Disclaimer: Not mine, anything else you recognise probably isn't mine either but I never know for sure since I've read so many stories that I can't tell anymore whether or not it was my idea in the first place.

Author's Notes: It has been some time but I again will tell you that I intend to finish this, all seven parts ... we'll just have to see how long it'll take me. RL and I are having a few issues at the moment. I get sickly often but can't afford to miss days at work.

Therefore if I have time, I sleep a lot and try to recover some. Never worry, I'm just feeling a little off most of the time, it's nothing serious ^_^ I'll only need a bit longer to get something done at the moment.

Here's the next chapter for you and although I tried to take the constructive criticism of one of my reviewers into consideration, I'm not always successful. Bear with me and overlook it if it sometimes seems like reading a play instead of a fiction, ok?

Review Responses:

Whogirl : Thanks for the review and adding me ^_^ I like to see that some people are still reading my stuff. Well, here you go, a new chapter for you (it's two again this time).

deb : It's your own opinion. If you don't like what I write then perhaps you shouldn't read it. I will not change my plot and my story just because a single person doesn't like it.

Athenakitty : CH03:Draco is more worried that his new guardians would want to pity or punish him but he's also afraid of his birth father for some time. Lucius will get his in the future but not exactly in this book ... although a little scandal might just happen ^_^ Black Manor was made up by me since Rowling only mentioned the house in London and I needed a second place. Draco doesn't 'eavesdrop' *grin*. He is a Slytherin and is 'accidentally overhearing' things. Snape won't like the news but he doesn't have much choice, does he? As for Dudley and his sibling ... that's still a secret. Draco was one of their first friends, what do you think? CH04: Nah, he's miffed about Draco going with Sirius but will accept it given time. He after all cannot protect his godson and stay a 'loyal' Death Eater at the same time now, can he? Vernon began accepting magic when he started loving the twins as his own children. He may be uncomfortable around it for a long while but he would never abandon his own kids. Petunia will go through a normal pregnancy and I won't make much mention of it but she will be important later on ^_^. Hehe, Sirius is just too lazy sometimes and reacts slowly but he's still faster than most Death Eaters so he will survive. Poor Ginny ... I'm afraid that she'll be hurt almost as much as in the original Chamber of Secrets but things will be better for her the next summer *hint*. The book remains unchecked for reasons only known to me ... CH05: Oh, they will find out but not so soon, it'll be a long time before that. Losing memories? Did I say something about that I don't know but I'll check if I've gotten myself tangled up in any inconsistencies. As to the chamber ... I'm not telling *evilgrin* ^_^ you'll have to find out yourself.

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~...~ Parseltongue

/.../ Telepathy between Harry & Carya (in italics)

' ... ' thoughts

~*~*~ ... ~*~*~ Flashback or changing POV

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Chapter 06 - Animagi and Parseltongue or Discoveries and Secrets

The kids had been sitting in Harry's room when Ginny started to ask Draco about his strange behaviour.

"Draco, what were you doing in your rooms last night? You were cursing yourself and muttering something under your breath," Ginny asked him.

"I heard you too and your door was locked. Is something wrong?" Carya inquired.

Draco suddenly felt ill. No one had been supposed to hear him. Had he forgotten to put up silencing charms? Or were they able to hear despite his protections? His emotions must have shown on his face too because his friends started asking further questions.

"Draco, we're your friends. What's wrong with you?" Carya asked.

He was literally torn inside. One part of him wanted to yell at them to leave him the hell alone and the other part desperately wanted to trust him with his innermost secrets. Thankfully he decided to listen to the latter.

"Can you swear honestly that you won't tell anyone about this unless I allow you so or I'm about to die?" he requested seriously.

After a short silence all of his friends nodded. Carya seemed to remember something and cast a locking charm on the door and silencing spell on the room.

"Silentio Eternus! Ostium Obfirmo!" she said firmly and then told them smirking, "Now it's safer, don't you think?" she told them smirking.

"Okay, I'll tell you what I've been doing yesterday night and many evenings since last summer. I'm secretly training to be an animagus but have yet to finish my exercises. I still haven't managed more than a partly transformation. I don't even know what I'll be," Draco told his friends.

