Disclaimer:Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling, the spitting cobra, for what it's worth, is mine…

"D'you… know of any place that's… guarded by… snakes?"

Their reaction was unexpected. Ginny turned white as sheet, the rest of them had their mouths open. Neville recovered first, "How did… how did you know?"

"I don't know anything," Harry said quickly, thinking fast. "I… I had a dream last night…"

Ginny shuddered, he turned to her, concerned. What had he said?

"The Chamber of Secrets," she whispered.

Chapter 7

The Defence against Dark Arts Lesson

"The Chamber of Secrets?" Harry repeated after her, looking at her concerned. She seemed awfully pale. Something was wrong.

"Do you remember what happened there, Harry?"

Harry frowned at Hermione, who had interrupted his thoughts. He pondered briefly whether to tell them the truth, but decided that they didn't need to know yet. Right then, the Pensieve was probably the most important thing in his life, and he didn't want Dumbledore to hear of it.

"I told you, I had a dream about it. The entrance was behind a sink in a bathroom."

"Girls' bathroom," corrected Ron, with a rather grim expression on his face.

Realization struck Harry. "It's at Hogwarts," he cried excitedly. Right under Dumbledore's crooked nose… Why had he kept the Pensieve there of all places?

"We'll show you," Hermione said, tapping the stone Pensieve. "But it'll have to wait, we really should go in chronological order…"

"No," Harry said firmly. "I want to know. It… seems important. What's with the snake guardians and all?"

Hermione pursed her lips, and launched into a story about the four founders of Hogwarts, how Slytherin had fallen out with the rest of them, how he'd left behind a legacy of sorts to his heir, how the Chamber was opened in their second year and how the monster in the Chamber was supposed to cleanse the school of Muggle-borns.

"I'm the heir of Slytherin?" Harry asked, very much dreading the answer. He did not want to cleanse the school of Muggle-borns.

"Plenty of people thought so," replied Hermione, with a shrug. "But the real culprit was Voldemort…"

"And I thought you said Hogwarts was safe?" Harry asked skeptically.

"Or rather, it was his diary," continued Hermione, as though Harry hadn't interrupted at all. "Lucius Malfoy, that's Draco's father, he slipped the diary into Ginny's cauldron. And then…" she faltered, eyeing Ginny nervously, "Voldemort possessed Ginny, and opened the Chamber."

Ginny was chalk-white, Ron was nervously patting her hand. "I still get nightmares about Tom Riddle," she whispered to Harry.

"I'm sorry. I should never have mentioned it," he replied softly.

She shook her head. "You didn't know. And besides," she added, with a watery smile, "It turned out all right in the end. You made it all right in the end."

"Me?"

"Yep," Neville told him grinning, "you defeated the Basilisk… stabbed it with the sword of Gryffindor."

Harry's head was whirling. A Basilisk? Sword of Gryffindor?

"Anyway," he said, remembering, "The Chamber of Secrets can only be opened by a Parselmouth, right? And they're supposed to be pretty rare?"

"You and Voldemort are probably the only ones in Britain," Hermione informed him.

So the Pensieve was safe. Only Voldemort could get to it apart from him, but since it was at Hogwarts, he couldn't. He'd chosen a very safe place to hide it…

Hermione was looking at him suspiciously. "Why do you want to open the Chamber?"

Harry realized he had to change the subject very quickly. "I don't," he told her cheerfully. "Now," he picked up the stone bowl, "Let's put this to use, shall we?"

It worked. Hermione explained to the others how to put memories in the Pensieve, and while snapping at Ron for not getting the idea quickly, she forgot all about the Chamber of Secrets.

Ron was the first to try it out. Frowning with intense concentration, he touched his wand to his forehead. When he removed the wand, there appeared to be a thin silver hair sticking to it. Beaming with pride, he dropped it in the stone vessel.

"Now what?"

Harry looked at the swirling silvery liquid, and somehow knew what to do. He put out his finger and gently dipped it in. There was a sudden lurching sensation, as though he had fallen head-first into the Pensieve, but when he opened his eyes, his mouth dropped open in shock.

He was in a railway station.

