The Silver Trio

by Kyong Kybis

Harry wasn't the only one with the traits worthy of a Slytherin, his best friends were in possession of them too, as hidden as they were. The Sorting Hat sensed them and decided that the snake's pit was their true home rather than the lion's den. The three of them, half lion, half snake, found each other and became what people would one day call the Silver Trio.

4. Parseltongue

The Silver Trio – Parseltongue

A/N: Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed or put this story on their favorite or/and alert list, it makes me really happy and I can't thank you enough for your support :D

I also made a cover for the story, it took me one hour to edit it and just now I noticed how small cover images on fanfiction are, you can barely see the Slytherin colors…

Anyway, I have noticed while googling for pictures which already show the Golden Trio wearing Slytherins robes (though I found none), that there is already a fanfiction with the exactly same title and it also features the Golden trio being in Slytherin (it's the only other story I found which has the same idea). It's pretty good, the writing style is for example far better than mine, although it is fairly dark and rated M for a reason.

The first chapter already shows that Harry is being abused by his relatives (much more than in canon), Hermione cutting herself because of her parents' terrible arguments and Ron being raped. Naturally, their personalities aren't the same as in canon. But if you don't mind such things, I'd definitely suggest to give the story a shot, it's written by Seta Kaede but she eventually stopped after 12 chapter and it was taken by AlexisStevCotius who revised the already existent chapters and then wrote a bit more (don't let you be misled by the 10 chapters, she put some chapters together), although right now it is very unlikely that the story will continue since the last update was in 2006.

If you happen to know more stories in which the Trio is in Slytherin, I'd love to hear about them :D

I apologize for any mistakes, I wanted to get the chapter published as fast as possible, so I didn't had enough time to proofread it but I will once I have enough time to get on my computer.

Disclaimer: Everything what you recognize from the books belongs to J.K. Rowling.

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Harry whipped his head around, his eyes widened in surprise, meeting the blue eyes of Ron who looked as though he had just seen the Bloody Baron hiding in his bed.

"Parseltongue?" Harry quietly asked, feeling alarmed by Ron's expression. It was not only shock but also…fear and that realization made Harry's insides knot uncomfortably.

That one word seemed to make Ron snap out of his daze, his face immediately regaining its color again, though now it was as red as Ron's hair. "Parseltongue? You don't know what this is?" Ron asked in an unnervingly quiet tone. "YOU JUST TALKED LIKE A SNAKE! I HEARD YOU HISS STUFF TO THAT CREST AND IT ANSWERED BACK!" the whisper had soon enough turned into shouting.

Highly disturbed by his friend's reaction, he didn't know what to say, in his shock his mind wasn't able to form any words. It also hurt to see his friend like that, angry and fearful and only because he had…talked to that stoned snake.

A memory flickered before his inner eye, the one in which he had talked with the snake in the zoo, which told him that it had been never in Brazil. Harry gulped. He hadn't thought it was necessary to bring it up, thinking that this was not anything odd in the wizarding world, apparently it was.

After he got a grip on himself again, he managed to choke out the words: "Is that something bad?"

For a while, there was only silence in which Ron looked at Harry, as though this was the first time he had actually looked at him clearly, as though they were strangers. It was exactly the same look Percy had given his little brother. Then finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Ron said, visibly shaken by the fact that his friend and Boy-Who-Lived was a Parselmouth: "If it's bad? Merlin, it's the mark of a Dark wizard, every one who can talk to snakes is evil!" His voice dropped again to a whisper so that Harry had to strain to hear the words. "You-Know-Who was one."

Silence. Harry felt sick, very sick. He could speak Parseltongue, just like Voldemort. Was he destined to become like him, an evil Dark wizard who enjoyed killing humans, who had no problem killing babies and their parents? Harry slowly shook his head, trying to get rid of these thoughts. No.

"No," he repeated aloud, in the silence it sounded like he was shouting. "I won't become like him! I'd rather die than ever becoming like him! He killed my parents, because of him I had to spend my entire life with the Dursleys and he did so many worse things to people! Do you really think I am like him, I don't mind talking to snakes but if…if it means that I will become Dark, I will stop and never even look at a snake." At the beginning, he was angry, angry at Ron who really thought that he was able to do things like that, angry at himself for having this ability in the first place but then it turned into resignation, sadness and self-loathing. Maybe, the nasty voice in his mind whispered, maybe the Dursleys were right. Maybe, you really are a freak. Maybe, they noticed your abnormality, that evilness inside you. And if that's the case, don't you deserve it? Evil must be punished, after all.

He could distantly hear a voice calling his name. But it did not matter. The person calling him, probably only wanted to mock him, bully him, he was a freak, after all, an evil one on top of that. It was too much. At the beginning, he had always wondered why his aunt and uncle did not treat him the same way they did with Dudley. What had he done wrong? After a while, he gave up the hope that he could ever please them and make them love him or at least having no hatred towards him. Although, having to acknowledge that was one of the hardest and most painful things for Harry, there had been at least that little faint hope that maybe the Dursleys were the wrong ones, the bad people.

