The year's end feast was in full swing in the main hall, but Eric had no desire for it. He rested in the Ravenclaw common room with Luna, Naomi, and Dorian. They were leisurely finishing off a splendid meal Willy had brought for them, along with the news that there would be no finals this year. "It's the least they could do for those of us who missed the last few classes."

Dorian was even more pleased. "Yeah, and for those of us too distracted by the possibility of getting killed and eaten to concentrate properly."

Naomi was delicately scooping a custard. "You said you'd tell me about what drew you into that hallway."

Eric looked back at the pile of papers conspicuously stacked on a corner shelf. "Remember when I said that the chamber's entrance had to be guarded? Well, it came to me that night. Whenever a remodeling project approached that one section of the school, there was always a set of notes indicating that one of the school's governors took an interest in it."

He walked over to the pile of papers and sorted out several invoices. "In each case, one surname kept coming up. In a mass this big, it would be hard to pick out this one area particularly, but here are some examples."

The quartet looked over the signatures on the papers. Andreus Malfoy – Cornelius Malfoy – Artemus Malfoy – Darius Malfoy – Augustus Malfoy.

"If we checked a register of governors, I bet we'd find that a Malfoy has sat on the board since the time of Salazar Slytherin. Each time that part of the school came under repair, it was a Malfoy who selected the contractor. In all likelihood, they were companies run by former Slytherins." Eric drew the papers aside and dropped back into his chair.

Dorian appeared confused. "I don't understand. The Malfoys hate everybody who aren't like they are. Why wouldn't they have used the chamber years ago?"

Luna's eyes rolled to the window. "It is a rare thing for the world to be aligned well enough for evil to prevail."

It was Naomi that suggested a more plausible answer. "First, they probably don't have a talent for parseltongue. It's a rare gift, and needed if someone was going to face a basilisk. However, more important is the fact that they are opportunists. They'd never risk their own skin. It's much safer to find someone with the needed talents and bend of mind to do their dirty work. The fact that it took over nine hundred years to find such a person tells you how low someone would have to sink in order to be suitable."

Drinking down a warming cup of cider, Eric looked to his friends. "Should we tell the headmaster? There's nothing here that we can solidly prove, you know."

Naomi looked back. "If I was in charge of the school, I'd want to know if one of the governors were plotting to kill my students. Even if he couldn't do anything about it, it helps to know."

This left Dorian with one last question. "Ok, but if Hagrid didn't open the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago, who did?"

Eric and Naomi looked at each other, then back at Dorian. "Who do you think?"