Chapter 15: A History of Manipulation
(No POV)
"C'mon, Lee, keep up!" Two ginger-haired boys whispered back to their friend as they slipped out from behind a tapestry and into the main corridor. Pulling out and unfolding a massive piece of parchment, they looked across the page before moving forward.
"We need to wait for that hall to clear before we set up," George reasoned, pointing at the image of one of the corridors on the parchment, name banners and footprint markings moving along the page.
"Well, then we need to find somewhere close enough to wait them out!" Fred said, grinning to the others. His eyes scanned the page, searching along the unseen walkways and hidden passages for somewhere they could prepare for their next big prank. Searching the parchment for the perfect spot, his eyes caught on something.
"Look, there's Rose there," he pointed out, watching as her inky-footprint marks walked along an empty corridor outside what appeared to be the hospital wing.
"What's she doing comin' out of the hospital wing?" Lee asked. Fred and George shared a look before glancing back down at their new friend's path.
She wasn't quite right after the message on the wall last night, George thought.
She was terrified, Fred thought, making note of her location on the map, Unexpectedly so… Almost like… Folding the parchment in his hand, he quickly tapped it with his wand.
"Mischief managed," he whispered, stuffing the paper into his pocket as the map began quickly disappearing. Lee looked at the twins, confusion in his eyes.
"Why'd you put the map away?" he asked. Fred smirked over at the two, George quickly catching on and grinning back. They then started heading back around the tapestry, and down a different tunnel than the one they had emerged from. Lee jumped at their sudden change, before rushing to follow behind them, "Where are we going? Wait for me!"
(Rosie POV)
I had been standing outside of the hospital wing for a while now, much longer than I had originally planned, trying to think of where to start on a plan to getting the diary back.
I'm going to have to follow her throughout her whole schedule until I can fix this… I thought, leaning against the brick wall and staring blankly at the hospital wing doors, I have almost all of my classes with her, but I don't see her for an hour on Tuesdays, and she doesn't even sit with me during class anymore… And the longer she has the diary, the worse it's going to get... I sighed, sinking further against the stonework.
"What am I going to do?" I whispered.
"Do about what?" I jumped, knocking my head back against the stone wall. I held the back of my head, flinching in pain as I looked up to see the twins and Lee looking down at me, wincing.
"I'm starting to think I might be safer with less mischievous friends…" I muttered, taking Lee's offered hand and standing carefully.
"We saw you comin' out of the hospital wing," George said, rubbing the back of his neck with a sheepish grin, "Thought we'd see if you're alright."
"Instead, it seems you might have to head back in," Fred adds, poking the new bump on the back of my skull almost gently. I swatted his arm.
"I'm fine," I said, then paused, "Wait, saw me? How? No one else was in the corridor?" The three of them shared a glance, then looked back at me with a simple smirk.
"You have your secrets," Fred said.
"And we have ours," George finished. I stared at them for a moment, brows furrowed.
They must be talking about the Marauders Map, I thought, But what secrets of mine do they mean? How much do they know I'm lying about? Instead of letting myself spiral down that train of thought, I focused on making a straight face and nodded.
"Fair enough," I said, "Anyways, I wasn't here for myself in the first place. I was asking Madame Pomfrey about Willow."
"Why are you asking about her?" Lee asked, "Is she sick? Flu's been bad this year." I shrugged.
"I guess, but…" I paused. Careful of your words… "She hasn't really been talking to any of us lately, and I was hoping maybe whatever was wrong was causing it, but now…"
"How long's she been avoiding you?" George asked.
"Since tryouts," I sighed, "She told me that's not why, but it's all I have to go on. She wasn't very happy when I said I was planning on trying out."
"Oi, don't worry so much about it," Fred said, throwing an arm around my shoulders, "If she's being a git over somethin' like that, that's her problem. She'll get over it eventually." I smiled a little, nudging him with my shoulder.
"I suppose," I said, looking up, "Although I would like to make sure she's actually getting better. If you guys see her, think you could make sure she's not pushing herself too hard? She has been really sick."
"Don't see a problem with that," George shrugged, "Sure, we'll help you spy on your friend."
"Spying would imply that she's 'up to something'," I argue as they guide me back down the corridor and away from the infirmary, "It's not spying, it's monitoring."
"Yes, because that's better!" Fred laughed. I shoved his arm off of me and ran ahead laughing, the other three chasing after me.
The next few days of classes were not nearly as focused on our lessons as they should have been; everywhere you looked, students were grouped up together, whispering.
"What'dya think's in this Chamber?"
"Who could've opened it?"
"D'ya think whatever got Mrs. Norris will come after us?"
