I don't own Harry Potter

Chapter 17- Dealing with Snakes

The next day after being released from the hospital wing, Harry went looking for Ron and Hermione. They were in the bathroom Moaning Myrtle haunted already started on the potion. Harry felt bad about not including Neville, but if something went wrong he didn't want to get Neville in trouble. And as Hermione had reminded them, they were breaking about fifty school rules, starting with stealing from Snape's supplies and ending with getting into the Slytherin common room without permission. He didn't want to get Ron or Hermione in trouble either, but since Draco's closest friends were Crabbe and Goyle they had to be disguised as them and it would have raised suspicion for there to be one without the other. And of course Hermione was the one who knew the most about making the potion.

Harry knew his dad wouldn't like what they were planning, but they had to do something. Harry had written to him about the attacks knowing sooner or later he would find out anyway, and he didn't want to worry him more than he already was. He'd be willing to bet Remus had contacted Dumbledore several times by now to be sure he was still all right.

A week after they'd started making the potion a notice was posted advertising a dueling club. Harry had already learned quite a few defensive spells, but thought it might be a good idea to learn whatever the club had to offer too. Ron, Hermione, and Neville were eager as well, so they all headed to the Great Hall that evening. Of course they hadn't guessed that Lockhart and Snape would be the ones teaching it. After Lockhart introduced his "assistant" they bowed to each other (actually Snape gave more of a head bob) Harry knew if this were a real duel and Lockhart took time to bow he would have been dead by now. No opponent would pass up a chance like that.

Then the demonstration started. At least it was supposed to be a demonstration. If nothing else it was entertaining watching Lockhart being launched off the stage. Of course Lockhart claimed he knew Snape was going to do that, and paired up the students.

Harry and Ron faced each other, but just as they were about to start practicing the disarming spell Snape came up and said "Weasley's wand causes devastation with the simplest of spells. We'd be sending what's left of Potter to the hospital wing in a match box. Time to split up the dream team anyway, I think." And of course, Harry was paired with Draco. Within moments there was complete chaos. Some students seemed to have forgotten they had wands and were just brawling, some were lying on the floor panting, and one was bleeding.

And this is the result of letting an idiot start a dueling club Harry thought.

Once there was order again, Lockhart said "I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells."

Harry was tempted to ask "What was your first clue? The fact that everyone was hexing everyone else?"

Harry found himself facing Malfoy again.

"Scared?" Malfoy taunted.

"You wish," Harry answered.

A true Slytherin, Malfoy shouted "Serpensortia," and a live snake came out of his wand. Snape made a move to get rid of it just as Lockhart cast a spell at it. The result was that the snake ended up landing mere inches from Justin, and it was not at all happy.

"Don't bite him!" Harry shouted as the snake got into striking position. And for some reason the snake was actually obeying him. But Justin wasn't relieved. He was scared, and not just of the snake.

"What do you think you're playing at?"

Harry was about to ask what Justin was talking about when Ron tugged at his sleeve.

"Harry, come on. Let's go."

Ron lead him into the nearest empty room, Hermione and Neville following.

"Why didn't you tell me you're a parselmouth?" Ron asked.

"Huh?"

"You can talk to snakes."

"What are you talking about? I just yelled at it not to bite."

"You didn't yell, mate. You hissed. You were speaking parseltongue. Snake language."

"This is really bad," Neville said, the worry plain in his voice. "Being a parselmouth is one of the things people believe marks a dark wizard. Slytherin was a parslemouth. And you were there when the first attack happened. And the message about his heir appeared. Everyone will think you opened the chamber."

It turned out Neville was right. Over the next few days the other students kept giving Harry suspicious looks Some of them went so far as to say the reason Voldemort had tried to kill Harry was to eliminate a dark wizard who would have been competition. Harry tried to ignore it and hoped that he could talk to Justin and explain what really happened at the dueling club. Harry thought Herbology being canceled would give him a good chance to find Justin and talk things out, so he went looking for Ernie, Justin's best friend. Not that it did any good. All Ernie did was say "I might tell you that you can trace my family back through nine generations of witches and warlocks and my blood's as pure as anyone's."

"I don't care what kind of blood you have. My mother was muggle born, so I'm half-blood myself, remember? And my second dad is a half-blood. One of my best friends is muggle-born."

"Don't ask me how a dark wizard's mind works."

Harry decided not o bother answering and went to find Justin on his own. When he did find him he wished he's just stayed in the Gryffindor common room. Justin was petrified, along with Nearly Headless Nick who was floating above him. Could things get any worse?

At least Dumbledore had believed Harry wasn't responsible for the attacks. Harry had to remind himself it was perfectly normal for a phoenix to burst into flames when Fawkes decided to give him a scare by doing just that before Dumbledore came into the room. All Harry needed now was to be accused of murdering the headmaster's pet. And it hadn't helped his moral when he'd tried the Sorting hat on only to be told again he would have done well in Slytherin. By the time Dumbledore came in Harry was half wondering if he might actually be hurting people with accidental magic.

