The Shadow And the Flame Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I don't own harry potter I never have, never will no matter how much I wish it so.

Parsletounge

Mind speak

Harry and Ginny's first week at Hogwarts was an absolute nightmare. Ginny's brothers ignored her, except for Ron, who took advantage of every opportunity to be horrible to his sister. The teachers spoke to neither of them, and ignored their achievements. Harry and Ginny were tied for top of their class, beating even the muggleborn Granger girl.

The only bright spot in their days were the Slytherins, the whole house had accepted both Harry and Ginny as their own. The older girls had taken Ginny into their care, acting as older sisters, and teaching her how to act like a slytherin. Harry was quickly rising in the ranks of slytherin males and fit right into their routine.

For their part, the Slytherins had no idea how to act in Harry and Ginny's presence. Both of them defied all expectation, both carried themselves like the most proper of purebloods, but held none of the beliefs, that the others parents had taught them. Harry was quickly gaining respect and loyalty within the house and was swiftly gaining the older students respect.

Slytherins also did not like not knowing the full situation, and if their was one thing that puzzled them it was the relationship between Harry and Ginny. They were inseparable, and they often spent hours staring into each others eyes, as though they were conversing. Ginny spent every night in Harry's bed, and even Severus allowed it.

Draco Malfoy's entire world had been turned upside down when Harry and Ginny joined the snakes, He had been raised his entire life to hate Weasley's, but Ginny acted every inch the pureblood she was, she carried herself with grace and poise, and put even the other slytherin girls to shame. When he questioned her, she said that her oldest brother bill had taught her, he had been taught as future head of the family and passed it onto her. His views of muggleborns had been shaken up and he was slowly slipping in his belief that they were all bad. He found himself becoming fiercely protective of her, and began to think of her as a sister.

The weeks passed quickly and on Halloween something happened that would change the dynamics in the slytherin house forever. It was common knowledge among the snakes, that Harry had a large snake tattoo on his shoulder and around his arm, no one questioned it, they had the feeling there was much more than they could see.

At the Halloween feast when Quirell burst through the doors and fainted after announcing there was a troll in the dungeons. Dumbledore stood and ordered all of the students back to their common rooms immediately. The slytherins grouped outside of the great hall. The prefects were outraged "Doesn't he realize we are in the dungeons, he is sending us directly into the trolls path." The older students stood angrily whispering trying to plan how to get back to the common rooms safely, when harry and Ginny stepped up hand in hand.

Harry turned to Marcus Flint and grinned "I have an easy way for us to get back follow us." Harry walked over to the tapestry of the Hogwarts coat of arms and pressed the slytherin crest on it. It opened into a passageway and harry motioned everyone inside with Ginny leading the way, her wand drawn. All of the slytherins followed quickly without comment, they all trusted Harry and Ginny's Judgment. Harry brought up the rear, and as he closed the tapestry he glimpsed Ron, Seamus and Dean creeping into the dungeons. He shut the tapestry quickly and hurried into the passageway wand drawn. He was the last to enter the common room and sealed the passage way behind him with a wave of his hand. He turned and caught ginny's eye.

"Good job Gin," she nodded and surveyed the room Harry's eyes following hers.

"I have the prefects guarding the portrait hole, and the seventh years surrounding the first through third years." Harry smiled in satisfaction, it was a mark of the slytherins trust in them, that they followed two first years, without blinking an eye. He turned to ginny a wicked gleam in his eye.

"Your idiot brother and his band of morons are sneaking into the dungeons, I suspect that they want to find the troll themselves." He didn't bother with mindspeak, Slytherins kept their secrets, and he felt a big one was going to be revealed. "

Ginny went white and clutched Harry,s hand. "That bloody idiot he will be killed, we have to help him."

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Marcus Flint and the other slytherins watched in awe as Harry and ginny led their house to safety through a hidden passageway that none of them knew existed. As they entered the common room, Marcus had been prepared to give instructions to go to their dormitories, when Ginny spun around to face them.

"I want prefects guarding the portrait hole, no one comes in or out without my command, Stunning spells will not work, if the troll breaches the portrait use a cutting curse. " She drew her wand " the incantation is "Diffindo" with a sharp downward slashing motion" the moment the curse left her lips a red light flashed across the room, and a pillow was severed in two, with perfect aim. Ignoring the older students shock she continued issuing instructions. " I want the first three years in the center of the room, being protected by the older students." At this she leveled her fiercest glare at Flint "Now"

Everone had hustled into position, to shocked by the first years perfect spell work, to argue. They stood in silence, watching a s Harry entered the room, and began to speak silently to ginny. They watched as Harry explained that the idiot Weasley and his friends were going after the troll. Some of the older students including flint approached, to offer to help, when something passed between Harry and Ginny. Ginny gave a gasp and clutched at Harry's bicep. Harry gave a sharp nod and roughly began to unbutton his shirt.

The Slytherins watched in shocked silence, As harry threw his shirt to the ground his back was turned to the slytherins. The girls gasped as his snake tattoo was revealed to them, they had heard of it, but hadn't seen it. As they watched the tattoo began to stretch and raise out of Harry's skin. In a moment a large very live magical snake was revealed and coiled around Harry's shoulders.

Ginny reached forward and lovingly pet the snake on the head. What happened next would go down as legend in the slytherin house. Ginny began to speak softly to the snake in parsletounge; the snake looked unblinkingly at her for a moment, before turning to look at Harry. Harry hissed back something to the snake and nodded." The snake dipped its head in affirmation and vanished.

