Another missed update day last week... I'm finding that I have much less time to write and edit now that school has ramped up. My prewritten chapters seem to be dwindling lol. I think I'm going to change my update schedule from every week to every other week so I can keep a steady stream of prewritten chapters as a buffer in case something happens down the road. Thanks for reading!

To be honest, I had some fun writing Dumbledore in this chapter. No one seems to write him with a satisfactory degree of whimsy anymore smh.

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I was practically vibrating through my lessons over the next week in anticipation for my meeting with Dumbledore. Ironically, it was the perfect time to be on a non-speaking basis with Hermione, since I could barely think of anything other than the Chamber of Secrets, much less remember to talk to anyone.

Although, however ironic I found my current situation, guilt needled at the back of my mind more and more whenever I saw Hermione or thought of our last conversation- if it could be called that. It was easy enough to cut my losses and clinically think of other people to manipulate connections with in theory, but in practice I still found residual spikes of emotion in my chest every time someone would eye me and whisper to their friends with a laugh, or when a professor would give me a pitying look as I sat alone during classes.

I kept telling myself that I'd make it up with her eventually, but that mantra seemed weaker and weaker as the days passed. When Hermione partnered up with Ron in the next potions class, I'd felt as though I'd been punched in the gut. After a split second of staring after the bushy-haired Gryffindor, I'd quickly gone over to the Ravenclaws in the class and negotiated a partner switch with some of the boys to keep myself from the embarrassment of going to Snape about it.

"Unfortunate that some people only have the one person who'll actually stand them." Malfoy drawled when he noticed my change in brewing partner. "It makes for such pathetic abandonment when their friend finally gets tired of it all."

My face flushed and I stopped myself from turning around and snapping at him. Out of some weird sense of pride, I couldn't let Hermione know how much Malfoy's comment bothered me. In the end, I just acted like I couldn't hear his snide comments throughout the rest of the potions class.

I was relieved when the day came to go to Dumbledore's office. I brought an old backpack and stuffed my Invisibility Cloak inside, though I paused for a few minutes to try to think of anything else I'd need for the venture down into the Chamber of Secrets. When I couldn't think of anything else, I shucked off my outer robe (damn flowey wizard robes always getting in the way) and pocketed my wand, then headed up to the Headmaster's Tower. I couldn't help but give the gargoyle a smug look when it jumped aside at my utterance of 'Soor plooms' as I went in.

I gave Dumbledore a cursory nod as I entered the office, my mind buzzing with possibilities of how he decided we'd get rid of the basilisk. Although, a large, wheeled cage of… chickens… gave me pause.

"Uhhh, what's with the chickens?" I asked.

Dumbledore gave me a smile. "We are dealing with a basilisk, my dear. It is well known that the cry of a rooster is fatal to such a beast. Its hide is impervious to most magic, after all… much like a dragon in that respect."

I furrowed my brows. "Is it?"

I wracked my brain for any mention of roosters in the second film, but nothing came to mind. All I could recall about basilisks from the movies was that spiders were afraid of it. Was this just another odd thing I'd discovered about the wizarding world that wasn't in canon like the backwards writing in first year? But roosters? What an odd thing to insert… it must have been in canon that a rooster could kill a basilisk. When would they have said that during the film?

Wait, was that fact in the books?

Damn, I'd been noticing for some time that my knowledge about the little things were lacking. I knew the content of the films much better than the books. The last time I had read the Harry Potter books in my life as Madeline was when I was twelve, whereas I'd just finished a Harry Potter movie marathon with my family as a dumb little graduation celebration- and the films had been still fresh in my mind when I woke up as Adeline Potter not long after that event.

I silently cursed myself for not reading the damn books later in life. My neglect of the true canon could quite possibly mean my death in this life if I relied on the wrong bit of information from the films.

When I get back from the Chamber of Secrets, I'll have to try to write down what I know from the books and movies separately or something

I tried not to show my worry on my face as I replied to Dumbledore. "That's really helpful. It'll save us a lot of time trying to fight the thing."

Dumbledore paused, then made a somewhat pitying expression.

