It was nine in the morning by the time Narcissa and Lucius entered their dining room for breakfast two days after Hallows Eve. Late mornings were one of the delightful advantages of not having to do anything as pedestrian as working. Which wasn't to say they did nothing productive with their days. Narcissa, who had always been better at financial and business dealings than her husband, managed the Malfoy accounts, while Lucius was kept busy with his seats on the Wizengamot and the Hogwarts' Board.

Because of this, the eight owls that were sitting on their specified perch in the corner of the dining room were not a surprise. Some would be for Narcissa, updating her on the various businesses she was currently buying and selling; and some for Lucius, from people who wanted his support for some new law they were presenting to the Wizengamot.

The sight of Harry's white owl was somewhat of a surprise, however. It wasn't unheard of for Harry to send her a letter by any means, but neither was it a common occurrence.

Narcissa daintily sat in the seat the Lucius had pulled out for her, before holding out an arm towards the bird. "Hedwig?"

Hedwig took flight immediately and landed gently on her forearm, before sticking out the leg the contained Harry's letter. Narcissa retrieved the letter and, when the owl left her arm, picked up her letter knife from where it lay beside her bread knife and slit open the envelope.

"Your breakfast will get cold, dear." Lucius pointed out as he cut into his eggs. "Surely Mr. Potter's letter can wait."

Narcissa smiled faintly, but she pulled out the letter and unfolded it anyway.

'Dear Cousin Narcissa,

Draco and I are both penning this letter, though I have been appointed scribe.'

"It is from both Draconus and Harry." Narcissa told her husband.

"Oh?" Lucius' eyes lit up as they did whenever Draconus corresponded with them.

"I'll read it aloud, shall I?" Narcissa asked. "Dear Cousin Narcissa. Draco and I are both penning this letter, though I have been appointed scribe. We are sure that, by the time you receive this letter, you will have heard that Mrs. Norris (Mr. Filch's cat) was found petrified on Hallows Eve."

"What?" Lucius reached out a hand as though to take the letter from her, but Narcissa moved it out of reach. "That was two days ago. How can Dumbledore not have informed the Board?"

Narcissa began reading again. "In the off chance that you have not heard, we have included the details. Mrs. Norris was found petrified, and apparently hanging from her tail, on the third floor after the Hallows Eve Feast. On the wall beside her were the words: ''The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware.'"

Narcissa paused and looked towards Lucius in horror. "Surely this cannot refer to Slytherin's Chamber?"

Lucius shook his head. "It is unlikely."

"It is because of this event that we are writing you." Narcissa continued reading. "First we must admit something that we have been keeping a secret from you – Harry is a parselmouth"

"A parselmouth?" Lucius repeated faintly. "So his magic is dark. I had wondered whether it would be."

Narcissa was feeling equally shocked. "I imagine that answers the question as to why Draconus removed the book on Parselmagic from our library over the holidays."

Lucius nodded.

"And he has two snakes." Narcissa read. "Please don't tell anyone."

"Can you imagine Dumbledore's face?" Lucius asked in amusement.

Narcissa cleared her throat lightly. "Last month, Harry's snakes heard another snake in the castle. According to them she is too big to fit into Harry's dorm room and is very hungry and angry."

Lucius' amusement vanished and Narcissa felt as though there was stone in her stomach. A snake that large at Hogwarts? Where Draconus was?

"Harry's snakes heard the big snake again on Hallows Eve." Narcissa continued reading. "Harry has done some research on snakes and the sepia, naga and basilisk are all big enough to be the snake that Sarko and Sativa heard, but none of them petrify people. Draco thinks that the snake might be Slytherin's monster since apparently he was a Parselmouth too. What do you think we should do?"

Narcissa paused her reading and looked towards Lucius, who was looking paler than usual. "We should take Draco out of school. Harry too."

"Dumbledore would never allow us to withdraw the boy-who-lived from Hogwarts." Lucius told her. "We need to contact Amelia. The Department of Law-Enforcement should be involved, along with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. What else does the letter say?"

"Only that they hope that you and I are both well." Narcissa told him. "I should reply immediately."

"Yes," Lucius stood up ignore his barely touched breakfast. "I shall call on Amelia."

Narcissa stood as well, she would have the house elves send her something light to eat in her study. "I shall walk you to the floo."

"Penby!" Lucius called.

One of their house elves appeared in front of them within seconds. "Master Malfoy is calling Penby?" The elf saw their uneaten breakfasts on the table and began pulling at her ears anxiously. "Master and Mistress is not being enjoying their breakfast?"

"It was fine." Lucius bit out impatiently. "Retrieve my cloak."

