When she entered the Great Hall the next morning, Natasha was greeted with delicious smells and excited chatter. She joined her friends at the Gryffindor table, with Harry and Hermione arguing in whispered tones, and Ron piling ketchup on his sausages. 'Morning,'

''ey 'at,' mumbled Ron, before hurriedly swallowing. 'Thank god you're here, they've been at it for 10 minutes.'

'What are they so fussed about?' asked Nat, grabbing some toast, and juice.

'Oh, um…' Ron looked uncomfortable. 'Well…'

'It's nothing, Nat,' Hermione's voice jumped in. 'Harry was just…being unreasonable about today's… events.'

'Right. Events.' Natasha didn't miss the glare Hermione shot Harry, nor Harry's hand stuffing a familiar little black book inside his bag. A cold feeling settled on her, only to vanish as soon as it was out of sight. Her eyes flitted back up to Hermione's anxious eyes, which were covered by a grin.

'Moving on,' chirped Hermione, her voice overly bright. 'What're your plans, Nat? Coming to Hogsmeade.'

Natasha shook her head. She had already made up her mind on the matter and would much rather continue her research than go to the village she had been staying in for the past 3 years.

'Great, you two can keep each other company.' Hermione was talking very fast, and Natasha stared at her, suspicious.

'Ok, that's decided now, Ron and I are heading off, bye and stay out of trouble!' she caught Ron by the scuff of his robes and dragged him off, ignoring his muffled shouts about sausages.

Harry leaned back in his chair and watched them go. 'So, what are the plans you're so eager to get to?'

Natasha jumped, realizing she was staring at the Slytherin table. 'What?'

'Please,' Harry snorted. 'You keep looking at Slytherin's table, you keep fingering a book in your bag, my guess? You and your brother are up to something.'

'Or, I could have homework, and just absentmindedly let my eyes wander over to Slytherin.'

Harry laughed. 'Except all your homework is done. Speaking of…'

'No,' said Natasha, biting into the last of her toast. 'That's cheating.'

'Fine,' grumbled Harry. 'But I can't do it, I have...'

'What?'

'Nothing, just…' Harry seemed to be very flustered, and Natasha noticed that his hand had slipped inside his bookbag and seemed to be holding onto something.

'None of your business,' Harry's voice grew cold, his green eyes flashing.

Nat was taken aback. 'Ok…' she jumped off the bench. 'I'll be in the library. You can do whatever with that book of yours.'

'There isn't a book,' muttered Harry, in a transparent attempt to cover up his secret.

Natasha rolled her eyes. 'Ok, seriously, what is the big deal about this book? I mean it's a book.'

'Nothing. No one. I…' Harry wouldn't meet her eyes, and something snapped in Natasha.

'Look at me.' Harry glanced up at her, startled. In doing so, his eyes met hers, and she leapt into action.

She looked past his thoughts, expecting emotions. But instead, she was greeted with a very familiar face. One that had given her nightmares almost her whole life. One whose features she saw in the mirror every day.

Gasping, she closed her eyes. No. No. No, no, no, no…

'Um… Nat? Are you ok?'

Natasha grabbed the hesitant hand Harry had reached out with. She jumped up and ran, almost dragging Harry on the floor while doing so.

'Who was that?' she asked once they had reached an empty corridor. 'Who did I just see?' her voice was low, barely controlled. She was on the brink of panic as she shook Harry. 'Who was he?!'

'C-calm down!' Harry wrestled away. 'It's no one. None of your business.'

'It's him, isn't it?' Natasha sunk onto the floor, shaking. 'He's back. A-and you've been talking to him! Y-you-'

'It's not like that! I- '

'You of all people should know! How dangerous, h-how foolhardy-'

'Natasha!' Harry grabbed her flailing wrists, pulling them together, and holding them, cupped in his hands.

'Look at me,' his tone was gentle. Natasha closed her eyes, before slowly bringing them up to Harry's. 'Harry,' her voice was barely a whisper. 'Don't you realise? The danger, the consequence.'

'It's okay, Nat. Hermione whizzed up some spell that sort of banished the dark parts, so he can't possess us like Ginny, and it's safe. Really.' He added seeing the incredulous look on her face.

Natasha closed her eyes, again, trying to bring herself to consider the situation. She opened her eyes, meeting Harry's kind, glimmering green eyes. It was obvious how much he cared about her reaction, and whether she would keep the secret.

'This is how the chamber opened then?' She had to focus on how, why, where, and WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKING CRAP WAS HAPPENING?! Better than who at any rate.

'Yes, he possessed Ginny, she opened it. You don't have to be descended from Slytherin; you just need to be a Parselmouth. The chamber itself is in moaning myrtle's bathroom, y 'know, the one which no one goes to, nightmare, Myrtle is…'

'How could you know all that?' asked Nat, asked her voice faint.

'Well, it was honestly easy once you connected the dots,' said Harry, turning red. 'We still don't know how to not set Myrtle off every time we go in there though…'

Natasha let out a watery laugh at his weak attempt at humour. She started to smile before the weight of what Harry had just said crashed on her like a bag of bricks. 'What do you mean, every time we go in there?'

A/N: IK AND I'M VERY SORRY. I've not been able to write for a very long time, partly because I've been busyyy and it kept slipping my mind. I will do my level best to write more often because I literally have way too much planned out to leave it here, not even a quarter through. There are MULTIPLE storylines taking place, so coordinating that should be fun... but I'm way too much of a perfectionist to leave it incomplete permanently(I think and I HOPE)

I will post more very soon, it is the summer holidays and it should be easy to find time now that my vacation is over.