Marigold Potter woke up to a quiet tune being hummed. She knew she had heard it before, but could not place the melody. Sitting up in her bed, she stretched tiredly, rubbing the moisture from her eyes. Blinking, she looked around - and found Sirius Black sitting in a chair, reading the Daily Prophet.

The humming stopped. "'Morning, golden girl." said her godfather.

"'Morning, Padfoot," she replied, continuing her stretching. "What was that song?"

Sirius folded the newspaper, and stood. "Just an old song I heard somewhere. Got stuck in my head, you know?"

Marigold nodded. "I know how that works." She stood as well, eyeing the bathroom. Sirius chuckled when he saw the look, and made his way to the door.

"Breakfast in twenty, Mari. Don't forget, you have a train to catch."

"I know, I know." she muttered, as she entered the bathroom. She did not hear her godfather's laugh at how like Lily she had sounded, in that moment.

After the attack on Ginny, everyone had decided that staying at the Burrow would have been too much. Ginny was recovering well, but her mind healer had suggested that sharing a room with Marigold - particularly that room, where the attack took place - might cause either or both of the girls to have a panic attack. So Ginny had moved to Charlie's old room, and Marigold had gone to 12 Grimmauld Place with Sirius.

In all the excitement, no one bothered to check with Marigold on her living arrangements - so no one questioned the fact that Sirius kept watch over her, despite his custody not being finalized.

It had been a relaxing week - just what she needed after the battle with the shade of Tom Riddle - or, as they now knew him, the young Lord Voldemort.

oOoOoOoOo

During the last conference between the five, the night before they returned to school for the new term, Rose had been absolutely livid. She knew that Ginny still had her diary, and knew that there would be further attacks in her version of Hogwarts. Beyond those facts, though, she had no leads and no intelligence on how those attacks would happen.

From the brief conversations Marigold had had with Ginny, they knew that the diary forced her to physically enter the Chamber of Secrets to summon a basilisk. They knew that the basilisk had been in some form of stasis since the 40's, and that it now merely slept until it became hungry. How often it needed to feed, and where it did so, were questions Ginny could not answer.

Nor could she describe where the Chamber of Secrets actually was. That knowledge had been carefully kept from her mind, presumably to keep anyone from learning it if the diary became compromised.

Tom had bragged about killing a student; perhaps the records would hint at who had died in 1943 - and, perhaps more importantly, where the body had been found. Everything was a clue, at this point.

Spellforged hoped that the Chamber was the same in each world. It would not do to find it in one world and meet a dead end in another. The others could tell that he still worried about the basilisk.

"I'm not worried about the basilisk by itself, I'm worried about a thousand-year-old basilisk that no longer has a master." Spellforged had explained. "The diary, through Ginny, was keeping it contained and in control. It had to be, or else we would have had Slytherin's beast roaming the halls indiscriminately. The fact that the diary could target specific people just adds to the case - the basilisk was under control."

Seeker's voice was quiet when it came over the link. "And now it's not. You think it will attack?"

"If it can get out of the chamber, yes. Yes I do." Spellforged replied.

"Bloody buggering hell," said Chaser. "They should close the school."

"Probably," said Seeker. "But you know they won't."

"No, they won't." replied Chaser. "Auntie says that the board is agitating for Dumbledore to be removed as Headmistress. Lord Malfoy is behind it, or so she thinks." He paused, considering the situation. "Malfoy's probably doing much the same in your worlds."

"And while they play their games, they risk our lives when they know that there is a threat." Marigold's voice had an edge on it, this night.

"That raises a good point," said Rose. "Do we know how Ginny got the diary? Marigold, you were staying with the Weasleys after the shopping trip, did you see anything?"

She considered the question. "I don't remember seeing Ginny with the diary until after the fight in the bookstore." She remembered Malfoy tossing some books back into one of the Weasley's cauldrons. Could it have been Ginny's?

Rose had been thinking along the same lines. "Malfoy causes the attacks, using the daughter of a political rival, and takes advantage of a seat on the board to move against Dumbledore? I can see it happening that way."

"Daphne said that Draco knew something about what would happen," said Seeker.

"So, we have a suspect," said Chaser, in his best Aunt Amelia impression.

"Don't let Madam Bones hear you talk like that," replied Spellforged, causing the others to laugh.

oOoOoOoOo

The great hall had been quieter than expected, though none of the five could point to a specific reason. The fact that it had been unusually cold that day, causing the Express to run a little slower than normal, may have been a factor. They did not think it was the attack before the holidays, though most students were still in denial that there was a threat.

That did not stop the whispers, of course. Seeker knew that the eyes of the school were still on him, as they feared the unknown threat of the Heir. He knew that the threat was real - it just wasn't the threat that everyone suspected. By capturing the diary, they had traded the active malice of a teenaged Voldemort for the untamed fury of an out-of-control beast. It was the best play they had, and none of them doubted what the result might have been if they allowed Ginny to keep the artifact. Marigold had seen what might have been, and the others had been right there with her.

