Changing Destiny

Nineteen: Harry's Secret Friend

Harry

The voice of Tom was growing more insistent lately, and the pain in his lightning scar was getting worse these days. Pythia didn't mean to petrify the muggleborns, but Tom hated them, and so the blood messages were needed because he no longer had the journal. Tom said Dumbledore destroyed it in his office, and so blood was needed.

"I misss you, Harry," Pythia said through the walls as she moved through the pipes. "I ssnacked on the fat Weassel boy with the red fur earlier tonight. He wass trying to hit your egg mate after dinner becausse ssshe wouldn't kisss him.."

"Um, which Weasley, Pyth?" Harry hissed back, laughing. "They kinda breed like rabbits, and sleep in one room, or so Uncle Lucius says, and I totally believe him."

"The fat tall one. The one that sssmellss like a ssskunk all the time," Pythia answered. "I'm good on food, he wass tassty. Pleasse come to me Harry, you're the one who can ssspeak to me here. I want to go for a sswim."

"I'll be right there."

Harry crept out of the dungeons, and Lord Slytherin's portrait didn't care that he was sneaking out to see the basilisk who never killed him when she looked at him. Pythia had beautiful yellow eyes, and she let him ride her as they played in the Black Lake. It was only when Tom spoke in his head that he didn't feel in control of himself, and Pythia hated that Tom sometimes made him do bad things like prank muggleborns, or slip magical herbs in people he didn't like's drinks to make them sick. He could never tell his Aunt, or his sister Hermione about Pythia, because they would freak out if they knew he had a basilisk for a friend who could change into a witch only on the full moon.

The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was a big circular door with big snake hinges, and he hissed, "Open Sesame."

The hinges retracted with several loud bangs, and Pythia was lounging in the deep pool. He ran to her, and she put her head on the black marble slab, and he hugged her as best as he could, petting her smooth black scales.

"Hey, Pyth," He greeted. "I can't believe you literally ate Ronald Weasley. I thought you were going to eat Mrs Norris."

Pythia laughed, which sounded like soft chortling hisses. "Too sskinny. Come, hop on my back, let'sss go to the lake, and I can walk asss a human."

Harry cast the ascendio charm, and he levitated on to Pythia's tall back. He held on to her back spikes, and they moved through the often pitch black, nasty tunnels until they made it outside. She slithered up on to land, and he climbed off. Her whole body shimmered, and shifted to a witch wearing a medieval Slytherin girl's uniform. She had long wavy black hair, her yellow eyes, and pale, almost pearlescent skin. Also, she was very beautiful, and looked to be just his age.

He hugged her, and she embraced him back. She looked sad then, "I wish Sal would forgive me. But he's a stubborn goat even in death."

Harry rose an eyebrow at that. "S-Sal? You mean Slytherin?"

Pythia nodded, and took off her cloak, and used a pale white wand to transfigure it into a blanket one would use for a picnic. They sat down, and she teared up, "When Salazar was a young Professor, and I was a seventh year...when he discovered I had a very odd family strain of the maledictus curse where I can only turn into my witch form on a full moon like a werewolf, he and I...became lovers. Rowena Ravenclaw became jealous, that haughty bitch, and insisted that we break up. Too late in a way since Hogwarts has had basilisks live and die in the Forbidden Forest and the castle for a thousand years. The only reason I woke up out of my long hibernation is Tom Riddle's connection to you through your lightning scar."