When Harry left the hospital wing, he was surprised to see that some of the hall-ways were already festooned with beautiful, fan-shaped arrangements of holly, yew, fir and ivy, with bright red ribbons and bells woven throughout. In other corridors, the suits of armour and statues sung carols, a few hall-ways were decorated with bright little fairies and most were filled with the lovely scents of oranges, cinnamon and cloves.

“Why are only certain corridors decorated, Sir?” Harry asked Professor Snape as they walked down to the Serpents’ Nest.

“The teachers dedicate their free periods to decorating the school” the Potions Master replied “However, as we have a few weeks yet before Yule, we have only just begun the preparations. Usually, Professor Flitwick charms the fairies, Professor McGonagall teaches the statues to sing, I create everlasting perfumes and Professor Sprout and Hagrid arrange the foliage. However, this year Professor Malfoy made the scents for the corridors.”

“Because you were looking after me?” asked Harry, feeling a little guilty.

“Indeed, I had a much more important and enjoyable job. However, if it would give you pleasure, we can avail ourselves of Mr Malfoy’s labs and make some Yule scents for his house.”

“Oh! Draco would really enjoy that!” beamed Harry.

Severus smiled “You always think of everyone before yourself, my child.”

Harry sighed, half happy, half wistful. Although he felt a little bad for his real dad, he couldn’t help but wish Mum had married Professor Snape instead. He would love to be Professor Snape’s child for real.

oOoOo

When they arrived at the Serpents’ Nest, Harry was rather surprised to find it completely empty: on a Saturday afternoon the Common Room was usually teaming with people but Harry couldn’t even hear anyone in the dorms.

A lot of things happened at once; sparking strands of silver fell from the air, party food crowded the writing tables and all the students reappeared in the room with a huge shout of “Surprise!”

Professor Snape, who had flung himself in front of Harry, flushed pink, growled “Seraph!” and made a swift exit, closely followed by a tall, blond man who was chuckling and wiping tears of laughter out of his eyes.

“Hey Harry! Did we surprise you?”

“Hey Harry! Come and have some chocolate éclairs!”

“Haahaa! Oh your face!”

“We’ve got cheese and pickle sandwiches! Your favourite!”

“We’ve been planning this all week!”

Harry grinned: he loved his friends.

oOoOo

In the halls of Hogwarts, Salazar flitted from canvas to canvas, sometimes stepping into the mirror sheen of a breastplate, occasionally hiding in a silver sconce.

If the turbaned one was, indeed, of the same soul as his wretched, kin-biting heir, that disgrace to the name of Parselmouth, Salazar would discover him.

And woe betide his heir if he had been the one to harm the hatching of Salazar’s heart. There was but one way of dealing with a cobra in the nest.

OoOoO

That night, when the boys were fast asleep, Reggie slithered off Harry’s bed and pressed his snout against the glass of the large aquarium, which lay between Harry and Draco’s four-posters.

*“Hello?”* he whispered.

A beautiful tangerine and ink striped snake rippled out from a cave *“Hello”*

*“I’m Kingy, what’sss your name?”* Reggie asked shyly.

*“Isssisss. I own gold and grey two-legssss.”* said the young sea snake proudly.

*“That’s a pretty name. I own dark and green two-legs: he’sss very nissse. He got bitten by bad metal, sssso he’sss been in healing nesssst.”*

*“Poor two-legs. Healed all better now?”* Isis asked sweetly, flicking her tail.

*“Yesss, all better. I like to sssswim too.”* Reggie said hopefully.

*“Would you like to come and ssswim with me? I promise no fangs if you promise no squeezy-crush.”*

*“Oh yesss pleassse!”*

oOoOo

The next morning, Harry, Draco, Theo and Blaise walked down to Hagrid’s hut: the large man was almost as enthralled as Draco on the prospect of Hogwarts housing the world’s most poisonous snake and that, combined with their shared concern about Harry, had gradually endeared Hagrid to the scion of the proud house of Malfoy to such an extent that Draco was eager to visit, despite the fact that he was only a game-keeper.

