A cacophony of excited chatter drew Draco to the far end of the Slytherin common room, where a large crowd had gathered around the outer wall that housed large, circular windows that looked out into the depths of the lake. Draco had managed to wake up before Harry hounded him out of bed, pleased to avoid the harassment, but sorely missing the tea Harry always brought as a consolation prize. He had been hoping to slip his way to the kitchens and back for a bracing, caffeinated beverage before his house embarked on their morning run, but alas, curiosity got the better of him. He strained to see past the blockade of older students, but was too small to catch a glimpse, even bouncing on his toes.

"What's going on?" he asked to Marcus Flint, who looked even more intense than usual, this early in the morning. "What's got everyone so excited?"

"Common room's sprouted a new door," Marcus replied, nodding his head in the direction of the outer wall. "So far, no one's been brave enough to open it, and find out if it leads anywhere other than our watery doom."

"Is it a prank?" Draco asked, suspiciously. Who would spell a door that led out into the depths of the lake in Slytherin? Had the Weasley twins found their way into the Snake Den?

"Not sure. It's labeled, though. 'The Heir's Room', it says."

Draco gasped. "As in Slytherin's Heir?"

"Sounds like. Doesn't make any sense, though, does it? There hasn't been a parselmouth in Slytherin for fifty years."

The blood drained from Draco's face. Harry was a parselmouth. Had his friend done something last night, without telling him? Was he making a grand gesture to announce his worthiness as a Slytherin to the house? Why hadn't he said something?

Marcus scrutinized Draco carefully. "You know something, Little Seeker?"

Draco shook his head, vehemently. He wouldn't out Harry, not without permission. This might still be a prank, or a trap. Harry would have asked Draco for his opinion and advice, if he had decided to divulge his special talent with the house.

Thankfully, Harry stumbled into the common room then, wiping sleep from his eyes, and giving Draco the excuse to break from Marcus before he gave up Harry's secrets.

"Morning, Sleepyhead," Draco said, happily, taking advantage of the rare occasion of being awake and alert earlier than his friend.

"What's got everyone so excited?" Harry asked with a yawn.

"New door appeared in the outer wall, labeled 'the Heir's Room' or something. Ring any bells?"

Harry frowned in thought, before his eyes widened.

Draco grabbed Harry's collar and roughly dragged him out of potential ear-shot of the others. "What did you do, Potter?"

Harry chewed on his bottom lip, looking around to double-check that no one was lurking nearby. "I just answered the snake carving on the wall's questions, last night."

"The snake carving," Draco deadpanned. "Let me guess, it spoke to you in parseltongue?"

Shrugging helplessly, Harry shrank further back from the crowd. "I think so? It's hard to tell, if I'm not paying attention, but Higgs didn't seem to be able to hear it."

"What did you say to it?"

"It just asked what I would like to change in the common room, if I could. I told it it'd be cool if we had more room for flying, and duelling, and stuff."

"You're sure?"

Harry nodded.

Bolstered with a bravado to break the tension and curiosity in the room, and banking on Slytherin catering to a potential Heir's whims over a prankster infiltrating the common room, Draco pushed his way through the crowd, took one last fortifying breathe, and yanked open the door.

Relieved to find himself dry and on his feet, Draco stepped through the threshold and looked around. He appeared to be in a small lobby, a square room with a grouping of sofas and squashy chairs at the center, and a smattering of closed and neatly labeled doors around the perimeter. The biggest door, opposite the one he had come in from, was labeled 'Athletics Room.'

Draco hurried forward to check it out, and gasped in delighted shock as the massive wizard-space enlarged room appeared beyond the door. It was a full-sized quidditch pitch, with a running track going around the perimeter, and a duelling court etched out in the center.

"Wicked," Marcus Flint whispered behind Draco, before raising his voice to an authoritarian shout. "No one talks about this room to anyone outside of the Slytherin dorms, understood? This is too good an opportunity to pass up, and if the other houses find out about this, they'll do everything they can to take it away from us."

"Agreed," Terrence Higgs said. "If this is an Heir's gift, it is Slytherin business. No one else finds out. We're definitely taking the quidditch cup this year."

"How's there an Heir's gift, at all?" Gemma Farley asked, as she directed students into a line slightly more orderly than the mad stampede they had been making. "Wouldn't we need an Heir, for that?"

"An Heir to what?" Harry asked, sounding way too invested in the question. Draco made a silent pledge to help Harry work on his acting skills.

"Slytherin's Heir, you dirt-blooded moron," Avery spat, as he shoved his way though the gaping crowd of students.

Draco caught Harry's eye, who shook his head. He didn't want his secret as a parselmouth revealed, yet. "I'll tell you all about it later, Potter," he said loudly, stepping purposefully between Harry and the older boy. Are we actually going for a run this morning, or are we just going to stand about gawking at our pretty new track?"

