Chapter 22

"~Parseltongue~"

With Harry and his friends now having a plan the next day they started brewing the polyjuice potion, they had set up a cauldron in Myrtle's bathroom and made sure it wouldn't be spotted in case anyone did end up entering the bathroom. While Harry had offered to help with the potion Hermione soon got Fay and Sally-Anne to help her instead so she told Harry she didn't need his help, this was mainly because Hermione was annoyed with how Myrtle would act every time Harry came by. Whenever Harry would come by Myrtle would stick close and try and talk to him, Hermione felt annoyed with how distracting Myrtle would be so she decided to ask her two friends for help and tell Harry they can handle the potion themselves. Harry had thought about it but soon agreed since he realized he could spend more time practicing in the dueling room, Myrtle wasn't happy that Harry would now visit her bathroom less.

With his new free time Harry decided to spend his time in the dueling room in order to continue his training with wandless magic, he thought he would spend more time with his other friends but Neville had wanted to help with the mandrakes so he volunteered to spend most of his free time in the greenhouses. Since Penny had been petrified Professor Sprout took over the mandrakes and would only let a few students help her. The Professor was quite overjoyed to see Neville would volunteer his free time every day to help in the greenhouses, she saw the young boy was a prodigy when it came to herbology and was glad to have him join. Neville wasn't the only one volunteering their free time since Hannah joined as well, she was always happy to spend every day in the greenhouses with Neville.

Harry thought since two of his friends were busy then he would end up spending more time with Ron, at first it was true however something soon came up. When Harry agreed to a round of chess with Ron they were interrupted when Oliver walked up to them and said "There you are Ron, go and get your books so we can begin studying."

Ron froze for a few seconds before asking "What?"

Oliver explained, "You've been doing great when it comes to practice, however I asked Professor McGonagall about your grades and they aren't enough that you would be allowed to join the team, we're going to begin studying to get your grades up." Ron groaned and tried to make an excuse but Oliver held his hand up and stopped him before saying "Ron, remember I said it wasn't going to be easy so if you want to join the team then you need to get your grades up too, I've been helping you practice as a keeper so I'm going to help you study too."

Harry offered to help but Oliver told him he intended to focus on helping Ron so it would be just the two of them, also he's seen Harry's grades so he doesn't need to study with them. With Harry now having more free time he started to spend it in the dueling room trying to practice casting wandless spells from both his hands or practice his casting with his friends from the other houses whenever they had the time to join.

As the days continued Harry noticed that many students were acting differently around him, with the recent rumors about him threatening some Ravenclaws many started to believe that he was the heir of Slytherin. Whenever Harry walked through the halls he would see some students watch him and do their best to stay away from him, he even saw some first year students immediately turn around and quickly move away from him. Harry saw the ones who glared at him the most were other Ravenclaws, he did his best to ignore it and just reminded himself he's already been through something like this back at his old school.

At the start of December Harry took his last potion and no longer needed to take them, his body had recovered well and he saw he wasn't the smallest student in his year anymore. With the start of December Harry and Neville had found a farm that was selling mature mandrakes, Harry had sent a letter through Gringotts and purchased five mandrakes to be delivered to Hogwarts. The price for the mandrakes did drain over a third of his trust vault but Harry didn't care since he wanted to help Penny and have a few backups in case another student was petrified. Harry had been informed that the mandrakes would be delivered just a few days before the start of the break, he was glad to hear this since it meant Penny would be back to normal and would be able to go home for the holiday.

Harry continued to attend his classes while doing his best to ignore the rest of the students, many of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws of his year believed in the rumors, some would look away from him but a few times he saw some of them were glaring at him. Thankfully his friends from those houses still believed he wasn't the heir and would still talk to him, unfortunately this meant many of the glares were now being directed at them. For the most part Harry's classes were going well however when it came to potions things had gotten worse, Snape had continued to berate and insult the Gryffindors but for some reason it got worse for Harry and Neville, Harry did his best to ignore the professor and focus on his brewing but for Neville he would mess up every time Snape said something to him and it resulted in more insults and points lost.

