"I must say it is an honour to meet you," She said. "I really mean it, truthfully, it is. I'm a big fan!"
Harry and Tonks exchanged looks before they both smiled at the nurse in front of them, though the nurse clearly hadn't really noticed just how forced the smiles on the pair were. The pair were currently in the hospital and Harry had just been looked over by a healer who had left the room, leaving them alone with the nurse, who was apparently somewhat of a fangirl.
"I've always wanted to meet you, you know. I was wondering if you could come to my birthday party next week," She said with a bright smile.
"Oh, I...I would, but I can't." Harry began but was interrupted by the nurse.
"Why not?" She said with what was obviously a fake pout.
"Because I have to deal with school, my family, friends, my vassal, my girlfriend, and the fact that I have Voldemort and his death eaters after me," Harry listed off, causing the nurse to flinch when Harry said Voldemort's name. "I mean if you want me to come and risk Voldemort..." He briefly paused as she flinched again. "... coming over to your birthday party and risk him killing your friends, family and you, then I can do it." He offered with a fake smile.
"Um...uh...no, that's alright," She said quickly, forcing a smile on her face. "I'm sure you're quite busy, it's fine."
"Oh, are you sure?" Tonks asked, doing her best to stop herself from smiling. "Because I'm sure that we can spare an evening."
"No, really, it's fine." The nurse looked quite panicked now. "I...um...I should probably go and check on my other patients." She added before she quickly turned and walked out of the room before any more could be said, leaving Harry and Tonks alone.
"Well," Tonks let out an amused snort. "that was fun."
"I take my entertainment when I can," Harry shrugged. "are you alright?" He asked, noticing that Tonks looked quite tired.
"Am I alright?!" Tonks repeated with disbelief. "Merlin! Harry, you just went up against you-know-who for a second time! And you're asking how I am?!"
"It was a valid question!" Harry said with mock offence. "Anyway, I'm quite happy about how things went home."
"He escaped and you're currently in hospital." Tonks pointed out in a dry voice as she stared at him.
"Okay, the fact that he got away is incredibly annoying," Harry admitted. "second of all, I'm only in hospital because you insisted. But I am happy because last time I definitely needed the hospital after fighting him, this time he was the one who ran away." Harry grinned. "Besides, I doubt he'd get very far."
"Why?" Tonks asked.
"Have you ever wondered what type of snake Jet is?" Harry asked as the snake in question crawled out of his clothes and perched himself on Harry's shoulders.
"Um...no, not really," Tonks answered honestly. "well, I did a few times, but I always just forgot about that because well...snakes are cool regardless."
"She's not wrong." Jet agreed.
"Tonks, Jet is in fact a magical species of snake," Harry began explaining. "they're basically known as 'adopters'."
"Okay, I'll bite, why are they known as that?" Tonks asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Firstly because they don't raise their own young, not that snakes are famous for doing that," Harry continued speaking. "the mother finds a suitable place or parent and then drops the egg off with them."
"So that they can adopt them," Tonks 'realised', speaking in a slow voice, acting as if she had just learnt the secret to the universe itself.
"Yeah," Harry laughed. "but it's also because they're not born with venom, they go and find something with venom and absorb a bit of their venom and make it their own."
"They 'adopt' the venom," Tonks said in a dry voice. "that's clever naming, that is."
"I know right," Harry snorted. "but let's not get bogged down with who can't come up with good names. The point is that Jet can absorb venom from another magical or non-magical creature. Now, quick question for the class, do you remember what Jet and I fought in my second year?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, you fought a..." Tonks trailed off and her eyes. "...bleeding hell! You fought a basilisk!" Tonks gasped. "There's basilisk venom in him?!" She blurted out, pointing to Jet.
"Yeah," Harry nodded, looking to all the world as if he was simply discussing breakfast. "so right now, Voldemort's probably got a bunch of basilisk venom coursing through his veins."
"That's amazing!" Tonks smiled brightly. "That means he's dead! You did it! I can't..."
"Not sure," Harry cut her off.
"What do you mean not sure?" Tonks repeated with disbelief, staring at him as if he had just suddenly burst into dance. "Harry, basilisk venom isn't just something that you can shrug off. It kills any and everyone."
