Chapter One: Eyes of Amber

Snakes had a habit of showing up wherever Harry Potter went. He'd wondered on it for as long as he could remember, but accepted their presence without much thought. They were never aggressive towards him. Quite the contrary- they had a tendency to gather around him almost protectively.

Well, maybe that was an exaggeration. It wasn't like any of the snakes had attacked anybody who tried to hurt him, but then again they were all very small. Privet Drive and the neighborhoods around it weren't known for their large serpents; most of them were just little grass or ground snakes. If any of them tried to protect Harry from one of his Uncle Vernon's drunken rages, they would get killed.

He didn't want that. Whenever he saw Vernon start drinking, Harry hid in his cupboard under the stairs and whispered to any of the snakes who visited him to hide. He didn't know how they understood him, nor why they seemed almost reluctant to do so, but it kept them safe. Harry would survive whatever violence Vernon dealt him and when he returned to his cupboard, bruised and battered and a little more broken, they would come out of hiding to curl around him, providing what comfort they could. He had trouble understanding the words they spoke beyond simple meaning.

Now, as a ten year-old, Harry could understand more of their whispers. It was a hissing, complicated language, and yet for some reason he understood it as easily as if it were english. They didn't want to watch him suffer anymore. They wanted him to do something about it.

How could he, Harry asked them. He was a child, not even a teenager, who was stunted from never eating enough, staying in that terribly cramped space under the stairs, and being beaten on a regular basis. His body barely had the energy to heal itself, forget grow. If he tried to fight back against Vernon, he'd just get beaten even worse. He was pretty sure that his left arm was cracked from the beating he took last night.

"There is a way," said one of the snakes. It was a grass snake, one of the first that had come to Harry as a child.

"How?" Harry whispered in their language, wincing at the way his bruised ribs flared in pain from even that simple vocalization.

"We have been…searching," said the snake. "For years, we have watched you suffer under these…brutes. Powerless to help. Too weak to intervene. But we could not allow it. Something had to be done. So we whispered to others of our race, asking, pleading, searching for an answer. And we think we have found one."

"What do I have to do?" Harry asked. He would do anything. He couldn't stand being here anymore, a slave to his relatives in every sense of the word, subject to beatings from his uncle and cousin whenever they needed to take their frustration out on something. He was going to die if this kept up.

No other person would take his pleas for help at face value. He'd gone to a teacher at the school he attended, but Vernon and Petunia had vehemently denied their involvement in his injuries and claimed he was mentally unstable. After that attempt, Vernon had beaten him especially badly, threatening worse if he ever tried it again.

A new snake, one of the ground snakes who traveled through small tunnels, flicked its tongue as it addressed Harry. "There are members of our race who are larger and more powerful than we. By bringing one of them to your side, they can protect you."

He frowned. "Where could I possibly find a snake like that? Even if I find one at the Zoo this week, I wouldn't be able to take it home…"

"Nay, that wouldn't work," agreed the ground snake. "You must hatch this snake."

Well, that was even more impossible than sneaking one home from the Zoo. "I can't get any eggs like that."

"You can!" Insisted the snake, almost excitedly. "We have found a way!"

"How?"

"There are eggs of fowl in the house, yes?"

"What, chicken eggs? Well, yeah, but they're always cold. Nothing can hatch from that…"

"Something can," the ground snake hissed. "You must trust us, child. When the brutes retreat to their dens, sneak to the kitchen and take one of the eggs. Bring it to us- we will teach you what to do."

It sounded crazy, but they obviously had something in mind. Harry waited in his cupboard under the stairs as the time passed and, at last, the clock struck nine and the Dursleys went to bed. With a smack on the door to the cupboard and a muttered threat from Vernon to not cause any trouble, Harry's atrocious relatives turned off the lights and the house went silent.

Harry waited a good hour after that to make sure they were really asleep before he slowly, carefully, unlatched the cupboard door from the inside and slipped out. He hurried to the kitchen and silently opened the fridge to retrieve a chicken egg. Harry thanked his lucky stars that Petunia had left the eggs on the side door within his reach. After snatching one of the eggs from the carton, he closed the fridge and hurriedly retreated back to the cupboard.

Once he locked the door again, Harry showed the egg to the snakes, who hissed excitedly.

"Yes! This is what we need!" The ground snake hissed. "We have also acquired the other piece."

Harry blinked as one of the larger snakes came in through a hole in the side of the cupboard, dragging with it a small toad. He was completely lost now.

