Chapter One
It was summer and it was stormy out. Harry Potter sat by his window, staring out, counting down the days until he could return to Hogwarts. It was the day before his birthday, and unlike a few of the years before, he was looking forward to it, even though the Dursley's (his aunt and uncle) never did anaything to make his birthdays memorable. Harry Potter was looking forward to his birthday because he was awaiting his now summerly visit to the Weasley's.
He'd received letters from his friends and Sirius all summer, which helped take a bit off his usual summer low. Hermione even sent him a quidditch book called "A Fly Through Quidditch' by Aisling Airhead, but it was the letters from Sirius that he truly enjoyed.>

Sirius was Harry's godfather, a convicted murderer and unregistered Animagus. Only he, Ron, Hermione, and Albus Dumbledore, Hogwart's headmaster, knew that Sirius was innocent.

Even though all this was on the young wizard's mind, something else nagged at the back of his mind, it had been there, lurking, waiting till the time when Harry would stop forcing himself not to think about it. The year before, Harry had come face to face, for the fifth time, with Lord Voldemort. The only difference about this encounter was that this time, the Dark Lord had been returned to full power, this time, he could touch Harry.

Harry shuddered while he thought about this, but his mind was suddenly brought back from where it had gone by a wet, gray lump of feathers hitting him in the face.

"Errol!" Harry gasped.

He picked up the now unconscious owl, and untied the letter attached to its leg, and read it.

'Dear Harry,
Dad got a raise at work! But that's not why I'm writing to you. Mum says that you can come and stay for the rest of the summer, and Hermione's coming too. I'm not sure why, but mum had to write to Dumbledore to ask if you could come. We'll come and pick you up tomorrow, and tell your Aunt and Uncle to unblock the fireplace-'

Harry recalled what had happened last time, and then to add to the chaos, Dudley had eaten one of Fred and George's Ton-Tongue Toffees, resulting in total havoc-

'We're coming to get you tomorrow whether they like it or not. Mum sent a letter. See you at 2:00. Happy Birthday!
Ron
PS Fred and George got me new dress robes! Wonder where they got the money?'

Harry smiled. Then he turned off the light and went to bed. He couldn't wait.

Chapter Two: Back at the Burrow
Harry got up at 9:00 that day, and went to breakfast to see Mr. Dursley reading another letter, that came, as it had last year, covered in stamps. He glanced coldly at Harry, but continued reading.

Harry sat down to breakfast and helped himself to some eggs and bacon. Dudley had finally lost weight and now fit into his knickerbockers once more, and so they were off last years diet.

"Come with me," grunted Uncle Vernon. It made Harry jump. It had been so quiet before, even while Dudley was there. Harry followed his uncle into the living room.

"So you want to know if you can go do you?"

"Yes, sir,"

"Well, I'm going to let you."

That surprised Harry. Letters to him usually included an argument. Harry supposed that Uncle Vernon remembered last year, but more than that, Harry supposed he remembered Sirius.

"You should probably unblock the fireplace." Harry responded. Whew, close one. He had almost let himself smile. Uncle Vernon sneered at him, but went to get his tools to unblock the reboarded Fireplace.

Harry went and packed, counting down the time until Ron was coming. He checked the clock on his nightstand. Eleven o'clock. By eleven thirty his trunk was packed, along with some muggle clothes. Hedwig wasn't back yet, but she would know where to find him.

Harry passed away the remaining time by going downstairs and watching TV with Dudley. He sat down in an easy chair and was soon put into a stupor equal to his in Professor Binns' classroom. The time passed quickly. Twelve o'clock, one o'clock and finally the long awaited two o'clock.

Harry was still watching television when he heard something hard hit the ground behind him. Dudley turned around lazily, saw Mr. Weasley on the floor, squealed and ran out of the room just as Ron hit the floor beside his dad.

"'Lo, Harry," said Ron, smiling.

"Hi Ron. Hello Mr. Weasley," Harry replied.

"We decided not to bring Fred and George this time," said Mr. Weasley.

Harry thought that this was a smart idea.

Uncle Vernon ran in that moment and stared angrily at Mr. Weasley, who saw the dislike on his face, and started handing out Floo Powder.

"All right now, into the fireplace," he said, lighting a fire with his wand. Harry threw in the Floo Powder and said, as clearly as possible, seeing as he had a mouth full of ash "The Burrow!"

