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Chapter Twenty-One

"You had a lot of fun without us."

Theo's voice was so soft and neutral that Harry just rolled his eyes. "Yes. Fun. Having to argue with two of my friends and talk with Malfoy about things I have no interest in." Malfoy appeared to have taken the idea that Hary might be his ally to mean that he could babble at Harry about Potions ingredients and the like and Harry wouldn't kill him. Which was true, but it didn't meet Harry's standards of friendship.

"So they know about your Parseltongue now."

"Yeah."

Theo studied him in a long silence that got to the point that Harry turned his attention back to his Charms book. He wasn't really getting the theory behind Color-Changing Charms. It ought to be simple, or it seemed like that, but it wasn't.

"Keep talking to us, Harry."

"I told you everything that happened, Blaise."

"But not how you felt about it."

Harry raised his head and eyed Blaise. Blaise was sitting up with his own Charms book spread in front of him, and smiling, unlike Theo. But that smile was sharp-edged, and Harry wasn't sure if he should trust it.

Harry shrugged a little. "I was upset when I thought Ron and Hermione would turn against me. But I managed to argue them into accepting that I had a reason to not want them to use the Polyjuice plan, and we agreed that it's unlikely Malfoy is the Heir of Slytherin."

"Extremely unlikely."

"Not true."

Harry nodded. "So that was what I felt."

"It must have been deeper than that."

"Why do you care, Blaise?" Harry shut his book and saw Blaise's eyes widen. "I told you what I felt. I'm not lying. I'm not keeping secrets from you, the way you seem to think I am all the time. I'm being honest. I don't know what to tell you."

Blaise tapped his fingers on the edge of his leg and, unusually, did not glance at Theo. "We just wish we could have been here for you, is all," he said in a muffled voice. "That we could have shared the—conflict."

"And fanned the flames?"

"We wouldn't do that."

Harry stared at Blaise. He had heard once that it was an effective technique for shutting up or shaming someone who was lying, but it had never worked on Dudley. Then again, Dudley wasn't subtle or cunning in the way Blaise was.

And it did appear to be working. Blaise shifted in place within seconds. Then he blurted, "We would be pleased if your Gryffindor friends were gone because they're inept idiots, but we wouldn't try to take them from you."

"There's two of you to make that promise."

"I wouldn't try to take them from you, either." Theo flopped back on his bed, stared up at his canopy, and sighed. "I just—things are more intense around you, Harry. All Blaise and I did was open gifts and talk with our families."

"I would give anything to do that."

"Oh," Theo said, after a long, silent, and profoundly uncomfortable moment. "Right."

Blaise didn't say anything at all, keeping his eyes averted. Harry stood up, grabbed the snake from beneath his pillow, and went out into the common room.

He was going to keep being friends with Blaise and Theo the same way he was going to keep being friends with Ron and Hermione, but honestly, sometimes all of them were too much and he wanted to be alone.

Harry banged on the door of Snape's office and ignored the way that the snake hissed in discontent on his shoulder. Yes, they had gone to a private place Harry had found in the dungeons where he could clear his head and the snake could eat rats without disgusting the other boys in the room, but this was more important than that.

"There must be rats later."

"There will be rats later," Harry hissed in response just as Snape's door swung open.

The man looked thunderous, but that didn't matter. Harry gasped out what he had to say. "Sir, there's a huge snake in the school. I heard a voice speaking Parseltongue in the walls. That must be what the beast in Slytherin's Chamber is. A gigantic snake."

Snape grabbed his arm and dragged him into the room. Harry went limp and started to swing around to the side, prepared to move so that Snape couldn't hit him. But the professor released him and moved back with his hands raised.

"I will not harm you," he breathed. "But I must know what you are saying. Where did you hear this—serpent?"

"In the depths of the dungeons, sir. Moving around inside the walls."

"How near the common room?"

"Probably six or seven corridors away. I don't remember. I wasn't really counting, and then when I heard the thing—I ran."

Snape nodded, his eyes distant. Harry watched him, wondering what he would do next, but wasn't that surprised when Snape strode to the fireplace and cast in some Floo powder. "Headmaster Dumbledore's office!"

Harry hoped he was controlling his grimace. He didn't want to somehow be blamed for hearing the snake the way that he had been for breaking the Bludger.

"Yes, Severus, what is it?"

"Mr. Potter has uncovered a clue that might help lead us to Slytherin's Chamber."

It abruptly occurred to Harry that he would have to reveal to the Headmaster that he was a Parselmouth. He winced, and then bit his lip and stood straighter. Well, it was spreading outside his House, and if people hated him for it, that was not his fault. He would just need to get used to being sneered at and stared at.

"I will bite them! The ones who are making you tense!"

"It's all right," Harry whispered to the snake, and saw the way that Snape's foot twitched a little even though he was kneeling with his head in the fire, talking to Dumbledore. Harry shut up, and only petted the snake when it twined around his neck. It went under the collar of his robe, grumbling all the while.

