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

* Review response:
nobother, reven228, PassingDays, jafr86, magical fan18, obsessivegirl73, Penny is wise, JPElles, thank you for your reviews, folks!
The Swordslinger, somehow, I still got what you wanted to say, despite your constant jumping to "not in a perverted way" comments, and, anyway, at least for Katie, I already have such a scene planned. For the other vixens - not yet, but I will try to think something up.
noshadowone, no drawing =) And I did remove quartering.
Naginator, no, they are not. (Grimjowx, this goes for you as well) So, expect something involving them soon.
ElementalMaster16, surprisingly enough, there is nothing romantic going on between Harry and Violet. Though, if the idea that something must happen between them becomes popular, I MIGHT make a spinoff for this pairing. Just do remember that she's (23) ten years older than him (13).

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"powered speech / true prophecies by the seer"
"spells / parseltongue"

This chapter is not beta-read yet.

chapter 44: Attacked tower

Are all Blacks dark?

In a shocking twist of events, during the Wizengamot session yesterday, the proxy for the Noble house Potter presented documents that stated that Regulus Black, previously thought to be a hardcore Death Eater, actually worked against You-know-Who and was killed by him for this very reason.

The documents presented by Herr Schmidt contained the reconstruction of the events that had happened at the end of the War. It appears that Regulus Black, who managed to integrate himself into the Inner circle of the Death Eaters, was there to find a way to bring You-know-Who down and protect the rightful Ministry and the citizens of the Magical Britain.

Regulus Black was in for a long wait for the right time to strike, during which he was forced to commit unspeakable atrocities not to lose his cover, but a couple of month before the end of the War he finally got his chance to strike. He managed to steal and destroy some of the powerful artifacts that the Dark Lord had collected, thus weakening him and his followers. Of course, this instantly made him a traitor to the Dark side, to which he never truly belonged, and You-know-Who personally went to execute him. The last bit was know for the longest time, though it was wrongly believed that Regulus' failings to please the Dark Lord were the reason for his death.

After he finished reading the documents, Herr Schmidt proposed to award Regulus Arcturus Black the Order of Merlin, First class, which was seconded by the Chief warlock Albus Dumbledore, who then gave a long speech about how the light was strong in the hearts of the young of the wizarding world even in those dark times. The voting that followed was almost unanimous and Regulus Black was awarded the Order of Merlin he truly deserved post mortem.

While this story has a happy ending of the justice restored, we can't help but ask this question: how many other heroes of the War are still unknown? How many of them are yet to be recognized for their heroics? We, at the editorial office of the 'Daily Prophet', hope that this will not be last time the heroics of wizards and witches are brought to the light.

For more information about You-know-Who and his Death Eaters, read the article on the page 13. For more information about Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, read the article on the page 15. For more information about Regulus Arcturus Black, read the article on the page 21.

Sirius Black lowered the newspaper he had – in his anumagus form – stolen from the vendor in Hogsmeade. It looked like his little brother wasn't as bad as he or everyone else at the Order of the Phoenix believed him to be. Shaking his head, the only Azkaban escapee in the history vowed to greatly thank Harry, when he will finally meet him as a man and not just a big black dog, for giving him his brother back...

But right now there were things more important to Sirius. Like dealing with Peter Pettigrew – the rat managed to escape him three day ago and now was on the loose. And, knowing that his disguise of a rat was compromised, Peter must be desperate at the moment, which made him quite dangerous to people around him... On the second thought, maybe, he should wait for a bit to let him calm down, Sirius thought – if the real traitor knew that he was really hunted, he might just start killing people left and right in a desperate attempt to survive. And would be a truly catastrophic turn of events. Yes, the grimm animagis decided, he should wait for some time before resuming his rat hunt. Hopefully, by then Peter will come back to the Weasley kid, or choose some other place to hide, instead of running around...

Meanwhile, though, Sirius needed to find himself something to eat as raiding the houses in Hogsmeade all the time was not a very good idea. Maybe he should make use of his Marauder skills and sneak into Hogwarts to get some food form the kitchens? No, that would not be a good idea either, as the house elves there likely were instructed to incapacitate him, should he show up. This left Sirius with the only option of hunting for food in the surrounding forests...

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While Sirius Black was thinking about his late brother Regulus, who turned out to be a hero, and was planning his capture, Peter Pettigrew was hiding in Hogwarts castle, thinking about what to do next. Since he was absolutely sure that Black was really after him on that Sunday, the rat-like man knew that he couldn't move around as freely as before, and this meant that he needed a safe place... While it was relatively safe here, with the real rats, there was always a danger of some cat deciding to make him its meal, or some upper years, who would use him as a target for their magical experiments... No, he needed a safer place for himself.

