Sensing Magic
by Teddylonglong
Please refer to chapter 1 for my disclaimer and warnings. Thank you.
Five minutes later, the spell was cast and Salazar suggested to visit Amaterasu right away. "Just pop into our quarters and walk from there to not give the cutie a fright."
"Yes sir." Harry nodded in confirmation and, even if he would have preferred to turn in for the night, he decided to make use of the opportunity to have his father and the ancient wizard in a frame with him.
For the second time that day, he walked through Helga's and Salazar's bathroom, pointing out the potions lab to Severus.
"Come back at the next opportunity and take a look at my lab."
Severus nodded in apparent eagerness. "We shall do so."
"It's absolutely gorgeous," Harry informed him, smiling, before he opened the door leading to Amaterasu's domain.
As soon as they arrived in the large chamber, Salazar called out to his familiar.
"Amaterasssu, where are you, lazybonessss?"
"Ahhh, that soundsssss like my Salazzzzar." The slithering sounds, which Harry had already heard earlier, came nearer, and even if he had seen Amaterasu in the founders' painting, he stared in shock as the large head came into view.
'That thing is just huge,' he realised.
"Hello Amaterasssssu." Harry eyed the large serpent with apprehension.
"Hello, young Ssssspeaker." She sounded friendly, and Harry slowly relaxed.
"Are you well, my dear?" Salazar leaned forward in his photo frame.
"I have missssed you, and it isssss cold here."
"Now, my dear, thisssss isss Harry. He isssss the firssst heir of my friendssss and myssself, ssso he issss the owner of Hogwartsssss now. Feel free to become hissss familiar. The other wizzzard is his father, the Potionssss professssssor and head of Ssssslytherin housssse."
"Doesssss he ssspeak assss well?"
"No. He issss not a Parssselmouth."
Harry quickly translated for his father, before Amaterasu instructed him to switch on the fireplace in the adjacent living room. She slithered ahead into the living room, moving her head in the direction of the fireplace. Harry looked around with curiosity. The room was equipped with two green sofas, an old table made from what Harry thought had to be oak, a bookshelf made from the same wood and an oversized fireplace.
As Harry had not been taught the respective spell yet, Severus quickly pointed his wand at the fireplace making bright orange flames appear.
Amaterasu raised her head up to the height of Severus' face and hissed, "Thhhhhank you." She then proceeded to lie down on a large spot right beside the fire, and Harry noticed that this specific fireplace had obviously been built just for her.
"If you tell the bookshelf to move aside, it will reveal the door leading to my library, which I would recommend for both of you. Some of the books, especially those with potions recipes, are written in Parselscript, but young Harry here should be able to read and, if necessary, translate them."
Harry suddenly felt the happiness, of which he already knew that it was the result of a magical bonding. An instant later, Amaterasu informed him that she had bonded to him.
"Assss my Salazzzzar issss unable to vissssit me anymore in persssson, I wissssh to be your familiar."
"All right." Harry felt extremely unsure, wondering how many familiars one wizard could have. "I already have a dog familiar though. Will you get along with Lucccy?"
"Bring her with you the nexxxt time, and I will bond withhhh her asssss well."
HP
At the same time, Teddy returned to the Ravenclaw common room, where he let himself fall into the empty spot next to Hermione on the sofa with a small thud.
"Teddy, where have you been?" Hermione smiled, almost as if she was happy to see him.
"I was with Harry. We were almost killed tonight." He was still a bit shocked by the earlier revelations.
Hermione stared at him in disbelief. "Excuse me, but how would one die at Hogwarts?"
"Salazar Slytherin in his painting instructed Harry to go and see his familiar. But as she is a basilisk, we would have died had we looked into her eyes. Fortunately, Lucy prevented us from going near her and made us return to the founders' quarters. Harry and his father have now gone to cast a spell over the grounds, so that her eyes won't kill us anymore."
"There is a basilisk alive in this castle? It is a school for children who wouldn't even know how to defend themselves from such a dangerous beast." Hermione apparently did not believe him. She glanced at her wrist watch. "Ah, too bad, curfew has already begun. Tomorrow, I'll head to the library and look for some information."
