One Day They'll Know Your Name

Names have power

Derek stumbled away from the wall. What was THAT? Why was Harry Whatever-last-name-he-was-using doing hissing at a wall? And it was hissing back?! Derek looked around wildly for a moment, then calmed. He would just have to ask one of the second year's friends. Malfoy would never spill, Weasley would get extremely defensive and clam up, and Longbottom would likely just disappear into the Forest or something before answering any of his questions. That left Granger. If he caught her in just the right mood, he might just be able to get some answers.

A few minutes later, Derek found Granger in the Hebology section of the library. Perfect. This was exactly what he needed to get his answers. He headed over to her.

"Hey, Granger, is this seat taken?"

Granger just waved towards the seat dismissively, so Derek sat down.

"What are you studying?"

"Herbology."

"What plant are you studying?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed but continued reading without looking up. "Mandrakes."

"I remember that lesson. Right now we're working on Cobra Lilies. I've been trying to figure out why they need snake venom. I mean besides the fact that it's a Cobra Lily." Keep her talking. She's almost distracted enough to ask why Pentapod would be hissing at a wall."

Hermione turned a page, voice sounding more absent as she spoke. "It probably has something to do with the reaction of cobra venom with the roots."

Derek froze. That was probably the actual answer. Granger really was a genius. "Huh. I never thought of that. But does it have to be a cobra or any venomous snake? I could probably find out, but I'd have to do a lot of experiments, and I'd need a lot of antivenom." Derek trailed off, distracted by the idea of doing these experiments.

Hermione waved a hand dismissively. "Harry could probably help if you asked."

"Why would Parkson be able to help? Is he immune to snake venom? Or maybe he just has a death wish?"

"Harry's a Parselmouth. Honestly, Ronald, keep up. He'd be the last person the snakes would bite. And if Harry did manage to get hurt by the one animal he can talk to without wanting to fight it, Draco would kill him, then I would have to learn Necromancy to bring him back and Draco would laugh at him for the rest of our lives." Hermione turned another page.

There was so much to unpack in that statement. "Can Harry talk to other animals that he does want to fight?"

"Not that we know of, but he's been wanting to fight the squid since we met it on the way to the castle last year. I don't know how many times Draco and I have had to pull him away from the lake. You'd think the poor creature had killed his grandmother."

Derek decided to just drop the subject. He was getting more questions than answers.

"Anyway, do you remember specifically how to plant mandrake seeds? I'm sure I'm missing something, and I don't want to kill everyone in the greenhouse because I grabbed the native soil instead of the imported thawed soil from magical Siberia or something.

Derek grabbed his bag slowly, like he would to avoid scaring a scared animal. "I don't, actually, but there's a book on Mandrakes here. I have to get to class, bye!" With that he practically ran out of the library and to the Hufflepuff common room.

********************(POV CHANGE)

By breakfast the next day, the fact that Harry was a Parselmouth was spread around the school. Everywhere he went, people were looking at him with terrified expressions. They cleared wide swaths of room for him so they wouldn't have to touch him, since all of them were so terrified that he was the Heir of Slytherin.

When Hermione came up to him to apologize for accidentally spilling the beans, Harry sighed.

"Listen, Mione, you know usually I wouldn't care, and in fact I was going to tell the school about it eventually, but did you have to tell the school when we have a bunch of petrifications by the "Heir of Slytherin" going on?"

Hermione sighed and gave him another apology, then let him get to his class.

By the start of lunch, Harry was at his wits end. Thankfully the Slytherins and Les Amis were strongly against the idea that Harry was the Heir, so he had a little reprieve during lunch with the Slytherins. He honestly didn't care that the whole school knew he was a Parselmouth, but he did care that the information was given now of all times. This was not a good time to be connected to Salazar Slytherin in any way.

After lunch, the twins hoisted him up on their shoulders.

"Beware..."

"The obvious..."

"Right you are, brother, he's definitely..."

"The Heir..."

"Of Slytherin!"

"He's clearly..."

"Terrifying..."

"And great!"

"Beware!"

Some of the students walking by laughed a little, and the twins grinned at them mischievously.

"Yes, Harry here..."

"Is so very dangerous."

"I'm quaking in my boots!"

"I'm shaking in my socks!"

"He's terrifying!"

"Horrifying!"

"Absolutely scary!"

The rest of the day the twins followed him around, warning people away from the "Obviously, clearly, definitely terrifying" twelve year old. It made people laugh, and by the end of the day, no one was overly scared of Harry.

Another week passed and it was finally Valentine's, much to the dismay of most of the school. Lockhart was dressed in a light pink that made him look even more like a fool than he usually did. He stood in front of the school at breakfast and announced, "Today is a special day! The day of love and happiness! I've hired singing dwarves to carry any messages that you want to send to you're loves, so please! Enjoy this most wonderful of days!"

With that, he turned to Professor Snape and pulled out a bouquet of flowers with a flourish. Harry choked a little bit at the lilies that were in the bouquet but watched with barely restrained glee as Professor Snape glared at the flowers like they had personally killed his mother.

"For you, dear Severus," the blond man said hopefully, placing the flowers in front of the professor's plate.

Professor Snape reached into his robes and came out with a vial of some potion. He made eye contact with Lockhart and poured it directly on the flowers, causing them to melt into a pile of goo. He then levitated the pile over to the window and dropped it outside. Then he returned to his meal without giving the Defense professor a second look.

Harry choked back a laugh and turned back to his meal hastily. He kept an eye on Lockhart's reaction and wasn't disappointed when the blond peacock visibly drooped in disappointment and sadness, but then perked up almost immediately. Harry choked back another laugh at the determined and hopeful look on Lockhart's face. He couldn't wait to watch that little crush blow up in Lockhart's face.

The day passed extremely slowly, thanks to the seemingly endless number of singing valentines sent to him. He had to listen to every single one or the dwarves delivering them would just start singing in class, and Harry didn't want that. One of the most memorable ones said, "Eyes as green as the color of his snake, Hair as dark as you could make, The Boy With A Thousand Names, Truly is a shame, For I wish I could have shared just once a name that was the same." As far as poems went, it wasn't that bad. In fact, the rhyming was great. The only problem was that it came from someone Harry didn't even know.

The day finally ended, and Harry collapsed into his bed, hoping for a peaceful weekend for once this year. He doubted it would happen, but one could always dream.