Memoirs of a Serpent's Son

Memoirs of a Serpent’s Son

--Age 17—part 33

February 12 –continued

Practicing spells and training for defense and attack magic with Granger and Weasel was always very fruitful when I took part. I always came out a little bit more learned, more aware, more prepared.

Training with Longbottom, Lovegood and the She-Weasel, however, was just plain FUN.

Think about it.

Locked in a room with those three, purposefully throwing all the most violent and brutal curses and hexes that you can imagine while they pitifully attempt to defend themselves.

That’s like a Slytherin’s DREAM COME TRUE.

It was beautiful… I could hardly contain my malevolent glee when Granger said that they were going to join us for our practice. I suspect, mind you, that Harry and Granger both noticed my over-enthusiastic reaction as they both eyed me carefully.

“So what do you need to work on?” I asked them, feigning interest. “Apart from everything, I mean.” I turned around the room and my eyes landed on the She-Weasel. “Oh I know what you need to work on,” I admitted with a smirk. “Hexes and Curses. Surely we can’t have you going up against a bunch of Death-Eaters with nothing but the bat-bogey hex up your sleeve. You should at LEAST be able to perform the Jelly-Legs Jinx as well. That’s SURE to stop them in their tracks.”

I admit, I was not giving her much incentive to remain civil at all… but please. You cannot honestly tell me you don’t think she deserved it.

……

STRIKE THAT COMMENT. I am NOT TALKING TO MYSELF.

Anymore.

In any case, the Weasellette looked as though she was about to implode when Granger, sensing the danger that a potential eruption could bring, cut her off.

“Well, what were you two practicing just now?” she asked with slight hesitance, her face turning pink. Her eyes darted to Harry’s shoes and sock and I smirked, unable to let the opportunity pass me by.

“Well, Granger,” I said very pleasantly with a rather dark smile. “Harry and I were just practicing a tricky little maneuver that I like to call –”

“Occlumency,” Harry cut me off sharply, his face turning as red as Granger’s cheeks. I rolled my eyes with a smirk and shut my mouth.

Fine, if he wanted to be a bloody Gryffindor about it then he could go right ahead. I’d have him later.

“No fun in just telling them,” I hissed.

“You can do Occlumency?” Granger asked me rather impressed.

“And Legilimency, yes,” I nodded. “Can’t you?” Her face turned darker red and she cast her eyes away. “My, my, I thought it was only Potter here that was behind, but apparently there is something you all need my help for.” I turned my attention to the She-Weasel at this point and let my lip curl into a snarl, arching my eyebrows. “I guess there is a reason for keeping me around, isn’t there little rodent?”

“Sod off,” she snapped, her ears going pink.

“Snippy, snippy,” I said, tutting at her in a falsely disappointed manner. I stood straighter and looked around at the lot of them. Harry did not seem pleased by my antics but kept his mouth shut, knowing that I was ultimately right. “Well, I suppose this is why you SHOULD have included me in your little Dark Arts Defense League.”

“That was fifth year,” Weasel shot.

“Good job, Weasley,” I applauded. “Now, how long ago was it that you had that accident that addled your brains?”

I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t! It’s the influence of feeling cornered by the immense group of Gryffindors… and a Ravenclaw.

I’m a Slytherin, my defense tactics are to be OFFENSIVE. In ANY POSSIBLE WAY.

The funny thing was that the She-Weasel actually snorted.

“You’ve been able to do Occlumency and Legillimency since fifth year?” Granger asked, more and more astounded as time went on.

“Yes,” I admitted happily. “Wasn’t that about the time that Harry had his classes with Snape?”

“Yes, but I never managed to do it,” he conceded. “How did you learn?”

I thought for a moment and smirked, looking at Granger.

“Books,” I told them simply. “Father sent me books on Legillimency, Occlumency and Non-Verbal spells in fifth year before Christmas. So that’s when I started learning. It was mainly on my own, though the books outlined the concepts quite clearly. I practiced on my unsuspecting fellow Slytherins. T’was quite amusing, though I have learned things I never wanted to know.”

