The Serpent's Tongue

Chapter 1

Escaping Willard Dursley

James glanced over his shoulder at his grandparent's house as he vaulted over the garden gate and headed towards the village at a steady trot. A steep downward hill led to his friend Blue's house on the edge of the road leading from Ottery St Catchpole . James made a beeline for the small garage where his friend lived. He'd been waiting to do this all day but his annoying cousin Will kept following him everywhere.

Willard Dursley didn't usually spend the summer with him but as he would be attending James's school, Hogwarts, in September Will's parents had thought it would be useful for him to spend the summer with James and his family to get use to the way things were. You see, Hogwarts, was no ordinary school, it was a school for children with special abilities; it was a school for young Witches and Wizards.

James was now in his third year at Hogwarts and his brother, Albus, was starting his second. James's whole family was magic. His parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins - but Will wasn't like the rest of them. Will's parents were Muggles (non-magic people) with ordinary lives and ordinary jobsand upuntil recently,a perfectly normal child. Their fathers, Dudley Dursley and Harry Potter,were cousins and had grown up together but they weren't particularly close. Every Christmas James's family would receive a cheery card with a picture of a bad-tempered kid in it and the Dursley's would receive an equally cheery card with a picture of James, Albus and their little sister Lily.

This way the two families could be polite and cordial without having to deal with each other in person. James could now see why this arrangement had been so much better.

Willard was a very spoilt child, overly competitive and veryused to getting his way. It had been a huge shock to his system to be sent to spend most of his summer holidays with a bunch of rowdy five to twenty year old witches and wizards camping out behind a ramshackle house in the middle of nowhere. Despite allthis it seemed Will had settled in rather quickly.

The fifteen Weasley and Potter children spent theirSummer and Christmas holidays sleeping in magical tents which were much larger on the inside then on the outside. Even still it had been even more cramped and busy with Will adding to the numbers, James had been hoping that perhaps his grandmother Molly would protest and that Will would have to stay at home. However, she had been perfectly welcoming and invited him to stay and since then he had been following James around the Burrow like a lost sheep demanding to know every single detail about Quidditch.

Quidditch was the wizarding sport played on broomsticks with four balls and James loved it, he was on his house team at school! Sadly, when Will had heard about this it had resulted in him becoming James's shadow. When they had spent New Year's together at Will's house last year James had found him boasting about his football skills but with the discovery of Quidditch, footballhad been shunted to the side.

Though James usually loved to talk about Quidditch, Will's constant blabber was severely bugging him. Finally he had given up and played his last trump card and told Will that his cousin Molly was the vice captain of the team. He knew Molly was sure to have her revenge on him later but at this point James would do anything for some peace and quiet.

On top of this he had been longing to visit his friend, Blue, for days. On the last night of school James had made a discovery; he had tracked down a hidden treasure that himself, Blue and his other friends, Alex and Letitia, had been searching for all year. He didn't know what it was exactly and that was why he was going to Blue now. He was the brains of the operation. Also, in a couple of days time, James and his family (and Will) would be heading off to the Quidditch World Cup in the Philippines and this might be his last chance to leave what he had found in safe hands. Blue was the only person he could possibly trust with it.

Albus, much to James's disgust, was already in the Philippines with his friend Philip whose mother played on the Irish International Team. James was furious and jealous as Albus had free tickets to all of the Irish matches and he would only get to attend the final. Even still, this in itself was a major event. James was one of the only people he knew who would be able to go all the way to the Philippines to see the match.

As he approached the garage James could hear the sounds of Blue's brother, Conall, at work in the garage but he hurried past and made a beeline for the small newsagents that made up the ground floor of the Finch's house.

A little bell tinkled above the door as James entered the shop. Everything appeared perfectly normal and ordinary and no Muggle would ever have presumed that the thirteen year old behind the counter was a wizard in training. Blue looked up at the sound of the bell. He had been reading a book but he put it down and smiled at James happily.

