Harry sprung up, there was no lingering in bed. Harry went to the bathroom to get ready and then rushed to the wardrobe to throw on clothes. It was similar to yesterday's outfit, but the shirt was a pale blue, and the vest was a dark blue made to complement it. Harry had managed to move so quickly that he met up with Cosme in the kitchen before he opened the shop. This was the perfect opportunity to ask for pencils and more paper so he could whittle more easily and plan out the details.

"Good morning, Cosme. So yesterday while I was whittling, I realized that I had my notebook, but nothing to write with. Do you think I could also get some extra paper?"

"Bonjour, Harry. I have some spare parchment and pencils. The pencil will work on your notebook but not on the parchment. Normally, I would only have some quills, but I have been experimenting with muggle writing instruments. I am rather fond of fountain pens for their ease, but glass dip pens are beautiful. I can bring them to your workshop after breakfast."

"Oh, well if I can't use the pencil on the parchment then I will pass on the parchment but take the pencils, thank you."

For the first time that he arrived, Harry rushed through a meal far more eager to whittle than for whatever pastry that Cosme put in front of him. The two met up in Harry's workshop with the offered supplies.

Harry took the supplies and explained, "I am still struggling with figuring out what direction the grain goes and remembering it when I am whittling so last time, I used a crayon to mark the direction and reference it later. Also, I went to the library to look up a book on whittling once and it said that it is easier if you have an outline of your goal."

"Ah, very clever. Would you like to read more books about whittling? I do not think we have any in my family library, but perhaps it would be a good investment. I will look into it."

Harry had little chance to protest, but he found that he didn't want to either.

"So, Harry, what are you planning to create today?"

The notebook was open on his desk, so Harry showed him the two pages on snakes and the listed goal, "Since you took me to the arboretum, I have the supplies to work on my snakes. I wanted to find out if large amounts of detail are needed for my magic to take place. I have always tried to make detailed projects and when they came to life, they became even more detailed than what I made. So, I was trying to figure out how much detail I need to be considered 'done'."

Harry also secretly thought it would be easier than the cat which had to be cut from a square block. What would make it even easier would be the fact that one of the snakes would be intentionally made with fewer details. He decided that he would make the snake with the least detail first so he could focus on the details on the second one.

"It would also make sure that you don't spend more time on a project than is necessary. You said before that you made your bird with the intention of it sending messages and joining you on adventures so what about your snakes?"

Since Harry had yet to finish his cat experiment, he would make both snakes with specific goals in mind. The bird was his adventure buddy, the cat was his resting buddy and someone to comfort him, and that left the snakes with being his scouts. Harry wasn't sure if the magical school would be like muggle school when Dudley and his friends would chase him and then beat him up. Just in case magical school was like that, Harry wanted to be prepared.

Instead of explaining his cousin to Cosme, Harry said, "I thought that it would be good to have snakes to watch over me since I don't have eyes on the back of my head."

Cosme thought that there was probably something more to that, but still accepted Harry's explanation, "Hmm, I might be able to help with that. I will be back soon."

Harry grabbed the first stick and figured that while he was waiting for Cosme, he could strip the bark. He held the knife as close to the surface of the stick as possible. He was trying to make sure that he didn't thin out the stick too much so he would have space to put details on his snake. Harry was halfway done with that when Cosme came back and brought a book with him and two long sections of elm wood. He put it on the far-right side of the desk so Harry could lean over and look at it without it getting in the way of his knives, notebook, pile of shavings, or scattered pencils. Harry lifted the front cover of the book to peek at the book's title. It was called 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'. Cosme then put the two long sections of elm against the wall.

Cosme explained more, "This book is considered the gold standard for magical creatures. I figured that if you want to use your snakes as scouts then you should make sure that you pick a good snake breed."

The book was open to a section, 'Horned Serpent'.

"Oh! Like the wand core that you showed me?"

"Oui, and that is exactly why I think that you should make your snakes Horned Serpents. The wand core liked you and I imagine the snake would as well." Cosme fully supported Harry's endeavor of creating snakes and a magical bread would be helpful and if his sneaking suspicion about Harry was accurate then a Horned Serpent as a companion would be more helpful than even Harry thought.

