I didn't need to look up to know when Harry, at last, stumbled through the doors into one of the smaller studies. If I was correct, it was last used by Periboia Gaunt, a descendant of Slytherin that died during one plague or another. Out of respect for her prematurely ended line, the study was left vacated. I was never one for tradition, however, and intended for the room to be Harry's primary classroom. I was seated at the late Periboia's desk, my feet propped up on the mahogany.
"You're late."
"I got lost," Harry admitted grudgingly.
"Look around you, boy. What do you see?"
"Books?" Harry asked innocently.
"Don't be clever. Look at the walls, the tapestries. You'll notice a very common theme. What is it?"
"Snakes?" Harry guessed after a moment. I nodded, looking up from Parseltongue: Hidden Arts.
"Snakes," I echoed. "You know why the emblem of Slytherin house is a snake, correct?"
"It's because Salazar Slytherin was a parselmouth, right?"
"That is correct. Now, do you know why Hogwarts was built in this precise location?"
That one was harder for Harry to answer. After a long minute of biting his lip, he answered hesitantly.
"Something to do with ley lines, right?"
"Are you asking me or telling me?" I replied smoothly.
"Telling," Harry answered tightly. I nodded once more.
"Good. This is where you education will begin. I don't expect you to take notes but I expect you to pay attention. Take a seat," I ordered, gesturing towards the chair across from me. When he sat down, I moved my feet from the desk to look at him levelly. "Ley lines are ancient pathways through which natural magic, one of the most ancient and misunderstood types of magic, run. When these pathways intersect, there is a certain amount that runs and spills over, resulting in an area permeated with vast amounts of potential energy. Hogwarts' grounds rest on the intersection of four ley lines; four founders, four houses, four ley lines. This made the initial construction much easier and faster and makes upkeep of the castle possible with minimal care. It also had a curious side effect on the castle itself."
"What do you mean?"
"There are stories, if you look hard enough, that reference something called the cridhe dhen caistiel or, the heart of the castle. The castle itself, and every nonliving thing within it, has taken on a sort of echo of a personality. It isn't strong enough to be noticed by the students but the staff can easily spend decades of their lives within the castle."
"The castle is alive?" Harry asked, wide-eyed. I stood up, walking towards the marble fireplace, admiring the snakes carved into the gray and black stone. The craftsmanship was unparalleled; the snakes looked as if they would writhe free of the masonry when no one was looking.
"Not quite. The castle has a very distinctive personality to it but, on the whole, it remains nonliving. Pieces of it, however… Come to me, ancient ones, and heed my pleas. I remain loyal to my blood, diluted though it may be." I ran my hand along the back of one of the snakes on the mantel and, before my eyes, the snake bucked and shifted under my hand. The marble snake came free of the stone, blinking its jet eyes and looking to me questioningly.
"We do not forget our oaths, Master Riddle." The snake coiled itself around my wrist, its carved scales cold against my skin. I turned, holding the stone snake out for Harry to examine.
"The ley lines have imbued life into the castle in ways that the founders couldn't have predicted. Though this is not a skill you can likely use around the castle, as many still fear and misunderstand Parseltongue, it is a useful tool to wield down here."
"That's—that's brilliant. What can it do?" Harry asked me, not tearing his eyes away from the snake.
"Ask yourself."
"Um…" Harry looked incredibly uncomfortable with the notion of speaking Parseltongue. He went on to answer my unasked question without prodding. "I don't know how to."
"You can't control the gift?" I asked, frowning.
"I never really needed to talk to snakes. Even when I did—"
"You weren't aware that you were speaking Parseltongue. You are an unrealized speaker. That's no issue. I will be able to teach you how to control the gift. Thank you, ancient one, for your time and attention. Rest now, and await your next task."
The snake fell from my hand, shattering into rough shards of marble against the floor. The rock pieces melted back together into a seamless snake within moments before the stone snake slithered back to the fireplace. It slithered up the side of the mantle before returning to its place, where it froze back into a part of the masonry until called upon once more.
"This book will be one of your assignments," I said, holding Parseltongue: Hidden Arts out for him to take. He did and glanced over the cover. "This book was written in the early Dark Ages, when the lines between Dark and Light magic was more blurred and parselmouths less ostracized. Even so, to be a parselmouth held certain… connotations. To escape persecution, parselmouths would secretly gather in various villages or territories across the land so that they could exchange stories and, more importantly, knowledge. This book is an example of an early spell book. Each time its author learned a new spell she wrote it down and added it to her collection, holding the book's existence close to her heart. The book you hold now wasn't published for many years but it remains one of the best books I've come across that touches upon so many applications of parselmagic."