Harry couldn't make out everything the professors were saying to each other, but Snape finally stood up with an incredibly sour expression and twitched his head at Harry. "Professor Dumbledore says that we're to go through."

"Yes, sir," Harry said, and hesitated. "How do I use it?"

"You've never used the Floo before?"

Harry met Snape's eyes and held them, contrary to what he usually did now. He wanted Snape to see that he was telling the truth. "No, sir. It's not exactly common for people who grew up in the Muggle world."

Snape's face cleared of all expression. He reached for a cup on the mantel and took a pinch of green powder out of it, the same kind that he'd thrown in to contact Dumbledore. "You are to throw this in the fire and say Headmaster's office. The Floo will cause you to experience an intense spinning sensation and come out of the fireplace in Professor Dumbledore's office."

It sounded a bit daft to Harry, but he nodded and reached out for the Floo powder bowl when Snape offered it. "All right, sir."

It turned out that intense spinning sensation was an understatement for what could have been a vertical rollercoaster. Harry stumbled out into the Headmaster's office and nearly hit his desk. He bent over and thought he was going to vomit for a moment.

"Ah. Perhaps a Stomach-Soother for young Harry, Severus?"

Harry managed to straighten up before Snape could reach him with a potion. He didn't want to look weak. "No, thanks, sir. I'm all right."

"Then perhaps a lemon drop?"

Harry wondered why a sweet would be soothing to the stomach of someone who had been about to vomit, but he just shook his head tightly and took his place on the chair in front of the Headmaster's desk. Dumbledore stared at him and gave a little sigh.

"We have not been good friends, have we, Harry?"

"You, ah, you helped Hagrid when I asked, sir," Harry said, because it was the only thing he could think of to say. "I thought that was good of you."

"But you did not feel that you could come to me about your Parseltongue."

"I thought you would blame me. The way you did with the Bludger."

That was part of the reason, of course, but Harry also just didn't assume that he could go to the Headmaster about it. Why would he? It wasn't something Dumbledore could have done anything about, and he'd only spoken to the Headmaster a few times.

"I hold myself responsible for your safety. With you being who you are, and Sorted into the most difficult House for you…"

"That's because the Sorting Hat is stubborn."

"Be that as it may, I do want you to know that you may trust me with secrets like this in the future."

What other secrets like this could I have? But Harry just nodded, and bit his lip, and stared at the floor. "Are you going to send people to look for the snake that I heard sliding through the walls, sir?"

"Of course. We do need to pinpoint the exact area, and I don't know that we will be able to locate the Chamber from there. After all, people have already searched for it many times and haven't managed to find it. But we will do our best."

So I can't blame him if they don't find it or something?

Harry just kept his eyes down as he nodded. "Thank you, sir. I hate living in fear, and I know the other students do, too. It'll be good if we can find and stop the beast, even if we don't catch the Heir."

"I suppose that you don't have any suspicions of who it is, Harry?"

"No, sir."

"You haven't been approached by any other Parselmouths in the school?"

Harry wondered for one moment what they would say if he called the snake another Parselmouth. But he just shook his head. "No, sir. I didn't even realize that I was speaking a magical language at first. I just thought there are magical talking snakes and I couldn't understand why no one else was talking to it."

Dumbledore laughed. "What a delightful introduction to such a gift!"

Harry smiled, but kept his eyes aimed at the floor. "I don't really know why I'm here, sir," he said, in as respectful a voice as he could. "Was there—was there something you wanted me to do, other than tell you about the corridor where I heard the snake?"

"In fact, Mr. Potter, I was wondering if you knew much about the history of Parseltongue."

"I know that mostly Dark wizards speak it, sir, and that Salazar Slytherin and the Dark Lord did. I'm trying to prove that I can be a good person and speak it anyway."

In truth, that wasn't one of Harry's main goals, but he didn't know why he couldn't say it. After all, he was trying to act enough like a good person that people would leave him alone and stop suspecting him of everything, and to do that, he had to be calm and boring on the surface.

Mostly boring, honestly.

"I wondered if you also knew that people will try to use you because of it."

"Use me, sir? Speaking to snakes doesn't seem very useful."

"It is very useful! The most useful thing that can be done!"

Harry stifled a groan. He hoped that neither Snape nor Dumbledore would hear the snake, and decided that he would demand it not speak in front of people again.

And he did have to take note of the fact that it seemed to understand more English than he'd known. He wondered when that had started happening.

"I mean that they might use you to rally around as a substitute for Voldemort," Dumbledore said. His eyes flickered to Harry's robe collar, but he didn't say anything about it, or about Snape flinching so hard that he almost fell off his chair. "I hope that you would never allow yourself to be taken in by such claims, or that you deserve some kind of special treatment because you are Slytherin's Heir."

