Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
$Parseltongue$
Chapter 18
Nightly visit
It was near midnight and most people in the castle were already long asleep. Harry was sitting cross-legged on top of his bed. The bed curtains were closed, and he had cast several privacy charms, just in case one of his roommates woke up.
Harry pictured in his mind the specific characteristics he needed for his assassin.
"Serpensortia" he then whispered.
A moment later, there was a snake in front of him. She was a very small snake, around 10 inches. She had a pattern of bright colors on her body. Reds and yellow with a white line running through the top of her body.
This was a coral snake, but not a normal one. A magic variant breed deep in the jungles of Brazil. Her venom is extremely potent and almost impossible to detect. Unless you knew exactly what you were looking for. She is also very small and fast.
In other words, the perfect assassin.
$You summon me?$ The small snake raised her head to look at Harry.
Harry was surprised. 'I can understand her?. How can I still have the parseltongue ability?. I never tried talking to a snake before because I assume I lost that ability after dying.'
$Can you understand me?$ He asked the snake to make sure his parseltongue was working.
$Off course, speaker. How can I serve you?.$
Harry used the mental connection with the summoned snake to pass her the necessary information.
$I need you to sneak into that person's room and kill him.$
$Very well speaker. It shall be done.$ The snake was about to leave when Harry stopped her.
$Wait. I shall cast a disillusionment charm on you so no one will see you. Even then be careful. I don't want anyone to detect you. After your job is done, you can dispel yourself. $
The snake gave something resembling a nod and left in search of her prey.
—-
The next day during breakfast, the castle was in absolute chaos.
Harry sat down next to the fifth-year prefect from his house. A boy named Michael Frimley.
"What's with all of the commotion?" He asked innocently.
The prefect looked at him with a complicated expression. "I guess you haven't heard yet. Something happened at the Slytherin dormitory last night. Someone was attacked. We don't know who it was yet, but the head girl Tonks said that the aurors had been called and she had to go talk with them."
"I see," Harry said impassively. He took a look around the hall. Many of the teachers were missing, including the Headmaster and Professor Snape. At the Slytherin table, it seems like half of the students were missing, and the ones there looked very restless.
"I wonder who was attacked. I can't see any of the Slytherin first years." Hannah, who was sitting on his other side said.
It wasn't until much later that day that the name of the unfortunate victim was announced.
—-
During dinner, the Headmaster stood up and tapped his glass, and asked for silence. The first thing that Harry noticed was that the Headmaster seemed to have a black eye and a broken lip. It looks like someone had punched him, more than once. Susan who was next to him seemed to also notice but before she could make any questions, Dumbledore started to talk. His voice didn't seem loud, but it could clearly be heard everywhere in the great hall.
"As you may have already heard. Something very unfortunate happened today. A student from the Slytherin house was found dead this morning."
The great hall erupted with hundreds of voices at the same time, until the Headmaster clapped his hands, creating a thunderous noise that made everyone shut up.
"I will ask you all to be silent until I finish, please." He recomposed himself before continuing. "The student in question was a first-year student called Draco Malfoy. Some of you may have heard that he was attacked. However, neither the aurors nor myself have found any signs of an attack. Everything points at Mr. Malfoy dying of natural causes. As bizarre as that sounds. So there is no need to worry about some dangerous attacker running around Hogwarts. That would be all."
After the headmaster sat back down with a sad expression, Harry noticed that professor Snape was giving him a nasty glare.
Harry just looked at him for a second before going back to his dinner.
'Humph, they couldn't even find he was poisoned. The aurors probably just waved their wands around looking for usage of magic around the body and could not find anything. Muggles with their autopsies could have done a better job. Well, this works better for me I guess. It seems that Severus has some suspicions, but that can also give me an opportunity.'
Harry had a sinister smile for a moment, one that no one seemed to notice.