Cassia's POV

Once Harry and I were let out of the hospital wing, we met up with Ron and Hermione in one of the girls' bathrooms. While Hermione was working on the potion, we filled her in on what'd happened last night.

"Again? You mean the Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?" she asked.

"Of course! Lucius Malfoy must've opened it while he was at school. And now he's taught Draco how to do it," Ron guessed.

Hermione shrugged. "Maybe. We'll have to wait for the Polyjuice Potion to know for sure," she said, adding another ingredient to the cauldron.

"Enlighten me- why are we brewing this potion, in broad daylight, in the middle of a girls' lavatory?" Ron asked. "Don't you think we'll get caught?"

Hermione snickered. "No. No one ever comes in here," she answered.

"Why?" Ron asked.

"Moaning Myrtle," Hermione replied.

"Who?" Ron asked, lifting an eyebrow. A ghost appeared right behind him. She had glasses, and her hair was done in pigtails. What shocked me the most was that she was wearing Hogwarts robes.

"Moaning Myrtle," Hermione repeated.

"Who's Moaning Myrtle?" Ron asked.

"I'm Moaning Myrtle!" the ghost-girl snapped, glaring at Ron. She floated up to the top of the sinks and faced us. "I wouldn't expect you to know me. Who would ever talk about ugly, miserable, moping, Moaning Myrtle?" She sniffled and screamed as she flew into one of the cubicles and dove headfirst into the toilet, making a huge splash.

"She's a little sensitive," Hermione mentioned, making me scoff.

"A little?" I echoed.

<><><><><>

Today, there was going to be a dueling club meeting run by (surprise, surprise) Lockhart. We all crowded around a table that had been set up in the Great Hall for dueling. Lockhart got up and started walking across it. "Gather round! Gather round! Can everybody see me? Can you all hear me?" Silence. "Excellent." He whirled around. "In light of the dark events of recent weeks, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves, as I myself have done on countless occasions. For full details, see my published works." He threw his cloak at a bunch of girls. "Allow me to introduce my assistant, Professor Snape."

Snape came up onto the table.

"He has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration," Lockhart continued, "Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry. You'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him. Never fear." He met up with Snape in the middle of the table. They brought their wands to their faces and then back to their sides before bowing. Then they adjourned to opposite sides of the table, wands raised.

"One...two...three," Lockhart counted.

"Expelliarmus!" Snape's disarming spell hit Lockhart square in the chest, sending him flying backwards.

"Do you think he's alright?" Hermione asked.

"Who cares?" Ron asked.

"True that," I said, agreeing with him.

"That Lockhart's something, isn't he? Awful brave young chap," a boy said from behind me. I turned to see him shake hands with Harry. "Justin Finch-Fletchley. Hufflepuff," he introduced himself. He turned to me and shook my hand as well.

"Pleased to meet you, Justin. I'm-" I started to introduce myself.

"Oh, everyone knows who you two are. Even us Muggle-borns," Justin said, cutting me off.

Lockhart got back on his feet and walked over to Snape. "Excellent demonstration, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind me saying, it was pretty obvious of what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you, it would have only been too easy," he bragged.

"Perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor," Snape suggested.

"An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape," Lockhart conceded, "Let's have a volunteer pair." He scanned the crowd for a few measley seconds before his eyes fell on Harry and I. "Potters, you two against Weasley. How 'bout it?"

"Is he for real?" I whispered to Harry, who simply shrugged in response as we made our way through the crowd and got up onto the table.

"Weasley's wand causes devastation with the simplest spells. We will be sending Mr. Potter to the Hospital Wing in a matchbox," Snape interjected. "Might I suggest someone from my own house? Malfoy, perhaps?" He pointed at Malfoy, signaling him to come up. Malfoy got onto the table, and the three of us started to walk towards each other.

Lockhart made his way to the far end of the table so he'd be out of the line of fire. "Good luck, Potters," he whispered as he passed us on the way.

"Thank you, sir," Harry replied. I didn't say anything.

"Wands at the ready," Lockhart instructed. Harry, Malfoy, and I brought our wands up to our faces.

"You and Sissy scared, Potter?" Malfoy taunted.

"You wish," Harry retorted.

"It's on, Malfoy," I added.

