Well here it is! After a month long gap comes the sequel to 'Philosopher's Stone: A Different Beginning', a take on 'Chamber of Secrets' set in the same AU. Enjoy!
P.S. I do not own Harry Potter or anything related.
"No, Sammie!" Harry moaned.
The small, greenish looking house-elf had made the trifle levitate above the head of the wife of the man that Uncle Vernon was trying to make a deal with.
"Please no!" He pleaded, "They'll kill me!"
Sammie looked straight into Harry's face.
"Harry Potter must promise that he will not return to Hogwarts."
Harry was torn. He did not want to suffer the consequences for Uncle Vernon's deal being ruined; yet at the same time he could not bear to stay here for a whole year.
"I-can't," He said through gritted teeth.
Sammie gave him a sombre look.
"Then you leave me no choice."
He waved his hand. The moment the pudding fell on the woman's head with a PLOP, Harry woke up. He had relived the time when a house-elf had come to Privet Drive, and had warned him that bad things were coming to Hogwarts, and that he should stay away. When he refused, Sammie used his magic to make the Ministry believe that Harry had been performing magic outside of school. When the Dursleys learnt of this, they locked him up in his room. Fortunately he was rescued, though, by his best friend Ron and his brothers twins Fred and George. After telling them what had happened, Fred and George told him that a House-Elf can't use magic without permission from their masters, and suggested that it was likely a prank. Harry, however, had no idea who could have possibly sent Sammie. He didn't have any major enemies at school. Well, apart from among the Slytherins.
Hey wait, that's not the dormitory ceiling! Harry thought.
He looked around. He seemed to be in some sort of underground chamber. What was he doing here?
It eventually came back to him. He and Ron were attempting to go down to the Chamber of Secrets to save Ron's sister Ginny from the heir of Slytherin. They eventually figured out that the entrance was in the girls' Bathroom. Harry noticed that one of the taps was shaped into a snake. Ron suggested saying something in Parseltongue to it. Parseltongue was the name given to the language of snakes, something that Harry had discovered he alone could understand at the beginning of the year, when the duelling club was established. Harry did as Ron suggested, saying, "Open." They heard a click. The sink moved slightly into the wall, then opened like a door. It revealed a large, dark, dank tunnel, leading below.
"Thank you, Harry," A female voice said along with the opening of one of the toilet doors; "I couldn't have opened it without you."
Harry and Ron spun around. There standing in front of them was Ginny.
Yet it didn't look like Ginny. At least her expression was unlike any face Harry had ever seen her make. Her eyes and wide smile looked wild and malicious. She whipped out her wand and cried, "Fulgarsempra!"
The last thing Harry remembered was everything being engulfed in electricity. Why had Ginny attacked them? Wasn't she supposed to be held hostage by the Heir in the chamber? And what did she mean by "I couldn't have opened it without you"?
Harry looked around at his surroundings. He realised that the cavern they were in contained what looked like a black stone step pyramid, and that he was at the bottom. He turned his head aside to see Ron sprawled at the other end of the chamber.
"Ron!" Harry shouted, his voice hoarse.
He crawled towards his friend. He hoped that he wasn't dead.
"Ron, wake up!"
He shook him, with no response. Harry noticed that a few steps up was Ginny, also lying unconscious. Harry called to her, and climbed up the steps. She looked worse than Ron, looking pale. Besides her was something Harry had never expected to see in this situation.
It was the diary.
A few months back, Harry and Ron were passing by the girls' bathroom when they heard Myrtle wailing. Going in, she told them that someone threw something at her, and that it was now in one of the toilets. Harry fished it out. It looked like an old diary. To his amazement, it was completely dry and unspoiled, even with Harry's wet hands. On the front was the name "A.B. Eago." To his amazement, Ron recognised the name, having cleaned his trophy for 'special services to the school'. Judging from the date, the diary was about fifty years old. When they showed the diary to Hermione, she gasped after hearing the name.
"What is it?" Harry asked, "Have you seen the name before?"
"Well, not the exact name, no, but Eago yes! I'm surprised neither of you have heard of the name before, especially you Ron!"
This just baffled both of them.
"Why? Am I-er, supposed to know who Eago is?" He said uncertainly, as if this was a very obvious fact. Hermione just looked furious at both of them.
