Hey friends,

so with this chapter, book 1 is done. I already have a short book done for the summer months, and book 3 (which will be about Harry's year 3) is already well in the works. This time I have written a detailed plot so hopefully it wont take nearly the same time to get it written, edited and published.

Speaking of editing I owe Poetic Devices a HUGE work of thanks. They were the one who edited this project the entire time. It was a long drawn out process, so I am deeply thankful for their work and patients. They are a true gem!

As always, I would be very appreciative if you could leave a comment at some point. Your feedback helps me become a better writer, which is really what this project is all about. In any case, thank you for taking the time to read my work and I hope you enjoy!

(Page Brake)

Over the next week owls seemed to find Nick at all times of the day to give him bits and pieces for the potter collection. The mornings were spent marking exams. Nick finished the third year and ended up convincing Professor Snape to let him mark the fourth years in exchange for some copies of the letters and pictures he had of Lily.

As a mark of goodwill, Nick also made copies of the letters and photos Lily had collected and gave them to Snape. The fact that the original copies were going to Harry potter was never spoken of.

In fact Professor Snape was strangely guarded when talking about his childhood friend. He spent a long time reading through letters in the dungeons while Nick finished marking the fourth years exams.

(line brake)

It was the last day before they were due to board the train back to London, when Nick finally packed up the last of the things into the Potter Chests. There were now two so Nick had to convinced the twins and Ron to help carry them up to the Harry's dorm room.

"Where did you find all this stuff anyways? Ron asked, "Mom's had trouble finding even a few letters to give to Harry. She sent some photos to Hagrid in first year apparently, but we looked through the attic last summer and didn't find much else."

Nick grinned and pointed to the more warn of the two chest, "This was all in the room of requirement. There are other things there if Harry want to grab them later, but it didn't seem like anything worth keeping. Loose socks, incomprehensible charms notes, that sort of thing".

"What about this one" The twins heaved the new chest into the air a little as they walk towards the Gryffindor common room.

"That one my relatives found. I got my aunt to issue a formal request for the Slytherin family to send any Potter and Evan family heirlooms and such to me as soon as possible. I also got Alex, my vampire Uncle, to get some of his unused Coven members to go looking for things. Octavius had a few things and he even went to Knockturn alley to look around. Apparently he found an old heir's trunk that was curse a few centuries ago. He got a goblin in the Coven to remove the curse and send it to me."

Ron motioned to stop for a moment on the staircase. Nick lowered his half of the chest and the four waited for the turning stairs to eventually realign himself so that they could continue to the seventh floor and not the third as the stairs were currently connected too.

"Octavious has mentioned werewolves in your coven before, but I thought werewolves had packs and vampires had covens?" George said.

Nick nodded in agreement, "normally, but Alex is weird. He likes to collect other species in his coven. 'diversify to survive' is the coven modo, jokingly anyways. There is probably some proper latin saying but I don't know what it is. We have centaurs, vampires, werewolves, fairies, elves, gnomes, goblins, trolls, but no mermaids despite Alex's best efforts."

"Mostly vampire though?" Fred asked.

Nick noted the strange seriousness of the twins, and wondered if their teachers ever got to see this side of them. "No, actually our largest numbers is in elves but not by much. It is a pretty even split between Elves, Werewolves and Vampires. Each at something like 21% of the total coven. Fairies are at 10% and Gnomes, Goblins, Trolls, centaurs and humans make of the other 27%."

"That's crazy" Ron said in awe.

Nick shrugged it off, motioning for the group to carry on.

For the remainder of the trip, the twins prattled on about their latest visit to Octavius, which they dragged Lee with. They had been given a whole slew of new prank ideas. Lee had apparently agreed to visit Octavius and the twins over the summer to start their scheming for the next fall.

When the group got to the second year Gryffindor boys dorm room, they found Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter playing an amicable game of wizard chess. Harry was losing something terrible.

"Oi Potter, I need that cloak back" Nick said. Letting the trunk drop with a thud in front of Potters bed as he did so.

Potter looked a weird mix between angry and confused. As he eyed the Potter crest on top of the two chest.

"You going to open them, ya git?" Ron asked, looking significantly more excited at the prospect then Harry.

"What are they?"

