Sorry this has taken so long to come up. For half term I was out of reach of any sort of technology apart from mobiles. This meant I couldn't type the chapter up. When I got home, I typed up about half, then hit homework. You see, every day I have an hour period which I spend in my bedroom watching my rat as she runs around. If I've got homework that doesn't need the internet I do that, if not I type up the chapter. Lately, I've had to be doing homework. Hope you enjoy the chapter. Thanks for all the reviews, but perhaps, if you've got a question about any of my fics, you could put in some way to contact you?

By the way, bold is parseltongue. The snake uses extended s sounds.

Harry read up to chapter five of the rune book all in one go before he became aware of his extreme hunger. Reading the rune book was like refreshing already known knowledge. Almost as if he had learnt the information within the yellow pages and was just revising for a test.

The hunger pangs grew insistent. Taking the book with him, he walked down to the kitchens. Making himself a sandwich, he wandered outside. It was a beautiful day, shame to waste it indoors. Besides, he doubted Severus would be very pleased with him eating in the library. There was a gnarled old oak by a small brook. Harry sat against the trunk and opened the rune's cover once more.

He had finished his sandwich and only read another chapter, when he heard a slithering sound.

"A new two legss. Ssmellss interessting." A light voice said. Harry turned his head and saw an adder slithering from behind the tree trunk. "It doessn't run. I wonder what it iss thinking?"

"I was thinking that I would like to ask your name." the snake lifted its head and blinked, the filmy material sliding quickly over its eyes.

"A ssnake sspeaker! Well well, I haven't met one of those before. I hear taless of one who ussess dark sspellss. I do not have a name. ssnakess don't." It said a little sadly.

"Are you male or female?"

"Male."

"What about Zak?"

"Zak, Sszzak. Yess, that will do well." Zak hissed in satisfaction.

"Do you live in this garden?"

"Yess young one. For three ssummerss I have lived here. I often ssee the other two legged outsside. He gatherss plants. I keep out of hiss way. I hatched here and fought my brood matess to remain here. I sshall likely die and leave my boness buried here."

"That sounds depressing." Zak gave the snake equivalent of a shrug.

"It iss life young hatchling."

Harry decided he didn't want to debate philosophical topics and turned back to his book. Zak slithered completely into the open, tasting the air as he went. He moved to Harry's side. When lying next to the boy's elbow, he raised his head and part of his body off the ground.

"What sstrange markingss you two leggerss make." He commented looking at the page.

"They're words. They tell us knowledge."

"You do not inherit knowledge?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when ssnakess hatch, an archive of knowledge openss up. The deedss of every adder ssince the beginning of time are kept there. I think all sspeciess of ssnake have their own, but we all sshare the memoriess of the beginning. You have never heard of thiss?"

"No. I haven't really talked to a snake properly before. I found out I was a snake speaker only a few years ago. I spoke briefly to a boa constrictor, and a magic snake, and I heard a basilisk hissing in the walls, but otherwise, no." the snake sounded very agitated when he next spoke.

"You mean you don't know anything about ssnakess? Or being a ssnake sspeaker?"

"No. being a snake speaker is considered the mark of evil in the magical world. Is there more than just being able to talk to snakes?"

"Of coursse! It meanss you can usse parsseltongue sspellss and I think you can access the archivess of ssnake knowledge," Zak nodded as he said this.

"What are parseltongue spells?"

"They are sspellss casst in parsseltongue. Bindingss, injuriess or wardss caussed by parsel magic can only be undone by a ssnake sspeaker."

"Then why doesn't Voldemort use them?"

"He may not know."

"Nagini is a snake though and he talks to Nagini."

"Sshe iss a python. Only viperss know of parssel magic."

"Why?"

"I do not know. Maybe becausse vipersss have a sstronger ssensse of jusstice becaussse of their poissson.

Harry nodded thoughtfully before returning to his book.

"Sso what do those marksss mean?"

"Well two leggers don't have your archives, so knowledge is written on parchment. This 'book' is about runes."

"Runess, runesss, that ssoundss familiar. I can't think why though. Get back to you later. Another factor of being a ssnake sspeaker is the loyalty of unpledged ssnakess."

"What do you mean?

"Well," Zak hissed, arranging himself to be more comfortable. This involved crawling into Harry's lap, lying half on the book, half on his leg to get the warmth. "In our sshared archivess, the oldest memoriess are of the firsst of our sspeciess. We, like most other beings were once types of fissh. We crawled on land, lost our finss and developed the ssensess we have now. We were dumb, mindless, no better or more intelligent than any otherss.

