"Oh this is going to be fun." Theo said rather cheerful. "My wand is an excellent duelling wand, and powerful with dark magic as well. He has proven himself often enough. "The boy smirked, looking at his raven friend. "Bet I will beat you every time."

The group of second years found themselves in the Great hall where for the first time a duelling club was held. The long dining tables were removed and a golden stage had appeared along the wall, lit by a thousand of floating candles.

"What's so special about it then?" Harry asked, earning a glare from his Italian friend who had heard the story about ten times before.

"This isn't an ordinary wand." Theo started. "It's a family heirloom, it goes back for centuries in our family." Harry listened to his friend, interested to learn more about the magical world. He wasn't the only one. Hermione was listening closely as well, although Theo didn't notice it. "The core is very rare and extremely good for dark magic."

"Doesn't make it unbeatable in duelling though, Theo." Hermione countered. "Especially not in Hogwarts. Dumbledore would never allow anything closely dark in this school."

"Doesn't mean I can't hex you." The brunet said back, giving the girl a wink.

"I'd like to see you try." The witch countered.

"Alright. What about the two of us go against each other and I show you duelling is a subject I will beat your ass in?"

Never one to back down on a challenge, Hermione gave Daphne an apologising look before agreeing.

"Sorry Daph." She said afterwards, giving her friend a guilty look.

"Don't worry Mione." The blonde said. "I am more curious to who is gonna teach this thing."

"I heard Kali mention Flitwick was a good duellist in his time." Blaise answered her question.

"And Snape is supposed to be good as well." Theo said thoughtfully.

"As long as it isn't…" Harry started to say, but ending in a groan. Lockhart had just entered the stage, dressed in a dark plum, being followed by Snape in his usual black. Lockhart tried to silence the group of students by waving his arms before starting to speak.

"Gather around, gather around! Can everyone see me? Can everyone hear me? Excellent!"

"I wish I wouldn't have to hear him for once." Harry grumbled annoyed. Theo and Blaise couldn't do anything else but agree while the girls just rolled their eyes.

"At least we will have some sort of decent practice with Snape up there too." Blaise muttered, as Lockhart once again was boasting about how good he was in this subject and how Dumbledore had agreed on letting him teach it to the children.

"Let me introduce my assistant Professor Snape." Lockhart said, flashing a white, toothy smile. "He told me he knows a little bit of duelling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we start. Now I don't want you to worry – you still will have your Potion Master once I'm done with him."

"It's more likely that we get a new DADA teacher." Theo huffed.

"Let's hope Snape just goes for it." Blaise added. "He's more than a bit skilled."

"Shush you two!" Hermione whispered, poking both guys in their ribs.

"Ow woman!" Blaise grumbled.

"Keep the violence for the duel." Theo whined.

Harry brought his attention back to the stage where Lockhart and Snape had turned to face each other and bowed; or so Lockhart did, making a show of it while Snape just jerked his head. Harry really didn't get why Lockhart was still smiling. If Snape would be looking at him like he was looking right now, his wand raised, he would be in Belgium before the Potion Master would kill him.

"As you see, we are standing in the appropriate duelling position." Lockhart spoke. "On the count of three we will cast our spell, neither of us trying to kill the other of course."

"You have to do it a bit more like this." Blaise said, bringing Hermione's arm a bit lower and closer to her body. The girl had tried out the position, as If she wanted to make sure she wouldn't forget it by the time she had to duel Theo. "Gives you more control."

"Thanks." She said with a small blush before bringing her attention back to the stage where Lockhart had reached the count of three. Both wizards wands shot back over their shoulders and a dazzling scarlet flash left Snape's wand when he shouted the disarming spell, sending Lockhart flying backwards straight into the wall; making him end up sprawled over the floor.

"Amateur." Daphne scoffed. "A simple Protego would have done the trick."

"Yeah, he didn't leave the best first impression of himself." Hermione muttered softly. "I hope he just needs to warm up because otherwise it means I have to look for a new idol."

Neither Theo or Blaise were listening as they were cheering loudly for their head of house. Blaise even giving a cheerful Malfoy a high-five.

At the wall, Lockhart was getting back up to his feet unsteadily, quickly picking up his fallen hat and placing it back on his wavy hair.