"So what do you want me to do with it?"
"Read it, of course. I've got a rough checklist put together based on the Auror training regime. My goal is to squeeze three years of training into one summer so I'd recommend that you learn very quickly. You won't have much practical work until I feel that you're fundamental theory is on par and it's the practical stuff that's fun."
"You're not making me write a paper or something on it?"
"I expect you to become familiar with the book and its content. How you do that is up to you." I watched as Harry opened the book to the first page and noted how his expression quickly flitted from curious to frustrated. "You won't be able to read it just yet."
"Why not?"
"It's a mild perception filter common to parsel texts. You won't be able to read it yourself until the charm on the parchment registers you as a parselmouth."
"But I am a parselmouth," Harry argued with a frown. I raised an eyebrow.
"A realized parselmouth can take command of the skill and use it when and wherever they like. Again, I'll teach you how to control the gift so you'll be able to read parsel. For now, though…" I drew my wand and, before Harry could react properly, I was already drawing upon my magic. "Imperio!"
Harry gasped from the onslaught, fighting against it with all his might. For a teenager, he gave quite a fight. It was easy for him to fight when I was telling him to recite Hamlet. I changed my approach and he melted into my control. Once it was clear that Harry's will to fight back, or even his ability to muster that will, was gone, I released the spell and he abruptly stopped tap dancing and fell to his knees, gasping and clawing for breath.
"What—the bloody hell—"
"Albus briefed me to your education thus far. I was aware that Barty Crouch Jr. had given you instruction on battling off the imperius curse. I needed to gauge your capability."
"So you attacked me?" Harry gave an accusatory sort of huff, finally catching his breath.
"If I had wanted to attack you, you'd be dead, boy. I am here to teach you, not murder you. And aren't you going to ask how I managed to break you so easily?"
"That was easy?" he asked, a bit of a pout playing at his lips. I smirked.
"Remember who I was trained by. That was child's play. I doubt Mad-Eye Moody could escape my imperius."
"Alright… How did you manage to get control?"
"Think about how you felt during the curse… You can hear the commands being given to you, the impulses that go along with it… Why did you give in?"
"Because…" Harry's brow furrowed as he thought. "I wanted to fight. But that doesn't make sense."
"Yes it does," I corrected. "The power of suggestion is extremely powerful. Once it became clear that I would spend more than a few minutes—much more time than I want to invest if I'm taking part in a battle or a duel—to break you down, I told you something different."
"You told me to fight you off?"
"And you listened. You fought harder because I ordered it. That made it a bit harder for me, but not for long. Once you've let me in even a little, I put down roots. At some point during each of our lessons, you will experience the imperius curse without warning. We will continue that until you can throw me off within twenty seconds."
"But you just said that Mad-Eye couldn't—"
"Mad-Eye is not being personally targeted by the Dark Lord, nor is he Dumbledore's poster boy. We need you to be able to keep your wits about you, no matter who's trying to pull your strings."
"I thought Dumbledore was going to keep me out of the fighting," Harry grumbled.
"Dumbledore wants a lot of things. He's reasonable in assuming he won't get all, or even most, of his desires. He's old enough to know to hedge his bets."
"And you told him to," Harry said suddenly, as if in realization. "After the graveyard, after he came back, you were in the office. You said that I shouldn't be coddled, that I have a right to know."
"Dumbledore assumes that, because you're young, you aren't ready to know what lies ahead of you."
"But you think I am." Harry was trying so hard to rationalize me into the hero. It was almost sad.
"I don't think you're ready to know but you don't have a choice. The war isn't going to wait long enough for you to grow up. My father will be looking to end this war as quickly and efficiently as possible. This won't be a clean war. There will be casualties—mostly ours—and there's nothing we can do but keep fighting it."
"So you'll fight?"
"Of course I will," I acknowledged, glancing up at the bookshelves looking for the next book I was going to give Harry. "Even if I didn't want to, I'd have to. The press would be all over me, demanding why I don't join the light. If I don't play my cards right over the next few months, I'll end up dead or imprisoned by the end of this war either way."
"That's—"
"Don't pity me," I interrupted him, reaching up to take his next book down from the shelf, a plain red leather book. "This shall be your syllabus. To view the text, tap it with your wand and say your full name. The text will disappear once you shut the book. I'm assuming we won't finish everything you need to learn over the summer but I'd prefer if your classmates didn't all know that you are learning significantly more advanced magic.
"Now… for the rest of today, show me what you've learned so far."
Harry groaned.