Author's Note: G Fawkes - No! Don't quit nitpicking! Keep it up, I said it keeps me on my toes. It's just another couple of chapters. You'd make a great beta if that interests you.
The Other Heir
Draco woke up in a luxurious king-sized bed. He stretched out and felt the soft wool blanket he was covered in. He felt very well rested and this bed was certainly more comfortable than where he had been when he fell asleep.
The reminder of where he had been previously and that he had probably been stunned rather than fallen asleep had him sit up fast and look around. He was in a king-sized bed in a well-upholstered room, but an entire wall was taken up by dark iron bars. On the other side of those bars were Arcturus Black, Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter, Lyra Black, and that damned demiguise.
"You're awake, good," Arcturus told him. "Let's get this started."
Draco was looking around for an escape that wasn't there, so he fell back on an old reaction, "Just wait for my father to hear about this!"
"Your father has been summoned and is on his way, Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore told him. "Professor Snape will be acting as your guardian until he arrives."
"Come here, boy," Arcturus ordered him. When he didn't get out of the bed, Arcturus tried to reassure him. "Don't worry, I have already resolved not to kill you, as you did save Lyra, even if a lot of it was just self-preservation."
Draco smiled and got out of the bed, shooting a smug look at Harry as he approached Arcturus. When he was at the bars, Draco's arm was grabbed and pulled through the bars, causing his head to ring on the metal.
"Be more careful with students in my care," Dumbledore warned him as his magic flared slightly.
Arcturus ignored the Headmaster, and told Draco, "You have allowed and helped facilitate an attack on your own family and those under my care. You conspired with a Dark Lord without my approval. You have let your body and mind be polluted, betraying the Black family motto. You are hereby stripped of your place in the family inheritance. Anyone with a trace of Black blood has supplanted you. The great-grandchildren of discarded squibs hold a higher place in line than you."
Arcturus still had a firm grip on Draco's arm as looks of shock and despair washed over the boy's face.
"You will not be disowned, and I have resolved not to kill you. However, you will receive The Mark." Draco looked very confused.
"Are you sure that's necessary?" Dumbledore questioned. The Headmaster's concern made Draco even more worried and afraid.
"MY family, MY rules, Albus. Go make some sprogs of your own before you think the handling of my family is incorrect," Arcturus told him.
As the boy struggled, Arcturus twisted Draco's arm and squeezed it so his hand opened up, palm to the ceiling. With his other hand, he made a series of complicated movements with his fingers as he conjured a writhing mass of dark smoke, then condensed it into a ball, jammed it into Draco's palm, and let go of his arm.
The blonde boy immediately jumped backward and shut his fist. He slowly opened his fingers to reveal a swirling blackness in his palm. He tried to grab it and rub it away with the other hand, but it just stayed there, continuously swirling in place. He tried wiping it on his clothes, on the blanket, and on the floor. Nothing got rid of it.
In a terrified voice, he asked, "What is this?"
Arcturus grew deathly serious, "It is a reminder of what you have done. Nothing can remove it and if you ever act against our family or our interests again… you will die."
"What if I don't know or I'm possessed?" Draco asked in a small voice.
"Not my problem," Arcturus replied with a shrug as the sound of boots was heard approaching them.
Lucius Malfoy came storming down the hall, with two Aurors following him. His progress was stopped as Lyra's hair burst into flame, producing bursts from the tips onto the floor, Harry pointed his staff towards the man, and the Whispers began growling. Dumbeldore walked quickly between the two groups and motioned for everyone to calm down.
Arcturus's eyes never left Lucius as he called out, "Boy! Show your father your hand!"
As Draco raised his hand, Lucius's eyes grew furious. "You marked my son? I will have your head!"
A green mist started pooling out of Arcturus's hands, though he didn't raise them, as he said, "I will be happy to face you in a real duel this time. I mostly wanted to show off my acquisition of Stevens at your trial. Mr. Potter and his sister have also recently had an encounter with someone that claims they know you. A Mr. Tom Riddle."
Lucius's face showed the smallest of eye twitches but looked confused otherwise. Harry and Lyra recognized it as an occlumency defense against showing his true reaction.
"I don't know what you're talking about," the elder Malfoy sneered.
"I have all the evidence I need," Arcturus glared at Lucius as tiny green skulls started rising from the mist pooling around him. They popped like bubbles as they rose higher. "You gave Mr. Riddle permission to kill Draco and anyone else he wanted to get what he needed. As much as Draco is your son, he is also a Black. I will be coming for you for allowing an outsider to try and kill someone from my family."
"Good luck," Lucius sneered. "Draco, I will see you after your exams. Study hard."
With that, he turned around and exited, with the Auror escort following him out.
Dumbledore looked at Arcturus as the green mist started to vanish, "I feel like I should be thanking you for not trying to kill him here. Though I would request that you do not try to leave this boy without a father, to begin with."
Drenched with sarcasm, Arcturus replied, "Your suggestion will be taken under advisement."
"Another thing before I take my leave," Dumbledore told them. "While the Unspeakables know, I think it would be best if the school does not learn of Draco's involvement in this plot. He was being possessed by Voldemort after all. He will need to be able to complete the remainder of his time at Hogwarts without harassment from his peers."
"What are you suggesting, Albus?" Snape asked curiously.
"There are plenty of rumors spreading now of who exited the Chamber of Secrets with Mr. Potter. I suggest we add Mr. Malfoy's name to the list as one who helped, not hindered him in his efforts."
There was a near explosive response from Harry and Lyra. After they finally calmed down, Arcturus told Dumbledore, "If you do this, I expect no pushback from you on some of my other endeavors. Do we have an understanding?"