Penby disappeared with a small pop, reappearing seconds later with Lucius' cloak in hand.

Lucius took the cloak from her with an abrupt nod, before turning to leave the room. Narcissa followed to the Entrance Hall and bestowed a light kiss on his lips.

"Tell them to stay safe." Lucius told her. "Under no circumstances are they to investigate the attack."

Narcissa raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Surely Draconus is far too much of a Slytherin to consider such an action."

"One would hope." Lucius agreed. "Mr. Potter, however…"

"Is a Ravenclaw." Narcissa reminded him.

"A Ravenclaw whose father was the epitome of all that is wrong with Gryffindors." Lucius sneered. "I will not see Draco hurt because he befriended James Potter's son."

Narcissa didn't think that Harry was anything like James Potter, but she nodded anyway. "Stay safe, Lucius."

Lucius' face softened slightly and he reached out a hand to squeeze her hand. "You also, my dear."

11-11-11

The week after Mrs. Norris was petrified went by swiftly for Harry.

He didn't see much of Draco as the Slytherin versus Gryffindor Quidditch game was the coming Saturday and the Slytherin team seemed to practising at every opportunity. The Gryffindor team were also practising most of the time which, given that there was only one Quidditch Pitch, had apparently been the cause of multiple arguments. Harry thought it was pretty amusing and probably the reason why it was normally Gryffindor or Slytherin who won the Quidditch Cup – that kind of hard headed determination wreaked havoc on the players' grades, but definitely made them better at Quidditch.

Neville was still coming running with Harry and Takashi in the mornings and, while a week was nowhere near long enough for the effects of the exercise to been seen, Harry was impressed by his friend's commitment. Every morning, Neville would meet them at the Quidditch Pitch and then run until he could barely breathe – twice he'd actually run until he vomited.

Cousin Narcissa's reply arrived on Wednesday in which she assured them that Lord Malfoy would deal with the situation and forbidding them to go in search for the monster. The thought of looking for the monster hadn't actually occurred to Harry until he received Cousin Narcissa's letter, and he had no idea she had thought it was necessary to mention it. Who in their right mind would go looking for a monster that could petrify people?

After classes on Thursday, Harry, Neville and Takashi met under the big tree by the lake to practise wandless magic. Neville had originally been unsure about the idea of Takashi joining them, but now that they'd run together six days in a row, he seemed much more relaxed about the idea.

"So how do you normally do this?" Takashi asked them as they sat down on the grass.

"We take turns." Harry answered, looking over at Neville. "One person meditates, while the other watches to see if the twig levitates and to makes sure that no one disturbs us. Now that you're here though, we can have two people mediating while one person watches."

"I'll watch first." Neville offered quietly.

"Are you certain?" Takashi asked. "I would not mind watching you first."

"It's fine." Neville told him.

"Did you read the book and the notes that Neville and I made?" Harry asked.

"Yes, thank you." Takashi opened his bag and took out a book which he then passed to Harry. "It was very helpful. Do you only practise together? Or do you practise individually also?"

"I practise every morning when I meditate." Neville told him.

"I've started practising in the evenings." Harry added as he adjusted his position so he was sitting cross legged. "We have been trying to levitate something wandlessly, partly because it's one of the first spells we learnt, and partly because it's easy to tell when it's working. So find a twig and place it in front of you."

Takashi found a twig and then put it in front of where he was sitting. "And then I meditate?"

"Yeah." Neville nodded. "We've got about two hours until dinner, so I'll let you guys know when you have managed it or forty minutes has gone by."

"Thanks, Neville." Harry grinned at him, before shutting his eyes and beginning his breathing.

Getting to a place where he could see and communicate with his magic was easy, the part where he made his magic do as he wanted was harder. Still, he'd been practising for an hour every night for a week now, and so he managed it on his second attempt. He continued to hover the twig for a while, before slowly lowering it and then releasing his magic. Then he tried again.

It was when he levitated his twig for the fourth time, and still hadn't heard anything from Neville, that Harry decided to try something new. Instead of lowering the twig and starting over again, he tried to slowly draw himself out of his meditative state while keeping the twig in the air.

The first few seconds were exciting, he could feel himself emerging from his mediation with the twig still in the air, but then the twig dropped.

Harry sighed and pulled himself the rest of the way out of his mediation. He opened his eyes and looked around for Neville, who was leaning against the tree trunk playing with a twig. Takashi was still meditating to his left, his twig still on the ground.

"How long has it been?" Harry asked quietly.

"Thirty minutes." Neville told him. "You've gotten really fast. Why did you stop?"

"I tried to come out of my mediation while I was still levitating the twig." Harry explained.

"Ah," Neville nodded in understand. "That explains that sudden drop."

