Harry looked at the rune in front of him: Hagalaz. The one he pulled before that, Thurisaz, was beside it.

It didn’t matter how many times he tried; every single time he pulled those same two runes. Both indicated destruction of some sort, which sometimes could mean something good, but for the purpose he pulled them (what his day was going to be like), it couldn’t be a good thing. He was seriously thinking about not leaving his room today, but Severus would get mad that he didn’t come and eat. A bad reading for the day isn’t reason enough for his brother to lock himself in his room, as he said before.

Since it was nearing the time for breakfast, Harry quickly got dressed and started toward the Great Hall, fingering his runes while he thought. He decided to ask his brother if they expected anything bad to happen today. The reading just got his really tense.

“Careful child!” a voice said behind Harry, causing him to jump. It was Trelawney. “All signs indicate a bad day, perhaps even a death. Careful,” she said, before walking past Harry, and he wondered what she was doing in the dungeons. She only saw her once before, and at that time, she was talking about something odd that Harry didn’t quite catch. He didn’t really believe anything that she said, but her telling him to be careful made him even more uneasy.

Harry was almost to the Great Hall, when he was nearly tripped by a large snake, a few feet long and about three inches wide, who was slithering past at a speed Harry didn’t think was possible for snakes. Curious, since Harry didn’t think there were supposed to be snakes running loose at Hogwarts, Harry followed it to the second floor, but stopped outside the bathroom it went into.

It’s a girl’s bathroom, Harry thought, but then shook his head. If there is a snake wandering around where it shouldn’t, Harry figured he could deal with it just fine. After all, he could talk to snakes, and he hasn’t had a problem with any of them so far. Making his decision, Harry pushed into the bathroom, only to be facing a crying ghost.

“What are you doing in here?” she asked accusingly, no longer crying once she saw Harry. “You’re a boy.”

“I’m looking for the snake that came into here,” Harry answered. “I’m Silas. What’s your name?”

“You want to know?” she asked, surprised.

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”

“They never want to know my name,” the ghost said. “They just make fun of me. Of course, they already know my name. Moaning Myrtle, they say. Moping, Moaning Myrtle.”

“That’s mean of them,” Harry said. “At my old school they used to make fun of me, too. Always calling me a freak.”

“Really?” Myrtle said, sounding interested. “You could stay here with me in my toilet.”

“I think my brother would get mad at me. Thanks for the offer, though,” Harry said, trying not to upset the ghost.

“Is your brother here too? Is he teased too?”

“He teaches here,” Harry said. “Do you want to help me find the snake that came in here?”

“Hmph,” Myrtle said. “It’s always someone else. No one cares about Myrtle, no. No time for Moaning Myrtle.”

Harry sighed. This wasn’t going to be easy.

“Sorry,” he decided to say, then went around the bathroom looking for the snake. Myrtle had dived into a toilet and Harry could hear her echoing through the pipes. After five minutes, and still no luck finding the snake, Harry was about to leave when Myrtle came out of her toilet.

“The snake went down that hole,” she said pointing to a pipe sticking out from the ground under the sinks.

“Thank you, Myrtle!” Harry said, then his stomach growled. “Oh, no! I’m probably late for breakfast!”

“Fine, go then,” Myrtle said, and Harry said bye before he running out of the bathroom to the Great Hall, where Severus was just sitting down. Harry walked up to the table, out of breath.

“You shouldn’t be running inside, Silas,” Severus said, but Harry didn’t respond, he just sat down.

“Are there supposed to be snakes running loose in the castle?” Harry asked, and everyone at the table turned to look at him.

“No, my boy, why would you ask that?”

“Because a big one went past me and I followed it to a bathroom,” Harry answered, giving a wave to William before continuing. “It disappeared down a pipe.”

“You just followed a large snake?” Flitwick asked, and Harry nodded slowly. Severus told him to keep his parselmouth ability quiet, so he hoped that Professor Trimdol wouldn’t say anything about that.

“I like snakes,” Harry answered. “And it didn’t look like it was going to hurt me.” Most of the teachers gave Harry a disapproving look before turning to Severus.

