Author's Note:

Reviews and Comments: To WarMunger98: Thank you! Yes, there will be lots of Harry/Ginny moments to come, but they are not getting together any time soon. To E-Dett: Thank you! Harry will do his best to be there for Ginny and her family won't forget about her. I never thought they did in canon either, we just only see it through Harry's point of view. To Lost: Thank you for saying this is one of your favourite fanfics, but I am sorry to hear you want Sirius and Zee to break up. I like her and I plan on her sticking around. More stuff will be coming with Remus and Tonks and yes, I have a plan for year three. To Millie072: Sorry, I love Ginny and I completely disagree about her being a fangirl who is bland and uninteresting and with no personality Harry will be with Ginny in this fic. Sorry that you found the petrifying scene so boring, but you love this fic anyway so thanks, I think? To Guest: Thank you for saying you immediately fell in love with my story and with Zee. I do think she is perfect for Sirius and Althea wasn't. Thanks for loving the Remus and Dora.

To alix33: I'm sorry that you hate the Hinny ship and plan on skipping those parts. I don't understand why you would read a story that will be Harry and Ginny in the end, but to each their own. To ladyinwaiting2005: Thank you! I think Harry keeping an eye out for Ginny is a good thing and thanks for loving my Remus and Tonks. To Guest: A lot of people love Harry and Ginny, me included. I'm sorry that you see her as nothing more than obsessed fangirl. Ginny has not become Harry's responsibility. She's his friend and he wants to look after her. Sirius isn't pushing it on him. She certainly didn't deserve to be possessed because she was stupid. She's a child and I'm sorry you feel she is an awful person who is entirely to blame for everything. This makes me sad. To Guest: Thank you! I have only ever written Hinny stories so I don't understand why people think I will switch it up now either. To Guest: Harry is trying to help Neville overcome his fear of Snape and watching out for Ginny. He's a great friend.

I just wanted to say that the amount of animosity I have been getting in reviews and personal messages lately that have really gotten me down.

I love Hinny and I have always thought that they were perfect for each other which it states in my author profile. Every fanfic I have ever written is Harry and Ginny based. Ginny is everything Harry needs: Brave, smart, strong, and when she loves, it's with her whole heart. Now, when you first meet her, yes, she is an annoying eleven-year-old-fan-girl with a crush (hinted at in the first book) but we've all had embarrassing crush moments and the choices we make as children or young teens shouldn't be held against us for our whole lives. She grew up. She was smart and resourceful and was a great friend to Harry in ways that Ron and Hermione weren't — it was her who put him in his place in Order of the Phoenix when he needed it after Arthur's attack, it was Ginny who offered him the comfort that he didn't know he needed in Goblet of Fire over Easter, and it was Ginny who knew how much she loved him yet she still let him go off to war. She didn't question it, didn't ask him to stay, didn't beg to go with him, didn't cry her eyes out and make him feel guilty for leaving — she just let him go because she knew that it was what he had to do and she could only hope that he would not only come back alive, but decide to come back to her. They made no promises or guarantees to each other. Not to mention that Ginny Weasley is the last thing that Harry thinks about before he sacrifices himself for the greater good, it's her "blazing look" that is the last thing he thinks about before he dies.

If that's not love than I don't know what you people think love is.

Everyone is of course entitled to their own opinions — I read fanfics of every caliber: Harry & Ginny, Draco & Hermione, Ron & Hermione, Remus & Sirius, some Draco & Harry (But I do like Dramione better than Drarry) and many of them are truly excellent. But it is canon that Harry ends up with Ginny and as someone who has been reading Harry Potter for literally nineteen years (as of 2018) and had to wait for each book to be released with bated breath, it was something that I shipped then and I rejoiced in Half-Blood Prince when Harry finally realized that it was Ginny he wanted.

Harry and Ginny will not be getting together any time soon as it is only second year, but ultimately at the end of this story, they will be together. I'm sorry if some of you have a problem with that then I suggest you skip over those bits or pretend it's someone else or simply don't read it. Sending me angry direct messages or leaving negative reviews about why Ginny is a shit person is not going to change my mind. The main characters in this story are literally Harry, Sirius, Remus, and Ginny — this shouldn't be a surprise. This is what WILL be happening.

To those wonderful reviewers who have defended my work and made their annoyance known for the negativity, I thank you for it. I appreciate all of the support that you all have given me. Without those of you reading this, I would only be writing for myself (which I would of course still do) but having someone read your work and enjoy it is all that I ask.