Even though Snape hasn't tried to read his mind Harry kept up his occlumency to try and block out Snape's insults, unfortunately Malfoy had gotten worse. Ever since Penny had been petrified Malfoy seemed to have gotten worse in class and would take every chance he could to make things worse for Harry, Malfoy would ruin Harry's potions by throwing random ingredients into his cauldron, every time this happened Snape would take more points away from Gryffindor and insult Harry for ruining a potion and wasting ingredients. Every time Malfoy threw something Snape would never notice and be as blind as a bat, but when Harry reacted in time and caught the ingredient midair Snape would begin to yell at Harry thinking he was about to add the wrong ingredient. Harry would try to tell Snape the truth but Snape would cut him off and take more points for lying.

Harry wasn't able to get revenge since he would always be blamed, at the start of class he placed an extra ingredient in his pocket and waited until Malfoy was mostly done with his potion, when Harry saw Malfoy was almost done he placed his hand in his pocket and cast a wandless switching spell and switched the ingredient with the air above Malfoy's cauldron. Malfoy's potion was ruined but before anything could happen to Malfoy Snape quickly vanished the potion, even though there was no evidence Snape gave Harry detention with Filch for throwing an ingredient into Malfoy's cauldron, after that Harry decided to do his best to ignore Snape and stop Malfoy from ruining his brewing.

One Sunday morning Harry noticed something happened, he and his friends had just arrived for breakfast and they noticed Ravenclaw had lost enough points to now be in last place, most of the Ravenclaws were silent and a few had a depressed aura around them. Harry wondered what happened but soon after breakfast he decided to head to the dueling room while his friends separated to do their own tasks. Harry had arrived at the dueling room and started practicing casting a few spells when he heard a knock at the door and soon Professor Flitwick walked in and was followed by Luna.

Noticing Harry was there Flitwick said "Excellent, I was hoping to find you here Mr. Potter."

Harry greeted the two before asking "Is there a problem Professor?"

Flitwick reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded invisibility cloak and said "I wanted to return this to you, I have used it as you suggested and watched my Ravenclaws and I saw the bullying they were doing, I had to reveal myself when one of them threatened to throw Ms. Lovegood's magazine in the fireplace."

Harry was surprised to hear that, he turned to Luna but she smiled at him and pulled out her magazine and said "Don't worry Harry, the Professor kept it safe."

Flitwick continued, "I have punished the students responsible for the bullying and my prefects have lost their badges for not stepping in, I scolded my students and said I would not tolerate any bullying and I will be making more surprise visits to the tower in case something like this happens again." Flitwick handed Harry his invisibility cloak and said "Thank you for trusting me enough to borrow your invisibility cloak and bringing this matter to my attention."

Harry took back the cloak and thanked the Professor, with that over Professor Flitwick said his farewells before leaving, as soon as the door closed Harry was tackled into a hug by Luna who said "Thank you Harry, now most of the wrackspurts in Ravenclaw are gone, thank you!"

Harry smiled at her and hugged her back, "No problem Luna, hopefully now the bullying will stop."

The hug continued long enough for Harry to begin to feel awkward before Luna finally let go, she grabbed her wand and asked "Can you help me practice my casting?"

Harry agreed and showed Luna how to cast a few spells and he made sure she knew the proper incantation and wand movement, since Luna was the only person who knew about his wandless magic Harry decided to continue his own training while Luna practiced her casting. Luna watched as Harry practiced casting a wandless incarcerous before then casting a wandless disarming charm. When Harry was about to cast another spell he heard Luna call his name, turning to her Luna asked "How good are you with wandless magic?"

Surprised by the question, Harry answered, "I've practiced enough to be able to cast all the first year spells wandlessly and silently, I've also managed to cast some second year spells wandlessly but they still need the wand movement and incantation."

Nodding, Luna asked "Have you tried casting offhand?"

