Bob's life had become much more interesting since meeting Harry. During the week, Bob received a formal education in the form of Year 1 lessons quietly translated by Harry. Harry's teachers never realised he had a snake wrapped around his neck, even when Harry was wearing a regular shirt instead of a turtleneck. Humans were very unobservant under regular conditions, but when Bob was around Harry, they seemed even more foolish. Peoples' gazes seemed to slip off Harry as if he was hiding in tall grass. Very impressive, that. Bob and Harry's stealth training had definitely been paying off.

Their scent training had also paid off, but Harry's proficiency did lead to a very awkward day when he scented blood on one of the older girls. Harry was subjected to an awkward talk about "the birds and bees", and both Bob and Harry learned a lot about human maturation and puberty that day. Strangely, the humans didn't say anything about actual birds or bees. Humans were odd.

Harry could also teleport now, which was quite a shock the first time it happened. Bob was so uncomfortable by the squeezing sensation of teleportation that he regurgitated his half-digested mouse down Harry's shirt. Getting off the roof was a little difficult, as Harry was too tired to teleport again. Since it was a nice day, Harry and Bob took a nap on the sunny roof tiles for a few hours before shimmying down the drain. Very relaxing. The roof had since become a "hang out spot". Harry had been unable to teleport Dudley, but Bob and Harry had been trying to teach him to climb the drain so that he could sunbathe with them.

Brownie had her own house now. When Bob found out, he had momentarily wanted his own house, but then realised he wouldn't want to spend time away from Harry. The majority of Bob's time was spent wrapped around Harry's neck or arms, and the rest was spent either hunting or practicing snake powers with Harry and Dudley. Bob didn't like Dudley at first, but he thought he was cool now. Dudley could say several swears in Parseltongue now and could even introduce himself. His Parseltongue name means "Awesome Spy Human". Something about Harry's snake powers allowed him to convey his name to any snake without creating a new one. Because Dudley did not have snake powers, he got to choose his own name. He had to scrunch his neck up in a very funny manner in order to pronounce it properly. It was quite an odd sight. One of Harry's fairy-tale books said that names have power, but the only power Dudley's name seemed to have was inducing laughter.

Petunia didn't mind Bob, but she was much fonder of Brownie because they watched television together. Bob didn't really like the shows they watched, but he did peek through the window when Vernon was watching something called Blackadder. There weren't any adders in that programme but it was quite funny. Bob had Harry ask Vernon to leave the window open next time so that he could hear better. Vernon was still a bit funny sometimes, but after Harry and Dudley's adventure, he warmed up to the snakes considerably. Bob worked out that this was because the adventure resulted in Vernon gaining a fair bit of money and came to the realisation that you can pay humans to like you. Harry thought it couldn't be as simple as that, but Bob had pointed out how wealthy humans are treated better, and Harry then agreed that they should try to become rich.

Charybdis was very beautiful and kept growing larger. Petunia showed her clothing patterns in fashion magazines, and sometimes Charybdis was able to change colour slightly to match. She was still working on it, but it made Harry realise that he could be trying to look more serpentine. Since Harry had the hang of scenting and stealth, and somewhat had a handle on teleportation, their latest power practice sessions have been shapeshifting. Right now, Harry could only change the length of his hair. The other day, he grew his hair to waist length. Dudley thought he looked like a pirate, and the rest of the practice turned into pirate make-believe.

On the weekends, Dudley hung out with Nathan and Piers, and Harry and Bob hung out with Brownie or Charybdis. Charybdis was too big to leave Number Four very easily, but Brownie was small and went on all sorts of fun trips with the duo. Vernon sat down with Harry and Brownie one day to talk about things of value, and now if Brownie saw money, jewellery, or credit cards when out and about, she would swallow them to bring back as gifts. Harry asked for cool rocks and now had a growing collection under his floorboards.

A funny thing about speaking with Harry was that it made all three of the snakes smarter. Bob knew he was smarter than Brownie and Charybdis though because he was learning Year 1 maths and science. He didn't quite realise how much smarter the three of them were until Petunia took them to the local pet store to collect food for Charybdis. Harry had tried speaking to a corn snake in cage, but it seemed rather stupid.

"Hello, little corn snake! My name is Harry. How are you doing? Are they treating you well?"

"Large friend… Warm, good... Feed lots…Small mice, good mice…Very good."

Harry didn't speak to the corn snake for very long, because corn snakes are stupid, and Bob was much smarter and better than pet store snakes. Charybdis was smart as well, but she needed food from the pet store because she did not hunt for big enough prey these days. She still hunted for small things in the garden with Harry and Bob but got most of her food from the store. That's just fine though because Harry got most of his food from stores as well.

Before meeting Harry, Bob hadn't thought much about the things he enjoyed. To be frank, he despised more things than he enjoyed. Now, though, he enjoyed going to school, teaching Dudley to speak, and seeing Harry's advances on his path to full snakehood. What's more, he enjoyed chatting with his friends, both serpentine and human. Friends, as a concept, were completely foreign prior to meeting Harry. Even the other snakes he came across in the forest were never friends…it's simply not in their nature. Thinking back on his past, Bob found it somewhat fuzzy and confusing. After meeting Harry, Bob seemed to wake up… Perhaps, Bob mused, Harry's powers did wake him up and bring something out in him. Maybe the corn snake in the pet store simply hadn't fully woken up.

Or maybe corn snakes are stupid, and the majestic adder is superior in every way.