Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord". Enjoy!

* Review response:
sh8ad8ow, shaman95naruto, anarion87, reven228, Lord Mortensen, The Swordslinger, Shattering, roos1414, WritinGod05, Naginator, irishdaddy0204, Wyrtha, pandora vanity, Gruffard, draconic skysong, geetac, lou2003us, pinky9292, Thenchick, Pric3y, twilightnemo, Dragon and Sword Master, nopparitari, Penny is wise, jordan. 94, Ke1MIIR, r1ncewind1, Dman303, thank you for your reviews, folks!
discb, not literally. At least for now.
Silverstargirl, u-um... you meant Draconica?
emarald777, no, he is going to [spoiler] blast some things in anger.
Mordalfus Grea, well, that's Lucius for you. Canon Draco had to get his short temper and rushing head first into the action from somewhere.
lynxreader, I was thinking about leaving her as a partial one: she can understand, but can't speak. Not really sure about this one, though. Might change might mind, though. As for that new basilisk...
chucknasty, no, I'm not planning to give Harry ANY animagus forms.

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

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

chapter 68: Lady Draconica

Having finished his quick breakfast, Lucius retired to his study. Unlike his wife, who could enjoy a long morning tea, he was a busy a busy man and needed to oversee the dealings of the Noble house Malfoy. This, of course, included going through the owl-delivered letters that he got almost every morning... And today he had received four letters. The first two were from lord Parkinson and from one of his business contacts in the Knockturn alley.

Those two were important, no doubt, but certainly less important than the missive from Gringotts. He had been really really angry after seeing his only daughter run away with the Potter brat, so he was afraid that the goblins might actually try bringing some charges against him for his less than civil behavior yesterday. But, thankfully, it turned out that the letter was nothing more than a notification about a large sum of seventy five thousands galleons being added to his vaults with the comment on the transaction being "the bride price".

Now, this was strange. Why would he be getting this gold if Draconica had ran away with some half-blood bastard, instead of marrying the Noble lord she had been contracted to? And, to be honest, Lucius had no answer to this question, even if some suspicions were now creeping into his mind... Now actually scared by what he might find in it, he reached for the last letter – well, not even a letter but just a folded parchment. He could feel the weight of the sealing wax, though, for whatever reason, the seal was on the inside rather than on the outside...

Opening the folded parchment, the head of the house Malfoy found himself staring at just four neatly-written words, without any doubt written by Draconica's own hand.

Your loss, lord Malfoy.

These words were followed by the sealing wax bearing an impression of a coat of arms that any wizard or witch – even a damn mudblood – that ever attended Hogwarts would recognize instantly. After all, there was only one house in the magical Britain that had a serpent and just a serpent on its coat of arms. Still... How could Draconica become a lady Slytherin?! Especially when she chose to be with that damn half-blood Potter?!

The Dark Lord was the last known member of the Ancient and Noble house Slytherin... Then the realization hit Lucius like the steam engine of the Hogwarts express. Dark Lord had been defeated by the Potter brat... And by the rite of conquest, the boy himself became the lord Slytherin when he got emancipated a little more than a year and a half ago.

Damn... he had been had by two teenagers barely out of their diapers! That was not the end of the troubles for Lucius, though. Because he had disowned his daughter without a proper reason – now he knew that – his reputation in the circles that mattered was badly damaged... At least, he hadn't set that Skitter woman upon Potter yet: this attack would have been a political suicide for the house Malfoy. Even now, Lucius was sure, it will take him a lot of gold and a lot of work to restore the 'good' name of his house... And the worst, no matter how much he wanted to have his revenge on Potter brat for this, he could not attack him in the open, in any way.

Feeling rage rising within him, the head of the Noble house Malfoy quickly headed out of his study and outside of the house, stomping angrily towards the back door of the manor. He really needed to blast something to pieces right now, and destroying anything within the manor walls would only bite his proverbial ass later.

