AN: So I am now working on a total of three stories. While the updates won't be 2-3 times per week as they have been, I will still be trying to do at least 1 update per week. Baring any outside events that may take precedence in my life I should be able to accomplish this no problem. Anyway here is chapter 9; this chapter sets up a few more things to come in the storyline. Next chapter will move forward in the timeline a bit to progress to story further into the school year. As always a special thanks to my beta SpiritHolly for her magnificent work.

§Parseltongue§

'Thoughts'

Disclaimer: I own nothing about the world of harry potter except for my enjoyment of it. J.K. Rowling owns all rights to Harry Potter; I am just playing in her world.

That next morning at breakfast as Harry entered the great hall, he saw Daphne and Astoria already seated together at the Ravenclaw table. Making his way over to them, he grabbed a seat that they had been saving between his girls. Receiving a kiss from both of them, drawing some looks from the students around them who saw this. "So how did your meeting with Dumbledore go last night love?" Daphne asked.

"As well as expected I suppose. He will be giving me a ten minute window with control over the anti-portkey wards at breakfast today." Harry answered her.

"What did you have to give up in return for that?" Astoria asked piling food on her plate as breakfast began.

"About what I expected," Harry responded. "He wanted to know where I had been staying, who you two were, and of course asked to be placed on the wards at Potter Manor."

"You did let him know that he would only be allowed when you were home right?" asked Daphne also filling her plate with food.

"Of course love, last thing I need is that manipulative old coot snooping around the manor while I am stuck here," he said taking a bite from a piece of bacon, "Although it would be hilarious to see him try to gain entrance without me being there."

"You never did tell us where unwanted visitors ended up at," Astoria said with a small pout.

Harry just laughed, "Madam Puddifoot's. From what Tom knew of the place, I think we shall be avoiding it at all costs, same as he did. Last thing I want is to have to watch other people going at it like starving cannibals or giving them a free show with me and my beautiful girls."

Daphne gave an undignified snort, while Astoria laughed along with her. Both girls had heard of Madam Puddifoot's tea shop, and they had to agree with Harry, they wouldn't want to be caught dead in that place.

Dumbledore had just entered the great hall from the teacher's side entrance. As soon as he sat down he gave Harry a nod and he could feel the power from the portkey wards as their power was assimilated into his mind. He turned to the girls. "It is time, I have ten minutes; Daph you first."

Daphne held out her ring, while Harry pointed his wand at it with a whispered "Portus," causing a white flash to encompass the ring momentarily. He then next pointed his wand at Daphne and started to chant under his breath for a few seconds. A light gray mist started to seep out of his wand and surround her leaving a thin line of mist still connecting to his wand tip. Once her entire body had been surrounded by the gray mist, he placed his wand point to the ring transferring the thin line of mist to the ring. As soon as it connected the ring, it and the mist disappeared. It had only lasted a total of about ten seconds, if you hadn't been paying attention you wouldn't have even known it had happened.

Harry repeated the same process for Astoria before he turned to a smiling Dumbledore and gave him a nod, letting him know he was finished and that he could take back the wards. Seconds later he felt the Headmaster take control once again as the magic of the wards receded from his mind. The girls noticed as soon as the ward activated portkeys were up and running, Harry seemed to relax as if a huge burden had fallen off of his shoulders.

McGonagall, Snape, and Flitwick all stopped by to deliver their timetables for the year. Of course Snape made his usual snide comments about Harry being the spawn of his father. Of course Harry just ignored the man completely. It was hard to believe that someone could still be so childish to hold a grudge with a man who had been dead for the past 13 years. Harry took a look at his schedule for the year.

Mondays he would have Transfiguration, Charms, and History. Tuesdays would be DADA, Herbology, and Runes. Wednesday would be Transfiguration, Charms, History, and Astronomy. Thursday would again be DADA, Herbology, and Runes, and Fridays would be Double Potions in the morning with afternoons free. He would have one free period each of the rest of the days.

