Return of the Heirs

Harry Potter and the Return of the Heirs By J.C. Vascardi

Disclaimer: All characters and places featured in this story that relate to Harry Potter are the property of J.K. Rowling, various publishers, and Warner Brothers. I am not profiting from this story and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The only things about this story that I own are the storylines, places and characters that are not in the books.

Author's Note: Just a bit of shameless self-promotion here, lol, but I have a new story posted at Ensnared called `Unexpected Love'. It's a response to a challenge from the Ruby Quill Archive. Check it out if you have some free time. It might slow down my updates on this story a little if I'm working on it instead, but if you read it, I hope you'll find it interesting enough to not be too mad at me over that possibility.

• • • Chapter Seventeen * * *

"So, Zacharias Smith is Hufflepuff's heir?" Harry asked.

"Yes, it would seem so, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore answered. "If the book in Rowena's library said that Cedric was an heir, then obviously, as his cousin, Zacharias is an heir as well."

"Come to think of it," Ryan added, "there was an Isaiah and a Hannah listed in the book, so everything fits. This Zacharias Smith must be the heir of Helga Hufflepuff."

"Well, then, we know who Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff's heirs are," Hermione said with a satisfied smile.

"Yeah, now if only we could determine who the heirs of Slytherin and Gryffindor are, we'd be set."

"I quite agree, Mr. Delaney," Dumbledore said. "However, I have an important meeting at the Ministry soon, so I'm afraid I will have to leave. I'd be more than happy to help you with the clue for the Heir of Slytherin, but it may have to wait a few days, as the war is keeping my free time limited these days."

"How is the war going?" Harry asked.

"Not well, my boy, not well at all," Dumbledore said as any hint of the normal twinkling left his eyes. "I wish I could give you more information then that, but I really must get to the Ministry."

The four students nodded to their Headmaster, before standing up and leaving his office. Arriving in the hallway outside of the gargoyle, Harry asked, "So, what should we do now?"

"We should probably go and get Zacharias and tell him what we've learned," Hermione said.

"Well, as much as I'd love to see the look on his face when he finds out," Nick said, "I promised to meet Bill tonight. So, I should be getting down to the dungeons so I can shower and get ready."

"Okay, well, have a good time, Nick," Ryan said with a smile.

"It'd be impossible to not have a good time," Nick said with a grin. "My boyfriend has got to be one of the world's best kissers."

"I can certainly attest to that," Harry said. "He's actually the only person I've ever kissed, but it'll be pretty hard for anyone to beat him."

"You know, it's a good thing I'm not the jealous type," Nick said as he playfully punched Harry in the shoulder. "Otherwise, I'd be extremely jealous of you Harry, considering that you've not only kissed my boyfriend on multiple occasions, but also had sex with him."

Harry grinned and said, "Well, he's a bloody good kisser, but he's an even better lover. I'm a little jealous to be honest simply because I know how good he is."

"As interesting as this conversation is," Hermione interjected, "perhaps we should go and get Zacharias now and Nick should head down to the dungeons before he's late for his date."

"Good idea, Hermione," Ryan said, before Nick said his goodbyes and left. The three remaining students then headed for the Hufflepuff dorms, agreeing to collect Justin and Zacharias, take them back to Rowena's quarters to fill them in and then hopefully go looking for Helga's quarters.

Draco's Journal -- Friday, October 18, 1996

Well, today has certainly been a long day. I simply cannot fathom how deluded Pansy was earlier. She simply refused to acknowledge that I'm gay, even after I kissed Blaise in front of her. I'm very thankful that Blaise was willing to play along, because if he hadn't been, I would have had an even harder time convincing Pansy that I'm gay.

Of course, considering the fact that she still didn't believe me after the kiss with Blaise and after Pucey cast the Virginitas charm on me which revealed that I'd lost my virginity to Blaise, I'd be willing to bet that she still doesn't believe it, even after the Veritaserum. If she doesn't, she has got to be the most deluded person on the planet, probably the entire universe, actually.

