Much love to LordofShadows for becoming a pa=treon sub. He's funding a great cause!
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"Parseltongue"
"Normal talk"
'Thoughts'
§ - § - § - § - § - § - § - § - § - § - § - §
"We are here," Harry said under the invisibility cloak as he walked into the dragon handlers' camp.
"I know, I can feel them. All four of them," Ash hissed back from his shoulder.
"Did they finally decide to bring the lasst dragon then? By the way, wass that a rare display of the magical ssensse you keep sspouting about?" he asked sarcastically.
"Yess to both, and need I mention that you would have also been able to feel them have you sstopped acting like a child and formed a familiar bond with me," he asked in a clearly annoyed tone.
Since a week after the trio learned about the first task's danger, Ash had constantly been trying to get Harry and form a familiar bond with him.
'Why can't he see sense? Forming a bond with me will grant him the ability to sense magic. Though no doubt lesser than my own, it will surely be beneficial to him and may even come in handy at the task,' Ash thought dejectedly.
Yeah, apparently Ash wasn't a good old Grass Snake as Harry had initially thought.
FLASHBACK
"Uh, Harry?" Ash hissed, slowly slithering on Harry and curling around his neck.
"What's wrong?" he asked, having noticed his friend's reluctance.
"Nothing'ss wrong. I just wanted to assk your opinion on familiarss?'"
"I thought you'd never assk! You made gave me the impression that you weren't interessted in thingss like that… You are not feeling jealous because of the Fawkess plan, are you?" Harry asked, feeling amused.
"I do not!" he hiss-shouted affronted.
Harry though, believed otherwise and kept staring expectantly at his snake friend.
"Fine, but only a tiny bit! And I'll have you know that the fire chicken is very suspiciousss. Who knowss what kind of perverted "good moralss" it may try to impart on you through your bond, if it's left unsupervissed."
"Yeah sure… Anything elsse you might want to add?"
"If you form a bond with me, you'll gain the ability to sensse magic," Ash stated, magnanimity creeping in his tone. If he had arms, he would have no doubt opened his arms.
"Huh? You mean that you can ssense magic? Since when are grasss snakes able to sense magic?" Harry asked confused.
"I'm no grasss ssnake, you idiot. Well not fully at least… My father was a magical rhabdophisss, while my mum was ssupposedly a grasss ssnake."
"The heck? What do you mean ssupposedly?"
"SShe left right after laying my, and my siblings' eggs. I grew up with my father and his masster…"
"Talk about parental love," Harry hissed bitterly, choosing not to comment on the last part.
He could feel Ash's bitterness as he hissed the word "master".
"My mother'ss treatment was pretty normal actually. Mundane snakess don't usually care about their offspringss," Ash revealed, causing Harry to mutter something about snakes and bitches.
PRESENT
"However convenient it may be for me to have the ability to ssensse magic, it'ss not worth your life. You know that, unlike Fawkess, upon my death, you'll alsso die," Harry said in full seriousness.
"Yess, and that iss my choice to make, not yourss," Ash hisssed back.
'This snake has gone mental, I swear…' Harry thought annoyed.
Why would Ash, a snake that he had met just three weeks ago, want to endanger his life for him? Harry simply couldn't wrap his head around his logic.
'Stupid, stupid, stupid human. I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE AGAIN,' he almost shouted.
However, he didn't say anything…
He wasn't quite ready to share the rest of his story with Harry yet.
Not how his whole family was killed, nor how being the only one left alive made him feel guilty and unworthy of his siblings' sacrifices and how before meeting Harry, he had no friends.
'I can't go back to that,' Ash thought depressed.
Harry having taken notice of the snake's stiffness, stopped walking.
"Sigh. Are you ssure that you want to become my familiar?" he asked defeated.
He could see how much his rejection bothered Ash.
In addition, despite the snake's continuous use of excuses and sarcasm with his requests, Harry had some ideas about why his friend wanted to form a bond with him.
'Am I being selfish?'
