A Path to Closure

It had been a few days when Harry's suspicions started to arise, but by then, it had already been far too late.

He was being watched.

In some way, somehow, someone was watching him, his every move and step, every spell and sound, every snake summoned and every Dursley torment; he was being eyed every step of the way.

Regila hadn't visited him in a few days, more than usual, and Hedwig had yet to return – that was especially worrying, though Harry kept reasoning her destination must have been very far off. The Serpent's Duel was almost here. Or rather, the lack of one.

Just a night ago, Harry had heard rustling in bushes very near to where he was hiding, and trails of magical residue had been left all over. He hadn't an idea what to do except that he needed to be free from the Dursley abode as fast as possible.

Regila's duel was supposed to be this morning, and although it was still early on, Harry remained anxious.

Was it Pettigrew that was watching, or was it someone else? If it was Pettigrew, then it was almost certain he'd see through Harry's 'family matters' excuse. Technically, however, he did have family matters to attend – namely, tormenting the Dursleys every chance he got. And besides, why would he care? He was also wearing his invisibility cloak nearly all the time – which made the sensation of being watched all the more unsettling.

"Sspeaker…." Harry heard the chorus of hisses coming from near the Dursley garden, and with it emerged the familiar form of Regila and what had to have been at least six other snakes.

The largest of them lifted its head to meet Harry's eyes, hissing reverently. "You wish to spectate our duel, Speaker?"

So this was the snake Regila was so worried about. Harry could see why – she was one of the smaller snakes, and the serpent in front of Harry appeared to be at least three times larger, with sharp fangs and a loud hiss that he worried would wake the people living in Privet Drive, even with the Muffliato he had already set up beforehand.

He could appreciate the bluntness of her challenger.

"Do you have a name, noble serpent?"

"I am Ormr, Speaker."

Harry wondered why the snake didn't drag out the "s" as Regila and the other serpents did. He blinked, seeing the snakes staring up at him intensely. Regila, however, looked shifty and rather taken with a dead flower. He took in a deep breath – here goes nothing.

"The snake you challenge has been of great aid to me in these times. Why should I allow you to duel?"

Regila had meant to inform him of how to declare a duel between serpents dishonourable, but now she was suddenly quiet. Not like handing that information away right now wouldn't make it clear Harry was going to keep Regila alive no matter what.

"I can be of greater aid, Speaker," hissed Ormr. The snake hissed once more, smashing its tail into the ground – it was not happy at the prospect of losing the opportunity to duel. "I am faster, stronger, better. My venom will strike down your enemies, Speaker."

"What of your knowledge? What of this world, what of our noble tongue, serpent? Is that a reason to duel?"

The snake shifted. "Where do you think Regila gets the knowledge she passes to you? We have been watching you for a long time, Speaker, observing. I, as a noble serpent, must see my challenge through!"

"Lies," hissed Harry – he knew his so-called 'Speaker Aura' would attract snakes, but he also know that it worked both ways. He could sense snakes around him – and besides, he hadn't cast magic the past few days, and he was under his cloak. He was being watched, but certainly not by snakes. "You dishonour yourself, serpent? You lie to a Speaker? And now, you wish to see your duel through? Because of your honour?" Harry's voice was booming – and even in Parseltongue, he could feel how scathing his remarks were.

The snake said nothing. Regila had stopped shifting.

"All is not lost, Ormr," said Harry, kneeling to meet the snake closer to eye level. "I offer you freedom. Join me – help this Speaker pursue freedom, join me, all of you, and I will see you rewarded. Abandon your path of dishonour – follow your Speaker!"

The snakes that had come with Ormr were already on board with Harry's promise, but Ormr seemed even more devoted than Regila at that moment – the snake perfecting its form, eyeing Harry and hissing reverently.

Snakes were obligated to follow the orders of a Speaker, he remembered Regila telling him.

"MUM!" Harry's train of thought and small moment of triumph was interrupted. "IT'S HARRY! I FOUND HIM, I FOUND HIM, I FOUND HIM-"

Harry sighed. The one time I take off my cloak. Of course, Dudley had to be the one awakened to explore the neighbourhood.

"Your first order," Harry hissed to the snake contingent, "Is to stop those muggles."

