Chapter 4: Going Underground

After the meal had finished, Dumbledore made a few announcements, and let the students go. Harry let quickly, followed by a worried Ron and a confused Hermione.

"I thought he was your friend?" said the latter as they began to ascend the stairs ahead of the students below them.

Harry turned around, a retort on his lips, but he stopped. Down in the thronging mass of students below was one face staring up at him wide, hurt amber eyes. Harry tore his gaze away and ran upstairs without another word.

In the Gryffindor common room Harry sat down in a chair by the fire and waited as Ron and Hermione grabbed seats and drew closer for some kind of explanation for his irrational behaviour.

The truth was Harry hated speaking parcel tongue, ever since the big thing in his second year when the whole school found out he could talk to snakes and all the rumours about him and some connection with Voldemort. To have some snake appeal to him in front of the entire school and to find himself answering in the language he abhorred was just too embarrassing. He should have known that the snake boy would end up in Slytherin, he was the very epitome of their emblem. Harry just told Ron and Hermione some of this and went to bed early.

Vox stood in the entrance hall until every other living creature had gone from the place, then he tucked himself behind one of the big suits of armour and drew his robes over his knees. He blinked a couple of times, trying to make the feelings go away, and found hot tears coursing down his cheeks. He'd been abandoned, again. He couldn't shake the expression on Harry's face when he'd told him to go. No one had told him what was expected of him, and the looks on all their faces as though he was some kind of freak, all the same looks that Vox had seen before.

He didn't know how long he'd been sitting there, small and silent and lost in his own misery when the other found him. Out of sight and crying quietly he hadn't seen the pale haired boy come up from the dungeons, or pace his way around the room, searching behind every statue and in every hiding place.

A slice of face appeared in the thin gap Vox had left between the niche in the wall and the suit of metal. He looked up, scared at being found and backed away as far as he could get into the wall.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the voice was calm gentle and soft, "Come out and let me see you."

Carefully Vox pushed back the suit of armour and got up, almost unsteadily, to his feet. His head remained bowed and he stared at the floor.

"What's wrong?" A hand appeared in his downward vision, catching him under the chin and pulling his face up, "I said I wasn't going to hurt you."

Finally the snake boy forced himself to look at the one who had found him, to see who had placed such soft skin against his scales in such a rough gesture. The other boy was just a little shorter than him, only barely, with pale skin and white blond hair. Steel grey eyes regarded him for a second, sweeping over his figure, before the thin lipped mouth smiled, approving, and steel softened to ash in that gesture.

"You shouldn't be hiding."

Vox merely mumbled something indistinct in parcel tongue.

The boy shook his head, still smiling.

"I'm sorry. I can't understand you," He took his hand from Vox's chin and caught the snake boy's bare hand, "I'm Draco."

"Vox."

"C'mon, let's get you to the dorms."

Draco led the green-scaled creature down the bare stone steps with barely contained wonderment. Nowhere had he seen or heard of anything like this creature, this most unusual snake. The boy walked beside Draco in total silence, as if no thoughts or questions past through him. His feet were bare, and they looked like he was wearing snakeskin socks, no toes. He hand in his was cool and clean and smooth like silk or satin. Golden green long delicate fingers without finger nails, but with thin semi transparent webbing up to the middle joint. His hair, the same hue as his skin but of darker hues hung around the collar of the plain robes, falling in his face and hiding those pretty amber eyes.

The Slytherin slipped down the corridors in near silence and lead Vox down to the great doors that lead into the common room. At the password the doors opened to reveal the long Slytherin common room, a low ceilinged affair with dark wood panelling and torches in brackets along the walls. The temperature dropped inside the room, a pleasant chill at which Draco smiled. Vox shivered.

"Cold?"

A nod was the only answer he got.

It was late and there were very few people in the common room and those that were there were involved in deep conversation with their friends. Draco brought Vox forwards to the great fire and sat the boy in front of it. Vox shuffled closer to the fire, then shocked Draco into a startled noise when he put his hands in it.

"What are you doing?" Draco grabbed Vox by the wrists and hauled him away from the flames, snake scales and thin hands slipped under his grip.

