A/N: This chapter is dedicated to my best friends Steph, Liz, and Jess. You three better review.

"Parseltongue"

"Sign Language"

Serpentine Incident

Chapter Five

Evan Rosier, a known Death Eater in the Wearing World, had never expected to be hiding from Aurors in a muggle house. He also never expected to run into his distant neighbor and her snake-boy charge. Perhaps laying low wouldn't be so bad after all.

After the Dark Lord was defeated by the Potter boy, he escaped to a muggle house that was, literally, in the middle of nowhere. The closest house to him was about 50 kilometers away. He would never have to worry about trespassers, muggle or wizard.

At least that's what he thought before some kid snuck into his yard. He considered cursing the brat, and almost did. Then he has the kids face.

Harry panicked when he couldn't find Perseus. Ever since the garden snake saw the backyard, he had been trying to see how far he could go before he saw another house. Serenity didn't think much of it. She knew all of her hatchlings would eventually leave her, and Perseus was the last one left. Harry nearly cried when she told him this. Perseus was his best friend, and Harry didn't want to lose him.

Harry searched the entire yard (a pretty big feat I might add) and began to cry. There were no fences or signs that separated their property from the neighbor's, but Miss Morgan had told him where it ended. Perseus had surely left him for good.

Harry straightened up. No. He would find Perseus and bring him back. It was selfish, but what did you expect from a six-year-old. Kids needed friends, and Harry considered Serenity and Miss Morgan more as mothers not friends. He walked—well ran actually—to the next house. It was definitely farther than he thought it would be.

Harry nearly collapsed when he saw Perseus slithering through the neighbor's bushes.

"What do you think you're doing?" he hissed, exasperated.

"Just doing a little exploring," Perseus replied, "I was going to come back."

"You mean you weren't going to leave me?" Harry sniffled.

"Why would I do that?" the snake hissed indignantly, "It gets cold here during the winter. How am I supposed to stay warm?"

Harry laughed at that. During the winter, Harry, Serenity and Perseus were constantly in front of the fireplace wrapped in blankets. Harry really wished he could turn back to normal when it snowed.

After he finished laughing, Harry felt someone staring at him. By reflex, he turned to look, forgetting his appearance.

A man was pointing some kind of stick at him. When they made eye contact, the man froze. Harry quickly covered his face and got up to run. He only made it a few steps though, before he heard the man say something and everything went black.

Harry woke up to fierce hissing noise and swatted at his ear.

"It's about time you woke up."

"Perseus," Harry hissed groggily, "What happened?"

"That man pointed his stick at you, and then you passed out. He carried you in here and left"

"Didn't Miss Morgan tell us to stay away from creepy old men?" Harry recalled the conversation he and the teacher had before they went shopping. Of course, Harry spent almost the entire time hiding behind large objects, so that wasn't a problem.

"Well yeah, but he hasn't tried anything yet, so you're safe." Perseus wrapped himself around Harry's neck and started to fall asleep.

"Thanks for protecting me."

"Much obliged."

"Huh?"

"You're welcome."

"Oh."

Harry heard footsteps and closed his mouth. He quickly grabbed a pillow from the couch he was laying on and covered himself.

"No need for that, boy." The man sounded a bit like Uncle Vernon, which made Harry tremble. "I've already seen what you look like. What's your name, boy?"

Harry moved the pillow down a bit so he could see over it. The man wasn't as fat as his uncle, but he sure was just as scary. His face was rough and kind of hairy. He looked like he was always angry with people. He seemed older than Uncle Vernon. Maybe he was stronger too. Harry didn't want to find out.

The man pulled out his stick again, and Harry covered himself with the pillow. Suddenly he smelled something sweet. He pulled the pillow down again. On the little table in front of him, were sweets and some kind of juice. The man picked up a cup and a plate with chocolate cake on it.

"You eat cake?" The man sounded nice, but he was still frowning.

Suddenly, Miss Morgan's voice popped into his head. "Don't take candy from strangers. Ever." Well chocolate cake wasn't candy. Chocolate cake was chocolate cake.

"It's not poison." See that solved everything. The man said it wasn't poison. Harry nodded his head and took the cake from him. He timidly took a bite and smiled. He wasn't dead, so the cake was good. He took a sip of the drink. It reminded him of Halloween for some reason.

The man just stared at him and waited until Harry finished.

"So what's your name, boy?" the man asked again when Harry handed back the plate and cup.

"Harry Potter," he signed.

"Well?" the man looked expectantly at Harry.

The snake-boy hit himself on his forehead, and nearly woke up Perseus. Of course. Not everyone knew sign language. He began to laugh, but they came out in hisses. Harry shut his mouth and covered it with his scaly hands.

"You speak English boy?" The man looked at Harry funny when the boy shook his head. He was seriously considering running away when he heard a loud knock.

Harry followed the man to the front door and jumped at his guardian when the door opened. Miss Morgan seemed upset and relieved at the same time, but that didn't matter. Harry was positive that he was safe now.

"Harry! Thank goodness you're safe," she said while hugging him tightly. "Thank you, sir."

The man just raised an eyebrow while Miss Morgan checked Harry over for injuries.

"I'm sorry. I've forgotten myself." Miss Morgan put her hand out to properly greet the man. "I'm Shannon Morgan, Harry's guardian. We live in the next house down."

"Oh," the man said, but he didn't really look all that surprised. "I'm Evan Rosier."

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Rosier," They shook hands. " I hope Harry wasn't too much trouble."

"Not at all. I was just admiring his appearance." The man sounded cold and a bit scary.

"Oh, about that. Could you possibly keep this between us? Harry is well…shy about his features." Harry rolled his eyes. This guy didn't look like he had anyone to tell.

