Chapter Twenty-Six: The Parselmouth

Once they got into the Great Hall they noticed that Gilderoy Lockheart was on top of a stage facing the groups of students. "Attention everybody can you all see me and can you all hear me?" He questioned them.

"What's this bloke up to?" Ron whispered but Harry just simply shrugged.

"Professor Snape and I have decided to set up this little dueling club, just in case you ever have to defend yourselves." Lockheart explained. "So, Professor Snape has volunteered to help me demonstrate." He told them.

"What are the sleeping together or something?" Draco wondered.

"No! He's married to my mother you idiot!" Harry snapped in a whisper.

"Oh, yeah, right, I forgot." He whispered back as they watched Snape climb onto the stage in front of Lockheart.

"Now don't you youngsters worry, you'll still have your potions master once I'm done with him." Lockheart said before he turned to look over at Harry. "And you'll still have your father Harry." He added.

"Yeah, because my dad's going to kick your butt." Harry thought to himself as he glared at Lockheart, but before he could utter a word Snape pointed his wand at him and twirled it.

"Expelliarmus!" He exclaimed and Lockheart's wand shot out of his hand and then he went flying backwards and onto the ground.

"Do you think he's alright?" Hermione wondered as Draco silently looked at her a bit hurt and Harry and Ron just simply grinned.

"Who cares!?" Harry and Ron chorused together while Lockheart struggled to his feet.

"An excellent move Professor Snape, but it's clearly obvious that I would have been able to stop you if I had had a chance." He told him.

"Perhaps it would be prudent if we first teach the students how to block unfriendly spells." He suggested.

"An excellent idea Professor Snape!" Lockheart exclaimed. "Let's have a volunteer pair. How about your son and Weasley?" He suggested.

"No. Weasley's wand is damaged and Harry will be sent to the hospital wing within an instant. May I suggest somebody from my own house? Malfoy perhaps?" He suggested as he pointed his thumb back at him and Harry and Draco just silently looked at each other and then back at Hermione who silently nodded at them to go ahead and then they went to go take their places. Hermione didn't want to see her two friends dueling each other, but in her mind it was a lot better than Harry being matched up against Ron and she figured that he was at least safer this way.

"Now to begin we're going to start off with a simple disarming spell as we don't want any accidents here." Lockheart began. "Wands at the ready!" He exclaimed as Harry and Draco withdrew their wands at exactly the same time.

"Good luck Snape." Lockheart whispered.

"Thank you." Harry said with a nod as he turned his head to glance back at him before looking back at Draco.

"Scared Harry?" Draco questioned him with a grin and Harry was rather surprised and taken aback at the fact that he had called him by his first name.

"You wish." Harry growled before Lockheart counted them down and then they began shooting spells at each other that went past the simple disarming spell.

"I said disarm only!" Lockheart reminded them when suddenly Draco got to his feet and raised his wand.

"Serpensortia!" He cried out and Harry watched as a live snake shot out of the tip of his wand. Draco looked pleased with himself until he saw that the snake was slithering right towards Hermione and his heart started to sink and he got a rather sickish feeling inside the pit of his stomach. That's when Harry suddenly remembered that he had freed a boa constrictor from the zoo last year and the snake had understood him when he had started speaking to him, so Harry started to talk in efforts of keeping the snake away from his best friend while thinking and feeling the words inside his heart and mind.

"Stop it, leave her alone!" He snapped and Ron's and Draco's eyes widened as the snake suddenly turned his head back to look at him and hissed rather loudly. "Leave her alone!" He cried again and a look of sheer and utter horror fell onto the face of his father and he pointed his wand at the serpent and moved it slightly.

"Finite incantatem." He said before the reptile burst into flames and then everybody stared at Harry.

"What are you playing at?" A boy by the name of Justin Finch-Fletchley questioned him and Harry was feeling more and more confused by the moment as he turned to look around at everyone before Ron and Hermione met him out in the hallway.

"You're a parselmouth!? Why didn't you tell us!?" Ron cried.

"I'm a what?" Harry questioned him with uncertainty.

"You can talk to snakes." Hermione explained.

"Oh yeah, I know I can but so what? I bet loads of people in the wizarding world can do it. I know somebody who can talk to all different kinds of animals." He told her.

"I don't think that she can like this, this is bad Harry. It's really bad. It's not a very common gift." She told him.

"What's so bad about it when I'm the one who stopped that snake from attacking you!?" Harry cried.

"Oh so that's what you said to it!" Ron exclaimed.

"You were there! You heard me!" Harry cried.

"I heard you speaking parseltongue which is snake language." Ron told him when suddenly Harry was even more confused that he ever had been before.

"I spoke a different language? How can I speak another language without knowing I can?" He wondered.

"I don't know Harry but there's a reason that the symbol of Slytherin is a snake as Salazar Slytherin was a parselmouth and he could talk to snakes too." Hermione explained.

"Exactly! Now the whole entire school is going to go around thinking that you're his great, great, great, great grandson or something." Ron told him.

"But I'm not! I mean I can't be can I?" He questioned.

"He lived over a thousand years ago, for all we know, you could be." Hermione told him.