Disclaimer: All characters you recognise belong to the great J. K. Rowling.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A broad smile spread across Helen Barnes' face as she entered the office. She should have looked worried but she couldn't help the sudden happiness at the sight of her very dear friend whom she hadn't seen for such a long time.
Remus Lupin had pretty much the same expression on his face, only that his was also mingled with a great amount of surprise. Of course he knew that Helen taught DADA at Hogwarts and he had expected to meet her, but what surprised him was her appearance. Last time they met, her face had been covered with faint scars and her hair had been short.
Now it fell down her back in long waves, curly and shiny and her face was clear of any remainder of her nasty encounter with the Death Eaters so many years ago. Her smile was bright and she was beaming at him before walking over to him and crushing him into a bonecrushing hug, which he returned just as forcefully.
By the time they let go, both were laughing. They pulled away a little and studied each other for a moment.
'Helen, you look great!' Remus said. Helen smiled at him and cocked an eyebrow.
'You don't look so bad, yourself. I've seen a lot worse than that, considering the full moon was three days ago. How have you . . .' She suddenly stopped and looked at the armchair to the left.
The big black dog had just come up from behind it and was now staring at her. As Helen stared back, everything else seemed forgotten. For a few moments nothing moved. Then, with a sudden 'pop' Sirius transformed.
Again, they just stood there, looking at each other, their expressions full of disbelief and something else.
They were pulled out of their moment by Dumbledore who came into the room, closely followed by Snape.
'Ah, I see you have already exchanged greetings. We have much to discuss. Would you please sit down? I will explain everything to you.' Dumbledore pretended not to notice Helen's slightly wet eyes and Snape's look of annoyance as he gave all of them a curt nod.
They sat down in the armchairs around Dumbledore's desk and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Which was not very difficult considering the inexplicable disappearance of three students. Today was Monday and Ginny Weasley, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter had not attended classes. In fact, nobody had seen any of them since yesterday morning.
'Have you looked at the Marauder's Map?', Helen asked, after Dumbledore finished his explanation. A few weeks ago Harry had sent the Map to Sirius, because they thought it wasn't safe to keep it in the castle.
'Yes, but they were nowhere to be found.', Remus answered and pulled the old parchment out of his robe.
'Could they have been concealed, or something? I mean, is there a way to fool the Map?', Helen said, looking at Sirius and Remus.
Sirius looked at her for a moment, then shook his head.
'Not that I know of. Even under an invisibility cloak you can be spotted on the Map.'
'So that means, that they must have left the grounds, right?', Snape spoke for the first time.
'Or they are in a part of the castle that isn't registered on the Map.', Dumbledore muttered, thoughtfully.
They others gave him puzzled looks.
'There is no place . . .', Sirius started, but was interrupted by a noise from Snape. His eyes shifted to him questioningly.
'You're talking about the Chamber of Secrets, aren't you?', Snape said, understanding dawning in his eyes.
There was a moment of silence, then Sirius stood up abruptly, ready to go. 'So, let's go check there!', he said determined. Just as he headed for the door, Snape snorted loudly.
'You don't even know where the entrance is, Black!' Sirius stopped in his tracks and glared at the Potions Master.
Helen sensed trouble and interfered quickly. 'But I do. Let's go. Is it alright with you, Professor?', she turned to the Headmaster. Dumbledore still looked thoughtful but he nodded quietly.
'Severus, Remus, could you please stay one more minute?', he said after a moment.
The two men remained seated as Helen and Sirius quickly left the office. Dumbledore's expression was indeed very sober. Snape spoke first.
'You think this might have something to do with Slytherin, don't you?'
'Yes, I do. I hadn't considered it, until Harry and the others disappeared. Remus, you said that Harry, Draco and Ginny know, maybe they came to the conclusion, as well, only by another way. Ginny can sense the dark magic of the Chamber since her encounter with Voldemort. And Draco might have heard something from his classmates.'
'But Slytherin is dead. They can't have awakened him as a demon.' Remus whispered. He didn't know the details about what had happened to Salazar, but he knew enough to be sure that he was truly and completely dead. As Dumbledore spoke his voice was very quiet, his eyes focused on something that none of the others could see.
