Chapter 6: Parseltongue

The news that Willow, a professor, had been attacked and was now lying as though dead in the hospital wing had spread through the entire school by Monday morning. The air was suddenly thick with rumor and suspicion. The first years were now moving around the castle in tight-knit groups, as though scared they would be attacked if they ventured forth alone.

In the second week of December Professor McGonagall came around as usual, collecting names of those who would be staying at school for Christmas. Harry, Ron, and Hermione signed her list as had Malfoy which made getting information out of him easier. For there would be even less students than they had hoped.

Dawn had stopped the Wiccan extra credit as well as Harry, Hermione and Ron's glamour instruction. Instead when not in class she spent her free time sitting in the hospital wing.

Harry, Ron and Hermione hoped they had enough instruction to pull off the glamour. The question now was who would restrain Crabbe and Goyle. Since Dawn was not able to help they would have to come up with something themselves.

In an attempt to get Dawn out of her funk, Dumbledore setup that she, Snape and Lockhart would host a dueling club. So at eight o'clock that evening Dawn walked in to the Great Hall just behind Ron, Harry and Hermione. The long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared along one wall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead.

"I wonder who'll be teaching us?" said Hermione as they edged into the chattering crowd. "Someone told me Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young—maybe it'll be him."

"As long as it's not—" Harry began, but he ended on a groan: Lockhart was walking onto the stage accompanied by none other than Snape.

A second later to everyone's surprise Dawn joined them, especially Harry, Hermione and Ron's.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called, "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions—for full details, see my published works. Let me introduce my assistants, Professor Snape and Professor Rosenberg-Summers." He flashed a wide smile. "Professor Snape tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling 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!"

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed as Dawn moved out of the way. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

Dawn glanced to Harry as she heard him murmur, "I wouldn't bet on that."

"One—two—three—"

Lockhart and Snape swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape cried: "Expelliarmus!" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

Lockhart got unsteadily to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end.

Dawn made a motion of come here to Lockhart's wand and it flew into her hand.

"Well, there you have it!" Lockhart said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm—as you see, I've lost my wand—ah, thank you, Professor Rosenberg-Summers—yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy—however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see …"

Snape was looking murderous. Possibly Lockhart had noticed, because he said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, Professor Rosenberg-Summers, if you two would like to help me—"

Dawn went around the room pairing those that Lockhart and Snape had yet to get to.

"Time to split up the dream team, I think," Snape sneered when he got to Harry and Ron. "Weasley, you can partner Finnigan. Potter—"

Harry moved automatically toward Hermione.

"I don't think so," said Snape, smiling coldly. "Mr. Malfoy, come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Potter. And you, Miss Granger—you can partner Miss Bulstrode."

"Actually Miss Bulstrade can be paired with yourself, Professor Snape," Dawn said. "Miss Granger will be paired with me. I want to see if her Defense test scores are indicative of her practical work."

Snape nodded as Dawn moved beside Hermione.

"Thanks," Hermione whispered.

"No problem," Dawn whispered back.

Malfoy strutted over to Harry.

"How's Willow?" Hermione asked.

"The same," Dawn said with twinge of regret.

"Dawn, she'll be alright," Hermione said. "We'll stop the basilisk and she'll be alright. I promise you."

"Face your partners!" called Lockhart. "And bow!"

Hermione and Dawn faced each other and bowed.

"Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart. He noted Dawn didn't have a wand out. "Professor Rosenberg-Summers."

"I'm a Wiccan witch," Dawn said with a glance at Lockhart. "Wiccan spells are my primaries. Wand is only used when my wiccan magic won't work." She looked at Snape. "Besides I have a way of removing myself from the path of wand spells. Isn't that right Professor Snape."

"That is correct," Snape said. "I have witnessed it myself."

"Alright then," Lockhart said. "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents—only to disarm them—we don't want any accidents—one … two … three—"

Dawn stood there and watched as Hermione cast her spell. And then she opened a portal and stepped through it. Everyone's attention turned to where Dawn had stood and watched as the portal closed, shocked.

"That kind of defeats the purpose," Snape said.

Everyone turned to see Dawn standing five feet behind Hermione.

"I know, but it was fun seeing everyone's reaction," Dawn said. "Hermione, again."

Just as Hermione was about to unleash a second disarming charm, Harry went flying hard. He stumbled, but everything still seemed to be working, and wasting no more time, Harry pointed his wand straight at Malfoy and shouted, "Rictusempra!"

A jet of silver light hit Malfoy in the stomach and he doubled up, wheezing.

"I said disarm only!" Lockhart shouted in alarm over the heads of the battling crowd, as Malfoy sank to his knees; Harry had hit him with a Tickling Charm, and he could barely move for laughing.

Gasping for breath, Malfoy pointed his wand at Harry's knees, choked, "Tarantallegra!" and the next second Harry's legs began to jerk around out of his control in a kind of quickstep.

"Stop! Stop!" screamed Lockhart, but Snape took charge.

