Familiar

Hey guys I know I said a quick update but I got the biggest influx of college work you’ve ever seen. But don’t worry I’ve got a bit of a leeway now so I’ll probably be back to my weekly-ish schedule after this.


And no one guessed the item correctly, but I may have been a bit too vague, although a lot of people were calling it a package, I never mentioned a package, I said a white object. The ‘bulky’ part was probably where everyone got confused, I don’t really know where that came from. Anyway maybe ‘large’ is a better word.


To my wonderful reviewers…

I’ve got over a hundred now, pretty good considering I’ve posted five chapters of this on ff.net and only got three reviews in about five months or more.

So thank you all.



Chapter 13: Time to end it…


When Harry thought about everything that had happened to him since his birthday, just under a month ago now, he couldn’t believe how much he’d changed and how much he’d learnt. Tomorrow he would be going to Hogwarts for his seventh year, part of him was looking forward to it but the rest of him wasn’t. Hogwarts had been his home for six years and it still was in some ways, but Potter manor was his and he couldn’t imagine leaving it. Even if Krai was going with him. Privately, he knew the reason he didn’t want to go back was because he didn’t know how people would react to him anymore. He was just glad he still had Ron. He hadn’t thought he’d even have that but when Krai had found the pensieve for him, he knew Ron would realize what was going on. Then again even Harry didn’t know what was really going on. He had his suspicions but that was all.

Harry and Ron had made up, although it had taken Harry a while to convince Ron that Harry still wanted to be his friend. They’d both decided that they wouldn’t act any different with Hermione until they found out what was going on. He’d stayed at the Burrow for a few days, after that and something strange had happened. He and Ron had always been friends, good friends but on those days at the Burrow, it was as if something was missing. Something inhibiting. Their friendship became even stronger and all they could put it down to was the fact that Hermione wasn’t there. Which was strange. Whatever was going on he didn’t think it was Hermione’s fault. He couldn’t imagine her doing anything to hurt him or anyone else for that matter.

He spent his days at the Burrow just having fun and he felt he deserved it after finally getting control of his magic. He and Krai had a few days off before returning to their studies. The depth of the snakes knowledge astounded Harry, he didn’t understand how Krai knew what he did. He’d learnt more in his time with Krai than he ever had at Hogwarts, with the exception of Remus’s DADA lessons.

He’d noticed strange things about himself over the last week or so as well. He knew he was changing. His skin itched like crazy all over, particularly his back and shoulder blades. His ears were red from constantly rubbing them. His vision had become even clearer than it had before, he could see each individual strand of his hair in a mirror at the other side of the room. His hearing was sharper, he could hear Manny and Lynny whenever they came into his room and because of that and the noises of the wind and rain, he now slept with silencing charms around his bed. He had grown quite adept at them, and almost any other spell or charm, he could even do them wandlessly. He kept that fact hidden from all bar Krai, he knew an advantage when he found one.

On a bad note his sense of taste had improved also, he couldn’t drink anything from a plastic bottle anymore, the taste was revolting. However things from a can were delicious, the metallic tang was addicting, it kinda reminded him of something, but for the moment the taste eluded him. His canines had lengthened slightly, not to the length of a vampire’s fang. They were only slightly longer, barely noticeable to anyone other than himself, he’d cut his tongue more than once on them, until the flesh of the organ had thickened to take it. The worst thing was that the taste of blood in his mouth was appetizing. And he often went straight to the kitchens for increasingly rare steaks afterwards.

He knew though with certainty that he wasn’t a vampire (he read the ‘Maturity’ book to make sure), his heart was still beating, he hadn’t bitten anybody, he could go out in daylight and he didn’t have an aversion to garlic. He knew that last one was a debated point, but still he was thank full, he loved garlic.

He was getting used to all this though, slowly but surely. He accepted that he wouldn’t be the person he was if he didn’t have his creature blood. He wouldn’t have been the person he was in the past either, without that blood.