Dumbledore looked conflicted but nodded. Harry and Lyra tried to object, but Arcturus cut them off. "You don't need to be happy with this. You just need to accept it. You will know the truth, even if you can't spread it around. Draco will also know the truth and if he tries to use this to his advantage, he will suffer for it. This is happening only so he won't be killed in his sleep by other students at this school who suffered from his actions."
Harry muttered, "I'd do it while he was awake."
The blonde boy in the cell shivered at this statement and nodded. With that matter settled, Snape and Dumbledore headed out, leaving Arcturus, Harry, and Lyra with Draco staring at each other.
There was silence for quite a bit before Arcturus spoke, "I've said my piece. Lyra, Harry, do either of you have anything to say to Draco?"
Harry closed his eyes and tried to think as Lyra kept her eyes open while glaring at the boy who used to be her brother… Finally, she asked, "When we dueled, you called out for help. But you weren't trying to run away. You were asking Tom for help, weren't you?" Draco's silence gave the answer she wanted. "He threw my fire at me, not you, right?"
Draco just looked at his shoes and said nothing.
"Coward," Lyra said as she spat at his feet through the bars and then walked away, down the hallway with Whispers running after her.
Harry opened his eyes once Lyra was gone and glared at the boy behind the bars, then back at Arcturus, "Can you open the cell?"
Draco panicked and started to back away as Arcturus waved his wand and a section of the bars, not the door, vanished. Harry carefully stepped through as Draco backed up to the wall.
"That book contained the specter didn't it?" Draco didn't look at him. "Answer me!" Harry yelled.
Draco looked up fearfully and nodded.
"When Crabbe attacked Hermione, he was supposed to give her the book. Give it to her so it would possess her, right?" Draco was shaking as he nodded.
"But he forgot. That idiot was probably having too much fun hurting her and it just slipped his mind. Then, in your own words, you had to 'Do the job yourself,' isn't that right?"
"How do you know about that?" Draco asked in a panic.
"You let Riddle possess you. You wanted this. You wanted it right up until he said he was going to kill you and Lyra." A glass of water on the table next to the bed shattered as magic started rolling off Harry. Unbeknownst to him, Arcturus was grinning sinisterly at the interaction.
"So that means when the 'Heir' took me, some of that was him… and some of it was you. Tom Riddle, a teenage Voldemort," Draco still flinched at the name of the Dark Lord, "he wouldn't want any satisfaction from brutally assaulting me… but you would. You wanted to hurt me, you wanted to kill me… didn't you?" Draco was flat against the wall as waves of aggression from Harry's magic were washing over him.
"DIDN'T YOU?" Harry yelled.
Harry didn't wait for Draco to reply before punching him in the face. He continued to deliver blows to the boy's body and face until he started to slip down the wall. Not from losing consciousness, but from trying to get under the fists raining down on him. Harry took a step back and let him slide all the way down and cover his face. He was breathing heavily as Draco cowered against the wall.
"And it was you, wasn't it, that cast the cutting spell at me during the dueling club? We were all having fun, and you had to ruin it. Diffindo!" Harry slashed with his wand and a red line swept between him and Draco slicing into the boy's leg, causing him to scream in pain. "There, now we are even. I haven't done anything to you that you didn't do to me first. Tell people you got injured from the basilisk if you want. You'll need to sell the story that you were somehow involved in helping, as Dumbledore said and not the one who was responsible."
Arcturus quickly wiped the grin off his face before Harry turned around and exited the space between the bars, then with a wave of his wand, the bars were back like they had always been there.
"Elf!" Arcturus called and one popped in. "Please summon a healer. It seems like Mr. Malfoy tripped and injured himself."
As he walked Harry out of the holding cell area, Arcturus conjured a cloth and gently cleaned the blood from Harry's knuckles and performed a few healing spells on them. "You did a good thing. You didn't get revenge. You got justice for yourself and your family. Nothing more than he did to you. There's nothing more important than family. Go back to your common room and enjoy your victory."
Victory… that is what this was. From the moment the basilisk died, Harry had felt a weight lift from his shoulders. It was a combination of everything that had happened so far during the year and the fulfillment of the promise he had made to the Usurper so many years ago. Now that he had delivered justice on Draco for what he had done, he felt like he was walking on air, slightly in a trance as he returned to the Scamander common room.
The entire day, everyone had been avoiding him. Not just him, but also Lyra, Greg, and Hermione. So as they walked through the halls, people saw them and whispered, but they didn't approach. Back in the common room, a thought came to him and he approached the record player in the corner and leafed through the collection. One of the albums that Moody, while disguised as the record store clerk, had recommended to him was from a woman named Shirley Bassey. He had enjoyed the album quite a bit, though there was one song on the album that he had felt like a final victory and it didn't connect with him until now.
So now, after being told he had been victorious, he put on "Jezahel" and leaned back against one of the trees in the room to listen. When it got to the next song, he just pulled out his wand and levitated the needle back to the beginning, and started it again. He repeated that over and over until he fell asleep against the tree trunk.
The next day, The Daily Prophet stirred up everything again.
Harry Potter, to be a balance against Evil.
Revelations of what may have set You-Know-Who against him:
The Boy-Who-Lived is a Parselmouth!
This year at Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had already started off with a bang as the conqueror of the Dark Lord returned to our shores and immediately set our curiosity ablaze by confronting Lucius Malfoy in an impromptu duel with the man over his disowned daughter who he claimed to be a squib. Not only was this hilariously false due to Miss Lyra Black's incredible magical prowess, but late in the year, she trounced Mr. Malfoy's son in a duel at the Hogwarts Dueling Club.
