98 Chapter 98: Of Foolish Plans

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18 November 1992, Hogwarts

Neville Longbottom had no idea what had happened. He vividly remembered humiliating Malfoy in their little practice duel after the ponce started to seriously attack him. It was easy. The training he had received in the Summer from a former Auror made his encounters with Malfoy little more than a piece of cake. For some reason, his grandmother gave him a proud look when he suddenly came to her and told her that he wanted to learn how to fight properly. She had arranged for his instructor, and every time the boy who lived wanted to quit, he remembered the infuriating smirk on Potter's face as he played with him and Ron.

He was looking forward to challenging Potter after humiliating Malfoy. Get back at the traitorous godbrother that humiliated him so many times in the previous year. But the traitorous snake decided not to lose graciously, but thankfully Snape killed it. But for some reason, people just kept staring at him with fear and horror on their faces.

He barely even registered his friends pulling him outside the Great Hall for no reason. Maybe they thought that the other Slytherins might attack him for humiliating one of their own.

Ron steered him out of the hall, Hermione hurrying alongside them. As they went through the doors, the people on either side drew away as though they were frightened of catching something. Neville didn't have a clue what was going on, and neither Ron nor Hermione explained anything until they had dragged him all the way up to the empty Gryffindor common room.

"When the hell were you going to tell us?"

Neville felt even more confusion flood his already clogged brain. What the hell was the redhead on about? Was he talking about the training for some reason? His grandmother had told him not to advertise that he could defend himself, this way any attacker wouldn't be prepared. Ron would have probably asked to attend the sessions as well and the Longbottom Matriarch really didn't like Ron Weasley. She seemed somewhat neutral to the rest of the family, except for Percy whom she disliked by instinct because he wanted to be a politician, and she admitted to him reluctantly that she admired the twins' innovation, even if their work ethic could be better. Anyway, she really hated Ron. She never said anything about it, but she obviously thought that he was dragging her only grandson down.

Reluctantly, the Longbottom scion would admit that Ron wasn't the sort of person you wanted around if your goal is to be productive. The sad thing was that he had a very good tactical mind, he was just not inclined to school, or just hard work in general. But he was brave and loyal to a fault, and Neville appreciated that more than him being some sort of magical savant.

Anyway, Neville realized that his friends were looking at him expectingly and just muttered, "Tell you?"

Yes, tell us!"

"Tell you what, exactly?"

"That you're a bloody Parselmouth!"

Wait… what? Neville wasn't a Parselmouth, that's for sure. His Grandmother had made him memorize over a thousand years of ancestry ever since he was a little boy. None of them is a Parselmouth, "What are you on about? I'm not a Parselmouth. Believe me, if there was one in the family, I would know. Hell, my grandmother would definitely know, and you know that it's a family trait that's passed on by blood."

"Well, it sure looked like you were," Ron exclaimed.

That didn't make any sense. Where would he have even looked like a Parselmouth? Thankfully, Hermione interjected, "The snake, Neville. You commanded it, didn't you?"

Yeah, but he was scared out of his mind and that thing was huge, he just asked the thing to stop out of desperation, "But, I only told it to stop."

"Oh, is that what you said to it?"

"What do you mean? You heard me! I said it in front of the whole hall!" Both of his friends shook their heads.

"Neville," Hermione said after taking a deep, heavy breath, "we didn't hear anything you said. We just heard you speaking Parseltongue. To us, it just sounded like a bunch of incomprehensible hissing."

Neville's mind just froze, "You're not having me on, are you?"

"Of course not. Did you look at everyone's faces in the Great Hall," Ron exclaimed.

How the hell could he have been a parselmouth? How did he even use it without realizing it? Even when he was a child and used accidental magic, Neville knew that he used magic somehow. And the Longbottoms didn't even have a link to Salazar Slytherin in any way. The man was rumoured to be the greatest user of the snake tongue in history. Apparently, he did things with it that just weren't possible, especially considering the primitive magic that nomadic tribes tended to use the tongue for. This skill had turned him into a legend.

Being a descendant of a founder of Hogwarts, even if it was Slytherin, was an honour, one that his ancestors would have bragged about, instead of their druidic origin. It just didn't make any sense.

A small voice at the back of his head told him that one of them could have hidden it. Maybe a descendant of a squib from a half-blood that married into the family. There was a possibility that maybe his family was light aligned just wanted to deny, one that he accidentally revealed to the world. He needed to send an owl to his grandmother telling her what happened. This could have a large impact on the family's reputation after all.

Neville opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again and tried to say anything. No words came out. He looked to Ron imploringly. Ron looked sheepish. "You were speaking it, mate," he said apologetically. "We all heard you, clear as day. We had no idea what you even said to it."

"But… obviously I was telling it to stop!"

