Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Chapter Seven: A Gifted Snake
Harry lay awake, the blankets up to his ears and his senses tensed for any sign of movement. But after a while, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. A few shadows danced along the walls, the people in Ron's wizard posters sleeping upon their brooms, clothes on the floor and hanging out of his best friends hamper, his unpacked trunk in the corner...
Unpacked! So, Harry figured, if he couldn't sleep, then he should make good use of his time nonetheless. Ron had emptied the bottom two drawers specifically for Harry's use. Each piece of clothing went inside the drawer. He knew it was of no use, he would be repacking for the trip to Hogwarts soon enough. Picking up his favorite robes he carefully shook the dust off.
"FOOL!" Something had hit his foot... and it was talking.
In the darkness he couldn't see what it was, but he could see that it wasn't supposed to be in his school trunk.
"Could you be more irresponsible?" the voice asked.
Harry burned a lantern rather annoyed at his visitor, (Ron had all kinds of Muggle antiques in the house) and turned back to the floor.
What lay there was green, scaly, and kept flicking its tongue in and out. Its color resembled a piece of moss, and Harry was reminded of Gringotts and Bill.
"Where'd you come from?"
The snake hissed softly. "Gringotts young sir. Sorry about the outburst, our kind does not like being thrown upside down."
"So why are you here?"
"To help you. And by the way you treat me, I say you need a lot of help."
"I didn't know you were there."
"I was talking to you... you can understand me, couldn't you hear?"
"Not really. You were at the bottom of my trunk."
The snake hissed again.
A spontaneous idea popped into Harry's mind. "Do you want to come to Hogwarts with me?"
"Hog-warts?"
"You could be my pet..."
"What is pet?" the snake asked, falsely innocent.
Harry took the innocence at false value and answered unsurely, "A pet is -- something that -er- follows me around and does what I want it to do. Like Hedwig."
"But, sir, the way you describe a pet is like a servant. Would you like me to be your servant?"
"No..."
"What's wrong with being your friend?"
"Nothing."
"Then why haven't you suggested it?"
"I'm not sure."
"Well, if you'll take me for your friend, can I have your name?"
"Harry." He felt that saying too much could reveal some--unwanted material to the snake.
"You could call me Slyther."
"So, Slither, why are you with me?"
"I can't tell you that Harry. I was sent here."
"I thought friends trusted each other."
"This is more important than friendship, even with you."
"Okay Slither, my so-called 'friend,' if you act like that, I think I'm going to sleep now."
As Harry slept, the snake thought, It's not Slither... It's Slyther... foolish Parseltongue, I still curse the day the magic peoples were given that gift. Well, this Harry boy doesn't seem too bad. He doesn't know the first think about snakes though, otherwise he'd know that not all of us should be trusted. Many of us are the faithful children of Nagini and her pet human. I pity the fool who trusts all of the green snakes...
And with that, Slyther put his head down upon the floor and slept.
Meanwhile, Harry dreamt.
He was looking at the newspaper again, the one picturing Cho and him. The paper was faded and yellowing within its glass case. Actually, he was quite enjoying it, until a voice next to him asked, "Coming Harry?"
Harry turned and smiled to his girlfriend, Cho Chang. "I'm ready. I just wanted to reminisce. The old days of Hogwarts were wonderful, weren't they?"
"Now isn't that bad either, Quidditch for England is a wonderful job..."
Dr. Hermione walked up to them both, startling Harry. Damn, she looks gorgeous, he thought. Why didn't I notice this before?
A faint narrowing of eyes was the only reaction out of Cho and she then greeted Hermione with welcome.
Screaming and turmoil interrupted their conversation while dark clouds stormed above. A few firebirds flew out of the clouds, tingeing them carmine.
"Harry Potter," the firebirds screamed, their plumage now identifying them as the legendary phoenixes, "We want you."
"WHY?" he called back.
One by one, the phoenixes started dropping out of the sky, crying their pearlesent tears of healing on the way down. The carmine cloud burnt up to a darkened midnight red with the familiar eyes glowing at him from the center.
"I want you Harry Potter, and I'm coming through your dreams..."
Harry's closed his eyes from the sight, his determination trying to stop his power to affect his scar. But his head still received the torturing sensation of splitting in two.
*~*~*~*
He stood in the smoldering dream room, where the people were standing in the fire just moments before. After looking around, he found that many figurines were positioned at different angles but all pointed the same direction.
Harry followed the angles to a position beyond the tree line where a building had burnt before. All that was left was the foundation of the room.
A slight gust of wind unsettled a few ashes and exposed Harry to a folded parchment.
Harry leapt for the parchment, grasping the corners with his hands. Another, much stronger gust blew the parchment out of his hands, and far out of his reach.
Harry awoke to the rising dawn sun sprinkling light through the room. Recalling the dream, he looked down to his hands, and saw they were dusted with a fine ash and smelled like burnt cinnamon cookies.
A/N :
Personalized Thank You's:
James Bond - thanks for the pairings...
Lilly Potter - yup owls have ears, those are the lil tufts of feather on the side of their head... and their hearing is really good too!
Kelzery - I'd post the next chapter really soon, but we're going on vacation.
SaneLunatic - I've already written them, just editing...
Shadow - you fell for it! yay! but I'm not usually that cruel... yet
Dumbledore's Apprentice (I'm guessing you spelled it wrong?) - can't answer your question just yet, but you'll see soon enough
Jinskid3 - thanks, you say so much in a word!
and for the REST of you people who never review... please start! I would really like to hear from you! I was looking up the many other "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" stories and found that Lucky Woods and tooieleafs were conquering my fic in reviews! that doesn't help my confidence level...