"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, BOY? WHY DO YOU ALWAYS WAKE THE WHOLE HOUSE UP?" his Uncle roared, yanking Harry's blanket off his shoulders and shaking him. Harry was completely awake at that point. He yanked his arms out of his uncle's grasp, and scrambled backwards. His back hit the window. His wounds had mostly scabbed over, but it was still agonizing for his skin to bump against the hard surface. At least the window was cool against the damage.
The streetlight projected Vernon's face in angry lines almost as terrifying as... oh, yeah! Voldemort! The dream! His subconscious thought about what had happened to Nagini.
The forefront of his brain, however, was focused on the massive man standing in front of him, his hand reared back. Harry flinched, his spine thumping against the window again as he tried to avoid the hand coming down to slap him. He couldn't get away from it, though. A resounding smack filled the relative silence, save for the harsh breathing and slight whimper that Harry gave when Vernon kicked his chest with his sock-clad foot before leaving the room.
Harry sat up carefully and assessed his condition. The wounds on his chest were open again, but that was to be expected after a blow like that. Then he touched his cheek, which was tender after the slap he had received. Harry let out a sigh through his nose and grabbed for the paper and pencil.
It seemed like Remus had survived, but Harry couldn't be sure until he saw him again. But what was that... thing with Voldemort and Nagini? Why did Nagini attack her master? I mean, even if they were her nest-mates that he had accidentally killed, why did she react like that?
Harry then reevaluated the snake's situation. Harry thought about the person closest to him. Sirius, even though he wasn't alive anymore. What if Dumbledore had to attack a Death Eater house close to Grimmauld Place, had promised that Sirius would come to no harm, and then killed him? Yeah, Harry probably would've done a slight bit more than wreck the headmaster's office. He would have denounced Dumbledore's name and vanished off the map. He wouldn't have tried to kill him, but then again, Harry didn't have the mindset of a snake.
Harry got finished with writing the dream down, and laid back on his side, now facing the door. His scar wasn't searing anymore, just a faint throb. He had no doubt that Voldemort was still quite angry, he was just occluding his mind. Harry didn't expect to have any more dreams that night, and for once, his prediction was correct. He slept soundly that night, with the exception of a nightmare of the scenario he had imagined earlier, with Dumbledore turning into Bellatrix Lestrange and Avada kedavra-ing Sirius into the Veil.
That was just normal dreaming though, since he woke up and his scar wasn't even tingling anymore.
Harry woke to the sound of something tapping his window. He blinked the fog from his eyes as best as he could with his glasses missing. He squinted and leaned close to the portal, but it was still just a blur. Harry sighed, got out of his bed, and crouched down on the floor to search with his hands for his glasses. A few seconds later, his fingers brushed against something metallic. He grabbed them and pushed them on his face.
By then, the incessant tapping had resumed. Harry turned to the window again, and what he saw made him stumble backwards. He covered his mouth and held his breath as to not shout in fear.
There she was, Nagini, in all her snakey glory, coiled around the bars on his windows! His Uncle had them put there again earlier, with the excuse that he hadn't learned his lesson last time they were there.
She was obviously not small enough to fit through the bars, which was saying something. It was one thing to see the tremendous snake in a dream, but another thing entirely to see the serpent in real life. She was huge! She had twisted the metal like a Twizzler and was still tapping on his window.
Harry looked around quickly, frantically wondering what he should do. He then held his hands up, signaling that she should be quiet. He bit his tongue, wincing, and made the decision to let her in. He ignored the little voice at the back of his head that said that this could be the last decision he ever makes.
He rushed back over to the window, sitting on his knees on his bed, and unlocked it. He slowly slid the window up, warily looking at Nagini. She nodded and gracefully slithered into his room. Yes, all three meters of her. Harry scrambled back, feet hitting the floor. It was a feat within itself that the serpent didn't make a sound as she adjusted herself on his bed.
While Nagini was coiling up, Harry took a gulp of air, wondering if he had just made a fatal mistake. Harry didn't have much time to ponder this, because she came up to eye level and took a long look at him. He wondered if she wanted to talk to him, or what.
