Shawn smiled gently at the viper. For some reason, he did not dislike snakes.
Strange hisses came from his mouth as well. Anyone else who heard them would have felt their skin crawl.
"Hiss, haa, hiss: I can understand you. Come here."
The viper Astoria had become was astonished, then delighted.
The Greengrass Family had a long scholarly tradition, so she naturally knew what Parseltongue signified: an heir of Slytherin!
Why had Voldemort claimed his bloodline was noble, and why had so many people who knew he was a half-blood grudgingly accepted it? Because Voldemort spoke Parseltongue!
Astoria thought further ahead. Even if she irreversibly became a snake someday, at least there would be one human who could communicate with her.
The viper obediently slithered to Shawn's feet, stretching out her triangular head to rub against his robes.
Shawn reached down to stroke her head, then sat on the sofa and said,
"I'm going to use Detection Charms to examine your body now. Don't be nervous."
The viper nodded, flicking her tongue as she hissed.
"Hiss, hiss. (Yes, Chief.)"
Shawn placed his hand on the top of the viper's head and used a Detection Charm to carefully examine this abnormal Animagus.
Only after a long while did he withdraw his hand with a sigh, closing his eyes to ponder.
The viper's green, slit-pupiled eyes were full of anxiety, but she dared not make a sound. She quietly coiled up beside Shawn's feet.
Shawn had just used several Detection Charms. Even without drawing blood for testing, he had already sensed a strange, uncanny curse within the viper's blood, gradually altering the composition of Astoria's blood.
He suspected that once it reached a certain threshold, Astoria would never be able to become human again.
This blood curse was complicated in some ways