Chapter 19: Parseltongue

December 17, 1992

Buffy, Dawn, Willow/Voldemort, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were walking across the entrance hall when they saw a small knot of people gathered around the notice board, reading a piece of parchment that had just been pinned up.

Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas beckoned them over, looking excited.

"They're starting a Dueling Club!" said Seamus. "First meeting tonight! I wouldn't mind dueling lessons; they might come in handy one of these days…"

"What, you reckon Slytherin's monster can duel?" said Ron, but he, too, read the sign with interest.

"Could be useful," he said to Dawn, Buffy, Willow/Voldemort, Harry and Hermione as they went into dinner. "Shall we go?"

Willow/Voldemort and Hermione were all for it, but Harry, Buffy and Dawn were more hesitant as they had been training with Giles. But they eventually agreed as it would mean more practice, so at eight o'clock that evening they hurried back to the Great Hall. The long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared along one wall.

"I wonder who'll be teaching us?" said Hermione as they edged into the chattering crowd. "Someone told me Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young—maybe it'll be him."

"As long as it's not—" Buffy began, but she ended on a groan that was mirrored by Harry: Gilderoy Lockhart was walking onto the stage and accompanied by none other than Snape.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called, "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions—for full details, see my published works."

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry—you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?" Ron muttered.

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Harry murmured.

"One—two—three—"

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape cried: "Expelliarmus!" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

Lockhart was getting unsteadily to his feet. "Well, there you have it!" he said, tottering back onto the platform.

"That was a Disarming Charm—as you see, I've lost my wand—ah, thank you, Miss Brown—yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy—however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see…"

Snape was looking murderous. Possibly Lockhart had noticed, because he said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me—"

They moved through the crowd, matching up partners. Lockhart teamed Neville with Justin Finch-Fletchley, but Snape reached Harry and Ron first.

"Time to split up the dream team, I think," he sneered. "Weasley, you can partner Finnigan. Potter—"

Buffy watched as Harry moved automatically toward Hermione. She herself moved over next to Dawn.

"I don't think so," said Snape, smiling coldly. "Mr. Malfoy, come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Potter. And you, Miss Granger—you can partner Miss Bulstrode."

Buffy groaned, "Professor Snape. I have to disagree with you. Harry, Dawn and I have been taking muggle defense courses at home and we have been sparring regularly together. A little wand duel isn't going to be much different; it is after all just a training session." She emphasized muggle in hopes of giving Snape an indication she was talking about her Slayer training.

"Miss Potter, my mind is made up," Snape said. "End of discussion, unless you want to receive detention?"

Buffy hmphed.

Dawn shook her head, "Don't let him get to you, Buffy."

Buffy smiled and nodded at her sister, "Thanks, Dawnie."

Dawn smiled, "No problem, Buffy."

Malfoy strutted over to Harry, smirking.

"Face your partners!" called Lockhart, back on the platform. "And bow!"

Harry and Malfoy barely inclined their heads, not taking their eyes off each other.

"Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart. "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents—only to disarm them—we don't want any accidents—one… two… three—"

Harry swung his wand high, but Malfoy had already started on "two".

"Everte statium!" Malfoy called out; his spell hit Harry so hard that it caused Harry to stumble.

Buffy frowned, "That's not a disarming spell."

Wasting no time, Harry pointed his wand straight at Malfoy and shouted, "Rictusempra!"

A jet of silver light hit Malfoy in the stomach and he doubled up, wheezing.

"I said disarm only!" Lockhart shouted in alarm over the heads of the battling crowd, as Malfoy sank to his knees; Harry had hit him with a Tickling Charm, and he could barely move for laughing. Gasping for breath, Malfoy pointed his wand at Harry's knees, choked, "Tarantallegra!" and the next second Harry's legs began to jerk around out of his control in a kind of quickstep.

"Stop! Stop!" screamed Lockhart, but Snape took charge.

"Finite Incantatem!" he shouted; Harry's feet stopped dancing, Malfoy stopped laughing, and they were able to look up.

"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," said Lockhart. "Let's have a volunteer pair—Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you—"

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," said Snape, gliding over like a large and malevolent bat. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox. How about Malfoy and Potter?"

"Excellent idea!" said Lockhart, gesturing Harry and Malfoy into the middle of the hall as the crowd backed away to give them room. "Now, Harry. When Draco points his wand at you, you do this."

He raised his own wand, attempted a complicated sort of wiggling action, and dropped it. He quickly picked it up, saying, "Whoops—my wand is a little overexcited—"

Snape moved closer to Malfoy, bent down, and whispered something in his ear. Malfoy smirked, too.

Harry looked up nervously at Lockhart and said, "Professor, could you show me that blocking thing again?"

"Scared?" muttered Malfoy, so that Lockhart couldn't hear him.

"You wish," said Harry out of the corner of his mouth.

Lockhart cuffed Harry merrily on the shoulder. "Just do what I did, Harry!"

"What, drop my wand?"

But Lockhart wasn't listening.

"Three—two—one—go!" he shouted.

Malfoy raised his wand quickly and bellowed, "Serpensortia!"

The end of his wand exploded. Harry watched, aghast, as a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between them, and raised itself, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor.

"Don't move, Potter," said Snape lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of Harry standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. "I'll get rid of it…"

"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart. He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.