Harry was about to open his mouth when Nagini was the first to speak. "Are you the one named Army-Leader Potter?" Then she paused and looked down. "Wait, you don't sspeak parssseltongue like my... previousss massster."
Harry swallowed nervously. "Who told you I don't? Alssso, My name is Army-Leader, not-" he broke off as he heard his name in parseltongue. Huh. Turns out that names sound differently in snake-language.
The serpent startled and her head shot up to look at the young man. Her eyes widened, if that was even possible for a normal snake. "You do?" She sounded relieved. "That makessss things a lot easssssier." She moved her head forward, startling Harry. "Child, lissssten to me. The Dark Lord is an evil excussse for a human, and I decided not ssssso long ago that I would not be a ssssservant to sssssomeone who killssss sssso ruthlessssly. I had never underssstood the pain of losing a loved one to him. You have to believe me!" the snake begged.
Harry sighed and put his head in his hands. "Calm down, I do."
Nagini looked shocked. "You do? Why?" she asked, bewildered.
"Because I ssssaw the lassssst interaction you had with The Forsssssaken One." Voldemort's name came out like that in parseltongue, for some reason. "Of courssse, you know that your 'previoussss masssster' has a mental link to me, right? And I sssee what he does every night?"
She blinked. "No, I wassss never informed of thisssss."
By then, it seemed that Nagini meant no harm, and Harry sat down next to her on the bed. The snake then slithered toward him, nearly making him jump up in fright.
"Relax, child. I do not bite. Well, I don't bite anyone who doesssn't kill your brothersss and ssistersss." Her head wrapped around his torso, followed by the rest of her body. Well, half of it. The other half was draped across his lap. "Sssso warm... you are more warm than The Forssssaken One ever wasss."
Harry slowly, but surely, relaxed. Then he thought of a question to ask Nagini. "What was that spell The Forsssaken One used to send you away?"
Nagini looked thoughtful. "To be honessst, I have no idea what it wasss. I don't underssstand human-talk, but I think it wasss ssomewhere along the linesss of 'begone ssnake.' I do not know any of thessse thingsss called... sspellssss. It all ssoundsss like rubbish to me, but it obviousssly doessss ssomething to your glowy-ssticksss."
Harry almost laughed at the snake's word for wands. He laid down, making sure he wasn't hurting the serpent.
"After my former massster cassst the sspell on me, it felt like I was... what isss the word? Ah, yesss. Apparating. Then, I ended up at a very familiar place. I wasss at the entrance to your neighborhood. Did you know that one of the Dark Lord'sss favorite passt timesss isss wandering around thisss neighborhood, trying to find your houssse? We--excussse me, they--haven't been ssuccessssful yet, for ssome reassson."
Harry wasn't stupid enough to tell he snake the reason why, with the blood wards and his mother's love. Instead, he just hummed and said, "Who knowsss why." Of course, this was the same person who had said snake wrapped around his entire body. Then Harry looked up at the ceiling. He decided to tell a half truth. "Well, there are ssome wardsss around my housssse that keep out anyone who meansss any harm. You obviousssly don't, sssince the wardsss let you in."
Nagini looked happy. She adjusted her jaw, and Harry tried not to think about what she probably ate before she came here. She laid her head down on his chest and closed her eyes. "I am sssorry, your heat isss just making me extremely sssleepy."
"Don't worry about it," Harry said. By then, the sun was just peeking over the horizon. Uncle Vernon would be leaving for work about now, and in about an hour, Petunia would wake him up. He probably wouldn't get back to sleep, sadly.
Turns out he was wrong. Having a heavy weight above you that rebounded his heat back at him (better than a worn out blanket) sent Harry to sleep faster than he thought.
Soon, his Aunt was rapping on his door, telling him to go downstairs to make breakfast. That startled Nagini, making her muscles jump. That woke Harry up immediately. Nagini's weight stopped him from hopping up in surprise.
Nagini hissed. "Army-Leader, one glimpssse of me, and they will not be asssking you to do that," he snake said.
Harry shook his head, looking into her yellow eyes. "No, I like making breakfassst for them." That was partially the truth. He didn't particularly like making food for the Dursleys, but he did enjoy cooking in general. Harry had a feeling he would be proficient at potions if Snape taught the class better.