"It's got to be some stupid prank," Zacharias sneered to the rest of the Hufflepuff table at breakfast on Tuesday morning, "Bet you anything it's those Weasleys' idea 一 those two have no taste!"
"Fred and George are neither that tactless nor that desperate," I snapped back, holding back the urge to hex him into next week, "You, on the other hand, appear to be both, given your obvious attempts to draw our attention your way."
"No one asked you, McIntosh."
"And no one asked you either, Smith!" Tammy exclaimed, slamming her fork down on the table. The noise quieted down a bit, people turning to look at our end from the sudden outburst. Tammy blushed, slouching a bit.
"Besides," I continued, "I highly doubt the professors would be taking it this seriously if it was just 'some stupid prank'. Professor Dumbledore's been looking into the matter with the utmost care and caution, and nothing's changed yet. A prank would've been solved much quicker, don't you think?" I stared him down, watching as his cheeks puffed out and turned red in anger. He threw his fork onto his plate and stood up, stomping away from the table and out of the Great Hall.
"He certainly didn't care for that," Max muttered, still chewing her bacon. I just shook my head, pushing the remains of my eggs around on the plate.
"I don't think I have the capacity to care, frankly," I responded. I pushed my plate away, leaning my chin on my hand to stare at my friends.
"This 'chamber' business is concerning, though," Tammy whispers, leaning closer to the center of the table.
"I heard some of the second years got Binns to explain it to them in class," Max said, shoving more food into her mouth.
"Think we could get the same explanation?" I asked, looking between the two of them. It was a long shot, but some part of me hoped that Professor Binns might know more about the Chamber of Secrets than any of the books I'd searched for information.
"'Dunno, McIntosh," Max shrugged, "Why don'tcha ask him yourself?" I started, staring at the redhead.
"Me? Why me?"
"Because it was your idea," she wiped her chin on her cloak sleeve, then got up from the table, "And because I don't want to." I rolled my eyes, taking a few more bites and downing my pumpkin juice before getting up myself and following her and Tammy out of the hall.
We spent our morning break in the library, finishing our papers comparing the European witch hunts of the middle ages and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 一 something I knew more about than I expected, thanks to previous history lessons in my muggle life no doubt. I also made one more search around the library, looking for any clues at all regarding Salazar Slytherin, the chamber, or even any news articles regarding the last time the chamber opened half a century before; I ran out of time before actually finding anything, though I did discover the library's location of previous Daily Prophet papers over the years.
Better than nothing, I guess...Marking the location in my memory, I hurried with the others to History of Magic.
I took a seat at the front of the room, waiting anxiously for Professor Binns to arrive and start the day's lecture.
He wasn't very happy about answering all of the questions about the chamber last time… I thought to myself, remembering not only reading about his blow-up on the second-year class, but also hearing the students talk about it in the halls following the class, I know the legend part of the story, at least. Hopefully, I can at least get him to discuss more of the facts… Professor Binns chose then to phase through the wall at the front of the class and attempt to begin the lecture.
"Today," he droned, not even greeting us before the lecture, "We will be discussing more about the history of the Salem Witch Trials in America, and how they differed from the classic Witch Hunts of the early 16th century." As he paused for a breath 一 he's dead, why would he need to breathe? 一 I quickly raised my hand. He paused, looking at me in mild shock. "Uh, yes, miss..?"
"McIntosh, sir," I answered, sitting up straighter as I felt my classmates' eyes turned toward me, "I was wondering, before we begin today's lesson, if we could maybe discuss… what happened on Halloween?"
"On Halloween, Miss McIntosh?" he asked. He must not have heard.
"The message on the wall, saying that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened?" Professor Binns sighed, shaking his head in mild irritation.
"I only deal in factual information regarding magical history," he responded, attempting to turn back around to start the lecture again, "I'll not have the lesson overtaken by a discussion of some fantastical fairytale about some legendary chamber that has not been proven to exist!"
"And I understand that, Professor," I said quickly, trying to keep the conversation going as long as possible, "And frankly, the legend isn't the part I'm interested in. I think we've all figured out the legend at this point, sir 一 nearly everyone in the school's read the two-paragraph description of it in Hogwarts: A History 一 but I'm personally more interested in how the real story affects us!"
"Miss Mcintyre, please一"
"Legends don't come from nothing, sir," I said, hearing as the class suddenly got very quiet, "Whatever the current story is, it had to start somewhere, with something very real."
"Legends are more based in fact than in fiction, Professor," Tammy added, a hopeful look in her eye. By now, nearly every student was on the edge of their seats, waiting to see what Binns would do. The ghostly professor just stared for a moment, seeing just how enraptured we were at the possibility of learning more about this mystery, and then sighed, sagging lower until his feet nearly phased through the floor. He shook his head, looking somehow more exhausted than any dead man had a right to.
