Viper

Chapter10: Halloween

It wasn't long before Viper 'by pure chance' met the Headmaster in a corridor. The old man had tried to play it as if it was anything but the arranged interception it was but it mattered not and beneath all the masks both knew it. The conversation had been quite brief and to the point. Viper had felt Dumbledore give a reaction to Goff's name but it was hard to gauge what it was, although if a guess should be placed it would be better put on the negative. The old man had given his condolences and Viper had accepted them with a somber face, then he had been assured the teachers would not be giving him any trouble for the missed classes, even though it would be better to ask permission ahead of time if something required him to leave the Castle in the future. An almost invisible warning had been set in the Headmaster's words but one that the boy did not miss. He had honestly at least expected a sterner reprimand or even a detention and loss of house-points. Was the old man so eager to get on his good side? It was hard to tell what lay behind those twinkling blue eyes.

With time the rumors about him and Snape seemed to lessen, especially after a stern McGonagall had said a few chosen words to muttering students caught in the act. It was a small relief for Viper but he still told the twins to sniff around for the source. The two red-heads seemed to have taken a liking to him and were willing to help him extract some revenge.

Whoever had started those rumors would be sorry.

As whole school life was fairly boring and routine. Classes were too easy and student thoughts about him ranged from indecisive to deluded believers of his being The Hero of the Light or devil incarnate.

He had caught Ron Weasley and his band of merry men trying to bully Hermione one day, saying she was a traitor for befriending the most evil Snake of them all. He had not been truly angry, but knew he should defend her for appearances sake, so he'd sent them sailing trough the corridor and against a wall. It hadn't been satisfying but when he remembered a few weeks back a smile had stretched his face. He had had to hurry to wipe it off as he'd seen Hermione looking at him in a strange, slightly frightened way.

A source of amusement for him at that time was his own housemates. Tension was running high in the snake pit and he was the reason for most of it. Ever since their little game of cards the Hierarchy had been both trying to keep eyes on him and at the same time trying not to get in his way. People were confused what to do, most thought that they would soon have to choose sides and it had them sweating under their uniforms. Viper had had a good laugh with Draco and Nefas when Draco had explained how Pansy Parkinson had tried to talk 'seriously' with him about 'their future' in the House.

All in all the air in the Castle was filled with doubts and even if it was sometimes amusing it made Viper edgy. All the attention that was falling on him made him feel uncomfortable and his hackles were easy to rise. He longed for the anonymity of his life before that. Then he could have easily disappeared without anyone even noticing. Hell, he could have been killed and, probably, no-one would have become aware of the fact that he wasn't around anymore. Save for when the killings of the Amons stopped, even then no-one would ask, no one would care.

Now he had the two most powerful wizards in the country playing tug of war with him while a school full of ignorant children tried to put their snotty noses in his business. But he had to grind his teeth and endure. Since he now knew of the wizarding world, and of the dangers that came from it, he needed to be prepared and the way to be prepared was to be well informed, which could only happen in a place like Hogwarts. He had had a fleeting thought of trying to go to another school, he had read about Durmstrang and Beauxbatons but it was too late for that – Dumbledore and Voldemort had caught up with him, and he was sure that nowhere on this Earth would be far enough for him to escape the two. He dearly wished he had been aware of the world of magic earlier so he could have escaped the current situation.

Sooner or later he would have to decide the outcome of the two wizards' little game himself but he had little to no real information, wasn't cognizant of the politics of the word at a level where he could reach some kind of a conclusion. He did have a few sources – Snape, perhaps Goff when he had the time to talk to him and different written materials, but he was all too aware that he could not trust any of them, especially with his rather unique position as The-Boy-Who-Lived.

Shaking his head Viper pushed away from the wall he had been leaning on. His wandering thoughts had caught him up with him on his way to the Halloween feast, and since he wasn't in any kind of hurry to go to the crowded and loud Great Hall, he had simply leaned back against the cool stone wall and lowered his head, letting his thoughts run their course. He had just turned the last corner and the door of the Hall came in sight when he heard a loud whooshing sound and his muscles tensed as he stopped. No sooner had he done that when suddenly a passage on the wall not three feet before him opened fully and a figure ran out of it making off in a run for the Great Hall. Brows lowering when he caught sight of Quirrell's askew purple turban even as his nose caught the whiff of the strange smell that always seemed to cling to it he hurried to follow, mind working extra time.

