A cat and a student have been Petrified. Then this happens.

RON III

"How long do you think we have until the Polyjuice is ready?" Ron asked.

"It's a very complicated potion, Ronald," Hermione explained to him. "I think it should be ready by mid-January."

They were walking through the courtyards, coming back from a visit to Hagrid. Harry was with them, in the middle like always. "Speak lower. There are people around. They might hear us," Harry warned them.

"Come on, Harry!" Ron complained.

"He's right, Ron." Of course, Hermione had to take his side. "What we're doing is illegal. It could get us expelled, or worse."

"There's something worse than to be expelled?"

He was referencing the time last year when Hermione told them being expelled was worse than being killed. Harry laughed a little at it, and although Hermione looked somewhat embarrassed, she had a small smile creeping at the corner of her mouth.

Ever since their adventure in the dungeons, Ron's relationship with Hermione had considerably gotten better. In fact, he spent almost as much time with her as with Harry now, and most of the time the three were together. There were still times that Ron wouldn't be with them, for example when they went to the library. Ron felt like he was too much in the group when two bookworms were studying and researching together. Well, Harry wasn't really a bookworm like Hermione, but he wasn't far from that. Ron almost made it his mission to prevent this from happening.

The truth was, Hermione annoyed Ron in the beginning, ever since they met on the Hogwarts Express, and it didn't get better after they arrived at Hogwarts. After she and Harry fought a troll together at Halloween, it was even worse. The truth was that Ron felt his best friend was in some way taken away from him afterwards. Harry spent his time with both he and Hermione, but separately most of the time. Ron didn't like Hermione. In some way, he envied her for the adventure they had with the troll. He wished he had been there. Also, he felt she was becoming Harry's best friend, especially after his first Quidditch match when she saved his life by putting fire to Snape's cloak. The Christmas Ron spent in Harry's home reassured him that Harry didn't relegate him to the role of a third wheel, as Fred and George sometimes told him when they fueled the rumors about Hermione being Harry's girlfriend.

The idea disgusted Ron, truth be told. Even today, the mere thought of it revulsed him. The rumors in question had calmed down since their second year began, but they resurfaced from time to time, and Ron was fed up to hear them. It was only when Harry decided to go under the trapdoor on the third floor that Ron went to see Hermione and actually talked to her. They needed to help Harry. They couldn't stop him from going down there, but they could follow him and help him. They would have better chances to survive together. And Ron admitted that it was exciting to stop Quirrell from stealing the Philosopher's Stone. After that, after Hermione carried him back to the castle and while Harry was recovering in the infirmary, Ron and Hermione spent a lot of time together, alone, and that was when they became friends.

Ron was still sometimes annoyed by the bossy and far too serious nature of Hermione, but it also had its advantages. For example, he had a friend who could help him much more with his homework, when she was willing to help. Harry was already a good help, but Hermione was far better. That girl had very bright sides, in the end. He still felt guilty for saying that no one would want her as a friend last year. He was wrong.

"I'm still not sure about all this," Harry said.

"Don't bring that up again. We agreed. And once we prove that Malfoy is the heir of Slytherin..." Ron began.

"We don't know for sure," Hermione said. "And we must hope that he will tell Crabbe and Goyle when you'll have their appearances."

"Let's not talk about that here," Harry repeated.

"Did you and Hermione switch places or what?" Ron asked. He stopped Harry, and Hermione stopped as well. Ron looked straight into his eyes. "That's our one chance to prove that Malfoy is the heir of Slytherin. Filch believes you Petrified his cat, and Colin. And don't forget your mother's letter. She clearly told you to stay away from Malfoy. If that doesn't mean something..."

He didn't have to finish the sentence. He knew that Harry knew he was right. Harry had shown them a letter his mother sent him not long after the accident with the rogue Bludger. Some of the lines were more indicative than anything else.

Stay away from Draco Malfoy at all costs. Stay close to Hermione too. Keep an eye on her. She may be in danger if the Chamber of Secrets has indeed been opened. And if the house-elf Dobby, the one who warned you against going to Hogwarts this summer, reappears, you tell Dumbledore immediately.

