So I know I haven't written forever. My muses have moved on to (according to them) bigger, better fandoms. Well, probably not bigger. Anyhow, I miss the Harry Potter fandom and I know you guys might miss me (or am I just being egotistical?). Mostly I just feel guilty for not updating in forever. So this chapter was written with some extremely uncooperative muses. A bit forced? Maybe. I know I sat down at least three times to force out this chapter and got little done with each attempt (not to mention today when I did get something done, my comper died four times when I was in the middle of writing; thankfully, I'm a frequent saver). I hope you all like it just the same. And on to the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

::Mindspeech::

-Parseltongue-

Chapter Nineteen: Eye of the Storm

There was silence.

It was the awkward type of silence where one usually had to fight the urge to fidget uncomfortably and yet Snape wondered if he was the only one who noticed it. Of course Slytherins simply did not fidget and so Snape sat still.

Fidget.

No, Draco seemed to notice the looming atmosphere as well. His student was alternating between eating another bite of his breakfast, sitting perfectly still, playing absentmindedly with his silverware, and staring at either his Head of House or Potter.

And Potter himself seemed perfectly comfortable, leaning back casually in his seat and quietly humming a song that Snape didn't recognize. Presently he leaned forward and whispered something in Draco's ear, causing the Slytherin to choke on the pumpkin juice he had just raised to his mouth. Potter leaned back, grinning, as Draco spluttered and stared wildly around at Potter, the slightly transparent ward-snake wrapped around his shoulders (how long had she been there?), and then around the room.

"You serious?" He wheezed out finally, after he had managed to clear the pumpkin juice from his windpipe. His voice was quiet and smothered in the silence, or maybe he subconsciously kept his voice down because of it.

"'Course I am," Potter said in a jokingly offended tone of voice.

"But…How?"

Potter shrugged,

"Just another one of those things, I guess."

"He's not…" Draco said weakly, gesturing towards Snape, who frowned, obviously missing something.

"No, I don't think so…But he's Slytherin Head so…Or it might be from his family."

"You don't even know?"

"Oh come on…You were there longer than I and, anyways, I don't know very much about what I agreed to when we did that. But it's only every fifty years or so and he's not that old."

And again there was silence, Draco seemingly accepting these words as Snape puzzled over them. But then again, there was no reason to care about anything Potter said…

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"I can't believe it," Draco grumbled as he followed Harry towards their room, "In your whole entire retelling you never once told me that this house used to belong to you."

"Never came up," Harry said casually, not really caring, "I told you everything else, though. I think."

"You sure?"

"Of course not. But I'll tell you anything that I forgot if it ever comes up." They stopped in front of the picture that guarded their rooms.

"Ah, right," Harry said, somewhat sheepishly, "Draco, this is my mother. Mother, this is Godric Gryffindor, though he is going by the name Draco Malfoy."

Draco looked at him blankly,

"You just forgot to mention…"

"Yes, I did," and there was a tone in his voice that made Draco drop the subject.

"So this is the Gryffindor heir," Salazar's mother interrupted smoothly, "The one you were friends with?"

"Yes," Harry said in the same frosty tone that he had used on Draco.

"Now don't talk to me like that," the portrait chided, "I can't believe that he's been living in my room for over a month and you never thought to introduce him."

Harry muttered something along the lines of 'sorry' 'tired' and 'long night' that even Draco, who was standing right to him, had a hard time understanding.

"Anyways, I think that I'm going to collapse onto bed for a couple hours until I have to come out for lunch. Or, if Snape ignores me for long enough, dinner."

"Hey…" Draco started, but Harry had already gone inside, "Hey, Sal…" he tried again, following Harry into their room.

"What?" Harry snapped and then paused, "I'm sorry. Tired. Going to bed. If I talk to you again now, I don't know what I'll end up saying."

And that was that. Harry didn't quite lock him out, but Draco thought that he'd let his friend have some time to himself for a while. As Draco understood it, the other boy had had a long, stressful day and no chance to sleep (not to mention the sheer amount of magic he had used in that time period). While he knew that Salazar had been able to withstand much worse, after so long his patience got understandably frayed and he was difficult to deal with. The Gryfindor-reincarnated-Slytherin wondered off, determined to have a nice conversation with his familiar about how low the standards of their school had sunken in the last couple hundred years.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Lunch was almost as awkward as breakfast, or even more so. Snape was ignoring the others in favor of his food and portions' journal and Harry estimated that, by dinner, he probably wouldn't bother showing up. Certainly Harry's own cheerfulness was starting to feel rather forced but at least Draco was responding more now, instead of just fidgeting.

