Basilisk Eyes

Chapter 19: Serpent guide

By mid-day, Harry was really ready for Aunt Petunia to leave. She had asked him to wash the outdoor windows, which was a challenging job with one's sight intact as it involved hauling ladders, buckets of soapy water, and making sure every window was spotless. Harry point blank refused to do the second-story windows, which meant that he had to endure being whacked around the head more times than he cared to count. He figured that if she wanted to kill him, she'd have to get more creative than insisting that he scale a 25-foot ladder with a bucket of soapy water.

Early in the day, he knew that the only way he'd complete the job well enough to live to the Dursley's departure time of one o'clock was with help from a sighted friend. In the back by the potting bench, Harry overturned some stones to find some tasty insects to tempt Nio hus cherio kisa. He put the worms and beetles in an old margarine tub that had once held seeds hidden in a far corner under the potting bench. He called softly in Parseltongue for his little friend, but though he waited for several minutes, he didn't hear the familiar rustling.

Maybe he's in the front, he thought.

Harry filled the bucket with water (managing to splash water all over his shins) and added soap, but decided to wait until he had a guide before he hauled it around to the front yard. So he left the bucket by the potting bench and went through the house to the garage to see about getting the ladder out.

At least the car isn't in the garage, Harry thought as he stood in the echoey space and tried to remember where the ladder was located.

How am I going to get it down without knocking into things? He thought as he remembered all the times he teetered on disaster trying to carry the ladder before.

I'm bigger now, stronger. At least I have had a year of eating well under my belt.

He tugged at his belt—it was loose. He'd lost weight since he'd come back to Privet Drive.

He trailed his hand along the wall, across the guides for the garage door, and then with his foot found the path to the front porch, which he was able to follow by keeping his right foot on the edge of the path and sliding it in front of him a bit to feel his way as he went. He bent down again and whispered in Parseltongue among the Agapanthus, "Little Friend, are you here? I have some treats for you!"

"Oh! What kind of treats?" Little Friend's voice emerged from the Agapanthus as he neared Harry's trainer.

Harry had emptied the tub of squirming insects into his hand as he crouched down and held it out toward Nio. The cool sleek body of the snake slithered up on to his fingers to investigate.

"Little Friend, could you guide me today? I'm to wash the windows and make them spotless, which is hard to do when one can't see."

For some reason, Harry found it was a lot easier to talk to Nio about his vision loss than it was to write about it in the letter to Hermione and Ron. Maybe because the snake easily accepted it and didn't seem phased by it at all. He was a very down to earth snake. He had a feeling that Ron and Hermione wouldn't be so nonchalant about it all.

"What is wash... and what are... windows... and what is... spotless?" Nio asked between crunching and gulping down the insect offerings.

Harry explained as best he could, motioning to the front of the house.

"Yes, Big Friend, I will help you. I would like to curl around your neck where it is warm and I can see well."

"Thank you! And yes, that'd be a good spot for you, just keep an eye out for my Aunt because if she sees you... well, it won't be pretty." Harry tucked his baggy T-shirt into his trousers so that if Nio had to make a speedy retreat inside his shirt, he'd not fall all the way to the ground.

"First, can you help me find the ladder?

"Sure, what is a ladder?"

The corners of his lips turned up slightly at Nio's questions, Harry brushed the bits of mud off his hands and offered his arm to Nio who climbed up, in a tickling circuitous path. Harry helped him get settled around his neck and found it was easier to walk back to the garage with Nio's whispered cues. Getting the ladder down off the wall and out of the garage was not so easy, but Nio was able to tell him where to go to retrieve the garden rake and shovel that he'd knocked off the wall as he staggered under the unwieldy weight of the ladder. Rake and shovel restored, Harry and Nio set the ladder next to the front door and then went to the backyard to get the bucket.

With Little Friend's vantage point up higher than when he was guiding Harry from the grass, he was also able to warn Harry more reliably about branches and other obstacles. Harry was also released from the worry of stepping on Nio.

Walking back with the bucket was slow going, but they managed to do it with most of the water still in the bucket and not on Harry's legs.

I probably couldn't have managed much better with sight, Harry conceded.

Harry had long ago stopped questioning Aunt Petunia's need to wash the windows in such a rainy climate.

At least now I won't see them get mucked up immediately after finishing the task.

It wasn't much consolation.

The first window was easy to reach and didn't require the ladder. Harry was thankful. He and Nio were able to figure out how to communicate about what cleaning a window actually entailed. Harry was tempted to set down Nio and ask Aunt Petunia to inspect the window to make sure it was up to her standard, but he dismissed the idea when he considered how grumpy she'd be at being interrupted during her show. He'd just have to hope that the little snake understood the concept of spotless or rather, Aunt Petunia's concept of spotless.

They moved on to the next window which required a ladder to reach over the bushes. Nio understood how important it was to place the ladder carefully in the earth by the bushes, and took a little more explaining for how to place the ladder against the building so that Harry could reach the window, but not break the glass. They figured it out, taking breaks to gather fat worms for Nio when he was getting grumpy.

During one of the breaks, Harry asked his little friend something that he'd been wondering, "How did you know that Mrs. Figg was talking about cats yesterday? Do you speak English, too?"

"Oh, no, I don't speak Legwalker, but I do recognize some words. My survival depends on it." Hearing about the garden from the snake's perspective helped Harry understand it differently—it was like a new world had been opened up to him—not unlike the night he learned that there was an underground community of witches and wizards.

Harry felt very exposed and vulnerable standing on the ladder and leaning over to reach the window with only one hand to steady himself even though he knew he wasn't very high off the ground. He was really glad for Nio's sibilant whispers and cool coils around his neck. The little snake didn't like the heights either but liked the warmth of Harry's neck and the steady supply of treats.

At last, they finished the ground floor windows. It was nearly one and though Nio was stuffed, Harry was starving—enough to consider nibbling on a worm.

He was cleaning up the bucket and rags, his legs trembling from a combination of excursion, fear, and hunger when Aunt Petunia came bursting out of the back door to shout at Harry about putting the ladder away before Uncle Vernon arrived.

Nio slipped into Harry's T-shirt as they planned, squirming a bit against Harry's belly, tickling him, to hide from Aunt Petunia. Harry crossed his arms in front to hide the slithering snake. He knew she didn't see Nio because she continued in her tirade without pause. After the ladder was put away, he was to clean up and get started ironing the napkins.

Harry listened morosely while trying to keep a neutral expression on his face. He couldn't wait for the Dursleys to get in the car and go.