AN/ thank you for your patience. Thank you all again for reading. As usual I own nothing but plot.

Time flew by for the denizens of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Over the course of the last few months, Harry had become rather close to Andromeda, almost as close as he had to the other two girls, and he rather enjoyed their time together. He had also become closer to Frank Longbottom and often hung out with him. Granted, Frank had taken a bit of a hit socially within the lion's den, as some still saw Harry as dark, but for the most part, it was overlooked. The ones that took it the hardest were James and his crew, except Remus, of course, whom Harry still met up with once a week to play chess with or do homework.

It was now October thirty-first, and he was waiting in the classroom he used for Andromeda. He was looking out the window, thinking of the past two months. James and the others had indeed ramped up their efforts against the Slytherins. It had reached the point now that people were having to watch their backs. The tension within the school was high, waiting for the next prank and retaliation.

He shook his head as he remembered Remus getting upset that their last prank had sent Snape to the hospital wing. The boy had a severe allergic reaction to something in their prank, and he had puffed up like a balloon. From what he had heard from Cygnus, it was shellfish that had done it to him. It had taken Harry an hour to calm his friend down as he had felt so bad.

Snape had retaliated by setting Pettigrew's pants on fire as he walked by an alcove with a statue in it. The little rat-like boy had suffered second-degree burns on his backside. It was starting to turn into a "send one of ours to the hospital, and we send one of you to the morgue" kind of thing. He was worried about Lily the most, though, as she would always try to defend Snape, and he feared she would get caught in the middle of it all.

His thoughts were interrupted by the door opening and Andie sneaking in. He smiled up at her as she smiled back and came to sit in front of him. "Hi, Harry, how are you today?"

"I'm fine, Andie. How about you?" he asked.

"I'm good. It's just been getting hard in Slytherin, you know. I just..." She was interrupted by the door slamming open.

Harry jumped to his feet and had his wand out in a flash, pointing at the intruders. However, he froze when he saw Amelia and Lily standing side by side, looking panicked. He raised an eyebrow as he lowered his wand. "Girls, what's the matter? Is everything okay?"

"We saw a Slytherin girl coming in here and thought that she might be attacking you," Amelia said with a light glare at Andie, who huffed and folded her arms over her chest.

"You know not all of us are evil, you know," she said, almost sadly, looking away from them. She was hoping this wouldn't ruin her and Harry's friendship; she was really starting to like hanging out with him.

"Now, girls, that wasn't very nice at all. You shouldn't just assume someone is going to attack people based on their house," he said, causing them both to look down. "Also, how did you know I was up here?"

Their cheeks turned slightly pink, and neither one would look him in the eye. "Well, it's just you disappear a lot, and we got curious... so we... we followed you," Lily admitted, looking down.

"You could have just asked, you know?" Harry said with a raised eyebrow. "Now, I think you should both apologize to Andie here. I think you three would really get along, you know, and she is my friend just as much as the two of you are."

They both looked at the Slytherin girl and then at each other and nodded a bit. "We're sorry we made assumptions. It's just with what has been going on between Gryffindor and Slytherin, we jumped to conclusions that we shouldn't have," Amelia told her, much to Andie's surprise.

Honestly, she could understand that, with as much animosity going around lately. "It's fine. I understand and can appreciate you being concerned for Harry."

The girls looked shocked but smiled. Then they turned to look at Harry. "So this is where you run off to all the time, huh? Having secret meetings with other girls?" Amelia asked in a slightly heated tone that told Harry he better have a good explanation for this.

Harry rubbed the back of his head. "It's not really like that. Some of my friends, like Andie here, can't really move around in the open or don't want to until our friendship is more stable. Plus, I haven't exactly hidden the fact that I come up here; it's just that you two are the only ones who have noticed or at least taken an interest in what it is I'm doing."

"What other friends?" Lily asked, tilting her head in that cute manner he loved.

Harry sighed; it wouldn't be good to lie to them or keep this away from them. After all, it really wasn't that big of a deal. "Well, there is Andie here," he gestured to her, and she had to turn her face away to hide the small blush at the other two girls' looks. "Then there is Cygnus Greengrass and Remus Lupin as well."

Amelia gave him an incredulous look. "You became friends with Lupin? What about how his other friends treat you? He had helped with those pranks, you know?"

Harry chuckled as he could hear the concern in her voice, along with the slight condescension. "Yes, I am quite aware, my dear Amelia." She went slightly pink and looked away. "However, he has apologized and hasn't been helping them with their pranks, especially since the incident with Snape. Potter has taken his little war on evil too far, and he has withdrawn from them some."

