Damn, the last month and a half was really really hectic for me. And my inspiration had decided to go on a vacation as well... Anyhow, now it seems to have returned to me, so, here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord". Enjoy!

* Review response:
Gruffard, ShadowCub, nopparitari, Slytherin Studios, Lord Jace, shugokage, FateBurn, lou2003us, Penny is wise, bloodshound, trispectrum, Furrubell, bookwormtx, the lord of the night, thank you for your reviews, folks!
The Swordslinger, I actually have no plans to condemn or redeem Snape at the moment. And given that only so many chapters remain till the end of the story, I don't foresee this changing. But, who knows...
The Dark Dragen, Mackayo, and ONCE AGAIN, I have no plans to settle for any possible candidate for lady Potter within the scope of this story. This story had been planned as an open-ended one from the very beginning, and I will not change that.
Dragon and Sword Master, no, those orbs aren't from canon. But I won't make any claims about being the one to introduce something like that first either. There is just way too many stories out there - this idea ought to have visited someone else.
JPElles, sorry to disappoint you, but Bellatrix will make no appearance in this story, beyond having her name mentioned by other characters.
Wolfang21, this story has about 5-7 chapters before I will call it complete. The point?

* AN: And yet another filler chapter. But the next... three will be almost completely action, so, bear with me here.

* 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 70: Approaching the task

"So... Did they really show what the Third Task will be?" Draconica asked once Harry had returned to their suite. "They had been surprisingly tight-lipped about it until now. Even our groundskeeper managed to keep his keep a still tongue in his head." Indeed, even Hagrid hadn't been talking much about what the upcoming Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament will be – all that was known was the fact some of his 'little pets' will be involved in the task somehow.

"Yeah. They did." The young lord Slytherin confirmed. "It will be a maze with beasts and magics in place to slow the champions down. Hopefully, there won't be anything too dangerous out there, but..." The blond beauty nodded. It was quite possible that some of the obstacles in the maze might turn out to be quite deadly actually. Given that Hagrid was the one providing the beasts, and how screwed the man's notion of 'cute' was, one might almost see an acromantula hiding in some nook...

"Anything else?" The pretty vixen asked, wanting to know a few more details about the task her mate will be participating in a mere month.

"Well,.." Harry replied as he took a seat on the sofa next to her. "According to them, the champions shan't meet each other anywhere but in the very center of the maze, where the Goblet of Fire will be placed. And the one who touches the Goblet first will win the task and the tournament... And scattered all over the maze there will be locked gates that can be opened with the orbs like the one I got in the Second Task."

"So..." She breathed out as she nestled against his side. "Do you think it will be possible to map out this maze for the task?" After all, such map would be one of the greatest advantages one could have.

"Unless we can get our hands on a pensieve, I doubt it." The green-eyed teen replied, draping his right arm around his beautiful lady, pulling her even closer to himself. "They didn't let us study what was there for much time. And with how the maze is surrounded by the wards right now, sneaking in will be all but impossible..." After a little pause, he added, almost as an afterthought: "And it is even possible that the maze is or will be charmed to change over the time..."

"Ow..." Draconica pouted. She really wanted her hubby to succeed. And a little bit of cheating was an integral of the damn tournament anyway... There was a pretty long pause. Then she asked: "So... How are you going to do to prepare for the task?" It was quite a long time, before the green-eyed lord Slytherin gave his answer:

"I'll need to work on my four-point spell and other navigation spells." He said. "Aside from that... There are just so many magical traps one could place in that maze... I don't think I really should go beyond the most generic counters and defensive spells for those. As for the creatures, though... Those are more limited, and looking for specific ways to deal with them should not be all that hard. Though... Something tells me that these blast-ended skrewts Hagrid has been working on this whole year will be involved in the task." Draconica nodded.

"Yeah, you are probably right." Why else would such creature would be allowed to be bred?

"Those seems to be quite resistant to spells... I will have to research their weak point if I'm indeed to meet one of those in the maze."

"I'll see, what I can find on these." The blond vixen said, before adding with a small smile: "No promises that I will find anything truly useful, though." Harry chuckled at that.

"Of course, of course, dear." He said, before giving her a light kiss. Then, he asked: "Now, the sun is still pretty, why don't we hit the library now?" 'Nica pushed herself off him a bit, before pausing to think about something. Then she plopped back against his side.

"Nope, don't wanna. Too comfortable..." She mumbled barely above the whisper as she snuggled closer to her mate, causing him to sigh and shake his head at her antics.

~/ *** \~

Just a few days later, a new problem appeared for the young lord and lady Slytherin. And it appeared in the form of a report from the goblins, whom Harry had hired to scan his incoming mail. Apparently, a number of house-witches suddenly got it into their heads that the two teen's marriage was nothing more than the way for the young Potter to get Draconica as his slave and plaything to do whatever his little black heart desired with her. According to the goblins, quite a few of those hateful letters – those that weren't just simple howlers – also had some nasty surprises in them, these 'surprises' ranging from bubotuber pus to some low-level curses.

