Lieutenant Solovyev reporting in with the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord" story! Jokes aside, I'm back from the army camp, so the new chapters will be posted weekly again. =)
* Review response:
scottss, Evci, I'm back, so you don't need to worry anymore!
obsessivegirl73, thanks!
XM312, Ratus, fixed that error, thanks for noticing.
Loiosh311, Hanzo of the Salamander, god of all, Penny is wise, Victorules, Still Not Dead Yet, WindMirrorAutumn, DonPJuan, Anetheiseya, thank you, folks!
kazikamikaze24, living basilisk... hm... I have something else planned. *evil laughter*
Reishin Amara, it's name will NOT be DA, but it will be there... Soon.
* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.
"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"spells / parseltongue"
This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.
chapter 14: Back to Hogwarts
The rest of the summer was rather quiet for Harry: the young Potter spent it sitting in the squares of the Diagon alley – there were three there – or in the Fortesque's ice cream parlor, with his nose in the books, as he was either studying ahead in his Hogwarts subjects, or doing his own studies in the fields of medicine, both muggle and magical...
On September the first at about nine thirty in the morning, the green-eyed wizard descended into the public area of the Leaky Cauldron for his breakfast, his things with him. The pub surprisingly wasn't very crowded, and the young Griffindor didn't have any problems with making and, then, getting his order. Thirty minutes and a great meal, courtesy of Tom the bartender, later, the scion of house Potter used the public floo, located in the pub to get to the platform 9¾.
Since it was nearly an hour before the express would depart, there weren't many people on the platform and most of the compartments were empty, allowing Harry to easily choose where to sit. After a couple of seconds of thinking, the young wizard chose a compartment in the car near the center of the train. After laying some simple charms on the door, so that he won't be disturbed too much, the Potter heir returned to reading one of his anatomy books. He had to find Draconica to give her the rest of his birthday present to her, but that would wait till the train would depart and everyone would be seated the way they wanted...
Half an hour later he was joined by Hermione, who, like him, started reading a book – but a transfiguration tractate, unlike his medical one – once her bags were secured on the luggage cupboard. Another ten minutes later the final member of the Griffindor 'golden trio' and no one other than Neville Longbottom, joined them in the compartment. After exchanging greetings with his friends and thanking Harry for his birthday gift, the slightly pudgy boy pulled a pot with some magical plant from his trunk and started working on it with his wand..
About an hour after the Hogwarts express departed from the Kings Cross, Harry excused himself from the compartment he and his friends were occupying and started looking for his Slytherin friend – he thought of Draconica as one, even if the blond witch would deny that they anything more than mere accomplices... After checking compartments in several cars behind the one the trio was in, the young Potter finally found the compartment Draconica was sitting in. Of course, with her 'friends' Daphne and Tracey... There was a charm around girls' compartment, very similar to the one he had placed on his own, but he bypassed it easily – the caster of the charm wasn't thinking of him as an unwanted guest...
"Ladies, allow me to take a couple of minutes of your time." Harry said as he opened the door, after knocking on it. Draconica nodded, as she was quite sure about whom the boy in front of her came to. "Ms. Malfoy, like I had promised you back on the last day of May, here's the second part of my gift to you." After saying that, the green-eyed wizard presented the pens to the blond witch, who accepted them right away. "They are enchanted to never run out of inks, and their quills are made from metal, so they will never break either." Harry added with a small blush appearing on his face. "I hope, you'll like them."
"Thank you." Draconica said, as she put her gift into the chest pocket of her robes... Looking 'round the compartment, the scion of the house Potter sighed lightly. "Guess, I shouldn't take any more of your time, ladies. See you all at school." And with that Harry left the girls' compartment...
"Someone's falling for the Griffindor 'golden boy'?" Tracey teased her friend – she had noticed the momentary slip of Draconica's mask when she accepted Harry's gift. The blond witch sent her a glare.
"Why does everyone think that there is anything going on between me and Potter? We are just associates." Draconica replied with an annoyed sigh, causing Tracy giggle and say something about denying feelings being not healthy.
~ /***\ ~
Roughly fifteen minutes after Harry returned to the compartment he and his friends were occupying, the door was rudely opened – the charm to keep 'undesired' away didn't work for some reason... Was it designed against those who had at least some intelligence? - by Crabbe and Goyle.
"...Potter, I'm talking to you, dammit!" An angry voice that came from between two human trolls caused the Potter scion to stop thinking about the reasons for his charm's failure and look closely at those who had disturbed him... Between Crabbe and Goyle there was another boy, one of those yet to be sorted first year students, judging by his uniform. He had blond hair and snobbish expression on his face, and looked like he was a young clone of lord Malfoy... Had Harry not met Lucius in the Diagon alley this summer, he would have troubles believing that this boy could be related to Draconica.
