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One potions lesson during the summer in August.

Open Question

Henry Slytherin, the raven-haired boy his Lord had adopted, was standing at the worktable, a look of concentration on his face. He was currently grinding some flamingo egg-shells into fine powder.

Since Severus had started teaching the boy individually, leaving all past animosity for the biological father aside, he had improved by leaps and bounds. Slowly he came to the realization that Lily's son might have inherited some of her potions talent. The young Potions Master doubted that the talent would have had a chance to develop had the circumstances not changed so drastically.

"Sir, may I ask a question?" the teenager asked, setting the pestle aside, green eyes checking the fineness of the ground egg shells.

"You already have. But you may ask another." Sarcasm now no longer wielded as a weapon brought an answering smirk with increasing frequency.

It was eerie how much of his mother Severus now could see in Henry. If he had had the time between all his projects, he would have inspected his new discoveries more closely.

"He claimed a few days ago that the gift of the language of snakes would never skip a generation."

Severus waited patiently for the child to actually formulate a question, while he prepared everything for the first actual potion they would brew in the tutoring sessions.

"No one who told me about my parents ever mentioned that my mother could talk to snakes…" he trailed off, his eyes leaving the teacher's face, fixing on the ingredients arranged on the table ready to brew, obviously uncomfortable.

Severus took pity on his pupil. "So you wonder if I know if she shared this gift with you?"

Unable to raise his gaze – probably afraid of angering his professor with questions about his friendship with Lily – the heir of Lord Slytherin only nodded.

Severus started to think. Had he ever seen Lily in a situation proving or disproving the theory that she had been a parselmouth as well? After several heartbeats he came to the conclusion that in fact he could neither confirm nor deny the idea. But that would be no comfort for her child.

Who would have thought that Lily Evans had been part of the Slytherin bloodline? What were the chances of her being killed by another member of that family?

"I have never seen your mother interact in any way with a snake of any kind," Severus started his explanation, casting a spell to get rid of the stains from the more colourful of the ingredients. "I remember pretty well the day your ability was revealed to the whole of Hogwarts." Severus' smirk at the memory of throwing the ponce Lockhart through the Great Hall was answered by a look of reminiscence and a shy grin from the boy. "How long had you known about your own gift by this time?"

"I only learned of it shortly before my Hogwarts letter arrived."

"So you were almost eleven at the time?"

The boy nodded, listening, highly focused.

"It was only by accident, then. I do not know if Lily ever came into close enough contact with a snake to speak to it. And even if she knew, she may have had chosen to hide the ability from everyone. With what was brewing back then, and with being a parselmouth being associated solely with danger and darkness…"

With a sad look the teenager nodded slowly. "So you say I probably will never know for sure, sir?"

"It is a distinct possibility, heir Slytherin." He did not add the platitudes of regret the sentimentality of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors would have demanded, only verifying the boy's own deduction.

The rest of the lesson was spent in blessed silence and ended with an acceptable attempt at a cure for boils. Potions was a subject best taught to small classes. He kept trying to get this fact into the skulls of those deciding lesson plans and budgets. So far to no avail. But without persistence, nothing would ever be achieved.

Thanks to Jordre and Jake for helping to improve my spelling!

First published on the 9th of September