A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews! Special shoutout to saebest, whose reviews made me cry. :') Also, Deidaraslefthand pointed out how Spitfire's gender kept switching; as much as I'd like to say Alex's cat is genderfluid, the truth is I'm a mess lol.

Hope you enjoy this chap!

Chapter Nineteen

Chambers and Celebrations

Alex glanced up as her library table was suddenly swarmed by a trio of Gryffindor second-years. "There you are," sighed Ron. "We've been looking for you everywhere."

She arched an eyebrow at them. "You could've just waited for me after dinner tonight."

"It's urgent," claimed Hermione, completely human once more. They sat on the unoccupied seats around her, leaning in closely. "We know what the monster is."

That got her attention. Alex lowered her quill and eyed them expectantly. "How?"

Hermione clambered into the seat beside her, Harry and Ron quickly following suit. "We were just on our way back to the common room when we ran into a bunch of Hufflepuffs. They were staring at Harry and whispering. They haven't given up the theory of him being the Heir, you see."

"Harry the Heir. My friend Luna said it was the alliteration," Alex told them with a serious nod.

Hermione and Harry were stumped by this non-sequitur, but Ron was already aware of what a loon Alex was. "Right," he said dismissively. "Anyway, they mentioned his Parseltongue abilities again, and then Hermione just yelps in realisation."

"It's a basilisk, Alex," Hermione said, eyes glimmering. "I remember reading about them in Magical Monsters of the Past, and how they have deadly yellow eyes that can kill with just one look."

"But it can also Petrify when glimpsed indirectly," continued Harry. "And everyone's who been Petrified was found near some water – Mrs Norris and Colin Creevey. Justin must've seen it through Nearly Headless Nick, so that acted a barrier from the direct shock."

"I don't understand," she confessed. "Did the creature want to eat people? Or, at the very least, kill them?"

The trio shared an uneasy look. "Maybe it thought the others died when it looked at them?" suggested Harry.

"Maybe," she allowed. Or maybe whoever Voldemort was possessing had fought back with what little power they had. She shook her head. "What are the weaknesses of basilisks?"

"The cries of roosters," said Hermione. "That's why all of Hagrid's roosters were killed. It was the Heir tying up loose ends."

"Do you know if Hagrid has any more?"

"Why?" Ron asked suspiciously.

Alex smiled. "We're going down the Chamber of Secrets, of course."

Naturally, her declaration wasn't well-received. The trio of second-years screamed, "WHAT?", drawing both the ire of Madam Pince and the irritation of nearby students. Alex winced at the volume.

Ron grew pale, largely emphasising the constellation of freckles on his face. "You did not just say that," he whimpered.

"Yeah, I did," she replied, packing up. "Let's go to Hagrid's."

They rushed to follow her. "Alex," Hermione said, alarmed, "you can't be serious. We should tell the professors about this."

"Besides," added Harry, "we don't even know where the Chamber is…do you?"

"Of course I know. It's kinda obvious."

This led to a whole other round of questions, and Alex waited for them to quiet down before explaining. "When you interrogated Malfoy, he told you that the last time the Chamber was open, a muggleborn died, right? It was Myrtle. She told me how she died, and how the monster emerged by one of the sinks in the very bathroom she died in."

"What you're saying is," Harry said slowly, "the Chamber is in the girls' lavatory?"

Alex laughed. "Pretty much. There's a tap with a snake engraved into it. I'm surprised no one found it sooner." Well, not really. Wizards and witches were rather dense and illogical, in her opinion.

"Even more reason to tell someone," insisted Hermione. "It's extremely dangerous – you could die."

Alex considered arguing, but then she realised something important. "Fine," she said, stopping dead in her tracks. The trio skidded to a halt, with Hermione almost bumping into her. Alex whirled around. "Fine. We'll tell the adults, on one condition: no one outside Hogwarts can know about this before we go down there, and a significant part of the profits should go to charity."

"Profits?" Ron repeated, bewildered. "What d'you mean?"

She folded her arms. "Basilisks are rare and in-demand creatures. I mean, when was the last time one existed? The one down in the Chamber must be at least fifty years old, which means it's humongous, which means lots of scales and skin and teeth and bits and pieces that'll be sold at high prices. I predict a little bit will get us by easily, so the rest should go to the less fortunate. Agreed?"

