Prophesy of the Serpent

Author: Gryphnwng

Rating: ~Pg-13 for now

A Severitus Challenge fiction

Disclaimer:

I'm a gal who just graduated college and has no job.  How on earth could you mistake me for someone who's richer then the bloody Queen of England????  In other words, I don't own these characters.  Just the snake. ^_^

A/N:  Well, here is chapter 7.  I hope it was worth the wait!  I didn't have anytime to work on this while on vacation, so it's a tad late.  The vacation was great though!  Got to see my fiancé again.  Also, I fixed a slight discrepancy in chapter 4, so no more plot hole there.  I wonder if that was the fault of the plot bunnies?  Oh well.  ^_^ 

*Mice taste good!*  is parseltongue  (I'm leaving out the extra s's so I don't go nuts trying to spell check, lol)

~I wonder if I'm wearing clean underwear?~ is private thought

You are insane, you know.  is that annoying inner voice

~Do my feathers look all right?~ is mind-speech

Hmmm… lots of voices to remember!  

Chapter 7

For the rest of that Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday Harry spent his time either in the library completing his homework (much to the dismay of Ron) or in some quiet, out of the way area talking to Silestra.  He had decided to take Fawkes advice and find out more about her kind.  Before he had only known the name of her species, and that she was very poisonous.  The library had a few books mentioning Egyptian temple snakes, but they were very dry reading and not as accurate as the source herself.  Sunday evening he was sitting in the common room, in a secluded corner, thinking over everything he had learned.  A scrap of parchment covered in writing was clenched in his fist.

^Flashback Saturday evening^

A warm breeze played with Harry's tied back hair, teasing strands loose and over his face as he sat on a window ledge in one of the towers.  His snake Silestra lay curled up contently in his lap, her tongue flicking idly as she watched her master.

*What troubles you, Harry?*

*Nothing really, Silestra.*  He ran a finger down her back while she closed her eyes in enjoyment.  *I just was thinking that I do not know much about your kind.  Where do you live?  What's it like?  Do you have duties?  All I could find out on my own was that you are a magical breed, right?*

She shifted her coils slightly, thinking over her answers.  *Well, as our name suggests we come from Egypt.  We were specifically bred to protect the temples and tombs of the royalty.  I think snake speakers were more common there, and often were in the priesthood.  My breed was used specifically in temple duties because some of us were seers, and could tell of some events that would happen in the future.  The wizard-priests prized this ability a long time ago, and we helped in many ceremonies.  This ability is what sets my kind apart from others, no other snake clan has seers.*

She grew silent once more, enjoying the caress of Harry's finger as it slid down her back.  He paused a moment in his ministrations, absorbing what she had said.

*So your kind has prophetic dreams and such?  Do you know of any prophecies Silestra?*

*As a matter of fact, I do.  My granddame had a dream, not long after my dam had hatched, that has yet to come true.  It is said that the more people who dream or see a prophecy, the more important it is.  I think a human had this dream as well.*

He carefully lifted the snake to a perch around his shoulders.  The night was getting cooler, and he didn't want her to catch a chill.  Hissing her pleasure at the added warmth, Silestra draped herself loosely around his neck and continued.

*It is fairly long, and deals with a birth of a child, and a rising darkness. Do you wish to hear it?*  Harry nodded, indicating her to continue.

*When Dark the shadows lie 'cross the Land,

Powers balance shifts like sand,

To Child borne of the Cats Flower,

The Darkness will wane in its Power.

5 and 10 years then shall wend,

Before the hand of fate shall once again send

A darkness upon the land shall stain.

Serpent Child with mark of Pain

Will find before him two marked paths,

The one of blind faith leads to a blood bath.

If Truth be known to Serpent and Sire

Lights chance to Grow will be higher.

But if these things should be chance be Hidden,

The Dark shall rise as Dark Master has bidden.

Two faces hidden 'neath mask of Light,

A wish for Power may turn the fight.

