Heir of Slytherin

Tom Riddle, an Heir of Slytherin

The Heir of Slytherin is a descendant of Salazar Slytherin in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. They speak Parseltongue with which they open the Chamber of Secrets and control the Serpent of Slytherin. There are several Heirs throughout the centuries after Slytherin left the school. However, none unleashed the serpent until Tom Riddle did in the twentieth century.

History

Early years

In the tenth century, having failed to persuade the co-founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry not to accept Muggle-borns, Salazar Slytherin created the Chamber of Secrets and abandoned the school. He left within it the Serpent of Slytherin in the hope an Heir would eventually open it and purge the school of Muggle-born students.

The serpent could only be controlled by Slytherin and his heirs. However, the Chamber itself could be opened by anyone with the ability to speak Parseltongue. Knowledge of the Chamber's existence was passed through each generation and several descendants opened the Chamber in that time but it was a thousand years until an Heir let the Serpent of Slytherin loose in the school.

1942-1943 school year

In the 1942 to 1943 school year, Tom Riddle, an Heir of Slytherin, opened the Chamber of Secrets in order to complete Slytherin's "noble work". Riddle was a descendent of Slytherin through the Gaunt family. However, a student Myrtle Warren was killed when she heard Tom speaking to the Basilisk near the entrance of the Chamber and looked into its eyes. With the decision to close down Hogwarts, Tom knew he would have to go back to a Muggle orphanage where he was raised. He decided to close the Chamber of Secrets, framing Rubeus Hagrid and Aragog for what happened.

Before he graduated, Tom enchanted a diary into a Horcrux. It was capable of possessing anyone who wrote in it. It siphoned the life force of the writer to gain a physical body of its own.

1992 - 1993 school year

In the 1992-1993 school year, Tom Riddle's Diary possessed Ginevra Weasley and she opened the Chamber for the second time. She wrote a warning in paint on the wall of a corridor: "THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE". When he spoke Parseltongue, a lot of students at Hogwarts thought Harry Potter was the Heir of Slytherin. He suspected it was Draco Malfoy until he discovered it couldn't be, and the Diary told Harry it was Hagrid, which Aragog denied. In June, Harry found the Chamber of Secrets and destroyed both the Basilisk and Diary.