"It's the first time we went to Hogwarts," came a voice behind him, making him whirl around. Ron and Hermione were standing in front of him. Neville, Luna and Ginny appeared behind them silently, all of them looking around with wonder on their faces.

A bald man wearing a check suit passed through Ron, who gave a strangled yell. "These are only memories, Ron," Hermione told him testily. "They can't see you or harm you…" She started looking around and pointed suddenly, "There you are!"

All of them turned around to see where she was pointing. Mrs. Weasley, followed by five red-haired children was hurrying down the platform. They stopped between Platform Nine and Ten, Harry looked at them closely. Mrs. Weasley looked very much the same. Ron was standing next to her, a very young Ron, Ginny was there as well, as were Fred and George and another red-head he didn't recognize.

He turned around to look at the others. Ginny was staring at her younger self in fascination, who was begging her mother to let her go to Hogwarts. Hermione nudged Ron and pointed, "Look, there's the black mark on your nose." She giggled, while Ron blushed, "Ah, well. That was a long time ago…"

"I think Ronald looks cute," Luna piped up, scrutinizing the younger Ron. (The older one looked at her in alarm and moved slightly behind Hermione.)

"Who's that?" Harry asked, pointing to the unknown Weasley. (A/N: A tribute to one of my reviewers!)

"Oh, that's Percy," Ron said, while the oldest boy strode off to the barrier between platforms nine and ten, and disappeared. Harry's mouth was open again, Ron explained that it was the entrance to Platform Nine and Three Quarters, where the Hogwarts Express was waiting. Ginny (the older one) squealed suddenly, "Look Harry, there you are!"

He turned quickly and looked at his eleven year old self. He was small, skinny and pale, no difference there, but he was wearing round glasses, which had a lot of Sellotape on them to keep them together.

"I wore glasses?" he asked Ron, incredulously.

"You wore them until a year ago, actually, when you decided that they got in the way during a duel. You got your sight corrected magically"

Harry saw himself taking a deep breath, and walk over to the Weasleys, where Mrs. Weasley greeted him and told him how to get on to the platform. He set off and disappeared as well, as soon as he touched the barrier.

The three of them followed Harry soon after, as did the six observers. Harry gasped as he saw the purple steam engine, and the hundreds of witches and wizards crowding the platform.

Mrs. Weasley was giving Ron some last minute advice, while comforting Ginny at the same time, who seemed very upset that she was not going to Hogwarts as well.

Fred and George Weasley reappeared just as Mrs. Weasley noticed the black mark on Ron's nose and began wiping it in earnest. After making fun of him for a while, Fred, or perhaps it was George, said, "Hey mum, guess who we met on the train?"

The other twin continued, "You know the black haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"

"Who?"

And both of them said together, "Harry Potter!"

The reaction was immediate. Ron and Mrs. Weasley gasped, and Ginny started to beg her mother to let her get on the train to get a look at Harry Potter. Harry started to laugh, and looked at the older Ginny, who was blushing very prettily, refusing to catch his eye, but laughing as well.

"That's the sort of reaction you had on everyone back then, Harry," said Neville, clapping his back.

Soon the scene in front of them faded away, and they found themselves back in their room, with the Pensieve glittering on the floor.

"Damn," said Ron, "I tried to get more in, but it didn't seem to go…"

"With more practice, Ron, I'm sure it'll be fine. It was a good first try, now it's my turn."

"Wait," Harry frowned, something was nagging him, something he saw in the Pensieve, or rather, something he didn't see…

"I was alone at the platform," he said slowly, "Whom did I come with? Whom did I stay with for ten years?"

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room, before Ron up, "Your aunt and uncle, Harry. They're Muggles, and don't like magic much. I don't reckon you had a very good time with them."

Harry paused, and let this information sink in. Then he realized it didn't matter, that was far back in the past…

They spent the rest of the afternoon in the Pensieve. Harry saw how he'd made friends with Ron on the train, and his first encounter with Draco Malfoy and his cronies. He saw his first glimpse of Hogwarts with it's many turrets and fell in love with it immediately. He saw his first flying lesson, and gasped in shock as he dove to the ground and barely managed to catch Neville's Remembrall.

