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November 1992

It turned out that they hadn't. And what was worse was that Hermione informed them that all the libraries copies of Hogwarts, A History were checked out. They weren't the only ones who wanted to know more about this Chamber business. Ascella even asked her Ravenclaw friends if they had one of the copies but apparently the older students had gotten a hold of them first.

"What we really need is an expert on history to just tell us what's going on," Hermione said into her porridge a few days later after informing them about her lack of progress in the library. Ascella sat up suddenly from where she'd been slumped on the table.

"'Mione! That's it! You are a genius!" Hermione crinkled her brow in confusion.

"Um, I am?" she asked dubious as she watched Ascella hastily pack her bag and rise from the table. Harry and Ron were looking at her with equal confusion.

"Yes!" Ascella exclaimed and grabbing a piece of toast from Harry's plate, rushed off with a quick, "I'll explain later!" and with a wave she was gone, leaving her friends staring after her, almost comical looks of confusion on their faces.

She soon caught up to Entwhistle and Morag on the way to History of Magic, her toast half finished. Adjusting her bag higher on her shoulder and throwing her blond hair over one shoulder she leaned into Aaron.

"I bet you Kev will be awake all class today," she said under her breath. Aaron turned to her stunned.

"Are you serious?" he asked incredulous.

"Dead serious," she replied with confidence. A smile slipped across Aaron's face.

"You're on."

Ascella and the other two sat in their usual back of the classroom seats and proceeded to not bother taking their parchment out as Morag and Ascella only ever used it for hangman or tic tac toe and Entwhistle was always asleep. About five minutes into the lecture Ascella grinned at Morag and primly raised her hand. Morag looked at her like she was crazy, even Entwhistle stared at her in sleepy surprise.

"Excuse me? Professor Binns?" Ascella said in a respectful tone she only used when she wanted something. Binns for his part stopped speaking about Goblin Wars and blinked at her.

"Yes, Miss McKinnon?" Ascella started, but managed to hide her surprise with a sweet smile as she lowered her hand. She didn't want to think about why he thought she was her mother.

"Professor, I was just wondering what you could tell us about the Chamber of Secrets?" The entire class sat up straighter, their focus suddenly riveted on Professor Binns, even the Slytherin's. Ascella did note though that Malfoy merely leaned back looking smug, as if he knew all he needed to know about the Chamber. Ascella bet it was all for show; unless he was the Heir of Slytherin then surely he couldn't know everything.

"Why it's just a myth. Absolute nonsense!" Binns dismissed her question with a touch of derision.

"But Professor, surely some of it is based in fact? And seeing as someone claims it to have been opened, don't you think it could be worth our while to learn more about it. Legend or otherwise. Surely, you must agree that there is some truth that can be learned from legends?" Ascella went on in her most persuasive voice. Ascella could be very convincing when she wanted to be. It probably helped her case that her fellow Ravenclaws were practically on the edge of their seats in anticipation for what Binns could tell them, and Ascella could see Binns was beginning to relent at their attention. Enwhistle in particular looked to be the furthest from sleep he had ever been in History of Magic.

"Well, yes I suppose it wouldn't hurt to explain a little bit. I suppose I need to begin with the founding of the school. Yes. You see Hogwarts was founded by four friends; Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salzar Slytherin. The four of them started this school to teach magic to young witches and wizards. It is from them who we get our four houses. You see they all had students that they valued more, the ones that they wanted to teach. Slytherin, in particular, harnessed strong belief's that only those deemed 'pure-bloods' should be taught." Malfoy and his cronies snorted in laughter and agreement. Ascella shot him a nasty glare. Zabini caught her eyes as she turned from them. He looked as unemotional as ever.

"It was this more than anything that caused Slytherin to leave the school. It is also said that this was the cause of the years of house rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Now, is where we dive into legend. The legend is thus; when Slytherin left, he built a secret chamber in the castle, a chamber that housed a horrible monster. It is said that only the so called 'Heir of Slytherin' would be able to awaken the horror to take Slytherin's revenge."

"Revenge, sir?" Anthony Goldstein asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"Isn't it obvious," Malfoy sneered at Goldstein. "Slytherin only wanted purebloods. Better watch out Entwhistle." Malfoy shot a smug smile at Kevin. Kevin paled but still managed a rude gesture in response, out of sight of Binns, not that Binns was likely to have noticed anyway even with the class paying so much attention to his words. Ascella was proud of him; she knew how the "mudblood" comment from the night before had unnerved him.