Today, they were taking Isis to meet Hagrid; Draco had a small carrying-tank, complete with feather-light charm, to transport his snake and Reggie, who they’d woken to find in Isis’s aquarium, had decided to come along for the ride. Reggie and Isis were now fast friends: they both loved to swim and, being friendly, sweet-natured creatures, this was recommendation enough. Draco had been somewhat surprised that Reggie had been able to get in but, as Theo theorised, it was probably because the wards were only designed to keep out humans, not incorrigible ball pythons.

“It feels so good to be outside again” sighed Harry, sniffing the crisp, winter air.

“It is really good to be able to do things together again.” said Hermione, who, being a girl, was allowed to voice it.

“We really missed you!” added Blaise, who didn't give a fig about social convention.

(*“I love ssssinging! I love sssswimming! I love Isssssissss! I’m a happy, happy, happy, happy little ssssnake!”* Reggie sang, off key, from the hood of Harry’s coat. Isis swished in her tank, psshssing happily.)

Theo ran up the steps to Hagrid’s hut and, when the door was opened, fielded Fang, gently tackling the huge boarhound to the ground and rolling around with him. Theo’s dad also bred dogs, Great Danes, and Theo had long known that the best way to de-bounce a mutt was to beat it at its own game and play until it cried uncle.

“Ello kids! I’m righ’ pleased to see yeh up and about, young ‘arry! An’ ere’s the sea snake! Ain’t she a beauty! Yeh must be righ’ proud of her Draco. Come ‘ere Fang, leave poor Theo alone. ‘Ello, Reggie! Come in, come in, let’s all ‘ave a cuppa!”

The children all bustled into the round hut and climbed up onto the chairs to sit at the table.

“I’ve brought you some cakes, Hagrid” said Draco, placing Isis’s carrying tank in the centre of the table and reaching into his school bag “Bath buns. I know you enjoy them.”

“Tha’s right thoughtful of yeh lad, I haven’t had much time for bakin’ of late” Hagrid said, closing the lid of the cake tin which he had just taken out of the cupboard.

Blaise covertly gave Draco the thumbs up; Hagrid had good intentions but the path to hell was paved with his rock-cakes.

Once they had all been served a large mug of tea, Hagrid smiled over at Draco “So, what ‘ave yeh called her, Dray?”

“Isis.” grinned Draco, admiring the happy little snake, who was coiling and rippling in the water.

“Isis, that’s a righ’ pretty name and a fitting ‘un, too. How does she get along with ‘Arry’s li-le Reggie?”

“We found them in the same tank this morning” smirked Blaise “I think it’s a case of love at first sight.”

Harry giggled “I think they just both really like swimming.”

“Can I ‘ave a hold?”

“Sure, she’s really friendly. But, ah, dad said you’d need a besoar first” Draco started fishing in his pocket.

“Don’ worry, lad, there isn’t much that can poison me; become immune, I have. Been bitten by all sorts.” Hagrid grinned, as if the world could hold no higher honour.

As Draco popped the stone in his mouth and reached in for the bright, pretty snake, Blaise said “It must be fascinating being the game-keeper of the Forbidden Forest; you must see all sorts of amazing creatures.”

“Aye, lad. We ‘ave everything from unicorns to Kluddes, though thankfully only a few of ‘em.”

“Kluddes?” asked Hermione curiously.

“Demon dogs, righ’ nasty buggers; almost humanoid, they are, and deadly fast. They ‘ave a taste for human flesh. Live to kill, they do.” Hagrid reached out for Isis, stroking her small, bullet head with large, gentle fingers.

“Are there many canids?” asked Theo, in an attempt at guile.

“Like dire-wolves, maybe grims?” cut in Blaise quickly, before Theo could say anything too obvious.

“Yeah, we ‘ave a little pack of dire-wolves. They’re decent creatures; don’t like humans much but yeh can’t fault em. Folk can be righ’ nasty about summat that strikes ‘em as uncanny an’ dire-wolves look unusual righ’ enough.”

