The home was as Harry expected, dreary and in more places than should be unclean. But he wasn't going to comment on that since it would be rude as the two left the parlor. "So anyway," Merula rubbed her arm and motioned to the house. "This is my home."
She'd never done this before, having friends over. The only people who ever came to see this since her parents were incarcerated was her aunt and before that she guessed it was just You-Know-Who's death eaters. Not that she met any of them, her parents always kept her away from them.
"It's nice," Harry said and got a raised eyebrow in return and knew that he had to clarify that statement. "It's better than what I had before I went to camp."
Merula frowned because she despised her house but it was all she had. "That sounds awful."
Nodding his head, Harry took a deep breath. "It's in the past now, so I can't change it, and I refuse to allow it to have power over me anymore. But enough about that," Harry said with a smile hoping to change the topic to something lighter.
As the pair moved through the home so Merula could give him the tour. "And this is my parents room…" standing outside a door. "I haven't really gone in there since they, you know."
Quickly moving down the hall away from the door. "And here's my room, and right next to it is the guest room."
After giving Harry time to set up his trunk in the guest room he came back to the living room where Merula was waiting. "So what do you want to do?" Merula wrung her hands because she never had guests so she didn't know how to host anyone.
"Well school starts back up in a couple of weeks, so it wouldn't hurt to make sure that all of our summer work is done, you're going into your OWL year, so I figure the professors gave you a whole bunch to prepare you for it," Harry said as he still had some of his own homework to do that he hadn't finished up while at camp.
"Yeah," Merula sagged because she had been putting off doing her charms essay for longer than was needed.
As they settled in at the table to work the sound of the floo flared drawing attention. "Oh no," Merula gulped because her aunt was here to check up on her, likely because she had come back from spending the night with her friends.
"Merula," a firm but noticeably irate voice called out through the manor. "Where are you, the wards detected that you have brought a boy into the home, you know that is against the rules I laid down."
Paling because she hadn't considered her aunt knowing she had someone over, especially The-Boy-Who-Lived. While her aunt was not a death eater, she was not a good witch either and this was now making her think inviting Harry over had been a terrible mistake.
"Oh Merlin what do I do?" Merula gulped as she tried to hastily come up with a plan to somehow hide Harry or get him out of the house. "If I can get him to the floo I can send him back to Professor Tonks, he'll be safe there."
She was drawn out of her musings but the sound of footsteps moving away from her. "Harry no!" Merula shouted as she raced after the boy who was walking towards the danger.
Her foot slipped on the wooden floors as she turned a corner to see Harry open the door to the parlor. "Hello ma'am," Harry greeted as he stepped into the room.
Eyes wide in fright, Merula scrambled to catch up and entered the room to see her aunt staring down at Harry. "My name's Harry Potter," he said with a smile to the shocked look of the witch before him, offering his hand for a shake.
Slowly Merula's aunt reached out, "Verucca Buckthorn-Snyde," the older witch said as she eyed the famous child as if this was some sort of prank or trap, glancing around the room she saw no sign of any aurors lying in wait to pile onto her and she was unaware if they were capable of hiding themselves from the wards.
"You must be the aunt that Merula has told me about," Harry nodded his head to the witch as he sized her up. It was clear to him that she was doing the same, it was like during a spar at camp, you gauged your opponent. And right now he had the advantage, his very presence had thrown her off kilter.
"Good things I'm sure," Verucca said as she was trying to deduce just why such a paragon of the light was in the home of death eaters.
Pausing because what Merula had and had not said of her family was that after her parents had been sent to Azkaban there was not much love in the home for her. "She has told me things and I think it best to leave it at that," Harry said diplomatically.
Raising an eyebrow because that was quite a way to say that he had a low opinion of the way she was raising her niece, Verucca turned on the spot to face Merula who was still as a statue. "You know that I forbade you from having wizards over without supervision," she stated because she did not need her niece traipsing around and using her parent's home as a brothel.
"Um well, it's just until term begins and," Merula gulped nervously at the way her aunt was staring down at her. "And Professor Tonks is aware that Harry is staying here. It just didn't seem fair to send him back to the States when I had room to spare."
"I was unaware that you had become acquainted with someone like him?" Verucca hummed thoughtfully at how this might benefit her.
"I didn't say anything because I knew everyone would be weird about it," Merula muttered and pouted because her being friends with Harry already caused her problems in the Slytherin dorms, she did not need her aunt knowing of the connection she had with Harry. Morgana forbid if word of that ever managed to make it all the way to Azkaban, her parents would probably disown her for becoming a blood traitor.
