Her goes another one, hope you enjoy :)

Parseltongue: Hello


This time it came with pain, he had been feeling the boy distinctly angrier, it never reached overwhelming levels, he would simply shut him off when it became annoying, but he found himself opening the link from his side every once in a while, hoping to catch the ever elusive presence of the little serpent. The most he had gotten from the third link lately was the floating sensation he experienced that first time soon after he regained his body, only this time it felt closer, more Intense. He pushed on all sides, even from the boy's side, to no avail, he only found anger and bitterness there and promptly shut it.

His right hand burned as if cut open with a thin sharp object, ever so slowly, it wasn't unbearable, but he had no need for it, he shut it until later in the evening, checked once more.

He felt the link closer, but not only the boy's, he could feel both links, the little serpent's was bright and intense but still closed shut, only a figment of emotion passing through, he followed Potter's link instead, slowly ever so gentle, the boy didn't need to know he was being watch.

His hand was being healed, a blurry soft hand applying boredust ointment on it, he tried focusing through Potter's eyes to distinguish who it was but there was only a blur in front of him, he felt as peace and contentment roiled inside him. No, not him, the boy.

He felt his fingers caress the hands he was holding but could not see, a trickle of power going through him as he felt with the top of his finger, small scars along blurry palms and forearms. He wasn't able to distinguish much from the blur, no colors, form, or voice, nothing.

But his hands did. The boy's hands did.

They were smaller, smaller than the boy's, he could feel the power surging as he followed the path of the scars, as if awakened somehow. He felt his magic stirr in pleasure and couldn't tell if it was his or the boy's any longer.

Potter was whispering to the form in front of him, he couldn't distinguish the conversation, it would have required him to go deeper and that would have alerted the boy.

He patiently watched and learned what he could for now, his surroundings were ever so familiar, not in a million years would he forget what Hogwarts Library looked like. He felt the thrill settle on his stomach, like a tasty victory about to occur.

The boy's emotions were steady and calm, satisfaction and contentment taking over the link, he watched for an hour as the boy remained near the little blur, close enough to touch.

He pulled away from the link finally, a smile taking over his face. He caressed Nagini as she came to him, no doubt feeling an echo of the intense emotions.

The boy was close to the little serpent, a friend perhaps, he couldn't tell just yet, but his list of possible suspects had dwindled to Hogwarts residents, particularly those in the boy's friendship circle.

The boy knew the little serpent, and he would lead him right to him, he chuckled, not even Sturgis Podmore's fiasco would sour his day.

Now it was only a question of time until he got the boy to the Ministry, and with him his trusty little serpent.


Nina's steps echoed in the empty corridors, it was their houses turn to patrol again, McMillan was left the other side of the castle to Patrol as usual and she remained in hers. She had taken advantage of the emptiness of the castle to go ask for more boredust paste, or whatever it was Snape had given her.

She had asked him for it in her second detention last Saturday, and it didn't last her a week. She didn't think he would be pleased knowing she had given the whole jar to Harry Potter, so she thought better to just omit that part. She worried at first, perhaps she'd be met by a sneering Snape, too busy to make more remedies for the week, but to her immense relief the man gave her a box of individual tint jars. The thing acted much like murtlap essence, the difference was the speed of its healing properties. She was grateful, and embarrassed, now several firsties form different houses often greeted her profusely in passing, and it had become a game of who guessed it first between Dalia and Laurel. She was just thankful the rest of her house didn't particularly care what was the latest about Nina Morgenstern, it was a blessing, just the thought of everyone finding out speeded her heart to unhealthy levels.

It didn't matter if it was a good thing, her problem was the attention it brought, if students were asking questions professors would ask questions, which meant, the bitch would ask questions, which in turn meant her life turning unnecessarily difficult.

She had been checking on Harry for a few days now, after his first detention, she felt her cheeks turn red Every time she remembered. No one had ever been so fascinated by her, his whole attention was on her. It was intense and she didn't know what to make of it, was he simply interested in her runes, was it her, was he the notebook thief, just trying to get as much information from her as he could?

She hoped not, her stomach had fluttered pleasantly, heat going to her face, her runes activating at his touch only made the experience more intense, it took her an immense effort to not show him everything, blurt out that she could feel him when his life was about to be taken the night of the Dementor attack, that she understood what it meant to face Voldemort, that she only ever did it to help, that she was so immensely sorry she didn't realize Nagini was there, that she was so scared of her visions, of what the red stone showed her. But her voice choked up and only dim light and circumstance hid the tear rolling down her left cheek.