The man threw the doors to the Hall with force making them bang against the walls, gathering the attention of all the Hall's occupants to him as he ran down the isle between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables, before stopping in front of the Head table, where the teachers were already straightening from their seats. The man bent over clutching his ribs but his face seemed to be facing the Headmaster. Viper was looking with one eye around the corner of the Hall's doors waiting to see what happened, knowing that the man who was currently acting as a host for the Dark Lord was up to something.

"What is it Quentin?" said the Headmaster standing up.

"T…" Quirrell panted before straightening a little "Troll…In the dungeons…Thought you ought to know" he said in a quivering voice before he toppled over in a dead faint.

Brows knitting together as after a second's pause pandemonium rose in the Great Hall, the benches scraping the stone as hundreds of children rushed from their seats, the loud bang and the Headmaster's voice that brought sudden silence were a distant sound to Viper who was already moving away.

Sliding behind a suit of armor he waited near the doors. His best chance was to slip in unseen with the students as they left the Hall. They came pouring out of the Hall, whispering in fright and their shoes hitting the floor in hurries steps as the Prefects of the Houses called out for them to follow. He slipped into the green and silver crowd and followed on the heels of two fifth-years who were talking in hushed voices. As he passed by the secret passage discovered just minutes ago he noticed something sticking out of the wall. It was a small piece of brown cloth. Smirking he threw a look at the students who hadn't even noticed him and slid into a shadowed niche until they were out sight, then carefully went to the place on the wall marked with the cloth and looked at it. Taking out his wand his emerald eyes narrowed in thought before he tapped the wall with his wand three times muttering a charm he hoped would help. Seeing the wall refusing to move he took a step back and waved his wand in a small arch, making a small puff of smoke emit from it.

The small cloud of smoke swirled in a spiral and crept over the wall, leaving a ghostly trail that drew the image of a narrow entrance before disappearing. Without further attempts to open the passage Viper bend over and with a strong tug freed the piece of cloth from the all.

"…dungeons, it's just not possible! ..." He jumped back and pressed himself into a niche as an irritate Professor McGonagall passed him with an unconcerned Snape on her heels.

As soon as they turned the first corner to the dungeons he slid out of his hiding place and aimed his wand at the piece of cloth that he put on the ground. He moved his wand in a complicated pattern and chanted under his breath, a steady pale blue light starting to pulse over the cloth. The light threw eerie shadows in the dark passageway and illuminated Viper's concentrated face creating a frightening picture for someone who should be unfortunate to pass by …and live.

Slowly the cloth lifted in the air and for a second simply hung there, defying all basic laws of physics, before the light winked and disappeared. The cloth began to flutter to the stone floor but a fast hand caught it mid-air and Viper looked at it. Putting his wand away he shifted his grip on the cloth so he was holding on as little of it as possible. The best would have been for him to levitate it but the situation didn't allow that. Slowly he started walking back towards the entrance hall, a gentle tugging of the cloth between his fingers guiding him.

He was near a side staircase, close to the girl's bathroom when suddenly a terrible stench hit his nose. Pausing he looked down at the cloth in his hands then up towards the corner down the Hall. Then, instincts screaming, he ducked under the staircase. No sooner had he done that and heavy, uneven steps were heard coming down the corridor. Risking a glance from around the staircase he watched a something that was at least twelve feet tall, with granite- gray skin, a huge body that seemed deformed with lumps that stuck out grotesquely came from the same way he had just passed. A too small round bold head was stuck on a non-existent neck, swaying from side to side with each step the creature took Hands, that were too long for the body they were attached to, hung limply at his sides, one of them holding onto a large crude wooden club that scraped the floor by a thick as a log and flat-footed leg with an annoying grating sound.

