*“Killed bad rat-human! Can’t bite my Harry now! Sssqueezy CRUSHED!”*
“Sev! Sev! Please, it wasn’t Isis’s fault. That man! He was standing over Harry…"
“Dad! He changed from a rat into a man!”
*“Bitey, bitey. Cobra dead. Bad Cobra! Not hurt my two-legsss!”* sang Reggie, shimmying up Harry’s leg and torso to coil gently around his shoulders.
“Oh Gods, I feel sick!” moaned Greg, turning away from Peter’s purpled, swollen face.
“Daddy won’t let them kill her! She didn’t do anything wrong! She was protecting Harry!”
“Oww! Salazar Socrates Nott!” Theo cried: he had tried to pick up the tiny, excited snake, only to be bitten as Sal lunged again for Peter.
*“Ssssowwy Feoo! I’s just exthited!”*
“Draco! Doesn’t she need to be in the water?” Vin asked, worriedly.
*“Ssssilly Ssssal! Got to watch carefully as two-legsss alwaysss put handsss everywhere!”* psshed Isis, who was being squeezed by a tearful and terrified Draco.
“Sev! You can’t let them destroy her! You can’t!”
“Dad!”
“Please! Quiet!” cried Severus, putting one arm around Harry, who was now hiding his face in the side of his father’s waist, the other around Draco and his wand hand to transfigure a stray sock into a bowl for the nauseous Greg. “No, Draco, no one will hurt Isis. Calm down.”
Draco burst into tears, cuddling Isis’s little black, bullet-shaped head to his cheek.
*“Poor two-legsss! Do not ssshhss. Everything will be alright”*
“Draco.” Blaise said gently “Let’s put Isis back in her cage, she can’t be very comfortable.
“But there’s no water!”
“Draco, where is Isis’s carrying-tank?” Severus asked “She can stay there until I have time enough to repair her aquarium.”
“Oh, yeah, okay.” Draco sniffed, pulling the smaller tank out of his wardrobe and gently lowering his precious familiar into the self-cleaning water.
oOoOo
Severus would be the first to admit that he was not the most patient or tranquil of men (or, if not the first, definitely the second or possibly the third as berating the student who had pre-empted him might take a few moments.)
A combination of exhaustion, horror and a screaming headache did not sweeten his temper. Therefore, Severus felt fully justified in casting sonorous on himself and bellowing into the Headmaster’s chambers “Albus!”
After a flurry of cloth, the brief, pained cry of a foot on an upturned hairbrush and a swift pattering of slippers, Professor Dumbledore stuck his head through the floo.
“Good evening or, rather, good morning Severus. To what do I owe this very late pleasure?”
Severus rolled his dark eyes “Peter Pettigrew has just been found in my first year dormitory”
“Peter… but, Severus, he’s dead! Died ten years ago, November 1st, Sirius Black…”
“Yes and, as much as it pains me, no. Peter was alive, it seems, until he was perceived as a threat by these children’s snakes, who proceeded to dispatch him with Unspeakable precision.”
Albus’s blue eyes were comically wide in his candyfloss tangle of hair, moustache and beard.
“I have a group of very upset children here, Albus!” Severus growled, gesturing with his head towards Harry who was still hiding under his father’s arm “Wake up Minerva and let us step through.”
“Yes, yes indeed my dear boy.” replied the Headmaster, running his fingers through his beard “I will message her via patronus. Come through, children, do.”
oOoOo
Whilst Draco, Theo, Vin, Greg and Blaise ate ginger newts in the comforting presence of Madam Pomfrey, Dumbledore, on the premise that he wished to interview each student individually, led Harry, Reggie, Severus and Professor McGonagall into his private sitting-room; a comfortable little chamber with soft green walls, squidgy, comfortably worn armchairs and a crackling fire.
“Now, Harry” the Headmaster said gently, once Harry and Severus had sat down on the sofa “Could you please tell us what happened?”
“I was asleep and then Reggie and Isis started shouting about a cobra.” Harry said shakily “I woke up and there was this man, he was staring at me. He looked dead mean, like…”
“Yes, Harry?” Dumbledore coaxed.
“Like Aunt Petunia used!” Harry cried, pressing his fists into his eyes. Severus wrapped his arms around the quaking boy and, pressing his hollow cheek against Harry’s messy, dark hair, rocked his son soothingly.
Reggie, who had been coiling around Harry’s arm, started to ssshshh in distress. He couldn’t understand why his two-legs was upset; the bad cobra was dead.
Soft, deep hissing sounded from the corner of the room, and Reggie’s pyriform head swung towards a large, dark painting and he began hissing in earnest.
“Praeceptor Slytherin, quid agis?” the Headmaster inquired.
“The little snake is worried about Harry” Salazar replied in Latin “Kingy tells me that he and Goddess destroyed the rat-human and, as Harry is not hurt, Kingy cannot understand why he is upset. I explained to him that humans find it somewhat more difficult to relinquish fear than serpents, whom live almost completely in the here and now.”
“Rat-human?” Minerva asked.
“If you will excuse me, I will ask Kingy for his account of events.” Slytherin began to speak in parseltongue again. Harry shifted in his father’s arms, listening in horror to Reggie’s account of waking up to find a plump rat on Harry’s pillow, which, upon the python’s attempt to strike, turned into a ‘nasty-bad, kin-biting two-legsss’.
“And then the adjacent glass of Goddess’s tank vanished, the water gushed out and Goddess propelled herself forward, striking the dangerous one on the shoulder.” Salazar explained in Latin. “Kingy then sprang, coiling around the intruder’s neck but the man collapsed almost immediately. Oh, and the little snake Salazar also bit the intruder, who had, by that point, gone limp. Good familiars, serpents, loyal, brave and rather good in a melee. Yes indeed, whether they be small or large, Severus” the ancient wizard finished pointedly.
