There had been no attacks since Colin and Mrs. Norris, but the whole school was now abuzz with nervousness and excitement. Madam Pomfrey had to close off all visitors to the Hospital Wing so Colin could have some privacy.

Brooklyn was getting irritated, because since Harry had been accused on Halloween, the students began to whisper rumors about him being the heir of Slytherin when he clearly wasn't. He hoped that when the Polyjuice Potion was ready, they could get answers. And if not, he was going to pester Tom until he spilled the beans.

Speaking of Tom, he managed to inform him finally about Colin when he felt a little better after that night, getting another strange response.

Didn't you sometimes say that Colin irritated you and Harry with that camera of his? Maybe it was for the best that he's petrified like Mrs. Norris.

Yeah, but I didn't want it to happen to a first year; this wasn't fair to Colin! Brooklyn had written back, his face draining, imagining Colin still frozen in the hospital wing.

Just continue to keep your spirits up, Brooklyn, and do the best you can. They'll find the attacker soon enough. Tom's words said.

Brooklyn nodded. Alright, Tom, I'll do my best.

...

They had managed to collect most of the ingredients for the Polyjuice, but it wasn't done yet. Brooklyn had kept his eyes out during a Potions lesson in which Harry had thrown a firework into Goyle's potion, exploding everywhere, and showering the class with swelling potion.

Brooklyn had to hide his laugh as he saw Malfoy walk up to Snape with the other students for the antidote, his nose swelled up to the size of a small melon and making his head droop. He suddenly spotted Hermione sneaking through the crowd, her robes bulging, and knew she had been successful.

The foursome sat in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, ignoring her wailing again while Hermione stirred the potion. Brooklyn eyed the stuff, once again unsure about taking it.

"You are sure that this stuff will work?" He questioned, watching it bubble in the cauldron.

"It'll be ready in two weeks, and yes, I'm sure it will work, Brooklyn. I did my research, and I read that gargoyles do have the ability to use Polyjuice Potion; it will just take a few minutes longer for the transformation effects to appear since you're not completely human."

"Lovely," Brooklyn muttered sarcastically, imagining himself transforming and wincing at an image of his own body half turned into a human with his wings gone, and a human face.

A week later into December, Brooklyn and his friends noticed a crowd of students lining the wall including Dean and Seamus.

"What's up?" he asked Dean, who looked excited.

"They're starting a Dueling Club! First meeting tonight!"

Now Brooklyn himself was interested. A Dueling Club, huh? Perhaps he could sneak a peek at this and maybe get some dueling practice with his wand!

He then found himself standing in a large crowd surrounding the Great Hall tables which vanished and was replaced with a golden stage, and Brooklyn felt a fresh wave of excitement, which was welcoming after all the stress he had been dealing with the Chamber of Secrets.

"I wonder who will be teaching us! Maybe Flitwick? They say he's an expert at dueling!" Hermione whispered. The gargoyle now liked the idea of a professional dueler like Flitwick to teach him!

"As long as it's not—." Harry replied, ending in a groan. Brooklyn was about to ask before spotting the one who he didn't want to be taught by, blasted Gilderoy Lockhart, who was wearing vivid plum robes and Snape, who was looking quite livid about being anywhere near Lockhart, and Brooklyn had to agree. He himself wouldn't touch Lockhart with a 39 and a half foot pole!

Lockhart smiled, showing off those dazzling white teeth that Brooklyn loathed, still disgusted at how some humans presented themselves to be all prissy like this.

"Gather around! Can everybody see me? Can you all hear me?"

I'd rather not see or hear you, Brooklyn thought privately, folding his arms.

"Excellent! Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little Dueling Club to train you all up, in case you need to defend yourselves, as I myself have done on countless occasions! For full details, see my public works!"

And with that, he took his robe off and threw it in the crowd, which had the unfortunate luck to land right onto Brooklyn, who hissed in irritation and threw it off himself in disgust, making Ron snicker again.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape! He has sportingly agreed to help me with this demonstration. 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!" Snape curled his lip, giving Lockhart a stare that would have had Brooklyn himself if he were in Lockhart's position to make a break for it.

