How to tame a Basilisk

It was just his luck that Lockhart had asked Severus to be his 'assistant' for his little duelling club. Severus had been inclined to say no, but the image of besting the self-absorbed new Defence Professor had made him rethink that decision.

So now he finds himself in the Great Hall after dinner, being forced to listen to one of Lockhart's fantastical tales, which the man reinforces with flourish gesticulation and the occasional little re-enactment. It is taking all of Severus willpower not to hex Lockhart on the spot.

When the first students start trailing into the Hall, Severus uses the opportunity to excuse himself under the guise of setting up a stage for him and Lockhart to demonstrate the duelling. As he makes his way to the front of the Hall, where he quickly banished the staff-table to the side of the walls, he comes across two first-years happily giggling together. Ugh, first-years. These two especially Severus is determined to avoid. The youngest Weasley, a girl for a change, looks innocent enough, but Severus would be a fool not to anticipate the possible rule-breaking the small girl might get up to in the near future. After all, she is the sister of the notorious Weasley-twins, and apart from the prefect Percival, every Weasley child Severus has been forced to interact with over the years had given him nothing but headaches.

The other girl is a Ravenclaw, the daughter of Xenophilius Lovegood, the editor of the Quibbler, a yellow press Severus can only turn up his nose at. Utter nonsense and no attempts at scientific standards are the characteristics of this 'scientific magazine'. And while Severus usually could not care less about something like that, as long as he's not in any way being forced to occupy himself with, the young Lovegood is a conundrum all of her own. He doesn't want to admit it to himself, but the girl makes him nervous, with her made-up creatures and vacant gazes. There is just something about Luna Lovegood that makes Severus uneasy, and if his past as a spy has taught him anything, it would be to always listen to his instincts, no matter how far-fetched they might seem.

His moods brightens considerably when the fool Lockhart suggests they demonstrate the proper duelling manners. Severus easily manages to disarm the new teacher and sends him flying across the stage. To his amusement he receives a round of enthusiastic applause from the student-body, who undoubtedly have caught on about Lockhart's incompetence by now. It just goes to show how supremely insufferable Lockhart proves to be, as Severus is aware that he himself usually ranks top on the most disliked teacher at Hogwarts.

After Lockhart desperately tries to save face by claiming to have not shielded Severus' charm on purpose, to try and teach the students the effect of Expelliarmus, the other man starts pairing off the students to work in pairs. Severus quickly seizes the opportunity to conduct a little experiment on his own, by pairing up his godson and the Potter boy together. He is quite curious about how these two interact with each other, given that Severus has had more than one suspicious encounter with either of them. It also comes with the added benefit of angering Potter's red-haired friend Weasley, which Severus delights in.

He leaves the rest of his Slytherins to find partners themselves, as he trusts in the capabilities of his House not to make fools of themselves, but decides to further show up Lockhart by suggesting the man pair up with Longbottom instead of surveying the students, as the poor excuse for a Gryffindor clearly needs someone 'more experienced' to train with, as to prevent any injuries in other students due to his lack of talent. Longbottom seems to want to leave the duelling club all together at that suggestion, but with a sharp glare from Severus yields to his fate of facing Lockhart.

After a while of multi-coloured spells flying across the Great Hall, Severus returns to the cluster of Gryffindors. He narrowly observes Potter and Draco, but both boys show no suspicious behaviour and he is quickly interrupted in his observations by a squeak from behind him. Somehow Longbottom has managed to disarm Lockhart and the man is currently puttering about how he just wanted to give the boy a chance to have some sense of achievement, but Severus know better. It shouldn't come to his surprise, but seeing Lockhart bested by even the most incapable student still makes Severus gape at the pair for a moment. Quickly regaining his composure, Severus strides over to the bewildered pair and loudly suggests the two of them give another demonstration to the assorted students. Lockhart tries to weasel his way out of further humiliation, but by now enough students have caught up on the scene and are eagerly waiting for the promised duel.

Smirking, Severus casts a Sonorus on himself and calls for the rest of the students to halt their duels and join in for another demonstration. He guides a reluctant Longbottom towards the stage and waits for Lockhart to succumb to the pressure of being stared at by every pair of eyes in the Great Hall. Even some ghosts have decided to join in on the fun and are now floating along the outlines of the attendend students. The man of the hour slowly approaches the stage again, with his mouth pressed shut tightly.

When both Lockhart and Longbottom have taken their stances across from each other, Severus asks them both if they are ready. But to his utter astonishment, instead of the agreeing nods or murmurs he expects, Lockhart suddenly starts babbling as if he can't help himself.

''Of course I'm not ready, Severus, don't be ridiculous! The boy has bested me before and I don't think I will be able to put up a shield!'' Lockhart cries out.

