Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own some of the plot of this fanfic and Carya, some parts might be copied from the book (hopefully not very much. I tried to keep it to a minimum), you might notice that some people got into different houses than in the books by JKR; this has only minor reasons, but I need them to be where they are now
Author's Notes: Crap. Sorry for the delay. I'm rather busy with work at the moment and too tired to write much in the evenings if I even want to keep up to date with the stories I'm currently reading. The updates will be slower until I adjusted to the strange work I'm doing right now. Please forgive me for that.
I will let you know though that I intend to continue my series at least until the end of Book 5! I already have some vague plot outlines for many parts of the books 3, 4 and 5 but I haven't fully written them. That'll take some time.
The chapters will hopefully become longer as my writing skills increase (I'm not saying that I'm a good writer. I'm just doing this for fun and nothing else.)
Chapter 03 - Birthday Surprises or Parseltongue and Unexpected Turns
Soon it was the 31st of July, the twins birthday. They had a great breakfast and as usual the dog slept right through it. The children had named him Snuffles despite his Grim-like appearance just because they thought he was quite cute for such a big dog. It was a wonderful day and the sun was shining again after it had rained for three days non-stop. When they'd finished breakfast a few owls came flying through the open kitchen window.
Petunia immediately looked out to see if anyone had noticed the strange birds but as always her worries were totally unfounded. There were two owls. The black one was Draco's eagle owl and he was carrying two parcels. The shabby brown one was unfamiliar but she carried a small parcel and four letters.
As soon as they'd untied the parcels from Draco's owl he hooted and took off just like the other had done once Harry had untied the letters. They were from Hogwarts. One for each of them. And Draco had sent them birthday presents. Petunia then ushered the kids into the living room where Vernon and a small table with presents for each of the twins were waiting.
Their aunt and uncle had gotten them some new clothes (what an irony isn't it insert evilgrin here), a new portable CD-player, new games for Carya's computer and Harry's Playstation and a photo album with pictures of Petunia, Lily and their grandparents. They also got twenty pounds for fun when they went to buy their school supplies.
They almost got into a fight when Vernon announced that he would pay for the school supplies because the twins liked to be independent. They thought that their aunt and uncle had already spent enough money on them but they agreed that their relatives would only pay for those things on their supplies list. After opening the presents from their aunt and uncle they started on those from their friends.
They got chocolate frogs and sugar quills from Ginny, books about Quidditch for Harry purchased ('Beating the Bludgers-- A Study of Defensive Strategies in Quidditch') for Harry and Potions ('Defensive and Offensive Potions') for Carya from Hermione and from Draco they got books too. The one for Harry was on Quidditch ('Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland') and the one for Carya on hexes and curses ('The Encyclopaedia of Hexes and Curses - Part II' by Meredith Blake). That was a typical present. They were just the topics they'd talked about when they'd first met. Carya had been reading a book about hexes and Harry had been talking about quidditch to Draco.
Later that day they opened their Hogwarts letters. As always they got the list with required school supplies. It wasn't that long this time because they'd barely new subjects and the only new teacher would probably be in Defence against the Dark Arts. But some subjects needed more advanced books now. They stored the letters in their trunks and enjoyed the twins birthday.
Over the following week they practised on clearing their minds which was a necessary procedure if they wanted to speed up the animagus training. In one of those sessions Carya again felt as if she'd seen Snuffles somewhere before finding him but she couldn't follow her train of thought because aunt Petunia had just called them down for lunch. Carya brought the diary along and after lunch the four children sat in the garden.
The twins snakes were with them and they were happily hissing and slithered through the grass. When the twins suddenly stared at their pets and started laughing they got confused and curious looks from their friends. The snakes had hissed something as they were lazily lying in the afternoon sun. Ginny and Hermione were wondering why their friends were laughing all of a sudden.
Sure, they knew about the twins being able to communicate telepathically but this was somehow different. Even more scary than the telepathy thing. Carya and Harry looked at each other, blushed slightly and gave their friends an apologetic look.
"Eh, I think we have to tell you two something ... It's ...eh ... you have to promise not to freak out, okay?" Harry asked and even Carya looked very uncomfortable which was rare.
After the two girls had promised the twins fetched their snakes and sat them on their laps. "Well, you see, we don't have them just for fun. It's ... oh damnit ... we can talk to them ..." Carya said and Ginny and Hermione looked horrified. "I know, I know, Parseltongue is considered a dark trait but I don't think so. It's real fun.
And they are the most loyal pets besides owls you can find. We aren't dark, well not entirely so. Not like Voldemort, you know?" she explained and gave them a shy smile. The other girls still flinched whenever the twins used his real name instead of You-Know-Who.