Nick grinned, "A peace offering. These are all the Potter and Evan Family objects I could find." Nick pointed to the older chest, "That is filled with things your parents left at Hogwarts over the years." Nick pointed to the newer one, "These are Potter and Evan family heirlooms that weren't in your vault for one reason or another."

Slowly, Harry got up from his chair and approached the newer chest. Neville trailed a bit uncertainly behind him.

The chest was unlock, though a rune set was embedded into the side that would let Harry lock it so only those with Potter blood could unlock it.

When he lifted the lid at first their was nothing to see. Just a ladder going down the side into an inky blackness.

"Lumos" George called over Harry's shoulder and he dropped the lit wand down the chest. The dim light showed the end of the later and what appeared to be a very well kept wooden floor with fine rug in gold and reds. "Guess we should go check it out".

Harry's curiosity seemed to have amplified enough to push away his anger. He pulled out his own wand and lit it as he headed down the ladder into his trunk. The twins, Ron, Neville and Nick all followed.

When Nick got to the bottom of the ladder he walked over to one of the wall torches, "Lumos" the light at the end of Nicks wand jumped to the torch he was touching and then around the room lighting the whole area, even a little fireplace.

"Wicked" Ron looked around in wonder.

The room was a cozy well stocked study. The shelves were half filled with books that were sent to Nick or that were already in the chest. The other half of the shelves was covered in obscure objects. Most of which Nick hadn't the faintest idea what they were for.

There was a large couch upholstered in red and two matching chairs. They were placed in a semi circle around the small fireplace and a coffee table curved out of what looked to be solid oak with little runes carved into the legs that Nick didn't recognise.

Three different tea sets sat on silver trays on the oak coffee table. On the mantle above the fireplace sat portraits of a variety of potters over the years. All paused in time as if they were muggle.

As well, hand carved boxes labeled and stacked to one side took up a good part of the room. Nick followed Harry over to the boxes.

Harry pulled a box labeled "Family Daggers". When he opened the book it was filled neatly with other small boxes. Nick reached past Harry and pulled the lid off one of the top boxes. A short dagger meant for Blood Rites sat neatly in a velvety case.

"Looks cool" Harry said pulling the dagger out to examine it close.

"It's for blood rites. You use it to carve runes into your skin." Nick explained.

"You carved runes into yourself?" Ron asked in shock.

Nick nodded.

Harry seemed less interested in the daggers all of the sudden and quickly put it back into its box. The box labeled Daggers was put back into the collection. Harry grabbed the box next to it labeled "Wands".

Harry pulled out the wooden individual boxes for each wand, all lines with fine silk. "Here Neville, Ron, See if you can't find a wand that works for you." Harry started picking up wands and waving them around. Occasionally a string of sparks would come out of one, but none like the spectacular light show that most true matches give off.

Hesitantly, Ron and Neville followed suit. A string of sparks in neon and pale green lit up as Neville picked up a white wood wand.

Harry picked up the box it had come from it. "Peter Potter the Piper" was written in chicken scratch on the side. There was no note on what the wand was made from. Harry waved off whatever febil argument Neville intended to put up, "If it works for you keep it. I tried it and it didn't work for me. Ron did you find anything?"

Ron was about to say no as he reached for a dark brown wand, with several spiral knots in it. As he picked it up, a flurry of white and silver sparks went off.

Harry looked at the box, "Angelica Potter, Dragon Eyelash-Mermaid scale core, with Monkey Tail Tree wood."

"Seems a little girly," Ron said a little disgruntledly. He gave his new wand a half hearted swish, and muttered the moving charm they had been learning in Charms class. His eyes bulged in surprise as the coffee table seemed to ghost over to him with very little effort.

"Guess girly suits you Ronniekins" Fred teased.

Ron was much too excited to give half a mind to the twins teasing. He leaped up from the pile of wands and hopped around the little study performing all kinds of magic.

Nick put the wands away as Harry went over to the bookcase to look at some of the weird wonders the Potters had created over the ages.

"Can we go check out the other chest?" Harry asked.

"I can bring it down here if you like. It isn't a room like this one. It is more like a chest-of-draws."