Harry Potter continued to turn heads by being involved with an incredibly innovative ritual blessing at the newly founded Scamander common room, progressing to the third-year level in dueling, a possible clothing line, and hints at potion patents that may even outshine his ancestor - the inventor of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion.
Where does his power stem from? It may be a result of an ancient and powerful gift that allows him to speak with snakes. Harry Potter is a Parselmouth.
Recent British history has us all in fear of this rare magical talent due to the Dark Lord who was feared so much that we don't even say his name a decade after his death. However, studying history shows us a rich account of Parselmouths who benefited society.
Many of our readers have heard infamous legends regarding the Dark Sorcerer, Herpo the Foul. The man who eventually defeated him is known throughout the magical and muggle world by the name Asclepius. A healer who laid the foundation for much of today's healing magic is known through the muggle world for doing the same. His symbol, a staff wrapped with a snake, is seen on muggle healers around the world. What seems to be left out of magical history too often, is that he too was a Parselmouth.
There have been a few Dark Wizards who spoke with the serpent tongue, but there have always been those who fought against them and many of them have been blessed with the same gift. The Dark Witch Ketu was eventually stopped by Caduceus the Noble Thief, both Parselmouths. There are also many others who speak Parseltongue around the world who use their gift to help procure snake venoms to produce antidotes where none could be coaxed from the fangs of local predators.
It is likely that The Dark Lord He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named sought out Harry Potter and his family due to the gift in his blood. At the Daily Prophet, we reached out to the Department of Mysteries to see if this may be a likely scenario and received no denial. It may also be possible that You-Know-Who went after him instinctively, without knowing of the gift the child possessed. We may never be sure.
However, we do know that the troubles at Hogwarts have ended. On Saturday the basilisk in the school interrupted a dueling tournament and petrified nearly every living soul at Hogwarts. After a fierce battle in the hallways, it was able to petrify the famous Newton and Porpentina Scamander, and the non-living spirit of History Professor, Cuthbert Binns.
Following the attack, Harry Potter, along with the Black Heiress and the young woman he proclaims to be his sister in all but blood, Lyra Black, Gregorious Goyle Jr, Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger of the Velasco Line, and Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, Acclaimed Adventurer and Author - Gilderoy Lockhart discovered the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and fought the monster within. We have received unconfirmed reports that the son of Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy was also involved in the slaying of the creature, possibly trying to make up for his father's shortcomings.
Sadly, as part of the battle, Gilderoy Lockhart was killed and Neville Longbottom is undergoing care at St. Mungo's Hospital. An unknown individual who had been claiming to be the Heir of Slytherin was also killed in the battle.
Mr. Harry Potter has also brought another revelation to the magical world which has been confirmed by Famed Magizoologist, Newton Scamander; Roosters can not kill a basilisk. Our reporters spoke briefly with Mr. Scamander, the newest Founder of a Hogwarts House, "It was a shock to me. However, Mr. Potter had spent time with a magical serpent of unknown origins. After consulting the original texts that pointed to a Rooster as the slayer we thought it was, the description more closely resembled this creature, and it makes infinitely more sense. After our initial request to bring in the animal was denied by the Ministry, the Black Family helped us bring it in on our own to combat the threat against Hogwarts. In the end, Harry Potter was involved primarily in the battle and the basilisk was nearly dead when this kingsbane struck the final blow. It is now under the care of Hogwarts.
"My wife, who is still receiving medical care at Hogwarts, and I briefly fought the creature and I believe it to be the largest and oldest recorded basilisk in history at approximately eighty to ninety-five feet and at least 1,000 years old."
Newton Scamander refused to provide us with more information and it is unknown at this time why the deadly creature only petrified those that it came in contact with instead of killing them. Again, we reached out to the Department of Mysteries to ask why this phenomenon occurred and was told that it was because of "Reasons."
We will continue to update you, our readers, on additional developments in the situation, but know now that our children at Hogwarts are now safe due to the efforts of Harry Potter, Lyra Black, and their friends.
For more information on famous Parselmouths and their contributions to the magical world, see Page 8.
For eye-witness reports on the basilisk-killing snake, see Page 9
For the Obituary of Gilderoy Lockhart, turn to the centerfold for a special insert.
After the article came out, Harry and Lyra could not even get peace while in class. No one was paying attention to their professors. Snape had given detentions to everyone in the room with the exception of them and no one seemed to care. Eventually, he just dismissed the class rather than deal with the situation. There was no peace to be found in the library and Madam Pince threw them out as they were the source of the problem. They eventually found respite in the Hospital Wing.
Out of all the adults at Hogwarts, it seemed like the scariest one was the woman who took care of the injured. Harry and Lyra were allowed to stay on the condition that they didn't make any noise and just studied quietly. Severus would have been extremely jealous to see students running in fear from a single look from the pleasant-looking Madam Pomfrey. While he had to work to maintain his evil persona, she didn't have to be surrounded by darkness or threaten to poison people's pets to keep students shaking in their boots. The two of them just sat next to Tina Scamander while she slept and made sure they were ready for exams.
When it was almost dinner and they would need to face the rest of the students again, they heard the sound of running in the hallway and prepared for Pomfrey to send another student packing. However, when the person arrived at the doors, they saw an adult. He was tall, about as tall as Dumbledore with his hat on. He was dressed like a muggle, in a tight-fitting t-shirt and blue jeans, and reminded Harry a bit of when he met Charlie Weasley but this man was like three of him pushed together.
He looked in Harry's direction and called out, "Mom!" then, with thundering footfalls, ran across the room towards the two children.