"Why do we need a chicken egg and a toad?"

"They are necessary to hatch one of the mightiest of our race. The ritual requires their presence."

"What, like magic? But magic isn't real!"

"Then how can you speak with us?"

Harry opened his mouth and closed it a second later. Point. It sounded crazy, but according to his relatives and everyone he knew, he was crazy already. Oh, balls to it.

"What do I have to do?"

The ground snake's tongue flicked out again. "The toad must be placed on the egg. Then we must speak in our language an incantation. It goes as thus- "

The snake hissed a phrase in several parts, the like of which Harry could not really interpret back to english, for it contained words that seemed exclusive to the mysterious language of serpents. But he memorized the phrase quickly and then proceeded to the next step.

"How long will it take?"

"Most of the night. We shall sing when you need rest, but you must keep the toad in place."

Harry carefully took the squirming toad and placed it on the now-warming chicken egg. He held it there between his fingers, then began to chant the serpent's phrase under his breath. He kept that up for several hours until his throat was dry, then left the rest of the chanting to the near-dozen snakes surrounding the chicken egg.

He was near ready to pass out at four in the morning when the egg shivered beneath the toad. Harry blinked, suddenly feeling wide awake, as the snakes around him chanted more frantically than before.

"Sing!" Whispered the ground snake urgently. "Sing now! It must know your voice, lest it may turn on you!"

That obviously wouldn't have been a good thing, so Harry began to whisper-sing the phrase in earnest. The previously dead chicken egg, impossibly, began to shiver again and twitched beneath the toad and his fingers.

They kept up the song for five more minutes when the egg cracked from the inside. The snakes went silent and Harry watched, barely daring to breath, as a small, emerald snout jabbed out of the egg. It was followed by a long, lithe body, covered in brilliant green scales. Deep amber eyes surveyed the dark cupboard, almost luminous in their intensity.

Harry moved to take the toad off of the broken egg and the amber eyes snapped towards him. He felt a shiver run down his spine as the eyes met his own- as if his body was warning him that it was unsafe. The infant snake hissed, too young to speak its language, but Harry interpreted the hiss as displeasure.

"The toad," said the grass snake. "It must eat the toad. That is its first meal."

He felt a little bad for the toad, but Harry offered the amphibian to the newly-hatched serpent. The snake eyed it greedily, then lashed out. It didn't bite Harry, but he was surprised by the ferocity such a small and young creature possessed.

Devouring the toad took just a few minutes, and then the snake flicked its tongue out and assessed its surroundings once again. Harry hissed to it in the serpent's language that they would not harm it, that they were friends, but again the snake seemed to young to truly understand. But it did interpret his meaning and relaxed, curling up under the sheets in the corner.

Harry sighed, a little relieved that the snake had chosen to trust him. The ground snake who had brought the knowledge of how to hatch the creature watched the place where it slept, unblinking as always.

"We will bring it more meals so it may grow. It will be ravenous for the first few days- you must be patient. Only after then will its powers come forth and provide you the protection you need."

"Powers?"

"Yes," said the grass snake gravely. "It is a magical serpent. It may steal the life of all living things that meet its gaze. The venom in its maw would dispatch most creatures in minutes. And it will grow large, large beyond any of us, for we are mere worms compared to the might it will claim."

Harry frowned. "So if I look into its eyes when it gets older, I could die?"

"Not you. You are its hatcher and a speaker of snake-tongue. As such, you carry our blessings and are protected from its powers. But if you were to meet another that you did not hatch, it may be able to kill you, for you would be alien to it."

He nodded slowly, letting that sink in. He didn't plan on hatching another anytime soon- from the sound of things, just this one hatchling would probably be enough to do…whatever it was the snakes had in mind. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to kill the Dursleys, but he definitely wanted them to stop abusing him.

It was a waiting game, now.

Five days passed with rising tensions in the Dursely household. Vernon was, for some reason, growing more and more agitated with Harry's presence as they neared his eleventh birthday. It wasn't like they ever celebrated it in the first place, but things were getting worse than normal.

The mysterious serpent Harry had hatched with the help of the other snakes remained hidden during this time, but it was ravenous. The other snakes brought it food almost constantly and it grew at an astounding rate. Within those five days, it became the biggest snake in the cupboard- not that that was saying much since it was barely three feet long, but Harry was stunned by how quickly it grew. In addition, it seemed to be getting smarter at an equally rapid pace. The serpent's eyes had taken on an intelligent gleam and it listened to Harry very closely whenever he was talking to it.

