AN: Hope everyone enjoys this next chapter, and let me know what you think.

Chapter 11

Dora walked through the graveyard until she found the gravestone she was looking for. After glancing around slightly, she saw she was alone so she conjured herself a chair to sit in.

"Hey, Uncle James, Aunt Lily," Dora said to the stone. "I know it's been a while. While I'm sure mum and dad continued to visit on this night, I was at Hogwarts, though I should have come last year or during my summers. I'm sorry about that. Hopefully you understand."

Dora smiled remembering when she, her mum, and dad used to come here on Halloween night each year before going trick or treating.

"Hopefully mum and dad told you about some of my Hogwarts days, but I did end up doing pretty well, though not Head Boy and Head Girl good like you two overachievers. I did well enough to get into Auror training though, so not too shabby," Dora said with a grin. "Training is rough, but I really enjoy it. Mad-Eye and the other instructors love pushing us to our limits, but it's been a great experience overall. I will admit I'm worried about passing Stealth and Tracking. I have a bad feeling that it will take me another attempt to pass. I really need to push it though, cause I could use the raise that comes with making Auror 2nd Class. I really feel bad that I can't provide for Harry like I should be able to. I couldn't even afford to get him more than a set of gloves for his birthday this year, which I thought was a shame knowing he'd only ever had one gift before, though of course he didn't care. Little brat made me cry that day when he said moving in with me was plenty enough."

Dora sighed.

"Harry's wonderful and I love having him live with me, and I'm really missing him at Hogwarts. Aunt Lily, I really struggle to see how the hell you were related to those dreadful people he'd been left with. Living with me, he sleeps on the couch that I transfigure into a bed each night and he's bloody grateful that he has anything! His self-esteem levels are so low at times, it's almost a blessing that I probably, truthfully, need him in my life more than he needs me because it helps counter what his so-called family has told him since he joined them."

Dora frowned.

"I've been getting him to open up. He was vehemently opposed to going to a mind-healer, but I bought some books on the subject and we've been talking about some of what they did to him, and showing him that they were wrong. He wanted to just leave them in the past, but I really couldn't let them go completely scot free. He doesn't know of course, but the Dursleys will be having Child Service's check in on them periodically. If Dudley doesn't curb his bullying tendencies that he gets from his parents, if they don't turn around, he'll be taken from them. He won't go to family members like that vile Marge that Harry mentioned either. He'll be taken well away from the whole family. I also had Child Services have severe talks with the teachers at his former school for not seeing the signs of abuse. Most of them just thought Harry was a troubled child and believed your sister and that lard she married, despite them having him in their class. Oh, I also reported that Marge woman for animal cruelty, whether it's true or not. From what I understand, she's under close scrutiny as well, though it's harder for me to look into that. Those Dursleys only seem to give a shit about a reputation that they don't earn. I'm sure me with vibrant pink hair and no qualms of being loud and indiscrete helped show them how their reputation in Surrey could falter when people realized what they'd done to an innocent young boy. Hopefully you'd agree with my actions, Aunt Lily. I know she was your sister, but I can't really forgive her actions."

Dora sat for a moment, listening to the joyful sounds of the village preparing for Halloween night.

"If I wasn't a metamorphmagus, I would be sure that Harry was going to make me go gray early. I can already tell that he's going to be a very powerful wizard someday, but his tendency to get into situations already drives me up a wall. I'm constantly wondering how you would have handled it. I feel like you would have scolded him and grounded him, but on the flip side, he's saved lives and done a lot of good."

Dora shook her head.

"I can't help but be proud of him, and I can't even fault his reasoning half the time. He did try and get help with the Stone, but he was disregarded. If he hadn't gotten involved, maybe You-Kn- V-Voldemort would have returned. I think with his investigative skills and inclination that he'll be joining me in the Auror force once he graduates, and I don't think I need to tell you that criminals won't know what hit them."

She smiled.

"Still, he's wonderful, like I said. He's brave, he's honest, caring, and he's so giving. He even had his three priceless tomes that the Flamels gave him transcribed and given to me as a birthday present. It was way too much, but it's just who he is. I really love having him with me."

