Dear readers, as you can surmise from this update, I'm still alive... Yes, I know it's been months since I've update any of my stories, but I was really busy between my new work and writing my diploma at university. Now that I have my computer science mastery, I finally can resume writing stories. And here's the update for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord". I will try to update my other stories as soon as possible.

* Review response:
Penny is wise, geetac, Naginator, Dericof Diname, Nanashi113, thedad1961, magical fan18, Goldrune09, SilentMist121, Gruffard, r1ncewind1, ElementalMaster16, ceo55, Wyrtha, JPElles, McGeezel, acrazysmile, ALPHAQ69, Sk8ernv, Zobx, skywiseskychan, 573, FaleronDrace, durararaaa, nopparitari, Gracealma, klare, Arvingen, Lord Jace, majingoku2003, thank you for your reviews, folks!
The Swordslinger, well, I myself - as I've stated many times before - isn't the best romance writer out there. I'm better at generic adventure stuff.
Still Not Dead Yet, Kairan1979, SarahBear0627, hehehe.
Akuma-Heika, sorry. I'll do my best to bring everything here in order.
twilightnemo, who knows ).
CMVreud, it might actually be inspired by something similar.
Dragon and Sword Master, maybe because she's among the most probable ones? Daphne and Tori are also there, though not as much.

* AN: Beware, this chapter still has some vanilla stuff in it ^^

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "Freezing" anime/manga series.

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

chapter 64: Corrupted

Harry let out a tired but happy sigh when he finally returned to the Gryffindor common room. The Yule ball, like all prolonged social event was quite tiresome, even if he had spent the later half of it with Draconica alone in the gardens, where they didn't have to abide nearly as many restrictions on how to behave...

Still, a moment later his eyes landed on Katie who was leaning lightly against the wall not far away from portrait hole. The brunette, who looked even prettier than usual in her light-blue dress robes, appeared to be waiting for someone. To be more precise, she had been waiting for him – the young Potter learned it a moment later when the youngest of the Gryffindor Flying Foxes looked up at him while straightening herself up.

"Harry! I know that the ball may be already over, but... I haven't found you there, and... Can I have a dance with you?" Somehow, Katie managed to make her pleading eyes so big and innocent that the green-eyed wizard found himself unable to tell her 'no'. "Just one..." She added as a breathed out whisper, even if she already knew that he would dance with her. Letting out a sigh, the dark-haired teen offered the fair maiden in front of him his hand.

"Milady, may I have the honor of sharing the next dance with you?" The vixen gave him an eye-smile, as she accepted the offered hand. And somehow just knowing that Harry was giving her the lead, Katie led them towards a rather spacious and quite furniture-free corner of the common room. Absentmindedly, the green-eyed Potter noted that in this very corner a little less then a year ago his relationship with young Ms. Bell had ended ...on the less than pleasant note.

With a flick of her wand, the brunette turned on the Wizarding Wireless and soon found there a channel that was translating a Yuletide concert. Nodding to herself, the pretty witch put her wand away; and she did it in such a way to tease Harry mercilessly. Placing her hand back around his shoulders, the vixen started dancing, bringing the blushing young Potter out of the trans he had seemingly fallen into at the show she had put on for him with that...

~/ *** \~

Draconica's arrival to the Slytherin common room was quite eventful as well, though it was not as pleasant: apparently her little brother was still of an opinion that being as much as friendly with anyone not from Slytherin was a crime. Were he the only one of such a mindset, the situation would have been an easy one to resolve. Unfortunately, there were others who believed that Gryffindors, mudbloods and blood-traitors were the root of all things evil in the world. And while, these people were just a minority, they were a very vocal minority, and it was them who gave house Slytherin the reputation it had...

"So, it looks like we have a blood-traitor in our midst." Draconica wasn't sure who had said it, but she could clearly see her smirking brother and a small crowd of likely-minded individuals around him. It looked like they thought they could punish her for the supposed misdeed of going to the ball with Harry. Almost immediately, though, this crowd found themselves facing a superior numbers of those who thought that the Malfoy heiress had done nothing wrong...

"Mhm? Is getting the only lord – not a mere heir but a lord – among my peers as my date for the ball equals to being a blood-traitor these days? If I didn't know it better, I'd think that you are just jealous of me?" The blond witch said softly, but in such a way that everyone had heard her... It was both a nice retort as well as a veiled insult aimed at those who thought they were her betters and could judge her.

Indeed, at the moment Harry Potter was the only 'ringed' lord among the students of Hogwarts. And while house Potter was only a Noble one, they had a very long history and generally were well respected even by the blood purists. Some of those people even accepted Lily Evans as a somewhat worthy lady, given how prodigious the witch had been – there was no way she had been a mere muggleborn they had decided... For a moment Draconica entertained herself with an idea of telling these fools that Harry was also the current lord Slytherin, but quickly decided against it. Until she was his lady, only he had the right to let others know about this lordship of his.

