A/N: Sorry this took so long. But I'm pleased with this chapter; it introduces at least one minor plot thread that should be useful.
Thank you for all the reviews! To answer a few of the specific questions:
Lily and James Potter:I'm flattered that you like the last line. You can use it, if you want.
Olivia Wood: Explaining the confusion of worlds, and how Harry got here in the first place, is in the cards; the next chapter will start getting some of it in motion.
gallandro-83: There is very definitely no Voldemort in this world; the dreams are from Harry's own. Pansy doesn't know about the Snape/Trelawney conversation because she only started listening at the door after Trelawney left. And Harry thought the Slytherins would be satisfied if they knew about the Star of Morning and just let him go.
That's not the case.
The Best of All Possible Worlds
Chapter Eleven: The Order of the Serpent
"You should know that we call ourselves—" Pansy began.
One of the younger Slytherin students interrupted her. "You're not going to tell him, are you?" he asked.
Pansy glared at him. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I am, Lestrange," she said. "Do you have a problem with that?"
The young man subsided, shaking his head. Harry hoped that the boy's cowering covered his own shocked reaction. Lestrange? Bellatrix's son? The idea made him feel ill.
"Good." Pansy turned back towards Harry, and frowned. "What is it, Potter?"
Harry just shrugged. He doubted that she would be able to understand unless he showed her his memories, and he didn't want to do that, at the moment. From the slight deepening of Pansy's frown, he thought she didn't believe him, but she only said, "We call ourselves the Order of the Serpent. We fight for Slytherin honor. And now that you've told us about the Star of Morning, we have a definite target. I'm going to make you the Eagle, since you're the only one who's seen it as of yet, and I'll be the Adder—"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Harry interrupted bluntly. They were in this together now, he had decided. If any of them talked, the rest would be in trouble fast enough to make their heads spin. And probably none of the Slytherins thought they would get a cordial reception from Hagrid, either.
Pansy stared hard at him again, then turned to the others. "Since we know what our target is now, then we won't need to do that research in the library that I was telling you about," she announced with false cheeriness. "I'll work with our guest, instead, and go over all the duties of being Eagle."
"It sounds as though you'll have to inform him of them, instead," said Lestrange, with another contemptuous glance at Harry. Harry tried to keep himself from looking back with hatred. His mother didn't kill Sirius, and it wasn't his fault, he kept trying to tell himself. But he had been forcibly reminded of his grief for the first time since his first moments here, and it was difficult.
"Detention with Filch for the rest of the week, Lestrange," said Pansy in an almost bored voice, and pulled her wand.
The others left quietly enough after that, all giving Harry dubious glances. He tried to meet them with glares. He had barely matched the last one when Pansy muttered something else and then shoved him against the wall, her wand to his throat.
"Don't do anything like that again, Potter," she said. "They need to trust you, and trust doesn't come easily to us. You should have nodded along with me, and trusted me to explain in private later."
Harry's temper rose again. "Get off me," he said.
Pansy eyed him, then, with a suddenness that surprised Harry, stepped away and lowered her wand again. "You're right," she said. "We need each other, and so I shouldn't anger you." She smiled, though the expression had little of humor in it. "I could invade your mind and find your most painful memory, and you could call snakes out of the walls and kill me."
Harry hadn't even thought about trying to kill someone with Parseltongue, but since his most unpleasant memory was near the surface at the moment, he managed a false smile and lowered his eyes. "What is the Eagle you're talking about, and what's the Adder?" he asked.
Pansy took a seat on one of the abandoned chairs, and motioned him to the one next to her. It had been the one Lestrange was sitting in. Harry had to force himself to take it, and even then Pansy raised an eyebrow at his twitchiness. Harry shrugged. "There is no Star of Morning in my world, as far as I know," he said, hoping to divert her.
It worked. Or maybe Pansy allowed herself to be diverted. That was the frustrating part, Harry thought. One never knew, with Slytherins. "The Star of Morning used to belong to the Founders," she said. "We think it was one of the ways that Salazar Slytherin determined what students should belong to his House. It can identify purebloods and mudbloods."
Harry, determined not to react to the word, said, "I thought the Sorting Hat did that."
