Author's Note: Once again I'm going to have to start this chapter by apologizing for my absence. You would be amazed to know what I go through to get each chapter up. First of all you should note that I make this all up as I go along and post as soon as I have a full chapter so I have to fight through writer's block and make it all make sense. This chapter and the previous chapter have also been deleted on me a couple times each making it all the more infuriating. Then my 1 year old threw my laptop out of the shopping chart (I had my shopping list on it) cracking the screen so I went without it for two weeks while it was mailed in for repairs. Then I had my baby on the 2nd of this month so I'm figuring out how to juggle three kids, and this one led me to daily doctor visits because of his bilirubin levels. Much to say, life has been all sorts of fun lately. I plan to finish this story out and I'm sorry for the delays, but it will have to come as I can do it. For now though, here is the next chapter.

~Lily

Chapter 21: It's Back!

Things calmed down considerably as the weeks went by. There hadn't been an attack since before the Christmas Holidays, and as Valentine's Day approached, many of the fears that had run rampant through the entire student body were being placated. Lockhart of course took complete credit for the stopping of the attacks, and decided that a 'celebration' was in order and that Valentine's Day made the perfect time for a little mood lightening. He had therefore arranged for the students to be able to send and receive singing valentines, and the chaos it created in the classrooms was enough to drive even cool and collected Professor Sprout up the wall. Severus and Minerva of course banned the singing dwarfs from even entering their classrooms, but that didn't stop them from giving their message quite loudly in the corridor.

As far as the attacks were concerned, the fact that they had suddenly halted only solidified the idea that Tom Riddle's diary was the true source behind them. All of the Professors were quite sure that the encounter with Harry and Pomona had made Ginny skittish enough to refuse to take the diary out of hiding, and while they accepted this as a temporary solution, they knew that the only way to stop the attacks permanently, would be to lure her out so that they could destroy the diary completely. With that in mind, all of the Professors continued to keep a close eye on Ginny. It had been decided that the only one that was to approach her was Minerva, and only once.

Once Minerva had collected herself enough to be calm about the matter, she had started calling all of the first years into her office to speak with her. She had figured that the best way to make Ginny comfortable while trying to get as much information out of her as possible would be to have second semester interviews to check up with the first years. During these interviews she asked the student how his or her first semester had gone, how their Christmas holidays had been, if they were doing alright with being back at Hogwarts for another semester, and if there was any concerns or questions they had, or anything that would make the semester go a bit smoother for them. She would be the first to admit that it was probably something she should do with every first year every year, but she found it a menial and draining task since most of the students were either well-adjusted or refused to talk to her about it anyway. It was usually only when she saw a struggling student that she took the time to perform the interviews on only a select few. This year however, she felt that it would be best if she gave generic interviews to all first years, and made sure to place Ginny's somewhere in the middle so that she didn't make it seem she was singling her out by making her either first or last.

In her opinion, the interview actually went quite well. She refused to even bring up the diary, and instead focused on asking Ginny how she was coping with being away from home, how her classes were going, what friends she had made and what they enjoyed doing at the castle, and just what she thought of how things were going in general. She was glad to see the girl relax a bit when the topic of the diary never came up, but she noted that Ginny was definitely a student struggling with all of the changes, and Minerva had simply missed it due to the stress of the chamber, as well as the fact that Ginny seemed to be one of those that suffer in silence. She set up a couple goals with the girl to try to help her smooth things out a bit, and promised to check in with her on everything later on down the road. While she hadn't learned anything about the diary, she felt that she had set the girl at least a little bit more at ease and hoped that it would only be a matter of time before the entire matter was resolved completely. If it all stayed as smooth as this, they might even pull through this entire mess without any more attacks.

*~*~*Trouble With Polyjuice*~*~*

As Head of Slytherin, the Hogwarts Potions teacher, and one of the best Potion Masters in Britain, Severus was kept extraordinarily busy, and therefore he found it impractical to supervise the study group every single day. He also understood that classes had officially ended for the day, and that sometimes students needed a half way relaxed place to study without their imposing Head of House looming over them the entire time. Therefore, he generally left the supervision of the study hall up to the Slytherin Prefects except for the first week of returning back from any kind of break, during heavy testing, and random days in which he decided to sit in just to remind them all that he was in deed watching.

