Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. Before we start this video, I just
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In this video, we’re going to be discussing Harry Potter, and a certain ability that he
possesses throughout the books and films. Now, if you will allow me to massively overstate
something - it’s the fact that Voldemort and Harry shared a connection. It was a connection
that they shared for most of Harry’s life, in fact, it was a connection that lasted from
the year 1981, all the way to the end of the second wizarding war, when Voldemort was finally
defeated. The events of the night of October 31st 1981 were tragic- it was during the first
wizarding war and Voldemort was arguably at his strongest. All of his dark endeavours
had gone rather successfully for him, and he had amassed quite the legion of followers.
It was on this fateful night that Voldemort stumbled in to the Potter’s humble home
in Godric’s Hollow- seeking out the Potters in an attempt to stop Sybil Trelawney’s
‘prophecy’ from coming true. He travelled there with one goal in mind: kill the boy,
kill Harry Potter. When he entered the Potter residence, his first obstacle was James Potter,
who Voldemort made quick work of. Next, he began making his way towards Lily and baby
Harry. However, what I’m sure Voldemort didn’t expect that night, was that he would
be defeated.
Voldemort asked Lily to step aside, offering to spare her life if she would allow him to
have Harry. Unsurprisingly, she refused Voldemort’s ofer, and was subsequently murdered by his
killing curse. Next, Voldemort advanced towards Harry, letting out one final avada kedavra
for the night with the hopes of putting an end to the boy. However, what Voldemort didn’t
know, was that Lily had placed a loving sacrifice on Harry- an ancient and powerful form of
magical protection. When Voldemort used avada kedavra, it instantly rebounded and was deflected
back at him. The rebounding curse effectively split Voldemort’s soul, but because his
body was gone, destroyed by the curse, the soul fragment could not be encased to complete
the horcrux creation. Part of horcrux creation involves an encasing spell which actually
puts the soul outside of the body in to a physical object. Because Voldemort’s soul
was left without any attachment, it latched itself to Harry. For this reason, Harry contained
Voldemort’s soul fragment, but was never possessed by it. If we look at Voldemort’s
horcruxes, we know that they are often characteristically similar to Voldemort, because they contain
parts of his soul. They are evil objects that you generally want to stay away from, however,
Harry was sort of an exception. He wasn’t a traditional Horcrux, and didn’t get all
of the characteristics of a horcrux- but he certainly got some. One of the most notable
abilities that Harry got after Voldemort’s murder attempt, was the ability to speak parseltongue-
he became a parselmouth.
If you didn’t know already, a parselmouth is one who is able to speak parseltongue - the
language of Snakes. It’s a hereditary trait that is passed on through descendants of Salazar
Slytherin, which Voldemort happened to be. It’s widely accepted that Salazar was the
original Parselmouth, but others have speculated that it may in fact have been Herpo the Foul,
the original horcrux creator, who lived before Salazar Slytherin’s era. Either way, descendants
of Salazar himself carried this trait, which is probably why the connection is so strong
between Slytherin house and snakes. It’s their house emblem after all.
Harry first discovers that he’s able to speak to snakes in the zoo in the Philosopher’s
Stone. At that point in time he was entirely ignorant to magic in its entirety, and so
everything that was happening to him was shocking enough. However, it is only later on that
Harry actually discovers that being a parselmouth is quite a unique trait. You see, when he
speaks parseltongue, and speaks to snakes, to an outside observer he is speaking the
language of snakes. But to Harry, all he hears is himself speaking normally. When he finally
finds out that it’s a unique ability, he’s quite surprised.
From the Chamber of Secrets:
‘So?’ said Harry. ‘I bet loads of people here can do it.’
‘Oh no they can’t,’ said Ron. ‘It’s not a very common gift. Harry, this is bad.’
And while the ability to speak to snakes, being a parseltongue, isn’t innately bad,
there’s definitely a certain amount of stigma surrounding it. Salazar Slytherin, the man
most commonly associated with parseltongue, was a strong proponent of having only-pure
blood students at Hogwarts. This philosophy was not particularly welcomed by Hogwarts,
which led to his eventual ousting. However, it also led to Salazar’s creation of the
Chamber of Secrets, a secret chamber in the school housing a basilisk intended to purge
the school of muggle-borns and half-bloods.
“Harry wasn't sure what made him do it. He wasn't even aware of deciding to do it.
All he knew was that his legs were carrying him forward so he was on the castors and that
he had shouted stupidly at the snake, 'Leave him!' And miraculously - inexplicably - the
snake slumped to the floor, docile as a thick black garden hose, its eyes now on Harry.
Harry felt the fear drain out of him. He knew the snake wouldn't attack anyone now, though
how he knew it, he couldn't have explained.”
When it was discovered that Harry could speak Parseltongue, he was immediately judged by
the student body, and it was the general consensus among students that Harry was responsible
for opening the chamber in that same year. When Rita Skeeter found out about Harry’s
ability, she told the whole world, which didn’t help the public opinion of Harry. Even Ron,
Harry’s best friend, found it to be ‘creepy’.
And it turns out that Parseltongue, though most commonly a hereditary trait, can actually
be learned as well. In an interview, Rowling revealed that Albus Dumbledore had been able
to master Parseltongue over the course of his life, and could understand it well- he
was just unable to speak it aloud. Why Albus learned it in the first place is unclear,
but he was a man of many talents who really didn’t set limitations on himself, so I’m
really not too surprised.
Anyway, back to Harry. He could speak Parseltongue for most of his life, and he was tied to Voldemort
for a very long time because Voldemort’s soul fragment lived inside of him. This same
soul fragment was responsible for Harry’s ability to speak Parseltongue- so, when Voldemort
died, and the soul fragment inside of Harry was gone, did it result in Harry losing his
ability to speak to snakes?
On Pottermore, this is addressed:
“Harry being an accidental Horcrux meant he was bound to Voldemort in so many ways,
just like Voldemort was bound to serpents. Not only could Harry speak the language of
the snake, but could see through the eyes of Nagini, another of Voldemort’s Horcruxes,
as it turned out. Once the part of Voldemort’s soul that dwelled inside Harry was destroyed,
however, Harry discovered he was no longer a Parselmouth; an added bonus of Voldemort’s
demise.”
However, just because Harry was no longer a parselmouth, it doesn’t mean that he didn’t
have any retained knowledge of parseltongue. A parselmouth generally refers to someone
who can SPEAK the language, where ‘parseltongue’ is the language itself. Dumbledore, for example,
knew the language, but couldn’t speak it. What this tells me, is that even though Harry
lost the ability to SPEAK parseltongue, he probably still had a pretty good understanding
of it, and I expect that he could probably still understand what snakes were saying to
him, even if he couldn’t talk back. There’s no reason that Harry would suddenly forget
some of the words that he uttered in Parseltongue, like “Open” which he used on many occasions.
So, Harry can no longer speak it, fair enough- looks like this is addressed. But, can he
still understand it? In my opinion, most likely.
What do you guys think? Do you think that Harry lost it altogether? Or are you with
me in thinking that he can still understand it, but just can’t speak it.
Let me know down in the comment section below
UNTIL NEXT TIME
YER A WIZARD ARRY