Chapter Text
Harry sighed as he kneeled in front of the rose bushes in the garden, having a rather pleasant conversation with some snakes as he weeded the ground, one being a king snake that escaped the zoo and the other a common adder snake. Gardening had to be the only job he didn’t hate doing since it allowed him to talk to the snakes, and he must say they had some pretty interesting stuff to say.
He hummed softly as the two snakes hissed, slithering around where his hands were as they told him the latest bit of gossip in the neighborhood. It was rather amusing actually considering the fact that they were the same two snakes he’d known since he was five. Once he was around seven he had named them Kali and Rahu after finding some books in the public library about Hinduism. The two loved their names dearly. So he kneeled there, weeding the garden while the two snakes conversed, he was actually at peace for once since being back at this hell hole. Between the letters he’d been receiving from Ron, Hermione, and Sirius and being able to talk with his snake friends, things were generally okay aside from his crippling depression, constant nightmares, survivor’s guilt, possible PTSD, and the Dursley’s continuing to be the ignorant fucks that they were.
This of course was broken as soon as it was found because for some unknown reason Harry James Potter was not allowed peace.
Harry stilled at the shrill sound of his aunt’s laughing, her banshee like voice having disturbed his concentration. “Is something funny?” the teen asked from his spot in front of the rose bushes, knowing fully well that Petunia was watching from her spot at the kitchen window.
“Oh nothing,” she said, a nasty smirk on her face. Though Harry wouldn’t know it since he figured it was in his best interest to not look her in the face or he’d fight her. “It’s just funny seeing you in your place.”
The Indian boy arched a brow, “My place?” Harry knew exactly what she meant but decided to play along.
Petunia rolled her eyes, “Of course you wouldn’t understand,” she sighed. “What I mean by your place is you understanding where you belong, which as you’ve shown doing the yard work is in the dirt. It even matches your skin.” She finished, a nasty smile firmly in place.
At this Harry finally had to look up at the putrid woman. He let out a sigh and got up, but not before picking up the two snakes and placing them around his shoulders. I mean sure, the Dursley’s have always been racist and shitty towards him, and this certainly wasn’t the first time he’d been referred to in such ways but after everything he’s had to put up with, enough was enough. Maybe it was the fact that she had interrupted one of the only moments of peace he was able to find nowadays, maybe it was because all the other stress he was being put through you know the whole survivor’s guilt thing and wanting to die, but it seemed that something in him just snapped. Though if you asked him it was a combination of everything seeming to go wrong in his life currently.
Petunia screeched as she saw the two snakes around her nephew’s shoulders, “What are you doing with those?”
“They’re my friends,” he replied non-committedly as he made his way inside the kitchen.
“What do you think you’re doing girl ? Where are you going? You’re filthy and you’ll track mud everywhere!”
Harry clenched his teeth as he made his way upstairs to grab his things and came back down, his stomach twisted at the misgendering. He then made his way towards the front door. “I’m leaving.” He then paused in front of the door as though he had remembered something. He turned towards Petunia with a large sickly sweet smile on his face, “I’ll see you in hell.” He said gleefully before finally opening the door and stepping out, dragging his trunk behind him along the way, having already sent Hedwig to where Sirius and the others were staying.
Harry made his way down the street for a few minutes before he ran into his fat lard of a cousin.
“What are you doing out here freak? Did mom finally kick you out?” the boy attempted to tease.
The Indian boy rolled his eyes, “No, I told that horse pretending to be human that I’d see her in hell, I’d tell you the same bu-“ just as he was about to finish his witty remark all of the street lights seemed to go out, a chill filling the air. He felt a shiver run down his spine as a woman’s scream echoed in the back of his mind. “God dammit,” Harry muttered knowing exactly what was happening.
“P-Potter what’s going on, i-is this some of that freaky magic you’re learning?”
Harry groaned, “No it’s not, hurry up and run home. Now.”