"Well, that's all I've got for now. I'll try to bring Harry here some time. Give mum and dad a kiss and hug from me. Play a prank for me, Uncle James. I love you, two, and I'll talk to you later."

**HP**

Dora made it home after a particularly good day in training. It seemed nearly everything she'd done today had turned out alright, which was definitely not something she or anyone got to say all that often. She looked over to the mail spot to see a fresh letter. She figured it was Harry telling her about how things were since the Halloween Feast and how much of a drag Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday Party had been. He should have asked her before agreeing to go to that snoozefest.

He'd been quite busy with how much Oliver Wood was having them practice and in some truly terrible weather. She admired the Wood's dedication to the game, but it was hard to imagine improving much in the weather they'd been having. Then again, if Harry's report of Malfoy buying his way onto the Slytherin team with a full team's worth of Nimbus 2001s was accurate, then they probably did need to practice. Still, better him than her!

Add on his classes, his own studies into defense, since Lockhart certainly wasn't teaching, and his continued work with Shadow Magic and now Sensing, and Harry was quite a busy kid, though it warmed her heart that he still sent her at least one letter a week. She wondered how long it would last. She certainly had curbed off the amount of letters she'd sent back to her parents as the years went on, though they'd increase during high traffic situations. She figured when Harry stopped writing to her so often, that would be her cue that he truly had gotten used to having her around, which, despite knowing it meant less letters, was something she was really looking forward to. Though, with his upbringing, maybe he never would stop.

She certainly wouldn't complain.

Wotcher, Dora

I know you don't want to hear this, but something is wrong here at Hogwarts.

Dora's eyes widened at that, her nerves immediately overriding her good feelings from the day.

Everything was going fine until after the Halloween feast. Ron, Hermione, and I were leaving Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday party when I heard a cold, murderous voice. It was something I thought I'd heard about a month ago, but nobody else heard it and I thought that maybe I'd imagined it. Anyway, I heard it again. It was talking about wanting to rip, to tear, and to kill, saying it was hungry and that it had been so long. Ron and Hermione couldn't hear it, but I know I wasn't imagining it.

I tried to follow the voice, and we found ourselves outside that girl's bathroom on the second floor. The one that Myrtle apparently haunts. The floor was completely flooded, and Filch's cat was hanging off the wall. A message had been inscribed on the wall as well: The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware. I didn't really know what to do, but not a few moments later everyone came back from the feast and they found us there.

Filch was going to strangle me if Dumbledore hadn't arrived. He took us for questioning with Mrs. Norris's body. He was able to tell us that she was petrified, but he couldn't do anything for her, at least until Sprout's mandrakes had matured. Hermione reckons that means that whatever attacked wasn't human. I tend not to disagree with her. I didn't tell Dumbledore about the voice. Should I have? Ron and Hermione both agree that hearing voices isn't good, and neither of them heard anything.

I just don't know.

Anyways, people are nervous, and unfortunately a lot of people think I'm the Heir. Only real exceptions are Ron and Hermione, who were with me, and my Quidditch mates, who said they didn't doubt me for a second. I don't know what to do. Hermione got Binns to give us a few answers on the Chambers, like it was Salazar Slytherin's secret chamber, how he wanted to be selective of who went to the school (no muggleborns), and that only his heir can get in and release the horror within. Do you know anything more than that? Do you know what might be in the Chamber? Binns said it doesn't exist and that nobody's found it, but something obviously attacked the cat, and somebody seems to have opened the Chamber. Do you think this is what Dobby was warning me about? We investigated the scene and found scorch marks from something, and all the spiders in the area are going crazy, trying to get away. Something is freaking them out. I don't know what you can do, especially since Dumbledore is already here, but if you have any information that can help me at least make sense of what's going on, I would really appreciate it, sis. Our current theory is that Malfoy might be the Heir. He's certainly pureblood, hates muggleborns, and seems to be quite happy about the Chamber. What do you think?

Hoping for answers soon.

Love,

Harry

"Bloody hell, Harry," Dora said, finishing his letter.