"Yeah, it took some getting used to but I'm able to cast all the same spells offhand."

Luna nodded and made a suggestion, "Have you tried casting with both your hands at the same time, not many would expect two spells to be fired at the same time from one person."

Harry was surprised by the suggestion, he hadn't thought about it since he would usually try casting one spell at a time, Harry decided to test it out so first he lifted his left hand and cast, "Lumos." His hand started to glow brightly and Harry focused on making the light brighter. "Nox." The light vanished before Harry did the same with his wand, once he felt his magic flow through both Harry raised both his wand and left hand and imagined pushing the spell through both, he then cast, "Lumos!" Harry felt his magic was being pulled in two different directions but soon he saw both his hand and wand started to glow. The spell was more draining than usual but Harry decided to focus on making the light brighter, when they became brighter Harry did notice the light was brighter from his wand.

Harry soon canceled the spell before letting his arms fall to the side, he felt slightly more tired and Luna asked "Are you ok Harry?"

Harry smiled and said "Yeah, it felt weird casting from both but I think if I keep practicing I'll get used to it, maybe soon I'll be able to cast two stunners or disarming charms at anyone I'm fighting."

Luna looked cheerful and said "That's wonderful Harry, I knew you could do it!"

Harry thanked Luna for her help, he never thought of trying this before. They continued their lesson and while Luna would practice her spells Harry now focused on trying to cast two spells at once, he could feel how it was more draining on his magic but he was determined to keep practicing.

Harry had decided to give Hermione his invisibility cloak to make it easier for her to head to Myrtle's bathroom whenever she needed to work on the potion. Each time she would head to Myrtle's bathroom Fay and Sally-Anne would insist on joining her, Hermione tried to tell the two that they didn't need to join her every time but they told her since the monster of Slytherin would attack muggleborns they didn't want her going anywhere alone. Whenever Hermione would go somewhere she was always joined by at least one of her friends, most of the time it was by the two girls.

One day when Hermione took a break from brewing the potion she decided to head to the library to return her books, both Fay and Sally-Anne decided to tag along, Hermione told the two "You don't need to come with me, I'm just going to return my books and pick out a few more."

Fay told her "If the monster of Slytherin is targeting muggleborns then it's a good idea to have someone with you, we aren't going to risk something happening to you."

Sally-Anne included "A lot of the muggleborns have friends who are either half blood or pure blood staying close to them."

Hearing that made Hermione think before asking "I realize I never asked, what is your blood status?"

Fay answered, "I'm a half blood, although we don't really talk to my dad's side of the family anymore."

Sally-Anne answered, "Technically I would be considered a half blood since I do have a muggleborn grandmother on my mum's side."

Confused, Hermione asked "Why would that make you a half blood?"

"The pure bloods believe that you need to marry seven generations of pure bloods in order to breed out any muggle in you, if you still have close muggle relatives then you're considered a half blood."

Hermione was surprised to hear this but Fay said "Don't think about it too much, it was thought up by a bunch of inbreds who believe in a bunch of nonsense. If you're going to the library then we're coming with you to make sure nothing happens."

Hermione saw they weren't taking no for an answer so all three of them made their way to the library. Arriving at the library Hermione had returned her books before looking for new ones to check out, she was hoping to find the book Harry told her about that talked about bonds but so far she hadn't managed to find it yet. While they were there Sally-Anne and Fay decided to check out some books too, they figured as long as they were in the library then nothing would happen.

Hermione had just found a book she was interested in when she heard someone say "Hey mudblood." Hermione stopped when she heard that voice and recognized it, turning to see who it was she saw a smirking Pansy Parkinson standing near her along with Millicent Bulstrode. Hermione had grown to hate these two, especially Parkinson since she would take every chance she could to insult her. It didn't take long for it to start, "I'm surprised to see you're here, I thought you would be too terrified to come out since the monster is coming after mudbloods like you."

