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Harry was happy that something good had come out of the terrible events surrounding the ending of his fourth year of schooling at Hogwarts and the Twi-Wizard Tournament. After the fake Moody had been apprehended and revealed as Barty Crouch Jr., the Death Eater had been interrogated to the full extent legally possible about the events of Voldemort’s Rebirth and a few other cases, his Godfather had been cleared of all charges when they had found out Peter was still alive and very much a servant of Voldemort. This meant that Harry had been able to actually spend his summer months with his Godfather and Professor Lupin (Who had turned out to be just as much as a godfather as Sirius). Dumbledore had of course tried to make Harry go to the Dursley’s stating something about Blood Wards and protections until Harry had pointed out that Voldemort could touch him now. Harry may have also said that he might run away if Dumbledore forced him into going back to his relative’s house. That had shout him up pretty quick like and ended with Harry being scalded pretty badly by Mrs. Weasley, but it had been totally worth it in his mind.

His Godfather had brought Harry to the Black Manor for the summer, one of the only things from the Black Legacy that his Godfather had actually liked, which sat on quite a bit of land surrounded by a vast forest the rivaled the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts with both its dangerous animals and in mere size. Sirius had given Harry a Portkey back to the manor knowing that it would be useless to try and stop Harry from trying to enter the forest to explore as a safety caution. Harry aching to explore the forest as soon as he could slipped on the Portkey and quickly out in the danger zone. This is also how he came to be in the position that he was in now.

It was his fiftieth time (he actually hadn’t counted, but he had been in the forest quite a bit and he was assuming it was that amount) in the forest that he actually stumbled across trouble. Surprisingly it hadn’t been in the form of a giant spider, a werewolf, or even a blood thirsty wolf (okay he may be dramatic, but seriously look at his track record). No it was in the form of and egg on the ground. Harry had immediately been attracted to it upon first entering the little clearing. It was sitting in a small puddle and the size of a chicken egg; it was also weirdly discolored as if it had been dyed by a little kid for Easter. The egg was a pale green with little red and blue spots decorated it randomly.

Being paranoid for once, Harry looked around the clearing because he was sure that if there was an egg than the parent had to be somewhere. It was basic logic and he also seen movies were people had taken the young of creatures only to meet a gruesome death later on. So Harry decided to climb a tree and wait to see if the parent to the egg would come by any time soon. So Harry waited and waited and ate some lunch because he was hungry and waited some more before finally decided that the egg was all by its lonesome and without a parent. Climbing down the tree he poked the egg curiously with a wand and felt the thrum of energy pour out from the egg. The egg was defiantly alive then and Harry just couldn’t leave it out here were it could die because of some random creature. The egg was cute after all and he had quite the soft spot for little creatures. So carefully Harry picked up the egg and placed it carefully in his before making his way out of the forest. He did not want to break it after all.

~~

The next few days were spent in the library trying to identify just what type of egg he had found, so far he knew that it was some type of serpent or reptile. Without Remus or Sirius being the wiser he had stolen an incubator out of the extensive animal care storage rooms of the barn outside to house his egg in. Harry wanted his project to stay his project and he also did not want to have either of his parental figures yell at him for bringing home a strange magical egg that could be dangerous. Honestly, he didn’t see what could be dangerous about the Easter colored egg and it seemed innocence enough.

Sirius had gotten suspicious at first because Harry was not the person to sit down and read, it just wasn’t a part of his personally, but after telling Sirius that he was researching something for a defense project his Godfather had not thought anything about it. Remus though had questioned him thoroughly though about his so-called defense project and Harry had told him it was about some of the magical creatures he had heard about. Both bases had been covered, so he was very much in the clear. Well that was until Ron came over in the next few days, but Ron kept his secrets. Molly might be someone to watch out for… maybe he could get Remus to spell his room against the female gender? No that would raise to many question, but then again he could tell Remus that Ginny was kind of creeping him. Seriously, it was kind of scary.

Making an annoyed noise, Harry dropped the book he was reading and made his way down to the kitchen to get something to eat. He had been in the library since breakfast and was getting hungry, so with his thought process completely broken he decided it was time to get some food. Whistling softly as he went Harry looked around searching for one of his Godfathers. When he entered the kitchen he was surprise to not only find Remus and Sirius, but also Snape. He cocked his head curiously to the side, thoroughly amused to see the Snape sipping tea while discussing something with Remus and Sirius going through papers muttering something about the stupid ministry.

