Harry and Kreacher spent the following day on the third floor, clearing out the four cabinets nestled between the common room and the swanky office. Fortunately, the annoying haremites were easily taken care of by a snap of the sour house elf's fingers, but Harry wasn't taking any chances and refused to part with his gloves. After brewing the Essence of Murtlap and fixing himself up, he really didn't want anymore bites, burns, bumps, bruises, hexes, curses, rashes,jinxes, or anything associated with the ownership of the questionable items he was sure to encounter.
Human and elf were both in the office and had already uncovered a plethora of dark objects from the first three cabinets. Harry binned the items he thought were useless or overwhelming sinister in a special bag for Sirius to look through later.
Currently, Kreacher was expressing his displeasure with him because Harry had stopped the elf when he had tried to take a golden locket from the office. The ensuing tussle over the jewelry piece had left both parties bruised, singed and nursing wounds. Harry had emerged victorious and secured the locket in a velvet pouch upon his person. He could only guess at the reason behind Kreacher's sudden kleptomania and speculated that the locket once belonged to the late Mrs. Black.
Harry shook his head to break his musings and continued sorting through the contents of the last cabinet. He found several fatally seductive objects, all with strong compulsion charms on them to woo somebody into their deadly embrace.
He'd been lucky to have gloves on when he brushed against a leather jewelry pouch that then tried to eat his hand. He was especially grateful he kept the gloves on when he couldn't stop himself from touching a large and brilliant sapphire that winked beguilingly at him from inside the leather pouch. The sapphire had confusion and bungling charms layered over every inch of it. Closer examination revealed that it also had a slow choking hex. The only warning signs would be the steadily increasing cough from the victim as they tried to get more air. Lucky, it required contact with skin to activate the hex.
Harry chucked them into the sack beside him and reached deeper into the dark recesses for the next object. He pulled out a torch. Harry stared at it, turning it over curiously. Why was such a Muggle item be here of all places? He waved his hand and set a scanning charm over the torch and watched as a list of diagnostics started flashing above it.
Kreacher distracted Harry when the elf sighed dramatically from his position ensconced within the first cabinet. He was cleaning the remaining knickknacks with a polishing rag by hand. Occasionally, he would stick his pig-snout nose out long enough to cast a baleful eye at Harry before sighing and muttering about howthe nasty 'snake boy' was helping the 'foul Master' to destroy a 'noble' family's history.
Harry ignored the aggravated house elf and returned to work sorting through the cluttered shelves. A snake ornament had a release mechanism under its jaw that pumped out undiluted bubotuber pus from the statue's fangs that dripped onto his hands and ate at his glove. With a curse Harry ripped off his glove and threw it toward the other side of the room.
"Is snake boy all right?" Kreacher wheezed, his big floppy ears waving wildly as he stuck his head out once again.
"Yeah, yeah," Harry muttered, nursing his hand. "Just a scare, that's all."
Kreacher shrunk back into the cabinet disgruntledly murmuring the whole way. Harry stood up, stretching and twisting to pop the kinks in his back and then dusting his pants as he headed to the door. He was tired of cleaning anyway and stifling a yawn, Harry rapped on the side of Kreacher's cabinet.
"Come now, Kreacher, it's time for a break. I'm going upstairs to read. You stay out of the rubbish and don't try to sneak anything either."
"Kreacher will go make snake boy his morning tea."
"Thank you," Harry said politely, then pointed his finger at the ceiling in a vague manner. "I'll be in the library."
Kreacher nodded and disappeared with a sharp crack similar to that of wizarding Apparition, while Harry left the office by foot. He climbed the stairs to the next floor and entered the library. He summoned the parseltongue book from his room, activating the magic recognition wards that had he been there to see, with a brief and colorful flare before the book came whizzing to him.
The cover of §Slippery Friends and Parselmouths by Celestial Gaunt§ was dark green with a set of raised snakes in a slightly lighter shade of green with iridescent scales. He tried to lift the cover but it was stuck, stubbornly refusing to move. Harry examined the book closely looking for a trigger. There didn't seem to be a physical latch that he could manually release, so Harry tapped the book with his wand.
The grooves of the snakes lit up, light running along the length of their serpentine bodies until their eyes glowed like lit coals. It was mesmerizing. As he stared, the snakes seemed to shimmer slightly. Harry leaned closer for a better look. The snakes shivered and pulled up from the book cover causing Harry to jerk backwards in surprise.
