Author's Note: Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Little Gem

The sight of the scarlet Hogwarts Express magnificently gleaming in the sunlight made Harry exceedingly depressed. All of his year mates were excitedly boarding and chatting happily about their summer holiday plans, most notably who would receive invitations to Gemma Farley and Grant Montague's wedding or who had captured Narcissa Malfoy's attention and received a formal offer into the Pureblood social calendar. Harry hated it, hated them all with their cheerful smiles and excited whispers. Not a single one of them worried about anything more substantial than wedding gifts while Harry curled up in the corner of a compartment with Lorelei, silently memorizing his flash cards on runic meanings.

He envied Mandy's carefree smiles and Padma's exotic plans of exploring India with her twin. They surrounded Harry in a smothering atmosphere of potent happiness and it left him feeling sick and rather hateful. Even Nanette was planning on celebrating her O.W.L.S completion in Paris. The worst part was Harry found a part of himself wishing they would notice his glaring or his furious scowls – maybe even his frantic last minute study session. But they were all blinded by gay naivety and smiled rather fondly at his flashcards.

Oh Harry, they sighed fondly. At least sit by window and get some sun.

Harry couldn't help but wonder when the next time he would feel the sun on his skin would be. The protections he had prepared were for his cupboard. Outside that dark and spider ridden closet Harry would be defenseless. I won't leave you, Lorelei had promised the night before, curled up under the soft sky blue comforter with him. I'll protect you.

Now she was sprawled out on the seat, her massive front claws resting on Harry's thighs. His only comfort was now her affectionately nudging his cheek and hissing quietly in his ear. The wizards leave you to rot but I will eat the first human to touch you.

He couldn't reply in the crowded compartment but Harry leaned into her and rubbed his cheek against her. Honestly he hadn't considered Lorelei as a measure of protection in all his scheming in the last few months. She was his friend, his constant companion, and his confidant – but Harry hadn't thought of asking her to be his protector. Actually he hadn't even considered how the Dursley's would even react to a four and a half foot and almost eighty pound Skye Dragon. He secretly hoped the shock would cause their hearts to fail.

But Harry wouldn't stop her from attacking to protect him. She was the only one in his life to care about what happened to him and it only made Harry love her more. Though he probably should probably find some time to develop an anti-venom so that no murder charges were brought up. The transparent lilac venom Lorelei produced was a powerful toxin that slowly worked its way through body attacking the heart and nervous system. That was if the victim was lucky enough to escape Lorelei's powerful jaws. None of the smaller animals had ever survived a bite and Harry had only just been able to convince his friend to let a massive stag go after she had bitten it so that Harry could observe the effects. The pull to help Harry fought against her pull to hunt and she eventually relented to stalking the deer with him to learn about what her venom could do.

It was dusk when the train pulled into the Kings Cross station. The slight sting of losing the house cup to Slytherin was fully forgotten by his housemates as they pushed and shoved their way in eagerness to see their families. Harry waited until the rush of students had dwindled before he made his way off the train, his trunk in his pocket and Lorelei trailing beside him.

Dudley was the first to realize the monitor at Harry's side. The obese boy went ashen and clutched Petunia's arm and Petunia shook Vernon from his purple faced anger. Vernon went as red as the Hogwarts Express but didn't unleash his wrath until they got to the car, far away from the public eye.

"That thing is not coming." Harry's uncle spat viciously.

Lorelei hissed threateningly and the man took a step back. "That thing is my familiar," Harry explained. "Her name is Lorelei and she has to come. If you try to harm her more of my kind will come and then what would the neighbors think?"

That was a lie, nobody would come if Vernon somehow managed to harm or forced Harry to leave Lorelei behind. Vernon didn't know that though and the vein his forehead throbbed violently while he considered what to do. "Vernon," Petunia grabbed her husband's arm worriedly. "Maybe we should just lock it up with him. I don't want any more freaks around Dudders."

For a long moment Vernon glared at Lorelei and then it shifted to Harry with a malicious glint. "Fine. We'll see how long it takes to eat you."

Harry forced himself not to gulp at the implication. He had prepared himself to be locked up all summer, he could do this. Besides Lorelei could survive off the meat that Milly provided. It wouldn't be nearly as satisfying for her as an actual hunt in the Forbidden Forest but she wouldn't starve. That was the best Harry could do.

Getting Lorelei into the back of Vernon's new SUV turned into a struggle not to scratch the paint. None of the muggles helped, not that Harry had expected them to, but he struggled to support her weight so that she could climb in. Her claws left gouges in his hands but Harry shrugged off her worried hisses and made sure that her long tail was far out of the way before closing the hatch.