"Yes, well…" He started.

I gave him a flat look.

"It would be horribly irresponsible of me to bring a student into the Chamber of Secrets to slay a basilisk, Adeline. I just couldn't do such a thing under good conscience." He said gently.

"You need a Parselmouth to open the Chamber!" I exclaimed angrily. "And I was the one to tell you about it, you can't just ditch me!"

"I plan for you to safely access the entrance of the Chamber in the girl's lavatory, then wait for me there as I dispatch the basilisk." He explained calmly.

I threw up my hands. "Come on!"

Then, the memory came to me.

"Oh!" I pointed at him as I remembered. "There's a second door inside. You need me to open that one too!"

Dumbledore sighed. "Adeline, if you are not-"

"I'm telling the truth." I interjected, with a more sedate tone. "Seriously."

Then, I suddenly shook my head again at my weirdly recent poor memory. "Ugh, you need a Parselmouth to summon the damn snake too. Jesus, what's wrong with me today?"

I put a hand to my temple in annoyance and I stared into the middle distance as I tried to remember what the hell Tom Riddle said to the statue to make the basilisk come out. Something, something… he held his hand out at the statue, I could remember. Something… sa-lee-thay… part of it sounded like? Damnit, I couldn't remember.

"Are you alright, Adeline?" Dumbledore asked.

I waved a hand absently, "Yeah, just- I dunno, I'm going through some stuff."

I looked up at him sharply before he could reply. "Don't ask."

"As you wish." He said easily. "Now, back to the business at hand."

He shot the cage or roosters a look of contemplation, then addressed me after seemingly having collected his thoughts.

"This basilisk… it is imperative that we must dispose of it?" He asked.

I nodded. "It poses a huge security risk to the school on its own. But I'm mostly focused on what its fangs could do for us in the future. Basilisk venom can destroy a lot of really dangerous dark magic artifacts."

"Yes, you mentioned such artifacts last week. I confess my curiosity of the nature of the things you plan on destroying." He replied.

I paused as I thought of how to reply to that. Dumbledore had said that he didn't strictly want to make a deal for information that I have offered last week, so my first instinct was to not give anything away for free. But I worried that if I tried to keep him in the dark too obviously and about too many things, Dumbledore would not want to continue collaborating with me. In this specific instance, I needed him more than he needed me, so I would lose the most if he were to pull out of our little quest right now.

He technically accepted my deal in the end so that I'd tell him about the basilisk. But didn't seem inclined to ask about Malfoy's plans so far in the conversation. So, obviously, he wanted me to come forth and tell him what Malfoy was up to out of my own volition. Possibly to try to foster my trust in him?

Now, he was asking about the 'artifacts' that I'd mentioned that the basilisk fangs could destroy. Information on the Horcruxes weren't part of the deal- and I wasn't even sure that Dumbledore actually knew about the damn things yet. He didn't even have the diary Horcrux yet so he couldn't study it (if such things were able to be studied at all). Well then, I realized that this was possibly something in which I had a distinct advantage over Dumbledore. He'd certainly be more than curious about the possibility of the Dark Lord being able to return and would want to know all he could in order to stop Voldemort.

However, I had to keep that information to use as leverage for later. I strongly suspected that things were going to get considerably more rocky between me and Dumbledore when it would come to light that I was withholding more knowledge about the future than he could imagine.

"Sorry," I said carefully, "But that information wasn't part of the deal."

Dumbledore just dealt me a tired look, as though he had expected me to say that. Was I really that predictable?

"I see…" Dumbledore replied after a moment. "I shall respect our deal then, and I hope that you will inform me about these artifacts when the time comes."

I nodded. "I plan to."

And that wasn't actually a lie.

"If you must accompany me down into the Chamber, then I insist that you must not do anythng that could endanger yourself." He said sternly.

I quirked my head. Something about this was familiar.

"I will be able to dispatch the basilisk myself with the roosters, and also if the roosters are somehow not effective." He continued. "You must trust me to protect you and take care of the beast."

I nodded.

