Chapter 97: The Tongue of Serpents

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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18 November 1992, Hogwarts

When Harry attended Lockhart's duelling club session, he didn't really know what to expect, especially with the blonde professor's surprising competence as a teacher. Honestly, the Potter scion only came to get a first glance at Parseltongue being used. The Tongue of Serpents isn't something that has been studied much, deemed as family magic more than any other spell.

It didn't make any sense. Family magic was something that you had when you were born. You couldn't really give it to someone. Soul shard in his scar or not, if Parseltongue was genuine family magic, then Longbottom shouldn't be able to speak to snakes. And considering that in the story, the boy who lived was able to do it, and that was a mystery that Harry wanted to solve.

Honestly, the mere existence of Parseltongue baffled Harry. It couldn't be a regular language. Snakes were good predators, who could hunt in packs with basic tactics to ambush large prey, but they definitely didn't have the intellect to follow precise orders like Voldemort's rumoured snake familiar, at least when it came to non-magical snakes. So, Harry was curious as to how it worked.

It was a mystery worth solving, and it did make a good way to test whether or not Longbottom was a Parselmouth. And examining the use of the snake tongue with his Arcane Hearing could be a clue to finding where Riddle put the new entrance to the chamber in some way.

Ten minutes into the meeting and Harry already doubted whether it would be worth it. The duelling demonstration between Lockhart and Snape was just despicable on both sides. Sure, the spells were obviously limited to the standard curriculum until OWL level, but that made sense since this meeting was for first years to fourth years, so using any sort of advanced magic would go over most people's heads.

But no, what made Harry suppress a sneer while watching the spar was the utter disregard for duelling as a sport was being shown. Snape was obviously a fighter, and so was using ambush and light Auror tactics. He was also missing most of his arsenal since he obviously specialized in dark spells. Harry did see the man stiffen in the middle of a spell chain, or suddenly change wand movement, preparing to cast a curse by instinct. It just made him look sluggish.

And speaking of instincts, Lockhart didn't have any and it was obvious. Riddle being stuck in the diary for at least a couple of months made whatever way Riddle was making him competent stop. The man just kept sending spells without any tactics in mind and cowered behind a Protego shield for most of the spar before Snape had enough of him and sent him flying.

So, yeah, it was a disappointment. Even Luna and Daphne thought the same, considering the small frowns on their faces. The two girls had insisted to accompany him for some reason, even though he had told them that it would be a waste of time if they wanted to learn anything.

After a practising session that honestly felt like ages, Lockhart announced the spars to practice what they have learnt. The two girls ended up participating in a small duel each, both of them winning their own fight. Daphne was obviously a little more experienced, probably because of Flitwick's duelling sessions and whatever self-defence spells she had learnt at home.

Anyway, eventually, the duel Harry came to see appeared. Longbottom against Malfoy. For some reason, people were excited about the rivalry. The two boys were obviously incensed with each other. Malfoy was angry at Longbottom because he thinks that the boy who lived was the one who hexed the bulger that attack him to spare Gryffindor their humiliating defeat. The blonde ponce kept complaining about it in the common room, so much so that Harry wanted to punch him just to shut him up.

Longbottom, though, just seemed angry in general ever since the attack. The fact that he was a suspect didn't help at all, since he was the one that discovered Filch's petrified body and Mrs Norris' corpse. The fact that Dean Thomas, his roommate, was petrified later, felt more like a taunt than anything else. Apparently, the boy who lived had started a crusade and vowed publicly to the Gryffindor common room that he would get to the bottom of things and avenge their fallen comrades.

That boy really was dramatic.

Anyway, it was obvious to everyone that the two of them were going to ignore every restriction and go all out the moment the duel started, and well, they did.

It was a relief that neither of the duelers knew any permanently harmful spells, and Snape being there would be able to deal with any real issue. Anyway, the duel turned into a common schoolyard scuffle, with practically no shielding and just common spells and hexes.

Of course, things started to heat up a bit when Malfoy snarled and sent in a cutting curse of all things, "Lacero!" It wasn't really a dark curse, but it was a little frowned upon because it was optimized for cutting biological matter, like human flesh.

Luckily, Longbottom dodged most of it, but he did end up with a thin red line on his gut, with blood slowly looking down on it. The boy who lived frowned, and well, he went all out on it. It seems that the Longbottom scion had started to learn some self-defence in his spare time because he snarled and started a pretty interesting spell chain. He started by casting a Knockback Jinx that threw the young Slytherin in the air and followed it with an Impediment Jinx, that froze him in the air. The boy who lived proceeded to cast a veritable barrage of pranking spells before finally casting a Descendo charm that pulled the boy back into the ground.

By the end of it, Malfoy had orange skin with pink dots all around, pimples on his face, and a horn on his forehead like a unicorn. Yeah, Longbottom was going to win this handsomely, but Neville's status as a Parselmouth hadn't been tested yet.

Lockhart smiled blindingly and started to release the ward, "A round of applause for our winner, Mr Neville Longbottom."

And so, with the wards down a bit, Harry decided to involve himself a bit. He slowly used his Legilimency to project the idea towards Malfoy. It wasn't even anything harmful. It barely even qualified as a compulsion. It was just an idea, that the Malfoy scion grasped like a lifeline while he was still lying on the ground and snarled, "Serpensortia!"

