Draco had been avoiding him. Oh, he'd been careful about it; he'd been present physically, but wouldn't engage Heri in conversation unless directly addressed, and even then he could tell the blonde was quietly seething, in fact every now and then he was barely able to form words through his anger. Heri was fascinated, but also a little put out. He didn't think this kind of hostility was something he should have to put up with from his friends – if it were anyone else he'd have done something about it by now, but had instead forced himself to give Draco time, though that time was quickly running out.

He thought it a great accomplishment that he lasted two weeks before confronting him.

It was getting late, but several Slytherins were still lounging in the common room when Draco finally snapped at Heri.

"Oh for Merlin's sake! Why are we still talking about this? If we want Snape's help, go talk to him: I'm sure you could 'convince' him!" The blonde scoffed. Heri didn't appreciate that tone, but the fact that Draco was now openly glaring at him was curious.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked calmly from his chair. "Perhaps you should have allowed Pomfrey to assess you after your fall?" Draco scoffed again.

"There is nothing wrong with me! It's you who's wrong. You're just… wrong!"

"Very articulate." The words were dripping with sarcasm, which only seem to further provoke Draco. Although Heri seemed relatively relaxed, his patience was running out. How dare Draco Malfoy try to put him down and judge him? Maybe he'd been too kind to his friends, he didn't know – he'd never really had any before, and certainly none that had lasted this long.

Even though Heri was trying to hide his annoyance, Draco could clearly see how the boy's eyes darkened with every second and was reminded why he'd been avoiding any confrontation in the first place. He quickly stood and made for the exit.

"I'm going to bed."

"No, you're not. Sit down Draco." Draco paused, gritting his teeth in anger at being ordered around by the boy he had thought was his friend. It was one thing if Herido took the lead when they were all in it together, but things had changed. He knew better now: Heri didn't want friends. The boy probably mocked the rest of them for even thinking he did. Draco couldn't believe he'd been suckered in. He was angry at himself for trusting Heri, and angry at Heri for betraying that trust.

"Piss off, Addams!" He had only taken one step when he realised his mistake. The room was suddenly thick was tension, and all other conversations had come to a halt as the students turned to stare at him.

"Sit down, Draco." Heri's voice was considerably darker than it had been a moment ago and Draco almost winced. Instead he focused on his anger and not his fear and turned to his less familiar house mates, pointing to the dorms.

"Get out!" He shouted savagely, and they all quickly moved to obey, unsettled by the atmosphere and his raised voice. Draco could be loquacious certainly, but he never shouted like that. Also, second year or not, he already had a reputation not to be messed with, and none currently in the room wanted to challenge that reputation.

Heri had had enough. He'd given Draco a chance to comply, but was ignored, so as the other students left the room he threw out his power, grabbing Draco and swinging him back to where the rest of the group were sitting before throwing him quite carelessly into a chair.

"I said sit down." He bit out.

Draco's head had snapped against the headrest and as he brought up a hand to massage the now tender muscles in his neck he glared, thought with much less intensity, at his so-called friend, who was leaning back to take a calming breath.

"Heri!" Hermione stood and turned in shock to her best friend. They had all hurt each other before, Heri was teaching them combat and weapons training after all, but this was different; this was aggressive… and quite frankly she feared what was about to happen to their blonde friend.

"I think you should all leave as well." He hadn't moved, his eyes were still closed and his voice was even and low, but not one of them was in any doubt that it was an order. But still, they didn't want to leave Draco here alone with an angry Herido Addams. They all started to protest. "It's ok. Go to bed." Heri insisted quietly. They were pretty sure it wasn't ok, and definitely wouldn't be sleeping, but they gave in and tentatively made their way out, confident that Heri wouldn't hurt Draco, not seriously anyway. Friends fought, they told themselves, that was all this was.

Once they were alone, Heri took one more calming breath and stood to walk over to the blonde with an expressionless face – the only clue as to what he was thinking being his almost black eyes. The rest of Draco's glare withered as fear and doubt won control of his emotions.

"Is there something you want to say to me?" He stopped a foot in front of him, but Draco stayed silent. "There must be something – something's been eating you up for weeks now. Best to get it off your chest." The lightly mocking cadence of those last words didn't reassure Draco one bit.

"I just finally see you for what you are." Draco was thankful for all those years of Pureblood training when his voice didn't break once. Heri frowned.

"I've never made any secret about what I am." He couldn't imagine what his friend was getting at.

Draco took his own deep breath, though his was for courage and resolve. He'd already messed up, so might as well say what he wanted to.

"I remember." He said quietly. "That day at mine, when I overheard you and Hermione talking."