"Do you want a go?" Harry asked. "I'm happy to watch for a while."

Neville looked concerned. "Are you sure?"

"Of course." Harry nodded. "Go for it."

"Alright, thanks." Neville smiled shyly and dropped the twig he'd been playing with in front of him before closing his eyes.

Harry sat and watched Neville and Takashi for a few minutes before deciding to do some sit-ups like he had the last time they had done this. The great thing about sit-ups was that he could still watch his friends while he was doing them.

Fourteen minutes into Neville's meditation his twig floated up, and then slowly lowered. Harry was impressed, Neville had halved his time in a week – his practise was definitely paying off.

Neville levitated his twig again ten minutes later, and then again eight minutes after that.

Harry looked at Takashi and realised that the older boy had been mediating for just over an hour now with no visible progress. It was surprising to Harry, Takashi was three years older than him and, even though this was his first attempt, Harry had expected him to get it really quickly.

Neville floated his twig again eight minutes later, but then, instead of him slowly lowering it, the twig suddenly dropped like a rock.

"Bother." Neville grimaced as he opened his eyes. "That's hard! How does anyone manage to do it when they're not meditating?"

"Practise." Harry grinned. "You're getting a lot faster though. The first time only took you fourteen minutes."

"How long altogether?" Neville asked him.

"Forty minutes." Harry told him quietly. "Takashi's still trying."

Neville looked just as surprised as Harry felt. "He hasn't managed it yet?"

"No."

"It did take me a lot of tries." Neville commented. "I practised for a week before I got it."

"You practised for a week before you had confirmation that you got it." Harry corrected. "It's hard to tell if you're doing it or not at the beginning. For all you know you managed it on the second time, you just couldn't tell."

Neville shrugged uncomfortably. "Do you want to go again?"

"Sure." Harry agreed. "We've got another fifty minutes until dinner, so nudge me after twenty five minutes and then you can go again."

"Okay."

Harry closed his eyes and then sunk back into his meditation. He levitated the twig and then lowered it again, levitated it, lowered it again, levitated it, and then felt Neville nudging him. Harry tightened his grip on his magic and then tried to pull himself out of his meditating, the twig still in the air. He grimaced when he dropped it again.

"Damn!"

Neville laughed quietly.

Harry looked over at Takashi. "Has he managed it yet?"

"No." Neville said as he shut his eyes to begin meditating.

Harry watched Takashi's twig closely, looking for any sign that the twig was moving, but the twig didn't so much as wiggle. It made no sense. It had only taken Harry forty five minutes to levitate the twig the first time he had tried and Takashi had been trying for almost two hours. Why couldn't Takashi do it? He was older than Harry and had been the one to teach Harry how to meditate.

By the time the dinner bell rang, Neville had managed to levitate his stick twice and Takashi's stick still hadn't moved.

"Neville? Takashi?" Harry said loudly. "It's dinner time."

"Dinner time?" Takashi asked, opening his eyes after a few seconds. "But you were going to disturb me after forty minutes."

Harry felt awkward. "Sorry, Neville and I thought we would let you practise."

"We've done this before." Neville added as he stood up.

"I do not want to be an imposition." Takashi said seriously as he stretched his legs.

"You're not." Harry told him and held out a hand for Neville to pull him up. "Besides, Neville and I can already levitate the twig."

Takashi gave him an odd look. "Thank you. Next time you must let me take my turn watching though."

"Alright."

11-11-11

When Saturday arrived, Harry, along with most of the school, gathered in the bleachers around the Quidditch Pitch to watch the Slytherin versus Gryffindor game. It wasn't the best day for watching a Quidditch match, the weather was muggy and felt as though it might turn into a storm at any moment.

"Anyone want to place a bet on the outcome?" Michael asked as they waited for the game to start.

"Ten sickles on Gryffindor." Terry said with a grin.

"Damn right Gryffindor is going to win." Rodney nodded. "If I'm going to sit out here, for Merlin knows how long, watching my sister play this bloody game, then her team better bloody win it."

"Hear, hear." Michael laughed.

Harry grimaced. "Ten sickles on Slytherin."

"Seriously?" Terry raised his eyebrows. "Even though your cousin bribed his way into the position of chaser?"

"He didn't bribe his way onto the team." Harry defended for what seemed like the hundredth time. "The brooms were a celebration gift."

"Hmph." Terry didn't look convinced.

Suddenly the bleachers burst into noise as the Gryffindor Team walked onto the pitch. The Gryffindors were cheering the loudest, but there were a lot of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs cheering too.

"Listen to the snakes." Anthony sneered once the noise quietened down. "Did you hear them booing?"

