I won't be posting next week but will the week after (9th August)
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Thanks to everyone who is still reading this, and especially those who've reviewed and pointed out some errors - it's really helpful.
Also just to somewhat reply to someone: this will not be a hinny/harmione story. I have a vague outline for some ships but if you want to suggest your own below I am still very easily influenced - that also goes for patronus/Animagus ideas (all of this for long off in the future).
It was a normal day at Hogwarts... Well as normal as you can get for a school of witchcraft and wizardry. A week after the triumphant win over Slytherin, Ravenclaw house was still buzzing, hopeful to win the Quidditch Cup and truly believing that this year was their year, with only Hufflepuff left to beat.
Then, on the day of the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match it happened.
The threat written on the wall outside of Myrtle's bathroom all those months ago was finally acted upon. A second year Hufflepuff, Justin Finch-Fletchley, was petrified.
The news of Justin's petrification shook the very foundations of the castle, with not a student in sight not talking about it - with the exception of Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor quidditch captain who definitely seemed to care more about the cancelled match.
With that news the rumours reappeared: Who was the Heir of Slytherin?
Nobody seemed to have a clear answer, though there were those who linked Harry and his parseltongue abilities with being the Heir of Slytherin, the more rational students immediately shoved them aside, realistic in their approach that a muggleborn couldn't, and wouldn't be the Heir of blood-purist Salazar Slytherin.
Harry, on the other hand, couldn't help but feel on edge, waiting for Draco Malfoy to drop the bombshell news: that Harry wasn't a muggleborn.
If that news did come out, well, Harry had read up on what had happened last time the Chamber of Secrets had been opened.
The supposed perpetrator - a minor who's name was unreleased - had had his/her wand snapped, and had been expelled from Hogwarts, despite the minimal evidence nor anyone knowing their motives behind their actions (apparently the student hadn't appeared to believe in the bigotry that many pureblood families spread around).
"Well," Terry started, perched on his bed, like the other boys, "I for one can't be bothered to do that Potions essay." He surveyed the oddly quiet room - everyone still too in shock with the news of what had happened to Justin to talk about the latest Hogwarts gossip or discussion about quidditch.
The Ravenclaw second years, like the rest of the school, were holed up in their common rooms. Whilst everyone had been at the stands, waiting for the quidditch match to commence she had come out and ordered them back to their common rooms as part of a school-wide temporary lockdown whilst they tried to figure out a solution to what was happening.
However, with every single Ravenclaw student in the common room it had gotten crowded very quickly, and as the older years had commandeered the seats the second years had retreated to their dormitories.
"Alright!" Terry exclaimed slightly impatiently as everyone kept ignoring him. "We're not just going to sit here in silence doing nothing for the entire afternoon." He ordered them with a pointed look. Lightning flashed outside the window, a storm full in the works as if the weather had decided it would reflect the current situation at Hogwarts school.
"What do you suggest we do then?" Michael replied, a hint of irritation - or was it just anxiety? - evident in his tone.
"Look. I get that we're all on edge after McGonagall's announcement but-"
"Of course we're on edge. Justin was just petrified." Michael interrupted.
"There's nothing we-" An abrupt knock sounded on their door making all of them jump before they relaxed as Cameron's face appeared, his eyes darting around each of the students, the sixth-year looking as stressed as each of them felt.
"Just have to check everyone's here." He explained, before nodding and sharply turning back out of the room, without his normal amicable teasing and conversation.
As the door closed shut Terry once more tried to resume his earlier line of speech. "Come on," He half-begged, "I get that something traumatic and terrifying just happened, but-"
"But what?" Michael retorted and Terry let out a sigh of irritation as he was interrupted once more.
"If you could stop interrupting me maybe you'd find out?" Terry snarked, frustrated.
"Okay." Anthony intervened. "I understand that everyone's stressed, let's try and relax a little bit." Anthony offered himself up as a buffer between Michael and Terry - as he so often did. "What did you want to talk about Ter?"
"I don't know. Nothing I guess? I guess I just don't like sitting here in silence thinking about Justin." He admitted, clearly more upset about Justin's petrification than he let up.
"Justin's going to be fine." Michael replied, his tone softer than before.
"Professor Sprout said our mandrakes can reverse the effects of petrification." Anthony added.
"I guess."
"Terry?"
"It's just- Justin's the first. There's going to be more, and who's going to be next? Hannah? Granger? That kid, Colin?"
"Harry." Michael prompted, knowing that's where Terry was going.
