Magical India was a very grand country; unlike the muggle counterparts here and in the other communities she had visited in her different incarnations while as Harry Potter, she would throw herself through the time portal in the Room of Requirement, picking and choosing the different eras, while jumping back after living for years in a different time, and wholly different world, the wizards and witches lived in what amounted to palaces in remote and isolated spots which were impossible for muggles to reach by themselves.

In this incarnation, she was known as Pradha Rao, the twin sister of a girl named Pari. Both girls were purebloods, and both of them had their own talents. As Harry, she had worked out very quickly that many British families tutored their children before the Hogwarts letter, or when they were accepted into one of the smaller schools in Britain; India wasn't different either.

Life as a pureblood was different from the life of a muggle-born or a half-blood, especially in highly traditional countries. And India was a country steeped in tradition like China, Africa, and England.

But somehow, Pradha had enjoyed it.

There was something enjoyable about her dancing classes and while she hadn't liked pureblood etiquette, she had enjoyed filling in the gaps in her knowledge that Dumbledore had kept from her. While she wasn't sure how traditional the Potter family was (she had made the mental note to become James's twin sister, maybe even save her counterpart in a different world; what that would do to history, she didn't know and didn't care, but she refused to let herself become a pawn of Albus fucking Dumbledore), she knew Dumbledore had kept her heritage from her. And besides, she couldn't think of a greater kick in the teeth for Dumbledore when she suddenly, as Harry, showed off knowledge he had tried to keep hidden for one of his pointless schemes.

Pradha and Pari and their cousins in this country were taught potions when they were old enough to walk and talk and when they were well coordinated enough to work with volatile ingredients without burning the house down. Pradha had learnt many potions in her different lives, but if she had learnt anything about living in Africa and China, it was that some unique ingredients and practices had simply been lost, forgotten, or had never even been learnt about in Britain, so witches and wizards never even knew about them at Hogwarts.

Their mother was a potions mistress, while their father worked as a Healer, so they knew a great deal about magic, and while India lacked the wandless magic skills of Africa, they made up for it with their specialities. But there was something unique about the family that had attracted Harry made him decide to become their twin daughter.

They were both parselmouths, and their family lineages seemed to have parseltongue in them stretching back into the dawn of history. As Pradha, Harry was relieved his 'gift' had jumped into this world.

Pradha quickly showed she was good at magic from that very early age, like her sister, and she enjoyed learning from her mother, and as they grew older, their skills improved and soon they were mastering potions Pradha as Harry had mastered in the Forbidden City in her first year. But when they were both six years old, they had been advanced in magic while their father made preparations to send them off to a magical school. But it was on their seventh birthdays that their father conjured a snake, and both sisters had spoken to it, proving they had the parseltongue talents.

Their proud parents sent them off to the temple specialising in parselmagic. Harry Potter had already learnt enough about the parselmagic from the Chamber of Secrets, but Salazar Slytherin hadn't been a creator of such magic. He had simply collected it, and while history erroneously recorded that Herpo the Foul had been the first parselmouth, it was in India many parselmouths pioneered and strove to discover the limits.

-8-

"Ready to be bonded with your snake, Pradha?" Pari asked as the two girls got ready for their new day.

Pradha nodded silently while she waved her wand at her hair to dry it from her shower. She and her sister were different people, in many ways, she was like the Padma Patil of their relationship, while Pari was the Parvati.

"How about you?"

Pari nodded, looking nervous. Later both girls were bonded with their snakes. Pari was bonded with a small python snake, while Pradha was bonded with a cobra, but once they were finished, they found it simpler and easier to use parselmagic. At the end of their first year at the temple, the twins had quickly mastered many spells and parseltongue fuelled alchemical spells. Parseltongue alchemy was something that Pradha had never imagined possible; as with ordinary alchemy, it was possible to transfigure metals into gold using a potion, and it was theorised you could create a philosopher's stone with it,

But it could do more than that; with the power of a snake helping to focus the spells, and enchantments of the alchemical magic, it was found an alchemist who could speak parseltongue could transform metals into anything else including gold and silver, but also platinum, copper, but using it to forge whatever they wished as well, and it was even possible to create elixirs that could cure diseases and illnesses, and even extend life by a few centuries but it wouldn't be enough to grant immortality.

Another, almost perverse slant to parsel alchemy was being able to manipulate the living. That was something ordinary alchemy was unable to do, or it could be because nobody had ever even tried.

The twins, like their schoolmates, blossomed into powerful and gifted sorcerers and sorceresses. By the end of their time at the temple, where they were prepared to set off and make their journeys in life, Pradha had become a gifted parsel-alchemist. She had learnt how to manipulate metals and even flesh, blood, and bone.

But it wasn't all wonder.

-8-

During their last year, the twins were getting ready for bed when Pari screamed from the bathroom. Instantly Pradha rushed into the bathroom, her wand in hand. To her shock, her sister was screaming because of a small dark bronze-coloured snake was slithering closely towards her, hissing with amusement…

Only Pradha couldn't understand it. It was just making sounds.

She flicked her wand and froze the snake before levitating it upwards, and she began chanting spells.

"It's not a real snake, Pari. It's a construct. It won't last for long," Pradha said, examining the fake snake fascinated; she had encountered enchantments and transfigured and conjured items, created by alchemy, but it was rare to find something like this...

"Who sent it?" Pari asked shakily.

"I don't know, but if anyone says anything about you tomorrow or anytime soon, then you have a good idea," Pradha said, but she silently cast a few more spells when she realised what she had just said.

A spy…

What an incredible idea. She continued scanning it, making plans and notes of the alchemical and spell structures so she could copy and improve them with enough time. She could use it to spy on Harry Potter's enemies. The snake was basically conjured metal, but for a reason she couldn't grasp the creator had not bothered to make it permanent, and she quickly guessed they had made it like this deliberately so they couldn't be tracked.

But even with that property, Pradha saw this was an incredible construct.

While the sisters would never know who sent it, they would report it to the teachers, who would cast spells and new wards to prevent it from happening again, and Pradha and Pari would go on with their lives.