On Dudley's birthday, the day the family went to the Zoo, it all came to a head.

They were in the Reptile House, checking out the various species of lizards and snakes, as well as the various amphibians kept in the building. Harry was trailing behind Dudley and his Aunt, (Vernon had gone to grab something to eat) looking at the snakes behind the glass. He didn't speak to them here- if any of the Dursleys caught him speaking to snakes, Vernon would almost certainly break some of his bones.

But still, he couldn't help but wince at the way Dudley beat against the glass, demanding that one of the larger snakes- a rock python- move from its lazy coils. When the boy sneered at the snake and stalked off to antagonize another poor reptile, Harry walked over to the glass and looked at the python. It certainly looked rather irritated, but it was hard to tell sometimes.

"I'm sorry," Harry muttered lowly. "He's not a nice person. None of my relatives are."

The python's eyes, although unblinking, sparkled in recognition of its language and slowly raised its head to look at Harry more closely. "You speak my tongue?"

"Just enough to get by," Harry cracked a slight smile.

"You're a rare human," the python's tongue flicked out curiously. "Even amongst the strange ones who come sometimes with magic at their call, I have never met one who can speak with me."

"I don't know about them," Harry admitted, although he was desperately curious to know if there were really other people who could use magic- if that was, indeed, what he could do. "Everyone I know just thinks I'm a freak. Well, everyone except snakes like you."

"Mum, look!"

Harry was suddenly thrown to the floor as Dudley smacked into him, eyeing the rock python with barely restrained excitement. "The stupid slug moved! That's right, keep moving you great ugly- hey!"

Annoyed by the interruption, the python lowered its head and ceased mobility once more. Dudley glared at the reptile, then snapped his eyes towards Harry. "You!"

He grabbed Harry before the stunned boy could react and yanked him to his feet, then pinned him against the glass. "Make it move again! It moved when you were here!"

"It's not like I can talk to it!" Harry snapped.

Dudley growled. "I don't care, make it move!"

As Dudley pulled Harry forward and then attempted to shove him back against the glass again, both boys found a surprise- there was no glass to hit.

They went tumbling into the pool of water within the enclosure and came up sputtering, eyes wide in surprise. Dudley locked onto Harry with terrified rage.

"YOU DID THIS, FREAK!"

Harry couldn't even get a word out when Dudley's hands locked around his throat and shoved him back under the water. Although he scrabbled to get loose from the bigger boy's hands, Harry was too weak to overpower Dudley. Panicked that he was on the verge of drowning, he let out a scream underwater- and involuntarily, it came out as snake speech.

Dudley's weight suddenly vanished from him and Harry pushed himself up out of the pool with a gasp. His eyes locked onto a terrifying scene- the python he'd spoken to had its fangs in Dudley's leg and was trying to coil around him. Dudley was shrieking, beating at the snake with his fists while a horrified Petunia tried to yank it off.

"Stop!" Harry cried in snake speech, though it came out choked from water and didn't sound like any sort of language to his cousin or aunt. The python paused and regarded him with one eye, but didn't relinquish its grasp on Dudley. "They'll hurt you!"

Reluctantly, the rock python released Dudley and hissed at Harry's cousin and aunt before retreating to the back of its enclosure. It was only then, as he dragged himself out of the cage, that Harry realized the other snakes in the Reptile House were attacking the glass or looking for a way out. They'd all responded to his cry for help. Once they realized he was alright, they settled down, but the visitors in the Reptile House were understandably startled by their sudden, simultaneous aggression.

Harry leaned against the glass- which had somehow reappeared once he'd climbed out of the cage- while Petunia frantically comforted her son. He made to slide down to the floor only to yelp when a hand roughly grasped his hair and yanked him back into a standing position.

Vernon Dursley's face was almost purple with rage. "You little miscreant!"

"It wasn't me!" Harry cried. "It just happened! It was like magic!"

"There's no such thing as magic!"

The second they got home, Petunia took Dudley upstairs while Vernon threw Harry into the living room, stripping the boy's shirt off with the same motion, and took his belt off. The crack of leather made Harry flinch.

"You've ruined my son's birthday, you freakish boy!" Vernon roared. "No food for three days, starting now! You don't leave that cupboard once I'm finished with you even to use the loo! You can shit and piss and starve in there until I say otherwise!"

Harry covered his head as Vernon brought the belt up to hit him. "It wasn't my fault!"