“After breakfast, Severus, you should bring Silas to check that out. I would come, but I have quite a bit of paperwork to fill out before the meeting later today. If someone else would like to go with . . .” Dumbledore left it open.

“I am quite sure it is nothing,” Severus said, and Harry turned to glare at him. “We will be fine.”

“I’m not lying!” Harry said, offended.

“I realize that, Silas,” Severus said flatly. “I was merely suggesting that a snake from the grounds moved into the castle. It is quite possible.”

“Yes. Ever so often we get a few animals from the grounds in here, but that is very rare,” Dumbledore said. Breakfast went slowly for Harry, as the past two breakfasts did, but finally everyone left, and Severus indicated that Harry should lead the way. When they arrived at Myrtle’s bathroom, Severus gave his younger brother a look before following Harry in.

“It went down there,” Harry said, pointing to the pipe.

“It probably leads to somewhere on the grounds,” Severus said, and Harry looked around the sinks. Thinking about the snake, Harry shook his head. “What?”

“I just wish there was a way we could open it up,” Harry answered, and Severus shook head and was about to say something when the sink started moving. After a minute, the moving stopped, and Harry looked down the hole that it opened up into. Severus pulled Harry back roughly, standing between the ten year old and the sinks.

“What happened?” Harry asked.

“What did you say, Silas? Before the sinks moved.”

“That I wished it would open,” Harry said slowly. “Why?”

“Because you spoke in parseltongue,” Severus answered flatly.

“Oh.”

“Silas, go to the teacher’s lounge on the first floor. I assume you remember where it is? There should be at least one professor there. Bring whoever is there, here.”

“What if . . . something attacks you?” Harry asked, looking at the hole, worried.

“I will be fine. Now go.” Harry nodded, and ran to find more professors. Only McGonagall and Flitwick were in the room, and once they heard Harry’s account of what happened, they went with Harry without question.

“Merlin,” McGonagall said once she saw. “Do you think . . . this is . . .”

“It’s possible,” Severus said. “Silas opened it by accident with parselmouth.”

“He’s a parselmouth?” Flitwick asked.

“Yes,” Severus said sharply. “And I would appreciate it if you did not tell anyone.”

“Of course, Severus,” Flitwick said.

“What is it?” Harry asked, more curious than scared now.

“We will tell you later, Silas,” Severus answered. “We are going down. There is a ladder on the side, so we’ll be able to get back up, but you need to stay here unless something goes wrong, since the ladder is at a weird angle. You will not come down, understand?”

“Fine,” Harry said. He wanted to see what was down there. If he was able to open it, he should be able to go down, right? Harry watched as his brother and two future professors slowly maneuvered themselves down the odd-angled ladder, making sure to listen for anything that didn’t sound right.

After ten minutes, he got extremely bored and sat at the edge of the hole. He could hear the three below, but he couldn’t make out anything of what they said.

After an hour, he could no longer hear the voices from below, and Harry got a little worried. Also excited. If they were able to get in all the way . . .

Knowing his brother would get mad at him (if he was caught), Harry seriously contemplated climbing down and investigating, when he heard the sound of people climbing the ladder echoing up through the pipe. Frustrated, he sat back down and waited. The three adults were out of there amazingly fast, and before Harry could figure out what was going on, Severus pulled him to his feet and wouldn’t let go.

“Close it,” Severus hissed, and Harry looked at him, confused. “Close it Silas, now.”

“How?” Harry wondered.

“Say . . . ‘close’ in parseltongue,” McGonagall suggested, but all Harry could get out was ‘close’ in English. Finally, Severus conjured a snake, and Harry was able to close the entrance.

“What happened?” Harry asked, but he didn’t get an answer. Once the three professors seemed satisfied that the entrance was closed, Severus grabbed Harry by the hand and dragged him out of the bathroom, leading McGonagall and Flitwick.

“I can walk myself,” Harry said, trying to pull out of his brother’s grip, to no prevail. They arrived at the Headmaster’s office very quickly, and much to Dumbledore’s surprise.

