A/N: Okay, so I'm going to tell you right now, I kinda really don't like this chapter, but it just had to happen. Anyways, we are, by my estimation, two or three chapters from the end. Yay! And then we can finally move on to my favorite books! :P I would also like to thank everyone who has favorited/followed and reviewed. You guys are amazing and deserve all the cookies! Now on to the chapter.

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J. except my OC's. Those are mine.

Chapter Eleven; The Plan and the Hag

Riley sat in the common room with the Trio, thinking over the new developments. So Harry was a Parselmouth. This was just… fantastic! He could talk to snakes! He could talk to animals! Riley used to wish every year on her birthday for the ability to talk to animals. She would spend days afterward trying to hold conversations with the squirrels in her back yard to no avail. It didn't stop her from continuing to wish, though.

Parseltongue used to be a thing of legend. Most people didn't even believe that Slytherin had been one anymore, because the ability hasn't been seen in decades. Now Riley had concrete proof that it was real! She finally had proof that it was possible to talk to animals and she was ecstatic.

Harry, on the other hand, was chewing his lip like he usually did when he found out something about himself he didn't like. It was probably because Hermione and Ron were telling him the ability was only part of Slytherins blood line. It was true, of course, and Riley really didn't understand how Harry had the ability, but that was honestly the last thing on her mind.

"Harry," Riley called sitting up from her slouched position so quickly, she made her three friends jump, "Harry, you have to teach me. Please! I need to know how to talk to snakes so that I can add it to my research."

Hermione gave her an odd look. "Riley, you can't learn to be a Parselmouth."

Riley gave her a sharp look. "How do you know? Has anyone ever tried to learn it? Can you tell me for a fact that I can't? I can hiss can't I? So why can't I speak Parseltongue?"

"Because! I'm sure loads of wizards have tried to learn it, but you don't hear about anyone succeeding do you?"

"Maybe that's because the previous people who could speak it, didn't want to try and teach it! It's a bloodline thing, Hermione; they would most likely be very protective of it. Harry's different, though. He'll teach me. I'm his friend. Right, Harry?"

Harry, who had been watching them go back and forth like a tennis match, now, looked at Riley with wide eyes. "Riley," He said unsure, "I didn't even know I did it… How can I teach you when I don't even notice when I do it?"

Riley's excitement deflated as quickly as it had taken hold of her. Falling back into her chair, she let out a disappointed sigh. "Right. Sorry, Harry." Luckily for Hermione, Riley missed her I-Told-You-So look that she loved to use on Riley so much.

The rest of the evening was spent discussing the repercussions of what had been discovered. Harry was freaking out that he might be related to Slytherin and Riley was trying to prepare him for the next few weeks. She figured everyone would be having similar thoughts on Harry's heritage and that it would probably be cause for some nasty looks and rumors. After awhile they all decided it would be best to just go to bed.

As Riley slipped under the warm covers of her bed, she couldn't help but be disappointed. She looked up at Elephant, who was settling down in her hair, and whispered, "You'll teach me how to speak to animals, right Elephant?"

Elephant just squeaked at her. Yeah, she wasn't really counting on it, anyways.

~{ }~

The next morning, the castles inhabitants woke to snow covered grounds and icy walkways. It seemed the snow that had started in the night, had escaladed into a blizzard so bad that the last Herbology class of the term, was canceled. Riley decided instead to spend her free time with Neville, teaching him Potions. Riley had found that without Snape there to breathe down his neck the whole time, Neville really wasn't that bad at Potions. He just needed to relax. So Riley set up their Potions kits in an old classroom and helped him practice. After awhile they even made a game of it; one of them would be blindfolded, while the other would direct them on what to do. Though, they decided to stop after the third explosion.

Riley grinned as she flipped to a back page of one of her more advanced potions book. "How about we do this one?"

