Snake

A **snake** (also called a **serpent**) is a long, thin, legless, carnivorous reptile. The snake was the main animal for the Slytherin House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

## Snakes in the wizarding world

The snake was the official symbol of Slytherin House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, relating due to the fact that the founder of Slytherin House, Salazar Slytherin, was himself a Parselmouth, a wizard with the rare hereditary ability to communicate with snakes.

Many magical species of snake existed in the wizarding world. The Ashwinder was a magical fire-dwelling snake that was born out of the flames of any magical fire that was left to burn unchecked. They only lived for an hour and laid their eggs before collapsing into dust. The Runespoor was a three-headed snake native to Africa, with each head possessing its own evaluative function and venomous fangs, which were known to be long-lived, and their eggs were used in Potion-making.

The Horned Serpent was a giant water-dwelling snake, that many species were found worldwide. They had horns on their heads, in particular the North American variety, with jewels that granted the powers of invisibility and flight, and shavings of their horns could be used as wand cores. They were intelligent creatures with fierce eyes, who emitted a low musical note whenever they sensed danger. The Horned Serpent was the House mascot and symbol of the House of the same name at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as one of its founders, Isolt Sayre, had a close relationship with a Horned Serpent whilst exploring the United States of America.

The Sea Serpent was an aquatic beast found in several seas worldwide, including the Atlantic, Pacific and the Mediterranean. It reached over a hundred feet long with a horse-like head and serpentine body; it was seen as a fearsome creature by many, although they did not harm humans, apart from the flesh-eating Selma.

The most feared of these snakes however was the Basilisk, a monstrous gigantic serpent known as the "King of Serpents", and the mortal enemy of spiders. It was an incredibly powerful beast of dark magic, whose stare was capable of causing death upon any living being who came into direct visual contact with, or petrification through indirect visual contact. It was illegally bred by Dark wizards, through the hatching of Chicken eggs beneath toads.

Apart from the Basilisk, snakes on the whole were often associated with the Dark Arts, a sentiment which was both true and untrue. Many Dark wizards, such as Herpo the Foul, Salazar Slytherin and Tom Riddle, were all Parselmouths, wizards with the ability to communicate with snakes. Riddle himself, better known as Lord Voldemort, also owned a female pet snake called Nagini, who also served as one of his Horcruxes, as well as having his symbol the Dark Mark, as the ghoulish image of a terrifying snake coming out of the mouth of a skull.

The Snake Summons Spell (*Serpensortia*) was a transfiguration spell which was used to conjure snakes out of thin air. Its counter-spell was the Snake-Vanishing Spell (*Vipera Evanesca*), which was used to vanish the conjured snake in a puff of thick black smoke.

The skin of the Boomslang, a highly venomous green snake, was one of the ingredients used in the brewing of Polyjuice Potion. Snake fangs were also a common potion ingredient, such as in the Cure for Boils, Wideye Potion and the Strength Potion. An unidentified orange snake was used as one of the ingredients in the Ageing Potion.

Snakes were easier to conjure from nothing than any other animal, apart from birds.

Furthermore, the curse Fiendfyre was capable of conjuring cursed and immensely destructive and dangerous flames of enormous size which could manifest in the shapes of fiery serpents, along with other beasts such as dragons and Chimaeras.

## History

During Gellert Grindelwald's notorious escape from MACUSA after six months of imprisonment, he transfigured the reins of the carriage carrying him into two Ashwinders that attacked one of the two Aurors steering the carriage towards Europe.

Around the 1920s, members of the pure-blood House of Gaunt were known parselmouths. Morfin Gaunt nailed a dead snake to the door of the Gaunt Shack, and kept a second snake as well.

In 1927, the magical Circus Arcanus had Nagini, a Maledictus cursed to transform into a snake, as one of their main and most coveted attractions.

During the 1988–1989 school year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the then Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor Patricia Rakepick, taught her fifth-year DADA students how to perform the Snake-Vanishing Spell, mostly to help them deal with and defend themselves against dangerous and venomous species of snakes.

On 23 June 1991, during a trip to a zoo in Surrey, Harry Potter accidentally set loose a male boa constrictor on his cousin Dudley Dursley when using Parseltongue to speak to it and accidentally vanishing the glass with magic.

