26

26: Animagus, Jealousy, and Signy (September 4, 2003 to September 6, 2003)

He had known; he had gotten the feeling that Sahar didn't like him. He was absolutely certain after that polo incident that she didn't. He didn't particularly know the exact reason, though he figured it had something to do with Sirius. But still it wasn't like Sirius was paying that much attention to him. His godfather spent a great majority of his time with Sahar. It was almost uncanny how often those two were together.

Harry just wished that Sahar would just flat out tell him what was bothering her before things got any worse between them during the holidays. It wasn't like he was going to go away, and she wasn't leaving until past the New Year. If things got any tenser, he didn't think that the immense Malfoy mansion could contain it. He got his wish after all on New Year's Eve.

If he thought Hermione was an assertive woman, Sahar was in a class of her own. She marched directly up to him, grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him with her into an empty bedroom. If he wasn't confident in his own magical abilities, he was sure he'd be trembling in fear. Sahar was not someone anyone wanted to mess with, not if they were sane. And having her wand pointed at his face wasn't helping matters any either.

"We need to talk," Sahar stated bluntly, not giving him much of an option considering that he was pinned to the wall. "I'm not going to tell you this again," she began with a determined voice. "Stay away from Sirius," she warned him, her shockingly blue eyes piercing into his. "Stay away from him!"

"Why?" Harry asked calmly.

Sahar's beautiful eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "He's mine," she hissed. "I know that he likes men too, but he's not available. Do you understand me? He's taken by me, and I don't let others take what's mine!"

Possessive, much? Harry nearly chuckled, but he felt that she wouldn't appreciate it much if he did. So Sahar didn't hate him for being a parselmouth or being the talk of Durmstrang; she despised him because she thought he was competition for Sirius' affections! While it was true that he was, it wasn't in the manner that she was suggesting. He and Sirius were family, and nothing else!

"I understand," he responded evenly. "But I don't like Sirius like that, I never have. We're just friends, and that's all that we'll ever be."

"Don't lie to me!" Sahar cried out. "I've seen the way that you've looked at him! You look at him as if you're trying to memorize him, and he looks at you in the same manner! I'm not blind! I've seen the way you two have looked at each other."

This was a problem. Sirius had admitted to staring at him since he looked quite a bit like his father, and Harry couldn't help but gaze longingly at his godfather. How to explain this away? "He is an attractive man," Harry confessed, feeling the triumphant though volatile gaze of Sahar upon him. "But he resembles someone I use to know, that's all. Besides, Draco has only told me amazing things about his cousin and well I wanted to get to know him better.

"Rest assure," he reassured, "I have no interest in him. My affections lie elsewhere," he murmured softly, his green eyes glowing warmly as he thought about Severus. Especially thinking of the tender care that Severus had shown him when he'd been on required bed rest. "The only one I have eyes for is Severus Snape."

He heard her sharply in taken breath, and he was amused when he saw her do a double take on him. She couldn't believe it. Why not? Sirius and Severus were approximately the same age, as were he and Sahar. "Severus Snape?" Sahar queried with a disbelieving tone. "The Hogwarts Potions Master?"

He nodded. "Yes."

She snorted and then laughed. "It makes sense," she remarked. At Sebastian's puzzled look, the grin on her lips only widened. "He favors you," she commented. "And the way he looks at you," she shuddered longingly, "is how I wish Sirius would look at me."

"How does he look at me?" Harry inquired with a needy curiosity.

"He looks at you like he could devour as if you were the most delectable thing on this Earth," she told him serenely. She paused and sighed, then dropped her wand hand down and backed away from him. "I apologize," she said stiffly. "My mum does say I tend to jump into assumptions impulsively. I just- Sirius is very important to me, he's my lifeline."

Harry nodded. He understood. "I'm glad that I don't have you for an enemy any longer."

"I wouldn't count on that," she retorted. "When we're back at Durmstrang, you're still going to be my rival. Even though we've cleared this up, I'm not letting down my guard. I'll be watching you, Sebastian Biggerstaff. There are not many that are parseltongues. Very few, precious few."

Didn't he know that? He knew that all too well.

The rest of the holiday flew by. Before Harry and Draco realized, they were once again abroad the Hogwarts Express speeding off to Durmstrang. While Harry was disappointed in not being able to spend more time with Severus alone like he had in the moments they stole at the Malfoy residence, he was eager to see the Hermione and Draco confrontation. It was going to be well worth the wait of having to see them hesitantly flirt back and forth to each other for the past year.

Good old 'Mione still had that streak in her that made her a Gryffindor in his world. It was past time for something to occur between them. It did somewhat surprise Harry that it was Hermione that made the first move. Secretly, he'd always wished that Draco would but Hermione's declaration was icing on the cake. The way she'd done it was completely original, and he knew quite well that Draco appreciated the creativity. Boring a Malfoy was not a way to seduce them, you had to keep them intrigued.

