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A Brother to Basilisks	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 85172 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 15
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter Twenty—An Explosion of Sparks
            “Remus told me that you asked about his sickness, pup.”
            Harry held his breath a little as he turned around. This was the confrontation he had been afraid would come up. He had come home for the weekend, and Sirius was standing behind the table, looking upset.
            Dash was in the other room. Harry thought that was maybe one reason Sirius was bringing this up now. But even as Harry thought that, Dash slithered in through the door of the dining room and crawled up Harry’s leg like a stream of water in reverse. Harry wrapped his arm around Dash’s neck and held him there, grateful.
            Sirius sighed a little. “Does he have to go everywhere you do?”
            “Yes,” said Harry, and stared at Sirius for a minute. “You know that.” Sirius had complained about it often enough.
            He does know that, said Dash, and he said it with a savage, slashing intensity, so that his tongue darted out even though he wasn’t speaking Parseltongue aloud. Something has changed, if he wants to speak to you in privacy.
            “I would just tell him everything later anyway,” Harry told Sirius, which Sirius also surely knew. Dash curled up with his head on Harry’s hip, and waited. Harry waited, too, but Sirius acted as if he didn’t want to go on, clearing his throat and glancing away like Aunt Petunia did when she didn’t want to tell Uncle Vernon some bad news.
            Harry grimaced. He didn’t ever want to think about the Dursleys and Sirius in the same breath. Something was badly wrong if he did.
            “That’s true,” said Sirius grudgingly. “Well.” He faced Harry again. “You have to understand that this is serious, Harry.”
            Harry gulped and nodded. It had to be, if Sirius wasn’t even going to take the chance to make his favorite pun on his name.
            “Remus is sick,” said Sirius. “He’s been sick for a long time. It’s—a family illness. Not catching. But it does make him break out in horrid spots and look menacing sometimes.” Sirius was talking as though he wanted to impress every word on Harry’s mind, and Harry nodded to show he was listening. “He got teased for it in school. It’s one reason he stays away from everybody a few days a month. Well, just during the night, really. In daylight he’s weak and pale, but fine.”
            “So he doesn’t want me talking about it because he got teased?” Harry asked hesitantly. He wanted to say that he wouldn’t tease Professor Lupin, but in the back of his mind was what Dudley had said to him in the past. He didn’t want to discuss it even if it meant that no one would tease him about it.
            “Yes,” said Sirius, and he gave Harry the bright smile that made Harry feel he had done something right and deserved to be praised. “That’s exactly it. He doesn’t want to alienate you, but it’s still such a sensitive topic. There were people who thought it was catching even though it wasn’t, and that’s why he hasn’t told any of the students now that he has it. Their parents might complain, and Moony needs this job.”
            When he thought about it, Harry thought he could see why Professor Lupin had got that nickname. He did always seem to be sick around the time of the full moon.
            You always deserve to be praised, said Dash, his voice oddly disjointed, as if he was listening to echoes of Sirius’s words instead of paying attention to Harry.
            Harry touched Dash’s plume and said, I know. Then aloud, he said, “Well, okay. I’m sorry I asked about it. I just thought he should know that someone is there to support him. I wouldn’t care even if he looks really disgusting.” There were always people who had thought he looked disgusting, with his scar and his bad glasses and his oversize clothing.
            “We just have to know one thing, Harry.” Sirius gave him a heavy look. “Did you ever tell anyone else about it?”
            “It’s not like I could keep Dash from knowing,” Harry retorted, and his hand came down on the back of Dash’s neck again.
            “Oh, of course not,” said Sirius, and smiled a little. “I’m not worried about him because he can’t gossip to anyone else.”
            Dash was silent in Harry’s head and physically, which Harry knew was always a bad sign. But Sirius interrupted before he could ask. “But you didn’t tell anyone else? I know you’re close with Ron and Hermione, but this is a very private thing.”
