Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord", enjoy!

* Review response:
obsessivegirl73, NaruAndHarrHaremFan, jozs001, Kine X, Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta, god of all, plums, Orchamus, SimFlyer, Awsomeness7, jafr86, twilightnemo, Dark Neko 4000, fragglemaster, Penny is wise, thank you for your reviews, folks.
Armacryss, yes, Violet is friendly because she's being paid, but... it is in her (firm's) interest to make sure Harry keeps his business with them. And so far she made him FAR more money than he had spent on her.
xFactor101, finally someone wrote a CRITIC. One of the three I got for the chapter (I know, it really sucked) - I expected more, to be honest. Unfortunately, I have nothing to say in my defense here.
raw666, Fudge has nothing against either 'chosen ones'. Lucius does, though, and Fudge does what he says for some money. As for why anti-Potter campaign, it is simple: they are trying to eliminate the more dangerous opponent as Lucius understands that Harry is the real chosen one (his eyes aren't clouded by the prophecy, and whatever other nonsense is flying around Dumbledore's head). Who do wish to have as your opponent, dim-witted and only moderately-powerful wizard who has nothing of his own ideas, or an intelligent and powerful one, who is completely independent? I think, the answer is obvious.
ElementalMaster16, one, Tom never felt the need to learn the spell: he know the incantation but that's all. Plus you are right, memories only help Harry cast spells, he still needs to learn them.
Impstar, before the end of the story the eye will be used at least once successfully. =)
Still Not Dead Yet, Amelia usually doesn't attend trials and Wizengamot sessions in general - she has enough work in her own office.
MayonakaNoArashi, for Dumb-as-a-door, there is a fate worse than death. *insert evil laughter here*

* 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 is not beta-read yet.

chapter 35: Meeting the fear

Even though mastering the patronus charm to any degree in three days was impossible, the young lord Potter-Slytherin still tried to learn it. Of course, since Tom never learned it, all that Harry got form his memories was the incantation and the most basic description of the spell. So, honestly, it was a miracle that he managed to produce any kind of results at all after these three days, even if these results were just a small cloud of barely visible silvery smoke...

Still, the green-eyed wizard though that this was better than nothing, and his only hope was that if and when he will have to face a dementor, he will be able to replicate this result – after all casting a magic powered by positive emotions around the creatures that takes those away would not be easy.

On the morning of September the first, after making sure that he had everything packed for the upcoming school year, Harry reactivated the stasis ward around the Salazar's cottage and apparated to the secluded corner of the platform 9¾ – while he did have his apparation license, attracting too much attention to himself wouldn't be good.

Since he had arrived pretty early, there weren't many people on the platform, and most of the compartments were empty. So, after some thinking, Harry chose one in the second from the end car, and, taking one of the Salazar's journals, began reading as he waited for his friends to arrive... Neville was the first one to board the train.

"Hello, there, Harry." The scion of the Ancient and Noble house Longbottom greeted. "I've heard from gran that you had quite an exciting summer... And congratulations on your ascent into the lordship." The green-eyed wizard nodded

"I don't think that 'exciting' would be the correct word here, though." He said. "Our minister, for some reason, decided that I'm the bad guy out there, so he tried to create some problems for me. He didn't expect me to be ready to protect myself, though... Thank you and thanks for the extracts, by the way: they are really of the highest quality." Neville blushed a bit at the compliment towards his family's greenhouses, and waved his hands.

"Don't mention it, Harry, I'm happy to help you." He was about to say something else, but Hermione chose this moment to enter the compartment.

"Here you are, boys!" The bushy-haired and slightly out of breath witch exclaimed. "Hello, Neville, hello, Ha-..." Here she looked at the young Potter and (finally) noticed how he had changed over the summer month. "...-rry. What are they feeding to you? You've grown quite a bit." Indeed, thanks to whatever caused it, Harry now was significantly taller than just a few months ago. Hell, most of the signs that his relatives weren't taking good care of him while he still lived with them were gone... The green-eyed wizard just shrugged – it wasn't causing him any problems (yet), so, while it was an interesting phenomenon, he had more important things to worry about at the moment.

~/ *** \~

Not very pleasant 'meeting' with the youngest Malfoy aside, so far the train ride went well, and judging by how it was getting darker (even though it was already quite dark thanks to the heavy clouds that were pouring cold rain upon the land) outside the window, they were getting close to the Hogsmeade station...

Suddenly, the train started slowing down, which was rather unusual as they were still about an hour away from their destination – both the scenery outside the windows and Harry's new pocket watch could confirm that.

Being curious, Neville peeked out of the compartment, but so far he could only see the head of the others like him, who were trying to find a reason for the train to stop here of all places... Indeed, soon the train came to a complete stop with a slight jolt, which, judging by the sounds, made some of the luggage fall on the floor from the rails... The sounds of the rain and wind became clearer and slightly louder, while a rare lightnings looked sharper and so bright that their core seemed black.

"Wh... What the hell?" Harry asked, when he noticed that it was also getting colder in the train, while the mist was surrounding the train from the outside. When the lights started flickering on and off over their heads, the young lord Potter-Slytherin understood what was going on. "They wouldn't!" He exclaimed loudly, while everyone in the compartment shivered slightly from the unnatural cold that was seeping in.

