The Souvenir Chapter 3
Harry was ready to go home. The jungle had lost its allure, and he couldn’t wait to get back to school, and his friends, and his dorm bed, and regular showers, and he was sick of harvesting plants and catching bugs. Just two days to go.
“Harry,” began Severus, “This is our last stop, and there is a plant here that needs to be harvested by the light of the full moon. So please ask the local populace if they know anything about local werewolves. If there are any, we can’t stay.”
Harry walked a few feet into the trees and started to call out in parseltongue. {Is anybody here? Can I talk to you?}
Suddenly the jungle shook with the influx of reptiles. {A speaker! We have never known one. What can we speak of youngling?}
When Harry emerged into the clearing he was draped with snakes, and dozens followed behind him like puppies.
{Uhm, I’m not sure what the words are, but I need to know if there are any moon wolves around here.}
Most of the snakes didn’t know what he was talking about, and he wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
Then the large bushmaster snake that was hanging on his shoulders spoke up. {I know of what you speak, hatchling. The creature is a two-leg except when the moon shines full. There are none of those in this place. You must not seek them out. Stay here with us and be safe.}
{Oh, I’m not looking for them. My father wants to gather flowers tomorrow night, and we need to know if it’s safe. Do you have a name friend? I’m Harry.}
{I am Ssanass, Harry. Tell us of your home. Have you many nest mates?}
{No, just me. My parents were killed by an evil man, and eventually I was adopted by the tall dark one over there. He teaches where I go to school.}
{You need nest mates. We will come with you back to your home.}
{I don’t think that is going to work out. It is pretty cold there most of the time. I don’t think you’d like it. Maybe I can work it out for one of you.}
“Harry, do they understand what we need to know? I want to get on with this one way or the other.”
“Oh, sorry, Dad. This big guy here is Ssanass. He understands, and he says there are no werewolves around here. Uhm, he is really nice, and he thinks I need a brother, so I was wondering…”
“NO. You are not carting an eight foot long, poisonous snake back to Hogwarts. I knew you were spending too much time with Hagrid. Now, thank him, put him down, and help me with the tents please. And tell him that puppy dog eyes don’t work on me and look ridiculous on a snake.”
{Sorry, no deal. Thanks for the information though.}
{Goodbye little one. Just call for us if you change your mind.}
The rest of their time was spent on planning the moonlight excursion. Just because there were no werewolves didn’t mean that the jungle was safe, especially at night. Harry tried many ways to ask Severus to let him take something home. After all, Severus got hundreds of specimens, Hagrid got a parrot, Professor Sprout got plants, and even Professor McGonagall got an orchid. He shouldn’t be the only one who came out of this trip without a souvenir. It just wasn’t fair.
Finally it was time to gather up the last flower Severus wanted. The jungle was both beautiful and frightening by moonlight. They found the patch they were looking for just as the flowers opened fully to the moonlight. It made them glow with an unearthly luminescence. In the end, Harry was glad he got to see it. The harvesting didn’t take long as the flowers were very easy to find, and soon, the two were back in their clearing crawling into their tents to sleep.
The next morning was rainy and dreary, but Harry didn’t care. They were finally going home. Severus put the flowers they gathered the previous night into the stasis bag, and they broke down the tents in preparation to leave.
“Harry, I have thought about what you asked, and although you may not take Ssanass, you have been very helpful this trip and you do deserve a souvenir. Here is an animal stasis box. You may pick ONE, SMALL, NONPOISONOUS pet to bring back with us. It may live in your room in my quarters.”
Harry’s eyes lit up. This was the best news he had heard the whole vacation. Yelping a quick “Thanks, Dad” he scampered off into the trees. Nearly half an hour later, he walked out holding the box carefully, grinning from ear to ear.
“Do you want to check what I got, Dad?”
“I believe my instructions were clear about what you may, and may not adopt, right?”
“Sure, Dad.”
“And you know what I will do if you willfully disobey me, correct?”
“Roast my bum.”
“Unnecessarily picturesque, but essentially correct, and I am sure I can trust you to have made a wise choice. Besides, I gave you a very small box.”
The trip home was quite uneventful, and the duo arrived at Hogwarts gates in the middle of the same afternoon that the other students were returning. Harry was quite happy to unpack his bags and still have time to meet the train. With Sirius Black still not caught, all the students had gone home for the holidays allowing for the wards to be strengthened.
For the first time, Harry had better stories from his vacation than Hermione and Ron. All the way back in the carriage, he retold the tale of meeting Jasmine, and Ssanass, and also the researchers. Hermione was so happy for him. His adoption by professor Snape had worked out really well, he looked healthy, and happy.
He promised to get her a copy of the paper that his friend Tom was writing on the snake venoms and healing potions.
Ron was relieved that Harry was doing so well. He loved the crocodile tooth that Harry had brought back for him. He couldn’t wait to compare it to Charlie’s dragon tooth.
After the start of term feast, Harry took Ron and Hermione down to the dungeons to look at his souvenir. It was an egg the size of a larger goose egg. It was buried in a pot of sand with a warming charm keeping it nice and toasty. Hermione looked dubious.
“It’s nice, Harry, but what is it? I mean what will it be when it hatches?”
“Well, I’m not entirely sure. I know it is going to be a reptile, and the snakes in the area, who showed me the nest, promise that it won’t be poisonous, but beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. I guess we’ll all find out in 2 to 4 weeks.”
At this, even Ron was unsure. “Mate, is this really a good idea? Suppose it turns out to be dangerous. Remember Hagrid and Norbert.”
“Don’t worry guys”, Harry scoffed, “I know it isn’t a dragon because there weren’t any in the area where I found it. And remember, I speak parseltongue. I’ve already been talking to it, and I’m sure it will be fine. I promised Dad he can have the shell, and really, what could come out of a little egg like that?”
As Harry cooed happily at his future pet, Hermione just shook her head. “Harry, the basilisk hatched out of a chicken egg, and it grew to what, 60 feet?”
“Come on Hermione, it took hundreds of years to grow that long. I graduate in four and a half. You just wait. This is going to be great.”
“Well, I hope so Harry. Oh, gosh, it’s getting late. We’d better be getting back to the tower.”
Harry started to spend part of every day in his dungeon room talking to his egg, and waiting patiently for it to hatch. On one Saturday, he went to see Hagrid, and found him trying to coax his baby parrot onto his shoulder. Come summer, he was going to look like a gigantic pirate.
With Professor Sprout’s help, Severus had forced the orchid to grow very quickly, and it would be blooming any day now, much to Minerva’s delight. Severus even made some extra strength lemon drops for the headmaster using fresh lemons they had picked on their trip. Everyone had their memento of the trip and Harry continued to wait.