Chapter One Hundred and Ten of 'A Brother to Basilisks'- Gifts for the Birthday Boy
Chapter One Hundred and Nine.
Title: A Brother to Basilisks (110/?)
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairings: Eventual Harry/Draco and Ron/Hermione
Warnings: Angst, violence, some gore, AU from Prisoner of Azkaban onwards
Rating: R
Summary: AU of PoA. Harry wakes in the night to a voice calling him from somewhere in the castle-and when he follows it, everything changes. Updated every Friday.
Author’s Notes: This is a canon-divergent AU that starts after Chapter 7 of Prisoner of Azkaban. It will probably run to at least the mid-point of The Half-Blood Prince. It will also be long.
Chapter One.
Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter One Hundred and Ten-Gifts for the Birthday Boy
Sirius stepped onto the soil of Britain for the first time in six months, and took a huge, cleansing breath.
Then he closed his eyes and shut down some of the thoughts that were bubbling up in his mind as he remembered the timeline. Yes, it had been at Christmas that Snape had taken Harry from him. But Harry was apparently thriving in Snape’s care, from the news that Lughborn had given him. Sirius didn’t think the Mind-Healers would have lied about that. They had tried to be fair and honest, because they said otherwise Sirius wouldn’t heal.
Yes. All right. He couldn’t go storming in there and demand Harry back. He actually hadn’t meant to, but now he could feel old impulses shimmering through him like lightning.
Sirius shook his head and strode away from the hill where the Portkey had brought him. A few strides into a concealed copse of trees, and he could Apparate to Gringotts.
He had some arrangements to make, both to give Harry his birthday gift and to lessen the temptation to just charge in and take Harry away from Snape. He was not going to do that. Harry deserved some happiness and stability in his life.
The goblins of Gringotts were surprised to see him, but the arrangements Sirius wanted were easy enough to make, and after that, he only had to consider how to phrase his letter to Harry.
*
“These books are for your study of the Dark Arts. I want you to promise that you’ll never reveal them to Weasley or Granger.”
Harry slowly and reverently gathered up the books Severus had given him in a closed room of his quarters after the birthday breakfast was done. It was hard not to be reverent. Harry could smell dust and leather and all the scents that he used to think of as “secret places” smells. He had smelled them in the Chamber of Secrets, itself, as well as the rooms that held the basilisk eggs.
“Why did you decide to teach him Dark Arts, Professor Snape?” Draco asked from the side. Ron and Hermione had gone outside to explore what Gryffindor Tower looked like when there were no other students in it, but they would come back soon so they could all go to Hogsmeade.
“Because he needs to know how to protect himself,” said Severus harshly, eyes locked on Harry. “And the Dark Lord will hardly stick to using Light spells only.”
Harry looked up. “What are the ones you think I should learn first?”
“All of them.”
“You are not helpful, Draco,” Severus said, with a roll of his eyes. “I would like you to look through them, first. Come up with some thoughts about what patterns you sense, and what spells seem linked together by more than the book’s organization. Then we will talk again.”
Harry nodded and began to thumb through the books. There was no table of contents or index in the first one he looked at, which he thought was about as helpful as Draco’s comment. The black leather was cracked and rasped against his fingers as he looked at a spell to twist an enemy’s entrails, another to make someone vomit uncontrollably, a spell that-
Harry slammed the book, his face flaming, and stared at Severus. Had he known that there were sexual spells in that book?
Severus only looked at him implacably and then nodded as if they had reached some agreement and stood up. “I think you should rejoin your friends, Harry. They won’t be able to spend as much time here as Draco will.”
Harry was glad to go find Ron and Hermione, and listen to their chatter about how strange it was to see the Tower so silent and sit in the Gryffindor common room by themselves. He nodded, and listened, and made appreciative noises.
And tried not to think about the strange world he’d entered, the one that was deeper and more secret than he’d ever imagined when he was a simple Gryffindor without the basilisk that crawled beside him and lunged at shadows for his own entertainment.
