Chapter 6: Hear All, Speak None
Draco lay in bed that evening with his mind reeling. What was it he had seen? Vox's world? That sheet of flame? And the figure had been so different from the one lying in the bed next to him. This was seemed small, though no longer shivering, he had extra blankets and it seemed the house elves had installed some sort of magic heat field around the bed, step within six inches of the bed and the temperature rose about eight degrees. The Vox in his vision of the other hand was a warrior. A warrior with terrible, beautiful, pupil-less eyes.
He listened to the other boys falling asleep around him. Draco hadn't spoken much all afternoon, too overwhelmed to actually focus on doing any work whatsoever. He could understand parcel tongue. Understand it seemed, but not speak. Hear all, Speak none, Vox had said in English, cryptic as always.
"Draco?"
By now Draco knew the undulated hiss that translated to his name and let out a soft "hmm?" to show Vox that he was listening.
"What I showed you today. I'm sorry."
"Why?" Draco heard his companion roll over to face him and so he opened his eyes to see Vox sitting on the edge of his bed, sheets over his lower half, looking at him.
"You haven't spoken to me all afternoon. You're angry with me."
Draco had noticed that the snake boy spoke more in parcel tongue than in English, he still seemed to have trouble stringing his words together properly.
"I'm not angry with you Vox. I'm thinking."
"Oh."
All was silent for a while before Draco decided on a first question.
"How is it that I can understand you now?" he queried, it seemed the most appropriate question, Draco just wished that he could frame the endless Who? What? Where? Why? How? Into something slightly more eloquent.
Vox smiled, as though this was something he approved of, and answered in parcel tongue.
"I have showed you part of my memory, part of my soul. So you have knowledge of something of mine. I chose to give you what you call parcel tongue."
"Chose?"
"Yes. But I have taken nothing from you."
"I don't understand. I can't speak parcel tongue."
Vox smiled.
"You can. You did last night."
Draco blanched as he remembered his exasperated hiss.
"What did I say?"
"Imbecile." Vox replied in English, looking wryly happy.
"Sorry."
At that Vox let out a slow soft hiss.
"What?"
Vox repeated the sound.
"It means sorry. You may as well start learning somewhere."
"You're teaching me parcel tongue?"
Vox visibly flinched, pulling his legs up onto the bed.
"I thought you might want to learn."
"I do want to learn Vox," Draco sat up and leant forwards to place a hand on Vox's shoulder, drawing the gold green gaze back him, "I was just surprised."
Vox nodded, smiling and the two boys returned to their beds. Draco only had one more question.
"Vox? How did you get that scar?"
The snake boy rolled over, all but invisible under his blankets.
"Where they cut off my tail."
Time passed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry the same as it always had. Except for three of its students. Vox, Draco Malfoy and, of course, Harry Potter who was beginning to feel that he had never spent a moment of his life in the school in what everyone else could consider normality. The snake boy was still the talk of the school three weeks after his induction at the second sorting ceremony of the year. One of the reasons for this was the Vox had no wand, and as a consequence couldn't master any of the spells required of him. He was good at potions though, and herbology. The boy, unfortunately did not have the stomach for astronomy and lying out in the cold staring at the stars for an evening of a week had proved to be practically lethal the first time they tried it. Instead, Vox spent those evenings with the headmaster.
Dumbledore grew more frustrated daily with Vox's lack of memory. Every question he asked either went unanswered or was countered with another, often completely unrelated question. The always serene headmaster didn't let it show how troublesome he found the boy, as every other teacher said how good his behaviour was, even though he couldn't manage spells and often had to be reminded to speak in the correct language.
Draco learnt more and more of Vox's language each day, though no one had the brains to notice until Pansy heard the boys holding a conversation in the common room one Wednesday evening. It was rippling through the school like wildfire and the news made Harry blanch when he heard the whisper. Draco Malfoy can speak parcel tongue.
