Disclaimer's in the prologue.
Mighty Pen 20: Yeah, still polishing that up.
Adenoide: Nope and yeah, Draco naturally wants to.
killer4853: Thanks
Hello, it's been a year. Sorry for that. Got some issues and stuffs. Have 10 chapters including this one and didn't upload it. I'm still thinking why I didn't. Lol.
Thanks to all those who followed, favourited, and added the story to their community if the story's not quite as good as other fics out there. -T.B-
Days passed by and the Christmas Holiday was to start yet again.
"Harry, last chance, we'll go to Godric's hollow for the Hols." Lars urged.
"Lawrence, the answer still stands, 'No'." Harry replied to his brother, holding on to what little patience he has left for the day. Lars, knowing that Macnair wasn't going to stay in the castle for the Yule, dropped the plan to bug Macnair's room and stay in the castle. And now for about the hundredth time that day, his brother has been trying to get him to go to Sirius' manor.
"I'm staying here for the holidays and that's that Lawrence." he repeated. "My absence will not diminish the fact that it is Christmas."
"Yes it will." Harry raised a questioning eyebrow at his brother's immediate response. "It will be...be less of a Christmas...because you aren't there and we aren't complete because I'll invite Ethan and then Mr. McGregor...see not complete." His brother's reason was incredibly lame. Though, Harry figured that the reason as to why his brother wants to leave is because of what's happening inside the castle.
Rolling his eyes, he said "Just so you know Lawrence, Midas and Ethan are in Asia at the moment for the Yule." Lars frowned at that.
"Aren't you gonna miss Raph?"
Harry stopped gathering his things to stare confusedly at his brother. "Who?"
"Seraphim...oh yeah...nicknamed him 'Raph' over the summer."
"He's missing," he informed his brother with a sneer, resuming what he was doing.
"You lost my present?" asked Lars, sounding a bit disappointed.
"I did not lose him." he said crisply and defensively. "He's a sentient being who I have no control over. Nonetheless, I have someone looking for him."
"Oh bugger that, he probably went hunting." Lars grumbled, following him again.
"Of course." he said out loud when he just wanted to keep it to himself.
"What?"
"Lawrence, exactly what do you know of Seraphim's kind?" Harry was expecting that his brother had at least read some things about Seraphim.
"Ehm...he's a magical stone snake?" Lars replied to him with a sheepish grin. "Oh come off brother, you don't expect me to read about snakes."
"Actually, I was." he replied absentmindedly, still walking. "Anyway, the thing is they are called stone snakes because they are born from stones. The stone is the egg that they come from, so to speak. Every stone snake has the same eyes, golden ones. They only differ in the colour of their stripes. The colour of the stripes signifies their element."
"Seraphim's element is fire then," Lars concluded, "because you know, his stripes are red."
"Quite." Harry nodded. "So back to him, it has slipped my mind that Seraphim is bound to hibernate at some point in the year."
"So you know where he is now?"
Harry narrowed his eyes at his brother. "Of course not." he denied. "According to hearsays, they hibernate in places close to where they were born. I, for one, do not know where exactly he was born because it certainly wasn't in Sirius' garden."
Lars frowned. "So, how long will he be gone?"
Harry shrugged. "I have no idea." he said, troubled. "Maybe after the winter? I don't know." he was annoyed at himself for not remembering that snakes have hibernation time. He hated it whenever information crosses his mind. He called for his house-elf everyday to ask for Seraphim and not once did it cross his mind that the snake might be hibernating, or even hunting for food. That should've crossed his mind. That should have.
"Well I guess we'll just have to make do, without his help that is." Lars said, yawning. "Alright change of topic. Are you going to be our roommate again?"
"No," he replied flatly.
"Why not?" asked Lars, sounding...disappointed? He's not really sure.
"There are other Slytherins of my year there." he explained. "Draco, Vince and Goyle are staying."
"Alright then."
