A few days of furor followed the incident – Mrs. Norris was petrified, Filtch was aggravating as he grieved, and the whole student body was buzzing with gossip about who or what could be behind the Chamber of Secrets. Even Ravenclaw was deeply entrenched in the madness, though dealing with it in traditional Ravenclaw fashion: research. A circle of upper-class students had formed an investigation team and had come up with the few facts. First; there was only one instance in the school's history that was attributed to the Chamber. Second; there was one fatality. Third; repeated searches throughout the school's thousand-year history failed to discover a location for the Chamber. Fourth; Slytherin students appeared annoyingly immune.

It was impossible to think that such a chamber could remain hidden for a thousand years, but maybe the faculty simply was working the wrong way. Eric decided that it was time to take a hand in the matter. He sent Widget with a message to the Weasley twins with a map to his basement room, and instructions to meet him there after supper. Midget was sent to Willy, with a request for cider and snacks.

That evening, as Eric tried to break away from the rest of the students, he found that he was being shadowed. "Trying a new method for getting into trouble?" Naomi was becoming a bigger nuisance than he anticipated.

"No. I'm just meeting a couple of friends."

"Would you mind if I came along?"

Eric hadn't noted a social nature in her before, but he couldn't come up with only one good excuse not to include her that wouldn't involve hurting her feelings ( assuming she had any ). "Sure, if you promise to keep what we're doing a secret."

Naomi surprised him again. "I promise. Now lead the way."

The room ended up a bit cramped when all the invitees entered, but they were too interested in why Eric would open his room for anyone to complain. "Ok, everyone believes that there's a Chamber of Secrets and despite a dozen searches over a thousand years, it's in the school somewhere."

"True enough" one of them chimed up. Eric gave up trying to figure out which was which ever since he noticed that they shared one wardrobe between them to save money.

"Well, I figure that any entrance to such a chamber would be cleverly hidden, so the only to find such a place would be to map out the entire castle and look for voids." Eric pulled out a number of wide parchments; floor plans for the entire school. "Here's the basic maps of all the classrooms. I've been working on this for years in an effort to have the whole school layout available. What I don't have is all the secret corridors."

The twins eyes lit up at the proposition. "You want us to add our maps to yours?"

"You got it. Together, I'm sure we could have every secret this castle has to offer bound into place in a week. We'll have to map every last item on the grounds, including the quidditch field and Hagrid's hut, but this should solve the riddle."

"It's a good plan and a noble cause, but if anyone finds out where this information came from, we'd be sunk! What's in it for us?"

Fortunately, Eric had that planned as well. "Before we turn anything in, you develop complete floor plans for yourselves, with every access point right down to Snape's office window. If we don't find anything, you've come out ahead with every last shred of information I've compiled over six years."

That was the carrot the twins needed. "All right then, but it'll take longer that you've given it if we're going to be discreet. We've got quite a bit to bring to the table."

The Weasleys were right about one thing – there was a lot of material to cover. Eric worked through their maps, trying to verify paths and establish scales for several days before Naomi came in to pull him away from the work. "Today's game is Slytherin vs. Gryffindor, and I want to see my cousin play."

Eric had to admit that it would be nice to see Katie Bell and the Gryffindor team play again. They were the ones to come to his aid when Slytherin cast him from their house last year. Katie was especially nice, taking charge to make sure that he ended up in the hospital wing while his broken possessions were collected. The maps could wait – he needed a diversion.

The game, however, did not go as Eric would've predicted. Yes, Slytherin had better brooms, but he had seen Oliver Wood's strategies before. Gryffindor had a more dedicated team and better tactics, while the Slytherin players were still missing passes due to their exceedingly fast brooms. However, half the Gryffindor team seemed tied up with a bludger, which left Katie and the other chasers to fend for themselves against the entire Slytherin team. With only one bludger to contend with, the Slytherin beaters started defending the goals, making it impossible for Gryffindor to score. On the offensive, they would guide bludgers to act as additional blocking to clear the way for their Chasers. This was looking to be a truly lopsided game.

Katie played the best game a chaser could hope for, with four interceptions to her credit. This didn't keep her from trouble, though, for before long she had a Slytherin chaser and a beater driving her from both directions. It didn't matter that she could catch the quaffle; she couldn't score or pass it to Alicia or Angelina with any success.

However, Oliver called a time-out and their tactics changed, lending Fred and George back to the rest of the team and leaving Harry to fend for himself. This evened out the game and showed that the Gryffindors could match the Slytherins move for move, but this turned the game into a passing match, with the quaffle unable to reach either goal with any success. Finally, despite a hit from the bludger that left him with a fractured arm, Harry managed to grab the Snitch which gave Gryffindor the game.

Harry became the unwilling recipient of Gilderoy Lockhart's clever ministrations, which resulted in a boneless arm as a replacement for his fractured one. Katie, meanwhile, had broken away from the team to see her cousin. "Hi Naomi! Sorry that you didn't see us at our best. Hello Eric – I heard you're blending in well with the Ravenclaws. Good for you!"