“Father accidentally found out things about the Ratticlop-Wunder Gang once,” Luna said airly. “Brought in loads of trouble for the munchkins in the mountains what with the Knarbles invading and all. He had to pull that issue of the Quibbler for fear of worsening the uprising. Is that the kind of thing you mean?”

I stared at her for a moment and cocked an eyebrow before carefully ignoring the comment and turning my attention to someone else, hoping that they would promptly change the subject.

“Err, right,” Harry agreed, clearly unaware of what it was he was approving. “Well, then, how about you train us in that? I mean, it’s not just Voldemort who is going to be using non-verbal spells and Legillimency. Snape is bound to as well as many of the others. We need to be prepared. All of us.”

GASP. Could it be that Saint Potter has finally accepted the fact that he isn’t going to manage to bar us all from the battlefield so that he can go on to fight alone?

Mark this day in history.

“Harry’s right,” Granger agreed. “So how do we go about doing it?”

“Well,” I stood, thinking hard. “You can’t get into pairs and work together since none of you know how to do Legilimency, can you? I suppose I’ll have to test it against you one by one.”

I smirked as I spoke and let my eyes roam around the room, looking from one horror-stricken face to the next. Granger and Harry alone did not seem particularly disturbed by the idea. Weasel looked ill, his sister was glaring daggers at me and Longbottom looked as though he was about to pee himself, if he hadn’t already done it. Lovegood… well she looked much the same as she always did.

“Well, why don’t you do a demonstration with Harry,” Granger offered. “Then we can see what it should look like… and perhaps you could explain to us how to do Legilimency… as we will likely have to know that too, won’t we?”

I thought on it for a moment. I was dead set on using Legilimency against the She-Weasel, but I suppose she did have a point.

“To start, yes,” I agreed finally. “Though as I am the most advanced in this magic, I want to test each of you to see how strong or weak your defenses are.” I turned to Harry. “Ready?”

“Always,” he replied, his tone ringing with challenge.

“The first thing you need to know about Legilimency,” I told them, getting my footing. “Is the spell. ‘Legilimens’, simply. Casting it aloud, of course, would be useless, but you can start that way. You need to concentrate all your energy and thoughts towards burrowing past the physical and entering the metaphysical where you can become aware of your opponent’s thoughts. It’s a very underhanded trick in many books, but there is hardly a fully trained wizard out there who has never used it.”

I stared at Harry as he licked his lips and was clearly trying to set up a mental barrier powerful enough to block me out. I smirked.

He is rather adorable when he concentrates hard.

“Occlumency, on the other hand,” I continued to explain, remembering what I could from those books and trying to dumb it down. It was a feat, to say the least. Occlumency had become a kind of second nature to me after sixth year. “is very different. It is the only way you can protect your mind against Legilimency and… there is no actual spell to use it. It just requires control and defenses. Harry has proven that the use of a shield charm can deflect Legilimency in some circumstances, but I don’t advise using it.” I glanced around at them. “Harry’s shield charms are much more powerful than most of you can manage I think, and Voldemort, among others, will not be deflected by such a simple spell.”

“So what exactly DO we do?” the She-Weasel asked, annoyed.

“You have to close yourself off completely,” I shot back, irritated. “I would say think of nothing, but seeing as some of you already do that, let me put it another way…” I sucked my tooth for a moment. “Shield your emotions. You have to literally force all of your energy into forcing the Legilimens back. It gets easier with time, but if you are too expressive, like Potter here, you’ll have a harder time of it. I’ve always shielded my emotions so it was much easier for me.”

“There is no better advice?” Granger asked. “How do you do it?”

I paused and stared at nothing in particular.

How do you explain to someone how you work? How do you put into works the finer functions of your natural mind? I was raised a certain way, always in a certain kind of atmosphere; these things are completely natural to me. How do you try to dissect and dumb down natural functions?

“I…” I started, unable to continue. What was the truth? “I compartmentalize.”

I didn’t elaborate.

They didn’t ask.

“Enough talk,” I stated finally, turning back to Harry, who was still concentrated on his mental barriers. “This one is free, Potter.”