There are a lot of gasps across the room as everyone stares at Lockhart, who turns quite red and hastily tries to save his reputation, but what comes out of his mouth is ''What I mean is that I have absolutely no talent in duelling or any other magic for the matter.'' Lockhart looks like he might vomit any moment and Severus quickly takes a few steps back.

''The only thing I am capable of is casting a supreme Obliviate, which is how I managed to convince everyone that I was extremely talented.'' the man now seems close to tears, but the words keep on coming, ''Otherwise I would have never had any kind of fame, as I never did anything I said I did myself. I just sought out more talented witches and wizards who fought victoriously with many a beast. And after they were done I simply took their memory of their fights and claimed to be the one responsible for the defeated monsters.'' Lockhart is desperately trying to press his hands over his mouth, but to no avail.

''Se,, I am a fraud. So no, I am not ready to duel Mister Longbottom, as I do not wish to humiliate myself further. Your Expelliarmus nearly exposed my inaptitude.''

''Professor Snape!'' comes the cry of a girl in the front row of stunned students, all entranced by the spectacle in front of them. ''You have to help him Professor Snape! He is clearly under the influence of some terrible spell, forcing him to tell those lies!'' The girl, who Severus now recognizes as Lavender Brown, a very annoying Gryffindor and seemingly on of Lockhart's group of fans, screeches.

Severus gazes across the students, all clearly waiting for him to take some sort of action, then nods and says ''Very well, Miss Brown.''

He proceeds approaching Lockhart, who by now is lying on the floor, curled up into a ball and whimpering more admissions of his crimes. Severus casts a few complicated wand motions across the man, but the results are clear, ''Professor Lockhart is under the influence of a strong truth curse!'' he announces loudly for the student-body to hear.

Instantly the Hall is filled with mumbling and gasps, as the students all excitedly start discussing this revelation. But Severus tunes them out. This is advanced, dark magic, he is sure of it. But how in Merlin's name would Lockhart be the target of such a spell? Nonetheless, Severus takes hold of a sobbing Lockhart, after disarming the man as a precaution. He guides his fellow teacher out of the Hall and calls back to dismiss the remaining students all staring at the pair of them.
Whatever the cause of this, Severus needs to take Lockhart to the headmaster, so that he might call for Aurors to properly interrogate the man.

Later at night, back in his chambers after Lockhart has been taken into custody by the Aurors who arrived shortly after Albus called for them, Severus lies wide awake on his bed.

Lockhart being a fraud comes as no great surprise to Severus, but the reveal in itself is so suspicious, he mentally goes over the whole day, to maybe catch something he missed in the first place, that might explain the curse Lockhart was put under.

Draco and Potter had both been casting similar magic to the other students, so at first Severus didn't really pay them as much attention as he intended to. But now that he thinks about it, the two's wand movements had almost seem lazy, the pacing effortless and smooth, and the incantations perfectly pronounced. All in all, looking back, Severus gets the feeling that Potter and Draco might have held back a lot during the duelling club. Their whole demeanour suggests a lot more capability than one might suspect at first glance, as they evidently tried to blur in with the rest of the students.

Longbottom might have disarmed Lockhart once, but in no way would the boy be able to cast such a spell. Most of the other teachers probably wouldn't have even known the curse, much less the second-year Gryffindor. So how did Potter and Draco manage this? It has to have been them!

And then Severus realizes that this is the second time the two boys have been in close proximity to an adult who turned out to not be who they said they were. It is almost like they knew who to expose, but how would that be possible? After all, they still only are two twelve-year-old children. A seer maybe? But how would that explain the knowledge of such a Dark Curse as the one that was cast today? It is all highly suspicious, and Severus spends the night barely sleeping, as he goes over every possible scenario he can think of, that would explain the involvement of the two boys in the sacking of not one, but two utterly incompetent and criminal teachers, let alone their additional dubious behaviour.

***

After they managed to hit Lockhart with the truth curse Malfoy knew from his time with the Death Eaters, Defence against the Dark arts has been cancelled once again. With the second teacher lasting less than three months at Hogwarts, there have been rumours going around about an increase of the magnitude of the curse on the Defence position. Due to the many free periods the students of Hogwarts now have with one less subject to attend, the rumours get more and more ridiculous with each day.

Maybe, Harry thinks, they should start something along the lines of the DA a few years earlier than originally. It's not exactly like they are missing more knowledge than last time as both teachers in first and second year hadn't ended up teaching them anything useful at all, but those additional years of defence practice should come in handy if he and Malfoy should somehow fail to prevent a war, like they are planning on doing. He will have to talk to Malfoy about the idea the next time they meet up in the Room, Harry surmises.

