A/N Anyone curious about the name Hermes and why it was chosen? (Yes, it was done on purpose). The reasoning behind the name is at the bottom of this chapter. :) Onto the story

Chapter Eleven

You Hate Me

One thing that truly bugged Harry the first few months of school was Professor Snape. In all honesty, the whole professor thing was weird. He wasn't sure why he had to call them professors and not Mr., Ms., or Mrs. But back to Snape, the man just seemed to hate him from the start. It wasn't because of Angitia, that Harry knew. The man had hardly spared her a glance. The potions teacher had glares - hidden from view from the others - only for Harry.

Harry could only guess that he must have done something to Professor Snape in another life. He had no idea what he had done or if the man had issues with Americans.

Professor Snape was not the only strange professor. The stuttering Professor Quirrell was a bore because he basically talked about vampires. Even muggles had stories about vampires and they seemed all relatively the same. Plus he hadn't even explained how to keep them away or how to defend against them. All he mentioned were the characteristics of vampires. The man seemed absolutely enthralled with the creatures.

As for everyone's reaction to Angitia, Professor McGonagall had been true to her word and Professor Dumbledore had stood up and explained about Harry having Angitia and warned about her venom. The Headmaster also said that Harry can keep her under control, but that she would attack if she or he were threatened. Suffice it to say, Harry hadn't been bothered and neither had Angitia.

The school itself was entertaining to walk around in and explore. It didn't seem possible to go the same way twice. The stairs moved in directions you didn't want them to go, paintings tried to be helpful but made things worse and other students accidently pushed you in passageways you didn't realize existed.

It was already November and nothing too exciting had happened.

Well, there had been a troll on Halloween night, but nobody had gotten hurt. Even though Quirrell had claimed that the troll was in the dungeons it had ended up in the girl's lavatory on the ground floor. And not only that, but if the troll was claimed to be in the dungeons, why did the Headmaster send the Slytherin's to their common room - in the dungeons? Thankfully, no one had been in the bathroom and the professors were able to handle the troll quickly.

The only event that personally happened to Harry was when he saved a boy's Rememberall from Malfoy. The blonde had been about to put it on the roof, but Harry had used his wand and summoned it back to the pudgy owner. Angitia had hissed her quiet laughter at Malfoy's surprise. Even though Harry didn't like those who bullied others, Harry would rather tamp down the effects instead of trying to stop the bullying altogether.

However, since it was November, Harry had to learn a warming charm that would last a while for Angitia because she wasn't used to cold weather. She had never seen snow before either. Neither her nor Harry appreciated the white stuff that much.

After he made it into Slytherin, Malfoy had been his guide of sorts. Harry always made it to class on time and was up in a 'timely' manner. However, what Malfoy thought was timely was completely different than Harry's. It was more like Harry made sure Draco was up at the correct time and still be able to get ready for the day. Why it took the blonde an hour and a half to get ready, he didn't know. But it gave Harry the chance to go running around the school and back in time to take a shower and still be done before Malfoy was ready.

Harry had received many owls from Natalia, Clint and Mr. Phil. They all enjoyed his letters and having Hermes visit them. Nothing new was happening except that they were still continuing training - with the warning that Harry better be keeping up with them so they could spar when he got back.

"What are you chuckling about?" Malfoy plopped down next to Harry by the fire. Crabbe and Goyle were gone, probably still in the Great Hall if Harry had to guess. Those two were constantly eating.

His letter still in hand, Harry barely glanced at the other Slytherin when he flicked the corner of the paper; Malfoy simply nodded in reply to Harry's nonverbal answer. Thankfully after the first couple of days asking why he wasn't speaking, Malfoy gave up and just dealt with it. There was nothing Harry had to say and, surprisingly, the blonde respected that. Well, as far as Harry could tell.

The blonde could be a jerk. He was rude to the Gryffindors even though he had no real reason to be. He said the cruelest things, even if some of what he said didn't make sense to Harry. Like a mudblood? Why would someone have mud in their blood? It seemed like a stupid thing to say, but some kids actually cried over it.

Harry stood up, deciding to talk to his head of house. If he had to deal with Professor Snape for seven years, he would rather deal with the man on good terms. It wasn't like Harry didn't speak during class. If he was asked a question, he answered with the fewest words he could manage and still give the correct answer.

"Where are you off to?" Malfoy asked, eyes narrowed.

