The snake who lived
Author's HEAVY apologies: I realize it's been nearly a month since I've updated… Writer's block hit me rather bad. For two whole weeks, I haven't been able to write a single word. Blame it on lack of time, inspiration on two other fanfics (One of which should be coming out shortly, for all you Ranma ½ fans out there. Yes, I started to dabble in the possibilities of THAT world ^_-) and on loosely planned, but important parts. It's not this chapter, it came out very quickly. But chapter 7… *sigh*
Well, here you go. Enjoy.
Sorry for the wait,
~Akuma-sama, the demon lord.
Book 2: The Chamber of secrets
"[…] you already have a slight reputation with a few people, right? Because of that story with he-who-must-not-be-named… I know, I know, it's not exactly as glorious as winning Witch weekly's most charming smile award five times in a row, but it's a start, Harry, it's a start…"
Gilderoy Lockhart, Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets, page 103
Chapter 5: The Lion, The Snake and The… Idiot?
The sky was clear and orange, that morning of September 2, 1992, over the rugged, mountainous lands of the Scotland highlands. Rivers glittered brightly with the light of the dawning sun, their clear waters running downstream as they had done the day before and as they would the next.
Overlooked by a large castle, a large black lake out of which peeked few tentacles whipping at the air as the monster they belonged to played with a fish was no different, except perhaps for that small detail. Insignificant detail, of course.
Looking out of a window that was nearly at ground level, Harry Potter let out the fifteenth sigh since he had first opened his eyes, that morning. The night hadn't been any restful for him. Certainly not, after what had happened.
'A Weasley in Slytherin… I think Hermione was right, Hell did freeze over.' Harry thought darkly, sighing again.
The squid outside gave a careless swing of it's tentacles, sending a large wave of water crashing against the shore.
Last evening, Virginia Weasley had joined the ranks of the Slytherin house. Normally, it wouldn't have been quite as bad, if it had been anyone else. But Ginny had six brothers, four of which were still at Hogwarts, living in Gryffindor tower. And they were not happy.
He gave another sigh.
"Would you mind stopping that?" A voice asked from the bed at his left, the curtains partly open, revealing the interesting sight of a morning Draco, coming with messed hair and sloppy, ruffled night robe that he would never reveal to anyone he didn't trust. "It's irritating."
"Sorry." He sighed.
"Look, if it bothers you that much, you can make sure her brothers don't become a pain in the ass – more than they are already, I mean."
"I guess. I hope Ron doesn't flip too much though…"
"Tough luck." Draco grumbled. "He may not be acting it, but I know he's not comfortable hanging around us, just because we're Slytherins."
With a final sigh – that caused Draco to grumble and slide his curtains shut – Harry left the dormitory, avoiding Crabbe and Goyle's soundproof-curtained beds.
'And thank goodness they are, too.' He thought absentmindedly as he saw the curtain rumble a bit from the sound. They really snored loud.
The common room was as it had always been; gloomy, a bit scary to those unused to it or if one was alone inside. However, Harry thought it was homey and comfortable, whether he be alone or in group.
And he wasn't alone.
Staring at the dying fire and sitting on the couch closest to it was a familiar, female, bright red-haired figure.
"Ginny?" Harry called. "Why are you up so early?"
The girl jumped a good foot in the air in surprise as her head whipped around so fast that, for a moment, Harry was afraid she'd die from whiplash. Her blue eyes were red and puffy, betraying her rather evident and understandable sadness.
"Harry?" She asked.
"Naa, I'm the other Slytherin kid with a scar." The boy replied sarcastically, before catching himself. Now wasn't the time for that.
To his relief, the girl let out a small chuckle and smiled. Taking this as a good sign, Harry sat down beside her, on the sofa.
"It's not that bad, being in Slytherin." Harry began, before theatrically slapping his forehead. "What am I saying, not that bad, it's even great. Much better than any other house."
"How can you tell?" Ginny asked.
