Harry Potter and the Prancing of Ponies

by The Guy Who Writes

Chapter 80: Convincing Your Heirs They're Right

And on his deathbed, Godric had told Helga (for Salazar had abandoned him, and Rowena passed before) that he didn't regret any of it…

-HPMoR, Chapter 43

---

"How am I supposed to be a witness if I can't even speak Parseltongue?"

There was a pause in the conversation. An extended pause. One that, until that point, had not occurred for any of the other questions Draco had asked.

"Um," said Harry, "I meant more as a general witness to the fact that the conversation was happening… actually, scratch that. I was trying to stop the snake from insta-killing you, and I thought that condition would help. I was not thinking ahead all that much, just trying to manage everything in the moment. There, that's an honest answer."

This time it was Draco who paused as he thought of something to say. "I'm very grateful you got me out of there," Draco said in a voice of honest humility. He didn't say anything immediately after that, deciding instead to wait for Harry to respond first.

"…And now you'd rather not go back?" Harry asked, seeming to understand. Well, seeming to understand half of the problem.

"I'll put it this way," Draco said eventually. "How would you feel if someone wanted you to go back to the deadly creature that just threatened to kill you, and your job is to just stand there, right in front of something that might kill you at any moment, in the presence of a conversation you'd very much like to hear but can't?"

"…Yeah, I can see why that would be annoying. So one of your objections is that you just don't want to be left out of an important conversation that's happening right in front of you?"

Draco nodded. "I've already had enough of that for one month. And the last time earned me a big favor which hasn't been repaid yet."

Harry seemed to consider Draco's perspective for a moment. "Does this outweigh your objection that it's too dangerous and you don't want to go back at all?"

"Yes."

"So you're fine with going back so long as you can hear the conversation?"

"Yes. But if I can't, it's a dealbreaker. Even if it is the Chamber of Secrets."

"…Well," Harry tapped his cheek with a finger. "We could have your Patronus relay messages of our conversation to you. It would be clunky and slow, but better than nothing." He tapped his cheek some more. "I can't see any other way of doing it without you becoming a snake animagus, or by having a Parselmouth do to you what was done to me as a baby." They were having this conversation inside the private protection of Harry's trunk (into which he had teleported himself and Draco before waking Draco up), under the protection of an Equestrian anti-eavesdropping box, so it was somewhat safe to say things like that out loud. "But that's an extremely terrible idea that would probably go horribly wrong, and it's off the table in any case because it would require… well, you know."

Human sacrifice went unsaid yet understood.

"Do you think a better way has been figured out in thirty-five years?" Draco asked. "Wait! A better way has been figured out! I just need a Translator necklace."

Harry's finger stopped moving mid-tap, now hovering over his cheek. "Hmm… well, I was going to consult the obvious expert about this in any case." Which is why he wasn't pushing back at all against Draco's risk-taking. He'd be safe if Professor Monroe was involved. "We can ask that question too. Has it been an hour since we used our Spimster Wickets?"

"Let me check," said Draco, who then cast Tempus. "Two minutes left."

Because there are standard procedures about Time. And while you don't always have to follow those procedures when everybody involved in the affair knows about Time Turning and has otherwise followed standard procedure up until that point, it's good to develop the habit whenever you can.

Autumn had only just entered the bathroom when they first went an hour back. Since one of his daily six hours have already been wasted on a frankly childish impulse to win – Professor McGonagall would not be proud, but again, all parties involved knew about Time Turners this time, including Autumn – Harry said he'll leave it up to Professor Monroe's judgement to authorize any more Time Turning.

And authorize another hour Professor Monroe did.

The Defense Professor, after hearing the story thus far, planned for them to arrive at the Chamber the moment after the very first instance of turned time. Professor Monroe also – in the hour of downtime leading up to that moment, and after all explanations had been given – immediately immortalized Draco Malfoy (after getting informed consent from him and his father), then said this about Draco's request for a necklace:

"You may purchase one if you wish, but translator necklaces do not work on Parseltongue, Mr. Malfoy."

There had been a pause.

"Then how did Autumn…?"

"How indeed," said the Defense Professor, looking amused at the question.

"…Is there some other safe way to bestow Parseltongue?" Draco asked. "You didn't do the human sacrifice method on her, did you?"

"I did not. There is indeed a safe method of bequeathing Parseltongue, Mr. Malfoy, and that method is indeed the explanation behind Ms. Query's display earlier today. Alas, it is not a quick method, and it would not work for you in any case."

"Oh," Draco had said, sounding disappointed. "So there's no way for me to speak Parseltongue on short notice?"

"There is, though it would require your consent. Have you heard of the Animorph Jinx?"

