Chapter updated on 9/18/05

Disclaimer: J.K. still owns 'em.

Authors Notes: I do appreciate your reviews. There were a few new names out there. Thanks very much for joining us. I appreciate your kind words. Over eighty reviews! Yahoo!

As you may have accurately guessed from the title, our hero does indeed receive a hiding in this chapter. If that sort of thing offends, you have my apologies. Please join us again in Chapter 11.

Chapter 10

Two Howlers and a Hiding Part II

"This way dear," Harry crooned lightly, in an approximation of Mrs.Figg's voice. His heart was pounding and his upper lip had began to sweat. The boy led Malfoy and his pets through the back kitchen door of the Burrow. Outside they heard the sound of many dramatic curses. The likes of which, Harry, Malfoy, and certainly many of the Death Eaters had never heard before. House Elves generally were not given permission to fight wizards. But these House Elves, most of them from Hogwarts, had vowed to defend the Burrow, the home of the family Wheezy from the terrible dark wizards. And defend they did.

Once inside the kitchen, Harry motioned for Malfoy to sit down. Unless Harry missed his guess, the blond boy's pets were one Peter Pettigrew and either Voldemort himself or his pet snake, Nagini. Harry hoped to Merlin it wasn't Voldemort, and that the dark wizard was merely keeping an eye on things via the snake.

Nagini had been a hot topic of conversation among the trio at Privet Drive over the past week or so. Along with Hermione's admonishment that Harry should be spending more time focusing on the Horcruxes, came the discussion of which Horcrux would be easiest to find. Nagini came out a clear winner. Although the boy had no idea how he could really find the snake, at least he had a more tangible idea of her existence than the remaining Horcruxes.

Hermione began using her spare time, of which Harry and Ron couldn't figure out how she had any, to read about how one went about slaying a magical or charmed snake.

"You have to do it with a magical or charmed sword," Hermione explained, as though killing Nagini would be simple now they'd read about it .

The only charmed sword any of them had ever heard of was Godric Gryffindor's, which still hung in Dumbledore's old office. Harry had promised, in a tone clearly meant to humor Hermione, that if he ever stumbled upon Nagini, he would be sure to use Gryffindor's sword. At the time one seemed as unlikely as the other. However, at present, one half of the situation seemed to be coming to pass.

As Malfoy reluctantly took a seat on the hard, wooden chair in the Weasley kitchen. Harry explained that he was going to see if they could escape through the floo safely.

"Just wait here dear," Harry told the bewildered young man, in what he hoped was a calm voice. In truth it was probably just the right tone for someone who was scared to death, but trying not to frighten a child. "I won't be a moment." Of course, Harry knew that Malfoy might try to follow. But the floo, connecting directly to Hogwarts, had been charmed to only let House Elves through. And Harry and Dobby had further charmed it to let anyone with an Angelth through as well.

Harry walked quickly from the kitchen into a living room filled with gaudy print furnishings. He called out Hogwarts, in a clear, quiet voice as he stepped into the Weasley floo and threw a handful of powder to the hearth stones. When he arrived at the Headmistress' office the boy wasted no time dragging McGonagall's chair over so he could reach Gryffindor's sword. He grabbed it and cast a quick Reducio before stowing it in the pocket of his floral print dress robes. If the portrait's of previous Heads were surprised to see Arabella Figg nicking Godric Gryffindor's sword, none gave any indication.

Harry flooed back to the Burrow, wand drawn, to see the eight year old version of Draco Malfoy standing dumbly in front of the floo with a reptile in one hand and a rodent in the other.

"We couldn't get through," Malfoy told the old woman in a worried voice.

"But of course, dear" Harry tried for a sympathetic tone. "I asked you to wait. Did something frighten you?" Harry could understand if something had. He felt like he was going to have a coronary himself.

"Just step back a moment," Harry said in his kindly old woman voice. "I'll try to recharm the floo."

Harry pushed Malfoy gently toward one of the multicolored couches, the rat and the snake still in the boy's hands. He leveled his wand first at the floo and then at the three of them, and cast a lightning fast Finite Incantatum. Malfoy returned to his normal age, Pettigrew ceased to be rat, and Nagini... Well Nagini got huge, but thankfully did not turn into Voldemort.

So far so good, the boy thought, as he threw quick bodybinds and a Silencio on both Malfoy and Pettigrew before they could act. The boy immediately started to converse with Nagini in the soothing hiss of parseltonge.

Another topic regarding Nagini, that Harry had been thinking about but hadn't discussed with his friends, was that Voldemort could posses the snake. It had been clear to Harry when he had seen the vision of Nagini attacking Arthur Weasley in the Department of Mysteries in his fifth year. Voldermort had possessed Nagini and Harry had seen the attack through the snake's eyes.

Harry thought that possession might also mean that the snake held some of Voldemort memories. Perhaps even memories of the remaining Horcruxes. Harry knew it was a long shot. Indeed he was unsure if it was possible. He also feared Voldemort might turn up any moment having been alerted by his pet. He had to act fast if he was to act at all. He continued to speak to the snake in placid tones, and the Nagini was a bit enamored since no one save her master spoke to her thus. Harry took his wand and leveled it at the snake's head. Using the same principle that one would use to extract a single memory for examination in a pensive, Harry willed the entire contents of Nagini's memories to be emptied into his wand.

