Hello my pretties. *rotten tomatoes are thrown at face, wipes them off with disgusted look* OK, I deserve that. However, in my defense, I was trying really hard to make it good. You see, when I reread it, I realized that this story is actually the best I've written. Before people start saying I am narcissistic, I am saying it is the best that I have written, not the best fanfiction. Yea, definitely not that. Anyway, I realized that it is really easy to mess up a well written story with one bad chapter sooo...I've sort of been freaking out.
Anyway, thank you all sooo much for the lovely reviews. They warm my cold little heart that some say does not exist.
To one guest reviewer who said, and I quote:
"Why was Alexander Nott not in Slytherin? He is a pureblood and purebloods are in Slytherin."
So many words, so many words.
A: ...Alexander Nott is actually a half-blood. You didn't know this because he is a tiny character mentioned once in Aladdin's sorting.
B: The Weasley family of Harry's generation. What were they again? PUREBLOODS IN GRYFFINDOR! Jeez.
C: The point of the whole story is that NOT ALL SLYTHERINS ARE EVIL, BLOOD OBSESSED PUREBLOODS!
By morning, I was a confused, melancholy mess. I had deduced that the dream that I had had the night before was not just a dream, but possibly memories. Also, the father and mother were Salazar Slytherin and Rowena Ravenclaw-I had no clue those two were married. Albus was also-I think-the child of Godric Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff while I was, maybe, the child of Salazar and Rowena…maybe. The last thing was that the Basilisk would soon return, with no one to control it.
But none of that made any sense whatsoever! The founders died hundreds of years ago, and the only one anyone was positive had children was Rowena and no one knew the father. Plus, if Albus and I were the children of the founders, how did we get to the twenty-first century? According to my limited knowledge of time travel, time-turners don't work that way!
On the other hand, it did explain my odd turning up in a park when I was five without any memory of anything. It was how I got my name-Aladdin for being a street kid and Parker for being found in a park.
But on the third hand-Albus was Harry Potter's kid; no ifs ands or buts about it; people called Albus Harry Jr. they looked so much alike. Same hair, eyes and facial expressions-or so I've heard. Of course, I've never met Harry Potter, only read about him in books and in the news.
Sighing in annoyance, I laid down onto the soft, grass covered in morning dew next to the Black Lake underneath a large weeping willow.
Willows had always been my favorite tree. The way they smelt just gave me a homey feeling and I loved the way their branches swayed in the wind and dipped into the lakes and streams they lived by.
I focused my eyes on the soft traveling clouds above and listened to the slight whistle in the wind. It was getting chilly as it got deeper into the fall, but not cold enough as to where I needed a jacket. This was definitely my favorite weather.
"Aladdin?" A soft voice called from close by causing me to sit up and turn towards it.
Standing about a meter away was Albus. Dark bags were under his eyes showing either a lack of or very poor sleep. A surge of protectiveness rushed through me as pictures flooded my mind of a boy with ginger hair and hazel eyes throughout his childhood.
"Jesus Christ!" I exclaimed, standing up quickly. "What the hell happened to you?!"
"Me?" Albus asked, examining me with wide eyes. "No offense, but it looks like my Grandma Weasley's ghoul has taken residence in your hair."
I self-consciously ran my fingers through my thick, frizzy hair and cringed. "Good god," I muttered, yanking my hand out of hair. "That's what I get for sleeping so far away from the fire last night and going to bed with wet hair."
Taking out my wand, I muttered a quiet de-frizz charm and combed out the rest with my fingers.
"OK, you need to teach Rose that trick," Albus chuckled sitting down with his back against the willow tree trunk.
"What do we do now?" I sighed, sitting next to him.
"Well, assuming you remembered bits and pieces of the past like I did, we need the entire story," Albus said. "Meaning, we need to get into the Chamber of Secrets."
My eyebrows rose to my hairline. "Hold the phone, why do we need to get into the Chamber of Secrets again?!"
Albus rolled his eyes. "Your father told you, who told me, that anyone who goes into the Chamber of Secrets has their entire life documented and kept in a giant pensieve hidden in his statue. About two weeks after he taught you how to navigate the Chamber, you took me in with you, remember?"
"No, no I do not." I muttered rubbing the back of my neck. "Guess that's why it's called the Chamber of Secrets then. Slight problem with that…"
"What?" Albus asked taken aback.
"The Basilisk-it's not dead. It regenerates every twenty eight years." I said, nibbling slightly on my bottom lip.
Albus' naturally olive complexion turned ashen as he realized the dilemma we faced. Not only did we not have all of our memories, we had a baby demon snake on our hands who fed on humans and the only person who could control it-me-barely knew how to talk to garden snakes without offending them…long story.
"Well, there is only one solution I see." Albus said hesitantly. "We need to go to my Aunt Hermione."
I barked out a humorless laugh. "You mean Professor I'm-So-Perfect? Did you not learn from last night? Teachers do not like me!"
