The Snake-who-lived
"You think the monster knows how to duel?"
Ron Weasley, Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets, page 202
Chapter 11: Snake charmer
"Harry, come on, you log! Wake up; we're going to be late!"
"Leemmee 'lone…"
Harry Potter was not normally
a late-riser. Years and years of preparing the Dursleys'
breakfasts had drilled into him the painless goodness of waking early. However,
staying up all night to walk around the library's restricted section made
waking 'early' a relative thing.
Gingerly, he sat up, glaring at a grinning Draco from half-lidded eyes. "Whudyuu wan?" He asked, yawning.
"Blaise and I've been waiting for you to wake up for an hour, now… classes are about to start!"
"And you didn't wake me up?!" Harry shrieked, standing up. He hadn't undressed himself before going to sleep, and his robes were rather disheveled for it.
"We tried to," Blaise said, much to his surprise. What was she doing in the Boys' dorms?! "but Nemesis wouldn't let us."
"Is it just me, or is your snake getting bigger?" Draco asked, looking at the dark-scaled reptile, which was currently coiled around the bedposts, his head hanging from above.
Harry had to agree with him, though. Nemesis, when Harry had… erm… borrowed him, had been a little under two feet long, and rather thin. Now, however, he was probably a bit under four, and carrying his weight had begun to become a problem. He knew, from the way he had attacked Quirrell the previous year, that he was a constrictor snake, the kind that strangles their victims before swallowing whole. However, until now, he had never taken time to wonder exactly what kind he was, or how long he'd get.
"Don't worry about him, he's harmless." 'Almost.' Harry said, adding the last part mentally.
"Hmm." Neither of his friends looked certain of his claim. Dismissing it, Harry picked up his backpack and, stuffing the cloak back in his trunk, headed out.
"So, did you find anything?" Blaise asked.
'Yeah, I found a polite talking book on dark arts that doesn't want to leave me alone.' He thought wryly, while replying "No, not really."
"Pince was a mess, this morning… did she find you?" Draco added.
"Almost. One of the bookshelves wasn't too solid, it snapped when I put my hand on it. Made a ruckus, you wouldn't believe. I was lucky to make it out of there in one piece."
Fortunately, they started the day with History of Magic. Harry chose a seat in the back, behind Crabbe and Goyle, so he could catch up on his sleep. However, as he pulled out A history of magic by Bathilda Bagshott, Harry saw something he had obviously forgot to remove the previous day.
The dark magic lexicon
The damned, stubborn, self-thinking (and polite!!) talking book was still there.
Come to think about it, he hadn't brought his backpack up with him, the previous night, either.
Curious, Harry looked around him. Nobody was looking. Everyone was either dozing off or already sound asleep. Slowly, he opened the book. The first page was now bearing few words, written in ink he recognized as his:
Property of Harry Potter
Quickly, Harry whipped out his quill and inkpot and wrote furiously
What do you think you're doing?! If someone reads this
He didn't get to write any further before the book replied. It's ink, this time, was not the eerie blood red it had picked yesterday. Instead, dark green ink appeared.
If anyone but you look at me without being told what I am, they will believe I am the most likely book you could be holding at that time. Most of them believe you are currently reading a past entry in your diary.
With an inaudible sigh of relief, Harry lifted the book and put it on his desk. If that was the case, then it was rather futile to hide it. He noticed the first two messages had vanished and another was replacing them.
I would also appreciate if you wrote on my second page, thank you. Call me sentimental, but it does not feel right to have ink on my first page.
'…sentimental. Feel right. You're a book!!' Harry was tempted to remind it, but didn't.
He turned the page. Another message appeared.
Thank you.
Blinking, still not used to being thanked by a book, Harry wrote hesitantly: No problem.
There was few seconds of… silence would not be the proper term, but… erm… of non-conversation, during which Harry listened absentmindedly to Binns' droning.
"…Wenlock was born in 1202. In 1217, she received an award for her work in Arithmancy, being the only witch ever to have received over 150% in the fifth year examinations, which are now called the Ordinary Wizarding Levels, or OWLs, in Arithmancy. Two years later, she received seven NEWTs. At Twenty-one years of age, she wrote a theory on the magical properties of the number seven. She died at 83 years of age in 1285, leaving behind seven children, the oldest being fourty-three years old at the time of her death."
While anyone knowing this from the drop of a hat would usually be worthy of some kind of award, the way Binns said it was about as exciting as watching a snail race, and the only possible award Harry could think would fit the ghost was the "Winter bear" award, for making people fall into a state of hibernation at each of his classes.
