Harry headed to one of the labs and looked around. A hum of a fan starting up, caused Harry to look around and shrug. He felt a slight pull as air was circualated out of the room. Lily walked into the painting in the room and smiled at Harry. She had a book with her and was glancing at it. "What is that humming about?" Harry asked. "Ventilation. The Muggles do have one thing correct. All labs have ventilation fans to circulate the air to prevent any problems. That's one of the reasons for the forest on the rop floor." "Too bad Hogwarts does the same thing. Now what about a second wand?" Harry asked. "Well. A second wand is going to be a bit difficult," Lily replied. "I'm not sure if we have suitable core material here." "Would a basilisk tooth work?" Harry asked. "Voldemort has a yew wand with phoenix feather. I think a holly wand with basilisk tooth would be appropriate for me." "A basilisk tooth would be viable," Lily said slowly. "So, that old basilisk that I killed will be of some use," Harry said. "I recovered it and have it stored in one of the green storage rooms." "The eyes?" Lily asked, paling a bit as she recalled Harry had faced a basilisk. "Ruined by Fawkes," Harry replied. "I shoved the Sword of Gryffindor through its brain and one of the fangs broke off. Other than the broken fang, the sword puncture, and the ruined eyes, it is still in excellent condition. I also have a shed skin from it." "You have an excellent source of potion and wand core materials. The hide of the basilisk makes great armor. That shed skin will be of some use as well," Lily explained. "The loss of the eyes was understandable." "You're not upset...." Harry began. "I'm upset that you had to face it. If the loss of the eyes was part of having your life spared, it was more than worth it," Lily stated firmly. "I'll go get one of the basilisk fangs," Harry said. "Get a small tooth and use your wand to break it off," Lily said. "The poison is still active, despite the fact that basilisk is dead." Harry nodded and headed to the potions laboratory and found the panel that accessed the outer compartments. Harry tapped the first button and the panel slid away, showing the carcass of the basilisk. "Bloody hell! That's huge," James exclaimed. "James! Language!" Lily reprimanded. "Ron and Hermione," Harry muttered in amusement. James shook his head. "If you'll excuse me, I have to read up on the books to help Harry achieve his Animagus form." As James left the painting in the lab, Harry sighed and pointed his wand at the mouth of the snake and cast a levitation charm on the smallest tooth he could see in the giant snake. Harry grabbed an empty flask and dropped the tooth into the glass container. He picked the flask up and rattled the tooth inside. He then frowned at the tooth. "I thought Ollivander said that a wand chooses a wizard," Harry mumbled. "More Ministry propaganda," Lily replied. "That's why they made sure wandmaking was restricted to only those they could keep an eye on. When you build a wand for yourself, it will be more in tune with your magic than one you bought from Ollivander. Basilisk fang will make it heavier in the offensive magics than almost anything else. However, since snakes are also creatures that are associated with healing, healing magics will go up with a wand created with a basilisk fang. Which brings up the next bit, I don't think you should use just wood for your new wand. There is a vial of copper coating and there should be a small quartz crystal you can use." "Copper coating?" Harry asked. "Used to fix cracks in copper cauldrons," Lily answered with a smile. Harry found the vial of copper coating and a small single termination quartz crystal. He was about to reach for a the wood when he stopped and pursed his lips in thought. "Something wrong?" Lily asked. "I get the feeling that there is another piece I should add," Harry replied, a bit distracted. "Is there anything that you have that can be added?" Lily asked. "I'm not sure," Harry said, as he closed his eyes. "I can't think of anything." "Anything at all? A piece of your clothes? Maybe a sliver from a broom?" Lily pressed. "The Nimbus 2000," Harry stated. "It was smashed apart by the Whomping Willow and I still have the pieces." "What happened?" Lily asked. Harry sighed and told of his reactions to Dementors and what eventually happened to the broom and how the Firebolt replaced it. "You gained the Nimbus 2000 from your own skill to allow you to excel at flying. A sliver from that broom would be of great use in making your new wand," Lily explained. "I'll