Hogwarts Express

Ignoring how he just spoke in parseltongue Julius decided to answer his second question now:

"Rachel is a crystal viper, you don't just by chance happen to know what that means?"

The surprise on Habol's face was palpable and it was clearly visible on his face that he was already searching his memories for a random sparkle somewhere and that he probably wouldn't move until he knew exactly where the highly venomous and almost invisible snake was.

„Yes, I do happen to know this kind of snake. There were a few where I lived before, though they were always just coming through.

Now, would you consider telling me where I can't sit down if I don't want to die a horrible death?"

As soon as he said that a loud hiss was heard from the seat Rachel was on and Habol jumped back in a quite comical way before sitting down on the seat farthest away from this one.

After Habol had calmed down Julius decided to talk to him about the dark arts as specific parts of it, especially curses, were famously very developed in some pureblood magic families in Africa.

This had it's root in their tradition of having at least one signature curse or ritual per family which was further developed with every generation.

And even though Julius expected some knowledge about the dark arts, he was quickly astonished about the treasure trove of knowledge he turned out to be.

He knew something about many of those signature magics and also about the dark arts in general.

‚This is quite suspicious, the only way I can imagine him knowing all of these things would be if he was a part of <i>this </i>family. But for now I should think about how I can get him to teach me some of those spells.'

"What would I need to give you for you to teach me one of these spells? I don't know if you recognised my family's name but it happens to be quite rich and influential, I could give you many things, well, if you're interested in things like that that is."

Habol only needed to consider his question for a moment before answering:

"I can teach you one of the curses if you tell me how you hid yourself from even my eyes, but it will only be one and only a curse, not a ritual or anything like that. After that I will not teach you anything else for now but we can still discuss the dark arts anytime you want. I will not let the first person I was ever able to have such an entertaining conversation with be corrupted by the psychic effects of using the dark arts.

How does that sound?"

With this response seemingly validating his earlier guess Julius didn't need to think twice about this, him being an animagus was something he would prefer to have secret but with Habol being as intelligent as he seemed to be it wouldn't take him too long to find out anyways.

"That's a deal then. Let me show you, I think it will be more believable that way."

With these words Julius took out his wand and transformed himself.

And as soon as Julius turned towards Habol in his snake form he noticed something, there was a slight feeling, urging him to submit himself to him Habol's figure even looked as if it was towering over him.

But this only lasted for a moment until the spell was broken.

When this sensation was gone Julius looked up to Habol and tilted his head.

He was pretty sure when he turned himself there was a slightly ironic expression on his face and Julius already had a hint where he was coming from.

But that had to wait for now until he was sure about it.

"Visibilem!", Habol chanted the spell with a practiced ease, betraying at least some interest into invisible magical beasts.

~So you were an animagus, that's why you were able to speak in parseltongue. But how could you become a crystal viper? I should be completely impossible to become a magic creatu… oh~, suddenly a look of understanding appeared on Habol's face,~So you're one of those people. That explains it.~

From the looks of it Habol had not yet finished speaking when the both of them were again interrupted by a newcomer.

Suddenly, and without knocking, a girl with a scarf covering most of her face entered the compartment and quickly closed the door behind her before closing the curtains and finally slumping down on the other seat next to the door not yet occupied by Habol, the seat were Julius had just transformed.

When the girl entered the compartment he was too stunned to react at first, but when he noticed what she planned to do he quickly reacted and with his reflexes and the power in his small body he was able to barely get away before being crushed under the weight of a human.

But the problems weren't over with this, Rachel had only been minding her own business and enjoyed the sun while the interesting human had spoken with her human, but when another human burst into the compartment she was immediately alarmed, after all she couldn't let her weak human get harmed.

And then she began boiling with anger when she saw the other human trying to crush her human.

She couldn't tolerate something like that.

I only a fraction of a second she concentrated much of her death magic on her teeth and then with a jump almost three times as fast as Julius' she arrived next to the newcomer's unprotected hand, immediately opening her mouth and trying to snap her but then she was suddenly pulled back by a strong grip on her neck.

At first she still tried to get out of it and to the newcomer but after only a few seconds it had already become clear she wouldn't be able to flee, by now even the newcomer had noticed something and Seemed ready to flee at a moments notice.

And while Rachel was still not too sure if she should continue even her own human started persuading her, causing the newcomer to jump up from their seat, hit their head on the ceiling and fall down again.

Seeing this Rachel decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe she just did it accidentally, not that that would completely keep her from the consequences of her actions, but it would lessen her penalty extremely.

******************

There may be a part 2 but it could also be, that the next part will be „Hogwarts".

UPDATE: I'm now 600 words into the next chapter, I decided to do a short POV of the girl for the part I already had about her this chapter and it turned out longer than expected, now I will progress with the story again but it will probably just be a train chapter as the train hasn't even started running yet.

UPDATE 2: After repeated complaints about the lifespan part of his status window I decided to ditch it starting from next time I decide to risk making everyone angry by reminding them this was even a thing in this novel.

Thank you for reading!

PS: To SMartcimer (the guy who proposed Habol as a character): Are you okay with it till now? I know I haven't gone too much into depth with him this till now, but I hope you're satisfied for now.