Neville and Jane didn't really want to dual, but they decided to join the dueling club in case they might learn something that could help protect them. Unfortunately, when they got there they found out that it was taught by Professor Snape and Professor Lockhart.

To practice the disarming charm, Neville was paired with Justin, and Jane was paired with Sasha. It wasn't long before Professor Lockhart asked Neville and Justin to come up in front of the class.

"Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest of spells," Professor Snape rudely said, before volunteering Harry and Draco.

Neville and Jane watched as Harry and Draco got up in front of each other, and Draco casts a snake out of his wand.

When Lockhart tried to get rid of the snake, he ended up shooting it into the air.

Neville heard Jane whimper.

The snake landed, enraged. He lunged toward Justin.

Jane and Harry both rushed toward the snake. Jane hissed at the snake first, telling it to please not hurt anyone, and then Harry.

The snake stopped.

Justin looked toward Harry, and then Jane. "Who do you think you're playing at?" he shouted.

To Neville, it was clear that they had called the snake off, but Neville had learned to understand some parseltongue during the many times he'd gone with Jane to visit Mrs. Snake over the years. He was about to tell Justin, but Justin left. Neville rushed up to Jane.

Jane was rocking back and forth and trembling.

Neville carefully stroked her hand.

Jane took his hand in hers and squeezed it tightly.

Ron marched up to Harry, while Hermione marched up to Neville and Jane. Ron started leading Harry away.

"Come with us," Hermione ordered, heading toward the door.

Neville led Jane and followed them. "They were just calling it off," Neville called out, shortly as they left.

Neville followed them, dragging Jane. "Maybe we can go in an empty classroom," he suggested.

Hermione tried the door to an empty classroom. It was unlocked.

Soon they were all in the room, and Hermione was closing the door.

Ron looked toward Harry, and then he spoke and sounded mad. "You're a Parselmouth? Why didn't you tell us?"

"I'm a what?" Harry asked.

"A Parselmouth!" said Ron. "You can talk to snakes!"

Jane trembled more, leaning into Neville.

"I know," Harry said. "I accidentally set a Boa Constrictor on my cousin Dudley at the zoo. It was telling me it had never seen Brazil, and I sort of set it free without meaning too – that was before I knew I was a wizard."

"A boa constrictor told you it had never seen Brazil," Ron repeated.

"Did you set it free by making the glass disappear?" Neville asked.

"Yes."

"Apparently, when Jane was six, she was visiting her python friend at the zoo and she made the glass disappear. The snake didn't want to leave, and she couldn't set the glass back, so her father rushed her out of there."

"See," Harry said. "I bet loads of people here can do it," Harry said.

"Oh, no they can't," Ron said. "It's not a common gift. This is bad."

"What's bad?" Harry said. "What's wrong with everyone? If we hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin…

"Oh, that's what you said to it."

"You were there. You heard it."

"I heard you speaking Parseltongue. Snake language."

"I spoke a different language? How can I speak a different language without knowing I speak it."

"To Jane," Neville said, "Parseltongue sounds exactly like English. To me and my gran, and Jane's squib mother and grandfather, it sounds like Parseltongue. Her muggle father and grandmother could never hear it at all."

Hermione and Ron looked back and forth from Harry to Jane, in horror.

"What's wrong with stopping a massive snake biting off Justin's head? Why does it matter how we did it?"

"It matters," Hermione said, "because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Syltherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of the Syltherin house is a serpent."

"Exactly," Ron said. "Now the whole school going to think that you two are his great-great-great-great grandson and granddaughter or something."

"I'm not," said Harry.

"You'll find that hard to prove," said Hermione. "He lived about a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be."

Harry pointed at Jane, "but her parents are a muggle and a squib."

"He could have had a squib descendent," Ron said. He turned to look at Neville and Jane. "Are you two related?"

"No. We're neighbors. My gran told me and Jane not to tell anyone that Jane can speak snake, because she might get discriminated against. Unfortunately, everyone now knows because you two were kind enough to help someone in an emergency. Neither of you could be the heir of Syltherin because neither of you has anything reason to dislike muggle-borns."

"Exactly," Harry said.

While Neville was walking Jane back to the Hufflepuff common room, he spotted Cedric Diggory, who he only knew the name of because of Quidditch. "Hey, Cedric," Neville called, "you're a prefect, right?"

"Yeah," Cedric answered. He looked a Jane, as though a bit afraid.

"Could you tell the other Hufflepuff's, or at least Justin, that Jane and Harry just told the snake to leave him alone?"

Cedric smiled, softly, although it looked a bit forced. "Yeah," he said. "I can do that."