Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

The magma churned and boiled, its blistering heat scorching everything around it, illuminating it with a fiery red.

Evan studied the carvings on the vault door carefully. Slytherin’s locket and wand bore the same patterns.

These weren’t simple patterns, nor were they magical runes. They were words written in Parseltongue!

Parseltongue, as the name suggested, meant speaking in the language of snakes, communicating with them. It was a rare gift, possessed only by a select few. To ordinary ears, it sounded like a series of hissing breaths, but to those born with the talent, it was as natural and clear as their own language.

The most famous Parseltongue in magical history was Salazar Slytherin, the first wizard to be definitively confirmed to have spoken Parseltongue.

Before him, there had been many wizards in legends and tales said to be able to speak with snakes, but none of those stories were ever confirmed. There was never enough evidence to prove that they could truly use Parseltongue. Most likely, their supposed ability to communicate with snakes came from using magic similar to the Imperius Curse to control them — or from spells that allowed them to read the creatures’ thoughts.

Because of this, many wizards believed that Parseltongue originated with Salazar Slytherin.

And indeed, almost every Parselmouth confirmed after him turned out to be his descendant.

All of them shared some degree of blood relation to him, so it would not be an exaggeration to say that Parseltongue was a unique Slytherin gift.

Therefore, it was no surprise to see Parseltongue inscriptions on the door to the Slytherin family vault.

However, as far as Evan knew, Parseltongue had not actually originated with Salazar Slytherin, nor was it just a means of speaking to snakes, as most believed.

It was, in fact, a magical language — one as old and mysterious as the ancient runes of the early Wizarding world.

Not long ago, when Evan, Dumbledore, and Harry had gone to Azkaban to destroy the evil god’s brain, he had seen Parseltongue magic used firsthand. In The Book of Abraham, he had found markings identical to those now carved upon the vault door — letters written in Parseltongue.

Those words had ultimately formed a spell, a magic that controlled the twin serpents of the caduceus.

Spells cast with the Caduceus required Parseltongue. Only spells spoken in Parseltongue could be understood by the two serpents coiled upon it. The Caduceus had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, but he had not forged it himself. It was far older, its origins reaching back to a previous magical era.

From this, Evan had deduced that Parseltongue was a language of ancient magic, one that dated from the age of the earliest sorcerers.

Like other forms of ancient magical script, only even older — it dated back to the same era as The Book of Abraham and the Twin Serpent Staff.

Even after so many centuries, though no one could now read it, the language still carried magic within it, passed down through the power of blood. The Slytherin family possessed that bloodline; they were descendants of an ancient sorcerer who had once used Parseltongue to command the Twin Serpent Staff.

In fact, nearly every prominent pure-blood Wizarding family could trace its lineage back to a powerful ancient sorcerer.

It was precisely because of the power of his bloodline magic that Salazar Slytherin was able to command the Twin Serpent Staff with Parseltongue, easily defeating Herpo the Foul at such a young age. This renowned Dark wizard, the last of the ancient sorcerers, had had his power exponentially increased after his transformation into an evil god. No ordinary wizard could ever have stood against him. Only those who had mastered the deep, ancient secrets of magic could hope to prevail.

In that sense, Slytherin’s insistence on preserving the purity of bloodlines could be understood, as only those of unbroken descent could inherit the magic within their blood.

And only wizards who inherited bloodline magic could wield that powerful magic, conquering evil when necessary, or even becoming evil themselves.

Regardless, Salazar Slytherin had believed that preserving the power of bloodline magic was far better than letting that power fade from the world.

Evan lacked such ancient and illustrious ancestors, nor did he possess the gift of bloodline.

He couldn’t speak Parseltongue, let alone understand the text written in Parseltongue.

Harry, however, could, thanks to the fragment of Voldemort’s soul within him, use Parseltongue and understand the text.

Now, this kind of text appeared on the vault door before them. Did it require Parseltongue to open?

“No, the goblin can’t open this door. We don’t have the key.”

“We do!” said Evan quickly, pulling out Slytherin’s locket and showing it to Hermione, Harry, and Elaine. “The shape of the locket matches the groove in the door. I think it should fit in there. Also, do you see these patterns?”

“Exactly the same as the patterns on the door!” said Hermione after careful observation.

“Exactly! The locket and the vault door were meant to be one,” Evan said excitedly, licking his dry lips. “And that’s not all. If I’m right, these carvings are actually an ancient magical script, a language composed of Parseltongue.”

“You mean these markings are Parseltongue?” Harry asked, staring at Evan in astonishment. He turned quickly to face the vault door.

He stared at the patterns for a few seconds, trying to picture the twisting lines as serpents slithering across the surface.

Soon, Harry found that the once meaningless jumble of patterns before him had transformed into a text he could understand. He didn’t know what the words meant exactly, but he knew them. It was the same feeling he’d had when reading the spell written in Parseltongue in The Book of Abraham.

“Harry, can you decipher what it says?” Hermione asked.

“I can,” said Harry. The words on the door now felt familiar to him.

“Elaine, take out Slytherin’s wand. Together with the locket, they’re the key to opening this door,” said Evan, placing the locket into the groove in the door. The locket fit perfectly, reconnecting the broken words.

“Harry, read the words in Parseltongue. That’s the spell to open the vault.”

Elaine also took out the white wand. Since resolving the family’s troubles, Caresius had given it to her for safekeeping.

Although she always carried it with her, Elaine didn’t usually use it, preferring her own.

She placed the wand in the groove below and rolled it downwards.

There was a crisp click, and the wand was completely embedded in.

This seemed to be a switch that was turned on. The moment the wand was placed in the groove, a dark golden light lit up from the center of Slytherin’s locket and quickly spread to both sides along the lines. Soon, the entire vault door was filled with a faint golden light.

Harry began chanting the incantation engraved on the vault door in Parseltongue. As the eerie hissing filled the air, the whole space started to tremble once more.

The dragon, which had just calmed down, suddenly grew restless again and took to the air in a frenzy. All around it, the molten lava surged and churned, like a volcano on the verge of eruption, bubbling and seething as if ready to explode at any moment. …