Disclaimer: I'm afraid I own none of this…

Chapter 10

Now that I think about it, I can nearly understand why Death Eaters follow Voldemort. Muggles do have some annoying habits.

Dudley once rented some sci-fi movie, I can't remember what it was called, but one sentence in it stroke me hard: "Humans are not mammals. Mammals live in balance with nature, humans destroy it." At least it was something like that. However, what frightens me is that it's actually quite a good argument.

I'm not saying muggles are worse than wizards. The problems is, that without magic they have invented stuff that can be thousand times more deadly to all of us than them knowing about us. Sure if muggles knew wizards exist they would be envious and scared of us and try to harm us. But unless we do something, their pollution and greenhouse effects and such will perish all life from earth.

Just imagine things we could do combining magic and muggle inventions! The possibilities are enormous! The golden word is cooperation.

But again the question is, who is going to start it…

I should really stop thinking about these things; it seems the more I think, the more problems I invent to be solved…

Severus Snape was sitting behind his desk and watching his first year Gryffindor and Slytherin students. It had been a surprisingly quiet lesson. Not a single potions accident, no verbal fights between the houses and no Snape tormenting Gryffindors. He had been up the whole night and lacked the energy to comment on their mistakes.

His eyes wandered to the black haired boy and to his constant companion. Potions was actually the only time he had seen that girl to be silent. Normally she was filling the air with endless prattling. At first he had thought her to be just one of those brainless children who were never taught to shut up, but now he wasn't so sure. He couldn't get rid of the feeling that he was missing something.

"Lesson is over, you know what to do." He finally said as half of the class seemed to be finished. "Potter, stay behind." The foolish boy had run out of his office earlier that week without giving him the opportunity to return the books. Well, it was actually understandable; Potter had seen him playing. He again seemed to be one of those brats who put their nose to places they shouldn't. A dangerous and slimy one, but brat never the less.

Finally the students managed to clean up their places and drag themselves through the door. Only Potter stayed still where he was seated. Snape let the silence fill the classroom as he fixed his eyes to the green orbs of his student.

"Was there something you needed? I don't fancy letting Blaise wait for me too long…" the younger wizard finally interrupted. Snape couldn't help noticing how much more talkative the boy had become. Before arriving to Hogwarts getting a word out of that mouth had been hard, a whole sentence nearly impossible.

"The books you lent to me. I've scanned them through and although nearly all of them were far above you current understanding, there were few that you might find useful. Take your time with them and don't get frustrated if you don't understand anything. Even wizards with more experience, would struggle with the one about magic theory..." He answered and handed away the three books from his desk. "And don't forget to be critical about the information you find, these are ancient."

Snape nearly chocked as he saw the boy to smile. It wasn't totally open or genuine, but he was still smiling at him. And that made Snape's insides twist with horror. When a Potter smiles at Snape, something bad is going on.

But all the boy did was nod and vanish through the door.

"What did he want?" Blaise asked immediately when Harry stepped out of the Potions room.

"Ah, nothing, he just returned me some of my possessions." Harry said and nodded towards the books he was carrying. "Are you heading to the Great Hall?"

"Nope. I promised to meet with Hermione Ganger. You know, the girl you dumped me with yesterday before failing to come to the Transfiguration class. She's actually quite nice and clever and I don't think she cares that I'm a Slytherin. Her best quality, however, is that she knows how to use the library!" Blaise was nearly skipping on air. Harry only shrugged. All he could remember about the girl was her bushy brown hair and eagerness to please the teachers. She somehow didn't seem to fit with the other Gryffindors…

"Ah, if you are not eating, there's no reason for me to go the Great Hall either. At least one day free from the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs you are trying to fuse me with. I'll see you in the afternoon classes and tonight we're going find some time for a little private chat." Harry declared before taking off toward the Slytherin Common Room.

Harry quietly entered the empty boys' dormitories and approached his own bed. It was where he had left the snake in the morning. Harry had also placed a locking spell on the curtains to keep it from disappearing while he was on his morning lessons. Now Harry slowly removed the spell and pulled the curtain open. The snake was still dozing off but stiffened as it felt Harry's eyes on its skin.

"It seems you didn't get that far after all…" Harry stated when the snake seemed to totally wake up.

"It seems I didn't… You forgot to mention that there was a poltergeist wandering around the castle." The snake hissed and locked its eyes to those of Harry'sFor a moment it seemed to be considering something before sighing.

"As it seems that I owe you a debt, I offer my life for you. I agree to bind myself to you as your familiar." It finally said looking slightly disgusted. Harry only looked at it before slowly shaking his head. The small gesture had a huge effect on the snake. Its body tensed up in shock, its eyes sharpened with anger, and the blue markings on its back started slowly turning brighter and brighter.

"You refuse me? Have you no idea what an honour you have been given? You are nowhere worth of me and still I submitted myself to become yours, but you decline? There is no other way for me to pay my depth!" The hissing grew slowly louder, but didn't seem to have any effect on Harry.