Also, in this story — Harry is friends with Ginny, she's the first friend he ever made. Of course he's going to worry about her and want to protect her, don't we all do that for our friends?

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the lovely section from chapter nine of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, that belongs to the lovely JKR — I wanted to keep the story of the chamber mythology pretty much the same.

I know there's been a lot of repetition from the books, but bear with me, there are certain things that I believe are important and we are getting closer to veering off course.

Thank you very much for reading and please, please review!

Your reviews give me life! They give me inspiration! And they make me want to keep writing for more than just myself! Thank you!

CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO:

The One Where Binns Doesn't Put His Class To Sleep

For Almost Ten Whole Minutes

For a few days, the school could talk of little else but the attack on Mrs. Norris. Filch was being Filch, but he was even more miserable and even more antagonizing towards the students than usual. He spent his days yelling at students for smiling or laughing in the corridors. And in case anyone attempted to forget the attack, he kept pacing on the spot in front of the girl's bathroom and scrubbing vigorously at the wall to remove the message, but it had no effect.

The words still gleamed as brightly as ever on the stone.

Ginny seemed very disturbed by Mrs Norris's fate.

"But you haven't really got to know Mrs Norris," Ron told her bracingly. "Honestly, we're much better off without her." Ginny's lip trembled. "Stuff like this doesn't often happen at Hogwarts," Ron assured her. "They'll catch the maniac who did it and have him out of here in no time. I just hope that he's got time to petrify Filch before he's expelled. I'm only joking —" Ron added, hastily, as Ginny blanched.

Neville tried to explain to Harry that no one else had heard the voice. He asked Harry to describe it in more detail, what exactly had the voice said? But Harry couldn't explain it any better.

"Maybe you should talk to Sirius," Neville suggested.

Harry only nodded. He was only worried that Sirius might overreact when he heard the news. But he did agree with Neville on one thing, it had been two days since it happened and the last thing that Harry needed was for Sirius to hear it from someone else.

Not to mention that he had been putting it off due to the nasty finger shaped bruises around his throat. They had changed to a sickly yellow by now but they still didn't look great.

He went up to his bedroom, sitting on his bed after dinner to find a quiet spot and pulled out the mirror, saying Sirius' name.

The mirror shimmered like before and about thirty seconds later, Sirius' face appeared.

"Hey, Prongslet!" Sirius said with a smile. "What's going on?"

Harry sighed. "I have something to tell you, but you can't panic, all right?"

Sirius' eyebrow rose. "Harry, this is not how you keep me from panicking. Are you all right? Are you hurt in any way?"

"No! I'm fine!" Sirius simply stared at him and Harry sighed. "Filch's cat was attacked and a message was left in blood on the walls."

Harry quickly explained what had happened including the voice that no one else had heard.

Sirius listened intently, but he didn't interrupt. "The voice said kill?"

Harry nodded. "I heard it before."

"When?"

"When I was in detention with Lockhart."

"Why were you in detention, Harry?"

"No, from the car situation, I wasn't in detention again," he quickly added. "But Lockhart didn't hear it. I thought maybe that I was tired, but now Ron, Hermione, and Neville all think that I'm losing my mind. Neville thinks that I should have told Dumbledore, but Ron and Hermione say that hearing voices isn't a good sign."

"No," Sirius said in agreement. "It's not, but it is strange that only you can hear it."

Harry let out a long breath. "And everyone thinks that I hurt Filch's cat because I was found at the scene of the crime. Snape tried to get Dumbledore to kick me off the Quidditch team, but Auntie Minnie told him that was stupid because Mrs Norris wasn't attacked with a broomstick. I don't know what to think, Uncle Siri!"

"It will be all right, Harry," Sirius said. "I want to know if you hear this voice again, do you hear me? In the meantime, we'll just keep it between us for now. I'll talk to Minnie and get more details on this chamber thing. I have a meeting with the Board of Governors tonight and we'll discuss it then as well. I want to be kept informed, Prongslet."

Harry nodded. "Okay. I promise."

Sirius seemed to accept that. "I miss you. How's school otherwise?"

Harry shrugged. "The usual, I guess. Are you and Uncle Moony coming to my game next week?"

"Wouldn't miss it," Sirius said with a grin. "Tonks is off and she's going to come too."

"What about Zee?"

Sirius smiled. "She's in New Zealand at the moment."

"She travels a lot," Harry said.