“What is this about?” the old man asked once he saw the look on the three adults’ faces.

“Silas, go wait out in the other room,” Severus said, and Harry was about to argue. “Go.”

Harry went into the other room, sulking, and the adults closed the door behind him.

sSsSsSsS

“Do you think it is the Chamber of Secrets, Albus?” Minerva asked after the three explained what happened.

“The Basilisk would explain the events 50 years ago,” Albus said, thinking. “We need to close off that area of the corridor. If the entrance isn’t opened, the Basilisk is harmless, as we haven’t had any attacks. It didn’t notice you, you said?”

“It appeared to be sleeping,” Flitwick said.

“Good. We’ll put up a wall barrier, but we’ll need the rest of the staff to do so.”

“Why don’t we just kill it?” McGonagall asked.

“It would be too dangerous. You would get near it, and it would kill you immediately. A distance attack wouldn’t work, as most spells wouldn’t work on it.”

“So we just keep the monster in the school?”

“Until we figure out what to do, we have no choice. The basilisk will have no way to get through the barrier, that I am sure of,” Dumbledore said, but Severus looks wary. “Might I suggest you tell Silas, Severus? In case he decides he wants to go down there himself before we close it off?”

“Perhaps,” Severus said, narrowing his eyes. “When are putting the barrier up?”

“This week,” Dumbledore answered. “Tomorrow, if I am able to put everything together.” The three professors in the room nodded, then Dumbledore ushered them out.

Harry stood up when they left Dumbledore’s office, looking at Severus expectantly. Severus nodded, and when McGonagall and Flitwick left, he explained the situation to his younger brother.

The next day, Dumbledore, Severus, McGonagall, Flitwick, Trimdol, Kettleburn, Hooch, Sprout, and Camstar put up the magical wall, while Harry watched with William, halfway down the corridor. Harry was interested at first, but it soon got boring because the professors rarely said anything, and nothing seemed to happen until the wall started building itself at a very slow pace.

Finally, the wall was up, Trimdol took William, and everyone but Harry, Severus and the runes professor left the corridor.

“Mr. Prince,” Camstar greeted, and Harry shook her hand.

“Hi, Professor Camstar,” Harry answered. They had only met once in the passing, since Camstar arrived early that morning.

“I hear you are going to be in my Ancient Runes class,” she said, and Harry nodded, putting his hand in his pocket to feel his runes. Camstar must have noticed this.

“You carry your runes with you?” she asked, and Harry nodded again.

“I feel better with them,” Harry replied.

“Yes. I knew your mother. She always carried her preferred set with her. Sometimes two sets, depending on the day. You must have the gift, then. You take care of them well?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. Well, I really must be going. I have classes to prepare. It was good meeting you, Mr. Prince. Good bye, Severus.” Severus nodded and Harry waved before they headed back down into the dungeons.

“It’s cold down here,” Harry said. He was currently just wearing a short sleeve shirt and a pair of pants, seeing no reason to dress up since he was planning on exploring the grounds after lunch.

“Put on a robe,” Severus said plainly as they entered their rooms, and Harry rolled his eyes.

“So the basilisk can’t get out? Are you sure?”

“Very sure,” Severus answered.

“Good. So . . .” Harry trailed off.

“So, what?”

“I don’t know. I’m bored.”

“Then read. I have planning to do.”

Two days later, Harry was beginning to know the main part of the castle really well. He was disappointed that Severus wouldn’t show him the Slytherin common room, but he got over it when his older brother reminded him of the Diagon Alley trip coming up.

He wasn’t looking forward to leaving Hogwarts the next morning, especially since he wouldn’t see William for over a month, but he reminded himself that he’d get bored all alone at the castle. Besides that, they were going from the train station to Diagon Alley to get Harry’s school supplies, and in a week, it was his birthday.

