It's time for another chapter of Mary Potter.

And yeah, I included an anime reference.

I think Harry Potter and Fairy Tail are decidedly different though. Even if they both have wizards and witches.

Chapter 22: It's Time to Duel

Moments before Colin Creevey was attacked, Mary continued to speak with Dobby.

She felt as if the house elf didn't need to worry about her. To her knowledge, she was not an enemy of the Heir of Slytherin.

"Don't worry about me, I'm safe! I'm a half-blood, not a Muggle-born!" assured Mary.

According to McGonagall, the monster wasn't interested in people who had a wizard for a parent.

Though she had two wizards for parents, technically.

"Mary Potter might be safe now, but that's going to change! The monster will eventually come after Mary!" shouted Dobby. He wasn't sure how much time Mary had, but it would be best if she left Hogwarts while she still could. Though to be honest, her uncle scared him as well. He caught a glimpse of him when he was trying to apparate the girl who lived back inside her residence.

No doubt everyone in Hogwarts would mourn her passing. Draco Malfoy might even attend the funeral. Though he would probably be sleeping about half the time.

"Um, how do you know that?" asked the girl. She didn't think Dobby was lying to her now, given that he hadn't been lying to her about danger being at Hogwarts.

But at the same time, it was rather unusual that he knew all these things. Not even Dumbledore himself was entirely sure what was going on. And yet Dobby seemed like he knew everything.

Was the heir indeed Draco? He had a grudge against her…but it seemed like he would go after her first. He would probably have then gone after Hermione second, given that he thought she was an insufferable know-it-all.

Maybe Ron would be third? He was a pure blood, but Draco thought his friendship with a Muggle-born was revolting.

"Dobby's not allowed to implicate his master. Otherwise, Dobby's master will punish him!" exclaimed the house elf.

"You sound like you have an abusive master." noted Mary.

"He poured boiling water on Dobby last week." pointed out Dobby.

"That's terrible!" exclaimed the girl.

There were still faint burn marks on him.

"Dobby wishes he could be free." wished the house elf.

"Maybe you will someday." noted Mary.

It was a happy thought.

Suddenly, the half-blood girl heard a familiar and very scary voice.

"I'd like to take a picture of him screaming!" exclaimed the monster.

"Oh no! It's the monster!" bellowed Mary.

"Get out while Mary still can!" shouted Dobby.

He made a break for it.

Shortly afterward, Colin Creevey was brought in.

Perhaps the monster let out a hint as to who it was going to attack.

But it was too late to do anything about it now. All they could do was try to undo the damage the monster had done.

Ginny was crying.

"I'm sorry. It must be hard having one of your friends be petrified." noted the girl with the scar.

She also was flattered that Colin liked her, so it hurt her too. Though she needed to talk about him not taking photos of them without their permission.

"It is." nodded Ginny.

"Were you the one who discovered him?" asked Mary.

The redhead nodded. It was a cruel irony considering that the two of them got along so well.

To add insult to injury, all the film for the camera had been burned.

"If it makes you feel better, my leg bones are almost regenerated." noted the girl with glasses.

Within the hour, she would be able to walk again.

Which was good, since running away from the monster didn't seem like a bad idea. Though she was curious as to what it was.

"I was hoping you would recover soon." nodded Ginny.

"Maybe once the mandrake potion is ready, Colin can explain what attacked him." noted Mary. One can only hope that she would eventually be able to get some answers. Speaking of potions, was the polyjuice potion coming along well? One could only hope they would brew it right or there could be serious consequences.

"I hope we can figure out what it was." spoke the Weasley girl.

She wanted it dead.

Shortly after Mary recovered, Gilderoy Lockhart opened up a dueling club. She was now fully able to walk, though she walked with a slight limp. That would go away quickly, said the nurse.

He figured students should know how to defend themselves given what was going on. Muggle-borns especially.

Pure bloods would still be welcome to join the dueling club though. Even Draco Malfoy, who people suspected was the heir.

To demonstrate how a duel was done, Lockhart volunteered to face Snape.

It seemed that Severus was looking forward to the demonstration, because he unusually had a smile on his face.

However, despite Gilderoy Lockhart's claim of how awesome he was, Snape managed to best him in only a few seconds. It was a small wonder he was a long-term teacher at Hogwarts, other than him not getting along

The Expelliarmus spell sure came in handy when you fought another wizard.