Harry was reading over the page, and something caught his notice, "Blimey, it says that the jewel can make things invisible! Do you think if I make my snake a Horned Serpent then it could do that even though it isn't actually the snake?"

"Well, your bird can fly even though it is made of wood, so yes, I do think that if you make a horned serpent then it should have all of the corresponding abilities. I was particularly interested in the part that says that the snakes would emit a musical note when in danger. Very useful trait to have in a snake."

"Wow, thank you, Cosme. This is even better than what I had planned."

Harry quickly grabbed a pencil and under 'goal' he wrote a new section 'abilities'. He wrote what he hoped to be the snake's abilities of invisibility and danger detection. Then Harry turned back to the book and looked at the picture of the snake. The snake was black with blue eyes and had horns on either side of its head with a bright blue jewel right in the middle. Then on the end of the tail, there were four small spikes on the tail. Other than the head and the tail, the snake was a rather simple design.

"Good, you should keep the book just in case you need to reference it while making the snakes. Now I am sure that you are curious about the elm that I brought. I know that you intended to make the snakes small and out of the sticks, but I think that you should use a longer piece of wood. elm will be a good wood to use, at least from a magical perspective. Elm is a very dignified wood and usually makes very elegant wands which I think would suit your snakes well especially if you make a Horned Serpent. Though that is only if you want so do not feel compelled to do so."

Harry stood and grabbed the closest piece of elm. Harry recognized the dark wood from the backyard and realized that Cosme must have gone to the arboretum to get it. The wood reached from the floor to Harry's chest. He was stunned by the idea of whittling such a large piece and the snake that would result from it but was appeased by the idea that the snake would curl up and not look as large as the wood does now, especially after he whittles down to a snake.

The silence had stretched until Cosme decided to say something, "It will not bother me if you d-"

Cosme's sentence was broken off when Harry threw himself at Cosme to hug him.

"This is brilliant! I would love to use them. Thank you!"

Overtaken by relief, Cosme just hugged him back. "Do you need anything else?"

Harry was excited to start the snakes but as he looked at the time, he realized that Cosme was late to open the shop, so he shook his head. Cosme smiled and was heading out the door when Harry had a fleeting thought to ask about chisels. He quickly pushed the thought away, Cosme was busy and other people needed Cosme for wands.

Harry focused back on the large branches of wood. First, he wanted to mark where he would start the head and where he would make the tail. He wanted to have those spots identified so that he wouldn't shave the wood too thin. He marked the spots firmly with a pencil and then after some thought, he used the large knife to cut a deeper, more obvious mark. When he used the larger knife, he recalled that the last time that he whittled, he didn't resharpen the knife afterward. He moved away from the wood and grabbed the strop from the drawer. This time it did need a reapplication of polish. Knife sharpened, Harry put the piece of elm on the desk. The cut for the head also gave Harry an opening to strip the bark more easily. Harry did long thin cuts. Each one going more easily than the last. Once the bark was stripped, Harry ran his fingers over the exposed wood. The wood felt more uneven than any of the others that he worked with. The wood also felt more sturdy than the wood that he used for the cat.

Harry was making this snake the less detailed of the two so he used his pencil and marked the patches where he would draw the scales. He wanted to do at least 7 patches and as he circled the areas for the patches, Harry realized that he would only have room for 7 patches no more and no less. The body was thickest towards the top of the head and would thin out towards the end. He marked the area where he would slowly thin it out until it reached the tail. The underbelly also had soft plates, but Harry realized that he should leave those out and only do a couple of lines towards the head. He felt that he should focus on the head and then take a minimalistic approach to the rest of the body.

The desk was an awkward work location with such a long piece so Harry held the elm with his knees and angled the head towards him. He used his knife to create a line at the top of where he was shaving the bark. Once the line was deep enough to give Harry a good angle, he put his knife into the groove and then angled it downward. The first strip peeled off easily. Harry was continuing this process when the knife caught at an angle, trying to push past it Harry put more pressure on the knife. Harry's left thumb was guiding the knife but when it finally pushed through the knife slipped and cut his finger. Harry paused. Cosme told him that he would tell him when he was injured, but did he mean immediately or just later? Harry's thoughts went to how long he kept Cosme from opening the shop and decided that he would tell him during lunch about the cut. He licked the first drop of blood but ignored it when it continued to slowly ooze.

