"What's going on here? What's going on?" Attracted no doubt by Malfoy's shout, Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs. Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror. "My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked.
And his popping eyes fell on Harry.
"You!" he screeched. "You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll..."
"Argus!" Dumbledore had arrived on the scene, followed by a number of other teachers. In seconds, he had swept past Y/n, Harry, Ron, and Hermione and detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket.
"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "You, too, Mr. Potter, Mr Grindelwald, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger."
Lockhart stepped forward eagerly. "My office is nearest, Headmaster, just upstairs, please feel free."
"Thank you, Gilderoy." said Dumbledore.
The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Lockhart, looking excited and important, hurried after Dumbledore, so did Professors McGonagall and Snape.
As they entered Lockhart's darkened office there was a flurry of movement across the walls, Y/n saw several of the Lockhart's in the pictures dodging out of sight, their hair in rollers. The real Lockhart lit the candles on his desk and stood back. Dumbledore lay Mrs. Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her. Y/n, Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged tense looks and sank into chairs outside the pool of candlelight, watching.
The tip of Dumbledore's long, crooked nose was barely an inch from Mrs. Norris's fur. He was looking at her closely through his half moon spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking. Professor McGonagall was bent almost as close, her eyes narrowed. Snape loomed behind them, half in shadow, wearing a most peculiar expression, It was as though he was trying hard not to smile. And Lockhart was hovering around all of them, making suggestions.
"It was definitely a curse that killed her, probably the Transmogrifian Torture. I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very counter curse that would have saved her..."
Lockhart's comments were punctuated by Filch's dry, racking sobs. He was slumped in a chair by the desk, unable to look at Mrs. Norris, his face in his hands. Much as they disliked Filch, Y/n and the others couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for him.
Dumbledore was now muttering strange words under his breath and tapping Mrs. Norris with his wand but nothing happened: She continued to look as though she had been recently stuffed.
"...I remember something very similar happening in Ouagadougou," said Lockhart, "a series of attacks, the full story's in my autobiography, I was able to provide the townsfolk with various amulets, which cleared the matter up at once..."
The photographs of Lockhart on the walls were all nodding in agreement as he talked. One of them had forgotten to remove his hair net.
At last Dumbledore straightened up. "She's not dead, Argus." he said softly.
Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the number of murders he had prevented.
"Not dead?" choked Filch, looking through his fingers at Mrs. Norris. "But why's she all...all stiff and frozen?"
"She has been Petrified, Hasn't she Professor?" Y/n asked Professor Dumbledore as he stared at Mrs Norris.
Dumbledore turned to look at Y/n as his eyebrow's raised ever so slightly. "You are correct young Grindelwald. She has indeed been petrified."
"Ah! I thought so!" said Lockhart but everyone ignored him.
"But how, I cannot say..." Dumbledore finished.
"Ask them!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tearstained face to Harry and Y/n.
"No second year could have done this." said Dumbledore firmly. "It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced..."
"They did it, They did it!" Filch spat, his pouchy face purpling. "You saw what they wrote on the wall! Potter and Grindelwald found, in my office...they know I'm a...I'm a..." Filch's face worked horribly. "They know I'm a Squib!" he finished.
"We never touched Mrs. Norris!" Harry said loudly, uncomfortably aware of everyone looking at him, including all the Lockhart's on the walls. "And I don't even know what a Squib is."
"Rubbish!" snarled Filch. "They saw my Kwikspell letter!"
"If I might speak, Headmaster." said Snape from the shadows, and Y/n felt his blood run cold. Snape never had anything good to say when it came to matters concerning either Harry or Gryffindor.
"Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time." he said, a slight sneer curling his mouth as though he doubted it. "But we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why was he in the upstairs corridor at all? Why wasn't he at the Halloween feast?"
Harry, Y/n, Ron and Hermione all launched into an explanation about the deathday party. "...there were hundreds of ghosts, they'll tell you we were there."
"But why not join the feast afterward?" said Snape, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. "Why go up to that corridor?"
