As the First Years were led to the Slytherin dorms, Harry and Bob noticed rather a lot of snakes in paintings and tapestries, and even a few sculpted into the walls. Some of the snakes were quiet, but others hissed greetings to the new students. Harry made note of their locations so he could come back and say hello properly sometime.

Harry was so immersed in looking for more snakes in the art that he didn't hear when the Slytherin Prefect told them all the password. Bother… Well, Harry supposed, if he got locked out, he could have a chat with the carved snake that guarded the common room entrance.

The common room itself was very nice. Harry was somewhat reminded of the Friends of Bob bunker, as it was all dark and atmospheric. It was much fancier, though. The entrance opened to a landing with a few very posh desks and chairs. On each side of the landing, two staircases curved down to a second landing which had a marble statue of Salazar Slytherin surrounded by flowerbeds. From there, a single, wide staircase swept through an archway into the common room itself. The entrances to the dorms were through arches on either side of the staircase.

The main chamber of the common room had a domed ceiling in the middle, supported by intricately carved green marble pillars. The floor was tiled with a huge snake design directly below the dome.

One wall of the main chamber had an archway leading to a study room. The study room had alternating floor-to-ceiling windows and bookshelves, several desks and chairs, and even a few chess tables.

Set into the other wall was a large fireplace surrounded by a few wingback chairs and a comfortable looking sofa. A painting of Salazar Slytherin hung above the mantle, which was adorned with carved stone snakes. Harry was very impressed by the décor…

Along the back wall were floor-to-ceiling windows looking out into the Great Lake. The common room was situated slightly above the bottom of the lake, so only the tips of seaweed and underwater plants could be seen at the bottom of the windows.

"Right then, any questions?"

Harry realised that he had zoned out of the entire Prefects' speech. Bother. He decided to just follow along with whatever Draco did and hope nobody asked questions.

Luckily, Draco had listened to the instructions, and Harry followed him to their dorm. The dorm was in the shape of a hexagon, with one bed set along each of the four slanted walls, and the doors to the common room and the bathroom opposite each other on the other two walls. In the centre of the dorm was a round table with four chairs and an ornate stained-glass lamp depicting snakes. Very nice.

As Harry looked around, he could see that his trunk had been placed by the bed to the left of the bathroom door. The four-poster bed didn't seem to have any snakes carved into it, but there were carvings that looked like scales. That was good enough, Harry thought, as there were lots of other snake motifs around the dorm. He did sort of miss his cobra bedspread from home, though…

Reminded of home, Harry wandered over to his trunk and took out a notepad and pen. He would definitely be writing to Dudley about how cool the castle was. As he brought his things to the desk, Charybdis piped up.

"Can I be big again? I am tired of being worm sized."

"Oh, yeah!"

Focusing slightly, Harry unshrank her. It was a bit odd seeing her worm coloured and sixteen feet long. "I think you're a foot or two longer now! Maybe it's all the magic here…"

Blaise, who had been watching as soon as Harry started speaking to Charybdis, raised his eyebrows and hummed, then went back to his unpacking. Greg, once again reminding Harry of Dudley, simply said 'wicked'. Draco let out a piercing shriek before clearing his throat and letting out an odd sort of yell in a much lower register, as if he was displeased with the first noise he made and wanted to try again.

"Is it alright if she wanders about the common room a bit? She's not really gotten to explore much lately."

Nobody objected, so Charybdis went on her way.

That sorted, Harry and Bob sat down to write to Dudley.

"Let me do some writing as well."

"Sure. I'll write my bit first and then you can write yours."

"Yesss, very good."

Harry wasn't all that sure what Dudley would find interesting, so he started off describing the castle and the food. He spent a good deal of time describing the food, in the end, as he knew Dudley loved food. He also wrote about the Swordplant that Neville had mentioned… Harry thought that dangerous plants would be a popular product at the bunker. Perhaps they could even make some biting plants like in Piers' Mario games.

"What do you think biting plants eat?"

Bob thought about it for a minute. "Biting snakes and snakes that constrict can eat the same prey. Biting plants will eat soil, water, and sunlight." Bob had paid attention during science class.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense."

After a bit of back and forth with Bob about suggestions for products to sell, Draco made his way to the desk. "What are you two on about, then?"

"We're talking about products to sell in our business. Suggestions are welcome!"

Greg piped up from where he was sitting in bed with a comic. "What do you sell right now?"

"Well, we have a lot of spy stuff. Weapons and poison, stuff like secret notebooks and cameras in pens… Some custom things as well. The custom things can be anything, really."

Blaise frowned from the bathroom door but didn't say anything.

