This chapter was written without the benefit of a beta. As such, it may be a bit rough around the edges. I proofread it to the best of my ability, but nothing can replace a second pair of eyes and opinion. If any kind soul reading this is willing to give me the benefit of their time to help make the upcoming chapters better, I would be extremely grateful. PMs are open.


"With one eye on the past,

some see which they cannot see,

whilst others in the future see

that which cannot be seen.

Why go so far? Look closer!

What is freedom? This is the day!

This is the hour; the moment;

and this moment is who we are and that is that.

Forever flowing, the eternal hour

reveals our insignificance.

In a single gasp we live and die, so seize the day,

For the day is simply who you are."

Ricardo Reis

Harry actually managed to persuade Daphne to spend the morning revising for their end of year exams. It was a glorious spring day, though, so Daphne insisted on doing it outside rather than staying cooped up in the library. So they picked something suitably practical, and planned to split the morning between charms and transfiguration. When dinner time came around, however, they were so engrossed in their practical work that neither felt the need to actually go eat. Breakfast was always a ponderous affair anyway, which left them well sustained until teatime.

Practicing magic, while hard, never felt like a chore to Harry, especially transfiguration, which never ceased to delight him with its potential. Writing about it, however was another matter, so by unspoken agreement, they left the theory revision for another day, and just spent the afternoon goofing around. Growing up, Harry had never experienced the pleasure of wasting away a beautiful spring afternoon with a good friend, but now that he had, he didn't know whether it or doing magic were better.

"Of course, it's all very flat in Norfolk. No big mountains like here," Daphne was finishing describing the setting of her family home to Harry, who was listening intently as they were walking through the school grounds. He remembered going to Great Yarmouth with the Durseleys one summer. He'd been dragged along because they couldn't leave him back home alone, and had actually managed to lose them a few times and enjoy the seaside. He was about to tell Daphne about the Punch and Judy shows he'd seen, when his eyes came to rest on Hagrid's hut, which had just come into view.

Despite the warmth—it was one of the hottest days of the year so far—and the presence of only a very light breeze, Hagrid seemed to have some kind of blazing fire on, for copious amounts of smoke were coming out of the little chimney which topped his shack.

"Uh…" Harry exclaimed, stopping to take a better look. All the blinds were shut, and the door seemed to be bolted tight too. Daphne stopped when Harry did, and was about to say something when her gaze followed Harry's and registered what had given him pause.

"Oh no, don't tell me he's managed to burn down his shack!" While Harry had managed to persuade Daphne of Hagrid's docility, she obviously still didn't have the highest opinion of his intelligence. Still, since her words echoed his own concerns, Harry turned to Daphne as he started towards the hut.

"Come," he said, before quickening his pace as he turned ahead, followed by Daphne, who quickly caught up with him and managed to not break a sweat on the way there, unlike Harry, who was not in nearly as good a physical shape.

She knocked on the door, but let Harry speak, not sure if Hagrid would even recognize her voice.

"Hagrid? Are you alright in there?" Harry asked in turn, adding his own knock. Once Harry spoke, he heard a rumbling inside, and he could tell Hagrid was walking towards the door.

"'Arry, is tha' you?" he asked through the door. "Is there anyone wit' you?"

"Just Daphne," Harry replied. He thought he'd heard a protest from inside. Was there someone else there with Hagrid?

That question was soon answered in the affirmative when, after a fair bit of fiddling with the locks, the door swung open just enough to let them through.

"Come on in, quick, ye two," Hagrid said gruffly, looking over their heads to make sure no one else was with them. On entering, they found Granger and Longbottom already sitting at the table, looking distinctly uncomfortable, although it wasn't clear whether that was because of Harry and Daphne's appearance, or from pretending to enjoy the dubious baked goods Hagrid had laid in front of them.

"Oh, hello," Harry said, not wanting to seem rude, even if he wasn't particularly happy with having to deal with them. Daphne greeted them too, while Harry's eyes wandered over to the massive fire roaring in the fireplace.

"Is that really needed?" he asked, looking at it pointedly. Hagrid looked suitably embarrassed.

"Err, it's…" he began, before Granger cut him off.

"He's got a dragon egg," she said, sounding exasperated. "Please help me convince him he can't keep it as a pet."

Harry wasn't sure what to say to that, but Daphne looked horrified.