This being said, Severus was also no fool. There was absolutely no way he was about to let a bunch of teenagers sit in a room everyday supervised only by a handful of older teens. That would be foolish if this was Ravenclaw house, and he didn't want to think about the disaster that would pop up with the Slytherins. Therefore, he had given strict orders to report everything, he set up wards to alert him of anything major that happened, and he would frequently peek in the door just to take a look and see for himself that everything was under control.

Each time he looked he couldn't help but flinch at what he saw. In his mind it was utter chaos, and it took everything in his power to keep from going in and putting the entire place back in order. Whenever he was supervising the study group, he made sure that everyone was sitting in a desk. He allowed quiet chatter that only consisted of the students working together on their homework. When the prefects were in charge however, it was completely different. Some of the older students would conjure up bean bag chairs, or transfigure the hard desk chairs into comfortable loungers. Others would be spread out on the floor laying on a thick blanket with their work in front of them, and even from out in the corridor Severus could clearly hear the chatter and light laughter.

Somehow, the kids had also convinced the house elves to send up snacks and drinks for them to enjoy while they worked, so he could plainly see a group of 4th year girls huddled over their Charms books while they sipped on Pumpkin Juice and continuously stuck their hands into a bowl of pretzels. At the same time, he could see the students clearly working, so he used all of his will power to force himself to let them be, and just enjoy a relaxed study session. On more than one occasion, he had found true chaos, and that was when he decided to intervene and for the next few days he would personally supervise the sessions and he treated it as a complete lockdown, just to remind them of the freedom he grants them when they choose to behave.

A couple of years ago he had peered in to see complete pandemonium. Popcorn was being thrown everywhere, feathers from an obvious pillow fight were blowing around the room as if they'd been caught up in a tornado, there were tipped over goblets creating juice spills, and the noise from the running children could be heard clear down the corridor. Every single Slytherin student had spent the rest of that evening cleaning the dungeon completely spotless, he'd assigned all prefects a week of agonizing detentions, and had personally seen a perfectly quiet and in order study session every day for an entire month. When Prefects had finally taken back the control, it had been obvious that they were hesitant to allow any leeway in case they got busted again. Since then, things had remained relatively calm with only a need for Severus to step in for a day or two a total of three times. The story of that ill-fated study party was obviously still on the mind of several older students, and passed down as a warning to the younger ones.

Harry had started making it a habit to study with Sapphire Hinton, Tracy Davis, and their friend Adam Jensen. It took the feeling of a prison camp out, and gave him the opportunity to get other opinions about the homework. He also had to admit that getting a Slytherin's perspective was quite interesting. They didn't have Hermione's bossy know-it-all attitude that made him feel like an idiot for not having the entire chapter memorized, but they also didn't have Ron's tendency to not care enough.

When he'd been about to go to Stone Wall High in Surrey, he thought that it might be his chance to actually learn to care a little bit about his studies since he wouldn't have to worry about appearing dumber than Dudley. Well, not until the break arrived and term marks were returned home of course. He knew that Hogwarts offered him an even better shot at that than some muggle High School since his classes couldn't be compared to Dudley's at all and if his Aunt and Uncle even cared to look at his marks he was sure they wouldn't understand them enough to know how he was doing. He was fully aware however that meeting Ron had kind of sunk all of his chances at caring about his school marks. The red-head was his best friend by a long shot, but he was heavily distracting, and it was so easy to just turn to Hermione and beg her to help them just enough to be able to scrape by. With the enforced study sessions however, Harry was now learning some better homework habits, and he had a feeling that if he worked hard enough he could quite possibly be ranked in the top ten for his year. This was something that Hermione seemed to both enjoy, and take as a threat to her position at top of the class. It was practically routine for him to walk into the Gryffindor Common Room after dinner, only to have his bag snatched by the brunette so that she could look over his notes and homework. This was even truer for his Defense class since he was completely separate from his classmates in that field.

Yes, Harry was able to settle into the various changes with very little trouble. When he attended his first study session supervised by the Prefects however, he could only stand there and gape. The difference Snape's absence made was immediately obvious when he saw the students already in the room lounged about all over the place and ordering whatever snack food they wanted.

There was a sharp poke between the back of his shoulder blades, but it still took a minute for Harry to register Sapphire's teasing voice. "You can't start your homework if you stand around gaping like a grindilow out of water Potter. Besides, you're blocking the door." With that she shoved past him, making sure he freed the doorway before any nastier Slytherins came along, and flopped down on a bean bag with a sigh. Tracy and Adam immediately followed suit choosing spots beside her.

