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

* Review response:
Kine X, god of all, Dark Neko 4000, Naginator, Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta, Mordalfus Grea, ElementalMaster16, Slytherin Studios, Hanzo of the Salamander 2.0, obsessivegirl73, Armacryss, .owered, Still Not Dead Yet, Kenjo, Follower38, thank you for your reviews, folks!
raw666, for all his political and magical powers, Dumbledore is too much of 'second chance' person to be a great threat. Plus, the idea was this: send Harry to Azkaban and then arrange an ...accident, which will remove him from the list of possible threats forever. Once this happens, reveal that Dumbledore is an old meddling fool who made one of his supporters into the 'chosen one', while the real one was sent to his death. And while the society it to busy with trying to to get to the bottom of this, behead it, and install the person of your choice as the leader.
NaruAndHarrHaremFan, she'll show him how wrong he is soon enough.
Orchamus, heh. No foursomes in the foreseeable future, though. Though... No, I planned to end the story before it comes to that.
Joe Lawyer, actually, I kinda didn't have much about that, but... I will really try to think of something that will seem natural to the magical world.
JPElles, well as for 'courting another girl' - it starts next chapter. For details, read AN just before the disclaimer.
Lord-Phoenix7, and what the eye would give him? I don't think a dementor can be petrified. Plus no one knows about his eye yet. Revealing it now might have been too soon.
SimFlyer, that confrontation will undoubtedly happen, but not just yet.
fragglemaster, Remus will make an appearance in the story. As for the basilisk fang sword - it is hidden in Harry's trunk.
vampirewithwolfeyes, Mrs. Toad will get hers soon. And it will not be pretty. For her.

Warning! This chapter contains some M-rated material for your enjoyment. Solo-F so far, but...

Also, for the next couple of chapter the pairing will be Harry/Katie. It will not last long, though, and soon (3-5 chapters) Harry/Draconica will begin. Just be patient, those who are waiting for that.

* 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 36: Ravenclaw's diadem

The sorting ceremony was this year a bit longer, as there were more first years there. Astoria Greengrass, after the hat spent on her head several seconds, was sorted into Slytherin. Harry didn't bother to pay attention to the rest, as he knew no one else there... And once the sorting was finished, Dumbledore gave one of his usual and slightly insane welcoming speeches, that ended with introduction of the new Care for the Magical Creatures professor (Hagrid) and the new DADA professor: Dolores Jane Umbridge.

The toad-like woman then gave a speech of her own, which could be summarized to the single idea: whatever the ministry was doing, it was the right thing, and those who thought otherwise were dangerous elements who belonged to Azkaban. Unfortunately, only so many students could see that behind the mass of pretty words she was using...

Once she was finished with her, quite lengthy, speech, the headmaster said a few more (absolutely meaningless) words, and the feast began. And this was when the information about the lawsuit being prepared was spread among the students... Everyone in Gryffindor, who had even the faintest idea about the tragedy that was avoided today by the pure chance agreed to sign under this lawsuit. And from what Harry and his friends could see, in the other houses, even in Slytherin, the situation was mostly the same.

So putting that problem out of his mind for the time being, the young lord Potter-Slytherin got to planning this evening, when he will go after the Ravenclaw's diadem, which, according to Tom's memories, was in the Room of the lost things... Since for the last two years his bed was surrounded by the wards to keep the attention of others away, slipping out of the dormitory under the invisibility cloak will not be difficult: no one will bother to check whether he is in his bed or not. And with some older years going in and out of the common room during night hours, getting out of the tower without alerting the Fat lady about this too shouldn't be too hard.

Getting back in the morning, most likely closer to the lunch time, shouldn't pose much difficulty as well, especially with the help of the cloak. Finding a place for the ritual where he won't be disturbed in the worst possible moment – this was what Harry thought to be the real problem. Of course, he could try the Chamber of Secrets (after all he planned to release his 'pet project' there), but he was not sure that the main entrance wasn't blocked... The Room of the lost things was another alternative, but it was not like Tom Riddle was the only one to find it, so there was a little chance of someone stumbling upon him while he was busy destroying the horcrux.