"Yes, Mr. Crabcake is quite right," Binns continued, while Ascella and her friends choked on laughter. Malfoy's face lost some of its haughtiness at being called Crabcake. "The legend is that the creature would attack those students who came from non-magical families, that is to say muggleborns."

"But sir, surely there is no creature that would only affect muggleborns?" Terry Boot asked.

"Of course there is no such creature," Binns scoffed. "The legend says that the creature would be controlled by the Heir. But of course the castle has been searched and no secret room has been discovered." But no one was listening anymore as furious chatter commenced, everyone turning to their friends and beginning to whisper about what kind of creature could possibly be in the alleged "Chamber of Secrets". Malfoy continued to look smug, while Zabini had turned back to his books.

Ascella surveyed Malfoy while Binns tried and failed to get the class back under control. "He knows something," she said with distaste.

"Most definitely," Aaron agreed an equally dark expression on his face. He hadn't taken to Malfoy threatening his best friend.

"At any rate," Ascella said evilly to Aaron. "I believe you owe me."

Aaron looked confused, then he cursed viciously while Ascella cackled.

Later, at lunch, Ascella explained to Harry, Ron and Hermione why she'd run off like she had at breakfast. She didn't have enough time to tell them exactly what Binns had shared with her class in the morning but she did tell Hermione to ask Binns for the explanation.

"Oh that was a good idea! Why didn't I think of that?" Hermione had asked when Ascella had suggested it.

"You sort of did 'Mione," Ascella had assured her friend. "It was only because of you that I got the idea in the first place." At the end of lunch they decided to meet back at the scene of Mrs. Norris's petrification after all of their afternoon lessons were finished.

"You know, I've been hearing the strangest rumors today," Ascella mused to Harry and the others when she met up with them.

"Oh really," Harry said his eyes trained on the floor, his bag sitting on the floor behind him.

"Yeah," she continued, looking at him, while Hermione walked away from them searching for clues as well. "People are suggesting you are the Heir of Slytherin." Ascella snorted and laughed at the absurd idea, expecting Harry to join in. Instead he grimaced, his eyes briefly flicking to hers before looking back to floor.

"Well, that would explain why Justin Finch-Fletchley ran away from me at lunch," Harry replied miserably.

"Ugh," Ascella sneered, thinking distastefully of the Hufflepuff. "Don't worry Harry, Finch-Fletchley was always too gullible anyway."

"People here are idiots," Ron added in support of his friend.

"Seriously," Ascella agreed. "So what are we looking for?" she asked hoping to change the subject and distract Harry.

Harry crouched down to look closer and shaking his head said, "I don't know exactly. Just something that might make this make more sense. Look here -" he said pointing out black streaks on the stone floor. "Scorch marks!" Ascella bent to look closer when both of their attentions were drawn away by Hermione who'd noticed something by the window next to the wall the words were written on.

Hermione pointed to the upper window where a cluster of spiders were seemingly trying to fight there way outside through a small crack in the wall.

"Ever seen spiders act like that?" Hermione asked curious.

Ascella and Harry replied they hadn't. When they turned to ask Ron, they found him standing well away from them, a look of utmost terror on his face.

Ascella wanted to laugh but Harry asked him what was wrong. When he admitted he didn't like live spiders because of "the way they move..." Ascella couldn't help but let out a shout of laughter. She wasn't the only one as Hermione began giggling as well.

"It's not funny!" Ron glared at them. "If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my - my teddy bear into a giant big filthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick... You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and..." He stopped talking and shuddered.

Ascella started laughing harder, while Hermione pointedly avoided her eyes and tried her best to curb her own laughter. Ascella made note to congratulate Fred on forever scaring his younger brother with a fear of spiders of all things. Ascella herself had always found spiders oddly fascinating, far from creepy.

Harry, being the peace keeper that he was though, quickly diffused the situation and reminded them about all the water that had been on the floor the night of the attack. He pointed out it had since been mopped up and wondered where it had come from.

Ron pointed out the door behind where the puddle had seemed to originate from. Ascella followed his gesture and groaned.

"What?" Harry asked, stepping closer to the door.

"I'm not going in there," she stated with finality.

"Why?" Harry asked. Hermione giggled again, realizing where the door led.

"Because it's Moaning Myrtle's toilet," she answered for Ascella a twinkle in her eye. "And Ascella refuses to go in there."

"Too right!" Ascella said, crossing her arms defiantly. "You lot go on ahead though," she added seeing Harry hesitant to go without her. "I'll wait here and keep guard or whatever." Harry nodded and followed Hermione into the lavatory, Ron following behind looking only mildly unsettled at entering a girls toilet.