"It's freezing!"

Stunned to actually hear something in English from the other, Draco let him go and then spluttered as Vox put his hands back in the fire.

"How can you do that?"

"Flame proof." Was the one word explanation.

Grey eyes widened in surprise. When the boy finally took his hands from the flames and looked to Draco the latter stood. The common room was empty, everyone had gone to bed.

"Come on."

"Where?"

Draco almost threw his hands up in despair, what was he gong to do with the creature? Snape had asked him to take care of the boy, show him the ropes, and Draco was willing enough, The other fascinated him, and he was very easy on the eyes. Whip thin lithe figure, emphasized rather than hidden under the robes. Small shoulders, and delicate looking, but with an odd air of strength.

"Our dorm."

"Our?"

"Yeah. All the each year has two dorms, one for girls, one for guys." He turned back to Vox to see that the boy had stopped stock still in front of the fire, staring at him with wide, scared eyes.

"Vox? What are you scared of?"

"People." It was almost a hiss, low and quiet.

Draco stepped forwards and took his hand.

"I told you. No one's going to hurt you. Now come."

The snake boy shook his head, hair covering his face in a ragged curtain.

"Vox…" Draco's voice, and his eyes, were like steel again.

"No."

"Fine!" Draco snapped. His patience was out and showing a newcomer the ropes was not supposed to be this complicated. He turned on his heels with a whirl of fabric and stormed out of the room.

Down the long dark steps to the dorms, past many other doors, his steps became softer, but his mood did not improve until he reached the sixth year dormitory. There were five beds now, two held the gently snoring hulks of Crabbe and Goyle; one was new, with a neatly made un-touched bed and a brand new trunk which probably contained what Vox would need for the year; next to it was his own, half made bed and next to that was Blaise's bed, containing his slender black haired sleeping form. Draco stood in front of his own bed for a moment before peeling out of his clothes, showing off a nicely formed figure to the shadows. He slipped into a pair of thin cotton sleeping shorts and slid into bed. In the darkness, deep green turned to black and the only thing to be seen was the white shock of Draco's hair fanned out on the pillow as his tucked the covers up around his neck.

Not more than a quarter of an hour later he was shaken out of his state of half sleep by the sound of soft padding on the stairs and a hissing as someone bumped into the door. Someone turned out to be Vox as Draco sat up, kicking the drape at the end of his bed aside with his foot to see the snake boy spill through the door. For a moment, Draco wondered why he could see the figureso clearly, until he realised that with him, Vox had brought light, a little ball of flame in his cupped palms.

"How many doors did you need to burst through before you found us?" He asked with a sarcastic drawl.

"None."

Draco raised an eyebrow in surprise, disbelief written all over his smooth pale features.

"Smelt you." Vox took a small breath through his nose and smiled, "Know you're scent."

Draco nodded.

"That's yours," He gestured to the bed next to his, drapes open and unoccupied, "And turn that light out. You'll wake everyone."

"But it's so cold!" Vox complained in a small voice. He looked almost pitiful.

Draco hissed through his teeth and Vox blanched, if that was possible, giving Draco cause to wonder what he had just said.

"If you're cold, get into bed."

The snake boy hesitated another minute before covering over the flame in his hands, putting it out. He went to his bed and shucked out of his robes, leaving the cloth in a puddle on the floor. In the after glow of the flames, Draco could see Vox's figure, as slender and pretty as he had expected and watched as Vox stretched. He could see the long stitched up scaron his back and another, smaller scar right at the bottom of his spine, circular, like something from there had been removed.

Naked in the shadows Vox hung his head and relaxed his shoulders. He felt so tired suddenly. He got into bed in silence and rolled over to see Draco's face staring at him. With the smallest of sounds he gulped un-easily and rolled back over.

Darkness seeped in, and it brought cold with it. Vox shivered for a long while, wrapping his blankets as tight as he could around himself. Still he was cold and he lay awake, listening to the sounds of humans sleeping around him. He explored the scents in the room and his head kept coming back to Draco's. A soft scent like rosewood soap and jasmine, or some other exotic flower. Rich. Some people just had it bred into them.

And still he shivered.