"Well there you have it." He said, staggering back on to the stage. "That was a Disarming Charm – as you see I don't have my wand anymore – ah, thank you Miss Brown." Both Hermione and Daphne rolled their eyes at the Gryffindor when she nearly fainted the moment Lockhart's hand bushed hers when she handed back the wand. "Yes an excellent idea to show them, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying, it was obvious what you were gonna do and I could've easily stopped you. But I thought it would be good for the students to see…" Snape was giving his colleague a murderous look and it seemed as if Lockhart finally caught up as he decided to start pairing students up.

Hermione noticed him pair up Neville with Justin Finch-Fletchly while Snape came towards their little group. It seemed as if he wanted to go for the obvious pairing of Daphne and Hermione together but Theo was quicker.

"If you don't mind Professor, I would like to pair up with Hermione on this." He said confidently.

"And how are you gonna motivate that idea, Mr. Nott?" The Potion Master asked, giving his student a questioning look.

"It seemed us a good idea to introduce her to duelling by pairing her up with someone who has had lessons in it, Professor. Just because there is more of a learning opportunity there."

"That's an excellent motivation Mr. Nott." Snape said with the voice he solemnly kept for the Slytherins. "Miss Greengrass, have your parents have you schooled in duelling yet?" He asked the blonde.

"No sir." She said. "My parents didn't think it to be ladylike to go fighting."

"I see." He muttered. "I'm sure Mr. Zabini would love to help you with this. I know from experience he is trained in duelling. That leaves you, Potter." Snape's eyes had shot to Harry and turned cold immediately. "I got the request from Mr. Flint to make sure you and Mr. Malfoy would be able to get along on the field. I'm sure this makes an excellent practice." He looked over the crowd and found Malfoy talking to Adrian Pucey a bit away. "Draco, come here! You and Mr. Potter will be a pair. I trust you will show him the proper way of duelling." He gave the blond a stern look and Malfoy nodded.

Hermione gave Harry an understanding look before she followed Theo to a free spot in the hall.

"I hope you are actually gonna teach me something. Or are you gonna enjoy beating my ass?" She asked, following his lead as he took the appropriate duelling stand.

"A little bit of both." He admitted. "You have to give me some fun, Mione. This probably is the only subject that I would be able to beat you in."

Lockhart reached the count of three and Hermione was blasted backwards by the disarming spell Theo casted on her. He was quick, she noticed, landing on her bum in front of Blaise who deflected a spell Daphne had cast.

"Try Everte Statum." He said, helping her up.

"That's not a Disarming Charm though." The brunette noted.

"There are only so many disarming spells. This has the same effect and keeps it interesting." Daphne said, handing Hermione's wand back.

The brunette nodded, glancing quickly towards Malfoy and Harry who seemed to be very motivated. Harry had blasted backwards like she had but had been able to keep his wand and cast the Rictumsempra.

"Ready for round two?" Theo asked amused.

"I was born ready." The witch spoke. This time she was ready for his Disarming charm and blocked it with a Protego before taking Blaise's tip to heart.

"Everte Statum!" She shouted. Theo, who hadn't expected it, found that it was his turn to be blasted backwards.

"Stop! Stop!" Lockhart screamed, ending the spell Malfoy had put on Harry with a quick Finite Incatatum. "It might be better if I teach you how to block unfriendly spells." He glanced at Snape who's eyes glinted and quickly decided he wasn't up for another round against the Potion Master. "Let's have a volunteer pair. Longbottom and Finch-Fletchly?" Lockhart asked, glancing at the two terrified looking boys.

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart." Snape said, gliding over like a large and malevolent bat. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchly to the Hospital wing in a matchbox." Neville's round pink face went even more pink and Hermione couldn't keep herself from calling Snape a prat. "What about Potter and Malfoy?" Snape suggested.

"Excellent idea!" Lockhart said, gesturing for both Slytherins to come to the middle of the hall. The other students backed away to make room. "Now Harry, when Malfoy points his wand at you, just do this." Lockhart tried to do something difficult with his wand before dropping it. "Oops. My wand is a bit overexcited." He said gleefully. Snape smirked and bend down, whispering something in Malfoys ear. The boy smirked and nodded. It seemed as if the 'try to get along' part was over for now.