Hermione was itching to carry out Dumbledore's other order (or request, as she liked to put it.) Harry was more keen on watching their memories, but as Hermione grew increasingly vocal, they were forced to adjourn the Pensieve sessions.

By general agreement, they decided to start off with Defence against Dark Arts. Hermione assumed the role of the instructor, and irritated all of them by going into a detailed explanation of the 'Expelliarmus' hex. After about ten minutes, Ron was the first to crack, and cut short Hermione's lecture simply by holding his hand to her mouth and telling Harry his modified explanation 'Point the wand, shout the curse, catch the other fellow's wand'…

"Here, I'll show you," Ron said, releasing Hermione, who gave Ron a death glare and stalked off haughtily to the couch, where she was joined by very thankful looking Neville, Luna and Ginny. Harry held the wand in front of him, feeling very foolish.

"Expelliarmus," Ron cried. Harry reacted so fast that he was moving before even realizing it. He moved slightly, presenting his profile to Ron, held up his wand and muttered "Protego", quickly followed by "Stupefy".

Ron didn't realize that Harry had countered the curse, since he had spoken softly. The red light of the Expelliarmus spell appeared to hit an invisible barrier and rebounded towards Ron, closely followed by the red light of the Stunner. Ron didn't have a chance to move, and the twin beams of light hit his chest, his wand went shooting into the air, and he went flying back. Luckily, there was an armchair behind him, but unluckily he was moving very fast. He crashed into the armchair and toppled back head-first onto the floor, after which he did not move.

"Ron!"

Harry stood looking wide-eyed at what he'd done. He raced over to where Ron was lying prone, closely followed by the others. Hermione pointed her wand at him, and cried "Enervate." Thankfully, Ron began to stir.

"Ouch, my head," he sat up, looking at them, "What happened?"

Any thoughts that Ron had become an amnesiac as well flew out of his head, as Ron glared at him, "What'd you do that for?"

"I'm sorry," Harry mumbled, "I didn't realize… I didn't know I could do that. It was… sort of an instinctive reaction, I guess."

Hermione had a very worried expression on her face as she examined Ron's head. "Well, there's no blood, thankfully…" Harry started to apologize again, but was interrupted by Hermione's shrill shout, "If only you had waited till I had finished explaining!" The worried expression was long gone…

Ron's expression was priceless. "And how, pray would it have helped my poor head by knowing the exact wand movements behind the curse that rebounded and hit me?" And he shot a dirty look at Harry before continuing, "And it isn't like I expected it to rebound in the first case…"

Harry started to apologize again for the third time, but was cut off by Ron waving his hand dismissively, "No harm done."

"Actually," Ginny said, looking at Harry with admiration in her brown eyes, "It was a pretty amazing display of reflexes."

"Well," Harry cleared his throat, feeling his face colour, "Actually…" eyeing Ron nervously. Ron laughed and thumped Harry's back, "Modest as usual, Harry."

"Are you sure you didn't mean to do that, Harry?" Neville asked him.

Harry shook his head. "Let's do something else," said Ron excitedly, jumping up.

Hermione stood up as well, and faced Ron, putting her hands on her hips, which somehow reminded Harry of Mrs. Weasley. She hardly came up to his shoulder, but made a pretty impressive sight anyway. She poked Ron's chest with her forefinger, and said firmly, "Oh no you don't, Ronald Weasley. You are coming downstairs this minute to let your mother take a look at the bump on your head."

"Aw, come on, Hermione. It'll take more than a silly bump to…"

Hermione acted as though he hadn't spoken at all. 'She was really good at that,' Harry marveled, as she continued, "Besides, it's nearly tea-time…"

And so it was. There were no more objections from Ron, as they shuffled downstairs.

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They were joined at the table by the Weasley twins, who regaled them with tales about their store and had them rolling about their seats in laughter. Hermione pursed her lips, "Really, do you think that is… Eeek!" as Ron, who was sitting beside her grew a pair of dangerous looking horns.