"It's always your fault!"

The belt's stinging blow on his bare back made Harry cry out in pain. No sooner had Vernon whipped him five times than the door to the cupboard began to rattle.

Vernon stopped and squinted at the small door. "What's that?"

Harry didn't try to rise off the floor, so Vernon grabbed his hair and yanked him up. "What is in there!? Answer me!"

"Nothing!"

"It's obviously not nothing, you idiot!"

Vernon threw Harry aside and marched over to the cupboard, belt at the ready. "If you're keeping some little pet in here, it's as good as dead!"

"No!"

Harry's cry was ignored as Vernon threw the cupboard door open. The fat man brought his belt up, ready to hit whatever was waiting for him, only for his eyes to meet a pair of luminous, amber orbs.

Vernon froze, stock-still where he stood. Harry watched him, terrified that he'd strike the snake who was still too small to properly defend itself. But Vernon did not move. He remained still, as if a statue.

The snake flicked its tongue, glaring at the man, before slithering over to Harry. It utterly ignored Vernon, who continued to stay frozen in place. The other snakes that stayed in Harry's cupboard slithered over to him hurriedly.

"Time to go," whispered the grass snake. "You cannot stay here. The big one will not stay frozen for more than a few minutes."

"What happened?"

"He met my eyes."

Harry blinked at the emerald serpent and its amber eyes. This was the first time it had spoken, and with a voice that was unmistakably feminine. The snake's tongue flicked out. "My eyes are not old enough to kill, but I may petrify those who stare into them for a short time. We must leave now."

"Where can I go?" Harry whispered. "I have nowhere to run."

"Across the street lives an old witch," said the amber-eyed snake. "Run to her. She may have a way for you to escape this place."

The grass and ground snake, as well as the others he'd befriended over the years, looked at him a little sadly. "We cannot go with you. We are too small and weak to protect you. This must be where we part, Harry Potter."

"I will come with you," the amber-eyed snake told a crestfallen Harry. "I am not old, but I can protect you if need be. But we must hurry- the big one will be able to move before long. Take what you must from your small den and let us leave."

Harry did as he was told, although his back was still stinging with agony from the whipping. He rushed to the cupboard, frantically glancing at Vernon in case the big man regained his ability to move again, and grabbed what few possessions he needed to run away- which was basically just his backpack and clothes.

He jumped as the amber-eyed snake slithered into the pack, keeping her head visible just in case she needed to use her eyes again. "We need to go."

"Okay," Harry replied, slipping a fresh shirt on with a wince- his back was stinging horribly. Without glancing at Vernon's frozen form or responding to the calls of Petunia for her husband, Harry ran to the door, opened it up, and fled outside.

He made straight for the house that the golden-eyed snake had told him about. Only one old lady lived down their street- Mrs. Figg.

Praying that she was at home, Harry knocked on her door. It took a few moments, but she eventually answered.

The old lady stared at the tearstained face of the young boy, startled. "Harry? Is something wrong?"

"I…" He wasn't sure what to say. "I need to hide. Something happened at the Zoo and Uncle Vernon is really angry. He- I'm scared he might really hurt me this time."

Figg glanced at the house he'd run from across the street and beckoned him inside. "Right, in you come. I'll warm up some tea for you. Then I'll call someone to come help you, dearie."

Harry hurried inside of the house, relieved that he'd found an escape- for now.

Figg sat him down on the couch and made him some tea. While Harry drank, tired and hurting, the old woman walked to the kitchen and wrote a quick letter. She stuck it in an envelope and walked to the window nearest the back door, where an owl was sitting.

She gave the bird the letter and murmured quietly. "Take that straight to the Aurors on standby."

The bird let out a hoot and took off, carrying its cargo into the sky.

Harry wasn't sure how long he'd been in Mrs. Figg's house when someone knocked loudly on the door. He stiffened- if Vernon found him now, he was dead.

Figg walked to the door and looked out the peephole for a moment. Then she opened the door to meet a pair of people standing in the fading light of evening- a tall, african man and an older woman with a pointed hat. Both of them donned robes that would have been strange in public if they were normal people.

"Your letter sounded urgent," the man said.

"He's inside," Figg replied. "He told me there was an incident when the family visited the Zoo today- his magic flared up and something went wrong. His uncle took him home and started beating him, but I haven't seen him or any of the others since."

The man's eyes narrowed. "How badly hurt is he?"

