Chapter 32
The three walked in almost complete silence as they left the small village. The sun was just setting so they were able to find their way up to the Riddle house. It took a while for Harry to find what he was looking for, a path that had been unused for over fifty years.
They picked their way along the path for a few miles until in the dim light they were able to see it.
A dilapidated house stood exactly as Harry remembered it, there were only a few differences: the grass had grown so tall it was almost waist length, there was moss covering practically evey side of the pathetic structure, and the shady tree which once stood over the dwelling now crushed part of the left corner.
"C'mon it should be in here." Harry said leading the way. As his foot crossed the gate there was a popping sound and the ground was soon covered in snakes.
Sesshomaru easily jumped up on the tree pulling his sword out, Ron who hadn't crossed the threshold stayed safely on the path but Harry had no such luck. The snakes started to ensnare his ankles and he could feel one starting to slowly climb up his back.
"Stop," Harry could feel the Parseltongue flowing from his lips, "Stop, I order you to stay aside." The snakes paused in their ascent up Harry's back and Sesshomaru's tree.
"I am the King of the serpents, and we answer to none but the Dark Lord." A giant python emerged from the house staring straight at Harry. "Why should we answer to you?"
"Because I am one of the few who speak your language, I don't care what you do as long as you don't hurt any of my friends," Here Harry indicated to Sesshomaru and Ron.
"But that one has a sword, how do we know you do not wish to hurt us?" The snake wheezed out.
"If anything happens to anyone of you I give you my word you can have me instead of them." Harry knew he was taking a risk, but he couldn't think of any other choice.
"Done," The snake king said, with that all the snakes seemed to fall away from the two, "We can promise one other thing Son of Slytherin, the thing which you seek is very hard to get to, swear us something and we will give it to you." Harry was just about to agree when Hermione's voice came into his head, "use your reason."
"What do you ask in return?" Harry knew the snake only wanted him to say yes, and was disappointed when he asked more questions.
"Set us free, we are in bondage to the Dark Lord and we were never creatures who were created to be slaves, set us free Son of Slytherin, and we will forever be in your debt." Harry knew he was taking a risk agreeing with the snakes, but if they stayed true then he would have a great ally in the King of all serpents. Harry could also sense a different feeling in the king's tone; it was begging Harry to free them not for the sake of a deal, but for their lives.
"I agree, I will hold you to your word." He then turned to Sesshomaru and Ron, "It's fine, and you can come down, just don't step or hurt any one of the snakes." He turned to the snake king, "lead the way, if you please." He said with a short bow, the snake bowed its head in return and slithered off.
Ron followed close to Sesshomaru who was sheathing his sword. "Blimey it always creeps me out when he talks like that." He whispered to the demon next to him, and against his better judgment Sesshomaru agreed.
They followed the python not into the house, but around the corner and to the back where a small hole was carved into the foundation of stone.
"Please wait here Son of Slytherin." The python slithered away and into the hole.
They waited and waited, Ron found a rock and taking turns with Harry every once and a while they sat on it. Sesshomaru stayed as rooted as ever, his eyes glancing in all directions.
After about an hour the snake came out, it turned around and pulled out a golden goblet from the hole.
"There are heavy enchantments on it Son of Slytherin," said the snake as it presented the goblet to Harry, "But if you allow me, I saw the Dark Lord work past the magic once before," Without waiting for a yes or no from Harry the python spit three drops of venom into the goblet.
The cup soon became white hot and it burned at Harry's fingers. He was about to drop it when the python yelled out.
"Don't drop it Son of Slytherin! Keep ahold of it as tightly as you can!"
The cup started to vibrate so badly Harry thought he was going to drop it despite the snake's warnings.
As soon as it had come it left, the cup was cold in Harry's burnt hands, and it lay still in his palm. Harry was about to drop it when the python stopped him.
"It's just a trick, if you drop it now the thing inside will come out and kill us all. Hold on Son of Slytherin! the worst is still yet to come!" As soon as the snake spoke it, the cup started to shoot out sparks, a few of them hit Harry's coat which burst into flame, most of them were aimed at the house, which started to burn. The cup started to scream.