Skeptical, Neville looked over at the page. His eyes went wide with alarm. "No! No way, Riley! We can't do that! We've already exploded three potions—"

"Alright, alright," Riley sighed, "Calm yourself, Neville. It was just an idea."

Neville seemed to deflate with relief, before timidly suggesting a different, easier potion.

~{ }~

Come evening, Neville and Riley packed up their stuff and headed back to the common room. Riley was still giggling over the fact that the last explosion had singed Neville's eyebrows to almost extinction. If it wasn't for Fred and George, who had heard the noise and come to investigate, Neville would still be sporting his spotty brows.

Walking into the common room, Riley's giggling ceased rather quickly. It was as if they had walked in on a funeral. Everyone was muttering to each other in quiet whispers, hunched together as if to have safety in numbers. Riley looked around until she spotted Ron and Hermione by the fire whispering furiously to each other.

"What's going on?" Riley asked as she and Neville slumped into seats right next to Hermione.

"There was another attack," Hermione answered.

Riley could feel the color drain from her face. "Who?"

"Justin Finch-Fletchey and Nearly-Headless Nick. Harry found them, but everyone thinks Harry's the one who did it."

"That's ridiculous," Riley rolled her eyes, "Harry's best friends with a muggleborn and a 'blood traitor'. What reason would he have for attacking other muggleborns? Not to mention he doesn't have the power to petrify people like that, I mean he's only twelve!"

"I know, Riley," Hermione said in a placating way, "They're just scared and looking for something or someone to blame. It doesn't help that Harry has been seen at two of the three attacks."

"That doesn't excuse their idiocy." Riley growled, frustrated. She honestly couldn't wait to get a break from the student's stupidity. Any other day, Riley would probably agree with Hermione and just ignore it, but because they were blaming her friend, her temper was getting the best of her.

The next few days went by rather slowly for Riley and her friends. Everyone was treating Harry as though at any moment he would sprout fangs and start spitting poison. Fred and George tried to cheer them up by making jokes about it. When Harry would walk through the corridors, Fred and George would walk in front of him shooing people out of the way and shouting things like "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through…"

Percy was not happy with their attitude.

"This is not a laughing matter," He said coldly.

"Oh, get out of the way, Percy," Fred said, "Harry's in a hurry."

"Yeah, he's off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant," George added chortling.

Harry, at least, seemed to appreciate the fact that the twins found him being an evil wizard ridiculous. Riley and the twins would crack jokes all evening in the common room until they could get Harry to laugh and then would do their best to keep his mind off what the rest of the student body thought.

~{ }~

As Christmas drew closer, and the Polyjuice Potion got nearer to completion, Riley made sure to give the trio a nice long lecture. First she made sure they understood the importance of knowing the person you'll be playing. Hermione had decided on Millicent Bulstrode and Ron and Harry had decided on Crabbe and Goyle. Riley had made sure the three of them could all walk and talk like the people they would be portraying, so it would be less likely that Malfoy would figure out they weren't themselves.

Then she made sure they knew exactly where the Slytherin common room was and how to get in and finally, she made sure they had an escape plan. When Riley was at last satisfied, she wished them good luck and reminded Hermione to send her a letter when they succeeded.

~{ }~

At last, term ended and Riley, Neville and Luna found their way into an empty compartment. Riley had introduced Neville to Luna a few days after Riley had met the girl herself. It had been an interesting introduction, since Luna had promptly informed Neville that she was pretty sure he had a few wrackspurts hanging around his head, and that if he got rid of them, his homework would surely improve by leaps. After that rather odd tidbit of information, Neville and Luna seemed to click rather well. Though Neville still tended to give her odd looks when she would mention a creature he had never heard of, he was slowly becoming more open to the impossible and Riley was extremely glad of the fact.

"So, what are your plans for the holidays, Riley?" Neville asked as he munched on a cauldron cake he had just gotten from the trolley.

