A/N Three chapters in a week, I'm on a roll. Standard disclaimer, I own nothing and make no money

Ch.11

The next morning found Harry looking better than he had in weeks. The dark circles that had formed under his eyes had vanished and his complexion was back to its normal hue. "I guess I just needed a really good night sleep." He told Susan when she commented on it in the morning.

"Well I'm glad you're feeling better." Susan replied. "Now let's get to breakfast. I want to finish early and send a letter to auntie."

"Ok, let's use Hedwig this time. She hasn't had a delivery for a while and would probably appreciate the work."

Susan nodded and they made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. When they entered the Great Hall, all conversation seemed to stop all at once and all eyes turned to look at Harry as he made his way to the Hufflepuff table for breakfast only restarting again once they had taken their seats.

"What was that all about?" Harry asked Justin who had already been in the hall.

Justin wouldn't look at Harry but focused on his half empty plate and seemed to not want to be the one to tell Harry something. Susan started to get a sinking suspicion as to what everyone was saying.

"They think Harry petrified Filch's cat don't they Justin." She asked him.

Justin nodded still not looking at the three. "I think it was started by one of the Gryffindor boys. The red head second year Weasley I think. He started saying that it must have been Harry since he was the only one not at the feast and also he had just gotten into trouble from Filch a few days ago. The Slytherins had no trouble picking up the rumor and spreading it around; they seem to take delight in spreading any sort of bad rumors when it involves Harry. I don't think the Ravenclaws believe it. We have most of our classes with them and they know Harry fairly well. And you know the Puffs are all behind you."

"Thanks Justin," Harry said though he did look depressed as he stared at his plate pushing the food around not eating. After Susan and Hannah had eaten their fill they got up from the table and headed out for the owlry with Harry. On their walk Susan noticed that Harry still looked rather depressed as more whispers followed him and students eyed him with suspicion.

With the letter sent Harry turned to leave when Susan stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Harry what's wrong. You shouldn't let those idiots bother you like this."

"I know Suzy, but what if their right? I might have been the one to attack Mrs. Norris. I have read about times were people sleep walk and do things that they later never remember. I know I went to sleep in my bed and woke up again with the Professors, but what if something happened that I don't remember?"

"Well, we can always check your wand to see if you did anything. Connie told me about a spell that can show the last spells that a wand performed. She uses it during her investigations. We can check it since we both haven't used our wands much outside of class our spells should match up."

"That's a great idea Suzy." Harry exclaimed perking up. He quickly pulled out his wand and handed it to Susan.

"Ok, Connie said that you put the tips together like this," She put her wand and Harry's wand tip to tip "and the spell is Prior Incantato." With that Harry's wand started to emit a series of spells. "Hannah, can you write them down for us?"
"Sure Sue" She took out a piece of parchment and quill and started to list the spells that came out of Harry's wand. None of them were out of the ordinary and all of them were spells that they had practiced in class the day before.

"Now we do the same thing on my wand and see if they match up, if you would do the honors Harry." Susan said with a smile handing him both of their wands. Harry repeated the process and spells started to appear out of Susan's wand. For the most part they matched up with Harry's wand. There were a few spells that Susan had used in the morning while getting ready that were used by girls but other than that the spells matched up.

"There you see, you did no magic last night that could have caused Mrs. Norris's condition." Susan said with confidence. She was happy to see Harry's mood rise a bit after this little test and he started to smile again. "Now since its Sunday, how about we head back to the common room and I can kick your butt in a game of Chess." Harry nodded and the three of them headed back to the Hufflepuff common room.

HC

Monday came around and with it a pair of Aurors. They spent a few minutes examining the spot where Mrs. Noris was found and then another examining the cat herself. When they finished with their investigation they made their way out of the school. By chance Susan, Harry, and Hannah were present in the Entry Hall as they were leaving. Susan didn't recognize either of the Aurors her auntie had sent so the three of them continued on their way to dinner. As they passed they caught a bit of the conversation.

