Chapter 2: Sifu and the Snake
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize I don't own. Thanks to my mom for the help with the details.
Nearly ten years has passed since that fateful night and the sun is rising over a beautiful countryside, the birds are chirping, the wind is rustling through the trees, the marines can be heard chanting cadence for their morning run,(A/N: They live on a military base folks, Air force to be precise) when the tranquility is shattered by a voice, shouting, "HARRY! Get up! Get up NOW!!! You're gonna be late! You still have to eat breakfast and get ready for the ceremony!"
"I'm up, Maria. I'm up! Geez! What time is it?" asks Harry.
"About twenty minutes before the ceremony starts!" replies Maria shouting up the stairs from the kitchen.
"What?!? Why didn't you wake me earlier?!?!" says Harry as he begins to panic.
"I've been calling you for the last hour and a half! I was just about to send in Paul with the bucket of ice water," replies Maria.
Harry came dashing dawn the stairs wearing his white silk Taichi pants, a white t-shirt, and carrying his white silk tunic. As he enters the kitchen he notices Sara and Renee sitting at the table. Turning to them he bowed respectfully, then burst into a HUGE smile.
"Hey Aunt Sara, Aunt Renee," he said.
Renee looked at him and said, "So kid, today's the big day, huh?"
"Yep! Today I get my brown belt," crowed Harry.
"The Master is so proud of you Harry. He says he hasn't had a student with so much drive, grace, energy, and talent since we were his students," said Maria.
Harry, curious, turned to Sara and said "Speaking of the others where is David?"
" He's making sure everything's set up for the picnic. Renee, Paul, Sara, and I put up the wards last night," answered Maria.
This statement made Harry wonder. "Wards? What for?"
Maria looked grim for a moment and replied, "You remember what happened at your ninth birthday don't you? We don't want a repeat of that. Not that it was your fault." "Oh yeah. That," said Harry remembering what happened that day.
" I don't want to have to sit up with you while you have nightmares for weeks like last time. It's not good for you." Maria then turns and looks pointedly at the clock. "Isn't it time for us to get going?"
"Yipe! You're right. We need to hurry or Sifu's going to be mad!" exclaims Harry as he finishes eating, grabs his stuff, and rushes for the door.
At the end of the rather beautiful presentation ceremony the sifu(instructor, teacher) claps Harry on the back. "I'm so proud of you Harry. A brown belt at ten. You are a natural! Now. Go enjoy the picnic with your friends."
"Yes Sifu," says Harry with a respectful bow. He then runs off to join the water balloon fight.
"Harry! Please change out of the silk first," calls Paul. "Especially if you're going to have some of this delicious watermelon."
"Alright!"
"C'mon Harry! Hurry up and change. We can't start this party without you."
"I'm done Sam. Where are the water balloons?"
"Here's a towel Harry, dry off," says Maria handing the towel to Harry. "We're about to start eating, we've got some yellow watermelon. Your favorite, but you have to dry off first."
Once Harry is dry, the food and drinks are passed out. "A toast to Harry. The youngest brown belt this base has seen in a while!" prompts David.
"To Harry!"
"Harry, if you're finished, you can go play. Sara, Renee, Paul, David, and I need to discuss something in private," said Maria.
"I think I see Sam, Erin, Mike, and Jessie over at the creek," Renee says pointing out Harry's best friends who are standing on a rock looking down into the water on the side of the creek closest to the trees.
Harry goes over to them, and joins them in their interest in the creek. A little girl comes running up to them wanting to play with them.
"Hey Chrissie. Be careful OK?" calls Jessie.
As Chrissie is running toward them, she trips over a rock, going sprawling. Chrissie begins crying, holding her skinned knee. As the others come running Chrissie turns to the rock she tripped over, and begins shrieking, terrified.
"Chrissie, what's wrong?" asks Harry as he runs to her side.
Chrissie shrieks and points hysterically "S-Sn-SS-SSSnnn-"
Looking where she's pointing and sees a red, black, and yellow striped snake. As he is looking at the snake Harry remembers the rhyme he learned as a Cub Scout to tell whether a snake is poisonous or not: "Red and Yellow: kill a fellow, red and black: it's ok Jack". He then looks more closely at the snake and sees that the stripes go: red, black, yellow, black, red etc., meaning its not poisonous.
