Title: The Boys Who Lived
Author: Shara Lunison
Beta: Batsutousai
Rating for this Chapter: K+
Pairings: Harry/Henry (OMC), several others—none of them canon XD
Warnings: SLASH, eventual twincest, slightly manipulative!Dumbledore, grey Harry/Henry, OoC-ness, others as I think of them.
Summary: The Potter twins are attacked by Voldemort and somehow defeat him. Now the Dark Lord has returned and they have to choose between light and dark. SLASH, Twincest, rated M for later chapters.
Disclaim Her: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N: I'm really, really sorry this is late! Salazar Slytherin just randomly showed up and demanded to speak to the twins and then had to be very long winded (i.e. I got stuck). -_-;; Also, I'm doing NaNoWriMo with an original story, and I haven't had much time to work on this. I'm going to try to post somewhat regularly for this month, but that's another 12,000 words on top of the rest of my workload, so…
Chapter Sixteen: The Heirs of Slytherin
The common room was full to bursting when they got to the dungeons. The crowd of students turned almost as one and silenced as the twins entered, a speculative gleam in many eyes.
Draco sauntered close to the front of the crowd and spoke, "So is it true? You two are the Heirs of Slytherin?"
"What?" Harry gasped, glancing nervously at the students listening intently.
Henry looked his blond friend in the eyes and saw an apology and also reassurance in his gaze.
"You're parselmouths, after all." Draco sniffed.
There were several gasps from the younger students in the room.
Henry narrowed his eyes dangerously at everyone. Except for a few sixth and seventh years, they all shrunk back respectfully. With his mind working a mile a minute, he came to the conclusion that Draco was doing this to protect them. He and Harry were already suspect because of their proximity to the Heir's message. Slytherin house wouldn't take too well to a couple of halfbloods claiming lineage to their founder without proof.
"Draco, how could you?" Harry whispered fiercely.
"We are parselmouths," Henry spoke above the quiet whispers that had filled the room. The portrait of Salazar Slytherin above the main fireplace raised his eyebrows in surprise. He continued, "But we're not Heirs. We can speak parseltongue because of the Dark Lord. When he attacked us as children, he bound our souls together allowing us to share special abilities. Voldemort is the true Heir."
Although a few people flinched at the name, most people were too shocked by this information to react properly.
"I trust this information will remain within Slytherin?" Henry asked coldly.
One of the seventh year prefects stepped forward. "I think that's a good idea. Slytherins protect their own. This information would make life hard for all of us. I assume you two do not know who is responsible for the attack?"
Harry shook his head. "Not directly, no. We've warned Professor Snape of the danger and he will notify the Headmaster. Right now we're the only two who can hear the thing that petrified Mrs. Norris."
"What is it?" Pansy Parkinson asked fearfully.
"A basilisk," Henry told them.
More gasps and exclamations followed before the prefect called for silence again. "I can only hope that the Headmaster will make this information known to the rest of the school, but we should spread the word to the other houses regardless. If you have friends outside of Slytherin, let them know and tell them to share the message. How can we combat it?" he asked everyone at large.
"Why didn't Mrs. Norris die?" called a third year from the back of the room.
"She only saw its reflection," Harry informed them, still glaring daggers at Draco. "Perhaps we should tell people to carry a mirror with them and look around corners with it before walking blindly into its gaze."
"That's sound reasoning. I'll see about contacting my family and having a package of hand mirrors delivered for any student who needs one," the prefect said.
"We should also have older students escort the younger ones to classes," a sixth year added. "I'm sure the professors won't mind the older years being a little late to their own classes once they know what's going on."
"Agreed," several prefects said at once.
"I'll create a roster and post it for sign-ups," the seventh year decided. "Anything else?"
"I wish to speak to my Heirs," said an older male voice.
Many people looked up in confusion and then noticed that it was their founder who had spoken from his portrait. During all the years he had hung there, no student had ever heard him speak before—and now he did so only in parseltongue.
Harry frowned at the dark haired man with his dark eyes—he could almost be distantly related to Professor Snape. "We are not your Heirs."
If the other students needed any proof of Draco and the twins' claims, hearing the hissing coming from the younger twin's mouth was enough. Many people sensed that the impromptu meeting was over and disappeared into their dormitories. Others hung about unobtrusively to listen in on the hissed conversation taking place.
"You Speak, therefore you are worthy Heirs."
Henry snorted. "Compared to your last Heir, you mean."
