24

The Writing on the Wall

"Move, let me through! What are you looking at?" Emily watched as the caretaker Filch shoved his way through the crowd of students to see what had caused the commotion. His eyes fell upon his cat hanging from the torch causing him to stumble backwards in terror. "Mrs. Norris… my… my cat! What happened to you?" He started looking around wildly until his eyes fell on Emily who was still with Draco separated from the group of students. "You, you did this! You murdered Mrs. Norris! You killed my cat! I'll…"

At that moment Dumbledore arrived and called for Filch to be quiet. He was followed by a few of the other professors as they made their way through the crowd of students. Dumbledore approached the hanging cat, removing her from the torch before turning towards Filch. "Argus come with me," he then looked to Emily and Draco. "You two will come as well, Mr. Potter I believe you and your friends should also follow along."

Emily looked over and noticed for the first time her brother was slightly separated from the mass of students as well, she wondered if in her panicked state she had missed him following her and Draco.

Lockhart eager as always to be involved stepped forward. "My office is just upstairs, you are more than welcome to use it Headmaster."

Dumbledore thanked him and the crowd which had fallen silent made a path for all of them to pass. Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall joined them as they began moving away from the crowd towards Lockhart's office.

When they entered the office Dumbledore moved to Lockhart's desk while Professor McGonagall lit the candles around the room with a flick of her wand. As Dumbledore examined Mrs. Norris, Emily and Draco sat down in chairs along the wall. Professor Snape looked at them briefly before turning his attention back to Dumbledore. Harry and his friends remained close to Professor McGonagall clearly not comfortable with being asked to join the rest of the group. Dumbledore, for his part, was poking and prodding the frozen cat trying to see if he could understand if the cat was truly dead. Emily didn't think it was because it hadn't moved, it had remained frozen in the position it had been found in. If the animal were dead it should have gone completely limp but perhaps there was element to the magic the young witch wasn't aware of.

Lockhart wouldn't stop talking while everyone was waiting on Dumbledore to finish his examination, "It was clearly a curse… I'm thinking along the lines of Transmogrifian Torture… so unlucky I wasn't present to save her… I am very skilled with the countercurse you know…"

Emily looked over at Filch who had collapsed into a chair as his body was wracked with sobs. She felt bad for the man, slightly, as he had no one in this world other than the cat but she also felt he had brought that loneliness upon himself by his treatment of others.

Dumbledore began muttering what Emily thought were spells quietly as he pointed his wand at Mrs. Norris. There was no change, so Emily could only assume that the spells were having no effect on her. Lockhart had changed his tangent again, now talking about a village he had given people amulets of some sort to save them. Emily rolled her eyes at the man who obviously had not caught on that no one was taking his suggestions seriously nor cared to hear his stories.

Finally Dumbledore straightened himself addressing the room, "She is not dead." Filch started muttering, not understanding how his frozen cat could be anything but dead. "I am at a loss as to how it has happened, but your cat has been petrified, Argus."

"Just ask her how it happened," Filch said pointing to Emily.

Professor Snape took offense to that stepping forward leveling a glare at Filch, "Miss. Potter could not have done this, only very advanced Dark Magic could have had this affect. Miss. Potter is only in her second year or are you accusing her because she is in my House."

"But she had to have done it! It was her!" Filch cried. "She was closest to what was written on the wall, she's one of your snakes! Her brother saw my… he knows… he knows that I'm a squib! He told her!" He was pointing at Harry now, the young Gryffindor took a step back at the accusation looking up at his Head of House for help.

Emily looked at Draco and he slightly nodded his head. That answered their thoughts on the man that they had been wondering since Emily had noticed he didn't have a magical signature, he was indeed a squib.

"I promise you Mr. Filch I did not touch your cat and up until you just told me I was unaware that you were in fact a squib. I do not know what my brother saw but he has told me nothing," Emily calmly told the grief-stricken man as her brother nodded his head in agreement with her words.

"Like I'd believe you!" snapped Filch. "He saw the Kwikspell letter in my office! He told you! I want them punished!"

"I don't know what you are talking about!" Harry exclaimed looking at the crazed man with wide eyes.