He ended up completely ignoring them as he knelt down next to Tina as she was waking up. She looked up to him and smiled, "Hey there little lion."
"The papers say you fought a basilisk… Please tell me it isn't true."
"Alright," she shrugged and groaned at the movement, "It isn't true."
"Mom, this isn't right. You are ninety-one years old. You need to stop playing adventurer."
A grim look crossed her face as she replied, "First of all, I am ONLY ninety-one years old. Your father and I are already planning a trip this summer to Indonesia to see if we can find the Bukanawa. Second, I was at a school not on one of your family adventures chasing down dragons and elementals, I did not expect to be running into a basilisk personally and we had only done so to protect school children. Finally, and most importantly, you are not the boss of me."
They continued to bicker for a few minutes before Newt showed up with a very fit, dark-skinned woman and boy, younger than Lyra, who had his mother's complexion and Newt's features underneath round eyeglasses. He spotted Tina and called out "Vovaw!" then ran across the room and jumped onto her bed. The large man caught the boy at the last second and stopped him from landing.
"Vovaw is hurt. You can't jump on her right now. If she keeps doing dangerous things, you may not be able to jump on her ever again."
The little boy's eyes began to water, but before he could say anything else, he looked over at the other two children sitting there, staring at them, and said loudly, "You're Harry Potter!"
The large man turned to them, and said, "Oh sorry about that. Family drama and all. I'm -"
"You're Guryon!" Lyra exclaimed. "From the Adventures of Guryon in Teen Witch Weekly!"
"Yeah, I guess I am," he replied. "Though I am also Guryon Scamander. Newt and Tina are my parents."
Lyra's eyes widened as she looked between all the Scamanders in the room. The boy was still staring at Harry in as much awe as Lyra was at his father.
"Do you really have a demiguise like Vovoh?" the boy asked Harry.
"He means my father," Guryon clarified.
"We do," Harry told him, gesturing to Lyra. "He's our little brother."
He turned to his father with big eyes, and asked, "When can I have a demiguise too?"
The boy's mother approached, Harry noticed Tina squint unpleasantly as she got near, "We can't give you a demiguise, docinho. They are not pets. You may one day make friends with one." She turned to Tina and gave her a curt nod, "It's good to see you and I do hope you recover quickly."
Tina started to grumble something but was interrupted by her son, "Mr. Potter, Miss Black, my parents have told me a little about the two of you. This is my wife, Janaína Silva Scamander, and our son Rolf."
Rolf looked over to Lyra, "Do you like the articles about my dad? I wrote them."
"You did?" Lyra looked surprised.
"He sure does," Guryon smiled proudly. "We have someone who edits them a bit to make them more suitable for a wide audience, but he's quite the little reporter."
Newt pulled up a chair and sat down, with Rolf moving around the bed to jump on his lap. He smiled at the young boy who shared his face, "Maybe you want to write something about Vovo's fight with the basilisk?"
Harry and Lyra started to back off a bit as it seemed like the happy family needed their alone time. There was some sort of contention going on between Tina and Janaína, but it was unclear why. As they were almost out of the infirmary, Guryon ran up to them.
"Hey there, I didn't mean to run the two of you off. Rolf wants to spend some time with his grandparents, but I need to go blow off some steam. Where's the gym in this school?"
"We've got a climbing gym, does that work?" Harry asked.
"No, no, like a gym gym. Weights, mats, bars, all that…" Seeing their reaction, he looked surprised, "No gym? I saw the two of you and assumed that there was something. Well, take me to this climbing gym of yours."
Lyra smiled as they walked back to the common room. This was Guryon! All those things that were in the kids' books about her brother, Harry, he had actually done. He had tamed hippogriffs, stolen treasure from dragons, rode kelpies, and much more. Harry was happy because the man's presence was keeping all the other students away as they walked.
When they got to the first crossroads in the Scamander maze, Guryon took a look at the tall bamboo, and said, "Daintree rainforest? I was eight years old when mom and dad went there. So I assume we have to follow a special route to get where we need to go?"
Harry nodded and led them to the climbing gym. This was Neville's climbing gym and he still hadn't woken up from whatever Lockhart had done. Guryon looked around the room and frowned.
"Not much to do here… walls are too short for a good long climb, nothing too difficult. Is that an endless rope climb there? I guess that will have to do." He walked over to the hanging rope and started to climb. When he got near the top, the rope started to move downwards to give him more space to continue. He looked down at Harry and Lyra, "Can you come back and get me in an hour? Otherwise, I'd probably do this forever."
They nodded in awe. Harry had been able to go as long as twenty minutes of continuous climbing on the rope, and Lyra about twenty-five. An hour? Well, that was a new challenge they'd have to work their way up to. So, in the meantime, Harry and Lyra went back to the common room to hang out with Whispers. However, when they got to the main room, Greg was waiting there, pacing.
"There you are!" he said. "I saw you go into the room, but I didn't know where you went. Some Slytherins are outside who want to talk to you, Harry."
"What do they want?" Lyra asked.
"They want to talk to Harry," Greg said nervously.
"And they just sent you in? I'll go talk to them but what are you getting out of being their owl?" Harry asked.
"Nothi…" Greg stopped. "I'll be right back."
A minute later, Greg returned with a smirk, "So, you'll go talk to them?"
"Want to come?" Harry asked his sister.
"If you're not back in an hour, I'll burn their common room to ashes through the well," she smiled then ran off to their favorite tree to play with Whispers.
Veronica Ward, Marcus Flint, and Gemma Farley were there to meet Harry as Greg walked him back out. Marcus nodded in thanks to Greg and then glared at him until he went back inside the maze.