Oh well, the green-eyed wizard decided, he will see where he can perform the ritual later on, as the guesswork now was not doing him any good. So for now he concentrated on his dinner: he will need a lot of energy this night after all...

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Once the feast has finished, the prefects guided their houses back to the common rooms, telling everyone the current passwords and sharing various bits of Hogwarts wisdom with the first years. As soon as he was back to the common room, Harry headed straight to the room he shared with his yearmates, stating that the encounter with the dementor had him tired and he wished to go to bed now. No one had questioned him about this, as many students, especially the younger ones, too felt (emotionally) exhausted after the meeting with the Azkaban guarding beast.

Just like the young Potter hoped they would, the wards around his bed he had put near the end of the previous school year were still up, so he won't have to re-cast them tonight. Opening his trunk, Harry took out the invisibility cloak, the pack of the pre-made magic booster potions in vials. Then with a gentle hissing he woke up the little basilisk that he had sleeping in the 'nest' made from his sweater somewhere in the depths of the trunk. The little albino snake, following his command, slithered onto his left hand, and further up, coiling around his arm.

Attaching the vials with potions onto his belt, Harry put on his invisibility cloak and, arranging his bed to look like he was there, slipped out of the dorm.

Getting out of the Gryffindor tower too wasn't hard. Harry didn't even have to wait for long for someone to open the portrait for him. Once outside, the young wizard headed straight to the second floor and to the moaning Myrtle's bathroom...

It looked like the luck was on his side tonight as the ghost was out (and so couldn't alert anybody about him being there), and,as he had quickly confirmed, the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets wasn't blocked in any way. Not even a ward – at least on the level of the detection spells Voldemort knew – was placed there. Well, his gain, Harry decided, before descending to the Chamber, this time creating stairs for himself with a parseltongue command.

Some walking later, the young lord Potter-Slytherin found himself back in the 'main hall' of the Chamber of Secrets. After telling his little – just about two feet long – snake to go and make itself at home in the small chamber that was inside 'the head', Harry began preparing the ritual for the horcrux destruction. Drawing the required runic circles was a meticulous and rather slow work that took him almost two hours to complete.

Once he was done with the preparations, it was time to go and collect the diadem. When Harry got back to the girl's toilet, Myrtle was there, but she was too busy moaning in her cubicle to notice the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets opening and then closing... Using Tom's memories the green-eyed wizard navigated towards the seventh floor where the Room of the lost things was. He had almost ran into a couple of prefect patrols, but the invisibility cloak was doing its magic well, and he wasn't noticed.

Following the algorithm young Voldemort used, Harry walked three times in front of the empty wall across from the tapestry of Barnabas the barmy trying to teach trolls ballet, while thinking about needing a place to hide things. Just like for Tom forty-something years ago, the door appeared on the wall. Opening the door, the young Potter found himself in a huge chamber, filled with miscellaneous junk and, sometimes, even still useful things. There were some things that weren't there in Voldemort's memories – like dozens empty sherry bottles – but for the most part the Room of the lost things looked the same. Still, of others had found this room, there was a slight chance that the diadem was removed...

Shaking his head, Harry closed the door behind him, and started making his way through the room towards an old servant with a bust of an unknown wizard on it. If everything was alright, the diadem would be sitting on the head of that bust. If not... Thankfully, it was there: most likely no one had noticed the priceless founder's artifact in the dimly lit room among the thousands upon thousands of articles of various things that were scattered around in massive piles.

Getting the diadem itself was quite a task, as Voldemort had made it resistant to summoning, and with how it was located getting it otherwise was really hard... An ancient, but still working, broom, which Harry found not too far from there, solved the problem, though.

