The Line of Slytherin | Founders

one | gift

ability, endowment

"WHAT A WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL GIFT!"

       "Come, son, do not be afraid."

       The young boy, no older than seven, was deeply terrified to approach his mother. He would like to say that it was not her that he was afraid of, but the massive, yellow serpent that rested on her shoulders, but that would be a lie. He was even more afraid of his mother.

       "Trang is eager to meet you, my son. Don't keep her waiting."

       Until now, his father was able to keep him away from his mother's dearest friends, but after the death of his eldest sister, his mother's favorite, she was in need of a new protégé. It was time for him to embrace his destiny, and finally acknowledge his natural skills as a Parselmouth.

       "Come, Salazar."

       His face paled at the sound of another hissing female voice. It was not his mother, but the snake that rested lazily on her shoulders. Terrified of what might happen if he didn't, Salazar took a small step forward into the room.

      "Good," his mother spoke in English, something she only ever seemed to do with his father. "You do understand her."

       He knew she was thinking of his other sister, the only one of her three children that the skill of Parseltongue seemed to evade. In the moment, more than anything, he wished their fates had been reversed.

       "Say hello to her," his mother said, back to her usual, low-hissing voice. "Introduce yourself properly."

       "H-Hello - " even in Parseltongue, the young boy stuttered - "my name is S-Salazar S-S-Slytherin."

       "Hello, young Salazar," spoke the snake. "I am Trang, your mother's oldest friend. I have been waiting for this day." Salazar watched her unblinking, amber eyes. "To meet the young boy I have heard so much about."

       To his absolute horror, Trang began to slither her way off his mother's shoulders. He was frozen in terror as he watched her lengthy, yellow body smoothly slide across the slick stone floor towards him. His attention on the snake, he didn't see the smirk arising on his mother's face.

       Only a pace or two from the boy, Trang raised her upper body gracefully, aligning herself with the boy's direct eyeline. Salazar had the startling thought that if she wanted to, Trang could swallow him whole. "You do look so like your mother," commented the snake.

       Salazar's eyes flickered over to his mother, and in that moment, her smirk morphed into what Salazar interpreted as a reassuring smile. It faded back the second he looked away from her once more.

       "Even more so than Vipa," continued Trang. Salazar swallowed at the mention of his eldest sister. "But she was like her mother in so much more than her looks. I wonder if you are, as well."

       The young boy began breathing hard as the snake moved closer to him, yet, even as she began to slowly wind herself around him, he couldn't bring himself to move. His body, though rooted to the spot, shook rapidly with him as his breathing quickly turned into hyper-ventilating. His wide eyes were fixed on his mother.

       Wrapped entirely around him, Trang spoke to him again, her voice very close to his ear. "Your heart is beating so quickly. You are terrified, aren't you Salazar? I guess you aren't much like your mother after all."

       Salazar began to entirely panic as Trang started to constrict around him. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. "Mother!" he screamed out in English. His mother did nothing. "Mother, please!"

       The heavy wooden door behind him burst open.

       "Venetta!" screamed the voice of his father. Though Salazar couldn't move his head, he watched his mother's eye flicker to his left, her face falling. "Venetta, you let him go! Command her to let him go!"

       Trang did not continue constricting, but she did not release. She, too, was watching Venetta Slytherin, as if awaiting order. The woman stared at her husband, doing nothing.

       "Venetta!" he screamed again.

       "Release him," Venetta finally commanded Trang, and as the snake unwound herself, Salazar gave way to sobs. As the snake made her way back to her master, the young boy collapsed into his father's arms.

       "He is too young, Venetta," Yakov Slytherin growled to his wife, his face red in anger.

       Salazar ran out of the room, and out of the home entirely, before he could hear the argument between his parents.

       The seven year old ran as fast and as far as his legs could take him. He ran far from the Slytherin estate, into the countryside that surrounded it. The tall grasses on the grasslands whipped at his sprinting legs and arms, but he paid it no mind. He ran until he reached a pond, and it was there, breathing hard, that he collapsed onto the ground, curled up into a small ball and cried until he could cry no more.

       He didn't want to be a Parselmouth, and never really had. His mother saw it as the most gracious of gifts, but he saw it as nothing more than a curse. He desperately wanted to be free of it.

       "Oh, you poor, poor boy."

       Salazar gasped and sat up, looking around for the voice that had spoken to him, but he found no one when he looked around him. He slowly looked down to the grass in front of him, nearest the pond, and was shocked to find a small, greenish snake with dark markings down its sides. He hadn't even realized that the voice that spoke to him was in Parseltongue. The snake looked just as shocked to see him.

       "H-Hello," Salazar said to it.

       "Oh, my word!" the snake exclaimed. "Can you understand me?"

       After the encounter he had just had, Salazar was certain that he would have a deathly fear of snakes for the rest of his life. But as he looked at this little grass snake, he did not feel fear.

       "Y-Yes," he replied. "Yes, I can."

       He could see the snake's scaly face brighten. "I can't believe it! A human! I'm speaking to a human!" His hissing was loud and excited, as if this was one of the happiest days of his life. He suddenly stopped, looking at the boy. "But how? How can you understand me? How can I understand you?"

       "I'm a Parselmouth," Salazar answered, speaking the words more confidently than he ever had before. "It's a very rare ability that runs in my family. We can speak to snakes, like yourself."

       "What a gift!" cried the snake. "What a wonderful, wonderful gift!"

       Salazar wondered if he should tell the snake that he thought it to be a curse.

       "My family calls me Burl," he continued. "What do they call you?"

       Salazar said nothing for a moment. He was worried that if he told the snake his name, it would sound too much like Trang when he said it. But Burl looked so happy, so kind, so unlike the giant, yellow serpent that had nearly killed him. He smiled nervously, and finally said, "Salazar."

       "Salazar," Burl repeated, and to his relief, it did not sound like Trang. "I am very happy to make your acquaintance, Salazar. Very happy indeed!"