Harrys POV:

“Gather round! Gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent. In light of the dark events of recent weeks, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little Dueling Club, to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions -- for full details, see my published works. Let me introduce my assistant Professor Snape. He has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration. Now I don't want any of you youngsters to worry. You'll still have your Potions Master when I'm through with him, never fear!”

“What's the fun in that?” Ron mumbles and I laugh softly.

Lockhart and Snape face each other and bow. They turn, walk ten paces, then they spin, wands poised like swords.

“As you can see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position. On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course. One-two-three –”

“Expelliarmus!” Snape shouts as a dazzling flash of scarlet light bursts forth and blasts Lockhart off his feet and into the wall behind.

“Do you think he's all right?” Hermione asks, frantic.

“Who cares?” Both me and Ron said in unison with a smile.

Rising unsteadily, Lockhart laughed. “Well, there you have it. That was a Disarming Charm. As you see, I've lost my wand.” As Hermione returned his wand, he smiled at her. “Ah, thank you, Miss Granger. Yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy…”

“Perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor.” Snape spoke, sounding unamused.

“An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape. Let's have a volunteer pair. Potter, Weasley, how about you?” Lockhart pointed to me and Ron but before we got up, Snape stopped him.

“Might I suggest someone from my own house. Malfoy, perhaps.”

Draco and I eye each other malevolently as we take their places onstage. It felt like a joke to us as we bow to each other.

“Scared, Potter?” He laughed softly.

“You wish.” We turn, walk ten paces, then whirl, wands poised.

“Wands at the ready! When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent -- only to disarm. We don't want any accidents. One, two –”

Draco fires early, knocking me off my feet with a blast of white light. I jump up, pointing my wand.

“Rictusempra!”

A jet of silver light hits Draco dead in the stomach. He doubles up, wheezing.

“I said disarm only!” Lockhart shouted.

“Serpensortia!” Draco shouted and a snake appeared in front of me. I smirked and watched it as it moved around.

“Don't move, Potter. I'll get rid of it for you. “ Snape demand.

“Allow me!” Lockhart flicks his wand. The snake flies into the air, hisses, and slithers straight towards Justin Finch-Fletchley. As students scream, I stay calm approaching the snake. It rises, fangs exposed, poised to strike Justin.

I shouted at the snake. “Leave him!” The snake looked at me as the room went quiet. “Leave him alone!”

The snake then vanishes as Snape gets rid of it. I looked at Ron and he seemed scared.

“Potter. My room. Now!” Andy shouted at me. I didn’t even notice he was in the room. I looked at Snape and he seemed worried. He walked away with Draco following him. Draco looked back at me and seemed scared of me. I looked back at Andy and I climbed down the stairs and walked over to him.

“Yes..?”

“Let’s have a chat.”

I walked away with Andy as he guided me to his class. I stood awkwardly in front of his desk as he sighed and looked through his drawers until he found a book. He walked over to me and sighed. “You're a Parselmouth.”

“A what-mouth?”

“Parselmouth. You can talk to snakes. How long have you known.”

“I mean, I accidentally set a python on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once. But so what? I bet loads of people here can do it.”

Andy shook his head and looked through the book in his hand. “Only one person was recorded to be able to. This is bad.”

“What's bad? If I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin –”

“That's what you said to it…” Andy mumbled.

“You were there, apparently… you heard me.”

“I heard you speaking Parseltongue. Snake language.”

“I spoke a different language? But I didn't realize -- how can I speak a language without knowing I can?”

Andy shrugged and looked through the book more. “Here, there was only one person who was able to speak to snakes. Salazar Slytherin. The founder of Slytherin. No one knows how to decode it. I've even tried to decode it and it’s confusing. I’ve never heard anyone speak it before, until you, that is. It’s really rare.”

There was a knock on the door and Remington came in. “Sir…I was wondering if I could talk to you..? About something personal?”

“I… I’m kind of busy right now. Can it wait?” Andy responded without looking back.

Remington frowned and looked upset. “I mean, it can but-”

“Then go. I’ll call for you later.”

“Andy-”

“Remington, now please.”

Remington seemed more upset than before when he walked in so he slammed the door shut. I thought I felt the floor shake.

“That boy…” Andy mumbled. “He’s upset with me now, huh?”

I nod slowly. “I think so…He looked pretty upset.”

Andy sighed and walked behind his desk, sitting in his chair. “I’ll make it up to him somehow, it’s okay. Just, give me a second to find something for you.”
Andy looked through papers and handed one to me. “Just, if you can, try to write things out in Parseltongue. If you figure out how to. If you can, give it to me. It can be anything… just write it out in both Parseltongue and English so I can do my best to start decoding it. You can go now.”

Andy motioned for the door. “Oh, and if you see Remington, please tell him to come here?”

I nod and hand the book back to Andy before leaving with the paper. It had lines on it and other stuff messily written about Parseltongue. It was kind of confusing. Just as I left the room, I see Remington sitting on the ground, crying into his arms.