A sudden rush of air and Harry was flying through soot, every now and then he would open his eyes and see fireplaces rush by, then he hit the floor in the Weasley's house, The Burrow. He scrambled up just as Ron came flying through and then Mr. Weasley, carrying his trunk and Hedwig's cage. She had flown ahead.

Mrs. Weasley heard the commotion and came running in.

"What have those boys done this time! Oh, hello Harry, dear, it's nice to see you!" she said, hugging him. "Why don't you go put your trunk up in Ron's room."

Ron got up from the ash, telling Harry to come with him as he did. By now Harry was familiar with Ron's room, which was mostly Chudley Cannons memorabilia, but his spell books and parchment and quills littered the walls here and there.

Chapter 3 The Changling
Though always fun, Harry's visit to Ron's passed uneventfully, except when Hermione arrived, and they went to Diagon Alley. And the days passed. Weeks turned to days, until finally they would be getting on the Hogwarts Express in two hours.

"Is everyone packed?" said Mrs. Weasley, to which they all responded with a sleepy yes, that morning. The time flew by and Mr. Weasley called for cabs.

They came and everyone piled in, the drivers looked slightly irritated.

They arrived at platform nine and three quarters with twenty minutes to spare. Harry, Ron and Hermione went through first, leaning casually against the supposedly solid barrier, and then they were on the other side, the scarlet steam engine puffing away. Ginny and Mrs. Weasley followed, then Fred and George, and finally Mr. Weasely. They began to pile their trunks in, but Ron, Harry and Hermione found only one compartment, and like their third year, it already had one person in it. It was a girl about their age, with long brown hair, wearing deep blue robes. She was listening to music on what seemed to be an ordinary muggle CD player. They had never seen her before. She mouthed words of songs lazily, not noticing them as they walked in, or if she did, she didn't acknowledge them.

"Er, excuse me, do you mind if we sit here?" said Harry.

She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, not bothering to look at them, continuing to mouth words of songs.

"Who are you?" Harry stared at her.

She took off her headphones and looked at them finally.

"My name's Elisa."

"I've never seen you at Hogwarts." Hermione said cautiously.

"That's because I don't go to Hogwarts."

"Then why are you on this train?" said Ron, voicing what everyone was thinking.

"I'm an exchange student from America." Harry had wondered about her accent.

"I didn't know they had an exchange program. " Hermione said.

"New thing this year." Elisa said, siting up from her position on the seat. "I've introduced myself, and I'd like it if you introduced yourselves to me."

"Sorry, I'm Hermione Granger," Elisa nodded slightly.

"Ron Weasley," said Ron shortly.

"I'm-"

"Harry Potter." Elisa finished, "you've got the scar."

The train started up.

"What's your last name?"

"Calconn."

"I've heard of you! You're a changling!" said Hermione.

"Yup."

"What's a changling?" inquired Ron.

Hermione answered, "she can turn into any animal at will, instead of just one like an animagus. They're really rare."

Elisa smiled. It was frightening. Harry suddenly noticed her eyes. He himself had strange eyes, emerald coloured, but she, she had blood red eyes, cat slits for pupils and a flat, snakelike nose. It reminded Harry of Voldemort.

As if reading his mind, she said,

"Ignore my eyes." she said, staring into his own. He shuddered involuntarily.

She lay back down, and took out a book, and began to read. Harry, Ron and Hermione talked until the witch with the food cart came by. Harry bought some Cauldron cakes and chocolate frogs. Elisa got up and bought some Frogs too.

"What wizarding school do you go to?" asked Hermione in an attempt to strike up conversaion.

"Future Thyme's Academy," she answered.

"Oh, that's supposed to be a good school!" Hermione continued.

"Yup. My foster parents weren't too sure about it-

"Foster parents?"

"My mother was killed and my father kind of disappeared a few months after I turned one. I was put into an orphanage, not having any relatives. These people didn't want to adopt me, but they took me in as a Foster child, and I've been living with them ever since. I even took up their last name. Anyway, they weren't too sure about letting me come, they're muggles you see. I got my powers from my parents, I think it was my mother, because I vaguely remember my father and he was no changling. He left in October if I'm not mistaken."

She continued reading her book, they continued talking and eating. And there was peace, until it was inturrupted by the entry of Draco Malfoy.

