Hogwarts Year 2

Chapter 14

Three weeks into the new session and a Slytherin was found petrified. The fact that it was a Slytherin itself confused Dumbledore why would Salazar's heir attack one of his own and the student was not a muggle-born either. After all the last time something like this had happened only muggle-born were the targets and Slytherin had been exempt from attack. The news quickly spread all through the school that not even the pure-bloods were free from attack; this really put Draco in a bind since he had been saying some muggle-born would be next.

Harry had taken to listening at the Slytherin porthole or doorway as much as he could, but had not heard anything that let him know who might be responsible for the attacks. The only thing Harry had learned so far was that Draco wasn't well liked even by his own house. It appeared that only three people cared anything about being close to him, Crabbe, Goyle, and ,Draco's current girlfriend, Pansy Parkinson even Snape seemed to keep his distance from the pampas student . It was after watching Draco paw all over Pansy one night in the common room of Slytherin that Harry got a message from Hogwarts herself, "Lord Gryffindor/Slytherin I have found the last heir, but would not suggest confronting her at this time as she seems most disturbed by the goings on within the castle. She appears to be powerful, but still has the binding of youth upon her magic. It might be possible to remove those bindings with a potion that was used and created by Godric Gryffindor, the instructions are in his personal writings."

Harry spent the next couple of days searching for the potion instructions. The potion itself was very simple but the spell that went along with it wasn't so simple. The spell had to be cast just as the subject drank the potion, and only the heir could cast it with the help of Hogwarts power. Harry felt that doing this would be a little difficult to do in front of everyone in the great hall especially since that was the only place he could think of to slip her the potion, even if he knew which girl to give it too. Harry read through all the instructions again and noticed a note that said if he added a part of the mascot it would only affect an heirof that house. So, if he added hair from a badger then it would not affect the other girls, or guys, of Hufflepuff. Harry also noticed that the potion was stable for up to six months if properly preserved or stored and it only took a few drops in a glass to do the trick.

Harry got the potion brewed without any problem, since it was so simple, and then cornered Luna to talk about what was going to happen. Harry explained what Hogwarts had told him and what he planned to do, but he needed Luna to keep it to herself when the change took place and not mention the change in the girl's aura to anyone. Luna agreed and told Harry that Hogwarts had told her also about finding the final heir and that only Gryffindor had the potion instructions. Luna asked how Harry was going to be able to cast the spell without everyone noticing him. Harry sighed,that,he didn't know yet.

A few days later Harry came up with the idea of using his cloak of invisibility to hide himself while casting the spell. He would have to do this on a day when there were no classes and might have to cast the spell more than once since everyone might not be there at the same time during breakfast. A Sunday morning Harry felt would be his best chance. The following Sunday Harry told his roommates that he was going to sleep in a while and would catch up later. As soon as the others were gone Harry changed into his Phoenix form and flashed to a hidden area close to the great hall, he had made a deal with Pappy the night before to add the potion to only the Hufflepuff juice pitchers that morning.

Harry donned his cloak and eased into the great hall making his way to the rune stone so as to be able to tap into Hogwarts power when needed. Harry was surprised that it seemed that all the Hufflepuff House were down at the same time; this was a good thing, right? Harry gathered his thoughts and started the long complex spell; just as he finished the spell he saw several people glow briefly as their core bindings were released. But one girl glowed differently then the rest, she glowed with the colors of Hufflepuff, yellow and black, in addition to her normal aura. Harry made note of this girl, it was someone he had met before, someone who might be considered a friend hopefully some day soon.

Harry made his way out of the hall and back to his hiding place to remove the cloak. Once the cloak was safely stored in his pocket he went into the hall to eat breakfast. Luna soon came over to say hello and just smiled and nodded at Harry. Harry asked if he had missed anything and Hermione told him nothing had happened or been said that morning. The four met up outside and made their way towards the forest and Hagrid's hut to visit. Once inside Hagrid's they were talking about the changes in the school. It turned out the ICW representative from France was the one to sit in on potions; it made a big difference, now Snape taught potions instead of just writing on the board or assuming everyone understood the book.

