“Wake up.” His cold head was moist as it touched my hand, I sighed and woke up, shivering to try and boost my body heat. Sthyss had his eyes fixed on me unblinking, it meant I had slept too long. I looked between the cracks in the wall, and not to my surprise there was a dark cloud looming over the hovel. The hovel was our home. It was where we lived, but since I couldn’t hunt like the snakes did, I was forced to find things like food in more conventional ways.
“Are the little ones okay?” I asked, he flipped his head slightly which served for a shrug,
“They are not our concern once they hatch, it was coincidence that they returned here.” I nodded and seeking out my stash of food, confirmed that it was running low; I had only a half loaf of bread. Seeing my distaste into entering the city to get more, Sthyss had on several occasions sought me to simply use that ‘other way’ that I sometimes used, but I wasn’t sure if could do it, things went wrong sometimes, but if I wanted food and started out now I could get back before it rained. “Are you going to go now?” He asked me.
“Yes, I will need food before the week is out though.” I put it simply, snakes needed very little in the way of food, so they had trouble understanding the concept of the amount that I ate, although it wasn’t near the amount the orphanage had given me, it was what I needed to survive, and also what I could afford to steal.
“I will come with you.” He slithered up my arm and there was a comfortable feeling to the movement of his scales across my skin. I had clothes of course, and I had a special shirt and trousers for going into the city so that I didn’t draw attention, the snakes had taught me that camouflage was good, it stopped you from being eaten, and while I wasn’t concerned with becoming a Falcon's dinner, I needed to blend in so that shopkeepers paid me less attention.
Once I had my other clothes on I began walking, Vassa, another of the snakes, a glistening green grass snake, curled briefly around my ankle and then off again it was a sort of sign of respect from what Sthyss had told me. I left my home of six years and began walking the beaten road into the city.
It was a flat road, but as Sthyss said, it had once been hilly and full of green, now it was cold, hard and grey. The city came into sight quickly. It sprawled, the toxic gas it gave off smelt foul, it smelt of people and of cars and a cloud of grey smoke covered it like a blanket.
After leaving the orphanage that I'd been abandoned in, I’d wandered for a few days, unsure of where to go, untiI eventually I'd found the crumbling house that provided just enough shelter for me, an eight year-old at the time, to curl up and out of the way. The snakes had started arriving in the days after, they would find their way to me and curl under the warmest part of my body and draw the heat, I didn’t mind too much because they gave me company, and they taught me to do things with my ‘other way’ that I hadn’t thought of.
I walked through the street that I knew would lead me to the market that held all the food I could get my hands on, Sthyss tightened around my arm as he saw a woman come out of an alley ahead of us, she was one of those ‘different people’ the ones that Sthyss was always saying I was like. But I was nothing like them; they had better clothes and looked important.
“Watch her.” He hissed quietly and I did as he said. She obviously hadn’t seen me and I watched from behind a car as she pulled a long stick out of her strange coat and disappeared right in the middle of the street, I walked over quietly, in case she was still there and stood where she had been standing, it was like she had been thinking about somewhere and then just vanished to the place she was thinking of.
I stored the memory away at Sthyss’ prompting, if he thought it was important then I always kept it in my head for later. I carried on walking towards the market and Sthyss tightened hard around my arm when we passed around the corner of the street, “There’s another one there.” He told me silently. I looked and found her immediately, she had her hair pulled back like the woman who had run the orphanage did, she was wearing…. What was the word? Tartan, right; tartan, I had read about it in a shop window, but I was getting distracted; I watched her briefly as she moved away and I began drifting between stalls, picking at what I needed and stuffing it in my pockets before returning to my corner and shoving it all in my bag.
I had apples and even a pear, and bread and cheese and a bag of nuts. I was looking at my food, when Sthyss scraped his fangs along my hand; I flinched and was about to run when a shadow landed on me, I looked up slowly, “Run!” Sthyss told me urgently, but I hissed back sharply.
“Be quiet.” The woman was looking down at me and she looked very tall from where I was sitting, I gripped my bag more firmly and she must have seen the movement because she moved, only slightly shifting her weight to another leg, I doubt even she noticed herself doing it.
“Who are you?” She asked gently, I couldn’t see her face properly because the light was right behind her. “Are you going to trust her?” Sthyss asked; he had that neutral tone that meant he was nervous. “I don't know yet.” I replied, she was still watching me, and I stood slowly, my bag in my hand ready to run, she suddenly thrust her hand towards me, not quickly because I knew what it meant to be really quick, but fast enough for me to decide this was a bad idea. I ran. It was something I was very good at, I could run forever and not get tired, and I was fast like a snake. But she was gone after only three corners, I walked down a backstreet that I had hidden in from stall owners when I had been caught stealing in the early days.
It was long and I knew it had only one end so I could watch it and catch my breath. “She’s still following us.” Sthyss whispered at me, I shrugged and replied.
“She won’t find us, I’m faster, and she was old… she won’t find us.” It had just started to rain when I heard a cat down the end of the alleyway and chuckled, Sthyss was a large snake for his age and he was getting bigger everyday now, he was almost the length of my leg and almost as thick as three of my fingers, he was only just hidden under the sleeves of my coat now and I let him slide onto the ground, he was tense and his wet scales shone, and he'd obviously had the same idea I had had, there was no doubt that that cat would pose little threat to Sthyss and it would be even easier to eat once it had been pumped full of venom. He slithered off down into the dark behind the bin where the cat was. I heard a muffled thrashing noise and peered over the bin, Sthyss had been smashed back into the bin and the cat was no longer a cat- it was the woman from the market. “That’s just rude!” She exclaimed at Sthyss. She looked angry, and I backed away, she looked up at me and opened her mouth to say something, when I felt something heavy and solid strike the back of my head.
