Secrets

November 1942

The slytherin fifth and sixth years stood in the hallway outside Slughorn's office while he interrogated Theo.

"Now lad, your father and I were very good friends, I would hate to call him with a matter as gruesome as this one. Just tell me what you know, and we'll all be on our merry way."

Theo shook his head. He was so pale Horace worried he would throw up on his expensive carpet.

"I don't know anything, sir."

"What do you know about the Chamber of Secrets?"

"What everyone does, I suppose. The legend, nothing more."

"Why were you in the girls' bathroom?"

Theo hiccupped, holding a hand over his mouth to stop from throwing up.

"I heard… something. I wish I'd stayed outside."

Horace sighed. He had been teaching for quite some time now, and he could honestly say he had never been in this situation before.

"Go to the infirmary, Theo. You're excused from your classes tomorrow. Take some rest."

September 1942

Theo sat in his corner against the window, reviewing his calculations for the hundredth time. It was unusual for him, not participating in the conversation. He didn't even look up when the trolley lady passed by. Abraxas tried including him at some point but he just shushed him.

Now you might be wondering what Theophile Nott, prankster master, was doing with arithmancy when the school year hadn't even started yet. You might even be wondering what Theophile Nott, last of his class, knew about arithmancy. Well the truth was, while he hated school work with a passion, arithmancy was natural to him. Numbers didn't lie, numbers didn't have feelings like magic sometimes seemed to have, numbers were logical to him, his mind making the connections no one else saw. Besides, he wasn't doing school work, that was a pet project of his that had started as fun and ended up being an obsession he couldn't shake.

And he had spent the entire summer doing, and redoing, and reredoing his calculations. And he got the same results each time without fail. He tried different methods, different data, different everything. The end result was always the same. Someone was going to get hurt that year. And someone he knew would get into trouble. And it somehow had something to do with the stupid Knights of Walpurgis thing that Abraxas dragged them all into in his efforts to look lordly.

Theo didn't know what to do. This was not something he was used to. He was never the responsible one. No matter how much his father tried to groom him, he never quite got the hang of it. Even when his father ordered the elves to slap him, or when he grounded him, or made him watch the elves punishing themselves; he was not cut out for responsibility or leading. The truth was, he hated it. He hated giving or receiving orders. He hated thinking about anyone other than him. He hated watching other people's pain. He was a quidditch beater, a passable student (arithmancy non-included), a prankster, and could fly no matter how much alcohol he consumed. Those were the sum of his qualities. That was it.

Now, what was he supposed to do with that warning? Send a bludger towards it? That probably wouldn't work.

He sat through the whole carriage ride with his brows knitted together. He didn't even bet during the sorting ceremony. He picked at his food, then went straight to bed.

He waited until everyone was asleep to walk to his twin's bed, and climbed next to him.

"Rossie?"

"Mmph" Thoros grumbled in a sleepy face, and reached for his wand to light it.

Theo silenced the drapes around them before turning back to look at his brother.

"Theo, if you woke me up because you had a nightmare, I swear to Morgana…"

"No, not a nightmare. Well, kindof. Thoros, I think something bad is going to happen this year."

"You saw that in a nightmare?"

Thoros was smirking at him now, and he reached over to smack his head.

"I'm serious, no dreams, no nightmares. Just arithmancy."

"Is that what you've been doing? Theo, anyone would have nightmares after staring at all those numbers for hours."

"Will you stop with the nightmares?! The results are all the same, they point to death and secrets and retribution."

"Alright, Theo, very ominous and dramatic. Nice one. Now if you don't mind, I'm going back to sleep."

"No, wait, what are we going to do about it?"

"What are we going to do about a couple of equations pointing to death? Nothing, go to sleep."

"Thoros…"

"I mean it, Theo. I'm glad you finally have an academic interest, but there's no need to drag me into your obsession. Go to sleep, or go stare at your numbers. Either way, leave my bed."

"So you don't believe me?"

"I believe you believe it."

"Screw you, Thoros."

"Love you too brother" Thoros said while he climbed out of his bed.

Option 1 was a bust. He would try option 2 three days later, during quidditch practice. Abraxas and he were flying around the pitch, practising their coordination as the Slytherin beaters. Brax was his best friend, he would believe him. Right? Wrong. The stupid git was laughing so hard he almost fell out of his broom.

"Never knew you were a seer, Theo, good to know. Tell me, what do the numbers tell you about our next match?"

