This chapter is probably pretty sloppy, just to warn everyone.

The heir of Slytherin

Hermione had gone to bed very late that night. She had read and read through pages and pages of descriptions of how one would invade another's mind.

It was disturbing to read. But she learned a lot. She knew that to be experienced in legilimency, it most likely would take years to master.

But this was a start.

When she decided that she should be done for the night, she had closed the book up, placed it back exactly where it had been before, to make sure no one had been here, and she and Tom had gone back to the Slytherin dorms.

Throughout all her reading, Tom would occasionally give her advice, explain in detail how something worked.

If at any time, Hermione felt hesitant to learn of a way of violating another person's mind? She'd remind herself what the Death Eaters were capable of. And that her mother eventually could be in danger.

She got to bed, said goodnight to Tom, Tom went back into the diary, and Hermione went to bed, eventually getting to sleep. She had known when she climbed up into bed that she'd only get five hours of sleep, till her classes the next morning.

But it was better than nothing.

Unbeknownst to Hermione, one of her friends was awake around the time that she had come back to her bed.

Astoria had woken up in the middle of the night, and noticed Hermione going back to bed. She had half thought of asking where Hermione had gone, but had thought better of it, since Hermione had looked very, very tired.

So, after Hermione had begun softly snoring, Astoria decided to ask Daphne about it in the morning, if she should ask Hermione, and went to sleep, herself.

In the morning, everyone got up and went to classes. Astoria asked Daphne about Hermione getting up in the middle of the night and coming back late. Astoria had explained that she had fallen asleep, but had woken up in the middle of the night and had stayed awake for a while. Which meant, by the time Hermione had come back, Hermione had been gone for almost an hour, as far as Astoria knew.

And that amount of time definitely wasn't as long as it should have taken to go to the bathroom.

Astoria explained this to Daphne and Daphne furrowed her eyebrows, deciding to ask Hermione about it later.

They got to their first class, potions, and Hermione barely was able to contain her death glares, thrown Snape's way.

She might not have said anything out of turn against Snape, but practically the whole class could feel Hermione's anger. Several student, Gryffindor and Slytherin alike, gave Hermione a wide berth. Hermione's friends all knew what the deal was, and Daphne and Pansy both tried to calm her.

"Easy, Mione," Pansy whispered, "Easy."

Hermione tried to hide her distaste for the man. She did. But it was difficult.

Snape had joined the Death Eaters, because a girl had rejected him. He had picked on that same girl's son, because said son was the child of the boy that had bulled Snape in school, even though Harry had nothing to do with James's actions.

She hated Snape. She knew she hated him. If she had the chance to kill him, she knew in her bones, she'd take it.

But she also knew she had to keep her rage under control.

So, she went about the assignment that the slimy haired git set the students to do.

After the class was over and it was time for the next one, Daphne took that time to ask Hermione why she had come back to bed late.

Hermione was startled that she'd been found out, but quickly said, shaking her head, "I just went off to the library. Tom told me about a possible way of defending myself against people like the Death Eaters."

Curious, Daphne asked, "What way?"

Hermione shifted around, uncomfortable, till she finally said, "Legilimency."

Daphne's eyes widened. Oh. "Legilimency," Daphne echoed, looking pale now, "Mione, that's…that's really serious stuff."

Hermione nodded. "I know, I know," she said, "But Tom thinks that I should learn how to defend myself. And if I have to, use legilimency. I don't want to. But I might have to. Voldemort is still out there, and let's be honest. If he comes back, there will be swarms of Death Eaters that will join him again. And if that's the case? We'll all be in danger. I'm sorry, but I have to find a way of defending myself, all of you and my mom from the Death Eaters, if that happens."

Daphne blinked at Hermione, startled.

She understood that Hermione had a point. She did. But to learn how to invade other peoples' minds without their permission…

Again, Daphne couldn't escape the unshakable feeling that something was wrong about Tom's hold on Hermione.

Again…it almost felt like a corruption.

But if Tom was corrupting Hermione, what was he corrupting her to do? What would he possibly want her to do?

Seeing Daphne's uncertainty, Hermione sighed, "Look, I know you don't like it. But we have to find a way of defending ourselves, should he and the Death Eaters come back. Alright?" She shook her head, "I'm going to go to our next class. You do what you want."

Hermione walked past Daphne and Daphne huffed, sharing a worried look with Pansy and Astoria.

Millicent looked after Hermione. She said, "You know, we might not like it, but Hermione just might have a point."

Throughout the day, the girls avoided the touchy subject of legilimency. And tried to avoid being aware that the dementors were still flitting around the grounds of the school. Occasionally, while they were in class, they'd see a dark, floating shape go past the window, and their blood would run cold.

But so far, no incident.

