Harry was found eating breakfast silently the next morning in the bakery Flitwick had mentioned the evening before. He was tired and his eyes were gritty from not sleeping, having spent all night brooding over Hermione and to be specific how she fit into his life. He was coming to the conclusion that Hermione wasn't meant for him, that all the love in the world wasn't going to fix them.
It pained him to admit it, because deep down he still cared for her, even loved her, but there was no way he could stay with a girl who would give him ultimatums like the one she gave last night. If she couldn't wait around forever, then she was implying he wasn't worth waiting for and that rubbed Harry the wrong way. If she loved him like she claimed, then he should be worth waiting for.
He frowned into his hot chocolate, staring at the slowly shrinking foam. With his life coming apart at the seams, Harry felt cut off, adrift. He had a madman after him, one he'd escaped from twice in a week; no girlfriend, no education, and no friends. Except for Luna, he added silently, taking a sip from his chocolate. And perhaps Flitwick, who wanted to cover his education and make sure he completed it.
"More hot cocoa, dear?" Mrs. Amsel, the owner of the bakery asked him, her smile warm and motherly. "You look like your contemplating the whole world and finding it very bleak."
"Yes, please," Harry said, pushing his cup toward her. "The world feels very bleak."
She clucked, pulling a breaded chocolate confection from her apron pocket and setting it beside his cup. "In that case you'll need a Cheerful Chocolate, my assistant Becky, dreamed these little fellows up. They're quite delicious and you'll feel better."
Harry smiled appreciatively and took a bite into the Cheerful Chocolate morsel. A warmth suffused him, all the way down to his toes. Harry swallowed and his grin, much happier than before, lit his face up as he expressed his thanks to Mrs. Amsel.
"No worries, dear. You just finish you chocolate now and come find me by the register when you're through."
Harry nodded enthusiastically and bit into his chocolate, stuffing his mouth full and glorying in every fuzzy warm feeling trickling through him. He felt like nothing could get him down and not wanting to lose the feeling before he could utilize it, Harry gulped the rest of the cocoa down and went to pay for his breakfast.
Mrs. Amsel didn't look surprised at his hasty wrap up and merely smiled encouragingly at him while she collected his money, bidding him good luck as he ran out the door of her bakery.
A few moments later he was dashing through the streets back to the hotel where he spent a few minutes in his room rousing Oorjit from a nap in a patch of sunlight and grabbing all his books on Germany. Harry left the room and hotel moments later with a grumpy Oorjit flying overhead in the clouds.
Harry found himself a spot surrounded by hedges in the park he had seen earlier that morning and sat down. There was a large ornate fountain of a dragon spewing red, orange, and yellow water into a fish pond below in the center of the small secluded courtyard. Oorjit landed next to him grumpily, his tongue flicking out to tickle Harry's ear. Harry gently batted the occamy's head away and laid out the books he had brought with him.
Feeling happy and sure of himself because of the chocolate, Harry selected the tourist guide book about the region he was in. He opened it to a random page and read about the monument of Unity, or Wizards Triumph Spectacularly Over Goblins as Harry dubbed it.
The monument turned out not to be twenty miles away from Zauberin. The book provided a set of coordinates to an equivalent to a British AMAS and a way to hail public transportation if Apparition wasn't possible.
Harry was just beginning to contemplate going there when Oorjit's dry snide voice said over his shoulder, §You want to go there? Why in world would you want to do that?§
§I know the history is dark,§ Harry muttered, excitement coursing through him. §It was a time of goblin and human wars with uprisings as gory as the Wendallen Werewolf slaughters. But to Voldemort it would be a sign of wizarding dominance over other less worthy magic bearing creatures.§
§Seems like a stretch to me.§
§Not when Celestial wrote a footnote regarding her thrice great grandfather being a warlock in the fullest traditional extent in Germany around this time.§
Oorjit grunted. §Perhaps,§ he conceded. §But I rather think Voldemort wouldn't give a fig about this ancestor unless he was a High Warlock and commanding hundreds of wizards to a major victory. He only claims history that elevates his status.§
Harry's brows pulled down in a frown, the chocolate wearing off. He reread the passage on the monument and sighed. Unity didn't sound nearly as plausible as it did before.
§It's all I got to go on right now.§
§I guess that's a good a reason as any to go,§ Oorjit replied with an aggrieved expression. Clearly he did not want to go see Unity.
§Still belly aching?§ Harry hissed back irritably, the effect of the chocolate completely deserting him.
§You try eating Voldemort's familiar and see what it does to your disposition,§ Oorjit retorted, raising his head loftily in the air with a disdained hiss.
