Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord", enjoy!

* Review response:
Highvalour, I believe, at this point of time Harry mind is occupied with something other than why some of his professors are allowed to do whatever they want to.
RE5 forever, Hanzo of the Salamander 2.0, Taboo22, kazikamikaze24, obsessivegirl73, Awsomeness7, god of all, raw666, thank you, folks!
Still Not Dead Yet, remember, Harry has to concentrate to talk to an inanimate snake carved on the sink in the book? I think that while he freely switches to parseltongue while addressing a real snake, he can't just hiss something to an unmoving statue without thinking about talking in the serpent language.
Victorules, hm... dark-medic... If you've watched Naruto, Kabuto of the end of the first season would be a good example of a darker medic: capable of both healing people and damaging them with his techniques, while not having a moral dilemma about what he does.
Penny is wise, I replied you via PM, but to answer the question that you might have by the time you finish reading this chapter - everything will be explained in the next chapter.
loginanout, you're partially right, as the Chamber will be the catalyst of change for Harry. As for what Dumb-as-a-door would think about this - wait and see.
Goldrune09, he he he.

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"spells / parseltongue"

This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.

"You sure are pretty." He said, rubbing his finger against the drawn snake's back. The snake stared at him, while the two Gryffindors and two Slytherins next to him gasped. "What?" He asked.

"Potter... You... You can speak parseltongue!" Draconica said in a shocked voice.

Chapter 21: Mystery of the beast

"Parseltongue?" Harry asked in a bit of surprise: while he had come across the term a couple of time during his studies of magic, he was yet to find somewhere, where it would be explained what this term exactly meant.

"Yeah, it is the language of serpents." The blond Slytherin witch replied. "A rare ability that is considered to be hereditary. In Europe only descendants of the Slytherin family have it. There are also a clan in Cambodia and a couple of families in central America that can speak to snakes."

"And because Slytherin family wasn't always what we would consider 'good', in England, parselmouths – those who can speak pareseltongue – are labeled as dark." Neville added. "It was like this for ages, but after You-Know-whose rise to power it only became worse." Harry nodded, finding this information to be most useful: now he knew that he should keep his ability a complete secret. Not that he would have revealed it to the world otherwise...

"Hmm... In this case I want you to swear that you will not reveal this ability of mine without my expressed consent." The scion of the house Potter said firmly. Hermione looked at him with a hurt expression on her face, Neville only appeared to be a bit surprised, while both Slytherin girls didn't show any emotional response to this request.

"But Harry... We're your friends! We won't tell your secret to anyone!" The bushy-haired witch said, her eyes on the dark-haired wizard in front of her.

"Yes, Hermione, I know. But I have enough attention on me as I am, I don't need extra... And while I'm sure you will not tell this secret to anyone consciously, it is still possible that you can blab it without thinking. The oath I ask for is to prevent that." The Gryffindor witch nodded slowly.

"OK, Harry, I understand." And she was the first one to swear the oath, followed by Neville, and, finally, two Slytherin witches.

"...You know, Potter, you have quite a bit of Slytherin slyness in you." Daphne said once the oaths were sworn. Harry chuckled.

"I'll take that as a compliment." After a small pause, he continued. "But enough of that, we need to continue our research." There was a round of nods and the five second year students returned to trying to find out what the beast from the Chamber of Secrets was...

~/ *** \~

Unfortunately for the five, they had to halt their research for now as the Hogwarts professors devised a new way to keep the students in the common rooms: they were now assigning a lot of extra homework, so much that even Hermione barely had any free time left. At least the heir of Slytherin was in the same situation and no new attacks were happening, which allowed the school to breath a sigh of relieve and relax a little bit...

After three weeks without any attack (the last one being on Padma and Amanda), Hogwarts staff decided to let the children have some fun, and so the quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff was scheduled to Sunday afternoon that week. While Harry had to go and play for his house, the rest of the research team weren't bound like that, and Hermione and Neville decided to continue researching the beast from the Chamber. Draconica and Daphne, though, decided not to join their 'colleagues' and went to watch the match with the rest of the school...

The game was much more intense than normal for these teams, as both sides were playing their absolute best, not knowing whether they will have a chance for another match or not this school year. Or at all, as if the attacks wouldn't stop, the chances were, the Hogwarts will be closed...

An hour into the game, both teams had scored more than a hundred points (Gryffindor being a single goal away from two hundreds), and it seemed that they still were warming up, thus the match was very interesting to watch. Too bad, the weather wasn't very welcoming for both players and spectators, but it was the end of January in the northern Scotland, so it would have been foolish to expect anything other than chilly wind and light but unpleasantly prickly snow at this time...

