The Raven's Call

Another One Bites The Dust

I hear a buzz coming from my journal while laying in my bed in the hospital wing, I groan softly, taking the vibrating book out of my bag. Slinging it open, I see a message in red and gold. "Harry Potter's a Parselmouth." The message simply said. "A what?" I reply, my quill writing in the sparkly blue ink. "Means he can talk to snakes." The scribble of red and gold came through again. "I was just about to write that." Asteria interjects with her green and silver ink. I blink as I read the messages. "But he was talking to it in English?" I respond, confused. "He was telling the snake to leave Justin alone, right?"

"...no?" Alex responds. "He was hissing at it like a crazy person."

"Oh."

"Could you understand what he was saying, Atti?" Asteria asks now.

I freeze. Does that mean I am a Parselmouth?
"Yeah..." I reply, hesitating for a moment before actually writing it.

No response.

***

A few hours later and I am free to go, I'm still bruised, but my ribs are healed. The sky has grown dark, and it's around the time we would usually have a study period, so I make my way towards the classroom, but something stops me.

"I want blood.."

It's that voice again. I have to get to it before it petrifies someone else.
I sprint.

"They all must die."

"Kill..."

"Kill."

"Time to kill."

I run as fast as my legs will carry me. I see Mister Filch heading down the corridor, looking like he was on a mission, but I'm on my own one, so I run straight past him. And there I see, a floating Nearly Headless Nick and Harry Potter, kneeling next to the petrified body of Justin Finch-Fletchley. This doesn't look good for Harry, especially considering no one understood him when he spoke to that snake. No one except me. I watch his gaze following some spiders who were all crawling together out of a window. Odd.

Filch returns moments later with McGonagall, who gasps, seeing Justin's body. "Professor.. I swear I didn't." Harry tries to plead his case. "It wasn't him, really!" I exclaim, standing up for him. "This is out of my hands, Potter." She speaks through her thick Scottish accent. "Grey, return to your dormitory, immediately." She demands and I hurry away.

I was too late, again.

***

A few more weeks pass, and Christmas is right around the corner, I decide I have had enough of hiding from the others between classes. I have to learn more about Parseltongue. I make my way to the library, a few students wishing me a 'Happy Christmas' on the way. I head to a shelf and pull out a book titled 'Magical Languages.' Perfect, I think. On my way to sit down, I walk past a book that catches my eye. 'The Founders of Hogwarts'. I take it before taking a seat, and flick to the chapters all about Salazar Slytherin and Parseltongue. Funnily enough, the two were very much linked. Only Salazar Slytherin and direct descendants of him can speak Parseltongue.

I find the only known family tree of Salazar Slytherin; There were a lot of unknowns mixed in, but along the way a Slytherin married a Gaunt. Gaunt?! I scan over for the only Gaunt name I knew. There he is. Ominis. Ominis Gaunt married Anne Sallow. Sebastian Sallow's sister. Then Ominis and Anne's two kids, twins, Sebastian and Susie Gaunt. Sebastian, obviously named after his uncle, who met his demise shortly after graduating at the hands of a dark wizard. Then.. No more. I scan more, looking for more. I come across more familiar names. One being the 'Riddle' family. I had seen that name before. Riddle.

This is all so much to process. Then a voice behind me breaks me from my thoughts. "Enjoying your history lesson?"  The headmaster himself jokes from behind me. "Dumbledore..!" I say, shocked to see him standing there. "I wanted to ask how the Legilimency was treating you, but it seems you have other worries." He speaks, picking up one of the books. "Professor, I've been meaning to ask, did you know these three?" I ask, pointing to the names of Sebastian, Anne and Ominis on the book he was holding. He glares down over his half moon spectacles and nods. "Not the girl, but the boys I had the pleasure of teaching when I first became a teacher here." He says proudly, before looking down at me. "And you are the spitting image of the both of them. Except-" "My hair?" I ask, him nodding in return. "I'm not.. muggle born. Am I, professor?"

He smiles at me, shaking his head. "Your father, was a muggle, yes. But your mother, well.." he pauses, looking for the right words. "She is what we call, a squib." "Like Mr. Filch?" "Exactly like Mr. Filch. So usually, when a Squib and a Muggle have a baby, most of the time they produce a Muggle child, but in rare cases, we see a magical child born." He pats my head. "Am I a Gaunt?" I ask, not really wanting to hear the answer. "You are." He simply says. My heart drops. I am the heir of Slytherin. "You know I'm not the one opening the Chamber, right, Professor?" He simply nods. "I know, Atticus." I breathe a sigh of relief. "And you know Harry isn't the one petrifying the Muggle borns, right?" He chuckles down at me. "Yes, I know." He hands the book back to me. "You might want to hurry to the Great Hall for Christmas dinner before it's all gone. There's a certain custard tart I have my eye on." He smiles before taking his leave.