"It's Ok Chrissie. It won't hurt you," Harry calls as he moves to pick the little girl up. As he bends down he hears a voice saying ~What's going on? What happened? What's all the stamping about? Who are you?~
~Was that you?~ asks Harry staring at the snake.
~You can understand me? Cool!~
"Harry? What's going on?" sniffles Chrissie as he picks her up and sets her on her feet.
Maria and the rest of the adults come running over. "Harry! What happened? Is Chrissie okay?" asks Sara as she comes running up.
"I tripped on the rock and skinned my knee. Then I saw a snake and it scared me, but Harry talked to the snake and saved me! He says its name is Sessily Seuss. It won't hurt me!"
"Is that right Chrissie?" asks David. "How did you know its name Harry?"
"Umm.she told me?" replies Harry.
At this Harry's friends pipe up. "So Harry you can talk to snake? That's cool!"
"Yeah Erin's right! I wish I could talk to snakes too!" crows Mike.
"But.but how?"
"Simple Harry, you're a Parselmouth. The language you were speaking is called Parseltongue," replies Renee.
"What?"
"It just means you can talk to serpents. That's all. It doesn't mean that you're evil or anything like that," explains Paul.
"Now then Harry, go back to the party. Chrissie will be all right. We'll have that knee fixed up in no time. So go have fun."
"Yes Maria," with that Harry runs off to enter the water balloon fight that is in progress across the clearing.
"Paul, David, Sara, Renee," Maria says getting their attention. "We need to finish the conversation that was just interrupted, and we need to do it today."
Later that night the adults were having a, rather loud, discussion.
"I know Renee, I don't want him to leave any more than you do, but he has a destiny that he has to fulfill. We all knew this when we decided to raise him as our own. Hogwarts maybe one of the safest places for him to come into his true abilities. We can't continue to shield him the way we have been. We won't be able to hide his powers from the darkness full-time much longer. Because of this he needs to learn not only to control his magic, but to defend himself against others who use that same type of magic without setting of the kind of alarm bells he would if he used the type he has been taught up to now. You KNOW THAT!"
"I know but.Maria!" cries Renee.
"Maria's right Renee. Hogwarts has the kind of wards needed to protect and hide Harry, in strength, and type, as well as age. Some of the wards on the school are 1000 years old and have been gathering power the entire time," Paul reminded Renee.
"Besides, with what we have taught him, he should not have too many problems," Sara pointed out.
"If worst comes to worst, the castle itself will defend him."
"I know that David, but. I just don't want to see him hurt," sobs Renee.
"We all don't want that to happen, but you know that there are things that have to happen if the timeline is to be preserved so that we can intervene when the time is right," Maria reminded them all. "It's time to send Dumbledore the package. Let's let him explain Hogwarts to Harry!"
"What?" Sara sounded confused. "What do you mean 'let him explain'?"
"Well, how about we include another note in the package. Inviting Albus(A/N: Dumbledore is getting too long to type) to visit Harry and see for himself that Harry is fine and happy. Instead of just sending the container for the Hogwarts Letter." Maria explains with a smirk. "I mean, the man was going to leave Harry with the Dursleys of all people. UGH! He deserves a little stress."
Paul can barely contain his laughter, "You sneak Maria!"
An evil grin comes over David's face. "That's really devious. I love it!"
About 20 minutes later they gathered around a table. On the table was a metal tube. Next to the tube was a stack of letters. After checking to make sure everything was there, the Guardians (Paul, Renee, Sara David, and Maria) placed the papers into the tube, sealed it, placed their hands on it, and began to concentrate. With a bright flash of light it disappeared.
At that moment, screaming, crying, and sobbing could be heard coming from Harry's room.
The Guardians rushed up the stairs to Harry's room. Maria got there first. "Harry? What's wrong Little One? What is it? Another nightmare?" Maria sounds worried as she sits on the bed next to where Harry was sobbing.
"'Ria, it was so horrible! I heard voices, a man and a woman then a woman screaming, an evil laugh, and then I saw a green flash of light! Why do I keep having this dream?!?!"
"Harry! Oh sweetie, that one again," Maria cries as she holds him close.
Renee reaches the bed and turns to Harry, "I thought you'd stopped having that one."
"Harry, remember what we told you about your parents, and how you came to live with us?" asks David.