"I'll go with you and look for something about majaroos. We're going to try to become Animagi," Teddy admitted. "We want to become magical cangaroos."
"Oh, how cool." Hermione stared at him in apparent excitement. "Cangaroos have their own belly bags. I could carry my books in my belly bag if I was a cangaroo Animagus. Do you think I'd be able to become an Animagus, although I'm muggleborn?"
Teddy shrugged. "I think it makes no difference what kind of witch you are. If you have magic, you can do anything that others can. But…" he remained pensive for a moment, "… I think Harry said that everything in your belly bag will change into a baby majaroo. That's the magical cangaroo."
"May I join you in your practice? I'd love to become an Animagus, too."
'Harry, can Hermione practise the Animagus transformation with us?'
'Of course.'
"We meet shortly before curfew in the Prince quarters every evening. Harry said you can come and practise with us."
HP
During the following weeks, Regina and the three teenagers eagerly practised to change their left hand into the paw of a majaroo; however, by the end of October, no one but Harry had succeeded. He was already able to change both arms and hands into those of a majaroo.
"You must be patient," Minerva reminded them, when Harry once called her to possibly help his mother and his friends. "For Harry, it is easier, as he seems to be extremely talented in various areas of magic. That he has already managed the transformation into a dog Animagus helps as well." She let out a deep sigh.
"Regina, you should practise as much as you can. I've just heard some disturbing news from Albus."
Apparently realising that everyone stared at her in silent question, she explained. "While everyone was celebrating Samhain respectively Halloween last night, apparently, there has been an outbreak at Azkaban. We don't know yet what exactly happened and who escaped, but it seems that at least several Death Eaters have fled the prison."
'Marvolo,' Harry thought to his friend, 'have you heard anything about Death Eaters breaking out of Azkaban?' He felt that his friend seemed shocked by the news.
'No. Are you sure? When did that happen?'
'Apparently last night. I'm not sure, but that's what Dumbledore told McGonagall this evening.'
Severus let out a deep sigh. "Minerva, thank you for the information. Let us call our friends here and discuss what safety precautions we need to take. As curfew is going to commence in two minutes, Teddy and Ms. Granger, please return to your common room. Harry, take Lucy and go to bed."
"But…" Hermione cast him a horrified look.
"Hermione, I know that you will have many questions, but I promise you that my husband and I will do our best to explain everything to you tomorrow evening." Regina's voice was gentle but firm and allowed no contradiction.
"Thank you." Hermione smiled at the clearly shocked witch and obediently reached out to take Teddy's hand.
"Good night, Hermione. Night Teddy."
"G'night, Harry," his friends chorused, before Teddy popped them away.
HP
The following morning, the headline of the Daily Prophet shouted in red letters.
'Azkaban – the thwarted prison break on Halloween'
'During the Hollow night, an unknown witch or wizard personating an Auror probably by the use of Polyjuice potion, entered the prison of Azkaban. The person stunned the Auror on duty and freed several Death Eaters, among them Peter Pettigrew and the Lestrange brothers together with the equally dangerous Bellatrix Lestrange. What they could not know was that on this evening, a second Auror was present, who enervated his colleague, as soon as he returned from a visit to the bathroom seeing his fellow Auror stunned. Together, they raised an alarm soon enough for all refugees to be apprehended, as soon as their boat reached the coast. The fake Auror was not with them, and a questioning under Veritaserum proved that the Death Eaters had no clue about the identity of their rescuer.'
'Thank Merlin,' Harry thought and immediately sent a telepathic message to Regina to reassure her that the danger was banned, at least for the moment.
"Would my father do such a thing?" Draco cast Harry, who was sitting next to him at the Gryffindor table for breakfast, a questioning look.
"Possibly, but he seems to not be exactly stupid, so they probably won't be able to prove that it was him even if it was his doing."
Draco nodded in agreement.
HP
At the high table, the relief was obvious; however, Severus inwardly groaned in annoyance, when Remus announced that there would be an emergency meeting of the Wizengamot beginning at ten o'clock that very morning.
"We have classes to teach."
"Exactly." Minerva voiced her consent.