They seemed shocked and disbelieving at first and were gaping at him. But soon they had somewhat guilty looks on their faces. This puzzled Draco.

'Why would they look like that? They'd only be acting like that if they ... are they too?' he thought.

His initial confusion and then understanding must've shown too because Carya started talking to him again.

"Eh, Draco?" she started, "I think we have to show you something. Please don't get me wrong, it's not that we didn't trust you ... well, it was just, your father and ..."

"I think she wants to say that we didn't want to compromise your position. You had enough to do dealing with your own problems. This was definitely not meant to hurt you. I do hope you believe us, Draco" Hermione continued.

Draco just stared, so the four friends nodded at each other and the next second they were gone. Draco was now the only human in the room while in his friends places sat four animals.

There were two pitch black wolves with dark blue and green eyes, a dark brown falcon with amber eyes and a red kneazle with blue eyes. The young Malfoy stared in shock. Not only had his friends accomplished what he'd tried for over a year now, no they apparently would've included him if it had been possible.

His friends transformed back and waited for him to say something. They were worried about his reaction.

"How? When? ... how did you do this? I've tried for over a year now and never got further than the partial transformation ... Will you help me?" Draco stuttered still shocked about what he'd just seen.

The last sentence sounded almost pleading. Ginny immediately answered for them, "Of course we'll help you, Draco. We're friends, aren't we? So, do you have any guess at all what your form will be?"

"Eh, I don't really know. I think, I'll be a small animal with white or cream coloured fur. My paws are almost feline looking but my whiskers are too short for that, so I don't really know my form just now," he told them and they nodded.

"Since when have you been practising this?" Draco asked after a short silence.

"Eh, we started training last summer holidays and did our first complete transformations by christmas," Harry admitted.

"What? It took you only six bloody month for the whole thing? Damnit, I must have done something wrong. I've been practising since easter last year and I'm still stuck in my progress," the blonde boy muttered.

The four animagi explained Draco how they had done their training and Draco quickly found the differences. The other four had simply split the process into three separate parts while he went the normal 'Two-Step-Instructions'.

"So you separated the concentration part from the rest at first? And after that you started on the partial transformations?" he asked and his friends nodded.

"That must be the reason then. You had to try and concentrate along with the actual transformation while we were already used to the concentration part. Perhaps you should try that too, Draco," Carya suggested.

"You can bet, I'll do that, Carya. I want to finish this as soon as possible. Preferably before school starts, mind you," the boy said grinning.

He immediately continued his training since the locking and silencing charms were already in place while the other four changed into their animals and just watched him. They were by now quite used to their new 'instincts'.

Harry and Carya were curled up on Harry's bed and their heads were lying on their front paws. Ginny of course was lying on the rug before the fireplace. She naturally liked that spot very much and watched Draco. Hermione was perched on one of the bedposts and observed the scene too.

This was happening every night over the following days. Sometimes the even would do it in the afternoon or after breakfast. Sirius and Remus were a bit worried that the kids locked themselves into one of their rooms everyday.

It stopped quickly when Remus remembered the Marauders doing that for weeks during the holidays when they'd planned new pranks. But the children weren't only practising. They also were discussing the twins birthday.

There would be a small party for them. Some of their friends and family were invited and they still argued about inviting Fred and George as well. The two Weasley's had changed their attitude towards Harry, Carya and Ginny as soon as they'd found out about the Marauders.

'Pathetic!' Carya had said and the others had agreed but Ginny knew the real reason was, that they wanted to be better pranksters than anyone else - even the Marauders. It was also a well kept secret that Fred and George wanted to open a 'Prank Shop' once they'd graduated.

Ginny only knew by accident. She'd overheard them talking before she'd started her first year in Hogwarts.

~*~*~ Flashback Ginny POV ~*~*~

'I am so excited! I'll go to Hogwarts this year! I hope I get some friends. Some girls for a change. I've had enough boys here at home. Ron's going there too this year. I wonder what house I'll be in,' I thought when I suddenly heard the twins murmuring in their room.

The door wasn't totally closed and I could peer inside. They sat with their back towards me and discussed something. I leaned to the door as close as possible without interrupting them and listened.

