Haja
Chapter 15
A/N:Brief language explanation: "…"= human, '''…'''= cat, 'sss'= snake
Harry awakened feeling stiff and sore as expected, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not as pronounced when he shifted into his cat form. He stretched and yawned and then nosed his way out of the tent. Severus and Draco were just finishing breakfast and Haja meowed gratefully when Severus put a plate of scrambled eggs mixed with chopped ham down in front of him. When Draco disappeared into his tent Severus took the opportunity to speak.
"We will be gone all day again. We have to hike deeper into the forest to get the next ingredients I'm after. It may well be dark when we return."
'''Dark? Won't that be dangerous? What if you get lost?'''
Severus gave him a sneer. "Lost? I am not some amateur botanist on a lark, you realize-"
"Talking to the cat, Severus? That really doesn't make me feel confident in your mental health." Draco had come out of the tent and was frowning at Severus.
Severus heaved a deep breath and retorted, "One has conversations with who one wishes. Haja is my familiar."
"He's a cat." Draco returned, his voice one of annoyance. Haja could tell he was not undertaking this hike with the best of feelings. Severus glowered and did not rise to the bait. He merely gave Haja an intense look before shouldering his own backpack and leaving Draco to follow him.
Draco looked at Haja. "Try not to get eaten by anything while we're gone, furball."
Haja hissed at the blonds disappearing back.
Within seconds of the other two leaving, She had stalked quietly up behind Haja. Haja gave a startled meow as he leapt into the air when he became aware that She was there.
'''You should always expect the unexpected,''' She growled. '''There are many dangers here. You should never stop knowing what is all around you.'''
Haja meowed, '''Constant vigilance.'''
She shook her head. '''I do not understand those human words.'''
'''It means the same as what you were warning me of. As a human I have been told the same as what you are saying.'''
'''Then why are you so slow to learn it as Haja?''' She asked.
Haja shrunk a little as he sat before the large black cat. '''I am trying.'''
She shook her head and reached out a paw to tap Haja gently. '''I know that. You are still a kitten to me. It is just that danger does not give another chance. It will kill you the first time if you do not see it.'''
Haja hesitantly stood and rubbed his head against her chest. She gave him a quick swipe of a rough tongue before walking quickly out of the camp, Haja following.
The day was spent climbing and observing, learning to watch and not pounce when things moved in interesting ways. She had Haja hunting his own meal at mid-day and Haja felt a sense of accomplishment when he shared the acouti that he had caught and killed on his own. The idea of eating fresh raw meat was easier in his mind this time.
As they lay there in their sheltered eating spot, She talked with him about better technique. '''You should always go for the neck or the throat. If you try to capture prey by the tail, they can turn and bite you with their teeth. Even small wounds in the jungle can be deadly to you. Small teeth can tear, and their mouths can carry things that paralyze or poison. You should not hesitate in whatever you do as an attack, whether it is food or an enemy. Sometimes the enemy is stronger than you think, so you should use your strength right away, before they can get you.'''
'''But what if I don't want to kill them?'''
She swished her tail in agitation. '''Why would you not? An enemy can come back and attack you, killing you. Why would you not kill them first?'''
Haja tried to think of a way to explain so She could understand. '''As a human, one can kill in self-defense, if the enemy attacks first. But as a human, you cannot just kill because you want to. The other human has a right to be captured and to explain why they are acting as an enemy.''' He knew he wasn't explaining it well when She laid a heavy paw across his neck and pushed him down to growl in his ear.
'''Humans make no sense. An enemy is always an enemy and a wounded enemy is more dangerous. If they have hurt you before, then they should be killed before they can hurt you again.'''
Haja struggled out from under the paw. '''I understand why you say that. I am just trying to explain why humans don't do that.'''
She glared out into the jungle growth for several minutes before asking, '''Would your human enemy give you that same chance? It sounds like you would give them the chance to hurt you, maybe play with you like an animal with a full belly who does not really need more to eat but enjoys letting its prey try to escape before finally ending its life.'''
Haja thought about that as he lay there with his own full belly, watching the butterfly and a few dragonflies flit about. He curbed the urge to leap up and catch them, knowing that this was what She was talking about. He wanted to play with those things that were moving so enticingly. He did not want them for food, but the desire for sport was strong. Closing his eyes, he thought of Dudley and how he and his friends had toyed with him, knowing that they would kill him in the end, but drawing it out for their own entertainment. They had enjoyed torturing him. He could not stop the feeling of nausea that rose up at the remembered sensation of helplessness at being thrown through the air, water closing over his head, the smell of muddy pond water in his nose…
He had not realized that he had made sounds of distress until he felt She curl around him. She gave his head a few comforting strokes with her tongue and growled softly. '''Rest my little one. You will keep learning and when the time comes I know that you will do what you must.'''
