-Chapter Fourteen-

Heir and Back Again

"What do you mean 'Albus'? You mean Professor Dumbledore? Did he know my parents?" The note in the package had said that his father had left the item in Dumbledore's possession before he'd died. Oddly, it also said to use it well, but he had no idea what it was, let alone how to use it well.

"Yes, Professor Dumbledore," Augusta confirmed. "I'm sure this is his handwriting. With the number of roles he has, you end up seeing it everywhere. Look -" She pulled over one of the baskets she'd received and handed Harry the note which accompanied it. "- Albus gave me a gift basket. He always includes a little jar of his favourite sweets - sherbet lemons - and usually gives a book. Once a teacher, always a teacher."

Harry examined the note written to accompany the basket, careful to keep it in pristine condition. The looping whirls of the headmaster's handwriting were very elegant, particularly impressive in light of Harry's difficulties with using a quill. There was no doubting the similarities, though he fully admitted he was no expert in comparing handwriting samples. The over-the-top capital Y of Yuletide in Augusta's note and Your in Harry's seemed as closely related as Fred and George. Augusta's conclusion looked to have weight.

"How did he know my parents?" It was strange that people who knew his parents were suddenly coming out of the woodwork after ten years of nothing.

"I think Albus prides himself on knowing most, if not all, of his students, though it's a little more difficult when he's the headmaster, as opposed to when he taught Transfiguration. I believe he knew your parents best through his little group, however. They took an active part in the war and they followed Frank and Alice in joining straight out of Hogwarts. They were all so, so brave."

"Why would Professor Dumbledore still have this?" Neville piped up quickly, almost too quickly. His gran straightened up at his question and cleared her throat.

"I'm not too sure," she replied. "What would be the right thing to have done, Neville?" Yet another patented Augusta Longbottom learning opportunity had arrived. Neville thought about it for a second.

"Shouldn't all the family's possessions have been put into their vault in Gringotts?" he suggested.

"Very good," Augusta praised. "Definitely something to take up with him at some point."

The three stayed in the parlour until dinner, talking more casually than they usually did. Harry and Neville were allowed to eat a chocolate frog and the strange mass of fabric was mostly forgotten in their discussion on the topic of the headmaster. More than being in charge of the pre-eminent school of magic in the country, he was the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards. This meant he was the head of the oversight and judicial body of the country as well as that of the world. He wasn't just at the top of the political chain; he was the chain.

"Less thinking, more eating," Neville said from across the table as he noticed Harry with his fork hovering over his plate. Harry blushed, stuck his tongue out a fraction and stuck his fork into his turkey.

#

"Oh hey, Hannah!" Harry said after spinning around. Neville's fellow Hufflepuff had tapped him on the shoulder in the middle of the King's Cross concourse. They spied her parents walking towards them, catching up from where Hannah had run over. The Abbott family must have followed them through the Floo. It was over an hour until the Hogwarts Express left, but Augusta had insisted that they arrive very early. Arriving at a busy fireplace and having to queue within the system was rather uncomfortable, and from the way she described it Harry had no desire to experience it for himself, even if his years in the cupboard had guaranteed he didn't suffer from claustrophobia.

"Hiya, Harry. How was your Christmas?"

"Not too bad, thanks. I reckon I had it better than Neville. Christmas day just flew past for me, but poor Nev here looked like he'd not slept for days after he came back from the Greengrass gathering."

"Ah, I'm glad I'm not going to have to deal with all this political nonsense when I grow up," Hannah said with a grin. "Sounds dead boring to me."

"You're probably right," agreed Harry, "though Nev and I will always try to keep each other awake when we have to deal with these things."

"Ah, not you too? You could probably have your pick of whatever you want to do. I'd stay away."

At this point, both groups had reached the metal barrier between platforms nine and ten, resolutely serving its function of preventing Muggles from accessing the two platforms without using the ticket barriers at either end. For all intents and purposes, the two shiny horizontal bars, held up every so often by similarly gleaming posts, looked and felt steadfastly solid. However, the six people and three trolleys made a casual beeline for it, with no sense of the impending collision. The people swivelled their heads to check for anybody watching and the trolleys swivelled their wheels wildly almost as though they were afraid, and yet the crashing sound never came. The commuters and other regular passengers were somehow all looking away at the point of impact, and even those who knew of the barrier's secret were compelled to blink, unfocus their eyes, or otherwise their view was somehow blocked. Perhaps seeing the transition onto the magical platform would have made them go mad, or perhaps it was so seamless as to almost be mundane.

