Chapter 11:A Snake In The Grounds

"Harry…" Hermione prodded as she helped herself to the potatoes.

"Yes, Hermione?"

Hermione opened her mouth, then paused for a moment before motioning towards the pale-faced OWL students huddled together near the Teachers Table. "Any idea?"

Hagrid entered the hall and all the huddled fifth-year students as well as quite a few of the NEWT students flinched.

"Ah. Yep, I know what's going on." Harry nodded. "It's the favor that Hagrid asked me for. Perfectly safe."

"Harry… we have Care of Magical Beasts next lesson." Hermione pointed out as she sat down and started to help herself from the platters already on the table. "What did Hagrid ask you for… no. No, he didn't."

Harry grinned. "Yep, he did."

Hermione gave the huddled students a pitying glance. "No wonder they're so freaked out."

"You were rather freaked the first time you met her." Harry pointed out.

"I got better!" Hermione protested, scooping up some of her food on her fork.

"True." Neville agreed, scooping up another spoonful of his soup. "Although I still remember Gran's expression when she came face-to-face with SssSthss."

Harry snorted with laughter at the memory, but since he was taking a sip of his drink at the time, the resulting spray was quite impressive. Neville wordlessly handed him a towel before scooping up a roll, tearing it in half and dipping it into his bowl.

"Thanks, Nev." Harry said gratefully as he finished mopping his face.

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"Hey, everyone, welcome to yer first Care o' Magical Creatures lesson." Hagrid smiled. "Thanks ter Lord Potter here, we gotta special guest."

"A Flobberworm?" Draco sneered from behind them. "Maybe a Puffske-IIIYYYAAAAAARGH!"

Draco's scream of abject terror was echoed by over half of the others as SssSthss slithered around from behind Hagrid's hut. Harry simply waved.

"Hello, SssSthss! Enjoying yourself?"

"Very much, thankss." The Basilisk replied, the afternoon sun glinting off her headpiece. "Sso, thesse are your newesst sstudentss?"

"That they are, SssSthss, that they are." Hagrid confirmed as several of the students slowly extracted themselves from various bushes or nervously emerged from behind the nearby fence, their faces reflecting their terror, disbelief and slowly-emerging curiosity. "Students, this lovely lady is SssSthss, who works for Lord Potter as part of his security force. SssSthss, these are the third-year students who chose to take lessons in caring fer Magical Creatures like yerself."

"Delighted to meet you all." SssSthss gave a dip of her head that was somewhat reminiscient of a curtsey.

"Now…" Hagrid's voice changed slightly as he entered his lecture mode. "Basilisks are known as the King of Serpents, or Queen in SssSthss's case, and are created by a verra specific magical rite. Since, until recently at least, only Parselmouths could communicate with Basilisks, actually creating a Basilisk is highly illegal, though ownin' one is jest fine. Now, the gaze of a Basilik can kill, but if reflected or filtered through glass or something similar, it only petrifies. SssSthss here is wearing a special magical-shield over her eyes that means that she can't kill or petrify with a glance as long as it's active, meaning that all you have to worry about are her fangs and powerful tail.

"A Basilisk's fangs… SssSthss?"

SssSthss opened her jaws to reveal a set of fangs almost as long as Harry's arm.

"Thank you. Now, Basilisks fangs contain special channels that allow them to inject poison. In addition, the strength of their bodies means that a blow from their tail can shatter a wall with a single blow.

"Shed Basilisk skin is too rigid to be used in armor, but can resist almost any spell, making it the preferred material fer the walls of high-end duelling chambers…"

Harry let Hagrid's words wash over him as he watched SssSthss pose for her audience, luxuriating in the attention she was getting.

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"Who knew that she was such an… exhibitionist?" Hermione shook her head in amused wonder as they headed up the hill back to Hogwarts.

"She likes to be admired." Harry shrugged, glancing back to where Hagrid was happily rubbing a special oil into SssSthss's scales, causing them to shine as the Basilisk all but purred under his ministrations. "Given that she spent centuries sleeping in a cold, dank cave, I think she's simply making up for lost time."

Hermione gave him a disbelieving look but on her other side, Neville simply nodded.

"Makes sense. I know I'd be wanting to do as much stuff as possible if I'd been stuck underground for centuries."

Hermione let out a sound somewhere between a groan and a growl as she rolled her eyes.

.

Draco glanced back at where that insufferable falsely-enobled oaf masquerading as a teacher was fussing over the overgrown flobberworm that Potter called his pet.

Apparently, the snake had been created by Slazar Slytherin himself and placed in the Chamber of Secrets underneath Hogwarts until the Dark Lord had found it and claimed it as his own, intending to make it serve its true purpose, eradicating the plague of Muggleborns seeking to destroy the perfection of the Wizarding World under the guise of improving or modernising it. Unfortunately, Potter had undone all of Lord Voldemort's hard work and now the Wizarding World was on the verge of being twisted and perverted into something that was unrecognisable to all right-minded individuals.

Such a thing was not to be allowed.

"That was… interesting." Nott finally said, his voise still slightly shaky.

"It was." Draco agreed, curious as to where Nott intended to take the conversation.

"I had no idea that Potter could have something like that working for him." Nott admitted, then he glanced round to check that only Crabbe and Goyle were nearby. "I'm not going to do anything that could be taken as an attack on Potter, not while he has that on his side. Oh, I'll help you make all the connections you want, but if you try anything that could be construed as direct action…"

"I understand." Draco nodded and Nott returned it before speeding up, heading faster towards the security of the castle.

