Bella was beginning to think things had returned to semi-normal in the week following the dueling club but she knew she had spoken too soon when she found Draco and Harry arguing in the courtyard on a drizzly Thursday morning.

"I don't care what you think Malfoy!" Harry seethed.

"Because you know I'm right." Draco drawled.

"What's going on?" Bella asked Freya as she joined the crowd surrounding the rowing pair.

"Malfoy is adamant Harry is the creature attacking people." She replied.

Bella rolled her eyes as they continued to argue.

"You don't even know what you're talking about." Ron growled.

"Oh? Don't I? We'll see." Draco pulled his wand from his pocket as he spoke.

Although Harry was fast, in this instance Draco was faster and before Harry could get his wand from his pocket, Draco struck: 'Serpensortia'. A large, angry snake burst from the end of Draco's wand and everyone around him scrambled backwards, all except Harry. Bella pushed through the terrified crowd until she stood at Harry's side. The snake, that had been hissing furiously at Harry, turned towards Bella and began to slither towards her. Bella eyes wide eyes glanced quickly from the advancing snake to Draco and found his eyes just as wide. Frozen in fear, Bella could only watch as the snake opened it's jaws to attack. However, before the snake could sink it's fangs into her, Harry stepped between her and the snake, pushing her backwards. She gripped his upper arms tightly as he stared down the angry snake.

"Leave us alone." Harry said to the snake with a forceful tone.

The snake immediately dropped to the floor at Harry's feet and curled in on itself, big bright eyes staring straight at Harry. Bella wrapped her small arms around his upper arms to hug him from behind, a big beaming smile on her face. The relieved pair turned to the gather crowd to find their friends and found only blank faces staring back at them.

"I knew it!" Draco was yelling behind them.

"Knew what?" Bella asked, turning to look at him, arms folded over her chest.

"He's Slytherin's ancestor! He's the heir!" Draco cried, waving his finger wildly in Harry's direction.

"What is going on here." A voice drawled from behind Draco and he jumped in fright when a hand made contact with his shoulder.

"Nothing, professor." Bella replied quickly.

"This doesn't look like nothing." Snape commented dryly.

He waved his wand lazily and the docile snake vanished into thin air, leaving no evidence it was ever there at all. Without another word Snape turned on his heel and strode off back to the castle, leaving a group of bewildered students in his wake. Bella felt a gentle hand against her forearm and looked over her shoulder to find Ron behind her.

"Come on." He was pulling lightly on her arm in an attempt to guide her away from the centre of the crowd.

"You're not going to get away with this, Potter!" Draco yelled after them.

As they walked the crowd parted, terrified looks on their faces. Bella couldn't understand what had gone on. Harry had saved her, he'd told the snake to leave them alone and it did, why wasn't everyone as impressed as she was.

Ron didn't let go of her arm until their were safely tucked away in Gryffindor tower, away from prying eyes.

"Why didn't you tell us you can talk to snakes?" Ron fumed.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked frantically. "I thought it was something everyone here could do."

"No. Only a very, very small percentage of wizards and witches can speak parseltongue." Hermione explained.

"Harry wasn't speaking parseltongue!" Bella cried. "He was speaking english!"

"No, Bella, he wasn't. He was hissing and everything. No one knew what he was telling the snake to do." Freya said calmly.

"No. No, I heard him! He said 'leave us alone' and it did. I heard it in plain english!" Bella fumed.

"I wasn't telling the snake to do anything!" Harry yelled furiously.

"Harry, you were speaking parseltongue, no one knew what you were saying." Emily said.

"How can I speak a language I don't know?" He asked.

The four others shared a grave look and Bella and Harry exchanged a look of confusion mixed with fury.

"He wasn't speaking parseltongue! I don't see what the big deal is." Bella remarked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Bella, you know fine well what the big deal is!" Ron seethed.

"What does it matter?" Harry asked loudly.

"It matters." Hermione replied. "Because speaking parseltongue was a trait of Salazar Slytherin, that's what he's most famous for, that's why Slytherin's animal is a snake, because he could talk to them."

"What's that got to do with me?" Harry asked.

"People are going to think you're the heir of Slytherin." Freya answered.

"But I'm not!" Harry cried.

"But you can't prove it. Slytherin was alive hundreds of years ago, for all anyone knows, you could be." Ron commented.

"I don't understand." Bella said exasperatedly. "How come I heard Harry speaking plain english, yet everyone else heard parseltongue?"

"Maybe you can speak it too." Emily replied.

"Don't be daft, Bella can't speak parseltongue, right?" Ron commented, looking at Bella.

"I don't know." She replied timidly.

Bella lay awake hours later, turning over the events of earlier in her head. She had clearly heard Harry telling the snake to leave them alone, no hissing involved, yet Ron and the others were adamant he was hissing. Even though she hadn't spoken the words, Bella was terrified that she could speak parseltongue too. Would the same thing have happened to her? Would she have been branded 'Heir of Slytherin' had she been the one to calm the snake? She thought not, considering the Weasley status in Wizarding society but that thought did little to comfort her. She knew that no matter what came from the events of that afternoon, she stood firmly on Harry's side.