It felt like something she wasn't allowed, not after everything she set out to do, there could be no place for love. She shook her head and scoffed at herself.

'He likes Cho, he asked her out to the ball not you, he was just curious, about your runes' Her brain reminded her.

She breathed deeply as she walked down another empty corridor.


It didn't take him long to realize he was dreaming, it didn't seem like he was able to control his movements, his body moving along a dark corridor leading to a black door. The door never opened but everytime he reached it he went back to the beginning of the corridor and followed to the door again.

He woke up in a sweat, his scar prickling again like it had been doing for the entire summer, Sirius had explained it was expected now that Voldemort was back. He didn't know what was about the dream that unsettled him so much, it was a corridor and a door in a loop, he couldn't tell how many times he went through the loop, what he remembered was the need to open the door, he shook his head attempting to rid himself of his thoughts and went to get ready.

The day went on soured only by the constant presence of the Pink Monstrosity and every time the skin of his right hand was pulled a bit too forcefully. The only relief was finding out Professor Mcgonagall's class was about to be inspected, and they were going to witness it, they left the classroom grinning. Professor Grubly Plank's class inspection wasn't as enjoyable, Umbridge unsurprisingly found every little way to insult and undermine Hagrid, he only managed to shut his mouth, because he felt eyes set on him. Nina's brown eyes on him he nodded and tried ignoring Malfoy's stupid voice. He did make sure to bump into him with a bit too much force with his backpack while going back to the castle, Umbridge nowhere in sight.

The evening went by as he cut his hand open for hours on end, his hand had healed nicely in such a short amount of time only to be slashed again.

He wasn't let go until midnight, he reached the Gryffindor common room exhausted and ploughed down on an armchair, wishing Nina was here soothing his injured hand as well as his soul, just like she did yesterday.

Hermione's cautiousness and Ron's silence surprised him.l and soon enough he discovered why. "So we've been thinking about what Nina said the other day." She said.

"What about?" He asked, looking at both his friends.

"Going to a classroom and practicing Defense on our own part." She explained still cautious.

"What good is it going to do though, we're passed the point of learning from books, we need a proper teacher,... I mean maybe we can scrape an Acceptable in our O.W.L.s, and that's fine, but then what good is it going to do out there?" He explained.

He saw his two friends sharing looks, it was starting to annoy him a bit, he was exhausted and they were being so careful.

"Yes, that's why we thought we should ask someone with experience to teach us." Said Hermione finally, Ron cleared his throat at that as she continued, "okay it was my idea."

"Okay?..." He replied not understanding why they haven't mentioned a name yet. "It can't be Remus, he's busy with Order business, Sirius would probably be glad to sneak out with his Weasley disguise, but I don't want him risking it, so he's out of the list too. Do you guys have anyone else in mind?" He asked mind still searching for options.

Hermione responded hesitantly, "well... We've been thinking of someone with experience, you know, someone who fought before, someone who's had to get out of a deadly situation like that."

His mind clicked on all the prerequisites his friend mentioned. "You mean Nina?". He seemed to get it wrong because his friends wore a look of astonishment. "What?.." they both exclaimed at the same time.

"We meant you mate, why would you think we were talking about Nina, I thought she was still pending investigation, we still haven't checked if she's the Parseltongue." Hermione saw his look of unease and asked. "You never said what happened yesterday, Harry, did you meet Nina after detention?"

"Yes, I did, ... I'll explain that later, what's this about me teaching though, are you mad?"

"Far from it, you've faced Voldemort when you were only eleven, gotten the philosopher's stone, killed a basilisk and fought a hundred dementors in third year,..." Explained Ron looking proud.

"You don't understand do you, you say it like it's something cool, like I knew what I was doing, when half the time the only thing I thought was, 'I'm going to die' or 'my friends are going to die'." He got up from his seat, too angry to sit anymore.

"Harry that's exactly what we mean... you know what it is to face death and come out alive, you've gotten through it," replied Hermione.

"It was luck, sheer dumb luck, and help, that's all, Hermione, it's never about skill" he said features twisted, thinking of all the times people had mentioned how talented his parents were, how impressive they were.

"Harry just promise you'll think about it, please?"

He nodded.