Haja settled close in beside her and let himself drift into a sleep that felt protected and safe.
It was almost dark when She brought Haja back to the camp. The afternoon had been spent with more climbing and learning to watch. She had let Haja hunt again before they returned and Haja had earned proud purring from her when he caught the acouti by the back of the neck and snapped it efficiently.
Haja remembered that She had said never to enter the open space of the camp before watching quietly. It was while they were doing this that Haja heard an unfamiliar voice.
'Man ssmell… invaders…'
Beside him, She tensed and then growled softly, '''Move away quietly and quickly, little one.'''
'''What is it-'''
'''No questions!''' She spat. Instead of waiting for him to follow She grabbed him by the scruff of the neck with her mouth and moved back the way they had come. She climbed high into a tree before she set Haja down between her front paws to keep him from falling. He got a foothold and turned to look back down at the camp below.
A great snake was winding its way slowly through the campsite, tongue flicking rapidly as it explored the crates stacked on and around the table.
'Not prey…' was said as it circled the plant-packed objects. It moved on to the tents and the ground in front of Draco's. The tongue flicked as it rose up, sensing the canvas around the doorway. 'Prey wass here… man prey…'
Haja meowed to She, '''Will the branch hold me if I turn back to human?'''
'''Why would you do that?'''
'''As a human I can speak to the snake, ask it to go away.'''
She's tail switched in agitation, her dilated eyes not leaving the snake below. '''We cannot fight this enemy. It looks slow, but it is not slow when it attacks. It has teeth and it wraps itself around you so that you cannot move. You cannot breathe. It swallows you whole. You die.'''
'''It's talking about making Draco its prey. We have to make it go away. I can tell it to go away'''
'''Magic Man Human does not speak to serpents.'''
'''No, he can't. But I can. Let me try.'''
They watched the snake as it continued to move on to Severus's tent. 'Big man prey…'
Haja meowed in distress, '''Now it speaks of making Severus its prey too!'''
She growled deeply. '''I do not like you to speak to the serpent, but I do not want it to be here when Magic Man Human returns.'''
Haja carefully moved out from between She's paws before transforming. Harry grabbed hold of the branch as his center of balance shifted and the branch swayed with their combined weight. She backed closer to the trunk to give him room. Harry looked at her with human eyes and could appreciate her sleekness and the shiny black fur. He took a moment to reach out and run his fingers over her head and scratch her behind her ears. She pushed his hand away with a growl.
'''You still too easily distracted.'''
Harry brought his attention back to the snake below. Seen with human eyes it was big, but certainly not as big as the basilisk from his second year. Harry knew that great strength and power lay in the snake's muscles and recognized it as an anaconda. He remembered from his past research on snakes that anaconda's were the largest non-magical snakes, in the constrictor family. They had been known to kill livestock and unwary humans that were in its territory.
When he acted like he was about to climb down the tree, She grabbed him painfully by the foot. Harry winced but kept his attention on the snake and remained where he was.
He called down in parseltongue, 'Why do you come to this nest? Leave us.'
The anaconda stopped all motion except for the tongue that was flicking even more rapidly. Then the great head slowly searched the area before replying, 'Show yourself to me. Whose nest is this? This is my territory, my nest place.'
'We are only visiting. We do not threaten your nest.'
'My prey has been taken. I have ssmelled its blood leading to here.'
'The acouti? It is small… too small for you.'
'But not too ssmall for my nestlings.'
Harry looked back at She. "The snake says that the acouti we have killed belong to her young." For a moment he thought that She did not understand him in his human form, but She replied.
'''We will not take more. We will move further away to hunt next time.'''
Harry was surprised that She seemed to give in so quickly and She continued, '''The serpent will hunt my young when I next have them. It will come to them and take them.''' Harry understood. The anaconda would remember and might decide that her small kittens would be repayment for what they had hunted.
He turned back to the anaconda and was alarmed to find that it had raised itself up as high as the muscular body would support. She growled, '''It can not climb further. It stays on the ground and in the water.'''
Now that the anaconda had located their position it slowly lowered itself back to the ground under their tree while watching them. Harry spoke, 'We are sorry for taking your food. We will hunt further away next time.'
'I do not often have man prey… it is good…' the snake hissed.
Harry hissed back, 'No! We are not your prey! We will not be here very long and the men you smell are only taking plants from here.'
The anaconda coiled tightly and swiveled its head as the new sound of voices could be heard. Severus and Draco were returning. Harry tried again to start getting out of the tree and She bit him on the leg, this time holding on as she growled through her teeth, '''You must not go to the ground! The serpent is not as slow as it appears.'''
