Chapter Text
Harry couldn’t sleep again.
It was already a struggle to get restful sleep when his thoughts were constantly racing and his fingers twitching, so he certainly couldn’t be blamed for trying to find an outlet for his wakefulness. He was already used to wandering the castle when he felt out of sorts, so it felt good to have a purpose for his wandering. To have some sort of task he could focus his mind to when his thoughts were racing elsewhere did wonders, even if he wasn’t fully successful in his search.
He had realized the previous week that the half blood prince’s book was so much more helpful than any of his other textbooks so far this year, with the clear annotations and shortened notes supplementing the theory. Why none of his other textbooks tried explaining concepts the way the mysterious prior owner of the book did, he didn’t understand. The prince’s notes were so much clearer to him than the impenetrable walls of text he usually read for class, so it wouldn’t hurt to try and find something similar for his other classes.
Stopping short before the wall on the seventh floor where the door for the Room of Requirement would be appearing, Harry thought deliberately on the goal for his wandering, pacing back and forth under his invisibility cloak.
‘I’m looking for the room where Hogwarts’ students store knowledge.’
The door appeared in usual form, melting into existence on the wall, and Harry grinned. He really loved magic. Nowhere else could you ask a wall for knowledge and have a literal door open up for you.
Stepping through, everywhere he could see was absolute chaos. Furniture, books, brooms, clothing, trunks, and every other category of object had been stacked in dilapidous piles under high, vaulted ceilings. He looked around warily, wondering what exactly the magic fueling the Room of Requirement counted as ‘knowledge’. Taking off the invisibility cloak, he tucked it into the waistband of his trousers, keeping it close.
He started walking down the clearest aisle, initially looking for bookshelves as he wandered. Soon, however, he was stopping every few feet to look at something that caught his eye. An emerald the size of a goose egg glittered from where it was wrapped in a Hufflepuff scarf. A pair of glasses with unreadable runes sat on a table next to a veritable pile of dusty candlesticks. A pair of new quidditch gloves, somehow, found their way into his pockets.
Eventually, after about a half-hour of distraction and while peering curiously into a bowl filled with dusty, half-ground potion ingredients, he remembered that he came to the Room to find more useful notes to use during his sixth year. He could only guess how insistent Hermione would be on diligent work this year, and finding some shortcuts would be immensely helpful in freeing up time to focus on his Quidditch captaincy. Thankfully, there was a towering bookshelf and a small desk nearby.
Harry looked at the table, pulling some of the parchments on it toward him and scribbling down where he had found this bookshelf with a biro he had, thankfully, shoved in his pocket before leaving Griffindor tower. If he didn’t find something useful on this shelf, it might be worth keeping track of where he looked. Folding the parchment he had written on, he put it, and the biro, back in his pocket before he forgot them there.
There were two books amongst the dozens that looked promising on the shelf, both names recognizable as sixth-year textbooks. Pulling them off the shelf, he set them down on the table and sat down. He shuffled the parchments further, giving himself room for the books when he noticed oddly familiar writing on one of them, titled “Research Draft”. Hoping it would be something useful, he slid it out from the pile and started reading.
“Parselmouths exhibit physical and behavioral traits that are found only within snakes, but adapted unto human form. It is unclear how these traits were bestowed upon early parselmouths, but the possibility of long-past cross breeding between magical beings, radical human transformation, or a gift from Mother Magic herself have all been considered by the author. However, this essay will act as a personal ethnography of the primary researcher, one Tom Riddle”
Harry blinked, shaking his head a little. Were these Voldemort’s notes about himself? Thinking about it, it somehow made sense that Voldemort had been making notes on himself, considering how self aggrandizing his monologues seemed to be.
He had originally wandered out to the Room to find notes to help with classwork, but this might be even more valuable. After meeting with Dumbledore for an appointment that had him diving into a pensieve the previous week, Harry could use as much knowledge about Voldemort that he could stand. Focusing back on the parchment, he continued reading.
“However, this essay will act as a personal ethnography of the primary researcher, one Tom Riddle, and his experiences as a parselmouth. Discussed within are the physical and behavioral differences observed from birth to the age of 17 in no particular order.