"Yeah I think so," says Harry wiping the tears from his face. Sara sits next to Maria on the edge of Harry's bed. "Sweetie, the night Maria got you, your parents had been killed by a monster by the name of Voldemort. He tried to kill you too, but the curse that he used rebounded and destroyed his body. Remember?"
"Oh yeah. I remember now. 'Ria, will you stay with me tonight?"
"Of course Harry. When ever you need me or any of us we will be there." With this Maria sat down in the chair next to Harry's bed, to stay for the night.
Turning to the others she says, "It's all right, you can go. Make sure that what we talked about earlier happened without any hitches."
As the others left, Paul, the last one to leave, kisses Harry goodnight, turns out the light and shuts the door.
Dumbledore sits at his desk preparing the paperwork for the upcoming year, occasionally grabbing a " Lemon drop" to suck on. Behind him Fawkes, his loyal phoenix, snoozes on his perch. Albus is so deep into his paperwork that a sudden "POP-CLUNK" startles him.
"Oh! Is it that time already?" wonders Albus as he looks up to see a tube- like container sitting on a bare spot on his desk. He looks around his office, taking in the pictures on the shelves. They are of Harry. They seem to progress as Harry ages. Pictures of Harry on his second birthday, his third, him being awarded each successive Taichi ranking. Along with each (Muggle) photo was a letter from Harry's guardians describing what happened that year and how Harry was progressing.
He opens the tube, clearly expecting more of the same. As he reads the letter attached to the normal picture, if he had been anyone but Albus his jaw would have dropped. As it was the twinkle in his eyes seems to double in brightness.
He tosses some powder into the fire and calls out "Minerva!"
A head appears in the fire. It's Minerva McGonagall. "Yes Albus?" she replies.
"Its time!"
A/N: I will try to update once a week. To my reviewer: 'Mes thanks. I am plotting out future chapters as I write current ones i.e. plotting 3,4,5 while writing 2. Harry will be different. But mostly the Harry we know and love. Other characters will be different however, because of how the changed Harry interacts with them.
Review or don't. I'm not writing this for the reviews. I'm writing this because the plot bunny has a firm hold on my ankle and won't let go! Six pages Woohoo!
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize I don't own. Thanks to my mom for the help with the details.
Nearly ten years has passed since that fateful night and the sun is rising over a beautiful countryside, the birds are chirping, the wind is rustling through the trees, the marines can be heard chanting cadence for their morning run,(A/N: They live on a military base folks, Air force to be precise) when the tranquility is shattered by a voice, shouting, "HARRY! Get up! Get up NOW!!! You're gonna be late! You still have to eat breakfast and get ready for the ceremony!"
"I'm up, Maria. I'm up! Geez! What time is it?" asks Harry.
"About twenty minutes before the ceremony starts!" replies Maria shouting up the stairs from the kitchen.
"What?!? Why didn't you wake me earlier?!?!" says Harry as he begins to panic.
"I've been calling you for the last hour and a half! I was just about to send in Paul with the bucket of ice water," replies Maria.
Harry came dashing dawn the stairs wearing his white silk Taichi pants, a white t-shirt, and carrying his white silk tunic. As he enters the kitchen he notices Sara and Renee sitting at the table. Turning to them he bowed respectfully, then burst into a HUGE smile.
"Hey Aunt Sara, Aunt Renee," he said.
Renee looked at him and said, "So kid, today's the big day, huh?"
"Yep! Today I get my brown belt," crowed Harry.
"The Master is so proud of you Harry. He says he hasn't had a student with so much drive, grace, energy, and talent since we were his students," said Maria.
Harry, curious, turned to Sara and said "Speaking of the others where is David?"
" He's making sure everything's set up for the picnic. Renee, Paul, Sara, and I put up the wards last night," answered Maria.
This statement made Harry wonder. "Wards? What for?"
Maria looked grim for a moment and replied, "You remember what happened at your ninth birthday don't you? We don't want a repeat of that. Not that it was your fault." "Oh yeah. That," said Harry remembering what happened that day.
" I don't want to have to sit up with you while you have nightmares for weeks like last time. It's not good for you." Maria then turns and looks pointedly at the clock. "Isn't it time for us to get going?"
"Yipe! You're right. We need to hurry or Sifu's going to be mad!" exclaims Harry as he finishes eating, grabs his stuff, and rushes for the door.