§Master?§ the one of the left asked, looking up curiously.
§Hello,§ Harry replied as the one on the right hissed a warning to the one on the left. §You're not very trusting are you?§
§That elf tried to open us several times before, but we're under orders not to release the cover to anyone but our Master.§ the one on the right explained.
§Oglethorp, he speaks in Parseltongue, surely that is a sign.§
§Your integrity, Adæmus, astounds even me.§
Harry thumbed the edge of the cover contemplatively. §The more snakes I meet, the more I come to realize that the genus as a whole has very dry humor. Why is that?§
§It's a gift,§ Oglethorp deadpanned.
§Really?§ Harry asked with a raised eyebrow. §Well it's not very unique now is it?§
Adæmus let out a hissing laugh. §He has Master's humor, but not Master's disposition.§
§Who is your Master?§ Harry asked curiously, wondering if he could claim relations to the wizard and get passed the front cover.
§We are not allowed to tell--§ Oglethorp stated imperiously.
§But you look like a bright lad,§ Adæmus broke in, §I am sure you can riddle it out.§
Harry blinked then guessed, §Tom Riddle?§
Adæmus squirmed delightedly, while Oglethorp attempted to bite him in annoyance. §Good job, you slithering idiot,§ Oglethorp hissed.
§If Voldemort is your Master, how did you end up here in the Black house?§
§Ah,§ Adæmus started, moving out of Oglethorp's range of attack. §You see, we were stolen by that Regulus fellow.§
Oglethorp apparently catching on to what Harry had said last, stopped trying to bite Adæmus and looked up sharply at Harry. §You know Master's chosen name?§
§He told me,§ Harry replied, remembering his second year in the Chamber. §We were in the Chamber.§
§The Chamber?§ Adæmus asked excitedly, twisting his leather body around. §Oglethorp, don't you think we could let him in? He has proven he knows Tom and he can speaks the snake language.§
Oglethorp sighed exasperatedly, but dipped his head affirmatively. §Fine, fine. Just say 'relacoopido' in Latin.§
§Thanks,§ Harry said, stroking the crest of the right snake while reverting to human tongue. "Relacoopido," he said with authority.
Adæmus hissed goodbye as the cover opened, and Harry stared open-mouthed at the book before him. The text appeared to slither into shape, changing from snake-like scribbles into legible writing. As Harry flipped through the book, he noted that the pages were bordered with elaborate gold-leafs of magical and mundane snakes, twisting and twining around the edges. The illustrations were rendered by a very skilled hand, with minute details garnishing each moving picture that could only have come from personal observation.
Harry turned back to the introduction of the book. In gliding script, Celestial Gaunt explained what the book was about, who its target audience was, and why she wrote it. Gaunt explained her lineage, chronicling her biological and magical connection to the Hogwarts founder Salazar Slytherin.
Afterwards she emphasized that the anecdotal references within the pages were family stories passed down by word of mouth, until now. Therefore, she couldn't verify everything in the book and some information was more myth than fact. He particularly enjoyed her tale about how Parselmouths came about, which he assumed was a myth.
He laughed at her witty humor, light and airy but equally quirky. She was not at all dark minded or brooding like he'd come to expect. Celestial was a bright and cheerful girl, young and proud. When she got to the meat of her subject, she was downright captivating. As he read, she unfolded before him a world of knowledge directly correlating to Parselmouths.
Fascinated, Harry didn't register Kreacher's comings or goings, nor even the food he left behind. He read the entire evening away, until Kreacher came again with candles; as they died, their flickering and sputtering light finally alerted him to the passage of time. Reluctantly, Harry closed the book and blew out the candles, all the while wishing they'd been everlasting.
He went to his room, treading the stairs quietly. At the landing to his floor, he heard the loud and fitful snores of Ron come through the first door and was glad Daniel was bunking with the redhead and not him. Harry didn't think he could stand seven years with that and not strangle the boy.
Slipping into his room, Harry placed the book on his nightstand and strode to the closed window. Peering outside, Harry scanned the sky for signs of Hedwig. He couldn't see her, and figured she was still out hunting and would return at some point in the night. He pushed the window open and made sure there was fresh water in her bowl and a few owl treats in her cage incase her hunt was unsuccessful.
