Chapter 2: Letters and a Friend

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[Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Good ol' JK does. I just read it to bits is all.]

A/N:
Well, here's the second chapter. This particular chapter is still pre-Hogwarts; Vernon freaks about the obviously not normal letters a bit more and Harry makes a friend.

Here goes!

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[Chapter 2 start]

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A jolt of pain in Harry's forehead awoke him very early the next morning, when the first rays of sunlight still had yet to peek above the horizon. His scar, a thunderbolt-shaped mark on the right side of his forehead, prickled strangely. The house was fast asleep, its other occupants snoring in the next rooms over. Panting quietly and laying back on his pillow, Harry remembered what had woken him. He'd had another strange dream.

This one was different. It had the screaming woman in it; but this time she wasn't screaming – she was smiling lovingly at him. A tall man stood by her side; he had dark hair, glasses, and a proud grin. Then the dream froze. The woman's mouth moved, and her voice was what caused Harry to wake with such a start.

It wasn't a woman's voice that emanated from her mouth. It was a man's; a cold, smooth, mysterious voice that ached of familiarity yet was incredibly dark, bone-chilling, and bizarre. The dream broke abruptly and Harry's forehead gave a twinge, and the words – just two – floated in his mind as he lay in his new bed.

"Prepare yourself."

He frowned. As he lay there, the clarity of the dream faded, although he still remembered the words just fine. They echoed almost like a warning... but that's not right; it was just a dream. ...Right?

Harry rolled over to go back to sleep for the hour or two before the Dursleys woke up. There was no point in fussing over some dream, however odd, when he could still catch some shut-eye. Rubbing his forehead and thinking back to the odd letter from the previous day, Harry drifted off once more.

Later that morning, the banging that had been his wake up alarm for the years he had lived in the cupboard sounded again on the door to his new room.

"Get UP, boy! Downstairs!" came the curt voice of Aunt Petunia through the wood. "NOW!" she added, sounding irritated. (Although no more so than usual.)

Harry groaned and rolled out of bed, avoiding the patch of light that seeped through the shade on his window. He quickly pulled his baggy, ragged clothes on and headed silently down to the kitchen to make breakfast.

Over the years Harry had learned not to talk too much in the morning, if at all. Uncle Vernon was worse tempered than usual when he'd just woken up. As it was, Harry merely got a glare directed mostly at his unruly hair as he went by the living room, which was much less than usual. Harry suspected that maybe the letter had had a longer affect than he'd thought it would have.

Again, he wondered who it was from that it could make the Dursleys almost... civil. Or at least ignore him much more than usual, which he'd take over random knocks about the head and nasty, insulting remarks any day.

After breakfast, Harry was supposed to go outside; today's list had a lot of yard work. However, as he reached for the door knob, 10 letters abruptly shot through the mail slot in the front door one after the other. Immediately, Aunt Petunia – who'd been watching Harry to make sure he went outside – called to Uncle Vernon, who thundered into the hall and began rushing around to snatch them up before Harry could get at one.

Those are the same as the one from yesterday! thought Harry excitedly, recognizing the thicker parchment. He briefly saw the address of one as he reached to pick it up, and was shocked to see that it was addressed not to the cupboard under the stairs anymore, but to "the smallest bedroom." Uncle Vernon swiped it up before he could get it and held it with the others.

"Those are MY letters!" Harry yelled at him, too curious and frustrated to hold his tongue anymore. "Give me one! They're addressed to ME!"

"THERE ARE NO LETTERS!" bellowed Uncle Vernon angrily. His face turned that tomato red color. "AND THEY WOULD NOT BE YOURS IF THERE WERE ANY! NOW OUT! OUT!" His mustache jumped around and spittle landed on Harry's face.

Harry found himself out in the yard and heard the door slam behind him. Scowling furiously and fuming, he stood there for a moment, trying to calm himself. After a moment, he turned and marched over to the garden.

His tasks were weed, water, and plant in the garden, mow the lawn and then rake the grass clippings, fix part of the fence and paint the whole thing, and set up a heavy stone birdbath that Aunt Petunia had just bought. He would be not allowed back inside until the chores were completed. It was actually less than usual (It must be because of those letters again, thought Harry) but it still felt like a lot as the sun beat down on him.

