Serpent's Bloodline: Legacy of the Basilisk

Harry and Reg instead returned to Surrey, to a playground not far from Harry's home. There Harry looked around, but the day was a rainy one and so no-one was on the streets.

"Well, that should do" he said, pulling out a third wand and erecting spell-walls to prevent from noticing and listening.

"What are you planning now, S… Harry?" Reg asked, looking interested at the building magic.

"Those are awesome! Some of them even I don't know - and I am hiding for fifteen years now!" he commented, looking at the wards, Harry was setting.

"I may teach you sometime" Harry answered distractedly. "But now I have to do something else. I need someone I can trust to help me with my task."

"Hey! I am helping you - do you want to say you can't trust me?!" Reg said hurt.

"I know I can trust you" Harry answered, shaking his head. "You have been helping me ever since I rescued you - so why shouldn't I trust you? No. I need someone who can enter everywhere and is no-where found. I need a perfect spy and a loyal friend. As helpful as you are - even you have trouble to enter somewhere unnoticed."

"Well, yes…" Reg said. "But your description - how about Kreature? He is the old house-elf of my mother."

"And he is bound to your brother" Harry answered. "No good."

"Uh… yeah… but…"

"Don't worry. I know whom I want" Harry said and then called " Dobby !"

The next moment there was a crack and the crazy little house-elf appeared.

"Harry Potter sir is calling?" He said, looking up at Harry.

"Uh… yes, Dobby" Harry answered, suddenly not all too sure what to say. "Uh… are you still a free elf, Dobby?" he finally asked.

"Of course, Harry Potter sir!" Dobby answered. "Dobby likes being a free elf over being Master Malfoy's elf, yes Dobby does."

"So there is no way that you will return in the service of a magical being to replenish your magic?" Harry asked curiously. "Do you want to die?"

Dobby blinked.

"Harry Potter sir knows how house-elf-magic is working?" he asked astonished.

"Uh… yes I do."

"So Harry Potter sir called to bond?" Dobby clarified with a nearly mad gleam in his eyes.

"Uh… yes" Harry answered. "And I wanted to ask you to also ask Winky if she would like to join. I need some loyal house-elves to help with my quest."

"Harry Potter sir has need for Dobby and Winky?" Dobby asked again, then he suddenly grinned. "I's be right back. I's be fetching Winky."

And with that and a loud pop he popped away again.

"So that's your master-scheme" Reg said grinning. "Mad house-elves."

"I need someone who can contact me everywhere and without being noticed. Of course I had to ask house-elves. And about the 'mad' thing - you need to be at least a little mad to follow my scheme, don't you agree, Reg?" Harry answered while an evil grin flickered over his face.

"Hey!" the other one exclaimed, but Harry just continued to speak.

"I might have been able to work alone until now - but now I am returning to Hogwarts and the hot phase of my plan is starting. I need someone who can get my correspondence to me or bring me somewhere I am unable to go by myself."

"So you are hiring two house-elves." Reg stated. "Why two?"

"Because they are free" Harry answered shrugging. "And I might need them both."

"I know you better than that, Harry" Reg said. "So - why two?"

"To spy on my favorite target, of course" Harry answered. "And all the others involved with him. Maybe we will find some other allies on the way."

Reg sighted while shaking his head.

"Don't you know enough already?"

"It's better to be prepared" Harry answered. "I might know thousands of things about my enemies - but it's really better to still spy on them. They might change their way without you knowing when you don't."

"What are you, Harry?! A super-spy?!"

Harry grinned.

"Nothing like that" he answered. "But I have fought enough in my life to know that you need as much information as you can get - and sometimes such information will provide you even more then knowledge. There might even be some allies you can find while spying on your enemies."

"You are mad, Harry, definitely absolutely mad." Reg commended, shaking his head.

"Why, thank you" Harry answered but was unable to say anything more because at that moment there was a loud crack and the elves returned.

"I's been cleaning, Dobby!" Winky cried, trying to free her arm from the other elf. "Why's you bringing me away?!"

Harry looked at the female elf. She looked dreadful. She was wearing a dirty, yellow dress and had big bangs under her blood-shot eyes. In her hand was a dirty rag - what she had maybe used for cleaning just a second before.

"I's been cleaning! I's been cleaning!" she cried, sounding desperate and angry.

"And I'm sure you have done well" Harry answered to her desperate cries. Winky stop abruptly with repeating her phrase and looked at him.

"No" she told him, big tears quelling out of her eyes. " Winky's a bad elf. Not cleaning good enough."

"Good enough for me" Harry answered, extending his hand to her. "I want you in my family."

Winky stared at his hand, then at him, unable to understand at first. Then comprehension filled her eyes and they went huge.

"You's cannot want me, kind sir" she told him. "I's been a bad elf."

"I don't believe that" Harry answered, still holding out his hand to her "and I still want you."

Again Winky stared at his hand and then at his face. And suddenly her own face lit up, the despair vanishing.

"You's want Winky, kind sir?" she asked. "You's want Winky as your house-elf?!"

"I do" Harry answered, still extending his hand. And finally, with a face as bright as the sun she took his hand.

" Be part of my family, be part of my home. Service for magic, loyalty for loyalty, friendship for friendship, advice for life. So mot it be." Harry hissed softly.

Winky's eyes went huge.

Harry knew she had not understood his words - they were Parseltongue after all - but she knew exactly what he wanted from her.

And then she smiled.