Ah. That was enough to finally inform Herido just what this was all about. He scowled murderously at the wall. This wouldn't have been a problem at all if he hadn't been sent to summer camp. If he'd had more time to practice…

"Ok," He said, taking a seat near his friend and relaxing a bit. He supposed he would also be mad in this situation, but that didn't mean he'd let Draco speak to him however he liked, and so kept his hold on the boy, keeping him firmly in place. Having friends really was a bother. At least when he fought with his siblings he knew they could give as good as they got, but these children were weak (in comparison), and if he were to fight this out with Draco, the room would be redecorated with the poor boy's insides in less than a minute. Maybe he could meet him half way.

"Let's go train." He said, not giving him chance to respond before dragging him out and to the Room of Requirement.

By the time they got there, Draco was so embarrassed and therefore angry about being treated like this that his anger had risen again. It also helped that Herido seemed a lot calmer now, so he wasn't quite so on edge.

This was just how Heri wanted him.

"Grab a weapon." He said, and was glad when Draco wasted no time in taking a long, heavy axe from the wall and amused when he also took regular old hammer and shoved it into the side of his trousers for back up. Draco really wanted to hurt him. It was too adorable.

However he could also see a hesitance about his stance, and wondered whether Draco thought he'd brought him here for a beat down for his earlier behaviour. He raised his hands.

"Kid gloves, I promise." He mocked. "Look, no weapons, no magic." The Malfoys as a whole were very prideful and the best way to rile them up was to hurt that pride.

Immediately after seeing that Heri was indeed unarmed, Draco took a swing, but Heri simply stepped aside and brought the blade of his hand down on the base of his neck, causing the less experienced boy to flail flat on the ground before quickly getting back up.

"Well that was foolish." He goaded. "Care to try again?" Draco circled Heri for a moment and he left himself full of openings, but Heri just waited.

Things went on this way for a while: Draco wearing himself out trying to attack and Heri dodging and returning with light martial arts, never trying to disarm or end the fight. And although it was tiring, every miss made Draco madder and more determined and soon enough adrenaline coursed through his body, making him faster and smarter.

After almost forty minutes he had managed to get several hits in, though only with the handle of the axe, before he finally collapsed, just about managing to throw the hammer without much thought or aim in Herido's general direction before lying back, almost completely incapacitated by the adrenaline overdose.

Across the room Heri winced when he pressed a finger into his side: that would bruise.

"Do you feel better now?" He asked, falling back gracefully into the chair that appeared in perfect time to meet him. Draco gave a breathless nod from the floor - he didn't even have the energy to ask the room for a cushion, though his heart rate was finally falling. "Then are you ready to talk?" He took out a cigarette. "Civilly?"

Draco rolled his eyes, and silence reigned for a few minutes as he regained his strength

"Why did you do it?" Draco asked, eventually finding the energy to push himself into a sitting potion – he wouldn't have this conversation on his back. "I don't… You don't try to Obliviate your friends, Heri." Disappointment had replaced the anger in his voice.

"You do if that's what's best for them." The dark boy countered.

"You don't." Draco insisted. You can't mess with your friends minds. If you couldn't trust you own mind, you couldn't trust anything – it was a huge violation. "How could that possibly be in my best interest?"

Heri sighed. "Because if you'd pushed further to find out what we were talking about you'd have gotten into trouble."

"How?" Heri took a long drag: Draco just wasn't getting it, was he?

"Hermione had to take a magical oath before I told her."

"And I couldn't have done the same?" Was Draco's immediate reply. He could do anything the others could!

"Would you have?" Heri challenged and Draco stayed quiet while he thought it through. A magical oath was a scary thing. You didn't enter into one lightly, but yeh, he decided he would have. "Even if you had, I know you Draco." Heri continued with a wry smile. "You wouldn't have been able to stop yourself from sharing what you knew, or at the very least making it as obvious as possible that you knew something, and that would have ended badly; it would have cost you your magic. The cost was too high, it was better if you just forgot."

As Draco pondered this he actually felt bad: Heri had been trying to protect him after all, in his own, Addamsy way. Ok at first he'd been offended that Heri didn't think he could keep a secret. He'd stayed quiet about all their extra-curricular activities hadn't he?

"I'm sorry." He said in regard to his actions this past week or two. Heri just nodded stiffly. "Are you going to tell me now?" He asked.

Heri grimaced while his thoughts fought each other. "Do you truly believe you'd be able to act normally? Treat me normally?" Heri doubted it; the kids in England were still obsessed with Harry Potter. Draco nodded. "Even if I was to tell you, I don't know, that I was Voldemort's son?" Draco laughed at that, but tried to think about it seriously. He nodded again. Heri was already scary enough, so it couldn't have made that much difference. "Like you were able to act so normally this last fortnight?" He scowled at Heri's amusement, but could see his point.

"Betrayal's a powerful thing." He said, standing and raising his chin pompously, while walking closer to his friend and asking the room for a chair of his own.