His wand grew heavy and slightly more flexible. And Harry was forced to move back as the snake's eyes grew red, and she reared back to strike in explosive anger. In a one swift movement, barely missing being impaled by her fangs, Harry loosed Gryffindor's sword while at the same time enlarging it. Just as Nagini made to sink her teeth into the fleshy part of the boy's thigh, and he was about to bring the brunt of the sword to bear down upon the graceful serpent's neck, Nagini fell dead to the floor with a sickening thud.

Harry looked at the sword. And he looked at the snake. He hadn't touched her. He hadn't...

The tiny room filled with a deafening wail. At first the boy thought it was Voldemort and felt as though his scar would burst. But when he turned to Malfoy he realized the sound was coming from him.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, POTTER!" the boy wailed, incoherently for all his volume.

Harry was uncertain whether it was Nagini dropping dead, Malfoy screaming, or Severus Snape entering the Weasley living room and leveling a look upon Harry that promised swift and sure pain that shocked him loose from his polyjuice form. The boy looked down to see it was his own hands holding Gryffindor's sword. Humiliatingly, he was still wearing the floral dress robes. He ran a hand through his hair and was assured he had changed back completely. Not wishing to die dressed thus, he quickly transfigured his clothing.

"Oh, Merlin. He's going to kill me. He's going to kill me," Malfoy sobbed when he saw the man. Harry thought the blond boy must be reading his own thoughts, but then Malfoy continued.

"Oh, please help me, Severus. He's going to crucio me to death," Malfoy was almost hysterical.

"No I wasn't," Harry said defensively, upset to be accused of such a thing. "Malfoy, shut up!" Harry shouted above the boy's wailing. "I wasn't going to kill him." He addressed himself to Snape.

"Not you, Potter," Malfoy screamed in a disgusted tone. "The Dark Lord is going to kill me because I let you kill his pet, you stupid prat!" the boy clarified angrily. "Severus, you have to help," the blond was in tears. Harry looked horrified, and in that instant, he knew it was true. Voldemort would kill Malfoy for this.

Snape leveled a look at Harry which was unreadable, save for the fact it was rife with unpleasantness.

Gryffindor's sword still in hand, the boy rushed at the at the older wiizard. At the last moment the young man dodged past and made for the floo. Grabbing a ridiculousy large amount of powder, he threw it to the ground, and with great force he shouted.

"Hogwarts!"

The boy shot through the floo at amazing speed. Gryffindor's sword clattered noisily on the stone floor, as he tumbled end over end into the Headmistress' office. This time the portraits did react. Many of them scolded sternly about the rudeness of his entrance.

By the time Harry was able to regain his feet, Snape was already standing over him wearing a stormy expression. Not just any storm, the man's face spoke of hurricanes and tornados.

"But I didn't," Harry began when he saw the older wizard. "I mean I was gonna," he looked at the sword self-consciously. "But then Nagini just...Hermione read something about magic snakes and magic swords," the boy was babbling now and he knew it. "I used my wand, but I wasn't... I mean...I didn't mean it," Harry was dully aware of the fact that he was making a complete fool of himself. "Will he really kill Malfoy?" he finally asked in a shaky voice.

All at once something in Snape's expression hardened and then broke. Harry was completely taken off guard when the older wizard wrestled Gryffindor's sword from his grip. And pushing Harry forward across Dumbledore's old desk, Snape commenced to paddle the boy's arse with the flat of the blade.

"You arrogant, irresponsible, stupid boy," the man railed as the blade made contact with Harry's backside, as though to emphasize each adjective. While the words were familiar, the punctuation had slightly more than the usual bite.

It reminded Harry humiliating of the hidings Uncle Vernon used to visit upon his bare backside with a birch rod when he was younger. The only difference being that Harry was thankfully fully clothed. But the metal blade of Gryffindor's sword hurt ten times more than Vernon's rod.

Harry remembered the time he had accidentally performed some sort of wandless reversal spell. It had been the summer after second year and he had wished that Uncle Vernon could for once know what it felt like to be whipped. On the next lash Harry felt nothing while Uncle Vernon screamed in pain. The man tried the rod a few more times experimentally, and each time let out a little yelp. He threw the rod down in horror and fled Harry's room. Leaving the boy to pull up his pants and trousers and wonder what had happened.

It was later that same summer that Harry had accidentally blown up his Aunt Marge. Harry remembered covering a smile when his Uncle indicated he should answer yes to the rotund woman's query as to whether or not he was caned and St. Brutes, where she thought he attended school. It was all the boy could do to not laugh in the man's face. They both knew full well his days of punishing Harry in that way had come to an abrupt end. Although there was still the random cuffing about the face and head, never again were there the brutal arse whippings of Harry's youth. Until now.

As the pain intensified, Harry wondered briefly if he should try the reversal spell on Snape. And he may well have, if he were not certain the man would murder him.

It seemed an age before the man hauled him up by the arm and sent him stumbling toward the fireplace with a cruel, "Go."

Harry skidded to a halt near the floo. It hurt his pride all the more to note that many of the portraits wore smug expressions and some had even applauded.

"About Malfoy, I..." he began hoarsely, but really didn't know what to say. He looked at Snape. "It just seemed like an important opportunity. You know ... what with the snake and maybe the memories... and the Horcruxes and all."

"As articulate as ever Mr. Potter." Snape said without a trace of snide. Harry thought he recognized the man's tone as being filled with sadness as he turned to leave.

Snape stared intently at Gryffindor's sword, as the Boy-Who-Lived vanished into the fire.