"What? This..." Harry was sure she was about to say 'shack,' but if she was, she managed to correct herself before the word left her mouth. "...house is made of wood!" she exclaimed. "Do you think you can train him to not breath fire?" she added, incredulously.

Harry began to feel somewhat chagrined. He was embarrassed on Hagrid's behalf. This really didn't seem like a very clever idea. But Harry was beginning to realize that, where dangerous beasts were concerned, Hagrid didn't have much in the way of restraint.

While Hagrid stood aside, trying to bluster a response, Harry took a step towards the fire. As he came closer, he realized a very large egg was placed in the middle of the fireplace, with flames roaring all around.

"Where did you find this in the first place?" he asked. "Surely you can't just go to Magical Menagerie and get one?"

"Of course not, they're illegal," Granger responded quickly.

"And for a very good reason," Daphne added. Longbottom wasn't saying anything, but the look on his face showed more than a little terror. While obviously content to let Granger do the talking, he seemed to agree with her one hundred percent. Daphne seemed like she was about to add something else, but Hagrid, ignoring the warnings, responded to Harry's question.

"Won it," he said. "Las' night. I was down in Hogsmede havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

"Yeah, I bet," Harry heard Daphne murmur, but Hagrid was going on. "Couldn't believe it. Always was me dream to own one." He looked a bit misty eyed at the thought. Daphne, however, picked up on this.

"So he was just wandering around with a dragon egg in his pocket? What are the odds of that?" she said, frowning. Hagrid didn't seem to pay much mind to this, however.

"Oh, he was a weird lookin' feller. Prob'bly foreign or something. Like that Greek chappie i bought Fluffy off…" he trailed. "Sounded like he loved critters, 'e did. Kept asking me about what I took care of 'ere. he had ter be sure I could handle the dragon. I told 'im, after Fluffy, it'd be easy."

There was something there that Harry felt he should pursue, but before he could say anything about the topic, Granger interjected again.

"Hagrid, that sounds really suspicious. It sounds like this man was just trying to get rid of some contraband, and you played right along. You can't possibly think this is still a good idea," she pleaded.

"Nonsense. I can 'andle 'im, with a bit 'o love, I'm sure that's all it takes," Hagrid replied, stubbornly determined to make this work.

"Hagrid," Daphne spoke, serious now. "You might think that you can tame a dragon, teach him not to burn your house down, all of that," she began. Granger looked like she was about to protest, but Daphne raised her hand to stave her off. Somewhat reluctantly, the Gryffindor held her peace while Daphne went on. "But Dragons are huge. It's not going to be able to fit inside this place. You'll have to put it outside at some point. And then what's going to happen? People will see it. You'll get sent to Azkaban for illegally keeping a dragon. This isn't something you can hide under the bed…"

Harry was about to ask what Azkaban was, but whatever it was, it clearly made an effect on Hagrid. His countenance darkened at the words, and his eyes darted from Daphne, to Granger and Longbottom, to Harry, and back to the dragon egg.

"Oh my God," he whispered. A shiver ran through him, even in the suffocating heat from the fire. "I wasn't thinkin'" he mumbled. Granger saw this opening and took it.

"She's right," she added. "You need to put out that fire and get rid of that egg as soon as possible." She got up and tried to pick up a massive pail of water which sat to the side, only to find she didn't have the strength to lift it. She struggled with it as Daphne shook her head.

"Granger, you're a witch. Just levitate the damn thing," she said, exasperated. Granger looked embarrassed at this, and Harry had to admit that it hadn't immediately occurred to him either to use magic. He didn't have long to dwell on this somewhat bitter reminder of what he lost, however, because Hagrid, still coming to grips with realizing the hot water he was in, spoke again.

"'ow am I gunna get rid o' th' egg, though," he pleaded. "I'd 'ave to turn meself in." Before either Harry or Daphne could think of a solution, Granger replied.

"I'm sure you could go to Professor Dumbledore," she said. Harry looked at her skeptically, but she continued. "You've always said Dumbledore is a great man, who's done so much for you. I'm sure he'll know what to do."

Daphne and Harry looked at each other. Neither of them was that keen on involving Dumbledore, but they didn't exactly have any better idea. And for what it was worth, Hagrid was latching onto this solution like a drowning man to a floater.

