A/N: I'm well aware that this is late, and not the promised Interlude. I apologize, but I haven't had the energy. I have started on the Interlude, and hopefully it'll be done sometime next week.
For now, I give you a short special and wish you all happy Easter.
This is partly plot relevant, partly for my own entertainment.
Harry was exhausted to his bones when he woke up, and nuzzled closer to the warm mass next to him in hope to fall asleep anew. It took his sleep befuddled mind a moment to recognize the warm mass as a body, and yet another moment to remember what had happened before he fell asleep. He shot up from the bed quick as lightning, and Tom looked back at him with bemusement.
"I had a breakdown." Harry stated, his voice clipped. "And my magic attacked."
"You did. I don't see any obvious changes though." Tom said, and got up from the bed. He stepped close to Harry, and gripped Harry's chin. Tom turned his head in different directions. "I retract my statement. Your cheekbones and neck are covered in white, but transparent scales. They glitter in the light."
"Fantastic." Harry sighed. "Let's have breakfast. I can't deal with this right now, and I feel like I haven't eaten in a week." He glared pointedly at Tom, who only smiled in response.
"Breakfast then, though I think it's actually time for lunch now." Tom agreed, and moved his hand from Harry's chin, to Harry's wrist. He dragged the younger man with him to the kitchen and sat him down in a chair.
Harry watched as Tom prepared them both a light lunch. He was absentmindedly playing with the ring on his finger. He would have to ask Tom about it later, but right now he wanted to think about literally anything else than the mess that was his life.
"What are those eggs that you keep in the cooled cupboard?" he asked after a while. They had been a mystery to him for far too long.
"Basilisk eggs." Tom answered distractedly, as making food took up much of his concentration.
"...but they're not chicken eggs, and I haven't seen any toad around here." Harry commented, his tone laced with confusion.
"Did you or did you not get an O in Care of Magical Creatures?" Tom asked. "A basilisk can lay eggs. Those are eggs laid by a basilisk, hence I said basilisk eggs."
"We didn't go into detail when it came to basilisks." Harry defended himself. "I assume you don't get a basilisk from a basilisk egg. How come you keep them in the cooled cabinet? Where did you even get them?"
"I don't know for sure, but I think you're right. I keep them in the cooled cabinet because Nagini is least likely to get in there and eat them. I found them in the Chamber of Secrets."
"Yet you had them out for breakfast once, which I really want to know why. Also- did you say the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry asked, incredulous.
"I don't know how to hatch them, so I take them out sometimes." Tom answered, and put down two plates on the table. Harry looked down to see two slices of toast with baked beans and a fried egg. He raised an eyebrow at Tom in silent question.
"It's a chicken egg, child." Tom said with badly hidden amusement. "The Chamber of Secrets, yes. I found it in my fifth year. It was in the girls bathroom on the second floor actually, definitely not a place I would have thought to look at." he answered, as he sat down.
"How come you did?" Harry asked, and gave his egg yolk a poke with his fork. It was highly unlikely that Tom would feed him a basilisk egg, but you could never be too careful.
"I had looked pretty much everywhere else." Tom answered with a shrug. "It was worth a shot."
"Okay. Back to the basilisk eggs. Why didn't you leave them in the chamber?"
"With a basilisk that has exceeded her natural life-span with at least a hundred years, to be forgotten about?"
"I concede your point." Harry answered, and took a bite of his toast. "We should try to hatch one. See what kind of breed it is. Speak with it, maybe it's aware of what happens outside its egg?"
Tom looked consideringly at Harry for a long moment, that they both spent quietly eating.
"You are Echidna…" he began carefully. "If anyone can hatch one of the eggs, it would be you."
Harry tilted his head to the right as he considered it. If he did, it would be an act of procrastination, but it definitely interested him… he had no idea how to even begin to try though.
"I don't know how I would do it, but it's worth a try. After we've eaten."
"I'm sure we'll think of something. I don't think you'll have to actually incubate the egg at least." Tom grinned.