"Except me," Harry pointed out. "and Voldemort's got decades of experience on me, not to mention he had been around the basilisk for a long time. The odds are it has killed him, but if there is anybody in this world that could survive it, then it's him."
"AARGH!" Voldemort roared in pain as he sat on his throne, his body shaking as if he had been hit with a torture curse, he was barely able to stop himself from falling off the chair and sliding to the floor. Earlier he had accidentally destroyed three chairs and an entire table when the pain flared, never mind the unfortunate young death eater that made the mistake of walking in at the wrong time. Voldemort's entire body was bombarded with pain, pain that was far more severe in the spot where he had been bitten by Potter's snake.
Voldemort easily recognized the venom in him as basilisk venom, he wasn't sure how Potter's snake - which definitely was not a basilisk - had basilisk venom but he was sure that it was indeed basilisk venom, he had studied it enough after all. And he felt quite fortunate for that fact, he doubted that there were many wizards alive today that were capable of doing what he had done. He hadn't been able to stop the venom, not completely, the best that he had been able to do was stall it. At best, he had two days before the venom took over completely, though the problem with that was that he'd be in absolute agony those two days. There was one thing for sure, this body wasn't going to last beyond those days.
There were very few things that could negate the venom coursing through his veins, one of which was phoenix tears and that was a problem because the phoenix that was most easily in reach also happened to be Dumbledore's phoenix, he supposed he could ask Severus to try and get him some but at this point, he didn't want to risk Dumbledore catching on. No, the best thing to do is to create a new body.
A small piercing sound shot out from Voldemort's wand, and a couple of seconds later a death eater ran into the room. "fetch me Lucius and Rodolphus Lestrange," Voldemort ordered before the death eater could stop and start kneeling down in front of him. "if they're not here within the next ten minutes then I will feed you to Nagini." He told him as Nagini slid into view, stopping next to Voldemort's throne, looking quite threatening even without having the most feared man in the country sat next to her.
"Y...yes, my lord." The death eater stuttered as he quickly nodded before running out of the room as if the hounds of hell were nipping at his ankles.
"Perhaps you should rethink your desire to control the Potter boy." Nagini softly hissed at him.
"Perhaps," Voldemort grunted but didn't say more. "Potter's snake, it has basilisk venom, is it a basilisk?" He asked Nagini, wondering if he had been wrong.
"No," Nagini answered after a few moments of thinking. "it was not. All snakes naturally have great respect for the king of serpents, I would know the instant that one was crawling around you."
"Hmm," Voldemort let out a low humming noise, given the connection that he and Nagini shared due to her being one of his horcruxes, it was entirely possible for her to access his mind over long distances, therefore negating the need for her to accompany him on the battlefield and risk putting herself in harm's way, not that there was much that could harm her. "then what is it?"
"I'm not sure," Nagini admitted.
"No matter," Voldemort grunted. "there aren't many creatures alive that are capable of holding basilisk venom and we have several creature experts. Some research will wield the answer soon enough." Voldemort barely finished his sentence before a new rush of pain caused him to hiss as he very nearly fell off his seat.
"What is happening to you?" Nagini asked, sounding quite concerned.
"I don't know!" Voldemort hissed, almost as pissed off by not knowing as he was about the pain. A second later his eyes widened when he saw several strips of the walls and ceiling be ripped off just as scorch marks appeared on the floor. Voldemort's anger grew quickly as he realised that he was losing control of his magic too. "No!" Voldemort growled.
"Master, I detect two of your servants approaching." Nagini hissed. Voldemort growled some more before pulling back control of his magic and ignoring the pain assaulting his body with extreme willpower and forcing himself to sit up and look as normal as possible, not wanting to look weak in front of any of his followers. A couple of moments later the door opened and Lucius Malfoy walked in, followed by Rodolphus.
"My lord, you summoned us?" Lucius asked as he and Rodolphus kneeled down in front of him.
"Lestrange," Voldemort spoke up. "your late wife had an item of mine stored in one of your vaults, a goblet with the Hufflepuff logo on it. Fetch it for me at once."