"They wouldn't what?" Asked Hermione, who, so far was in the dark about what was happening. Neville, while looking like he too had only little understanding of occurring, kept quiet and only shivered slightly as it was still getting colder.
"They've brought dementors to check the train." Harry said. Indeed, there were no other creatures in the magical (or muggle for that matter) world, that could cause this kind of unnatural cold... Just as he finished saying that, the lights in the train car finally decided that they won't be working for now, and the compartment was now filled with almost complete darkness.

"D-Dementors?" The scion of the Ancient and Noble house Longbottom asked with a slight fear in his voice – like everyone who grew in the magical world, he had heard stories about there awful creatures. "Are you s-sure, Harry?"

"If you know anything else that can cause this, please, tell me." Harry replied, while an unmistakeable drain of anything positive one held inside started, making it feel like nothing good will ever happen again... Neville didn't answer.

"What is a dementor?" Asked Hermione, who was holding a weak and flickering orb of white light on the tip of her wand. "I don't remember ready about them in our books."

"I'd be surprised, if you had: dementors are one of the foulest creatures you can find out there." Harry replied. "Dementors feed on positive emotions and when you are near one, it will feel like there is no good left in the world, none at all. They also produce unnatural cold and most of light sources, magical and not, have problems working near them." He lectured. "Finally they have an ability to suck ones soul out of the body – they eat it."

"Don't forget that there is no known way to kill a dementor." Neville added. "You can drive them off with certain charms, but killing is not possible." Now it was really cold in the compartment – a faint mist could even be seen near the floor – and, indeed, it felt like all the happiness of the world was gone and will never return.

"They must be really foul creatures, these dementors." Hermione said.

"You don't even know how right you are." The young Potter replied, and just a moment later the orb of light on the tip of bushy-haired witch's wand died. "It is here." Harry said barely above whisper. Just a couple of seconds later, the compartment door was opened, revealing a creature the trio will likely never forget.

The creature had a towering yet slightly bow-backed figure, covered with a ragged cloak, which was likely black in color. The hood of the cloak made it impossible to see the creatures face, but no one had any doubts that it was ...not pretty and fit well with the long and slow rattle breath of the creature (which sounded like someone was trying to suck out the very air from the surroundings)... The demontor then raised its arm, revealing its had from the cloak – it was grayish and slimy looking and scabbed, as if decayed in the water...

As the creature had raised its hand, a wave of the extreme unnatural cold that went as deep as their very souls were washed over the three teens. The sounds got muffled and and their visions became blurry and whitish... Harry tried to force his body to cast a patronus charm to drive the foul thing off, but the spell failed before he was even finished with crying out the incantation... The cold was getting stronger, and now the young Potter could hear distant screams that definitely weren't happening in the real world, while blurry and ghostly images appeared in front of his eyes, though he couldn't see well what they were...

And then it felt like he was thrown into the weightlessness, as the effects of the dementor aura all but disappeared... When his vision had more or less returned to normal, he could see that the creature had left their compartment already – still the aftereffects of its visit were clearly seen: Hermione was shaken to the core and was very pale. Neville didn't look much better, but the rudimentary occlumency training he had was helping him there a bit.

"W-What w-w-was that?" The bushy-haired witch asked in a shaken voice.

"A dementor." Harry replied, forcing himself to sound strong, even if he felt really sick at the moment... Accessing Voldemort's memories at the moment was hard, but he still tried to get all of the knowledge Tom had on the dementors. "You... you should eat some chocolate, if you have it – this should make you feel better." He said, after almost a minute of silence. "I shall go down the train to help others." No, not that he really wanted to do that at the moment – there was a chance that the dementor was still there as the train was yet to start moving – but his hero side just couldn't let him leave other suffering... "And I'm definitely going to set Violet upon whichever fool had the bright idea to have an unsupervised dementor check a train full of emotional and completely defenseless kids." He said as an afterthought.

Since he was almost at the end of the train, the young lord Potter-Slytherin decided that it would be a better idea to go towards the beginning of the train – it was likely that the dementor (if there indeed was only one) moved in this direction as well... And now that the foul creature was barely affecting him, the green-eyed wizard decided that having a patronus charm, even as bad and weak as his was, with him would be a good idea.

"Expecto patronum!" He said the incantation, while bringing the happiest memory he had to the front of his mind. The first time he failed to produce anything with the charm, but he tried again, and with the second attempt, he managed to create a small silvery cloud that was radiating warmth and happiness.

As he walked towards the beginning of the train, Harry mostly encountered shaken but otherwise alright Hogwarts students. There were several cases of those who were affected by the dementor really badly, but those were rare and, still, nothing worrisome... As he was getting closer to the center of the train, he met many of the students he knew, but he hadn't stopped for more than just a 'hello' at their compartments. Now though, he came across a compartment where the Gryffindor flying foxes were:

"Oh, hello there Harry!" Alicia greeted him. "Enjoyed our present? If you really want, we can show you some more" The young Potter blushed, not really knowing, whether she was serious or just teasing him.