Salazar gave a strange hissing laugh. "Indeed! Tom was always too ambitious for his own good. I'm afraid he embodied all of the worst traits of my house."
"And what of your ideals? He's been trying to take over wizarding Britain and kill off all the muggles and muggleborns," Harry told him.
Salazar shook his head. "During my time, we were in the middle of the witch hunts. Children who came to our school to learn returned home to muggle parents who beat them and punished them for their abnormal abilities. Muggles were so very afraid. There were too many times when none of the muggleborn students ever returned after their first year. Back then, my desire to remove those children from their homes and separate from the muggle world was realistic. But the other founders did not want to break up any families, despite the deaths that occurred every year. In the end, I left. I couldn't bear to invest myself in another child only to see them die because of the things I showed them."
The twins frowned in sympathy for the founder's plight. "And what about Tom?" Henry asked. "Why does he want to get rid of the muggles, if that wasn't your original intent?"
"I am not sure what happened, but he originally disagreed with my opinion of muggles. He wanted families to be evaluated and magical children removed and placed with magical families if it was necessary."
"He certainly has changed," Harry muttered darkly.
Slytherin raised his eyebrows in amusement. "I know he is trying to take over everything now, but he used to just want to better the wizarding world and bring it out of the dark ages where it has remained stagnant."
The words tickled at something in the back of Harry's mind. But as much as he tried to remember, it stayed on the tip of his tongue where he couldn't find it.
"Go to sleep," Slytherin told them. "I will have other opportunities to talk with you."
The twins readily agreed and went back up to their dormitory. Harry glared at Draco and refused to speak to him, but Henry gave him a solemn nod when the other boys were climbing into their own four posters and couldn't see.
They fell asleep quickly, unaccountably exhausted after their lazy day. Harry dreamt that night that Draco and Snape were presenting him trussed and silenced to the Dark Lord, and was very uneasy around the pair for the week that followed.
-o-0-o-
Gryffindor won the first quidditch match by only thirty points, and as Harry landed Lockhart appeared out of nowhere and attempted to cast a charm to make the boy's robes flash red and gold and say "Slytherin stinks!" (as he loudly proclaimed afterwards) every time someone wearing green walked by. Unfortunately, he only managed to somehow graft the fabric directly to Harry's skin.
The twins spent an irritated night in the hospital wing, plotting ways to get rid of the terrible professor.
"We could erase all of his memories and set him loose in the Forbidden Forest," Henry suggested.
"Too easy to trace," Harry decided. "We need something simple that will drive him from the castle for good."
"Set the basilisk on him?" Henry joked.
"Well…"
They were interrupted by the doors of the hospital wing opening to admit Professors Snape, Dumbledore, and McGonagall with a small figure on a stretcher floating behind them. Madam Pomfrey appeared out of her office moments later to take the new patient. The twins pretended to sleep and watched through slitted eyes as the stiff body was placed onto the bed next to them. The shocked face of Ginny Weasley stared into the round surface of a mirror held outstretched in her hand.
"What would have happened if the Slytherins hadn't distributed mirrors to the rest of the school, Albus?" McGonagall was demanding of the Headmaster.
Said wizard was looking extremely old as he looked on the girl who was now going to miss most of her first year. "It does not bear thinking about. Something terrible, assuredly, unless she was extremely lucky. I still do not agree with closing the school, however. We know this time what the threat is, Minerva, and as such we can combat it. We do not need to close, not yet."
Snape made a noise in the back of his throat, but said nothing.
McGonagall sighed, as though they had had this argument many times already, but only said, "I will contact her parents in the morning and inform her brothers in Gryffindor tonight." She turned to leave.
"Thank you, Minerva," Dumbledore said gravely.
"I will continue my rounds," Snape said, and left immediately.
The Headmaster turned and looked directly at the supposedly sleeping twins. "If you ever need to talk…my office is always open to those who need me. I'm rather fond of lemon drops." Then he, too, turned and left the hospital wing.
Henry sighed an opened his eyes after everyone had left. "He knows that we know something about what's going on."
"Do you think Snape told him about us and the basilisk?" Harry asked.
"Probably. He would have to reveal where he got the information, after all. I just wish I knew what else he told him."
They left the hospital wing the next morning and returned to the Gryffindor common room, where a somber group of Weasley boys was gathered and most other people were grouped around the bulletin board near the portrait hole.
Harry went to comfort Ron, while Henry approached the group to see what the fuss was about.
"A dueling club?" Henry asked with disgust, eyeing the announcement pinned to the board.
