Harry woke up exhausted.

This wasn't that uncommon, except that he also had a pounding headache that seemed to be resting right behind his eyes. And the sun was already up. He groaned and pulled the covers over his head. In the dark opening his eyes was more manageable. What was wrong with him? Was he sick? He hadn't been exposed to any more germs than normal… If he was honest with himself, he thought, he would have to guess that what had happened yesterday had something to do with his current discomfort. It had been very disconcerting. He and Nagini had felt floaty the whole day, and then all of a sudden all their energy had just up and left them stumbling (or slithering…) to an acceptable place to fall down and sleep. Now… He had to get up… where did he put his tape?

-_+cynicalclinicalcynical+_-

Petunia was in the kitchen putting the breakfast things away when her lazy no-good demonic nephew stumbled into the room. With… sunglasses taped over his regular ones…

"Boy, what are you doing?"

Harry flinched at his aunt's shrill voice, unconsciously moving away from the skinny source.

"Don't. Just please don't. Not today, auntie." He clenched his eyes shut momentarily before moving over to the rarely used coffee maker. The only reason his aunt even allowed one of these… things, in her kitchen was because she found out that Mrs Next Door had purchased one, and of course his aunt had to one-up her by getting a much shinier, newer one with many more buttons that no one in the house knew how to use. There was a package of coffee grounds gathering dust in the cabinet under it. He fiddled with it for a while, managing to get a drip of the thick, dark, American sludge going and then he sank into a seat by the table, head pounding from the glimpse of sun he'd caught from the window.

His aunt had watched this spectacle with vague suspicion. She turned and checked the cabinet where they kept the alcohol. Nothing looked any different, though that didn't mean he couldn't have gotten something from a different source… She closed the cabinet loudly, followed the boy's loud squawk of distress, and strode out of the kitchen quickly. If something was going on with him she didn't want to get involved.

Harry glowered at the space his aunt had occupied moments earlier. If he had the time to form a plan of escape from this house… He lowered his head again, hiding from the light of the approaching afternoon. Right now, though, he wanted to know why his head hurt so much, and if Nagini was similarly afflicted. Soon as he had his cup o' sludge...

-_+cynicalclinicalcynical+_-

Harry knelt by his bed, a second cup of strong coffee nearby. The first had helped clear his head, even if his eyes still ached. He prodded the tightly curled mass of constrictor that rested under his bed. Nagini just clenched tighter around herself.

"Nagini…" Harry whispered, "Nagini, come on, get up. It's nearly noon…" He glanced at his mug, wondering what would happen if he fed his giant snake coffee… "Nagini." He tried to shake her awake.

"It hurts to be awake…" she finally said. Harry couldn't tell what part of her was what right now, she was curled up so much, but he thought the sound came from somewhere in the middle of her coils.

"Nagini…" he wheedled, "I can't help you if you don't come out. ...I have coffee."

"...what is coffee?"

"It's a drink that could help you. It helped me"

Slowly Nagini uncurled enough to put her triangular head out from under the bed, eyes shut tight. "Fine. Feed me your people drink." She nudged his hand.

Harry tilted the mug so that Nagini could reach the liquid with her tongue. She tentatively went to drink some. As soon as the taste registered on her tongue her eyes popped open, and Harry gasped. Her eyes were as green as his.

"This tastes amazing!" her now acid green eyes glimmered as she drank some more of the coffee Harry was now not conscious of holding. What had happened to them both yesterday…?

-_+cynicalclinicalcynical+_-

Nagini didn't know what to make of the news. She had no way of seeing colors the way humans did, especially on her own eyes, and had never know their previous color anyway. That she now had the eye color of her favorite human was not an unattractive idea to her though.

"It had to have been that… glowing thing that happened yesterday. That's the only weird thing to happen recently," Harry said. Well, besides that dream the night before… and pretty much everything else since he met Nagini, but… "I don't think that was supposed to happen… It should have just shielded the room."

They were both on the floor next to the bed, Harry still holding the mug for Nagini. He gazed at the little door he'd made yesterday. Its thin veil swayed slightly, even though there was no air movement in the room. He worried that maybe, because of his shield, they couldn't get back through the door. And after all the work to make it…

He set the mug down, to Nagini's mild displeasure, and scooted across the floor, legs still crossed, sunglasses still taped over his prescription ones. He grabbed the sock on the way across the room, and tossed it in like before. It came out completely soaked and muddy after just a couple seconds in Brazil.

"Well, we know two things now," said Harry, "the door still works. And the weather over there sucks today." Harry stood and stretched. One of his hands brushed the wall, and he froze. He felt funny… "N-nagini? Come here a second please."

Nagini slithered over. "What is it Harry?"

"Touch the wall. Does it feel different to you?"

Nagini brushed her thick side against the baseboards of the tiny room. "It feels comforting," she said, confused. Walls had never made her feel safe, ever; even the walls of Harry's house were just bearable, and only because she liked Harry.

Harry's brow furrowed in concentration that looked odd on his young, thin face. He ripped his glasses off in a flurry of movement, trying to get the tape off as fast as possible. In his rush he barely noticed when the tape simply disappeared mid struggle and the sunglasses fell to the floor. He replaced his glasses and flung out both hands against the wall, and the room was awash in acid green in an instant, shining so bright he was sure the whole street could see it from the window. He found he didn't care right now. His eyes glowed with an eager light. He could see everything he had done. The entire shield was laid out in front of him, running over every inch of the walls and ceiling and floor. He could see small details, scattered imperfections in the otherwise smooth, featureless green. He backed away slowly, concentrating hard on keeping it there, and… it faded as suddenly as it had flared up.

