Harry idly played with bristles of his Nimbus 2001 as he listened to Preece attempt to rally the team in the dressing room. It was time for the second Quidditch match of the year, Hufflepuff against Ravenclaw. He knew he should probably be nervous, but somehow it just wasn't happening, the only feeling in his mind was restrained excitement.
He loved flying and he loved being in the air, up there no one and nothing could touch him, he was in complete control of his every action, a feeling he was starting to enjoy more and more, on the ground as well as in the air.
He chuckled softly as he heard Lee Jordan's exuberant shouts; the boy drove McGonagall around the bend but was very entertaining to listen to.
"Hufflepufffff!"
Standing up he made his way out with the team, his magic thrumming in his fingers. The shouts of the crowd washed over him as they mounted their brooms and did a lap in formation, greeting the spectators.
"Lead by captain Malcolm Preece we have, O'Flaherty, McManus, Rickett, Fleet, Diggory and Potterrrrr!"
Jordan's booming voice drew huge cheers from the Hufflepuff section. Their loyalty to their own house was exemplary and the entire house always showed up for the Quidditch games.
The game came as a welcome stress relief for the entire school; things had been rather tense ever since Colin Creevey was petrified. Dumbledore had tried to convince people things were under control but few had believed him. Mistress Andromeda had taken leave after the petrification of Creevey, saying she had a hunch what was causing the issues but needed to confirm it.
"Let's keep the game clean gents and ladies."
His thoughts were interrupted as Madam Hooch released the Bludgers and the Snitch before throwing the Quaffle into the air, signifying the start of the game. He shot off like a rocket, his magic feeding the broom for maximum performance as he reached the Quaffle first. He didn't even slow down as he grabbed it, weaving past the Ravenclaw chaser team and doing a quick feint right before scoring a fast goal, catching the keeper flatfooted with his acceleration.
"Would you look at that, the Ravenclaw beaters didn't even get to the balls before Potter scored!"
A second of silence hit before a massive cheer erupted from the Hufflepuff section.
The game was on. Harry was in a trance as he weaved through both players and bludgers, his blood sang in his veins as he jerked the broom up and intercepted a pass made by their chasers. The beaters were instantly targeting him but he spiralled past the bludgers not even paying attention to which side was up or down.
It was in his blood, the freedom of the air, the power of the broom and his own will to guide it. The keeper tried to anticipate his direction but his sudden changes of movement was already giving him grey hairs. A bludger rocketed towards him but compared to the spells of Madam Bones they might as well be moving underwater. He dodged under the bludger and threw the Quaffle at the same second, distracting the keeper just long enough for it to slip in past his fingers.
"Are you looking at this Wood? You better have a plan ready."
Harry glanced at the Gryffindor captain and saw him writing down line after line on a piece of parchment while practically foaming at the mouth. He almost felt sorry for their team, guessing Wood was going to drill them into the ground.
Sensing someone heading for him he quickly ducked, barely dodging Jeremy Stretton, a burly sixth year Ravenclaw that clearly attempted to foul him. The man spat at him as he missed before he clearly and deliberately clipped O'Flaherty over the head with his boot. The Irish girl barely managed to keep a hold of her broom as she stabilized her flight, wobbling all over the pitch.
"FOUL! Blatching by Ravenclaw; penalty for Hufflepuff."
Loud boos rolled over the pitch and Harry saw Roger Davies, another Ravenclaw chaser berate Stretton. He felt his magic raging as he watched the cowardly bastard, he missed him so he went for a girl instead, something that was guaranteed to get you on Harry's bad side.
Normally he wouldn't have been as bothered but Maxine had helped him a lot with chasing, helping him build techniques and strength. Had her grip slipped on the broom she could have been terribly injured. His blood practically thrummed for revenge as he watched him grin at Hooch. A noble Gryffindor might have turned the other cheek but that was not Harry, he was going to crush the bastard.
