One Day They'll Know Your Name

By my name

The next weeks passed quickly. Hermione came up with a name for the group, Les Amis de l'ABC, and they shortened to Les Amis unless they had to label something, which Draco approved of, since it translated to The Friends, but it sounded way cooler. Classes continued as usual and Harry was rarely bored.

On Saturday, Harry was wondering around on the grounds when he heard a voice from below.

#Sssstupid humanssss, walking into my nessst.#

Harry was confused. Most people didn't elongate their s's like that. He looked down and saw a snake slithering its way along. He shrugged mentally and followed the voice as it moved. Snakes probably talked all the time, and maybe else he could try to help. He didn't notice as he entered the Forbidden Forest. He followed the voice, eventually looking up and freezing as he realized where he was. It suddenly seemed to get much darker, and Harry hoped desperately it was just his mind making stuff up and not actually happening. Suddenly he heard a distressed sound, followed by a bunch of rustling, then by a beautiful horse with a horn running through the underbrush in front of him. Suddenly the poor unicorn was attacked by a strange thing in a cloak. It seemed to tear at the unicorn's throat and the poor thing instantly fell. He watched as the creature in the cloak seemed to drink from the unicorn like a vampire, then it turned and looked right at him.

He screamed.

Suddenly, another horse like creature leaped over him, driving away the spirit vampire thing. It turned around and he saw it was a centaur. Shaking, Harry barely heard as the centaur spoke to him, introducing himself as Firenze. Firenze took Harry's face in his large hands and looked him in the eye. He said something in Latin, then asked how Harry had gotten into the forest. Harry was still extremely disoriented, so he had no idea if he answered the question correctly. Firenze must have noticed, because he was speaking in Latin again. Harry suddenly felt the word go dark. The last thing he felt was Firenze's arms catching him before he hit the forest floor.

When he woke up again, he could remember the thing killing the unicorn easily, but it was like there was no emotion to it. He resolved to tell Professor Snape about the incident the next time he saw him and laid back down on the grass where the centaur—Firenze—had left him. He got up and headed down to the Common Room. The Slytherins were all gathered around a table near the center of the room, talking excitedly. Draco saw Harry and waved him over enthusiastically.

"Harry! Look what Flint's Father sent him!" he exclaimed. Harry pushed his way to the middle of the group, since he couldn't see over anyone, and gasped.

"A snake! It's so pretty!" He began to coo at the snake. #Aren't you a pretty one! Are you male or female?#

#A Sssspeaker?# The snake seemed overly excited about this, but Harry shrugged mentally. #I am female, Ssssspeaker.#

#Why do you call me Sssssspeaker?#

#Because you ssssspeak.#

#Doesssssn't everyone?#

#That issss an interessssting way to think of it, Ssssspeaker.#

#Call me Harry pleasssse.#

#Of coursssse, Harry#

#Do you have a name, pretty one?#

#My human hasssss named me Sssssalazar.#

#Why didn't you tell him you are female?#

#He cannot underssssstand me.#

#Would you like me to tell him then?#

#Yessssss pleasssse.#

Harry looked up to see several pairs of wide eyes staring at him.

"H-harry, why didn't you tell me you were a Parselmouth?" Draco finally stuttered out.

"A what?" Harry asked, confused.

"A Parselmouth is someone who can talk to snakes. The language they speak is called Parseltongue," Flint broke in.

"Huh. Well she says she's actually a girl and wants a more feminine name than Salazar."

Marcus sputtered for a moment, and Draco burst into giggles next to Harry.

"Can you ask her if she would prefer a name?" Flint asked.

Harry turned to the snake. #Your human wantssss to know if you would like to choosssse a name, gorgeoussssss.#

#I like the name Sssssulu.#

"She likes the name Sulu," Harry said after turning back to the other children.

"Sulu it is then. I hope you know I'm going to be coming to you with any questions I have, Tomato."

"Anything to see this pretty lady again." #You have the mossst beautiful sssscalesssss, Sssssulu. I'm nearly jealousssssss.#

The snake hissed a laugh and Harry giggled.

He continued to talk to Sulu for a few minutes, asking her about how she liked her tank, if she needed anything else. He relayed everything to Flint, who listened intently. Harry even saw him pulling out a
parchment and quill to write everything down. Harry knew he would be as good an owner as he could be for Sulu, and told her so. She agreed, having noticed that he was listening closely as Harry spoke.

"Harry, you need to know, you can't tell anyone about this," Draco said pulling him aside. "We can tell Les Amis, but no one else. They'll all think you're a Dark Wizard because you can talk to snakes. Never made sense to me. One guy speaks a language and he happens to be a bad guy and now no one can speak the language without prejudice." He ended in a mutter.

Harry's jaw dropped. "You-Know-Who could talk to snakes? Could anyone else?"

"Yeah, Salazar Slytherin was the first one we know of who could talk to snakes. Apparently he had a secret chamber somewhere in the school, and I would bet anything it used to be guarded by a snake. It's probably dead by now, though, which is a good thing. No one should live that long by themselves, not even an animal."

Harry agreed. "Let's go tell Les Amis. We should really come up with a way to tell everyone when we want to tell them something. Something small so we can carry it around, and charmed so everyone can activate whatever it is whenever we need..." He trailed off.

"Let's let Owlet deal with that, but definitely bring it up, [redacted]," Draco agreed. "It's a great idea."

The two boys ran for their abandoned classroom and hoped they ran into the other members of Les Amis