Hermione did her best to try and ignore them, she saw Bulstrode was making sure to block her path so Hermione decided to turn around and leave without saying anything to them. Hermione has had to deal with bullies before at her old school so she thought the best thing to do was to walk away and ignore them. Parkinson was annoyed to see Hermione was just ignoring her and leaving, when she saw Hermione was there she thought this was her chance to get to her without any teachers around. Parkinson thought of something and started to smile before saying "You know, it's pretty sad watching the way you act around Potter."

Hermione stopped when she heard Parkinson mention Harry, seeing how that got her attention Parkinson continued, "It's pretty obvious you seem to have a little crush on Potter, I'm not sure if you noticed but Potter is a pretty famous wizard in our world, even if he is just a half blood. I'm sure you noticed how other girls have been taking glances at Potter, many of them would love to get close to him, with all those witches interested in him what makes you think Potter would be interested in a buck toothed, boring, annoying, bland, bookworm like you. With so many witches interested in him you'd think he'd pick someone who's at least pretty."

Hermione could feel herself shaking since Parkinson's words made her think about how she was treated at her old school, she tried not to let it show but Bulstrode noticed and said "I think you're getting to her Pansy."

Parkinson smirked and said "The sooner a mudblood like you realizes the truth then-"

"Petrificus totalus!"

Bulstrode suddenly fell over and Hermione turned to see Fay and Sally-Anne were there, to her surprise Sally-Anne was the one who cast the spell. Parkinson turned and saw a wand was pointed at her and an angry Fay said "What the hell are you doing here Parkinson?"

Despite having a wand pointed at her Parkinson smirked and said "I was wondering where you were, normally when I see this mudblood she's always surrounded by a bunch of half breeds."

Fay's eyes narrowed but she said "That's funny coming from you, seeing as how you come from a family that celebrates the fact that they're so inbred."

Parkinson's smirk vanished and she glared, before they could continue they were interrupted when Madam Pince showed up and demanded to know who cast a spell, seeing the two girls with their wands in hand she ordered them to put them down. Parkinson gave a smug look when she saw Madam Pince showed up, Sally-Anne put her wand down but Fay didn't, seeing this Madam Pince said "Ms. Dunbar, put away your wand now!"

Fay looked at her before looking at Hermione then Parkinson, Fay smirked and cast, "Furnunculus!"

Parkinson's eyes widened as she was struck by the golden light of Fay's spell and soon painful boils started to appear on her body. Fay put down her wand but she and Sally-Anne were grabbed by the librarian and told "That will be fifty points from Gryffindor and a week of detention with Mr. Filch for you Ms. Dunbar, you are both banned from my library for two months!"

They were ordered out as Madam Pince canceled the spell cast on Bulstrode and took Parkinson to the hospital wing. Once the three Gryffindors were alone Hermione asked "Why did you do that?"

Fay spoke up "That's not important right now, what did Parkinson say to you?"

Hermione thought back to what Parkinson said but instead she told them "Just the usual insults about my blood."

"Of course Parkinson would come after you when she thinks you're alone, don't listen to a word she says, you've already proven you're a far better witch then she'll ever be."

Hearing that Hermione nodded, she then turned to Sally-Anne and asked "Why did you attack Bulstrode when she wasn't paying attention?"

Of the two girls Hermione thought Fay would have been the one to attack first so she was surprised it was Sally-Anne instead, the girl answered, "They were harassing my friend, I wasn't going to just stand there and let it happen, although I kind of wish I targeted Parkinson instead but I think Fay made up for it," Fay smiled when she heard that, Sally-Anne continued, "Besides, while Fay and Parkinson were glaring at each other I took the chance to get you this."

Sally-Anne held up her hand and showed she was holding a strand of hair, Hermione was surprised and asked "You got her hair for the potion?"

Nodding, Sally-Anne said "Hopefully this makes it easier."

