Familiar

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and if you read this chapter please review again. The more people who review the faster I update. Got a real lot of college work at the moment so if you want an update before Christmas, REVIEW. It doesn’t usually take much for me to leave my work til later but I’ve gotta be firm, You want an update review, please.

Another Thanks to LoveGD, for telling me how to do bold and italics.


A/N… In this chapter I will be referring to Remus as Harry’s godfather, so let’s just pretend that Lily and James didn’t know anyone else that they considered as trust worthy as both Remus and Sirius so they decided Harry should have two Godfathers.


Chapter 3: Familiar


The owner of the store had lied to him. The snake was not rare. He did have dual bloodlines but both of them were quite common. His snake who had chosen the name Krai was a cross between a sea krait and a sunbeam snake. He was fine and sleek, but on closer inspection was not pure black but dark grey, his underside though was bluish grey striped with black and his tail was flattened and paddle shaped. But his entire body did glow a multitude of colours as if he had been dipped in petrol. He was nearly two meters in length, he had the wedged shaped head of the sunbeam instead of the small rounded head of the krait. He was very striking. And quite talkative.


After his snake had flashed his fangs at the owner a few times and after a threat or two from ‘Aidan’ the owner had reduced the price by quite a bit, in the end it had been a very reasonable price for a familiar. He had also told Harry what his snake really was, hoping to retain any future business with an apparently rich and dark young man. He had told him that though the snake was not rare, he was still very sought after, the skin of the sunbeam, which seemed to be his most prominent bloodline was quite useful in potions. The skin had similar properties to that of a boomslang, though it could not be used in the polyjuice potion. The other half, the sea krait is an extremely venomous snake and its venom had many uses in potions, mainly protection potions. He knew that both aspects would be useful to him and he told the proprietor so, as it wouldn’t do for him to wonder.


After paying, Krai had wound himself around Harry and they had headed back to Diagon Alley where he had signalled Hedwig to come down and meet Krai. After a few moments of posing and Krai’s promise not to eat Hedwig, things had settled down and Hedwig had forgiven him for getting a familiar without consulting her, enough to sit on his shoulder. Since talking to snakes in the middle of Diagon Alley would cause a few problems, he retreated to the Leaky Cauldron, where he read some more on what to expect tonight. Who knew turning seventeen could be such a trial. His familiar curled himself into a tight coil on the table top and fell asleep; Hedwig went to sleep as well but perched on the back of a chair.

He picked up Maturity and began to read, starting with the chapter on familiars.

‘The familiar is one of the most respected and well known ideals in the magical world, children wish for a familiar when they turn seventeen and when they become adults they still want one even though they know they won’t get one. A familiar is a guiding friend, who guides the soul he/she looks to, by using the others magic. As only powerful witches and wizards are able to bond with a familiar, the magic the familiar uses is hardly missed. Familiars depending on the person they are attached to, can be either light or dark, familiars are very rarely entirely good or evil. Through the bond, a familiar takes the magic of their witch/wizard and uses it entirely for the benefit of that person. This may be simply advising them, even manipulating them into something that they otherwise would not do. A familiar cannot harm their person. There is usually a mind link between the two, which allows the familiar to manipulate the other more easily. Through the mind link both can speak mind to mind.’

Huh, he would have to watch the thoughts in his head, he loved the idea of having a familiar, someone to advise him with no ulterior motives, but he did not need someone else to manipulate him, whether in his mind or in real life. He had enough of that as it was, what with Dumbledore and Voldemort who still sent him visions, mainly of the people he killed, hoping to drive him to distraction and make him do something stupid. He shot a glance at Krai; he was still asleep, for now he didn’t have to worry about anything. Getting back to his book, he turned to one of the earlier chapters and began to read…

‘The year between the seventeenth and eighteenth birthday is an important time in a young witch/wizards life. In the wizarding world this is believed to be the year where a person becomes the adult they will be for the rest of their lives. That is why this year is known as the transition period between youth and adulthood. When a person reaches seventeen, in most cases their body has by then stopped changing and it is then the turn of the mind, the mind is believed to be where magic is housed, where the talent and the knowledge is. The powers develop to their fullest gradually over the year. Really powerful people may have a small surge of power at the beginning and a gradual progression for the rest of the year. The power level afforded to a person at the end of the year is usually a combination of the power levels of both parents but some individuals, several from ancient times and two in recent years have been afforded a higher level. Power levels are recorded by the ministry on the day after the eighteenth birthday, by writing to the magic registry office, a young witch or wizard is able to find out the power levels of their parents and estimate their own potential power level.’