*
Severus watched Harry go down the path to Hogsmeade, and shook his head. He could guess what spell had startled Harry so much, and there was no help for it. He might never cast such spells, but it was time that he came to terms with their existence.
As well as the rest of the Dark Arts.
Severus closed his eyes. He had been younger than Harry when he first knew of those spells and how he would wield them. He would not wish his childhood experiences to repeat with Harry. It was-not right, but necessary, that he guide Harry into a gentler version of them.
Harry would never come face-to-face with Voldemort if Severus could help it. Perhaps their every battle could be fought at a distance, as it had been when he, Minerva, and Filius had confronted Voldemort outside the Burrow. But he would assuredly face other Death Eaters. Perhaps even Bellatrix, if Lucius was right about the way she had managed to escape Azkaban.
That made Severus realize Lucius hadn’t contacted him to tell him what he had learned about Bellatrix, as he had planned. Perhaps he hadn’t made any progress yet.
Severus had just started to turn towards the Floo when a large black owl soared through the window. It checked, hooting, and started to circle for the opposite window, as though it hoped to find Harry there. But Severus had drawn his wand before it could, Stunned it, and taken the bird in one hand.
The black owls without a hint of white often came from Gringotts. Severus knew no reason for them to communicate with Harry, and as Harry’s guardian, official post should have come to him first.
The outside of the letter told him nothing, since it only had a large G on the seal, but when he cracked it open, he found handwriting he knew all too well near the bottom.
Dear Harry,
I wanted to tell you that I’m back in Britain. But don’t worry, I’m not going to bother you unless I’m invited. In fact, I’m writing to tell you that I’m bequeathing you the house in Hogsmeade that I bought. You can live there with whoever you like. I’ll live somewhere else. I have plenty of houses I can go to now that I’m not a fugitive anymore.
I never want you to feel pressured about anything from me again, pup. I want you to be safe, and happy, and loved. I think Snape probably actually does-I mean, he probably cares about you. Stay with him. See me when you’re ready.
Love,
Sirius.
Severus rubbed his forehead. But that didn’t seem strong enough a response to the news Black had sent, so he pinched the bridge of his nose. And then that didn’t seem strong enough, so he sat down on the floor and read the letter through again, shaking his head in disbelief.
What possessed him to give a fifteen-year-old a house?
Well, probably the same thing that had prompted him to come charging out of Azkaban in pursuit of Pettigrew instead of trying to find someone who would believe the truth, Severus had to admit. Even if Black was more stable right now than he had been when he left England-and it seemed likely, or the Lughborns wouldn’t have released him from their excellent care-there was no Mind-Healing that could cure idiocy.
Severus tucked the letter onto the mantel. He would wait until Harry came back to tell him about it. The boy deserved a birthday afternoon unmarred by bad news.
And he would make sure that when Harry wrote back to Black, which he would have to do, he would do it under Severus’s supervision. Just so there was no doubt at all about what communication Black was receiving.
*
“I can’t believe how much better Honeyduke’s is when everyone isn’t crowded into it,” said Ron in a deeply satisfied voice as they came out of the shop loaded down with sweets. Draco’s parents had given him enough money that Draco had acted a bit embarrassed about it, and then he’d spread it around. Harry thought he’d actually enjoyed watching Ron and Hermione buy sweets with it, and Hermione spend some on books.
Hopefully he’s not planning to claim that they’re his charity cases or anything later, Harry thought, rolling his eyes at Draco, who was looking down his shirt at the snake egg cradled against his chest. He looked back up, and ended by blushing when he caught Harry’s eye.
“Just making sure that my egg isn’t cracked,” he muttered, and let the shirt fall back against his side.
“I know,” Harry agreed, and caught Draco’s hand and dragged him towards the Three Broomsticks. He and Hermione and Ron had ended their jaunts to Hogsmeade this past year at the pub every single time. It didn’t seem right to break tradition now.
Harry.