Draco slapped his head at his own forgetfulness, and lack of cleverness. "Of course!"

"The Animorph Jinx?" Harry interjected in inquiry. "I'm guessing-" since Charms is not Transfiguration and therefore it's not catastrophic to guess "-that's a spell to morph someone into an animal? Against their will, because it's a jinx?"

"Yes!" a highly enthusiastic Draco Malfoy answered, both to Harry and Professor Monroe. "You have my consent, Professor. I'd like to be a blue krait, please."

The Defense Professor shook his head. "I'm afraid it would be unwise to give you venom that deadly while you are adjusting to new instincts, Mr. Malfoy. A blue krait will have to wait."

Again, the disappointed "Oh," from Draco.

"…Is what I would say if we were all not already protected from death, and if you were not to be speaking with a basilisk in any case. Just be careful not to bite your own tail, or slither off on your own out of instinctual fear at the massive looming creatures trampling all around you. I'd also appreciate it if you didn't lash out at those creatures, even if your instincts scream at you to do so, and even if we would survive your fatal venom."

Draco hesitated. "Um…"

The Defense Professor nodded firmly. "We have ten minutes to accustom you to the form of a snake. Ten minutes which are otherwise not eating into my productivity. Do you understand, Mr. Malfoy?"

After a slight hesitation, Draco had consented to that implication as well. There would still be plenty of time left in the debt owed to him.

---

A flash of Professor Monroe's phoenix travel brought their party of three to a carving of Salazar Slytherin wielding his wand, against what looked like a giant covered in icicles. This was the very same location within Hogwarts that the side exit of the Chamber of Secrets had led to earlier that day.

As for why they did not simply manifest directly inside the chamber, it's due to the fact that a few fast ways out are permitted by its wards, but no fast ways in. (Except perhaps unicorn teleportation, but that hasn't been tested yet. Before today there had been no reason to test it.)

And the thing about wards like those is that they tend also to prevent inter-ward travel as well. Azkaban's wards, for instance, allow phoenix travel as a permitted way onto the prison grounds. But once you're there, phoenix travel cannot be initiated, even if your destination is somewhere else within the wards. Otherwise someone would be able to phoenix travel from the center of the wards to the outer edge, use magic to push themselves across the ward boundary, then Apparate away, thereby trivializing and invalidating the 'no fast ways out' restriction.

The wards upon the Chamber of Secrets are more ancient than the wards upon Azkaban, but they follow a similar yet inversed principle. They allow some forms of instant travel from one side of the ward boundary to the other (exclusively from the inside of the boundary to the outside, in this case), but they do not permit any forms of instant travel to those who want to go from one location inside the wards to another location inside the wards.

It would be accurate to say that the wards upon the Chamber of Secrets prevent Phoenix manifestation, but not Phoenix departure, and it would likewise be accurate to say that the wards upon Azkaban prevent Phoenix departure, but not Phoenix manifestation.

The fastest way to traverse the Chamber itself, one would think, would be by broomstick. If there wasn't an anti-anti-gravity jinx laid upon the entire Chamber. The other fastest way, therefore, would be something like the Roadrunner Charm (Harry hadn't investigated it, but he once heard about it), or Pegasus magic, or a living mount.

But after considering all of this and consulting the expert, Professor Monroe stated that he does not believe this particular quest warrants extreme haste. Walking at a brisk pace should suffice.

"Open," Harry hissed. This caused the seamless stone wall behind the statue to soundlessly and subtly open in a way that did not at all draw attention to itself.

Harry passed the statue of Salazar on foot and stepped into the Chamber. He was followed by a slithering Draco Malfoy and an invisible Professor Monroe.

Professor Monroe hoped to go unnoticed, and he only intended to ensure the safety of Autumn Query. For although the snake had permitted Draco as a future witness and an outside party as a consultant, Professor Monroe had pointed out (after extracting the exact wording from Harry) that the snake had not explicitly permitted the outside consultant to be a witness.

Harry's interactions with Slytherin's legacy shall be his own to control. Tom Riddle's time with the snake ended quite conclusively, and while he is certainly curious, he is not going to intrude on Harry's adventure unless the future of the world seems to be at stake.

He had said all this in Parseltongue and encouraged Harry to respond in kind, partly to give Harry practice at intending for a non-heir human-in-snake-form to overhear what he says in Parseltongue, and partly to give Draco practice at overhearing it.

That's when Harry had asked if the 'scene' of the Dark Lord's final interaction with the lore beast had been a complete fabrication, the scene that Harry had once been asked to visualize by Professor Quirrell and allow his own mind to fill in the missing details.

