Altered Fates

Part Two: Heir of Slytherin

Chapter Five: Polyjuiced and The Diary

Inside Dumbledore's office, they found literally dozens of portraits, but the first thing that caught Harry's attention was the Sorting Hat, sitting on a shelf. "Bee in your bonnet, Potter?" it asked.

"I was just wondering if you put me in the right House." Harry had been worried about that ever since he learned he was a Parseltongue, and Ron's constant suggestions that he should be resorted into Slytherin didn't help at all.

"Yes, you were particularly difficult to place. But I stand by what I said last year: You would have done well in Slytherin, unlike your friend."

Harry turned to Nico and asked "What does it mean by that?"

"Oh, the Hat thought about putting me in Slytherin, but apparently I'm too trusting for Salazar's House," Nico answered absentmindedly. He was more interested in the red and gold bird perched on Dumbledore's desk. It appeared to be a very old bird, as quite a few feathers had fallen off. In fact, the bird kind of resembled a half-plucked turkey! Then, as they watched, the bird burst into flames and was quickly incinerated. "Amazing. How did Dumbledore get one of those?"

"From my old friend, Nicolas Flamel." The pair whirled around to find Dumbledore on the next level of the office. Harry was so panicked that he thought Dumbledore might blame him for what happened to the bird and tried to explain what happened. "Ah, it's about time. He's been looking dreadful for days, I've been telling him to get a move on. Pity you had to see Fawkes on a burning day."

Harry looked completely lost, so Nico explained "Fawkes is obviously a phoenix, Harry. A bird that is just about immortal. Whenever it gets old, it bursts into flame and is reborn from the ashes."

"Indeed, Mr Grace." Just then, the reborn Fawkes' head poked out from the ashes. "Fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, and their tears have healing powers." Just then, Hagrid burst into the room, still carrying the dead rooster, insisting that it wasn't Harry and that Hagrid could provide an alibi for him. "Hagrid, I don't believe-" but Hagrid just kept talking.

"He doesn't think it's me? Then why are we here?"

Nico thought for a moment, then replied "It's probably because he thinks you have some information that might help."

"Do you think I should tell him about the voices?"

"I would. It may not be a good sign in either world, but I don't think it means you're going crazy. Hell, all it probably means is that the creature is a snake."

Once Hagrid had left, Dumbledore asked Harry if he had something that Harry wished to tell him, and Harry reluctantly told him about the voice that he'd been hearing just before the attacks.

"Ah, that does help. And you were right, Mr Grace, I do believe that it has something to do with the fact that Harry is a Parselmouth. Now, I do believe that it is nearly curfew. You two had better get back to your dorm." On their way back, Nico started thinking about something that he was sure would help ease Harry's nerve, if he was willing to try it.

The next month was pure torture for Harry, as all the work Cedric and Rom had put towards clearing Harry's name was nulled, and Ron started distancing himself from Harry, sometimes disappearing for hours at a time. Fortunately the twins still found the claim ridiculous and made a joke out of it. They often walked in front of Harry calling out "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through…" Nico joined in on the joke, asking Harry loudly "So, who's your next target, my lord?"

Harry caught on to what they were doing and said, "Didn't I make it obvious? You are! You have become so annoying that I'm sending the beast after you!" Harry just barely kept his face straight while saying that, but everyone else who heard it burst into laughter.

Whenever he wasn't joking around with Harry and the twins, or working on homework and the continuing pranks against Lockhart, Nico was working on his Christmas present for Harry in the Room of Requirement. He had just put the final touches on it and joined the feast when Hermione showed up, saying that the Polyjuice Potion was ready. "Umm, Mione? You have noticed that there's not many Slytherins here, right? And only Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle in our year, right? I think only Harry and Ron should do this."

"And what are you going to do?"

"I'll just follow them. I have a way to do that without people noticing me, or paying attention if they do see me. Now, you better get going and I'll meet you in Myrtle's bathroom."

Then Harry noticed something. "Hey, where's Neville? He's usually with you all the time, where is he now?"