"Sorry, you said something?" The green-eyed wizard said, as he bookmarked the page he was reading and closed the book... Annoying a heir to a noble house like house Malfoy wasn't a good idea, but right now Harry didn't care.
"I said, ditch these losers and become my friend, Potter. Surely, you must see that associating with a squib and a mudblood isn't good for you: you're already becoming deaf." The little snob said, but succeeded only in making Harry angry – the young Potter, having spent his childhood without friends, was very protective of those few friends he had now...
"How about you get lost instead?" The dark-haired Griffindor hissed in a controlled anger. "And take your lackeys with you." ...The Malfoy heir didn't like this response.
"When my father hears of this, Potter, he will..." The blond boy couldn't finish, as Harry levitated him and his 'bodyguards' out of the compartment, before shutting the door close and laying a locking charm on it.
"Who was that?" Harry asked, nodding to where the invaders were standing moments ago. "I can tell the the blondie is a Malfoy, but I don't remember Draconica saying that she had a brother. Not that I asked much about her home life..."
"You are right, mate, that brat, indeed, was a heir to the house Malfoy. His name is Basilius and, like you can guess yourself, he starts Hogwarts this year." Neville replied, as he stopped making notes about his plant. "And as for him being the 'secret' brother of Draconica... This brat is spoiled rotten by his father, 'cause he will be next lord of the house, and will bring even more glory to the name Malfoy, etcetera, etcetera... While Draconica, as a girl, is pretty much useless, beyond being a way to secure an alliance with another house, in their eyes, and she is just tolerated by her father."
"That is very barbaric!" Hermione exclaimed. Neville nodded.
"I agree with you, but Malfoy family is a dark one – their lord, at least – and they are very patriarchal, more so than most other noble houses... the daughters of the house are loved much less than sons there... But don't think it is always like this. Blacks are patriarchal and even darker than Malfoys, but the daughters to that house were always loved." The scion of the house Longbottom said. Harry said nothing, but in his mind he was relating himself to the blond witch...
Neville's 'lesson' had put the compartment into a dark mood, and it hadn't lightened much by the time the train reached Hogsmeade station. Heavy clouds that were ready to pour down a cold rain didn't help there either.
But that little issue aside, Harry – and he was sure, his friends too – was glad to return to the old castle of Hogwarts. This time, like all older students, the 'golden trio' rode horseless carriages to the front doors of the school. Somehow, they managed to be the only ones in theirs, even though each carriage should have had four passengers. Oh, well... Another difference from what they had experienced the previous year, they were allowed to the Great hall right away, instead of having to wait for professor McGonnagal to invite them.
Quickly scanning the professors' table, the green-eyed wizard saw only one new face – a blond-haired man in forget-me-not blue robes who definitely looked like he spent too much time in front of a mirror. Was that their new DADA professor? Maybe Quirrell wasn't that bad after all...
Once everyone was seated, professor McGonnagal left the Great hall, no doubt, to bring the first years there for their sorting. Indeed, a couple of minutes later, the Scottish woman returned with a group of eleven year old boys and girls in school robes that didn't have house symbolic yet. The hat sang its song – a new one – and the sorting started. For the first couple of minutes it was interesting to see the sorting from the sidelines, but it soon became a bit boring... Still, there were several students, whose sorting Harry watched with interest: Luna Lovegood – a strange blond girl with radish earrings he had met on the train while looking for Draconica – became a Ravenclaw, Basilius Malfoy joined the ranks of the house of serpents, while Ginerva Weasley – Ron's younger sister, who was giving the Potter scion 'strange' looks the moment she saw him – was sorted into Griffindor. ...Good thing all seats around Harry were occupied, or he would have to deal with an obsessed fangirl for the duration of the feast...
When all first years were sorted, Dumbledore stood up and told Hogwarts students about the Forbidden forest being forbidden and about the list of banned things being hung on Filch's office's door.
"...An one more thing, before you all can start the magnificent dinner that was prepared for you: this year your professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts will be no one other than the honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League, Order of Merlin third class, Gilderoy Lockhart." The man blue robes stood up and gave everyone a bright smile, causing many boys, Harry and Neville included, to groan, while lots of girls ah-ed and oh-ed at him.
Lockhart then made a speech, and not a short one, but those who payed enough attention to what the man was saying could clearly hear that the man didn't knew a thing about how or what to teach his students in DADA class... Still, he got a lot of applause for his speech. Once the Great hall was relatively quiet again, Dumbledore had the welcome feast start.
After the feast was finished, the students were sent to their respective common rooms, and, while many stayed there, Harry went upstairs to the bedrooms right away to lay some wards on his bed, and, having had some experience in that the previous year, it didn't take him a lot of time to complete this task.
~ /***\ ~
While the scion of the house Potter was ensuring that he wasn't disturbed at least in his bed, in the Slytherin dungeons the heir to another noble house was fighting the battle for the status of the unofficial leader of the house. In other words, Basilius Malfoy was trying to prove to Theodore Nott that he was the top dog out there – tried to prove that by using threats of telling his father that things were not the way he wanted.