The Avada Kedavra delivered to Salazar's Basilisk had not at all been a fabrication. It had been a genuinely held belief by the Dark Lord, nor had it been a False Memory of any kind. And yes, he was certain of this, for that man rid himself of all Obliviations and False Memories some time ago. This, too, was said in Parseltongue.

Harry asked Professor Monroe if he knew what was going on with the Chamber-snake in general.

Professor Monroe said that he did indeed have his suspicions about what was going on, especially now that all of this has happened, but he didn't want to spoil the fun by giving away the potential answer in advance. Besides, he might be wrong.

(And he has had these suspicions ever since, at one point in Equestria, he scientifically tested the properties of Parseltongue with Twilight Sparkle. These tests revealed that Parseltongue does not, in fact, make snakes sapient, and that snakes cannot, for example, hold lore. They simply aren't smart enough for an order that complex. Perhaps a basilisk would be smart enough, perhaps a basilisk would be sapient, but Twilight Sparkle did not allow Riddle Tome to create one in order to test it until he could minimize the risks of such an experiment to her satisfaction, which he has not yet done. Basilisk venom is capable of melting through just about everything, after all, including the walls of an experiment's testing chambers. And if basilisks did turn out to be sapient, the ethics of Equestria would complicate things drastically from there, and its those complications that Riddle has not yet managed to satisfy to Twilight's satisfaction.)

"Open," Harry hissed at a door that he had already opened some time ago. He wondered if these doors automatically shut themselves after a set amount of time, or if they require a manual input every time. "Open," Harry hissed once again before turning his eyes back to the map.

There were five name plates (actually more like name parchments) and five sets of moving footprints currently inside the Chamber of Secrets:

Harry Potter (It was showing his name correctly, now. Well, almost. It's saddening but not surprising that the wards don't notice/recognize names inherited from muggle stepparents.)
Riddle Tome (And it was showing Riddle's name… incorrectly? Maybe? Even though he wasn't in his pony form? Or is he? He's invisible, so Harry couldn't check.)
Draco Malfoy (Nothing unusual about the name, but instead of footprints there were curving slither marks to round out their group of three.)

Autumn Query (Regular footprints, not hooves, which may or may not indicate she was in her human form, but Harry hasn't tested that yet either.)
? (Again, slither prints.)

It was the first time Harry had ever seen "?" as a viable name on the map. Then again, it was also his first time seeing any shape of prints other than footprints. He hasn't used the map all that much before.

The slitherprints and the "?" rather obviously indicated the basilisk, especially since it followed at a set distance behind Autumn Query, who was moving at a steady pace through the Chamber.

And since this map is probably an artifact that was created by Salazar Slytherin himself, Salazar Slytherin's magical programming was probably responsible. Both for the question mark being used as a symbol in the first place, and for the fact that Harry hadn't seen any "?" whatsoever when he had been exploring the Chamber and consulting the map earlier.

It would make sense that Salazar crafted his Chamber such that his lore beast could hide itself from the map, which may or may not be piggybacking off of the more general Hogwarts wards, which Salazar also helped to design. And then, obviously, Salazar helped himself to the circumvention of those very same wards when it came to his Chamber of Secrets. If the Chamber itself could be made to hide from the map, it's not such a stretch to imagine that its primary occupant can do the same.

As for the symbology of the question mark, Harry's third guess was that "?" is the programmed output when the map sees a sapient creature that has never been given a name. Or perhaps it was the result of the basilisk being killed and (recently?) reborn. But his primary guess is that the basilisk had been given control over that as well, and it was simply choosing to be a question mark right now.

And the reason why that guess came to him so quickly was that Harry had been thinking about a certain question over the past hour, especially while Draco was learning how to be a snake.

The Chamber-snake had said "she will ssee great corpsse of old body". And while miscommunications and misunderstandings happen all the time in conversation, Harry's current deduction – assuming that statement was as straightforward as it sounded – is that the tiny basilisk that currently occupies the chamber houses the very same mind that occupied the much larger basilisk killed by Tom Riddle five decades ago. (Or eight point five decades ago, from Riddle's perspective.)

With Merlin's Interdict in place, there are two ways for lore to get passed down across centuries: from one living mind to another, or one living mind ensuring that it doesn't die. The snake's phrasing suggested a sequence of new bodies to inhabit, not a sequence of successive lore beasts, nor a single long-lived lore beast.

Meaning Salazar had not been so foolish as to rely solely on a permanently-killable creature to empower his descendants, and in fact he had been so clever as to magically replicate something like phoenix immortality for the sake of his own legacy, and cleverer still to give his psychopathic descendants the false impression that they have successfully destroyed the source of their power such that no future rivals could benefit from it.

You think of convincing otherss they are misstaken. Far eassier to convince them they are right, Professor Quirrell had once hissed.

