FicWad

It was a long time before Harry's stomach finally got the better of his curiosity, and he had to go down to the kitchen to get some breakfast, or maybe lunch would be a better term for what Harry had to get. He got up and tucked the small book into his pocket and made his way downstairs to the kitchen where he got a bacon and egg sandwich from Maren. He sat in the kitchen and ate, thinking about what he had read.

He had known some things about the Basilisk before reading the book, because of his encounter with one in second year, but here, in this book they talked about how Basilisk where actually hatched, and how to even raise it properly without killing yourself. 'The basilisk is a creature that is born from a spherical, yolkless egg, laid during the days of Sirius (the Dog Star) by a seven-year-old rooster and hatched by a toad.' Harry recalled as he finished off the last of his sandwich and pumpkin juice. It all sounded very complicated to Harry.

Getting tired of sitting in his room because there was no real comfy place to sit in there, Harry went off in search of a more comfortable chair or couch to read on. Harry wandered down one of the halls he had not been down yet, looking into each room trying to find a chair that looked promising, most of them however looked the same, all very hard and old fashioned. Harry finally made it to the back of the house where he could go no further, the room had windows, and very few portraits, which was strange in itself. There had been no other windows he had seen in the entire house.

Harry walked over to the windows, oblivious to the faces that were peering curiously at him as he approached the window. Harry pulled the curtain to one side so that is vision would be un-obscured as he peered out. The view was magnificent, there where mountains in the background and a lake at the bottom of the hill, that the house was apparently situated on. Around the lake Harry could make out what looked like a large garden. Harry stood transfixed staring at the landscape, until a voice broke him out of his trance.

"What are you doing here," Snape asked from behind him, with an edge to his voice. Harry turned around and saw that Snape was indeed angry with him. Snape's whole body was stiff and his face, usually void of expression was contorted in anger. "Well Potter! Speak up!"

"I...I was trying somewhere more comfortable to read the book I got" Harry stammered quickly and pulled the small book to give proof to Snape that he was in fact telling the truth. Snape quickly snatched the book out of Harry's hand and flipped to one of the pages without looking at the title. Snape stared at the pages for a few moments before looking up coldly at Harry.

"Potter there is nothing intelligible written on these pages." Snape hissed before slamming the book shut in Harry's face.

"But, sir ..." Harry started but Snape cut him off.

"But what!"

"I can read it." Harry said. Snape looked into Harry's eyes for a long moment, before opening to the title page of the book.

"Prove it!" Snape said as he pushed the book under Harry's nose. It took Harry a few seconds to focus properly, but he was finally able to read it out loud to Snape.

"Guild to Basilisk, By Herpo the Foul," Harry read. This only seemed to make Snape more angry with him though.

"IN ENGLISH, POTTER!" Snape snapped.

"But, it was... oh..." Harry said as he realized that what he had said must have been in parseltongue rather than English. "Guild to Basilisk, By Herpo the Foul." Harry said, this time in English.

"Why, Potter, are you reading dark books?" Snape fumed as he snapped the book shut again.

"Well..." Harry began as he tried to think up a valid excuse. He had been so interested in what he was reading that he had not actually stopped to think of it as a dark art book. Just a book similar to something that Hagrid might have assigned them for Care of Magical Creatures class, not some book that would not be approved of. "Um...Well."

"No excuse, just as I thought." Snape said, with an air of success. "I will be keeping this and from now on you are to stay out of my study!" Snape said as he lead Harry out the door, and slammed it before Harry could protest any further. The portraits in the hall were all murmuring to one another as Harry stood there a bit stunned. Finally the murmuring of the portraits broke him out of his slumber and his head snapped up.

"SHUT UP!" He yelled, not caring if Snape could hear him inside his study. Harry angrily made his way back to his room. Snape had just taken the one book Harry had in his possession that he thought was mildly interesting, and Snape had stolen it! Now he would have to go and find someone else to borrow a book from and he did not like the idea of that. He stormed into his room and sat down on his bed, and glanced over at the frame of Herpo the Foul. He was back and had noticed Harry's entrance.

"What happened to you?" The portrait hissed, at the grumpy looking Harry.

"Snape." Harry growled.

"What did he do this time?" Herpo asked sounding exasperated.

"He took your book!"

"WHAT!" Herpo yelled "I'll get him!" Herpo did not even waiting for Harry to reply as he rushed out of the room, via the portrait frames.