As for the Halloween Ball, the episode with Pansy this afternoon really did get me to think about it. Since Dumbledore announced it I've been trying to put it out of my mind. Obviously, I'm not about to even think about asking the person I really want to go with. I have no clue if he's gay or not, and we don't have the best history. True, we have been getting along better as of late. One could even call us friends, but now that we're finally friendly with one another, I'm not about to do anything that might jeopardize our newfound friendship.

So, I asked Blaise to be my date for the Ball. Seeing as how he didn't know whom else to go with himself, he accepted. We're going to go into Hogsmeade together tomorrow to shop for some new dress robes. Even though some people would probably say that neither of us really needs any more clothes, Blaise and I both believe that one can never have too many outfits. Especially considering that we're wizards. Honestly, I really don't understand how the Muggles survive without magic.

"So, you mean that I'm the heir of Helga Hufflepuff?" Zacharias asked, obviously shocked.

"Yeah, you are," Ryan confirmed. "You really had no idea?"

"Well, my great-great-great-grandaunt Hepzibah Smith apparently said we were related to Hufflepuff," Zacharias revealed. "From what I've been told though, the rest of the family thought she was just a crazy old woman who only said that to justify her purchase of a cup that belonged to Hufflepuff."

"So your family owns a relic of one of the founders?" Hermione asked.

"No, actually we don't," Zacharias answered. "Nobody really knows what happened to it, but shortly after Hepzibah died, the cup, along with over half her other collectibles, disappeared. My grandfather sold what was left in an attempt to restore all the money that she had squandered away on useless junk."

"I don't think a relic of one of the four founders falls into the useless junk category, Zacharias," Hermione admonished.

"First off, call me Zach," Zacharias said. "Secondly, I agree, the cup wasn't useless junk, that would have been something my family would have treasured. However, from what my grandfather told my dad, with the exception of a few trinkets, most of Hepzibah's collection was useless junk that most people would never even give a second glance, let alone waste money to buy it."

"Well, now that you know you are Helga's heir, perhaps you could go and find her quarters. I'm looking forward to talking with her again after all these years."

When Ryan and the others brought Zacharias and Justin to Rowena's quarters, Rowena hadn't gotten back from the Headmaster's office yet, so Zacharias didn't know about Rowena's portrait. Noticing the look of confusion on his face, Harry said, "Zach, meet Rowena Fiona Ravenclaw; Ryan's twenty-third great-grandmother."

"Wow," Zacharias said. "Tonight is full of surprises isn't it? First I find out that I'm related to Helga Hufflepuff and now I find out that I can talk to one of the long dead founders of Hogwarts."

"Well, my boy, if you would go and find Helga's quarters, you could speak to two of them," Rowena urged.

"Oh, of course, um, where are they?" Zacharias asked.

"If memory serves," Rowena said, "the entrance to Helga's quarters are in the same hallway as the entrance to the kitchens. Go down the hall until it dead ends and then simply trace the letters H', M', `H', on one of the bricks. I think it's the twelfth brick from the floor, four bricks over from the corner."

Meanwhile in the staff wing, locked in a passionate kiss with their tongues dueling for dominance, were Bill Weasley and Nicolas Delaney. While it was true that they hadn't been together very long, only about a week at that point, they weren't wasting any time in getting to know one another. The attraction between the two the first time they met in Diagon Alley had been instant. They'd both spent the time between that meeting and their next dreaming about one another.

Of course, Bill's dreams of Nick were tempered by the fact that he knew that he was about to become the Potions professor at Hogwarts. He knew that it was against the rules for him to date Nick and so he tried not to think about the boy who had stirred up a passion within him as red hot as his fiery hair. It wasn't until his summertime lover Harry Potter snuck into his quarters that he found out that Nick was only days away from turning seventeen.

Upon learning that little tidbit of information, Bill had spent several nights with thoughts of the young and handsome boy of his dreams keeping him from sleeping. It soon got so bad that Bill had to brew up a double batch of Pepper-Up potion just so that he wouldn't fall asleep while teaching. Then Nick began to show up every morning and join him on his morning run around the lake. At first, Bill wanted to be angry that he couldn't seem to escape his gorgeous pupil, but Nick really was too good looking for him to stay mad at for long.

