Chapter 2: The Sigil Of The Snake
{A/N: Here's Another Update...Another Re-Post...}
My Thanks To All My Readers and Reviewers...Enjoy S.S.
Harry Potter's Office, Ministry Of Magic Offices, Wizarding World...
The sudden rush of panic filled the wizarding world as word of an enormous green twisted serpent sigil with a head on each end was spotted by a vast number of wizarding citizens as they did their daily shopping and work within the confines of their society. At the Ministry Of Magical offices, Harry James Potter's office was packed with concerned citizens looking for their hero to spring into action. Word had reached him that the same strange sigil had been over Hogwarts near the shrieking shack and Argus Filch was attacked.
While the green eyed wizard had not cared too much for Filch during his time at Hogwarts, he still felt compelled to investigate this incident given that it happened on his watch. Since the fall of the despot Voldemort, Harry had taken on the responsibility of the wizarding world's safety, it was one of the main reasons he had for becoming an Auror.
The current Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt had given him leave to head to Diagon Alley where the first sigil was sighted and possibly go scouting for clues. Hermione would join him as soon as she returned from her current assignment among the giants.
Ron had been on the road playing Quidditch and their children, Rose and Hugo were at Molly and Arthur's right along with his three children with Ginny.
Life had seemed to move pretty fast following the end of the second wizarding war and before Harry knew it, he had a family of his own and his youngest son, Albus Severus was getting ready to attend Hogwarts for the first time. James Sirius was there for going on two years now and Lily Luna was still a couple years off from her first trip.
James II was giving Albus Severus a hard time for weeks about which house he'd end up in, given that he himself had followed in both Harry and Ginny's footsteps and gotten into Gryffindor.
Harry himself, had no problem with Albus Severus ending up in Slytherin, given all that Snape had done for him and he was Head of Slytherin.
It was strange to think that all he had he owed to the very wizard whom he had spent a good deal of his young life hating simply because it seemed the proper way to go about things. If he had the chance to do it all again knowing what he knew now, he'd have spent a bit more time getting to know the man behind the expressionless mask and trademark dark robes that billowed along the darkened corridors of Hogwarts.
The fact that this man had done the unthinkable, he had fooled Voldemort right down to the letter and sacrificed his life to keep both his godson and the child of a woman that had broken his heart alive was an amazing feat. The rest of the wizarding world might consider Harry the hero for defeating Voldemort, but the green eyed wizard knew all too well that it would never have been possible without Snape.
The former boy who lived left his office focusing his rather keen mind on the current investigation.
There was something to this double serpent sigil image and he would need to see it for himself, just to make sure.
The harsh memories from the war still lingered, a good deal of them had not been his own as he still held the safely guarded memories of the fallen Wizarding World hero and former Headmaster of Hogwarts Severus Snape.
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Unknown Pub, Diagon Alley, Wizarding World...
The familiar purple and pink hue with a splash of rapidly yellowing orange hung in the sky, he first initial sign that dusk was soon to be open the citizens of the wizarding world, A pair of ebony dragon-hide boots beat against the water slick cobble stone street before turning down a darkened alley. The brisk movements of the owner of said boots had been further punctuated by a sense of unbalance as well as the lingering stench of what one called "firewhiskey" here in the wizarding world.
The biting chill of the on coming night had been at the back of the brisk walking stranger, having found himself utterly alone in a foreign land and the last remaining member of the family he had once been apart of. His steps gave the impression to any outsider that he had not a care in the world, and it was supposed that it could be considered a true assumption of there had been any made about him. He had very little to care for in the wake of his long suffering mother's passing.
The pressure of having to deal with her loss and lay her to rest drove the lonely young man to seek numbness in the bottom of a few whiskey bottles in a bid to ease his unyielding pain. Following a small altercation in the local English pub, he decided to try his hand at working off both his aggression and loneliness in some rather seedier circles for the night.
Still reeling from the memory of his final trip to St. Mungo's Hospital and caught between attempting to focus on his plans for the evening, he had not been paying much attention when he found himself colliding with a strange individual with eyes as green as emeralds and a most peculiar scar in the shape of a lightening bolt across his forehead.
"Why don't you watch where you are going next time!?" said the rather irritable young man attempting to get to his feet.
The other young man whom had crashed into him crawled along the filthy alley way in search of his recently dropped glasses. He picked them up in something of a hurry and placed them on his face, significantly improving is vision.
"S-Sorry...I'm kind of in a hurry..." replied the reasonably young dark haired man.
He seemed to stop in his tracks as he gaze upon the sight of the angry man before him.
"S-Sir?" he said stunned as he took in the appearance of his collision victim.
The now shaken wizard known as Harry James Potter could hardly believe his eyes despite checking his glasses repeatedly to ensure he had been in his right line of sight.
"You should take those glasses in to be exchanged because you're blind as a fucking bat." said the other young man looking to be only a bit older and wearing casual attire.
"S-Snape?" said Harry in confusion.
The collision victim, none other than the distraught young man from St. Mungo's Hospital, Regulus Snape glared at him furiously.
His obsidian eyes radiated the same unaddressed rage that had been behind the Potions Master's gaze when he stalked the vast corridors of Hogwarts.
"Why don't you go and get those glasses exchanged for ones that actually allow you to see through them." hissed Regulus as he glared at Harry Potter.
