When they got off the train, Eddie looked at the address on the note from the Bringer of Balance - except, it wasn't an address. Instead, it was a list of directions to find a Portkey, which would take off at 9:00 p.m. Confused, he looked at the rest of the Fateful Eight, who just shrugged their shoulders.

"Well, it says, 'Upon entering the station, look for a West Ham jersey hanging up on the wall'. I guess that's the Portkey. Anyone familiar with Premier League soccer?" Sean started jumping excitedly up and down.

"Familiar with Premier League soccer? Of course, I'm a huge fan! A West Ham fan, in fact! My absolute favorite player is Mark Noble. He's been with West Ham since 2004, didn't you know?..."

He rambled on about West Ham for a solid five minutes before Claire shut him up.

"Honestly, Stephens."

"What, I'm Stephens now?" he protested.

"As long as you're annoying."

"Alright," said Eddie, grinning. "You two be quiet, now. Sean, go find that jersey."

Within the following five minutes, Sean located the jersey. He gathered the others around and they waited. Tom checked his watch. "Five till the hour... we've got time." In that time, however, they took necessary precautions to avoid suspicion, moving into a dark corner where they would be relatively hidden from passing Muggles.

At 8:59 they decided to start putting their hands on the Portkey and waited for several tense seconds before Sean spoke up.

"Oh I know who this jersey belongs to, he was my father's fav-"

"Stephens, shut it!"

Before Sean could retort, the Portkey took off in a whirlwind of color. Eddie felt the sharp, jerking sensation of something being pulled behind his navel, and they were off in a whirlwind of colors and flashing lights. Even if they'd wanted to remove their hands from the Portkey now, they couldn't. They were on their way to an unknown location, filled with great mystery.

They landed, very ungracefully, in a cozy woodland location. They looked around. They were surrounded by trees. Birds chirped in the distance, and far off, Eddie thought he could hear a stream of water, gently flowing. It was peaceful. It was perfect.

In front of them was a modest wood cabin. They weren't at all impressed by the size or appearance of the place. When they stepped inside, however, their jaws dropped.

The walls and floor were made of fine marble. Quite like the magnificent tent which housed the Weasleys during the Quidditch World Cup, but larger, with five stories of pure upper class. There was no way Eddie could possibly describe it - not in words, anyway. He stood shocked for a moment. He wondered if he was gliding away from reality, and stretched his arms out in disbelief, and gripped a nearby railing. The house, indeed, was real. He was slack-jawed for several seconds. Then, his stomach rumbled.

'Damn, I wish I had something to eat,' he thought. No sooner than the thought had popped in his head than a slice of the most tempting, aromatic pizza materialized in his hands. Tasting it, he felt sure that it was the most delicious thing he had eaten in his entire life. It was then he remembered what the Bringer had said, and he was glad that he had provided this feature.

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About a week later, Eddie decided to send owls to the rest of the Hufflepuffs in his year - those who had not the privilege of being a guest in the magical house of the Bringer - to invite them for a short stay. His eagerness to see his classmates again matched that of theirs to visit the enchanting place. Wayne, who was on a vacation in one of the sunny beaches of Italy, was the only one who had to decline the invite. He wrote back describing how badly he wished he was in England, being unable to bear the heat.

"Wow, Eddie!" Justin was the first to exclaim following their arrival. "How'd you get this?"

Eddie explained to him, with a good touch of the characteristic Hufflepuff modesty, that it was a token from the Bringer of Balance.

"... it was purely out of his niceness though; we're extremely lucky to have it." He blushed. "So… uh… what do you want to do?"

"What else?" Lily exclaimed. "What we've been doing! Explore, duh! We can show them the house!"

And so the group split. There were a lot of them, but the house was big - big enough where they were well enough off splitting into pairs. Eddie happened to be paired with Hannah.

Some time had passed before Eddie found a closet hidden behind some stairs. This closet was exceptionally odd, for it was wood, not stone or marble like the rest of the house. Raising a brow at Hannah, he asked:

"Whaddya reckon's in there?"

She shrugged. "Only one way to find out."

And she pushed open the door with a creak.

She had not taken many steps when the floor gave way. With a loud scream, Hannah fell halfway through the splintered wood. Eddie was utterly shocked for a moment, before his reflexes took control to grab her arm and pull her up with strength he never knew he had. Those few moments had left him to feel his heart pounding against his ribs.

Cautiously, then, the both of them leaned forward to inspect. All they could see, however, were the depths of darkness.

When they were both sitting safely on the brink of the hole, they caught their breath and peered. they could not, however, see what was down there.

"Th-thanks," she managed to say between breaths, receiving a smile from Eddie. "There's got to be something down there..."

"Yeah," Eddie panted. When he turned his head to look at her, he felt something change inside him, but he didn't know what. He shook it off.

"You wanna tell the others?"

"I don't see why not." She sighed and stood up.

"You okay?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah, I was just startled a bit." She smiled slightly. "C'mon, let's go show them."

Returning her grin, Eddie followed her out of the room.

"So... there's this giant hole... behind a wooden door... in a house made of marble." Tom was saying. "That seems a little bit fishy to me."

"Maybe the Bringer person made a mistake," Susan piped up.

They were gathered in the main hall after a lengthy rounding-up by Eddie and Hannah.

"Hm," Sean frowned. "I highly doubt it... maybe it's like... secret treasure?"

"Who knows?" Eddie shrugged.

"Maybe we'll find out... one day," Tom said. "But now I'm tired and I'd like to go to sleep. So maybe we'll handle this in the morning?"

The immediate priority was to arrange for all the Hufflepuffs to retire for the night. Eddie began thinking about this, when almost instantaneously, a door materialized to their left. Megan, being the nearest to the formerly blank wall, wrenched it open, and inside was a room spacious enough to fit all of them. Watching stunned for a second as the Hufflepuffs filed in, Eddie shook his head in awe and departed for his own bedroom.

