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Marvolo Riddle

Marvolo sighed as he poured over yet another text on the history of the Giants. If he was going to get the Giants to ally with Marvolo’s cause, he had to understand them first.

His return to a human form 3 months ago was agonizing, but now he felt like his true self again. With the help of his loyal followers, particularly Severus, Marvolo was now fully intact. He felt sane, like his thoughts were all organized for the first time in 13 years. 

How Marvolo felt before his insanity drove him to attack the Potters and he was nearly killed. There were only two things missing from his life now, his wife and Damian. Bella was still locked up and, while Marvolo desperately wanted to work on her escape, he needed to lay low and do things without anyone noticing. And Damian… oh Damian. Damian was one part of Marvolo’s heart he may never get back.

He had the rest of his family though, his loyal followers, and they helped him even if his missing child was in the back of his mind.

Marvolo closed the chapter on the Giant War of the 15th Century, figuring that he would not learn any more tonight.

He was about to stand up from his chair when an owl swooped in. One from Gringotts. Marvolo frowned, not wanting to read another letter from Steelclaw about investments with the bank. He opened the envelope and read the words, and then read them again. 

Lord Slytherin, 

Some information has been revealed to the Bank that is confidential in nature. I have recently keyed a third person to your vaults, in addition to yourself and Lady Black. As there is only one wizard given this privilege, it must be clear who I am referring to, and I wish you the greatest luck in your endeavors to find this person.

May your enemies flow in rivers of blood,

Steelclaw, Gringotts Bank

He had no words. Marvolo felt any images of his son’s dead body leave his brain. For years he had imagined that his son must be dead, but here was proof to the contrary. 

His Damian was alive .

Marvolo hated calling his followers by their marks now, he knew it pained them, but he had to speak with them quickly.

“Marvolo, is everything alright?” Lucius asked, arriving first, followed by Tiberius Nott, Bartemius Crouch Jr, Regulus Black, and finally Severus Snape.

Marvolo said nothing, instead passing the letter for the five men standing in front of his desk to read.

Lucius gasped and collapsed back into the chair.

“He’s alive? Damian is out there, right now?” Regulus asked in awe.

“Why didn’t Steelclaw alert you immediately and share his identity?” Barty asked after recovering from initial shock, already trying to locate his son.

“I agree, he must be attending a wizarding school. Perhaps Durmstrang, which means the discovery must have taken place before term started two weeks ago,” Severus said, eyes analyzing the letter again.

“If Damian did not want the information shared, the Bank would have to follow a client confidentiality agreement. If not for your familiarity with Steelclaw, we may not have found out,” Tiberius weighed in.

“So he knows, he knows who he is. He must,” Regulus said.

“Yes, the discovery may have been found by way of a Blood test, but he certainly knows now,” Marvolo pondered.

“We will find him Marvolo, I promise,” Tiberius said.

“I will check the registry at Hogwarts, if he is there he will be a third year, although I doubt he is there,” Severus said. 

“Agreed. Our children know of Damian, they have seen pictures of him. If anyone stood out, they would have told us,” Lucius said. “I can also check Ministry records, but Severus perhaps your access to Wizarding school records will prove the most useful,” Lucius added.

“Thank you my friends, I just cannot believe he is alive. I need to tell Bella,” Marvolo said, tears threatening to reach his eyes as the fact that his son was out there breathing sunk in.

Somewhere, right now, his son was doing something. If he was in England or Scotland he would be asleep somewhere, dreaming. Marvolo wondered what he dreamt about.

-

Damian/Harry  (who really knows?)

Harry was in fact not asleep. He had a nightmare about the night of his parents’ death, like what he saw when the Dementor was on the train.

So, Harry was sitting on the window seat at 3 in the morning, watching out into the depths of the lake.

“Do you ever sleep, mate?” Draco asked from his bed where he had just woken.