Harry nodded in agreement, so Nick headed back to the dorm room to pulled the old chest towards the new one. He cast a levitation charm in parseltongue and slowly lowered the chest into down into the study. Before the chest was even firmly on the rug, Potter was already flinging the lid open. Two handles were firmly set into wooden. At first, Harry didn't really know what to do, but the twins reached pasted him and each heaved on one of the handles. Up came several draws. When the draws finally stopped there were seven on each side and the whole chest reached up to Fred and George's chin.

Harry, still crouched down, pulled out the bottom left hand draw. It was filled with Lily Evans school supplies. Quills, ink, brushes and paints, and unused parchment.

He closed the draw and pulled the second draw. up, it had all of Lily Evans school notes.

"The history notes are the same as the ones we take from Binns calls so I included all of them," Nick said a bit uncertainly. Harry was very silent and Nick wasn't sure if he should have started with Harry's parents chest first, It seemed a little underwhelming in comparison to a room full of old and antique heirlooms.

Harry didn't acknowledge Nick had said anything and instead moved to the James Potter side, pulling out the third draw. Text books were neatly sorted by year. The blank bit of parchment that once belonged to the twins sat on top. The twins grinned and unfolded it.

"I solemnly swear, I'm up to no good," Fred innonted.

Ron and Harry shot the twins a skeptical which melted into surprised as the parchment filled with the nearly complete version of the school.

"Wicked!" Ron said a bit breathlessly.

"Is that really…" Harry trailed off as his finger followed the pacing name of one Albus Dumbledore.

"Albus Dumbledore pacing in his office?" Fred asked

"Yep, Does that a lot actually" George supplied.

"Wicked" Harry grinned at Ron and the two seemed to be plotting, much the same way the twins plotted. Nick had to bit back a grown. He would be lucky to avoid explosion next year hanging around this group. Maybe Hermione could curb some of their more extreme ideas.

Harry close the draw and pulled out the one on the very bottom. It was filled with baby pictures of Harry.

Harry just sat and absorb the images for a while. He didn't move much and he hardly even blinked.

The twins had started going through transfiguration books on the bookshelf and Ron and Neville had pulled out a box labeled "Chess" before Harry put down the first letter and picked up the second. Nick looked up from the dagger he was looking at to look at the pictures over Harry's shoulder.

A chubby little bespectacled boy was riding the back of a giant black dog in the first picture.

A young man, with scars running all over his arms was supporting the bespectacled child on a beginner broom as the pair slowly crisscrossed the green grass that lead down to a lake side.

A young women with fierce green eyes and crazy red hair was dozing lightly on a rocking chair with a sleepy Harry resting on her breast.

Harry flipped to the next photo. A rat was darting out of Harry's grip as. The child was giggling madly after each failed capture. Just out of view. The women with the crazy red hair and a man with the same unruly hair as Potter were asleep on the couch. An afghan was flung over them haphazardly.

The next photo showed James and Harry Potter making a huge mess off a small cabin kitchen. Flower was everywhere. Even flung on the ceiling.

The next photo was of the sandy haired young man with the scars on his arms playing wizard chess with Harry on his lap. A young man, with eyes that sparked with mischief much like the twins sat across from him. The sandy haired man went to move his pawn but leaped back when the piece seemed to give a very dramatic howl and morphed into a werewolf. The other pawns all followed suite. Young Harry seemed absolutely thrilled by this and kept tugging on the sandy haired man's sleeve trying to point at the little chess werewolves. He was ignored as the sandy haired wizard sent a slew of sting hexes at the retreating wizard.

The next photo had a short stoat wizard with a mousy look in his face sitting on the flour. The first part of the picture showed Harry adding the last touches to a wooden block maze. Then the short young man morphed into a rat and entered the maze. Little Harry giggled endlessly as the Rat scurried around the maze. It ended with the rat finding the end and giving a rather trumpet squeak as Harry put a tiny meddle onto the rat's neck.

Harry moved onto the next photo. James and Lily Potter smiled down at a sleeping bundle in their arms.

'

Next, Harry was riding a large Stag with Lily Potter supporting his back so he didn't fall.

Harry kept flipping through photos, his eyes glazed over and his thoughts far from the present. Nick went back to the daggers, looking to see if there was any that he could borrow to try out.

"Hey, Mate? It's almost lunch time. Mind if we head back up," Ron said. A low grumble in his stomach punctuating his point.

