Familiar

Theres an A/N at the end to check out.


Jiall…I’m glad you liked it and yes Harry definitely could use Salazar as a propaganda tool. But I don’t think he will, if he does it definitely wont be for a while. If people found out about the body there would be too many questions and that would cause too many problems. You’ll find out about riddle and the egg in this chapter. And don’t worry no matter what happens I will never leave a story unfinished, I know from experience how annoying it is to see a good story then to find out the author doesn’t intend to finish it.

WeasleyWench…he he, I agree I think the colour scheme of the Chamber would send Voldie nuts.

Cheshire666…You make me smile. I’m glad you liked it. I did think that the body and the egg might be too much but I just wanted it in too much. Im glad everybody so far likes it. It is kinda sad what happened to Sal and Godric and it will be explained. I feel that soon I’ll be able to skip a bit ahead, where Harry will change more and we’ll start getting all the answers. After that comes the action. Draco may change, the only reason Harry’s changes are so obvious at the moment is because of the treatment he received at the hands of the Dursleys and his power levels. Draco isn’t nearly as powerful as Harry and the creature blood inside him may have been thinned too drastically to manifest. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Coru…Harry has some Cat Demon blood which is where all of his feline qualities come from. His animagus form will be revealed in this chapter. Hope ya like it.


Thank you to everyone else who reviewed.

27 The New Trio


‘Well I guess everyone who said Basilisks were born from a chickens egg were wrong.’ Ron said glaring at the egg from his position across the room.

The moment Harry had shown him what was inside the chest he’d backed up and was now as far away as he could possibly get, which was pretty far considering they were in the Room of Requirement. Harry and Draco both just stared at him. Draco of course was fascinated with the egg. Unlike Harry he couldn’t bring himself to touch it but at least he wasn’t backed up against the wall like Ron.

Where was all that Gryffindor bravery people talked about?

It had been a couple of days since Harry had gone into the Chamber for the third and hopefully the last time. He hadn’t told them until today, he’d needed the time to figure out what he was going to do with the egg. It was finally the weekend and the three of them had retreated to the room of requirement to begin the animagus ritual. Of course Harry had to tell them about the egg first.

It was funny how easy it was for Draco and Ron to bond, all they needed was an ‘example of Harry’s stupidity’ and they finally agreed on something and were able to have a conversation. Then again it did involve berating him for his trek into the Chamber with only ‘another bloody snake’ as company. Once they were through yelling at him, it again became a little bit awkward. Well until Ron spoke up a moment ago. Now it seemed it was Harry’s turn to have someone on his side.

As both he and Draco were staring at Ron as though he’d lost his mind, what the hell did chickens have to do with anything? It’s not the sort of thing you’d expect someone to say when they were in the same room as a basilisk egg. He hadn’t even gotten around to telling them about Salazar yet.

‘What makes you say that?’ Harry finally asked.

‘Well look at the bloody size of it!’ Ron yelled. ‘Chicken’d have to be bloody massive to get that thing out!’
‘Ron there are any number of things that could have made that egg that size, an engorgement charm for example. But it doesn’t matter it is definitely not a snake egg.’

‘How can you tell?’
‘I saw some snake eggs when I went to the zoo before first year and that definitely does not look like a snake egg to me, it looks like a giant chicken egg. Has the same colour and everything.’

‘Alright but I still don’t envy the chicken.’ Harry just shook his head.

‘You know Ron you can come over here; the egg isn’t going to hurt you.’

‘Harry it’s a damn basilisk’s egg how do you know it won’t hurt me?’ Harry just looked at him. Ron looked a bit torn but finally took a step away from the wall. Well it was a start.

He could see Draco biting his lip to keep from saying some scathing remark. Harry smiled; Draco was really trying to break all of his bad habits. Harry knew it wouldn’t always be this easy at the moment they were both shocked and curious and they were angrier with him than they were with each other. But once they had a reason to be pissed off with the other…he jus hoped they’d gotten to know each other better by then.

‘Are you going to hatch it?’ Draco asked.

‘I’d need a toad for that; do you think Neville would lend me Trevor?’ he asked Ron.

Ron snorted ‘I doubt it mate.’