"Harry," Gemma started, "Veronica and Marcus are the seventh-year prefects for Slytherin. They wanted to bring you to a meeting."
Of course, Harry already knew that watching their house meetings through the well, but he wasn't about to admit that.
"When is the meeting?" he asked.
"Now," Marcus informed him.
"That doesn't sound like an invitation," Harry replied.
"It's not," Veronica said with a hard tone. "It's more of a summons."
Gemma made a pleading look with her face, so Harry told them, with a shrug, "Ok, but I need to be back in an hour or Lyra is going to burn down the castle looking for me."
Marcus and Veronica smiled as if it were a joke, until they caught the eye of Gemma who gave them a very serious nod.
"Fine, we'll have you back in an hour," Veronica told him and started leading the way to the stairs to the dungeons.
When they got to the third sublevel, they passed a blindfold to Harry and told him to put it on. He had been exploring long enough that he could probably navigate the halls in the dark, so decided to attempt it. Putting on the blindfold, Gemma started to reach out to his shoulder, but he began to walk ahead towards Snape's classroom. When they were almost there, Marcus called for him to stop.
"How do you know the way to our common room while you can't see?" he demanded.
He smiled, knowing that Marcus would see his smirk, "Is this the way? I just assumed it was near the Potions classroom and you didn't stop me if it was the wrong way. Seems like a Slytherin thing to do to have Snape be the gatekeeper for your dorms. Thanks for confirming it."
There was the sound of Marcus getting swatted in the head, probably by Veronica, as she was heard saying, "Nice going, idiot."
A hand fell on Harry's shoulder and he heard Gemma's voice, "I'm going to walk you the rest of the way, ok?"
They continued going towards the common room and went on some extra loops through random corridors, rather than taking the direct route until they stopped. Harry swung his foot forward and it hit a wall in front of him.
Gemma told him, "We're at the entrance now. The paper said you are a Parselmouth, and we think you'd be able to open our common room without the normal password. Do you think you can give it a try?"
Harry nodded with his blindfold on. Remembering Riddle's extra password for theatrical effect to open the statue's mouth, he decided to try the same thing with this door.
§I'm a little teapot, short and stout.§
§Here is my handle, here is my spout.§
§Open.§
He could feel Gemma's hand on his shoulder trembling as he spoke and knew he was getting the desired effect as they had no idea what he was saying. He swung his foot forward again and it passed through where the wall had been before. Gemma started walking him through the portal and into the common room. He could hear whispering all around him as he walked through the room, some of it was from students, others were from the snakes in terrariums against the walls, and all of it seemed to be tinged with fear in one way or another.
"I'm going to take off the blindfold now," Gemma told him.
The blindfold came off and Harry found himself surrounded by all the students of Slytherin. He looked around him and his back was to the window to the lake. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but he spotted Severus standing in the corner watching and relaxed a little. Far away, in a dark corner sat Draco, Vincent, and that Pansy girl that was always hanging around with them. Close to the front sat Blaise, Daphne, Tracey, Cho, and the Carrow twins. Harry looked up at Marcus and raised his eyebrows to say, "Well?"
Veronica addressed the gathering, "We asked Mr. Potter here today to discuss the events of the last few days. We have confirmed that he is a Parselmouth and that he does seem to have unrestricted access to our common room, without knowing the password."
That set off quite a bit of murmuring among the students until Marcus shushed them with a glare, "He also killed off Salazar Slytherin's basilisk and whoever the Heir was. I think he should answer those charges."
There was a great amount of acknowledgment to that. It seemed like quite a few of the students in the room thought that he had done something wrong through his actions… though a thought occurred to him. "What's worse?" Harry asked. "The killing of the basilisk or the Heir?"
That set off a quick debate which ended with the sixth-year prefect saying, "The Heir. Had he revealed himself, he would have been Slytherin royalty. The basilisk was just following his orders."
"So what you're saying is the worst crime is the killing of the Heir?" there were murmurs of consent around the room. "Well that wasn't me," Harry said simply. "Draco did that."
The whole room turned to the boy in the back of the room. The light in the room seemed to shift to remove the shadows and highlight him and his friends. Harry could see he was still a bit bruised from his beating and was wearing a dark gray glove on the hand which had Arcturus's mark. He was shaking again under the gaze of so many as Harry smirked.
"After the basilisk was dead, he stabbed the Heir with a basilisk fang that I had knocked out of its mouth during the fight," Harry told them.
"Who was the Heir?" someone asked Harry.
Snape stepped forward, "Their name will not be revealed. It was a Hogwarts alumnus who had snuck back in to try and steal the basilisk for some nefarious purpose. Whether or not they were a true Heir of Slytherin is unknown. As you have probably read in the paper, there are many Parselmouths from all over the world, almost all of them are unrelated to our house's founder."
"We can deal with Draco later," Marcus sneered at the boy in the corner. "Let's finish with Potter first."
Someone in the crowd spoke up, "We need to know he won't come in whenever he wants."
"Or bring others in!" said someone else.
"Especially the Weasley Twins!" another random student yelled. There was a collective shiver through the room in agreement.
"Well, what do I get out of it?" Harry asked. "Rule number five, right?"
"Hey! What the hell? How do you know that?" someone shouted.
"I propose we let him come in," Hayden spoke up. Many people started objecting, but he continued. "He's basically a Slytherin already; he's a Parselmouth, he knows our rules, and he's been in the Chamber of Secrets. Give him and Miss Black access to the common room, our dueling club, the library, and anything else he wants. Then if he violates that trust, we just take it all away."
"Why should we let the Black girl in too?" someone asked.