"Of course, my lord," Rodolphus obediently nodded. "I shall do anything you ask for."
"Do not be seen!" Voldemort hissed, nearly speaking in parseltongue. "Nobody must know of this, go now, time is of the essence."
"At once, my lord." Rodolphus stood up and gave Voldemort a small bow before turning on his feet and rushing out of the room.
"Lucius," Voldemort spoke, putting a lot of effort into keeping his voice as normal as possible. "I have a very important task for you." Voldemort waved his wand and suddenly a list appeared in his hands, he waved his wand again and it flew straight into Lucius's hands. "This is a list of things that I need immediately, I need you to get them for me. Take any death eater you may need to help you accomplish this. I don't care if you have to bribe, steal or kill, just get everything on this list."
"Yes, my lord, as you command." Lucius stood up and was about to walk away but was stopped by Voldemort.
"Lucius," He spoke up. "I want all of these things within a day, that is not negotiable. Accomplish this task and I shall forgive you for all of your past failures and misdeeds, however, if you fail then I will rip everything from you and destroy you in every possible way, is that understood?"
"Y...yes, my lord." Lucius let out a small squeak before he turned and rushed out of the room as fast as he could.
Voldemort waited for the blonde-haired death eater to close the doors behind him, as soon as the doors were closed the dark lord flicked his wand and cast a powerful locking charm on the door and a silencing charm around the room. Once he was sure that nobody would be interrupting him, he fell straight off his chair and onto the floor, howling in pain. He gasped and took several long breaths, it would be seven minutes later before he could control himself long enough to ask a house elf for pain potions. He would then kill that same house elf for taking too long and for seeing him in his current state.
"You know, I hate hospitals." Harry sighed as he and Tonks had left the care of their healer and began making their way out of the hospital building.
"You just don't like feeling weak, get over it," Tonks rolled her eyes. "everybody goes to hospitals. Besides, you just fought one of the most dangerous wizards of all time, it would be stupid for you to not go to the hospital."
"I get that, doesn't mean I have to like it." This time it was Harry who rolled his eyes. "Anyway, as soon as I have time I'm going to start learning that smoke thing that Voldemort did."
"What? Why?" Tonks asked.
"First of all, turning to smoke can be incredibly useful," Harry began. "second of all, it looks cool as all hell."
"True," Tonks admitted.
"Plus, there's one more reason." Harry continued. "I want to do it to show him up."
"What?" Tonks blinked.
"Anything he can do, I can do better," Harry stated simply.
"Really?" Tonks laughed. "You're trying to show up the dark lord?"
"My goals are far beyond your understanding," Harry said in a voice filled with mock arrogance.
"Mr Potter," A voice called, causing Harry and Tonks to stop. Suddenly all of the people around them stopped and stared, whispers and conversations began filling up the room as everyone realised the most famous boy in the wizarding world was in the room with them. Harry and Tonks turned around to see Percy Weasley walking towards them followed by a couple of aurors.
"Percy?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "What the hell do you want?"
"It is my sincerest hope that he has realised his life is worthless and has come to sacrifice himself to become worth something by letting me eat him." Jet hissed as his head crawled out of Harry's collar.
"Mr Potter," Percy began in a respectful voice. "I'm sorry to bother you..."
"Since when?" Harry blurted out.
"...But Minister Fudge wants to meet with you, now." Percy finished. "He says that it's important."
"And it hasn't escaped your notice that I have more important things to do than listen to a fat man desperately try to keep a hold on his failing career?" Harry sighed.
"I'm only following orders," Percy stiffly replied.
"Let's hope he never orders you to get circumcised then," Tonks commented.
A.N: Hi guys, hope you liked the chapter. I'm sorry for the wait in-between chapters but there's been a lot going on:
* Getting married
* Going back to work
* Ramadan
* Writing for my other stories.
* House extension
And just a bunch of other stuff, so thanks for your patience. I have come to a decision about the story and decided that it'll finish in Harry's sixth year since anything beyond that is just dragging it out. Also, I wanted to thank everybody for their support and for loving the story, it means a lot. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a review.