The wards tingled suddenly as magic flared to life just outside of them. A Portkey or apparation; there was no way of telling which with such little magic.

-No threat,- Ther hissed into his ear, -It is one of Dumbledore's silly little light children. The wolf.- Harry jumped a bit, not having noticed her enter through the wall behind him. He knew why she had been so quiet about it, though; all the snakes in the manor were careful about being noticed, now that Snape could understand them. Harry had already given a large gathering of them a stern lecture about their behavior around the other Parseltongue (Snape's abilities to understand Parseltongue being unlocked with the release of his memories) and those who had been present spread the word to the immobile ones (mostly statues and the guardians of certain doors and passages that couldn't abandon their stations).

"I'll get it," he declared, jumping to his feet. He then grabbed Draco and ran off, eager to be away from the awkward feeling. Three quick shortcuts later and they were at the front entrance, Draco grumbling his protests.

Opening the door, he faked a look of surprise when he saw Remus approaching the castle,

"Remus!" or wait…hadn't he been calling the werewolf "Professor Lupin" in this time? Well, he figured Remus wouldn't mind so it didn't really matter as long as nobody really noticed any major attitude differences.

"Harry," Remus looked surprised and hurried his pace, reaching the door rather quickly, "It's good to see you again...but shouldn't Severus be answering his own door?"

"Probably," Harry agreed, "but he's back there somewhere," he made a vague flapping motion back the way he had come, "He'll be here in a couple minutes." Remus sighed but seemed to decide against the lecture on safety risks. Harry had heard enough of them from other people, anyways (but then he really hadn't, when he thought about it, just "Stay in the house and don't talk to any strange men in Death Eater clothing" – the Order's security really was rather lax).

"Well then…Happy belated birthday. I'm sorry I couldn't send you something but I did bring you this," he handed Harry a wrapped box and Harry ignored the red and gold wrapping paper in favor of being genuinely pleased, "but you should hold onto it for a while; we have a lot to do today."

"'We'?" Harry asked.

"Dumbledore agreed to let me take you to Diagon Alley for a couple days as his own belated birthday gift for you. So for the next few days we're free to do whatever you want…within limits, of course. We can get you your school things and your apparation license as well…So how about it; do you want to come?"

"Of course! This is great! Only…" he trailed off, looking hopeful, "Can Draco come to? 'Cause it's his birthday only I didn't get him a gift 'cause I couldn't go anywhere. Please? I promise he'll be good!" When Remus didn't immediately reply, he grabbed Draco, "Come on, give him that look."

"What look?" Draco asked, bemused.

"You know, that one you get when you want something from…When you want something. And that one that looks like a kicked puppy when they refuse?

Draco looked almost scandalized, his pureblood heritage in both lives dictating that he act offended,

"I don't look like a kicked puppy!"

"Do so," Harry replied, sticking his tongue out.

"Do not," Draco insisted, "Potter."

"Malfoy."

"Slytherin!"

"Griffie!"

"Don't care, Slytherin, Slytherin, Slytherin!"

Remus's laughter cut off any retort that Draco might have had (bound to be childish by both the level of maturity of the previous statements and his pout),

"Let's not waste our time fighting. Ah, there's Severus." Harry and Draco turned around to look and sure enough, their professor was behind them looming in a way that made Harry want to act the part of the guilty student (which was just weird after knowing Snape as a student and having so many memories of being a teacher himself).

"Potter!" the Potions Professor snapped, "Never do that again! Do you fully comprehend how dangerous it is to run up to the entrance way? What if it had not been Mr. Lupin here and you had just let in a group of Death Eaters through the last barrier in the wards?!?" Apparently, Snape had decided to take up Remus's neglected role as lecturer.

It was slightly insulting that Snape would think that Harry would make a simple mistake like that even after he knew that Harry wasn't totally incompetent at such things but he swallowed his anger. After all, Snape seemed to think that that whole time period was an elaborate hoax. Well, fine. Noticing that his thoughts were heading towards petulancy, he pulled himself back to the present and tried to act suitably chastised in response to Snape's berating. Draco muffled a laugh (though it was probably more at his disbelief at Harry's sincerity than any lack of acting skills on the former-Slytherin's part). Harry swatted him, breaking his efforts to look apologetic. It wasn't like they would have been very successful - Snape had known Harry's father, after all.