They were having the party at the Malfoy Manor because Severus didn’t want the children to know where their future professor lived, among other things. There were going to be a bunch of kids about Harry’s age, some he would be going to school with, some he wouldn’t be, and in addition to being excited, he was nervous. The party that was at Malfoy manor before didn’t have all the same families that were going to be at his birthday, and many more kids, so Harry was back to thinking that they might not like him. That, and having a birthday party for him with people he didn’t even know, seemed really weird to Harry.

SsSsSsSsSsSsSsS

It took forever for Harry to get a wand. Severus even went to a nearby shop to get something and came back before his wand was found, causing Harry to become extremely nervous. Eventually, the old man started digging through older wands when Harry had tried all the newer ones the man thought were a possibility. It was either not strong enough, the wrong core, wrong length, wrong wood . . . eventually, though, Harry assumed that the old man narrowed it down enough and he brought out four boxes from the back.

“Try this,” he said. A few sparks, and he took the wand back. “Wrong core. Hmm. That leaves out this one, too. How about this?” Nothing happened. “No unicorn for you, then, hmm? Well, the last holly wand I have. Try it.” Picking it up, Harry felt a warmth spread from the wand into him, and Harry looked up at the man, smiling. “Hmm . . . odd,” he said, and Harry looked at him with confusion.

“Holly, 11 inches, supple, single phoenix tail feather. That phoenix that gave that feather is Fawkes, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore’s phoenix. This is a very special wand, Mr. Prince. I believe you are destined for great things.” Severus paid for the wand, and they left the shop, Harry thinking about what Ollivander meant. A Phoenix feather, holly.

“What does holly represent? Isn’t that what my runes are made of?” Harry asked his brother.

“Don’t you remember? It . . . repels evil, I believe.”

“Would . . . would that have anything to do with me being the boy who lived?” Harry asked after thinking about that for a few minutes, and Severus studied him briefly.

“It could.”

“No one has to know, right?”

“Know what?”

“That I’m the boy who lived. I don’t want anyone to know I’m Harry Potter,” he whispered. “I just want to be normal. I don’t want to be famous, and I don’t want to be a freak everyone picks on. I mean, with Draco, it’s fine. He acts as if he doesn’t know, and he would tell anyone,” he said, nearly pouting.

“Then don’t tell anyone,” Severus answered. “Although, I doubt you can keep it hidden forever. Eventually, they’ll know. You have that scar. I’m surprised no one has noticed it yet.”

“No one looks for it,” Harry answered. “Can I get a pet?”

“No,” Severus said, glad for the topic change. “Perhaps when you are older. Did you not already ask that?”

“Maybe. I don’t know,” Harry said, now fully pouting.

“Stop pouting,” Severus said, close to snapping, and Harry did. Harry could tell that something was bothering him, and he didn’t know if it was him or something that happened, so to play it safe, he decided to behave.

“Where to now?” Harry changed the subject, looking at his list. There were only a few things left to get on the list, and he wanted to look around Diagon Alley more since last time they were there, they didn’t go many places, and he also wanted to stop at the runes shop in Knockturn Alley for a book that he heard about. He was sure Ramla’s shop would have it.

“To a stationary shop, and then I need to get some potion ingredients. I suppose you can wander around Diagon Alley looking at the street shows while I go.” Harry thought about this for a minute. He did want to see the street shows, but Severus said they had them a lot, and Severus was going to Knockturn Alley anyway . . .

“Can I go to Ramla’s shop instead? I want to see if she has a book . . .” Harry trailed off.

“They didn’t have it at Flourish and Blott’s?” Severus asked.

“No, and I don’t think they would anyway,” Harry answered, and Severus stopped to give him a look.

“Is it illegal?”

“No!” Harry said. “It’s just that it was referenced in a few of the other books I have, but I don’t think it’s very popular.”

“I suppose I could drop you off there while I go to get the ingredients, if you promise not leave the shop.”

“I won’t!” Harry promised and after they got all of Harry’s writing supplies, Severus dropped his younger brother off at the runes shop.

“Hello?” Harry asked, entering the shop, a warm feeling spreading through him. He loved it there.

“Yes?” he heard Ramla answer. “Who is it?” she came out then.