Hermione thanked her since she was wondering how she could get a hair from the Slytherin girl. The three made their way back to the tower however Hermione couldn't help but think about everything Parkinson said to her, a lot of it matched what she was told at her old school, Hermione felt down as she thought "I know I'm not pretty, I've been told that before."

Time continued and the time for their next break was quickly approaching, however for one teacher it felt like everything was getting worse as the days continued. Gilderoy Lockhart has become paranoid as he wasn't sure what was coming next, ever since the day someone had altered his portraits it felt like things had been getting worse. It first started when Lockhart was enjoying a nice breakfast but after he drank a glass of pumpkin juice he noticed many started to avoid him, he tried to approach many of his fans but when he spoke to them they gave a look of disgust and some even gagged before quickly leaving, he didn't understand what was happening until someone pointed out that his breath smelled horrible. Lockhart tried to smell his breath but he didn't smell anything, his breath freshening charms did nothing to get rid of the smell, it took a while before he realized someone was potioning his food to prevent him from smelling his breath then they potioned his drink to make his breath smell like a skunk. He thought of waiting for the potion to leave his system but whoever was pranking him stopped using the first potion and Lockhart soon couldn't stand the smell of his own breath and was forced to take a purging potion to get rid of the potion from his body, he had to cancel his classes that day since he couldn't leave the bathroom.

Lockhart had remembered how one weekend an excited Colin had approached him and asked to take his photo, Lockhart couldn't say no to a camera and let the first year take several photos. Lockhart hadn't thought much of it but later when he saw the photos had been developed and copied many were laughing, he didn't understand why until he saw the photos and in big bold letters on his forehead was the word moron, none of the students he saw that weekend told him about it, Colin thought the detention he got for it was worth it. Lockhart had been annoyed since one Sunday someone had slipped him a potion at breakfast, for the rest of the day every twenty minutes he had to cut his fingernails since they wouldn't stop growing, he was given the option of taking another purging potion but he refused and said he'd wait it out. When it became late his fingernails finally stopped growing so he cut them down to be as short as possible before going to bed, the next morning Lockhart got ready and was soon dressed for the day, unknown to him someone had added extra strength itching powder to all his clothes.

Lockhart still hadn't found out who was sneaking into his room and charming all his mirrors and portraits, Lockhart remembered how one morning he saw in his mirrors he was starting to go bald, at first he panicked until he pulled out a hand mirror and saw his hair was still normal, although he still checked every morning since for some reason he kept having dreams where he was going bald. Lockhart thought back to one day when he had been taking a shower, for some reason black smoke started to fill his room and while he was in the middle of his shower several loud and bright fireworks went off and Lockhart panicked and ran out of the shower. He didn't know what was happening so Lockhart ran out of his room into his office where the same thing was happening, he ran to the classroom but at the top of the short stairs someone had tied a conjured string that tripped him. Lockhart landed on the floor but when he tried to get up he discovered someone had cast a sticking charm on the floor and he was stuck, he was glad it was a weekend and no student would come to his classroom, he thought of waiting for a teacher to come find him but his love of signing autographs came back to bite him since someone had placed a sign on his door saying he would be busy all day and wasn't to be disturbed and it was signed with his name.

As the days passed more and more pranks kept happening, finding out someone put pepper imps in his tea pot, ink in his cologne, and having several outfits ruined. Lockhart had even been tricked into drinking another purging potion when someone had potioned his food and it had taken away his sense of taste and smell, that day a student had bought him several cold butterbeers, since he was feeling thirsty he drank them only to realize too late that one of them was a purging potion, he was once again stuck in the bathroom all day. Lockhart remembered how one day someone had set off several dung bombs in his office and his door wouldn't open, he tried to open the windows but they were all stuck, he tried to cast the unlocking charm at the door but it remained shut, he hadn't thought that someone could have used a sticking charm on his door and windows. Many nights he had been woken up when there was a sudden loud crash, he looked around his room but everything was normal and when he asked the teachers to look they found nothing.