Well if he’d have known that he’d have written to the Ministry, but he wasn’t doing it now, maybe he’d write to them when he got back to Hogwarts.

‘The year between the seventeenth and eighteenth birthday is also known as the transformation year. This is because the change in power levels can overwhelm the cells in the body and change the body in to something else. This can be something as simple as lengthening the hair, changing the colours of the hair and eyes. Sometimes the power within a person can change them into what they would have been if the circumstances of their lives hadn’t changed them. It is also possible for a person to develop hidden traits and skills that were unknown before. Some people for example develop the ability to mind read, to create vivid illusions and project them without the use of a wand. Usually though it is something like developing the ability to talk to an animal whether muggle or magical.’

That didn’t sound too bad.

‘Of course when these changes take place there is a certain amount of pain, e.g. the changes in height and build. This is because of the stretching of bones, muscles and organs. This is where the potions discussed later in this book come in handy. This is also the best time to brew a blood replenishing potion, as a lot of blood is used to regenerate cells and create new ‘additions’ to the body.’

Ok that sounded a little bit worrying, not that he was too worried. He had experienced a little bit of pain over the years, like when his arm had been pierced by a basilisk’s fang. It was strange though, the magic of a person prevented them from feeling the pain from the power increase but it didn’t protect them from the physical pain of transformation that was directly caused by the magic increase. He didn’t really understand that.

‘Further it is possible for even greater changes to occur, especially amongst pure blood families. Very rarely is the ‘pure blood’ bloodline actually pure, it is a matter of opinion whether or not this is so. Pure blood families have often interbred to keep their wizarding blood pure but every few generations a pure blood witch or wizard would either breed or take as their partner a magical creature of the humanoid variety. Such as a Demon, Elf, Vampire or Veela. This boosts their flagging magical powers and is the reason why pure bloods are still able to hold a wand the right way up.’

He laughed at this.

‘Because of this certain traits that belong to those bloodlines may appear, such as the development of pointed ears (elves), the changing of hair colour to an extremely light blond (Veela) and the development of blood lust (Vampires and Demons, in two very different ways). It is possible that very unsavoury traits may appear, depending on the strength of the blood. In this instance the blood flow stopping potion would be extremely useful, growing new appendages like teeth and wings will result in blood loss. It is very likely that most if not all purebloods will have some sort of development. This change could be so subtle it is barely noticeable or so obvious that a person is forced to change their lives accordingly. In this book are several chapters, one on each species that could have birthed or sired a child with a witch or wizard. It may be of interest to point out that these traits can also appear in half blood children, as long as the blood is present in the line. The blood could have been dormant for centuries and becomes dominant when combined with another blood. So if any changes appear it is a wise course of action to check your symptoms against the ones listed for each species.’

Now that was a bit more worrying, Remus had once told him that his father was a pureblood. He hadn’t been entirely sure whether Lily was a half blood herself or entirely muggleborn, she had always professed to being a muggle born but Remus wasn’t entirely sure, there had been several instances over their years at school which had made the werewolf suspicious. And Harry knew his godfather well enough to know that you always paid attention to his instincts. It was possible that his fathers line carried a magical creatures blood and if Lily was a half blood as Remus suspected, her blood may have carried a complimentary gene that would manifest in him during the next year. Hhmm, maybe he should have another word with Remus. But that could wait until he went back to Hogwarts as well; it was obvious that the changes if and when they appeared would be gradual, so he had time. He could talk to Remus at Hogwarts; he couldn’t wait to get back in to Defence against the Dark Arts, with Remus teaching again he would actually learn something. Their last two teachers had been nothing short of useless, Umbridge like most of their defence teachers had tried to kill him and Slughorn like the others was completely useless, he seemed to have no interest in defence, it was almost like it wasn’t even his subject. No he couldn’t wait to have Remus back; his godfather had told him that he had a few new useful spells and charms to teach him. And if the patronus charm was any indication of what Remus could teach him, he couldn’t wait to find out what else he knew.

