A/N: All characters and places are copyright J.K. Rowling, her publishers, and the people who need copyright for it. (I know that doesn't really make sense, but it works, right?)
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Enclosed in the Chamber of Secrets was the basilik. But remember, "secrets" is plural.
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Albus Dumbledore sighed. Books, scrolls, and random sheets of paper teetered on his desk. A small cough could make them fall and collapse on the floor.
He was trying to find an answer weighing heavily on his mind. What did Salazar Slytherin want? If he could answer that, everything might fit together for once.
One thing Slytherin wanted was a muggle-born free school. A basilik, which could be kept in control (or vice versa) by Parseltongue could fulfill this.
But the Chamber of Secrets had other things. More doors and passages could be opened, with a Parseltongue. And Harry Potter and Voldemort were the only living known ones.
Voldemort wouldn't work, for obvious reasons. Harry was still in training, unable to handle many things that might come up.
So Dumbledore had asked Madame Pince to send up all the information she could from the library about the chamber and Slytherin himself. She did her best. Now the dusty piles were up to Dumbledore to look through.
"...thinks muggle-born need wizard training before Hogwarts...I think I know that...thought everyone should always be ready for something new and dangerous...Cornelius should remember this..." the headmaster mumbled to himself as he read out loud. "Oh, shoot, the Chamber of Secrets can only be opened every 13 years. Why didn't somebody else teach this?"
Dumbledore summoned Madame Pince to take back the papers, and made a note of what he'd found before going back to his normal work.
~Springrain