be right back. I still have the pieces," Harry said. "Where is the panel for the yellow buttons located?" "Storeroom on the floor above us," Lily replied. Harry left the lab and headed to the storeroom. He found the panel and tried to recall which room he placed the remnants of the Nimbus 2000 in. He gave up and just cycled through the buttons. On the second cycle, he found the remnants and looked through the pieces. He found the piece that had the name and saw that a toothpick like sliver went through the lettering. Harry carefully wiggled the splinter free of the rest of the wood and held it up. "This is it," Harry said, and quickly returned to the lab. Harry placed the splinter of wood down and looked at the pieces he had assembled. He looked down at his clothes and noticed that he had a small shed feather from Hedwig clinging to his clothes. He removed that and placed it down next to the broom splinter. "Two of earth and two of air. Each has one of magic and one non-magic," Lily stated. "Mixed with the wood holly, it should prove to be quite interesting. Put the splinter next to the tooth and very carefully wrap the feather around both and use the temporary binding spell and then dip all three into the copper coating." Lily gave instructions on how to do the binding spell. After performing the binding spell, Harry levitated the combined item into the copper coating flask and waited for a few seconds. He then levitated the mass back out and waited for it to dry. After it dried, Harry set the completed core down on the work table and corked the copper coating bottle. "No need to levitate the tooth anymore," Lily said. "The copper shields from accidental poisoning. Grab a dowel of holly and cut it down the length. You'll place the completed core near the handle and the quartz crystal near the tip. The point of the crystal should be facing the point of the wand. You'll connect the core and the crystal with silver wire and then glue the wand back together. I'm not sure how long your wand should be." Harry found a spool of silver wire and connected the crystal and core up. He hesitated, but then cut his new wand to twelve inches in length. He cut a groove for the core, wire, and crystal. After putting the core construct into the wand, he glued the two halves of the wand together and cast the sealing spell that Lily explained to him. He was surprised when the wand glowed with green, white, light blue, and brown lights. "The wand is finished. That lightshow meant that your magic has activated the wand," Lily said. "I thought it would be gold or red, not....," Harry began. Lily laughed at her son. "Was anything in that core red or gold? No. Your Nimbus 2000 might have been black or brown, but clouds are white. However, your owl is white. So, you got the color of the sky, light blue, to represent the broom. The green came from the basilisk and the brown was from the copper. That is a wand of earth and air, unlike your current wand of fire. Your new wand is also aligned heavily with destruction, healing, and movement." "What about the silver and quartz?" Harry asked. "They were there. The quartz was invisible and the silver added a metallic tinge to the lightshow," Lily said. "Now onto the pensive." Lily explained the basics of pensive creation to Harry. Harry looked around the lab and scratched his head. "I don't see a rock suitable to turn into a pensive," Harry said. Lily blushed. "Oops. Um. I'm not sure how to proceed then." "I'll probably find a rock in Aunt Petunia's garden that I can use or maybe Dudley will throw one at me," Harry said with a sigh. Lily's features took on an angry expression. Harry just waved it off and told her of the joke he played with Sirius. Lily laughed at that. "Not exactly a Marauder style prank, but good enough. I guess you should grab a wand holster from the storeroom upstairs," Lily said. Harry nodded and then held up his old wand. "This wand is the brother to Voldemort's wand. Is there anything I can do with this?" Lily flipped through the book she had with her and smiled evilly when she read a passage. "There is nothing you can do to counter the Priori Incatetum effect, but there is something you can do with your new wand," Lily said. "The what effect?" "Priori Incantetum. It's a spell that forces a wand to regurgitate the spells it cast in reverse order. You want Voldemort's wand so you can use that spell to return our memories to us. Now moving on to your new wand, since your old wand is the brother of Voldemort's, you can put the Nemesis charm upon your new wand. It only lasts for