"To do so, you must do as I say, for I refuse to put you in more danger than you must be. I mean that you must follow orders as 'run', 'hide', or 'go back', do I have your word?" He asked.

"Sure." I had no problem with saving my own life.

"If I tell you to hide, will you do so?" He pressed.

"Uh, yeah." I said flatly. Still, weirdly familiar…

"If I tell you to flee, will you obey?"

"On the word, I'll book it."

"If I tell you to leave me, and save yourself, you will do as I tell you?"

That question prompted a surprised huff of laughter out of me.

"It's just a basilisk, not a lake of inferi." I said flatly, finally remembering where this little exchange came from.

"I will not have you take this lightly, Adeline." Dumbledore said sternly.

"Okay, okay," I relented, "I'll ditch you at the drop of a hat, I promise."

"Very good. Now, I presume that you have your Invisibility Cloak in that backpack?" He said.

"Yep, and there's room for some other stuff if you wanna bring snacks." I said dryly.

"Thank you for the offer, but I think I shall keep my lemon drops in my office." Dumbledore replied, a smile reappearing on his face. "I will need a pick-me-up after we 'do the deed', as it were."

"Cool, shall we go, then?" I asked.

"One moment, we are still waiting on someone." Dumbledore replied mildly.

I furrowed a brow in confusion. Who could we possibly be waiting on?

"Ah, my apologies, I had another question I had wanted to ask you, Adeline." Dumbledore said. "Will you also be able to command the basilisk?"

I paused in my confused thoughts and shook my head. "No, I won't. That, I know for sure."

The ringing sound of Tom Riddle's voice echoed in my mind as I spoke, "Parseltongue won't save you now, Potter, it only obeys me!"

"I didn't think so. Though thank you for confirming my suspicions." He replied.

I tipped my chin up at him in reply, still trying to think of who the hell Dumbledore would trust with this kind of incendiary information. Wait…

"You called for me, Headmaster?"

My shoulders dropped and I stared at the bastard in the office doorway in annoyance.

However, Snape looked even more annoyed than I felt.

"I didn't agree to this." I said sharply. "Why is he here?"

"Adeline," Dumbledore chastised sharply, "Professor Snape is your teacher and deserves your respect."

I gestured vaguely with a hand. "Yeah, sure. However, the measure of my respect- or lack thereof- has no influence on the fact that Professor Snape wasn't part of our deal."

"What deal, may I ask?" Snape interjected, giving Dumbledore a pointed look.

Dumbledore smiled. "Miss Potter and I will be descending down into what we believe to be the Chamber of Secrets. I would ask you to stand at the entrance and await us in case we do not return, Severus."

I visibly relaxed at Dumbledore's words. He only called Snape up to be a glorified guard dog- not to betray me. Despite myself, I felt a wave of relief go through my mind.

Snape furrowed his brows. "In case you do not return?"

"Quite unlikely," Dumbledore replied happily, "But one cannot take chances in these kinds of situations."

"Very well." Snape replied.

"Now, I believe everything is in order." Dumbledore said, rising from his desk and clapping his hands together. "Now, onward!"

I shook my head in annoyance. That man was entirely too cheerful sometimes.

As he walked, the cage of roosters wheeled behind Dumbledore, floating a few inches off the ground when going down any stairs in its path, leaving me and Snape to follow behind.

We got some odd looks as our trio made our way down the school's corridors toward the second floor. People were probably thinking that I'd done something monumentally forbidden enough to warrant both the scariest teacher in the school and the headmaster leading me somewhere. Although it was somewhat funny to see Dumbledore happily greet everyone by name when they passed, contrasted with Snape's glowering stares. The effect was only added two by their completely opposite outfits of bright orange and black on black.

"Pardon me, but is anyone currently occupying this lavatory?" Dumbledore called into the bathroom as we arrived. "This is Headmaster Dumbledore!"

I huffed a laugh. "I'll go check."

"Thank you, Adeline." Dumbledore said, then stepped aside to let me go in.

