AN: Slowly but surely, we are inching towards the end of second year! Thanks again to my Beta Peiniger!

ssj3gohan007: no comment :o)

alix33: oh yeah, I imagine there like topical hair-removal-potions or stuff like that :D Can't bring myself to use creams, the smell is just too much for me :!

automaton14: I can answer this one: Rose can't know, since it's from her perspective and the reader knows what she knows. But I imagined it like this: Death created the reality in a way that, when Harry's soul found its way into Rose's body, everything adjusted itself to that moment. So, Harry-Rose's personality has always been the way it is now. Rose didn't exist before that moment. That's why Harry is never, like, suspicious or something. I hope I could explain myself :D

It had finally happened. Their second year had finally reached the point when everything would inevitably go to shite.

Lockhart was looking for the entrance of Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. Why? If she had to take a guess, she'd say because Lockhart was completely mad. Why else would anyone want to enter a lost, secret chamber which hid a giant basilisk from the world? Why else would someone be so obsessed with a myth which had been lost throughout the centuries?

The only good thing Rose could get out of this whole situation was the fact that even if Lockhart were to find the entrance, he'd have no chance of getting past it – short of forcing his way through with a blasting spell or something like that. Still, she wasn't even sure if blowing up the entrance would work. Maybe it was magically protected to only be opened by speaking to it in parseltongue. She certainly hoped so.

Her friends and she were waiting outside the D.A.D.A. classroom with the Ravenclaw second-years. The Defence-classes following her nightly outing with Harry were normal enough for this Lockhart, but, it didn't change that – since she saw Lockhart looking for what could only be the Chamber of Secrets – she felt nervous and apprehensive whenever she had D.A.D.A.

Rose did her best to keep her cool in front of everyone else, but her stomach had been tied to knots for days now. She wished everything had just kept on going the way it had until now. No stressful adventures, just children learning magic. Those were the days.

The door opened and the knots in her stomach tightened.

"Come in, come in, dear students!" Lockhart called for them. "Today's class will be special!"

Oh no.

She followed the rest of the students inside, feeling incredibly tense at Lockhart's announcement. Because of her short stature, she couldn't really see the classroom yet, but the sudden shrieks of several of the girls in front of her were as good an indication as she could get about what was waiting for them.

When she finally did see what it was that scared some of the girls so much, she felt her stomach plummet.

On their desks were glass cages, which held snakes.

Her movements suddenly felt stiff. Very slowly did she make her way to her desk, next to Megan, who pushed her own chair as far away from her desk as possible, crashing into Wayne and Lily behind them. She watched the snake on her desk, its forked tongue flicking out every so often, trying to catch the scent of potential prey. It was a very darkly-coloured snake with yellowish highlights just behind its head.

Rose hoped that she didn't have the ability anymore. She was actually sure that she couldn't speak parseltongue anymore, but a sudden surge of doubt because of her current circumstances was unavoidable.

What if she could speak parseltongue? What would Lockhart do? Maybe Imperius her to open the chamber?

She suddenly felt as if she was about to faint at any moment.

Harry.

None of her friends had indicated that crazy D.A.D.A. classes with actual snakes on students' desks had already happened, so it was safe to assume that Gryffindor and Slytherin had not had to experience this yet. That meant that Harry's parseltongue-secret was still safe.

She didn't know what to do. Should she warn him? But if she did, how would she explain it? What would she say? Should she just let it ride out and only intervene wherever necessary, like when rumours would inevitably get out of hand?

And what about Lockhart? How at risk would Harry be if Lockhart found out about him being a parselmouth?

"Now, now, children," Lockhart said, "those are just simple snakes. Nothing special – aside from the fact that these simple creatures have a language. One, which maybe someone here in this class can speak." He grinned at them, but Rose had a feeling that no one returned it. "I thought it would be a fun experiment. Let's try it out!"

And try out they did.

It was obvious to Rose how reluctant many were – herself included – but the general mindset appeared to be to just get it over with.

So, the class filled with the murmur of students trying to talk to snakes. To her ears, it all sounded very much English, but in the other reality, when she used to be Harry and spoke parseltongue, it had also sounded English.

She looked at the snake awkwardly. "Hi. I'm Rose." Her eyes flickered left and right, almost expecting to have every single pair of eyes fixated on her, but there was nothing. No one stared at her, no pointing fingers, no hushed whispers.

