AN: As always, thanks to my incredible beta FalconHonour. Chapters 2 and 3 are now beta'd and edited!
Draco was absolutely convinced Potter had something to do with the Chamber opening, and so he, Blaise, and Theo had taken to following Potter and Weasley. That was how the three boys found themselves lurking on the second floor, over by a girl's bathroom the two Gryffindors had decided to enter.
Tucked away in an alcove, they hardly had to strain to hear the words that echoed from the bathroom out to the wall.
"This is a girls' bathroom," said a weepy sounding female voice. "You're not girls."
Blaise started snickering. Theo shushed him.
"No-" said Potter, "We just… wanted to come in here and um…" His voice trailed off, and Weasley must've been whispering something into his ear because a great wail echoed through the hallway.
"What are you whispering?" asked the female voice, before letting out another keening wail.
"Nothing," said Potter quickly. "We wanted to ask —"
"I wish people would stop talking behind my back!" said the girl, in a voice choked with tears. "I do have feelings, you know, even if —"
"Myrtle, no one wants to upset you," said Weasley. "Harry only —"
The boys looked at each other. Who was Myrtle?
"No one wants to upset me! That's a good one!" howled Myrtle. "My life was nothing but misery at this place and now people come along ruining my death!"
"She must be a ghost then," Theo whispered.
"Maybe the girls will know something about her?" suggested Blaise.
"Shut up," whispered Draco sharply, "They're talking again!"
"We wanted to ask you if you've seen anything funny lately," said Weasley. "Because a cat was attacked right outside your front door on Halloween."
"Did you see anyone near here that night?" Potter asked.
"I wasn't paying attention," said Myrtle dramatically. "Peeves upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then, of course, I remembered that I'm — that I'm —"
"Already dead," said Weasley.
Theo rolled his eyes as a great sob erupted from the bathroom, followed by a great splash. Draco peered out of the alcove for a better look, only to be pulled back in immediately by Blaise as he pointed at Percy Weasley, who was striding down the hall.
"RON!" Percy Weasley had stopped dead at the head of the stairs, Prefect badge agleam, an expression of complete shock...and anger on his face. "That's a girls' bathroom!" he gasped. "What were you — ?"
The Slytherin boys grinned at each other, before each of their shoulders started shaking with silent laughter.
"Just having a look around," Ron shrugged. "Clues, you know —"
Percy Weasley swelled up, looking quite a bit like a peacock, before barking out at the Potter and Weasley, "Get — away — from — there! You can't— shouldn't— you aren't supposed to be there!"
"Why shouldn't we be here?" said Weasley hotly, glaring at his brother. "Listen, we never laid a finger on that cat!"
"Look, I know that, but does the rest of the castle?"
"You're just worried I'm going to mess up your chances of being Head Boy —"
"Five points from Gryffindor!" Percy Weasley said, rather crisply. "And I hope it teaches you a lesson! No more detective work, or I'll write to Mum!"
Ron Weasley grumbled something under his breath as his older brother had stalked away. "Come on, Harry," he muttered, as he stomped in the opposite direction.
Blaise peered down both ends of the hallway. "We're good."
As the three walked back to the dungeons, theories were tossed around haphazardly.
"Potter in the bathroom, with a ghost. It sounds rather like a game of Clue, don't you think?" Theo laughed.
"Yeah, but do you remember how mad Percy Weasley was?" asked Draco. "Points from his own house and everything."
"It's a little suspicious, I think," Blaise said lowly, "I mean, why was he even by the second floor girl's bathroom in the first place? Especially with it being right where the cat was petrified, and all, I mean most of the school is avoiding it like the plague."
"Ron Weasley and Potter were there-and so were we," Theo pointed out.
"Yeah, but they were doing 'detective work'," said Draco, "And we were spying on them. So that's our excuse. What does Percy Weasley have?"
"Maybe it was something to do with his Prefect duties? Or maybe he was going somewhere?" Theo suggested.
"Nah," said Blaise, "I'm with Draco on this one. If it was Prefect duties, we would've seen another Prefect-they always go in pairs. And as for going somewhere, there's really nothing else by there. And even if there were, he could take an alternative route so that he didn't pass the walls with writing in blood on them."
"Maybe he's into that sort of stuff?" Theo shrugged, "I'm not going to pretend to understand Gryffindors and their weird desire for danger."
"I'll never understand Gryffindors period," Blaise laughed.
The first Quidditch Match of the season was that Saturday, between Gryffindor and Slytherin, and therefore highly anticipated. The clouds were grey and the air was especially humid for November, the stands packed out with students dressed in green and silver or red and gold, with banners, hats and flags waving in the wind.
