Snakes

~~~~~

Eyes meet across the width of the Great Hall. Harry graces me with a smile before returning to his breakfast. Ron frowns and Hermione doesn't seem to know how to look. But I just sit down at the end of the Slytherin bench, alone again but feeling better with the knowledge that I have a friend.

~~~~~

Potions first off. I'm early, by accident, and I help Professor Snape set up.

"What's today's lesson sir?"

"How to find the breed of a snake from the properties of its bone. Put out these, and the tripods."

"Snakes feature a lot in potions, don't they?" I walk down the aisle, placing a white porcelain heatproof dish in the middle of each workbench. "Their bones, their skin - venom sometimes."

"We haven't got up to venoms yet Malfoy."

"It's in our book sir."

"I set your book Malfoy, I do know what's in it."

For some reason his bristling tone doesn't make me cringe and turn away. He sounds like Draco when he's annoyed and snapping at someone. I smile.

Snape glares and holds out a pile of small canvas bags filled with bones.

"Hand these out at random."

"What sort of snakes are they from?"

"All sorts."

"From other places outside Europe?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Other places."

"What - ?"

"No more infernal questions, Malfoy. Just work."

~~~~~

"The potion you will be brewing today will require working in pairs," I glance at Draco but Snape goes on, "which I will select." Some students make irritated noises but he ignores them and reads from a list; "Granger and Crabbe, Potter and Malfoy, Longbottom and Parkinson, Thomas and Zabini, Weasely and Malfoy, Finnegan and . . . "

Draco asks, "Which Malfoy?" but Snape doesn't hear him. It seems it's up to us. I glance over at Harry and Ron.

What could be worse, my brother and Potter or my brother and the Weasel?

Harry catches my eye. He makes a wry expression and gathers up his books to move. We swap places.

Gingerly I sit beside Ron, keeping my things in a small pile.

"Hi," I say. He ignores me and begins to arrange our ingredients. I see Draco make some comment to Harry but Harry just gives him a cool look then gets to work.

This will be a long lesson.

~~~~~

"Good heavens Longbottom. You haven't managed to destroy anything this morning."

Neville cowers in his seat, looking as if he wishes he were a house elf. I know the feeling.

"And you are correct, your bone sample was from a king cobra. Five points to Gryffindor."
There is a moment of silence in the room. Ron looks awed. But Snape continues;

"My congratulations to you Parkinson, for supervising him. Ten points to Slytherin."

Ron clenches his fists. I frown. Why is it a Slytherin trait to cheat?

Snape moves through the room, marking down students who surmised incorrectly, and giving grudging praise to those who were correct.

"Malfoy and Potter. You believe your snake was a . . . ?"

"Boomslang sir," Harry answers.

"Of course you'd know all about boomslang skin Potter, wouldn't you? But yes, you're right." He ticks a sheet of parchment and looks over to us.

I scan my misspelt notes again. When the bone was powdered and added to vinegar the solution did not change colour. The melting point of the bone powder was 120 degrees C. It did not react when mixed into a solution of thistle milk and nettles -

"Weasley, Malfoy. I presume you have finished by now?"

"Uh, yes Professor," Ron says, stalling. We haven't really.

"Well? What did you find?"

I think it's the bone of a taipan but I'm not actually sure. We haven't finished distilling it -

Wait.

"Well?"

A taipan is useless for magical purposes. No part of it, not the venom or skin or bone has any power at all. Neither does squib blood.

But wizard blood does. And if something magical is mixed with something non-magical, it won't react.

I hope Ron forgives me. But if we don't get this assignment right Gryffindor house will pay.

"We discovered sir," I stand up from the bench as I speak, reaching across the desk for Ron's notes. "After going through the list you gave - oh!" My arm 'accidentally' knocks over the glass tube of powdered bone; it smashes into long shards and the white powder spills. Ron jumps, and tries to grab his written work to rescue it from the mess, but there is broken glass all over his parchments.

I wince when he slices his finger. Blood drips and he makes a sound of pain.

I stare at a tiny crimson spot in the dusting of white powdered bone. No reaction. It's bone from a non-magical animal.

"It's taipan bone sir," I smile.

Snape glowers at me.

"Correct. Get to the hospital wing Weasley."

And he leaves for the next table.

"I'm sorry Ron," I say quietly as I begin to clean up.

"You did that on purpose?"

"We would have failed the assignment."

"Merlin," he wraps a handkerchief around his finger. "You're worse than Hermione."

"You're okay?"

He awkwardly puts his things in his bag, and gives me a half smile. "I'll be fine. Um, I'll see you in Divination?"

"Yes. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," he leaves the dungeon, his white handkerchief quickly turning red.

~~~~~

Sitting next to me in our next lesson, my brother begins his interrogation.

"What the hell was that?" he whispers.

"I don't know what you mean," I whisper back.

"What did you do to the Weasel?"
"We hadn't actually finished our experiment, and the fastest way I knew to make sure of the snake type was to see if it reacted with wizard blood."

"What are you talking about? Snape wouldn't set an assignment like that."

"If we'd had time to do what he'd set we could have figured it out. But we were out of time."

I notice Professor McGonagall half watching us from the front of the room.

"How did you know taipan bone wouldn't react?"

"It was the only non-magic snake on the list," I look down to my book as McGonagall stands up from her desk.

"But Snape didn't tell us it was non-magic," he frowns delicately.

"It's in our book - " I freeze as his black and silver pencil box suddenly transforms into a yellowy brown snake. Draco shoves back his chair and jumps to his feet as the snake rears, its head weaving from side to side.

McGonagall smiles thinly. "The taipan may have no magical attributes Mister Malfoy, but its poison will still have you dead within a matter of minutes." She flicks her wand and the snake is gone. Draco sits down slowly, fuming at the witch. He really needs to get his temper under control.

"Please don't talk in class Mister Malfoy."

"Yes Professor."

~~~~~

More will come with Lucius soon - he does nothing in haste that man. Which means it'll take a chapter or two. Ugh. Sorry.