Author's Note: I don't own the story or the characters of Harry Potter, this work is entirely fan-made. The rights to everything Harry Potter belong to J.K Rowling.
And we are back ladies and gents and anyone in between. 'The Heir of Slytherin' is my interpretation of the Chamber of Secrets in this AU. The Chamber of Secrets is personally the most underrated film out of the original series. I loved it as a kid and it was just the right amount of scary and awesome to an arachnophobic, 9 year old me.
Just a Disclaimer: If you have not read my first story in the series 'Harry Potter and the Fight of Two Generations', I highly recommend reading it before this one. The Heir of Slytherin is the second in the series and the FOTG has many answers for questions newcomers might have, if they haven't read that before this.
Without any more hesitation, here is the start of 'The Heir of Slytherin':
The start of summer was a slight drag. Harry had to go to the Dursley's on the 15th of July and his time with Hermione was cut short. The two had both recently started to admit to their true feelings towards each other, between the random bouts of teasing from Zoe. Hermione was steadily becoming a more confident and stable person, now that there wasn't a blond Hitler youth spouting anti-muggle-born propaganda or a red-head constantly tormenting her about her knowledge every day. Harry thought that she was the most interesting person in the world, and he wouldn't let anyone say otherwise. Harry had asked the Grangers if they would like to come to the zoo, whilst the Potters were visiting their Aunt and Uncle for Dudley's birthday party. His birthday had actually been on the 23rd of June, but Vernon and Petunia wanted to wait for Harry and Zoe to be there for their only cousin's birthday celebration.
So the Potters and Grangers arrived at the muggle zoo and waited for the Dursleys, who were running late as Dudley needed a lie-in on his birthday; it was tradition after all. The silver Mercedes parked next to the white Volkswagen Golf that Drs Granger and Granger owned, the colour was simply a coincidence, nothing to do with the white teeth in their Profession. Whilst the 'ordinary folk' caught up and met each other, Harry ran to Hermione, but just embraced her; he was smart enough to realise that Hermione's parents and his own were there. They looked into each others' eyes as if to say "Yeah. We really need to tell them soon." It was obvious to them what the other was saying, but to Dudley and Zoe, all they saw was a longing twinkle in their eyes, glinting in the sun.
The first animal to look at was the elephants, which had no direct parallel in the wizarding world, like some regular animals that adapted due to Darwin's theory of evolution, except the animals adapted to magic. The beasts were spectacular, gargantuan creatures to the muggles and were heralded as one of, if not the, most recognisable animal in the world. Never-the-less, all were still fascinated by the elephants, just like they were with the monkeys. The monkeys were supposedly highly-intelligent creatures and were seen as the human race's closest ancestors. Yet all the people saw were the primates eating fruit and swinging on ropes put in the habitat to keep the animals active. Hermione was still leading the group and nearly wearing everyone out with all the information she had memorised and read from the boards around the habitat.
The rhinoceros were similar to the magical beasts called erumpents, aside from the minor detail that when a rhinoceros jabbed its horn into something like wood, the wood would not bubble like a kettle and combust into tiny fragments and fibres. The magical folk were comparing the rhinos immediately to the horned erumpents, but Zoe told them to stop, as they were creatures after all, not art pieces to gawk at. This comment Hermione greatly appreciated, even though she had read through 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, by Newt Scammander' a few dozen times and couldn't help comparing them in her head too. After a spot of lunch in the café near the cat cages, as Dudley called them, the entire group headed over to the reptile house in search of some cold-blooded amphibians.
The bottom floor was completely filled with frogs of nearly every type and distinction, while the top floor showed off the more dangerous animals. The crocodiles had massive, pearly whites in their jaws and yet somehow were Dudley's favourite animal, even though Dudley was probably a crocodile's favourite meal. Petunia pointed this out and it made Dudley shiver just thinking of the most painful ways to go, a crocodile dinner being very high on the list. He waddled off towards the snakes, his favourite being a Python and rapped on the glass with his knuckles. Others started to join in on Dudley's behaviour, but the portly boy stopped and walked over to the vipers instead. More children started to disperse, but one stubborn boy kept his knocking on the glass up. This made Zoe angry and Harry had to calm her down by confronting the young boy.
"Hey, kid. I think the snake is quite tired at the moment, maybe you should stop tapping the glass?" Harry asked, a hint of malice that went unnoticed reflected in his voice. "No. Snake must do a trick for Sammy!" The apparent 5-year-old shot back, his tone as harsh as a shredder. Then Harry caught the snake's eye, it glinted black in hate for the younger boy. "I tell you what Sammy. If I get the snake to wave at you, will you leave it to sleep?" Harry asked innocently, no idea of a plan in his head if the boy answered 'yes'. "Sure, that's a trick isn't it?" The boy agreed back. Harry looked at the snake and spoke what he thought was English to the serpent. To everyone else who was listening, it sounded like a strangled 'hiss' and looked like Harry was conducting a ritual, as he was not taking his eyes off the cold-blooded animal. "Hello. I know you want to sleep, I can see it in your eyes. Can you wave your tail at the arrogant child over there? Do it, and he'll leave, I promise you." Harry hissed at the snake, hoping the boy didn't know what arrogant meant. It responded in a haughtily way by shaking its tail at the boy and nodding along with it.