"Yesss," Ash hissed, slithering around Harry's neck excitedly.
"Fine, I hope I won't come to regret thisss…"
That said, Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on feeling his soul just like Salazar had taught him.
The ability to sense one's soul wasn't a complicated thing. One simply had to reach a certain level of occlumency and know a few, very basic, concepts about soul magic.
The required level of occlumency while not being a quickly achievable milestone by the average talent, was achievable if one had enough patience to keep evolving their mind shields and improving their understanding of the psyche.
Needless to say, with Salazar's help and Harry's unfair talent with the mind arts, meeting the two requirements was no problem.
It was also the stepping stone of embracing his Peverell legacy…
After a few moments, Harry had managed to block everything and focus on his soul.
In his peripheral soul sense, he could feel a malicious and hungry presence, trying to hide.
That was Voldemort's soul piece as he had found out.
When he first entered his soul-scape and laid his senses on it, it tried to devour his consciousness. After a thorough beating though, it became quite subdued…
'As lovely as never.'
Ignoring it, he shifted his attention to the second presence he felt, trying to get inside.
It slithered around him, in what felt like a friendly manner, asking to be let in.
Sighing, Harry did just that and promptly felt his soul sense fading as he struggled to breathe.
The last thing he noticed inside his soul was the weak last presence, sending an accepting, fiery pulse…
"Ash, you are c-choking me-e," Harry barely managed to hiss.
That seemed to have brought the snake back to its senses as it immediately relaxed its grip on Harry's neck.
"Thank you, thank you, Harry," Ash hissed while wiggling his tail excitedly.
'Are you a dog? Stop doing that, and you are welcome… Now let's focus on our task,' he mused, trying to convey his thoughts with the soul bond the two now shared.
It seemed to work as Ash stopped moving his tail and glared at Harry.
'Dog he says… The audacity of that stupid piece of-'
'You know I can hear you, right?' Harry asked while chuckling.
Asmodeus didn't seem to have grasped control of his thought stream as quickly as he had.
"Laugh it up dumbasss," he hissed, prompting Harry to offer him a lopsided grin.
Ignoring Ash, Harry moved to where he knew the previously empty pit was located.
As he closed in on his destination, he started sensing something.
At first, it started as a weak and old presence one might expect coming off, of a mundane grandpa. However, as he drew closer, he realised he couldn't have been more wrong.
"It's terrifying, truly monstrous… It reeks of an arrogant and unchecked bloodthirst. What kind of monster did they bring?" Harry muttered.
He wasn't sure if he wanted to go closer; his new ability definitely suggested otherwise.
"Ash?" he questioned, but got no reply.
The snake was stiff as a board.
Harry's ability wasn't only weaker than Ash's, it was also untrained.
While Harry felt like the fourth dragon was simply extremely dangerous, Ash would have begged to differ.
He felt as if they were nearing an unnamed horror, death's personification or perhaps the world's doom.
While Harry's senses didn't ring as many bells' as Ash's, he could feel the primordial fear the snake felt through their recently established bond and backed off.
'This should be far enough,' he mused after walking some distance away from the pit, far enough that he didn't feel the presence at all.
"Can you wait here for a bit while I go check the dragon? While I'm not planning to fight that, it wouldn't hurt uss to know what speciess it isss," Harry hissed.
"Are you ssure?" Ash asked weakly. Unlike Harry, he wasn't quite out of the dragon's aura range.
"Yess.'
"Alright, be careful," he hissed, earning a mental nod from Harry as he slithered off him and onto the ground.
Harry quickly made his way back and without any hesitation searched for the dragon.
'Huh? It's not in the pit. My senses are screaming that it's somewhere around here tho-'
Harry's thoughts were rudely interrupted when a colossal figure landed in the middle of the pit, scattering dust and dirt in every direction.
The ground shook as it accepted the new presence.
'Oh fuck... It broke free!'
As the beast settled down, everything became quiet, unnaturally so.
It was almost as if someone had cast a worldwide quietus charm…
Harry didn't dare move, lest the dragon notice him and attack him.