It took a little more convincing and explaining, but they eventually came to a consensus and arrived at Dumbledore's office. Once there, they told him about the plan, although she let the trio do most of the talking. They felt uncomfortable speaking about the financial portion, though, forcing her to speak.

"With all due respect, sir," she began, focusing on his beard, "I'd like it if as few people as possible could be aware of this. It'll be troublesome…especially when it comes to the profits – I want most of them to go charity, or the less fortunate, both magical and muggle."

"An honourable request," declared Dumbledore, a curious tone colouring his words. "Very well, Miss Fortescue. The only ones who shall know about this will be us five and Professor Snape. We shall strike tomorrow night. Please meet us in Myrtle's bathroom at eight in the evening."

Part of Alex wondered why Dumbledore was even involving them in the plan at all. In his eyes, they were just children, and had no place in a plot to take down a monster that could easily end them in several different ways. But Dumbledore was never the poster child for mental stability or unmarred morality, especially when one Harry James Potter was involved.

"With a rooster, right, sir?" piped up Hermione.

"Of course, Miss Granger."

"Sir," interjected Harry, "have you discovered who the Heir is?"

Dumbledore's voice grew a touch graver as he spoke. "Yes, I have. The diary was a big clue, thank you. But I'm afraid that isn't a conversation for now."

Sensing the dismissal, they soon left. A mixture of apprehension and excitement fell over them as they made their way to the Great Hall, but all Alex could think of was the consequences of her plan.

In the end, she didn't even step foot in the Chamber. Snape and Dumbledore figured it was much too dangerous for a bunch of children to face an enormous basilisk, so all they did was show them the entrance to the Chamber, figure out that they needed Harry's Parseltongue abilities, and wait patiently until they returned.

Harry went down with them, just in case he needed to speak to the basilisk or utter some key phrases in Parseltongue to get them through the Chamber. Hermione and Ron stood by the entrance, anxiously peering down the dark tunnel as if someone or something would come shooting out at any moment. Although she herself was worried, Alex knew there was nothing to do except wait with her wand by her side, so she whittled time away by chatting with Myrtle. If she didn't, Myrtle would probably go insane with all the excitement in her bathroom, and start raving on about how Harry could join her in her stall once he died. Alex figured no one needed to hear that at the moment.

Her watch told her half an hour had passed. They were getting restless. "Shouldn't they be back by now?" Ron asked, shifting from foot to foot.

Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to give him some baseless reassurance, when a popping sound reached their ears. Suddenly, the empty space between them was filled with a rather dirty looking Harry, Dumbledore and Snape.

"You won't believe what just happened," panted Harry, sitting up from his less than elegant apparition landing.

Ron and Hermione began to attack him with a barrage of questions, but Dumbledore help up a hand and a hush fell over them. "First," he said, lowering his hand to pat the rooster in his arms, "allow Mr Potter pay a visit to Madam Pomfrey. Professor Snape and I will remain here to deal with the loose ends."

Loose ends being the basilisk corpse, of course. That was the only reason Alex decided to tell them about the Chamber in the first place. Personally, she had no clue who to contact to sell the snake bits, and she didn't know how to extract them in the first place. She figured the professors would, however, so she left it to them.

Dumbledore confessed to having no need for such funds, but Snape was all too happy to rake in his share. (Alex hoped his opinion of her/them shot up at that.) Harry's sentiments were similar to that of Dumbledore's. Alex didn't feel right about that, since they couldn't have entered the Chamber without him, so she convinced him to take some just in case. Hermione decided it would be useful if she ever chose to enter a muggle university in the future, and Ron was ecstatic at the thought of never having to use hand-me-downs ever again. He was a bit less excited when she told him most of it would go in a trust fund he could access when he was seventeen, but he would deal.

They discussed as much the previous night, and Alex trusted the professors to uphold their ends of the deal. Since Snape was doing most of the work, he would receive twenty per cent of the profits, while the rest of them (sans Dumbledore) would get ten per cent. The rest would go to a variety of charities that Alex picked out herself.

"So this is what happened," said Harry, once Pomfrey declared he was A-OK. She must have received word about what was going down, though, because she let them all loiter inside in the infirmary. "We slid down the tunnel, which was why we were all dirty—thanks for cleaning my clothes, Alex—and we ended up somewhere beneath the dungeons and beneath the lake."

"Wow," whispered Hermione. "It must be miles beneath us."

