A/N: Instead of putting my A/N in the bottom, I'm putting it at the top instead. I finally got this story out! I'm so glad! I know that some of you have been waiting patiently for this. I'm very thankful that you didn't push me too hard to get it out, or complain. Also, for people who haven't read my fanfiction story Return of the Parents then you won't understand a thing that's happening in here. Or what the story is about. So read that first. Also, the last part of this story is very similar to chapter five of Return of the Parents. I know. I made it that way on purpose. So don't get confused or angry. And I would most definitely appreciate it if you would review to this story!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I do own, however, any original characters in here (which includes Ice and basically everyone else until Harry comes in)
An Icy Capture
A side story to Return of the Parents
By: AutumnBreeze12
Ice slithered through the snow, his scales blending in perfectly with the whiteness of it. It was currently winter, and he was enjoying himself. He had always loved winter over all the other seasons, if only because he could capture food easier.
Ice slithered out onto some ice on a lake. He kept on slithering, wanting to find a nice place to curl up for the night. Darkness was coming on fast; he needed to find someplace warm to stay in.
He found a nice little place underneath some sort of car. The car looked abandoned, but a quick scan over it showed two wizards in it. Ice brushed it off, contenting himself with the knowledge that at this time of night the wizards would be asleep. He did wonder, for a few seconds, why the car was out on the lake. He brushed that off too.
Ice curled up underneath the car. His eyes slowly shut… then snapped back open as he sensed the wizards moving above him. He lay perfectly still, using his camouflage to his advantage as the men stepped out of the vehicle.
"What was that?" muttered one man.
"The scanner never lies, there was some sort of animal coming near…"
Ice felt like hissing in annoyance. He was a snake, not some simple-minded fur-brain!
"Well, we came out here to get some pets for the shop, didn't we? So we should just take a small look around, and then go back…" said the first man. Ice quickly shut his eyes tightly, in order to hide the blue of them from the men in case they looked under the car. Ice listened as they scuttled around for a little while, before they got back into their car.
So, they were looking for animals to sell, were they? Well, they wouldn't find any on a lake. So why were they on this lake? Ice had heard rumors that there was some sort of magical fish in this lake that were highly prized as pets for small children, but if that were the case then wouldn't they be trying to get to the fish and not be looking for animals? There was more to this than what meets the eye, Ice decided.
Ice deemed this place to dangerous to stay. He moved ever so slightly… and the men got out of the car again. Ice froze.
"Under the car? How can that be possible?" murmured the second man. Ice noted that one of the men had black boots, while the first one had brown ones on. Ice decided it would be easier just to call them Brown Boots and Black Boots. Brown boots answered Black Boot's question.
"It could be a small creature… shall we take a look?" Ice shut his eyes again. He did his best to blend in with the snow, and since it was becoming dark the men shouldn't notice him. But then, Black Boots said an incantation and light lit up the underside of the car. Ice sensed them sticking their heads by him and glancing around.
"That's weird, there isn't anything here," muttered Black Boots. Brown Boots seemed to be thinking.
"Yeah, but what about the scanner… hey, does that patch of snow look a bit lighter then the rest?"
Ice swore mentally. They had found him. He cursed his scales for being whiter than the surrounding snow. He kept his eyes closed still. One man poked him.
"Hey, yeah! That wasn't snow! There's something there!" said Black Boots said. His hand shot out to grab Ice, but Ice dodged it and opened his eyes. He lunged forward, and bite the man on the hand. He injected his poison into him. A little, enough for a couple hours of pain, but not enough for any real harm.
The man howled and staggered back, clutching the injured hand to his body. Brown Boots seemed to be panicking.
"Are you okay? What happened?" The man seemed to be unable to answer as he sank to the ice and began to curl up in a fetal position. Ice gave a snort (as much as he was able to as a snake) and began to slither rapidly away.
He hoped he didn't have to deal with those men again.
He began to seek out shelter again for the night. It was already dark out, and Ice swore mentally when he realized that he might not find a suitable place to stay.
Ice searched for a suitable place to sleep for the night, but to no success. He had to, unfortunately, settle for sleeping out in the open. It was one of the stupidest things he had ever done. He should have kept going on, but instead let his sleepiness take him.
He slept through most of the night. As the hours slowly ticked away, two men approached him. One was holding a net that would contain many dangerous creatures, small or large. Ice was given no warning as the man grabbed him, using the net to their advantage.
