Severus put his memory of Potter’s memory in the pensieve and took Dumbledore to watch it.
There was something wrong with Potter, Severus was sure. The boy didn’t behave as he had before. Voluntarily attending a Deathday Party instead of showing off in front of his classmates in the Great Hall, and then trying to defend Sir Nicholas against the scorn of that other ghost ... that was decidedly un-potterlike behaviour.
Even before Potter mentioned the voice, Dumbledore nodded. “Ah. Parseltongue.”
“You speak it?” It was impossible to know all the secrets Dumbledore kept.
“I am not a parselmouth, but yes, I possess some superficial knowledge of the language. Enough to know what it is.”
Having heard enough, they pulled out of the pensieve.
“Potter is a parselmouth, then?” Severus suppressed the envy rising in his chest. For Potter, being a parselmouth would not be a good thing. In Gryffindor, he would not be well liked if anyone found out.
“So it appears. More importantly, Slytherin’s monster must be a snake.”
“I would have guessed it if it was not so painfully obvious”, Severus retorted drily. “However, the cat was not bitten by a snake. Unless … ” A gorgon, perhaps? But the words Potter had translated had seemed rather animal-like ... “You do not think ... a basilisk?”
“Rubeus has been complaining that his roosters are being killed”, Dumbledore said quietly.
And that was all the answer Severus needed.
“We must set a trap.”
“Indeed.” Dumbledore turned to look at him. “Severus, you know what I must ask of you.”
“Fine“, he snarled. There was no avoiding it. His new task would be humiliating and dangerous at the same time. “Shall I be both weapon and bait?”
“No. Rubeus still has one rooster left, that will do as bait for the Heir. If the attacks continue to follow the pattern in which they happened last time, we need a muggleborn student to bait the monster. Or someone who looks like a muggleborn student. I dare not hope that you have any polyjuice potion in your stores?”
Severus shook his head. “I will brew some. We will need time to develop a suitable trap, anyway.” He frowned. „Do you think the Heir is a student? It might be Lockhart, but …“ No, Lockhart was much too stupid. It was inconceivable … or was it?
He’d much rather it be Lockhart than one of his Slytherins.
“Gilderoy does not seem the type, indeed. Still, I would ask you to discreetly find out whether he is a parselmouth.”
Severus nodded. He would.
And he would also find out what was going on with Potter. He had a theory. A theory he would need more proof for to convince Dumbledore.
Things were relatively quiet until the first Quidditch match of the season.
Right at the start of the match, Severus noticed that one of the bludgers was acting out, following only Potter around.
He smiled. Why not just ignore it? Potter would get kicked off his broom, and …
“...Harry Potter dodges the bludger again ...” Lee Jordan’s voice cut through his thoughts.
Harry.
What had he been thinking? He was a teacher now, logically, the dark-haired figure on the pitch couldn’t be James Potter.
And he had to find the culprit.
There were a lot of Slytherin students watching the game, and Severus took a good look at every single one. He could not discover anything amiss.
Before he could take further action, Harry was hit by a bludger and – did he try to attack Draco – no, he had seen the Snitch.
Harry didn’t seem seriously injured, so Severus took his time in leaving the stands.
Right up until he saw Lockhart stride towards the boy.
Harmless fool or Heir of Slytherin? In any case, Severus didn’t like how Lockhart treated Harry Potter. Giving the boy an even bigger head.
Or rather ... embarrassing him, it seemed, which added to Severus’ suspicions. “Professor Lockhart”, he called.
The man turned around immediately.
“Rumor says you intend to start a dueling club”, Severus said quietly, stepping closer. There was no such rumour, but knowing Lockhart, he would immediately take credit. “Perhaps I might ... assist you in that endeavour?”
“Oh?” Lockhart blinked. „Yes, of course. I will need an assistant, won’t I?“
Having successfully distracted the man, Severus took a look at Potter. A broken arm, it seemed. Did he imagine the gratitude in the boy’s eyes?
„Indeed, you will. The students will need a demonstration, many have never seen a formal magical duel.”
“Oh yes. Of course. The formalities. Very important. I will need a set of dueling robes ...”
Happily rambling about robes and hats, Lockhart followed Severus to the castle.
When he next spoke to Dumbledore, the Headmaster informed him that Potter had reported having found the culprit for the misbehaving bludger – a house-elf by the name of Dobby.