They eventually, between classes, after getting lunch, got to the broom closet where they had stashed away Peter Pettigrew, pulled him out and gave him some food.

After he had eaten and the girls sent him to the bathroom, they knocked him out again while he was washing his hands and tossed him into the broom closet again.

When the other girls went off to their classes, which were separate from Hermione's, Hermione was about to go off to her own class, when her curiosity, like always, just got the better of her.

Slowly, she turned around and looked down the hall, at the door of the girls' bathroom. The bathroom where she was certain Tom had told her he found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

The bathroom where the ghost of Moaning Myrtle frequented. She was positive it was there.

Because if there was an entrance to a chamber where a monster lurked, where else would the entrance be, if it was in a girls' bathroom, and that same bathroom had a ghost in it that had been killed by some creature with yellow eyes?

The words that Tom had spoken to her about a possible Chamber of Secrets, spurned her decision on.

And she made her plan. She would go to her class with McGonagall. Then after the class, she'd use the time turner.

She would go back in time, and she would, while her past self went to McGonagall's class, the present her, would see if there actually was a Chamber of Secrets in the school.

Besides, there was a class that would be starting up after an hour would pass in McGonagall's class. Which meant she'd need to time travel today, anyway.

But right now? She would have to get to class.

Hermione quickly rushed off to transfiguration class, sat down and for what was becoming an increasing amount of times, Hermione only half-heartedly listened to McGonagall's instructions.

After the class, she made sure no one saw her, and went to the girls' bathroom, where Moaning Myrtle tended to be.

And she went down the hall, to the lavatory, grabbing the handle of the door and cautiously opening the door up. She went through and closed the door behind her.

She doubted anyone else would come in here, but just to be sure, she checked the other stalls.

No one was there.

Hermione reached the sinks, which was where Tom had told her the entrance supposedly was.

She took a deep breath. She honestly didn't know if she could speak parselmouth on command.

But she'd try.

She looked up at the towering sink and spoke the words, focusing on the thought of speaking to snakes. What she said essentially, was "Open up now." Granted, she doubted that it really mattered what she said, that was if the language of parseltongue was the key to getting this entrance open. However, she felt it was fitting enough.

She hoped that what she had said had been in parseltongue, but she waited.

As it turned out, she didn't need to wait long.

Because almost as soon as Hermione had said those words, things started happening. Metal and porcelain shifted and the sinks began to move, pulling apart, separating. The basins of the sinks flew upwards, away from the body of the sink. The sink pushed away from where it had stood and Hermione had to back away, to give the bodies of the sink where the basins had been affixed to, room to move.

When Hermione pulled out of the way, she saw between the growing space of the moving sinks, to see, to her shock, a big, wide, round hole.

She gaped. There it was. A massive hole. Round. Perfectly round. Big enough that a giant monster could get out of.

Hermione tried to ignore that unsettling thought, as she stepped between the shifted sinks, and reached the edge of the vast hole.

Cautious, and unable to help her curiosity, despite knowing that what she was about to do was pure foolishness, she pulled out her wand, and used a locking charm on the door, keeping it locked from anyone potentially getting in, and then turned back to the entrance of the chamber.

Sucking in a deep breath, Hermione waved her wand at herself, and used the levitation spell.

Soon she dropped slowly down the huge, dark shaft.

She wasn't going to risk dropping down and potentially breaking every bone in her body. She wasn't going to count on the possibility of a slide or something.

So, she magically made herself float downwards, through the darkness of the shaft.

It felt like she was using her magic to lower herself down, for ages.

Hermione huffed out, "If it takes me all day to get down to the chamber, I'm going to flip my lid."

But thankfully, it didn't take her the whole day to get to the bottom of the shaft.

It took a while, but not that long. She landed on the bottom of the shaft, finding herself in a series of caves and rocky pathways, just like Tom had told her he had found.

Hermione gasped, peering all around the different caves.

Tom had been right. There were a series of caves here.

A shiver ran down her spine at the implications of that. Because ultimately, she knew what it meant, if Tom was right and there were a bunch of caves down here. If there were a series of caves here, then that meant that there probably was in fact, a chamber of secrets down here. Containing a monster that most likely had hunted down muggle-borns.

Hermione shuddered. "Dammit," she whispered, "Tom, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to get me killed."

That immediate thought made her unsettled. She pushed it away. She wasn't going to think like that. Like Tom would ever try to get her killed.

Ridiculous.

Still, she kept her wand at the ready and began walking through the different pathways of the caves.

Or, was about to, when her feet rammed into something. She gasped, looking down at what she had just walked into.

Skeletons. Bones. She stepped back, her eyes wide. Animal bones. At least, she hoped that was all they were.

Several of them. A whole sea of them in this first room alone.

"What the hell?" She asked, confused.