At the mention of last night, Albus' hands turned into fists. "I still can't believe that," He grumbled with slightly narrowed eyes. "Those two brats got off without even points taken away."
I rolled my eyes, and stood up, dusting off any dirt that clung to my jeans. "Well, you can go talk to her, I'm going to the Chamber." With that, I started to walk back in the direction of the castle.
"Wait!" Albus exclaimed hurrying after me. "Right now?"
"Yes." I stated, not turning to look at him.
"Don't you think we should, I don't know, plan a bit before doing this?" Albus suggested, trotting slightly to keep up with me.
"No." I deadpanned.
"Very Gryffindor of you, y'know." Albus muttered.
"Hm…" I muttered, stopping and thinking for a second. To me, Gryffindors (mostly) equaled idiots, so to have a move of mine be categorized as Gryffindor-ish made it an idiotic move. And, when I thought about it, it really was.
Who was I, a fifteen year old girl, to go charging into a secret chamber where a giant, murderous snake lived? Yea, not going to do that.
"You're right, for once," I said, looking up at him slightly. Just slightly! I pride myself on being tall, thank you very much, however not all of us are freaking giants like he is. "That would be very idiotic."
"What? How did you get idiotic out of-Oh. Arse." Albus grumbled, rolling his eyes.
"We need back up." I declared causing Albus to raise his eyebrows just slightly.
"What sort of back up?" He asked cautiously.
"Of course, we bring snakes to the Snake Chamber." Albus muttered, looking suspiciously at the cobblestone wall in front of us. "You know, the last time I was in there, your friend had some sort of weird, creepy attack."
"You'll be fine," Hopefully, I added in my head. "Thanksgiving."
At the sound of the password, the wall swung open like a door and allowed us to enter.
"What the bloody hell is Thanksgiving?" Albus asked as he stepped in.
"It's a muggle holiday," Walker explained from the couch where he was reading some muggle book. He was so engrossed he couldn't even bother to look up. "American. That's why no one here celebrates it."
Looking around, I noticed that almost all the snakes were here. Convenient and, unlike in most houses, not all that odd. On the weekends most of the snakes prefer to stay in the dorm, especially the younger ones, so as to prevent a run in with another house.
In fact, the only two missing were Romana and Scorpius. Two of the three that I really needed to talk to-isn't that fantastic.
"Walker-." I started, but quickly stopped when I noticed that he wasn't listening to me anymore. I knew I shouldn't have gotten him that book-dammit, Allie, why don't you ever listen to yourself?!
"Sarah!" I called, going to the fireplace where I saw the triplets, Josh and Anna.
"I'm not Sarah! I'm Sophie!" The girl I called Sarah complained, pointing to her triplet next to her.
"You're not Sophie! I am!" The one across from her exclaimed. "You're Susan."
They continued to bicker about their own names causing me to groan.
"Their kidding…right?" Albus asked worriedly.
"I don't know. Honestly, they play so many name games, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they forgot who was who." I sighed.
Anna was fiddling with some sort of nasty smelling bag and looked bored of the conversation. Perfect.
"Anna, have you seen Romana?" I asked.
"Well, I saw her with James earlier. Dunno where they were going." Anna shrugged.
"How about Scorpius?" I asked.
"I saw Scorpius and Rose headed to the library about half an hour ago." Dean explained, startling me as he crept up from behind.
"Dean!" I groaned, turning around and smacking him on the shoulder. "Don't do that!"
Dean just chuckled quietly. "Why are you looking for lovebird and the schizophrenic anyway?"
"She's not schizophrenic, Dean!" I moaned, face palming myself. "How many times must I tell you that there is a-!"
"Aladdin-I don't care." Dean shut me up. "Just-why are you looking for them again?"
"I'll explain later. That way I won't have to go through a long story twice." I said, turning to leave only for Dean to grab my wrist.
"Wait-why's Potter here?" He asked quietly looking between him and me suspiciously.
"I promise that I will explain everything later, but right now, I've really gotta go." I said, prying my wrist out of Dean's grasp and pulled Albus out of the dorm behind me.
Once the wall closed, Albus turned to me with an odd look. "I don't know about you, but something just seems…off about Dean."
"Dean?" I scoffed. "Trust me, Dean couldn't hurt a fly." Turning to look at him, I cocked my head and narrowed my eyes slightly. "Do you just so happen to have that map again?"
"Actually, I do. Why-To find Romana?" Albus guessed. I nodded and he took the folded piece of parchment out of his robe pocket. Unfolding it and muttering "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good", we quickly found the small dot designated as 'Romana'. Where was she? A broom closet with-James Potter?
"Well-this will be interesting," I said awkwardly as we set out to go find them.
In no time we were in front of the closet door that neither of us wanted to open.
"How about we just get her later?" Albus suggested awkwardly.
"No, I'm sure their probably just arguing about-colors, probably." I chuckled nervously, opening the door.
Well, I was wrong. There was Romana and James, snogging.
Wait-what?!
