ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴅʀᴀᴛᴛᴇᴅ ʟɪʟᴀ ʜᴏʟᴍᴇꜱ || ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏ ᴍᴀʟꜰᴏʏ x ᴏᴄ || ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ 1-3

snake language

"Why is everybody reacting like that?" I asked the both of them as Pansy dragged me down the corridor. Pansy just scoffed.

"Shut your clueless mouth up until we can talk alone," she said stonily. I looked to Malfoy helplessly, and he only shook his head, a stormy frown gracing his face.

When we made it a few hallways down, Pansy dragged me into an empty classroom. Malfoy closed the door behind us. Despite my miffed expression, both of them seemed equally bent on interrogating me.

"You shouldn't be able to talk to snakes," Pansy hissed with a finger to my chest. "You're Muggle born."

"I—" at a loss for words, I shoved her hand away, irritated. "What does that have to do with anything? Can't lots of you talk to snakes?"

She laughed coldly. "No, you idiot. Only descendants of Salazar Slytherin himself can talk to snakes."

I stared at her in disbelief. "But I'm Muggle born—"

"Exactly!" Pansy huffed. "I can't even talk to snakes, and I'm in Slytherin. My family has been for generations. There's no reason a Mudblood, Gryffindor, pain like you should be able to speak Parseltongue."

"Snake language," Malfoy clarified. Pansy rounded on him, as if just realizing he was there.

"Who asked you to be here?" She scoffed. "The women are speaking."

This was not the reaction I'd been expecting. Usually Pansy was fawning over him, but she seemed bitter about something. Her scorn was intimidating, even when I wasn't on the receiving end.

Still, Malfoy did not falter, only scoffing back. "You whisked away the Heir of Slytherin without any explanation. Maybe I just wanted you to be safe."

This time, I scoffed. "Me? Heir of Slytherin? You can't be serious."

"Who else but the Heir of Slytherin can make a snake go limp at her words?" Malfoy snapped at me. "And to think you accused me. You lied to me, to all of us—"

"Oh can it. We both know it's not her." Pansy snapped, her voice becoming patronizing. "She wouldn't hurt a fly. She's so nice it's sickening, and she's a pushover."

"Hey!" I protested, but the look she gave me shut me up.

She continued to snap icily at Malfoy. "You're only here to express your undying love for her because now it's socially acceptable—"

"Enough!" Malfoy interrupted her, the tips of his ears going pink. "That is not what this is about and you know it!"

"Merlin," Pansy ignored him. "Maybe if you spent more study sessions studying than complaining about how much smarter she is than you—"

"Would you quit obsessing over everything I say—"

I zoned out as their arguing began to increase. Malfoy talked about me? Most likely to complain sure, but why wouldn't Pansy enjoy complaining about me too? Why was he so upset about my heritage? Shouldn't I be more upset? I felt like maybe I had more reason to freak out than they did. I came back to reality. This wasn't relevant right now.

I cleared my throat. "I think we've diverged from the important part of this."

Pansy snorted at me eyes still full of fire. "Oh, right, because you're always the most important one in the room. Sorry, I forgot."

I shut my mouth quickly, but Malfoy seemed happy to change the subject.

"So maybe you're not the Heir," Malfoy eyed me shrewdly. "But we don't know who it is, and neither does anyone else. Speaking Parseltongue just about proved to the student body that you're related to Slytherin."