"No, sir."

"Excellent, my boy! I am refreshed to find you so humble. It is not often my experience with people who have special magical gifts."

Harry just blinked, mostly at his hands. Why would he think that he deserved better treatment? He'd been at Hogwarts almost two years now, and if anyone was going to treat him better because of it, like the professors, surely they would have done it by now.

Dumbledore chattered on about lemon drops for a while, and told Harry that he could go back through the Floo, and the professors would certainly "do their best" to find the snake and stop it. Harry held in a sigh as he went back through the Floo again (which was just as awful as before). That didn't mean they would stop it.

"Mr. Potter."

Harry glanced up reluctantly. Snape was leaning forwards with his nostrils slightly flared and his arms folded.

"Yes, sir?" Harry asked, when it seemed clear that Snape wouldn't speak as he did.

"I want to know why you think I took you to the Headmaster."

"Because you wanted him to know about my Parseltongue, sir."

"And why is that?"

"You think it's the sort of thing he should know, sir."

Snape made an irritated little hissing noise. "And why would that be?"

Harry's patience broke abruptly, although he had learned to control his voice and his anger enough in Slytherin that he just spoke coldly. "I don't know, sir. Maybe you want him to know who to blame when people find out about it and start spreading it around the school that I'm Slytherin's Heir and should be strung up for Petrifying people."

Snape's eyes widened for a moment. Then he said, "No. It was to protect you, Potter. To show Albus that you barely knew what Parseltongue was yourself. Now you have a level of protection if people do try to blame you, in that you told us."

All that Harry could think was that it couldn't be that simple, not when Dumbledore had told Harry that someone could try to use him as an icon for Dark wizards, and not when Snape had known for a while but not told Dumbledore until he had to. But he nodded. "Yes, sir."

"You do not trust me to protect you."

Harry just looked at him.

"The failure of the ring was none of mine, Potter."

"Yes, sir."

"What would make you trust me?" Snape abruptly ran a hand through his hair and turned away, leaving Harry to stare in bewilderment at his back. "You know that there are certain other people I must protect, certain instructions I must obey. But I wish to build a relationship of trust with you as much as possible."

Harry just stared at him. He thought of asking Snape to explain those instructions and people, but he was sure that the man would refuse. Just the thought of asking made him tired in the way that he'd been complaining about to the snake.

But he had to say something, it was clear, or Snape wouldn't stop staring at him with those deep black eyes that seemed to be asking…

What? It was almost as if Snape were asking for forgiveness, as if he meant that bit about building the bond of trust, but Harry knew that he couldn't really be. People didn't do that for Harry.

He cleared his throat when Snape made an impatient move. "I suppose—if you just tell me next time before you take me the Floo and tell something about me to the Headmaster, sir. If you explain that you're doing it."

"You think there will be other things about you that the Headmaster needs to know about?"

"I hope not, sir. But the Parseltongue was a surprise. Something else could be, too."

"It does not sound as if you trust me much, Potter."

"I don't trust anyone very much, sir."

And it was true, Harry thought, even as Snape stared at him with narrowed eyes. The professors did strange things and didn't treat him the way they should. Blaise and Theo were convinced he was keeping secrets. Hermione and Ron would have sacrificed him to their plans to find the Heir of Slytherin.

True, Harry trusted the snake to be a snake, honest in its own way, but not to help him or really look out for him.

Snape turned away with his jaw working for a long moment. Then he nodded. "You are dismissed, Mr. Potter."

"Thank you, sir," Harry said with genuine relief, and left. The snake slithered out from beneath the collar of his robe the moment they were clear of the man's office.

"I do not like them. You should let me bite them."

"No, we don't need to do that," Harry said, and wondered for a moment why Snape hadn't kept him so that he could take Harry to the corridor where he had heard the snake. But then he dismissed that as unimportant. The important part was that he had been let go.

"Why don't we need to bite them?" The snake nudged Harry hard with its triangular head. "It would make them stop annoying you."

"Well, yes, because with your venom they would probably be dead."

"That is a good reason."

Harry gave up, and just listened to the snake's hissed suggestions for revenge most of the way back to the common room. He had to admit, if he didn't care about his future at Hogwarts at all, he might have taken some of them.

And in the meantime, he would put his head down and endure.

"Did the investigation into the corridor where I heard the snake find anything, sir?"

"No visible entrances."

Snape didn't look at Harry as he spoke the answer, busy as he was with rearranging the vials on the table in front of him. Harry sighed and turned around to leave, shaking his head a little when the snake suggested biting the professor. The snake was coming with Harry on a regular basis on his trips to class and out of the common room now.

He didn't know how much of this was Snape's disappointment that Harry didn't trust him, and how much was something else. But he didn't really expect the professors to do anything.

Which would have left it up to Harry, if he'd any idea who the Heir to Slytherin actually was.