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 do not 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: Wow, it has been a while since I updated any of my HP stories, but I am hit by inspiration on how to continue this, and I found myself typing it, unable to sleep till I finished. I am sorry it took so long.
On to why you are even on this page, Enjoy~!
Chapter: The Dead Discovered
Harry shivered in anticipation, watching Tom and his inner circle plot to capture, slowly torture and kill Wormtail. It excited the young wizard turned green boa to no end –and this fact kind of frightens him-, but he really wishes that he could at least join in and add his bits and pieces, but Drake does not know just who Wormtail is -soon to be 'was'-, only Harry does.
He is actually enjoying himself as he rests around Tom's shoulders, half snoozing, half 'jumping' in excitement, but like always, his good mood did not last long and his uplifted spirit is cut down a few notches.
His eyes snapped up from the map and watching as the pins moved on their own when Tom or anyone else in the Inner circle said something to change the facts the map displayed. Harry felt someone approach the door, and with a flick of his tongue he recognized the scent to be his Potions Professor –he is still amazed at how well his tongue can 'smell'-.
Listening to the meeting taking place around him Harry had learned that the man had been called to do Order business out of the blue, and Harry prayed they had yet to find his 'families' empty house and the body in his room.
As Severus entered the room, even Harry could feel his anxiety and he does not know the man all that well. It is Narcissa that spoke first, looking at her son's godfather, more than a little worried, "What is wrong Sev, what did the old coot want?"
The Potions master looked as if he had just run many miles, which Harry would not doubt after riding on Tom as he walked through the large Mansion –why the man had walked the distance from his rooms to the War room Harry did not understand-, his breath labored and his eyes wider than normal. When Severus spoke, his voice is barely above a whisper, "He is gone."
Harry froze, and if possible he is sure that his eyes would have gone wide with fear, dredging what came next and wanted to escape for what the Potions master has to say, but unfortunately Tom only moved closer to his potion master, "And just who is gone Severus?"
Snape's eyes met his lord and friend's red pair with his own shocked onyx, "Potter, the Order has no clue where he has gone."
It is all Harry could do to not pray for a quick and painless death at that moment.
A collective gasp went about the room and Tom is the only one to stay calm, feeling that there is more to be told, "Shut the door Severus."
The door is shut and without anything being said everyone walked to a small meeting area, where sits a chair for everyone in the inner circle. Harry shivers and resists the urge to tighten around Tom's shoulders, less it draw attention to his self.
Once seated Tom's eyes met Severus', and the man did not need any bribing to tell what he needed to, "Dumbledore set up an odd point to appear at. I arrived in the middle of a Muggle community…in front of the house that Potter has been living in all these years. Trusted Order members had been ordered to go check up on the brat, only to find the house empty with a 'for sale' sign out in front, the muggles had moved."
Everyone let this sink in for a moment before Tom spoke, "Why were you called in Severus, surely the old coot does not trust you enough to let you know that boy is missing."
Severus shivered, "A Muggle body was found by the Order members, in a room so full of dark magic that most of the light wizards of the Order could not enter. Dumbledore wanted to know if there is any chance that we had found and captured Potter. We have not, and I told him so."
The Dark Lord frowned and leaned back, nearly making Harry piss his self when a hand reached up and stroked him, "A dark wizard killed a Muggle in the house that Potter used to live in, something tells me that that is not some coincidence."
Severus shook his head, "No, and the body is not fresh, it is already starting to decay, it had probably been there at least five days, and yet the magic is still so strong. Whoever did it is incredibly powerful."
Everything went silent, Slytherin minds trying to decipher what it all means and how it fits in with what they know. When the information sank in Bellatrix is the first one to speak her mind, "Is it possible that Potter did it, I know we think he is no longer as innocent as we all once thought he is, but could he really kill anyone?"
Harry resisted the urge to mutter to himself, 'He had it coming.'
The Dark Lord hummed for a moment, "We cannot say that we know what Potter has been up to, but with the activities that Severus and Draco have reported his doing at school, he is well on his way. If it is Potter who killed that man and our suspicions are correct, then we must find him and see if he will join."