From what she could see, most of the skulls looked thankfully, like they were just animal skulls.

But what made her disconcerted, was the types of animals. Large animals. Like cow skulls.

What was so big, that it could drag an entire cow or two down here to eat them?

Hermione swallowed. She didn't want to think about that. She forced herself to move past the skeletons and search more.

Clearly this was meant to be the sewer system of the castle. She saw the massive, long tunnels, which had grates and probably was the pipelines of the castle. In other words, the plumbing.

"Huh," Hermione said, "And I thought Hogwarts didn't originally have plumbing."

Of course, Hogwarts certainly would have plumbing now, since there were toilets that flushed and everything.

But back before James, Lily Remus, Sirius, Peter and Snape's time, and maybe even back before Tom's time, she had thought that this place hadn't had plumbing. Then again, she supposed that Hogwarts: a History, wasn't entirely right about everything, right?

She eventually found a disconcerting sight.

A round, metal door. Covered in the shapes of snakes.

She stared at the door, cold spreading through her. The Chamber of Secrets.

Where a monster supposedly was held.

While Hermione knew that she shouldn't, she just couldn't stop her curiosity.

She said the words in parseltongue, and waited.

Almost as soon as she had finished talking, there was action again.

The forms of the metal snakes began to slither back, and loud, mechanical clicks resounded out.

Hermione watched as the snakes slithered back, and the door began to creak open.

Hermione let loose a deep, deep breath, and forced herself forth, pushing past the opened door and into the next vast room.

She found a metal ladder going down and climbed down it, and dropped to a stone floor, whirling around, to see what was before her.

As soon as Hermione was fully in the next room, while fear was still present, what mostly dominated her at the moment, was awe.

Intense awe.

Flanking both sides of the stone floor walkway, were the many stone, open mouthed heads of snakes, with the fangs out. Some had their forked tongues sticking out, some had those forked tongues laying against their lower jaws.

But snake heads were present on both sides of the floor. And far back across the room, on the opposite side of the room from Hermione, was a gigantic, stone face. The face of Salazar Slytherin.

Hermione gasped.

So, Tom had found this place.

And he'd said that there was no monster present.

She hoped that that was true.

And while every instinct in Hermione's mind told her to turn and run, Hermione couldn't help herself. Curious, she began to walk down the stone walkway, between the rows of snake heads, getting closer to the huge stone face of Salazar Slytherin, the founder of her house.

It felt like ages and Hermione couldn't help but shiver as she went past the many hissing snake heads that flanked the floor, but eventually, she got close enough to the face of Salazar Slytherin, that she saw the part of the room where it was.

And saw the details.

There was a pool of water below the stone, bearded face of Salazar Slytherin, and looking down into that pool of water, Hermione had no idea how deep that water went.

She looked up, peering at the stone face, then looked to her right, then to her left, noting that there were passageways in each direction.

Curious, she began walking to the left-hand sided passageway.

She reached that passageway and peered down it. Nothing but more tunnels.

Hermione nodded and began to walk to the edge of the pool of water again, looking up at the stone face of the founder of her house.

What now?

What was she supposed to do now?

A thought then occurred to her. Everything in this chamber, had been enacted by the language of parselmouths.

Which meant if there was something else to be found here? Then it most likely would only be enacted by her using that very language.

Unsure of what she was doing, Hermione spoke the next words, focusing on imagining speaking to some snakes.

She simply said, "Whatever else is here, show yourself."

And while nothing happened for a few seconds, Hermione almost jumped, her hand tightening around her wand, when she heard the groaning sound of almost tumbling stone.

Hermione looked in the direction of the noise and she gasped, watching as the stone mouth of Salazar Slytherin, began to slowly lower.

When the mouth was as open as it was going to be, darkness inside the stone maw, Hermione stared at the dark opening, waiting and then her heart stopped, when she saw something emerging from the mouth.

It looked like a reptile of some type.

A very, very large reptile.

Gasping, Hermione backed away, feeling her blood freeze. Oh, Merlin, what had she just unintentionally released?

Whatever was in that stone mouth, slithered out in seconds. It was huge, thick and long. It was a dark gray coloring with some dark green. There were ridges all over the top of its head.

It splashed down into the pool of water before Hermione as she backed up and the creature, whatever it was, looked right at her.

It was definitely a gigantic snake. Its eyes were piercing yellow. And its lips were curled back, revealing multiple knifelike teeth.

Hermione could feel her heart stop, when suddenly, to her shock, the huge snake did the unexpected.

It bowed its head to her.

"Wh-what?" Hermione asked, confused, shaking her head.

She then remembered something. This thing could kill people without touching them.

After all, that was what had happened to Moaning Myrtle, right?

Then, a piece of information that had been buried in Hermione's brain, shook loose.