"Yer right," he said. Granger looked like she was about to follow Daphne's suggestion and cast the levitation charm, but Hagrid quickly grabbed the pail and threw the water into the fire, which was quickly doused and left smouldering, filling the cabin with unpleasant smoke. Coughing, Harry and Daphne opened the windows, helping to clear the air inside

Granger and Longbottom had both stood up, and were walking towards the door. "Y'er right Hermione," Hagrid repeated. He awkwardly patted her shoulder in gratitude. "I should've thought…" he trailed. "But it doesn't matter now. Y'er right. I'll go talk to Dumbledore tonight. Great man, Dumbledore is, great man. He'll sort everything out."

It was clear that Granger and Longbottom were ready to say their goodbyes. When Hagrid wasn't looking, however, Granger mouthed a silent 'thank you' to both him and Daphne. Harry didn't feel like he'd really done much. It was really Daphne's work. But they both nodded, as Granger bid Hagrid goodbye.

"We'll leave you two to your visit," she said, and Harry nodded again as they left. Most of the smoke from the smouldering fire had left, taken away by the breeze, which had grown stronger since they'd last been outside, and Hagrid shut all but one of the windows, before starting a fire on the stove.

"Would yer be wanting some tea or coffee?" Hagrid asked. "I've got some rock cakes, as well," he added.

"Uh, tea would be great, but we're not really hungry now," Harry quickly replied, having long learned his lesson on Hagrid's baking skills.

"Sorry about all tha'" Hagrid said as he boiled the kettle. Harry and Daphne quickly replaced Granger and Longbottom at the table, neither really sure of what to say to that. Fortunately, Hagrid went on. "So why wer' ye two coming round anyway?" he asked, as the kettle began to boil and he quickly made tea for the three of them.

"Oh, we actually just saw the smoke coming from your house, and were worried whether it was on fire or something," Harry said, slightly bashfully. "We were just checking you were alright. Didn't think there was any reason to have a fire on on a day like today."

"Well, ye wer' rite," Hagrid replied, as he set down the tea and then took a seat across from them. "I jus'..." he trailed. "I jus' wanted to have a dragon for so long, I never thought o'the consequences, ye kno'" he explained lamely, clearly realizing how weak this sounded, even to himself.

"Well, just remember this whenever you're tempted to take a creature from some random bloke down the pub," Daphne told him pointedly. Trying to change the subject, she went on.

"Was it you who found 'Fluffy' then?" she asked. "Just where do you get a three headed dog from, anyway?"

"Ah, bought 'im off a Greek chappie," Hagrid replied, taking a sip of his tea. "Perfect fer doing my part to guard… well, yer know what," he added, clearly recalling his own admission a few months ago.

"Your part? Does that mean there's more?" Harry asked, now curious despite himself. He still hadn't forgotten the amazing treasure that dog was guarding, and couldn't help but feel a stir of desire for that stone within him. Realistically, he knew he couldn't do much about it… But that didn't stop his curiosity.

"Oh every professor's done his part," Hagrid replied. "Really, massive honour to be part of this when I'm jus' the Gameskeeper. Great man, Dumbledore," he added, the familiar refrain beginning to grate on Harry's nerves.

"So, what's it like?" asked Daphne. "Is it just like a normal dog? How'd you even manage to get it in there?"

"Oh, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep -" Hagrid suddenly paused and looked like he'd just stepped on a three-headed dog egg.

"Forget I said tha," he mumbled. Daphne was looking down at her cup of tea with her lips pursed, and Harry could tell she was trying hard not to burst out laughing. Well, at least someone was having fun. Harry was just glad there was more than Hagrid's defences guarding the Stone, otherwise it'd've been gone already.

They stayed and made a little bit more small talk with Hagrid, but it was obvious he was still chagrined over the whole situation with the dragon egg, so they quickly made their excuses and left.

"Honestly, who thought putting him in charge of any kind of secret defence was a good idea? I'm surprised The Daily Prophet hasn't reported about it yet. Why would Dumbledore not just keep the thing with himself at all times, and not tell anybody about it, if he's guarding it for his friend?" Daphne was definitely not impressed about the whole thing, but some of that made the wheels in Harry's mind start to turn.

