Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord", enjoy!
Sorry for not posting the chapter the previous week, but I was really busy with my studies as it is now the end-of-semester exam's time... Actually, there will be no stable updates till I'm done with those (19th June), but I will do my best to post weekly.

* Review response:
chm01, it does indeed solve that particular problem.
Naginator, god of all, Hoffindor, Maleivius, Impstar, Nanashi113, ElementalMaster16, ManlyMonk, Zarosian Chaos, Penny is wise, GinHanelle, Lord Xantos A. Fowl, thank you for your reviews, folks!
Dericof Diname, yes, he will have to make such a decision quite soon.
The Swordslinger, no, I'll make a timeskip for the summer after Harry's third year - I'll be giving away too much of what shouldn't be uncovered for now otherwise. But I might put some scenes from this summer into the flashbacks later on. Some other things might surface during the various discussions that the characters will have.
Danget the critic, hopefully, this chapter will be a bit better. The next two, though... I expect too much talking and not enough action there.
Awsomeness7, he he he... But you guessed right, in the end she will get disowned (what a mistake! serves Lucius right.) ; )

* Poll results: Sirius was voted to live. Rejoice.

* Poll: There is a new poll in my profile. The question this time is the following: do you want me to write a snip-off (likely, lemon-ic) one-shot to this story with the pairing of Harry/Violet? As usual, the options are 'Yes', 'No' and 'I don't care'.

* 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 49: The rat on the map

While Harry hadn't really noticed it right away that day – his mind was too busy worrying about being summoned to the will-reading of a man he didn't remember meeting even once in his life – Draconica, following the pure-blood custom, was now seen in her mourning clothes. These clothes, being the only allowed alternative to the uniform that all students had to wear during all classes and all feasts, consisted of more prudish than normal and still black skirt, black shirt instead of normal white and no house-colored tie, which left the crest on her robes to be the only indication that she belonged to the house Slytherin.

Still, even though she was making it look like she was mourning over her late fiance's death with the clothes she was wearing, in all other aspects the blond witch hadn't changed at all, remaining her ice queen with passionate heart self that Harry grew to, he dared to think, love. Well, she did refrain from acting up on those passions, for the time being, at least...

Meanwhile, the school year continued. The final week of March passed slowly and without any major incidents, in castle or otherwise, but the young Potter was actually happy about this: maybe, this year, he will be finally allowed to have a peaceful end-of-the-year with no dangerous adventures threatening his life like those that had happened the previous two springs.

The first couple of days of April, on the other hand, did have something major happening during them. April the first never was an uneventful day at Hogwarts, but this year the (in)famous Weasley twins really licked all creation, organizing possibly the most prank-filled day in the history of the school. And if Harry were to believe the rumor mill, Filch would be cleaning up the mess the twins created for weeks, and, for once, it was likely that the rumors were truthful...

On the next day, right after the breakfast ended, professor Snape approached Draconica and told her something, after which the two of them hurriedly left the Great hall. Like Harry had learned later from the blond witch herself, the Potions master was escorting her to Gringotts for the will reading of late Mr. Gamp. Though, this turned out to be an unnecessary thing to do as the bastard just sealed all of the Most Noble house Gamp's monies, properties and titles away, not giving even a knut to anyone. And he did it in such a way that even Lucius with the help of his barristers couldn't find a loophole to use to assimilate those into the Noble house Malfoy through the marriage contract Draconica was in. Of course, Lucius was far from happy with this, and so were the goblins of the Gringotts bank, though their reasons were entirely different...

Sunday, April the third, was the day of the Remus's will reading, but since Harry didn't plan to attend it in person, to him this day was more or less like any other weekend day. Unfortunately, though, this meant that he would have to deal with the fallout of this will reading the first thing tomorrow morning. Oh well...

Indeed, Violet's letter, containing her report on the events of the Remus's will reading, arrived on the Monday morning with the rest of the owl post, and Harry, being curious about who this Remus person was and what he could have left to him, read this letter right away.

Late Mr. Lupin turned out to be, if the young Potter was to believe the letter, a rather close friend of his father – this made the green-eyed wizard snort: some good friend this Remus fellow was if he never even bothered to check up on his friend's orphaned son... Also, according to Violet, late Mr. Lupin was quite poor, so Harry, despite being one of the major inheritors, got only little more than three hundreds galleons and a chest filled with old and dusty prank items and some more-than-decade old school notebooks that were of questionable use to him. Still, as Mr. Remus Lupin was, supposedly, a good friend of his father, and willed him to have these items, Harry decided that he should accept those items, should they prove to be clear of any dark magics. If anything, he could always get rid of the unneeded schlock later...

Back to the present, though, it was almost time for the first lesson to start, so, carefully folding Violet's letter and putting in into his robe's inner pocket, the green-eyed wizard quickly finished his breakfast and all but raced to the Gryffindor common room to get the books he will need for his classes today...

