When Snape and Zarif returned to Hogwarts, Snape immediately took Zarif to the hospital wing and went for the headmaster for Zarif to be examined. At the same time, Elixir remained with him the whole time as the three heads seemed to be talking to Autumn, who kept hooting in response.
"I can not find anything wrong with the boy at all physically," Madam Pomfrey says, finishing her examination as Dumbledore seems to be reading through the book Snape had given him before going to scrutinize Elixir.
"It seems that this Runespoor has indeed become a familiar to young Trazax. Very smart to lay a trap that would give his descendant the ability to speak parseltongue to understand it perfectly," Dumbledore compliments, smiling at Elixir.
"Wait…couldn't I understand before? And here I thought I always had it," Zarif comments, looking at his new friend.
"If you had, then would you not have understood the basilisk like Harry during your second year?" Dumbledore asks with a twinkle in his eye as he found this all amusing and enjoyable.
Zarif blinks before humming. "Good point."
"Now, I will be informing the ministry of this new development. It's not every day that a student gains a familiar. You may return to your house now Zarif," Dumbledore says, giving him a friendly smile.
Zarif shrugs. "Fair point. Especially one like this. Though I can say, this is bloody brilliant," he notes in a joking tone.
"See? We are brilliant," Dreamer says to Planner and Critic.
Zarif now frowns. "And I just realized I have to figure out how to handle three different heads. Come on, you three. I will take you up to where I stay," Zarif says, holding up both arms. One for Autumn to climb up on and the other for Elixir to slither up.
"Master's sleeping quarters. We can make it better," Dreamer speaks up, and the other two are both thinking with the other frowning.
"You keep your tail where it belongs, though," Autumn warns, pointing a wing at them. She then hoots and hops onto Zarif's arm and holds a stare at the three heads before being lifted to his shoulder. Elixir wordlessly slithers up his sleeve, finding a comfortable place before Zarif heads off to the common room.
Zarif hums while making sure Elixir is okay where he can put it. "So…what else can you tell me about yourself?" Zarif asks and looks at the snake beast.
"We are Elixir. As your familiar, we are to assist and serve. Whether it is as your eyes and ears or help you brewing potions," Planner informs.
Zarif raises an eyebrow before reaching over and pets each of their heads. "How can you help with potions?"
"We can produce eggs or get you the ingredients or instruments you ask for. We did all the time with our master," Critic informs.
Zarif tilts his head now. "Who was your last master?"
"We are not allowed to say yet," Critic informs.
Zarif frowns before sighing. "Can't be anything done about that. Okay…so are you going to be sticking with me always or be like Autumn here?" he asks, nodding his head to the owl as she pecks at her wings.
"We will stick with you unless you want us to stay somewhere or do something else. We are the sneaky snake," Dreamer boasts.
Zarif wonders what that means as he nears the fat lady's portrait to enter. Once inside, he is surrounded by Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who stops in surprise to see a three-headed snake wrapped around Zarif. "Should we call for Hagrid?" Ron asks, unsure as Elixir is relaxing and taking in the sights.
"No need. Allow me to introduce Elixir, the Runespoor. Elixir is my familiar. Courtesy of an ancestor basically," Zarif explains,
"Must be one wealthy ancestor then. Did this ancestor leave anything else? A letter or something?" Hermione asks curiously.
"Well, the inside of the vault looked like a workshop, and there was a book in there which Dumbledore has it right now. I couldn't read it as it was in ancient Egyptian," Zarif explains.
"Oh right, we forgot to gather some of the books and manuscripts you were left, but maybe for the best since you need to learn to read the language first," Critic says, making Harry look at the head.
Zarif looks between the two before catching on. "Oh. Right. Harry can talk to snakes."
"Oh, another one? You have someone else to talk to then. After all, you were granted the ability when we became your familiar," Planner says.
"They are very chatty," Harry points out, and the runespoor becomes very intrigued. "What?"
"A true parseltongue. No messy language like what we have heard," Dreamer squeals.
