Tiny Twist
One-Shot
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.
This will NOT be exact and the Latin will, most likely, be horribly misspelled. So, if anyone cares to correct me, feel free to. I won't bite.
(--)
"Expelliarmus!" Professor Snape shouted, sending the beam of red light streaking at the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lockhart. Aforementioned teacher was sent sailing through the air, his wand falling from his hand, before he landed with a thump on the dueling platform.
"A good idea, Professor Snape," the cheesy-sounding man stated as he stood, collecting his wand at the same time, "To show them that one." He stepped back down the table with the phases of the moon displayed upon it. "Though it was pretty obvious what you were going to do and I could have easily blocked if-"
"Perhaps it would be a better idea to teach the students how to block unfriendly spells," Snape sneered at the man with a shrug while fingering his wand with gentle touches.
"Brilliant idea!" the Defense Professor called as he turned around. "How about…two volunteers? …Ah! Potter! Weasley! How about you?"
Harry nodded after looking at the man, shifting his way through the students to the other end of the table to ascend the stairs. "Weasley's wand is a hazard with even the simplest spells… We'll be sending Mr. Potter to the Hospital Wing in a matchbox," Snape drawled, getting a glare from the redheaded boy. "May I suggest…Malfoy? From my own house?" he added in sarcastic inquiry before turning to the blonde and motioning him onto the platform as he walked to the end behind him.
Lockhart merely turned away, toward where Harry was walking down the table. "Good luck, Potter," he offered quietly.
Harry quickly replied, "Thank you, sir," then continued to where he met Malfoy in the middle.
"Scared, Potter?" the Slytherin asked as they faced each other, wands up.
"You wish," the Gryffindor replied, missing the very small smile on his friends' faces as they walked to opposite ends.
"At the count of three, you will cast charms to disarm only. There will be no accidents here," Professor Lockhart said as they stood in position, Malfoy's wand over his head while Harry had his in front of him. "One. Two-"
"Iverte Statium!" Malfoy cast, interrupting the countdown and bringing his hind foot forward as he pointed his wand at his opponent.
The spell struck Harry, sending him back-flipping through the air to land at Lockhart with a thud. Malfoy stood straight, smirking lightly as his housemates laughed at the Gryffindor's misfortune. Harry pushed himself up, glaring heatedly at the blonde and causing him to lose the smirk on his pale face.
Pushing himself off the ground, Harry pointed his wand at the Slytherin and stated clearly, "Rictersempra!"
The jets of softly-colored light sped at the raven-haired boy's adversary, sending the other spinning to hit the platform at Snape's feet, slamming onto his bum with enough force to bounce slightly and throw his hair out of place. Malfoy looked up at his Head of House with a slight grimace before Snape pulled him up and pushed him back out to the dueling field.
"I said disarm only!" Lockhart called as the Slytherin got back into his stance, his wand above his head as he placed his other hand, flat, in front him.
Scowling, Malfoy whipped his wand around, casting, "Serpensortia!" A snake flew out of the end of his wand, hissing what sounded like remarks of disgruntlement to anyone caring to decipher them. It lifted its head, looking around the room after it landed with a light thump.
Harry stared curiously at it as he stood from his stance before Snape cut into his thoughts, saying, "Don't worry, Potter. I'll get rid of it for you," with his usual drawling sneer.
"Allow me, Professor Snape!" the Defense teacher replied, stepping a little in front of Harry. He pointed his wand at the brown-scaled serpent and stated, "Volate Ascendile!" before flinging his wand upwards, casting the snake into the air, it hissing what could possibly be very colorful words at its second flying lesson.
It landed again, with another, less graceful, thump, before standing and hissing at anyone close to it. Staring at it, Harry could've sworn he heard it speaking English instead of hissing. "Stupid people, throwing me into the air! What do I look like?! A flying squirrel?!" it hissed viciously, getting a mental laugh from Harry as he stepped closer to it. It turned its head toward the students to its right. "Don't you dare come near me, you biped nitwits! I'll bite your freaking heads off!"
Not really knowing what he was doing at the time, Harry softly spoke to it, "Don't attack anyone."
"A Speaker!" The snake cast its gaze to him. "You're a biped, too?!" It turned its head back to the students, giving a warning hiss. "Don't come near me, freaking wierdos!"
"Don't hurt anyone," Harry continued, not paying attention to everyone staring at him fearfully. The snake turned toward the boy who had spoken to him earlier, a Hufflepuff, Justin, if Harry recalled correctly. "Don't hurt Justin!"
"I'm not going to hurt him…much! Tell them to stop staring at me!" the snake hissed in reply, causing Harry to smile slightly.
"They stare because they fear you," Harry replied. "Calm down…come towards me." The serpent looked curiously at him as he kneeled down before it and lay his hand against the table. "Please…I won't harm you…I swear." Harry wasn't sure how he could be so calm, but he supposed it was because he remembered sending a python after Dudley and the little garden snake he had befriended when he was very small.