Riley grimaced. "Going to visit Andy's mother. The woman has supposedly been on her deathbed for the last five years, but for some reason she refuses to just kick the dang bucket already."

Luna gave her an almost sharp look. "It's not nice to wish death upon someone, even if that someone has hurt you."

Riley gave her friend a fond if a little bit exasperated look. "You understand a lot of things Luna, but this one I don't think you do. She's a terrible woman, who would most likely be glad to see me dead because I'm a half-blood and I don't mind surrounding myself with muggleborns or muggles. She wanted to disown my aunt originally, just because she married a muggleborn. I hate her and she hates me."

Luna's eyes went back to their dreamy state but not before giving Riley a slightly reproachful glance. "Hate is a strong word, not to be used lightly, you know."

Riley sighed. "Trust me; I'm not using it lightly."

With that said, the conversation turned back to holiday plans and sooner then the three of them would have liked, the train pulled into the station.

"See you in a few weeks!" Riley said giving them each a hug. Riley stepped onto the platform and searched the crowed before spotting Tonks by the barrier. Grinning brightly, Riley ran over to her favorite cousin.

"Tonks! What are you doing here? I figured you'd be at training."

Tonks smiled happily back, giving Riley a hug before helping her with her bag.

"Well, I was supposed to be, but when I told Mad-Eye that Mum and Dad wouldn't be home to pick you up from the station, he let me go. There are some advantages to being related to your boss's only niece." Tonks said, poking Riley's side.

Riley laughed and rolled her eyes. "How is the crazy old man, anyway? I can't get him to reply to a letter to save my life."

"Oh, you know the usual, yelling at everyone, making new recruits cry, and basically just being scary and awesome at the same time."

They both laughed as they made their way to Ted's beat up car. The rest of the journey home was spent catching up and bickering about random things. Riley's smile never left her face, though, because as much as she loved Hogwarts and her friends there, she had missed being home.

~{ }~

Christmas day came and went in a flurry of presents, badly sung carols, wrapping paper wars and a wonderfully stuffing feast. Remus and Mad-Eye had stopped over briefly, but Mad-Eye was called back to the Ministry and Remus was feeling too ill to stay.

The next morning, Riley received an owl from Hermione with updates on how their plan worked out. It seemed that Riley had been correct in assuming that Malfoy wasn't the one behind the attacks, but they did get some information out of him. Apparently the Chamber had been opened once before, fifty years ago and someone had died. They also found out that whomever it was to open it last time had been expelled and probably sent to Azkaban.

That part didn't make much sense to Riley, though. If the perpetrator had been caught, then how was the Chamber being opened now? Especially since it could only be opened by Slytherins Heir. Could it be that the person who opened it last time had kids? It seemed unlikely if he was in Azkaban this whole time. Then again, he could have had a sister or brother who had kids and they were the ones to open it, but still, something about that just didn't sit right with Riley.

On the Brightside, they did find out that the Malfoy's had a secret chamber in their drawing room that held some "valuable" Dark Arts stuff. Ron had sent Mr. Weasley a letter tipping him off about it. Hopefully, Riley would see something good about it in the paper later.

Though, Riley almost loathed admitting it, the plan had worked out well all things considered. The trio finally had their answer about Malfoy and Riley had some new information to ponder.

She had considered once or twice the idea of talking to Moony and Mad-Eye about her and the trio's findings and her thoughts on them, but decided it best not to. Mostly because, Riley saw this as something she needed to figure out on her own and also because she knew both her godfather and uncle would not be happy with her snooping around in dangerous things. They would probably tell Dumbledore about it then, too, which would get them all in trouble and just cause a big mess. As much as she would like to tell them everything, she knew that if she wanted to figure this out herself, she would have to do it without their help.

~{ }~

That evening Riley, Andromeda and Tonks gathered around the fireplace in order to floo to Druella Blacks home. Andromeda paused in front of the fire to look Riley over.