The green eyed wizard was unnerved by the sight of his late Potions Master's younger doppelganger. He had been an impressive sight, with his shoulder lengthy raven hair and his height was towering despite the fact that he had been on his knees briefly before getting to his feet. He wore a plain black short sleeved shirt, black trousers that looked like the lower half of a pricey suit, and a pair of ebony dragon-hide boots.
"Y-You weren't exactly watching your steps and you don't were glasses at all." said Harry in his own defense.
"You're the jackass that ran into me, alright." he replied making a show of dusting himself off.
"Y-You're an American?" asked Harry getting to his own feet and adjusting his glasses.
He had never seen an American before, let alone one up close.
"What's it to you?" asked Regulus more annoyed with this idiot the longer he remained in his presence.
He had already had his feel of supposed proud Englishmen picking fights with him in the pub when they had been made aware of his origins via his accent. Many a drunken dullard tried their hand at making him see how superior they were by the supposed ambush they staged only to find that he was more than capable of holding his own no matter the country or odds in battle.
Being called a "Yank" only seemed to anger him further and he was forced to teach a few lessons of his own in terms of whom not to trifle with when experiencing a very bad day.
After getting kicked out of two pubs that night, he turned his attention toward visiting a brothel to take his mind off recent events.
"I-It's just that I've never...well...I've never seen an American before." said Harry surprised by the rather tall man before him. "I-It doesn't help that you remind me of someone."
Regulus sighed and slicked his lengthy raven hair back. His obsidian eyes met the emerald green eyes of Harry Potter briefly before he straightened himself up and placed his hands in his pockets.
"Look Geek boy, I'm kind of having a rough day." he said not at all hiding his annoyed tone. "You mind if we cut the small talk?, I've got places to be."
"Well, I was in the middle of work when you interrupted me." countered Harry seemingly defensive.
"What kind of work do you do where it's cool to walk around like an idiot looking up at the sky?" asked Regulus annoyed.
"I happen to do very important work with...windows." said Harry covering his wizarding identity.
Regulus rolled his eyes. Apparently this one was as bad with lies as he had been with his eyesight. It didn't take much to note that he had been affiliated with the wizarding world, the wand that had unceremoniously fallen from the green eyed wizard's hand in the process of the collision confirmed as much.
"You are a terrible liar dude." he said unconvinced.
"And you are just a terrible bloke." said the green eyed wizard in his own defense.
"If you really have a job you know...looking at windows, then what's your wand doing on the ground?" asked Regulus folding his pale arms across his chest.
"My..." began Harry embarrassed about being outed as being a wizard. "Wait...how did you...?"
Before Regulus could answer, their little chat was cut short by a rogue blast from between the shops.
"Accio, wand." Commanded the green eyed Auror.
Regulus sighed once more in annoyance.
This was certainly not how he had planned to spend the remainder of his day, engaging in some random wizarding battle in a damp piss smelling alley way with the most annoying geek boy he'd ever met. His level of irritation was further translated in his rather skillful combat techniques as he vented his frustrations upon the fool dumb enough to further delay his trip to the brothel.
"Fuck this." he muttered immediately drawing his own wand, and entering the fray when it seemed as though Potter was being outdone.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" shouted Regulus focusing a rather nasty blast for the attacker as the spells continued to fly.
"STUPEFY!" shouted Harry also contributing to the attack as his wand reached his hand despite his shock at the seemingly regular looking muggle assisting him in battle.
The attacker had been a strange dressed male given his body mass and temperament. Regulus had no intention of offering further assistance as he tucked his wand back into his pocket believing there to be only one attacker present.
Harry did a rather quick perimeter check and found that a spell was coming right for the tall unorthodox American wizard.
"WATCH OUT!" he shouted a bit too late.
Regulus had been much too slow to defend himself against the spell that had thrown him into a nearby brick wall. Harry immediately jumped in to defend the strange American wizard running off the secondary attacker after securing the first.
The already irate wizard balled his fist and threw what Harry believed to have been a magical punch at the second attacker before they could get clear. Regulus scrambled to his feet despite his apparent injure and attacked the second assailant with his bare hands.
"Whoa...STOP!...you're going to kill him." said Harry pulling the much large wizard off the robed fiend.
"That's generally the idea when some dumbass attacker tries to take you out." replied Regulus not at all hiding his rage.
"I need him alive." said the Green eyed wizard. "He's probably got some insight into this whole mess and I need that information."
Regulus rolled his eyes attempting to catch his breath as he leaned against the brick wall. He had been feeling the pain from that uncharted blow. The way his luck was going, he believed he was bleeding beneath his shirt.
"Fuck." muttered Regulus annoyed. "My good shirt."
Harry shook his head as he called in the other Aurors to pick up the unconscious assailants.
Regulus put away his wand and attempted to be on his merry way until he found himself in the company of a concerned Harry Potter.
"Thanks by the way, for what you did for me back there." said the green eyed wizard grateful.
"No problem geek boy." replied Regulus with a seemingly cool attitude that puzzled the British born Harry to no end.
"Are all American's as much of an asshole as you?" he asked his English accent thick.
"Nope, I'm special." replied Regulus fiddling with his shirt. "Just like my old man, I guess."
Harry shook his head. He had not understood this strange American bloke in the least but he found him interesting.
"Listen, it was nice chatting and all but, I've got to go get laid." said Regulus not one to beat around the bush as far as his intentions had been concerned. "See you around geek boy."
The other Aurors arrived as soon as Regulus elected to take his leave.
Harry sighed looking up at the strange two headed serpent looming above them in the sky.
He had no idea what was in store for the strange American bloke, but he wished him well at least.