The minds of the Abbotts and Longbottoms, familial and honorary alike, were all far from the lofty thoughts of the gateway onto platform nine-and-three-quarters. It quite firmly did not matter, even in retrospect, and the gleaming scarlet engine grabbed their attention immediately. The children were excited to be returning to see their friends and experience the magic of Hogwarts, whereas the adults - two Purebloods and one Muggle-born - were awash with nostalgia. Soon, with much less emotion and tears than in September, the families said their goodbyes and the witches- and wizards-in-training boarded the Hogwarts Express.

Harry, Neville and Hannah found Susan already occupying a compartment. She and her aunt were among the first to arrive on the platform in the morning, appearing just after Aurors finished sweeping the area, ensuring the security of the large number of civilians. It allowed Susan to quickly reach the safety of the train and her aunt to continue her long hours in the Ministry.

"What do you mean you forgot to give each other presents?" Susan asked when she found out about their Christmas. There were still ten minutes before the Hogwarts Express would sound its final whistle and begin chugging along the tracks back to school, yet Susan's blossoming investigative mind had already got them to divulge the embarrassing moment. "I'd expect that of Neville - he's always been very forgetful - but I expected better of you, Harry."

"Are you sure you're not a Ravenclaw?" Harry asked as Neville spluttered something about having become much less forgetful recently. "That was very detective-y and not much like a Hufflepuff. I think we need to get you re-sorted." He tried not to cringe at his awkward vocabulary and grinned cheekily at Susan.

"The Hat may have considered Ravenclaw for me, but there's no doubt I'm a Hufflepuff."

"What was the deciding factor?" Neville asked. "Apart from it being the best House, of course." Harry nudged Neville gently in disagreement.

"I chose Hufflepuff," Susan said. "As much as I like it when auntie teaches me how to find things out, I'd much rather be around my friends working things out together. Once Hannah went into Hufflepuff I knew I wanted to go there too. There's no point in being clever or brave or cunning if you've got no-one to share it with."

"Can I share my cunning self with you guys?" Harry asked, sticking out his tongue. Hannah and Neville chuckled.

"Nope!" said Susan, shaking her head and tilting it upwards, looking down her nose at him.

As they all burst out laughing, there was a knock on their compartment door. Through the door's window, they saw Millicent with her bag slung over her shoulder. Harry waved her in before she could finish opening her mouth to ask. She slid the door open and shuffled in, sitting in the opposite corner to Harry.

"Nice owl," Millicent commented, nodding to the cage secured safely in the luggage rack. Within the cage was a great horned owl - the large eyebrows for which it was named always made Harry smile.

"I got him for Christmas," Neville said, "though Gran gave him to me the day after. His name's Buri."

"That's very kind of her," Susan said, "but you can't distract me. How could you both forget to get each other presents?"

"Ooh, good point, Susan," Hannah said, turning to the boys. "Detective Bones has unearthed a discrepancy. Spill." Susan nudged Hannah, but couldn't help a giggle escaping.

"True, we'd both forgotten to get presents for Christmas," explained Harry, "but Mrs Longbottom suggested we make a promise for the future to celebrate the new year and to make up for it. We talked it over between ourselves and came up with the idea of getting each other owls. We'd been practicing writing letters, you see, so we thought it was probably a good idea to get each other owls so that those letters could be delivered. We persuaded Mrs Longbottom to take us for a quick trip to Diagon Alley - and goodness me it was very quick, I need to visit the bank again at some point - and that's that."

"Did you make promises for the future too?" asked Hannah.

