Chapter 7: Chamber of Secrets pt 2
Hermione woke with a squeal. Something heavy and wriggly had been dropped on her suddenly. Opening her eyes, she saw Harry giggling and writhing on her stomach, James was standing nearby, laughing. Even Lily was fighting a smile. Hermione scowled at them but Harry's gurgling laughter was infectious. Soon enough Hermione was laughing with them.
"Come on Harry, breakfast time." Lily smiled, picking up the baby and carrying him out of the room.
"Breakfast?" James' head snapped up.
"Yes, breakfast for you too, but only once Hermione is dressed." Lily called over her shoulder.
"Hurry up 'Mione, hurry up." James danced up and down in the doorway.
"Well I'm not getting dressed with you standing there." She told him with a grin. His face fell and he sprinted back downstairs. Looking around, Hermione saw that Lily had put some clothes for her on the dresser and quickly got dressed.
Once she was ready, Hermione headed downstairs were James was waiting impatiently. He grinned as soon as he saw her and they both sat down at the kitchen table. Lily had made pancakes, which filled the kitchen with a delicious smell. No sooner had the plates been put in front of them there was a loud 'pop' and Sirius fell out of the fireplace.
"Once again Padfoot, your timing is impeccable." James grinned at his friend, who was already eyeing the pancakes hungrily. Lily pretended to scowl but set another ready made plate of pancakes in front of Sirius.
"Have him over often?" Hermione laughed.
"Every time I make food." Lily said, throwing him a dirty look.
"Your cooking is just so good Lily Flower." Sirius said between mouthfuls.
"Don't call me Lily Flower." Lily snapped.
"Come on Lils, he doesn't mean any harm." James interceded. Lily fed Harry while the others ate quickly.
"Where is Moony?" James asked as he pushed his empty plate away.
"He said he would be here in a few minutes." Sirius said, copying James. Hermione finished a few minutes after.
"That was lovely, thanks Lily." Hermione smiled.
"Your welcome." Lily smiled back. Suddenly there was another 'pop' and Remus came tumbling into the room. Lily set another plate on the table and James got up to make room.
"You lucky bugger Moony. If I miss breakfast she makes me cook my own." James stared at the new plate in front of Remus.
"Ahh but Remus is a guest." Lily grinned at him.
"And I'm your husband." James complained.
"God knows why." Lily muttered. Hermione and Sirius snorted.
"Are we waiting for the professors?" Hermione asked. Everyone shook their heads. "Ok then." She smiled and they all went back into the front room. Lily set Harry down on the floor and Sirius sat beside him, playing with some toys. Hermione smiled down at the sight and then sat in her chair from the night before.
"So, we had just heard that the boys decided to fly a car to Hogwarts." James prompted, a note of pride in his voice. Lily noticed this too and scowled at him.
"Yes." Agreed Sirius. Hermione had just opened her mouth to begin when Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall popped out of the fireplace. They took in the room before them and they quickly sat down.
"Well, the next morning Ron received a howler from Mrs Weasley." All the boys winced. "After that I figured the boys had been punished enough for their stupidity."
"Enough? Crikey, you're nicer than Lily." Sirius laughed. "She wouldn't think we had been punished enough until we had a week's worth of detention and about five howlers each."
"You did often deserve those punishment Mr Black." McGonagall smiled at him.
Hermione thought she heard Sirius mutter "Overkill." She smiled and continued with the story.
"After breakfast we had Herbology. We got down there in time to hear Lockhart telling Professor Sprout how to bandage the Whomping Willow."
"Bet she loved that." James snorted.
"Not really. Then Lockhart took Harry aside and tried to say that Harry only took the car to get more fame. Blaming himself for giving Harry a taste of fame in Flourish and Blotts."
"That slimy prat." Sirius growled.
"Herbology was about mandrakes."
"Hate those things." Lily shuddered.
"Me too." Agreed Remus.
"After that we had Transfiguration. Ron's wand now didn't work properly because he had snapped it. He refused to write home for a new one because he didn't want another howler. During lunch a first year, Colin Creevey wanted a picture of Harry. He was muggle-born and wanted plenty of pictures of Hogwarts, including famous Harry Potter."