Speaking of the dragon, it was still as a statue, doing something that Harry couldn't grasp.
The light, as if afraid of him, didn't go near it.
It was a shadow, or perhaps it'd be more appropriate to call it the darkness itself.
Its scales were black as a clear night sky, each with a spiky edge sharp enough to pierce human skin.
Harry couldn't even discern how long it was.
'Definitely bigger than the other dragons though.'
It gave a whole new meaning to the word terrifying.
Suddenly, the black monster turned what Harry imagined to be its head towards his direction and opened its terrifying maw. Had Harry wanted, he could have counted all of its sword-like teeth.
Was it going to burn him alive?
Two sickly red glows took shape as the dragon opened its eyelids.
"I know you are somewhere close human," it said with its hoarse voice, before turning his gaze elsewhere.
It spoke.
It actually spoke a human language.
'English at that,' his brain observed.
That, in Harry's opinion, was scarier than the feared dragon fire.
'Who, where and how did they get this monster?' he wondered, idly.
"What I can't seem to understand though, is how you avoid my senses as every single one of them has surpassed their known limits, and that is without counting my ability to sense souls… So how can you hide from me mortal? How curious, I've briefly sensed your magic when you left your snake companion behind but not since then. Reveal yourself!" he commanded, letting out a magnificent roar that made the earth tremble and whatever lesser creatures heard it, flee in panic.
'As if.'
Had Harry been lacking in his occlumency training, the roar would have frozen him on the spot.
Thankfully, he had not. Not that he was planning on walking around anyway…
After a whole minute passed with neither moving, the dragon spoke again, this time, in an annoyed tone.
"Are you going to hide yourself indefinitely, mortal? Don't tell me that your stupid kings have forgone to inform you about my magical contract. You see, I'm bound by magic, since long before your birth, to be unable to attack any humans that do not hold the intent to harm myself. You can thank your bloody Merlin for that," the darkness growled.
Unluckily for the dragon, neither his appearance, or lack thereof, nor his aura gave a tickling of trustworthiness, so Harry decided to ignore his words.
"Sigh. It's so like a human to not believe someone else. I swear on my life and magic that everything I have said since I landed on this pit, has been nothing but the truth, so mote it be," he finished and then proceeded to breathe his dragon fire towards the sky, making Harry briefly believe that the sun was dawning.
'Damn, he's actually telling the truth? I suppose that does answer how the ministries managed to bring him here and why he's not chained like the other dragons… They either asked him nicely or offered him rewards," Harry mused.
Still, even if the dragon wasn't planning on eating him alive, he didn't want to leave anything to fate...
Taking a breath, he focused on his surroundings and disappeared.
'Thank god, Salazar taught me how to apparate,' he thought as he walked towards Ash.
[BREAK]
"An Abyssssal Reaver," Salazar whispered after Harry finished narrating his encounter with the fourth dragon.
His demeanour grew grave as he gazed upon his student.
"Abyssal Reavers, otherwise known as the nightmares of dragons, have gone extinct, or so I believed. The last one sighted according to my knowledge was here at Hogwarts, before it was slain by myself and the other founders. We thought that she was the last of their line… Obviously, we were wrong," he revealed, his eyes becoming glassy.
With a predictable show of cruelty, like most of its brethren, the dragon had killed any students that were outside the stone fortress.
By the time the founders had managed to respond to the attack, none was alive.
The Abyssal Reaver had given them quite the fight. Thankfully, by the time they had slain it, it didn't manage to kill anyone else.
It was one of the darkest days of Hogwarts as many students had lost siblings, lovers and friends that day…
"Hey, Sal?" Harry said, breaking the man out from his reminiscence of times long since forgotten.
"Hm? What is it, my heir?"
"I'll go against it," he said with a calculating gaze.
Salazar was about to open his mouth and heavily question Harry's growing intelligence, but he was cut off.