"She does. You sure that you're all right?" Sirius asked.

Harry nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. Thanks for believing me."

Sirius smiled warmly. "Always. We never lie to each other, that's the rule, right?"

"Right," Harry said wth a grin.

"I love you. If I don't hear from you, I'll see you at the Quidditch match."

Harry grinned into the mirror. "Okay. Bye, Uncle Sirius."

"Wait!" Harry lifted an eyebrow and then gulped as he watched Sirius stare at him critically. "Move the mirror back to your neck, Prongslet."

Harry winced and Sirius stared at him. "It's nothing, Uncle Siri."

"If it's nothing then why are you hiding it from me? What did we just say about lying?"

Harry sighed and tipped the mirror down to show his godfather the ugly bruises. "Filch kind of lost it when he found me near Mrs Norris, I didn't want you to worry. I'm fine, I swear."

"Filch did that to you?" Sirius questioned.

His voice was deadly calm which worried Harry even more.

"He was scared, Uncle Siri! It was his cat that was attacked — and I'm fine honestly. Don't worry, Auntie Minnie checked me out. It doesn't even hurt." When Sirius didn't answer, Harry sighed. "Honestly, I'm fine. It was an accident. He didn't mean to hurt me."

Sirius nodded. "If he puts his hands on you again, I want to know, Harry."

"He won't," Harry insisted. "But I promise I'll tell you. I'm fine, honest."

Sirius sighed and nodded. "Okay. I love you."

"Bye, Uncle Siri."

"Bye," Sirius said as his face disappeared from the mirror.

Harry sighed as he put the mirror away. He did feel a little better now, but he was still no closer to knowing anything about the mysterious voice.

~ ASC ~

When the eagle owl flew into the kitchen the day after he spoke to Harry, Sirius had a feeling that he knew exactly what it was. There was no other reason why his cousin would be writing to him; at least no good reason that he could think of.

His fears were confirmed as he unfolded the parchment.

Sirius,

Papa died last night.

You are now the Head of the House of Black. Is everything still in affect from the last time we spoke?

Narcissa

Sirius sighed and dragged a hand through his hair. Cygnus Black had been suffering for years now. Sirius was surprised that he had lasted as long as he had if he was honest with himself. Everything was still the same with the estate. He hadn't touched any of it since they had discussed it at Malfoy Manor a few years ago. He would control the Black Estate until Harry and Draco were of age. But with Cygnus dying, it meant that Tonks was going to be inheriting quite a bit and she had no idea. He had kept it a secret from her only because Andromeda wanted nothing to do with the money.

He was going to have to tell Andy that her father had died. He knew that she would grieve him. That she may have lost him years ago, but the grief would still be there. She had loved him. He rubbed a hand over his face at the thought of it.

He finished his breakfast before he made his way to the Tonks cottage, kissing Andy's cheek when she opened the front door.

"Sirius! What a wonderful surprise!" Andromeda exclaimed, gesturing him to come inside. "How is Harry's second year going?"

Sirius grinned at her. "Better than the first, I suppose, though he and Ron did fly Arthur's car to Hogwarts."

Andromeda's mouth opened in horror. "That article in the Daily Prophet about the Muggles who saw a flying car?"

Sirius nodded. "Yup."

She laughed. "He is keeping you on your toes!"

"You can say that again," he said with a smile as he took a seat on the couch. "His first match of the season is next week so I have that to look forward to. Andy, we have to talk."

Andromeda merely sighed. "That's never the way that I want to start a conversation."

"It's about Cygnus… he died last night."

Andromeda stared at him for a moment, her mouth slightly open. And then a single tear slid down her cheek. "Oh."

Sirius moved to wrap an arm around her. "I know that you have mixed feelings, but I know you loved him once, maybe even still do."

Andromeda only nodded, letting him hold her close as she cried on his shoulder. "The funeral?"

"Aunt Druella will be arranging everything. Do you want to go?"

She nodded. "Yes."

Sirius kissed her forehead. "Then we'll go."

~ ASC ~

History of Magic was the dullest subject on their schedule. Not that it wasn't an interesting topic, but the way that it was taught made Harry want to claw his eyes out as he desperately wished that he was back in his sunroom, listening to Uncle Remus tell him stories.

Professor Binns was their only ghost teacher, and the most exciting thing that ever happened in his classes was his entering the room through the blackboard. Ancient and shrivelled, many people said that he hadn't noticed he was dead. He had simply got up to teach one day and left his body behind him in an armchair in front of the staff room fire; his routine had not varied in the slightest since.