Rose allowed herself a quick breather of relief.

It looked like it was still Harry Potter who got burdened with the ability to talk with serpents.

Good thing she wasn't him anymore.

The moment she stepped into the Great Hall, she knew something was off.

She knew Harry had had his D.A.D.A. class today and she knew – well, she didn't know but she was ninety-nine per cent certain – that Harry was still a parselmouth in this reality, so she had a feeling about what was going on.

While on her way to the Hufflepuff table with her friends, she took in as much of her surroundings as possible. It quickly became apparent that most, if not all students were trying to inconspicuously look at the Gryffindor table. It also became quickly apparent that even she did receive some of the stares. Fingers were being pointed, conversations were held in hushed tones.

To her, there was only one logical conclusion, given the recent events: Harry being a parselmouth had become public knowledge.

Just what I bloody needed.

Her group of friends and she took their seats at the Hufflepuff table, most of the group looking genuinely curious about what was going on.

"Potter, have you heard?" some upperclassman of her house, one she didn't recognize, asked from a few chairs down her row.

"Heard what?" Rose asked, though her stomach already felt like lead.

"Your brother's supposedly a parselmouth!" he said and gave her a look that oozed pity. She hated it and already started to feel that boiling anger and frustration in her gut. It became even worse because of her friends' shocked gasps and Megan's supporting hand on her shoulder. But she tried to be calm and rational. They didn't know any better and Megan's hand was supposed to be supportive. Lashing out now would be counterproductive.

Rose tried to look genuinely curious. "Really? I guess he did that in D.A.D.A.? Do you know what the snakes said?"

"I'd have expected you to be more shocked, considering the implications," Ernie said, giving her an odd look.

"What implications?" Rose asked, trying to sound baffled at his words. "That he can talk to animals? I think it's cool!" she said, then got up without another word and, more stiffly than she wanted, walked over to the Gryffindor table.

On her way there, she felt every look as if they were physically touching her. The whole hall knew where she was going and, more importantly, why she was going there. Granted, they had seen her head to the Gryffindor table more than a few times. And yet, this time was so very different. This time, she didn't go to see her brother, Harry Potter. This time, everybody present in the hall knew that she was going to see her brother, Harry Potter – the parselmouth.

Once she saw Harry, her heart went out to him. From one moment to the next, a fairly well-liked, shy and nice Gryffindor had been reduced to a single oddity, an obscure ability which had been assumed dead by most. She was glad that almost no one knew that Voldemort had this ability as well. That would have been really bad.

"Hey," she said and sat next to Harry after Ginny offered her chair. The youngest Weasley looked really concerned. Rose briefly wondered how Ginny's relationship with Harry had progressed, how it had changed. Things were different here after all.

"'lo," her brother offered in return, and boy, did he sound sad. It was heartbreaking just how broken from all of this sudden scrutiny he looked. She didn't even want to mention his scowl and how he stared at his lap. It was also very likely that he was clenching his teeth and that a million things were going through his head right now.

She'd been there. She'd done that. Quite literally, in fact.

"I've heard you can talk to animals," she said, trying to sound lighthearted.

"Snakes." He let out a shaky breath. "Like Slytherin did."

"Boy, you make that sound like a death sentence." Rose cocked her head a bit to the side. "What did you talk about?" she asked. "With the snake, I mean."

Harry looked confused. "What?"

Rose, again, could feel way too many eyes on her. From Harry's year-mates like Lavender, Dean and Seamus, to his friends Ron, Hermione, Neville and Ginny, to upperclassmen- and women and Gryffindor's firsties, she could feel way too many eyes on her – and all because she didn't tell Harry that it was evil to be able to speak to snakes. All because she didn't condemn a language just because it was so incredibly rare and the last publicly known speaker of said language had a bad reputation.

She smiled at Harry. "What did the snake say? I'm really curious."

"She said she doesn't like how humans smell," Harry said slowly, still giving her that odd look as if he wasn't quite sure what to make of her question.

"That's actually interesting," Rose said and didn't even need to lie. "I wish I could speak to animals. I'm kind of jealous right now."

