The Slytherins

18

The party after the match was the best Cassie had seen. They won 320-0 in the end, making them second place in the table.

"Oi!" Cassie looked up from the conversation she was having with some people, and found Marcus Flint standing on a table, holding a fire whisky glass.

"I just want to toast to our new additions to the team; Draco Malfoy who caught the snitch before Chang, Cassiopeia Peverell for being our top goal scorer, and Theodore Nott for saving every single goal that flew his way!"

_____

Cassie and Pansy were midst in a round of tic-tac-to when Granger shot up her hand in History of Magic the following week and asked a question that made them stop their game.

"Professor? I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the chamber of secrets," Hermione said in a clear voice.

Suddenly the class awoke from their slumber, and all pairs of eyes were staring curiously at Professor Binns.

"My subject is History of Magic," he said in his dry, wheezy voice. "I deal with facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends." He cleared his throat with a small noise like chalk snapping and continued, "In September of that year, a sub-committee of Sardinian sorcerers-"

He stuttered to a halt. Hermione's hand was waving in the air again.

"Miss Grant?"

"Please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?"

Professor Binns was looking at her in such amazement, and Cassie noticed her courage to interrupt him.

Well' said Professor Binns slowly, 'yes, one could argue that, I suppose."

He peered at Hermione as though he had never seen a student properly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational, even ludicrous tale..."

But the whole class was now hanging on Professor Binns's every word. He looked dimly at them all, every face turned to his. Cassie could tell he was completely thrown by such an unusual show of interest.

"Oh, very well," he said slowly, "Let me see the Chamber of Secrets...
'You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago - the precise date is uncertain - by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Huflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, hidden away from the muggle world, as it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."

He paused, gazed blearily around the room, and continued,

"For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them.
'A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy."

"The way this school should be," Cassie muttered to Pansy.

"After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."