As much as I love the books, I regret to say that all of Harry Potter belongs to J K Rowling. This includes all of the characters except for Ryua (who's mine) most of the places, and an awful lot of the spells. Oh, and if you see something that looks like one of your stories, I'm really, really sorry. I don't mean to plagiarize. I've just read a lot of really cool fanfics, and they melt into my brain, but I'll try not to use any of it. Tell me if I do, okay?
The Chamber Opens
Ryua was sitting on her bed, idly stroking Parsyl. She'd been acting oddly these last few weeks, always tense, and had jerked to a defensive stance so quickly one night that she knocked Ryua's ink bottle all over her work. Ryua listened to try and discover what had upset her, and had heard a distant hiss or growl. She had no idea what it was, but it sounded vaguely like Parsyl on a feeding night, eagerly awaiting her mice. Parsyl had calmed down immediately once the sound stopped, although she was still just a little on the tense side.
She had finished her homework earlier that day, even that stupid poem Lockhart assigned. What kind of a teacher assigns poems for DADA anyways? Pansy flounced in just then, looking far too simpering and prissy as usual. "Come on, Ryua! The Halloween feast is starting, you don't want to miss that."
"And how could you possibly presume to think that you know what I want and don't want? The feast doesn't start for another five minutes yet, so stop acting like an upstart secretary and let me be." Ryua actually didn't want to miss the feast, but cursed if she was going to get up because Parkinson said so.
"Hmph, really!" Pansy said angrily and stalked back out again. Ryua rolled out of bed and straightened her robes and hair with a flick of her wand. She sighed. Ryua didn't really mean to come across so cold and snappish, but she couldn't really help it. It came from living with her family. They weren't exactly the easiest people to get along with, and Pansy wasn't exactly being much better. If she wasn't trying to suck up to Ryua, she was trying to be superior, or worse, flirting with her brother. Ryua gave an involuntary shudder, trying to get that image out of her mind. Parsyl slid up to hide under her cloak, and she strode smoothly out and up to the Great Hall.
The Great Hall was packed, and decorated with pumpkins, bats, and globes of orange and black (yes, black, not that fluorescent stuff) light floating where the candles normally hung. She was actually starting to enjoy herself, as even her normally dour house was in good spirits over such a fun holiday, so the air was filled with light chatter. The house-elves had outdone themselves, putting up an incredible feast that just kept coming as the dishes were emptied, and best of all, the ghosts were doing some eerie play above the head table, which meant the Bloody Baron wasn't sitting between the twins. Yes, the evening was quite enjoyable.
Suddenly, Parsyl gave a sudden convulsive jerk under her cloak, hissing softly. Ryua dropped her fork into her harvest apple pie, grabbing at Parsyl's coils, which had just slipped up from her shoulders to her neck. She stroked the snake, trying to calm it and listen over the babble of voices "Ryua, what's the matter?" Draco's voice cut across her concentration.
"Shh!" Ryua jerked her hand to silence Draco, and listened again. Sure enough, her ears locked onto a sound, slightly out of sync with the noise of the common room; a low hiss, building in intensity and excitement, until she could almost distinguish words, bloodthirsty words.
Draco tried again, "Ryua, what is it? You're acting rather odd."
"Can't you hear that?" she asked.
"Hear what? It's too loud in here to hear anything. What are you talking about? You're starting to creep me out." Sure enough, his face had an unusually concerned expression on it as he studied Ryua.
"That noise, that hissing...Oh, never mind, it's stopped now," she looked over at her brother. "Sorry Draco, I guess I was just hearing Parsyl." Just then, the whole hall of students got up to leave. Ryua stood too, coiling Parsyl back under her cloak as they all filed out into the entrance hall. The people in front stopped dead, so naturally Ryua and Draco pushed through to the front, where they too, stopped in their tracks. Four foot high letters, written in what Ryua recognized immediately as blood, spelled out
'THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE'
Ryua had never seen Draco look so excited, and she couldn't help but be a little thrilled herself. The Chamber of Secrets was like their ultimate purpose, the thing every dark witch and wizard dreamed to find at Hogwarts. Although, the sight of the stiff Mrs. Norris in the torch bracket was kind of sad. Draco apparently felt no problems with that however, declaring in a loud clear voice, "Enemies of the heir beware. You'll be next, mudbloods!" The teachers arrived just then, and dispatched the students back into the common rooms, although they dragged Potter, Weasley, and Granger off for questioning.
Back in the common room, Ryua and Draco kicked Zabini, Crabbe, and Goyle out of the boy's dorm to have a serious talk. "So this is the secret Father was planning, eh?"
Ryua grinned back at her brother, whose face was still flushed with excitement. "Yeah, I guess so. But," and her face drew into a thoughtful expression, "who opened it? I suppose I'd always assumed it would be you or me, just because, well, it just seems like that's what it'd be..."
"You know, I have no idea," Draco looked puzzled. "Wouldn't you think Father would have told us more, about the Chamber, or what happened before, or what we're supposed to do about it now? I mean, it's just what we do, get involved in every bit of dark magic that comes along."
"Well, he might have told you, but I seriously doubt he'd have told me. Father doesn't trust me with anything."
"Yeah. I wonder why anyways? I mean, you're a half-decent witch, although I clearly outshine you...."
"No, that's just it, Draco. In his eyes, you do outshine me. Same reason I can't play quidditch. Just because I'm female, he thinks I'm incompetent..." Ryua broke off bitterly before she said anything else.
Draco didn't mean for her to take his remark seriously, so he changed the subject to something less deadly, "Hey, didn't you hear it?"
"Hear what?" Ryua had been in self reflection, not thinking about anything else.
Draco gave a huge, false, exasperated sigh, "At supper. You know, you were talking about some sort of hissing, just before we all found the cat."
Ryua stared at her brother. "Hey, yeah, you're right. But, I thought it was just Parsyl..." she gestured at the dozing snake around her shoulders.
"No, no I don't think so, Ryua. The monster of the Chamber must be Salazar Slytherin's pet, right? He was famous for being a Parselmouth. I bet it's some sort of giant snake." Draco's eyes went wide, and said, "You're not a Parselmouth are you?"
"No." But Ryua was thinking again. She could tell what Parsyl wanted most of the time, even was starting to recognize some of the sounds she made. And now that she thought about it, she could almost hear sounds in that hiss, but no, she couldn't really speak Parseltongue. "No," she said again, "I'm good with snakes, but I can't talk to them, not in their own language anyways."
"Bummer. It would be really excellent if you were." Draco's grin was back, the one only Ryua ever saw much, the real one. Yes, they would have made an excellent pair, terrorizing the school...
And to Athena Diagon Cat- you read my mind. I've been thinking for weeks about whether to make her a parselmouth or not, and now you see I've made a bit of a compromise.
