All too soon it was time for the Christmas holiday. Since none of the students were being allowed to go home, all the students were staying at school. There had been little news about the war for a while, except for a little snippet deep in the paper on general things for those interested in the affairs of Muggles. Tom could not be less interested, but always read the articles anyway, just to see. There was something about this war that was highly appealing to him.
Tom and Lena had spent as much time as they could in the library, looking through books as they continued their search for the Chamber. Though they had found some useful things, they still felt like they were no closer to finding it than they had been when they had started. But when Lena found one book and had Madam Beech take it down, even if it was reluctantly on the librarian's part, she thought she had found the first clue to unraveling the mystery.
"Hey, Tom," Lena set a book beside him on the table they usually worked at in the Restricted Section, "look what I found."
The book's title was Hogwarts Castle: An Incomplete Survey. Tom looked up at her somewhat puzzled. "'Incomplete?'"
"Well, it talks about all the spells and hidden rooms and passages known or speculated about in the castle. No one knows if they've found everything yet." She looked down at the book her hand was resting on. "I flipped through it and I did find something that might be useful."
The Slytherin brightened up from the rather gloomy mood he had been in a few minutes before. "Really?"
Sitting down beside him finally, she opened the book and looked for the section she had found earlier. Once she found it, she showed it to Tom. It was about the Chamber of Secrets legend and the searches that had been done to try and locate it. He pulled the book closer and started to read it to himself:
"Ever since Salazar Slytherin first left the castle, there have been periodic searches to try and locate his 'Chamber of Secrets.' All attempts to find it have proved futile, though. Still some professors, some very ambitious students, and even the Ministry have tried to find this hidden room.
"The first attempt to locate the Chamber was conducted by none other than Gordic Gryffindor himself as soon as he heard of the rumor. He scoured the castle from the top of the South Tower, which is where the astronomy classes were taught by Slytherin, to the deepest part of the dungeons with no success. After searching for several years, often with the help of the other two founders, he gave up, saying that Slytherin had created no Chamber and it was just a story.
"Still, the story remained. Over a hundred years later, the then headmaster, Marlon Perquius, started a search of his own, employing all the current professors to assist him over several summer holidays. After many tries, there was still no sign of the Chamber. There were no more known attempts to locate the Chamber for several centuries.
"When the next people tried to find it, it was a very unlikely group. During the height of the witch hunts, nearly the whole of Slytherin House went about searching for it, to use the creature said to be within it not against the Muggle-borns at the school, but against the Muggles doing the witch hunts. They were caught, though, and were forced to stop their search or be expelled.
"The best documented search of the castle occurred between 1739 and 1748. This added more knowledge about the castle than any other previous search, all of those things are included within this tome. The main reason of the thorough search was because the Ministry thought it would be good to bring in professionals to search the castle to assure that any dangers were known. They spent nearly a decade searching the castle. Several of the searchers had speculations about the Chamber's location, but none of them proved true.
"After this, a few more minor searches took place but there was still nothing found. Though there are some rumors of some people coming to search the castle and disappearing without a trace, it has never been determined whether these disappearances have any ties to the Chamber of Secrets or not. At the writing of this book, there is still no more proof of the existence of the Chamber of Secrets than Godric Gryffindor had when he undertook the original searches. It is still considered just a story and legend by all scholars and historians."
Tom looked up at his friend, seeming to be beaming with joy. "It mentions a thorough search done by the Ministry. Is there any way to get that information?"
"I could write my father and ask him what he thinks. Since he works at the Ministry and has friends in nearly every department, he might be able to find those documents."
"Thanks, Lena."
"It's not a problem. I'm happy to help, you know that." She stood. "I'll go to the owlery and send Taliesin to him now, if that's alright with you."
"Yeah, it's getting late. Go ahead." He smiled as she started to leave. "And Happy Christmas."
"Happy Christmas," Lena said as she smiled then left the Restricted Section.
Tom turned back to the book, reading the passage again. He wanted to find more information along these lines. This is what he had been searching for for a year. This gave him more things to look into. If there was something that would lead him to even some *speculated* locations, he was doing good.
After finishing reading it for the second time, he looked through the book. Some of the other information in it might come in handy later. He gathered the few notes he had made and left the Restricted Section with the old book. He set it on the librarian's desk with a smile. She had started letting them check out books about a month before since they were still being very good about how they were using the Restricted Section and she trusted them.
"Would you like to check this out, Mr. Riddle?"
"Yes, Madam Beech."
The librarian looked at the book's title and frowned. "Tom, this book…"
"I'm not going to go around doing things that would break the rules or anything. I promise. I just want to check it out for a little while. You know. Learn some faster ways to class." He smiled, working his charm on her, like he seemed to always be able to do with the teachers. No matter how he lied, she always seemed to believe him. "I promise I won't do anything that a prefect wouldn't. You have my word."
Pursing her lips, she studied the book for a moment then looked at him. "I will check this out to you on *three* conditions. One, you can only have this out for a week. Two, no one else is to see you with this book. And three, you do not break any school rules with the information in it. Do any of these three things and I might keep you from using the Restricted Section permanently, even if you become the Head Boy."
Tom smiled and nodded, though he was sure that he could still change her mind about it at a later date so he could keep it out longer, this was a good start. "I understand."
With her wand, she signed the book out to him and handed it back to him without a word, which he took with a "thank you" and a very grateful nod, though there was no way he was going to be following the conditions she had given him. Tom smiled as he headed back to his house, not believing that she had actually given him that book, though he had found that the teachers here were a little *too* easily swayed with his charm. No one ever seemed to think that he could be lying even when he was blatantly doing so. He looked at the book with an even bigger smile. After a year of searching, they had found some other decent books and come up with a good list of possible locations where the Chamber of Secrets might be. He looked at the list he had been working on. Hopefully the list the Ministry had compiled would be helpful to him, if Lena's father could get hold of it. And soon he could start looking for his ancestor's hidden chamber, wherever it was, and then let out the creature within.
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To my reviewer –
Sabrina Black Snapish – Glad you liked the last chapter…yes…I've been trying to figure out how to put in the "hatred" that the Slytherin girls have for Lena/Tom…which I still don't understand…I need to ask master about that since it *is* his story…and, yes, you'd better find the real Potter this time…master is still rather upset about the last incident…and I hope that Narcissa didn't spend too much of Lucius' money when she went shopping…
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*Waves to all my readers*…review me, please…^_^