"Sharper wand movement than that, Weasley, or you'll take off Mr Longbottom's arm-"
Harry grinned at Draco as Ron flushed bright red, and Neville examined his arm, without being as subtle as he'd obviously intended. Ron scowled.
"Expelliarmus!" Draco said, and Harry's wand twitched, but remained firmly in his hand.
"Very good, Mr Malfoy, you almost had it; try not to drag your pronunciation out too much-"
"Expelliarmus," Harry said, while Draco was pulling a face at Lockhart. Draco's wand landed on the floor, a few feet away from him, with a clatter.
"Well done, Harry!" Lockhart said, beaming. He collected Draco's wand and passed it back to him; Draco was, Harry was amused to notice, looking perfectly polite again. "Nicely done, very nicely done; almost as good as I was at the same age- Keep trying, Miss Granger, you look like you've almost got it…"
"Not bad for a second year," Fred said, appearing beside Harry, who grinned. Draco scowled, and muttered – only just loudly enough for Harry to hear him – the spell again, this time, with his wand pointed at George. "Did-"
"Oi!" Draco disarmed him, but only just; rather than arcing through the air, like Lockhart's had done in Snape's demonstration, George's wand just seemed to slide out of his hand. Fred advanced on Draco, grinning, apparently in defence of his twin.
"Weasley!" Snape had turned around at the wrong moment.
"Expelliarmus," Fred said calmly, and Draco's wand flew into his hand. "Ha! Did you like that, Professor?" Snape's expression indicated otherwise, and he opened his mouth but couldn't speak before George cut him off.
"I'm speechless too, Professor." He'd retrieved his wand, and was standing beside Fred, with a hand over his heart. "Perfect spell, old chap; that wand movement, that catch-"
Snape's eyes flicked over Draco for the briefest of moments, apparently checking him for any injuries – physical ones, or to his pride, Harry wasn't sure – before they landed on the twins again. His lips thinned, and he spun on his heel – as smoothly as he ever had, even with his leg – and went to harass Ginny and Luna. At Snape's instruction, Ginny disarmed Luna as easily as Fred had Draco and turned to Snape with a smug but somewhat blank expression that Harry had never seen her wear before. Snape's expression darkened, and he pointed at Hermione – who'd been partnered with Millicent Bulstrode – and had her swap with Ginny. Hermione looked grateful for it.
"-is a tempting offer, isn't it, George?"
"It is indeed, Freddie, but will he stick to it?"
"Of course I will," Draco huffed. "As long as you give me my wand back."
"Deal," Fred said, seizing Draco's hand. "Pleasure doing business with you, young Malfoy-"
"Pleasure indeed. Not a word to him, either."
"I won't say a word to him," Draco said, rolling his eyes. Harry waited until the twins had headed over to Lee to arch an eyebrow at Draco.
"Tell Weasley to check his trunk for dungbombs before bed tonight," Draco said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I promised those two I'd sneak one in there."
"All right! Listen in, listen in!" Lockhart called over the top of everyone. "We're going to do some duelling now that you've all got the basics down; can I have a volunte- Mr Malfoy, lovely." Draco looked terrified for a moment, until he realised Lockhart meant Hydrus, and then started to snigger. "I know; I should be punishing you for talking, rather than giving you such a wonderful opportunity, but, well, that's just who I am."
Hydrus stomped up to the platform. He was obviously trying to look derisive, but he was eyeing the older students – like Fred and George, and a tall boy who was Huffleuff's Seeker, and Percy's Prefect friend from Ravenclaw – with some trepidation.
"And perhaps…"
"Potter," Severus said, because Lockhart's gaze had been flicking between Crabbe and Goyle. Lockhart looked up, seeming surprised, but pleased. Potter was glaring at Severus, and Draco didn't look happy either, but Weasley seemed to be just holding in a smile as he nudged Potter up toward the stage.
Yes, better one of those four Gryffindors than any of the others; with the Chamber of Secrets business, people were already frowning upon Severus' House, and he didn't want to provoke that rivalry by having Hydrus beat or hurt another student, or by having Hydrus embarrassed and angry at losing to another student. Really, why hadn't the boy just had the sense to keep his mouth shut, and then Severus could have had Diggory and Clearwater duel, or made the Weasley twins face off against each other.
He sighed. Still, better Potter than Draco – who Hydrus didn't need any more reason to dislike – and better Potter than Granger – who didn't need to tempt the Heir by being a muggleborn capable of beating a pureblood – and better Potter than Weasley – who Hydrus would be particularly nasty to, due to learning where Draco had stayed over Christmas.
"Now," Lockhart said brightly, "bow- yes, that's it, boys, well done-" Severus saw Hydrus' mouth move, and saw Potter's move in response, but didn't hear what had actually been said. "-now, to your ends of the platform. On three; one, two-"
"-three!"
