No one knew how it had happened, but everyone present to see the look of pure shock both Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall wore at the sight instantly knew that they would probably never get an answer. At least not a reasonable, well-thought out answer.
“Mr Potter, Mr Weasley, what…” Professor McGonagall shook her head in disbelief. “What is the meaning of this?”
Harry rubbed the back of his neck. “So we kinda missed curfew.”
“But we did get Ginny back,” Ron added with a bit more enthusiasm. “Although I think we’re gonna need a new professor against the dark arts… They’re both at the infirmary, by the way.”
Professor Dumbledore nodded as calmly as he could in this situation. “Yes, we received word from Madam Pomfrey. But that wasn’t what Professor McGonagall was talking about.”
“Oh right, the sword,” said Harry as he brought the blade out to be seen. “I promise I didn’t steal it or anything, it just came out of a hat… okay, that does sound kinda dumb…”
“Again, that isn’t what we were-”
“WHY IS THERE A GIANT SNAKE HERE?!?”
*****
Things didn’t get any less hectic as time went on. The end of Harry’s second year was filled with people not knowing if they should congratulate him for saving the school or stay away from him. That fact was especially clear for the second year Gryffindors, except for Ron, Ginny, and Harry himself, along with Hagrid who was always happy to share his enthusiasm for oversized deadly creatures. After being de-petrified, Hermione also eventually came around to this new situation, even if she was more than a little surprised.
Thankfully, Harry didn’t expect to bring along the massive ten-foot basilisk with petrifying capabilities along every single trip he made, so people at school didn’t have to deal with seeing it everyday. At first, at least.
The basilisk had made herself a nice little den near the lake and waited until the end of each day for her new friend to come talk to her. For the last few months of school, that had now become her new normal. It was a nice normal. It had been a little hard at first for her to get used to the sunlight again, but she was quick to take a liking to sleep under it as she waited. She didn’t mind waiting, she had done it for most of her life.
As much as Ron and Hermione wanted to be supportive of their friend’s insistence on befriending a massive murderous snake, they still had to admit that they couldn’t really understand Harry’s thought process. He had tried to explain it to them, but the answer came out muddled and not very cohesive. Still, on some days they accompanied him to the basilisk and tried to be as polite as possible to the thing that had petrified one and almost killed their friend. Harry had made it clear that the basilisk apologised for doing that, but it was still a massive snake they were talking to.
Professor McGonagall had thought that this would be all, and that they would now also have to monitor a basilisk as well as the giant squid in the lake like any other creature living on school grounds. But then Harry just had to come into her office.
“Professor McGonagall, is it possible to shrink Worm?”
She blinked. “I’m sorry, Mr Potter, you want to shrink a worm?”
“Oh, no, the basilisk? I named her Worm because she forgot her name. She thought it was funny, so we’re sticking with that.”
“I see… So you want to shrink the basilisk because…?”
“I want to bring her with me for the summer.” The professor’s vacant stare was enough for Harry to know her thoughts on this matter. “She’ll get lonely! And she promised she wouldn’t hurt anyone back at Privet Drive. She doesn’t want to be too small though, more like a python? A very big python.”
“Mr Potter, I don’t think I have to point out how unwise it is to bring back a magical creature to live with muggles.”
“She threatened to start petrifying again if I leave her behind. She really wants to come back with me.”
Professor McGonagall sighed very deeply. “Mr Potter, I understand that you’ve become quite close with the basilisk, but I must remind you that these creatures can be very dangerous.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I know… She tried to eat me.”
“Then I must ask if you are fully ready to take care of such a creature, whether it be its natural size or not.”
“She promised to listen to me as long as I don’t leave her alone for too long. That’s about three days, by the way.”
“And are you sure your uncle and aunt will accept you coming back with a snake the size of a python?”
“Well… they wouldn’t really have a choice, would they? She can still petrify them.”
In the end, Professor McGonagall did shrink down Worm to the size of a snake that could comfortably sit on Harry’s shoulders. The basilisk did grumble quite a bit about being so small, but she couldn’t deny that she preferred this to being alone.