Looking at his schedule he realized that he would at least have Potions, DADA, History, and Runes with Daphne. Of course Astoria being two years under him they wouldn't be having any classes together, much to both of their displeasure; another displeasure for Harry was that it being Friday, he had double Potions first thing in the morning with the greasy haired bastard. At least he and Daphne would be able to partner up.

After breakfast had finished, they made their way down to the dungeons to begin, what Harry was sure to be a two hour torture session. However, Harry was going to do his best to just keep his mouth shut and ignore Snape. He knew he would probably enrage Snape even further if the man thought Harry wasn't' bothered by his childish antics.

Later that day after lunch with his girls, Harry made his way to the second floor bathroom, to where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was located. § Open§ he hissed. The sink sank down below the floor making a large opening revealing the deep hole in the ground that lead down into the chamber. "Hmm, there has to be a better way to get down there without sliding down a grimy pipe.

§Stairs?§ A loud grinding sound came from the inside of the hole as smooth marble steps started to sprout out from the sides of the pipe, creating a set of steps that led down into the darkness. He made his way down the steps, reaching the bottom a few short minutes later. He lit his wand and began making his way towards the Chamber proper. When he reached the cave in, he began casting vanishing charms on the rubble, and transfigured stone support beams underneath where the cave-in happened to give it some support.

When he reached the stone door that guarded the Chamber he hissed the password and waited for the door to unlock and swing open. The door gave a slight hiss as it swung open on its hinges.

Stepping through the door, the chamber looked almost exactly as it had when he had last been here little more than a year ago. The dead 60 foot basilisk still lay in the middle where it had dropped when he had slain it. It must have been magic, but the thing still looked almost as fresh as the day it died, "Dobby!" The little excitable house elf popped into view in front of him.

"Yes master Harry Potter sir?" He said.

"Yes I need you to go to Gringotts and contract them for the harvesting of a 60 foot basilisk. Tell them they can have 10% of the profits, minus the hide which I shall keep all of. Have them place it in my vault and sell the rest," Harry told the little elf.

"Yes Master Harry Potter sir, Dobby be taking care of it immediately," and with that the little elf was gone. Harry started to search the Chamber more in depth, not having time during his previous visit here to do so. So he started to comb over every inch of the Chamber.

He started with examining the snake statues themselves. They lined the walkway that lead up to the statue of Salazar Slytherin, each one looking the same... Or so he thought. As he was examining the statues, which had emeralds set in the stone as the eyes of the snakes themselves, he noticed one whose eyes were made of inlaid topaz, made to look like basilisk's eyes.

Walking over the statue, he began to walk around it, looking to find anything else that was different about it. He noticed that there was a small crack in the line where its mouth was located. §Open? § He hissed, and was surprised when the serpent's mouth slowly started to open.

"Slytherin sure as hell wasn't very original with these damn passwords." he mused.

After a few seconds the grinding noise stopped when the snake's mouth was fully opened, and Harry could see a small scroll sticking out from the throat of the serpent. Now curious, he pulled out the scroll and opened it and began to read.

§I, Salazar Slytherin, am leaving this hereby compendium of the, albeit limited, serpent magic that I have discovered over my long years of life. While very small in information, the magic I was able to discover was great in power. While most every spell may be cast in Parseltongue, it was largely unnecessary due to the learning of silent casting. However, there are three spells of immense power that I have managed to create that may only be cast by those who speak the serpent tongue.§

Below this were three spells written in a squiggly language, although to Harry it looked like normal English. There were indeed three spells written out with the descriptions and their wand movements.

§Of the three spells I was able to create, the weakest of the three would be Exercitus Serpentes. This spell is more like the Serpensortia spell, only exponentially more powerful. Instead of creating only one snake of up to 4-7 feet, the Exercitus Serpentes spell creates between 8-12 serpents of 8-12 feet in length. Another difference between the spells is that while you can cast multiple of the weaker Serpensortia, you can only have one of the latter 'activated' at a time. This same effect applies to both of the other spells as well. While it is possible to cast more the one at a time, it works along the lines of the Imperious Curse, in that you can only have one person under its effects at a time or you will lose control over the spell. The same holds true to trying to hold multiple Exercitus Serpents curses, you will lose control over the serpents and they will attack both friend and foe, even the caster if given the opportunity.

