Heir of Two Worlds

AN: This chapter is very descriptive, just warning you. But there is a little action, and some foreshadowing, so don't hate me. Also, I don't have much experience with kids, and I had a very good vocabulary when I was little, so I'm not sure if my Harry dialogue in accurate for a four year old, if it's not, just assume he's super smart.

BN: I tried to catch more of the mistakes this time...sorry about any lingering ones I missed.

WARNING: magical creature harry, eventual slash H/D, AUness, and most likely swearing.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A Clandestine Calamity

-Potter Residence 3 years later-

Harry Potter woke slowly; his still sleepy eyes opening only a crack to see what it was that had disturbed his rest. His eyes traveled around his red and gold room surreptitiously without result, nothing seemed to be out of place. The four year old boy dared open his eyes a bit more, still trying to find the source of his awakening without the source realizing he was actually awake, after all, what four year old wants to get up at seven o'clock?

A small creak, imperceptible to most, gave away the intruder's position: precisely two feet in front of Harry's toy chest, one foot away from the bedside table. He knew memorizing the floor boards' sounds would come in handy when dealing with the Marauders. Harry may only be four, but he wasn't stupid and he had had enough experience with his father's friends to know to be alert. A small giggle escaped him, and the intruder stopped moving

"Where am I?" came a familiar voice from beside his right ear.

"Where you are." Harry opened his eyes to an empty room.

"That's not an answer." The disembodied voice seemed taken aback, and indeed it was as the voice was softer now, indicating that its source had pulled back in surprise, which had been Harry's intent all along. The black haired child sprung from the bed and fled, giggling all the way, across the room and out the door.

Behind him the invisible man let out a gruff sound as he tried to tear after the young boy, but tripped on his invisibility cloak and fell to the floor. Sirius scrambled up to his feet leaving the discarded cloak where it was and chased after the giggling boy.

The two tore down the hall, Sirius quickly gaining on Harry, who made up the difference by jumping down the stairs, or as one should say flying down the stairs. The youngest Potter's magic was strong for one so young, and he had already learned to use it in its crudest form, self preservation. While Harry was in no real danger, he could still call on his powers as if he was, using his happiness instead of his fear to propel himself down the stairs, across the room, and through the door of the kitchen.

Harry giggled harder as it seemed he would finally make it to the table first, but then with a small 'pop' Sirius apparated to his seat, beating him again.

"No fair." The small boy stoppedand gave his godfather a scathing look, or what was meant to be a scathing look anyway, it was equally closer to a squinty-eyed grin.

"Yes, fair." Sirius said, picking up his coffee while receiving an amused glance from Remus, who was sitting beside him at the round kitchen table, "You used magic first, therefore I could use it too."

"Oh honestly, you shouldn't be racing down here every morning anyways." Lily gave Sirius a death glare as she placed a plate of pancakes on the table. "One of these days you're going to get hurt and then I will have to hurt you more."

Harry ignored his mother's remark as he walked over to Sirius and climbed up into his lap.

"Good morning." James walked into the room and unceremoniously plopped down into his chair. "Anything happening?" He inquired of Remus, who was skimming through that morning's Daily Prophet.

"The Malfoy's are being honored with a plaque, for their 'most gracious donation' to St. Mungo's." Remus said sarcastically as he handed to folded paper over to James.

"Bunch of bloody Death Eaters, everyone knows Lucius belongs in Azkaban." Sirius picked Harry up out of his lap and sat him in his own chair, while he continued to snarl.

"Yes, yes we all know. Now drop it there's nothing you can do about it." Lily said as she finally took her seat beside Harry and began to cut up the pancakes he was trying to shove into his mouth whole.

"Nothing I can do about it? I'm a bloody Auror, there should be something I could do about it, but noooo, 'Lucius is a,'" Sirius grabbed the paper from James and looked at the article. "'Upstanding citizen, and role model for all.'"

James stifled a laugh as Sirius stuck his nose in the air picked up his knife, holding it like a cane, and began impersonating said 'role model'. Lily shot him dirty looks as Harry giggled at his godfather's antics.

