𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗻. ✭

𝟎𝟏𝟐. parselmouth potter

━━━━━━ CHAPTER TWELVE.

━━━━━━ 

by the time the next day came, lani did no longer have to explain. almost everybody was talking about harry, and it would've sounded like a load of bull if the duelling club meeting had never happened.

apparently, harry could speak parseltongue, meaning he could speak to snakes. people were saying that harry nearly got justin finch-fletchley, a hufflepuff in the second year, attacked by a snake. first of all, why would there even be a snake there? secondly, why didn't evelyn know about this sooner? forget evelyn, did their parents know? they would've told her—or harry would've, at least. the odds were insanely unlikely, this whole situation was unlikely. evelyn had actually tried to convinced herself that everyone could've just been pulling her leg. then again, that would be unlikely too. no one would joke about something like this.

they were in the library, and almost everyone had their eyes on harry.

"awkward," lani said in a sing-song voice. evelyn couldn't blame her, even ron, hermione and cindy were eyeing harry every couple seconds. it wasn't pleasant.

"i feel quite bad, don't you?" rory said. she started to grab random books from the shelves and placed them on their table.

"what's that for?" evelyn asked.

"well, he wouldn't want to notice an extra five pairs of eyes looking at him, would he? especially five pairs of eyes coming from us."

"i don't get it," benjamin muttered. "what's the big deal? i mean—this is hogwarts. the place that has magic going on here and there. this might be odd in the muggle world but... can't loads of people do it here—?"

"no," carina said, tensely. "it isn't a gift one would come across that easily. the reason why this is such a big deal is because salazar slytherin was a parselmouth. for all we know, harry could be his great-great-great grandson or something."

"no," evelyn said, uneasily. she was more or less convincing herself instead of her friends. "that—that wouldn't make sense."

"it could," lani said. "the bloke lived a thousand years ago, you don't know for sure. besides, all pure-bloods are related somehow."

"harry's a half-blood," rory pointed out.

"still," lani said, darkly. she quickly looked over the pile of books on the table to see if harry was listening in. "there's the potter side of the family. anyway, it isn't like this is the only weird thing going on. anyone that has half a head would put two and two together."

"meaning?"

"er—" lani's eyes flashed at evelyn. "well, the chamber of secrets and all..."

"what does this have to do with the chamber?" benjamin asked.

"you didn't hear this from me," lani said quickly, lowering her voice. the other four had to lean in to listen. "but i overheard some second years talking. mcgonagall told them that the chamber was slytherin's."

"slytherin's?" evelyn repeated.

"yeah. he didn't want muggle-borns learning here, y'know? that's something that he disagreed on with the other three founders. he left the school, and left a chamber underneath it. there's no way that the chamber could be opened unless the heir of slytherin returned to hogwarts."