I cast my wordless spell at him once more and forced my way into his mind. There was much more resistance this time to my threat but my power still managed to worm its way through the carefully structured wall that tried to protect Harry’s thoughts.

Immediately, images of us in Umbridge’s office flashed through my mind as I saw myself slip Harry’s wand into my pocket and leave to get Snape. I pulled back and shook off the memory, coming back to myself. Harry was panting and trying not to look at anyone.

“That’s it?” Weasel asked.

“Harry can’t keep me out of his mind, but you think ‘that’s it’?” I snapped, turning to him. “Alright, let’s see how well you fare against me.”

“Anytime, Malfoy,” he shot back setting himself up. Harry glared at him from next to me.

I smirked and cast my spell at him, breaking through his pitiful defenses only to be overwhelmed with images of Granger next to him, about to kiss him.

“ARGH!” I screamed before pulling back and pulling a face. “Do you have nothing better to hide, Weasley?!”

His ears turned red.

“How did you do that?!” he demanded in shock. Harry was now smirking next to me as though quite glad that his friend had failed and proven himself wrong.

“Were Ron’s defenses strong?” Granger asked in earnest. I nearly spat.

“Weaker than Goyle’s were,” I sneered. He flipped me off. How mature.

“Try me,” Granger demanded, without challenge but rather desperation.

“What?” I asked.

“I need to know how weak my defenses are before I can start strengthening them,” she explained quite rationally. “So try it on me.”

I blinked and nodded.

“Alright, Granger,” I agreed. “But if I get a full-on image of Weasley starkers I cannot promise that I will not hex you.”

Weasel turned a pleasant shade of red that coincidentally matched the radish earrings dangling from Lovegood’s earlobes as I took my position and took a deep breath.

Granger took a deep breath as well and set herself up to block me. I forced myself into her mind, meeting more resistance there than Harry had when we started today, but still not nearly enough.

Instead of meeting the image of Weasel in the nude, I found myself watching a battle unfold in the strangest of rooms. Everyone present (apart from myself) was battling it out with Death-Eaters… and then I saw a flash of long blonde hair and my father’s face appeared from behind a mask for only a moment before he disappeared again.

This was the Department of Mysteries… this was the night that he was arrested.

I pulled back, my face set and my eyes cold and distant. She did not look embarrassed but neither did she seem pleased in any way.

“Not terrible,” I finally admitted. “You might need the least amount of work, so far… but you still have a ways to go.”

She smiled and nodded at me.

“Alright,” I said finally. “Perhaps you should pair off to work on it… and I’ll go around to see if I can offer advice.” I had lost some of my edge from before… the image of my father at the Department of Mysteries was… unnerving.

“What about you?” the She-Weasel asked.

“What?”

“Shouldn’t you practice as well?” she sounded smug. “Surely you can’t have perfected Occlumency. Don’t you think we should practice Legilimency on you?”

I snarled momentarily and gave her my condescending smile again.

“Be my guest, Weasel,” I told her sharply. She stood in front of me and held out her wand.

“Legilimens!” she shrieked and I felt a weak prodding around my mind, trying to find a weak point as I thought of nothing but my father’s face from Granger’s memory. My face betrayed nothing of my thoughts… in fact I looked bored by her attempts.

Her face was screwed up in concentration as she tried to break through, but she couldn’t. Finally she gave up and let go with a loud exhale.

“Satisfied?” I asked curtly.

“No,” she responded but said nothing more. She paired herself off with Lovegood. Granger paired up with Weasel and Longbottom got Harry.

I smirked, trying hard to shake off that bloody image and regain my composure.

I walked around them, listening and observing their techniques as they tried to penetrate each other’s minds. Granger, not surprisingly, was doing the best out of all of them. She had quickly managed to force past Weasel’s defenses (though that shouldn’t have been hard at all) and block off his attempts to enter her mind.

I tested her again and found that her defenses were mildly better, but suggested that she find herself a more powerful partner, otherwise she would never improve adequately. Weasel did not appreciate that.

I finally came over to Harry and Longbottom. Harry had allowed him to start, so the great lump was trying to force his way through Harry’s mental defenses to read his mind… but was having trouble.