‘He can never find the bloody thing anyway.’ Draco muttered, they all laughed at that. It wasn’t really funny, but it was true. Every house knew of Neville and his daily struggle to find the damned toad.

‘Oh well, I don’t intend to hatch it anyway. I’ve seen what these things can do. I’m going to keep it safe where Voldemort can’t get to it!’

‘I can’t believe he didn’t get it when he was there.’ Ron exclaimed.

‘Maybe he isn’t stupid enough to hatch one. The moment it hatches you have to close your eyes, add to that the poisonous bite and I don’t think anyone would want it as a pet.’

‘Yeh I’d rather not have a damn snake as a pet. I’m not a Slytherin.’

‘Hey!’

Harry winced. ‘Well you are a Slytherin!’

‘Yeh but I’m not stupid either.’

‘Good point love.’ Harry said

‘What are you going to do with it then Harry?’ Draco asked, making an obvious effort not to retaliate for the ‘stupid’ comment which he was sure was aimed at him.

‘I’m going to send it to Potter Manor. No one can get in there without my permission.’

‘What are we going to do about Dumbledore?’ Ron asked. ‘The old coot knows everything.’

‘And how will you keep it from the Dark Lord if he gets into you’re mind?’ Draco asked.

‘Voldemort…’ Harry said with slight emphasis. ‘Hasn’t gotten into my mind since the middle of the Summer. If he gets into my mind, I’ll just have to hope he finds other information to occupy his time. Can you imagine the damage he could do with a basilisk? Dumbledore could be just as bad. And I don’t trust the man, I know he sees me as a weapon and nothing more. He also knows that a weapon can be used against him. That’s why he watches me and it’s why he cant find out about this. It’s another thing for him to use. Neither of them can find out.’ He paused for a moment thinking. ‘And Dumbledore doesn’t know everything. If he did we’d already be fucked.’

‘You’ll have to move it quick Harry. You know Dobby does the cleaning in the dorms. What would he do if he found that?’ Ron asked.

‘I don’t want to know what he’d do. But it doesn’t matter. Whatever the house elves know Dumbledore knows. And I don’t think I want Dobby finding the egg when he’s doing the spring cleaning.’

‘Spring…? Never mind. It’s a muggleism isn’t it?’ Ron asked.

‘Eh yeh.’ Ron and Draco shared a glance. He was glad they were bonding, but bloody hell couldn’t they leave him alone?

‘So Harry.’ Draco began. ‘What else did you find in the Chamber?’

‘How…?’

‘I’ve watched you for years Harry I know when you’ve got secrets, which means that there’s got to be more to the Chamber story.’


***


He quickly gave them a brief description of finding Salazar, he emphasised the dagger in Slytherin’s side. That was almost as important as the book. If Salazar had killed himself then it just emphasized his point that everything, the Chamber, the Basilisk, maybe even the curse had all been organized by Salazar. He knew it was true he just didn’t know why.

‘We will have to research wards.’ Ron said.

‘I agree. But if the snake doesn’t know what the wards are then I doubt we’ll find anything. Familiar’s instinctively know everything that their Master’s will need. Krai has an abundant knowledge of offensive and defensive magic doesn’t he Harry?’ Draco asked.

‘Yeh, yeh he does, why?’

‘Wards are classed as defensive magic. His main goal as your familiar is to protect and educate you so that you can defend yourself and even kill after he is gone. A familiar doesn’t live forever and the work that they do cannot be constrained by knowledge.’

Now that made Harry think. A phoenix was obviously the exception to the rule of familiars as it was a magical creature and was reborn when it reached the end of its life. If this was so then it would live until Dumbledore died. This meant that Dumbledore had had a lot more years of guidance from Fawkes than would be possible for Harry himself.

Which meant that Dumbledore had a serious advantage. Voldemort had spent more time with Nagini, than Harry would with Krai before their final confrontation. Nagini would have…wait a minute!

Nagini, he had heard mentions of her in the first war. She had risen along with Voldemort, firmly wrapped around his neck. Voldemort would have got Nagini in his final year of school, or at least after school but before his eighteenth birthday, whenever that was. And Voldemort was now…well he was…Riddle had been at school over fifty years ago. A snake didn’t live that long. It wasn’t possible for her to live that long.