After the feast, Seeker found himself summoned to the Headmaster's office. He asked Professor McGonagall to accompany him as his head of house, a request she agreed to immediately.

To Harry's surprise, Headmaster Dumbledore was not alone in his office. "Hello, Bill," said Seeker, with a grin. Bill Weasley smiled at him in return. Harry and Professor McGonagall each took their seats.

After greetings were exchanged, Dumbledore got right to the point. "I'd like to applaud your generosity, Mister Potter, in offering your assistance to Miss Weasley and her parents. I know they appreciate it."

"Of course, sir, thank you. I know how helpful speaking to a therapist can be, and wanted to make sure that Ginny missed as little of her classes as possible."

Dumbledore nodded. "Well, you did the right thing. She should only miss a week or so, if her parents are right about her progress. And I think they are." He idly tapped a finger on his desk, as if trying to figure out how to proceed. "I do wonder, though, how you knew that she was in the process of being possessed?"

The five had talked about the answer to that question. The consensus came down to offering as much truth as possible, and letting the Headmaster fill in the blanks.

"Sir," began Harry. "It wasn't one thing, exactly. She seemed to be unusually quiet over the last term, to the point of ignoring some of her friends from before she came to Hogwarts. But that's not evidence of anything other than the transition to life in the castle, sir. What got me was that she continued to isolate herself at the Burrow, as well." He paused, looking thoughtful. "One night before Christmas, I saw her writing in an old diary, and asked about it. She got very nervous, running off and hiding from me. That got me truly worried."

"When Harry sent me an owl, asking about how Ginny was doing, I started to notice the signs as well. I didn't know that it was the diary, mind, but I did know that there was something going on." Bill sighed. "I wish I had seen it earlier."

"No, I think you both did well to see it at all. Her brothers all saw her daily, and missed most of the signs that you two picked up. So, well done, both of you." The headmaster gave one of his grandfatherly smiles. "I daresay you saved her life. For that, you should be proud."

"We are sir, thank you." said Harry. Bill nodded as well.

"Mister Weasley, what do you know about the diary?" asked the Headmaster.

Bill shrugged. "We know that it appears to be an ordinary diary, of the kind muggles might have used in the 1930's or 40's. That's consistent with the name on the cover." He nodded toward a letter on the Headmaster's desk, drawing Seeker's eyes to the Gringotts seal. "The goblins will be bringing in some experts from Egypt to have a look at it. The magic was dark enough to make anyone cautious. Hopefully, we will know more once they do their work."

Harry picked up from there. "We do have some guesses about the diary's origin, though. There was a Tom Marvolo Riddle who attended Hogwarts as a slytherin during that time. He was even Head Boy in his seventh year. There is an award for services to the school hanging in the trophy room with his name on it."

"Indeed," said Dumbledore. "I remember the incident. Tom caught a student with an acromantula, and accused him of opening the Chamber of Secrets and killing another student. The boy was expelled and his wand snapped."

"Hagrid still keeps the pieces in his umbrella, I believe, Headmaster." said Harry, watching for a reaction. He got it, in the look of shock on the Headmaster's face. Harry continued, not waiting for the inevitable question about how exactly he knew that it had been Hagrid who was expelled. "Sir, if Tom Riddle was involved in stopping the attacks, and now Tom Riddle's diary was attempting to continue them, wouldn't it make more sense if Tom Riddle was the true attacker?"

Dumbledore nodded, still recovering. "That may well be, Mister Potter." He looked to Bill. "If the diary proves to be capable of that level of control, and it is safely out of the school, then it would seem that the attacks are at an end."

Harry looked uncomfortable. He shared a look at Bill, who nodded. "Um, sir, that may not be the case, actually."

"Oh?"

"Well, we think the Basilisk may still be a threat." said Harry. "If the diary woke it up, but didn't put it back in stasis or sleep or whatever it was in for a thousand years, then eventually it will wonder why its master has not returned. After that, it will begin to get hungry."

Bill spoke up. "There's a risk that the basilisk will try to enter the school again, only this time it won't be under anyone's control."

Dumbledore looked from one to the other, before nodding. "Then, it seems we will need to find the Chamber of Secrets."

oOoOoOoOo

Initially, Marigold's meeting with the Headmaster had gone in much the same way as Seeker's, as had Spellforged's and Chaser's. In each, they discussed the threat and that there was still a bloody great basilisk lurking in the shadows. In each, the Headmaster promised to find the Chamber before the attacks could resume, and asked that any information they find be given to him without delay.

Spellforged worried that this was the Headmaster patting them on the head and saying that he would handle it. Rose agreed, but reminded them that there was the problem of the Board of Governors as well. The Headmaster running about, looking for the fabled Chamber of Secrets, would win him no support among the board. He would have to play the situation cautiously, as he seemed to be doing.

