I don't own Harry Potter, that right belongs to JK Rowling. Enjoy the story, and if you don't please don't leave a mean comment. Thanks for reading!
A week later found George and Hermione packing up their trunks to go to Hogwarts. They had both talked to Headmistress McGonagall and had new jobs. Hermione would be the Muggle Studies teacher and George would be the new Flying Instructor. These jobs worked out perfectly for them because they weren't main subjects, meaning fewer students and fewer responsibilities. Neville and Percy were there as teachers as well but since they weren't that close to George and Hermione they wouldn't notice when they disappeared to become Rascal and Slick.
Hermione shrunk her last trunk and apparated over to George's flat. She knocked and laughed when he opened the door. He clearly wasn't ready to go yet. Socks and jumpers were lying all over his bed, all of his robes were still in his closet, and he didn't even have his broom shrunken yet. She walked in, waved her wand and said "Pack" and everything flew into his trunks, folding and organizing as it went. George just stood there gobsmacked. Why hadn't he thought of that? How did he not know that charm?
"Thanks Mione!" He said and threw his arms around her. He'd been packing for hours and she had finished in seconds.
"What did you just call me?" She wasn't mad, just curious. Nobody really ever gave her a nickname, except Slick of course. Ron tried but he called her Hermy and that SOOO didn't work for her.
George cocked his head, like a curious otter would "I called you Mione, sorry sweets but your name is too long sometimes. Is that ok? I thought it fit you." He said with a grin.
She laughed "Yeah it's great, thanks George, well should we go then? We'll apparate by the Shrieking Shack and then go up to the school?"
"Sure, but don't you know the Shack is haunted?"
"Oh George you have so much to learn. Not only is the Shack not haunted. I've been in it. With Harry, Ron, Remus, and Sirius. People thought it was haunted because that was where Remus transformed every month. His howls made people think it was haunted. And you want to know how to get there?" He nodded, there wasn't much he didn't know about the school, and this was exciting new information.
"The tunnel under the Whomping Willow. Oh and you know who the Marauders are right?"
"What the Whomping Willow… wow we never thought that tunnel got used. It makes sense though; they wouldn't want anyone running across Lupin in that state. And-wait… did you just say you know who the Marauders were? Tell me tell me tell me! Please Mione?" He was on his knees pleading for the information that him and Fred had searched for for years.
"Sorry, you'll have to wait; we really do need to get going." Hermione said with a smirk and disapparated from his flat.
"Oh that woman. She's good. I'll get it out of her though." George followed her.
After they were settled in at the school and had said hi to their fellow teachers, Flitwick giving them a big wink, they decided to try to figure out a place that they could research so they didn't actually have to go to the DOM every day.
"Well, there is always the Shrieking Shack, but somebody could get in there. Ron and Harry know how at least. A lot of people know about the Room of Requirements so that's out. Especially with Neville here. He mastered that room in our seventh year when Snape was Headmaster. OHHHH I know exactly where we can go! It's perfect! Oh but I wonder if we can get in…." Hermione was thinking out loud and suddenly stopped and put her wand to her head and pulled out a strand of silvery memory. She conjured a ball much like the ones she had seen in the Hall of Prophecies and put the memory inside.
"Mione why do we need a memory globe to get into wherever you just came up with?" George was confused.
"Because I can't speak Parseltongue and Harry can't now either. But I've heard him use it and this is a memory of that. Follow me and let's see if this will work." George was still confused but Hermione seemed like she knew exactly what she was doing so he trusted her. She was one of the people he would always trust. He got a little curious when she led him to a girls bathroom however.
"Mione why are we going to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom? It's a girl's loo and I'm not allowed in there… not to mention I don't want to see Myrtle." The last part he mumbled to himself.
"Because this is the entrance to our secret research area! Come on, trust me!" Well George couldn't really argue with that so he made sure the coast was clear and entered the loo with her. She walked up to the sinks and went to a certain tap. She pulled out the memory globe and tapped it with her wand. A little figure of Harry floated above the globe and hissed something. Before George could really think, the sink slid back and dropped into the floor, opening up what looked like an entrance. Then he understood where they were going. Hermione put the globe back into her bag and jumped down the hole with George following closely behind. Before he could stop he plowed into her and landed on top of her.
"Welcome to the Chamber of Secrets George, you wanna get off me now?" Hermione wasn't all that concerned with him on top of her, it actually felt nice, and the look he was giving her made her want to reach up and kiss him, but now wasn't the time and she was fairly certain she just imagined the look on his face.
George got up and held his hand out for her; he couldn't get the image out of his mind. She was gorgeous. He really wanted to get to know her better, she was the first person that had really gotten him to laugh or open up again since Fred died.
She led him through the front cave part to the doors leading to the actual chamber. Her and Ron had left them open when they came to get the fangs during the last battle. She idly wondered if they could change the password on the door. They went through to the chamber and George's eyes widened when he saw the slain basilisk. It hadn't decayed at all. He knew the story of Ginny's rescue and that Harry had killed the beast, but to see how big it was really added to the already immense respect he had for his friend.
He saw the statue of Salazar Slytherin and noticed the opening of the mouth. "Hey Mione, do you think there's anything up there?" He said pointing to the opening.
"We never thought to look, I know from Harry's story that that's where the basilisk lived, but other than that I have no idea. Let's take a look. Maybe we should call Firefox and let him know where we are though in case something happens." George thought that was a great idea and put on the glamour charms he had read about in his binder. He pulled out his mirror and called Firefox.
"Hey, we found a great place to research that is totally and completely secure within Hogwarts, do you think we could work here instead of the DOM for the most part?"
"Depends on where you are, are you sure it's secure?"
"Well it's the Chamber of Secrets so I would think so. It took hundreds of years to find it. The only way we can even get in is with Hermione's memory of Harry speaking parseltongue."
Firefox chuckled "Well that certainly is a secure place; I think that would be fine, you should be able to just go to the other place when you need to. I have to go, Minerva wants a word." With that the mirror went to black.
"Got the ok Mione, lets check out old Sally's brain." Mione laughed and George led the way into the opening. The walked a little and soon came upon a door. They could see the area where the basilisk must have slept, but the door was on another wall. It was almost like the snake was guarding it. They went to it and tried to open it after checking for jinxes. Hermione pulled out the memory globe again and had Harry say "Open" and they heard a click. George opened the door slowly and gasped. Hermione had to sit down, for they had found a library the size of the Hogwarts library. She picked up a book and noted that it was written by Slytherin himself. Another was written by Godric Gryffindor. They found books by all four founders and realized they had hit the jackpot. Surely one of these books would have the information they sought.
They didn't even speak as both went around finding books that could be of use and sat down to start their research.