Yawning, he gave a look back at the grey pages of the book, only to see it had written another message.
Would you like something to pass the time?
Harry had to read that line twice before considering the offer. The book treated of dark magic. It was rather obviously sentient, and, as far as he knew, could have bad intentions. Carefully, Harry wrote back:
Depends what it is.
Please remove your hands from my pages. Have no worry, I will be quiet.
Obeying, Harry watched as the book turned only two pages and stilled. Curious, he read on.
Index
Please underline your choice. The book will automatically turn to the selected subject. Subject 1 will have more choices as the reader progresses ahead.
1. Black magic lesssons
a): Black magic theory
2. Black magic spells
Search for spell (Write in the space):
Quickly, Harry shut the book, horrified. It wanted him to learn its spells. It wanted him to learn black magic; to become a dark wizard, like Voldemort.
'Hell no.' Harry decided, stuffing the book in his backpack.
Days crawled away. Fortunately, there seemed to be some kind of lull after the second attack. However, that didn't stop the list of students going off during the Christmas vacation to grow to large proportions. Harry, after signing his name in the list of those who desired to stay, noted that Blaise, the remaining Weasley family and Xu Chang were staying. However, to his surprise, he read the name of Draco Malfoy. When Harry asked his friend about it, he just replied:
"Father wants me to stay and write anything odd happing in the school." The boy replied with a shrug. "Personally, I don't know which Christmas I'd rather have: With my family and a bunch of guests, getting tons and presents and being able to use my own room, or stuck at Hogwarts with friendly company and as many Weasleys as I want to bother. No offense, Ginny."
"None taken." Ginny replied. "And I get the feeling you won't be the only one bothering my brothers."
"Why?" Emma asked. She was going away, during the Christmas break. Her foster family, a pair of old, rich and pure-blooded aristocrats, absolutely refused to let her have a, as they called it, "Commoner's Christmas day".
"Remember what Xu asked, about what Ron was afraid of? I get the feeling we're going to see a lot of spiders around, lately." Ginny's smirk could only be referred to as sadistic, something she seemed to have perfected down to an art already.
"Duel club?" Blaise read on a billboard, about a week later. A large crowd had amassed in front of it. A list underneath, written on an obviously magical piece of parchment which rolled the names upwards every time another was written – received the interested students' names.
"Right. Like the monster of Slytherin is the kind of thing that will let you duel it." Blaise said flatly. "That idea is so useless."
"Why? Are you messing up?" Draco asked with a smirk.
"I'm more afraid of making the rest of you look stupid." Blaise replied, grinning. "My mum taught me some dueling tricks this summer, after learning what happened last year and who I hang around with."
Harry blinked and looked at Blaise. He knew Mrs. Zabini pretty well, and knew her philosophy about rules were "Rules be damned, do what you feel is right" or something along the lines of that. She also had heard about some of their adventures from Blaise, he was sure. However, he doubted she thought being around him was dangerous enough for her to received rather illegal summer Dueling lessons.
He gave a look at Draco. Perhaps it was to protect Blaise, if he wanted to try something. After all, she despised Lucius Malfoy, from what he had seen back at Flourish and Blotts.
However, thinking over it again, he decided he didn't agree with Blaise. So, perhaps it wouldn't be useful against the monster of Slytherin, but, assuming he survived this year, he was on top of Voldemort's hit list. Granted, dueling against the most powerful dark lord in a century was a bit of a crazy and foolish idea but it would help to have few notions, if only to give him some time to run for his life.
"I'm entering." Harry said. "It's going to be interesting."
And interesting it was. Few days later, the 'first' duel club meeting took place. At least fifty students had joined, all massed up in the same room. If all those people started to duel, the ensuing chaos would surely make even Peeves pale in jealousy. Harry began to fear that the whole thing might end up flopping spectacularly. Blaise and Draco, who had both finally decided to come with Harry, if only for the chance to see it, shared his opinion.
"I wonder who's teaching us…" Emma, who, along with Ginny and Xu, had signed up, wondered out loud.
"I hope it's not Lockhart." Draco said. "If it's Lockhart, I'm breaking the window and jumping out." His thumb pointed a nearby window, out of which a spectacular scenery could be seen. They were, after all, on the sixth floor.
The doors suddenly opened and Gilderoy "10.0 watts" Lockhart strode in, dressed in flashy purple robes. Standing behind him, looking rather sour, Professor Snape walked in and, although he was dressed in plain black, made much more of a scene, simply from the dramatic cape-flaring effect he seemed to have down so well.