I quickly checked each of the stalls, and, seeing them all empty, I turned to get the professors. Suddenly, a wispy flash right in front of me as I turned jolted a sharp shriek from me. I cut myself off quickly and made a growl of annoyance.

"Go away!" Moaning Myrtle demanded.

"Adeline, are you alright?" Dumbledore called.

"Yep!" I called back flatly, holding Myrtle's gaze with equal annoyance. "Bathroom's empty!"

"Lovely."

I smiled sarcastically at Dumbledore's reply as the professors came into the bathroom. Snape shot me an unimpressed look as he spotted Moaning Myrtle- probably having correctly guessed what caused my yell earlier.

"Now, if you'll kindly open the Chamber entrance, Adeline." Dumbledore prompted.

"Sure." I said absently, my eyes already glued to the sinks.

I ran my hand across the taps as I walked around the sinks, looking for the little carved snake in the side of the one that marked the entrance. There! I jerked to a stop as I felt the little engraving in the metal. I quickly turned the knob on the sink to check- yep, no water came out.

I stood back and took a deep breath, staring intently at the sink.

"Open." I commanded.

A pause.

"Did you need to say it in Parseltongue, Adeline?" Dumbledore asked.

I glanced back at him in confusion. "Did I not?"

"No, that was English."

I huffed.

"Okay, lemme just…" I shook my hands out in annoyance.

"Open!"

Another pause.

"Still English, unfortunately."

My shoulders dropped.

"Headmaster, if I may. Perhaps Potter is experiencing some kind of… performance issue?" Snape drawled.

"Just give her a moment, Severus." Dumbledore replied calmly.

"Goddamnit." I muttered, then pulled my wand out and pointed it at the sink.

"Serpensortia." I casted.

I stared pointedly at the small, green snake now sitting inside the sink basin of the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Open!" I snapped.

Finally, that echo-y resonance that I could hear when I spoke Parseltongue sounded around me. I took a step back with a satisfied look on my face as the bathroom floor suddenly groaned beneath our feet. I looked back over my shoulder to the professor's with a bit of a smug smile at the sound.

I heard the irritated hissed complaints by the snake as it slithered out of the sink basin and onto the bathroom floor as the whole sink began shaking and lowering into the ground.

"Vipera evanesca." I quickly pointed my wand at the snake, and it disintegrated under the counter spell.

"Now," I said, turning to the professors as the hole leading down into a tunnel was revealed, "Welcome to the Chamber of Secrets, enemies of the heir, beware."

"Most fascinating." Dumbledore said as he stepped forward to observe the hole between the sinks. "Is this connected to the school's piping system?"

"Think so." I replied, looking down the tunnel with him.

"To think, Slytherin had this secret tunnel system hidden under the school this whole time." Dumbledore mused. "Yet another one of Hogwarts' secrets."

He glanced back at me. "I presume this very Chamber was opened fifty years ago?"

My brows shot up at his connection. "It was."

He nodded.

"Secrets upon secrets- well, I suppose that is rather the point of the name." He smiled. "Now, is it safe for you to jump down, or shall I levitate you?"

"Ah, no, it's fine." I said. "It's sort of a slide actually. Except you land in a bunch of skeletons and bones and whatnot."

Dumbledore hummed cheerfully. "How revolting!"

"Well then," He took a step back, "After you, Miss Potter. I will levitate the roosters behind you, and Severus will stand guard here and come retrieve us if we do not return in…"

He glanced back at Snape and made a face of consideration. "...An hour, I should say. If it takes longer than that, then I've rather lost my touch."

"Alrighty." I said, tightening my backpack straps nervously as I stared at the hole. "Oh god…"

"Scared, Potter?" Snape drawled.

"Ksst, shut up." I growled, then I blew out a heavy breath. "Fuck it."

Then I crossed my arms and jumped into the hole. I gasped sharply as I fell into a freefall, the panicked thought -I've messed up and now I'm going to die!- running on loop in my mind. The heels of my feet smacked against the edge of the tunnel as it slowly started to slope and, soon enough, my back was flat against the metal as the tube curved into a slide, catching my momentum. Remembering the unspoken rule of nearly every waterslide, I locked my ankles together as I slid downward.