"Finite Incantatem!" he shouted; Harry's feet stopped dancing, Malfoy stopped laughing, and they were able to look up.

That was when Dawn followed their gaze to the haze of greenish smoke hovering over the scene and she frowned as the smoke entered her.

"Dear, dear," said Lockhart, skittering through the crowd, looking at the aftermath of the duels. "Up you go, Macmillan… Careful there, Miss Fawcett… Pinch it hard, it'll stop bleeding in a second, Boot—

"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," said Lockhart, standing flustered in the midst of the hall. He glanced at Snape, whose black eyes glinted, and looked quickly away. "Let's have a volunteer pair—Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you—"

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," said Snape, gliding over like a large and malevolent bat. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox." Neville's round, pink face went pinker. "How about Malfoy and Potter?" said Snape with a twisted smile.

"How about you and me," Dawn said as she stepped up on the stage.

And that was when everyone noticed Dawn's normally blonde hair had gone completely black and her eyes as well.

Snape stepped up on the stage.

"Three—two—one—go!" Lockhart shouted.

Snape raised his wand quickly and bellowed, "Serpensortia!"

The end of his wand exploded as a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between them, and raised itself, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor.

Dawn did not move. "Is that the best you can do?" She looked at the snake and then to even her own surprise she spoke to it in its own language drawing its attention to her. "You will attack no one."

The snake bobbed its head. She waved her hand "Vipera Evanesca," she said and the snake vanished. And with it her hair returned to blonde as her eyes cleared.

Ron and Hermione rushed to Dawn and grabbed her steering her out of the hall as Harry followed. They did not say a word till they stepped inside Dawn's office.

"You're a Parselmouth," Ron said.

"I'm a what?" said Dawn.

"A Parselmouth!" said Ron. "You can talk to snakes!"

Dawn's eyes went wide. And then she remembered the snake Glory had created that snake demon. She had been the bait for it so that Buffy could slay it. They had set a trap for it away from the Magic Box and it had come right to them. She remembered now that she had spoken to it then as well.

"It has to be a common gift," she said.

"It's not," Ron said. "It's not a very common gift. Dawn, this is bad."

"What's bad?" said Harry. He let out a small sigh. He had not mentioned that he had heard Dawn as if she spoke to it in English. "Even I seem to have this gift."

Ron's eyes went wide.

"You understood what Dawn said?" Hermione asked.

Harry said. "She told it not to attack anyone."

"Oh, that's what you said to it?" Ron asked looking back at Dawn.

"Yeah that's what I said," Dawn said. "You didn't?"

Ron shook his head. "I heard you speaking Parseltongue," he said. "Snake language. You could have been saying anything. Between that and the black hair and black eyes it was just creepy, you know—"

Dawn gaped at Ron. "My hair and eyes were black?" Harry, Ron and Hermione nodded. "And now?"

"Their back to normal, blonde and blue," Hermione said.

Dawn let out a sigh. "I'm going to have to speak to Albus."

"So," Harry said, "what was wrong with Dawn telling the snake not to harm anyone?"

"Being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent," Hermione said.

"Exactly," said Ron. "And now the whole school's going to think," he looked to Dawn, "you're his great-great-great-great-granddaughter or something—"

"But I'm not," said Dawn, with a panic she couldn't quite explain.

"You'll find that hard to prove," said Hermione. "He lived about a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be."

"No I can't be," Dawn said. "Because I was never born …"

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at Dawn wondering what she meant.

Dawn let out a sigh, she knew that she would eventually have to tell Harry since he was Willow's nephew. "Twelve years ago. I was created to hide something called the Key. It opens the doorway between dimensions." She went on to tell them about her life in Sunnydale. When she finished they were in shock. She opened a portal. "This is the Key. I've learned to control it."

"But the day you told us about the Chamber, Willow opened a portal like that one," Harry said.

"That's because Willow had become at one point a dark witch. She siphoned off a portion of the Key in an attempt to end the world," Dawn said. "It was my love that brought her back. Why don't you three go back to the Gryffindor common room. I will answer any questions you have later. I have to see Albus."

Harry, Ron and Hermione left Dawn's office as Dawn opened a portal into Dumbledore's office and stepped through. "Albus?"

"I expected to see you," Dumbledore said as he rose from behind his desk. "I heard what happened in the Great Hall. The green smoke, the snake, that you spoke Parsletongue and the fact that your hair and eyes turned black."

"Willow got addicted to magic once," Dawn said. "We always assumed it was a result of magic addiction. You know outward signs that she was addicted."

"It very likely was not, it was very likely a result of dark magicks in use," Dumbledore said. "And the two of you are tied together in more than just your love for each other."

"We know the magic of the Key ties us together," Dawn said. "I've always been Willow's ground."

"And she yours," Dumbledore said. "And with Willow petrified you now have no ground. My suggestion till Willow is unpetrified is to restrict you to wand magic only. It will reduce the amount of temptation. Add on top of that wand magic is not as easy to get addicted to as Wiccan is."