"Welcome, everyone!" the blonde said cheerfully, obviously oblivious to the danger. "I am Professor Lockhart…"
'Really?' Harry thought sarcastically. He was sure his thoughts were similar to those of the students around him.
Blaise gave Draco an amused look.
"Why aren't you a bloody spot on the Hogwarts grounds, yet?"
The boy shot her a glare.
"Maybe he's just there for the presentation. There's no way Dumbledore would allow him to show us how to duel, unless he wants us all to be incompetent gits."
"Don't be so negative," Emma protested. "I'm sure we'll learn something interesting!"
"Like how to look like idiot with dig..dign…" Xu attempted, frowning as she couldn't find the right word.
"Dignity?" Ginny supplied.
"That." The Chinese girl agreed.
"We might not even learn that, he'd have to have dignity himself." Harry noted absentmindedly, causing snorts and stifled giggles around him.
"Shh!!" Hermione, who had also decided to come, shushed, attempting to listen to the professor, a rosy blush appearing on her face when his eyes turned toward her, if only for a second. Harry felt ill.
"I present you, my assistant: Professor Snape." He said, grinning, ignoring the potion master's death glare at being called an 'Assistant' of Lockhart's. "He has told me he has a few notions of dueling and has accepted of being my partner in a little demonstration."
"Probably just so Snape could hex him." Draco said. Harry snorted.
"I don't know which one I want to die the most." Blaise noted flatly. Both adults presenting were her least favorite teachers.
"Lockhart." Draco, Xu, Harry and Ginny chorused.
"Don't worry," Lockhart continued. "There's still going to be enough of your professor left to teach you potions when I'm through with him."
"The question is if we're going to have a Defense against the dark arts teacher." Draco noted with a look at Snape, whose glare had started throwing daggers, broadswords, spiked steel flails and man-cleaving axes at the blonde.
"Reckon Dumbledore's good enough to find another one in the middle of the year?" Goyle asked to Crabbe, smirking.
"Probably not." The other slow boy replied.
Harry stifled a laugh. If even those two could see it, it had to be very obvious.
Emma and Hermione huffed loudly in a nearly identical manner.
"Now, Professor Snape and I will demonstrate the basic dueling stances. Professor…"
Professor Snape obviously knew what he was doing, going into position. Harry noticed Blaise imitating him; she knew it as well. A look at Lockhart was enough to nearly send him into hysterics, however. The blonde was imitating the black-haired teacher's stance rather sloppily.
"Ah, yes. I see. Your technique is excellent, Professor." Lockhart said, as if he was the one in charge – which he obviously wasn't. Snape's sneer deepened, down to the levels he reserved only for Blaise. Harry almost felt a long-range missile fall out of his teacher's dark eyes. Oblivious, the blonde continued, "How about we take it up a notch?"
"Does he really want to die?" Draco asked.
"Weren't you supposed to jump out the window?" Blaise asked again.
"There's no way I'm missing this." The boy retorted, eyes glittering in anticipation of what Professor Snape would do to Lockhart. Harry had to agree with the sentiment.
Professor Snape seemed to agree as well. With a sinister grin, he lifted his wand and barked out "Expelliarmus!"
A ray of bright red light shot out of his wand like a gunshot, ramming directly in Lockhart, who was doing a perfect expression of a deer caught in the headlights. That is, before he was sent flying against the wall, from where he fell into a sprawled heap. His wand, however, flew in the opposite direction and clattered on the floor near one of those goofy Gryffindor girls. Hermione and many girls shrieked and wondered if he was hurt, while the boys and most of the Slytherin girls – minus Emma, Pansy and Millicent – cheered loudly.
Disheveled, his hair a mess, Lockhart got back up and climbed back on the stage, receiving his wand back with a grateful smile at the girl, who, Harry noticed rather sickly, swooned. Composing himself, he gave a large smile.
"Ah yes, that was a disarming charm. As you could see, I lost my wand. Excellent idea, showing them that, Severus, although I could see it coming from miles away."
The satisfied smirk that was on Snape's face turned into an angry sneer. Harry almost called for an encore.
Lockhart seemed to finally notice how angry his colleague was, for he turned to the students. "Well, now it's your turn! Everyone, pair up!"
Harry and Blaise were about to team up but Snape put a hand on Blaise's shoulder. "Miss Zabini, I don't believe you've got nearly the potential to face Mister Potter in duel. Mister Malfoy, team with Potter. Here is someone more to your level, Zabini."
