Parseltongue

Gryffindor Common Room.

"This, is, impossible!"

Harry's face flushed red as he retorted angrily after Hermione relayed the possibilities Professor Lin Du had mentioned—from stress-induced auditory hallucinations to ancestral rat-talking—to Harry and Ron.

He absolutely refused to admit he might have an ancestor who could talk to rats!

Hermione crossed her arms, looking at him thoughtfully. "Fine, not rat-talking. Then, perhaps the first possibility Professor Lin Du mentioned—'stress-induced auditory hallucinations'—is worth considering?

You know, Harry, your Quidditch training has been very tough lately, and you still have Snape's essay to deal with..."

"I'm not hallucinating!" Harry immediately interrupted, feeling offended. "I'm perfectly sane! That voice was very clear, coming from inside the wall!"

"Everyone who hallucinates believes the voices are real."

Hermione said in a tone of "I am stating objective facts." "If you insist that you're completely fine, so mentally robust that you don't need any adjustments... then fine."

Her tone suddenly shifted, and she pulled out her Potions textbook from her bag. "Coincidentally, I think it's time we reallocated the contribution proportions for our group project. Since you're in such great shape, starting tomorrow, your portion of the essay—"

"Wait!" Harry panicked instantly.

Hermione's notes and guidance were half the reason his assignments were able to pass.

"I mean... my mental state is fine, but that voice... it's definitely real! It must be something else..."

He ran a hand through his messy black hair, his mind racing to find an explanation that would convince Hermione and also sound less outlandish.

Suddenly, an image flashed into his mind: a dim reptile house, thick glass, a giant python...

"A snake!" he blurted out. "Could it be a snake?"

"A snake?"

Ron and Hermione fell silent, exchanging glances with extremely strange expressions.

"You mean... you can talk to snakes?" Ron's voice was a little dry.

"Yeah," Harry, oblivious to the subtle shift in atmosphere, excitedly recounted the time he unintentionally spoke to a python at the zoo and let it go.

"...At the time, that python told me it had never been to Brazil..."

"A giant python told you... it had never been to Brazil?" Ron's voice grew weaker, his face turning a little pale.

"What's the big deal?" Harry was still trying to explain. "I bet a lot of people can do it! It's that... talent... Professor Lin Du mentioned!"

Ron remained silent, while Hermione took a deep breath, her voice dropping very low. "Harry, talking to snakes... that ability is called 'Parseltongue.' And it was Salazar Slytherin's famous skill, which is why Slytherin House's symbol is a snake."

Harry froze, the color draining from his face.

He suddenly remembered that during the Sorting Ceremony in his first year, the Sorting Hat had strongly suggested he be placed in Slytherin... Could it be...

"But... but I'm not!" he argued weakly, his voice involuntarily lowering.

"It's okay, mate." Ron clapped him on the shoulder, feigning ease, but the astonishment in his eyes hadn't faded. "Pure-blood wizarding families intermarry; maybe one of your ancestors was related to Slytherin."

Seeing Harry show no signs of relaxing, he added in a low voice, "Really, if you trace it back, most pure-blood wizarding families are related. Malfoy and I are even relatives."

"You and Malfoy?" Harry was shocked.

Ron shrugged. "There are only so many pure-blood wizards; intermarriage is normal. If you ask me, true pure-bloods are long gone; they wouldn't have survived this long."

Harry finally calmed down.

Just then, Hermione's eyes widened as if she'd suddenly remembered something. "Wait! Professor Lin Du also mentioned... he said Slytherin might have left a Chamber of Secrets in the castle, containing some monster specifically for 'clearing out those unworthy of learning magic.'"

"Clearing out?" Ron frowned. "What does that mean?"

"It's targeting Muggle-borns and half-bloods," Hermione's voice trembled slightly. "And Professor Lin Du said that, according to legend, the monster is very likely a Basilisk!"

"A Basilisk?" Harry felt his blood turn cold again.

"I read about it in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," Hermione said quickly. "A top-dangerous creature, its gaze is fatal, and it lives for an extremely long time..."

Ron gasped. "Merlin's beard! So what Harry heard might be..."

The three looked at each other, stunned by the terrifying speculation.

Hermione gasped in disbelief. "Slytherin actually kept a Basilisk in the castle? That's absurd!"

"I thought the three-headed dog we saw last semester was already outlandish enough," Ron smacked his lips, his expression complicated.

"And now there's a legendary Basilisk that can kill with a glance? It... it should still be locked up somewhere safe, right? It hasn't escaped?" His tone held a sliver of hope.

"So what do we do now?" Ron immediately asked, his voice involuntarily rising. "Should we tell a professor right away?"

"Wait!" Harry stopped him immediately.

For some reason, after learning he was a Parselmouth, he instinctively felt repulsed by the idea and didn't want too many people to know.

"We should confirm it first! How about we go find Hagrid? Maybe it's some... uh... 'special' pet he's raising?"

Even he found this guess unconvincing.

"This matter couldn't possibly involve Hagrid," Hermione shook her head, dismissing the idea, but then added, "However, I don't object to finding him first to get some information. He knows a lot about Hogwarts' secrets and magical creatures; maybe we can discover something new."

"Why wouldn't it involve him?" Ron retorted, making an exaggerated gesture.

"He even kept a three-headed dog that drooled! And now a basilisk dozens of feet long that can kill with a stare..."

He suddenly stopped, thinking the guess was too absurd.

"Wait," Harry interjected, his brow furrowed. "If it really is a basilisk, what has it been eating for the past thousand years? And why has it only started roaming the castle now?"

Hermione's eyes lit up. "That's right! Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them mentions that basilisks need to feed regularly. If there's truly been a basilisk alive in the castle for a thousand years, we would have seen signs of missing animals by now."

"Not to mention," Ron chimed in, sounding much more relaxed, "even Hagrid keeping a three-headed dog as a guard dog makes some sense. But secretly keeping a basilisk that could kill everyone at any moment? That's insane, even he knows where to draw the line."

The three exchanged glances, finding their earlier tension a bit ridiculous.

"So," Harry let out a long sigh, "what I heard was probably just a regular snake? Maybe it slithered in from the Forbidden Forest and is looking for mice in the pipes?"

"That's very likely," Hermione nodded. "A snake crawling around in the walls, saying things like 'tear' and 'kill'... maybe it was just hunting prey? You know, snakes might think that directly."

Ron had completely relaxed. "If you ask me, maybe it was just a lost little snake. Remember when Fred and George threw fake snakes into the Slytherin common room? Maybe this time it's a real one."

"However," Hermione added cautiously, "we should still go ask Hagrid tomorrow. Even if it's just a regular snake, it's strange enough for it to be crawling around inside the castle walls."

"Maybe it can tell us where the secret passage to the kitchens is," Ron said playfully, successfully making Harry laugh.

And so, the three Gryffindors decided to put the terrifying basilisk theory out of their minds.

None of them realized that at this very moment, as they chatted and laughed, deep within the castle walls, a terror that had slumbered for millennia was being deliberately awakened.