Harry and Draco had been enemies since their first year together.

"Well, well, well, we meet again," said Draco, " I heard your father got a raise Weasley, how much of a raise was it? Five knuts?" Crabbe and Goyle sniggered.

"Shut up Malfoy!" said Ron.

"Make me-" he stopped short. Elisa had looked around "Who're you?"

"Elisa."

"I've never seen you before."

"And I don't feel like going through this conversation again so please leave."

"But we don't want to, and a skinny girl like you isn't going to stop us." Malfoy sneered.

Elisa sighed exasperatedly, and got up, putting down her book. "I'm an exchange student from the U.S., now leave!"

"Oh, right, Father said they were doing some program this year."

"Fine, all is well and good, now leave, your presence annoys me," she said, in mock cheerfulness.

"She's a changling Malfoy, you better listen to her." Hermione said quietly.

"Shut up, Mudblood!" SLAP! "Ow!" Elisa had slapped him across the face.

"Idiot! Don't insult someone who's a better person than you."

"You're not a changling, anyway, there's only one right now, Calconn, or something."

"That's me."

"Prove it," Malfoy smirked but stopped almost immediately when he found himself facing an extremely large, vicious tiger with the same red eyes as Elisa. He took one step back, then ran for his life, Crabbe and Goyle following. She changed back. Harry, Ron and Hermione stood behind her and gaped, but Elisa just sat down again, and took up her book. They burst out laughing, ("did you see the look on Malfoy's face?")

The sky darkened, and the train slowed until it stopped altogether.

"We're here."

Elisa put away her things and followed them out the train, looking around. Harry watched her as the four of them piled into a carriage drawn by invisible horses. They climbed up the steps to the Great Hall.

"You'll be Elisa then," said Professor McGonagall, who had appeared behind them in the hall.

"Yes," she responded.

"Come with me," she led Elisa down the hall.

Harry went to sit down at the Gryffindor table, and the sorting began.

("Agnes, Alexia!"

"RAVENCLAW")

Gryffindor and all it's new students were sitting waiting for Dumbledore to make his speech he made every year. He stood up and began.

"Students of Hogwarts, before we start our feast, I have an announcement to make. This year we are participating in the Ministry of Magic Exchange Student Program, and so we will be hosting an American student named Elisa Calconn-" Some hushed whispering went around the Great Hall- "and so the sorting hat will be left out to decide what house Elisa will be staying in. Elisa, if you please..."

Elisa walked out of a side door into the Great Hall. She stared around for a bit, then walked to the stool, sat down, and put on the hat.

A few moments went by, but finally, after what seemed a great while, the hat yelled out "GRYFFINDOR!" A second of silence, and then cheers and applause so loud Harry was deaf for a few seconds after.

Elisa sat down next to Harry, and smiled at him. Harry hadn't thought she'd be capablel of smiling she always looked so indifferent, or forlorn. And with that the feast began.

Rumours went around about Elisa. It turned out that Elisa had been convicted of murder, and stayed in Azkaban for a while. The rumour of that spread like wildfire, and people started skirting her in the corridors. The fact that she, being a music and book fanatic, sang some rather depressing songs to herself, thought some of them were just strange, didn't help. But it didn't bother Elisa that people seemed to shun her like that. On the contrary, actually. She found it great fun to suddenly jump out at people and hiss at them. Fred and George started to follow her around between classes just for the laugh.

Days went by, and so on and so forth, and Elisa became part of the Harry, Ron, Hermione used-to-be triangle. They made good friends, and Malfoy avoided them, he didn't even bother Elisa about being convicted.

A few weeks later, Harry got a note from Sirius. He was still hiding in the cave past the stile in Hogsmeade. He told Harry that he knew that a Hogsmeade visit was coming, "So bring some food and come visit me."

Harry went to check the bulletin board. There was a Hogsmeade weekend coming up. Next Saturday, Halloween.

"We should go visit Snuffles," Harry told Ron and Hermione. "And let's bring Elisa."

Chapter 4 A Friend of Sirius
It was Halloween, and they were setting out for Hogsmeade, Harry with bread and some mincemeat pies in his bag. They went past the style, and up the hill, they were out of breath by the time they got there. Elisa had been told all about their encounter with Sirius Black. About him being Harry's godfather she knew.

"How?" Harry had asked.

