Chapter Text
There was a pounding in Viper’s head, she clenched her eyes shut and rubbed at her temples trying to relieve the pressure.
Just when she thought that the pain was manageable she heard a voice she hadn't in close to thirty years.
“Get up Freak!” Her aunt was screaming. “Make breakfast and don't burn it.”
Opening her eyes to the blurry second bedroom she hadn't seen in a long time she robotically put on the glasses sitting on the side table. She took in the half broken wardrobe that blocked her door, the desk that leaned slightly to the left, the office chair with broken armrests and a lumpy seat.
“Freak!” was screeched again from the bottom of the stairs, prompting her to pull on the first pair of jeans and shirt she could find, and head down the stairs.
As she passed a mirror hanging in the hallway she stopped, and stared, that was her, that was her at sixteen, that was her long curly ruby colored hair that hung in large loose curls down to her tailbone, her green eyes, the ugly round glasses that she had worn up until she was eighteen and had fled England.
What the fuck was going on, last thing she remembered was...was dyeing. She had died because of the Gesso marshmallow loving asshole. He had fucked with the balance of the Tri Ni Sette.
She had known the entire time what the purpose of the Arcobaleno curse was, there were some books in the Black library written by previous Holders of the pacifiers, though they never did say anything after the curse was taken off.
Viper made breakfast mechanically, and thought about what she would need to do.
First would be finding the actual date, and then going to Gringotts after that she would plan more, well plan more as she went to get her eyesight fixed at Oculi Mutatio like she had just before she had left England, that she wanted to do early.
Viper kind of wondered if her Mist flames were still active as she served breakfast to the zoo that was her blood relatives.
She waited until they were half way through the food before throwing an illusion over it, making it look like maggots were crawling all over it. Dudley and Petunia screamed.
As they both took a breath to start again she spoke in an even calm voice. "I will make the three of you a deal. Leave me alone for however long I am here this means cooking your own meals and chores and it will be like I am not here, and once I leave for school you will never see or hear from me again." She offered.
"You'll be expelled for this freakishness!" Vernon yelled, his face turning the color of a prune.
"No, this is a different 'freakishness', one much more dangerous." She admitted having chains wrap around their necks. "I could kill you just like this." The chains tightened, cutting off their air supply.
Vernon looked at her, really looked at her and saw her blank face, completely apathetic at the thought of ending their lives and nodded.
"Good choice." The chains disappeared and the food went back to looking normal as she turned on her heel and left the silent kitchen.
She swiped all the notes from her aunt's purse before creating a Mist portal to the alleyway that would let her into Diagon, she kind of wished that she could simply portal next to the bank but they had some rather creative alarms.
Entering the alley she applied an illusion to her features, making her eyes blue and her hair a strawberry blonde, magicals were all idiots and wouldn't look past the hair color.
She slinked along the shadows in the alley, it really wasn't hard with how empty and gloomy it was given that the 'war' had only kicked off really a year ago. She made a quick mental note to go stop and see the twins, and purchase a large amount of instant darkness powder.
When she reached the bank she let the illusion drop, it would do no good if the goblins thought she was a thief.
The bank was practically empty, only two of the six tellers were occupied so she marched right on up to one and in her most bored voice stated. "I will see my account manager."
She had read a book that had told her that goblins shared the idea that 'time is money' with her, so she would treat them like she wanted to be treated some days.
The tellers beady eyes looked at her scar and then at her eyes. "Yes Miss Potter." He sounded like he had been gargling rocks recently.
"Now please. Time is money and you are wasting both of mine." She pointed out a little snappishly. Apparently she would need to step out to France at some point as well for the scar removal potion she had used the first time around.
The goblin grunted at her waving a clawed hand to follow him.
He took her down the twisting hallways with gold doors lining each side, it made her mourn a little, such a waste of gold.
The goblin knocked on the door bearing the name 'Stormcrusher' on it, getting a grumbled answer that was spoken in gobbledygook.