Harry nodded, accepting one of the chocolates Alex dug up from her never-ending store in her bag. "We had to walk a bit after our slide down the tunnel. There were dozens of rat skeletons littering the floor. We came across something like a snake, and Dumbledore brought out the rooster from his burlap sack just in case. It wasn't the basilisk, though – it was its skin. It was green, and was longer than the Great Hall itself."

Ron swallowed weakly.

"Snape's eyes lit up, and he looked like he wanted to stop and inspect the thing, but Dumbledore urged us to move along. We walked some more and ran into a wall carved with two giant snakes with emeralds as their eyes. Like with the tap, I told it to open, and we were greeted by an enormous green-tinted room with lots of pillars carved into snakes, and a giant statue of Salazar Slytherin himself."

Harry paused for some much-needed air before continuing. "There was no sign of the basilisk. After Dumbledore and Snape inspected the place, they decided there had to be some sort of key word. We huddled by the entrance and I said some corny stuff like, 'Come out, basilisk, the Heir of Slytherin commands you'—Snape looked really amused at that—and then Slytherin's mouth began to open, and the basilisk slithered out." He took a deep breath. "We were watching it through the giant puddle Dumbledore had conjured up on the floor. I froze up, but before it could come close, Dumbledore prodded the rooster and it crowed. The whole Chamber shook as the basilisk fell, dead. I thought the walls were going to collapse right on top of us.

"And that's it," he said with an inappropriately blasé shrug.

Overwhelmed, Alex leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. It was only when Dumbledore walked in that she finally sat up. Someone was trailing behind him, a mask of cold fury on his face, and Alex almost fell out of her chair when she identified him as Lucius Malfoy, Death Eater extraordinaire. Dobby the house-elf hobbled after him, looking as terrified as she felt.

She tried to make herself as small and invisible as possible as they engaged in verbal warfare. It turned out that Ginny had confessed that she was the one who was leaving the creepy messages on the wall and killing the roosters. Maybe she was feeling insanely guilty, or maybe she couldn't hold it in anymore and blabbed, Alex didn't know. But as Harry listened to Dumbledore and watched Dobby's crazy gestures, he realised that Malfoy Sr. was the one to slip Ginny the diary, months ago in Flourish and Blotts.

Ron recovered from his shock at discovering the diary contained Voldemort's memory. He looked ready to break Lucius Malfoy's neck then and there, but Hermione kept a firm grip on his wrist. Naturally, Malfoy deflected their accusations, as they could never prove it was him, but Dumbledore warned him to never go around spreading Riddle's school things again, lest Mr Weasley trace it back to him and ruin his reputation forever.

With an indignant huff, Malfoy turned and strutted off. Before he was out of sight, Harry called out to him and threw his sock, of all things, at the man's face. While Alex would have paid good money to see the smelly, slimy item hit Malfoy's face—she realised, with no small amount of glee, that she could totally do that now—he caught it at the last moment. Disgusted, he tossed it aside, where Dobby practically flew to catch it.

Dobby the elf was freed, Lucius Malfoy was (literally) blown away by the house-elf's magical prowess, the basilisk was dead, and the school was safe.

Dumbledore summed up their good mood with one sentence: "Well, I think this is cause for a feast, wouldn't you say?"

The celebrations lasted all night and well into the morning. Despite the fact that dinner had ended but an hour ago, people still found rooms in their stomachs to stuff a few treats down. There was even butterbeer going around. Alex sipped at hers tentatively.

Before the feast had officially begun, Dumbledore had announced that the case was closed. The Chamber was found, the monster had been identified and killed, and the criminal caught. She was surprised to hear him actually tell the truth—that it was the memory of Voldemort within a diary that would possess any who wrote in it—but what stunned her was whom he congratulated for solving the case.

The trio, naturally, received two hundred points each. The thunderous applause and cheer from the Gryffindor table had no time to begin before Dumbledore continued his speech. "Also," he said, smiling in her direction, "because of her admirable detective skills, Alexandra Fortescue has managed to discover what so many wizards and witches before her couldn't. Two hundred points to Slytherin."

Stunted applause echoed through the hall, and Alex wanted to do nothing more than curl into a ball and cry. Her Housemates nodded at her in approval, which made her feel slightly better about it all. Still, when the time came, she knew no one would even consider her an ally in the war between the Dark and the Light.

