Title: Life as a Snake
Author: FairyTails13
Disclaimer: I own nothing…but the plot.
Rating: M
Summary: What do you do when the only person you know can understand you is your most hated enemy? And I don't mean this figuratively people. Harry, after making some weird witch mad, has found himself seeing from a different angle, with no arms and with scales.
He is a snake, very literally.
How the hell is he supposed to defeat Voldemort now! Or does he want to after meeting Nagini from a different perspective.
Warnings: SLASH(Male/Male parings) Dark Harry, Snake Harry
Parings: Lord Voldemort/Harry, Severus/Remus, Draco/Hermione
Spoilers: Books one – five, I will not include book six, and though I am finally getting around to reading seven, I will not include it either. Dumbledore is alive. Also, please refer to the HP Warning on my profile, please.
Key:
"Talking"
'Thoughts'
" Parseltongue "
"Mind link between Voldemort and Harry"
A/n: With so many reviews…I can't help but update for you guys.
Enjoy~!
Chapter: Discoveries
Deep under London, soiled waters run in a maze of underground Muggle sewers. Alongside the rivers of filth scampers a large, grey rat, running with much haste, often pausing to hide in the shadows of the sewers to look about before taking off again, ignoring all other rodents it passes..
Something sets this rat away from the rest, something not natural.
It is not the dark grey star pattern on his hide that would get your attention first, but the solid silver paw that clicks against the concrete as it runs, moving as a real paw would, but glinting like only polished metal can.
Turning a corner the rat halts in front of a large hole in the brick wall that runs along the path of the dirty cannels, thick steel reinforcements sticking out all around the edge where the brick had been ripped away. It is the only part of the sewer that is in anyway clean, the floor well worn as if walked on a daily basis. The rat squeaked and backed up as a hooded figure stepped out of the large hole, ducking as to not hit their head.
The hood is lowered to reveal an entirely ugly man from his physical appearance (his nose broken and many scars littering his unshaven face, new ones forming from many sets of twin pin-point wounds) to the sneer on his chapped lips. He nods to the rat as it grew to become a shorter, rounder man, "Boss is waiting."
True to his first form, the round man has a slight rodent appearance. His body shook slightly at the thought of giving his report, the only reason he did not leave is the fact that he would not be the only one in trouble, and no one compares to the Dark Lord's anger to which he has suffered at the hands of countless times.
Together the two men ducked back into the dark entrance, lit only by their wands. Deeper underground they walked, descending down into underground catacombs. Webs littered the ceiling, broken bones on the floor with rodents scampering about and large spiders roaming the walls.
The rat-like man fallowed the taller wizard through a maze of corridors, his nerves setting him on edge, starting to wish he is not two timing the Dark side with his current boss. But they promised so much more than a world where muggles and wizards no longer feared each other.
Peter Pettigrew did not want that, he just wanted revenge and wealth. He never cared for anyone else, just the deaths of the other marauders. He smirked to himself, 'One down, and two to go.'
However his evil thought did not keep him happy for long as they came to a stop in front of an old, rotting door, kept from further damage with countless charms and wards. He had joined ranks with outlawed Unspeakables, the ones that evaded capture and imprisonment when the ministry no longer needed their skill and replaced them.
Inside the new room were five men, five highly skilled mercenary wizards. Four were looking over maps and scrolls, the fifth stood on the far end of the room, staring at Peter as he entered behind his escort, "The mission is a failure."
Peter gritted his teeth; the other man is always strait to the point, "Yes sir."
A glare answered him and Peter knew he is to pervade an answer, "The Dark Lord is pissed at the damage that is done-"
"That is expected, tell us something we don't know."
Peter gulped down his fear, "The snake that is in the rooms lives; it will live to serve as a witness."
A look a pure fury appeared on the leader's face as he whipped around to another man who had frozen at the news, "You told me that there is no doubt that it is dead!"
Fear shifter through the room as the receiver of the leader's yell turned and lowered his body, "I hit it with the cutting curse three times, sir. I just-" He paused and the leader cut in.
"Just what! Just assumed? How the hell did you make it through training? Unspeakables never assume!"
Peter snuck back into the darkness of shadows created by the fire light in the room; he pulled confidence from the fact that the book would be retrieved sooner or later and what these men had told him about the book and its secrets. These men had pulled him with them with a truth he had never wanted to hear, and with their help and the ungodly uses of his Master's book, the unspoken leader of marauders would not evade death again.
~!~
Nagini wrapped herself tighter around her new child as he shivered in his sleep. Again she wondered what he is dreaming that made him shake so violently. She had not left his side for the last thirty hours, for the fear of losing the smaller serpent is too great.
