Yo! I actually finished writing this chapter yesterday, but didn't have the time to post it for many reasons I don't feel like getting into right now. Not much Parseltongue in this chapter, but I like it regardless. Anyway, thank you to all readers so far!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters...

By dinner, everyone in the castle seemed to have heard of his one way confrontation with Snape. Harry wasn't surprised by that at all. No, what he did find surprising, was that Dumbledore hadn't cornered him yet, and questioned what he was doing or why. It was certainly very strange, he thought. Maybe he was too busy playing host. Tch, yeah right...

When breakfast came to an end the next morning, the fourth year Gryffindors, most of them anyway, didn't want to admit that they were actually very eager for Defence Against he Dark Arts later that day. Harry was still speaking to everyone, professors included, in Parseltongue, even Snape! They couldn't wait to find out how Moody was going to react, or if Harry even had the courage to talk in that dark tongue around someone like him.

As it happened, Harry did have the courage. He was a Gryffindor, and unlike the other idiots in his House, he actually proved it often, not just to everyone else, but himself as well...

They settled in their seats in the Defence classroom, and chatted until they heard the clunking of Moody's wooden leg coming from down the corridor, which had them all falling silent. The door opened, Moody walked in, and the door fell shut behind him as he walked up to the front of the room, where his desk was.

He didn't waste any time, and promptly began the lesson. When he asked questions, he only called upon those who raised their hands, leaving those who hadn't volunteered an answer-like Harry, alone. The Lions save for Hermione, Neville, and Harry himself were the only ones who were bothered by this. Their professor either didn't notice, which was unlikely, or chose to ignore it, which was much more likely.

"Now, tell me why the only listed dark spells are the Unforgivables."

There were many glances exchanged, but not a single hand was raised.

Moody's fake eye whizzed around, looking at them all. "No answers? Fine. Potter, you tell me."

Every single pair of eyes in the room landed on Harry, save his own, naturally, and he raised an unimpressed brow. Moody was not as intimidating as people thought he was. Evidently they had never met Vernon Dursley before. ...Although, the teen supposed his uncle was only intimidating to him because of the way he had been treated under his...'care'.

He refocused, and answered the professor's posed question. "Because the government's filled with ignoramuses?"

Everyone turned eager gazes to their professor, waiting for the explosion. But it never came. Not the sort of explosion they had been hoping for, at least.

Moody stared, surprise and something else unidentifiable, oddly enough, flashing through his real eye. And then, despite obviously not having understood a single word, began to laugh, and sound really creepy. "Interesting skill there, lad. Wonder why no one told me about it before?"

Dumbledore hadn't told him? Well, that was weird. You'd think that would be the first thing he'd have told the ex Auror. Even a simple, 'Oh, but the way, the Boy-Who-Lived is a Parselmouth, so, you know, don't kill him if you hear him speaking in Parseltongue. He's one of the good guys,' or something like that.

Moody sobered, and fixed Harry with both his eyes, real and fake. "Care to repeat that in English?"

Since he wasn't being a rude prick, and hadn't ever been a rude prick, well, not to him, Harry decided to oblige, and repeated what he had said a moment ago, in English.

There were gasps of shock, everyone surprised that he had spoken to someone other than Hermione, or the Weasley twins in a language that wasn't Parseltongue.

"H-Harry?" It was Neville who spoke hesitantly.

Harry turned to look at him. "Yeah, Nev?"

"Are-are you okay?"

"I'm positively furious, thanks! What about you?"

Neville blinked. "Er, I-I'm fine."

"Harry!"

The smile on Harry's face vanished, and slowly, he glanced at Ron. "Have anything interesting to say? No? Didn't think so. Please continue, professor."

Moody chortled, then did so. Harry didn't know it, but the man was beyond intrigued, and his quick mind was already formulating plan after plan, creating, tuning, rejecting them one after another.

Though Harry wasn't aware of his professor's plans, he could tell that something about the man had changed the moment he had spoken in Parseltongue. It was certainly odd, and definitely not something he could explain, but he told himself that this was worth keeping an eye on...

So, thanks to the person who suggested a Barty/Harry pairing, I'm now going to make them friends. Why? Because I feel like it. No, they won't be romantically involved, don't worry. I still haven't decided what to do on that aspect. And if they're friends, it also means Harry will either join Voldy as an equal, or go neutral, because he won't be fighting for the light for much longer. What else will happen, I haven't yet thought of. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!