"Expelliarmus!" Harry said, but Hydrus stepped to the side.
"Predictable, Harry!" Lockhart said, and Harry felt his face heat up. Hydrus smirked, and Harry vowed to get Snape back for this, somehow; just when Harry started to think the git might not be so bad…
"Petfrificus tot-"
"Pedis offencio!" Hydrus toppled over. "Saponum!" Harry added, for good measure, and Hydrus' face turned comically revolted. He coughed up soapy bubbles, and Harry grinned. Ron looked ecstatic, and lots of the onlookers were laughing. "Tar-"
"Locomotor wibbly!" The spell was muffled – Hyrus was still spitting out bubbles – but the spell was too fast, and it hit. Harry's legs gave way beneath him, and he came dangerously close to smashing his face into the platform. Hydrus, wiping his mouth, got to his feet. Parkinson and Greengrass cheered, and the twins booed loudly. "Expelliarmus!" Hydrus said, and Harry threw himself to the side. It was less graceful than when Padfoot had done it when he duelled Tonks, but the spell didn't hit him, and that was what mattered.
"Torpeo!" Harry said, pushing himself upright. The spell missed Hydrus' wand arm, but hit his other arm, which plastered itself to his side. "Torpeo!" Harry said again, and Hydrus hopped out of the way, and tried another full Body-Bind. The spell ruffled Harry's hair, but, thankfully, missed. "Ventus!" Hydrus tumbled to the platform, bringing him down to Harry's level. Harry thought Lockhart might have said something. "Exp-"
"Serpensortia!" Hydrus yelped.
"-elliarmus!" A snake dropped out of the end of the wand, just as the wand soared into Harry's hand. His win was met with silence, brought about by the snake on the platform. Only Hydrus, and a few of the other Slytherins didn't seem bothered by it, and they were all silent due to Hydrus' loss. Harry wiggled the wand, smirking, and then threw it back to him. Hydrus hiccoughed a bubble, which made it all the better. Harry grinned, and Hydrus' expression darkened.
"Him," Hydrus said, pointing at Harry, who ignored him.
"Finite," he said with his own wand, and the effects of the Jelly-Legs Jinx stopped.
When he looked up, he had time to register two things; one, that Lockhart had his wand in one arm and was holding Snape off with the other, insisting loudly that he could handle the snake, and two, that said snake was slithering steadily toward Harry.
"Hurt you, oh, yess," it said.
"Sorry, what?" Harry asked, staring at it. The snake stopped, just in time for Lockhart's spell to hit it; it, however, only flew into the air with a hiss that Harry didn't understand and landed with a thump.
"Sspeaker," it said, and twisted its head to the side in a reptilian imitation of Padfoot, when he was a dog and interested.
"Apparently," Harry said. Ginny was close enough to the platform that she could hear him. Harry's expression – which had been as startled as everyone else's – had changed to a sort of curious frown, like he was thinking hard. She focused on that, on his face, because focusing on anything else would mean
"Sssorry, ssspeaker, but my caster chosssse you-" The snake turned back to nod at Malfoy, whose expression was frozen somewhere between horror and surprise. The snake let out a hiss that didn't seem to mean anything. Ginny shuddered, and wrapped her arms around herself. Snakes didn't talk- well, they did, but only parseltongues were supposed to be able to understand them, and Ginny wasn't- Ginny couldn't be a parselmouth. That was a Dark gift, and Ginny was a Gryffindor and- "-for hurting," the snake continued, making Ginny flinch, "ssso hurt you I will-"
"Are you all right?" Luna whispered, putting a hand on her arm, and Andrew Higgs looked down at her, concerned. No one else was paying her any attention; they were all too interested in Harry and the snake. They couldn't understand it.
"Fine," Ginny made herself say, but probably ruined any semblance of 'fine' by running for the doors as soon as she was free of the crowd.
Tom! she shouted into her head. He'd been there just before, and helped her Disarm Luna, but he'd left, saying he was tired, and she hoped he wasn't too tired now; she needed to talk to him and his diary was a whole seven floors away. Tom!?
Ginny, you seem distressed; what's the matter?
"Sssorry, ssspeaker, but my caster chosssse you for hurting, ssso hurt you I will-"
Harry was vaguely aware of Snape saying something, and then the snake was gone. Harry looked for Snape in the crowd, and was startled to see he was wearing the same surprised expression as Hydrus. Harry glanced around; Snape and Hydrus weren't the only ones. Just about everyone in the Hall looked either disbelieving or frightened, and Harry saw long, red hair – Ginny's hair – disappearing through the door. Hermione's bushy head followed just after.
Then, all he could see was a pale hand, and on his other side and a freckled one on the other side, and Ron telling Percy to move as he was literally dragged from the platform and out of the Hall.