"Harry's not a muggleborn, he should be fin-"
"No one knows he isn't a muggleborn." Terry interrupted, not even letting Anthony finish the word. "Besides, for all we know we are in danger too." He added ominously.
"Why do you say that?" Anthony replied.
"Salazar Slytherin didn't just try to kick muggleborns out, he disliked half-bloods too, he only liked purebloods, only wanted purebloods - that's why Slytherin is practically full of purebloods, and only a couple half-bloods scattered around." Terry rambled nervously, hardly pausing to breathe.
"It's petrification. It's not ideal but it's not deadly." Michael replied, though he sounded half as if he was trying to convince himself, his back had perceptibly straightened and his jaw was clenched.
"Where does it end? This - Justin - is just the first." He started, echoing his previous words. "The last time the Chamber of Secrets opened somebody died. So it might be deadly, or Slytherin's monster petrifies but Slytherin's heir kills or-"
"It's not our problem." Michael replied sharply. "The adults-"
"Dumbledore?" Terry asked before nodding even though he hadn't even given Michael enough time to reply. "You mean Dumbledore. The man who hid the Philosopher's stone in the castle, guarded by a cerberus, and endangered us all?"
Michael scowled - probably more due to the fact that Terry had a point and he didn't like being wrong than anything else. Outside the window thunder crashed against the castle, the rain already heavily smashing against the castle walls snapping them all out of the conversation as they stared out of the window into the stormy night.
"You alright Harry?" Terry asked, clearly noticing how out of it Harry was. "Harry?" He repeated himself as the blonde stayed lost in his thoughts.
"Sorry, I was just... thinking." Harry explained dumbly, but it was the truth. He couldn't stop wondering when Malfoy would 'out' him as a muggleborn, and about the entire conversation that they'd had last week. It had just seemed so random, and out of place, yet for a second it had been natural, almost as if they were friends - or could be friends maybe. Before Malfoy revealed that he was only being nice because he knew that Harry wasn't a muggleborn.
Then he couldn't stop thinking that if Malfoy did 'out' him that he would be expelled, with his wand snapped, and unable to do magic, then maybe he'd even get thrown in prison (it would be a fair enough punishment, for the real Heir) and if that happened then his identi-
"Harry!" Terry exclaimed, an amused smile tugging at his lips. "Merlin, you are really out of it, I said your name five times."
"Sorry." Harry repeated sheepishly.
"What were you thinking about anyway?" He asked, gently leaning into what seemed like a lighter line of conversation.
"Malfoy." Harry blurted out, and he couldn't help but blush as everyone looked at him with confused expressions and wide eyes. "Just, he knows I'm not a muggleborn, and if he knows then that means he's surely going to tell everyone, and if he tells everyone then people are going to start suspecting that I'm the heir again - just because I can speak parseltongue... And from there?" Harry started trying to recall all the research he'd done - which was extensive, due to his growing anxiety on the subject - but it was only coming back in bits and pieces at the moment, instead of the coherent flow he'd wanted.
"I looked it up, the last time the chamber was opened they caught the person, I think they expelled them - the person who did it, they didn't release their name but they were a sixth year I think, or something like that-" Harry shook his head as if it would dislodge the memories out from the cobwebs which were hiding them from him "-their wand was snapped without any further explanation, without finding any good evidence - the only extra information I could find was that Slytherin's monster was supposedly an acromantula, but that doesn't tie in with the petrification-" Harry rambled on, forced to pause to take a breath.
"An acromantula doesn't make sense, they have pincers yes, but they have no venom or anything like that which could petrify somebody like Justin was... and," Harry took another breath, "with the minimal information I could find - because it was during the war against Grindelward-"
"Grindelwald." Anthony corrected softly.
"Grindelwald." Harry parroted back before continuing his tangent. "There's not that much information about it, but what I could find is that there were multiple petrifications before there was a death, Myrtle Warren, a Ravenclaw. I misheard it when I found out the name of the student who died before, I thought it was a boy called Warren, but it was Myrtle." Harry looked at the others who were all staring at him as he hurled out the information at them, but their faces still expressed shock instead of the realisation he'd expected at his revelation. "Moaning Myrtle." He elaborated, and suddenly realisation washed over the three boys.
Breakfast on Monday morning was interesting to say the least. The hall was both quieter and louder than Harry had ever heard it. Though everyone was trying to be quiet the whispers being exchanged from student to student gradually brought up the noise until it almost sounded like a giant snake was in the room hissing.