“Your snoring woke me up,” Harry lied. The only person in this dorm who snored was Greg, and Blaise just cast a silencing charm on his bed each night to drown the boy out from the rest of the room.

“You bloody liar,” Draco joked, walking over to Harry and joining him on the other side of the window seat.

“Slytherins are so weird,” Harry commented, eyeing malfoy.

“Oh yeah? In what way?” Draco asked.

“Your parents are loyal to Voldemort, if we’re being entirely honest right now. I somehow defeated Voldemort, and you’re all pretending like we’ve been best mates for years when I've only really known you for a couple of weeks," Harry said, looking out into the lake.

Harry saw Draco pale out of the corner of his eye when he said Voldemort’s name. Pussy.

“So? What about it?” Draco asked.

“That’s exactly what I mean!” Harry exclaimed, turning to look at the blonde. “I just want an explanation for why my sudden house change altered everything so much. The first day you literally mocked me for passing out in front of a Dementor,” Harry said. To be honest, Harry was still just freaked that they all knew he secretly was, and wanted an exact reason for their treatment of him.

“When you were at quidditch matches last year between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, who did you cheer for?” Draco suddenly asked.

“Ravenclaw,” Harry answered without a second of hesitation.

“And Slytherin versus Hufflepuff?” Draco asked again.

“Hufflepuff,” Harry answered.

“And did those two teams cheer for you when you played against Slytherin?” Draco asked.

“Well, yeah,” Harry said.

“So you see then? The whole school is against our house. You must notice in the halls, the way Slytherin gets pushed around. Why do you think the first rule of the house is to stick together outside of these dungeon walls? Nobody likes us, Harry. Once you're a Slytherin, it doesn't matter who you are. All that matters is that green crest on your robe. You become a target. So yeah, becoming a Slytherin made us see you in a new light, and don't pretend like you weren't a right dick to us when you were a Gryffindor. It goes both ways,” Draco said, finishing his speech with a huff and turning back to the window.

Harry didn't respond. He understood what Draco was saying, and he was relieved any doubt about his secret identity being out was eliminated with what Draco said, but it didn't make him feel any better. Being a Slytherin changed things, and Harry didn't know if it was a good change.

-

Theodore Nott

Theo was fucking exhausted. Blaise had decided to teach him arithmancy until his eyes bled last night. He didnt know how Harry was so fucking good at it, Blaise made it sound like Merlin- level shit that was beyond Theo’s brain capacity.

His pumpkin juice tasted weird today, his apple wasn't crisp enough, his tomatoes had touched his eggs, and Theo was overall not having a good time, made worse by Severus sneaking up behind him.

“Nott, Parkinson, Malfoy, Zabini, and Greengrass, I need you to meet me in my office after breakfast,” his head of house announced.

Theo groaned after the man walked away. That group of Theo’s friends meant that there was likely a message from their parents. Theo hated family talks delivered by Severus. They were always fucking awful.

15 minutes later his head was being dragged up from the table as Blaise grabbed the back of his cloak. Theo hated Blaise. He could shove arithmancy up his ass.

Harry looked a little disturbed by the fact that they were all speaking with Severus, which Theo understood. It was no secret that they were all children of Death Eaters, and while the Dark Lord was currently pretty chill and not in a homicidal mood, Harry wasn’t stupid.

“We’ll meet you at Herbology,” Draco said, directed toward Harry, Greg, and Vince, the latter two not being invited probably because they were just fucking stupid.

They made their way to Severus’ office, theorizing what their parents were yelling at them about this time. Their parents, well mainly Regulus who was not a father of one of them but was close friends with them, had strictly warned them that if they saw his brother Sirius Black to run the other direction. Apparently Sirius had gone mad at Azkaban and was devoted to Dumbledore’s cause. Not a good combination for children of Death Eaters should they come across him. 

They walked into Severus’ office and approached the man who was grading essays from behind his desk.

“We have received incredible news,” Severus said, looking up from his papers and even smiling.

“Is that sarcasm?” Pansy asked.

