Chapter 40, Dumbledore's Office II

Vanella walked silently behind Snape, trembling slightly. When they were halfway there, she said, "Professor?"

He looked to her for a millisecond, signaling to continue.

"Surely he doesn't think I've opened it?"

He threw her a hard glance. "Have you given him reason to believe that you have, Miss Incendie?"

She didn't answer, just walked, terrified.

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Back in the common room, Harry and Draco were sitting in a stunned silence.

Finally Draco said, "Did you get the name of that house-elf? The Weasley twins know the way to the kitchens, we could ask them the way. Maybe send Hermione to ask the elves in there about him. See if he was just leading you to think he was from somewhere else. And give her some air out of the library for a bit."

Harry nodded. "His name is Dobby."

Draco's eyes widened.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Dobby is my family's elf," said Draco.

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Vanella walked slowly into Dumbledore's office, where the old man was sitting, reading papers on his desk, an uncharacteristic frown on his face. Snape waved Vanella over to a seat across from the Headmaster and slunk into the shadows.

"Hello, Miss Incendie," said Albus.

She nodded to him with a nervous smile.

"Do you know why I've called you here?" he asked, meeting her eyes.

She bit her lip. "I have a few ideas," she said slowly.

The old man nodded and leaned back. "As I believe you know," he started, "Parseltongue is one of Salazar Slytherin's most prized traits."

She nodded.

"And you are the only person in this school with the hereditary Parseltongue genes."

She nodded again.

"Which, were people to know, would make you a prime suspect if the Chamber of Secrets was to be opened," he said carefully.

"And, since the Chamber of Secrets has been opened, you suspect that I, the heir of Voldemort and Salazar Slytherin, have done it." Very forward.

Dumbledore stared at her. "I wasn't quite saying that, Miss Incendie, but yes, that's close to the truth."

"I didn't do it, if that's what you want to know. I just found out this morning that I was the heir of Slytherin, when Harry told me that the house-elf had told him—"

"House-elf?" Dumbledore asked. "One of mine?"

Vanella shook her head, "No, sir. Harry says it was not one of yours, at least he doesn't think it was, but one that has been warning him of danger at Hogwarts since before school even started."

"A house-elf from outside the school? Did it tell Harry what kind of danger?"

She shook her head again. "We were discussing it when you summoned me, sir."

"You and Harry?"

"And Draco, sir."

Dumbledore turned to Snape. "Retrieve them for me, Severus, please."

Snape nodded expressionlessly and disappeared through the door of the office.

Vanella and Dumbledore sat in awkward silence until Snape came back minutes later, tailed closely by Draco and Harry, both with weird looks on their faces.

Dumbledore nodded to Harry, who conjured two chairs for the boys.

"Tell me about this house-elf, Harry," Dumbledore said once Snape had retreated back to his corner.

Harry told him about Dobby's first few visits and the last one in the hospital wing. He began to explain the conversation and how they were talking about Vanella being the heir when Professor Snape brought Vanella away. Then he turned to Draco for the final point of the story.

"Dobby," he said, "is the name of the house-elf. He belongs to my family."

Dumbledore looked at him. "Your house-elf is warning Harry about the Chamber of Secrets, Mr. Malfoy?"

Draco swallowed and nodded. "I swear I had nothing to do with it, sir. I know my father is very anti-Muggle-born, but I don't really have a problem with them. I mean, Vanella's half-blood and Hermione Granger's Muggle-born—"

"I'm not suggesting you've done it, Draco, there's no way you could have. You're not the heir of Slytherin." He turned to Vanella. "You, however, are."

Professor Snape was a bit startled in his corner. He had suspected because of the earlier exchanged words… but to have it lain out so forwardly… it was just…startling.

Vanella seemed to shrink in her seat. "Sir, I didn't do it. I don't know how. I swear. You can give me Veritaserum if you want, but I swear to Merlin it wasn't me."

"I know that, Miss Incendie. I believe you. But—"

Then Harry heard it, and he could tell that Vanella did too. Murderous and cold, evil and threatening. Positively bone-chilling.

"…rip…tear…kill…must feed…must kill…soo hungry…"

"Shh!" Harry said to the Headmaster.

