There is a disclaimer on all previous chapters and I do not recommend you reading this or any subsequent chapters before the earlier ones. There are many concepts, traditions, spells, characters and more within that are my own, however and while I cannot compel other writers to credit me in their own works, I would really appreciate it.

It's been a very long time since I updated and for those of you who have been waiting, I apologise.

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Chapter 35: A Time of Peace and a Friend Returned.

The newcomers had a transformative effect on the whole school: lessons improved, the mood of all the teachers seemed better and even the food seemed more delicious.

The snows gripped the castle for a little over a week before a long thaw set in, eventually giving way to storms then a bright, cold spring.

Temperatures had started rising by the second week of March and after two weeks of wading through mud and howling winds, Harry rose on the Monday morning to find the skies clear and the sun throwing dazzling reflections off the lake.

Through the cold winter weeks he had developed a habit of bathing twice each day. He would use the levitation spell to hold his book overhead so he could read while keeping his whole body below his nose under the hot water.

The amount of time he spent in the bathing rooms meant he was coming to know the house elves quite well. In getting to understand their strange ways and asking many questions, he tried to understand how they managed to travel around the castle unseen.

He wondered who would be at breakfast – Ron certainly, inhaling his weight in sausage and egg.

He had been spending more time with people since they had returned from their Christmas break, having realised that he actually liked having friends. He spent most of his time with Fay, Hermione and Ron, eating in the common room after lights-out, practicing the spells they had learned and – especially in Hermione's case – studying.

Fay and Hermione still didn't seem to get along well. They were friendly enough, but were never together if not around other people, and Hermione really didn't like the other girls in their dorm. Fay was relentlessly practical, always grumpy when forced to study for more than thirty minutes at a time, she spent most of her time either practicing brewing potions or involved in mock duels.

She had even petitioned Shacklebolt to reinstate the traditional duelling club that had been ended a few years earlier and when that failed, badgered McGonagall to take them on a school trip to the finals of the Commonwealth War Games in Salisbury next year.

"Go away, Ms Dunbar." McGonagall had said, shooing her and Harry out of her office after the third asking. "It's too far away."

"But Professor!" Fay had whined. "Tickets will be sold out if we don't sort it soon and it's this year. This. Year."

McGonagall had promised to look into whether it would be possible and had refused to discuss the matter further.

This had resulted in Fay throwing herself into absorbing every detail about the training and progress of her favourite crew – the name for the teams that competed in the war games – the Knights of Kernow.

Hermione found the behaviour infuriating. With the sudden upswing in quality of Defence lessons, she was convinced that they were all horrendously behind where they should have been for that point in the year and had buried herself in study.

When Fay challenged her that their exams in first year didn't actually count for anything and were just there to prove that they'd payed attention and grown more powerful Hermione screamed at her, then ran out of the room.

Dean had found her three hours later in the library, surrounded by books and investigating the different methods for determining magical power growth in adolescence. She had refused to speak to him.

As he dried himself, he noticed that while he was still thin, his ribs were much less visible than when he had started at Hogwarts. All the time spent with Shacklebolt over the last weeks had been useful. He was serious about the relationship between health, fitness and magic and had set them a series of exercises designed to keep them fit. He explained that his work as an auror meant he had to remain in peak physical condition at all times.

Harry had taken quickly to the exercises. He was still small and skinny, but much healthier than he had been.

He dressed, putting on a new pair of trousers delivered from Madame Malkin the previous day and a fresh shirt followed by his robes which now fit quite well. Apparently he was getting taller.

Ron was indeed eating his weight in sausage and egg, but Dean and Fay were also in the great hall. Harry took a moment to speak with Oliver who was still ecstatic over the Gryffindor victory over Hufflepuff several weeks earlier.

Sitting down, he heaped a plate with toast, egg and tomato.

"You have so many baths I'm surprised you don't wash your skin off, mate." Dean said, pushing around baked beans on his plate.

Fay laughed. "At least he doesn't stink like you guys."

Everyone for several seats around went silent for a few moments, staring.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron asked through a mouth of egg.

"It means that you're smelly animals." Said Hermione, appearing as if from nowhere and dropping an armful of books on the table.

"Wow, I thought you'd given up on food, Hermione." Dean said, prodding a couple of her books with his fork. "Given up on eating book dust?"

She paused buttering toast long enough to glare at him. "Have you done the required reading for transfiguration?"

"There was required… reading?" Dean said, going visibly pale.

Harry smiled. "Another benefit of washing my skin off."

"Funny." Dean said, getting up from his seat and leaving the hall for the tower.

"Was there reading?" Fay asked absentmindedly as she used her wand to levitate her copy of The Round Table: Kernow Knights 1991 from her bag.

"No, thank god. I feel like my eyes are going to drop out, all the reading I've been doing." Said Ron, finally finished eating.

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They survived double transfiguration, followed by mathematics with the Hufflepuffs. After lunch Harry returned to the dorm to collect his herbology books.

The dorm was silent and the beds made. Rolling over his bed to get to his chest, he paused. The hairs on his neck prickled.

"You are back."

Harry jumped, shouting out in shock.

A pair of glimmering green and red eyes shone from beneath his bed. "I didn't mean to scare you." A long, sinuous body slid, undulating out of the dark space.

The touch in his mind was unmistakable, but much stronger than before. "Nidhogg." Harry said, smiling.

The snake, easily twice his earlier size rose up and moved onto Harry's bed. He looked at Harry and his eyes seemed to glow brighter. "I am changed."

Harry smiled, looking over his friend. Where he had been less than thirty centimetres long, Nidhogg was now at least sixty. His scales, once glossy and tiny were larger, with a narrow strip running the length of him with a faint crest on his head. "You're not kidding. Did the egg do that to you?"

Nidhogg waved his head side to side. "I did and so did it. I am greater now."

"You speak better now." Harry said, reaching down.

Without hesitating, Nidhogg wound his way up Harry's arm and up to his shoulders. His weight had grown hugely since whatever had happened with the egg.

"What are you going to do now?" Harry asked, stroking Nidhogg's wedge-shaped head as his forked tongue flicked out against his cheek.

"Watch you, keep you safe. And see what the strange noise in the pipes is."

"You've mentioned the pipes before. I haven't heard anything."

"That is because you are small and have bad ears." Nidhogg said matter-of-factly.

Harry nodded. "I guess I have to get used to you not making sense again, don't I?"

"I always make sense. I have to learn to make you understand the sense."

Harry laughed. "Well, as much as I'd love to stay and chat, I have to go get some food before my next lesson. I'll speak to you later?"

Nidhogg wound his way back down Harry's arm and onto the bed. "I will be here, unless I am not."

"You can tell me all about it later." Harry said, collecting his bundle of herbology things. "Welcome back."

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