The two of them spent a month getting to know one another. True, it had been Bill who did most of the talking and Nick now knew almost everything there was to know about Bill Weasley. Over that first week of their relationship, Nick did his best to fill Bill in on everything about himself; when they weren't in one of their frequent lip locks at any rate.

"Oh Nick, I really do love kissing you."

"Same here, Bill," Nick said as he captured Bill's lips in another passionate kiss.

The two young men continued to kiss as they danced around the room, wrapped tightly in each other's arms. So engrossed in their kiss, they weren't paying attention to where they were going and Bill soon felt himself falling down onto his bed, pulling Nick down on top of him. Their passionate kiss never broke though as Nick decided to be bold and take advantage of the fact that Bill was now underneath him. As Nick deepened the kiss, shoving his tongue as far down Bill's mouth as it would go, he began to grind his hips against the older man.

Both men moaned, muffled by their kiss, as their raging hard cocks met. Moving one of his hands from its place around Nick's waist, Bill reached up and began to run his fingers through Nick's short, black and blond hair.

Breaking their kiss, Nick began to slowly kiss his way down Bill's cheek, until his lips met the nape of the redhead's neck. The pleasure running through Bill's body like lightning consumed his every thought and so he didn't even think about the fact that Nick was in the middle of giving him a serious love bite.

Moving both of his arms to their previous position around Nick's waist, Bill tightened his grip on the younger boy as he pushed his hips upward to meet Nick's.

Nick stopped attacking the nape of Bill's neck and moved upward a bit, careful not to break the contact of their midsections. Nick slowly undid the first several buttons of Bill's robe and the shirt beneath it, as he smiled down at the redhead. His first glimpse of the rippled muscles of Bill's chest only served to reaffirm Nick's already passionate attraction to the older man. Nick leaned down and began to kiss and lick each muscle as Bill moaned.

Nick kissed his way up Bill's chest, stopping to swirl his tongue on the hard nipples, before continuing up to where he had previously been attacking the older man's neck. Nick ran his tongue over the reddened flesh, before he moved over and began to kiss Bill's shoulder blade.

"Oh Nick, are you sure you've never been with anyone?" Bill asked.

"I'm sure," Nick said as he moved to look Bill in the eyes. "Why?"

"It's just that you seem to know all the right things to do and I just can't help but wonder where you learned it all."

"That's for me to know and you to enjoy," Nick said with a grin as he leaned down and pulled Bill into another kiss.

Bill and Nick's antics continued for several minutes, during which time Nick marked Bill with at least three more love bites. As the two of them came, they called out the other's name, before sealing each other in another passionate kiss.

When the kiss ended, Bill cast cleaning charms on Nick and himself, before the two of them stood up from the bed. Looking at himself in the mirror, Bill groaned and said, "Nick, not that I didn't enjoy it, because I did, but did you have to put those love bites in places they'll be visible? The ones on my shoulders and chest are fine because they'll be covered by my clothes, but the other ones..."

"Well, that's what glamour charms are for, Billy," Nick said as he wrapped his arms around the redhead and rested his chin on his left shoulder.

"Billy?" Bill asked with a grin. "I can honestly say that nobody has ever called me that."

"Well, you can call me Nicky if you want," Nick said. "As long as you only do it when we're alone, that is."

"Well, that's obvious," agreed Bill. "I mean, unless we plan on telling people about us, how could I possibly explain why I call you Nicky?"

"Good point," Nick said as he kissed the tip of Bill's nose. "As for telling people about us, I want to, eventually. I just think that we should probably be together more then a week when we do start telling people."

"I agree," Bill said. "Especially since I'm a professor and you're a student. The clause that Rowena added to the rules makes it legal, but some people will still disapprove. I'm also not entirely sure how my family will react when they find out I'm dating a Slytherin."