"You did well up there, cousin. I was impressed." Although her tone was as indifferent as ever, Katie beamed a smile as big as she could from the praise. "Don't you think she did well?"

"Yeah, I mean, with the bogus bludger, you had half your team tied up while Slytherin had twice as many active players. The fact that you won after all that is a real credit to your defense."

"Don't forget Harry's bravery. He chose to face that bludger alone. I just hope Madame Pomfrey can help him now. I'm afraid Professor Lockhart hasn't exactly improved matters."

Now there's a big surprise, Eric thought.

Eric returned to his room that evening, to continue on the maps. Willy brought in some supper to keep him going, and he was becoming more and more satisfied with his progress. Yet, as the evening progressed, the lines and spaces got harder and harder to work with, and Eric found himself sitting back and rubbing his eyes more and more. There was a corridor marked on the Weasley map that he couldn't scale, There might be just the one corridor, or there could be room for a second, if the path on the map was skewed to one side or another.

Eric decided to go to the corridor and inspect it. Moving through the vast halls would be tricky, but if he was careful, he should be able to avoid the faculty. Carefully he left his basement room and slowly passed through the winding corridors to the main hall, then passing through to the entryway staircase. It was strange, but the lighting seemed to be getting worse and worse, while the corridors began losing their detail. The corridors began getting longer and longer, the entryways slowly changing from doors to archways, to ancient porticulli. Shadows flew up and down the walls, while the roof was a swirling fog, from which a menacing voice emanated.

"So dark … so quiet … so hungry … so long …" The voice was coming from the ceiling. Shadows were coming together, a black mass with tendrils and teeth, the floor was suddenly covered in blood, and every wall were stained the same words over and over: 'The Chamber of Secrets Is Open – Enemies Of The Heir Beware!"

"Let me find you … let me tear you … let me rip you … LET ME KILL YOU!"

"ERIC!"

"Gaahhh!" The corridor, the blood, the black shape, it was all gone. Eric found himself standing in an alcove at the base of the main staircase. The shout came from Luna, who was standing in front of him shaking his arms.

"There. Are you alright?" She seemed to be checking not just him, but the area around him. He wondered if she thought that there was some kind of bogeyman in his hair driving him about like a stagecoach.

"I think so. Where am I?" In truth, he knew where he was. What he didn't know was how he got there.

A sullen voice came out from the shadows. "You're beneath the main staircase, and I think you were sleepwalking."

"What?" Eric fought the urge to deny it out of hand. He never was in the habit before now, but he couldn't explain where he was or why. What was more unsettling was that he was denying this to a disembodied voice residing in the main staircase.

"Sleepwalking – an unconscious state in which a person moves their body, but is not truly aware of their surroundings." Naomi shuffled out of the shadows, seeming to appear from pure darkness. Eric was sure that she meant to do this in order to embelish her already wraith-like reputation. "I've been following you for five minutes. You seemed to be searching for something. I woke you up because you were apparently having a nightmare."

Eric tried to remember. "It was the voice. The same voice I heard in Lockhart's office. I heard it again."

"Obviously you've been searching for that chamber too long. It was a nightmare, nothing more." There was something, though, in her voice that made her seem less than certain. "Anyway, we need to get you to the Ravenclaw dorms."

"Sure, just one second. I meant to be here." Looking about, Eric found the passage he was studying on the Weasley maps. Unfortunately, it did cut through the middle. There was no room on either side for another passage, which made this inquiry a dead end. "Ok, let's go."

The three of them made their way towards the Ravenclaw tower. They were within sight of the doorway when they were stopped by Willy. "Oh, sir! I am so happy to find you. Master Eric, someone must know. They must be told!"

Eric sighed. Willy always was a bit melodramatic. "Calm down, Willy. They must know what?"

"There's another: a stranger among us. Master, there is a rogue house-elf in Hogwarts!"

Eric took that in for a moment, for this was serious. A strange house-elf was bad enough, but for Willy to call him rogue, that meant that he used his powers to injure others – something that house elves generally didn't engage in without their master's orders. Either that, or he was acting outside of his master's wishes, or both. "What's his name?"

"Willy does not know – this one keeps to himself. However, he did send the bludger against Harry Potter, and I heard him speaking to young Harry. He was why Harry missed the train. He has been doing bad things to Harry Potter, yet he claims to be a friend."

This year was just getting weirder and weirder. "Ok, Willy: keep an eye on the newcomer, but don't cross him unless you have to. Try to find out more from the other elves – I'll try to learn what I can from here. Best you get back to the kitchen now."

Willy smiled with his new directives, and vanished into the mist. Turning back to the Ravenclaw entrance, Eric cleared his throat. "Archimedes' Basin", and the door swung open to let them both pass to their dorms.

It wasn't until the next morning that Eric learned that there was another attack. Colin Creevey was now in the hospital wing; petrified in the act of photographing his assailant, who's powers were apparently enough to burn the film.