Author's note: As promised, here's the next chapter up in quick succession to help compensate for the extended wait on the last one. And with this, we've reached the end of the second book. Pretty amazing. (Also, I can already tell you that third year should be lots of fun; although, not so fun for Snape, since he is very unhappy when Dumbledore informs him that the new DADA teacher is Remus Lupin. He's not so thrilled about the whole Sirius-Black-on-the-loose thing, either.) I hope that you enjoy this chapter. Please review!

Warnings: Swearing

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

One Mystery Solved

There had been mixed reactions when Severus made the announcement of the school's impending closure to his snakes. Some, like Draco, looked as though they were enjoying the pandemonium; others looked as upset as one might expect them to look. The divide in opinions between those from Dark families and those from Lighter families had existed when Severus was a student in Slytherin House. Some things never changed.

After giving the students strict instructions not to leave the common room and entrusting the younger ones to the care of the Perfects, Severus had retreated to his office, where he was greeted by a letter.

Dear Severus,

I hear that Hogwarts is closing in the morning—a pity, that. It was Arthur Weasley's daughter who was killed, yes? Ah well, I daresay that the Weasleys have enough children to go around. That aside, the obvious solution would be to expel all of the Mudbloods, and perhaps the half-bloods as well, just to be safe; there would be no need to close the school if the problematic students were simply removed. But those muggle-loving, Light-side colleagues of yours have never demonstrated much sense, have they? I really don't know how you stand it. The other governors give me similar headaches, although they do respond quite quickly if presented with a particularly persuasive argument.

Why don't you come over to the Manor some time? Cissa is itching to play hostess again, and with no exams to proctor, you should be able to fit it into your schedule.

Sincerely,

Lucius Malfoy

Severus had angrily shoved the page in a drawer, to be dealt with at some point in the unfortunately-near future. None of the contents was shocking or new coming from his former friend—the use of the offensive name, the comments about the Weasleys and half-bloods, the implication that he had been blackmailing the other governors—but Severus didn't have the patience for it right then.

After that, he'd spent the majority of the day in his private lab, finishing up the Mandrake juice potion and sending it off to be delivered to Poppy via house elf, and proceeding to brew just to blow off some steam. He was tidying up when a silvery phoenix Patronus appeared before him, surprising him so much that he accidentally dropped a tin of dried clover.

"Come to my office, Severus. There is much to be discussed."

"Severus, my boy! Sherbet lemon?"

Despite scowling, he couldn't help feeling relieved at the sight of the old Headmaster. "No. When did you get back?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "A few hours ago," he said merrily, "after all governors but one sent me frantic owls requesting that I return."

Severus could guess which governor was the exception.

"They had some very interesting things to say," Dumbledore continued. "Seems Lucius Malfoy threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to my suspension—as a matter of fact, I recently got a visit from Mister Malfoy. He was rather peeved and stormed off after being found out on a couple of, ah, indiscretions."

Severus hoped that he wouldn't be getting a letter about this.

"A couple of indiscretions?"

"Yes, apparently he gave Ginny Weasley a cursed diary, which then possessed her and caused her to open the Chamber of Secrets."

There was a pause, during which Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. It was too late to be dealing with revelations like this.

"Voldemort had stored the memory of his adolescent self in the artifact and enchanted it to write back to whomever wrote in it. It was through Miss Weasley that he managed to open the Chamber and set free the Basilisk within."

"And what," said Severus with his eyes still closed, "has been done with this information?"

"Oh, Harry has already slayed the Basilisk, destroyed the diary, and rescued Miss Weasley."

While Severus doubted that the story was so simple, he also doubted that he'd get more details. This was Albus Dumbledore, after all, and getting information out of Dumbledore was like trying to wring water from a rock.

"Potter. Of course. A year is not complete unless Potter has pulled at least one of his crazy stunts."

He wondered if there was any point in trying to protect the boy when the dunderhead went looking for heroic danger, as if being the bloody Boy Who Lived wasn't impressive enough for him, as if he really needed more attention.

"His 'crazy stunts' seem to be rather successful."

"That is thanks to sheer dumb luck, Albus, and let's not forget the incident with the flying car just yet. I suppose you've rewarded his idiocy."

"Two-hundred points each to Harry and Ronald Weasley and an award for special services to the school seemed appropriate."

"Fucking hell!"

"Language, Severus."

The Headmaster's continued approval was just going to reinforce the boy's inflated sense of self, which wasn't something that Potter particularly needed. He was already big-headed enough. Just like his father.

"You do realize that you're just enabling him? I understand that most children get into mischief, but this goes far beyond that. Potter thinks he's capable of facing off incarnations of the fucking Dark Lord, for goodness' sake. He is twelve, Dumbledore, and has as much self-preservation as a tadpole. If you're going to encourage him in this, I don't even see the point in keeping an eye on him. In fact-"

"Oh, before I forget," Dumbledore interrupted the younger man's rant, "there's some more news that I daresay you may rather enjoy hearing."

"What?" Severus asked suspiciously.

"Gilderoy is in St. Mungo's. He was hit by his own backfired memory charm and doesn't have a clue who he is."

Severus blinked. Then, after the initial surprise had worn off, he bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. Speaking of inflated self-esteem, Lockhart had certainly had that and more. It seemed a nasty twist of fate that he should forget who he was and what he claimed to be.

"Harry and Ronald went to him when they figured out the truth about the Chamber."

They miraculously had the sense to go to an adult, but they chose that adult. Good grief.

"It seems that Gilderoy made his fame off Obliviating witches and wizards and taking their stories for his own. Unfortunately, when he went to do the same to our two young Gryffindors, he made the mistake of using Ronald's broken wand, which had its own ideas."

"Yet again your talent for picking Defence teachers shines through," Severus sneered, although he wasn't about to complain. It served the annoying bastard right.

The feast held to celebrate the resolution of the Chamber of Secrets debacle was possibly one of the noisiest feasts that Severus had ever been to. Gryffindor won the House Cup again, to his irritation, and Minerva stood up to announce that exams had been cancelled as a 'treat,' which was entirely unnecessary, in Severus's opinion. The only good part of the entire night was Dumbledore informing everybody of Lockhart's forced resignation. A big cheer went up at that. Some of the faculty even joined in.

Severus did receive another letter from Lucius, who was outraged at having been caught out and sacked from the Board of Governors, and Draco seemed to be sulking on his father's behalf; but besides this, the remainder of the term passed peacefully. It was much nicer without a Basilisk roaming the halls and Petrifying people. It was also much nicer without Lockhart.

After the children had boarded the train to go home for the summer, Severus had pestered Dumbledore for more information about what went down in the Chamber, but the other wizard had said precious little. Another question that Severus was itching to find an answer to was why Lucius had the cursed diary in his possession in the first place; however, it was definitely a bad idea to approach Lucius about it. Not only would it be a difficult conversation to navigate, but with the blonde aristocrat in such a foul mood, Severus thought he might just find himself on the wrong end of Lucius's wand.

So the most information that Severus got was that Dumbledore's sources told him the Dark Lord was hiding in the forests of Albania.

Hiding in Albania. Clearly, the Dark Lord wasn't hidden enough, if he was infiltrating Hogwarts two years in a row. Severus hoped that this wouldn't become a trend, but he knew the fact that it had happened at all didn't bode well for the years to come.