Maybe he should return to that Weasley boy who was taking care of him for the last several years? Since that kid was proclaimed to be the chosen one by Dumbledore, everyone will go out of their way to keep the boy safe from Black, and this protection will be extended to him as well, if continues to play his role of Weasley's pet rat... Though, in this case, Peter decided, he needed to find a way to avoid being with the kid anywhere, where Black could attack them.

Or he could just return to the tower and kill the 'savior' – both of the boys, just in case – before fleeing to Albania, where, according to the rumors, the spirit of Voldemort was. The later option, actually, seemed to be a better one, though Peter distantly remembered the Dark Lord telling his Death Eaters that the Potter child was his and only his to kill...

Still, he needed to choose something, as the idea of spending his time with the dirty castle rats didn't please Peter Pettigrew...

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Meanwhile Harry was sitting on his bed in the Gryffindor dormitories, using its privacy – the wards he had put up around it were still there – to wrap some Christmas gifts for his classmates and friends... And that was where he was hit by a sudden idea. Horcruxes, essentially, were nothing more than containers that kept soul shards attached to this world, thus preventing their creator from passing on. On their own, unless they came in contact with some naïve fool, horcruxes could do nothing but exist. So, if all of the soul was contained somewhere securely, the one, whose soul it was, was for all purposes dead.

In other words, if he could find a way to seal away what was left from Voldemort's soul and ensure that the container will never release it back – either from being opened by someone, or just from breaking up from old age – then the Dark Lord will be essentially dead... The problem here, though, was in finding the container: there weren't any things in the world that could exist forever... Still, this idea was worth something in the eyes of the young Potter. At very least this was the first more or less plausible idea of how to get rid of Voldemort, without having to find and destroy his remaining horcruxes first.

Thinking on it further, the green-eyed wizard came to much harder to accomplish, but definitely a better one, should he succeed, idea: why not banish Voldemort's 'main' soul into an alternative dimension? Since it will be out of this world, he wouldn't need to worry about the safety of a container as there will be none. Unfortunately, creating something as great as a tear in reality required a lot of preparation and an almost ridiculous amount of magical power – so much that it likely was out of the reach for Dumbledore or Voldemort without either consuming a great deal of boosters... So, unless he used some alternative way to power the rituals, he would never be able to accomplish something like this, which meant that, in the end, this idea was useless to him...

Still, unless he could come up with something better than sealing Voldemort's soul away within something, Harry decided that he should look more into this – likely, this will actually be his best shot as ending the Dark Lord.

Shaking his head to clear these thoughts so that he could concentrate on the gifts he was wrapping, Harry looked at his watch. Apparently, he had spent quite some time deeply immersed in his thoughts as it was almost seven in the evening. Meaning, it was dinner time already. Sighing, the dark-haired teen decided that he can finish wrapping the gifts after his meal, so, fixing his clothes to look presentable and checking the wards around his bed, he headed towards the Great hall.

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Even though Sirius Black likely was the only one within a hundred of miles who could see through his animagus transformation, Peter decided against returning to the Gryffindor common room, while there were too many people there. After all, rats weren't very common as pets, and he definitely didn't look like a sleek decorative rat, so the chances were, he will be hit with some nasty spells before he could reach the safety of his 'owner'. Not that he planned anything good for the boy...

So, once he was sure that mostly everyone was down at the Great hall for their dinner, Peter Pettigrew proceeded towards the Gryffindor common room. And while he didn't meet anybody on his way there, he also couldn't get in without telling the Fat Lady the password. And as a rat he, obviously, couldn't do that: rats just don't speak. So he will have to transform back into his human form... Thankfully, the portrait that at the moment was preventing him from entering the Gryffindor common room, decided to take a nap and wouldn't see him if he did everything correctly... Once he was once again in his human form, Peter quietly approached the portrait.

"Lion's pride!" The presumed-dead wizard announced the password that he thought to be the current one. Unfortunately, he seemed to be mistaken here, as the passage to the Gryffindor common room didn't open for him. But failed attempt did wake the Fat Lady up from her nap.

"Sirius Black?" Still not completely awake painting asked. "I will not let you in." While it was handy for Peter that he wasn't recognized for who he really was, he still needed to get into the common room. So, if he couldn't do this the 'normal' way, he'll just use force... Pulling the butcher's knife he had stolen from the kitchen – he intended to use this to kill the boys, who, supposedly, would stand in his master's way, later – he stalked towards the portrait.

"You will let me in." He hissed, while raising his weapon threateningly. The Fat Lady, though, was going to fulfill her duties of the passage guardian, and so she once again refused to let him in... This caused Peter to become angry enough to try and stab her – thankfully she was fast enough to move to the nearby painting to hide there...

