"Parseltongue"

"Normal talk"

'Thoughts'

.

"Fuck. It's bad… I can't believe anything that's happening right now. My bloody name came out of that thrice-damned goblet."

Harry shouted that last part, for a moment lost in the deep resentment he felt towards everything and everyone.

"The redheaded git's jealousy doesn't seem to know any bounds. He had the damn audacity to tell me in my face that I'm a fame-seeking tosser like fucking Lockhart. Bloody hell."

Harry took three long and slow breaths, trying to regain his calm.

"And Dumbledore! The real charlatan. Who does he think he is? Does he not care about any consequences or does he simply believe that he is above them? I'll definitely get back to him and remember to repay him very generously," he snarled.

"Why? How did he wrong you sspeaker?"

Harry turned to look at the snake in front of him.

It was olive green and it had some very irregular yellow and black markings. It was about a meter in length and at the moment, it had its large, round and yellow eyes facing Harry.

It was a Grass Snake!

"Yesterday, after my name came out of that bloody goblet, I apparently got emancipated. Gringotts sent me a letter explaining that one of the Goblet of Fire's clauses requires the champion to be of age. Since I didn't quite fill that requirement, the goblet made it so I did."

He patiently explained to his new friend.

"I digress though. While the goblins did inform me of my lucky emancipation, that wasn't the main topic of the letter. Gornuk, my family's bank manager, informed me of some withdrawals made from the main Potter vault, not my meagre inheritance vault as he called it."

Harry moved his hands to his temples and slowly started rubbing them, trying to alleviate the headache that he knew was coming.

"He then went on and talked about every activity of the vault since the death of my parents. In the end, he concluded and I quote, Albus Dumbledore basically took every single knut from your family vault."

By that point, Harry had stood up from the tree stump he was sitting on and started pacing back and forth.

Hogwarts' walls felt pressuring as of late; that's why he decided to take a stroll outside before he found his new, friend.

"What do I do?" Harry asked the snake, not really expecting an answer.

"Well, you could sstart by introducing yourself and asssking me of my name. After that, we could head inside the castle, if you don't mind me coming with you, as I ssee rain clouds forming above our headsss."

The snake graciously supplied, making Harry stop his step in mid-air. If Harry didn't know any better he would have thought that the snake's words were sarcastic. Snakes didn't know sarcasm, right?

'Did I really skip past introductions and started talking about my problems to a damn snake?'

"Forgive me. My name is Harry Potter, what is yours?" he offered.

"Asmodeusss the great, but that's for the future. Asmodeuss will do for now. It's good to make acquaintance with you Harry Potter. Also, only due to my extreme benevolence, I choose to forgive you," he added magnanimously, nodding his head.

Yep, definitely sarcastic.

"It's nice to meet you as well Asmodeus. What was that about us going inside together though?"

"What do you mean oh speaker? You are in dire need of support. If I didn't misunderstand your rant, you should feel quite alone inside that school of yours. Isn't that why you are currently outside? I'm simply offering you my help."

Harry was amazed by the offer. Since when were snakes so understanding and kind?

'It's not like I have a lot of experience with them anyway. There was that boa constrictor in the zoo park, which was quite nice now that I think about it. Then, there was Malfoy's summoned snake which heeded my call to not harm Justin Finch-Fletchley before it got vanished by the dungeon bat. And of course, I also heard the basilisk talk. I never did try talking back though… It also was under Riddle's control so I'm not sure if that would have worked. Overall, snakes are quite nice to me huh?'

Pushing the debatable revelation to the back of his mind, Harry concentrated on the snake.

"Thank you, Asmodeus. Though I appreciate your offer, I doubt a lot of people would approve of me going around with a snake. It would probably cause an outrage and I'd be asked to dispose of you," he informed the snake sadly.

"Hmmm. Are you sure that there aren't any ways to bypass that? I'm sssure of at least one."

"Well, hiding you is probably only going to work short term. What with my luck there's no doubt that you'll be found out within the year, so that's out. What other options do we have?"