about a month without recharging, but all spells cast with your old wand or Voldemort's wand will be completely useless against your new wand. That does include the three Unforgivables. A simple Protego will stop Avada Kedavra." "What are those?" Harry asked. Lily sighed and sadly shook her head. "Defense Against the Dark Arts has really gone downhill since my time. The Ministry must be really cracking down on what can be taught even more than what they were in my time. Then again the book I learned how to be an Animagus from was openly sold in Flourish and Blotts at one time." "Well, with Lockhart there was a lot of stuff probably missed due to his rampaging ego," Harry said and sighed. "All his books were actual accounts. However, he showed up and obliviated the wizard or witch who did the work and took the credit." "Lockhart? Gilderoy Lockhart?" Lily asked. "Yes. You know him?" Harry asked. "Not really. He was a seventh year Slytherin Prefect in my fifth year," Lily replied. "He graduated at the end of the year." "It figures. Why is Slytherin the home of so many evil and selfish wizards?" Harry mumbled. "A drive to prove yourself and cunning are the main things to being a Slytherin. Study, hard work, loyalty, and courage are kind of lacking in sefish and evil wizards. The Sorting Hat put me in Gryffindor, but I could have easily gone into Slytherin if Slytherin hadn't gone downhill. All the Marauders could have and should have gone into Slytherin, but Riddle corrupted it," Lily replied with a smile. "If you have some of Lockhart's books, place them into the bookshelf and I'll look through them to see if we can recreate some of the spells." "I have a full set of his books that he gave to me," Harry said. "I'll place them in the shelf before I start in on Animagus training." Lily nodded. Harry left the lab and found his collection of Lockhart books. He quickly placed them into the library shelf and walked away. Harrry soon found himself in the front room and waited. James walked into one of the lanscapes in the front room, holding a book. "Fascinating reading, Harry," James said. "If we had this book when we started, we would have gotten through our Animagus transformations easier and in my case, I would have more than one form." "More than one form? But I thought...," Harry stammered out. "Godric Gryffindor's distant ancestor was a dual Animagus. He was both a lion and an eagle. During a fight with a rival wizard, he combined his two forms and became the first griffin. Realizing how effective his combined form was, he had other griffins created," James explained. "A lot of the magical creatures that are combined from two or more muggle animals are actually duplications of Animagus combined forms." "So, no turning into dragons or phoenixes," Harry mused. "I said most, not all. Unicorns and Ki-Rin are a magical deer. Phoenixes, thunderbirds, snowbirds, and diriclaws are the same species, but are aligned with different elements," James said. "Diriclaws? The dodo?" Harry asked in shock. "Aligned with earth and the most common of the four birds," James said in amusement. "I didn't believe it either. As to dragons, they are ancient creatures that weren't created by humans. There are probably magical sea creatures as well that wizards have never even seen." "Okay. So there are magical creatures that I could become," Harry said. "Do you want to become a dodo?" James asked with a smirk. "Actually, you can't. The natural magiacl creatures are a bit much for any mage to become." "How long will it take me to become an Animagus?" Harry asked. "It took me, Sirius, and Peter three years to become Animagi, but it only took Lily one month. Lily had managed to get a much better book than the five in the library at Hogwarts. This book here is of even better quality, since it covers the multi-Animagus ability and how to combine them," James replied. "I'd say in two weeks for an hour each day, you should have your first form down. Any other forms you may have will take one week to learn. Combining forms takes a week for every two forms combined, two weeks for every three forms combined, and four weeks for every four forms combined." "So in a month and I should have mastery over my Animagus forms, if I only have two," Harry mused. "No." "No?" "No. If you only have two animal forms, you have three forms to use. You forgot about your human form," James said. "If you only have two animals, it will take three weeks to learn the two animals. Three weeks to learn combining each pair of forms you have and then an extra two weeks to learn how to