It was at this moment of being confronted with her family that she realized she'd become a blood traitor. After all of her life believing in her pureblood traditions, she had changed in only one year of being friends with Harry, Tonks and Tulip. She didn't think Harry was lesser than her because he was a half-blood, he didn't think Tonks was a worse witch because her mother had married a muggleborn. They were all pretty great people and had been there for her when she needed them to be.
And unlike her aunt, they wanted to be around her. They didn't just ignore her the entire entire summer, only checking in because they had a legal obligation. They enjoyed her company and she enjoyed theirs.
Her family had made their choices about who they associated with and where that got them, she could do the same and she had a stronger belief that this would lead her to a brighter future than a life behind bars. Standing up straighter, Merula looked her aunt in the eye, defying the glare being sent her way. "We were simply doing our summer work Aunt Verucca. And it is none of your business if I invite my friends over or who they are," Merula said in a challenge to her relative.
Verucca was shocked that Merula was flagrantly disobeying her. "I see then, if you believe yourself grown up enough to not need my wisdom any longer, then I will not provide it," Verucca turned on the spot and threw floo powder into the flames.
Seeing her aunt leave in such a way felt like this was the last time she'd been seeing her in this home, Merula's bottom lip quivered because she had just cut off her only remaining family for Harry Potter.
It did not take a genius to see how much this exchange of words had affected his friend. "Merula," Harry softly said as he came over to her side. "Are you alright?"
"I'm," Merula sniffled and nodded her head before then shaking it. "I don't know."
Harry let out a sigh as he gently pulled on the teenage witch's hand to get her to sit down with him on the couch. "I'm sorry that me being here put you in that position, I should have offered to leave instead."
"No, no Harry it's," Merula quickly said before looking down at her hands. "It's not you, it's my family. It's how we are, my mom and dad were death eaters, they were loyal, and while my aunt didn't side with You-Know-Who, she wasn't against him either. She just had different ideas of how the government should be run."
"I grew up believing that junk, I blamed you for my parents going to Azkaban, because you stopped You-Know-Who," Merula whimpered shamefully at that admittance that she had hated The-Boy-Who-Lived for years because of how the war ended.
"And then you ended up at Hogwarts and I dunno I just tried to push all that to the side since I was actually working with Tonks and Tulip on these cursed vaults. I could pretend you were just some firstie who had a coincidental name, but then Halloween."
Harry opened his mouth to speak, not even sure what he would say but Merual put a finger on his lips. "You saved my life, you didn't hesitate because I was the daughter of death eaters. You didn't ask anything in return either. You saved my life because I was in danger and that's the type of person that you are."
"And then at the end of the year you saved us all again from, well from the man that my parents supported. He was going to kill me just as he would have killed you, Tonks, Tulip and everyone else in the castle. I learned that absolutely nothing that he preached to get my parents to support him was true. He was going to throw away everyone else's lives for his own sake, because all that mattered to him was his own goal."
"In just one year of getting to know you I changed, and I'm scared Harry," Merula finally admitted because she would never say that to anyone else but the little wizard next to her had been there for her more than anyone else had in her life. "I don't think I want to be like my parents or my aunt and now I don't know who I'm supposed to be."
Nodding his head because he could tell this was an identity crisis, he'd had that himself after learning so much in his life hadn't been true, that he wasn't a freak, that he was a wizard and a demigod and his mum was alive. He had to question everything about himself, who and what he was. And the conclusion he came to was, that he was just a dumb kid, he couldn't figure that out. Who could? Who could learn all that and then just go, 'yup I know exactly what I want to do and who I want to be'. Probably some deranged psycho, but not Harry.
"Well Merula, all I know is that you're my friend and you're going to be the most powerful witch in the world, I don't really think anything's changed there," Harry shrugged as he reached out and patted the girl's shoulder. "I know that you like to play Quidditch, you like to sing when you think nobody is watching…"
Merula looked horrified that Harry had overheard her at some point last year. That was so embarrassing.
"You study harder than anyone else I know, you're clever and you never quit. So if you do change, I'm not going to be worried because you're a wonderful person already and I think you can only get better from here on."
Harry stared unblinking at the girl as her jaw dropped. "Oh wow, oh wow," she stammered because that was the kindest, most incredible thing anyone had ever said to her in her entire life.
"And if you're worried about your aunt, give it time and maybe just send her a letter," Harry suggested. "At least then if she doesn't respond you know that you tried to reach out and now it's up to her to respond."
The fifteen year old girl looked down at the twelve year old before shaking her head. "When did you get so smart?"
Just offering her a small smile, Harry chuckled. "Well I guess it's just some of the things I might have liked to hear growing up and I figured maybe you'd like to hear them too."
