"What is it saying now?" Asked his little brother causing Harry to groan. His family had kept Harry hostage for 3 hours, asking him about Parseltongue, snakes, and whatnot.
"It's just hissing in comfort, not every hiss is a word or a phrase." He repeated for the 20th time. Out of all his siblings, Lynx was the most enthusiastic about the snake, with Lyra being the less.
"Are you going to keep it? I'd rather you didn't." That was a good question. By the looks of it, if he let the snake stay with him, it'd start to bond with him. He didn't mind having a snake as a familiar, but what he did mind, was not having Hedwig as his familiar. He really missed his winged friend. However, he also knew how cruel it was to refuse an animal's attempt to bond with you, those animals usually died.
"If it doesn't leave and starts the familiar bond, I'll keep it." He answered while looking at the snake perched on his shoulders. It was completely white and had pitch-black eyes, it was 3 feet long, and had 2 small horn-like protuberances above its head.
"I hope it leaves then." Came his sister's, Lyra, reply.
"Come on sister! Why do you dislike it so much? It's Beautifull!" Her twin answered.
"Well, yes, but its eyes unsettle me, I feel like they judge me every time it looks at me."
"Maybe it's a magical species. Do you know what breed it is Brother?" Asked lynx.
"Noup, I haven't read much about snakes. Let me ask." He concentrated and started to speak in parseltongue. "I know you're resting, but can you tell me the name of your species?" The snake answered without bothering to lift her head from where it was resting or opening its eyes.
"yes, human," it answered.
Harry waited for a few seconds, and when no more information was granted, he asked again.
"Well? What kind of snake are you?"
"The best kind." Harry could feel a vein popping on his forehead.
"And what kind of snake is the best kind?"
"Mine."
"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" he asked exasperated
"I don't know what you're talking about human. Now, if you're done with your foolish questions, I'd like to return to my rest." That's it, he was going to skin the little bugger.
"so? What kind of breed does it belong to?" Demanded his brother.
"it doesn't know. it was cast out of its nest due to being too bothersome." The aforementioned snake let an indignant hiss at that.
"Watch your tongue human, I don't like being insulted."
"If you don't like being insulted, then answer my questions." The snake again hissed, but it sounded more resigned than anything else.
"I'm a horned snake, but my stay in magical places turned my scales white." Harry was confused, he didn't magic could do that.
"I never heard of something like that happening."
"It's unusual, but not unheard of." The snake hissed softly and went back to sleep.
"Thanks for answering." He hissed to the snake. "It's a horned snake with Michael Jackson's syndrome." He Answered Lynx's previous question.
"What do you mean Michael Jackson's syndrome?" it was his twin who asked the question this time, raising her eyes from the book she had been reading while the rest of them talked.
"She was born with other colours, but circumstances turned her white." Aria raised an eyebrow at his answer.
"I never heard of such a thing before."
"Neither had I, but that's what the snake told me." his sister nodded and returned to her book. Harry wanted to pout, from the looks of it, none of them knew who Michael Jackson was, making his joke fly over their heads. Even if it was a bad joke, He felt insulted when no one realize it was a joke.
The next few days went flying for Harry. They usually started with the family having breakfast together, and after that, he and Aria would go exercise for an hour or 2 depending on their mood. In the afternoon, they would each go and do whatever, Harry usually used this time to get to know more of his new family. Before and after dinner, he would study with his twin, she liked to cuddle with him while they read.
This routine, however, was broken on the day of the twins' birthday. Harry was awakened by a hyperactive Hera jumping on his bed yelling Happy birthday and whatnot, and his twin experienced something similar, but she was dealing with the younger twins instead.
"Happy birthday son!" said his father greeting him before hugging him. "I can't believe you and your sister are already eleven! I remember the times when you 2 would come to your mother's and my room in the middle of the night because you disagreed on something you read, and wanted us to decide who was in the right. It was both irritating and amusing." Harry and Aria, who had gotten there before he did, blushed at the mention of such actions. They were too competitive when it came to matters of knowledge. He was about to answer when his mother came and hugged him from behind.
"Happy birthday, Harry," she said softly. "How do you and your sister want to spend the day?" Asked Lily after guiding the twins to the dining room.
"Today we are supposed to get our Hogwarts letters, can we go to Diagon after that?" came Aria's reply.
"I don't think we should, yesterday was Lombottom's birthday and his lot is probably going to be going to the alley today. If we go, we will have to deal with them, the press, his fans, and all their bullshit" To be honest, Harry just wanted to spend his first birthday with a family with said family, and no one else. He also knew that if the Lombottoms said something to his family he would react badly, and he didn't want to make a scene.
"Oh! Come on brother, we can deal with them just fine. Also, It's been some time since we made fun of him. He's been avoiding us ever since you threw your Olympic torch to him after he insulted dad." The entire family laughed at the memory of that.
He had been 8 at the time, and he was running around with a torch saying that he was an Olympic champion, when he heard Neville saying that his father was trying to convince the head Auror to fire Harry's father because he was showing him up. Harry, not liking what he heard, started towards him, and when he was close enough, he dropped the torch on the lower part of Longbottom's robes. The chaos that ensued from his actions had his family, who had been watching the whole situation, torn between laughing and scolding him. Neville screaming like a little girl didn't help when it came to the laughing.
"Fine, let's go, but don't blame me if I set him on fire again." He conceded saying the last part with some mirth in his voice.
"Try and do something new this time, we don't want you to be labelled as a dangerous pyromaniac, at least not yet." His sister said, to which they laughed.
Halfway through breakfast, Sirius, dai, and their daughter came in and congratulated the twins. Sirius having a daughter had been quite the shock to say the least, she was 6-years-old, and the little tyke already had the entire clan wrapped around her little finger. Looking at her he got an idea.
"Padfoot, today we are going to Diagon alley to buy our school supplies. I bet 10 galleons Neville is going to piss me off and I'm going to put him in his place."
"If you want 10 galleons you can just ask, there's no need to try and scam me." Harry pouted at that.
"Fine, be that way. Next time little Ivary asks me for a fly though, I'm telling her that we can't go for one because her father is a coward." Sirius choked on the waffle he was eating. His daughter loved to fly, especially with Harry. if anything got in the way of her fun, she was going to make it everybody's problem, which will in turn make it his problem.
"you wouldn't!" He said scared.
"you better bet your ass I would."
"Alright, alright, I'll take the bet." He grumbled something nasty about cruel godsons when he saw Harry's triumphant face.
That was the moment when the Hogwarts owl entered the kitchen. Everyone immediately got to their feet and waited for the twins to pick up their respective letters.
Everyone was celebrating, and the twins got immediately kicked out of the kitchens so they could go get ready to go to the alley.
'I better get ready in case I have to put up a show' harry thought while he was donning a well-tailored set of robes.
