LORD OF THE SNAKES
by VG Jekyll

Part Three; Chapter One

"I'm telling you; I will be the one to find it."

"Dream on, Prongs!"

The Lord turned his back to his new visitors. They come, they go; he didn't even know why he still bothered with watching over them. He should just have gone back upstairs to his snakes after his speech that morning. Perhaps he could go read a book or play a game of checkers, against himself.

Yeah, that was fun...

He sighed and then sat back down on his stairs. He leaned over to pick up two crystal balls from the pile of gold besides him and he started to play with them, making the two rotate around each other in the palm of his hand.

"Hello," a kind, but curious voice unexpectedly said.

The Lord glanced startled up as he realized he was being addressed to. He was even so startled that he dropped one of the crystals, but it was with in-human speed snatched out of the air before it could hit the stone stairs.

"Here," the same voice said as he was handed back the crystal. The Lord took it carefully, staring at it as if he was holding the most baffling object in existence, and then he finally gazed up to meet two amber eyes.

"I'm Remus Lupin," the man offered his name and the Lord nodded acknowledging at him, still startled speechless.

"I um…" the man trailed off and the Lord tilted his head to the side, wanting to know why the man had approached him.

"You look a lot like my friend James," Remus finally blurted out and glanced to one of the men who were exploring the treasure. The Lord followed his gaze to the two dark haired men and gave Remus a wry smile.

"I appear to look like a lot of people that have come to this place. Perhaps I just have a common face," the Lord answered, thinking back of a certain enigmatic guest some decennia ago.

"Perhaps…" Remus said, his voice voicing his doubt about that. Perhaps he thought the Lord was related to the bespectacled man, who was now childishly throwing candlewax to the other dark haired man.

The Lord and Remus were silent for a moment. Then the amber-eyed man was called away by the previously mentioned James.

It was true; the Lord also thought he looked remarkably like the man called James, but he had also a lot in common with that other man; Tom Marvolo Riddle.

He shook his head to get rid of these thoughts, and played with the little crystals again, feeling obliged to stay in case his guests had questions.

He didn't want to think of people who looked like him. Didn't want to think of somehow being related to said people, it would mean they were family. And he didn't have family; why else would he be here all alone in this tower.

He tried to hide his troubled expression as he noticed that Remus Lupin spoke with the copy and both glanced at him. He nodded acknowledging to them. They turned back to each other again and James shrugged as if denying something. The Lord guessed that Remus Lupin had asked James if the Lord was familiar to him.

Remus wandered away from James and went to what the Lord recognized to be a Lunascope. Remus stared with mixed emotion at it. There was awe to be seen on his face, an expression a lot of people showed when looking at the moon, but also disgust.

It was the oddest mix of emotion the Lord had ever seen.

He directed his attention to the other people that were currently roaming around his tower.

There was a man with a hooked nose, revered to by the name Snivelus, though he seriously doubted that to be the man's real name, who was by the bookcase. He seemed to prefer staying as far away from the others as he could. Definitely a loner.

A portly little man with rumpled grey hair, wearing a striped suit couldn't seem to keep his eyes off all the coins. He sat on his knees besides a mountain of it and stared at the coins with a spectacle he had found nearby, once in a while he could exclaim things about how ancient some of the coins where. Ranting about how they were worth a fortune by now, until the hook-nosed man yelled at him to 'shut up Fudge!'.

Some distance away from Fudge was a tall, bald black man looking through rare Arabian artifacts. He was about to pick up an oil lamp with graphic red design when another man bumped against him. He forcefully pushed the smaller man away who stuttered an apology and went to a spot as far away from the man as he could.

That led him to the vicinity of the hook-nosed man, who scowled darkly and he changed his mind again, opting instead to go to a spot near the two dark haired men.

The Lord had the suspicion that this man was used to have the other two as some sort of protection.

James was holding a large piece of parchment with his friend hanging over his shoulder to see what was on it. They frowned and for a moment the Lord amused himself by watching how they turned it upside down, held it above a the flame of a candle and even went as far as to breath on it in the hopes to see something appear on it.

It was to no avail and finally the friend of James took the parchment and stalked over to the Lord. He scowled a she noticed the small amused smirk on the Lord's face and he trust it forwards.

"What is this?" he demanded to know and the Lord raised an inquiring brow.

"And who might you be?" he asked amiable.

The scowl disappeared from the man's face as he raised his chin a bit aristocratically. "I am Sirius Orion Black."

"Well, Sirius Orion Black; that is the Marauder's Map."

Sirius Black glanced down at the parchment. "What does it to?"

"What do you think it does?" the Lord asked, not feeling like just chewing up all the answers. Seriously, his guests seemed to become dumber with every decennium. Or lazier. He couldn't really see the difference between the two.

"Are you mocking me?" Sirius said offended and suddenly James was besides him, putting a calming hand on his shoulder. The Lord watched the small exchange with a heavy heart, feeling just slightly jealous of what they had.

Friendship.

Someone to joke with, to calm you down when you're upset, someone to touch. The Lord craved physical contact like that.

"I don't mock. It is a map. What do maps usually show?"

"Roads," James said.

"Countries," was Sirius answer.

The Lord nodded. "It shows whichever place you want; the ways to get there, the people who are walking there, even what they are currently doing. You just have to say the magic words."

"Magic words?" Sirius suddenly asked interested. "And what are those."

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

To Be Continued