Hermione had definitely done that, Harry reflected with a smile if Draco's frantic peering around for their Ravenclaw friend was any indication. It was clever for her to be late; it made Draco wait for him, and that only made his impatience rise up even more. She was normally early. Anxious Draco was amusing, Harry decided, very amusing.

"Where is she?" Draco growled. "She's never late."

Stating the obvious was a definite indication that Draco was losing what little patience he was gifted with. "You know muggle transportation is unreliable," Harry stated soothingly. "Traffic's a bugger."

"Then how come," Draco gritted out, "she always managed to be early before?"

"Bad accident?" Harry suggested.

"You're not helping Bast!" Draco cried out, his silvery eyes burning with concern and apprehension. "What if she was in the accident?"

Crap. Harry hadn't even thought of that. Maybe that was why Hermione was late. It was not like her to be late, and the only thing that would prevent her from coming here would be some devastating circumstance. Now he was worried, and he wasn't the only one. Draco had started pacing up and down the length of the platform minutes ago. Harry joined him. At least it gave them something to do.

Deep fear struck them hard when they heard the last warning whistle resound through Platform 9 ¾. It was then that Harry noticed a tawny brown owl came barreling at them at an extraordinary speed. Harry's first thought was Hermione must have gotten an owl. His second thought was the owl was flying much too fast to be able to stop properly. His third thought was relief that the owl was angling for Draco and not for him.

"ARGH!" Draco cried out when the owl hit him full forced in the chest, the sharp claws digging deeply into his robes enough to scrape his skin. "Infuriating creature!" he snapped. He'd been about to push the animal off of him, but when the owl lifted one of its claws where it was holding a piece of parchment he forgot his intentions. Instead, he grabbed the parchment and tore it open eagerly. It had to be from Hermione.

Yes, it was from her. He knew her legible slightly loop-y scrawl anywhere. But the message written in it was not satisfactory. All it said was: Do you miss me? Of course! He hadn't seen her in weeks! And even more importantly, with a Christmas present like the one she'd given him- he had to know if she was serious. Maybe she was just joking; after all, she hadn't responded to any of his owls to her.

It looked like she was ignoring him, especially if this owl was any indication. She had no excuses about not having an owl to respond to him! Besides, Sebastian had made it quite clear that Artemis was free for her to use at any point since he rarely used her. No excuses! "Of course, I miss you!" Draco ranted to the poor owl that Sebastian had reached over to rescue from his furious best friend. "What kind of question is that?!"

The curious thing when Draco started screaming this was that the owl that Harry was holding in his arms seemed to smile, that was if an owl could smile. Impatiently the owl wiggled out of his hands and coasted down awkwardly to the ground. Harry watched with fascination as the owl shook her head and seemed to be intensely concentrating on something when before his eyes he noticed her slowly begin to change.

"Draco," Harry murmured hoarsely, "it's a valid question. She's asking, and you've answered."

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" Draco retorted sharply. He was too focused on getting his wand to write a long ranting message on the back of the parchment Hermione had sent him to pay attention to the strange actions of her messenger owl. "I'm busy, Bast-"

He pursed his lips together tightly when he saw what Sebastian was seeing. Before them, the owl was shifting into a person. With agonizing concentration, they saw the tawny owl change enough to resemble the tawny brown curls of Hermione's ever wild hair. So that was why Hermione was late! They had no idea that she was this far in her animagus training!

"All abroad the Hogwarts Express!" cried out the conductor.

Luckily by this time, Hermione had finished altering back into her human form. Draco and Sebastian grabbed her by the arm and pulled her with them into the train that was getting ready to depart at any minute. Once they were safely in a private car, Draco turned his fiercely intense eyes to pin her to the cushion she was sitting on, "Do you know how worried about you I was?"

"I didn't know," Hermione responded apologetically, looking toward Sebastian for any help but seeing none in his eyes. He'd been worried too. "I'm sorry, Draco- Bast."

"You'd better be!" Draco shouted. "Don't ever do that again!"

Hermione cringed and her head was bent down as she couldn't take the intensity that was coursing through Draco's eyes. Harry decided that he would have to be the one to be the mediator to them. While he knew Draco was a rather forceful person, he could go a tad overboard at times. Someone needed to remind him that not everything could go his way all the time. Hermione hadn't done anything wrong; they, as good friends, had just been overly concerned.

"We were just worried about you, that's all," Harry said calmly, trying to break the tension. "You have to admit, Hermione, you're not usually late." He tried to smile reassuringly, not wanting Hermione to tear up as she was beginning to do. He knew she hated upsetting them. "Why didn't you tell us that you'd progressed that far as an animagus?" he asked, shifting the direction of the focus. "You were bloody amazing!"