"Badly enough that you should probably take him to a healer," she murmured sadly. "It's hard for me to tell, but I get the feeling that this isn't the first time he's been abused, either. They always keep him in there when he's not at school or out with them, so it could be they've been hiding it."

The other woman scowled. "With the wards on that house, we've no way of monitoring his health."

"We'll discuss his…protection after we've assured he's alright," the man said. "For now, our priority is his health and well-being."

"There's something you should know," Figg said, her voice hushed. "He's told me he's been speaking with snakes. They were the ones who convinced him to run here."

All three of them went quiet for a moment. The man eventually broke the silence. "Let's worry about that later. Let's see him first."

Figg nodded and opened the door to let them in.

As soon as they came into the living room, Harry stiffened and shrank into the couch. He clutched the backpack close, giving the serpent inside just enough room to watch the newcomers closely.

"Hello, Harry," the older woman greeted him with a small smile. "We're here to help you."

"Can you get me away from them?" He asked a little fearfully.

"We will," the man approached a little more slowly and knelt to make himself look smaller, and thus appear less threatening. "My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt, Harry. This is a friend of mine, Professor McGonagall."

Kingsley held out his hand. "Let me see your hand, Harry."

Hesitantly, Harry did as he asked. Kingsley's grasp was firm, but gentle as he turned Harry's wrist and checked his pulse. He looked into Harry's eyes and then placed his hand on the boy's forehead, noting how clammy he was and the somewhat glazed look in his eyes. More worrying was the rather erratic flow of magic in his body.

"Mrs. Figg, I think a calming draught would do him some good," Kingsley said quietly, which the woman heard easily and immediately set off to do as she was tasked. He smiled at Harry. "It's going to be alright, Harry. We'll get you to a safe house and make sure you're taken care of there."

Harry blinked slowly. "Why is this happening to me?"

"It's just your magic," Kingsley told him. His deep voice was calming. "There's a lot we'll need to tell you, but for now all you need to know is you'll be safe with us. I promise you that."

Harry nodded after a few seconds. "Can you promise not to hurt the snake I brought with me? She helped me get away."

Kingsley raised an eyebrow. "Can we see her?"

The boy hesitated. "Well…I guess. Just-just don't look into her eyes, or you'll freeze."

He opened the backpack and whispered something in a language Kingsley assumed was Parseltongue if the hissing sounds were any indication. After a moment, a small, emerald snake slithered out and wrapped itself around Harry's arm. The serpent didn't look at the Auror's face to lessen the chances of petrifying him, but she kept herself coiled up- ready to strike if necessary.

Kingsley's hand instinctively shifted to grasp the wand hidden in his sleeve while McGonagall turned deathly pale. He knew for a fact that those snakes were illegal to breed- not to mention deadly. How had Harry managed to get his hands on one, and indeed, one that seemed to obey him?

"Please?" Harry sniffed. "She just wants to protect me."

There was literally no precedent for this, so Kingsley thought about it for several seconds before he made a call. "It should be fine for now."

"Kingsley…"

He shook his head at McGonagall. "He's already in shock- we can't afford stressing him further. The snake stays. We'll just have to watch where our eyes go, right?"

She pursed her lips, but nodded.

"Harry?" He made sure he had the boy's attention before he said anything else. "Your friend can stay with you, alright? Just make sure she understands that we won't hurt her as long as she doesn't hurt us."

"I don't think she can hurt you," Harry frowned. "She said that she can only petrify people right now- whatever that is. I guess how she makes people freeze. She's not old enough to hurt anybody."

"That's alright," Kingsley assured him. "You just concentrate on relaxing for now, Harry. You're safe with us."

The boy hissed something softly to the snake and she slithered back into the bag. A moment later, Mrs. Figg brought more tea over to Harry, mixed with a calming draught. "Here you are, dearie. Drink up and get some rest."

Harry did as she asked and his eyes began to droop as soon as he emptied the cup. McGonagall took his glasses off for him and set them on the table, then helped Harry to lay down on the couch. He whimpered from the stinging in his back, but was just too tired to care. Within a few minutes, he was sound asleep, one hand still clutching his backpack.

McGonagall retreated to the kitchen to speak with Kingsley while Mrs. Figg stayed to keep an eye on Harry. The witch waited patiently as her Auror companion cast a Patronus Charm and sent it off to the Ministry with a message.

"We'll need to interrogate his Aunt and Uncle," Kingsley said after a few moments. "If they've been abusing him, we need to know the extent. His magic feels too unstable for my liking. It's not been suppressed enough to develop an Obscurus, but it's bad enough for me to assume he's undergone severe physical and possibly psychological abuse."

