"Can I call you Tori? You know Tori, I'm a great friend."
"I don't get it, why are you being nice to me?"
"Maybe I don't want to see you friendless."
When Victoria Silvers, who comes from a long line of Slytherins, is sorted into Gryffindor her life...
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The attack on Mrs. Norris was all anyone could talk about. Tori even felt a little bad for Filch. A little.
She was sitting in History of Magic class that they shared with Ravenclaw, bored out of her mind when someone finally asked the question everyone's been wanting to know.
"Professor. What can you tell us about the Chamber of Secrets?"
This caused almost everyone to start paying attention again. Tori picked her head up from her arms while Lee had seemed to wake up from his nap. A Ravenclaw girl named Polly Evans glanced up from her book she had been staring duly into and her seat partner, Richard Willow, stopped staring at the chalkboard.
Professor Binns looked uncomfortable, floating around. "I can tell you what I told the second years; I work with facts, not myths."
Tori raised her hand. "But Professor, myths all have to come from somewhere, right? Where ever that somewhere is, that's a fact."
The ghost Professor sighed. "Alright. I'll tell you what I told the second years... You all know long ago Hogwarts was founded by four people who soon had the houses named after them. Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin. The four worked together in perfect harmony, building this castle away from prying Muggle eyes.
"But... soon after it was built Salazar Slytherin started to have some objections to who could and couldn't be admitted into Hogwarts. He believed magic learning should stay to magic-families and felt muggle-borns were untrustworthy. This caused a huge rift between him and the others, and a rather large argument with Godric Gryffindor, causing Slytherin to leave the school.
"Reliable historical sources tell us this much. But these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing. Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."
There was a deadly silence after he finished speaking. Not the usual bored, tired silence. One that rang through each of the students' ears as each silently begged for their teacher for once to keep talking.
Fred, for his first time ever in the class, raised his hand. "What kind of horror within?" Professor Binns shrugged, "Some say it's a beast. Though it's all nonsense."
Tori raised her hand again. "And the heir of Slytherin, they can control this... beast?"
"Yes..." The class all exchanged nervous looks. "But it's all nonsense!"
"Could a dark wizard open it?" Angelina asked out loud. A Ravenclaw boy nodded, "Does this have something to do with the dark arts?"
Many other students began voicing their concerns and confusion, but Professor Binns had enough.
