Chapter 12: Blessings
Bless You.
Harry Potter picked up a very small egg.
He held it as he'd been instructed, keeping it cupped in both palms like a precious gem, mindful of his surroundings so he didn't accidentally bump the egg into anything or anyone. It had a tawny brown color with black speckles and was slightly cool to his palm. Harry rolled it gently against his palm and sniffed the air around it. Nagini waited patiently beside an anxious Cobra, its hood quivering in anticipation. The eight year old nodded and set the egg back carefully among the eleven others.
"They seem alright. I think everything's going to be fine."
The Cobra did a worried twist around a nearby rock. Nagini quashed the urge to swallow the other snake up.
"Are you sure, Emperor? Are you certain?" The black and brown snake asked for the fourth time, nearly winding itself into a knot with worry. Harry laughed at the sight of it almost tripping over its own coils.
"Yes! I'm quite certain. Here, come coil around them, and I'll do my thing."
At once the Cobra flung itself forward to form a circle surrounding its eggs. Harry glanced at Nagini and reached out his hands over the eggs and the snake as he'd done a few times before, taking a deep breath before he spoke.
"May you be happy, healthy, and eat many mice."
The Cobra lay unblinking as Harry spoke. It remained unmoving even after Harry dropped his hands and reached over to run a hand along its back. Noticing the snake was still poised, Harry balked.
"Er, that's it, actually. I'm all done. You can move now."
Nagini laughed as the Cobra's jaw nearly unhinged in disbelief. Obviously it had expected something more glorious and grand from the Emperor, but Harry was eight years old, and not given to long drawn out Blessings. The first snake had come to them as they passed from pine to willow, begging the Emperor come and give special words to Bless its clutch. Harry hadn't really understood the request but did as he had been bade, sitting with both hands outstretched over the snake's eggs and repeated what Nagini had told him. The Blessing changed each time; Harry's memory wasn't so keen when it came to words. The second clutch had been Blessed to be extra long and the third to be fast as the wind. He picked whatever sounded right at the time and said that. All the snakes so far had been more than pleased.
The Cobra was no exception. After overcoming its initial shock, the snake nearly buried its nose in the ground and praised the Emperor's generosity. Harry was always a little uncomfortable with the snakes dropping their noses to the ground, but accepted the heartfelt thanks.
"That's nearly ten now that have come asking me to do that thing," Harry said as Nagini glided over a mossy path of pebbles and shale. "Why do they all want me to say something over their eggs?"
A familiar warmth wiggled up and around his shoulders to hang loosely by his neck. Harry reached up and patted Indiis on reflex. "They seek your blessing to better their families, Emperor," Indiis explained. "The brave have come in peace time. In war, the fearful will come."
Harry thought about the first time he had seen Sahensha's massive figure wound through the foliage of the night.
"Does it matter whether they're brave or afraid?" he asked.
Indiis had no answer for that. Ahead of them, Sahensha was returning with a lifeless hog. The Cobra quailed at the sight of the huge snake with vibrant red crown scales. Sahensha's milky eyelids were shut tight over his killing stare, though nearly all snakes avoided the sight of him on principle.
Only Harry smiled at him fearlessly as he returned.
"Sahensha! You're back!"
"I have returned, Emperor Harry," Sahensha agreed, depositing the hog near the Cobra's nest. This caused some strangled noises from the Cobra which quickly threw more dirt and leaves back over its eggs to protect them.
Harry suggested they move from the nest so they wouldn't disturb the snake any more. He was the last one to leave, emerald eyes cast out longingly back over where the Cobra lay coiled around the pile of dirt and leaves that hid its eggs. Harry jogged a bit to keep up with Sahensha and Nagini. The two huge snakes were taking turns dragging the hog between them. It left a trail in the dirt which Harry followed. They stopped beside the shallows of a spring when Harry caught up with them. The day was yet young, the leaves of the forest wet with the morning's dew, with songbirds and bluebirds calling out in the tree tops.
Indiis watched as the Emperor pulled the flesh from the hog, laying long strips down beside twigs and thin branches.
"Are you going to make a fire, Emperor?"
Harry nodded and busied himself with finding kindling and fuel. He started the fire as he'd always done, pinching the end of a stick. A long tongue of flame flickered to life from the branch tip where he'd pinched it and Harry lowered this into his pile of kindling. He was slipping the hog flesh into the thin branches when he gave pause and turned to Nagini.
"Will you have a nest someday?"
The python tilted her head.
"Someday, perhaps," she replied thoughtfully. "When I have my own clutch. Then it will be time to make a nest."