"Minister Bagnold asked me to arrange for the meeting this morning. After the happenings at Azkaban, she wishes to retire as soon as possible. An interim minister has to be found, who will then arrange the election of a new minister."
"Oh, that's a pity, even if understandable. She was a good minister."
Severus felt that he had to agree with Minerva. 'Regina should attend the meeting together with Minerva, Remus, Frank and me, but she can't take Felix there,' he mused, before he made a decision. 'Harry will be able to look after him. He is responsible enough, and he will know to call Misty or Cicero if they had any problems.'
'Harry,' Severus thought to his oldest son, 'would you perhaps be willing to take Felix to class with you this morning? Your mother and I have to attend a meeting of the Wizengamot.'
'Of course, Dad, no problem. I'll return and fetch him right away.'
Severus hurriedly relayed the information about the Wizengamot meeting to his wife, so that she could prepare everything for when Harry arrived to pick up his baby brother.
He smiled, when Harry returned to the Great Hall carrying the baby in his arms. As soon as he lowered himself into his seat again, the girls around him began to make a huge fuss over Felix, causing Severus to smirk.
HP
The Wizengamot meeting was tedious as ever. They were able to decide on Amelia as the interim minister relatively quickly. However, the witch only accepted the position under the condition that no one was going to try forcing her to become the minister, stating that she was happy as the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Remus then suggested that her husband Sirius should be elected for the minister position, considering that the magical world had wronged him badly. However, Sirius declined for similar reasons as Amelia's.
Artemis Nott then suggested Marvolo, stating that he had been wronged equally badly. Marvolo refused as well, however, stating that he was not ready and comfortable enough to take such a position yet.
To Severus' relief, no one named Lucius Malfoy. 'If that old hag, Augusta Longbottom, was still on the Wizengamot, she'd surely have named Albus,' he thought, smiling at his wife, who was occupying the Lestrange seat on his left.
Before the discussion could further escalate, Remus suggested to end the meeting for the time being. "I am certain that the Lady Bones-Black will be able to put a list of wiling candidates together, and I suggest to have the election at the beginning of the new year."
They decided on a Wizengamot meeting with the purpose of the election of the new minister on January 10.
"What a waste of time." Severus rolled his eyes in annoyance, as he strode to the fireplace in the atrium together with his wife and colleagues.
"You mean teaching dunderheads is more fun?" Regina quipped, causing Minerva, Frank and Remus to chuckle.
"Your wife is right, considering how you always complain about having to teach dunderheads." Minerva smirked.
HP
As disappointed as Harry was that he could not accompany his parents to the Wizengamot meeting, as happy he was that his parents had entrusted him with the care for Felix. He still had to come to terms with the fact that he was a proper member of the family. Even if Severus and Regina had told him that they loved him and even pointed out that Severus had blood adopted him and that he had in a way blood adopted Regina, from his past experiences with relatives, it was still difficult for Harry to feel as if he really belonged.
Felix slept through the first two morning classes. He only woke up in the middle of the Charms class, but quietened down immediately, when Harry lifted him up onto his lap. With a quick spell that Regina had taught him a few weeks ago, he heated up the bottle that their mother had prepared for Felix and began feeding the baby. He inwardly groaned, when everyone sitting around him began to coo over his brother's cuteness.
"Yes, we all know that Felix is a very cute baby, but you need to practise this charm if you do not wish to have a pop quiz tomorrow."
Harry cast Professor Flitwick a grateful smile, knowing that he would not have a problem with that specific charm.
"Will you give him to me?" Ginny whispered from where she was sitting on Draco's other side. "I'll make him burp."
Harry nodded, feeling very relieved when Ginny and Draco changed seats, so that Felix was facing him, when Ginny carefully laid his small head onto her shoulder.
Harry smiled, surprised at just how much love he could feel for his little brother.
"Hey Felix," he whispered, feeling outright happy, when the baby returned a toothless smile, before he let out a loud burp that made the whole class turn around and laugh.
HP
Early on Saturday morning, Regina and Severus headed to Gringotts to speak with Buckbean, while Harry and Lucy were cuddling with Felix on the carpet in the living room.
To their relief, Buckbean was already aware of what had happened at Azkaban and immediately made them an offer for strong goblin wards, which the goblins could place around Lestrange Manor.
