It happened at the end of September. We were having breakfast in the great hall when Quincy''s owl arrived with a big parchment tied to its legs. I already knew what it was but acted uninterested, only glancing at it once, but deep inside, I wanted to tear it from her hands and read it right there and then.


    "Good boy." She whispered, patting the owl before it flew off. She pocketed the letter and continued eating her toast, not even looking at me. I had to wait for it until the afternoon, right after our potions class, after we had settled down in the North Tower.


    "Let me unseal it first!" Quincy said, looking at my impatient face, getting the parchment out, and tapping it with her wand. "Or you won''t see it! Revelio!"


    "You can cast such an advanced spell?" I asked with surprise, watching her open up the letter.


    "It is not that hard. Plus, its effectiveness depends on your skills. I can teach it to you later, here!" She said, giving the letter to me. It was multiple pages long, and it took me fifteen minutes to go through it before passing it back to her. "So?" She asked, seeing my thoughtful expression while she also skimmed through it.


    "It is interesting… Your family is truly ancient and well-connected."


    "You wanted to say we married into almost all kinds of wizarding families." She added with a not-so-proud tone. "I am also expected to be married off and my first son to be sent home to continue the lineage. Haaahh…”


    "Harsh."


    "Let''s drop it."


    "You brought it up." I shrugged but quickly changed the subject back to what we were after. "Anyway, there were people who married into the Gaunt family in ancient days, going by this information. Whoever wrote it seems really proud of the fact!"


    "It''s my grandmother''s handwriting." She said coldly, which was enough for me to know, not ask about it further. "The Gaunts… why did I never hear about them? Were they a prominent family?"


    "Oh." I looked up, a bit surprised, as I forgot that part. "It slipped my mind that is not spoken about since HIM is part of that family."


    "Wait… what? What are you on about?!" She asked, getting fired up, and I could see the same curiosity and excitement twinkle in her eyes that I had when my Father told me about it.


    "Look, this is an ancient lore that was struck from the books. He is not proud of his ancestry and about the family that abandoned him… so speak to no one about this!"


    "Sure! Come on, tell me!" She said impatiently, making me chuckle.


    "Okay, let me catch you up to speed!" I cleared my throat, retelling the same tale that my Father had taught me when I was learning the History of Magic back home.


    It took me a solid hour to get through all the history behind the four who established Hogwarts, about Salazar Slytherin and his family line, the Gaunts, and how they all were Parselmouths. Sometimes I had to get into tangents as she was asking things I knew nothing about, and that led us in circles as she kept asking and asking and asking more and more questions. I had to force her back to the topic of how one of the most ancient families lived and then withered and HIM being its last living member.


    "Let''s focus on what is in the letter!" I said, stopping us from getting into nonsense ramblings and losing focus. "We now know that those who married into the Family of Gaunts from your side gave up all their names. They were simply there to refresh the bloodline before it went into sheer degeneracy because of intermarriage between siblings. Luckily, your grandmother sent us all the names and dates of the people of the Blacks, leaving for the Gaunts. I mean, about all who are related to you in a way. We can research them and start tracing their lineage. From what I gained in the past month, spending all my time in the library, this is a clue we can start working with!"


    "Care to tell me what all this is about?" She asked impatiently.


    "It is about speaking the serpents'' tongue! About why it is a bloodline gift! It is a magical trait embedded into the blood. We just need to reverse-engineer it!"


    "You sound like some kind of madman." She said bluntly but did not look troubled by my idea. "You said that the records were expunged because HE is a descendant of this Gaunt family? How are you going to track them, then? How are you going to find still-living members of that family? If there are any!"


    "That is where Malfoy comes into play!"


    "I still don''t like the idea of him joining us. I don''t trust him! If others can speak to the snake, fine, but he does look and acts like one!"


    "Ahaha… relax, he is not THAT bad. I think. You can easily manipulate him if you play off of his pride! Then everything becomes easy!"


    "You are evil."


    "Pragmatic!" I chuckled, receiving a condescending eye roll from her. "I asked him to gather information about those who could speak to snakes. His family should have information about that as once they were the closest to HIM. I did not mention the Gaunts to him, so it should not distract him while gathering names for us! After he gets the data, I can get to work!"


    "Okay." Quincy nodded, thinking about it, "So… when he comes back, are you sure the names he will bring are all related to this... Gaunt family?"


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    "I am."


    "Why?"


    "Because, to our knowledge, no other family could speak to snakes on this side of the globe!" I said with conviction. "Don''t you find that weird?"


    "Well, it is a bloodline gift, so… no?"


    "Do you know any other such gift?" I asked, leaning back on my chair, rocking back and forth with a confident grin creeping up on my face.


    "No… not really." She replied after a minute of silence, thinking about it.


    "Exactly. As I said before! Tongues can be learned. Speaking to animals can be learned. Many wizards did that throughout the times! But you never hear about someone else who inherits the ability and does not even realize that he or she doesn''t speak human tongues anymore! Are there families who can talk to horses? Lions? Unicorns? Phoenixes? Dragons? Why isn''t there? We only have one such gift in our whole wizarding community; being a Parselmouth."


    "And…?" She asked, not really finding it weird. It was… just like that forever.


    "That makes me suspect the fact that it is not something natural! This bloodline gift did not come from nature! A wizard or witch had to be the one who etched Parseltounge into their own blood, passing it down that way! And if it was made by magic, it can be learned! It can be repeated!"


