Author's Note: Sorry that this took as long as it did. I had some serious writer's block, and only finally got over it. And now, FFN doesn't want to let me upload. Damn it. Of course, I can't actually do anything on FFN right now, so... *shrugs* Forgive me for taking so long, still. And thanks for reading.
'these' are thoughts.
**this** is parseltongue.
*~*~*~*~* is a new perspective or scene.
Chapter Seventeen: Magical Bonds
Nagini, a large, diamond patterned green snake, who's Master was Lord Voldemort, slithered her way through the Entrance Hall and down the stairs to the dungeons. She knew where she was going. Her Master had told her exactly. She heard somebody ahead and stayed to the shadows. Shadows were rampant in the dungeons, dark, dank place that they were. It was easy for her to hide herself as she moved ever closer to where she was supposed to be. But then she noticed, as she got closer, that she could understand the ones talking. Yes, she could understand humans, but not like this. Whoever was talking was either a Speaker, or a serpent. Or both. She crept slowly around the last bend in the corridor, happy to find that one of the ones who were speaking was the one she was intended to speak with. The Young Speaker, Harry Potter.
He didn't look as she remembered him to, but her Master had told her that he'd changed. That he would look like the traitor. She knew the traitor. And this boy looked very much like him, with only subtle differences. He didn't have the hooked, hawk like nose of the traitor. The traitor had unsettled her at first with his looks. He had looked so much like the predatory bird that always hunted her kind as prey that she might have even feared him, had he not been one of her Master's slaves.
She made her silent way towards the boy that Speaking in her tongue, and hissed out a greeting... if you could call it that. More like an attention grabber.
**Harry Potter.**
Harry's head whipped around, as did that of Sal and Salazar Slytherin. All three watched the snake approach, Harry warily, Sal with interest, and Salazar with dislike.
Nagini saw the serpent coiled around the boy's waist and knew exactly who it was. The Guardian. Potter had tapped into the power of the pendant and brought forth the Guardian, Guide, and Protector. Nagini wasn't one to fear many things, but this serpent, she did. She stopped a decent ways away, out of reach of the serpent's fangs should he dare strike. He was one of few of their kind that could harm her. But she meant no harm to his charge. Yet. Her Master had told her no harm could come to the boy until after he had the pendant. Then he would finish off his enemy himself. She was content to leave it at that. Her Master provided her food enough. Any of his slaves that have displeased him enough were sent to her.
**Nagini.** Harry replied to her.
**I have a message from my Master, Harry Potter.**
**What does Voldemort want now?**
**My Master wishes you to join him. To give him the Power that lies within the Pendant. To control the world with him.**
**I have told your Master before, Nagini. I will not join him. I will not relinquish the Pendant to him. I will defeat him.** Harry was careful to phrase that last part well, so that Voldemort would not have any inkling as to what the rest of the Prophecy said. That Harry would have to kill him, or be killed.
**So be it, Harry Potter. My Master wishes me to tell you that if you do not comply with his wishes, then he will destroy all you hold dear. Consider yourself warned.**
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By this time, Salazar had heard enough. He disappeared from his portrait and slipped inside Severus' rooms, sidling into another painting. This one of a landscape with wild horses running through it. He detested this painting, but it was the easiest one to get into without having to fight for it, so he used it.
"Severus! Come quick!" he shouted.
Severus glided out of one of the doors, the doorway to his personal Potions Lab, to be exact.
"Yes, Salazar? What can I do for you?"
"Young Harry is outside-"
"Why didn't you let him in?" Severus asked, impatient with the man(portrait?) for disturbing him for this.
"If you'd let me finish!" Salazar growled. "He is outside talking with a snake, one that he called Nagini. She says her Master sent her, and Harry asked what Voldemort wan... Well!" he didn't even get a chance to finish because Severus was already striding out of the room, pushing through the portrait hole.