combine all three forms. Two months to gain full mastery if you are a dual-Animagus." Harry let out a low whistle. "I can't believe there is a book like that in my library." "There isn't," James said, as he looked at the book he was holding with a sour expression. "This painting representation is all that is left of this book." "That makes no sense," Harry said. "Sure it does. If even a tenth of the books in the library paintings were to get back out into the real world, you would be tossed into Azkaban and kissed for owning. Heck, this Animagus book alone is a kissable offense for even looking at one page of," James said, disgusted. Harry shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair in confusion. "I don't understand," Harry muttered. "Lily? Will you come in here please?" James called. Lily walked into the painting and smiled down at Harry. James quickly brought Lily up to speed about Animagus training and about the illegal books in the paintings. "Ah that," Lily said with a smile. "The Ministry is tied up placating the pure-bloods. I've read what my future self wrote about this. A lot of the rules that have been passed are not really meant for hiding from the Muggles, but to cripple the Muggleborn wizards and witches and to keep the Ministry the most powerful group of people who can use magic There are hundreds of books that now only exist in painting format. The way things are set up in here, the Ministry would have a hard time making a case. I'm not going to say they wouldn't try though." Harry shook his head. "How do I find out what I can become?" "There is a couple spells, but they can't be used. You can't cast them on yourself and we're paintings," James said. "Mind shielding will help out a bit." "It comes back to the Pensive doesn't it?" Harry asked. "Somewhat. You can pull a dream out and place it into the Pensive and then look through it to help you understand what you can become. There are also a couple potions, but they take up to four months to brew and to gather all the ingredients, since some of the ingredients have to be freshly picked," James replied. "The Marauders used the potion, but it took us a while to get everything set up. However, there is something that can be done. You cast a trance spell on yourself and we ask questions. When you wake up, we'll have an idea if you have more than one form and what they are. The problem here, is you are going to have to trust us and we really haven't earned your trust." Harry thought about what the painting of his father said and thought long and hard. He closed his eyes and thought about the stories that he knew of his father. Opening his eyes, Harry gave a grin at James. "Not you. You are too much a prankster. I will trust Mum for this," Harry said. "Ah. The curse of being a Marauder," James said with a laugh. "I don't blame you. I would be tempted." "I'm going to want to talk to you about running a prank on Snape," Harry said. "Activate the lake prank," James said. "To activate it, you have to cast five spells at the lake in succession. I'll tell you the spells later. Let's get the Animagus forms out of the way. I'll be in the library." Harry nodded and looked at Lily. Lily told Harry the trance spell and Harry cast it upon himself. After a bit, he woke up and looked at Lily who was frowning. "So what am I?" Harry asked. "Oh? A raven and some sort of canine. The canine is not a wolf, jackal, or dog. I'm trying to figure out what it is," Lily answered. "At first I thought it might be a jackal, since it lives in deserts, but that was shot down with the fact that the canine has dealt with snow. You might have other forms, but after getting the raven, I went back and started working on the canine." "Would visiting a zoo influence my Animagus forms?" Harry asked. "It gives you more options if any of the animals at the zoo gave birth at the zoo. Why?" Lily replied. "I visited a zoo once and only recalled two things. One was me putting a snake on Dudley and the other was watching some coyote puppies," Harry answered "Coyote. Odd. That is odd," Lily mumbled. "What is odd?" Harry asked. "Coyote and Raven are two gods of American Indian folklore. Both are trickster gods. If you have both forms, it means that any further forms are probably going to be from the United States," Lily said. "I'm surprised that I have a canine form, considering how Marge Dursely has her dog Ripper chase me," Harry mused. "Harry, a coyote is not a dog. It is simmilar to a dog, but not quite. We're going to have to look up coyotes in the library," Lily said. "Moving on. Do