"I think it sounds exciting," Hermione announced, coming up behind him. "And we need to know how to defend ourselves, especially with students already turning up petrified. I feel so bad for Ginny—the mandrakes won't be ready for months. She's going to miss most of the first year curriculum!"
Henry smiled and shook his head at his clever friend. "Somehow, I think she'll manage all right, Hermione."
"Maybe…but anyway, the club's tomorrow afternoon in the great hall. It seems like everyone in the school is planning to attend, so we might as well join in."
So the next day found the twins standing with Ron and Hermione amongst a mixed group of students around a long dueling platform in the center of the great hall.
"Welcome to the first dueling meeting!" Gilderoy Lockhart twinkled brilliantly at them from his position high on the table.
Henry grunted in disgust. "No one told me he'd be in charge. This is a waste of time, let's go."
Harry nodded in agreement, but the blond man's next words stayed them both.
"Assisting me will be Professor Snape. To start, we are going to hold a brief mock duel to give you an idea of the method involved."
The twins exchanged gleeful grins and turned as one to watch the match, even crowding closer to the platform to get a better view of Snape kicking Lockhart's arse.
The duel was painfully short, but sweet. Before the defense professor could fire a single spell, Snape whipped up his wand and shot an overpowered expelliarmus at him that sent him ass over ears to the end of the table.
"Thank you, Professor Snape," Lockhart said through gritted teeth.
Harry strongly suspected that with enough stress, they would crack and crumble directly out of the man's mouth. He then started to think of ways to make this happen more quickly.
"Let's break you all up into pairs, shall we?" the gratingly chipper man suggested.
People immediately began to shuffle around the room to find partners. Before the twins could decide, Snape swept over and gripped Henry's shoulder, his other hand already tight beside Draco's neck. "Perhaps a student demonstration is in order first," he suggested.
"Excellent, excellent. Come on up, then!" Lockhart smiled as though it were all his idea.
Draco and Henry rolled their eyes at one another, but stepped dutifully to either end of the platform. Both of them bowed and raised their wands as the professors had done. Lockhart counted down and they both cast their first spells simultaneously. Draco fired off a borderline dark cutting hex, and Henry shot a rather nasty tickling charm coupled with a leg locker jinx. Both of them just barely missed. Before they could try the next round, Snape interrupted and came up beside Draco to whisper something in his ear. The blond boy smiled gleefully, but gripped his wand in a tight fist which betrayed his worry.
"Serpensortia!" A twelve foot cobra slithered out of Draco's wand and advanced down the table towards Henry, sending nearby students screaming and scattering out of the way.
Henry raised his eyebrows incredulously at the two other Slytherins. Draco bit his lip, but he detected a definite suspicious gleam in the potions professor's eyes. So, Snape wanted the whole school to know they were parselmouths? But why?
Calmly, he walked down to the middle of the table while everyone watched on fearfully. Kneeling, he extended his hand to the snake and said, loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Come, scaled one. I mean you no harm." The snake looked up at him in surprise before slithering over his hand and around his arm to rest on his shoulders.
The room was deathly silent for a moment, and then all hell broke loose.
"He is Slytherin's Heir!" a Hufflepuff by the name of Justin Finch-Fletchly crowed triumphantly to his friends.
Henry leveled a glare at the boy, who gulped nervously, and then turned to look questioningly at Professor Snape. This was his idea, after all.
Before Snape could speak, though, Harry had jumped up onto the platform. "He is not! Both of us can speak parseltongue because of Voldemort!"
Henry was more than a little tempted to hit himself in the forehead using an entire stack of Lockhart's books. Gryffindors.
If anything, this news just made more people in the room more certain of their now shared guilt.
Snape stepped forward to take control. "They are correct, the Dark Lord was the last heir of Slytherin. Despite their ability to speak the language, these two are undoubtedly Potters," he said, spitting the last two words with extra venom.
The students looked horrified. "You mean, someone in this school i-is You-Know-Who's kid!?" someone asked.
The potions master sneered at their stupidity, "I assure you that the Dark Lord does not have any children."
"Then it's still possible they're the new Heirs," Justin said with determination.
Henry and Snape both reached up a hand to pinch the bridge of their noses at the same time.
Harry took the stage again. "No, we gained the ability to speak to snakes when we were attacked as children. And I assure you that we are not trying to attack the school. It was us that warned everyone about the basilisk in the first place!"
Most of the room continued to look somewhat suspicious of them.
"Leave it, Harry," Henry said. "They aren't going to listen to words. They want proof, and we have none."