"Do you have something I could eat while you're at it?" The snake slowly came closer to him, wary of anything Harry might do. "You aren't going to send me sailing through the air like those other two bumbling buffoons, are you?"
"No. I don't want to hurt you, have you get hurt, or have you hurt anyone… If you must bite someone, bite me," Harry replied, holding his hand out to the serpent's tongue, letting it taste him on the air.
"I still want to bite the fool that sent me forty feel into the air!" the serpent hissed angrily as it easily slid into Harry's too-big robes and up his arm, its head poking out of the collar.
"No. You can't bite the Professor. They'll kill you if you do, and I don't want you hurt," Harry admonished, waggling his finger, like Hermione had done to Ron and himself numerous times, at the snake. "Like I said, if you must, bite me."
"It would make me feel better to sink my fangs into soft flesh…" The snake flicked its tongue out, tasting Harry's amusement and consent on the air. "If. You. Insist!"
Harry bit his lip as the serpent's teeth pierced his skin, his left arm falling limp. Damn… It's poisonous… he grumbled to himself as his entire left side followed his arm, giving out and dropping him to the floor. He used his right side to support himself before his other leg gave way. "Dammit…" he cursed softly as he fell onto his right side, careful to keep the snake from being crushed under him. "Vindictive little serpent…" he whispered softly, feeling the scaly creature slither over him to wrap around his abdomen, able to do so, easily, four times.
"Do you know what food actually is?!" the snake hissed at him in slight worry at how thin he was before Harry lost all grip on consciousness.
--
When Professors Snape and Lockhart reached Madame Pomfrey's domain of the Hospital Wing, she knew it was something bad to warrant them both coming with a student. The fact that it was Harry Potter with them alerted her all the more. "What's happened to him this time?" she asked as she pointed to the bed he'd used most of the previous year.
"A…a snake… Poppy, he was talking to it!" Lockhart nearly screeched to her, freaked out beyond wit's end.
"Quiet, you feminine creation of the male gender!" Snape snapped at him, leaning over to spell away the boy's robe, jumper, tie, and shirt. The fact that the man screamed in a feminine fashion at seeing the snake coiled around the boy only cemented the Potions Master's belief that Lockhart either had a sex change or had been a female in a past life. Ignoring the man, Snape paid attention to the fact that, as soon as Harry's clothing was gone, his arms moved to keep the snake covered. "He is protecting the serpent, Poppy. We couldn't remove it without hurting the boy in the first place."
"Do you have any idea what this male bimbo is blathering on about?" the Healer asked him, pointing at the nearly hyperventilating Defense teacher.
"Potter is a Parselmouth, Poppy. It doesn't change anything other than the fact that the students will scorn him for being Slytherin's Heir or whatever nonsense they're spouting right now," Snape answered as he cast a relaxing charm on Harry to try, and fail, to move the boy's arms.
"Well, at least I can heal that bite on his shoulder," Poppy grumbled slightly, getting a headache from Professor Lockhart's screeching. "SHUT UP OR GET OUT OF HERE!" she shouted at the man, her wrath instantly silencing him.
"My, my, Poppy… It's no wonder the students listen to you without much fuss." Snape smirked at her before something registered. "Wait, don't heal that just yet. Let me get a sample of the boy's blood mixed with the poison." Taking out a vial, he collected a few drops into it before corking it and putting it in his pocket. As Poppy cast a stasis charm on the boy, he noticed how, even still, the boy's body shivered, trying to warm up what little was there. I knew he was being abused, Snape growled in his thoughts as his eyes softened the barest bit, unnoticeable to even Dumbledore.
"Keep an eye on him for a moment, will you, Severus?" Madame Pomfrey asked as she ushered Lockhart out of the wing. "Take care of your other students, you dunderhead!" she exclaimed at him before sending him down the hall with stinging hexes.
"I'm sorry that I have to treat you so horribly, Harry," Snape whispered after the woman was out of earshot. "If not for the Dark Lord, the Death Eaters, and Dumbledore…I would have taken you out of that horrid Muggle domicile years ago… Lily would've wanted me to keep watch over you…" He watched as the boy stirred slightly, the stasis charm not even working. "Whatever has happened to you, Harry, I'll figure it out and I'll help you."
A soft hissing came from under the child's arms. "Don' worry, P'fessor… Axel says I'll be better than fine… Thank you…so much…for caring…" Harry whispered softly, half unaware of what he was saying, though the gentleness in his barely opened eyes told Snape of his truthfulness.
"Get well soon, Bolt," Snape replied with a very small smile, remembering his affectionate name for when he would go to see the child when he was very small (smaller than he should have been even at that young an age) and under the…watchful eyes of the Muggles.
"I'll try…Knight…" were Harry's last words before he drifted into sleep.
Snape was in a cheerful – well, not-as-scornful mood for the rest of the day from the boy remembering the first thing he'd been called. The Potions Master remembered the child calling him the Dark Knight, yet shortened it to only Knight. At the end of classes, the normally angry man had a slight smile as he prepared to analyze what the serpent, Axel, had done to his little Bolt.
--End One--