The fight of the wills lasted for almost half an hour, and in the end, the power behind the name Malfoy won, even though the heir to the house had nothing else, no special magical powers, no great talents or cunning, nothing...
From the far corner of the Slytherin common room a pair of gray eyes was watching the whole event. And the way Basilius was acting made Draconica think that her father made several mistakes in the way he raised her brother: the way the boy acted could only incite people to see the house Malfoy as bullies and spenders that relied on their ancestors' fame and money and did nothing on their own – not a good reputation, not at all...
~ /***\ ~
The morning came, and the school year at Hogwarts was about to start for real. Like usual, Harry was one of the first in the Griffindor tower to wake up, and thus he was down to the Great hall for some breakfast and morning reading by the time most of his housemates were just dragging themselves out of their beds...
Eventually, approximately at half past eight all students of the house of the lions had assembled in the Great hall, and professor McGonnagal started handing out the timetables. A single glance at his told Harry that Friday would be his least liked day once again:
Monday: double DADA (S) – lunch – double Charms (R).
Tuesday: Herbology (R) – Charms (S) – lunch – Transfiguration (H) – History of Magic (R).
Wednesday: History of Magic (H) – Herbology (S) – lunch – Charms (R) – Transfiguration (S)
Thursday: double Transfiguration (R) – lunch – Astronomy (all) at 11 pm.
Friday: lunch – double Potions (S) – DADA (S).
Well, at least he had no lessons with Lockhart till, once again, Friday – the man was making his skin crawl for some reason. Maybe that had something to do with the narcissistic way the man acted, or maybe with how he was a glory hound... Anyway, Harry had three full days to get used to the idea that that man will be his professor for this year...
The students, who got their timetables were now hurrying back to their dormitories to get the books they needed for their lessons, but the young Potter continued his breakfast: thanks to a couple of useful enchantments he had everything he could need, featherlight-ened of course, in his trunk...
Ronald Weasley rushed past him, still chewing a piece of beacon – apparently the redhead had learned his lesson about needing to be on time for his lessons... But it appeared that the fates still wanted to punish the boy, as he got to the doors that led out of the Great hall at the same time with Basilius Malfoy and his bodyguards Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.
"Out of my way, blood traitor!" Blond's words were followed by Crabbe pushing Ron to the side and into the jamb. Moment later a faint sound of wood cracking was heard – that was Weasley's poor wand which the boy had in his robe's pocket... McGonnagal, of course, was there a moment later, berating the young Slytherins for his actions and choice of words. But that could do nothing to help Ron out of his predicament...
Twenty minutes later, and ten minutes before the lessons would start, Ravenclaws and Griffindors, including Harry and Ron, who was nursing his cracked and winded round with some spellotape wand, were descending to the greenhouses for their Herbology lesson.
The group of second year students stopped at the lawn in front of the greenhouses, waiting for their professor, and not a minute later they saw her approaching them, accompanied by Gilderoy Lockhart, who was trying to tell the witch one story or another. Judging by her face, professor Sprout didn't like her colleague's company that much...
"Greenhouse three, everyone." Sprout said, causing a murmur of interest among her students – the third greenhouse held much more interesting – and dangerous – plants than the first one, where their lessons were held the previous year... As the students were moving into the greenhouse, Lockhart caught the sight of one Harry Potter, much to said boy's annoyance:
"Bless me, that's really Harry Potter!" The blond man said loudly as he tried to catch green-eyed youth's hand and pull him out of the crowd. "Come here, my boy, I wanted to have a word with you for a ling time!" Unfortunately for the new DADA professor, Harry didn't want to talk to him, and, ignoring man's attempts to grab his arm, continued on his way to the greenhouse three. "Wait, Harry, there are some important things I need to discuss with you... You don't mind if I will have him late for a couple of minutes, Pomona?" The scowl on Sprout's face clearly said that she did mind, but Lockhart ignored that and continued trying to fish Harry out of the crowd of his fellow students...
Thankfully for the green-eyed youth, he had reached the doors of the greenhouse and slipped in, into the relative safety from the molesting glory hounds. A loud sound of the bell, that told everyone that the first period has started, served as the final 'protection' from Lockhart for the time being – the man needed to return to the castle for his own lesson to teach...
Professor Sprout stood in the center of the main passage inside the greenhouse, with a trestle bench filled with pots behind her and a box of earmuffs at her feet.
"Welcome back to Hogwarts and to the second year of your Herbology studies." The witch said to her students. "This year we will be studying mandrakes." She continued, while gesturing towards the rows of pots behind her. "Can anyone tell me, what the mandrake is, where we can use it?" The professor asked. Almost instantly Hermione's and Neville's hands went up into the air...
That's all, folks!
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