Today was as boring as ever.

Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming around long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again. He had been speaking for half an hour when something happened that had never happened before.

Hermione put up her hand.

Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed. "Miss — er —?"

"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets," Hermione said in a clear voice.

Dean, who had been sitting with his mouth hanging open as he gazed out of the window, jerked out of his trance. Lavender's head came up off of her arms and Neville's elbow slipped off his desk as he woke suddenly from his nap.

Professor Binns blinked. "My subject is History of Magic," he said in his dry, wheezy voice. "I deal with facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends." He cleared his throat with a small noise like chalk slipping and continued, "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers —" he stuttered to a halt.

Hermione's hand was waving in the air again.

"Miss Grant?"

"Please, Sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?"

Professor Binns was looking at her in such amazement that Harry was sure no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead.

"Well," Professor Binns said slowly, "Yes, one could argue that, I suppose." He peered at Hermione as though he had never seen a student properly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational, even ludicrous tale —"

Everyone was staring at him, their interest peaked and eyes wide all desperately waiting to hear what he had to say. It must have been a first for him, Harry thought.

"Oh, very well," he said slowly. "Let me see… the Chamber of Secrets… You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago — the precise date is uncertain — by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution. For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."

"Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said stubbornly. "But these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing. Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."

There was unease in the air as everyone continued to watch him, hoping for more and the silence of their anticipation seemed to echo around the classroom.

Professor Binns looked faintly annoyed. "The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course! Naturally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many times, by the most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible."

Hermione's hand was back in the air. "Sir — what exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the Chamber?"

"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control," Professor Binns said in his dry, reedy voice.

The class exchanged nervous looks.

"I tell you, the thing does not exist!" Professor Binns insisted, shuffling his notes. "There is no Chamber and no monster."

"But, Sir," Seamus began, "If the Chamber can only be opened by Slytherin's true heir, no one else would be able to find it, would they?"

"Nonsense, O'Flaherty," Professor Binns said in an aggravated tone. "If a long succession of Hogwarts headmasters and headmistresses haven't found the thing —"

"But, Professor," Parvati Patil piped up, "You'd probably have to use Dark Magic to open it —"

"Just because a wizard doesn't use Dark Magic doesn't mean he can't, Miss Pennyfeather," Professor Binns snapped. "I repeat, if the likes of Dumbledore —"

"But maybe you've got to be related to Slytherin, so Dumbledore couldn't —" Dean began, but Professor Binns had had enough.

"That will do," he said sharply. "It is a myth! It does not exist! There is not a shred of evidence that Slytherin ever built so much as a secret broom cupboard! I regret telling you such a foolish story! We will return, if you please, to history, to solid, believable, verifiable fact!"

And within five minutes, the class had sunk back into its usual stupor.

"I always knew that Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loony," Ron told Harry, Hermione, and Neville as they fought their way through the teeming corridors at the end of the lesson to drop off their bags before dinner. "But I never knew that he started all this pureblood stuff. I wouldn't be in his house if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I'd've got back on the train straight home…"

Hermione nodded fervently, but Harry didn't say anything. His stomach had just dropped unpleasantly. He met Neville's gaze, grateful that his friend didn't say anything. He had never told Ron that the hat had wanted to put him in Slytherin, but he could only imagine the look of horror on Ron's face if he ever found out.

As they were shunted along in the throng, Colin Creevy went past. "Hiya, Harry!"

"Hullo, Colin," Harry said automatically. He was used to seeing the tiny boy around now and nothing gave him more of a thrill than saying hello to Harry.

"Harry — Harry — a boy in my class has been saying you're —" But Colin was so small he couldn't fight against the tide of people bearing him toward the Great Hall; they heard him squeak, "See you, Harry!" and he was gone.

"What's a boy in his class saying about you?" Hermione wondered.

"That I'm Slytherin's heir, I expect," Harry said.

After finding Mrs Norris and the message on the wall, everyone was staring and whispering about him.

"People here will believe anything," Ron said in disgust. The crowd thinned and they were able to climb the next staircase without difficulty. "Do you really think there's a Chamber of Secrets?" Ron asked Hermione.

"I don't know," she said, frowning. "Dumbledore couldn't cure Mrs. Norris, and that makes me think that whatever attacked her might not be — well — human."

"But how does a monster sneak around the school without anyone seeing it?" Neville wondered. "It doesn't make sense!"