"Wow! You defeated Gilderoy Lockhart, Snape!" exclaimed Ginny.

Now she thought Snape was amazing.

Though it helped that he decided to give her Veritaserum.

Lockhart would likely beat Snape in a charisma contest though. In fact, there probably wouldn't even be a contest.

"I allowed him to win." explained the narcissist.

"Yes…Gilderoy Lockhart...agreed to...throw the duel…as part of…the demonstration." lied Snape.

Each student drew tickets to see who they would get matched up with.

Ron Weasley…weaseled out. His wand was still broken, so he was justified to do that.

Would his parents buy him a new one? They probably didn't want to do him favors after he stole their car and endangered the life of his younger sister. And Percy was irritated with him for entering a girl's bathroom that no girl even used anymore.

Mary ended up matched up with Draco Malfoy.

"Perfect. I've been wanting revenge after you humiliated me in that game of Quidditch." noted Draco Malfoy.

His Quidditch captain had a stern talking with him after that.

"You have nobody to blame but yourself." pointed out Mary.

The captain was angry at Malfoy for not searching for the Snitch, but he failed to pay much attention to him. He was too focused on finding a way to humiliate Mary back.

Now seemed like a golden opportunity to do so.

Fortunately, he was hoping to duel Mary someday, despite him once lying to her about wishing to duel her so she would get in trouble with McGonagall.

And he had just a spell for that.

He summoned a snake.

Draco expected Mary to run away screaming, and for all the students to laugh at her. It would be music to his ears.

However, the students watching the duel immediately panicked.

Were they in danger?

Snape likely could make an antidote to snake venom, but still.

But much to Draco's chagrin, Mary did not run away from the duel.

Instead, she looked at the snake with curiousity.

"How did I get here?" asked the snake.

"Hey, I know you! You're that snake that wanted to go to Brazil!" exclaimed Mary.

"It's good to see you again, amiga. But where am I?" questioned the boa.

"Oh. You're at my school. It's a school for wizards." noted the girl.

None of the students could believe what they were seeing.

Mary…was talking to snakes.

"Mary! You're a parselmouth!" exclaimed Hermione.

"I have a package stuffed down my throat?" asked the girl.

She imagined she would feel that if she did. She sure hoped she didn't need to go to the nurse's office again. It felt like yesterday she had fully recovered from Lockhart's spell backfire.

The Muggle-born chuckled.

"Actually, it means you can talk to snakes." explained the brunette.

"Well, I can communicate with a lot of animals." remarked Mary.

She could communicate with Mrs. Norris, for example. Though she didn't exactly say much now that she was basically a statue.

"Would you say snakes are your specialty though?" questioned the Muggle-born.

"Well, that and spiders." noted Mary. She requested that Petunia didn't squish them on the basis it was bad luck (and the fact they were her friends), though considering what the cupboard was like, she didn't do so often.

"Have you wondered why the animal representing Slytherin is a snake?" questioned Hermione.

"Is it because people don't like the Slytherins?" asked Mary. She felt that people shouldn't call people snakes when they did something bad, given how nice her snake friend was.

"Good guess, but no. It's because Salazar Slytherin had the power to speak with snakes." explained the Muggle-born.

It was part of why he was considered to be a special wizard. Of course, the other reason is that he was one of the four founders of Hogwarts.

"You think Dumbledore would want to hear about that? I think I'll visit him anyway to see if my snake buddy can stay here at Hogwarts." questioned the girl who lived.

"I think he would." nodded Hermione.

Mary decided that she would go visit the professor.

McGonagall gave her a password. She was fascinated by Mary's ability, so she imagined Dumbledore would too.

It wasn't every day that you came across a parselmouth.

There was a gargoyle blocking the entrance.

"Seeing as Hagrid wants me to compliment Dumbledore, I'm going to say out loud that the headmaster knows how to keep out intruders." spoke Mary.

"Do you have business with Dumbledore?" asked the phoenix statue.

"Yes, I do." nodded Mary.

He would want to know about her rare skill.

"Do you know the password?" questioned the statue.

Mary said Sherbet Lemon.