As far as Harry could tell, there were children who behaved far worse than him, Dudley being a prime example, but their parents loved them anyway. And after receiving the letter from Hogwarts and entering the wizarding world for the first time, he realized that magic, the reason why the Dursleys apparently hated him, was wonderful, the most beautiful thing in the world. Soon he came to the conclusion that the Dursleys' hatred and fear of magic was unreasonable, that the way they treated Harry was not good and that there were no excuses for their behavior.

This is why not only the prospect alone of leaving the Dursleys for nearly a whole year and the opportunity to learn real magic made the day, when Hagrid told him he was a wizard, his happiest day. Being assured that it was not his fault, that here was nothing wrong with him or anything which justified the Dursleys' treatment, was as good as being able to perform magic.

Now to be confronted with it again, at the most unexpected moment, being proven wrong, realizing that there was something wrong with him, that he was even Dark and evil, it was too much. Too much to bear.

Wrong, Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

He had been always wrong, of course there had been a reason why the Dursleys hated them, he probably had deserved every-

SLAP!

Harry noticed the pain burning on his cheek faster than he noticed the sound itself, it merely jolted him out of his thoughts. Thoughts? Or maybe it had been a dream and Uncle Vernon had hit him because he had overslept and had not made breakfast. But everything had seemed so realistic, so true…

"Goddammit, Harry! What the bloody hell is wrong with you?!" a familiar voice shouted. Harry had to blink several times so that he could take in the sight before him, Ron, a wizard and a Hogwarts student, standing before him, anger, confusion, worry and so many other emotions were so evident to see on his face.

Harry nearly let out a laugh of relief, it was not a dream, of course not, as if he could ever come up with something as brilliant as Hogwarts! But he quickly sobered again. He couldn't believe how he had even come to the conclusion that it was a dream. Wasn't the realization of his evil and obviously magical ability to talk to snakes not the reason in the first place why his emotions were in such a mess? Was being in a denial always like that? Coming to conclusions that hardly made any sense?

"Harry! Snap out of it!" Ron said exasperatedly, successfully attracting Harry's attention this time. He scratched the back of his head and looked anywhere except at Harry when he noticed Harry was looking at him. If Harry did not know better, he'd say Ron felt very awkward at the moment.

"Look, I-" but he cut himself off, seemingly struggling to find the right words. It took a while for Ron to find his composure again. "I did not mean to upset you, I am… I am sorry that I still did." The apology seemed sincere, although it made the impression as though Ron barely or even at all said these words often and really meant them, maybe it was even the first time Ron had offered an apology on his own.

"I know or as good as I can know, after knowing you for about a day," Ron gave Harry a timid smile which Harry hesitantly returned back, not knowing where this situation would exactly lead into, "that you are not evil or bad, even if you can talk to snakes and are in Slytherin. Well, I am in Slytherin too and I also think that I'm not evil." He let out a heavy sigh. "I suppose I have to accept the fact that I'm a sli-, a Slytherin," he hastily corrected himself, which for whatever reason made Harry smile.

"Soo, how about forgetting this whole stuff and just head to our beds again?" Ron suggested.

Harry was just about to agree when yet another familiar voice interrupted him, though this one was far less welcomed than the previous one.

"How tear-jerking, Weasley," Draco Malfoy drawled. "Didn't know that you were poor and a sappy wimp. How deep can you still fall? Seems that if one is a Weasley, one can never fall too deep."

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry asked quickly, before Ron lost his temper entirely. "And how much did you hear?"

The mischievous smirk on Malfoy's lips forebode nothing good. "Who would have thought that Saint Potter is a Parselmouth?" Malfoy laughed at Harry's shocked and pale expression. But he quickly ceased it, a hungry glint was now in Malfoy's eyes.

"What did it say?"

"It said… something like knowledge is power and asks me if I seek knowledge," Harry replied, only absently wondering why he even told that Malfoy of all people, he too wondered now what the stoned snake had meant, his shock, anger and sadness momentarily replaced by curiosity.

"Well, why do you not answer back? And see what happens," Malfoy suggested impatiently, his cold eyes looked unusual alive and his face was flushed in excitement.

"No, Harry," Ron warned. "It might be a trap. Don't trust anything Malfoy tells you."

Malfoy rolled his eyes at Ron's words. "Look," he said very slowly, as though he was explaining a long word to a little child, "I cannot be the person to set up this, according to you, trap, it's obvious that Salazar Slytherin was the one who did that. And Weasel, use that little brain of yours. Why would Salazar put some sort of trap in the middle of the Slytherin common room, especially if only a Parselmouth can activate that? Isn't it far more likely that the snake truly means what it says? That it will help the Slytherin Parselmouth in question, in this case Potter, with his search of knowledge? A Slytherin and on top of that a Parselmouth would be the ideal sort of student in Salazar's eyes," Harry could make out a bitter edge in Malfoy's words. "He would try to help him out, instead, as you have suggested it, put him into some kind of dangerous trap."

Ron said nothing, not being able to find anything against Malfoy's reasoning.

