Chapter Text
The first days spent in Hogwarts passed Gary by quickly. So busy was he cataloging the hidden places and secret songs of the castle and grounds that he barely spared enough attention to provide Draco with scrolls that explained the true history and origins of magic and the so called 'muggleborn' along with a few handwritten pamphlets on the proper magical Holy Days and rituals. Draco promptly turned into a gibbering fountain of questions, which Gary answered without even noticing, so second nature was the information to him. He was much more interested in the room on the seventh floor that was only there when he commanded it, the cerberus in the third floor corridor, and the basilisk in the basement.
"Why are you not dead?" the ponderous serpent hissed when Gary awoke it from its slumber deep within the Chamber of Secrets. "My gaze isss meant to kill."
"I am not mortal," Gary replied in the Serpent's Tongue. "I can be destroyed, but I cannot die."
"Oh," the basilisk said. "I don't sssee the difference but I suppose there iss one, ssssince you are sssstill breathing…. I'm hungry."
"I will see to it that you are fed well, should you agree to bear me upon your back when I wish to traverse my home."
"Hmmm…. Will there be fresh spider meat?"
"I will find a way."
"Very well, little ssspeaker."
Gary grinned. He would have his own mount at last!
-l-
"If there were creatures considered dangerous on the castle grounds, would you want them gone?" Gary asked Draco in the middle of history class one day, not even bothering to keep his voice down. Professor Binns just kept droning on, never mind that it was rare for anything he said to be both important and correct.
"Like what?" Draco asked.
"Shh!" said Hermione, her hair frizzing in irritation. Gary was still trying to determine just what sort of changeling she may be. Her hair and the way it responded to her moods made him think she may be a gorgon, but when he tested her she showed no understanding of Parseltongue. But then he wasn't certain if the glamour that hid her from herself would prevent that….
"A cerberus, to name one example."
"Hogwarts is the safest place in Wizarding Britain!" Hermione whispered harshly. "All the books say so. There won't be anything like that on the grounds. The teachers wouldn't allow it."
Gary smiled at her, amused at her conviction. Stubbornness was a known quality of many fae, so it didn't really help him to narrow down what kingdom she was from. Her overlarge front teeth might point toward her being a selkie, and she certainly had the proper coloring. "But if there were such beasts here, would you wish someone to remove them?"
"Of course I would!" she sniffed, sticking her nose in the air, before cutting her eyes toward Professor Binns and shrinking into herself, remembering she should be taking notes.
"And how would you Word it?"
"What?" Hermione glanced at him sharply, then immediately turned back to her parchment. "Stop distracting me, Gary."
"Fine, fine, I'll leave you be… as soon as you tell me how you would Word your wish."
Hermione huffed, muttering about idiotic princes and their nonsensical whims and obsession with faerie myths under her breath. "Honestly. If it's the only way you'll let me take notes in peace, then 'I wish for all dangerous beasts to be removed from Hogwarts Castle and Grounds, unless present for legitimate educational purposes.'"
Gary merely smirked and whispered, "Done."
-l-
"Jareth?"
"Yes, precious?"
"There is a seventy foot basilisk chasing a horde of giant spiders through the labyrinth, a pair of mountain trolls happily wallowing in the Bog of Eternal Stench, some confused grindylows in Hoggle's favorite fountain, and a three headed dog sleeping across the threshold of our son's room."
"Bless that boy. He gives such lovely presents."