"If Mcgonagall plays as keeper, we're screwed, but we could win if our seeker is fast enough. That's not the point Brax, focus."

"Wait, I need to warn Flint. If that little shit misses the snitch, I'll kill him."

Abraxas flew away, and Theo chased after him.

"Brax, wait, what are we gonna do about what I said."

"We are going to throw bludgers at Flint until he can take hits without flinching. And then we'll destroy the lions."

"I meant about the…" Theo looked around before lowering his voice "the knights and death and all that."

Abraxas looked at him with pity now.

"Theo, mate, you're kind of worrying me now. The knights meet to train in spells. Unless Crabbe finally hexes his own face off, I really don't see what you mean."

Theo huffed and flew to the store room to release the bludgers.

Option 2 was useless.

Option 3 was sitting in the common room that night playing chess. Eileen Prince and Callisto Selwyn were sitting across from each other, in deep concentration. Those two were so cunning; they would definitely know what to do. The minute he sat down next to them, Selwyn snapped at him.

"Not now, Nott."

"It's important, I swear."

"Beat it, Nott" drawled Eileen.

"Just one minute. Something bad is going to happen."

"Something bad is going to happen to you if you make me lose this game" said Callisto while moving her knight.

"No I mean this year, someone is going to die."

"You're going to die if you keep blabbering in my ear" muttered Eileen, hands clasped under her chin, eyes narrowed in concentration.

"Just, please, just one of you look at my calculations and you'll see"

At that, they both looked away from the chess board, first looking at him then at each other before bursting out in a laugh. Callie wiped a tear from her eyes while Eileen clutched at her belly.

"Fine" he huffed, "ignore me, when the package is this pretty no one cares what's inside."

That set them off even more, and he stood up in a huff, looking around the common room. He saw Tom reading a book by the fire place, and shuddered. He didn't even want to get started on his numbers. One problem at a time. He skipped the knights meeting that night and went to bed for another sleepless night.

The next day, he walked to the library looking for option 4, the last viable option. She looked up at the sound of his footsteps approaching.

"Hey Theo!"

"Yeah, don't Hey Theo me, I am done. This is your problem now" he said while throwing his notes at her.

Hermione raised her eyebrows at him.

"Okay, maybe I should have started from the beginning."

"Please do."

When he was done talking, she started going over his equations one by one. After she was done, she took out a blank parchment and started from the top. He reached over to peer over her shoulders, and saw her using latin, then gaelic, then greek. She went through his whole process one more time, going from Pythagorean to Chaldean to Chinese methods. She had written over five different parchments when she was done.

"It's all the same" she whispered.

"Yeah, secrets, death, retribution; every time, without fail."

She looked at him with wide eyes.

"What are we going to do?"

"Oh thank fuck!" he exclaimed before kissing each of her cheeks.

"I did my part, that's it, it's your problem now!"

"Theo, sit your ass back down."

He pouted and sat back on the chair he had just left.

"What the hell are the knights of Walpurgis?" she asked.

"Oh that, right, the stupid club Brax invited us into", he answered, rolling his eyes.

"You called yourselves the knights of Walpurgis?" she snorted.

"No, we didn't call our… look, that's not important. What's important is, someone finally believes me. I can forget about it."

"But how do we stop it?"

"Aren't you like the super smart prefect?"

"I don't know what or who the knights are, or how they relate to this. There's not much I can do."

Theo sighed.

"I'm not getting out of this, am I?" he asked.

"Afraid not."

He sighed again, louder, to make her take pity of him. It did not work.

"Okay, how about I start going back to those meeting and report to you?"

She chewed on her lips, and nodded.

"Alright"

November 1942

Theo had spent over two months spying on the Knights, while Hermione researched anything that could kill them inside the school. Unfortunately, literally anything could kill them in that blasted castle and they were both exhausted.

They met around the entrance of the Restricted Section of the library, hidden in an alcove. They made sure no one followed them before casting every silencing spell then knew.

"So, what did you find out?" she asked him.

"Brax, Remy and Tom have been having their own secret meetings on the side. I thought they were just doing the nasty, turns out it's even nastier. They're looking for the Chamber of Secrets."

Hermione gasped.

"As in Slytherin's monster filled legendary Chamber of Secrets?"

"That would be the one."

She felt as alarmed as he looked.

"How close are they?"

"They sounded frustrated, but also I have no idea how this has been going on so I'm not sure."

Hermione picked at her cuticles, her thoughts racing in her brain. She turned to face him again.