"Shh, stop trying to ruin my moment." He exaggeratedly shushed her, prompting another sad chuckle. "I mean, sure, the room looks gloomy and all, but it's all an image. The others think we're the bad guys, but just wait 'till I bring us back the Quidditch cup."
"You sure sound sure of yourself."
"If I don't trust myself, who will?" Harry retorted with a smirk. "Slytherin saying."
She gave him an odd look. "A Slytherin saying on trust?"
"Well, actually, the other half goes 'If no one trusts me, who will I screw over', but it doesn't fit now."
This time, Ginny burst out laughing. Satisfied with his accomplished mission, Harry allowed himself a grin.
"Thanks Harry… I needed that." She said, before blushing slightly. Apparently, she had just realized who she was sitting next to. Her posture screamed of discomfort. Harry's grin faltered into a smile.
"Don't you worry. Your brothers may act pig-headed at first, but if they see you're happy here, they'll understand."
Ginny nodded slowly, a frown appearing on her face. Harry mentally slapped himself. Great, she was sad again. Smooth, Potter.
"How long do you think they'll be mad?"
"Not too long." Harry hoped out loud. "Besides, you've got help. I'm sure Hermione's going to convince Ron, and if the others get bad, we can always talk to Professor Snape or McGonagall about that."
"P-Professor Snape?" Ginny mumbled, as if only realizing now who would be her head of house.
"I'm not the best one to say good things about him, but he's fair to most Slytherins except me and Blaise. You should try to get along with him if possible."
"Easy for you to say, you don't have six brothers who went on his bad side before him."
"No, but he and my father hated each other so bad my dad saved Snape's life."
"Eh?" Ginny's disbelieving and confused look was so priceless Harry burst out laughing.
They were not alone for much longer. Sleepily crawling down the stairs from the girls' dorms, Blaise welcomed them with a cheerful, energetic "hawwooh" that had the same power potential as a battery re-used in twenty different energy-consuming machines.
Ten years.
Each.
Non stop.
Without recharges.
No question about why someone would put an old battery like that in anything except the trash can.
No, she was not awake.
As for Draco, he came down a few minutes later, hair and clothes impeccable, looking like the image of aristocracy itself, flanked by still a bit sleepy Crabbe and Goyle, who both went their own way as soon as he was with Harry and Blaise.
After a quick nod for a welcome, and a rather predatory glance at Ginny, who promptly hid behind Blaise – which was a bit hard, considering the Weasley genes were already making the eleven years old a good two inches taller than the dark-red haired girl – Draco followed his three fellow Slytherins in the great hall, where breakfast was already served and most of the students were already greedily digging in their plates, if not stretching their limbs in a superhuman morning effort of gathering the food.
Ginny sat down, dropped her books on the Slytherin table and quickly found herself flanked by Blaise and Harry on each sides, with the two other girls who were her dorm mates – whom she hadn't taken time to meet the previous night – sitting in front.
One of them was obviously Asian, with thin, black eyes, black hair and dark yellowish skin. She was also rather small, even for an eleven years old. The other was taller, with dark-brown hair and grayish eyes that looked rather familiar, at least to Harry.
"You're Chang, right?" Blaise asked, pointing to the Asian girl, who nodded. "Any relation to the Ravenclaw seeker Cho Chang?"
"Halff-sister." The girl replied, her Chinese accent as thick as the previous evening. The final lf was much too pronounced, as if she didn't quite know how to pronounce half the words, no pun intended. "Bail-ly 'no her, she like total stranger."
'Bail-ly? Oh, barely.' Harry mentally corrected.
"Oh." Blaise said, her curiosity satisfied, before turning to the other girl. "And you are…?"
"Emma Francisca McKinnon." The other girl declared haughtily. "Sole remaining member of the McKinnon clan. You?"
"Blaise Zabini, this is Draco Malfoy—"
"Draco Tantalus Malfoy the second, sole heir of the Malfoy fortune and prestige." Draco corrected just as haughtily as the girl, who visibly bristled and blushed.