That got people moving. Flint and Higgs organized students into groups, to avoid a massive herd of jogging students from bottlenecking on the track. Harry and Draco sprinted ahead of the rest of their group, jostling for position. Draco had longer legs, and was a bit faster than Harry on the straight aways, but Harry was faster at pivoting and dodging, and always had an object to throw, a jinx to hurl, or a limb to grab, to keep Draco from getting a clean lead.

Draco gave back as good as he got, not as experienced as Harry in physical confrontation, but versed in a wider array of spells. They had to keep subtle in their subterfuge, lest Marcus or Higgs yell at them for disrupting the run for everyone else, but they were more than happy to practice being sneaky.

When they finished their laps, Draco pulled Harry aside. "No one's near the entrance. Now's a good chance to talk to the snake carving, while everyone else is still running, or cleaning up. I'll stand guard for you."

Harry sucked in a deep lungful of air, and looked at Draco, curiously. "What should I say to it?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Slytherin has had parselmouths before. There was a rumor of The Official Slytherin's Heir being at Hogwarts during my grandfather's time here. I've never heard of anything like this happening. We should know why the common room decided to gift you with this, and why. Can you make more changes, later? Can you ask for other things? Magical shortcuts across the castle? A duplicate library? A Dark Arts library? Dedicated house elves? The possibilities could be endless!"

Harry rolled his eyes, but headed over to what must be the same snake carving he had spoken to the night before.

Draco lingered in the new lobby room, and looked at the other doors, he had yet to explore. The one to the left, when entering the room from the common room, was labeled as The Study Hall. The one to the right was The Auditorium.

He peeked into the Study Hall, and found a large space with rows of rectangular tables running down the middle. To the left of those, were smaller, round tables, more suited to shared study sessions of between four to eight people. On the right side, were rows and rows of bookshelves. These were mostly empty, but a few books were sprinkled throughout. Draco wondered if students would need to donate books to the room, or if the room was sophisticated to duplicate or summon needed tomes from the Hogwarts library, or even pureblood family libraries, or the Ministry Archives.

Either way, the seventh years would not need to kick the younger years out of the common room for playing exploding snap, any time soon.

The Auditorium was just as impressive. It appeared to be a large theater space, with comfortable seats, some with collapsible desk tops, cascading down to a grand stage. A single podium was currently situated, front and center, but the stage looked large enough to put on an elaborate play, or accommodate a full orchestra. They could have debates here. They could show off their extra-curricular talents.

Their Slytherin ambitions.

It was brilliant. Harry was brilliant, for asking for all of this, even if he hadn't realized what he was doing.

Draco wondered if they could smuggle school brooms into the Athletics Room, or if his father would agree to send him some from home, if Draco promised they would never leave the dormitories. Surely some of the older students could be convinced to loan or rent their own brooms out to Draco and Harry, if all else failed.

He returned to the common room proper, where Harry was just finishing his strange, hissing conversation with the snake figures. The sibilant sounds sent a sharp shiver down Draco's spine. He had never heard Harry actually speak the snake language, before, and it was as tantalizing as it was terrifying.

"All finished?" he asked, with a sharp edge to his voice.

Harry nodded, in a daze.

"What did it say?" Draco asked, steering Harry into a secluded corner.

Harry swallowed hard. "It said that most Heirs, or parselmouths, ask for something personal, or private. The last Heir asked for a private suite of rooms, that only he could access. Apparently, it has been a very long time since an Heir as asked for something that would benefit all of Slytherin House."

"Wicked. Was it a one-time thing, then? Or can you ask for more?"

"I will run out my welcome, if I ask for too much, too often, but if I can justify how my requests represent and further the Slytherin Ideals, then the room will grant them for me. It, uh, it liked your idea of assigning me a house elf. I requested Lofty."

"You already know the house elves by name?" Draco asked. "I know you grab us tea from the kitchens a lot, but that's still impressive, or perhaps a little sad. You do have human options for companionship, you know. Your social skills aren't that dire."

"Ha ha. I met Lofty over the summer. Professor Snape summoned him to make sure I had enough food. He was the first house elf I'd ever seen; he left an impression."

"Why wouldn't you have enough food?"

"So anyway, I have Lofty now, if we need anything. I was thinking we could ask for a table with water, orange slices, tea and coffee, for everyone in the mornings, to help with the run, without ruining breakfast."

"We can ask for snacks in the Study Hall, too," Draco chimed in, happily. "We don't need to hole up in the library all the time, anymore."

Harry perked up. "There's a Study Hall?"

Draco groaned melodramatically, then laughed at the look Harry pulled. "Of course, you're that excited about studying, Teacher's Pet. Come on, then. I'll give you a proper tour."