A few days later found a regal black owl that seemed to glare at her as it landed near her plate at breakfast.
It held up its leg impatiently, waiting for her to take the letter it carried. She fed it some bacon before it flew off, clipping Draco in the back of his head.
She chuckled at the blonde as he rubbed his head with a disgruntled look, she then smiled when she recognized the elegant script on the parchment before her that could only be the dark lords.
She placed it in her pocket to read later, best to not let others see what may lay within.
Since it was the first weekend of the term she decided to get a head start on finding the Chamber, turning toward Draco she said " Cousin I'll be in the library most of the day, so I'll see you all around dinner time."
He pouted and said " But it's a perfect day to practice for the quidditch tryouts Harri!"
Patting his arm she replied " Then take Blaise with you I'm sure he won't mind training with you while I'm away."
He just sully nodded his head and replied " Alright but you are not skipping out next time."
" Wouldn't miss it for the world cousin dearest" she said with a smile and got up from her seat and made her way to the library in hopes of finding clues about that girl who was killed fifty years ago.
When she walked through the giant double doors of Hogwarts vast library she immediately headed to a small section in the back that she knew held a collection of old daily prophets.
She got her hands on a particulary thick stack of papers from the forty's, surely somewhere one of them would have a mention of a death of a student within the halls of Hogwarts.
When she finally finished the year nineteen forty-two and began forty-three a thick heavy book thumped onto her table.
She looked up into the determined face of Hermione Granger, raised a brow and said in a low bored drawl " Do you mind Granger? I'm a bit preoccupied at the moment."
The young muggleborn huffed and said " How are you getting those spells so quickly! I read the course books several times, I clearly understand the theory more than you do, yet you always seem to preform a spell like it was nothing!"
Sighing Harri said " Like I've told you before Granger, it's all about intent."
The Gryffindor said in a haughty tone " That is not in the books, nor is it what the Professors tell us!"
Shrugging Harri replied " Well I can't help you if you don't want to listen."
Groaning the other girl sat down crossed her arms and asked " So what do you mean by intent?"
Smirking Harri folded up the paper in her hand and replied " It's all about feeling your magic and using that force to do as you want it to do, just think and direct it."
Grangers eyes went wide and she leaned in to say " But that's dark magic! I've read about it and Charlie said..." Harri rolled her eyes and raised up her hand to stop the girl.
" You don't know a thing about dark magic little lion" Harri said with a scowl " Why don't you run along with your books if you don't want to listen to what I have to say."
Granger looked like she was about argue back when she looked down and gasped " That's moaning Myrtle!"
Harri confused from the sudden change of subject, looked down on a prophet from June of nineteen forty three that was peaking just out of the stack from where Grangers book unsettled the papers.
Granger yanked it out and there was the school picture of a bespectacled girl who died mysteriously in the halls of Hogwarts, who now conveniently enough for Harri haunted the first floor girls bathroom.
Frowning Granger said " It doesn't say how she died " then she looked up at Harri and asked " What are you doing with these old newspapers anyway?"
Shrugging one shoulder Harri replied " Oh I'm just interested in recent history is all, particularly during the time of Grindelwald." Granger just raised her brows then shrugged and set the newspaper down.
Standing up she grabbed her book and said " I'll be off, someone actually has some reading to do" then she left with her nose in the air.
Rolling her eyes at the muggleborn, Harri pocketed the paper about Myrtle's death and put the rest away, she has a ghost to see.
As she was headed down to the bathroom she ran into Professor Snape, he looked down at her with a raised brow and asked " Why are you wondering the corridors alone when you could be outside on this beautiful day Harriet?"
Smiling innocently up at him she replied " Oh I've decided to go in the library today, don't worry uncle Sev I'm not up to anything."
Sighing the man replied in a low drawl " I find it quite hard to believe you " then he smirked and continued on to say " Since you've seem to be done with the library, as you are headed away from it, why don't you come with me, I need some help preparing some potion ingredients."
Groaning she followed the dour potions master down to the dungeons, muttering under her breath about grumpy bats who need to prepare his own ingredients.
Later that evening she trudged into the Slytherin commons, flobberworm guts under her nails and hair fizzy from potion fumes.
She looked a right sight and when she passed by Pansy and Daphne in their shared dorm room they sniggered at her and said " You look a mess Harri! What happened to you?"