And Blaise was sent against Longbottom. Pissed off, she gave him an angry growl. The overweight boy turned white as a sheet.
"Now, on the count of three, disarm your opponent. One, two—"
"Expelliarmus!" Both Harry and Draco chorused, along with Blaise and Emma. Hermione, who was paired with her, was caught off guard and both she and Longbottom were sent flying. The two boys' spells collided against each other and deviated, hitting two other people, who both got thrown off their feet.
Everyone else took this as their signal and began dueling… and not just disarming.
"Tarantallegra!" "Rictusempera!"
The spells – and people – went flying everywhere as people dodged or were hit. Harry gasped and fell to the floor when a jelly-leg hex connected against his shoulder.
He noticed, however, that Blaise was still standing, with a dome-shaped shield around her. It didn't look all that strong, trembling with every spell it received and deviated, but it was enough to protect her.
"STOP! STOP!!" The idiot yelled. "Disarming charm only!!"
"Finite Incantatem." Professor Snape cast. Even Harry knew that spell. It was a favorite of Flitwick's, whenever the class became too rowdy for him to control. It was also rather simple to use, proving even further that Lockhart had no idea what he was doing.
'Maybe he needs kiwkspell lessons too.' Harry supposed, smirking as feeling in his legs returned.
"Hmm… I think I'd better teach you how to defend yourselves, first." Lockhart said. "Very well… Mister Weasley, Mister Finningan, please…"
The two boys, who had been partnered together, groaned audibly.
"I think not." Professor Snape interrupted. "Perhaps the demonstration should be done on someone with more… difficulty, so that they actually learn correctly. Mr Longbottom, Mr Malfoy, come up here."
"I don't have difficulty, sir." Draco protested.
"I know that," Professor Snape said. "I just want to have something left of Mister Longbottom, and you are the best choice."
Longbottom gulped audibly, while Draco had a sinister smirk. A smirk that grew wider when Professor Snape whispered in his ear.
Meanwhile, Lockhart was coaching Longbottom on the proper way to block, which included, apparently, a fancy twirling on the wand followed by dropping it to the floor. The boy was not reassured any.
"Are you ready?" Professor Snape asked.
"Certainly," Lockhart replied, turning to Neville. "just do what I did."
The boy didn't answer back, his eyes wide open in terror, his knees shaking as he stared at the point of Draco's wand.
"At three." Professor Snape said. "One, two, three—"
"Serpensortia!" Draco, drawing pleasure in stretching every syllable, his eyes wide and his mouth twisted in a sinister smirk in a perfectly believable impersonation of an evil, dark wizard out for blood, cast.
A large grey snake with odd, empty, lifeless eyes burst out of Draco's wand and headed straight of Longbottom, who shrieked and fell on his butt. The crowd backed away as well, some of them giving odd looks at Draco. Many of the Slytherins in his year, however, stayed up in front and cheered the platinum-haired boy on. Smirking, he soaked up the praises and applauses.
The snake had reached a terrified Longbottom's ankles and had hissed to a stand, mouth open in preparation for biting.
"Stay still, Longbottom. I'll get rid of it." Professor Snape said, pointing his wand at the snake. Longbottom closed his eyes; probably afraid Snape would take his ankle and let out with it.
"Allow me!" Lockhart chirped, grinning like an idiot. With a careless wave of his wand and a loud detonation, the snake was sent flying into the crowd the students, which quickly spread away with a common scream.
"Help!!" A boy's voice yelled. He was a Hufflepuff, laying on the floor with the snake looking at him directly in the eyes, mouth partially open and ready to strike. Harry was sure the snake was poisonous, though he couldn't guess why. Without thinking, he yelled at it:
"Stop!!"
And, surprisingly, the snake did, turning its empty eyes toward him. Harry felt his back chill. If the eyes were the windows of the soul, then there was nobody looking through these windows. Probably why it stopped, he reasoned. It was probably created to listen to orders.
"Come here." He ordered, knowing the snake would obey.
The snake started slithering toward him, but before it got halfway there, it vanished in purple smoke. Relieved, Harry allowed himself a smile, before looking up.
…everyone was staring at him, some with surprised expressions, most with terror covering their faces.
"What the…"
Before he could say anything, Blaise and Draco caught both of his arms and pulled him out of the room, followed by Emma, Hermione, Xu and Ginny, who looked unusually pale.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked, struggling to get out of his friends' grasp. "Why was everyone staring?"
