Harry sat in a comfy leather chair that was placed before a roaring fire he didn't know how long he had been staring at the two objects he held in his hands, Mipsy was busy doing her duties around the flat hardly making any noise, the objects he held where extremely dark in nature although to look at them you would assume them to be completely harmless.

In one hand he held a black leather diary the pages had yellowed slightly from age and if opened written in elegant script on the first page was the name Tom Marvolo Riddle.

The other object he held was a golden ring in the shape of a snake with two heads and held between the snake heads was a black diamond, he remembered the day he decided to collect the ring from its hiding place…

Harry stood before the ruined shack that had once belonged to the Gaunt family the shack had long since been reclaimed by nature as weeds and other fungi covered the destroyed building, the garden was overgrown and littered with rubbish.

He waved his wand before the rotted door and with a muttered Diffindo the door exploded inwards, he stepped through the remains and into what was once a small kitchen.

The kitchen was covered in dust and even weeds that had grown through the smashed window, a small table and chair or what little remained was in the centre of the room.

An arch way revealed a living room beyond the kitchen that had a large hole in the roof, rotten furniture was placed around a partially destroyed fireplace, green vines had long since grown through the hole and slowly nature was claiming the room.

A door to his right was barely hanging to the wall revealed a long corridor that had four doors two on either side, he walked down the corridor to the last rotten door on the left and stepped into the room beyond.

He had no interest in exploring the other rooms each was disgusting with their rotten furniture covered in dust, mud and even dead animals.

The door practically fell away and splintered onto the ground and he coughed as dust fell into the air, the room beyond was tiny a single bed long past usable was against one side of the wall and the remains of a dresser that had fallen apart was on the other, the room had no window.

He walked forward counting his steps until he felt the tiniest shift in the floor below his foot, he lowered himself to the ground and felt the rotten floorboard until he gripped the loose floorboard and with a tug pulled it away.

Hidden beneath the floor was a small box that he knew contained the ring, he flicked his wrist and caught his wand and took a deep breath he knew that Tom had placed an deadly curse onto the ring along with a dark compulsion spell that would subtly force someone to try the ring on and thus allow the curse to run its course on the victim and many other deadly protective wards.

He reached out with his bond to Hedwig who reassured him before closing his eyes and started to wave his wand around in a complicated manor as he whispered strange words and hissed in parseltongue.

He could feel his magic being depleted as he undone the magics that had been placed onto the ring, sweat dripped down his face as he focused and struggled, he lost all sense of time as he worked until finally with gasp he fell forwards nearly smacking his face into the ground.

He took large gulps of air and blinked rapidly to clear his vision as the box slowly dissolved turning into a fine black mist before dissipating into the air leaving behind the Gaunt ring, he reached out with a shaky hand and picked up the ring just as black spots started to appear in his vision.

Before he could face plant, he felt Hedwig grip his shoulder through the ever-increasing black spots he saw the world around him flash into flames before he fell unconscious.

That was only a few days ago and while he should have been organising his trunk for his return to Hogwarts he couldn't seem to keep his mind of Horcrux's, Tom had done as much research as possible on creating a Horcrux but had deemed how to resorb his soul as pointless and futile.

A book hidden within the Potter vault theorised that if a person felt true remorse for their actions then they could reabsorb their soul although there was no evidence to confirm it, he also knew that Tom wouldn't feel any remorse after growing up during a world war he feared death too much.

He shook away his thoughts and placed the two Horcrux's down on the small table next to his chair, he picked up the letter he had received from Sirius. The man was doing much better thanks to a strict regimen of Potions and had started to fill out, Sirius's mental state was slowly improving thanks to many hours spent with a mind healer although he had been told that even in his current state the man was a shameless flirt.

Madam Bones had proved to be a valuable alley the formidable woman had gathered enough evidence that proved Sirius was innocent and with memories provided by Sirius only solidified that fact, The problem was that using memories as a defensive in court was a poor tactic as many witches and wizards could create false memories.