At the end of the rather beautiful presentation ceremony the sifu(instructor, teacher) claps Harry on the back. "I'm so proud of you Harry. A brown belt at ten. You are a natural! Now. Go enjoy the picnic with your friends."
"Yes Sifu," says Harry with a respectful bow. He then runs off to join the water balloon fight.
"Harry! Please change out of the silk first," calls Paul. "Especially if you're going to have some of this delicious watermelon."
"Alright!"
"C'mon Harry! Hurry up and change. We can't start this party without you."
"I'm done Sam. Where are the water balloons?"
"Here's a towel Harry, dry off," says Maria handing the towel to Harry. "We're about to start eating, we've got some yellow watermelon. Your favorite, but you have to dry off first."
Once Harry is dry, the food and drinks are passed out. "A toast to Harry. The youngest brown belt this base has seen in a while!" prompts David.
"To Harry!"
"Harry, if you're finished, you can go play. Sara, Renee, Paul, David, and I need to discuss something in private," said Maria.
"I think I see Sam, Erin, Mike, and Jessie over at the creek," Renee says pointing out Harry's best friends who are standing on a rock looking down into the water on the side of the creek closest to the trees.
Harry goes over to them, and joins them in their interest in the creek. A little girl comes running up to them wanting to play with them.
"Hey Chrissie. Be careful OK?" calls Jessie.
As Chrissie is running toward them, she trips over a rock, going sprawling. Chrissie begins crying, holding her skinned knee. As the others come running Chrissie turns to the rock she tripped over, and begins shrieking, terrified.
"Chrissie, what's wrong?" asks Harry as he runs to her side.
Chrissie shrieks and points hysterically "S-Sn-SS-SSSnnn-"
Looking where she's pointing and sees a red, black, and yellow striped snake. As he is looking at the snake Harry remembers the rhyme he learned as a Cub Scout to tell whether a snake is poisonous or not: "Red and Yellow: kill a fellow, red and black: it's ok Jack". He then looks more closely at the snake and sees that the stripes go: red, black, yellow, black, red etc., meaning its not poisonous.
"It's Ok Chrissie. It won't hurt you," Harry calls as he moves to pick the little girl up. As he bends down he hears a voice saying ~What's going on? What happened? What's all the stamping about? Who are you?~
~Was that you?~ asks Harry staring at the snake.
~You can understand me? Cool!~
"Harry? What's going on?" sniffles Chrissie as he picks her up and sets her on her feet.
Maria and the rest of the adults come running over. "Harry! What happened? Is Chrissie okay?" asks Sara as she comes running up.
"I tripped on the rock and skinned my knee. Then I saw a snake and it scared me, but Harry talked to the snake and saved me! He says its name is Sessily Seuss. It won't hurt me!"
"Is that right Chrissie?" asks David. "How did you know its name Harry?"
"Umm.she told me?" replies Harry.
At this Harry's friends pipe up. "So Harry you can talk to snake? That's cool!"
"Yeah Erin's right! I wish I could talk to snakes too!" crows Mike.
"But.but how?"
"Simple Harry, you're a Parselmouth. The language you were speaking is called Parseltongue," replies Renee.
"What?"
"It just means you can talk to serpents. That's all. It doesn't mean that you're evil or anything like that," explains Paul.
"Now then Harry, go back to the party. Chrissie will be all right. We'll have that knee fixed up in no time. So go have fun."
"Yes Maria," with that Harry runs off to enter the water balloon fight that is in progress across the clearing.
"Paul, David, Sara, Renee," Maria says getting their attention. "We need to finish the conversation that was just interrupted, and we need to do it today."
Later that night the adults were having a, rather loud, discussion.
"I know Renee, I don't want him to leave any more than you do, but he has a destiny that he has to fulfill. We all knew this when we decided to raise him as our own. Hogwarts maybe one of the safest places for him to come into his true abilities. We can't continue to shield him the way we have been. We won't be able to hide his powers from the darkness full-time much longer. Because of this he needs to learn not only to control his magic, but to defend himself against others who use that same type of magic without setting of the kind of alarm bells he would if he used the type he has been taught up to now. You KNOW THAT!"
"I know but.Maria!" cries Renee.
