As usual following a holiday, school was rowdier than normal, with friends who had not gotten to see one another as often over the hols greeting each other boisterously and showing off various gifts they had received. Harry was not immune to the general silliness, greeting both Surya and Lucy by spinning them into a few dance steps as Paul laughed so hard that he had to hold onto his desk to keep from falling out of his seat. Ms. Beckett, knowing that not much work would get done on this first day back, nevertheless tried to get them to settle down by promising the class a couple of extra fifteen-minute breaks during which they could move about and talk quietly to one another… if they sat and paid attention for the rest of the time. The class succeeded in earning the extra breaks, and the foursome took full advantage of the added time to tell of their various holiday happenings.

Surya had the quietest holiday of the four. While her family had gotten into the habit of exchanging gifts on the 25th when her older brothers were children so that they wouldn't feel left out when their school friends talked about their Christmas presents, Christmas itself was not a holiday for them as they were Hindu. She spent most of the break learning to cook traditional Indian dishes under her mother's tutelage, but she had also gotten a couple of chances to go play at Paul's flat, and Paul had visited her house a couple of times as well. Paul's family tradition included going to a midnight service on Christmas Eve, and to the pantomime on Boxing Day. Lucy's oncologist had pronounced her fit for travel, so her parents had taken her up to Yorkshire to visit with her grandparents for a week. Harry, of course, told them about going to see The Nutcracker and then his visit to Highgrove. Surya and Lucy enjoyed hearing about the dance lesson, while Paul was more interested in hearing a retelling of the conversation about computers being a coming thing. All three were excited for Harry when he mentioned that his tutor would be taking him out to buy a pet after school.

"What are you going to get, Harry?" Lucy asked, bouncing a little. "I want a cat, but Mum was worried about one being underfoot when I was doing chemotherapy. She said maybe I can get one once I've been in remission for a full year."

Harry shook his head. "No cats and no dogs either," he said. "I don't think Aunt Petunia is keen on pets at all, so whatever I get has to be something kept in a cage. My cousin says he wants a rat… Stephen figured that Aunt Petunia would be more likely to allow me to have a pet if Dudley got one as well… but I don't know yet what I want."

"Paul has fish," Surya volunteered. "A big aquarium with lots of different fish, and a tiny little bowl with a bright red goldfish with droopy fins, too."

"It's a betta," Paul said. "Not a goldfish at all. The other name for them is the Siamese fighting fish. If you put two male bettas in the same bowl or tank, they'll fight to the death. Bettas don't bother other fish, though." He grinned. "In fact, it's more likely that other fish will bother them, because they have those droopy fins and they swim slowly. It's why the betta is kept in his own bowl and not in the aquarium. We've got cardinal tetras, harlequin rasboras, bronze corydoras, and swordtails in several colours."

"Lucy and I will have to come and see the aquarium sometime," Harry said with a smile. "It sounds brilliant."

Paul shrugged a little. "It's all right. I really wanted a budgie, but Mum didn't want anything that might make too much noise when the baby is sleeping."

"Well, that makes sense," Lucy said. "I know I'd go spare if I'd just got a baby to sleep and then something made a lot of noise and woke it up again."

"And the noise is why I'm not thinking about a bird of any sort," Harry chuckled. "I am thinking about a snake, though. I got to handle a corn snake at the zoo, and the zoo worker said I was really good with it. Snakes don't get noisy, and what's more, Dudley is scared of them, so he'll stay out of my room if I have a snake in there with me."

"Oh, I agree with Mum's reasons," Paul said. "I do like budgies, though. My cousin in Guildford has one that's blue with a yellow face, and it can talk. It says 'hello,' and 'pretty birdie,' and 'I talk, can you fly?'"

They all laughed at that and Surya nodded. "My cousins in Delhi have a bird that can talk, too, a mostly green bird called an Indian ring-neck parakeet. It's lots bigger than a budgie, though, and it can bite pretty hard if it wants to. My cousin Raj was showing off and teasing it, and it bit his hand hard enough to draw blood. Both my mum and his mum said it served him right, though, as Raj knows better than to poke at the bird when it's eating." She grinned at Harry. "And my cousins took me to see a snake charmer in the marketplace. It was like something out of a book or a film; this old man just sat there and played an instrument called a pungi, and a cobra slipped up from the basket in front of him and flared its hood and swayed to the music."

"That would be interesting to see," Harry said with a smile.

"Not to me," Paul said. "Cobras are poisonous. I've played with the corn snakes at the zoo in London before and that was fun. But I don't want to go near anything like a cobra."