All in all, it was an average morning at the Potter house. After the incident with the Dark Lord three years before, the Potters had moved into the house next to Sirius', the formerly abandoned Black Cottage in England. It hadn't been long after that Remus had moved in with Sirius, having no where to go after the Order disbanded, and began working with Lily in her Apothecary in Diagon Alley. As for Harry, he spent his days either with his mother and Uncle Moony in Diagon Alley, or at the Weasley's playing with his best friend Ron and his brothers.

The Potter-Black house was home to your average wizarding bunch, even if the child was the Boy-Who-Lived, they made an effort to make sure he grew up as normally as possible. Dumbledore and the Weasleys had been a godsend in raising Harry simply as a boy rather than The-Boy. Molly was always willing to have little Harry over, and the seven Weasley children, though they occasionally joked about Harry's Boy-Who-Lived title, never treated him any differently than they would one of their siblings. And when it came to Dumbledore, no one ever knew what he was going to do. The old wizard had a habit of randomly dropping by to check on his honorary grandson, and never passed on the opportunity to teach the young boy something, like a proper appreciation for sweets.

Lily began clearing the plates from the table as James attempted to get the syrup off of Harry's hands. "Scourgefy, Scourgefy, Scourgefy, …why isn't this working?"

"It's too sticky, use soap and water." Lily said with a mischievous grin. Sirius and Remus shared a knowing look before surreptitiously hiding the syrup bottle where James couldn't examine it.

"I can't believe this, syrup is too 'sticky' to be removed by magic? What kind of logic is that?" James picked up his son who was not very happy about the syrup on his hands and was protesting by smacking his father in the face with said sticky hands. "Oww, stop it."

"Put me down. I'll wash…my hands."

"Fine." James set his son's feet on the floor and let him run over to the sink, where he promptly climbed up on his step and set about freeing his hands from the sticky maple derivative. "Now how am I…PADFOOT!"

James smacked his friend who had just licked the syrup residue off of his face, and was know howling in laughter.

"Scourgefy, Scourgefy, Scourgefy."

"Oh for the love of…"

"James?" the man in question interjected while trying to look cute and strangle his best friend at the same time.

Lily shot her husband a forced scathing look before picking up her son. "Remus…"

"Moony how could you…"

"…I think it's time we get the Apothecary."

Remus set down his mug and stood, "Yes, I think you're right. It will be busy today. I'll see you later." He nodded to James and Sirius who now each had their arm over the other's shoulder.

"You two should be getting off as well." Lily smiled as she received a kiss on her cheek and was relieved of the boy she held in her arms.

James held his son up to his face. "Are you going to be good?"

"Yes." Harry grinned evilly.

"Are you now?" Sirius joined the conversation. "You're not going to do anything…tricky are you?" The older man grinned like a mad-man.

"Yes, you're not going to torment you mother and Uncle Moony are you?" James said as Lily pulled her son away from the two conspirators.

"Now you two stop it. The last thing we need is Harry running off and getting himself into trouble."

"Ah, come on Lils." Sirius smiled. "What could possibly happen in Diagon Alley?"

-Apothecary, Diagon Alley-

"Harry, come back here."

The small boy responded to his mother's request, and dodged through the small crowd to duck behind the counter. It was late August and Diagon Alley was full of students and their parents rushing about gathering school supplies. It seemed that every year, all the shoppers felt the need to descend upon the Apothecary at the same time, resulting in utter confusion.

"Hey, Harry. Why don't you go play in the back room and let your mum and me take care of all this." Remus made a hand movement towards the small crowd. "They never stay too long…I think it's the smell." He finished in a whisper.

Harry smiled at Remus' face, had he been older he would have marveled at a werewolf spending so much time in a place that smelled of rotten eggs and cabbage. He also would have learned of something called sensory adaptation, but that is neither here nor there. The small boy nodded, "Okay, Uncle Moony." Harry scampered off into the back room, leaving the adults to deal with the newest wave of customers.