"Oh, I should explain that as well. My ancestor left a 'trap' that granted me the ability to speak parseltongue to be able to communicate with Elixir here, no problem," Zarif informs.
"We should go over finer points though. That one there seems to have the language in a far better understanding," Planner suggests.
"Not tonight as I am so hungry," Critic says.
"Can we have any mouse we catch?" Dreamer asks Zarif as all three heads turn to him while Harry pales a bit.
"Unfortunately, that could be someone's pet," Zarif informs Elixir.
"Phooey. Why would they bring a pet rat anyway? They are, in simple terms, scavengers. They are not useful for up and becoming wizards and witches," Critic argues, waving a tail around. "Us on the other tail…" the head trails off, smiling.
"Besides, we have a feast every meal here at the castle," Zarif assures.
The three heads start salivating over the prospect of having a grand feast as Autumn hoots dismissively and turn her head to the side in disapproval. "Wait. Castle?" all three ask in unison, catching that part.
Zarif raises an eyebrow. "Yeah…Hogwarts Castle…have you heard of it?"
"No," Planner states plainly.
"I will give you a tour of the grounds tomorrow. For now, can you wait till dinner?" Zarif asks the three.
"Yay! Food!" Dreamer cheers and happily wags their tail behind them.
"Have some dignity, will you?" Critic criticized.
"It's food. Feasts of food. After so long…" Dreamer drools and Planner starts to follow too.
Zarif shakes his head. Elixir will be fun to have around.
"They have good sausage," Autumn comments.
All three heads of Elixir keep looking around the great hall, which is fully decorated for Christmas. Zarif wonders if they are looking for the source or looking for the kitchen as he sits down to eat at the small table. His mind then wonders if he should request the dueling club to have a separate table to talk and eat at like they were doing now with so few people.
"Okay, guys. Say hello to Elixir. My new familiar," Zarif greets the snake to the rest of the table as he places the reptile next to some bowls of meat. This sends all three heads to look in opposite directions and salivate at sight.
"It's unlike any Runespoor I have ever seen. Possibly a mutation or an undocumented subspecies?" McGonagall considers.
"I should stock on Runespoor venom antidotes in case of accidents," Madam Pomfrey mutters to herself as Elixir starts to slither around, committing each one of them to memory. At Dumbledore, all three sets of eyes lingered the longest as if assessing the power of the headmaster.
"I like him," Critic comments, pointing their tail at Dumbledore.
"We should be wary, though. He could pose quite the threat to master," Planner comments.
Dumbledore only keeps smiling as the three heads hiss to each other before noticing his attention. They then slowly turn and slither away, trying not to stare at the headmaster any longer.
Zarif talked with Harry, Ron, and Hermione as the festivities went one with the rest of the staff talking amongst themselves before the hour grew late, and they all retired for the evening. In the morning, the three boys woke up to presents that were waiting for them. Zarif opened one of his gifts to see it was a maroon sweater with a large yellow Gryffindor lion with a black Z in the middle of it. Zarif smiles, knowing this is Ms. Weasley's handiwork.
"I have to say; this is pretty good. Never had a sweater like this before," Zarif mentions while Autumn and Elixir lean over their place on the fireplace table to see his present better.
"You got one too, huh?" Ron asks, showing he had one as well along with Harry. Harry's was a lot like Zarif's; only it had a maroon H in his Gryffindor lion.
Zarif smiles while putting the sweater against his chest and sees it looks almost fitting. "I am thoroughly surprised she knows my size."
"Must have asked Fred and George or Percy to find out," Ron says before unwrapping a present that made Zarif's smirk larger.
"A book…oh. It's all the numbers for the past few seasons of the quidditch leagues," Ron says, very excited now as he drops the wrapping and opens to a random page.
Zarif remained silent until Harry unwrapped the same thing. "I thought you two would like those as the world cup happens this summer," Zarif says brightly before feeling something slither up his leg and under his sweater.