The single word Dash sent thrumming down the bond to Harry made him stop, his mouth dry and his head spinning with awareness. He jerked his wand out, and Draco immediately drew his own. Ron and Hermione were a bit ahead of them and didn’t realize what was going on at first, but Dash hissed, and Hermione jumped and dropped her bag of books in the road.
“Harry, mate, what-”
We’re under attack, said Dash, his voice traveling into Harry’s mind in lashes as precise as the tongue he flicked out to sniff the air with. Two people with the same magic that hangs around Voldemort have Apparated in near the end of this street. They’re waiting behind that large house with the flowers around it. Two others on the opposite end of the street. They’re coming this way, pretending to be ordinary villagers.
Harry wanted to close his eyes and lean his head against something. Dash’s scales would do. Why did things like this always happen to him?
“We have Death Eaters coming,” he said in a low voice, and then continued in a fiercer once because Ron and Hermione and Draco all opened their mouths to make some kind of comment. “Dash can sense them. Two walking down the street this way. Two others hiding behind that house with the flowers around it. Ron, I need you to take Hermione and get inside Zonko’s.” He nodded at the shop that was the nearest. “Pretend you saw something in there that you want.”
“But, mate-”
“You don’t have enough training to survive,” Harry said. “Draco, get into the Hog’s Head.” That was near them on the other side.
“I thought you would let me stay with you.” Draco’s nostrils were flaring with outrage. “I thought you would-”
“You have your snake egg, and they’ll either think that your father’s turned on them and want to take you as a hostage, or think he’s still loyal and try to separate you from me anyway. Go, now!”
He didn’t know how he managed to sink so much convincing force into his voice, but it worked. Draco stepped back and stared at him for a second, eyes wide with betrayal, then ducked into the Hog’s Head. Hermione picked up her bag of books and dusted it off, then took Ron’s arm and dragged him towards Zonko’s, chattering determinedly.
Now what? Harry asked Dash softly. He could see the two people who were probably Death Eaters, a handsome woman in a set of dress robes and the tall man who had her arm looped through his, standing in front of a shop full of clothes and admiring whatever was in the window. How can we keep the other people in Hogsmeade from being hurt?
Dash dropped his head to the ground and gave a small, slight hiss. In instants, shadows came to life and crowded around Harry. They were made of the tiny snakes Dash could conjure. Harry blinked at them, just in time to see Dash rise to his full height and flow straight towards the Death Eaters.
Harry automatically tried to follow him, but the little shadow-snakes around his feet hissed, “No! No! You are to stay here!” Then they coiled around his legs and tripped him for good measure.
Harry fell over swearing, and was just in time to watch as a spell clanged against Dash’s scales and bounced off. The people in the street had already scattered in front of the basilisk. “Dash!” Harry called out, both aloud in Parseltongue and down the bond. “What the hell are you doing? I was supposed to go with you!”
Funny, I never said anything about that.
Dash was already hurling the full weight of his body down onto the male Death Eater. The woman was casting with steady precision against Dash, cutting spells and curses that were probably designed to flay flesh from his body. None of them were making any impression. Harry saw Dash curl one coil around the man and sink his fangs into him at the same time.
You need to leave some of them alive! We need to question them!
Can you actually keep them from Apparating? Dash asked coolly as he struck behind him with his tail at the woman, who was screaming as if the sound might make Dash back off. He knocked her from her feet, and then he ripped free of what Harry knew was going to be a corpse any second and turned around.
Don’t open your eyes!
You’re in the way. Do you take me for an idiot?
The woman finally found a spell that worked, it seemed, and managed to score a long cut down Dash’s tail. Dash once again hit her with his tail, hard enough to make her ricochet off a building. Then he turned to face the other two Death Eaters who had given up hiding behind the flower-surrounded building and started running down the street instead.
Harry’s heart tightened as he watched. Dash was fierce, but he was also huge. It was hard for him to get his body maneuvering right in the tight street, and now that the enemies were on two sides of him, he would find it hard to face them.
Or tend to the wound on his tail.