"Glad he finally let up" Adam stated completely ignoring his book bag for the time being. "Usually he only supervises the first week, but I guess he wanted to make double sure that nothing was going to happen if he stepped away since he created all kinds of chaos by letting you join."

Harry was completely lost and could only stare at the other boy. He chose a seat of his own as he fumbled with the latch on his book bag, but then jumped a mile in the air when Tracy rolled over, ordered some crisps and pumpkin juice, and had it instantly appear before her. Sapphire was completely relishing in Harry's bewilderment and thought it the funniest thing in the world.

"Where is Snape?" the dark haired boy finally found his voice, but immediately wished he'd chosen a different question to ask when Tracy rolled her eyes as she dug for her Transfiguration book.

"Busy," the dark haired girl stated simply. She wasn't mean and nasty like some of the other Slytherins Harry was accustomed to, but she wasn't willing to put up with stupid question. She mostly kept to herself contributing to the group discussion minimally while at the same time seeming to pull her own weight.

"Does he know about all of this?" Harry couldn't help but feel his face flush when Tracy silently lifted an eyebrow while she sipped her drink and Sapphire let out a snort of laughter.

"He's not an idiot Potter," Tracy snapped. He might not physically be here monitoring us, but I assure you that he knows everything that's going on and will step in the instant things get too out of hand. If I were you, I'd get your homework out and get started before you get in trouble. It's still our study session after all."

Harry didn't dare ask any more questions after that, but decided to try and roll with the changes. He found himself relaxing a lot more than he had ever thought possible in a room full of Slytherin Snakes, but to his surprise it only made it even easier to get his homework done. He had no problem accepting Ron's challenge of a game of chess, or the twins' invitation for exploding snap when he was able to pull himself away from the Defense Book he was constantly reading.

Severus was also pleased to be getting reports back from the other professors that Harry's concentration and quality of work had drastically improved. He was also seeing proof of Harry's improvement for himself not only in the boy's Potion lessons, but also in the interest and dedication he showed in Defense Against the Dark Arts. More than once Severus had had to remind the boy that he was not to attempt any of the spells he was reading about without supervision, and once he'd set him to scrubbing cauldrons for a week both during their Defense lessons and in evening detention after he caught him trying to cast a stunner.

"But Severus," Harry had immediately protested. "I wasn't practicing against anyone, just the stone wall to try and get the magic to flow through me correctly."

"The rules state that your wand is not to leave your holster without explicit permission from an instructor with supervision to do a specific task under their careful tutelage." The Potions Master felt no sympathy for the pleas of the erratic Gryffindor standing before him. Magic was dangerous, and therefore it was not something he was ever going to bend on. "If you find yourself in a dangerous situation, Merlin help you when I finally get my hands on you afterwards, you may then use the spells you have mastered to assist you. I would advise you to keep this rule in mind Harry, because the next time I will confiscate your wand and you will have the entertaining task of attempting to attend your magic classes without it for an entire week on top of scrubbing out cauldrons."

"This is bloody bullshit" the youth muttered as he shoved his wand in the holster strapped to his wrist.

"And now we will be making a trip to the lavatory," Severus stated calmly and watched as the boy threw his head back and groaned. This wasn't the first time he had followed through on the threat to scrub his mouth out with soap for profanity and Harry absolutely hated it since the taste stuck with him for what seemed like forever.

*~*~*Trouble With Polyjuice*~*~*

There hadn't been an attack since the double one on Nick and Justin before the Holiday break, and Harry was pleased that he hadn't heard the disembodied voice since then either. It had been a source of great stress for him, and he knew that if he heard it again it would most likely lead to him finding another victim of the Heir of Slytherin's monster.

Instead he was able to focus his time on his studies, and was even starting to somewhat enjoy his time in the Slytherin study hall. While Hermione had been impressed with the improvement of the quality of his homework, and even been jealous that Harry now had friends to really chat about homework with and bounce ideas off, he had been unable to convince any of his Gryffindor friends to join him. Neville still shook at the mere thought of being in the dungeons more than required, Hermione was certain a muggle born would never be accepted, and Ron said that Fred and George would be successful in teaching the Giant Squid to tap dance before he willingly spent his afternoons with a bunch of low life Slytherin scum. Harry had left that particular comment alone since they'd had several discussions about how some of the Slytherins were actually decent. He had even tried tempting them with the fact that Snape would be nowhere in sight and they would be able to snack while they did their homework. It was all for not however, so Harry continued to go alone.