Narcissa was finishing her morning tea when she heard her husband stomp angrily out of the house. Something had made him very angry, more so than he was yesterday, when he came with the news about their only daughter's 'betrayal' – the blonde witch was quite that the things were a bit more complicated than what her husband had told her... Regardless, whatever made him lose his temper like that ought to be something big, something that might affect not just him, as great a political player as he was, but the entire house Malfoy. And because of that, it was something she too needed to know, and the sooner the better.

Making her way to her husband's study, Narcissa immediately noticed several opened letters on the table there. Coming closer, the lady Malfoy saw the quick note which, without any doubts, had been written by her, now irreversibly disowned by her hasty lord, daughter. And just like it had happened with Lucius, Narcissa's eyes were immediately drawn to the coat of arms impressed on the sealing wax. Of course, she too recognized it immediately, and after a moment of thinking, she too came to a conclusion that Harry Potter was also the lord Slytherin.

"Looks like my little Draconica is doing well enough." Narcissa said to herself softly as she placed the letter back on her husband's table. She could see why Lucius was angry about this, but, honestly, losing the power and prestige that came with having your daughter marry into an Ancient and Noble house was his own mistake... Shaking her head as she silently prayed that her husband won't any more stupid things, Narcissa left the study.

~/ *** \~

It was close to noon, when the newly-bonded Slytherin couple finally woke up. They both hadn't gotten any sleep until well into the night, and not just because they had been acting on their hormones. Both Harry and Draconica were used to sleeping in their own beds, and quite large ones at that, so sharing one led to them accidentally kicking and pushing each other quite a bit as they were falling asleep... Still as they eventually found the way to lie together without disturbing each others' peace, both would eagerly agree that they'd rather not sleep apart from now on...

After using some magic to the effect of the morning coffee and some slow and sensual kissing that followed it, the blonde vixen decided that it was time for some serious talk. And they did have things to discuss.

"Harry?" She asked quietly as she moved away from him a bit – it was so hard to have a serious conversation... well, any meaningful conversation with your equally naked loved one when there was any skin contact, after all... The dark-haired teen, still looking into her eyes, let out a not-really-intelligible sound to acknowledge that he was listening. "Have you given a though about whom you will make your lady Potter?"

"What?!" Somehow he managed not to shout, though it was very clear that the question had caught him completely off guard. Draconica didn't say anything to clarify her query, so Harry had to ask for that himself. "What do you mean by that? Can't you do that as well?" The youthful beauty shook her head.

"I wish I could... After all, I'm quite selfish and you're most definitely not something... someone I really want to share with anyone. But at the same time, I can't bear with the thought that I might be the one who spelled the end of the Noble house Potter." After a small pause, she continued: "As it is, though, I'm not eligible to become lady Potter; not after you made me lady Slytherin."

"But don't you have some Potter blood in you?" The green-eyed wizard asked back. Draconica sighed softly and shook her head before sitting up, somehow managing to pull an excellent image of an educator despite being stark naked.

"I do, of course, but I'm not related to the main family close enough to be able to become a lady Potter without someone bestowing the Potter family magics upon me. And since you already gave me the magics of house Slytherin..." She didn't finish, though Harry got the message well enough: you can't have two different family magics bestowed upon you. Likewise, you can't bestow the same one onto two different people.

He had studied the tomes explaining the rules of the inheritance of magical lordships... Though, apparently, he didn't study them well enough... Or maybe the fact that a witch needed to be related rather closely to his family in order to become a dual lady just slipped from his mind in the whirlwind of preparations for his bonding with Draconica?

Regardless, now he found himself in a situation where, should he wish for the house Potter to live on – and did want that – he needed to find himself another girl. Honestly, was there a girl that wasn't his diehard fangirl or a gold-digger out for his gold that would agree to this? Not to mention, he had troubles imagining how this menage a trois might work without the ladies trying to kill each other...