Snape looked ready to start ranting on safety again but Remus cut him off,

"Now, Severus, it's too nice of a day to start lecturing them on something they've probably heard several times before."

"And it's my birthday," Draco muttered petulantly, "No lecturing on my birthday." It was Harry's turn to muffle a laugh, though Draco just ignored him with a haughty air.

"Yes, there is that," Remus smiled, "And that was something I wanted to talk to you about. Dumbledore has agreed to let me take Harry to Diagon Alley for four days and Harry has requested that Mr. Malfoy - sorry, um..." He paused, apparently not sure if it was still proper to call him that.

"Draco works," Draco filled in for him.

"Thank you. As I was saying, Harry had requested that Draco comes along as something of a birthday gift. This seems perfectly acceptable if we take the same precautions with him as we'll be taking with Harry in terms of glamour and protection spells. All that is left is to notify Dumbledore and ask your acceptance of this plan, as you are acting as something of a temporary guardian to Draco, correct?"

Snape took a second to brood on it,

"Is Potter to cheap to buy Draco a real present?" Both former Founders made noises of protests but he continued over them, "The plan seems acceptable. I leave Draco's well-being as your responsibility, then. Dumbledore's phoenix..." Again, Draco made a noise of protest. This time it was not ignored; Snape paused and looked at Draco. Draco made a gesture to continue, though he had a strange look on his face. "As I was saying, Dumbledore's phoenix is temporarily residing here with Potter and should be able to deliver your message."

Within ten minutes it was all set up and Harry, Draco, and Remus were on their way to the apparation point some distance from the castle entrance at a leisurely pace. Harry, still slightly annoyed, was mimicking Snape's final words in several different voices - mostly high falsettos (he'd already spent the five minutes prior attacking and finding flaws in the logic of everything that the Potions Professor had said and had once again degraded to childishness).

Draco was becoming slightly annoyed, not to mention uncomfortable with the bashing of his Head of House. Of course he was angry at the man for being closed-minded and slightly cruel to his best friend (the Gryffindor part of him was especially enraged at the slight to his friend - but also knew he had no room to talk) this was also the man that had taken care of Draco for the majority of his Hogwarts years and then some. He and Harry need to have a talk about how they felt about the current Slytherin Head of House and then he could decide to be righteously angry at the Potions Master.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it already," Draco said, rolling his eyes, "You don't like the guy." There was a flicker of something in Harry's eyes and he had an air about him that said he was about to correct Draco but he didn't say anything. "Anyways," Draco added in a slightly lower voice, "Um...I thought he was, you know, kind of mad at you," Harry gave a laugh at the understatement, though there was no joy in it, "So why did he agree so fast?"

"'Cause it's you," Harry said as if it should have been obvious, "He might be mad at me, but why would he deny you happiness. He doesn't think that you might have been in on the 'joke'. And, anyways," he added as an afterthought, "There's no need to whisper, Remus can hear everything we say." The werewolf's posture stiffened ever-so-slightly but Harry didn't clarify and there were no further remarks hinting at Remus's secret.

"It's like chaperoning a group of first years, I suppose," Draco said thoughtfully, "Even when they try and keep their voices low, I can hear everything they say. Not that I want to...Well, you know..." And Harry did know; Salazar himself had been a teacher and the Head of Slytherin.

"I assure you that everything you say interests me greatly," Remus said, "Though that was probably the wrong thing to say. And I'm sure that I, at least, know that feeling, having been a teacher for a while. I'm not sure if Harry would know the feeling, not having been a prefect; though he did teach for some time."

"Hmm...Oh yeah, that's right! You were a prefect, weren't you Draco?" Harry said, adding rather unnecessarily, "One of Slytherin's."

"Stop it," Draco pouted, "It's my birthday. No being mean to me on my birthday."

"Very mature," Harry complimented. Draco stuck his tongue out at him.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Wooooow," Harry spun around, amusing himself with the bright blurs of color it created in his vision (Diagon Alley couldn't be called anything if not colorful), "I never get over how big and crowded this place is!" The best part was, of course, that in his acting, he didn't have to give any thought to his own reputation since they were all hiding under various glamour charms. Since they looked nothing like themselves and even had to try and play their various roles (Remus as a parent or guardian while Harry and Draco were supposedly muggleborn students; fourth years or so, it actually helped not to be incredibly tall for once) they could behave as outrageously as they wanted, so long as they didn't draw too much attention to themselves.

"Stop that," Draco tried to grab Harry but the green-eyed boy just spun out of the way, "You're making me dizzy."