Once the bark had been shaved off, Harry decided to narrow the head to a triangular shape, making sure to leave the top part of the head with enough room to add horns. He smoothed out the harsh corners of the triangular shape to make it more natural-looking. He had to cut away the harsh corners again and again until it became rounder. Harry picked up his pencil and marked where the eyes, nostrils, and horns would be. After some thought, he made sure to mark where the snake's jewel would be. The jewel shape would be the easiest part of the snake's head since it just required v-cuts.

Harry decided to work on the horns next. He cut down where the horns' edge would be, making them wider than he hoped the final product would be. Since the horns protruded from the head, Harry was using a straight cut down to where he wanted and then stopping to pull away the shaving. After Harry felt that the horns were defined enough, he moved onto the eyes which were just below the base of the horns. He just did a simple outline of the eyes, not sure how to make them more defined. The eyes of the Horned Serpent were said to be intelligent and since it is an underwater snake, they would need to be keen. The outline method was also done for the outline of the snake's mouth and nose. Snakes have sensitive senses and the book told him that Horned Snakes were even more sensitive than other types of snakes. He pulled back to inspect his work, he thought that if he maybe had different tools then he might be able to do a better job. Harry outlined a couple of scales on the top of the head around the jewel and then did a series of v-cuts to define the jewel. When defining the jewel, Harry focused the most on the abilities of the snake. He thought about how this jewel is how the snake becomes invisible.

The head was complete so Harry moved down to smooth out the transition between the head and the body. For the body, Harry just created a couple of patches of scales as the elm was lying on his lap. Harry paused to stretch out his fingers and re-sharpen his knife. He used the big knife in the beginning but only used the small knife on the head. Once the knives gleamed, Harry flipped the elm until the tail faced Harry. He looked back at the book and realized that the best technique would be cutting downwards and then pulling away the shaving afterward just like the horn. There were two spikes each on either side of the tail which were angled downwards like fangs. The one on the end was longer while the one on the top was smaller. Harry repeated the process but got nervous when he nearly cut too deep on the top right one. He moved his knife slower and realized that it was catching on part of the wood. Harry was far more nervous this time around remembering the first cut on his thumb so he moved slower.

Harry moved on before he would accidentally cut off part of the tail spikes. The tail spikes looked dangerous and Harry could think of no other function of them other than to attack.

The snake looked half-done. Harry was able to do the seven patches of scales, a few underbelly plates, the head, and the tail, but Harry could see the long stretches of wood that were just plain. The patches of scale looked pretty cool and Harry wished that he could do more, but for the sake of the experiment, he thought it would be better if he did very few. Harry put the snake on the desk and pulled his chair back so he could watch the process. After a few seconds, nothing happened.

"Maybe, it needs more details?" Harry sighed, "guess that the experiment was a failure." Harry leaned against the back of the chair. "Well, how many more details would need to be added for the snake to be considered complete."

Harry reached for the trash bin under the desk to wipe away some of the shavings from his lap.

"Who are you calling a failure?"

Stunned, Harry jerked up and nearly hit his head on the underside of the desk.

"What?" The snake was sitting on the desk and trying to coil up. However, unlike the previous attempts, the snake still looked clearly like wood. The untouched parts were stiff and the snake couldn't coil.

"I ssssaid that I am not a failure! Though ssssomethingsss wrong, I do not feel right."

Harry felt horrible. The snake was struggling to move and couldn't move its body without meeting an untouched section that wouldn't bend, "Oh no! I thought it would either work or fail, I didn't think it would partially work!"

The snake tried to slither to the edge of the table but only managed to knock Harry's knife off the edge of the desk.

"Maybe Cosme will be able to help you. Can I pick you up to take you to him?" Cosme was magic, so surely he would know a solution.

"...that would be ssssufficient."

Harry gently picked up the snake and held him cradled in his arms. Harry left through his room, checking to make sure that Linden and Duchess were both where he left them earlier. Duchess was sitting in a sun ray on his bed curled up with her head tucked under her paws. Linden was nowhere in sight, which worried Harry, but he figured that he should look for him after he took care of the snake. Harry walked down the steps and into the wand shop.