At least one good thing came out of the whole duelling club, apart from Lockhart being sacked and arrested, of course. Neville has been steadily growing more confident, after having managed to disarm their teacher. Even if he turned out to be a fraud, he was still an adult, and Harry made sure to tell Neville how impressed he was by him. Additionally, Neville has been asked by Professor Sprout to assist her in tending to the Greenhouses, the Hufflepuff Head of House obviously having caught up on Neville's talent for Herbology. Harry is very proud of his friend, and makes a habit out of telling him so frequently.

After lunch, when they normally would have had DaDa, Harry and Hermione go down to Greenhouse two, to meet Neville there and bring him some sandwiches, after the boy missed the meal in favour of tending to the plants.

They had asked Ron to come along with them, but he had just rolled his eyes and said ''Nah mate, I'm gonna go play some exploding snap with Seamus and Dean. We have a free period and I don't want to spend that with more school work than I have to.''

Hermione, as expected, had not been amused by that, scolding Ron ''Ronald, we already are missing one whole subject this year, again!'' she'd said, ''It won't hurt you to try and use that extra time to deepen your knowledge in a different class!''

But Ron had just started walking away towards their common room, waving and pretending not to hear her. Hermione had been exasperated, but Harry had just grinned and shrugged, pulling Hermione with him down the lawn to the greenhouses.

Neville is very happy to see them and profusely thanks them for bringing him some food. They all sit down together, while Neville eats and excitedly tells his friends about his work for Professor Sprout. Hermione brought some Herbology books with her and quizzes Neville with questions about the plants he's currently handling, while Harry lies back smiling at how well they get along. He enjoys their quiet chatter, as he contemplates how different this is than last time. He really can't complain, this is just so much more relaxed than students being petrified and Harry being suspected to be some sort of evil Dark Lord rising.

Harry is lost in thought, as Neville stands up to happily show Hermione some plant they are talking about, when he trips over a large root trailing across the greenhouse floor. Harry looks up just to see Neville reach out and grab a twig from a nearby tree to steady himself, when he sees a little garden snake who was napping on said twig, spurt out and making to bite Neville for frightening her.

Without thinking he calls ''Stop!''

The snake stops and looks at him, and so do Hermione and Neville, both wide-eyed. Harry realizes he must have spoken Parseltongue. Neville spots the snake staring at Harry and stumbles back, alarmedly clutching his hand that had almost been bitten.

Harry braces himself for their inevitable questioning and gives his friends a crooked smile, ''Um, surprise?'' he says sheepishly.

Hermione and Neville both gawk at him and Hermione is the first to speak ''What the hell, Harry?'' she squeaks. And oof, when Hermione starts swearing you know it's bad.''You can talk to snakes?'' she asks incredulously.

Neville is still staring at Harry, wide eyes filled with what looks like fear. ''You're a Parselmouth?'' he whispers.

Hermione gasps, ''That's what it was called! I've read about it!'' she calls out, ''But aren't only Dark Wizards and Witches Parselmouths?'' she turns to Neville.

Harry prepares himself for an upcoming lecture, scared that his friends might not want to talk to him any more after this revelation. Sure, last time Hermione stuck by his side, but who knows how much he's changed by now. After all, they didn't have the bonding of fighting a troll together, or preventing Quirrell from getting the stone, this time around. He closes his eyes in expectation of the inevitable, when he startles as he is being engulfed in a three-way hug.

''Oh no Harry, don't look so nervous! I didn't mean it like that!'' Hermione whispers into his ear. ''Obviously we don't think you're a Dark wizard! I'm sorry if I made you think so!''

Neville nods enthusiastically and Harry feels as if a weight's been lifted from his chest.

''So, what did you say to the snake?'' Neville enquires curiously.

''I just yelled stop, I saw it was about to bite you, and of course, garden snakes aren't venomous, but it would have still hurt a lot I guess.'' Harry grins at his friend.

This opens the flood-gates of interrogation, as Hermione realizes she can ask questions, and immediately begins quizzing Harry about his ability.

Harry smiles at seeing both of his friend be so accepting and also that Hermione is so intrigued by a foreign language. He thinks it's kind of fitting and wonders why she didn't ask as many questions last time.

Before he starts to explain more, he just has to address one worry, ''Um, guys. I'm so glad that you're not scared of me and all, but could you please not tell anybody about this? I don't want to cause any fear and I don't think that most people would be as understanding as you two.'' he says.

Hermione and Neville both easily agree to keep his secret and Harry asks the little garden snake, who is still staring at him, to come out.

Neville and Hermione are delighted by the little creature and when Harry starts talking to it they both ask he translate their conversation and all three of them have a lot of fun learning about the snake's view on the world.

This has gone over so much better than he feared, Harry thinks, very grateful for his friends and their unconditional support.