Frankly, what his letter mentioned of the Chamber was all that she knew. It was shrouded in mystery and was really a legend more than a story. She'd heard rumors that it had once been opened, but that's about all she knew, and that was little more than a rumor. Nothing worth reporting. Perhaps the archives at the Auror office would know more? Still, there was someone to talk to first.

For what felt like the hundredth time since Harry entered her life, Dora apparated just outside of Mad-Eye's home, and not a few moments after she was going through the ever present security checks. After she'd passed, Moody eyed her with a narrowed eye.

"I assume Potter is in some sort of trouble again," he said gruffly, and she blushed slightly at that.

"How do you know I'm not just here to say hi?" she asked defiantly.

"Because you don't do that spontaneously," Moody replied. "Those are always arranged beforehand. These out of the blue visits means that you need advice on something, and in the last year, outside of training, that has had everything to do with Potter."

Dora sighed, but conceded with a nod before she handed over Harry's letter. Mad-Eye read it, and she saw his eyes narrow angrily more and more as he got through the letter.

"It's happening again," Moody muttered.

"Again?" Dora clarified.

Moody eyed her. "The Chamber was supposedly opened about fifty years ago. I was just a boy at the time, but my parents, who were both aurors, were involved in the investigation. Attacks like the one with the cat happened back then as well, but things got worse when a girl was killed by the monster. There were talks to shut down the school, but a prefect at the school captured the Heir or who they thought was the Heir and chased the monster out of the school."

"If that were true, then how would this be happening now?" Dora asked.

Moody frowned.

"My parents didn't believe that the issue was ever actually resolved," he said gruffly. "The culprit captured denied being the Heir though he did have some sort of monster that was chased out of the castle. He was expelled and the attacks stopped, but I remember my dad always thought it ended too nicely. The school didn't want to perpetuate that the Heir was still at large, and the Ministry didn't want parents demanding more be done, so the matter was closed." Moody scowled. "This makes me think that my parents were right, which means Hogwarts is not as safe as it should be. I'll write back to the lad and give him some things to look into from his end, to hopefully keep him occupied, but he needs to avoid this. Tell him it definitely isn't Malfoy. There weren't any Malfoys at Hogwarts during that time period, and I doubt a second year is opening the Chamber, if it exists."

Dora grimaced. She suspected that Harry would not avoid this, especially if he was getting slandered by his classmates. That rubbed her wrong too, but there wasn't much she could do. If the attacks continued, Harry would want to help. That was just who he was, plus he'd want to clear his name. Mad-Eye was right per usual. She needed to tell him to watch his back, maybe tell him to study a bit more and keep his head down, and hope that Mad-Eye's distraction was enough, along with Dumbledore, to keep him safe. Still, she would relay what she knew, and what Mad-Eye had told her and hopefully it would be enough to sate him and his friends' curiosity or at least take away all their theories so that they were stuck not doing anything.

**HP**

Dora smiled from where she was sitting in the stands with the professors and other guests. While she'd sat in with the students previously, this time she'd managed to drag Mad-Eye with her to the match so they could both support Harry. He had just finished greeting McGonagall, Sprout, and Flitwick, who had all been surprised to see him, but welcomed him nonetheless. Snape seemed to have melted well away from Moody and decided to go sit with his House. Lockhart conspicuously seemed to have decided not to talk to the famed ex-auror as well, which made Dora happy, since it meant she wouldn't have to talk to him either.

She glanced down at the two teams.

Dora knew Harry was pretty nervous for this match. They were up against Slytheirn who all were riding the fastest racing brooms that gold could buy. Malfoy, Harry's rival, was his opponent at Seeker, and Harry and his friends, while acknowledging what Moody had said, still thought Malfoy knew something about the Chamber. Add that he had contributed to them not winning the Quidditch Cup the previous year, and Dora knew her little brother was eager to win this match.

Dora heard Madam Hooch blow the whistle and with a roar from the crowd, she saw both teams fly into the sky, Harry rising above all the rest.

"Potter can fly," Moody said, looking impressed. "He might even be better than James by the time he gets done with Hogwarts."