"Well, if you have nothing else – intelligent this time, please – to say, I'll be going." The Malfoy heiress said after the silence reigned over the Slytherin common room for maybe a whole minute. Not even waiting for their response, the blonde began walking towards the door leading into the dormitory section of the dungeon. With her hand mere inches away from her wand, Draconica was ready to defend herself should anyone try cursing her. Not that anyone dared to attack her...

"Father will hear about this!" Basilius's voice stopped her in the doors: the brat was not satisfied with how the situation resolved itself and was now trying to use his strongest persuasive argument to bring her to his ways of thinking. As if something like that would work on her, the blond girl though to herself.

"Of course he will." Draconica said dismissively. She had no doubts that her brother will send a whining letter to their father, telling the man that she had been a very very bad girl tonight. But there wasn't much their father could do: at worst she'd get a scolding with a strict warning not to compromise her contract... With another roll of her shoulders the Malfoy heiress turned on her heels and disappeared towards her room in dungeon.

~/ *** \~

The next morning the events of the Yule ball – and one certain pairing in particular – were the main topics of the Hogwarts rumor mill. Since Harry and Draconica managed to be discrete enough with their relationship to be viewed as just associates or maybe friends, quite a few people were wondering, why the two of them went to the ball as partners? Or, if there was nothing going on between the them, why were their dances so impassioned?

There was a number of theories aiming to answer those questions, ranging from quite believable ones to outright ridiculous. Someone had even guessed correctly that Harry and Draconica were an item, but this 'theory' had been quickly dismissed in favor of the one where he had been dozed with love potions by the blond witch, so that she'd be among those opening the ball. Of course, there also was a theory in which it was him who had used Amortenia of all things to get himself a girl for the event... And a whole lot more theories that were so ridiculous that the young Potter had troubles not laughing out loud as he was listening to them. And it wasn't even the end of the breakfast yet!

Then the 'Daily Prophet' arrived. Of course, the Yule Ball was the central topic of the edition, though Harry was not sure how they managed to obtain the photos as he had not seen any reporters from the 'Prophet' – or any other wizarding media for that matter – at the ball. And while this was rather troubling, the article printed on the second page of the newspaper was so much more.

"We all remember well how the last Potter, using the magics most evil, had made everyone believe himself to be the chosen one and used this name to steal our gold and force the laws that suited his agenda, while our real savior was forced to live a substandard for his true station life. Thankfully, this evil plot had been discovered by our esteemed Chief Warlock Dumbledore, and Potter was forced to back off.

Unfortunately, our dear readers, it looks like being caught once was not enough to make the bastard cease his despicable actions altogether. This time, he decided to drain the coffers of a prominent and well-respected family, Malfoys, by ensnaring the only daughter of the Noble house with his evil powers..."

The article went on for another half of the page, portraying Harry in such a way that he appeared to be the source of all evil in the universe... It looked like Rita Skitter decided that she no longer wanted to be constrained about what she could write about the young lord Potter, and was now having her revenge against him for the lurid stories she had been forced not to write.

Thankfully, the young Potter was expecting something like this, and so he had no doubts that within twenty four hours Mr. L Bridget will force the retraction of this article, along with a hefty compensation from the 'Daily Prophet'. But until that happened, Harry had no doubts that he will have to deal with loads and loads of negative attention from his schoolmates for the time being...

Some damage control was in order, though. Mostly, to protect Draconica, who had never been a center of everyone's attention in such a way before. And, from the young Potter's perspective, the best solution was for the two of them to be seen together today, but in a way like they were just friends. This way, no one will be able to claim that any love potions were involved yesterday. The blond beauty immediately agreed to this plan, once Harry explained it to her after the breakfast.

Not really knowing what to do on a day like this, the green-eyed Potter proposed they have a picnic. While normally the idea of a picnic during the winter would have been rather ridiculous, even in the magical world, Harry, 'Nica and their friends, actually found themselves enjoying the nice and sunny weather as they sat on the carpet (provided by the castle's elves) on the side of the hill observing the Black lake. And with warming charms in place to keep the late December chill away from them, the teen even allowed themselves to remove their heavy winter cloaks...

Much like the dark-haired teen had hoped, seeing him with Draconica like this made the people think over what was written in the 'Prophet' this morning. And quite a few of those people came to a conclusion that Rita Skitter was pulling that story out of her ... rear. After all, if love potions had been involved, those two would either be all lovey dovey over each other or hiding from each other or at each others' throats... Either way, they wouldn't be sitting together and just chatting friendly.

Aside from that, this impromptu picnic had another effect on the inhabitants and guests of the Hogwarts castle: several groups of students, including even Beauxbatons and Durmstrangs, decided that they wanted to try this as well. By the lunch time Harry could spot at least seven other groups having their own 'picnics' all over the hill.

~/ *** \~

Unfortunately, only those within the Hogwarts castle got to see that the 'Daily Prophet' had printed lies about the young Potter. And as such, in the rare display of evening mail delivery, he received about a hundred owls of hate-mail during the dinner, several howlers included. Those were in the know about what those red envelopes happened to be, already moved to protect their hearing from the shouting storm that was about to commence.