"I don't know George, mum won't be pleased when she finds out" Fred said.

I know that, but she doesn't have to know, right? We just don't tell her. Come on, think about this. 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' that sounds cool, don't you think?" George tried to persuade his twin.

"Hmm, yeah you're right. It does sound pretty cool. And even the Marauders didn't have a prank shop. So I guess it's okay. If only we can hide this from mum long enough," Fred answered.

'That was unexpected. I'd never thought they'd take their pranks that serious. Oops, I hope they don't try to play too many on me at Hogwarts. I'd really hate that,' I thought to myself and went back to my room.

~*~*~ End Flashback Ginny POV ~*~*~

In the end the Weasley twins did get an invitation and they accepted. Dudley would come too but his parents wouldn't. Petunia didn't want to travel because of the baby and Vernon didn't want to leave his wife alone more than he had to. The headmaster would drop in too because he wanted Draco's final decision.

The days were really peaceful at Black Manor. The children would be in the library, on the Quidditch pitch (even Hermione had been persuaded to play with them) or they were locked into one of the kids bedrooms. After being convinced that the kids were alright Sirius and Remus didn't bother them any further.

On July 29th there were some owls waiting for the kids at breakfast. One for each of them. The children untied the letters and noticed that they were from Hogwarts. They contained the usual, book lists, their acceptance into the new year and reminders for the parents or guardians.

But this time there was an additional slip of parchment. It was a permission form for Hogsmeade. The children had totally forgotten that they'd be allowed to go there this year. The slip had to be signed by the parents or guardians of each child.

Harry and Carya immediately gave theirs to Sirius and Remus while the other three looked unsure about what to do. While the twins were talking to the two adults the three of them quietly left for the library. There was no chance for them to get this signed now.

Well, Ginny could floo home for that but she didn't want to do it. Draco didn't really know whom he should give his and Hermione had no chance to see her parents before christmas. Their absence from the kitchen was soon noticed when Sirius asked,

"Hey, where's Draco's permission slip? And where are the three?"

"Don't know Sirius, they've been here a second ago," Carya answered.

Sirius, Remus and the twins went to search for them and finally found them in the library.

"Draco, don't you want to go to Hogsmeade this year?" Remus asked the boy.

"I ... of course I want to go. I'd love to but ... Who should sign this?" he replied sounding rather sad.

Remus face softened immediately. "Draco, listen to me! As long as you're staying here, Sirius and I are your guardians. You do know what that means, don't you? We are allowed to sign this while you're living with us if you want us to do that," he said.

Draco's face lit up once he understood that statement. He handed the werewolf the offending piece of parchment and grinned shyly at him.

"But what about us?" asked Hermione softly.

"Well we'll have to find away for you too, eh? Hmm, Ginny, you could always floo to the Burrow, you know? That wouldn't even take more than half an hour. Someone can go with you if you don't want to go alone. And you Hermione?

Well, I'll just apparate you home so that your parents can sign it for you, okay? That way you can all get your Hogsmeade permission," Sirius told the children.

It was decided that Ginny would go with Remus after lunch and Sirius would visit the Granger's together with Hermione then. The children's world was alright again.

Once the two girls were back they discussed when they would go to 'Diagon Alley' to purchase their supplies. In the end they settled onto the week after the twins birthday which meant the first week of August or more precisely the next week.

On July 30th the twins decided that they had to tell Draco some of the secrets which only their closest friends and family knew. They would tell him about their snakes and them being Parselmouths.

They of course had to tell Sirius and Remus at the end of second year because they couldn't hide it when they were living with them.

~*~*~ Flashback June 24th - Before the Burrow ~*~*~

"Eh, could we talk to you two alone, Sirius, Remus? It's pretty important," Carya asked and threw her Aunt a questioning glance.

"That's alright Carya. I'll just leave and prepare some tea, okay?" she said smiling and left the four alone.

"What's so important that you have to tell us now? And why did you send you Aunt out? That big a secret, eh?" Sirius teased but stopped smiling when he saw the twins serious expressions.

"We want you to listen closely to what we have to tell you. And you have to swear on your honour as Marauders that you won't freak out and that you'll never ever tell anyone about this unless we allow it, okay?" Harry half asked, half demanded.

