Sensing Magic
by Teddylonglong

Please refer to chapter 1 for my disclaimer and warnings. Thank you.


"Speak with Salazar using Parseltongue," Severus advised him, and Harry hesitantly complied.

However, Salazar scoffed at his question. "I don't think that it'sss posssible to bribe the Sssorting Hat. Godric was one of the most powerful wizardsss of our time and proficiently charmed Sopho to properly do hisss work."

"Yesss, Sssir. Exxcuse me, Sssir, isss there a portrait of Professssor Gryffindor somewhere in the cassstle, where I can ssspeak to him?"

"In the foundersss quartersss," Salazar hissed back. "Asss the heir of all four of usss, you should be able to accessss them."

With that, the grumpy, ancient wizard vanished from the portrait, causing Harry to let out a deep sigh, before he repeated the conversation to Severus.

"Salazar is very moody. That has nothing to do with you," Severus replied. He sounded firm and reassuring, and Harry slowly relaxed. "So, he did not tell you where these founders quarters are?"

"No, Sir."

Severus let out a deep sigh. "I am sorry, Harry, but I don't believe that there is anything that I can help you with. If Salazar is willing to tell anyone, it'll be you, not only because you're his heir, but also because he seems to have a soft spot for you due to your ability of speaking Parseltongue."

"But you're the head of Slytherin house." 'That should count more,' Harry thought in disbelief.

Severus chuckled. "When I first moved into these rooms, a young wizard with the name of Benjamin guarded the entrance. However, one day, Salazar appeared in the portrait and chased Benjamin away. I remember that he put up quite a fight but, in the end, had to leave. Salazar demanded that it was up to him to guard the quarters of the head of his house. Ever since then, he and his snake have been guarding our rooms. Perhaps, you can ask him again when he's in a good mood."

Harry nodded in understanding; nevertheless, he felt disappointed at not being able to help the twins try bribing the Sorting Hat. He quietly informed Ginny about the matter.

'That's fine, Harry. Thank you for trying to help them, but they will manage. They're really cool. I think Dad is right, when he said that they will find their way. Ah, I can't wait to be able to become a student at Hogwarts, too.'

'Me too,' Harry thought back, although he had to admit to himself that he was very happy with his life as it was now.

HP

From his seat between Tonks and Charlie, Harry observed the Sorting ceremony. It seemed to take a long time, before Minerva finally called Fred Weasley to the stool, where the students had to sit for the deputy headmistress to place the Sorting Hat onto their head.

'Look!' Lucy suddenly thought to him in apparent amusement and relayed the image of both twins approaching the hat together.

"Mr. George Weasley, please wait until it's your turn." Minerva's voice was sharp, and Harry hoped that the kind witch would never use that voice towards him.

However, before the twins could react in any way, the Sorting Hat spoke up. "I am a powerful, magical artefact. Don't you believe that I'd be able to deal with twins? That stool, however, isn't, so please sit on the floor."

"Sopho, please behave yourself." The headmaster's voice was gentle but firm; however, the Sorting Hat did not bother to respond this time.

Harry could hear one or the other chuckle from throughout the Great Hall, while the twins sat next to each other on the floor in front of the stool. He watched in disbelief how the Sorting Hat enlarged his brim to fit over both boys' heads, before Minerva obediently placed it onto their heads. 'Wow, that magic was totally different to what I ever felt before,' he thought in admiration of what had to be very old magic. 'Oh well, if Hogwarts was built one thousand years ago, the Hat must already be one thousand years old, too,' he thought in amazement.

Everything remained quiet for what Harry found was a very long time compared to the Sorting of the other students, who had already been sorted into their houses.

Finally, the Hat shouted, "Slytherin and Slytherin."

"Thank you, Sopho…"

"… We owe you," he heard the twins cheer, before they gently handed the Sorting Hat back to the deputy headmistress and walked over to the Slytherin table under deafening applause coming from all over the Great Hall.

'Tomorrow morning, I'll sit at the Slytherin table,' Harry resolved, feeling very happy for the twins.

'You were right. Your brothers are cool,' Harry thought to Ginny. 'They're both in Slytherin by the way.'

'Oh, that's great. Thanks Harry, for telling me.' Ginny sounded happy for her brothers. 'Thank Merlin,' Harry thought. 'That's what they wanted after all.'

'Harry, if you're up to it, you can join me for the house meeting in Slytherin right after the feast,' Severus invited him, causing Harry to smile at his adoptive father.

'Thank you so much. I'd love that,' he quickly replied, just when he became distracted by Lucy's image of the food that had appeared on the tables.

"They're the first Weasleys, who have been placed in another house than Gryffindor in about two hundred years," Charlie stated, grinning. "Typically, these two."

"They're trouble makers from every point of view." Percy's voice was grim, and Harry could not help feeling a strong dislike for the older boy.