And as well as the better vision, taste and hearing, he could move much faster and more gracefully than anyone he knew, except perhaps Snape. He’d noticed that last year, the man covered it with his trademark stalk but he did have a natural grace that Harry was now recognising in himself. He wondered if Snape had any blood. Krai wasn’t much help at walking, which was great because he’d finally found a limit to the snakes wisdom.

Then again the snake couldn’t be blamed, the concept of legs was completely foreign to the him, he didn’t understand it at all. Over the last fortnight or so, he’d learned how to pace himself, to walk slowly. To everyone else it would seem like a normal pace but to him it was ridiculously slow.

He’d noticed as well an increased flexibility. This was fairly recent. He’d have noticed it before. Few people could reach down and touch their toes without bending their knees, he could do that with ease, he could also bend his body completely in half. If he was sitting with his legs stretched out, he could lay his chest and head flat against his legs. He could bend backwards almost as far and when he’d found this out, Krai had insisted that he enrol at a gymnastics class at the local village. His bones were almost liquid like and he could squeeze through small spaces with ease, like a cat. He moved almost as quiet as a cat now. The gymnastics class gave him more practice at blending in with humans.

And he’d finally noticed something strange about his hair, well Krai had actually pointed it out to him. He never brushed it, it never tangled, if it was blown by the wind it did so in tendrils, like whipping snakes, it never knotted when he went swimming (which he was pretty good at now, after all he did have a sea snake as a teacher) and it never caught or got snagged in any of the elaborately carved furnishings in the manor. It was strange.

None of the changes had included his scar, it was still there, annoyingly clear and in view.

Overall he was happy with the changes, but he couldn’t figure out what he was. Krai had told him that traits from both of his ‘bloods’ had appeared and that the senses in particular would just get stronger. Part of his future training would be to nullify the effects when he didn’t need them, according to Krai he’d soon be able to hear a conversation at the other end of the village and tell you who it was, whether they were angry or not and whether or not they shuffled their feet or moved their hands when they talked. No he couldn’t figure out what he was, the creatures listed in the books didn’t sound like him, but how much of him was one bloodline and how much was the other, he’d never really know until Krai told him.

There were more changes Krai told him, very important ones (the messy ones are always last) and they don’t occur until the senses and the body are adapted enough to take them. Apparently it would take longer with him, because of all the years of neglect, even though he’d essentially been healed and had become the person he was meant to be, his soul and his inborn magic, apparently, were still getting used to that which made the changes go slow.

Krai guessed that he’d be ready for the last changes around Christmas time. Hopefully it’d occur in the holidays, there wouldn’t be too many people around then. He wanted to come back to the manor for Christmas but he didn’t think he’d be able to, somehow Dumbledore would find a reason to keep him there. At least this time he’d have Krai with him. Dumbledore couldn’t do anything about that, could he?

Now he came to think about it, was he allowed to take Krai with him, he remembered his first year letter, owls, cats and toads were fine, no snakes, not even a dog was mentioned, only the first three.

Dumbledore would use that to take Krai away from him, he was sure of it. But Harry wouldn’t let him, he’d already vowed that Dumbledore wouldn’t control him anymore and there was no way he’d let Dumbledore take away his familiar, the one who was helping him become the person he wanted to be. Krai’s teaching and guidance was helping him do what would have took him years to do on his own and he wouldn’t let Dumbldore put a spanner in the works.

He’d learnt some pretty intense invisibility glamours the other week, glamours to mask Krai’s appearance, his smell, his voice and his presence from anyone searching for it. He could hide Krai in plain site, some people he would allow to see Krai, people he trusted, Ron, Blaise, Remus, the Twins, Snape (yes Snape, the git never lied) and Hermione, he had to let her see him, something was going on with her but to hide Krai’s presence when she already knew about him would create more problems.