His two friends exchanged looks. "Plenty of people thought you were sending it after Malfoy even when he was passed out," Hermione admitted.

Ron continued, "And now everyone thinks that you're the heir of Slytherin, that you're attacking muggleborns."

"But I'm not," Neville protested.

"Of course, you're not attacking anyone, but how are you going to prove that you weren't responsible," Hermione interjected.

"I was knocked out in the infirmary when Dean was attacked, and I was at Nick's Death party with you when Filch was petrified. Isn't that proof enough?"

Dean's attack had seemed like a personal insult at the time. The muggleborn was barely a few rooms away from the infirmary when he was petrified. It was like the heir of Slytherin was taunting him, telling him that he could have gotten him too if he wanted to.

Ron shrugged, "You could have been pretending to sleep in the infirmary, especially since Dean was attacked near you, cursed the bulger to attack you and clear you as a suspect. And you were the first person to find Filch because of that voice you were following. Relax, Hermione and I believe you, but the rest of the school won't. There probably isn't going to be an official investigation since the petrification isn't permanent no one was really hurt but Mrs. Norris, so Dumbledore is going to protect you. However, the school won't care about that, especially if the attacks continue."

Neville couldn't help but think that this was exactly why he was friends with Ron. That boy was loyal to a fault and there were some rare instances, when he chooses to use his head, that showed just how smart he would be if he applied himself.

And he was right on the nose here. There was no concrete evidence other than him being a parselmouth, meaning that the Aurors weren't going to be called. Other than him finding the body the first time, there was nothing linking him to any of the attacks. But there was one thing for certain. He was going to be the school pariah, and that was unacceptable, "I need to clear my name and there's only one way I can do this."

Hermione seemed to grasp where he was going quickly since she paled in fear, "You mean…"

"Yes, we need to catch the heir of Slytherin. We were already going to interrogate Malfoy and Potter using Polyjuice. So, we're already halfway there," Neville continued.

She hesitated for a moment, "Yeah, but we were only going to ask them what they knew. We don't know if they were the heir, really, only that they knew something, Malfoy because of his father, and Harry because of just how smart he was."

Ron groaned, "Come on, Hermione, you can't just keep hanging on to that guy. He's a Slytherin which means he's bad news. I know that you used to be friends, but he was probably using you to spy on other Gryffindors or just to help him with his homework."

The muggleborn shook her head, "He never really asked me anything about my house, and he didn't need help with homework. We just talked about magic and certain useful spells. But trust me, I know Harry, he's not the kind to do these attacks, but he's exactly the kind of guy that would put pieces together that no one has before. It's the only reason I agreed to the Polyjuice, and that was only because I knew he wouldn't say anything if we asked him directly. We haven't talked in a long time. I don't want you to get any illusion that it's a sting operation of some sort. If he confesses, then I'll help you take him down, but other than that, he's not a suspect."

"I know you weren't looking at him when Neville started talking in Parseltongue, but I did. He had this smug little smile on his face like he knew that Neville was a Parseltongue and that confirmed it," Ron exclaimed.

Wait, Potter knew what? How is that possible? How could Potter know something about him that no one else realized before? He needed to know more, "You have to admit Hermione, that it's pretty suspicious."

The muggleborn's resolve looked like it was wavering, so Neville pressed slightly, "Look, we'll try to find out what he knows. If he's innocent, we'll leave him be. If he is the heir of Slytherin, it's our duty to expose him. How long until the Polyjuice is done cooking?"

"Ten days," the muggleborn commented, "we can start getting pieces of hair of who we're going to replace, as well as a way to discreetly make sure that they won't show up."

Neville nodded, "Good. Also, Ron, I want you to ask Fred and George to follow Potter and Malfoy closely. They're our main suspects and we need to know their comings and goings. They could lead us to the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and we could catch them in the act."

The redhead agreed, "I'll tell them as soon as I see them."

"Now, we have another lead," Neville continued, "Dobby accidentally let out that the Chamber of Secrets was opened before. That means that the three of us will need to research in the library about it. Similar attacks had to have been there before. If whoever had done it was caught, then a family member or a descendant could be doing it now."

Ron groaned, "I thought we were done with researching stuff after the mess with Flamel last year. It took months just to find who he was. Can we ask for more help instead?"

"Let's just keep it between us," Neville replied while shaking his head, "we don't want to tip the heir off that we're looking into past attacks. If they knew about them, they could easily find the books we were looking for and hide them just to throw us off their trail. We need to be discreet, and we need to be smart about this."

Yeah, Neville Longbottom was going to catch the Heir of Slytherin and clear his name. But until then, he knew that his time in Hogwarts was going to be rough. He only hoped he could hold on until his status was back as the saviour of the magical world once more.

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Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.