Suddenly, the tunnel evened out, then shot me out into a clearing. I shouted in surprise as I fell through the air once more, only to get the wind knocked out of me as I landed roughly on the wet, slimy ground. I rolled over and tried to plant my hands to get up, then hissed as something sharp cut into my palms.

Right, the skeletons, I mused as I looked out over the small clearing at the collection of deteriorating bones piled up on each other.

"Come on down, Headmaster!" I shouted. My voice echoed around me, bouncing off the stone walls.

This place was considerably darker than in the movie, I could barely see. Then, I heard a noise coming from the pipe I'd just shot out of. Wisely, I stepped away from the opening as I waited for Dumbledore to come out, wondering if his dismount would be as messy as mine.

I heard a slight 'ooph' sound, then Dumbledore flew out of the tunnel opening. However, once he met open space again, he seemed to slow in the air, then he floated down to the ground of the stone clearing, his slippered feet lightly touching down on the crushed up bones lining the floor.

"Oh that's not fair." I said after he landed.

He chuckled, then directed his wand at the opening and the cage of roosters came floating out. As he turned, I noticed the back of his bright orange robes were absolutely streaked with dirt and other… unidentifiable substances.

"Ooh," I said sympathetically, "Does my back look like that too?"

My own clothes probably looked worse, I could already see filth all over my white sleeves. Plus, I could feel the back of my shirt was soaked, despite my backpack.

"Ah, thank you for bringing that to my attention." Dumbledore said genially. Then, with a flick of his wand, both of us were completely clean again. I could have sworn I smelled a lingering scent of lavender around me.

"Now, if you'd be so kind as to lead the way." Dumbledore gestured a hand to the circular opening in the stone cavern.

Weirdly enough, I recognized some parts of the tunnels from the film as we made our way deeper and deeper beneath the school. When we passed the giant shedded snake skin, I had to hold back a gasp upon recognition. I hoped that Dumbledore thought that my reaction was just from shock if he'd noticed my muffled noise.

Soon enough, we arrived at the large, metal door that led to the actual chamber. I turned and nodded to Dumbledore, "This is it."

I turned back to the door and hissed at it to open, finding Parseltongue coming to my lips more easily than before.

Sure enough, exactly as it had in the film, the door made a loud groaning sound, and an animated, metal snake began slithering across the seal of the door, disengaging the locks as it passed. I heaved a deep breath to calm myself as the door swung open, then walked toward the opening. There was an old, metal ladder there, leading down to the chamber. I climbed down quickly and made my way down the long corridor, kicking up water with each step.

"Adeline! Wait!"

I froze and turned back around to where Dumbledore was striding across the stone floors toward me, still levitating the cage of roosters behind him.

"Is this where the basilisk lies?" He asked, looking up at a towering, carven statue making up the entire opposite wall.

"Yeah, it's in the mouth, there." I said, pointing to stone-Slytherin's mouth.

"Then I must ask for you to stand behind me when you call for it." Dumbledore said.

Right… call for it.

I still didn't quite remember what the hell Tom Riddle said to call on the basilisk in the movie, nor did I remember what was written in the book. All I remembered was one of the nonsense noises that the actor had made sounded sort of like "sa-lee-thay", but that was all.

Shaking my head in annoyance, I focused on one of the large snake statues and hissed out the sounds. Hoping that I would understand what the words meant if I said them aloud.

"Ssssalee-thay-ine… whoa, hold on!" I almost startled myself.

I ignored the odd look Dumbledore gave me, and looked down, muttering to myself. Somehow, I had just said "speak to me, Slytherin" in Parseltongue.

"Speak to me, Slytherin…" I muttered in English, trying to remember the rest of the chant from the book. "-Greatest of the Hogwarts four!"

I was actually shocked- legitimately shocked at myself, that I'd actually been able to remember the damn line. I clapped my hands together in victory.

"Alrighty! Get the roosters ready, Dumbledore!" I called wildly.

"Close your eyes, Adeline." He warned.