"Oh. The sweater is very comfy," Dreamer mentions as they end up on his chest area.
"Yes, nice and warm, too," Planner comments as Autumn lands on his shoulder.
Autumn lets out a few hoots before snuggling into her feathers and leaning against his head.
"Alright, you two," Zarif says, smiling as he spots something else. He reaches over to grab another present from the pile and sees it is for him, but it is from Merula. "What do we have from you?" he asks himself, looking over the box.
Autumn hoots before pecking the ribbon and pulling it off. Zarif rolls his eyes before taking the top of the box off and sees clothing inside. "Oh…it's robes. Nice looking robes, though," Zarif says, looking them over before finding a note. "These are enchanted dueling robes. Made to protect from accidents during dueling competitions," Zarif reads before smiling.
Zarif was brought back to Ron and Harry when they started chatting excitedly when Harry opened a new broom. It was a broom Zarif had noticed was the same broom he had seen all summer from the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies in Diagon Alley. The firebolt and Zarif were instantly suspicious of it. "Harry, who is that from?"
"No idea. There is no card or anything," Harry responds, looking through the broom wrappings.
"…Harry, remind me what happened on Halloween and why then this gift, even though it's a good one, shouldn't be immediately tried out," Zarif says, smelling a rat and it wasn't scabbards.
Ron and Harry looked at Zarif dumbstruck, and soon Ron exploded at him for thinking that way. "Ron, do you recall what happened the last two years we were here at Hogwarts? Between Voldemort possessing Quirrell and the opening of the chamber of secrets. If Black sent this like I think it would be…most obvious or subtle attempt to kill Harry?" Zarif thinks aloud the last part, ignoring Ron's flinch at the saying of Voldemort's name.
Harry and Ron paused for a bit but didn't want to admit that what Zarif was saying could be accurate, but they at least recognized Zarif was speaking of it out of concern and not because he was mean. Soon Hermione came into their room and questioned Ron and Harry as well upon seeing the broom, but she was a bit less subtle, and Ron vented a bit of frustration onto her and anger when Crookshanks came along and made a grab at Scabbards.
During the scene, Ron had knocked open Harry's trunk and out rolled a pocket Sneakoscope, which started setting off warning alarms in Zarif's head when he realized what it was. "Harry…is that a Sneakoscope?" Zarif questioned.
"Yeah, it is. Ron gave it to me as a souvenir from Egypt, but it doesn't work. It's constantly whirling no matter what," Harry explains, picking it up.
'Doesn't work, does it?' Zarif thinks a bit skeptical but decides not to voice it as Harry puts it back into the socks it had been in and throws it back into the trunk, so they didn't have to listen to it. Elixir, on the other hand, was watching Scabbards with all three heads after Hermione left with her cat.
"That one seems like it's not going to last too much longer," Planner voices what they were thinking.
"True…let's split it. The cat gets half," Dreamer suggests.
Ron proceeded to yell at Hermione for her pet as he hopped around, holding his hurt foot.
"I don't know. Something smells off," Critic comments as Hermione and Crookshanks left.
"I am going to go shower before heading to breakfast. See you there?" Zarif asks Harry and Ron.
"And that item is so annoying!" Critic hisses to the sock in the trunk as they can still hear it.
Harry and Ron only nod along before Zarif headed off. Once at the showers, he spoke to Elixir in parseltongue. "I don't like it one bit. Harry is receiving a costly present with no card or name, and that Sneakoscope is going off always. Elixir, what do you think?"
Elixir hums as they slither around the rest of the room, enjoying the soft heat. "It is a conundrum—all these factors and no clear answer yet," Critics huffs.
"Keep a close eye on things, but do not tell Harry what you are doing," Zarif instructs, starting the water.
"Understood. We shall be your eyes and ears," Critic acknowledges.
"Good now, I will try and hurry so we can eat," Zarif says, speaking in english again.
"Yay! Food!" Dreamer exclaims as they lay on the sink watching.