It made you wonder what 'right' things you are currently being convinced about, what feel-good yet false beliefs you are being encouraged and enabled and reinforced into believing.

And who's benefitting from your gullibility.

Because perhaps…

Well, there was one final note of confusion Harry was tangling with.

"When I was fifteen I made myself a horcrux as a certain book had shown me, using the death of Abigail Myrtle beneath the eyes of Slytherin's basilisk."

This had been said by Tom Riddle in the potions room before the Mirror, but it had not been said in Parseltongue. In conversations prior to that, Professor Quirrell had roundaboutly remarked/implied in Mary's room that Slytherin's monster would certainly have been keyed into the Hogwarts wards at a higher level than the headmaster, thus allowing it to get away with murder. But again, not in Parseltongue.

So Harry had asked Professor Monroe during Draco's Parseltongue practice if it was actually true that Slytherin's basilisk had delivered the killing blow to the mudblood-girl-child Hogwarts student (stupid Parseltongue forcing him to say it like that) five decades ago.

Professor Monroe had said, in Parseltongue, that it was true.

The murder of Abigail Myrtle had almost resulted in the schools closure, and Professor Quirrell had also once said that closure would be the predictable result of multiple wards-blind murders on school grounds, muggleborn or otherwise.

So Harry's final piece of noted confusion was this:

Did Salazar Slytherin really key in a beast at a higher level than the headmaster, such that it was capable of getting away with murder, and trust his future descendants not to abuse that as children? Why did he allow for a scenario that might eventually lead to the closure of Hogwarts in the long run after he had already done so much to ensure Hogwarts would last into the long run?

That didn't seem in-character with the meticulously crafty Salazar Slytherin, unless his intentions had changed towards the end of his life, which they very well might have, or unless Salazar Slytherin wasn't as meticulously crafty as Professor Monroe had made him out to be. But assuming Salazar was that meticulously crafty, and assuming his intentions didn't change, or at least they didn't change far enough to the point that he was willing to risk the school's eventual closure, what seemed far more in-character was…

---

Author's Note:

"?" = ?

If you want to solve the puzzle at maximum difficulty, do so now. Well, medium difficulty. Maximum difficulty was already solved by a certain reader at the end of the previous chapter, in private messages so nobody else could see, and without any prompting on my end. For easy mode, keep reading. The answer will not be revealed until the next chapter.

---

In the second to last bend before Harry's collision course with Autumn would have led to an actual collision, the behavior of the "?" on the map changed from passive following to pro-active movement. The footprints beneath the "?" passed through what looked to be a solid wall and/or empty space, moving directly and rather swiftly towards Harry.

Harry immediately stopped in his steps, causing Draco to stop where he'd been slithering along right behind him. The map showed "Riddle Tome" to continue moving forward, right past Draco and Harry and onward towards Autumn.

"Who iss the other you have brought?" asked the snake, at which point Riddle Tome's footprints had already brought him around the next bend indicated by the map. "I permitted one witnesss, not two. Have you revealed thiss chamber to yet more outssiderss?"

Harry was briefly surprised by the snake's ability to know that there was a third person in the chamber despite that person being hidden by Deathly Hallow magic. But a quick mental leap of 'If it can control the map in part, it can probably see things like the map sees them, and the map can see Riddle Tome, therefore…'

Also, yeesh. Professor Monroe wasn't wrong about the serpent's strictness.

"That iss the Defensse Professsor of Hogwartss," Harry hissed back. "He already knew of thiss chamber'ss location long before I did. I did not reveal it to him. He iss the outsside conssultant, but I did not bring him ass a witnesss. He hass ssworn in a way that can't be a lie that he iss only here to enssure ssafety of the firsst year girl. He would have come here anyway to do sso, at sspeed, sso we came together, and he continuess to hiss purposse. If you prevent uss from crosssing her path, he sshall witnesss none of our converssationss. This, alsso, he hass ssworn."

"Then we sshall sspeak ass we move to a better location," the snake hissed at once, then began to slither down a side path. "Follow. I will assk ssome questionss while we move, but do not sspeak of ssenssitive matterss until I give leave."

Harry and Draco followed, neither being the first to respond.

"You did not mention," hissed the snake, "that your friend wass a ssnake animaguss. I wass wondering how he would sserve ass a witnesss. Ssusspected thiss might be the ansswer. Ssalutationss, noble child in Sslytherin housse."

"Ssalutationss, creature of Sslytherin," Draco hissed back. "But I sshould ssay I am not animaguss. I am ssimply ssuffering from the effectss of a Transsfiguration jinx."

The basilisk gave a series of snakish chuckles. "Tell me, child, what iss your opinion on the abssolute sstate of Sslytherin Housse?"