The ride was awkwardly and rigidly silent. Vernon glared at Harry through the rear view mirror the entire way back while Petunia fidgeted silently in the front seat. Dudley had some kind of new game called a Gameboy that held his attention. It was a massive brick of gray plastic and had only five buttons but Harry was grateful it kept Dudley from even looking at him.

Private Drive was unchanged and as awful as ever. The rows of boxy houses that all looked the same hadn't changed in the slightest and Harry sneered out the window. The identical manicured lawns, cars in the drive, the only variation was in the paint – they were cardboard boxes after the splendor of Hogwarts and the uniformity sickened him. It was all the same and they were all the same and they produced spawn that would be just the same. Harry had never felt so out of place.

He was the freak in their xenophobic little boxes and it was only fitting that he was smuggled back under the cover of darkness and shoved into the cupboard under the stairs like some dirty secret to be swept under the carpet. Vernon grabbed Harry by the scruff and tossed him in, when Lorelei darted in after him the cupboard door was slammed shut and the two were left sitting in the cramped darkness.

This is your nest? Lorelei asked after a minute of silence.

Harry didn't reply, he simply shifted his body around so that he was sitting cross legged and leaned back against the wall with his eyes squeezed shut. Lorelei shifted and draped across his lap with her head nudging his chin, the closest she could come to a hug. 'I thought when I found Potter Manor I had found a home,' Harry confessed silently. 'I never expected to come back here, I'm sorry I dragged you along. I should have left you in the Forest for the summer. '

'I go where you go,' Lorelei insisted fiercely, 'and I protect you from that which you can't fight yet.'

'You deserve better.'

'I am the familiar of a powerful young wizard that I get to grow and learn with. You are already outshine your peers and when you are grown you will be limitless. What is better than what I already have? '

Despite the guilt Harry found himself smiling at Lorelei's words. 'And what if I become one of those dark wizards that Aurors hunt? If anyone found out I've been studying blood magic…' Harry trailed off not wanting to think about what would happen if he were caught. It was one of the reasons he had yet to write down anything he learned about using blood magic in Herbology in the leather book Professor Quirrell – or was it Voldemort – had given him at Yule.

'They have to get through me to take your soul.' There was no trepidation in her words only startlingly clear excitement.

The rest of the night was spent in hiding the wardstone under the floorboards and carving runes into the door frame. Barty Crouch Jr.'s protection runes were carved repetitively until the small dagger Harry had transfigured before he left Hogwarts began to cut into his already wounded hands. Eihwaz, Algiz, and Sowilo were carved one after the other – each fluidly connected to the others until they began to look less like runes and more like an intricate design much like Celtic knots. Harry continued until the blood from his hands smeared across his carvings, causing the ones that were smeared in blood to glow with bright golden light.

The effect of his blood left Harry slightly startled but Lorelei urged him on and his curiosity was too great to stop. So he began to go over the runes he had already carved and painted them with his blood as well. With each new rune coming to life under his fingertips Harry felt the magic in the cupboard grow and thicken. When all of the runes were glowing the light overhead burnt out and Harry was cocooned in a thick blanket of power.

Diligently Harry continued carving down the right side of the door frame with a slightly manic smile. The magic was heady it was a wonder that none of the muggles noticed. It permeated every breath he took and every saturated the air so strongly that it grew too warm for Harry to continue with his thick cotton shirt on. Finally when all the runes were carved and glowing they pulsed in time with Harry's erratic heartbeat. With one blinding flash the runes went dormant and Harry stared, absolutely fascinated.

'I think I found a new branch of blood magic.'

'About time,' Lorelei replied sounding rather pleased. 'Plants are dreadfully boring.'

With the help of a minor healing potion Harry's hands were back to their unblemished state and the two curled up on Harry's small cot and drifted to sleep, quietly hissing to each other. The next few days Harry remained locked in his cupboard with a horrified house elf as their only visitor. Milly had been hysterical when Harry first called her; the small elf had pleaded with Harry to let her take him back to Potter manor and had sobbed relentlessly about horrid muggles and how Harry belonged in the manor.

It took almost an hour to convince Milly that Harry needed to be at the Dursleys but finally she reluctantly stopped sobbing with the promise that she would be the one to make it survivable. Milly had been thrilled to know that she was needed so badly and had taken to bringing Harry food three times a day and supplying Lorelei with enough raw meat to stuff her fully for weeks. The helpful elf also helped Harry scour the Potter library for books on anything regarding blood or runes and was on the lookout for anything pertaining to a grimoire. When Harry had expressed his wish to study blood magic and the need to create a grimoire the elf had made it her personal duty to scour for any references on the subject.