Harry stuck his tongue out at him but stopped so abruptly that he lost his balance and nearly fell down,

"Whooo…spiiiiining…Anyways," he continued, regaining his original volume and enthusiasm, "What's first? I've got to get aaaall my school stuff and I need to take my apparation test and we probably need to get somewhere to sleep and we need to do something for Draco's birthday and…Um…Probably other stuff, too…"

"Sal? Shut up. Now." Draco didn't seem to share his enthusiasm but he was still smiling.

"Rooms were arranged ahead of time in the Leaky Cauldron and Dumbledore assured me that another bed would be added to one of the rooms," Remus said helpfully, "And while I'd usually suggest getting all the necessary things for school out of the way first, why don't we just look around and celebrate Draco's birthday? After all, that's only today."

"Great! Where do you want to go then?" Harry asked Draco.

Draco shrugged,

"Don't care."

"Choose," Harry demanded.

"Doesn't matter, you choose."

"Choose," Harry repeated, "It's your birthday."

"I really don't…" Draco started to say but Harry cut him off with a look, "Fine. Um…Bookstore?"'

Harry laughed,

"R'ena would approve. Bookstore it is then!" He grabbed Draco's arm and dragged him off towards the nearest (and biggest) bookstore, Flourish and Blott's.

The rest of the day was spent wondering around Diagon Alley, buying what they wanted and pretending not to see various Order members following them around. Harry had even suggested at some point that they venture into Muggle London but was shot down by Remus who had said Dumbledore had forbidden that they leave Diagon Alley. They had gotten a lot of Harry's school shopping done along the way but had also been able to get they wanted; a book of pranks with a couple of other books sneaked in as well from the bookstore, a handful of potions ingredients more than the standard set that would be useful more in potions for pranks and other things from the apothecary, and little amulet for Draco (Harry later confessed that it was worthless in all but it's nice looks before he had layered on a couple of rather nice little protective charms and other 'special features' he refused to name) from a little store near the ice cream shop. Anything else that they might eventually need, Harry wanted to get without drawing Remus's or their guards' attentions (and, anyways, he'd already gotten most of that on his trip to Diagon Alley earlier that summer).

The next morning, Harry awoke to find an owl with a letter at his window. The letter said that his OWLs were delayed because Professor McGonagall had needed some time to convince Snape to let Harry into his class (though there was no way that Snape had agreed recently so the letter must have been quite old; after all, all McGonagall had probably needed to do was go to Dumbledore and have him make Snape accept Harry into the Potions class). Looking at his grades, he found he didn't really care what he'd gotten (all decent grades except History, though there was a side-note that there had been some sort of interruption), though he was slightly disappointed to see that he'd gotten and EE in potions rather than an O. Of course, Harry hadn't had any reason to do better at the time. The letter also said that he didn't have to do the homework, as the letter had come so late, but Harry ignored it and did the assignment anyways. Of course Snape would find it a good reason to pick on him in class if he didn't do the first assignment.

Their other three days in Diagon Alley passed rather similarly to the first. On the second day, Remus picked up a packet from the small, official-looking shop next to Gringotts where most students took their apparation tests before continuing where they'd left off the previous day and finishing Harry's school shopping. Instead of spending the late afternoon and night studying it like he was supposed to, Harry snuck off with Draco to Knockturn Alley. On the third day, Harry cram-studied and easily passed the written portion of the Apparation testing and then passed the physical part of the test on his first try. He was forced to practice a few times to make sure that the first time wasn't a fluke and left the office in something like record time, then heading off to eat an early lunch. Remus stayed in his room working on something for most of that day, though he did treat Harry to congratulatory ice cream. On the fourth day, nothing very eventful happened and at the end of the day, they packed up the little they had brought and everything they had bought and headed back to Snape Manor.

Though they hadn't truly been busy, in the four days that they had spent together Harry had not found time to approach the werewolf about his forgotten memories.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

It was actually a little strange, Harry mused while staring out the window of the Hogwarts Express, that the only place that he had been consistently attacked for the past five years was one of the only ones where the Order considered it safe for him to go without a guard. Not that it really mattered; he could take care of himself. Still, the Order of the Phoenix's backwards way of thinking still grated on his nerves even as he was grateful at the reprieve (they were, after all, supposedly in charge of his safety; if they were going to watch his every movement, he preferred they at least do an adequate job of it).