§You're such a girl,§ Harry returned, shaking his head and rubbing the sleek crown of the occamy's head. §We should at least check it out.§
§Fine,§ Oorjit replied, taking to the air. I'll meet you there.§
Harry watched him disappear behind the clouds and stood up taking a few minutes to stretch before shrinking the travel book and placing it into his pockets. He walked back into town and found the German version of the AMAS at the center of the main square. Spinning on his heel he Apparated to the coordinates of the Unity Monument.
Twenty miles away he came back into existence without a sound and stepped off the platform. So many forced apparitions through some of England's toughest wards had made Harry very adept at apparating. He could do it silently now without even so much as the small pop that use to accompany his comings and goings.
The first impression Harry got was big. Inappropriately enormous, glittering audaciously and offensively from on top a hill. Green and black tents ringed the bottom of the hill, offering up snacks, drinks, miniatures of the monument and of the goblins and wizards who'd battled each other. Everything about Unity and its tourist trap setup was odious.
He found himself hesitating even to take another step forward, tempted to return back to Zauberin and hide out in his room until his visit with Flitwick back on the island or Voldemort found him, whichever happened first. If Oorjit wasn't on his way, Harry would have done that, instead he found himself reluctantly moving toward the heinous statue that showed just how much gall wizards held over other magical creatures.
Merlin knows, Harry didn't like the goblins all that much, but frankly watching the moving statue of the war leaders bend down and kiss the robes of the warlocks was sickening. He could barely keep the sneer off his face as he approached a vendor and bought a small bag of roasted and sugared peanuts.
He circled around the monument and shook his head. There was a group of school children being led around by a haughty professor who was expounding on the battles, leaving Harry to think he was the History of Magic professor. Certainly he was more animated than Binns ever was, alive or dead, but the professor's prejudices were blatant.
Harry listened in for a few moments, shifting through the colorful phrases from translated German, that he didn't understand. Clearly the translating spell had some limitations.
Twenty minutes later, Harry was ready to give up on Oorjit and leave. The trip had been as pointless as the occamy had predicted. He chucked his waste in a rubbish bin and headed back toward the path to the AMAS when Oorjit flew down from the clouds and landed on his shoulder.
§What did you do--stop somewhere to groom yourself?§
§Don't be catty,§ Oorjit hissed haughtily, whacking his tail against the side of Harry's head.
Harry flinched. §Ouch! You gained a stone in weight, you pea brain.§
Oorjit hit him again. §Nobody would ever think you'd been on the receiving end of Voldemort's Cruciatus with that whine.§
§Shut it,§ Harry grumbled, rubbing the back of his head.
Oorjit looked around. §Leaping lizards, would you look at that! What is that monstrosity?§
§That,§ Harry said grimly, sparing a look back and regretting it instantly. §Is a monument of the wizarding world's stupidity and incompetence to treat all sentient magical creatures as beings with the same rights. Of course the centaurs would never consider us equal, but we don't have to show our ignorance with a colossal golden moving statue, we do that quite well on our own.§
§Well spoken,§ Oorjit returned, using his tail to sturdy himself on his precarious perch on Harry's shoulder. §You wizards certainly have your heads up your arses more often than not.§
§We're like the ostrich that way,§ Harry quipped. §Ignoring what makes us uncomfortable in the hopes it will go away.§
§Couldn't you have come up with something better than the head in the sand metaphor?§
§Sure,§ Harry said. §But why when it worked?§
Oorjit shook his head, murmuring sympathetically, §That was the reason you weren't put in Slytherin.§
§You say that like it's a bad thing,§ Harry teased. §And anyway, I'm not sure dungeon is good on the complexion, have you seen how pasty Snape and Malfoy are?§
§Now where to, Spinks?§ Oorjit asked.
§Spinks as in the famous detective that tracked down Grindelwald's supporters in the years after Dumbledore brought him down or--§
§The second one, spinks, as in an idiot who cleverness is by pure chance.§
Harry pull a face. §Your faith in me warms my heart.§
§You're wel--§
§Wait a minute,§ Harry interrupted. §Gellert Grindelwald was defeated here in Germany! There must be a monument to Dumbledore around somewhere.§
§Nurmengard?§ Oorjit suggested.
§For the greater good?§ Harry scoffed, then paused considering it. §That's it! Oorjit you're a genius!§
§I knew that.§
Harry went on as if he hadn't heard him. §If Voldemort is known to fear Dumbledore, even if he claims he does not, it's the hope of the wizarding Britain and Europe that he is afraid; what if he made a sacrilegious act and defiled the monument of Dumbledore's greatest triumph using of course his Horcrux?§
§Disfiguring the monument that marked Dumbledore's triumph over a great dark wizard… it has possibilities.§
§More than that,§ Harry asserted, popping away at the apparition site and stepping seconds later into the town square of Zauberin.