The Boa Constrictor had given up on how he had gained her kindness so easily, only having known him for a little over a week, she just let it be.
The green snake is not the only one to get her woory, her Tom gaining some fretting as well. He had been able to pull the magical signature of the intruders away from his alarms, finding that they had been skilled enough to not undo the wards and alarms, but to trick them. The entire manor is being scanned, Death Eaters running around to please their master and not gain his angry side.
As the intruders had not actually taken anything it is so hard to know what they had been looking for, so this put an unseen pressure on Nagini's sleeping ward. Several times she would catch a member of the inner circle starting at Drake longingly, as if their stare alone would wake him.
It did not work no matter how much any of them wanted the green serpent awake. Narcissa is an excellent healer, if she said one of her patients would be asleep for two days, the patient would be asleep for that long, give or take a minute or two. So with all this anticipation of Drake's waking, it surprised Nagini when she finally felt him twitch to revival when no one else is in the room.
His coppery-green eyes opened first, unseeing and blurry. As they started to focus on the world around him he let out a low pained hiss and without think he tightened his hold on her to an almost painful extent. It did not bug her however, only made her happy that his strength would not be affected by his injuries.
"Drake?"
His head slowly turned to her at the sound of her voice, "Nagini…? What happened?"
She smiled at the sluggishness of his voice and rubbed her head against his body for comfort, "We found you just in time Drake, minutes later and Narissica would not have been able to save you…"
~!~
Harry couldn't believe it at first, the fact that the female Malfoy is the one to save him. But the idea slowly sunk in and he wished it would always be like that. He is not sure how much longer he could keep his secret form these people with how well they treated him, but would they treat Harry the same as Drake?
Harry allowed his eyes to drift to the door to Voldemort's study and then the floor. He shivered. He had been on death's door so many times, but for some reason, this visit affected him more than it did the other times. After a few minutes, and the fog in his mind started to drift away, and he spoke again, "How, how long have I been out Nagini?"
He kept all his distress from his voice, and seemed to trick her for worrying further, "Nearly two days."
He jerked back, eyes widening in shock, "T-two days!" the older serpent gave him a look and he found himself smiling sheepishly, continuing in a calmer voice, "Have they found my attacker yet?"
She shook her head, "No, they left only the blood on your mouth and tiny traces of their magic behind to be tracked with. Tom did not found anything missing, so we were all waiting on you to wake up with hopes that you know something we did not."
Harry did not know who attacked him, but he knew someone behind it, well Harry did, Drake only knew him as 'the rat'. So he could not use names.
Nagini scented a bit of fear on the younger snake and she watched as his eyes darkened, which she understood, he almost died, she would fear reliving that too, "Just rest some Drake, you will need it."
"No," he started with determination in his hissing voice, "I've slept too much already, and I need to face this so they can get the bastards."
He has changes so much, he realizes, but then he wonders if he really has. The young wizard has always been this person, now he just is not afraid of showing it, and he felt released from a prison with that, he could finally be himself and not worry about being ratted out to Dumbledore.
Nagini sighed and he felt her hold tighten a bit, "Okay, I'm just worried for you Drake."
His breath caught in his throat and if he could cry in joy, he would. He took in a deep breath and rubbed his head against Nagini's side, "You have no clue how good it is to hear that Nagini."
She smiled at him, but a voice interrupted any answer she could give him, "She is not the only one Drake, you gave me quite the scare there."
Copper eyes found red and in all honesty, he did not know how to answer that, because in all his years of being on the Dark Sides hit list –at the top really- he had never imagined any situation like this, never even thought it possible. And here is the Dark Lord, smiling down at him with happiness in his red eyes; not hate, not anger, but happiness. Harry is shocked he does not just faint right there.
Voldemort walked over to the bed and rubbed both of his serpents' heads before sitting down next to them on his bed, nearly giving Harry a heart attack at the gentle movement.
Both he and Nagini gravitated to the heat without thinking about it. They sit there for a few moment, Drake and Nagini resting next to Tom, with his strong hand running down their lengths, giving Harry comfort he never thought he wanted, but the way the Dark Lord run figures carefully over what he knows cannot be anything but scares from the attack, Harry feels at home.
There is no better way to explain the feelings bubbling up in his chest.
Remembering just who he is with, and who he is, Harry pushes away the feelings despite the way his heart ached at doing so. He focuses on the matter at hand, for two days Tom and his followers have been waiting for him to wake to gain the knowledge only he has to give. He had to find his voice to say it, but the elusive thing did not hide far, "They were looking for a book."