A stench of unwashed and putrid flesh clung to the air around the creature that could be nothing but a troll as it passed the place where Viper was hiding. He waited until the creature had lugged its repulsive bulk around the corner before coming out. His foot was on the first step of the staircase when he heard the resonating crash and a brief, high-pitched scream. Stopping in mid-move he looked up the staircase then turned his head to look at the corner where the creature had gone. With a final look up the staircase he put the cloth in his pocket and took his foot off the step. He had only been going to prove his suspicions but against the probable rumors and suspicions that would spring of the combination of his absence from dinner, a troll in the school and said troll killing another student… Cursing softly but quite colorfully under his breath he took the space to the corner in no time and then looked around it.

The troll was standing half-in half-out of the smashed doorway to the girls' bathroom, shaking his head as if to make his insignificant brain work where it never had. Drawing back quickly Viper's fists clenched. Why the fuck did he had to get stuck in these situations? He'd have to ask the Astronomy Professor if there was some celestial conspiracy against his person, nothing else could explain the madness his life was.

Anger boiling, quick to spring from the place he had managed to tuck it safely away, the corners of his lips pulled back in a silent snarl. His hands moved to unbutton his cloak and rested on the butt of his handgun. Flicking the strap that held it in its place away with a finger his eyes narrowed. Fuck them! He threw another glare around the corner as he heard another high-pitched scream. With a snarl he twirled around the corner, his wand and a gun already appearing in his hands. With steady, fast steps he approached the door, staying against the opposite wall. As soon as he had visual of the open door and the large gray lump of the troll he squeezed the trigger, lips pulling further back in a feral expression.

The thing turned and had less than a second to look at him with a dumb expression of mindless surprise before a bullet ripped out one of the dull bloodshot eyes, the creature's foul blood spraying in a small explosion. The girl under the sinks was strangely silent, eyes wide and pupils dilated as she watched the club that had been about to smash her fall from the troll's hands as it gave out an primal gurgling wail and clutched at the eye's empty socket, the bluish-red blood sprouting over them in rivers. But it did not fall when the bullet should have killed it.

Even before the beast had time to truly feel the injury Viper's wand was finishing the complicated movement of a spell. He grinned savagely as he watched the poisonous-yellow light fly then hit its target. The troll looked down, his hands still over one eye and looked through the hole that had once been its stomach and chest. It blinked stupidly once then without changing expression, without even swaying, tipped to one side and hit the floor with a hard thud that resonated over the stone walls.

The blood took a second to start pouring but eventually it did, in buckets.

Wrinkling his nose in distaste Viper moved quickly to grab the girl. "Come on"

Seeing her unresponsive state he quickly draped her in a fireman's carry and with a fast obliteration spell incinerated the troll's remains before removing them with a vanishing spell that also took care of the pool of blood around it. Cursing as he heard steps echo from not too far away he hurried to disillusion himself and his 'passenger' before taking off in the opposite direction of the footsteps. Just as he turned the corner a small group led by McGonagall turned the opposite one and set off to the toilet. She stopped short in front of it then with worry filled eyes turned to her companions.

"It must have already moved" she said before hurrying down the corridor.

Quirrell and Snape each looked at the demolished room, both seeing something that the Transfiguration teacher hadn't – a few small, almost unseen to the untrained eye flecks of blood that coated the wall under one of the sinks. Seconds later they were hurrying after her, Quirrell keeping behind the Potions Master for a while before unnoticed slipping down a passage disguised as a painting.

His absence was noticed ten minutes later by a pair of black eyes that narrowed in suspicion.

&&&

"Hermione!" a slap echoed in the abandoned classroom "Hermione snap the fuck out of it!"

Already irritate with the way the evening was turning out Viper used a bit too much force behind his slap but it did manage to get a response from the girl. A sharp intake of breath and her hand flying to her red cheek she turned wide eyes on Viper.

"You…you…" she couldn't seem to finish the thought.

Breathing out an annoyed breath, Viper stood from his crouching position, looming over the girl he had sat on a desk, his killing-curse green eyes narrowed in her direction.

"I… what?" he said in a cool voice in a stark contrast with his flushed face and glare.

Her eyes were returning to their normal appearance and Viper had to give her some points for so called 'bravery'. He'd seen better men cower when his unwanted attention was concentrated on them like it was now on her.

"You killed… the troll…" she said in a near whisper, lucidity quickly returning in her gaze as it grew measuring.