"Dumbledore may be insane, but he's not stupid. At least, I doubt he'd get where he is today if he was," he began. Daphne nodded at that, so he continued. "So if he's not stupid, maybe… he's doing it on purpose?" Harry frowned. "Why would you make your own protections deliberately weak, and make that really easy to find out? I mean, we're just first years, so if we could find this out, anyone who really wanted to know could too…"

Daphne stopped abruptly. "It's a trap," she said, closing her fist in a confident gesture. "Of course, it all makes sense now. They must have caught wind that someone was after the Stone… And so Dumbledore sets it up in a way that gets out, so that he can trap the thief." Daphne looked very satisfied with herself for working that out, and set out towards the castle once again. Harry was frowning, though.

"That kind of makes sense," he replied, his brow furrowing further. "But how would the thief get to Hogwarts?" he asked. "Surely it's not that easy to just get into the castle." He paused and slapped his forehead. "We're idiots. It's Quirrell! We saw him try to steal it. He's already here."

They looked at each other in silence. "But he knows where to find Quirrell. He doesn't need to trap him," Daphne replied.

"Maybe he just needs to catch him in the act?" Harry reasoned. "He may know but not be able to prove it. That'd explain why he hired such a bad teacher," he added with a grin.

"Does show that he's not very concerned for our safety, though, doesn't it?" Daphne replied. "I mean, I suppose just because he's a thief doesn't mean he'd be violent, but still, sounds a little irresponsible…"

"Well, Dumbledore is mad. I thought we were all agreed on that. At least now we know there's a little bit of method to his madness." Harry thought for a second. "I remember meeting Quirrell when Hagrid took me to Diagon Alley. He said he'd been a teacher before, but had gone to Albania, and came back a bit unhinged… I wonder if the reason he wants to steal the stone is something to do with what happened there."

Daphne shrugged. "No point in us worrying about it, I guess. Let's just hope he gets sent to Azkaban before our final exams," she added with a laugh.

"Oh yeah, you'd mentioned that before. What's Azkaban?" Harry asked as they resumed their walk.

"It's the wizarding prison," Daphne explained. "It's on an island somewhere in the North Sea, and guarded by horrible creatures called dementors…"

She explained to Harry about these as they went back to the common room, and it was almost enough to make him lose his appetite for tea. Their horrible, happiness destroying nature haunted his dreams that night.


The next day marked the return of the Weasley twins to the Great Hall, after not having been seen around for the whole of the previous day. Their officious older brother, Percy the Prefect, kept giving them the evil eye, but they actually seemed somewhat chastised, which was an emotion Harry had never seen on their face before. They seemed to be in dread of something throughout breakfast, eating little and looking around regularly.

Harry worried they were planning something, but the source of their apprehension became obvious as soon as the owls flew in to deliver the morning post. This being the second to last day of Easter Holidays, the volume of post was smaller than usual. Friends who were writing to each other beforehand would soon be meeting again, so most of the letters were from family members.

Harry and Daphne had been paying attention to the Weasley family, so were able to watch every moment as a red envelope dropped in between the twins. Harry was puzzled by this, but Daphne seemed to recognize it, for she gripped his arm and whispered, "Watch!" showing barely contained excitement.

Harry did, even if trying very hard to pretend he wasn't. He watched as the letter almost came to life and a voice, which Harry could vaguely recognize from Kings' Cross, began echoing throughout the great hall.

"FREDERICK AND GEORGE WEASLEY," it bellowed. "HOW DARE YOU, AFTER ALL YOUR FATHER HAS DONE FOR YOU?! DO YOU KNOW HOW THIS HAS GONE DOWN AT THE MINISTRY? CHARMING MUGGLE ARTIFACTS…"

The twins had grabbed the envelope and ran out of the Great Hall before anything else could be heard, but laughter rang through the several tables, especially the Slytherin one. Alex Campbell was nowhere in sight (probably with his girlfriend, or out on prefect duties) but he would be hearing all about this later. Meanwhile, Harry and Daphne shared a knowing laugh. Harry threw his head back in mirth, and whispered, "Well, that alone was worth the price of admission." Daphne looked at him in slight confusion at his expression, but he shrugged. "I'll explain later."


Ted Nott climbed aboard the Hogwarts express, alone with his school trunk after his father had perfunctorily waved him goodbye at the platform. A quick apparation had brought him to London from his West Country home, but now a long train ride awaited him. His father could have technically apparated with him to Hogsmede—he was certainly skilled enough to do it over that distance. But the Hogwarts Express was such an ingrained tradition that no Hogwarts alumn ever thought of going otherwise, regardless of how inconvenient it might seem.

