Being a Parselmouth is known for coming from the dark arts. Salazar Slytherin himself was one, and he created a massive chamber in Hogwarts with a massive basilisk inside. Lord Voldemort, the darkest wizard of his time, was also known to inherit this trait. And we all know that pureblood families are all distantly related.. and the Lamacraft family itself was such.

Elira's extended family, was, to put it simply, big. Most wizarding families knew that the Lamacraft's were descended from a long line of powerful Western-European purebloods dating as far back as the time of Salazar Slytherin himself - however, what they did not know was that their family line also carried the rare ability of being able to speak Parseltongue. A common assumption at that time has been made that the Lamacrafts were related to Slytherin, when their first ancestor dated back to a little-known man by the name of Soren Sebastian Alden, who learnt the art of Parseltongue around the same time as Slytherin, but kept quiet.

The pure-blood side of her family has had generations of this rare talent, until it started to thin out bit by bit when their bloodline mixed with other pureblood families' across Europe. Her mother's side of the family were known to have links to dark wizards in the past, so that sole reason could have been the answer to how she got her ability.

Ophelia, Elira's mother, knew her family carried this trait, and prayed that her precious newborn daughter wouldn't inherit it, even though the last person in her family to have spoken parseltongue was Elira's great great great great great grandfather, Cecil. Her husband and Elira's father, Lorenzo, did know that Elira could have the possibility of inheriting the ability to speak parseltongue, but wasn't too disturbed, and assured Ophelia that the chances of their child getting that said trait was extremely slim.

Unfortunately for them, when they were in Diagon Alley to purchase a broomstick for their 6 year old daughter, they passed the Magical Menagerie, with some gorgeous pythons on display. Elira stopped next to them, asked her parents to give her a minute, and her eyes lit up in awe as the snaked let out a long hiss, warping to form the sounds of words. Her parents only noticed that Elira was hissing to the snake after they stopped discussing what broomstick to get their daughter. Her mother nearly fainted at the sight and her father looked around panicked, before hurrying both of them along to avoid the confused glances of passing strangers.

Once the three of them got home, Elira's mother sat her down to talk about her new-found ability, struggling to get the words out of her mouth in shock that after countless generations, her child managed to get this somewhat hated ability. Over the next couple years, Elira refrained from using her rare talents, stayed home by herself, until she got the letter from Hogwarts on her 11th birthday. She heard stories of when Harry Potter killed the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets in his second year, and was dying to know what it was like down there, deep beneath the castle.

Parseltongue is the language of serpents (as well as other magical serpent-based creatures, like the Runespoor) and those who can converse with them. An individual who can speak Parseltongue is known as a Parselmouth. It is a very uncommon skill, and is typically hereditary. Nearly all known Parselmouths are descended from Salazar Slytherin with Harry Potter being a notable exception.

Parseltongue is, when spoken, a hissing sound, similar to that of a snake; as such, normal people cannot understand it. Aside from serpent-based creatures, Parselmouths can communicate with each other with the language, as Harry understood Tom Riddle's commands to Salazar Slytherin's basilisk, and the House of Gaunt communicate with each other almost exclusively in Parseltongue. While inherited, Parseltongue usually requires the speaker to face a snake-based creature or object shaped like a snake (i.e. a carving), the Gaunt family was very proficient in the language - enough so for Morfin to speak to Bob Ogden with it.

The ability to actually speak Parseltongue — not just imitate it as Ron Weasley did — is considered an attribute of a Dark Wizard, which is partly due to the fact that both Salazar Slytherin and Lord Voldemort possessed this ability. Another notable Dark Wizard who was also a Parselmouth was Herpo the Foul. However, as Albus Dumbledore pointed out, there are Parselmouths among the good as well, the most well-known of which was Harry Potter. Paracelsus a notable alchemist and a "medical genius" is credited with the discovery of Parseltongue in the sixteenth century, despite the existence of speakers like Herpo the Foul or Salazar Slytherin in the classical and medieval ages.

An unknown member of the Dark Force Defence League once stated when asked regarding the matter by Rita Skeeter - "Personally, I would be highly suspicious of anybody who could converse with snakes, as serpents are often used in the worst kinds of Dark Magic, and are historically associated with evildoers."