"I'm quite aware of all the aspects of this, and thus I refuse to bond myself with an unwilling familiar. For now I want you to hold those three conditions I gave you and meet me every night here in the dormitories. You will tell me everything you've discovered during you expeditions. Do not interrupt my lessons unless the situation is vital. And stay away from Peeves." Harry ordered with a stern voice before leaving the room. Only a startled snake was left behind to stare at the door with thoughtful eyes.

Evening, after all lessons

You filthy mudblood-lover! You dare to call yourself a Slytherin! We've been watching you; Ravenclaws were okay, but Hufflepuffs were three times worse. We didn't say anything then, because we thought you would come to your senses, but now you've befriended a Gryffindor?!" the voices filled Harry's ears when he stepped through the Slytherin Common Room portrait. Blaise was sitting in the middle of the room, calm looking face tinted with a bit of red. For Harry that meant an oncoming explosion.

The one responsible for the yelling was a Slytherin third grader, Adrian Puckey. Rest of the house seemed to be watching with interest, but not yet taking part to the argument.

"What is going on in here?" Harry interrupted the situation before either of the participants would totally lose their self control.

"And you! You are just as bad as your little girlfriend here, associating with Gryffindor mudbloods!" Puckey burst as he saw who had stopped him. He turned totally around and took a threatening step towards Harry.

"Ah, by that you mean the first year girl who already has managed to gather more knowledge than you have during those three years you've been here? Jealous much, huh?" Even when the words were still coming out of his mouth, Harry knew he had gone too far. It was like he had totally forgotten to stay guard and quiet.

A quick memory of Vernon Dursley flashed through his eyes as Puckey raised his fist and connected it with his jaw. Only sound in the room was a thud as Harry collided with the wall and slid to lie in a ball on the floor.

"A Slytherin wizard hitting a younger housemate in the Common Room and all you people do is watch? Since when have we been Gryffindors and forgotten that we are supposed to stick together? Adrian, if I were Professor Snape you'd be lucky to only have detention for the next 4 years! Where have you lost your brains?" A stormy looking 6th grader was standing on the doorway and staring at his housemates with contempt. Adrian Puckey took only one look at his face before fleeing to the staircase.

"And still you are staring? Mind your own business or do something to help!" The voice of the boy had immediately effect. Most of the people in the Common Room left or concentrated back on reading. Blaise jumped up from his chair and rushed to Harry's side along with the 6th grader. He turned the totally stiff Harry around and slowly raised the smaller boy's head.

"Hello there, are you okay?" He asked quietly but didn't get an answer. Harry's gaze was fogged and it seemed as he hadn't even noticed somebody was kneeling in front of him.

"Oh Harry! You shouldn't have done that! I was totally okay and now you've angered him over nothing! Thought he could use some teaching on manners, threatening a girl and hitting other people. I suppose he must be a muggle-raised, as wizards never use their fists if wands are available, quite ironic actually when thinking actually what he was yelling me about…" As Blaise went on ranting the fog on Harry's eyes vanished and he seemed to start slowly relaxing.

"I think it would be best if you went early to bed. I suppose you don't want to see Madam Pomfrey?" The older wizard asked as he noticed Harry relaxing. He waited him to give a short shake of head before turning to Blaise. "Could you take him to his bed? I suppose it would best if you stayed with him for a while…"

Blaise gave the strange boy a curious glance before helping the confused Harry up and leaded him to the boys' dormitories. When they reached the relative safe of Harry's bed she pushed Harry inside and crawled in after him. She took a comfortable sitting position at the end of the bed before turning to Harry.

"Could you please put on the silencing spell?" She waited until he had obeyed before relaxing and continuing. "I admit, my mistake, we should have started the plan from Slytherins… However, I suppose we should forget that incident for a while now, something more important came up. I told you I went to library with Hermione, the Gryffindor girl, right? I made sure she didn't know what we were searching, but the information I managed gathered was quite… surprising… It seems that The Dark Lord is back."

TBC (?)

A/N Have I done it now? Become of those "evil" authors with cliff-hangers? Nope. It just felt a good place to end the chapter, didn't want it to become too long :) I post this chapter a bit early, because I happen to know that you'll have to wait a bit for the next one… Be patient.

I'm trying to make up my mind for the ending (it's years ahead, so you'll have to stand this story for a while…) and wondered whether there are there some elements you'd like to see in this story? Some kid of romance? Some particular people? Some a bit more unoriginal things? I'm open to offers.

Again, ALL kind of feedback is welcome. You know it already, why do I keep repeating myself? Anyhow, huge thanks to Dahlias for betaing!

Reviewers, if I forget to answer some question you really want answer, you can always email me. I didn't notice some questions last time, for example:

Moony: Gryffindors will come along with their own speed; you can't force them, too stubborn.

For this chapter:
Lady Fox Fire: oh, I was a bit unclear. Hermione didn't catch the snake, Peeves did. The snake can avoid living things, but not ghosts or spirits.
Yzliose: I'll try to let it run wild : ) too wild actually, because I'm sometimes unable to catch it…
Thanks to FroBoy, Siri Kat, Night-Owl123, screenofdeath, and donna ficfan also for reviewing!

Till the next time! Uhh, and sorry if the ending was hasty.