The True Heir of Slytherin

The True Heir of Slytherin

Chapter 1: Snake Charmers

"Now class, I am sure that you all know by now that in Hogwarts everyone is sorted into one of four houses. If you have yet to realize this, I suggest that you go and reread the chapter of Hogwarts, a History: How We are Sorted."

The group of fifth year Gryffindors snorted at this remark, but Professor Binns droned on.

"Now for the rest of this semester," he continued, "we are going to be discussing the four houses of this school, their founders, and mostly everything related to that topic."

Most of the students groaned quietly, so Professor Binns wouldn't hear their disappointment in this new change of topic.

Ginny Weasley strummed her fingers on her desk, pretending to listen to Professor Binn's mindless chatter. Many of the Gryffindors began to daydream; very few were actually paying attention. Professor Binns took no notice to this, rarely he did, and continued speaking in his dull, dry voice.

"Aye Professor," Sean O'Neal called from the back of the classroom, interrupting Professor Binn's in mid-sentence. "Tell us more about them evil Slytherins! I should be interested to know how they torture."

He got a few laughs from this. Sean always acted out in class to attract students' attention, although he scarcely did.

"Mr. O'Neal, although Salazar Slytherin was perhaps the most cunning of the group, we have no proof that he tortured anyone or anything, and we shan't be discussing it. I deal with facts in this class, not rumors. Now, back on subject. Mr. Creevy if you would please bring in what I showed you today before class."
Colin Creevy scurried out of his seat, and rushed into the back room. He returned into the room with a cage. The cage was filled with a raven. He brought in two more cages, one with a snake the other with a badger.

"Now, you are going to learn about house diversity. In my many years of teaching, I have noticed that students barely leave the comfort zone of their own houses. Now, we are going to discuss the other three houses that are out there. Thank you Colin, please resume your seat. Now, first we will start with the Slytherin house."

There was a small murmur of interest among the students as Professor Binns pushed back the other two cages, leaving the snake in front.

"Now the basics of Slytherin. You know that Professor Snape, your potions master, is the head of the house..."

Ginny stopped pretending to listen to Professor Binns. She leaned up to get a better view of the snake. The snake was staring at her. The snake and her stared at each other for a few moments, the snake slithering around silently in his cage as Professor Binns made slight gestures towards him. Ginny broke the gaze. She laughed it off mentally, telling herself, Snakes do not stare. A moment later, once she had started to take a few notes, there was the speaking of a slick, syrupy, hissing voice.

Hello you red head.

The snake still had his eyes on her. Ginny jumped back in her chair, causing her hair the smack the person behind her. She returned the gaze of the snake, now positive that it was staring at her. Was the snake talking to her?

Yes, I am talking to you.

The words came out in the same voice, and they also came out when the snake opened his mouth. Did the snake understand that I asked the question if he was talking to me? Did I even say that aloud? Even if I did, the snake wouldn't understand.

It is just a mere coincidence, Ginny thought firmly to herself. She returned back to her notes, determinedly trying to ignore the next statement in the voice.

Who is this bloke?

She couldn't help herself; she looked back at the snake. It was stabbing its tail at Professor Binns and hissing wildly.

"Now class," Professor Binns tried to comfort a few of the students who were beginning to worry about the snake's behaviour, "it's alright. Something must have just frightened him or...um...something. Now as I was saying..."

He is an idiot, isn't he?

Ginny stared at the snake. It...it really did seem to be speaking, but it couldn't be. She looked around at the students sitting near her. They seemed oblivious to the talking snake. She wanted to prod the student next to hear and demand if they could hear the snake talking.

Was she going insane? Would they have to lock her up at St. Mungo's in a short month?

Poor git has no idea what he is talking about. Snakes are more important in the house....

Ginny gaped at the snake. It really was talking. She could understand snakes, and she could probably talk back too.

"What's your name?" she whispered, but it came out in a normal language, her language. All that did was cause the young girl next to her to stare and laugh.

The snake seemed to smile. Ginny stared, aghast. This snake was talking to her. She could understand Parseltongue. Before she could think of it anymore, a bell chimed somewhere. Ginny gathered her things hurriedly and was one of the first out the door to lunch.

****

At lunch, Ginny tried to drive her thoughts away from the class. She tried to concentrate on other things, such as, "How can Ron eat so much and so fast?" and "Who is playing Quidditch this weekend?" But no matter how hard she tried, her thoughts kept drifting back to Professor Binn's class. After fifteen minutes of her thoughts torturing her, she changed the conversation that Ron and Hermione (Harry had disappeared off somewhere.) were having to what they were discussing in History of Magic.

"So, what are you two learning about in History of Magic? We've been discussing the houses. Right now we are learning Slytherin," Ginny informed. Ron and Hermione stared at Ginny.