He was getting a headache already as he knelt down and began to weed, systematically crawling and yanking up the offending plants. He pushed back the discomfort though and ignored it, having well gotten used to dealing with pain from all his years of experience (including Dudley and his crew "Harry Hunting"). He definitely couldn't complain to the Dursleys about just a headache or being tired.

Harry thought for a moment that the especially sunny day was still getting to him though regardless, because he suddenly heard a little hissing voice.

"Human boy pulling up the plantsss... why isss human boy pulling plantsss?"

Harry frowned, looking around him. There was no one nearby; the voice seemed to come from nowhere.

"Sssilly humansss eating plantsss... volesss tassste better."

Looking over to a nearby plant, Harry was startled to see a rather large snake coiled up and looking at him. At least, it had its head raised and was flicking its tongue at Harry. It was a bit over 2 feet long. Its scales were a dark-grey-green, and down its back was a pattern of dark, shiny diamond markings. It was an adder. Harry frowned, confused.

"Did you just talk?" he asked it, feeling a little foolish. He was startled when the snake raised its head more and seemed to be taken aback, if snakes could look taken aback.

"You ssspeak?" came a hissing voice. It seemed surprised, and sounded male, although Harry had never heard a snake before and couldn't be certain. A thin black tongue flicked out at him.

"I could ask you the same thing... I didn't know snakes could talk. Am I just going crazy?" Harry asked it in return, astonished and still wondering if the sun was getting to him.

"You ssspeak! I am young, but every sssnake knowsss that humansss cannot ssspeak. You are ssspecial. And you have an odd ssscent," hissed the adder, and began to slither over. Harry stared at it as it stopped and looked up at him again, its tongue tasting the air around him.

How... ironic, thought Harry. The first time I've ever been told I'm special that I can remember, and it's by a snake.

"Well, I've never spoken to anyone other than other humans before, so I didn't know," Harry told the snake, crouching down farther. "And by the way, the weeds aren't for eating; the Dursleys make me do chores, and this is one of them."

"I sssee. Volesss tassste deliciousss," advised the snake. It seemed pleased at the mention of rodents. Harry smiled.

"So you've said. I'll take your word on that. But aren't adders usually smaller?" inquired Harry. "How are you so big?"

"I am not sssure..." muttered the snake uneasily. "I have alssso yet to reach the end of my growing phassse. I hope I ssstop growing soon; I'm already unable to fit in my burrow."

Harry frowned. He reasoned that if his new friend couldn't fit in its burrow, it was in danger of being caught and killed. Therefore... he did the logical thing. (In his mind anyway.)

"Would you like to live with me? I mean, it's inside and all, but if you stay near me and out of sight, you'd be reasonably safe," offered Harry nervously. The snake somehow looked amused. "Er, that is, the Dursleys wouldn't notice because they never pay attention to me, so they'd never see you, I mean, if you want to, I don't know if you'd want to, the Dursleys are pretty awful, but if you can't fit in your burrow..." Harry stopped as a quiet hiss – laughter? – came from the snake.

"You are indeed interesssting, Ssspeaker... I wouldn't mind ssstaying with you." Harry smiled, delighted. "And I'll bite any Dursleysss humansss if they try to messs with me," the adder added smugly.

Harry laughed. "It'd be best if you didn't bite anyone, they'd still kill you anyway; but it's a nice thought," he said. "Oh, by the way, my name is Harry, not Speaker. Do you have a name? And are you a girl or a boy?" he asked curiously.

"You may choossse me a name... Harry. And I am a male." The snake eyed Harry, the later thinking.

"How about Hebijin?" asked Harry after a moment. "I can call you just Hebi for short." (*)

The adder uncoiled and slithered right onto Harry's lap."Sssounds awesssome," Hebi hissed, pleased. Harry grinned as Hebi then slithered up his baggy shirt to coil loosely around his small neck, glad for once that his overly large second-hand clothes hid the snake nicely when he was settled underneath the collar.