Last year he was the only first year Slytherin to stay in Hogwarts for the Holidays and now there were three others, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. Draco was staying because his parents are going to Spain for the Holidays. Crabbe and Goyle were staying because Draco is there, probably tasked by their Father to just keep close to Draco. The Malfoys are, after all, influential and powerful in the Wizarding world. Macnair, to their surprise and Theo's disappointment, wasn't staying for the Yule.
The following morning the train headed for London left, Draco and Harry accompanied Theo to the carriages.
"He really should've just stayed here." Draco remarked as they watched Theo enter the carriage. Harry said none but eyed the creatures that are pulling the carriages, Thestrals.
It was evident that Theo wasn't looking forward in going back to the Nott household for the Holidays, well who would be if your Father just decided to kick you out of the house for nearly three weeks just because you are friends with someone they do not like without a good reason apart from he's the brother of the 'boy-who-lived', vanquisher of their master.
During the summer holidays when Harry called back Porthos sometime after Draco stopped by in Sirius' manor, the house-elf told him that Theo did not go back to his father's house but stayed in the Leaky Cauldron after leaving Privet Drive. The House-elf snooped around, not on Harry's orders, and saw that the letter that Theo received was from Nott Sr., further instructing Theo not to return. Only through the intervention of Mr. Malfoy did Nott Sr. finally allowed Theo to go back to their house according to Porthos when he saw Theo being picked up by Malfoy Sr.
"He only mentions his father, is his mother gone?" he asked Draco bluntly on their way to the Great Hall.
"Yes..." Draco furrowed his brow at him. "I thought you knew that."
"I never asked." he admitted, showing that he doesn't know a lot about Theo and Draco. Just like how he only knew that Theo's birthday is on the twenty-fifth of December just now, which makes Theo seven months older than him. And Draco, well, no he doesn't know when Draco's birthday is.
"Well that explains it." Draco replied. "Mrs. Nott died years ago –dreadful death."
Harry furrowed his brow. "Dreadful, how?"
Draco shrugged. "Honestly? I've no idea. That's just how father and practically the rest of his acquaintances say it."
After having their lunch in the Great Hall, they returned to the common room. There wasn't much to be done so Draco requested to play chess.
"You should stop bossing them around." Harry remarked, taking his seat after Draco bossily ordered Crabbe and Goyle to fetch a chessboard.
Draco raised an eyebrow at him. "Why do you care if I'm bossing them around?"
Harry frowned in annoyance at the blonde's response. "I never said I did." he retorted. "A word of advice, don't come crying to anyone when your attitude to them comes back biting your backside."
"If I stop bossing them around then what?" Draco said after a few moments when they started playing.
Harry looked up from the board at Draco's question. "What do you mean, 'then what'?"
"Oh please you're smarter than that." Draco sneered. "You don't honestly think that they stay around me because they want my company."
"I perfectly know why they're with you Draco." he says, turning his gaze back on the board.
"Well then you've got your answer." Draco said, sounding irked. "They're not my friends yet they stick around me like a couple of leeches so they might as well be useful to me." Harry just made 'hmm' sound in response.
Lars and Draco do seem to have similarities, insecure that people just befriended them for what they are, though they did have different ways of dealing with it. Lars just befriends everybody and would never think, or would never want to think badly of them and will defend them, show them that he's him and not just what the books say about him. Draco, on the other hand, treats others, Crabbe and Goyle for example, like servants of some sort, ready at his disposal because of the feeling that they will never look past Draco as nothing more than the Malfoy scion, a useful ally, and probably a ticket to fame.
"Any project you're working on?" Draco asked him whilst they were playing chess. "Queen to E5."
"Projects on what?" he asked, his eyes never leaving the board.
"Your mastery, most Potions apprentice I know experiments with stuffs...and do some theoretical potions or whatever."
"Hmmm...I'm finished with the O.W.L curriculum potions." Draco looked surprised. "I think we'll start on the N.E.W.T curriculum this coming term, Castle to C3."
"Well you're, without a doubt, brilliant in potions." Draco remarked, "But other than that surely you do some experimenting."
