- The voices Harry heard, those no one else could, were the only ones who spoke kindly to him growing up. They had spread their whispers across the world to rescue him and at last, found a way; by creating a queen of serpents. The birth of the amber-eyed empress triggers a permanent change in Harry's life, as he enters a world of magic that may protect or destroy him.
Serpentine
is an AU fanfic of Harry Potter written by darkfire1220. It is centered around the idea of how different Harry's life would be if he could talk to snakes since the beginning, even to the point of hatching a basilisk named Selena.
- Aborted Arc: When Draco takes Nevile's Remembrall, it looks like Harry is going to fly after him like he did in the original books...only for Harry to outsmart him and fix the Remembrall when Draco breaks it.
- Adaptational Badass: Harry, in a relatively minor case. Due to the horcrux in Harry being removed, he has a higher amount of magic power. When he spars Gilderoy Lockhart in Dueling Club, Harry blows him away.
- Adaptational Intelligence: Canon!Harry was a relatively average student with his only exceptional grade being in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Here, Harry's still twelve, and he's excelling in almost every class and studying high level magics meant for higher grades!
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Turns out not all basilisks are blood-thirsty monsters. Selena proves that they are capable of loyalty and caring deeply for the one who hatched him or her.
- Professor Snape gets off to a rough start with Harry, but he becomes a better teacher and even grows fond of the young wizard.
- Draco Malfoy of all people is more respectful in this fanfic due to legitmately respecting Harry as the story goes on.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Due to the Dursley family being much worse than they were in the books, Harry is a lot more socially awkward and takes much longer to warm up to people in general.
- Anger Born of Worry: Selena chews Harry out after they save Hermione from a troll with little to no plan. Something that, without Selena's petrification powers, could've gotten them killed.
- Ascended Extra: A large majority of characters and creatures, such as the Tonks family, Flying Serpents, and Runespoors, that were only mentioned for background lore become more prominent in Serpentine.
- Deadpan Snarker: Selena is a master of snark-based humor.
- Old Master: Aside from Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, several teachers at Hogwarts are fairly old.
- Undying Loyalty: Selena and Aurelion are willing to do anything for Harry. In fact, when Harry's snakes view the Mirror of Erised, they see nothing but themselves, meaning that they already have everything they could want!