Snape vanished the snake on Henry's shoulders. "You cannot have snakes as pets, Potter. It would probably eat your cat, anyway."
"Yes, sir." Henry smirked.
"Er…" Lockhart spoke up again finally. "Let's see what the rest of you can do, then. Go on with your pairs and cast a few spells back and forth. Safe spells," he tried to stress too late.
What followed was pandemonium. Despite the size of the room, many pairs were practically on top of one another. Spells that were dodged by a member of one group hit members of another. Slytherins took the opportunity to throw snide spells at Gryffindors. After five minutes of Lockhart trying to get everyone to stop, Snape finally threw sparks from his wand over the crowd with a great 'BANG'.
Henry took advantage of the brawling crowd to drag his brother with him out of the room. He would be willing to bet one hundred galleons that there would never be another meeting of the dueling club while Lockhart was the defense professor.
They passed Hagrid carrying a dead rooster by the neck and exchanged glances. Basilisks were vulnerable to the rooster's crow. Whoever had the diary wasn't taking any chances of the giant snake being stopped.
They trooped through the corridors and down into the dungeons, not stopping until they reached the Slytherin boys' dormitory.
"What now?" Harry asked miserably. "Why did you speak to the snake like that, anyway?"
"Snape wanted me to, for some reason," Henry shrugged. "Now, I suppose we'll have to recover the diary from whoever has it in order to clear our names. Let's get together with Hermione and Ron tomorrow and figure out how to find the thief."
-o-0-o-
"We should infiltrate the other common rooms," Hermione said promptly when they presented the problem to her.
"Infiltrate?" Ron asked, laughing. "You make it sound like a war!"
She blushed, but forged ahead, "Well, it's probably a student that found it, right? And whoever has it is probably writing in it regularly. We can keep an eye on people in Gryffindor and Slytherin to see if they use it in the common rooms. I have friends in Ravenclaw I can visit, and their entrance is locked by riddles instead of a password, so getting in is easy. We just need someone who can get into and spy on the Hufflepuffs. Who do we know that's been exchanged with them?"
"Fred and George," Ron said immediately. "They traded with a fifth year named Cedric Diggory and fourth year Mark Summers."
"And terrified the wits out of the poor Hufflepuffs in the process," Henry muttered. The badger house had been jumping at shadows for weeks afterward. "If we send them in there, I doubt anyone would stick around long enough for them to see the diary."
"But they're the only ones we can really trust with knowledge of the diary," Hermione pointed out.
"Fred and George it is," Harry decided. "We can talk to them later. So each of us will spend as much time as we can in each common room and keep an eye on people, agreed?"
The others all nodded.
"Might as well get started," Henry said, glancing casually around the Gryffindor common room. Most people were playing games, chatting, or studying. Colin Creevey was sitting in one corner, mounting photographs in a book. He had been hit especially hard by the loss of Ginny Weasley and had lost much of his cheerful countenance. Although not being blinded every thirty seconds for new pictures was a plus, it was still sobering to see him so changed by the events.
The portrait hole opened and the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall came in.
"Messirs Potter," the head of house said sternly. "Come with me."
"Everyone is confined to their dormitory with an enforced curfew until further notice," Dumbledore announced. "I know prefects have already been escorting the youngest students, but that patrol is now to be extended to include everyone up to fifth year. You will be excused for any tardiness—within reason."
Harry and Henry stood to follow the professors with confusion, when Parvati Patil called out, "Has there been another attack, Professor?"
Dumbledore nodded gravely. "Justin Finch-Fletchly was found petrified on the sixth floor along with Nearly Headless Nick. Both of them have been taken to the hospital wing."
Several students looked fearfully at the twins, remembering that at the dueling club, Justin had been the one most certain of their guilt.
"Come along," McGonagall said.
They followed her from the common room with trepidation. Surely the Headmaster did not actually think they were responsible for the attacks?
-o-0-o-
A/N: This chapter feels a little strange to me, but it's done! At last! And maybe if I get to 100 reviews on this story I'll be more motivated to finish chapter 17 before next month. ^_~
Also, I've had a couple of people ask me about Harry being a horcrux—he isn't. Let me try to explain this like I did to one reviewer… When Voldemort fired off avada kedavra, it simultaneously struck both twins and traded half of their souls, then rebounded on the Dark Lord and split off a piece of his soul to attach to Henry. If you think of Henry as being the focus of the spell, and the residual energy of it also striking Harry at the same time, it makes sense for only Henry to be the horcrux. Hope that helps!
~Shara