From an early age, restlessness is a pervasive trait for young parselmouths. The urge to constantly be on the move, whether to stalk or ambush, is present from earliest memory. For those parselmouths who find themselves separated from kin at an early age, this is an irreconcilable difference when compared to their agemates, leading to negative social repercussions. Where children at similar ages are learning to regulate volume, force, and movement, this is a difficult task for a young parselmouth. Repressing the need for movement can result in disastrous consequences when in a less than ideal environment, including uncontrollable violence, parselspeech, or magical outbursts. Anecdotal evidence from the author for the possible repercussions for these reactions can be found in Appendix A.1 for additional clarification.
Instead of repressing these urges in hostile environments, it is recommended for parselmouths to channel the need for movement into smoother speech and movement patterns. As a focus heavy task, this restructuring will take copious time and effort to master, but channeling this energy results in precise control of physical movements and tempers behavioral urges that may result in further censure.
In fact, increased control of this restlessness can result in positive social outcomes, with smooth movement and speech being considered refined and desirable to the general public. With age, tight control of movement and speech translates to elevated social graces, which may open doors to different social strata and leadership opportunities when employed by an enterprising parselmouth.
While awake, the only time that a parselmouth will naturally reach a state of focused immobility for the pursuit of a single-minded goal. For most predators, this will usually be translated into instincts fueling the prey drive, with snakes utilizing it to ambush unsuspecting morsels. In parselmouths, with the aid of predatory instincts, higher brain function, and an adequate level of skill as recommended previously, this phenomenon may be employed in various situations requiring complete and utter concentration. The human expression of this predatory drive can be employed for both defensive and offensive actions, supplementing the already-developed skills of the parselmouth. This state of enhanced concentration has been noted to increase the speed of natural ability, reaction time, perception of stimuli, and decrease the applied effort needed to gain new competencies, among other applications.
However, this absolute stillness can be induced as an unwilling consequence of base humans triggering the defensive or offensive mechanics of a parselmouth as well. This state can be induced through outside stimuli causing immediate emotional or physical distress, acute displeasure, instigation of chase, or anticipatory pleasure. This stillness is perceived as an unnatural occurrence by non-parselmouths, which, to the observant, serves as a warning to cease the current course of action or suffer the associated consequences.
In direct contradiction to extreme restlessness while awake, parselmouths are preternaturally still, quiet, and cool in secure repose. It is posited that this is in direct relation to the energy conservation that snakes experience when asleep, in order to ensure enough energy while awake. However, whereas a snake has two types of rest including a sleep cycle and a hibernation cycle, parselmouths have three types since they are technically still human.”
Harry lifted his eyes to the ceiling, leaning back in his chair and suddenly understood why Voldemort’s monologues always sounded so antiquated. In fact, his spoken language was somehow more casual in comparison to his ‘research’ draft.
He pushed the books off to the side, tapping his fingers on them, mentally pledging to come back to them another night, and leafed through the rest of the parchments on the table. There were more with Voldemorts handwriting, some with notes in the margins of the draft pages.
“Night patrols as Head Boy- scheduled hunts for out-of-bounds students?”
“Mention Knights?”
“Refine transitions between topics”
Harry flicked his wand, casting Tempus as he rolled up the additional sheets of parchment for safekeeping, noting that it was just past three in the morning. Yawning, he got up from the desk and rolled his shoulders, leaving the books out to check out during another one of his sleepless nights. He flipped the invisibility cloak over himself, hood up, and headed back toward the tower to attempt some sleep before classes the next day.
***
“Harry? Mate, are you up yet?”
Ron’s voice filtered through his consciousness as Harry slowly pulled himself awake.
“Sure, I will be. What time is it? Has Hermione left us for breakfast yet?”
“Not yet, but she’s close to it. Can you hurry it up a bit? I’d rather not have to deal with her in a snit this close to the beginning of term.”
Harry groaned, scrubbing his hand over his face with a sigh.
“I’ll be down in a few, tell her I’ll be right down”
Hearing him thumping down the stairs as Ron headed to the common room, Harry pushed himself out of bed, pulling a shirt on over his head, buttoning it, and hopping into his trousers where they had been conveniently left on the floor by his bed. As he was looking for his robe and tie, he felt the parchments he had grabbed from the Room of Requirement early this morning, and stopped in his tracks.