'That's true. But there are still some secrets that have never been revealed. There were those rumours about the Chamber of Secrets. The truth about the Basilisk was discovered just a few years ago.
But some people said that Slytherin used the Chamber for his experiments with dark magic. And that he locked a part of his Power inside it, when he left Hogwarts. To secure that his heir would be just as powerful as he was.
'At the time the founders still taught at Hogwarts, it was said that another creature was hidden inside the Chamber. One time it escaped and Godric Gryffindor saw it. It must have been something terrible, because after he spoke to Slytherin about it, the other wizard left Hogwarts forever.
Some said that he left that creature to guard his power until the heir arrived and freed it.'
'Could this creature be our demon?' Remus tried to catch up with the headmaster.
'It might.', Dumbledore answered.
'But why should it steel all those books and your Pensieve?', Snape asked.
'I believe, that it is trying to break the wards around the school, to allow Voldemort access to the school and especially the Chamber.'
Snape's eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed suspiciously.
'Did you come up with all this just now?'
'As surprising as it might sound, I did. I have been thinking about this for a while, but I completely missed this aspect. Just now everything seems to fit perfectly, don't you think?'
Remus looked at the old professor in awe, and then asked:
'By the way, why did you send Sirius and Helen ahead? They should have heard this, too.'
'Ah, well', suddenly the twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes appeared again. 'To be honest, I just wanted to give them a bit of privacy.'
~*~*~
Helen and the large black dog strode quickly down the corridors. Classes were over and most of the students were in the common rooms. So it was considerably safe for Helen to speak.
'You know, I still remember, when we were students, you used to get excited every time someone mentioned the Chamber. You always wanted to be the first to discover it. Severus told me how Harry, Ron and Hermione discovered it in the end. You'll never believe where the entrance is!'
She only talked, because she didn't trust herself to walk quietly beside that grim, who had once been her boyfriend. She feared that she might burst into tears.
When they arrived at the girls' bathroom she quickly opened the door, let the dog in, followed it and locked the door with a spell. Sirius immediately transformed.
'In a bathroom?! Here is the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets?!' He looked at her as if she was insane.
Again Helen tried hard not to cry. He looked so much more like his old self than she had expected. She closed her eyes to calm herself and then nodded stubbornly.
'Exactly. Wait a minute, I'll show you' She moved to the sinks, and started to examine them. What had Severus said?
Sirius watched her closely, and his expression changed. For a moment he forgot about the present, as a flood of memories washed over him. So much had happened since then. He cleared his throat, but he still sounded hoarse as he spoke.
'So . . . how have you been?' Helen looked up from the sink she had been examining.
'What?', she whispered very quietly. Sirius cleared his throat again.
'I mean, well, what have you been doing these past-'
'Sixteen years. I've been travelling. Around the world.' Sirius could barely understand her. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Helen bent down again and shook her head.
'We can talk about the past, later. Now we need to find the children. I think, Sev said, that somewhere was a serpent engraved in one of the taps. Oh, here it is!'
She pointed at the tap and then looked back at Sirius.
'It has been locked, after the basilisk died. That little serpent shouldn't be visible. This means that it was indeed reopened. The only problem is, that you need to speak Parsel-tongue to reveal the entrance. I suppose you don't possess this talent. Neither do I. So . . .' She raised her wand and spoke a word.
Half of the bathroom exploded to pieces.
Sirius ducked his head and covered himself with his arms. He looked up as the sight cleared slowly.
'Couldn't you have warned me?!', he said, straightening his robes. Helen shrugged and then walked up to the giant hole in the wall.
'It goes down, here. I think we need to jump.' She motioned for him to come over. All Sirius could see was darkness.
'Let's go.'
~*~*~
The tunnel was dark and wet. You had to take care not to slip out on the stone floor. Once, Helen stumbled and nearly fell, but she grabbed Sirius arm and steadied herself. After that she didn't let go of him.
When they arrived at the end of the tunnel the entrance was open. Helen pulled out her wand and pointed it at the ceiling. She mumbled "lumos agorus" and a light left the tip of her wand and went up, where it spread out. Suddenly the whole Chamber was bathed in light.
The massive statue of Salazar Slytherin filled the greatest part of the wall in the back. At the sides were stone pillars with snakes engraved. The ceiling was very high and in the soft light of the spell the Chamber seemed truly gigantic.