Nagini hissed softly and started uncoiling herself from his body. "Okay. I will be waiting for you here."
"Jussst a fair warning, though--I come back late in the afternoon."
Nagini slid to the floor and went into a corner. "Yesss, I underssstand. I cannot thank you enough for believing in me when I told you I had changed ssidesss."
Harry nodded. "Yesss, but I have to get to work now."
"Goodbye, Army-Leader."
Harry speed walked to the bathroom, did his business in there, and rushed down the stairs.He made as little noise as possible. Aunt Petunia was sitting at the table, reading the paper that Uncle Vernon undoubtedly saw earlier. On the front of the page, it said:
Chaos in Yorkshire
Cottage burns to the ground; firemen baffled!
There was also a picture of Remus' house, burning embers on the ground. Harry didn't know why the firemen were so confused, but he guessed it was because the fire seemed to have put itself out. At least, that was the most plausible explanation Harry could come up with.
He got to work making breakfast again, ignoring the way his wounds cracked and started bleeding freshly with the exertion of bending down to get a pan. In no time at all, he had food on the table. Dudley wasn't even downstairs yet!
Sure enough, a few minutes later, his cousin trundled noisily down the steps. "Potter!" he yelled. "You got breakfast ready?"
Harry nodded, his brow creased. Had last night been a dream? Dudley had seemed tolerable enough the night before. Now, the boy seemed as horrible as he was earlier.
Before walking to the table, Dudley brought himself to the kitchen and whispered close to him, "Sorry. Mum would get suspicious if I was actually decent to you."
Harry nodded slightly in understanding. "Yeah, that makes sense."
Dudley trudged over to the table. His mother set down the newspaper and immediately started fussing over him. Dudley preened under the attention he was getting, gobbling down his food. Dudley was a surprisingly good actor.
Soon, he was finished with his food, and he didn't ask for seconds this time. Of course, Dudley's actions made Petunia's concerns raining down on him. Harry's aunt loudly worried if her "Diddy-kins" was ill. Dudley's protests that he wasn't hungry didn't help matters.
Petunia spun on her heel to glare at Harry. "Did you do this to him?" she snarled. That woman could be terrifying if she wanted to be.
Harry shook his head fast, but Petunia smacked him on the back of his skull. Harry gritted his teeth and straightened, resuming the dish-washing with no comment. His Aunt snorted and strutted off to ask, again, if Dudley was okay.
"I'm fine, Mum, the freak didn't make me sick this time," he said.
"Good for him, then," Petunia growled. She wrote down a quick list and handed it to him. Those were the tasks for the day. Harry withheld a groan at how long the list was and resigned his day to cleaning the house.
By nightfall, it was safe to say that Harry was exhausted. Harry wasn't even done with his chores when Vernon came home from work.
His uncle didn't notice the unfinished work immediately. Harry held out hope that no one would point it out, but he was out of luck. After Vernon had set his work bag down, Petunia strode over to him and whispered in his ear. His uncle progressively got redder and redder.
Once Petunia was finished, Vernon was livid. Harry could have sworn a vein was pulsing in his neck. "FREAK, what have you been doing? You've had all day to finish your Aunt's list, and what do I come home to?" He started walking up the stairs, and beckoned Harry up the stairs.
He glanced down at Dudley in the living room, and he was looking a bit worried. He then trudged up the stairs, his heart racing. Then he thought of something.
Nagini!
She was probably not expecting an overweight muggle to come in and start...
Vernon was waiting outside Harry's room, unlocking all the locks. He pointed inside, making Harry go first. Harry quickly hissed, "Nagini, do NOT show yourssself, no matter what happenssss." He hoped the temperamental serpent had heard him.
"Shut your sniveling, boy!" Uncle Vernon barked. "You deserve what you get."
Harry jumped as the door slammed shut and Vernon advanced. He pulled his belt out of the belt loops and cracked it through the air menacingly. He put the belt down on the nightstand and grabbed Harry around the neck.
He crushed his windpipe, causing Harry to choke and gasp for breath, spots dancing in front of his vision. He was slammed face first down onto the bed. Harry then truly started to panic, kicking his legs out and trying to twist around. But, his Uncle grabbed the belt from the desk and slapped it over the back of his thighs and legs. The stinging pain was enough to make him go limp, but Vernon was not perturbed.