Realisation hit.

There was only one answer for it. Unless Voldemort had found some other way, then…Nagini was a basilisk.

He remembered her, remembered her slithering around the graveyard. Circling the headstone to which he was tied. He remembered the head, the large body. No snake was that large naturally. They were ambush predators, even the larger ones like Boas. And Nagini was easily four times their size around. The only thing that didn’t fit was the colour. But the colour could be changed. There were many spells and potions to do that. But why wasn’t Nagini the same size as the basilisk in the chamber, maybe she wasn’t fully grown yet. They did say basilisks lived for centuries and if Voldemorts main goal in life was to live forever, well it all made perfect sense. Well apart from the fact that people could meet her eyes, but surely something could be done about that too?

Looking at that chest it was obviously too large for the one egg. It had held two, it had to have done. Two eggs and Voldemort left this one here in case he ever needed more venom.

Nagini’s venom had enabled Voldemort to return. Basilisk’s venom, what other uses did it possess.

Should he raise a basilisk?

No, he couldn’t, if someone else got hold of it…then it wouldn’t matter what he did. If he had to fight another basilisk, along with the death eaters, any order members more loyal to Dumbledore than himself, Dumbledore and Voldemort themselves and their familiars, well, then he may as well just give up and die now. The odds were great enough against them as it was.

The other two were looking at him.

‘What?’

‘Well?’ Draco asked slightly exasperated. ‘What have you figured out?’

‘Oh, uh. Nagini’s a basilisk.’

Draco and Ron again, just looked at him.

‘Oh that’s just great!’ They both said at the same time.

‘How’d you figure that out?’ Ron asked.

‘Well look at the chest. It’s obviously big enough to hold more than one egg which would explain why Voldemort doesn’t have this egg. He went travelling when he left school, two snakes would have been too much to conceal. And its always wise to have a back up. And now I come to think of it Nagini looks like a basilisk.’

‘Right so Nagini’s a basilisk.’ Ron said in a matter of fact tone. ‘Well that just makes everything harder. I think we should just get on with the ritual now. The harder we work, the better we’ll do.’

‘I agree.’ Draco said. ‘We’ve done enough talking, now its time for action. We need to train. And since we have the rest of the day to ourselves, we better get a move on.’

‘You’re right we need to train, I know some things that I can teach you and the rest Krai can teach us. Becoming animagi will give us a serious advantage over the death eaters. If we transform into something big as well, then we might be able to take out Nagini. I doubt we’ll manage Fawkes, but there are other ways to kill a bird. Even though I don’t want to think about it, we’ll have to do it to take out Dumbledore. Fawkes will protect him, that’s his job. And as much as I hate to admit it we need to get rid of Dumbledore if we don’t then…well I don’t know exactly what will happen. But it can’t be…good.’ Harry finished lamely.

‘Well come on then.’ Ron said. ‘Let’s get started.’

So with a grin they all set to work.

***

The first thing was for Harry to explain the ritual that he and Krai had found in the Animagus Transformations book that had appeared on his reading list. The others were surprised as there had been no animagus book listed for them. Which made Harry wonder why he had been assigned the book and the others hadn’t?

Originally he had thought that there was a class in the subject, but now that he thought about it, he knew there wouldn’t be. He had a funny feeling that he would be given ‘private tuition’, all he could hope was that it was McGonagall and not Dumbledore who was taking him. Well he could also hope he was wrong but he didn’t think he was.

The ritual involved a fasting prior to the initial casting. The number of hours meant that they only had to miss breakfast. Which was a point Ron had been stuck on for so long that they’d almost missed dinner the night before as well!

‘Right guys.’ Harry said drawing their attention from the book they’d been engrossed in. ‘The first thing we need to do is meditate, I’m assuming that since both of you are purebloods you know how to meditate?’

‘Of course.’ They both answered.

‘Right well according to this, you have to ‘enter an altered state. Then visualise your soul and the inner animal that most represents you will be revealed.’ I’m guessing that means we’ll see the image in our minds when we get far enough into the mental state.’ He looked down at the book again. ‘I think the best thing to do will be to do this one at a time. That way if we have trouble leaving the trance or if it seems to be taking too long, according to this it should take around about an hour of intense concentration. Any longer than that and it says we should wake them up.’

