Harry arrived in the Slytherin common room, Jet on his shoulders as usual. He looked around, seeing several students sat around the common room.
"There he is." Jet hissed, he gestured with his head to Roman who was sat on a chair and he was eating the food he was given by the elves. Harry walked over and sat on the chair next to him. Roman looked up and noticed Harry.
"Keep eating." Harry told him when Roman was about to stop eating. "You heard me," Harry said when Roman looked hesitant. "eat." Harry ordered. Roman nodded before he continued to eat. Harry did not say or do anything more while Roman ate, once Roman was done with his food and drink an elf popped in and took the plate and goblet away. "What is your major malfunction?" Harry sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I...I beg your pardon?" Roman blinked as he looked at Harry.
"It means 'what is wrong with you?'," Harry explained as he lowered his hand and looked at Roman. "it's an American thing apparently, my sister actually taught me that by the way, apparently she went there one time and ended up punching someone in Disney World. Don't ask. So, as I was saying, what is wrong with you?"
"I don't really know what you mean." Roman replied.
"I will slap you twice across your skinny little face, the seconds slap will be a backhand as well. Yes, you do know what I am talking about. Why on Earth do you want to be my vassal?" Harry asked, gazing at him intently.
"Well...you're a great wizard." Roman began.
"So is Dumbledore but I don't see you going to him." Harry pointed out.
"Dumbledore is old," Roman countered. "he could die tomorrow in his sleep for all we know." He added.
"Fair enough." Harry nodded, conceding the point.
"Look, I need your help." Roman whispered before he looked around. Harry quickly realised that Roman was looking at the various Slytherin students around them and clearly he didn't want whatever he was about to say to be heard. Harry flicked his wrist, his wand appeared in his hand, Harry quickly put up a few spells to make sure the two wouldn't be overheard.
"There you go," Harry said as he placed his wand back in his holster. "nobody will hear what you have to say, so talk."
"Thank you," Roman said in an appreciative voice as he nodded to him. "like I was saying, I need your help."
"What with?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Look, I am desperate, okay." Roman sighed as he looked at Harry. "You know who my parents are, or at least who my father is." Roman said, it wasn't a question, nor was it phrased as one, but Harry nodded all the same. "Everyone knows who my father is," Roman continued. "and everyone hates me because of it. I need help if I'm going to survive the rest of school. Ginny, she's great, but she won't be much help against most of the house. The only other Slytherin's who even talk to me are the Carrow twins but I don't know if they would count me as a friend."
"You need protection." Harry said.
"Yes," Roman answered. "you saved my life before, I need your help."
"What part of me makes it look like I am hero?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "What part of me makes you think that I want to help you?"
"You already have," Roman responded. "if it wasn't for you then me and Ginny would be getting much, much worse than we already have. It was you who stopped the other Slytherin's from doing worse than ignoring and insulting us."
"But that still doesn't explain to me why you want to be my vassal." Harry replied.
"I...will always be judged for who my parents were, but if I was your vassal, I would finally be known as something that I chose to be. Vassal to the great Harry Potter."
"Ease up with the flattery, it won't get you anything, even if I do like the sound of it."
"I'm being honest," Roman responded. "it's not just because you're the boy-who-lived, everyone knows that you're a powerful wizard, everyone is talking about how you know spells that people in the year above haven't mastered. There's more evidence than that, another great example is how you killed a bloody basilisk of all things! I could go to somebody else, but who? The Malfoys are rich but do you think they would accept me out of the goodness of their hearts? You're the only one outside of Ginny who is not judging me for who my parents are and you're the only one I can remotely trust. And I've seen how you treat your vassal, she's happy being your vassal." He said, Harry was tempted to tell Roman that there was more than one reason why Angela was happy as his vassal but he decided against it.
"I let Angela be my vassal because she's old and smart enough to know what she wants, there were also personal reasons that she had that made me accept." Harry responded. "Kid, look at yourself, you're only a year younger than me and you're giving me your freedom, do you really think that this is the best option for you?"
"Yes, I do." Roman said without pausing.
