Title: Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord
Author: NHunter aka N.H. aka 夜狩猟家 aka 灰色天使
Genre: General, romance, adventure
Rating: M = NC-17
Characters: Harry/fem-Draco ~ Draconica
Warnings: AU, OOC, some OC later on, GB, not-stupid Harry, not-easy-to-manipulate Harry, female Draco; will have some lemons in the future, as well as blood and, maybe, gore. Also, features dark-medic Harry in the future. Some bashing (Ron, Ginny, Molly(?), Dumbledore) will be present in this story too.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" or its characters.

* Author's rant:
Before the actual story starts. I'd like to make several things clear: first and foremost, despite what characters this story is filed under, this IS NOT a slash story, so if you came here to read some yaoi, you can just close the tab and go somewhere else - there will be only straight pairings in this story! Speaking of pairings, while mostly it will be just Harry/Draconica, there are good chances of Neville/Hermione as a side pairing. Along with other "random" couples I may create.
Second, Draconica has completely different personality from Draco, but that is quite understandable: Lucius doesn't see her as anything more than a way to secure closer alliance with some pureblood house and get some money. Thus, the girl isn't spoiled rotten by him - Lucius doesn't spend much time with her at all. Instead, Draconica is raised by her mother (Narcissa Malfoy nee Black) in traditions of the house Black. She is almost a true Slytherin, though she is still a scholar. Also, unlike her father, Draconica understands that sometimes purebloods can be not those with the best knowledge/abilities and thus she is much more tolerating towards "lesser blood", to the point of being acquaints with Hermione.
Third, I don't think that Harry could have survived ten years with Dursley by being naive boy: he ought to be more Slytherin-ish than JKR portraits him to be. No, he isn't evil or really dark, but is neither stupid, nor naive, nor easy to manipulate. Also, he understands that knowledge is power and studies hard, even if he isn't obsessed with absorbing all knowledge in the magical world, like Hermione. Finally, since his isn't naive or stupid, he isn't swayed to the anti-Slytherin camp by Hagrid. Really, can 1/4 of the magical world be evil based just on what house you were sorted at school?

"human speech"
'human thoughts'
"spells / parseltongue"

Special thanks to NARUHAREM FOREVA for beta-reading this story.

chapter 1: Into the magical world

"'ere we are, 'arry, go get... -eek your robes..." Hagrid said as they approached Madam Malkin's shop. "I'll be at the Cauldron... -eek Those carts make me sick..." Indeed, the giant of man was quite green in his face. Harry quickly nodded.

"Okay." And so he entered the shop. Inside, Madam Malkin's robes shop seemed quite empty with some robes hanging on the pegs along the side walls and an empty counter – madam Malkin was nowhere to be seen, as were the assistants if there were any... Actually, the only human Harry could seen in the sop was a girl of about his age, who was sitting on the stool next to the counter and was waiting for something – her robes to be fitted. The girl herself had grayish-blue eyes and pale-blond hair that was made into a braid and had an aristocratic aura around her, which was only supported by the expensive and well-tailored clothes she wore and emotionless mask she had on her face... Deciding that he should wait for now, the green-eyed wizard sat on the other stool. For about a minute two preteens sat in silence.

"Hogwarts too?" The girl asked in a flat tone and without turning to look at him.

"Yes." Harry replied with a nod, even if he wasn't sure if the girl saw that.

"My father is getting my potion supplies and my mother is looking through the books." The girl informed him, before asking: "And where are your parents?"

"I'm an orphan." Harry replied after a pause. "But my parents both were magical." He didn't know why he added the last part, but it seemed the right thing to do for some reason. This time the girl looked at him, though her face remained more or less emotionless...

"My condolences." A pause. "What house do you think you will be sorted into? I'll be in the Slytherin like my whole family was." She said then, deciding to change the topic.

"Isn't that something decided at the sorting?" Harry asked, trying to cover his lack of knowledge about Hogwarts or the magical world in general. The girl nodded.

"Indeed, it is, but shouldn't there be some house you want to be in the most?" Harry thought for a couple of seconds, before replying.

"Well, they all seem to be good enough." There was a ghost of distaste on the girl's face when he said that – she seemed to be some Slytherin fanatic... Oh well, while Hagrid was saying that the house Slytherin was for manipulative, ambitious and evil, Harry wasn't stupid enough to think that everyone who went into that house was just like that. So, while less favorable, Slytherin was still an option in his mind... Again there was quite a long silence. It was broken when a lady in early fifties entered the room from the door behind the counter with several sets of robes in her hands.

"Here you go, miss. Sorry for taking this long." The woman – Harry decided that she was madam Malkin herself – said, giving the finished robes to the girl, who accepted them with a nod. Then she looked into the window and, seeing someone there, quickly got up from the stool and headed to the exit from the shop.

"Thank you for the conversation, hope we can speak more at Hogwarts... I'm Draconica Malfoy, by the way." Harry was about to introduce himself, but someone – Draconica's father? - called the girl, and she disappeared behind the doors.