"You're a parselmouth, and didn't say anything?" Ron demanded, as soon as they were secluded in the library; obviously, Harry's friends were bursting, and hadn't had the patience to get to the common room. Thankfully, the library was just about empty, because everyone else was downstairs, likely listening to Lockhart try to take credit for getting rid of the snake.
"I don't know what that means," Harry said, "but I think I can talk to snakes-" Draco rolled his eyes.
"That's precisely what it means, Potter, and if you'd read that thesaurus-"
"I doubt that would be in there-"
"Do I look like a muggle, Potter? It's a wizarding thesaurus, of course it's in there-"
"Malfoy, shut up," Ron said, kicking him. "Harry, do you have any idea what you've just-"
"Of course he doesn't," Draco said. "Does he ever-"
"They're all going to think you're the Heir. I know you aren't," he added quickly, "and that it's You-Know-Who and all that, but parseltongue is Dark and just then, downstairs, it looked like you turned Malfoy's snake on him-" Draco nodded, rather solemnly.
"What?" Harry frowned at them. "No, it said I was a speaker – the Keplie used the same word, isn't that funny-" Draco did not seem at all amused. "-and then it told me that its caster wanted me hurt and so it was going to hurt me-"
"But that's not what it looked like," Ron said. For all that his tone was patient, he looked strained. "We couldn't understand a word-"
"You could understand me," Harry said, still frowning. "Just not the snake-"
"No, Harry, because you were speaking parseltongue-"
"Didn't we just establish that?" Draco asked.
"But I was- you couldn't understand me-" Draco looked like he was about to say something scathing and sarcastic, so Harry stopped talking, and tried to let it all sink in. Ron and Draco both looked a little shaken.
"Well," Harry said finally, "at the very least, one good thing's come out of all of this; Lockhart was right."
"That's a good thing?" Draco asked, at the same time as Ron snorted and said, "Yeah, right, Harry. Lockhart was right? Did you hit your head in your duel-"
"I think the monster is a snake. That's why I can hear it, and why no one else seems to be able to."
Sweet Ginny, you mustn't worry about such things; as a Slytherin, being able to talk to snakes seems like a wonderful talent. It simply means you're special. And it can't be all dark, surely, not if Harry Potter can do it.
You're right, Ginny thought, clinging to the idea. You're right, thank you, Tom, I don't know what I would have done if I couldn't talk to-
"Ginny!" Hermione appeared at the end of the corridor, out of breath and clutching her side. "What's- why did you leave? Are you all right?"
"Fine," Ginny said, swallowing. "Just startled."
"I'll say." Hermione bit her lip, apparently deep in thought. Her eyes brightened. "Professor Lockhart was right! It must be a snake-"
"What must be?" Ginny asked, aware of Tom listening as well.
"Slytherin's monster; that's why Harry's hearing it, because it's a snake!" Her hand flew to her mouth. "So parseltongue must be what lets the Heir control it… could still be an heirloom, but it seems more likely to be an inherited ability, passed down for years and years- Oh dear."
"What?"
"Well, other people will have reached that conclusion – or something similar – but they don't know what we know, they only know that Harry's a parselmouth, so they're going to think it's him, and then I ran out after you, but I don't think people saw you, so they'll think I've run from him-"
Hermione was talking so quickly that it took Ginny a moment to sort through her words.
"What do you know that no one else does?" she asked curiously.
"Of course," Hermione said, clapping her hand to her forehead. "You weren't there the other night. Over Christmas, Harry found the Heir-" Tom did something that sent a spike of pain through Ginny's head. She pressed her hand to her temple, wincing. "-in an old book. It's- oh, Ginny, it's You-Know-Who!" A thrill of fear ran through her.
"You're sure?"
"Positive. He was here at Hogwarts fifty years ago, and opened it then, but now he's doing it again somehow- Oh, I hope it's not through Harry somehow, he'd have said if he'd felt his scar…"
"He was in the Hospital Wing, the night Colin was petrified," Ginny said. "And he was with me when we found Mrs Norris-"
"Right, right." Hermione muttered. She looked up, eyes not entirely focused. "You're sure you're all right?"
"Fine," Ginny said again, too overwhelmed to come up with any other words.
"I'll see you at dinner. I need the library."
Hi everyone!
First off, I am alive! I'm so sorry for worrying you all! I'm also very sorry for missing the last two updates; my laptop chose to die two weeks ago, and I've only been able to afford to replace it today. I'm also in the process of moving house, so my access to internet at home has been non-existant. I'm hoping to start rewriting chapter 21 today (the one good thing about having no laptop means I've had to use uni computers and am therefore on top of my assignments).
I am hoping to be able to update by tuesday, and then updates will be weekly (still on tuesdays) after that. I promise I'm not planning to abandon this, it's just been a rough few weeks, and I am really grateful for your patience and your concern.
Until tuesday,
MarauderLover7.