"Crabbe, Goyle." Draco commanded and both hulking boys straightened up. "We need to find a way to kill a Basilisk."

The two boys looked at each other in confusion.

"I think the library would be a good place to start." Draco continued.

"Um, Draco, what's a library?"

Draco almost stumbled at the question.

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"There we go!" Hagrid announced, returning the cloth to his pocket as he stepped back to admire how SssSthss almost sparkled in the afternoon sunlight. "All nice an' shiny! Looks like yer gonna be shedding soon, though…"

"I'll make ssure that you get my old sskin." SssSthss rubbed her snout against Hagrid in a gesture of affection.

"We get the fourth an' sixth years tomorrow." Hagrid noted as he started to walk towards his hut, SssSthss sliding along beside him, her long body weaving from side to side as she accompanied him. ""I got a nice, plump bull fer yer by me hut an' a one-room Wizarding tent, got it lovely an' warm fer you, covered the floor wiv mattresses to make it comfy. Hope I got it right…"

"I am ssure it'll be fine." SssSthss reassured the half-giant, then her eyes caught the brown-and-white bull lying in the field. "Iss that…?"

"It's a Polled Hereford, no horns." Hagrid nodded. "Stunned it meself an' sprinkled it wiv parsley an' sage, jest like Harry sed…"

Hagrid trailed off as SssSthss accelerated past him, moving far faster than most people could sprint.

"Beautiful." He whispered as she coiled herself around the stunned bull, ready to swallow it. "Jest beautiful…"

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SssSthss raised her head as the bell hanging outside the tent-flap was stuck. Inhaling, she let the airflow pass over her tongue and then she carefully rearranged her coils.

"Hello, Harry."

"Hello, SssSthss." Harry smiled as he slipping into the tent, meeting her gaze fearlessly.

"Come to ssleep on your favourite bed?" The giant serpent teased and Harry laughed.

"You got me." He admitted as he stepped onto her proffered tail and let her lift him up so that he could step into her coils.

"Yess, I do, indeed." Sssthss lay her head back down, altering her position slightly to support Harry better as he threw his robe to one side, revealing his pajamas, then unrolled a blanket and pulled it over himself, wriggling a bit before relaxing into the angle formed by two adjacent coils.

"Goodnight, SssSthss." He mumbled, already half-asleep.

"Goodnight… masster." SssSthss replied quietly before closing her own eyes and allowing sleep to claim her also.

.

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"How big is America?" Peter asked as he peered out through the window of the motorhome. "I mean, we've been driving for days."

"Oh, America is about forty times larger than the United Kingdom." Gellert supplied. "While it has a very good network of highways, the rail system is incredibly lacking by comparison, all the trains are slow with no real high-speed capability."

"Forty times bigger than the UK?" Peter breathed in awe, his eyes wide.

"Indeed, which means that we still have several thousand miles to go." Voldemort stated from the drivers seat. "It's a good thing that you all know how to drive."

"Charming the fuel-tank to be ever-full helped as well." Gellert added. "That and the fact that the tent-rooms have working bathrooms, so we don't need to stop to empty the waste tank."

Peter wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Theres actually a tank here to store… yeuch! Muggles are filthy."

"Peter!" Voldemort snapped and the rat animagus flinched. "We will be recruiting those who think of themselves as Muggles! Keep those opinions silent for now, we cannot risk angering the Obscurials and causing them to turn their power against us! While we may survive the wrath of one, should we succeed in acquiring more, we will be outnumbered and overpowered should we anger them!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Excellent." Voldemort's voice lost the sharpness that had infused it, but Peter could still hear the warning beneath. "Gellert, are we close enough for a reading yet?"

"Oh, my, yes." Gellert looked up from the open wooden box in his lap, a box which contained a large number of cogwheels which surrounded a set of floating rings that gave Peter a headache whenever he looked at them.

"Sir…" Barty asked diffidently. "If I may ask…"

"Oh, by all means." Gellert responded jovially. "You wish to know about this device I am using, yes?"

Barty nodded and Gellert looked down at the device.

"This, my boy, is my Obscurial Detector. It works by detecting the ripples of magic caused by an Obscurial activating their power."

"And… how does it detect the ripples, sir?" Barty prompted.

"Oh, that's the clever part." Gellert chuckled. "The rings in the middle react to the ripples. As you can see, the smallest ring is on the outside, the largest is in the inside and all rings rotate both outside and inside each other silmultaneously. It took me quite some time to make this when I was younger, I was so pleased to find that the stasis spell had preserved it.

"As for showing where the Obscurials are, that's what the cogwheels are for. They take the changing movements of the rings and turn them into directions displayed by the arrows in the lid, giving me direction and distance to up to four Obscurials at once."

"Incredible." Barty breathed and Gellert's smile broadened.

"Oh, yes. I have high hopes that this device will allow us to do what I had planned to do before my old friend defeated me. It took over half the Aurors in New York to counter the one scared and untrained Obscurial there. Imagine having a dozen of them, taught not to flee from using their power, but to embrace it, to learn to summon their mage-forms at will and direct their efforts against the targets that we dictate! My friends, once we have acquired our little pets, the Ministry of Magic will find itself helpless before us!"

The laughter of the four men tailed behind the motorhome as it continued south on its long journey.