It also didn't help that the entire student body was in the hall, Dumbledore having ordered everyone to be there for his announcement, which was scheduled to take place in about twenty seconds according to Harry's watch.
True to the time within a minute Dumbledore had stood up and the whispers had dissolved into silence. "With the tragic news of Justin's petrification yesterday I am here to tell you about our new curfew." Dumbledore began as a collective groan sounded around the room - no surprise that most of it came from the Gryffindor table, who all seemed to care more about prancing around the castle than not being petrified. Typical.
"By 8pm every student will need to be in their common rooms, dinner will be moved forwards half an hour to accommodate this. Anyone found outside after curfew, including prefects," Dumbledore added ominously, clearly the situation was too dangerous to even allow prefects to wander around. "Will be given detentions and have points deducted. I hope all of you understand the importance of obliging in these rules." Dumbledore nodded, his ever-twinkling eyes seemed dull as they scanned the room, before he returned to his seat.
"Or you know, he could close the school and figure out who's the culprit so we aren't all in danger of being petrified." Harry muttered under his breath and Terry laughed.
"Why should he close the school?" Isobel asked, Harry clearly not having been as quiet as he'd thought.
"Because it's dangerous." Harry retorted, confused as to why it was even a question.
"It's just petrification. It's not like we'll die." Isobel replied.
"Would you want to be petrified for the next couple of months until the mandrakes are ready?" Terry bit back a bit more viciously than Harry would've expected, though he was aware that the two did not get along overly well, some sort of family feud or something that Harry didn't quite understand and Terry didn't elaborate upon.
"Trust me, that would not be fun." Harry added before he could help himself, thinking about when he'd woken up from the coma.
"Right." Isobel scoffed. "Because you'd know. It's just a long sleep, and whilst not ideal, it isn't enough to get Hogwarts shut down."
Harry gritted his teeth as Terry took it upon himself to reply. "Whatever. Maybe you just care because you're a pureblood."
"You're a half-blood Boot, the only victims so far have been a muggleborn and the squib's cat."
"Do you not know anything about Slytherin?" Harry retorted, recalling something he'd read in Godric Gryffindor's - yes, the Godric Gryffindor - journal. "Slytherin didn't want anyone except purebloods. That includes half-bloods."
"You seem to know a lot about what Slytherin would want, Reynolds." Isobel leaned forward in her seat. "Maybe you are the heir."
"He's a muggleborn you twit." Michael cut in. "Clearly not Slytherin's heir. How are you even a Ravenclaw?" He sneered.
"Well," Isobel smirked slightly, "I clearly have enough intelligence to get all of you three riled up." She taunted her eyes scanning each of the three boys for their reaction, Anthony just sat to the side eating his cereal and trying to look anything but involved in the conversation.
Harry just rolled his eyes, gently gripping Terry's forearm. "Let's go to class. I'm really looking forwards to History of Magic." He snarked as he stood up, patting Anthony on the shoulder to tell them they were going. "Come on Mike." He added as the boy stared down Isobel, who just seemed amused at his irritation. "Let's go."
Harry couldn't help but think it odd when he saw that the Daily Prophet didn't mention the Chamber of Secrets and Justin's petrification on Monday morning, it was even more odd when it wasn't mentioned on Tuesday.
Either this was some blood-purist idea that Justin's life didn't mean enough to get him on the cover, or there was something more underhand going on. Whether somehow the information hadn't gotten to the prophet, or whether somebody had ordered them to not publish it, it seemed odd for the primary paper in the British wizarding world to have not published one of their biggest stories of the year.
The Quibbler, Luna Lovegood's father's publication, had published something interesting. Clearly Xenophilius - what a name - was aware of what was going on, most likely via Luna who'd also been the one to hand Harry a copy of the paper, but the news didn't make the front page. That was reserved for some article about Narwhals? Nargles? Something like that. Harry had nearly read through the entire paper before he got to a mention.
"Our reporter at Hogwarts School has informed us of some unusual behaviour going on at the school. Most likely the blibbering humdingers have gotten to the students and have caused rising stress levels as well as a higher inclination for gossip. In other news both a cat and a student are being locked up in the hospital wing after a mysterious encounter."
Suffice to say, it was not the most informative, though it did tie in with what Harry had been told to expect in terms of the Quibbler - "It's the insane ramblings of a loon", "They only talk about creatures which don't exist and conspiracy theories".