Unmask the players before plays End,

So for the Light the Serpent may Defend.*

*That's all, I believe.  If there is anymore to this, I do not know it.*

Harry thanked her softly, his emerald eyes unfocused as he went over the prophesy in his head.  Careful not to disturb his familiar he drew a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill out of his bag and jotted down the words to the prophecy.  He had a feeling that it was important and he planned on showing it to Remus and Sirius.  He wanted to know what they thought about it. 

^End flashback^

Harry sank further into the comfortable chair.  He hadn't had a chance to talk to either Sirius or Remus as of yet.  He sighed, raking his free hand through his loose hair, thinking of the next day.  They would be having classes, specifically potions.  Harry had no idea what was going to happen in that class.  When he had last seen Professor Snape, he had been his usual sneering self.  How he took the news Harry hadn't stuck around to see.  Now he regretted it.  How would Professor Snape act in class? Exactly the same?  Would he even want to talk?  Harry himself still didn't know how to relate to the news he lad learned beyond being mad at Dumbledore for lying to him all this time.  He would just have to find out then, he supposed. 

From across the room a pair of concerned eyes watched him as he sat in silence in his corner.  Hermione had debated with herself to go to him, but he seemed to just want to be alone.  She wasn't sure what to do for Harry.  Others may not have noticed, but he had changed a lot from the last term, both physically and mentally.  She wasn't sure how to bring it up to him without having her head chewed off though.  She turned back to her transfiguration essay with a small frown, absently admonishing Ron to work on his own as well.

Harry still sat, oblivious to the concerned eyes of one of his friends.  Giving the prophecy one last look he stood to head up to his dorm room.  He needed all the rest he could get if he was going to survive tomorrow.  One way or another, he'd have to confront Snape.  And then, his friends.  Hermione at least won't settle until she knew what was going on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thick clouds rolled in Monday morning accompanied by a dreary drizzle.  The dome covering the Great Hall displayed the rolling masses of dark gray cloud, and the rain that fell disappeared just over the heads of the students and teachers.  The weather outside matched Severus' mood exactly.  Dark and gloomy.  He had stuck to his rooms the entire weekend, never leaving, even for meals.  Today was the first day he had made it out since… that night.  He half-heartedly picked at the food on his plate, not really hungry, and looked around the hall at the students assembled there.  Regardless of the weather, they were all quite cheerful, eating their breakfast and chatting with their friends about various things.  Severus studiously avoided looking at the Gryffindor table, and at one student in particular.  Lily's son.  His son. 

Harry James Potter.

Or, as the letter James write had stated, Delano Cade Snape. 

Severus was afraid to admit it to himself; he was afraid.  Afraid of how the boy would react, what he would think.  His own treatment of the boy over the past four years didn't help matters any either.  ~Not that it's any excuse that my memories had been tampered with.  I doubt he'd want any sort of relationship with me after that.  No matter what that letter said.~  Losing all semblance of an appetite, Professor Snape continued to watch the students, in particular, those of his own house.  

It saddened him to think that his house was divided against each other, yet it gladdened him as well.  It meant that he had managed to reach at least some of his students, kept them out of the clutches of the Dark Lord.  Probably his greatest triumph in that area was his own Godson, Draco.  He had despaired of turning him from his father's ideals, until he had literally turned up on his doorstep over the summer, traumatized and fearing for his safety.  It had taken nearly 3 hours to calm him down and convince him that he would not turn him over to the Death Eaters.  He had slowly coaxed Draco's story from him over the course of the next few days, officially becoming his guardian when his father disowned him.

Unfortunately, that had caused him some grief with the boy's father, Lucius, when he found out that Severus had taken him in.  His position as spy was a fragile one, and that act hadn't helped his cause any.  He finally convinced both Lucius and Voldemort that he was only taking him in in the hopes of changing Draco's mind, and because he had sworn an oath when made Draco's Godfather that he would protect the boy. 

When the new term had begun he had had to change the dorms from their usual groupings to ones that didn't mix the two groups.  Since Draco's group was by the minority, different years were sharing the same room.  It had ended up being first through fourth years together, and the upper years sharing a different room.  The rest of the Slytherins were paired as normal.  Severus could only hope that this helped to alleviate some of the tensions.

