Ripped Away

Year Two: Speculation, Uncomfortable Chats and Barmy Bludgers

"Hera, I think I speak for all of us when I ask... What the hell happened last night?! Please tell me you didn't actually write that message or the wall!", Neville asked imploringly. It was the morning of November first. He and the rest of Heracles's group were in her private greenhouse, talking where they couldn't be overheard. They were skipping their morning classes to do it, but nobody cared about that. Shit, like it seemed to every year, had gone down and they needed to sort out the situation. Heracles, who was tending to some green mushrooms over by the mushroom section of the greenhouse, rolled her eyes at her friend's worried questions.

"Of course not. What do you take me for, an amateur? I wouldn't go through all the trouble of learning a very difficult petrification spell, casting it on Filch's cat, and acquiring chicken's blood to write that message on the wall, just to get caught doing it by half the school. Have a little more faith in me, Nev.", Heracles said. Neville's cheeks turned red with embarrassment.

"Sorry.", he said. Collin was the next one to speak.

"But if you didn't do all those things, then who did?", the first year asked. Ginny stiffened when she heard that, and Heracles shrugged.

"I don't know, Collin. Nobody does. But whatever the case, it's a dangerous time to be at school, especially for people like you.", Heracles warned, and Collin looked confused.

"Why?", the boy asked. Fred was the one that answered him.

"Because mate, Salazar Slytherin hated muggleborns. Thought they shouldn't be allowed to learn magic. It's why he built the chamber of secrets in the first place, so he could get rid of them all by making it so one of his descendents could open it and sic whatever's in there on all the muggle borns in the school.", the ginger explained, and Collin paled.

"Well if that's the case, then the heir's gotta be a Slytherin! They all hate muggleborns! Except for you of course, Hera.", Collin exclaimed. George gained a contemplative expression.

"Yeah, but which one of those slimy snakes could it be?", the other Weasley twin mused. Ginny was quick to speak up.

"What about Malfoy?", Ginny suggested. Everyone turned to look at her with questioning eyes.

"Why would it be Malfoy?", Neville asked. Ginny shrugged noncommittally.

"He's a blood purist from an old family. Maybe he's got some Slytherin blood in him. Also he's mean and he's got weird hair, so who else could it be?", Ginny said, and Luna nodded at her words.

"His hair does look pretty weird.", the blonde girl agreed. Heracles shook her head.

"Malfoy's mcdonalds-logo-looking hairline and all those other reasons aside, there's no way he could be the heir of Slytherin.", Heracles disagreed, and Neville frowned at her in confusion.

"Why do you say that?", he asked.

"You remember when I single-handedly dunked on Malfoy's entire bloodline all those weeks ago?", Heracles asked. George snorted.

"How could we forget? You destroyed him so bad I'm pretty sure we can all see thestrals now.", the red haired boy responded.

"Yeah well, in learning all that stuff about the Malfoy family, I didn't once see that one of their members married someone from a family with a known connection to Salazar Slytherin, like the Gaunts.", Heracles informed him. Fred raised an eyebrow.

"Meaning... ?", he trailed off. Heracles rolled her eyes at the fourth year's attempt to goad more information out of her.

"Meaning he can't be the heir of Slytherin, you dolt. Not unless Lucius's Malfoy's great-great-times-infinity-grandfather was somehow the secret love child of Salazar Slytherin and some poor woman, but that theory is impossible because of how unlikely it is that Draco Malfoy of all people could know that he was related to such a big name and manage to keep his mouth shut about it for five seconds.", Heracles pointed out, and everyone thought about it before nodding in understanding.