"Do you really think he wouldn't bring her? She's also the Black heiress, they are pretty much legacies." Hayden replied. "Instead of them sneaking in, just give them permission."
That all sounded good to Harry, but he decided to stir the pot a little more, "I've heard you have a snake fighting pit too."
Veronica groaned, "Why do you know everything about us? Why do we even have secrecy rules if you know it all already? Look, I know Professor Snape and the Baron…" she was interrupted by Tracey clearing her throat in an obvious way. "I'm sorry, Professor Snape and Mr. Constantine has been pushing us to stop doing votes and consensuses, but since this affects all of us, we do need some kind of agreement on what is going to happen. Raise your hands if you're in favor of giving Potter and Black access to the common room?"
The vote was split. There were slightly more people in favor of letting them in, but there needed to be a clear majority for them to be alright with it or there would be consistent fighting to get rid of them.
One of the opponents of the vote asked, "I just don't think there's enough in it for us. So what if he gives out access to our common room? That will just mean Gryffindorks ending up spending time in the Hospital Wing for challenging us on our home pitch. Only dunderheads would attack a snake in its nest."
That got a lot of agreement, and someone spoke up, "He's a Parselmouth, what can he do for us with that?"
"That's the next thing I was going to ask about," Veronica added. "There's a new serpent below our school, the thing that killed the basilisk. We are still the House of Snakes, and even if we no longer have a basilisk down there, it's not like we had a connection with it in the first place. I want at least some of us to get to know this creature."
That seemed to spark a lot of interest and Harry quickly looked to his friends and Gemma, before saying, "I'll need to think about who I should bring. The Usurper doesn't really like people."
"That's its name?" someone asked, "Kinda badass."
"I need to get going," Harry told them. "Before Lyra sets something on fire."
He started to head towards the exit. Gemma started to walk with him but was cut off by Snape. When the two of them were outside, Severus told him, "Well that was interesting, I think your intimidation classes have paid off."
Harry nodded, "I still plan on sitting in your chair though."
"You're still a long way off from that," Snape said with a smirk. "Tomorrow night you have another meeting. Dumbledore wants you to take us down to the Chamber to meet the new resident of Hogwarts. Will that be enough time to choose Blaise, Daphne, Tracey, and Gemma to be Slytherin's appointees to meet the Usurper as well?"
Harry smiled innocently, "Maybe I'll let them ask first…"
"You do that. Now go keep your sister from burning down my common room."
Harry and Lyra found Guryon where they had left him, still on the rope, but with his shirt off and a puddle of sweat on the mat below him. He had the physique that said he wrestled trolls for fun. He saw the two of them enter and dropped about fifteen feet onto the soft enchanted floor, getting absorbed up to his knees before he sprung back up and jumped over to them.
"I guess it's that time already," he said with a smile. "Never enough time in the day to totally tire me out."
They weren't quite sure how to respond to that and just stayed silent.
"So… you two took on a basilisk? What was that like?" he asked.
"I didn't do much," Lyra told him sheepishly.
"You set it on fire," Harry countered. "While you were paralyzed."
"What? How?" he was clearly interested.
Lyra focused for a moment and her hair burst into flames. She swung her braids back and forth and spun in a circle to show him.
"Incredible! Are you part Heliopath?" At their confusion, he added, "Magical horse, that can set its mane on fire."
"We've seen ones that have a blue fire on their mane and feet," Harry replied, remembering the coach that they saw Blaise's mother arrive in on Valentine's day.
"Not the same," Guryon shook his head. "Those are just regular horses that someone altered with magic to have blue fire coming off them. Most likely they won't be able to reproduce unless the owner has a special breeding license. So if it wasn't that, how did you do it?" he asked Lyra.
She explained to him about the hoohoos and the feathers and how she eventually took them out of her hair and kept the effect.
"That's a rare talent," he whistled. "Not just that you managed to do it without a wand, but also without your hands. Most strong wizards eventually figure out some kind of wandless casting even if it's just pushing things around, but they still need to direct the magic with their hands. However, if you think about it, once you don't need a wand, why would you need your hands?"
"Can you do anything?" Lyra asked.
"Yeah, but kind of useless. I first did it when Rolf was a baby and I was trying to get him to stop crying, but then once it happened I continued to practice until I could do it easily." He motioned for them to step back a bit.
Once he had some space, he made a popping noise with his mouth and small bubbles started to come out. They all had a sheen of random colors and when they popped they sparkled in the same color. He gave a bow as Harry and Lyra clapped.
"Thank you, though I need a shower now. Do you know where my parents' apartment is in the castle? I assume they're living here and not the village."
They led him up to the office, which let him in and then went about their evening.
The following day was chaotic. Every moment they were out of class, there were groups of Slytherin students clamoring to be part of the group that could visit the Chamber of Secrets. There were many attempts to bribe Harry with favors, money, History essays, and more. He declined all of them. He briefly met with Tracey during lunch and told them that they would be going down to the Chamber after dinner and to meet outside the room where Lyra's birthday party was.
That would have ended up being all of them, but during dinner, they had a last-minute surprise. Because they were going right to the Chamber afterwards, Whispers had come along with them to dinner. In the middle of the meal, Hayden, along with Theo and the two boys he normally hung out with, came in carrying a huge platter of fruits, cheeses, and sweets arranged in a giant pyramid which the Hufflepuffs placed in front of Whispers. He stared at it with enormous eyes before taking a slice of watermelon and eating it.
"Sir Whispers," Hayden bowed deeply as the entire hall stared at him. "I was hoping you would convince your brother and sister to let me accompany you on your excursion this evening."