Once the door was open for her she swept in, not taking up precious time with greeting she simply stated what she wanted and needed.
"I need a full in depth blood test and a purge of all foreign magicks, you will recall all artifacts, books and money taken from my accounts, and you will take the golden cup on the back shelf in the Lestrange vault and remove the soul shard that is in it when you remove the one from me."
Stormcrusher just blinked at her, making her huff. "Now please. What is it with everyone wasting time today, I have money to make so quickly please."
Shaking his head hard enough to make his ears flop around Stormcrusher pulled out a simple steel dagger and a roll of parchment.
"Thirteen drops of blood on the parchment, this will cost six gallions." He informed her.
Viper roller her eyes. "Yes take it from my trust vault." She sliced open the middle finger of her right hand and counted the drops of blood as they splashed on the parchment.
She hissed quietly in parseltongue sending a healing spell at her finger and a cleaning spell at the dagger before handing it back hilt first.
Stormcrusher looked at her with wide eyes for her casual use of wandless magic.
Her blood soaked into the parchment and started spreading out to form words.
Current Date: July 27, 1997 10:27
Birth Name: Harriet Lillith Potter-Black (Emancipated)
Chosen Name: Viper
Birthdate: July 31, 1980, 23:55 (Sixteen years of age)
Father(s): James Potter (deceased)
Sirius Black (deceased)
Mother(s): Lily Potter nee Evans (deceased)
Living Relatives: Petunia Dursley nee Evans
Dudley Dursley
Tom Riddle - Lord Voldemort
Bond(s): Dobby (House Elf)
Kreacher (House Elf)
Lordship(s): (Pending Claim)
Potter
Black
Slytherin
Emerys
La’ Fay
Ravenclaw
Blocks/Spells/Potions: ###
Core Block: 75% Blocked
Soul Fragment 10% Leach (1.7% of Soul)
Eidetic Memory 90% Blocked
Language Affinity 90% Blocked
Animagus 90% Blocked
Shame Compulsion
Reckless Compulsion
Mail Ward
Loyalty Potion(s)
Love Potion(s)
“Please Stormcrusher, tell me what you see wrong with this.” She demanded of him. “And while you are at it you can explain why you haven't investigated why I haven't responded to any mail that should have come from Gringotts.”
Stormcrusher sputtered, “Miss Potter, we at Gringotts apologize for this oversight. We will rectify this as soon as possible.”
Viper shook her head. “I do not care for apologies, I want action and respirations. The cleansing will be free of charge, and like I said you will recall everything to my vaults other than the six hundred galleons I have had taken out every year since I started school. If you recall everything with a five percent interest you may keep the interest and it will cover the cleansing many times over and you will be doing it at least once more at a later date on a necklace.” She refused to pay for something they should have done when she was eleven.
Stormcrusher grit his teeth, looking very angry but agreed nonetheless. It wasn't her fault that Griphook had not followed proper procedures.
The cleansing was painful but short, she had been handed a potion and told to drink it and then told to strip and stand in a pool of crystalline water. The water had turned black as she writhed in pain under the surface of the water and it leached the foreign magicks from her.
As it turned out they had thrown the goblet from the Lestrange vault in as well, well it was kind of her fault for saying they would do it at the same time.
After the cleansing she claimed her six lordships and pulled six thousand gallions from her trust vault some of which she had them give her in gold bullion, next stop Oculi Mutatio.
By the time Viper was almost done with her little spending spree she had gotten her eyesight fixed, bought a new multi compartment automatic shrinking trunk, bought all the parslescript books in Knockturn Alley, her school books for seventh year (not that she would be going), hair color changer, dozens of new black hooded robes in acromantula silk, and any other book that caught her fancy.
She had chosen to forgo seeing the twins at their shop as it looked very crowded and she didn't want to risk being exposed.
Exiting the Alley she was very happy that she hadn't been discovered by either fans, the roasted turkeys, or the death munchers.
