A Snake Named Voldemort

Chapter 4

"H-how'd you do that?"

"I believe I told you to leave, Malfoy," Harry replied coldly, not answering the question. He pushed himself once more up off the ground. Voldemort uncoiled underneath him and rose up, hood flared in obvious aggression. Harry flickered his eyes down at the snake and then back up at Malfoy. "My snake is angry, and if I were you I'd leave before you find out how truly dangerous and mentally deranged he is."

When Draco made no immediate move to leave, seemingly frozen in place, Harry hissed, sending the boy stumbling out the doorway with Parselmagic. Now Draco looked even more shocked, and he narrowed his eyes at Harry.

"You really are a freak, Potter."

Malfoy, with one last disgusted glance at Harry, left the way he had come, though his face looked sickly pale.

For good measure, knowing how to treat a bully, Harry hissed a few more words in Parseltongue, and smiled satisfactorily as Draco yelped as his clothes vanished, leaving him only in lovely pink boxers, and his hair turned an excellent combination of red and gold. Because of the Parselmagic, the boy would have a right time trying to finite the hair spell.

"Huh, I like that magic," Harry murmured. And then he groaned, thinking, I really hope Malfoy will keep his mouth shut about this. Harry was fairly confident he would, as Harry had effectively humiliated the boy. The problem became, would the Malfoy heir tell his father? After all, they knew of only one other person who could perform magic using the snake-language.

Harry pulled himself into a sitting position, seeing Draco's forgotten letter on the ground in front of him. Picking it up, he broke the seal and read the opening greeting: To Mummy. Harry looked to the bottom, reading, From your little Dragon. Sighing in what could have been disgust or pity, he tossed the letter to the side before pulling his knees up and wrapping his arms around them, eyes glazed in thought.

So...he'd just saved Voldemort from a rather anticlimactic and humiliating death. Wonderful. Getting him back to human was one thing, but saving the same man we was supposedly destined to kill seemed a bit much, wouldn't one think? 'Honestly,' Harry thought as he shook his head, 'I probably really should have let that spell hit him.' But that thought just didn't seem right, for the same reasons he had Voldemort with him in the first place.

Shaking his head again and sighing, he got up on his knees and looked at the snake that was more trouble than he was worth.

Harry, kneeling, inspected the naturally pale form of Voldemort, who was breathing heavily and actually trembling slightly with the adrenaline, his small body probably going into shock. Certain death did that to a person—er, snake—Harry knew. He ran a hand down his scales in an attempt to soothe.

:Hey, you going to be alright?: he asked. Voldemort, shaken, still managed to unfurl his hood in a gesture of indignation.

:Of course I'll be 'alright',: he snapped. As Harry, with infinite care, picked the Dark Lord up from the floor and placed him around his shoulders, Voldemort said, :Lucius Malfoy will be sterilized at the next opportune moment.: Harry laughed.

:Now that is something we both agree on. Should I add that in the letter?:

:No, I wish it to be a surprise.: Harry chuckled. Voldemort was still for a moment, then, :It-it's cold here, Potter, do hurry on with your business.: the Dark Lord said as if he was being subjected to horrible room service, but Harry knew better. He cast a heating charm.

Owing to how out of sorts that admission proved of Voldemort, Harry selected a plain barn owl from among the school owls and tied the letter to its leg, sending it off to Lucius Malfoy. Once done, he left the Owlery and walked back down the multitude of steps in the West Tower.