"I worked on Professor Snape's potion. He had me working on what other liquids that his potion will react with, though I did do some...alterations of my own."
"Bishop to E6." Draco commanded. "You mean you're altering Uncle Severus' formula."
"Theoretically," he replied. "I haven't really tried it hands-on. I'm not to experiment without his or the headmaster's approval. Knight to C5."
"Hmm...I thought he would like it if his apprentice would have the initiative to do it, Castle to E4."
"He would allow me to experiment." he said. "But not right now, Bishop to F8 and checkmate."
Draco frowned. "Oh dog's bollocks, lost again, tally?"
"Four games to one."
"I can't believe I always fall for that trap," Draco said, pointing out how he finished the last four games using the same tactic.
"The queen is dispensable, Draco." Harry said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It might be the strongest official on the board, but it is not the one that will guarantee your victory." he trailed off and leaned back on his chair as he crossed his fingers. "But then again, it depends on the player which is dispensable and which is not. As for me, the queen is dispensable."
"Dispensable." Draco repeated, drawling. "So you literally use any means to achieve your ends."
"I am a Slytherin, as you have known." he points out as he leant forward to look directly at Draco's silvery grey eyes. Adding in a deadly silent tone, "You, Draco, of all people should know that Slytherins will use any means to achieve their desired ends." Draco went oddly silent at that after having a staring contest with him.
"Alright, so apart from altering his formula, what other things do you do?" Draco changed the topic.
With a small smirk, he leaned backwards again in a more relaxed manner. "I'm creating a formula that can be an alternative for the Restorative Draught."
"What for?"
Harry opted to reply with a question. "Which would you prefer, Draco, overabundance or deficiency?"
Draco raised an eyebrow, his mouth forming a smirk. "Touche'"
When Harry was finally alone he called for his elf again just like last year and gave him instructions and a list of presents that he would give for his relatives and some others. The only gift that he won't send over the Holidays was Theo's, he would not risk that his friend's Father will not hand it over because it came from him.
"HAPPY CHRISTMAS HARRY!" That was what the first thing that he heard that Christmas morning, Lars and Draco screaming a greeting at the top of their lungs. The annoyingly loud greeting made him fall off his bed. When he stood up and saw that it was his brother and Draco carrying tons of presents, he thought that they must've taken everything under the tree.
Of course those two indolent twits would wake up early in the morning, it was Christmas day, why ever would they not?
"Bloody bastards." he muttered groggily, rubbing his head as he sat down on the bed.
"Cheer up, it's Christmas Mr. Scrooge." Draco said while throwing the presents at Theo's empty bed.
"Why would I cheer up when I'm Mr. Scrooge?" he retorted while putting on his eyeglasses, neglecting to ask how Draco knew that particular reference.
"Because Mr. Scrooge was nice during Christmas day." Lars answered. Well, Harry figured that Draco's knowledge of it came from Lars.
"Touche'," he said to them. "Except the part that I wasn't visited by any...woof." he muttered under his breath when the Bloody Baron, Nearly Headless Nick, and The Fat Friar entered the room to wish him a Happy Christmas and some advice to be 'nice and jolly on this merry Yule tide day'. How the two coerced the three house ghosts to do that is beyond him.
"Ok everything's set, Mr. Scrooge is now reformed...open your presents now." Lars said in a very canty attitude. "We opened ours, already...thanks for the uh...notebook."
"Yeah mate its Christmas, thank you...well, for whatever this is..." Draco took something from his pocket. A green coloured pen with the name 'Draco L. Malfoy' engraved on it, just like the one he gave to Theo the previous year.
"It's called a pen." he informed the pureblood. "It's for writing."
"Thank you then."
"You're –" Harry paused to blink. "How in the nine circles of hell did the pair of you get into my quarters? I don't remember sharing the password."
"You didn't, but Theodore did." Lars answered. "Your password here is Wolfsbane."
"Because you want to turn it into Wolvescure." Draco added.