The second most powerful of these spells would be my personal favorite. The Arcessentes Basiliscum curse; this powerful curse has the ability to summon a 30 foot basilisk that falls under the castor's control, granted you only have one summoned at a time. This beast will last until killed or the spell runs out of power. The amount of power applied to the curse by the castor determines the length of the stay. Naturally, the more powerful the castor the longer and harder to kill the serpent will be.

The most powerful and also the most draining curse I have discovered is the Arcessentes Hydram curse. This powerful curse summons a five headed Hydra that is slightly bigger then even a Ukrainian Ironbelly, although only just barely. Although the mythical beasts of old could not speak common Parseltongue, these ones summoned through the Arcessentes Hydram curse can however. Be warned only those of immense power can even control these great beasts, for a weak castor is usually destroyed by the Hydra itself. Each of the five heads has a different ability. The center head much like a dragon can breathe massive bursts of fire. The heads on either side of this one can blast jets of ice and lightening towards the enemy. Finally, the pair of outside heads has the ability to breathe acid and a toxic gas.

While all of these spells take great power to successfully cast, I have no doubt that as my ancestor, as that is the only way you would have discovered my scroll, that you possess more than enough power to use these spells. Takes care my heir, and use this power to put an end to your enemies.§

Harry's first thought was to be shocked by the sheer power contained in these spells. Then as he realized that Voldemort had most likely never discovered them or the scroll would have not been left behind, he almost let out a very girly squeal before he managed to catch himself and save his dignity. He placed the scroll securely in his robes for further studying later.

He searched every inch of the chamber over the next two hours, except for the mouth of the statue which he knew had housed the basilisk, not really finding anything else. Finally deciding to search out what lay within the statue itself he walked over to it and stopped in front of it saying §Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of Hogwarts four!§ Another minute of intense stone on stone grinding and before him stood a seven foot high, five foot wide hole where the mouth of the statue was located.

He clambered inside the hole, deciding he would transfigure some stairs for it later, and entered into the basilisk's lair. The inside was nothing more than a very large circular room. The center point of the room had to be close to 20ft from any point of the wall. 'Hmm, this will do nicely as my bedroom,' he thought going over his plan in his head that he would be working on for the next couple of months.

He made a mental check list of all of the things he would need to do in the next two months before the first Hogsmeade trip the weekend following Halloween. First he needed to get this place cleaned, as it was disgustingly grimy. He would need better lighting, and perhaps carpeting and hardwood walls. He would also need to work on a security system of sorts, as he would have to drop the Parseltongue password to allow the Delacour girls and his friends entrance. Of course he had his special project saved specifically for his bedroom, but he still had some studying to do in his illusionary runes book. Deciding he would get Dobby started on cleaning this place as soon as the goblins harvested and removed the basilisk, he exited the room, resealing it as he went.

He still had a few hours before dinner, where he would meet up with the girls afterwards to spend the time together and to finish any homework they had gotten today. Daphne had a double Arithmancy class after lunch and Astoria had her potions class after lunch as well.

He decided he would continue reading his book on wand crafting. So he made his way up to his dorm and hissed the password to his trunk and climbed down into the library contained within to begin his reading.

He had been studying and reading about wand crafting off and on since he had gotten the book, and had learned mostly about gathering the required items to make the wand. He had learned that the average wizard's power was only strong enough to be able to use one wood type and one wand core along with a focusing gemstone. The more power a wizard had the more types of wood and cores he could successfully use in his wand with certain limitations on the amount. The most wood a wand could contain and the wizard still be able to push his magic through it was three. Of course those with the power to do so were equipped with an immensely powerful wand. The cores themselves were only limited to the amount of space inside the wand that could hold the portion of the core, and of course the core compatibilities themselves.

In order to find which cores and wood types he would need, he was going to have to visit many different wand crafting shops around the world, and manually search for the ones that he had felt the strongest 'pull' towards. He expected he would need to do this on Hogsmeade weekends, and over Christmas break. He already had his mind set on which stone he was going to use as his focus stone, so he would not need to worry about that.