"Apparently Nev always spends Christmas at home. I don't know why, but I've got the strangest feeling that Christmas is the only time he sees his parents."

Nico finished eating and then grabbed Harry's invisibility cloak and ran to Myrtle's bathroom, where he found Harry and Ron already changed into Crabbe and Goyle, but Mione was nowhere to be seen. Ron took the lead taking them straight to the Slytherin common room, not that he saw Nico under the cloak. By Merlin, how did Ron know where to go? Even stranger things happened when they ran into Malfoy, as Ron immediately started acting like one of the pureblood fanatics. When Malfoy presented an article about Arthur Weasley being faced with an inquiry about the flying car, Ron immediately burst out laughing, and when Draco said that Dumbledore was the worst thing that happened to Hogwarts, Ron said "Who couldn't do better than that barmy old codger? I bet even that old cat could do better than him!" Nico and Harry stared at him in shock. Why was he siding with Malfoy on everything, even when it involved his family?

The only good things that came out of that interview was the fact that they learned that Malfoy was not the Heir of Slytherin, it happened 60 years ago, and that the Malfoy's had a secret chamber under the drawing room floor. Malfoy also acted a little weird during some of the questioning. Every so often, he would look nervously at the other Slytherins, who Nico quickly noticed were all pureblood fanatics, and he would speak loud enough for them to hear everything derisive he said. This did not seem like the Draco Malfoy that Harry and Nico had started to see over First Year. It almost seemed like he was scared. But even so, he still spoke loud enough for the entire Common Room to hear "Last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a Mudblood died. So I bet it's only a matter of time before one of them's killed this time ... I hope it's Granger." And again he flinched when he said Mudblood and claimed he wanted Hermione dead. What was going on in Slytherin House?When they got back to Myrtle's bathroom, they found that Mione had gone ahead and taken the potion, but she accidentally put cat hair in hers. While they were sneaking her to the Hospital wing under the invisibility cloak, Nico said "Well, I guess this would be a bad time to mention my Christmas present for you, Harry."

"What is it? And why would this be a bad time?"

"Because my Christmas present is a potion to reveal your Animagus form."

"You made me a potion for a Christmas present? Gee, thanks. Makes me even more certain that you'd be next if I was the Heir."

"I knew you wouldn't like it at first, but wait and hear me out. Back when our parents were here as students, your dad and his best friends were Animagi-magicians that could change into animals. I thought you'd like to have another connection to your dad."

Harry froze in shock at that information and moved to tears that Nico knew how much he wanted to know his dad. "What was my dad's form?"

Nico smiled and said "A stag, his friends called him Prongs. You saw my dad's form last year in the Dark Forest. Our parent's best friend was a giant black dog that was mistaken as a Grim-an omen of death."

"But why would they risk doing it so young?" Mione asked.

"Because their best friend was a werewolf, and they wanted to help him out. Fortunately animals are immune to the lycanthropy virus, so they became Animagi."

"Well, could we take it too? I mean, doing this would help with our schoolwork, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, an Animagus transformation is basically self-transfiguration, so doing this will help with McGonagall's classes. She actually covers Animagi in Third Year."

"That's why you're so good at it, isn't it? You're an animagus already," Harry said.

"Yeah, I am. Have been for a couple of years. So, you up to it? I've actually got enough for all four of us, including Neville when he gets back." They readily agreed, and the next morning, they took the potion. Harry was revealed as a phoenix and oddly enough, Ron was a weasel. Mione decided to wait until she'd recovered from the Polyjuice Potion before finding her own out. In the meantime, Harry wrote to Gringott's and had them anonymously transfer 50 galleons to the Weasley family in order to pay the fine for the flying car. He also wrote to Arthur Weasley and let him know about a hidden chamber under the drawing room floor.

