**Hi! Jees, sorry I've taken so long to update, mostly I've been working out ideas for this fic. I've got a great plan now! Well, I think it's great. I can tell you that I am going to spoil one of the characters, rather like how people spoil Sirius by making him gay (j/k!).
I know you'll like it. Well, I hope you do. Thanks to reviewers, though there were pathetically few of them….
Er... right! Anyway, up with the chapter, I hope it's not too sad for words, but I can't stick Colin.
Yeah, sorry about the italics everyone, sometimes they get lost, you just have to imagine they're there.
More Pressing Matters – Like Voldemort. Chapter 7: The Second Voice Brother.
As recompense for being so mean to Colin the previous day, Harry agreed to go to Colin's house once Colin had once again stuttered out his invitation.
Colin was ecstatic. He took Harry on a long, detailed tour of his little house, which included things like:
"This is the upstairs bathroom, I got to choose the tiles and everything. Notice the engraving around the mirror? My Grandfather did that. My Dad's got a picture of him; I'll show you later.
Isn't it clever how everything matches? My dad has a degree in interior design – oh look! Dad's got the soap in the shape of an elephant! Cool!"
Poor kid, thought Harry as he was dragged through the rooms and stuffed with Colin's family history.
After seeing the rest of the house, Harry doubted that Mr. Creevy the milkman had a degree in interior design, art, economics, sculpture, or pretty much anything similar.
Harry wondered whether Colin's dad was colour-blind.
They didn't go into Dennis' room. Colin was very quiet passing the door, and Harry got the feeling that Colin wanted to keep Harry all to himself.
When they had finally finished after about an hour of Harry smiling, nodding, and pretending to be interested, Colin made up a tray of juice and chocolate biscuits and brought it up to his bedroom, which was painted an eye smarting yellow after Colin's Quidditch team, the Leister Lightnings, whose logo was slung haphazardly above the window.
A huge Gryffindor flag covered one wall, and a photo Harry recognised was pinned above the foot of Colin's bed, so he could see it before he went to sleep.
This made Harry want to puke, but he didn't because he felt like he needed a chocolate biscuit.
Instead he sat on the bed and watched the photograph.
Gilderoy Lockhart was fast asleep on one side of the photo. Harry himself was sitting on the other side. He smiled when he saw the real Harry, and then sidled out of the picture to chat to Rowan Herring from the Lightnings in the poster nearby.
Startling Harry, a black cat wriggled out from under the bed, between his legs. Tail arched, it leaped into Colin's arms, which had only just let go of the tray. It hissed at Harry.
"Sorry," mumbled Colin, trying in vain to get the cat under control.
"Who's that?" asked Harry, and then wished he hadn't, because he was sure that Colin would entreat him to every miniscule detail as to who the cat was.
He didn't though. He shrugged at said vaguely, "her name's Diane. She's mine."
"Do you like cats?' asked Harry, watching Diane, who was spitting and trying to rip up Colin's arm. He put her down and she jumped out of the window with cat-like dignity.
"Yes," said Colin. "They're interesting. And Diane is nice – most of the time. She doesn't take kindly to strangers. I think she was abused – she just turned up one day and Dad let me keep her."
And that was all that was said on the subject.
Harry didn't have such a bad time. It was better, he supposed, than sitting at home doing nothing, which is what he would have been doing had he not been here.
They spent a few hours just talking. Harry skipped over it any time Colin tried to bring up the Triwizard Tournament. Colin obviously was very interested, but, knowing Colin, Harry was not going to tell him what he had not yet told Harry and Hermione.
Harry once brought the subject round to Colin's family when he was sick of talking about himself.
"Colin, do you have a mother at all?"
Dumb question, he thought immediately, as Colin's face clouded over.
"She died when I was born," he said. "Dennis has a different mum. Dad doesn't talk about either of them, so we don't either."
Harry left it at that, although he did think it a bit rich how Colin kept on questioning Harry about his own parents, when it was obvious he couldn't answer half the questions.
Harry helped Colin with his transfiguration homework, which was one of the easiest assignments Harry had ever had to do the previous year. Colin was plainly stumped.
It was fun, in a way, to know something and to help others understand it. Harry started to understand why people became teachers, but still knew he would die before he ever actually became one himself.
"Thanks, Harry," said Colin gratefully when they had finished. "You're really good at this, you know."
"Nah," said Harry, embarrassed. "That's Hermione, she - "
"Mmm… tasty…"
The words were spoken in Parseltongue.
"Cat, a long time since I have tasted cat…"
"Colin!" exclaimed Harry. "A snake's trying to eat your cat!"
"What?" said Colin. He sounded worried, not for Diane, but for Harry.
Harry ignored him, and dashed to the window. He felt Colin come up behind him as he saw what he was looking for. A streak of black, followed by a streak of green.
"Stop!" he called.
Colin squealed.
The snake stopped chasing Diane, who ran back into the house so fast she could barely be seen, and looked around for the hissing voice.
"Who is there?" it asked.
"Up here," said Harry.
"Why are you still talking to it?" squeaked Colin. "Make it go away."
The snake raised itself onto it's tail and cocked it's head to an uncomfortable angle. The effect was chilling. This was no grass snake. It was a fully-fledged adder, albeit a small one.
"Ah yes," it said, dropping it's scaly body back to the ground. "The second voice brother."
"Do all snakes know who I am?" asked Harry incredulously.
"Of course," said the snake.
Great, thought Harry. I'm even famous in the snake world.
"Why are you here?" he asked the adder. "I've never seen any wild snakes at all until this summer, and know I've seen two hanging around people."
He expected a curt reply such as, 'well, you never look properly, do you?' but instead the snake hissed softly and replied in what might be called an undertone.
"The first voice brother is calling us. He is strong. We know not why we go, but we answer his calls."
"But you mustn't!" exclaimed Harry in a very loud hiss that made Colin back off quickly.
"Why ever not?" asked the snake. "The first voice brother was here well before your time. He is wise beyond your years."
"Yes, and evil!" Harry pleaded with the snake. "You mustn't go to him, he wants to rule the world. He will get you all killed. If you go around killing cats and dogs and people and scaring them or whatever, the humans will come and kill you, and then they will kill Vol – the first voice brother. And if the first voice brother isn't killed, then he will kill me."
Harry knew that sounded a bit selfish, but he sat quiet for a moment to watch the snake think. It was quite interesting. The adder was wearing a look of concentration only snakes can achieve.
"I will ask my kin," it said after a while.
Harry felt the call. It shivered through his bones, overtook his very senses, all the time with the snake's voice hissing through his brain.
"The Second Voice Brother says that the First Voice Brother is evil and will kill us all."
And then Harry felt every single snake in the world answer, and he blacked out.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Harry!"
"Mmmm?"
"Harry, wake up!" someone was slapping his face.
Harry sat up. Colin stared at him with wide eyes. "Harry, what happened? One minute you were talking to the… snake, and then you fainted! Are you all right?"
"Yeah," said Harry, getting up. "Thanks for everything Colin. I've got to go."
"What?" said Colin. "You haven't had any cake yet! There's some left over…"
"No, sorry Colin. Another time, I promise. I have to tell Sirius something." He left.
"That wasn't very nice, was it Diana?" said Colin to the cat who had somehow entered the room when Harry had been out of it on the floor.
The cat's eyes glowed luminous green.
**Dun dun dun! Well, that went quite well I think, considering I just went on an Art trip to London and am now feeling like dropping into bed.
Love your pal Laterose… Until Next Time! Muahahahahahahaha!!!! **