He set the book down a few hours later after reading on the different types of woods and cores that can be used to make a wand, and was astounded at the selection. Of course there were some that were infinitely rarer then others, but they also held more power. Making his way out of his trunk, he locked it back up and headed down towards the great hall. Harry and his girls were going to sit with his friends at the Gryffindor table for dinner, as they had sat with Astoria's at breakfast and Daphne's friends Tracey and Blaise at the Snake table for lunch. Of course Harry had gotten many scowls and glares for daring to join the Slytherin table, but he really could care less as there wasn't much they could do about it, especially seeing as he was Lord Slytherin.

Daphne and Astoria were waiting for him at the double doors when he arrived to the great hall. Giving both girls a welcome hug and a steamy kiss on the lips Daphne asked him, "So love, what have you been up too today?"

With a smile on his face he responded. "It's a surprise that I am working on for us. It won't be ready for a few months I'm afraid."

Both girls put a fake pout on their face as Astoria said. "Aww, you would keep us in the dark about it?"

Harry just laughed. "Well it wouldn't be much of a surprise if I had told you about it now would it? I will tell you that I hope to have it finished after the first Hogsmeade weekend."

"Why then?" Daphne asked curiously.

"Well I will have to make a few...long distance stops shall we say, and I will need the entire day to make them. I have something special planned and I have to visit these places to accomplish it."

The girls nodded their heads as they all began to make their way to the Gryffindor table for dinner. Harry sat on one side with his back to the wall and his girls on either side of him. He was joined a few moments later by Ron and Hermione who sat across the table from them. Hermione didn't look all that bothered by having a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw at the table, Ron however, had a look on his face that made him look like the girls had just killed his owl.

It was Harry who broke the silence, "So what do you two think about the upcoming Tri-Wizard Tournament?" He asked the two across from him.

Ron who had apparently decided to just ignore the fact that the two girls were there at all answered him first. "I can't wait, just think about it. There is always a large cash value grand prize to the winner. I am going to try to enter if I can; what about you?"

"I think I am going to have to pass." Harry said, he had a feeling he wouldn't get a say in the matter one way or the other, but he wasn't about to tell his friends that. "I've had enough near death experiences to last me a lifetime, I damn sure am not about to start volunteering for more of them," Ron gave a light chuckle while Hermione just grinned at his joke.

"What about you Hermione?" Ron asked. "Are you looking forward to the Tournament?"

"It should be fun to watch but like Harry said, I'm not about to go volunteering for more trouble. I am more interested in the two competing schools that are going to be coming here. It will be a great experience to get to learn about other magical cultures and customs."

"Speaking of the other schools," Harry said turning to Daphne and Astoria. "Fleur will be coming over with the other potential Beauxbatons competitors. You two will love her. She is smart, funny, and extremely quick witted. She is quite the hellion, just like you my little minx," he said laughing as he gave Daphne a kiss on the nose when he said the last part.

She lightly smacked him on the arm. "I'm not a hellion you prat!"

Astoria just giggled. "Yea and I'm going to be Head Girl next year."

They all laughed at her jab at her sister, well except for Ron who had just continued to stuff his face and ignore the two sisters. "Anyway her family will be visiting on weekends and during the tasks if she is selected as their champion and I want to introduce you two to them."

"What you planning on doing, adding them to your little mini harem?" Daphne asked while Astoria just laughed at her comment.

Harry just smirked at her. "Well I do seem to have a thing for smoking hot blondes, might as well add another pair of blonde sisters to the mix." Both girls gave him a beaming smile and a slight blush at his smoking hot blondes comment.

Dinner passed with more small talk between the five of them before Harry led his girls up to the room of requirement to do some training. He planned on having his girls capable of holding their own encase they were ever attacked and he wasn't around to protect them and for some reason the portkey's failed to work.