"We don't think the Sorting Hat was an immediate invention," said Pansy, with a slight shrug. "The Star of Morning was used first. But apparently it could be misused."
"Mr. Malfoy said that it could destroy all the Muggleborns, if the right team of experienced wizards used it," said Harry.
Pansy nodded. "And it has to be countered by a team, too. Four, one for each of the four Founders." She was speaking in a more relaxed manner now, and it struck Harry that she sounded a lot like a professor. Maybe she was used to explaining things like this to the Order, he thought. "Or one for each of the Houses, maybe, since each has a place for one of the House's animals. There's the Adder, the one who actually strikes at the Star. There's the Badger, who has to dig into enough magical strength to keep the whole process going. The Lion—" Pansy grimaced as she named the symbol of Gryffindor "—defends the others, in case of any attack from outside. And the Eagle stands in the center and visualizes the Star of Morning, guiding the Adder to the target. Since you're the only one who's actually seen it, you'll have to be the Eagle."
Harry frowned. "How do you know how to counter it so well?" he asked. "Isn't information like that kept secret?"
Pansy gave him a look of unmitigated scorn. "Most of the Slytherins have read through the Restricted Section by the middle of fourth year," she said coolly. "I read through it by my third. Isn't it the same in your school?"
Harry tried to keep out of his mind how much he despised Slytherins in his own world. He had another question, one that he would have to ask no matter how suspicious it sounded. "Lestrange. Is his mother Bellatrix Lestrange?"
Pansy blinked. "Yes. You know her in your own world?"
Harry hesitated, then decided he could trust her with this much. "She's crazy in my world," he said bluntly. "And she didn't seem like the kind of person whose children would join something like the Order of the- of the Serpent." He'd almost slipped and said "Phoenix."
Pansy laughed. "Oh, Bastian's the rebel. His mother is so completely obsessed with restoring purebloods that the only way he could go further is to consort with mudbloods. And Bastian wouldn't do that."
"Or betray us to his mother, either?"
Pansy shrugged. "All members of the Order know what will happen if they do that." She stood up. "Speaking of which, you should be sworn in."
Harry tensed, and tried to keep hold of his wand without making it look as though he were preparing all the hexes he knew in his mind. "What?"
Pansy looked back at him. "It's something we do to make sure that no one will betray us," she said calmly. "Slytherin honor and all that." She walked over to the wall, ignoring Harry's fidgeting, and traced a curving S on the stones. There came a soft rumbling sound, and they flicked back with an oddly sinuous movement, so that a serpent's head could poke out of them.
Harry eyed the long stone fangs, and didn't move.
"Oh, come on, Potter," said Pansy, who was looking amused again. "It's nothing, really. Any true Slytherin only has to place his hand in the serpent's mouth and swear never to betray the Order. You'll get through without trouble."
Harry stood and approached the wall as casually as he could, hoping he hadn't started to sweat. "I was worried about my bloodline," he lied. "My mother is Muggleborn, after all."
"But you're in Slytherin," said Pansy, inarguably. "The snake measures spirit, not bloodline."
Bloody hell, Harry thought in dismay. That was worse, in some ways.
But—
Then he mentally smacked himself for being an idiot, and walked determinedly to the wall. This was a snake, after all, and he was a Parselmouth.
"Put your hand in between the fangs," Pansy directed. "No, left hand. Curl your fingers around the right fang and say, 'I will stay part of the Order of the Serpent, betray none of its secrets, and fight for Slytherin honor.' That's all."
Harry hissed softly, looking directly at the snake so he wouldn't accidentally speak in English. The last thing he needed was to screw this up. "Greetings, my friend."
The snake stirred, and turned its head towards him, tugging its body further out of the wall. Harry made out the flare of the hood at its neck, and guessed that it was a cobra of some kind. He gulped and listened carefully to the hiss that followed. "You are ssspeaking my tongue?"
"Yes," said Harry, and adopted as apologetic an expression as he could. "I got placed into Gryffindor by mistake, you see. I really need to get through this oath and not have you bite me."
"The Ssslytherins are foolsss in sssome waysss," said the snake, turning its head this way and that to regard him. "But if I do not bite you, then I asssk that you go and ssspeak to my cousssin in the Chamber. It isss good to be quiet, not asssk again and again what hasss become of the Parssselmouth when I am trying to sssleep."