Draco suddenly stopped and, roughly tearing Harry's arm out of Blaise's grip, rammed the black-haired boy into a wall.
"Why didn't you tell us you were a Parselmouth?!" Draco hissed.
"A… Parselmouth?"
"A person who talks Parseltongue, the language of the snakes." Hermione explained. "It's a rare gift, usually attributed to dark wizards. The last four Parselmouths in history all became either dark lords or very powerful dark wizards."
"Just because I'm one doesn't make me a dark wizard!" Harry snapped, pushing Draco away and releasing himself. "Besides, I didn't even know I was one."
"You have a snake for a pet and you didn't know you could talk to them?!" Blaise asked disbelievingly.
"I thought Nemesis was a magical snake that could talk! I never noticed I spoke another language!" Harry defended himself. "Besides, I saved that guy that way, so it should be all right, right?"
Their expressions were nowhere near reassured, except for Blaise's, who nodded. She apparently didn't know much about it
"Harry, you do know that, by tomorrow, the whole school will know you're a Parselmouth." Emma said.
"Yeah, so?" Harry asked. "As I said, it doesn't make me a da—"
"Salazar Slytherin was famous for being a Parselmouth." She continued, interrupting him. "And the gift is hereditary."
Understanding immediately what she meant, Harry shut up.
"Heredi…?" Xu asked, blinking.
"Hereditary means that it's given from parent to child." Hermione replied. "It also means that, by now, everyone is absolutely certain Harry is the heir of Slytherin."
"But I'm not!!" Harry protested.
"You can't really say that…" Hermione interrupted hesitantly. "The founders' family trees blurred with the ages, with some pure-blood families pretending to be their direct descendants. For all we know, you could really be his great-great-great-great-great grandson."
Harry blinked, suddenly feeling quite uncertain.
"Not that you're the one who's been attacking people." Blaise quickly said. "There's no way it's you, I'd have woken up that night Weasley was attacked. And you were in no condition to move."
However, it was soon proven that the rest of the students didn't share Blaise's opinion. By the next morning, Harry noticed people quickly moved out of his way and avoided looking at him in the eyes. Even if he made sure to wear his bandanna at all times, people recognized that, now. It had become nearly as famous as his scar, at least in the school.
After a horrible day at this, Harry found himself unable to sleep. Nemesis was, as he had taken a liking to do, hanging from one of the wooden poles where the curtains were attached. His eyes were open and staring at him.
"Ssso hhhyou mean dzzzat effferyone knowsss hhhyou can talk to sssnakesss, now?" He asked.
"Yeah. Why didn't you tell me you weren't magical?!" Harry asked, frowning.
"I am magical." The snake replied irritably.
"Really? What can you do?"
"I hhhave sssome control ovver my body temperatshhhure, and I undersssstand hyuman language." He replied.
"…that's all?"
"What do hhhyou mean, 'Datsss all'?! I'll hhhave hhyou know that it isss very difffficult to breed a sssnake like me!"
"Right. Whatever." Harry said dismissingly, much to Nemesis' outrage. "But why didn't you tell me I was a Parselmouth?"
"SSShought you knew."
Grumbling, Harry turned in his bed and looked away from his annoying pet.
"Doesss that mean I get to fffollow hhhyou around, now? I don't really hafffe to hide anymore."
Harry faked a yawn and waved his snake off. "We'll see tomorrow."
"Fffirst thing in the morning." Nemesis agreed.
"Never said that." The boy protested irritably, before sighing. Nemesis wouldn't let him rest until he had what he wanted. Yawning, Harry lay on his back, staring up at the roof. The darkness of the night, added to the darkness of the dungeons, made the dormitory pitch-black and prevented him from seeing even his nose. Looking at nothing in particular, he thought.
"The founders' family trees blurred with the ages, with some pure-blood families pretending to be their direct descendants. For all we know, you could be his great-great-great-great-great grandson."
'Everyone thinks I'm the heir of Slytherin because I'm a parselmouth… but I'm not the one doing the attacks. Logically, the heir of Slytherin would be the only other person to speak Parseltongue.'
"Hereditary means that it's given from parent to child."
James Keith Potter
Gryffindor
72-79
'Obviously, my father was a Gryffindor.' He thought. 'So he can't have Slytherin blood, the hat would never have sent him there. That only leaves my mom… But she is muggle-born, so it makes no sense…'
Kwikspell
A Correspondence Course in Beginners' magic
'There are wizard-borns without magic… Perhaps one of Slytherin's descendants was like that, and my mom was a descendant of him or her…' He supposed, frowning. 'But then there'd be a bunch of Muggles who could speak to snakes… I doubt that's true. Besides, I'm not even sure she was a Slytherin. For all I know, she could have been a Gryffindor, too.'