They spent the next hour and a half with Harry teaching them to turn their immense knowledge into experience with dueling. Just because they had all of Voldemort's memories and knowledge, didn't mean they had his experience using it. Harry himself worked on his silent casting. While normal casting worked just fine against spectral basilisk's and inferi, against an opponent who could understand what he was saying, he would need to master silent casting in order to have the upper edge.

An hour and a half later, three tired and sweaty teens sat down on a large comfy sofa that the room had provided for them. "So how are you two adjusting so far to the whole immortal and immensely knowledgeable thing so far?" Harry asked the two girls he was quickly starting to fall in love with.

The girls cuddled into his side, getting comfortable, before Daphne answered. "I don't think it has really sunk in yet. So far other than having all of this extra knowledge so far, the whole eternal life thing just hasn't sunk in yet. I suppose it really won't for quite some time."

Harry just nodded knowing he was thinking along the same lines. He suspected they wouldn't really notice a difference until their natural bodies died and they were 'reborn' with their homunculus forms. Their normal bodies would grow and age the same as any other person and eventually die. Their homunculus forms however would assume an appearance from their physical peak and would stay that way until the end of time or their bodies were destroyed by an outside source. Turning to Astoria he asked her the same question.

"It's really the same for me as it is for Daph. I'm not sure it will make a noticeable difference until we are past our natural time but still living. Although as long as we have each other, it will all work out for the best."

Hugging the young girl closer to him he responded. "As long as I have a breath left in me, we will always be together. Merlin himself won't be able to break us apart if I have anything to say about it." He gave both girls a kiss to the top of the head and they were all silent for a few minutes just basking in each other's company.

"Harry?" Daphne asked from his right

"Yes love?"

"What are you going to do about your other two Lordships? According to the bylaws you have to at least have a marriage contract for that house by your 15th birthday and married within one year of your 17th?" she asked.

He took a minute to think over her question. "Well, truthfully I don't know too many girls outside of you two and Hermione, but she has always been more of a sister then a girlfriend type to me. I am kind of hoping that you two, Fleur, and little Gabby hit it off. I only got to spend a day with them but we really hit it off. Fleur reminds me of you two as I said earlier. She is wicked smart, super funny, quick witted, and from the sounds of it a pretty good fighter. Little Gabby doesn't start schooling until next year, but she is the cutest thing I've ever seen and she is totally smitten with me since I saved her at the world cup."

Astoria spoke up from his left. "It sounds like to me you are a tad smitten with them as well." The two girls laughed as Harry blushed very slightly.

"Like I said, I must have a thing for smoking hot blondes," he chuckled at the girls while they just beamed at him.

Daphne took a look at her watch and realized that it was already a half hour past curfew and groaned.

"What's wrong Daph?" Harry asked.

"We are going to be in so much trouble, that's what. It's already a half hour past curfew!"

Unfortunately Harry hadn't thought to bring his invisibility cloak, as he hadn't planned on them being out so late. Just as he was trying to think of a way for them to all get back to their common rooms without getting caught, Astoria spoke up. "You know, we can't get caught if we aren't in the halls, and this place just happens to be able to create a bedroom. There is no reason we couldn't just stay here for the night."

Harry watched as both girls had a lecherous grin appear on their faces. "Merlin save me!" Harry said as the two girls pulled him to his feet as the room adjusted and a large four poster appeared against the wall. Harry pulled out his wand and transfigured their robes into comfortable night clothes, before the girls dragged him to the bed.

Harry climbed to the center of the bed and the girls curled up on either side of him, using his shoulders as pillows as he wrapped an arm around them. He could smell the delicious scent of honey and lavender coming from the girls. "Goodnight loves," he said to the two girls giving them each a toe curling kiss on the lips.

"Goodnight Harry," they both whispered in his ear, getting comfortable snuggled into his sides. The last thought that went through his mind before sleep claimed him was that he couldn't wait until he finished his project in the Chamber, as he wanted to fall asleep to this for the rest of his life.

AN: Well there you have it, I hope it was enjoyable. Next chapter should be everything up to and including the other schools arriving and possibly the champion selection depending on how long the chapter ends up being. As always comments and reviews are appreciated, flames…not so much. Thanks!