He was not all together surprised to see Snape really; it was just that he had forgot that the full moon was not far off. Snape had been providing Remus with the Wolfsbane Potion all summer and Harry was grateful because he knew that the procedure was very painful for Remus during the change. Sirius and Snape still bickered like three year olds, but it did not seem to have as much hate behind it as it used to. Snape seemed to be more calm around Remus most of the time because Remus wasn’t petty like Sirius could be at times. Even after Sirius had gone to his mind-healer meetings, he was still a tiny bit crazy from Azkaban.

Remus, as usual, was the first to spot him out of the other two. “Hello, Harry. How is your research project going?” Remus had a soft, tired smile on his face and it brought a pang of guilt to Harry’s heart because he was lying to Remus in a way.

“I haven’t found what I am looking for,” Harry answered truthfully.

Snape looked at him with a calm face, but Harry could see the calculating curiosity in his eyes. “What are you researching, Potter?” Harry panicked for a moment, but made sure his face didn’t show. Snape had always known when he lied, so he would just have to omit truth instead. Sometimes it was a good thing that he was half Slytherin.

“I was curious about some of the different magical creatures I had come across and I realized that there was some I didn’t know about, so I was doing some extra studying.” Harry said with a calm, steady voice.

Snape narrowed his eyes at Harry somehow knowing that Harry was hiding something like he always did. “I see, how productive.” Snape said before going back to his conversation with Remus about a new discovery in potions.

“So, Pup… are you excited for the Weasleys to come over?” Sirius asked with his usual enthusiasm. Harry eyes twitched in the annoyance that was to come.

“Is there some way to prevent females from coming into my room?” Harry asked, Sirius looked at him with a funny look on his face.

“Why would you want to do that, Pup?” Sirius asked curiously, Remus and Snape had stopped their conversation to see what was going on.

“Ginny really gives me the creeps… I really don’t want her in my room.” Harry said honestly and the trio’s eyebrows went up.

“Why does she creep you out?” Remus asked softly with concern in his voice that made Harry fidget uncomfortably.

“Well she follows me around, spies on me, and all around stalks me. Ron and the twins tried to stop her from doing it, but she doesn’t listen to them. Hermione even tried, but she just thought Hermione wanted me all to herself.” Harry said in frustration.

“I see.” Remus said sharing a look with the other two men. “We will set something up,” And with that the conversation had ended.

~~

It was two days later that the egg hatched under the full moon. Harry had been awakened from his sleep when he had heard strange chirp-hiss like noise coming from the incubator. Curiously, but also cautiously, Harry had approached the incubator and peered inside. The tiny little snake creature was making baby hissing noises that made no sense to Harry. The snake-hatchling was a beautiful shade of teal-green with a small red tuff on its head in the shape of a V. Reaching a hand inside he started to talk in Parseltongue.

“Welcome to the world, little one.” Harry hissed softly the snake as he scooped it into his hand and brought it close to his face. The snake hissed and to Harry it sounded the equivalent to the sound of a baby cooing. “I wonder what you are. No matter, I will raise you until your old enough to be on your own.” Harry said decisively and placed the baby snake in aquarium.

The aquarium bottom was covered in very soft grass and there was a heating rock along with a small rock with a cave shaped into the side. There was also a small indent on the aquarium floor in which Harry had put little water into it. The whole aquarium had several heating charms and detector charms that were used for animals, so it was safe for the baby snake. He had prepared it knowing that the egg would most likely produce a reptile and wanted to prepare. That reading had paid off in many ways because he now knew what to expect from the baby snake.

Harry quickly collected the egg shell and mucous from the hatching before placing it into a potions jar with a preserving charm on it. There were many things from animals that could be used in potions and some of the things came from snakes, so it might be usable in the future when he found out what type of snake he had. Harry cooed softly at the snake in Parseltongue before crawling into bed for a good night sleep.

When he woke in the morning Harry quickly checked on the snake-hatchling only to find it sleeping in the rock cave. Harry looked at it in wonder for a few moments before he quickly got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. Remus and Sirius were already sitting their half-awake while drinking down coffee like it was nothing. Harry quickly pulled out the premade chocolate chip waffle batter and set to work making chocolate chip waffles with bacon on the side.

Remus was pretty happy when he set the waffles on the table. Remus was such a chocolate addict. Maybe they should have an intervention? No, Harry would let Remus have his addiction to chocolate. Shaking his strange thoughts away, Harry sat down and scarfed down the food.