He yawned and stretched a little bit, accidentally pushing back his chair causing both Hedwig and Krai to wake with a start. Hedwig gave him a reproachful hoot before settling back down to sleep. Krai on the other hand slid over to him, up his arm and around his neck.
~Sssomething is wrong masssster~
~No I wasss just thinking~ The snake almost laughed.
~About your coming transssition, yesss~
~Yesss, hows do you know about that~
~I knowsss many thingsss, massster~
~It’sss ssstrange how you ssseem to know more than I do. Why didn’t they tell me~
~That I do not know massster, it isss not good to keep sssomeone in the dark~
~I don’t know what it isss, everyone wantsss me to be the Sssaviour, but they don’t help me to become the sssaviour. Does that sssound pompousss~
~Yesss~
~What I mean isss, they, urgh, they expect me to just go in and sssurvive. They think that becaussse I am dessstined to be the Sssaviour I could be jussst asss easssily the next dark lord. They fear me. They think that I could be like Voldemort and I am like him, even he ssaw it, both orphansss (though in my case that was his fault), both half bloodsss and both parssselmouthsss. Maybe itss not that difficult for them to sssee him in me~
~Massster I do not know you very well yet but I can sssee that you are a good sssoul and I have heard of thisss Voldemort or you know who, and he iss not you. The sssimilaritess between two people are not what makesss them the sssame, thossse things jussst sshape who you are and will be. Jussst because you cans sspeak to me, like he doess, doess not mean that you are a killer~
~But I will be, or could be, I may ssstill die myssself~
~You may die massster, but you will die asss yourself not asss him. You have choosssen your own life, he chosssse hissss~
~Can I be a killer, wont that make me like him~
~Massster, why will you kill him~
~What~
~What reassson will you kill him for, becaussse people want you to…~
~No, he killed my parentsss~
~Isss that the only reassson~
~No, he killed Sssusssan Bone’sss family, his followersss ruined Neville’sss life. They hurt people, all of them. Voldemort more ssso than any of them and they don’t care what they do. I am not going to try to kill him because of my parentsss or Sssiriusss, though they are part of the reason. I am going to kill him becaussse if I don’t no one can and he’ll continue breaking familiesss apart~
~Exactly and why doesss he kill~
~Hatred, power, insanity and he enjoysss it~
~That isss the real difference between you massster, would you kill him if there wass anyother way~
~No~
~But he would~

That actually made him think, he was similar to Voldemort but there were many others who were similar as well. Susan was an orphan even though she still had her Auntie Amelia, Seamus was a half blood but only Voldemort was a parselmouth. But he had never told a basilisk to kill students or forced part of his soul into his familiar’s body and he wouldn’t do even if it was the only way to survive. A weight seemed to lift from his shoulders, an invisible worry that he had carried since second year, something Dumbledore hadn’t been able to fully remove. If this was the kind of help a familiar could give, then he could stand a little bit of manipulation and maybe this time someone would tell him why they were doing it.

He took a quick look at his watch and found that it was quite late, several people were talking intently with Tom at the bar but they were far enough away from the fireplace to not cause problems. He woke up Hedwig with a gently poke and told her it was time to go. With a surprisingly chipper hoot she settled on his shoulder. Krai wound himself more firmly around his arm and neck. He placed his wand in his jeans pocket, he really shouldn’t be doing that but there was no Moody here to tell him off. He had stood up ready to go when a little of the conversation at the bar reached him.
‘…Potter… yes, we’re looking for him...’
‘Dumbledore’s orders you know… left home…’
‘Missing for… have you seen…’
‘No sorry, hasn’t been… Did you ask…?’
‘…even asked at Gringotts, no ones seen him…’
‘…if they are not telling…’

Deciding that it might be prudent to leave he picked up the bag of snake stuff he had bought in the magical menagerie and hadn’t bothered to shrink. He couldn’t fit anymore in his pockets anyway and turned to leave. He stepped up to the fireplace and took a pinch of floo powder from the supply he had bought earlier, placed the container back in with the snake stuff, threw the powder into the fire and said quite clearly, but not too loudly…
‘Potter Manor.’
And with that he was off in a swirl of fireplaces to his family’s ancestral home.


A/N Hey guys just a little thing, I know where I want to go with Harry’s transition but where do you want it to go. If you have any ideas let me know. I may change my mind and use my favourite one, especially if I get a few people against my original idea.
I live to please, so let