"And I'm Harry Potter." The black-haired boy declared as if talking about the weather.
Both girl's eyes immediately went to his forehead while their jaws impacted against the wooden table. However, as Harry had taken it to himself to always wear Blaise's present bandanna, they couldn't actually back up his claim.
Emma's mouth widened in surprise and Harry quickly remembered where he had seen her before.
"You're that girl I gave Lockhart's personal books to, back in Flourish & Blotts!" Harry said.
The small girl nodded, but before she could say anything else…
"Hey everyone!" Hermione called, carrying an armful of books in her arms and a smile on her face, as she unusually came up to their table, earning herself a couple of odd glances or glares, which she either ignored or returned.
"Where's Ron?" Harry asked. "I thought he'd be with you."
Her smile visibly faltered, replaced by a look of annoyance. "He's still in the common room, with his brothers." She gave a look at Ginny, accompanied by a small smile. "Don't worry, I won't let Ron do anything bad."
Ginny slowly nodded and smiled sadly. "Thanks."
"I think I'd better get back to Gryffindor before your housemates decide to hang me." Hermione joked, before walking off with a friendly wave. "Catch you all later!"
Breakfast was mostly eventless, at least until the RAF (Red-head Attack Force) came down the corridor from the Gryffindor common room. None of them looked very happy. Fred and George weren't even smiling, and that was saying something. Ginny let out a pitiful whimper.
"They hate me." She squeaked.
Harry looked at her, a wave of anger coursing through him. She needed their help, not their rejection.
'Idiots. I'll help you, Ginny. I owe your family, and I intend to pay it quickly.' Harry mentally vowed.
Trusting his knowledge on the Weasleys, Harry considered the best approach. Getting to Ron was very likely to make him flip and hit him. Fred and George weren't smiling, which meant they were very mad. Perhaps his best choice was in the oldest, therefore most mature brother, Percy.
The prefect was grimly staring at his full plate, not once touching the food in it. He didn't glance at the Slytherin table at all; if anything, he looked like he was grieving.
'Maybe he's ashamed of his brothers' reactions?' Harry mentally wondered. His resolve grew stronger; Percy was the best choice.
He didn't have to wait long. Few minutes after arriving, not saying a word, the tall prefect soon got up and left the great hall. Harry didn't waste a second and quickly followed him, giving a nod and a "See you later" to his friends.
Percy was rather easy to find. The hallways were almost empty, as everyone was either in the great hall, and the angry prefect seemed to leave a trail of empty space behind him, as everyone moved out of his way.
"Oi, Weasley!" Harry called. "Wait up!"
The sixth year whirled around to face him, hissing, "Potter. What do you want?"
Frowning a bit at the palpable hostility in the young man's voice, Harry mentally double-checked his reason for going to see that particular Weasley.
'Idiot, I forgot how he acted around me back in the Burrow!' He mentally chided himself, before gripping his resolve with both hands and attacking sharply at his question.
"To talk to you about your sister."
The boy gave Harry a sharp glare. It was evident, to him, that Percy was blaming him for it. And the others probably had the same opinion.
However, to his surprise, the older boy replied…
"I have no sister."
Harry's eyes widened in realization. They couldn't possibly have disowned…
A dull thud behind him interrupted his train of thoughts. He whirled around, only to face Ginny's horrified, betrayed eyes, both hands on her mouth and her books in a heap on the floor. The two other first year girls were also gaping at the taller Weasley, while, behind the three first years, Draco and Blaise were visible.
…and the dark-red haired girl looked livid.
And that anger only grew when Ginny let out a cracking sob and ran away, down the closest flight of stairs.
"Why you asshole!!" Blaise screeched, whipping out her wand from her sleeve. "Conjunctivi—"
"Miss Zabini! Stop this instant!" McGonagall's voice snapped, an instant before the eye-inflammation hex burst out of the very whippy, mahogany wand.