The only comfort was when Hagrid burst in holding two roosters that had mysteriously been killed and started saying how he believed Harry was innocent. Luckily Dumbledore hadn't thought Harry was guilty. He'd only wanted to ask him some questions. Harry decided not to admit to hearing the voices though. It might just be one more sign that he was crazy.

"Look Harry," Hermione said later that week. "Try not to think about it. Just go home for Christmas and have a nice holiday. Almost everybody's going home for Christmas including Malfoy's gang. So even though the potion's ready we couldn't use it yet anyway."

Harry nodded. "Guess we could all use a holiday. Especially Ginny," he said as he looked down the Gryffindor table. "She's been more upset than anybody the past few days." They reasoned she was probably just worried because of all the attacks. The whole school was, and since whatever the monster was had been able to even hurt a ghost, they knew it was something even more dangerous than what they had first thought. Still, Harry couldn't help worrying about Ginny. He'd known her since they were babies, and it wasn't like her to be so timid.

Remus could tell that Harry was relieved to be home for the Christmas holidays, but Harry had been spending far more time in his room than normal. Whenever he came out he just moped around. This couldn't go on, so one day Remus decided to just go ahead and ask about it.

"What's wrong cub? You've been so down lately."

Harry didn't answer, so Remus sat down beside him.

"Don't make the same mistake I did at your age, son. There's never any problem so bad you can't talk about it with someone. There's never been anything we couldn't talk about before."

Harry looked up and said quickly "Icantalktosnakes."

"Sorry, didn't catch that."

"I can talk to snakes."

Remus looked at him, shocked but not as upset as would be expected. "You're a parselmouth?"

Nodding miserably, Harry said "That's what Ron called it." He found himself telling all about how he was being blamed for the attacks and the dueling club incident.

"And now everyone's thinking I'm the heir of Slytherin," he finished.

"You know that's not possible, Harry. James didn't have a drop of Slytherin blood in him, and Lily was muggle-born."

Harry wasn't convinced.

"But what if I'm still a dark wizard? Everyone says there's never been a decent parselmouth. What if I'm hurting people without realizing it?"

Taking a deep breath, Remus said gently "You know, during the first war most werewolves joined Voldemort."

"Why would they do that?"

"The same reason most people did. False promises, the illusion that they'd get a share in the power. The way they'd always been treated by others it was tempting to them. Now, I want you to look at me. Do you think I would ever join any dark wizards?"

"Of course not! You know I've never listened to what people say about werewolves."

"I know. But now what about Hagrid?"

"What about him?"

"He's half giant, and most giants sided with Voldemort too."

"That doesn't mean Hagrid would!"

To Harry's surprise, Remus was smiling. "So let me be sure I understand you. Being a werewolf doesn't mean I'm automatically evil, and being half-giant doesn't mean Hagrid is automatically evil. So why is being a parselmouth any different?"

Harry looked at his dad.

"Can't answer that, can you?"

Harry shook his head, but then said "But-but the Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin at first."

"But aren't you in Gryffindor?"

"Only because I asked not to be in Slytherin. I didn't want to be like Draco."

"And that's something no dark wizard would have thought," Remus said, putting an arm around Harry's shoulders. "Besides, there's never been a case of unintentional magic seriously hurting someone, especially on more than one occasion. You're friends with a muggleborn, helping Neville build his confidence by including him, and aren't prejudice against people just because of their bloodlines, or," he added with a smile, "just because they have a furry little problem. You don't sound like a dark wizard to me."

Finally feeling reassured, Harry smiled and said "I'll be sure to tell Peeves that next time he goes around singing 'Oh Potter, you rotter.'"

Remus laughed and said "Knowing Peeves I'm surprised he hasn't started calling you 'loony loopy Lupin.' That's what he always called me at school."

Now both were laughing, and father and son shared a hug, but even in the happiness of helping his son an awful possibility occurred to Remus. A voice only a Parselmouth could hear or understand? But there hadn't been one of those sighted in over four hundred years. It couldn't be possible. How could one be at Hogwarts? But then again, hadn't Voldemort been at Hogwarts all last year without it being known?

"Harry," Remus said cautiously as he pulled away from the hug. "Have you ever heard of a basilisk?"

Harry shook his head.

"It's a kind of giant snake. It's bite kills in less than a minute and looking it in the eye is instantly fatal. I don't want to scare you, but I think you should know how dangerous it is. We know now that you're a parselmouth and there's been a voice at Hogwarts nobody but you has heard. So I'm wondering if it could be some kind of snake. It sounds crazy. I have no idea how a basilisk could be at Hogwarts and I've never heard of a basilisk petrifying anyone, but I don't want to take any chances. If you hear that voice again get help at once. No matter what don't try to handle the problem yourself. Best to stay with your friends at all times. And be careful that you don't look in the direction it's coming from. When I take you back to Hogwarts I'm going to have a word with Dumbledore and see what he thinks. It's probably just a wild idea."