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It has been a bit over two weeks after that bite when it started. Vernon punched him particularly hard, and Harry's upper canines had loosened, like a child's baby teeth would.
Harry tried not to let them notice. He knew this was a wizard thing, a "freaky" thing if you asked the Dusleys.
"Huh." Harries teeth had fallen out. Both canines. Gone.
Harry held the two teeth in his hand. They weren't bleeding. Harry wasn't bleeding. He was just sitting in his room and then they were out.
Harry panicked for a moment, but decided to just hide this too.
"Boy, get down here!" Harry heard Aunt Petunia screaming.
He made his way downstairs, chucked the teeth in a trash can (freaks didn't get the tooth fairy, Petunia had always told him), making sure to make it discrete. As he cooked and they are ate, the Dursleys didn't say anything about a lisp. Whether that meant they didn't notice or didn't care was up to Harry's imagination, but the boy went the whole day without them noticing.
Harry knew he could keep this up for another month and a half. He had hidden bigger things from the Dursleys before. What really disturbed the boy was what started growing in his teeths' place.
They started growing in the day after his canines fell out, but took the whole two months to grow back in, each day becoming bigger and more cumbersome to hide.
Two fangs. Long, sharp, actually fangs were growing out of his face. Each one with some kind of venom dripping off it (Harry had tested it). The boy had tried to yank the foreign appendages out, but it hurt to much. He just couldn't.
"Bring her back!" It was Harry's first day of school. He should bring her back, he knew, but he had no idea how. He'd get punished the same either way. "No. She deserved it."
Harry had been doing so well until that point. He had hidden them. And then Vernon grabbed him and, almost by reflex, Harry bit him. The boy's fangs seeped into the man's arm and he screamed.
Petunia screamed at him, but he could barely hear her. Vernon had venom causing through his blood now. The boy stepped back, he paused for a moment, than ran with his bags.
He ran away from that house, his breathing erratic, as fast as his legs would take him. Petunia would call 999. Vernon would be fine. Harry didn't- Harry didn't want to...
The boy stopped running and practically crumpled on the side walk. He brought his knees up to his face and rested it on them.
Harry just murdered someone. That venom.. he knew what it was, no matter how hard he tried to deny it. Harry only knew one kind of venom that was jet black.
He had just pumped his own uncle full of basilisk venom. Lethal basilisk venom.
The boy started crying. He didn't want anyone to die he- he was supposed to be turning 13 today. He was supposed to be having a party. If he was normal he would be having a party, with presents and parents that loved him and cake, but he just had to be a freak. Nobody loved freaks. Nobody loved hi-
Harry jumped as he felt something warm on his side. He looked over and it was a dog, large and black, cuddling into him.
The dog's black eyes had an emotion that he hadn't seen before. Or, well, that was a lie. He hadn't seen it used on him. It was the same feeling his aunt and uncle had for his cousin. That they had for each other. It was love.
The boy startled once again, shocked out of looking into the eyes of that dog, when a bus screeched to a halt in front of them. It was blue.
"Welcome to the Night Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. I'm Stan Shunpike, I'll be your conductor for this evening. How can I help you?"
Harry looked back at the dog, than back at Stan. "Don't worry, we're pet friendly." Before Harry could object and say he found this dog literally five seconds ago, he felt the dog nod, a movement probably imperceptible to Stan. He looked back at the dog, questioned for a moment, decided that a magic dog was far from a weirdest thing he'd seen today let alone in his life, and bourded the Night Bus with his new dog.
The ride was.. bumpy. Everyone seemed unfazed except Harry and, if the cooler the dog had shown him was to be trusted, Padfoot. He was definitely a magic dog. No muggle would name their god Padfoot.
Harry hugged the dog, and he figured Padfoot would hug him if he had hands. It felt like the human and the dog were the victims of a terrible driver in a cartoon.
In front of them, Stan was reading a newspaper. Something about an escape from Azkaban. There was a moving picture of a raving lunatic on the front.
"Hey, uhm, who's that?" Harry asked the dog. The dog looked over to the newspaper and froze.
"Who's- who's that? How do not know who this is he's been all over the news for the last- ever!" Stan responded. Harry turned his head over to him. Stan's face shifted from stunned to mischievous. "That, my friend is Sirius Black. He's a murderer." Stan stretched the word out for maximum creepiness. Even Padfoot seemed jumpy. "He even got himself locked up in Azkaban." "How'd he escape?" Harry asked. "No one knows. Heard they got dementors posted everywhere looking for him." Stan shifted his gaze from Harry to Padfoot, looking him in the eyes. "He could even be right on this train." Padfoot squirmed under the man's gaze.