Well, maybe Harry couldn’t run out there to join the battle, but the shadow-snakes were crouched on the ground around him, not on every side. He aimed his wand at the back of one charging Death Eater, who was past his circle and most of the way to Dash. “Stupefy!”
The man managed to spin around and raise a shield that counteracted the Stunner, but that meant he was standing with his back to Dash. Dash slashed him with a fang, down his arm. The man promptly fell on the ground, convulsing and screaming so loud it made Harry want to grab his ears.
The second Death Eater who’d been pelting down the street stopped running and raised his wand. He was a huge, heavy-set man, and he stood there like he wasn’t afraid of Dash, even though Harry was sure he was. He shouted an incantation Harry didn’t know, but which sounded like, “Exitium!”
A shimmering white cone spread out of his wand, getting bigger and bigger the further away it traveled. Where it hit the stone on the sides of the buildings, they simply dissolved, gone or vaporized or something. Harry was screaming even before the magic hit Dash, trying furiously to leap over the shadow-snakes, which just moved to surround him again.
Dash whirled, taking the blow on his side instead of his head. Harry saw his scales disappear, his skin and muscles suddenly gleaming and exposed to the air. The Death Eater shouted in triumph.
He ran closer and closer. Dash was lying on the ground with his head turning weakly towards the Death Eater, but he was losing so much blood so fast that he seemed unwilling to move. Harry yelled again, and called down the bond as hard as he could, Dash!
He felt an answering surge of viciousness in the moment before the man came close enough and Dash unhinged his jaw and swallowed him in one gulp.
Harry just stood there with his mouth open, the shout dying away. It was suddenly incredibly quiet in the streets of Hogsmeade. Harry saw Dash close his mouth, and the throbbing, kicking, struggling lump in his throat. It stopped struggling a moment later.
Harry stared, and blinked, and said stupidly, I didn’t know you could do that.
It’s not something I would exactly like to advertise, when I am living among humans. But I’ve been able to do that for a long time. My jaws open a lot wider than a normal snake’s.
How?
Magic.
Harry slapped the ground. That’s not what I meant, and you know it.
You will have to explain to me what you meant when we get back to the school. Dash lifted his head and stared dazedly at the blood flowing down his side. The lump in his throat was moving faster and faster, down his throat to his stomach. Harry found that he couldn’t watch it. In the meantime, I don’t think we can stay here. The woman who I slapped has already Apparated.
Harry took a quick look up the street. It was true. And now there was screaming coming out of windows. He assumed someone had probably already alerted the Aurors. It wouldn’t look good when they showed up and found the blood on the street and Dash panting with exhaustion. They might even try to kill him.
They might succeed, as weak as I feel right now.
Harry took a deep breath and stood up. “Ron! Hermione! Draco!”
They came out of the shop and the pub, their eyes so wide that it was painful to look at them. At the same time, Dash hissed wearily, and the circle of shadow-snakes around Harry turned back into grey light and ran towards him. Harry thought he looked a little stronger once they joined him, but he wasn’t sure.
“Please go back to the school and tell Severus what happened,” he said to Hermione. She had her hands clasped to her mouth, and looked as if she was about to throw up. This would get her out of the way and give her something useful to do. “Draco and Ron, please help me back to the school.”
He was staggering as he came out of the circle. He didn’t know why. He hadn’t used very much magic.
You can feel my pain through the bond, of course. That takes a toll on you as much as you being wounded, or fighting Voldemort in your head, takes a toll on me.
Harry nodded. Hermione had already started running down the path back to the school. She’d even left her bag of books with Ron. He lifted it onto his shoulder and hurried over to grab Harry’s right arm. Draco had hold of his left. Together, with Dash crawling slowly behind them, they managed to get beyond the houses of Hogsmeade.
Severus came to meet them then, his face shadowed and terrible. He conjured a floating stretcher for Harry even though Harry said he didn’t need one, and only looked at Dash and shook his head when Harry suggested a stretcher for him.