Harry nodded wordlessly. The twins, Neville, Nick and Harry all headed back up the ladder. Both Ron and Neville had new wands and The twins had a stack of books Harry said they could borrow for the summer.

After closing the Potter Family trunk, Nick showed Potter how to seal it and Harry gave Nick the Cloak of Invisibility.

Whatever bad blood that had existed after Nick had made his request earlier had been swept away with the collection of gifts Nick had brought for Harry.

Harry and Nick talked amicably in Parseltongue about both maybe getting pet snakes over the summer to practice Parseltongue and parselmagic with.

Ron and Neville cast every spell they knew on their way to the great hall. Several of which were suggested by the twins, like the leg locking jinks at a passing seventh year Hufflepuff who was too surprised to defend himself.

...

WHen they got to the great hall, Nick said his goodbyes and went to sit with his Dorm Mates.

"Nick you're adventures right? Not like these two stick in the muds" Marcus asked good naturally.

"Depends" Nick asked. He didn't trust Marcus to not pull him into some dangerous and possible leath adventure.

"My family has a house in Porto, Portugal's Old town. I want to go visit this Summer but My father said I can't go alone. Want to come with me? There are house elves to make food and stuff and we'll have the house to ourselves!" Marcus said in one very quick breath.

Nick blinked, eyes wide as he tried to process what Marcus had all said.

"You're mad. Neither of you speak Portuguese. How are you going to order food or get directions."

Nick grinned, "Just use lots of hand gestures. I've traveled loads without knowing a second language. Sure, when are you going?"

"Right after we get to London. I've booked to unassigned tickets with Aladdin's Flying Carpets Services to Old Town Porto for a couple hours after we get to London. We just have to get to diagon alley. I think we can just flew there from platform 9 ¾." Marcus certainly sounded confident that it would all work out.

"Yeah, Alright, I just need to check in with my Uncle. Is it cool if we pop over to Canada first?" Nick asked nonchalantly.

Marcus opened his mouth to argue but seemed to take Nick's confidence into account and shrugged, "Sure, yeah why not. As long as we don't miss our flight to Porto, Portugal."

Nick waved him off, "I'll only take a second."

"You two are both batty" Hugo laughed incredulously. Eddie said nothing.

"You should go to Tibet" Luna said in his usual airy way. She took a seat beside Nick and started shaking all sorts of fruits. Attaching them all to a charm bracelet. Apples, oranges, even whole watermelons were shrunk to the size of small coin and charmed to stick to tiny threads of silver. "It's for Harry" Luna said absently.

Nick wondered if Tom and Luna both knew something about Harry's home life that Nick didn't. They both seemed to act as if he was going to a prison not his Uncle and Aunt's house.

"Tibet you say?" Nick steered the conversation back to its original curious direction.

Luna smiled warmly at Nick, "Rolf Scamander is going to apprentice under a Magical Beast Expert to find Yetis." Luna said.

Nick had to rack his brains for who Rolf Scamander was but he kept drawing a blank. Something made him think Gryffindor, but that didn't quite seem to fit.

"The Sixth year Hufflepuff?" Hugo asked, "I've seen him taking with the Care of Magical Creature teacher on the weekends several times over the years. I wondered how he had managed to get extra lessons." Hugo sounded just a little bit envious of the aforementioned Hufflepuff.

Nick thought about how many sixth year Hufflepuffs he knew and came up with an astonishing one. A foggy, drunk-hazy memory of a floating coach in Gryffindor came to mind. Rolf Scamander was possible the only person on the planet Tom Riddle would classify as a friend. So it was practically inevitable that Tom would follow.

Nick let out a sigh of long suffering, "When does he leave?"

"You're not really thinking of going?" Hugo asked in surprise.

"Last week of July he leaves and comes back August 1" Luna supplies merrily.

"Great" Nick said sarcastically.

"Have you finished packing" Eddie turned to Hugo, voice relatively quiet as if trying to be discrete but the others all latched onto the new topic and conversations on lost shoes and wrong ties grew.

Nick and his housemates all made it back to their dorm to sort out their things. Most of Nick's stuff had made its way back up from the Slytherin library. Many things had gotten flung into Marcus chest though. Several of Hugo's books had somehow made it into Nick's collection and so on.