"You have really grown up, Harry." Katie added. "Not that we mind that our little Harry is not that little now, right, girls?" How the hell could there three be so full of life just minutes after the dementor's visit was beyond the green-eyed wizard.

"It's really nice to see you, girls, but I'm afraid, I'll have to go now." And he retreated from their compartment, doing his best to ignore the pouts the vixens had put on their faces... Once he was out in the corridor, Harry shook his head to clear it from the unneeded images and ideas that had barely clothed Gryffindor chasers in them... When was sure he was ready, he re-summoned his almost-patronus and continued walking towards the beginning of the train, helping those badly affected by the dementor along the way.

When he got to the fourth car from the locomotive, in one of the compartments he found three of his Slytherin friends, plus one very shaken girl who seemed to be two years younger. The girl looked very much alike Daphne (the later was hugging the girl), so Harry went ahead and assumed that she was her sister.

"Hello there, ladies." He greeted them, while pushing more power into his weak patronus, as it seemed to be helping the girl a lot – she was looking much better now. "Have you tried giving her some chocolate?" He asked then. "They say, it helps here." The Greengrass heiress nodded.

"We did, but as you can see, it didn't help that much." She replied. "I didn't even know than my sister had experienced something so awful that she would react this badly..." She said then, while shaking her head.

"Your sister? I don't believe we've been introduced." Harry said.

"Right, Harry, this is Astoria Evelyn Greengrass." Daphne replied, before turning to her sister. "Astoria, this is Harry James Potter, our ...accomplice."

"Pleased to meet you." The green-eyed wizard said with a slight bow. Then he addressed to everyone in the compartment. "Have any of you seen anybody with the dementor?" He asked. The witches, all four of them, shook their head.

"No, there wasn't anyone." A ...displeased voice from behind Harry said. Turning around, the young Potter saw the head boy – a seventh year Ravenclaw that he didn't knew – who had an almost corporeal patronus hovering in front of him. "Is everyone alright down the train?" He asked, receiving a nod in response. "Thank you, Mr. Potter." The head boy said. "I'm going to check on them anyway." After a small pause he added: "I'll talk to the deputy about getting you something for your services to the school today." And then he was on his way, with the head girl hurrying after him.

"No one to control the dementor?" Harry said. "I'm so going to file a lawsuit against whichever brain-dead bastard had the bright idea to do this. He is really lucky that no one got kissed." He shook his head, forcing himself not to dissolve into a rant about how bad the things could have been, and how lucky the one who ordered this train check was that they weren't.

"House Greengrass will support you." Daphne said. "And I'm sure that most of the students, if not everyone, will sign under the collective suit – just give it a day, and you will see how many do agree with you here." Even though he wished he could start the process as soon as possible, he had to agree there: a collective suit, especially if most of Hogwarts sign it, will be so much more powerful than if it were to be filed from just him.

"Yeah, you are right, Daphne, I will be sending the letter to my barrister on Sunday evening. Until then, anybody who wants can sign under the collective suit of ours." The young lord Potter-Slytherin said.

"Very well, we will be spreading the information about it around for now." Tracey said, while both Greengrasses and Draconica nodded in agreement. "And you and your fiends should do the same." ...By now the train was already speeding towards the Hogsmeade station and, most likely, will be there in about forty minutes.

"Yes, of course." Harry said. "It was nice to chat with you, ladies, but I believe I should return to my compartment: I still need to change into the uniform... I hope the rest of our evening will be much more pleasant." And with a slight bow he left their compartment. Canceling the patronus charm he had active all this time, the young wizard finally noticed how much it drained him: he really hoped he will recover enough by the curfew or he'll have to postpone going after the diadem horcrux for a week...

As he was on his way back to the compartment he, Neville and Hermione occupied, his thoughts began drifting back to Draconica Malfoy... Now that his body was maturing fast(er) and he no longer was under the oppression of his loving relatives, he began noticing the blond witch (and not only her, actually), as a girl. And with how she treated his gifts – it looked like she wore those wristbands all the time – and how she often behaved around him in the recent times, it was almost like she too might feel something towards him...

No, he told himself, Draconica was bound by a marriage contract, so there was no chance of anything blooming between them. So, to keep his thoughts away from that, the young Potter forced himself to think about the wording of the collective suit against some foolish ministry worker that will be filed through Violet, while also telling everyone he met in the corridors about it – after all, the more signatures he will collect, the more powerful the lawsuit will be.

The rest of the train ride went rather well, but once they at long last reached the Hogsmeade train station, everyone was forced into the cold rain that was still pouring down form the skies. So while the unlucky first years were taken to the lake by Hagrid, the older students all but sprinted towards the stagecoaches that were waiting for them on the now muddy rough track not far away from the platform...

When some fifteen minutes later, now again warm and dry thanks to some very useful charms, Harry and his friends along with the rest of the older years filed into the Great hall, the green-eyed wizard saw that woman sitting at the professors' table: Dolores Umbridge was at Hogwarts.

"Why do I have a feeling that this year will not be an easy one?.." Harry said with a sigh.

That's all, folks!
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