"Severus and Draco are coming back! We have to warn them!" Harry said ungently.
'''Stay here! Do not leave the tree!''' She let go of his leg to growl. Then She was climbing down the tree. It was now quite dark and Harry could not see her as she disappeared into the foliage. He looked back at the snake and his alarm grew as he saw it easily blending into the surroundings.
'Go away from this place,' Harry urged. 'Do not attack. They are my…nest mates.'
The anaconda lifted its head to peer up at him. 'You took my younglings' prey… I will take one of the man prey…'
'No!'
If a snake could laugh, this one did, as it retorted, 'I do not listen to strange man-snakes. I take what I wish.'
Harry heard Severus as they entered the site, "Put the purple vials in the stasis crate, the yellow ones can be packed into the cooling crate. I need to put these on to simmer and reduce before packing."
Draco made an agreeable noise before Harry heard him mutter, "I wish I could have a proper shower or bath. I feel disgustingly filthy."
The anaconda hissed quietly, 'Man prey… ssmells ripe and meaty…'
She gave one of her screaming roars from the area out beyond the camp. '''Magic Man Human! Killing snake is in your nest! Get away!'''
Severus halted and immediately had his wand in his hand, the tip lit with a bright Lumos. Draco jumped at the sudden light. "Draco! Get back!"
"What is it?"
And then it was too late. The anaconda had quickly twisted itself around the blond when Draco had stepped near his tent. Harry was out of the tree and yelling an "Accio Harry's wand!" towards his tent before Severus could make a move.
The anaconda was much bigger when looking at it from ground level. Severus and Harry stood looking at each other across the mound of coiled muscle. She leaped out of the jungle growth and onto the snake, her jaws sinking into one of the coils. The snake struck at her and narrowly missed as She let go and jumped back to stand at Severus's side. The two of them looked poised to attack, teeth bared, arms and legs in crouched and ready positions. Severus's wand was trained on the snake.
Harry used his wand to light the camp lanterns and the scene was thrown into a yellowish glare of light. Draco was gazing at Harry with shocked eyes, but he was already turning blue within the tightening grasp.
Harry spoke to the anaconda, 'Let him go now and we will let you live!'
The snake hissed back, 'You are puny humans and I see no sharp sticks to keep me from making this human my next meal!'
Harry assumed that the snake was talking about spears that natives might carry, or arrows perhaps. 'We need no sharp sticks. We can kill you with these sticks if you do not release him.'
'Your sticks are nothing. They will not hurt me.'
She was growling at Severus and Harry heard her say, '''The skin is too thick for you to get through.'''
He was distracted as Severus answered her in a similar growl, '''We can get through it with our magic, but we cannot hurt Draco at the same time.'''
In the back of his mind Harry realized that he had been blind to what Severus probably was. He had been given so many clues and it just now began to be clearer. He shook his head and hissed back at the snake, 'The sticks do not need to be sharp. Let him go and we will allow you to return to your younglings.'
The snake relaxed a fraction and gazed raptly at Harry. 'You would not dare to harm my younglings…they are newly hatched…'
'Let him go and you can go back to them and protect them. If you kill him we will kill you and hunt them.'
The anaconda relaxed a bit more but did not uncoil from around the blond whose eyes were now shut in a purpling face. 'You lie, human… you are tricking me out of my prey…'
Harry pointed his wand at the snakes tail and shouted "Sectumsempra!"
Across the way, Severus and She reacted to the curse, She leaping back onto the snake behind its head and Severus yelling out a "Levicorpus!" at Draco.
The snake had loosened her grip considerably when Harry's spell cut her deeply in several places. Severus had Draco levitated out of her coils and to an area behind him and then turned back to the snake.
She had finally bitten her way through the snakes' neck and had jumped away again, this time to Harry's side.
The snake was hissing in pain, twisting around in squirming coils as it looked to its injured and bleeding tail and tried to twist its head around enough to see the wound inflicted by She.
'I did not see sharp ssticks…I hurt and bleed…'
Harry hissed back, 'We will hurt you more if you do not leave now. Do not come back or we will hurt you more and hunt your young.'
The anaconda glared at him and then flicked her tongue out at him, holding it for a long moment, as if to remember his scent. 'One human has never been enough to stop me…'
Harry narrowed his eyes at her. 'I am not one. The other human would have killed you immediately. Next time he will. He will not speak to you and ask you to leave like I did.'
'You are a foolish human to let an enemy go…'
'I've been told that.'