However it was Care of Magical Creatures that Vox enjoyed the most. That particular lesson They were all standing out on the lawns near Hagrid's cabin, Vox wrapped up, as always in more layers than anyone could count, when Hagrid announced that they were to be studying a sea serpent.
The Gryfindors followed by the Slytherins all trouped inside the large wooden shed that had been built out in grounds over the summer to house the Care of Magical Class during bad weather and other such emergencies when working outside became highly impractical. At the front of the room was a large glass tank, and inside it was the sea serpent. About five metres long the blue-scaled creature had a horse-like head and a long sinuous body with a finned tail.
"She's only a baby," Hagrid explained, "But she's quite tame. I'm feeding her plenty of fish and the odd bit of red meat. We've only got her here for a month so we have to be very careful with her."
Usually when presented with situations such as this, Draco would have made some snide comment. No longer however as the sea serpent raised her head out of the water and laid her jaw on the edge of the tank which was about eye level for most of the students who were keeping well back from the three-inch fangs they could all see protruding from her mouth.
The serpent let out a long slow hiss. Harry flinched, Draco smiled and Vox went forwards and bowed to the sea serpent.
"Thank you my Lady."
Hagrid stared and the class twittered. Ron dug Harry in the ribs to remove the shocked expression from his face. They all watched Vox and the sea serpent hold a conversation for a few minutes until Hagrid demanded that someone translate what was being said. To everyone's shock and surprise, both Harry and Draco started talking at the same instant, and the conversation that was haltingly spoken aloud by two voices in not quite harmony went something like this.
"Such a surprise to see one who can remember his manners."
"My Master trained me well, Lady. Your name?"
"Selsena, you are quite a darling aren't you," At this point the Serpent reared to lean her head down further to look directly into Vox's eyes, "What is your name love? Where is it that you herald from? I'm afraid I have never had the pleasurable opportunity of meeting one of your kind before."
"My name is Vox, Lady Selsena, I come from a world different to this one."
"Where is that love?"
"Samith-Seth."
The sea serpent's eyes widened in shock at the sentence and then her whole body rippled in a long snake laugh which made water lap over the edge of the tank onto the floor. A few of the girls squealed as water washed towards them.
"Oh dear boy, you are teasing me. All our kind know Samith-Seth to be a legend."
Vox's mouth set itself in a slight, knowing smile.
"I come from Samith-Seth. The lands of Wre-Wreneth lie to the South and the great empty plains of Tueln-Tunth to the North and East." "It is true. You come from paradise. You are an Amwhenim!"Vox shook his head sadly.
"No Lady. I had a tail and I am a warrior. I was one of the Kamen-Rah."
At that point Vox fell silent as he and the sea serpent realised that they were being overheard. The snake boy turned on the class, gold-green eyes blazing and he silenced Draco with a look. Suddenly his eyes fell and the anger retreated.
"As soon as the headmaster hears this I'm finished."
"Vox! Wait!"The snake boy turned to see the two archenemies standing next to each other, grey and green eyes wearing matching looks of distress. He glared at the pair of them and stormed off into the dormitory. Harry couldn't follow and Draco left him standing there looking worried and disappeared after the snake boy without a second glance. He caught up with the snake as he crossed the common room and grabbed his arm.
"Get off me Draco!"Draco blinked. People never ordered him around. Then again Vox knew nothing of the power of the Malfoy family and Draco had never bothered to explain. The workings of much of the wizarding world were still totally unknown to the snake-boy. His hand however stayed where it was.
"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked in a soft voice, unable at that moment to find the right words to ask the question in Vox's favoured language.
The snake looked distraught.
"I didn't remember the names until I began to speak, and know they know and Dumbledore will never let me go!" Vox fell to his knees as Draco's hand released him, as though he suddenly lacked the strength to stand on his own.
"Let you go?" Draco echoed the hiss.
Vox looked at him with pleading eyes.
"I want to go home Draco. I miss the fire, the heat. I miss my Master and I miss fighting."