When Harry finally switched positions, he tried his best to read Longbottom’s thoughts but couldn’t manage. I stopped them.

“Let me try,” I told Harry, placing myself in front of the little lump. His eyes shifted and he stared up at me with discomfort and fear. “I won’t eat you, Longbottom.”

“Y-you don’t need to test me,” he stuttered. “Harry was doing a good job!”

I rolled my eyes.

“I’m not denying that,” I told him. “But what I need to know is why he couldn’t manage to read your mind. I want to know if it’s because he’s completely useless at Legilimency or if it’s because you are stronger than we know.”

He shook slightly at my comments but did not protest any longer.

I stood and cast the spell, concentrating on my task. But as soon as I tried to read into his thoughts I met wall after wall of defenses, protecting his precious mind and barring me from intruding.

I was mildly surprised, though I kept forcing forward, breaking barrier after barrier to get at that sweet victory within his mind…but when I did I found something I would have rather never seen.

I broke Longbottom’s last defense and came upon a memory. It was a memory of him sitting in a hospital room at St. Mungo’s… there were two adults next to him, both with an incredible likeness to him… but there was something off about them. Off about the way they smiled and gestured. Off about the distant look in their eyes and the way they carried themselves. Off about the way he was looking at them and nodding his head, trying to seem understanding.

They were mad…

Then the image jumped quickly to him, as a young boy, sitting in an attic somewhere, rifling through old copies of the Daily Prophet until he came upon the right headline.

---Three Death-Eaters Arrested and Convicted For Torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom

Bartemius Crouch Sr. convicted three known Death-Eaters today to life sentences in Azkaban Prison to pay for their crimes. These three were accused of having tortured the Auror Frank Longbottom and his wife Alice in their home by means of the Cruciatus curse. Their claims were not of innocence when they faced the judge, but in fact they maintained that they were acting out of loyalty to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, who was defeated and disappeared earlier this year.

The Death-Eaters in question included not only Bartemius Crouch Jr., son of Mr. Crouch himself, but also a young couple by the names of Rudolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange.---

I gasped and pulled back almost feeling it as Longbottom’s carefully erected defenses reformed and closed in his memories. I stared at him for a long while, noting that he appeared neither embarrassed nor angry with me.

His eyes were simply distant… as though they could hold no more hurt or sadness for the events that had long since past. As though he’d cried and mourned for far too long, now he was numb to the idea…

They were not painful memories, but secret ones. They were his and his alone. He had no parents and thus no one was allowed to share in his personal altar to them…

I had stepped on some kind of hallowed ground by pushing into his mind.

But something bothered me even more than knowing that Longbottom had been through experiences that might, on some scale, have been worse than those both Harry and I experienced combined.

My parents didn’t love me, not like they should have. They tortured me and now they are gone. But they were there and they gave me what I needed.

Harry’s parents loved him and thus died for him. He had to live out his life with the knowledge that Voldemort was always after him and with family members that wanted nothing to do with him… but that was his suffering.

Longbottom had to grow up seeing, knowing that his parents were no longer his parents but pieces of their original beings. They were lost souls confounded by an uncaring world and he had to watch them suffer each day. He had to bear that knowledge all the time…

Yet still… what bothered me more was not what had happened to them, but who caused it.

“Bellatrix,” I whispered. “She did that?”

“You saw what you saw,” he mumbled, looking as though he was about to collapse. “Going to make fun of me now?”

I was taken aback.

“She killed my parents,” I told him simply with as much sincerity as I could manage. “She killed her own sister and then murdered my father and tried to make it look like a suicide.”

The room was awkwardly silent as everyone else gazed around at each other. I held Longbottom’s gaze for a moment as though there was a silent understanding between us for those moments.

I looked to Harry briefly, who nodded to me, and then back to Longbottom.

One of us, or all perhaps, was going to kill her.

*******

February 14

After that day… after finding out about Longbottom’s parents… things were a little different. I did not change my demeanor towards him very drastically and he did not stop wincing whenever I spoke to him or said something particularly nasty, but I did not touch on the subject of his parents and he did not touch on the subject of mine.