"Oh Lord, why won't they leave him alone." Remus groaned.
"Another fan. Definitely better than you Prongs. He isn't even trying." Sirius grinned.
"And he doesn't like the attention." Lily added. "Thankfully, or he would be as arrogant as his dad."
"Hey!" James protested.
"He also wanted Harry to sign the Malfoy heard and started laughing about signed photographs. He taunted Ron about how a signed photo would be worth more than the family house."
"I see Lucius raised the brat well." Sirius spat.
"Like father, like son." James agreed.
"Then Lockhart showed up. He offered to be in the picture as well and then both of them would sign it."
"He is using my son for more publicity." Lily exclaimed, angrily.
"He took Harry off and started telling him it was big headed to be giving out signed photographs this early in his career and how he had rescued him from that situation."
"He made it worse." Remus protested. Hermione nodded. McGonagall was eyeing Dumbledore.
"Please make sure we never hire him." She pleaded. "The worst kind of colleague." Hermione snorted. "Miss Granger?"
"He just isn't the worst we end up with."
"Good Lord." McGonagall cried. "There is worse?" Hermione just nodded.
"First DADA lesson started with a quiz all about Lockhart. After that he showed us Cornish Pixies."
"Well that's reasonable for a second year class." Remus pointed out.
"Not the way Lockhart does it. He decided just to let them loose in class. The problem was he couldn't control them. They broke a window and hung Neville on the candelabra. Lockhart tried a made up spell that had no effect, except a pixie stole his wand and threw it out of the window." Hermione continued.
McGonagall was shaking her head in despair. Lily and Remus looked horrified and James and Sirius were laughing their heads off.
"The whole class ran out and Lockhart told me, Ron and Harry to clear them up. Which we did. The next morning Oliver Wood woke Harry at the crack of dawn for Quidditch practise. They spent ages going through new moves and stuff. When they finally got out on the pitch, it was only a few minutes few the Slytherins showed up."
"But Wood would have booked the pitch." James said, looking outraged.
"He did. Snape gave the Slytherins special permission to practise as they had a new seeker."
"But all teams get new seekers as some point. That doesn't mean they can interrupt other people's training." James glared at the notes in Hermione's hand.
"I agree Mr Potter. This is ridiculous." McGonagall said, looking angry.
"Anyway, Malfoy was their new seeker. His father had bought the team all new broomsticks so he would get on."
"That's disgraceful." Lily said.
"But allowed." McGonagall sighed.
"We are buying Gryffindor new brooms. After Harry gets on the team." James promised. "That way everyone can see he is brilliant, and the rest of the team get new brooms." Lily rolled her eyes.
"Ron and I came over to see why they weren't training anymore. Malfoy was laughing about how the Gryffindor team's brooms weren't that good. I told him that 'at least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in, they got in on pure talent.'"
"You tell him 'Mione." Sirius and James roared.
"He called me a mudblood." Suddenly their expressions dropped from pride to fury.
"He did what?" James asked, cold fury in his voice.
"That disgusting little…" Sirius' voice trailed away. He couldn't seem to find words bad enough. Everyone else wore the same disgusted expression.
"Ron tried to curse him but the broken wand backfired and it hit Ron instead. He ended up belching slugs."
"Yuck!" Everyone cried together.
"Harry and I took him to Hagrid's. Ron explained what that meant because Harry and I didn't know. Hagrid then started teasing Harry about signed photos."
The boys all chuckled.
"Then McGonagall told the boys what they had to do for detention when we went back up for lunch. Ron had to clean the trophy room the muggle way. Harry had to help Lockhart answer his fan mail."
"That poor, poor boy." Sirius said, shaking his head sadly.
"I thought our detentions were bad." James agreed. "That's just torture."
"First year the forest, second year Lockhart fan mail. I would take the forest." Remus nodded. Even McGonagall looked a little sickened. In the detention, Harry heard a voice. It wanted to kill."
"Kill!?" Demanded Lily and Remus. The two professors exchanged worried glances.