There's a reason he was placed into Hufflepuff instead of the other three houses. His ambition for power and parseltongue ability could have easily pushed him into Slytherin, his love for learning new spells might have pushed him into Ravenclaw and his sheer bravery might have pushed him into Gryffindor. But his strongest trait and perhaps his most terrifying one, was his loyalty, once given it could not be broken. Maxine O'Flaherty had earned his friendship by helping him out of kindness and that little shit had fucked with her, leaving little doubt in his mind that he was going to retaliate.
He barely paid attention as he took the penalty, with no one interfering he easily faked out the keeper and scored another ten points for Hufflepuff, much to the crowds' pleasure. When the game continued, he carefully waited until Stretton had the Quaffle and felt a cold grin settle on his face as he saw him catch the ball.
He sped up straight towards the bigger sixth year, making no attempts at changing his course. Stretton saw him coming and just smirked in return, expecting to smash him out of his way. Harry felt his magic pulsing under his skin as he sped up further, his magic coiling around his body, strengthening his smaller frame while his velocity kept increasing. The very second before impact he angled his knee with Stretton's chest and his elbow with his face.
While a normal person would have been knocked out of the way of the bigger object; that was not what happened here. Harry's elbow smashed past his guard crushing his nose while his knee drove deep into his ribs, cracking two of them as he was thrown off his broom. He barely had a second to realize what was happening before he smashed into the far side wall and crumpled into a pile on the pitch. His leg gave an audible snap as he fell on it, the sound easily traveling across the pitch.
Hooch's whistle blew and Harry gave an innocent shrug towards her, pointing towards the Quaffle.
"FOUL! Blatching by Hufflepuff, penalty for Ravenclaw."
She might have wanted to give a harsher penalty but by waiting for him to have possession of the Quaffle it was seen as a legitimate attempt to steal it, even if it was far too violent.
"Ooh, would you look at that, Potter was clearly not happy with the little stunt Stretton pulled."
Some of the spectators looked rather stunned at the violence as Stretton was being carted away by an irate Madam Pomfrey, but others remembered that this was not the first time something similar had happened. More than one person had seen the bathroom and the remains of the troll that had attempted to injure Granger and his run in with Malfoy had fed school rumors for months.
The lesson was becoming rather clear, attacks against his friends lead to brutal retaliation.
"Do not worry Madam Pomfrey, I, Gilderoy Lockhart shall fix this little bruise in a heartbeat."
All eyes turned to Lockhart as he did a bunch of loops with his wand before mumbling something unintelligible and pointing his wand towards Stretton's leg. Much to Harry's amusement the entire leg went slack and Pomfrey started loudly berating his idiocy for attempting medical spells without knowledge or talent to perform them.
Harry grinned at verbal assault the man was receiving; he had quickly stopped asking Harry to demonstrate chapters of his books in his class after Harry asked some rather uncomfortable questions about how the man could be in two places at once. When he wondered if Madam Bones might know the answer the man had stopped asking him anything at all. Dirty incompetent fraud.
Preece signalled Diggory to fly to him,
"Catch the fucking snitch fast, no point attempting to milk more points out of this game as I think it's going to get dirty."
Diggory just nodded and started actively scouring the pitch for the snitch again. The Ravenclaw bludgers were almost exclusively being aimed at Harry now and he was given free rein to hunt for the elusive golden ball. Luckily only few minutes later he caught the snitch, ending the game with a decisive 410 to 110 score. Hufflepuff cheered wildly as they flew a quick victory lap before heading to the dressing rooms. Before they split up Maxine flew over to Harry and gave him a kiss on the cheek, her freckled face flushed from the exercise.
"Thank you."
Harry just shrugged,
"Just tried to get the Quaffle."
"Sure, you did, thank you either way."
He smiled at her and went to wash up; missing the multitude of venomous glares being directed at Maxine from the Hufflepuff section. She noticed them and just grinned in return; she could almost taste the jealousy in the air.
