A/N Okay I'm famous for AU stories now it seems (and yes I will eventually update all the lagging ones on my list I promise) so I'm putting out a little feeler here. This is a story centered around a basilisk, but it'll be nothing like A Brother to Basilisks as much as I love that story. Please let me know what you think.

Chapter 1:

Greetings, Speaker

Asteria felt a presence enter the school above her lair. He was young, like the second speaker she had met. Unlike the second speaker, though, this one was excited, but also very frightened. She slithered up the pipes to near the entrance hall so she could listen better to the footsteps and conversations above her. Most of it was boring, but she heard as what seemed to be the speakers' friend tell him that they might have to wrestle a troll or that it hurt a lot to get sorted. Unlike that little human, Asteria knew all about the sorting, and had even contributed a scale to the sorting hat.

Asteria reflected on the previous speaker to walk the halls of Hogwarts. He was a cruel boy, as her master had been at times. Her master had reason, though, and was not nearly as cruel or vicious as myth and legend had turned him into. The only reason Salazar had left the school was known to her and her alone. No one else was alive to remember it, and he had left before even the gray lady had grown into a young woman. Asteria had met the second speaker into his fifth year and was forced to serve him or die. He always carried silenced roosters down with him into the chamber. She could have just killed him, but with his parselmagic, somehow he had put a spell on her. He had only released it after that poor girl human had died.

Asteria did admit that she hungered, but she had found a path outside to the forbidden forest long ago, some time after the second speaker had left. She prayed on sick acramantulas and conserved her energy. She was tempted to eat the body of the poor girl human but forced herself to retreat down the pipes back to her chamber. She was always hungry, but she forced herself to slumber until the need was to great to stand. Now the third, tiny boy human speaker was walking into the great hall and Asteria listened carefully.

Once it was "Potter, Harry" who was named, Asteria heard the little boy human sit on the stool and used her magic to put some of her essence into the scale hidden in the hat's construct. She listened to the hat say that Harry could be great, and that Slytherin would lead him on an ambitious path there, as well as the cunning he displayed. The boy chanted that he didn't want to be in Slytherin and Asteria spoke up.

"Llllittllle bbbboooyyy hhhhhummmmaaaannn," she hissed soothingly. "Yyyyouuu mmmaaaayyy nnnoooootttt hhhhavvvveee mmmmaaaannnnyyy ffffriendssss innnn the hhhhhhouse offff myyyy masssster, bbbbutttt if youuuu chooosssse hissss hhhhousssse, yyyyouuuu mmmmayyyyy ccccome to me aaannny nighttt and Iiiii wwwiiiillll tell youuu ssssttttorriessss every nightttt."

"Tell me stories?" asked the boy human. "I don't understand. Who are you? You don't sound like the sorting hat."

"Eeeevvvvven ifffff youuuu chhhoooossssse anotherrrr hhhhousssse, youuuu are wwwwellllcome in mmmmy chamber," Asteria broadcasted.

"She's right, you know," put in the sorting hat. "That's Asteria. She's part of what made me who I am today. I didn't used to be all ragged like this. I don't think it would be a bad thing to take her up on her offer. Since you are a speaker, you might be a target in any house."

"I suppose," said the boy human hesitantly. "I suppose Slytherin will be okay then. How will I get there without trouble?"

Asteria explained a secret rout which lead to a second floor bathroom and the boy human looked a little appalled, but a tiny hint of resolve went through him as he thought it over. Asteria whispered more words of encouragement to him, then left his mind. The hat roared the word, Slytherin, and the boy human stood up to join the table of silver and green. She felt a little bad about influencing him, but she thought it would be best. The second speaker was a Slytherin, but he was the bad kind. She thought Harry, the little boy human, her snakeling, might be able to change her house's reputation. She climbed back down to her chamber with a slither and waited.

Harry heard the boos from the other tables, but tried to be calm. He walked over to Draco Malfoy's spot on the bench and gently tapped the Slytherin on the shoulder. Draco turned around and fixed Harry with a sneering stare. Harry held out a hand.

"It's nice to make your acquaintance, Draco Malfoy," Harry said as best as he could, voice trying not to tremble. "I apologize for what I said on the train, but my own friends will stay friends, if they still want to."

"Apology accepted," said the cool voice of Draco Malfoy, "For now. Slytherin house should be proud to have a Potter, even if you are a half blood. You may sit across from me, between Pansy and Millicent. Do enjoy your time in the house of the snakes."

It was some time before Asteria heard the chamber door open. She was hiding in the statue of her master of course, and she heard light footsteps stop in front of it. A boy's voice talked in wonder about the statue and the chamber itself but wasn't too happy about the dankness and rabbit bones in the tunnel leading to the chamber. After a while, he tried talking to the statue. When he asked to speak to whomever lived in the chamber, the mouth of the statue opened and she warned the boy to close his eyes and turn around. She left the statue fully, hitting the floor with a wet smack.

"Open your eyes, Harry, "She spoke to him. My eyes are closed."

She didn't seem so hissing to him so when he beheld her enormous size, he gasped in confusion. She opened her inner eyelids but left her outer eyelids closed. Harry trembled but stayed where he was. He did pull out his wand, but he would know of no spells to hurt her. She gently rubbed her muzzle against his side.

"I am Asteria," she said. "I am a basilisk, and I am sorry for scaring you. I'm assuming you don't know that you're a parselmouth?"

"I don't know what that is," said Harry. "I guess that means I can talk to you? I've talked to a boa constrictor at the zoo, but I didn't know what I was doing at the time. Is that what this is? Do you know all the snakes in the world?"

"I am the queen of serpents," said Asteria, "but no, I don't know what new breeds of snake have occurred during my stay here in the chamber. I've heard a little over the past 50 years or so, but not many."

"I don't understand," said Harry. "Why do you sound so normal right now?"

"You are more used to my speech now, Harry, my little snakeling," said Asteria. "Now would you like to hear a bedtime story before you go up to sleep?"

"You know bedtime stories?" Harry asked. "I've never heard one before. What is a bedtime story?"

"Sit down and I will tell you one," Asteria offered. "Do not fear. I will not hurt you, little snakeling."

"Why do you call me snakeling?" asked Harry as he sat down, Asteria curling around loosely so he could lean against her.

"You are in the house of my master," said Asteria. "You are also a speaker. You understand me and can speak to me."

Harry leaned tiredly against the big snake, who's coils could probably crush Uncle Vernon's car into so much rubble. He tried to listen to the story as he tentatively stroked Asteria's scales. It was about being outside and catching mice. This was when Asteria was little. Harry was falling asleep against Asteria's side, missing most of the story. She stopped telling it and ordered him to go to bed.

"You need your sleep, little snakeling," she said fondly. "You cannot do your work if you are too tired. Go and rest and come to me when you may."

Harry stood and stroked her scales once more. Asteria watched the boy leave and smiled contently. She then slithered up into her resting place and coiled up. It was lovely to have company again. Maybe next time he would bring her a treat. She would teach him to be a good wizard, a kind and caring one. Maybe he would help her find a new place to live. She was getting too old to guard the school. She had plenty of eggs, and hopefully a younger basilisk could take over her job. First she would teach this human boy though. She would do the best she could.