"Alright. Now Riley, for once, can you please behave yourself? It's hard enough going back there without having to listen to you and Mother have a go at each other," Andromeda said sternly.

"I still don't understand why I have to go. I'm not even technically related to the woman, and besides that she hates everything I stand for," Riley replied, crossing her arms.

Andromeda sighed and rubbed her temples. "I've already told you, Riley. You are apart of this family whether you like it or not, and as such, she requires you to be there," Seeing Riley's blank look, Andromeda groaned, "Let me put it this way. She's a crazy old bat, that enjoys insulting people and as we are the biggest outcasts of the family she wants us to be there so the last thing she can do before dying is insult us. There is no logic behind us going, so don't bother trying to find any. The only reason I'm going is because when all is said and done, she is still my mother and at some point in my life I loved her. Okay?"

Riley blinked a few times before grinning and stepping around her aunt to get to the fire. "Well, why didn't you just say that?"

Riley snickered when she heard Tonks groan and Andromeda sigh.

Stepping out of the fire, Riley grimaced. This house always gave her a bad feeling. The living room held little light, as the dark green, almost black, velvet curtains were blocking most of the evening sunlight from coming in. The emerald and silver wallpaper was offset by the mahogany and green velvet seating. The whole place was just covered in different shades of green, silver and black. Slytherin, himself, would have been sickened with overabundance of the colors. Yet the room still held a cold elegance to it, with the intricate chandeliers above their heads and the smooth carvings in the wooden tables and book shelves. It was like stepping into an antique store for your average medieval overlord.

Sitting straight backed and commanding in one of the almost-too-much-for-even-an-evil-overlord chairs, was a withered old woman, dressed to the nines, big hat and white gloves included. Her sickly pale face set in a permanent scowl, the woman's ice blue eyes hardened with dislike upon seeing Riley.

Riley scowled back at the woman and took a seat as Andromeda and Tonks arrived.

"Aren't you dead yet, you old hag?" Riley said. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Andy putting a hand over her eyes and shaking her head in defeat.

"I could say the same to you, filthy traitor," Druella replied in kind.

"I'd rather be a traitor then a Neo-Nazi," Riley said conversationally.

"How dare you speak to me like that, you half-breed," Her voice was calm as well, but there was a certain snap to it, that made even Riley flinch minutely.

"Prune."

"Mudblood." There was a pause as the two glared at each other coldly, before Druella waved her hand towards the tea set sitting on the freshly polished coffee table. "Tea?"

Riley shrugged as she reached for tea cup. "Yeah, I could go for some. Wait, it's not just that bland black tea you get is it? You didn't put, like, tangerine in it or something?"

"Of course you would want to mess up anything of good quality with your filthy muggle ideas," Druella sneered.

"Oh, shut up, you old hag and pass the sugar," Riley rolled her eyes.

The rest of the evening went on, much the same way. Druella would make a slight against Andy's lifestyle in a roundabout way, and Riley would reply with a much more straight forward insult. It got to the point that Riley was actually starting to enjoy the back and forth with the woman. Despite the fact that she hated everything about the woman and her ideals, Riley had to admit the old hag had an endless amount of wit. She could tell you your dress was ugly and your hair was a mess and you would almost believe she was complimenting you by the sly way she would put her words. Though Riley much preferred the more straight forward approach, she could appreciate the subtly in Druella's words.

By the end of the evening Druella had a spark in her eyes that Riley had not seen when they had first arrived. She didn't put much thought into it though, as Andy and Tonks both looked haggard like they had just gone ten rounds with a hungry lion and lost. Stepping out of the fireplace into the comfort of their home, Tonks collapsed on the couch and Andy wearily went to make tea. Ted just gave them all a knowing smile and went to the kitchen to hopefully cheer Andromeda up.

~{ }~

A/N: Right, so definitly not my best chapter, but I hope you guys still enjoyed it. Don't forget to leave me your thoughts and hopefully I will see you soon. :)