Buffy and Harry weren't sure what made them do it. They weren't even aware of deciding to do it. All they knew was that their legs were carrying them forward and that they had shouted stupidly at the snake, "Leave him alone!" And miraculously—inexplicably—the snake slumped to the floor, docile its eyes now on the twins. Buffy and Harry knew the snake wouldn't attack anyone now, though how they knew it, they couldn't have explained.

Harry and Buffy looked up at Justin, grinning, expecting to see Justin looking relieved, or puzzled, or even grateful but certainly not angry and scared. "What are you two playing at?"

Snape stepped forward, waved his wand, "Vipera evenesca." And the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. Snape, too, was looking at Harry and Buffy in an unexpected way: It was a shrewd and calculating look, and neither of them liked it. They were also dimly aware of an ominous muttering all around the walls.

Then Buffy felt a tugging on the back of her robes. "Come on," said Ron. "Move—come on—" She felt Hermione pull her along as she looked at her brother and saw he was getting the same treatment by Ron. Dawn and Willow/Voldemort fell in behind them.

Ron and Hermione steered them out of the hall. As they went through the doors, the people on either side drew away as though they were frightened of catching something. Harry kept looking at Buffy as to ask what is going on. Buffy simply shrugged as she had no idea. Ron and Hermione dragged them all the way up to the empty Gryffindor common room.

Then Ron pushed Harry into an armchair, while Hermione pushed Buffy in another.

Ron shook his head, "You two are Parselmouths. Why didn't you both tell us?"

"We're what?" said Harry.

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

"I know," said Harry. "I mean, that's only the second time I've ever done it. I accidentally set a boa constrictor on our 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 before I knew I was a wizard —"

Buffy sighed, "I used to have a pet snake growing up. Used to scare Dawn all the time with it, it's why she hates snakes. Anyways I thought it was always my imagination that it was talking back."

Dawn blushed at the mention of her fear of snakes.

"So?" said Harry. "I bet loads of people here can do it."

"No, they can't," said Willow/Voldemort. "It's a rare gift."

"Harry, Buffy, this is bad," Ron said.

"What's bad?" said Harry. "What's wrong with everyone? Listen, if we hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin —"

"Oh, that's what you two said to it?" Ron asked.

"What do you mean? You were there — you heard us —" Buffy said

"I heard you both speaking Parseltongue," said Ron. "Snake language. You could have been saying anything — no wonder Justin panicked, you both sounded like you were egging the snake on or something — it was creepy, you know —"

Harry gaped at him, "We spoke a different language? But — I didn't realize — how can I… We speak a language without knowing we can speak it?"

"Ditto," agreed Buffy.

Ron shook his head. He and Hermione were looking as though someone had died.

"D'you want to tell us what's wrong with stopping a massive snake biting off Justin's head?" Harry said. "What does it matter how we did it as long as Justin doesn't have to join the Headless Hunt?"

"It matters," said Hermione, speaking at last in a hushed voice, "because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent."

Harry and Buffy's mouth fell open.

"Exactly," said Ron. "And now the whole school's going to think you two are his great-great-great-great-grandchildren or something —"

"Well if everyone thinks they are they would think the same about me," Dawn said with a sigh. "After all I'm a Potter too, remember?"

"But we're not," said Harry, with a panic he couldn't quite explain.

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

Buffy and Dawn lay awake for hours that night. Finally, they got up and made their way down to the common room. They spotted Harry already in the common room.

Buffy sighed, "Couldn't sleep either?"

Harry shook his head, "No. You don't think we're related to Slytherin do you?"

"I hope not," Dawn said. "I already had a difficult first year because of Glory. I don't need another one because of Slytherin."

"You won't Dawn," Buffy said as she hugged her baby sister. "Did you understand what we said?"

Dawn nodded. "Yes."

"What are we going to do," Harry asked. "It can't be a coincidence that we can speak Parseltongue or that Dawn can understand it."

Buffy sighed, "I don't know. I'm going to talk to Giles in the morning about this. See what he can make of it."

December 18, 1992

The next morning Buffy headed straight for the library. Giles was sitting at his desk as she ran up to him. Giles looked up, "Buffy, what is it?"

Buffy sighed and whispered, "In private… Slayer business."

Giles nodded and led her in to his office, closing the door behind them. "What is it, Buffy?"

"What do you know about Parseltongue?" Buffy asked.

Giles sighed, he had heard about what had happened the day before, "Parseltongue is the language of serpents primarily. As well as other magical serpent-based creatures, like the Runespoor who can converse with them. An individual who can speak Parseltongue is known as a Parselmouth. It is a very uncommon skill, and is typically hereditary. Nearly all known Parselmouths are descended from Salazar Slytherin. I assume you ask because of what happened yesterday?"

"Dawn, Harry and I we're up half the night because of it. Are we related to Slytherin?"

"I don't know, Buffy. I will look in to it though," Giles said. "Wait you said Dawn was also up half the night?" Buffy nodded. "So, she understood what you and Harry said?"

"Yes," Buffy said.

"Interesting," Giles said. "Indeed, I will look into this. Especially since if Dawn understood you and Harry that means it could be coming from the Potter side of the family. Since Joyce and your father were siblings and they shared a common ancestor. I will contact Joyce and see if she can speak Parseltongue."