“Silas! I was wondering when you’d come back. Where is Severus?”

“He went to get potions stuff,” Harry answered. “I was wondering if you had this book?” he handed her the piece of parchment he wrote the book and author on, and she nodded.

“I do believe I have a few copies. Let me check.” She came back a few minutes later with a copy. “This is a very good book. It goes into detail about the runes, and it doesn’t cut out the disturbing facts, which is very good for accurate readings.” Harry took the book, and while they waited for Severus to come back, Ramla told Harry stories about his mother.

Harry waited before they were nearing Diagon Alley before he opened the book and read it while they were walking, still making sure he kept close to Severus so he didn’t have to watch where he was going. He didn’t notice when Severus took a sharp turn right, though, and he ran right into someone a few years older than him.

“Oi!” the boy said. “Looks like we have a reader here, Gred!”

“I see, Forge.”

Harry closed the book and looked at the two red headed boys.

“Fred! George! What’s the hold up?” a lady, Harry assumed the mother, called, then came toward them.

“Nothing, Mother,” answered the first boy. “Just ran into this boy here.”

“He looks a lot like Snape, doesn’t he?” the other boy asked quietly, but Harry still heard him. The mother then came, looked at the boy and the direction she assumed he came from (Knockturn Alley), and gave him a worried look.

“Are you lost? Where are your parents?”

“My brother went . . .” Harry looked around, not seeing Severus anywhere.

“Lost then,” she confirmed. “What’s your name?”

“Silas Prince,” Harry answered. “I need to go find my brother.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll help you, Silas,” she said.

“No need,” Harry heard the familiar silky voice behind him say.

“Professor Snape!” said one of the twins.

“Severus,” the mother greeted. “Silas is . . . your brother?”

“Yes,” Severus answered, and Harry smirked. His brother was getting irritated. Of course, when he figured that Severus was irritated with him for not following, he stopped smirking.

“You haven’t been bringing him to Knockturn Alley, have you?” the mother asked. “Because that was the direction he was coming from.”

“Where I bring my charge is no concern of yours, Mrs. Weasley,” Severus answered. “Come along, Silas.”

Harry followed him, and they flooed back home. Harry put the encounter with the Weasleys out of his mind, preferring to read the book he got and to organize his school things. And think about his birthday, which was coming up real soon.

SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsS

“Severus!” Harry exclaimed, even though he knew he was irritating his brother to no end. Nothing could bring him down at this point. It was his first ever birthday party! “They are going to be there soon!”

“Two hours is not soon, Silas,” Severus commented, taking notes from some potions journal. “Your godparents said to come at 11:30, so that is when we will go. If you are bored, go read.”

“I’ve been reading since I got up! I can’t sit anymore.”

“Then go outside and play. But don’t get messy. It will do you no good to show up at your own party a mess.”

“Fine,” Harry grumbled, and went outside to the swing. After Severus learned that Harry liked swinging, he put one up for Harry so he wouldn’t have to go to the park to swing. That way, if he lost track of time, all Severus would have to do is call him in.

Swinging and thinking, an hour past by rather quickly, but soon enough, he could no longer sit and he had to go inside and annoy Severus until he brought him. He was just so excited and nervous! Inside, Severus gave him a very mild calming draught, mostly for his own nerves because the boy was being so irritating, and made sure that he was still clean. Satisfied, Severus handed Harry his cloak and walked the boy over to the fireplace.

“You’ll go alone, today,” Severus said, and Harry looked at his brother, wide-eyed.

“You’ve done it enough, now, so you should have no problem. Especially to the Malfoy manor.

“Okay,” Harry answered, taking a handful of floo powder. He was a little nervous going through the floo for the first time by himself, but he made it through with no problem, and nearly pounced excitedly on Draco, who was waiting for him in the room.

“Come on Silas!” Draco said, pulling Harry out of the room, then remembered Harry’s cloak and threw it at a house elf before continuing to drag him to the play room. “They’re going to be here, soon.”

“We’re just going to wait here?” Harry asked, confused. He had no idea what to expect today.