XXX
It was a groggy Harry Potter that walked down to breakfast the next day, the party the evening before had been great but he should probably avoid going all out on the firewhiskey someone had smuggled there in the future. Still, it had been fun, even if Maxine spent the entire evening flirting with him whenever he was close to Susan and Hannah, making both of them fairly pissed off.
After that they were pretty much glued to his side all night, not that he minded to be honest. The awkwardness of what had happened under his invisibility cloak seemed to be simply ignored by them both, though he did spot Susan staring at his crotch every now and then, flushing every time he caught her.
Maxine's smirk when she did flirt let him know she was doing it on purpose and he could definitively appreciate a good prank. He munched on his breakfast in peace before spotting Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis leaving the Slytherin table. Quickly standing up he muttered a quick "be right back" before walking over to them.
Daphne saw Potter coming, marching determinedly towards them and raised her eyebrows in question while she grabbed Tracey and nodded towards the boy. Potter nodded his head towards the door and they walked out of the great hall, turning towards him in question.
Standing this close to him she had to admit he was pretty intimidating, he was among the tallest boys in their year but it wasn't really about height, it was more about a presence he projected. To her surprise he reached out a hand,
"Hey, Harry Potter, nice to meet you."
Her pureblood habit kicked in, overriding her surprise as she offered a hand, pleasantly surprised when he kissed it.
"Daphne Greengrass, pleasure to meet you too."
Tracey repeated her greeting and they both stood waiting for what the boy might want. Daphne tried to avoid shaking her hand, she could feel his magic lingering in it and it felt quite pleasant to be honest. Pleasantly powerful as well.
"I would like to broaden my horizons and get to know some of the people from other Houses. Would the two of you be interested in joining our study group sometimes, we usually meet in the Library after dinner?"
Well, this was not what she was expecting. She carefully thought it over; fraternizing with a Hufflepuff could lead to some issues in her house. On the other hand, few would dare to actually do anything about it and it was after all Potter she was associating with. The boy was practically a mystery to everyone in the school, performing whatever spell they were assigned on his first try and with perfection every single time.
He was also incredibly private, always polite but rarely telling anyone anything about himself. Yet those that had his trust were nigh untouchable these days. She knew Malfoy loved to pretend like he ruled their year but some had noticed he never attempted to bully or harass Potter. Or Granger, Bones or Abbott for that matter.
Their altercation during the first year had obviously scared the shit out of him and the subsequent actions of Potter against both the troll last year and Strettson yesterday had only furthered that image. That's not even considering the rumours regarding their DADA Professor suddenly disappearing at the end of the year with Potter in the hospital wing. The general impression most had gotten seemed to be that touching what Potter considered under his protection was costly, in more ways than one.
Then there was the issue about his heritage and his tutoring from a Black sister. No, there was no question about her answer here; Potter was a key player that would only grow larger during the years. Whatever she risked she also gained if she managed to gain his protection like the other girls had. She was Slytherin for a reason, ambition was in her blood.
She smiled a polite smile, "Sure, sounds good, I'll come take a look."
Tracey seemed to have reached the same conclusion and was only waiting for her response before also accepting the invitation.
Potter gave a smile that she had to admit was rather attractive, all that power and mystery packed into a Hufflepuff of all things.
"Nice, I'll see you guys around then."
He gave a little wave before walking back into the great hall, presumably to finish his breakfast. It was Tracey that spoke first.
"Well, that was interesting."
"Indeed, do you think he merely wants to broaden his horizons?"
"No, he has an agenda. However, that agenda might profit us."
"Yes, he will be powerful."
Tracey only nodded in return, staring at the hand he had kissed. Daphne knew what she was doing, she could still feel his lingering magic around her own hand as well; it was hard to explain but felt like a warm comforting liquid, packed with static electricity, she could practically feel the power buzzing around her digits.
"He did that on purpose."
Daphne nodded, giving a little smirk.
"He knows how to attract a Slytherin. Power."