The end of his wand exploded. Longbottom watched, in pure disbelief, 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. Malfoy seemed to have fainted from the exertion of the last spell, but this was the exact scenario Harry wanted to see.

The spell itself wasn't a conjuration but a summoning. It was very dangerous magic but not a particularly difficult one. The main danger was the sheer randomness of the outcome. This spell in particular simply finds a random non-magical snake and summons it at the end of the castor's wand. It could just as easily be a giant boa constrictor or a harmless garden snake. And thus, the magical price of the summoning changes with the result and the location, which explained why Malfoy fainted immediately after casting the spell. One thing was for certain, that snake came from Hogwarts, probably in the forbidden forest. The wards wouldn't allow something from outside to come in, especially with such an easy spell.

To deal with the snake is pretty simple. You either could unsummon it, which teleports that snake back, or you could just kill it.

Snape stepped forwards, offering to help out Longbottom, and so was Lockhart for that matter. Longbottom chose not to listen to them, and for some reason, he just tried to blast the damn thing. With surprising flexibility, the snake avoided the spell entirely and started to slither menacingly towards the boy who lived.

The two professors tried to act quickly, but suddenly Longbottom started to his, and Harry finally started listening to Parseltongue for the first time in his life. It wasn't a language; the hisses and spits were meaningless. No, it was how the ability expressed itself, how it was cast, in a way. Because it was a spell, an immensely complex one, but a spell, nonetheless.

It was some kind of soul projection, that enveloped all snakes around and gave them a temporary spark of magic, and thus intelligence. The rest was just a way to communicate an intent in a way. It was like an idea, turned into a message, that communicated perfectly. The noise was some kind of mnemonic way to communicate. How fascinating.

But in the end, it was a spell, which could be used by anyone, but would probably need decades of training to master. Yet, here was Longbottom doing it without even realizing it. No, it was more like he didn't even deal with the process of a spell. Why did that sound familiar? Oh, yes, magical crests. Salazar Slytherin must have put the ability as a spell in his magical crest. An instant mastery of Parseltongue, but how did Longbottom get the crest?

Oh, Voldemort. The crest must have been something that he had inherited it. And when Longbottom became a Horcrux, a shard of the crest must have accidentally been added in the scar as well. Maybe, the scar is even the manifestation of the crest? Possible, but unlikely.

Well, that gives a whole different meaning to the phrase: "Marked as an equal".

Of course, back to the duelling club, the entire crowd was silent. Although, there were a few gasps around the hall. They all seemed to wait for the metaphorical bomb to go off as everyone started to realize that Neville Longbottom, the fucking boy who lived, was a parselmouth.

Before it could, Hermione and Weasley rushed forward and began to guide their dazed-looking friend swiftly out of the room. Just as the hall started muttering, Harry felt an arm wrap protectively around him and he was suddenly pulled right up against Daphne. She gave him a slight accusing glare, "Not here. We're leaving."

With her arm still draped around his shoulders, Daphne began to lead Harry towards the hall's exit, walking at a very brisk pace. Luna tailed them while humming some unknown tune.

The moment they were far enough away from the hall, she gave him an accusing look, "You knew that this was going to happen, that Longbottom was a Parselmouth."

"I was just testing a theory. Now, I know that Longbottom is a Parselmouth." Harry replied.

Her eyes lit up, "You arranged this to happen. Somehow, you made sure that Longbottom would be confronted by a snake," her smile turned into a frown, "he could have died, Harry."

Harry shook his head, "Not with Snape around. The fastest non-magical snake venom takes twenty minutes to be lethal. It's more than enough time for Snape to give him a bezoar since he always carries a few with him. In the unlikely chance he didn't, he could have easily frozen the venom and carried him to the infirmary. There was practically no risk there. Hell, Malfoy's Lacero curse was more fatal."

"So, is Longbottom the heir of Slytherin?" Daphne asked.

"Of course not. He was unconscious in one of the attacks, and while he was the one who found Filch, he's simply not clever enough to pull something like this off. No, I did this to get a good read on Parseltongue and on how it worked, which would be very useful to find the actual heir."

"You're going too far with this, Harry," Daphne interjected, "We agreed that our time together should be about us, not about your manhunt for the heir of Slytherin."

Harry looked down, "I'm sorry."

"You better be. I want some time alone. I'll see you later, Harry," she answered before running off.

The Potter scion suppressed a groan and looked at the smiling Luna, "What are you looking at."

"She'll get over it, just give her some space."

"How do you know that?" Harry replied.

"I can tell she really likes you," the blonde answered, "but she has a point. Your manhunt for Tom has obviously consumed your time so far. You need to destress. You know, when I feel overwhelmed, I take a stroll by the Forbidden Forest and feed the Thestrals. Do you want to join me tonight?"

Thinking for a few seconds, Harry nodded, "You know what? This sounds like a good idea. I'll see you at curfew near the Great Hall."

The Ravenclaw nodded and skipped to the other side of the room while still humming. That girl could be intelligent at times, but damn, sometimes she's just weird.

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.