"So be it" she answered and a golden mist came from her body and entered Harry's. The next moment, she glowed in the death-green light that were his eye color, then the light vanished and a very happy and healthy elf stood there instead of the desperate being before.

"Now I!" Dobby said grinning madly. Harry let go of beaming Winky's hand and extended it to Dobby. He repeated his sentence and after Dobby had agreed he also glowed in a green light before standing there like before, grinning madly.

"What's master like us to wear?" Winky asked him, still beaming.

"I don't care" Harry answered. "But I don't like rags or towels. And to tell the truth, it would be best if you would continue to wear what you are wearing."

Winky blinked at that and Harry could see that she was unsure what to think about that.

"I will need you as spies and correspondence in Hogwarts without the Headmaster or any other knowing about it" he explained. "When the need to hide will end, we will choose what you will wear for the rest of the service-time."

"Master Harry not likes Dumbly-dory to know we's being his house-elves?" Winky asked.

"Yes" Harry answered. "Because I need you at Hogwarts - and in Hogwarts there are just two kinds of elves: free ones and these who bonded to Hogwarts."

Now Winky grinned.

"And we!" she said. "I's will do what master says. What shall Winky do for you?"

"One of you will bring my correspondence to Gringotts or an owl-post-office and back from there. This one also has to do all the tasks I also may need, like shopping or delivering something. The other one I need as a spy. I need to know all about the Headmaster and his findings and planning. I will give this one a recorder to install in meetings. This one also will have to get the information about when and where the meeting is held and so on… It would be best if you would change positions in an unpredictable pattern, so that the Headmaster doesn't find out. When you don't have to do anything, return to Hogwarts and go on as if nothing happened."

Dobby and Winky looked at each other, then nodded severely.

"Yes, Master Harry" they chorused.

"Dobby will begin in this instant" Dobby declared, then he popped away.

"Winky will wait until I's needed" Winky said and then declared steadily. "I's will return cleaning!" And with that she also popped away.

"Super!" Reg declared as soon as the elves had vanished. "Now you don't have one insane house-elf, instead you have two! How, by Merlin, where you able to find the only two insane house-elves in the whole British wizarding world?!"

"I have been looking long and hart" Harry answered smugly. "If you would have looked, you would have found them also."

Reg shuddered.

"Luckily I haven't" he said, while following Harry, who was returning to Privet Drive. "Luckily I haven't…"

Later that evening, Harry desided to look through the file he had gotten in Gringotts. The file were informations about the accounts of one 'Harry Potter' - a boy, who did not exist anymore.

Nevertheless the file was important.

Harry opened it and sorted through it. He raised an eyebrow at some things he found in there. The last time he had gotten a statement about the Trust Vault the original Harry had used, had been in 1981 after the death of Lily and James Potter.

Now the Trust looked a lot different. It seemed as if someone had thought about using some things in there for their own benefit. There was still enough gold left for Harry to be able to go to school but the gold that had been in there in case Harry was placed with someone else to raise had vanished. Of course it should have vanished as it had been in there for childcare.

The problem was, that the Dursleys had gotten just enough to pay for the original Harry's school supplies. The rest of the money had been used for the aftermath of the war.

"As if Lily and James had not done enough" Harry murmured while having dark thoughts. "No wonder the Dursleys do not like me or 'Harry'." The original Harry had been straining their money since he arrived.

Of course, Vernon had gotten a better job some years later and they had started to over-do it with Dudley but Harry also remembered a time when Dudley and the original Harry had been brought to Mrs. Figg so that Petunia could go to work for some hours. It had been Vernon's promotion when the original Harry had turned four that finally had started the life the Dursleys were living now. And it had been little Harry who had brought the trouble in their house…

"No wonder they resented everything magical after that even more" Harry thought. "That there was not enough left of 'my' parents' inheritance to even feat 'me' would support their beliefs that 'my' parents were jobless thugs."

Harry was relieved that Dumbledore had not known that the Potter family had more money then what was left in the Trust Vault. When the original Harry had been declared Dumbledore's ward the Potter Vaults had long been out of his reach. Harry was sure that Dumbledore would have used even more money for the aftermath of the war if he had had access to the Potter Vault.

"Well, I knew long before that Dumbledore was not to be trusted" Harry thought and turned to the rest of the folder.

In there was also a copy of the will of Lily and James Potter - and it clearly stated who should take little Harry in if they died. Of course, Sirius as Harry's godfather had the first place, but the rest had not even been considered by Dumbledore.

"Alice and Frank Longbottom" Harry read. He knew that they had gone insane some month later - but until then they would have been suitable guardians for little Harry. And after that he still would have been in the care of Augusta Longbottom - Neville's grandmother.

"Amelia Bones", Harry read next. "Well, she still is. There was nothing to stop Harry from being raised there." The last name on the list made Harry snort.

"Alastor Moody - that would have been a life" Harry was sure that Moody would have trained the original Harry to be an Auror as soon as he would have been able to walk steadily. "Well, everything would have been better then the Dursleys…"

But Dumbledore had not considered the wishes of Lily and James Potter. He had needed Harry where Harry had been raised - far away from everything magical.

"Well - it's time to lay out the facts" Harry murmured. Then he tucked out another parchment and wrote down a short sentence.

" My dear old friend,

The thief from three years ago has also stolen what you have lost fourteen years ago.

Your old friend

Me."

He smiled and sealed the letter. Then he calmly called for Winky and she took the letter away. Harry instead returned to his reading. He still had some things to do until he finally could leave Privet Drive for good…