Merula pulled the boy into a tight hug and started to laugh as she felt some tears that managed to escape roll down her cheeks. "I guess I did need to hear it from someone else."
The two weeks flew by, partly because Tonks and Tulip had made time to come and visit almost every day, but still the first of September wasn't going to wait for anyone.
Sitting in the same train compartment they had all shared last year, Harry was reading another book he'd picked up at Flourish and Blotts while the girls played a round of exploding snap.
"So you two get up to any naughtiness while you shared a home?" Tonks grinned at Merula.
"Of course not," Merula muttered as she now was trying very hard to focus on her cards so as to not think about how living with someone was a big step up from being alone every summer. Nor did she want to think about how she was glad that it was Harry she got to spend it with.
"Oh really, so you two didn't play husband and wife, snuggling up every night," Tulips teased as she played down a card.
Merula slapped one down to prevent the stack from exploding before shooting a glare at the redhead. "I will NOT dignify that with a response."
"We're getting closer," Tonks bit her lip and shot a glance to Harry by the window. "So Harry, did you peep on Merula when she was changing? There wasn't anyone there to stop you if you did."
Merula's mouth opened in a horrified gape as she knew that Harry hadn't done that and if he did, she did not want to know.
Slowly turning a page in his book without even looking up, Harry grinned. "Of course not Tonksie, the same cannot be said of you, I wasn't aware that fifteen year old girls still wore undies with teddy bears on them."
Nymphadora gasped before looking furious. "How could you do that?!"
Harry busted up laughing as his book fell to the floor. "I was joking, I just made a wild guess, do you seriously though?" Harry grinned because if Tonks wasn't trying to turn the prank back on him, this was going to be a goldmine of jokes.
The metamorph snapped her mouth shut as she realized that there would have been no chance Harry spied on her changing without getting caught by her mum or dad. "N-No," she quickly said and sat down on the bench.
"You do?" Merula snickered.
"That's so cute," Tulip cooed at the girl's choice of undergarment.
"It's not like that," Tonks shouted as her hair shifted colors wildly. "It's just a pair that's size changing, I have other panties, adult panties."
This caused the others in the compartment to laugh harder. "I'm burning them as soon as we get to Hogwarts," Tonks huffed and folded her arms.
"It's alright Tonks," Harry wheezed as he tried to control himself. "We all have some things from our childhood we keep around. At least your clothes were yours and not hand me downs from your cousin."
"Hahaha," Merula snorted. "Oh could you imagine the little spawn getting Tonks' clothes she grew out of.
"What Draco Malfoy in little skirts and dresses just because his uncle's too cheap to waste the money," Tulip started to cough because of how hard she was laughing.
Tonks was trying her hardest to keep pouting for being teased but the way the conversation was kept light and she wasn't just getting dogpiled on made her laugh too. "Oh, oh, I think I still have an old skirt in the bottom of my trunk that I just never took out from first year, you think if we jump him in his compartment we can force it on him and make him have to walk all the way up to the prefects compartment to get them to unlock the door so he can change."
"Only one way to find out," Merula grinned as Harry was so thankful that they had chosen Malfoy as the target of their prank and not himself since he'd been the one to start all this chaos. As the three girls ran out of the compartment, Harry just returned to his book and would deny even knowing the girls when this inevitably blew up in their faces.
As it turns out he would not be avoiding being lumped in with the girls as they all stood in front of Professor McGonagal because the prefect had reported their forced attire change once they train came to a stop.
"And you Mister Potter, what do you have to say for yourself?" putting her hands on her hips because Malfoy had been screeching that Potter had orchestrated the whole thing. Which was not entirely incorrect.
"I've never seen these three girls in my life Professor," Harry innocently said as he put his hands behind his back and tried to look as much like a victim as Draco had been.
"Mister Potter," Minerva said tiredly.
"Me llamo Juan," Harry quickly stated while holding up his hands.
"None of that now," frowning at the childish attempt.
"No hablo ingles," Harry said as he started to slowly walk his way to the door.
It slammed shut and Harry heaved a sigh. "I was under duress."
"I think Draco was the one under 'dress'," Tonks muttered and sent the girls into a fit of giggles.
"All four of you will have a detention tomorrow night," Minerva said as she opened the door and allowed the troublemakers to go to their house tables for the feast.
Sitting down at the Slytherin table together Harry looked down the line of students to see Draco practically vibrating in anger in his spot, his face a bright red. "Man, he is pissed," Harry chuckled as he turned to watch the students get sorted into their houses.
"Wouldn't you be if all three of us ganged up on you?" Merula whispered as she clapped for students, not really focusing on where they ended up.
