BOOK TWO: The Chamber of Secrets

CHAPTER ONE: Back at the Burrow

"Welcome back."

Those were the five simple words Ginny greeted Ellie with when she arrived at the Burrow after the most intense and exhilarating year of her life. The simplicity of Ginny's words almost suggested that nothing had changed since Ellie left the Burrow at the end of the previous summer, but Ellie knew that wasn't true. Many things had changed, and many things still would.

Ellie was going to find out who her father was that summer.

She had to keep it quiet from Molly and Arthur, of course. The kindhearted, tender Weasley parents were as warm and inviting to her as ever, showering her with cakes, brownies, and teas upon her arrival as Molly tittered on about how thin she was.

"And you two," Molly added to the twins, who chewed contentedly on some cinnamon sticks—"utterly in need of haircuts!"

"No way, Mum," said Fred, shooting a grin at Ellie. "The chicks dig it."

Ellie tried not to let that get to her, just as she had tried not to let all of her other confusing feelings about boys over the past few weeks get to her. It was easy enough to write off Oliver Wood's flirtations, but the way Fred had looked at her in that chamber before she and Harry carried on to fight Quirrell and Voldemort—not to mention, the way he had looked at her when she returned with the Philosopher's Stone, only to leave again—that was a harder thing to ignore.

Then again, he had never given her any indication with his actual words that he was interested in her. And risking a friendship likes theirs for the sake of confusing, preteen emotions felt somewhere between foolish and moronic.

"So," said Ginny, tearing Ellie's thoughts away from all that. "How was it?"

"Long. Complicated. Strange." Ellie waited for Molly and Arthur to disappear into the kitchen before going into a deeper explanation of her year—specifically of the end of it, at which point she and Harry had fought Lord Voldemort.

"I can't believe you know him so well," sighed Ginny. "I can't believe Ron knows him so well."

"Is she talking about Harry?" asked George grumpily. "Gin, have you even met him?"

Ellie laughed as Ginny said sharply, "Twice, as a matter of fact—at the platform and the concert last year! And I'll thank you to shut up about it!"

"I'm quite talked out, anyway, from the train ride," said Ellie, getting to her feet. "Who fancies a game of Quidditch?"

"Hey, Gin," said George as they rose to their feet to head outside. "Did Ellie ever tell you about the Quidditch captain?"


"The wizard who killed twelve Muggles and his own friend," Ellie said to Fred a few nights later as they sat in Molly's garden, nibbling on subs. It was their secret spot from the year before. "You said his name was Sirius Black?"

Fred nodded, looking concerned. "Why?"

"I was thinking—I've already seen what he looks like, right? My father, I mean. In the Mirror of Erised. So, if I could find a picture of Black, it would either prove or disprove that theory."

"The theory that Black is your father?" asked Fred, frowning. "Didn't realize that was actually a working theory for us."

"Well, have you got any better ones?" she asked, heat rising to her voice. "Hogwarts doesn't exactly have yearbooks, do they?"

He granted her the faintest trace of a grin at that. "Okay. So we find a picture of Black. Shouldn't be too hard, should it? They must have taken a mugshot."

"But where would we find something like that? Who would keep those records?"

"Well, they'd be at the Ministry. Normally, if you needed something from the Ministry, I'd suggest you ask Dad for help. But, in this case…"

Ellie frowned, weighing her options. She couldn't just write to the Ministry asking for a mugshot of Sirius Black; it might raise some unintended alarms. But was asking Arthur any better? He and Molly were very much in cahoots with her mother, who clearly didn't want her finding out her father's true identity.

"What if I was… working on summer homework?" she asked Fred. "A project about Azkaban prisoners. And I told them I needed all the mugshots for, I don't know—the backboard of the project?"

Fred looked amused. "Sounds like a right creepy backboard. But it's not a half-bad idea."


It took Ellie about a week of quiet research with the twins to figure out exactly who in the Ministry to write to, but they were able to scavenge through some of the papers in Arthur's office when he wasn't around and eventually find the person: Clover Pagnotus of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, who was the Director of the Azkaban Prison Association.

Ellie's letter to Clover was simple enough, introducing herself as a student at Hogwarts and explaining her project just as she'd explained it to Fred. Once she was finished with that letter, she penned two more—one to her mother, whom she had given up on asking questions about her father to, and one to Harry, who she found herself missing very much after all they had gone through together.