Dora smiled proudly at that, knowing just how good James Potter had been. He could have gone pro easily, and still held the scoring records for Gryffindor Chasers in a single season and over the course of his Hogwarts career.

She watched as Malfoy taunted Harry only for Harry to quickly dodge a bludger that flew his way. Either George or Fred Weasley knocked the bludger away as it made another turn, but it quickly shot back for Harry, ignoring the Slytherin player it had been shot at.

Harry dropped quickly to avoid it, and Fred or George managed to hit it hard toward Malfoy. Once again, the Bludger swerved like a boomerang and shot at Harry's head.

Dora frowned. That was odd behavior for a bludger.

She saw Harry put on a burst of speed and zoomed toward the other end of the pitch, the bludger whistling along behind him. One of the twins managed to smash it well away, but once again it turned and went straight for Harry again.

"That thing's been tampered with!" Moody growled out. "We need to get down there and get this match paused."

Dora nodded grimly, wondering why Harry couldn't catch a fucking break at this school, and they got up, noticing that their actions and words had drawn the attention of the teachers who were now watching the bludger in concern before McGonagall got up and hurried after them as the rain started to fall down. Unfortunately, the staff stands were quite high up, and it was a long journey down to the pitch, especially with the heavy rain making everything slick.

They finally made it down to the pitch and were moving out, drawing Madam Hooch's attention who came down, without calling a timeout, allowing the game to keep playing.

"What's going on here, Minerva?" Hooch demanded.

"One of the bludgers has clearly been tampered with," McGonagall responded. "We need to pause this game while we run a diagnostic charm."

"Preposterous," Hooch responded. "They've been locked in my office the whole time."

"Rolanda," Moody responded with a sneer. "We've watched the same bludger only go for Harry Potter the entire match, deliberately not going for other players to focus on him."

Further conversation was cut off as a cheer from the crowd drew their attention to the crowd and then to Harry, one arm dangling, looking broken, and the other arm outstretched snatching the snitch out of the air before flying over the top of his broom and splattering into the ground only a few feet below him.

Hooch blew the whistle calling the end of the match as McGonagall, Mad-Eye, and Dora rushed over to Harry who had just dodged the bludger trying to attack him twice more before the two twins teamed up to start trying to gain control of it.

Dora ran over to Harry while Mad-Eye went for the bludger.

"Harry, you okay?" Dora asked worriedly, and he groaned and grinned at her.

"We won," he muttered, and then he fainted.

"Don't worry, Harry," Dora said to the unconscious boy. "I'll get you some help."

She turned and moved back to Mad-Eye who had the bludger contained with a spell and was running diagnostic charms on it with McGonagall and Hooch both there looking concerned by whatever Moody had already found.

"Harry needs to go to the hospital wing," Dora told them. "I'll get him on a stretcher and take him up there, but I want to know how that bludger was tampered with," she said fiercely.

McGonagall nodded, also looking extremely unhappy, while Hooch looked a bit sheepish, likely for not having noticed the rogue bludger the whole bloody match.

Dora turned to see that a crowd had already formed around Harry, and she groaned as she started to push her way through the crowd.

"Stand back!" said a voice that Dora recognized as Lockhart's, and for a fleeting moment she thought the professor was actually doing his job and helping Harry out.

"No - don't -" Harry's voice said weakly before Dora heard Lockhart's voice.

"Professor sto -!" Dora heard a couple girls start to say.

"Brackium emendo!"

Dora's eyes widened and she quickly pushed the rest of the way through the crowd and gasped with the rest of the crowd as she saw Harry's now rubbery arm.

"Ah," said Lockhart. "Yes. Well, that can sometimes happen, but the point is, the bones are no longer broken. That's the thing to bear in mind. So, Harry, just toddle up to the hospital wing -"

"YOU BLOODY IDIOT!" Dora snarled out, pushing past the remaining students to stand between Harry and Lockhart before she grabbed Harry's rubbery arm and quickly assessed that all of the bones had been removed. She turned to Lockhart, her face furious and her hair dark red. "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?" Dora spat punctuating each word with a poke into Lockhart's chest as the man looked in alarm and backed up.