not practice anything or say anything about this outside the trunk." "Why?" "James and I took a look at the wards surrounding the house using the sensors in the trunk. There are listening charms that are keyed to pick up anything that goes on in the house. The Blood Wards have been sabotaged a bit to allow magical sensors to be placed near the house," Lily replied. "Furthermore, there are mail screening wards placed around the house. Some of the wards are set up to intercept outgoing messages. We don't know which places you can't write to." "I don't have any privacy," Harry muttered "No. You do not," Lily stated flatly. "I have suspicions that something I did for Petunia was used by Dumbledore for you to stay here." "How much more time do I have in here?" Harry asked. "Ten hours to go. What shall we work on next?" Lily asked. "Does it matter?" Harry countered. "If I get into another match with Voldemort, I don't think I can take time to brew a potion." "Potions are necessary, and we will cover them. However, I think James will handle the next three hours focussing on Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts," Lily said. "As to your chores with my sister's family, they will help you in getting physically fit. Please try to find a large rock that we can use for a Pensive." "Will do." "I'm going to go work on some wand charms for you to learn and use on your new wand and how to create paintings," Lily said with a rueful grin. "No offense, but James and I do need some clothing to wear beyond our swimsuits." Harry chuckled and went onto his lesson with James. He then went onto potions and charms taught by Lily, along with some history. After grabbing a two-hour nap near the end, Harry grabbed a quick sandwich and ate it to stave off hunger pains. Harry left the trunk and decided to write his friends about the Dursely diet and ask for some food. He didn't want anyone to become too suspicious about the trunk. Dumbledore knew that he had a second trunk, just not what the trunk was. After finishing the letters, he sent them off with Hedwig and worked on his homework outside the trunk and then went on to do his chores, while hunting for a nice large rock. He gave up on that after he found a pair of red bricks near the garage. 'Maybe theese bricks can be used,' Harry thought to himself. 'Hopefully, I get my two forms and mind shielding down before the Quidditch World Cup. I don't think I can hide what's going on with the trunk from Ron and Hermione if I keep using it before we get to Hogwarts. As to after getting to Hogwarts, I think I can hide what I'm doing.' As the days passed, Harry was able to learn several things from the portraits of his parents. The bricks turned out to be more than useful, as Harry now had two seperate pensives to use. One was placed in a special holder in one of the study rooms where Lily and James could use it. The other was free standing that Harry could use anywhere. After getting the mind shielding down, Harry's memory was enhanced, speeding up his learning in other subjects. After two months, he managed to get mastery over his two known Animagus forms. After clearing his original wand of the few spells that were used to create the new one, Harry only picked it up to renew the Nemesis charm on his new wand, which didn't require the old wand to be used for anything other than as a template. He even manage to create a pair of paintings with clothes for both his parents. Although, some of the outfits were based off what he could recall from various shows he only got glimpses of, which explained why Lily had some color coded cheerleader outfits as part of her wardrobe selection. During one night, Harry felt his dreams being invaded by something. Curious, he listened to Voldemort talking to Pettigrew. He delved into Voldemort's mind a bit and saw that he had plans to kidnap someone by the name of Alastor Moody and that someone by the name of Barty Crouch Junior was being held by his father someplace. Waking up, Harry wrote a note to Dumbledore about the dream and the planned kidnapping attempt along with Barty Crouch Junior. "Well, that was different," Harry muttered. "I should write to Sirius and see if he has anything to say about the dream and why Voldemort would go after that Mister Moody and maybe telling him about the mind shielding ability I learned over the summer. Hedwig take the first letter to Dumbledore and the second one to Sirius," Harry said. Hedwig hooted once and took off after Harry tied the letters to her legs. Sighing, he went into the trunk and used a bit of the mental