"But since I'm a parselmouth," said Lars, "we didn't really need the password so go on now, open your presents."
"Fine," he replied with a huff, "but I'll only open what you gave me, I'll open the rest later."
"Good enough for us." Lars said with a grin.
Harry noticed that most, if not all, of his presents are covered with silver and green. Really? He thought in annoyance. Just because he's a Slytherin, by house and by blood, doesn't mean he's overly fond of the colour. He does like gold after all.
The first present he opened was Lars' which was unsurprisingly wrapped with silver and green.
"It's a two-way mirror." Lars announced as soon as he had opened the box which contained a rectangular piece of mirror, about three by four, on his hand with black and green snake designs at the border. "I had help from Uncle Remus. You can set your own password so you'll be the only one who can use it."
"Thank you." he said gratefully.
Next, he took Draco's present for him. He opened it and saw that it was a plain black book with no title apart from the Malfoy crest and motto, Sanctimonia Vincet Semper (Purity will always conquer), on the first page, but inside there were different illustrations and information regarding different things that can be used as potions ingredients.
"Thoughtful." Harry remarked.
"Call it a wish of good fortune in what you're trying to achieve," said Draco, "also a wish of good faith from the Malfoy family."
Lars snorted loudly at that. "Don't you know how a Malfoy wishing good faith sounds ironic?" Lars said and Harry understood why though he doubts that Draco does.
"I sincerely hope that that isn't an insult to my family, Potter." Draco said acidly, eyes narrowed.
"No, relax dragon, it's not an insult, really." Lars said, laughing a bit. "Still funny though that someone who's a bad faith is wishing someone good fortune and good faith."
"What?"
Looking like Lars isn't going to say why it is so anytime soon, Harry opted to do just that. "Your surname means 'bad faith', Draco, hasn't –obviously no one has."
"Yes, no one has." Draco said drily. "How come you know that and I don't?"
"I don't know, why're you asking me?" responded Lars. "Besides, does it matter?"
"No, I suppose not."
"Well why are you two still here?" Harry said when the two went quiet. "Go on shoo...I've opened the presents, now leave me be."
"Fine, fine...but you should join us later." his brother said.
"No," Harry replied without even asking what they want him to join into.
"Why not?" the two chorused.
"I'm going to read our lessons for the upcoming term." was his quick response.
"Oh Merlin..." Draco muttered. "Harold Evandrus, it's Christmas day."
"And?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow, not knowing what has Christmas got to do with him reading the lessons in advance.
"You don't do school related activities, like reading your lessons, on Christmas day." Lars supplemented. "You do fun things, not sit around in your room all day reading, writing, thinking...or well things that you do in school actually."
"Close the door on your way out." he said dismissively to his brother and friend before lying down on the bed and closing his eyes.
Harry only went out of the common room to eat breakfast and lunch. There were still whispers circling the hall about his brother. Come to think of it, he hasn't seen his brother yet since after the latter left with Draco, then again, the whole Golden Trio wasn't there so they're just probably hanging around.
Sometime in the afternoon, Harry went to the Astronomy tower. To his surprise, his brother was also there silently and forlornly leaning over the railing unlike earlier when he was very cheerful. Harry figured that it must be due those other students who kept on whispering about his brother being the one who's petrifying the muggleborns.
"It would be such a shame if you're planning on jumping off of this very tower, Lawrence." he said dryly, eyes darted to where his brother was standing.
Lars jumped (not off of the tower mind you), startled, before exclaiming indignantly "I'm not suicidal!" Harry just raised an eyebrow at his brother. "I'm...Just frustrated alright?" Lars added with a rather loud voice. "I'm angry and frustrated at everybody! I hate all those gits. Wherever I go they act like I'm going to hurt them. It's Christmas day for Merlin's sake they can't just give me a bloody break. They all think like I'm a murderer wanting to kill all the muggleborns here and rise up to be the next Dark Lord. No -nobody believes that I didn't do anything..." After those days, Harry was actually expecting his brother to get over it. How unfortunate that Lars can't reach his level of apathy when it comes to public opinion.
