Hello :) Sorry it's taken me a while to update, but I'll update against next Friday, and always update on Fridays ^_^ Thank you for the reviews/favourites/alerts.

Chapter Three – Slytherin's Heir

The next morning, at about eleven o'clock, Harry and Amy were sat at the kitchen table, eagerly watching the fireplace. James was also sat at the table, reading the paper and completely ignoring the fireplace. Lily already had three cups of steaming tea ready, and was just setting them down at the table when green flames burst into life, and Sam Riddle fell onto the hearth.

'Sam!' Harry and Amy exclaimed in unison, leaping up from their chairs. Sam beamed at them.

'Hi Harry, hi Amy,' he said, moving off of the hearth just as his mother appeared.

Poppy Riddle straightened up, brushed the ashes of her robes, and turned to Lily and James.

'Hello Lily, James.'

'Poppy,' said James, nodding. 'It's good to see you again.'

She grinned at him. 'You too.'

'Come on, sit down,' Lily added. 'I've already made the tea.'

'Really? Oh, thanks Lily!'

'Sam, Sam, let's go upstairs, I've got lots of things to show you that I bought in Diagon Alley yesterday,' Harry told him, and he lead the way up the stairs into his bedroom.

When they reached the door with a sign plastered on it saying, "Harry's Room", Harry paused and looked round at Amy. After a small moment's silence, she crossed her arms and sighed, 'Fine, I'll go. If you need me, I'll be in my room.'

She hurried off down the hallway. Harry's shoulders relaxed, and he opened the door into his room, Sam quickly following.

Harry's bedroom was quite big, and very colourful. Though the walls were painted a light blue, they were covered in Gryffindor banners, and Harry's bedspread was a matching red. There was a picture of Harry with his parents on his desk, which stood by the window which overlooked the front garden of the house. Also on the desk was a huge bird cage, in which sat Harry's snowy owl.

'That's a beautiful owl,' Sam said. 'What have you called it?'

'She's called Hedwig," Harry replied. 'I found the name in A History of Magic. Have you got your school stuff yet?"

Sam shook his head. 'Mum says we're going to go tomorrow. I can't wait to get my wand. Do you want to come shopping with us? Mum says its okay for you to come.'

Harry sighed and shook his head. 'I can't, Neville's coming to play tomorrow,' he explained. 'And then one of Mum's old school friends is coming round the day after, and the next day Remus is coming to see us because he's broken up with his girlfriend Nerin again.'

'Wow, that's a busy week,' Sam muttered. 'How is Neville? Did he get a letter?'

'I guess so, I haven't seen him for a while though,' Harry shrugged. 'I'll find out tomorrow.'

'I saw my grandfather yesterday,' Sam said suddenly. 'He doesn't visit very often, but he and grandmother came because I got my letter. Mum went out for the day, but that doesn't really matter … look what grandfather gave me, because I got into Hogwarts …'

Sam dug his hand into his jacket pocket, and extracted a small ring.

'It's a family heirloom,' Sam explained, handing it over to Harry as he did. 'It belonged to one of my distant ancestors, someone called Peverell, apparently. Grandfather says that if I'm put into Slytherin he'll give me something that belonged to Salazar Slytherin himself.'

'That's amazing,' Harry breathed. 'Oh, but I don't want you to be in Slytherin, unless I am too, and I don't want to be in Slytherin either…'

'I know,' Sam said. 'But I'm not really bothered about getting an heirloom … but it would be nice, to have something that belonged to one of the founders.'

Harry nodded, but said nothing. He handed the ring back to Sam, and changed the subject.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Their busy week passed very quickly. Neville had gotten a letter for Hogwarts, and he and Harry spent most of the day re-enacting the sorting. They were both desperate to get into Gryffindor. Amy was allowed to play with them this time.

Then, the next day, as the sun was setting and the world bathed in a bright, warm orange glow, Severus Snape and his wife and daughter arrived at the front door. The last time they had come round was two years ago, when Severus had first told Lily that he was getting married. His daughter, Marie, was four years old, and barely spoke a word all throughout dinner. Severus's wife, Hazel, was the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, where they had met, meaning that Marie spent most of the year with Hazel's parents.

Marie did seem quite distant with her parents, though she quickly warmed to Harry and Amy. They played lots of games with her, and by the end of the evening she was much more bubbly. James, on the other hand, had gotten more subdued as the night went on, and hardly ever spoke to Severus. When they finally left, he breathed a sigh of relief.

'Thank God he's gone,' James said to Lily.

'Honestly, James,' she sighed. 'Can't you get over this?'

'Probably not,' James shrugged. 'I do try, I promise.'

'Yes,' Lily agreed. 'At least you were civil to him tonight.'

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Remus came round the day after. Lily had set out a box of Honeydukes's best chocolates and cups of tea, ready to listen to Remus have a good moan about Nerin. When he arrived, however, there she was, stood at his side and smiling: Nerin Jones, a petite young woman with shoulder length dark brown hair and grey eyes.

'Oh… Nerin!' Lily exclaimed, forcing herself to smile. 'We were just expecting Remus.'

'Sorry,' said Nerin, giving Lily a nervous smile. 'We sort of got back together yesterday, so I thought I'd tag along!'

'Well, it's lovely to see you,' Lily hesitated. 'Come in, come in! Just settle down in the living room, I'll make you a tea or coffee if you like…'

Harry and Amy were sat on the stairs, watching this exchange. Amy tapped Harry on the shoulder.

'Harry, I thought Remus and Nerin had broken up,' she whispered in his ear.

'Yeah, so did I, but this happens a lot,' he muttered. 'I really hope I don't get stuck in something like that when I'm older.'

Amy giggled. 'Neither do I.'