At this order Dudley seemed to regain some of his usual personality, “You don’t tell me what to do fre-“But just before he could finish his sentence a dementor was behind him. Harry stood there shocked for a few seconds as the thing from hell gripped Dudley’s shoulders and turned him around, reaching to take its hood off so it could have the chance to kiss Dudley.
Having come back to himself Harry made quick work of getting his wand out and shouting the spell, “Expecto patronum!” he yelled, watching as the light silvery stag erupted from his wand, warding the dementors away and everything along with it. The teen let out a heavy sigh as he felt the air around them become warm again. He then turned to look at the pale shaking form of his cousin. “Hmm,” he thought out loud. “Should I leave him here or help him?”
Just as he was about to leave an owl swooped by, dropping a letter off that he was quick to catch. After reading it he swore, “Fuck.” After he said this Arthur Weasley’s patronus appeared.
“Harry, we've just received information about the dementors, stay at home, there are order members on their way to get you.” After that the silvery light form was done with its message it left. Leaving behind an irritated Harry.
He scoffed, “Like hell I’m gonna stick around for even more fucking dementors to come after me. I mean what the hell I can’t even have a normal summer after being kidnapped by fucking Voldemort.” He then turned to Dudley’s still quivering and terrified form. Harry rolled his eyes, “Oh shut up you baby, also walk your ass home cause I’m certainly not helping you.” He then considered whether he should take the knight bus or have Dobby simply pop him there, after a couple seconds he decided on the latter of the two figuring it’d be even less easy to track just in case. “Dobby,” he called out, smiling when the elf appeared.
“Harry Potter be needing me sir?” the small elf asked.
The teen nodded, “Yes in fact I do. Would you please pop me and my things to Sirius’?”
Dobby smiled brightly, “Of course Harry Potter sir.” He then proceeded to grab a hold of Harry and his things and popped them into the front foyer of what appeared to be a townhouse. He had to admit, popping into existence was way more comfortable than apparating.
He looked around the front for a few seconds before making his way to the area that appeared to have the most noise coming from it, in this case it was the kitchen. He stood in the doorway a bit as everyone talked before finally deciding to step in.
Once he stepped into the kitchen the room immediately quieted down, all the adults not expecting to see him. Finally they all began to speak at once.
“Harry, how did you get here?”
“Do you know how dangerous it is?”
“What were you thinking using magic?”
“Mister Potter I see you fail you follow rules as usual.”
And so the voices all over lapped each other, giving the teen a headache to be honest.
“Quiet,” the boy shouted over all the voices, causing all the adults to finally settle down. The teen let out a sigh, “Thank you. Now to answer your questions. Dobby popped me here a couple seconds ago after I asked him, yes I’m aware how dangerous things are that’s why I left Privet immediately after the dementors incident, I was using magic because a dementor was about to kiss Dudley and as much as I hate the berk I’d hate to have the ministry blame me for a soulless muggle. Professor Snape if I’d stayed at Privet there would have been a rather good chance of round two which I certainly didn’t want to have to deal with. Now anymore complaints?”
Some of the adults simply mumbled, figuring that the boy’s answers were fair enough before Sirius and Remus captured him in a bone cracking hug, “We’re so happy you’re okay cub.” The three stood there enjoying the warmth of the hug, then Remus and Sirius began to hear hissing.
“What’s that,” Sirius asked, arching a brow while looking down at his godson. The animagus felt that he knew exactly what they were but decided he’d let the boy answer instead.
Harry laughed slightly and rubbed the back of his neck, “How about we go talk in another room?”
The two men gave him a bemused look before accepting and leading the teen to the study, Harry getting a full view of just how dreary the house was.
“So what’s with the hissing?” Sirius asked as he closed the door to the study.
Instead of simply explaining things to them Harry simply began speaking parsel, “ Kali, Rahu, you guys can come out now, ” After he said this the two snakes slithered out from under his baggy clothes.
Sirius and Remus could only stand there shocked for a couple seconds before they both started smiling madly. “This is brilliant Harry,” the werewolf said, so proud of their cub.