"Can you promise us not to tell anyone? I mean, you are our best friends and if we get this reaction from you two then I don't want to imagine what other people might do. Probably sending us straight to Azkaban because they think we're the next Dark Lords or something like that ..." Harry said with a heavy voice and sad face.
They hadn't wanted their friends to find out like this. Hell, they hadn't wanted anyone to find out at all. They were most likely the first parselmouth since Salazar Slytherin himself and Voldemort. Ginny and Hermione were in deep thought. They both had noticed the crestfallen expressions on their friends faces at their horrified gasps.
This wasn't how it should be. They should accept this. They were friends for Merlin's sake, best friends even. It was Ginny who spoke first.
"Eh, I mean ... it's not that I don't trust you anymore ... it's just, hell, why didn't you tell us when we found out about your pets last christmas? This is ... we should have noticed ... does anyone else know? I don't think you're dark, not completely anyway. I'm only surprised, really. I still want to be your friend and I certainly won't tell anyone. I promise," Ginny told them.
"I promise too. We've been best friends from the beginning. I'm not going to throw this away just because you can talk to snakes. I mean, hell, now we have a reason for you being in Slytherin, don't we? " Hermione said teasingly. "I won't tell anyone either, promise!"
The twins were relieved. And Carya reacted completely different from her normal behaviour. She started crying and flung herself at the other girls, hugging them fiercely and telling them how glad she was to have them as friends. They told Ginny and Hermione that their cousin Dudley was the only one who had known before Hogwarts.
The twins introduced their snakes to their friends. "Eh, this is Niamh, she's a female and is Harry's. And that here is Salazar and he's mine," Carya explained.
Ginny and Hermione were startled out of their thoughts when they heard a soft hissing sound. It took a moment to realise that it wasn't only the snakes but the twins who were producing these strange tones. The two girls knew they could trust their friends but they were still a bit afraid of the whole thing.
"Don't worry, Ginny, Hermione. We only introduced you two. Want to know what they think about you? Harry said and when both girls nodded he told them. "Well, Niamh thinks you're nice but a bit too scared for such big animals. She doesn't really accept the fact that humans aren't considered animals in our opinion," the boy explained smirking and laughing softly.
"Salazar thinks that you're quite okay and that if he were human he'd mate with one of you this instant. Don't look so shocked. The little bugger always says things like that. I don't know why he is this way either," Carya added grinning.
"It sounds really strange when you speak parsel. I don't know what I'd think if you hadn't told us what you said. But afterwards it seems to be a very melodic language when used in a normal conversation," Hermione remarked.
"Yeah, I don't want to find out how it sounds when you're angry and start yelling at each other," the Weasley girl told them shivering a bit.
After Ginny's statement there was a heavy but not uncomfortable silence. Nothing but the sounds of the garden could be heard while everyone of the four was lost in his or her own thoughts. But soon the silence became unbearable and they looked at each other. Neither of them knew why but they burst out laughing and had a hard time to stop it.
After they'd calmed down they lay down in the grass and continued with what they'd been busy before discovering the twins gift. Hermione and Ginny still were a bit hurt because their friends hadn't trusted them completely but they were sure to get over it quickly. The Potter kids had had a very good reason for not telling anyone.
While Carya again was reading in her mothers diary the photo of the marauders animagi forms fell out. Ginny picked it up and studied it. After about five minutes of intense staring at the photo she suddenly frowned, squinted and then yelled: "Holy Slytherin, I can't believe it. That's impossible. Wait until I get my hands on that rat ..."
"What's wrong Ginny? Why are you rambling about a rat?" asked Harry.
"See here. This is the marauders photo. It fell out of that diary five minutes ago and I picked it up. Somehow the rat seemed familiar, you know? Like I'd seen it before. Just like you feel with Snuffles Carya. ..." Ginny explained.
"Wait, did you just say the rat, Pettigrew's animagus, looked familiar to you? Can I have the photo?" Carya said and Ginny handed her the picture. After only a few seconds Carya paled. "How could I not see that, holy Slytherin. That's him!" she almost screamed and then added in a whisper: "Here, look at the dog closely. Don't you notice something? Look at his eyes!"
Suddenly three surprised gasps could be heard. They'd recognised the blue-eyed black dog. It was Sirius Black or better Snuffles who was currently sleeping in the Potter twins bedroom.
Then Ginny again started speaking: "Carya, Harry, Hermione we have to help him! And perhaps we can!" That got her curious and questioning looks. "Well, you see," Ginny continued in an almost whisper, "This rat here, look at its markings. That's Scabbers, my (she spat the next word) brothers pet-rat. He has been with our family for over ten years now. Unusual for a normal street rat, eh? It's Pettigrew, he is Scabbers! Black didn't kill him! I don't know about the muggles but I hardly believe Black did it, not if Pettigrew is alive. What do we do now?" she said.