Ice hissed in annoyance and began to twist to get out. It didn't work. The only thing that happened was that the man held him tighter. Ice was soon left gasping for breath and glaring at the men. They were ignoring him in favor of chattering on about their good fortune.
Ice spluttered when the tried to force some kind of potion in his mouth. He refused to open up, and when they finally forced his mouth open and stuffed the foul tasting liquid into his mouth he refused to swallow. Instead, he stubbornly kept the disgusting potion in his mouth.
The men, however seemed satisfied. They seemed to think that he had swallowed the stuff. It was all he could do not to spit it out, but he knew that he had to get the timing right. He gathered that the potion should knock him out, so he pretended to be unconscious.
The men, not caring for his comfort at all, slung the net carrying him over their shoulders and walked back to their car. Along the way, Ice found the perfect moment to spit out the potion and did so quickly. The men didn't notice.
When they finally got back to the vehicle, the men threw him into the back and left him there. He could hear them talk about how he was going to a pet store, and how he would fetch a pretty good price.
Ice scoffed at their idiocy. He would never sell in a shop! He refused! He decided to bide his time for the perfect moment to escape.
When he finally sensed when they were asleep, he slowly began to bite at the net to see how it would hold. He found that it didn't melt when he applied his poison. He concentrated hard, and then with a small blast of his power ripped through the net. He slithered from the remains and tried to decide how he would get through the metal blocking his exit.
This, he decided, would most likely melt with his poison. He opened his mouth and bit down a little on the thing. He put some poison into the bite, and he could hear the sizzling of burning metal.
He waited until he had a decent sized hole in it before sliding out, glad that he was immune to his own poison or else he would have burnt himself badly. As it was, it made an uncomfortable sensation when he slid over it.
Ice dropped gently to the ice and began to slither away from the car. It was then that he heard the shouts of the men. Apparently, they were awake and they knew he was gone. Ice went faster.
When he was a good distance away from the car he allowed himself to slow down his rapid pace. He breathed in a deep breath and felt glad that he was free from the men's clutches.
Ice was still tired, however. So he decided that even though the gray of dawn was stretching its long fingers over the horizon, he would find a safe place to stay and sleep. Before long, he found a nice little pile of snow on the ice and slid into it comfortably, ignoring the cold biting at his scales.
Ice soon fell into a deep sleep, not knowing that there were two men that were now determined to find him and recapture him.
It was around noon when Ice finally woke from his slumber. Ice stretched out his body and began to slither out from the snow. He decided that he would find something nice to eat today, as a reward for escaping the humans.
He found the perfect fat little mouse and chomped on it greedily. When he was done with it, he began to leave the spot, ignoring the slight bit of blood around it from the mouse.
He had something he wanted to do today. He had always wanted to see what it was like underwater. He had been practicing for sometime a trick he had seen wizards do once. It was a bubble head charm, or at least that's what they called it. He knew that with his amount of magic he should easily be able to do it. So, after numerous tries and many failures, he finally had a bubble around his head.
He found an opening in the ice and slowly slid into it.
At once, he found out that water in winter was very, very cold. Very cold. Thankfully, being the breed of snake he was, he could withstand the cold. So he slowly went deeper into the water.
It would have looked weird to anyone who had seen it, not that anyone did. A snake, slowly sinking to the bottom of a lake. The said snake was wiggling its body in an attempt to control where it went. It was actually doing a very good job.
Ice was glad of the air bubble around him. He was seeing things that he had never really seen before. Well, he had seen them, but not this close in the wild. It was nice to find fish hovering a few inches from his face. He took delight in snapping at them and making them scatter in fear.
As he was floating around, he came across a turtle. They stared at each other for a little while, before Ice shot at it and snapped his jaws. The turtle gave a huge start and swam away rapidly. Ice smiled to himself.
/This has to be one of the most fun things I have ever done/ hissed Ice to himself. It was weird, to be this at peace, because he was usually as sarcastic as he could be. But for some reason he surrendered to the tranquility in the water.
It was another stupid thing for him to do.
He should have remembered that there were humans out here. He should have remembered that the hole that he had gone through was man-made, and most likely had a reason for being there.
But Ice allowed himself a break, and would later both curse himself for it and be glad for it.
A net swooped down around Ice, capturing him again. Ice gave a hiss of protest as he was unceremoniously hauled out of the water. He wondered how they were so deep in the water, and how they were able to survive the cold.
He found them with bubblehead charms around them, and other magic that he identified as a warming charm around them.