"Hey, Cedric, I was wo—"

Cedric stopped dead in the hallway, a look of shock on his face. "What's this?" he gasped. "Is Alexandra Fortescue, hero of Hogwarts, actually acknowledging me?"

Alex's confusion melted into resigned amusement as she rolled her eyes. "Ha-ha, very funny. Be serious."

Cedric dropped the gushing fanboy act with a smile. "I was only half-joking. The general opinion of you has practically undergone a one-eighty overnight."

"I don't care," she said frankly. At least the Hufflepuffs were less likely to give her shit for hanging with Cedric now. "I was wondering if you wanted to come over in the summer?"

"I'd love to," he said, grinning. He accepted the slip of paper with her address written on it. "Do you have the Floo system connected to your house?"

"Nah. Mum's a bit paranoid, being an auror and all."

He nodded in understanding and tucked the note into the pockets of his pants. "Where are you off to now?"

"Technically, I have Defense right now, but we learn more about Lockhart's ego than anything else."

"You sly snake," said Cedric, a smirk on his face as he caught the implication of her words. "You're playing hooky, aren't you?"

Alex mirrored his expression. "It's not really hooky if you're sneaking off to study, is it?"

"I should report you," Cedric said with a dramatic sniff. "Unless… you go on the next Hogsmeade trip with me."

"Tough choice," she said with a heavy sigh. "But I'm starting to like my goody two shoes reputation, so I'll have to go with the latter."

The monthly Hogsmeade weekends weren't too exciting for Alex. She had practically grown up in Diagon Alley, so the appeal of candy and butterbeer was lost on her. The first time and last time she had gone, she had been alone, and had spent most of the time watching the Shrieking Shack and debating exploring it.

But now that the school held her in good opinion, she could safely go with Cedric without fear of being burned at the stake. Smiling, she bid Cedric farewell as he hurried off to his class. Alex herself was off to the lake, where she could enjoy the spring sunshine undisturbed.

Hermione was horrified when she found out, of course. To her, Lockhart was still a star. Truancy was bad enough, but truanting Lockhart's class? Preposterous!

She was less indignant, though, at the End-of-Term feast when Dumbledore announced Lockhart wouldn't be returning next year. Over the dismayed cries of his fans, he explained that several aurors and civilians had worked together to unveil the trail of frauds Lockhart had committed over the years. He had been arrested and discredited. From her seat at the Slytherin table, Alex could see Harry and Ron shooting smug looks at an embarrassed Hermione. Though no one would ever know, the anonymous tip that had been delivered to Mum and her work-friends was all Alex's doing.

Her self-satisfied smile lasted the whole train ride home. Spitfire was asleep in Hermione's nap, leaving Alex free to play with Scabbers. "It's a good thing you kept an eye on Scabbers this year, Ron," she said, tickling the chittering rat's chin. "Otherwise the basilisk would have gobbled this cutie up." It was amazing how she managed to say that without gagging.

Ron shrugged, his eyes never leaving the game of Exploding Snap the twins and Harry were playing. "I don't even know if the lousy thing realised what was happening all year."

"Rats are actually intelligent creatures," she told him, running her fingers over Scabbers' fur. It leaned into her touch, and a smirk flitted over her face at the open display of trust. Phase one: complete.

The group parted ways at the station, the twins making a huge deal over the heroes of Hogwarts like Cedric did. Unlike Cedric, they kept it up even when they were asked to stop. Her parents, curious, asked what it was all about during the car ride home. She and Harry exchanged a look before silently agreeing to smile obliviously and shrug their shoulders. Although nonplussed, they dropped the subject once she asked how the past few months had treated them.

"Oh, by the way," she said, letting Spitfire scramble out of his cage and around the house, "my Cedric is coming over this summer. Is that okay?"

For some reason, this elicited a smirk from Mum and a glower from Dad. "Did you just say 'my Cedric'?" asked Mum.

Alex's face heated up as the words sunk in. "I meant my friend Cedric! I swear! Stop laughing, Harry!"

Her mum shrugged and said, "Sure" while her dad dramatically bemoaned the fact that his darling little girl was bringing another boy home. Harry looked bemused by this as he stepped inside, but Alex just sent her dad a look. "I'm thirteen, Dad," she reminded him, though she wasn't sure if this helped her argument or not. "Besides, Cedric and I really are just good mates."

Harry smirked from the stairs. "A good mate who gave you a valentine."