"Lockhart said he hadn't heard it and let Harry go. He had been there for almost four hours. He told Ron that night what had happened. One day Harry got in trouble with Filch for dripping mud around the castle after a Quidditch practise. Nearly Headless Nick helped him out by distracting Filch and Harry got away without being in trouble. In exchange he agreed to go to Nick's deathday party."
"Oooh. That sounds interesting." Lily smiled.
"It really wasn't. It was horrible. But as we left Harry heard the voice again. We followed it and saw a huge puddle of water outside of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Mrs Norris had been petrified. We didn't know that, we thought she was dead. On the wall was written 'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware.'"
"Oh my goodness." Lily and Remus exclaimed. James and Sirius just looked confused. McGonagall and Dumbledore were even more worried. What was roaming around their school?
"Naturally everyone arrived from dinner while we were standing there. Filch tried to blame us. Professor Dumbledore took us to Lockhart's office and said we couldn't have done it. Harry said we had been at Nick's deathday party and we weren't hungry so we went straight upstairs. Snape tried to get Harry banned from Quidditch until he told the truth, because he didn't believe us."
"He what?" James, Sirius and surprisingly, McGonagall growled.
"It's ok. Professor McGonagall flattened the idea."
"Too right." She muttered.
"People began to think that Harry was the heir of Slytherin."
"But he is in Gryffindor." James protested.
"In History of Magic, I asked professor Binns about the chamber. He told us a little bit. Harry and Ron thought the heir was Malfoy."
"Possible." Sirius said. "Evil enough."
"We went to ask Myrtle if she had seen anything."
"Too curious for your own good." Remus groaned, shaking his head. "Just like Harry's parents." He added with a grin.
"We saw spiders scuttling through a crack in the window. Apparently Ron is terrified of spiders. We went to talk to Myrtle who said she wasn't paying attention. Ron decided to be tactless and she flew off crying. Percy caught us coming out of the bathroom and wasn't happy that Harry and Ron had been in a girls bathroom."
"I bet he wasn't." Sirius and James grinned.
"I came up with the idea of Polyjuice potion to ask Malfoy what he knew."
"In your second year?" Gasped Remus, who hadn't been good at potions.
"How were you going to do it?" James asked.
"We were going to make it." Hermione grinned.
"But, even I...wow. Those boys are having a very bad effect on you." Lily said, shaking her head. "That could go disastrously wrong." She added. Hermione grimaced.
"We managed to get Lockhart to sign the permission form to take out a book in the restricted section so we could brew it. Lockhart tried to give Harry advice on seeking."
"But they git didn't even play seeker." James cried, looking both exasperated and annoyed. "And Harry is the youngest seeker in a century, he certainly doesn't need advice."
"After that was Gryffindor vs Slytherin, first game of the Quidditch season. It was raining heavily and one bludger was out to get Harry."
"It must have been jinxed." James cried immediately.
"It was." Hermione told him.
"Damn Slytherins." Sirius growled.
"Not by them."
"Stupid house elf." Remus snorted.
"What?" James and Sirius spun to look at him. Hermione looked impressed.
"Well that house elf, Dobby, was the one who stopped them getting through the barrier. Maybe he did it." Remus argued. Hermione nodded. They all glared furiously.
"Wood called for a time out and I put the Impervious charm on Harry's glasses so he could at least see a little."
"Nice work 'Mione." James grinned.
"Harry saw the snitch right above Malfoy's head, but he was too busy taunting Harry to notice."
"What an idiot." James snorted.
"The bludger caught up with Harry and broke his arm."
Lily's eyes were wide with worry.
"Harry caught the snitch though." Hermione assured James. He and Sirius then did a celebratory dance. "Lockhart tried to help. Harry wanted to go straight to the hospital wing, but Lockhart insisted. He didn't exactly fix Harry's arm either."
"What did he do?" James asked, through gritted teeth.
"He removed his bones."
"What!?" Everybody looked both worried, and furious.
"Madam Pomfrey fixed him up just fine. It just took overnight instead of a few minutes."
"That good for nothing, stupid, annoying…" Sirius ranted, but he stopped when baby Harry started to cry. Quickly, he picked up a new toy, a stuff black dog, and began playing with Harry again.
"During the night Dobby visited Harry. He told him that it had been him who stopped them getting through the barrier and cursed the bludger."