            “I think Hermione figured out something on her own,” said Harry, with a shrug. “She sometimes was staring at Professor Lupin and acting like she was concerned about him. But she didn’t tell me, and I didn’t tell her.”
            “That girl is too clever for her own good,” Sirius muttered, which Harry didn’t understand. He supposed that Sirius was a little annoyed Hermione had recognized the symptoms of Lupin’s disease when no one else had. “Fine, I’ll talk to her. But I need you to keep it from Ron for right now, all right? Maybe over the summer, we can tell him.”
            “Okay,” said Harry. And he had to ask something else, something that the comment about the summer holidays had brought up. “Can I have Ron and Hermione over here this summer? I know they’d really like to visit Hogsmeade and see me and see what Hogwarts looks like when there’s no one else around.”
            Sirius’s eyes softened, and he reached out and ruffled Harry’s hair. “Of course you can. I never want to keep you away from your friends, Harry.”
            Except Malfoy, said Dash, with a dart of his tongue. I don’t think that he would approve if you wanted to ask him over. And me.
            Harry didn’t think it was a good idea to answer that one, either, and so he just smiled at Sirius and came around the table to hug him. “Thanks. And thanks for not being angry at me.”
            He could feel Sirius sigh, deeply, where he held him. “I would never be angry at you just for asking a question,” he said firmly. That made him so different from the Dursleys Harry wanted to explode, but he held it in and looked up to see Sirius still beaming at him with that slightly silly smile. “I’m glad that you came and asked Remus, in fact. We probably would have explained this to you earlier, but…Remus is one of my oldest friends, and it was a long time before I knew what was going on. He’s so embarrassed about it. I’m glad you know now, and maybe when Remus is ready, then he’ll let you see him.”
            Harry nodded. He hoped that Professor Lupin would. He had to understand that Harry knew about these things, and maybe he could even tell Lupin something about the Dursleys so he would know why Harry wouldn’t make fun of him.
            Sirius leaped back and clapped him on the shoulder. “I know! Why don’t we go play some Quidditch?”
            Harry happily trotted outside with Sirius. It was just good that they both liked Quidditch, he thought. That cheered them both up even the way that Sirius telling him stories about his dad didn’t, and it could always break up any tension they were feeling.
            Any tension?
            Harry had left Dash on the ground this time, but he watched every movement Harry made on the broom, not even trying to search the garden for mice, and of course he could speak into Harry’s head no matter how distant he was.
            Yes, was all Harry could think of to say. He didn’t know why Dash was so upset about what Sirius had said, even though Harry could tell he was. After all, it was understandable why Lupin wanted to keep the illness to himself, and Sirius had said that he wasn’t angry.
            I see, said Dash, which was a shock, because he didn’t use human phrases like that very often.
            But he came over and twined around Harry’s shoulder and chest as usual when Harry landed on the grass again, and rode with him into the house, and made his usual fussy debate over lunch and whether he really wanted to eat the food Sirius had made. Harry petted his head, and watched Dash close his eyes in ecstasy, and decided that Dash had just had a mood change. Humans could do it, why not basilisks?
            Because basilisks and humans are different, said Dash, and for a moment, his eyelid trembled the way it did when he was going through some strong emotion. And the duty of this basilisk is to make sure you don’t get hurt.
            Harry would have asked him what he meant, but Sirius called out from the drawing room then, saying, “Mrs. Weasley just firecalled me, Harry. She said that Ron can come here instead of going to the Hogsmeade weekend, and she’s sure Hermione can tag along. Do you want Ron and Hermione over for the afternoon?”
            “Yes,” Harry said, and Dash let it go again.
*
            Severus had not had a chance to speak to Harry before the Easter holidays. The rush of marking had been partially responsible for that, but Severus knew himself, as only someone who had had to do long, detailed, and painful analyses could. He knew that he was also putting it off.
            Not having the right words to convince Harry to stand up for other abused children was only part of it, as well.