Ice cursed his bad luck as they cheered and carried him away from the hole that they had made. Ice wiggled in the net, trying to get out of its confines again.
"Oh not you don't! We put every charm imaginable on this, so you won't get out," said Brown Boots triumphantly. Ice hissed.
/How dare you, you impudent humans! I swear, I will make you pay for this!/ he hissed. The men continued laughing, and Ice scoffed at them for not even paying attention to him. They would definitely pay for this. Ice would make sure they did.
They carried him back to their car, still in their net. Ice was very annoyed, because the net swayed a lot and jerked him around. Ice breathed a small breath of relief as he was put down in the car. He took a good look around at his surroundings.
He had been put inside the car with the men. The entire thing had been expanded so that it resembled a small room, enough to walk around in and maybe even pace around. It was done a white color. Ice found this amazing. It was the exact same color as his scales.
He was suddenly aware of Black Boots writing a quick message and throwing the owl out of the window. Ice hissed in anger as Brown Boots approached him. He bared his fangs at him.
"Well, his fangs are certainly long and deadly," said Brown Boots. Black Boots glared at him.
"At least you haven't gotten his poison in you," he snapped irritably. "Now can we please check him over?"
"Why are we checking him over again? Can't we just have the storekeeper do it?"
"Because, it would look better if we did it. Besides, if we do this right then maybe we can get some of that poison. I bet that his scales has some pretty strong properties too,"
While they squabbled, Ice made himself invisible and made sure he was pressed flat against the net. He knew that it made it look like he was gone, and sure enough, the men started shouting.
"HEY! Where did he go?!"
"He was just in the net!"
"He couldn't have gotten out!"
"But he obviously did! What do we do?"
"Find him, you idiot!"
The two men scrambled away, searching frantically for him. Ice simply sighed at their stupidity and began to try and break out of the net. The men were gone now, trying to "find" him, so Ice was reduced to trying to get out of the net on his own. He had thought that the men would open the net trying to look for him, but it was obvious that they wouldn't.
Ice knew he had to get out soon. Finally, finally, he was able to make a decent sized hole in the net. His poison, combined with some magic, really took a toll on the net.
Ice slithered out of the remains of the net and began to slither towards the door of the car. He was surprised to find it open. He slowly slid out of the car… and right into another net.
"HA! Told you he was still in there!" crowed Black Boots. Brown Boots scowled at the same time Ice began to hiss loudly. Ice began to snap at them, hoping to catch one of them and inject them with his poison. He didn't get the chance, for the men held him out away from them.
"Come on, snake, let's get you checked over," muttered brown boots. Ice gave another harsh snap and began to try to hiss louder.
"Maybe we shouldn't mess with this snake. After all, he looks really violent, and the storekeeper might not take him…"
"Nonsense! Not with such a rare looking breed!"
"How do you know it's rare?"
They were off again, arguing. Ice found himself bored. He couldn't go invisible again, for they would still feel the weight of the net. Instead, he fell limp and waited for them to put him down.
"Will you shut up? Let's do our job!" snapped Black Boots, finally tiring of the argument.
"No! You use that excuse every time to get out of fights that you know you'll lose!"
"Excuse me? Well, you aren't—,"
Ice yawned and rolled a little in the net. He found the entire situation useless. He began to chew at the ropes, and delighted to find that they had used regular rope instead of the other stuff that could stand a chance at keeping him in. He began to chew it. Unfortunately, Brown Boots noticed what he was doing.
"Hey!" he shouted, alerting the other man to what was happening. Black Boots grabbed Ice before he could land successfully on the ground. Not a smart thing to do with completely bare hands with a very, very poison and mad snake. Especially one like Ice.
Ice took the chance and bit Black Boot's hand hard. At once, the poison flowed into Black Boot's hand. Black Boots dropped on the ground. He was dead.
Brown Boots gave a scream that sounded very girlish. Ice slithered up to him menacingly. Ice shot forward, ready to kill Brown Boots too, but he wasn't ready for the ice to give way.
Ice, thankfully, was able to keep himself warm in such temperatures. When he began to do his best to get back to the surface, he discovered something that he hadn't thought of previously when he was swimming: he didn't know how to resurface. His body just kept sinking, and this time he didn't have the bubblehead charm, and he doubted that the man would try to capture him again.
Ice looked up and saw the hole that he had come through. It looked very small, and Ice realized that he was the only thing that fell in…
And then Ice remembered that during the argument, Brown Boots had taken out his wand, just in case.
He had blasted the ice out from underneath him.