Remus grinned smugly.
"He also let slip that history was repeating itself, so Harry knew the chamber had been opened before. Dobby wouldn't tell him who had opened it and disappeared before Harry could try anything. Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall had come in carrying Colin Creevey. He had been petrified on the way up to visit Harry."
"The poor boy." Lily exclaimed.
"Only a first year too." Remus shook his head in disgust.
"Next morning, Harry was allowed back out of the hospital wing. Ron and I had heard about Colin so we decided to start on the potion. He found us in Myrtle's bathroom and told us what Dobby had told him, and what he hadn't told him which was just as significant."
"Too smart for your own good." James muttered. Hermione grinned.
"That year, Malfoy had decided to stay at Hogwart for christmas."
"That's suspicious. Knowing Narcissa she would always want her darling boy home for the holidays." Sirius frowned.
"We stayed as well, the holidays would be a great time to question him."
"Smart thinking." Remus grinned.
"Two of the main ingredients were not in the students store cupboard, we would need them from Snape's stores." Hermione admitted quietly. McGonagall and Lily looked disapproving. James and Sirius rubbed their hands with glee.
"Stealing from a teacher, what has gotten into you 'Mione?" Remus asked with a grin. She blushed.
"Well during the lesson, Harry threw a firework into Goyle's cauldron, which exploded and hit everyone with swelling solution."
"Sweet!" James and Sirius laughed.
"I slipped out and grabbed the things. I got back in time and Snape couldn't prove it was us. Although Harry thought he knew anyway."
"He probably did." Lily said.
"Anyway, a few days later there was a notice about a duelling club starting."
"Cool." James said loudly.
"That would be useful." Remus mused.
"It would have been, if Lockhart hadn't been running it." Hermione told them with a laugh.
"How on earth did that moron convince Professor Dumbledore to let him teach duelling?" Sirius asked.
"No idea." Hermione told him. "He also convinced Snape to help."
"Snivellus? Help Lockhart?" James spluttered, through howls of laughter. "
They gave a demonstration in which Snape disarmed Lockhart, who tried to pretend he could have blocked it but didn't want to."
"Nonsense." Lily snorted.
"Then they split us into pairs to practise. Snape put Harry with Malfoy."
"Of course he did." Spat James.
"Git." Sirius growled.
"Black!" Lily warned.
"He paired me with a girl called Millicent Bulstrode who decided on muggle duelling instead of magical. Harry and Malfoy were trying proper spells instead of just disarming."
"Atta boy son." James ruffled Harry's hair proudly.
"Do not encourage my son to jinx people." Lily scowled at him.
"This Malfoy kid is jinxing him too." James protested. "Just teaching him to defend himself."
"Lockhart got everyone to stop and made Harry and Malfoy give a demonstration. Malfoy conjured a snake. Lockhart tried to get rid of it but only make it angry. The snake made to bit a Hufflepuff boy in our year and Harry told it to leave him alone."
"Oh no." James groaned.
"He is being helpful." Lily told him.
"He used parseltongue in front of half the school. If there were rumours about him being the heir of Slytherin before, that will be nothing compared to now." James explained with another groan.
"James is right." Hermione said.
"First time for everything." Remus grinned.
"Oi." James glared at him.
"The Hufflepuff boy ran off, thinking Harry had been egging the snake on and Harry had no clue why. So when we got upstairs Ron explained what he had done. Harry hadn't even realised he was not speaking English. Next morning it was snowing so much Herbology got cancelled. Harry decided to go and find Justin, who was the Hufflepuff boy, and explain that he had been trying to help."
"They won't believe him." Sirius said glumly.
"He heard some other Hufflepuffs talking in the LIbrary and they all thought he was the heir of Slytherin. On his way back to the common room he stumbled into Justin. He had been petrified."
"No! Harry is going to be found next to the body isn't he?" Lily groaned. Why did her son always have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
"Yes. The thing was, Nearly Headless Nick had been petrified too."
"What?" Everyone exclaimed.
"Just as Harry was about to get help Peeves saw him and yelled that there had been another attack. Professor McGonagall got everyone back to class and took Harry to see Professor Dumbledore."Ch