"I will just try it out, alright?" Harry said, on the one hand he did want to know what was going to happen, he was a curious person by nature, but on the other hand he feared his Dark ability and also that he might lose the tentative friendship he had with Ron.

Again, Ron said nothing, which Harry took as a 'yes', while Malfoy waited impatiently to have him go on.

Taking a deep breath and before he could change his mind again, he quickly hissed at the snake engraved in the crest :Yes:

Now that it was pointed out to him, he didn't only hear the English word, it was also accompanied by a hiss. As soon as the word was out, the snake's emerald eye was positively gleaming and the fire enlarged even more, for one moment Harry feared that he might set the common room on fire, when the fire turned from the normal red-yellow-orange color to an emerald one.

"It looks exactly like as if someone has thrown Floo powder into it," Ron said awestruck.

"Floo powder?" Harry asked.

"You really are clueless, aren't you, Potter?" Malfoy sneered.

"I am sorry that I didn't know until a month ago that I was a wizard," Harry snapped, his patience regarding Malfoy's taunts had been long worn out.

"If you throw Floo powder into a fireplace, the flames will turn harmless and green just like that fire," Ron quickly explained, for once playing the peace maker. "If you walk into the flames, you have to say the name of the place you want to, although my mum says it's very important that you say it loudly and clearly."

Harry raised one of his eyebrows, examining the flames curiously.

"So if I were to step in, it would transport me to another place?"

"Have you not listened to Weasley, Potter? You also have to state the name of your desired destination," Malfoy said.

"That doesn't need to be like that in this case," Ron argued, apparently his desire to prove Malfoy wrong outweighed his want to distance himself as far as possible to dark topics like Parseltongue. "I mean, how the hell is Harry supposed to know where it will lead him? He can't just say 'the place where the knowledge lays' or some crap like that. Maybe, you only have to step in to be transported to somewhere else."

"That makes sense," Malfoy admitted, though it had been very reluctantly. However, sure enough Malfoy's eyes were gleaming with barely concealed malice and before either of them could even say as much as a 'what?!' Malfoy had already shoved Ron roughly into the fire.

The fire increased in size once more, for a moment it looked as though the flames were engulfing Ron, when he suddenly started to spin and then he was…gone, the fire returning to its former size.

After recovering from his shock, Harry whirled around and grabbed Malfoy by his collar, angrily demanding: "Why the hell have you done that?!"

"I was just testing out if the theory was right," Malfoy replied smoothly, somehow managing to look like the innocence in person. It was nothing short of amazing that Malfoy's smug face didn't have an encounter with Harry's fist.

"You could have gotten Ron killed!" Harry said, though it was bordering on shouting.

"Be quiet! Do you want to wake up the entire House?" Malfoy hissed, seeing that Harry had already opened his mouth to retort, he quickly added: "I knew that nothing bad would happen to Weasley and I thought the little shock would do him good." He ended the explanation with a little smirk.

"You do realize that there was the possibility that you were not right. What would you have done if Ron would have burned to ashes?"

For a split moment Malfoy looked uncomfortable but it quickly vanished again so Harry wasn't quite sure if it had been his imagination or not. "I knew that nothing like that would happen, so stop bothering me about it. Weasley's fine."

"Fine," Harry said, knowing that he hadn't the will nor patience to deal with Malfoy's bitchiness. Nervously, he ran a hand through his messy hair, making it even more of a mess. "Damn. I have to go after him, make sure that nothing has happened to him and bring him back. And you," Harry scowled, his eyes flashing dangerously and his wand pointed threateningly at Malfoy's throat, "will come with me, Malfoy."

Malfoy narrowed his eyes in suspicious, clearly unfazed by the hidden warning in Harry's voice. "Why should I?" he snarled. "It's your problem, not mine. I couldn't care less about the Weasel."

"It became your problem when you put Ron in this situation in the first place. And don't think I won't do it, if you mess around," Harry added, his wand now only inches away from Malfoy's throat.

Softly, Malfoy pushed the wand with his hand away from his throat, while with the other hand he took out his own wand, stabbing Harry lightly into his stomach with it, a smirk was curled up on his lips. "Potter, you are in no position to threaten me. What can you do? Make some sparks? I happen to know some actual spells and believe me they aren't pretty."

Harry gulped, only noticing now that Malfoy was right, he was in Hogwarts for only one day, barely having learned anything yet, while Malfoy was already taught who knows how many useful spells by his family. What did Ron say? His father was one of You-Know-Who's followers, Harry recalled, which meant that indeed the spells in Malfoy's repertoire were something Harry did not want to face.

If force was out of an option then only persuading was left. He couldn't just leave Malfoy alone while he searched for Ron, he wouldn't put it past him to somehow deactivate that fire magic and make them be trapped there forever or at least call for a Perfect or worse the Head of house himself, Professor Snape, and make sure they were in for a lot of trouble. Harry somehow doubted that he would receive a fair punishment by Snape, considering his unreasonable hatred towards him.

"I see," Harry sighed. "I guess that I should better not challenge you, you would with no doubt win."

"Yes, it's good that you have at least a little common sense," Malfoy agreed, although he couldn't hide his surprise at Harry's sudden change of mood.