"I give up," he whispered, looking back up to the excitement that filled the room, "Can't understand for the life of me why you all are so enticed by this myth all of a sudden." He faced us, a mild glare on his face, "So what is it, exactly, that you lot are so desperate to know?" I looked around at my classmates, watching them shrug in return. Max didn't say anything, and gestured for me to continue.
And I guess it's up to me… I looked back over to Professor Binns and cleared my throat. Never thought we'd manage to actually get him to talk about it…
"Well, it's like I said, sir," I hesitated, trying to word my question right without exposing any of my true knowledge, "every legend has its start somewhere in truth. Knowing what we know about the legend itself, what historical events and information about the founders can we pull to get a clue as to how this legend became what it is now?" Binns heaved another sigh 一 an impressive feat for someone who no longer needed to breathe 一 and faced the class.
"Well, as I'm sure many of you are aware by now, Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. Now, while the first three founders coexisted quite harmoniously, Salazar Slytherin had vastly different ideas and opinions regarding the school and its students." He paused for a moment, still mildly shocked from the attention he was now receiving.
"Slytherin was of the mindset that magical learning was meant only for those who came from all-magic families 一 in other words, purebloods. He argued that those whose blood was considered impure shouldn't be allowed to go and study at the school, and when the other founders disagreed, he decided to leave the school. Reliable historical sources tell us this much, but much of the rest has been obscured by the fanciful legend of this Chamber of Secrets.
"The story goes that, while the school was still being built, Slytherin built himself a secret chamber without the knowledge of the other founders. According to legend, before he left, he sealed the chamber so that it could only be opened by his own true heir when they arrived at the school. Only the heir would be able to open the chamber, unleash the horror within, and, by so doing, purge the school of all those who 一 in Slytherin's view 一 were unworthy to study magic."
"Muggleborns," Willow whispered. The class turned to look at her, seeing her staring down at her books, her face pale with a miserable expression. I frowned, worried, and turned back to Professor Binns.
"And this 'horror within' is often interpreted to mean some kind of monster, right?" I asked.
"Yes," Binns replied, still clearly exhausted by our class' train of thought, but slowly returning to his previous annoyed state, "One which only the one true heir of Slytherin is able to control."
"And there's never been any proof?" Tammy asked.
"Of course not," he sputtered, "The castle has been searched a multitude of times, and each search has turned up no evidence of any such chamber or beast of any kind."
"But the legend doesn't say that the 'horror within' is actually a monster," Vaisey, one of the Slytherin girls, added, "It just calls it a horror, no mention of beasts whatsoever."
"What evidence could there be to lead people to believe the horror is actually some kind of creature and not just a curse or poison or something?" I asked; by this point, most of the class had shifted around enough to address each other in the discussion, leaving Binns to float awkwardly at the front of the classroom.
"Slytherin's house mascot is a snake," another Slytherin 一 Higgs 一 added, "Maybe people thought the horror was some kind of snake?"
"But what kind of snake could possibly be powerful enough to go after muggleborns?" Tammy said, frowning.
"It's probably not any kind of monster at all," one of the Hufflepuff boys 一 Michael 一 reasoned, "It's probably just some kind of curse that attacks people who mess with the Chamber."
"And what kind of curse would go after a cat?" Max asked, incredulously. By this point, the class had dissolved into mild chaos, with everyone spouting some sort of half-baked theory or reasoning for why the legend is what it is now, and what the Chamber of Secrets could actually be holding within it today. I turned back around to look at Professor Binns, who 一 had he not been dead for at least several decades by now, if not centuries 一 could very well have been turning fuschia with frustration.
"Don't you know, O'Flaherty? Filch's a squib! Bloody thing probably was trying to go after him."
"And a right good job it did on that one, eh, Hopkins?" Max turned around backwards, glaring at Wayne 一 a smaller, brown-haired Hufflepuff boy.
"Even if it is some sort of creature," I tried to reason, calling out to try and bring attention back to the main discussion, "And even if it was after Filch, it got Mrs. Norris first. And now she's petrified. What kind of creature could possibly do that?"
"There's gorgons," Tammy offered, "But they're native to Greece. Bit hard to get them here."
"Not to mention no one's seen one since ancient times," Michael said, "And they don't live nearly long enough to survive locked up somewhere in a castle for a thousand years."
"Maybe a cockatrice?" Oliver, the third boy in our house, tried.
"Not nearly stealthy enough," one of the Slytherin boys said, "We'd have heard it coming all the way from the Great Hall."