Once the door had shut behind them, Ascella settled in to wait leaning casually against the wall under the red words that still shown, and began to survey the nails of her left hand.

She didn't even bother looking up when she heard a pair of feet marching with purpose down the corridor. Not even when those footsteps started and stopped not far from her.

"Bl-Black! What are you doing here?" the someone sputtered at her. Ascella looked up from under her eyelashes, looking ever so elegantly bored. It was Ron's older brother and prefect Percy Weasley.

"Not that it's any of your business Perce," Ascella started lazily, enjoying the way Percy's eyes widened giving him the air of looking a bit like a bug, "but I am standing here," she finished like it was obvious. Which it was. Percy's mouth shut with a snap, his chest puffing up. Ascella waited with a smirk on her face for what he would say then.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how one looked at it, that was when the other three of Ascella's friends walked out of Moaning Myrtle's toilet. Percy turned and stopped dead at the sight of his younger brother walking out of a girls lavatory. Ascella felt a strange desire to laugh but she figured she shouldn't push her luck and managed to hold it in.

She was almost done in by Ron's complete lack of caring that his brother had caught him coming out of a girls toilet, even though he himself had been hesitant to go in in the first place. Ascella watched as the two brothers commenced bickering after that, her mouth dropping in shock when Percy docked five points from Gryffindor before departing.

"Prat," Ascella breathed, her words directed at the back of Percy's retreating form. "I mean, I know prefects have the right to take points from their own house but I've never known one to actually do it, especially from ones own brother."

"Yeah, well that's Percy for you," Ron said darkly, his ears red. "Come on let's go to dinner," he added turning and walking away. The other three exchanged wide eyed looks and proceeded to follow him.

Ascella said good-bye to the trio at the Ravenclaw table telling Harry she'd promised to eat dinner with Padma and Terry Boot. He nodded and told her he'd see her later.

Later turned out to be the next day in Transfiguration, where they sat in the back of the classroom in their usual seats whispering furiously to each other. Harry was telling Ascella what Hermione had suggested the previous evening back in Gryffindor common room, a plan for how to get inside the Slytherin common room to find out if Malfoy had anything to do with the Chamber of Secrets.

"What? Polyjuice Potion?" Ascella hissed at him. "But there's no way a teacher would let second years check out a book with that recipe. It's really advanced and dangerous if brewed improperly."

"True but we have the two smartest witches in school helping to make it," Harry whispered back, grinning at her. Ascella preened.

"Well, of course," she said, knowing he meant her and Hermione. "But still, what teacher would be thick enough to sign off on checking out that book?"

Harry grinned at her. "Lockhart," he said simply. Ascella blinked. Then grinned back at him.

"Brilliant," she said knowing they had Defense later that day. It really was the perfect plan. Ascella had opened her mouth to tell Harry so when she felt more than saw McGonagall walk up to them.

"Potter. Black," she said looking between the two of them. Harry grimaced before joining Ascella in looking up at their stern Transfiguration professor, her hands on her hips.

"Since you are so inclined to talk Miss Black, would you care to tell me about how to properly transfigure small animals into inanimate objects such as water goblets."

"Well, of course Professor," Ascella said smoothly before proceeding on a long winded explanation about the best spells to use, naming more than the ones McG had yet taught them, and even going into detailed explanations about the mass to mass transfer that must occur to take it from one animal to the inanimate object and finishing with an explanation of how one's focus must change depending on what type of animal is chosen, for instance birds tend to be easier than mammals because of their less complex anatomy. And no, Ascella hadn't taken a single note throughout the entire class, but she had been reading about and transfiguring small animals into small objects for at least a year now.

When Ascella closed her mouth, finished, even McGonagall looked mildly impressed, even going so far as to award Ascella five points to Ravenclaw before walking briskly away.

"How do you do that?" Harry asked in awe, once McG was far enough away, her back to them.

"It's a gift," she replied airily, smiling satisfied.

Later, in Defense found Ascella and Ron leaning into each other trying, and failing, to not laugh at Harry, the werewolf. Ever since the first class with the Pixies, Lockhart had taken to reading from his books and acting out the scenes, and he loved to use Harry to help him. On this particular day Harry was a werewolf and to appease Lockhart he was doing a much more enthusiastic impression than he usually would normally have, much to the delight of Ascella and Ron in the back of the classroom. Hermione kept shooting them cold looks that did nothing to stop their laughter.