And empty.
Sirius and Helen crossed the room until they stood at Slytherin's feet. There was nothing that indicated that anyone had been here in the past years.
'It doesn't look like they are here, does it?', Sirius said as he stared up at Slytherin. 'That guy must have had a really huge ego to built this Chamber.'
'He was a lunatic. He could live with every dark creature in the world, but a muggle born gave him the willies.' Helen looked around and sighed. 'They are not here. But where else could they be? We have to find them. Outside the castle they are a target.'
She was about to turn, when Sirius suddenly took a step forward to examine the stony robe of Slytherin. 'Wait a minute, take a look at this.' With his index finger he traced a fine line, where the stone was uneven. It looked like there was a very narrow gap.
'Is that a door?', Helen asked. As a reply, Sirius put his hands flat on the stone and pushed as hard as he could. Slowly the wall gave in and revealed a secret passage. Just behind the door were several piles of books and a few other things. It looked as if whoever had put them in here had been in a hurry.
The two adults began to take them out of the passage and again into the Chamber. 'Look at this!', Helen exclaimed when she reached the shell with the Pensieve inside. After a few minutes the way was cleared.
'It is obvious that the demon has been working down here. I wonder where this passage leads to. Should we wait for Severus and Remus?' Helen leaned on a pile of books. Sirius Shook his head in response. 'I think we should hurry a little. They can take care of the books when they arrive. Come on.' And with that he disappeared into the passage.
Helen looked up at the lit ceiling. Maybe it was better to leave it that way. And she followed Sirius.
~*~*~
Ten minutes later Snape and Lupin arrived at the Chamber.
'Ok, they found something.', Remus assumed, looking up at the ceiling. They quickly went to the back of the room. They noted the space in the wall, that was the entrance to a passage. They also noted the dozens of large books that were messily piled in front of it.
'Of course they left the heavy things to us', Snape snarled. Remus merrily shrugged and together they went to work.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
What do you think of this part? I plan on doing a real reunion scene between Sirius and Helen. But tell me, is this worth continuing? Is anybody reading this at all?
Anyway, at least next chapter is in progress.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A broad smile spread across Helen Barnes' face as she entered the office. She should have looked worried but she couldn't help the sudden happiness at the sight of her very dear friend whom she hadn't seen for such a long time.
Remus Lupin had pretty much the same expression on his face, only that his was also mingled with a great amount of surprise. Of course he knew that Helen taught DADA at Hogwarts and he had expected to meet her, but what surprised him was her appearance. Last time they met, her face had been covered with faint scars and her hair had been short.
Now it fell down her back in long waves, curly and shiny and her face was clear of any remainder of her nasty encounter with the Death Eaters so many years ago. Her smile was bright and she was beaming at him before walking over to him and crushing him into a bonecrushing hug, which he returned just as forcefully.
By the time they let go, both were laughing. They pulled away a little and studied each other for a moment.
'Helen, you look great!' Remus said. Helen smiled at him and cocked an eyebrow.
'You don't look so bad, yourself. I've seen a lot worse than that, considering the full moon was three days ago. How have you . . .' She suddenly stopped and looked at the armchair to the left.
The big black dog had just come up from behind it and was now staring at her. As Helen stared back, everything else seemed forgotten. For a few moments nothing moved. Then, with a sudden 'pop' Sirius transformed.
Again, they just stood there, looking at each other, their expressions full of disbelief and something else.
They were pulled out of their moment by Dumbledore who came into the room, closely followed by Snape.
'Ah, I see you have already exchanged greetings. We have much to discuss. Would you please sit down? I will explain everything to you.' Dumbledore pretended not to notice Helen's slightly wet eyes and Snape's look of annoyance as he gave all of them a curt nod.
They sat down in the armchairs around Dumbledore's desk and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Which was not very difficult considering the inexplicable disappearance of three students. Today was Monday and Ginny Weasley, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter had not attended classes. In fact, nobody had seen any of them since yesterday morning.
'Have you looked at the Marauder's Map?', Helen asked, after Dumbledore finished his explanation. A few weeks ago Harry had sent the Map to Sirius, because they thought it wasn't safe to keep it in the castle.