Now it was Ron who spoke up. "Ummm...you know parselmouth is considered-"

"Oh please!" Rose exploded, glaring at Ron. "Harry had a chat with a snake! A chat! He didn't torture or kill anybody. Just because Slytherin spoke it and...I don't even know what the problem is!" She really didn't. "Don't listen to others, Harry," she said, her attention back to her twin. "I think it's wicked." She leaned over and gave him a tight hug.

He returned it without hesitation and held onto her for dear life, making her own eyes water a bit. She wondered if this, what she and Harry had at this very moment, was something she had needed in her other reality. Just this one person to lean onto, this one person to rely on, no matter what – she wondered how different things would have been for her in the other reality. Would it have been the same as it was here, for this Harry? She couldn't tell. She wasn't even sure if Death itself could tell. Life was fickle and the smallest changes could have huge consequences.

Her existence here, as Rose, was not a small change though. She knew how big of an impact her existence had on her twin. She was glad she was here. If she wasn't, she knew Harry would have had to go through the same shite she had gone.

"Thanks, Rosie," Harry said before releasing her. "It really means a lot…"

Rose snorted at that. "What did you think? That I would just point at you and call you the reincarnation of Salazar Slytherin? You should know me better than that."

Harry grinned. "Yeah, you are kind of the best."

"Thank you, Rose, for speaking some sense," Hermione threw in, waving at her from next to Ron, who was sitting between Hermione and Harry.

Rose smiled at Hermione. "You are very welcome. I should head back to my table, now." She got up from her chair and looked again at Harry. "No sulking, okay?"

Harry returned her smile. "Okay."

"Good."

Rose was disappointed that she needed to have a similar chat with her own friends, but then again, she should have expected it. It had been the same when she had been Harry in the other reality after all. All she had done was to try and make the snake stop attacking Justin, and her reward had been the scrutiny of literally everybody. And still, it was disappointing to have to sit everyone down late in the evening in their common room just to explain obvious things.

"– but Slytherin –"

"No, Ernie!" Rose interrupted him. "I just won't accept this excuse! It's a bollocks excuse to just say that a language is evil!"

"Maybe it is so, but it still is weird, you know? If what Professor Lockhart said is true and parseltongue has only ever been in Slytherin's bloodline, wouldn't that make you a descendant of him as well? That's significant, you know!"

Rose wanted to groan in frustration. She knew, of course, that Harry couldn't speak parseltongue because they were related to Salazar Slytherin in some way, but because Voldemort had left something of himself in Harry when he tried to kill him.

She had to suppress a shiver. Just the thought of someone trying to kill Harry gave her goosebumps.

But, yes, she remembered Dumbledore saying something to that extent in the other reality. Unfortunately, she couldn't explain this to Ernie. He was a nice bloke and all, but she really wanted to punch him right now for not letting this go.

"Well, I don't care!" Megan suddenly exclaimed and got up from her seat only to plop down right next to her. "You can be the descendant of You-Know-Who himself, you'd still be my bestie!" With that, the brunette pulled her into a hug and Rose wasn't sure what to say. Not even Ron had been this loyal in the other reality. She didn't want to compare, but she couldn't help herself. It even made her teary-eyed.

"Thanks, Megan…"

"Don't get me wrong, please," Ernie said, holding his hands up. "I don't want to insinuate anything and you've shown yourself and I am proud to be able to call you my friend. I honestly don't care about your heritage. Just...the possibility alone is…" He just shrugged helplessly. "Not to mention the reputation of parseltongue."

"It's just a language," Rose said, groaning in frustration. "Please don't make a big deal out of it! Harry is such a nice, sweet guy and of no risk to anybody. Just because he chatted with a snake doesn't mean he's gonna throw evil curses around. Please."

"You've got my word, Rose," Megan said, still with an arm over her shoulders. "I've got your back. And your brother's."

"Thanks, Meg," Rose said, glad that she had befriended her.

Megan's vow was moments later followed by Susan and the rest. She shouldn't have needed to do this, but people were fickle, making big deals out of trivial things. At least Megan had proved herself to be reliable, which had led to the others quickly forgoing any doubts and ridiculous notions.

Rose hoped that it would stay that way.

And despite the headache this whole situation had given her, Rose knew that it was just a very, very small issue in the bigger picture. Lockhart knew that Harry spoke parseltongue. Lockhart was looking for the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets. Once he'd find it, he now knew whom he needed to get inside.

This term was going downhill real fast.