'But I am glad to return to my younglings…' The snake moved at a speed that belied her size and was gone into the foliage almost faster than Harry could blink.
Harry lowered his wand with a shaky sigh and She butted his hand with her head. He petted her before moving to where Severus was crouched over Draco.
Severus glanced at him briefly before saying, "Open the tent door so I can levitate him inside the wards. I need to assess him further."
Harry did not hesitate to open the canvas to their tent, bypassing Draco's. Severus moved the blond to the lower bunk and began a rapid scan with his wand.
"Most of his ribs have been broken and one has punctured a lung. I need the medical kit."
Harry brought it to him quickly and watched as Severus withdrew several potion vials. When Severus indicated that Harry should help, Harry quickly moved to hold up Draco's head while Severus poured the potions into Draco's mouth.
"Will he be alright?" Harry asked quietly.
Severus gently pushed the hair out of Draco's face and nodded. "A few moments more and he might have been deprived too long of oxygen. As it is, I cannot be sure if it we got him out in time."
Harry closed his eyes. "I'm sorry. I was trying to get the snake to let him go and I should have just killed her."
Severus grasped his arm. "No. Do not blame yourself. The anaconda was one of the largest I've seen."
"But if I had just killed her when she grabbed Draco-"
Severus gave him a shake. "It would have tightened faster and harder in its death throws. Draco would have died instantly."
Harry searched the black eyes for honesty before nodding. "It was much smaller than the basilisk in second year, though. But I did have a sharp pointy stick to do that job with."
Severus was looking at him oddly and Harry explained, "The snake was saying that we could not hurt it with our puny sticks, that we did not have sharp sticks to stop her. I am guessing she meant spears or arrows. I tried to explain that we didn't need sharp sticks when we had wands. It didn't believe me so I cast -…" He swallowed thickly, remembering when he last cast the Sectumsempra at Draco. "I cast the spell at her tail because I didn't want to hit Draco. I just wanted her to let him go. It had a nest of young. I didn't want to take her away from them."
Severus gazed up at him and nodded in understanding. "And with the basilisk? You say it was a bit larger?"
"Professor Dumbledore never told you?" Harry asked in surprise.
Severus shook his head. "Albus believes that details are best kept to himself. He did not want them to somehow get back to the Dark Lord if I had them in my mind."
Harry nodded. "Yeah, it was a lot bigger. I'd say forty-fifty feet long. But Fawkes brought me the Sword of Gryffindor and I killed it with that. That was my 'pointy stick'."
A groan from Draco brought their attention back to the bed before Severus could express his disbelief at Harry's claim.
Harry transformed back to Haja before Draco opened his eyes. He went to the door of the tent and poked his head out. She was laying in front of the doorway and she accepted his head-butt of greeting.
'''Is the other human living?''' she asked.
'''Yes. Severus is taking care of him. He says that Draco has broken ribs and a punctured lung. He may have been without oxygen for too long. But, he just woke up, and I think that's a good sign.'''
She batted him gently with a big paw. '''You were very brave.'''
He leaned into her chest as She purred. Inside the tent, Draco's voice was rising in hysteria.
"Severus, I'm telling you; I saw Potter! He was standing there with that big snake, and he was telling it to eat me!"
"Draco, don't be ridiculous-'
"Then why am I here in this bed? The snake tried to eat me, didn't it?"
"It was stopped before that happened. Now lay still. You have numerous broken ribs that need to heal."
Haja tuned out the next bit of whining as he soaked up She's approval.
A/N: I wrote this chapter while on vacation with my family in South Fork, Colorado. Beautiful mountains! It was 48 degrees this morning, a far cry from the heat of Texas! I will be sad to go back tomorrow to the July heat, but I will be anxious to post this on Monday. We haven't had internet service at our cabin, so things have been sort of low-tech. But that's okay. We all need a break from the internet distractions! If you ever have an urge to see Colorado, I can definitely recommend this area! Message me for the details. Lots of cabin owners rent their properties and it's way better than staying in impersonal motels or hotels! There are lots of camping possibilities if that's your preference. Lots of outdoor activities to do! My family has had a blast!
Back to Haja- enjoy the chapter! I enjoy your reviews so much! They make me want to write more! Just a teensy reminder to those who might be inclined to nitpick details… this is fanfic. I take real life details and use them how they best fit into the story. That means I write it like I want to, and the characters say, know, and do as I wish. She knows about the lions of Africa because She just does. Maybe there is some sort of universal connection amongst felines. It's a story. If you can't enjoy it for enjoyments sake, then don't read fanfic!
JKR owns all the characters from her creations. I do not. She has the money. I do not, nor do I make any profit from this hobby. It's all hers and I thank her for letting me play here!