Seeing at that situation was temporarily under control, Harry quickly ran down the stairs, where the other problem was sure to be.
'She probably didn't even notice she was running down the stairs, so she must have ran all the way down,' Harry reasoned. 'Hopefully.'
His assumption was proven correct when he found himself in the dungeons, where he could hear the girl's voice, sobbing in heart breaking wails. However, he noticed she was evidently talking to someone.
He gave a look around the next corner, where Ginny was in the comforting arms of Professor Snape, who was evidently calming her down. Or at least, trying. The girl was still letting out loud sobs that could probably be heard all the way to the sixth floor.
He noticed Snape's eyes turning in his direction, their message unreadable.
'Ginny is a Slytherin… she's his responsibility as well.' Harry reasoned.
From the way the young girl's shoulders' shaking had diminished, he could easily guess that what the teacher was doing was helping. Harry gave his professor a small nod and a smile, which were replied grimly, before the man turned his attention toward the girl.
Climbing his way back up the stairs, satisfied that Ginny seemed to be in the right hands, Harry quickly found his friends on the ground level of the castle. Blaise and Draco were smirking a bit, while the two first years were nowhere to be found.
"Ginny's going to be fine." He assured, before giving them an odd look. "What happened?"
"Weasley got chewed up, that's what. Gryffindor starts the year at minus twenty-five." Draco drawled, his smirk widening.
Blaise grumbled something along the lines of 'serves him right', along with her opinion of a proper punishment for the prefect, which included a large, pointed spear inserted in an area that was generally not an entrance.
"Ouch." The two boys chorused.
~~ Extracted from Harry Potter's diary, dated 02/09/92
Heh, imagine my surprise when I remembered I had bought this. I guess I do need a diary if I forget about it.
No, honestly. I don't even know why I even bothered to open it or start writing in it, but what the heck. I just have to make sure none of the others spot me writing this thing. Especially Lockhart.
Lockhart, the number one inspiration for birth control.
You ask why? (And I certainly hope that "you" is a me who re-reads this in many years, and not some nosy person deciding they have nothing better to do than to read the diary of little old me)
Well, here comes the answer. The tale of Harry Potter's first day of second year. Somebody sound the trumpets, I sure won't.
This morning went on normally, as normal as things go around here. By that, I mean that I didn't discover someone was holding a Dragon in his house/room/wherever, or a three-headed dog, or even get whacked by a rabid broom out to skin me.
…normally, those kind of things happen later in the year.
Our first class of the year was an Herbology class with the Ravenclaws. Professor Sprout decided to teach us about Mandrakes, which looked like long leaves sticking out of the dirt. The first thing she did was give us earmuffs and told us to slip them on; I only learned why after she gave us the signal and pulled the Mandrake out.
Heck, that thing was crying like a baby!
A baby with as much lungpower as Hagrid, that is. The reason was probably because it's roots were a baby; horribly deformed and with a bunch of leaves for hair, but still a baby.
She planted it back and removed her earmuffs, which were our signal to remove them, then proceeded to give us a lecture about their cry being fatal, but as they are small, newborn Mandrakes, it would only knock us out for a few hours.
Not a reassuring prospect, but with my luck, I'd say I end up knocked out at least once this year. And for Longbottom, that goes for two. Almost a pity I'm not in Gryffindor, I'd like to see that.
Talking about Gryffindors, Ginny's brothers are causing more trouble than I gave them credit for. I saw her again after our first class, with that Chang girl and McKinnon. She looked prefectly fine, even if a bit angry. She told me she had been offered the morning off, but refused, as it would mean giving up to her brothers. Which she refuses.
…I swear, being a Weasley comes with a stubborn streak as long as the Chudley Cannon's losing one.
What has that got to do with Lockhart? Nothing, it's just the resume of my morning. Everything was going great, at least until the first DADA class.