"Harry?" Apparently, he was so deep in his thoughts over this matter that 'Nica had to call his name to get him back to reality... Shaking his head lightly, the green-eyed wizard let out a barely intelligible sound to 'tell' his lady that he was listening to her. "Harry, please, promise me that you... That you will never-... mpfh..." Somehow guessing what his lady was going to say, the green-eyed teen stopped her from saying those painful things by claiming her lips in a deep kiss. It lasted for a little while, and when they parted, the young lord Slytherin whispered:

"I will never do something to hurt you that much..." He made a pause, before adding with an apologetic smile: "Intentionally..." Draconica eyed him for a moment, before kissing him herself, conveying all of her relief and happiness through it.

~/ *** \~

The next day the recently-bonded couple had to return to the Hogwarts castle as the short Easter holiday was over and the classes were going to resume the day after that. And since they had little desire to make a scene with their arrival, the pair decided that they will return during the dinner time, while everyone else will be at the Great hall. For the very same reason they also decided to wear their usual clothes, though Draconica added an emerald-green shawl with the Slytherin coat of arms in silver over her shoulders.

Much like they've planned, all of the students and most of the Hogwarts professors were in the Great hall when they arrived. Thus, even though they walked into the castle through the front doors, their return remained unknown for the moment... Well, Dumbledore likely had felt them crossing the ward line, but since neither Harry nor his beautiful 'Nica were centerpieces of the old schemer's plans right now, he didn't really care about them...

Upon reaching the main staircase, the young couple parted after sharing a quick kiss. The green-eyed wizard headed upstairs to McGonagall's office. And while he was sure that the deputy headmistress was having her dinner in the Great hall right now, he felt that waiting for her by her office's door would be a better course of action right now. Even if all that he needed from her was the pass-phrase for his and 'Nica's new living quarters... Meanwhile, the blond beauty headed into the dungeon's depths to the Slytherin common room. She simply wanted to see, whether there were some new and important messages posted on the bulletin board there – professor McGonagall had told them a week ago that such boards for their suite likely won't be ready until several days after they returned to the castle.

As it turned out, nothing of any interest to her had been posted there, so with her curiosity sated, Draconica turned around and headed out of the dungeon. She already knew where her and Harry's suite will be, so she'll just wait for him there. Unfortunately, it seemed that she took the wrong moment to try to sneak out of the Slytherin common room as not fifteen yards away from the secret door she ran into a large group of her housemates, along with her no-longer-brother.

The said brat froze for a moment upon seeing her; then he started ranting, something along the line of how she was a disgrace to the house Malfoy and how she should go and kill herself and other things like that. True, some of those things were hurtful, but Draconica kept telling herself that she was strong and did her best to tune the unwanted rant out, so most of those went over her head. She also made a show of studying her nails – something that Basilius didn't notice, too occupied with shouting his tirade out – which caused some of the Slytherin to snicker quietly behind the pompous brat's back... Finally the heir Malfoy ran out of steam and Draconica decided that it was the time for her little 'counterattack'.

"And you, little mister." The blond vixen hissed out in a loud whisper. "Should probably learn to recognize when the person you're talking to is your better. You've just insulted a lady of an Ancient and Noble house. Don't you know what might happen next?" A short pause to let her words sink in later she continued: "Anyhow, I have more important thing to do than argue with you. Pray that my lord forgives you for these insults, brother." And with her head held high, she continued on her way out of the dungeon. And as she passed by the crowd of her housemates, everyone could see the coat of arms on her shawl.

A little down the corridor, Draconica ran into another group of Slytherin students returning to their common room after the dinner, and the Greengrass sisters, along with Tracey, were among them.

"Wow, 'Nica, you're already back? We've thought we wouldn't see till tomorrow morning." Daphne said as the four girls dove into a small nook of the corridor – it'd be not so easy to have a proper conversation in the crowded passage.

