Chapter 3: A New Day

I was once again left alone in the common room. As I eyed the low flames in the fireplace, I started to piece together a messy, questionable plan that I hoped might work.

I woke up early the next morning ready to execute my plan. While it was still dark, I wrote a checklist of everything I was going to do. Then, I pulled out more parchment to write letters that I would send off before breakfast.

My father always said making connections was important. It was why I wanted to be friends with Potter in the first place, and why I was now writing letters to multiple people I didn't know or had a good relationship with. As I wasn't sure if my correspondence would be received warmly, I felt it would be less embarrassing to be rejected through writing.

By the time I made it up to the Owlery, the sun was starting to rise. I looked down at the letters in my hands, checking that I hadn't missed one.

The Daily Prophet – Tip Office

The Ministry of Magic – Department of Magical Creature Regulation

The Ministry of Magic – Department of Magical Law Enforcement

St. Mungo's – Alchemy Room

Professor Dumbledore

H. Granger

Satisfied, I sent off each owl into the sunrise.

By the time I reached the Great Hall, I was hungry and filled up my plate. Crabbe and Goyle grunted in approval, and went back to their breakfasts. As I ate, I felt better than I had in days. Who knew that writing a few letters could come with such a feeling of accomplishment?

In all honesty, I didn't think I'd really get a response from any of them except maybe Professor Dumbledore. To my surprise, I was confronted by one of the recipients before lunch. I was a few steps behind my housemates – who were mouthing-off about Lockhart – when I felt a tug on the back of my robe. I was quickly yanked into an empty classroom with the door slamming shut behind me.

"Ron, I told you not to do that!"

"The git's fine."

I straightened my robes. "You know, a simple 'Hey, can we talk with you privately?' would have worked just as well."

"Why would we have any reason to believe it would?" Granger retorted. "For all we know, this is a joke."

I rolled my eyes. "I assure you, it's not a joke. Now, do you have an answer to my question?"

"It was a lousy thing to ask," Weasley's eyes became cold. "Harry's petrified. Whether he was crazy or not doesn't matter anymore."

I huffed. "Listen, I'm not here to fight. I just want to know if it happened before."

Weasley was about to respond, but Granger put her hand on his arm. "What do you mean by, 'if it happened before'?"

I hesitated, wondering if it would be wise to put my cards on the table. Nobody moved. We all wanted answers from each other, so I decided to offer an olive branch first.

"I was there when Potter was petrified," Granger and Weasley gasped, but I continued. "We were snarking at each other in the Entrance Hall that morning. Then, he said he heard a voice and ran. He said it was going to kill someone and he had to stop it. I tried following him, but I lost sight of him…"

"And then when you found him…" Granger realized.

"He had been petrified." I nodded. "I wasn't more than 3 meters away from him, but that was enough time for him to be attacked, I guess."

Weasley looked visibly shaken, and moved to sit down. Granger followed him and was quiet for a few minutes, reflecting on what I said. She eventually wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, trying to hide her tears. "H-he heard a voice during Halloween. He said th-the same thing about how it was going to kill someone. That was when the whole Chamber of Secrets mess started."

My eyes widened. "Wait, then…Mrs. Norris?"

Granger nodded. "We were leaving a Deathday Party when he heard it. He followed the voice, and by the time we caught up to him…"

"You were at the scene of the crime."

I absorbed the new information, realizing what this meant. "Did he ever tell you that he heard voices before then?" The two Gryffindors shook their heads.

I started pacing around the room as I was thinking. Either Potter's mind had gone downhill within the span of a few months, or he was being targeted by the Heir through some kind of mind game. As much as I disliked Potter, I knew that dismissing his final moments as madness would mean ignoring the last few months of attacks.

"Malfoy?"

I stopped and looked at Granger. She gave Weasley a look, then turned back to me. "Why do you want to know about this? Surely, the Chamber of Secrets being opened and the Heir of Slytherin running around is what you want."

Before Potter was petrified, that would have been true. But now…I had no idea what I wanted. Answers to satisfy my curiosity? Knowledge to hold over others? Something more?

"I don't know," I finally admitted. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about what happened. If I were to choose one reason, I guess it would be that I want everything to go back to normal."

They stared at me with unreadable expressions on their faces. I felt uncomfortable, like I had stayed for too long, so I left. I quickly went to the dungeons, and grabbed the materials I would need for my afternoon classes.

I had hoped that I could put the whole thing out of my mind for a few hours. I was successful to an extent, but then as I was leaving Herbology an owl came to me. I took the scroll from its ankle and pocketed it before my friends could read it. They were curious, but I changed the subject and they reluctantly went along with it.

After dinner, I got the chance to finally read it.