The Apothecary was a small building on Diagon Alley. Like most of the buildings surrounding it, it was two stories tall, with a basement used for storage; or in this case formerly used for storage, it had, in fact, been turned into a potions lab by Lily when the former owner had turned it over to her and went into retirement. The second story was divided between storage and a small office where Harry was forbidden to go ever since he drank a well of green ink and had to be taken to St. Mungo's. The main floor was mostly the shop itself, containing potions ingredients of various forms and some everyday ready made things, but there was also a small back room that held the stairs leading to the second floor and those leading to the basement. On the back wall there was a door to the small alley that lay behind the stores and led, eventually, to Knockturn alley, not that many realized this. The back room was Harry's domain, and any fool could tell it. There were small piles of toys and books that were suppose to be in his toy crate that sat under the stairs next to pile of pillows and blankets that hid a small mattress where he took his naps.

The small boy carefully shut the door behind himself as he entered his space. He plopped down on his mattress and stared at Grizzle, his stuffed lion. He had had the thing for longer than his four year old mind could remember. Admittedly, it didn't look much like a lion, it's arms and legs where long and hung off its rectangular-ish body as limply as its tale; the face was like a cartoon's and the mane the rays of a poorly drawn sun, but it was soft. Harry had always loved to nuzzle his face into the fabric as he went to sleep. The toy was odd, different from all of his others in that it wasn't magical. In fact, Harry had no idea who had even given him the thing, not that he ever really thought about it.

The black haired child picked up his toy before heading out the back door. He was bored and didn't really feel like playing by himself, and occasionally other children would wonder into the small back alley. However, today the place was empty, just Harry's luck, nevertheless, he continued down the walk, peeking through the occasional gaps between the buildings to the main road.

The back alley was a rather grimy place paved in gray stone with a narrow ditch to one side in which a small trickle of water was always running. Only one side of the path was lined with buildings, the other side was a high stone wall that separated Diagon Alley from Muggle London.

Harry stopped at one of the larger gaps and gazed out into Diagon Ally. Going into Flourish & Blotts was a small boy, about Harry's age; he had brilliant blond hair and was wearing dark robes. Green eyes lit up, and Harry pulled Grizzle closer to his chest, finally someone to play with. But then he saw a man that had to be the boy's father walking into the store as well, and all of his hopes fell.

Normally, Harry would have continued on, but something held him where he was staring at the book store. After about ten minuets the boy reappeared, this time being carried on the hip of a well-dressed blonde woman as she exited the store followed closely by the even blonder man Harry had seen earlier. The young black-haired boy stepped forward, looking sadly at his should-be play mate as said boy disappeared into the crowd.

Dejectedly, Harry turned around and began back down the walk towards his mother's apothecary. His head was hung and he scuffed his shoes on the stone as he went, a small sniffle came from behind his bangs as he felt entitled to wallow in self pity that only the young and naive can conjure about themselves without being arrogant.

Stupid human, leaving me like that. Oh, the nerve. I should have bitten the rotten thing.

The sodden voice pulled Harry out of his depression, and green eyes filled with curiosity. "Hello?" His voice was hesitant as he looked around for his new play mate.

Honesty, the fool thing tried to kill me. So, cold…

A small black head whipped around following the voice that was going ever farther down the alley, in a direction away from the apothecary. Harry didn't see anyone, but he was use to talking to people he couldn't see, his father and Uncle Padfoot were often not visible.

"Hello? Would you like to play with me?" Hopeful green eyes stared down the empty alley. "Please, I don't cheat. Uncle Moony says, he says, I'm a good…"

Leaving me, hateful child…

"Don't go." Harry wailed sadly as he dropped his Grizzle and began racing down the walk chasing after the fading voice. "Wait for me."

The small Potter ran further down the alley then he had ever been, taking turns he didn't know were there. The longer he followed the voice, that was still ranting by the way, the darker and dingier the alley became until the wall was covered in a thick moister and the little trench was growing a luminescent green mold that Harry was fairly sure was sold in the Apothecary.

Stupid humans always messing everything up.

The voice had finally stopped moving and Harry grabbed the chance running forward around another turn to where he was sure his new play mate was, only no one was there.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" He looked around trying to find his new friend.

"What's this?" A new voice, a smooth almost greasy voice entered the gray alleyway.