"We need to find it before them if we're going to stop it."

"Sure, shall we do that before or after lunch?"

Hermione slapped his arm.

"What are you hitting me for?" he gasped at her dramatically while rubbing his arm, "I'm not the one trying to kill you."

"We need to find that damn Chamber."

"I'm all ears, Mione, how do we do that."

Hermione let the nickname slide as he was currently the one person trying to save her and he looked like a kicked puppy whenever she told him she hated that nickname.

"Theo, remind me. Who are Slytherin's descendants?"

"The Gaunts. Horrible people. I met the son, Morfin, in the ministry when I was a kid. Scared the shit out of me."

She nodded distractedly, trying to think of why that was so familiar. She vaguely remembered reading about them in her first or second year.

"Weren't they on the board of directors at some point?"

"Yeah, until Marvolo lost his marbles and decided we were all beneath him. Why?"

"Because… wait did you just say Marvolo? As in Tom Marvolo Riddle?

"Tom M Riddle is for Marvolo? Fuck. That means if he finds it, he will be able to open it."

Hermione nodded, but that wasn't what bothered her, surprisingly. No, something else was bothering her, like she had forgotten an important piece of information. She could almost see it, at the edge of her mind.

She rushed to the library, going through the spines with her fingers, mumbling to herself. She was sure she had read something about one particular Gaunt that had stayed with her.

"Mione?"

"Shh, I almost got it."

She kept going through the books until she found what she was looking for.

"I'm sure it's here."

"Hogwarts a History?"

Hermione flipped the pages until she found the one she wanted. She knew that book back to back, she was certain of herself. She showed that page to Theo.

"Here, read this."

"Alright, so great grandpa Gaunt brought us indoor plumbing, cool, I'll send him a prayer next time I take a leak. Why is that relevant?"

"Not that, below it. He didn't just order it, he drew the plans himself and supervised literally the whole thing. At first, I thought he was just eccentric…"

"Well the Gaunts are quite eccentric" he mumbled

"But maybe it was more than that. Maybe he wanted to hide something."

"Like a giant monster that could kill half the students." Theo's eyes lit up.

"So the entrance has to be hidden in a bathroom."

Hermione watched all the blood drain from his face.

"I just passed Brax waiting in front of the second floor girl's bathroom."

"And you didn't find that suspicious?"

"I thought he was waiting for a girl…"

"Theo, the second floor's bathroom doesn't work."

They seemed to come to the same conclusion and both bolted out of the library. Madam Grace, the librarian, stopped them at the door to admonish them but Theo spoke quickly before she could place one word.

"Detention tonight, got it Gertrude, see you later" he said in one go before grabbing Hermione's hand and resuming their sprint. They arrived in front of the bathroom less than five minutes later. Abraxas opened his mouth at the sight of them, but Theo tackled him before he could utter anything. Hermione walked past them, with a hand putting pressure on the side of her abdomen. White dots were floating around her vision, but she kept walking and found Tom staring at a sink. He met her eyes on the mirror.

"Tom"

He turned to her, his face emotionless. A crash behind them startled her and she turned to find Lestrange dragging both Abraxas and Theo by the ears. He kicked the door shut behind him and shoved the two younger students away from him.

"Those two were making too much noise out there, people were starting to stare."

"Thank you, Remy" said Tom.

"Please don't do this, Tom." Hermione pleaded.

Lestrange snickered behind her.

"Of course, you'd want to save your skin, mudblood."

Theo shoved Abraxas again.

"So that's who you are now? You're gonna kill half the school because you're unhappy?"

"And there we have our blood-traitor, now it's a party!"

Lestrange was smiling like Christmas came early. He turned to Tom.

"Alright half-blood, prove your worth. Open that chamber and let's get this over with."

Hermione was about to speak when Lestrange sneaked behind her and clasped his hand of her mouth, his other hand securing her around the waist.

"We have the perfect first victim, go on Riddle, I'll hold her for you."

Tom, still looking as bored as ever, lifted his pale wand and sent a red beam at Lestrange. The older student dropped to the floor behind her.

"This doesn't concern any of you, Hermione, take Theo and leave."

She opened her mouth to retort but Theo beat her to it.

"So you really want to unleash a monster that plans to kill literally the only person in this whole school that actually likes you."

"I like him" intervened Abraxas.

Theo turned to face his best friend.

"Oh I'm not done with you either. What the fuck are you thinking?"

"In case you've forgotten, they killed half of my family, they killed your godfather" said Abraxas looking down his nose at him, "where is your loyalty, Theophile?"