Ron and Hermione looked at Harry.
"Because...because..." Harry stammered for a moment "because we were tired and wanted to go to bed." he then said.
"Without any supper?" said Snape, a triumphant smile flickering across his gaunt face. "I didn't think ghosts provided food fit for living people at their parties."
"We weren't hungry." said Ron loudly as his stomach gave a huge rumble.
Snape's nasty smile widened. "I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter and his friends are not being entirely truthful." he said. "It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he and Grindelwald should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until they are ready to be honest."
"Really, Severus." said Professor McGonagall sharply. "I see no reason to stop the boys playing Quidditch. This cat wasn't hit over the head with a broomstick. There is no evidence at all that Potter or Grindelwald have done anything wrong."
"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus." Dumblerdore said firmly now.
Snape looked furious.
So did Filch. "My cat has been Petrified!" he shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want to see some punishment!"
"We will be able to cure her, Argus." said Dumbledore patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris."
"I'll make it." Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep..."
"Excuse me." said Snape icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school."
There was a very awkward pause.
"You may go." Dumbledore said to the four.
They went, as quickly as they could without actually running. When they were a floor up from Lockhart's office, they turned into an empty classroom and closed the door quietly behind them.
Harry squinted at his friends' darkened faces. "D'you think I should have told them about that voice I heard?"
"Definitely not." said Y/n without hesitation.
"Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world." Ron added.
Something in Ron's voice made Harry ask, "You do believe me, don't you?"
"'Course I do." said Ron quickly. "But...you must admit it's weird..."
"I know it's weird." said Harry. "The whole thing's weird. What was that writing on the wall about? The Chamber Has Been Opened... What's that supposed to mean?"
"You know, it rings a sort of bell." said Ron slowly. "I think someone told me a story about a secret chamber at Hogwarts once... might've been Bill..."
"I think Fred and George would be more likely to know of any secret chambers." Y/n commented.
"And what on earth's a Squib?" said Harry.
Ron just stifled a snigger.
"Very mature Ron..." Y/n sighed before he turned to Harry. "A Squib, is someone who was born into a wizarding family but hasn't got any magic powers, but Squibs are quite unusual." Y/n explained.
"If Filch's trying to learn magic from a Kwikspell course, I reckon he must be a Squib. It would explain a lot. Like why he hates students so much." Ron gave a satisfied smile. "He's bitter."
A clock chimed somewhere.
"Midnight." said Harry. "We'd better get to bed before Snape comes along and tries to frame us for something else."
They all nodded in agreement and decided to head back to the common room.
For a few days, the school could talk of little else but the attack on Mrs. Norris. Filch kept it fresh in everyone's minds by pacing the spot where she had been attacked, as though he thought the attacker might come back. Harry told the three how he had seen him scrubbing the message on the wall with Mrs. Skower's All Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but to no effect, the words still gleamed as brightly as ever on the stone. When Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking redeyed through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like "breathing loudly' and "looking happy."
Ginny Weasley seemed very disturbed by Mrs. Norris's fate. According to Ron, she was a great cat lover.
"But you haven't really got to know Mrs. Norris." Ron told her bracingly as the four sat with her in the Gryffindor common room. "Honestly, we're much better off without her."
Ginny's lip trembled.
Y//n just placed Noctis into Ginny's lap now. "Ginny, things like these do not often happen at Hogwarts. It is very rare and they will be able to cure Mrs Norris." Y/n assured her and Ginny seemed to perk up ever so slightly as she started stroking a pleased Noctis's head.
This was until Ron started speaking again. "They'll catch the maniac who did it and have him out of here in no time. I just hope he's got time to petrify Filch before he's expelled."
"I'm only joking..." Ron added hastily as Ginny blanched.
The attack had also had an effect on Hermione. It was quite usual for Hermione to spend a lot of time reading, but she was now doing almost nothing else. Nor could Y/n, Harry and Ron get much response from her when they asked what she was up to, and not until the following Wednesday did they find out.