Before the slytherins could even react Both Harry and Ginny summoned long black cloaks to themselves and drew their hoods down over their eyes. Harry turned to Marcus Flint and made eye contact. Potter's eyes were sparkling with power, Flint drew back with a gasp, he could practically feel the power rolling off the boy. "Be Vigilant, we will be back momentarily"

Harry pulled Ginny to him and wrapped her in his cloak. He took two steps back into the shadows, so only the whites of their eyes were visible. Suddenly their eyes were no longer visible. Flint stepped forward into the shadow, Both first years were gone. He cast a lumos, and looked around for any sign where they had gone. He turned back to the excitedly whispering slytherins. "They must have taken another passageway, we will never find them, we had best just follow their orders. Do not speak of what you heard and saw tonight, they will explain in their own time." He turned back to watching the portrait hole listening to the speculations and wild rumors that were being spread around.

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Harry gave a sharp nod to Ginny at her unasked question, They would indeed use Diagones. He stripped his shirt off, and called forth the snake, ignoring the gasps of the students, he would explain it once he saved his wifes idiot brother. Ginny was just as much Diagones master as he was.

She hissed to him "I need you to help me save my brother, uses your senses to track the troll." Diagones turned to Harry to see if he had any additional orders.

Harry hissed to the snake "can your venom kill a troll," At Diagones answering nod he continued. "Use it but do not strike any humans, unless it is by my orders."

With a confirmation secured from the snake, he and Ginny summoned cloaks to hide their identities if they were spotted. He turned and addressed Flint, before drawing Ginny into his cloak and backing into the shadows. After a second to clear his mind and secure the location from Diagones, he melted into the shadows.

They reappeared in the shadows of a girls bathroom, The first thing they noticed was the foul reek of the troll, the second was the screams. It was clear there was a girl trapped in here as well. They stepped out of the shadows wand drawn, and got a clear view of the horror in front of them.

The troll had Ron, Seamus, and Dean backed into corner. There was an unconscious girl lying under the wreakage of a shattered stall. Ginny rushed over help her while Harry looked over the boys. The troll was lying collapsed in a heap on the floor, Diagones coiled happily around his neck..

Harry hissed to Diagones "Keep watch as soon as someone is coming, come get me." Diagones slithered intoHarry Gave a sharp nod and

e caHe turned back the hallway to wait for the professors.

Harry turned to the boys, Ronald had a severely broken leg and was bleeding out rapidly, Harry stopped the bleeding and fixed his leg, binding it tightly with a spell he had read about. He and Ginny had been reading everything they could get their hands on, and had read many books on healing. The other two boys had a few broken bones a piece, and several scrapes. Harry quickly mended their injuries, so they would make it to the hospital wing.

He turned to Ginny who was just finishing the girl "who is it Gin?"

Ginny turned around stowing her wand up her sleeve. "Its Hermione Granger, she had several broken ribs, and her head is bleeding, I stopped the bleeding and bound her ribs, it is all I can do."

Harry nodded and reached for his wand. He cast a patrounus spell, giving it a message, before grabbing Ginny's hand and leading her into the shadows of the bathroom, to watch for the teachers.

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Severus snape limped furiously down the hallway, That idiot Quirell was up to something tonight he knew it. He met with the other teachers and hurried in the direction of the tracking spell the headmaster had fired at the troll. The spell led the teachers to a girls bathroom. As the they approached they saw that the door frame had been battered and the door had been ripped from its hinges. Severus's wand slid into his hand as he edged into the bathroom.

He stopped, in shock at the scene they had walked into. Four gryffindor students were lying unconscious on the floor, and the bathroom was totally demolished. As Albus and Minerva swept forward to revive their precious gryffindors, he looked closer at the victims. All four of them had fresh bandages, and the magic in the air had the sterile tingle of healing charms. He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up as he sensed someone watching him from behind.

He whirled around and stared into the shadows. As he watched his two most popular snakes, Harry and ginny stepped slightly out of the shadows. They held eye contact with him for a second. Ginny raising a forefinger to her lips and motioning him to be silent. Potter wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her back into the shadows. He hurried into the alcove, but they were gone. He snarled, he needed a drink.

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Back in the Slytherin Common room a large silvery wolf burst into the room and glided up to Marcus flint. It opened its mouth and spoke in Harry's voice "the danger has passed we will explain what we can". The wolf slowly tuned to smoke and disappeared leaving behind a silent common room.

Draco broke the silence first. "was that a patrounus" his voice was slightly shaky after witnessing such advanced magic. Flint looked at draco and swallowed heavily "yes that was a patronus, I cant do one , can anyone here?" All of the seventh years shook their heads, in awe of potter. In a matter of months harry and ginny had disrupted the entire slytherin way of life. They would have some explaining to do when they returned. The entire house took seats around the fire to wait.

Harry and Ginny returned to the common room and entered. The second the passageway slid shut behind them, all eyes in the room turned to them. As they stepped forward Diagones slithered up harry's legs and coiled around his shoulders. They stepped into the ring of chairs around the fire and two seventh years quickly stood up from the prized loveseat in front of the fire. The loveseat was high backed and regal looking. It was well known within the house that only the leaders of slytherin were to be seated there. Harry and Ginny accepted the gift and took their seats with all the grace of a proper pureblood. Diagones wrapped around their shoulders and basked in the warmth of the fire. Before they could begin their explanation the portrait hole swung open.