"Honestly," She shook her head, "Do either of you pay attention in History of Magic? Professor Binns has talked loads about him!"
"I'm surprised that anyone can pay attention in Binns' classes," Ron told her, "All right then. Who's Eago supposed to be?"
"Cain Eago was a terrible dark wizard who lived over a hundred years ago. From what Binns told us he was as bad as Nargoa."
"So, he was like a proto-Nargoa then?" Harry asked her, "Intent on taking over the world, making all wizardkind his soldiers and muggles his slaves?"
"No, actually he was the exact opposite."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, he was fighting for rights of different groups-muggleborns, half-bloods, muggles, squibs, werewolves, giants, centaurs, goblins, house-elves- and was willing to use the dark arts and overthrow the Ministry in order to achieve his goals."
"What do you mean by rights?" Harry asked.
"You know! Equal standing between rights of wizards and witches no matter what their blood purity is, protection and better treatment of muggles and squibs, help and protection given to werewolves, freedom for house-elves, giving non-humans the right to carry wands, the return of centaurs and giants their lands-"
Ron laughed.
"Sounds like he was an outright nutter! I mean okay, equal rights for muggleborns and half-bloods as well as muggles and squibs is right, but freedom for house-elves, protection for werewolves and letting the giants back in the country and letting goblins use wands? It's mad! Sounds like to me that he was as mad as Dumbledore! What, was he also going to let vampires run wild in the country as well?"
"Ron!" Hermione snapped, "Number one, it's not werewolves' fault that they are what they're like, are they? I mean they're only dangerous once in a month! Number two, I don't believe that giants are all bad, and it was certainly wrong for them to be driven away from their homeland. Number three, the slavery of any race is just wrong, and number four, it's unfair that some people have advantages over others just because of their race!"
"Yeah well number one, Hermione, goblins are already powerful enough without wands! They could overpower us all if they had wands!"
"So what, just because some people are more talented than others, that gives those less talented people the right to hold them back?"
Ron laughed.
"I hardly call goblins people, Hermione. Number two, about the house-elves; it's just the way things are. What will people do without house-elves?"
"You seem to manage," Hermione frowned.
This stumped Ron.
"Well yeah okay, but number three, you haven't been in the wizarding world long enough to understand things like giants!"
Hermione went red hearing this.
"Spoken," She eventually said, "Like a true pureblood fanatic. "Muggleborns don't understand our ways, they haven't been properly brought up to know our ways"!"
Nothing that Hermione had said before seem to hurt Ron more than comparing him, someone from a family that has traditionally supported muggle and muggle-born rights, to a pureblood fanatic.
"Number four," He muttered, "You can never trust a werewolf, can you? Even when they haven't transformed!"
Hermione stared at him.
"All you've just said," She said, "Is nothing but prejudice! It's people like you that Eago was fighting against!"
"Whatever happened to him?" Harry asked, "Eago, I mean?"
"Well, at the end of an eleven-year long wizarding war, Eago was vanquished by a wizard named Lucas Cessi."
"I'm sorry, Lucas who?"
"Lucas who?" Ron had asked simultaneously.
Hermione nodded.
"I know. The wizard who teaches us Defence Against the Dark Arts is part of the same family as the one who defeated the worst wizard before Nargoa."
"Wow!" Ron exclaimed, "Imagine that! Being descended from someone who defeated a dark wizard! It's probably like being descended from you, Harry!"
Harry didn't think he had ever admired Professor Cessi more than he did now. To have a Great-Great Grandfather who slew a dark wizard? Then a horrible thought occurred to Harry.
"Was Lucas Cessi against all those rights Eago was fighting for?" He asked Hermione.
She shook her head.
"No he supported them as well. What he opposed was Eago's means and methods to achieve those rights."
That made Harry feel better. He didn't like the idea of Darren's ancestor being someone who supported the unjust establishment that Hermione had just described.
"So this A.B. Eago is probably a descendant of Cain Eago then?" Ron said.
"It's likely."
"Do you think he shared his Great-Great Grandfather or something's views and his attraction towards the dark arts?"
"Maybe. Although just because he was descended from him doesn't mean he was anything like him."
"We certainly never heard of a terrible Dark Wizard named A.B. Eago," Harry said, "Hey, you don't suppose that Professor Cessi might have been at school the same time as him, do you?"