Y/n and Ron had gone up to the library with Hermione as Harry had been held back in Potions. Y/n was sat reading one of the books he had bought back in Diagon Alley when Harry finally showed up.
"I don't believe it, I'm still eight inches short..." said Ron furiously. Y/n looked up from his book to see Ron measuring his History of Magic homework. Professor Binns had asked for a three foot long composition on 'The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards.' Ron let go of his parchment, which sprang back into a roll. "Y/n's and Hermione have already done theirs and hers is four feet seven inches even with her writing's tiny."
"Where is she?" asked Harry, grabbing the tape measure and unrolling his own homework.
"Hermione is over there." Y/n said pointing along the shelves.
"Looking for another book. I think she's trying to read the whole library before Christmas." Ron commented.
Harry then told Ron and Y/n about about Justin Finch-Fletchley running away from him.
"Dunno why you care. I thought he was a bit of an idiot." said Ron, scribbling away, making his writing as large as possible. "All that junk about Lockhart being so great..."
Hermione emerged from between the bookshelves. She looked irritable and at last seemed ready to talk to them.
"All the copies of Hogwarts, A History have been taken out." she said, sitting down next to Harry Y/n and Ron. "And there's a two week waiting list. I wish I hadn't left my copy at home, but I couldn't fit it in my trunk with all the Lockhart books."
"I think Hogwarts a History would have been more valuable to bring than all of Lockhart's books put together." Y/n said and Hermione's brow just furrowed with annoyance.
"Why do you want it?" Harry asked before an argument could break out.
"The same reason everyone else wants it." said Hermione "To read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets."
"Oh...that's not a bad idea actually. Y/n said impressed by Hermione's thinking.
"What's that?" said Harry quickly.
"That's just it. I can't remember." said Hermione, biting her lip. "And I can't find the story anywhere else..."
"Hermione, let me read your composition." said Ron desperately, checking his watch.
"No, I won't." said Hermione, suddenly severe. "You've had ten days to finish it..."
"I only need another two inches, come on..." Ron pleaded but the bell rang.
History of Magic was the dullest subject on their schedule. Professor Binns, who taught it, was their only ghost teacher, and the most exciting thing that ever happened in his classes was his entering the room through the blackboard. Ancient and shriveled, many people said he hadn't noticed he was dead. He had simply got up to teach one day and left his body behind him in an armchair in front of the staff room fire, his routine had not varied in the slightest since.
Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming to long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again. He had been speaking for half an hour when something happened that had never happened before. Hermione put up her hand.
Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed.
"Miss...er...?"
"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets." said Hermione in a clear voice.
Y/n who had been sat next to Hermione turned to her in slight surprise and intrigue.
He was not the only one with an interest as Dean Thomas, who had been sitting with his mouth hanging open, gazing out of the window, jerked out of his trance; Lavender Brown's head came up off her arms and Neville Longbottom's elbow slipped off his desk.
Professor Binns blinked. "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 sipping and continued, "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerer..." He stuttered to a halt though when Y/n's own hand went into the air now.
"Mr....?"
"Grindelwald, Sir." Y/n answered. "Is History not filled with both Myths and Legends?"
Professor Binns was looking at the pair in such amazement, Harry was sure no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead.
"Well." said Professor Binns slowly. "Yes, one could argue that, I suppose." He peered at Y/n and 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. Y/n 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 by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for 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. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."
Professor Binns paused again, pursing his lips, looking like a wrinkled old tortoise.
"Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said. "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 silence as he finished telling the story, but it wasn't the usual, sleepy silence that filled Professor Binns's classes. There was unease in the air as everyone continued to watch him, hoping for more. Professor Binns looked faintly annoyed.
"The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course." he said. "Naturally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many times, by the most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible."
Hermione's hand was back in the air.
"Sir...what exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the Chamber?"
"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control." said Professor Binns in his dry, reedy voice.
The class exchanged nervous looks.
"I tell you, the thing does not exist." said Professor Binns, shuffling his notes. "There is no Chamber and no monster."