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Two weeks later, Harry was returning to the Gryffindor common room from the library in the late afternoon, when he heard the Weasley twins discussing something over-emotionally in one of the unused classrooms – apparently the prankster duo either forgot to put the silencing charms or didn't think that they'll be overheard there. And from the fragments that the young Potter managed to get, Fred and George were talking about some dead person walking around in the broad daylight somewhere. With his curiosity getting the better of him, the dark-haired teen carefully approached the door of the classroom and listened:

"...And I'm telling you, the map has never lied before: if it shows something, then it is there!" One of the twins said, rather heatedly. A moment later the other twin replied, just as heatedly:

"Then care to explain, why there is one Peter Pettigrew in the Ron's room? As far as I remember, Black killed him twelve years ago!" Unfortunately, a moment later Harry leaned on the door a bit too hard and it swung open, making him fall into the classroom awkwardly... "Mischief managed." One of the twins said quickly, making the writings on the parchment he and his brother were studying disappear, as they whirled around, their wands trained at their uninvited guest. For a couple of seconds no one moved, but then the twins lowered their wands.

"Harry, mate, you gave us quite a scare right now." Gred – or was it Forge? - said. "You really ought to knock on the door next time you decide to visit us, or we might inadvertently charm the hell out of you." The young Potter looked away from them as got back onto his feet, feeling quite awful about what he had just done.

"Sorry, guys... and, I couldn't help but overhear you talking about Peter Pettigrew supposedly being somewhere in castle right now." The twins looked at each other, as if telepathically talking to each other, before turning back to Harry:

"Well, Harry, since you have caught us red-handed, we guess..." He stopped there to let his brother continue for him.

"...We can tell you. See this parchment." The currently-talking twin asked, holding what appeared to be a fairly big and quite old square piece of parchment. The green-eyed Potter nodded, silently asking 'what of it?' or something like that. "This parchment is quite special... If you would, oh brother of mine." The second twin nodded.

"Sure. I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good." He said solemnly, while touching the parchment with his at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that the wand had touched. These lines joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment. A couple of seconds later words in great, curly green letters began to blossom across the top (though, Harry was fairly sure that when he fell into the classroom, this part of the parchment was at the bottom), forming words, that proclaimed:

Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP

"As you can see..." The second twin, likely George, continued. "This parchment is a very special map that shows the whole castle and most of its grounds, but, most importantly, it shows where every single person in the castle is." Indeed, Harry could see himself, Fred and George in one of the classrooms on the seventh floor, while Dumbledore could be seen sitting in his office.

"So, this is how you do your pranks and managed to avoid being caught?" The green-eyed wizard asked. The twins, both of them, nodded.

"Yeah, but we'd like it if you could keep this little map ours a secret from others." Harry nodded quickly, not wanting to be the subject of twins' ire: their pranks could be quite embarrassing and cruel if they wanted them to be such.

"Sure, I won't give you away." He said and the twins nodded.

"You better not." George said, before continuing his 'lecture'. "As far as we can remember, this map was never wrong, but recently we noticed something strange." He said as he pointed at the dot labeled 'Peter Pettigrew' which was in the room that Ron was given after the attack on the Fat Lady... Harry frowned: wasn't this man supposed to be dead?

"A-ah, I see that you now understand what made us so ...emotional just now." Fred said. "It's either this map is malfunctioning, or someone managed to trick the entire magical Britain." Harry nodded in agreement, while frowning further. He couldn't remember name Pettigrew from the memories of Voldemort, but he was quite sure that the Dark Lord had had a follower to whom he addressed as 'Wormtail'. How strange...

"I don't know... Might be either." The young Potter breathed out, his mind still working on trying to find more about this 'Wormtail' character from the memories he had assimilated. "But maybe you should ask your brother or something? I'm not really on the best terms with Ron and it'd look even more strange if I approach him and ask something like 'are there any supposedly dead men sleeping in your bed?', will it not? But I still will be on the alert for anything strange happening around the castle." Harry said. The twins thought about it for several seconds, before nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, you're right, mate." Fred said. "It'd really be better if we do ask Ronnikins ourselves. And thanks for agreeing to help us. We'll really need someone else on the look out in case something really major is happening there." Harry nodded.

"I'll go then? I still need to start on my Runes homework." The twins though didn't really look like they'd allow him leave just yet. Likely, it had something to do with that little map of theirs.

"You will not divulge our secret to anyone, got it Potter?" George hissed at Harry, while Fred was blocking the exit from the classroom with magic. The green-eyed wizard sighed. Sure, he expected this, but it was still not helping his headache he was getting from thinking about Voldemort's servant 'Wormtal'.

"Do you want me to swear an oath or something? I won't give your secret away." He snapped at them unintentionally. The twins looked at each other.

"I reckon dad would not be very happy with us if we put him under some oath, right, oh brother of mine?" Fred asked. His twin nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, remember what happened when we tried to make Ronnikins swear an unbreakable vow? I think that was the only time when he was yelling at us and not mum." George replied, before turning to Harry. "Guess, we'll have to trust you... But you know what will happen should you give us away." The young Potter nodded.