Now, this was interesting. Judging by the sheer number of those hateful letters that the goblins had stopped, this bout wasn't exactly a random occurrence. Whoever was behind attack against the green-eyed teen, was using the mostly-unsuspecting sheeple of Great Britain as his or her puppets. And since the attack was launched through some of the yellow press newspapers or whatnot, doing anything to counter the rumors will be not an easy task, even if the L Bridgets were already notified about the situation and began working on righting the situation.

The situation has gotten only worse come lunch as the as of yet unknown source of that libel managed to infiltrate into the castle. A lot of the students were now whispering behind their backs wherever they went and many were sending Draconica the looks of pity, while a great deal of the girls and some boys were trying to place Harry six feet under with their hateful glares. Thankfully, none were brave enough to try and throw curses at him yet...

This whole mess reached its apogee in the evening, when a group of aurors led by Kingsley Shacklebolt marched into the Great hall and demanded for the lord and lady Slytherin to submit for a examination conducted by the auror corps' healers and the unspeakables. To the surprise of quite a few people that had believed the rumors about the couple, Harry and Draconica agreed to this examination without any hesitation. Though, the green-eyed wizard did demand for his barrister to be present there, along with a Hogwarts professor – such a demand was well within his rights.

Once Kingsley agreed to those conditions, the green-eyed wizard used a charmed pin to alert his barrister that he needed her help, just like he did it all the way back on Halloween when the trice damned Goblet of Fire had forced him into the Triwizard tournament. That done, the couple surprised Pomona Sprout by asking her to be the professor present during the examination. But surprised she may be, professor Sprout still agreed to take this role upon herself.

Once this was settled, the aurors and unspeakables escorted the Slytherin couple and the Hogwarts' Herbology professor out of the Great hall and to the hospital wing. Now they only needed to wait for Ms. L Bridget and they could begin... Somehow, it turned out that Violet knew that something like this could happen, so it took her less that half an hour to gather everything she'd need and get to Hogwarts. And with her finally there, the examination of the lord and lady Slytherin began...

This examination was quite thorough and lasted at very least an hour and a half. But still nothing really was discovered; just a powerful contraceptive potion in Draconica's blood and some distant signs of the lovemaking she and Harry had two nights ago. Neither auror healers, nor unspeakables could not detect any mind-controlling substances nor enchantments anywhere on the couple...

In the end, the delegation from the Ministry was forced to acknowledge that the rumors the truthfulness of which they were trying to verify here were nothing more than a libel sucked out of one's finger. Kingsley Shacklebolt, as the official leader of the delegation gave the Slytherin couple the official apology. He also gave them a certified copy of the examination's results as per Harry's request – the green-eyed teen was planning to use this one to counteract that rumor about himself and his lady that was spreading through the yellow press by making an official statement to the 'Daily Prophet', a newspaper that carried much more political weight than those rags.

~/ *** \~

Lucius of the Noble house Malfoy was quite annoyed. Very much so. His plan to destroy that brat Potter had started almost well, but now, thanks to the hasty interference of those DMLE dogs and unspeakables, it was all but completely ruined... Curse it all!

Indeed, his plan had started so well as Rita Skitter was more than willing to write lots and lots of nasty stories about the boy. Hell, she even agreed to write them as anonymous reports just for a little bit of extra gold – something she rarely did. The brat must have really earned her ire if she agreed to do it that way... Alas, it turned out that the chief editor of the 'Daily Prophet' would not to print anything bad about Potter without verifying that it was the truth first.

It had forced Lucius to resort to selling the articles to the lesser newspapers, the ones usually read by housewives and similar unimportant people. Of course, with this he will not reach the target audience he had been aiming for originally, yes, but... But the great number of angry witches, even if they would be no one of any importance, might turn out to be a force much greater than even a number of pureblood lords – this was one of those cases when strength was in sheer numbers. Plus, Lucius had thought, with commoner witches from all over the Britain attacking Potter, he would not even be suspected as the instigator.

Alas, now that the DMLE had interfered, Potter almost certainly had a way to prove himself innocent of the sins he had been accused of in Rita's articles. And since the brat will be able to have this proof printed in the 'Daily Prophet', it meant that he won this round... Yes, maybe Potter had indeed won this time, but the 'war' was just starting, and in Lucius' mind there was no doubt that a pureblood wizard like himself will soon annihilate the lowly half-blood bastard that had dared to sully the name of the Noble house of Malfoy!

Then, there was another thing. The Dark Lord's mark kept getting darker and more pronounced with each passing day. And there was only one possible explanation to that: Voldemort was getting more powerful and prepared to once again grace the world with his presence. Yet, Lucius wasn't sure he actually wanted that to happen.

No, the Malfoy patriarch was still a pure-blood supremacist that thought that the lesser beings, be they humans or otherwise, should either be slaves to the true wizards and wizards, or be wiped from the face of the Earth. No, his problem with the Dark Lord was of entirely different nature – Lucius, now was not a young man just a couple of year out of Hogwarts. Now he was a man who had tasted the freedom of being his own lord, and so he didn't want to be a mere follower, even if of a greater wizard, again.