A month after the interrogation, the four friends had just left from visiting Mione when they noticed Myrtle had flooded her bathroom again. Curious to see what made her so upset, they went in to see her, and found that someone had thrown a diary into her toilet. According to the cover, it was from 1944 and belonged to one T M Riddle, and that was everything the diary had to say for itself. "Myrtle, do you know who this Riddle person is? The diary is from your time."

"Yeah, I know who he is. Tom Marvolo Riddle. A very handsome Slytherin, he was the Slytherin Fifth Year Prefect when I died. You know, you look a lot like him, Harry." Harry blushed at that, and pocketed the diary. When Mione got out of the Hospital a week later, she was very excited when she found out about the diary, but nothing they did could make it reveal it's secrets, while her animagus form was revealed as a barn owl and Neville's was a cougar.

Valentine's Day brought the biggest Idiockhart disaster ever: he thought everyone needed a morale-booster after all the attacks, so he decorated the Great Hall for the holiday, dressed dwarves up as Cupid, and told everyone to see Snape for love potions and Flitwick to learn how to do entrancing charms, much to their embarrassment. Nico went up to the teacher's table and whispered to Snape "Don't you know any poisons you could use on Lockhart that would make it look like he died a natural death?"

"Unfortunately no, Mr Grace. If I did, I'd have done so long before now and you'd have had a competent Defence Teacher by now."

"I assume you're talking about yourself?" Snape nodded. "Well, if what Percy says about you is true, I'm looking forward to it. Oh, and if I were you, I'd get out of here quickly, Professor." Snape stared at him, until Nico gave the twins a prearranged signal, and their most public hit against Idiockhart began. Over Christmas break, the twins had been collecting Cornish Pixies and at the signal, unleashed all sixty of them at the same time in the Great Hall. The pandemonium was easily twenty times worse than Lockhart's first Defence class. However, the pandemonium was well served as it led to the diary's secret being revealed. One of the pixies spilled a bottle of ink onto the diary, and the diary just absorbed it.

That night, Harry decided to write in the diary while Nico was going to relieve some of his tension by trying to use Riddle's name as an anagram. Ron, Neville and Hermione on the other hand were a little tired of working with the diary, so they went to play a game. First he wrote out the full name: Tom Marvolo Riddle and pulled out the one letter that obviously made a word: I That left Tom Marvolo Rddle. The next word was another obvious: Am. Nico now had I Am and Tom rvolo Rddle. Another obvious word: Lord.

I Am Lord, Tom rvo dle. The French word for death was there, creating the phrase I Am Lord Mort and leaving only vo dle. Then Nico saw it, the true origin of the name everyone feared: Tom Marvolo Riddle easily became I Am Lord Voldemort! The diary belonged to a teenage Voldemort! "HARRY!" But Harry was nowhere to be seen, and the diary was open. A few minutes later, Harry reappeared, saying that Hagrid was the one that set the monster loose. "Harry, I wouldn't trust anything to do with that diary if I were you."

"And why not? Memories can't be faked."

"Yeah, but they can be misleading or not give you all the pertinent information. Besides, that diary belonged to Voldemort!"

A/N: A quick explanation for the Animagus forms, as I truly believe that they represent a person's character. Nico's form of a Golden Eagle means: strength, courage, intelligence, an ability to see hidden truths, and clear vision, as well as 'retrieves lost soul parts' a clear reference to Horcruxes! Harry's phoenix form means: death and rebirth, and renewed life. Hermione's barn owl is of course, wisdom but also death of the old order and embracing the world. Ron as a weasel is a reference to Draco's nickname for him and means: stealth, cunning, revenge, fearless and tenacious (the first two are extremely important to Ron's future in this story. Hint hint!) Cougar's represent: gaining self-confidence, courage, strength, power, nobility, leadership, action and patience among others. Speaking of Neville, I know that he is acting out of character, but in this, Neville has a lot more confidence in this reality. Between Nico's quick friendship, the mutual tutoring, his high scores in the First Year exams, and the Howler that Nico sent to Augusta, Neville is a lot more confidant in himself, thus revealing his Gryffindor traits far earlier than in canon.