An idea I had inspired by Wanda Ginny Greenleaf's Wand, Knife, and Silence, if anyone wants to see it really is a great story, hope you like it!

Parseltounge

Prologue:

Rita Skeeter closed the door of her small flat and sighed. It had been a long day, and she was looking forward to seeing her son. She heard the splashing and frowned. There was something off about it, it seemed frenzied and panicked. She drew her wand from her pocket and crept towards the bathroom door. What she saw terrified her.

"Diffindo!" She screamed the first spell that came to mind, panicking at the sight of her boyfriend of two months holding her struggling son under water. The over-powered spell sliced through the air and cut across his neck, separating head from body. They fell to the tiled floor and she rushed to the bath, pulling her little boy out of the water.

He struggled for breath and she cast a quick spell to clear his lungs of any water he might have inhaled. He cried into her shoulder and she let her own tears fall into his blond hair. She rubbed circles over his back, over the smooth transition from scales to skin.

Rita had known what her husband was when she married him, but he had died only a year later, leaving her with a child she was uncertain of how to raise. Her boyfriend must have found out, somehow. She had to do something.

She levitated the body into the woods and vanished it. Three days later she packed a suitcase for her son and flooed to Ireland. She had heard of a school there, a school for creatures and rare Magics. Her Logan could stay there, and she would see him as much as possible, but there, she hoped, he would be safe.

Emma Rosemont walked slowly down the street. Something had sent her sense buzzing like an overturned beehive and she want to find out what. Really, she was only here because she had heard rumors of a thestral herd living in the nearby forest. Unfortunately, it wasn't true, but when she had been in town earlier today she had smelt something, and being uncertain of what it was, she naturally wanted to find out. She stopped in front of a house and sniffed, there was something here.

She was wondering how best it would be to investigate when a cry ran out and just kept going.

The vampire rushed towards the house, the cries urging her on. When the door didn't open, she ripped it off its hinges. As she did, she heard it change from a terrified cry to a long, drawn-out scream. She was up the stares in a blur of movement and ripped another door from the wall.

Emma was young for a vampire, only two centuries old. But this sight would have shocked many centuries older then her. A man lay on the ground, red blood pooling around him from his ripped-out throat. He was naked, but the young girl, probably no older then five, had her clothes torn about her. Her fingers, long and slightly clawed were tipped in blood. She looked at Emma and screamed again, pulling herself further into the corner.

Emma felt sick to her stomach. It was all to clear what had happened here, and she could not blame the child for attempting to hide. Desperately she tried to calm the girl down, but she just screamed louder and struck out wildly with her bloody hand. A bruise was forming around her eye and the vampire could see several more, old and new, through the rips in her clothes.

Soon she gave up on calming the girl and shoved a bottle under her nose. One inhale later and she was unconscious. Emma picked up the child, too thin; she noted critically and gasped as she finally noticed the scales. So it had been her she smelled. She left the house, heading home to the school where she taught. This little one needed help.

The young Selkie frowned. Helena had been gathering herbs in Surry to the annoyance of her lover, but she could not see thresals and had decided to get herbs for her cousin's potions a few towns over. She walked along the edge of the town, near a small empty park. She had been about to leave when something caught her eye.

A young boy was sitting quietly on the swings. He was tiny, with rail-thin limbs and huge green eyes. It was the careful way he held himself that caught her eye, that and that he was speaking parseltongue to a tiny snake in the grass below.

She walked silently over to him, and he didn't look up until she stood right in front of him. "Hello." She said softly, trying to seem as unthreatening as possible. She didn't like the fear in his eyes. "What's your name?"

He shifted nervously on the swing. "Freak. Or at least, that's what aunt and uncle call me."

Anger boiled in her veins. That any should treat a child such, and from the looks of thing she would not be surprised if they had beaten him. "Well." She said softly. "I don't think that's a very good name."

He looked up at her and slowly shook his head. "I think I was supposed to be called Harry." He muttered.

"That's a very nice name Harry." She said softly. "Tell you what, I teach at a school for children. People with unique abilities like me and you."