She next stopped by the corner store to pick up a few sandwiches and bottles of water (thank you auntie), planning a grocery run for the next day after she hit a pawn shop to switch the gold for muggle cash.
Once back in her dingy little room she sorted out her belongings both old and new placing them in her trunk neatly. Just because she was sixteen again didn't mean she would be a slob.
Selecting a book from her new collection on Animagus she sat back to read for the rest of the day.
Three days and two more shopping trips and a quick raid of the Black library (thank fuck the locket was still in the house) later she was picked up by the order of fried turkeys. Playing along with their admittedly terrible plan.
They left her aunt and uncle's house behind.
Everything happened the same, Mundungus fled, George lost his ear, Moody died, and her Hedwig sacrificed herself to protect Viper.
But this time in the chaos of the interrupted wedding she had her shrunken trunk on a necklace so there would be no starving this time.
Arriving in downtown London she quickly pulled her two 'friends' into an alleyway to change out of their clothes into something more acceptable.
This time the Horcrux hunt was much easier, they snuck into the bank where Viper dropped off Slytherins necklace to be destroyed.
It was three days after that that had Ron storming away from them in a fit of anger that put the original one to shame, but this time Hermoine followed him.
Viper shrugged as she packed up camp and left with a Mist portal to gather information on when Voldemort was planning his attack on Hogwarts.
After she had learnt that there was no plan other than waiting for her to show up she went to Weasley Wizarding Wheezes and bought out their supply of Peruvian instant darkness powder.
She had a glorious plan for using it. She knew that Voldemort had put the taboo on his name already so her plan was to go hang out in a forest and say his name and take out any snatchers or death eaters that showed up. The powder would be used to cover who it was that was using the taboo so no-one who got away would ever know it was her.
Viper used this plan a few times before she noticed Pansy Parkenson was one of her victims, this made her burst out in insane laughter. She killed the girl before she could suggest giving her to the dark lord after they took Hogwarts 'back'.
But her death also hit her with another brilliant plan. Viper smothered herself in mist flames and portaled to Malfoy Manor.
She found it was very hard to act as Pansy had, but she pulled through nicely. Especially when she got into a 'fight' with Malfoy jr. and snatched his wand from his hand before flouncing off, hips swaying hard to make her skirt bounce enough to flash her ass to the world as a distraction.
She slipped into the Malfoy library after that and flinched all the books it held, even the 'hidden' ones before portaling away to where her tent sat on the other end of the forest of Dean from where she originally started.
Her sneaking into Hogwarts in the late fall was in no way as dramatic as the last time. She went through the front doors enough Mist flames covering her that she figured someone would notice, turns out Snape did. He had dragged her into his office and started ranting at her.
Having had enough of the rant she cast a silencing spell at him and handed him the test she had done at the bank.
"Did you know if not for how Malfoy acted I would have been a snake?" She asked him, calmly. "Did you know that most half-bloods that enter Slytherin are abused?"
He nodded at her, his face a mask of anger mixed with confusion.
"Did you know I slept in a cupboard under the stairs before I was invited here? That I have 'freak' carved into the side of my thigh? That my whale of a cousin used to beat me up every day to the point that my fingers will never be straight? That I thought my name was Freak until I started primary?" She questioned but didn't wait for an answer.
"I know everything that Dumbledore planned, but I am not a soul container anymore, there are only two left. I am here to destroy the one in the castle. When that is done evacuate the students and I will send out a call for the order. But first give me your arm." She demanded holding out her hand.
Wryly he placed his left wrist in her grasp, sleeve rolled to his elbow. When she started hissing at the brand on his arm he flinched lightly.
There was a quick build up of magic in the air before the snake and skull seemed to shatter and flake away.
She then informed him. " Your life debt to James has been more than paid, as have my own. Leave with the students and do not come back to England. Snake-face is planning to kill you and when this is over the sheeple will only linch you, if you need help after you only need to search for 'Mist Viper'."