"Calm yourself Argus!" Dumbledore said raising his voice slightly. "Professor Sprout has quite a few Mandrakes this year and when they have matured we can have a potion made that will bring Mrs. Norris back to an un-petrified state."

Hearing that, Lockhart immediately starting telling them how he could easily whip up the Draught himself having made it many times before.

Emily highly doubted the man had ever made it and if Mrs. Norris wasn't currently dead, she soon would be, drinking anything made by Lockhart's hands.

Severus quickly squashed Lockhart's offer with a sharp glare that made the man stop mid-sentence as he calmly informed the dunce that as the Potions Master he would be the only one brewing the potion. There was a tension in the air as Lockhart looked around for support but received none, after a few moments of quiet Severus offered to escort Emily and Draco to the dungeons before motioning them to quickly follow him from Lockhart's office.

It didn't take Emily or Draco long to notice they were not heading to the dorms but to Severus' quarters. Once they were in the sitting room the two Slytherins settled on the couch while Severus took his place in the chair by the fire.

"Why don't you start with why you were not at the feast," Severus said calmly though Emily knew he was anything but calm.

"We were invited to Sir Nicolas' five hundredth deathday party. We were there while the feast was being held. After his speech had been given we left and were heading to the kitchens to get dinner for ourselves when we ran into this mess. It was maybe two minutes tops from seeing the writing and the cat to everyone showing up."

Severus nodded, "You both need to eat then."

Severus called a house elf and ordered food for Emily and Draco. When the elf returned they were all quiet while Emily and Draco ate each going over the events of the night in their heads.

"What is the Chamber of Secrets?" Draco spoke breaking the silence.

"It is a long story that begins with a legend from the time of the founders," Severus quickly slipped into his teaching voice. "Over a thousand years ago four powerful beings joined together to build Hogwarts, you know them as Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. Together they built this castle and made sure to keep it far from the prying eyes of the muggles."

"We know this already Uncle Sev," Draco drawled before grabbing his side where Emily had nudged him. She knew Severus thought this was important and if they interrupted him too much he would most likely just send them to bed.

Severus smirked at the two before disregarding his Godson's comment and continuing. "They were able to get along and run the school for a few years but they began to fight amongst themselves. Now at this point in history it is important to note that the muggles were extremely against all things that they felt were supernatural in nature, as they must be evil. They hunted down those who they thought to be witches and wizards with the intent to kill them, holding no remorse for their killings. They didn't care the age of the person, the fact that they had magic was enough to condemn them in their eyes. Now as this was happening children that were being accepted by Hogwarts were being killed by their muggle families because they feared their children or at least the stain that child could have on their family reputation."

"Let me guess this is where the famous rift between Godric and Salazar occurs," Emily said.

"Yes, Godric felt they should still continue to invite children from muggle families as they had been but Salazar felt that they were spilling too much magical blood by not interfering. He wanted to remove the magical children from their muggle families as to protect them or to not invite them at all until they could guarantee the safety of the child."

"I can understand that and it is the better of the two ideas, better to protect the lives' of the children and remove them from their muggle families than trust them blindly not to kill a child from hate. Either way though, this is not the story that many people tell of their fight," Emily said softly thinking of her own past.

"The victor writes the history and Salazar left when he realized he wasn't going to win. The other founders watched as many magical children lost their lives just as Salazar had warned them."

"So they did nothing," Draco asked. "Even though he was right they watched as more magicals were killed?"

"They did."

"Doesn't that make them seem more callous towards muggleborns than Slytherin?"

"One would certainly come to that conclusion knowing the history though I'm sure the remaining founders would argue that it was a sad effect of the times that could not be stopped and that receiving your letter was a right they couldn't take away. People ever since have painted Salazar as a person who hated muggleborns and muggles alike. Yet in truth he hated what the muggles were willing to do, even to children, because they possessed something they did not understand. To hurt a magical child is one of the greatest crimes in our society. We are rare and our gifts are precious. We hold power not many can understand."

"So what does all this have to do with the Chamber of Secrets?" Draco asked.