"Yeah. The classes resume tomorrow morning, so we decided that returning to the castle then would just be way too troublesome." The other three beauties, even the little ball of endless energy by the name Astoria, all nodded in understanding. Meanwhile, Draconica continued: "And I'm quite sure you three have a lot of things you want to ask me. Why don't we all retire to my and Harry's quarters and I'll try to answer your questions there?" As all of her friends eagerly agreed to this, the young lady Slytherin began guiding them out of the dungeons and upstairs to where the aforementioned married quarters were.

The lord and lady Slytherin were still having their conversation with Tracey and the Greengrass sisters – 'Nica had a couple of questions to the girls too. Namely she wanted to know, whether it was someone from Hogwarts that had ratted her bonding with Harry out to her father – when one of the castle's ghosts floated into the rather small guestroom of the married suite and announced that the headmaster wanted to talk to Draconica about something.

"You think you will be alright?" The green-eyed wizard asked when his bonded one decided that she wanted to deal with that right away. "Should I come with you?" The said blond beauty waved her hand dismissively.

"Harry, I know you don't trust Dumbledore, and I agree with you there. But do you really think he will try something against us? To him we're just two other students of the school" She whispered to back him. "I'm quite sure that he just wants to know about the payments for my schooling, now that I'm not a Malfoy anymore." The young lord Slytherin thought about it for a few moments, before nodding in agreement.

"Alright." He said. Standing up with her, he gave her a hug, before letting her follow the messenger ghost out of their suite. "Be safe." He called after her.

A few minutes later, Draconica stepped into the headmaster's office. And since this was her first time coming there, she was undeniably curious about this ...chamber, and rightfully so, as the office indeed was full of various magical wonders ranging from some rare trinkets to a living phoenix sitting majestically on a golden perch. Yet, the blond beauty didn't allow the sight of those wonders to blind her completely as she kept an eye on the headmaster himself, just in case Harry was right about him having some sinister plans in mind.

"Do you know why I've summoned you here, young lady?" Albus Dumbledore asked, peering at her over his half-moon spectacles. Then, as if remembering that he was yet to offer her a sit, he did just that. "Oh, and do have a sit."

"Thank you." 'Nica replied, taking a sit across the table from the headmaster. "And no, but I do have my suspicions." After a brief pause she continued: "Does it have anything to do with the ways my tuition will be paid in the future?"

"Indeed." Dumbledore replied. "As you should know, your fa-... lord Malfoy had been paying you tuition on yearly basis. And with you getting disowned... While he can't withdraw the money paid for this year, unless you can pay for your own education starting with the next semester, I'm afraid, you will have to find yourself another school to continue your education." Draconica placed her hands on the table in front of herself, making sure that the headmaster could see her lady's ring.

"If you know that I've been disowned, you must also know that I'm married now. And I'm quite sure that my lord would no say 'no' to me continuing my education there." Getting an 'ow!' out of the ancient wizard, 'Nica decided that it was about time for her to leave and return to her Harry's side. "If that would be all, I'd be very thankful if I could be dismissed, headmaster."

"Yes, you may go." Dumbledore replied, almost on an autopilot, his mind stuck on the ring the young lady in front of him was wearing. He could easily recognize it as the Slytherin house ring, but he had troubles imagining how it found its place on the said lady's finger. Wasn't Tom Riddle, better know as lord Voldemort, the last of the Slytherin bloodline? If so, how come Draconica nee Malfoy marrying him had resulted in her being cast out of her family? Wasn't Lucius Malfoy one of the greatest Dark Lord's supporters? Was it possible that Magical Britain now had a new lord Slytherin? And if so, who it was?

Dumbledore was quite sure that Tom Riddle was the last of Gaunts and Slytherins by blood, thus, if the Slytherin lordship was passed to someone else, it had to be my magical inheritance... or by the rite of conquest... And now that he knew that Draconica was married to Harry Potter, Albus came to a conclusion that the said wizard was that new lord Slytherin...

For the first time in a year and a half, Dumbledore found himself wondering, whether the brother wands were indeed the 'mark of equal' from the prophecy. Because if they weren't, he had made a great mistake and estranged the child of prophecy from the light and from himself...

That's all, folks!
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