As soon as Harry returned to Hogwarts, he immediately took out the box--which held the snake--and opened it. The snake slithered out of the box with smooth grace and elegance. It lifted itself up until it almost reached Harry's eye level. It swayed its head ever so slightly from side to side. It began to speak,
"Oh noble master," it bowed its head to Harry, "long have I waited for your return. But it seems that I have not waited in vain, for you have come at last."
The snake looked back up at Harry and saw the look of utter confusion on his face.
"How is it that you are not my master? None hath ever spoken my language before. You must be the heir of Salazar Slytherin."
With a deep breath, Harry explained the story of how he became a Parseltongue.
"I see. Even if you are not my master's descendent by blood, you are a very powerful wizard. Therefore, I shall still serve you. I am called Nagendra. What is it that they call you?"
"Harry. Harry Potter. Or... well, in this time, Harry Jameson. I traveled through time to be here, and I'm supposed to re-write time to fix its errors."
Harry happened to glance up at the clock and noticed it was quarter to seven--fifteen minutes until the welcoming feast. With haste he told Nagendra about the welcoming feast and stowed her in his room before rushing about to get ready.
oOo
Harry only had a few minutes to get ready and get down to the hall, so he threw on the first pair of dress robes he found; navy blue with golden leaf embroidery along the edges. He combed his hair, even if it was useless, and washed his face. Two minutes left. He ran out the door and down the stairs towards the great hall.
Coming to a halt directly in front of the doors to the great hall, Harry stopped to catch his breath. Panting and leaning on the door, he looked at his watch. Exactly seven o'clock. He had made it.
He paused to listen to what Dumbledore was saying. Good, he thought, they were still doing the sorting. Harry was beginning to get nervous.
Dumbledore had told him he was to wait outside the door until he announced about the new DADA teacher. Harry began to pace back and forth.
"As we have many times in the past, I would like to welcome a new defense against the dark arts professor, Harry Jameson."
Harry pushed open the heavy oak door, and was met with several hundred pairs of eyes. Luckily, he was used to having to deal with lots of eyes on him. He smiled slightly and walked up to the headmaster who extended his hand. Harry shook it.
"I hope you'll have an excellent year here at Hogwarts," Dumbledore said, quite welcomingly.
Harry's smile widened as he nodded.
"Thank you."
He took his seat at the head table between a professor he didn't know and Minerva McGonagall. She smiled warmly at him. She looked so much younger and less stressed.
"So Harry, have you been enjoying the castle so far?"
Harry turned to Professor McGonagall and replied, "Yes, I have--I even had a chance to visit Diagon Alley this morning."
"Oh yes, it's a very interesting place, Diagon Alley. Did you find anything to your liking there?"
"Well, I did find several books and some candies. I came across a rather odd pet store also."
"Which one? There are a few of them around."
"I actually don't even know what it's called. It was just a small store tucked in amongst other bigger, better stores. It looked like no one went in there very often, but it caught my attention for some odd reason."
McGonagall frowned slightly at this. "I believe I know which one you're talking about. It's rather dingy and dusty. That place, I'm afraid, has the reputation of carrying many dark creatures. I hope you didn't purchase anything there."
Harry blushed slightly. "Actually I did. I'm rather fond of snakes. I find them to be rather good companion. They're very intelligent creatures."
"Yes they are. It's unfortunate that they have such a horrible reputation. They're very commonly thought of as a mark of evil."
"Oh believe me, I know all about that," Harry said, a knowing look in his eye.
"Well then I suppose you know why the snake represents Slytherin house."
"Because Salazar Slytherin was a parselmouth. He could talk to snakes."
"I'm impressed. You read up on your Hogwarts history."
"Well, um, yes, I did. I figured that if I'd be teaching here, I should know something about the school."
Before Minerva could respond, there was a loud bang at the Slytherin table. Harry jumped, whipped out his wand and looked over to find a very startled Severus Snape holding his fork staring at what was his dinner plate.
Harry's eyes immediately searched for the Marauders. He found them huddled together at the end of the Gryffindor table with their shoulders shaking.
Minerva was up and over at their table in the blink of an eye.
"Mr. Potter! I take it you and your friends are responsible for this?"
Sirius looked up at her and with a perfectly straight face said, "Why, Minnie my love! What would ever lead you to believe we are responsible for such an outrageous act?"
This only seemed to make Minerva madder. "Detention for all of you for the next week!" She turned on her heel and stomped back up to the head table.
As soon as she turned and walked away, the Marauders all high-fived each other.
"That has to be a new record! Detention for a week and we've only been here for half an hour! This is going to be a great year!" said James.
"I concur with Prongs! This is going to be the best year ever!" said Sirius.
"Huzzah!" All four of them chorused together.
oOo