“No,” Severus said, sounding annoyed. “Steelclaw sent a message to the Dark Lord. Damian was at Gringotts a couple of weeks ago, Steelclaw saw him himself. The heir is alive,” he announced.

Theo was actually gaping. No fucking way. The boy who was in countless baby pictures with Theo and the others while they played with toys, was actually alive . They never really voiced it, but everyone thought Damian was dead by now. He had just disappeared one day, right from his crib at Riddle Manor, with the wards not being triggered and his parents sleeping in the next room.

They all barreled questions at Severus, which he tried to answer but it was clear the man and their parents knew virtually nothing.

“Listen, we are scouring records, but he is your age. There is a small chance Damian is somehow in your year, and if he is, you need to find him. Ignoring house prejudices, any third year male is a possibility,” Severus said, and a few minutes later they were dismissed.

Theo actually couldn't believe it, but he knew there was no way Damian was in their grade. He would definitely be a Slytherin, and even if he wasn't, they would know . Right?

Theo pondered this all the way to the greenhouses, and he walked in to find that Harry had left Vince and Greg for Loony Lovegood, a rather odd blonde girl who was known for spouting infinite nonsense-sounding wisdom every second.

She wasn’t the type of person to be seen with the Boy-Who-Lived, but Harry had been surprising Theo lately. A lot of surprising things had happened today, though, it wasn't all Harry.

-

Harry Potter 

It was all Harry. Everything that went wrong in the world was connected to Harry. Okay so that was a tad bit dramatic, but it seemed like the world was against him. Harry watched as the Slytherins called to meet with Snape entered Herbology, nearly knicking his finger with the scalpel as he tried to watch for signs they had learned about his identity.

Harry was paranoid, but he had good reason. 

Gringotts and Luna knew his identity. While he trusted Luna and Griphook, Steelclaw could let something slip, even if he was warned.

-

Steelclaw 

Steelclaw watched as Contessa Zabini and Lady Narcissa Malfoy marched through Gringotts, making a beeline towards him. 

“Some privacy, please,” Lady Malfoy requested once they reached him.

Steelclaw led them to his office, and prepared for a lot of uncomfortable questions.

“Where is our godson?” Zabini asked.

“Hogwarts,” Steelclaw said, figuring he wouldn’t be in trouble for letting that small piece of information through. 

The ladies both gasped, clearly shocked that the heir had been under their nose this whole time.

“I cannot tell you who he is, and offer my condolences to Lord Slytherin for that. I am being watched by another goblin who will report me for breaking client confidentiality. I can tell you that he was blood adopted and is in your sons' year at Hogwarts, and he was rather adamant his identity remained a secret. It was a bit of a shock for him, and he threatened to seek a new bank if I contacted his family,” Steelclaw finished, watching the reaction on the womens' faces.

“He does not want to know us? To meet us?” Contessa Zabini asked.

“There are two sides to this war, and switching beliefs is not a task easily done,” Steelclaw said.

There, he let the boys family know that he was a third year Slytherin adopted into a light family. That should be enough for them to uncover his identity.

-

Lucius Malfoy

Steelclaw had given them quite a bit of information, but not nearly enough to find his nephew.

Damian must be Gyffindor, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff as he was from a light family, but Severus was struggling to come up with an answer. Lucius was this close to showing up to Hogwarts himself, as Marvolo could not, but they had told their children the information in hope that they could help.

They had originally assumed the boy to be a Slytherin, being the heir, but there were no possibilities within that house.

All of the boys were accounted for as their own sons, besides Potter, who was discounted immediately. The original shock at Potter being resorted was followed by even more surprise when Draco wrote saying he was friends with the boy. Lucius knew Slytherin stuck together, but had assumed Potter would defy any house connection from the start.

-

Harry Potter

"You know, I don't hate Slytherin," Harry told Ron and Hermione as they sat at a table in the library.

"Only you could find some redeemable qualities of Slytherin," Ron sighed.