Harry blinked. The basilisk was asking after me? It must be lonely, he thought. "Agreed," he said, and then reached out and put his left hand in the snake's mouth, curling his fingers around the right fang.
"I will stay part of the Order of the Serpent, betray none of its secrets, and fight for Slytherin honor," he said firmly.
The serpent retracted slowly into the wall, mouth opening at the last moment to let go of his hand. Harry blinked at it, then turned and looked at Pansy, who was smiling. "I told you it was nothing," she said.
"What happens if someone does betray the Order?" Harry asked.
Pansy shrugged. "Nothing that severe. Their left hand falls off at the wrist—"
Harry winced.
"—and they'll wake to find snakes in their bed at night, devouring them," said Pansy. "Less then they deserve, really." Ignoring Harry's wince, or maybe just not seeing it, she turned towards the door again. "We should get back before Professor Snape finds out you're gone."
"Does he know about the Order?" Harry asked.
Pansy laughed. "Of course not. He hasn't even decided what side's he on yet. He didn't tell us about the Star of Morning, did he?"
"But you're spying on Draco, and told him about that."
Pansy gave him a slightly pitying glance. "Yes, because he wants to get rid of the tarnish on our House honor as much as we do. That doesn't mean that we need to tell him everything."
Harry shrugged and started to say something, then remembered how little he, Ron, and Hermione had told McGonagall in his own world. He supposed he really couldn't talk.
------------------------
They were probably about halfway back to Snape's office when the next problem came along, announcing itself with a swirl of incense.
"Miss Parkinson, Mr. Potter! I regret to interrupt your progress, but I must speak with Mr. Potter at once."
Harry turned, and groaned when he saw Professor Trelawney. The woman looked determined, and when she glanced at him, her eyes automatically flickered to his fringe and the scar that lay beneath it. Harry froze. But I thought Snape obliviated her, he thought in confusion.
"Of course, Professor Trelawney," said Pansy cordially, with not a trace of the intense contempt that was in her eyes when she looked at Harry. Then her eyes changed, sending a message that might as well have been telepathic. Not a word about the Order, or your left hand will fall off.
Harry nodded, and Pansy walked away as though she had nothing better to do in the world. She probably didn't, Harry thought glumly. He couldn't betray her and the others, and she would think that what happened when Snape found him gone was his own problem.
"Come along, my boy," said Trelawney, in a voice that was different from any voice Harry had ever heard her use in his world, and grabbed his hand, the left one. Harry winced for a moment, then let her pull him along. It wasn't as though she was really going to question him about anything, he reassured himself. Snape obliviated her. She was probably reminded of something about the storm, whatever that had been, and just wanted to issue the same kind of misty warning that his own Trelawney had given him.
Unless she's really my own Trelawney…did they really come from my own world?
Trying to think about it was giving Harry a headache, so he settled for looking innocent when Professor Trelawney stopped near one of the staircases to the second floor and stared at him.
"Is something wrong, Professor?" he asked, when the stare just went on.
Trelawney reached out before Harry could stop her and flipped up his fringe, showing the lightning scar. Harry jerked back, preparing to bolt. He could probably lose her in the dungeons, and it wasn't as though she could prove anything by finding the other Harry. This was probably just troubled memories creeping back through Snape's charm.
"I know everything, my boy," said Trelawney, voice weary. "And why not? I was part of most of it."
"I don't understand," said Harry sincerely, though his heart had started pounding. If I can get information out of someone besides Snape…
"Professor Snape's spell didn't work," said Trelawney softly. "It's very, very hard to confuse a true seer's mind like that. I have seen the past as well as the future, and all I needed to do was take one glance into my crystal ball the moment I returned to my tower. I knew what he had done." She took a deep breath. "You deserve to know the truth, my child."
"Why?" Harry asked, heart pounding harder than ever.
Trelawney smiled painfully. "With my original prophecy, I saw much of what you would suffer. It was part of the reason that I dreaded the rising of Voldemort so much, because I knew that an innocent child would bear the main burden of defeating him." She hesitated for a long moment. "You have done enough. You deserve to know that you could stay here, and live a normal life, and be spared what I saw."