It was Ormr and Regila who lead the other five snakes towards Dudley, who cowered away in fear – Harry had never seen him run so fast.

In a moment of pure spite, Harry thought back to all the times Dudley and his friends had gone Harry hunting - he could only be viciously satisfied at how the tables had been turned on his cousin. He took out his wand.

"Rictusempra," he hissed in Parseltongue – it felt good to cast magic, even if it was a tickling charm. Dudley began laughing hysterically, falling to the ground near the entrance to his house as Vernon and Petunia stormed out.

Petunia grabbed her son, screaming at the sight of snakes and running, while Vernon glowered. The look on the man's face was purely calm, but his movements betrayed him. The twitching of his hands, the kick of his feet into the concrete.

You went too far, a voice whispered in Harry's head. It was traitorous, telling him that no matter who it was, he shouldn't bring upon the same pain he endured when he was young. Something Dumbledore would say, no doubt.

"Halt!" Harry told the snakes. "Stand your ground!" He didn't want to poison one of the Dursleys, though he could not deny that part of him yearned so…

Vernon, thinking it was another attack, charged at Harry, and it was as though he was a child once more. It always ended the same – Vernon would catch him, toss him around a little, and he would be thrown into his cupboard without food. Harry dove. "Muffliato!" he hissed around the area he and Vernon were.

Vernon was too slow to change course, which gave Harry time to create more distance between them. In a moment of defiance, Harry refused the chance to throw on his cloak, call the snakes back and run. He pulled out his wand once more – "Diffindo!" he yelled at the overgrown Dursley garden. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The grass, flowers, and weeds all lifted at once, having been cut. He lifted them high enough up into the air, taking momentary pleasure in the look of horror on Vernon's face.

"Incendio!"

The Dursley Garden's remains burst into flames, burning quick and true as Harry had intended. Only Vernon could've seen the actual garden being lifted – as far as he was concerned, the statute was just fine.

"COME OUT!" yelled Vernon. "COME OUT, EVERYONE! SEE HOW UNNATURAL-"

"They can't hear you, Vernon," said Harry. He hoped he sounded calmer than he felt. "They won't believe you. I'm insane, remember?" he flashed a painful but toothy smile. Inwardly, he was panicking, the same fear had been creeping in his chest, the same he had felt while facing the Basilisk…

Vernon is not a basilisk. No. 4 is not the Chamber of Secrets. Harry shook his head as though it had been splashed with cold water. He defended himself – nothing more.

You set their garden on fire, another voice said.

"You deserved it," Harry whispered to Vernon, who was frozen in place. Part of him screamed to let out all of his pent-up rage and anger at the Dursleys, but something else told him it would just waste his already dwindling energy. "I hope it hurts."

Just then, Vernon screamed. Harry's eyes snapped to the man's leg, where Ormr had sank his fangs into the man. He collapsed to the ground, yelling. Petunia came rushing out but suffered the same fate when another one of the snakes in the contingent sank its fangs into her leg. She, too, screamed.

"I said HALT!" Harry boomed again. He knew the snakes believed him under attack, but he was not happy to have the snakes ignore him. Weren't they obligated to follow his commands?

He walked over to the groaning man, whose face was turning red and surely suffering from the pain. He had no idea how venomous Ormr was, so he rushed over, grabbing the man's phone from his pocket. Vernon attempted to lunge at Harry, but it was futile. He dialled a poison control centre, giving them the address of No. 4.

"You're welcome," said Harry loudly. Nothing he'd done could be traced back to magic – not without the Dursleys revealing it, which Harry knew as one of the very few things they wouldn't dare do.

"Come to me, serpents."

The snake contingent followed Harry, all joining him in hiding under his cloak. "We travel to Diagon Alley," he said.

"Sspeaker?" one of the snakes spoke up after Harry had traversed what had to have been a few mere meters. "You seem… exhausted."

The adrenaline had died down. Harry knew that he should be far away from Privet Drive, far away from the Dursleys, but the amount of magic he had just cast – and the extent to which, had just begun dawning on him. He'd cut down an entire garden, lifted it, and burnt it to a crisp.

