Disclaimer: I don't even have $3.76 anymore =/

Rating: It is about damn time

A/N: I would just like to thank you all for reviewing! I was seriously surprised and delighted by all the response. Attention all fanfiction authors who are reading this. If you have a story already uploaded here with an interesting situation between Draco and Harry please contact me since I have a great idea, but I would need your help!

Chapter 17

Viper wanted to go home. It wasn't that she felt that those she left deserved an explanation or that she wanted revenge against the Deagron. She just missed being able to fly over the skies without having to worry about being spotted. She sighed as she made her way up to Gryffindor tower. Her makeshift home was welcoming but it lacked the ambiance of her former residence.

'I have to admit though it is a serious step up from the prison.' She ran her hand over the Fat Lady's frame not bothering to wake the sleeping painting and slid through the crevice that the frame and the wall made. Viper's eyes adjusted to the dim passageway and she glanced at her marking on the wall. Hopefully it would keep that horrible reptile away from her Harry. She sat down by the dying fire and asked it to wake up for her.

"Show me my home." The fire obliged and rose halfway up the fireplace and the flames merged into one flawless moving picture of the oasis in the middle of a harsh forbidding desert. Viper stared into the flames until she heard steps tramping up towards the portrait.

"Thank you fire, you can go back to normal." The fire gave off a small crackle and resumed its original state. "Harry if you insist on careening through hallways like that you might want to do it quieter." Harry paused at the threshold catching his breath.

"Sorry Viper, Snape just has me so mad."

"What was he doing?"

"Insulting you. Trying to get me to hate you and push you away from me."

"Sounds like he is jealous." Viper cocked her eyebrow up at Harry as he burst into mirthful laughter.

"That would be so classic!" Still shaking with chuckles he made his way up to his room.

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Draco prowled the dark beach. He was so bored he could not stand it. Try as he might he could find no trace of another living soul.

"Why can't I at least have some company?" He yelled into the uncaring sky. "Just so I don't go insane!" Draco slumped to the sand in defeat.

"You only had to ask." Draco scrambled to his feet and looked in the direction the voice had come from. There stood the girl with no hands.

"You....you can talk?"

"Of course we can. Most of us have just been here so long there is really no point in making the effort to move."

"How did you..." He trailed off unsure of how to ask.

"Just like you. Viper killed me. I admit I deserved it although it was rather mean of her to wrench off my hands first." Draco watched the girl study her stubs.

"Why did she?"

The girl sighed. "Let us start at the beginning." She settled herself down using a decapitated horse as a backrest. Draco sat down as well, being careful not to touch anything but sand.

"My name is Lekia. I lived back when Viper was at her pinnacle of power. She was ruthless, scouring the lands of anyone she thought tainted the land." Draco was uncomfortably reminded of his father's and Voldemort's attempts to finish off all muggles and mudbloods.

"I was about 15 when she came flying into my village. I remember watching my father, the local innkeeper, struggle to keep his calm in the presence of the Sadist. I was hidden behind the barrels stacked in the yard. I could hear each and every word. Her voice was amazing. It sounded like the mother I never had combined with the most beautiful music ever heard." Lekia paused lost in thought.

"Then she found out that my father had allowed criminals to stay at the inn for free. I had never before seen such anger. My father was gone in a puff of smoke. Nothing of him remained. I remember seeing her make a slow inspection of the yard and I knew then she would find me. The barrels rolled away from me and I felt myself being dragged by invisible hands towards my doom."

"I knew she could smell them on me. I had only done what my father wished and kept the convicts happy. Even when that included letting them do what they wished to me and happily performing anything they asked. She told me that she was disappointed in me for letting myself be tainted by such debauchery. She broke off my hands. It hurt so much that I asked her to kill me. I would be of no use to my family any longer. So she did. To this day I imagine that I saw a hint of pity in her eyes as she twisted my head." The silence was deafening. Draco could not believe that Viper was capable of such cruelty.

"She feels different now though." Draco looked over at the girl confusion in his silver eyes. "Something has changed Her. Something good, almost...angelic."

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Snape looked up from the knock on his door. He was not expecting any visitors tonight. He glanced at his clock and scowled at the late hour.

"Come in." The door remained shut. Snape growled in annoyance and rose from his chair. He heard the knocking sound again.

"Stop pulling these inane pranks now!" He charged out the door intending to give the offending student a long lecture about manners. The corridor was empty. A slight chill made Snape involuntarily shiver.

"Who is there?" A low unearthly laughter came from the corner on his right. He followed the noise and was surprised to say the least when he found Viper leaning against the far wall. The lights in their sconces could do nothing to hide her beauty. Snape cleared his throat and hoped he still had an irritated tone in his voice.

"Aren't you old enough to have outgrown such childish pranks?" Viper smirked and it was all Snape could do to not reach over there and kiss her. 'Stop this she is a traitor. You have seen her betray everything you believe in.'

"Dumbledore told me to ask you for help."

"Why would the almighty Viper need my help?"

"Because I do not know the flora of your world and it would make creating potions considerably harder." Viper licked her lips knowing full well that Snape was on the edge of his control.

'There is no way she would even want to kiss me. Unless she was under one of the Unforgivables.' Viper pushed herself off of the wall and stood face to face with Snape. He could smell her tantalizing scent. Snape closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. Viper watched him trying to regain control over himself. Snape opened his eyes.

"Docilitus!" He barely kept his voice at its normal level. Viper's eyes glazed over as the spell hit her full force. 'This can't be legal. That spell is only one level underneath Imperius.'

"Kiss me." Snape closed his eyes in pleasure as Viper's mouth descended on his. He wrapped his arms around her and she melted wonderfully into his embrace. Suddenly her body stiffened and he was pushed violently to the wall. He looked up at her face it was contorted in barely masked fury.

"How dare you." Snape was finding it hard to breathe as Viper's hand closed around his throat. His eyes slid shut as the oxygen had no way to get to his brain. Her hand slowly released him from the choke-hold. He slumped down to the ground gasping for breath. Viper knelt down beside him a look of concern on her face.

"Sorry." Her voice washed over him and he felt himself get slightly aroused. Viper tilted his face until all he could see were her eyes. Her mouth came ever closer and one of the softest brushes he had ever felt was the only indication that she came near him. When he opened his eyes again she was gone.

A/N: Oooooh fun. Please review and I will be happy!