Tom's hand paused for only a moment, but his hands continued memorizing every scare on his green scaled form, humming to Harry to let him know he has his undivided attention. The Darkening wizard also took it as encouragement, hearing the underline fact that the older wizard does not want him to go any further with his retelling than he is comfortable.
He has to stop his heart from swelling again, forcing out words that he knows will surely mean the end of the one that betrayed his parents, "Does 'that damn rat' mean anything to you? From what they said I believe that is their inside man."
Harry looked up when the fingers froze, watching as scarlet eyes darkened with anger, for once not directed at him, but at Wormtail. The rat's death excited Harry for obvious reasons; he so wanted to be a part of that torture session. He just wished that he could use him magic as he has some spells he would just love to try out on the traitor.
"I should have guessed that it is him," The Dark Lord's hisses are low and filled with hate; Harry almost pitied Wormtail at that moment…almost. "We haven't seen him for four days. That damn rat is going to die this time."
Harry shivered in anticipation at that promise, is it the snake in him or the Slytherin in him that grew excited? When Tom stood and went to grab his cloak Harry could not help his self, "Can I come?"
The man paused and turned to the snake before he nodded went back over to the bed with an offered hand, "Around my shoulders this time Drake. Are you coming Nagini?"
As Drake went to the offered hand and wound up his greatest enemy's arm to rest around his shoulders he noticed just how much Tom trusted him, 'I will not break that trust either, even if I have to stay Drake forever.'
This thought startles the Boy-Who-Lived, but he knows he can not lie to himself.
Nagini nodded her big head, "Of course Tom, I wouldn't miss that rat's demise for anything."
With Drake around Tom's shoulders and Nagini at his feet they left the man's room. It is the first time Harry had left them and he could not help but feel a mix of excitement and fear at being somewhere new. But he knows that Tom will protect him and that made the warmness swell up in his heart again.
This time he does not push it away.
~!~
Tom quickly moved from the wing of the mansion that held his own rooms to the other end, to the meeting room for him and his inner circle, no low class Death Eater has ever stepped into this room.
This large circular room is used specifically for planning their next move; a large map sits glued to a large round table, color coated pins and different marks and symbols decorate the map. Tom and his inner circle have spent many an hour hovering over the map that shows all of the British home land plus the countries around her that hold the out skirts of the major magical community, including Hogwarts.
The Dark Lord walks up to the large map as he walks into the room, his red eyes taking in the pins scaring the once unmarked cloth. No all of the pins are stationary and Harry watched as different colored, some with symbols move about the map. Seeing a large number of white ones with the Dark Mark delicately painted onto them Harry is reminded of the Marauder's Map, and all the foot prints that mar it to tell him who all is in the castle and where they are.
Harry found his serpentine eyes staring at the marked pins, noting how not all are just white, some are silver, some are grey, the difference is slight, but he notices it.
The young wizard watches as Tom traces parts of the map, where most of the Death Eaters are grouped. Made obvious by an angered hiss he did not find what he is looking for and the slightly clawed finger hovers over other pins, small groups first before checking lone pins.
The Dark Lord lets out a very angry hiss when he does not find what it is he is looking for. "He took his pin! That traitor!"
Harry cannot help but shrink against the neck he is wrapped around when a low hiss passing through the Dark Lord's lips. Harry shivered at the sound, for the first time since being at Voldemort's side he is truly scared at just what would happen to him if he is found out.
He suddenly wishes to fall back into the shadows and disappear forever, that they had left him to die a few days ago.
When the Dark Lord suddenly punched the wall –a very Muggle thing to do- it only made matters worse; a crater is left where the Riddle's hand had connected with the wall, chips of brick falling to the table below it, and Tom is not even bleeding. If he had not fully realized it before, he knows for sure that despite his new appearance, the Dark Lord is anything but human.
Next to her master, Nagini's worried hisses dragged Harry away from the dark corners of his mind as he shivered with fear and excitement, "Tom, please calm down, you are scaring me and Drake…"
With great effort the Dark wizard did calm down, but not a moment later several people rushed into the War Room, as Harry decided to dubbed it, and stopped at the site of what their master had done.
Harry watched as a beautiful woman with shimmering blonde hair and worried ice like eyes stepped forward, he recognized her as his school rival's mother, instantly. Behind her stood her husband, her sister and her husband, his brother, and that is where Harry's recondition stopped.
"Milord, what is it?" She had rushed forward talking his hand into her own and checked it over, only letting it fall when she deemed it not in need of her healing spells, "What happened?"