On one afternoon in late February however, Harry couldn't seem to keep his mind from wandering. He and his Slytherin friends were supposed to be working on a Transfiguration essay, but he kept thinking about how it had looked so nice outside at lunch time. For an entire week it had been nothing but solid snow storms, getting so bad that Sprout had had to move the Herbology lessons to an empty classroom inside the castle and work solely on book work. This afternoon however, it had looked absolutely lovely outside, and Harry was dying to be free and enjoy a bit of sunshine.

All thoughts of the outside weather cleared however and his stomach did a nasty lurching summersault when he suddenly heard it.

"Rip…. Tear…. Kill!" It had been months since he'd heard the disembodied voice, but he knew it instantly and jumped to his feet not caring that by doing so he had just scattered his essay and upset his ink bottle.

"It's back!" His voice was a half whisper and he looked around frantically. He didn't care right then who heard him, or what they thought of him. He had to do something quickly or someone else was going to wind up petrified, or maybe even killed.

"What's back?" Sapphire looked up at him startled while Adam quickly waved his wand to stop the spreading of the spilled ink.

"Must have blood!" the voice continued. "So hungry for so long."

"Slytherin's monster," the dark haired boy replied frantically suddenly making a mad dash for the door. "It's going to attack again. I have to stop it."

"Harry, you're not making any sense!" This time it was Adam that spoke up, but he had to shout for his friend to hear him because he was already sprinting out the door.

"Hey! Come back here Potter!" the sixth year female prefect yelled after the retreating boy. Nobody was supposed to leave the study room except to use the loo, and even then they had to clear it with the prefects first and only one student was allowed to leave at a time. Harry completely ignored her however, and soon Sapphire was sprinting after him. The prefect threw up her hands in surrender and flicked her wand to send the alert to Professor Snape about the disturbance while the fifth year male prefect ran after the two wayward students.

Severus was looking through a list of this year's Slytherin graduates and trying to make sure everything was in order when he felt the wards alerting him that someone had left the study hall without permission. Groaning he put the parchment he was looking at back on the stack he still had to go through and stood up. He was halfway pleased when a moment later he got the signal that he was needed in the study hall. That at least meant that the prefects were following protocol since he hadn't told any of them about the wards that had already gone off. It was one of his ways to test the prefects to see if they really were up to the task of keeping watch.

It didn't take long for him to storm to the assigned classroom, and he opened the door with a glower. He looked around the room for a moment and saw groups of confused whispers that immediately stopped upon seeing his presence. In the single scan he made of the room he couldn't help but grit his teeth as he realized that he did not see a mop of black hair which meant that it was Harry that had broken the rules. With a scowl he focused his attention on the prefects, quickly taking note that there were only five of the normal six. "What happened?" His voice was firm and he was pleased to see even the seventh years shiver a little before one of them cleared his throat and spoke.

"Potter suddenly jumped up looking all kinds of frantic and took off. Hinton then leapt to her feet and took off after him. I have no idea what was going on over there." The prefect pointed over to where Tracy and Adam were still sitting. Their work however had been completely abandoned, and they were watching the scene before them intently.

"He said something about having to stop Slytherin's Monster from attacking again," a third year girl sitting near the group offered before sinking as low to the floor as she could while still sitting under the glare her Head of House gave her.

Severus could almost feel himself going white at the mere mention of another attack by Slytherin's Monster. Of course Harry couldn't have simply gotten worked up over a small squabble between him and his new friends. It would have to be something dramatic and possibly life threatening. It just didn't make sense though. Everything had been calm at the castle since before Christmas, and how would Harry know anything about when it would attack again? He knew that, somehow, it was very likely that the boy really did know there was going to be another attack. It was just the way things tended to happen with Potter around. That was why he had been found at the scenes of two of the attacks. He therefore didn't ask any more questions, but instead sprinted out the door once more to go after the two missing 2nd years.

In Harry's sprint to follow the voice, he didn't pay attention to anything around him. He was dimly aware of Sapphire running after him, and the Prefect following her, but he couldn't stop. He had to find that voice and stop the attack. Harry was so focused on his task that he crashed right into Neville as he, Ron, and Hermione were rounding a corner headed outside to enjoy the sunshine on the grounds. With the force of the collision, both boys fell to the floor, and Sapphire tripped over them creating a heap, and giving the prefect time to catch up.