Voldemort had written notes on his experience as a parselmouth. Harry, ostensibly, was also a parselmouth. What if he could use some of the notes that Voldy had left behind against him? Maybe this was the power that he knew not? He didn't remember if Voldemort knew if he was a parselmouth or not yet. Not that it was information that he would have shared with him, but surely enough of his Death Eaters knew that would have informed him?
Harry was hoping that Voldemort was still ignorant of this fact, as his status as a parselmouth would sure make a whole lot more sense than love being the answer to defeating a dark lord. Suddenly, it became much more imperative to find time to finish reading the ‘research draft’.
He grabbed his bag in preparation for the rest of the day, slipping the folded parchments inside as he toed his shoes on. Robe and tie were next, tossed over his arm for later as he turned toward the stairs to meet Hermione and Ron for breakfast.
At breakfast, Harry was distracted and unable to truly focus on the conversations happening around him. His eyes roved over the Great Hall, tracking faces and actions, cataloguing sudden movements, his knee bouncing all the while. Malfoy looked constipated and upset, which wasn’t news worthy considering he had the burden of completing a task for Voldemort this year.
All of a sudden, he could hear Ron and Hermione saying his name, causing the noise of the Great Hall to filter away as his focus changed again.
“Harry? Harry, are you listening?”
“Now I am Hermione, what did I miss?”
“We were just talking about the Quidditch try-outs this weekend, are you excited to finally play again?”
Harry turned toward her and Ron, knee stilling but tapping one finger on the table slowly, and smiled brightly.
“Of course, it’s going to be brilliant! Are you trying out for Keeper, Ron?”
Ron gulped, looking off to the side, suddenly looking like he wanted to be anywhere else.
“Harry, mate, after last time do you think that would be a good idea? I might not be any good on the team”
“All the practice you get at home with Fred and George ought to have answered that question for you already, you should try out.”
“Maybe”
Turning away from the conversation, Ron added more ham and potatoes to his plate, tucking back into his breakfast. Hermionie sighed, shaking her head and turned to gather her books.
“We should probably head off to Transfiguration soon. McGonagall’s bound to be asking alot of her N.E.W.T. students this year and it wouldn't do to be late.”
Finishing up breakfast, Harry nodded, gathering his things, and turned his thoughts to when the next best time would be to explore Voldemort’s notes.
***
The next moment that Harry was able to find relative privacy was on Sunday. With Quidditch tryouts and Slug Club the day previously, he hadn't had time to himself to look further in his purloined research from the Room. So, while Hermione read her latest book in the common room and Ron was trouncing everyone he played a game of chess with in celebration of his new Keeper status, Harry took a walk. Once he gained a bit of distance from the tower, he draped the invisibility cloak over himself, continuing on to the seventh floor.
He quickly found himself in the Room of Requirement again, weaving his way back to the desk he originally stopped his search last week. Pulling out the parchments from his trouser pocket, he laid them back out on the table, tracing down the margin with a finger and picked up where he last left off.
“In direct contradiction to extreme restlessness while awake, parselmouths are preternaturally still, quiet, and cool in secure repose. It is posited that this is in direct relation to the energy conservation that snakes experience when asleep, in order to ensure enough energy while awake. However, whereas a snake has two stages of rest including a sleep cycle and a hibernation cycle, parselmouths have three stages.
The first is closest to how most base humans experience light sleep, which is most often experienced by a parselmouth resting in an unsecured location. This stage of sleep is best characterized by slightly slowed breathing, slight eye movement, and restless movement while asleep. While this light stage of sleep can reenergize a parselmouth, enduring extended periods of time while only finding sleep in this first stage is not recommended. It is not full rest, but instead meant to be a intermediate measure between secure locations when necessary. Waking from this type of rest is easiest, as it is meant to between waking and sleeping, and can be disrupted easily by loud noises, voices, or instinctual urges.
The second is experienced by a parselmouth resting in a secure location and would be the parselmouth equivalent to the humanoid version of deep sleep. However, the outward appearance of this stage of sleep differs significantly between the two; the heartbeat is slowed past the point of what deep sleep would entail for most and absolutely no movement while resting in this stage. While awake, the basal temperature of a parselmouth will be slightly elevated when compared to a base human, and the exact opposite is true of a resting parselmouth starting from this second sleep stage.