We dropped our hands and then walked to opposite ends of the table. Harry and I pointed our wands at Malfoy, and Malfoy pointed his at us. Obviously, he couldn't get both of us at once, so he was going to have to duel us one at a time. I could tell by the look on his face that he was trying to decide who to hit first.

"On the count of three, cast your spells to disarm your opponent. ONLY to disarm. We don't want any accidents here. One...two..." Lockhart counted them down.

"Everte Statim!" Malfoy cut him off, shooting a spell at Harry. It sent him flying backwards, in a similar manner to what Snape had previously done with Lockhart.

Harry got up again and aimed at Malfoy. He was furious. "Rictusempra!" he shouted. A bright red light shot out of Harry's wand and sent Malfoy cartwheeling backwards, landing on his bum. He leapt to his feel and aimed his next spell at Harry. "Tarentallegra!"

Harry's legs started tap dancing out of control. Some of the Slytherins started laughing at him, including Crabbe and Goyle.

Luckily, Snape knew how to counter Malfoy's jinx. With a flick of his wrist and a "Finite Incantatem", Harry's legs stopped dancing, and the Slytherins watching him stopped laughing.

I glared daggers at Malfoy. Alright, mister. You asked for it. "Obscuro!" I fired at him. A blindfold popped over his eyes, so he couldn't see. "Melofors!" I added. His head became encased inside a pumpkin. Now almost everyone was laughing at him.

As fun as it was to see our biggest bully get humiliated in front of his own house, it did come to an end eventually, when Snape ripped the blindfold off Malfoy's face.

"I said disarm only!" Lockhart snapped.

Malfoy got really mad. "Serpensortia!" he yelled. The end of his wand exploded. Harry and I watched, aghast, as a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between us, and raised itself, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed away swiftly, clearing the floor.

"Don't move, Potters. I'll get rid of it for you," Snape said, coming over to us.

Lockhart stopped him before he could draw his wand. "Allow me, Professor Snape," he insisted. He pointed his wand at the snake. "Alarte Ascendare!" His spell did absolutely nothing to make the snake go away. It just sent the snake flying almost to the ceiling, and then dropped it back down in front of us.

The snake continued to make its way over to us. But Harry walked towards it and...spoke to it. I couldn't tell what he was saying, though. To me, it sounded like a mixture of hissing and gibberish. All of a sudden, the snake turned to Justin and hissed, coming within easy striking distance of him. Harry hissed to the snake again, snapping its attention back to him.

"Vipera Evanesca," Snape muttered, pointing his wand at the snake. It burst into ash and disintegrated.

"What are you playing at?" Justin asked, angry.

Everyone looked at Harry and I, shocked. I didn't know why they were looking at me, though. I didn't speak to the snake.

<><><><><>

"You're a Parselmouth? Why didn't you tell us?" Ron asked Harry, once we got back into the common room.

"I'm a what?" Harry questioned.

"You can talk to snakes," Hermione clarified for him.

"I didn't know. I mean, I accidentally set a python on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once. Once. But so what? I bet loads of people here can do it," Harry objected.

"No, they can't. It's not a very common gift, Harry," Hermione warned, "This is bad."

"What's bad?" Harry asked, "If I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin-"

Ron cut him off. "So that's what you said to it!"

"You were there. You heard me," Harry insisted.

"I heard you speaking Parseltongue. Snake language," Ron corrected him. Both of us were both shocked at this.

"Harry spoke a different language?" I repeated.

Ron and Hermione nodded.

"But I didn't realize...how can I speak a language without knowing I can?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, Harry, but it sounded like you were egging the snake on or something. Harry, listen to me. There's a reason the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent. Salazaar Slytherin was a Parselmouth. He could talk to snakes, too," Hermione replied.

"Exactly. Now the whole school's gonna think you and Cass are his great-great-great grandchildren or something," Ron jumped in.

"But I'm not!" Harry snapped, "I -- I can't be. And Cassia never spoke to the snake."

I nodded in agreement. "He's right. It makes no sense. How could Harry be the heir of Slytherin? And how am I involved? I'm not a Parselmouth."

"He lived a thousand years ago. For all we know, you could be. And Cassia could be guilty by association," Hermione explained.

Okay, this is officially freaking me out. Why? 1) Only Harry and I can hear the monster speak, 2) Mrs. Norris and Colin Creevey are Petrified, and now 3) Everyone's going to turn against Harry and I just because Harry spoke to a snake.