Now that he had the diadem, it was time to return to the Chamber of Secrets and destroy the horcrux in it... On his way down there, the young wizard almost ran into Mrs. Norris, but once again his invisibility cloak saved him... When he reached the moaning Myrtle's toilet, the ghost was again away, so he could enter the Chamber completely undetected. Several minutes later he finally arrived to the 'main hall' of the Chamber, where the ritual circle was waiting to be used... Placing the diadem on the center of the runic circle, Harry gulped down all three vials of the magic booster potion he had on him and took his place at the edge of the circle.

"Time to do it." He said under his breath, before initiating the ritual, while his magic was powerful and still with him...

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Even in his year, Harry wasn't the only one awake this late in the night. Deep in the Slytherin dungeons, one Draconica Malfoy was not sleeping as well, though her reasons were entirely different from his: no matter how well-organized and controlled her mind was, her body wasn't, and it was now telling her to go after a certain dark-haired wizard.

Yes, sure, now she was admitting it to herself that she had some feelings going beyond friendship for him, which were only reinforced after what had happened today on the train. The blond witch shook her head, trying to clear her head from the unneeded thoughts and images: with the contract she was in, she shouldn't even be looking at (other) boys... Her body and her subconscious, though, had other ideas, as the image of Harry kept resurfacing, often with her in his arms, while the 'annoying' itch down there wasn't going away on its own as well...

Sighing, Draconica accepted her 'loss' and kicked the blanket off herself. She then unbuttoned her night shirt and brought her hands to feel up her growing breasts, already small B-cups in size. Soon, though, her right hand began traveling south, till it disappeared into the panties she wore... Draconica let out a moan when her fingers gently touched her pussy lips and brushed against her clit, while her other had was fondling her left breast.

She was not feeling herself often, but this wasn't the first time either, so the blond witch knew already how to make herself feel good, and so she, having pulled the annoying piece of fabric down where it wasn't in the way, began thrusting her middle finger into her tight love canal, with her thumb moving in tight circles 'round her clit. Draconica also kept playing with her breasts with her other hand, squeezing them and pinching her nipples from time to time, all the while imagining what it would be like to have the object of her fantasies there, pleasuring her...

The blonde puller her finger from her pussy, and, bringing her right hand to her face, sucked on her both index and middle fingers, not minding that she was tasting herself this way. Pulling her fingers out of her mouth and giving them one last lick, Draconica returned her hand to her nether regions and thrust those two fingers into her tight pussy, moaning loudly and arching her back from the pleasure that went like a lightning through her body.

As she kept fingering herself towards her orgasm, while not-so-gently squeezing her breasts with the other hand, the blond witch was imagining what it would be like to have the real sex with her desired one...

"Mph-a-ah!" Arching her back and pinching her left nipple really hard, she cried out as she finally pushed herself over the edge, imagining herself being filled with his cock... Slowly sliding back into lying flat on her back, the blond witch pulled her cum-covered fingers from her pussy and bring them to her face to lick and suck them clean...

For the next several minutes Draconica just lay on her bed, enjoying the warm and lazy feeling of the post-orgasmic bliss. Eventually, though, she had pulled her panties back to their proper place on her body and buttoned her night shirt up, before pulling the blanket over herself, and trying to fall asleep.

Draconica wasn't the only one who could get no sleep because of the young Potter: on the opposite side of the castle in the tower that housed Gryffindor house, Katie Bell was experiencing similar troubles. The reasons, though, were a bit different...

It all started about the time Harry had joined the quidditch team, almost two years ago, but at that time she (and the two other vixens) saw him just as a cute little boy who was fun to tease. After this summer, though, Katie just couldn't see him as such anymore – he grew up into a young man and a powerful wizard... No, what she felt towards him wasn't exactly love. They even weren't that close, but she still was drawn towards him.

Also, she was neither blind nor stupid, and so she could see that there was something between Harry and Draconica, even though they seemed to be either unaware of that, or in denial. It was just a matter of time, before those two got together... But until that happened, Katie decided, she'll be the one with him. Now all that she needed was to think of a way to approach him so that he will know she's serious and not teasing him like she with Alicia and Angelina often did...