One day, a being came running from the foresst. He glowed green, the green of summer leaves. He wasss clutching hiss sside from where ssilver blood poured. Gasssping, he fell near where our ancesstor lay. The ssnake felt pity for the magical creature and bit him near the wound. Hiss venom was a clotting chemical that caused death when clotss formed in the heart, but in thiss casse, it only travelled as far as the wound was deep.

Though the tide of blood was sstemmed, the being wass very weak. My ancesstor helped him get better by bringing him healing herbsss, and lending him sstrength.

In gratitude, the being gifted uss with hiss language, he of the foresst gave uss the ssound of dry, russtling leaves and the sslither of our bodiess through the undergrowth. He gave uss the archive and enhanced our mindss. In return, our ancestor sswore loyalty to him and his desscendantss. The oath has been passed down in our blood to all thosse who sspeak our language."

Harry was silent for a few minutes digesting the new information. It was a lot to take in.

"So I'm a descendant of this being?"

"Yess."

"Why haven't any others in my family been snake speakers then?"

"You are a magical desscendant. It is a power not passed through blood but through power levelss."

"Why isn't Dumbledore one then?"

"Who iss thiss 'dumbledore'?"

"One of the most powerful wizards alive. He is the only one Voldemort has ever been afraid of." Harry announced proudly.

"It musst be hiss mind sset. The gift is only passed to those who are willing to usse it. You ssee, with thesse ssort of giftss, anyone with the right power can tap into them. But to sstart with, the persson musst be willing to usse the gift and accept it. You ssay being a ssnake sspeaker is bad in your world? Maybe thiss 'dumbledore' was never willing to usse the gift if he had it, so it never developed." Harry mused over the implications of his gift. It was still quite alien to him for Dumbledore to be wrong; for his first four years he had been the pillar of light that ruled the school through kindness. Now… he still seemed kind to Harry's jaded gaze, but not all knowing anymore. A thought suddenly struck him.

"You say that snakes have loyalty to snake speakers."

"Yess."

"Would that mean me or Voldemort?"

"We give our loyalty to the firsst ssnake sspeaker we meet perssonally. If we never meet one, we sshall not give our loyalty to anyone."

"So if I wanted to have the help of snakes, I would have to go around chatting with all the snakes I could find."

"Yess."

"Damn. I don't have either the time or security to do that." Harry sighed sadly and opened his mouth to say something, but a bell rang before he could.

"I have to go in for food. Do you want to come?" the snake tilted his head on one side, then hissed a yes and wound himself around the boy's wrist. Harry closed the book and stood up.

Severus glared at Harry as he entered the dining room.

"You are very nearly late Potter."

"Sorry. I was outside." Severus accepted his apology and they set to eating.

Halfway through the midday meal, his eyes were drawn to Harry's gently moving sleeve. Frowning slightly, he looked more closely and so saw the triangular head with a flickering forked tongue emerge. As the snake slithered further out, he could see the distinctive dark, bruised markings showing this to be a common garden adder, also known as the only native poisonous snake in the British Isles.

His heart thumped unevenly and skipped a beat at the boy-who-lived's proximity to the dangerous reptile, but breathed again once he remembered the boy was a parseltongue. Besides, surely even he wouldn't be oblivious enough to miss a large snake in his sleeve.

"Harry," he started in a conversational tone. "Would you care to explain just why you have an adder tucked away in your clothing?" the infernal child grinned! He picked the snake up and coiled him around his neck.

"This is Zak. We met outside and had a very interesting conversation"

"I see. You did not think of informing me before you brought…him… in the house, especially to the dinner table?" Harry's grin faltered.

"Well, I though as the head of Slytherin… besides, I was wondering if you'd notice."

"One does not be a successful spy by being unobservant." Snape replied loftily. "What do you intend to do with… Zak?" Harry shrugged and hissed at the snake. Zak hissed back.

"He says he was just interested at seeing the inside of a two legger, I mean human, house. He'll stay outside tonight." Severus nodded.

"So how far did you get with your studies?"

By the end of the meal, Severus was pleased with the progress Harry had made. He had quizzed his student on what his inner defences were as well as what he had learnt that morning. If the boy continued at this rate, they would be able to get to the practical parts of runes the next day. After that it would just be duelling, more occlumency, more runes, legilimency, and other magic.