Kalo Mina! (Greek greeting said on the first of the month) I'm going to try to post a lot this month, at least once or twice per week, because I'm doing NaNoWriMo and so I won't write this the entirety of next month and I want to make up for that in advance. Wish me luck!

Once again, please pretty please review, fav, and follow! I love a) writing and b) my fandoms so much and it means a lot to me when someone appreciates how hard I work on my fics.

-Lily Luna-

"Lily!" Al waves his hand from the other side of the corridor. I heard him, but I keep my head down and pull my bag closer to my side. Don'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlook. He's galloping over to me, his tie flapping up and down. "Where've you been?"

"Around. We go to the same school," I point out dully.

"But I never see you," he whines, "It's like you disappeared."

He's right. The last week I've been spending yet more time hidden in the library, behind a fort of books on subjects I don't take but find somewhat interesting. Ignoring my many cousins.

"How are you?" asks Albus.

"Fine. You."

"I'm doing well…" he says. "Why don't you hang out with us sometime in the Great Hall?"

I take this as an accusation. "Sorry, just… really busy." Then I realize it was a suggestion. "Oh! Maybe."

"Or the basement. There's actually this neat little room with couches and a table we discovered in my first year. Well, I gotta run. Potions." He smiles at me before running off the way I'd come.

"Bye."

I continue to the Transfiguration classroom, and take a seat in the back. We're with the Hufflepuffs and Uncle Neville's (it's hard to keep track of the real versus fake uncles in our family) son, Frank, is a few desks away from me. He looks over suddenly and smiles, fingering his quill. I think I might be smiling too.

The sound of a throat clearing makes me turn in my chair to McGonagall in the front of the classroom. "Exciting class today," she says. "Your first live animals." The nerds and the Muggle borns in the first few rows sit up straighter. "You will be turning these…" she gestures and for the first time I notice the gigantic jar on her desk, swirling with big black spiders; "... into buttons and back again. I will not give any instruction as to the proper spell as I would like you do work it out yourselves. Now, I know this will be a challenge for most of you. Treat it as a little practical test, just to see how you're doing. And with that, good luck! Miss Brown, would you be so kind as to pass the spiders out to your classmates?"

Lydia Brown reluctantly gets out of her chair, slowly walks toward the jar, and picks it up. She squeals when a spider crawls up to meet her hand from the other side of the glass. Professor McGonagall hides her smirk with a pale, spindly hand, and I have a suspicion of why she chose Lydia. The brunette finally passes out the spiders, cringing as she reaches inside the jar to transport each one. Mine almost escapes, but I nudge it with my wand.

The next forty-five minutes are dragged out, only interrupted by the occasional sigh of exasperation or spell backfiring. It's almost the end when I perfect the hand motion. The spider's legs collapse under it. It flattens and buttonholes expand from the middle. The only fault is how it shivers on the table, as if trying to crawl again. I'm unable to fix that by the time McGonagall calls, "Time's up! Please bring your spiders, in whatever form they may be, to me so I can examine them and then return them to the jar." When I get to her and place the button on her desk, she nods. "Well done, Lily." I look up from trying to nudge the button back to the middle of the desk at the use of my first name. The old woman presses her lips together and I think it's a smile.

I go to get my bag, but as I pick it up, it flips due to the flimsy shoulder strap. I groan and stuff papers and books back into it. Students slip past me, until I'm the only one left but for McGonagall. I speed up even more, not even caring if I wrinkle the parchment. I accidentally kick my wand in the process. Bad mistake. The book it now points at shoots up and knocks into one of the cages in the back of the classroom.

I jump up. The cage crashes to the floor and the door flies open. The thick brown snake inside it lifts its head in excited confusion and promptly slithers out onto the floor.

"No!" I say.

The snake stops.

I take a step back, but keep shouting. "Go back!" It rises up and I gulp. But it obeys. It turns back around and slides into its cage. Timidly, I walk toward it. I brace myself and reach to latch the door closed, but nothing happens. Then I remember my manners. "Um, sorry. For knocking over your cage."

I've almost persuaded myself that it was just a coincidence, that the snake didn't understand me, then a fluid whisper fills the air: "No problem". I gawk. "I would have liked to see what's out there, though", the snake says, because now I'm sure it's the snake that's speaking. It cocks its head toward the classroom door. I nod and back away, nearly tripping over my bag.

I spin around to McGonagall, standing calmly by her desk. "Wait— does that snake… speak English?" I sputter.

"No. Don't you understand, dear?" she says. "You are the one speaking a foreign tongue."

I stare at her, bewildered. "What?"

McGonagall shakes her head fondly. "I was wondering which of you would inherit it. You see, Lily, your father is a Parselmouth. He can speak to snakes. And now, you obviously can, too."

"So I was speaking snake just then?"

"Yes, to me you were making a random series of hissing sounds. Though it does take a while for Parselmouths to even recognize they're speaking a different language. But truly, Lily, what an uncommon, fascinating skill."

I grab at my scalp. Dad has never even told us… and am I the only one of the three who it was passed down to? I grab my bag by the non-broken handles and hold the remaining loose papers in my other hand, along with my wand. I turn to go, and to process this. "Thank you."

"But Lily—" starts McGonagall. I look back at her. "I wouldn't advise you go about telling everyone. You see, there's a sort of negative aura around your ability. It's… associated with Dark Wizards… and therefore Slytherin." She bites her lip.

"But I am a Slytherin," I counter. "Shouldn't I be proud I inherited my founder's powers?" I leave before she can say anything else. But despite what I said, for some reason I know I won't tell anyone about what happened. I could do with a secret to fill up my head.