Albus was not used to this reaction to his talking. He looked positively aghast. "Harry, I—"

"Please, sir, a moment!" Harry said desperately.

The voice was growing fainter, moving into the corridor. "…kill…feed…rip…time to kill…"

Harry and Vanella exchanged frightened glances. They turned to Dumbledore. "It's happening again, please, sir, we have to stop it," Harry said.

And they ran out the door, Dumbledore, Snape, and Draco following, all three very confused.

The voice was going down. "…feed…tear…rip…soo hungry…must…KILL!!!…"

Harry and Vanella darted down the stairs, following the sound, completely unaware of the people following them anymore.

"…FEED…KILL…HUNGRY…BLOOD!!!…"

They reached the first floor, and stopped with the voice.

"I'm the heir," Vanella whispered harshly. "The heir can control it?"

Harry nodded slowly as the voice said, "…blood…must feed…must kill…ssoo HUNGRY!!!…"

"SSTOP!" hissed Vanella suddenly. "Go back—go back into the Chamber," she said.

The voice paused from its continual rant about killing. There was an awkward pause, in which it seemed confused. "But…," it said, "but I must KILL! Sssooo hungry…."

Vanella had a pained look in her eyes. She shook her head, and the voice moved away, going back up.

"I SMELL BLOOD!" it said on its way up.

They ran back up the stairs to the second floor, and came face to face with Dean Thomas. Petrified.

Vanella fainted, falling back into Draco, who caught her, surprised.

Dean was looking, a surprise evident on his face, at the cover of a shiny, reflective, brand new copy of Hogwarts, A History.

Dumbledore and Snape went right into action, taking advantage of the empty corridors, lifting Dean and heading towards the hospital wing. Harry cast an invisibility charm on them, worried about other students coming, then headed for the hospital wing behind them, levitating Vanella.

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"You know what happened last time, Albus!" Minerva was saying. "What if they try to close the school?"

Dumbledore waved it away. "They will not close the school. We will find whoever's doing this and put a stop to it."

"How do we know the Incendie girl's not doing it?" Professor McGonagall asked. "She's the heir!"

"She's not doing it!" Harry said angrily. "You couldn't hear here protesting to that snake-thing. I could!"

Dumbledore shook his head. "She's not," he said.

"How do you know?" asked McGonagall.

"Legilimency," said the Headmaster. "We were staring at each other, and I checked. She told us the whole truth."

Draco was shifting nervously in his seat in the Headmaster's office. "Is it my father? Has my father done something?"

Dumbledore looked at him. "We do not know. He is not the heir, but I suppose he may be playing a part in this…"

"What are we to do, Headmaster? How can we stop something we don't know how to control?"

Dumbledore turned to Snape. "Vanella Incendie can control it. She is an heir."

Harry shook his head. "No, Professor. It's listening to someone else. You should have heard it. It was confused when she spoke to it, and it didn't listen."

McGonagall hovered next to Dumbledore, lips thin. "There are only two Parselmouths in this school. How possibly could it be controlled by someone else, if the only one other than the heir that can speak to it is you, Mr. Potter?"

"It's not me, Professor, I swear to it. And it's not Vanella, Professor Dumbledore already said that."

"I don't understand it, Albus," Snape said wearily. "Vanella's the heir. If she's not doing it, who is?"

"Her father."

"Her father? How can her father possibly be doing this, when he isn't anywhere near here?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "I do not know. That is what we must find out."

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Author's Note: Very short, I know, but also very important. Was everyone paying attention? He he he. The plot just gets thicker and thicker and thicker…

Now you all realize that I will wait for that fifth review, no matter how long. I have been working on a different story lately, since I'm so ahead of you all on this one, and that one has been consuming my time.

You should all be grateful to merlin's beard 89 who delivered that fifth review to me. I couldn't get the chapter up immediately because FFN is being weird, but I'm over it.

Because of the wait, because I'm feeling generous, and because this was a short chapter, I'm going to post the next one too. Be happy.

I want to request that you read a sixth year fic that I'm co-writing with my friend. The first 3 chapters are posted, and we have the plot so thickly involved and planned out, it'll go on for several sequels. It's really quite good, what we have. http:www .fanfiction. net/s/2150159/1/ It's there, if you delete the spaces.

Anyways, I need sleep. Cheers.

S.A.M.