They even took the matter a step further and went to Lestrange Manor. Checking out the head's office, they found the list of people currently accepted by the wards and deleted them all except for Marvolo Gaunt and Artemis Nott, before they added their own children, Harry and Felix.
'Having a daughter in addition would be nice,' Regina thought, as she observed Severus eagerly skim the bookshelf for something that might be of interest.
Afterwards, they placed the manor under the Fidelius charm with Severus as the Secret Keeper, knowing that the secret was safer with him than with Regina, considering that he was a master Occlumens.
"Thanks for your help with this." Regina cast her husband a broad smile.
"Of course, my dear. We want you to be safe."
HP
To Severus' annoyance, Marvolo called him that evening. 'Probably about the Azkaban occurrences,' he thought, grimly, as he dismissed the twins and Harry from the Potions classroom. 'I am sure it was Lucius.'
To his surprise, however, Marvolo did not ask any questions. He merely informed the assembled Death Eaters that he had nothing to do with it and uttered a light warning, stating that he would not condone having the Death Eaters free to cause havoc all over the country again.
HP
To Harry's relief, the weeks leading up to Christmas passed uneventfully, so that he could concentrate on his studies together with his friends and still spend some time with Felix, who slowly became more alert. The baby seemed to reciprocate his feelings and always saved the brightest smiles for him, much to Regina's apparent amusement.
From the beginning of December onwards, he began to make Christmas presents for his friends and family. For the girls, he brewed a special hand crème using the oil from a tree, which Anastasia had harvested together with him on the Isle of Elves during the summer. For the boys, who were in the possession of their own brooms, even if the first-years were not allowed to keep them but had to leave them in the office of their head of house, he brewed a broom polish after a recipe, which he had developed together with the twins under Severus' tutelage. For the other boys, he made a pleasant dream potion, of which he gave them a small phial.
It was on the last day of school before the beginning of the Christmas holidays that he finished the ginger essence for Minerva, which she could put into her tea.
For his parents, he had drawn a series of pictures with images of Felix from his birth onwards, and he was fairly sure that they would like it a lot.
Once his gift making as well as the tests for all of their classes was over, he suddenly realised that all of his friends except for Teddy, Neville and Draco were going to travel home for the holidays. Somehow, he felt sad at the idea, although he was looking forward to spending more time with Felix.
'I hope he will like my gift,' he thought. Actually, he felt very proud of the playmat, which he had made using various transfiguration spells and charms. It just fit into his playpen and held different animals, which the baby could press or squeeze, so that they would make their respective sounds. Needless to say that Harry especially liked the dog, which looked exactly like Lucy.
HP
Marvolo invited Harry over for the night of the winter solstice and even allowed him to bring his friends if they wanted to participate in a ritual for the goddess Canola.
Teddy, Neville, Draco and of course Lucy happily accompanied him, and Harry hesitantly brought his Suikan, wondering if the would be allowed to play a bit for the goddess. 'As she is not only the goddess for magic but also for music, she might like it,' he thought and felt very much reassured, when Marvolo shared his opinion.
At some stage during the ritual, the older wizard invited him to play and, uncertain what to play, he chose the melody which had become Felix' favourite. Usually, he felt very happy when he played, and even if his music displayed distress at the beginning, it normally took a turn for the better during his performance; however, this time, he only felt absolute happiness and delight. He was not sure if it was real or only his impression, but he felt the deity's magic clearer and stronger than ever before during previous rituals.
"That was absolutely amazing. The air was vibrating with magic." Draco looked from Harry to Marvolo, wide-eyed.
"Apparently, Canola loved your music." Marvolo smirked and announced that the ritual was complete.
Harry still felt the magic and happiness of the ritual, when he returned home, receiving a questioning look from Regina and a nod of apparent understanding from his father.
"It was simply brilliant."
=It was. Now, I feel like roaming the empty halls and chasing Mrs. Norris all over Hogwarts.=
"You what?" Harry stared at Lucy in disbelief, before he translated for his parents. "May we roam the halls for a few minutes please? I'll go in my doggy form."