As the Slytherin team walked out to the center of the pitch, Draco set his shoulders back and set his jaw. He wanted to win. He needed to win. As Thomas shook hands with the Gryffindor captain, Madame Hooch blew her whistle, and each player took off to the sky.
Draco spotted Potter shoot up into the air, and decided to follow, speeding around the Gryffindor Seeker on his broomstick.
"All right there, Scarhead?" yelled Draco, as Potter glared at him.
And then a Bludger shot past Potter's head, missing by mere inches. One of the twins came by on the broom, knocking the Bludger towards Pucey, but curiously, it changed directions halfway, like a boomerang. This time, Draco had to swoop away from Potter to avoid the path of the Bludger, and he furrowed his brow. What was up with the Bludger?
As Potter flew to the other side of the stadium, Draco started patrolling the edges of the stadium, on the lookout for the Snitch. He spared a moment's glance to the Slytherin Chasers, who were doing exceptionally well, just as rain started to fall in fat drops.
"Slytherin lead, sixty points to zero —" came the commentator.
Draco returned his focus to the Snitch, but found himself distracted by Potter's absurd twirls and jumps to avoid the Bludger. It was definitely targeting him, for whatever reason. Although he wasn't too unhappy about the player that it had chosen to target, the Slytherin win could be jeopardized if the Gryffindors kicked up enough of a fuss and started pointing fingers.
The shrill screech of the whistle interrupted Draco's thoughts, as he watched Wood call a timeout, and the twins and Potter came down to the ground. They seemed to convene for a few moments, before the rest of the Gryffindor team came to join in. After five minutes of their timeout, with the crowd starting to jeer at the interruption in play, the Gryffindor team seemed to come to a conclusion, and returned to the skies.
Draco continued to look for the Snitch, before his eyes settled on Potter. He came to a horrifying realization. Potter was right in front of the Slytherin stands. Right where all his friends were sitting. Right where Hermione was sitting, and the Bludger was obviously still targeting him. If he dodged out of the way, the Bludger might go straight into the Slytherin stands.
Draco gripped his broom tightly, as he raced to where Potter was, facing his back towards the stands. He was determined that the Bludger would not go near Hermione. He'd fly in front of it before he'd let that happen.
Potter did a little twirl to avoid the Bludger yet again, and Draco sneered at him. "Training for the ballet, Potter?" Potter glared at him. "Get away from the stands," Draco yelled.
Potter looked absolutely livid as he continued avoiding the Bludger, refusing to stray from the Slytherin stands. And for a moment he paused and-WHAM. Draco winced as the Bludger knocked into Potter's elbows, and he heard a crack. As the Bludger swung at Potter again, the Gryffindor started hanging part ways off of the side, and came slowly towards Draco, with some sort of a crazed gleam in his eye. Maybe it was from the pain? And then-then Potter rushed at Draco - was he attacking him? Draco was vaguely aware of the screams of the crowds that were maybe ten feet away, as Potter lunged at him. Draco backed up, to get out of the boy's way, but continued trying to protect the Slytherin stands. Potter's hand closed around something and Draco realized belatedly that it was the Snitch. Then, Potter fell perhaps twenty feet to the ground, into the mud.
Draco flew back to the rest of the Slytherins, a bit dejectedly. He hardened his face, waiting for the sting of costing his team the game.
"Draco!" Thomas called out, as he rushed towards the boy. Draco braced himself for the worst. "You bloody Gryffindor!" The impassioned Prefect looked...relieved? "Putting yourself in danger like that? Going near Potter when the Bludger was going at him? You could've been seriously hurt!"
"But-"
"Salazar, Carrine's going to get it in her head that I told you to go for the Snitch or die trying or something psychotic like that. I mean, we're your Prefects, we have to protect you guys!"
"I-"
The rest of the team raced over to the two in waves. Emmeline scowled at Thomas. "Thomas, shut up! He wasn't going for the Snitch, he was protecting the people in the stands!"
Thomas looked to Draco. "Shit, Draco, that's…"
"It's just the Bludger was after Potter, and he started staying out near the Slytherin stands, right in front of all my friends, and I didn't want them to get hit by the Bludger, and-"
Marcus Flint rolled his eyes. "See Thomas? Stop worrying. I'll deal with your girlfriend."
Draco suddenly felt a force fly into him, and stumbled backwards before catching his balance.
"Don't you ever do something so reckless again, Draco!" cried a very distraught Hermione. He suddenly found himself crowded by the rest of his friends.
Overwhelmed and confused by the lack of anger, Draco cried out, "But I lost the game!"