"What about you, Lucy?" Surya asked. "Would you want to see a snake up close?"

Lucy grinned. "I've held a python that was longer than I am tall," she said. "One time when I was in hospital for my chemo rounds, a troupe of Bollywood dancers came 'round to entertain the pediatric wards, and two of the dancers used perfectly enormous pythons as props in their dancing. They let anyone who wanted have the snakes in their beds for a few minutes. I've got a picture that Daddy took of me with the snake and the dancer. I'll try to remember to bring it tomorrow to show you."

"That sounds brilliant," Surya said. "And I do think you should get a snake, Harry. Especially since Pig-boy is scared of them." That made everyone laugh again, but before they could continue the conversation, Ms. Beckett called the class back to order for the remainder of the school day.

After school, the four friends walked out together and up the block to where Lucy's mother was waiting in the family car to pick her up as usual. "Will you all come over after school tomorrow?" she asked before getting into the car. "You know, so we can get caught up properly."

"I can," Harry nodded. "Tae kwon do class won't resume until next week."

Paul smiled. "Sure, Mum never minds as long as I let her know ahead. She only frets when she expects me home and I'm late, because she worries about my asthma. You know, that maybe I'm late because I had trouble breathing and got taken to hospital for it or something."

"I'll check with my mum, but I'm sure I can," Surya said.

"Brilliant!" Lucy said, hugging each of them. "See you tomorrow!" She clambered into the car with a wave.

Paul headed towards the centre of Little Whinging where his family's flat was located, while Harry and Surya strolled off towards Magnolia Crescent, once again chatting about the snake charmer the girl had seen while visiting India. Dudley was with his gang just ahead of them, but for once was ignoring them both. Instead, he was bragging to his gang about the rat he was going to buy and then train to bite the freak on command. Harry and Surya, hearing this, just looked at each other and rolled their eyes. "Good luck at the pet shop," Surya said with a grin as she turned up the walk to her house.

"Thanks!" Harry called back with a wave. "See you tomorrow!" He proceeded on to Privet Drive.

Stephen was waiting out front as he walked up just behind Dudley. "Hi, Harry," the young man called. "Are you ready to go shopping?"

Harry smiled. "Hi, Stephen," he called back. "I'm ready when you are. I just need to put my books in my room."

"I'm hungry," Dudley said. "We can go after I've had a snack." He walked into the house without waiting for an answer from either of the other two.

Harry chuckled and shook his head. "You might as well come inside, then," he invited. "I don't think Aunt Petunia will mind too much."

"All right," Stephen answered, falling in beside the boy as they headed into the house. They could hear Dudley in the kitchen, whining about how hungry he was, while Petunia fluttered around trying to placate him with snack suggestions. "Is he always like that?" he asked Harry in an undertone as they went upstairs to stow Harry's schoolbooks in his room.

"Usually he's worse," Harry said with a shrug. "He left me alone after school today, because he was too busy bragging to his friends about the pet he's going to get." He chuckled. "He intends to get a rat and train it to bite on command."

Stephen laughed. "That ought to be interesting to watch him try! Rats can be rather clever, as I understand it, but they're not attack dogs either. Have you decided what you might like to get?"

"I was thinking maybe a snake," Harry admitted with a grin. "Since I can talk to them and all. Not to mention, because Dudley is scared of them. The only other pet that I think I would like is a budgie or something like that, but I figured that Aunt Petunia might be upset by the noise so I thought it would be better to get something quieter."

"I should have known," Stephen grinned. "And that's good reasoning behind not choosing a budgie. No point in annoying your aunt now that you've got things so much better around here, right?"

Harry nodded. "Exactly," he agreed. "I know she doesn't want me here, and it's not as if I've ever thought of this house as my home, because it's not. It's just the place I have to stay. But ever since Uncle Vernon died, and even more since you talked with her about that bit with Uncle Sirius and Professor Dumbledore, she's gotten a lot more, I don't know, tolerant of my presence here."

Stephen nodded. "I think you're right about that. I'm pretty sure that at first it was mostly to keep me from saying anything bad about her in my reports to Her Majesty, but I also think that once she got out of the habit of resenting you, it got easier for her to see you as a person and not just as a burden foisted off on her."

Knowing that Dudley would be eating for at least another fifteen minutes, Harry pulled an apple out of the cold storage compartment of his trunk and offered Stephen one as well. "Maybe. I'm just glad that it's better and want to keep it that way, you know? It's only another year and a half until I'll be off to Hogwarts, after all, and with any luck, Uncle Sirius will be able to get custody of me by then."