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Harry watched in horror as his father came barreling out of his room, in a much more undignified manner than he'd ever seen the man. But that wasn't what caused the horror. The entrance that Severus exited from was closer to Nagini than Harry currently was, and the snake took this opportunity to strike at the man who betrayed her Master.
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Nagini was delighted at how things were turning out for her. True, she could not harm the boy, but her Master never said she couldn't attack the traitor. So she did. She coiled tightly and thrust her head at him, her fangs sinking deep into the softer tissue of the mans stomach. She clamped her jaws around his waist and clenched, breaking the two ribs that were within her mouth's grasp. Then, she caught a movement from behind the traitor. The Guardian. He was quickly uncoiling down the boy, preparing to strike her in return as the boy screamed for help. She let the man loose, satisfied with her work as she turned and moved as fast as her body would go in the other direction. Her work here was done, and now she needed to return to her Master and report what had happened.
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Harry watched as his father lay on the floor, bleeding profusely from the wounds Nagini inflicted. No one heard his cries for help as the rest of the school was at dinner in the Great Hall still. In fact, it had only started about half an hour before. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Salazar re-enter his portrait and quickly gave the password. After Salazar had opened up, Harry requested for him to join them in Severus' room after they got in. Salazar agreed, and Harry levitated his father into the living area and on through to his bedroom. He settled the man on the four poster and wrapped some bandages that he found around his torso. Then he scrambled for his bookbag, which carried his book. Pulling said book from the bag, he ran to his father's desk, opened an inkwell, dipped in a quill and scribbled furiously.
H. R. Get Dumbledore and Pomfrey down to Snape's rooms. He's hurt. HURRY!
Without waiting for a response, for he knew that Hermione, at least, always carried her book in her robes, he hurried back to his father's side.
"How can I help, Sir?" He directed the question to his father, the pale man lying on the bed next to where he sat, but Salazar knew it was meant for him as well.
"He has several potions, all antidotes to poisons. There are seven vials currently filled with the antidotes to various snake poisons, but they cannot all be mixed together or you will make him worse. Go to his lab and bring every one of them you can find and see if he can tell you which is the correct one."
Harry nodded and disappeared into the Potions Lab, searching frantically for these vials.
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Harry was correct. Hermione carried her book in her robes in one of the many pockets. As did Severus. Ron carried his in his schoolbag. It was a good thing that Hermione had hers where she did, otherwise they never would have gotten the message. As they did, however, it was a moot point. Hermione pulled her book free and flipped it open. She read the short note and gasped, handing it across the table to Ron, who went pale.
"You get Madame Pomfrey. I'll get Dumbledore." she said. Ron nodded and sprinted from the room towards the Hospital Wing.
Hermione and jumped up at the same time as Ron, but she ran up to the Head Table, to the curious stares of the students, and the snickers from the Slytherin table. All of the teachers' eyes were on her as she approached, but she didn't even spare them a glance.
"Professor Dumbledore! Harry says Snape's hurt. He's in his rooms. You have to go!"
Dumbledore rose from the table, the ever present twinkle missing from his eyes and followed Hermione from the room, much to the confusion of all those watching.
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Albus and Hermione arrived at Severus' rooms only to find that they could get in. Salazar was not in his portrait. Albus rapped his knuckles sharply on the frame of the portrait and waited with barely concealed impatience for someone to open the door. Ron and Poppy Pomfrey arrived as they waited.
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Harry rushed through the living area to the door and pushed it open, his arms filled with vials of potion. Seeing who it was, he simply turned and ran back into his father's room, the four following him.
He unceremoniously dumped the vials on the bed next to his father.
"Which one?" he asked.
He knew they had to hurry as the man was quickly losing consciousness. Thankfully, Severus had a potion part of the antidote to Nagini. Poppy knew the rest, but didn't know what to do as she was culls to what had happened.
Severus weakly pointed out a vial that contained a red-orange liquid in it.
Harry uncorked the top and moved to make his father drink it, but he refused.
"Have to have the spells, first." Severus rasped out.
Harry looked helplessly to the Medi-witch, who stepped closer.
