A Dark Lord in the Making

First Impressions

Harry noisily apologized for the behavior of his pursuers and then quickly ran down the busy street, looking for the large lawn near the playground near his house. He soon found the extinct patch of grass, which was teeming with voles, spiders, and snakes. The latter category was particularly interesting to Harry, he had observed that several black vipers lived in this particular patch of grass. Although these snakes were not very venomous, their bite hurt and they grew quite large; bigger than a ring snake.

Harry soon found a large and grumpy-looking viper hiding in the tall grass. Harry took a mouse from his pocket and showed it to the snake.

~"Mighty serpent, I am not here to disturb your peace. I'm here to give you this mouse."~ Harry said quietly, keeping his language as simple as possible.

The snake looked at him curiously and emerged from its hiding place. ~"A Speaker?"~ asked the snake in astonishment. ~"I've heard of speakers but never seen one of your kind... I'm happy to share the food with you."~

Harry was about to give the mouse to the snake when he was pushed forward by a friend of Dudley's. Harry turned and released the mouse, which darted away into the dense grass.

"Freak. You've given us quite a few problems," Dudley said slowly. He took a threatening step toward Harry. "I don't understand why you didn't give up sooner, Freak," Dudley said in his high, taunting voice.

"You know that the longer we have to hunt you, the longer your punishment will be. And boy, I can tell you my legs are itching to kick you."

The small group of bullies chuckled at Dudley's words. Harry waited for the first kick. This came quickly. The pain Dudley's foot inflicted on Harry's stomach was more intense than he'd expected. He could hardly breathe and was literally gasping for breath like a fish on dry land. Dudley's friends quickly followed punching, squeezing, and kicking Harry in every possible spot.

~"Does Speaker need help?"~ the 35-inch snake hissed at Harry.

~"If you like,"~ Harry managed to say.

Dudley's friends didn't respond to Harry's weird hiss, but Dudley did. The fat boy opened his eyes wide in fear and looked around timidly.

"Freak?! What have you done?" he whispered to Harry.

Harry scrambled up and looked at the group of boys with a sardonic smile. "You are so stupid, I think it's great that you can dress independently in the morning... Although I must confess that I don't understand why you choose to wear your mother's dungarees... or your grandmother's blouse, for that matter." Harry cocked his nose condescendingly, looking down at the boys in those ridiculous "trendy" clothes.

"To answer your question, Dudley... I've effectively gone through our neighborhood and proved what an idiot and ridiculous bunch of morons you are, who can only act with brute force. I can promise you that your mothers will hear all about your wrongdoings at church tomorrow. But I won't stop there, I won't stop until I've limited your living space to your own bedroom... And Dudley- dear cousin mine- you know what I'm capable of. But let me demonstrate."

Harry looked down and saw that by now three Black Adders had gathered around the group of boys. He hissed maliciously at the snake, the boys now looking around anxiously. Harry grinned and decided to act theatrically: "Speak to me, O Slytherin, greatest of Hogwart's Four!"

The boys took small steps back, stumbling over rocks and branches.

~ "Friends...will you help me?"~

Harry gestured to the boys and the snakes slid forward. They moved silently through the long grass, which was usually green but was barren from the sun in places. Dudley's gang recoiled in fear, though the snake made no sound, they could see the grass moving.