"Do you know why I wanted you to come with me? Because I don't know if I can handle the things which might get in the way when I am being transported to who knows where. As you have already pointed out I couldn't cast a good spell to save my life, literally. So knowing that you are around would definitely make things a lot easier and less dangerous." Life with the Dursleys would have been intolerable (well, even more than it already was), if he wouldn't know how to make a deal sound good. He had gotten out of quite a lot of beating, Dudley was so easily to be fooled and also Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were willing to make his life a little less harder than usual, if he was able to offer them something for exchange (although, that was unfortunately rarely the case).

However, there was a problem. He didn't know Malfoy as good as he did the Dursleys. But from what he had gathered, Malfoy was one to easily give in to flattering and he might offer his help only to show off and satisfy his oversized ego. Though, Malfoy wasn't stupid either, Harry was unsure whether he had complimented him too much and made Malfoy suspicious of him and let him saw right through Harry's plot.

Luckily, Malfoy smirked superiorly in response to Harry's words and pompously said: "Well, if you ask me so nicely, I think I will offer you my help," giving Harry a smile which a king would give his lowest but loyal subordinate. Merlin, that had been perhaps too easy.

Mental note to himself: Flattering went a long way, especially if a blond-haired, arrogant bigot was involved.

"Well," Harry said, trying his best not too sound overly cheerful, "than we should better go now. I would feel safer if you were the one to go in first, of course, I know that you already said it's not dangerous but just to be sure…" he trailed off, knowing that he got his message across.

"Fine, I will. Who would have thought that Harry Potter is such a coward?" Malfoy sneered, although there was not as much malice as usual, apparently Harry complimenting him made Malfoy act a little less mean.

With everything being cleared Malfoy stepped into the fireplace without even a sign of fear but Harry suspected that for him it wasn't an unusual experience if he had already used Floo Powder before. Again, the green fire erupted and a blink of an eye later Malfoy was gone.

Now, only he had to do that. Harry gulped but nevertheless stepped in. It was a surreal experience, being surrounded by flames but still feel rather chilly. However, he didn't wonder for long as he suddenly started to spin, faster and faster.

What greeted him was the cold stone floor, his arrival being fairly unpleasant with him being practically thrown out of the fireplace. If traveling with Floo Powder was always like that, then he could live without it just fine. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to travel a lot with it in the future, he thought as he rubbed his nose which now had a little bruise because of its encounter with the hard floor.

The next thing he noticed after his arrival was the sound of gleeful cackle. It didn't took long for Harry to find the origin of the voice, not far away, he saw Malfoy, rudely pointing his finger in Harry's direction and with the other hand clutching his stomach as if he was laughing so hard that his stomach had started to ache.

Harry scowled. "What the hell is so funny?"

It took Malfoy quite some time before he finally regained his composure again, but there was still a huge grin plastered on his face as he answered: "How you were thrown out and then your face hit the floor so hard and how that looked and your expression-" And at that point he was unable to continue as he was again in a fit of laughter.

It was annoying to have someone outwardly laugh at your face but he was used to it because of Dursley and his gang and simply tuned the laughter off and instead regarded his surroundings.

It seemed he was in some sort of…library, it did not look exactly like one but the many shelves full of books gave him the impression that it must be one. But aside of that, the rest of the room reminded him more of the Dungeons, just as cold and dark and only lightened by the torches attached to the stone walls, with banners, displaying the Slytherin-typical green and the silver serpent, hanging on them.

In the middle were ancient but comfy-looking armchairs, placed around a desk, the likes one usually saw in films in which kings dined with their families, although it wasn't as huge or large. There were also several shelves which were filled with very curious things, for example vials which seemed to be filled with some strange kind of liquor or also completely unknown items which sort of reminded him of instruments and parts of animals or other creatures, usually bones or the skins and furs, although Harry also spotted eyeballs in one glass.

On the walls were not only the Slytherin banners but also maps which showed cities, countries, they did resemble maps he saw back at his old school in geography lessons, although the shape differed and the names of some he'd never heard of before, for example Hogsmeade, a village which apparently wasn't far away from Hogwarts, if it still existed.

On several spots statures of serpents or of some wizard or witch stood, giving him the impression as though they were watching him with their lifeless stone eyes.

If one got used the cold and dark atmosphere, the same as in the Dungeons, it would be a nice place to study, discover some of those things or just in general wanted to spend time in.

As Harry examined the room, he was also trying to spot a certain redhead but his search was proven futile, not even a glimpse of Ron could be seen. With a sigh, he turned to Malfoy who had finally stopped his laughter for good. "Did you see Ron?"

"No, I haven't seen him yet, I suggest we split up and search for him properly, this room might be bigger than one might think."

Harry blinked several times in surprise, barely believing that Malfoy actually made a real effort to try to find Ron. Maybe, he did feel regret for pushing Ron just like that in the fireplace. After recovering from the little shock, Harry nodded in response and Malfoy quickly scurried off, disappearing out of sight when he went to the many book shelves, not appearing to search at all.

