell!'
'It was Lily's protection in Harry's blood that made Quirrell crumble to dust,' Albus protested.
'And pray, Headmaster, what do I tell my son? "Don't worry, Harry, it wasn't your fault if the nasty wizard turned to dust, it's just the magic that your mama left in you when she was murdered to protect you." How could I tell him something so stupid?! All he sees is that he touched a wizard – granted, a Dark wizard – and that man died!' Severus pointed out.
Mike was happy that neither Albus nor Minerva was suicidal enough to correct Severus for calling Harry his "son".
'I'll go and have a talk with Harry,' Albus said as he got up to go to the hospital wing.
'If Dad lets you in,' Severus pointed out with a smirk. He turned to Minerva and added, 'And I think my sister is going to wish to have a word with you, Mother.'
Minerva squeaked. Severus had never called her that – she had to be in deep trouble.
'I think it's a blessing that Kitty never severed her link with Harry. Merlin knows how long it would have taken me to notice something was wrong! I think she'll come to see you soon to tell you that she wishes to belong to Harry,' Severus said.
'I'll happily grant her that,' Albus said softly.
Severus stormed out of the office. Harry needed him – and he needed to see his kid and make sure that he was as fine as Pomfrey, the resident Mediwitch, had already promised he was.
'He didn't hex,' Albus told Minerva.
She sighed with relief.
Mike broke the mood by saying, 'Wait until Mrs Mallard and the Gibbses hear about it!'
Albus and Minerva reflected that Mike had a point.
The children were unhurt, therefore the adults tried not to react too strongly. However, they encouraged them to focus on their studies, not dangerous extra-curricular activities.
Shannon and Jethro allowed Kelly to keep flying under Abby's supervision during the summer.
Since Kelly magically shared blood with Harry (and since James had been an exceptional Quidditch player and she'd inherited a part of that ability through Harry's blood), she'd been spotted during their very first flying lesson. Minerva had made Kelly her Quidditch team Seeker. Slytherin spies had informed Severus that Kelly was quite good, which prompted him to have Harry try out for the Seeker position for the Slytherin Quidditch team.
Slytherin's game under the lead of Marcus Flint was rather harsh and borderline not-by-the-rule. Harry made it clear that he could win the game, even against his sister if need be, but he wouldn't do so for a team that wouldn't play fair. Harry was so gifted on the state-of-the-art broom that Severus had bought him that Flint had no choice but to change the team's strategy.
Gibbs wasn't too happy that his eldest child was flying and playing in a potentially dangerous game, but he'd rather have her do so somewhere where teachers could help her if she got injured.
The rest of the summer was quite interesting.
Kelly and Harry got to spend time with Anna and baby Philip.
The Weasleys discovered how transformed Ron was since he'd become a Hufflepuff. They all wondered where Ginny would be sorted. Since Draco's feelings had allowed him to follow Kelly into Gryffindor, maybe Ginny would end up in Slytherin because it was obvious that she had very strong feelings for Harry. The twins made a bet.
When Abby was shown the cloak Harry had inherited from his father, she almost fainted. Her friends assumed that it was because the newly-wed Abby McGee was pregnant, but in fact the young seer had merely acknowledged the true nature of the cloak.
Harry's Invisibility Cloak was one of the Deathly Hallows, legendary items that could certainly help defeat Riddle.
Mike encouraged his lover to share everything he knew on the topic, and the members of the Order of the Phoenix knew they'd have to find the other items eventually.
'What else will we have to look for to defeat that man and his minions?' inquired DiNozzo, always practical under his goofy attitude.
'Horcruxes,' Abby announced.
'Gesundheit!' said DiNozzo.
Abby explained that in order to become immortal, Lord Voldemort had ripped away pieces of his very soul and had placed the pieces into items. As long as there was even just one item that wasn't destroyed, the Dark wizard would not – could not – be defeated.
'Deathly Hallows and Horcruxes, and then what?' McGee asked his wife.
'I don't know,' Abby admitted. She was embarrassed and turned to her brother.
'Are you sure Riddle can be defeated? What if we can't fight him?' DiNozzo asked anxiously.
'There's a way. There has to be a way,' Abby declared with passion.
'How do you know?' McGee inquired.
'It's something I was taught while watching Star Trek. They saved Spock,' she said seriously.
That was such an Abby-esque answer that her friends began to hope that they'd come up with some farfetched solution to end the war.
Two of the big events of the summer were Harry's birthday, and the fact that the NIS was becoming the NCIS.
Arthur thought there was something related to the change of name when he received a cryptic message from Muggle Departments.
He Apparated back to the Burrow one night and was delighted to find all their friends there.
'Gibbs? Do you know what the MI-4 and MI-5 are?' Arthur asked.
'They're like special Muggle Aurors. They protect your country,' Gibbs explained. 'Why do you ask?'
'I've met agents from those two departments. One was a Squib; he must know that I know you. He told me that Ari Aswari is in London,' Arthur said.
All the NCIS agents paled and growled.
'Who's that?' inquired Ollivander.
'It's very complicated,' Ducky told his father.
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(Next scene as soon as possible. It's typed and edited… I "just" need to format it for here)