"I'm sure he will," Stephen reassured the boy. "If not before school starts, then for certain by the end of the year. And you know you'd be spending the winter hols with him either way."

"That's true," Harry said, brightening a bit. The two wizards munched their apples in companionable silence and then headed downstairs to collect Dudley and go to the pet shop.

Fortunately for Stephen's sanity, Dudley made a point of putting on his angel act since they were out in public and he was in the charge of his freak cousin's tutor. He didn't want to risk being told he couldn't get a pet after all, and since Mr. Coyner did seem to treat the little freak as if he was a normal person, he vaguely realised that it was possible the man would take exception to him behaving the way his late father had taught him was the proper way to handle freaks. He couldn't resist one good poke at his freakish cousin when the smaller boy was given the front seat in Mr. Coyner's car, but aside from that and pouting because he was in the back seat, he kept his hands to himself and refrained from expressing his dissatisfaction aloud.

On his part, Stephen decided to stick to Dudley when they arrived at the pet shop. He trusted Harry to behave and to listen to the shop help if they told him to do something, but he did not trust the fat and spoiled boy to do the same. "Are you sure it's a rat you want?" he asked as they headed towards the rodents. "Is your mum all right with that?"

"It's my pet, not Mummy's," Dudley said. "She always gives me what I want, as long as she can afford it. And I want rats. Piers says they do better if you have two." He peered at a large cage containing a dozen rats in assorted colours and patterns. A soft grey rat and a white one with a black head and shoulders plus a stripe down its back shared the exercise wheel, running side by side as if racing. A pale gold rat kept sniffing around the entrance to the hideaway and the tail which stuck out of it. And two more black and white rats were nibbling on sunflower seeds in the corner. "Piers has got black and white rats, so mine have to be different."

Stephen sighed to himself but nodded since the informative signs on the rat cages also said that they were social animals that shouldn't be kept alone. "All right, then, how about we figure out what you'll need in the way of a cage and bedding and such, and then you can decide which ones you want."

"You do that, stuff like that is boring," Dudley announced. "Anyway, I want to see all the rats before I pick them." He started tapping on the cage in an effort to make the ones hiding in the shelter come out, and ignoring Stephen completely.

The wizard sighed again but proceeded to locate one of the shop assistants and gather up all the necessary equipment to give a rat a good home. He glanced over at Harry on occasion, but saw that the younger boy had found another shop assistant to help him with the snakes and was doing fine on his own. At one point in the conversation, he noticed Harry gesture briefly in his direction, and took care to give a smile to the person speaking with the boy.

The shop assistant with Harry returned Stephen's smile and looked down at the boy again. "Right, so you'll need the aquarium and locking screen lid, a heating mat, a sturdy water dish, and a climbing branch or two. Use some shredded up butcher paper or paper towels in the cage bottom for the first few months. It'll not look so nice, but it's better for the snake when it's still young. A couple of hiding spots are needed as well, but you can make those yourself, from empty snack boxes or butter tubs."

Harry nodded. "You have books on snake care? Or at least an information pamphlet?"

"Of course," the assistant said with a nod. "And good on you for thinking of it. Most kids your age don't even think about books on caring for their chosen pets, much less actually researching the pet they want. We just got in some new colour varieties of corn snake, would you care to take a look at them?"

"Sure," Harry said with a smile. "I wanted a corn snake anyway, in part because I like how they come in so many different colours."

The assistant unlocked the door to the section where the snakes and other reptiles were kept. "It's a precaution against escapees," he commented. "If one gets dropped or something, it'll still be stuck in this room so we can catch it again." He gestured to the tanks containing the snakes. "We just got a new lot in after the holiday. For the corns, we got a couple of butters, a bloodred stripe, a caramel, a peppermint, and a pewter."

Harry peered at the snakes with interest. The butters and the bloodred looked similar to the ones he and Draco had handled at the zoo. The caramel was pale tan with caramel markings, while the peppermint was pink markings on white. The pewter looked almost metallic silver, its markings present but not as defined as on the other snakes. "Oh, I like that one," he said, pointing to the pewter. "May I handle it?"

The assistant unlatched the tank cover and scooped up the snake. "Here you go. You say you've handled snakes before?"

"Not often, but yes, at the zoo and once at home when my cousin pranked me by putting a smooth snake in my bed," Harry said with a chuckle. He happily accepted the pewter corn snake from the shop assistant, letting it coil around his fingers. "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"Let me check the records," the assistant said, moving off to a corner of the reptile room and pulling a book off a shelf.

