Chapter 3

As I finished climbing the stairs and came out into the bathroom, I came face to face with Hermione. She had her arms crossed and her lips were pursed in a line. Quickly I closed the entrance to my Chamber and turned back to face her, "Ah… Hermione what are you doing here?" I struggled to kept my voice controlled, it felt exactly like when Rowena had caught me doing something that I didn't want anyone else to know about, she always seemed to know.

"I followed you, I thought you had been acting odd all day, so when I saw you come down into the common room and exit through the portrait hole, I followed you." I frowned I had checked to make sure that no one was following me, no one had been able to follow me when I was Salazar, if I didn't want them to. "Anyway that's not the point, the point what are you doing sneaking down to the Chamber of Secrets in the middle of the night?" She asks.

"That's not really any of your business, so can you please let me pass so that I can go to bed." I brush past her and start to walk towards the exit to the bathroom.

"Yes it is my business, I'm worried about you. You have been acting differently ever since you disappeared yesterday morning. So you're not going anywhere until you tell me what you were doing down there and what happened yesterday morning." She steps in front of me as she says this.

"Can't we do this at another time?" I ask "I would like to get to bed"

"No."

I sighed, she had noticed something much quicker than I had anticipated, maybe I should just tell her, she would figure something out eventually. Would she believe me though, if they weren't my memories, I would have had a hard time believing myself. I decide to tell her "make yourself comfortable, this might be a little difficult to believe."

"As long as you finally tell me what's going on and why I find you sneaking around in the middle of the night to go to the Chamber of Secrets." She replies

"It started when I disappeared yesterday morning before breakfast…"

"I thought so." She interrupts

"Do you want me to tell you or not?" I ask exasperated

"Right sorry, please continue,"

"As I was saying, yesterday morning, I went to hide a book in the room of Hidden Things; you know the one that Ron got in trouble for," I started to recount what had happened yesterday. Hermione opens her mouth to interrupt me again but I glare at her and she closes her mouth again. "I found a book in the room of Hidden Things, and I opened it to find a rune that I had never seen before. I blacked out after I touched it and when I woke up I remembered a past life that I lived over a thousand years ago."

"Really," Hermione gasps, this was surprisingly easier than I thought to make her believe me. Here comes the hard part though, a test to see how much of a friend she really is, explaining that the past life that I lived was that of Salazar Slytherin.

"That's not all; in my past life I was called Salazar Slytherin." I turn away from her as I say this, almost afraid of her reaction.

"Harry, I think that we need to visit Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggests quietly "You're obviously not feeling well."

I spin around to face her, suddenly angry "I'm not crazy, if you don't believe me that's fine but don't patronise me!" As I say this I head toward the door. If I had looked back I would have seen the hurt expression on her face.

Her inability to believe me had hurt more than I cared to admit, so I found myself at the top of the astrometry tower, this is where I had always come if I needed time. It is funny how in both lives I found comfort in the breathtaking beauty of the night sky and the quietness of it. I had come here after every disagreement with Godric and when I found out the truth about my 'family.'

When I had calmed down enough, I realised that I would just have to prove to Hermione that what I said was the truth, but that was the hard part, proving to her that what I said was real. I pushed these thoughts to the side for now and instead focused on what I was planning to do because I met Hermione outside my chamber, recovering my sword from the Sorting Hat within Dumbledore's office.

I schooled my features back into my mask of indifference as I walked down the astrometry tower stairs. As I walked through the corridors, I cast a disillusionment charm so that if I met any teachers, they wouldn't be able to see me. When I reached the gargoyle, I looked him sternly in the eye and told him "You know who I am, let me pass." The gargoyle slowly moved to the side to reveal the staircase beyond. I made my way up the stairs and couldn't help remembering that this tower used to contain Rowena's library.

I reached the door leading to the entrance of Dumbledore's office and after a quick sweep of my magic to ensure that no one was inside, I opened the door. The office was crowded with delicate silver instruments that were buzzing and whistling softly, the portraits of past headmasters and headmistresses were snoring quietly as I entered Dumbledore's office. My eyes immediately sort out the sorting hat that was hidden away on the top most shelf, surrounded by a number of books on both sides.

I moved towards the shelves and reached up to grab the sorting hat from the shelf and placed it on my head. "So back again I see, Mr Potter, or should I say Lord Slytherin,"