"No, your lordship" said Theo, bowing sarcastically, "I have not forgotten. I loved uncle Marcus more than I love my own father as you well know, I loved Darius like a brother. But these people didn't kill your family"

"As beautiful as that was, Theo, I am the Lord of the Knights…" Tom started before being interrupted.

"Taking the knee when we were 13 does not make you my Lord, Tom. If you knew half of the laws you love spewing around, you'd know it takes a lot more to swear allegiance to someone. That was literally child's play."

Theo's voice had grown cold, and Tom's face broke into a smile that Hermione knew too well and she quickly walked to place herself between the two of them. She looked at Theo and nodded at the door. He obliged her and dragged an angry-looking Abraxas. Turning back to her friend, she took a deep breath in.

"Tom, I know this chamber is your birth right, and I know you want answers. I would want them too, if I could find out anything about my family, if I were this close to finally getting it, I don't know if I would stop."

"Then why are you stopping me?"

"I am begging you not to kill us."

"Stop saying us! I am not going to kill you. I am the heir, I can control it, it will only hurt those I order him to."

"And then what? A nice one way trip to Azkaban?"

"No, then I find a scapegoat and live happily ever after."

"Here's what I see, you kill a couple of insignificant people, you find a scapegoat, you live in paranoia and fear of the Aurors using veritaserum, or Dumbledore using legilimency and you being found out. Without money, without a name, with a weak unproven claim to a dead founder, you'll be back at Wool's and drafted for the war is what you'll be."

They were both glaring at each other at that point.

"Is that what you think of me, Hermione? Because I'd be happy to prove you wrong."

She walked towards until there were only inches separating them.

"I know you're going to be great. I know, because I've known you since I was four, and I know that by the time you are done, no one will ever forget your name. But this" she waved her hand toward the sink, "is a mindlessly stupid idea. You don't do something this big until you know you're bigger. I thought you were smarter than that."

She shoved him and he clasped her wrist in his hand, pulling her closer to him. She was a breath away from him now, every exhale of his made her curls fly around her face. She could count the faint freckles that splattered on his nose and cheeks. She could make out the dark brown of his iris from the black pupil.

"Say that again."

"I thought you were smarter?"

He smiled, not the feral one, nor the fake one, but the crooked one that made her weak in the knees that she only saw when he was comfortable.

"Not that part."

"Isn't that cute?"

They both jumped at that, turning to find Lestrange slow clapping at them. His eyes were wild, and his hands were bloody. Behind him, written in his own blood, were the words "the Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware". In one leap, he had Hermione pressed against him again, his bloody knife pressed against her throat.

"I really wanted to do this the nice way, Riddle. I was even going to give you the title you wanted and everything. But you had to go and ruin it."

Tom was slowly circling him now, wand twirling between his fingers, Lestrange following his movements. In the dead silence, their friend's voices resonated from the hallway.

"What am I supposed to do with these feelings Theo, if I don't avenge them, if I don't DO something for them, what else am I supposed to do?"

"You're supposed to sit through those damn feelings Brax, not let them out on people. Feel them and fucking move on!"

Hermione felt Lestrange shaking with laughter behind her.

"It's the fucking pussy convention today." he managed to say in between chuckles.

He tightened his hand and the knife pressed a bit deeper.

"The chamber, Riddle, now."

Tom attacked then. He started with a petrifying hex that Lestrange shielded using her body, when she became too heavy for him and he let her go, Tom followed with a quick stupefy. They both hit the ground at the same time. Tom lifted the hex from her body before sending an incarcerous towards Lestrange for good measure.

Theo and Abraxas stumbled in looking alarmed; the latter's face red and tear streaked.

"What the fuck?"

Theo was looking at the wall while Abtaxas was looking at Lestrange's rope bound body.

A high pitched scream startled all of them.

"Was anyone watching the door?" asked Abraxas.

"I think it's safe to say he or she saw this" said Hermione, wriggling her hands together.

Theo circled Lestrange's body, taking note of the knife and the gash on his forearm.

"Is he the artist?" he asked. At Tom's nod, he smiled at him. "How good are your memory charms, Tom?"

Tom smiled then.

"Good enough not to kill him."

Tom turned to the other two.

"You two, you look like you've been through hell and back, go freshen up, pretend you were anywhere but here, you have no idea what's going on. Theo, give me 10 minutes, then go call Slughorn."

