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So here he is finding this snake one day and it’s injured and he takes it home.
The snake proudly informed Harry his name was Dragon, which is adorable, because he’s so small and slim and very much not ferocious
And this snake has so much sass and it’s the most demanding snake he’s ever met (it will only eat raw filet mignon and escargot - he doesn’t tell it the snails are coming from his garden) … but it’s super affectionate too. It loves to curl up under his shirt because it likes the warmth of his chest and the sound of his heart.
Dragon has this thing about Ron. Like he just will not be nice to him. When Ron visits, Dragon likes to sit on Harry’s shoulder and hiss insulting comments about his hair or his table manners in Harry’s ear. Harry tells him off in parseltongue but can’t help the hint of laugher that comes through. Ron eyes him sceptically.
Harry’s out shopping one day with Dragon tucked into his shirt and he comes across Lucius and Narcissa and they see the snake and just do this double take and Dragon dives into Harry’s shirt and curls tightly around his chest and Harry has no clue what just happened.
Harry never wanted an owl after Hedwig, it didn’t seem right, but the snake fills a hole in his life he hadn’t realised he had. It’s not just having a companion around, it’s having one who he can come home to, and tell how his day was, what he’d been up to. And the comments he got in return - he knew it was just a snake, but the snark
He didn’t know what he’d do when Dragon was better and he had to let him go free again …
And then one morning he wakes up and instead of the iridescent green snake wrapped around him, Draco Malfoy is sleeping across his chest, white blonde hair tickling his chin.
Harry yelps in surprise but Draco just snuggles closer, hissing, ‘Quiet. Sleeping. Warm. Mine.’
And Harry … finds he can’t argue with that.
**Harry find out later that Draco only became an animagus because he was trapped in Malfoy Manor with Voldermort and he had to find some way to disappear and not be noticed. And he only chose the snake because he desperately needed to know where Nagini was and what she was doing so he could keep away from her.