Harry had been very worried when he received that letter. He had told Ron and Hermione about the visit he received during the summer from the elf, and everything he told him. Harry hadn't seen him again after that. Judging by all the accidents that happened so far, including the rogue Bludger, the assaults, this elf seemed to have known something was coming. It was only after he received this letter, where his mother told him to stay far from Malfoy while not saying why, that Harry accepted the idea of the Polyjuice. He had been against it at the beginning, despite all the facts pointing at Malfoy as being the heir to Slytherin and the one responsible for the attacks. Ron didn't understand why Harry was so reluctant. Even Hermione was more favorable to the idea. If Harry had accepted sooner, they might have had the potion ready sooner, during the Christmas holidays. Instead, they would need to wait almost an entire month before it was ready.

"I just want to be careful," Harry said.

"Careful? Says the guy who went through a three-headed dog, a carnivorous plant, poisons and smashing giant chess pieces, just to stop Quirrell from stealing a stone?" Ron asked aloud, making sure it would look ludicrous to Harry.

"It was different, Ron."

"How was that different? You were trying to stop You-Know-Who from coming back. Now we're trying to stop Malfoy before he kills someone."

"We don't even know if it's Malfoy," Harry countered. He sounded irritated. This made Ron exasperated.

"Come on, that's him. I don't understand you. WE have all the good reasons in the world..."

Harry snapped. "I know." He then sighed. "Look, I know we must find out the truth. So let's do what we have to do, and let's not talk about it anymore."

Harry turned his heels and resumed his way to the Entrance Hall. Ron and Hermione had stopped when he snapped and didn't follow him immediately. They looked at each other.

"What's going on with him?" Ron wasn't sure if he recognized his friend anymore.

"He's afraid," Hermione said.

"Afraid? After he faced You-Know-Who last year? He's afraid of Malfoy now?"

"He's not afraid of Malfoy, you idiot." Ron didn't like to be called that way. He would have told Hermione his way of thinking had she not been his friend. "He's afraid for his mother."

"His mother? What does she have to do with all that? I know she is Muggle-born, but she's not at Hogwarts. She's not in danger. And if she was, that would be just another reason to prove that Malfoy..."

"By heavens, Ron, don't you know your best friend better? He's afraid of what might happen to his mother if he gets into trouble again. You remember what happened last year when we went after the Stone? It's not only Harry who got himself almost killed. Mrs Evans was lucky to survive as well."

"Well, they both got out of there alive. I was injured me too, and I'm not scared of..."

"Ron, that's not the same thing. Harry was there when Mrs Evans fought You-Know-Who. Half the ceiling of the dungeons fell over her head. Harry feels that it's his fault that his mother was in danger that day. He's afraid that if we go too far when investigating Malfoy, she might end up in danger again, because of him, once more."

Ron wasn't sure if he understood. "Well, if we are caught, I would be more afraid about what my parents would do to me than what might happen to them." He was especially afraid about how his mother might react.

Hermione sighed. "Ron, you have your parents. Both of them. You also have five brothers, and Ginny. Now, imagine yourself in Harry's place. You're an only son, your father died when you were young, the only family you have is your mother. She raised you since the day you were born, alone, and she is the person to who you are the closest in this world. Imagine this now! Are you surprised that Harry wants to be cautious after that, after she almost died in front of him?"

Ron had not looked at things this way. "Maybe," he conceded.

"Well, don't be surprised he's behaving this way then," Hermione said as they resumed the road to the Entrance Hall. "Taking someone else's appearance might not seem like a lot, it might not seem like it could put Mrs Evans in danger, but who knows what she would be capable of to protect Harry. You weren't conscious when she came down in the dungeons to save him."

"No, I wasn't," Ron recognized. "I just hope that Harry goes along with the plan until the end. We need to prove that Malfoy is behind these attacks. Harry wasn't there that evening. He didn't hear what Malfoy said when we found Mrs Norris. Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

Hermione nodded. "Of course. I just hope that the Polyjuice will give us the information that we need."

"And that Harry doesn't make the mistake of telling his mom about our plans in his next letter."

About that, Hermione obviously agreed with him. They both made a point to Harry to not inform his mother about their plans this time.