Hermione nodded. "That's just it, Neville, how does it happen? And if it is a monster, why did Harry hear it speak?"

As she spoke, they turned a corner and found themselves at the end of the very corridor where the attack had happened. The four of them stopped, surprised to find it deserted, but the words were still rather ominously glaring from the wall.

"That's where Filch has been keeping guard," Ron muttered.

They looked at each other. The corridor was deserted.

"Can't hurt to have a poke around," Harry said, dropping his bag and getting on his hands and knees so that he could crawl along, searching for clues. "Scorch marks!" he said. "Here — and here —"

"Come and look at this!" Hermione said. "This is funny…"

Harry got up and crossed to the window next to the message on the wall. Hermione was pointing at the topmost pane, where around twenty spiders were scuttling, apparently fighting to get through a small crack. A long, silvery thread was dangling like a rope, as though they had all climbed it in their hurry to get outside.

"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" Hermione said, wonderingly.

"No," Harry said. "Have you, Neville? Ron? Ron?" He looked over his shoulder. Ron was standing well back and seemed to be fighting the impulse to run. "Sorry, mate, I forgot about the spider thing."

"Harry, don't you think this would qualify as looking for trouble," Neville added, watching his friend search for clues.

Harry grinned at Neville. "Probably, but there's no way Uncle Sirius wouldn't have done the exact same thing if he were here."

"True," Neville said with a grin as he too began to look around. "Remember all that water on the floor? Where did that come from?"

"It was about here," Ron said, recovering himself to walk a few paces past Filch's chair and pointing. "Level with this door." He reached for the brass doorknob but suddenly withdrew his hand as though he'd been burned.

"What's the matter?"

"Can't go in there," Ron said gruffly. "That's a girls' toilet."

"Oh, Ron, there won't be anyone in there except Moaning Myrtle," Hermione said, standing up and coming over.

It was the gloomiest, most depressing bathroom that Harry had ever set foot in. Under a large, cracked, and spotted mirror were a row of chipped sinks. The floor was damp and reflected the dull light given off by the stubs of a few candles, burning low in their holders; the wooden doors to the stalls were flaking and scratched and one of them was dangling off its hinges.

Hermione put her fingers to her lips and set off toward the end stall. When she reached it she said, "Hello, Myrtle, how are you?"

Moaning Myrtle was floating above the tank of the toilet, picking a spot on her chin. "This is a girls' bathroom," she said, eyeing Ron, Harry and Neville suspiciously. "They're not girls."

"No," Hermione agreed. "I just wanted to show them how er — nice it is in here." She waved vaguely at the dirty old mirror and the damp floor.

"Ask her if she saw anything," Harry mouthed at Hermione.

"What are you whispering?" Myrtle said, staring at him.

"Nothing," Harry said quickly. "We wanted to ask —"

"I wish people would stop talking behind my back!" Myrtle said, in a voice choked with tears. "I do have feelings, you know, even if I am dead —"

"Myrtle, no one wants to upset you," Hermione said. "Harry only —"

"No one wants to upset me! That's a good one!" Myrtle howled. "My whole life was nothing but misery at this place and now people come along ruining my death!"

"We wanted to ask you if you've seen anything funny lately," Hermione said quickly. "Because a cat was attacked right outside your front door on Halloween."

"Did you see anyone near here that night?" Harry asked.

"I wasn't paying attention," Myrtle stated dramatically. "Peeves upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then, of course, I remembered that… I'm… that I'm…"

"Already dead," Ron supplied helpfully.

Hermione glared at him, but it was too late and Myrtle gave a tragic sob, rose up in the air, turned over, and dived headfirst into the toilet, splashing water all over them and vanishing from sight, although from the direction of her muffled sobs, she had come to rest somewhere in the U bend.

Harry, Ron, and Neville stood with their mouths open, but Hermione shrugged wearily and said, "Honestly, that was almost cheerful for Myrtle… Come on, let's go."

Harry had barely closed the door on Myrtle's gurgling sobs when a loud voice made all three of them jump.

"RON!" Percy had stopped dead at the head of the stairs, prefect badge agleam, an expression of complete shock on his face. "That's a girls' bathroom!" he gasped. "What were you —?"

"Just having a look around," Ron shrugged. "Clues, you know —"

Percy swelled in a manner that reminded Harry forcefully of Mrs Weasley. "Get — away — from — there!" Percy said, striding toward them and starting to bustle them along, flapping his arms. "Don't you care what this looks like? Coming back here while everyone's at dinner…"

"Why shouldn't we be here?" Ron said hotly, stopping short and glaring at Percy. "Listen, we never laid a finger on that cat!"