One morning Lockhart had woken up and saw in his mirrors he was completely bald, at first he thought someone had charmed them but soon he realized he really was bald. Lockhart had let out a scream that would have been heard by everyone had his walls not been silenced, he went to the hospital wing again and discovered someone had put a hair removing potion in his hair gel, he couldn't take a hair regrowing potion since someone had slipped him another potion that would negate the hair regrowing potion. Lockhart refused to take another purging potion and instead canceled his classes that day and placed an order for wigs, the next day the package had been dropped off at his window however unknown to him the owl that dropped it off didn't leave and instead went to the owlery.

Harry and his friends had just arrived at the great hall for breakfast, now that it was the twelfth they were just eight days away from the start of their Christmas break, Hermione had told her friends that the potion was coming along nicely and should be ready on Christmas day. Harry was glad to hear this, thankfully there hadn't been another attack but many students were still worried and some were still cautious around him. Slowly many students showed up and the rest of Harry's Gryffindor friends sat close to each other, he could hear Oliver talking with Ron about his homework and if he finished it already, Colin was talking with Sally-Anne since the girl took an interest in photography, he could even hear Fred and George talking to each other about a prank they were pulling on Lockhart. Harry continued to eat his breakfast when suddenly he heard "Harry!"

Looking up, he saw Hedwig arrived and landed in front of him ahead of the other owls. Harry noticed Hedwig wasn't carrying a letter or package so he asked "Hedwig, what are you doing here?"

Hermione handed Hedwig a piece of bacon which she happily ate, she then answered through their bond, "I wanted to come and see the show, pay attention to the moron sitting at the teachers' table."

Confused, Harry looked up at the teachers' table and saw Lockhart was eating his breakfast, soon a school owl flew towards the teachers table and while Lockhart was in the middle of eating some eggs the owl suddenly flew down and snatched his wig. There was a scream and many students looked as Lockhart tried to cover himself as an owl flew away with his hair, everyone was silent for a moment before many students burst out laughing, Lockhart ran out of the great hall while many continued to laugh. Harry turned to Hedwig and asked through their bond "What did you do?"

"Just some revenge for vanishing your bones."

While Harry was talking with Hedwig nearby Fred and George managed to get their laughter under control before turning to Hermione, Fred told her "We were wondering how to get rid of his wig…"

George continued "But it seems someone beat us to it."

"We thank you for your ideas…"

"And your generous donation."

Hermione shushed them and said "Not so loud, I'm still not a fan of pranks."

The twins nodded before one of them said "We understand…"

"We would also like to ask…"

"If we ever make you mad…"

"Please let us know…"

"So we can beg for forgiveness."

"We've seen what you'll do…"

"When someone makes you mad."

Hermione felt a bit embarrassed but said "Fine, just stop talking like that."

The twins nodded and Fred said "Although it was a smart idea to suggest asking some of the older students to help with our pranks, especially those in their seventh year."

George continued, "Who would have thought a few runes on a small wooden block in his pillow would cause loud noises to wake him up."

"And conjuring a stopper with the last ingredient stuck to it would let us get away before it could go off."

"Many of the older students loved helping with the pranks and are even asking us when we might open our joke shop, I think they want to come work for us."

"Son of a bitch!"

Everyone turned to Harry when they heard what he said, Harry was reading a letter from the ministry before handing it to Neville. Neville looked over the parchment before he repeated "Son of a bitch!"

"Language, both of you! What is it?" Hermione asked before she was handed the parchment, reading over it Hermione saw the ministry informed Harry that they needed to inspect the dangerous ingredients he ordered and that they likely won't be delivered for a few months.

Harry explained to his friends how he ordered mature mandrakes to help Penny and any other student in case there were more attacks, but now they can't do anything. Neville told Harry the ministry hasn't done something like this before, he intended to write to his gran to ask if she knew anything. Oliver heard this and patted Harry on his shoulder and said "Thanks for trying to help Penny, I'm sure she appreciates everything you're doing."

