Evidence of Absence

Meeting the parents

“Hi, Mum. Hi, Dad.”

Harry managed to make his mouth move. It was a heroic effort, he thought. By his feet, Esmeralda was coiling and hissing as if she agreed.

But Harry couldn’t listen to her right now. He couldn’t even make out any words in her hissing. All his attention was on his parents, who stood by the fireplace in the Headmaster’s office and both looked ready to faint.

They were looking at Esmeralda and not him, though. Harry wondered if that was a good thing, that they were more afraid of the actual snake than their son who could speak Parseltongue.

He wondered what Tom would say, and licked his lips. That seemed to be enough to snap his parents’ trance, and his mother gave him a shaky smile. Dad was the one who cleared his throat and managed to talk.

“Harry, um, could you send the s-snake out of the room? We c-can’t get any talking done if she’s here.”

Harry hesitated, and while he didn’t know for sure if Esmeralda had understood what his father was saying, she certainly seemed to grasp his intention to send her out of the room. She snapped her body straight with an offended hiss.

“I’m sorry,” Harry whispered as he reached out and gently urged her in the direction of the door. “I think it’s for the best. They’ll just scream or faint or vomit if you’re here, and that means we can’t talk.”

“I wish to stay here. They will say hurtful things to you if I am not nearby.”

“I think they would say hurtful things to me no matter what,” Harry muttered, and heard his mother burst into tears. He closed his eyes for a long moment and clenched his hands in front of him, and then whispered, “Esmeralda, please just go.”

“Very well. But we will speak of this later.”

Harry did his best to give her a smile and not have it appear strained as he opened the door that would let her back down the moving staircase. His back prickled the whole time. He would have liked her to stay. He would have liked Tom to be here. Hell, he would have welcomed Professor Dumbledore showing up with his phoenix right now and standing between him and his parents.

We all long for things we can’t have. I long to get out of this confrontation, and they long for a son who doesn’t speak Parseltongue.

Harry waited until he saw Esmeralda’s tail snaking down the stairs and he was sure that she wouldn’t linger outside the door and maybe interrupt when she heard him getting distressed. Then he turned around.

“Why was the snake with you?” Dad whispered. He had his arms around Mum, who had managed to control her tears, but whose hand was shaking as she held it over her mouth. Harry had never seen her look so helpless, so upset, so scared. His stomach turned over. He ought to have known that bringing Esmeralda was a bad idea.

“She’s my familiar.” Harry was a little surprised that they hadn’t heard yet, but then, maybe they had only got an owl from Angela or been told about his Parseltongue from Dumbledore and hadn’t heard anything else.

“You can’t have her in the house over the summer with you, Harry.” Dad’s voice was firm but kind. Mum wiped the last of her tears away and stepped back from him. Dad’s arms dropped, and he looked as though he wanted to run over and hug Harry, but couldn’t step over the invisible chasm that gaped at his feet. “I’m sorry, but you can’t.”

Harry had imagined that he would have brave words when this moment came. That he would defend Esmeralda and his bond with her, and explain that he hadn’t been able to resist going to the Forbidden Forest to greet her and magic had created her just for him. That he would be able to explain the longing that had drawn him to Tom and that Parseltongue wasn’t the evil gift they had feared it was.