"See if he will join, My Lord?" Harry did not recognize the man, nor did he care much, he is too much concentrating on not dying of a heart attack at the fact that Tom actually wanted the Boy-who-lived to join the dark side.
Boy would the Daily Prophet have a hay day with that information, just the thought made him what to call up the reporter that had made his fourth year a living hell on top of everything else he had to go through.
The thought of that year brought up hated memories, but Harry's body started to betray him and he could not help but calm with the hand stroking his scaled body, rubbing in areas that were especially pleasant. He wanted to hate Tom, really he did, but it is getting harder and harder to do so.
Tom barely glanced at the Death Eater before answering, "He will have too, because the light side will not be very forgiving of their 'hero' murdering and then running away," he closed his eyes and his voice lowered, "I am not blind to the fact that with proper training he can easily match or surpass me, which is why he will join or be cut out of the picture before he can overturn all that we have worked for."
Having calmed down Severus' mind started to work properly and he no longer seems to have lost control over his mask and is back to the man Harry knows him to be, this oddly made him a little more conferrable and not so freaked out, "Have you thought it over?"
The hand stroking him paused, as did Harry's breathe because he knew what the spy is talking about. But Tom stayed calm, again Harry could not help but compare this Voldemort with the raving madman he had been taught the man should be. With a low and thoughtful voice the Dark Lord spoke, "I have, and I can believe it, but will Potter? I killed his parents Severus; I can understand any amount of hatred he has for me."
Harry stared off into space, mind no longer on the conversation fully as his mind worked overtime to figure out what he should do next.
~!~
She is crying her eyes out, clutching her former teachers robes with everything she had as her mind continued to play the day's events over and over again.
Order Members had come back to the head quarters with horrible news. Harry is missing…and Dumbledore blamed the death of a Muggle man found at the Dursleys on the missing wizard.
This did not shock Hermione; she had noticed with everyone else that Harry is growing darker. And she -unlike everyone else- has seen his Dark Art tombs with her own eyes, even read one or two with Harry's knowledge of the act. She read about them, but did not practice them. Along with everyone else she believed that Harry could indeed take a life, and she believed he could do so without much remorse if he had no other choice but to take the life. But this oddly did not scare her.
Of all of the people at Hogwarts, she is the only one Harry included in on anything. He started to push her away, she knew this, but unlike everyone else, he still considered her his friend which showed the trust he still has in her to not out him with the knowledge of his tombs. And she cherished this above all…she is the only one at Grimmland place that did not seem to come out of the 'I hated him all along' closet but the shoulder she now cries on, even Ron, and this alone is enough to make her cry harder.
She knew that deep inside, her best friend is not evil; it is their world that made him into what he has become, he has been molded to survive, and that is what he does, survive. Hermione has always knows he is a Slytherin deep inside and not a Gryffindor; just like she is suppose to be in Ravenclaw but is forced into a deal her family made with the Headmaster.
Slytherins do not do anything without a reason; she is far from blind from this. One would have to be blind to not see their planning and cunning. Harry had a reason for killing that man, for he would not have done it for sick pleasure.
Before she had escaped Hermione had seen Ron and Ginny doing 'Harry' impressions and can hear them –and how could she not with the loudness of their voices as they seek attention- proclaim that they had never even been friends with the 'Next Dark Lord'. It kills her how they can do this to a person such as Harry.
That is when she ran, slipping out of the loud room unnoticed in all the commotion. She went to the only person she knew could never turn on Harry: Moony. Harry is the werewolf's last Pack member; he would never turn on the green eyed wizard, even on penalty of death.
And now he holds her shaking form as she cries, silent tears going down his pale cheeks as he tries to be strong for his cub's last friend. He wishes so much that his best friends are alive again, if only for the support they were always able to give him when he doubted the future, and how he doubts it now. James and Sirius were pranksters to the death, but they were his pranksters, his pack.
It is hard for them at first, but they did not leave his side even when he found his wolf yearning for the Slytherin the two had pulled prank after prank on all their years at Hogwarts. They had even tried to help the two together, but it is a doomed relationship before it started and did not last long no matter how much Remus wanted Severus.
Severus pushed him away then, but maybe now he would help protect them.
Hours later Remus shared a plan with Hermione, and hope rose in both Gryffindors' hearts.