"Cosme? I think I messed something up," Harry found Cosme at the front of the shop near a machine that looked like a cash register. Fortunately, there was no one else with Cosme.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm mostly fine, but something went wrong with my snake," Harry put the snake on the counter, "I was just trying to see if I needed to make them detailed for the magic to work and when he came to life, he said that something is wrong and he can't even slither right."

Cosme could tell the boy was starting to panic, but he couldn't resist satisfying his curiosity. "He said that something is wrong?"

"Yes, he said that he doesn't feel right."

"Can you ask him what feels wrong?"

Harry turned to the snake on the counter and asked, "Cosme wanted me to ask, what exactly feels wrong? Where does it feel bad?"

It was only because Cosme expected it that he did not gasp, but he also did not know what to feel about his theory being proven correct. He pulled out his wand and put up his lunch break sign.

"My scales feel itchy and tight"

Harry turned to Cosme who had moved closer from behind the counter, "But he doesn't have that many scales and they look alright to me."

Cosme chose not to point out that he couldn't understand the snake's side of the conversation and chose to inspect the snake closer. With the tip of the finger, he felt around the patch of scales. When he brushed across the edge of the patch, he found that there was a thin layer of wood that peeled when he picked at it.

"Make him stop, that is itchy."

Fortunately, Cosme had shortly finished his inspection after the snake's complaint.

"C'est incroyable! I think your snake will be just fine, he just needs to shed his skin."

"Oh, that's a relief. Do you think he needs to shed his skin because I didn't make him detailed enough and it is too much wood to just shake off."

"That is as good as any explanation that I could think of. Now to go back to something that you said earlier. Can you understand the snake?"

Cosme understood that it meant that he was a parselmouth but he wanted to see if the boy could figure it out.

"Yes, though it is rather strange since my cat and bird cannot speak so why should the snake be able to?"

"Perhaps, the cat and bird can speak but we are not able to understand them."

"Whoa! So can all wizards talk to snakes?"

"Non, I cannot understand him at all. It is a rather rare talent to be able to speak to snakes,"

The snake had been trying to wiggle off the extra wooden skin, but he just succeeded in looking silly. Irritated the snake decided that he had enough of their conversation, "Indeed, only a few prized individualssss are speakers. Now focusss on me, I need you to help me, I cannot shed this skin without asssssistance."

"Cosme, he says that he needs help with his skin. Can we help him?"

"I have never had a snake, but I can go to Le Corbeau Mystique, they will likely know what to do. Lunch has already been prepared so why don't you take the snake with you to eat? I will join you once I know how to help."

Harry felt bad that once again Cosme was taking time out of the day to fix his mistake, but he also knew that he would not have been able to help the snake without help. Harry gathered the snake in his arms and went to the kitchen. Sure enough, it was as Cosme had said and there was food already prepared. Harry wondered when Cosme had time to fix this up. He placed the snake on one of the spare chairs and then sat down to eat. He could not fix the past, but only ensure that he would not make the same mistake twice.

When Cosme came back it was with a small bag and a smile, "No worries, it seems that it will be easy enough to help your snake out of the extra skin. I got a tank with a large basin and a heating stone. In fact, not only will it help the snake but the snake will likely also enjoy it."

"Thank you, I was really worried that I hurt him. I will add more detail for the next snake."

"You do not have to worry about anything at all. I made mistakes when I was an apprentice in wand-making. One of the mistakes I made nearly blew up the entire workshop!"

Harry couldn't imagine put-together Cosme blowing something up, but he smiled nonetheless.

"Now, when I asked you if you were fine, you said 'mostly'?"

"Oh yeah, I cut my finger when making the snake." Harry held out his finger and showed the cut. It was still open and a bright red. Cosme pulled his hand close to him and then pulled out his wand.

"Episkey. Thank you for telling me about your cut, but this cut is not fresh or it still would be bleeding. Next time can you come to me immediately."

Harry was staring in awe at his finger. It looked effortless for him to heal it. Harry nodded at Cosme's instruction.

"So we will set up the tank and the basin after lunch and hopefully this shedding problem will shortly be resolved."

They did exactly as Cosme said. They finished up lunch and even though Harry didn't have much of an appetite, he ate all of his food at the urging of both the snake and Cosme.

"You are sssilly, you must eat. Why turn down good prey?"

