Parseltongue was created for J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books as the language of snakes, inherited by Salazar Slytherin and passed to descendants including Lord Voldemort. In the films it became famous through Harry, who discovers he can speak and understand it, most memorably when he talks to the snake at the zoo and later in the Chamber of Secrets. Online, fans clip the hissing speech for edits, roleplay and memes, using it as shorthand for Slytherin identity, dark magic and secret conversations nobody else can understand.