"Right, right! Will do." I replied, then concentrated on my words.

I reached out and hissed, "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four!"

All of a sudden, I heard a great, grinding sound, like stone scraping across stone.

"Here it comes." Dumbledore warned lowly.

I screwed my eyes shut and backed behind him.

It all happened so fast. One moment, I could only hear the grinding of stone, then the next, a low, wordless hiss that seemed to vibrate in my chest.

Then, "Who summons-"

I strained my ears to try to hear the low voice, then, all of a sudden it was cut off by the loudest cacophony of rooster crows. I flinched at the volume of the noise right beside me, but it couldn't mask the shrill, animal shriek that came next in the direction of the statue- then a loud 'thump', and a splash of water.

Then silence.

"So, is it dead, or what?" I asked, my eyes still closed and leaning into Dumbledore's back.

Above me, Dumbledore gave a light laugh. "Yes, I do believe it is. You may open your eyes, Adeline."

I opened my eyes to see a massive snake lying prone- dead, right in front of us. Its eyes were closed, thank god, and it had landed on the flooded floor just past the opening of the statue that it had slithered out of. It wasn't even fully outside of the little tunnel leading out of stone-Slytherin's mouth; it seemed that Dumbledore had made his move and killed the beast before it even had a chance to completely exit the tunnel at all. Smart guy.

"Holy shit." I breathed.

Dumbledore chuckled again. "Indeed. Though I must ask for your sentiments to be conveyed in a more, school friendly verbiage."

"Sure, sorry." I replied, half in shock, still staring at the massive snake.

"Now, I do believe that the basilisk's fangs are what you're after?" He prompted.

"Right!" I shook my head to try to wake myself up. "Right."

I moved out from behind Dumbledore and wandered over to stand over the snake's head. "We should probably grab a few to bring up to your office or something- have some at hand. But my plan is to leave most of the fangs down here since no one can really access the Chamber of Secrets without my help, or without me telling them what to say in Parseltongue."

"Very true." Dumbledore replied. "I believe we are in agreement."

"So, uh, how do I get 'em out?" I asked.

"Ah! Allow me to do that for you." Dumbledore said, coming forward and brandishing his wand.

With a graceful flick and a twist of his wrist, a fang popped free from the basilisk's slack mouth, a thick stream of blood oozing out of the hole it left.

"Huh." Was my only observation- a noise of grossed out interest.

After Dumbledore had pulled out five fangs, he stopped and levitated them into my backpack (it ended up coming in handy after all!). I followed him back toward the door of the Chamber, then paused as I noticed the rooster cage. All but one rooster was lying dead on the floor of the enclosure.

"Ah, yes." Dumbledore murmured when he noticed my gaze. "An unfortunate result of facing a basilisk. However, I do believe the sacrifice of these roosters was not in vain."

I snorted at the graceful eulogy for the chickens.

"I'd have gladly killed all of them myself if it accomplished the same thing." I said wryly.

Dumbledore stopped in his stride, then turned back to give me a grave look. "You shouldn't take death so lightly, Adeline. I worry for you sometimes."

I threw my head to the side and gave a halfhearted eye roll. "Oh come on, I'm being logical. This basilisk could have killed everyone in the school. If a couple dead chickens is all it takes to get rid of such a monumental threat, then I'm glad to pay for such a small price."

Dumbledore continued walking as he replied to me, his voice a little lighter, and the methodical tone of a teacher taking over his words. "I agree with the logic of that statement. However, it does not do the mind good to become desensitized to such a… payment."

"What do you mean?" I asked, surprised that I was genuinely interested.

"The protection of innocents can never be a bad thing, Adeline. Although, you must be mindful of what you risk in such an endeavour, and pay that risk the respect it deserves." He explained.

"...So… respect the chickens?" I said haltingly.

Dumbledore gave a light laugh. "Respect their deaths. Respect that we have made the choice to risk our lives and those of the roosters in order to protect the innocents of Hogwarts from a terrible fate. Now that we have accomplished our goal, we should not forget those who were lost in the act."