"But, sir." said Seamus Finnigan. "If the Chamber can only be opened by Slytherin's true heir, no one else would be able to find it, would they?"
Y/n thought this to be an excellent point.
"Nonsense, O'Flaherty," said Professor Binns in an aggravated tone. "If a long succession of Hogwarts headmasters and headmistresses haven't found the thing..."
"But, Professor." piped up Parvati Patil, "You'd probably have to use Dark Magic to open it..."
"Just because a wizard doesn't use Dark Magic doesn't mean he can't, Miss Pennyfeather," snapped Professor Binns. "I repeat, if the likes of Dumbledore..."
"But maybe you've got to be related to Slytherin, so Dumbledore couldn't..." began Dean Thomas, but Professor Binns had had enough.
"That will do." he said sharply. "It is a myth! It does not exist! There is not a shred of evidence that Slytherin ever built so much as a secret broom cupboard! I regret telling you such a foolish story! We will return, if you please, to history, to solid, believable, verifiablefact!"
And within five minutes, the class had sunk back into its usual torpor.
"I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loon.," Ron told Y/n, Harry and Hermione as they fought their way through the teeming corridors at the end of the lesson to drop off their bags before dinner. "But I never knew he started all this pure blood stuff. I wouldn't be in his house if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I'd've got the train straight back home..."
Hermione nodded fervently in agreement.
Y/n wondered for a moment what his life would have been like if he had been sorted into Slytherin but he shook it from his mind, he was glad the sorting hat had placed him into Gryffindor, With his friends.
As they were shunted along in the throng, Colin Creevy went past. "Hiya, Harry!"
"Hello, Colin." said Harry automatically.
"Harry, Harry, a boy in my class has been saying you're..." But Colin was so small he couldn't fight against the tide of people bearing him toward the Great Hall, they heard him squeak, "See you, Harry!" and he was gone.
"What's a boy in his class saying about you?" Hermione wondered.
"That I'm Slytherin's heir, I expect." said Harry.
Y/n just thought back to when Harry had told him and Ron about Justin Finch-Fletchley running away from him at lunchtime. "Ignore them Harry, most people just like to gossip and spread rumours without any real fact to them."
The crowd thinned and they were able to climb the next staircase without difficulty.
"D'you really think there's a Chamber of Secrets?" Ron asked Hermione.
"I don't know." she said, frowning. "Dumbledore couldn't cure Mrs. Norris, and that makes me think that whatever attacked her might not be...well, human."
As she spoke, they turned a corner and found themselves at the end of the very corridor where the attack had happened. They stopped and looked. The scene was just as it had been that night, except that there was no stiff cat hanging from the torch bracket, and an empty chair stood against the wall bearing the message "The Chamber of Secrets has been Opened."
"That's where Filch has been keeping guard," Ron muttered.
They looked at each other. The corridor was deserted.
"Can't hurt to have a poke around." suggested Harry, dropping his bag and getting to his hands and knees so that he could crawl along, searching for clues.
"Scorch marks!" he said. "Here, and here..."
"Come and look at this!" said Hermione. "This is funny..."
Y/n turned his head towards Hermione and moved to the window next to the message on the wall. Hermione was pointing at the topmost pane, where around twenty spiders were scuttling, apparently fighting to get through a small crack. A long, silvery thread was dangling like a rope, as though they had all climbed it in their hurry to get outside.
"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" said Hermione wonderingly.
"No, this is strange..." Y/n said confused by their behaviour.
"Have you, Ron?" Harry asked. "Ron?"
He looked over his shoulder. Ron was standing well back and seemed to be fighting the impulse to run.
"What's up?" said Harry.
"I...don't...like...spiders," said Ron tensely.
"Is that so?" Y/n asked him.
"You've used spiders in Potions loads of times..." Hermione said looking at Ron in surprise.
"I don't mind them dead." said Ron, who was carefully looking anywhere but at the window. "I just don't like the way they move..."
"Well, we all have our fears." Y/n said not judging.