…I'm starting to wonder if there's some way I can ask the headmaster to either sack Lockhart or at least allow me out of that class…
[…]
~~~
Class in question which looked like it had seem better days. Hallway discussions eavesdropped beforehand had spread the rumor that Lockhart had unleashed Cornish pixies on the second year Gryffindor just fifteen minutes ago. And it showed. The entire class was covered by pictures of Gilderoy Lockhart – which didn't make it a very welcoming place, especially not after dinner – yet each one of them looked slightly shaken, their smiles evidently forced.
The fact that half the furniture of the class was broken was also a good hint.
"That, is me." Were the first words Lockhart told the second year Slytherins, cheerfully pointing at a picture of himself, smiling on the cover of a copy of 'Magical me' he just happened to have in his class.
'Is that one of the examples of dark creatures we'll have to beat?' Harry idly wondered, looking around the class.
Blaise looked quite bored already, Draco was looking at Lockhart like one would a six years old fruit glued to the bottom of his shoe. Crabbe and Goyle were silently chattering to each other, not caring at all about the clown in front of the class.
On the other hand, Pansy and Millicent, who were sitting at the same desk in front row, were both staring at Lockhart like he was the eighth wonder of the world. Harry almost gagged when he saw the hearts drawn on Millicent's notebook.
Blissfully ignorant of the looks he was receiving, Lockhart continued his speech.
"Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin 3rd class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, Five-Time Winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile award, but let's not talk about that. Believe me, when I got rid of the Bandon Banshee, it wasn't just by smiling at it."
If the blonde-haired, forget-me-not blue robed clown standing in front of the class was expecting laughs, his expectations were far from being reached. Apart from the dreamy sighs from the two girls in the first row, the class's stares, glares or bored expressions grew colder.
"What a joke." Blaise hissed to Harry. "I'll bet his vision of 'getting rid of it' is finding it, screaming his head off and calling the ghost busters."
Prompting Harry to snort.
Thinking he was laughing of his joke, Lockhart gave Harry a grateful look, before continuing.
"I see you've all bought the entire collection of my books. Good, very good."
Harry mentally sneered, guessing how much money the self-obsessed celebrity was making by forcing the Hogwarts students to buy his books. His sneer almost made it to his face, but only managed to reveal itself in his eyes, while the rest of his face was frozen in an expressionless mask.
"I thought we might start the year with a little pop quiz, nothing really bad, just to see if you've read and how much you remembered of my books."
A quick review of his memories assured Harry that he would fail this; he hadn't even dared touch the books after having received them. The mere fact that they had that idiot's face on them made him avoid the books like the plague.
However, as Lockhart distributed the questionnaires, Harry easily saw just how wrong his assumption was; it didn't have anything to do with DADA! In fact…
"What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?!" Blaise read out loud, quite disbelievingly. "What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition, In your opinion, what is the greatest feat accomplished by Gilderoy Lockhart up to now… this is trash!!"
…it was three full pages, 54 questions, and not one of them didn't have "Gilderoy Lockhart" written in them.
'Apparently I was right.' Harry mused. 'He does like to talk about himself. In fact, I think that's the only thing he does.'
Half an hour later, a bunch of bored Slytherins handed their copies to a still stupidly grinning Lockhart, who quickly read the students' answers.
"Hmm… Well, I expected better." Lockhart said with a small frown, still managing to reveal some of his teeth while looking disappointed. "Mister Malfoy, maybe you should remember that my favorite color is lilac, as clearly indicated in A Year with the Yeti, and not candy pink. And my secret ambition certainly is not to scare as many people as possible with too colorful robes."
Harry barely held back a snort, while Draco let out a satisfied smirk.
"Hmm… no, it doesn't appear anyone has a perfect grade in here…" Lockhart continued, blissfully unaware of the things said behind his back, while flipping between the pages. "I'm disappointed, really… The only one who aced my test so far was that Gryffindor girl…. Granger, I think."
"Somehow, I'm not surprised." Blaise noted icily.
"And… what's this? Miss Zabini? Why haven't you answered a single question?"