"And what if what I tell you makes you feel betrayed?" Heri could tell Draco was getting exasperated with him. "I don't want you to lose your magic." He said harshly, but Draco ignored him and took out his wand, twisting it this way and that.

"I hereby vow on my magic not to reveal in any way anything I learn in the next… twenty minutes." The blue glow that settled over Draco proved the spell had worked, and Heri was mildly impressed the boy knew how to perform it. "There! Now either shut up or tell me!" He stayed quiet for a moment. That was far too open a vow – one that even Heri wouldn't have asked him to make. What if he learned something useful that he'd never be able to demonstrate? The sadistic part of him wanted to spend the next twenty minutes teaching Draco as much defensive magic as he knew.

"Ok." He gave in. He had tried, more than he should have really. Everyone had to take responsibility for their own actions, so if Draco lost his magic after all this, it would be Draco's fault. "You heard me telling Hermione that I was related to you, but that strictly speaking the Addams' were not. This is because I was not born an Addams." Draco's eyes widened comically at the revelation. "I was born Harry James Potter." He waited for the explosion of hysteria that was no doubt coming, but was a little distracted when Draco's eyes bugged even more: he'd never seem someone's eyes simply fall from their head and wondered if it was possible.

"Tha… That… That…" Draco stopped trying to form coherent words to process that information. He wanted to shout 'I don't believe you! You're joking! You're lying.' Or 'How is that possible? Potter died.' Or 'You're from America! You're darker than anyone I've ever met!' But mostly 'How could you hide something like that from us?! You know my father is a Death Eater! You killed the Dark Lord!' He had to use every ounce of control and reasonableness he possessed not to do so. His head was a mess, but he was determined to prove himself, to prove that he could be trusted with something so earth shattering, and that he wouldn't react as Heri predicted.

Heri was happy to give Draco time to think – rather grateful that he wasn't ranting and raving. It took ten minutes before the next words were spoken.

"That's massive." Draco settled on dumbly. "But it's ok, because I know you, and you are an Addams." Heri smiled proudly at that. "I could have been born Beedle the Bard, but I'd still be me – a Malfoy." He didn't feel betrayed. Shocked and confused, certainly, but not betrayed. He could understand why Heri would want to keep this a secret from everyone, and he had gone to a lot of trouble to protect Draco, so he was reassured his friendship was genuine. And then there was the fact that Herido was as dark as they come, and that was something you couldn't fake – Heri being born a Potter meant very little.

"Awesome." Heri said. "You can talk with Hermione about this, but only in here, and you can talk to your godfather about it, but only after he's raised sufficient privacy wards."

"Snape knows?!"

And so when the twenty minutes were up, he left Heri to practise in the RoR and headed to Snape's room. Ok, so there was a huge part of him that desperately wanted to talk and shout about how scandalous this secret was, and his godfather would just have to be his outlet. Harry Potter was alive! Magical Mother of Merlin!


The next morning, Slytherin House (rumours spread quickly), were shocked to see that not only was Malfoy still in one piece, but he was just as arrogant as ever as he chatted with his friends, including Herido Addams. It definitely added to Draco's reputation, as well as their group as a whole.

Heri was rather displeased when the twins dragged Ginny over to sit with them, stating they wanted to make sure she was ok because she was looking a little pale. It wasn't that Heri disliked the girl – he tried not to dislike people he didn't even know – it's just that he was disappointed in her. He was hoping that the stories of the blood feud were true and that she would therefore be super powerful, but this wasn't the case at all. She was strong, but not especially so. Maybe the story was a myth – he'd have to ask his family about it.

He turned his mind, and body, away from the Weasleys to look up at Snape, who was looking rather worn out this morning. He decided that Draco's outcry the night before, as unfortunately presented as it was, actually had a point. Heri had given the potions master plenty of time to think on their request, and decided to pay him a visit. That they had potions last period today seemed like fate.

"Professor, may I have a word?" Herido asked, even as he took a seat on the visitor's side of the man's desk. Snape sighed as he took his own seat, resigned to having to deal with the Potter-Addams headache. He purposely avoided his attempts at polite small talk and just waited for Addams to get to the point.

"Ok," Heri finally said. "I want to know if you've given any further consideration to our request."

"I have not." Snape replied dismissively, mostly hoping the boy would take him at his word, but partly wanting to be persuaded. He never intended to be a teacher, but if he had to choose he would much rather teach the Dark Arts, and then potions only to those who truly wished to learn.

"Truly?" Herido challenged knowingly. "Is there anything I can offer to change your mind?" He knew how things worked. He'd played this game with Quirrell last year.

Snape's mind raced with all the things that Addams could give him: all the knowledge, though of course he knew in reality the boy wouldn't give up any information on his family or the magics they used. Still, there was plenty left he wanted to know. He cast a powerful privacy charm.

"If I was to agree to something like this, I would only be available for an hour a week, and would want several questions answered."