“No,” Draco said, looking at him like he was stupid. “What we are going to do is get the games we want to play ready. I was going to do it myself, but Mother said since it is your party, you should help. We are going to have lunch first, in the larger dining room, then we’ll play games. Then cake, of course. Mother said muggles have cake too, unfortunately, so you’re probably used to that, at least. After that, you open your presents, thank everyone, then they leave. Then, of course, you and I go through your presents and we play.” Harry laughed at Draco’s antics and nodded. It didn’t sound much different that a muggle birthday, so Harry was much less nervous than before, even though he never had a muggle birthday before.

They picked out three games, which Draco said should take about two hours to play, and then went down to the large dining room just in time to meet the first guests. Ten minutes later, there were about twenty kids Harry’s age around the table, chatting away. At first, Harry was nervous because everyone seemed to know each other. He knew two kids from the quidditch match at the party awhile ago, and Draco, but everyone else was a stranger to Harry. Draco soon encouraged him to join in on the conversations, though, and he became fast friends with Blaise Zabini, a girl named Tracey Davis, and Stephan Cornfoot.

Harry was surprised that he hadn’t seen his godparents or Severus, but when he mentioned it to Draco, his friend just said they’ll come for the opening of the presents. Harry was a little disappointed at first, but then he realized it would be really weird if there were 20 eleven year olds, and only three adults in the room.

When everyone was full, Draco lead everyone to the play room, then introduced Harry to everyone. They all said hi and wished him happy birthday, then Harry suggested a game of Exploding Snap, which everyone agreed to. Amazingly (or not so much, looking at the size of Draco’s play room), there was enough cards for everyone to play at once, which ended up with an hour and a half game. After that, they played another quick game, then went back to the dining room for cake, then to one of the social rooms to open presents.

Harry’s godparents and Severus were sitting there talking, and when the children entered the room, they motioned for Harry to sit on one of the chairs and everyone else to find a spot around the room. Some chose chairs, others obviously preferred the floor. Harry’s eyes widened at the amount of presents on the floor next to the fireplace.

One at a time, each present was handed to Harry and he carefully opened each one, looked at it, thanked the person, then moved to the next one. After all those presents were opened, they everyone talked for a bit before they left. Harry moved towards his presents after they left, a large smile on his face, to look at the gifts more closely.

“Silas,” Narcissa said, causing him to stop. “You still have our present to open,” she told him.

“There’s more?” Harry asked, bewildered. He already got a present from Draco, so he was a little confused.

“Of course,” Lucius laughed, and Severus raised an eyebrow at his older friend. Lucius handed Harry a small package. Sitting down, he slowly opened it.

“It has protection charms on it that are connected to Severus, so if you are injured, he’ll know. You’re starting Hogwarts soon, so you’ll probably need it,” Narcissa said as Harry looked at the odd colored chain in his hands. “It won’t interfere with your defense class, so you’ll be able to learn those hexes, but when you are in real danger, it will know and protect you. Also, it is invisible to others when you have it on.”

“Thank you,” Harry said.

“You’re welcome,” Lucius said. “Now, Severus did say he wanted to go, so we will see you at a later time. Perhaps Draco could visit you next time to go through all your new possessions.”

“Yes!” Harry said, as he watched Severus shrink all his new things. They flooed back to their home, and Severus told Harry there was one more thing.

“Don’t look so surprised,” Severus said flatly. “It does not suit you to be surprised about situations such as this. It is your birthday.”

“I know,” Harry answered, and he saw Severus bring out a broom.

“A Nimbus 2000?” Harry asked, surprised.

“Yes. You will not be able to bring it with you to Hogwarts this year, but you do need your own broom when flying with Draco, instead of flying one of his all the time.”

“Thank you!” Harry said, giving his brother a quick hug. “Can I go fly?”

“For an hour only,” Severus said, appearing uncomfortable. “Until dinner. But stay within the yard limits, otherwise muggles might see you.”

“Thank you!” Harry said again, jumping up and down, then ran outside to fly.