Harry was glad to have his first real friend, and over the next handful of hours he talked with Hebi and finished the rest of his yard chores. He talked about himself and his life with the Dursleys, like how he used to live in a cupboard under the stairs until yesterday, when the odd letters came. Hebi in turn told him a little about a snake's life – a bit boring in Harry's opinion, except he laughed when Hebi told him about the vole he ate once that tasted really bad. "I almossst wanted to ssspit it out; it felt ssstrange asss it went down," Hebi hissed. "It tingled."

The sun didn't seem nearly as exhausting as usual when he had a friendly snake whispering in his ear. He discovered that Hebi had a sense of humor, although he wasn't quite used to human references, and that he was curious about human life.

When the afternoon was getting on, Harry finally finished his outdoor chores. He turned to go inside. Before he did, he whispered to Hebi. "Just don't make any sounds or show yourself, and they won't notice a thing. They're kind of thick. But be extra careful around Aunt Petunia just in case."

"Don't worry about me, Harry," hissed Hebi. "And I can ssstill bite them for you if you like..." Harry smiled – his new friend had been indignant on his behalf when he'd described their unfair treatment of him – but refused the offer. "Where would I get my oversized shirts for you to hide under if you did anything to the Dursleys?" he joked.

They went up to the door and Harry calmed himself, putting on a face of exhaustion (not hard to fake) so the Dursleys wouldn't think to give him more chores because he was smiling at all. He took off his dirt-covered shoes and knocked them together to shake off loose dirt, and then entered.

He hurried into the bathroom for a quick wash up. The only times the Dursleys "wasted water on the boy" besides for drinking water was when Harry was covered in dirt or paint, as he was now in both. Aunt Petunia freaked out if he tracked any dirt on the floors or got paint on a rug (although HE had to clean them, so he didn't know why she was complaining) and grudgingly allowed him a 5-minute shower after he did yard work.

He hid Hebi underneath his clean set of clothes as he rinsed off so the unsuspecting Dursleys wouldn't accidentally stumble across the poisonous snake now living with them. When he got dressed, he settled Hebi around his neck again.

The snake hissed a complaint about the scent of Aunt Petunia's perfumes and makeup. "Sssmellsss unnatural," he said.

Harry could relate, as said as much. "Yeah, and it gets especially bad when we have company over; I could smell her all the way in my cupboard. I don't know why she thinks they'll want to smell her in the first place though."

After the Dursleys' dinner, Harry practically inhaled his own small bowl of stew and finger-sized piece of bread; he hadn't gotten any lunch earlier. (Not so say that he usually got any.) He asked Hebi between bites how often adders ate. The response was, "A vole twiccce a day! ...however, I can go for over a week without if I mussst," and Harry responded with, "Vole-obsessed glutton."

They chucked, Harry making sure that no one was within earshot. He added, "Well, I don't starve, but I don't get to eat much, as you can see. So I probably won't be able to feed you... um... you can hunt whenever I work outside – would that work?" Hebi hissed affirmatively, and Harry turned to clean up the dishes.

They went to bed after Harry cleaned up the kitchen and did laundry. Hebi had actually decided to sleep under the bed so Harry didn't accidentally roll on him during the night.

Then Harry realized he'd forgotten about the letters in the excitement of meeting his new friend. Uncle Vernon's and Aunt Petunia's reactions to the onslaught of letters made him even more determined to get a hold of one somehow. Harry went to sleep, planning to get up early. He figured the best time to get at the mail was when the rest of the family wasn't up yet. He'd sneak out of the house and wait for the mailman, and then he'd get his letter!

Snuggling down into his covers, he whispered good night to Hebi. "Sssee you in the morning," hissed the snake drowsily. Harry smiled and fell into the first peaceful slumber he'd had in a while.

There were no nightmares.

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A/N:

*Hebijin = Snake-god (japanese) (Hebi means snake)

By the way, I just wanted to let you all know: Harry's scar will not be tied exclusively to Voldemort, although mostly tied to him, of course. It may also twinge a small bit with something important or odd, like that dream for example.

And Hogwarts is coming soon, so don't you worry! (...if anyone was worried :P)

Thanks for reading. I'd love reviews~!

~AP-C

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[edit: sorry, this is on hiatus still, I just fixed a couple small edit thingies. I'll get back to it soon, though! this has not been abandoned! -see profile for more details if you want-]