The Blind Basilisk
There was to be a special guest in Care of Magical Creatures that day, everyone about the school was talking about it, a special guest from Romania, everyone had said. Ron was certain it was his brother Charlie for, at least, two hours before they reached class.
It was not, to Ron's dismay, Charlie, but a pale, impish-looking young man with smooth black hair, partially tied back in a small tuft at the back of his head and gentle honey-colored eyes. Several Slytherins seemed to think he looked an awful lot like a fifth year from their house, Malfoy included. Perched on his shoulders, resting its chin in the man's hand was a long, slender black snake with little spines on the back of its head and pitch black holes where its eyes should be.
Hagrid introduced him as Basil Tepes, and informed everyone that he handled a number of dangerous magical creatures for a living. Hagrid informed the class that he'd asked one of Basil's cousins, a fifth year at the school, to invite Basil to talk about a particular creature he happened to keep as a pet.
"So a fair warning to all of you," he said after Hagrid had introduced him, speaking in a soft accent, "I was told you had an incident with one of these last year; I guarantee that this young lady won't be even close to as much trouble as that one," he waited for the roar of muttering to die down before continuing, "allow me to introduce you to Delphi," he held up the black snake so her scales glistened in the sun, "she's a juvenile basilisk."
The class went into a minor panic, all but the Slytherins backing away from Delphi and avoiding her line of sight. Malfoy himself seemed perplexed by the creature, as if confused as to how something like her could have nearly killed four people and a cat. Basil's face broke out into a wild grin as if he found everyone's fear immensely entertaining.
"Not to worry," he spoke over the crowd. The students paused and Basil used his free hand to gesture to Delphi's black eyes. Harry just barely recalled that the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets had big, bulging yellow eyes, and he'd never seen a snake with black eyes before.
"Delphi is completely blind," Basil clarified, "her gaze is incapable of killing. Isn't that right sweetie?" Delphi pulled herself back from Basil's hand and reared up, as if trying to bask in the warm sun a little better.
"Basilisks are immensely intelligent creatures," Basil explained, "their sense of smell is acute, and as a note for anyone interested, when they speak Parseltongue they not only speak in full sentences, but they will intentionally speak with anyone in the vicinity who can also speak the language. Well, if they want to, Delphi's not an especially talkative young lady, and she's a bit young to be able to tell a Parselmouth from a regular person. Also, I think she's enjoying the sun a bit more than she's enjoying her audience; oh do I envy that preference." Basil gave a small whistle and a hiss of "Come" to Delphi and she lowered herself back into his hand and let him bring his hand around to lower her head even further.
"Delphi is a tame basilisk, there are so few," Basil chuckled slightly at his little joke, "and yes, for those of you listening, I am a Parselmouth. You can close your mouths now."
Ron, who hadn't realized he was gaping, shut his mouth quickly as Basil approached him and Harry. Delphi immediately brushed her head against Ron and made a soft purring sound.
"Smells like Charlie," a soft voice hissed.
"Pray tell," Basil smiled after hearing the hiss, "are you a Weasley? Delphi loves your brother Charlie to death." Ron gave a feeble nod and continued to stare at Delphi as the snake nipped playfully at the ends of his robes, being careful not to touch his skin with her needle-like teeth. Basil laughed at Delphi's playful antics and carefully lifted Delphi to Ron's shoulder.
"She doesn't bite," he assured the horrified Weasley as Delphi slithered onto her shoulder, "she knows better than to do that. She might nip at your clothes and hair a bit, but she's just playing."
As Basil carefully pulled away, Delphi rested her head atop Ron's mop of flaming red hair and coiled her long tail around his arm. Even if Delphi did bite, she clearly wasn't about to bite Ron, who was still frozen with fear. Everyone around him looked a mix between jealous and ecstatic, whilst Basil was trying his hardest not to laugh at the look on Ron's face.
The entire class period went by with people getting to hold, or else pet, Delphi. Hermione, never one to back away from a learning experience, was asking Basil all sorts of questions about keeping basilisks as pets, all of which Basil happily answered, and even gave some insight of how to breed blind ones, explaining that certain breeds of hen mixed with certain species of toad would result in a blind basilisk, and such a process also determined the color of basilisk's scales. He didn't reveal which breeds or species to use and admitted that breeding basilisks, like many of the animals he kept, required a license and had several full-sized basilisks in Romania that would've been a lot less mild-mannered.
"Delphi is a big sweetheart," Basil took Delphi from the last student, "but I picked her because she's young. Even my most mild-mannered full-grown may bite if he gets startled, and Delphi will too, but Delphi's fangs aren't quite venomous enough to kill yet. A juvenile basilisk's venom is kind of like a mild spider-bite, you'll be numb where you were bitten, and you might get a few flu-like symptoms, but eventually your body will filter it out and you'll be fine. Also, Caesar is too big for me to fly all the way here, and he's downright horrified of Floo."
"She's beautiful," Hagrid complimented as Basil stood, Delphi coiling herself around his shoulders, "would've loved ter see yer older snakes."
"I'm sure you would've," Basil smiled, "and I'm sure the class would've had a lot more to talk about, but Infern is on his last legs and Regina is far too mean to use as a healer in this situation. I shudder to think of trying to Apparate with even Caesar. I was bedridden for a week last time I tried to do so with Delphi; she almost took a chunk out of my arm in the midst of panicking."
"Don't you think that's a bit dangerous?" Hermione asked.
"For a normal wizard I'm sure it would be," Basil agreed, "Delphi's venom does a number on me, Caesar's would be even worse, but I should think I'd be fine after conquering my fear of sunlight."
"Why would you be afraid of sunlight?" Malfoy asked. Hermione's eyes seemed to widen as she and a few Ravenclaws realized his words and were seconds away from panicking before Basil shot them a wild grin and Hagrid informed them that it was time to move to their next class.
"What was he talking about?" Ron asked as they headed back up to the castle.
"Basil Tepes! How could I not have figured it out?" Hermione had a broad smile on her face, "Tepes is Romanian for "the impaler;" it was a nickname given to the Prince of Wallachia in Romania, the vampire Vlad Tepes, or Vlad III. Tepes ended up being the name of the family that's descended from him." There was a pause of confusion as Ron and Harry stared at Hermione in confusion. "We just met a vampire," she clarified.
"How was he out in the sun then?" Ron asked, "Vampires wither in the sun."
"Vampires who excel at potion making can make a potion that lasts for 24 hours," Hermione replied, "it makes them immune to any and all sunlight, even magically induced."
"He was pretty friendly for a vampire," Harry remarked.
"He put that basilisk right on top of me!" Ron almost yelled.
"Well she did seem to like you," Harry smiled. Hermione laughed.
Throughout the day it spread that there was a Romanian wizard with a basilisk at Hogwarts, and the entire class was in a tizzy until the day had ended.
Few students, if any, referred to the young wizard as a vampire.
This drabble is a little preview of an upcoming work I'm doing that features a few students in the same year as Fred and George, but looking at it from the point of view of a student in the Slytherin house as opposed to Gryffindor. Basil does not feature very prominently in the first part, but he does show up later. I literally chose the names based on ideas. Caesar and Delphi, like all of Basil's basilisks, bear names taken from Greek mythology, and yes they are all blind, Caesar also happens to be a beautiful white color and in addition to being blind is also albino, I thought I'd inform you. Infern and Regina are both phoenixes, and their names are just Romanian words. Infern means "Inferno" and Regina, obviously, means "Queen."
I enjoyed writing this, and for those of you who just caught me name-drop the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula, I salute you (yes, I did make Basil a descendant of Dracula, judge me.)
Until next time,
-The Jashinist