Here's the next. As to the question of last chapter; only two have guessed it right.
Thanks for all the reviews, now: enjoy.
Three full days after Harry's healing, Harry spent sleeping. According to Madam Pomfrey the potion was making Harry's body rest to regain his full health.
In the mean time, Zach was getting used to, and marvelling about, his changes in appearance, he kinda liked them. Dumbledore explained the changes as part of the connection Harry and Zach had made. The eye colour was rather obvious, as well as the phoenix, but the goldenbrown hair colour needed a bit of explaining. Lily's Mother had had goldenbrown hair, which she passed on to her daughter, even though Lily didn't show it. And Lily in her turn, passed on the colour to Harry, who didn't get it either, but Zach, apparantly, did.
When Harry finally woke up, he had a major appetite, but further was perfectly healthy, which made Sirius and Elisabeth decide it was time they headed for their new home. Sirius' place.
Only a few days after Harry's awakening did they move into their new home, after Sirius had prepared Harry's and Zach's rooms.
They went by use of Floo Powder. Sirius went first with the little bit of luggage that he hadn't brought to his home the past days, Zach went after him, followed by Harry. Elisabeth went last.
Harry arrived into a small stone circular room, in which the only light came from a small window many feet from the ground.
As Elisabeth had arrived, Sirius led the way to a nearly indiscernable door and opened it to the warm and bright day outside.
In awe, Harry stepped out into the sun, looking around the huge courtyard they were in, though it was more a walled-in meadow. In front of them, a huge castle towered over them, though it's colour was identical to the rocky mountaincliff behind it. Many more mountain-like hills were behind the original.
"Harry! You've got to come see this!"
Harry hurried to stand next to Zach just behind the gate in the wall surrounding the courtyard. They stood on a heavy wooden drawbridge. Behind that, they had a lookout over an incredible plain with small hills to the right, and a dense forest in front of them and to the left. On the plain though, a herd of horses, mostly Black, ran, with many dogs running through them, also mostly black. The pack of dogs and herd of horses didn't mind eachother at all, just existed harmoniously side by side.
"They're quite a sight, don't they?" Sirius said from behind them.
"How many are there?" Elisabeth asked.
"A good thirty horses, and about twenty dogs. The dogs are all loyal, though tend to be independant. But when you really need them, they're quite a force. The same is with the horses. They're a bit magical, some of them more then others, and extremely intelligent. I've befriended one of the larger mares when I was younger, I named her Star, and when I have time, I ride her, but further, they stay to themself and take care of themself. They're impossible to tame, as many of my relatives have tried. You can only try and befriend one. You see the large black stallion with white in his mane and tail? He's the leader of the herd." Sirius explained. "And though she doesn't tend to show herself too often, here in the castle-moat is Lancarda, or simply Lance, a water-serpent. She protects the moat annex lake, along with her partner, though I've never seen him before. And sometimes the hippocampi come up too."
Harry's eyes drifted to the water, and the long stone bridge that went from where the drawbridge laid on it, with many turns, towards dry land a good 500 feet away. Along the lenght of the bridge, numerous stone statues stood in the water.
"Is this all yours, Sirius?" Harry asked.
"Yes. It's all ours, the whole island. Quite overwhelming isn't it? It's been in the Black family for centuries. There used to be a town near here too, but that was destroyed by Grindlewald years ago and never rebuilt. So now it's all Black family territory. Which is just us."
"What are all the statues?" Zach asked.
"For each member of the Black family, a statue was placed, in the form of an animal. The last one is mine. One day, we'll have to make the three of you one each too." Sirius pointed at the closest statue that was still many feet away from the drawbridge. It was in the form of a huge black dog with very dark sapphires as eyes. "Typically, most of the statues are black, though there are a few in other colours too."
"Why a dog?" Harry asked.
"Because my Animagus-form is a black dog."
"I thought it was a jaguar?" Harry asked confused.
"No, a jaguar is my Animorphmagus-form, there's also something called an Animagus-form, it doesn't have a middle-form, and it can be learned, though few manage to do so." Sirius explained. "Now, how about we go inside?"
Sirius led the way towards the huge Ebony front doors, which had a huge flamelike 'B' crafted in it. Next to the door were two enourmous statue's of rearing horses with their riders. Sirius pulled out his wand and tapped it one the door, opening it wide enough for them to easily step through.
"I mostly keep the door open, as it's way too heavy to open by hand, and I don't want to use my wand every time. Besides, you two, Harry and Zach, don't even have wands. So we'll keep it open." Sirius said.
They entered the castle and Sirius showed them the most important rooms. Including the livingroom, the kitchen, the dining room, the small living room (the one that was far more cosy than the huge primary living room), the library, Sirius' study (there were more of them, but they weren't in use), the owlery that held an owl or ten, and also the separate bedrooms with adjoining bathrooms. Sirius' and Elisabeths bedroom was situated on the second floor. Zach's one and Harry's one too, only in a different corridor. Zach's and Harry's ones were next to eachother, and they had a seperate bathroom each. Both of their rooms were done in royal blue and silver.
"They used to be green and silver, but that's way too Slytherin after my tastes." Sirius said.
Harry and Zach knew by now that Sirius and Elisabeth had been Gryffindors, though in different years, and that Gryffindor and Slytherin didn't really get along, to say the least.
"Say, Dad..." Zach asked, he'd only recently started calling Sirius Dad. "Why do you have your half-form on your door?"