***

After the success with Lockhart, Draco had suggested to Potter, that they meet up regularly during their respective free periods. As the second-year Slytherins and Gryffindors didn't have Defence together, they only have one overlapping hour where they're both free, but that is still more often than they managed to meet before. Meeting during class hours also has the additional benefit of an occupied Severus Snape, as the man has his own classes to teach and doesn't have the time to trail either Potter or Draco.

Since the duelling club incident Severus' surveillance has once again increased, which comes as a surprise, but only because they both didn't expect the man to have any more time to spare to track them, than he already did. Either way, as November is coming to an end now, Draco and Potter have both fallen into some sort of routine of lying to their friends to sneak up into the Room of Requirement.

They usually use their time just for quick updates about their encounters with Snape, but today Potter has something interesting to say. His friends have discovered that the Gryffindor is a Parselmouth and to Potter's apparent surprise they seem to whole-heartedly accept him.
Draco rolls his eyes, he could have told the prat that himself, much as he loathes Granger and Longbottom, even Draco can't deny that they both are loyal to the core. Potter should already know that, after they both went with him to the Ministry to fight Draco's father and aunt in fifth year.

However, Draco is secretly glad about the enthusiasms with which Potter tells the story, which is very different from their usual rather stilted conversations. Since the whole Occlumency fiasco both of them had been very cautious around each other, as not to accidentally break the rocky truce they have reached. So seeing Potter look as unguarded as he does now, excitedly babbling about garden snakes, warms Draco's heart. And oh shit, he is smiling like a loon. He quickly schools his features into a more neutral expression, hoping that Potter is too involved in his tale to notice.

When Potter goes on about how much better this whole Parselmouth thing is going than last time around, a thought occurs to Draco.

''Oh fuck!'' he exclaims, smacking a hand onto his head. ''Why didn't I think about this sooner.'' Draco groans.

Potter, startled out of his retelling, looks up at Draco worriedly. ''What's wrong Malfoy?'' he asks.

''Potter, we are changing so much stuff, we really need to find a way to keep up with all that!'' Draco explains, ''Not to mention that we really should get on with telling each other anything we know from experience.''

Potter frowns, ''Yeah, that makes sense, so how do we do that?''

''I was thinking we each write down our memories of each year and then we try and keep up with also writing down any changes we make.'' Draco explains.

''So, like diaries?'' Potter raises his eyebrows.

''Don't look so worried, Potter.'' Draco rolls his eyes, ''We are not about to sore some part of our souls in a diary.''

Potter defiantly crosses his arms in front of his chest ''That's not what I mean. It just seems like a lot of work, is all.''

''Well, would you rather invest a few hours into that or risk forgetting something essential that might help us in the future?'' Draco enquires, annoyed.

''When you put it like that...'' Potter sheepishly scratches his neck.

''Alright, this is how we do it. We each take a notebook per year and mark down anything of importance and when we're done we switch so we're both up to date with anything we might not already know.'' Draco starts describing his idea ''Then we also take a second notebook for each year and write down any changes, sounds good?''

Potter nods and they decide to use their newfound free periods to get along with the task, until they have all seven years put down. Potter also suggests they use some wards on the books, as well as invisible ink so that their secret won't accidentally come out.

As they are about to leave the Room, Potter remembers another thing.

''Malfoy, wait! I was thinking, maybe we should start some sort of Defence club, now that we have lost another DaDa teacher, like the DA you know?''

Draco grumbles at the reminder, ''Would Slytherins be included into your little club this time, Potter?'' he asks sarcastically.

''Of course Malfoy, don't be a git. You know exactly why we didn't ask any of you to join last time, what with Umbridge around.'' Potter has the nerve to roll his eyes.

''I'll admit I understand why you kept the older students from joining you, but honestly, many of the younger Slytherins aren't and weren't that involved in all of that stuff, you know?'' Draco states.

''Okay, fair.'' Potter nods, ''I guess it would also help with house unity and all that if we get all four houses to work together like that. And maybe you could tell me the names of the older students we probably should avoid, if there are any, that might already be pretty inclined towards Voldemort's beliefs.''

Draco startles at the sound of that name, but keeps from scolding Potter for it.

''Yes, that might work. But who is supposed to teach this club? The teachers don't have enough time or they would have found a substitute for DaDa by now, and neither you nor me could take the position, that would be way to suspicious in second year.'' Draco points out the obvious fault in Potter's plan.

''Don't worry, I'll figure something out!'' Potter exclaims excitedly, seemingly happy that Draco didn't just reject the idea from the start.

''Generally it's a sound idea.'' Draco allows, ''We just need a proper plan of how we want to go about it. But by all means, go ahead and come up with something.''

''Great, I'll talk to you next week, Malfoy!'' Potter happily grabs his stuff and all but skips out of the Room. Apparently Draco isn't the only one who starts to behave more and more like their body's new age.