Horace was seriously considering retirement. He was a slytherin, and a pureblood, and sacred 28, but he was also getting too old for this.

Callisto Selwyn came in, and he almost quit right then and there. He remembered her brother, and her father, and her uncles, and he was not looking forward to this.

"Callisto, dear, how are you doing today?"

"I'm spending the last sunny day of the year in a dungeon so, not great" she answered in a saccharine voice, her perfectly painted lips stretched in a smile though her eyes were as cold as they always were; her purple eyes that screamed "Selwyn" to anyone who knew them.

Horace chuckled.

"You're absolutely right, my dear. So let's make this quick, shall we? What do you know about the chamber of secrets?"

"Why are you asking me? The chamber was allegedly created by Slytherin, my name is Selwyn, N"

Horace winced.

"Well you can understand the circumstances…"

"I understand nothing, I won't speak another word without the presence of my solicitor." She fixed her eyes on the wall and ignored all his subsequent questions.

Horace finally dismissed her with a sigh. Zabini came in afterwards.

"Leto, my boy, how is your mother?"

"She's fine, less so when she finds out her son was dragged out of class I suppose."

"What do you know about the chamber of secrets, Leto?"

"You mean the scary story we tell to scare naughty muggleborns? Not much, although it's a bit ridiculous if you ask me. The legend of Poveglia, now that's a real horror story. So it all started in 1308…"

"You're free to go, Leto, thank you."

Lucretia came in next, impeccable robes on and soft waves framing her delicate face. Horace was just about to ask his question when she started her rant.

"Sir, with all due respect, why are you only interrogating us? The heir of Slytherin could be any other house. So unless you plan on interrogating the whole school, this whole ordeal is deeply unfair and I expected better from a pillar of our society like you…"

"You're free to go, Lucretia."

Horace looked at all the names he still had to interrogate and swore he would double his wrinkles by the end of the day. Hermione Granger came in.

"My star student! I hope you can help me here, dear. What do you know about the Chamber of Secrets?"

"The what? Is this another pureblood thing no one explained?" she exclaimed, obviously annoyed and he dismissed her instantly.

Abraxas Malfoy came in after her, and started sobbing as soon as he sat in the chair. Horace got up, hopeful that he would finally get an answer.

"Abraxas my boy, don't worry, I'm right here"

"They've been dead for 3 years now…" Abraxas wailed before burying his face in his hands and sobbing some more.

Horace cleared his throat and dismissed him, ashamed at his bundle. He interrogated most of the house before he looked at the last name on the list. Tom Riddle entered his office. The usually collected prefect was in a dishevelled state, shirt untucked, and tie open. He sat with a vacant face, looking at his blood stained hands.

"Tom, I am so sorry for doing this to you at this time, but I'm afraid we need answers."

Tom looked up at him and swallowed heavily, before nodding.

"Tell me everything."

"Well, sir, I was heading for the library when I heard a weird sound coming from the ladies' bathroom. I know that bathroom isn't used, I was worried it was a first year in need of help. When I went in…" he took a deep breath to steel himself "Remy was… he was…"

"Take your time"

"Those words were written, I didn't know it was blood at first, not until I saw the knife in his hand. He was laughing, he raised his knife to his throat. I had no idea he would do it. I should have called for someone sooner, or tried to stop him."

Horace put his hand on his shoulder.

"You did everything you could in a very difficult situation, Tom, be kinder to yourself. Now, one last question. What do you know about the Chamber of Secrets?"

"Besides what Professor Binns told us about it, nothing, sir."

"You're free to go, Tom. Thank you."

Tom walked away from Slughorn's office, and waited until he was alone to let himself smile. He had wanted to create his first horcruxe today, and he had. Granted, he wanted to do it using his ancestor's legacy and now, thanks to Nott and Lestrange, he'd never be able to unleash that monster, at least not while he was at school. But killing precious pure-blooded Lestrange to make his half-blooded self immortal was just as poetic. And using that to send a message to soft hearted Theophile was the cherry on top. Abraxas had known what would happen the minute he saw Lestrange threatening Hermione. And the latter knew him too well to question him at this point. Despite the change of plans, today was a good day. After all, the chamber wasn't going anywhere, he could explore it whenever he wanted. He had all the time in the world, literally.

I really hope you guys are still enjoying this. At least I'm assuming so.

Anyway, I've done a bit of a time jump cause I had nothing for 4th year for now, and three different versions of this. I settled for this one.

Let me know what you guys think!

Until next chapter :)