"Azkaban."

"Oh,"

"Hello Harry," Sirius said when they entered his cave.

"Lo, Sirius," said Harry "meet Elisa, thought I think you already know her, at least she says she knows you."

"Good to see you again, Elisa," Sirius answered.

He ate his food, they said Hello, and goodbye to Buckbeak, and to Sirius, and left, the time had flown by.

"How did you know him in Azkaban?"

"We had cells next to each other," Elisa answered Harry's question.

"Azkaban?" Ron asked, absentmindedly as he unwrapped a chocolate frog from Honeyduke's.

"I was convicted of murder, and put in there, remember? Horrible place, but I was proven innocent, and I left, but we became friends. I sought him out when I heard of his escape."

"They send children to Azkaban?"

"I can change into strange beasts no one's heard of, so I'm not seen as a child."

"Oh,"

December, Christmas Eve. Snow fell from the sky to the grounds slowly, Hagrid walked across the grounds headed toward his hut from the Forbidden Forest, pondering over something strange. So many snakes, hmmmmmmm...coral snakes, king snakes, big snakes, so many snakes. Why were they here, where were they coming from? Hagrid pondered these questions as he walked across the grounds to his hut. Christmas Eve, December, snow fell to the grounds. So many snakes.

"Merry Christmas Harry!" Hermione said. She handed him a gift, and Harry unwrapped it.

"Thanks for the sherbert ball, Hermione,"

"Here Ron,"

"Gifts were exchanged. Elisa gave Harry, Ron, and Hermione beautiful quilles, golden in colour, and downy soft.

"Made 'em myself,"

"Where'd you get them?" Ron asked.

"They were mine until I gave 'em t'you." "Well I know that, but where'd you buy them?"

"No, I mean they're mine, griffin feathers, pulled 'em out with my beak."

"Oh."

Then Elisa pulled out a gift from her pile, strangely wrapped, just a basket, covered, witha bow on it. There was a card on it. Elisa looked at it, but wouldn't show it to Harry, Ron or Hermione. When they asked her why, she gave them a sideways stare, with he red cat slit that quailed them all.

"It's from a distant friend I met a few years ago."

Chapter five: A Chase Through the Forbiden Forest
It was nearing the end of the year, and everyone was beginning to study for exams, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Elisa made their way to Care of Magical Creatures. They had been studying Ganools, beasts with anteater nose, tiger stripes, birds feet, and arms the same way, and tails in which the Ganools would stick fur and feathers they would find. The lesson went smoothly, and they headed back up to the castle for potions, which, with the exceptiopn of Neville losing ten points for Gryffindor, also went smoothly.

It was Friday, and so they went to visit Hagrid, Elisa having also met him in Diagon Alley. They had tea, and were about to walk back up to the castle, but when Hagrid opened the door they saw a rat sitting in the grass. He was missing a toe. "Pettigrew!" cried Hermione and they rushed after him, but he was small and agile as a rat, and he led them into the forbidden forest, but they took no notice. The only thing that crossed Harry's mind was 'catch him and you can go live with Sirius!' they all wanted Sirius free, and so they kept running. It seemed like they had been running for hours, and Harry didn't notice that Ron, Hermione, and Elisa had all stopped out of exhaustion, Eliza not thinking to change. He followed Pettigrew into a clearing, and found himself face to face, once more, with Lord Voldemort.

It was so sudden that Harry was hardly frightened, and too tired to scream anyway.

"Expelliarmus!" Voldemort said.

Harry's wand flew into the air, and Voldemort caught it deftly. He smiled nefariously. Pettigrew had transformed behind him.

"We meet again Harry Potter." Those cold red eyes stared at him, "but this time, I will kill you." he was still smiling. Harry didn't say anything. There was nothing to say. He took a step backwards.

"Don't try to run away. I'll kill you if you do." The sky was darkening "Wormtail, come here." Wormtail stood up, his head down, his left arm outstretched. Voldemort pressed his hand to the Dark Mark tatooed on it. Wormtail whimpered. Snakes slithered in and out through the trees. Coming in and out of view as they wound their way about the trees and shadows.

Voldemort's supporters began to apparate around them. Harry looked around, at all the masked faces. Voldemort muttered something, and ropes flew from the end of his wand, binding Harry.