shielding technique he picked up to push a minor headache away. He looked at the clock hands and sighed, knowing they wouldn't activated for another few hours. "Hello? Anyone here?" Harry called "Harry? You should be in bed," Lily said, as she entered the portrait. "Nightmare. I wanted to talk about it. By the way, why are you weraing just your swimsuit again?" Lily blushed. "Oh, that? Um. When we go to sleep, we appear back in our portrait like we were painted and the clothes return to their painting. It is odd sleeping while standing up." "Will you be all right?" Harry asked a bit worried. "If we only had that one portrait, I would be uncertain. However, we have the run of all the portraits in the trunk. We'll get a bit lonely from time to time, but we are adapting to our new existance. However, you didn't come here to talk about our problems. You had a nightmare. What was it about?" Harry sighed and told Lily everything that he could recall about the dream and the letters he wrote to Sirius and Dumbledore. "I have not told either one about the two of you, nor have I wrote Remus Lupin," Harry said. "Don't write anything about us down. We need time to adapt to our existance, before we talk to Remus or Sirius again. There is also the fact that we still need to calm down about Dumbledore's refusal to follow our will." "And why he put Snape in charge of Potions and why he has a ghost teaching History of Magic?" Harry added in a bit of disgust. "A ghost? You didn't tell us that Binns was a ghost. He must be even more boring," Lily said with a bit of amusement. "Great. Was it that messed up when you were attending Hogwarts?" Harry asked. "Somewhat. However, there were a few teachers that Dumbledore did ask for advice. The Divination teacher was talking about retiring in a couple years when we attended. Horace Slughorn is...was the Potions teacher and Head of Slytherin and was a teacher a year before Dumbledore was. Anicent Runes and Arthimacy were taught by people who served under the previous Headmaster," Lily said. "Do you think I did the right thing in writing about Moody and Crouch Junior?" Harry asked. "If the Aurors capture Pettigrew and give him Veratiserum, Sirius might have his name cleared," Lily said. "That's if Fudge allows it. He let off so many Death Eaters on the flimsiest excuses," Harry muttered. "Hmm. True," Lily said. "While you're up, I'd like to see how you came across that basilisk." "Don't freak out, but when Riddle tried to kill me, he gave me the ability to speak Parseltounge." "Useful, but you are stalling," Lily said with a smile. "I don't want you to hate me for something I had no control over," Harry mumbled. "Oh. Harry, I wouldn't. As you said, you gained the ability from Riddle's attempt to kill you," Lily assured. "Will you be affected by the gaze of a basilisk from a memory?" Harry asked. "I have no idea," Lily replied. "If you weren't a Parselmouth, I wouldn't be worried. Since you are, you might have seen the eyes of the basilisk and were unaffected by the gaze." "How about I just show you the memory after the basilisk was killed and let you look around the Chamber of Secrets?" "That sounds like a good idea." Harry used the shared pensive to show Lily the final confrontation between him and the memory of Tom Riddle from the diary. As the two of them entered the memory, Harry felt a bit of anxiety. Once the memory started playing, Harry stared at Lily now that she was fully three-dimensional in the pensive memory. As memory-Fawkes cried into the wound of the memory-Harry, Lily paused the memory and looked around. "This is the fabled Chamber of Secrets?" Lily asked. "I almost died here. The only reason I'm still alive is because of Fawkes," Harry replied. Lily gvae Harry a breif hug and said. "I'm so sorry that we couldn't be with you to give you advice. If we hadn't trusted Peter, maybe you would still have parents and we wouldn't be paintings." "Is there a way to modify a pensive to allow us to touch each other and add another room?" "I'd have to go to the library," Lily said, with a chuckle. Lily reached up and tugged a bit on the string that held the top of her swimsuit up. "See? It's part of me. Your father and I are magical paper dolls." "If I can find other paintings, I'm thinking about adding them to the trunk," Harry said. "They wouldn't be like us. They wouldn't be fully alive," Lily said. "But, it would keep you from getting too lonely," Harry protested. "True, but you'll have to wait until you are seventeen. That is when you get control of the Potter family vault," Lily said.