Harry was sure welts were appearing over his legs but that obviously wasn't enough for him. Harry cried out in shock and pain, and that seemed to egg Vernon on. Harry started struggling again, but he stopped pretty quickly, thanks to the mortification and agony.
Then it happened.
Harry heard a hiss from one side of the room. "You... you nasssty imbecile!" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a huge figure emerge from a shadowed corner, fangs glistening in the slight light from the window. "Even The Forsssaken One wouldn't do thissss to most of hisss victimsss. He gave them all ssswift deathsss."
Vernon bellowed and scrambled backwards. Nagini had frightened Harry when she first showed herself to him, but that was nothing compared to when she was truly angry. The snake was a terrifying demon of vengeance, and Harry wasn't even seeing her as clearly as his Uncle. From what it seemed like, he was going to do something unforgivable. Secretly, Harry was glad that she had intervened.
Wait, she was still after the man!
Harry stood up quickly and took in the scene in front of him. Nagini was at full height, cornering Uncle Vernon and pinning him to the wall with her fervid yellow stare. His uncle was trembling under her gaze.
Harry finally pulled himself up and rushed over to the side of the room. "Nagini! Don't bite him!" The snake turned her face to him. Her expression shifted from rage to incredulity.
"What? Thissss... thissss worm wassss violating you!" She swiftly turned her attention back to the man cowering on the wall.
Harry held a hand between her and Vernon. He looked down on the man, who was now crouching down low. "You'd better pray that I can control my snake, or it might be your end." After Harry uttered that threat, he re-thought his words. My snake? Oh well, he thought. I guess that's true, now.
"Nagini, you won't be able to convince anyone you're on our ssside if you kill thisss muggle."
The snake blinked and bared her teeth for one last second. Then she took a snap at Vernon's face, keeping back just an inch. His uncle flinched violently, and Harry wouldn't be surprised if he was having trouble controlling his bladder.
"I think you'd better get lost before Nagini loses her patience." Harry spat in his face.
His Uncle jumped up and ran out of the room, tripping on the doorframe on his way.
Nagini then turned to Harry. "Isss that a common occurrence?" Now the serpent looked angry at him. He took a wary step backwards, and Nagini let out a breath. "Child, there wasss a time I would have killed you on sssight. But now, I would not lay a fang on you."
Emboldened by this, Harry stepped closer to the snake and hissed, "Well, thisss had only happened a few times before."
"Good for him. If he hadn't, you would not have been able to ressstrain me from going down thossse sstairsss and killing him. I wouldn't even eat one sso vile asss that."
Harry gulped. "I didn't know you could be sso protective."
"Yesss. I alwaysss protect my young onesss, unlike ssome beingsss," hissed.
Her young ones? Well, it seems like they both had bonded.
Thirty minutes after the shouting had ceased, Dudley tentatively knocked on Harry's door. Once he unlatched and opened it, he jumped and nearly screamed at the sight he was presented with. His cousin was lying on his bed, stomach down, his face looking at the entryway. But that was not the alarming thing about it! There was a ginormous snake wrapped around his entire body!
Dudley remembered his father coming downstairs pale and shaking. He wouldn't answer questions about what had happened upstairs, but it had obviously scared him almost witless. They had all gone to bed early, except Dudley. He had pretended to go to sleep, then he had retrieved the rags he had used yesterday (washed, of course).
Harry, who was still extremely sore, was laying down on his bed again. He was making small talk with Nagini. Getting to know her better was becoming one of his favorite pastimes. She was coiled around his entire body again. Apparently, her favorite food was cow, raw. She liked warmth, which was her excuse for using him like a heating pad.
Nagini then asked Harry where his favorite place was. He had an answer for that question ready on his tongue. "Hogwartsssss, of courssssse. It's the only placcce I've felt at home. Did you know that wasssss where I made my firsssst friendssss?"
"No, I did not. Who are they?"
"Well, there'ssss Ruler-Advice Weasley and Boundary-Marker Granger, and-" he was cut off by a knock on the door.
