Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I do not own Hogwarts, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I am posting this with permission and help from Lightning, because she has decided not to post any new stories on fanfiction.net. This is her property, so don't pester her if it shows up under her name somewhere else, because it is her property—I merely edited it and posted it. It is the sequel to Chaos at Hogwarts, which can be found by doing a search by title for Chaos at Hogwarts and choosing the one written by Lightning (apparently there is another Chaos at Hogwarts written by someone else, but Lightning assures me that the title is entirely her own idea, since it was in the works for a few years before she discovered fanfiction.net.).

The Chaos Tunnel was a thing of myth. Legends about it dated back even further than those about the Chamber of Secrets. The Chaos Tunnel was older than Hogwarts. In fact, shortly after Hogwarts was founded, talk of the Chaos Tunnel all but stopped.

            Now, Zach and I were standing in the Chaos Tunnel. I remembered the most prevalent myth about it, that it led anywhere and everywhere. "Let's see if the stories are true, that this tunnel can take you anywhere," Zach said, as if he'd read my mind.

            "No," I said, looking at my watch. "It's getting late, and we need to get back home."

            The wall before us opened. We walked forward, out of a roiling black cloud, onto the grass of Zachary's lawn. The cloud dissipated behind us.

            Zach offered, "I'll call Rachel and Jim," just as it started to rain. We hurried into his house, wringing the water ot of our clothes. I was grateful that he'd offered to call, because I, myself, while being fascinated by all things Muggle-made, have this instinctual fear of technology. Luckily I was born in a wizarding family.

            Both my parents work for the Ministry of Magic, so I overhear many things not meant for my ears. This helped me determine two years previously that Sirius Black was actually innocent, and that it was Peter Pettigrew who had betrayed the Potters on that fateful night so many years ago. My name is Emerald Jones, but I prefer to be called Mera—or Lightning, my Chaos club nickname. The others in the Club were Zachary Taylor, my best friend and next-door neighbor, called Thunder, Muggle-born Rachel "Moonbeam" Smith, and James "Burn" Johnson. I must confess that our names are a take-off on Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. I saw the Marauders' Map in Moody's office last year and was absolutely taken by the idea.

            When our friends arrived, we showed them how we'd gotten into the Chaos Tunnel. Jim was reading this great leather-bound volume at the time. He reminded me of myself, since I always have my nose in a book.

            "We don't need to go into the caves," Jim said. "The key to opening the Chaos Tunnel is a song, it says so right here. The music and words were lost when the last person who knew them was imprisoned in Azkaban for life. Ah, here it is. 'The Chaos Tunnel is a legendary passageway that supposedly exists in another dimension. According to rumor, it leads everywhere, except special places like the Chamber of Secrets. One legend states that the last person to open the Chaos Tunnel was imprisoned in Azkaban. She—.'"

            At this point I interupted him. "She? This was a girl?"

            Jim gave me a whithering glare. " 'She  could not escape because the Chaos Tunnel has no terminus in Azkaban. All legends agree that the key to open the Chaos Tunnel was music, and several say it was a song, though the song has long been forgotten.

            " 'The story of Kilara, the last person to open the Tunnel, is recorded in The Killer's Tale, which can be checked out from select libraries, one of which is the library at Hogwarts.'"

            While he was talking I'd been singing the Song of Chaos. Now the Chaos Cloud was before us, and we all walked through. Rachel shivered a bit as the cloud enclosed her.

            "Where should we go?" I asked.

            Jim smirked and said, "Why don't you decide, O great and glorious leader?"

            "Alright," I decided. "We'll see what Potter is up to. I've always wondered what he does during the summer."

            The Tunnel wall before us became a dark gray mass, and we stepped through it onto a neatly trimmed lawn. Quickly, before we could be seen, we performed Invisibility Charms on each other, a spell we'd made up the year previous.

            There was an extremely fat kid nearby, who was perhaps three years older than us. "That's Dudley Dursley," Jim whispered. "Potter's cousin. He beats up on kids for fun."

            Next we saw Potter himself, who began to taunt his cousin, calling him things like "Dudders" and "Ickle Duddykins." Then dementors appeared, two of them, and they both went for Potter. "What was that spell again?" Jim asked. "Expect a Patronus?"

            "Expecto Patronum," I corrected. Then, of course, I fainted.

