I am not the heir of Slytherin, I am Slytherin.

Chapter 22

No one POV

Dumbledore quickly cast a stunner of his own and tied her up with a swish of his wand before floo-calling Minister Fudge and Madam Bones. They stepped through a minute later, followed by two aurors. One was tall, dark man who had a calm but 'do-not-mess-with-me' look on his face. The other was a cheerful young woman with bubblegum-pink hair who looked like a new recruit. 

"Hello Minister Fudge, Madam Bones, Auror Shacklebolt, Auror Tonks. These students here-" Dumbledore said -indicating to the four who inclined their heads in respect- "found a snake outside the Gryffindor common room and recognized it to be an animagus. They captured the snake in a magical cage which would not allow her to transform into her human self and brought her to me. There she is," He said indicating to an unconscious, bound, Bellatrix Lestrange. The aurors rushed forward and turned her back to her snake form and put her in the cage on Dumbledore's desk, making sure to stun her again. Madam Bones then turned to the four students.

"Thank you kids. You don't know how much good you have done to be paying attention in class enough to recognize an animagus when you see one. You will each receive a medal of bravery."

"And an Order of Merlin, first class," Fudge added, eyeing Harry's scar.

"Yes, that too," Madam Bones said distastefully, having noticed that the Minister was doing that only because of Harry Potter.

"How did you capture her though?" Kingsley asked them curiously.

"Er- well we decided to go back to the Gryffindor tower, our friend Luna tagging along with us, to get something from our dorms when we saw that snake outside the common room. I am a parselmouth, as everyone knows, so I tried talking to the snake, but its response was broken, almost as though it couldn't speak the language properly and tried to attack me too, which was unusual as snakes do not attack parselmouths unless commanded by another. So Neville here, while the rest of us distracted the snake, conjured a magical cage and trapped the snake. We decided to bring it to the Headmaster. I lead the way, and here we are..." Harry said, his mind working a mile a minute. Fortunately, the adults, including Dumbledore, bought the well-weaved story. 

"Very well, 50 points to each of you. Now please return to your dormitories," Dumbledore said.

They all bowed before leaving.

"Well, that was close," Neville said once they were two corridors away from the gargoyles. 

"Yeah, if it weren't for your quick thinking and the ability of making an excuse that would fool those that didn't know any better, Sal, Merlin knows what would've happened," Hermione agreed, breathless due to running.

"Yeah and we also got fifty points each thanks to you," Luna said in a dreamy voice.

"But that is unfair you know. We did it and Godric got most of the points," Harry said, mock-glaring at Neville.

"It isn't my fault. You joined Gryffindor. You didn't favour your own house," Neville said innocently with a shrug, making the other three roll their eyes. 

They bid goodbye to Luna before proceeding to the Gryffindor tower. 

When they returned, they saw the potrait of Sir Cadogan as the Gryffindor common room portrait. Percy was standing outside waiting for any Gryffindors. When he spotted them, he gave them the password, "Chivalry."

The Gryffindors were sitting in bunches and still discussing Lestrange. Harry sighed and retreated to his dorms where he saw Ron, Ginny and the twins were in a discussion too. It was Fred who first spotted the three entering.

"Hello there Harry, Neville, Hermione. Good going?" He greeted them.

"Excellent going," Neville replied.

"Bellatrix Lestrange has been caught," Hermione continued.

"What?!" the four Weasleys exclaimed at the same time.

"Turns out... She is an animagus." The Weasleys groaned at this. "A snake to be exact and we found her lurking outside our common room. I tried talking to the snake in Parseltongue, but she couldn't reply, so I suspected it to be an animagus and we took her to Dumbledore, who handed her into the ministry," Harry finished the narration. Ginny completely bought the story, the twins were a bit suspicious, and Ron did not buy the story one bit since he already knew they had gone looking for her. It was just a confirmation to their theory. But he understood that they were waiting for the others to leave so they could tell him what actually happened.

"Well, that's great!" Ginny cheered before leaving to tell her peers.

"We know that it is not the-""Full truth little bro,-""But we will wait-""Till we gain your full confidence." The twins said before exiting too. 

Harry sighed and closed the door with privacy charms after making sure that Dean and Seamus were in the common room.

"So what actually happened?" Ron asked.

Hermione and Neville told him the full truth while Harry was deep in thought. He realized that animagus Death Eaters were getting in mostly undetected. They needed to modify their wards to alert them of any animaguses who enters. He took out his potions diary -the one he retrieved from his vault- to try and find the proper recipe to a certain potion he was trying to make. It was a potion never made before and it could help sway a large group away from Voldemort when he returns as the potion was what Voldemort had promised to try making for them. (Three guesses on the purpose of the potion.)

He sensed someone coming up the stairs and signaled the others to talk normal.

The door opened and in came Dean and Seamus who were too deep in their own conversation to notice the others. 

Thinking about Sirius, James, Professor McGonagall, Lestrange and Pettigrew, Harry realized that becoming an animagus could be quite useful, and decided that it would be better if he managed to master multiple forms like he did patronuses. He had to get the book about becoming an animagus out of his special trunk before going to somewhere private. So he opened his normal trunk and grabbed the invisibility cloak, Marauder's map and his shrunken trunk.

"Guys I have something to do. If you know where to find me, you just need to ask. But if you have to ask, you won't find me," Harry told his friends. Hermione quickly caught on and gave a quick nod. Harry smiled and left.

"What the bloody hell did he mean?" Ron asked as he watched Harry's retreating figure.

"The Room of Requirements, where we went that day after our boggart lesson," Hermione explained.

"Why does he have to talk in puzzles? Only you understand him anyways," Neville groaned.

"You know why. Stop complaining like a baby," Hermione scolded before grabbing an advanced ancient runes book.

~Hey guys! Thank you very much for the support you have shown me and also for helping me reach 10700 READS!

Happy birthday to Harry Potter! And my birthday wishes to JK Rowling.

Signing off~