The following morning, Eddie was woken up by a dousing of ice-cold water. Coming to his senses quickly, he squinted around in rage, trying to find the culprit. He then bellowed at the top of his lungs, waking everyone else in the house, "TURNER!"

It was then he realized that Nathan had not left the room, but was standing behind him holding an empty pitcher, snickering madly. He quickly ran once Eddie noticed him.

That moment of fun sufficed for their discovery of the giant hole to be shoved to the back of their minds.

The following morning, they saw the Hufflepuffs out, and were thanked by them graciously for their stay. Lost in thought for a moment, Eddie watched them go, until he realized he was the last one left on the front porch. Shaking his head, he walked back inside.

As the days were ticking down to September the first, they realized that they needed to go to Diagon Alley soon and try to stop Lucius Malfoy from giving Ginny Riddle's diary. For six days straight, they lurked around Flourish and Blotts and waited for any sign of the Weasleys or Malfoys. On the seventh day, Sean voiced his complaint that they might've been too late and that this wasn't worth it.

"No, I think it's very much worth it," Tom snapped. "Would you rather try and open the Chamber and fight the basilisk yourself?"

Sean shook his head.

"Good," Tom said. "So we keep at it then, all right?"

Fortunately for Sean, it was that very day that the Malfoys would make their visit.

Having already gotten their school supplies, they waited in Flourish and Blotts for the Malfoys, as usual, to arrive. As Lockhart's entourage arrived, the Fateful Eight squeezed against the shelves, to allow it to pass by. Soon after, Lucius Malfoy strolled into the shop, an air of dominance about him. Then, Arthur Weasley arrived too, with his family, and Eddie was ready. He stayed mostly in the shadows.

Then, Lucius noticed him.

"Ah. If it isn't Mr… Pattinson?" he asked and looked at Draco, who nodded. "Yes, Draco's told me all about you… and your parents. Where are they, incidentally?"

Eddie froze. The cold air that Lucius had brought into the shop seemed to freeze his brain for a moment.

"D-dead. They- They were killed in the New Salem riots of 1988," Eddie said, rather smoothly, he thought, given his nervousness; he was surprised at the efficiency with which he had come up with this lie.

"Ah. My condolences…" Lucius said, with no sympathy in his eyes. As he was doing so, Eddie noticed him slip the diary into Ginny's bag.

"Mr. Malfoy, may I ask you why you're slipping your book into that girl's bag?" Eddie asked, his heart racing.

"Ah, it must've slipped my hand," he said, with a cold look. "Apologies," he muttered to Ginny, in a tone that couldn't possibly have sounded less apologetic.

Ginny blinked. "That's all right."

Eddie thought he succeeded, but then Mr. Weasley stormed over.

"What were you putting into my daughter's bag, Lucius?" he asked angrily.

"As I have told Mr. Patson here-"

"Pattinson," Eddie corrected.

"-it was merely an accident."

And his tone turned colder, with a faint sneer.

"Perhaps you should get on with your shopping, Arthur. Though, I'm unsure if there's much left to buy nowadays with two Sickles... A pity. I was hoping the Ministry would pay you overtime, with all those raids, and... " He held up Ginny's tattered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, and spat. "Evidently, not."

At these words, Mr. Weasley forgot all dignity and charged at Mr. Malfoy. Eddie and the rest backed away, to give the two men space.

When the dust had cleared, Riddle's diary was laying on the floor, Mr. Weasley had a black eye, and Mr. Malfoy a swollen lip. Eddie spotted Ginny scoop the diary into her bag and leave. He held out a hand to stop her, but Lily stopped him.

"Leave it," she whispered in his ear. "There's no point now."

Eddie turned to Tom, looking stricken. "I guess the Chamber will be opened again after all."

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On September first, they all marched through the barrier, no problem.

'I guess Dobby doesn't care if we go back to Hogwarts or not,' Eddie thought and snorted. When they sat down, they immediately revised their plans to defeat the basilisk.

"How can we get into the Chamber? There's not a single Parselmouth at Hogwarts." Tom asked them.

"We can try," Claire offered. "Remember what Ron did?" She then attempted Parseltongue of her own. It was a raspy sort of voice.

"Another order of business," Eddie snapped, addressing the girls. "Please don't fawn over Lockhart, you four…"

"We won't…" Lily assured him. "We know he's a fraud."

Claire and Victoria raised their eyebrows and glared at him.

"Alright, just making sure…" He returned to his own thoughts.

'Can't wait for another year…' He thought longingly. It was, however, mixed with a sense of uneasiness and mild anxiety. He wondered what dangers he would face this time, and whether he would be lucky like he had been the year before.

When they arrived at the station, they clambered into the carriages. None of them could see it, but they knew that the carriages were being pulled by thestrals - invisible winged horses with skeletal bodies, which could only be seen if one had witnessed death. Gratefully, none of them had. They continued their fervent discussion about Ginny and the diary.

"I can sneak down to the first years' dorms and try to get it, seeing as I'm the only one who can," Natalie suggested. Sean had his head down deep in thought.

"What about you, Sean?" Eddie asked. "Got any ideas?"

"I say let it happen," Sean said, finally coming out of his reverie. "Easiest way to catch him."

"Are you crazy?" Natalie hissed. "Someone could die this time!"

"Listen," Sean snapped, breaking his loose attitude. "Sacrifices are essential to victory, something you clearly don't understand. Dumbledore knows this too, it is literally the plot of the series we're in right now!

"Alright, calm down, both of you." Eddie glared at them.

"All in favor of Sean's idea?"

Five of them raised their hands, with the exception of Lily, Natalie, and Victoria.

"Motion passed."