            Voldemort was standing over me, wand raised. Everything was dark, so dark that I could hardly see his face, but it was terrifying all the same, what I could see of it. He yelled "Avada Kedavra!" and there wasa great flash of green light, and an awful pain in my forehead, before—

            Blackness. I floated in a void, with no feeling whatsoever, all five senses disconnected, even my thoughts incoherent.

            "Mera, Mera, wake up." The voice belonged to Rachel, and I reveled in the music of it. Ah, beautiful sound, I could hear again! Someone splashed cold water on my face, and I opened my mouth to let the fresh water roll over my tongue. Then I opened my eyes, and I could see. I just wanted to lay there, experiencing the sounds and sights, as one who was deaf and blind but can now see and hear. But the others would have none of it.

            "I know you're awake, Mera, it's no use pretending," Zach informed me. "Get up, before your father worries himself to death."

            "Those dementors," I said slowly. "They made me have a nightmare about something that's never happened."

            The next day we went again to spy on Potter, but also to keep an eye on Dursley to make sure he didn't beat up on any little kids. Sure enough, when we exited the Tunnel, there was Dudley, about to punch a little boy who couldn't have been older than nine or ten. As if we'd rehearsed it, we snatched the boy right from inunder Dudley's fist, passing him back until he got to Rachel, who put a protective arm around him and surveyed the gang defiantly, just daring them to try to harm the little boy.

            "Well look who's here," I said. "Ickle Duddykins." Right in front of his entire gang, too. Served him right. I don't like bullies. Except Malfoy, he's a hottie, but I get these strange urges to break his nose or strangle him rather often.

            "You've been talking to Harry, haven't you?" Dudley demanded.

            "Actually, no," I replied. "I rather fancy myself a spy. Of course, the Slytherin here lets his snakes do the dirty work for him."

            "Hey!" Zach protested.

            Rachel grinned. "I think he represents that remark."

            I laughed, and Zach pushed me, so I pushed him back. We shoved each other for a few seconds before Zach said, "Why are we pushing each other?"

            "It's because you're a boy, so you're stultus," I explained. "Not as stupid as the beached whale here, though. You know, in boys it seems stupidity is proportional to size. Yes, definitely, because they tend to get stupider as they get older." Then I focused on the problem at hand. "Zach. Jim. Back-to-back. You two take out the rest of the gang. Dudley popkin is mine." I pressed my fist against my knuckles. They made an ugly cracking sound. After circling Dudley for a bit, a brought my fists up and whamed him on both temples, all in one quick motion. He dropped like a sack of wet potatoes, not that he'd ever eaten anything that healthy in his life. In short order Zach and Jim had taken out the rest of the gang.

            "Run home," Rachel told the kid, and he obeyed, after casting one terified glance at the unconscious bullies.

            "Now what?" Zach asked.

            "We watch Potter. Poor boy doesn't have any girl to look after him," I said.

            "They're beginning to stir," Jim said, nudging them with a toe. "What do you want me to do?"

            "Leave that to me," I said. "A thousand years or more ago, when I was newly sewn, there lived four wizards of renown, whose names are still well known:..." Soon Dudley and his gang were all snoring. "You know, they are so mean they almost deserve for the "C"-Curse to be used on them."

            "Yeah, and I'd do it," Zach said, "Except I'd get in trouble."

            "Which you'd talk your way out of, Honeytongue," Jim retorted. "Speaking of trouble, we're going to be in trouble for using those Invisibility Charms."

            The gang was stirring again, and I had a better idea this time. "I think you're gay, Dudley. Might as well have accused yourself, accusing Potter of having a boyfriend. As they say, 'Takes one to know one.' Not that I'm shaych or anything."

            Zach made a disapproving noise. "Mera, you shouldn't be reading Mercedes Lackey. Those books are so not appropriate for your age level."

            "Look who's talking." I lowered my voice. "Cover your ears I'm going to sing Nightblades—in a weird key, and very badly." Louder, I sang, or rather screeched, "they come creeping out of darkness, and to darkness they return..." (A/N: The song "Nightblades" is property of Mercedes Lackey, and is not my creation.) I walked up to each member of the gang, screaming in their ears, and they ran in all directions. My taunts followed them. "Can't you big boys take on one little girl? Or am I too old? I am only three years younger than you, after all." I turned to my friends. "Come on. I've had enough bully-bashing for one day. Let's go home."