Harry sighed as he looked at Roman, the second year seemed pretty determined. Harry was a big believer in free will, he had only accepted Angela as his vassal because it would have benefited him greatly and she had her own reasons for it which made him want to help her. Roman...well Harry could see the benefits of having the boy as his vassal.
The boy was pretty talented for his age. To Harry he seemed more talented than most of the other lower years, he was definitely the best male student in his year, he had great potential. The kid also had good reasons for wanting to be Harry's vassal, just like Angela had, although they both had very different reasons. Harry was rather impressed that the kid had actually thought it through.
Despite all the reasons why Harry should accept, he was hesitant to do so. Why? Quite simply because it meant that Roman would be his responsibility, it would mean that in return for Roman serving him, Harry would have to keep him safe and happy. Keeping him safe in Hogwarts was a challenge but one that Harry felt like he could deal with, the problem was outside of Hogwarts. Harry wasn't worried about Angela outside of Hogwarts, she was competent and with her family, she was safe.
Roman, from what Harry remembered, lived in an orphanage, which meant it would be Harry's job to provide him with a home since he would be responsible for making sure that his vassal was safe. The problem with that was that the only option Harry could think of was inviting Roman to live with the Tonks family and Harry didn't like that idea. It wasn't that Harry had a problem with Roman, more so that Harry didn't really want to share the Tonks family.
He knew that was a bit selfish and greedy but he couldn't help it, the Tonks's were his family, he didn't want to share them, he finally had his family, they were his! Andromeda was his mother, Ted was his father and Tonks was his sister damn it! Besides, he didn't even know if the Tonks's were willing to take in another boy.
"I..." Harry paused as he looked at Roman, the kid looked desperate enough. Which was why Harry was now in a position that he hated, what was he supposed to do when he wanted to help the kid but at the same time didn't want to? "look, this is all well and good but do you understand what position I would be in if I let you become my vassal? I would have to protect you, that's alright while we're in Hogwarts but I can't protect you outside of Hogwarts. You live in an orphanage and I don't know how safe that is. It could be the most heavily protected thing in the world or the worst protected thing, it would be my responsibility to keep you safe while you live there and my options are limited since I can't just hire some warders to go over and make your room safe and I can't put wards around the whole property since it's a muggle property and I don't own it.
My only other option is to let you live with me, and I can't do that. I've only just got my family and I've only just spent a few summers with them, I'm not ready to share them. Do you understand me?"
"But...but you don't have to get me somewhere to live!" Roman quickly protested. "The orphanage is fine, they feed me enough, I get clean clothes and everything."
"Even if that's true, I would still have to find a way to keep you safe and go and see it myself to make sure it's fine." Harry said in a thoughtful voice. Maybe he could get Roman an emergency portkey, damn it, why did he after want to be nice? "After this year ends I want to go and look at your orphanage. I'm not saying I've decided that I want to let you be my vassal, but if I was then I'm going to do it properly. For the rest of the year I want you to focus on being as good as you can. You got it?"
"Um...yeah," Roman spoke after a few moments of silence. "I understand."
"Hey, look at me." Harry ordered. "I am not promising you anything, do not get your hopes up, okay?"
"Got it." Roman said in a quiet voice with a small nod.
"Good." Harry said before he took his wand out and cancelled the spell.
"Why must you humans have so much drama in your lives? Can't you just eat, poo and sleep like the rest of the animal kingdom?" Jet asked.
Later that night Harry was sitting in his bed while wearing black pyjama bottoms and a grey shirt. Blaise slept in his own bed, Jet was resting on Harry's lap while Harry was looking at the marauders map. It was truly an impressive piece of magic that really interested Harry. It was amazing to know that he could at any moment in time see where everyone was.
The Slytherin girls were all in bed, Harry could see himself and Blaise in his own room. Jet didn't show up, leading Harry to believe that animals didn't show up on the map. Apparently ghosts did not show up either as Harry couldn't see Nearly Headless Nick, the Bloody Baron or any of the other ghosts that always floated around the Hogwarts stairs. There were no portraits on the map either, something which made sense when you think about it. Those in the paintings can travel into other frames but the frames always stay where they were, plus there were hundreds of them around the school.