And, like a lever being flicked, the man switched back to cheerful. "But he probably isn't. Anyways, happy travels." Both human and dig watched the man walk away, both utterly flabbergasted. Harry hugged Padfoot tighter..
Harry was forced to leave Padfoot outside for his meeting. Padfoot, or Sirius Black, was tied to a pole by a leash that wouldn't cause burns if he resisted, but would also never let go of him.
Frankly, the man couldn't believe this was actually working. He hadn't known Harry was going to meet the ministry. He had panicked and assumed they would catch him.
And yet here he was, hanging out with his godson, who had fangs now for some reason, pretending to be a dog. Did the ministry have no protections in place for animaguses? (animagi?)
Sirius wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth but if he had actually been a murderer Harry would be dead.
Eventually Harry came out of the Leaky Cauldron with an owl. A beautiful snow owl, who immediately cozied up to the dog, sparking a smile from Harry.
The boy took out a wand and muttered a spell, letting the dog go from his entrapment. "Come on, I'm not just gonna leave you out here all night."
Sirius gladly obliged.
Harry muttered a few curse words under his breath. Hogwarts didn't allow dogs. He didn't know why he thought he could just bring him. He couldn't leave him with the Dursleys (if they were still ali- don't think about it don't think about it don't-), they'd probably kill him.
And then he thought of an idea. An awful idea. Harry got a wonderful, awful idea.
The boy dug into his think and, before long, found a large, black cloak. The boy removed his shoe lace and, after telling Padfoot to stay still, tied the coat to the dog.
This probably wouldn't work but he had no better options.
The boy climbed onto the train, trying not to acknowledge the invisible dog following behind him. He got in the compartment Ron and Hermione were already in, and he waited.
Nothing happened.
When they got in the car, the door shut for complete privacy, save the adult seemingly dead to the world, Harry let out a sigh of relief.
"I can't believe that actually worked." A moment later he took care to close his mouth. He had almost forgotten to hide his fangs.
"What actually worked?" Ron tried to hide his excitement while Hermione eyed him dubiously.
After a bit of fumbling to find him, Harry pulled the invisibility cloak off of Padfoot just a bit, only revealing his head. He was resting his head on the sleeping adult's lap.
"Oh my God!" They both said simultaneously, both with very different tones. "You're not- I didn't-" Hermione sputtered while Ron aggressively pet the dog in front of him. "Bloody hell, this is bold even for you Harry."
Harry smiled as wide and smugly as he could without showing his fangs and looked to Hermione "Oh really? Where in the rules does it say it can't?"
"You're allowed to bring an owl, a cat, or a toad. Nothing else!"
"Really?" Ron looked away from petting Padfoot to look at Hermione. "Oh really, other pets are prohibited, like, say, a rat?" Ron held Scabbers up to Hermione, and Scabbers flinched back before Padfoot even had the chance to start growling. Both owners grabbed their pets before things could get violent. "Why does everyone want to eat Scabbers!?" Ron exclaimed, making the other two chuckle. "It's not funny!"
Eventually Scabbers went back in his enclosure, along with Crookshanks and Hedwig, and not along with Padfoot because he didn't have one but Harry put the invisible cloak back on him.
Remus was awoken by a loud barking. Barking he'd recognize in a instant as Sirius's. But there was no Sirius there.
The professor didn't have time to dwell on it as he saw three students surrounding him. He didn't notice that they were all Gryffindor, or the scar on one's face. Only the dementor sucking out his soul.
Almost on reflex, he conjured the happiest memory he had. It was of the Marauders planning the most elaborate prank they'd ever pulled, and somehow pulling it off.
A bright light emanated from his wand and, as soon as the dementor was gone, rushed to look at the assaulted child, now passed out. Only now did he see the scar. This was James's kid.
"Don't worry, he's going to be alright." Lupin assured the two. "He's gonna be out for a bit though."
The man stood up to grab the chocolate from his bag, but tripped on something, falling onto one of the seats. The two conscious students looked at each other panicked.
"What the-" Lupin felt where he had tripped and there was something there. At first he thought it had just blended into the darkness, but it was actually invisible.
The two students stumbled simultaneously, trying to think of a fitting excuse. It appeared Harry took after his father.