Bringing his comic over, Greg sat next to Harry and opened it to a page with a moving cartoon of some sort of flying semi-circle. "Can you make one of these?"

Squinting at the page, Harry shrugged. "Probably, but what is it?"

"Dunno, but it looks cool!"

Harry agreed that it did look cool. "Yeah, I can try. It'll probably take a little while though. Are you going to trade me stuff or pay me?"

Reaching into his pocket, Greg pulled out a very grimy looking toad.

"…Is that Trevor?"

"No, I picked it out of the Great Lake on the way here."

"Accept it."

Harry was already going to accept it, but it was good that Bob agreed.

"Right, that's a deal then."

"Cool! …Can you actually take it now though? It's gonna make all my stuff muddy."

Greg plopped the toad down on the desk and went back to his comic. It really was an exceptionally muddy toad. Harry concentrated very hard on the toad being clean and watched as it was enveloped by a bubble of water, jostled around a bit, then set back down.

Draco, who had been perturbed since Harry mentioned he was an arms dealer, was baffled by this display of magic.

"How do you keep doing so much wandless and wordless magic? That's supposed to be really hard!"

Harry didn't really know where to begin with explaining that, so he just shrugged and went back to his letter. Huffing at the non-answer, but still a bit nervous about the weapons and poison thing, Draco straightened his robes and went out into the common room.

Five minutes later, Draco returned.

"Harry, you've got to come see your worm-snake."

"Charybdis. Kuh-rib-dis. And she's a snake, not a worm."

Harry was met by the sight of Charybdis in the centre of the main chamber, surrounded by giggling, dancing students of all ages. Someone had put a record on, and Charybdis was wriggling and changing colours to the beat.

"Very popular... They love me... I am so beautiful…", she hissed between wriggles.

From the mantlepiece, the portrait of Salazar Slytherin agreed, "Yes, a very intriguing specimen you are… A fine addition to Slytherin House."

Turning toward the portrait, Harry waved and made his introductions. "Hi! I'm Harry Potter, this is Bob, and that's Charybdis."

Salazar let out a little chuckle. "A pleasure to meet you all… Bob – an unusual name for a serpent. Excellent nonetheless! It's wonderful to have a speaker in Slytherin again. We haven't had a speaker in many years."

Wide-eyed, Harry asked, "Who was the previous speaker?"

Stroking his beard, Salazar replied, "He was a smart fellow… a bit troubled, but that was to be expected, I suppose, as he lived through that muggle war. He hated his name, so I simply addressed him as Speaker."

"Wait, what muggle war?"

"Oh, that awful one where they bombed London."

Bob spoke up from Harry's neck, happy to be dipping into his muggle school education. "World War II?"

"I suppose it must be, yes. Tell me, do the muggles still have bombs like that?"

Harry had been trying to do the maths on how old the other speaker must have been and was a little distracted while he answered. "Oh, they actually have worse bombs now. They can destroy entire cities in seconds… Probably countries too. Maybe Wales or Belgium." Harry had looked up weapon stats after a Year 8 had asked him to create a Castle Bravo bomb for him. After reading up on the matter, Harry had declined that request.

Unfortunately, in his distraction, Harry had spoken in English. A few of the students who weren't dancing with Charybdis had surreptitiously gathered near Harry to watch his interactions with Salazar. They were now standing about with varying expressions of dismay. Oops.

The students then thoroughly questioned Harry on the state of muggles for the next half hour or so. By the end of it, Harry had enticed the small group with promises of interesting muggle things for sale in the near future. He would have to have a think about what sort of things weren't common in the magical world and get Dudley to send them over with Hedwig.

Salazar was impressed by the display. "You have excellent business acumen… Say, would you mind bringing me a painting of a muggle city? I'd love to do a bit of exploring."

Harry thought that sounded neat, so he agreed. Perhaps a painting of Canary Wharf… Maybe South Bank? Another thing he'd have to have a think about.

Before bed, Harry finished his letter to Dudley and sent Hedwig off to deliver it. He was so excited for the start of lessons that he couldn't fall asleep at first, so stayed up whispering to Bob and Charybdis. He was glad the bed was big enough that Charybdis could fit. His bed back home was beginning to get a bit cramped, with how big she had grown.

"Why aren't there any snake ghosts here?"

"What unfinished business would a snake have?"

"I dunno, maybe an interesting hunt?"

Bob stroked his chin with the tip of his tail. "It would have to be a very interesting hunt indeed…"

Harry and Bob bounced ideas off each other on what would be the most interesting to hunt, until they finally fell asleep dreaming of hedgehogs, hummingbirds, and other difficult prey.