HARRY POTTER DOESN'T BELONG TO ME

09: Parseltongue

Everyone was anticipating the Dueling Club. Most of all they were anticipating the moment that they were greeted with Gryffindor and Slytherin dueling each other. They wanted to see who would have the more victorious competitors, though they knew that Slytherin was known for playing dirty.

Luna wouldn't be able to be in the classroom and watch the actual dueling, mainly because first years weren't allowed to duel. Professor Dumbledore had strictly said that none of the first years should actually duel, so those who were second year and up were the ones that would stand on that stage and turn their backs on each other before they would begin casting spells at each other.

The first year Ravenclaw was sitting on a window ledge—looking out at the campus around her and in the distance she could see Hagrid near his hut with his dog, Fang, following him. She thought that he was interesting, but Luna found that she didn't really care for the half giant.

It was cold though, insanely cold, but that must have been due to the fact that it was almost Christmas and she would be going back home so that she could be with her daddy during the holidays. She found no reason to stay, that and she knew that it was just her and her daddy now. They needed each other—he depended on her, had depended on her ever since her mum had died.

Xenophilius would be lost without his daughter; if she died he would truly wither away and possibly commit suicide.

"Luna, did you hear?"

Luna turned her head, finding that Mandy Brocklehurst was jogging towards her—her dark hair flying around as her eyes showed shock and a little bit of fear deep within them. Luna sat upright and she turned her head to the side, almost like a curious cat that was checking out the area around it to make sure that it could know where it was and who was around it.

"No, I've just been sitting here and admiring the grounds. It is a quite lovely—"

"I'm certain that the grounds are lovely but that's not important right now! Harry Potter is a Parseltongue! He can talk to snakes! Apparently Malfoy shot a snake towards Harry and Harry reacted to the snake when it went to attack Justin Finch-Fletchley! Now everyone is thinking that he's the heir of Slytherin!"

"I think it would be nice to be able to communicate with snakes, I'm certain that they would get lonely just as much as us," Luna idly commented, her eyes having that far away appearance.

"Luna, this is serious! You-Know-Who could talk to snakes too! And so did Salazar Slytherin! Two of the Wizarding World's most dangerous and dark wizards ever share the same ability as Harry Potter!" Mandy hysterically waved her hands around, only for Luna to straighten her back and look up at Mandy.

"Just because Harry Potter can talk to snakes doesn't mean that he's just like them, Mandy. If I could talk to snakes would you think less of me?" Luna patiently waited for the dark haired girl's answer, her hands folded together in front of her and her eyes soft but focused.

Mandy frowned and sat down next to Luna, "I don't know, Luna. I mean you are kind of odd but I know that you're not bad. I…"

Luna nodded her head, "I wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet, Mandy. Most rumors are just that, rumors. I heard that he was raised by his Muggle relatives but I haven't heard of him torturing them. Salazar Slytherin and You-Know-Who are two completely different wizards than Harry Potter."

Mandy blinked a few times, "you sound just like Professor Dumbledore."

Luna smiled, "I take that as a compliment. Professor Dumbledore is a very accomplished wizard who saved the world from a dark wizard, and he is a well respected wizard too."

Not to mention that he's kind of nutty too—Mandy thought to herself, as Luna turned towards the window when they saw the flickering sight of snow starting to fall from the milky gray sky above them.

"I love winter; although Gulping Plimpies are very tasty it makes me feel better that Daddy won't be tempted to catch any in this weather." Luna observed how the trees quivered and shook from the wind, the Forbidden Forest was as cold and gloomy as the partly frozen depths of the Black Lake.

"I do look forward to spring, though. I can't wait to see the Giant Squid, I'm certain that he's quite lonely." Luna turned her head towards Mandy, finding that the girl was still sitting next to her and was silently watching her—taking mental notes of the eleven year old.

"Are…are you okay, Luna?"

"I am, thank you for asking Mandy, now if you don't mind—I'd like to keep watching the snow. It always makes me feel better." Luna turned her head back towards the window, not knowing that Mandy frowned and that she had a sort of clench in her heart at the fact that she was being pushed away from the odd girl.

Luna sat there for the next hour, watching the snow, and still absorbing the information that Mandy had given her. She thought for a moment—wondering if Harry Potter really was the heir of Slytherin. She knew that he could speak to snakes and that it was rare, most prominent in only pureblood bloodlines and she also knew that for as long as she could recall none of her family had come across the Potters in the past where they could find out that a member was a Parseltongue.

Eventually, Luna got up and went into her Common Room—discovering that most of the Ravenclaws around her were siding with the Slytherins and they were having debates with those who were on Luna's side…weary but not as open to the possibility of Harry Potter being a heir of Salazar Slytherin.

"What about you, Lovegood? What do you think?"

Luna blinked away her wandering gaze and turned her head, finding that Padma was standing off to the side and was looking at her—expecting her to side with her, which as Luna could barely recall must have been against Harry Potter.

"What are you doing, Padma? Don't you know that she's a loon? It doesn't matter what she thinks, because chances are she's not going to even give an answer that is even for the topic."

That was Terry Boot—who was scowling at the Indian girl. Said Indian girl was not amused at the sneering that he had done, or the fact that he was hissing at her. "Do not tell me what I should do."

"I…I don't know. I don't think he is." Luna found that some of the Ravenclaws were craning their heads to the side; these were the ones that weren't decided while the ones that probably couldn't stand Harry Potter to begin with were angry with her deciding to think that he possibly couldn't be the heir of Slytherin.

