One Day They'll Know Your Name

Ancestral names

Days and weeks went by, and before long it was March. Les Amis continued to search for any hint of how the Heir of Slytherin was petrifying students, but so far they hadn't found anything. Draco finally had the brilliant idea of looking through the Slytherin family tree to see if that would tell them anything. They had been working on that for a couple of days when Penelope Clearwater was found petrified near a girl's bathroom on the second floor. She was holding a mirror and her hand was up near her hair, as if adjusting it, but her face was terrified.

Hermione practically shoved them all into the library after lunch that Saturday, pulling down a load of books from a few shelves as she passed. She dropped the books on an empty table, then sorted the books into four piles.

"Ron, Neville, genealogy. Find out who would be the right age to possibly be Voldyshorts. Maybe he had a kid, or secret siblings or cousins or something that no one knows about. Harry, creatures. I want a list of every creature that paralyzes as its first defense. Draco, I want you on charms and potions. I need a list of anything that even petrifies as a side effect. I'll take runes."

Harry dutifully started reading through Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them, listing down any of the creatures that petrified living things in any way. A lot of them seemed to be snakes, which made him think of Salmissra, which made him think of Hermione's slip to whoever it was who slipped the information to the school. He groaned, plopping his head on the table gently.

"You ok, Harry?" Draco asked from beside him.

"Just seeing that all of these snakes can petrify you if they bite you reminded me of Hermione accidentally spilling my secret to the school."

Draco put down his book and turned to Harry. "Are you telling me that a lot of snakes paralyze their prey with their venom?"

"Yes?"

Draco shook himself. "Ok. That's something we'll tell Owlet later. Why are you thinking about your no longer secret Parseltongue abilities?"

Harry didn't speak for a moment. When he did, his voice was softer, and Draco had to lean in to hear him. "It's just, I'm proud of being a Parselmouth. Aunt Rhea said my grandmother had some in her family and she had always hoped that one of her kids or grandkids would have the gift. But this year, instead of people being happy that I have a special gift from my family, I'm being blamed for these petrifications because Salazar Slytherin had a Chamber of Secrets and he could talk to snakes. And I guess, technically I could be the Heir of Slytherin, cause Aunt Rhea said that all Parselmouths come from Slytherin, cause his mum was a naga, or something like that, and that's super awesome. Slytherin is the Founder of the House I'm in, and he's the one who left Salmissra here so that Tom, whoever he is, and I could find her and talk to her, and from Salmissra's stories he's an awesome person. But then I hear stories from history about how he left Hogwarts because he didn't want to let Muggleborns into the school, and Hermione's amazing and I can't imagine her not being here, so maybe it's a good thing he left, but it's still bloody confusing!"

Draco was quiet for a long moment. Finally, he said, "I'm happy that you get to have this gift from your family. It's a connection you'll never lose, and if you ever travel to wherever your grandmother is from, you'll probably have a bunch of family if you want to meet them."

Ron spoke up at that moment. "I found something. We followed the Slytherin line down a lot of lines, but most of them died out hundreds of years ago. This one died out about ten years ago, and the last member was born in time that he would have been at Hogwarts fifty years ago. That's when the Chamber was open last, right?" He looked at Draco.

"Yes. Grandfather told me a few stories about how Hagrid was accused of opening the Chamber. Now that I've met the man I know there's no way he could have done it. A girl died, and if one of Hagrid's creatures had done that he would have been the first to tell someone about it. A Muggleborn named Tom Riddle was a prefect and found him with a creature and brought him to Headmaster Dippet."

"Your Muggleborn prefect was a halfblood. Tom Riddle was the son of Merope Gaunt and Thomas Riddle. Merope was the only daughter of Marvolo Gaunt, and Thomas was the Muggle town's rich person."

"Marvolo Gaunt? The guy who was sent to Azkaban for the murder of his entire family and only spoke Parseltongue? The last known Heir of Slytherin until Voldy?"

"Uh, yes? That sounds about right," Neville replied.

"The Gaunts were also descended from Cadmus Peverell," Draco said.

"Wouldn't it be just my luck if Cadmus happened to have two siblings named Ignotus and Antioch," Harry laughed nervously.

"He did. Ignotus was the one who had your invisibility cloak originally."

"I met him over Christmas break! He's in a portrait with his brothers in my vault!" Harry squawked. "Does this mean I'm more closely related to the last Heir than I was ten minutes ago?" He started breathing heavily, nearly hyperventilating, clearly on the verge of a panic attack.

Hermione spoke up. "Well, technically, you've been as related to him as you are now your whole life. You just didn't know it."

"Yes, thank you Granger. Harry wasn't aware of how relatives work," Draco drawled.

"Oh, come off it Malfoy. I was just trying to get him to stop panicking for a moment. And it worked. Somewhat." They looked at Harry, who had given Hermione a weird look when she first spoke and was now laughing hysterically.

"Oh yes, because this is so much better. Come on, Harry, put your head on the table, there you go. Just breathe. The Gaunts being your distant relatives doesn't make you any less yourself," Ron said. Following his friend's directions, Harry finally calmed down.

"Come on, Harry, it's getting late. Let's get to bed so we can be better prepared to deal with Lockhart in the morning," Draco said while hoisting Harry up and pulling him from the library.