After getting his robes for the school, Harry managed to talk Hagrid into doing parts of his shopping separately to save the time. This also allowed the young wizard to sneak into the Gringotts and exchange some of his galleons into pounds for shopping in the muggle world he planned to do later today... And right now Harry was getting the last – and most important – thing from his list: the wand. And he was getting quite frustrated as none of the fourteen wands he had tried so far came even close to choosing him...

"Well... Maybe you should try this one: holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches?" Olivanders said, giving Harry another wand to try. This wand actually produced a couple of weak sparks, but nothing more... "Not good enough, but still... better that the rest you've tried, mr. Potter." The old wand maker said. "If it happens so that none of my wands chooses you, this one will be you temporary wand, while I make you a custom one. Olivanders family prides themselves on being able to find a wand for any wizard, and I will have you with a wand that is yours!" He vowed.

"Okay..." Harry said, not sure what to reply.

"But for now, try this one: cedar and unicorn mane hair, twelve and three quarters inches." Olivanders said, but just as soon as the green-eyed wizard touched the wand, he pulled it back from his hands. "No, definitely not." How was the man able to tell this was beyond Harry's comprehension. "Well... How about this one? Ar'ar tree [AN: Juniperus Phoenicae] and a heartstring from Irish horned dragon, ten and one quarter inches." Harry took the wand cautiously, as if expecting it to set something on fire, like it happened with the fifth wand he had tried, but instead... this wand felt just right.

"Wow..." Was all that the green-eyed wizard could say, watching a small fountain of greenish-gold sparks erupt from the tip of his wand.

"Looks like we have found you a match, mr. Potter. Ar'ar tree and a dragon heartstring, ten and a quarter inches, quite rigid. Quite a powerful wand, good for healing and charms..." Here Olivanders lowered his voice so that only Harry could hear him. "And darker magics..." And then he continued in his normal voice. "But it should do well in any area that requires wand." Harry nodded.

"Is there anything you would recommend buying along with the wand?" He asked.

"Yes. You should get a polishing kit to keep you wand in good condition." The old wand maker replied. "I'd also recommend getting a holster for your wand."

"How much all that will be in total?" The young wizard asked then, while Olivanders was picking a polishing kit from one of his cabinets.

"Wrist holster?" The wand maker asked. When Harry nodded, he continued. "I will be nine galleons total with the leather holster and ten with dragon hide one."

"Leather one, please." Harry said, placing nine gold coins on the counter. Taking the holster from Olivanders, Harry attached it to his right hand and placed his new wand into it. Then he picked up the kit and did a step towards Hagrid who waiting by the door with a beautiful snowy white owl in cage in his hand and the rest of Harry's things by his feet. "Oh, mr. Olivanders, if it's not much trouble, can you shrink my things and make them lighter – I don't want to impose on Hagrid taking me back to my home, but I'm not sure that I can carry all of these on my own..."

"But Harry..." The half-giant tried to change young wizard's mind, but Harry didn't want to hear that.

"Hagrid, I really appreciate your desire to help me, but I'm sure you have more important thing to do than taking me back to my relatives." After a small pause, the green-eyed boy added: "Don't worry, I will be fine on my own." Hagrid nodded reluctantly.

"Yes, of course, mr. Potter, That would be no trouble for me to do at all." The old wand maker said and, walking up to Harry's school things, shrank them with a single movement of his own wand. Another wand movement later things glowed pale blue for a brief movement – they were featherlight too now.

"Thank you very much, mr. Olivanders." Harry set, picking his shrunk purchases and placing them in his pockets. Than he took the cage with the old from Hagrid, and the two of them left the wand makers store...

~/ *** \~

Thanks to overly enthusiastic shopping assistants in the muggle mall Harry went to to buy himself new (muggle) everyday clothes, he barely was able to return to Privet Drive before ten in the evening. Dursley, of course were ...displeased with him being away for this long and not cooking for them. Also, they were displeased with him having new – and good – clothes and glasses. Yes, Harry got himself new glasses, nothing fancy, of course, but at least they were what he needed and not random old glasses he wore before. But they were displeased the most with the owl Hagrid bought him, though Vernon decided to interrogate his nephew about clothes first.

"Boy, where did you get all of these things?" Vernon roared with his face quite purple with anger. "God help you if you stole even a penny from good people to get those!" Being used to his uncle's tirades, Harry didn't even flinch.

"Don't be so worked up, uncle Vernon. You see, ...the school has a fund for those who don't have ...their money. And ...their money are different: you can buy a whole new wardrobe of normal clothes for the money you'll need to get a single suit of good quality in ...their shops. I just saved enough to be presentable at ...the school with these new clothes. Do you not want me to show them that normal things are better?" Harry said, carefully avoiding words 'magic' and 'Hogwarts'. This seemed to work as his uncle's anger had deflated somewhat. "And I even managed to save enough money to get myself to London on September first, so you won't have to drive me there." This finally returned Vernon to a relatively good mood.