The fear was back in his eyes and stronger. "I don't-"

"You can talk to snakes Harry." Helena interrupted softly. "And look." She stretched out her hand, careful in her movements. Tan skin rippled and changes to smooth brown fur. He looked up at her, stunned, than very carefully touched her palm. "Wow."

She smiled and gently, carefully took his tiny hand in hers. "Would you like to come with me Harry? This school I teach at, we look after children who have nowhere else to go as well. It would be like having a family."

"I thought I didn't deserve a family." He said softly. Rage flared up again.

"Of course you do. Now is there anything you want to take with you?" He pulled a sandwich bag out of his pocket. It was filled with shiny and oddly colored rocks. She smiled warmly. "Of course you can bring them Harry."

Her use of the name drew a smile from the boy and Helena decided she wanted to see him smile more. No one would hurt him again, not if she had anything to say about it.

Logan had been there a week when Ms. Emma came to him. He lived in a small suite which was connected to the rooms of Emma and Helena, whose rooms were attached to three others. They looked after the children in this part of the tower. He smiled at her shyly. "Logan, there will be two children moving in with you."

He nodded, grinning shyly. "What are they like?"

She smiled at his face, but there was worry in her eyes. "They are like you Logan."

"Really!" The child grinned, "There's more of us?"

"Listen, Logan." Emma said, softly but sternly. "They're hurting. The people they lived with weren't very nice."

Logan frowned. He knew some people weren't always nice to their kind; his mother's boyfriend was proof of that. "Did they hurt them?" Seeing Emma's face he nodded decisively, cute on the seven-year old. "No one's allowed to be mean to them here! I won't let them."

Emma smiled warmly, the child was kind and loving, as well as being rather intelligent. "Good. Come on." She led him from his bedroom to the small living room, where Helena was sitting with a tiny boy and girl. The two lovers had been shocked to find out that while the pair were both tiny, looking no more then four or five years old, both were seven. "Harry, Lusca, this is Logan. You'll be staying with him."

Harry smiled shyly at the taller boy. "Hello." he whispered. "Ms. Helena says you talk to snakes to."

"It's just Helena Harry." The Selkie said, gently but smiling.

"I do talk to snakes!" Logan ginned loudly, not noticing the slight flinch from both children at his loud voice. "They're very nice! My mommy says maybe when I'm bigger she'll find me a snake to keep. Do you like snakes?" He asked the girl.

She flinched away from him, hiding behind a curtain of hair, a sausage clutched in her hands like she thought he'd take it from her. She didn't answer.

"Lusca doesn't talk much." Helena said, looking worriedly at the girl. "Lusca, no one's going to take your food, I promise."

Later, when the children were lying in bed, Logan jerked awake from a nightmare about rivers, gasping desperately for air. He pulled the sheets off him and walked into the hallway, meaning to open the window.

But when he heard whimpers coming from Harry's room he opened the door. The small boy was tossing in his sleep, whimpering and trapped in the throes of a nightmare. He shook his shoulder. "Harry! Wake up! Harry!"

The tiny boy woke up, his eyes darting around in panic before settling on Logan. "I'm sorry." He said, shrinking away from the other.

Logan heard a small sound from the doorway and turned, just catching sight of the little girl. "Lusca! Come in."

Shyly the girl peeked out from behind the door. "Did you have a scary dream to?" Logan asked. She shook his head viscously, as did Harry. "It's okay." Logan said. "I had a scary dream. Come sit with us."

Slowly Lusca moved to the bed and sat on the very edge. Logan ignored her flinch and gasp as he picked her up and set her in between him and Harry, then settled next to them and pulled up the covers.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"It's called cuddling." Logan said, making sure the other two children were comfortable. "Mom does it when I have a bad dream. It's nice." He burrowed into the warm sheets next to Lusca and slowly the three wrapped their arms around each other.

Lusca had big eyes, and they looked timidly up at Logan. "I do like snakes." The boys smiled and the three drifted into sleep.