It was nearly dinner before Nick said his goodbyes and headed over to the Slytherin tablet to spend a last meal with the Carrow sisters.

"You'll send use letters in Parselscript to help us practice over the summer yeah?" Hertia asked as a way of greeting as Nick lower himself down to his seat.

"Sure, You could find a garden snake to practice with too," Nick suggested.

Flora looked a bit skeptical, "They wouldn't bit us would they?"

"As long as you are polite, no they won't. Runespoor tend to be more friendly though then just regular wild snakes. If you can find Runespoor, you should definately see if you can't practice with them." Nick suggested.

The Carrow twins didn't seem convinced but they were both happy to have any practice with Parseltongue over the summer. They had plans for their fifth year after all.

The rest of the meal was spent saying good byes to most of the Slytherin table under fifth year as Nick had at one point tutored most of them in potions. Several of the regulars gave Nick small gifts as tokens of their appreciation. It seemed to be a sign of wealth and prestige to present Nick with absurd and valuable potion related gifts. Greg Goyle looked particularly proud when Nick opened a small box to find a whole vial of flying horse tears, which were nearly as rare as phoenix tears.

The rest of the table whispered their impressed. A platinum blond second year who seemed to take it upon himself to be Harry's rival was a little put out that his own vile of manicorn hairs had been outdone but he made a good show of hiding it.

One of the seventh years gave Nick a handwritten book by Nicholas Flamel in thanks for helping him with his potions as he had improved enough to be taken on as an apprentice by the famous potion master Damocles Belby: Marcus's Uncle. Having meet the man, Nick was uncertain he had really done the seventh year much of a favor but he graciously accepted the gift none the less. Alchemy had always seemed interesting to Nick after all.

The twins came to say goodbye just before dessert. Somehow they managed to slip a potion into Nick's drink because after taking a gulp of pumpkin juice, Nick's Hair turned into a snakes like medusa. Nick figured this was as sentimental a goodbye as he'd ever get from the twins.

After dinner, Nick caught Neville on his way to Greenhouse 3.

"Longbottom, You don't happen to have access to Nepeta Cataria do you?"

"Catnip? Yeah, it's near the back of Greenhouse 3" Neville said innocently. Completely missing the nefarious glint in Nick's eyes.

"I need it for a potion. Think I could trade you some fresh Herbicide Potion I brewed yesterday for a small bag of Catnip and a couple of Horklumps?"

Neville grinned, "Sure, I mean that's not really a fair trade for you but if you want to I wont say no. Come on, I can get you the Catnip and Horklumps now."

Nick followed amicably, he pulled out the Herbicide Potion and traded with the still adorably unaware Neville for his goodies. He bottled the Horklump to send off to a Gnome in the Coven who would be able to get Nick tickets to Tibet in exchange for the small mushrooms and put the catnip in his cloak pocket.

On his way back to his dorm to straighten the last of this things, Nick ducked into Mcgonagall's office and put the Catnip in a vase of water and put it innocently on the desk. He didn't bother to put anything that might incriminate the twins. Mcgonigal would automatically assume it was them.

After saying goodnight to his dorm mates, Nick headed down to Andrus. He intended to sleep on the giant snake's coils again. He passed Ginny and Percy on his way. Both stopped briefly for a chat.

Ginny explained excitedly that Hermione had organised a study group with the Carrow sisters who had agreed to visit a muggle home. They would meet every saturday and rotate house. They would have tea and treats like a book club but they would just sit and practice their parseltongue. Ginny was certain her mother would agree.

Percy was less certain, but he didn't dwell on it. He was too busy explaining excitedly that he had gotten a temp job filling at the Ministry. Nick didn't really understand what was exciting about filing paperwork, but he figured the spare money and first job were exciting for Percy so he fringed excitement on Perry's behalf.

When Nick got to the chambers he found Faer and Fawks both in human form. Along with what looked to be a fourth year with skin as dark as coal, black tufts of hair and shockingly yellow eyes that didn't seem to really see anything. The boy turned to face Nick, "Look what the little birds have thought me!"

Nick gave a startled blink. The boy was Andrus in his human form.

"They're going to travel with me over the summer to practice being humans. We were just talking about them trying out for Hogwarts. Fawks doesn't seem to think the headmaster will let them." Faer explained.