"DROP ME! FOR THE LOVE OF WHAT IS GOOD DROP ME! YOU'RE KILLING ME!" The cup continued to scream at a higher and higher pitch but soon stopped.
This time the cup did not stop in an instant. It changed from burning to freezing in seconds, until it got so hot the gold started to melt into Harry's fingers. Then slowly the cup began to cool, and the gold started to form back to its original shape. The clearing quieted down, the mixture of the goblet and Harry's screams now dying down.
"It is dead, tell your wizards to put the fire out before the muggles start to come here." Harry did as the snake commanded him, Ron ran to put out the flames grateful he was able to get away from the Parseltongue. "Now, to make sure you keep your end of the bargain."
Harry and Sesshomaru watched in amazement, though the demon didn't show it, as the snake engorged and grew into a human. He looked as if he was only fifteen or sixteen with dark hair that fell in front of his eyes. Strong arms grew out of a thin tunic, and equally strong legs grew under long pants. The figure was whip thin, and like Sesshomaru, he seemed poised and ready for action at any second. What amazed Harry was he looked like such a normal kid, his hazel eyes peeked out of his messy hair, but Harry could also tell this was a person he didn't want to cross.
"Are you an Animagus?" Harry said tentatively.
"No, I am not human, I am King of the Serpents, and this gives me a human form and an animal form. All races of creature have a ruler and all rulers have this power." The boy didn't look like a king, but when he spoke and when he moved Harry believed without a doubt he was a sovereign.
"What's your name?" Harry questioned.
"I have no name your companions can pronounce, however you may call me Kagachi."
Harry caught the eye of Sesshomaru as the demon had a small smile cross his face.
"Kagachi is Japanese for Serpent, but it's only used in some of the old poems. Very clever," he said turning to Kagachi, "however there are other Japanese speakers in our company so I think the best name for you is Chi." Sesshomaru seemed to decide for Kagachi, but the snake king seemed to not really care. Since Chi decided he was going to go with them Harry started to explain what was going to happen.
"Chi," the boy turned to him, "you'll go with Ron, and stay with him and Koga. If anyone asks you're spending time with your older brother, that'll be Koga." Chi bowed to Harry.
"I will do as you ask Son of Slytherin."
"Chi, can I ask one favor?" The boy's eyes flashed dangerously, he hated having to serve this thing standing in front of him, but a deal is a deal.
"Can you call me Harry? The whole Son of Slytherin thing is going to get old." Harry was still afraid of the snake king who stood before him, the snake king however was trying not to be livid. Who wouldn't want to carry the name of Slytherin? But then he realized the Dark Lord wore the name proudly.
"Yes, of course Harry." It was only then, when Ron returned and they started back to the hotel did Harry realize most of the skin had been burned off his hands. He struggled to stay conscious, and he was able to make it all the way to the hotel but the last thing he remembered was Kagome's excited face when he walked through the door.
Kagome had stayed up all night waiting for Harry to return. She knew how much it meant to him to come back and she was there waiting. When Harry's form entered into the room she didn't expect to see the burns covering his hands, Sesshomaru offered to call Hermione but Kagome refused.
Harry awoke to find himself in the bathroom soaking in hot water. Whoever had put him there had taken most of his clothes, his shoes, sweatshirt, jacket and tee-shirt. His soaked jeans weighed his legs down, where his sleeveless arms floated to the surface. Thinking of his arms made Harry think of his hands, which were lazily bobbing at the top of the water.
As he turned to gaze at his palms he saw they were bright pink but there was new skin growing over the surface, but the skin was fresh and new. It was wasn't firm but soft, and all the calluses Harry had built up just from use were gone. This was brand new skin. He found out though it wasn't done healing, however, when he poked his palm, both his palm and his finger started to bleed.
"Harry?" Kagome peeked around the corner of the door to find the boy looking at his bleeding finger.