XXXX
I woke up and it felt like there was something pressing hard into the back of my head, I could feel Sthyss curled on my stomach, I could feel him breathing lightly, and I could feel the soft bed under me. It had been a long time since I had slept on a bed and it was immediately uncomfortable, it was too soft. I didn’t open my eyes, because I could hear other people in the room and I wanted time to think. I could remember hitting my head on something solid, and I remembered that a lady in tartan had been chasing me and Sthyss from the market and I must have hit my head on a hanging sign in the alley.
“My bag!” I thought sadly, it was probably not with me anymore; I would have to go and find a new one and find some more food too. “I found her in London, Albus, talking to that bloody thing.” It was the woman. “She can speak to it then?” A man’s voice asked, he sounded old.
“Yes I think she can. And it certainly won’t leave her alone; it would seem they are quite attached.” The lady said, she still sounded angry- like she had in the alley.
“Is it venomous?” The man asked, I wanted to snort lightly, Sthyss was the most venomous snake I knew and he could definitely kill a person if he wanted to.
“Severus thinks so.” The woman answered. I heard the two voices grow more distant and I opened my eye a little bit, peering through my lashes, I could see very little and it was very sunny, the bed sheets were white, I felt them under me with my thumb, they were a special type of cotton I had felt one time, a long time ago, I couldn’t remember when but I remembered the name of the fibre was cotton. I smelt the air around me, opening my mouth a little like Sthyss had taught me and sniffed inaudibly, I smelt very little, there was a definite smell coming from something next to me and of course there was the smell coming from me. But apart from that I couldn’t smell much else.
Sthyss must have felt me move, because he slithered up closer to my neck, the sound of his scales on the cotton was small, like a whisper. I opened my eyes fully and looked down at him, he had gotten a little bigger and I could tell he had eaten, despite what the two people had thought, he had moved from my side, if not just to find food and then come back. “You’re awake.” He said quietly.
“I suppose I am.” I replied.
“We aren’t at home anymore.” He stated, I nodded calmly.
“But these people don't seem to want to hurt us.” I whispered as footsteps approached.
“But they did try to take me away from you.” He sounded offended.
“I think that you make these people nervous, most humans don't like snakes.” I tried to explain quietly.
“Why not? We are much more civilised than humans.” He hissed angrily.
I looked up and saw the woman coming towards me, she had her hair pulled back still, but she didn’t look as angry, she almost looked happy.
“You’re awake.” She said softly, the old man I had heard wasn’t with her and as she sat on the end of the bed I could see her face better, she was smiling. “Yes.” I said, unsure of my voice, well actually more unsure of speaking English, it appeared that she was somewhat relieved and she patted my leg. “That snake of yours wouldn't leave you alone.”
“I heard.” I said abruptly, it had been a while since I had spoken to people.
“So you’ve been awake a little while then?” She asked. I nodded in reply; there was a long time when no-one spoke and then she asked me, “What's your name?”
“Do I tell her?” I asked Sthyss carefully. He flicked his head, a shrug- so he didn’t know either. “Imogene.” I spoke softly. She looked a little unnerved when I had spoken to Sthyss, I knew that she was different from other people, but obviously it was strange even to her that I could talk to him.
“It’s nice to meet you Imogene, and who’s your friend that attempted to eat me?”
“This is Sthyss, and he tried to eat a cat, not you.” I said plainly, I didn’t quite believe that she was the same as me, I wasn’t sure if she could use that ‘other way’ as I could.
“That cat was me,” She explained. I frowned and seeing the disbelief she stood and with a strange, distant look began to shrink and change until where she had been standing now stood a cat. It had looked like she had pushed herself into that small tabby with spectacle markings around it's eyes, as if she was still there, just inside that cat instead of inside her body. Thoughtfully, I looked at Sthyss and pictured myself inside another snake next to him, I was about to start pushing my body into the picture of the other snake I had just imagined.
“Don't do that!” Sthyss interrupted violently.
“I’m sorry, why shouldn’t I-?”
“Because it’s one of those things that makes you different, remember, camouflage.” He explained.
“And what if she finds out about the other form-” I began asking.
“No that is something you shouldn’t tell anyone about, ever.” He cut me off.
The woman who had just turned back from a cat into woman looked, the same as the children at the orphanage had looked whenever I did something by accident. Like she was going to throw up, instead she cleared her throat.
I then realised that me speaking to Sthyss was disturbing her. “Sorry,” I shamefully said.
“That’s alright dear.”
Another woman entered the room then and in her apron and hat she looked very busy, like the nurse who came around to the orphanage that time after-
“Professor McGonagall, if you wouldn't mind, could I please get her into a shower and see if there is anything wrong with the child, then you can talk to her in your office as much as you want without disturbing me.”
“Alright Poppy I’m going.” The lady- Professor McGonagall stood again and walked off, patting my leg as she left, it must have been some show of affection but I had never experienced it before, perhaps it was a way of her saying goodbye.
“We will talk later.” She added as she opened the huge door and left me in the care of the nurse-like woman.