On the woman's advice he and Sirius had taken the opportunity to perform an adoption ritual, the ritual involved him drinking a potion that contained a sample Sirius's blood in this would effectively make the man a third parent.

This along with Sirius and him sharing a godfather bond would ensure that once the man was recovered no one could doubt his claim of adoption as ancient and powerful magic bonded them together and none dared to go against magic herself.

A day after the ritual he found his appearance had changed nothing drastic but enough to know he was a son from the main black bloodline, his features were slightly more prominent and his killing curse green eyes had a tiny flecks of grey along with red, he also found that thanks to both Sirius's black blood and his grandmother who was also a black he had inherited the ability metamorphmagus.

He couldn't do a full change like his cousin Nymphadora but he could change his hair length and colour after some practice, with practice he was confident he could change his face fully a skill that would prove useful in the future.

He had also debated on if he should do another ritual that would enhance his body in some way, Tom had done seven rituals on his body that strengthened his magic or his body in some way, the man had even done a ritual that purged his blood of its muggle taint and replaced it instead with blood from nagini hence why his features took on a serpentine look, it was Tom's way of honouring his Slytherin blood even if it made his body sickly and deformed.

He wouldn't go as far as to do seven rituals like Tom, He had done a ritual that improved his body's capacity to handle magic and another that got rid of any weaknesses his body had such as his once terrible eyesight he would continue to search the vast Potter Library and once he gained access the more darker but just as vast Black library, he would have to wait till he was back at Hogwarts to search Slytherin's library.

He placed the letter down and with a small sigh he got up from the chair and walked into the flats small but modest Potions lab and with practiced ease he begin the task of organising each ingredient and with the cauldron placed on a steady heat source began the task of creating a simple Pepper-up potion.

Time passed as he went through the motions until he had ten vials of the red potion bottled and placed into a potion vial holder. He spent a few minutes meticulously cleaning up any mess he had made using both magical means and muggle means before he walked out of the room and through the flat and into the kitchen where he found Mipsy making dinner.

He settled himself down at the table and poured himself a small glass of wine and after taking a small sip he placed the glass on the table and looked over the kitchen was simple in design looking much like the muggle counterpart except instead of a fridge and oven they used a cupboard around the size of a fridge that was controlled with runes and a steel oven that while looking exactly like a regular muggle oven also used runes to operate.

It was one of the many devices that the wizard community had adapted from muggles that made life much easier. The wine he was drinking was designed so that children could drink it and only get a slight feeling of being drunk although most of the elite pureblood children thought drinking it made them look more refined.

He looked back at Mipsy "What are you making?" he watched as the elf used magic to slice a piece of chicken into small cubes.

"A simple chicken soup Sir…. I mean Harry."

He offered the elf a smile he had read in one of the Peverell books that a happy and content elf would have much more powerful magic and would thus be more loyal to the family it was a truly symbiotic relationship.

He had seen the sorry state that bobby the Malfoy elf was in thanks to their treatment the elf's magic was weak and the elf would eventually die, bobby had pale sickly looking skin large floppy eyes and many wrinkles in contrast Mipsy who had seen the birth of his father James yet barely had any wrinkles or grey hair and her skin was a healthy peach colour.

After eating the delicious soup and thanking Mipsy he settled down before the fire with one of the many books he had taken from the Potter vault, the book explained how wizards of old could focus their magic without the need of a wand and could preform astonishing feats of magic the likes of which had not been seen since, sure he could do some wandless magic but compared to a wizard of old his wandless ability looked like mere parlour tricks.

He needed to advance his studies he literally had access to thousands of books between the books in his vault, the Hogwarts library and finally the books stored in the chamber. He knew he would be bored during the Hogwarts year hopefully he could convince Professor Snape to put him into a more advanced classroom.

He turned to watch as Lish his familiar came slithering into the room to rest before the roaring fire he had neglected his studies in Parselmagic, he vowed to not neglect the branch of magic again. Parselmagic was a powerful branch of magic that would be incredibly useful in the future with a sigh he turned his attention back to his book.

