Amelia Potter and the Chamber of Secrets PART 1

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'What do you think you're playing at?' he shouted, and before Harry could say anything, Justin had turned and stormed out of the Hall.

'A thank you would suffice!' Amelia yelled after him. 

Snape stepped forward, waved his wand and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. Snape, too, was looking at Harry in an unexpected way: it was a shrewd and calculating look, and Harry didn't like it. He was also dimly aware of an ominous muttering all around the walls. Then he felt a tugging on the back of his robes.

'Come on,' said Ron's voice in his ear. 'Move – come on ...'

Ron steered him out of the Hall, Hermione hurrying alongside them dragging Amelia. As they went through the doors, the people on either side drew away as though they were frightened of catching something. Harry didn't have a clue what was going on, and neither Ron nor Hermione or Amelia explained anything until they had dragged him all the way up to the empty Gryffindor common room. Then Ron pushed Harry into an armchair and said, 'You're a Parselmouth. Why didn't you tell us?'

'I'm a what?' said Harry.

'A Parselmouth!' said Ron. 'You can talk to snakes!'

'Big whoop, I do it all the time,' Amelia dismissed with a wave of her hand.

'I know,' said Harry. 'I mean, that's only the second time I've ever done it. I accidentally set a boa constrictor on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once – long story – but it was telling me it had never seen Brazil and I sort of set it free without meaning to. That was before I knew I was a wizard ...'

'Cool,' breathed Amelia.

'A boa constrictor told you it had never seen Brazil?' Ron repeated faintly.

'So?' said Harry. 'I bet loads of people here can do it.'

'Oh no they can't,' said Ron. 'It's not a very common gift. Harry, this is bad.'

'What's bad?' said Harry, starting to feel quite angry. 'What's wrong with everyone? Listen, if I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin –'

'Oh, that's what you said to it?'

'Dha,' sassed Amelia.

'What d'you mean? You were there ... you heard me.'

'I heard you speaking Parseltongue,' said Ron, 'snake language. You could have been saying anything. No wonder Justin panicked, you sounded like you were egging the snake on or something. It was creepy, you know.'

Harry gaped at him.

Amelia smacked Ron upside the head.