"I'm happy for you," Hermione said, smiling and ignoring Ron.

"I miss you guys though, and the others. Sometimes I sit in the Slytherin common room and wish Fred and George were testing their pranks on first-years again.

"They're vile and so are you," Hermione scolded.

"Oh come on Mione, you know it's funny when they turn blue from the bluetify blueberries," Ron joked.

They talked for a few more hours and just joked about random things like they would have if Harry was still a Gryffindor. It felt normal, Harry loved it. Almost normal enough to make him forget everything else.

-

Harry grinned at Theo as they made their way onto the Quidditch pitch. Official practice hadn’t started yet, but Theo, Draco, and Blaise said they wanted to have a quick scrimmage and see Harry’s seeker skills in action.

It was Sunday, so they had plenty of free-time and Harry was beginning to feel like a part of the house. 

It had been a few days since Snape talked to the other Slytherins, and while Harry saw them whispering to each other sometimes, they didn’t look at him any different, so he thought his secret would be safe for now.

“Come on mate!” Blaise called from ahead. “3v1 for the snitch, you catch it before any of us and I’ll never doubt you again,” the boy promised.

“Prepare to get fucking destroyed,” Harry taunted, eyeing the box the Snitch was about to zoom out to and gripping his broom.

The following fight for the snitch was the best time Harry had in his life. Every time he got close one of the other boys knocked him away, and every time one of the others got close Harry managed to close them off. 

It was the most competitive shit he had ever done in his life, and he loved it.

Eventually, the snitch got low and KBthey all dived down to where they were just skimming over the grass. Harry reached out, like he had in first year, but one of the guys knocked him before he could grab it, and Harry fell to the side onto Theo and Draco, sending them both to the ground.

Harry tumbled down with the other boys as Blaise settled down next to them. Blaise was looking at him weird though, and Harry laughed with Theo and Draco until they stopped to look at him too.

“Harry? What happened to your face? You look like-” Draco started.

“Shit!” Harry shouted, realizing absolutely horrified that his necklace had fallen off when he fell, and he quickly spotted the glint of the silver chain on the grass a few feet away and pulled it back over his head.

When he looked back up at the other boys, he knew. He knew that they knew .

“Are you? You can’t be,” Blaise breathed, staring at Harry.

“If our friendship means anything to you, anything at all, you won’t say anything,” Harry pleaded, looking around to stare them all in the eye.

“Damia-” Draco started.

“That’s not my name,” Harry half-yelled. “I know…I know they are your parents but you can't deny the fact that your parents and my- Voldemort would love to kill me, and he has tried. You can't say anything,” Harry defended again, desperate now.

“They didn't know. You were stolen when you were a baby, they've been trying to find you forever,” Blaise said. “If we had known…” Blaise trailed off.

“Yeah that's what everyone keeps saying, but do you ever think that maybe I don't want to know a man that killed my parents? The Potters? Who I know loved me, no matter how I got to be with them?” Harry asked.

“They would take you back in a second, they would do anything for you, we would do anything for you. Your father, he is sane now, before he wasn't himself, I swear. I promise, he is a great man,” Theo tried to say.

”If you would really do anything for me, don't make this decision for me. I’m not ready,” Harry said in a final attempt to keep his secret.

The other boys all looked at each other, and Draco spoke first.

“You have to tell them eventually, or they’ll find out. Wouldn't you rather it came from us?” Draco asked.

“It’s my life, Draco,” Harry said.

“And you're my cousin, Damian. Do you know how long I’ve dreamt of finding you? Our family has been missing a whole part connecting us for 12 years-” Draco started.

“ Our family? I don’t even fucking know you people. My name is Harry Potter, I grew up a Potter. If you tell them I’m him then you can forget any friendship we ever had or will ever have. I’ll never forgive you, any of you.” Harry threatened, looking them all in the eye and turning back towards the exit of the pitch, broom in hand.

Well, shit.