Not that he ever would, but it worked out nicely.

We spent yesterday searching in the Library and through old copies of the Daily Prophet for information that might lead us to the last Horcrux… apart from the snake, anyway.

We did not bother to explain the concept to Longbottom, the She-Weasel or Lovegood… not just yet. We just told them to look for useful curses and defenses. Tonks, Shacklebolt and Remus knowing was enough of a crowd and there was always the worry that Shacklebolt might have been forced to reveal whatever information he could about our plans to the Death-Eaters…

There had been no sign of him still.

I was sitting and shifting continually in my seat next to Harry. He was leaning awkwardly and his hair was brushing against my neck as he read.

It sounds stupid but it’s Valentine’s day and I had somehow wanted to… spend it with him.

Not that I really care about this holiday… but it would have been… nice.

Instead, I was crowded out by Gryffindors (and a bloody Ravenclaw, I know) in the small library, pouring over dusty volumes of useless information that really wasn’t going to get us any closer. What book really had a detailed documentation of all places that might have been important to Voldemort?

Who would have dared write something like that?

I was just about at my wit’s end, on the verge of chucking my book across the room at the She-Weasel’s face and throwing myself on Harry, when Remus came into the room, seeming rather rushed.

“They’ve found Kinglsey,” he said briskly.

Everyone sat up. Books fell off people’s knees and clattered onto the ground as we arranged ourselves to hear better… if that makes sense.

“What happened?” Harry asked immediately. “Is he alright? Where was he?”

“He’s alive,” Remus said with little enthusiasm. “He’s at St. Mungo’s now, being cared for. He’s not awake and they cannot find a way to rouse him. He’s got no energy, no signs of anything except a heartbeat. He looks as though he’s been beaten or tortured in some way… and he’s got a lot of wounds. We think he might have escaped and then collapsed on his way. They found him near London in front of an old abandoned building. It looked like an orphanage from the sound of it.”

Harry froze and his eyes went wide.

“An orphanage just outside London?” he asked quickly. “What did it look like?”

Remus gave him a confused look.

“It was… bleak and broken down,” he said vaguely. “Black iron gates out front and high railings around… can’t remember the name, come to think of it. Why, Harry?”

I looked at him, trying to figure him out. He appeared as though something had just fallen into place and a light went off in his mind.

“Voldemort was raised in a muggle orphanage just outside of London,” he explained hurriedly. “It was bleak with black iron gates and high railings.”

“So?” I asked, unable to understand the importance. “We’re looking for important places, no? Why would he like the idea of a muggle orphanage?”

“Because that’s where he found out he was a wizard.”

-------IIIIIII-------

A/N: So this was a little bit more relaxed (if you can call it that) than the last chapter, though still some things here. Don’t worry, Shacklebolt will not be completely ignored or anything. They’ll go see him and find out a little more, though bit by bit more is happening. And I know you all have so many questions and they are all valid, very good ones, but I can’t say! You’ll find out when it all comes together! (Hopefully it all will X_X hahaha )

I don’t have tooo much to say, except that Harry will indeed improve and I think that Neville, having almost no other talents (except Herbology) and considering his parents’ situation and all, would be pretty good (though not fantastic) at occlumency. In my opinion he’s probably trained himself over the years to lock those memories away and hide them from the world. He talks about his Gran and things like that in the books but doesn’t mention his parents. And then in book four with Moody you see him break down in front of the display of the Cruciatus curse, which in my mind is the undoing of his defenses.

Draco also needed to know that Bellatrix was also responsible for Neville’s parents because it is ultimately making him hate her more. Which is important. Very important.

Err I dunno what else I can reveal to you O_o or talk about hahaha. I will have some more smut in here. Sadly Valentine’s day is not the right time. Poor Draco.

And I do love this idea of kinky things hahaha role-play and all that jazz… though it might have to wait until the war is over :) Might. I’m not that patient.

Anywho, thanks for all the reviews! I love you all and hand out lots of sweets and treats and hopefully things that won’t completely destroy your teeth! Or maybe, ah well!

*love*