Work Text:
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE
Hermione stared down at the words she'd copied down onto her piece of parchment. She hadn't gotten the handwriting quite right—what she wouldn't give for a pen instead of her quills, which had a habit of distorting her handwriting with extra ink—but she assumed whoever had written it had changed theirs up, anyway. The letters were in evenly written uppercase script. From the way the strokes slanted, she thought the writer was right-handed, but that really was no help. Underneath the heir's message were her notes from Professor Binns' class and the tidbits of information she'd found in old library books. And below that were notes on the hissing Harry had heard in the walls. It was one of their biggest clues, but also the most confusing.
"Tell me what the hissing said again," Hermione said, dipping her quill in ink and grabbing another sheet. Knowing the specifics of memories tended to fade quickly, she'd gotten Harry to write everything down as soon as possible, but maybe a second time would be useful.
Harry first glanced around—the three of them were in an empty corner of the library, but Filch had taken to jumping out from corners at them, trying to discover something incriminating—and then began to recite the events of a couple days ago.
"The first thing I heard when we got out of Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party was just hissing, then I realized it was saying kill. And tear, things like that. Not full sentences."
"Did it sound intelligent?"
"No. I don't know. Maybe. It was hungry. It was going after someone, saying it smelled blood. And that's when we found Mrs. Norris."
"Did you hear any sounds after we got to Mrs. Norris?"
"No—or maybe a little bit of hissing, like it was getting farther away. I was distracted."
Hermione nodded. Harry hadn't remembered anything new. She placed her quill down and rested her head in her hands. Oh, it was the most irritating thing in the world, the knowledge that she could learn and learn and there would still be so many things she wouldn't know! Some days, that idea was a fantastic one, because she loved learning, but right now it was just terrible.
"I don't know why we're doing this," Ron said, sighing. "The professors have it covered. They'll find out who did it in a week or something and Filch'll stop giving us dirty looks."
Hermione gave him a dirty look. "This is important! We need to prove our innocence."
"And you're curious," Ron retorted, eyebrow raised.
"Hrumph." Well, Ron wasn't wrong.
Harry grinned at her. "It's okay, Hermione. We'll figure it out way before the professors. There's no one better at figuring things out than you."
"He's right," Ron said. "But also let's not skip dinner tonight; yesterday was killer. I don't study well on an empty stomach."
Hermione was pretty sure Ron just didn't study well at all, but she let it slide. "You said it sounded like hissing? Was it like snakes hissing? Or pipes? Air? Something else?"
Harry's brow furrowed. "It sounded distorted and far away, but more like a snake than anything else. Actually… now that I think about it, it sounded a little like the snake I talked to at the zoo before I started Hogwarts."
"Was it a magical zoo?" Hermione asked. "I heard there's one in France, it sounds amazing—so many different animals!—but I've never been."
"No, it was a regular snake. A boa constrictor."
"And you understood it?" Hermione asked. She looked over at Ron, who knew a more about the magical world than she or Harry did simply due to growing up in it. His face was ashen as he stared wide-eyed at Harry. "Ron?"
"You—you talked to a snake?" Ron asked. "Was it just that snake?"
"No, I tried talking to the snakes I found in the woods last summer near Privet Drive and understood them, too. They weren't as smart as the boa but they were still better company than Dudley. Was I not supposed to? I didn't think it counted as underage magic since I wasn't using my wand at all."
"It's called parseltongue," Ron explained. "The snake language. It's evil. They say Salazar Slytherin spoke it. That's why the Slytherin house symbol is a snake."
"Oh," Harry said, looking down at the books he'd left open.
Hermione's mind was spinning all over the place, but the most important thing was, "Don't be silly, Ron. Of course it's not evil. If Harry knows it, then it can't be evil. Right?"
There was only one answer to that question, the glare she put into her eyes said.
Ron quickly nodded. "Right." To Harry, he said, "It's a stupid superstition, mate. Nothing to worry about. Actually it's a good thing that you can speak parseltongue; that really narrows down our search. There can't be that many snakes who can petrify crazy old cats."
Still looking a little spooked, Harry said, "You mean it? It doesn't scare you?"
And Ron didn't need prodding this time to immediately say, "Never. You're my best mate—both of you—and some ruddy snake stuff isn't going to change that."
Hermione really did have the best friends. Even if one of them had a strange knowledge of the snake language and the worst propensity for getting into trouble. But, it wasn't as though Harry's parseltongue abilities really mattered in the grand scheme of things. After a couple days, whether or not they found a creature who fit their profile, they would tell the professors their suspicions and everything would be back to whatever passed for normal at Hogwarts.
That day, they'd only started their search for the creature. They left the library with a tower of books and a stern word from Madam Pince about bringing them all back or else. Hermione managed to go through one of the books before bed, and one during breakfast in between Harry and Ron's prodding for her to eat. And then that evening was the night of Professor Lockhart's new dueling club. Hermione hadn't planned to go—Professor Lockhart was amazing, and handsome, and oh so charming, but she really did have better things to do—but she tagged along with Harry and Ron anyway.
Harry had the luck of getting chosen as an assistant, despite Hermione being right there and eager to be noticed by Professor Lockhart, but she could forgive him since it wasn't really his fault. She wasn't sure she wanted to try a spell for the first time in front of so many people, anyway.
And then Malfoy summoned a snake to the middle of the dueling platform and Harry's spell turned into a hiss and Hermione only just managed to muffle her gasp. The people around her didn't try at all.
It was obvious to her that all Harry was doing was trying to calm the snake down; he'd even leaned over a bit, like people did with small frightened animals. But no one else saw it that way. What seemed like the whole student body was staring at her friend with absolute horror on their faces. Hermione shared a panicked looked with Ron, but it wasn't panic because of Harry's skill.
This was just one more thing Harry was going to be alone in, Hermione thought, and something deep in her bones ached. For all that she was Harry's friend, she couldn't help bear any of his burdens. He was the Boy-Who-Lived, the only living person to speak Slytherin's tongue…
As far as anyone knew.
A thought crept into her head. She took a millisecond to wonder if this was really a good idea and decided it was a fantastic one. Hermione turned to Ron with a determined expression.
"No," Ron said, automatically.
Hermione pulled him up onto the dueling stage with her anyway. While professors Snape and Lockhart were arguing about who was going to banish the snake, she walked over to Harry's right side, and Ron took his other side. Harry was still trying to calm the snake, but he noticed them when Hermione took his hand.
Hermione breathed in one deep breath, started glaring evilly because it seemed like the wizarding world was completely convinced one had to be evil to be a parselmouth, and began to copy Harry's hissing.
"Mum's going to kill me," Ron whispered, but he followed her lead.
If the wizarding world was going to hate Harry for being a parselmouth, well at least he wasn't going to be alone.
When she looked back at Malfoy, she found he'd fainted.