Lightning hoped Severus would visit soon. He liked Severus he was dead useful and it was nice to speak to another one of his kind. The man had also brought up many things he had not thought about in a long time. The first thing the man had asked him was what his name was. It was strange to think that he didn't know.

The snakes called him the lightning king for the lightning bolt scar on his head. He didn't know where that had come from either. Speaking in English was not something he did often and he often had problems remembering what words he was supposed to use. The man was even a freak like himself. Except he used a stick to do magic.

Maybe the stick was like a wand? Didn't wizards use wands? He could vaguely recall hearing somewhere once that wizards used wands. Something his family told him maybe. He didn't need a wand so it hardly mattered.

He didn't even mind that Severus had forced him to fight the Dragon twice. Normally he would avoid the Wyvern rather than attack but he had won both times so it wasn't a huge problem. He had slowed down and walked along the ground to lead Severus through the woods. On the way back he went through the trees at least until he was close enough to pop back. When he was just a little boy and learning how to survive in the woods he had found that traveling between the trees was easier.

He could only pop certain distances, too far and he would pass out. He had spent a lot of his free time practicing so that he could go farther and farther with each pop. When the sun was at its highest he felt he was close enough to pop back. He popped right back into his home. He went back to the den of eating to look at the chair and table the man had left. They were some of the most comfortable things he had ever owned.

Lightning had been amazed at the display of magic the man could do. Lightning could see the magic in things. The man's wand glowed brightly, every living thing in the forest glowed to a certain extent in their center to show that they were alive and Severus glowed very brightly. Maybe that's because he could use magic. The chairs now glowed slightly because they had been made through magical means.

It made them even prettier. Lightning went to the den of resting and took a nap. After that he worked in his garden in between speaking with the snakes. They were worried about the human who had come and visited. Would he return and try and take their hatchlings?

That was something Lightning had not considered. The man did say he used snake parts in his potions. Did he kill snakes? He promised the worried snakes that as their king he would not allow the potions human to use their parts unwillingly for his magic. Then a few more snakes came to pledge themselves to him.

Glade was the first snake Lightning ever met. He had been in the forest for a week when he met the snake. She had seen him, a child, so scared and hungry and offered him aid. She hunted for him until he could do it himself and taught him all about the snake magics. He had learned that snakes had their own kind of magic that he could use to a larger degree because he was a human who spoke the snake language.

As the years flew by and he created more of his home snakes from all over the forest came and pledged themselves to him. Glade had explained that snakes would pledge themselves to the most powerful human snake speaker they met. As they were extremely rare Lightning had a lot of subjects.

Glade had not liked Lightning's old name. She said a powerful dignified human snake speaker should not speak of himself in such a way. She saw the scar and named him Lightning. As more and more snakes pledged themselves they started calling him 'king lightning' or 'master lightning'.

The garden was doing well and the magic he had used to keep the room warm and wet helped things grow very well. He ate the remains of the stew for dinner and slept. The next few days were spent how he always spent them. He spent the mornings practicing snake magic under the tutelage of the magic snakes. The afternoon he spent meeting with snakes he had favors to ask, exploring the forest and doing the household chores.

When a week passed by he heard the abnormal sharp crack of someone popping to see him. It was the afternoon and he had been working with the garden making sure everything was healthy. He heard Severus calling for him from the ground.

"Lightning? Are you in?"

Lightning left the den of growing and walked over to the platform that was used for entrances and looked down. There was Severus dressed in dark clothing. There was also another man there. The other man was ancient, he had white hair and a long white beard. He glowed so brightly that it scared Harry. This man was a powerful wizard despite his age and colorful dress.

"Hello Sevrus." Lightning called down unwilling to go down while the stranger was there.

"Lightning, I brought a friend from Hogwarts with me, his name is Albus Dumbledore. He wants to meet the boy who saved my life."

"Why?"

"He wants to thank you." Severus yelled up after a moment.

Lightning considered this. Glade who had shown up during their talk looked at him.

"Do you think I should meet this powerful wizard mother? He glows more brightly than I."

"I smell no hint of aggression or anger from either of the two legs. The black two legs is nervous and the old two legs is excited. I sense no ill will toward you my hatchling. Go down and greet them. I shall come with you." Glade said after looking down at the men and smelling them with her tongue.

"I'm coming down Sevrus."

Lightning had given up trying to correctly pronounce Severus' name. It had to many r's and v's to make it easy to pronounce. The snake language only had a few noises so the human tongue was a difficult process for Lightning.

Lightning crawled into the basket with Glade around his neck. He hissed for it to go down and let the basket lower him to the ground. He climbed out of the basket and made a few steps towards the two men.