Dad paused in making tea while Mum arched her brows. Damn you, Harry Potter, she thought viciously, suddenly finding herself fighting off her parents' inquisitiveness.

"I'm not getting you anything for your birthday now," she grumbled moments later.

Harry didn't look up from his cloud-watching. "We both know that's not true."

The topic of birthdays had come up on the train, and Alex had discovered Harry's was on July 31st.

"Is there anything you want?" she asked, watching Spitfire sniff around the backyard.

"Not really." Books it was, then. "What about you?"

"I would like world domination."

"Uh, something a bit more accessible, maybe?"

"Lame," she muttered. "I'll be happy with a homemade card."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I don't need anything." Nothing Harry could get her, anyway.

She didn't even celebrate her birthdays, not really. Her parents both took a day off and they went out to dinner and had a specially-made Fortescue ice cream cake, but that was pretty much it. Alex enjoyed it as it was, and while her parents felt like they should take her out somewhere, there was nowhere she wanted to go that was accessible enough. She wanted to travel the world, to her parents' homelands, to Australia and America and all the rest, but long-distance side-long apparition was tricky, especially with someone so inexperienced. There were things she had to do here, anyway.

Alex strolled through her neighbourhood, a half-eaten sandwich in her hands. It was part of the lunch her parents had made for her before leaving for work that morning, but she had gorged herself on some of the chips from on the nearby shops, hence the walk. She was making her way up into jogging by increasing her pace and distance each day. Soon, she would be able to run through the streets without breaking a sweat (probably). As it was, she managed a fast-paced powerwalk.

The way she ate at Hogwarts was fine; she expended so much magic that she needed to consume enough food to compensate for it. With the trace still on her, though, the most she did was accidentally unleash bouts of uncontrollable magic, so she needed to either cut down on eating or start exercising. Obviously, she opted for the latter.

Wincing, she adjusted her bra. Puberty was definitely more painful the second time around. At least being magical meant being able to resize bras appropriately as they grew in. Her parents had to fix it a minimum of once a year since they began to grown a few years back. It was annoying, and sometimes Alex wished she had been reborn into a male body instead.

That was when she noticed it. In her dull muggle neighbourhood, the only notable spots of brightness were her house and, several streets over, Harry's. And now there was a new contestant. It was faint and muffled, and would've been invisible if they weren't in an otherwise magic-less province.

She followed the source, the rest of the world growing dimmer as she focused solely on the spot of magic. Although it was practically useless now that she wasn't at school, she held her wand out by her side. Her hand tightened over it as a low whine reached her ears. She followed the whimpers to a clump of bushes, which was hiding a large black dog. It looked like it hadn't seen a decent meal in weeks.

Her heart went out to it. Disregarding the fact that it might be dangerous, Alex kneeled down and placed the sandwich by its snout. The dog barely looked at her before devouring the entire sandwich in one gulp.

"I have more at my house," she told it, as if it could understand her. Judging by the way it was looking at her, it probably could. Magical creatures were a smidge brighter than their mundane relatives, after all. "Also, my parents aren't home right now. They won't kick you out, and even if they do, it'll at least be on a full stomach."

Rising, she dusted herself off and slowly walked back. She peered over her shoulder, and smiled when she saw the dog slowly but steadily following her.

The fifteen-minute walk seemed to tire the dog immensely. He was panting vigorously, so the first thing Alex did was fill a shallow bowl with water. He lapped it up eagerly as she grabbed all the meat she could find in the house and piled it on a plate. She placed it outside on the porch, so that the dog could dig in without fear of messing up the place.

Spitfire, who had been dozing in the sun, glanced up at the appearance of the dog. He approached carefully, stopping to sniff the dog before deeming it acceptable. If Spitfire could deal with Fang, then he could deal with this new, less excitable dog. Satisfied, her cat returned to its nap. Lazy ass.

"Well," Alex said, watching the dog lick the plate clean, "Spitfire approves of you. That's good enough for me. What should we call you?" Humming thoughtfully, she reached out a hand to the dog. It made no move to stop her, so she patted his head softly. "I'll call you Lucky."

The dog huffed, as though unappreciative of the name. Smiling, Alex continued to stroke its fur. "How about a bath, huh?"

Unlike most dogs, Lucky didn't run off at the sound of running water. That, added to its peculiar timing and air of magic around it, Alex was quite sure that the creature she was bathing was recent escapee Sirius Black.

She grinned. Phase two was off to a great start.