An ice cream cone would probably be comforting considering what was going on. She didn't know anyone at Hogwarts who wasn't aware what was happening. People tended to notice when somebody wrote scary messages on the walls.

"That was the correct password. However, Dumbledore is not in his office at the moment, so please take a seat." said the gargoyle statue.

The statue allowed Mary in, and she sat in a waiting chair.

There were portraits of previous headmasters on the walls.

That included Armando Dippet.

She noticed the Sorting Hat.

"I guess this is where you hang out when you're not…sorting." noted the girl who lived.

"Yes. It's nice and quiet." remarked the hat.

"So I've noticed." nodded Mary.

Dumbledore was indeed interesting in learning she was a Parseltongue, once he showed up.

So was the hat, however.

"You're a parseltongue? Are you sure you don't want to be part of Slytherin?" asked the Sorting Hat.

"Well, my parents were part of Gryffindor." noted Mary.

There were portraits of them in their common room….so they could be remembered.

"Fair point." nodded the hat.

"Well, don't be too surprised. You've been a special wizard more or less since you were a year old." noted Dumbledore.

"Yeah." agreed Mary.

She decided to leave for the time being, but not before being granted permission for her boa friend to stay at Hogwarts.

On the way out, something frightful happened.

"Let's see if I can make a Muggle-born give up the ghost!" exclaimed the monster.

"Not again!" shouted the girl. That could only mean one thing.

Who was going to be the victim this time?

Unfortunately, she wasn't sure who was going to be attacked. She just heard something about a ghost.

She noticed that her snake friend seemed to be hiding.

"Wait, you can hear that voice too?" asked Mary.

The boa constrictor nodded.

"I'm starting to think that monster is a snake of some kind." noted the girl.

It was Slytherin's Monster, after all.

The only question was what breed of snake it was. She knew one thing. It was no ordinary snake. Otherwise it probably wouldn't be causing so much trouble around Hogwarts.

"I'm not sure I should stay here." noted the boa constrictor. Believe it or not, snakes did indeed eat other snakes. Though personally he preferred the taste of eggs. Especially warm ones.

"I'll keep you safe, I promise." assured Mary.

"Gracias, amiga." said the snake.

This time, it was Neville who discovered the victim, in this case Justin.

The Fat Friar was with him.

He was flattered that Neville wanted to be in Hufflepuff, but he agreed with the Sorting Hat he belonged in Gryffindor. Was he not brave enough to befriend a ghost.

"Oh no! Justin!" exclaimed Neville.

"Not Nearly Headless Nick!" shouted Fat Friar.

It seemed Nearly Headless Nick was now Completely Petrified Nick.

And yes, even ghosts could be petrified. Though it was unlikely the monster could kill what was already dead.

For some reason, Neville felt he was somehow responsible for this.

His memory had been kind of blurry lately.

Did it have something to do with the diary?

"Ribbit." said his toad companion.

Vector recommended he put it somewhere where people wouldn't find it. He felt that the diary and the monster could be linked somehow. Though he wasn't sure why a diary would want to kill people.

So he decided on the haunted girl's restroom.

Percy assumed that he went to the girl's restroom on accident given how fast he was running, so he was not penalized house points.

He stuffed the diary in the toilet.

"Neville, you're getting rid of me? But why?" asked the diary.

"It's nothing personal. Vector just doesn't think you're to be trusted." noted Neville.

"He's just a toad. What does he know?" questioned the book.

"Well, it's fairly obvious that he cares about me. Though he does have a bit of a mischievous streak." remarked the boy.

"I'll be waiting here in the girl's restroom in case you change your mind." noted the diary.

"Right, of course." nodded Neville.

Vector was pleased that Neville had put it somewhere where it wouldn't be found.

Maybe now they could put the ordeal behind them.

Curiously, he heard the sound of someone snoring.

Was it the monster?

It seemed possible.

Well, hopefully the monster was asleep.

Oh no! Justin has been petrified! And so has Nearly Headless Nick!

Luckily Nick can't die because he's already dead.

And yes, I brought back the snake from the first book…or the first chapter, or whatever.

Also, the victims are being discovered by different people each time. I figured it might be a bit more interesting that way.

Is this the end of the attacks.

We can only hope. If Hogwarts closes down, Mary might not be able to defeat the wizard who must never be named.