They had just walked into the Entrance Hall. A small group of people had gathered around the noticeboard. Harry was there as well. When he saw them approach, he walked towards them. Any trace of his earlier outburst was gone.

"They're starting a Duelling Club tonight. It could be useful, with what's going on," he told them.

Ron and Hermione both agreed with him, and they spent their lunch time talking about it. Ron and Harry both hoped it would be Flitwick who would teach them. Apparently, he was a duelling champion in his youth.

However, when they returned to the Great Hall at eight o'clock, they found out, to Harry's and Ron's disappointment and despair, and to Hermione's joy and excitement, that Gilderoy Lockhart was the one directing the Club. To the despair of all three of them though, and of most of the students too, Snape accompanied him. A single long table had been left in the center as a stage, the others having been removed.

"Gather around, gather around! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!" proclaimed the most stupid professor in the school. "Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little Duelling Club, to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions. For full details, see my published works."

Lockhart then removed the strap maintaining his cloak around his shoulders and threw it to the crowd. Ron saw the three girls with who Harry was playing on the Gryffindor Quidditch team catch it enthusiastically. Why were girls so stupid? He looked at Hermione, who was drinking each of Lockhart's words. Really, those who believed the rumors should look at her. It was obvious that if Hermione had a crush, it wasn't on Harry, but on their idiot professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"Hey, did I miss something?" Justin Finch-Fletchley, a Hufflepuff student of the same year than them, with who they sometimes worked in Herbology, had just come in.

"No," Harry replied. "It just began."

"Cool. You'll tell me everything he said after that?" he asked Harry, obviously excited. Ron remembered how this one looked up to Lockhart. Maybe not only the girls were stupid.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," Lockhart continued. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about duelling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry. You'll still have your Potions Master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?" Ron whispered next to Harry's ear. His best friend nodded. Ron pretended he didn't notice Justin looking suspiciously at him.

Both professors first faced each other, raised their wand, and bowed to each other, then made a few steps in opposite direction. Then they both turned to face each other. Lockhart counted up to three.

"Expelliarmus!"

The red spell left Snape's wand and hit Lockhart right into the stomach. The force of the spell pushed him against the wall, in the air, and he fell to the floor, off the long table on which he was a moment ago.

"Do you think he's alright?" Hermione asked, obviously worried.

"Who cares?" Ron said at the same time as Harry. Hermione looked horrified, and so was Justin.

Sadly, Lockhart did manage to get back onto his feet, and tried to get out of the situation by saying he let Snape defeat him, and that it would have been far too easy to disarm him if he had any intention of doing so. Both professors then went to divide them in teams of two. Sadly, it was Snape who chose their teams. Ron ended with Seamus, but the others were not as lucky. Hermione was placed with Millicent Bulstrode, an intimidating Slytherin student, while Harry ended up with Malfoy. So much for his mother telling him to stay away from Draco.

Ron faced Seamus.

"Ready Ron?" his friend asked.

"Ready," he replied.

"Face your partners, and bow!" Lockhart declared. Seamus did so, finding it obviously funny from the large smile across his face. Ron found it ridicule, truth be told, and felt a little humiliated as he bowed. "Wands at the ready! When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent. Only to disarm them. We don't want any accidents." Ron thought of Harry facing Malfoy and looked over his shoulder at them. Malfoy didn't look like one who would cast a spell only to disarm. Harry looked determined as well. "One... Two... Three..."

Ron couldn't remember the disarming charm that Snape used on Lockhart. Seamus neither seemed to remember it, as Ron saw his lips move to make words he didn't hear. All around the Great Hall, spells and incantations fused from everywhere. Ron threw the first spell that came to his mind.

"Incarcerous!"

But the spell wasn't thrown well. As a result, only Seamus' head was bound in ropes.

"Oh no!" Ron ran to help Seamus as he was trying hard to remove the ropes from his face. Ron couldn't remember the counter-spell, so he tried to help him with his hands, but the ropes were too tight. Seamus must be struggling to breath under those heavy ropes. He seemed to be trying to say something.

Lockhart was shouting everyone to stop, but Ron could barely make out his voice in the chaos surrounding him.