While Milly scoured the library Harry dug out his eye-correcting and nutrient potions. If he would be reading in the dim light of the closet he'd need to be able to actually see properly. So one night when the Dursley's had locked the latch on the cupboard and gone out Harry carefully used the dropper to put three drops of the potion in each eye. It was a few minutes before Harry felt anything but he diligently kept his eyes closed. The burning and itching that followed was torturous but the note that came with the potion had warned him against touching his eyes during the process. So Harry used Lorelei to pin down his arms as he struggled not to squirm away to try to stop the maddening itching. Thankfully it only lasted a few minutes and when Harry opened his eyes his breath was taken away.

Even if it was only spiders and the underneath of the stairs it was the most beautiful sight Harry had ever seen. Everything was sharp and clear and Harry couldn't believe what he was seeing. For hours he laid there on his stomach studying Lorelei's textured scales, marveling at both the texture and how the colors beautifully blended – so many different shades of green ranging from lighter hues to deep, rich hues that faded into black. She had loved the attention and Harry declared that she was by far the prettiest reptile on the planet.

Stacks and stacks of books began appearing at odd hours, so much so that Milly had to magically expand the small cupboard a bit to accommodate a small bookshelf that tucked in neatly beside the shelf of cleaning supplies. The Wit-Sharpening potions were of great use to Harry who had begun learning more about Ancient Runes and their practical purposes but more often than not he was scouring the books with any references to blood. They hadn't been overtly helpful, mostly they had been reference materials for healers and taught Harry how blood flowed in the body and what happened when certain paths were obstructed.

At first Harry hadn't thought much on them and during the times between books Harry had taken to practicing Legillimency. It had been exceedingly difficult at first to latch onto a mind when you could not see the person, let alone make eye contact. But as the days passed Harry found himself resting against Lorelei and scanning Petunia's mind as she bustled about the house. At first she had 'dizzy spells' that she thought was from the heat of summer but actually it was Harry diving into her mind with a little too much force. With practice and almost a week of practice he learned how to dive in undetected and how to navigate the mind. Voldemort had been an excellent teacher but they had only covered how to deflect attacks and how to delve into the mind, Harry assumed that controlling the attacks were next but they had never gotten the chance to cover it.

Petunia's mind was an odd mixture of broken thoughts and flashes of pictures or memories. It had been disorienting at first but Harry eventually began to decipher the thoughts behind the inner monologue. There was near constant worry of Harry's freak status being uncovered and Harry learned that they had told the neighbors that they sent Harry to St. Brutus' Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys. She often found herself watching the cupboard door with suspicion over how Vernon would always find himself forgetting why he was stomping to the cupboard. She was almost positive that Harry was using magic but since no reprimand had come she bit her tongue. It rather shocked Harry how much of the magical world Petunia knew about.

She knew of the restriction on underage magic, she could recite the cure for acne, and knew Severus Snape. There was no mistaking that inky black stringy hair or that giant hooked nose and those cold obsidian eyes. Harry couldn't wrap his mind around Petunia knowing Snape. It was like trying to picture Draco Malfoy in the muggle world, too absurd to even imagine. But she did.

The memories were strikingly clear and left Harry dumbfounded. Snape and a girl with flame red hair and his green eyes playing in the park. The jealousy and the loathing almost made the memories unbearable but Harry was desperate to understand what the hell he was seeing. Lily Evans, the mother Harry never knew, had been friends with Snape before Hogwarts – before she even knew she was a witch. Petunia had watched as her sister showed Snape how she could fly, jumping off the swings and landing much too far away and much too softly – suspiciously like how Harry had accidently ended up on the school roof a few years ago.

But when Petunia realized she would never be able to do the things that Lily and Snape could do she turned hateful and fearful. It was such a textbook reaction that Harry found himself groaning. Petunia had resented and feared magic just like every other muggle known to history. Their reactions were why the Statue of Secrecy existed and why the Purebloods loathed Muggleborns.

What Harry couldn't figure out is if Snape had been friends with his mother then why was the man so vicious to Harry? Shouldn't the man be more tolerant of him because of their friendship? The whole thing was confusing and when Harry tried to fish for more details he felt as if he had been punched in the stomach by a dragon. Lily had been thirteen and was just about to start her third year at Hogwarts when she asked her parents to let Snape stay with them over holidays. Petunia had listened around the corner as Lily begged her parents to help her protect her best friend from his dad.

Harry ripped out of Petunia's mind with such force that he heard a plate shatter on the tile in the kitchen. After that he stayed far away from Petunia's mind and returned to scouring books. He did not want to think about Snape or his connection to Lily Evans and he especially did not want to think on the beaten, swollen face Petunia had glimpsed. He wanted to carry on hating the man for his horrid perversion of teaching and plotting his demise.