The Dursleys were not happy to see Harry come back with a snake. But one, they still had to keep taking care of him, and two, Worm was being quite threatening when they started talking about giving her to a zoo. That summer, Harry spent his time in his room trying to make peace between Hedwig and Worm.
“Both of you, stop trying to eat each other!”
“I will crush your puny little wings!”
“Worm!”
“She’s being rude!”
“You’re not helping!”
Sadly, communicating with Hedwig was a lot harder since Harry couldn’t speak to her directly. But both of them eventually stopped trying to outright kill each other to instead squabble all the time.
“You’ve spent too much time with him, it’s my turn to be on his shoulders!”
Hedwig’s screeches were enough to make her answer clear.
“Worm, if you keep talking like that to her, I’m gonna put you inside a vivarium.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Oh I would.”
By the time Harry had to leave because of his relative being an absolute berk, Worm had not been put inside of a vivarium. She was in fact happily draped on his shoulders while Hedwig was stuck inside her cage. As soon as Harry gingerly opened its door once he was inside his hotel room, the two started fighting again. Harry just sighed and walked away to hear about the murderous godfather he apparently had.
The start of the third year was funny because at first, no one except for Ron and Hermione understood that Worm was now the size of a normal snake. That quickly changed when she petrified Trevor for apparently looking at her weird.
“He’s a toad, what do you expect him to do?” Harry exclaimed in parseltongue as Neville cried behind him.
“He’ll be fine, didn’t they undo it on the ones from last year?”
“I can’t believe I have to say this,” he muttered. “Stop petrifying people. Stop petrifying anything!”
She groaned as Harry turned to try and comfort Neville. “Fine.”
Then she started trying to eat Scabbers, which was even worse.
“Between Hermione’s killer cat and your crazy snake, he won’t last the year!” Ron exclaimed as he clutched his rat.
“I promise she won’t kill him,” Harry sighed as he turned to Worm. “Right?”
“That isn’t a rat.”
“What do you mean it’s not a rat?What is it then?”
“I don’t know, but it’s not a rat.”
Turned out she had been right, it was a man who could turn himself into a rat. After learning this, Worm wished that she had just eaten him. Then again, he wasn’t the only person she wanted to eat.
“So what’s that snake all about, Potter? Did you actually figure out which house is superior?”
“Malfoy, if you could understand what she was saying, you would be walking away,” Harry said flatly as he tried to ignore all of Worm’s hisses.
“I will hunt you down for two months, making you unable to sleep.”
“Oh yeah, what’s it going to do at this size?”
“Then I’ll petrify you and consume you bit by bit, only leaving your rotting head outside for your family to see, but with your eyes gouged out.”
Even though Harry absolutely despised Malfoy, he couldn’t help but wince. “I would suggest checking your bed each night before going to sleep.”
The day Harry figured out how to make Worm change her size at will, Draco became slightly more wary of his surroundings.
Time passed, people changed, the Dark Lord resurrected himself and started destroying the Ministry of Magic, Harry kept failing potions, and a lot of people died. But hey, at least Worm and Hedwig had stopped fighting with each other.
When Hedwig died, Harry and Worm sat right outside of the Weasleys’ house. Harry turned her back to her normal size, and they grieved.
When the battle of Hogwarts raged on, Worm did her part. She may not have been able to petrify that arrogant boy that had used her, but she did petrify a lot of his followers and helped Neville to defeat that other snake that kept killing people.
After that, Worm stayed with Harry. She stayed with him through all of it. She was there when he got married with Ginny, when their children where born and grew. Only Harry could still understand her, but that was fine. In fact, she even volunteered to accompany young Albus to school, promising that she would try to keep him out of trouble. The boy was placed into Slytherin, which both Harry and Worm found hilariously fitting.
Worm did end up showing Albus her old chamber. For many years, it had been her home. But now, she had a much better, much eventful home.