I nodded, the point finally getting across. "Be mindful of what we risk and lose, and respect that."

"Indeed." Dumbledore said. "Compassion and mindfulness are the tenets of a wise witch or wizard, remember that."

I hummed in reply, still turning Dumbledore's words over in my mind. Even after we left the Chamber, I was still thinking about the Headmaster's philosophy. I found it interesting, and I planned to reexamine his words in the morning, with a newly refreshed mind. I could probably use this newfound information somehow in the future.

Snape met us at the entrance to the tunnel, staring at me unimpressed as Dumbledore finished levitating me and our lone surviving rooster up and out after I had stared into the entrance tunnel in confusion for about five minutes, trying to remember how Harry, Ron, and Ginny had escaped the Chamber of Secrets in the film. I easily closed the sinks back up, hiding the Chamber once again, and followed Dumbledore back up to his office as Snape left to go back to the dungeons.

I stood awkwardly in the doorway of his office and adjusted my backpack on my shoulder. "Um, where did you want the basilisk fangs?"

"Ah, yes!" Dumbledore said with a smile. "I'd almost forgotten. Open your backpack, if you'd please?"

I slung the bag off my shoulder and pulled the zipper open, exposing the five fangs inside. Dumbledore levitated them again through the air. I watched as he floated them over to a golden box on one of the shelves, just below the dormant Sorting Hat. Dumbledore pressed his hand to one of the sides of the box and, with a shimmer, the side of the box turned transparent, and Dumbledore passed the fangs through. As the box turned solid again, I noticed that he'd been one fan short.

I jerkily looked back down into my bag and, sure enough, there was a single basilisk fang left inside, sitting on top of my Invisibility Cloak. I looked back up to see Dumbledore smiling at me knowingly, his eyes twinkling.

"Now, Adeline," Dumbledore sat down at his desk and addressed me again, "I believe we should have a little talk."

A pause.

"We… we literally were just talking." I said. "Like an hour ago, right here, then again in the Chamber, about the chickens and respect and all that… Are you sure you're all there?"

Dumbledore gave a light laugh. "Please, sit. We still have your end of our deal to get to, after all. The deal which you were so insistent upon making with me."

"Riiiiiight." I replied.

A pause.

"What- what did I say I would tell you, again?" I asked. "Sorry, I just- I'm still a little… frazzled from, uh, just now, with literally killing a basilisk and all that."

"Of course." Dumbledore said understandingly. "Here, why don't you sit down and I'll get you some calming tea?"

I nodded as I sat down across his desk.

"That'd be great, thanks." I replied, a sudden wave of fatigue falling over me- adrenaline crash, probably.

With a wave of his wand, a gilded tray appeared on his desk, with a matching tea set atop. I watched blankly, resisting the urge to just shake my head roughly to try to get my mind back on track. After being certain that Dumbledore didn't slip anything into my drink, I grabbed the steaming teacup and chugged the whole thing, tears coming to my eyes as the drink burned my throat. When I plopped the cup back down on the desk, I looked up to see Dumbledore staring at me with an expression of vague confusion and concern.

"Are you alright, Adeline?" He asked carefully.

I forced a cough, then cleared my throat. "Yeah, I just needed to do that."

I was being honest, I really needed to get my own bloody attention on the matters at hand. The slight burn in my throat quickly woke me up and got me alert again for the upcoming conversation. The specifics about our deal was coming back to me now.

"So, you want info about Malfoy, right?" I added before Dumbledore could say anything. "As I said before, Malfoy wants you kicked out of Hogwarts and he had a fairly effective plan to accomplish his goals- before I stepped in."

"If I may," Dumbledore interjected, "Why did you derail Lucius Malfoy's scheme?"

I pursed my lips. I suppose I could tell him, maybe Dumbledore would trust me a bit more at this honest admission.

I huffed a sigh. "I weighed the pros and cons of interfering, and I concluded that more harm would be done if I let events go on how they were set out to. The specific way I interfered made it so that I… probably… wouldn't make the timeline worse."