"Finite Incantatem!" It was Snape who put an end to the anarchy. Ropes disappeared from Seamus' face, who breathed as if it was the first time in his life.

"I'm sorry, Seamus. I didn't do it on purpose," Ron assured him, but his roommate seemed too focused on breathing to care about his apologies. Ron looked around the Great Hall to see people lying on the floor, some with blood, everywhere. He spotted Hermione struggling against Millicent Bulstrode who tried to strangle her, and Harry fighting the Slytherin off and getting Hermione free.

"I think I should better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," Lockhart said in the middle of the chaos. "Let's have a volunteer pair. Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you?"

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," Snape interjected. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spell. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the infirmary in a matchbox. How about Malfoy and Potter?"

Really so much for staying away from Malfoy. But Lockhart didn't seem bothered by the arrangement proposed by Snape. He tried to show a defensive spell to Harry, who should block Malfoy's, but Lockhart's wand fell on the floor, and he didn't show what to do to Harry again, despite Harry's questions.

Harry and Malfoy were placed on the stage, facing each other. Ron saw them whispering to each other, certainly not kind words. They raised their wands in presentation, then walked a few steps away from each other, then faced off. Harry certainly had no idea how to block Malfoy's spell. Ron had no idea how he could. He hoped that Harry would cast the first spell.

"One... Two... Three..."

Malfoy raised his wand and threw the spell right away. "Serpensortia!"

A large black snake appeared from the end of Malfoy's wand, and everyone recoiled in terror. Some of the girls, and the boys too, including Ron, screamed. Spiders were the things he was afraid of the most, but snakes could be just as terrifying.

Ron noticed though that Harry had not moved. He was staring right at the snake, his wand still ready. He didn't see what Harry could do against it.

"Don't move, Potter," Snape declared. "I'll get rid of it..."

"Allow me, Professor Snape!" Lockhart intervened. "Alarte Ascendare!"

The snake flew up in the air, very high. Ron followed it with his eyes, like everyone else in the Great Hall. But the animal fell back on the stage, close to Justin. And it turned to him.

That was when something Ron never expected happened. He first heard a hissing sound coming from his right as he looked to the snake. The creature stared at Justin, fangs out. Then the hissing sound continued. Ron looked at its origin. It was Harry.

The next time he looked at the snake, the animal was down on the stage, his fangs inside his mouth, and it looked to Harry. Ron saw his best friend, eyes on the snake, with an expression he never saw on Harry's face.

And then he understood. It was Harry who made the hissing sound. He just spoke to the snake. But that couldn't be! Harry couldn't be...

"Vipera Evanesca!"

Snape put an end to all this as he threw a spell that made the snake disappear. Ron watched it fading away, then he looked at his friend who was smiling.

"What do you think you're playing at, Potter?"

It was Justin who just said the words, and truth be told Ron was asking himself the same question. Everybody was looking at Harry, who just had spoken Parseltongue, but looked confused now. Ron didn't get it. Didn't Harry realize what he just did? Even Snape was now looking at Harry in... fear? Ron never thought he would see that emotion on Snape's face. Ron was still conscious enough of what was happening to grab Harry by the sleeve and force him out of the Great Hall. No one dared to stop them as he, Hermione and Harry ran out. It was only in the Gryffindor common room, deserted, that Ron said something to Harry.

"Why didn't you tell us you're a Parselmouth?" he asked, almost angrily.

"I'm a what?" Harry asked. Ron couldn't believe he didn't understand it.

"A Parselmouth! You can talk to snakes!"

"I know. I mean, that's only the second time I've ever done it. I accidentally set a boa constrictor free when I visited a zoo last year. It was before I arrived in Hogwarts. It was telling me it had never seen Brazil and I sort of set it free without meaning to."

He knew? "A boa constrictor told you it had never seen Brazil?" Ron was stunned, horrified. What horrified Ron the most, and even scared him, was that Harry was telling the story as if they were discussing yesterday's weather. As if talking to snakes could be a natural thing.

"So? I bet loads of people can do it." Had he lost his mind?

"Oh no, they can't," Ron said, looking at his friend as if it was the first time they met. "It's not a very common gift. Harry, this is bad."

