Ron swallowed the sandwich down his throat, without a drink, he ate the sandwich dry, choking Ron just enough. After rolling his eyes, he said to Harry, "We've been doing a lot of research today and, as you can see, wizards tend to have a lot of strange abilities; they usually disappear when they reach adulthood, but there are always rare exceptions. It may help if you remember if you had any special powers as a child. I'd say it's a lot more useful than browsing through a library book aimlessly."
Harry sighed, he didn't like the feeling of being from another class. But it seemed to him that Ron's words made all the sense in the world, and he frowned for a moment as an incident came to mind.
It was his cousin Dudley's birthday, before he had received his acceptance letter to Hogwarts. On his birthday, Dudley had gone to the zoo with his classmates, and they had also taken Harry, not because the Dursleys wanted to take him along for the ride, but because Mrs. Figg had had to run out of time to watch the children for the Dursleys.
Uncle Vernon struggled for a while and finally made a choice between letting Harry stay home or taking him out.
At the zoo, Harry discovered that he could actually understand the words spoken by the boa constrictor, and he could also make the glass disappear! He had thought this was a matter of public and private knowledge, but Uncle Vernon found out and was punished very severely.
Originally, he had completely forgotten about this incident, because people always unconsciously forget such unhappy memories, which is also a measure of human memory protection, but when Ron mentioned this, Harry remembered it again.
"What? You can understand the language of pythons!".
To Harry's surprise, Ron dropped his sandwich in shock at the news.
"Isn't that normal? You said wizards have all sorts of little magical powers, like how a Neville could use magic to make a blanket wrap tighter soon after birth, and Tom could make a wilted flower bloom..." Harry gave a few examples to make his words more convincing.
"Parseltongue is different," Ron said very seriously.
"Parseltongue... I'm sorry, what?"
"Parseltongue, mate, accent," Ron said in one word, and looked around to make sure there were no other creatures listening to their conversation except the sparrow, "Harry, don't tell anyone you can understand snakes. You and I know each other well enough to tell each other, but thank goodness you told me ahead of time-"
"Why?" Harry thought it was ridiculous, how was he an anomaly? Was it a sin to be able to understand Parseltongue?
In the British magical world, it was indeed an original sin to know Parseltongue. Because it had become the hallmark of dark wizards. Ron didn't think any decent wizard spoke Parseltongue. This was mainly because it was a very rare ability, and usually hereditary. Almost all Parseltongue speakers were descended from Salazar Slytherin, and all of these descendants were basically fervent pureblood followers. As we all know, the gap between purebloods and dark wizards is thinner than parchment, and in this context, Parseltongue speakers are completely stigmatized.
Parseltongue in the British magical world is similar to the raised arm salute and brushed mustache in the Muggle world. The raised arm salute originated in Rome, and the brushed mustache was a popular style in Germany in 1930. As a result, due to a failed art student, this gesture became extremely popular. A synonym for right-wing forces, no German will maintain this look ever again.
Harry's claim to be able to speak Parseltongue in front of the rest of the class had the same effect as wearing a beard and raising his arms to passersby on the streets of Germany.
Ron told Harry what had happened and Harry gasped.
"This, this is impossible, I..." said Harry, unable to accept reality.
Ron patted him on the shoulder, "I'm not surprised, the ability is hereditary, the Potters are a very old pureblood family, they must be related to the Slytherins in some way or another, maybe the gift comes from one of your ancestors."
Ron's words were not purely reassuring, they were true. Purebloods only married other purebloods to maintain their pureblood line, at least those who remained in the family tree. Over the centuries, families have interbred with others in one way or another.
Even family enemies were not exempt. Ron Weasley could have been related to Draco Malfoy if he had wanted to, and if he had looked deeper, he could have been related to him in a very distant way.
Even with that in mind, Harry was still very disappointed.
"Huh? Why are you two together?" Ron's voice caught Harry's attention.
At that moment, Harry and Ron were standing at the window of the Gryffindor tower, from which they had a clear view of the entire lawn outside the school. They both watched in amazement as Lockhart and Professor Dumbledore crossed the lawn together and entered the castle, looking like something big was happening as the two walked hurriedly.
Although Professor Lockhart had won over the young wizards with his genius lessons over the past few weeks, somehow Harry and Ron had always felt a slight distrust of Lockhart. It was a feeling, rooted in the heart, that was as instinctive as breathing.
Were Professor Lockhart's classes interesting? Yes. Did he like it? Yes, he does. And do you like Professor Lockhart? Not really, no.
It was a very complicated and strange feeling, and even Harry couldn't understand why.
"It's very strange, what could they possibly be doing together? going to the candy store to buy candy?"
Ron felt that when Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Lockhart got together, it definitely wasn't to buy candy, but something important happened.
"Come on, let's go see!" He and Harry ran back to their dormitory and pulled out the invisibility cloak, a Christmas present Harry had received in his first year and had never found out who had given him something so precious.
Along with Ron, he donned the cloak, concealing their bodies.
"To Professor Dumbledore's office! If there's anything important, you'll both go to the Headmaster's office first." At that moment Harry's mind raced, making a deduction.
They made their way to the outside of Dumbledore's office and huddled in a corner to wait in silence. Soon, Lockhart and Professor Dumbledore appeared in their sight. Dumbledore gave the command and the stone gargoyle slowly opened a passage for the two to pass through, while Harry and Ron followed Lockhart into the passage behind the stone statue.