"Could you please show me that again, Professor?" He asked.

"Just do what I did, Harry."

"What, drop my wand?" Harry grumbled, but Lockhart wasn't listening anymore. His eyes looked for his friends who gave him an encouraging smile, Blaise even showing him the correct way of blocking a spell quickly before Lockhart reached three. It seemed as if Harry wouldn't need the spell after all though, seeing that Malfoy decided on playing dirty.

"Serpensortia!" The boy yelled. Harry saw the top of Malfoy's wand exploded as a dark snake shot out of it. The snake seemed to be ready to attack and screams from the crowd caught Harry's attention.

"Don't move Potter." Snape said lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of the motionless boy who was standing eye in eye with the angry snake. "I'll get rid of it…"

"Allow me!" Lockhart said, raising his wand and casting a spell. Instead of vanishing, the snake flew up in the air and landed right in front of Neville and Justin. Hissing angrily, the snake got ready to attack the Hufflepuff. Without thinking Harry shot forward.

"Leave him alone." He hissed at the reptile, who miraculous retreated and looked at Harry in surprise. Harry calmed down a bit. He knew the snake wasn't gonna attack anyone anymore, but the Hufflepuff didn't seem to think so.

"What the bloody hell are you playing at!" He screamed. Before Harry could answer he turned around and left the Great Hall. Snape stepped forward and with a quick motion of his wand, he made the snake vanish. His head of house gave him a calculated look but before Harry could think about it, he felt himself being pulled away from the Great Hall by Malfoy. In the corner of his eyes he noticed his friends following them quickly out of the big hall. Malfoy didn't say a thing until they reached the Slytherin common room and waited for Blaise and the others to catch up.

"Get in Granger." He sneered when the Gryffindor hesitated too long for his own liking. "Our room, now Potter!" He spat.

The raven haired boy followed the young Malfoy heir up the stairs and sat down on his bed in confusion.

"You are a Parselmouth!" Blaise almost yelled when everyone was in.

"When the fuck were you planning on telling us?!" Theo said, as agitated as his friends.

"I'm a what?" Harry asked confused. Not knowing why his friends were so angry with him… Or why Malfoy had just dragged him out of the Great Hall.

"A Parselmouth… You can talk to snakes." Hermione translated.

"Oh, yeah I know. It first happened when we were at the zoo the summer before I came here. I had a nice chat with a boa constrictor. What's the big deal about it? I'm sure a lot of wizards can talk to snakes."

"No they can't, Potter. Slytherin was a Parselmouth, and some say the Dark Lord was one too. But these are the only known wizards to have this gift." Malfoy huffed. "The whole school is gonna think you're THE Heir of Slytherin now. You understand that right?! Our lives are gonna be a hell."

"But… I'm not." Harry said softly.

"We know that." Theo said quietly. "But you could be an heir of the Slytherin name. No one knows what happened to the family after all. I mean, after Castor and Pollux were born, it's all a bit cloudy. How else are you gonna explain this?"

"I don't know…" Muttered Harry.

. . . . . . .

His friends weren't the only ones who wanted to know about his gift, when Harry and his friends came down in the common room, the head girl was waiting for him, her arms crossed over her chest. She pulled up a brow when she noticed Hermione but didn't comment on it.

"You're a Parselmouth." She stated, looking at Harry. "Or so some state. I would like to see some prove of that."

Harry looked up at the head girl in confusion. He didn't understand the look she was giving him. It seemed to be as calculating as the one Snape had given him earlier, but with a softer undertone.

"How do you want me to prove it?" He asked confused. "I don't have a snake."

"Talk to the ornaments." Diana said as a matter of fact, looking a lot more cheerful about the whole idea of having a Parselmouth in their house.

"What?" Harry looked at them flabbergasted.

"The snakes on the ceiling, you dumbass." Malfoy said, rolling his eyes.

Harry looked up and noticed, indeed, some metal snakes up there.

"But they're metal…" He said, still not catching up.

"This is Hogwarts, Harry." Daphne said quietly. "They are bewitched. I'm sure you can make them move if you talk to them."

The boy gave his friends an awkward look before focussing his attention on the ornaments again. It was pretty stressful to have his whole house look at him, ready to make a fool out of himself. This didn't just happen on command.

"Move." He said.