"You don't get it. The dragon said that he is under a magical vow and is unable not attack anyone who doesn't intend to harm him. That sounds like a better bet than fighting the Hungarian Horntail, even if it's way less dangerous," revealed the aforementioned teen, allowing sarcasm to invade his tone, stunning the Slytherin.
"Not bad for a Gryffindor. And I suppose you'll go around the task's requirement of attacking the dragon by using a spell at the last moment possible?" he asked with a growing smirk.
"Yep," he popped the p.
[BREAK]
In a common display, that not even time was able to stop yet, plates and cutlery clanked all around the great hall as students exchanged greetings and stuffed their bellies.
That was what Harry casually walked into, the following day, ignoring the stares and people pointing at him.
'I bet the old goat will call me to his office right after breakfast, giving me the perfect opportunity to see Fawkes,' he mused, walking towards his house's table.
If Dumbledore wanted to manipulate him, he would gladly return the favour.
Needless to say, he plopped down next to his bushy-haired friend.
She immediately became aware of his presence.
After she finally stopped gawking, she opened her mouth to no doubt reprimand him about skipping classes.
Unfortunately for the lovely bookworm though, someone beat her to it.
"Harry Potter. The brat whose arrogance doesn't seem to have an upper limit," Snape drawled from behind the teen, prompting Harry to smirk.
Oh, how he had missed the potions master's unending barbs.
'Hook.'
"Ah, Mr. Snape it's lovely to see you," Harry said with mock happiness.
"Tut, tut. That'll be twenty points from Gryffindor," he announced, causing many lions to groan in dismay and Harry to flash him a bright smile.
'Line.'
"It's Professor Snape to you and I'd watch both your tone and cheek Potter," he spewed.
'And sinker, dumbass.'
"And why pray tell should I call you a professor Severus? Don't tell me you are under the delusion that you teach the noble art of potion-making here at Hogwarts?" Harry asked innocently, bringing about some badly covered sniggers and causing the professor's face to slightly redden.
Having undergone Salazar's potion lessons and then concatenating some very bizarre potions at the chambers, Harry found his lost love of the art.
Who knew how many people did Severus Snape stop from ever liking potions? How many talents weren't let to bloom and instead were left to rot?
'Honestly, I'd expected a bigger reaction…' he thought disappointedly.
Sadly for Harry, he wasn't allowed to continue as that was the exact moment someone else decided to enter their pleasant conversation.
'And here comes the twinkling old bastard.'
"Harry, my boy, that's not how you should talk to a professor," Dumbledore started, giving him his signature 'I'm deeply disappointed in you' look. Not letting anyone stop him, the old manipulator waited just enough for the act to sink in before continuing. "Where have you been all this time? Everyone's been searching for you and we've all been so anxious about your whereabouts," he finished, his eyes twinkling expectantly.
No one denied Albus Dumbledore after all.
'If I reach for Fawkes' bond and he comes, Dumbledore would no doubt notice his arrival. I have to take him to his office, where he'd feel safe and hopefully ignore the phoenix.'
"I was busy preparing for the tournament and if you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about my whereabouts in front of everyone," Harry replied evenly, gesturing to everyone in the great hall.
The whole school population, that was eagerly watching the exchange, sighed in disappointment as not even the infamous Hogwarts rumour mill could penetrate past the headmaster's office.
Dumbledore, at Harry's gesture, turned to look around and saw the many hopeful expressions.
"Very well, shall we go right now or wait until the breakfast ends?" he asked.
'He is letting me choose?' Harry wondered as he looked down at his plate.
He had lost his appetite…
"Let's go now."
With that, Harry stood up and headed towards the great hall's exit, the headmaster following closely behind him.
They didn't talk as they moved towards the seventh floor, Harry because he was trying to push both his nervousness and excitement down and Dumbledore on account of trying to think how to better manipulate the situation for his gain.
By the time the duo reached the gargoyle statue, Dumbledore was taking the lead.
"Lemonhead," he said joyfully, prompting the gargoyle to move and reveal a previously concealed staircase.
The meddling old fool didn't waste any time as he stepped into the opening.