"Shush," Millicent said before anybody could respond. "That's private." Hannah and Susan looked at Millicent, an odd expression on their faces. It had taken them a little while to get used to having Millicent around whenever they met with Harry, particularly as she was quiet and had her unfortunate surly resting face. Millicent didn't hold it against them - she and Harry had talked about the snap judgement of eleven-year-olds in an awkward but necessary and positive conversation - but didn't make much effort towards befriending the Hufflepuff girls.

"Ok, fine," Susan said, rolling her eyes at Hannah and Millicent, "but I have one last question for you." She turned to Neville, leaned back and folded her arms. "Are you breaking the school rules by having two pets?"

There was silence, but for the rumble of the train.

"Buh?" Neville elegantly expressed his confusion.

"You have an owl."

"Yeah…?"

"And your toad?" Harry's eyebrows rose slightly and Neville's eyes widened. Suddenly, Neville began to chuckle.

"Well remembered," he said. "However, if it pleases the court, the defence would like to make a statement." Susan raised an eyebrow and Neville stuck out his tongue. Harry was trying his hardest to stifle a laugh. "Alright, I took Trevor back home - I wouldn't want to leave him alone in the castle for three weeks - and I've left him there, perfectly happy in a terrarium. He's being well looked after. The defence pleads not guilty."

#

The remainder of the train ride to Hogsmeade station was passed with pleasant chatter, raucous laughter and the sharing of still far too many sweets. Despite the abundance of sweets each student had extricated from beneath decoration-laden trees over a week prior, the preteen sweet tooth clearly remained unsatisfied and the trolley witch continued to do a roaring trade.

The group was wary on the second leg of their journey, gripping their wands all the way from the station, through the gates flanked by statues of winged boars, to the great oak doors of the castle. They had spotted Professor Snape on the platform, Professor Flitwick on the top step at the castle entrance, Professor Sinistra at the gate to the grounds and another professor halfway between Flitwick and Sinistra, but tension remained in their carriage. They were especially concerned when passing the unknown professor.

"I've always wondered what subject she teaches," Harry said, gesturing to the wary-looking woman. He was pleased to see at least one set of shoulders relax at his comment, though nobody decided to reply. They were still somewhat tense when they entered the great hall, with mumbled farewells as they headed to their respective tables, Harry and Neville hanging back by the doors. The two turned to each other and each grasped the other's arm.

"I promise," they said to each other in unison, before nodding and following their housemates to take up the seats they'd saved for them.

#

"You have all worked your way through the first term here at Hogwarts," Professor Snape intoned in his silky voice, eyes resting on each of his first years in turn, "some harder than others. In one way or another, you have survived. You have learned.

"By now, you should be more than familiar with the workings of the school and of the house. Traditionally, your families will have begun teaching you their ways now that your first term is complete. For these reasons, we are having this talk now, where other heads of houses choose to speak to their first year students at the beginning of the first term.

"Slytherin house is one united entity. Each of you must work to ensure that the house remains united outside of this common room. There are those who would believe the worst of this house and those who would see it brought down, capitalising on any cracks they may see. There must be none.

"To make it clear for those who have not yet realised, it is your duty to aid Slytherin. Equally, Slytherin will do its duty to you. Here in the school, you will show that you are working hard, behaving perfectly, and earning the house points. You will agree and support each other out in the wider school, regardless of your disputes behind these walls. Your public dealings will be polite and restrained. I will not hear of any misdemeanours.

"Always remember: if you do right by Slytherin, Slytherin will do right by you. These are words to live by both inside and outside this school." With these final words, Professor Snape turned on his heel and left the common room, likely returning to his office or the staff room, and almost immediately a large number of students from various years gravitated towards Draco.

"May I?" Millicent asked, inclining her head towards the group.

"Sure," Harry replied. "What's going on? Do I need to come over?"

"It's to do with the gathering over Christmas." Sure enough, Harry looked over to see that Daphne was part of the conglomeration. "I'll tell you what's up later, yeah?"

"No problem." Harry was more than happy to head off to the dormitory and wasn't about to give anybody the chance to question his presence and make it an even longer climb up the greasy pole. Besides, he had plotting to do.

After passing the guardian carving, he made a beeline for his trunk, extracted a self-inking quill and some parchment, as well as a book to lean on, and sat cross-legged on his bed. He began to write a list of goals, keen to not miss anything out among the many distractions of the magical school.