Harry shrugged and made a gesture to encompass the room. As he stood, Angitia raised her head from where she was resting in front of the fire. When she saw him moving away, she hurried and began to slither up him, quickly moving into her normal position out of sight. Harry ignored the shivers from most of the other students as her tail disappeared.

He walked up the steps and left the common room, heading for Snape's office that was adjacent to his classroom. He knocked on the door and waited patiently until he heard the bark to enter. Pushing the door open, Harry took a look around.

There were cauldrons everywhere that were brewing, books were in their place in the shelves and a desk on the far side of the chamber. Professor Snape was standing in the middle of the room between two boiling cauldrons. He wore his regular scowl, though Harry wouldn't have been surprised if Snape was curious as to why he was there. After all, Harry didn't visit Snape. Ever.

"What do you want, Potter?"

Cocking his head to the side, Harry came up with different ways to deal with what he wanted to say to Snape. He finally decided to just be upfront and just say what he thought so Snape didn't think he was hiding something. "You hate me."

Snape just stared at him, blinking at him for a few moments. He finally seemed to find his voice, "What did you say?"

Shrugging, Harry said, "You hate me. I did something that caused your hatred."

Angitia became restless and began to uncoil herself so she was moving around the room. She knew to stay away from the potions, but she did inspect Snape before deciding he was no threat and moved on to the nooks and crannies of the room.

"What gives you that impression?"

There was no need for Harry to answer. It was obvious. He had lived with his Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and his cousin Dudley who hated him. Snape treated him with the same disdain as they did. So Harry just raised an eyebrow and waited.

Snape just stared at him for a moment, apparently waiting for an answer. The silence stretched on, but Harry had nothing else to say. The rest, in his opinion, was up to Snape.

"What is your point, Mr. Potter?"

Frowning, Harry looked around and saw Angitia getting close too close to a cauldron. He flicked out his wand and gently moved her away. Angitia looked over at him, flicked her tongue out at him and continued to move around. He then turned his attention back to Mr. Snape - Professor Snape. It was still weird not calling him Mr. Snape.

"You don't hate anyone else."

"Is there a question in there, Mr. Potter?"

Harry sighed and scratched his forehead, careful to keep his scar out of sight. Angitia slithered her way over to him. She coiled her way up his body so she could hang around his shoulders to offer comfort. Harry smiled at her tentatively and rubbed his fingers against her scales.

He refused to look at Professor Snape. He kept his eyes on the cauldrons as he tried to keep his fidgeting to himself. Seeing no other way he asked, very quietly, "What have I done to make you hate me?"

Professor Snape didn't answer. He just stared at Harry. Not that Harry expected him to respond. No one ever answered his questions. Except for Angitia. He could ask her anything and she would try to answer.

Deciding he would try again later, Harry gave a brisk nod to Professor Snape and turned on his heel and headed for the door. Before he could leave, though, Professor Snape said, "I don't hate you, Mr. Potter."

Harry stared at the greasy haired man for a moment before he inclined his head. The man may have said that, but it didn't make it true.

So, instead of mentioning the real reason he had come, Harry left. There wasn't any reason to trust adults. Those who hated him tended to give him false information. So Harry wouldn't bring up the pain in his scar or Quirrell.

He would deal with Quirrell on his own if he had to.

A/N A guest reviewer, Opinr, had an excellent question: Why the name Hermes?

Here's your answer: :)

1) Natalia doesn't care if the owl is male or female - the animal is just a way to communicate.

2) Hermes is known - partially - as the messenger god. Since the owl is only used for communication that tied the name in well.

3) She chose a god's name because Harry's a wizard. In Natalia's mind, her thought process went: Harry, wizard, magic, power, gods - because they had magic and power. She also didn't like the idea of Merlin - she said that would be too cliched. (And because Clint said that Merlin couldn't be passed off as a female name because he wanted to take the gender into account).

4) She also claimed that as gods, humans have no real proof if they were male or female, so in a sense, they could be both. In that case, it would be fine to use the names Hermes - she had to make this point to convince Clint... he gave up because he didn't want to argue anymore.

5) Harry, for his part, didn't care one way or another. He just wanted the owl to keep in touch with his family.

6) ... I have no real 6th point, but I wanted there to be six, so I'm going to pretend that I said something witty. :)

Anyway, until next time!