"What about the emancipation thing you mentioned? Any chance that will help?" Asmodeus tried.

"I don't know. I should probably read on that, and see what I can do now that I wasn't allowed before. However, I doubt that I'll find anything to do with pets," Harry mused, not noticing the change in the snake's face.

Hisss.

"I'm no pet human. I'm trying to help you and yet you belittle me like that. SSShould I just leave then?"

Saying that the hiss and the aggressive tone caught Harry off guard would have been an understatement.

"I'm sorry Asmodeus. I didn't mean it like that, I swear. I was only trying to think of a way to get you inside, nothing more than that," he said, cursing himself in his thoughts.

Luckily, Asmodeus showed understanding yet again.

"I see. I apologisse for my outbursst, that's a sssensitive topic for me," the snake provided quietly.

After a minute of silence, Asmodeus turned back to the issue at hand.

"What about the the Goblet'ss other clausess? Could they perhapsss offer anything of help?"

After hearing Asmodeus' words and thinking about them, Harry had an urgent desire to kiss the snake, however weird that would have looked and felt.

"Asmodeus you are a genius!" he exclaimed, almost jumping on his spot.

Harry couldn't see it, but his compliment pleased the snake greatly.

After another minute passed, Asmodeus realised that the human had either forgotten about him or was too engrossed with his thoughts.

Hiss, hiss.

That seemed to work, as Harry's eyes met with Asmodeus'.

"Sorry about that. I was thinking about the possibilities that this opened up. According to Dumbledore's words, the champions aren't required to attend classes nor take their exams and as I don't represent this school, I don't have to attend Hogwarts. I can simply be like any of the students from the other schools, going back and forth from the castle. However, that does create some new issues that will have to be tackled first."

"What are the issues you are thinking about?" he inquired.

"First of all, if I won't be attending Hogwarts, I doubt I'll be allowed to sleep in the Gryffindor dormitories. I'll have to find another place of residence. Then there's my magical education. Not only is it lacking for my years, it won't be enough to survive this tournament. And of course, there's Dumbledore…" Harry revealed, his shoulders dropping.

"Why would being in the tournament endanger your life?" Asmodeus asked innocently. If only he knew of Harry's poor fate so far.

"Let's for a moment try and ignore the fact that every year since I started attending this school I've been in a life-threatening situation and assume that the streak will end this year… I've been entered against my will in a tournament that's only for seventh years, known for its high death toll. With Fudge as the minister, the talks about it being safer from the past are definitely hogwash. Heck, they are probably going to be more extreme and dangerous, to make it look better and more exciting than before."

Asmodeus hissed, not pleased with the speaker's fate and the minister's ways.

Harry sighed, looking at the sunset. It was a beautiful sight.

The Forbidden Forest took on an ethereal quality as the fading sunlight filtered through the ancient trees and accented their tops.

In the distance, the Whomping Willow's branches matched Harry's Hogwarts robes as they swayed gently in the evening breeze.

The famous Black Lake mirrored the sky's vibrant hues, reflecting the warm tones of gold, orange, and pink.

It made a picturesque scene.

"I'll continue with the plan we came up with then. It needs a lot of tweaking but I'm sure I can make it work... Is this a goodbye then?" Harry asked.

The snake shook its head and slithered closer to him.

"No, I'll sstay with you. If you are in as big of a danger asss you said, having me near could be the difference between life and death for you," he answered as he came in contact with Harry's shoes.

The next thing Harry knew, Asmodeus was coiled around his torso. The feeling was new and unique but not unpleasant.

"I do hope you aren't dirty," he joked.

"Funny, I was thinking along the same lines," Asmodeus barbed back.

The sun finally set, enshrouding the whole world in darkness, and Harry together with his new friend walked back to the castle.

"I like it when it's dark. There'ss not much light and you can't see the imperfections all around. You may not see the real thing, but at least it's beautiful."

(Last edit: 16/07/2024)