"Like the Gryffindors won't boo when the Slytherin team arrives." Harry rolled his eyes.

Seconds later his point was made as the Slytherin Team walked onto the pitch and the Gryffindor's boos and hisses were clearly heard over the sound of Slytherins' cheers.

Harry clapped and cheered loudly for Draco – pointedly ignoring all the disgruntled looks his friends were giving him.

"Look at those brooms." Terry sighed enviously.

Rodney looked annoyed. "They're just brooms and it's not as though you haven't seen them before – they're exactly the same as Harry's."

"I know." Terry replied. "I think I'm even more jealous now that I've actually had a go on Harry's one. It's like flying on a very fast cloud."

Harry snorted in amusement. "A fast cloud? Really?"

Madame Hooch's whistle blew suddenly and Harry quickly grabbed Draco's omnioculars from his bag so that he could actually see what was happening.

"Are those made of gold?" Terry asked incredulously.

"They're Draco's." Harry explained and he brought them to his eyes and searched for his cousin in the sky.

"Of course they are." Terry's tone was scathing, but Harry ignored him.

Lee Jordan's commentary of the match was echoing around the stadium. "…Spinnet has the quaffle, she weaves her way down the pitch, dodging Slytherin Chasers Flint and Pucey. She passes to Katie Bell who shoots and SCORES!"

Harry soon found Draco who was looking as confident as always. His cousin's task seemed to be to stick close to Angelina Johnson and make sure that the Gryffindor's couldn't pass to her. It was a good strategy, and Draco was doing a good job at it, but Harry couldn't help but wish that Draco's mark had been someone other than Rodney's sister.

"Slytherin has possession," Lee's commentary continued. "Flint passes to Pucey, who dodges around Johnson and then passes to Malfoy who spins around Spinnet and, woah, pulls of a one handed Sloth Grip Roll to avoid a bludger."

Harry grinned, good for Draco! He knew his cousin had practised for hours over the summer to be able to properly pull off that move.

"Well, he can fly." Terry muttered from beside him. "I'll give him that."

"…Flint passes to Pucey who shoots and scores." Lee's commentary continued. "Which brings the score to 10-10."

After a few more minutes of watching Draco, Harry turned the omnioculars towards the seekers. They were both circling the pitch, a good fifty feet above the hoops, and it seemed as though Warren Tate, the Gryffindor Seeker, was tailing Terence Higgs, the Slytherin Seeker. It was a poor strategy on Tate's part, in Harry's opinion. Higg's broom easily outstripped Tate's and it was unlikely that Tate would manage to keep up if it came to a race. Tate needed to find the snitch first, not follow along on Higgs' coat tails.

Harry watched them circle for a few minutes, half listening to Lee's commentary, before getting bored and going back to watching the chasers. Neither Seekers seemed to have any real talent for the position, they weren't even trying to trick each other into believing that they'd seen the snitch. It was disappointing really, the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams were supposed to be the best but Harry was sure that he and Diggory could outfly their seekers any day.

The score was 50-60 to Slytherin when Harry returned his attention to the chasers and he grinned as he saw Draco score a goal.

"Not another one." Lee groaned. "That's three goals for Slytherin Chaser Malfoy. Why he needed to buy his way onto the team is anyone's guess."

"Jordan!" McGonagall snapped.

"Sorry, Professor." Lee acknowledged. "Bell has possession of the quaffle, she dives under Pucey and turns to pass it to Johnson, but Johnson is blocked by Malfoy who intercepts the pass and immediately passes to Pucey."

"Wanker!" Rodney growled. "What does he think he's doing?"

"It's called the Grodzisk Play." Harry answered. "The Grodzisk Goblins' are famous for it."

"The Grodzisk Goblins?"

"They're Polish."

"Well, why on earth is your cousin using Polish tactics against my sister?" Rodney asked with a growl.

"Probably because they're effective." Harry answered blandly. "And because his captain told him to."

"Bloody Slytherins." Rodney grumbled.

Two hours later the game was still going and Harry had decided that the Seekers weren't just disappointing, they were awful! Harry had already the spotted the snitch three times, once hovering barely ten feet away from Higgs, but the seekers had made no sign of having spotted it.

The beaters and chasers were obviously getting tired, but the score was still very close at 420-300 to Slytherin.

It was another fifteen minutes before the Higgs finally seemed to spot the snitch and began speeding across to the other side of the pitch. Tate turned a second later to follow him, but Harry's original presumption was right, and by the time Higgs' hand closed over the snitch, Tate had fallen behind.

There was collective groan from the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs as the game ended and Lee announced Slytherin's victory, but the Slytherins' cheers were still easily heard.

Harry cheered along with them.