Even though I lied to people every day, I had a weird thing about telling the truth when I resolved to. It was like this: either lie or tell the whole truth, there was no "in-between" with me, call it some weird form of honour. I had to add the 'probably' in there, since I didn't know for certain if hiding Tom Riddle's diary would do more harm than good, but so far, much less damage had been done to the school and its inhabitants than if I had let the horcrux roam freely.

"And would you consider interfering in this manner again if you thought you could stop more harm from coming to pass?" Dumbledore asked.

I nodded. "Easily. However, I plan to keep to the timeline I'm aware of."

"To make it easier to predict?" He concluded.

I sneered ruefully before I could stop myself. I'd said too much just in that one exchange, now Dumbledore knew I was trying to manipulate events in my favour- and possibly much more about my character than I'd wanted to reveal to anyone.

"Back to the deal." I said flatly, annoyed and embarrassed having been manipulated so easily. "I told you that I'd recount what happened during my encounter with Malfoy and how he planned to kick you out of Hogwarts."

Dumbledore gestured for me to continue when I paused.

"Uhhhhhh, long story short," I started, thinking over the exchange at Flourish and Blotts, "Malfoy tried to start a verbal fight with the Weasleys in Diagon Alley to use as a distraction while he slipped a very specific book into Ginny Weasley's bag. He intended for this book to go to Hogwarts with the girl and wreak havoc on the school."

"What kind of havoc, Adeline?" Dumbledore pressed.

Ugh, I couldn't just be vague here, could I?

"This book…" I paused as I tried to think of what to say, "...can possess people. I don't know how much Malfoy even knew about it, that it could control others- or maybe he just knew it was full of dark magic and that was good enough for him. Anyway, not sure on that front, all I know is that he knew he could use it to further his own agenda in some capacity."

"The attacks were supposed to get so bad that the Ministry was starting to inquire into the school, even though the situation was being covered up from the papers- I assume that you would have had a hand in that." I added. "Malfoy is on some board of governors, and he used his influence to threaten the other governors to sign a form that dismisses you from your position as Headmaster."

I made an annoyed gesture with my hand. "I really don't remember the details of how that all happened, but you ended up discovering that Malfoy threatened to 'curse their families' or whatever, but that got him off your tail afterward."

Dumbledore sat back heavily in his throne-like chair with a sigh.

"It astonishes me how detailed your foreknowledge is." He said tiredly. "I trust you now know the new path of events that are to come, now that you stopped this from happening?"

I paused. "...No."

Dumbledore's head dropped to the side in confusion.

"Perhaps you could tell me a bit more about your precognition, Adeline?" He said hesitantly. "I'm confident that I will be able to help you much more effectively if I was aware of the scope of your power."

I was already shaking my head before he could finish. No way, no how. I knew I would not be telling anyone of my true origins and knowledge unless I had absolutely no other choice and was at rock bottom- and that would be a dark day indeed.

"Sorry, but that's not part of the deal." I said sharply. "Anyway, that's about it on Malfoy's plans. Although, as I said last week, he's probably got some new scheme to try out, one that I have no knowledge of."

Dumbledore nodded, his expression grave. "Thank you nonetheless, Adeline."

I gave him a flat smile in reply.

"Now, it's quite late." He said, his voice lightening considerably as he looked at an ornate clock on the wall. "I'm sure you'd like to get some rest."

He held up a finger, as though a thought just came to him. "And I do believe that you deserve a day free of classes after this ordeal."

I raised an eyebrow in surprise. Was he bribing me or something?

"I wouldn't say no to the opportunity to skip class without getting in trouble." I replied smoothly.

"Lovely." Dumbledore smiled and clapped his hands together as though punctuating the decision. "I shall send a notice to your teachers in the morning, and you, my dear, shall be off to bed!"

I nodded awkwardly at the mood change. "Cool… uh, goodnight, professor."

I stood up and slung my backpack up on my shoulder, and was momentarily reminded of the basilisk fang inside. I had been surprised that Dumbledore trusted me enough to leave it in my possession- though it was probably just some ruse to manipulate me again.

"Goodnight, Adeline." He replied.