"That's just English, Potter." Malfoy mentioned casually.

"Move." He said again, putting a bit more effort in it.

"Still English." Kali said. "You might actually want to believe the snakes are real." She said.

"Move." He hissed. And if the surprised OH's and Ah's of his fellow housemates weren't enough to tell him it had worked, the now moving and hissing snakes did.

"A Parselmouth! Finally someone to talk to." They hissed, crinkling over each other to move over the ceiling and down the wall. "Finally we can move again!"

"Hi there." Harry greeted them. "Feel free to keep moving, please. My name is Harry. Who are you?"

He seemed to have forgotten all about his housemates who were keeping a close eye on his interaction to the snakes. Hermione seemed to be even more interested than all the others, knowing this was a magical gift she would never be able to develop.

"We are Malinda and Titanoboa, little Hatchling."

"This stays between these four walls." Kali finally spoke, catching Harry's attention. "If anyone asks you about it, Finch-Fletchly made everything up and Malfoy had hexed Potter so he could only his like a snake. We can't let this get out. Understood!" She spat.

All the Slytherins nodded and suddenly all eyes turned to Hermione.

"Same goes for you Granger. We can't have you tell anyone about this." Devon spoke, giving the Gryffindor a stern look.

"Don't worry. I don't have anyone but my friends to tell it to. And how convenient, they are all in Slytherin."

He gave a quick nod.

"I'll bring you up to your common room, Granger. We wouldn't want Filch to catch you out of bed after curfew." Kali spoke, leading the girl out of the common room, away from the awkwardness that had started the moment the Slytherins knew what this meant. If Harry could talk to snakes, he was an heir of Slytherin… So that meant that he was the one who had opened the chamber… or that an imposter was giving their house a bad name. Looking at the kind of friend he had, the second seemed the more logical answer.

. . . . . . .

Due to the snow that had started falling the night before, had turned into a real blizzard, Hermione's Herbology was cancelled, which was the reason why she was sitting alone in the restricted section of the library where she had sneaked into under the cover of Harry's invisibility cloak. Her friend had been happy to give it to her and ensure her some peace and quiet. Ever since the incident the day before, everyone kept coming to Hermione to hear what had happened, seeing her as the weak spot because all Slytherins had kept their mouth shut or told the story Hermione kept repeating, Malfoy had hexed Harry and that was the reason he could only hiss. Turning her page – she had found a rather interesting book about magical abilities – the feeling that someone was looking at her made the brunette look up. She had found a place to sit in a small alcove next to a window deep enough into the restricted section so she wouldn't be noticed. She had put the cloak away in her bag and had placed a heating spell on the small spot she was sitting while she had transfigured a paper into a pillow to make herself comfortable. Her eyes searched the rows of bookcases until she did a double take when she noticed some red hair only three rows away from her.

"If you want something come and ask it you bloody Weasley twins." The girl said annoyed, knowing that she was busted. For some reason, they always knew where to find them. She had been expecting them.

"Are you gonna tell us the truth," Fred asked, walking over from behind the bookcase.

"Or are you gonna tell us the same lie you have been telling every single student?" George ended.

Hermione pulled up a brow and looked back down on her pages. Putting a silencing charm around them with a simple flick of her wand.

"You know, there are a lot of magical abilities that are known to the wizarding world." Hermione started. "Too many abilities to actually keep track off. I'm sure there will be books about it though so you might get your answer there." She dismissed them by turning to the next page, legilimence. Interesting.

"Or you could spare us the time looking."

"And just tell us what is going on." Fred stole her book and looked at the page she was on. "Interesting." He mused.

"Give me my book back, Fred Weasley." The girl huffed annoyed. "If you want answers, go to Harry. I'm not gonna get myself in trouble with Kali. Now piss off and leave me alone." She grabbed her book back and looked out of the window, hoping that they would just leave. They did the opposite though.

"Are you alright, Mione?" Fred asked gently, sitting down in front of her in the alcove, George leaned against the wall and gave her a once over.

"The Slytherins aren't giving you a hard time, are they?"

"Not particularly no." She muttered. "If you want to know what really happened, go talk to Harry. He's the only one who can give the permission to tell everything. Kali has explained the Slytherin law into detail. No slip ups or you're out. You can be mean to everyone you want but there will be unity between all Slytherins. Seeing that I'm a close friend of four Slytherins, those rules apply to me to. Which hopefully means they will be civil towards me." She explained all in one breath.