Luckily there was a silver-lining in the lack of information the wizarding world was receiving, in that Luke Reynolds had no clue of the going-ons at Hogwarts school.
It might not have been the most responsible move on Harry's behalf, but he hadn't wanted Luke to take him out of Hogwarts (which he definitely would've had he known) and inadvertently distance him from his friends, so, in the letter he'd sent on Monday evening he didn't mention a word about the Chamber of Secrets, only discussing Quidditch, and talking about how excited he was for his chances to win the cup.
Flitwick had given them a long speech on Monday evening after he'd made sure everyone was there for curfew, telling them to keep calm and rational in a trying period, to stay responsible and level-headed, and that it was more important than ever to follow the rules.
It was a decent (if slightly boring) speech, though Harry couldn't help but think the Gryffindors would've found it more useful, as of Tuesday morning two of the Gryffindorks had already been caught out past curfew.
"We should get moving." Terry said, though he stayed in his chair, his eyes half-shut.
Harry glanced at his watch to see it was ten minutes until they had to endure two hours of Gilderoy Lockhart forcing them to re-enact his books. The Ravenclaw second years had been enjoying a rare free, though due to it still being first period most have them had been half-asleep. Harry wished he could have had that same relaxed mindset but instead, like the night before, he couldn't help it as his mind ran over the situation he was in over and over again.
The Defence classroom was on the opposite side of the castle to the Ravenclaw tower, meaning that - if they were quick, and the staircases were being nice - it would take them exactly six minutes to get there. The staircases were never nice. It was always more than six.
Harry nodded in agreement with Terry's verdict, whilst also mimicking his own actions - to stay in the comfort of the sofa where he was resting, his legs leisurely spread out over Anthony's lap (who was drooling as he slept).
"On sunday..." Terry started hesitantly before continuing, leaning forward in his seat and lowering his voice, "You said Malfoy knew you weren't a muggleborn. How?" Terry asked bluntly and Harry sighed, he should've known the ever-inquisitive Terry wouldn't have let that slide.
"At the start of the year, on the train, I uh-" Harry paused, running his hand through his thick mop of blonde hair nervously, "I kind of had a bit of a- a breakdown I guess? Over Luke." He explained. "I called him dad to you guys, and I don't know? I guess I felt guilty. Like I was disrespecting the memory of the man who'd literally given his life to save me, my real father."
"Given his life?" Terry asked softly and Harry's eyes widened as he realised his mistake.
Harry swallowed. "I don't really like to talk about it to be honest, but-"
Terry waved him off. "You don't have to tell me. I didn't mean to push. Of course I'm here if you want to tell me, but don't feel pressured, or whatever, just, when you're ready." Harry offered him a grateful smile - that was why Terry was his best friend after all. "You shouldn't feel guilty." Terry added after a short pause, the watch ticking over showing they only had nine minutes left to make their move.
"Yeah." Harry added softly before pausing again, trying to figure out how to explain himself better. "I think I get that now. That they're both my dad. Just at the time, it was the first time I'd called him 'dad' you know? And then of all people I bumped into Malfoy." Harry quirked an eyebrow at Terry who laughed.
"Typical."
"Yep. Anyways, he said something about seeing my 'muggle father' and I just snapped back that he wasn't my real father." Harry looked up at Terry sheepishly, but the boy just smiled.
"That... that makes a lot of sense."
"Yeah, I guess. Not great now though."
"No, I suppose not, but, he hasn't said anything yet, maybe he won't?" Terry asked, though he sounded as unconfident as Harry felt.
"It's Malfoy." Harry replied bluntly.
"Guys, we need to go, Lockhart's a fraud but he'll still dock us if we're late." Michael interrupted, coming out of the dormitory where he'd been sleeping.
"Alright." Harry nodded, shaking Anthony awake and picking up his bag, before a loud voice sounded through the common room, almost as if there was a sound system - though Harry knew it was really just McGonagall's voice on a 'sonorus' charm.
"Everyone return to their common rooms. Another student has been petrified. Ronald Weasley and Neville Longbottom please come to the hospital wing."
"Typical Hogwarts logic, everyone needs to go to the common room to be safe except person A and person B." Harry snarked before he paused in his motions. "Ron and Nev?" He asked Terry who nodded, a wide look in his eyes. Harry collapsed back onto the sofa in realisation, ignoring Anthony's little yelp as he fell on his leg. Harry barely need to utter the next word, everyone in the common room had already figured out who it was, but he breathed out the name anyway.
"Hermione."