In 1992, during the first (and last) meeting of the Hogwarts Duelling Club led by Gilderoy Lockhart and Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy used the Snake Summons Spell to conjure a snake out of thin air whilst duelling Harry Potter. After Lockhart foolishly provoked it, the snake became aggressive and turned on the other students watching, forcing Harry Potter to speak to the snake in Parseltongue unwillingly, much to the shock of everyone watching and himself, which was the first time he became aware of his rare and strange ability. The snake was subsequently vanished by Snape with Snake-Vanishing Spell in a puff of black smoke.

During the 1992–1993 school year, the Chamber of Secrets was reopened, unleashing the Serpent of Slytherin, the Basilisk which previously belonged to Salazar Slytherin, upon the Muggle-born students of Hogwarts, which resulted in many Hogwarts residents being petrified. After the petrification of Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley (along unwillingly with Gilderoy Lockhart) into the Chamber of Secrets to stop the attacks. After Ron and Lockhart got separated, Harry ventured into the Chamber, where he met the disembodied soul of Tom Riddle, who revealed himself as Lord Voldemort and commanded the Basilisk to kill Harry. Harry managed to slay the evil beast using the Sword of Gryffindor and then used the Basilisk's fang imbued with its venom to destroy Tom Riddle's diary, one of his Horcruxes.

The notorious Dark wizard Tom Riddle, better known as Lord Voldemort, had Nagini, the Maledictus from the carnival, as a pet and one of his most faithful servants, also serving as a Horcrux. Riddle acquired Nagini at an unknown point, although she played a huge and pivotal role in his return to power and his mission throughout the Second Wizarding War. In 1994, she was present during Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew's meeting in the Riddle House, and on the 24 June 1995, the day Voldemort returned in the Little Hangleton graveyard, Nagini was slithering around the graveyard, and was offered the chance of eating Harry Potter's flesh by her master once he had killed him, although Harry escaped.

In December 1995, Nagini attacked and severely wounded the British Ministry of Magic employee Arthur Weasley whilst he patrolling the Department of Mysteries on the night-shift. In the spectacular duel in the Ministry Atrium at the climax of the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Voldemort turned to a snake the fiery rope that Dumbledore had attacked Voldemort with, serving as both an attack against the Headmaster as well as a distraction so that he could Disapparate and Apparate behind the Headmaster and attack him with the Killing Curse.

In late July 1997, Nagini was present with her master and his Death Eaters at the Meeting at Malfoy Manor, where she devoured the corpse of Charity Burbage after Voldemort had murdered her there.

In December of that year, she also attacked Harry Potter and Hermione Granger at Godric's Hollow, after she possessed the corpse of Bathilda Bagshot after having killed her along with her master. During the Battle of Hogwarts on 2 May 1998, she killed Severus Snape on her masters orders, but was later slain that battle, by Neville Longbottom with the Sword of Gryffindor.

During the Calamity which affected the wizarding world in the 2010s, several large red snake Confoundables appeared guarding baby Unicorn Foundables. Volunteer members of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force had to repel these monstrous serpents using the Bombardment Spell, which would stun the snake and allow the baby Unicorn Foundables to return to their rightful place in the wizarding world.

## Language

Snakes all over the world spoke a language called Parseltongue (with apparent regional variations, as a Brazilian snake once used a term rendered in English as "*amigo*"). To those who did not speak it, Parseltongue mostly sounded like barely-audible hissing, easily dismissed as ambient noise by one who was unaware of a snake's presence.

It was possible, though arduous, for humans (and, presumably, other Beings) to learn this language; noted wizarding genius and scholar Professor Albus Dumbledore learned to understand it, but never managed to speak it, while a young Ron Weasley managed to speak a few words but never made an effort to expand his vocabulary.

A small percentage of wizards possessed an innate knowledge of this eldritch tongue, and were called Parselmouths; this ability was long associated with Dark wizards in the wizarding world's eye, as three of the most notorious Dark wizards of all times, Lord Voldemort, Salazar Slytherin and Herpo the Foul, were Parselmouths. Other Parselmouths included Corvinus Gaunt, Marvolo Gaunt, Morfin Gaunt, Merope Gaunt, Delphini, and due to soul contamination from Voldemort's Horcruxes, Harry Potter.