Cosme should probably send a letter to both Garrick and Jimmy about this latest update. He didn't think that the Potters had any Parselmouth abilities in their family, but perhaps Garrick would know. Neither of them had planned to visit Cosme today, but after hearing this news, perhaps one or both of them would visit. Most likely Garrick since Jimmy was desperate to keep his wand shop open and he couldn't do that if he kept disappearing to see Harry.

They went to Harry's room and Cosme looked around.

"Milly!" A house elf popped into the room, "Can you bring one of the spare end tables?"

The house elf popped out and then a long square end table popped into the room. Harry's eyes went wide at the sight of the unusual creature but didn't say anything, still feeling uncomfortable from bothering Cosme.

It was positioned to the left of the door close to the workshop, but with enough room to walk. Cosme walked over to the table and pulled out the supplies in his bag. The tank was already set up with a piece of log, a water basin, a heating stone, and plants perfect for a snake habitat. It was expanded on the inside so it was perfect for the large snake to stretch out. Cosme signaled Harry to place the snake in the enclosure. The snake immediately slithered into the basin and let out a sigh at the sensation of warm water.

While this was happening, Cosme was debating what to tell Harry about being a parselmouth. He did not want Harry to think negatively of his talent, but it would not prepare him for discrimination if Harry revealed his talent to others. The thought of Harry being shunned for something that he had no control over and not understanding, broke his heart.

"Harry, being able to talk to a snake means that you are a parselmouth. Snake language is parseltongue. This talent is quite rare which means that the known parselmouths have created a certain…reputation." Cosme was starting to wonder if being Harry's guardian always meant that he was stuck having these difficult conversations. He was pretty sure that he had his fill of them the past week.

"How rare? And what known parselmouths?"

"Incredibly rare. I only know of one other parselmouth in the past hundred years."

"It issss as I told you. A few prized individualsss."

Harry was stunned, "Blimey! That's hardly anyone at all. Who are they?"

It was like Harry knew to ask the most difficult questions, "... it was the dark lord that attacked you."

Harry paused and took a deep breath, "...what does that mean, Cosme?"

"I do not know if it means anything, but what I do know is that if others know they will first think of him and think that it is a skill for evil and dark wizards. I am not saying that it will be true nor am I saying that you have to hide this skill. But you should know that many will see it as a bad thing."

A skill for evil and dark wizards? Harry didn't want people to think poorly of him, "Should I hide this skill?"

"Secrets often get out, and if it were to get out then people might think that you were hiding it because it is true. Though there is also a chance that if you hide it then it might never get out. It is up to you whether you want to take that risk." Cosme hated saying that. He is nine years old and not in any shape to decide one way or another. "You don't have to decide now, but when you go to school, then you will have to decide especially if you want to bring your snakes to school like you said earlier."

Harry and Cosme were spared from having this conversation when Linden flew in through the window…literally through the glass window that was definitely closed and then perched on Harry's shoulder as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.

"...did you just see that? Normal birds don't do that, right Cosme?"

Cosme pulled out his wand to see if the glass had a spell on it allowing the bird to go through it, but nothing was detected.

"No Harry normal birds do not do that. You made Linden based on the birds in your neighborhood, right?"

"Yes, and I didn't plan on giving him any special abilities. I just thought that he would join me on my adventures. Do you think he can go through all glass?"

"Why stop there? Why not have him go through walls as well?" Cosme said that with thinly veiled sarcasm, but Harry didn't seem to notice it. Harry grabbed the bird and placed him on the nightstand, which the bird allowed but chirped at Harry in a questioning tone. Harry ignored the bird and went into the workshop. It was muffled, but Cosme heard Harry shout 'Linden!' from the other room. Linden hopped a couple of times and then flew through the wall.

Cosme was questioning if he knew anything about magic and its rules that Harry couldn't disprove. Harry came out of the workshop with Linden on his shoulder.

"That was brilliant! I wonder if Duchess can do anything like this?"

They both turned to look at Duchess who was still resting on the bed in a sunspot. She picked up her head at the sound of her name let out a little 'mew' and then put her back down. Cosme was wondering if that was a no or just a cat's refusal to perform tricks.

"That felt like a no…what about you?" this time Harry was asking the snake.

