A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

"This is impossible!"

When Hermione relayed Felix's words to Harry and Ron, Harry angrily retorted.

He had no desire to admit that he had an ancestor who could understand the language of mice!

Harry felt his first week of school was absolutely terrible. He got locked up for driving across England, was deliberately staged an accident by Lockhart, had a bizarre encounter with photography enthusiast Colin, and then there was the grueling Quidditch training…

He was put in solitary confinement yesterday and had to write back to Lockhart's fans, one after another, for a full four hours!

That wasn't the worst of it. In Lockhart's office, he heard intermittent sounds: "Kill you... Tear... Death..."

When he told the two of them about it this morning, they looked at him as if he had finally gone mad. Hermione then volunteered to ask Professor Hyp, and the answer she received left him somewhat devastated.

"That's not necessarily true, buddy. I've heard similar rumors," Ron whispered, pulling a fat rat from his pocket. The rat looked rather listless. "You could try talking to Scabbers!"

Ron held Scabbers in both hands and presented them to Harry, his eyes filled with anticipation.

Harry had to lower his head and look the mouse in the eye. "Can you understand what I'm saying?"

Banban rolled her eyes and turned away from him.

"Harry, stop talking like a human! You were just speaking like a human," Ron said.

Harry: "..." I know what you mean, but could you be a little more polite?

He tried more than ten more times, but the mouse didn't react at all. "It's not working!" he breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Fortunately, things didn't go as badly as they could have.

Hermione, watching the farce unfold, reminded him, "Harry, Professor Hyp was just giving an example; there are other possibilities."

Ron, however, had a different opinion: "Besides rats, what else is in the castle? It can't just be bugs, can it?"

This thought was even more terrifying. Harry shuddered and quickly racked his brains, trying to think of a way to change the subject.

"It might be a snake!"

"snake?"

Ron and Hermione fell silent, exchanging strange glances.

"You mean, you can talk to snakes?" Ron swallowed hard.

Harry didn't notice this; he excitedly recounted his experience of visiting the zoo and talking to a snake there before enrolling in school.

"A giant python told you it had never been to Brazil?" Ron's voice was very weak.

"What's so special about that? I bet a lot of people could do it! It's what Professor Hyp mentioned, that... talent!"

Ron didn't speak, but Hermione whispered, "Harry, talking to snakes is Salazar Slytherin's signature. It's called Parseltongue, which is why the symbol of Slytherin House is a snake."

"But I'm not," Harry said, somewhat bewildered. But then he suddenly remembered that during his first year of house sorting, the Sorting Hat had strongly advised him to choose Slytherin. With that thought, Harry shut his mouth tightly.

"It's alright, buddy." Ron patted him on the shoulder casually. "Pure-blood wizards often intermarry. Maybe you're Slytherin's great-great-great-great-grandson."

Seeing that Harry showed no signs of relaxing, he added in a low voice, "Really, if we're going to go into detail, most pure-blood wizarding families are related. I'm even related to the Malfoys."

"You and Malfoy?" Harry was shocked.

Ron shrugged. "There are only so many pure-blood wizards, so it's normal for them to intermarry. If you ask me, true pure-bloods are long gone; they wouldn't have survived to this day."

Harry finally calmed down.

"Harry, it's best not to tell anyone about this," Hermione advised.

Harry nodded, but he would never admit that he didn't want to be related to Slytherin.

Hermione steered the conversation back on track, saying, "Since you speak Parsley, the sound you heard that day was very likely a snake, perhaps moving along a crack in the wall."

In the little witch's mind, a snake is at most as thick as a wrist.

"But I heard it saying things like death, killing, and tearing you apart."

"Maybe it was hunting at the time? You know, catching mice and small insects or something like that," Ron guessed.

Without evidence, the trio had no choice but to give up.

It's not a big deal anyway!

"Hermione, how's your paper coming along?" Harry asked.

"Oh no!"

Hermione yelled and quickly left, leaving the two of them standing there in a daze.

"Has Hermione gone crazy from reading too much lately? This is the first time I've seen her like this," Ron said.

Harry shrugged.

library.

Hermione occupied a large table by herself, which was covered with thick books. In front of her was a parchment, and she was writing furiously.

There are less than ten hours until the library closes; I might have to stay up all night tonight.

"Come on, Hermione!" she cheered herself on.

So far, she has only managed to read twelve books, even with all her might. She has only skimmed through them and can only remember less than 50% of the content. This is very different from her usual habits, as she hasn't memorized any of them.

For the sake of her thesis, she had to reluctantly give up her reading habits. However, she has decided that after submitting the thesis, she will review the reading list again and memorize all the content.

She flipped through the pages of the book with a rustling sound, jotting down relevant arguments and evidence with a quill pen, completely absorbed in her work. She didn't even notice Mrs. Pince walking past her several times.

She stayed until closing time, finally finishing reading all 16 books. Carrying the remaining four books and a thick parchment, she yawned and staggered back to the common room.

She's prepared to work late into the night.

Pushing open the door to the lounge, I found that the other young wizards had already gone back, leaving only two people.

"Harry, Ron?" Hermione asked, somewhat surprised.

"Hey, we didn't see you at dinner, so we thought you probably didn't go. This is for you." Ron pointed to the table in front of him, where food wrapped in parchment was soaked through, leaving an oily stain.

Hermione covered her mouth, trying hard not to cry.

Harry laughed and said, "We can't help with the paper, that's all we can do. Good luck, Hermione, you're the smartest person I've ever known."

Hermione nodded emphatically.

The two left, and Hermione opened the parchment to find two pies inside, which she ate with gusto.

She was alone in the quiet lounge.

The next day, Monday, Hermione was in a daze all day, and while practicing Transfiguration, she almost mistook Harry for her Transfiguration subject.

At noon, she had to go to the infirmary.

She had no classes during the second period in the afternoon, so she planned to finish reading the last two books. She had stayed up all night and had already finished her thesis, but she felt that she had to finish reading the books, as it might add some new content to her thesis.

But she was too tired, and when Harry finished his Quidditch practice, he found Hermione asleep in the common room.

"Hermione, Hermione?"

"Harry?" Hermione opened her eyes sleepily, her hair even more voluminous and messy.

She quickly came to her senses and screamed, "What time is it, Harry? What time is it?"

"8:30, Hermione," Fred, who had also just finished training, replied. "I'll never forget that bastard Wood. On the first weekend of school, we trained until 8 o'clock. And starting the second week, he went even further."

Wood, standing to the side, looked exasperated. "I'm still here!"

Not only him, but all the Gryffindor team members were there, covered in mud and too exhausted to speak.

Hermione jumped up and hurriedly ran outside. After only a few steps, she turned back, quickly tidied up the parchment on the table, muttered something to herself, and after confirming that everything was in order, grabbed her satchel and quickly disappeared from everyone's sight.

"She's a really hardworking and studious girl," commented player Angelina.