Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. If I did I would be rich and not writing fan fictions.
Chapter 6: Enter Sam: Great Minds Think Alike
As Harry and the other students prepared for bed a small teachers meeting was taking place in the Great Hall.
"I gave the seventh year students eggs to identify and one of them disappeared AFTER all of them were turned in. Its not a big problem though. Despite the species infamous abilities the egg requires a lot of care and warmth to properly develop and considering the danger involved in the species' adults maybe it's best for all if it dies before it lives."
Everyone nodded at Kettleburn's explanation. Well, all of them with the exception of Hagrid.
"See 'ere now! Tha' little fella ain't dun not'in' ta no'ne an yer jus' gonna let it die?!"
"Hagrid," everyone turned to the Headmaster, "I will instruct the house elves to find the egg and return it to Professor Kettleburn. Afterward, Professor Kettleburn, I must ask that you contact the Department of Control of Magical Creatures and to refrain from bringing such animals to the school in the future, regardless of what life cycle stage they are in. While it is not illegal to own them or trade the parts of them they are supremely dangerous." Hagrid looked relieved and Kettleburn nodded reluctantly. "Now then, I suggest we go get some sleep, classes start tomorrow and we will need our rest."
In Harry's dorm, The-Boy-Who-Lived was pondering why his trunk was open. Nothing was missing but, it looked like a hurricane had happened inside the damn thing. Weired. Oh well, he'd report it tomorrow. Another odd thing was that Hedwig had gone all motherly on the egg he was given. She had built a large nest atop his bed's headboard and was currently sitting atop the egg looking as though she was the High Queen Bird of Motherhood. She actually seemed to be glowing. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know where she had gotten all those twigs on such short notice...
Filch was doing his nightly rounds and was currently staring wide eyed into the broom storage room. There was a problem. There were supposed to be brooms in here. There were only sticks. All the bristles had been removed. Hooch was going to be pissed.
...bah! Didn't matter. She was happy and the egg was being taken care of.
The next morning Headmaster Albus Dumbledore was given a somewhat disturbing report by Filch.
"First I found the bristles gone from all the brooms and now six house elves have gone missing."
"Hmm." Dumbledore folded his fingers in front of face in thought. "The brooms are probably a prank. Keep an eye on the Weasley twins." Filch nodded. "As for the elves, I am at a loss. I suppose it could just be a prank but, for a student to be able to subdue six house elves, that is cause for worry. We will be searching every student's trunk and the whole school. However, keep this quiet. We don't need the DMLE poking around and disrupting things." Not to mention they might get lucky and find the Sorcerers Stone and ruin his plan. He could also use the search to look through Harry's things and "confiscate" whatever he didn't approve of as contraband. Who ever had detained the house elf he sent last night was in for an expulsion. He HAD to begin influencing Harry. It was the only way to defeat Tom. He was planning on sending Harry a letter to invite the boy to meet in his office today, after potions of course, he needed Severus to destroy the boys self confidence after all. The fact that Severus would, undoubtedly, assault the boy's mind as well was a bonus. The weaker the boy was mentally the easier it would be to control him. It was for the greater good and had to be done.
Everyone's favorite potions master was currently down on his hands and knees looking for a beezor he had dropped. His concentration on the task at hand and the thoughts of torturing Potter were so great that he didn't notice the noise behind him.
Spike clicked in amusement. This bad smelling monkey was making it too easy. The massive scorpion reared its tail back and then struck with all his might.
We see the outside of Hogwarts, the rolling hills and the scenic lakes. Suddenly we hear an agonized scream that seems to shake the very landscape.
"Yyyeeeeaaaaaaarrrrrrgggggggghhhhh!"
Harry had awoken to an unusual sight. The egg that Hedwig had adopted was now the size of a large Watter-Mellon. Hedwig looked every part the proud mother. Mittens just looked on with a curious expression. Huh. Harry hadn't known that cats could could lift an eye brow.
"Well," both of his animals looked at him, "thats not something you see everyday. I bet your proud aren't you Hedwig, huh? Yes you are, yes you are!"
The owl in question preened under the attention of her master. This was what she lived for. This and bacon, can't forget the bacon.
Not one to be ignored, Mittens began rubbing against Harry's leg and purring. The boy's attention was instantly drawn to the little black cat(she had stayed in her kitten form as that was most useful in controlling the Fluffy Headed Female).