The teen in question was a bit shocked to say the least, “You’re not afraid, or disgusted?”
“Of course not,” the animagus replied, making sure to reassure the boy. “Both your mother and father were parselmouths.”
This shocked Harry, yeah there were some things he didn’t know about his parents but he never expected something as monumental as that to be kept from him. “How?” he asked, “And why did no one tell me any of this?”
“Well,” his godfather began. “Not a lot of people knew to begin with, there was a war going on after all and the person leading it just so happened to be a parselmouth. For your father being able to speak serpent tongue has actually been something that was always passed down the Potter line, it was seen as a blessing and showed that the family is well protected by the gods. The Potter line is well known in India for parsel tongue talents but not in Britain. Your mum though was an actual descendant of Slytherin.”
The last part is what truly shocked Harry, “What?!”
The two men laughed a bit, “Yup, her mother was a squib line of slytherin’s, which makes you the heir actually now that I think about it. Your father kept his parsel gifts safely under wraps during our school years, afraid of what someone would do if they knew of it, same with your mother actually. We didn’t even know Lily was a parselmouth until after they got married. James had confessed that he could speak to snakes and wanted to let Lily know since he knew you would have it, Lily actually started laughing and told him that she was a parselmouth too.”
Harry listened to them in awe, he’d never heard a lot of stories about his parents and especially his mum outside of their Hogwarts years so it was nice.
“In fact,” Remus cut in. “When you were born they spoke nothing but parsel tongue around you. They were ecstatic when you started hissing back at them at only five months old. So technically your first language is parsel tongue.”
“Wow.” It was all Harry could say after hearing such information about his family, about the fact that he was a descendant of slytherin and that they could both speak to snakes. It made him wonder about the two that rested on his shoulders, maybe they were sent by his parents.
Sirius grinned, “Yeah I know. So what are their names?”
“This one,” he said pointing to the albino king snake on his right shoulder, “is Kali.” He then pointed to the black snake on his left, “And this one is Rahu.”
“They’re names are brilliant.” The werewolf said.
Finally Sirius asked the question both him and his husband were thinking, “So what exactly happened for you to end up facing off some dementors again?”
The teen laughed a bit, “So, I was kind of already planning on heading over here? And the dementors were just a bit of a detour. I don’t know, I was weeding the garden for Petunia and she said something racist and I just kinda snapped. I mean it’s not like her and the others haven’t ever said offensive things before but I was actually pretty relaxed for once and then she ruined it so I just kinda got my things and left out… After I told her to go hell. Then when I was making my way down the street I saw Dudley and he started bothering me so I basically told him his mother was a horse. Finally the dementors showed up and one tried to kiss Dudley but I stopped it.”
The boy’s godfather let out a low whistle, “When you do things you certainly go the full ten yards it seems.”
Remus rolled his eyes, “How do you think he gets into all the trouble that he does?”
He shrugged, “I kinda thought it was at least slightly intentional.”
“Okay I will admit some of them kinda were.” The teen said.
Sirius simply laughed a bit before ruffling his hair, “Go say hi to your friends, we’ll come to get you when Molly is done cooking,”
Harry nodded and hugged the two before leaving, following Sirius’ instructions and going up to the third floor where Ron and Hermione were.
The teen eased open the door to where Ron and Hermione were, the smile on his face increasing as he finally saw them.
“Hey guys,” he said as he closed the door behind him with his trunk to the side, feeling his heart swell with joy.
The two were quick to tackle him as soon as the door closed, excited to finally see their best friend after so long.
The trio laughed as they all landed on the floor in a heap, too ecstatic to care. The hug itself was something that grounded all of them, affirming all of their thoughts on being here, that at the moment they were all okay.
After a few moments Harry spoke up, “As much as I love the both of you and this hug I kinda need to take my binder off. I’ve been in it all day and my ribs are starting to hurt a bit, plus it’s like, super sweaty.”