After, when Harry trudged back to them Ascella couldn't help but flutter her eyelashes at him and say, "Oh Harry, you were simply brilliant! Could you sign this spare bit of parchment here?"

"Shut it," Harry muttered flushing, while Ron and Ascella howled with laughter. "Look let's just get this over with," he added. And so they did, while Lockhart prattled on giving Harry advice for his upcoming Quidditch match against Slytherin the following day. Ascella tried, and failed, to not roll her eyes. But then they had the signature and they all proceeded to rush out of the room.

"I can't believe it," Harry said in the corridor, looking at the signature. "He didn't even so much as glance at what book we wanted."

Ascella snorted. "It's not like he'd even know what was in it anyway."

"Yeah, he's a brainless git," Ron added causing Hermione to defend Lockhart. Ascella just shook her head at her friend. For such a smart girl, she sure had her moments of stupidity, namely still thinking Lockhart was a genius.

They retrieved the book from Madam Pince with little hardship, other than Hermione wanting to keep Lockhart's signature for Merlin only knew why.

Then they dragged an unhappy Ascella into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Only the anticipation of getting a look at a book even Ted wouldn't have brought home from the Wizarding library for her to read, and the fact that she had to admit that it was rather a good idea to use the bathroom for the brewing, no one would bother them there, could get Ascella into that lavatory again. Luckily, Ascella found it easy to ignore Moaning Myrtle's crying once Hermione opened up the book.

"Wicked," she breathed looking at the drawings of people halfway through transformations before surveying the potion. She had to agree with Hermione when she said it was one of the most complicated potion she'd ever seen, but Ascella was still confident.

"The only problem I see is going to be getting the bits of whoever we want to turn into and all the ingredients we are going to have to steal," Ascella said still reading from the page. "Shredded skin of a boomslang is not in the students' cupboard. Probably in Snape's private stores though..." she trailed off, reading further down the page.

"Steal?" Harry cut in sounding worried. "From Snape's private stores? I don't know if this is a good idea." Hermione slammed the book shut, startling Ascella backwards, a breeze of musty page smell floating across her face.

While Ascella had been thinking only of the potion apparently Hermione had picked up on the other two's doubts about going through with this plan. But Hermione was soon able to convince Harry and Ron with a tenacity and ferocity Ascella was rather proud of, that there plan was worth the risks.

"Alright," Ascella said brightly, "now that that's settled I say we get out of here and on with the plan! In about a month we will have our answers!" The others agreed, Harry and Ron no doubt glad to get away from Hermione's intense gaze, and so the four of them exited the toilet and headed down to dinner.

The next day found Ascella sitting in the Quidditch stands with Ron and Hermione and the other Gryffindor's decked out in Gryffindor scarlet and gold, ribbons of it braided into her long blond hair, hoping the mugginess in the air held off on the rain until after the match.

"Boy, I hope this isn't a slaughter," Ascella commented.

Ron, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, and even Neville Longbottom turned to glare at her.

"What?" she held up her hands nonplussed. "Malfoy did happen to buy them all the top of the line brooms and even you guys have to admit that the Slytherin team is always at least decent, not to mention they play dirty." The glaring continued. "Obviously the Gryffindor players are better though!" she added.

That seemed to satisfy the boys and they turned back to the match that was just beginning, Finnigan mumbling a "Too right!"

Ascella turned to the game as well just as the whistle blew to start the game, only muttering a "sheesh!" to a nervous looking Hermione. She'd only wanted to point out that she hoped everything went well.

It soon became evident that no, everything was not going to go well. Not more than five minutes into the game and it became obvious one of the Bludgers was trying to kill Harry. It had quickly escalated to the point where neither Fred nor George could leave Harry's side without fear of the Bludger slamming into him.

Ascella was too concerned with what was going on with Harry that she almost missed the fact that Slytherin now led by sixty points to zero. Ascella swore.

"Slytherin clearly tampered with that Bludger, so they could take advantage of Harry and both the beaters being essentially out of the game completely," she said angrily. Ron nodded along, too angry to even speak, his ears growing red. Hermione meanwhile was chewing on her nails and mumbling about how she new a spell but it was too risky while the Bludger was in play. They were all on edge so much so that they didn't notice the fat heavy drops of rain that had begun to fall.

Finally, the Gryffindor team called a timeout. "Good," Ascella said. "Maybe they'll be able to come up with a way to end this game sooner rather than later and as safely as they can."