Ted himself liked the long journey north. It allowed him to defuse the tension lingering from his stint at home, and prepare himself for the return to the hustle and bustle of school. As he dragged his trunk to an empty compartment, he smiled a little smile to himself, thinking of the letter from Harry laying at the bottom of his trunk. He wished he could have been there to help Harry and Daphne put one up on the Weasley twins, but just knowing about it filled him with a mischievous joy.

As he settled himself comfortably for the long haul and pulled a book out from his backpack, an auburn head poked in through the door. He raised his eyes to see a Ravenclaw fellow first year, and felt a spark of recognition, which lit up when she spoke in her Scottish tones:

"Hello. You're Harry's best pal, Theodore Nott, aren't you?" she asked with a shy smile.

Ted nodded somewhat sheepishly. "Morag MacDougal, right?" he replied, his memory now catching up with him.

She nodded as her smile broadened somewhat. "That's me." They looked at each other somewhat awkwardly before Ted got his bearings.

"Do you want to seat down?" he asked, removing some of his things from the bench in front of him.

Morag nodded and brought her luggage fully inside the compartment, shutting the door behind her. "Thanks," she started as she shoved things around, Ted getting up to help her. "There's not many people around this time, and I didn't want to sit by myself. Since I knew you were Harry's friend, I thought I'd say hi." she finished as she took a seat opposite Ted.

Ted's face lit up with a small grin as he nodded. "Harry told us about you. Daphne thinks you're more than friends, though," he retorted, feeling mischievous. He was rewarded by a deep blush lighting Morag's features.

"It's nothing like that!" she protested. "Greengrass needs to mind her own business." Ted just laughed at this.

"Daphne's always like that. Although I have to admit I was suspicious too," he replied with a wink, to further embarrassment on the Ravenclaw's part. This was cut short by the compartment door opening again, and a harassed looking Tracey Davis rushing in, dragging a suitcase behind her, just as the train started moving.

Ted and Morag, startled, looked up as she shut the door and collapsed on the seat next to Ted, panting hard.

"Almost… missed… train," she said between gasps of air. Unlike the two previous occupants, she was wearing muggle clothing, her jeans and trainers clashing with the train's austere environment. She managed to regain her breath after a few minutes and smiled sheepishly at the pair. "Sorry folks, mum and dad got back together again. As usual, got into a huge argument as they were bringing me over. Almost made me miss the train." She looked at Morag, only then realizing she wasn't really acquainted with the compartment's other occupant.

"And hello to you too, Tracey," Ted remarked non-nonchalantly. Morag looked slightly embarrassed.

"Hi Ted," Tracey replied. "Morag, right? I'm Tracey Davis," she continued, turning to Morag. "Didn't know you and Ted knew each other."

"That's right," Morag replied. "And we didn't really, but I knew he was Harry's friend, and there were so few first years around, I thought I'd say hi regardless…" she trailed.

Tracey's expression darkened slightly at this, leaving Ted to wonder if perhaps Daphne might not have been so far off the mark after all. He shrugged inwardly. 'How do girls always know these things?' he wondered, before rapidly trying to defuse the situation.

"So I gather you holidays didn't go exactly as planned, then?" he asked Tracey, hoping to lead the conversation away from Harry and towards a safer topic.

This seemed to work, as she turned to him and shook her head, laughing now. "Nope. Mum and dad hit it off again when they came to pick me up..." she launched into the narrative, and he and Morag were treated to a long narrative of Tracey's holidays and the romantic mishaps between the girl's parents. Ted was amazed by how much Tracey was able to take these things in stride, but he supposed they were quite commonplace for her by now. Tracey's momentary antipathy for Morag seemed to subside as the journey progressed, and they got to Hogwarts in good spirits.

That night before bed, he slid Harry The Pureblood Directory, but whispered, "Let's get you know what sorted out tomorrow first." At the nod from Harry, he quickly withdrew to bed, where he slept better than he had for the entire Holidays.


The next day, Ted and Harry were walking the grounds, closer to the Forbidden Forest than they probably ought to have been. Harry looked furtively around, checking no one was watching them, before nodding to his taller friend. "All clear," he whispered.