She blushed. Typical of Hermione not to take a compliment that well. Dear Hermione. "I actually haven't been doing that well," Hermione confessed, her eyes lowering. "I've been behind, but I made a breakthrough during the Christmas holidays. Professor McGonagall was concerned about my lack of progress, so she stayed with me during the holidays to figure out why I couldn't make a complete transformation.

"We finally figured out why," Hermione continued with a smile beginning to blossom on her exuberant face. "It was because my animagus form was avian instead of mammalian. Professor McGonagall was quite impressed, it's normally very difficult for a wizard or witch to be an animagus of a non-mammalian. It was that difficulty that was hindering me, but once I got over that obstacle I can now transform whenever I want. I'm not as fast as Professor McGonagall, though she says my speed should improve with more practice."

"You're lucky that nothing horrible happened to you," Draco whispered fiercely. "Transforming into another kind of animal is extremely rare, don't you know that? The only reason why Sahar-" he abruptly stopped what he was saying and pursed his lips together in a flat line. "When Sahar first attempted to fully transform into her animagus form, she nearly died. The difference was too great."

"But her form is that of a cold-blooded creature," Hermione argued logically. "Of course it'd be even more dangerous for her than it would be for me. She actually is changing the way her body should function! I was just changing into a more energized warm blood, since birds have a higher metabolism rate."

"It's still dangerous!" Draco exclaimed, his eyes burning into hers. "And she worked at least a year before she even attempted to transform. You've been studying with McGonagall for only 4 months!"

"When though?" Hermione countered.

"What?"

"When did Sahar attempt to become an animagus?" Hermione spelled out the question for him with obvious impatience.

Draco paused, not really wanting to answer her since it would lower his argument. "Two years ago."

"See!" Hermione retorted when her point was proven. "That's why it took her a year! The younger the witch is, the harder it is! Less magical power, at least that's the principle of the matter."

"But still-" Draco began but stopped when Hermione planted a chaste kiss on his cheek.

"I'm touched you were worried about me. Both of you," she murmured softly. "But you know I always take good care of myself. I take care of both of you as well! Who else is going to make sure that you're not going to have to fail your NEWTs?"

They were at it again. Harry was amused at how much more eager Draco and Hermione were to study with each other now that they were officially going out. He wondered how much studying they actually did in their ancient runes and arithmancy study sessions. It was the only studying they did that he wasn't present at. He rather hoped that they didn't work as they did when the three of them were together for the NEWTs review for the five core classes.

That would be plain boring, yet he could somehow see them doing that. A good snog would do them so much good. Their heated looks between them were enough to make him comfortable. It reminded him of the passionate embrace they'd shared. Even though he'd been forcing Severus, it hadn't been anything that Severus hadn't wanted to do. If anything it was what Severus deeply desired.

Snogging was a nice thought, he reflected inwardly while he groaned outwardly. Thinking of snogging before meeting up with Severus was not a good thing, it made him hard instantly. Damn that sexy Slytherin. His breath hitched as he remembered the feel of those velvety lips on his. Bloody hell, how were they going to keep their hands away from each other until he graduate? How was he going to survive this self imposed torture?

"I know what you're thinking," Severus whispered throatily into his ear as he leaned up close enough to caress Sebastian with his breath but not touch him. "But you know we have to wait. It's better this way. You'll have to stay after graduation anyway to prepare for your potions mastery. There's no way you can prepare for it while you're preparing for the MEDs."

There was a trace of bitterness in Severus' voice that Harry detected, but it was slight. Harry knew that Severus was disappointed that medimagic took a precedent for Harry than potions, it was slightly more important to him. It was just that the vein of his talent was more seen in that direction than in potions. There was no doubt he was going to be a potions master, but he wasn't going to surpass Severus. In medimagic, Poppy had already told him there was no doubt in her mind that he was her first pupil that was going to exceed her.

Harry jumped away from Severus when the electric current that was flowing between them became too much for him to handle. "I brought the egg and book," he remarked. "It's been shaking and trembling a bit, the book says that that's a sign that the egg should be hatching soon."

"I've never seen one of them hatch before, but I've heard about the circumstances," Severus responded with visible interest. "That's definitely a positive sign. Another good indication is if the shell has turned from the dark gray metallic color into a midnight black."

"It has," Harry replied.

"When?" Severus asked sharply.

"Yesterday."

Severus turned to him and it reminded Harry so much of the way the other Severus used to look at him that he almost flinched. "Within twenty-four hours of the egg changing colors is when the basilisk is supposed to hatch. I'm sure you realize that if it turned yesterday, the egg will be hatching at any moment!"