First on the list, borne of his current awkward position, was to obtain a desk for the dormitory. Perhaps everyone would want a desk. Take Tracey and Millie off the list as they already have desks in their separate rooms. People would probably want the desks to face into the room, rather than facing the wall, and each desk would need a chair.

Next, he wanted to continue with his project to help with Astronomy class. It would be great to get back into tinkering and creating new things, but it was proving to be difficult now that magic was added to the mix. Harry was well-versed in Muggle craftsmanship; the physical and tangible nature of tools and materials gave way to simple rules and mechanics. He now needed to learn a lot about the new rules, limitations, possibilities and dangers of magic, of which there were countless schools and disciplines, and so it was necessarily slow going. Therefore, he would be sure to start as simply as possible, and Ancient Runes still seemed to be the most appropriate area of research, even with the little knowledge he had gleaned so far.

Now that he was back at the castle, Harry also wanted to get back to exploring the castle. That could be third on the list. By his reckoning there were hundreds of rooms not currently used for teaching. It took at least five minutes to walk from one end of the castle to the other, through the various wings and courtyards. Though it was sometimes difficult to define them, there were at least nine floors - the Slytherin common room was in the dungeons, below the ground floor, and it was said that the Gryffindor common room could be found on the seventh floor. A lot of the time, however, you could turn the corner, go up a single step, walk along an imperceptible incline, turn another corner and, by some feat of magic, end up two floors above where you thought you were. As far as Harry knew, there were only about a dozen subjects currently studied, so the remaining ninety-five per cent of the castle must have some other purpose.

If he was going to start looking for causes to put his name to and areas where he could use his influence, he was going to need to know more about the magical world. Harry would only be able to find out so much through the filtered lens of his lessons. Culturally, he was a Muggle-born, completely foreign and over eleven years behind. He felt he could knock a handful of years off that number as the exact feel of a magical nappy and the taste of the corner of a wizarding book of children's stories weren't important in the grand scheme of things. Still, he was missing a good few years of authentic wizarding education.

Oh, and he needed to visit Hagrid at some point.

Just as he was writing the giant man's name, the door to the dormitory swung open and Millicent strode in. She immediately approached the edge of Harry's bed. He patted an empty spot beside him, to which she raised an eyebrow.

"You're getting good at that," Harry said, smirking. "Draco's been working on it since the start of the year. Did I tell you about that time I caught him practicing it in the mirror in the first-floor bathroom?" She crossed her arms.

"Do you want to hear what that was all about or not?" Millicent grumbled.

"Okay, okay!" Harry raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Right, so I don't know if Neville told you, but there are all sorts of groups splitting off and having conversations at these gatherings. In one of those conversations, Draco said that his father had some big news and that he'd tell us when we got to Hogwarts. I wasn't really convinced at the time and it was clear that his father hadn't actually told him the news, but he had plenty of people giving him attention and stuff. It was pretty disgusting to tell you the truth." She frowned at the memory.

"But I imagine he's told you what the big news is now?" Harry prompted her.

"Oh, yeah! His father told him after the new year. You'll never guess."

"True. Go on."

"Draco's the heir to the Black family!"

"So?"

"Sorry, I forgot you wouldn't know about them," Millicent said. "The Black family is an old Pureblood family, one of the very oldest. The proper name is The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Pretty much every Pureblood is related to the Blacks and they had a lot of influence."

"Had?" Harry queried. Surely Draco wouldn't get all excited over an old family with no more influence.

"Well there aren't many of them left any more. I think Draco's mum was a black and she's got a sister or something. I'm not too sure about that, but the main line of the family just has one person in it, Sirius Black. He was put in Azkaban for…" She paused, eyes flicking briefly to Harry's forehead. "...crimes. The head of House Black must have disowned him."

"But why does that matter? It's not as though it's the Queen or anything."

"It's the money. The Blacks were - are - the richest family in the magical world. Imagine the political capital that could get you if you used it right." Millicent raised her eyebrow again as Harry sighed, shaking his head.

"Draco's going to be insufferable, isn't he?"