The Huge Magical Snake Problem

The Huge Magical Snake

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, BOY? WHY DO YOU ALWAYS WAKE THE WHOLE HOUSE UP?" his Uncle roared, yanking Harry's blanket off his shoulders and shaking him. Harry was completely awake at that point. He yanked his arms out of his uncle's grasp, and scrambled backwards. His back hit the window. His wounds had mostly scabbed over, but it was still agonizing for his skin to bump against the hard surface. At least the window was cool against the damage.

The streetlight projected Vernon's face in angry lines almost as terrifying as... oh, yeah! Voldemort! The dream! His subconscious thought about what had happened to Nagini.

The forefront of his brain, however, was focused on the massive man standing in front of him, his hand reared back. Harry flinched, his spine thumping against the window again as he tried to avoid the hand coming down to slap him. He couldn't get away from it, though. A resounding smack filled the relative silence, save for the harsh breathing and slight whimper that Harry gave when Vernon kicked his chest with his sock-clad foot before leaving the room.

Harry sat up carefully and assessed his condition. The wounds on his chest were open again, but that was to be expected after a blow like that. Then he touched his cheek, which was tender after the slap he had received. Harry let out a sigh through his nose and grabbed for the paper and pencil.

It seemed like Remus had survived, but Harry couldn't be sure until he saw him again. But what was that... thing with Voldemort and Nagini? Why did Nagini attack her master? I mean, even if they were her nest-mates that he had accidentally killed, why did she react like that?

Harry then reevaluated the snake's situation. Harry thought about the person closest to him. Sirius, even though he wasn't alive anymore. What if Dumbledore had to attack a Death Eater house close to Grimmauld Place, had promised that Sirius would come to no harm, and then killed him? Yeah, Harry probably would've done a slight bit more than wreck the headmaster's office. He would have denounced Dumbledore's name and vanished off the map. He wouldn't have tried to kill him, but then again, Harry didn't have the mindset of a snake.

Harry got finished with writing the dream down, and laid back on his side, now facing the door. His scar wasn't searing anymore, just a faint throb. He had no doubt that Voldemort was still quite angry, he was just occluding his mind. Harry didn't expect to have any more dreams that night, and for once, his prediction was correct. He slept soundly that night, with the exception of a nightmare of the scenario he had imagined earlier, with Dumbledore turning into Bellatrix Lestrange and Avada kedavra-ing Sirius into the Veil.

That was just normal dreaming though, since he woke up and his scar wasn't even tingling anymore.

Harry woke to the sound of something tapping his window. He blinked the fog from his eyes as best as he could with his glasses missing. He squinted and leaned close to the portal, but it was still just a blur. Harry sighed, got out of his bed, and crouched down on the floor to search with his hands for his glasses. A few seconds later, his fingers brushed against something metallic. He grabbed them and pushed them on his face.

By then, the incessant tapping had resumed. Harry turned to the window again, and what he saw made him stumble backwards. He covered his mouth and held his breath as to not shout in fear.

There she was, Nagini, in all her snakey glory, coiled around the bars on his windows! His Uncle had them put there again earlier, with the excuse that he hadn't learned his lesson last time they were there.

She was obviously not small enough to fit through the bars, which was saying something. It was one thing to see the tremendous snake in a dream, but another thing entirely to see the serpent in real life. She was huge! She had twisted the metal like a Twizzler and was still tapping on his window.