"It's no problem. I just wanted to talk to him." Mr. Rosier was beginning to look kind of suspicious.

"Well, Harry doesn't really talk. He uses sign language."

"Is that right?"

"Yes." Miss Morgan took Harry's hand. "Well, we should be going now. Goodbye Mr. Rosier." They turned to leave.

"Feel free to stop by anytime," Mr. Rosier told, but Miss Morgan didn't seem to think that would happen.

Harry had never been yelled at in English, Parseltongue and sign language at the same time before, but when he and Miss Morgan got home, he found that he didn't like it. Apparently, both the teacher and Serenity were worried sick about him. Neither seemed to care that Perseus, who was still sleeping around Harry's neck by the way, was the cause of it all.

Despite Mr. Rosier's extremely scary appearance and suspicious expressions, Harry sort of liked the man. He gave him cake after all, so the old man couldn't be so bad. Besides, Harry wanted to know what was so special about that stick. Mr. Rosier also didn't seem to mind so much that Harry was half snake.

"Hey Perseus?" Harry called to his best friend while they lay on the floor in the snake room that night.

"Hm?" Perseus answered, half asleep.

"I have an idea."

Evan Rosier sat at his kitchen table eating his breakfast while pondering the previous day's events. He knew that he put up wards and muggle repelling charms around his house, but somehow that boy had ripped them to shreds. There was only one person that powerful, the Dark Lord.

That would explain the boy's appearance at least. It was probably some accidental magic combined with an unintentional animagus transformation. Whatever it was, it meant the boy was pretty powerful. The child, Harry, would be very useful when he learned how to control it, but there was that problem with speech. How would the boy communicate with him?

Evan jumped slightly when he heard a knock on the door. It would take a while for him to get used to visitors.

Like he sort of expected, Harry was at the door. This time though, he had two snakes-- one around his neck and the other around the top of his arm-- and a stack of books. The boy lifted the books as if for him to take them. Evan took a book off the top before using his wand to levitate the rest to the coffee table. He noticed that the boy's eyes widened.

He read the title "A Beginner's Guide to Sign Language".

"What am I supposed to do with this?" he asked.

After the boy recovered from his shock, he made some kind of motion with his hands. Then Evan remembered what that woman had said yesterday. The boy used sign language to communicate, so he probably wanted Evan to learn it.

Evan glared at nothing and sneered. There had to be some spell to make this easier.

Harry watched as Mr. Rosier made an angry face. After seeing him do that trick with his stick, Harry didn't want the man to be mad at him. Harry wanted one of those sticks too. He hoped the man would understand the sign for read. If not, then Harry didn't know what he would do.

"Is he going to read it or not?" Perseus, who was curled around his arm, hissed.

"I hope he does," Harry hissed back.

"I don't like him," Serenity hissed from around his neck.

"Why not?"

"He smells funny."

Harry tasted the air then sniffed with his nose. "Smells fine to me."

"You're not a good judge."

"How come?"

"Because he gave you sweets, so you're biased."

"What's biased?"

"It means you're not a good judge," Perseus pitched in.

"You're supposed to be on my side," Harry whined.

"I don't take sides." Perseus retorted.

Harry stuck out his forked tongue and hissed at him.

"You're creeping out the human," the young snake hissed, not at all fazed by Harry.

Harry looked to see Mr. Rosier in the middle of a wince, but the man quickly changed his expression to one the boy couldn't read. They were both quiet for while, until Mr. Rosier reached around him and closed the front door. Harry blushed when Perseus hissed a little laugh. Serenity just hit the younger snake with her tail, which made Harry feel better.

Evan watched the boy and the snakes' interaction with cold calculation. The boy's use of Parseltongue made him wince a little. It reminded him of his master's anger. Every Death Eater knew what his or her name sounded like in Parseltongue and dreaded hearing it. That was because it was only heard like that before a Crucio or some other equally or even more painful curse.

After closing the door, he went towards the table where the books were. He expected the boy to follow him, which he did. Evan knew the boy was keeping an eye on his wand, and he wanted it that way. Get the boy interested with a few simple Hogwarts spells then teach him Dark Magic. He wouldn't know the difference until he got to school, and by then it would be too late. The Dark Lord may have been gone, but when he returned, he would have powerful new follower.

Evan conjured some pumpkin juice and sweets for the boy while he read the first book. The child's eyes went wide for a moment before he dug in. The snakes uncoiled themselves from him and slithered over to the fireplace. Evan wondered why but lit the fire anyways.

After reading for about ten minutes, the Death Eater looked up and found his answer. The kid was a messy eater when he was comfortable. At least he was silent while Evan read, but he did look a little restless.

The older man put the book down after he finished reading it and looked at the snake-boy. Time to test this sign language thing out.

"Spell your name, boy." Simple enough.

"H-a-r-r-y P-o-t-t-e-r." Evan gave himself a moment to decipher the signs. At least the kid went slowly.

After the Death Eater translated the whole thing, he lost his cool mask, and his eyes went wide. Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived.

Well this complicated thing a bit.

A/N: Yay chapter five is done! I hope you liked it. I tried to model Evan a little after Lucius. I actually don't really have that much to say about this chapter except I'm glad about how it came out. Found my post it by the way, so I'm now going by my previous layout.

Next Chapter:

The fact that the boy in front of Evan was Harry Potter made his plan all the more sweeter. He tried to spot the famous scar, but the boy's long hair covered it. He did worry for a moment if Dumbledore was watching the kid somehow, but the fact that Harry was half snake squashed that idea. The Dark Lord would definitely like this arrangement.

Plot Bunnies: You didn't have to write that much you know.

Madd Girl: What's your point?

Plot Bunnies: We could still eat your brain if we want.

Madd Girl: Please Review