Pain and Athena
Harry was having an interesting week. It had now been after Dudley’s birthday, and it had been a few days since he sent his letter. To say Dudley’s birthday was a disaster was a severe understatement. His aunt and uncle had no one to drop off Harry with, and so he went with the family to the zoo. On the inside, Harry was absolutely ecstatic. On the outside, Harry kept a completely neutral expression as he watched Dudleyand his friend berate the poor animals. But this was the first time Harry was ever allowed to join them on one of the family outings, so Harry sucked in every detail with appreciation.
Everything was going perfectly well until they got to the reptile exhibit.
Harry absolutely adored reptiles, but he was especially fond of snakes. Snakes in the garden would talk to him when he was sad, and they were the closest thing to friends Harry had. Dudley and Piers started banging on the glass of one of the smaller, apparently new exhibits, yelling at the small snake inside to move and agitating the poor serpent. Eventually, the two got bored and moved on. Harry stayed behind.
“I’m sorry about him, that’s my cousin- er- like a hatchmate-” Harry adds the last part, remembering the conversation he had with a snake a few years back. The small snake, which Harry now realized was a black mamba (Harry’s favorite species) raised its head and looked at Harry with what could only be described as shock, quite the weird look on a snake. In the back of his mind
Harry noted that the snake was very small and not the right color for a black mamba. Its scales were mostly black as obsidian, but it had a shimmering gold pattern along its underbelly. Its eyes were a startling amber.
“You are a speaker?” The snake whispers. At least Harry thought it was a whisper.
“Erm.. yeah, I guess. I can understand snakes if that’s what you mean.” Harry says nervously.
The mamba was looking at him strangely. “You are quite different from other human hatchlings. Very bony. You must eat more mice.” The snake says in a way that could only be described as motherly.
Harry flushed and giggled. “Humans don’t eat mice, or at least I don’t think they do. My aunt and uncle say I’m trouble so I don’t get to eat as much as them.” He says without seeing any issue.
The snake stared at him again. “Your nest is not safe, hatchling?” It asks with concern. Harry isn’t sure what to say. It feel wrong if he lied to it. “I- uhm.. n-not.. not really, b-but it’s okay! I’m alive at least s-so it’s alright.” Harry sputtered out, his cheeks flushed completely red. He wants to change the topic of conversation. “Where are you from?” He asks meekly. The snake slither over towards a sign on the enclosure. Harry wipes his glasses and begins to read. Apparently, the black mamba (who was named Athena apparently) was found in an illegal breeding facility in Greece. “Wow, so you’re Greek then?” Harry asks, intrigued. She bobbed her head up and down in a nod. “Yes hatchling, that is that human name for it.” Harry smiled and put a finger on the glass. “You’re very beautiful, I wish I was a snake so I could have scales like yours.” Harry said quietly. Athena appeared to contemplate something for a moment. Before the two could continue, Harry felt him shoved onto the hard tile floor and a screeching Dudley hovering next to him, yelling at Athena to start moving again. “HOW DID YA GET IT TO MOVE FREAK!” Dudley screams and pulls Harry back up by his hair. Harry flinches, but Dudley’s attention is now on Harry’s new mamba friend. She was hissing at Dudley, a venomous look in her eye.
Dudley pounded on the glass, screaming at the snake to move more and more until Harry loses his patience.
“Will you just give it up, Dudley! It’s obvious your screaming and banging is just bothering her. I’m sure there are more interesting things to do here than bothering a poor innocent snake..” Harry muttered to his cousin.
The cousin in question turned to face him, his shrewd eyes and spaghetti strands of blond hair right up in Harry’s face.
“What did you say to me freak.” Dudley spat. Despite being less than half Dudley’s size and a quarter of his hight, Harry kept his shoulders strait and looked at his cousin with an indifferent expression. Harry’s confidence proved to be his detriment, because within another second Harry feels a large bulky fist smash into his jaw, and he feels a sharp kick in the gut. Now on the floor, he can see the blurry form of Athena banging on the glass of her enclosure and everything suddenly drowns out. The static inside Harry’s head gets so loud Harry begins to cover his ears and rock himself back and forth, until the sound of screaming brings him back to reality. The pale, ashen faced boy stood mouth gaping as he saw the chaos unfolding before him. The glass of every enclosure within ten feet of him had completely shattered, the tiny shards of glass cutting into his skin and making him bleed. Oh, and there were venomous snakes now slithering around the floor freely. Harry feels something odd, like an animal crawled into his hair. Before he could properly process that thought, he felt a rough hand yank him by the arm.