He heard the locks unlatching. Nagini's eyes narrowed to slits. "If that iss your Uncle again, I will kill him."
The door creaked open. Harry saw Dudley standing uncertainly at the door. As his eyes met the picture in front of him, he stumbled backward and placed one hand on the far wall and another one over his mouth.
"Shhh, Dudley, she won't hurt you," Harry whispered. Then he turned to his snake and said, "Don't hurt him. He'ssss been helping me with my woundssss." Nagini nodded, and released her hold on him fractionally.
Dudley, his breath shaking, tiptoed into the room. "Are you sure? Were you.. talking to it?" His eyes were still held wide open with fear.
"Yes, to both of those questions. She pretty much told me she wouldn't hurt you."
Dudley took a deep calming breath and stopped in front of Harry's bed. Nagini then hissed, "Tell him that if he hurtsss you, I will be feasssting on hisss remainsss."
Harry blinked. "Oh, er, Nagini wants you to know that if you hurt me, er, she won't be happy."
Dudley's eyes widened even more, and he said, "Erm, okay. Er, where did Dad hurt you this time?"
Harry blushed. "Well, your dad got bored with my back and chest, so he... er, he went down a bit further."
"For real?" Dudley looked outraged as Harry nodded. Nagini gave a warning hiss.
"Don't worry, he isss angry on my behalf. Yeah," Harry alternated between parseltongue and English.
Dudley was visibly appalled.
"If Nagini hadn't stopped him, he would have done much worse." Harry gave his serpent a fond look.
Dudley looked shell-shocked for a few seconds. He took in a shaky breath. "Erm, do you want to clean your wounds yourself, or do you want me to do them? Also, if you decide to let me do it, keep your snake from killing me, okay?"
"I'm not able to see anything back there, so... yeah. You can do it. Nagini, Round-Clearing'ssss going to help me clean my cutssss. Don't kill him or anything." He hardly acknowledged Dudley's name in parseltongue.
The snake stuck her tongue out at Dudley, smelling him. "Okay. But if he triesss anything, he'sss dead."
Harry motioned for Dudley to get ready. Nagini completely uncoiled and rested on the mattress beside him. Harry shifted his trousers down, and Dudley sucked in a breath at the damage. "Wow, my father did a number on you. At least it's not as bad as last night's."
Harry chuckled self-deprecatingly.
Dudley began to tenderly (but hesitantly) clean the places were the belt had slightly broken skin on his thighs and calves. It wasn't as bad as his back and chest, which were in shreds, but it still hurt.
Soon, he got done cleaning his legs, and he cleared his throat. "Harry, I'm done with your legs. Are you sure you want me to do this? These look pretty painful."
Harry nodded. "Yeah, but wait a second. Lemme tell Nagini not to attack. "Round-Clearing isss going to clean sssome painful wounds, don't attack. He will not hurt me."
After he had stopped talking to his snake, he gingerly pushed his shirt up. Dudley quietly groaned at what he saw, saddened even further. "And he called you... you... wizards freaks... but look at what he did..." Snapping himself out of his thoughts, his pudgy hands grabbed another damp rag and started washing his cuts, which seemed worse on the more tender skin.
Eventually, he got done with cleaning his injuries, and Dudley signaled Harry to get dressed. When he had done that, he sat up and winced. Nagini then rose up to look an extremely nervous Dudley in the eye, and said, "Harry, tell the muggle that I am thankful that he helped my hatchling."
He nodded and said, "She wants to thank you for helping her hatchling--erm, me."
Dudley gupled. "Uh huh. Tell her that it was no problem."
Harry relayed the message, and Dudley said, "Well, I think it's time for me to go. I'll leave you to talk to your snake... what was her name again?"
"Nagini."
"Oh. Okay... Feels like I've heard that name before." Dudley stood awkwardly at the door. "Well, bye."
"Bye." He closed the door softly and didn't even bother to lock the locks.
"You have a very sstrange nessst mate," Nagini commented, wrapping herself around her new master's body. "Ssso warm."
"You've mentioned that before," Harry said sleepily. Now that the worst was over, he couldn't help but feel tired. Harry laid his head down next to his snake's, and went to sleep.