Hermione just giggled.
"It's not funny!" said Ron fiercely. "If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my...my teddy bear into a dirty great spider because I broke his toy broomstick... You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and..."
He broke off, shuddering. Hermione was obviously still trying not to laugh. While Y/n had to turn his head to hide a chuckle.
Feeling they had better get off the subject, Harry said, "Remember all that water on the floor? Where did that come from? Someone's mopped it up."
"It was about here," said Ron, recovering himself to walk a few paces past Filch's chair and pointing. "Level with this door."
He reached for the brass doorknob but suddenly withdrew his hand as though he'd been burned.
"What is the matter?" Y/n asked him.
"Can't go in there." said Ron gruffly. "That's a girls' toilet."
"Oh, Ron, there won't be anyone in there." said Hermione, standing up and coming over. "That's Moaning Myrtle's place. Come on, let's have a look."
And ignoring the large OUT OF ORDER sign, she opened the door.
It was the gloomiest, most depressing bathroom Y/n had ever set foot in. Under a large, cracked, and spotted mirror were a row of chipped sinks. The floor was damp and reflected the dull light given off by the stubs of a few candles, burning low in their holders; the wooden doors to the stalls were flaking and scratched and one of them was dangling off its hinges.
Hermione put her fingers to her lips and set off toward the end stall. When she reached it she said, "Hello, Myrtle, how are you?"
Y/n, Harry and Ron went to look. Moaning Myrtle was floating above the tank of the toilet, picking a spot on her chin.
"This is a girls' bathroom." she said, eyeing the boys suspiciously. "They're not girls."
"No." Hermione agreed. "I just wanted to show them how er...nice it is in here." She waved vaguely at the dirty old mirror and the damp floor.
"Fantastic lie Hermione...but perhaps we should ask her if she saw anything instead" Y/n whispered to Hermione.
"What are you whispering?" said Myrtle, staring at him.
"Nothing bad." Y/n tired to assure her. "We simply wanted to to ask..."
"I wish people would stop talking behind my back!" said Myrtle, in a voice choked with tears. "I do have feelings, you know, even if I am dead..."
"Myrtle, no one wants to upset you." said Hermione. "Y/n only..."
"No one wants to upset me! That's a good one!" howled Myrtle. "My life was nothing but misery at this place and now people come along ruining my death!"
"We wanted to ask you if you've seen anything funny lately." said Hermione quickly.
"A cat was attacked right outside this bathroom on Halloween. We were curious if you perhaps saw anyone near here that night?" Y/n asked her.
"I wasn't paying attention." said Myrtle dramatically. "Peeves upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then, of course, I remembered that I'm...that I'm..."
"Already dead." said Ron helpfully.
Myrtle gave a tragic sob, rose up in the air, turned over, and dived headfirst into the toilet, splashing water all over them and vanishing from sight, although from the direction of her muffled sobs, she had come to rest somewhere in the U bend.
Y/n, Harry and Ron stood with their mouths open, but Hermione shrugged wearily and said, "Honestly, that was almost cheerful for Myrtle... Come on, let's go."
Harry had barely closed the bathroom door on Myrtle's gurgling sobs when a loud voice made all four of them jump.
"RON!"
Percy Weasley had stopped dead at the head of the stairs, prefect badge agleam, an expression of complete shock on his face.
"That's a girls' bathroom!" he gasped. "What were you...?"
"Just having a look around." Ron shrugged. "Clues, you know..." Percy swelled in a manner that reminded Y/n slightly of Mrs. Weasley.
"Get...away...from...there..." Percy said, striding toward them and starting to bustle them along, flapping his arms. "Don't you care what this looks like? Coming back here while everyone's at dinner..."
"Why shouldn't we be here?" said Ron hotly, stopping short and glaring at Percy. "Listen, we never laid a finger on that cat!"
"That's what I told Ginny." said Percy fiercely. "But she still seems to think you're going to be expelled, I've never seen her so upset, crying her eyes out, you might think of her, all the first years are thoroughly overexcited by this business..."