The snake lifted its head from resting on the side of the basin, "Me? I am a great Horned Ssserpent, of course, I can do sssomething like that."

Instead of further explanation, the snake did a demonstration by turning invisible. Cosme realized that maybe he should have just let Harry make a normal garden snake because the thought of unleashing an invisible snake that is over a meter long and only having a small boy be able to control it was more than just a little bit concerning.

"I wonder what makes the snake and Linden different from Duchess? Is it because I gave the other two jobs that would need these abilities or did I do something different with these two?"

Cosme was staring at the snake when he had an idea, "When you created the bird, did you cut yourself when making it?"

"Oh yes! Loads of times, I was trying to figure out grain direction so I had a bunch of nicks on my fingers. It was incredibly annoying, but I am much better at whittling and not cutting my fingers."

"I have an idea about why these two are different, but I want to confirm it with Jimmy and Garrick first. I will send the letter soon, but they are not likely to get back to me until tomorrow. Jimmy is not going to do a lesson today, so the rest of the day is still yours."

Harry nodded. He already knew what he was doing for the rest of the day before dinner, he had one more snake to make today.

"I am going back downstairs to sell more wands, let me know if you need anything else. Oh, also remember that you told Juliette that you would send her a letter. You can use the purple desk and any of the supplies in it to write your letter."

Harry was tempted to facepalm, he forgot about Juliette. He's had a friend for a minute and he's already a bad friend forgetting about her. Harry decided to send her the letter before completing the second snake. If he remembered correctly, the purple desk was in the back right corner of the sitting room where Cosme tells him stories.

Linden hopped into Harry's hair and Duchess climbed up his leg until he tucked her into his pocket. Harry walked down the stairs and into the sitting room. Sure enough, the desk in the back right corner was purple. He sat down and started pulling open all of the drawers finding a few more pens and a stack of parchment. He made himself comfortable and pulled Duchess out of his pocket so she could curl up in his lap. Harry had never written a letter but he did know that they started with 'dear' so he wrote it on the top of the page. He then wrote that it was Harry just in case she didn't know. Harry just wrote what came to mind and hoped that she wouldn't mind. He asked about her shopping experience and what she was looking forward to at her magic school (he forgot the school's name already).

Writing on parchment was a strange experience. The pen that he used had a strange shape and if Harry pressed it against the paper then it spilled out too much ink. It was far thicker than any pen or pencil that he had ever seen, but it was easy to hold. The worst part was that if Harry rushed when writing then his hand would smear the ink from the previous lines. The end product was a letter that was written a bit scattered with smeared ink and a few blotches. Harry was tempted to rewrite it but instead added a line at the end of the letter apologizing for the mess and promising to practice. He waited for the ink to dry which thankfully didn't take long. There were envelopes in one of the drawers so he folded the letter and put it in. Harry was going to ask Cosme how to send it when Linden jumped out of Harry's hair, grabbed the letter, and flew through the wall.

"Oh…guess that's done. Come on Duchess, time to make another snake."

Harry went back to his workshop and nodded at the other snake still in the basin. This time he would make this one more detailed so this one won't have to suffer. He looked at the clock on the corner of his desk. It was a little past two o'clock. Dinner will likely be at 6 o'clock so Harry had four hours to work on the snake and then get acquainted with the newest additions to Harry's creations. He grabbed the knife that he left on the floor after the previous snake knocked it over.

The process for this snake started the same as the previous snake. He made the horns and shaped the head as best as he could. The tail end was still just as tricky, especially with the spikes. However, once the head and tail portions were complete, Harry laid the snake on the desk and began the tedious process of outlining and cutting each scale. Harry wanted them to look as even as possible so he did light outlines with his pencil and then went back over the scales with his small whittling knife. Harry had to take many breaks either to sharpen the tip of his knife or to stretch out his hands which were protesting this repetitive task. The task was nearly hypnotizing with its repetitiveness. Harry was thinking about the scales and the way that the other snake going invisible. Harry must have lost focus on his task because he was brought to attention by the sensation of the knife cutting into his finger…again.

Harry groaned, he didn't want to have to tell Cosme that he cut himself again! There was no other choice, Cosme was quite clear about this rule. Harry finished the scale that he was working on and went to tell Cosme. He went downstairs and into the shop. Cosme was standing behind a counter writing a letter with what looked like a glass stick. Harry thought back to what Cosme was talking about this morning and realized that this must be the glass dip pen that he was talking about earlier.