Remus and Sirius were speechless. They'd never seen the kids this serious and decided to agree.

"We swear by the Marauders honour to do as you said," the two adults replied.

"Well then. This might come a bit unexpected but we have some special abilities and more than one pet in school," Carya began and quickly continued when she saw that Sirius was about to say something, "No Siri, no interruptions please."

"Harry would you go and get the twins?" she asked her brother who nodded and left the room for a minute.

He came back with a wooden basket and set it onto the coffee table. This got them curious looks from both their soon-to-be guardians. Harry decided that was a good point to continue where Carya had stopped.

"In this basket are our other pets. And remember your promise because we can't have you freaking out when you see Niamh and Salazar, okay?" Harry said and the adults nodded confused.

"Well then, Sirius, Remus, meet Salazar and Niamh, our pet snakes ..." Carya said and they lifted up their snake each.

Padfoot's and Moony's eyes were as big as saucers now and they were both swallowing a lump in their throat.

"C ... Carya, you know that they are quite poisonous, don't you?" Remus inquired.

"Eh, yes. That leads us to the second secret. It will shock you even more but please think about this carefully. We're not dark, we'll probably never be and we kicked Voldie's ass when we were just one, okay?" Harry asked.

Remus looked at them oddly when Harry gave the Dark Lord a nickname but he didn't say anything.

"We are able to talk to them. That's how we can assure that they won't bite anyone," Harry began and Carya continued when their godfather's were shocked to the core,

"Yeah, Harry and I are Parselmouths. Before you say anything. I know it's considered a dark trait but we think about it as just another language. Only that you cannot actually learn it like, let's say French or German ..."

It took the two adult a few moments to get over the shock and Sirius was the first to manage.

"But how? I mean ... your parents ..." he stuttered.

"Eh, Professor Dumbledore believes that our dear Dark Lord transferred some of his powers to us that night but I don't really believe that. Something else must be the reason for that. After all he could've only attacked one of us, right?

I've never heard of a curse like that hitting two people simultaneously, so I think one of us was hit with the killing curse of another person, who was also linked to Voldie through the Dark Mark," Carya explained.

That was a lot to take in at the moment. Unfortunately Petunia had heard them too and took the sudden silence for her entry.

"I wouldn't worry too much about that, Sirius, Remus," she said to the two men and then turned towards the kids, "Although I would have preferred you two had told me that you keep poisonous snakes in our house I'm not exactly angry. I should be but I'm not.

This is just one more thing that is special about you two, right? Your interest in reptiles could've come from your mother though. She was always bringing home frogs, garden snakes and such. The one thing she could drive our father nuts with," the woman said and almost giggled at the last statement.

"These two are good kids. Dumbledore wrote me about what happened that night and I've looked into some of their history books to understand it better. I highly doubt they'd ever be like that. Not my little twins!" she said firmly and dared the two male wizards to argue with her on that.

Carya and Harry were shocked at first but then smiled warmly at their Aunt and hugged her tightly. Remus and Sirius came out of their shocked silence too. Although they were still a bit worried about the 'poisonous-snakes-part' they had already accepted the 'able-to-talk-to-them-part'.

Petunia smiled at the twins when she realised something, "Dudley has known this, hasn't he? You couldn't have hidden it from him since you were never apart until you got to Hogwarts," she asked mildly accusing.

The twins bit their lips and nodded. Petunia was just shaking her head and muttered 'children' before she once again left to fetch the tea.

~*~*~ End Flashback June 24th ~*~*~

The children met around four in the afternoon in Harry's room. Hermione and Ginny of course knew what this was about. The only one who was clueless was Draco. The twins hoped he would take it as good as everyone else had until now.

After locking the door and applying the silencing charm they began to tell Draco what this was about. They'd went up here under the excuse to train their animagus transformation but the blonde could sense that there was something else.

"So, what's wrong with you two, eh? Is there something important you want to tell me?" he asked.

"Actually yes. But you have to promise not to tell anyone unless we allow it, okay? And please don't freak out," Harry answered.

"Well, you promised me the same so I'll do it as well," Draco replied.