A grimace crossed Pansy's face as she said " I do hope you will clean up, don't want to go to dinner looking like that."
Sighing irritatebly she replied to her friends " Snape caught me as I was leaving the library, said since I wasn't going to be outside then I should make myself useful preparing some potion ingredients for him."
She then grimaced and said " I sliced up a particularly fat flobberworm and it's guts exploded everywhere, I'm going to take a shower, wait up for me please."
Her friends nodded as they made their way down to the common room and as Harri prepared for her shower she pulled out the letter from Marvolo.
Checking there wasn't anyone else in the dorm room she cut the green seal on the back and pulled out a thin sheet of parchment.
My dear apprentice,
I find it troubling that your education is being sabotaged by that blithering idiot, I've read a few of his books and where I find there are some accuracies between the lines, I find it seemly impossible that he has done what he claims to have achieved, yet can not handle a swarm of devilish pixies. I will look deeper into this and discover whatever he may be hiding, in the mean time keep an eye on him and perhaps start a study group with your peers to make up for the lack of education.
Best regards,
Marvolo Gaunt
Lord Slytherin
Sighing as she burned the letter in her palm she was glad that Marvolo will look more into it, maybe he can find a way to get rid of him before the school year was out.
At least now she can focus on finding the chamber, she is sure Myrtle is the key, once she can find the free time again she will be that much closer to opening the chamber. With a smirk she went on to get ready for dinner.
A couple weeks passed before she could break away from Draco's insistence to practice every chance they could, and Daphne and Pansy's desire to teach her new beauty charms their mothers showed them over the summer, to finally have the chance to speak to the ghost moaning Myrtle alone.
As she walked into the haunted bathroom, water that flooded the floor soaked her shoes and she could hear someone crying in the stall across from the sinks.
Approaching closer she called out in a gentle voice " Hello, Myrtle is that you?" A sniffling noise and a hiccup is all she got in return.
" I just want to talk Myrtle " Harri said.
Then she was startled as a ghostly figure jumped in front of her yelling out " Are you here to make fun of me too!"
The ghost began to wail again and Harri smiled and held out her hands in a peaceful gesture and said " No of course not Myrtle, I loath bullies." Then her head cocked to the right as she asked " Who was making fun of you Myrtle? "
Myrtle hiccuped again and said " Everyone makes fun of poor old moaning Myrtle! "
Harri frowned and replied " Well that's just awful, my cousin Dudley used to make fun of me, especially my scar " she gestured to the marred left side of her face.
Myrtle looked closer and giggled " Oh my that is quite a nasty scar! I bet you were made fun of loads of times!"
Harri chuckled " Yes indeed I was. But- " she began with a smirk " You know what I did to my mean bully cousin the last time he made fun of me?"
The ghost shook her head with a small smile upon her wet face, Harri continued on to say " I set a big snake on him! You should've seen the look on his face!"
Both girls laughed and Myrtle said " Oh that's why I stayed behind after I died. Olive Hornby was always mean to me and like to make fun of my glasses, so when I died I decided to stay behind so I can scare her!"
Harri smirked and said " I bet that gave her quite the freight "
Myrtle just nodded and said " Oh yes she didn't get a moments peace within this castle."
Harri began to look around the normally unused bathroom, remembering early on her first year coming in here to use the loo, only to be screamed at by the girls ghost.
Cobwebs littered every corner where water could not reach and the floor was filthy, obviously Flinch had given up cleaning the place a long time ago.
She then looked up at Myrtle a pleasant smile upon her lips and said " My I do love what you've done with the place, tell me Myrtle did you die here?"
The ghost eagerly nodded her head and replied with a wistful sigh " Oh it was dreadful, I was on the toilet crying something awful because Olive Hornby was making fun of my glasses again. I heard a voice coming from over there " at this she pointed at the sinks " It was a boys voice so I opened my stall door to tell him to go away! Then I died."
She began to sway happily in the air and Harri smiled up at the Bespeckled ghost and said " Oh that sounds so delightfully dreadful Myrtle, what is it exactly that you saw?"
The ghost shuttered and said in a low dramatic voice " Big yellow eyes."
Harri remembering Marvolo telling her to keep her eyes closed til the beast knew she was an ally, slowly made her way to the sinks where Myrtle said the eyes were.
