Open Practicing Parseltongue

[Lysander Summers]

During the holidays, Kas had briefly taught Lysander how to say "hello" in parseltongue, much to his excitement, and ever since then, he was invested in trying to learn how to further communicate with snakes, despite how little results it had yielded so far. He didn't understand how the other boy just knew this magical language, and it still sounded like nonsense to him. He couldn't decipher any of the hisses the snakes in the Menagerie made. He'd sat near the vivariums for hours trying to "hear" the words in the sounds they made, but it was all the same hissing. Some of it longer, some of it shorter, but still, hissing. Since coming back to the school, he hadn't had any other opportunities to practice, and the longer he waited, the harder it was to recall the exact hiss that Kas had taught him. New Zealand was, for the most part, lacking in snakes, and while this was usually a good thing for the native wildlife, it made it more difficult for Lysander to try and practice his new words. But Lysander was a wizard, and quite conveniently, the only spell he knew that could conjure an animal happened to be one that conjured snakes. Perhaps it was fate. Maybe he, like Kas, was destined to be able to speak with serpents too. Something that would make him more special.

"Serpensortia!"

Sat by himself in the grass, away from most of the other students, Lysander raised his wand and gave it a dramatic flourish. The tip exploded, and for a moment seemed to extend far beyond its usual length, though rather than the grooves of wood, the dark coil was scaley, until it detached completely and wound itself upon the grass. Generic and brown, the snake watched him warily. He hadn't practiced the spell much. He'd never really needed to conjure a snake, and his imagination hadn't offered much to make it really look interesting. He got to his hands and knees and looked the creature in the eye. "Hsss." He greeted, in what he was sure meant "hello". The snake said nothing. "Hsss?" He hissed again, certain he wasn't pronouncing it wrong. The snake didn't greet him back, and seemed to turn its head away, inspecting the area around it. Wow. Sander thought, brows furrowing in annoyance. This was one rude as hell snake.​

 

[Kasim Safir]

Kas was rarely outside of the castle voluntarily, but today he'd been forced out onto the lawn in hopes of getting away from Connor and his guitar practice. What Connor lacked in talent and taste he certainly made up for in enthusiasm and Kas had only lasted about 15 minutes before he suddenly remembered he had a very important thing he needed to do right this minute that was about as far away from the dorms as he could get. Wandering around on the lawn seemed infinitely better than any more of that, and Kas figured he could just pass it off as a moody teen thing if anyone asked what he was doing.

The sound of hissing quickly caught his attention though and Kas frowned when he spotted Lysander unsurprisingly doing something weird nearby. Stepping closer though, Kas flinched when he spotted the brown snake laying in the grass, coming to a halting stop and frowning as he looked between the two. "What are you doing," He asked flatly. "Did you finally give up on making friends with people?"

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander was fixated on the anti-social snake, wondering if he should take a stab at some other random hisses without regard for offending it since it was basically ignoring him, when suddenly the serpent responded in Kasim’s voice. No - it was actually Kas standing nearby who had interrupted. Sander bit back a stupid grin at how normal it had seemed for the briefest of seconds that the snake and the Hufflepuff sounded exactly the same, as if anyone who spoke parseltongue sounded exactly like him. “Being friends with only people is dumb. I want to talk to snakes, like you.” He responded, a touch of envy to his words. Kas didn’t even like snakes, and it seemed unfair that he could talk to them when Sander couldn’t. He wanted to, even if they were bitter, as his friend had claimed. He didn’t know if Kas even liked many people, to be fair. There were bound to be some cool and interesting snakes. Just not this one. ”Why won’t it respond to me?” He asked, pointing an accusatory finger at the conjured serpent. He was glad that Kas was here, of all people. He’d be able to help him get through to the snake and teach him more, surely.​

 

[Kasim Safir]

Kas briefly debated the pros and cons of sitting down in the grass with Lysander. Pro: It's way less weird to talk to someone when you're both sitting down. Con: Lose height advantage. Closer to snake. So far the cons were winning, so he stayed put, crossing his arms, Kas surveyed both Lysander and the snake as Lysander talked, hoping it was clear how unimpressed her was. "Snakes make bad friends, I told you they've all got bad attitudes," He finally said with a sigh. It was almost flattering how cool Lysander thought parseltongue was if he wasn't such an idiot about it. There was a beat when Kas considered being honest with Lysander about non-parseltongues learning how to speak it, but where would the fun be in that. "Have you been putting the right accent on your S's?" He asked, glancing back over at the snake if only to check it hadn't been getting up to no good while they were talking.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander rolled his eyes. "They can't all have bad attitudes." He complained. "There has to be a snake that likes me. I've held snakes loads of times, and I think I'd know if they didn't." They hadn't been that active or affectionate, yet they'd never tried to bite or constrict him either, so that was a positive in his books. Maybe they just didn't like Kas. Except for this snake, who he was sure didn't like anyone. He blinked at the mention of accents for the first time. That was a pretty important detail to know, and he squinted at his friend. "What? Yes." He protested. He'd mimicked it just like he'd heard it, he thought. How was he supposed to put an accent on hissing? "Hsss." He continued, showing off how he'd been hissing all this time. He didn't know what kind of accent he could put on it. Did they have different accents in different countries? He was curious to know, though actually getting a snake to respond was his first priority.​