It took several weeks for her to get a single response; it was mid-July by the time Woodstock delivered her the letter from her mother.

"It's from Mum," she said, glancing at the twins in confusion. "I would've expected a reply from her last."

Her letter from Serena wasn't unlike the others her mother had sent her over the past year—short, direct, and devoid of any mention of the word "love." Ellie wondered, as she often did, what exactly had happened to her mother to turn her so cold—and how much of it was the fault of her father.

He's in there for a reason, she reminded herself as she stroked Woodstock's feathers and stared up at the sky. Servant of Voldemort or not, he did something bad enough to get locked up in a place like that for life.

By late July, Ellie had sent Harry three total letters, Ron had sent him five, and even the twins had tried once—but none of them got responses.

"What if something's wrong?" Ron asked them at breakfast one morning. "It isn't like him. He's so lonely there, writing to us would be the only thing to cheer him."

"We'd have heard if something was wrong, dear," Molly assured him. "Albus knows how close you two are."

But Ron didn't look convinced, and Ellie wasn't sure she was, either.


By the third of August, they agreed that they needed to somehow check on Harry.

"I've got it," announced George dramatically in the middle of a Quidditch session. He zoomed sharply to the ground, and the others followed. "Dad's car!"

"What?" they all demanded. Ellie remembered Arthur's car, of course; he and Molly had driven the Ford Anglia to Hogwarts the previous Christmas to deliver Ginny for a Weasleys concert. And yet… steal a flying car?

"I'm serious," said George, lowering his voice. "We'll do it tonight, after Mum and Dad are asleep. We'll take it to Harry's and rescue him."

"Hang on," said Ginny. "Are you even sure he needs rescuing? Maybe he's just been ignoring you."

"If he has, then at least we'll know for sure," said Ellie, "and we'll come back here without him—no harm, no foul." She nodded. "I'm with George."

"The car has an invisibility shield, right?" asked Fred. "I'm in, too."

"And how," Ron asked, frowning, "are we going to explain to Mum and Dad the sudden appearance of Harry Potter at the Burrow?"

"He was so miserable that he walked here," volunteered Fred cheerfully. "Whatever—they'll be ecstatic. Come on—let's get to planning."


They were a few minutes from sneaking into the garage that night when Woodstock appeared on the windowsill, rapping his beak gently against the glass.

"That's odd," said Ellie as she came over to him. She had never replied to her mother's letter, Harry was clearly uncommunicative, and it had been far too long with no response from the Ministry for her to still expect one. Still, her heart started to pound with excitement when she untied the large envelope from her owl's leg.

"That's the Ministry seal," said Fred when he saw it, eyes widening. "They got back to you!"

Ellie scanned the top left corner. Clover Pagnotus, Dep't of Magical Law Enforcement, Director: Azkaban Prison Association. She glanced carefully around for Ron, who would be joining them on their breakout mission. On the advice of both twins, she had decided to keep this mission top secret, even from Ginny; if her father was Sirius Black, it would seriously affect people's opinions of her.

Seeing that Ron still hadn't joined them, Ellie ripped open the letter as fast as she could. Out of it spilled a series of moving pictures—mugshots. She wanted to dive straight into looking at them, but forced herself to read the letter first.


Miss Bretherworth,

Apologies for the delay in getting these to you. Things here at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement are more backed-up than ever, but as a former student of Hogwarts myself, I never let your letter fall too far to the bottom of my pile. I hope these pictures will provide the final touches for your project that you seek. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Yours,
Clover Pagnotus


"Wow," said Fred after reading the letter over Ellie's shoulder. "She sounds rather pleasant for a witch whose job is to drain the happiness and souls out of a horde of imprisoned murderers."

Ellie ignored him as she lifted the stack of images. She tried to scan each one for the face that she had seen in the Mirror, but, growing impatient, instead scanned the names on the mugshots. Bellatrix Lestrange… Antonin Dolohov…. Sirius Black.

She nearly dropped the photo when she saw it. He was terrifying, to be sure—nothing like the man she had seen in the Mirror—angry, manic, and confused. But those grey eyes were unmistakable; she saw them every time she looked in the mirror at her own reflection.

Sirius Black was her father.


Well, it's probably not such a shock to you all at this point, but it's certainly still a shock for poor Ellie! But when will she discover the truth about Sirius, and how? We have lots of deciding developments ahead of us, so please keep those reviews coming to show your support as we enter this next story. Thanks so much for reading!