"Yes" he said simply. He didn't know what he was waiting for, he should have obliviated her the second he'd entered the room.

"With a gun…and magic…"

"Is there a point to this?" he said, already reaching for his wand. Seeing this Hermione's eyes widened and she tried to stand up from her seat and get her own out, but his hand landed heavily on her shoulder and held her down while his other one drew the wand out.

"What are doing?" her voice was almost calm but Viper could sense the fear in it. A smirk crossed his lips.

"You should not be allowed to remember tonight. You can cause me many problems...Obli…"

"Stop!" she cried and barely ducked the light of the spell that whizzed a millimeter above the fuzz of her bushy hair, hitting her head on the desk as she bent over, her head on her knees.

His brows raising Viper look at her in amusement. The girl had good reflexes. She stood like that for a few seconds before cautiously looking up at him, obviously expecting the next spell that she would not be able to escape.

"You have good reflexes Hermione" he said, waiting to see what she'd do.

Slowly she straightened and licked her lips which he was sure were dry. "Who are you?" she asked

A short chuckle escaping he leaned his hip on the desk before her and started idly twirling his wand between his fingers. "You know who I am" he said, deciding this was interesting.

"Yes, yes, I know the name you gave me but…who are you?" she seemed flustered, her fright seemingly forgotten in her annoyance of not being able to find the right words.

In a whim he slid the wand in its holster and leaned closer to her, his nose coming no more than a few centimeters away from her making her rear back. He grinned and knew the grin had nothing cheerful in it, enjoying the widening if her eyes, knowing that her heart was pounding in her ears. "They call me Hell Child but you can call me Viper"

Her eyes widened to comical proportions before suddenly they were all white for the second that was needed for her lids to fall over them and she slumped in her seat, finally shutting down with the latest shock of the night.

Silent laughter shaking his form Viper stood from the desk and unsheathed the dagger from his ankle. "You are too fun for me to ruin it with obliviating you my dear"

With that he tugged on her hand exposing her forearm and lowered the dagger on it. He was just beginning to learn blood magic and there was a large chance that the cast would go horribly wrong but, he thought looking at the slack face of the girl, it didn't matter.

&&&

As he slinked down the dark corridors, using the shadows' embrace and a Chameleon charm as a precaution against being seen he could feel the thoughts swirling in his mind with the speeds of a tornado. Had Voldemort gotten the stone already? If so what would happen next? So many question and so few answers weren't good for his peace of mind. He reached the door to Snape's office and knocked, looking around with sharp eyes, feeling for another presence in the deep shadows of the hall. There was no answer a minute later so he chanced another knock, this time using a small sequence that he knew Snape would recognize and identify him by it.

Another minute passed before he heard the heavy click of the door and it opened silently, the hinges well oiled.

It was opened just enough for him to slide in and as soon as the last fold of his robe was inside it closed with a noiseless bang.

Looking around the room he noticed the absence of light save for the green or white flickering light that some of the bottles and jars emitted. He took another look around and one of his brows twitched upward when he noticed a sliver of light coming from under a door on the left wall, a door that hadn't been there when he first looked. He'd been expecting one on the right.

Taking the distance in four brisk strides, he paused for a second before the handle-less door and drew out his wand. He tapped it twice murmuring a spell that should work, one far more advanced than an Alohomora, but nothing happened.

Breathing a breath out he slid the wand in its holster and propped a shoulder against the wall, waiting. A small smirk tugged on his lips. It was just like Snape to find amusement in such childish games.

Not a minute had passed when the door opened soundlessly and the sounds of a crackling fire and the clinking of bottles greeted him as he entered Snape's private quarters. The familiar room was fairly small, smaller than the one behind him, and had an ominous atmosphere, something cold and disturbing, just like its owner. The walls were covered in shelves holding books, many of which looked aged and on the brink of falling apart.

Snape himself was sitting in a worn armchair before the fire, the flames outlining the side of his face and the beak-like nose as he looked at the boy who had entered, while the other half was covered in shadow, only a flicker of light reflection of one small black eye. "Good evening" Viper said looking back before taking his usual seat in the second armchair before the fire. Between the chairs there was a coffee table that had its surface covered by scrolls and a quill that was resting next to a book with a plain black cover. A crystal bottle full of an amber liquid and an almost empty short glass that had been put carelessly over one corner of the parchment looked out of place yet strangely as if they belonged there.