Unfortunately, it soon became evident that Harry had just told Fred and George to let him fend for himself which was indeed not the safe way Ascella had imagined. Then again she had to admit it did highlight Harry's flying skills, as he ducked, spun, dodged and even twirled around the pitch to both avoid the Bludger and search for the snitch.

And then Harry froze, looking towards Malfoy. Ascella saw what would happen the instant before it did. The Bludger slammed into Harry's arm. Ascella winced with the Gryffindor's, sure Harry's arm had just been broken. But then Harry dove towards Malfoy, who scrambled out of the way and then Harry made a mad grab for the Snitch, both hands off his broom, before he slammed into the ground throwing up a splash of mud, his one arm bent at a weird angle.

Ascella's hand went to her mouth and before she knew it she was moving through the crowd trying to get down to Harry before someone else did. She was too late though, as she saw Harry come to with Lockhart standing above him, with Creepy snapping away on his camera. Ascella was just glad that Fred and George had managed to somehow wrangle the rogue Bludger down and were now trying to get it away in the Quidditch box.

Ascella pushed her way through the crowd around Harry just as Lockhart performed a spell on Harry's arm. Her eyes widened in horror. It was clear whatever he'd been trying to do hadn't worked; he'd removed Harry's bones instead of healing them.

Ascella glared at him, even as he spotted her, Hermione and Ron and asked them to escort Harry up to the Hospital Wing.

"What a twit," Ascella ranted as they helped a slightly delirious Harry up to the Hospital Wing. To say Madam Pomfrey was displeased would be an understatement. She told Harry he'd have to stay the night and shoved a beakerful of a potion called Skele-Gro into his hand and instructed him to drink. Based on the face Harry made it didn't taste so good.

"Here's some water," Ascella said handing him a goblet full of water. He thanked her with a grateful smile before gulping it down.

Shortly after the Gryffindor Quidditch team came in laden down with sweets and bottles of pumpkin juice. George complimented Harry's flying and mentioned how Flint was yelling at Malfoy for having the Snitch on top of his head and not noticing it. Ascella grinned and laughed with Harry at that.

But it wasn't to last as Madam Pomfrey returned and shouted them all out of the Hospital Wing. They begrudgingly went, Ascella wishing Harry a good night as they went. Ascella bid her Gryffindor friends goodbye on the fifth floor as she'd spotted Padma and Sue Li down the corridor.

"I didn't know you were friends with the Weasley twins," Sue inquired curiously. Padma tried to hid a grin behind the girl but Ascella caught it. Ascella contained her own grin and shrugged.

"Eh, I wouldn't call us friends exactly. But yeah we are on speaking terms. I spent some days at Ron's place this summer playing Quidditch with them." Sue Li looked at her like this was her greatest dream come true. Ascella tried not to laugh. She knew a lot of girls had crushes on the Weasley twins but she'd never been one to idolize them. Besides she knew George had just started to date his long term friend Hufflepuff fourth year, Andreana Fawley, older sister to Gabriel who was in their year, and wasn't likely to not be dating the pretty brunette anytime soon. As for Fred, well Ascella had a feeling he liked a certain black haired chaser on the Gryffindor team, but he just wasn't ready to settle down yet. Ascella told Sue Li as much hoping to perhaps persuade the girl to give up her silly crush. It didn't appear to work, but Ascella figured she'd tried and she guessed maybe everyone needed a silly crush, no matter how off the radar the crusher was to the crush.

The next morning at breakfast Ascella, Ron, and Hermione overheard McGonagall telling Flitwick about the most recent attack, this one on Colin Creepy. They'd all exchanged wide eyed looks and grabbing a stack of toast each they made for Myrtle's toilet figuring they'd best get started on the Polyjuice Potion sooner rather than later.

Harry joined them around midmorning with some rather unsettling news to add. The Chamber had been opened before and Dobby had been the one behind the barrier in King's Cross and behind the rogue Bludger.

Ron and Hermione were more interested in the fact that the Chamber had been opened before but Ascella was more intrigued by the house elf.

"So let me get this straight," she said "The house elf thinks he's trying to help you? By basically trying to kill you?"

"Yeah," Harry answered. "I told you he doesn't seem like the sanest of creatures really. Keeps trying to injure himself whenever he says he's said too much." Ascella chuckled shaking her head, while Hermione looked sad before they continued to discuss the Chamber, with the bubbling of the Polyjuice Potion and Myrtle's faint sobs as background noise, all of them agreeing the sooner it was done the sooner they could get some answers.


a/n So just so you know Andreana Fawley is the other O/C I mentioned. She and her brother both exist in Ascella's world.