"I think they're cool," he whispered, only for Charlie and Tonks to hear.

"That they are," Charlie confirmed.

"Professor Snape told me that they're also the first student assistants in at least two hundred years."

Charlie nodded in apparent enthusiasm. "They're brothers to be proud of. Our Mum won't see it that way though. I'm sure she's going to send them a Howler."

"She'll probably send you one too, because you didn't properly take care of them," Tonks quipped, changing her green hair to pink, as she grinned broadly.

Charlie shrugged. "Oh well, I don't mind some more entertainment for everyone at breakfast tomorrow morning."

However, it should not take till the following morning, before the first Howler could be heard all over the Great Hall.

The feast was still on its way, although everyone was about to finish their dessert, and the loud chatter of excitement all over the Great Hall had been replaced by quieter murmurs, when an old barn owl approached the Slytherin table. While Harry could not see it, as Lucy was asleep on his feet, he felt the commotion that stopped all remaining conversations coming from the house tables.

"That's our old owl, and she's carrying a red envelope," Charlie whispered to him, before Lucy turned her head to relay the proper image.

An instant later, Molly Weasley's voice filled the Great Hall.

"Fred and George Weasley, you're a disgrace for the family. In hundreds of years, all Weasleys have been sorted into Gryffindor. How dare you let yourselves be sorted into Slytherin. You…"

Harry tuned the voice out, feeling utterly disgusted at the twins' mother. 'She's their mum and a witch at that. She should accept the twins as they are,' he thought in disbelief. 'What a bitch.'

'Don't listen to that,' he thought to both twins at once, hoping that they would both be able to receive his message. 'I think that you're totally cool, and Charlie and Ginny think so, too.'

'Please show me the twins,' he asked Lucy, whose head shot up soon enough to see them both mock bow in his direction.

HP

After dinner, Harry and Lucy followed Severus into the Slytherin common room, where all students were already sitting in a large circle on the floor by the time they arrived.

"Wait a moment," Severus instructed him and, as soon as the students had quietened down, introduced him. "These are my son Harry and his familiar Lucy. While Harry is only nine and not a student yet, he will attend Potions together with the new first-years. Harry, please take a seat somewhere."

"Harry, here!"

Smiling, Harry followed the twins' simultaneous invitation, and lowered himself into the offered space between them. Lucy let herself fall onto the floor in front of them with a small thud, causing the students sitting nearby to laugh.

"She is gorgeous," Harry heard one of the girls whisper in clear admiration.

'That she is,' he thought, feeling very happy to have such a brilliant familiar.

HP

Attending Potions classes together with the twins, Harry realised in surprise that the Gryffindors were extremely afraid of Severus. 'I wonder why. He's really nice,' he thought, although he had to admit to himself that Severus could be outright mean if someone was what his guardian called a dunderhead at Potions.

"They don't have proper study habits," Severus explained, when he addressed the topic one evening. "While I have instructed my Slytherins to divide into study groups and study together in the common room, the students from other houses seem to do as they wish, maybe apart from the Ravenclaws who are known to study a lot. Most Gryffindors are outright lazy, as are the Hufflepuffs."

'Too bad that Nina and Tony can't attend classes together with me in two years' time,' Harry thought. While he sometimes visited his friends in the elves' quarters in the early evenings, he would have preferred to further study together with them. 'They're house-elves,' he thought, sadly. 'Perhaps, they could attend Hogwarts as students if they were free elves like Misty and Cicero.'

His two favourite elves had decided to accept Poppy's and Severus' offer and become free elves, which would serve them especially well, as they intended to marry and perhaps even have children, who would then automatically become free elves as well, unless they chose to bond themselves to a wizarding family as house-elves.

'I could as well hire their child and pay it,' Harry resolved, knowing that he had enough money in his vault that the Ministry of Magic had made for him to store the Galleons, which he had received from the Order of Merlin as well as from the wolvescure potion, which Severus and he still continued to brew every month.

Harry smiled as he imagined a cute elf child wearing a small scarf with an all over pattern of the Hogwarts crest like the scarves, which Severus and Poppy had given Cicero and Misty to free them.

Suddenly, a small voice penetrated his mind. 'Harry. Can you hear me?'

'Yes,' Harry thought back to the unknown source of the voice. 'Who are you?'

However, there was no response, and Harry wondered if his mind had played a prank on him.

'Did you hear that, too?' he asked his familiar.

'Hear what?' Lucy thought back, letting out a yaw-cracking yawn.

'Ah, nothing, must have been my imagination then,' Harry replied, although he was fairly certain that the voice had been real.

HP

Severus and his younger colleagues made it a habit to go out together on Saturday evenings, encouraged by Minerva and Poppy who insisted that it would do them good to maintain social contacts within their own age group.