It took a nudge from Madam Hooch sitting next to him to bring him out if his musings and back to the real world.  It was time to face his students and teach.  Carefully he controlled his features to a blank mask, a faint scowl present on his brow.  With an impressive sweep of his robes he gracefully stood and exited the Great Hall and headed for his dungeons classroom.  In the entire time he had sat in a daze at the head table, studiously not looking at one person in particular, he had never noticed that they had been watching him the whole time.

Although potions class for the 5th years and Ginny was first that morning, it wasn't a double class thankfully.  With no Slytherins sharing the class with them, things tended to go a lot smoother.  Miscellaneous potions ingredients did not find there way into the Gryffindors cauldrons, no one was rudely teased behind Snape's back, and Neville's cauldron stayed in one piece.  That day they were continuing work that they had started on the previous Friday on a series of healing potions.  They had all completed the preliminary work in the previous class and now were doing the actual brewing.  A few of the ingredients, such as the minced Nightingale tongue, had to sit for a few days after preparation before it could be used. 

The class was going fairly smoothly, with Neville paired with Lavender and Dean due to the uneven number in the class.  Snape presided over the class as usual, though there were far fewer biting remarks then was normal for the Professor.  The Gryffindors were too happy with this turn of luck to even chance discussing it in the class.  They wanted to keep whatever points they had.  The class had progressed fairly quickly and everyone's potions seemed to turning out correctly.  The last step of the potion required that the pre-prepared Nightingale tongues be added while the potion was over medium heat, then stirred counter-clockwise 5 times.  One by one the groups collected their own preparation of the last ingredient and added it to their cauldron.  The final product was to turn to a pale blue at that point.

When Harry and Ginny got to the last step and added their own Nightingale tongues, their potion instead started hissing and turned a bilious green color.  Neither had any idea what had happened, since they had prepared their last ingredient very carefully.  They both started at each other, and then the potion with apprehension in their expression.  Snape chose that moment to pounce.

"Green, Potter, Weasley?  I don't dare suppose you think that that is correct?"

Ginny shook her head, licking her lips nervously.  "No, sir.  It's supposed to be pale blue."

Snape snorted, sneering at the two students.  "And I suppose you have no idea what happened either, do you.  When I let you advance to this class, Miss Weasley, I had hoped you would have done better then this.  Too busy day-dreaming over our Mister Potter, no doubt."  He stepped back a pace, arms crossed over her chest as he sneered at the two unfortunate Gryffindors.  Ginny blushed crimson and dropped her head, trying desperately to keep from say something she'd regret.

Harry clenched his fist and stared back at the Potions Master, almost eye to eye with him.  While Snape's face held its customary sneer, his eyes weren't alight with malicious amusement as they should have been, which confused Harry a little.  They continued their small staring contest until Harry finally looked away.  Giving a small satisfied smile, Snape continued.

"I believe a detention shall give you both the motivation to do better in this class.  Tonight at 8 I shall expect you both to show up promptly."

Harry grimaced and spoke up.  "Sir, I have a prefects meeting tonight at that same time.  I can't miss…"

"Yes, yes.  Don't think you can get out of it that easy, Potter.  You will come on Wednesday evening then.  If that does not conflict with your busy schedule?"  He couldn't help but smirk a little at the suppressed fury on the boys face before he managed to hide it.  Harry stiffly nodded acceptance.  "Good.  Clean up and bottle those brews and place them on my desk.  Don't forget to label them," he started at Neville.  "Class dismissed."

Harry's jaw clenched as he helped Ginny clean out their cauldron of the ruined potion.  Only Snape could put him in such a bad mood in the very first day of class.  He took out his ire on the helpless cauldron, which was soon cleaner then it had been for a while.

When the Gryffindors left the dungeon behind finally, they broke out into complaints over Snape's unfairness, and sympathized with Harry and Ginny over their detention so early on in the year.  Ron especially waxed eloquent in his diatribe against the man.  He had an arm slung over both his sister and Harry as they reached the main levels.

"A whole detention just because the potion was a different color!  Can you believe that?"