Harry yawned, bored. "Are you done yet?" he asked blandly once his brother stopped speaking.
Lars' eyes furrowed at him. "Isn't this the part where you say sympathetic words?" his brother asked, slumping down on the floor.
"Lawrence," he began, "I've been doing just that for the last few days, the last month even that I have seen you moping about. I was being as sympathetic as I could possibly handle even if I can't see the point of it all. Now, it is no fault of mine if you keep on being an over emotional twit."
"Oh please...over emotional my arse," Lars said with a huff. "If you were the one that they were gossiping as the mad bloke who's petrifying those muggleborns you'd be miserable."
Harry sat down across his brother. "I assure you, I wouldn't be." It wasn't a lie. He really wouldn't be miserable if they accused him of that. It will be somewhat...amusing.
"Yeah right." Lars said to him in obvious disbelief. "Everybody will think you're the next Dark Lord, a bloody psycho on a murder spree. People staying away and are out of their wits...terrified...of...you..." Lars' eyes narrowed at him and he raised an eyebrow in return. Lars' eyes then rolled and scoffed afterwards. "Of course, you wouldn't care if people are deathly terrified of you."
Harry shrugged. "What people think about me personally, I don't care." he said truthfully. "And besides, it's fear. It seems so much fun when people are scared of you."
"I wouldn't know, I don't do scaring," Lars retorted, narrowed eyes never leaving him. "I thought you don't like bullying...scaring others to death is bullying."
"It's not bullying if you do it for a reason other than the fact that they exist."
"And what reason might that be?" Lars asked him with arms crossed.
"Reverberation of another person's actions." he recited.
"Does saying just a simple word hard for you?" Lars asked, sounding annoyed. "No need to be too verbose. So it's all for revenge?"
"What else would it be for?" he asked rhetorically.
Lars made a long sigh. "Well, you are not one to start fights anyway."
"Only fuel it I suppose." his brother added as an afterthought.
"Indeed." he drawled. It was pointless to start fights unless you are going to gain something from it. What's the point of doing things if you'll get nothing out of it?
"So what happened that made you mope about again?"
Lars sighed. "Well, see, Ron, Draco and I were by the grounds earlier, well we went there since Hermione went to the library," Lars began, "then I saw others playing around with the snow, making snowballs and all that and, well I went over to ask if we can join them and...They looked at me then at Draco then just...scampered away." his brother sighed, a sad sigh. "Mind you, I should've just listened to Draco not to approach them."
"I see." he replied before changing the topic to who Granger and Weasley are suspecting as the heir of Slytherin now.
"Nobody," Lars answered. "We hit a dead end, but they're kind of considering Draco again, you know Ron, like what he said to Theodore last year, he must be probably hanging out with you to -"
"Avoid suspicions and get close to you." Harry finished for his brother.
"Yeah...and you know that Ron's one insistent arse." Maybe it would still take time before Weasley will actually let go of the whole 'slytherins are evil' thing even if, during the few times that Weasley and Draco met, they were, at the very least, civil.
"You better tell them your secret then."
"You serious?" Lars blurted out.
"No, I'm Harry." he deadpanned and Lars rolled his eyes at him. "I told Theo, and now Draco knows as well. I don't see why you shouldn't do the same." And besides, he has to prevent Weasley and Granger from forming anymore ridiculous plans to know who this heir of Slytherin is.
"I guess you're right..." Lars said with a sigh.
Harry huffed. "Of course I'm right." he said haughtily, making Lars laugh. "Compared to you, when was I ever not?"
"Lawrence," he called for his brother's attention, and when he had it, he asked "does Sirius have roosters in his manor?"
"Nope. Why?"
"Well, supposing that it's a basilisk." And he's quite sure it is, "We're going to need one to dispose of it."
"You're going to kill the one that's petrifying the students? Why?" Lars' surprised reaction dumbfounded Harry. Wasn't that the logical solution to their problem? To kill whatever creature's harming the students.