"You don't care about Ginny," said Ron, whose ears were now reddening. "You're just worried I'm going to mess up your chances of being Head Boy!"
"Five points from Gryffindor!" Percy said tersely, fingering his prefect badge. "And I hope it teaches you a lesson! No more detective work, or I'll write to Mum!" And he strode off, the back of his neck as red as Ron's ears.
Y/n, Harry, Ron, and Hermione chose seats as far as possible from Percy in the common room that night. Ron was still in a very bad temper and kept blotting his Charms homework. When he reached absently for his wand to remove the smudges, it ignited the parchment. Fuming almost as much as his homework, Ron slammed The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 shut. To Y/n and Harry's surprise, Hermione followed suit.
"Who can it be, though?" she said in a quiet voice, as though continuing a conversation they had just been having. "Who'd want to frighten all the Squibs and Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts?"
"Let's think." said Ron in mock puzzlement. "Who do we know who thinks Muggle-borns are scum?" He looked at Hermione.
Hermione looked back, unconvinced. "If you're talking about Atticus or Malfoy..."
Y/n just sat back in his chair at the mention of Atticus.
"Of course I am!" said Ron. "You heard Malfoy...'You'll be next, Mudbloods!' come on, you've only got to look at his foul rat face to know it's him."
"Malfoy, the Heir of Slytherin?" said Hermione skeptically.
"Look at his family." said Harry, closing his books, too. "The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin, he's always boasting about it. They could easily be Slytherin's descendants. His father's definitely evil enough."
"They could've had the key to the Chamber of Secrets for centuries!" said Ron. "Handing it down, father to son..."
"He is a more realistic suspect than Atticus...after all our parents were never quiet about their foul deeds and our Grand Uncle never attended Hogwarts." Y/n proposed.
"Well." said Hermione cautiously thinking about Malfoy as a the Heir of Slytherin. "I suppose it's possible..."
"But how do we prove it?" said Harry darkly.
"There might be a way." said Hermione slowly, dropping her voice still further with a quick glance across the room at Percy. "Of course, it would be difficult. And dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules, I expect..."
"If, in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know, won't you?" said Ron irritably.
"All right." said Hermione coldly. "What we'd need to do is to get inside the Slytherin common room and ask Malfoy a few questions without him realizing it's us."
"But that's impossible." Harry said as Ron laughed.
"No, it is not." Y/n said now following Hermione's train of thought. "Not if we used Polyjuice Potion."
"What's that?" said Ron and Harry together.
"Snape mentioned it in class a few weeks ago..." Hermione told the two.
"D'you think we've got nothing better to do in Potions than listen to Snape?" muttered Ron.
"It transforms you into somebody else. Think about it! We could change into four of the Slytherins. No one would know it was us. Malfoy would probably tell us anything. He's probably boasting about it in the Slytherin common room right now, if only we could hear him."
"This Polyjuice stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me." said Ron, frowning. "What if we were stuck looking like four of the Slytherins forever?"
"It wears off after a while." said Hermione, waving her hand impatiently. "But getting hold of the recipe will be very difficult. Snape said it was in a book called Moste Potente Potions and it's bound to be in the Restricted Section of the library."
"That is indeed a problem." Y/n grimaced. "We would need a signed note of permission from a teacher to get out a book from the Restricted Section."
"Hard to see why we'd want the book, really." said Ron, "If we weren't going to try and make one of the potions."
"I think." started Hermione. "That if we made it sound as though we were just interested in the theory, we might stand a chance..."
"Oh, come on, no teacher's going to fall for that." said Ron. "They'd have to be really thick..."
"I can think of one..." Y/n said as he leaned forward in his chair.
And that's the chapter! So The four have begun to investigate who could be behind the supposed Chamber of Secrets. But will the four be able to obtain the required ingredients? And who is Y/n planning to ask for a signature? If you liked this chapter or just the story in general then don't forget to leave a vote and a comment below as it really really helps! I shall see you all next week in...
The Rouge Bludger