After Harry followed the man's example, the staircase started moving up.
"I must confess Harry, your disappearing act was most displeasing," Dumbledore started.
'I suppose that the sooner I start this act, the better.'
"I'm glad," he fired, flabbergasting the older man.
"Harry?"
"Dumbledore?" he asked back, as they made their way into the office.
"Now, young man, what's with this blatant disrespect that you seem keen on showing?" he demanded, his eyes no longer twinkling.
Harry took a deep breath, knowing that he couldn't let his emotions fail him. He threw a look at where he knew Fawkes' perch was located.
'Good, everything's going according to plan and Dumbledore is none the wiser.'
"Sir you've once told me that it is our choices that show what we truly are, not our abilities. Let us talk about your choices concerning me then," Harry countered.
"Your first mistake was the order you've formed and let my parents become part of, ignoring that they had just finished Hogwarts at the time… Your second wrong against me and my family was the protection you gave us against Voldemort. You knew that we were targeted by him and simply put a Fidelius charm at our home… If only you had offered them a sanctuary at Hogwarts, I wouldn't be an orphan now. I doubt they would have denied it, not when they had a newborn child to protect from a Dark Lord. And don't get me started on the secret keeper issue… I've not talked to Sirius about it yet but when I do, I hope he'll tell me that you weren't present when the keeper was chosen."
While Harry was calmly numbering Dumbledore's slights concerning him, the man himself displayed his grandfatherly smile but was inwardly screaming.
'HOW DOES HE KNOW SO MUCH? DOES HE ALSO KNOW ABOUT THE PROPHECY?'
"How do you know about the prophecy?" he let slip.
'What? There's a fucking prophecy about me?' he wondered incredulously.
He really wanted to forego the plan and scream at the man.
Deep breath.
'Angry people are not always wise,' Salazar had taught him.
By the time he opened his eyes, he had managed to numb down most of his anger.
While that was definitely not a pleasant development, something else was.
'He's slipping. That took way less time than I thought it'd take.'
Unbeknownst to Harry, his disappearing act had caused myriads of problems to the aged headmaster. Not only had he discarded some of his meticulously formed plans, but he was also under constant pressure by both the British and foreign ministries to answer about Harry's whereabouts. And that was on top of his headmaster, supreme mugwump and chief warlock responsibilities.
The sudden drop of comfort given by Fawkes throughout his days that he enjoyed for many years didn't help his mental health. Thankfully, it had gone unnoticed…
Dumbledore almost instantly realised his mistake as he saw Harry's face momentarily form a smirk.
"I've not finished yet headmaster. After my parents' tragic death, as I'm sure you'd agree, you sent me to the Dursleys. That, together with your blatant theft of my vault's contents, was your worst act against me," he said, not bothering to hide his disdain for the man.
"You are overreacting my boy. Your family loves you deeply, you are just being difficult. I'm sure that if you put enough effort the next summer, you'll also see that," he answered while trying to get control of his deteriorated mental state; he shouldn't have skipped sleep last night. He didn't even bother to deny Harry's claim of theft; the goblins were known to be meticulous in writing down any transactions that happened.
'Bloody goblins… Why did Gornuk remember to send Harry a letter now?' the wizened headmaster thought bitterly.
'I think he's truly senile… I'm not sure if I prefer him believing that or trying to underplay the "deep love" that they have for me. At least the bastard realises he can't conceal his theft.'
"I'm in fact, downplaying the situation if anything. They abused me Dumbledore, for years, and you've done nothing about it. I've done some light reading on obscurials and I must say, I'm not surprised that you were involved in the Obscurial attack on New York City, since I'm amazed that I myself didn't share the same fate as Credence Barebone."
"Now, now my boy. Obscurials aren't as easy to form as you make them sound. I've also done some checks on you through the years and I've not noticed anything you mentioned."
"I hope that was a lie Dumbledore," he said as he took off his robe.
Harry didn't want to proceed with that plan, but the insane stubbornness of the old man had proved too much.