"Shoot." Heri encouraged.

"Why did Quirrell attack you?" It was the question that had most been on his mind of late.

When Snape didn't continue, Heri realised he was waiting for him to answer the question.

"I want to know which questions you have before I decide whether they are worth the price of answering, professor. I'm not writing a blank cheque here." Snape conceded with a nod.

"Very well then: Why did Quirrell attack you? What's going on with Ronald Weasley? And…" He thought of all the questions he had, but then something else occurred to him, something that should take precedence: "and I want your word that no students will die as a result of the actions of you or your friends."

Heri thought on it a moment and decided nothing there could be used to hurt him, not by someone illegally teaching Dark Arts.

"Professor Quirrell attacked me because he believed I had taken the Philosopher's Stone and wanted me to hand it over; Ron was subjected to and survived the Wendigo Curse; and I give you my word that no Hogwarts students will die as a result of the actions of me or my friends this year."

Snape was stunned. He didn't miss the time limit Addams had added on to his promise, or the terrifying truth of the Weasley boy, but he didn't care. He could hopefully find a way of renewing the promise next year and nothing could be done about Weasley. Mostly though, he didn't care because he was still stuck on the first answer: if Quirrell thought Herido took the Stone, then that meant that he didn't, which in turn would suggest that the Dark Lord didn't have it either. Maybe the man wouldn't be returning so soon after all.

"Did you take the Philosopher's Stone?" He had to ask.

"A student stealing something like that? That's rather improbable, no?" He challenged, but the sly smile on Addams' face told him everything Snape needed to know.

He didn't know which disturbed him more: The Stone in the hands of Lord Voldemort, or the Stone in the hands of the Addams'. It also meant he had once again underestimated the boy. It had just been assumed by all that Quirrell had taken the Stone after he was outed as a Dark wizard, but in fact a student had pulled off a flawless robbery right under Dumbledore's nose.

"What time works for you, professor?" Heri interrupted Snape's thoughts.

"Eleven tonight. Do you have somewhere to practise? There are powerful detection wards around the castle." Heri shook his head. He wasn't naïve enough to trust a traitor, so wouldn't be sharing any information about the RoR, as it was far too useful to lose.

"We'll have to go out into the forest." Seeing the man wanted to object, he continued. "It's fine. I know a place that will give us enough cover. We've used it before and never been caught. Draco killed a centaur there." He added, just to enjoy the shock and horror on his face.

Snape knew he had given in too easily, but he wanted to do it and so tried to see the positive. Spending time with these children would give him the opportunity to get to know them better, to see just what they were capable of, and guide their journey through the Dark Arts, which were notoriously dangerous. Although he was a little conflicted: he wanted to help Harry Potter to become stronger, but making Herido Addams stronger in any way seemed like a bad idea.


School rolled on without incident until Halloween.

Cousin Creep invited Herido and his friends to join him at Sir Nicholas' Death Day party, which had such a lovely, homely feel about it, though his friends didn't agree. Sir Nick had a good turn out and Heri quickly set off to make the rounds, greeting those he knew and being introduced to the others, while his friends huddled together and debated whether their absence would be noticed if they all made a break for the Great Hall.

After a while Heri returned to them.

"You're not mingling." At the dubious stares he continued. "You never know what you'll learn from these stiffs. They are still people just like everyone else!" They doubted that, but let the statement lie in favour of finding something to eat.

They were disappointed with the buffet and even Ron wouldn't try any of the food on offer. All the food was burnt or rotten or utterly indescribable.

Heri of course took his time perusing the table before suddenly turning away in revulsion.

"I would have thought all this would be to your liking." Crabbe joked, surprised when Heri nodded.

"Indeed… But Pubert went through a phase where he would only eat putrefied cheeses, and there are only so many resulting diapers you can change before such things are ruined forever. He actually…"

"Ok then!" Daphne interrupted quickly, not needing to hear any more. "Perhaps we should head over to the feast to get something to eat?" She tried, happy when everyone eagerly backed her up and Heri gave in.

They only made it half way to the Great Hall when Heri heard the voice of the mystery snake once again. It was murmuring the most beautiful poetry: '…rip…tear…kill…' And so without explanation he set off to find it.

Kounna had investigated and found the creature a month before, but she had never seen anything like it and so was little help. Kounna was a fearsome snake. She was naturally quite deadly and had been enhanced magically and there was very little she feared, so he was surprised when she told him she didn't dare get closer to the humungous serpent for fear of being eaten. He would just have to find out what it was for himself.

Everyone followed Heri's speedy progress through the halls, but came to an abrupt stop when they came across an impressive tableau: Written in blood were the words 'THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.' Besides which was the frozen body of Filch's much despised cat.

Heri felt excitement bubbling through his veins – things had been so dull lately.

xx