"Simple, I thought this was a Defense against the dark arts lesson, not a celebrity newsflash." Blaise coldly replied. "So far, I've learned more things on how to fight the dark from McGonagall than here, and that's saying something."
Lockhart's smile vanished completely, making him look like a completely different person. The total switch in demeanor stunned Harry so badly he barely heard the next words Lockhart said, which were:
"Detention, Miss Zabini, and twenty points from Slytherin. That should be enough to teach you to respect your teachers."
And it was decided, at that moment, that the Slytherins would not like Lockhart's lesson.
ANSWERS TO THE FIFTY FEET LONG CHEMICAL MISSILE TIED UP UNDER THE REVIEWERS' CHAIRS
Reading your reviews made me realize it's virtually impossible to set subtle foundations of something in three chapters. The equivalent would be digging a hole with dynamite. ^_-
RyoCrimson: Thanking me for having fun? That's an interesting concept. (At the rest of the review) *BIG BLUSH* Th…Thank you? (Woobles away from overload of compliments)
Canis Black: Oh, I'll keep it up, all right ^_-
Corundum Advance: Ehehehe… well, it really wasn't subtle. I was setting foundations for this, and I had to make a big hole to slip the basement in. Not really subtle at all. I like the quote, by the way.
Modified version: "Ignorance is a bliss… be happy."
Hell's Reaper: Why don't you like Ginny? Is it because the only time we ever hear of her, she's either blushing, doing something stupid, slipping her arm in the butter dish or being used by the most evil dark lord in the century as a living battery to bring him back? I'll make it my mission to make you like her, then ^_-
Jordan: Don't push me, I'm writing, I'm writing… OUCH! Can it with the whips!! (My beta would like to add that I break my keyboards when I write, in her words, "At the speed of a machine gun.")
Angel-in-disguise: Really? GREAT!! Then if I ever need help for Chinese words, I'll ask you. English - Chinese online dictionaries are either hard to find or sucky at best. I might just ask you for more help than just this, since my Ranma fic's forming together quite fast – and contains an Amazon Ranma. Be afraid ^_-.
Alexial: *shrug* Wasn't really subtle at it either. Well, is that a good enough brotherly reaction? I don't think so… *sigh* Stubborn red-heads. Why does Blaise hate being at Hogwarts to much? BECAUSE IT'S SCHOOL!!! ^_^
Blackhart Sayoran: Already planned everything out. This version will be much darker than JK's. Why? Now, now… that's a secret. (*Gets whacked for watching too much Slayers* OUCH!!) Hehe. That's a secret too. (*WHAM*) …erm… what? Errr…. Weird. I mean… Ron and Ginny… in Hufflepuff? Ok, I can see Hermione in Ravenclaw, but QUIDDITCH captain?! She doesn't even like Quidditch – unless Harry's playing. Heh. Anyways. Maybe I'll take a look, not too sure.
Eriee: A fic with nothing but action is boring, like a fic with none at all. The secret is all in the dosage ^_-. I like to think I've had practice at that. (Writing for six years in various fandoms do that to you.). …riiight. Slytherin's Diary. Now, I'd like to ask a question. What would Slytherin's diary be doing in the middle of a public library, ready to be bought by whatever Hufflepuff finds their way in there? Not very likely. Naa. The whole reason why I did it is that it gives me a new weapon on revealing Harry's inner thoughts – they'll be important from now on.
Flummox: …interesting mental picture. Maybe not so for twelve years olds, though ^_-. Well, I know it made me shudder. *snicker* that's an idea. Blaise? Pervy?
Blaise: I'll answer this question only in the presence of my lawyer.
You'll know exactly why she's a Slyth later, when the waters will have settled a bit. Right now, it's smooth sailing through a storm. *snicker* Oooh, interesting mental picture, again. Thanks! ^_^
VMorticia: It happens, ur just too impatient to get my stuff. *Blush* ERK! Didn't mean it that way!! ^_^;;;