Harry was in a good mood for the rest of the day, that is until his reading was interrupted by a Patronus message.
"We need to talk."
Harry instantly recognized Mistress Andromeda's voice and packed his things, she had been gone for almost a month and to be honest he missed her quite a bit. She was by far the most important figure in his life, the one that had turned the boy from Surrey into what he was today. He gave the familiar password as he reached her door, slipping into her pleasantly warm room.
He spotted her sitting on the couch, clad in a comfortable silky black robe while sipping on a glass of white wine.
"Hey Harry, have a seat."
"Hello Mistress, glad you're back."
She smiled as she gave him a small hug in greeting before her face became serious again.
"My research was twofold but I think I was quite successful in my endeavours. First of all, the beast that roams the castle is most likely a basilisk. The strong petrification combined with a complete lack of bite marks easily narrows that list down. The lack of skin or lip damage also indicates it's not a spitting type of snake which only leaves the basilisk gaze as the culprit."
She took a sip of wine before continuing,
"Now the bad news is that the only indications of a basilisk roaming Hogwarts date back to the time of the founders. If it's truly Slytherin's basilisk then we are dealing with a monster that is likely to able to swallow a man whole, having had centuries, no, perhaps even a millennium of time to grow."
"Shit."
She gave him a look at his swearing that made him twitch but continued regardless,
"The good news however, has to do with your gift. Whereas snakes hiss by forcing air through a small opening to the trachea at the back of the mouth, humans obviously lack the physiology to replicate this ability. To compensate a parselmouth uses magic to modify their breath and vibrate the tongue to form individual words in parseltongue. In other words, by speaking parseltongue you channel magic through your mouth, something I know you have been struggling with."
Harry had wide eyes at this, channeling magic through his hands was almost subconscious at this point, but attempting to force it through his mouth had always ended in failure.
"Now, I want you to imagine a snake in your mind and talking to it, but make sure you identify the way the magic flows through your mouth. A snake charmer from India told me that with sufficient practice you will be able to modify your own voice, even when talking other languages. Things like volume, calming effects, coercion, perhaps even whispering across the room to specific people. Magic is your limit as you are in essence channeling magic through your voice."
"Umm, does that mean that Voldemort can also do all this?"
"Perhaps. People said that his voice alone could strike fear into the hearts of witches and wizards, whether that was because of his obvious power and presence, or if it was aided by his parseltongue is unknown. You would do well to assume that he knows how to do it though, the Dark Lord is not a wizard to be underestimated at any point. You may publicly ridicule him but do not for a second forget that if it wasn't for the ingenuity and sacrifice of your mother protecting you, he would rule Britain today."
She folded her long legs under her on the sofa before giving a small smile,
"Now enough of that, I want you to practice. Power and abilities are useless unless you have control over them, you have a new ability, ergo you must learn to control it to perfection."
Harry nodded before closing his eyes, trying to imagine the snake he spoke to earlier in his mind.
"Like thisss?"
"You are speaking parseltongue now Harry, focus on the feeling."
Harry mumbled nonsensical sentences while focusing on the way his magic felt. He could feel the warmth in his chest as he spoke, spreading softly through his throat and ending in his tongue. He tried to hold on to the feeling when he stopped speaking and realized it came almost naturally now that he recognized it. He didn't have the slightest idea how to modify it though. Keeping the magic steady, he opened his eyes and tried to speak to Mistress Andromeda.
"Can you hear me?"
"Still parseltongue Harry, focus on the words in your mind while keeping the magic steady."
"Like thisss?"
He recognized the English words he spoke but it sounded like he had a small lisp, dragging the words. The way his tongue vibrated as he spoke simply felt strange.
"Like this?"
The feeling felt foreign, like he was fighting something but the smile that lit up Mistress Andromeda's face was well worth it.
"Excellent Harry, no matter how you got the gift it is clear it's a part of you. Your easy grasp of it speaks volumes. This also brings more credence to the stories referring to Salazar Slytherin as a 'forked tongue' or 'silver tongue'. No doubt a man with full mastery over this ability would make a terrifyingly charismatic orator."