~!~
That night, after the meeting, Harry had been a little unsure about sleeping next to the Dark Lord with his secret out in the open. But he curled up with Nagini and Tom in the end, after a hesitance that should have been a lot longer than a few seconds, if he still considered himself Harry Potter.
Part of him did not anymore; as he knew all along that the Harry Potter the world sees and the Harry Potter he really is are two completely different people. For the last year and a half of his life, the Golden boy had only been his mask. A mask that had crumbled, no, shattered the moment the Dursleys decided to move without him. When he had drifted into his own mind earlier, with the sounds of the conversation nothing but background noise and Tom's hand running down his length, Harry had really started to contemplate what he is going to go next.
And still, he had not a clue at all.
Sure, he could tell someone his secret, and probably die for it, but gain back hope of fighting against those that had manipulated him all his life and in the process made that life utterly miserable, and maybe, someday he could have his body back. And that is what Harry craved so very much right now.
The life of a snake, he knew, should be freeing for him. To not have to deal with the war, and to do as he pleased, had always been what he wanted in life. But even the life of this snake, this life as Drake, friend to Nagini, the Dark Lord's familiar, is not what he truly wants. It is true that he felt loved, felt that someone cared for him, but they cared for Drake, not Harry.
And despite it all, he is still Harry, and will always be Harry.
For the first time since he had become a snake, as he lay against Nagini next to the Tom, he thought about the old witch that had put him here.
Heaven knows he should be thanking her for this chance to see the Dark Lord in a whole different light, but heaven also knows that the old witch had done something he did not think is possible: made his life a hell of a lot more complicated than it already had been.
And he does not even know how she did it. He does not remember the color of the spell, and she had not spoken the spell, just flung it at him. Is the spell that hit him responsible for his new form, or is it a spell after that, after he was knocked out?
Harry hissed angry at the utterly confusing complications. He felt like killing something at the moment, killing something or utterly destroying something, anything. But, as he is unlikely to get out of Nagini's death grip without her knowing or moving off the bed without Tom noticing his disappearance, is not likely, so he lies there, fuming about how unfair his life is.
The idea of telling Nagini had passed through his mind many, many times, but he feared for his life a hell of a lot more than he wanted to tell the truth. Call it cowardliness if you will, he just called it self-preservation, as any true Slytherin would. He felt like he had just entered into the game of war, and he had been dealt a very bad hand, and if he did not play his cards right, and did not bluff well enough, he would lose.
But at least now he is a player, before he had been nothing but a pawn on Dumbledore's chess board. And now that pawn is taken into captivity by the enemy, even if the opposing player does not know it, yet.
It is with this thought that Harry finally drifted to sleep, using Tom's chest as a pillow.
~!~
It felt like, not even seconds after his eyes closed, that they jerked back open, because he knew he had not fallen asleep with sticks and rocks digging into his back. He jumped up, fully awake in seconds after his last year at school, having to be ready for anything, at any moment.
He leapt to his feet, wand in hand, eyes scanning his surroundings.
After he divulged that he is in a clearing surrounded by thick forest, and that he had absolutely no clue where he is or how he got there, he noted something. He is standing, on two legs, and with two arms, and a wand in hand.
What the hell? How? When? Where?
Needless to say, he is not all too sure what to think and what question he should ask fist. Is it all a dream, and if so, why is he out in the middle of some unknown forest? Is this a dream, because frankly, it seemed like so much more of a possibility than his near death experience being a dream?
"If this is real, you would be dead already Potter."
At the sudden voice Harry whipped around, wand trained on the speaker, only to nearly drop said wand as he recognized the person. It is Tom, Dark Lord that he had just fallen asleep next to. And his red eyes are eyeing the wand pointed at him with a raised brow. Harry notices this and instead of lowering it like Drake would have, he keeps it trained on the other wizard like someone who has not has a week to bond with the Dark Lord would.
Tom looked up from the wand, to Harry's face with a sneer, "That will do you no good here."
When something dawns on him, like the possibility of him suddenly being a human in a clearing with the Dark Lord being impossible in his current situation. That and the Forest isn't as sharp as he had perceived it to be before. He lowers his wand then, but does not put it away, because the Harry Potter the Dark Lord knows is not as trusting (stupid, maybe) as he had become around the other man. He glares a little, "This is a dream, isn't it?"