"So what happened yesterday?" Ron asked.

He sighed deeply and sat down again, "Nina had a jar of ointments for my hand, so ... She was right, Umbridge isn't just nasty." He muttered.

"I still think we should tell Mcgonagall at least," Ron replied.

"No, you heard what Nina said, we're loosing the school one inch at a time, we need to hold on and not speed the process, she could just make up one of her dumb dicrees to sack Professors who complain." He explained.

"So she bandaged your hand?" Ron asked, smirking slightly. "Yeah... She didn't want to say where she got the ointment though." He replied.

"And we're ...good with that?" Asked Ron confused.

He groaned softly, "I trust her,... I want to know more but I trust her, she's been trying to help all along." He explained vaguely.

"So we're still on board with the plan?" Asked Hermione.

"Yes, definitely..." he said determined and continued, "there's something she mentioned though, and I didn't understand it..."

"What did she say mate?" Asked Ron intrigued.

"She showed me her runes, she has them on her arms... I mean she's shown me before, but I never asked... She said she needed it because her core was damaged or something?" He said looking as Hermione's mouth dropped.

"Oh my God..." She gasped looking at them, "you don't get it do you?"

"That's why I'm asking." He said annoyed.

"Oh my God, poor Nina... Harry... It's a magical Malady and a rare one at that, there's not much information about it, people used to simply act as if the ailment didn't exist and locked those poor sick people away."

His hearts sunk as he asked further, "what happens... To someone who has it?"

"A magical core damage distablises magic, it usually affects children, adults don't survive it, which means at some point the magical core growth becomes irregular and bouts of accidental magic can become a deadly explosion, it grows worse the older the children become, until their bodies can't take it anymore." She finished in a whisper, eyes tearing up.

He could almost hear his heartbeat, a deep ache settled inside him and he didn't know if he wanted to cry or scream or go find her, Hermione must have seen his turmoil because she continued.

"Harry, she's not in danger anymore if she's got runes to stabilize her core, it's actually brilliant, it must be some kind of new Experimental treatment. You've seen her do magic with no problems." She explained.

"She said she made them herself" he said looking at his friend's reaction, trying to gauge if the girl he had been so focused on was in true danger or not.

Hermione's face went through a series of emotions too fast to catch, the only thing he caught was her whispered "brilliant".

She moved to her backpack and pulled out the little Notebook he stole from Nina, touching the covers she asked.

"Do they look like these?" She asked the look of thrill taking over her face.

"Yes, the symbols are similar", he answered unsure of where his friend was going with this.

She whispered 'brilliant' again and looked at them as if surprised they didn't catch on.

"Harry, she made them herself, the runes in her arms, on the Notebook, she didn't just use any runes, it takes decades of study to perfect, she made her own... Not that that's not difficult or anything, it takes a lot of dedication, control and skill,... I can't believe no one noticed... I mean we've been in the same class for years, do you remember how much work it took her to get spells right, some of the students even started calling her a squib.." she said the last part sadly, "I just can't believe no one noticed the change, not even Professors."

"I think Sirius, Remus and Professor Dumbledore know about it, they probably saw her do something the night of the massacre..."

"Does it make her magic different or something?" Asked Ron.

"It depends on what the runes are for, did she say?"

"Direction runes, I think", his friend frowned, as she replied, "It must be to direct excess magic outwards in a controlled manner".

"And that works?, I mean why did no one else do the same thing?" Asked Ron.

"It's not just decide and do it Ron, people don't usually mess with runes, the consequences are terrible, often worse than whatever problem you have, I reckon someone might have tried before, but who knows..."

"So it's just that no one had guts before?" Replied Ron.

"No it's not that simple," she sighed, "the Magical community is pretty backwards on this if you ask me, not all research gets backed or funded and definitely not all research gets published, it matters more the acclaim of the subject than the subject itself, I'm frankly just glad it worked for her, it's groundbreaking work." She said smiling.

He breathed deeply in relief after that, he hadn't wanted to destroy the moment and he simply did not go further with his questions, but asking Hermione was the best next thing to do. It certainly calmed the ache and worry inside him, still the need to see her and be close to her persisted.

It was next after their last class that he pulled his friends to a corner and whispered to them.

"We do it now", they looked at him astonished, and just then Ron groaned loudly "Couldn't it be after lunch, mate I'm starving." Hermione hushed him and they proceeded to follow through Ron's simple but genius plan.

