The Parseltongue Situation
What if Harry had talked to a different snake at the zoo?

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can – but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.

And in Harry's modest opinion, not very interesting. What interested him more was the Diamondback Rattlesnake. While it perhaps wasn't as long, it was venomous, and, in Harry's mind, a lot more dangerous.

When Harry went over to look at it, it was hidden deep in some of the fake foilage in it's cage, nearly impossible to spot. The boy cocked his head to the side, full of childish innocence, amazed at what the snake could do.

"What are you staring at, human?"

The black-haired child answered automatically. "The design on your body is amazing." He continued to study the snake for a moment, marveling at the diamond shapes covering it's almost 6 foot body.

Wait.

Had he just talked to a snake?

"A speaker?" If the snake could have showed emotions, it probably would have shown mild curiousity just then. "How interesting. What's a young wizard like you doing here?"

Harry's eyes darted around the room, making sure no one was watching. "Wizard? What are you talking about? I'm just…normal."

"No non-magical human has ever known the great language of the snakes. You're not normal, boy. Accept that now. Normal has never changed anything in the world, and you could probably do great things, if you stopped being such an unmotivated, uninteresting, bad-at-pretending idiot. Now leave me. I wish to sleep."

Harry gaped. Was this really happening? Talking to snakes? Wizards? Being told he was an idiot by a caged rattlesnake?

"Stop standing around with your mouth hanging open, boy, and hurry up!" His uncle yelled, making a few young girls near him jump. "We're going back to see the wolves."

Harry followed his only relatives around the zoo on autopilot the rest of the day, wondering all the while if he was completely insane.

By the time the summer holidays had started, Harry had shrugged it off as his imagination. He had decided that it was just a part of him reaching out, hoping that his life could possibly get better.

That wasn't possible, of course.

Strange letters started arriving, though, all addressed to him. His Uncle Vernon managed to keep all of them away and burned them, but the emerald-eyed boy was burning with curiousity. The only time his Aunt and Uncle acted like this was when they spoke of his 'freakishness.' What if it was something to do with that?

Eventually, his Uncle got so fed up that they left the house. The eve before his birthday, Harry stayed awake, laying on a hard floor, cold, with only a ragged blanket to cover him. He was on his back, staring at his watch, hoping for…something. Something better than what he had now.

Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmed if it did. Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.

Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes go go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?

One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds…twenty…ten…nine – maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him – three…two…one…

BOOM.

The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.

A few minutes later found Harry sitting next to a warm fire, trying to comprehend what a giant of a man was saying.

"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry – yer a wizard."

There was a silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.

"Wiz-wizard? As in magic?" he managed to croak out.

"O' course."

"Then…then he was telling the truth! I'm not normal! I'm…I'm not normal," Harry was mumbling to himself by then. Hagrid stared at him strangely.

"Can we leave now?" the young wizard asked suddenly.

"I don't- What? There's a huge storm out there, Harry, and I reckon it's really not safe."

"You can do magic, can't you?" he asked impatiently. "I don't want to stay with them," he jerked his head towards his relatives, "any longer than I have to. So can we leave?"

The Keeper of the Keys was staring at him, eyes wide.

"Yeah, alright. It'll take a mo,' though, I need to make sure the boat's goin' to be safe for us."

Harry smiled to himself as they walked out the door, pulling the thin blanket around his shoulders tighter. He'd have to go back and thank that snake someday. He'd become great, he was sure of it.