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: As you surely have noticed, AN chapter are forbidden now. Review responses will be at the top of a new chapter now. As for my progress in writing this ... same as usual, too little time and too much work sigh but ... I am trying to get new chapters done as soon as possible. A double feature this time again since I strangely have been working on both chapters at the same time.

2003-12-10

Review Responses:

Shadow: Your welcome but I really appreciate that you review every chapter . As for your question ... well, their relationship will definitely change. He'll like them better, although how much ... I'm not telling, yet evilgrin. I guess you'll like what I've planned for the next time I post something smirk

lurker : Thank you. I'm not planning on abandoning this until I have at least finished book 7. What comes after that ... I don't know.

Mr.Virail (mikedunn2001hotmail.com) : No problem. I am happy you reviewd this at all . I don't get many reviews for some reason unknown to me. I like it that you liked the chapter.

Chapter 09 - Classes, Quidditch and Training2 or Animagi Secrets

The following weeks were quite exhausting for the twins. They had classes to attend, plenty of homework to do, the kept in touch with their friends, they also practised on their animagus transformation and they had additional tutoring sessions with Remus.

And they were actually progressing with their Patronus charms. Carya's already had a clear form. It was a beautiful looking woman - unmistakably her mother. Harry's Patronus was bigger than hers and it still didn't have a real form but it worked quite well itself.

They talked about it in a secluded and quiet corner of the Slytherin common room.

"I still can't believe that an image of Mum is my Patronus. It's so ... I don't know how to describe it. It's as if I had finally found her," Carya told her brother with tears glittering in her eyes.

Harry knew exactly how she felt. He gathered his sister into his arms and held her close until she had calmed down. It really didn't happen often that Carya was close to crying but when happened Harry was always able to help her.

Finally it was a week before Halloween. The friends had just started to do partial transformations. Carya, Harry and Ginny had sprouted patches of fur on their arms and Hermione's eyes had become amber coloured.

Today she managed to get another clue on her form. She got feathers, dark brown feathers. Carya's and Harry's fur looked almost identical. It was pitch black, darker than the night, just like their hair and they were definitely in for something canine if you judged by the way their teeth changed.

Ginny had gotten long whiskers and believed she would be a feline. Halloween was much more enjoyable when you aren't interrupted by someone running into the Great Hall in the middle of he feast and yelling about trolls.

They'd spent all day in the library working on some essays. Now that they'd all homework done they had a free weekend. No work, no quidditch. The 'Slytherin Three' and their 'Ravenclaw Drag-along' as they were called by most students would spend quite some time on their training.

They skipped training this night to just relax for once and went to bed early. They didn't notice what happened in the castle that very night. But they found out the next morning. When they came into the Great Hall for breakfast everyone stared at the twins as if they were ghosts.

Carya and Harry scowled and glared at them. They didn't like that kind of attention and became quite irritated. Hermione sat with them at the Slytherin table which in return got them scowls and glares from most Slytherin's.

They were about to snap at their own housemates when their Ravenclaw friend began telling them what was wrong with everyone.

"Have you heard what happened? Sirius Black tried to break into Gryffindor tower last night while everyone was here at the feast. He ruined the portrait that is guarding the entrance to the common room. Can you believe that?" Hermione told them.

The four friends soon left the Hall and went outside.

"They keep saying that he was after you, thought that you were Gryffindor's like your parents. That he wanted to kill you two for his master. And that he is definitely insane," Hermione continued hastily.

"Well, as much as I disagree with their first three assumptions, I most definitely agree on the last one. Such an idiot. Every auror and Dementor around here will now be looking for him. ... 'Harry, Carya don't get yourselves into trouble'... my ass! He is someone to talk.

I think I'll write him a letter in that code we have developed. It's time we put to good use what he taught us in the summer," Carya said angrily and headed towards the library. The only place where you would be undisturbed on Sundays.

The next thing they found out was that Scabbers had disappeared. Carya's letter was quite harsh but Sirius knew she was right. His actions had not only drawn attention, he'd obviously revealed that he was after something or someone.