“They sound fascinating, Hagrid” said Hermione smoothly.

“Oh, they are. Keep the Kluddes in check for me; decent little things when they learn that you mean ‘em no harm an’ will give their very dew-claws for a friend.”

“I really like dogs” said Theo “Not so keen on the toy breeds, though! They get under your feet too much.”

Blaise grinned “I have known you to trip over sofas, Theo.”

Hagrid nodded “Yeh right, Theo. I tend to get a bit clumsy with dogs smaller than Fang. They allus run where yeh ain’t expectin’ ‘em.”

“What’s the biggest dog you’ve ever owned?” asked Draco “We’ve had some pretty massive briards over the years; one male was about half as big again as Fang.”

“Ah, you ain’t into the giants until you ‘ave somethin’ like my Fluffy. Cerberus, ee is. Good boy but don’t know his own strength.” Hagrid said fondly.

“Wow! You own a Cerberus?” said Harry.

“I’ve never even seen one before” said Blaise

“I’ve heard they’re really rare” added Hermione for good measure.

Hagrid glowed with pride “Werl, they’re uncommon enough; got mine off a Greek chappy. I could show him to you some time, if you like.”

“Can we see him now?” Draco begged, gazing up with the ‘puppy-dog eyes’ which always worked on his father.

Hagrid smiled “Not till summer, lad, leant him to a friend of mine. Good guard dog, a Cerberus.”

“Is he guarding anything interesting?” asked Theo enthusiastically.

“Not sure, Theo.” Hagrid said evasively, handing Isis back to Draco “She’s righ’ lovely, Dray, yeh take good care of her, yeh hear.”

Draco nodded, ticking Isis under the chin before setting her gently into the water. Reggie, uncoiling himself from Harry’s chair, slithered across the table and into Isis’ tank, hissing a happy greeting as he did so.

Blaise, deciding that it would be wise to change the subject, then started asking whether there were any winged horses in the forest and Hagrid, who loved his little herd of Threstrals, happily chatted away, comparing notes on Pegasus care versus Threstral care, the best way to break in a young winged horse, preferred saddlers, etcetera.

Theo then asked whether it was true that Threstrals were bad luck.

“No, no, lad. Folk are just strange about ‘em. Yeh can only see ‘em if yeh watched someone die an’ there’s many that find it spooky. Good creatures they are; if yeh provoke ‘em, they may take a bite out of yeh but so will a horse if you bate it. I recon Unicorns are fiercer, if you got a certain look about you.”

“I thought Unicorns were supposed to be gentle” said Harry.

“Yeah, they can be, especially with kids. ‘Owever, they’re guardians and that there horn is for a reason: if yeh look like yeh thinking of doing harm for the pleasure of it, they’ll come at yeh. An’ yeh better hope they kill yeh rather than the other way round. If yeh slay a unicorn, yeh damned.” Hagrid paused and looked out of the window pensively.

“What is it, Hagrid?” asked Blaise.

“Someun’s been killin’ unicorns of late. It’s righ’ worrying, specially with Flamel’s st…” Hagrid flushed and started talking quickly “I found some of me Threstrals dead too; they were protectin’ the poor buggers. Not a mark on the Threstrals though.”

Theo’s brow wrinkled “Do you think they were attacked by poachers?”

“No, lad, I ‘ope not; the ‘orns, mane and tail were intact. But let’s not talk about that. I’ve got some right nice little eostrie, yeh know; there’s a burrow of ‘em righ’ by the greenhouses. If yeh keep yeh eyes peeled, yeh might see ‘un. Lilac, they are, an’ tame as anything…”

oOoOo

As Draco and Harry placed their snakes back in Isis’s aquarium and Theo opened his wardrobe to get a clean set of robes, Blaise leant on the closed Dormitory door and smiled significantly.

“Gentlemen, I have grounds to believe that ‘Fluffy’ is guarding the Philosophers Stone.”