"Hello Sevrus. How was the castle?"

"It was nice. There is a lot of work needed to be done to prepare for the returning children."

"My subjects had a question. Do you kill snakes for your potions? Cause they are afraid for their hatchlings. They have asked me to protect them from all enemies."

Severus looked stunned at the question. He thought for a moment before answering.

"My potions only use things that snakes leave around like snake skins, venom, or their egg shells. I do not kill snakes for my potions."

Lightning nodded while Glade whispered in his ear.

"He tells the truth hatchling. Your kingdom need not fear the dark two legs. I can feel the power of the old two legs. You must be wary."

"Yes mother."

"Hello, Albus." Lightning said with a touch of fear in his voice.

"Hello my boy. I would like to thank you for saving Severus' life. It must not have been easy to fight that Wyvern."

"Drake is justmean. He knows better than to attack anything in my kingdom. It was not hard to scare him away."

"Who taught you to use that kind of magic?"

"Mother taught me. She and the other snakes are very good with snake magic."

"Your mother?" Severus asked.

"Glade." Lightning said while petting the large yellow snake that was curled around his body.

Glade was a yellow boa who had been bought by a stupid wizard to keep as a pet at the school. She had left him and went to live in the woods after the stupid boy had tried to feed her a carrot. That was just offensive to all snake kind. She had found Lightning alone in the woods looking so scared and had helped him. Over the years she had grown until she was quite large. She was almost 8 feet in length and enjoyed using her length to frighten younger snakes.

She curled around her two legged hatchling so that her head was resting on his shoulder and the rest of her was around his waist and chest. She glared at the two men to show her strength.

"Why did you call her your mother?" Severus asked.

"She is my mother. She raised me from a hatchling once I popped into the woods."

"It is a pleasure to meet you madam." Albus said inclining his head to the female snake.

Glade bobbed her head back before laughing at the strangeness of two legs. Lightning stood there for a moment before trying to figure out what else they wanted.

"Did you need anything Sevrus?"

"Albus expressed interest in seeing your home."

Lightning turned back to the older man and stared at him. His blue eyes twinkled at him and he screamed power which meant he was to be feared. Glade had told him often that two legs got more powerful with age. Lightning wanted to ensure that was true.

"Do humans get more powerful as they get older?"

"Yes. Why do you ask Lightning?" Albus answered.

"You are a very very powerful human. It is scary to see so much power inside of you. I wanted to know how so I asked."

"Can you see my core?" Albus asked excitedly.

"Core? What is a core?"
"When you look at me can you see a large glowing oval inside of me?" He asked again.

"I can see that in everyone. Yours is just really really big."

"Wonderful my boy! You are going to be a very powerful wizard one day."

"Mother says I already am. I am powerful enough to protect my kingdom."

"Your kingdom?" Severus asked.

"I am King Lightning. All snakes you see here have pledged themselves to me as the most powerful snake speaker they have met. I protect all snakes within my domain."

"Lightning, may I have a tour of your house?" Albus asked after a moment.

"Don't do any magic without asking. Some of the snakes don't like human magic."

"I promise no magic unless I receive permission."

"Okay. Just get into the basket."

Lightning watched as the old man climbed into the basket with an ease he shouldn't be capable of. He told the basket to go up in the snake tongue and to return once Albus had left it. It lowered itself and Severus got in as well. The basket lifted him and then returned to take Lightning up.

Once he was up he began the tour of his home. He took them to the den of growing and the den of food. Each den was in a separate tree and connected by rope bridges. He took them to the den of feasting, then the den of resting and finally the den of cleaning and the den of training. The tour ended and they sat down in the den of feasting.

"Lightning may I conjure another chair so we can talk?"

"Okay."

Albus conjured a cushioned purple chair that looked out of place in the tree house. He sat down and the other two followed seat. Before Albus could talk a blue magical snake entered. It slithered directly up to Lightning and spoke.

"King Lightning. I have returned and have an offering for you."

"What have you brought me, Slicer?"

"In my journeyings for a mate I found a magical stick that is similar to the one other two legs use, a few shiny stones, a goat stone and some metal. I have brought all with me to give to you as a show of thanks. I found a mate her name is Lyla."

"Congratulations Slicer! I am proud of you. Come and let me bless you with fertility so that you and your mate may have many hatchlings."

"Thank you King Lightning."

Lighting picked up the blue snake and let his magic flow into his hands. He let the magic cover the snake and then imprinted it into his scales so that the blessing would stay. He put the snake down.

"I will be right back. Slicer has a few gifts for me."

"Take your time."