"I haven't forgotten about you Mittens." Harry bent down and picked the feline up. "But this is big news! She might not have laid this whopper but, Hedwig's going to be a mother!" The owl flew over to Harry's shoulder and the boy heard a gurgling sound. "Hungry?" Hedwig gave a hoot but, then looked back at "her" egg. "Don't want to leave it alone huh? Well, I know what to do." Harry then called out, "Bibsy?" Instantly the elf appeared. "Would you mind watching over the egg for a bit? Hedwig wants some breakfast and I don't want her to have to eat alone." The elf's eyes grew even bigger at the sight of the giant egg but, gave a nod of agreement. "Thanks Bibsy." And with that Harry left, not noticing the elf's shocked look.
"Harry Potter Sir thanks Bibsy?"
Breakfast was uneventful until a Great Barn Owl entered the Great Hall and headed for Harry. Hedwig instantly dropped the piece of bacon she was eating and shot toward the intruding owl. When the two met in the air there was what could only be described as an explosion. Bird parts and blood showered over the table below the "incident", as it was latter declared. That table happened to be the Slytherin's table. The Barn owl's stomach slapped into Draco's face in particular. The rest of the Slytherins were covered in blood, feathers and various organs. Hedwig, still with a little of the other owl's blood on her beak and talons, brought the letter to Harry and then returned to her bacon.
"Huh?" Harry regarded the gore covered letter for a moment and was about to open it when Bibsy appeared.
"Harry Potter Sir!" The elf looked around and noticed she was the center of attention and dropped her voice. "The egg sir. It's is moving it is." Quick as a flash, Harry, Hedwig and Mittens were gone. Professor Dumbledore's letter forgotten.
Up in Harry's dorm it was quite a show. The large purple egg would sway from side to side and crack here or there, shudder then still. It was as if the damn thing couldn't make up its mind.
Hedwig was moving about, to and fro, looking the egg all over in trepidation.
Mittens was grooming herself, seemingly in her own little privet world.
Spike finished his latest snack, an unfortunate owl that was flying too low in the dungeons, before leaving and hacked out an ornate medallion with a decorative 'M' on it.
Harry just sat calmly watching the egg as if it were an everyday occurrence. Thats when a large piece of the shell fell away to reveal...
"Minerva, please have your students leave the tower. We don't want whatever is the cause of all this ruckus to possibly harm a student." After speaking to the Deputy Headmistress Dumbledore turned to an uncomfortable looking Severus Snape and Professor Kettleburn. "We will be looking in on what the cause of this disturbance is. It may even be the cause of the house elves disappearing." With that the four teachers entered the common room of the Gryffindor tower.
McGonigal instantly began herding the students out of the room and scanning for any more of them. Professors, Snape and Kettleburn along with Dumbledore wandered up the stairs and entered the Dorm that housed Harry. Swinging the door open the three entered and instantly saw the large purple egg break open to reveal...
...The ugliest reptilian thing that any of them had ever seen.
The creature was easily six feet long and had the body trunk of a Komodo dragon, a long tail that ended in a fleshy fin, stumpy legs with large talon like claws, down its back were fleshy spines that were covered in a fine fuzz, and its neck and head looked like a python with the neck being nearly a foot and a half long. The oddest qualities of the animal were that it was covered in a thick dark purple fur with a bare violet underside. Its head was adorned with a small pair of antlers and it had brilliant green eyes, a similar shade to Harry's.
Hedwig had already bounced up to the thing's face and was giving it light, affectionate nips. The thing gave a content hiss when Harry ran a hand through its surprisingly soft fur. This caused Harry to smile in happiness.
Dumbledore and Snape's attention were now on Kettleburn. The Potions instructor and the Headmaster were masters of reading body language and could tell the man was both horrified and shocked.
"No one move." Kettleburn whispered. "It's worse than I thought."
"How?" Dumbledore responded.
"I had suspected it was actually a cross bread but, had no way to tell. The eggs of pure breeds and this kind of cross are identical in every way. This thing is part Cryohydra as I told you it was last night. The other part though...it's part Nidhogg."
"A what?" Snape asked in doubtful tone.
"A Nidhodd." Kettleburn answered. "The old Norse had their own dragons and myths regarding them. The Nidhogg was the serpent that sucked at the roots of the world tree. In the legends he was a vile thing, evil and violent. That legend only referred to one but, it was an entire species. The antlers and thick fur are a dead give away. Some Asian dragons have hair and antlers but, not like that. The legends were right on the money to. While extremely rare they are Violent and easily angered. You think a nesting Hungarian-Horn-Tail is bad? Prey you never see a normal Nidhogg."