'How can he think that he knows better about my living conditions than me?'
Harry, ignoring DUMBledore's demands to tell him what was going on, took off his shirt as well.
'It's colder than I expected,' he thought absentmindedly, suppressing a shiver.
Suddenly, the feeling disappeared as it was replaced by a familiar warmth.
'Thanks, Fawkes,' he thought through his blooming bond with the fiery avian behind him.
Sighing, he focused back on the man.
"Tell me how I got all these scars then Dumbledore," he demanded.
To say that Harry's upper body was filled with scars, would not be an overstatement.
"This one, headmaster, was Vernon's present for my sixth birthday. That day, I learned exactly how much sugar my uncle wanted in his coffee and how hard a belt hit," Harry spewed, touching a scar that covered his whole chest area.
"See this burn mark over here? I got that in my first lesson on cooking with Petunia. She wasn't pleased with my incompetence you see... I was five years old."
"Wanna see my favourite?" he asked while turning his back to Dumbledore.
Only someone as dense as Ron could have missed the sarcasm in Harry's voice.
"I've got Dudley and his friends to thank for it. I'll spare you the details."
Covering most of Harry's back, was a once deep, healed gash.
"That's enough. Please put on your clothes," the headmaster said with a pained expression.
'I wonder, is he faking it?'
"Enough? What the hell are you talking about Dumbledore? We are just getting started here, there are countless more scars I can tell you about after all. How about this one, hm? I got it by fixing the school's basilisk problem for you. Tell me, do you think it's fair to let an innocent child be mobbed and blamed by an entire school population and then expect them to go and slay a 15-meter monster with a sword?" Harry asked, pointing his arm.
Dumbledore, realising that he couldn't go for his usual strategy and say that Harry was throwing a childish tantrum, chose to change the topic.
'I already let it slip by. Hopefully, it'll take his mind off the scars and give me enough time to come up with an unquestionable story…'
"You don't understand Harry, everything I did was for the greater good… The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies… That's what your divination professor predicted a few months before your birth. There was another boy who met the prophecy's criteria, but as I'm sure you have noticed, Voldemort chose to mark you as his equal, thus making you the unquestionable child of the prophecy."
'Fuck, my magic is going to explode,' Harry realised as he did his best to control himself.
"And who's fucking greater good is that?"
"Everyone's, even Voldemort's," the old man answered sagely, caressing his ashen beard.
'What's this deluded bastard saying?'
"What about me though?"
"Ah, Harry. The joy of being young and foolish… Don't worry, your sacrifice will be remembered and you'll die for a great cause."
"Fuck-you."
Luckily for Harry, Dumbledore's speech had more consequences than angering him.
'Alright, youngling. I'll form a bond with you,' Harry heard someone say as he felt himself explode with warmth.
He smiled as he felt the new bond form.
"You know, now that I think about it again, perhaps you did want me to become an obscurial… What would be better against Voldemort, a meek and underdeveloped boy or 'an unstable, uncontrollable dark force that busts out and attacks, and then vanishes'?" he said, uncaring about the growing restlessness of his magic, making Dumbledore pale.
'Wow. He did want that…'
"I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to. Dumbledore," Harry said with contempt.
Dumbledore reached for his wand, widening Harry's eyes.
Nevertheless, thanks to Salazar's urgings and his past experiences with a slow wand draw, he managed to mimic the older man, albeit a tad slower.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, my boy. I'm truly sorry," he said, both pointing their wands at the other.
"If that's how you feel, then why the fuck are you smiling, you senile old bastard," he shouted just as the headmaster started moving his wand.
Harry saw the jet of fiery red light flying over him and dodged.
"Oh?" Dumbledore exclaimed; he didn't expect Harry to offer resistance.
"Expeliarmus. Incarcerous," Harry shouted in quick succession.
'Fighting back as well,' he observed surprised.
Dumbledore simply batted his spells aside with a smile before twirling his wand and firing three more spells at him.
"Protego," Harry cast before returning spell fire.