What was worse was that Peter knew because he had fled - again. They hadn't noticed that Snape had watched their exit from the Great Hall. He now was definitely sure that they knew more than the teachers thought.

Everyone had expected them to be upset, frightened even but the two Slytherin's only seemed very angry when they followed their Ravenclaw friend outside. It was also obvious that Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley shared their knowledge.

The only question was now; how much did they really know? He was afraid that they would act like a Gryffindor would and do something stupid but when they returned for lunch they seemed just as ever and ignored everyone's whispers and stares in their direction.

Two days later Sirius got another letter, actually two. One from Harry which was about the usual and one from Carya. She apologised for her tone and told him that she was just worried sick about him. She didn't want to lose him.

She also told him to stay away from the castle because Remus was their Defence teacher. This surprised Sirius, his best friend, a teacher! But Carya was right. Remus would know it was him. He knew him far too well. And the twins couldn't leave the castle.

The children were again practising their animagi forms. Ginny had gotten furrier, red fur to be exact and her eyes still were a deep blue. Hermione's eyes had gone from brown to a deep dark amber and her body seemed to shrink.

"Of course it would," she said to herself, "Apparently I'm some kind of bird. But not an owl. My feather type is different. They're much longer!"

Harry and Carya were far more successful. They'd already transformed their hands, arms and legs into their canine counterpart including paws and claws. It wouldn't take long for them to complete the transformation. They'd progressed quickly after Halloween. Why that was, they didn't know.

It was the second Quidditch match of the season - Slytherin against Hufflepuff. Although the Hufflepuff team in its entirety was not that much of a threat, their new captain and seeker Cedric Diggory certainly was. Flint kept telling Harry to catch the snitch or to die trying.

He didn't care what happened as long as they won the game. It was a tough game. The rain was hindering their vision and the temperatures were quite low for early November. Harry only had two worries. He didn't care about the weather.

He worried about the Dementors and about how to catch the snitch. Diggory was good, Harry had to admit. But Harry's broom was better. That and the higher speed of the Nimbus 2000 Harry had made up for his lack of experience.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw three tall and hooded figures approach. His thoughts were swirling - Dementors, here, at the game - he had to act quickly because he had just spotted the snitch. And Harry wasn't sure if Cedric had seen it too.

Harry cast his Patronus which still was without distinct form (actually it looked like a big solid rock right now) at the three figures and raced after the snitch. A minute later it was over. Slytherin had won by one hundred and eighty points. The final score was 230 to 50.

When Harry landed he spotted his sister, Ginny and Hermione running towards him. They looked worried. They were just about to talk to him when they heard an irritated Professor Snape yelling at someone and Professor McGonagall did just the same.

"Weasley, Thomas, Finnegan, Edwards, Daniels and Steppard. I'm very disappointed with you. You did this with the intention to interrupt the game by harming the Slytherin seeker. I do not care if you just wanted to tease him or not.

This behaviour is not becoming of a Gryffindor. You will each lose twenty points from Gryffindor - yes, Mister Weasley, I'm taking points from my own house - and you will serve a month worth of detention with Mister Filch," the irate head of Gryffindor said.

"Each of you will also apologise to Mister Potter for this, in public!" added Snape.

Ron had a very hard time not to protest against that. He would have to apologise to Harry Potter of all people. That was the worst punishment he could get. The other boys felt almost the same way as Ron did.

And as if that hadn't been bad enough, no, Slytherin was now leading in the house championship by more than two hundred points. The Gryffindor's had so hoped that they would win the cup this year but since the Slytherin's almost never lost any points this seemed to be impossible.

The Gryffindor's had been told that they had to apologise to Harry at dinner. There was no way around that. Not even getting themselves into the hospital wing would get them out of this particular punishment.

The six boys were absolutely dreading dinner. But the had to go. When the students were all assembled in the Great Hall Professor Dumbledore rose and everyone went silent.

"Well, I think six of our Gryffindor's want to say something," he announced and looked sternly at the mentioned boys.