"Don't know, what makes you think so?" Hermione asked.
"Just a thought," Harry admitted. Nevertheless, generations of Eagos and Cessies must have gone to school around the same time. He tried to picture how they would get along, knowing that one's Great-Great Grandfather killed the other's Great-Great Grandfather.
A later thought occurred to Harry. Judging from the date of the diary, Eago must have been at school fifty years ago. Around the same time as the Heir… The same thought occurred to Hermione. Harry opened the book as if he was unwrapping a Christmas present, hoping to learn anything it might have said the last time the chamber was opened. To his great disappointment, like discovering there was nothing in the wrapping paper, the pages were blank. Harry flicked through all of them. Nothing. He was so sure that they had found another clue about the Monster!
The trio attempted to discover more about the mysterious A.B. Eago. Their search was not in vain. Hermione managed to find him in several old Quidditch photos nailed on the wall in the wing dedicated to all things Quidditch. He was in six of them, ranging from 1937 to 1943. Harry studied the smiling, round-faced boy with black eyes.
"Oh, he was in Slytherin," Hermione gasped, sounding surprised, "That's unexpected!"
"Why?" Ron asked.
"Well Cain Eago was a fervent Slytherin hater. In fact his victims were all virtually Slytherins! I can't imagine how he would have felt if he knew his descendant was sorted in that house."
"What, Eago wasn't a Slytherin?" Ron sounded quite shocked, "Well what house was he?"
"Gryffindor."
"What?"
"Well, that's surprising!" Ron remarked, "I thought all dark wizards came from Slytherin?"
"Not all dark wizards. Just many of them," Hermione told him.
"Yeah, Professor Cessi said himself that not all dark wizards were sorted in Slytherin and not all Slytherins become dark wizards," Harry added.
"Still it's shocking though," Said Ron, "The most terrible dark wizard before Nargoa being a Gryffindor. Still however, it's probably expected, if he wasn't a supporter of pureblood supremacy, that is."
"He played Seeker!" Harry realised.
"What, Cain Eago?"
"No, A.B. Eago. That's where the Seeker stands!"
He seemed to start off as quite small, perhaps no bigger than Harry (Which was perfect for a Seeker since they tend to be small), before shooting slightly at the age of Fourteen, though he was only ever of average height.
"He must have suffered a lot from his peers," Hermione suggested.
"What makes you say that?" Harry asked.
"Well like I said, his Great-Great Grandfather killed many Slytherins. Imagine how all the Slytherins felt having the descendant of an infamous Slytherin killer in their house?"
"Yeah well given that we didn't know who Cain Eago was," Ron pointed out, "What chance did they have? Besides he seemed able to get himself in the Slytherin Quidditch team, they probably wouldn't have let him in if they hated him that much!"
"I suppose," Hermione admitted.
Ever since learning of his heritage, Harry saw Professor Cessi in a very different light. He guessed his beaming didn't go unnoticed. As usual, the trio went to visit Professor Cessi during the weekend.
"Say Harry," He brought up as they drank their tea, "I can't help but noticed that you've been looking at me a bit differently for the past week. Actually, you've been the same, Ron. It's almost as if you've both got this newfound respect for me, and despite the fact that I am a marvellous wizard if you'll excuse me for saying so, there's nothing I've done recently that's been out of the ordinary!"
He grinned.
"So cough up! What is it that I have done to make you all admire me more than you usually do?"
Harry wasn't entirely sure how to answer his question.
"Well," He began, "Hermione told us about your ancestor."
"Which one, I have many."
"Lucas Cessi."
"Ah right! So you probably know about the time he defeated the Dark Lord of the time, Cain Eago. Actually Luc's not my Great-Great Grandfather. Well in law he is."
There was silence.
"What do you mean?" Ron asked.
"I mean he's my Great-Great Grandfather-in-Law."
"Grandfather-in-Law?" Hermione asked, "Wait a minute, that means-?"
"Yep. I'm not actually part of the family by blood. I changed my surname when I married my wife."
There was silence again.
"Well that's a bit odd!" Ron exclaimed, "Why did you do that?"
"I wasn't fond of my surname, so I changed mine to hers. I assure you that I wasn't trying to grope some of the family's fame, so sorry for disappointing you," He grinned at them.
"Well still," Said Ron, "Marrying a Cessi, that must have been something!"
