"And the little wizard boy ran to his home, but the snake followed after, slithering right under the door." The old witch read from the large picture book in her left hand while helping the little boy balance on her knees with the other. "The giant snake hissed 'I like boys that taste like bacon', and the giant snake swallowed that bad little boy whole. But before that snake could even turn around, the boy's sister ran into his room and hit him with her magic broom. The snake tried to escape, but with the little boy inside,it was too big to go back under the door. It slithered this way and that but each time the girl would hit it 'bok' on the head. So the snake was forced to spit out the boy so that it could finally slide out under the door."

The old woman turned the page, "'From now on, I will always eat my peas!' Pronounced the little wizard boy. And the snake was never seen again. The End."

"Again, Again!" The boy on his grandmother's knee cried.

"I'm sorry, Jeffery, but you know that it is your bed time. Granny will read this book to you again tomorrow." She smiled indulgently, despite being condemned to read the same book every night to her grandson for the past month.

/\/\MLC/\/\

VoldeNagini slithered past the house at the outskirts of the wizarding village. He/She was quietly, oh so quietly stalking two little children. One boy was dressed in typical wizarding robes, but the other was clearly muggle-born, wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

VoldeNagini wasn't certain how long ago he had awoken to his mission in life, but he now realized that he had to purify the wizarding bloodlines, one mudblood at a time. He slithered silently through the bushes along the curb, biding his time. As the boys stopped to examine a toad by the side of the road, he lunged out from the bushes and swallowed the filthy muggle-born.

/\/\MLC/\/\

Hestia strode angrily along the outskirts of the village. Her mother was dumb! 'Quidditch is a perfectly safe sport. Dad played it, and and he's fine!' She was starting her third year at Hogwarts in a few weeks, and she had been looking forwards to trying out for the Seeker position on the Gryffindor team. Hestia kicked the grass at the edge of the road. It was wet from the fog, and now her sandals were all moist and yucky! And mother didn't let her carry her wand out of the house because she was under age (her father didn't either, but she was angry her mother at the moment), so she couldn't do anything about it except suffer as the moisture slowly crept up her foot. 'Ugh!'

They lived in an old fashioned village in the south of Scotland, almost in England proper. It was a nice place to grow up, but it was foggy more often than not. She stomped a few more steps along the pathway before her mind turned back to quidditch.'It's not like I'm talking aboutgetting a boyfriend or something!' She knew that several of her dorm mates were noticing boys, and they would not stop talking abut it. It was SO annoying!

Hestia was was just rounding the northern end of the village when she saw the huge snake attack the Thomas twins. She grabbed the purse that daddy had gotten her and raced towards it without a moment's thought.

VoldeNagini had the squirming bundle half way into his mouth when he saw the girl approaching, clutching a small beaded purse. 'Nothing to be done.' He started swallowing faster – he couldn't slither until he had finished swallowing. But then again, he could tolerate being whacked with a purse for a few minutes – his magical protections should deflect anything short of a killing curse or basilisk venom or something on that order.

Hestia Potter pulled the Sword of Gryffindor out of her purse and brought it down the way uncle Neville had trained her, chopping the the snake in half.

She then proceeded to pull the idiot boy out of the snake. 'Where is that portkey for St. Mungo's?' She rummaged through the bag that was far (far!) larger on the inside than it appeared.

She had inherited her daddy's 'saving people' thing, and her mommy's poor communication skills, so daddy had given her the little beaded handbag (and all the things inside it) to her to keep her safe in the (inevitable) situations she would find herself in.

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Deep under Gringotts, an ancient, almost blind dragon listened as a sinister something whispered to in Parseltongue from the vault by it's left side.