Albus sighed heavily as he lowered himself into his chair and shifted through the many letters and documents that covered his desk, he had spent most of the school holiday trying to find the Potter heir from sending letter that were charmed and would show Harry's location on the map of Britain that hung in his office to even using the small amount of blood that had once been inside one of his silvery trinkets all to no avail even Fawkes was being unhelpful no matter how much he tried to blackmail the phoenix.

The Dursleys had managed to escape his clutches he knew they had arrived at the united states thanks to the handful of allies he had at MACUSA the American version of the ministry and although MACUSA was a lot more involved with their muggle counterparts they had lost the Dursleys trail.

He was distracted from his thoughts by the floo flaring to life as a man's face materialized from the flames "Ah Cornelius to what do I owe the pleasure?" he steepled his hands together before him and leaned back in his seat.

"Dumbledore, we need to talk. Can I come through?"

Albus nodded and with a flick of his unique wand lowered the wards that protected his floo "Of course step through." He watched the man's head disappear before the man himself stepped into the room and approached the desk.

He gestured to one of the chairs before his desk "Would you like a cup of tea." He picked up the ever-present bowl of lemon drops "Or perhaps a lemon drop." He watched as the Minister placed his bowler hat on his desk before dropping heavily into the chair.

"No thank you. I want your opinion on something."

Albus stared at the man in confusion "Oh and how can I help?"

"The British Ministry doesn't have the greatest reputation at the moment especially with the other countries, they see us as backwards that hold blood purity and tradition above all else."

He took off his glasses and using a piece of orange silk wiped the lens the silk clashed horribly with his light purple robe "Hm it doesn't help that many on the wizengamot are pure bloods that reject any new law that we try to pass ." He placed his glasses back on his crooked nose "Not to mention the amount of influence Mr Malfoy and his group hold."

"Not this again Dumbledore, Lucius has been nothing but supportive of my administration and contributes to many charities."

Dumbledore sighed at the man they had been over this many times in the past no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get the man in front of him to see how much influence Lucius had.

Lucius currently held the most votes at the moment in the wizengamot he along with many of the darker inclined families had banded together to create an alliance, many laws that Dumbledore had put before them had been rejected laws that would benefit the muggleborns.

Dumbledore had used his influence to get Arthur Weasley to form an alliance that could counteracted Lucius although they simply didn't have enough members all they could do was to have the same votes as the darker faction and thus the neutral's had the deciding vote.

To many seats on the government had been lost thanks to the war the two major seats that could tip the balance were the Potter and Black seats each had many smaller families as allies that were bound to support each other.

If only he could get the support of the neutral's faction of the government, they were led by the Greengrass family but all Arthur's attempts to form a collation had failed they refused to side with either side although they did help pass certain laws that benefited both sides it was a horrible stalemate that pushed many of the laws that could of benefited the many muggleborns even if it went against the ancient laws that founded their very society.

He shook these thoughts away and focused his attention back to the current situation "Of course. What are you planning on doing to change the situation?" He steepled his fingers together.

"I have been talking to Ludo Bagman the current head of the department of magical games and sports and we have agreed that reviving the Tri-wizard tournament would help mend bridges. Three premier schools competing against each other for the Tri-wizard cup and eternal glory."

The man took a moment to wipe his forehead with a green silk handkerchief "It took some convincing but next year the World Quidditch organization have granted us permission to host the Quidditch World cup final as well."

Dumbledore frowned at the man "I hadn't been informed." He stared at the many letters and documents scattered across his desk before he gestured to the pile "Although I am not exactly up to date on my correspondents."

He watched as Cornelius stared at the many letters scattered across his desk before he turned his attention to Fawkes who had flashed into the room.

He watched as Fawkes perched on his perch "Will there be safeguards with the Tri-wizard tournament if memory serves then during the last tournament many students and spectators died during one of the tasks."

"Yes of course, we cannot have anything tarnish our reputation any further, I will speak to Madam Bones to get her and her staff to set up some wards and protections when the time comes." The man then pulled out a pocket watch before he got up "If you could also add some protections, I'm sure there won't be any problems." He then picked up his bowler hat and placed it on his head "I must be off Dumbledore."