Remus chuckled. "Oh don't worry about lying to me." The man looked them both in the eyes. "I'm no snitch."
The two looked at each other, and then back at him. "You promise?"
"Promise. You're young. Making trouble and breaking the rules is the whole point of childhood." Remus smiled at the two students. They nodded.
"Harry is trying to snuggle a dog into Hogwarts." The red head told him. Remus couldn't help but snort. He expected some magical artifact but a whole dog? "Wait, really?"
"Yeah, look" Ron partially removed the invisibility cloak to reveal the head of a familiar black dog that knew the jig was up.
"Padfoot?" Remus asked, astonished.
"So you're his owner.." Harry mumbled under his breath, starting to get up. "I kind of just found him and he seemed to like me. Sorry for stealing your dog.. uh..."
"Padfoot" gave Remus a pleading look. As much as Lupin was pretty sure these guys wouldn't rat him out, a train was not the most safe place to talk about this.
"Remus Lupin. Sorry, I wanted to save introductions for when you were conscious. I'll be your Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher for the foreseeable future."
"Aka the rest of the year.." the red head muttered under his breath. "Maybe he'll survive this time." Harry muttered back to him. "Hey, Lockhart survived. He just got obliviated." The girl said at full volume.
"Should I be concerned?" Lupin asked.
"No." They all said in unison and started chuckling. Well at least Harry had friends...
"Anyways." The girl said, ignoring her cohorts "I'm Hermione Granger, this is Ron Weasley, and that's Harry Potter."
Lupin nodded and got up, actually getting the chocolate this time. "Here, all three of you. It'll help with any lingering effects. Now I have to got speak with the conductor." And with that, Lupin stood up to leave.
Harry knew he shouldn't be up this late. He should be sleeping in preparation for his first day of Hogwarts, and yet here he was hyperventilating in bed, staring at a new edition to his skin.
Patches of scales. His legs were now littered with patches of grey basilisk scales.
The boy startled and did his best to hide his legs as he felt an invisible weight on him, but Padfoot had already seen it. Seen them.
Still, the dog didn't seem scared as he lay on Harry, even after the boy took the cloak off. The dog just stared up at the boy with those same loving eyes.
Harry couldn't help but smile as he stroked his friend's fur.
Sirius tried not to panic. They weren't biologically related in any way, but Harry might as well have been Sirius's own kid at that moment.
First the fangs and now.. Sirius had never seen a curse like this, even with all he knew about dark magic. Sure there were ones that would turn a person into a snake but never this slow. Never like this!
All he could do was stare into his godson's eyes and try, with all his might, to tell him everything would be alright.
Harry had managed to hide it. Eating was hard with fangs. Talking without a lisp was difficult, but Harry could do it.
Harry couldn't hide this. He couldn't talk.
The boy tried to quell the shaking of his hands, being as quiet as possible under the safety of his cloak.
"Come on come on..." The boy muttered in parseltongue. He needed to know what was going on.
And he did figure it out, several books later. An animalus. They were originally named that because the first recorded instances came from failed animagus rituals.
They were human, or, used to be human, and somehow they turned to be partially animal. There are many causes for it. Modified/failed animagus rituals, a certain kind of modified polyjuice potion, etc. The most important one for Harry was Phoenix tears.
Occasionally, when they're to much venom or poison in someone's bloodstream, the power of the Phoenix's tears won't be enough to neutralize it, and so the magic will do the next best thing. It'll change the poison or venom, make it into something "useful".
Harry had to leave. Animalus transformations like this almost always effected the brain. He didn't want to hurt anyone.
Harry didn't even realize he'd discarded his cloak, running away and breathing heavily, just like that first night when he...
He wouldn't hurt anyone. Never again. That's what Harry decided as he ran away. That's what he decided as he wrecked through the forbidden forest, climbing a tree.
As Harry stayed in that tree, away from his friends, away from anyone he could hurt, hus first thought was to laugh. He couldn't have just taken that hit and gotten off scit free. He couldn't have been so lucky. That was what he got for trying to save someone.
But he did save someone. He saved Ginny. And he killed the basilisk and saved so many muggleborn.
Harry figured the roll of a martyr suited him. If Harry knew that saving Ginny would result in this than, well, he'd do it again. Harry sat in that tree and started to doze off, finally letting the transformation take hold.
When Sirius had seen Harry stumble out of Hogwarts cloakless, he'd been concerned. And when he saw Harry go into the forbidden forest he panicked.