"Here goes nothing ... There is something we need to tell you. Even Ginny and Hermione didn't really find out until last summer. Just like Sirius and Remus found out this summer. One thing is we have a second pet each.

Not only at home but at Hogwarts too. We kept them hidden, you know?" Harry began while Carya had gotten up and fetched the small basket that contained their pets.

"Their names are Salazar and Niamh. Salazar is mine," Carya told him and took her snake out.

Draco gasped when he saw the animal, "Holy shit! Carya, you do realise that your snake is highly poisonous, do you?"

The twins laughed. Anyone who had knowledge about snakes said this first which amused the twins to no end. But then again, it was the truth and it would be dangerous if they couldn't communicate with the snakes like they were able to.

"Of course we do, Draco. But they won't bite anyone unless the were threatening our very lives. We made sure of that," Harry replied smirking. He thought Draco might catch what he was trying to tell with his last sentence.

"But how ... wait, that would mean you could ... no, that's impossible. Slytherin's bones, Carya, Harry, don't tell me you actually can talk to them. You're not Parselmouths, are you?" he stuttered not really believing what Harry was implying.

But the two Potter children only nodded with now worried expressions.

"You're not upset about that, are you? I mean, Ginny, Hermione, Sirius, Remus and even our Aunt and cousin were okay with it. Why aren't you?" Carya asked carefully.

"Don't you know that it's a dark trait? That Slytherin himself was a Parselmouth and that you're probably the first since You-Know-Who? Doesn't that worry you one bit?" Draco inquired confused.

"Hm, could be that we're the first since Voldie but who cares? I mean, it's just a language! Only downside is that you have to have the ability for it in order to learn it. Not like other languages. But it's still only a language.

I sincerely hope you don't think we'll be trying to take over the world only because we can talk to snakes and got sorted into Slytherin, are you?" Harry wanted to know.

"Of course not. Does anyone besides Hermione, Ginny and your family know?" Draco asked and the twins just shook their heads, "Not even the headmaster?" and again the children were telling him that no one knew, "Wow, how could you keep it a secret?"

"Eh, I think Snape might suspect something like that. He was after all with us when we bought Salazar and Niamh. But he didn't say a thing then and I doubt he told Dumbledore," Carya mused.

Suddenly Draco heard some hissing from Carya's left arm.

~You mean the dark human who wassss with you when we were bought? He smelled nicccce! He wouldn't tell on you. I'm sssure of that,~ the snake said.

~I think sssso too, Salazar. Although he is pretty mean to ussss in class sssometimesss,~ Carya replied.

"What did you say?" Draco asked astonished for he had heard this for the first time.

"Salazar said Snape smelled nice and wouldn't tell on us. And I answered that he most likely wouldn't although he's pretty mean to us in class sometimes," Carya translated.

Draco started laughing when Carya said Snape smelled nice. And the others soon joined in. The twins decided they had to tell Remus about this sometime. Sirius couldn't know because he would tell Snape straight away what their snakes thought of the Potions Master just to annoy him.

In the end Draco had to agree that the snakes were pretty cool and that being able to talk to them was more of a gift than anything else. It was something special and a very Slytherin thing too. He had been very much surprised at finding out about that but got over it quickly.

When he realised that Harry had managed to hide his pet-snake from his dormmates for two years already he was stunned.

'I wonder how he managed that. Slytherin's aren't usually fooled easily. He must have used spells to mask the serpents presence. I so envy them for that. I've always wondered how it would be to have a pet-snake that I could talk to despite what I said earlier,' Draco mused.

Dinner was quite amusing since the pets were with them this time. Even the ravens had come down and were perched on the back of their respective owners chairs. Hermione's new owl 'Bella' was delivering a letter to her parents and Ginny didn't have a pet.

Draco's owl 'Cronos' had never returned to him after he left Malfoy Manor. The snakes were often giving some comments and the twins had to explain to the others why they were starting to laugh every so often. They needed twice the time to get finished than any other evening.

After dinner the adults went to the library for further 'Party-Planning' and the kids once again vanished to one of their bedrooms. This time it was Draco's room. They continued helping the blonde with his transformation and by now it was clearly visible that he would be about the size of a small cat.