Because of this weather, Harry was just hovering high above the pitch, trying to spot the little golden ball, which seemed to be hiding well today, and if not for the warming charms the girls – chaser trio – put on his quidditch robes in the locker rooms, he would have froze into an icicle long ago... Finally, the green-eyed boy caught a flash of gold just outside of the ring of the tribunes around the pitch, and headed there, pushing his Nimbus to its limits, wanting to return to the warm and cozy common room as fast as possible. Of course, Cedric Diggory, fifth year Hufflepuff seeker, saw him move and too headed to where the snitch was, but as he was even further from the flying ball than Harry, and on a slower broom, he had little to no chances of catching it.

And indeed, the young Potter was the first to reach the snitch, but the tiny ball was as difficult to catch as always, so Harry had to show a good deal of his flying skills to keep up with it... Finally the winged ball seemed to get tired of advanced aerobatics and let the Gryffindor seeker to get close. Harry was about about to catch it, when madam Hooch yelled for the game to stop. He still caught the ball, even if he had suspicions that this won't be counted, before heading to the center of the pitch where both teams, madam Hooch and professor McGonnagal were.

As it turned out, the match was canceled because another attack happened. And even before the transfiguration professor asked him to go with her to the Hospital wing, Harry knew who got attacked: Hermione and Neville... His fears were proven correct when he saw their petrified forms in the Hospital wing. Apparently, the 'heir' or his informants had overheard them when Hermione said during the lunch that she had an idea about what the beast from the Chamber of Secrets was.

Harry returned to the common room, feeling very down from having his friends taken from him, and he now wanted to make whoever was behind the attacks pay for what he (or she) had done. And to make things worse, it seemed that the Hogwarts staff was doing nothing to prevent the attacks from happening again, and it fell to him to stop the 'heir', so some one from the student body will have to do stop the attacks. Permanently... But without Hermione, it would take him ages to unveil the secrets of the Chamber, Harry was sure of that, so he would have to take Draconica and Daphne up on their offer.

The young Potter approached the girls during the brake between two DADA lessons, and they agreed to help him in his research like they had promised. Unfortunately, with the amount of the homework they (all students) had, and the curfew policies being enforced like never before, they would have to wait until Thursday to meet up and start working on unraveling the secrets of Slytherin's chamber...

Unfortunately for the three researchers, they didn't find anything about the snakes that could petrify, and could like in Scotland. Even among those serpents that were already extinct. Basilisks came close, though, but their gaze killed, not petrified, so the kings of serpents were removed from the list of possible 'monster of the Chamber'.

Harry had suggested that they look into wider selections of beasts that were related to snakes, those like chimeras, lamia or nagas, but as it was almost time for dinner, they had to end their research for today. Hopefully, they'll have time to meet up and continue looking for what was attacking students sometime before next Thursday...

~/ *** \~

As the days went by, the morale of the Hogwarts was still low, as many feared that they would be the next target of the mysterious heir of Slytherin – it was already proved that even purebloods and members of Slytherin house weren't safe. And no one even now had any information about what was the beast that attacked the students, or where the Chamber of Secrets was, or even who this 'heir' was... So one Gilderoy Lockhart got a bright idea of boosting school's morale. Of course, knowing Lockhart, this was not going to end well...

Lockhart's idea of a morale-booster became clear at breakfast time on February fifteenth (fourteenth was a Sunday after all, so the blond DADA professor moved the event one day). When Harry walked into the Great hall, for a moment he thought that, that he had made a mistake and entered the wrong room: the walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers, while pink heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling... Trying his best to ignore the 'decorations', the green-eyed wizard went over to the Gryffindor table.

"What's going on?" Harry asked them, sitting down and wiping confetti off his bacon. Weasley twins pointed to the professors' table, where Lockhart could be seen wearing a lurid pink robes to match the hall's decorations, and was waving for silence... Professors around him were looking stony-face, though one could see a muscle going in professor McGonnagal's cheek, while the Hogwarts potions master looked like someone had force-fed him a barrel of the nastiest potions known to a man.

"Happy Valentine's day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty three people who have sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all, and it doesn't end here!" He clapped his hands, and a dozen of dwarfs, who looked like they'd rather be elsewhere, marched into the Great hall. They all were wearing golden wings and had harps in their small hands. Unfortunately neither made them look any better... "My friendly card-carrying cupids..." Harry could have heard many students snort at this point. "...will be roving around the school today, delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion!" The potions master gave the student body a look that clearly said that the first one to ask a love potion from him would become his unwilling dummy for testing new (and no doubt vile in both taste and effect) potions. "And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!" The miniature professor buried his face in his hands.

Harry hoped that aside from having to sit through two lessons with Lockhart, his day would be free of his hellish version of the Valentine's day, but, as always, he had a bad luck. Just as he was about to head down to the Great hall for some lunch, a dwarfs grabbed him by his ankle, stopping him.

"Oy, you! 'arry Potter!" The dwarf said, twanging his harp in a threatening way. "I've got a musical message to deliver to you in person." The scion of the house Potter tried to pry the little thing off him, but the dwarf proved to be far stronger than Harry gave him credit for. "Here is your singing valentine: His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad, His hair is as dark as a blackboard. I wish he was mine, he's really divine, The hero who conquered the Dark Lord." The dwarf sang in an awfully not-musical voice.

