Chapter 34

Saturday, July 18, 1992- Number Four Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, England

Harry paced across his bedroom floor. From inside her cage, Hedwig hooted at him. He had been pacing for the last hour, ever since Uncle Vernon had locked him in so that he couldn't cause any trouble before Sirius came to pick him up. There was the slight worry in the back of his mind that it had all been a dream, wizards didn't exist, Sirius was never coming, and he'd wake up back in his cupboard with Aunt Petunia banging down the door. But he couldn't have dreamed everything that had happened at Hogwarts the year before, could he?

He left off his pacing and threw himself on the pile of letters on his bed. There weren't any from Ron for some reason, but Hermione, Patricia and Remus had sent him several through the Muggle post and Sirius's letters had come hand-delivered by Kreacher. Harry had read and reread these letters so many times that the edges of the paper and parchment had grown soft. Hermione's and Patricia's both contained many reminders to do his summer homework (he had started on everything except Potions and History of Magic) while Patricia also included details about the antics she, Lee and the Weasley twins were getting up to. There was one memorable description of George getting stuck with a monkey tail that Harry couldn't read without laughing.

This summer hadn't been as terrible as his time with the Dursleys usually was. He still had all the chores, but he got three meals every day and Dudley wasn't using him as a punching bag. Having a convicted murderer for a godfather was doing him some good for once.

The purring sound of a motorbike coming down the street had Harry jumping back to his feet. It took only a few seconds before the motorbike came to a stop in front of Number Four Privet Drive and Aunt Petunia gave a squeak that could be heard throughout the house. Hedwig hooted. Harry paced and waited.

Finally, Uncle Vernon wrenched the door open. "Get out, freak. Your godfather is here."

Harry grabbed his wand and Hedwig's cage and ran downstairs. Sirius barely waited for him to put the cage down before catching him in a hug. "Good to see you, Harry!"

"Did Patricia come with you?" Harry asked. Sirius ruffled his hair and Harry waved his hand away. His hair was already uncontrollable, Sirius didn't need to make it worst.

"Not enough room on the bike for all of us," Sirius said. "Where's your trunk?"

"Upstairs," Harry said. "I'll go get it."

They made it out of the house in less than five seconds.

"Where is Patricia?" Harry asked loudly to make himself heard over the engine and the wind that tore around the sidecar of the bike. He was holding onto the sidecar with one hand and Hedwig's cage with the other. Sirius had shrunken his trunk so that it fit into his pocket.

"Visiting her Muggle friends," Sirius replied. "She and Remus will be joining us tomorrow but it's just you and me today. Where do you want to go?"

Harry found himself asking if they could go to the zoo. Sirius agreed and somehow they ended up at the same zoo where Harry and the Dursleys had gone for Dudley's birthday the year before. Harry enjoyed himself much more with Sirius. They saw plenty of animals that Harry hadn't been able to see before because Dudley had pushed him out of the way. There was even a new exhibit of penguins on loan from a zoo in Australia.

Sirius bought them lunch at the zoo's restaurant and they duelled with plastic forks when Sirius kept stealing Harry's chips. When Harry's fork poked Sirius's finger, Sirius acted out a dramatic death that made the mother at the next table over hiss at him to be quiet. Sirius apologized and winked at Harry when the woman wasn't looking.

"So, where to next?" Sirius asked.

"Could we go to the reptile house?" Harry suggested. Sirius nodded and gestured for him to lead the way.

The reptile house was hot and humid, which was why most people were giving it a miss. Harry saw a group of tiny lizards and some colourful turtles that had been surrounded by crowds of people the last time he was there. Sirius was disappointed by the Komodo dragon when he saw that it didn't have wings. What kind of dragon didn't have wings?

Sirius was still complaining happily when they reached the exhibit for the boa constrictor that Harry had set free last year. Harry frowned when he saw that the same snake was still inside. He had hoped that the boa had gotten the freedom he wanted.

"Hola, amigo," the snake seemed to hiss when he saw Harry.

"You're not a magic snake, are you?" Harry asked. That would explain why the snake seemed to be able to speak to him. There were a lot of things in the magical world that spoke even though they ought not to, like the Sorting Hat and the white mice Ron had found in a drawer in the Charms classroom.

"Of course I'm magic," the snake scoffed. "All snakes are magic."

When Harry turned to Sirius to check if this was true he saw his godfather staring at the snake with wide eyes. "Harry, did you just talk to this snake?"

"Well, yeah," Harry said. "It said that it's magic. Didn't you hear it?"

Sirius paled. "Harry," he breathed, "you're a Parselmouth."

Saturday, July 18, 1992-Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, London, England

"I still don't get why speaking Parseltongue is such a big deal," Harry said. "It's just a language. Patricia is learning Mermish and I don't see you yelling at her!"

Sirius slowly sat back down. He and Harry were sitting at the kitchen table at Grimmauld Place with Patricia and Remus. Patricia was scowling and Remus was still rubbing sleep from his eyes so neither of them had bothered to stop Sirius when he went on a rant about the history of Parseltongue. Now that Harry had interrupted him, Patricia spoke up.

"All this is going to do is get purebloods on Harry's side," she said. "That's not a bad thing, so why are we here?"

Patricia hadn't seen her Muggle friends in person for almost a year, so it was understandable that she was upset at being dragged away early.

"Voldemort is only one historical Parselmouth. Think about the others," Remus reminded her.

"Oh," Patricia said quietly. "I hadn't thought about that. Sorry."

She was thinking short term, purebloods liked strong magic and Parseltongue was strong magic, but the reasoning for that stretched fair past Voldemort to some of the most feared Dark wizards and witches in history. The entire British wizarding community would have Kneazles (in public anyway) if Harry Potter was revealed to be a Parselmouth.

"Voldemort was a Parselmouth?" Harry exclaimed.

"So was Salazar Slytherin," Patricia said. "I think he was called Snake Tongue, or maybe Serpent Tongue. I'm not sure. The last thing I read about snakes was looking up my patronus."

Harry frowned. "What's a patronus?"

Sirius waved him off. "It's a spell, I'll tell you about it later. What are we going to do?"

"Keep our mouths shut, obviously," Remus said dryly. "Harry, don't talk to snakes in public, alright?"

Harry nodded. "Alright."

"Great. Crisis averted." Patricia sighed. "Can we go now? Tracy, Ava and I were going to have a sleepover."

"Oh, that reminds me." Sirius turned to Harry. "Why haven't you been replying to Ron's letters? His parents are getting worried about you. If Arthur hadn't known I was in contact with you he and Molly would have gone to pick you up themselves."

Harry blinked several times. "What? Ron hasn't been sending me any letters."

Patricia sighed again. "Kreacher?" she called.

The house-elf appeared with a loud crack. "How may Kreacher help mistress?

"Bring us some tea and biscuits, please," Patricia said. "I have a feeling we're going to be here for a while."