‘Ok.’ Draco said clapping his hands together. ‘Who wants to go first?’

They both looked at Harry. ‘Fine I’ll do it!’

He did what he had done not so long ago to control his power. But instead of opening the door that contained his magic, he settled himself on the floor in the centre of his mind. Next, he examined himself. He thought about who he was, what was important to him.
Family, friends, loyalty, love…

He didn’t know how long he sat there before it happened. But suddenly the door that housed his magic opened…and an animal trotted out. His first thought was that the creature was a wolf, but it wasn’t a wolf more dog like than anything. It had long, slim, slender legs. A large muzzle that was darker than the rest of the face and huge ears which were almost rabbit like, just not as long and a little more squashed. The teeth were long and sharp, obviously. But it was the coat that truly caught his attention. He had never seen a creature with such a varied coat. The dog was covered in patches of black and brown, gold, tan and even cream, and had spots of all of those colours down its legs.

There was an elegance and a feral grace to the creature as it walked towards him. It panted slightly like any dog would before nuzzling his outstretched hand gently. He knew just watching it that it could run fast and swift to take down its enemies, like any canid it could be both vicious and loving. But he didn’t know the name of the creature. He wasn’t very learned on muggle creatures, he’d never had the chance really. The dog lay down and rested its head in his lap and watched him with soft brown eyes. He stroked the head tentatively and when no growl or flash of teeth was forthcoming, he rubbed behind his ear and smiled when he saw the usual doggy grin. Granted he’d only seen it on tv but all those dogs had this goofy grin on their faces when they liked being stroked.

He spent a little more time with his animagus form before noticing that everything around him other than the dog were blurring. A moment later he was staring at the concerned faces of Draco and Ron.

‘Harry are you ok?’ Ron asked, as Draco pulled him into a hug.

‘You were out of it for an hour and a half.’ Draco whispered, his voice was soft with worry.

‘Well it didn’t feel like that.’

‘What did you see?’ Ron asked. ‘What’s your animal Harry?’

‘Some sort of dog, I don’t know what exactly but it’s beautiful.’

‘Cool I wanna go next.’ Ron smiled, excited.

‘Sorry Ron but it might be better if Draco went next. Unlike us he has to put in a few appearances today. We can disappear off together and come up with a plausible excuse. But if Draco’s gone for the whole day as well, someone will notice. Blaise is covering for him but he needs to be at dinner and that’s in just over an hour, so he’d be better going next’

‘Yeh ok.’ Ron agreed.


***


‘I’m a bloody ferret!’ Draco yelled. Harry and Ron just cracked up laughing.

‘It’s not bloody funny!

‘Oh it is. It is.’ Ron said through his laughter.

‘I wouldn’t laugh if I were you Weasley, knowing how this is going you’re probably a weasel.’ And that knocked the smile right off Ron’s face. Harry just laughed at the turn around. Draco had a triumphant smirk and Ron, Ron looked like he’d swallowed something nasty. While Ron stared into space, Harry tried to get Draco to see reason.

‘Being a ferret is not that bad Draco.’

‘Easy for you to say, at least you’re something that can fight.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with being a ferret.’ Harry repeated taking Draco into his arms. ‘They’re sleek, cute…’

‘I’m not cute!’

‘No!’ Harry raised his eyebrows, ‘I think…’ he kissed Draco’s cheek, ‘you’re cute when you pout like that.’ He smiled and kissed Draco’s neck making him sigh. ‘And when you smile you’re beautiful, your hair and skin is as pale as moonlight just like a ferrets.’ He traced Draco’s jaw with his fingers. ‘You twitch your nose when you’re thinking and I think a ferret has that little endearing quality too.’ Draco was smiling slightly now. More at the fact that his mate was so sweet than the fact that he was coming to terms with being a ferret.