"Now breath." Fred said with a small smile. The girl gave him a small glare but couldn't keep herself from smiling immediately afterwards. "We understand. We'll go and talk to Harry once he's out of class."

"But would you mind us keeping you company until they're free?" George asked smiling.

"You have a rather nice spot here and with Lee having a detention…"

"We could use a third person to keep us company."

"Alright." Hermione agreed. "But don't be too loud. I was reading a good book before you took it away so rudely." She said to Fred, opening it again on the page had been on.

"We won't. We have some jokes to prepare." The Weasley twins said cheerfully, making Hermione roll her eyes. As long as they pranked someone else, she wasn't gonna complain.

. . . . . . .

"That was the most boring class ever!" Daphne complained, stifling a yawn. "I actually like history but Binns almost succeeds in making me detest it."

"Welcome to the club. Took you long enough to join us." Blaise muttered.

"Do you think Hermione will offer us her notes to study from?" Harry said wondering. He was half joking though, but Theo didn't think it was funny and slapped him against the back of his head.

"You have caused her enough stress already by screwing up in the big hall yesterday." He hissed. "Don't even joke about using her notes."

"Get your panties out of the twist, Theo." Blaise said, pulling up a brow at his friend. "He was obviously joking."

The brunet didn't get a chance to answer his Italian friend as the sight of Hagrid with a dead rooster hanging limp from his glove caught there attention.

"Hagrid?" Harry asked surprised. "What's going on?"

"Second one killed this term," the giant explained. "It's either foxes or a Blood-suckin' Bugbear, an' I need the Headmaster's permission ter put a charm round the hen-coop."

"That might be smart yeah." Daphne said, pulling u her nose at the dead animal. "We'll see you later Hagrid. We have to find Hermione to compare notes."

They bid their goodbyes and walked up the stairs into a corridor that seemed to be relatively dark.

"Maybe we should take a different route." Daphne said, looking around.

"Why? You're not afraid in the dark are you?" Blaise asked teasingly.

"No, not in particular no…" She looked at Theo and Harry who were a bit ahead. "I just have a bad feeling."

"Don't worry, I'll protect you." Blaise said, putting his arm around his friend and giving her a wink.

"You idiot." The girl said, poking him in his side but leaving the arm there as they walked after Harry and Theo. It was cold in the hallway and Blaise's arm gave her some warmth. Who left a window open when a bloody blizzard was going on outside? "Don't complain to me if something bad happens though… I've warned ya."

"What in Salazar's name could happen?" Blaise asked.

"Bloody hell." Theo fell face forward after tripping over something that was laying on the flour.

The word jinx popped up in Blaise's mind with Ella looking up at him with her bright eyes.

"Fuck." They heard Harry say and sped up a bit so they could see what Theo had tripped over.

"That's… Justin isn't it?" Blaise said, looking at the body of the Hufflepuff lying on the flour cold and rigid. A look of shock was frozen on his face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

"Guys." Daphne's voice sounded through the hallway. When Blaise looked up he saw the fear that was visibly written over her face. She had lost all colour again and was pointing at something behind her three friends. The boys turned around slowly and their mouth fell open. In front of them was the strangest sight they've ever seen. Nearly Headless Nick was no longer the pearly white Daphne's hair was at the moment, but black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal about six inches above the floor. His head was half off and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's.

"Oh no…" Blaise muttered. "Let's get as far away as possible from here before anyone sees us and starts getting the wrong idea."

"We can't just leave him here!" Harry said, but his friends didn't want to hear off it and quickly dragged him away, around a corner. And right in time it seemed, because only moments after they turned around the corner, Peeves started screaming. No ghost or student was save anymore.

"Let's get to the library as soon as possible." Theo muttered, ducking out of sight when a group of Gryffindors passed to go and see what all the screaming was about.

"Yeah, we don't want to make anyone else think it was you who did it, Harry." Daphne said softly. She put her hand on his shoulder and gave him an apologetical look. She hadn't liked leaving Justin behind either but it was that or risking expulsion. Because who would believe them after Harry's stunt from yesterday?