Whispers looked a bit confused, as there were a couple of complicated words in the mix. However he understood that the boy was talking to him and it was something about Harry and Lyra, so he looked to them for help. It wasn't that much of a problem, because he wasn't really talking to the demiguise, just showing the proper respect so Harry and Lyra would pay attention to his request.
Lyra stopped Harry from immediately saying yes and had a silent conversation for a minute, just to keep him on edge, before whispering to him the meeting location.
Following dinner, the group assembled in the hallway near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. They consisted of Arcturus Black, Brandt, Augustus Stevens, Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Newt Scamander, Gemma Farley, Hayden Colton, Blaise Zabini, Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, Greg Goyle Jr, Hermione Granger, Lyra Black, Sir Whispers, and Harry Potter.
Harry looked at the assembled group and had a chuckle and when Lyra raised an eyebrow, he whispered to her, "A very weird Fellowship." She smiled as well.
The group entered the bathroom to find Moaning Myrtle standing next to the ruined sinks smiling and humming a happy tune. When she saw the group coming she turned and saw Harry, and frowned, "Oh, you're alive. When none of you came back up the pipe, I was hoping at least a few of you would join me in death… forever."
"Sorry?" Harry replied. "Well, we did kill the basilisk and Tom. He's the one who killed you."
"Tom?" she replied. "He killed me? He would never do something like that, he was so handsome. I don't believe you."
"It's true, Miss Warren," Dumbledore added sadly. "Maybe your killer's death can finally bring you some measure of peace."
"Can you also kill Olive Hornby for me?" Myrtle asked. "I think that would allow me to pass on."
"Miss Hornby died three years ago, Miss Warren," Dumbledore told her.
Arcturus was getting a bit impatient and said angrily, "Albus, you can run therapy with this mopey ghost later. Or I can have Brandt exorcise her right now and save us all the headache of dealing with this another second."
Myrtle screamed at the mention of an exorcism and disappeared through the wall.
"That was not very nice," Dumbledore told him.
"I'm not a very nice person," Arcturus replied. "Why is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in a girl's bathroom anyway?"
Hermione raised her hand and waved it around. After getting a nod from Snape, she told them, "It was Godric Gryffindor who did it. After Slytherin left the school, Gryffindor converted the Founder's potions classroom into a latrine. That's probably why the taps never worked."
She reached over to one of the ones that was still on the destroyed sink and grabbed it with her prosthetic hand, breaking it off. There was no pipe underneath it as if someone had just mounted taps on a circular sink to make it appear like it was connected.
"Thirty points to Ravenclaw," Snape told her. "For your excellent research." He looked to Dumbledore, "With your permission, I would like to change this room into a room that is more appropriate for the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets."
Brandt leaned over to Harry, "Open the chamber before Arcturus kills everyone, please."
All the children looked over to Arcturus who was gripping his wand and grumbling. Harry turned back to the ruined sink and commanded it to open in parseltongue. The sinks separated and moved outwards, revealing the pipe downward.
"What do we do now?" Hayden asked
"We jump in," Greg replied. "I hope we end up where Hermione went though, instead of that disgusting pool."
"I'll go first," Harry told them. "If the Usurper is moving around down there, I need to inform it that I'm bringing a bunch of people."
With that said he grabbed Whispers and jumped in. The ride down was just as horrible, just as long, and he did get spit out into the disgusting water at the end. Once Augustus came out the pipe, he informed everyone that he was the last one, then looked around and asked, "Where are all the girls?"
Sure enough, Gemma, Daphne, Tracey, Hermione, and Lyra had not come out with them in the end.
"It seems like there is a gender ward that gives women a more pleasant ride down," Arcturus mused as Brandt was busy cleaning the disgusting water from all the children. His cleaning spell was not as efficient as Lockhart's, nor did it leave them with a minty smell at the end.
"Hermione knows the way to the Chamber," Harry told them as he pulled out his staff and lit up the room. "We can meet everyone there."
Harry and Greg showed them the path they took and arrived at the long hallway, decorated by the many serpents. As they walked down it, Snape and Newt seemed to be having an informal contest of who could identify more of the serpents on the walls. In the end, Snape won, as there were many more mundane snakes pictured and he was able to get them all as opposed to the few magical ones. When Harry opened the inner Chamber, Lyra and the other girls were already on the other side near the door that Hermione and the Usurper had smashed through and Lyra was talking casually to the Usurper while the others were looking at it in horror.
Even Hermione was a bit on edge as there were bits of flesh and blood hanging from the great serpent's mouth, its normally golden nose stained with crimson blood. Behind it was the corpse of the basilisk and it seemed like the kingsbane had begun its feast, starting with the tail. It had gotten about fifteen feet up from the end, with nothing but bones remaining at that end. Blood, skin, and various snake bits lay on the ground where the Usurper had been eating.
Whispers ran over to Lyra as Harry approached the feasting snake,
§Is it any good?§
The Usurper let out a satisfying hiss,
§It tastes like a lifetime of waiting and a glorious victory.§
§You have brought others to me, why?§
Remembering his recent victory following the confrontation with Draco, he replied,
§Victory does taste good.§
Harry pointed to the Headmaster,
§He is the leader of the castle above us. I don't trust him.§
§He is responsible for much of my life before the island, that I told you about.§
The Usurper let out an angry hiss as Harry pointed to Augustus who was standing there with his mouth hanging open,
§When Arcturus wants to make a statement or is feeling lazy, that man fights for him.§
§He is teaching me and Lyra how to fight as well.§
Pointing to Blaise,
§He is a friend. I gave him a piece of your shed to frighten lesser snakes.§
At Hayden,
§He seems to be plotting something for himself but is also a friend.§
§He wants to make tools to cast magic when he leaves the school.§
Pointing at Gemma,
§She is also helping me and Lyra to learn to fight.§
§She also seeks power among those around her.§
For Daphne,
§She's nice, and she can make things very very cold.§
The Usurper liked things warm, and let off a warning hiss towards Daphne that she couldn't understand, but was sufficiently frightened.