Just days ago, I couldn't hold a weed in the air for more than five seconds. What's happening to me?

And his world went black.

For the first time in a very long time, Harry dreamt. Or were they multiple dreams? It was as though he was rapidly shifting between differing perspectives – one time, he was staring into a room that looked like dilapidated storage, the next, he had been staring at a massive pile of gold which obscured his vision of anything else, and the final had been of the Great Hall in Hogwarts.

He didn't know what they meant, but he found the images replaying in his head over and over again, even as he wondered for just how long he'd been out. Hours, a day, perhaps?

He shuddered at the idea that he'd just been asleep out in the open for any period of time, invisibility cloak or not. Speaking of which, he took off.

"Sspeaker," he heard. Regila's familiar hiss had been imprinted into Harry's mind as she slithered into Harry's view. "The sspeaker has awoken," he heard Regila announce.

Ormr also came into view. Harry tensed, seeing Regila and Ormr, who had originally been meant to try and kill each other so near, but he figured they wouldn't do anything while he was there watching them both.

"Why did you attack?"

"They were attempting to harm you, Speaker," came at the same time as Regila's "Sspeaker, you were under threat." If snakes could glare, Harry was sure that Regila and Ormr would be looking vicious.

Not that they already didn't.

"Where are the other snakes?" asked Harry. After receiving no response from either snake, Harry commanded, "Go find the others, Ormr. Do not return until they are all with you."

Once Ormr slithered away, Harry found it within him to finally stand up. "Regila, I must speak with you."

The snake shifted, looking at Harry. "Travel to Diagon Alley, noble serpent. Seek out information about possible places to stay – hotels, anything. We shall never return here."

Not even Dumbledore would force him back, Harry thought forcefully. Just as Harry took one last look at the Dursley abode, the tiredness came back.

He needed to be more efficient in his use of Parseltongue. Speaking it as soon as he woke up was probably not good for his magical recovery – at least, he hoped he was recovering from his outburst of magic.

Part of Harry promised, 'never again' and yet another was exhilarated. It seemed the further away the Chamber of Secrets incident got, the more Harry was slipping back into his old, reckless self.

None of that with Pettigrew when you meet him. Not unless absolutely necessary.

He brought his wand out, looking at it with no small amount of trepidation. He wanted to try more magic, yearned to, in fact, but as the small section about duelling in his basic defence book had explained, he needed to learn how to manipulate the power behind spells themselves if he wanted a chance at true spell-chaining or rapid-casting.

He burnt a whole garden – or rather, its remains after he lifted it up into the air. The spiteful part of him believed he deserved a thank you from Vernon for having the presence of mind not to burn it then and there, setting No. 4 on fire.

It also meant he spent a lot more magic than he could've. If Flitwick or any of his professors could've seen him...

Dumbledore! Harry cursed in his mind. He knew the man had kept tabs on him, making sure he was safe at Privet Drive. Would he know? Harry would fight tooth and nail to not come – he wouldn't, not ever. He knew that if he ever saw Vernon or Petunia again, it meant disaster.

At the end of last year, Dumbledore had told him about some sort of magical protection that he benefited from by virtue of being at the Dursleys. Something to do with his mother's blood and Voldemort's attempt on his life, though Harry suspected that the Headmaster made it out to be much less complicated than it was.

As though Dumbledore would manifest in front of him and force him back to No. 4 in the instant, Harry began to walk out of Privet Drive and into the rest of the affluent suburb. He had been terrified to do so previously, but could anything be worse than the Dursleys?

Besides a basilisk, his mind added helpfully.

His meeting with Pettigrew was in less than 3 days now. Perhaps he would have a solution, or even better, Harry could find a place to stay in the magical world.

He could hear Ron and Hermione in his mind, calling him mental for trying to disobey the Headmaster, but they hadn't experienced what the Dursleys were like. Maybe Ron when he was broken out, for a few brief moments, but nothing more.

"Freedom," Harry tested the word out, as though tasting it. He smiled, if only slightly. "A noble endeavour, indeed."

Dipping my toes back into the water with this fic again. Reviews, comments, thoughts and all are greatly appreciated – big thanks to Gladiusx for editing this chapter before it went out. Thanks for reading!