Chapter 6 - June 30th – July 1st, 1993

After the busy first few days of summer spent setting up his backpack, getting his hair styled and eyes fixed as well as the enlightening trip to the hospital Harry finally had an opportunity to just relax. He spent a couple of days in his backpack in the Dursley's shed.

His egg's shells were getting thinner and thinner. If he held them up to the light he could see the tiny snakes inside wiggling. They weren't fond of that generally speaking. They liked it best nestled against his skin under his shirt. According to the notes he'd made from the scroll in Salazar's library they should be ready to hatch in another week or so. He hadn't wanted to remove the scroll from the library in case the preservation charms failed.

Used to summers filled with tons of chores and little food he felt super lazy. He tried to sleep in but always seemed to get up at six regardless. He had stocked his little kitchenette with lots of good things to eat. He remade meals he'd always coveted from the Dursley's table but never been allowed to eat. He did eat all the Mars Bars he could before becoming decidedly sick.

He'd set up his potions equipment then and, to what would have been Professor Snape's great shock, made a perfectly passable stomach soother. The simple potion used no snake ingredients so Harry figured it was safe enough for him to take. After that he spent some time with his potions textbook and a red crayon going through and underlining all the potions that wouldn't work for him anymore but also writing down all the snake ingredients that he could get from live snakes and sell.

The report of his family vault with its 30 million galleons kind of got shuffled to the back of his mind. It was such a big number that he had a hard time thinking about it. His vault of 100,000 and his Mum's of 8,000 was much easier for him to understand. Especially as that understanding was that if no more came in eventually he'd run out. Just look how much he'd spend in two weeks already!

As someone who'd never had any pocket money, who'd never worn clothes bought for him, who'd spend his entire childhood hearing about how expensive he was and being made to work for his keep since he was old enough to push a broom Harry couldn't just sit idle and live off his inheritance the way someone like Malfoy might be able to. So the idea he could make money using something as easy for him as speaking to snakes was pretty cool.

It was when he got a letter from Hermione that he finally got started on his homework and remembered Mr. Goyle telling him about a public library. He wrote the address down in his letter to Hermione almost sad that he wouldn't be there to see her reaction. So for the first time in three days he ventured back to Diagon Alley on the Knight Bus.

He stopped by the green grocer and the butcher on his way to the library. A small pet store on a back alley also got a visit. They didn't have any snakes though. Just rodents really. He had a sneaking suspicion he'd be making several visits here in the near future. Maybe he'd need to setup another part of his bag for raising prey animals for the snakes to eat. He made a note to write that down on his list of things to do for his little business.

Once he found the right street the library was immediately obvious just for the sheer size of it. It looked like an open book on its side but at what looked to be three stories tall he doubted even a giant could have picked it up. The huge building completely dominated the street which ended in a dead end at the library. On either side of the street leading up to the library were fenced in parks marked by the many benches and pagodas for convenient outdoor reading. Hermione would love it here.

Harry walked inside the immense and naturally quiet building. The only sounds to be heard were the quiet rustling of pages not all by human hands. He walked up to the desk where a young woman in a blue robe was reading.

"Hello." Harry whispered.

The woman looked up with a small smile. "Hello. Can I help you?" She returned his whisper.

"This is my first time here."

"Oh then you need a library card before we go any further." She opened a drawer soundlessly and withdrew a form. "Name?"

"Harry James Potter."

She quickly looked up surprised. Her eyes flew to his forehead and Harry sighed as he moved his hair away to confirm his identity. How did normal witches and wizard confirm who they were?

She apparently took notice of his discomfort and returned to the form. "Date of birth?"

"July 31st, 1980."

"Completed year of Hogwarts?"

"Second."

"Electives chosen?"

"Divination, Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures." He'd written to Professor McGonagall a few days ago to change his electives. Working with Mr. Goyle and his bag had convinced him of the importance of runes.

"Good choices." She smiled at him. "Eye color? Green. Hair color? Red."

"It's black. I changed it cause I didn't like how everyone just knew who I was cause I look like my father."

"Black (currently red). Height?"

"Uh, I don't know."

She cast a spell at him. "155.6 cm and width is 156.3 cm"

"Why do you need to know that?"

She gave him a secretive smile. "Librarian's secret. Any medical issues?"

Harry hooked a thumb in the metal plate around his neck.

She shot a spell at it and blanched. "My goodness!" For the first time her voice rose above a whisper. Not loud though in fact she was still well below normal speaking range.

Harry blushed. "I'm a parselmouth. I got bit by a basilisk and now I'm immune to all snake venom."

She nodded mutely before blushing. "I'm sorry. You didn't have to tell me. I didn't mean to embarrass you. That is really interesting though. I'll put it on your card that you're a parselmouth. We have some parselscript books here."

Harry's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yup. As you might imagine we don't have many visitors checking those out. The final question is any special abilities? Parseltongue falls under that but any others?"

Harry shrugged. "None that I know about." He thought for a moment. "My mum could speak to toads but I don't think I can." He'd never heard Trevor speaking. He wondered what happened to Ricky his mother's toad. Maybe Chelsea knew.

"Okay then." She cast a spell at the form and it shuddered before shrinking into a small metal tag on a chain. She handed it to him. "Please wear this whenever you're in the library. You'll have to update it every summer until you graduate. Once you've taken your OWLs and NEWTS bring the results here and we'll update you appropriately. Do not enter the marked rooms or aisles without a librarian present. Those are like the restricted section at Hogwarts. We're not trying to keep knowledge from you but some books can be dangerous without the proper precautions taken."

"When I bring my friend Hermione here please remember to emphasize that warning." Harry told her seriously. "Where did you say the parselscript books were?"

She smiled at his eagerness and rang a tiny bell. A burly man came out of the back with a huge pair of glasses perched on his nose as he read while he walked to the desk. Not glancing at either Harry or the other librarian he took her place at the desk without ever interrupting his reading.

She placed a hand on his back to lead him forward. "I'm Cynthia by the way. Cynthia LeStrange."

"Pleased to meet you."

She smiled brightly. "I'm pleased to meet you too."