"I'm sorry we couldn't find anything Headmaster. There was no trace of magic around the spot other than the ward to keep the words there. Unfortunately they were done with runes and whoever powered the rune scheme didn't leave enough residual magic to get a good reading on the magical signature. We were able to remove the wards so you should be able to clean off the wall now. Please let us know immediately if anything else happens. We will keep you updated on the investigation on our end." The lead auror shook hands with the Headmaster and left the castle.

Harry, Susan and Hannah entered the Great Hall for dinner and Susan could still see many eyes turning to stare at Harry. Even after their talk yesterday Susan could tell that Harry was still feeling dejected about the whole situation.

HC

Two weeks after Halloween Harry Susan and Hannah were walking out of the Great Hall after lunch when they heard a familiar drawing voice. "Look lads, it's the Heir. Better alert the mudbloods that he's on the move so they can cower in fear. We wouldn't want any harm to come to them now would we?" Susan turned around to see Draco Malfoy and a group of his Slytherin Groupies following behind them. Harry gave Malfoy a flat stare, shrugged his shoulders and turned to leave ignoring Malfoy.

The Blonde ponce didn't seem to like his taunt being ignored and decided on a different tact. "I don't see how anybody could think that the Heir of the Great Salazar Slytherin would be sorted into the house full of loser and castoffs."

Susan could tell that Harry was starting to get angry at that remark. He and everyone in their year had been working hard to erase the stigmatism that Hufflepuff House has been labeled with over the years. They were currently ranked a close second in the House cup and if Sprouts hints could be believed were doing almost as well as most Ravenclaws on the combined House grades. Malfoy wasn't done yet though as Harry still had yet to respond to his taunts. "I can't wait to play your team in Quidditch this year. I don't know if you heard but you're looking at the Starting Seeker. The team just couldn't wait to have me on their team after tryouts. Montague said that I could have played last year if not for the ridiculous rule against first years playing."

"Is that so Malfoy?" Harry said speaking for the first time. "Then why is it that your daddy had to go and buy the whole team brand new brooms. I heard last year's Seeker in the library complaining how you would need a third and a fourth arm to have any chance of catching the Snitch." By now a small crowed had formed around the group watching the confrontation. "Now the Hufflepuff team all earned their spots through pure talent and when we beat you, and we will, everyone will see that whiney babies shouldn't always get their way. Now if you will excuse me, but I have left things in the toilet that are more pleasant to be around then you."

When the three Hufflepuffs turned to leave Susan got a brief glance at Malfoys face as it went from white to red in quick succession. When they started walking a bolt of colored light rushed past her head missing her by a good foot. Susan quickly turned around to find she was not the only one as Harry had his wand out and trading hexes with Malfoy. The crowed quickly backed up as the two second years fought. Harry was hit with a tickling jinx that made him double over in laughter but not before he hit Malfoy with the jinx that caused his feet to do a sort of tap dance.

Both boys were able to cancel the others jinx fairly quickly and returned to fighting. Malfoy sneered at Harry as he drew back his wand and cried out Serpensortia conjuring a deadly looking black snake. The snake though instead of heading for Harry started to slither towards the crowed. Harry looked panicked for a second as the snake bared down on Hermione Granger who was standing in the front of the crowed trying to stop the fight. Harry started to walk up to the snake calmly and while looking right at it began to hiss.

Susan couldn't have been more surprised if her aunt had shown up right that minute and declared her love for Dumbledore. She had never heard Harry speak to a snake before and he never mentioned it. The snake turned towards Harry and looked at him then back at Hermione. Finally when the snake was only about a foot away from Hermione Harry knelt down and put his hand out and the snake slithered up and around his arm. Harry looked up at Hermione with a large smile not noticing the stunned silence of the crowd around him.

He did seem to notice the look of horror on Hermione's face when he looked up from the snake and then looked around to see the stunned silence. He turned to Susan and Hannah with a confused expression. "I'm just going to take this little guy outside to the forest. He is a bit overwhelmed with all the people and got a bit scared." Harry made his way to the doors as the crowed parted like the Red Sea with Susan and Hannah close on his heels. They passed by the Headmaster and a few teachers on their way to investigate the disturbance but they paid them no mind as the emerged onto the school grounds.