 

[Kasim Safir]

Kas tried not to make a face when Lysander mentioned holding loads of snakes. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, considering Kas was fairly sure Lysander basically lived in his family's shop, but it still irked him. He had wondered if he'd have as big an aversion to snakes if his house wasn't filled with them. And if those said snakes all hadn't been jerks while Kas was growing up. "Maybe they were just humouring you," Kas said simply, barely able to contain a snort when Lysander once again tried out his 'parseltongue'. "Okay, close," He said, shaking his head.

Sighing, Kas finally made the decision to join Lysander on the grass, rolling up his sleeves so he could rest his elbows on his knees in an appropriately aloof sort of way. Glancing sideways at Lysander, Kas fixed his gaze on the brown snake. "Listen, I promise not to throw you into the lake if you nod or something the next time he hisses at you," He said to the snake, pointedly ignoring Lysander's inevitable reaction to him speaking in parseltongue. The snake seemed put by the suggestion that Kas had been planning on flinging it into the lake prior to speaking to him, but otherwise appeared open to his offer after a quick glance at said lake. "Now you," Kas said, turning to Lysander and waving lazily at the snake.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander looked offended at the mere suggestion an animal was just humouring him. His dad was literally a dog sometimes. He liked to believe he had some supernatural affinity to them or something. Again, except this snake, who arguably wasn't even real. He wanted to think so. Torcelain seemed real, and she had been a teapot for most of her life, before he'd transfigured her into a tortoise. He watched as Kas sat down, looking so effortlessly cool in the process. Lysander adjusted the way he was sitting to seem as blasé, not having cared when he was alone with just the snake. His eyes widened as they did anytime he heard someone speak parseltongue, not out of fear or surprise, but because it was mesmerizing, bordering on hypnotic. He'd heard that snakes could hypnotise their prey, and though his father had told him that was complete bogus, it was easy to see why people thought they could. He'd only ever heard Kas speak it a couple of times, and it always impressed him every time.

Almost forgetting he was supposed to pay attention to this "accent", Lysander refocused his attention on the hissing coming out of Kas' mouth. He still didn't really "get" it, but when he turned his attention back to the snake, he copied it as best he could. "Hssss, hssss." He repeated. And the snake nodded. The snake nodded. His lips broke out into the widest grin possible, and he excitedly smacked at Kas's knee. "I got it! I can actually speak parseltongue! Was my accent good?" He asked. It must have been. He'd really spoken parseltongue! He couldn't understand it, but whatever, he'd learn. He could say hello, and they could understand. This was amazing!​

 

[Kasim Safir]

Kas tried to ignore the sensation of Lysander staring at him as he spoke to the snake, deciding to ignore the snake staring at him too while he was at it. It was a strange feeling, like switching into an accent he didn't even know he was capable of, and it always made Kas feel a bit extra self-conscious, waiting for people (or snakes, as it were), to react. At least Lysander was suitably impressed, and Kas sat back, waiting for Lysander to make his own attempt.

Kas had to wonder if the vague hissing noises Lysander made were what Kas actually sounded like, or if he should just jot that down to Lysander's artistic license. Judging by the look the snake gave him, it was likely the latter, which made Kas feel a bit better. "Bravo," Kas said, giving Lysander a slow clap. "I think you went a little lizard-y in the middle there, but our friend here is bilingual so they got you," He said, nodding towards the brown snake in the grass who still looked like it might be half waiting for Kas to go back on his word and fling it into the lake. "Relax, he's harmless," Kas assured the snake.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander rested back on his palms, feeling more than a little pleased with his accomplishment. That clap, as slow as it was, still felt great. All that mattered was knowing he could do it now. He was going to talk to so many snakes. "Lizard-y, yeah. I get that." Lysander agreed. He did not, actually, get it. He leaned his head back, turning it slightly toward his friend. "Thanks, Kas." He said. Kas could be...Kas, but he was still helping him, and he appreciated that. Parseltongue was this secret, mysterious language that only a few people seemed to be able to understand, and it was nice to know he liked him enough to share it. "Can you teach me more sometime? I wanna be able to say like, sentences and stuff." He asked. There was a lot he wanted to be able to say, and he made a note to start writing down phrases he thought would be useful, to hopefully have translated. His holidays would be a lot more interesting if he could learn to have chats with the Menagerie snakes.​