'Yes, but they were nowhere to be found.', Remus answered and pulled the old parchment out of his robe.
'Could they have been concealed, or something? I mean, is there a way to fool the Map?', Helen said, looking at Sirius and Remus.
Sirius looked at her for a moment, then shook his head.
'Not that I know of. Even under an invisibility cloak you can be spotted on the Map.'
'So that means, that they must have left the grounds, right?', Snape spoke for the first time.
'Or they are in a part of the castle that isn't registered on the Map.', Dumbledore muttered, thoughtfully.
They others gave him puzzled looks.
'There is no place . . .', Sirius started, but was interrupted by a noise from Snape. His eyes shifted to him questioningly.
'You're talking about the Chamber of Secrets, aren't you?', Snape said, understanding dawning in his eyes.
There was a moment of silence, then Sirius stood up abruptly, ready to go. 'So, let's go check there!', he said determined. Just as he headed for the door, Snape snorted loudly.
'You don't even know where the entrance is, Black!' Sirius stopped in his tracks and glared at the Potions Master.
Helen sensed trouble and interfered quickly. 'But I do. Let's go. Is it alright with you, Professor?', she turned to the Headmaster. Dumbledore still looked thoughtful but he nodded quietly.
'Severus, Remus, could you please stay one more minute?', he said after a moment.
The two men remained seated as Helen and Sirius quickly left the office. Dumbledore's expression was indeed very sober. Snape spoke first.
'You think this might have something to do with Slytherin, don't you?'
'Yes, I do. I hadn't considered it, until Harry and the others disappeared. Remus, you said that Harry, Draco and Ginny know, maybe they came to the conclusion, as well, only by another way. Ginny can sense the dark magic of the Chamber since her encounter with Voldemort. And Draco might have heard something from his classmates.'
'But Slytherin is dead. They can't have awakened him as a demon.' Remus whispered. He didn't know the details about what had happened to Salazar, but he knew enough to be sure that he was truly and completely dead. As Dumbledore spoke his voice was very quiet, his eyes focused on something that none of the others could see.
'That's true. But there are still some secrets that have never been revealed. There were those rumours about the Chamber of Secrets. The truth about the Basilisk was discovered just a few years ago.
But some people said that Slytherin used the Chamber for his experiments with dark magic. And that he locked a part of his Power inside it, when he left Hogwarts. To secure that his heir would be just as powerful as he was.
'At the time the founders still taught at Hogwarts, it was said that another creature was hidden inside the Chamber. One time it escaped and Godric Gryffindor saw it. It must have been something terrible, because after he spoke to Slytherin about it, the other wizard left Hogwarts forever.
Some said that he left that creature to guard his power until the heir arrived and freed it.'
'Could this creature be our demon?' Remus tried to catch up with the headmaster.
'It might.', Dumbledore answered.
'But why should it steel all those books and your Pensieve?', Snape asked.
'I believe, that it is trying to break the wards around the school, to allow Voldemort access to the school and especially the Chamber.'
Snape's eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed suspiciously.
'Did you come up with all this just now?'
'As surprising as it might sound, I did. I have been thinking about this for a while, but I completely missed this aspect. Just now everything seems to fit perfectly, don't you think?'
Remus looked at the old professor in awe, and then asked:
'By the way, why did you send Sirius and Helen ahead? They should have heard this, too.'
'Ah, well', suddenly the twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes appeared again. 'To be honest, I just wanted to give them a bit of privacy.'
~*~*~
Helen and the large black dog strode quickly down the corridors. Classes were over and most of the students were in the common rooms. So it was considerably safe for Helen to speak.
'You know, I still remember, when we were students, you used to get excited every time someone mentioned the Chamber. You always wanted to be the first to discover it. Severus told me how Harry, Ron and Hermione discovered it in the end. You'll never believe where the entrance is!'
She only talked, because she didn't trust herself to walk quietly beside that grim, who had once been her boyfriend. She feared that she might burst into tears.
When they arrived at the girls' bathroom she quickly opened the door, let the dog in, followed it and locked the door with a spell. Sirius immediately transformed.
'In a bathroom?! Here is the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets?!' He looked at her as if she was insane.
Again Helen tried hard not to cry. He looked so much more like his old self than she had expected. She closed her eyes to calm herself and then nodded stubbornly.
