Slytherin
Natrix was the only Slytherin staying at Hogwarts for the holidays. Snape had told her not to bother coming to him for any issues because he didn’t care what she did. She took that as permission to hunt down the quite likely giant basilisk in the school.
Myrtle had given her a diary a few days before, one that Ginny Weasley had tried flushing down the toilet. Natrix had known it was a Horcrux the second she touched it. She also innately knew it was one of many, she guessed seven because of the magical significance of the number.
Hannah was the only one of Nat’s friends that hadn’t gone home. Theo had been adopted by Newt Scamander, their paternal grandfather, who was a very good influence but also slightly chaotic. He’d sent Nat a letter after Theo had mentioned to him in a letter that she was beloved to the Thestral herd. He’d been especially curious about Thestral foals, having never been allowed near one, and Nat had told him all she’d learned since she regularly had thestral foals laying their heads in her lap, or fighting over who got to lay their head on her lap. Paige had a lovely family and had told her father about how he was apparently a third-generation squib. He’d taken it well and Nat absolutely could not fathom how kind that man was, or Newt, as Messr Scamander had asked her to call him. He was oddly nice as well.
Families and Natrix’s terrible inability to understand basic kindness aside, Natrix was on a mission to find the basilisk and kill the Horcrux, but that second part was just as easy as using her favorite dagger, which just happened to be tucked into its hilt on her thigh at the moment. She wasn’t going to destroy the Horcrux until she found the basilisk and got it a proper meal to put it back to sleep. The basilisk was clearly meant to be a protector of the school, also the basilisk was likely in the chamber of Slytherin, a lovely place where she wanted to take all of his books for her and Hannah to obsess over. Paige would be incredibly appalled by any mention of the dark arts and Theo didn’t want anything to do with them after having learned about how Newt had fought Grindelwald.
Anyways, while they were hanging out in Myrtle’s bathroom over the break, Nat asked curiously, “You know, you’re incredibly sad often, has nobody ever asked you how you died?” Myrtle was very excited to find someone who would listen to how she died, and the second she finished, Natrix realized. She grinned and walked over to the sink before whispering in parseltongue, “Open.”
Nat watched as the sink opened into a hole before whispering “Stairs” and immediately heading in without looking back to see if Hannah was following because Nat knew Hannah would always follow just as she would always follow Hannah. They headed down the stairs and walked through the tunnel. Nat hummed appreciatively at the shed skin they passed even as Hannah shuddered behind her.
They were soon in the main chamber and Nat saw the basilisk curled around the giant statue of Salazar Slytherin before dropping the diary and pulling her dagger out, immediately stabbing it multiple times as the Horcrux screamed. The basilisk venom imbued in the metal did its job and Natrix was covered in ink as the basilisk began to wake. She stated in parseltongue, bowing to the great snake, a girl according to its small comb, truly a queen of snakes, “I have freed you from this terrible human’s control, queen serpent. I ask that you allow myself and my” friend didn’t convey well into parseltongue, so instead Nat continued with “clutch mate entry into this most sacred of places so we may preserve the writings of Salazar Slytherin and learn from them.” The basilisk looked pleased and hissed, “You have pleased me, death-hatchling. I permit you to be in this chamber as much as you like, I will protect you and your clutchmate here.” Natrix thanked her and stood properly, leaning on her cane. The basilisk gave the snake version of a laugh before saying, “Death-hatchling, you remind me of Salazar, he too used a cane and was oh so polite, I transfer my bond to your bloodline since the blood of Salazar has been tainted so. You know, he had the cane at your age as well. His was very similar to yours, he used it for his dizziness disease. It was terrible how he’d faint in the heat and when standing too long, I hope that you do not have a dizziness disease like Salazar.” Shock ran to Nat’s core. Salazar Slytherin had a chronic illness that caused the same things that happened to her to happen. They might have had the same one. The snake was so fond of him, and apparently of her now as well. She regretfully informed the Snake, who asked her to call her Ran, for she’d been named after the Norse Goddess by Salazar and nobody had called her that in ages. They headed into a set of rooms that were the perfect temperature for Natrix and found Salazar Slytherin’s portrait. He looked excited to see them.
Salazar Slytherin was sitting in a chair, an ebony wood cane leaning against the chair on his right side. Nat smiled and greeted him politely along with Hannah, who mostly followed her lead when it came to polite greetings like this. Upon seeing Nat’s cane, Salazar immediately said, “Oh, sit down, both of you, I want to talk to someone. It’s been so long and neither of you seem to be dumbass blood-purists. You aren’t of my blood but nonetheless, I’d rather you two over the unfortunate children that have come from my bloodline.” They talked all about Hogwarts now and Salazar asked that they take his books and preserve them after Nat translated them since he only ever wrote in Parselscript. Hannah asked him tons of questions and Nat just marveled at the fact Salazar Slytherin was like her.
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Natrix was sitting in Snape’s office being berated for having collapsed in potions the day before. Hannah would have been there if she knew about this but Natrix had been practically dragged from the common rooms to his office. She wasn’t listening much until Snape slammed his hand on his desk, making her jump and internally prepare to be attacked. She flinched without thought and put her arms up to cover her vitals. Only lowering them when a blow or curse didn’t come. Snape stared briefly before growling, “Pathetic” and waiting for a response. She said nothing back, and he snarled, “Get out of my office, you wretched creature!” She did as told, scrambling to leave the office. She also found that she was locked out of the common rooms and walked to Filius’s classroom. She walked over to his desk and curled up underneath it, knowing she’d be safe there and Filius would likely let her keep sleeping if he found her there.
The following morning, Nat woke up to a concerned-looking Filius Flitwick brushing the hair away from her eyes. His eyes softened, and he asked, “What were you doing sleeping in here? You know where my quarters are. You should have woken me. I would have given you somewhere proper to sleep.”
Nat hummed before saying, “Your classroom is safe and warm. I got locked out of the Slytherin dorms after Snape dragged me to his office.”
Filius frowned and asked, “Why did he drag you to his office?” Nat frowned and said, “I collapsed in potions. I got too hot then I just dropped. He confiscates my cane during lessons because I don’t look like I need it. He said something about being dramatic and then I sort of zoned out until he slammed on the desk.”
Filius looked even more concerned at that and said, “Why don’t you go get breakfast? Both the Baron and I would prefer to know you were fed this morning.”
Filius would get into a yelling match with Snape over mistreating students again at the next staff meeting.
The year was soon over and they took their exams, all worried about whether they had passed or not. Theo, Hannah, Paige, and Nat all passed of course, and they were on the Hogwarts Express again, the very last compartment, just like the beginning of the year because they were all terrible with change. Theo was the most excited for summer, talking about plans to go to Norway with Grandpa Newt to research the Kraken. Which Hannah was excited to learn was real. Natrix sat in the corner, enjoying her last few hours of peace until September 1st, content to just listen to her friends' plans for the summer.
When they got to the platform, she didn’t see her fake family but she did see Newt and so she walked over to him with Theo. They talked about Thestrals until Natrix saw the Nightlocks, or rather, her fake brother, Adonis Nightlock, holding in his hand a black choker with a red agate gemstone centered within silver. He smirked as he put it on her and she was glad to feel that it wasn’t a Horcrux, even if she knew this was to be her collar for the summer. She waved goodbye to her friends one last time before the familiar feeling of a side-along apparition twisted in her gut.
The familiar feeling of Adonis’s hand against her neck as he tugged on her collar was all she felt as she walked inside the manor.