Taking advantage of the moment more or less alone with the snake, Harry quietly hissed, ::What's your name?::

The snake in his hands froze and then reared up to stare at him. ::You sspeak!::

::Yes, I do,:: Harry said. ::And I would like to take you home with me, if you would have me as your human.::

The snake let out a hiss of laughter. ::I think any of uss here would be pleassed to have you for our human, Sspeaker. I am Suliss.::

::And I am Harry,:: the boy told her, falling silent again as the shop assistant looked up from the book he was flipping through.

"According to the records, the pewter is a female," the young man said. "How do you like her?"

"I think she and I will get along quite well," Harry said with a smile. "May I stay here with her until you've gathered up everything I will need for her?"

The assistant dithered for a moment. "Well… I'm not supposed to let anyone be in here alone. But we're a bit shorthanded today, and there's no point putting her back in the tank just to take her out again in five or ten minutes. You've shown that you understand responsibility, too, so all right, I'll bend the rules for you. Just promise that you'll stay right here with her until I come back with the carrier."

"I promise," Harry agreed. When the man left the reptile room to start collecting the needed supplies, he noticed all the other snakes in the place looking at him. ::I am sorry I can't take all of you home with me,:: he told them. ::But I can ask, are you treated well here?::

The biggest snake in the shop, whose tank identification card listed him as a ball python, acted as spokesman. ::For the mosst part, yess. There are ssome who are rougher in handling uss than otherss, but I believe it iss ignoranss and not maliss that cauzsess it. We are warm enough, and fed well, but the humanss here cannot sspeak with uss.::

::Good,:: Harry said. ::I will return often, to get the proper food for Suliss. When I do, I will come and visit you all, and you can tell me if anything changes about how they treat you, so that I can tell the ones in charge of the problem.::

::That iss fair,:: the ball python agreed. ::We thank you, Sspeaker.::

The shop assistant returned then, bearing a small clear plastic carrier. "Are you ready then? It looks as though your tutor and cousin are about ready as well."

"I'm ready," Harry said with a nod. He carefully set Suliss into the carrier and latched the lid. "And so is she." He followed the shop assistant to the counter, where an irritated-looking Stephen was waiting to pay for everything.

Dudley was holding the carrier containing his chosen rats, a medium ginger male with a creamy underbelly and ruby red eyes and a pale grey with black eyes. He was also grumbling. "I don't see why I have to do everything! Why can't Mummy or th… or HE do it?" he whined, indicating his cousin. "Daddy wouldn't have made me do it!"

Stephen rolled his eyes. "Dudley, if you have a pet, you have to be responsible for it. Your pets depend on you for food and shelter and proper care, which includes setting up their home. Harry is going to be busy setting up the habitat for his own pet, so you have to set up the habitat for yours."

"Fine," Dudley sulked. He looked at the carrier in Harry's hand and sneered. "I should have known a freak like you would pick something stupid like a snake. You can train rats, you know. Piers trained his to sit up and beg for a treat. You can't do that with a stupid snake. Anyway, I get two pets and you only get one."

"I don't care, and I like snakes," Harry said with a shrug. He truly didn't care what his cousin thought of his choice of pet. The larger boy subsided when he wasn't able to get a reaction from his cousin. He grumbled again when Stephen handed him two bags of rat supplies to bring out to the car in addition to his pet carrier, ignoring the frown the man directed at him. He only quieted when he saw Harry loaded down with three bags along with his pet carrier, while Stephen himself wrestled with the large and bulky aquarium needed for the snake in addition to the lighter but equally bulky rat habitat.

The trip back to Privet Drive was uneventful, and Stephen brought the aquarium and the rat cage up to the boys' respective rooms. Petunia looked less than thrilled at the sight of Dudley's rats and outright flinched at seeing Harry's snake, but since she hadn't thought to disallow anything other than dogs and cats, restrained herself to commenting, "I did hope that one of you might have chosen a budgie or a canary."

Harry blinked at that. "Really? I had thought about a budgie, but I understand they can be rather noisy and I thought you wouldn't like that, so I went for something quieter."

It was Petunia's turn to blink. "Oh… I wish I had known you were thinking that way. My gran had a budgie when I was young, and I rather liked it. And one of my friends from school, her mum raised canaries. Birds can be messy, Gran always said she had to hoover around the cage every day, but I always thought they sounded so… cheerful."