            But the children came back from the last Hogsmeade weekend of the year, and Severus knew this was probably his best chance. Enough time had gone by since their last, uncomfortable conversation that the boy would be more likely to forgive him. And while Lucius was still debating and negotiating with the Board of Governors to get them to believe his sudden interest in abused Muggleborns, he would probably move before the summer.
            So Severus said quietly when Harry was about to leave Potions class with his friends one day, “Mr. Potter, stay behind.”
            Oddly enough, Draco paused along with Weasley and Granger, as if he thought Harry might need protection from his Head of House. Severus met his eyes and jerked his head the way he did when he was on the verge of taking points from Slytherin. Draco frowned at him, but left. Harry’s friends were whispering fiercely to him.
            Severus was quick enough to hear Weasley say something about Severus being a vampire. Severus checked a sigh. Was that old rumor making the rounds?
            And this in a school with an actual werewolf working in it.
            “You know where Mr. Potter is,” he interrupted the useless conversation. It might make what he needed to say to Harry harder, but he also needed them to leave. “You can report his mysterious disappearance if he fails to come to his next class.”
            Weasley turned red, although it was the red of edge-of-battle rage. Luckily, Granger chose that moment to drag him away, and Severus turned towards Harry and added, “I suppose I don’t need to tell you where we’re going?”
            “Again?” was all Harry said. His face had gone carefully closed and neutral. Severus blinked. He couldn’t remember Harry being master of that expression the last time they had talked. Neither had the basilisk watched him that closely, head peeking like a deadly locket from just beneath Harry’s chin.
            Perhaps the basilisk taught him to keep his emotions in check, Severus thought as he nodded and led Harry down the corridor. Hopefully it wasn’t simply being around Black and battered by the man’s relentless commitment to seeing the son in the father.
            Not that he had not done that himself. But what he would do now was part of the process of making up for it.
*
            This time, Snape didn’t offer him tea. Harry thought that maybe it was because the man knew he would take it badly.
            A second later, he scowled. He knew he never used to think that way. Two months ago, or maybe six months ago, he would just have thought that Snape was an evil git, and let it go at that.
            I may have taught you some things, said Dash, and his tongue flickered out hard enough for Harry to jump because it stung a little. And so has Draco, although his teaching was not conscious. Is that such a bad thing?
            Harry didn’t get the chance to answer, because Snape turned around and studied him with an intense expression that made Harry sure this chat wasn’t going to about classwork. And that left only one thing it could reasonably be about.
            “No,” he said loudly, standing up.
            Snape blinked at him. “I beg your pardon?”
            Another thing Harry wasn’t particularly cheerful about was the idea that Snape would pretend he didn’t know what this was about. Harry took a long step towards him, ignoring Dash’s warning hiss. After all, Dash was the one who would protect him if Snape tried anything. “I know that you want to talk to me about getting Sirius in trouble. Or you want me to acknowledge that he never thanked you. Or you want to draw me into your war with Dumbledore. Either way, it isn’t going to work. All right?”
            Snape smiled, and he looked—human. Harry blinked in shock. That was a real smile, that was, and not just a smirk at the thought of getting someone else in trouble or getting to punish a student. It was enough to make Harry back up and put a protective hand on Dash’s scales, wondering if he needed to run.
            Stop being ridiculous, said Dash. And there’s something else this could be about, that you haven’t mentioned.
            Harry was in the middle of asking what that could be when Snape sighed heavily and admitted, “I do indeed want you to help me in fighting Dumbledore, Harry. However, not in the way you think.”
            “I don’t want to interfere in the results of a private quarrel,” said Harry stiffly. “I know Sirius can be—hard sometimes, but that’s just the way he is.” He had almost said that Sirius was stupid sometimes, but he couldn’t be so disloyal to Sirius, even if he would never know about it. He was the one who had saved Harry. “Adults should handle their problems by themselves.”