"Ah, yes, the whole Gryffindor/Slytherin feud dynamic," Nick commented with a grin. "Well, Bill, if they really love you they'll be able to see past the fact that I'm a Slytherin. All that really matters is that you're happy. I do make you happy right?"

"There aren't enough words to describe how happy you make me, Nicky."

Nick smiled at Bill and the two of them were soon in another lip lock, which both of them would agree, was their new favorite pastime. After several minutes, Bill broke the kiss.

"Tempus!" Bill said and saw that the time was 8:45 PM. "Well, I suppose you should be getting back to the dungeons now. As much as I'd love for you to spend the night, I don't want to arouse any suspicions."

"That's a good idea," Nick said. "My housemates can get very suspicious. They'd be very suspicious of Draco right now if I hadn't helped him."

"Draco Malfoy?"

"Yes, Draco Malfoy. The night that Ryan found out he was an heir, Rowena told him and a small group of students how to cast the Mass-Book Restoration charm on her collection. Draco was one of them, who then spent the night in Rowena's quarters that night. I've become an early riser because of our morning runs, so I'm now usually the first one awake in the mornings. I saw that Draco's bed wasn't slept in, so since nobody else was awake yet, I messed up the bedding to make it look like it had been slept in."

"So, is he really a different person these days?"

"I'm not really sure how to answer that, Bill. I mean, I have no experience with the Draco Malfoy of last year to go by, but as far as I can tell, he's a good guy. Other then Blaise Zabini, Draco is the only boy in my year that I really trust. Crabbe and Goyle are as dumb as posts, but it's obvious that they intend to become Death Eaters like their fathers. Nott is quiet and reserved, but it's also pretty obvious that his loyalties lie with You-Know-Who."

"Hmm, interesting; what about the sixth-year girls?"

"Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass are nice," answered Nick. "I've gotten to know them pretty well and they don't intend to become Death Eaters. Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode are a totally different story though as they both are very vocal in their support of You-Know-Who."

"Well, that's good to know, actually," Bill said. "Dumbledore asked all the professors to try and put out some feelers to try and determine the loyalties of all the students, so he'll be pleased to know that there are at least some Slytherin students who don't support You-Know-Who. Anyway, let's get you back to your dorm now."

Bill and Nick shared one last kiss, before they left his quarters.

Arriving at the end of the hallway that the kitchen was in, Zacharias counted the bricks to find the one Rowena had said and then traced Helga's initials on the brick. Ryan, Hermione, Harry, and Justin stood with baited breath, watching as the three letters began to glow on the brick, except that they were bright yellow, instead of blue like Rowena's quarters. The sound of stone moving against stone sounded as the doorway opened and Zacharias stepped through the doorway.

Ryan, Hermione, Harry, and Justin were all a little too eager to see Helga's quarters that they momentarily forgot the requirement that the heir invited them in and they were all abruptly stopped by an invisible barrier when they tried to cross the threshold.

"Whoops, sorry," Zacharias said as he watched them all come to a stop and he remembered what Ryan had told him about the heir controlling access to who could and couldn't enter the quarters. "You can all come in."

The invisible barrier holding the four of them back immediately fell and they joined Zacharias in the common room of Helga Hufflepuff's quarters. Several pieces of furniture, all covered with white sheets to protect them from the dust, where scattered around the room. Much like Rowena's quarters the first time Ryan saw it, a thick layer of dust covered everything in sight and several cobwebs were visible throughout the large room.

The five students stood in silence for several minutes, just looking around at the room, before finally a female voice said, "Hello all. I'm pleased to see that someone has finally found my quarters."

Turning around and looking above the fireplace, a life-size portrait hung on the wall depicting a woman dressed in a ninth-century yellow dress, partially covered by a black cloak. The woman was slightly heavyset and to be perfectly honest, her hairstyle made her look quite a bit like Professor Sprout.

"Helga Marie Hufflepuff, I presume?" Zacharias asked.

"You are correct, Zacharias, I am Helga Marie Hufflepuff," Helga answered. When she saw the questioning look on the boy's face, she added, "You all stood there looking around long enough that Rowena managed to come and fill me in."