"Maria's right Renee. Hogwarts has the kind of wards needed to protect and hide Harry, in strength, and type, as well as age. Some of the wards on the school are 1000 years old and have been gathering power the entire time," Paul reminded Renee.
"Besides, with what we have taught him, he should not have too many problems," Sara pointed out.
"If worst comes to worst, the castle itself will defend him."
"I know that David, but. I just don't want to see him hurt," sobs Renee.
"We all don't want that to happen, but you know that there are things that have to happen if the timeline is to be preserved so that we can intervene when the time is right," Maria reminded them all. "It's time to send Dumbledore the package. Let's let him explain Hogwarts to Harry!"
"What?" Sara sounded confused. "What do you mean 'let him explain'?"
"Well, how about we include another note in the package. Inviting Albus(A/N: Dumbledore is getting too long to type) to visit Harry and see for himself that Harry is fine and happy. Instead of just sending the container for the Hogwarts Letter." Maria explains with a smirk. "I mean, the man was going to leave Harry with the Dursleys of all people. UGH! He deserves a little stress."
Paul can barely contain his laughter, "You sneak Maria!"
An evil grin comes over David's face. "That's really devious. I love it!"
About 20 minutes later they gathered around a table. On the table was a metal tube. Next to the tube was a stack of letters. After checking to make sure everything was there, the Guardians (Paul, Renee, Sara David, and Maria) placed the papers into the tube, sealed it, placed their hands on it, and began to concentrate. With a bright flash of light it disappeared.
At that moment, screaming, crying, and sobbing could be heard coming from Harry's room.
The Guardians rushed up the stairs to Harry's room. Maria got there first. "Harry? What's wrong Little One? What is it? Another nightmare?" Maria sounds worried as she sits on the bed next to where Harry was sobbing.
"'Ria, it was so horrible! I heard voices, a man and a woman then a woman screaming, an evil laugh, and then I saw a green flash of light! Why do I keep having this dream?!?!"
"Harry! Oh sweetie, that one again," Maria cries as she holds him close.
Renee reaches the bed and turns to Harry, "I thought you'd stopped having that one."
"Harry, remember what we told you about your parents, and how you came to live with us?" asks David.
"Yeah I think so," says Harry wiping the tears from his face. Sara sits next to Maria on the edge of Harry's bed. "Sweetie, the night Maria got you, your parents had been killed by a monster by the name of Voldemort. He tried to kill you too, but the curse that he used rebounded and destroyed his body. Remember?"
"Oh yeah. I remember now. 'Ria, will you stay with me tonight?"
"Of course Harry. When ever you need me or any of us we will be there." With this Maria sat down in the chair next to Harry's bed, to stay for the night.
Turning to the others she says, "It's all right, you can go. Make sure that what we talked about earlier happened without any hitches."
As the others left, Paul, the last one to leave, kisses Harry goodnight, turns out the light and shuts the door.
Dumbledore sits at his desk preparing the paperwork for the upcoming year, occasionally grabbing a " Lemon drop" to suck on. Behind him Fawkes, his loyal phoenix, snoozes on his perch. Albus is so deep into his paperwork that a sudden "POP-CLUNK" startles him.
"Oh! Is it that time already?" wonders Albus as he looks up to see a tube- like container sitting on a bare spot on his desk. He looks around his office, taking in the pictures on the shelves. They are of Harry. They seem to progress as Harry ages. Pictures of Harry on his second birthday, his third, him being awarded each successive Taichi ranking. Along with each (Muggle) photo was a letter from Harry's guardians describing what happened that year and how Harry was progressing.
He opens the tube, clearly expecting more of the same. As he reads the letter attached to the normal picture, if he had been anyone but Albus his jaw would have dropped. As it was the twinkle in his eyes seems to double in brightness.
He tosses some powder into the fire and calls out "Minerva!"
A head appears in the fire. It's Minerva McGonagall. "Yes Albus?" she replies.
"Its time!"
A/N: I will try to update once a week. To my reviewer: 'Mes thanks. I am plotting out future chapters as I write current ones i.e. plotting 3,4,5 while writing 2. Harry will be different. But mostly the Harry we know and love. Other characters will be different however, because of how the changed Harry interacts with them.
Review or don't. I'm not writing this for the reviews. I'm writing this because the plot bunny has a firm hold on my ankle and won't let go! Six pages Woohoo!