            Sure enough, I got an owl from the Ministry informing me that if I used any more magic outside school I would be expelled. The others also got them, as I found out when we met next. "So did Potter," said Jim. "Because he used to Patronus Charm. They've expelled him. Don't even ask how I know, it's one of those things." The thing about Jim is that he just knows things, knows them without a doubt but also without any reason to know them.

            "They've expelled him?!" Zach shrieked. "They can't do that, he needs to learn magic so he can defeat Voldemort."

            "There's nothing we can do about it," said Jim. "Oh, before I forget, I found an entire section on the Chaos Tunnel. Here, read it." He shoved the book under my nose, and I read.

The Chaos Tunnel:

                The Chaos Tunnel is believed by most to be a thing of legend, but I know better. My grandparents came from Chaos, so I would know that it is real. They speak a language of their own, the people of that wondrous realm, a language unlike any of the myriad tongues of Earth, and quite impossible for the average Earthling to pronounce.

                The Tunnel itself is quite amazing, for it allows one to cross several miles with a single step, and can be used to get into and out of Hogwarts nearly as fast as one could by Apparating. The only drawback is the song one must sing to open the Tunnel, which takes rather a long time, or so I have been told. I, myself, having no interest in using the Tunnel, never bothered to learn the song which opens it, so I can not say from personal experience that it is long, but my grandfather claimed it was so, and I have every reason to believe him.

                Kilara, Heir of Chaos, is the only person living on Earth at this moment who knows how to open the Tunnel, and she is imprisoned in Azkaban prison. Let us hope that nobody from Chaos comes here, for if they do it will mean war between Chaos and Earth, for they will soon learn that their Princess is imprisoned. If that happens, the people of Chaos, fierce fighters that they are, will surely exterminate the wizards of Earth. I am surprised that they have not already come, for surely they must wonder where the Heir is, and why she has not returned.

                At the moment I am raising Kilara's young son, Lester Stormwind. I have not told him that he is a prince for fear that it would go to his head. He is quite a charming young boy, and I expect him to become quite a successful wizard. However I have been regretting the fact that I never learned how to open the Chaos Tunnel, for Lester may be the only surviving Heir of Chaos in a few short years, and I wish he could go to Chaos and claim his birthright, when he is ready. But that cannot be.

                Still I hope that one day a Monarch will once again reign in Chaos, because it would be tragic if that land were to go kingless forever.

                There may yet be hope. I write this more than three decades after I wrote the last. Lester has a grown daughter now, Ariana Stormwind, who may yet become a great seer. She made her first prophecy today, and it seems to be about a time far in the future, but has all the markings of true prophecy. Only a seer of great talent could see so far, but with the magic of Chaos anything is possible, and that magic runs strong in her veins. Here is the prophecy:

                She shall be born on the day most consider bad luck, but for her only good luck shall be. Her eyes shall be emerald, and so shall her name, and her friends three shall there be. One in each House, at Hogwarts no less, and weilding a power so great that the Dark Lord returned shall flee from their wrath, though these four shall not be his death....And the girl shall be marked by the symbol of Chaos....Born on the day most consider bad luck....

                "No way," I said, shaking my head. "There is no freaking way. Yet—'One in each House,'—I don't know, maybe it is possible, who am I to say? It's probably just another one of those lovely coincidences that surround my life."

            Zach said the same thing as me when he read it, though he used a different word than "freaking." He used a word that made me gasp, "Zach!"

            "Mera," Rachel said slowly, "were you born on Friday the 13th, by any chance?"

            "Yes, I was," I replied. " 'Born on the day most consider bad luck....Her eyes shall be emerald, and so shall her name....One in each House, at Hogwarts no less...' It certainly seems to mean us."

            "There's one problem," Rachel said triumphantly. "You aren't marked with the symbol of Chaos, whatever that is."

            I shook my head. "Who else could it mean? Listen, we don't even know what the symbol of Chaos is, it could be anything, for all we know it's the fact that I've got slightly pointed ears."

            "It's not that," Jim said, an odd note in his voice. "The symbol of Chaos is a lightning bolt with a circle around it, or sometimes just a lightning bolt."

            "That settles it," Rachel said. "Or—goodness, maybe it'll happen later—but in that case—there's only one person who survived—nevermind, I'm just babbling." I didn't believe it when she said it, and I still don't believe it. There was something she had figured out that she didn't want to tell the rest of us, probably because it pertained to my future, and it sounded like I might die or something from what she did say.

            I went home that night with a whole heck of a lot to mull over.