Or maybe Malfoy just took this as an opportunity to read some interesting stuff to get ahead in class, Harry thought grimly, feeling ridiculous that he had thought that Malfoy would actually regret anything he had done. Well, at least he wouldn't actively try to get in his way while he searched for Ron.

He took the direction opposite to the one Malfoy took, looking everywhere, his neck started to ache from constantly turning his head to make sure he didn't miss anything. Malfoy was right, the more he went on, the longer the hallway seemed to be, things he were sure weren't there before seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

Not even bothering to refrain the sigh from threatening to escape from his mouth, he let himself plump into one of those armchairs, they really were as comfy as they looked. Tiredly, Harry rubbed his eyes, it was still in the middle of night and after all that excitement he just felt worn out. However, he couldn't allow himself to rest now, he first had to make sure that Ron was alright. Stupid Malfoy for always acting like a git, stupid Ron who could not stay where he was and instead went off to who knows where. His mood had definitely reached its lowest point, and the fact that he still did not quite knew how to handle that piece of information that he was a Parselmouth did not help to improve his mood either.

Just as he was about to kick something in his frustration, he heard a soft moan coming from behind a rather big shelf, which was filled with several parts of what seemed to be bird-like creatures. Cautiously, he took his wand out and pointed it to the direction from where the sound came, Merlin knows what sort of things might be lurking in this place. When nothing seemed to jump at him, he slowly approached the shelf, always making sure to notice any sudden movements.

Raising his wand even higher, he quickly turned to the back of the shelf, ready to face whatever thing it was, to his great relief and shock, it was Ron whose face was contorted in great pain, clutching his left leg, a lot of blood was dripping from a huge hole in his leg.

Immediately he rushed to his side, carefully examining the wound. He knew quite a lot about wounds from experience. "What happened?" he asked worriedly. That wound didn't look good, he wasn't sure if he could treat something like that, especially without a medical kit or anything similar to it, a bandage or even some plasters would do, anything that could make the bleeding stop.

"I don't know," he said hoarsely. "I didn't know what to do and figured that you would come after me and then I saw that interesting stuff and decided to investigate it, I touched some of it and then suddenly, there was a hole in my leg."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that," he confirmed, it seemed he wanted to say more but he stopped as he winced out in pain. Harry had never treated something as serious as that injury, before it had been only scratches and bruises and things like that, that was a wholly different matter, however.

Just as he was about to rip a part of his robes so that he had at least something to bandage the wound and stop the bleeding as good as possible, Malfoy turned up, wearing an expression of true worry and shock.

"What happened?" Malfoy unintentionally repeated Harry's words from before.

"He got attacked by some weird stuff," Harry replied as Ron seemed to be unable to respond, although he was still able to throw Malfoy some of his dirtiest looks.

"We should heave him, with the two of us it shouldn't be too difficult."

It was a sign of how terrible Ron looked, that Malfoy didn't argue at all and silently complied, his face even paler than usual. They went as fast as possible, careful not to cause Ron even more pain and stopped just before the fireplace.

"Should we all just go in?"

"Let's just do it, we don't have much time to worry about these things. "

Reluctantly, Malfoy stepped with Harry inside the fireplace, carrying Ron. They waited for something to happen while they were being surrounded by the green flames, nothing happened.

"Maybe, you have to say something, Potter."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows, not really wanting to use that Parseltongue ability which got them into that whole mess in the first place. But it wasn't like had another choice.

"Bring us back and…seal the entrance to that room again," he added, he didn't want the Slytherins to wonder why the fire in the fireplace had suddenly turned green.

"You're still speaking English. I heard that it's easier to speak it when faced with a snake or envisioning one."

He wasn't quite sure if he should asked where Malfoy got a hold of that particular piece of information so he just tried it out, closing his eyes briefly, in his mind a picture of the snake he met in the zoo. :Bring us back and seal the entrance to that room.:

Again, he could hear his words being accompanied by a hiss, most likely he had only started to hear it when he became aware that he was talking in a different language.

This time it worked, as soon as the words were out of his mouth, they started to spin faster and faster.

If Malfoy hadn't caught him by his arm, Harry would probably have been thrown into one of the armchairs which could have resulted in a bit more than just bruises. Harry felt inclined to thank him when Malfoy decided to successfully stop him from doing so. "I would prefer not to take care of two clumsy fools."

"Don't forget whose fault it was," Harry scowled. Malfoy merely rolled his eyes in response.

"And what are we supposed to do now?" Harry asked, not being able to come up with anything which could save Ron and prevented them from getting into a lot of trouble, naturally, if consulting a teacher was the only option left, he'd do so, although he doubted Malfoy would tag along.

"We go to the Hospital Wing," Malfoy said, as though this was the most logical action to take.

"But wouldn't they ask questions?"

"Madame Pomfrey doesn't ask too many questions, she will most likely be far too worried about Weasley's wellbeing and then we can just quietly and quickly go to our beds again."

"Alright, then let's go quickly to the Hospital wing." A far too familiar sneer was on Malfoy's face again and Harry had the suspicion that he had said something very dumb.

"What about the caretaker Squib and his cat? And that annoying ghost Peeves? It would be a miracle if we didn't run into one of them while we go to the wing."