She looked all around the sink as Myrtle began to talk about all the girls who came to cry in the bathrooms giggling as she recounted them all.
Harri just tuned her out when she spotted a snake eteched upon the faucet directly across from myrtles stall.
The deep baritone of the dark lord filtered across her mind " A carving of a snake rests at the entrance of where it is hidden."
This must be it she thought joyfully. Looking toward Myrtle she smirked and said " Oh Myrtle, I just remembered I heard some poor ickile firsty is crying, homesick the poor dear, I do believe she was on the top floor bathroom."
The ghost laughed and swooshed down into her toilet with a loud splash. Well that's her gone for a short while Harri thought to her self.
She then said " Open" in the snake tongue and the stone grounded together as the sink was lowered into the ground, while the others were spread far apart revealing a gaping maw of darkness.
Smirking she said " Well that was easy " then she grimaced as she cast a light down to reveal a slimy dirty tunnel that seemed to act like a slide to the bottom.
Sighing to herself she cast a quick cushioning charm on her person and lept into the unknown.
She spiraled down further and further for what seemed like hours; which was only a few minutes, before she abruptly landed on her feet which crunched the vast amount of what seemed to her to be rat skeletons.
She grimaced at her now dirty robes and cast a quick cleaning spell before she moved on down the dark and musty smelling tunnel before her.
She kept her eyes half lidded as she trekked further down, her socks now soaked with fifthly water made a squishing noise to go along with the cracking of bones.
Cringing at the noise she made hoping that whatever creature lies down here will let her get a word in before it kills her, for it surely will hear her coming.
Her eyes quickly closed when the light of her wand revealed a long and scaly skin.
She waited for a while thinking it was the monster and when she reached out to touch it she let out a huff when the flaky dead skin crumbled under her touch.
She opened her eyes to see a huge shedded snake skin, for it looks like the skin Beau sheds as he grows new scales, but this was hundred times larger than Beau.
Whatever snake this is he must be at least fifty feet long.
She was glad that the beast was a snake, now knowing that she can communicate with the great serpent her confidence grew.
Not too far from the snake skin was a huge metal door much like a vault door at Gringotts.
It had seven snakes that seemed to be holding the door closed with their mouths, each one had green glittering eyes that seemed to watch her, judging to see if she was worthy to step inside Salazar Slytherins chamber.
" Open " she hissed in parseltongue and another snake began moving along the edge of the door forcing the others to release their burden and with a groan from age and rust the great door opened.
She couldn't help but gasp at what she saw lay inside.
On either side of the room were tall statues of snakes with their fangs barred out in preparation for a strike and they lead up to a huge statue at the end of the great room, she assumed it to be Salazar Slytherin himself.
He had a monkeyish face with a long beard that reached his bare stone feat.
She approached the statue reverently, every Slytherin that ever was or is or will be would kill to stand where she stood right now.
Smirking at that thought she began to look around for some sort of door or pathway that could lead to Slytherins study, as Marvolo said it would be here.
She looked upon a flat stone resting between the giant stone feet and written in that familiar squiggly script of parsel she read it out loud " Salazar Slytherin greatest of the Hogwarts four " and as soon as she said it she heard stone grind against stone as something began to open.
She immediately closed her eyes when she heard a voice say " Master have you returned to me?" Behind her frozen body she heard a loud thump as a great heavy body hit the stone floor.
" You smell like master but you are not him " the voice said.
Angrily it hissed and she blurted out " I'm a friend of your master oh great serpent!" The snake seemed to calm down as he flicked his great tongue against her back and he said " You are a speaker hatchling? "
Nodding her head she slowly turned around, making sure her eyes remained closed as she could feel the hot breath of the beast before her.
She stuck up her chin and said " I am your masters apprentice, he told me to find this place that it holds his ancestors knowledge."
The snake hissed almost like a hum " Yes my first master built this place to hide away all knowledge that the others wished to destroy, he placed me here to ensure its protection and that his future hatchlings can learn as he wished for them to learn."
He then nudged her with his snout almost knocking her over and said " You may open your eyes hatchling, I will not harm you."
And when she opened her eyes they widened in awe at the magnificent serpent before her, it was a basilisk almost fifty feet long with beautiful deep green and gray scales and a large blue and orange plume of feathers rested on top of its great head. It's teeth were long and sharp and it's eyes were a bright beautiful yellow.