"I can try and talk to him" Nick offered a little half heartedly. He didn't think it would really help much though. Faer chirped something to Fawks. The boy with shocking red hair tilted his head to the side as he seemed to think for a moment. He chirped back a response. Faer grinned. "Do you want me to?"

"No, Fawks says Dumbledore would probably let them in if Mao gave them a letter of reference. Claim their refugees from China or something." Fawks translated.

Andrus looked positively giddy. He morphed back into a snake and bombarded Nick with hundreds of human related questions as Nick settled down to sleep. Faer and Fawks both moved back to birds and settled on Andrus massive coils, both tucking their heads under a wing to sleep.

(line brake)

The train ride back to London the next day was wholly uneventful. Nick floated between cabins finally settling to sit with his cousins.

"Nice hair," Tom said neutrally.

Nick scowled and tried to brush the untamable snakes away from his eyes, "Yeah the twins are a really pair. So I thought you were going to stay with the Weasleys weeks ago?"

Tom smiled "I changed my mine".

"Oh?"

"I'm staying with the Malfoys."

"The who now?"

Tom smirked, "The phantom blond second year. His Grandfather and I were…" Tom seemed to struggle saying the last word. "Friends" he finally bit out.

"Don't strain yourself cousin," Nick moved over to make room for the sixth year hufflepuff, Rolf. "Hey Rolf. I heard you're off to Tibet".

The Hufflepuff lit up with excitement and went off on a long monologue about his research there.

Nothing more was said about Tom's new living arrangements. Nick tried several times to change back his hair but it only faded when the train pulled into the station.

…

"Write soon!" the Carrow sisters called in tandem from further down the train as the train came to a stop. Nick waved and grinned.

"Try and make it to at least one of our parselmouth sessions." Hermione pleaded as Ron and Harry steered her towards the door.

"And go visit Octavius soon. The twins, Harry and I are going to be there lots" Ron added. Harry nodded in agreement. He looked relieved at the reminder.

Nick noted the tight shoulders and slightly haunted look. Nick frowned at Harry, "you know Alex's offer still stands".

Harry smiled, "I'll think about it." It was the kind of brush off answer Nick was expecting, but he hoped that Harry would keep it in mind if things got as bad as he seemed to fear they would. Maybe having Octavius's house to escape to would help. Nick certainly hoped so.

"Oi, you coming?" Marcus called. He was already off the train and standing in line for the floo. Nick waved goodbye to Harry and Ron and dashed off towards Marcus.

He passes Ginny, Percy and the twins all meeting up with a bustling plump women who cooed over each of them like a mother hen. A grinning middle aged man gave Ginny a hug and slapped each boys on the back, listening merrily as each sibling fought to tell their parents about their busy year. The weasley clan caught sight of Nick just as he passed them and they all waved, the twins waved like they were directing a plan to land. Percy and Ginny were far more discrete. He waved kept his eyes on them as he waved and nearly crashed into Hugo's back. Eddie caught his arm.

"Try to keep Marcus from killing himself" Eddie ordered. He sounded tired and looked as if he hadn't slept in days.

Nick paused for a moment and frown at the exhausted look on Eddie's face.

"I see them! Oi, Nick didn't see ya there. Better run before Marcus leaves you behind. I see Your Aunt Eddie. Come on, we shouldn't leave her waiting there. See ya Nick!"

Nick smiled and waved as he trotted towards Marcus. He was second in line now so Nick sprinted the a last few meters and elegantly slipped into the green flames beside Marcus.

"Diagon Alley!" They called in perfect tandem.

Nick and Marcus walked out in synchronized strides, both with their heads slightly turned to the sky and their shrouds back, relaxed. As if they were princes of the Alley. They walked over to a Small Square labeled, "International Portkey Stations" Nick motioned towards the day lockers to the side "Let's just leave our things here. We'll only be a moment."

"Alright" Marcus readily agreed. Nick and Marcus shoved their trunks into what looked to be a small wooden box with a padlock on it. Marcus put a few coins in and it locked and a key popped out. Marcus grabbed the key and put it in his pocket."

"Come on," Nick motioned for Marcus to grab hold of the bracelet, "Salt Spring Island" Nick called. The two hurled through a vortex, like being spun around in a dryer or caught in a hurricane.