Post by NAOMI JOHNSON on Oct 30, 2020 14:38:30 GMT -5
December 20, 2016
7 KNUTS
THE FIRST KNOWN PARSELMOUTH SINCE YOU-KNOW-WHO!
Written by Archie RichardTalking to snakes isn't just a quirk of the late Dark Lord, dear readers. It has spread from the medieval corridors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry to the alert ears of the Quibbler office that Angus Baird, 12, is the latest in the modicum of magic users in wizarding history known to be able to communicate with those slithering reptiles.
The Baird family, one of the few pure-blooded families that remain, are known for their centuries-long weapon manufacturing industry. Angus Baird is a second-year Ravenclaw currently attending Hogwarts who, according to several of his peers and family members, has been neither vocal nor secretive about this extremely rare skill. Following being given the consent of his parents in late June before the start of his second term, little Angus has been cleared for a one-on-one interview with yours truly that I may delve into the psyche of our little snake charmer.
Is this boy in the making to be the next Herpo the Foul? Follow in the insidious footsteps of the Gaunts?
Or is he a potential example that not all wizards who bear the Parseltongue are as venomous as the creatures loyal to their will?
Read on to find out these answers:
AR: Little Angus! Thank you for agreeing to sit down with me! How are you?
AB: Fine...a tad nervous...
AR: No need to be, we're all friends here! Anyone who agrees to one of my interviews is on the highest pedestal while in my company! We may be different in age, but we have a quaint connection, Ravenclaw-to-Ravenclaw!
AB: Oh...okay.
AR: Let's start with the basics: How old were you when you first realized you had this gift?
AB: I think I was about six. My parents and I were on a family vacation in Dahshur. There had been a sandstorm a little while back before we arrived there and a rattlesnake had been separated from its snake charmer. My parents and I were walking through a bazaar when the snake slithered near my mother's foot. She freaked out, but I heard the snake say that he was simply looking for his owner. I thought that we were both speaking English as we communicated, but my parents told me that I had been hissing in a different language.
AR: My, what a flummoxed experience that must have been!
AB: It was...
AR: So what was the subsequent happening in learning that you were a Parselmouth?
AB: I was taken to the Ministry and documented a registered Parselmouth.
AR: How did your parents consume all of this?
AB: They were surprised, but they still loved me. I wasn't around any snakes until I met Bastion.
AR: Bastion?
AB: My Basilisk.
AR: A BASILISK? An ACTUAL BASILISK? Merlin's beard! Through what astonishing sequence of events was a child your age able to come in contact with a lethal creature?
AB: They're only as lethal as their environment makes them. Bastion came into my life when he escaped from a breeder who illegally crafted and sold magical creatures all with danger levels of 5X's. I saved him after he gnawed through the breeder's briefcase in Diagon Alley. I raised him and my parents had a habitat built for him behind our home.
AR: Mercy! You must have made a good impression upon the Ministry if they let you keep a creature with a killing gaze.
AB: Actually, Bastion was born blind. That's reason the breeder wanted to get rid of him. He considered Bastion “damaged merchandise” that needed to be thoroughly disposed of.
AR: A blind Basilisk? Those are quite unheard of. But I'm certain Bastion would still be a formidable foe for anyone who would challenge him, even without the sight. I read about Basilisks while at Hogwarts, how their armored skin can deflect spells, and their teeth produce highly potent venom.
AB: That can kill a person in a duration of a little over a minute, yes. The only known antidote to the venom are Phoenix tears, which are very rare, increasing the venom's deadliness.
AR: My, so knowledgeable about such a deadly creature at such a young age.
AB: Snakes of all kinds have become my fascination since Bastion came into my life. Speaking to them alone wasn't quite the stepping stone that unlocked my desire to study them; if a Basilisk is the “King of Serpents” where was the harm in researching its subjects?
AR: Well! Someone with such a love of serpents should belong to Slytherin rather than Ravenclaw, wouldn't you say?
AB: I have great admiration for Slytherin House, but I wouldn't say that being into snakes would automatically make one Slytherin material. I could see myself in no House other than Ravenclaw, as my longing to understand snakes biologically and psychologically extends more into field of learning than ambition.
AR: So well-spoken. What would you want anyone who will read this interview to know?
AB: That my being a Parselmouth is not an omen of evil – in the same sense that Slytherin House isn't the House of You-Know-Who.
AR: You're young now, but if you had to choose a career for yourself for when you're all grown up, what would it be?
AB: I want to work in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures at the Ministry and be able to give meticulous evaluations on how dangerous a creature can be before the Department as a whole decides to exterminate them so brazenly.
AR: Well you have me, my readers, and all of the Quibbler rooting for you, Angus. Thanks for sitting down with us, Mister Baird.
AB: You're very welcome.
written by desmond / template by eliza exclusively for TB