"That's Grim. At least, that's what I call him. He's me. He's my Doorlocker."
"Doorlocker?" Elisabeth asked.
"Yes. Accidentally when James and Remus were busy making the Animagus-potion, I put in some wrong ingredient. James was only slightly angry and one thing led to another, and we found out the new potion had an interesting property too. Combined with the Sticking Charm and a door, it creates an image of yourself on the door. In my case, it became my half-form."
"Whow! Can we have one too?" Zach asked.
"I was already planning on it. As they're very usefull. They prevent anyone from just entering your room. You just tell them a password and it'll only open for that. Only when you, yourself want to enter, it opens by itself."
"When do we do it?" Harry asked eagerly.
"As a matter of fact, I do have the potion ready in my dungeon... but..."
"Please?" The two boys chorused.
Half an hour later, they each had their own Doorlocker. Harry a wolf/cat, Zach a German Shepherd. He was a golden-brown one, and Elisabeth got her own almost white lioness with Sirius' jaguar. The process was really simple, you had to put your hand in the bluish potion then put it on the door and Sirius said a spell and it was done.
Harry called his Doorlocker Godric, and Zach in his turn named his Doorlocker Gryph. Elisabeth used Kefira, which, according to her, meant 'young lioness'.
The next few days were spent exploring by Zach and Harry, and getting to know the Rhona-elves.
Sirius had explained about the elves of Don Rhona; they weren't as slavelike as House-Elves, but a cross between the free Forest-Elves and House-Elves. They were loyal to the inhabitants of Don Rhona, as long as they were treated right. They were small, though Harry and Zach were only a head or so taller than them, and they had straight hair, mostly reaching past their shoulders. Their eyes were of all colours, including purple, red and yellow.
Harry now mastered his transformations to all of his three forms, and the two boys were often seen chasing eachother through the many halls and chambers of the castle, or through the forest or over the plain, running along with the horses and dogs.
Harry had also started teaching Zach some fighting. After Zach had found out about what Harry could do, he'd been extremely excited.
In turn, Zach taught Harry how to read, as he'd never been in school long enough to learn it (though Elisabeth did most of the teaching). Harry was a quick learner and became really interested in reading all kinds of things. From the history of the magical world, to fictional stories.
The two boys also seemed to rub off on eachother very quickly. Harry became more open and outspoken, while Zach became more self-conscious and got more interested in books.
One day, they were running around outside again, untill they were exhausted from all the running and laid down at the edge of the moat/lake. They drifted off a bit, untill they heard the splashing of water.
Sitting up, Harry saw several of the younger horses playing in the water, splashing up water and playfully biting at eachother. Zach and Harry watched them with interest, untill two young stallions, about two and a half years old, one black and one a dark red with black underlegs and black tail and mane, had playfully made their way to the two boys and were now eyeing them interestedly. They were twins, Harry remembered Sirius tell him once. There weren't many twins among horses, and these two were one of the two twins among the herd at the moment.
The two young stallions stopped only inches from the boys. Harry was the first to get into a crouch as not to scare the stallions and he stretched out his hand. The black stallion reached his head down and determined their was nothing worthwhile in Harry's hand.
By now, Zach was up too, he was standing in front of the red one and petted the elegant head carefully.
Suddenly, the two stallions turned on their hindlegs and splashed back into the water, looking behind them to see if the boys were following.
Zach and Harry shared a look, before running into the water and joining into the water-fest.
A few hours later, two exhausted, and in Harry's case sunburnt, boys entered the kitchen for supper.
Shaking her head, Elisabeth went to get some potion for Harry's skin and rubbed it on before they got eating.
/\/
Over the next half a year, the two boys became fast friends with the stallions, and they now rode them over the plain whenever they got the chance (and when the weather permitted it), Sirius often riding along with them on his Star, untill the summer ended that is. Harry'd called the black one Demon, while Zach called the other Devil, due to the colour of their fur.
Elisabeth watched them from time to time. She wasn't too eager to step on a horse and ride like mad as her husband and sons liked to do. Also, as the months wore on, another thing became apparent, she was pregnant again... And the child would be due in May.
At the end of the summer vacation of Sirius, he and Elisabeth had had their marriage. It was a small one, with only Remus and his family, a few other friends, and of course Harry and Zach attending, as neither of the couple had their parents left. Professor Dumbledore wed the two, as he was allowed to do so, and they didn't want some stranger coming into Don Rhona.
Sirius and Elisabeth had had their honeymoon the last week of Sirius' vacation, going on safari in Africa, and Remus watched Harry and Zach during that time.
Sirius was now gone during the weeks, though he dropped by on odd evenings, and in the weekends he was home too. Dumbledore had convinced him to continue teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, though Sirius only conceded after he was allowed to go home in the weekends and during the holidays. He also had demanded he'd return home in May, to take care of Elisabeth when the time came.
Remus also visited Don Rhona once or twice, apart from the time he'd looked after Harry and Zach, and he brought his wife and twins along with him too. He'd met Angy when he was in Africa for a few months. She was of mixed origin, her father a Dark Elf, her mother an American witch. She'd studied to be a Healer. Kaya was their daughter, and she was eight now, Kaya was only a few minutes older than her brother, Thomas. Angy was also pregnant for a second time, though her child would be born somewhere in Januari.
But first, Christmas was approaching.
This was a bit of a filler chapter, nothing really happens, except some explaining and settling in. The next chapter will have a bit more action. Review?