"I'd be thanking the stars to have all three of you wrestling on top of me," Harry winked at Merula who sputtered and then slugged him in the arm for his crude retort.
Once they arrived in the common room, the older students were a little unsure of what to do, every year prior had Professor Snape haze the new arrivals but, as they shot a glance to the boy who had brutally slain him last year, no one had any inclination of what was to come next.
The door opened and Harry grinned as he watched the new Head of House practically glide across the room, as if she owned it. But considering she was a legend in the house, she might as well have.
"Hello students, my name is Professor Andromeda Tonks," Mrs. Tonks greeted everyone in the room. "I have been appointed as the new head of house for Slytherin. Hopefully we can all get along."
Harry was glad to see that a confident witch like Tonks' mom was taking over after the absolutely dismal job done by the filth he'd killed, but he wondered just who would be the first to try and test the witch.
"Why should you be in charge of us, you're a disowned bitch who married a mudblood," a sixth year student snapped at the witch.
Leaning over to the blond boy next to him who looked as shocked as anyone else in the room. "Hey, turns out you're not the biggest idiot in the castle Malfoy," Harry whispered.
"Shut up Potter," Draco quickly snapped while keeping extremely quiet as he nervously watched his aunt for what she would do. His mother had given him a warning that her sister did not tolerate nonsense and if she heard that Draco was causing her problems neither she nor Lucius would be coming to his rescue.
The witch turned and smiled at the boy who had spoken out of turn. "And what might your name be young sir?" Andromeda asked unblinkingly.
"Marcus Flint," the boy smugly said.
"Ah yes, Flint," Andromeda smiled. "I suspected as much. You look so much like your father, now let us see if you can learn faster than him."
The boy grinned and waited to see just what this woman would do when he fell to the ground furiously scratching his body and writhing on the carpet.
"Now Mr. Flint, I hope you understand that I may have been disowned by my family but I am still a Black at heart, and I will not tolerate any language like what you have just uttered to me. If you do not have enough respect for your professors, I cannot believe you would show the same to your fellow students," Andromeda said as the spell she was using would make him feel as if his body was covered in bugs. "And if you have not been able to learn that lesson in all your years in the school, then a more object lesson must be applied."
She let the boy suffer under the spell until she saw him begin to scream and then released him, no marks would be left on his body from the spell but he'd constantly feel the little tingle of their insect feet on his body for the next day or so. "Now, Mr. Flint, is there something you would like to say to myself and everyone else in the room."
"Yes ma'am, I'm sorry ma'am, I won't say things like that again ma'am," Marcus quickly said because he hadn't even seen the woman draw a wand and he was already downed.
"That's very good Mr. Flint," Andromeda smiled happily as it seemed everyone caught on to her style of managing the house. She was in charge, end of story. "Your previous head of house may have allowed such behavior, but for all the non-first year students, you can see where that got him."
"In this house, we will show each and every student and professor proper respect. No one is lesser or better than another due to the merits of their birth, you will not refer to muggleborn students as mudbloods, any usage of that word will result in a detention and a loss of fifty house points, repeated usage will earn harsher penalties."
"I know the reputation of Slytherin among the school and those who graduated. I was one of you after all, my family is the epitome of everything everyone else fears of this house. It will do none of you favors to leave this school with the stench that you are nothing more than death eaters in training, that you are lying, backstabbing scoundrels."
Andromeda said and got flinches from the students who understood what she was saying. "For too long Slytherin has been seen as the house where only dark witches and wizards go. When I attended this school there was a common sentiment from the other houses that the headmaster should have flooded the dungeons in the night to be done with the lot of us."
"I do not wish for you to leave Hogwarts with an education only to find that the negative reputation this house has rightfully garnered preceded you in your attempts to get a job," Andromeda looked around the room. "Slytherin is the house of the cunning, the clever and the ambitious, nothing in that means dark or light."
"You must learn what that all means, and how to use it to elevate yourselves and those around you," Andromeda continued because she would see the reputation of the house dragged out of the cesspool that the likes of Tom Riddle had dragged it into.
"But do know that I am always here if you have any concerns at all," Andromeda finished her introduction and let the students return to mingling.
"Tonks' mom is badass," Merula commented to Harry because she just thought the woman was a good teacher and mom, but to find out that she could take control of the house in one fell swoop. "She's everything I want to be when I grow up."
"I'll make sure to let the others know that Professor Tonks is now your idol, that's bound to go over well," Harry chuckled as Merula scoffed and ruffled his hair.
Author's Notes: This chapter is a bit shorter than the others but everytime I wrote more it just felt really awkward to blend the second half of the summer and the first month in the castle into the same chapter. But as I go on, they should return to the more average length I had been writing them at.