Okay people, here you are

Okay people, here you are. Next chapter, as promised. I'm getting these out about once every week. BTW, I'm always looking for a few more beta-readers, so email me if you're interested.

Disclaimer: :::groans::: Do I really have to do this? :::screams as big burly men in suits walk on in a lawyer-like fashion::: Okay, okay! I don't own the goods! You happy now? Sheesh…

Chapter Six

Things were not going well for Harry. He had no idea where to go, and an annoying voice kept telling him to go to the Transfiguration classroom. Eventually he decided to do what the voice said, if only to get it to shut up. He had almost reached it when he felt a strange tingling inside him. He ignored it, and walked around the last corner leading to his goal. Harry froze. Standing in the corridor in front of him were Petunia and Dudley Dursley. They stared at him for a moment, before approaching him.

"Are you…okay, Harry?" His Aunt asked, sounding extremely uncomfortable, and was fidgeting as if she really didn't want to be there. That was fine by Harry, as he really didn't want them to be there.

'Why are they here? This is Hogwarts; they're muggles, they're not supposed to be here!' Harry thought frantically. The tingling inside him was growing with his panic, and he knew that he had to get away. He pushed past them quickly, and turned into the Transfiguration classroom. Harry quickly closed the door and leaned against it, ignoring the curious stares from the Ravenclaw's, who were also having Transfiguration. After a moment he stood and headed down the back of the room, ignoring the people who were calling for him to come sit next to them. Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, and continued with the lesson. Harry chose a seat right down the back, in a corner. The class was transfiguring potted plants into terriers complete with tartan waistcoat, and it was not going well. Neville's dog was still in a pot, and instead of fur it had leaves. It was attempting to bark, but the only sound that came out of its mouth was a rustling noise. Harry was not that interested in Transfiguration at that moment however. The annoying tingling was still growing, and his body felt like it was on fire. He struggled through the class, and managed to hold in the building surge until the end of the lesson. Then, as people gathered around him and began to interrogate him about what happened, he reached his peak. The other students backed away from him as he struggled with the power inside of him. The air crackled around him, and everyone in the room felt a sudden oppression of their senses, as if a damp cloth had fallen over them.

Harry was trying desperately to stop the sudden flow of power. There was no glass in this room; nothing to break. He opened his eyes sightly and looked around. He saw Neville's terrier cowering pitifully on the bench, and directed the energy inside of him towards all the dogs and plants in the room.

McGonagall watched as Harry went into a surge. She knew that nothing in the room could be broken, but she also knew that he had to get rid of the power somehow. Suddenly Harry released it, and she watched in surprise and slight awe as all the partially transfigured pot plants turned into proper terriers. The rest of the class was in a panic, and Harry was slumped forward on his desk. McGonagall silently thanked her lucky stars. Harry had not started to scream this time, which was a definite blessing. She was sure that if he had screamed the class would be far worse then the shambles it was in now. The Professor quickly pushed her way through the crowd of students, and guided Harry out of the room, towards the Infirmary. The class watched her go, and stood silently for a moment, before one Ravenclaw student broke the silence.

"What in the name of the good holy God just happened?"

The rest of the school week was basically the same, except for the fact that Madam Pomfrey removed the cast from Harry's leg a few days later, muttering about how it was lucky he was an extremely fast healer. Harry would sometimes attend classes, and sometimes he would skip them all together. The temporary Defence Against Dark Arts teacher who was filling in until the real one arrived from Bulgaria, Arabella Figg, seemed to know Harry from somewhere but he acted the same around her as he did around everyone else. He would go to breakfast early and to dinner late, and no one knew what time he went to bed. And all the time, Madam Pomfrey searched her medical books for a cure.

The next big disturbance was in a Potions lesson. The class had continued to cover Japanese potions, and was currently working on a scatterbrain potion, which was designed to make the subject forgetful and clumsy. Several Slytherins had joked that Neville must have had a bad dose when he was younger, and because of this he was even more clumsy than usual. Therefore, when he accidentally tipped over his cauldron and spilled his half-finished potion, no one was surprised. No one, that is, except for the snake that had somehow found its way into the room and had decided to sleep under the bench that Neville's cauldron had been balanced precariously on. It had been covered in the potion and, hissing madly, it wrapped itself around Neville's leg. The whole class stopped, and turned to watch the drama.

Neville was more nervous then he usually was. They were making a Japanese scatterbrain potion, and the Slytherins were using that to their advantage. He carefully added the rats fur then turned to get the crushed beetle eyes when his elbow clipped the side of his cauldron. He turned back and tried to grab it, but it slipped out of his grip and fell to the floor. Neville was not quite sure what happened next, but one thing was certain. There was now a snake wrapped tightly about his leg, and each pair of eyes from its seven heads were all staring at him menacingly.

The snake and Neville were so still that for just a moment it looked like a frozen tableau. Then, just as the serpent whipped its heads back and prepared to strike, a small bolt of light hit it, knocking it off of Neville, and burning his leg slightly in the process. Professor Snape watched as the small reptile was knocked to the back row, and was just about to stupefy it, when he heard a quiet voice.

"Stop."

It was Harry. Everyone turned to stare at him. It was the first time he had spoken since he had woken in the Hospital Wing. Harry, not paying any attention to the looks he was receiving, stood up and walked over to the small snake. As he did so it moved away, and for the first time Professor Snape got a good look at it. It was a secosnake. They were very rare, and were very untrusting. However, if you did somehow gain their trust, they were extremely loyal and brave allies.

Harry knelt with some difficulty beside the snake, and Snape was shocked to hear him hissing softly. He had forgotten that Harry was a Parselmouth and, judging from the looks on the faces of his students, so had they. The snake replied to whatever Harry had said, and turned to look at Neville. It then stared at Severus for a moment, and he had the most peculiar feeling that it was glaring at him. The secosnake hissed something without taking his eyes off Professor Snape. Harry replied, and Snape could have sworn he heard a slight tinge of amusement in the hissing. The serpent turned and glided back towards Harry, who held his arm out towards it. To everyone's surprise, the snake wound itself around his arm, and laid its heads on his shoulder. Harry then stood up and went back to his place, acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all. Just then Madam Pomfrey walked into the room, looking slightly flustered.

"I've got it!" She said excitedly, looking for all the world as if she had won the lottery.

"You're sure?" Severus asked, eyebrow raised slightly.

Madam Pomfrey bristled. "Are you questioning my abilities as a healer, Severus?"

Snape merely snickered to himself, and she looked slightly abashed. She glared at him and, muttering something about it not being her fault she never had the time to read over her books, walked out of the room.