Leaving the silent man in his office she wandered her way into Slytherins chamber and collected the body of the basilisk and went further into the back of the statue where last time she had found a library and raided that as well.
She skipped her way up to the seventh floor to the room of requirement and required Raveclaws diadem as it was hers by birthright as lady Ravenclaw.
A quick Avada Kedavra saw the soul piece dyeing and that too was placed away in her trunk.
She tripped down the stairs, falling into a quickly passing Neville grabbing his shoulders she instructed him. "Nev! I solemnly swear I am up to no good! Gather the defense association who want to fight, anyone of age! Make the younger ones leave to protect the students being evacuated."
She let him go with a quick peck to his cheek and took off again towards Snape's office. Running into the Avery twins took a moment for a quick bone crushing curse at their wand arms, and a knockback jinx made them hit the wall knocking them out.
Snape wasn't there but as she was running down the halls she saw him directing students and the heads of house.
Quickly lighting the floo she called Shakelbot and told him to assemble the order and any auror's willing to fight then to come through the floo in Snape's office.
She dashed off again, she needed to let the DA know to work with Snape not against him.
It took two hours to evacuate the students, in that time a large group of adults started pouring in. She directed them to start preparing for battle, to strengthen the wards and mobilise the suits of armor and statues.
Once she had given everyone a task she had Fred and George make her two port key's for the Avery twins on one she tacked a message 'Come and get me you ugly snake faced fucker!' And sent her off, on the other she put 'p.s. I'm at Hogwarts' and sent him off.
Her laughter had the twins looking at her worried.
She grabbed their hands and dragged them with her in search for Neville.
Once she found him she ordered. "Make sure to tell everyone if they see a snake to cut off its head. The snake needs to die."
When Voldemort finally showed his forces were lesser due to her little trick with the taboo but they still outnumbered her own.
Viper was the one to run into Nagini and with a quick cutting hex she was dealt with without much fuss, unless you counted the high pitched scream of utter fury from the dark lord.
That fight was over equally quickly, but this time instead of Avada Kedavra vs Expelliarmus it was Crucio vs a magic draining curse so old and obscure that it would drain his followers that were marked as well.
It didn't take long for the death eaters to start dropping like flies. Voldemort had crumbled to ash by the time the curse had run its course, she was mildly disappointed as she swiftly tucked the elder wand under her sweater before she faced the cheering masses.
This time the only people they lost were three students and six auror's. She was happy that Teddy would have his parents this time around, and that George wouldn't be driven to suicide from looseing Fred.
Viper didn't celebrate, but she did ask McGonagall if she could take her NEWT's right away.
Given it was almost the end of the first semester McGonagall protested as Viper had not been in any classes so far that year, but Viper won that argument by saying she had plenty of time to go through all the texts needed.
She took her exams, when her results came back she was very pleased, even more so when she had shared them with Mcgonagall proving that she had been ready.
It was Christmas time that Viper hit the bank again, she cleaned out all but one of her vaults.
All gold was converted to gold bullion to sell in the muggle world as she got a much better conversion rate there than in the magical world. Viper had left behind ten thousand gallions in a vault just so they would keep any other vaults she left open.
All books were safely stored into three expanded trunks, all holding up to ten thousand books, with enough safety charms to protect them from the apocalypse.
All jewelry was sorted between four categories; keep, sell muggle, sell magical, and cursed and placed into color coded trunks of their own.
Weapons were treated much like the jewelry, the only difference being that all the magical and cursed weapons were sold to the goblins instead of seeing it they could be fenced.
The portraits were all shuffled into one vault to be left behind.
Now all that was left was for her to disappear from England, she had warned the goblins she was doing this in case people tried to claim she was dead, telling them that she was going to Paris and would check in with the bank there.
Before she left she handed Remus, the twins, Luna and Neville two way diaries and told them she would keep in touch, but not to search for her.
Then she was gone.