The faculty gathered in the Headmaster's office in the dead of the night, most of them with robes thrown over night clothes but some of them, such as Severus and Veronica still fully dressed in work clothes.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Albus began gravely, "I have called you all here because the magnitude of this news cannot wait until morning" He leaned on his desk and sighed in a tired way.

"I regret to inform you all that for the first time in fifty years…The Chamber of Secrets has once again been opened."

An alarmed gasp filled room as friends turned to each other in disbelief and Veronica could feel Severus tense up beside her.

"Only a few minutes ago, a young boy was found petrified in the west corridor, clutching a destroyed camera. He has been transferred to the hospital wing until the Madrakes are fully matured and he can be cured, but until then we must take every precaution that this does not happen again."

"Will the school be closed headmaster?" Professor Flitwick asked and Dumbledore shook his head,

"No, at least not yet. For now we must all remain calm and keep a level head." He sucked in a breath, "Tomorrow morning we must all address the students, and institute new safety precautions. No one is to be alone."

Dumbledore laid out a set of new procedures for the teachers to set forth among the students, even teachers were to patrol the halls in pairs now just in case.

When they all left Veronica was asked to stay behind with the headmaster.

"Now, Veronica. I understand this must all come as a shock to you." He sat across from her at his high back seat, "but I need you to try and remember everything you saw and heard before finding the boy."

Veronica, now in a more stable state of mind nodded, swallowing on her dry throat. "Well, I did hear something. It sounded like something sliding across the floor." She wrung her hands, "I…I thought it was just a student out of bed, because I thought it sounded like a cloak or something being dragged on the tiles"

"Can you estimate how far away the noise was?"

"It sounded like it was just about the corner, so I followed it a moment but I didn't see anything. That's when I heard the scream…it sounded awful like he was terrified and all of a sudden he was being choked." The woman trembled to recall the ghastly sound and the headmaster nodded.

"How much time came between the sliding sound, and the scream?"

Veronica thought, "I don't know. A minute, maybe give or take a few seconds."

"How far away from you was Mr. Creevey when you heard the scream? Feet? Yards?"

"Uh, I couldn't tell it was a few hallways down but…" She swallowed and tried to imagine how many turns she had taken, "maybe little over a hundred yards, but I can't be sure."

"That's alright, we'll determine all the facts in the morning. Until then you must be exhausted, and it would be best for all to rest." Veronica nodded and stood.

"Thank you headmaster, good night." She said quietly and slipped out of the office and down the stair case before drawing her wand to walk back to the class room.

"You're still shaking."

Veronica just about screamed as she whipped around to face voice in the shadows.

Severus slipped out of the darkness and into the light of the glowing wand with a severe look on his face.

"Severus" She breathed, thankful it wasn't some monster come to claim her like that poor child.

"What are you doing down here?" she asked and he shrugged. "Waiting, we can't be too careful now"

"You said it was only a legend." She got right to the point, slightly accusatory.

"I said I thought it was." He corrected her as she lowered her wand with a small quiver.

"I just didn't want you to be frightened, you seemed pretty shaken up by it all."

Veronica bit her lip and nodded, "well, I'm pretty shaken up now as well. What do we do now?"

"All we can, try to find the chamber and keep the students safe." Snape shrugged and motioned down the hall, "we had better start moving, we must stay in pairs remember?"

She nodded and they carefully strode down the halls at a healthy clip.

"So, eh…" Severus began but seemed to struggle to find the right words. "How…how are you uh…?

"Feeling?"

"Yes."

"Not great, but I'll get over it." Veronica sighed, "I think the shock's worn off by now." But she still had a deep frown etched across her face.

"That poor kid" she sighed.

Veronica adored children, especially young ones with large bright eyes and broad smiles.

They were so hopefully, so optimistic, they had their entire lives ahead of them.

"He'll be alright" Severus told her, trying not to sound dismissive. "Once the Mandrakes are mature enough the drought will put him right again."

"So if the castle has been searched hundreds of times, how will the Chamber be found this time?" She inquired and Snape didn't reply, which basically meant he hadn't any idea but he had a sinking feeling it wasn't going to be easy.

"I swear to God, if Lockhart tried to use this situation for personal gain I'll…I'll...I'll…"

"Stutter at him?"

Veronica growled and pouted, "I'll do something."

Severus didn't say anything but he eyed her skeptically, "you could always quit."

"I can't afford it. I only took the job to get myself back on my feet after I got laid off from the ministry of magic. It wasn't supposed to go on this long." Veronica confessed, "And I can't get a raise so I'm barely making it as it is."

Severus knew how she felt, before agreeing to work at the school he could recall slaving away in a tiny potions shop, living pay check to pay check, barely making ends meet and sometimes not even then, and going hungry most of the time.

"Well, what was your plan when you were going to school?"

"I was going to be a writer, but ended up evicted and living with my parents because I couldn't make rent…pathetic, I know" Veronica frowned sheepishly, too embarrassed to look at him. "But enough about my tragic back story."

Severus frowned, truthfully indignant that someone whom he had seen possess legitimate intelligence was working under a blundering, babbling idiot like Gildaroy Lockhart when she clearly had more cleverness in her little finger than the bottle blonde dolt had in his entire body.

And to make the matter even more frustrating, it seemed to him that Veronica didn't grasp how intelligent she was.

"Well if you'll pardon my saying so, I just think It's a little sick that you've been put completely in charge of managing Lockhart's career and you are still barely making ends meet," He said with sudden forcefulness, which took Veronica aback for a moment

"Not to mention that if anything he should be taking orders from you, you obviously have the lion's share of the brains."

Veronica was stunned, no one had ever been so straight forward about it like that.

Several times it had been implied by publishers that they knew Veronica was the master behind the scenes, but even then Lockhart got all the credit.

Sure it bothered her a little, but it's not like she craved the lime light like he did, she had always told herself it was a better arrangement this way.

But maybe he was right, maybe she didn't give herself enough credit.

While she ran this through her head Severus instantly started kicking himself for letting all of that fall out of his mouth before he could bite it back. It wasn't his place to stick his nose into her life, what had he been thinking?

"Wow, uh." Veronica swallowed and blinked, at a loss for words.

"You…certainly have a way with words, Professor I don't…" she laughed awkwardly, "I don't know what say."

"I don't know why I said that." Severus picked up his pace a little, trying to put some distance between them. "I apologize if I…"

"You're right."

He paused, "What?"

"You're absolutely right." Veronica nodded in agreement. "In a perfect world, I wouldn't have to work under someone like Lockhart. But…" she shrugged.

"We both know that's not how it works sometimes. I know how smart I am Severus, I've told all my life. But in the real world intelligence won't get you that far unless you have the savvy to put it to use outside of academia, and unfortunately that's not something I ever learned to grasp"

She smiled ironically at him and shifted her eyes down the hallway.

"We had better keep moving."