He changed into his bedclothes and climbed into bed. For a while he lay there, staring up at the ceiling, everything he had read running through his mind.
Parselmouths all had snakes animagus forms of some fashion or relation, such as dragons, who were cousins to a few magical genus. Though few Parselmouths recorded had a magical snake animagus form, it wasn't impossible, but it was considered extremely rare and a sign of greatness. Also not every Parselmouth could obtain this goal, because diluted blood (and here Harry knew Celestial was wrong, as it was power, not blood, that indicated success, after all, he was a half-blood) would negatively affect the snake-animagus attempts to reach his animal form.
She also theorized that their snake animagus forms that enabled them to speak with snakes, which deviated from the tradition of how Parselmouths came about that she had told in the beginning. She couldn't prove her theory, because she didn't know of any non-Parselmouth with a snake form. Harry however could counter the argument because as he saw it in order for her theory to be correct, the accomplished animagi witch or wizard would have to be able to speak with his or her animal in and out of that second form. If they could, Harry had never heard of it.
Celestial also wrote about snake familiars and how they were the most loyal of familiars, despite their slippery nature. Harry could see Serion in her companion, Worthy, a female cobra, who had a dry disposition but a stalwart nature. The uses she detailed for such familiars left Harry with a bad taste in his mouth, as it came across as taking advantage of the unwitting snake, but he could see the significance of acts when dealing with power rituals, mind magics, and potion ingredients, though he could never see himself using Serion for one of Snape's potions.
Turning over, Harry sighed and pulled the covers up; thoughts swirling softly in his mind, each tumbling around another until he drifted away into darkness. As his eyes shut, he heard the flutter of wings and a low comforting, hoot and then nothing. He fell into the warm embrace of sleep.
Wind blew across his face and Harry realized that he was in a freefall. The air buffeted around him, pushing him upwards while gravity pulled him down. The darkness seemed to go on and on forever, and thought it likely he would never slow down or stop. He wasn't sure he wanted to either, because stopping would be painful. Wouldn't it?
He saw a form take shape out of the darkness, distant and small. He wondered if that was ground. He was falling sideways, not down, like the wind suggested if the shape was ground and that was weird. Harry decided he must be dreaming, because nobody fell sideways like this.
The form grew in size, its gray-black color slowly morphing into a mushy pink red. At least it looked squishy. Harry relaxed and his body flew faster, hurtling itself toward the pink mass. Harry remained calm, because squishy things didn't hurt when you crashed into them.
The blackness was eaten up by the glistening pink floor--or wall he reminded himself, until it was all he could see. The wall became more detailed the closer he got; the small patterns he saw became hills and valleys, then bends and turns of red waters. It reminded him of something, but he couldn't say what.
Then without warning he hit the floating pink mass, landing hard on the surface. A loud squelching noise accompanied the impact and he cringed as he sunk into the mass. The breath knocked out of him, Harry rolled carefully over, massaging the bridge of his nose which took the brunt of the landing. Odd, Harry thought to himself, he should have gone through it.
Harry noted that the sky overhead was pitch black. The ground was emitting a faint white light, which was almost dancing around him. When he thought he could move, Harry carefully sat up and saw the world for what it was. It was not a strange dream-world that he had been sure he'd been occupying. No, it was his brain. He had done it; somehow he'd managed to reach his destination point.
He had taken the first step to becoming an Occlumens. Elated, Harry stood up, carefully testing the ground below him to make sure it would hold his weight. It was springy. He bounced on the balls of his feet a few times before he was satisfied with its solidity.
"Well, now what?" Harry said aloud, his voice echoing faintly.
He shrugged and took a step forward, his shoes squelching loudly as he went. Harry soon came to a deep bisecting crevice and he looked around for a way to get across. Twisting from side to side, Harry noted the distinct lack of anything to help him cross; he frowned as he concluded he would have to jump.
A bright light flashed ahead of him, catching his eye. Harry whipped his head up and stared hard at the area he thought it had come from. Nothing happened for a long while and when Harry was about to give up, it flashed again. There was no mistaking it, the light flashed brighter than the glow that suffused his brain around him. He decided he was going to investigate it, it was his brain after all, he had a right to know what was there.