Harry snorted at the question, not helping it when his coping mechanism of sarcasm jumps into action, "I think he just punched a wall, but that might just be my mind playing tricks on me."
His hisses brought attention to his self, that and the Dark Lord let out a dry laugh, "You are lucky she cannot understand you Drake, else you might fall victim to her 'mother power'."
Narcissa frowned at her master, and then at the serpent around his shoulders. Her face brightened at the sight of him and he felt a little shocked to see that on a face usually covered with a emotionless mask, "He's awake, how wonderful!"
Harry blinked at the woman, "And they say teenagers have mood swings…"
The Dark Lord pats him on the head with another dry chuckle, but turns serious immediately and looks back to the map, "Now we know why Wormtail has not been spotted. From what Drake has said, he is their inside man. The only smart thing he did was steel his pin so we could not find him."
The current Malfoy Lord stepped up next to his wife and glanced at the pins but trusts his Lord far too much to actually double check his words before looking back at him. This is the first time Harry noticed that none of them have bowed down, is he missing something?
Lucius eyes the boa around his lord and friend's neck, "Did he hear what is to be taken?"
Tom nodded and gravitated around the table with the map pinned to it, looking at it to occupy his busy mind, "A book apparently."
Harry nodded, recalling his near death experience as best he could, with Tom he did not feel afraid for some morbidly odd reason and did not cringe at the memory of the spells thrown at him, "There were two of them, and both called you 'You-know-who'. At least one of them will be recognizable because I am sure not many humans' faces are littered with twin pin prick wounds. The other one I bit on the ankle. Both males did not fear using dark spells on me either as it is cutter spells thrown at me."
"Good job Drake." Harry couldn't help but puff up at Nagini's praise and he wondered if it would feel like this if he had a mother. He then wondered in what other odd situations he would consider a boa constrictor a mother figure.
Tom also let out a low hiss of approval before turning to those of the Inner circle that are present, "Two males with no connection to us, but use Dark Magic without fear. He bit one on the ankle, and the other on the face numerous times."
A cruel laugh could be heard under Tom's voice and Harry spotted several smirks and twisted smiles on those present. They approved of him; it's amazing how that made his heart swell happily.
~!~
Severus Snape is man that is usually held together in all situations, his cunning mind ready for anything that comes his way with plans and tactics made weeks ahead of time for any situation thrown at him by the Headmaster of Hogwarts, but this just tips it all. He is not calm and collected, and even after racking his brain numerous times for something to do he comes up with nothing.
After getting an urgent fire call from Dumbledore, he now stands in a place he never thought he would be trusted to enter, but he knows the man is desperate. A week after the end of school the order members went to check up on Harry Potter in his aunt and uncle's house. What they found shocked and horrified them.
They found an empty house, freshly painted and a 'for sale' sign in front. The Dursleys moved without informing the headmaster of their plans. But that is not all.
The Three Order Members had also found something very disturbing in the smallest bedroom on the top floor: a grotesque and horrid smelling body of an aged male Muggle. They had not needed to investigate to know that it is a cutting curse that had been the reason the man had died, dark magic swirled around in the room, nearly suffocating the light witches and wizards that had arrived to investigate.
The Dark magic tingled Severus' skin and excited him with the power that pulsed with it even know, days after the spell had been cast.
The Potions Master had been called in because of this magic, interrogated the moment he arrived to see if his Lord had captured the Boy-who-lived, who is supposed to be at this very house. Severus had just stared at the older man.
No, they had not been able to find that damn brat, and he had replied such. He had also been asked if it is possible they had, but he is not told.
Severus had to hold back a very venomous remark at that, his hard earned rank had just been insulted after all. All he had said is that that is highly unlikely as the Dark Lord had yet to ask for extra potions for the dungeons. And surly Harry bloody Potter being captured would call for such potions.
And yet, just who had killed the Muggle man is not clear, and yet Severus knows he is not the only one that suspects it is the Boy-who-lived himself, as no one else but the Dark Lord would hold such power for the spell to still be lingering. Severus knows Dumbledore suspected that their Golden Boy is tarnishing.
And now he really has something to report to his lord. After his use at the empty house is extinguished Severus is allowed to leave, and he did swiftly, disappearing to Riddle Manor as soon as he walked out of the house.
So now he is walking down the halls towards the Dark Lord's second study, eager to tell him the interesting and promising news.
TBC
A/n: Edited: 3/5/11
I changed the thing about the clocks, not liking the idea, I hope the map overly outtakes the stupid idea that had been the clocks. I really like the idea of him knowing where they are at all times. And it helps with the future plot, gives me some ideas.
~FT