center>Chapter Two
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Unbeknownst to Vernon Dursley; the forest in which he had dumped little Harry was a wildlife preserve and, as a place humans almost never went, had become something of a haven for magical creatures of all sorts. And many of these creatures were dangerous.
Most dangerous of all in the forest was Moirethe who, in addition to being magical, was also very old and very wise. Her advice and judgments were heeded by all the other animals, and not only for their wisdom, as she ruled also with the threat of her venomous bite and deadly gaze.
Moirethe was a basilisk.
Just now, Moirethe was a very bored basilisk.
With no current batch of young snakelings to tend and the recent settling of the territory dispute between the Quintapeds and the Acromantulas (she'd eaten a few who'd persisted in quarrelling with her, but such is life) Moirethe had nothing to do, and no basilisk, even an ancient one, likes doing nothing.
So the old snake was exploring her forest, slithering past tree after almost identical tree and wishing something would happen.
Even as she thought that wish, Moirethe caught the faint scent of human on the breeze. Humans in her forest, hmm? Well, that was something indeed. Her mood much improved, Moirethe went to investigate.
Whatever the old basilisk had expected to find at the source of the human smell, this wasn't it. It was a human, yes, but barely more than a hatchling and the only adult spoor was far from fresh, the adult in question long gone. Moirethe knew that the little one was nowhere near old enough to fend for itself and that this wasn't how humans did things.
This was a puzzle.
Moirethe loved solving puzzles. She eagerly began studying the human nestling (child, she remembered, a human nestling was called a child) for clues. And found them.
It was magical. Very magical.
It was male, she thought. With humans so young it was difficult to be sure.
He was injured, his face and upper arm bruised.
The bruises were hand-shaped and adult sized.
And he appeared to be very ill fed, so much so that Moirethe wondered if he wouldn't do better on his own after all. She wondered how the little one would react to her. She decided to stay until he woke and find out.