Zacharias nodded and smiled, as Rowena slipped into the frame beside Helga.

"My, my, this place really does need cleaning, doesn't it?" Helga asked as she looked around. "I can scarcely believe that it's really been so long, but Rowena tells me that it's been over a thousand years since we died."

"I know how you feel, Helga," Rowena said. "I couldn't believe it myself. With all the curtains drawn, I never was able to keep track of time, but I could hardly believe it when Ryan and Harry came to my quarters that first night and told me that it was 1996."

"Yes, I must admit I never expected it to take that long for our descendants to find us."

One of the reasons that Rowena Ravenclaw was so intelligent, was because she was very observant and noticing a look on Hermione's face, she asked, "Is there something on your mind, Hermione, dear?"

"Well, it's something I've been wondering for awhile now actually," Hermione said. "How is it that you both can talk so well? What I mean is that there are words in your vocabularies that I'm sure didn't exist over a millennium ago."

"To be honest, I've been wondering the same thing," Ryan spoke up. "I half expected you to be speaking more like the characters in Shakespeare."

"Well, it's quite simple really," revealed Helga. "Along with the numerous other spells that we cast on our quarters, we also cast a charm which Rowena created. When Ryan opened the door to Rowena's quarters, the room's magic penetrated his brain for a moment, adding every single word in his vocabulary to Rowena's, so that she could amend her way of speaking. The same thing happened when you opened the door to my quarters, Zacharias. The spell also does it to all the guests who are invited into the room, actually."

"Isn't that an invasion of privacy?"

"I don't think it is, Justin," Rowena said. "The spell doesn't read your memories or thoughts, just your vocabularies. Think of your brain like a dictionary, full of countless words, their meanings, and various expressions. All the spell did was to give Helga and me access to those words and their meanings, so that we can speak to you in a way that you'll understand. Otherwise, we probably would be speaking in a much older version of English which would be very hard for any of you to understand."

"By the way, who is this Shakespeare you mentioned, Ryan?" Helga asked.

"Oh, I was referring to William Shakespeare," Ryan answered. "A 16th and 17th century Muggle playwright."

"Ah, I see," said Helga. "Well, then, if it wasn't for Rowena's spell, even Shakespeare would probably have had a hard time understanding us, seeing as how Rowena and I lived in the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries."

"You both saw the turn of the century twice?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Harry," answered Rowena. "I was born in 680, which would have been the seventh century, and died in 867, the ninth century."

"Same here, only I was born in 682 and died in 867," Helga added.

The five students nodded, before Hermione sneezed because of all the dust in the room. Harry called for Dobby, much to Hermione's disapproval.

"Of course, Harry Potter, sir," Dobby said. "I always glad to help Harry Potter."

Dobby then motioned that he wanted to speak to Harry privately, so Harry leaned down to hear him and Dobby said, "Though other elves won't come. Not with her here."

Harry obviously knew that Dobby was referring to Hermione, who all of the house-elves other than Dobby had begun to avoid like the plague, since to this day she still left clothes out, hoping to free them.

Helga and Rowena noticed the exchange between Dobby and Harry and Rowena asked, "Is something wrong, Harry?"

"No, nothing is wrong," said Harry in an attempt to not set Hermione off on a rant about house-elves working like slaves.

"Actually, something is wrong," Hermione said. Harry really should have known better then to think that Hermione would pass up on any opportunity to talk about S.P.E.W.

After listening to her arguments, Helga asked, "Am I correct in assuming that you're a Muggle-born student, Hermione?"

"Yes, I am," answered Hermione.

"That explains it then," said Helga. "Like most Muggle-born students, you probably didn't know that you were a witch until you got your letter, so you never grew up with the education that non-Muggle-born witches and wizards receive before entering school. As hard to believe as it may be, there are certain facts about the Wizarding World that are not covered as a part of the Hogwarts curriculum and they aren't documented in many books, simply because it's viewed to be such basic information that writing it in a book would be pointless."