"Oh!" She quickly ran over and cupped her hands around his. There was a light pink glow surrounding their clasped fingers and the blood was soon gone. "I was going to tell you your hands are still healing and the new skin is still to thin to allow any trauma." She scolded, Harry could tell through her eyes she was relieved he came back only hurting his hands.
Harry started to stand but slipped and would have fallen if Kagome hadn't caught him just in time. They stood there in that awkward position for only a moment before Kagome was able to pull both of them up. Only when Harry was standing all by himself did he notice he wasn't wearing anything but pants. Kagome seemed to notice this as well because she quickly went to get a towel to hide her red face.
"Kagome," He had followed her out of the bathroom and to the closet across the short hall. "You can just hand me my wand and clean clothes and I can do the rest." There they stood one holding a towel and the other dripping wet.
She handed him everything he needed and went back to pacing the room outside the bathroom. She heard a few curses and then a splash. She was about to see what happened when the door of the bathroom opened.
Harry was wearing dry clothes, but the top of his shirt and head was dripping wet.
"I slipped and my head fell into the tub." He said trying not to look in her eyes. His hair gently dripped on his nose and then on his shirt. Kagome tried not to laugh as she got a new towel. She pushed Harry into a chair and threw the towel over his face.
"Just sit there and don't touch your hands, it took more than half of my energy to try and heal you last night." A comfortable silence settled between the two as Kagome dried Harry's head and Harry thought about nothing in particular. "By the way, Kagome said breaking the silence, "where did you get all of those scars?"
Harry couldn't look up at her, but wondered what on earth she was taking about.
"Like this one," she traced up Harry's arm where Wormtail had stabbed him, "or this," that one was on his back, where the dragon had bitten him, "or this is the most curious one," She traced the medium sized diamond shape in Harry's shoulder.
"Oh, that was when I was bitten by a giant snake. That" he said moving her fingers gently so as not to make his hands bleed, "was from when I was caught by a dragon, and this," he said moving her hand again "was when I was stabbed by one of Voldemort's followers. Wait how'd you know exactly where they were? Were you spying on me when I was sleeping?" He teased.
"I did not! Ron was there the entire time; he was even the one who put you in the tub!" Her hands yanked away from his, and of course the sudden energy made even more cuts on Harry's palms, which made Kagome angry and Harry laugh.
"Oh I wish Hermione were here then she would be able to fix those stupid hands! And for your information Mr. Potter, you fell on me!" She yelled as she went to the bathroom and closed the door.
Seconds later she came out and grabbed Harry's hands the faint pink glow returned and his palms were as good as new-ish. She had also grabbed a first aid kid and was starting to gauze up his palms and fingers.
"There that should hold until the others can get back. You slept so late they all went on the tour without us." She said before Harry could ask. Bandaging his hands seemed to calm her down, Harry instantly felt bad for joking earlier.
"Kagome…." He didn't know what to say but when he saw her eyes he knew all was forgiven. "You waited up for me." He said brightening. Before she could even speak he told her everything. From the second he left to the second he got back.
"Oh so that's what this thing is for." Kagome said as she walked away to a nightstand next to one of the beds. She came back holding Huffelpuff's goblet, "A young man came here and gave it to me, he said 'we are on the same tour bus, are we not?' and I said I wasn't sure because I had never seen him before and he said 'my roommate Koga must have switched bags, I believe this is yours.' And I took it, all that was inside was that goblet and a few pillows."
"Oh that must have been Chi, he's the king of the serpents. He and I made a bargain, he would help me and I would release him from Voldemort." Harry loved being able to sit and talk with someone he genuinely cared about. Ron and Hermione were very good friends but they couldn't offer what Kagome offered.
"C'mon lets go and eat." Kagome said careful to take Harry's elbow.
They spent a blissful day together and when Shippo returned Harry wished for the thousandth time that things could stay the same always.
But as heroic tales go that of course doesn't happen.
A note from your Author:I think in this chapter Harry really realizes what it means to be fighting against Voldemort. Against his better judgment he makes a pact with a Serpent King because he knew what it is like to serve under a dictator. I think he also accepts, though not fully, that his parsletongue can be helpful.