"…It iss politically unsstable," Draco responded after a pause.

"Tell me more," hissed the snake.

"Sslytherin is internally divided along many liness, and we are generally feared and dissliked by memberss of the other three Houssess. Alsso, there iss far lesss happinesss in Sslytherin than previouss generationss, if I had to guesss. Far lesss happinesss perhapss than Ssalazar himsself would have preferred."

"You pressume much about the preferencess of another," the snake said. "Sso explain yoursself. How have you obsserved lesss happinesss in Sslytherin? And asssuming your obsservationss are true, why doess this fail to match what you believe to be Ssalazar'ss preferencess?"

Draco slithered in silence for a brief moment, composing his thoughts. "Lasst year, a tutor wass brought in to teach Patronuss charm to firsst yearss. The Defensse Professsor ssought to make a point to headmasster, I heard, that young sstudentss could learn. Many sstudentss learned from thiss tutor, not jusst firsst yearss. I do not know exact numberss, but perhapss fifty sstudentss from Ravenclaw, ssixty from Hufflepuff, and sseventy from Gryffindor. That iss probably a low esstimate."

"About how many from Sslytherin?" asked the snake. "Forty? Thirty?"

"I know the exact number thiss time. Only two sstudentss from all of Sslytherin Housse in all yearss sshowed up."

The snake paused in its slithering. It turned to face Draco directly. "Why?"

Draco cringed just a bit, and not only because he was staring directly into the gaze of what was probably a basilisk. "Politicss. Both sstudentss from Sslytherin were in their firsst year. One of thosse sstudentss-" Tracey "-iss… weird. The other-" Daphne Greengrass "-wass in a possition that sshe could get away with it, because-" she's the daughter of a noble house with a reputation for being a neutral/swing vote, and she was in Sunshine Army, and her last name is Greengrass "-there were ssome even in Sslytherin housse who expected it of her, desspite the circumsstancess. Ass for the resst of uss, courage iss not common in Sslytherin, and the Patronuss Charm iss sseen ass a sspell of Gryffindor, enemy of Sslytherin."

Parseltongue-brain translated the shivering of the basilisk as dumbfounded shock. "Of all the sstupid-!" the snake couldn’t seem to find the exactly right word to finish that sentence in the heat of the moment, but it found a follow-up easily enough. "Godric could not even CASST the Patronuss charm!"

"That iss not common knowledge in Sslytherin housse." Draco tried his best to remain calm, placating, and deferential. His current instincts were informing him that if the other snake went on the hunt, bad things would happen, especially to living creatures in its immediate vicinity. "I mysself did not believe that Ssalazar could casst it and Godric could not until the heir of Sslytherin, who iss playing at being a Ravenclaw," he flicked his head in Harry's direction, "sshowed me the original reference in an ancient book he ressearched in the library."

The basilisk stared at Draco for the longest few seconds of his past month. (Although not of his past year. That honor belongs to those horrifying seconds after the Sunshine General unlocked his glove in front of all of Magical Britain.) What the basilisk was thinking, Draco could only guess, but his suppressed terror wasn't leading his mind to produce any happy guesses.

Then the snake settled on something to say, and those scary seconds were over. "Can you casst the Patronuss charm, noble-born and intelligent child of Sslytherin Housse?"

"Yess."

Another pause, this one less terrifying than the last. "Did you learn it from your parentss outsside of sschool, perhapss? Parentss who were not sso foolissh, or perhapss not sso young, ass to ssucumb to sstupid modern politicss?"

Draco gave the snakish gesture for denial. "No. My ssire wass disspleassed when he learned that I knew the sspell. Hiss disspleassure lassted until I explained that the processs of learning it got me out of an old and looming debt."

"That ssoundss like a sstory. Where did you learn it? What debt did you owe? Your wordss do not imply you went to the official tutor brought in by the Defensse Professsor."

"It iss not entirely my sstory to tell," said Draco. He did not glance at Harry.

"It iss ourss," said Harry. "It iss fine, go ahead."

Draco gave the snakish equivalent of a nod, then met gazes with the basilisk once more. "I musst expresss my regretss ass I ssay that I only learned the powerful and advantageouss Patronuss Charm becausse I owed him-" again the head flick at Harry "-a large favor. He ssaid I wass to repay it by doing my besst to learn the Patronuss charm from him, desspite my disstasste at the time. It helped that we did sso in private, where no one elsse would ssee that I wass learning it."

The snake looked from Draco to Harry, then back to Draco again. Then it turned around and continued slithering.

