Lamia's Lament

If you're going to complain about POVs changing, then you had better give me the sentence or paragraph that you found it in or it stays the way it is.

If I didn't catch it the first dozen times, I won't see it now.

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Poppy’s POV

I had never been more amused in my life. It took every ounce of control that I possessed to keep the worried look on my face as I watched the man that was considered one of the greatest wizards alive come apart at the seams. He paced rapidly as he talked to himself, he probably had no idea that he was spilling his secrets as people always underestimated a healer’s hearing. “This simply cannot be happening; all of my carefully laid plans are going up in smoke. If that portkey takes them to Voldemort before I have the chance to place that curse on the boy everything will be for naught, especially if they form a triad. Their combined powers would be more then enough to crush the Ministry. I need to find a way to get to the boy soon, hopefully the boy’s hatred for the man that killed his parents will keep him from giving into his instincts to bond to the strongest male that offers. Perhaps I can use the boy’s owl to transport a portkey.”

Albus twirled around to face me and I made sure that I gave nothing away to his twinkling blue eyes. “It is truly horrible that Severus managed to leave the school with Harry but you mustn’t fret, it wasn’t your fault. I may have an idea on how to retrieve him so you must be ready to treat him just in case.” He almost floated out of the Infirmary to carry out his new little plot, I wonder if he thinks that Tom is actually dumb enough to allow any foreign portkey to enter his property. Maybe the man truly is going senile.
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Hedwig POV

I watched the smelly old man as he gleefully attached the letter to my leg despite the fact that I had already bitten him four times. “Now, make sure that you take this straight to your master so that he gets brought back here to be the little hero.” He grabbed me rather roughly under the wings and flung me out of the window with very little fanfare, what a prick!

If he actually thought that I was going to force my Harry to come back to this hellhole he had another thing coming, my Harry deserves to live his own life. I flew in the general direction that he was in until I knew that I was out of that man’s sight before landing on one of the tallest trees in the Forbidden Forest. It took very little effort to bite through the string that attached the letter to my leg; the man’s hands were too weak with age to tie it properly. I watched with a strong sense of accomplishment as the letter fell to the ground and with a satisfied hoot I took off to join my Harry.
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Snape’s POV

I was disorientated when I awoke in a room that I did not recognize, the last thing that I remembered was Harry saying something and a fog covering my mind at the sound of his voice. I took stock of my surroundings and realized that I did know this room, and that was not a comforting thought. This is one of the guest rooms at the Dark Lord’s manors. No sooner had I thought this then the door opened to reveal the Dark Lord’s restored form in tailored robes with a self satisfied smirk on his face.

He entered the room and leaned against the mantle of the fireplace, which wasn’t attached to the floo network. “Well Severus, I’m sure that you can understand my surprise when an old friend of mine showed up to ask me to provide sanctuary for yourself and young Mr. Potter, especially when Poppy told me about your little ‘problem’.” Poppy was the one that contacted the Dark Lord! “Now though Severus it seems that we have a small problem. You are now a Naga and seem to have chosen Harry as your mate even though you know what my plans for the young hero are. We have two options: you could cede your claim on him,” I couldn’t quite control the hisses that spewed forth at the very idea, “or we could come to some sort of understanding and share him.”

I could practically feel the expression of shock that crossed my face; the Dark Lord did not share. “Normally I would not even consider sharing such a prize with anyone, but you have done much as one of my inner circle and the boy seems to trust you and you would be able to calm him and get him to be more agreeable to the union, I do not want to force the boy.” He does have a heart, who knew? “The boy is in the next bedroom and a ward has been placed over his room to make very sure that you do not do anything that you won’t live to regret, I may be willing to share but I will be first.” He swept from the room with a swirl of his cloak.

I waited several moments after his departure to make very sure that he was not going to come back in before I made my way toward the door that likely attached my room to the boy’s, hopefully I would be able to keep him calm though I did not have high hoped of that. The door swung inward without the slightest sound and I found myself memorized by the sprawled form draped across the bed. The light hit his scales in just the right way to make them glisten. I could feel my instincts trying to take me over before an outside power, most likely the wards, clamped down on them and left me with control of my mind and body. I moved slowly to the edge of the bed and placed my hand on his shoulder before giving him a slight shake that had him shooting out of the bed and halfway across the room before he realized who had awoken him and proceed to move back to the bed. “Are you alright Professor? Where are we? What’s going on?”

I stopped his questions with a slight glare that had him blushing, hmmm. “I am fine. We are currently in one of the guest bedrooms in the Dark Lord’s manor and now we have some things that must be discussed and I would like for you to remain silent while I inform you of our current situation.”