When they got home that night after what was the incident, the Dursleys inflicted Harry's worst punishment to date. A beating, followed by a belt lashing, a kicking by Dudley, and then to top it all off they locked the now unconscious child in the cupboard. When Harry awoke, He heard hissing coming from somewhere inside his cupboard. His head was pounding as he tried to remember where he was, what had happened. The hiss could be heard again, and to the bleeding boys surprise, a pair of amber reptilian eyes greeted him. “Y-you’re here. H-how!” His throat felt like sandpaper, and the words came out broken and hoarse. “Shush now hatching, I am here. Those awful humans left the house a bit ago. They will not be back till tonight.”
Harry’s stomach hurt more than he could remember it hurting in a long time. “H-how l-long was I-I o-o-out..?” Harry rasped. The serpent replied quietly. “About two and a half of your human days, hatchling.” Harry blinked. Two. Days. He’d been knocked out for two days. He hadn’t had any food for almost a week and a half then, and he’d been without water since Dudley's birthday.. which meant that in a few days, Harry would either starve to death or die of dehydration. Harry let out a whimper, letting tears roll down his face. At least he won't spend his final moments a. That was more than what Harry could’ve ever asked for.
‘Maybe this is for the best,’ the boy thought to himself. ‘Maybe the world was just better off without me in the first place.’
After finishing his thought, he felt smooth scales coiling around his bruised and battered rib cage.
‘When I wake up, maybe I’ll be with mum and dad. Maybe we will all be together in the afterlife.’ He let himself drift off into what he believed to be his end.
—————————————————
When Harry woke up, all he could see was light. Bright, white lights dancing around his eyes, making his head hurt. His head always hurts, usually due to his strange lightning shaped scar. Harry never paid much mine to it though, he had far worse scars elsewhere. He thought he could hear voices, but they weren’t voices he recognized.
‘Is this the afterlife? Am I dead’
A voice came suddenly from a blurry figure a meter or two away. “You are not dead Mr Potter, though you came very close.” The man’s tone was soft, assuring.
Harry blinked, his jumbled thoughts starting to clear slightly. He could vaguely see many blurry figures across from him, all speaking in hushed whispers. Harry tried to turn his head, but pain shot through him like a bullet. His small body began to tremble. Harry could vaguely hear a voice calling for pain reliever and he felt a cool glass press against his lips. He slumped over in immediate relief.
————————————
The next week and a half were spent with people running in and out of the room, which appeared to be some type of hospital ward. People in strange clothing would speak to him, ask him how he is doing. It was odd. A man in black robes with greasy ink black looking hair would stand in the corridor sometimes for hours, sometimes accompanied by an older woman with an emerald green hat. It was a very interesting hat, Harry thought to himself.
————————————-
Harry woke in the middle of the night to another meeting of the strange people. He perked up when he heard his name being said.
“You can’t bring him back there Albus, have you gone insane! Look what they did to the boy! It’s barely been two weeks!” A female voice shouted. Harry noticed the lady had a very heavy Scottish accent. “Now now Minerva, Poppy, you did say he was alright to leave now didn’t you?” Another voice said, presumably this Albus person. ‘Hm’ Harry thought. Albus, Minerva.. Why did those names sound so familiar to the boy?
