A single rose petal dances in the wind, throwing itself into the breeze. It lands on the surprised head of a child, one with a head full of red. She reaches up to grab the petal and laughs, showing her brilliant white teeth. Her face is blurred and it is hard to make out the details.

What are you dreaming of? Harry's head snapped up as he heard a voice with his mind and not his ears.

Oh no! Voldemort's back and he is in my house and has possessed me! Harry started breathing heavily and reached for his back pocket, where he kept his wand in his blue jeans- despite Moody's frequent warnings. Never could know when he might be attacked.

Now calm down there and tell me what is disturbing you so, a curious voice said in his head again. It couldn't be Voldie, though, because the voice was female. But maybe he's trying to trick you into becoming relaxed.

"Keep your guard up," he whispered softly to himself. He was proud of himself for managing to create one genuine coherent thought in his life.

Oh, now you're just being ridiculous. Do you seriously think I'm possessing you? Put your right hand in front of you. Harry obeyed, having nothing better to do. See what you just did? You put your right hand in front of you. Not me.

That kind of makes sense. He visibly relaxed. His shoulders- well muscled ones from his quidditch practice- fell down to their normal height. Or maybe that would be slightly normal, because his shoulders always seemed to be tensed these days. He sat down on his tattered bed sheet that could have possibly been a table cloth in its past life.

He felt a kind of mental probing. Good, you've relaxed. This is why I hate have to work with guys. They are so easily agitated. Harry didn't understand a word. Well, maybe a word here or there, but he just caught the undertone of annoyance. If you are good, maybe I'll let you know where I am. All right?

Harry nodded, looking around the room expecting death eaters around every corner. The closet was closed, and it was a good thing, too, because nothing could fit into there after the Dursleys were through with it. The desk might have been nice at one point in time. That might have been before it was purchased. For, while it sat in the "garage" as Dudley had dubbed Harry's room, it was destroyed. Or, perhaps missing two legs would have been a more accurate description. His room was pretty bland, besides having a little night stand and his bed, and there was no sign of a person anywhere.

"All right, I give up. Where are you?" Harry asked.

Look off the side of the bed.

The side of the bed. Next to the underside of the bed, which was dark. And scary. Monsters lived there. Sometimes old smelly socks lived there too, which were just as bad as the Boogeyman.

He cautiously glanced over the side of the bed, his legs in the air on one side, eyes poking over the other. There, lying curled up and looking comfortable on the clothes he had thrown off of the bed the night before, was the snake Ginny had sent him.

"God, I'm so stupid. I can't believe I left the snake out like that. Sorry," he said to the air, "I'm a guy, what can I say? I completely forgot about her gift! Dumb, stupid, prat.." and continued to curse himself blue while yet again forgetting about the thing that brought him to hitting himself in the first place.

Eh-hem. Harry jumped, think Umbridge had somehow broken into the house.

"Umbridge? Hello? Wow, freaky."

Are you done? I'm getting hungry.

Harry scratched his head, confused.

There was a sigh. The snake- you know, the one that's sitting on the ground? He jumped, startled at the voice speaking to his head rather than his ears, and nodded subconsciously. That's me.

Harry poked his head again, contemplating if he had eaten something he should not have. Like drugs. Because he could have sworn that the snake said that it was the one talking to him.

Yep, that's me. Now GET ME SOME FOOD!

Harry, startled out of his daydream, quickly waved his wand. After living with Hermione and Ginny for seven years, he had learned a general rule of thumb: always obey the women. Always. And never question them. Especially when you don't know who they are.

Actually, that was how he became such good friends with Ginny. He didn't know who she was. Well, he knew who she was, but not who she was. One day he asked Ginny to pass the syrup, and the next moment she was yelling at him for being an idiot. Which he was. With Hermione's urging, he followed her out of the Great Hall and found out what had really been bothering her.

It seemed that as soon as she had gotten over Harry, he had finally said more than "hello", and quite frankly, it had pissed her off. Harry, being the suave gentleman he was, offered to spend some time to get to know each other, because he admitted that he really didn't know her that well besides that she had an amazing bat bogey hex.

That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Hello? Stop daydreaming, I'm waiting for my food.

He realized that he didn't know who the voice belonged to. He knew what. When he heard her voice in his head, it was slithered. It seemed familiar, but how would he be familiar with the velvety voice of a snake?

His charge hissed venomous, yelling threats into his head of what she would do to him if he did not give her her well-earned meal.

Harry grinned deviously, and took the first of Dudley's computers and with a flick of his wrist changed the screen into a white fuzzy mouse. One down, five kajillion to go.