"Now, see here, miss -" Lockhart tried to say before saying. "Calm down"

"You don't tell me to calm down! If you can't do healing spells, then don't fucking do them," Dora spat.

Lockhart's eyes widened in shock, before he tried to throw on another charming and placating smile.

"Miss, I'm his Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor," Lockhart said, trying to regain control. "I'm here for his well being, but these things happen."

"Yeah, Professor, well I'm an Auror trainee and I'm Harry's guardian," Dora shot back, and Lockhart paled slightly. "I don't give a damn if you're his professor. I wouldn't want Albus Dumbledore doing healing spells either because there's a CERTIFIED HEALER at this BLOODY SCHOOL!"

"Nymphadora Tonks!" McGonagall said loudly but firmly. "Control yourself or you will be asked to leave. Now, perhaps you can help Miss Johnson, Miss Bell, and Miss Spinnet get Mr. Potter to the hospital wing, and I will deal with Gilderoy. Rest assured, he will not make this mistake again." McGonagall finished with a steely scowl directed at Lockhart who turned red from embarrassment.

Dora shot one more vicious scowl at Lockhart before she helped Harry to his feet. He was looking at her strangely, and it took her a minute to recognize the hint of embarrassment, but also happiness, which she knew was because his bloody relatives wouldn't have cared. That was for damn sure.

His three teammates however were grinning at her approvingly, all three throwing angry scowls at Lockhart, while the twins followed, both with a mixture of a grimace, knowing Harry had a rough time ahead of him, but also a touch of humor, likely at the overprotective spectacle she just made, and that Harry's other female teammates were giving off. The only one looking like he was having a good time was Wood, and Dora knew that was because he was such a Quidditch happy moron that the win erased all his worries, unless Harry was permanently hurt, which he wasn't.

Mad-Eye made his way to them, the crowd parting ways for the famous ex-auror, whose face generally scared people just as much as his reputation did. Dora almost wanted to smile seeing the members of Harry's team wince and look nervous at his approach before they loosened up seeing Harry's smile. Dora glanced at him and he shook his head, looking extremely unhappy to have not figured out who might have bewitched the bludger.

"I can't believe you both came," Harry said after a moment as they started walking off the pitch towards the castle.

"Of course," Dora said with a grin. "No field work meant I wouldn't miss this for the world, and Mad-Eye needs to get out of his house."

Harry grinned at that.

Mad-Eye grumbled at that before he said gruffly. "You fly well, lad. You'd give your dad a run for his money on who the better flier was, and that's saying something.

Harry smiled slowly before it widened. "Thanks Mad-Eye," and Mad-Eye nodded.

"You practiced any of those spells I told you to learn?" Mad-Eye asked after a moment.

"I got the hex deflection spell to work," Harry admitted to Dora's surprise before his face fell slightly, "but I haven't quite gotten the reductor curse done yet, and I haven't even attempted revelio yet, let alone the shield charm or stunner. I only know one third year spell, Immobulus, so those fourth and fifth year spells you sent me aren't coming as quick as the list of jinxes, hexes, and curses that Dora recommended. I also finally started feeling the presence of magic if I concentrate hard, but it's hard here at Hogwarts. It's so overwhelming."

"Blimey, Harry," Alicia said in amazement. "Even I can't do those yet," and Dora grinned seeing other nods of impressed agreement from all of Harry's teammates.

"I can't believe you can feel magic," Katie muttered. "That's supposed to be really hard."

"That's okay lad," Mad-Eye said to Dora's surprise, ignoring the comments. "Just keep at it. Having a large repertoire of spells is good too. The more spells you know, the less likely someone can hit you with something you don't recognize, and the more likely you know something others don't. You'll get the other ones with time. Just keep constant vigilance."

Harry beamed at the old auror's praise and Dora felt her fondness for her mentor grow even more.

Trying to keep Harry's mind off of his gimpy arm, Dora engaged Harry and his teammates in conversation about the match, with Mad-Eye generally just listening quietly the rest of the way to the hospital wing, where they found a seriously pissed off Hogwarts healer.

