I hadn't thought about Harry losing the ability to speak to snakes after the horcrux was destroyed. That will be hard for him since he was so used to having the ability. Will Hissy be able to return the ability to speak parseltongue to him? Looking forward to finding out.
| Title: Swings and Roundabouts
| 22 Apr 2010 2:15 am
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| Reviewer: Pellegrina (Anonymous)
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Oh, poor Harry losing his ability - but I guess it's a small price to pay for the liberation from the horcrux. But can't he get the ability back the same way Severus got it - from Hissy? He wouldn't make a good bonded to the basilisk without being a parselmouth after all... Maybe you've a solution all figured out and I'm just worrying for nothing, so I'll rather go on reading... Great story!
Author's Response: Thanks for the review. Yes, Hissy can teach someone a language in seconds but, if it knocked a highly-trained, naturally-skilled legilimens like Severus sideways, you can imagine what sort of strain it would place on Harry's unexercised, developing mind. Just because a strong-man can lift 380kg doesn't mean a child will also be able to do so.
| Title: Swings and Roundabouts
| 21 Apr 2010 4:07 pm
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| Reviewer: cait (Anonymous)
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couldn't harry become a parseltongue again by talking to hissy/seeing into hissy's eyes, the way sev became a parseltongue?
Author's Response: Thanks for the review; yes, indeed Hissy could. However, unlike Severus, Harry is a child and one totally untrained in Mind Magic and, therefore, receiving a huge packet of information via legilimancy would be akin to him being forced to run a 50 mile marathon: the strain would damage Harry's mind and could even kill him. Therefore, Severus can by no means be sure that Hissy could do it and, until he asks, he doesn't want to get Harry's hopes up.
Oh, poor little Harry! I hope they are able to fix this, I love his conversations with Reggie!!! Can't wait to see what's next!
Author's Response: Thanks for the review; I had to put off answering until I got this last chapter uploaded. As you've probably seen, Harry can relearn Parseltongue but he has to do it in bite-sized portions because, unlike Severus, he is not a Legilimens and, therefore, the relevant part of his brain has not been exercised, thus it lacks the elasticity of Severus's brain.
| Title: Swings and Roundabouts
| 21 Apr 2010 1:41 am
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| Reviewer: love_it (Signed)
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I'm really relieved that the horcrux has been expelled from Harry's body. That means he won't have to go through horrifying visions and Occlumency lessons... It is unfortunate that Harry lost his speaking skills, but it is worth not having to go through all the atrocities he suffered through in cannon. What I'm curious about is how Severus received the ability to speak Parselmouth.
By the way, the last line of the chapter, about how "what is lost can be found, if sought" reminded me of Sense and Sensibility. Is it just a funky coincidence, or where you inspired? lol
Author's Response: Thanks for the review. Yes, I was inspired by Edmund Spenser's poem, which was read in Sense and Sensibility; it felt such a perfect line that I had to add it lol! When Hissy looked into Severus' eyes, he originally only intended to send him a small number of images. However, as a highly accomplished, often assayed legilimens, Severus' mind is highly elastic and, therefore, Hissy decided, on the spur of the moment, to squeeze 'Parseltongue' in as he knew that Severus could handle such a huge bundle of information being legilimised into him.
Will Hissy be able to restore Harry's ability to speak Parseltongue? After all, he gave Sev the abbility, and your poor Harry has lost so much already, it would be a shame for him to lose the ability to talk to his scaly friends too! Also: How will Reggie and the other snakes react to Hissy?
Author's Response: Thanks for the review; as I've now uploaded the relevant chapters, I can confide that Hissy can, indeed, help Harry but it will take a little longer because, unlike Severus, Harry's developing mind would be warped if Hissy overstretched it. This is why Severus does not suggest it earlier: he needs to know if Hissy can help Harry and how long it would take.
| Title: Swings and Roundabouts
| 20 Apr 2010 11:06 pm
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| Reviewer: AchillesMonkey (Anonymous)
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So, is he still bonded with Hissy and will they still be able to communicate? Will Hissy give him Parseltongue back like he gave it to Severus? Thanks for the update!
Author's Response: Thanks for the review; Harry and Hissy are still bonded but, for the moment, they can only communicate through Severus. Hissy can, naturally, understand English- he legilimised the language from one of his bonded much as he legilimised Parseltongue into Severus. Hissy can help Harry but, unlike Severus, Harry can't take a whole language being inserted into his brain in one go. If you have ever made bread you'll know how, before kneeding, if you pull the dough apart it will break but, after kneading, the dough will stretch. Severus's brain has had a thorough kneading through his constant use of legilimancy/occulmancy whereas Harry's brain has not been exercised by mind magic at all. Therefore, Hissy needs to be very, very careful with Harry's mind.
I love how you had Harry realize that he couldnt speak parseltongue anymore right away. Some might think it should have waited, but I think it was good for him to figure it out now, while before he gets too excited about speaking to snakes again. I loved the chapter great job!
This is terrible. I do hope that Harry will find the key to being able to talk to Reggie again. I wonder if Hissy will be able to help him like she did Severus?
Author's Response: Thanks for the review. Yes, it is terrible for Harry but it does show, very clearly, that the horcrux has gone and Hissy will be able to help Harry, though it won't be instantanious because Harry's mind, being unassayed in mind magic, is not as elastic as Severus'
After looking at your replies to your reviews, your statement about Harry not being able to speak Parseltongue sounds like a temporary problem. After all, Hissy can just "install" a Parseltongue-English translator on Harry which I have feeling Hissy is going to do because Hissy needs a way to communicate with Harry without the help of someone else.
Author's Response: Thanks for the review; yes, you're right, however it is slightly more complex because Harry's mind isn't as elastic as Severus's; it's akin to a strong-man, who has been weight training twice a day for the last ten years, lifting a car and a young child who has done no weight-training trying to lift a car. Harry doesn't have the mental muscles or elasticity to take the Parseltongue-English translator, which is a huge packet of information, in one go. Therefore, he will need to re-learn it in bite sized chunks.
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