For Tracey, he smiled and said,
§She was my first friend.§
Harry turned back to the others, "I was just giving introductions, it will probably want to smell each of you, so don't be alarmed if it comes closer."
"How much of the basilisk is it going to eat?" Brandt asked. "Surely it can't eat the whole thing."
The Usurper started to move closer to the girls who backed away as Lyra tried to get them to calm down. Harry spoke to it as it was smelling the girls and getting patted on the side by Lyra. When it was done with them, it started to move back towards the men and conversed with Harry.
As it was investigating the men, Harry told Brandt, "The kingsbane thinks it will eat up to where I made the hole in its side. After that, it will eat the face of the basilisk so it can feed on the venom sacs under the eyes."
"It won't die from that?" Snape asked. "Does it need the teeth for anything? I'd like to harvest as much of the venom as I can."
Harry spoke to the Usurper before replying to Snape, "Don't take the venom from the sacs, it wants to eat them specifically and what's left of the eyes, but says that it needs some venom for… the change."
"Change?" Newt asked.
There was a brief exchange between Harry and the Snake before he replied, "The Usurper says that once the feast is done, there will be a change. It doesn't seem to know more than that, just that its mother had already gone through the change before they hatched."
Albus stepped forward, "Harry, I need to know if the students will be safe with this creature below the school. It seems to have come here from your direction, will it leave if you tell it to?"
"I don't tell it what to do, but it might leave if I ask. I think it will certainly leave if you can find another basilisk for it to kill," Harry said thoughtfully.
"I spent over a month with this snake, alone," Brandt told the Headmaster. "If you keep feeding it, I doubt there would be an issue between it and any resident of Hogwarts."
The adults went on to explore the chamber, not finding anything of interest left over from ages past. Dumbledore was able to locate a warding stone under the foot of the statue of Slytherin that controlled the passwords over the doors to the Chamber and change them to something less stupid. Harry helped to change it so that one could enter with the phrase "Kingsbane" spoken in English or Parseltongue.
Lyra was finally able to get the other students to approach the Usurper after showing how Whispers would play around with it. Hayden was ecstatic as he was allowed to collect some of the teeth that didn't have any venom in them to use as potential wand cores in his studies. Brandt mentioned that he could see the axe that Harry had thrown down in the throat of the basilisk through the broken teeth, but it was surrounded by other teeth, still dripping with venom, so it couldn't be reached.
When it was time to leave, no one knew how they were going to get out. Dumbledore reported that Fawkes, his phoenix, had gone through a burning day almost immediately after returning from the Chamber of Secrets and wouldn't be up for fire travel for another two months. The solution ended up coming from Newt.
The group headed to the exit to the water and he revealed one of his flying carpets. Dumbledore, along with Arcturus's help, established a large bubble around the entire carpet and they flew through the water.
As they went, Newt explained, "A magic carpet can't work underwater, the enchantments would fail almost instantly. So we are moving through the large bubble that Albus and Arcturus are maintaining and moving as well. Similar things have been done with broomsticks, which also won't function underwater. However, as long as there's air around these objects, they'll all work just fine."
When they landed in the courtyard, everyone started to disperse, though the Slytherins remained behind. Gemma was the first one to speak.
"Harry, Lyra, thank you. I'm not sure you understand how valuable this was for me. You've guaranteed me the position of prefect for the next two years, and hopefully, Head Girl too. If you need anything from me, do not hesitate to ask."
Hayden nodded, "If that was my goal, I'd get the position as well, but I've got other things I want to do. However, like she said, if you need anything let me know."
Daphne and Tracey were chatting with Lyra, but they each gave her a hug, then started to walk back in. Tracey diverted from her course and gave Harry a bone-crushing hug before running off and catching up with her friend. When Blaise finished speaking with Snape about something, he approached Harry and Lyra.
"Well, that was uniquely terrifying," he said with a smile. "My mother will want to talk with both of you. I assume you're taking the train before leaving for wherever you go? I'll also be sending both of you an invitation to her wedding. I'm guessing it will be shortly before school begins again in the fall."
Brandt stepped up behind them, "You can send the invitations through me and I'll make sure they're attending."
Blaise gave him a nod and wandered back into the castle. That just left Hermione.
"You know what the best thing is about the basilisk being dead?" she asked with a smirk.
Lyra smiled back, "Wait… I'll figure this out." After a moment of thinking, she started to say, "No more…"
Hermione interrupted her, yelling out, "No more bloody roosters!"
Snape smirked as he walked by, "One point to Ravenclaw for cursing."
"Sorry Professor!" Hermione looked embarrassed, then confused, calling after the scary professor, "Wait, one point TO Ravenclaw?"
Author's Note: I did tease that there was an heir of Scamander back after Harry was kidnapped, so it's not like this should be a huge surprise. It was fun to name Newt Scamander's son as he was never actually given a name in canon, just his grandson, Rolf. So we've got Newton, Guryon, and Rolf - Which is technically short for Rudolf/Hrodwulf, but I'm not sure if I'll make that part of the story or not.
Dream Castings:
Guryon Scamander - Alan Ritchson
Janaína Silva Scamander - Misty Copeland (Not technically an actress, but I think it fits well)