"What do you mean, 'why'?" he demanded.
Lars stammered a bit before settling on a more steady statement. "I mean, she's our ancestor's familiar, what if-"
"She?" Harry repeated, incredulous and suspicious of his brother. "Lawrence, what are you hiding from me?"
"Nothing." Lars denied very quickly, very, very quickly.
"Lawrence." Harry said his brother's name with a warning of extreme bodily harm.
"I-, alright I know that it's a snake, our ancestor's familiar." Lars admitted, standing up immediately, looking defensive. "But I only knew it just a couple of days ago when I asked Uncle Sirius to send me those journals in my room. The journal said something about Slytherin's familiar being named Shamira. It's a snake...but other than that there was no information about her."
Harry raised his eyebrow and questioned his brother "What's your point?"
"Harry, what if she's just bound to obey the other heir...well because he's the only heir she knows and she's compelled to obey the descendants of Slytherin?"
"I don't care." he said flatly and indifferently. "Compelled or not, the fact stands that it does."
"B-but...brother..." Lars whined. "We can't kill her. She's part of the school, part of Slytherin's legacy like us. He's her familiar, she's part of the Slytherin house we can't –mustn't kill her."
"Sentiment." Harry hissed distastefully with a sneer. So what if it's Lord Slytherin's familiar? It's trying to dispose of the muggleborn students in the school and as such should be disposed of before it finished its work.
"Not like you'll get one anywhere near the school." Lars said a bit confidently, and boastfully. "Hagrid's roosters got slaughtered."
"All of it?"
"All of it."
"I see." Harry said quietly. It's confirmed then. The monster is basilisk if the heir disposed of the chickens. "We need those roosters, I'll see if-"
"No," Lars' protest cut him off. "We can't kill her just like that without having the chance to see her. What if my guess is right?"
"Your naive guess?" he retorted dryly. "Lawrence, the attacks are already damaging the name of Slytherin house, and I cannot stand for that."
"Harry please just...just wait." Harry didn't respond to that, instead he just snapped his fingers. Porthos appeared afterwards, greeting them both respectfully while he ordered Lars to sit back down.
"Where did you put the notebook that I gave you?" Harry asked a wide-eyed Lars. Their conversation about that basilisk will lead them nowhere, so he might as well change their topic, even if it was a rather drastic and abrupt change.
"Ehm, in my bedside table." Lars answered dumbly.
"You heard him." he says to Porthos. The house-elf bowed and popped away.
"How...did you summon him here?" Lars asked.
"I'm his master, he's bound to me." he said matter-of-factly, "And no Lawrence, you cannot summon the house-elves in Sirius' manor."
"O bollocks..." Lars muttered at the same time the Porthos reappeared with the notebook.
"Porthos was the one who gave Mr. Potter the plant book." Porthos said while handing the book to Lars.
"Plant book? You mean the Herbology book that Harry lent me right?" The house-elf nodded. "Wicked! Here I was wondering how Harry got to place the book on my bed. What's your name again?"
"Porthos, Mr. Potter."
"Nice to meet you." Lars said, grinning from ear to ear.
"Alright, enough chitchat." he said impatiently. "Porthos, you're dismissed." and then Porthos left.
"Place the notebook on the ground, Lawrence." Lars did what he said.
"There are hidden things here," Harry informed his brother. "And to reveal it..." He pointed his wand at the book "Revelio Litera." Astonishment was evident in Lars' eyes when little by little, words and images appeared on the empty notebook. "To hide it you say 'Abdos Litera.'"
Lars scanned the notebook with wide eyes. "This is full of notes on how to become an animagus!"
"Thank you for pointing out what I already know, Lawrence." he says sarcastically.
"Why give me this? Are you an animagus?"
"No for the second question," Harry replied. "To answer your first question, well I thought that that would be obvious."
"You want me to learn how to be an animagus?" It was more of a statement than an actual question.
"It's a very useful skill to have."
"But...how? I mean it took the marauders about what, four, five years before they were successful at it."