"Don't worry, I won't." He said. The twins nodded to each other and finally let him leave the classroom... And as he was once again on his way back to the Gryffindor common room, the green-eyed wizard kept thinking about this whole situation uncovered by the twins' map. There still were some things that he didn't understand, like why would Pettigrew, if he was indeed alive, hide for years if everybody thought that it was Black, who betrayed Potters to Voldemort. The most plausible answer would be because it was him and not Black, who worked for the Dark Lord, but Tom's memories that Harry had skimmed through didn't have much if anything about any person named Peter Pettigrew, or... Were Pettigrew and that 'Wormtail' character the same person? That definitely would make sense, but it still sounded a bit far-fetched. Shaking his head, Harry decided to ponder on this sometime later as now it was giving him one massive headache...

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Peter Pettigrew was now scared, very very scared: it turned out that the map he, James, Remus and Sirius made when they were at school wasn't as lost in the Filch's office as they thought, and now someone had it. And this someone paid enough attention to it to discover him on it – the map wouldn't be fooled by his animagus form, unfortunately. And he didn't even knew who exactly had the map (even if he had a good idea), so stealing it to keep himself hidden wasn't really possible...

Sure, he could go on a killing spree, silencing everyone who might have heard even a single word about him not being dead, but this extreme action wasn't good either: not only Peter wasn't sure that he can take on a common-room-full of students and live, but doing something like this would actually alert the entire wizarding world that he was not as head as they thought... Trying to keep hiding by staying with Ronald Weasley too wasn't really an option now as the kill-on-sight order for Black was lifted and, once the DMLE catches him, Sirius definitely will be questioned under the veritaserum, which without any doubts will reveal that he – Peter Pettigrew – wasn't dead and actually was the Death Eater who sold Potters to the Dark Lord...

Speaking of the Dark Lord, according to the old fool Dumbledore, lord Voldemort wasn't dead, not completely at least, and now he was hiding somewhere in the forests of Albania. Peter frowned at this thought: knowing his master, the Dark Lord will not be happy with his followers that didn't even try to search for him after that fiasco with the Potters, but maybe, just maybe, being first to return to his side will save him from the worst of Voldemort's ire? Yes, likely, Pettigrew assured himself – if helped his master to regain his powers, then the Dark Lord might actually make him one of his lieutenants! So, Peter decided, he should flee the castle and start looking for lord Voldemort.

Of course, there still was huge problem that had the name of Sirius Black who, without any doubts was there to make him pay for what he did twelve years ago, but Pettigrew was pretty confident that, no matter how good the grim animagus was, he still will be able to slip past him as a rat...

So, in the early night on the April 22th, right after those in possession of the map came way too close to discovering that Scabbers the rat was actually him in disguise, Peter Pettigrew decided that it was about time he fled the castle, if he valued his freedom and his life. Good thing, it was almost full moon and he could see where he was going very well. Bad thing, it was true for the others as well. Peter had to avoid being captured and eaten by Mrs. Norris trice before reached the ground floor of the castle.

But now he no longer was inside the castle – a crack in the front doors really helped him there – and so he didn't need to care about that trice damned cat anymore. Actually, now he just had to reach the edge of Hogwarts wards and he could apparate away. Here Peter allowed himself to relax a little and dream about the good things he will be enjoying once the Dark Lord makes him his right hand...

Unfortunately for the rat animagus, as he was daydreaming, he didn't notice a big black grim-like dog approach him from the direction of Forbidden forest. And when he finally did notice the dog, its jaws were already closing around him, so he had no chances of escaping...

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The next day didn't start very well for Harry as he had to listen to Ron moaning to anybody who was willing to listen about how his rat had deserted him for the whole morning... And while it got quite annoying for the young Potter rather quickly, this also was like a proof that Scabbers the rat indeed was a Death Eater 'Wormtail' in disguise. And since he and the Weasley twins came too close to discovering his true identity, the rat animagus decided to flee while he still could.

Right now it was lunch and Ron was retelling the sad story of his rat's disappearance for what seemed to be a hundredth time, which was not helping Harry's mood at all – even Hermione said that he should relax and stop thinking about something so hard all the time! Harry shook his head: maybe he really should follow that advice?

"I think I'll go outside for some fresh air." He said once he finished his lunch. "I'll be by the Black lake if you need me." He added, before heading out of the Great hall and then out of the castle altogether. Harry thought then that maybe he should have done this earlier as the weather that day was great... As he approached his favorite spot on the bank of the Black lake, the young Potter noticed something near the edge of the Forbidden forest that was looking at him intently. But upon closer inspection, this something turned out to be just a huge dog or, maybe, a wolf. Shaking his head, Harry turned back to look at the lake, but sudden movement caused him look back to where the dog was. It wasn't there anymore – in its place there now was a wizard, though the shadows made it really hard to tell what he looked like... The last thing that Harry saw before the darkness claimed him was a red bolt of a knock-out spell speeding towards him...

That's all, folks!
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