"Evening" Snape answered.

Raising a brow Viper leaned back and looked at the dancing flames. "Not a good one?"

His eyes darted to the side just in time to see Snape's quick glance towards him before the man reached for the glass on the table and brought it to his lips.

"It depends on one's point of view" the man said lowering the glass and cradling it in his hands.

Viper felt a small smirk flitter over his face. The Potions Master was surprisingly outspoken. His eyes flickered to the bottle on the table and he wondered if the liquid inside it had been the same amount when Snape had taken it out earlier. He had his suspicions that it had been quite a bit fuller.

"And what would your point be?" he said

Snape didn't do something as common as sighing but he did twirl the liquid in his glass, seemingly entranced by it. "My point would be my own" he said coolly in a way of an answer.

"Ah" Viper said and simply continued looking at the man's fire-lit profile.

They sat like that for a while, Snape sipping his drink. Finally the glass empty once again and Snape reached over to put it down on the table again but didn't calculate the distance well enough and one of the books started slipping down. On reflex the man turned more in his seat and caught it hissing out a pained breath at the same time. Viper's eyes immediately traveled to the Potion Master's hand that had drifted unconsciously to his right thigh as he put the book back with his other one. He noticed a bandage peeking out under the man's black robes, covering his shin and soaked crimson. Without even bothering to question Viper slipped out on his seat and drew the robe away to uncover the injury. He tilted his head the looked up to black eyes watching him coldly.

"This needs re-bandaging" he said neutrally.

Snape made to draw his robe over the injury again and Viper could feel that sharp tongue preparing to deliver a cutting retort but he caught the hand that was reaching for the robe in a firm grip.

"It would do you no good to leave it like this. Where are your medical supplies?" he said beating the older man into speaking.

There was moment of stillness before Snape jerked his head in the direction of a cupboard that was under the shelves of books on his left.

Nodding Viper stood and went to bring the supplies. Opening the doors of the cupboard he paused, his eyes flying over the rows of bottles and jars, the package of gauze and other supplies. It was probably better stocked than the infirmary. "I see you like being prepared" he said as reached for the gauze. As expected his only answer was silence so he continued, "Which salve should I use?" From what little he had seen he knew the wound was big but he had no information on what had caused it and since his being introduced to the world of magic he'd started learning to include its possible contributes to his usual review of a situation. In simpler words – he wasn't sure if the wound was a result of a magical creature that needed special treatment, or perhaps the results of some other magic instead the 'simple' physical wounds he was used to.

"Left side, bottom shelf, blue jar," the Potions Master's voice was cool, controlled and Viper couldn't repress the small smirk when he recognized the voice. The man was injured - a weakness that was being shown to a person that was potentially dangerous and of whom he was unsure but trusted only as far as it was absolutely needed. He knew the voice all too well, he himself had used it. Pilling out the blue jar and some tampons he wiped the smirk of his face and turned back to the man the chair, his face a picture of indifference. Crouching in front of the chair he carefully but not kindly, started un-bandaging the leg, the gauze had stuck in places, hardened by the clotted blood and he heard a slight hiss from the man above each time his work ripped such a piece from the skin. Slowly a wide mangled wound that took up most of the lower leg came to view and Viper's curiosity was sparkled. Peeling the dressing over the wound he heard Snape grind his teeth against the pain as the scabs were torn off with it which proved that he bandaging had been done in a hurry and probably by the man himself.

Fresh blood tricked from the gash and Viper quickly set to work. He'd done this too many times to count. Of course not on wounds this large but he and Sow had had their shake of cuts, bruises and god knows what else. The wound would have usually needed heavy stitching but magic would be the better substitute.

Opening the jar a heavy scent of something herbal mixed with a stench he had never smelled before hit his nose and he hoped he would never again have to feel it. The crème inside was oily and a repulsive green-yellow color that reminded him of something dead and decaying.

Without a pause he used a tampon dipped in the crème to clean the wound, smirking a little and looking up in amusement when after a particularly deep wipe of the tampon he was using caused the injured man to flinch, receiving a dark look in return. With experience he dressed it, using the crème, then bandaged the dressing and the leg.