Ice was no water snake. He knew that there was no chance that he would be able to get back up to the surface safely without help, unless he thought of something quick. And an idea formed in his head. It was risky, it would take most of his venom, but it might work.
Ice opened his mouth, and shot out a very fast and steady stream of his venom. It worked. It propelled him up and he traveled through the inky blackness. The only problem was that Ice couldn't see the hole in the ice. He must have gone in the wrong direction.
Ice was beginning to run out of air. He needed oxygen and fast. He bumped against something, and to his delight found the ice. It was unbroken, and as Ice tried to bump against it he found it wouldn't brake.
He was nearly out of venom. Though he had a lot of poison and venom, it does run out sometime, especially when you're shooting out as much as he was.
Ice aimed the venom at the ice, and the ice melted with a sizzling noise. Ice clamped onto the hole, and was able to struggle himself up.
By this time Ice was thoroughly exhausted. He would like for nothing better than to lie down and rest. But it seemed that he wouldn't be having a chance. He had surfaced by the car—and Brown Boots was still there.
He gave a shout when he saw the snake. Ice was too tired to do anything. All he wanted to do was to slither away and pretend that this hadn't happened. It wasn't to be so, as Brown Boots already was running at him with a net.
Ice gave a hiss and began to slither as fast he could. Brown Boots, it seemed, was faster than he looked for he quickly caught up with him. Ice had no strength left to fight the man, and finally fell unconscious and the net swooped over him.
When Ice next awoke, he was still wrapped up in the net. Ice was still feeling horribly groggy from the entire experience. Ice watched with tired eyes as Brown Boots came into view.
"Well, well, well, looks like I finally got the snake, huh?" he said nastily. "And I know most of your tricks, so you can't do anything. I'm going to sell you, get a good price, and hopefully be rid of the entire encounter we had. Okay?" he laughed cruelly and walked away.
Ice surveyed his surroundings. He was in unfamiliar territory—this was neither the car nor the ice.
Ice squirmed a bit, but suddenly was shocked. He figured out the reason immediately. Every time he moved the net would administer a small shock in order to keep him from doing anything.
Ice gave an irritable hiss. This was turning into something bigger than he had originally planned, and it was getting on his nerves. All he wanted to do was go eat something. Something particularly bloody. He could tell he wouldn't get his wish, for the net was still restraining his movements.
Ice sat there for what seemed like hours. He began to think after a while that it had been hours. When the man finally came back, he was surprised to see that he had changed his boots. They were green now.
Green Boots/Brown Boots stared at him with a feral glint in his eyes. Another man came in, wearing red boots. Ice glared at them both.
"I'm taking no less than 5,000 galleons for him," said Green Boots/Brown Boots.
"I'll give you 3,000 for him," said Red Boots.
"After the hell I went through to get him? I don't think so. 5,000 is my final answer,"
"4,000."
"5,000."
"No deal," said the man with finality. Green Boots/Brown Boots glared at the man.
"Fine then! I'll find a person who's willing to take the proper amount of money for him!" he snapped.
"Fine," shrugged Red Boots carelessly. Red Boots walked out of Ice's line of sight. Green Boots/Brown Boots swore loudly.
"You stupid snake! I wish we had never spotted you!" he snarled. Ice closed his eyes. He was getting bored. Maybe he would go to sleep.
When Ice awoke next, he found another man there with Green Boots/Brown Boots. Wait. Green Boots/Brown boots changed his boots again. They were a horrible shade of gray. The other person had on a white-brown boots.
"Will you take 5,000 galleons for him?" asked Gray Boots/Green Boots/Brown Boots. Ice felt his head spin at the large name, and decided to stick with the name brown boots for now.
"For a specimen such as this? I'll take him for 6,000!"
"DEAL!" he saw the money being exchanged, and then felt himself being picked up. He snapped at the insolent man, but White-brown boots didn't seem to care that he had a large and deadly snake in his hands that wanted to kill him.
"I own a shop in Diagon Alley," said White-brown boots. "You'll sell for sure."
Ice felt pity for the man. He would make sure he looked and sounded horrible to anyone who came across him.
Ice decided to go to sleep. He would need it, after all, if he wanted to look dangerous for the customers.
The next day Ice found himself in a cramped cage. Ice hissed and rocked the cage and tried to melt it with his poison, but nothing would work. The shopkeeper seemed amused with his efforts.
"Can't get out of that," he told the snake one day. "I've got all sorts of enchantments on it."
Ice felt annoyance. Looks like he'll be stuck here for a while.