So he shoved Snape far, far away and dove into the books that Milly continued to bring. With a new resolve Harry continued learning about how the body worked and began to craft theories on how he could apply this newfound knowledge to blood magic. Harry began to wonder if it were possible to feel the flow of blood in the body. In a healer point of view such a skill could be handy to determine if a patient had any blocks in their arteries. Really the possibilities were endless and when he expressed his curiosity Lorelei had encouraged him to try but was rather offended when he suggested using an animal Milly could bring.

Apparently this was highly offensive to her because as Harry's familiar it was her duty to help with all magic. He knew very little about familiars but he hadn't ever seen anyone practicing their magic on their pets. However arguing about how dangerous unknown blood magic could be didn't help at all. Lorelei was stubborn and refused to relent. So Harry finally gave in and began trying to map her body. The process was much slower than he'd have liked because he was so scared of hurting her but after a few days of slow and thorough research he began to be rather glad that his familiar was so stubborn.

The arduous task was flourishing under his careful and slow exploration. The network inside Lorelei was extensive and seemingly endless; it fascinated Harry how with just light touches he could feel the pathways beneath her armored scale exterior. It was an absolutely magical journey and Harry traced her scales lightly, following the unobstructed paths in her body. Lorelei described the feeling as a light tingling that moved as Harry followed her blood.

However magical feeling the flow of her blood was it was equally terrifying because Harry could feel so much more than just the flow. There was something intrinsic there, just beyond his current reach, but somehow Harry just knew that if tried to touch it he would harm Lorelei – not something Harry was even willing to contemplate.

By this time Harry had spent most of June in the cupboard with only a few bathroom breaks when both Vernon and Dudley were out and he was fairly sure it was a few days into July when Petunia opened the cupboard unscheduled. Vernon had already left for work and Dudley was out with his little gang. Harry had flinched back at the sudden burst of sunlight and it had taken several minutes for his eyes to adjust. "Yes?" He asked rather hesitantly.

"Get out." Petunia snapped at him as she opened the door further. "Go do something, walk around or go to the park."

"As fun as that sounds," Harry drawled sarcastically, "I'd rather stay here where Dudders can't chase me down with his friends."

She glared at him but didn't say anything. For a long moment she just stood there, not moving and never relenting in her glare. Finally she asked, "Why did you come back?"

Harry blinked at her in confusion. "What?"

"You left last summer and didn't return. Why come back now? It's not as if you're wanted here." Harry knew he should be used to callous statements like this; he had received them all his life. But it still cut him to the core as easily as it had when he was a child and ignorantly seeking the affection of his relatives. You'd think after years of hearing how worthless and freaky he was and how he'd never be part of the family it would stop hurting…that eventually he'd build some sort of tolerance to it. It made no logical sense because Harry would rather jump off the astronomy tower than be part of the Dursley family. But it still hurt. Harry absolutely hated it but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't kill off the part of him that wanted somebody, anybody, to care

With a heavy sigh Harry set his book down. "I wasn't planning on coming back here but I didn't want to risk getting in trouble with the law by running away."

"I always knew you rather stupid," she replied venomously. "It's not running away if you have permission to leave."

Harry stared at his aunt, rather dumbfounded. "You're – you're giving me permission to leave?"

Petunia sneered at his hopeful tone, "I know you're doing freakish things in here and I won't have it in my house. I am still your primary guardian and as such I'm giving you permission to spend your holidays elsewhere."

Harry almost jumped up and started dancing in celebration but he didn't want to risk the woman changing her mind. "I'll be gone in ten minutes."

"Make it five." With that his cupboard door was slammed shut in his face and Harry nearly squealed in excitement.

Frantically Harry began shoving his things in his trunk haphazardly, not caring for order or even if it would all fit. Lorelei was hissing happily about finally being free and Harry felt his giddiness begin to make his limbs shake. "Milly!" He called happily.

Instantly the elf was by his side, eyes red and surrounded by dark purple circles. "Master be callin' Milly."

"It's time to go to the Manor Milly," Harry smiled widely. "Would you take Lorelei and me and then return for my trunk?"

The tired little elf rocked back and forth in excitement, "Of course master!" With that she grabbed Harry's hand and laid her other on Lorelei. The next second the world went dark and when Harry opened his eyes he was in his bedroom.

"Oh Merlin, I almost forgot what it was like to have an actual bedroom!" Harry ran and jumped happily on to his bed before rolling over and grinning at the ceiling as the soft mattress embraced him.