Tying the bandage and straightening to look up he kept his smirk. "That must have been one hell of a dog" he said gathering the used tampons and bloody bandages and throwing them into the fire. He'd seen dog-bites before –a contractor of Sow's had run dog fights with a side occupation for the dogs that had to do with more perverse entertainment, gladiator style.

The Potions Master looked at him with unreadable eyes. "What makes you think this was caused by a dog?"

Viper tilted his head a little and returned the look. "Is it not?"

"That was not an answer to my question"

"And neither was that an answer to mine"

The silence that was so usual between them in their little rendezvous seemed so thick that night. It seemed to carry so many secrets that were just under the surface but yet so deeply woven – like a tread that once pulled unravels something much bigger.

"It was" the Potions Master finally said in a tone that clearly stated that that would be as far as that tread would be pulled.

Understanding that even that little admission was already more than he would get, Viper inclined his head. "I hope you don't encounter it again then. As for the answer to your question – I have seen a fair few different kinds of animal bites and have remembered the patterns"

Snape had reached over for the bottle and the glass one more time and had poured himself another glass during the brief explanation. Taking a long sip he cradled the glass in his hand as his black eyes that reflected the dancing fires of the fireplace narrowed and focused on the boy's shadowed ones. "You seem to know a great deal about many things for an eleven-year-old Mr. Davis, no to mention that in less than three months you have absorbed more material on magical theory and the practical implementation of it than half the seventh-years in the school…"

The man left his sentence opened with a note of expectation coloring the ending of his vocal musings.

Viper's brows drew together in an unconscious frown. He'd known the question was coming but he'd wished it to have been asked later but as he well knew wishes were as useless as far as reality goes. He blinked and turned to look at the fire. A log broke with a crack and a wave of bright sparks flew up illumination his eyes, turning them a hundred shades of golden-jade color that would have been beautiful and warm if not for the inhuman coldness in them. On the chair next to him the Potions Master threw him a last look that would have had any other man diving for cover and spilling his most sacred inner thoughts that went completely unnoticed by the set frame of the boy next to him. A second later he brought the glass to his lips again and turned to the fire. As Snape turned away Viper's thoughts were straying along a worn path of memories and thoughts. It was true that his pace of learning was so far from average that it was unnatural and despite what the Potions Master may think that had not always been true to such a degree.

He remembered a time when he was young, a kid by any standards, about six-years-old when he'd still been celebrating his 'victory' over Sow that he'd started his side 'education' by the young assassin.

They'd stared out small but there was a need for practical use of what he learned and the type of matter he was taught couldn't be practiced except in a real situation. He'd still been in the stage where he'd been learning to handle different weapons but since he had a natural talent for sneaking in and out of any place unseen Sow had agreed for him to 'practice' on some of the smaller jobs.

One such job had been to a special kind of a Japanese sword that had been made by one of the Masters hundreds of years ago. It had been unbelievable luck that there had been one such sword in the very city of London. It had belonged to a very old man that occupied the basement floor of an apartment building on the outskirts of the city, not too far away from one of Sow's undercover apartments. He had easily found out the old man's habits and in three days he was sneaking trough an open window inside the man's home while he was grocery shopping.

He'd found the sword on a sword stand in a quite large room that was covered in mats, an obvious training studio. He had been reaching for it when a heavy wooden stick had snapped out of nowhere, hitting him viciously over the hands, leaving them temporarily numb and making him jump back with a hiss. He could still remember the anger that had filled him at being caught and then the overbearing fear that had gripped his soul as he had look up to meet the old man's emotionless, colder than an arctic winder, slanted black eyes that were set in a face covered with deep wrinkles.

The man's sheer presence made him shiver and suddenly he had understood why the sword on the stand was in this man's ownership, why it hadn't been taken before. His own arrogance and stupidity became all too clear for his six-year old mind in a startling sharp contrast that no child should be able to feel, see. But he did as he waited for the stick to lower again, knowing with understanding that had been born into him from his life with the assassin that when it did his life would be over. For moments longer than centuries he held the black eyes, on the verge of simply bowing his head and accepting the cost for his foolishness but then a familiar anger had overtaken him. It had been his constant companion, ever since he could walk, talk and think, a burning pit that roared inside him not allowing him to give up, a small taste of Hell inside him where demons cheered him on. So with the fire racing trough his veins he had tried to push the man away for long enough to slip away. He had held out all of twenty seconds before he lay on the floor, the man's foot on his chest, the stick millimeters from his face.