The girls nodded and then looked at each other for a moment as if having a silent conversation. Harry hated it when they did this, as it usually didn't mean something good for him. "Well, either way, we know now, and we want more friends, too, you know," Amelia said with a smile.

Andie interrupted them at this point, her face showing just a hint of shock. "Wait, you would want to be my friend?"

The girls turned to her, giving their own smiles. "Well, if Harry trusts you, then so will we," Lilly told her. "Besides, we can always use another girl in the group to keep Harry in line."

Harry rolled his eyes at her but smiled. "Oh, hardy har har."

The rest of the afternoon was spent with the girls getting to know Andie more. They found that they had at least one thing in common with the new girl in the group, if not more, and they were rather happy about it. Andie, for her part, felt her mask slowly slipping away around these three, but she found she didn't mind in the least. In fact, it felt rather freeing. Before now, the only ones she could really be herself

With were her two sisters and her cousin Sirius. Harry just smiled as he watched the three girls talking and giggling with each other. It was rather nice to see them all having fun and that he didn't have to hide his friendships from each of them.

(Christmas)

Harry had opted to stay in the castle this year for Christmas as he wanted to do some studying, and the girls' families were each going out of the country. Lily and her family were going to France for the holiday to visit her grandmother. Amelia had to go to Switzerland as her father had some things to do business-wise.

He was currently sitting in an alcove and watching as snow flittered down over the grounds outside. It was quiet in the castle, with only a handful of students staying behind. He held a book on enchanted artifacts through the ages, propped on his knees. It was the holiday season that made him truly miss his parents being alive. He had thought it lonely before, but now it was almost unbearable. He experienced the love of family for the first time in his life, only to have it ripped from him after only seven years. His mother always loved to watch the snow with him. She would make the best hot chocolate he had ever tasted, which they would sip on while she softly hummed a carol.

He looked down as he felt Larry come up to him and crawl up onto the ledge. "Harry, Harry, you'll never guess what I found today! It's so amazing!"

Harry smiled a bit at Happy Larry's excitement. "And what did you find today, Larry?"

Larry crawled up him until his head was splayed around him. The middle one, Happy Larry, was in front of his face, looking at him upside down. "We found this really HUGE room, and you won't believe what we found in it! We found another basilisk, but she is HUGE, like a thousand times bigger than me!"

Harry suddenly paled. He had forgotten about the Basilisk under the school. "Larry, did you... speak to this other Basilisk?"

Happy Larry nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yes, she was so nice to me. I told her all about our life and you and America and our travels. She wants to meet you, Harry. Will you meet her, please, please, please!?"

Harry blinked a few times. The Basilisk wanted to… meet him. "Ah, Larry, are you sure that is a good idea? I mean, you know that not all magical creatures are as nice as you and Faux, correct?"

Again, Larry nodded his head. "Oh yes, she has promised that you won't be hurt. She is just curious about you. She said she has only had one other visitor since her bond mate passed on."

Harry hesitated for a moment before he slowly nodded. "Very well, Larry, I shall trust you on this."

"Oh, yay!" He exclaimed before he slid off Harry and started down the hall. Harry quickly got up and ran after him.

Larry led him down to the second-floor girls' bathroom, where he quickly looked around to make sure no one saw him. They went in, and not even Myrtle was there. He sighed at that; he really didn't want to deal with her this time around. She was nice but also a bit of a pervert. Larry told the sink to open and then asked for the stairs. Harry facepalmed himself for his past stupidity, even knowing that he was in a hurry; it was rather stupid to think that Salazar Slytherin would just jump down a tube.

They made their way down the dark tunnel, and he heard the sink above them close again. Down and down they went until, finally, they made it to the bottom. It was just as disgusting as he had remembered it. He tried not to think of all the rat skeletons he was stepping on as they made their way through the cavern. Finally, they made it to the round door with the emerald-eyed serpents along its edge. Larry opened the door, and in they went.

The chamber was just as he had left it, and flashes of the last time he was here flashed through his mind. The feeling of helplessness. The idea that he was going to die down here bubbled into his mind as fresh as the day it happened. He stopped in the spot where he had collapsed after being bitten by the same serpent that he was about to face once more. He shuddered a bit at that thought before he heard Larry calling out to the stone head above the pool in the center of the room.

He watched as he heard the noises of a giant beast moving around in the dark crevasse. He could see the poison-green scales of the beast writhing inside. He did his best to resist his urge to turn and run as fast as he could. He looked down at the floor before him as the great beast fell out onto the floor.

"Larry… come back… Laura… Pleased," she said in a rumbling female voice with broken English.