Brooklyn watched Snape and Lockhart bow, but with Lockhart giving an annoying swagger with his hands. Then they walked away a few feet from one another, drawing their wands. He smirked, knowing who is going to be the better spellcaster.

"One—Two—Three—."

Snape cried, "Expelliarmus!" And the flash of red light burst from his wand, knocking Lockhart off his feet, and sending him crashing to the floor in a daze.

Hell yeah! Brooklyn thought in savage triumph, remembering to congratulate Snape later for beating Lockhart and using his favorite spell on him!

"Do you think he's alright?" Hermione asked in a worried voice.

"Who cares!" Harry, Ron, and Brooklyn all exclaimed at once, high fiving each other.

Lockhart staggered to his feet, looking winded.

"Well, there you have it, Students. That was the Disarming Charm. And as you can see, I've lost my wand—ah, thank you, Miss Brown—an excellent idea to show them that one, Professor Snape, but if I had wanted to stop you, it would have been too easy—."

Snape looked murderous. Lockhart seemed to have noticed because he cleared his throat and continued. Fraidy cat, Brooklyn taunted silently.

"Enough demonstrating, we will now put you all in pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me—."

The crowd then split up into pairs. Brooklyn ventured near Harry to be his partner, but Snape suddenly appeared, sneering at them.

"No, I don't think so, 'Guardian of Hogwarts'. I fear it is time to split up the dream team and the brother duo. You'll be with Finch-Fletchley over here."

Brooklyn glared but didn't say anything as he found himself face to face with a young Hufflepuff boy, looking a little nervous of him. But he nodded, reassuring the boy.

"Hi, you're name's Brooklyn, right?" The boy asked.

"Yeah. And you are—?"

"Justin Finch-Fletchley. I do Herbology with Harry," Justin replied, starting to smile. "I-I've never dueled a gargoyle before," he admitted.

"This is my first time dueling, too. I've never needed to use magic when I was in Manhattan. But I guess this is where we see how good we are!"

Justin grinned. "You're on!" And they both drew their wands.

"Face your partners and bow!" Lockhart called. Justin and Brooklyn both bowed to each other and moved back a couple paces.

"Wands at the ready! Cast your charm to disarm, only to disarm. We don't want any accidents here!" he continued.

Both Justin and Brooklyn raised their wands.

"One... two... three…"

Brooklyn shouted his spell before Justin could open his mouth.

"Expelliarmus!"

Justin's wand flew out of his hands, and Brooklyn caught it, smiling. The Hufflepuff boy was impressed.

"I see you've practiced that one!" He exclaimed in an impressed voice.

"Sure have. Used it on a particular Slytherin Troll captain once."

Justin laughed. "I would have liked to have seen it!"

Huh, he's not that bad a kid, I guess, Brooklyn thought, as they continued to practice disarming each other. But it would seem that they were the only ones doing so, for after a time, Brooklyn halted their dueling as he heard Lockhart shouting, "Stop! I said disarm only!"

He looked around and saw to his shock that some of the paired students hadn't used disarming spells.

With Malfoy and Harry, they were both hit. Malfoy was doubled up with laughter, from Rictusempra, and Harry was hit with the tap dancing spell, his feet out of control.

Ron was pulling Neville to his feet, apologizing for whatever his broken wand had done.

Brooklyn spotted the one that ticked him off the most: a heavy duty Slytherin girl named Millicent Bulestrode had Hermione in a headlock, their wands forgotten on the floor.

"Stay here, I need to take care of this," growled Brooklyn. Justin nodded, his eyes round at the violence on display.

Brooklyn grabbed Millicent by her robes, yanking her away from Hermione who fell to the floor, whimpering in pain. Even though she was almost his size, he gave her an intimidating look, which meant she was in trouble.

"That was foul play!" he hissed at Millicent, who backed away in fright.

Brooklyn helped Hermione to her feet gently, and she gave him another hug, still crying. He stroked her hair, trying to calm her down.

After sorting out everybody, Lockhart then proceeded to have a volunteer pair come up to the stage. Specifically Harry and Malfoy.

Brooklyn watched as the two backed away and raised their wands again. Malfoy was quicker than Harry.

