SPEAKER

"You're a bloody Parselmouth! Why didn't you tell us?"

"I'm a what?" Harry asked dumbly, finding himself looking between the terrified looking Ron and the pale looking Hermione in confusion.

"A Parselmouth!" Ron exclaimed, "You can talk to snakes!"

"I know?" Harry said slowly, not entirely sure what the big fuss was about. "I mean, that's only the second time I've ever done it. I accidentally set a boa constrictor on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once – long story – but it was telling me it had never seen Brazil and I sort of set it free without meaning to. That was being I knew I was a wizard".

"A boa constrictor told you it had never seen Brazil?" Ron echoed weakly.

"So?" Harry asked defensively, "I bet loads of people here can do it!"

"Oh no they can't," came the correction. "It's not a very common gift. Harry, this is bad".

"Why is this bad?" Harry demanded, getting a little angry with his friend's reaction. "What's wrong with you all? Listen, if I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin-"

"Oh? Is that what you said to it?" Ron interrupted.

"What d'you mean? You were there! You heard me!"

"I heard you speaking Parseltongue!" Ron argued, "Snake language? You could have been saying anything. No wonder Justin panicked. You sounded like you were egging the snake on or something. It was creepy, you know".

Harry stared. "What the hell is wrong with you people?" he shouted, pushing himself up out of the armchair and beginning to pace. "I speak to animals all the time and you all don't care! But the moment I speak to one little snake, you all freak out!"

"You speak to animals all the time? This isn't having a one-sided conversation with Hedwig, Harry," Hermione corrected gently. "Being able to talk to snakes is what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin house is a serpent".

"One-sided conversations?" Harry echoed dumbly, blinking at his friends in shock and hurt. "You don't believe me?"

"Believe you about what?" Ron asked, exchanging a confused look with Hermione.

"I told you I could talk to Hedwig! And you don't believe me!" Harry exclaimed, "They're not one-sided conversations! I talk to her, and I hear her voice! In here!" he explained pointing at his head, "That's why I told you she chose her own name! I listed some out and she chose Hedwig".

"You can't talk to owls, Harry," Hermione corrected. "There's no 'Owlseltongue', it's just not possible".

"It's not just owls," Harry snapped, "I can talk to most animals! Birds, dogs, rats – not Scabbers though for some reason – cats. That's why Mrs Norris and Fang like me so much," he added as his friends exchanged another look, "Because I can actually talk to them!"

"Harry… it's not that we don't believe you," Ron began.

"But you don't believe me," he finished for his 'friend'. "What if I told you that your owl? Errol? He's second-hand from a wizarding family that used to live next to the Burrow. But the wife died so the husband moved in with his son and daughter-in-law, they didn't need an extra owl so they gave him to your family. His real name is 'Sir Didymus'," he growled, crossing his arms with a scowl.

"Like in Labyrinth?" Hermione questioned.

"Exactly like in Labyrinth!" Harry confirmed, "The wife had two pet kneazles named 'Sarah' and 'Jareth'".

"I love that movie".

"I've only read the book," Harry confessed, "And don't look at me like that, I can read".

"HELLO?" Ron interrupted, "Can we please get back to you being a Parselmouth here?"

"I'm not a Parselmouth!" Harry shouted back, the raven-haired wizard beginning to lose his temper, "I'm uh… I'm a…"

"A 'zoolinguist'?" Hermione offered, "A combination between 'zoo' for animal and 'linguist' for language? Like Doctor Dolittle. A muggle fictional character," she clarified when Harry and Ron stared at her. "He has the ability to speak to animals".

"So you believe me now?" Harry asked coolly.

"Of course I do," Hermione assured him automatically. "I thought you were just, you know, talking at Hedwig. I didn't know you were actually talking to her. There's a difference you know".

"I don't need to talk," Harry admitted sheepishly, "But back at muggle school people used to look at me weird if I sat there staring at animals, talking to them was allowed though".

"So?" Ron interrupted again, "What does it matter you don't need to speak out loud? You're a bloody Parseltongue! Shouldn't we be focusing on that?"

"Do you ever listen Ronald?" Hermione snapped, "Parseltongues speak to snakes. Harry here can talk to any animal, therefore he can't be a Parseltongue can he?"

"Maybe Parseltongues can speak to other animals then too!" Ron argued.

"Or maybe people like Harry can speak to snakes too!" Hermione shot back, "Why does he have to be a Parseltongue just because he can speak to snakes?"

"Salazar Slytherin was a Parseltongue and he could speak to snakes".

"Oh Merlin you're a complete and utter idiot," Hermione exhaled, blinking at Ron in shock, ignoring the way the red-head's face turned a brilliant scarlet to match his hair. "Come on Harry, we're going to the library, maybe we can find some books on zoolingualism".

"Okay," Harry agreed quietly, letting his friend hook her arm in his and start dragging him towards the portrait entrance.

Looking over his shoulder as they vanished out into the halls, Harry couldn't help but flinch at the angry look on Ron's face. It hadn't looked like his friend was going to react badly to his gift, not until Hermione had called him an 'idiot' at least. But why hadn't Ron been able to accept that Harry could speak to animals? Neither of his friends had treated him any differently last year when he'd told them about it after they'd caught him talking to Hedwig.

Sighing, Harry turned his attention back to what Hermione was saying. Wizards were so confusing sometimes.

SPEAKER

So this is just a short preview based off my own "Speaker" challenge. I probably could have continued it, but I decided not to, as the next section would be the part where basically the whole plot is spelled out for you and I don't want to give away something I might potentially use later.

ALSO! I've put a poll up on my profile regarding this coming 'Memorial Day' (The Halloween on which James and Lily Potter gave their lives for their son), so throw in your votes for which story you'd like to see being written! The poll will be closed officially on the 20th of October, but I'll be working on each idea anyway so I'll definitely have something to post on the 31st.