"You should have come straight to me!" she raged, holding up the sad, limp remainder of what, half an hour before, had been a working arm. "I can mend bones in a second - but growing them back-"

Dora, Mad-Eye, the team, and Ron and Hermione, who had come in right behind them, all stayed well out of the way of the angry healer.

"You will be able to, won't you?" said Harry desperately, and Dora grimaced knowing exactly what he would have to drink in order to grow them back, having had to take the ruddy stuff once herself.

"I'll be able to, certainly, but it will be painful," said Madam Pomfrey grimly, throwing Harry a pair of pajamas. "You'll have to stay the night..."

Dora quickly used a switching spell to switch Harry's pajamas with the robes he was wearing, saving them the issue of having to help him undress and redress.

"How can you stick up for Lockhart now, Hermione, eh?" Ron said to Hermione. "If Harry had wanted deboning he would have asked."

"Anyone can make a mistake," said Hermione. "And it doesn't hurt anymore, does it, Harry?"

"No," said Harry, getting into bed. "But it doesn't do anything else either."

"Harry specifically asked him not to do anything!" Katie said angrily at Hermione who blanched a bit. "Nobody, especially a Professor, should be doing magic on someone who doesn't want it."

Angelina and Alicia both nodded in agreement.

"The man is an idiot," Dora said fiercely with Mad-Eye's grunt of approval, causing Hermione to scowl at them in disapproval. "You don't perform medical care on someone if you're not trained to do so. A trained healer would never make that mistake"

Hermione grimaced slightly and then she slumped, realizing that Dora was right, and they chatted lightly as Harry swung into bed and drank the nasty Skele-Gro before the team, Ron and Hermione were booted so that Harry could rest. Just after Harry's friends, Mad-Eye made his exit, saying he was going to talk with Dumbledore before he went home, and soon it was just Dora and Harry.

"You can't catch a break, can you?" Dora teased. "Can't you avoid this place?" she gestured at the hospital wing.

Harry grinned ruefully. "I don't want to be here, but it seems like someone new has it out for me. Probably the Slytherins. Probably Malfoy."

Dora sighed. "I'm not sure many Slytherins would have the skill to do that, Harry. They managed to avoid Mad-Eye tracking their magical signature which is quite impressive. I'd say it had to have been done wandlessly for that to happen. I highly doubt Malfoy was able to do that. If so, he would be wandlessly summoning the snitch to win rather than letting your skinny little ass snatch it from right under his nose."

Harry grinned, but seeing his fatigue, Dora finally started saying her farewell and gave him a kiss on the forehead before tucking him in and then leaving, wondering when things would be normal at Hogwarts.

The next day, she received a letter from Harry which explained a lot, but left just as many questions. The letter had simply read:

Dobby the House Elf cursed the bludger and it was because of the Chamber. Dobby confirmed that the Chamber has been opened and it was opened before. Dumbledore then confirmed it himself after he brought in someone who was petrified last night. That Colin kid, was attacked last night and petrified. I overheard Dumbledore say that the question wasn't who opened the Chamber, but how? Any ideas?

What the hell was going on at Hogwarts?

**HP**

Dora saw Hedwig coming in carrying another letter from Harry and she grabbed it from the snowy owl, smiling her thanks and already offering up an owl treat which was gently taken from her. Hedwig flew over to her water bowl and Dora turned to her letter with a smile. It was only a couple weeks and he'd be home for Christmas break and she couldn't wait.

Wotcher Dora,

I don't really know where to begin. Things are getting worse here, both for the school, but also for me. I was really excited because there was a signup for a dueling club that was hosted a couple nights ago. I thought it might be cool to learn to defend myself better.

Dora thought a dueling club sounded awesome. She wished they'd had that when she was there. Then again, that probably meant . . .

Excitement faded fast when I found out that Lockhart and Snape were the ones in charge.

Dora grimaced. The useless professor and the one who does his best to torment Harry. Dora had practiced legilimency on Harry (with his permission) over the summer, and she'd seen some of Harry's memories of encounters with Snape. He was far meaner to Harry then he'd ever been to Dora or anyone she knew at the school, and he hadn't been all that nice to many Gryffindors even while she was there.