The man had asked one simple question, his voice cool, calm, eerily so: 'Why should I let you live?' he had asked.

Viper had had no answer, still didn't have. He had lain silent, breathing harsh, the blood pounding in his ears, the stall smell of the room filling his nostrils as he waited to see what was on the Other Side. No blow had come. Instead the man had removed his foot and calmly informed him that he was to return the next day after sunset. The man needed not make any threats - somehow the boy knew that if he did not do as he was instructed that blow had only been delayed. So he went back, day after day, nigh after night, making Sow question him but he had never told the older man where he went, as he had been instructed. He was sure that Sow had known it had something to do with the sword he had failed to obtain but not anything concrete, the boy thwarting any attempt of the man to find more about the matter.

The old man had told him he was to learn what he was taught and had said nothing more aside instructions during their lessons. Viper had done his best but again and again the man told him it was not enough, that he was too slow to learn. Then one night when he had shown up for his lesson the man had presented him with a small bow filled with murky white liquid and told him to drink it. The boy had been distrustful but a long hard as stone look from the man had him tipping the bow and drinking the bitter contents. He remembered nothing after than except a far-away sound of something ceramic braking and a swirl of color before darkness. Waking up he had been alone in the dark studio. He had made his way home that night wondering what had happened. A worried Sow had informed him he had been gone for a week, a space of time he had no recollection of.

After that the lessons with the old man had gone faster and Sow had been astounded with the speed with which the boy started to pick up what he was being taught. A year later Viper had turned up for a lesson. He knew he was good but the old man was never satisfied so day after day, week after week he had shown back at the studio being taught how to fight in different styles, slowly adapting a mixture of them for himself. But that day the studio had been empty. The mats were not there, the weapons' racks from the walls removed, all that was in the room was a single sword stand laid in the middle of the room and on it a katana sword – the same one he had been trying to steal the first time he had entered the room.

Refocusing on the dancing flames before him he refused to think more of it, especially in the presence of Snape - an accomplished Legilimens. Darting a look over to the man he stood and went to one of the shelves, bringing out a book.

He wanted some more information on the blood spell he had performed earlier that night.

&&&

Stalking in the shadows of the halls Viper made his way back to the dungeons, feeling their welcoming chill near as he turned another corner. He took another step before faltering. He managed to keep walking but his narrowed eyes took in the hall he was in with concentration but saw nothing. He felt a presence but couldn't quite put his finger on it. It was like trying to grasp water – it slipped from his mind leaving only the faintest trace, enough to put him on edge.

Shaking his head he hurried on his way.

&&&

Dumbledore stood with is hands clasped behind his back, his blue eyes flooded with the darkness of the hall, until only slim half-moon slivers of light gave out their color.

He watched the chameleon shadow move and stepped out of the way seeing the boy falter in his path. His brows lowered as he noticed it. The first-year shouldn't be able to sense him in any way. The boy continued on his way but the Headmaster stood invisible in the darkness for a while more.

The boy held such promise but he wasn't all the headmaster had dreamt of. The boy was too concentrated, too driven at times but it was unsure what the true nature of his motives was. He wanted him to be more alive, show his inherent goodness. At least he was loyal to his friends, which was a small consolation considering who said friends were. The old man sighed and moved invisible in the opposite direction of his student. In his mind he'd had a picture of a boy who he knew he'd love as a grandson and who he dreamt would love him back or at least accept him as a mentor.

A hard look came over him. It was still early in the Game of Life, he could still have his dream even if some compromises would have to be made on his part.

A/N: I had been trying to get this up since yesterday and every time my A/N's were erased. Grrrr :beware of angry author: Since I'm at my wit's end I'll just say this: THANK YOU to all reviewers, I deeply appreciate it and to those who are still not part of that group - what are you waiting for! Hit that button and Review!