At this, Ted nodded and set his backpack on the flood. He quickly kneeled and opened it, extracting what looked like a large jam-jar from it. On closer inspection, Harry could see that the lid had small holes poked on it. A small garden snake was inside it, seemingly asleep. Ted offered Harry the jar. "Special delivery," he said with a wry smile, his tone close to a whisper as well, though there was no real reason to whisper. However, Harry always felt like he was being watched, and maybe his nervousness spread to his friend. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Ted asked, looking almost wary.

Harry nodded. "I need to know for sure," he replied. "There's just too much at stake," he continued, as he slowly unscrewed the lid, lowering the jar to the floor at the same time.

After a few seconds, the snake stirred and began moving towards freedom. With trepidation, Harry heard it speak distinctively, "Free at lassst. Damn the miserable humansssss," as it started slithering through the ground, which was still covered in dew. Harry heard himself reply, "Ssssorry we trapped you," he began, unconscious of any different in his speech.

He quickly realized he must be speaking Parseltongue, though, for Ted drew back in shock and looked at him as if he had never seen him before, for a fraction of a second, before shaking himself and muttering. "You can really speak it," Ted whispered. "I didn't really believe it..."

Harry spared him a glance, but quickly had to return his focus to the snake, which was now raising its head to face him. "Sssorryy? Do you know how long I was in there?"

He could tell the snake wasn't in a good mood, but fortunately he had prepared himself for the eventuality. He dug into his robe's pocket and extracted a bag full of bits of bacon. Normally he used them to give as treats to Hedwig, but they would do for this too. "Here, have this," he replied as he dropped some meat on the snake's path. "I hope this makes up for it," he finished, laying some more along. He thought he could feel the creature's mood change as it slithered quicker towards the treats, its mouth open as it began to devour one.

"Perhappss it has been worth it after all..." it trailed as it devoured another. Taking this as acquiescence, Harry finished dumping the bag's contents on the ground. He then got up from his crouch and turned to face Ted, who had been watching the whole interchange with a fascinated expression.

"I guess it worked?" Harry asked, already knowing the answer.

Ted nodded rapidly at this, his expression still one of awe. "I could only hear you hissing," he replied. "But I guess you were talking to it?" he asked eagerly.

"It wasn't very happy at being locked in that jar," Harry replied with a smile. "But I managed to placate it with some treats."

"Couldn't see any other way of getting it here," Ted replied, to which Harry rapidly replied.

"Of course, you had to do something like that." He sighted. "I hope it manages to survive around here." They walked slowly towards the castle, keeping silence for several minutes before Harry spoke again. "What do you think this means?" Harry asked, looking and feeling quite bewildered. He was fairly sure the experiment was going to work, but having it confirmed that he shared this strange magical gift with the wizard who tried to kill him left a very bitter taste in his mouth.

Ted glanced at Harry before slowly shaking his head. "I don't really know," he replied. "There's so many possible reasons for you to have it." He paused before lowering his voice. "But my other delivery should help us find out.

Nodding, they began to walk towards the tree which was their usual hangout when the weather was pleasant. It was much easier to make sure no one was eavesdropping on you when you were outside. They sat close together, and Harry laid his backpack on the ground. With one final look around, just to be safe, he pulled out the book he'd been waiting so long to get his hands on.

As he began to turn the first few pages, he sighed. "Do purebloods not believe in using tables on contents?" he asked with a wry grin, at which Ted shrugged apologetically.

"I think once you get past the introduction, the families are in alphabetical order," he explained, so Harry opened the book about a third of the way in. He landed at almost exactly the right spot, on the entry for the Greengrass family. Right letter, at least. He couldn't help but have a quick glance at the information on Daphne's family, although there wasn't much there that turned out to be of interest. He reminded himself the book had been written sixty odd years ago, although it did mention the location of their ancestral home in Norfolk, which he already knew about from Daphne.

Turning a few pages back, he finally reached the chapter on the Gaunt family. Ted was reading over his shoulder, and Harry pressed on through the first few pages, which confirmed the connection to Salazar Slytherin, mentioning that the family was known for possessing the gift of Parseltongue. It was the only family where this was known to occur, even if other possessors of the gift would not be likely to advertise it. The Gaunt themselves seem to be an exception to this, with them apparently wearing it as a badge of honour. The book also confirmed the connection between the Gaunts and the Peverell family, via Cadmus Peverell, the middle brother.