That was all Snape needed to hear. "Diffindo!" The severing charm shot out of Snape's wand, even as Kettleburn shouted "NO!"
The spell impacted at the base of the creatures neck and had the full effect. The Cryohydra/Nidhogg hybrid's head fell off in a small gush of blood. The body swayed for a moment and then collapsed. Harry let out a shocked moan and Hedwig looked...well...exasperated was the only way to put it. Mittens just continued "cleaning" herself.
"Well," everyone's attention was drawn to the Headmaster, "This was for the best. We cannot have such dangerous animals running about."
"You two must be brain damaged!" Now everyone was looking at Kettleburn as he regarded Snape and Dumbledore with an incredulous look. "WHAT part of that thing being half Hydra, Cryohydra in fact, did you not understand?!"
No sooner did the words leave his mouth, the body began to move. It rose to its feet and the wound where its neck was once attached bulged out like a bubble. The former head, lying on the floor, seemed to disintegrate in a puff of smoke. In a slight show of gore two new heads shot out of the stump and they rapidly grew to full size. The two, antlered, serpent heads turned toward Snape and gave him a malevolent glare. Kettleburn took a large step away from the greasy man and seemed to be ignoring the situation. The two heads seemed to come to a decision and began advancing on Snape. Snape, finally remembering what a Cryohydra was capable of, panicked like the bastard he was and in contradiction to his realization of the facts, fired off another severing charm. This time the large Mythic lizard moved out of the way enough that only one of its heads was cut off. The two new heads grew in quite a bit faster this time and the people in the room were now looking at the ugliest three headed monster that ever lived. Just as Dumbledore was about to move in, Hedwig flew in front of the creature and gave a soft hoot before nipping lightly at all three faces, one by one. Harry renewed his petting and was rewarded by the left head turning around and licking his hand.
"Harry," the boy looked up at Dumbledore expectantly, "I am afraid that what I said still applies. You cannot keep the animal here or any where else as it is quite illegal."
"I'll be the judge of that." Dumbledore spun around to see Amelia Bones and several other Aurors. "Nidhoggs are so rare that no laws ever got passed here in the UK regarding them, so Mr. Potter can legally own one. As for the Hydra part, they imprint on what they see first and that seems to be either Mr. Potter or his "Wonder Owl"."
Dumbledore hated that nick name. Why couldn't they just accept that the owl wasn't really an owl? "Regardless, it is not on the approved pets list."
"There are at least fifteen Slytherin students, that I encountered on the way up here, that have snakes or giant bats as pets. Those aren't on the list and you don't seem to want to get rid of them."
Dumbledore wanted to reply that it was because those students parents were on the Board of Governors and were never Death Eaters so he couldn't black mail them but, that would be counter productive. "It is still a dangerous animal and its charging at Severus proves that."
"Don't take me for a fool Dumbledore!" Amelia looked pissed. "I saw the whole thing. Snape attacked it TWICE and in any case, Mr. Potter's owl stopped it. You have no grounds to even touch the poor thing."
"Oh man!" All eyes turned toward Susan Bones, who was unnoticed until this point, "My ice-cream is melting!" The large purple lizard shuffled toward the girl in a way reminiscent of an alligator and raised its heads. The cheeks of all three heads swelled slightly and then they blew out a chilling blue mist that refroze the ice-cream. "Thank you...say, what do you call him?"
Harry looked at Hedwig who simply looked back. "Hmm, how about...Sam?"
The three headed reptile, now dubbed Sam, hissed happily in acceptance. It then turned toward Snape, renewed its evil glare and puffed out its cheeks. Amelia Bones, preparing to have one of her decisions instantly bite her in the ass, was shocked by what Sam did.
"Thpppppppppppppppppppppppppppptt!" He blew a big triple raspberry at Snape, covering the man with ice cold spit.
"Great." The greasy man mumbled while shivering. "Just great."
To Be Continued...
ANIMAL LIST!
Name: Sam
Species: Cryohydra/Nidhogg hybrid
Description: Dark purple fur with a light violet under belly. He currently has 3 heads all of whom can breath super cooled gases capable of freezing a person solid in only a few moments and are adorned with antler like horns. Due to his young age the spines on his back are leathery and soft instead of hard and sharp. His length from snouts to tail tip is six feet. The tail ends in a large "fin" similar to a wale's fluke and will harden into a blade like weapon as he ages but will always be pliable when he his calm. His eye's are brilliant, glowing green. His movements are similar to that of an alligator.