"How's life at the Burrow?" Blue grinned.

James sighed, "Busy. How's business?"

"Quiet." Blue replied.

"You'll have some time to spare then. I want to talk to you."

James hopped up onto the counter and pulled the bulky wooden box he'd been carrying from under his light jacket.

"I was wondering when you'd turn up with that." Blue mumbled taking the box and opening it.

"Will's been following me everywhere." James muttered rolling his eyes, "I told you I'd leave it here while I'm at the Cup."

"Uh-huh." Blue said examining the small golden statue inside, "Just don't expect me to have figured out what it is by September."

James stuck out his bottom lip but shrugged, "You'll have a look though, right? And whatever you do don't forget to bring it back to school."

Blue gave him a disgusted look which clearly said, 'as if' and then hurriedly stored the box under the counter as the bell tinkled signaling a customer. The boys stopped talking as a girl close to their own age wandered into the shop. They both watched her as she picked up a carton of milk and a box of batteries.

James, realizing that the staring was probably making her feel awkward quickly lapsed into easy chat,

"So, as I was saying. We're leaving on Saturday and Will's coming too."

"Eh . . . How many of you are going?" Blue asked acting casual.

James had to count them off on his fingers before answering, four from his family, plus Will and then six of his uncles and cousins, "Eleven. We're meeting Al and Rose there."

Blue nodded, "Sounds pretty busy."

"You bet but it should be fun anyway."James ginned getting excited just thinking about it.

"Percy not going?" Blue asked.

"No. He's way too busy." James said,"Molly and Fred are still allowed though."

"That's good. They'd have been furious if they missed it. What about Teddy?"

"Says he's too busy with study! I mean, come on, it's like a once in a life time opportunity!"

"More like once in every four years." Blue pointed out as the girl bought her supplies and left the shop, "Now! Tell me more about what happened on the last night of term."

Before James could even start they were interrupted by the bell yet again.

"Hi there James. Enjoying the holidays?" Asked Conall.

Conall was like a bigger, stronger-looking version of Blue with his lean, mechanic's build and his harder more grown up face but the same light brown hair and easy manner.

"Yep!" Replied James sliding off the counter to avoid trouble.

For only twenty-two years of age, Conall had taken on a lot of responsibility. Blue's parents had died when he was very young and for the past three or four years he had been running the shop and garage alone and taking fully guardianship of Blue.

"Can I go on a break now, Conall?" Blue asked.

"Sure, go get yourself some lunch and take a rest. I'll, man the counter for the moment."

James followed Blue into the back of the shop and up the stairs. Blue led him to his small, neat bedroom, which overlooked the road and the petrol pumps. James liked Blue's room. It was tidy and organized and suited Blue perfectly. There was a bed beside one wall, a small wardrobe and a desk. The walls were a pale blue and the single window was low on the wall so you could see out of it even if you were sitting on the floor which is what James did now, slumping downbeside the window as Blue sat in the swivel chair at his desk and turned to face him the wooden box sitting on his knees. Above him a large, old notice board stood on the wall with dozens of thumbtacks and newspaper articles, maps and notes stuck all over it. James often liked to read these but he knew it sometimes annoyed Blue as he was a very private person.

Before Hogwarts Blue had been incredibly shy and had only known James through his cousin Rose who had been friends with him for almost their entire lives. It hadn't seemed likely that loud, mischievous James and childish, prankster Alex would become such good friends withquiet, shy Blue but it was very handy to have Blue in the gang; he had gotten them out of a good few tight corners and he was the powerhouse behind planning their ideas in a way that meant they weren't so likely to get caught.

Even still, James had the unfortunate ability of landing himself in trouble wherever he went. In fact, he had spent the first half of the summer grounded in his family home in London. James knew this bothered Blue as he hated to stress Conall and was always trying to avoid trouble but somehow James always managed to drag him into it. It made James feel incredibly guilty and he'd much rather he got caught than Blue but sometimes it was simply unavoidable.

