After that, unsure what to do with himself, Harry took off for the Gryffindor common room.
He was well aware of Ron and Hermione, several feet behind him, but he didn't stop until the three of them were safely on the other side of the portrait.
"Blimey Harry! I've never seen you move so fast," Ron panted, stooping forward with his hands to his knees in an attempt to regain his breath.
Harry said nothing, throwing himself in an arm chair by the fireplace and taking several deep breaths of his own.
"Harry…" Hermione began.
"Did you see the way he just walked out of there?" he fumed, though he wasn't talking to anybody in particular.
"If you're talking about Professor Snape…" she began.
"He ignored me! Why did he do that?" he demanded.
"Well, I'm guessing you didn't tell him you were a parselmouth either, so he was probably in a bit of shock mate," Ron pointed out, having recovered now and coming to join him by the fire.
"A what?" Harry frowned.
"You can talk to snakes," Hermione elaborated, sitting on the arm of his chair.
"I know. I accidentally set a python on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once," Harry began, and seeing the look on Ron's face, hastily added: "Once! But so what? I bet loads of people here can do it."
"No. They can't. It's not a very common gift Harry. What were you saying to it anyway?" she asked.
"You were there, you heard me. I was telling it to leave that boy alone," he began, confused.
"His name is Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hufflepuff," Hermione said helpfully, though it wasn't very helpful at all.
"We heard you speaking parseltongue. Snake language," Ron explained.
"I was speaking a different language? How could I have done that and not realised?" Harry frowned.
"I don't know. But it sounded like you were egging the snake on or something," Hermione told him.
"Well I wasn't!" Harry cried, exasperated.
"We know that mate. It's just…" Ron began.
"It's just what? Why would anybody think I was egging it on?!"
"Harry, there's a reason the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent. Salazar Syltherin was a parselmouth – he talked to snakes too," Hermione explained.