The Slytherin Prince

¹⁶| Shopping Spree {Part 3}

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The Slytherin Prince

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"Thoughts"

Letter

"~Parseltongue~"

":Deathtongue:"

~~~ August 2, 1990. Right where we left off ~~~

~~~ Harry's POV ~~~

When I entered the magical pet store I was dumbstruck, again. There were so many animals, of different species and so many options in that species it made my head spin. But I followed that insistent, warm tug that I felt. That's how I ended up in the reptile section. By now I knew that I was feeling the pull of my familiar, Griphook and Ragnok had shared a little on how a Wizard is connected to their familiar and in rare cases could talk with them through their link.

But I was different, if I was in the reptile section, there was only one animal my familiar could be. I walked towards the Snake enclosures where the tug became stronger than before. I walked towards the Snake enclosures and stood before them. I could hear the owner talking to Lucius about what pet I want. 

I moved towards the more deadly and venomous snakes and the insistent tug grew and the warmth I felt grew as well. I knew that my familiar was nearby, but didn't know which reptile was mine. I looked at all of them going closer and closer to the end of the reptile section. When I lost hope of finding him and thinking about looking at the enclosures again, I was met with a marvellous sight.

I saw a gleaming Silver snake with Emerald Green eyes the exact shade of my eyes and the stone in my wand. The snake hissed something about idiotic humans who stared at him and some other death threats, it was quite amusing.

"~Hello little one~", I hissed at the magnificent creature. It's gleaming Emerald eyes and opalescent Silver scales made him look like he was made out of precious metals and gems. His head snapped up and his slit-pupilled eyes widened, "~A speaker!?~" he asked in curiosity and wonder. "~Yes little one, I am a Parselmouth. It seems like you are my familiar, would you like to be my companion?~" I hissed out.

"~Of course, hatchling. Anything to get out of this stinkhole, ugly wizards pressing their faces and staring at me all day, take me away from here, hatchling~" it pleaded. I chuckled and opened his glass enclosure, he slithered onto my hands, his smooth scales feeling oddly calming and satisfying on my skin. He wound his way up my arm and around my shoulders, his head right next to my ear.

Unknown to me, with my new luxurious clothes and armoured cape and crest along with my familiar resting on my shoulders, we made a rather Regal and intimidating image - even if I was only a ten-year-old. My tall and lithe figure and my inherent gracefulness making me seem like a Prince, I know very narcissistic of me.

I walked towards the others and introduced my familiar and a lot of laughter when my slippery friend called Draco 'the blonde posh boy' and Neville 'a red snake' - whatever that meant. As I paid for the tank and snake food and treats along with a permanently heated rock for him curl up on we left the store and continued on our way to the store.

As we were nearing Flourish and Blotts, I tried naming my pet snake. "~Little one, what type of snake are you? Are you a Magical or Muggle species?~" I asked, trying to think up a suitable name. At this, he shot upright, as if straightening his spine with pride, "I am the most feared of beasts, spiders flee before me, my stare is deadly, my venom is fatal and no cure other than Phoenix tears. My species are considered the Rulers of all Serpents, I am a Basilisk hatchling~" he hissed back, pride evident in his voice.

I almost fell over in shock and let out a little scream. Luckily the Alley was deserted and no one saw the little display of extremely unsophisticated behaviour. Thankfully, my innate grace took over and I managed to right myself with a tiny stumble. "You are a Basilisk!" I gasped. Now the other screamed too and averted their eyes.

"~Do not worry hatchling. Basilisks can control their gaze. Most usually don't as they use their eyes for easy prey instead of hunting~" hissed the silver serpent. "~Little one-", I asked, "~-what about the name 'Mercury' because you look like Quicksilver?". He thought for a few seconds and nodded at me and hissed and agreement. I quickly told everyone his name and they all said hi.

When we entered the infamous bookstore my eyes widened comically and everyone else laughed at the display. I pulled myself together and stalked into the store, simultaneously flipping the others off behind me. That was followed by Remus' bark-like laughter and Cissa's insistence that a person of my stature should not resort to such 'uncouth' behaviour.

I smirked inwardly and browsed the different isles while reading their titles. Flourish and Blotts was as different from a Muggle bookstore or library as it can be. In a mundane store, the books are arranged in sections according to whether it is Fiction, Non-Fiction or Educational. And in a Mundane library, books are sorted in terms of Adult, Children and further in categories and alphabetical order.

Flourish and Blotts was nothing like that. There was simply no system in place!

It was wonderful!. As the magical community do not waste time on stories and Fiction, other than the child staples like the Tales of Beedle the Bard - which is extremely famous according to Neville and Draco, there are no storybooks at all.

All the books on Transfiguration were dumped into one aisle, the same for Charms, Defensive magic, Basic Dark arts, Potions, Herbology, Alchemy, Divination, Magical Creatures, Magical Transportations - under which Quidditch was a big collection of books, Astronomy and History. According to Lucius if I want more books on Dark Arts, Blood magic and the Olde ways and culture I'd have to go to Knockturn Alley.

Supposedly, if you want a book you can go to a sort of magical book searcher, where you write down key-words - like the name of the Author, the area of study, the difficulty level. Then the appropriate books glow wherever they are placed and we can see if they are to our liking.

I immediately jumped and bought all the school books needed, not just first year but, all the books up to the fifth year, when I'll be taking my Ordinary Wizarding Level Examinations - or how it's normally called OWLs.

I bought all the school books needed for my five years leading up to OWLs, which consisted of - A Standard Book of Spells Grade 1-5, A History of Magic, A Guide to Transfiguration Grade 1-5, One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, Magical Drafts and Potions Grade 1-5, The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-protection Grade 1-5 and some other reference materials.

After that, I went around and picking through a lot of books about Magical transportation, Dark Arts, Magical Creatures, Advanced Defensive magic, Advanced Potions, Historical events and Advanced Charms. I bought books about Portkeys, Apparition, Magical Carpets and The Floo system. I bought books about Professional Duelling, Advanced Mind arts - Occlumency and Legilimency. Mercury kept insisting I find books about Parselmagic, I remembered reading about it in my Blood Bill, but I didn't know a single thing about what that is.

I ended up buying around a hundred books - which cost over three hundred Galleons in total, and the others looked at me like I'm crazy, while my companions were trying really hard to keep their amusement from showing through their aristocratic Pureblood masks. Remus was muttering something about "Definitely Lily's son, just like her. But James would have gone crazy if he saw his son with so many books. He'd faint on the spot, right next to Sirius", I chuckled at that.

The shopkeeper had a field day and gave me a ten per cent off for my entire purchase, which I refused and gave the man a twenty Galleon tip for his hospitality and high quality of products. The man had looked like Christmas, I mean Yule, had come early. That's until Mercury poked his head from under my cape and hissed at the man. He jumped back like he was on a spring and scuttled away - this was the tipping point. Everyone started snorting and chuckling.

After putting away the packages in the Library compartment to sort through later, we finally made our way to Gringotts.