Worse, he didn't even have company, as Draco had been sent ahead to Hogwarts…for his own safety, of course. And while it was true that Death Eater children might try and ambush the Slytherin, the same could be said for Harry. Whoever thought that there might be safety in numbers didn't take into account that Draco would likely stick with Harry, thought they did seem to take into account that if Draco had been with Harry, Harry would be less likely to interact with the Gryffindors. Which was completely untrue.

Snape had abandoned his duties at the last minute, leaving Harry waiting for the Hogwarts Express two hours early while the Professor and Draco went ahead to Hogwarts. At least the train was there that early (trains weren't that common as transportation for wizards and witches so there wasn't really anywhere else for it to be). Harry had chosen the furthest car that he could find from the Gryffindors' usual and had until then to figure out how to avoid them as long as possible (or, alternatively, how to act towards them). And, of course, since he was sure Dumbledore knew that Snape was coming early, Dumbledore might try and have the Weasleys arrive early as well. Having stayed with the family for several summers, however, Harry knew that this was unlikely to happen.

There were also several ways that he could avoid the Gryffindors. He would just lock the door but Harry rather thought that one of the prefects that would start patrolling the train could force it open at any time (it must be against some rule or another, especially with the slightly upgraded security). And if they didn't, of course there was the occasional teacher that did a quick check of the train before going back to wherever it was that they were staying. He could always hide with another group of students and hope to be overlooked or even use some basic Muggle disguise but there was a total of three or four other students there already and the largest already existing group was of two. The most obvious choice would, of course, to shapeshift so that none of his 'friends' would be able to recognize him but there were flaws in that plan as well. Patrolling teachers might panic upon not being able to find the boy-who-lived or might be suspicious of older students that they'd never seen before.

In the end, he decided to combine all these options. Harry spent over an hour reading, until a crowd started to gather (keeping an eye on the window the whole time in case Weasley family did appear early). He locked the door and hung a couple spare cloaks over the glass so nobody could see into it, arranged some cloths to make it seem (in the dimly-lit compartment) like he was sleeping, and slipped out into the mass of students. Free of his trunk (he felt safe leaving it in the compartment since he was sure that nobody would be able to open it but him), he moved quickly in the multitude of students bogged down by their own luggage. Upon reaching the bathroom, he secured a stall for himself and shapeshifted inside it. Now looking like a first-year version of Evan Harrison with summoned robes (plain with no house symbol; he was supposedly a first year, after all, and had yet to be sorted), he left, locking the stall behind him. There was always the convenient of excuse of 'I left to go to the bathroom' if he was ever questioned and an occupied stall paired with a missing student wasn't so suspicious.

Quite cheerful now that he could leave the name Harry Potter behind him, 'Evan' went off in search of camouflage. This he found in the shape of a small group of first years who had banded together against the strangeness of leaving their old surroundings behind. He was delighted to find, not only Muggle born students, but pureblood ones as well, and not only those in the 'bloodtraitor' category. In fact, within the group of six people, Harry was sure that at least two were potential Slytherins. The separation between houses, then, was largely carried out after the sorting ceremony rather than before; this was good to know.

Within the small group, Evan quickly became something of an authority figure, soothing the worries of the others (after all, why would he worry about the sorting when he'd already gone through it…twice) and drawing the topics conversation away from the school. He wasn't the only one with this position, though he was the calmest of the three. A bossy blond kid that Evan had already labeled a probable Ravenclaw shared the knowledge about the school that he had gained from his older sister. The last person was a friendly girl that he had labeled a Gryffindor or Hufflepuff (he was leaning towards Hufflepuff) who boldly declared it didn't matter which house they put her in, she'd still remain friends with the whole group. The two possible Slytherins, for all that could be said about Slytherin ambition and pride, seemed happy being comforted and didn't try for any sort of position of authority.

Finally, when their conversation had been interrupted for the third time by various people searching for Harry Potter, Evan excused himself. Though he was sure that they would be suspicious when he failed to come back and was absent for the opening feast, he could think of no good excuse to give and just hoped that none of them would mention him. He winced as he imagined someone asking Snape why 'Evan Harrison' wasn't at the feast. He had never directly claimed to be a first year, anyways; hopefully they would assume he was a second or third year when he didn't show up.

He went to the bathroom first, managing to unobtrusively slip into the stall that he had locked, shapeshift back to the Harry Potter everyone was familiar with, and make his way back to the compartment where he had left his stuff. As expected, it had been forced open and the makeshift dummy that he had made out of spare cloths had been taken apart by someone. Also expected (but rather unpleasant) was the large group of people awaiting his return.