Yes, Severus was certainly acting like the other Severus. Mentally, the more rational side of him chided himself. Of course Severus was acting like Severus, he was Severus! He just didn't hate Harry because Harry was a Potter. It didn't hurt that he was able to actually make potions correctly when a certain Slytherin who was his best friend wasn't trying to mess him up! But mostly it was because he wasn't Harry Potter, he was Sebastian Biggerstaff.

Harry had been thinking that it was going to be close, which was why he'd urgently owled Severus asking to meet him someplace. With fingers that were none too steady, he withdrew the potent egg from an inner pocket inside his cloak and gently held it cupped between his hands. "I did realize that," Harry. "I-"

Whatever he'd about to be saying was cut off abruptly as the egg in his hands started to crack open violently. The hard outer shell shattered into a million tiny pieces as a miniature basilisk surfaced from the moist enclosure. Normally nothing could take Harry's concentration off Severus, not when Severus was his heart's desire but this- this baby basilisk managed that with utter ease.

{Massster? I am Sssigny. Sssigny,} she hissed as her deep forest green eyes met the lustrous emeralds that were Harry's. {You are my Massster. You are mine.}

{I am Sssebastian,} Harry hissed back. {What doesss Sssigny mean?}

{New victory,} she responded, her intense eyes never leaving his as she curled up into a ball in his palm. {Yoursss meansss venerable, I will ressspect you. But you will honor me.}

Harry chuckled. Signy reminded him too much of Asta. Those two had to be siblings.

"Don't stare too long at the basilisk," Severus warned. "Even if it's young, it can still petrify you if you stare into its eyes long enough!"

{Ssstupid human,} Signy sneered. {I cannot harm my Massster. I can harm you though if Massster wissshesss that. I cannot do much now, but later- later I will.}

{You will not touch Ssseverusss,} Harry reprimanded steadfastly. {He isss important to me.}

{I will not touch that man then,} Signy replied reluctantly under Harry's persistent gaze. {Massster, tell me more of the world. I want to know more than what Asssta has told me when I was still imprisoned in my womb. Tell me, Massster.}

{Call me Sssebassstian,} Harry insisted.

{But you are Massster.}

"Sebastian," Severus called urgently, worry reflecting in his tone, "stop looking into its eyes!"

{I wisssh for you to call me Sssebasstian.}

{If that isss what you wisssh}.

"Sebastian-"

"It's all right," Harry murmured serenely. "Signy, that's her name, has told me that she will never harm me. That she cannot harm me. That's an interesting aspect." No wonder Tom Riddle was unafraid of the legendary basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, not if he was that basilisk's master. Was it possible that a basilisk could control it's death glare? Very possible. "And she has promised not to harm you."

{I promissse only becaussse you wisssh it.}

{Thank you.}

{You are welcome, Ssssebassstian.}

Watching Sebastian speak parseltongue to his basilisk, Severus was confronted with a very deep fear. That the Dark Lord would want Sebastian for his very own. It was true that Voldemort was extremely fond of Bellatrix, but that was partly because she was possibly the most powerful witch in the wizarding world. If there was anything he knew the Dark Lord was drawn to- it was power, and Sebastian had power.

He hoped and prayed he was wrong. Because Sebastian was his soul's desire.

Recommendation (only if you have time): I'd go to /~yih and read my original stories. They're long novels that are already complete and I think they're better than my HP stories, of course they aren't slash though. Anyway here's a brief excerpt from "Endless Love":

She didn't know what she expected to see. Maybe a change, but that was too much to expect out of Yu Min. And things still hadn't changed. Yu Min still sat on the same wall outside of her apartment complex that they had sat on throughout their schooldays even into their college days. It brought a slight smile to her face for a brief second that he had come to her. But then the smile faded and she clenched her hand. There were things that she needed to say to him, so she walked to the wall and climbed onto the wall with no help from him.

"She's leaving tomorrow," she said softly. He shrugged. "I know you like her." He turned his face away from her. "You should go after her if you really like her. You know I like you, I don't need to tell you that," she whispered painfully, drawing his face back to look at her. "But I want you to be happy because you're my best friend. And you're happy with her, so you should go after her." Their eyes met. "You should go."

From "Secret: A Tale of Love":

"I like you more than as a friend!"

"I don't see you as anything more than as a friend."

She bit her lip as she recalled that painful memory. It'd been over four years since she had made that confession to him, but she still hadn't forgotten his words or her own words. If anything, as the time had passed, the memory had only grown more keen and more vivid in her mind. She wished it would just fade as most memories did, but this one didn't and she knew why it didn't. No matter how hard she tried, that lingering feeling hit her every time she saw him as it did now.