"That is what I am about to tell you, each founder is said to have had a room in the castle that they designed and used often. It is said that Salazar Slytherin's was built under the castle and that none of the other founders were able to enter so they referred to it as the Chamber of Secrets. Legend says when he left the school he placed a monster into the chamber. The monster is said to only answer to Salazar's heir. It is unknown exactly why he would place a monster there but most say it was to purge the school of those he felt unfit to learn magic. I think it was to protect the school but there is no way to truly know. Many have searched for the chamber but no one has ever been able to find it."

All three occupants of the room were silent. Emily's mind was racing, she thought of her own childhood and how some muggles were still afraid of magic, enough so that they were willing to beat children because of it. She felt a bit of anger directed at the other founders willing to let children die and not remove them from their non-magical families. Emily thought about her brother who still insisted on going back to the Dursleys during the summer. She felt so lucky to have the Malfoys and Severus. Thinking about the Malfoys an idea came to her.

"Sev, is this what that elf Dobby was talking about?" she asked thinking back to the sad elf from her birthday. "Is the chamber being opened what he was warning us against?"

"It is possible, but we cannot be sure yet. I will talk to Lucius but in the meantime I expect both of you to be careful, is that understood?"

Both Emily and Draco nodded in understanding. "Now I think it is time both of you head to bed," Severus said standing from his chair.

Emily and Draco each hugged him and bid the man goodnight before leaving to go to their common room. When they arrived it was deserted allowing them to make their way to Draco's room without interruption. Both got dressed in their pajamas and climbed into bed.

"How are you feeling?" Draco asked knowing she was having thoughts of the Dursleys from the talk they just had.

"I've been better, I can't understand why they would risk children's lives just to leave them with family. Family doesn't always mean that one will be loved and accepted." The young witch had been given a harsh reality growing up and it was an example of how even in these times muggles still were not ready to accept what they couldn't understand. "They just sat back and watched as children were killed because why? I mean I understand some would have been taken out of good homes but wouldn't those parents rest easier knowing their child was with people who could protect them? They villainized a man who was trying to fix what he saw was wrong."

"Sev is right that Salazar's intentions were initially good, but I will admit it is well documented that he destroyed an entire muggle town towards the end of his life. He has been said to have taken pleasure in torturing some of the muggles who were unfortunate enough to cross his path. He played a part in his image, there was a hatred for muggles somewhere inside him, not necessarily for muggleborns but he held no love for muggles."

"Do you blame him?"

Draco pulled Emily into him rubbing her back, "I know you're upset but just remember you always have me. I am quite brilliant I'll have you know."

Emily smiled and lightly smacked Draco's chest, "You are so full of yourself."

"I am a Malfoy. We are gorgeous, astounding and very talented people."

Emily laughed, "Oh, you mustn't forget god like."

"Oh, you are very right, yes we are gods with golden hair." Emily couldn't stop laughing, she sat up grabbing one of the pillows and started to attack Draco. He quickly grabbed another one, a pillow fight quickly ensued. All thoughts of the chamber and Emily's childhood with the Dursleys were far from eithers mind as they laughed their way to exhaustion.

The next day Emily received the cold shoulder from anyone who wasn't a Slytherin. People who the witch knew to be muggleborns tended to keep a greater distance from her than others, some even turning around to run away from her. It didn't matter that Draco had been with her, they were all very willing to believe that she was in fact Salazar Slytherin's heir because she had been the Potter twin that was sorted into Slytherin.

"Em, just ignore them," Draco said.

"I am," Emily snapped at her friend.

"Well the scowl on your face says differently and is probably adding to their fear of you."

Emily shot a glare at her best friend but knowing he was probably right she took a deep breath before her face was back to a mask of indifference. As they were walking Emily noticed something odd. "Dray, why are the spiders fleeing the castle?" She pointed to a line of spiders trying to escape out an open window.

"That's strange I have never seen spiders behave like that before," Draco said taking a closer look.

"Huh, well let's ponder this later then, I'm hungry and if I don't eat soon I am going to start hexing people." Emily grabbed the boy's arm dragging him away from where he was watching the spiders.

After a long day in the castle Emily was extremely thankful to be a Slytherin that night because while all the other Houses saw fit to stay away and whisper about her, she at least could find normalcy amongst her Housemates. Sitting in her favorite chair by the fire not one Snake moved away or acted as if anything had changed and for that Emily couldn't help the small smirk on her face as she continued to read her latest book.