“I cannot make one that will hold his weight or avoid jostling his wounds. I am not an expert on snakes.”
“Then Madam Pomfrey won’t know what to do for him, either?” Harry could feel Dash’s pain more clearly now, and he was trying to give him some magic down the bond to make up for what he’d lost. Either that effort or just the pain was making his head whirl and his vision darken.
“Send him to Hagrid,” Draco said suddenly. “He knows how to take care of animals.”
I am an animal in body, Dash said, which Harry knew was his way of agreeing.
“That is a good solution. In the meantime, Harry, stop being stubborn. Edormisco.”
Severus’s spell sent Harry to sleep. He went, but given the last sight he’d seen was the blood trail Dash was leaving behind, it wasn’t exactly an easy rest.
*
Draco sat by Harry’s bed in the hospital wing. Even if he hadn’t done it exactly recently, it was still bad enough that he wanted to shout and break something.
Instead, he had to sit there and quietly cradle the serpent’s egg against his chest, and plot revenge.
He didn’t know who the Death Eaters who had attacked Hogsmeade were, not for certain. And for the dead ones, it probably wouldn’t matter. But he was irrationally convinced that the woman who had escaped was Bellatrix Lestrange. He knew she had left Azkaban. Father had told him so. Severus and Harry had both discussed it with him now, after thinking about it for a while.
That meant she was family. And he had to do something about that. People related to him shouldn’t go around hurting Harry. He would have felt worse if it was Mother or Father, but this was still an ache in him, like a broken bone.
He held his egg, and he thought about his aunt running around out there after she had hurt Dash, and it felt as if something boiled inside him, so intense that it had to go somewhere. But Draco didn’t go anywhere. He sat there and stared at Harry, and imagined various things he could do to stop Bellatrix, and his heartbeat and breathing increased until he had to do something. He stood.
That was when Draco noticed a tiny crack in the egg he held. He froze at once, his eyes locked on it. When had that happened? What the hell was he going to do now? Dash had trusted him with an egg. He’d broken it. He probably wouldn’t get another one.
Then the shell squirmed and writhed, and a small head poked up from beneath the egg. Draco stared at it. It didn’t look like any snake he had ever seen. It had alternating bands of brilliant green and silver, and a blunt nose that probably meant it couldn’t use venom. It crawled around on Draco’s hands and sniffed his skin with its tongue darting out.
Draco lifted a shaky hand to stroke its back. Of course, with both Dash and Harry asleep, he had no way to communicate with it, and no idea of what to feed it.
Hissing erupted from the bed. Draco jerked and almost dropped his snake, before he realized that Harry was awake and talking to it. His snake hissed back in a voice so soft Draco was amazed Harry could hear it.
Harry looked at him with a tired smile a few seconds later. “He’s going to bond to you. He’s a little constrictor, and you should feed him…” A yawn interrupted Harry’s words. “Mice and baby birds and things like that. The house-elves can…” Another yawn. “Catch them for you.”
“What kind of snake is he?” Draco asked as quickly as he could, because Harry looked like he was going to fall asleep again any second.
“Hmmm? Oh. I don’t know the name. He hatched just now because of your intense desire for-something,” Harry added. “Whatever you wanted to do just now, that’s what he’ll be able to do. That’s probably why he doesn’t have a hood the way I-thought he did when Dash showed me the egg. He’s changed from a cobra to something else because you needed him to be something else instead of a cobra.”
Draco blinked and softly tickled the back of the snake in his hands. Would the snake be able to help him hunt down Bellatrix and punish her?
“You’re probably going to name him Slytherin,” Harry said, and then rolled over and went to sleep again before Draco could retort.
Draco called a house-elf to bring a baby mouse for his snake, but softly. The snake was delighted and immediately twined around the mouse, then unhinged his jaw and swallowed it the way Dash had swallowed the human. Draco leaned back and watched.
No. He had the perfect name, for when Harry was able to pay attention to him again. But that could wait.
Ultio. Punishment. Revenge.
Chapter One Hundred and Eleven.
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