The Dark Lord smiles, but it happens so quickly that Harry believes himself seeing things when it is gone in the blink of an eye. He notes that the older man is leaning against a tree on the edge of the clearing in an almost casual way, with his arms folded across his robed chest, and those red eyes are staring him down, "Not bad Potter, there might be hope for you yet."
Harry felt offended and scoffed, "Why am I here, Voldemort?"
Is it odd, that after only a few days of calling the Dark Lord by his given name, that his title feels so odd rolling off his tongue? This thought disappears when the man of his thoughts smirks, "You have no fear in a name, how smart of you."
Harry fought back the urge to quote Dumbledore's word, wanting nothing to do with the man, and glares instead, "Am I here for you to point needless things out for me, or is there a reason for this visit?"
"Impatient, how Gryffindor of you, and here I am hearing about how Slytherin you have become…"
It is like a slap to the face really, and all he could do is glare, "Now you insult me. Why have you drawn me here?"
He let whether it is the Gryffindor or Slytherin comment that insulted him up to Tom, to let him think what he wants. Tom smirked at him, his eyes glinted with intentions Harry wishes he could figure out, "To be brutally honest Potter, it isn't very hard to insult you."
He is being played with, and it not only offended him on levels he does not understand, but pissed him off, "Get to the point. You are obviously playing with me, and testing my reactions."
He really, really wishes that he could curse that smirk of the other man's face. It did not disappear though, and served to make Harry even madder, until the other spoke again, asking a question that through him off guard; "I am just curious, as to why you killed the Muggle."
It only took Harry a second to know where this is going, but decided to play along, because Harry Potter had not just been at the latest meeting of the Inner Circle and the Dark Lord, and is supposedly somewhere hiding. Now he knows why he is drawn here, it is the only way Tom does not have to search for him to get answers, and maybe Harry would give him them, after turning the tables a little.
So he asked a question of his own, "They found the bastard, did they?"
"Indeed," it is very unsettling, the way those red eyes are studying him, "Would my guess, as well as the Order's guess that you are the killer be the right assumption?"
It is unspoken that both parties are right, but Harry knows that an answer is wanted. He shrugs his shoulder, "A cab driver with bad intentions for seemingly defenseless boys when there are no witnesses around. The world is better off without his disgusting presence."
A brow rises to Tom's hairline, "He attacked you? And instead of paralyzing him or using any other, just as effective light spell, you used a very dark one, and killed him? How interesting Potter, how very interesting."
He waited for a reply, one Harry had a feeling would decide whether or not his entrance into the dark side would be considered, so he replied with how he truly felt on the topic; "Magic in not dark, it is not light, it is only what the user makes it to be. I could have used the cutting curse to cut down a tree, just as I cut down that man. It is only dark because I wanted the man dead for what he wanted to do to me, but while I used a cutting curse to wound him and leave him to die of blood loss, I could have also used a levitation charm, a perfectly legal charm, to throw him out the window or through a wall, and still left him for death."
He felt like he had impressed the Dark Lord, because that smirk now seemed a little bit like a smile, "Well done Potter, you have grown a brain."
Harry frowned and replied sarcastically, "Thank you, because your approval is what I strive for."
The smile widened, and did not turn hateful like Harry had thought it would have, "It seems we were right about you Potter."
Harry crossed his arms over his chest and raised a brow of his own, not that you could see it from under his bangs that he had grown out to hide the damned scar, "Oh? And what were you right about?"
He would reflect back at this moment, and wonder why he is so bold, even if he knew the answer. Maybe it is all an act for Tom, to show him a cocky teenager just starting to dabble in the dark arts and not afraid to show it anymore, and maybe he is so bold, because he knows he will wake up in the morning and while knowing that both the Order, and the Dark Side are looking for him, and he is right under the Dark Lord's nose.
Suddenly said Dark Lord is in front of him, disappearing from his last spot in what could only be described as a dark cloud of smoke, and gripped his chin with a sinister smile on those lips and a gleam in those eyes that oddly made Harry shiver in excitement. He is forced to meet those eyes and glares, hissing in pain as the grip on his chin grips tighter.