They kissed languidly, Harry nipping lightly at the blonde’s lips making him moan a little. ‘Hhhhhmmmm, they’re also sneaky little buggers. They can crawl into the smallest spaces. And they can be bloody vicious when they want to be. Hhhhhmmm, they’re deceptive, they look too innocent to be able to take care of themselves. And have you ever been bitten by a bloody ferret, it hurts. The perfect animal for a spy, don’t you think?’ Draco nodded, still slightly reluctant.

‘I’ve also find one particular ferret to be quite sexy.’

‘Hhhmmm well you’re right about that.

***


‘A sparrow, a bloody sparrow!’ Harry groaned, not again. Draco who had just slipped back into the room a couple of minutes ago, smirked at him.
‘Er Ron…’
‘A sparrow Harry I’m a bloody sparrow, I…I…I just…I can’t. I’m a bloody sparrow.’ Harry winced as Ron’s voice seemed to go impossibly loud. And Draco was just bloody smirking.
‘You might want to think of something to say to him Harry.’

Harry just looked at him, ‘You could help, you know.’

‘Oh no, you know Ron much better than me.’ Draco looked at Ron for a moment. ‘On that subject how do you usually get him to shut up?’

Harry snorted. ‘I usually just ignore him or yell at him. It’s Hermione who usually heads him off at the pass.’ A lot of the stuff Hermione did they could live without, her lectures…forcing them to do their work when they didn’t want to. But now he realised how much more she had done for them that he’d never really acknowledged it. How she broke up their fights, researched every little thing they needed…and was just…there.

He hadn’t actually missed her until that moment.

Maybe he was just a selfish superficial git. Or maybe there was just too much going on for him to miss his friend. But that wasn’t an excuse.

And then a moment just comes where you suddenly realise something isn’t right. Someone’s missing.

That time at the Burrow, they felt free. Without Hermione around they could, you know, just be kids…well more like idiots. They could play quidditch and just forget for a minute about school work and the war. If Hermione had been there it wouldn’t have mattered that it was the holidays, she loved nothing more than to work, to read…which there was nothing wrong with. But if she continued like this she would crash, just like she had done in third year, only worse.

But then again, had Hermione been like that recently? All he could remember of her, for the last few days…all he could remember was Hermione sitting with Lavender and Pavarti, getting all giggly and looking at him. And that was another thing, not a single person had noticed this. The golden trio were inseparable and always had been so what was going on?

He searched his memory of that day in Diagon Alley. Had Hermione acted like herself then? No she hadn’t. She hadn’t lectured him once about going to Diagon Alley on his own or about having a poisonous snake as a familiar. And he found that he missed it, he missed Hermione. She should be in here right now. Calming Ron down and looking disapproving and hiding her laughter at how he’d dealt with Draco earlier.

Right now, it shouldn’t be a trio; it should have been a quartet. She should be here.

But she wasn’t and that was wrong!

‘Ron.’

It was amazing how easily that stopped Ron’s rant. It shouldn’t have been that simple but Ron must have heard something in his voice that even he couldn’t ignore.

‘I think it’s time we talked to Hermione.’





A/N…this may seem inane, but I don’t know how long toads live. So if it is not feasible for Trevor to still be alive at the beginning of their seventh year then please indulge me. The Trevor thing was too good to pass up.

As always if you’ve read please review. If there’s anyone still reading this who hasn’t reviewed in a while, drop me a line. I’d love to here from you. Please let me know what you think.


And if anyone’s interested this is Harry’s animagus form…

http://www.oakcreek.k12.wi.us/wms/ZachO/african%20wild%20dog.htm




RECOMMENDATION


The Debt Pregnancy

By Donovon

http://hp.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=544210022&chapter=1


I’ve already recommended one of Donovon’s fics (The Plan), but I’m gonna recommend another. They’re too good. This is Harry/Draco and is COMPLETE.

Voldies dead and Harry disappeared off to the Muggle world for a while. Draco and the other Malfoys are paying compensation to the Ministry and are near enough broke. Draco is told of a will, that states that if he bonds to and can impregnate a witch/wizard before he’s 22 (one year) then he gets a legacy. If the other has Founder’s blood then its doubled.

The trouble is Draco is gay and only one wizard could hope to get pregnant within that time. The trouble is he hates him, or does he?


Misunderstandings, love, surprises and some really wonderful moments make up this story.