"Basilisk?" Willow whispered. The class fell silent.
"...It is a type of snake…" Tammy said, looking unsure and slightly wary, "But it kills people when they look them in the eyes. There's no mention of一"
"That's enough." We all turned our attention back to the front of the room where Binns, still sagging somewhat, fixed us all with a hardened gaze. His voice nearly echoed, with a sort of calm, exhausted fury.
"But sir一"
"The Chamber of Secrets does not exist. There is no curse or creature or enchanted paperweight attacking anybody in this school, and certainly no basilisk; basilisk breeding was banned while the school was still being built, there's no chance any such creature would've survived all these centuries without being discovered. Now. You've all had your fun, and it is high time we returned to the lesson."
"Please, sir," I pleaded, "just one more question? I promise it's the last one." The ghost-professor looked at me, and sighed one last time.
"Fine, Miss Martin, just one." I sat up straighter, looking him in his translucent eyes.
"With how long this legend's been around, has anything like this ever happened before? Someone saying that the chamber's opened, and then someone getting petrified, or…?" Binns stared hard at me, before turning to the blackboard once more.
"There have been many mentions," he started, "Many attempted searches made over the years, by staff and student alike. But… there was one incidence..." It seemed as though the entire room had lost all air. I swallowed a heavy lump in my throat.
"...Incidence, sir?"
"Someone attempted to find the chamber, a number of years ago. Some of the students believed it had been found. And some of the students had indeed been petrified. These attacks happened a few times over the months of that year, but they slowed down near the spring; the staff believed the attacks to have finally ended, and began healing the afflicted quickly. Unfortunately, there was one final attack, and a student was killed."
Myrtle… The image of a younger Tom Riddle, as well as a certain pig-tailed ghost girl, flashed in my mind.
"Killed?" Willow gasped, looking suddenly more alert than I had ever seen her. Binns nodded.
"Did they ever find who did it?" Tammy asked.
"One of the school's best students discovered a dangerous creature being hidden by a fellow student. There was no evidence to suggest that the student was not responsible, nor that the creature did not perform the attacks."
"What happened?" Max asked, "To the student hiding the creature?" Binns turned back around, looking at us as if the answer was obvious.
"He was expelled."
"So there's really no way to know for sure if the Chamber of Secrets has been opened or not..." Tammy, Max, and I walked briskly out of the classroom at the end of the lesson, huddling close enough to continue our previous discussion before heading to our individual extracurricular lessons.
"Unless the person who opened it before came back somehow and started attacking people again," Max answered to Tammy.
"But Binns didn't tell us when those attacks happened," Tammy added, "It could've been centuries ago, for all we know!"
"There's gotta be an article about it," I said, stopping to look at them both, "No matter when it was, there's no way a student died here and the Daily Prophet didn't plaster it all over the front page."
"Isn't there a section of the library full of old Prophet articles?" Tammy asked. I nodded.
"In the back, by the window facing the lake. I'm gonna go looking through there about halfway through lunch to see if there's anything useful. I could always use the extra hands, if you both aren't busy." The two looked at each other for a moment, then looked back to me and nodded.
"It seems like that's our best shot at finding anything out at this point," Tammy said. Max shrugged.
"It's at least better than writing my potions essay…" I ignored my red-headed friend's comment, focusing on the task ahead.
"Then it's settled. We eat a quick lunch, then start immediately looking for any kind of article that might help figure out what exactly is going on at this mess of a school."
"Nothing like this ever happened back home, Ro?" Max asked.
"Not even close." With that, we split up, with the other two heading to Care of Magical Creatures with the promise to meet up in the Great Hall later. I stayed put for another moment, leaning against the cold stone wall.
I just need as much evidence as I can get… I thought to myself, With enough evidence, I can prove to Dumbledore what all is actually happening, and then I can just let him take care of it and enjoy being at Hogwarts. I need to get more evidence, and then I can keep Ginny and Willow safe… I stared up at the staircases ahead of me.
But first, to Ancient Runes...
A/N: I'm alive! And I finished a chapter before August! Sorry this took so long, I've been sick and exhausted and honestly just so overwhelmed with school. I'm in my final year of college at the moment, and will be starting my practicum/student teaching over the course of this next year for my education degree. I plan on at least starting the next chapter within the next few weeks, but unless a miracle happens, it will likely not be until almost November before I am able to post a full chapter again any time soon. However! I plan on the next few chapters to be more action-based than a bunch dialogue and background information - Quidditch is coming up soon, after all!
Anyways, I just wanted to thank you all for being so patient with me thus far, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter!
-H. E. Vaughn