Dumbledore nodded as he got up and followed the man towards the fireplace "Farewell Cornelius toddle pip." He watched the man vanish in a flash of green flame before he walked towards the small window that overlooked the grounds of Hogwarts.

He didn't like the idea of hosting the Quidditch world cup there would be too many people coming and going and if Tom decided to try anything then it would be a monumental task to find any evidence.

Tom had been unusually quiet these last few years he had tried to lure the dark lord out of hiding and while he had succeeded two years ago, after finding the dead body of Quirrell in front of the mirror of erised Tom had gone back into hiding which made it difficult for him to gather intelligent on his movements.

He knew Tom obsessed with immortality and during the war he boasted how he surpassed the boundaries of magic beyond anyone else alive but to survive his own killing curse being bounced back at himself was beyond what he knew of magic sure he had many ideas on how one could achieve immortality but he needed solid proof..

He had hoped that with Harry's return to the wizarding world that it would spur the man out of hiding and while it had worked to a degree he was still fumbling in the dark.

He thoughts turned to Gellert the man had extensive knowledge of the dark arts and could possibly point him in the right direction but he was hesitant to ask, he hadn't seen the man in years and yet his feelings were still too raw.

No doubt the time spent in Nurmengard had affected the man being totally isolated from any form of contact and given the bare minimum to survive would have turned the once handsome and charismatic man into a shadow of his former self.

With a sigh turned to the cabinet inside his office and pulled out the silver pensive, after placing his wand on his temple he pulled away a single glowing strand and placed it inside the bowl.

He watched as an image of lord Voldemort in all his grotesque visage appeared on the surface and glared at him with his snake like ruby eyes, he needed to draw the man out of hiding he knew the older he became the less likely he would be at being able to defeat the man sure having access to phoenix tears could heal his body of any injury he was still well over a century old.

The wards alerted him to the presence of his staff ascending the staircase before the door to his office opened and the group stepped into the room, he frowned at the group before suddenly remembering that he and his staff had planned to go through this year's school curriculum.

He plucked the memory from the pensive and placed it back in his mind before with a smile and an offer of his favourite sour sweet he set about the task of preparing the school for the student's arrival.

The day Harry was set to return to Hogwarts arrived he along with the Malfoy family stood on the platform watching the hundreds of people rushing around, he stepped aside as Luna with her father a strange man with white hair and a misty look in his eyes passed by them, the man wore a long silvery robe and seemed to be absentmindedly touching a silver necklace that he wore.

"Strange fellow that Xenophilius." Commented Lucius.

Harry nodded "Yes." He watched as Luna after taking her wand from her father's hand placed it behind her ear before she skipped onto the train.

"Now then boy's make sure you behave." Narcissa said as she levitated his and Draco's trunks to their sides "I have placed a certain package each for you in your trunks."

Harry nodded at the beautiful woman like most purebloods they didn't show much emotion while they were out in public, he and Draco had the pleasure of consoling the emotional woman before they had left Malfoy manor this morning the packages she mentioned happened to be a package of expensive sweets and treats.

He shook hands with Lucius and placed a small kiss on Narcissa's hand "Thank you for your hospitality as always it was pleasure to spend a few days in your manor." He caught his holly wand as it came out its holster and pointed it at his trunk "Wingardium leviosa." He quietly muttered before turning to Draco "I shall meet you on the train." he could have preformed the spell with nothing more than a gesture with his wand but he had to keep up the appearance he was a third year student.

After boarding the train, he found an empty compartment he placed his trunk on the shelf above the seats and sat down near the window as he waited for Draco, he ran his fingers across the smooth polished wood of his wand, a powerful witch or wizard could sense the core of a wand and as he gently ran his fingers across the length of his holy wand he could distantly hear the trill of a phoenix.

His other wand was in his other holster strapped to his left arm and covered in protective runes that made it invisible, unable to be summoned and even felt it. His skill at duel wielding his wands had improved greatly thanks to his increasing skill in Occlumency.

