The next morning, when Fish pulled his head out from under the pillow in a daze, he saw Harry and Ron, looking serious, sitting on the bed next to him, staring at him.
"Nya!" ∑(=ΦДΦ=)
Fish jumped out of bed, blowing the sheet over his body.
"Easy, easy..." Said Harry and Ron calmly, "We just have something we want to ask you."
"Nya?"
Fish cocked his head, ignoring the two guys who had scared him, and crouched down on the bed to lick his fur and wash his face, running a small silver comb through his fur.
Harry and Ron sat patiently as well, waiting for Fish to finish taking care of his fur.
"So, what's up?" (●Φ~Φ●)
Shifting into his cat-person form, Fish sat on the edge of the bed, wiggling his legs as he took out a packet of snacks from his magic bag and ate them.
"How much you left suddenly last night, was it because you heard something?" Ron asked, matter-of-factly, straight to the point.
"Yes."
Fish nodded, still furious at the thought.
"That snake has been running inside the wall after provoking me, and it doesn't show up, so Fish couldn't find it even if he wanted to!"
(〃`3′〃)
After hearing Fish's words, Harry nodded thoughtfully, if it was a snake, then yes, he already had experience communicating with snakes, so it made sense.
However, Ron next to him was not so calm.
"Are you saying that the animal that was screaming 'I'll rip you apart, I'll kill you' last night was a snake?!"
Ron's voice was as high pitched as Comey's, and he stood up suddenly, looking at Harry with horror on his face.
The fact that Fish could understand snakes didn't surprise Ron, because he could communicate with almost any animal, not just snakes, and Ron had even seen him talk to his own pet, Scabbers, and Neville's toad.
What really surprised him was Harry, being able to communicate with any animal and knowing only snake language were two completely different concepts.
"What, what's wrong?"
Harry looked confused as Ron looked at him with an expression of disbelief, not knowing what was shocking.
"Harry, can you understand snake language?" Ron confirmed with a very serious expression.
"Yeah, I used to... just before I knew I was a wizard, I was chatting with a boa constrictor at the zoo, and then I let it out, and it said it had never been to Brazil.... Hey, what the hell is going on here?"
Harry asked in disgust at Ron's increasingly horrified expression, his scant knowledge of the magical world was what bothered him the most when ordinary wizards took him for granted and he remained clueless.
"A Boa told you he'd never been to Brazil?" Ron laughed bitterly in a weak voice, "Not only can you understand them, but you can communicate with them?"
"Why? can't Fish do the same? I bet one of the other wizards has a similar ability."
"Oh, they can't" Ron sighed, shaking his head, "Fish's special case aside, Parseltongue is no ordinary ability. Harry, it's bad."
"What's so bad?"
Harry frowned, just because he could only talk to snakes and Fish could talk to all animals, was he being treated differently?
"Parseltongue, that is, talking to snakes, is a famous ability of Salazar Slytherin, that's why the Slytherin symbol is a snake, and..."
Ron pursed his lips and lowered his voice, "It is also said that he who must not be named also speaks Parseltongue, it is a very rare ability and occurs mostly in famous dark wizards and their descendants.... Harry, perhaps you have Slytherin blood."
"This... how is this possible?"
Harry argued unconsciously, then stopped talking, because he remembered what the Sorting Hat had told him, and he really didn't know anything about the family situation on his father's side.
"It's quite possible," Ron shrugged, "Many of the pureblood wizarding families are related, I think I mentioned to you that our family is still related to the Malfoys."
"Anyway, it's best not to go around saying you speak Parseltongue, because it will make people think you're an evil dark wizard."
Ron admonished as he reached out and patted Harry on the shoulder.
While he wouldn't shy away from Harry for speaking Parseltongue, the others didn't know Harry as well as he did.
As for the noise last night, neither Ron nor Harry had paid much attention to it once they knew it was a snake.
It was probably a snake on the hunt wandering around the castle that Harry and Fish overheard.
The most important thing now was that Harry speaks Parseltongue.
"So, why is Fish different? just because he can talk to all the animals?"
Harry, who didn't want to be a descendant of Slytherin, still wanted to fight, so he pointed his finger at Fish, who was still chewing his sandwich.
"Nya?" (??~??)
Fish, who had no interest in the conversation between the two, was eating his food when he was suddenly called out by Harry.
The kitten looked at the two of them in confusion, his cheeks puffy from all the food he had ingested.
"What's wrong with Fish, nya? Minerva can talk to cats too, and Sister September, Uncle Marvin, Grandpa Orr and the rest..."
Fish counted on his fingers, though he wasn't interested in Harry and Ron's conversation, he had a rough idea.
"Sister September?" Ron remembered the name, "That's the animagus who gave you the recipe, right? The ones you said could communicate with animals, I think they were all Animagus."
"Yes." Fish nodded.
"It's different with animagus, but of course, you're a little more special." Ron explained, "An Animagus other than Fish can only communicate with the animal he's been transformed into, right? Parseltongue isn't like that."
"Parseltongue doesn't require a wizard to learn to become a snake, and when they talk to a snake, they use the same snake language, not cat language or English like Fish."
"But he was speaking English when he was talking to that Boa."
Harry was delighted and immediately argued for himself.
Ron scratched his head, "I don't know, but it's best to keep your ability to communicate with snakes a secret."
Even if Ron didn't warn him, Harry wasn't going to tell anyone, he didn't want anyone to think he was involved with Slytherin.
"Why are you looking at Fish?"
Fish blinked, then handed out the sandwich in his hand.
(●ΦwΦ●)つ
"Do you want something to eat? Don't mention it, Fish has plenty more!"
"No, no, no, no, we want you to help keep the secret too" Harry pleaded, waving his hand.
"Keep what secret nya? That you can talk to snakes nya?"
Ron's long ramblings were too much for Fish to understand, but one thing he could confirm was that wizards who could talk to snakes but couldn't turn into snakes didn't seem to be very popular with the others.
"Sure, no problem, Fish keeps his mouth shut nya!" Fish lifted his chin and assured him triumphantly.