Sometimes, people recalled things which they had simply forgotten because at that time it didn't seem important, but now proved to be of very great importance, that was one of the cases too.

"Did you remember the Prefect's speech?" Harry excitedly asked. It was an insane idea which might just work.

Malfoy gave him a disbelieving look. "Why should I? Most of the things I have known before, anyway, and the things I have not are not of any importance."

Just ignoring the arrogance of the other boy, Harry went on as if Malfoy had said nothing which made Malfoy narrowed his eyes, apparently he didn't like it to be ignored. "She said that if we ask nicely, the Bloody Baron would scare some people. What if we convince him to make Peeves cause some sort of chaos somewhere else so Filch would be occupied and we can safely go to the Hospital Wing?" He had heard during the process of his first day how the other first years had constantly moaned how difficult it was to get to different rooms with Peeves always harassing them and how lucky the Slytherins were to have the Baron as their House ghost. As the Bloody Baron was the only one Peeves feared, he wouldn't annoy the Slytherins too much and what he had heard of Ron, Filch's, the caretaker, main goal in life was to ban the poltergeist from the castle forever, followed closely by making the students' life as horrible as possible.

Absently, Harry wondered if having staff like that with such an attitude, apparently Snape was included on the 'I hate children' list too, was an appropriate learning environment, not like it was in Harry's place to question that anyway.

All in all, his plan might just work, however, Malfoy didn't seem to share his opinion, if the incredulous looks he was getting were any indication at all.

But after several moments in which Malfoy seemed to contemplate Harry's idea , he finally declared: "It's so insane and stupid, it might just work." Well, apparently they had one thing in common: the same kind of logic.

"So where are we going to find him?" That was the only thing which wasn't quite clear in his plan to make it run smoothly.

"Let's go outside. He often tends to be in the Dungeons." Harry nodded and together they heaved Ron, who at that point had already lost consciousness, out of the common room, the three of them now standing in the corridor.

After all the bad things which had happened to Harry, Lady Luck finally took pity on him. They didn't had to walk around and searched or the ghost because the ghost in question passed through the wall at the front of them.

Harry couldn't help but shiver in fear as the wide staring black eyes narrowed at the sight of the three Slytherins, one of them being badly hurt and unconscious.

"What is the meaning of that?" the Bloody Baron demanded to know.

Harry gulped, maybe his plan was a really bad one, after all. Hoping that Malfoy had an idea how to approach the ghost, he glanced sidewards to the blond-haired Slytherin who looked at anything but in Harry's or the Bloody Baron's direction. Great.

"I, we, well, Ron got attacked and now, we have to go to the Hospital Wing. But there are Filch and Peeved, so canyouhelpus," he asked without even taking once a breath. If it weren't beyond a Malfoy's dignity, Malfoy would have probably banged his head against a wall now.

The Bloody Baron, luckily, looked rather confused than angry. "Elaborate. How come that one of your fellow snakes is badly hurt?"

Should Harry tell him or not? He didn't want even more people to know that he was a Parselmouth or hear about his discovery but then again he wasn't a great liar and if the Bloody Baron noticed that he wasn't telling the truth, well, Harry didn't particularly wanted to know about the consequences.

So the truth it would be.

"I had the urge to talk to the stone crest, the one hanging over the fireplace in the common room. So I did. It answered back, asking me if I seek knowledge. That's when Ron and Malfoy appeared. After a little argument I talked to the snake again and said 'yes'. The fire became really big and green. Ron said it looked as though someone has thrown Floo Powder into the fire. Malfoy," he glared at Malfoy, who again pretended to look innocent, "decided to 'test' if Ron was right and shoved him into the fire, he disappeared. Malfoy and I went after him. We were in that huge room with lots of books, maps and other weird stuff. We found Ron badly hurt, he said he touched some of the things in the room and suddenly had that wound, he lost conscience soon after. We went back and we have to bring him in the Hospital Wing and we don't want any teachers to be involved which is unlikely because of Peeves and Filch. So could you please make Peeves cause some uproar somewhere far away so that Filch will chase after him and we can safely go to the Hospital Wing?"

Throughout Harry's entire explanation the Bloody Baron's face remained blank, except at the part of Harry being a Parselmouth which made his eyes widen slightly. Now he was unnervingly quiet, his face betraying nothing.

After what seemed like an eternity, the Bloody Baron answered, his gaze seeming to scan every little detail of Harry. "Interesting. It has been a long time since a Parselmouth has walked through these halls. I would gladly help you with your little problem as you are not only a fellow Slytherin but also have the noble ability to conserve with serpents."

Harry simply nodded, barely believing that up to now everything was going according to plan.

"Wait, here," the ghost instructed. "I will do what you say and when it is safe I will return and lead you to the Hospital Wing as you do not seem to know the way."

"Thanks," said Harry, feeling immensely lucky that the ghost was being so helpful.

The bloody Baron nodded to Harry and then to Malfoy, before disappearing by passing through a wall, leaving the Slytherins in complete silence.