From bits and pieces of conversation between Severus, Regina, Miranda and Remus, Harry had the impression as if the four colleagues were slowly developing into two couples. 'It would be cool if Severus and Regina got together and Remus and Miranda,' he thought one day. 'That way, Regina could live at Hogwarts with us.'

'Would you not mind?' Lucy asked, when Harry shared his thoughts with her.

Harry listened in shock. 'Do you think Severus wouldn't want us to live together with him then anymore?'

'I don't think so. We're his family now,' the canine replied, before she reassuringly licked his face with apparent fervour.

Harry pondered the matter for a few weeks, unaware that Severus and Regina wondered why the melodies, which he played on the Suikan, changed back to express anxiousness, which had not been present during the last few weeks.

Finally, on one of the Saturday evenings, which Minerva spent with him allowing him to practise the Animagus transformation, he asked the older witch.

'I think Severus likes Regina,' he thought to her, too unsure to speak about it aloud. 'Do you think he'd still want me if they got together?'

"Harry!" the older witch's voice was laced with apparent shock. "Don't think such a thing. I also believe that they have taken a liking to each other, but Severus will never abandon you. He adopted you, and you're his son now, and you will always be his son, even if he decides to marry Regina or any other woman. Frankly speaking, I'd be very happy for him if he found the love of his life, but that won't have any influence on his relationship to you. If at all, everything might become even more enjoyable for you, as you'd gain more family."

Harry nodded in understanding. "Thank you, Minerva."

He felt so relieved that he automatically directed his efforts back to the attempt at transfiguration. It had become so natural for him to try changing his left hand into a dog's paw that he did not even have to think about what he was doing.

Only a loud gasp coming from the older witch made him realise that something had happened.

"Harry, you did it. Lucy!"

Letting out a huge yawn, the canine slowly opened her eyes, relaying an image to Harry, as she looked at his paw, which was identical to her own.

=You did it, Harry. Well done.=

"I suppose that her barking was some sort of congratulation," Minerva commented in apparent amusement. "Anyway, that was very well done, Harry. Now, you must change back and forth a couple of times, so that it'll become natural to do so, before you try to do the same transformation using your right hand. This will still be some effort, but it'll be faster than with your left hand. That was the hardest part."

"Thank you," Harry replied, feeling very happy. "Could you please not tell anyone about it? I'd like to keep it a secret, until I'll manage the complete transformation."

Minerva agreed, although Harry had the impression, as if she did not really understand his motivation.

'I don't want anyone to expect me to manage the transformation quickly,' he thought, 'considering that only the left paw alone took me almost two months.'

"Tomorrow evening is the Halloween feast." Minerva brought him back to reality by changing the topic. "Do you have any plan to disguise yourself?"

'Perhaps she can transfigure you into a doggy,' Lucy supplied, helpful, and Harry quickly repeated her question aloud.

Minerva remained pensive for a moment. "We usually do not transfigure students into animals, but I could try to change your clothes into a dog costume if that's what you wish?"

He eagerly nodded his head and shortly afterwards felt her magic very nearby. An instant later, Lucy looked at him and showed him the image, making Harry smile broadly.

"Thank you so much. That's gorgeous."

"You're welcome. Now, you only have to decide on a house table to sit tomorrow evening."

Harry let out a small sigh. "Probably with the twins," he thought aloud. "They're so much fun."

"I believe that immediately." Minerva's voice suddenly turned stern. "Please do not encourage them to play anymore pranks on the whole school though. I have the impression as if they especially targeted my house."

Harry chuckled. "That's because Percy is very mean to them," he explained, matter-of-factly. 'It's understandable that they target him. He really is a git,' he thought, knowing better than to voice the thought to the strict Gryffindor head.

HP

Harry took his seat between the twins at the Slytherin table in excitement. Although he already knew all of the Slytherin first-years and most of their housemates, many students were disguised, and he had no idea who was sitting around them. 'At least, I know the twins,' he thought, happily caressing Lucy's ears. He observed how the headmaster greeted the students and wished them a happy Halloween feast. However, before the old wizard could tap his wand against the head table to make the food appear on the house tables, Severus motioned him to wait for a moment and rose from his chair.

"I wish for all of you to spend one quiet minute to remember Lily and James Potter, who have died at Halloween eight years ago and given all of us the freedom which we can enjoy today."

'My parents,' Harry thought in shock. 'It's eight years ago that they died.' He was torn between sadness at his parents' death and gratefulness towards Severus who had reminded everyone to remember them.

Before he could further follow the strand of thought, a voice, which he had only heard once before, penetrated his mind.

'Is it already eight years that I killed them? I am so sorry, Harry.'

tbc...

Thank you so very much for the kind reviews for the previous chapter. Please tell me what you liked or disliked in this chapter and what you expect from this story. Any ideas are welcome, and my muse appreciates any constructive feedback.