Harry felt his eye twitch at the mention of the marauders. "We'll do it in less than five," he says to his brother, "preferably in two or three years."
"Without –wait 'we'?"
"Yes 'we', you and I." he confirmed. "Don't mention it to anybody, not to your friends, not to Uncle Remus or Uncle Sirius and most certainly not to Ethan. If I have your word on that, we'll start learning how to do it."
"Can we do multiple animals?" Lars asked.
"I think it's possible, yes, but I'm not entirely sure." he says to his younger twin. "And if it can be done, I reckon that it will be very hard. Should that be possible, you do realize that it's no longer an animagus transformation. Animagus, singular transformation, Metamorphagus, multiple transformation."
"Like Tonks!" Lars immediately exclaimed, confusing Harry as to who this Tonks person is.
"Who?"
"You don- of course you don't. Tonks is Aunt 'dromeda's daughter."
"Andromeda as in Andromeda Tonks?"
"Yeah, Sirius' cousin and-" Lars trailed off for a second, "and apparently Draco's Aunt, making Tonks his actual cousin."
"Yes, evidently that would make him that." he said dismissively, having little interest in knowing the Black family tree. "Now, this metamorphagus that you're talking of, do you see her very often?" Harry had never met a metamorphagus before and was quite interested in meeting one now. Metamorphism is a very rare skill to have, hell to even inherit. Sometimes, even those whose mother or father are metamorphagus, the child does not inherit the trait.
"I used to, before she started her Auror training." Lars replied. "She's a frequent visitor in the manor because she's Sirius' favourite niece- well technically he's her first cousin once removed like Draco but -"
"Right," Harry interrupted his brother, "so where is she now?"
"Oh, yes, she's in Auror training." his brother said, scanning each of the pages of the notebook, "She'll graduate in a few months though...I think."
"Hey," his brother continued, "if you aren't an animagus then you don't own this before. All the notes are handwritten and looks quite untidy compared to your handwriting. Who owned this?"
"It doesn't matter who." he replied tersely before silence caught up with them again.
"What?" Harry asked when he didn't quite catch what his brother said.
"I asked what have you got about Slytherin's Manor."
"The whole estate is deserted and the manor is in ruins." he informed Lars, telling what he got from the goblins.
"In ruins?"
"I believe that's what I said." he retorted. "Anyway, the land is still there, it is still named for the descendants of Slytherin. We or rather I have the authority to rebuild it."
"Not that I'm complaining, but why you?"
"As you are very much aware, by tradition, the eldest wizard of the generation is the next Lord of the family after the previous one, unlike what Uncle Sirius did to me, choosing me as the Black heir I mean. Since the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black always have had a Lord until the present time, alive and quite well might I add, he can choose whomever heir he wants so long as the chosen heir is a wizard and a relative, even if quite a distant one."
"Ok, what if Fatso turns out to be a wizard?" Lars asked curiously. "You know, a late bloomer of sorts."
"Honestly I don't know." he admitted. "But if ever that happens, well, a duel for lordship might do the trick."
"Brother, that's positively medieval." Lars noted wryly, making him chuckle a bit.
"Yes it is Lawrence." he replied as he stood up and headed for the stairs without so much as a 'see you later' to his brother.
"Harry." Harry stopped on his track when his brother called for him. "Please promise me that you won't try and kill Shamira." It was still quite perplexing that his brother is asking him of that. What's with his brother's sympathy with the serpent all of a sudden?
"I promise." he said, loud enough for his brother to hear, brother but muttering "For now." on his way down the stairs. Harry can't understand why Lars is sympathetic with the snake, not at all. It has messed up people's view of Slytherin, it's trying to kill the muggleborns, has successfully petrified some students like Creevey and Finch-Fletchley, how come it earned Lars' sympathy? Sentiment, Harry thought with disdain. Lars is being sentimental because of the naive thought that it might have no choice but to follow the psychotic heir's command.
Nevertheless, Harry will make do of his promise.
For now.