The third is akin to a hibernation period, and is the rarest stage of sleep for a parselmouth to experience. While base humans do not need a hibernation period, more sleep is required when under extreme stress or when an extended healing period is necessary for continued survival. These requirements for an increased demand for sleep also apply to parselmouths, but present as a hibernation period. While sleeping in this stage, the parselmouth will not register any outside stimuli, make any movement, or wake before the demands of this sleep stage are met. It is in this stage that the temperature and heartbeat will become concerning to those observing who are not familiar with the particulars of parselmouth physiology. Please see Appendix A.2 for an anecdote addressing the hibernation stage of parselmouth sleep.
Transitioning out of sleep will be proportionate to the stage of sleep reached. Attempting to forcefully wake a sleeping parselmouth is not an intelligent path of action and may possibly result in bodily harm if sufficiently startled. To ensure the most secure sleeping quarters, parselmagic is recommended to ward the domicile against intruders. Privacy is of the utmost necessity to allow for the peaceful transition from repose to wakefulness, which may require a strict morning itinerary to manage, depending on the setting.
Other noted physical differences present in parselmouths are contained and undetectable outside of active utilization or intent inspection. The first is the presence of an additional glottis in the oral cavity, found under the submandibular gland, where the frenulum linguae would connect to the floor of the mouth in a base human. Henceforth, this will be referred to as the parselglottis, as this is what allows for spoken parseltongue in human form. This extra organ is not visible to the naked eye when human tongues are spoken, remaining closed when unused. The only indication of a parselmouth that would be visible, in this instance, is the separation or absence of the frenulum linguae. It is unclear if the parselglottis has any other purpose than to provide the physiology necessary for clear parselspeech, but further experimentation will be pursued for posterity.
Secondly, parselmouths can express a secondary set of solenoglyphous fangs, projecting from the roof of the oral cavity, folding out to extend from their concealment behind the canines. This, counterintuitively, is not an instinctual action by the parselmouth, but requires triggering on the floor of the mouth. When pressing into the floor of the mouth with the tongue just under the gums, the concealed fangs will extend. It is not clear where these fangs are stored, as they seem to descend from the roof of the mouth with no obvious groove left behind. Please note that these will extend regardless of lip position and to take precautions accordingly. After further study, the existence of solenoglyphous fangs implies the existence of venom and the associated physiology for injection, but the method of expression has yet to make itself apparent to the author.”
Harry dropped the papers to the table abruptly, thoughts spinning and toes tapping. Fragments of thoughts separated and coalesced in rapid succession with no sense to their pattern. And yet, there were pieces of physical evidence he could test right that second before getting caught up in the rest of the implications of Voldemort's notes. Suddenly, he sat up and stared forward, one thought crystalizing as his being stilled.
“Accio Mirror!”
A small handheld mirror zoomed from somewhere close by, Harry catching it as it flew past. Only one way to test his new knowledge. With closed eyes and an imagined snake behind his eyelids, he began speaking in parseltongue to test his new hypothesis.
“Voldemort, I swear, if I learn that you somehow gave me fangs and an extra organ or something when you killed my parents, you are absolutely getting a Howler.”
He opened his eyes, lifting his tongue on the end of the sentence to check, and noticed a hole beneath his tongue that had not been there before. A second later, it closed, becoming invisible to the naked eye.
“Bloody buggering fuck”, he muttered under his breath.
Onto the next test then. He opened his mouth again, poking his tongue around in the bottom of his mouth, beneath his gum line. Feeling a small pressure point give way, Harry watched as fangs slowly decended from the roof of his mouth. He pushed on the left fang tentatively with a finger, only for it not to move a centimeter. The mirror tilted back and forth, catching light off the contour of the fangs. Setting it back down on the table, his tongue pushed back up against his gums, causing the fangs to retract again.
“Dobby?”
With a pop, Dobby appeared in the Room next to him.
“What can Dobby do for Mister Harry Potter sir?”
“Hi Dobby.” Harry sighed. “Could you get me a Howler? I have a letter to write.”