Interesting old man

"Harry wake up! I found something that will surely ssurprise you!!"

Harry woke up to Ash slithering throughout his whole body excitedly, dare he say.

Needless to say, he wasn't happy.

"Good morning to you too Ash. Now if you will excuse me, I was having a really nice dream and I'm going to try getting back to it. Your discovery can wait a bit," Harry hiss-murmured before closing his eyes.

Whatever Ash wanted could wait.

In his dream, he was eating at the Great Hall together with Ash and the others when Ron barged in. All eyes were instantly on him.

It seemed as if the git either got pranked really bad or did something utterly wrong, as in the place where his arms were supposed to be, there were two matching cleaning brooms.

Harry was the first, but everyone soon followed.

Laughter filled the great hall and he could see some amused stares coming from the head table as well.

Ron's face became so red that Harry couldn't distinguish where his hair started and his forehead ended.

Needless to say, Ron bolted from the Great Hall, sobbing sounds following him.

'Ahh, what a nice dream. If only I can get back to it, it will be perfect. Maybe, I should try recreating it...' Harry thought in sadistic delight.

Ash wasn't as amused.

Uncaring that Harry was trying to get back to Morpheus' clutches, he bit Harry's blanket and pulled.

Without his shield against the cold and damp atmosphere of the chamber, Harry had no other option than to hear Ash out.

He sat up and threw an annoyed look at his snake friend.

"What's wrong with you?" he hissed with indignation.

"There'sss nothing wrong with me you dimwit. It's you who triess to copy the lazinesss of the red buffoon," Ash stated.

Being compared to Ron Weasley was not something Harry was relishing in.

"Don't-compare-me-with-that-git," Harry uttered in a staccato growl.

How could someone growl in parseltongue would forever remain a mystery.

"Fine. If you didn't ignore me though, none of this would have happened," Ash hissed back.

Before Harry could reply, the snake spoke up again.

"I didn't find something but someone and they want to meet you," Ash said, stopping whatever response Harry had prepared.

"You found someone down here?" he asked in disbelief.

"Why yes," the snake replied smugly.

"Who did you find?" Harry asked quickly; he knew that unless stopped, Ash would go down the rabbit hole of explaining why and how great he was.

'The biggest narcissist I know,' he thought with some amusement.

Asmodeus' arrogance wasn't really tiresome, unlike a certain ferret.

"I'm not saying anything, you can see them yourself," the snake scowled.

He knew that Harry spoke quickly to stop him from talking about his greatness and he didn't appreciate it.

Without saying anything else, the snake started moving, leaving Harry with no other choice but to follow him.

He got out of the bed he transfigured last night, not forgetting to put on his shoes, and made some effort to not fall behind Ash.

They were heading towards Slytherin's open-mouthed statue!

Harry tried speaking but a quick hiss from Ash stopped him.

'Does he not know of patience?' Ash considered in his thoughts as he got inside the colossal sculpture's mouth with Harry following.

And the inside was nothing like he expected it to be.

The space they found themselves in was ginormous.

It could easily house a bunch of basilisks, making a cold shiver run down his spine.

'What if the basilisk I killed wasn't the only one? Do basilisks lay eggs? What if it had kids? What if it was the kid?!'

As Harry was about to start hyperventilating, Ash stopped slithering, making him also stop and look ahead of him.

They seemed to have walked in front of a portrait that depicted an ancient and monkeyish man with a long thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of his sweeping robes.

'Why did Ash bring me to see a portrait of an old guy?' he mused, his thoughts not at all on the man in front of him.

"Has no one taught you any manners boy?"

The sudden sound of a stranger's voice broke Harry from his thoughts and put him even more on guard.

He turned his head to both of his sides, but there wasn't anyone there.

He couldn't have hidden as the voice sounded very close and there weren't any hiding spots in his near vicinity.

What was going on?

"Up here boy," the voice spoke again, its annoyance palpable.

Harry, as instructed, looked up and saw movement from the portrait.

The man in the portrait was moving.

"Imposs-" he started to say before his brain caught up with everything.

Ash brought him here to see someone, instead of the person coming to see him. There was a moving portrait in front of him. There were living portraits in the magical world.

'I really am a dimwit, aren't I?' he thought with a sigh.

He shook his head and coughed, trying to shake his embarrassment away.

"Hello, sir. I'm sorry for ignoring and not greeting you. I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn't notice you were a magical portrait," Harry tried appeasing the man.

"You don't say… Be that as it may, do you know who I am boy?"

"No? Should I?" Harry asked weakly.

He had an uncanny feeling that the man wouldn't like his answer.

"I see what you mean Asmodeuss. He truly is ignorant," the man hissed in disappointment.

The sudden change to parseltongue had caught Harry so much off guard that he skipped a breath.

"It can't be… Are you Salazar Slytherin?"

"Why yes. Perhaps there is hope for you my boy. Would you mind explaining how you deducted that?" the older man asked curiously with a small flicker of hope in his eyes.

"You are the only parselmouth I know aside from Voldemort and you don't have red eyes," Harry swiftly answered, choosing to forgo the part about there being hope for him.

"That'ss it? That's your meek explanation? Not only are you inside my chamber right now and you've entered the statue of my head to reach this room, but you've surely seen pictures of me in your history bookss! Lastly, the man you speak of did not always have red irises," Slytherin snarled, making Harry wince and his eyes widen.

"Yeah those too…" he said meekly.

'He knows Voldemort! And that's another hit on my intelligence…'

"No matter. I fear that this talk could go on for hours so I shall brush it aside, this time. We do not have much time as it is," he said, suddenly serious.

"What are you talking about?" Harry enquired.

"Well, how do I explain this in dunderhead terms? The magic feeding this portrait was tied to my basilisk. The said basilisk is dead and thus my portrait will soon cease housing the imprint of my real self. Essentially, unless I go hibernating again, I'll disappear by the end of this month," he explained slowly.

"I see," Harry said.

It was by his actions that the portrait in front of him would "die". However, as portraits weren't really alive in the first place and the basilisk was trying to kill him, he didn't feel too bad about his actions' consequences.

The fact that the man was said to be evil would have helped as well. However, for once in his life, Harry decided to not trust other peoples' tales and determine if Salazar Slytherin was a good or bad guy by himself.

'It's not like he can do anything other than speak. He's a portrait,' he thought, assured of his safety.

"And how does this concern me?" Harry asked.

If he understood correctly, the man in front of him wanted something from him.

"Haven't you noticed it already? Look at my eyes child."

And Harry did.

'Green.'

The man had the same striking green eyes as him!

He got closer and closer until his nose was almost touching the paint.

"What the actual hell?" he shouted at the man.

This was absurd.

It didn't make sense.

Slytherin's eyes weren't just the same colour as his.

'We have the exact same eyes. They are freaking carbon copies of each other.'

"My translation runes didn't quite catch that last part, my heir. But I think I got the meaning quite right. What in Circe's name indeed…"

Harry was too confused to speak.

Slytherin chose to wait for the boy to break out of his stupor.

Ash had neither of their qualms though.

"Hey, Harry? Do you know what the basilisk'ss name was? Asmodeusssss!"

(Last edit: 16/07/2024)