"You know," Malfoy said, after several minutes of silence had passed, "that you are a really poor actor."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"First you wanted to curse me into Oblivion and in the next moment, after realizing that your attempt is futile, you suddenly started to compliment me? Seriously, Potter? Not to mention that, despite only knowing you for a short period of time, it was hugely unlike you."

"If you knew, why did you play along?" Harry questioned, puzzled.

Malfoy shook his head, clearly disappointed with Harry's question. "What was the Hat thinking when it sorted you into Slytherin? Well, to answer your question, I was intending to go anyway so why should I have said that I saw right through your little act? You would have become suspicious if I insisted to come anyway and Merlin knows what sort of trouble I would have gone through to make sure you wouldn't do anything stupid because you didn't trust evil Malfoy," he sneered. "Besides, I very much enjoyed your little act, it's not every day you are praised by the Boy-Who-Lived, Vanquisher of the Dark Lord."

Ignoring the taunts, Harry asked: "And why do you wanted to go so badly?"

"Yes, why should I want to go to a secret place, which only a Parselmouth can enter and which was most likely built by Salazar Slytherin himself? Surely, it would have only lead into some secret broom cupboard and not to a room, full of interesting things and useful information because the snake hasn't hinted anything like that at all," he deadpanned.

"Alright, alright, I get it," Harry angrily growled, not appreciating to feel like an idiot at all. In order to avoid another argument with Malfoy, he quickly changed the topic, though what he was about to say was a very pressing matter. "You won't tell anyone about that, right?"

He knew that Ron wouldn't even as much as breath a word about it but he wasn't sure at all if Malfoy would.

After recovering from his initial shock of having the 'evil' ability of talking to snakes and giving quite a lot of thought to it, he came to the conclusion that he couldn't change it anyway and that just like Ron, who had to deal with being a Slytherin, he had to accept it grudgingly. And maybe, Parseltongue was just like being a Slytherin, people would say you were evil because some in the past were and would judge everyone according to that.

That gave him hope, hope that after all the Dursleys were the wrong ones and not him, just as it had been before. However, even if his ability wasn't evil, he did not want the entire school to know. They probably were still shocked by his Sorting and he did not want to imagine the reactions, when they heard he was a Parselmouth on top of that. They'd think I am a Dark Lord in training, he thought dryly.

And while he detested the attention he received due to his status as the Boy-Who-Lived, he was sure it was preferable to the attention he'd received when people thought he was Dark and therefor evil.

"Alright, I won't tell," Malfoy's words jolted him out of his thoughts, his surprise had to be obvious as Malfoy added: "Of course, under the condition that you will let me into that room, whenever I wish."

Harry knew that it wasn't that bad a deal but nevertheless having to do something Malfoy wanted him to do reminded him of the Dursleys and here in Hogwarts he had no obligation to do so.

"Why should I?" he challenged. "And how can I be sure that you will keep your word?"

"Seems like you do have some Slytherin traits," Malfoy acknowledged. "Although you still lack true cunning. Let me tell you something about the rules here in Slytherin, usually no one will explain them to you, you will learn the soon enough if you aren't an entirely hopeless case, but I feel generous today and so I will tell you one of the more important rules in Slytherin.

"If one offers you something and you have something of equal worth, you should trade and personal feelings and such are not allowed to interfere in them, meaning that only because you hate that person, you should not break your word or decline, if the thing he offers proves to be useful. In addition, if someone does you a favor, you owe that person something, until you pay him back and of course that must be of equal worth as the favor the person did to you. If you fail to do so and it will become apparent, I assure you, chances are that people won't do you a favor ever again or are very unlikely to do so as you have shown yourself to be untrustworthy if it comes to the pay back of favors.

"No one in Slytherin does something unless it benefits him, the only exception is if you are friends with that person but then the benefit is the one that your friendship will be strengthened so actually it's not really an exception. Rules like that one are there so that we can at least trust our fellow housemates to a certain degree, even for the most cunning of us it gets tiring to not be able to trust even one word of the others, so that's why the rules are there. If you break one of them, the others will do the same to you too. It's really simple, if you stick to the rules, the others will too, if you do not, well, you can expect the others won't do either."

Harry nodded slowly, digesting all the important information Malfoy had given him, what he had said made sense so the only left question was: "Well, if that rule applies to you too and I am sure it does, you have some ulterior motive to explain me something as useful as that and the reason that you are generous is even more unbelievable than my flattering attempt."

Malfoy snorted. "You learn fast, Potter. But I assure that the only benefit I gained from telling you is the one that it will make our earlier trade so much easier if you believe me that I keep my word."

Harry didn't quite trust Malfoy and he was sure that there must be some other reason behind that. Malfoy could have easily blackmail Harry with his secret and make Harry do far more than simply allowing him to go to the secret room whenever he wished. Maybe, he knew that Harry wouldn't let himself be used like that, even at the cost of being branded as evil by the rest of the school and so wouldn't gain anything, except the hatred of Harry and the satisfaction of making Harry's school life a living hell.