"You ssay Gryffindor iss viewed ass enemy of Sslytherin. This iss not my firsst time hearing that claim. I have been told by passt heirss that the hisstory tomess perpetuate it, and I have never felt the need to sspeak out in rebuttal, for it sseemed of little conssequence. But that falsse hisstorical enmity hass never to my knowledge gotten sso bad ass to ressult in ssuch sstupidity in Sslytherin Housse. Hear me, sstudentss of Sslytherin, sso that you might be lesss sstupid than your classsmatess: Godric Gryffindor wass not an enemy, but a friend. There were sstrong dissagreementss about the sstudent body of Hogwartss, the future of Hogwartss. But in thosse dayss, friendss and alliess were sscarce. Strong alliess even sscarcer. Wizardss and witchess in general were sscarce, not to be abandoned over policy difference, esspecially not wizardss ssuch ass Godric."

That phrasing called to Harry's memory one of the very books which had made that exact claim – and the only one Harry had read on the subject. "Sso the history bookss ssaying that Ssalazar abandoned Hogwartss and Godric near the end of hiss life-" history books like The Patronus Charm: Wizards Who Could and Couldn't "-were completely basselesss?"

There was the slightest of motions from the snake – if Harry had blinked he would have missed it – which his Parseltongue talent translated to be a wince. "Abandonment iss not an entirely unreassonable thing for outside witnesssess to claim, not knowing the full sstory. Do not misstake me, it iss sstill falsse, ass you will ssoon ssee with your own eyess, beyond all posssible doubt. It wass not abandonment, but retirement into plotss and ressearch which required ssolitude."

As the snake said this, it slithered up to what appeared to be a dead-end. The pipe corridor curved into a rounded off to form a smooth wall.

"Before we go further, I sshall require ansswerss to certain quesstionss from you. Both of you. How you resspond sshall determine how we proceed."

"May I assk a quesstion of my own firsst?" asked Harry. "I ssusspect I know the ansswer to thiss question, but I would like to assk outright."

"You may assk, if it iss quick."

"It iss. What iss your name?"

The snake seemed surprised, taking many long seconds to reply, which Harry was almost tempted to take as an admission like his inner voice of Professor Monroe was suggesting, but when the reply did come, he decided not to jump to that conclusion.

"I wass planning on ssaying a certain ressponsse to whatever quesstion you assked, regardlesss of what it wass. But if you truly do ssusspect a certain ansswer, I musst ssay it iss now endlesssly more amussing than I imagined it would be to ssay thiss response, young Ravenclaw. You have assked your quesstion, ass you requessted. Ssince you did not requesst alsso that I ansswer it in advance of assking, it iss now time for my questionss and your required ansswerss, which I did not fail to mention in my own initial sstatement."

With Harry's curiosity successfully put into a state of active and ongoing torture by a clearly skilled sadist, the Parseltongue interrogation into the specific loyalties of Harry and Draco began.

The questions seemed like they might have been pre-planned; perhaps they came as part of a standard set, one that the snake has asked previous heirs.

And if Harry had to guess, the results were anything but standard.

The snake seemed surprised, even shocked, at some of the answers it received from Harry about where his ultimate loyalties lied. Not with wizards, not with muggle-born, not with muggles, not with magical creatures, and not with anything selfish like himself and his family and friends, although those considerations did weigh heavily in his error-prone human brain.

(Not that it's quite an error for the product of evolution known as 'the human brain' to care more about those who are closer in genetic code to itself than others. Caring more about those who are in the same family is how we all got here in the first place – either the same genetic family or the same cultural family or the same moral family. Thankfully the human brain has evolved to be able to see beyond just the first one.)

His ultimate loyalties didn't even lie with Hogwarts or his country, although he was partial to both.

Harry is loyal to sapient life, on this planet and beyond. He is loyal to all of life's potential going forward, to the potential for a future among all thinking creatures of the wider universe who want to cooperate for mutual gain.

The snake asked if this was without exception. Would he be loyal to a murderer who otherwise wished to cooperate?

A murderer does not want to cooperate, generally speaking, was Harry's initial response.

Harry's more in-depth explanation was that he is loyal to those who innocents who have not – as Equestrians would say – knowingly aggressed against the property rights of others, with the right to life being the single most important property right of all, in his view. Put more simply, have they deliberately harmed an innocent? Whether someone has magic or not isn't particularly important to that question, and that question is the most important, at least when evaluating case-by-case exceptions to Harry's loyalties, because it's that question which reveals whether someone has ever defected from the moral code of cooperation between sapient minds, and therefore whether they're likely to defect again. By far the best predictor for future defections is recent, relevant past defections. The question of harming innocents reveals who is okay with defecting in the first place.