            “Yes, I agree,” said Snape, forcefully enough that he caught Harry off-guard again. “However, in this case, it is other students who will suffer if the adults go on handling things by themselves.” He hesitated, then added, “Specifically, Dumbledore.”
            It took Harry a moment to work that out. For a second, he thought Snape was saying Dumbledore was the student who would suffer if adults didn’t do something. He did feel stupid, a lot, trying to work out what Slytherins were saying.
            No wonder your own thoughts confuse you so often, said Dash casually.
            Harry opened his mouth to at least splutter about that, but Snape went on in an urgent but soft voice. “I have reason to believe that you are not the first abused student Dumbledore has ignored, and not the only one he will get away with ignoring, unless you can find it in you to do something. To help me. To help them.”
            Harry clasped his hands behind his back. That would keep them from shaking. Dash thoughtfully wound a coil down that would bind them and stop the shaking. Harry mentally thanked him for that, and then looked Snape in the eye. “I wasn’t abused.”
            “I do not know the full nature and extent of the abuse,” Snape said. “But I know you were.”
            “I wasn’t.”
            “Your Muggle relatives did not like you very much,” said Snape. “And you leaped at the chance to live with a godfather you barely knew over the chance of returning to them. And I know—knew—your aunt as a child. She would never have welcomed a wizard in her house. Or Lily’s wizard son.”
            Snape spoke the last few words between his teeth. Harry stared at him in astonishment. He wondered why the mere mention of his aunt upset Snape. Of course, it upset Harry, but there was no way that Snape could feel the same way about her for the same reasons. And anyway, what Snape was saying was stupid.
            Harry shook his head. “I wasn’t.”
            Snape opened his mouth, but Dash abruptly reared up in front of Harry, swaying back and forth like a cobra. Harry felt Snape freeze, but Dash was facing him and not Snape, so Snape shouldn’t be afraid of Dash attacking him. Harry, though, also knew that Dash wouldn’t attack him, so he glared at him and spoke aloud in English, for Snape’s benefit. It wasn’t as if Dash wouldn’t get the gist of the words from his thoughts. “Your cobra act doesn’t work on me.”
            Harry.
            Harry faltered a little. He had only heard Dash sound like that one other time, when he was talking to Harry at Christmas. His tail curled harder around Harry’s wrist, and Dash leaned in and rested his nose on Harry’s nose.
            Harry swallowed. He wasn’t scared of Dash, but he was scared of what Dash might say. This was the closest they’d ever been, the most intimate, and, well…Harry just wanted to know what was coming next.
            You know you were, Dash whispered to him. It doesn’t matter how Snape found out. You know he won’t spread it further, not without your permission. Harry winced a little. That was the part he was most afraid of, he had to admit. Or, well, that Snape would somehow convince Harry to spread it himself. And you know you were. The cupboard and the food and the way that your cousin was encouraged to do whatever he wanted to you. How is that not abuse?
            Harry stared at his feet. I just don’t want anyone to know. They already get to know everything else, about you and my Parseltongue and all the shitty details of my life as the Boy-Who-Lived. Why do they get to know this, too?
            Dash touched him hard on the cheek with his own cheek, head turned so that his scales slid and gently rasped along Harry’s skin. I told you the good thing about me is that I cannot be a secret. I would have refused to be even if it was possible. And I will guard you from anyone who tries to take advantage of you once this knowledge is out. His tail flipped up and pointed in Snape’s direction. Harry was vaguely aware that Snape was standing as still as a suit of armor and watching him. But it wasn’t his real concern right now. Even him. You will always have me at your side.
            Harry reached up and wiped at his eyes. He would start crying in a minute, and he didn’t want that. But you can’t prevent them from saying bad things about me. Or pitying me.
            I do not think that pity counts as a bad thing. You could have done with more of it as a child. Dash’s tail wound a little harder around Harry’s wrist. And as for the saying bad things, I can.
            “How?” Harry said, aloud, and Snape shifted a little. But he didn’t move or say anything otherwise, and Harry was glad. He knew that Snape would just be too much for what he could take, now.