With what they just found out the mood around the group of friends had dropped, now all they can do is wait for the ministry to finish inspecting the ingredients or wait for the mandrakes they have to fully mature. The days continued and the students were getting ready to go home for the break, Harry was continuing to practice casting two spells and he felt he was getting better but he still needed to practice. Neville had gotten back a letter from his gran and she explained that the minister had been responsible for the delay since he wanted dangerous items to be heavily inspected.

On Thursday something had happened, in the common rooms there was a notice about dueling lessons being held in the great hall on Friday after dinner for the first through third years, there was a dueling lesson held for the older students that Saturday, soon many students were excited since they've never had dueling lessons before. Harry and his friends were curious about this since Flitwick told them they would still be having their normal lesson that Saturday before they leave for the break, they wondered who was holding the lesson. That Friday after dinner many of the students stayed, the tables soon vanished and a dueling platform appeared but soon many groaned when they saw a cheerful Lockhart was there and was being followed by an annoyed looking Professor Snape. Hermione noticed Lockhart had is hair again, from what she heard he took another purging potion before having his hair grow back.

Lockhart stood on the platform and announced "Welcome everyone, can you all see me, can-" Lockhart saw some of the students were about to leave so he skipped ahead, "Today I have asked Professor Snape to help in teaching all of you about dueling, with how everyone has been worried about the attacks this will help you all keep yourself safe." Many stayed and decided to listen, seeing he got their attention Lockhart continued with a demonstration on how to duel, Harry never thought he'd be rooting for Snape.

The two Professors stood before each other and gave a bow before the duel started, the moment the duel started Snape quickly raised his wand and cast, "Expelliarmus!" A spell shot out and before Lockhart could do anything he was struck by the spell and sent flying back.

Many students cheered for Snape and some even laughed when Lockhart got up and tried to act like he meant for that to happen, by this point most of the students didn't believe him anymore. Lockhart quickly wanted the attention off himself so he said "Now that you've seen what a duel is like between two professional duelers why don't we have two students demonstrate, how about…" Lockhart scanned the crowd before spotting Harry and pointing to him and saying "Mr. Potter, please come up here and demonstrate for everyone."

Harry felt annoyed that Lockhart picked him, he considered leaving but now everyone was focused on him so Harry decided to get it over with. Climbing up onto the platform Lockhart was about to pick another student when Snape interrupted, "Mr. Malfoy."

Malfoy was surprised but then smirked at seeing his chance to face Harry, once the two students stood on the platform Lockhart tried to give Harry advice but Harry just blocked him out and focused on Malfoy. Snape was whispering something to Malfoy before the two teachers stepped back, the two students held their wands up and faced each other.

Malfoy asked "Scared Potter?" Harry gave a blank look and decided not to acknowledge his question, the two students were told to bow but neither of them moved. Lockhart decided to give a countdown but before he could get to three Malfoy moved and cast first, "Sternius!" Harry quickly sidestepped the sneezing charm but Malfoy didn't stop and continued to cast, Harry dodged the leg locking charm and jelly legs jinx but he didn't fire back a spell.

Malfoy was about to cast another spell but Harry finally spoke "Hey Malfoy, I know this is really hard for you to understand but the Professor hasn't finished counting to three yet." His comment made some of the students laugh, Malfoy frowned and tried to hit him with the tickling charm but Harry sidestepped the spell again. Lockhart realized what Harry said and finished counting so Harry finally moved and cast, "Vermillious!" A jet of red sparks was fired at Malfoy, Malfoy held his hand up to protect his face, Harry cut off the spell but then whispered "Flipendo." The red spell blended in with the jet of red sparks and struck Malfoy and knocked him back. Some of the students cheered for Harry and Harry turned to Lockhart and asked "Are we done yet?"

Malfoy got up and glared at Harry, he wasn't going to lose another duel to him, Malfoy raised his wand and cast, "Serpensortia!" To everyone's surprise Malfoy conjured a snake, Harry didn't recognize the snake but he could tell it was dangerous.