Taking a few steps back Harry ran toward the crevice and with the bending of his knees, he jumped across. It was an exhilarating flight. He crashed onto the ground on the other side and heaved himself up. He took inventory of himself and finding everything in its place, headed off toward the mysterious glow.
What he found was what had been described as the magical center of his brain. When it wasn't emitting the bright glow that first attracted his attention, it was glowing in several shifting colors. Bending down, Harry reached out and touched the spongy section that was pulsating and found his hand slipping through. Surprised, Harry jerked back and stared at his hand. Slime dripped down his fingers in a steady trickle. He shook his hand and droplets hit the ground and were reabsorbed.
Firming his resolve, Harry pushed his fingers through the malleable material and it sucked his arm through. Then he found himself falling through bumping and colliding with the walls of a giant spiraling slide. Finally, he went flying off the end and landed in a heap of slimy mess.
"Guh," he said elegantly, deciding to stay on the ground.
The light flashed again, nearly searing his retinals. Harry groaned loudly and threw an arm up in front of his face. After a moment it faded and he dropped his arm and cautiously opened his eyes. Dancing colored lights spotted his vision and it wasn't until he shook his head to clear it did he realize that they were actually there.
A blue spot landed on his arm, tickling the hairs there. It shimmered in welcome before flitting off to join the others. Harry looked around in awe at the amount of colored lights glittering all around the room, which was larger than it had appeared to be from the surface.
Harry cursed as the light flashed, blinding him again. He waited for the brilliance to fade before dropping his arm. Peeking around, Harry blinked rapidly as the glow of the spots danced and shimmered into focus.
"Show me what I must do," Harry called, beseeching them.
A door flickered into existence and Harry approached it. Several bright green lights flittered into it and he followed them in circumspectly. Passing an invisible threshold on the other side triggered the door's release and the door shut behind him, leaving Harry bathed in a soft green glow.
Curious, Harry edged forward to what appeared to be the source of the glow and watched it. The green glow flared as Harry reached out to touch it. Slowly it enclosed his hand and with wonder Harry let it swim over him. Wherever it touched him, it left a tingly happy feeling, as if it were eager to be with him.
When it covered his eyes, Harry saw for the first time that the room was not empty as it had appeared to be. He saw lightning strike the ground with dozens of bolts, the excess magic leaving that diffuse glow he had seen earlier.
"What is this?" he exhaled, eyes wide.
The answer was supplied by his mind. It was the sign of his animagus form.
"Are there other rooms?" he asked, feeling the form for the first time swell in him, testing the definition of his human body.
There was, he learned. Each filled with something new and thrilling. It was magic in its most elemental form.
"How do I access them?"
The response filled his thoughts in a dissatisfying way. He already had access and only power rituals could now improve his access to his magic. He grumbled under his breath.
"So what am I?" he finally asked, returning back to the original purpose of the room.
'You are death,' said a voice that wasn't part of his own thoughts.
Startled, Harry jerked around, searching for the speaker. "I am not death," he answered affronted.
'You will soon realize it,' the voice replied. 'Practice your form. You will need it in the coming months.
Be wary of the great wizard, and follow the red lights to the memories, you must protect from the evil one. Next time
you're here, they will show you the way.'
"Wait, what?" Harry said, as the room started to dissolve. "What--"
Harry reached out and grabbed at the air and his hand hit something. He jerked his hand back and opened his eyes. He hand still smarted from the wall and as he sat nursing it, he glanced around the room.
The furnishings in the bedroom at Grimmwauld Place greeted him. Hedwig hooted a throaty good morning from her spot on top of his dresser and he yawned. He mumbled a response back and stretched, working out the kinks in his body.
He realized his head hurt a little as he attempted to sit up and get out of bed. Groaning he flopped backwards and flung his arm over his eyes. Hedwig fluttered down from her perch, her light weight barely depressing the mattress as she side-walked to him.
Opening his eyes, Harry smiled in contentment. He scratched under her beak, while she warbled softly. Hedwig leaned into his touch and closed her eyes. He continued petting her until she tired of it and flew off.
"Five more minutes," he told her tiredly, turning his head back towards his pillows. She hooted in gentle reprimand but only shuffled her feathers quietly as she settled in for another bout of sleep. As he closed his eyes, Harry missed the widening of Hedwig's yellow eyes as his own flared an intensely brilliant green.
º«««º»»»ºEnd Chapter 26º«««º»»»º