Maybe that was Malfoy's motive but he doubted it, Malfoy might not like him, but he was sure that someone like Malfoy would use the advantage he had over Harry in a far more useful way. But then what was his reason? Maybe he really meant it but Harry wasn't naïve enough to believe that, perhaps it was some sort of twisted favor that Malfoy didn't took that opportunity in a way which benefited him more and it was a test if Harry had really understood the rules and thus has shown his worth which…which could make him an useful ally! Yes, that must be it.

Harry was still new to all those Slytherin things so he couldn't be entirely sure but that reason sounded plausible and he had no doubt that Malfoy would do something like that. And if that was Malfoy's motive then deferring to the deal would be most likely safe.

"Alright, I agree to your condition as long as you really keep your word," Harry said. His answer made a smirk curl on Malfoy's lips and suddenly Harry wondered if that really had been a good idea but then Malfoy replied: "Of course I will, I won't break the rules so easily and you should better not too."

"I won't."

The Bloody Baron chose that moment to appear again which made Harry wonder if he had been here for a longer time, again his expression didn't suggest anything at all. In his dangerously quiet voice he said:" I have done what you have wanted, Harry Potter. Now follow me quickly, I do not know how long it will occupy them."

With the ghost leading them, Malfoy and Harry swiftly carried Ron to the Hospital Wing. As they entered, the Bloody Baron was waiting before the entrance, they were greeted by a relatively old and stern-looking woman who gaped at the sight of Ron who was at that pint very pale, no doubt because of the blood loss which Harry had barely stopped with using a ripped off part of his robes as a bandage.

"What in Merlin's name has happened?" Before one of them could answer she had already taken the boy in her arms and quickly carried her to one of the white, clean beds. She mumbled under her breath, waving her wand around the hole and to Harry's amazement it slowly closed, the only thing left was a round scar where once the hole was.

The woman, she must be Madam Pomfrey, then hurried to the shelves at the back of the room, grabbing for one of the vials which was filled with a scarlet red liquor. She swiftly walked to Ron again and poured the content of the vial in Ron's mouth who in response coughed, his face slowly regaining its color again.

"He has to spend the night here, I am afraid. But I am sure that he will recover by morning. The potion is a very useful and strong one. Now," her expression turned even sterner which made Harry gulp, "how come that in the middle of the night one of you gets hurt that badly? It is not a wound one gets from falling off his bed."

"We couldn't sleep so we decided to spend some time in the common room," Malfoy quickly lied. "One of the Slytherins has probably left one of their possessions there and Weasley who didn't see it tripped over it which made it fly…explode, I am not entirely sure what it did," he was a very good liar, Harry noticed. The perfect amount of nervousness and shame so that it would look real but also not too much which would make it seem fake again.

"And then he suddenly had that wound," Malfoy concluded.

"And why did you not tell your Head of House first? It isn't a very good idea to wander around with only the three of you, especially when it is only our first day."

Malfoy blushed which made Harry nearly drop his jaw in shock. It wasn't only that it looked very out of place on Malfoy's face, what actually surprised him was the fact that Malfoy somehow managed to force himself to blush. How was that possible?

Maybe Malfoy tried to recall some embarrassing memories so that he would blush although Harry still thought it was very far-fetched.

"We didn't come up with that, at that moment we were way too nervous and shocked."

At Malfoy's explanation, her expression softened. Harry managed to refrain a relieved sigh coming from his mouth, they were out of trouble now.

Putting a semi-stern expression on again, Madam Pomfrey chided: "You are lucky that nothing has happened. And it's best if you keep in mind to always ask a teacher for help first. No, go fast to bed again. Tomorrow is school!"

After they had thanked her for her help and wished her a good night, the two boys quickly left the wing and were led back to their common room by the Bloody Baron. They didn't say anything until they were before the familiar stone wall again which was the entrance to their common room.

Before they went in again, Harry addressed the Bloody Baron: "Thank you for your help. We wouldn't have managed without it." He briefly wondered if, according to Malfoy, he owed the ghost now, however, his worries proved to be unnecessary as the ghost said: "You do not need to thank me nor do you owe me anything," his words made Harry certain that the ghost had indeed eavesdropped their talk. "Helping you is enough gratitude for me." Harry couldn't shrug off the feeling that the ghost meant more than he let on.

Harry nodded in response before the ghost vanished out of sight as the wall slid back to its original place. The two Slytherins were too tired to say anything and without further ado they collapsed on their beds, drifting to sleep in mere seconds.

This time Harry slept dreamless, despite his worries.

A/N: Alright, that's the hopefully last time I will ever write an angst scene (although I very much doubt it) because as you have obviously seen I totally suck at stuff like that. I wasn't quite sure until the end if I should just leave it out or not but finally decided that it wasn't worth the trouble to change the chapter accordingly so it would make sense without the left out scene. Although I do hope it hasn't spoilt your enjoyment while reading this chapter too much.

This chapter wasn't very exciting, I have to admit, though it will play an important role as the story progresses. And when I first wrote it, I didn't expect that Malfoy would have such a big role in this chapter but I guess that isn't something bad XD"

Please leave a review, if you could spare some time, and again I hope that you will find the next chapters as enjoyable as the previous ones. See you in the next chapter!