"That's what I told Ginny," Percy said fiercely, "but she still seems to think that you're going to be expelled, I've never seen her so upset, crying her eyes out, you might think of her, all the first years are thoroughly overexcited by this business —"

"You don't care about Ginny," Ron said, whose ears were now reddening. "You're just worried I'm going to mess up your chances of being Head Boy!"

"Five points from Gryffindor!" Percy said tersely, fingering his prefect badge. "And I hope it teaches you a lesson! No more detective work, or I'll write to Mum!"

And he strode off, the back of his neck as red as Ron's ears.

"How dare he take away house points?" Ron exclaimed as Neville shrugged.

"At least he's not telling your mum, right?"

Ron glared at him.

"Besides, Mrs Norris will be all right. Professor Sprout is working with the Mandrakes. She's been letting me help her. It's really quite interesting to watch them grow up and see how they progress," Neville explained.

Harry nodded. "As long as no one else gets hurts outside of the cat or the whole school will really blame me."

"Harry, no one thinks it's you. You were just in the wrong spot at the wrong time."

"Yeah standing next to the petrified cat and under the words dripping in blood — trust me, they think it's me, Hermione."

Hermione chose not to comment as they made their way into the Gryffindor common room.

Harry saw Ginny near the fireplace sitting with Fred and George. She did look a bit peaky. "Do you think Percy was right about Ginny though?"

Ron shrugged. "I think so, yeah. She loves animals and it's her first year and all of this terrible stuff is going on, I'm not surprised that she's taking it badly. I tried to tell her that Dumbledore will find the culprit soon, but she's scared. And honestly, I can't blame her. We have no idea who's behind it."

"Who can it be, though?" Hermione asked, glancing around the common room. "Who'd want to frighten all the Squibs and Muggleborns out of Hogwarts?"

"Let's think," Ron said in mock puzzlement. "Who do we know who thinks Muggleborns are scum?"

He looked at Hermione. Hermione looked back, unconvinced. "If you're talking about Malfoy —"

"Of course I am!" Ron bellowed. "You heard him — 'You'll be next, Mudbloods!'"

"Malfoy, the Heir of Slytherin?" Hermione said skeptically.

"Look at his family," Harry said as he considered his friend's words. "The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin — he's always boasting about it. They could easily be Slytherin's descendants."

"They could've had the key to the Chamber of Secrets for centuries!" Ron said. "Handing it down, father to son… don't you think so, Nev?"

"Well," Neville said cautiously, glancing between Harry and Ron, "I suppose it's possible…"

"But how do we prove it?" Harry retorted darkly.

"There might be a way," Hermione said slowly, dropping her voice still further with a quick glance across the room at Percy. "Of course, it would be difficult. And dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules, I expect —"

"If, in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know, won't you?" Ron said irritably making Neville grin.

"All right," Hermione said coldly. "What we'd need to do is to get inside the Slytherin common room and ask Malfoy a few questions without him realizing it's us."

"But that's impossible," Harry said as Ron laughed.

"No, it's not," Hermione said. "All we'd need would be some Polyjuice Potion."

"Isn't that one that transforms you into somebody else?" Harry asked, his brow crinkling in thought.

Hermione nodded excitedly. "Think about it! We could change into four of the Slytherins. No one would know it was us. Malfoy would probably tell us anything. He's probably boasting about it in the Slytherin common room right now, if only we could hear him."

"This Polyjuice stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me," Ron said, frowning. "What if we were stuck looking like the Slytherins forever?"

"It wears off after a while," Hermione said, waving her hand impatiently. "But getting hold of the recipe will be very difficult. Snape said that it was in a book called Moste Potente Potions and it's bound to be in the Restricted Section of the library."

There was only one way to get out a book from the Restricted Section: You needed a signed note of permission from a teacher.

"Hard to see why we'd want the book, really," Ron said, "if we weren't going to try and make one of the potions."

"I think," Hermione said, "that if we made it sound as though we were just interested in the theory, we might stand a chance…"

"Oh, come on, no teacher's going to fall for that," Ron said. "They'd have to be really thick!"

Neville chuckled and smirked at Harry. "We do know someone who loves to give out autographs…"

Harry grinned back. "That git will sign anything! Just watch…"