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Harry groaned and sat up. He was still down there in the Chamber of Secrets. The Ravenclaw's diadem, now horcrus-free, lay on the floor not far away from him. Knowing that his magic still hadn't returned to him, thanks to the aftereffects of the magic-booster potions, he used his pocket watch to see, what time it was. It turned out that it was just ten in the morning, so, hopefully, no one hadn't noticed that he wasn't in the Gryffindor tower during the night yet...

Picking the diadem up, the young wizard inspected it, while thinking, what should he do with this priceless artifact: it definitely should be hidden somewhere as it was dangerous – something with the ability to enhance knowledge should not fall in the wrong hands, and just the allure of that ability might have people fighting each other... No, it really should be hidden somewhere.

The Chamber of Secrets seemed to be like a good idea, but, first, it was Salazar's and not Rowena's. And any parselmouth can access it, so... Gringotts, while well known for safekeeping various goods, too wasn't the best option, as no one guaranteed that some goblin would not take the diadem for himself: Ravenclaw line was dead, so no one will be able to check, whether the diadem was really put in the vault... And the Room of lost things, even if the diadem had laid there undisturbed for the last half a century, was not the safest place either...

Deciding that this could wait for now – a couple of day the diadem will be safe in the Chamber – the young lord Potter-Slytherin headed out, hoping that his parseltongue was still with him, even if his magic wasn't at the moment... As it turned out, he was still able to speak the language of serpents, so getting back to the castle wasn't a problem.

Using his invisibility cloak, Harry sneaked into the Gryffindor tower before, quickly changing out of his school robes he still wore into something more casual, heading down to the Great hall for some late breakfast: he was really hungry.

Since it was weekend, the breakfast lasted till eleven in the morning, so the green-eyed wizard got there when they were still serving. Actually, good half of the Hogwarts students and several professors were there – not many in the magical world were early-risers, it seemed – but today that was just fine with Harry: no one will question why he got there just now. Even those who knew that usually he was one of the first in the Gryffindor tower to get up...

"Hey there, Harry." Neville said from his seat at the Gryffindor table. "You look still tired. You sure you shouldn't visit madam Pomfrey?" The young lord Potter shook his head.

"Nah, couldn't fall asleep at first – damn that dementor – so I read one of my anatomy books... Apparently, I read a bit too far into the night." He said with a shrug. "Where is Hermione, by the way?"

"Haven't seen her since yesterday." The scion of the house Longbottom replied. "Probably in the library already." Harry nodded: knowing the bushy-haired witch, she most likely was indeed in the library, surrounded by ancient tomes or some other books.

"They weren't handing out the timetables?" He asked then, suddenly remembering that he hadn't got his. Neville shook his head.

"The timetables are handed out during the breakfast on the first day of classes. Wasn't that written in the 'Hogwarts: a history'?" Harry smacked himself on the head.

"Darn, completely forgot about that. Thanks." He said, while putting some more fried bacon on his plate. The two friends continued eating peacefully, while having small talk, mostly about their new school year... That was until Ronald Weasley, the chosen one (or whatever the title he was given by Dumbledore) finally decided to grace those at the Great hall with his presence. While most of the students didn't show any different reaction to this from what they had before this summer, some of the more gullible exemplars, though, were looking at him like many looked at Harry when he had just reappeared in the magical world. "Hey, Neville." The young lord Potter said. "Please tell me it wasn't like this with me two years ago?" Neville shook his head.

"Believe me, mate, it was worse." Then he laughed heartily at Harry's face. "Sorry, but that's the truth." The green-eyed wizard sighed and, looking at his now empty plate, said:

"Oh well, I'm going to the library – there was something I needed to check." Yeah, he still needed to find a way to permanently deal with Voldemort, even if not all of his horcruxes are destroyed.

"Good luck then, mate." Neville replied, while getting himself another helping of the pancakes with strawberry jam.

That's all, folks!
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