The man ran out, disregarding his and Harry's cover. He wasn't gonna let his godson die damn it!
Hagrid's hut was near the forest. Sirius knew that. The dog pounded on the door with his head, his body, whatever he could. If he could knock the shack down he probably would have in that moment.
A minutes past and Hagrid opened a door, a bit surprised to be seeing a dog.
"Oh." Hagrid crouched down to read the dog's tag. "Padfoot eh?" The man seemed to noticed the dog's panic right then. "You looking for someone?" The man asked and the dog nodded. "Lemme guess, Harry Potter?" Sirius looked at him, suspecting mind reading, and nodded. Hagrid smiled.
"Okay okay, here." Hagrid gave Sirius a piece of flannel. He was confused at first, only to recognize the scent of his godson.
The dog dragged Hagrid along the scent, the taller man becoming concerned when the went into the forbidden forest. The trail went on, past trees and bushes, until Black came upon what seemed like a snake. His tail was curled around a tree, his silver scales reflecting the moonlight. If he hadn't seen those same scales on his godson's legs, Sirius would have thought he'd lost his godson's scent without realizing it.
But Sirius looked at a confused Hagrid with all the conviction in the world. Hagrid looked back at the snake and nodded.
Harry was woken out of his hand asleep daze by.. Hagrid? Why would Hagrid be.. he's the grounds keeper of course he's in the forbidden woods!
Harry didn't know what he was saying. Harry knew he should know, but it was like trying to decipher what he was saying though a thick accent.
God, he wasn't even human enough to listen to people anymore.
"I don't.. I don't know what you're saying." Harry called back to him, praying that his panic and tears didn't shine through his hisses.
"Is this better?" Hagrid called back up to him. Loud and clear. In parseltongue.
Harry couldn't help but startle, sitting up to look down at the man. Padfoot was next to him.
"You wanna come down from there?" Hagrid called "I'd prefer not to have to yell at you."
Harry looked down at himself. At his long basilisk tail. At his fangs that had...
"No I... I can't hurt anyone again!"
Harry heard the man mutter something to Padfoot. The dog promptly bolted away.
"You aren't going to hurt anyone Harry"
"You don't get it! This is- this is basilisk venom! If I- if I buy someone or- or anything I can't- you won't-"
Harry was cut off by Hermione. Why was she- Padfoot. Harry looked down. Ron was there too.
Hermione was going on some kind of speech? Harry didn't know but she has been talking for a while. It brought out of his stupor, if just a little.
"What a heartwarming monologue. I wonder what it means." Harry called out. Both friends were taken back by, what seemed to them to be, the hissing coming from up the tree.
Hagrid said something to her in English which was undoubtedly telling her that Harry had no idea what she just said considering the dejected look she gave him. Harry couldn't help but laugh.
"She says that she and Ron are your friends and that they'll always watch out for you. That was the gist of it." Hagrid gave Hermione a thumbs up.
Ron sputtered, something about him being a parcelmouth no doubt.
Hagrid, seemingly gave them the briefing of their conversation so far given what Hermione responded with.
"Your friend says that we can stalk up on Phoenix tears from Fawks. You won't hurt anyone, Harry."
The boy looked down at them, the hesitation clear in his eyes. "Are you sure?" Hagrid nodded, putting his hands out to catch the boy
Ron and Hermione watched as their friend tumbled from the tree, Hagrid crouching down a bit from the inertia. "There we go. Up on your- uh- well whatever." Hagrid mumbled.
The two finally saw what Harry had been hiding from them. His fangs were long, and his forked tongue flicked in and out of his mouth. The bottom half of his body had been replaced with that of a basilisk except much smaller, which was the change that stood out most, but it struck both most what hadn't changed. Even with his snake features, he was still Harry.
Hagrid eventually ended up just picking the boy up and bringing him to the infirmary himself.
Harry was mostly here to make sure there hadn't been any complications with the transformation. If there had been side effects to his side effects Harry actually would have bitten someone.
There weren't any problems outside of the big one and a bit of magic train with the transformation. Nothing a bit of rest couldn't fix.
But there wasn't any undoing this. He had always figured but that was different from knowing that.
Still, Harry figured he made the right choice, coming down from that tree. It turns out he could still read, and he could still write. Maybe communication would be harder now, but he'd figure it out with his friends.
And his godfather apparently.
Lupin ended up ratting him out.