            Have you forgotten that I still have poison, however diluted, and that I can scare the shit out of someone by threatening to gaze at them? Dash lowered his head and let his eyelids flutter mockingly. Harry heard Snape catch his breath. I can cause them pain. Fear. Embarrassment. That is not the same thing as death, but for some people, it is worse.
            Harry just shook his head and whispered, “They would take you away if you did that.”
            Harry. Dash stretched out his full, glimmering length along Harry’s arm and then down his side and to the floor. Sometimes Harry forgot how long he was. And Dash was longer than he had been when he first hatched, Harry realized now—closer to seven feet than five. I am a basilisk. There are things about me that wizards have forgotten. Maybe never knew. Many Parselmouths hardly wrote down their conversations with my kind.
            Harry narrowed his eyes. “You said you didn’t know a lot about Slytherin and Parselmouths and your kind.”
            When I hatched, I didn’t. I’ve found that knowledge is starting to come to me. Though not about Slytherin and the eggs and the hatching chamber, I’m sorry. Dash lifted his head. It’s like another language that I had to learn how to speak, and now I can feel the memories filtering into my head. There is no way they can remove me from you if I say that I will not be removed.
            “They could try to kill you,” Harry whispered. “They could use the Sword of Gryffindor like I did on your…your brother.” That was the only term Harry could come up with for the basilisk in the Chamber.
            Now that we know about that way, we will guard against it, Dash said calmly. Is now a good time to mention that they call me the King of Serpents for a reason? I can call on other snakes, and they’ll rise to help me. I could have a court if I wanted. Although I think thrones are silly.
            “When were you going to mention this?”
            At a suitably dramatic moment. Is it working?
            Harry had to laugh in spite of himself, but he knew the sound came out tinged with terror. He shut his eyes and shook his head. I just found you so recently. I can’t lose you now. He would rather lose Sirius than Dash, he thought. It hurt, but it was true.
            I won’t let myself be taken, said Dash quietly. If worst came to worst, Harry, we would leave Britain. They know you here. They know what I am. We would go where they wouldn’t know us at all. The secret places serpents know.
            Harry wanted to trust that, he did, he wanted to trust that no one would separate him and Dash, but…
            They could try to do that tomorrow. Dash pointed it out gently, and his tongue reached out and gently took some of the tears from Harry’s face. For any reason. Because I make them nervous the way I am. But we have to face it. And it’s the right thing to do, to get justice for your abuse. You know that. The right thing for you, whether or not Snape wants you to do for it anyone else.
            Harry sniffled. Then he felt horrible for that doing that in front of Snape, who would humiliate him—
            Give the man some credit for intelligence, Harry. He knows he would find my fangs in his leg if he did.
            Harry nodded, and waited a moment for Dash to finish taking his tears away. Then, with his basilisk one huge knot of comfort around his shoulders, Harry turned and faced Snape, and nodded. “I’ll do it.”
*
            Severus swallowed. He had been ready with many arguments that should change things, and the basilisk had done it for him.
            Severus doubted he would ever know the exact terms of that conversation. But from the quiet, motionless gaze of dimmed yellow eyes, he did know two things.
            A basilisk had a chance of turning into an unstoppable force.
            And he might well turn Harry into one, as well.
            I hope I will have a chance to help in that goal.

*
ChaosLady: Honestly, at this point he’s trying anything that will work.
HEARTSTAR: Remus is wary of Dash literally sniffing him out, the way he did Peter. Hence the spells to protect his scent.
staar: Or if Dash talks to him seriously, as he did here.
Meechypoo: The plot twist about what Severus was going to do was a complete surprise to me, too, honestly. So I don’t even know!
Eros: Voldemort will be back, but in a different way.
Jester: Severus would have if he had to, but he’s just as glad he didn’t.
SP777: I think everyone should be nervous about Dash, not Lucius!
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A Brother to Basilisks