Still, the approaching return of the Dark Lord meant that Potter brat's days were all but numbered. And soon after him, all of the blood-traitors and impure ones would be cleansed from this world!

~/ *** \~

The last Hogsmeade weekend of the school year this time happened during the first weekend of May. And a certain man in disguise used the fact that all of the children around him were too preoccupied with enjoying the nice day to slip away from the crowds and pay a visit to his master.

"Junior, what brings you to this dark lair, my faithful servant?" Voldemort, who still stuck in that ugly homunculus body of his, asked when Barty Crouch Jr., still disguised as Alastor Moody walked into the guestroom of the Riddle mansion in Little Hangleton. The disguised wizard bowed deeply to the Dark Lord, before answering:

"My Lord, I have heard of you plight, caused by the Potter. And no matter what that brat may say, you are the only true heir to the great Salazar Slytherin, my lord..." After making a pause that lasted for a few seconds, Junior continued: "I never dared to ask you this question while stuck in the castle under the old fool's nose, but do you want me to deal with the Potter's girl while you show that son of the mudblood his place, my lord?" Voldemort shifted in his ...throne, his eyes focused on his servant and the current agent within Hogwarts.

"Of course. Lucius's daughter might become a great obstacle to my triumphal return, and you should indeed take care of her in a very permanent fashion. And I want her to die before I off Potter himself." The Dark Lord said.

"How do you want me to achieve that, my lord?" Junior asked, before taking a flask and gulping down yet another mouthful of the disgusting potion he was forced to drink hourly in order to maintain his disguise.

"I will need Potter to be alive for a little while after he is brought here at the end of Third task. You should have at least fifteen minutes to find and kill her. And I want you to do that without been seen. You are very useful to me, and I'd rather not lose you yet. Find a way to get her alone and away from the old fool and his cronies." Voldemort replied. "Be warned, though: despite turning out to be a blood-traitor, the girl was raised in a proper family – she will not be some little naïve fool you can deceive easily. But I have my faith in you, Junior."

"Of course, my lord, I shall not fail you." The man wearing the face of Alastor Moody said. "Now, please, let me return to the castle, before anyone gets suspicious of my disappearance, my lord."

"Of course." The Dark Lord agreed. "We all should everything in our power not to attract the old fool's attention. And old and foolish he may be, I would rather not have Dumbledore interfering with my plans." Junior bowed, before turning around and walking out of the guestroom.

~/ *** \~

A few days later, Harry and Draconica were having their lunch as they sat at the Slytherin table, though unlike how it usually was, Daphne and Tracey weren't with them – those two had actually somehow forgotten about an essay that was due to the very next lesson, so the girls most likely were in the library, trying their best to complete their homework before the deadline... Thus, the couple couple only had young Astoria for the company.

Suddenly the young Potter randomly looked at the professor's table, where his eyes caught something interesting.

"Hm..." The green-eyed teen grunted as he watched professor Moody make a gulp from his flask, before the scarred man returned to his meal.

"What is it, Harry?" The blond beauty of his his wife asked as she tried to understand what had gotten her mate's attention. After all, by now Hogwarts' inhabitants so used to Moody's habit of drinking from his flask at seemingly random times that no one thought it was even remotely strange anymore.

"Doesn't professor Moody always drink from his flask during the meals?" The dark-haired wizard asked. Both Draconica and Astoria looked like they wanted to as 'so what?'. But they didn't as Harry continued: "But don't you find it strange that he seems to be doing this at nearly exactly the same time every day?" Lady Slytherin hummed some unintelligible sound as she listened to her mate. "Actually, now that I think about it, didn't he gulp something from that flask of his during the DADA lesson today?" Thinking back to the last class the fourth year Gryffindors and Slytherins had had before the lunch, the blond beauty had to agree with Harry's observation.

"And that happened just a little less that an hour ago." She commented.

"Well, isn't that strange?" He asked then. "I highly doubt that Moody would be drinking some normal beverage at such regular times, hm? It gotta be some kind of a potion." Draconica couldn't help but agree silently with his reasoning: who would drink fire-whiskey or whatever every hour for several months? "I won't claim to know everything, but... There aren't many potions that must be administered hourly, and the ones used for healing purpose wouldn't be prescribed to someone who can move under their own strength."

"But if it isn't medical potion... Then what is it?" The young and beautiful lady Slytherin asked then, almost fearing the answers she might be given.

"I don't know." Harry replied. "I have a few ideas, but I sincerely hope that those are wrong... Anyway, this whole thing now looks quite suspicious to me. 'Nica, dear, I want you to be, ahem, constantly vigilant from now on. If you think that Moody – or someone else for that matter – tries something suspicious, just stun them... I don't want to lose you." He said as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze under the table. Draconica return it.

"Same goes for you, Harry. Be vigilant and make sure that you definitely return to me." Then with a playful grin she added: "I still have some plans for you." The green-eyed teen smiled back at her.

"Of course, as my lady wants." Then, getting serious again, he addressed to Astoria: "The same goes for you, Tori. You should be careful, and don't hesitate to protect yourself if you think you might be in danger." The younger witch nodded.

That's all, folks!
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