He headed to the small café he'd seen near the bakery, casting a glamour over Oorjit so as not to frighten the town residents with a class four dangerous beast in their midst. Shopkeepers waved at him along the way as they stood outside talking with each other. Harry waved back and moved away from them before continuing his discussion with Oorjit.
§Not only is he making a mockery out of Dumbledore's bravest feat, he's making a mockery out of Gryffindor's best champion in centuries. No other Gryffindor can claim his prominence in the wizarding world at home and at large. He's the Supreme Mugwamp, Chief Warlock, Headmaster of Hogwarts, Leader of the Order of the Phoenix. We're not even talking about what he's accomplished before he got those titles. He's Gryffindor's golden boy.§
§I thought Daniel was.§
§Not even close to the same scale,§ Harry argued. §Daniel's a limp flubberworm to Dumbledore's rampaging griffin.§
§You had to make that comparison,§ Oorjit groused. §I think I regurgitated Nagini back there.§
§Disgusting.§
§Then we're even.§
Harry reached the shop and Oorjit leapt from his shoulder to the top of the roofline. As Harry went inside, Oorjit called out, §You should ask somebody about Grindelwald.§
Acknowledging the occamy's words, Harry waved over his shoulder and slipped inside the dark wedge of the shop. Inside it was so dark, it took Harry several minutes of rapid eye blinking to clear his vision. What he saw surprised him. There were vampires in the farthest back of the eatery with charmed windows blocking their corner off from the rest of the patrons, serving to protect them should the door open and let in sunlight.
Besides the vampires there were two other patrons lurking in the interior. A bustling waitress came over to him and beckoned for Harry to follow her to his booth. Quietly he double checked his translator spell and then slid into the booth, taking the proffered menu.
"You might wish to try a night vision spell. If you don't know one, I'd be happy to cast a temporary one on you."
"No I got it covered, thanks," he murmured and opened his menu, squinting to read text. It was impossible.
He squeezed his eyes shut and hissed under his breath. A moment later Harry opened his eyes and could see the café alight with bright shifting colors. It wasn't day vision, the clarity was still a little off. The world seemed flat to Harry and he started. He'd transformed his own eyes into his basilisk form's eyes!
"Have you decided on anything? What to drink? Eat?" the waitress said, coming back to the table.
Harry focused grimly on the menu before him, refusing to glance up at the waitress. "Please bring me some turnip and ginger juice, and also a hippogriff burger."
"How would you like it cooked?"
"Well done. Hold the tomatoes"
"Be back in a jiffy," she assured him and left.
Harry raised his eyes briefly to watch her back as she walked away. Everything winked in an out of his field of vision. Cautiously, Harry flicked out his tongue and to his amazement the world reoriented itself. He smelled dead meat. Nervous dead meat.
He glanced over to the corner of the café and saw the vampires looking at him startled. At his gaze they quickly averted their faces. He watched their lips, as they broke out heatedly amongst themselves. One particularly panicky vampire kept pointing in his direction. Harry flicked his tongue out again. Recently dead meat. So the vampire was young.
His attention roved to the living meat in the room. They were completely ignorant of him and Harry found their taste dull. Their presence was unexciting to the basilisk senses. Harry concentrated and tried to change back, ignoring the waitress' return with his juice in the meanwhile.
A few minutes later he flopped back with a disgruntled hiss. Not only had he not managed to revert to himself, but had actually progressed some of the changes! His tongue was forked now and his skin was lined with the faint traces of scales. Even the use of Parseltongue didn't help him change! In fact it must have helped progress the changes!
What was he going to do? He looked exactly like what he was-- an animagus stuck in mid transformation. He couldn't talk to anyone now with his tongue changed, they would only hear strange hissing. He frowned when the waitress brought him his burger.
It was cooked. He senses told him that he didn't eat dead things. His eyes slid over to the moving dead things, but he would hunt those kind. Harry tried again to reverse the changes and felt himself growing a few inches.
Completely nonplussed, Harry threw a galleon on the table and ran out the door of the darkened café. He hissed urgently to Oorjit and cast a full body glamour on his person to hide the changes. His goal was the woods, where he would have the privacy needed to work things out one way or the other.
§What happened Harry?§ Oorjit asked as he flew overhead.
Breaking into a run, Harry yelled up, §I used snake language to enhance my eyesight in the café and I wound up transforming my eyes.§
§You did more than that,§ Oorjit observed.
Harry flew past the villagers and made for the field that surrounded the magical town. Running through the rows of crops, he made the tree line and dashed into the forest.
§Direct me to an empty clearing,§ he ordered.