So to put it bluntly, NO. Harry would not be loyal to the life of a murderer. Even if it was his own father, or his own son. Murderers egregiously (and until recently, irreparably) aggress against the lives of others. But Harry would be loyal to the life of a killer who only ever killed in the first place because he was forced into a situation that required self-defense. Which is why he would take issue with anyone who would go around aggressively killing Hogwarts students and never making up for that or acknowledging in any way that it was wrong.

"And if the justification," Harry said, "iss 'sshe wass a mudblood and therefore her life wass without merit', or 'therefore sshe wass not human', or even 'I am a ssnake without human moralss'-"

"The reasson iss nothing along thosse liness," the snake hissed back without pause, and with a hint of condemnation, frustration, and anger. "Musst ssay no more for now, except that foressight hass itss limitss, can rarely account for extreme exceptionss, ass your own Ssorting proved."

That response wasn't anything like what Harry had been expecting. He'd been expecting the snake to be a straight-up bastard when it came to blood purism, along with a whole host of other ethical issues. It took Harry a few moments to recalibrate. Was he saying that Abigail Myrtle was an extremely exceptional student that had to die? "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I ssaid I sshall ssay no more about it for now."

There was a brief, tense hesitation, during which Harry tried to find a clever way to ask what he wanted to ask and failed to see any angles of going about it.

To his great relief, he didn't have to. "If passt eventss give you causse to doubt my future intentionss," the serpent volunteered into the silence, "ass well they sshould, ssimply think back to the promissess I have already ssworn to you. I have not tried anything clever with wording, tried no trickss to work againsst you. Sshould your promisse of ressurrection prove true, sso sshall my promissess of not threatening Hogwartss, her sstudentss, or the world. Sshould you ssucceed in all ressurrectionss, I sshall sspeak more of the passt."

After thinking it over, Harry decided that was at least good enough to go through with the resurrections. "Sso be it."

The snake gave a hissing sound that did not come out as words, but which Harry's mind interpreted as a sigh of relief. "And what of you, young sserpent?" the snake asked of Draco. "Where do your ultimate loyaltiess lie?"

"My loyalties are not ass clear to me ass hiss are to him," Draco hissed. "I think my ultimate loyalty iss to my family, to my ssire and my mother." (Draco yet again suppressed the shiver of weirdness when Parseltongue's word for his father was the much colder and literal term of his 'sire'.) "Next iss mysself, I think. Then Hogwartss, Sslytherin Housse, my friendss, and my country. Not necesssarily in that order, I think it would depend on the ssituation. I would try to weigh the cosstss and benefitss to help all of thesse loyaltiess ssucceed in the long term."

"What iss your ultimate ambition?"

"I sseek to protect the traditionss of man and magic and lead uss to the besst posssible future."

"A politician to hiss core," Harry observed out loud.

"My thoughtss exactly," hissed the serpent. "Sso, young sserpentss, it iss time for my final important quesstion. What principless consstrain you in your ambitionss, if any?"

Again, Harry's answer was clearer and more rigidly defined than Draco's, and it ended with another surprise to the serpent.

"My complimentss to he who dessigned that Vow," said the snake after Harry had finished translating the exact wording into Parseltongue. "You are ssufficiently consstrained." It turned to face Draco directly. "YOU, however, musst be given insstructionss and orderss. I sshall desscribe the nature of thesse orders, and you may choosse to accept or reject them. If you reject them, you sshall go no further."

Draco said that he understood, and then was ordered not to speak or act unless given leave – not by Harry, but by the serpent. Draco agreed to follow the orders to the best of his abilities.

"One lasst thing before we proceed," hissed the snake. "Or rather, a quesstion, Ravenclaw heir. You need not be correct, I am ssimply curiouss what you sshall ssay."

"Assk," hissed Harry.

"What ISS my name?"

Author's Note:

I was tempted to have the chapter cut off at the "?" = ? author's notes. I was also sorely, sorely tempted to just leave it at "?" = ?, to have that simple equation be the only thing in the author's notes and nothing else. But I'm not that sadistic. I even managed to get in the "What is my name?" phrasing, à la Bumi.

So, puzzle time, now on the easiest difficulty I could provide. It's been a while. I wrote this entire chapter as a placeholder to propose this puzzle because I didn't think ahead and propose it when I should have, i.e. at the end of the previous chapter.

I know I read in another HPMoR fic the idea that Tom Riddle did NOT successfully kill Salazar's monster after all, allowing Harry to still learn from it, but it was so long ago that I don't remember which fic, and at this point probably multiple fics have used that idea. I am, however, pretty sure that this particular iteration of the idea hasn't been done before (although I could be wrong about that), so keep that in mind while solving.

Comments

[keybounce]

I have a medium-difficulty response.
Salazar himself.