A large grin spread across her face as she put down her glass of wine and pushed Harry down on his back on the wide sofa.
"My research also led me to other stories about the fabled parseltongue, including a member of the Wizengamot that overheard his wife discussing the incredible oral talents of a parselmouth."
She crawled over him, lifting her dark robes to expose the fact that she was going commando, obviously preparing for this moment.
Having to go a whole month without any release had been surprisingly frustrating for her, having regular orgasms had never played a part in her life before, mostly because of her unfulfilling marriage, but now that she was used to it she was loath to give it up.
She placed her knees on both sides of his head, framing his face with her pale firm thighs.
"Apparently this Wizengamot member spoke to his colleagues regarding what he had heard and together they unanimously agreed that this must in fact be a very dark ability that allows parselmouths to so ensnare women. Never mind their own neglect of their wives."
She let out a small sigh of appreciation as she lowered her hairless mound to his mouth, feeling soft kisses and licks start to caress her lips.
"They could not find enough proof to make it illegal but they did manage to spread the rumor about the 'darkness of the art'."
A small giggle escaped her lips, "Always remember that Harry, jealousy can drive men, and women for that matter, to do the most petty and cruel things."
Harry nodded slowly before using the flat of his tongue to take a big lick over her smooth pussy. He could taste her musk and it was clear she was excited to finally experience his mouth again.
Laying small kisses and licks around her puffy lips he could smell her arousal increasing as her slit got wetter. Moving forward he slipped his tongue between her lips, her taste flooding his mouth as he gently probed her tight channel.
He didn't really mind his Mistress taste; the pleasure he knew he gave her more than made up for the small inconvenience. He sucked one of her lips into his mouth, gently suckling the juices from her skin and making her moan in delight.
"Oh Merlin, one month without this has been far too long. Keep going Harry!"
He chuckled against her drenched pussy, sending pleasant vibrations through her hips. Deciding to try his new ability he placed his tongue against her prominent clit and gathered his magic into his throat.
He hissed out a mental 'Mistress' and could feel his magic flooding his mouth, making his tongue vibrate to simulate the foreign language. Mistress Andromeda jumped in shock at the feeling, letting out a surprised gasp of pleasure.
She quickly lowered herself back to his mouth and Harry tried pushing more magic through his tongue like he was used to doing with his hands.
His tongue spasmed over her sensitive bundle of nerves and he could feel more magic leaking through, inflaming her senses as she desperately grabbed his hair to stay put.
"Oh Merlin, oh Merlin, this makes all the research worth it, don't stop Harry!"
He had no intention of doing that, enjoying the way her pale thighs quivered around his face as her hips ground him into the sofa.
He sucked her clit into his mouth as he let more of magic loose while pressing his tongue against it, making her gasp out loud before wildly twitching against his face, moaning and gasping as her orgasm hit like never before.
His magic felt like gentle electricity, teasing every nerve and inflaming her senses. Her juices flooded him as he kept the suction up; prolonging her orgasm while sucking down her taste.
"Ohhhhhhhhh sweet Merlin's ball sack!"
She finally slumped against his face making him release her nub with an audible pop and pull back his magic. She seemed to be riding a euphoric high, giggling and twitching as he gently licked her folds clean, her legs too jelly-like to remove herself from his face.
Taking deep breaths, she could finally move again and practically fell off him before lying down on the sofa.
"Haha…ha...wow…So worth it. You might dislike your gift Harry but rest assured, any woman who experiences it will feel quite the opposite; that was exceptional."
Harry was surprised when she nodded off, falling asleep with a small grin on her face. He guessed the month of traveling combined with her sudden release made her relax enough to simply pass out.
He couldn't help mirroring her grin as he picked her up and carried her to her bed, whatever issues he might have had with his ability had melted away like snow in the spring sun when he understood the benefits.