"There you are!" Hermione exclaimed once she noticed him, "Where have you been?! We've been looking all over for you!" The others (Ron, Ginny, Luna, and Neville) were quiet, though Ginny dropped the book she had been reading.

Well, hellooo awkwardness, Harry thought, slightly thrown off guard, I knew there was something I was forgetting. The last person he had expected to see when he walked into the compartment was one of the other reincarnated Founders, let alone two of them. Of course he shouldn't have been so surprised; they were all somewhere at Hogwarts, he had been pretty sure of that. Who they were, the reincarnated Slytherin hadn't been so sure until he met them face-to-face. By Ginny's shock, he easily deduced that she fully remembered who he was (but probably hadn't drawn the connection until the moment that she saw him). Luna, however, seemed unaffected and (thought it was a lot harder to tell with her) Harry didn't think that she remembered him yet.

"I've been in the bathroom," Harry replied innocently. The best way to react in this situation was not to react and trust Helga's reincarnation not to make a scene. He wasn't that worried; as long as she could keep her head together, common sense dictated the rest. Now the problem was how was she going to react when they were alone and how was he going to react back? He wasn't ready for a confrontation so soon after his arrival in the school. Hopefully they wouldn't be able to talk for some time, giving him a chance to mentally prepare. Now, if Luna also had her memories, he was sure that both of them together could trap him for a confrontation rather easily. Rowena's birthday had been in the fall but there was always a possibility that Luna had received her memories the year before.

"The bathroom?" Hermione asked and Harry recognized the tone of voice that said she was about to go on a ranting spree, "You spent over half an hour…We were worried sick about you? Why didn't you tell anybody you were going to the bathroom?"

"Look, I could hardly say 'Hey random first year, if someone comes and asks for Harry Potter, tell them that I'm in the bathroom.'" Harry protested, "And I didn't see anybody that I knew..."

"And just how long were you in there?" Hermione asked sternly.

"Um…A long time? Look, it's the only place that I can go that I know random guards won't follow me around," Harry said, trying to act passably sheepish.

"Honestly," Hermione sighed, "Those guards are there for your own good. If you just hide from them all the time…" She lectured Harry for some time before Ron cut her off, only to start bragging about his own accomplishments.

Hermione would later say that, during the train ride, Harry was 'distracted' and spent a lot of time looking out the window. It would have been closer to the truth to say that he was actively ignoring the other Gryffindors. Though he probably would have been okay with talking to Luna, she was talking to Ginny, who he was also avoiding. He did manage to strike up conversation with Neville at some point, only to be constantly interrupted by Ron and Hermione. In the end, he gave up and pretended to sleep while imagining ways to make Ron shut up, starting with 'harmless' pranks and ending in some rather nasty spells and potions.

The sun was fully set when they finally reached Hogsmeade station. Harry was at the end of his patience and Ginny could tell. The Slytherin-Gryffindor was amused to notice that she kept giving him nervous looks as though she expected him to blow up any second. The ride in the carriages was mostly uneventful. Harry had been nervous but there wasn't as much as a whisper from the wards; apparently Draco had been true to his word and had forced them to give up on harming the reincarnated Slytherin.

"But that's strange," Draco had said, "I know we modified them to not attack you if they saw you. We were looking for you at the time so it would have been really pointless if you showed up only for them to kill you."

As they approached the castle, the usually enthusiastic bustle of the students was replaced with an almost gloomy-feeling solemnity. Even Ron shut up when he realized everyone was too distracted to care what he said, which was definitely a good thing. Harry was fully ready to show some of his 'true colors' (if not his true identity) to the school just for the sake of not having to listen to Ron any more. Most likely at the feast; if it was going to be dramatic anyways, why not make it a show?

Ahead of them, the giant doors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry loomed open, golden candlelight illuminating the outline of the great arches with a dramatic flair.

He was finally home. Now he had to wait and see what would happen there.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

So...Yeaaaaah. I know it's been forever. And not much exciting stuff happened in this chapter. Sorry, sorry, the next chapter will be very good, promise! Also very sorry for the semi-cliffhanger but it's actually hard to stop at a place that isn't a cliffhanger. Will try and update again soon (I have some of the first part written) but I've heard rumors from my brother that my dad plans to take away my computer privileges...Well, whatever happens happens. Thank you all for putting up with me.

On other news, Tainted Betrayal is discontinued, possibly to be rewritten and continued sometime in the distant future (though I really wouldn't count on it). Sorry everyone and, again, thanks for your kind support of my story! Please review