They all sneaked into one of the empty classrooms on the way to the entrance hall, Hermione pulled her wand out and spoke clearly. "Serpensortia", a grey colored snake came to life and both his friends stepped back.

"Hello, how are you?" He hissed in Parseltongue, the snake turned to him and hissed back "hello, large speaker, have you summoned me?" and heard Ron whisper "freaks me out every time".

"My friend has...we need your help," he answered.

He turned to them, "So what now?", Ron answered, collecting himself, since it was his plan. "Ask it to find help to get to the Greenhouse."

"We need you to find help to get to the Greenhouse, there's another... Umm, large speaker in the castle, and we need to find out who it is, but it is a secret, you can't mention us or your purpose."

"That is acceptable, I will go now." The snake slithered out of the classroom, and left them grappling hurriedly to put Harry under his invisibility cloak and follow it.

He went after it nearly colliding with people several times, he should have thought better of the time, but here he was. It was lunch time and several students were hurrying to the Great hall. The snake scared several of them, as they parted to let it pass, it hissed its purpose and continued its path until there was no one in the corridors anymore.

Just when he heard Filtch come to inspect the commotion, and twisted out of the way to avoid colliding with him, Nina came out of the Great Hall and rushed to pick up the snake.

"Put that down girl", he screeched just ready to put someone in detention.

"It's my snake, I'm sorry she got lost, it won't happen again." She apologized. Filtch didn't find anything else to give detention for and he sneered as he left muttering about devil students.

He watched the girl hold the snake closer and move towards the entrance and out to Hogwarts grounds, he followed closely, listening in, she could simply be taking the snake out of stepping danger. He almost tripped on his own cloak when a feminine hiss sounded.

"So what is it you want at the Greenhouse Ms snake?" she asked, smiling.

"Only to be, I like Greenhouses, you are a strange large speaker, did you know", the snake hissed moving closer to the girl's face. To anyone it would have looked threatening, but he knew better, the snake merely attempted to feel with its senses.

Nina smiled and came closer, putting her cheek to the snake's "Have you met many large speakers then?"

"I'm fairly young, are there many of you?" The snake expertly avoided the answer.

"I … umm ...I only know of two other large speakers,... Here we go," she left the snake on the floor and kneeling beside it. "Is this adequate?" She asked.

"Quite alright.., thank you strange one," the snake hissed a final time and went inside, "you're very welcome" the girl looked at it's slytherin form get inside and chuckled to herself.

He stayed there stunned and disbelieving he had prepared for this, he had been waiting for something to prove him wrong but deep inside, he simply knew. He couldn't tell if it was instinct, or something to do with the night of the ritual, he had never felt so desperate to be near her to know more, it only started when they met at Grimmauld place. It couldn't just be because he liked her, he liked her for years, he never was so desperate about it.

He had thought long and hard about what she chose to do the night of the ritual, he couldn't for the life of him understand what could have driven her to take his place, did she want to save him? And even if she did, how did she find out about the impostor Moody, how did she find out about the Portkey cup and what awaited her on the other side? Every answer he reached drove him further from her, questions piled and piled and his need for more answers only grew.

He went to the Library where they agreed to meet and sunk down on the chair his friends left for him., He didn't say a word and his silence was enough answer, they were stunned as much as he was, it was Ron who collected himself first.

"What did she say?" He asked softly.

"She spoke to it... Asked it if it knew any other large speakers... That's it" he answered, still in shock.

"Large speakers?" Asked Hermione, "Parseltongue" he explained.

"What does this mean then?, Is she some kind of slytherin heir?" Asked Ron frowning.

"She could be a descendant, right?...I mean she's Halfblood," suggested Hermione.

"I think we should try to find out more about the Notebook," he replied.

"I don't know Harry, even after knowing this... Do you really think she is... bad or something?" She asked.

"No, I don't think she did it because she's evil, Hermione, I just... We have to know... What if she tries to do something else, and we don't know. I mean think about it, Voldemort's back, he would have been back if it was me that night or her, he'd come back one way or another, what we should worry about is, now what?" He explained.

"Okay, we can try, but it's protected...so far no one can see anything inside but you Harry, besides runes are specially volatile we have to be extra careful." Said Hermione, looking like she already had a bunch of ideas to try.

He wasn't sure they'd be successful, in the meantime though, his need would be quieted down, until he found more.