“Pup, I think I am going to hit the hay. I’m pretty tired.” Sirius said and Remus nodded in agreement before adding his bit into the conversation.

“Thanks for the Breakfast, Harry.” Remus said before yawning. All his food was already gone because after a night of running around, Remus had quite the appetite.

“You are welcome. Leave you plates and head to bed, I’ll get the dishes.” Harry said. Remus went to say something, but must have realized whatever he was going to say was already a moot point. He smiled instead tiredly before heading upstairs with Sirius.

~~

Harry loved his room. It was so open and bright, a much needed difference from his room at the Dursley’s. The walls were painted a light lavender color with light oak floors with silver trim. All the furniture was made of purpleheart wood. His bed was king sized and had black silk covers with royal purple sheets and pillows. There was a big open bay window that had black throw pillows and a silver cushion pad, so he could sit comfortably to read or nap in the window (Harry was pretty sure it could fit up to three people). He had a long dresser pushed up to the opposite wall by the door that had his aquarium and other knick knacks on it in a very organized fashion. In between the door to his closet and bathroom was a large brick fire place. In front of the fire place was a lush white rug with the Black crest decorating it. There was two plush black leather wingback chairs in opposite corners of the rug and sitting in-between the chairs was a black leather couch big enough to seat three. Harry had also gotten two adult sized royal purple bean bags to lounge in. Above the fire place mantle was the Potter Crest while pictures of his friends, family, and other things were on the mantle.

By the window was a mahogany desk that had once belonged to his mother. The desk had passed through the eldest females of through his grandmother’s line, but his grandmother had given it Lily because Petunia had never wanted it. In all honesty the desk was very beautifully crafted and even more so with the intricate carved flowers and animals in the wood. Harry had to admit it wasn’t the most masculine piece of furniture, but he loved it for the simple fact of being his mothers. He hadn’t been able to leave it in storage, so it had ended up in his room.

Luna, to Harry’s delight, had given him fairy lights. Fairy lights were orbs of lights that could be charmed different colors and would float near the ceiling. He had been delighted when he had seen them and had immediately placed them in his room with the help of Sirius. His ceiling was charmed to show the night sky and glow like it during the night; it showed different constellations depending on the time of the day and month. Harry felt so at home in his room.

~~

Harry was nervous. It was the day the Weasleys would be coming over. To Harry’s delight, Sirius and Remus had in fact charmed his room so that Ginny or Mrs. Weasley could not come it without his permission (the only girl keyed into the wards was Hermione). His door also was password protected because he did not want the twins in there unsupervised… that was just asking for trouble of all sorts. The Weasleys would be over for dinner and then Ron would be staying a week or two with him.

The snake-hatchling had grown a tiny bit and Harry had named it already. He honestly could not help himself when the snake had cooed softly back to him in and almost reply hiss. He could not wait until the snake could hiss in real Parseltongue instead of baby talk. Harry had taken to talking to it every night about various things in his life and about snake habits among other things.

Harry almost jumped when the first Weasley fell out of the fire. Ron’s face burned in embarrassment before he stood up to hug Harry, “Hello, mate. How’s your summer been so far?” Just as Harry was about to reply to Ron the twins fell out of the fire place and swarmed him like angry hornets in a positive way. It wasn’t long before Mrs. & Mr. Weasley, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny were all gathered around him talking at once.

Seeing that he was slightly uncomfortable, Sirius quickly ushered them all into the sitting room so they could all talk. It was not soon before all the kids besides Percy had slipped out to the back yard in order to laze around without the adults. Harry, Ron, and the twins rough housed for a bit until the grew to tired before deciding to just lay on the lush grass under the huge willow tree. Unlike the wimping willow, this tree wouldn’t attack you.

The boys talked about their summers so far and the twins about their new products for next year. Harry was very proud that the Twi0Wizard winnings were farthings someone’s dreams. It wasn’t long before they were called into dinner and then before Harry noticed it he was leading Ron up to his room. He sighed before opening the door and letting Ron in.

The Fairy lights had dimmed and the enchantment on the night sky was up giving the room a cool look. Ron looked around before dropping his sack on the floor, “Nice room. Are we sharing the bed?” Ron asked. Harry nodded. The bed was big enough for at least four people, if not five. They quickly climbed in under the covers and went to sleep.