Having done several stabs and cuts on now empty portrait, the rat animagus tried to force it open, but he was really disappointed when he found a solid stone wall there, instead of a short passage to the Gryffindor common room he expected. And what was worse, he was almost out of the time as the first students were about to return from the Great hall at any moment now... Still, Peter was not stupid enough to give up his identity or cover by transforming back into the rat when someone could see him.

So, looking around, he found the painting where the Fat Lady – and she was the only painted human nearby – was hiding, and send her a death glare, which caused her to hide behind a boulder on the paining of African savanna. Using this moment wisely, Peter Pettigrew turned back into his animagus form and disappeared into a crack between stones of the wall, so, when the Fat Lady peaked out of her cover next time, she didn't see him anymore...

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Even though Harry was rather quick to finish his meal, he wasn't the first one to leave the Gryffindor table at the Great hall, so, when he finally got to where the entrance to the common room was, there already were some people there making theories of what had happened to the Fat Lady's portrait. And the more students arrived there, the more, sometimes really ridiculous guesses, were made, while no one – not even he himself, like Harry later would admit – actually tried to find the Fat Lady to ask her what had happened...

Eventually, though, professor McGonnagal came to investigate the reason behind her 'cubs' unable to return to the common room. Unlike the students of her house, though, she started looking for the Fat Lady. And found her in just a couple of minutes, still hiding behind that boulder.

"What had happened, my lady?" The transfiguration professor asked.

"S-Sirius Black!" The painting replied in a shaky voice. "He... He tried to force his way into the dormitories... He had the previous password, and when... when I denied him entrance he pulled out a b-big knife and... he tried to make an entrance for himself... And..."

"Thank you, my lady." Professor McGonnagal cut her, seeing that it was hr for her to talk about this. "We will have Filch repair your portrait." The Scottish witch said, while adding in her thoughts: 'In the meantime we need someone to guard the entrance... But who will be willing to do the job?'

As it turned out, it was much harder to find a temporary guardian for the Gryffindor room than anyone could have imagined: because of the rumors about Sirius Black spreading around the castle like a wildfire, pretty much every painting or statue refused to take the job... In the end, though, almost three hours later, someone brave enough to agree was found – sir Cadogan's portrait, that normally hung on the seventh floor near not far away from the Divination classroom, didn't refuse to take the role.

Unfortunately, the man was believed to be quite insane, and rightfully so, as not even ten minutes into his new job, and he already was making the students' lives hell by thinking up some extremely complicated passwords. Still, as there was no one else brave enough for the job, he remained as the temporary guardian of the Gryffindor common room...

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While the students (hopefully) were off to their beds for the night, the day of the Hogwarts professors was continuing, thanks to the staff meeting that Dumbledore decided to call as soon as the attack on the Fat Lady was reported to him.

"Now, that all of you are here..." The ancient wizard said, while looking at the Hogwarts professors that had assembled in his office. "Let us discuss a very important subject." He paused for a moment, before continuing: "As it was shown to us today, Sirius Black is capable of infiltrating the castle and leaving it with as much as one witness, who only saw him because he used an outdated password. If not for this mistake of his, it not hard to imagine, what kind of a disaster could have happened... Something must be done to update our security and prevent the events like this from happening ever again." There was a murmur of agreement among the professors, and Dumbledore waited for several seconds for them to become quiet again, before continuing. "And since he was obviously after the chosen one, I believe that moving him into a private room somewhere away from the Gryffindor dormitories will make it safer for everyone."

Now there were more than some outcries against this, the most vocal ones coming from professor Snape, who bore no love for Ron (even though his hate for the redhead wasn't as strong as his hate for the Potter spawn) and, rather surprisingly, from professor Sprout, who was telling that singling someone out like this was not good for the morale of the house... Not wanting to listen to the professors arguing against his idea, the headmaster raised his hand, silently telling everyone to stop talking.

"Please, let me explain my reasoning for this decision." He said. "I know that separating young Ronald from his friends might not be the best idea at any other time, but as we're in the Black crisis... Moving him to a separate living quarters will let us put more powerful protections, those that wouldn't work on the area that hundreds of people should be able to access routinely. And by removing him from the Gryffindor dormitories for the time being, we will ensure the safety of the young Ronald's housemates as Black will have no reason to go there anymore." Dumbledore said, while pushing his magic into his eyes to send a powerful 'message' to the others that would compel them to agree with him... Of course, those proficient in mind arts could detect this 'message' and ignore it, but as it was already quite late in the night, most were just too tired to fight his mind magic off, and one by one the assembled professors began nodding in agreement with his plan...

That's all, folks!
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