"What's going on here?" Came a drawling voice of the youngest Malfoy. "Getting some ridiculous complimentary songs from your fans?" Unfortunately for Basilius, Theodore Nott decided that this was a chance to make him a laughing stock of the house.

"I knew you had a thing for dark-haired ones, but I never thought that you were playing for the other team." The older Slytherin boy said. "I think I need to place some new security charms on my room's door. Just in case." Basilius yelled something along the lines of 'when my father hears of this...', before disappearing into the crown, obviously trying to escape with whatever dignity he still had after the Nott's comment. "You owe me a small favor for this, Potter." Theodore said, before adding in a whisper. "I saved you from that little bastard and whatever he had planned to humilate you, after all." Harry just nodded, before heading to the Great hall, hoping that this would cause this awful day to end sooner...

~/ *** \~

Harry, Draconica and Daphne were once again found in the library, surrounded by many tomes on magical beasts as they were still trying to deduce what the monster from the Chamber of Secrets was. Suddenly, the blond witch broke the silence:

"I think, it might be a Medusa – after all they were known for their ability to turn living people into stone statues." Draconica said as she continued reading the article from the book.

"No, it isn't Medusa." Harry replied from behind his own pile of the books. Both girls send questioning looks in his direction, not that he could have seen those, though.

"And why is that, Potter?" Daphne asked, while looking into her fellow Slytherin's book. "They fit well with what we know about the monster from the Chamber." Harry shook his head.

"First of all, the last know Medusa – Gorgon – was killed some three thousands years ago, which is long before Hogwarts was founded." He said. "And the second reason why the beast we are looking for is something else – according to the Greeks, Medusas' life expectancy is about fifty years and they are not capable of hibernation, so unless were are speaking about a group of them, the one that can sustain their number, they would have died out not long after the founders did."

"And what if there is a group of them living somewhere in the castle?" Daphne asked.

"Aside from the legend saying that there is only one 'monster' in the chamber... Medusas are a bit like nagas as their upper body is that of a human: the chances are their children, like human ones, aren't a perfect replica of their parents, thus, if Medusas were the monster from the Chamber of Secrets, the legend would be different." The scion of house Potter replied. "And let's not forget that all known Medusas were killed two millennia before Hogwarts was founded, so I find it doubtful that Salazar Slytherin could find one, never mind many, to live in his secret Chamber."

"Now that you put it like that..." The dark-haired witch said. "I'll have to agree with you that the monster is not a Medusa." After a moment she added: "But that still was a good idea, wasn't it?" The Gryffindor wizard shrugged – not that the girls had seen that.

"Oh well, let's continue looking." Now that they had already looked through most of the books about magical creatures in the Hogwarts library, they could finish their research tonight...

"What is that damn thing!" Harry swore, trying to keep his voice down and not to slam the last book about the magical creatures shut. "There is nothing that fits what we know about the beast from the Chamber that was around when Salazar lived!" The girls, while equally displeased with the lack of findings, kept their cool though.

"Calm down, Potter. Throwing a temper tantrum will not help our situation in the least." Daphne said in her usual distant tone. The scion of house Potter took a deep breath and tried to calm down, like he was advised to.

"With what we have found, I can make two conclusions: one being that we are missing some vital information and are not looking for the beast where we should, and the other – the monster of the chamber isn't a recorded magical creature, but something that Salazar bred himself: he sure was genius enough to do that." The green-eyed boy said. Draconica nodded.

"That would make sense why we can't find anything." She said. "But any idea which one of the two is correct? After all, if we just made a mistake and dismissed the beast as not possible due to not having enough information, dealing with it would be much easier, than fighting against a completely unknown monster."

"You are saying that we will have to fight it?" Harry asked. While he wanted the 'heir' to pay for what happened to Neville and Hermione and others, he didn't think he was suicidal enough to go down to the Chamber of Secrets, wherever it was, and fight the horror that resided there.

"No, by 'we' I meant everyone in the castle, but wouldn't the professor be in the similar conditions? After all, they only have knowledge and experience, not some extra super powers we don't." The blond witch replied. The Gryffindor wizard nodded.

"Yeah, right." He said. "And for some reason I too think that we're just missing some details about the monster and the attacks. Actually, I feel like I should know these details, but for some reason I can't think of what they are."

"Don't worry, Potter." Daphne said. "The situation will be resolved, so just take care not to become the next victim."

"Gee, thanks." Harry chuckled. "But seeing that our little research reached its deadend for the time being, I believe, we should stop it and wait for some new information to appear." The girls nodded. "Be safe. See you tomorrow." And with that he disappeared into the thin air via his invisibility cloak – after all it wouldn't do if he were to found wandering around the castle alone...

That's all, folks!
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