When the three of them got outside Susan grabbed Harry's arm thankfully the one without the snake on it to get him to stop walking. "Harry, why didn't you tell us you can speak Parslemouth?" Susan looked to Hannah for help but she was standing a few feet away looking a little scared now. Susan shot her a glare.

"Well I've only done it once. I don't see what the big deal is; I bet there are loads of people who can do it."

"No theirs not." Hannah whispered. "It's very rare and considered a Dark Art. You-Know-Who was said to be the last Parselmouth." Susan looked back at Hannah and she could see the fear in her eyes. Harry must have seen the same thing because when he looked back at her he flinched and seemed to fold in on himself.

Hannah seemed to finally come to her senses after seeing the reaction from her friends. Giving herself a shake she came closer to Harry and threw her arms around him. "Oh Harry, I'm sorry I know you're not a bad person. I just let my fears and superstitions get the better of me. I'm not scared of you I promise, your still one of my best friends."

Harry looked relieved and returned Hannah's hug and Susan joined in. "But Harry this isn't going to help the rumors any. It's pretty well known that Slytherin was a Parselmouth and it's a hereditary trait."

Harry let out a resigned sigh. "You're probably right Suzy, let's go write Auntie and tell her what happened." After releasing the snake into the forest they made their way up to the Owlry where using a spare piece of paper Harry wrote a quick letter to Amelia. After finishing Hedwig flew down and he tied the note to her leg and she flew away. The trio spent the rest of the day together trying to avoid the rest of the school and the stares they knew would be there.

HC

Amelia was just sitting down to dinner when Hedwig flew in and landed in front of her. She relieved Hedwig of her burden and offered her some food and water. Hedwig started to drink as she unrolled the note and started to read it.

Dear Auntie,

I hope you having a nice weekend and not working too hard. Susan and I are fine and term is going well. Our first Quidditch game is going to be the last weekend in November against Ravenclaw and Cedric has been working us hard to get ready for it. The reason I am writing is because something weird happened today. After lunch Malfoy started to taunt me. I know I shouldn't have and I did a good job of ignoring him until he started insulting the whole Hufflepuff house. We traded barbs back and forth then Susan Hannah and I turned to leave when Malfoy tried to curse us from behind. We traded a few spells until he conjured a snake that instead of going after me, it went after a girl in the crowd. Without thinking about it I walked toward it and started to talk to it and persuaded it to come to me so I could release it outside in the forest. I've talked to snakes before and I didn't think it was a big deal but Susan and Hannah say that it's going to be bad. People already think I'm the one who attacked Mrs. Norris and now with this everyone will think I'm the Heir of Slytherin. I can't even honestly say that I'm not since I know so little about my family. Susan said that Parselmouth is a hereditary thing. Auntie I'm really worried about what's happening. What if I am responsible for this and I don't realize it. Hope everything is going well, give my love to Padfoot.

Love,

Harry

Amelia put down the note to think. Her first reaction was how happy Amelia was that Harry was able to confide his worries to her. It had been a long process for him to realize that there were people who cared about him and would listen to him. The next part made her worried. She knew how fast the Hogwarts rumor mill was and was sure that everyone at school would know about Harry talking to snakes by dinner. Combine that with the suspicion that Harry was responsible for the attack didn't help matters. Sighing to herself she put down the letter and ate her dinner in thought.

Things didn't add up in this case. There was no trace of magic on the cat and the words written on the wall spoke of the Chamber of Secrets. Like everyone else she thought it was a myth but she had to entertain the possibility that it wasn't a myth. She put it out of her mind for now because there was little to be found until more information could be found. Next she thought about what Harry said about not knowing his family history. She couldn't recall any connections that the Potters had with Slytherin. If you go back far enough all the old Pureblood families were related to one founder or the other so that really wasn't that big of a revelation. She added the a few questions to a growing list of questions she had for a particular werewolf and Sirius since he was back from rehab. They had made an appointment for brunch tomorrow and she would take the opportunity to talk to both men about it.