Malfoy,

We thought about what you said today, and after talking it over, we want to know if you want to work with us. Before Harry was petrified, we were researching the Chamber of Secrets. As you want to know who is behind the attacks just as much as us, we thought there would be a better chance of figuring it out together.

If you're interested, meet us in the empty room next to Binns' class at 8 o'clock tonight.

-Ron Weasley

Huh. Aside from Granger's notorious study habits, the Gryffindor trio seemed like they were always winging it. But then again, only a fool would have done what they did at the end of last term without a plan. Oh, alright. I'm nosy and want to know what they've come up with.

I quickly left the common room, and headed to the empty room. They were already there with a few books opened on a table.

"What have you got so far?"

Granger handed me a book. "Well, we know Slytherin built the Chamber and–"

"I mean, who do you suspect to be the Heir?" I cut her off, putting the tome down. "Do you know what the beast is? Have you found out where the Chamber is?"

She looked away. "No…"

I frowned. "You're joking."

Granger started biting her nail, so Weasley took the opportunity to speak up. "There's not much info out there on any of this. Besides Harry, the last known Parselmouth was You-Know-Who. As far as I can recall, he was the last descendant of Slytherin. Unless he had a secret son or something, we haven't got a clue."

"But Potter isn't related to Slytherin or the Dark Lord," I frowned. "Do you know when he first spoke in Parseltongue?"

Granger nodded. "He said he found out when he talked to a snake at the zoo. But he didn't really know he spoke Parseltongue until that duel with you."

"How could he not know?"

Weasley shrugged. "We asked, and he said that to him, it was like snakes were speaking English. He claimed he only heard himself speaking English as well."

"That makes no sense. Parseltongue is passed down the family line. So, either hundreds of years of history on this are wrong, or he picked it up somewhere," I concluded.

Granger's head snapped up. "What if the Heir was taught it? Like, what if one of You-Know-Who's supporters learned it from him, then passed it down to their kids?"

"I highly doubt that," I rolled my eyes. "I can't speak for any other house, but if they were in Slytherin, they absolutely would have bragged about it."

"You don't think the Heir is in Slytherin?" Weasley frowned.

I shrugged. "We don't have a lead, so they could be in any house."

Granger and Weasley looked surprised, but seemed to accept my theory. I moved toward the blackboard at the front of the room and grabbed a piece of chalk. At the top, I wrote "HEIR", then underneath it I wrote "Parselmouth".

I turned back around. "What else do we know for sure?" They both shook their heads. I thought for a moment, then turned around to write "Girl?"

"Why do you think they're a girl?" Weasley asked, puzzled. "On the wall, the warning said Heir, not Heiress."

"I forgot about that." I paused. "But now that you've reminded me, I'm wondering if the Heir has someone helping them. When I went to the Hospital Wing yesterday, Madam Pomfrey said that someone had broken into there and aimed their wand at Potter."

The two Gryffindors looked alarmed at my words. "What!?"

I nodded. "Madam Pomfrey said she, so I just assumed. But if there's more than one person involved, that would make sense."

Granger came over and picked up a piece of chalk. In big letters she wrote "More than one?" and "Went to finish off Harry".

"Would a spell like the Killing Curse even work on someone who's been petrified?" Weasley mused.

Granger paused, thinking. After a few moments, she turned. "I'm not sure. I know petrification stops all signs of life until an antidote is administered, but I don't know what effect other spells could have on someone in that state."

"I don't know about you two, but I don't want to mess around and use a jinx on Harry just to see what happens," Weasley piped up. If it weren't for the fact that this was so serious, I would have tried to rile him up.

But I wanted to keep going – I just knew we were onto something. I looked back at the board, trying to think of what else to write. Honestly, we hadn't really figured out anything useful.

In the distance, I heard bells chiming. It was a warning that we had to return to our dormitories before curfew started. I rubbed a hand over my face, feeling exhausted. I bid Weasley and Granger goodbye, then made my way to the dungeons. I felt like I was ready to fall asleep the whole way there, but when I finally got to bed, I was wide awake.

I grumbled in frustration, and sat up. Maybe reading would help? I grabbed my Charms book and looked in the index for anything to do with petrification. Nothing. Frustrated, I pulled my Charms homework out and worked on it, but even after finishing it I still didn't feel like sleeping.

I then pulled out my Defense Against the Dark Arts homework, but after taking one look at the topic (Explain how Professor Lockhart's good looks forced the Yeti to retreat), I gave up. It wasn't a secret among my peers that Lockhart's books were fantasy novels. I almost longed for the days when Professor Quirell taught because he at least knew how to assign homework.

Remembering the Dreamless Sleep potion that was still in my possession, I downed the entire thing. Before nodding off, my last thoughts were, "I hope this doesn't cause me to be late tomorrow."