The snake has to be intelligent; has to be able to make a "return from the dead". Snakes are not, even with parseltoungue. This snake can make decisions, and learn; it's not stuck to a preset plan. With the whole aspect of the castle wards, *each new version of the snake is the same immune!*. Etc.

> Did Salazar Slytherin really key in a beast at a higher level than the headmaster, such that it was capable of getting away with murder, and trust his future descendants not to abuse that as children?

Not if the snake is Salazar. Note that the snake knows how to make a horecrux. Probably figured out how to make a new body along the way.

[AndrewV]

11878329
Is my guess too, although I read a bit further ahead than "medium difficulty"

[Fireeaters]

I guess either he's pulled a merlin, or perhaps the map doesn't sanitize its inputs, and the snake's name takes advantage.

[Fireeaters]

Perhaps the basilisk is a snake-icorn

Wait, those don't get free respawns in your story nvm

[Booster Spice]

Given I only know one named snakes name from the books, and that only because it was mentioned again in stories on site, I cant even start to propose a possible answer personally. I just cannot know that this is the same serpent known.

[TheGreatFox]

Before this chapter, my guess was simply that Salazar did whatever is needed to have a snake alive that long down there, and just multiplied it by 10, to have a bunch of them.

Now, my guess is the same as 11878329 - the snake is Salazar himself. I still think the above is also accurate, since he would need multiple snakes to occupy a new body when the previous one dies.

That leaves the mystery of Myrtle's death. Maybe he did it so he could learn the Horcrux ritual himself, hoping it would help in the resurrection of his original body. Though, this doesn't feel entirely correct, since it was a Horcrux V1, not the improved version. Hm.

[mishun]

And since this map is probably an artifact that was created by Salazar Slytherin himself, Salazar Slytherin's magical programming was probably responsible. Both for the question mark being used as a symbol in the first place

There's fair chance of modern question mark being considerably younger than Hogwarts.

I know I read in another HPMoR fic the idea that Tom Riddle did NOT successfully kill Salazar's monster after all, allowing Harry to still learn from it, but it was so long ago that I don't remember which fic

One with basilisk hivemind and petrified body of Salazar? (and religion)

11879087

Maybe he did it so he could learn the Horcrux ritual himself

Or other way around if it's covered by interdict and can't be learned from book. Both method of basilisk creation and Horcrux were invented by the same dude, lord Foul (at least in Rowling's lore)

[The Guy Who Writes]

11879156

There's fair chance of modern question mark being considerably younger than Hogwarts.

I was aware of that going in. But it's not like the names on the map are written in Old English either. Something something the map updates itself to modern English through magic and/or past headmasters/headmistresses (who control the map, as the Weasley Twins only had it at Dumbledore's permission, and the Marauders stole it from the staff) have made an effort to keep modern the map and/or the magical child tracking wards that give out names and addresses of magical students each year and/or the basilisk has seen what Modern English looks like and made a dedicated effort to keep its understanding of at least written English up to date through interactions here and there with previous heirs.

At some point, the story just flows better if I don't qualify all of that in-universe just to have a "?" on the map.

One with basilisk hivemind and petrified body of Salazar? (and religion)

Maybe, but that doesn't sound familiar to be honest. Then again, I'm not sure if anything WOULD sound familiar. It's been a very long time, and I don't remember the fic being all that gripping or memorable.

[Spherical Cat]

"You may purchase one if you wish, but translator necklaces do not work on Parseltongue, Mr. Malfoy."

There had been a pause.

"Then how did Autumn…?"

"How indeed," said the Defense Professor, looking amused at the question.

Wow, I just realized who Autumn is, and how Autumn did the Parseltongue thing.

[mishun]

11879349

But it's not like the names on the map are written in Old English either.

Adoption of Latin alphabet (plus ligatures and 2 rune letters) kinda checks out chronologically.

[carlarc]

My theory:

It's not Salazar.

It's a Horcrux 1 clone of him. He put the horcrux on a basilisk and teached it all his lore, thus explaining why he gave it access to the wards as it's effectively him. The clone would oversee the Chamber until someone was able to resurrect the original Salazar. The biggest problem with this theory is that, well, why isn't he himself then? My answer is that he couldn't transfer his own consciousness to a basilisk, only a copy of it, but that's flimsy.

It could also be Salazar himself hoping to resurrect his loved ones, possibly including Helga. Perhaps that's why he abandoned Godric and Rowena, to build the Chamber and safeguard the corpses for revival. Perhaps both of the theories are correct.

[keybounce]

11879926
Autumn is the daughter of Riddle and Luna.

How did she manage? ... Quite possibly, just by studying the language from daddy as another language? Naah, that doesn't feel right.

Idea two: Some of the same magic that lets translator necklaces work, that lets ponies understand dragons and changelings, etc.