After a second or two, another female voice (who he reckoned must be the lady name Poppy) interrupted softly. “I never said that Albus, I said he wasn’t in critical condition anymore. He still has a multitude of different injuries that need to be healed at some point, not to mention he is critically malnourished.” The older man named Albus sighed, and from my hospital bed I could see that he was stroking his white, long beard. “He will go back to his relatives with the week, I will not debate about this with you.” Albus said. Harry froze, eyes widening. “N-no.” He tries to yell. Albus approached him. “I apologize my boy, I hadn’t realized you were awake. Is there something wrong?” He stated, his eyes twinkling irritatingly. “I-I’m not going back..” Harry stuttered out, glaring at the old man in front of him. Albus gave him a smile. “What happened was a misunderstanding my boy, I’m sure after I speak to them your family will return to normal and all will be fine.” Harry wanted to scream, tell this insane old man to shove his opinion up his arse. Something inside him wanted to rip him apart, piece by piece. To tear out his organs and force the jolly old man to watch in agony as Harry murdered his entire family-
‘Wait, what?’ Harry paused.
Those thoughts had come out of nowhere, and now Harry was confused. He shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts. Albus left.
————————————————
Two days later, all the people who had been caring for and visiting Harry had been gathered in the room by the Albus man. He started preparing different drinks and cups, asking everyone to all make a toast to ‘Harry’s spectacular recovery.’ Though a few were reluctant, eventually all in the room agreed. Most took something called firewhisky, Harry assumed it was alcoholic, and a few had tea. Harry asked for water. Everyone made a toast and either took a shot of a large sip of their liquid.
Harry paused, only having just put the cup to his lips when he noticed the headmaster had put down his cup. His cup which hasn’t been drinken from. It took Harry a second to realize what the old man was doing, and by then it was too late. The adults around him all seemed to slump over, unconscious. Harry stared at Albus in horror as within a second he could feel the cup being pressed against his lips.
A voice could be heard from beside the boy, apologizing but stating this needed to be done. Harry however hadn’t really heard him, as he slumped over completely unconscious into the man’s arms. The man then went around the room, each time staring the incantation “Obliviate”. One by one he levitated each teacher to their personal quarters, and made sure the last few weeks involving Harry Potter were completely erased and utterly erased from their minds. It took quite a bit of time, but when he was done not even professor snape, being the master occumens that he is, would remember what had happened. Neither would the boy, naturally. Dumbledoor felt disgusting to have to resort to such extreme measures, he truly did. The headmaster felt genuinely horrible for the role he played in the child’s abuse. But it was too late to turn back, to change plans. Besides, this was not the first time Harry Potter had been brought to Hogwarts due to being almost beaten to death. The prior time Albus believed had been far more concerning. The boy was resentful, and had such immense hate towards his relatives to the point of actively wishing for their death. It was so bad that legilimency needed to be used.
Another issue at the time was the child seemed unnaturally adept at using wandless magic, even more so than Tom had been when Albus first met him.
The headmaster couldn’t have the boy figuring out about magic so early, and absolutely in no way would he allow Harry to continue using it.
Albus at the time decided that best way to avoid the issue and also deal with the other problem was to make the child feel his contempt and fear that was previously directed towards his relatives and instead direct it towards his wandless magic.
From that point on all feelings of rage and contempt towards his relatives (or anyone really) would be directed inwards towards himself and his magic.
While it made Albus feel almost sick to know what he was doing to the child, he couldn’t have another Tom Riddle walking the earth if he could help it. Regardless of the fact that the murderous rage and contempt was complete justified to a child who had only seen pain and mistreatment from his family, the boy needed to be a saviour. The headmaster simply couldn’t in his right mind allow the feelings and magic to fester.
Even if it meant the child would be forced to loath himself.
Even if it meant that Albus was knowingly causing a mere nineyear boy to deal with what would most likely evolve into a manic depression.
Albus shook himself out of the memory and focused and young Harry. After he had skimmed the child’s mind (carefully avoiding memories of Dudley’s birthday as the guilt of what Harry will continue to endure because of him was too much.) Albus sighed. It seemed the boy was in exactly the mindset that Albus had predicted him to be in.
One of the possibilities Albus had to accept was that the child may eventually begin committing acts of self harm.
Pushing away the heartbreaking image of the child piercing his skin with the rusty nail, Albus sighed and retreated from the boy's mind, careful not to alter anything.
Albus muttered final apologies.
To take his mind off the heinous acts he just committed, he loudly discussed his plans of going to diagon alley and when to send Hagrid to retrieve young Harry.