"Ginny, why are you so interested in History of Magic? You've told us at least a million times that you hate that class and that is a complete bore."

"Well, it's just that we started a new subject, and I...er...guess it was on my mind," she fumbled for the words.

"Well, we learned that last year," Hermione answered. "It was interesting, but I already knew almost all the stuff that Professor Binns told us." She took a small, dainty sip of her pumpkin juice.

"I thought it was boring, and I didn't know anything that old guy told us," Ron stated simply, beginning to eat. "By the way, have you seen Harry?"

"He is off helping Hagrid still I suppose."

"Harry?" Ginny asked, remembering. She spoke her thoughts aloud, "He can talk to snakes, can't he?"

Ron and Hermione raised their eyebrows, each wearing a confused expression.

"Yes," Hermione replied slowly. "He can, but why do you ask?"

Ginny's thoughts raced as she tried to think of an excuse for asking about Parseltongue. Eventually, she just came up with:

"We were, um, just talking about the Slytherin house, and I guess I was just thinking about it. It was kind of confusing, and..." Ginny's voice trailed off, as she got lost in her lie.

"What do you mean exactly?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Well, I guess I just don't understand how it works exactly."

Ron stared suspiciously at his sister.

"Why are you suddenly so interested in talking to snakes?"

"I was just wondering. I can ask, can't I?" Ginny twisted a strand of her vibrant red hair around her finger, as she always did when she was upset or lying.

"I guess you can," Ron riposted

Ginny gave a grin to show that nothing was wrong, and then busied herself with eating her lunch. Ron and Hermione slowly drifted back into their own conversation, leaving Ginny with her thoughts.

****

Ginny sat in the Gryffindor common room, casually listening to the buzzing of the others there. It was rather cozy to be sitting in front of the blazing fire, letting the heat warm her numb body. Ron and Harry were playing a game of chess, and Ginny's attention began to wander away from her homework, and she began watched them.

Hermione entered the common room, coming back from the library.

"Here Ginny," she threw a large book in her lap. "I got you a book on the Slytherin house since you are so interested in it."

Harry and Ron looked up from their chess game.

"You're interested in the Slytherin house?" Harry asked, walking up behind her.

"Well, I..." Ginny stuttered. It had always been much harder to lie to Harry ever since she well.... fancied him.

"Well," Hermione said, saving Ginny from having to blubber any longer. "She was talking about it earlier today, and I thought she might want to read up on it."

Ron grinned. "Ah, of course. A very 'Hermione' thing to do: Get a book."

Ron returned back to his chess game, and Harry followed him slowly after.

"Thanks Hermione," Ginny said.

"Why don't you start now," Hermione paused. "It's much better than watching a silly chess game."

Hermione sat down in the chair across from Ginny and opened one of her own books.

Ginny examined the book closer. It had a velvet red cover. On the spine was some gold writing in a different language. Ginny didn't pay much attention to that, but when she opened the book, she found that different pages were written in different languages. Some in English, others it seemed in French, and most were languages unknown to her. She flipped through the pages, searching for something interesting and in English to read. A page titled: Snake Charmers caught her eyes.

Snake Charmers

The Slytherin house is know for many special qualities, one of them being Parseltongue, or the ability to talk to snakes. Parseltongue is a very rare gift, and not many are able to speak the wonders of the snake language.

Usually, when one has this gift, other gifts of this nature are also theirs.

Muggles have impersonated this gift. They would play a musical instrument and somehow "charm" a snake out of a basket. They say they have the gift of snakes, but we hardly believe them.

There is also a rumor that there are a few wizards, who are not Slytherins, that have been blessed by the Gift of the Snakes (see page 356) as well. Most of them have never admitted to having these gifts, but few have and have been studied as well. Wizards were unable to tell any difference in them from another Slytherin snake talker. We have to wonder, why, when these people were at Hogwarts, were they not placed in their true house? Family is to blame usually, as that is the researchers only answer.

Maybe Salazar, a most famous Parseltongue and founder of the Slytherin house, chose to bestow the gift upon these people for some strange reason, but it is unknown to us.

Ginny stared back at that page. Could this be her answer? Was she one of these people? Was she a "Snake Charmer"? She turned the next page to see if there was more to read, but on the next page, there was only something written in a different language.

She forced herself to laugh. Why should she worry herself with this mindless talk of Slytherin? She shouldn't because she could not talk to snakes. There was no way that she could.

A/N Professor Binns is probably a little out of character, but I looked back in all the books to see how he acted. And, I didn't find much to base my fic on. Please review and let me know if you enjoyed this chapter. The more reviews I get, the faster I will probably post. Oh yes, I will try and make Chapter 2 longer than this, but we'll have to wait and see if I am successful.