Harry flicked a piece of egg at him with the help of the fork, before going back to eating.
He stared at the basilisk egg that Tom had handed to him. It was as big as an ostrich egg if he were to guess, and he had to hold it carefully in both hands. His magic danced over it, as if it were waiting for him to do something. Harry took a deep breath, and following his instincts he sent a wave of magic at the egg. As the magic sunk down in the shell, the egg heated up in his hands. Harry gave a small gasp as the egg burnt him, before cooling down. Tom sent him a worried glance, but Harry was too focused on the egg to notice.
It was Tom that gasped when the first crack in the shell came. They held their breath in expectation as they watched the crack get bigger, until there was a hole in the shell. At first, nothing happened, but then a snake head stuck its head out and looked at them curiously before turning its eyes towards Harry with a hiss of recognition.
"Mother!" the snake gasped. "I'm honored that You decided to hatch me, Mother."
"Eh… you're welcome?" Harry answered. He felt very awkward right now, and more so when the snake left the egg in favor of curling itself around his arm. "May I ask what and who you are?"
"I'm Eglė, the Queen of Serpents. Born from a basilisk, I'm a Shahmaran."
"Shahmaran is a Turkish myth." Tom chimed in. "Shahmaran was said to be the Queen of Serpents. She was an intelligent woman, with the lower body of a snake. A bite from her head gave you knowledge, but a bite of her scales killed you. Eglė is from a Lithuanian myth, and was also the Queen of Serpents. She was a young girl that found a serpent in her clothes, after she had bathed with her sisters. To get the snake to leave, she had to pledger herself to him. Three days later, a thousand serpents came for her. Eglė's family tricked the snakes three times, before the enraged snakes finally gets her. They take Eglė to their master at the bottom of the sea, Žilvinas - human and the Serpent Prince. They get married, have children, and then Eglė decides to visit home. She needs to complete three impossible tasks before she's allowed to leave. Eglė succeeds after getting advice from a sorceress, and takes her children with her to visit her family. Her family forces the children to reveal how to summon Žilvinas, and then they kill him. When Eglė finds out, she turns her children and herself into trees."
"...is there any snake related myth that you don't know?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow. Tom only shrugged in response. Eglė made a delighted sound in response to hearing the myths.
"The myth is partly true. The scales from my head will give you knowledge, and the scales from my tail will kill you. As will my venom. I don't have the killing gaze of a basilisk, but I have all the knowledge of the world." Eglė said, and flicked her tongue at Tom. "You smell as Mother. Are you Mother's mate?"
"Not yet." Tom answered, at the same time as Harry said "No!"
Eglė gave a hissing laughter reminding them both of Nagini. Harry looked towards Tom.
"Will Nagini hurt Eglė?" he asked worryingly.
"She will not." Tom promised. Harry gave a sigh of relief.
"Mother, will you hatch my siblings?" Eglė asked curiously.
"Not any time soon, Eglė. Is that okay?"
"Your will is law, Mother. My siblings are in no hurry."
"I'll not forget about them." Harry promised. He looked towards Tom again. "So what do we do now?"
"You should rest, and your owl definitely want you to acknowledge her. I assume you want to talk to me afterwards." Tom answered. Harry nodded.
"I never did finish taking that shower… and I feel better now. Take care of Eglė for me while I shower?"
"I will." Tom said. Eglė must have understood them, for she crawled from Harry's arm to Tom's. Harry gave Tom one last hesitating glance before going into the bathroom. Tom - and Eglė - went to find Nagini.
A/N: Eglė is going to be a character from now on. This special has happened in the fic!canon. Part 6 will take place after this, but the Interlude will be posted first.
The myths come from googling Queen of Serpents and finding Wikipedia articles.
Also, if you're interested, I post some art for this fic on AO3. Here's the link: archive of our own . org /works/6259825
I have yet to update the summary for this fic... ugh.
Please review x you can always talk to me on tumblr! tomarry - riddle . tumblr . com