The Gryffindor's stood one after the other and more or less stuttered their apology to Harry without really looking at him. After they'd finished their speech nothing happened for a few seconds and they dared to look up.

Just at that moment Harry rose from his seat and said in a calm and collected voice, "Apology accepted."

And with that the Slytherin sat down again. Dumbledore nodded at him and then looked at the Gryffindor's with disappointment in his eyes. The six boys sat down again and dinner started.

Soon they were all chatting happily and everyone thought that it was really nice of Harry to forgive them for what they'd tried. Of course Harry's intentions for doing that hadn't been that innocent at all. He knew how to use such a situation for his own benefits, he was a Slytherin after all.

His sister knew exactly what Harry had in mind when he did his little speech. That would raise the other houses opinions of them quite a bit. And they could use this in the future. But she wasn't the only one who had noticed.

The headmaster seemed to know and Snape looked at them with an odd look in his eyes.

/Hey, Harry! Look at Snape! I think he knows what your intentions were. He keeps shooting us odd glances,/ Carya told her brother with a grin.

/Yeah, you're right but I don't care. More important is that the others don't know, isn't it? Although I don't like that kind of attention it could be of use in the future. If Voldie's coming back we might need the support of the other houses,/ Harry replied grinning back at her.

/Right, I always overlook that there are quite some children in our house whose parents probably have been or still are Death Eaters,/ she answered and smirked at her Head of House.

Severus Snape's POV

'What the hell is Potter doing now?'

"Apology accepted," the boy said and sat back down.

'Did he just do what I think he did? He hates Weasley and if I'm right he wanted to tear him apart on the Quidditch pitch. Together with his sister and those two friends of his ...

I can't believe it. A Potter acting like a true Slytherin! Perhaps the Sorting Hat was right to put them into my house after all. Everyone except Albus and I bought that. Even Minerva McGonagall who is always suspicious of any Slytherin student. Well, wonders never cease!'

I glanced over to the Slytherin table and at the twins in particular,

'Shit, they noticed. What? She is smirking now, I'm sure she knows what I was thinking. Really, that girl is far too perceptive to be true. I have to ask Albus sometime if Potter really was their father. Neither he nor Lily were like this, ever ...'

End Severus Snape's POV

Classes went on, homework was done and soon it began to snow. History lessons were as boring as always and the friends took turns in taking notes. They'd copy them afterwards with a simple duplication charm.

Herbology was slightly more interesting as they were currently learning about mandrakes. They soon knew that their screams could kill you but that the mandrake or mandragora was also a powerful restorative that could turn cursed or transfigured people back to their original state.

Because of that it was an essential part of most antidotes. In Transfiguration they for example had to turn beetles into buttons. The Slytherin's were quite successful at it as well as most Gryffindor's but as always the Gryffindor's got more points then their rivals.

Only Harry and Carya who were by far the best students of this class (well Harry had helped Carya outside of classes since he was better in this subject). got the same amount of housepoints as the Gryffindor's.

In Charms they learned about the disarming spell 'Expelliarmus' and the 'Alohomora' charm since they hadn't covered that last year. The Slytherin's had heard from the Hufflepuff's that Neville Longbottom had succeeded in messing up the Disarming-Charm.

He had blasted poor Flitwick across the classroom and the small Professor actually had to go to the infirmary after that. Aside from that Charms wasn't that interesting right now because they were analysing very simple spells and hardly anyone of the students did not know all that by now.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was quite interesting as the were currently finishing on the hinkypunks and soon would move on to Vampires. The most interesting thing for the Slytherin's was - it couldn't be anything else - Potions!

Longbottom kept messing up even the simplest potion. Weasley and his friends would always get the blame and the Slytherin's got more housepoints than ever. Not unfairly though because their potions were almost always right.

Well some of the Gryffindor's potions would be right too if it weren't for a few of the Slytherin's, especially Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini and Darrick Sanders. They would sabotage the Gryffindor's potions quite often and Snape didn't seem to notice that or he outright ignored it.