Harry turned and looked in the gap between two buildings where the new voice was coming from. In the space were three men, the closest of which had unnaturally strait black hair and a pale face with bright red lips. "Why, it's a lost little waif. Tell me little boy, where are your parents?" Harry stepped back as the man came closer, a smile pulling on his red lips.

Green eyes grew large and began to fill with tears but no answer came.

The pale man came even closer, kicking a small body that had curled itself around the warm air duct of one of the shops.

Eh…stupid fang boy. Just when I get warm too. Go away and take your smelly friends with you.

The vampire stepped back as the white snake bit his ankle and hissed angrily. Harry was too glad at finding his new friend to take that chance to run and stood smiling stupidly at the snake.

Are you going to play with me now?

What? The snake stopped snapping at the vampire to look at Harry. A snake-child?

At that moment though, the lead vampire got fed up with the small animal biting at his leg and kicked it, this time hard enough to propel it through the air towards Harry. "Filthy creature, out of my way."

"Hey, you can't do that." The angry wizard scooped up his new friend who curled around his neck in clear defiance to the vampires coming closer.

Snake-Child as much as I appreciate your standing up for me, now is really not the time. We should be going.

"Tell me Waif, what are you going to do about it? Hmm?" the vampire came ever nearer, he cronies following behind. "The truth is, there's nothing you can do. Poor, little Waif. You're weak and alone." The vampire stopped moving to stare gleefully into the scared green eyes. "And now, little Waif, you're my prey."

The vampire jumped at Harry, his hands out to grab him, but Harry ducked and sent out a wave of magic that smacked into the vampire and sent him backwards to land at his cronies feet.

The small Potter didn't waste time and ran as fast as he could. Unfortunately, after having run all the way down the alley to begin with, he was a little winded. The two vampires that had yet to speak caught up to him quickly, one jumping in front of him and cutting of his escape.

Snake child, the wall. Get over the wall.

Harry pulled on his magic and propelled himself up the wall, just as he had down the stairs earlier in the day; however, flying down is much easier than flying up, and Harry only just managed to pull himself up to the top of the wall and jump over.

The other side of the wall was not what Harry expected. All around him muggles were walking in various directions and talking loudly. In the middle of the chaos large metal boxes were crawling along and the people in them were leaning out their windows yelling words Harry had only ever heard Uncle Padfoot use.

A sound from behind him caused Harry to turn and see the vampires coming over the wall after him. Quickly he hurried through the crowd, getting rather odd looks from the people he ran into. He didn't know where he was going, nor did he much care so long as he got away from the men following him and back to the Apothecary.

That way Snake-Child, turn here.

Harry ducked down the ally his new friend indicated only to find it a dead end. What do I do now? He was whining in a panic. This wasn't the wall he had gone over earlier; it was just the side of an old brick building with a fire escape. Tears of fear were filling Harry's eyes again as he looked behind him to see the vampire's working their way steadily through the crowd.

Jump up to the last window on the right, it leads back to our alley.

Harry looked back at the building and jumped, but nothing happened, he just fell back on his butt. He tried again really pulling on his fear trying to reign in his magic, but again he just fell down. Now he was really panicking, and out of desperation he darted over to the rain gutter and tried to climb up it.

The old metal groaned under the weight of the little boy; and likewise Harry groaned as the metal bit into his hands. Carefully, he continued up, wishing, praying that he could be lighter and better equipped for climbing. As he came to another brace he stopped for a moment to get a better grip, and slowly found his hand turning to a small, black paw. He reached out and took a tighter hold on the pipe. From around his neck he could hear a discontented hiss, as his new friend was forced to tighten her hold on the shrinking boy. Harry scurried up the drain pipe to the window quickly now and dumped through the falsely solid looking glass. He landed on the other side in a familiar back alley, only a few yards away from the gap where he had seen the blond boy earlier that day.

Relief washed over him, and he could feel his body changing back. Happily, he ran down his alley scooping up Grizzle as he came to him. Harry approached the Apothecary door silently and opened it with caution. The back room was empty of all persons and the door to the shop was still closed. With a wide smile the black-haired boy slipped back into the room and walked over to his mattress completely unaware that his skin was striped and he bore a rather distinctive mask around his eyes.