An Occlumency book that Mr Borkin had been kind enough to gift him described a way to split his concentration in two thus enabling him to shield with one wand while sending a curse with his other it was hard work but slowly it was paying off. He was now reasonably sure he could detect and repel an attack on his mind.

His skill in Legilimency had improved greatly Tom would use pain to invade a mind forcing a mind into submission but while reading a book from the Potter vault he learned that instead using pain more positive emotions could be used instead, it had only taking sitting at the ice cream parlour and invading the minds around him to notice that using positive emotions he could read every thought watch every memory and learn there every secret.

The door to the compartment opened snapping him out his thoughts as Daphne stepped into the room her trunk floating behind her before she flicked her wand causing her trunk to float onto the shelf.

Daphne had grown more beautiful since their last meeting her pale skin seemed to glow in the light and her blue eyes looked like pools of ice glistening in the sun, her slim body was framed by her loose golden hair that was curled slightly, her school robes hugged her body enhancing her curves.

"Hello Harry, have a nice summer?" she offered him a smile showing off her perfect teeth.

He cleared his throat "It was relaxing. How about you?" he watched as she took a seat across from him and place her wand up her sleeve, her wand was a light pale brown colour the hand was decorated with a flowery pattern.

"It was relaxing as well. My family and I spent some time in our summer house on a small island in the Mediterranean."

He nodded and was about to reply when the door to the compartment opened and a small girl with black hair stepped in except for her hair colour she was the exact image of Daphne.

"Harry I would like to introduce you to my young sister Astoria Greengrass."

He stood up and offered the young girl a smile which caused her pale cheeks to redden slightly he took her cool hand in his and placed a delicate kiss on her knuckles "A pleasure to meet you my lady" he released her hand and sat back down as Astoria took a seat next to her sister.

"Like wise Lord Potter."

He could feel her nervousness and her thoughts she had read about him as a child and learned about him from her sister Daphne, he waved at her slightly "Please call me Harry. Daphne has told me you spent the summer in the Mediterranean."

"Yes, Father wanted to see a few business associates."

Harry nodded he knew that Lord Greengrass owned shares in many apothecary's and other businesses around the world, the Greengrass fortuned had largely been gathered by selling ingredients from rare plants.

The compartment door opened and Draco closely followed by Tracey stepped in the pair seemed to be talking about Quidditch.

"Father bought me the new firebolt, I'm going to try out for either the chaser or seeker position this year." Draco said as he nodded at each of them before taking a seat next to him.

"The firebolt really? That's the fastest broom on the market we will win the cup for sure this year. Oh hi Astoria." Tracey said as she sat opposite Draco.

Harry himself had been gifted with the firebolt by Sirius and while he loved the feeling of flying and how the broom responded to him as he did death defying turns he doubted he would have the time for Quidditch then again if he got on the team and helped win the cup it could prove beneficial in reaching out and making connections.

He reached out with his Legilimency and carefully attuned himself to the minds around him each had been taught the basics in Occlumency by their parents no doubt to protect their secrets but he wasn't looking to rip the secrets from his mind he was instead getting a feel for it, the book he had read said that once a mind is attuned to another then it could prove useful the book went on to describe how a wizard with the ability could use it to apparate to the attuned persons location or could help them during combat by giving them select pieces of information.

It was a skill he hoped he could prefect in the coming year it would help once he started gathering followers, he had also planned on teaching his group of friends more spells he would have to tread careful though around Dumbledore maybe form a study group as a cover.

The train ride passed by quickly as he continued to read a book on parselmagic disguised as a transfiguration book sure he added to the conversation here and there but otherwise he was absorbed in the knowledge held with the book.

Sooner than he would have liked the train arrived at Hogsmeade at he along with his friends boarded the Therstrals drawn carriages that took them to Hogwarts. He followed Draco he went straight to the Slytherin table and sat down.

The sorting passed quickly with Astoria joining her sister in Slytherin he nodded at the many friends he had in other houses, he was reluctant to reach out to them with Legilimency with Dumbledore in the room.

He noticed that Hermione had changed her own frizzy hair had been straightened and was tied in an elegant knot the book on pureblood culture had obviously been put to good use as she acted exactly as one should.