'Come to think about it, I don't really know a lot about them, do I?'
"Your father saved Severus' life."
'Professor Snape… he was at Hogwarts at the same time as dad… could he have been at the same time as mom, too?'
Yawning, Harry decided to shut his thoughts off and try to get some sleep, but not before making a mental note to ask his Potions teacher about this, later.
Author's notes: Heh, I did it again! Wrote that thing in two days! *sigh* It sure shows when I don't have Diablo II and too many ideas. I can't wait to be through this tabarnaque de book. I keep getting ideas for the other books, including one kick-ass scene in early book 3, and the 'old crowd gang' scene in book 4. *sigh* Nothing in book 5 yet, I guess I have to read it to the point that I remember it by heart.
*gives an odd look at the absolutely huge book, then edges away*
About the "Lily might be a Gryffindor" thing, let's not forget Harry has no idea L.O. Evans was Lily. He just knows she was head girl at the same time as he was head boy.
About Nemesis' powers: What? Didn't it seem odd to you that he, a snake, could understand the humans around him speak? I doubt a regular snake could do that. Though I'm surprised nobody pointed it out. Pity, I wanted to pull a Xelloss on them. ^_-
ANSWERS TO THE THIRTY-FEET LONG ANACONDAS HANGING FROM THE CEILING OF THE REVIEWERS' ROOMS:
Dragonprincess: It HAS been an eternity or two since SR updated, eh? I'll look when I can. Don't have lots of time, with school preparations all over… *sigh* I should have time today, I think. Well, we'll see. *blinks at the overload of information* Erm… 'kay…
VMorticia: I knew I was forgetting one!! Sorry!! Here you go *Gives a Blood-flavored bean to V* Hehe, I do my best to supply the best quotes I can. Yes it would be rather daft to do that… but the point is, it'd be less risky to send Harry alone.
Hell's reaper: Well then, I'm flattered I managed to make you like a character you usually don't like.
Onewhoactuallycanspellbetterthansomeothers: ^_- Hehe, that's a secret.
Blackheart Syaoran: Heh. You'll see more of the book as the year progresses.
Jordan: And this time, your Ks didn't wor. Maybe you should get a new eyboard, uz it has to be inda irritating to lose your eys all the time. ^_-
Dstrbd child: I'll do my best to finish it, but my inspiration… *sigh* IT WON'T LET ME GO!!! It bombed me an Alternate universe of this Alternate Universe (which I can't start until some Akunon characters are revealed. ^_- That, and an original story. *sigh* And a website idea, but that's already dead. I ain't got no time for all that.
RaistlinofMetallica: True, but the lines "oops" and "Can it get worse" are just such good plot bunnies! ^_^ And it's very much fun to have the characters argue like that, so expect more.
Anakaare: Thank you! That reminds me that I haven't posted the rewrites of Book 1: chapters 1 and 2… *sigh*
Natara: I do my best! ^_- And if you want different, wait 'till chapter 13. Mwahaha. Lucky number, too ^_-
Shadow Adams: Nope, actually. It just has a… special history. Hehehe. You can't? Really? Well you won't be disappointed.
Shadow Wolf: *blink* wouldn't I have been simpler to just say everything in this? Oh whatever. On the couple side, it all depends on how the characters act. I don't have much control over them, lol.
BF110C4: And wouldn't it look rather odd to the side of light if he looked like he hated Harry Potter, who is a Slytherin? About Blaise, that will be explained later. There's a very good reason (in Snape's book, at least). As a double agent, he has to keep up appearances on both sides, you have to remember. As Lucius Malfoy says to Draco: "It isn't safe not to look grateful to Harry Potter in these times" (or something like that).
Flummox: she should, eh? She will, later :P. Only problem with that is that they haven't invented Canary creams yet. It would be funny, though: a big, evil canary trying to kill by glaring. Keh. Yes, Xu is VERY fun to do. ^_^ *blink* err. Whoops. …y'know, it might be an idea for a humor fic… mwahaha. Imagine the sorting hat: "Aww MAN! ANOTHER ONE!!". Hehehe, yeah, eh? *smirk* Yeah, I guess. But no, that's not it. Naa, I like shameless plugs ^_-. *blink* Lol, I guess they *ARE* funny, ne?