"Hi, Laura. I brought my bond mate with me. Look, look, this is Harry," he said, slithering quickly to Harry and up his body.

Harry could feel the great serpent, now named Laura, come near him and sniff at him. He had to resist the urge to run again. "Bond mate… Harry… can look… Laura, no hurt… Larry bond mate."

Harry hesitantly looked up at the large green body. He got to the largemouth and spotted a few sharp fangs protruding from its scaly lips. He finally reached the large bulbous yellow eyes. All in all, he found her to be a gorgeous creature when he wasn't running for his life trying to fight it with a sword. "Hello, I assume that you are Laura," he said, his voice sounding more confident than he felt.

The giant head nodded a bit. "Yes… Laura me. You are Larry… bond mate."

Harry couldn't help but smile at her way of speaking. It seemed so innocent for such a large creature. "Yes, I am, and it is a pleasure to meet you, Laura."

"Bond mate… Harry… nicer… than last guest… Last guest… made Laura… do bad things," Laura said, looking away a bit. "Bond mate Harry… remind Laura… Bond mate Salazar… such good man."

Harry tilted his head a bit, curious about her old bond mate and the other guest. "Other guest?"

"Yes… made Laura hurt… made Laura kill. Laura no like kill. Kill against… bond mate's words… to protect. But Laura has no bond, mate… susceptible to speaker's words. Speaker makes Laura hurt students. Speaker scared school close… told Laura he would be back… use Laura again to kill. Laura doesn't want… but Laura cannot leave… Laura has no place to go," she said, looking as depressed as a snake could be.

Now Harry was confused. Was she really saying what he thought she was? "Laura, are you saying that Salazar didn't want to kill Muggleborns?"

Laura shook her great head. "No! Not Muggleborn… kill Muggle who may attack… not Muggleborn. Muggle may attack students… Laura to protect."

Harry took on a thoughtful pose at her words. "I see…"

After a moment of him thinking, Laura spoke again. "Bond mate Harry… Laura… ask question."

Harry looked up at her. "Of course, Laura."

"Laura, ask bond mate Harry… kill Laura… Laura doesn't want to be used again," she asked, shocking both Larry and Harry.

"Laura, no! You can't die, Laura; you're my friend!" Larry's heads exclaimed together.

She looked down sadly at the little snake. "Laura's sorry… Laura doesn't want to be used again… Laura has no bond mate… can be used by the speaker."

"But… but… what about Harry? You could bond with him! He is strong and he can do it," he said urgently. "Right, Harry?"

The two turned to him. "Well…" He was trying to think of where he could even keep Laura. Could she even use his magic like Larry to shrink? "Could I even have two bonded familiars?"

Laura nodded. "Bond mate Salazar… friend Godric… two bond mates… Phoenix and Gryphon."

Harry thought about it for a few moments before he nodded. "Well, I suppose I could if you would like that, Laura."

Laura got an excited gleam in her eyes. "Oh yes… Laura's very happy with the idea, friend Larry has."

Harry nodded and stepped forward as Laura lowered her snout to him. He lay his hand upon it, and both of their eyes began to glow. After a long moment, the glow died down. Harry smiled up at the large beast before him as he felt the connection to her at the back of his mind. "Welcome to the family, Laura."

"Laura's happy… best day… since first bond," Laura said. Then she glowed and shrank down to fifteen feet long and curled up Harry's leg, giving him a gentle squeeze as if giving him a hug.

Harry scratched her head and smiled a bit. "Now, Laura, I can't have you here at the school with me all the time. It would raise too many questions. Would you like to go to my manor so you don't have to be down here all the time? Larry and I will be there during the summers and holidays."

Laura nodded her head. "Yes, Laura would like that."

Harry smiled and called out to Trixie. The small house-elf popped in, and her eyes widened at the sight of the new snake. "Trixie, this is Laura, my new familiar. Would you please take her to the manor for me? We will need to get a new tank set up for her in my room by Larry's tank."

Trixie just nodded. "Of course, Master Harry, I shall have it all set up by tomorrow."

"Good, thank you, Trixie." He turned to Laura. "Okay, Laura, this is Trixie, my elf. She and my other elf, Kurt, will take care of you until I return, okay?"

"Yes, bond mate Harry. Laura… excited… to be in a new home," she said and slithered to Trixie.

Harry and Larry said goodbye to Laura and watched as they disappeared. Harry then turned to Larry. "Do you know if there are any other secret rooms in here, Larry?"

Larry shook his head. "No, but I can come back and look around more later. I'm getting tired."

Harry looked at his watch and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. We should head back up. It's getting late anyway."