Harry's eyes almost glowed at this information, and he pressed on, wanting to find out what had happened to this family. They didn't seem to be directly related to him, but with both the Peverell and Parseltongue connections, it was just too intriguing to drop.

Finally, he got to the current (for the 1930s) information. The Gaunts made their home in Little Hangleton, County Durham. A family patriarch of sorts, called Marvolo Gaunt, had died a few years prior to the book's publication. Harry couldn't help but giggle at this name.

"It sounds like a muggle magician's name," Harry explained at Ted's quizzical look, before continuing to read. Apparently this man had been involved in some altercations with aurors, and been sentenced to Azkaban. He was released, but died shortly thereafter. He had a son, however, named Morfin. He had been sentenced to a longer imprisonment on the same charges, but later had been released as well, and was still alive at the time of the book's writing, having yet no offspring.

The Greengrass chapter was on the next page, and Harry was tempted to skip the last few paragraphs, but was glad he persevered, for the information contained therein was tantalizing.

The House of Gaunt's status in our blood-traitor infested society is not properly recognized, and the family has sadly fallen on hard times. However, they are still the proud owners of a famed locket which was a possession of Salazar Slytherin himself, as well as the Peverell signet ring, passed down from Cadmus Peverell.

At the bottom of the page were artists' impressions of these two items. Harry didn't pay much attention to the locket, though he noticed the engraving in the form of a snake. The ring was topped with a stone, bearing what Harry assumed to be some sort of family crest: a triangle with a circle inside, touching all three sides, and a vertical line slicing from the top of the triangle to the base. Harry touched the page at that exact point.

"That stone…" he whispered. "Do you think?" He wasn't sure if he really believed it, but he wanted to believe. He wanted for there to be a way to reverse death. He wanted it more badly than anything else he had ever wanted.

Ted seemed to be focusing on something else, though, his brow furrowed in thought. "I don't know… But I know I've seen that symbol before…" he pointed at the Peverell crest, his finger hovering above Harry's. "I can't remember where. It may have been a book. But I know I've seen it before, and not connected with the Peverells."

Harry didn't know what to think. About anything. Was he somehow connected to the Gaunts? He wondered if this Morfin man was still alive. Daphne's dad worked at the ministry. Could he find that out for him? That would require him to tell Daphne, but he figured she'd earned it. With resolve, he snapped the book shut, almost catching Ted's finger.

"Hey, watch it," he said with a laugh.

"Sorry," Harry replied sheepishly. "Can I keep this for a little longer?" he asked. "I kind of want to know more about some of the other families. You know, the ones we have classmates from…" he added with a grin.

Ted nodded. "Keep it until the end of term. It's not like I can go put it back before then." They gathered their things and began walking back to the school. Harry was deep in thought, and Ted respected his silence, walking amiably by his side.

As they went through the gates, Harry resolved to update Daphne on this, and enlist her help. He'd already asked her father to do something, though, and he was going to have him over later in the summer. Daphne spoke kindly of him, but Christian Greengrass was not Harry Potter's goffer, and he needed to think of some suitable way to repay the favours.

Harry didn't say much until dinner, and Daphne clearly noticed, but a look from Ted told her to say nothing. Her patience was rewarded at the end of the meal, as the trio made their way out of the great hall.

"We need to talk," he said. "Not here. Let's find somewhere we can talk privately. I have something very important I need to talk to you about," he added, meeting Daphne's and Ted's eyes in turn.

Ted seemed to sense Harry was going to let Daphne into his confidence on this issue, and nodded, glad he was being brought along. They quickly found a disused classroom, to which Harry applied various privacy charms.

"When did you learn those charms?" Ted asked, sounding impressed.

Harry grinned. "Learned them from our friendly Ravenclaw prefect." After a pause he went on. "Well, I looked them up in the library after seeing him do it. I figured they'd come in handy seeing as I'm having secret meetings all the time," he added with a grin. They really were extremely useful. The trio took their seats before Harry turned to Daphne. He paused for a second, wondering how to approach this.

"Daphne, would you still be my friend if there was something dark about me?" he asked, having picked his approach.


I'm finishing by reiterating my appeal for a beta. I have a pretty good idea of where I'm taking this story now, and first year should be wrapped up in two or three chapters before the really interesting stuff begins to happen on second year.

I welcome all kinds of reviews, but especially for this chapter, due to the lack of a beta, I know criticism will be warranted at several points, so please let me know where I can improve.