It wasn't as if they harmed them. They just made sure the Potions were failures. If the Gryffindor's complained about it though they always lost points for accusing their fellow classmates of sabotage. Soon they stopped complaining and retaliated outside the classroom.

There were more pranks played on the Slytherin's now than ever. Mostly initiated through the Weasley twins and Ron. But the Slytherin's always had a comeback and sometimes they even asked for the assistance of Carya, Harry and Ginny.

They in return would help their housemates to find something that made a suitable punishment for the 'snobby Gryffindorks' as they were called. Soon it was December 4th and Ginny and Carya were once again alone in the library.

Their homework was finished and Harry and Hermione had left to go 'for a walk' as they had explained. It was pretty much obvious that the two loved each other even at their young age. The four of them only were together when they practised their animagi form.

Carya had felt odd the whole day. She just knew that something was going to happen. But when dinner came around nothing interesting had happened so far and she relaxed a bit. After dinner they met Harry and Hermione outside their secret place and once they were inside they immediately started practise.

The last time they'd gotten there they had brought a small mirror which had been enlarged to cover one of the walls. After half an hour it happened. Carya suddenly was gone. In her usual spot sat a beautiful black wolf with dark blue eyes.

They only other odd thing about the wolf was a patch of grayish white fur near it's left shoulder. The wolf blinked and turned around. Or better it tried to turn around. After a few attempts to get used to four feet instead of two the wolf finally managed to get a look of itself in the enlarged mirror.

If wolves could've gasped this one would've done it now. Carya's animagus was definitely a wolf. Twenty minutes later Harry managed his transformation too. He looked exactly like Carya. He too was a wolf but his eyes were a deep emerald green and he had a patch of grayish white fur above his right eye.

It looked a bit like a lightning bolt but only if you looked really close. Together the twins changed back into their human forms. Hermione and Ginny congratulated them and the two Potters promised to help them as much as possible.

"It's incredible. I can't believe I'm a wolf. Even as wolves we look so much alike, it's outright scary, brother," Carya said excitedly.

"Yeah, you're right. Wait until we tell Snuffles about this. He'll surely roll on the floor between fits of laughter," Harry said jokingly.

When Harry and Carya dreamt that night, they didn't have nightmares but they found themselves - which they'd discover the next morning - in exactly the same dream. They were in a circular room with torches on the walls and there was no entrance visible.

It also looked really old. Then out of thin air two mirrors appeared. One in front of Harry and the other in front of Carya. They considered their actions for a moment and then decided to look into the mirrors. The twins were shocked by what they saw.

Harry saw a black and green winged snake. The wings were silver and the eyes were a shimmering deep emerald green - Harry's eyes. Carya looked into the eyes of a phoenix. The phoenix was black, green and blue and it's eyes were the same deep colour as her own.

The two children heard a whisper in the air that sounded just like 'You have seen your souls, now go and find your true selves!'

The twins talked to each other in the morning and found it odd that they'd actually shared a dream. That had never happened before apart from their reoccurring nightmare. But didn't mention it in front of Ginny and Hermione for now.

They decided to try something the next night after they'd finished the group-animagus training. Once their friends were gone, they changed into their wolf form several times until they got it as quick as possible. Then the twins sat down and concentrated.

They concentrated hard on the pictures they'd seen in the mirrors last night. Both of them were suddenly surrounded by a green and silver light. They could now clearly see their so called 'true selves'.

And a few seconds later they weren't human any more. In front of the fireplace sat a beautiful blue-eyed black, green and blue phoenix and an intriguing black and green snake with emerald green eyes and silvery wings.

They had found out what the phrase 'your true selves' meant. They had two animagus forms. They decided to keep that a secret for now because this was something they could use against Voldemort should he ever come back to life.

Which was very likely if one could believe the rumours that were spreading through Slytherin house after last years incident.

(A/N: They don't tell anyone for a very long time because this is just to mysterious!)

Please Read AND Review.

Thx ,

Carya

Review responses at the beginning of next chapter!