“Well” Dumbledore said finally “It appears we all owe an immense debt of gratitude to these three brave little snakes. I take it that Peter is still in the boys’ dormitory?”
“Yes Headmaster. I took the precaution of warding and locking the door, however. And placing Peter in a cage with sufficiently narrow bars.” Severus said, his eyes hard as chips of hematite.
“What are we to do with the children, Albus? The aurors will wish to cordon off the room, at least for the night.” McGonagall asked.
“They will stay in my quarters, I have rooms enough” Severus said firmly.
Albus smiled softly “My dear boy, one room would be sufficient: I doubt that your little serpents will wish to nest alone tonight.”
oOoOo
In Severus’s private sitting-room, several super-squidgy silk sleeping bags littered the floor, all, save three, filled by softly snoring children. In the carry tank, Isis and Reggie bathed their sore, aching muscles and nuzzled each other, their soft splashing combining with the crackling fire to form a soothing melody.
And, on the sofa, Harry, Severus and Draco slept: the young boy comfortably slouching sandwiched between his father and his best friend, dozing in the warm firelight and happily participating the morning, when, contrary to yesterdays’ expectations, they were all going home.
oOoOo
"Hello Albus, what can I do for you this fine February morning?" Minister Fudge asked, relaxing into his overstuffed armchair and picking up an exceptionally buttery crumpet.
Dumbledore took an elegant sip of his Earl Grey "Firstly, Cornelius you can release Mr Sirius Black into the care of St Mungos."
Purpling, the portly Minister for Magic spat crumbs over the ruby brocade of Dumbledore's robes. "Wha..."
"Cornelius, if I recall you said the largest piece of Peter Pettigrew that could be found was a finger. Well, it appears the rest of him has been found at Hogwarts by a couple of students' pets."
"He's... Peter Pettigrew has been found at Hogwarts?" gasped Fudge.
"Indeed. Mr Pettigrew, who, as it turns out, was an unregistered rat Animagus, was spying on young Harry Potter" Albus explained, his blue eyes twinkling "However, when he entered the Slytherin dormitories last night, under the guise of a rodent, I do not believe he was aware of the presence of Mr Potter's pet, a somewhat peckish python."
"The python ate him?" Fudge asked, flabbergasted.
"No, Mr Pettigrew morphed into his human form which, naturally, scared young Harry to the extent that his Magic released Mr Malfoy's snake, Isis, from her aquarium."
"Ah!" nodded Fudge "The poisonous bugger. Killed him, did she?"
"The student's familiars were somewhat vigourous in their defence of their masters." Albus replied with a wry smile.
"Naturally, naturally. No blame attaches. But how does all this relate to the release of Mr Black?" asked Cornelius, relaxing back into his chair and twiddling a button of his gold and claret striped waistcoat.
"Sirius Black was imprisoned, without a trial, on three counts" Albus explained wretchedly "firstly the murders of Pettigrew and several muggles, secondly on the charge of being a Deatheater and, thirdly, Breach of the Statute of Secrecy. Anger over the Potter's murders had, alas, robbed us of our objectivity: it did not occured to me that Sirius, who I believed to be Lily and James' secret-keeper, was innocent."
"Ah, yes. He did confess, however." Cornelius answered, a feeling of dread hovering in his stomach.
"Guilt is not always felt by the guilty alone, Cornelius." Albus said sadly "He may have simply have been blaming himself for not arriving in Godric's Hollow in time to aid his friends."
"You think Pettigrew did it, then? Informed on the Potters? He was a good friend of theirs, I recall."
Albus picked up a crumpet "I think that it would be high time to give Sirius the trial to which he is entitled by law. Starting, I think, with an interview under Veritiserum."
OoOoO
An hour or so later, at in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, as Harry was cutting his and Draco’s toast into fine ‘soldiers’ and Draco beheaded their boiled eggs, Professor Dumbledore stood up, saying “I would like to make a very special announcement”
The Hall fell silent: Hogwarts had a well developed grapevine and, as the first year boys had all suddenly decided to spend half-term with their parents, gossip was rife and people were suggesting anything from the return of You-Know-Who to Ron Weasley’s particular hope that the entire Slytherin first year had been expelled
“Today is a momentous day in Hogwarts history. Today, for the first time in 257 years, a familiar, or rather, familiars, will receive an award for Special Services to the School.” Dumbledore paused, smiling at the wide-eyed, enraptured students “Last night, an unregistered animagus managed to breach Hogwarts defences and enter the First Year Boy’s dorm in Slytherin. The intent of this animagus is unknown because, before he could harm the children, he was intercepted by three incredibly brave, loyal and resourceful pets, Isis, a water snake, Reggie a ball python and Sal, a garter snake, who protected their sleeping masters. Therefore, it is my great pleasure to announce that Isis, Reggie and Sal have been each awarded 50 points to Slytherin and an award for their great bravery. Please come here, Mr Nott, Mr Potter and Mr Malfoy and accept these trophies on behalf of your familiars!”
Dumbledore cast the Geminio charm and the award replicated itself thrice. Draco, Harry and Theo, beaming in surprise and delight, hurried up to the Staff table and, after shaking the Headmaster’s hand, were given a replica of the golden shield, on which their pets' names were carved.
“Bloody slimy Slyths!” snarled Ron, as the upper years of Gryffindor politely applauded Draco, Harry and Theo.
“Oh be quiet, Ron! You’re just in a mood over Scabbers running off again” Neville said sharply. “Why don’t you ever give Harry a break!”