If Hermione was spying on him for Dumbledore, then he’d already know about Krai. But he couldn’t see her doing that willingly, she wouldn’t spy on him he knew that. Not willingly. But would Dumbledore dare coerce her, had he threatened her, cast a spell? He didn’t know, but he’d find out, he didn’t trust Dumbledore as far as he could throw him. And for that reason he couldn’t trust McGonagall either, or Moody. He felt like he could trust Tonks, but he couldn’t tell her anything. Dumbledore was an accomplished legilimens and he wouldn’t put it past the old sod to read her mind. Snape was strong enough to keep both the Dark Lord and Dumbledore out of his mind. Remus was the same but that was due to his furry little problem more than anything.

He was thinking about trying an experiment with Remus, since a werewolf was only dangerous to a human, he wondered if his creature blood would protect him. That way he could keep Remus company and be able to talk to him in words he could understand. When he completed his animagus training he’d be able to keep his godfather company every full moon, but that’d take a little while longer.

At the moment he was in the midst of preparations to find out his form, he’d have to retreat to the room of requirement one weekend, the ritual was quite a long one. He’d have to get someone to cover for him.

There seemed to have been a lot more work done to refine animagus training since his father’s day. It wouldn’t take him even half as long as it did them, but apparently this process was more taxing on the body to make up for the reduction in length. After all they had to find some way to keep the animagi trainees monitored, if it wasn’t dangerous they had no reason to kick up such a fuss. He didn’t know what he was, but he didn’t think he was small, when he thought about being a small animal it just didn’t fit, but when he thought about a large animal, it felt right. He couldn’t wait to find out what he was.

There was only one reason why he wanted to go back to Hogwarts and that was Draco.

Over the last few weeks he’d thought of the blond more and more. He’d slowly began to call him Draco in his mind, but the moment the blond started acting like the pompous aristocrat of old he’d be Malfoy again. He wanted to go back to Hogwarts and see if the Draco he’d met at Knockturn Alley had been a fluke. He couldn’t help but think that he’d seen the real Draco that day. And god help him he wanted to see more of him.


***


Krai had been thinking about the Malfoy boy as well, but for entirely different reasons. He’d wrote to the Malfoy boy for almost a month, he’d slowly chipped away at the pureblood façade, the ingrained desire to please the sire and the dislike of other bloods. He’d got the boy to admit that he’d never had anything against the muggleborns and half bloods and had been spouting the beliefs of his father. He’d done what he needed to do and the character of Aidan had outlived its usefulness. But he hadn’t been able to end the correspondence until his Master provided him with a reason.

Several days ago they’d both been at the Weasleys for the night and somehow one of Harry’s dreams had become a vision. Not a vision induced by Voldemort, no Harry’s mind was locked up tight against him, the other snake lord would not be able to gain access to it again. He had made sure of that. Even more disturbing was that Harry’s vision had shown the destruction of Beauxbatons academy. The moment Harry had told him, he had used it to his advantage.

He penned his latest note to the Malfoy boy and at the end wrote that he was going to Beauxbatons early for the start of the year. He had never told the boy more than he needed to know about the character of Aidan, the less the boy knew the harder it would be for Krai to slip up. He had then sent Hedwig on her way with the letter, but had used his Masters magic to make it an express trip. Draco had got the letter later that day and had immediately attempted to send another letter. The letter and owl were disallowed entrance to the manor and the owl returned home with his letter undelivered. The boy had attempted to send several more, but for the last couple of days the boy hadn’t attempted to send another.

It was the best ending he could hope for, added resentment aimed at the Dark one for killing a friend and hopefully the will to do what his friend had urged and begin the separation from his father.



A/N… I am willing to listen to suggestions on Harry’s animagus form. So if anyone wants to see something specific let me know in a review and I’ll consider it.

Hey finally some creature changes, if you can guess both of his bloodlines correctly, then I’ll email you updates before I post them on the sites. The first one is relatively well known, the second is a particular variety of another well known creature, but there is a specific name I’m looking for.

Just in case anyone’s forgot, both Sirius and Remus were named Harry’s Godfather in this fic.

If anyone’s interested garlic acts as a blood thinner, so in a way you can see why it may be detrimental to a vamp.