"We don't tell him. Perhaps we can get him to reveal himself to us, what do you think? I mean, he was fine two days after we found him. He could've changed back anytime at night and killed us if he'd wanted to, right? Well then lets try and behave as always towards him. I think I like him even more now that I know that Pettigrew lives," Carya told them and asked "Eh, you're absolutely sure it's him Ginny?"
After Ginny nodded quite furiously they went inside to continue training. Carya and Ginny cuddled with Snuffles who really enjoyed the treatment while Harry helped Hermione concentrate. Two days later the Dursley's got an urgent phone call. Vernon's sister Marge had fallen down the stairs and broke her leg. The Dursley's wanted to help her but they didn't want to leave the twins alone either. So Harry, Ginny, Carya and Hermione went to 'Diagon Alley' a week earlier as planned. Snuffles went with them.
"Carya, Harry, something unexpected has happened. Marge fell down the stairs and broke her leg. She really needs our help right now. I know that there are still three weeks before school starts but could you perhaps stay at that pub you told us about? " Vernon asked while Petunia had already started packing.
"Well, why not. It'll sure be fun. But we have to take Snuffles with us. Perhaps we can find someone to take him in there. Or we try and keep him. Would you mind Ginny, Hermione or is this okay with you?" asked Harry.
"That's okay. That way we can spend more time in 'Diagon Alley'. Don't you think so Hermione?" Ginny said and the other girl nodded..
"Well, you see uncle. I think it's settled then. Let's go upstairs packing," Carya said with a wide grin on her face.
At five that afternoon the Dursley's brought the four children to the train station. Vernon gave them enough money for the train, a taxi in London and possibly enough to stay at the 'Leaky Cauldron' for month but he wouldn't accept a 'no' for an answer. Aunt Petunia said goodbye to the twins and hugged them fiercely. She too hugged Ginny and Hermione and especially the Weasley girl felt a bit embarrassed. It had been a while since any adult had given her a heartfelt hug.
The ride from Little Whinging, Surrey to London was uneventful. The kids were talking and feeding Snuffles with sweets. The snakes, ravens and owls were sleeping. Carya and Ginny were currently discussing some hexes from Carya's new books while Harry and Hermione played a game of wizards chess. Harry lost, as usual. He had never been able to beat Hermione. Only Carya played worse than him but that didn't mean she didn't have a mind for strategy.
When they arrived at King's Cross the station was strangely empty. But it was still difficult to get a taxi. Especially one that would carry four children, four big trunks, a few strange animals and a big black dog. Most drivers flat out refused to let them in. When they finally found one it was two hours later.
"Charing Cross road, please!" Carya told the driver and he drove them as quick as possible. Harry paid for the taxi and then helped the girls to carry their luggage inside.
"Hello, sir, do you have two rooms available? One for us girls and one for my brother?" Carya asked Tom, the innkeeper of the 'Leaky Cauldron'.
"Wait a second, ... yes I think I have a room for you. And please call me Tom, everyone does." Follow me, please. Someone will bring your luggage to the rooms soon," he said and led them upstairs. They got the rooms twelve and thirteen. Number twelve was a small one, for Harry, and thirteen had a double bed and a single one, that was the girls room.
Snuffles would stay with the girls. The ravens, snakes and owls would stay with Harry. The girls room was far bigger than Harry's and therefore the boy only kept the smaller animals.
"Hey, girls, why don't we meet downstairs for dinner in ten minutes? I'm so hungry I could eat a hippogriff all alone!" Harry said jokingly and the girls agreed.
"Good idea Harry, but when aren't you hungry, eh?" teased Carya and they separated to get ready for dinner.
Ten minutes later they sat in a quiet corner downstairs and ate something. Carya ordered some for Snuffles as well. She watched him eating his helping in silence. /Yep, definitely not a dog. No dog would eat like this./ She thought and that earned her a snicker from her brother. Carya suddenly remembered how they'd named him.
Flashback
It had been three days after they found them. He was still quite dirty and the girls attempted to bathe him. In the end there was more water on them and the floor than on the dog. But it had been fun and he looked so cute when he tried to escape the procedure.
After they had dried his fur he lay down on the rug in the twins bedroom and looked up at them. It had been so incredibly cute that the girls had immediately settled on the name Snuffles. It had seemed as if the dog had snorted at this but the girls didn't really notice that.
End Flashback
Just that evening an undercover agent of the ministry was sent to check on the Potter kids, just in case. He only found an empty house. No notes left and no indication as to where the family could've disappeared. The agent was frantic. Even Albus Dumbledore didn't know anything of their whereabouts. Had anyone asked Tom, the old innkeeper of the 'Leaky Cauldron', he could've told them that the Potters and two friends of them were happily sleeping in two of the inns rooms. But no one asked ...
Please Read AND Review.
Thx ,
Carya
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