The other muggleborns in his group too had changed in subtle ways it would help in the long run if they could cast aside their muggle ways and embrace the pureblood way. He even managed to discreetly nod towards the terrible twins as he nick named them they had been sending him small samples of stock they had produced for the coming year and he was impressed by there genius and cunning sure they weren't the most powerful wizards but together they could create many useful things and could use magic in unique ways it was one of the reasons he had been sending them a small sum of galleons to fund their projects.

Once dinner was over he followed the rest of Slytherin to the common room and relaxed in front of the huge roaring fire content to simply feel the minds around him, he was so absorbed in the feeling he failed to notice that Lish had removed herself from his person and was instead basking in front of the fire.

He slowly became aware of the feeling of trepidation around him before Marcus Flint the captain of the Quidditch team stepped forward and addressed him.

"Potter what on earth are you doing with that snake?" he pointed a large finger at the snake.

Harry turned to look at Lish who had grown quiet a lot over the holidays her body was smooth and powerful, he looked around the room at the many people watching him before he decided to be honest "She's my familiar." He was reluctant to reveal his parseltongue ability but being Slytherin and having such ability would greatly help him.

He turned to look at Lish "Enjoying yourself?" he hissed causing those around him to inhale sharply.

"Yes hatchling this fire is beautiful."

Harry nodded Lish had been feeling broody as of late and had taken to calling him hatchling treating him almost like a mother would, the many sculptures around him shifted at his use of the noble tongue

"You're a parseltongue." One of the seventh years blurted out.

Harry nodded "I am." He looked around the room briefly "I'm sorry I didn't reveal it to you sooner." He could practically see the gears turning as one by one every single Slytherin in the room found a new respect for him.

"A speaker finally."

Harry glanced around the room for the voice that had spoken before he noticed that Salazar himself had spoken from his frame above the fireplace "Lord Slytherin its an honour." He bowed his head briefly at the man.

"It has been so long since the noble tongue has been spoken within these hallowed walls. Tell me my heir have you managed to find my chamber?" the man patted the snake that was coiled around his shoulders as he spoke.

"I have." he stepped towards the painting even as many in the room watched on as he spoke to the founder.

"Good. I am disappointed that you didn't reveal yourself to me sooner, but I can see the need for discretion. I have silently watched as my school has been turned into a shadow of its passed self."

Harry nodded he knew Tom had never revealed his ability to Slytherin the man had waited until any compassion between Tom and Voldemort had been wiped away.

"I have a portrait inside the chamber once you have gotten into a routine again, we shall speak again in private. You will have much to learn."

Harry nodded "Of course my lord." He bowed before the founder who dismissed him with a casual wave of his hand he went towards his room before the founder stopped him.

"Call me grandfather my heir."

In the week that followed Harry noticed that he held power over his fellow Slytherins they sought him out to ask for his help or even to ask if they could do anything for him, they had tried to call him their lord and he was quick to nip that idea it wouldn't do for Dumbledore to get even a hint at what was going on within Slytherin.

His teachers had noticed his boredom in classes and after a meeting with Snape he found himself having slightly more advanced material than those around him, he and his fellow Slytherins had grown closer as he taught them advanced magic or studied advanced books with them.

Daphne had been the biggest surprise the girl had taken to allowing lish to drape herself across her lap as she ran a hand up and down her smooth skin.

He knew her surface thoughts of him she found him attractive and so he had mustered up his courage and asked her for a date to Hogsmeade which she had readily accepted with a small smile.

Word had quickly gotten out about their date and although Daphne was infuriated with the gossiping she secretly learned to like her new nick name, harry had become known as the king of Slytherin and with her cold exterior to nearly everyone she had become known as the ice queen of Slytherin.

sorry for the long delay life has been crazy. hope everyone is keeping safe and well? wasn't sure about this chapter its been changed so many times now still not 100% sure on

it but its as good as its gonna get. am I moving to quickly with Daphne and harry? anyway let me know your thoughts and will see you all soon.