Speechless

Chapter Four: My Voice Drowned Out In The Thunder

"Happy Birthday, Dad!" Lily cried out then, attempting to keep the choking from her tone of voice as she fire-called home. "How are things over there?"

"Great, great, everything's great. We miss you like hell, of course," Harry replied, smiling at his daughter through the flames. "How're you holding up, sweetheart?"

Lily forced a smile onto her face. "I miss all of you, too," she assured him. "Things are actually going really well. Especially with Selma."

"Yeah?" Harry asked. "How's that?"

Lily swallowed, and then shook her head. "I really don't think you want me to tell you about my work, especially on your birthday..."

"Oh, dear. Harry, is our firstborn hiding something from us?" Severus asked, moving into the flames so that he was pictured beside his husband. "Lily, you can tell us anything. You know how much we love you, and support the work you're doing."

"Which you swore to keep secret," Lily said quickly. "I could get into a hell of a lot of trouble if Luna and Rolf found out what I've told you..."

"We're not going to say anything about it, darling," Harry assured her. "Now, come on. What's new with Selma? Have you tamed her yet?"

Lily sighed. "Turns out, Selma's been acting this way because she's lonely and scared," she said quietly. "She just... Well, she needed someone to talk to."

Harry stared at his daughter then, green meeting green, and found that he was at a loss for words at what she was insinuating.

"Lily," Severus said, breaking the silence for a moment, "what are you...?"

"Actually speaking to Selma?!" Harry demanded then, fear flickering across his face as he stared at his daughter. "Lily..."

Lily sighed, lowering her eyes. "I knew you wouldn't like it, Dad..."

"It's a Slytherin trait, Lily," Severus said gently, "and while it is considered a gift, it isn't a very common one. If people got this information..."

"That what? I'm even more of a freak?!" she demanded, her voice sharp as she met their eyes. "I knew I was different from the beginning. This isn't just something I can turn off, you know."

"When did you know?" Harry asked.

"From the time I was a kid," Lily said, sitting back on her haunches. "Why do you think I was alone so much?"

"You were reading," Severus said softly.

"Sometimes, yes," Lily replied, crossing her arms. "I read about being a Parselmouth, because I'd never heard about it before. Only to realize that one of the modern Parselmouths in existence—at least, until you defeated Riddle—was you, Dad," she said quietly, the hurt in her voice that of a small child, as she remembered reading her father's name in the book she had pilfered from her Aunt Hermione's collection.

"How old were you?" Harry asked.

"I suppose it happened when my magic manifested, when I was two, but I didn't discover it until I was five or six," Lily admitted. "There are snakes around the lake at the Burrow. Whenever Al, Rose, or Hugo would run away, screaming, I just stared into the eyes, and saw some intelligence behind them. So I just talked to them, and they spoke back..."

"Who knows?" Severus asked his daughter.

"Just you two, and Selma, of course, plus those snakes at the Burrow, I guess," Lily said, and shrugged a little. "I don't talk about it, due to the stigma connected to it, and I just felt so abnormal that I didn't think..."