Category:Parselmouths

From UnknowableWiki

Parselmouths are wizards who possess the rare gift of being able to speak and understand Parseltongue, the language of snakes. Parselmouths are apparently born with complete and intuitive mastership. They sometimes do not even realise that a different language is being used, while those who do not have the gift hear only snakelike hissing (CS11). It is also possible to learn to understand Parseltongue (Albus Dumbledore can do this; HBP10, BLC). Whether the ability to speak it and thus become a full Parselmouth can also be acquired is unknown, but, as demonstrated by Ron Weasley, at least simple words can be uttered by non-gifted people (DH31).

Because a lot of Parselmouths have been Dark wizards, many go as far as considering Parseltongue itself a Dark Art and are highly prejudiced against anyone who can talk to snakes (GF31, CS11). Two historical examples that support this superstition are Herpo the Foul, the inventor of Horcruxes and creator of the first Basilisk, and Salazar Slytherin, who prized this rare gift above all others. Its possession is essential to unlock the Chamber of Secrets and to control the Basilisk held therein (CS16).

The Gaunts

The ability to speak Parseltongue appears to be commonplace among the descendants of Salazar Slytherin. Marvolo Gaunt and his children, Merope and Morfin, often use the language between themselves inside their house in Little Hangleton. For example, they use it to talk in private in front of Ministry employee Bob Ogden (HBP10).

When, years later, Merope's teenage son Tom Marvolo Riddle comes to the house, Morfin at first mistakes him for the Muggle Tom Riddle, Sr.. Gaunt acknowledges the teenager as an equal solely after Tom speaks to him in Parseltongue (HBP17).

Voldemort

Voldemort inherits his mother Merope's gift. He finds out that he can speak to snakes when he is a child, during one of the orphanage's country trips. He immediately realises that this is a special gift, and mentions it to Albus Dumbledore when the teacher comes to inform him of his acceptance at Hogwarts (HBP13). In his fifth year at the school, he learns how to open the Chamber of Secrets and releases Slytherin's Basilisk to hunt Muggle-born students. After the death of Myrtle, he stops the attacks, but he turns his diary into a Horcrux and instils in it the power to reopen the Chamber at a more convenient time (CS17, HBP18).

Only half aware of the diary's powers, Lucius Malfoy slips it to Ginny Weasley in 1992. She quickly becomes possessed by Voldemort's soul fragment. Under his possession, Ginny is able to speak Parseltongue, open the Chamber, and command the Basilisk (CS17, CS18).

Harry Potter

A piece of Voldemort's soul accidentally attaches itself to Harry Potter in his failed attempt to kill the boy. Therefore, some of Voldemort's traits and abilities are passed on to Harry, the most spectacular of which is the mastery of Parseltongue (DH35).

Harry Potter first uses this ability on his cousin Dudley's eleventh birthday; Harry talks to a Boa constrictor in the zoo. He notices that he and the snake can understand each other, but he is not aware of having used a different language. Neither does he know that such a discourse is extremely rare even among wizarding children (PS2, CS11). He only learns this when he uses Parseltongue to command a snake conjured by Draco Malfoy in the Duelling Club in 1992 (CS11). All his classmates are frightened, and most believe him to be the Heir of Slytherin.

Parseltongue enables Harry to understand the Basilisk's rumours as it slides around the school via its plumbing system (CS7). When he confronts Tom Marvolo Riddle in the Chamber of Secrets, Riddle says, "[There] are strange likenesses between us, Harry Potter. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself." (CS17).

Harry again fails to realise that he is spoken to in Parseltongue when Nagini, disguised as Bathilda Bagshot, addresses him in Godric's Hollow at Christmas 1997 (DH18).

After Voldemort's soul fragment is destroyed, Harry is no longer a Paselmouth (BLC).