I waited for the boy to nod before directing him to a seat in front of the fireplace before taking the one opposite him, it was difficult to sit properly but they both managed. “Several months ago I was able to restore the Dark Lord to his former body as well as restoring his sanity; this caused him to reevaluate his goals and the prophecy that sent him after your family.” I could see that he wanted to interrupt but was he stayed his tongue. “He came to the conclusion that if he bonded to you the prophecy would be null and void due to a wording loop hole and changed his focus. He has moved from his previous irrational hatred of you and has developed a good deal of respect and desire for you that is only intensified by your current form.” The boy was blushing from his head to his tail, it was an interesting effect. “He is not the only one with that goal in mind.” The confusion was adorable. “I have long since overcome any unfounded animosity, I do realize that you are not your father and I have also realized that you are a very desirable young man and our current forms have taken the attraction that I was beginning to develop and magnified it. The Dark Lord saw through me with ease and has proposed that you should be bound to us both. I do know that this is a lot to take in but as the Dark Lord’s consort you would be free to do anything you wished after the war within reason and the bond itself would give us all the power needed to win the war. I know that it is a lot to think about, so I will leave you to it.” I knew it was more then a little cowardly to just drop that kind of thing on him and run away, but the urge to take him as my own was growing rapidly despite the ward’s influence and I needed to get back into my room.
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Harry’s POV

I watched Snape leave the room with an almost numb feeling, his words still ringing in my head. Voldemort no longer wanted me dead, he wanted me to be his wife and so apparently did Snape. My mind wouldn’t stop spinning, I just couldn’t believe that the two men I thought hated me wanted something like that. To be perfectly honest I am not really all that against it.

I have always respected Snape, even when he out and out hated me and spent most of his time trying to make my life a living hell. He is the most talented Potion Masters of our time and one of the best duelers I have ever seen. It had started last year though, I had begun to notice that while Snape was not the most handsome of men, he was attractive in his own way and he had a voice that was made for sin, it soothed over the senses. It made it very difficult to sit through each class without giving myself away, but I never would have thought that I had a chance to be with him like that.

There is very little I could say about Voldemort. I could understand why he came after me that Halloween night; it was a war so his actions could not truly be considered evil. He was one of the most powerful men in the world, both in magic and in influence, he would be able to protect me and any children I would have, as would Snape. I also knew that the Wizarding World needed to change, it is slowly being overrun by the irrational fears of the muggleborn’s that are coming into it without any knowledge about its inhabitants. All of the magical creature laws were created due to the fears that muggleborns had developed due to their own fairy tales and not the true nature of the creatures themselves. In fact, it was more then likely that if I hadn’t ended up with Voldemort and Snape couldn’t find a way to reverse the botched potion we would have been just as segregated as Remus without his ability to hide what he was, its hard to hide the fact that you’re half snake. It would definitely be a hard decision, I couldn’t take it lightly.
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Several hours later found me no closer to an answer then I had been before, every angle that I thought of had advantages and disadvantages that were rather hard to ignore.

If I were to only mate with Snape, I would likely have to escape with him to form our own side to the war, or leave the Wizarding World entirely, which had merits of its own, but Voldemort was not the type to let things he wanted simply walk away and disappear like that. The man would likely spend the rest of his life splitting his efforts between taking over the world and finding them, living a normal mated life would be absolutely impossible. I thought briefly about just mating to Voldemort but found the idea without merit, I actually care a great deal for Snape without the snake side, and while I can imagine falling for Voldemort given time I couldn’t put Snape out of the picture. Mating to both of them would nullify the problems of the other two options but could he really cope with two very possessive mates that had very little to no sharing skills?

It was at times like this that I really wished that I had been born a normal boy that didn’t have to deal with things like this but it seems that I was born under a star of unusual happenings.
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Voldemort’s POV

I found myself pacing across the floor of my study within moments of leaving Snape’s room, filled with anxiety about the future for the first time.

I had realized soon after regenerating fully that I had not been chasing after Harry to see him dead in my somewhat insane moment. Every time that we crossed paths I hesitated at just the right moment to allow the boy to escape without even consciously thinking about it. Even insane I found the boy to be utterly intriguing, his fire and power were like drugs to me and I found myself without the will to resist the pull.

The boy’s new form was also a definite advantage to both the war and my interest in heirs. The Lamia form is both physically powerful as well as a magical powerhouse. The scales that littered the form liberally were the equivalent of dragon scales only slightly more resistant to rapid temperature changes, the eyes held similar traits to those of a basilisk that only activated when they were incredibly stressed and their physical strength was on par with that of a vampire. By far the largest bonus of the boy’s new form was the ability to bear young. I had almost given up hope that I would find a being worthy of bearing an heir, especially with the rituals of my youth that have left me closer to snake then man, but Harry could now give me as many children as I could want. The desire to sire plenty of children not only to carry on my legacy but also to spoil as I always wished that I had been was hard to deny.

Sharing the boy with Severus would be a very small price to pay to achieve all of my goals, even the ones that I had not been aware of before now.
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Severus’ POV

I could honestly admit that I was embarrassed with the way that I fled from the boy without truly explaining myself to him but both sides, human and snake, had wanted nothing more then to throw the boy onto the bed and have my wicked way with him and the wards were only set to stop his snake instincts. I don’t truly know when I stopped seeing him as the son of James Potter and started to see the real him but he was now the star of many dreams that I would give just about anything to experience in the waking world.