Neville nodded, and chimed in.  "I don't know Harry.  I think Snape has something in for you.  I almost never get a potion right, and he doesn't give me detention for it."  He paused a moment, considering.  "At least we didn't have points taken off though.  Did you notice?  Not one single point deducted."  That one point of interest was enough to give them all pause.  Snape delighted in deducting points any chance he got from Gryffindor. 

"I wonder why, do you think he's ill?"  Hermione asked, glancing at the others.

Ron snorted, rolling his eyes.  "If he is, who cares?  Serves the slimy git right!"

"Ron!"

"Well, it's true, Hermione.  He's never given you points, and your potions are always perfect.  But his Slytherins always earn points for theirs, and some of them are thicker then two planks of wood!"

Dean laughed and coughed into his hand "Crabbe" while Seamus coughed "Goyle!" 

Ginny meanwhile ducked out from her brothers' arm and headed down a different hall.  "As fascinating as this is, I've got to get to my next class.  I'm only in potions with you guys, remember?"  She trotted down the hall while the others yelled various goodbyes to her.  The rest continued on to their next class, still discussing Snape.

Other then the incident in potions it was a fairly good day for the Gryffindors.  Both Harry and Hermione gained points for their house for their correct answers about animagus transformations in Transfiguration.  Over the summer Harry had progressed quite far in his reading of the book Hermione had given him for his birthday.  During their free period after lunch the trio got together to see how far each had gone.  Hermione had sent a copy of the same book to Ron as well as keeping one for herself.  They were almost ready to say the incantation during their meditation that would show them their animagus form, if they possessed one.  After the short break Hermione split off from the group for her Arithmancy class while Ron and Harry went to Divination. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At dinner that night most of the 5th and 7th years were exhausted.  They were being hammered with work already for their upcoming N.E.W.T's and O.W.L's.  While everyone else could go back to their common rooms or the library to get it done though, Harry and Hermione had to go to their first prefects meeting.  Every two weeks they would meet with the other prefects and their head of house to discuss Quidditch, any school events, new rules or advisements the teachers made, and other aspects of the school.  This first meeting was to get everyone acquainted with each other, and schedule each house's tryouts for their quidditch teams.  Slytherins new 5th year prefects were Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini.  Ravenclaw had Terry Boot and Marissa Weathers, and Hufflepuff consisted of Justin Finch-Fletchley and Susan Bones.

Harry was able to secure Friday evening for Gryffindors try-outs.  While the other houses hashed out times and schedules, he worked on the sign up sheet to post in the common room.  As it turned out, he had plenty of time to kill, as Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw couldn't come to an agreement over who would get the field on Saturday morning.  The teaches finally had to intervene and divided it up so that Hufflepuff would have it from 8am until 10:30, and Ravenclaw after them.  It almost 11pm by the time Harry and Hermione could get back to their dorm to do some work.  Luckily they didn't have to patrol that night.  That unpleasant lot fell to the 6th year Slytherin prefects.

Tuesday and Wednesday went about in much the same way, with all the teachers assigning loads of work to do both in class and outside of it.  Ginny had come back from her detention with Snape late Monday night after Harry and Hermione had returned, complaining about scrubbing cauldrons.  Harry wondered what unpleasant task he'd have to perform.  He thought briefly about confronting Snape about what had happened on Friday night, but was leery of doing so.  By his actions, Snape seemingly wanted nothing to do with him.  He also had yet to talk with his Godfather or Lupin about that letter.  As if by magic Wednesday night came and he was standing in front of the doors to the dungeon potions room.  He lurked outside a few moments, dithering about knocking, when a voice inside spoke.

"Come in."

Authors notes:  Well, not my shortest chapter, but no-where near the longest.  If anyone is confused about my switching from Snape to Severus, it will be like this.  When it's the students discussing him, or in class, he is Snape or Professor Snape.  Otherwise, it will be Severus.  He has his classroom personality, and what he's really like.  I just got a job (Yeah!) so this is a little late.  But on the good side, I have money again!  I would like to give a great big hug and cookie to all my lovely reviewers, you guys are AWESOME!  I still can't believe yall think this is good ^_^  Well, keep 'em coming, and I'll keep on writing!  Till next time J

P.S. sorry for the cliffie…*Ducks*

~*~Gryphnwng~*~