Harry swallowed hard. It had been a long time since he'd failed at something. He tried to focus on the good in this. He'd found something he could tackle, a problem he had to solve. If he mastered whatever this was, he would be all the stronger for it… It still hurt.

Nagini didn't understand the gravity of the situation as Harry saw it. To her, the same phenomenon as yesterday that had made her eyes hurt had just happened a second time and she was not pleased. She had curled around Harry's legs tightly, gripping them so hard he felt they were surely about to break, except they didn't. He had found out long ago that he was more durable than normal people; he'd been activating his magic to keep himself safe from harm before he was even aware of having it. He was surprised then when he felt the activation of his magic from somewhere deep inside him.

Suddenly exhausted beyond anything he'd ever experienced, he fell, fainting dead away. The last thing he was conscious of was the release of Nagini's grip on his legs and a faint hissing.

-_+cynicalclinicalcynical+_-

Harry felt his consciousness floating to the surface, slowly becoming aware of his surroundings. He was so tired still… He tried to move his fingers, but the movement eluded him still. He could feel scales under his hand though. That must be Nagini. He lay still, enjoying the dark floatiness he was experiencing. It was probably the one time in his life he felt completely relaxed… He started to hear loud voices from somewhere away from him. He tried to focus on them.

"-on't know what's wrong, the door won't open… green light earlier… ...could be doing anything in there, something dangerous… I want him gone, Petunia!"

Harry recognized that last voice. His uncle. Great. His hand clenched and suddenly he wasn't so relaxed anymore. He was still tired, but the floating was gone and he could feel the hard floor of reality under his back. Nagini stirred under his palm.

He could feel her moving now; she had been encircling his small body, head shoved under his hand. His eyes blinked open and for a moment he was confused. It was dark and he could see a long blurry shape in front of his face. A car passed by outside and for a second he could make out the vague features of Nagini.

"What-," Harry swallowed hard; his mouth was dry, "what happened?"

From his vantage point on the floor he saw Nagini rear back with a loud hiss. ...what?

"Nagini." The word fell flat from his lips and still she didn't respond. Harry sat up quickly and just as quickly stopped trying to move. That wasn't pleasant… his head felt like he'd left it on the floor for a moment… Harry slowly felt along the floor for his glasses. Eventually his hand brushed them and he replaced them on his face. He really needed to stop getting himself into these situations…

Nagini was twisting herself in an agitated way, hissing spitfire. Harry still couldn't understand her. He reached towards her and she bumped his hand forcefully. Why wasn't she speaking anymore? Or… oh dear.

Harry sat down hard, eyes glazed and focused inward, oblivious to Nagini's continued agitation. It was entirely possible that he had somehow lost his ability to speak to snakes. He started panicking for a moment, brain going into overdrive, trying to come up with a way to fix this. Maybe it was his shield. Maybe by bringing it into view he had hurt his magic; that's what it had felt like. His ability to speak to Nagini was tied to his magic, he knew that. It was part of his heritage, if all speakers were descended of this Slytherin guy. Oh bollocks, what if he'd broken his magic? That was...

Harry was not proud of his next few minutes of desperate sobbing. Nagini had stopped her own freak out to watch this spectacle, and if she had any thoughts on his breakdown he could no longer read them on her face... For a minute he lost all sense of grandeur his abilities had given him and he was just a short, spectacled boy, too small to be taken seriously and at the mercy of his relatives, who were not especially fond of him. Nagini, for all that he knew, would abandon him. He was just a regular boy now, nothing special. There was no reason for her to stay with one of the same type of stupid people that had imprisoned her at the zoo in the first place. She'd go through the door to Brazil and he'd never- Wait. His door. BOTH his doors. He barely hoped, but…

Harry launched himself at the door to the hallway, inducing queasiness but too distracted to care. He could hear muttered curses and his aunt's teakettle whispers. They were still outside. If his uncle wanted him gone that bad he would be out the door already. Why had he not come in yet?

"Hey," Harry called out hesitantly, praying to anyone and everyone that he wasn't about to receive ten years of beatings all at once. The voices in the hall stopped and he could hear the bulk of his uncle moving to the door.

"You freak, you… door… Open it now!" Vernon was incoherent with rage, it sounded like. Harry's heart soared. His shield still worked. If it still worked, then there must be something holding it there, right? Maybe he didn't lose his magic.

"No, I don't think I will, uncle." Vernon hit the door and it shook on its hinges, but didn't break. He started shouting at him through the door, and Harry danced away from it, feeling giddy, and promptly tripped over Nagini and fell face first on the floor. Ow.

She wasn't too pleased about that, either. Her previous passionate spitting resumed, and Harry nearly split his face in two with a grin when he could make out a few of the choice words Nagini had for him. His parents and certain traits Nagini was sure they must have possessed to create him, his gracelessness, were mentioned a few times. He could hear a similar tirade coming from Vernon outside. He laughed. He peered at Nagini from under his arm and smiled at her expression. Her expression! Priceless. He loved magic…

Harry swore to himself right then and there, face streaked with tears of both incredible grief and boundless mirth, that he would learn more about his abilities. He did not want to lose his magic in this way ever again.

A.N. Oh my dear divines, I'm so sorry this took so frickity fracking long! It's like my life had a bout of constipation for the last ten years and now SO GODS DANG MUCH is happening all at once that it's hard to find time for hobbies. Do you know how long it's been since I had time for pleasure reading? It's an awfully long time… Anyway, because one of my teachers refuses to use anything but our school issued laptops for teaching and the internet was down for his class (YES!) I had time to finally finish this and get it to you guys for critiquing.

It's been so long that I had a hard time coming back to this... I know I wanted Voldemort to make an appearance soon, but I'm gonna just let this happen as it will. We might be seeing him soon...

On a side note, how would y'all react to a pirate!Harry fic?