Lily wondered into the library, hoping to get a chance to study before curfew in twenty minutes. She kept her head down and her face covered by her hair, trying to avoid anyone who wanted to talk.

Of course, it didn't stop her best friend, Dom.

"Lily, what's the matter?"

Lily's head snapped up to meet her cousin's eyes before quickly averting them again. "Nothing."

Dom rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. Something is obviously bothering you." They've been best friends all their lives. They couldn't hide anything from the other; not that Lily was trying all that hard to hide her mood.

"I don't want to talk about it, Dom." Lily found a corner at the back of the library where no one was sitting and plopped all of her books and her backpack on the table before leaving to find a book to help her study.

Dom simply followed her. "Lily Luna Potter. Don't make me tell Scorpius some of your deepest secrets."

Lily's eyes were wide as she turned to face her supposed best friend. "You wouldn't."

Dom smirked. "I might. Or I might not, if you tell me what's bothering you."

Lily pointed her finger at Dom as she stepped around her and said, "You've got to stop hanging around with me."

Dom snickered. "And why is that, Lily-dear?"

Lily sat down at the table she claimed and opened the book describing various charms she might need to get a good result on her Charms O.W.L. exam. "Because my blackmailing ways are rubbing off on you."

"That may be, but I only use it on you. Now, what's wrong, Lils?"

Lily rolled her eyes at her cousin's stubbornness. "Just forget it, would you?" Lily studied until Madam Pince shooed them out of the library. When they got back to the Slytherin common room, Dom turned to talk to Lily again, but Lily beat her to it. "I'm going to bed."

Dom gave a sigh of exasperation before hollering, "I'll get it out of you eventually."

"Mmm," was all Lily deemed as an appropriate response. Later that night, Dom quietly came into the fifth year girls' dormitory, trying not to wake Lily yet. All the other girls were still in the common room, studying. O.W.L. examinations were beginning soon and all of the fifth years were studying as much as possible before they started. Dom sat on the edge of Lily's bed and gently touched the girl's head. Only Dom and Scorpius had mastered the art of waking Lily without sending the short tempered girl on a rampage. Lily woke from the soft touch from her best friend. "Dom?"

"Yeah?"

Lily sat up and rubbed her eyes. "You remember that detention I got last week where I had to polish the trophies in the trophy room all because I hid Mrs. Norris in a suit of armour?"

Dom chuckled at her younger best friend. "Yeah." It was quiet for a moment before Dom continued. "You were quiet then, too."

"That's because I found something that kind of made me upset."

"What was it?"

Lily began to pick at her fingernails. "Well I was polishing the awards for Special Services to the School and I came across two names that shocked me."

Dom sniggered at Lily's evasiveness. "Oh, just spit it out, will you?"

"They were for my dad and Uncle Ron."

Dom froze in shock. Wouldn't they have told them if they got an award like that? "What? What for? Aunt Hermione didn't get one?"

Lily shook her head. "No. That's what piqued my curiosity. So, I sent an owl out to my dad the next morning."

"That's where you were that morning!"

Lily shrugged. "Well, I also spent half the morning in the library looking up anything that might tell me why they received those awards."

"Well?"

"There were only a few books that even mention the award because not many people receive them."

Dom quirked an eyebrow. "You've been thinking on this for a week and that's all you've got?"

Lily glared at Dom. "No. I know why now. I'm just in shock, is all."

There was a slight pause as Lily unfocused from the conversation. Dom sighed in a frustrated manner. "Hello? Are you going to tell me?"

Lily came to with a shake of her head and said, "What? Oh, yeah. Dad refused to answer me, so I sent a letter to Mum. She wouldn't tell me in a letter so she told me to meet her and Dad for a butterbeer in Hogsmeade today."

"Yeah, Lucy and I saw you guys talking, but it looked serious so we didn't want to butt in."

"Have you ever heard of the Chamber of Secrets?"

Dom was a little confused at this point. "Yeah. It's mentioned in 'Hogwarts: A History'. Why?"

"Because when my dad and Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron were second years and Mum was a first year, Tom Riddle opened the Chamber and nearly killed my mum."

"What?!" Dom shrieked. Her Aunt Ginny had almost died? Well, outside the famous Battle at Hogwarts?

Lily nodded. "He was possessing Mum using his old diary or something and the other three figured it out and saved her. Well, Aunt Hermione was apparently petrified, but she still helped a lot. Also, did you know that it was opened before?"

"It was?" Dom asked.

"Yep. By Tom Riddle while he was still attending school. He blamed it on Hagrid. That's why Hagrid was expelled. After Hagrid was cleared, Riddle's award was revoked."

Dom looked slightly hurt. "But, why haven't they told us before?"

"Well, they said it was because compared to everything else they've been through, the chamber was not really that big of a deal. I wonder what other things they've done and haven't told us about?"

The girls pondered this for a moment before Dom referred to the other cousins when she asked, "Does anyone else know?"

Lily shrugged. "Not that I know of."

"We should tell everyone tomorrow."

Lily snorted. "You really need to stop hanging around me. I'm starting to become a bad influence."

Dom laughed. "Starting?"