"And now, Harry Potter, I shall kill you." He had a grin on his face that could have melted plastic. He raised his wand. "While he's tied up? Not very sporting of you." Elisa was leaning casually against a tree to the left of Harry, "Strange of you to try and kill him here, right under Dumbledore's nose, eh, Voldemort? she smiled at him.

The Dark Lord smiled his nefarious smile back at her "Good to see you Elisa. Long time no see. I hear you've given up your family name. That did irritate me," his eyes narrowed, but he was still smiling.

Harry stood in amazement, looking back and forth from Elisa to Voldemort.

"You threw out yours, so if you want me to take it back up, I'll have to start calling you Tom."

Voldemort sneered at the name.

"What's the matter? Would you rather I go around calling you 'Dad'?" She sneered back.

"I never wanted you."

"Not my fault I ain't a boy," she said this with a strange accent, a street one, "Not my fault I ain't an heir to your name!"

These words sunk in slowly, but Harry understood. Elisa was Voldemort's daughter.

"But I wish you'd take up the family job," he said, with a slight hint of sarcasm.

"I wish I had a father who didn't make a life of killing. But I can't help the fact that I don't like it," she answered. "And I can't help the fact that I love you," he said with a sigh. Harry had never thought Voldemort could ever love anyone. Harry looked around once more. The Death Eateres looked as bewildered as he did. "It gets in the way of my work," he said looking at her with mock sadness.

Elisa murmured under her breath, and she pointed her wand toward Harry behind her back, and the ropes vanished but in the confusion no one noticed. Elisa didn't glance at him to give him away.

"Wish I had a mother too, but you killed her. Wish I didn't love you back. It makes it all the harder for me to fight against you," and at that moment she changed. Suddenly a great bird, giant, grabbed Harry around the shoulders and he was soaring back to the castle.

Someone yelled "Stupefy!" and Elisa fell to the ground with a thud, but she ws close to the castle, and no one was following. Harry had landed on the ground next to her, her having let go. She changed back.

Dumbledore and the rest of the teachers were running onto the grounds, Hermione and Ron close behind. They breathed a sigh of relief as Harry sat up, unharmed.

Dumbledore saw Elisa lying on the ground, checked her pulse, and quietly said "Ennervate," Elisa stared up, then looked to her left and saw Harry sitting on the ground next to her, looked at him in horror, changed into a cat and promptly ran up into the castle.

It was a few days since Harry had seen Voldemort for the sixth time, and it was a few days till Harry saw Elisa again. She seemed to avoid him, dreading the time til she would have to explain to him. But Harry cornered her.

"He's your dad?"

"Yup."

"Who was he married to?"

"He never married but she had me-"

"Who?"

"Don't really know, but I think her name was Elisabeth, so I'm named after her."

"Elisabeth?"

"Elisa for short."

"Mmmm."

The Hogwarts Express left the station, and they wished that the ride could never end. The year before had been great, but security was strengthened around Harry, and Elisa. When Harry asked why, she responded nonchalontly, "Oh, he's been after me for a while, trying to get me to help him out, but I'm too close to Dumbledore. He's looked out for me since Voldemort left, I met him when I was six, and I think I amused him, after I told him that I kept the fact that I'm a Changling for five years."

"Bet you weren't the same when you were six." Ron said.

"How much. I was, 'cept I didn't know much magic then." she was getting out her CD player again.

The Hogwarts Express had left the station, in fact it was nearing Platform nine and three quarters. They did magic while they still could, joked and played exploding snap. But like all things, except perhaps time, the ride ended, like all good things must end, and they got off the train, said their good-byes, and left in their own directions.

"Good bye," Harry said as Elisa went to get a taxi for the airport.

"Who's that?" Uncle Vernon asked unpleastantly.

"The daughter of someone who's killed thousands," Harry said staring after her. She smiled out the window of the taxi at him, her eyes shining, red like blood. She waved her left arm, and Harry noticed something he hadn't before. Half the Dark Mark was scarred on her upper part of her lower left arm. She was still waving, but she glanced at it, as her taxi rounded a corner, and was lost from sight.

Elisa
owl Elisa at [email protected] she'll be writing a sequel (hopefully soon) ;)

The Shrieking Shack // Snape's Dungeon // The Gallery // The Library
The Library Annex // The Theatre // What's New
The Floo // The Kitchen // The Marauder's Map