For example, last year, James had discovered a note written on the back of an old sweet-wrapper, which had led them on a treasure hunt that took the whole year to solve. Finally on the last night of term when they were so close to solving it James and Blue had been separated and Blue had to help James's brother Albus and his friend find a way back to Hogwarts with their injured rival in tow. James had found the treasure but it was impossible to avoid capture back at the castle. James, Blue, Alex, Rose, Albus and Albus's friend, Philip, had all ended up in the Headmistress's office in serious trouble for being out of bed, after hours, or rather,as James preferred to think of it - for being caught out of bed after hours.

"Was Conall mad at you?" James asked, he knew Blue would know what he meant.

Blue shrugged, "More disappointed I think. He didn't say much but I could tell."

James nodded.

"He won't let me go out much but that's okay, there's nowhere to go anyway. I've been too busy to visit the Burrow much though I don't know if he'd have let me. I think he's happier to have you come here where we can't get into too much mischief." Blue explained.

"Fair enough, I guess. You'll be pretty bored stuck here for the rest of the summer though."

"Not really. I'm okay with working in the shop and there's only two weeks left. You been taking to Alex much?" Blue asked.

"No. Haven't been writing much. You?" James admitted.

"I wrote a little but he isn't exactly prompt with responding. He says he's bored and his sister's doing his head in and that's about it." Blue shrugged.

"I can't wait for usall tobe back in Hogwarts again! Even if it does mean classes and homework." James pulled a face, "At least we'll have lots to do again."

"I hope that doesn't mean you have something planned again." Blue said warily swiveling on his chair earnestly.

James raised his eyebrows, "I might . . ."

Blue sighed.

"I'm only messing. You just worry about finding out what that thing is and what it does and then we'll worry about what to do this year."

Blue took out the little gold statue and cleaned it thoughtfully. They were both quiet for a while. James looked around again, watching a car stop outside the window and fill up with petrol and then around the room again, tempted to have a good look at the noticeboard but trying not to. He focused instead on the bedside table near him where a large pile of books stood and a lamp. One single framed photo stood on it and James picked it up, tentatively glancing at Blue to see if he minded. Blue was still examining the ornament and didn't look up so James looked at the photograph in the cheap blue frame.

It was a family photo in which a woman with shoulder length blond hair smiled holding a laughing toddler on her lap with blue eyes and dressed in tiny baby clothes. Behind her stood a man who looked immensely like Conall with his hand on a boy's shoulder who stood next to his mom smiling shyly and looking no older than eleven.

He glanced again at his friend, 'Blue sure does look a lot like his parents.' He thought recognizing Blue's mother's expression and her eyes and his father's hair and smile.

James put the picture back on the table carefully.

Blue sighed and looked up, "I really can't tell you anything yet but I'll work on it, okay?"

James nodded.

"What's in the letter?" Blue asked taking some dusty parchment out of the bottom of the box.

"It doesn't explain much." James shrugged.

Blue scanned it, "Okay, here's what we know about whoever wrote this. They're interested in history and archeology from the looks of it. Whoever they wrote this too is clearly a good friend, or at least they know each other very well. The clues were very precise, possibly personal and they knew they were going to die when they wrote this. However it is clear whoever they meant it for never received it."

James nodded and tried to soak up everything Blue was saying.

"See here," James stood up and peered at the faded writing over Blue's shoulder, "It says, 'no one else could apprehend my hunt without that first sweet wrapper,' it looks like whoever this was intended for never got that sweet wrapper. What we need to find out is how you got it instead."

"I found it in a coat pocket, I told you that." James said puzzled.

"Yes but whose coat was it and how did it get there?" Blue wondered aloud.

James's head was spinning but Blue seemed perfectly relaxed.

"Also, I suspect his name was Forrest. That's why he misspelled it in the clue and he just signs 'F' so it fits, what do you think James?"Blue said as if they were just discussing some homework or something equally mundane.