In DADA there had been several different people sitting in on the classes, mostly members of the DMLE. Harry even stopped doing pranks on Prof. Lockhart since they no longer used his books and were using DMLE approved books. Hagrid said he had heard that a few of the sixth and seventh years were complaining that the spells were too hard to do and that the "class sitters" had said they were simple spells everyone should know, like medium shields and such. The four only stayed about two hours and then as soon as they were out of sight headed straight into the forest to play in their animal forms.

Everyone was having a good time, Neville had his Earth elemental create a large hole and Luna's Water elemental filled it with water so Luna could play as an Otter. In addition to playing the four practiced spells in animal form, Harry and Hermione were much better of course due to their more advanced training. Neville was surprised when Luna cast a spell he couldn't as she summoned items laying around the area. The big shock was when Harry changed into his snake form, nobody wanted to play with him so he just slithered out into the woods by himself to explore. While out by himself he found that he was getting hungry and lucked upon a couple of rabbits, which became lunch since all it took was one bite to dispatch them.

Harry returned to the area where he had left his friends and changed back into human form. The rest joined him in that form and Hermione complained about being hungry. Harry just said he wasn't since he found lunch in the forest and felt very full, he could find room for some pudding if they had it. Luna called Misty and asked her to bring four bowls of pudding from the castle for the four friends. Neville admitted he had eaten also, as did Luna. Hermione was the only one who had not looked for or found food in her animal form. She changed and went looking for food, she soon returned and said squirrel was very tasty in her animal form but it made her ill to think about it in human form. The four of them returned to the castle about an hour before supper.

As soon as they were close to the castle they saw several of the Hufflepuff girls practicing spell work and a few of them seemed to be having trouble with their power levels. Harry just grinned since he noticed the Hufflepuff heir amongst them and Luna grinned too. Things returned to normal the next day and stayed that way for a week or so.

It was during their special session with Prof. Flitwick that the four heard about a sudden increase in power some of the Hufflepuff students were experiencing. Harry and Neville told him that they had experienced the same increase when their cores were unbound, maybe that was what happened to the other students. The professor admitted he hadn't thought of that and it would make sense, even if it was causing problems in his classes and McGonagall had said the same thing about her classes.

It was a few days later in their extra class with Prof. McGonagall that the subject was brought up again, but she just asked if any of them knew anything about what happened. Nobody admitted to knowing a single thing about it, but Hermione offered the same explanation that Harry and Neville had given Flitwick which seemed to satisfy her. The professor mentioned that they were getting into late sixth and early seventh year spells with Harry and Hermione; while Neville was getting into late fourth year spells and Luna was into mid to late second year spells. She said she was very proud of the four of them, that was when Harry suggested she might want to include a few of the Hufflepuff students that were showing improvement.

After a few minutes Harry asked if Prof. McGonagall would be kind enough to check her spells keeping out the other students and staff, once he was assured that the door was secure Harry asked everyone to have a seat. "Professor, if you remember last year and what I revealed to you then you will understand it when I say all four heirs are present at Hogwarts this year. At the request of Hogwarts herself I can't reveal the identity of the Hufflepuff heir, but Luna is the heir of Ravenclaw and it seems that I am heir to both Gryffindor and Slytherin, at least the magical heir of Slytherin. But that doesn't mean that I know where the Chamber of Secrets is located, that is still hidden. I will ask you to include this new information in your vow of silence from last year and that you write out an invitation to Prof. Flitwick and Prof. Sprout to join us at this time and I will have it delivered via elf post", Harry said.

McGonagall wrote out the note and a strange elf appeared and accepted it for delivery. McGonagall mentioned that she didn't remember seeing that elf before and Harry revealed that it belonged to Ravenclaw heir, Luna. It wasn't but a few minutes before Misty, Sprout and Flitwick appeared. Harry once again explained what had happened and asked all of the professors to also swear a new oath, the professors swore the new oath without any questions asked. Now Harry explained that while he had no knowledge as to the location of the chamber he would try to find out and see what he could do about the monster, but he might need their help. What Harry didn't mention was their animal forms (since nobody in the school knew about those) and that they could all do magic in those forms, especially him.

A/N: Well it is getting close to time to end this year and get started on year 3. The next couple of chapters will deal with the chamber itself and the end of the year. Now a question for you, are my chapters too short? The chapters seem to be getting shorter and farther a part.

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