"I realize that you view the way magical society treats house-elves to be wrong," Rowena added. "However, what you are failing to grasp is that to a house-elf, nothing is more enjoyable then to serve the family to which they are bound. So, by trying to free them, you are actually trying to take away what they love the most."

"But it's slavery! They're on call twenty-four hours a day, they never get time off and most importantly they don't get paid for their work."

"That's where you are wrong, Hermione," said Helga. "Payment does not always come in the form of money. It can also come in the form of a roof over one's head and food in one's stomach, which no matter how they may treat their house-elves, all wizarding families who own them provide food and shelter to their elves."

"Also, Hermione, I can't believe that nobody has ever informed you," Rowena said, "but you can leave clothes all over Gryffindor Tower until the day you graduate and you will never free any of the Hogwarts house-elves. Only their master can free them and simply being a student in this school does not make you their master. The Hogwarts elves are bound to whoever is the Head of Hogwarts, so the only person who can free the elves is Professor Dumbledore."

"If that's true, then why have all the other house-elves, other then Dobby who is already free, stopped cleaning Gryffindor Tower?" Hermione asked.

"Probably because they feel insulted," Helga answered. "They've probably realized that you leave the clothes out hoping to free them and they're insulted by the mere idea of being free. Honestly, though, what made you think that leaving clothes hidden around Gryffindor Tower would free the elves? Who do you think does all the laundry in this castle, Hermione? It certainly isn't the professors or the students. The house-elves do the laundry, which means they handle hundreds of articles of clothing a day and yet they are still bound."

"In order to free a house-elf," Rowena added, "an article of clothing has to exchange hands between the master and the house-elf. That's why people who own house-elves never give their dirty laundry to the elves directly, because if they did, they'd unintentionally free them. As long as the clothing doesn't go directly from the master's hand into the elf's hand, the binding is not broken."

"I still say that its slavery and it needs to stop!" Hermione insisted. "The Wizarding World is stuck in the Dark Ages and it's time that it came into the twentieth century."

Hoping to change the subject before Hermione really lost her cool, Harry pointed at a pair of doors at one end of the room, and asked, "What's through there?"

The doors in question were made of stained glass, depicting a truly beautiful garden scene.

"Oh that leads to my pride and joy," Helga answered, "my private greenhouse. It's a highly magical room, similar to Rowena's library, only it deals with plants instead of books."

"What does it do?" Zacharias asked, highly intrigued by what he'd be able to do, after being totally in awe of the special room in Rowena's quarters that Ryan got to use.

"I spent the better part of thirty years charming that room," Helga said, "but I finally got it right. The charms on that room will allow any plant to grow from seed to maturity in a matter of minutes. The room is also useful because it is capable of growing any plant that has ever existed, even if the plant has been extinct since the time of the dinosaurs."

"That would have come in handy during second year," Justin said. "I certainly would have had a lot less make up work to do if Professor Sprout could have grown the mandrakes for the Mandrake Restorative Draft in minutes, instead of months."

"Yes, that would be one good use of the room," Helga confirmed. "Salazar also loved it because I was able to supply him with all of the rare plants used as potions ingredients that he needed. Using some of the plants that have been extinct for ages, he was even able to come up with several of his own potions recipes. Unfortunately, Salazar was a very private man and he never shared the recipes he created with anyone, so I fear many of his extremely useful creations died with him."

"What kinds of potions did Salazar create?" Harry asked.

"Well, I told you about the potion used to help Muggle-borns reach their full power potential faster," Rowena said. "He also created a non-addictive variant of the Dreamless Sleep potion and if I remember correctly, just before he died, he was working on a potion which he thought would be able to cure lycanthropy, but I think he died before finishing it."

"Yes, he was working on that potion actually," confirmed Helga. "He thought he needed several extinct plants and herbs to make the potion work, so he was often asking me to grow them for him in large quantities."

Wow,' Harry thought. I hope that we find Slytherin's quarters soon, because if he really was nearing being able to cure lycanthropy, then that means that Professor Lupin could be cured. If I could help with that, I wouldn't even care if I turned out to be Slytherin's heir.'

To be continued...

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