Regina and Severus exchanged a look that Harry interpreted as pure exasperation; however, Severus finally nodded. "All right, but only a few minutes please."
HP
Happily, the two canines dashed through the empty dungeon corridor in search of Mrs. Norris, but it was as if the cat had disappeared from the face of the earth. Instead, Harry suddenly sensed the magic of the headmaster nearby.
'Grab my paw,' he quickly thought to Lucy, already making himself invisible.
The canine immediately obeyed, probably able to smell the old wizard.
'Shall we play him a prank?' Harry suggested and, seeing Lucy nod her agreement, changed the elven invisibility charm to allow sounds. He let out a barely audible yowl, which was quickly joined by Lucy's.
A moment later, the saw the headmaster come around the corner. "Dogs again," he muttered, casting a lumos charm to get a better look at the corridor.
"Headmaster, turn off the light please."
"It's sleeping time for normal wizards and witches."
"Ah, I am so sorry, Lady Brighton," Dumbledore apologized to the portrait. "Excuse me, can you hear these dogs?"
"What dogs?" The witch in the portrait slowly seemed to become annoyed.
Harry let out a small growl, echoed by Lucy's.
"There are too many good for nothing cats in this castle, but unfortunately no dogs." The wizard in the adjacent painting all but growled at the headmaster, before he transformed into a canine Animagus form.
Lucy whimpered in apparent delight to have found another dog, and Dumbledore shook his head in obvious confusion, before he cancelled the charm on his wand and headed back in the direction of the headmaster's office, ignoring the dogs for now.
=That was funny. Thank you, sir, for not giving us away to the headmaster,= Harry turned to the portrait, cancelling the invisibility charm. =I didn't know that there was another dog Animagus in the castle.=
=Unfortunately, I am not able to get out of this portrait. I'd love to roam the castle together with the two of you giving the headmaster a fright. He always comes by late in the evening on his way back from the kitchens.=
They learned that the Animagus was Sir Piccolo, who had lived about two hundred years ago and agreed with the older wizard to visit him again and prank the headmaster together at the next opportunity.
=That was much fun,= Lucy barked, when they ran back home a few minutes later.
=That it was,= Harry full-heartedly agreed.
"We met Sir Piccolo. He's a dog Animagus as well."
"Is that so?" Severus raised an eyebrow in apparent amusement.
'Don't mention the headmaster,' Harry thought to Lucy, who returned an indignant look and let out a loud yawn.
HP
Everyone who had remained at Hogwarts over the holidays celebrated Christmas together after breakfast in the Great Hall.
Felix was lying in his playpen together with Lucky, who seemed to be enjoying himself with Felix' Christmas present from Harry continuously making one or the other animal sound in apparent pleasure.
The adults remained at the breakfast table having another cup of tea, and Teddy as the smallest of the students busied himself pulling presents out from under the tree, which Harry then handed to their recipients.
It took them ages to open all these presents, at least in Harry's opinion, who had never received so many gifts before. Each of his friends had sent something and even several others of their year mates, to whom Harry had not even given anything. Severus had alerted him that there was the possibility that others would send him gifts, so that he was prepared and had several potions ready for sending off later on.
Harry and Teddy both even received a gift with no name on it. Harry opened his first, only to find what turned out to be an invisibility cloak inside.
"That must have been your birth father's." Severus cast the headmaster a questioning look.
"Yes, that is correct. Your father gave it to me for safekeeping, but I think that you're old enough to have it back."
"Thank you, sir," Harry replied, noticing that Severus rolled his eyes in apparent annoyance.
'What?' he thought to his father. 'Considering that I can make myself invisible, it's not that I could cause more trouble having this.'
'True.' Severus smirked. 'And I can't even take off house-points. I could only ground you.'
'I won't cause trouble,' Harry thought back, indignantly, before he turned to Teddy, who was just opening his last present.
"A book without any title." The elf opened the front cover with apparent curiosity. However, even inside the book was completely blank. It only consisted of a black cover and white pages.
"It's probably a diary," one of the older students informed him. "You can use it to write a diary or take notes."
"Thank you." Teddy smiled at his older house mate.
Harry frowned. 'Somehow, I can sense Marvolo. Perhaps, he sent this to Teddy.'