"Looks like we managed to install something good in you, boy." He said. "Because you were so go in showing that the normal people are better than no good freaks like you are, I'm even willing to tolerate this thing..." He pointed at the owl in Harry's hands. "If you keep it to your room and have it being quiet."

"Yes, uncle. I will do just that." Harry said carefully not to give his uncle any reason to be angry with him.

"Go to your room. I don't want to see you any more tonight. But just because you didn't have to do your chores today, don't think that I will allow you laze around."

"Of course, uncle Vernon." Harry relied. When his uncle nodded, he took all of his things and headed to his room.

~/ *** \~

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was in his headmaster's office at Hogwarts, sitting in his grand armchair, deep in his thoughts. The reason for that, though, was quite simple: all of his plans that he had build around the assumption that Harry would get that wand from Olivanders were crushed - the wand with the second Fawkes' feather didn't choose young Harry.

'Had I made a mistake all those years ago?' The old man asked himself. 'But Tom went after Potters, so Harry must be the chosen one, right? Or was the absence of any marks the true mark, and Neville is the one?.. I've heard that Augusta plans to send her grandson here with his father's wand... I need to suggest her that no matter how much she wants to see her Frank in Neville, the boy will need his own wand.' Dumbledore thought. 'And if it happens so that that one chooses Neville, I'll have to declare him as the chosen one, as only the one with the brother wand will be able to stand up to Tom.' The old headmaster paused to pop a lemondrop candy into his mouth. 'But what if Neville too is chosen by a different wand?.. I'll have to wait and watch for other signs that will allow me to determine which boy is the chosen one...'

~/ *** \~

Olivanders, as Harry learned the morning after his trip to the Diagon alley, was a clever man and had placed all those charms on his things just temporary. So by the next morning, the green-eyed wizard had his things back to their normal size (and mass), and, thus, could do some pre-school studying... So far potions and charms seemed to be the most interesting subjects... Transfiguration and Defence Against Dark Art seemed to be good too, though with a bit too much theory in the beginning... Herbology could have been very interesting too, but the chores of tending to the garden he had had over the year saw to him being cold to the subject... Astronomy was good, but seemed to be outdated, compared to its 'muggle' counterpart – Harry had heard about Hubble telescope and what it could do, as well as radio- and gamma- observatories muggles had both on the ground and in space. Magical people still used just refractors, 5 inches at most... History seemed to be the most useless subject as the could be no way that all that happened to the magical world were goblin rebellions: after all there was Voldemort at very least. And Hogwarts founders, and Merlin, and...

As the time progressed towards the September first, young wizard decided that he didn't want to travel to the Kings Cross from his current residence in the morning... It seemed to be a much better idea to get to London a day earlier and stay a night at the Leaky Cauldron: he could use magical way of transportation to get to the platform 9¾ from there... With this thought in mind, Harry approached his relatives on August twenty ninth.

"Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia..." He said to get their attention.

"What do you want, boy?" His uncle snapped at him. "Don't you have your chores to do?"

"I'm finished for the moment." The green-eyed wizard replied honestly. "I want to ask, if I could leave your hospitable house a day earlier. I'm sure that a lot of people there will be up early on September first, and they may see me with ...my things. And I will leave in evening, so I will have to skip only one chore..." Harry explained, while carefully watching his uncle's face.

"Hm... I'm sure that one chore missed won't be too bad if we get to have you out of our hair a day earlier." The walrus of a man said. "Be sure that there are traces of you at our house by eight in evening on that day."

"Thank you, uncle Vernon." The green-eyed boy replied, before hurrying back to his room...

~/ *** \~

At half past nine in the evening on August thirty first Harry learned that his idea had a one miscalculation: he didn't take in account that there could be no rooms at the Leaky Cauldron available... Thankfully for him, he managed to get one, but that was the last one the pub had... Also, the bartender, Tom, was kind enough to explain how to get to the Kings Cross magically from his pub. The floo network – as much as Harry was apprehensive to travelling between fireplaces – looked to be a fast and relatively reliable way of travelling around.

Ten in the morning the next day saw Harry standing in front of the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron with all of his things by his side, including an empty cage - he had released his owl, Hedwig, to fly to Hogwarts on her own.

"So, I have to throw some powder into the fire, call the destination when the fire turns green, and step into it?" The green-eyed wizard asked. Tom the bartender gave him a toothless smile and nodded.

"Yeah, that's right, Harry." Nodding to the man, thankful for his help, Harry picked some of the floo powder from the box that stood on the fireplace and threw it into the fire.

"Platform 9 and ¾" He said when the fire turned green. Hoping that he had done everything correctly, Harry picked his things and stepped into the fire... ...As he was picking himself and his things from the stone floor of the platform, the green-eyed wizard decided that floo travel wasn't his chosen way of magical travel. Still, he was at the platform 9¾, and there indeed was a train going to Hogwarts standing there, with a read steam engine as it's head. Deciding that he should go and find himself a compartment while there still was a plenty, Harry entered the car he was closest to.

That's all for this chapter, folks! Please, leave me a review!
Updates are expected to be weekly for the time being.