Harry asked her to join him and she requested that he pick her up. He told everyone before they reacted badly to his stooping down so she could wind her way up one arm, her head peeking over his shoulder.
"Right," said Sirius, trying to pretend everything was fine and Harry wasn't carrying a poisonous snake, "shall we?"
"Your sire fears for you."
"He's a worrywart." Harry replied affectionately.
"You are his hatchling. He would give his life for you." The snake admonished him.
"Yes, Mother." Harry said seriously, the name slipping out. "I know. I love him too."
"But have you told him yet, hatchling?" Mother said.
Harry flushed and shook his head.
"Then you should." Mother made something like a tsking sound. "Males. Always so very slow."
Harry noticed everyone was looking at him again. He blushed bright red and was very happy nobody else knew what the snake had said. "We're ready." He covered briskly.
"Are you sure that's all she said?" Remus teased.
Harry decided silence was his best defence and walked up to the door.
"Wands out." Caro said firmly.
Sirius stood beside Harry, his hand on Harry's free shoulder. "When you're ready, Harry."
He focused on the snake door knocker and gathered his courage. "Give entrance to the Greatest of Slytherins!" He hissed.
The door knocker moved of its own accord and knocked on the door three times. The door suddenly opened up with a loud creak, drifting inwards.
Sirius tugged Harry to the side so Bill could run the scanning charms.
"All the wards are down. There's a snake curled up in a corner of the room to the left." Bill said briskly. "Uh-oh. She's on the move. You're up again, Harry."
Sirius tensed beside him as a dark shape slithered into view.
"Master! You came back for me! You…" The snake stopped suddenly in the sunlight the open door had let in and rose up, her hood flaring. "You are not my Master!"
"The Other has left us!" Mother replied before Harry could. She snaked down Harry's arm and pooled onto the floor of the house. "The Other lied and mistreated us!"
"No! Master will return for Lamia!"
"Your bond is broken!" Mother countered, her own body rising to sway at the same height as the cobra's. "He has chosen another! You wept all night about it!"
"It does not matter! My allegiance is to him!" And without further warning the cobra moved fast as a whip to strike at Mother.
"NO!" Harry yelled even as Mother avoided the attack, smacking the back of the cobra's head with her tail as she darted to the side. He couldn't let Lamia hurt Mother...
His magic rushed through him like a flooded river…
Harry put his hand out toward Lamia as though to push her away from Mother and the Black family magic responded to his call, the silver snake totem shot out from his hand to land between the adder and the cobra…
"Bind the cobra! Protect Mother!" Harry ordered without thinking.
The silver snake rose up and the cobra realised her mistake – she tried to get away but the silver snake bound her tightly within its coils.
Harry stood shaking within the doorway.
Sirius's hand squeezed his shoulder tightly. "Harry?"
"The cobra is Lamia. She wants to stay faithful to her master. She was going to hurt Mother so…I just reacted and the Black snake came!" Harry explained quickly.
"You see the power of the One you have refused?" Mother hissed at the cobra. "His magic binds you."
Lamia deflated but remained defiant. "I will not betray my Master! Not even for one whose blood smells like an Old One!"
Harry wondered if that had something to do with the basilisk.
"Then you are a fool." Mother said. "Your Master left you here! Deserted you! Has chosen another more worthy!"
"No!" Lamia snapped futilely in Mother's direction. "He gave me a great honour! He brought me here to protect his treasure! He will come back for me!"
"He has left you many cycles!" Mother argued.
"No! Just one! He put me to sleep last cycle and I woke when someone tried to steal his treasure!"
"He put you to sleep many cycles ago and left you!" Mother said harshly. "If he returns, he will only kill you and retrieve the dark, evil thing he placed here!"
Lamia snapped her jaws shut and didn't say anything more.
Harry cleared his throat. "Lamia refuses to believe she's been deserted. She's faithful to Tom. Mother can't convince her. It sounds as if she was put in an enchanted sleep and just woke up yesterday when Bill and Caro made it into the house."
Mother made her way back to Harry and he stooped so she could return to her previous position, wound around her arm and looking over his shoulder.
"You should kill her." Mother said. "She does not belong and she will tell the Other."
"Mother says Lamia will tell Tom everything so we should, uh…" Harry gestured weakly.
"Can you continue to keep Lamia bound while we make a decision, Harry?" Bertie asked.
Harry nodded. "I think so."
"Sirius? Remus?" Bertie asked immediately. "What do you think?"
Remus cleared his throat at the bottom of the steps. "She's too dangerous to keep around so keeping everything in its place is now out as a plan."
"We could make it look like she died from natural causes." Sirius suggested. "The enchanted sleep was obviously broken by the floor trigger being activated. What if we lobbed a rock through the window – made it look like kids fooling around had vandalised the place?"
"That could work. But we'd have to put the prey enchantment back to its former broken state to make it clear the magic was breaking down." Caro argued. She looked at Harry strangely and he flushed under her regard as he realised she mustn't have known about his ability to call the family magic forth so easily.
Harry yanked his thoughts back to the problem and bit his lip. "We promised Mother that she would have prey for the hatchlings. I'm sure it's why she helped us so much."
"We can have Kreacher and Dobby bring prey every week until Voldemort is toast." Sirius assured him. "I think this is our best bet. Make him think that the magic weakened if he turns up. If we do it right he'll assume there was an accident and his snake ended up dead."
"It will take a lot to kill Lamia and make it look like a natural death from starvation." Bertie said quietly.
"The Black magic can do it." Sirius turned to Harry. "You'll need to hand control back to me by offering me your ring hand." He smiled. "We don't want you exhausted for your birthday party later."
Harry frowned and was about to argue that he could do it but he met Sirius's worried grey eyes and the words died unspoken. Sirius wanted to spare him the death of the snake and it didn't matter to Sirius that Harry had killed a basilisk, he wanted to protect him.
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