Albus' POV
James was snogging Romana. James Sirius Potter was snogging Romana Sattler. My brother, a lion, was snogging my-er-former best friend's friend, a snake. When-just yesterday-he was yelling at Rose for going on a date with Scorpius.
"Er, James?" I called to no response as Aladdin was stunned silent. "James?" This time I poked his shoulder only to be waved off. "James!"
"What the Merlin do you want, Albus?!" James exclaimed, as he turned to me. "Wait-Albus?!"
"And Aladdin." Aladdin butted in so as to not be left out.
In half a second flat, Romana and James were on opposite sides of the closet trying to get as far away from each other as possible probably hoping that we hadn't seen as much as they thought we had. But we did.
"It's not what it looks like!" Romana exclaimed.
"Really?" Aladdin scoffed. "Cause, to me, it looks like you guys like each other and either got so frustrated at each other's stubbornness that you jumped one another or you've been having a secret relationship."
"Never mind, it's exactly what it looks like." James chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck causing me to roll my eyes.
James tried so hard to be like our dad and actually fought to do things like he did unlike me, where it just came naturally-annoyingly. There was a time where James would pinch the bridge of his nose if he were nervous.
"So…which is it?" I asked, looking between the two.
"We've been dating for three weeks…" Romana said with a smile that looked more like a grimace.
"Wait-you have?!" Aladdin and I exclaimed. I looked at James in shock.
"Didn't you just last night yell at Rose for having a relationship with Scorpius?" I asked.
"Eh-yea," James sighed. "I was…"
"Jealous that she had the guts to say in public that she liked a snake and you didn't." Romana 'coughed'.
"Not helping, Rom." James hissed.
"Not trying to." Romana sang.
"But yesterday, I heard you call a truce from Myrtle's bathroom." Aladdin said confused.
"Supersensory charm?" James guessed and Aladdin nodded.
Romana got a weird look on her face. "Allie, there's no window in Myrtle's bathroom looking out onto the Black Lake. It's on the other side of the castle."
"B-but I saw you, I opened the window. If you want, I could quote what you said." Aladdin said.
"Well, to answer your question, we faked it." James explained. "My friends were getting suspicious so we decided to call a 'truce' to make it seem like we don't hate each other anymore."
Romana gasped and looked at Aladdin with wide eyes. "You're related to Salazar!"
"What?" James asked, having completely lost Romana's train of thought…and so had I.
"I mean, it makes perfect sense." Romana said. "That's why you're a parseltongue and that's why a window suddenly appeared when you needed it. If you knew your parents, Allie, you probably would inherit the castle!"
"OK, what about Parker's parents? And you're a parseltongue?" James asked looking at Aladdin with a creeped outlook.
"A bad one." Aladdin admitted with a grimace. "I haven't talked to them since I offended a garden snake at Scorp's house last summer."
"How do you offend a snake?" I asked, turning to Aladdin.
"You call it a girl when it's a boy. I figured I had a 50% chance of getting it right, never occurred to me that I had 50% chance of getting it wrong." She admitted.
Romana started laughing, "I remember that! You wouldn't go in the vegetable garden for the rest of the summer."
"Hey!" Aladdin cried indignantly. "Those things are vicious and cruel."
"It wasn't even a meter long!" Romana exclaimed.
"Hey, um, can we get out of the closet? Getting just a tad bit claustrophobic in here." James said.
Aladdin and I quickly backed out with choruses of "of course" and "sure."
"Wait a second-why are you two together?" Romana asked suddenly suspicious.
"Uh…funny story actually. That's why I wanted to come find you and Scorpius." Aladdin nervously laughed, rocking back and forth on her feet.
"Scorpius is in the dorm," Romana said.
"No he's not." Aladdin contradicted with a raised eyebrow. "Albus and I were just there and he was nowhere to be seen. Dean said that he and Rose had gone to the library."
"They went to the library yesterday." James said. "Rose is actually in Hogsmeade with her mum to get extra potions supplies for the seventh year class."
"Not again," Romana grumbled, glaring at James. "What'd you say to him this time?"
James lifted his hands in surrender. "Don't look at me, I haven't even said anything to ferret junior in days!"
"Why would Dean lie though?" I asked, confused. He said that he had seen Scorpius and Rose headed to the library.
Aladdin paled slightly and looked at Romana who seemed startled as well. "M-maybe he just thought he saw them. He could have been far away," Aladdin stuttered.
"We need to find him. Now." Romana said, looking Aladdin dead in the eye.
"Can I borrow that map of yours?" Aladdin asked me.
Rolling my eyes, I handed her the Marauder's Map which I hadn't closed and she scanned it for Scorpius' name.
"I can't find him," She muttered, her eyebrows furrowed. "And as far as I know, there are only two rooms not on this map."
"And those are…?" I prodded.
"Some weird room down the seventh corridor and the Chamber of Secrets." Aladdin replied.
"Well, then," James stated cheerfully, "Romana and I will check the Room of Requirement and you two can check the Chamber of Secrets. See you at lunch, hopefully."
The three of us just glared at James.
"What?" He asked cluelessly.