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"speech"

'thoughts'

"parseltongue"

Prologue

Salriss lay stretched out on a large rock outcropping in a meadow, soaking up the sun on a pleasant summer morning. His mind drifted, thinking of nothing in particular, when a disturbance caught his attention. A small garter snake came rushing into the clearing, heading directly for Salriss.

"What is it," Salriss asked grumpily. He hated having his lazing time disturbed.

"My Lord," the smaller snake started nervously, there is a human approaching the borders of your section of the forest. He brings a youngling with him."

Salriss' bad mood vanished at those words. It was not often that a human would approach the inner section of the forest as they had a tendency to become his meals. Humans had learned to avoid the area after so many had disappeared around there. "Show me," he demanded of the other snake. It bowed its head and turned in the direction that the humans were in.

The two snakes quickly made their way over to the border. If there had been anyone watching them, they would have seen what looked to be a young garter snake seemingly being chased away by a 30 foot basilisk. The basilisk, Salriss, was approaching his fifth century of life and had been living in this particular forest since he ha left his mother's side four centuries ago.

As they approached the border of Salriss' territory, the two snakes slowed down and Salriss dismissed the smaller with a nod of his head. The human's voice was now audible to him as he slowly crept up on its location. Over the centuries Salriss had learned how to understand the human language that was spoken by those around the forest. That knowledge allowed him to understand what the human was screaming at the youngling. It was enough that if he had not already been planning on eating the human, he would have killed him just for the pleasure of it

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Harry lay on the ground where Uncle Vernon had thrown him after dragging him through the forest. His entire body ached from the beating he had received before they had come here for talking with that nice snake in the garden. Aunt Petunia had made him weed the garden that day, and when he had come across the snake it had been muttering about the evils of lawnmowers. He had started up a conversation with it when Uncle Vernon had come outside to tell him to hurry so he could come in and make them some dinner. He had heard the strange hissing noises coming out of his nephew's mouth and lost his temper. Harry did not remember much after that first hit on the back of his head until he had come around in the car. Uncle Vernon's face had still been a deep purple, so Harry had not dared to ask where they were going.

After another two hours driving, Uncle Vernon had finally stopped the car near the edge of a forest. Grabbing onto Harry's arm, he had then dragged him for what Harry swore was forever until he had been thrown to the ground in his current position. That was when Uncle Vernon had started his rant.

"I knew you were a freak when we found you on our doorstep, but Petunia convince me to let you stay. We've put up with your unnaturalness for the last three years, but no more! I won't have that freakishness in my house again! You are going to stay here and do what you should have done with your freakish parents and die! I hope that you starve to death so it's nice and slow, freak!"

While Vernon had been in the middle of his rant, Harry had noticed what appeared to be an extremely large snake coming up behind him. While he had thought about warning his uncle, it had not taken him long to decide not to. Harry knew what would most likely happen, having seen other snakes eat their prey, but he had a hard time caring if his uncle died, in fact he rather hoped Vernon would be swallowed alive. Let HIM die in a slow painful manner…

Vernon, having gotten his say in, spun around to stomp back to the car, only to come face to nose with the largest snake he had ever seen. Before he could do more than open his mouth to scream, the snake lunged forward, biting the fat human. Harry observed all of this dispassionately from the ground as the snake unhinged its jaw and started the long process of swallowing his uncle. When it was done, it turned its attention to him. Harry figured he would be next, so if he was going to die, he would at least show his appreciation to the snake.

"Thanks."

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After making a rather satisfying meal of the fat human, Salriss turned his attention to the youngling that the fat one had been ranting at. The youngling had not moved in the least since it had spotted him while the fat one had been yelling. It did not smell of fear, as he would have expected, merely resignation. While he was trying to figure out what to do with the youngling, he observed it. It had black fur, 'hair,' he reminded himself, 'humans call it hair,' on the top of its head. There were bruises all over its visible body parts, and Salriss was willing to bet that there were many more hidden beneath its clothing. The youngling opened its mouth.

"Thanks."

Salriss blinked. 'Well, this is an unexpected development.' The voice sound of the voice had been that of a male. His mother had told him stories when he was young of a human magic user who had been able to speak the serpent tongue. At the time, he had thought them to be mere fantasy, but it appeared that such a thing was indeed possible.

"Your welcome," he replied to the youngling. Coming to a quick decision, Salriss spoke once again to the youngling, "Would you like to come live with me youngling?"

The boy gaped in shock for a few moments before a smile spread across his face. "I would love to! My name is Harry, what's yours?"

"Hairy? What kind of a name is that? I shall call you Seth, and my name is Salriss."

With that, Salriss turned back toward his den, with the boy following close behind him.