Marcus fixed him with a confused look. "So? We only lost by ten points, so we're still very much in the running for the Cup. And it's more important anyways that none of us get seriously injured than win. In Slytherin, we always say that we take care of our own. We're not going to be all pissy because you were more concerned with protecting your friends than winning a game."
The chaos back in England had started on November first. Astoria raced through the halls of Greengrass manor, holding a letter in her hand, waving it around like a flag.
She thundered into the living room. "Muuuuuum! Daaaaaad! We have a letter from Daphne and Hermione!"
Hyperion and Selene exchanged an amused glance. Astoria's excitement over a letter from Hogwarts was a weekly recurrence, and yet she was equally dramatic every single time.
"Alright, Astoria," Hyperion chuckled. "Do you want to read this one?"
Astoria grinned, and hastily opened the letter before clearing her throat. "'Dear Mother, Father, and Astoria-'" she grinned, "'This week at Hogwarts has been absolutely filled to the brim. First off, Emmeline is going on a date'-what!" Astoria shrieked.
"Keep on reading the letter, Astoria," said Selene.
"'With Fred Weasley. They're going to Hogsmeade together. We think it took them more than enough time. Fred accidentally declared his love for her in front of the entire Slytherin table during the first breakfast of the term, so a date is in order, we think. Emmeline still hides that she likes him so much, a bit, but she's really starting to show feelings. I think they'll make a cute couple'-This next part is in Daphne's handwriting,'' Astoria announced. "'Speaking of a cute couple, Hermione met this boy named Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff and they've been talking a lot. He's a fourth year, and he's Hannah's mentor in her house, and he's really handsome. Even Hermione thinks so-though she totally won't admit it-' and now it's Hermione again. 'Daphne exaggerates. He's very nice, and we've only had a handful of conversations. I'm afraid though that that's the end of the happy and light-hearted portion of our letter.'" Astoria frowned. "'On Halloween, we were going back to the dungeons after the feast, and we saw Potter and Ron Weasley in front of the carekeeper's petrified cat, and a message written in blood. It said that the Chamber of the Secrets has been opened and Enemies of the Heir beware.' What does that even mean?"
It was at that moment, as if on cue, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy came bursting into the room, slightly disheveled from Floo travel and out of breath, Lucius clutching a letter.
"Lucius," Hyperion's voice was low, "What in Merlin's name is the Chamber of Secrets?"
Lucius collapsed onto the couch, his head in his hands. "Is it too much to ask for our children to be safe?" he let out a sigh. "The Chamber of Secrets was this story my father used to tell me as a child. It was this secret chamber built by Salazar Slytherin, with a monster inside and according to my father, it was to dispose of the 'filth'-as he called it-at Hogwarts. It was opened in his time at Hogwarts and a Muggle-born ended up being killed, before the attacks stopped. The Chamber could only be opened by the 'Heir of Slytherin'."
"That makes no sense," Selene's brow furrowed, "The Gaunts died out in the forties, did they not?"
"Wait a moment," Narcissa looked up sharply, "Didn't the Dark Lord claim to be descended from Slytherin? Could he have been a Gaunt?"
"I can look through the old yearbooks in the Hogwarts Library the next time there's a Governors meeting," Lucius suggested.
"We can also pay a visit to Little Hangleton, isn't that where the Gaunts used to live?" Hyperion asked.
"I'll come with you, and we can bring Sirius along, once we get him up to speed." Lucius replied. "We may need all the manpower we can get-the Gaunts were suspicious bastards, and I wouldn't put it past them to ward their house to high heaven."
"And what are Cissa and I to do?" Selene asked sharply, "Sit here and have tea while our children are in danger?"
"No-" Hyperion started to say before he was interrupted by Narcissa.
"We'll poke around in the Ministry and see what we can find, and see if there's anything suspicious in Knockturn Alley."
Lucius looked alarmed. "Cissy, are you sure-"
"Lucius, don't you ever forget that before I was ever a Malfoy, I was a Black. Selene and I can take care of ourselves."
"We know," Hyperion raised his hands, in a placating gesture, "We just want you to be out of harm's way."
Selene's eyes flashed. "Our children are in a castle where a monster is out for blood. Keep this up, and you'll be sleeping in one of the guest rooms for the next month. And Lucius, don't think that Narcissa would do any different."
The two men quickly stopped their protests.
"Is there anything that I can do?" Astoria asked innocently, swinging her legs. All of the adults turned around, remembering that they were not the only ones in the room. "I mean, I can go to Hogwarts and start trying to find the monster. Or I could-" she looked up to see the horrified faces around the room. "...Or I could stay home like a stupid old princess locked away in a boring old tower and miss out on all the cool stuff, as usual."