HP: Harry From The Ancient House Of Black

Something was slithering up from its depths. She watched the massive creature, no a Basilisk, slide out of Slytherin's mouth. 

A scream of warning to Aries was on her lips as she saw the Basilisk swiftly make its way towards him, its fangs glimmering in the greenish gloom of the chamber.

"Wait!" Cassi had already closed her eyes, but Aries stared ahead at the beast. 

Warnings bells were ringing in the sensible part of his mind, but his magic screamed something different. 

This was it! The very thing that called for him, Slytherin's monster. 

But why? The Basilisk seemed even more confused and slowly lowered its head until they were eye to eye. 

Hazel and green flecked met bright and yellow, their magic pushing against one another.

"Why are you not dead boy?" the great Basilisk hissed. "Only the Heir can survive my gaze and you are not him."

"If you know so much then perhaps you can find that answer yourself." Aries knew it was a bad idea to antagonize the great serpent, but a sensation was filling him that he couldn't quite understand. 

One that he shouldn't. He had no long-time friends he hadn't seen in years, so why did he suddenly understand that feeling? 

The push of the serpent's magic hit him again, but still he lived. 

"Maybe you should sit or coil up or something. My aunt and I will figure this out." 

Just as Aries turned to Cassi the Basilisk let out a great hiss and the confusion only deepened on its features.

"I am compelled to follow your commands. . . Heir." Now Aries was dumbstruck and for someone that tended to read every book he laid his eyes on being at a loss for words wasn't a feeling he was used to. But there it was. 

The dots connected, and this only proved it. The Heir of Slytherin. But it wasn't possible! 

Yet that was something he had said over and over since arriving at Hogwarts but even he couldn't deny the magic side. 

He felt the Chamber react to him, the torches light, and the Basilisk called to him. 

The moment he had seen her he had known, in the deepest part of his mind it clicked and yet still he did not believe.

"Please don't kill my Aunt." Aries commanded the Basilisk who gave what he could only describe as an amused snort. 

"Aunt Cassi, you can open your eyes now." The old witch slowly opened her eyes and found herself face to face with a Basilisk. 

Years of pureblood training and Occlumency went out the window with an undignified yell as she fell to the floor. 

Aries couldn't take it any longer and the irony of the situation caused him to burst into laughter. 

Its echo off the dark walls seeming to only further Cassiopeia's embarrassment.

"I trust you have an explanation on why we're not dead Aries?"

"Oh yeah, um, well," Aries stammered, "I'mtheHeirofSlytherin."

"Come again?"

"I am the Heir of Slytherin," he said much slower this time. "At least, the magic of this chamber and the basilisk think so." At that he turned to the serpent with a curious look. 

"What is your name anyway?"

The great serpent looked surprised. "My name?"

"Well yes, I can't just keep calling you the Basilisk now can I?"

"Salmissra," the great serpent hissed slowly. "Lord Slytherin named me Salmissra."

Aries turned back to his Aunt with a rather smug grin. "Yeah Salmissra says I'm the Heir. Considering she is Slytherin's Serpent I think I believe her."

Now it was Cassiopeia's turn to be at a loss for weirds. 

Five years ago, when he had become Aries Orion Black she knew that her life was about to be filled with surprises. 

Wandless magic at two after surviving the Killing Curse? Okay. Suddenly speaking to snakes? A surprise to be sure but a welcome one. Natural Legilimency? 

Oh, the plans she had begun to formulate. Then the accident happened, and she thought all would be for naught. 

But he had surprised her again, throwing himself into his studies. She knew he wasn't motivated to truly learn, he only wanted a distraction, but she took it nonetheless. 

Yet this, this was something she never could have guessed. The Heir of Slytherin? How? She could trace the lineage of Slytherin all the way to the Gaunts. 

They were distantly related of course, very distantly but she knew without a doubt that there was no Slytherin blood in the Blacks, or in the Potters for that matter, Gryffindor maybe, but not Slytherin. 

But if the Serpent of Slytherin, the one who could only answer to the Heir himself said the boy was it, then who could deny it?

Aries had been chatting excitedly with the serpent and the cogs of her mind began to turn. 

The plans in her mind twisted and changed, formulating new possibilities. 

This was momentous, and once it became known the Heir of Slytherin was a Black, the magical world of Britain would change. 

Yes, she thought as her eyes came back to rest on the boy. Everything in him was the making of a new Dark Lord. 

She had never followed the last one, too caught up in playing the Game among the Germans, but she had never wanted to. 

The man had been a psychopath, and the few letters she received from Regulus had proved it. 

He had charmed many of them with notions of grandeur and followed it up with massacre. 

Cassiopeia truly felt sorry for those that were caught up in the insanity, too deep to escape with their lives, and felt no remorse for those that on lost themselves on the way, like her niece Bellatrix. 

But now, Aries was everything the Dark Lord could never have been. If properly trained and guided he could lead to House of Black to the highest mountain and perhaps truly fulfill Salazar Slytherin's magnificent work. 

Oh yes, she would make him the perfect Dark Lord, if it was the last thing she did. 

Her musing was interrupted as Aries made to leave, but the first of her plans had to be implemented. It would hurt the boy, but it was necessary.