"Serpensortia!" He yelled, and something long and black shot from the tip of his wand, and slumped to the floor, hissing.

He froze, staring in terror at the snake. A spell that can make snakes appear out of thin air? Are they serious?

The snake looked around at them all, hissing dangerously. Brooklyn didn't know what to do, or what sort of spell to use to get rid of a killer snake.

Snape strode forward. "Don't move, Potter. I'll get rid of it for you," he said in a voice that didn't sound worried at all, which pissed off Brooklyn enormously. A huge killer snake was going to kill one of them, and he wasn't even the tiniest bit concerned?

Lockhart stopped him, though. "Allow me, Professor Snape!" He called out an unknown spell, sending the snake flying ten feet into the air, and fell down to the ground, madder than ever.

Brooklyn knew he should do something, but still didn't know what to do. The snake suddenly spotted Justin and reared up to strike.

No! The gargoyle thought in panic. He wanted to save Justin, but he didn't want to get in the way of those fangs. That's when Harry took action, glaring at the snake and walking towards it.

"Leave him alone!" Harry yelled. Brooklyn couldn't see how just yelling at the snake would do anything. But to his surprise, the snake backed down, looking towards Harry with a calm look. Snape then vaporized the snake with his own spell.

How did my brother do that? He thought in disbelief. Looking around, he saw that the rest of the crowd wasn't as relieved as he was. Justin glared.

"What are you playing at, Potter?" he snapped. Brooklyn stepped toward Justin angrily.

"He just saved you! Can't you see that?" he snarled. But Justin didn't answer as he turned and walked out in anger.

Hermione and Ron led Harry out and Brooklyn followed, a bad feeling in his gut for what's coming.

Brooklyn was just in a daze as he learned of what Harry had been able to do, he spoke in snake Language, Parseltongue, one that Salazar Slytherin had fancied in. But how was he able to understand it? Did that mean that he- oh man!

Shaking a little, Brooklyn pulled out the diary, desperate for answers from Tom. If he can talk to snakes now, he was in trouble!

Tom, I'm in trouble! Something terrible happened today!

Another attack already?

No, worse. It was at the Dueling Club. Malfoy had conjured up a snake out of thin air and was about to attack Justin.

Was this Justin killed by it?

Brooklyn froze, surprised that Tom had asked that particular question right away. He shook his head.

No, Harry saved him. He spoke to the snake, and it backed away. Ron called the language Parseltongue. But for some reason, I was the only one to understand what Harry was saying! Does-does that mean I can speak to snakes, too?

He paused, waiting for an answer, anxiety building.

Brooklyn, what you have developed is a special ability. I actually am happy you're able to speak Parseltongue. Sure, it's gotten a bad reputation, but I don't see any harm in this at all.

What? But I don't want to understand them! It is becoming a living nightmare for me! I want to get rid of this! Brooklyn wrote back, shocked about what Tom had said. Why was he pleased?

I can help you learn if this eases your fears. You can benefit from this, Brooklyn. Salazar Slytherin had flourished from speaking with snakes, and you can become a powerful gargoyle if you can keep it a secret. You shouldn't tell anybody that you can speak Parseltongue, not even Harry. If people think he's the Heir of Slytherin, they shouldn't add you to the list.

He felt like he was gonna explode. Yet another secret he couldn't tell anybody about.

I can't keep any more secrets, Tom. And I don't want to benefit! This is a plague!

But then Tom's answer was a bit more forceful, making Brooklyn pull away a little in slight fear.

You can't tell anybody! Or else they'll hate you all over again. Do you really want that, Brooklyn? Do you want to lose your position? Think about it.

Brooklyn thought his heart was gonna burst, not liking this one bit. But if it meant keeping his brother safe and not have him thrown out into the streets, this was his only option.

Okay, Tom. I'm sure that this will go away over time. But I still don't want to learn from this horrid language.

I guess that's fine by me. But if you ever change your mind, I'm right here. I studied Parseltongue secretly when I was at Hogwarts, though I couldn't speak it myself.

Brooklyn found himself nodding. Perhaps there could be something he could learn… maybe.