The Serpent that Devours Us

Chapter 1

“Always.”

That evening his business partner stopped by. “Bring back some venom if you can coax it out of the beast,” Severus said while accepting a tumbler of firewhiskey.

All throughout Harry’s childhood and adolescence, his ‘uncle Sev’, as Lily insisted Harry and Hyacinth call him, had looked down his hooked nose at Harry. The man was Hyacinth’s godfather and perfectly friendly towards her, but Harry hadn’t had a decent interaction with the man until he was well out of Hogwarts and decided on a career in magical zoology. Severus had cornered him during his mother’s birthday party and quietly asked him what kind of rare potions ingredients he was expected to come across during his next trip.

And that was, as they say, the start of a beautiful friendship. Harry got to travel the world looking for magical creatures, and Severus used and resold any ingredients he brought back. It earned them both a pretty Galleon.

“Some scales wouldn’t go amiss either,” Severus said, sipping his whiskey. “Shed skin if you can find it. Blood is also worth something.”

“So just bring back the whole beast, is what you’re saying.”

“As long as it’s dead, certainly.”

Sirius sent him a postcard from Lisbon, where he and Remus were spending a week to celebrate their wedding anniversary. “Have fun! Don’t get eaten! Remus says to take some pictures he can use in his classes.” Remus, of course, was the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, while Sirius was an Auror.

Last but certainly not least, his best friend Luna stopped by. “It’s going to be fine,” she assured him in that peculiar way of hers. “Here, you might want to use these.” She handed him a pair of plastic muggle sunglasses with iridescent lenses.

“Thanks,” Harry said with a smile, having long ago learned never to question anything Luna did. He hugged her tightly. If Harry had at all been straight he would have proposed to her in a heartbeat. But alas, he wasn’t, and Luna met and fell in love with Rolf Scamander. And sadly, Rolf didn’t have a gay brother hiding in the closet.

It took Harry three portkeys to get to Mumbai and from there he could use the floo network to travel within the enormous country. For the very last part of the journey Harry used his broomstick, aided by his trusty invisibility cloak.

The magical part of the forest was surrounded by a thick layer of wards to keep people, magical and muggle, out. But the wards were decades old and decaying and it took Harry less than an hour to create a small opening for him to slip through.

He called out in parseltongue and almost immediately a king cobra answered.

“The King of Serpents?” the cobra wondered. “Yes, I know where he lives. A monocled cobra told me right before I ate him. A friendly chap he was, but a girl’s got to eat. Goes by the name of Voldemort.”

“The monocled cobra?” Harry asked, crouched before the snake.

“No, silly, the King of Serpents. I never ask my prey their name. I might get attached and then where would I be? Starving, that’s what.” The cobra snickered to herself. “I’ll show you where he lives if you like.”

“That would be lovely.” Harry got up and followed the king cobra through the forest.

“Oh, I don’t mind,” the snake assured him. “It gets a bit lonely, you know, when the only creatures you can talk to are the ones you eat.”