Oorjit shouted down directions and Harry weaved in and out of the maze of trees until he broke into the clearing the occamy had found. Panting, Harry bent over bracing himself on his knees as he caught his breath. Air hissed in and out of his lungs, every breath of air passing his tongue revealing more about the area surrounding him.
He concentrated and tasted chilled water. §Water?§ he asked Oorjit.
Oorjit shook his head. §There's no water here.§
§I smell--taste water.§
§I don't smell anything,§ Oorjit said. §But I'll go look.§
Harry nodded weakly and straightened up as Oorjit launched himself into the air. He looked at his hands and saw that they had formed webbing between them in preparation for dissolving into his body as he became the king of snakes. The scale pattern was emerald green with black lines forming a pattern he didn't quite see.
Harry took of his shirt and pants and sat in the clearing. While looking at his hands he concentrated on merging his limbs into his body. Nothing happened. Annoyed he tried to develop the scale pattern on his skin and saw no change. He thought of the red lock of hair on his head and imagined it to be the scarlet plume of his form and tried to push that transformation.
When the red hair didn't grow Harry growled in annoyance. He was making these changes so effortlessly in the café why couldn't he do it now? It didn't make sense to him. He should be able to do it. Did he need the dark? Was it the presence of the vampires that triggered the change? Harry didn't know.
Just then Oorjit returned and landed beside Harry, folding in his wings. §There's an ice capped river forty kilometers north of us. I don't know how you knew that.§
§I'm the king of snakes,§ Harry mumbled, frowning at his hands.
§You're the what?§
§A basilisk, Oorjit. I am a basilisk.§
§No you're not.§
§I am,§ Harry said wearily. §I just can't complete the changes. I always get stuck. This is the first time since I drank that revealing potion that I got this close and I don't even know how I did it.§
§If you really were a basilisk I would have smelt that,§ Oorjit insisted.
§All the evidence points that way. What do you smell? Taste?§
Oorjit flicked out his tongue. §Snake. You smell like snake.§
§Perhaps I have to completely transform to smell like a basilisk.§
§Your red hair, it turns into the red crest of the king?§
Harry nodded. §If I could make it transform, then yes.§
§Try it.§
§I already have.§
§Try again,§ Oorjit insisted.
Harry concentrated and hissed at his hair to change into the crest of his kingship. A tickling feeling developed in his scalp. The success of something working, elated Harry and he concentrated harder, focusing on the tingling feeling and coaxing it to develop full-fledged.
A sudden ease in the tingling sensation, caused Harry to open his eyes. §Did it work?§ he asked, not daring to hope.
§You, milord, are indeed king of serpents.§
§It worked?§
§Yes, milord.§
§Milord?§ Harry questioned.
Oorjit nodded solemnly. §You are lord of serpents. That's not just a title, it is a heritage.§
Harry looked at the occamy. §Be that as it may, you're my friend, not my vassal. You don't have to call me milord.§
§You are too generous, milord. I could not accept.§
Harry sighed, annoyed. §Don't suck up to me either. Honestly, Oorjit, just help me bloody transform one way or the other. This half-and-half state of existence is bothersome in the extreme.§
§Why don't you try then to change your size. If the key is in your height, you are sorely lacking.§
§Good. Height. Now how do I do that?§
§Close your eyes,§ Oorjit instructed. §Now imagine yourself towering over all of the serpents. See yourself as tall as a king and then imagine that all those below you are as small as ants.§
Harry opened an eye and glowered at Oorjit. §You call that helpful?§
§Did you try it?§ Oorjit returned, staring defiantly at Harry.
§No,§ Harry admitted.
§Try it.§
Harry closed his eyes and thought of his stature as a king and how that would relate to his stature as a snake. He thought about Oorjit and how inferior his snake form was to his own, which would be magnificent. His scarlet crown would proclaim his status to all in the snake kingdom as their lord and master. Their will was his. His desires would be their desires and they would be happy for it.
He thought of Voldemort. The snake-man who thought he could claim lordship over all the snakes, just because he could speak their language. He thought of the power of his person, wrapped all tightly within his glorious coils and wondered how the snake-man would feel being crushed beneath their weight.
His name would travel at the speed of light throughout all the earth as first Oorjit and then others learned of his name. He was Harry, King of Serpents, the mighty champion of snakes, the protector of the realm of the crawlers.
§Well done, milord,§ Oorjit hissed in approval.
Harry opened his eyes and saw that he was level with the tree tops. He glanced down. His body was curled up in loose coils on the ground and there was Oorjit, bowing. He felt the presence of his basilisk's mind in his head and accepted it as part of himself.
§Rise, Oorjit. Come meet your king in the flesh.§
º«««º»»»ºEnd Chapter 40º«««º»»»º