'Exactly. Wait a minute, I'll show you' She moved to the sinks, and started to examine them. What had Severus said?
Sirius watched her closely, and his expression changed. For a moment he forgot about the present, as a flood of memories washed over him. So much had happened since then. He cleared his throat, but he still sounded hoarse as he spoke.
'So . . . how have you been?' Helen looked up from the sink she had been examining.
'What?', she whispered very quietly. Sirius cleared his throat again.
'I mean, well, what have you been doing these past-'
'Sixteen years. I've been travelling. Around the world.' Sirius could barely understand her. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Helen bent down again and shook her head.
'We can talk about the past, later. Now we need to find the children. I think, Sev said, that somewhere was a serpent engraved in one of the taps. Oh, here it is!'
She pointed at the tap and then looked back at Sirius.
'It has been locked, after the basilisk died. That little serpent shouldn't be visible. This means that it was indeed reopened. The only problem is, that you need to speak Parsel-tongue to reveal the entrance. I suppose you don't possess this talent. Neither do I. So . . .' She raised her wand and spoke a word.
Half of the bathroom exploded to pieces.
Sirius ducked his head and covered himself with his arms. He looked up as the sight cleared slowly.
'Couldn't you have warned me?!', he said, straightening his robes. Helen shrugged and then walked up to the giant hole in the wall.
'It goes down, here. I think we need to jump.' She motioned for him to come over. All Sirius could see was darkness.
'Let's go.'
~*~*~
The tunnel was dark and wet. You had to take care not to slip out on the stone floor. Once, Helen stumbled and nearly fell, but she grabbed Sirius arm and steadied herself. After that she didn't let go of him.
When they arrived at the end of the tunnel the entrance was open. Helen pulled out her wand and pointed it at the ceiling. She mumbled "lumos agorus" and a light left the tip of her wand and went up, where it spread out. Suddenly the whole Chamber was bathed in light.
The massive statue of Salazar Slytherin filled the greatest part of the wall in the back. At the sides were stone pillars with snakes engraved. The ceiling was very high and in the soft light of the spell the Chamber seemed truly gigantic.
And empty.
Sirius and Helen crossed the room until they stood at Slytherin's feet. There was nothing that indicated that anyone had been here in the past years.
'It doesn't look like they are here, does it?', Sirius said as he stared up at Slytherin. 'That guy must have had a really huge ego to built this Chamber.'
'He was a lunatic. He could live with every dark creature in the world, but a muggle born gave him the willies.' Helen looked around and sighed. 'They are not here. But where else could they be? We have to find them. Outside the castle they are a target.'
She was about to turn, when Sirius suddenly took a step forward to examine the stony robe of Slytherin. 'Wait a minute, take a look at this.' With his index finger he traced a fine line, where the stone was uneven. It looked like there was a very narrow gap.
'Is that a door?', Helen asked. As a reply, Sirius put his hands flat on the stone and pushed as hard as he could. Slowly the wall gave in and revealed a secret passage. Just behind the door were several piles of books and a few other things. It looked as if whoever had put them in here had been in a hurry.
The two adults began to take them out of the passage and again into the Chamber. 'Look at this!', Helen exclaimed when she reached the shell with the Pensieve inside. After a few minutes the way was cleared.
'It is obvious that the demon has been working down here. I wonder where this passage leads to. Should we wait for Severus and Remus?' Helen leaned on a pile of books. Sirius Shook his head in response. 'I think we should hurry a little. They can take care of the books when they arrive. Come on.' And with that he disappeared into the passage.
Helen looked up at the lit ceiling. Maybe it was better to leave it that way. And she followed Sirius.
~*~*~
Ten minutes later Snape and Lupin arrived at the Chamber.
'Ok, they found something.', Remus assumed, looking up at the ceiling. They quickly went to the back of the room. They noted the space in the wall, that was the entrance to a passage. They also noted the dozens of large books that were messily piled in front of it.
'Of course they left the heavy things to us', Snape snarled. Remus merrily shrugged and together they went to work.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
What do you think of this part? I plan on doing a real reunion scene between Sirius and Helen. But tell me, is this worth continuing? Is anybody reading this at all?
Anyway, at least next chapter is in progress.