“That is the Malfoy family’s elf!” He knew Lucius thought his work for Dumbledore was just a ruse to stay out of Azkaban, just like Lucius pretended to have been under the Imperius curse ... and yet ... would Lucius do such a thing? Set free a basilisk, of all things, in the same school his son went to?
“Harry and his friends are also convinced that Draco must be the Heir of Slytherin. Apparently, he has called Hermione a mudblood.”
Severus flinched. “He is a foolish boy, but he would not – I cannot believe that he would –“
“It is nothing but a suspicion, as of yet. Lucius could have come to know of it in many different ways. And Draco, foolish boy that he is, would more likely than not boast about being the Heir.”
Yes, that did sound like Draco. “We will know, soon, who can and who cannot talk to snakes.”
He would teach Draco the Serpensortia spell. If Draco was a parselmouth, he would find out while coaching him. Draco would use the spell during the Duelling club meeting, and all suspicion would be drawn away from Severus.
If Lockhart was even clever enough to suspect something.
***
Harry was really excited about the Duelling Club. Up until he saw it was Lockhart who was in charge of it.
Lockhart introduced Snape as his assistant – how on earth had he gotten Snape to agree to that? – and they duelled.
Of course, Snape wiped the floor with Lockhart.
Then, they paired up the students. Snape partnered Hermione with a Slytherin girl who looked a bit like a troll. Well, at least Hermione had some experience fighting trolls, right?
Lockhart fortunately let Harry and Ron stay together. “Don’t hit me with that slug spell”, Harry whispered.
“’Course not!”
They had a lot of fun taking turns disarming each other. Poor Hermione, on the other hand, was tackled by the Slytherin girl, who apparently had given up trying to beat her with magic. Harry and Ron had to rescue her.
Fortunately, Lockhart then decided to have some volunteer students demonstrate how to block spells. “What about Neville Longbottom and Justin Finch-Fletchley?”
Neville looked very nervous at the thought.
Snape didn’t want Neville to demonstrate anything, either – Harry wondered how he’d feel if he knew he had done Neville a favour – and suggested Draco Malfoy and Dean Thomas.
Malfoy used a spell that conjured a snake. It slithered towards Dean.
“Don’t move”, Snape said lazily. “I’ll get rid of it.”
Before he could do that, however, Lockhart pointed his wand at the snake. It was raised in the air, then fell down directly in front of Justin Finch-Fletchley.
And if it had seemed angry before, that was nothing to how angry it was now. It moved its head, ready to bite.
Harry ran towards them. He needed to do something! “Leave hi-“ Suddenly, he found his tongue attached to the roof of his mouth. He couldn’t talk anymore!
The snake bit Justin, just before Snape stunned it. “I’ll take him to the Hospital Wing”, Snape said calmly, conjuring a stretcher.
Justin was conscious, but he was pale as a blanket and clutching his injured leg.
All the Gryffindors trailed behind Snape as he walked to the Hospital Wing, the stretcher with Justin hovering behind him.
Snape didn’t let them enter the Hospital Wing, but didn’t bother to close the door, so they could still hear him say: “Snake bite. A common adder, if I am not mistaken. Here it is.”
They all held their breath until Madam Pomfrey had agreed that it was, indeed, a common adder and its venom was not very dangerous and she had the antidote there.
“That’s not so bad”, Harry said, relieved, only then noticing that his tongue wasn’t stuck anymore.
He told Hermione and Ron what had happened, and they gave him strange looks. “You didn’t yell anything”, Ron said at last. “You just made some weird hissing noise – I’d thought you’d gotten injured or something.”
“Some weird hissing noise? No, I yelled at it to leave him alone, or tried, and then suddely I couldn’t move my tongue anymore.”
“But you feel normal, now?” Hermione asked. “You should see Madam Pomfrey about that.”
“No, it’s okay. Probably just Malfoy hitting me with a curse while everyone else was distracted.”
Hermione frowned, but apparently decided to let it go. “You were trying to talk to the snake?”
“Yes?” He knew it was silly, but ... “I don’t know, I already talked to a snake before I got my Hogwarts letter. It could understand me, and answered my questions. I guess it might have been a magical talking snake, but ...”
“Harry!” Ron hissed. “You – you must be a parselmouth.”
And that, Harry eventually realized, with both Hermione and Ron taking turns explaining, was a very dangerous thing to be.
Hermione and Ron didn’t think he was a Dark wizard, but a lot of other people might, Ron explained. Better keep it secret.
Chapter 7