§This is threat?§ Poised to strike, the snake bared its fangs. §Stop!§ Heri commanded, her hand stretched out as if to physically pull the animal away from the terrified boy. There was gasping silence as the incensed snake turned from Justin to regard Heri instead. §Threat speaks . . . commands . . .§ Heri slid slowly down from her standing position until she was seated on her on the stage with her legs tucked under her. Just as slowly, she put her hand to the floor. As kindly and non-threateningly as she could manage, she said, §There is no threat. It was not our intention to bring you here. Come here please and I'll find a way to return you.§ The snake considered Heri's words for a moment before it decided to disregard them, rearing back up to attack Justin again. Heri pounded the stage with her fist and hissed like an angry cat. The sound made audience and snake alike jump and flinch. She gave the disobedient thing a cold look. §Do you think me to be common prey? Come here at once or I'll kill you.§ Cowed, the serpent slithered over to the offered arm and coiled itself into Heri's heat. Heri brought the arm up and cradled it to her body, running her other hand soothingly over its scales. The snake hissed in pleasure and relaxed. Once the reptile was settled docilely in her arms, Heri's shoulders slumped and she let out a shuddering breath. Her unblinkingly gaze fell to the ground just in front of her as she tried to calm her heartbeat. Heri looked up at the continuing silence. She caught Snape's shocked eyes and asked, "Can you send it back, Professor? It was terribly confused and angry at being summoned." It turned out that many people had problems with a person that could talk to reptiles. Why, Heri didn't know, but the ability apparently made her the prime suspect for the mess about the Heir of Slytherin and the Chamber of Secrets. It was now popularly believed among the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws that she had it out for Colin Creevey from the beginning and that he was petrified because he got on her nerves. "She's a Parselmouth," said a chubby Ravenclaw that had often made an idiot of himself trying to get her attention before. "Everyone knows that's the mark of a Dark wizard. Have you ever heard of a decent one who could talk to snakes? They called Slytherin himself Serpent-tongue." Not to his face, likely, Heri thought as Hannah overheard the comment and came down like the wrath of the gods on the dissenters. "No one knows how she survived that attack by You-Know-Who. I mean, she was only a baby when it happened. She should have been blasted to smithereens. Only a really powerful Dark wizard could have survived a curse like that," a Gryffindor a year older than her had said. "That's probably why You-Know-Who wanted to kill her in the first place. Didn't want another Dark Lord competing with him. I wonder what other powers Potter's been hiding?" Beyond a touch of irritation (really, did they think they were entitled to know everything about her?), Heri took the sudden backlash nonchalantly. She was used to people thinking the worst of her from years of being a 'delinquent.' Her friends, on the other hand, refused to take it sitting down. In fact, most of Hufflepuff sided with Heri on this; they circled the proverbial wagons tighter that a miser's fist and snapped at anyone that tried to take badly about Heri. It was amusing to watch usually non-confrontational Hufflepuffs snap and curse at the nay-sayers. A colourful auxiliary of spells were hidden behind those shy facades; it came to a point that many of those that pointed fingers at Heri came to flinch at the sight of yellow. "It's the stupidest thing!" Ernie had said, outraged on Heri's behalf. "Not last week they were all but kissing your feet! And now you're the source of all evil? Two-faced arse-kissers!" Her friends in the other Houses weren't quiet in their defence of her either. Luna and Neville weren't the punch-in-the-face sort but they didn't waver when they got poked at for their commitment. The Weasleys were split in their reactions. While none of them believed Heri to be the Heir of Slytherin person, how they dealt with their stance varied. Fred and George found it all very funny. Whenever they crossed paths on the way to classes, the two went out of their way to march ahead of Heri down the corridors, shouting, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin! Seriously evil witch coming through!" Heri, of course, wasn't about to walk with heralds shouting her entrance without doing it in style. Like princess deigning to walk among her subjects, Heri strolled through the halls as if her feet didn't even touch the ground. Her friends found it amusing as well and played at being her attendants. Percy was deeply disapproving of this behaviour. "It is not a laughing matter," he said coldly when he came across them during such a play. "Oi, get out of the way, Percy," said Fred. "Heri's in a hurry." "Yeah, she's off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with her fanged servant," said George, chortling. Ginny didn't find it amusing either. She hadn't said more than two words to Heri since the year began but she couldn't stand any insinuation that Heri was at fault. "Oh, don't," she wailed every time Fred asked Harry loudly who Heri was planning to attack next, or when George pretended to ward Heri off with a large clove of garlic when they met. Harry didn't mind; the school could use a few jokes. She'd seen cemeteries that were more cheerful. As she was unbothered by the accusations, Heri spent time in the Library looking up Parselmouths. She hadn't known that the ability was rare. She had come across references to it before in the books she read but none of them had mentioned it was some weird taboo. Well, at least in England it was; it seemed to be a coveted skill in the East. Either way, she researched why exactly it was such a big deal.
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