"Blah" human to dragoon

"Blah" parsletongue

Severus stepped out of the Dursley household feeling very much like he needed a good hot bath and strong liquor. After everything Petunia had told him about the forced labour, the "bedroom" under the stairs and the plain emotional abuse they had heaped upon Harry, he was not surprised Harry had run away, but was surprised that the natural magic in Harry hadn't reacted in more ways than it had. Which made him think that someone had put a tap on Harry's magical reserves. Someone who not only knew what was going on in the house, but had worked at keeping that knowledge from the rest of the wizarding world. He snorted, he knew exactly who had done this, but why? That was a conversation for another day. For now, he just wanted to forget everything he had learned, and go back to Hogwarts. The letter he had been carrying had dissappeared shortly after his conversation with Petunia, so he assumed that Potter had it. There was nothing for him to do now than to wait and hope that this folly of the headmaster's hadn't turned the boy into another Voldemort.

...(line break)...

Harry smiled as he stepped out of Gringott's, now that he knew how much money he had he knew he would never have to worry about (1)money again. That meant that now he would be able to buy the things he had always been (2)denied. (3)He'd already bought all of the supplies that the list said he'd need, and now he felt a little extra was in store. The first place he went was the pet shop to look at the animals. All of his life he had wanted a pet, heck he'd have even taken ripper just to have a pet like other children. It was loud in the shop, and smelled like animal poop, but harry couldn't remember ever being happier. The first place he looked was at the (4)owls, but none seemed to really stand out, and he knew that he didn't really need one as he didn't expect any mail from anyone. It was the same for the cats, he did like them, but personal experience with Mrs. Figgs many cats told him that he just didn't like them enough to be taking one to his new magical school. So it was down to a toad, blech. (5)Who really would want a toad? Then Harry noticed that there was another section to the shop, one that read 'magical creatures', and decided to take a look.

There were some more birds sitting primly on wooden posts, even a (6)reddish brown one that looked to Harry like it was on its last legs. There were a few spiders (but he figured he could just get one from his cupboard if he wanted one of those), some lizards, and towards the back, there was a bunch of (7)snakes. This is what drew Harry's attention. In fact, the closer he got, the closer the more the hissing sounded like words.

(8)" Look at my scales little black hair boy, don't they shine prettily?"

Harry rubbed his hands over his ears, as he shook his head, but it was like at the zoo when Harry had set the (9)snake on dudley, he found that he could understand the snakes perfectly.

" can you understand me?" he asked, surprised when all of the snakes turned to him

"A speaker! It has been so long since a speaker has come here!" the snakes turned from Harry for a moment as it looked like they were discussing something among themselves, "It is best young speaker if you should take Salinas, he knows the snake magic and can teach you."

(10) a dark black snake with red scales was pushed forward by the other snakes, and harry couldn't help staring.

"Well are you going to offer me your arm or aren't you?" The snake asked, and Harry blushed as he plunged his arm into the tank, feeling more than a little weird as the snake (silas) he had to remind himself, curled around his middle like a living belt. As he paid for his purchase and headed for Olivanders for his wand, he wondered how he was going to explain the snake, and how he could talk to it when he got to school

End chapter

(1) I'm with a lot of fanfiction writers on this site in believing that the Potters, as an ancient family would have had more than just one vault. I'm assuming that Dumbledore hid it from Harry so that he wouldn't be a stuck up snob like Draco. While we're on that topic, why did Dumbledore have Harry's key? Did his dad give it to him, or did Dumbledore take it? I'm going with the later, as it would be something he would do for the greater good.

(2) I know Harry's a little ooc for wanting to buy things, but come on, he's 11 for crying out loud! How many of you can say you spent your money responsibly at that age!

(3) I know that in the last chapter I said that Harry didn't know where to go, but you can't tell me that as Harry's guardian that the Divine Dragoon would not let Harry into Diagon Alley to get a leg up in the competition. I know I would.

(4) Harry will eventually get Hedwig, but at this point in time, he just doesn't see the point in buying an owl, after all he doesn't know anyone yet, and does not know he's famous, which brings up another question, was Dumbledore blocking Harry's mail? You'd think as a celebrity wizard he'd get something like he did in the fourth book from people who were reading Rita's articles, so why didn't he?

(5) I'm sorry Trevor, but I really don't like toads. They creep me out, end of story.

(6) It stands to reason that in a magical pet shop, that they'd have magical pets, including pheonix's. I'm bending the rules a little for Harry, because you know that he could claim that he didn't know what the animal was, he didn't really know alot about the wizarding world in the books, so this is plausible.

(7) I'm putting the snakes in the magical creatures section of the pet store, because in the Harry Potter world, snakes that aren't magical in nature like the Ashwinder (look it up) just seem like they'd be in an out of the way kind of spot.

(8) I'm not doing the SSSSS thing everytime a snake talks, i just don't have the patience for it, sssory.

(9) I figure that to get a timeline going here, we'll make this happen after Harry set the snake on dudley so he's eleven.

(10) I made this snake up, although there are plenty of magical snakes, harry's is kind of a black mamba/ashwinder cross (look it up if you don't know what this is, i had to)