Before Harry could try and stun the snake Lockhart stepped in, "Enough, you two were to only cast stunners, allow me to handle this." Lockhart took out his wand and cast a spell at the snake but instead of getting rid of it the snake was sent up into the air.

The snake landed and Harry could tell it was angry, the snake turned to the closest student and Harry could tell it was about to strike at them, Harry yelled out "~Stop!~" The snake stopped and turned to Harry, everyone stared at Harry in shock but Harry didn't notice, he ordered the snake "~Don't attack anyone, stand down.~"

The snake was no longer angry but instead surprised, it stared at Harry before he heard it speak "~You are a speaker.~"

Harry was confused wondering what it meant, the snake started to back away from the student but was then vanished by Snape. Harry turned to Snape and was about to say something but then he noticed Snape was looking at him with a stunned look.

"What the hell was that Potter?!"

Harry turned to the student and saw it was Justin but Harry noticed the way everyone was staring at him, many now looked terrified and he could see some started to whisper. Harry felt his arm was grabbed and pulled and he saw it was Hermione, she told Harry "Let's go, now!"

Harry was pulled away from the great hall and was closely followed by most of his Gryffindor friends, he asked "What's going on?"

"Wait until we get to the dueling room."

Nothing was said until they got to the dueling room, once they arrived and closed the door Hermione turned to Harry and asked "Why didn't you tell me you could speak parseltongue?"

Confused, Harry asked "Parsel what?"

"It means you can speak to snakes, people who can speak to snakes are called parselmouths and the language of the snakes is parseltongue, why didn't you say anything before?"

Harry didn't know about any of this, he answered "I didn't know that's what it was, I've only spoken to one snake and it was while we were at the zoo, I just thought it was an ability magic gave me."

Neville spoke up "Harry, being a parselmouth isn't common, it's extremely rare and…"

Neville didn't want to continue so Ron continued instead, "It's considered a dark trait that's passed down through bloodlines, the most famous wizards that could speak parseltongue were Salazar Slytherin, a dark wizard called Herpo the Foul, and You-Know-Who."

Harry was stunned to hear this, he asked "You don't think I'm a dark wizard, do you?"

Neville answered "Of course we don't, but everyone is going to think that you're Slytherin's heir since everyone heard you speak to the snake."

They were interrupted when the door opened and Susan, Hannah, Luna, Daphne, Tracey, Lilian, and Blaise showed up. Susan asked "Harry, are you ok, what happened?"

Harry explained what he just found out, he worried they would think he was becoming a dark wizard but Daphne spoke up, "Being able to speak parseltongue isn't a dark trait, it's just another language. The only reason why people think it's dark is because those who are well known dark wizards have used it, because everyone thinks its dark most that realize they can speak parseltongue refuse to use it since everyone will judge them as becoming dark."

Harry felt some relief at hearing that, he asked "So you don't think I'm going dark?"

Lilian answered, "The chances of you becoming a dark wizard are about the same as the Chudley Cannons winning the world cup."

"Hey!"

Hearing Ron complain made some snicker and lightened the mood, Blaise spoke up "Honestly, I think it's amazing you can speak parseltongue, you're not a bastard like Malfoy so it's unlikely you'd ever misuse it."

Harry could see none of his friends were afraid of him, they were still treating him the same as they always have, it made him feel relieved. Harry soon realized something, since there have been families who have claimed to be descendants of Slytherin then if they can find out if they are related to those who can speak parseltongue then it might help them find out who the current heir is. Those who had a family member working in the ministry agreed to ask for their help in trying to find out if there was anyone who could speak parseltongue, they hoped they'd be able to find out who is responsible for the attacks. Harry was glad to see his friends were still going to help him, however he started to wonder about his ability to speak parseltongue and how he inherited it, he wondered if the journal might have any clues.

Sorry about the late update, for some reason this chapter gave me trouble, next chapter should be lighter and hopefully I'll have it out soon.

Please comment and let me know what you thought of the chapter.