"Have you thought about it loads?" Harry asked, succeeding in running the hog flesh through, and starting on a second.
"Will make nest when the clutch comes. Not before."
"Why not?"
Nagini allowed Harry to clamber onto her back. He was much less awkward now, mindful to distribute his weight evenly and not allow the sharp angles of his knees or elbows press uncomfortably against the big snake's sides. "It is not done," she answered finally.
Harry squirmed on top of her, and drew his finger in a circle in the air. The hog flesh on a stick turned itself once over the fire.
"But, why not?" Harry repeated, "It's fun sleeping under the stars, and all, but…" He paused, uncertain of how to express his desire. He didn't want to return to the Durselys, but he had lived in his cupboard for a long time. He had grown used to the nice small dark space and he wanted a space of his own again. A nest sounded like a pretty close match to that.
Nagini nudged him with her snout. Harry drew the circle in the air again; the stick over the fire turned again.
He watched the crackling flame sullenly from her coils. How he wanted a nest of his own! But it wouldn't do to whine. But Harry wanted it! How frustrating! Struck by moodiness, Harry snorted and turned his back on the fire. Behind him, it flickered and flared higher. The hot strips of meat began to char.
"Emperor!"
Sahensha's alarmed hiss jolted Harry out of his sulking. He leapt from Nagini's back and hopped to where the fire had begun to reach its tendrils out to the surrounding grass and leaves. Quickly, he kicked up water from the spring's shallows, drenching the burning twigs and fish both. Thin smoke sizzled up into the air. It curled and twisted, then disappeared.
Harry watched it go as Indiis approached the half-stripped hog carcass.
"Emperor! Are you alright?"
The smoke had been beautiful, wispy and thin. It had curled and turned like a snake made of air. Then it had disappeared. Harry looked down to his friend. Indiis was looped in a loose circle on the ground, his bronze eyes fixed worriedly upon Harry. Harry thought of all the snakes he had met in the grass of the Dursley's back garden. He thought of how all of them had come to meet and see him, to tell stories and share songs, and how lovely it had felt to belong. But all of them were gone now. All but one.
Harry forgot his fit, and reached down to let Indiis find the familiar path up onto his upper arm. The red snake wound languidly around him and his tongue reached out to tickle his neck. Harry laughed and pet Indiis, who hissed his thanks.
"It was reckless of you to turn your back on the flame," Indiis scolded. "You should not."
"I know, I know," Harry said, running his hand down Indiis' scales and regarding the soaked meat. "I was just being a baby. I really want to have a nest of my own. A place for all of us to go."
The Aniliidae rubbed his snout against Harry's palm, indicating he wanted to be pet again.
"If you wish to build a nest, we will help you, Emperor."
Nagini made a noise that could have been laughter or a cough. Harry couldn't quite tell. The large snake shook her head as if shaking off sleep and cocked her head to one side. "Why would the Emperor build a nest? Do you have a clutch, Harry Potter?" She came closer, tongue flicking out to taste the air. Harry laughed when she came and investigated his stomach.
"I don't have eggs, silly," he said, pushing her snout away. "I have a family. It's all of us, see?"
He gestured to Indiis, himself, Nagini, then to where Sahensha was busily swallowing the remaining hog whole.
"You're my clutch," Harry decided.
Nagini definitely laughed at him then.
"Clutch is… clutch means hatchlings, Emperor," she tried to explain, despite Harry's stubborn look, "For bothers and sisters born together. We are not a clutch."
"Well, you're still my family," Harry declared, "And I want our family to stick together. We're going to build a nest."
"The Emperor's Nest," Indiis hissed reverently.
Nagini did not laugh at that.
Harry smiled, glad to see his friends were warming up to the idea. He went on, saying that of course they'd still travel, looking for new and exciting places to see, with strange and different things to eat, and have fun adventures. They would have a place familiar to return back to, which Harry explained would be their home. The concept was difficult for the snakes to correlate. Harry continued to convince them, saying it would be a place with lots of sun so they'd always be warm and plenty to eat so they'd never be hungry. Sahensha lodged the usual plea, that it was something that snakes didn't do. Harry overrode this in the manner he'd become accustomed to, by explaining that it was something they were going to do, but Sahensha didn't have to if he didn't want to. The Basilisk always agreed to come, restating his oath, and reiterating that he wasn't against the ideas, just stating that the Emperor kept doing new things that hadn't been done before.
After Sahensha's stomach settled Harry climbed on Nagini's back. Together, they all left the spring to look for a place to call home.
End Chapter