Harry jumped in shock. "What happened?" His voice came out as a shrill shriek. "What happened to my voice?" His voice grew shriller, causing all of them to hold their hands to their ears.

Fred winced, and looked at George, "A little much, eh brother?"

"Absolutely, old boy, we got to tune down the frequency a bit…"

Harry grew indignant, his "What did you do to me?" sent shudders down the table. Neville got up, pointed his wand at Harry and told him earnestly, "Harry, I love you like a brother, but if you talk again, I won't be held responsible for my actions."

George had a stopwatch in his hand, which he'd started as soon as Ron had grown his horns. Fred pulled out a parchment from with his robes, and wrote with his tongue between his teeth, 'Test subjects – Harry Potter and Ron Weasley'. "Eh?" asked Ron, looking up with dawning horror on his face. Fred continued writing, talking aloud, 'Products tested – Shrieking Snacks and (looking up and grinning at Ron evilly) Minotaur Mints'. Ron blanched and felt the huge horns growing out of his forehead. He winced as he encountered the sharp ends.

"Oy Fred, we got to make the horns blunter. We don't want anyone getting hurt, do we?" said George, who was watching Ron closely.

Fred smirked, "'Course not!" and made a note in his parchment.

"Ah, the benefits of a large family…" Harry was very glad that George considered him to be part of the family, but asked himself whether it was worth it…

Ron looked as though he was about to explode, but he was spared the job when Mrs. Weasley entered the room. One look at Ron's new horns, and her "Fred and George Weasley!" rivaled Harry's shrieks.

Suddenly, Ron's horns started disappearing. George dived for the watch and stopped it. "Two minutes," he informed Fred, who wrote it down diligently. "Harry, I think you can talk now."

Harry eyed Neville nervously, but asked them, "What did you do to me?" Thankfully, it came out in his normal voice. Neville put his wand away.

"Shrieking Snacks and Minotaur Mints can be purchased at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, Number 92, Diagon Alley," intoned Fred, as George passed him and Ron slips of paper. Harry opened his found that it was a gift coupon for the amount of one galleon at the WWW.

"I've got about seven of those," grumbled Ron, but he pocketed it anyway.

They were interrupted by a scream from the hallway. The shrieks seemed to go on and on. Harry jumped to his feet in alarm, but noticed that everyone else was still sitting, with expressions of patient suffering on their faces.

"Looks like the Silencing spell has worn off, Hermione," Mrs. Weasley sighed, getting up. "I'd better go and see who it is."

Harry followed her, wondering why everyone was taking this so lightly. He soon found out, the screams were coming from the portrait of an old woman in the hallway. She was screaming out insults, "FILTHY MUDBLOODS, DISGRACING THE HOUSE OF BLACK"

This was the House of Black? If Phineas Nigellas had this as a password, he was probably one of the Black ancestors…

Mrs. Weasley made a stabbing motion with her wand, shouting "Silencio!" The woman appeared to continue screaming, but no sound could be heard.

"Ugh, thank god, Mum. I forgot that the portrait was here." A man emerged from the shadows and hugged Mrs. Weasley. He was still recognizable as the boy Harry had seen in the Pensieve…

He looked up at Harry, and suddenly seemed to grow limp in his mother's arms. Harry could make out his pupils dilating in… fear?

"Are you all right, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked him, worriedly. The man's gaze was still fixed on Harry.

"Hey… Harry," he finally croaked out. Mrs. Weasley turned around, she hadn't noticed Harry follow her. Harry stared at him, he could hear his pulse racing, he could feel the man's heart beating almost painfully against his chest…

Percy Weasley was very, very nervous…

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A/N: Apologies for the late update. My niece was born a week back, and I spent quite a bit of time at the hospital…

Hopefully the reason why the Pensieve is in the Chamber is quite clear. And Harry does not lose all his memories 'cos he put them in a Pensieve… Will make it clearer in the next chapter…

Can anyone guess what's up with Percy? Quite easy actually!

Thanks to cynosure the hierophant, Dark-Syaoran, fhippogriff, Rachel Sedai, dude, Treck, logi, HLBabi and gaul1 for reviewing.

Hope the chapter was good, leave long reviews!

shadylion