She reached out to pet the snakes snout as she said " You are the most beautiful being I have everseen!" the basilisk preened at her praise and it's eyes closed as it leaned into her touch.
Harri giggled and asked " What is your name great one?"
The snake purred as he replied " My master called me Mehen."
She smiled how fitting to be named after the protector of Ra.
She spent the next hour talking to Mehen and learned that Salazars study was actually located in the mouth of Salazar's statue where Mehen's nest also resides.
But she was gone too long to attempt to explore it now and asked the basilisk how she could get out of the chamber.
" Silly hatchling " he hissed amusedly " Your voice commands this chamber does it not." Embarrassed she didn't think to call forth stairs she thanked the ancient serpent and left promising to return soon.
The weeks slowly passed as she snuck in and out of the chamber, she found many books written by Salazar Slytherin himself within his study.
She wrote to the dark lord of her discovery and to say that he was pleased at how quickly she found the chamber was an understatement.
Quidditch tryouts came and went and despite the teams first doubts about her ability to catch the snitch with only one eye working, she shocked them all with her skills so much that she thought Marcus Flint the team captain was going to cry.
Uncle Lucius was so proud to learn that both his son and niece got on the team, the pompous peacock that he was bought the whole team brand new nimbus two thousand and ones.
There was no doubt in their minds that Gryffindor would be crushed before they knew what even hit them.
Currently the Slytherin team with Professor Snapes permission was headed out to the pitch to try out their new brooms that came in the night before. As they were crossing the courtyard they ran into the Gryffindor team who seemed to have the same idea.
Oliver Wood the other teams captain yelled out in his Scottish brogue " What do you lot think your doing! We reserved the pitch first."
Flint just smirked at his counterpart and said as he held out Snapes written permission slip " We have Professor Snapes word that we can have the pitch to test out our new seeker and chaser."
Frowning Wood took the parchment from the Slytherins hand and said " You have a new seeker, who?"
And the team who was currently surrounding both Harri and Draco parted ways for the Gryffindors to see them.
Charlie huffed and said " You can't be their seeker Harri!"
She just smirked back and said " Oh I can and I am brother mine."
Ron Weasley who was following the team along with Granger scoffed and said " Don't worry Charlie she is probably the best they could find, I mean it's not like she could see it anyway."
The Gryffindors laughed sans Charlie and Hermione who grimaced at Ron's untacfulness.
Draco sneered at them and said " You'll be laughing now but just you wait til we hit the pitch, with Harri's skills and our new brooms that my father so graciously donated to the team, you lot would wish to never see a quaffel for the rest of your pathetic lives!"
The Slytherins laughed this time as one of the Weasley twins gasped out " Those are the new nimbus's"
Granger just rolled her eyes and said " Well everyone on this team didn't have to buy their way on, they got in on pure talent."
Draco scowled at her and said " Take that back you filthy little Mudblood!"
The Slytherins laughed as the Gryffindors roared their outrage at the blonde haired boy for using such a horrible slur.
" You'll pay for that one Malfoy!" The youngest Weasley boy said as he pulled out his, what Charlus told Harri, broken wand and said " Eat Slugs!"
His jinx though flunged backwards to hit him instead, his face became so pale the freckles that donned his face was more pronounced than ever before.
He then bent over with a groan and to Dracos delight puked up a slimy fat snail.
Charlus and Granger each grabbed their friend by a arm to support him as they announced they will take him to Hagrid since he's closer.
As soon as the Slytherins separated from the other team Harri rounded on her cousin, a scowl adoring her face as she said " What did I tell you about using that word Draco?"
He huffed and said " I'm just calling her for what she is Harri, she rejects our culture and spits upon our traditions."
Harri rolled her eyes and replied " If it wasn't for the fact another house would have been witnessed to it, I would have hexed you for your stupidity right then and there! I know what she is, but using that word only alienates other muggleborns when they hear one of their own being called a slur such as that! They will then believe the propaganda against us!"
Draco began to look sheepish and rubbed the back of his neck as he replied " I didn't think of that."
Huffing Harri replied " No you didn't but next time use that brain of yours, I know it's in there somewhere cousin."
Shaking her head at him, she turned around to follow the rest of the team to the pitch. A disgruntled Draco trailing behind her.