"What's bad? What's wrong with everyone?" What was wrong with everyone? It was Ron who ought to be asking Harry what was wrong with him. "Listen, if I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin..."

"Oh, that's what you said to it?"

"What d'you mean? You were there. You heard me."

Ron was fed up. "I heard you speaking Parseltongue, snake language. You could have been saying anything. No wonder Justin panicked, you sounded like you were egging the snake on or something. It was creepy, you know."

Ron never thought it was to Harry that he would have to state evidence like that. It was to Hermione that he did it, usually. Harry now had its mouth open.

"I spoke a different language?" Ron nodded. How could Harry ask that? It was he who spoke Parseltongue. "But... I didn't realize... How can I speak a language without knowing I can speak it?"

Ron had no idea. He shook his head. He looked at Hermione for support. She seemed terrified just like he was.

"Do you want to tell me what is wrong with stopping a dirty great snake biting Justin's head off?" Harry then asked. "What does it matter how I did it as long as Justin doesn't have to join the Headless Hunt?"

Put this way, it was true that what Harry said made sense, but he hadn't been in Ron's place. He didn't see his best friend speaking a language that was associated with dark magic while a huge snake was threatening Justin. Harry didn't seem to realize how scary it had been, to see him almost connected to the snake.

"It matters," Hermione then said. She hadn't said a word since Harry hissed in the Great Hall. "Because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin house is a serpent."

"Exactly," Ron supported. "And now the whole school is going to think that you are his great-great-great-great-grandson or something..."

"But I'm not!" Harry snapped. He really looked angry all of a sudden. Ron was afraid for a moment that he might bite him like a snake.

"You'll find it hard to prove," Hermione then said in a low voice. "He lived about a thousand years ago. For all we know, you could be."

"I'm not. All I did was to stop that snake from attacking Justin. I don't see how this makes me a relative to Slytherin. It's Malfoy who created that snake, not me. I never asked for anything."

Perhaps, but it wasn't Malfoy who seemed to be in symbiosis with the animal and who could talk to him. They didn't say another word for the rest of the evening, nor when they went to bed. In the morning, it was no better.

Ron had spent a part of the night wondering how Harry could talk to snakes. How was that possible? The only plausible explanation in his eyes what that Salazar Slytherin was indeed Harry's ancestor. Then, what was Harry doing at Gryffindor? Ron was inhabited by an illogical fear of being bitten by a serpent that night. He tried to remind himself that Harry was his friend. He would never do him any harm. Harry might be reckless, but he never purposefully endangered anybody. It was himself who he put into danger, not the others. He hadn't wanted Ron and Hermione to follow him last year, when he tried to stop He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. But at the same time, Ron couldn't forget the scene he witnessed this evening. He saw that snake heading on Justin as Harry was hissing and spitting. He completely understood why Justin freaked out. Harry said that he only told the snake not to attack Justin. It was true that the snake didn't harm Justin. It even rested on the stage before Snape made it disappear. But how could he be sure this was actually what Harry told the animal? Even Harry had not realized he was speaking in another language. What if he didn't realize what he was truly saying either? What if he thought he was ordering the snake to lay down when in reality the snake understood it as an order to attack?

So many doubts plagued Ron that he didn't know what to do or to say to Harry the next morning. They took their breakfast in silence, many people throwing odd looks at Harry. Ron was used to seeing people staring at Harry, but not in this way. Usually, they were looks of curiosity, wonder, even admiration. Now they were looks of fear, sometimes even disgust, and most people averted their gaze the moment they were afraid that Harry would look at them.

Harry seemed to be tired of this as he went back to the common room, pretending he forgot his herbology book. It was true that Ron and Hermione didn't talk much to him. Once Harry was gone, Hermione spoke immediately.

"We cannot continue to not talk to him. He's our friend," she said.

"I know," Ron simply said. "You're right."

That was one of the things he liked about Hermione. She stated evident truths when he needed to hear them.

Told from someone else's perspective, explaining why everyone reacted this way. The next chapter will also show how other students in general react to Harry's gift.

Please review.

Next chapter: a new POV (I invite you to guess who it could be)