It didn't, though, as Harry had hit them with animation-canceling charms as soon as he could. After all, howlers were a form of a matter animation with an added minor ward to block off external interference. And a piece of parchment, however, can contain a ward only so powerful, thus, a strong charm will be able to affect the damn shouting letter...

Stopping the howlers like that earned the green-eyed Potter quite a few thankful and even respectful looks from the students of, actually, all three schools. And had professor McGonagall not intervened, the Weasley twins would have made a spectacle by begging for Harry to teach them these awesome magics to defeat the evil letters.

The said teen, though, was too busy magically sorting through the received letter to pay them much attention. Knowing what kind of people Rita Skitter's usual readers were, he was expecting at least several letters to contain some nasty surprises. And even if there weren't any, being careful never hurt... Unfortunately, it looked like many wizards and witches of Great Britain were as bad as Harry thought them to be: out of forty three letters he had received, four will be found to be quite interesting by the DMLE.

Setting those envelopes aside and making sure no one touches them, the young Potter collected the rest of the letters and burned them with a flick of his wand till not even ashes remained – none of those were from anyone of any real importance. That done, the green-eyed teen switched his attention back to the letter he had set aside. Thankfully, for whatever reason, he had a silken bag he originally used during his horcrux hunts on him, and so the dangerous letters were quickly levitated into it. But it was too early to seal the bag and send it to the DMLE: Harry knew that it was possible that he'll receive more nasties tomorrow morning...

~/ *** \~

The 'Daily Prophet' that arrived the next morning with a rebuff on the article about Harry from the day before – it was quite clear to the said boy that L Bridgets had reminded the managers of the newspaper that one shan't print anything without confirming the facts from the article first... Though, those able to read between the lines could see that the managers of the 'Prophet' weren't truly sorry about this little ...mishap and, actually, only regretted the money they lost on paying the compensation to Mr. Potter.

And since this wasn't the first time when the certain witch-reporter had hurt the 'Daily Prophet' with her scandalous sensations, her contract was most likely terminated now. This morning quite a few prominent member of the Great Britain's magical community breathed a sigh of relief as they no longer had to be afraid that they'll suddenly become Skitter's newest sensation...

Anyway, the copy of the 'Prophet' aside, Harry had received quite a few letters with the morning owls. Majority of those were the hate letters that didn't quite make it to dinner yesterday (thankfully, none of those contained any nasty surprises), but there also was a letter from Violet the contents of which the green-eyed teen could guess very well – the blonde barrister was reporting her and her father's success in dealing with the 'Daily Prophet'. There also was a missive from Gringotts, which confirmed that twenty five thousands galleons had been transferred to the Potter vault yesterday. Finally, there were two letters from lord Malfoy: one addressed to Harry Potter, while the other was to his second alias, Hadrian Slytherin.

Glancing at the house Slytherin table, the green-eyed teen could see the Malfoy eagle-owl delivering a letter to Draconica, while her not-so-great little brother appeared to have a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Apparently, that letter contained Malfoy Sr.'s thoughts regarding his daughter's partner for the Yule ball... Well, if there was anything of any great importance in that letter, Harry was sure that 'Nica would fill him in. And he had his own letters from Lucius to deal with anyway...

Since the day wasn't as nice as the previous one – while it was still sunny, cold gale from north-east made it rather hard to stay outdoors for long time – the young Potter paid a quick visit to the owlry in order to send the dangerous letters to the DMLE for expertise, before heading to the library. Halfway there, though, he changed his mind and went to the arched windows overlooking the castle's yard where he had spent the morning of the day of the Yule ball... Maybe half an hour later he was found by Draconica there.

"So... Father too sent you a letter?" The blond girl asked after glancing at the envelopes that Harry had with him. The green-eyed wizard nodded in response.

"Yes, two actually." Making a short pause for a second to move a bit so that 'Nica could sit next to him, he continued: "In the one addressed to me as Harry Potter he appears to be so furious that I, lowly half-blood bastard, dared to even ask you to the ball... Actually, I think I should remind your father that despite being much younger than him, I'm still a lord of an equal standing, and disrespecting me like that does not speak well about the manners of the house Malfoy, what do you think?"

"You probably should." The blond beauty replied after several seconds. "But you should word that letter very carefully: father is known to be very short-tempered with those who, according to him, are beneath him and might do something nasty if there is as much as a veiled insult in your words." Nodding at this, Harry continued:

"Anyway, at the same time, in the letter that was addressed to me as Hadrian Slytherin, he all but begs me to marry you before you get completely corrupted by my Potter influence..." Sudden mischievous sparkles in Draconica's eyes were the only warning that the dark-haired teen got about the naughty idea the blond witch next to him had thought up...

Moving quickly and silently, almost like a ghost, 'Nica straddled him while wrapping her hands around his left one and pressing it into her assets. Then she dragged herself up against his body, still pressing his arm between her breasts, till their noses were all but touching. Then the blond vixen leaned forward and purred into his ear:

"So, am I corrupted enough?" Harry didn't even need to answer this question with words as the reaction of his body gave all the answers that Draconica needed...

That's all, folks!
Leave me a review.