Admittedly, Snape did at least show everyone an example of a good disarming charm, but after that everything just went to shit. They paired everyone off, and Snape specifically paired Slytherins with a lot of Gryffindors. I think you can imagine that the order for disarming only didn't make it past the first spell. I got paired with Malfoy and he tried to hex me on the count of two, the cheating slimy git. I hope you and Mad-Eye will be proud to know that I got the hex and jinx deflector spell down and actually usable, and I learned disarming ages ago so I managed to show Malfoy up at first.

Dora grinned at that, proud of Harry. She certainly hadn't known how to disarm as a second year, and definitely didn't know hex deflection. Good for him to learn it. He'd said he had, but there's a big difference between doing a spell with all the time in the world and doing a spell after reacting to a cheap shot.

After a round of people just hexing and jinxing each other, Lockhart said he should teach everyone to repel unfriendly spells and then decided on a demonstration. Of course, Snape picked Malfoy and I. Lockhart's example of teaching me to block unfriendly spells was doing some wiggling motion with his wand before accidentally dropping it. Useless git. Still, I figured I'd be okay against Malfoy, but Snape whispered something to him and he ended up conjuring a big cobra. I think he and Snape thought I'd be scared, but after Lockhart agitated the bloody thing, it started to go after a Hufflepuff named Justin on the sidelines. I knew I needed to stop it so I told the snake to stop, and it did.

Dora frowned reading that statement. What did Harry mean?

I don't think I ever told you . . . but before I turned eleven I did talk to a snake once. I didn't realize that it wasn't a common thing! I never realized that I was speaking another language!

Dora could almost feel the apprehension and nerves coming off of Harry through the parchment as he desperately tried to explain himself to her, and she wished she was there to give him a hug. Still, she couldn't believe that he was a parseltongue!

Ron and Hermione told me about parseltongues and how Slytherin was a famous one. Nobody understood me telling the snake to back off, which it did, but now most everyone, even some who hadn't before, thinks that I was actually egging the snake on and that I'm the Heir of Slytherin! I swear, I'm not! Please believe that! I don't know why they would think I would be a blood purist. I mean I'm a halfblood, and my mum was a muggleborn!

Unfortunately it only got worse. I overheard a Hufflpuff in my year named Ernie talking about me being the Heir and saying that Justin, another Hufflefpuff in my year, was hiding because I know he's muggleborn. I just wanted to apologize and explain, but when I went looking for Justin, I found him . . . I found him and Nearly Headless Nick both paralyzed, just like Mrs. Norris and just like Collin. People found me discovering the bodies again, and now nearly everyone in the school, even people in Gryffindor think I'm the Heir! I can't walk anywhere without being glared at, hissed at, or talked about or people running away in fear. It's awful. Hagrid stuck up for me with Dumbledore, and gave me an alibi, and Dumbledore already said he didn't believe it was me, but now I'm wondering if I should tell him about the voice I heard? I don't know what to do.

I'm sorry that my life is such a mess. You're probably regretting getting involved, but I'm still hoping that I can come back to your place for christmas. I really want to get away from Hogwarts for a bit.

Love

Harry

Dora stared at the paper, anger and worry the predominant feelings in her. He didn't think she'd still want him?! All that did was make her want to go curse the hell out of those stupid Dursleys for making him this way. No, he was about to get a strongly worded letter which would hopefully show him with no uncertainty that she loved him and that she wanted him and that he was coming back to their home for Christmas.

As for the rest? Well, maybe it was time for Dora and Harry to have a conversation about whether Hogwarts was where he should be? That wasn't something that she thought would ever cross her mind and she truly did still respect and admire most of the staff, but Dora was frankly tired of getting letters that spoke of the abuse that Snape heaped upon him, not because she was sick of him complaining, but because she was tired of a professor treating his students that way. Children for Merlin's sake. Now the majority of the school was actively trying to make his life worse? Without proof? And the Professors were doing nothing?! She assumed that not expelling Harry was the same as saying he was innocent to the professors, but she knew that Harry's fellow students probably didn't see it that way. These were kids after all, and they were scared, and in their eyes, justice wasn't being done despite what they saw as clear evidence.