"I cannot tell if you are just as cocky as you are acting Harry," he whispered it in a low hiss, face not a few inches from the younger wizards, knowing he would be understood, "but you are different from the last time we met. I called you here to call you to my side, for surly you know that you cannot go back to the Light after what you have done."
Harry decided that he would gift the other Perstaletongue with the sound of his hisses, a gift given to him the first time Tom tried to kill him, "You speak, as if I ever wanted to be there. Dumbledore thinks he can rule my life and use me for the greater good, but I am no longer a pawn, I am a player."
Tom's look of shock lasted only a second, but it is priceless. Harry remembers that this is the first time he has spoken the snakes' tongue in front of the Dark Lord. His chin is released and the older wizard takes a step back, "Again, you impress me Harry. Your words are not hesitant; you have been practicing our tongue."
'It helps,' Harry muttered to himself, 'When one has been trapped in the body of a snake for the last week and a half.'
He did not say that out loud of course, and chose to ignore the topic completely, "What if I want time, for this decision?"
A feral smirk, as the other started to back away, "Then the next time we meet, in person, you will have to choose the Dark, or die. By our hand or the Light's, because you are being forced to pick a side Harry."
Harry noted that Tom had started to use his given name, and not his surname, he decided not to comment on that, and lifted his chin a little bit. He is not at all frightened by the threat left to hang in the air like a cloud of poisonous gas, he has already chosen his side, but knows Tom would get suspicious if the decision is made so quickly.
The world started to fade, the fuzzy edges of the objects around them blurring even more into white expanse. One or both of them are waking, and the dream fades. Neither says anything as they are the last thing to disappear.
~!~
Harry woke with a start, eyes snapping open as his and Nagini's pillow moved from under them. This pillow happens to be Tom.
The entwined snakes jerk in shock, and without meaning to, suddenly tumble to the ground over the side of the bed, where they lay in a daze until red eyes peer at them from over the side of the bed, "Nagini? Drake?"
Nagini is the first one to exit her daze and a worried look enters her eyes, "What happened? He was there was not he?"
Harry looked at her in shock; she knew that Tom is going to pull him into a dream? Did he miss something when he dazed out during that meeting? Tom's voice broke through his daze, "Yes, he is there, this means he is at least alive. And he is doing a very good job at acting cocky. He has acting skills are on par with any Slytheirn's, our Potter."
'Well damn', Harry mutters mentally, 'damn, experienced, older Slytherin. Of course you would notice.'
"Did you ask him?"
Tom reached down and Nagini took the offer for help back onto the bed, Harry soon followed her, "Yes, and he claims self defense."
Harry watched the interaction in confusion, looking between red and golden eyes as he settles back into Nagini's embrace. Nagini did not care, or she did not notice as she continues to talk, "Do you believe him?"
The Dark Lord rests his head on his hand and sighs, "I do. Our Potter has become very dark; he even spoke our tongue like he has spoken it all his life, not at all hesitant like a beginner would be, and he spoke it with confidence."
Nagini cocked her head a little and tasted the air before speaking again, "Will he join us?"
That is when Tom finally let's himself falls back onto his pillow. It is a long moment before he talks and Harry waits with baited breath, "He wants to think about it, like we thought he would. But that is not what makes me think."
Nagini slithers a little to rest her head on her master's chest, dislodging Harry a little, "And what has you so shocked Tom?"
What is said next, startles Harry, because he did not think about it before; "He did not show any pain, pain he should have been feeling from his scar, dream or no dream."
Why did not he notice that before?
TBC
A/n: How is that?
Death Eater Mask Rankings:
Red- Voldemort's Second Hand Man/Lover, soon to be Harry. He needs a rank all his own.
Silver- Inner Circle
White- Like a General I suppose, under the Inner Circle, but above the Grunts, ten to a Silver Mask.
Gray- Grunts, Newbies…they go by many names… a group of ten or fifteen is led by a White Mask.
A special thanks to tonks*is*cool for her/his wonderful and idea giving review, it made me all warm inside^^
Edited: 3/5/11
Thank you for reading this,
~FT