"What happened? I can't do anything without knowing that."
"Nagini. Voldemort's snake. She got down here and bit him."
Ron and Hermione gasped, Albus looked chagrined, and Poppy, as ever, was strictly business. Now that she knew what happened, she knew what to do. With the dangers of what Severus Snape had been doing while spying, both she and he had worked out how to counter-act the venoms of Nagini. He had created the potion, and she had learned the spells to aid it.
With no little bit of movement from her wand, she chanted under her breath. When she was finally finished, after what seemed an eternity to the anxious boy, she nodded for him to do his bit.
He again lifted the vial to his father's lips and coaxed the man to swallow the thick substance. Finally, the last drop was gone and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. They had done it. Now all he had to do was wait and see if it worked.
As they waited, Harry filled in his Headmaster and friends on what had happened with Nagini. Her message and warning, to her attack on Snape.
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Three weeks passed with Harry dutifully attending his lessons before retreating to the dungeons and staying with Severus. His father still had not recovered, but it looked as though he were finally on the mend. Harry kept in constant contact with Ron and Hermione through their books, when not in class, but he hadn't returned to the Tower since Nagini came. Dobby had brought him a camp bed which he placed directly next to Severus'. There he slept, read, did his schoolwork, and kept watch on the man. The only time he left the room, other than for classes, was to go eat in the small dining area.
The Headmaster and Madame Pomfrey were currently sitting with him, Poppy on the edge of Severus' bed, Harry on his cot, and Dumbledore on a chair he drew up with his wand. All three were discussing Voldemort's current inactivity when Harry felt it. The beginnings of a vision-dream. His scar began to tingle, then burn. His vision was growing blurry, blackness edging around it. He could vaguely hear the concerned questions of the other two as though they were from far away. Then Voldemort arrived in his head, blocking all reality from Harry.
*~Vision~*
Voldemort was circling Harry, like he was prey. And Harry was watching him warily.
"What do you want, Tom?"
Voldemort's scarlet eyes narrowed, but he brushed aside the insult. He was used to it by now.
'Uh oh.' Harry thought. 'I've got to find another way to get to him now.'
"Nagini tells me you won't join me, Harry. This does not bode well for you. Or your friends. Come to me, Harry, and I won't kill your precious father."
"Right, Tom. All you do is lie, so why should I believe you now? Besides, I'm not that sure that I care if you kill my father or not."
A laugh. A high, cold, evil laugh. Piercing. It was hurting the boy's head, although that could just be from the scar. But then he felt the vision fading, even as Voldemort's furious face came into view once more.
"You cannot go! I won't let you!"
Then all was blackness again.
*~End Vision~*
Harry opened his eyes again, surprisingly feeling nothing more than a twinge in his scar as he stared at Dumbledore. Who was staring back at him, as was Pomfrey. The light in the room was different, and he briefly wondered if he had been out of it for long. Then something he never felt took over him.
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There was a light emanating from young Harry. A glow that was almost silver, almost green, but never quite either. Albus watched as Harry raised his wand and pointed it at Severus Snape. An arrow of light shot from it, without Harry even muttering a spell. The light was much like that that surrounded the boy, but subtly different. This was green, with brilliant silver outlining it. Almost like an emerald dipped in silver, then cut in half so that the green could show through. The light speared into the Potions Master's chest, quickly consuming him before fading out.
Harry stared in awe at the sight. He felt fine, not in the least depleted of magical energy. His father, after Pomfrey checked him over, was fine. Perfectly. No poisons remained in his system. He was just sleeping now. He didn't know what he had done.
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Three hundred miles away from Hogwarts, a reptilian man with scarlet
eyes and slits for nostrils in his pasty white skin slumped back against
his 'throne', drained. He didn't know what had happened to him, but he
knew it couldn't be good. Before he fell into unconsciousness, he felt
the bond between the boy and him slip through his fingers. He no longer
had control.
A/N: So, what did you think?
House Points Question:
What happened, with Harry and the light? Where did it come from? (20
points)