After exchanging a few more spells, Dumbledore seemed extremely pleased.
"Whatever you were doing during your absence has done wonders for your my boy, though I'm afraid I must end this," he said, smiling sadly.
Dumbledore transfigured the furniture near Harry to different kinds of big mammals, that proceeded to jump on him.
'There's no way I could win Dumbledore in a battle of skills at transfiguration,' he mused, not bothering to try and get control of the magicked animals.
"Finite incantatem!" he shouted.
The headmaster smirked as nothing happened.
'More power then,' Harry thought.
"Finite magicae," he hissed, casting the spell's parseltongue variation.
Dumbledore's eyes widened as his hounds became furniture again and Harry used parseltongue for spell casting.
Harry, grasping the shock of the older man, re-centred his wand.
"SSecare. Igniss. Venenum," Harry cast rapidly.
The spells, while not dark, would cause Dumbledore some damage if hit.
Harry's comeback broke the man off his surprise as his muscle memory kicked in.
With a wave of his hand, a golden shield materialised around him, meeting Harry's first spell head-on.
"Such power," Dumbledore muttered in awe, as the shield cracked.
He barely had any time to cast another shield, this time with his wand, as fire met with defence.
With a wave of Dumbledore's wand, the fire and his shield disappeared.
'The fool. Did he not see my last spell? Can he not sense it or is he underestimating me so much?' Harry wondered right as Dumbledore's face got green.
Venenum was a parseltongue spell that applied a venomous poison in the air.
For anyone else, using a poison spell in a fight would have been stupid, as it didn't discriminate between the caster and the target. Harry, thanks to both having a bond with a snake and being the host of a basilisk's venom, was an exception to that rule.
'Perhaps, that's why Dumbledore didn't do anything about it. He thinks that I wouldn't cast anything that would harm me as well.'
Speaking of the older man, he sported an enraged expression as he furiously swished his wand around.
Harry tried to keep up with the headmaster, going as far as throwing some of his darker curses, however, his skill and power quickly fell short in front of the giant in front of him.
'That's how going against someone that has decades of experience on you ends, I suppose. Maybe if I started by throwing my strongest curses, it would have ended differently,' he mused as he fell; a full body-bind curse hit him.
If Harry started by casting his strongest spells, the headmaster would have gotten a feel for his skill and overestimated right from the bat. In addition, casting destructive spells in an enclosed space wasn't the smartest thing to do. Lastly, just because a spell was strong didn't mean it would win a duel.
"Oblivi-" was all Dumbledore managed to say before Harry disappeared with a flash of fire.
Suddenly, the old man fell to the floor with a pained gasp.
'Have I failed to purify the poison? No wait-'
"Fawkes?" he mumbled as he felt something he hadn't even considered to experience in his life.
The bond with his phoenix was burning, and not before long, it would disappear.
§ - § - § - § - § - § - § - § - § - § - § - §
Well, how was it? Excellent? Amazing? Terrific?
Yes, apparently snakes have tails. Who knew right?
We finally got some action! I promise that there's a lot more from where that came from.
I swear I didn't forget about Sirius, I was just having trouble introducing him to the story and deciding how to write him. Should I make him a dumb-as-door fan, or the supporting godfather that he is supposed to be? Salazar is probably going bye-bye in the next chapter.
Something random… I'm reading Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" right now, and a character advises Dorian to never trust a woman over thirty-five who is fond of pink ribbons. Does that remind you of someone? Harry Potter Wiki says that the toad bitch was born on "26 August 1961 or earlier" making her just about thirty-five years old in Harry's fifth year.
Ogremen, I hope you don't mind that the Dumbledore talk wasn't done in the great hall.
My minions, please review! Do you think that this story is shit? Say so! Do you have any cool ideas that I should look into? I'm all ears!
Also, I'll leave these here :]
[p=a=t=r=e=o=n=.=c=o=m/Mr_0ne]
[d=i=s=c=o=r=d=.=g=g/NJ3WV9RVgR ]