Darren sipped his tea.
"To be honest her ancestry never ever bothered me."
"Huh? Why not?"
Professor Cessi put his tea on the table.
"So, you three think that it is good to have a famous ancestor and be praised for it?"
"Well, yeah!" Answered Ron.
Cessi's face suddenly became very serious.
"Then let me ask you this: Do you think someone deserves to be blamed for whatever an infamous ancestor did?"
"What?"
Harry could see Ron thinking about this.
"Well, if they're nothing like that ancestor then no!"
"The way I see it, if a person cannot be held responsible for the actions his ancestor committed, then neither can they be praised for heroic things their ancestor did."
"But that's different!"
"No it isn't. If someone cannot be held responsible for the terrible actions their ancestors committed, then it's not fair for one to be praised for great things their ancestors did either. Dumbledore taught us that a person must be judged by their own actions, and not by those of their ancestors. Well apart from Transfiguration, that is! Besides it's very uncomfortable to be thanked for doing things you don't ever remember doing."
This Harry could actually understand. He had always felt uncomfortable when people praise him for conquering Nargoa, yet he has no whole memories of the moment.
"I was only saying it was a cool thing," Ron muttered.
"I understand that, I was only telling you that I think that a person should be judged by their own character and not that of their ancestors. After all, isn't that what the whole 'blood purity' is based on? The status of someone depending on who their parents and grandparents are?
Harry had never thought of it like that.
Ever since acquiring it Harry felt strangely attached to the diary. He was also baffled as to how it could remain intact, as he discovered one time when ink spilt over all his things yet the diary remained free of ink.
One night, Harry had the urge to write in the diary. When he dropped a drop of ink into the book, it disappeared. He then began writing messages in the diary, which disappeared. To his amazement, the diary wrote back to him. According to the diary, its name was Adam. Harry asked 'Adam' if he knew anything about the Chamber of Secrets. 'Adam' told him that during his Sixth Year, there were attacks on muggleborns, though the teachers denied that the chamber had been opened. However, he had helped catch the heir, and once caught the Headmaster at the time covered the whole thing up. When Harry wrote if he could tell him who the Heir was, 'Adam' wrote that he couldn't tell him.
But he could show him.
At that moment, Harry felt himself be sucked into the diary. Next thing he knew he was in a room that looked like Dumbledore's office, except someone else was sitting at his desk. There was a knock on the door. The person told him to enter. Harry recognised the blond haired student coming in to be Adam B Eago. Judging from his appearance this must be during his Sixth Year.
"Ah, Eago, sit down," The headmaster told him, as if he was in trouble.
Adam did as he was told.
"Now then, in your regards to your request to stay over the summer, I'm afraid I cannot grant it. Surely you must understand the danger that the school is in right now?"
"But Sir, I am a Half-Blood and a Slytherin. The culprit has only ever attacked muggleborns, surely I'm in no danger-"
"Do not question me, Eago!" The headmaster snapped.
But Adam brought up a valid point, Harry thought. The Heir only attacked muggleborns, surely no half or pureblood was in danger?
"Besides," the headmaster added, "Given your, er, heritage, the Heir may go after you and your brothers as well. Why do you even want to stay over the summer? Surely you want to spend time with your family?"
"I only wished to increase my studying, Sir."
"Well there may be no need for that," The headmaster sighed, "The board's threatening to close us down, as it is. I don't know why I'm telling you this."
"Sir, if the culprit was to be caught, would that stopped the governors from closing the school down?"
For the first time since Adam came into the room, the headmaster looked straight at him.
"Why? Do you know something, Adam?"
Harry noted that this was the first time the headmaster addressed him by his first name.
"No Sir, I was just asking."
"Oh."
The headmaster looked disappointed.
"Oh. Well-very well- you can go now."
Adam stood up and left the office. Harry followed him.
It looked like he was returning to the Slytherin chambers.
"You're strangely up at a late hour."
Harry and Adam turned around. Leaning against a wall, arms crossed, with his left leg bent and foot resting against the wall, was a student the same age as Adam. In face, he looked a lot like him, with the exception that he looked taller and thinner. Smiling at Adam, the student walked towards him. Harry gasped. He didn't recognise him at first, but there was no mistaking it now.
He was looking at a sixteen-year old Darren Cessi.