Harry Potter One Shots

Pivot

All rights belong to the author, Firazh

It was the hissing which woke him, sibilant sounds that wove a strangely seductive cadence. He blinked his eyes open, freezing in dismay at seeing the strange, dreamlike surroundings. Waking up had acquired a terrifying new meaning.

There were snakes everywhere, watching him intently, coiling around each other, the only sound the faint rasping of scale upon scale and the hissing of forked tongues. The room he found himself in was cavern-like, with the air of some ancient oriental temple. He saw walls of hewn sandstone, a floor of pale sand glistening oddly in the light from gilded filigree lamps suspended from an invisible ceiling, casting broken shadows. A faint breeze of warm air was flowing all around him, and the scent of lemon and sandalwood teased at his senses.

And sat in the midst of it all, was the incongruity of a bed from Hogwarts' hospital ward. In which lay the silent, unconscious form of one Harry James Potter, eternal thorn in the side of Severus Snape, who found himself sitting next to the bed. Potter's hands were wrapped in bandages from the damage he had sustained in his fight with Quirrell. Severus had earlier watched Poppy change them, applying new healing salve to the burns. Now serpents moved restlessly all over the bed-frame, gliding and slithering around the insensible boy.

And one large, majestic black king cobra coiled right on top of the blankets covering the boy.

It was staring directly at Severus, its gaze unblinking. Challenging.

He stared back, too frozen to move.

The cobra slowly moved its head closer to him, its tongue finally darting out to taste the skin of his check. Terror held Severus still, only his dark eyes following the snake's movements as it retreated as slowly as it had advanced. When it suddenly hissed, he nearly jumped out of his skin. The hissing sounded strangely like laughter.

"Sseveruss. Sseverus Ssnape."

He looked dumbfounded at the cobra, which had surely not just spoken his name ... only it seemed that it had.

"Listen to me, Sseverus," it commanded, the hissing becoming clearer the more he heard it.

"What is this? Where am I?"

"Sshh. A Dream? A hallucination? A ssending? It doess not matter, Sseverus. You sshall listen, and listen well."

"If this is merely a dream ..." he began, and started to get up ... or wake up. He had no interest in any dreams involving Potter. It was enough that he was plagued by the brat's presence in the waking reality. Fear was giving way to anger.

Only he could not move. And the dream refused to give way to wakefulness. As he struggled with himself, the snake hissed its quiet laughter at him again. Irritation swept through him.

"What do you want?"

"For you to listen, Sseverus."

"Why should I?"

"Are you truly sso arrogant that you think you know everything? That you will disregard advice just becausse it involves thiss boy?"

The cobra's blunt nose dipped to hover over the sleeping boy's head. The tongue flicked out again to gently touch the pale brow. It seemed like a benediction. Severus found himself torn between revulsion and fascination at watching the spectacle of a serpentine kiss. His eyes tracked the magnificent serpent as it resumed an upright position, its hood suddenly flaring out dangerously. It fixed an unwavering regard on him.

"You have reached a point in your life, Sseverus Ssnape, where your actionss could have great impact. For you are in a position to see ... and to right an injusstice."