Justin Finch-Fletchley was one that if the scenario caused a strong reaction from him then at the moment he reacted and blocked every other emotion away so that he could focus all entirely on that one emotion. So him calling Harry a freak wasn't as surprising as one would think—despite the fact that Justin was a Hufflepuff, which still didn't surprise Luna since Hufflepuffs were known for being emotional but they were also the most accepting…

"Too bad the snake didn't bite Potter instead."

Luna didn't know who it was that had said this, mainly because she didn't care to hear negative remarks about other people. It still made her feel an annoyance come and go at the fact that someone who probably didn't even know Harry Potter would rather Harry Potter be bit by a snake than anything else.

She decided that she didn't want to stay in here anymore, so she went into her dorm room and went over to where her chest was that held her constellation suitcase. She began to rummage through her case and found her journal. She usually kept it in her suitcase; she had heard whispers of those around her that wanted to steal some of her things so she'd go on a wild goose chase in order to find the items the day before they would leave Hogwarts during the holidays.

Getting up from her crouched position, Luna hopped up on her bed and opened the journal and flipped to the first empty page that it provided her. She wrote about what had happened with Harry, and how she didn't know how to feel about him possibly being the heir of Slytherin and how she just wanted to be home for once so that she could be with her daddy and they could go and do whatever they wanted.

She often became lonely without her daddy but she didn't want anyone to know of her loneliness. Ginny knew of it but she wasn't helping, every time that Luna sought her out she was either passed out in the infirmary or she would be in her Common Room about to fall over and go to sleep if she hadn't done so already.

She only looked up when she heard a knock on the dorm door, "You can come in." Luna didn't care who it was, as long as they didn't bring in any negativity then she was fine with them entering the dorm.

The door opened and Luna found that it was Marietta Edgecombe that was loaming in the doorway. She studied Luna for a second and then, "I don't know what your whole weirdo deal is but I think it would be best if you don't try to involve yourself in Cho and me and the rest of my friends. Cho is nice but I don't think that you need to try and seek out a friendship with her, she's too nice and naïve sometimes when it involves those in our House but still…"

Luna had to admit that she wasn't that entirely surprised when she had the curly haired girl standing in front of her with her judgmental eyes. She probably was waiting for the right opportunity to seek out Luna when the others were too busy being submerged by another thing all entirely.

"Cho is nice, nicer than most in our House. I can see why you are protective of her and you are her friend, but I think that it's Cho's decision whether or not if she wants to seek out a friendship with me. She has not, and if you want to be a true friend then you should be supportive of her friends if they mean no harm towards her."

Marietta blinked a few times, having not expected such a straight-to-the-point response from Luna to her. Well that and she couldn't believe that Luna would point out that she wouldn't be a good friend if she denied a friendship between her best friend and the loon of the school.

"We'll see about that." Marietta spun on her heels and shut the door behind her, leaving only the first year and taking away the third year that had been loaming in her doorway.

Looking back down at her journal, Luna continued writing and ignoring the conversations that were floating underneath the crack of the door that let her know that people were still not knowing how to take the event that had happened today, they were too busy over analyzing every little detail that had gone down when it came to the snake incident.

Luna on the other hand didn't find any evidence that would pertain to Harry Potter being the heir of Slytherin. There were warning signs when it came to You-Know-Who though, but Harry Potter had yet to have any warning signs that would make people automatically know that he was evil. Just because he could talk to snakes that made him evil?

Luna shook her head, before she finished writing out her entry in her journal and closed it—ready for her to go to bed. She had enough of what had happened today, and all she wanted was some rest.

She found though that she was greeted with even more fear in the voices of those around her the next day, everyone was creating a barrier between themselves and Harry Potter. Even some of his own House members were distancing themselves from him—the thought of him being related to the founder of the Slytherin House would make them automatically hate him.

Luna inwardly shook her head at the idiocy that surrounded her, and brought her hand up so that she could brush her fingers against her worn out Dirigible plum earrings—they were meant to enhance your awareness to accept the extraordinary, and at the moment she wanted nothing more than to be able to see if she could find any creatures around people that would make her worried for their safety.

All she saw though were Nargles and Videra Expera's that were hovering over most of the Slytherins, along with Oregic Oppera's that were hovering near messenger bags that had sweets hidden in secret pockets. She didn't see any creatures that would make her frightened—they were the normal 'odd' creatures that she had always seen since she was a little girl.

"Luna!"

Luna turned her head, finding that Ginny was rushing towards her and that she was trying to catch her breath. "I—I hadn't expected to see you in the hall before breakfast. I thought that you'd already be there."

"Oh no, I decided to just enjoy my stroll today. I wanted to make sure that I didn't see anything out of the ordinary when it comes to the creatures. I see just Nargles and Videra Expera's and Oregic Oppera's, and they're always around." Luna glanced up at the sight of a Videra Expera that floated near, the wings beating rapidly as it peered at her with its large eyes.

She smiled up at it and brought her hand up so that her pointer finger was in its direction. The Videra Expera slowly moved towards her and dropped onto her pointer finger, and she smiled some when she could see the details.

It didn't linger for long, it sat there for only one second before it drifted off to find its host. When she looked up she found that almost the entire hall had paused and they were staring at her agape features.

For that one moment Luna found not only that she was in nirvana at the close contact with the Videra Expera but also that she had accomplished something that she hadn't expected she wanted: to have the judgmental comments around her that were about Harry Potter transition to her because all her life she had been judged for being insane but Harry Potter had yet to do something horrible in her eyes.