HC

The next morning Amelia and Sirius went to brunch in a small muggle café in South London. Sirius was finally able to track his old friend down who apparently had been living in the muggle world for the last 11 years. Amelia had thought a lot about how she wanted to ask Remus about the last decade and finally decided on the direct approach. They rounded the corner and saw Remus already waiting out front for them in a faded pair of jeans and an old looking flannel shirt. His clothes didn't look to bad but they were well worn.

When he noticed Sirius walking up he got a big smile on his face at seeing his old friend free and looking healthy and he walked forward to meet them. Amelia had thought to hold off on the, for lack of a better word interrogation until they were inside eating but she didn't count on the Marauders impulsiveness. No sooner had Remus come with in arms reach then Sirius drew back his fist and punched his old friend right in the nose. Even with his enhanced strenght Remus still ended up sprawled on the ground.

"What the hell Padfoot. I haven't seen you in 10 years and this is how you great me?"

"I'm the one supposed to ask that question Moony. What the hell happened to you? You were supposed to look after Harry if I was unable to fulfill my duties. Care to tell me why Prongs Jr. has no idea who you are and knows next go nothing about his parents?"

"What was I supposed to do? You know very well that werewolves are not allowed to be guardians. Besides Dumbledore said that he was sending him to live with his family and it would be better to grow up outside of our world. I asked to be allowed to visit him but Dumbledore said that it was better for Harry that I stay away and let his family look after him and tell him about his parents."

Sirius nodded in understanding. He had been taken in by the manipulative bastard as well. He reached down and gave Moony a hand up. Sirius looked like he was going to start asking questions again but Amelia figured it would be better to talk over food and out of the cold. "How about we continue this discussion inside shall we?"

The two men nodded and they entered the café where they ordered some brunch and tea. "So Remus, I can understand trusting Dumbledore but why did you not ever try to see Harry. Someone as smart as you should have had no trouble tracing down some muggles." Amelia asked

Remus glanced at her questioningly. "I'm sorry Madam Bones, but I'm not sure that is any of your business. I fail to see what your interest in Harry is."

"I took over his guardianship a little over a year ago now. I take it you aren't up to date with current events"

"What? What happened to the Dursleys? I haven't been taking the Prophet for over 10 years."

Amelia scowled at the mention of those foul people. "Those People are not fit to raise a gold fish. My Susan and I ran into Harry all alone at Kings Cross Station on the start of term last year. The poor boy was dressed in rags and looked malnourished and undersized. Not to mention the numerous scars on his back. Harry has been suffering from abuse from those people since the moment he was literally left on their door step."

Amelia felt a small feeling of gratification when she saw Remus pale at the mention of Harry's pre-Hogwarts life. "He said he would grow up happy and safe." He said in a near whisper. Remus took a drink from his tea and stared into the cup collecting his thoughts. "On Halloween night I thought I lost everything. Two of my best friends were betrayed by another one of my best friends who then went on to not only murder my last best friend but a street full of innocent people. Then when I tried to convince Dumbledore to let me look after Harry or even just be a part of his life, he denied me any contact with him. After that, I crawled into a bottle and stayed there for almost three years only staying lucid enough to remember to chain myself up on full moons so I wouldn't be a danger. I was found by an old vicar one day and he helped clean me up. He was even able to help me find a decent paying job that doesn't mind when I have to call in sick every full moon. By the time I was sober enough to want to track down Harry, I figured he was happy with his family and didn't need me in his life. I guess I was wrong."

Sirius looked over at his old friend and patted him on the shoulder. "I know how you feel Moony. When I found out how bad I failed Harry I felt so guilty. Still do in fact. But we have another chance and damn it we are going to make the best of it."

Amelia saw Remus give his friend a small smile and he turned back to Amelia. "Can you please tell me more about my pup?" Amelia gave him her first smile of the day and started to proudly tell him all about her adopted son.

A/N So Harry is starting to put some of the pieces together and Remus has made his first appearance. I have mixed feelings on Remus. I'm annoyed that he doesn't show up in Harry's life until his 3rd year and then he never really acts like a close family friend should throughout the rest of the books especially when Harry really could use someone to talk to after his 5th year. I've read a few stories that explain away Remus's absence as severe depression and turning to alcohol so I borrowed that idea and used it. Anyway thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it.