Harry couldn't help but notice that the chamber of secrets wasn't on the map, something which also made sense since they were never able or inclined to find it. If the chamber was on the map then the Weasley twins would have likely raided it and told everyone about it, providing they didn't get killed by the basilisk that lived in there first.
As Harry looked over the map he saw many names, Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore who was pacing in his office, Peter Pettigrew, Ronald...wait what the fuck?!
Harry's eyes snapped back to the area where he saw Peter Pettigrew's name, he knew who Peter was thanks to multiple sources, journals left from his parents and grandparents along with what he had been told from Andromeda along with the various people who had talked about how Sirius Black had killed Peter. Harry's saw that Peter Pettigrew's name was in the Gryffindor common room, right next to Ronald Weasley's name. Before Harry was even allowed five seconds to think on that he recognised another name that was heading toward the direction of the Gryffindor common room, the name Sirius Black.
"Fuck!" Harry said as he quickly got up. "Jet, we might need attack mode."
"Already on it." Jet said not even a second later as Harry picked him up and placed Jet on his shoulders.
"Blaise, wake up." Harry called as he rushed over and quickly shook Blaise's head.
"W...what do you want? Go'way." Blaise said in a sleepy voice.
"Don't have time for this." Harry said before he aimed his wand at Blaise and hit him with a short water blast.
"What the fuck?!" Blaise gasped as he sat up. "Harry, what the hell?!"
"Get your sister, get the Professor's, and tell them the words that 'Harry's about to fuck shit up at the Gryffindor common room'." Harry said before he put on his shoes and rushed out of his room and then the common room. Harry quickly made a small plastic bag with his wand and shoved the map inside the bag, he put the straps of the bag in his mouth before he transformed into a tiger. Jet wrapped himself tightly around Harry's neck, tight enough to hold on but not tight enough to strangle him.
Tiger-Harry ran, bag hanging from his teeth, he headed towards the Gryffindor common room. Once Harry got near the common room he turned back into his human form, he took the map out of the bag and once again checked the map and saw Sirius Black was in the Gryffindor common room and it looked like he was about to come out of the common room in a few seconds.
Harry crouched down and aimed his wand at the entrance, the portrait opened and a second later the infamous mass murderer Sirius Black stepped out. He had a gaunt and sunken face, waxy skin, yellow teeth, and long, matted hair. Harry thought he looked as a corpse might. Harry didn't waste any time and quickly fired a stunner at him, but Harry didn't stop at one. He remembered Tonks's advice, 'hit hard, hit fast, hit as much as you can and for the love of Merlin, don't trip over'. Harry had shot three stunners before shooting another three just in case he missed.
By the time Harry was done Sirius Black was unconscious on the floor, lying in front of Harry. Harry quickly tied him up with ropes before he dropped Jet on him.
"If he wakes and tries anything then kill him. Don't let anyone touch him until I get back." Harry ordered before he walked into the Gryffindor common room just as the majority of the Gryffindor's had come down.
"What are you doing here?" The twins quickly demanded just as other Gryffindor's began asking questions, Harry ignored them and walked past them, following the map until he was in the third year boy's room. When he entered he saw the four Gryffindor's boys in their beds, shivering with fear, he noticed that Weasley was holding a rat in his hands. Harry double checked the map, it told him that Peter Pettigrew was with Ron, it didn't take Harry long to join the dots. Harry quickly fired a stunner at the rat, which caused Ron to accidently drop him on the floor.
"Hey!" Ron shouted but before he could do anymore Harry had cast the animagus reveal spell on the rat, a second later it transformed into a man, none other than Peter Pettigrew. Pettigrew was an extremely short man, Harry was sure that he was taller than him. The man had grubby skin, small watery eyes, and a pointed nose, all of which were lingering attributes of his animagus rat form. He looked middle aged, he had brown hair with bald patches, he was fat and missing a finger.
"Well, it looks like Jet won't be hungry this week." Harry commented as he looked down at Peter.