    "You sound crazier and crazier; the more you keep talking, the more insane you sound, you know…."


    "Sorry~!" I chuckled, but I couldn''t help but feel excited and ready for action. Now I was genuinely anxious about Draco''s findings… I hope he is going to hurry and get it for us soon.


    "Okay, let''s just say everything comes together! Then what?"


    "Excuse me?" I asked, being a bit lost here, but she looked earnest, leaning forward, speaking while maintaining strict eye contact.


    "How are you going to cast blood magic? We don''t know any spells related to that, and by just saying it, that sounds like something that is surely not taught in school! I never heard of such things!"


    "Well…" Her question stumped me. I couldn''t help but flinch and, in the end, be honest, not just to her but to myself too, "I did not think about that part yet."


    "Thought so."


    "Look, let us first get there, okay? I am juggling multiple ideas and plans here anyway! This is just one part of it!"


    "Yeah, yeah!" She shrugged loudly, which felt like another gut punch to me, "Breeding snakes, dabbling in bloodlines and blood magic, yet only knowing a handful of spells and barely a Hogwarts student for a month! Geez… you are more flamboyant than Draco Malfoy!”


    …


    ….


    ……


    Just after another day, when we got Quincy''s letter, Draco called me over before the start of our charm class in the afternoon.


    "Here." He gave me a bundle of books that looked pretty heavy.


    "Woah… This is a lot!" I said with honest surprise in my voice, watching the ancient-looking covers wrapped in leather protectors.


    "I said it was for a study; you have a week to study them, then I must return them. Got it?" He whispered, looking around, masking his nervousness with annoyance making it seem like I was being bullied or pushed into something he wanted to do.


    "Okay, okay, no worries! I''ll go through them this weekend; they will be back with you by Monday! You can send them back before anyone notices!"


    "Good!" He said, watching me closely, which was making me feel weird. "Got anything yet?"


    "A bit. Nothing concrete. I was waiting for your side as Quincy gave me only half of the big picture. This should help me come up with something definite! Thanks!"


    "Hmph. Tell me when you are ready!" He added, then turned around with a flur of his robes, disappearing from sight, heading down to the dungeons while I rushed to the North Tower to stash the books. I couldn''t wait to be done with today''s class and start reading through all of it.


    …


    ….


    ……


    "Mr. Anguine…" A sweet yet horrifying voice jolted me out of my thinking. "It seems you are not listening to my instructions. I know it is almost the end of class, but I did not hear the bell yet."


    "I was listening wholly, Professor Umbridge," I replied with fake calmness as her toad-like eyes looked at me, her ugly face plastered with a sadistic smile.


    "I am doubting that." She continued signaling me out from everyone else, "Then, please. Cast the wand-lighting charm as I instructed."


    "Lumos," I replied simply, letting my wand light up like a lighthouse.


    "Tsk, tsk, tsk…." She shook her head, and I already knew she would find a problem with it no matter what I did. The question was if I landed in myself another knockout punishment or not. "I remember instructing you to cast it with reserved strength, to provide light only strong enough to illuminate the tip of your wands. Not to light up the whole classroom! Detention is in order, Mr. Anguine. Everyone else, dismissed." She said with an overly friendly tone before turning away from us.


    I couldn''t help but stare at the wide back of hers, wanting nothing more than learn the killing curse and cast it on her. No... I would not do it like this. I would look into her eyes while doing so... but I had to force all of my thoughts to the back of my mind before she could read them from my eyes. Quincy gave me a worried look but left with the others, not wanting to cause trouble. Soon, I was left alone in the classroom, along with this inhuman witch. As October was coming closer, it was already getting darker sooner, especially with how cloudy and rainy the season turned out to be. By now, it was as if night had fallen, and I was stuck here with a human dementor who called herself Umbridge.


    "Here." She returned, placing a pink parchment before me with a black quill but no ink in sight. "Write it down for me a hundred times; I am an idiot."


    I would have laughed if not for knowing this was an evil woman who freely tortured her students. Whatever this punishment will be, it can''t be as bad as experiencing the torture curse again. At least, that is what I thought, but writing it once, I already knew this would be about pain again. Just by writing it once, my hand had the same sentence carved into it, as if someone slashed me with a boxcutter, slicing the words into my flesh. It was not a superficial wound either, going deep and drawing blood by just putting the quill against the surface of the parchment.


    "Go on." She said, standing before my desk with a broad smile, watching me flinch while writing.


    When I was let go, I had to wrap a gauze around my hand, which quickly turned bloody by the time I reached the Great Hall, to join the others at the dinner table.


    "What happened?" Quincy asked, seeing my hand and the blood seeping through the bandages.


    "I''ll tell you later," I said, knowing my face was pale and my voice hoarse. I wanted to cry but did not want to give that monster the satisfaction of seeing me do it.


    "That… evil… ogre!" Quincy whispered while I flinched as she held my hand, unwrapping it, watching the deep cut on it, spelling out the bloody sentence.


    "That looks nasty." Draco''s voice added, looking over from the other side of the table, but surprisingly, his voice was devoid of any gloating or malice.


    "Feels nasty, too," I replied, trying to joke while Quincy reapplied a fresh wrapping, getting bandages from who knows where.


    "You are pretty calm about it," Draco added, raising an eyebrow while now more and more classmates of mine were watching us.


    "I told you…" I whispered, eyeing the words until they disappeared under Quincy''s care, "Revenge is a potent fuel…."