Just a Few Changes (will Keep you Safe) by Blueseabird2

Chapter 2: Friends

Summary:

Harry makes a friend, starts a club, and has a Talk.
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Harry stared at the muffins in front of him with great solemnity. Choosing between the regular chocolate chip and the cranberry nut was proving to be very difficult. Possibly because he'd just travelled dimensions and agreed to re-take out a Dark Lord and he was a little bit tired.

"You should go with the one on the right."

Harry tilted his head. "Why?"

"Because it is closer."

"I accept your reasoning." 

Harry selected the chocolate chip muffin and began to break it into bite-sized pieces. He was very touched when the several foot long snake in front of him uncoiled enough to push the tea closer to his hand.

"Is that-" Remus didn't finish his sentence, probably because he already knew the answer.

"Yes," Harry told Remus and his not-mum, unsurprisingly the only Gryffindors up at this time. "This is the basilisk. His name is Maurice and he isn't insane but staying locked in a disgusting sewer isn't really the best way to keep things that way so I took him out. We're friends now."

"For some reason I thought he'd be bigger," Lily said, not coming closer but not stepping away.

"We shrunk him," Harry explained. That was not normally an option with animals but Maurice was a fucking basilisk. He had magic in spades and thus logic need not apply.

"Wicked." Diggory plopped himself down across the table from Harry and Maurice before rocking slightly forward in his seat. This wasn't exactly unusual, since Harry had chosen to sit at the Hufflepuff table again, though it showed a questionable lack of caution.

"You have a distinct lack of self-preservation for a Hufflepuff," Harry told the boy.

Diggory beamed like he'd been given a compliment. "Cedric."

"What." Maurice, sensing something off in Harry's tone even though he hadn't spoken in Parseltounge, poured himself into Harry's lap, head still raised enough that he could see everything going on around them.

"My name! It's Cedric."

Harry ran his hand over Maurice's scales as his heart broke just a little bit more. He hadn't realized his Cedric had been named after a (probably deceased) uncle.

"You're adorable. Have a muffin and also please let me teach you about self-preservation. We'll make it a club. You can bring friends so it's not so creepy."

Baby-Cedric beamed even brighter and Harry squinted at him.

Lily was now laughing at Harry but he really liked the sound so wasn't actually put out. Also, Baby-Cedric did take a muffin so Harry decided it was a win all around.

A soft clearing of a throat had Harry turning around. He grinned up at McGonagall and Ariana Dumbledore, whom he'd been informed preferred to go by Professor Ariana to avoid the confusion of two Dumbledores.

McGonagall looked stern, but Harry had drunk a lot of tea with his Minerva as they reformed several classes, including Defence Against the Dark Arts. Harry knew the older woman was amused. That was another reason he'd wanted her to come with them last night. She was, most certainly, a badass, but she also would be a staunch ally once they proved they weren't harmful to her kids.

A little bit of basilisk wrangling, a couple of magical vows, a few hints of what their schooling was like, and a rant or two about acceptable risks in a school full of children and McGonagall was tentatively won over on the side of the benevolent interlopers. Which was good, because McGonagall took her kids' safety very seriously but also had a hidden fondness for mischief as long as it taught you something.