This all happened so fast that Mr and Mrs Granger asked Hermione if it was normal to see him conversing in a snake language. Hermione, out of words, simply shook her head in awe, while Lily and James looked at each and then at Zoe, with terrified looks. The rest of the trip went by just as the first half had, slow, but this time, a silence, not easily broken by the Potters bar Harry hung above them all like a stubborn storm without the thunder. The formalities were exchanged by the adults without a mention of Harry's ability and the three families headed home by separate means, by car and by using apparition. James was the first one to break the cruel tension and ask "Harry, do you know what you just did? You spoke to a snake." Harry nodded along, not seeing his father's issue with what he did. "Yeah. I told it that the kid would back off if it reacted to his demands. What's the big deal?"
Zoe cut in, "Harry. Being a Parselmouth isn't a common ability, you should know that by now. It was utilised by some of the Darkest and some of the most misunderstood people in the wizarding world's history." Harry marvelled at the fact that he had a rare ability, that even his parents didn't know of. Even Merlin himself was thought to have been taught some Parseltongue by Salazar Slytherin, during his time at Hogwarts. Some of the greatest dark wizards had also used the ability to reign destruction down upon civilisations by commanding basilisks. Harry's family's reputation could suffer for this, so he asked Zoe and owled Hermione the same plea "Please don't reveal my ability as a Parselmouth, it could hurt the family's reputation greatly."
Hermione didn't need to reply to Harry as he knew that she would do as he asked. It was the most sensible thing to do. The secret would ideally, be taken to the grave. The end of August was coming up and Hogwarts was due to start in a little over a week. This meant only one thing, a trip to Diagon Alley. The four Potters climbed into the fireplace, one after the other had gone and dropped the dusty, emerald powder. They spoke the words "Diagon Alley!" and felt themselves being squeezed through the floo network, coming out of the other side and landing either gracefully in Lily and James' case, or in a heap on the floor, which happened to the children. The two youngest went first and on the other end were pulled up by none other than Rubeus Hagrid. The large half-giant heaved them up using one hand and set them down on the cobbled path, feet on the ground this time.
"Ello Arry, Zoe. You alrigh'? Ye took a nasty tumble there, ye gotta get better a' landing after ye come shootin' out the other side. Don' worry, ye'll get the hang of it." The man said after hoisting up the two. James came landing out a couple of seconds later and Lily a further few after him. James thanked him for catching the two before they ran off. "Thanks, Hagrid, these two can never stick their landing properly. What have you got there?" he gestured to the bag he was holding in his large, clenched fist. He replied nervously "Oh jus' a few things for Professor Dumbledore an' some flesh-eatin' slug repellent for the school mandrakes, they're gettin' holes all over their leaves." The Hogwarts game-keeper left and headed for the barrier between the Leaky Cauldron and the alley itself. They all watched him curiously; he was acting a bit more strange than his usual happy self.
They all went to Gringotts first to get some money to pay for expensive school supplies. On the book list this year, a few odd titles stuck out to them, all written by the same dazzling man on the cover of them, Gilderoy Lockhart. As the Potter family headed to Flourish and Blotts to buy the books, they ran into the Grangers and saw the Weasleys not too far off in the shop, Arthur chatting fascinatedly to Dan Granger about 'fellytones'. Harry responded first by gripping Hermione in a hug that she had invited him and Zoe into. The Potter children hugged back, yet Harry held on for a little longer, being the source of Hermione's happiness at the moment. The two mothers smiled knowingly at the behaviour and didn't bother correcting the children on proper etiquette. Zoe also smirked at this and knew more teasing about them being together was surely headed their way.
James Potter was not as subtle though and clapped Harry on the back congratulating him whilst saying "I knew it was true what your Grandpa said, 'The Potter men always go for the brainy ones, son'." Harry and Hermione turned red at that comment, blushing profusely from every cell in their bodies. Mrs Granger managed to stop laughing for a second to stabilise herself like Zoe and Lily couldn't before saying "Let's go find Dan, he's in the book shop somewhere talking to a red-head about phones. We still need to get your books Hermione." All six entered the packed shop and were blinded by the camera flash reflecting off something. When they managed to see again, without seeing spots, they saw the source, a man behind the counter, with perfect white teeth, a grin to match and locks of shining gold.
I know, I know, 'Lockhart is an incompetent fool and shouldn't be the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher'. But you see, that's the beauty of being wrong here. Lockhart is incompetent at his job, but he is actually a formidable enemy. He is a gifted wizard, just not an honest and selfless one. You'll see what I mean in later chapters.