Harry shot Stephen a look, and the young man grinned, understanding what was on the boy's mind. "Well, Mrs. Dursley, I suppose that since the boys have pets, you deserve one as well. If your budget can spare the ready until Saturday, you can go out tomorrow when Harry and Dudley are at school, and get yourself that budgie or canary and whatever it needs. Save the receipts, and then we can recompense you for the expense."

"Really?" Petunia looked flustered. "Vernon always refused to even consider… thank you!"

"You're welcome," Harry said. "I'd best start getting the tank set up for Suliss." He picked up the heating mat, looking at the instructions before arranging it in the bottom of the tank.

"Suliss, is that your snake's name?" Stephen asked, as a still-flustered Petunia went to go help a whining Dudley with his cage set-up.

Harry nodded. "Yes, she told me her name is Suliss. Isn't she pretty?" He grinned. "And while Dudley's rats might be cute and all, and he might think he got the better bargain for getting two animals when I've just got one, corn snakes can live up to twenty years, but rats only live for maybe three. So I think I got a much better deal today."

Stephen laughed. "You did, and yes, she is very pretty. Once she's used to living with you, perhaps you can bring her with us some weekend and show her off to Draco."

"I'd like that," Harry grinned. "He loved getting to see the snakes at the zoo. And when it warms up in the spring, if Seren comes 'round again, maybe I can introduce the two of them. He's the smooth snake that Dudley put in my bed back in the summer." He repeated that last bit in Parseltongue for Suliss' benefit.

::I would be pleassed to meet your firsst ssnake friend,:: Suliss agreed, sounding amiable about it. ::I do not think I have met a ssnake of any ssort but my own. I trust he will not be aggresssive towardss me, ssinsse I am your friend?::

::I will make sure he is not aggressive,:: Harry reassured his new pet. ::The only one I do not trust around you is Dudley… the fat boy with the rats. He would hurt you if he thought he could get away with it.::

::I may not have venom, but he will disscover that I have teeth if he takess it into hiss head to come after me,:: Suliss replied.

Harry laughed and relayed the conversation to Stephen, who had been listening with an expression of intense interest. The young man also laughed. "Good for her. Do you need help with anything else?" he asked.

"I need to shred up enough paper towels to cover the cage bottom," Harry said. "I wish I'd known about that before going to the pet shop, I could have had you do it the easy way before picking us up this afternoon." He gave a little swish of his hand as if holding a wand to show what he meant by 'the easy way' of shredding the paper towels.

Stephen nodded. "Well, I know you'll need more on a regular basis, so I can do some for you this week and bag it up to give you this weekend, if that will help."

Harry smiled. "It would, and thanks."

"All right, then, I should probably get going for…" Stephen started to say, when Petunia appeared in the doorway of Harry's room once more.

She cleared her throat a little nervously and said, "I… I'd be pleased if you'd stay for supper, Mr. Coyner. As a thank you for taking the boys out for their pets today. I've made lamb stew."

He smiled. "If you're sure it's no trouble, I'd be happy to stay. I've not had a lamb stew since I moved into my own flat. Thank you for asking me."

The meal was slightly awkward as Stephen and Petunia attempted to find some common ground for conversation that did not speak directly of the wizarding world. Dudley, as usual, was too busy inhaling his food to participate in the conversation at all, but Harry tried to ease things a little by talking about his visit to Highgrove. He knew better than to mention his gifts so as to avoid making Dudley jealous, but he talked about going riding and watching films and having a dance lesson with Prince William, Zara Phillips, and Zara's friend Sophie. Stephen spoke a little about his university courses, and Petunia mentioned that she was thinking about taking a few courses herself. She said she was considering the possibility of seeking a job once Dudley was off to Smeltings and would no longer need his mummy to be at home for him, but that she knew she would be at a disadvantage for having been a housewife for so long. That's when Harry brought up what Sophie had said about computers and suggested that if his aunt was going to take some courses, an introductory computer course might be just the thing to give her an advantage in the future. She looked surprised, but agreed that it was something to look into.

After a dessert of bakewell tart, Stephen took his leave and Harry went up to his room, where he settled in for a nice conversation with his new pet as he and Suliss got to know one another.

I'm not sure exactly when all the color variants of corn snakes that I mentioned were developed, as only a couple of the sites I looked at in researching them mentioned any sort of time frame. Caramel was first noted and bred for in 1983, but none of the others gave dates. For the sake of my story, I'm saying that the ones I described would have been available in the pet trade by late 1989/early 1990.

Virtual cookies to anyone who knows where I came up with the name of Harry's new pet.