Ancient: The Legacy of Slytherin

The Chamber Pt. 2

"Legacy, what is a legacy?
It's planting seeds in a garden you never get to see."

Arabella POV

Images and sounds flashed through my mind as the final memory of Salazar Slytherin faded away. His pensive was unlike any of the previous ones I experienced. It felt like drowning, even though I could breathe just fine.

I was in the past and the present.
I was everywhere and nowhere.
I couldn't escape it.

When I pulled my head out of the pensive, the images and sounds didn't stop. They filled the space around me. I started to panic.

"Marvolo?! Something's happening! My head, I can't- I can't see you. There's hissing. The voices- it's like HE put them there! Please make it stop!"

I dropped to my knees, unable to handle the hissing that began to consume my thoughts.

"Arabella! Describe what it sounds like!"

"Hissing, haaa, hassshhhthaa!" The words left my mouth as if I were speaking on pure instinct. Did I just-

"Did you just speak fucking Parseltongue?!"

It couldn't be. How would that even be possible?

"Arabella, focus on my voice."

I tried to focus as he stroked my hair down my back. His voice was clear as day, cutting through all the noise. It was Marvolo, only he was speaking to me in Parseltongue, and I understood it.

But how?

Was it...was it possible that through viewing Salazar Slytherin's memory, the onlooker was granted the knowledge of the dead language? Or had his memory unlocked something in me related to my own heritage?

Who am I?

"I can understand you."

I spoke back to him in Parseltongue and it made me calm. The voices and hissing and images all abruptly stopped as the room around us began to fade. A mere illusion, just like the other trials.

We were left standing in front of a grand walkway, lined with statues of snakes and covered by a thin layer of water. At the end of the long walkway was another bust of Salazar Slytherin's head, except this one was twenty times larger than the one in the Scriptorium.

This was it.

"This is the Chamber of Secrets, from his memory. And from the note in the Scriptorium," I whispered.

"I...I can't believe it. We found it. You- you're brilliant!"

Marvolo quickly picked me up and twirled me around. He could tell I was shocked by his display and placed me back down slowly, taking a few steps back and clearing his throat.

As I adjusted my clothes, I slowly looked up at him until I found those green eyes.

"Nothing that happened in here tonight changes anything out there, Marvolo. You still threatened the two people who mean the most to me and forced me here against my will. You wouldn't have had to save me if you didn't drag me here in the first place."

He scoffed and put more distance between us.

"You know what? This act of yours is getting really fucking tired, Arabella. I know you don't hate me, you just push me away because you're terrified that if you look inwards, you may find that we are very much alike. Everyone has secrets, Arabella. Things they don't want anyone to ever know. Yours are dark. I know that because every time I look into your bloody eyes I see myself! So cut the righteous bullshit and help me find what I came here for. You won't hear from me again once we're done here."