As long as "cautious" did not equal "whenever I get to it," there was little to worry about. But worry they would, of course.

Marigold's meeting was the most interesting toward its end. When she walked into the Headmaster's office, he and Bill Weasley were examining what she now knew was the Shield of Gryffindor.

When Bill tried to retrieve the diary, the shield had closed itself around the artifact. Lifting it by the leather straps, Bill had watched as the metal dome bent even further, forming a metal orb encasing the diary. He had delivered it to Gringotts in that form, where it had taken three curse breakers over an hour to coax the shield into opening again. After that, he had convinced them to bring it back to Hogwarts - and had been surprised when they agreed.

Now, as it sat on the Headmaster's desk, it was back to its 'normal' shape - a flat disk with a gleaming metal boss at its center. Marigold was interested by the fact that the boss had returned to its simple metal dome shape, rather than the fierce blade that had pierced the diary and held it in place.

Once they had discussed Ginny's recovery and the remaining threat of the basilisk, the Headmaster turned his attention to the shield. "I was at a meeting of the ICW, nowhere near my office, when Bill called for help. It is fortunate indeed that Fawkes heard the call and responded." He glanced across his office at the sorting hat. "And that the hat was able to provide such timely aid." He turned his gaze to Marigold. "Only a true Gryffindor would have been able to pull one of Godric Gryffindor's artifacts from the sorting hat."

Bill continued to examine the shield. "I had heard of the Sword of Gryffindor, but never the shield."

Dumbledore sat back in his chair. "It's a very old tale, Mister Weasley. What I find interesting is that Gryffindor very rarely wielded the shield that bore his name." he tapped the gleaming metal. "No, the shield was mostly ceremonial, gifted by a powerful wizard in thanks for Gryffindor's aid. You see, the famous Sword is properly wielded with both hands, so a shield such as this would not work with the sword that Godric carried."

Marigold looked down at the shield, watching as Bill turned it over to examine the interior side of the artifact. "Then, why would the hat bring this, instead of the Sword or something else that might help?" She looked over at the hat, and shrugged her shoulders. "No offense, um, Mister Hat."

The Sorting Hat seemed to huff a bit, but said nothing.

"That, I cannot say, Miss Potter." answered the Headmaster.

"Perhaps I can," said Bill, leaning close to the shield. "There seems to be writing here."

Dumbledore and Marigold stood, and attempted to get a look. Dumbledore conjured a large magnifying glass, allowing all three to see the tiny etchings. Between the two straps, etched into the metal, was an engraving of some sort.

"I've seen this before," said Bill, confusion in his voice. "I think it's an early form of Arabic."

"Really? Fascinating," added the Headmaster. "Do you know what it says?"

Bill was already copying down the engraving onto a piece of parchment. When he was done, he got out his wand and cast a spell - and the three watched intently as the words rearranged themselves on the page. The process was eerily similar to the way the diary had used her own writing to spew its poison. Marigold kept herself from shuddering, but only just.

Once the words formed, the three read them in silence. And then they shared looks at what they had learned.

Bill spoke first. "Everything we thought we knew..." he said, quietly. "I know at least three scholars who would burn their libraries to see this." He pointed to the date. "And that year, wasn't that…?"

"It was indeed," Dumbledore replied, just as quietly. "It was a long time ago. Clearly, much has changed."

"Not as much as you think," said Marigold, thinking no one heard. She did not see the smile on Dumbledore's face at her words.

Marigold thought about Seeker's efforts to bridge the divide between houses, and about Rose's success with the same endeavor. The fact that Seeker approached it with subtlety worthy of a slytherin, while Rose charged in with her study group like a gryffindor still amused her. If they could see this, she thought to herself. Merlin, this could change everything.

Her eyes went back to the translation, wondering what the others would make of it.

For my Brother, Godric.
Always be a Bastion against the Darkness.
For they are all our children. Guard them well.
Salazar Slytherin, 1037


A/N: As I've said to several reviewers, I'm aiming for a "Complex and Nuanced" Salazar Slytherin, rather than simply writing an apologia for him. I reject the idea that three of the Founders were close, and then they brought in some other asshole who wore green, spouted bigoted views on blood purity, and had a dubious relationship with Dark magic just to make things interesting. Whatever happened later, the four Founders had to be close initially, or else the whole concept of Hogwarts wouldn't have worked at all.

There's a reason that Salazar wrote that inscription. There's a reason he did so in Arabic. We know he spent quite a long time in that part of the world, so perhaps this hints at a Slytherin who decided to go back to his roots, so to speak, once he left the school. Beyond that, all we have is hearsay - Remus could recite only what scholars believed, for example. Why he fled, and what happened next, are topics for another day.

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