Ron and Hermione were quick to get up after this, Ron extending a hand to help Harry up. Harry gratefully took it and was soon righted up on his feet. “Thanks mate.”
Ron rolled his eyes, “Of course.”
“Now if you’ll excuse me,” the young wizard said as he turned away from the two. He reached into his trunk and grabbed a loose shirt and a hoodie. Afterwards he then took his own shirt off, revealing under it a black binder. Soon after the teen took that off as well, letting out a deep breath as he rolled his shoulders. Pale lines and scars shown on the teens back, years old wounds he’d probably never talk about. Soon after he was quick to put the baggy shirt and hoodie on, pushing the sleeves of said hoody up to his elbows.
“Oh my god that is so much better.” He said as he turned around towards them. He then rolled his shoulders some more before speaking up again, “Okay we can go back to hugging now, I really need more hugs in my life.”
Hermione and Ron both laughed as they sidled up to Harry, hugging him on both sides.
Harry’s smile widened, feeling the comfort of both Ron and Hermione giving him a warm feeling inside. He missed his friends and was happy to see them again.
The black girl then spoke up, “So what led to you showing up here so early? Just a couple a minutes ago the order was panicking about there being dementors in your neighborhood.”
The teen in question sighed, “Yeah there were, to be honest I ran into them by accident.”
Hermione rolled her eyes, “Oh boy, I can’t wait to hear this story.”
He looked away sheepishly, “So Petunia said something racist, and I snapped and grabbed my stuff and told her to go to hell, then I was going to take a night bus here but I ran into Dudley. After that the dementors showed up and almost gave him the kiss so I used my patronus and saved him, so after that I said fuck it and summoned Dobby and asked him to bring me here.” He then remembered something, “Oh before I forget there’s someone I gotta introduce you to.”
After Harry said this he then began to hiss “ Kali, Rahu, come out and meet my friends. ” A few seconds later the two snakes slithered out of his trunk and over to where the three were situated.
“This is Kali and Rahu, I’ve had them for a few years now but I finally decided to bring them with me.”
The two gasped at the sight of the snakes, “Mate why have you never told us about them?” Ron asked as he reached a tentative hand out to touch Kali, the white snake gladly leaning into the touch.
He shrugged, “I never really thought about it, and after second year I couldn’t help but think you guys would judge me about it, but I kind of stopped giving a fuck and decided to bring them with me finally.”
The Weasley boy smiled, “I’m glad you did Harry. You know me and Hermione are with you no matter what right? In fact we’ll probably get chewed out later since we weren’t supposed to be sending you letters, especially with the truth of what’s been going on lately.”
Harry smiled gently at him, “Yeah I know. I began to realize it more these past few weeks. Thanks you guys, really. I wouldn’t be me without you two.”
“And we wouldn’t be the same without you either Harry.”
After Hermione said this the three sat there for a few minutes in silence cuddled up on Ron’s bed, Harry wedged between his two best friends. Simply enjoying the comfortable silence of the moment.
Soon the silence was broken by a yawn, “I’m tired.” Harry whined as he laid his head onto Ron’s shoulder. The teen in question currently being used as a shoulder rest laughed softly.
As yawns go the other two were soon to follow after with ones of their own.
“Dammit Harry,” Hermione complained. “You spread it to us too.”
This only led to Ron laughing even more, “How about we all just have a nap, Harry’s tired, we’re tired. Sirius and Remus will probably just come get us when mum is done cooking anyway.”
Hermione contemplated it for a bit, “Well,” she began but was soon cut off by Harry.
“The answer is yes for all of us. Hermione knowing you, you’ve probably been avoiding sleep again.”
The girl let out a huff, “Oh alright fine, but only because I am a bit tired.”
After she said the three then situated themselves on the bed, Harry still in the middle with Ron and Hermione lying on either side of him, looping their arms around his middle section. His snakes rested at the foot of the bed, their little snores only recognized by Harry.
The boy smiled serenely, “I missed this.”
“We all did,” Ron said into his side before soon falling asleep, Harry and Hermione soon following after.