"What on Earth is going on?" Hermione asked in complete surprise as she helped Neville up. Harry was jumping back to his feet to run off again, but found himself stopped when the fifth year grabbed the back of his robes.

"I'd like to know that as well," the older boy declared while Ron awkwardly extended a hand to help Sapphire back to her feet. The blonde gave him a curt nod with a distractedly muttered 'thanks' as she continued to look at Harry.

"Let me go!" Harry demanded glaring at the older boy and then turning frantically back to his friends. "The voice, it's back. It wants to kill."

Neville's eyes went wide; he hadn't ever been told about the mysterious voice only Harry could hear, or about how it wanted blood and always preceded an attack. Ron bit his lip as he looked cautiously between his best friend and the two Slytherins that now knew he was hearing voices. Sapphire however simply looked concerned for her new friend and the prefect was certain that this was all just some story cooked up because the Gryffindor didn't want to study anymore.

Hermione on the other hand quickly looked at the Slytherins with an expression of sudden dawning. "Did either of you hear this voice?" she asked excitedly.

Sapphire quickly shook her head. "No. We were just sitting around working on History of Magic when Harry suddenly jumped up saying it was back. That Slytherin's Monster was back, it was going to make another attack, and that he had to stop it. Then he ran off. There was no other noise than the rest of the students around us also working on homework like every other day. Hey, where are you going?" Hermione had suddenly turned on her heel and quickly started walking away, but she didn't continue her path to the sunny grounds.

"I think I might have figured it out," she called over her shoulder as she started to run. "I have to go do some research in the library to be certain though." With that she turned a corner leaving the other 5 staring bewilderingly after her.

"What has she figured out?" Harry asked still relatively distracted. He had lost the trace of the voice, but that didn't mean he was ready to give up trying to stop the next attack.

"A lot more than me," Ron stated shaking his head.

"That, Mr. Weasley, seems to always be the case," came a cold voice from behind that made all five students stiffen and turn slowly around. "Mr. Potter, Miss Hinton, and Mr. Fisher, all three of you are supposed to still be in the dungeons studying instead of chatting idly in the corridors."

"Professor, Potter ran off and I…" Fisher started to protest indignantly but stopped at a look from his Head of House.

"I assure you that I was made well aware of the events that led us here," Severus continued sternly currently focused solely on the fifth year Prefect. "I was also under the impression that you were made well aware of your duties as a Slytherin Prefect as well as how to handle situations like this."

"Yes sir," the boy stated flushing slightly. There was nothing else he could say. He knew that his Head of House was exceedingly strict and any other answer would just lead to further embarrassment.

When the older boy finally fell silent, Severus finally turned to Harry. "What is this all about Harry?" Something told him he had to go about this delicately or he wouldn't get anywhere, and if it truly had anything to do with Slytherin's monster it was exceedingly important that he get as much cooperation from the boy as possible.

Harry chewed his bottom lip slightly. Now that he'd lost the voice and calmed down a bit, he had regained some of his senses and was now realizing that all of Slytherin probably thought he was absolutely crazy, and now Sapphire and this older Prefect knew he was hearing voices. Did he really want to explain everything to Snape now?

Severus studied the boy in front of him and sighed. This was going to be a true test of his patience. "Mr. Fisher and Miss Hinton, please return to your study session. Mr. Potter, let's go somewhere more private to get to the bottom of this." Severus barely repressed a shudder at the thought of telling the boy he could bring his Gryffindor friends if it would make him more comfortable and couldn't bring himself to give voice to the offer.

Harry sighed and looked at his friends. Maybe it really was time to tell someone about the voice he was hearing. Not only was it bound to truly drive him crazy, but if the pattern continued, it also didn't solely affect him. Ron and Neville both looked nervous about the thought of Harry going to talk alone with Snape, but he was glad they didn't verbally oppose it. "I'll talk to you guys later," he finally consented before looking at Sapphire. The Prefect had obeyed the Potions Master instantly, but Sapphire was truly concerned for her new friend and hadn't been able to help hesitating.

"You going to be alright now Harry?" It was the only time she'd ever used his given name which proved her true worry for him.

"I'll be fine," Harry assured the blonde with a weak smile. Mere months ago he would have called anyone barmy that suggested he would be friends with a Slytherin or about to talk about his biggest concerns with the dark bat of the dungeons; now however, he was willingly walking down to the bat's lair alone.