McGonagall frowned deeply. "I knew it was a bad idea, leaving him with those muggles."

"We'll discuss that with Dumbledore," Kingsley sighed. "What I want to know is who taught him to create a Basilisk egg."

"No wizard could have done that," she replied. "The Bond of Blood Charm on that house would keep even Dumbledore out unless Harry actively gave him permission to enter. How he's done this doesn't matter right now, does it? The only thing we need to concern ourselves with for the time being is his wellbeing."

"Agreed," murmured the Auror.

When Harry woke up, he was lying in the softest mattress he'd ever felt in his life. His body felt sore, but the pain from his beatings had faded for the most part. He sat up and realized that his glasses were missing, so he couldn't see very well. Fortunately, he spotted them on a small table at the bedside. As he looked around, he noticed that the room he was staying in was mostly dark, but in a comfortable way.

"You've woken, then?"

He blinked, realizing that his backpack was also on the table and the amber-eyed snake was watching him. She slithered out of the small gap in pack and lifted her head to meet his hand, which he raised to let her come over. Harry smiled as her tongue flicked out, ghosting over his fingertips. "Yes. How are you?"

"I'm hungry," she admitted. "So if you can ask them to find me something to eat, that would be greatly appreciated. How do you feel?"

"I'm…" Harry trailed off, trying to assess himself and figure that out. "Tired, I guess. My body feels sore everywhere, but it doesn't hurt so bad now."

"The wizards who treated you did many things that I do not know of," said the snake. "They healed your wounds on your back, amongst other things. But it seems they'll still scar over."

"That's okay," Harry murmured. "As long as I don't ever have to go back to that place, I'm okay with that."

She slid over his hand, coiling up his arm and shoulders until she was comfortably situated around his neck. Her scales were smooth and a little cool, which concerned him. "Are you cold?"

"A little. I did not dare come out while the wizard healers were helping you. I just want some body warmth."

"You can have as much as you want," he smiled, lifting a hand to gently stroke the scales beneath her chin. "Thank you for helping me escape that place."

"You are both my parent and my master," she replied in a soft hiss. "I will always protect you, Harry."

"Thank you."

They were distracted by a startled gasp which caused Harry's eyes to snap up. A middle-aged woman with light brown hair was standing in the now-open door, staring at the boy and snake with large eyes. Before Harry could say a word, she was reaching for something at her hip- a stick?

Whatever she was doing, she was stopped by the same african man- Kingsley, wasn't it?- that had met Harry at Mrs. Figg's home. He gently gripped her wrist and pulled her hand away from the stick.

"It's alright, Andromeda," he reassured her. "The snake is no threat to Harry- quite the contrary, really."

He looked up at Harry and smiled pleasantly. "How are you feeling, young man?"

"Better, sir," he replied. "Um…but if it's not too much trouble, my friend needs something to eat."

"I'll have Kreacher bring a few mice for him," Andromeda said quietly.

The snake hissed at that and Harry smiled a little. "She's a girl."

"Her, then," Andromeda corrected. "Do you need anything else?"

Harry frowned. "Where am I? How long have I been here?"

"This is Grimmauld Place," she answered. "You've only been here a day, but you've slept all that time."

He looked down, not sure if he should be embarrassed by that or not. "I'm sorry."

"It's quite alright, Harry," Kingsley told him, walking over to his bedside. "You needed the rest."

His stomach suddenly growled and Harry felt heat rush into his cheeks. Kingsley smiled, amused. "I take it you're feeling hungry?"

He nodded shyly. Andromeda let a smile of her own slip onto her face. "I'll have something made for you, Harry. Kingsley, can you take it from here? I still need to inform the others."

"Yes. Thank you for your hospitality, Andromeda," Kingsley said, pulling up a chair to sit beside Harry. As the woman left, the dark-skinned man made himself comfortable- this was going to take a while. "Right- we have a lot to talk about Harry. First of all, I need to tell you something that you may or may not have realized about yourself already. You're like me, young man. You're a wizard…"

Welcome to my newest story! While I'm suffering writer's block on my various other tales, I figured I'd take a crack at one of my favorite book series of all time. This is pretty much completely experimental and as such my updates will be far from predictable, but I think it'll go over well once I get my act together. Anyhow, this first chapter is going to be pretty short compared to later chapters, but I hope you've become interested enough to stick around!