Albus did not fear that anyone may be listening, because as he had made sure of it, there was not a single conscious human being in the castle. The headmaster left, extremely disappointed with himself internally. He knew what he was doing was immoral, and in his mind he was now no better than the boy's abusers or teachers who failed to help the child.
No. He was worse. He was the cause of a child’s self harm. Albus Dumbledoor knew he was worse than a monster. But it was far too late to change things. He had made his decision three years prior, and now he had to deal with the consequences.
Sometimes it takes two wrongs to make a right, Albus repeated to himself. He left the hospital wing making preparations for Harry’s return to his relatives.
——————————————
The old man was technically right, of course. There wasn’t a single human being who could’ve or would’ve heard him in the current entirety of Hogwarts.
But tucked near her hatchling, camouflaged in the shadows, was a serpent. An extremely intelligent serpent, who has been hiding, waiting, listening. Who learned about the world her hatchling belongs to.
Albus has been right about one thing. None of the witches or wizards in the castle would know what had happened those last few nights.
But the small, venomous serpent that now coiled around her hatchling’s body DID remember.
She will protect her hatchling and guide him, telling him only what he must know to be kept safe.
And so, when Athena and the human child she has claimed as her hatchling were shoved back into the tiny cupboard, she simply accepted it.
She would guide her hatching to the wizarding world herself, teaching him to be strong, fierce. Albus Dumbledoor would never be prepared for what awaits him.
The snake smirked to herself, before focusing her eyes and the peacefully asleep boy attached to her.
“My hatchling, sleep well. For by the end of tomorrow, you will be in Diagon alley, and back among the proper ones of your kind.” Laying her head gently and the boy's chest, she smiled once more, and then fell asleep to her hatchlings pulsing heartbeat.
——————————————————
Harry woke up with a thrumming headache.
He winced as he slowly sat up, his hair brushing the top of the dusty cupboard.
Suddenly low hissing was heard coming from around him. For a moment, the boy slumped with relief. At least Athena was here.
Harry bent his neck down to gaze fondly at his serpent companion.
“I see you are awake, hatchling” Athena hissed softly.
“What happened? The last thing I remember was the zoo and uncle-…” Harry’s words choked off, the memories of uncle Vernon and the foul beating plagued him. Harry felt Athena wrap herself tightly around his waist, and her cool scales steadied his breathing.
“What do you remember of your letter..?” Athena asked carefully.
Harry furrowed his brows in concentration. “Erm, I-it said I have magic right? That I’m supposed to go to a magic school?” The boy stated tentatively. Athena bobbed her head in a nod.
“Very good hatchling. You have been asleep for quite a while. I have been learning about magic in your wake.” She hissed.
Harry’s eyes widened.
“I shall guide you back to your people, I will guide you to their world.” The snake stated with certainty. Harry felt something like joy inside him for the first time in years.
“I-I’m… really? I’ll get to be a wizard? I’m not gonna be a freak anymore..?” Harry stammered.
“No my hatching,” Athena soothed him. “Those foul two legged pests will not harm you in their world. You are special. You are powerful. Far more than any of those land-walkers realise. In their world you will make yourself truly great.”
Harry felt his heart soar at the very thought. Greatness. Power. Recognition. He wouldn’t be the delinquent freak hidden under the stairs. He would be Harry Potter. A wizard. He would belong. It sounded too good to be true. How could he, a lonely, orphaned wizard make himself a name in this world? Him, who’s druggie parents killed themselves in a car crash and nearly killed him too?
“When can we leave?” He hissed under his breath, eyes wide and fearful. The very notion of the adult residents of Number 4 Privet drive discovering that their dreadful nephew was leaving the perfect Dursleys household to learn magic was enough to give his aunt and uncle both a stroke and then send them into cardiac arrest. Harry grinned silently at the mere thought, but also grimaced. If he was caught… Well, Harry Potter would be no more.
His worries need not be vocalized, for his serpentine familiar tightened around his rib cage as if to reassure him. “We shall start anew tonight. You are Harry Potter. A powerful wizard who bows to no one.” Harry let in a deep breath and smiled. He was ready. This was his brand new start.