"Excuse me, Cosme, I cut my finger again."

Cosme put the pen on a small stand and walked over. He once again cast 'Episkey' on the cut.

Looking at the finger, Cosme asked, "Did you get any blood on your snake, again?"

"Yes, is that bad?"

"No, I was just curious. Thank you for coming to me immediately." This would definitely be mentioned in Cosme's letter and maybe Cosme should think about getting the boy some protective gloves.

Harry went back upstairs and was determined to stay focused on his task and not get too distracted even while whittling the snake. Besides, he was supposed to be focusing on the fact that this snake would also be a scout. Harry was even thinking about only ever walking with one snake so at school, no one would notice that Harry had two. Plus, the snakes were large enough that he didn't think he would want to carry both of them.

The scales were tricky towards the tail end because it narrowed, but Harry finished it up and then took a step back. The snake immediately came to life and the last of the details were revealed when the snake shook off a few flakes of wood. It was less dramatic than the cat and thankfully a smoother process than the other snake. After a few seconds of the snake wiggling off flakes of wood, it stood at attention.

"This is strange," the snake seemed to be looking at its own scales, "I seem to be made of wood, but I feel like a snake. Are you the one to have created me?"

"Yes, does everything feel alright?" The snake then slithered onto the floor and seemed to be stretching out.

"Yes, I feel like I have just woken up from a long rest. Slightly stiff, but it feels like it will go away."

Harry watched the snake and at first, he was puzzled about why the snake felt so different.

"Wait! Why don't you talk like the other snake?"

"Hmm? What do they talk like?"

Instead of answering, Harry opened the door to his workshop and called over the other snake.

"Can you come over here? The other snake is done and I would like to introduce you two."

"Sssssplendid!"

The two snakes were both in the workshop and seemed to sizing each other up. Their tongues were flicking and tasting each other. Next to each other, the differences were highlighted. The first snake had a slightly misshapen horn where Harry cut too deep and the scales were larger. The second snake had a larger jewel on its forehead and seemed to move with smaller less exaggerated movements. Of course, the biggest difference was the one not visible. The first snake exaggerated all of the 's' sounds in each word.

"Why do you talk like that? You sound as if you're pretending to be a snake?" The second snake was asking the first one.

"Who'sssss pretending? I am a ssssnake!"

Harry wasn't sure if he should laugh or if he would find him rude. Was this potentially caused by Harry not whittling him enough or was it just a personality quirk?

"You two need names? Any preferences?"

"Yes, my jewel is clearly larger than this buffoon. So that is what you shall call me."

Harry paused, how did the snake know that its jewel was larger? The jewel was right between its eyes so there was no way for the snake to see it.

"Yesssss, your jewel is excellent. I want to be called Sssssilasss."

Harry struggled to understand what the snake was saying because the long 's' sounds seemed to be most of his name.

"So Jewel and Silas? Those are pretty good names. I just want to make sure that I am not misunderstanding, but Silas is a boy and Jewel is a girl?"

"No, I don't know where you got that idea. I am also male." Jewel was giving Harry a look that blatantly said that he found Harry to be a bit slow.

"Oh okay, Silas has a tank with a basin of water and a heating stone already. Do you think you two will be fine sharing?"

The two snakes slithered into the tank and disappeared from sight. Guess they were inspecting it together. Harry began the process of cleaning his workstation. The wood shavings were all brushing into the bin. There still felt like there was lingering wood dust in the air, but Harry didn't know how to get rid of it. He pulled out the strop, added polish, and then sharpened his knives. He lined them up on the top of his desk. He then put the pencils into the drawer with the strop and polish. He pulled out his notebook and began writing notes from the day. He wrote that the less detailed snake resulted in difficulties and discomfort for the animal. He added that it delayed the process and may have caused speaking difficulties. Harry was not going to repeat that specific experiment again so he might never know if Silas' difficulty speaking was just his character or if it was because of the process. He wrote their names and made sure to remember that he needed to test if Jewel could also become invisible.

Harry looked at the time and realized that he worked to dinnertime. He grabbed the book about magical creatures and then he went downstairs to save Cosme a trip.