And then came the part Harry had been excited for. Presents! Sam got Harry a bunch of fantasy books from a couple of different authors, including Sir Terry Pratchett and Anne McCaffrey. Remus got Harry a broom-care kit. Sirius didn't have anything, but Harry assured him the stories of his parents had been enough. As for my gift? It was one I was giving to both Harry and Sam.
"Merry Christmas, you two!" I said happily, handing out a pair of manilla envelopes to Harry and Sam. "Go on, open them up!"
"Th-this is-!" Sam stammered in shock as he opened what I'd given him, looking at the documents that'd been inside with awe and disbelief. Harry just tilted his head to the side, not really understanding what the gift was.
"Yup! It's all yours," I assured Sam.
Both Sam and Harry were now the proud owners of one percent each of Cauldron Remedies! They could sell it for a huge sum in the future, or keep it and do whatever they wanted with it.
'And that one percent lets them have a say in how the company will do things going forward,' I thought with a smile.
"I don't understand what this is," Harry admitted. Sirius nodded in agreement, looking over his godson's shoulder to read the documents.
"Ah, let me explain," Remus offered.
He then went on to tell Harry and Sirius what 'stocks' were, which gave me a giggle as the two of them couldn't wrap their heads around the convoluted mess that was the Stock Market. I sympathized with them. But was also surprised the werewolf knew about this topic to the extent he did.
Presents continued to be passed around after that. I got Remus a crate of magical energy drinks to help recover from his curse after a full moon. They came from a Native American group in the U.S. who made interesting medicines to help alleviate all sorts of curses. In turn, Remus got me some magical cufflinks that would create a Protegocharm when raised in front of my face, creating a magical shield to deflect minor spells.
From Harry and Sam, I got a book on runes and a collection of video games respectively. Sirius hadn't gotten me anything but I assured him it was fine. He refused.
"I won't let somebody who's helped my godson out so much when nobody else did not receive a gift! The honor of House Black demands it!" Sirius declared pompously.
"More like you enjoy the idea of giving stuff to a Squib because it would cause your harpy of a mother to spin in her grave," Remus said, and the animagus snorted.
"That too. So, just you wait, Eddy! I'll have an awesome gift for you as soon as I can sneak back into my old home and grab something for ya. How do you feel about curses?"
"Not exactly a fan of them, but I'd take a book of curses that can be made with runes or potions if you're offering," I said, causing Harry and Sam to roll their eyes at my request, Remus to shake his head, and Sirius to bark out a laugh.
"I like your style, kid! Sure, I know a couple old tomes that might fit the bill!"
"I'm eighteen," I said. Well, technically sixteen, and mentally I was older than him as well, but my paperwork said eighteen, so who cares about the little details?
Sirius just laughed again, and I chuckled as well along with him.
"So, Harry, how's school going?" Sam asked, changing the topic.
"It's been… going," he said slowly. "Um, just out of curiosity, but do any of you know what the 'Chamber of Secrets' is?"
The three of us with a magical background stared at him. Remus and Sirius because they and I did because I remembered it was a thing. Not having Occlumency to draw on 24/7 had made me… forgetful about things, especially from my previous life, and I wasn't exactly fond of that.
'Oh, yeah, the Chamber would have been opened back during Halloween by Riddle Jr., wouldn't it?' I mused as the two older wizards began to explain to Harry about what they knew, which basically boiled down to 'Salazar Slytherin made to protect Hogwarts and purge the Muggleborn using a monster of some sort.'
"But what exactly is the monster?" Harry asked.
"Nobody knows," I said with a shrug. "But let's look at what we do know. Salazar Slytherin was a powerful wizard. Probably would have been a Dark Lord if he hadn't helped found Hogwarts. And he was a Parseltongue. Meaning he could speak with control snakes. Neat, right?"
"Yeah," Harry nodded, wondering where I was going with this.
"Now, how many dangerous magical snakes are there?" I asked him.
"I don't know," he admitted.
"That's alright, Care of Magical Creatures is a 3rd year elective," I assured him. "Hmm, let's see… there's the two-headed Runespoor, but while one head is exceptionally venomous, the other actually contains the antidote to its own bite, so I don't believe Slytherin would have used it. Then we have the ashwinder, Horned Serpents and Coatls – though we can probably ignore those last two since they're New World magical snakes – and a few others that I can't recall off the top of my head. Though, really, the only possible explanation as to what was used to guard the Chamber of Secrets would be a basilisk based on what we currently know."
"A basilisk?" Harry asked while Sam grimaced recognizing the name from D and other fantasy tales.
"Yes. A truly massive Five X class creature," Remus explained. "They are hatched in a dark ritual where a toad incubates a chicken egg. They are extremely venomous and have magic resistant hides. Worse, however, is that if you look into the eyes of a basilisk, you will die instantly."
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