"Yeah, yeah that sounds really good." James agreed.

"When we get back to Hogwarts I'll start looking for wizards called Forrest, only problem is, it could be a first name or a surname . . ."

They both puzzled over the letter for a little whilelonger then Blue left to go to the bathroom. While he was gone James stood beside the desk looking at the letter but quickly losing interest. The statue that it accompanied was of a small golden snake, it was old and tarnished but after cleaning it up. James had found it was made of gold with silver fangs and detailing on the scales and what looked like shining emeralds for eyes. Whoever had written the letter had described it as their 'secret treasure' but it didn't seem too special to James. Valuable maybe but useful . . . in the letter it had said 'if at all possible, let it aid us in our fight,' was it possible that the statue held some other use that he hadn't discovered yet?

James started looking around the room again in his boredom. Finally, he gave in and sneaked a glance at the noticeboard. Most of the items were newspaper articles, some about Hogwarts, others, local things about Ottery St Catchpole, an advertfor the garage, the opening of a new road which gave Ottery St Catchpole more access to the bigger towns around, his parents obituary pinned up in one corner and some more photographs, one of just Blue and Conall and another of James, Albus, Rose and Blue hanging out in front of the garage the summer before they had started Hogwarts.

One article caught James's eye, or more the picture did, as the writing was all in some language James couldn't understand. He knew Blue was very good at languages, last year he had learned to read an ancient form of Chinese used by wizards hundreds of years ago. The picture was hand drawn and it showed an old, crumbly castle; it wasn't Hogwarts, it looked more like a chateau than just an ordinary castle and it stood on some high cliffy hills. The paper looked old and James could tell it was from a Muggle newspaper as nothing in the picture was moving.

Then he spotted a letter from Alex tacked up too. He read the last couple of lines,

'There's no one to hang out with here and my sister keeps trying to get me to play dress-up with her. Can't wait to get out of here. We're going to visit my mom's sister on the coast for the weekend, at least there should be more to do there. They're super rich and live in this massive house – I'm going to try and ride through the halls on my broomstick! The ceilings are so high, I can't believe no one's ever tried it before. Can't believe James gets to go to the Quidditch World Cup! Especially, after all the trouble we got into!

See you in September,

Alex.'

James grinned, he knew he shouldn't get joy from his friend's jealousy but he couldn't help it. For someone who acted about five years old most of the time it seemed funny that Alex wouldn't want to play with his little sister.

'She must be really annoying.' James thought, thinking of Will and how he was putting him off Quidditch.

Blue came back into the room with some sandwiches, "Hungry?"

James thanked him and took one,

"What's this?" Heasked pointing to the article on the chateau.

"Oh, that's just an old castle in France near where my mom was born." Blue explained munching on a sandwich.

"Oh cool. Can you read that?"

"Not all of it."

After that James and Blue chatted about the summer, the new classes they'd be taking in September and the results of the Quidditch World Cup so far. England had just been knocked out of the running by the Japanese and Wales hadn't made it very far either but Scotland and Ireland could still win. Eventually James decided he had to get back to the Burrow and Blue said he needed to return to the shop.

It was cooler now than when he'd left the Burrow and the Devon air was crisp and cool. You couldn't see the Burrow from the road but James headed up a small track and followed it until eventually he reached the rickety building with its towering bedrooms piled one on top of the other and the tents perched in the garden. Even from here James could here noise issuing from inside and see a bad-tempered Willard kicking a ball around by the orchard. He sighed and swung open the gate and made his way over willing himself to think about the Philippines and the Quidditch World Cup.

Hi! Welcome to my fanfiction. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, it's just a little intro to James and what's happening. I'll have more up soon but there will be a slight delay with the next chapter because I mightn't have internet access for a while. Please subscribe to see when there is more and feel free to message me or send a review because feedback is really helpful!