After a few days, Ice was never more annoyed in his life. The shopkeeper had done everything he could do get him bought, and no one ever did anything except for take one look at his sharp fangs (which he would make drip with deadly poison) and hurry away. The shopkeeper was nearly tearing his hair out, trying to find someone to buy him. Ice himself was getting frustrated with all the people that he was shown to. They were all either cowards or too brave. One tried to stick his hand on the cage. Ice still remembered the boy's screams as his slow killing poison took effect.
He also remembered the horror of the shopkeeper as he finally realized why Brown Boots was so eager to get rid of him.
Weeks and weeks passed. Ice watched the weather turn from the winter to the spring, then to summer. By summertime he had been taken to the corner of the shop and forgotten about. That was fine by Ice; as long as he got food he was perfectly content.
It was a nice, sunny day when he first saw the boy. He had a load of other people with him (truthfully only his mother and father). He had a broad smile on his face and looked happy.
He was looking around the store when he spotted him. The shopkeeper saw the boy looking at him and practically jumped on him, telling him about what a rare breed of snake he was and how he was really powerful. The boy barely seemed to be listening. Ice felt insulted when the shopkeeper said that he had only just got him in, but Ice supposed that the shopkeeper didn't want the boy to know how many people rejected him if the boy wanted him. The boy came over to him.
/The man lies. I got here weeks ago, he just doesn't like me. He wants to get rid of me. But, I guess some things in that statement are true/ Ice said arrogantly. He didn't really expect the boy to answer, but he did.
/Why does he want to get rid of you?/ asked the boy. Ice thought he covered up with surprise at being talked to in Parselmouth pretty well.
/Because I've been annoying him. I'm always waking up other animals during the night and doing things like that/
/So, what can you do?/ Ice felt insulted. It felt like the boy was mocking the fact that he was in a cage.
/That's a stupid question. You should ask something like 'what can't you do?'/ Ice snapped.
/So, you're full of yourself/
/…/ Ice was having trouble restraining himself from hissing a nasty reply at the boy.
/Really, though, what can you do?/ After that, Ice explained a couple of things that he could do. The boy's mother wandered by at that point, and she seemed a bit freaked out by the conversation taking place. Ice felt amusement bubble to the surface.
/Nice woman there. That your mother?/
/Yes. Shut up/ the boy said before turning and talking to his mother. Ice added a few comments here and there, trying to rile the boy up. He didn't have much else to do.
A loud bang sounded outside. Ice said the first thing that came to mind about the men outside, which happened to be a statement about men in masks. Ice felt like an idiot for making such an obvious and stupid comment, but the boy either didn't notice or didn't care.
The stupid boy ran right out into all the chaos happening outside. Ice felt annoyance at the boy's recklessness. Ice came to a quick decision. The boy could speak Parselmouth, and he seemed to hold a halfway decent conversation. He would do for a bond.
With this decided, no wards could stand in the way and Ice began to break out of the cage confining him. He slithered out into the alleyway and located the boy's screams. He came upon him just as the curse was being let off.
/I have decided that you will be my new master. You are brave, and are a little bit smart, so you will be the perfect person/ Ice hissed. The boy asked if he could get him out of the situation. Ice felt insulted again that the boy doubted his skill. But, then again, the boy barely knew him. Ice decided to shrug it off this one time and attack the man who was causing his new master pain.
Ice slithered over to the man and poisoned him. Then he went back to his new master, who proceeded to question him on his name and what he had done to the man. Ice, in turn, questioned the boy as to whether he was okay or not.
They went back to the shop, and the boy seemed joyful to find all his friends and family fine and intact. The boy talked to the people for a little while. Ice added a comment here or there. He found out from this conversation that the boy's name was Harry.
Ice also had to give a quick explanation of bonding to Harry. He seemed to find bonding weird. While they were talking, Ice watched as Harry's friends seemed to grow more and more uncomfortable with all the hissing going on. Finally, one of his friends interrupted.
Ice completely stopped listening by that point. Instead, he got on the boy as he headed towards the fireplace. Ice noticed immediately that Harry paid nothing for him, while the shopkeeper had to pay 6,000 galleons. Talk about a waste of money! Ice thought it nicely ironic that the person of his choice got to pay nothing while the others all had to pay something.
Harry shouted out and suddenly Ice was spinning around really fast in a fireplace. Ice decided that he most definitely didn't like floo. As they arrived in the place where they were going, Ice took a long look around.
It was home.