I knew that Harry would likely view the situation from every angle before he made a decision, sometimes I found myself wondering how he managed to get into Gryffindor. Even when he was doing something that sounded reckless, there was a valid and well thought out reason behind it, the only trait that he seemed to lack was self-preservation, he often put the lives of others above his own. I could only hope that he would learn to put himself first and that he would give me a chance to show him my true self, even if I wasn’t going to be the only one to do so.
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Several hours later when I had almost given up hope that Harry was going to make his decision today the door that connected our two rooms slowly opened to reveal wide green eyes and long mussed hair that made it extremely hard to keep my thought clean as he slid slowly into the room.

His voice was quiet enough that even with my newly enhanced senses I had to strain slightly to hear him. “I would like to mate to both of you, but I want to get to know the both of you better before we bond, if that’s alright.”

I was about to answer when a smooth voice came from the door to the hallway. “I would certainly not be averse to getting to know you a little better as long as you truly wish to mate to both of us and are not just trying to choose what you think will make everyone else involved happy.”

Harry looked like he had just seen his first ghost as he took the Dark Lord’s human form in for a moment before he shook himself slightly and looked at each of us in turn before making sure that we could both see his eyes as he spoke. “I can admit that this is the best option to make both of you happy as well as help end the war but that is not the reason that I chose it. I have had a crush on you professor for almost as long as I have known you, though I wasn’t aware of it early on, and I would be lying if I said that I didn’t feel quite a bit of attraction for you Voldemort. You are a very powerful man that is noted as being one of the most intelligent students to ever pass through Hogwarts, your conviction is admirable if somewhat overzealous at times and you have shown that you protect what is your with unfailing dedication. I know that while I could be happy with either of you if given the chance, I feel that you each balance a part of me and I would be happiest with the both of you at my side.” He seemed to have used the majority of his courage as he dropped his eyes to stare at the floor as he waited for a response.

“If you are already so convinced that you would be happy with the both of us as mates why do you need to get to know each of us better?” The question came more from my impatient new snake side then the human one that was just thrilled to have a chance though a quick glance at the Dark Lord showed that he was asking himself the same question.

Harry’s face flushed a cherry red that traveled all the way down his chest and brought certain parts of my anatomy to attention, through thankfully not enough to leave the sheath in which it now rested. “I’ve never even been on a date with anyone, I haven’t even had my first kiss and I kind of want to experience all the parts of dating before I get mated.” He managed to get even redder as he looked toward the door to his room almost as if he wanted to run back in there and hide.
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McGonagall’s POV

I knew something was very wrong and I knew that somehow the entire feel of the castle was off in a way that I had never felt before. First I had to comfort many of both the Gryffindors and Slytherins when they ran into my room talking quickly about how both Harry and Severus had been hit with a potion in class and that it was all Hermione’s fault. Apparently she had lost her temper and ruined the potion that they had been working on in class and without Severus to run to the Slytherins saw me as the professor to go to, which caused my heart to swell a little. Then after classes were over for the day and I tried to visit them in the Infirmary I was stopped by an overly twinkling Dumbledore that told me that Harry was still unconscious and the Severus had to be sedated and he didn’t want anything to disturb either of them. I tried to return later on only to find that the doors had been warded so that no one could get in and I returned to my room to plot a way to see my colleague and my favorite trouble magnet.

When I finally formulated a way to gain entry I went to the Infirmary only to find the doors wide open and a furious Albus storming out with a smug looking Poppy watching him leave. There was no sign of either Severus or Harry in the neatly made beds. When I questioned Poppy about their whereabouts she told me a story about how Severus had woken up and escaped with Harry in a fit of rage and every instinct that I had from my animagus form told me that very little of that story was true but getting anything out of Poppy without her wanting you to know is impossible. I left with no knowledge except that something was very wrong and I had the feeling that it was going to change the world as I knew it.
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Harry’s POV

After a very uncomfortable staring contest Voldemort told me to go back to my room to rest while he and Severus worked out how to work the ‘relationship’ out. I was still in a bit of a daze about that, I have two dark wizards that want to be my mate, two wizards that I thought hated me with all of their hearts. Before I made it to my bedroom door Voldemort gave me a book about Lamia that he said would teach me everything that I would need to know, so I curled up in one of the chairs that was situated next to the window and opened it up to the first chapter.
Several hours later…

The book was amazing it had everything from the first Lamia to the last recorded one with all the information that one would need to live as one. The part that I was happiest to find was the part about how to change forms; apparently Lamia had three forms that they could switch between will very little work. The first and most common one was the one that I am in; a half-snake form that was versatile and allowed for the natural protection of the scales with the ability to cast wizarding magic. The next was a full snake form that greatly resembled the basilisk in appearance and in power. The third was a human form that only carried a small dusting of scales that showed what the person really was. The process was very detailed and I figured that I could probably have in down by the end of the week.

I was almost to the end of the book when I was startled by the sounds of an owl scratching on the window pane and I rushed to open it when I saw that it was my Hedwig. She flew in tiredly and claimed one of the bed posts as her perch before giving an affectionate hoot and falling asleep with her head tucked under her wing. I found myself more then a little stunned that she had not only found me in Voldemort’s home but that she was so comfortable with the situation but then again she was a very smart owl. In fact the whole sleep idea sounded wonderful, I’ve been reading for hours and the bed certainly looks very comfortable.
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