All five of them went to bed late that night but they didn't get as much sleep as they'd liked. At eight the next morning Sirius come pounding into the twins rooms as Padfoot and woke them up by licking their faces.

The following commotion woke up the other girls and Draco. Carya of course didn't like it at all to be woken up like that and had started chasing Sirius her wand in hand and tried to hex him. But because she was still half asleep she didn't actually hit the animagus.

Thirty minutes later they were all showered, fully clothed and sitting at the breakfast table. Mikie and the other elves had outdone themselves. They had made every single thing that they knew the twins liked for breakfast.

The best thing was the chocolate cake they made. It was totally covered with chocolate and there was 'Happy 13th Birthday' written on top of it in deep green icing. After they were full Sirius and Remus led the kids to the library.

There were two tables with presents. It was easy to find out which one was for whom. Carya's had a dark blue tablecloth and Harry's had an emerald green one. They both started unpacking their presents while their friends just watched.

They would give the twins their presents later when their other guests were there too. Harry got new clothes (not that he needed any *smirk*). There were new casual robes in green, blue and black, a few elegant jumpers and a new winter-cloak in forest-green.

There also was a set of new dress-robes. One of them was dark green with silver trim and the other was black and silver. He also got three pairs of slacks. One black, one grey and a cream-coloured one.

Another gift contained three books. They were 'Europe's Magical Schools: Durmstrang, Beauxbatons, Hogwarts' by Frederick French, 'Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue- Tying and Much, Much More)' by Professor Vindictus Viridian and 'The Captain's Guide to Quidditch Strategies' by Kennilworthy Whisp.

These were great gifts and he knew how valuable each one of these were. His next present was a pretty big box. When he opened it he gasped. It contained a complete set of Quidditch equipment. Quidditch gear, Broomstick Care-Kit (not the cheap one!) and a set off Quidditch balls including a League approved snitch although there were better ones - the internationally used Snitches.

Harry was beaming by now. He couldn't believe that his godfathers had spent so much money on them. Little did he know that Draco had suggested this when Sirius and Remus had asked him what they could give the twins for all those birthdays they'd missed so far.

Carya was still watching her brother and hadn't started on her gifts yet. When Harry was finished she finally started unwrapping her presents. She two got clothes very similar to Harry's only the colours were a bit different.

Her dress-robes were dark-blue and deep green and her casual robes were the same colour. Her winter-cloak was black too but she only got two pairs of trousers. One was black and the other was dark grey.

The next thing was a beautiful cream-coloured dress. It had floor length and was made of silk. Carya was gaping at that. Sure she didn't wear dresses that often but sometimes she did. The girl wanted to know how they knew but they all kept quiet.

She two got books. One was 'The Encyclopaedia of Hexes and Curses - Part III' by Meredith Blake and another was 'Advanced Hexes and Curses' by Elmar Nexus. The third one was a Scrapbook made of looses parchments that were bound together.

The note on top said 'This is for you since your brother has kept the photo-album. It's your dad's 'Marauder's Scrapbook'. All of our pranks are in there.' Carya was nearly in tears when she read that. She hugged her godfathers and showed it to her brother and her friends.

They would certainly put that knowledge to good use in the future. When she'd calmed down a bit she opened the last gift. It was small and soft. What fell out shocked the whole group of children. It was an invisibility cloak.

They didn't even want to know where the two Marauders had gotten it. Carya, Harry and their friends only knew how valuable they actually were. It was stunning how much the two adult had actually spent on the twins birthday.

"Don't get us wrong, kids, this here is all for those birthday's we've missed since your first, okay? The real gift for your 13th birthday will be given to you when your other guests are here," said Sirius with a sly grin on his face.

The twins once again hugged and thanked them over and over. Draco felt odd. He'd gotten quite an amount of gifts too in his life but never had a birthday he had been this emotional. It was an odd but not exactly unwelcome feeling. In fact he really liked it.

Sirius and Remus knew that their godchildren possessed some basic and intermediate Dark Arts books but they didn't mind. The books the kids had were mostly available at Flourish and Blotts. And they'd keep an eye on that as well.

It was nothing they hadn't done when they were young and if they forbade them to have those books they would get them anyway. It was definitely better this way.

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Please Read and Review,
Carya

2005-05-11