She remembered reading something about a beast that could kill someone just by looking someone in the eye.

A huge snake creature.

"Basilisk," Hermione whispered, staring up at the beast.

But…if that was the case? Then how was she still alive? She had just looked into the basilisk's eyes…and lived.

Was this not a basilisk?

And…why was it bowing to her?

But the huge snake, was indeed bowing its head to her.

And its eyes were closed.

The borderline submissive gesture was unmistakable.

Hermione shivered, backing away.

No, no, no, no, no. What…what did this mean?

Hermione pushed the next words out, at first speaking in English, before realizing she wasn't speaking snake language, when she focused on the snake again and spoke in parseltongue, "Go back into the mouth of Salazar Slytherin. And stay there. And DON'T kill or hurt anyone! Stay there! Don't go near anyone!"

The large, possibly basilisk opened its eyes and tilted its gruesome head at her, before turning its large head and slithering back up into the stone mouth of Salazar Slytherin.

And slowly, after the long tail receded back into the tunnel of the stone head, the mouth slowly closed up.

Hermione breathed out, heart pounding.

Shock threw her for a loop.

What…what, by Merlin's beard, had just fucking happened?!

Hermione shook her head, hand going into her robes and pulling out Tom's diary.

She needed to talk to him. Now.

She opened up the diary and waited.

To her relief, Tom emerged immediately.

Tom appeared in the chamber with her, then looked around, eyes wide.

"Oh," he said, "You found the Chamber of Secrets."

"Yeah, no kidding," Hermione said breathlessly, "Tom, I need answers, now. There is a giant snake in there," she pointed at the face of Salazar Slytherin, "And I just met it. It looked at me. It has yellow eyes. I think it might be a basilisk. But it didn't kill me when it met my eyes. I've heard that if you look a basilisk in the eyes, it kills you, instantly. But I didn't die. Not like Myrtle did. And the giant snake? It bowed to me. And listened to me, when I told it to go back into the face's mouth."

That was a lot that she had just told Tom, and she was breathless after letting that all out.

Tom's eyes became wide again. His eyebrows were up in his hair.

"It bowed to you?" He asked, "You're sure of that?"

Hermione nodded. "Yeah," she said, "And it listened to me. Why the hell would a basilisk bow to me?"

Tom eyed Hermione, then took a breath. "Hermione," he said, "I'm afraid this just got a lot more complicated. The teachers at this school, they haven't told you anything about the Chamber of Secrets. But back when I was here? People knew a lot more about it. And the stories, were that the creature in the Chamber of Secrets, could only be controlled, by the heir of Slytherin."

Hermione gaped, staring at Tom.

The heir of…no, this…this just couldn't be.

She shook her head. "No," she said, "That's impossible. I'm a muggle-born."

"You are," Tom said, nodding, "But you know that muggle-borns all got their magic from having an ancestor with magical blood. Don't forget, you thought it was impossible for you to be a parselmouth, when you first started speaking that language. And you knew that for you to be naturally, a parseltongue, you had to have had an ancestor that was a parseltongue."

Hermione shook her head. No, just no.

Her heart pounded at the implications.

Even if she had an ancestor that had been of magic blood, was able to speak parseltongue and may have been a descendant of Slytherin himself, she couldn't handle this.

She, a muggle-born, a descendant of Salazar Slytherin? The bigoted pureblood who had loathed muggle-borns?

No…no, no, no, no.

Tom said softly, "Hermione, I don't believe just any parselmouth could have survived an encounter with the basilisk. There's a reason you didn't die, when you met the basilisk's eyes. If that was a basilisk you just saw, and you're still alive, then it's because you're Slytherin's heir."

Hermione felt sick. She actually felt somewhat sick right now.

Her, the heir of Slytherin?

"I…," Hermione said numbly, "I need to sit down."

She weakly moved over to one of the stone snake heads and lowered herself down, so that she was seated upon the pedestal where the snake head was, sitting on it, staring down at her pale hands.

Her right hand held onto the wand, and her left thumb rubbed against her right palm's callouses, looking down at the pink marks. It was like she was trying to center herself by trying to grip onto anything-any sensory thing.

Anything to not focus on what she had just learned.

Her, the heir of Slytherin.

Hermione's short, ragged breaths were slowed, however, when she realized something.

If she was the heir of Slytherin, or an heir, who had been the other heir? At Hogwarts, there had been someone who had opened up the Chamber of Secrets, and let the basilisk out, and had had it students. There had been another heir of Slytherin. But who? Who had opened up the Chamber of Secrets the first time?

Hermione husked out, lifting her head to look at Tom again. "Tom," she said, her voice almost sounding broken, "Do you have any idea who the person was that opened up the Chamber of Secrets? Years ago? Back when you attended Hogwarts? Do you have any idea who that person might have been?"

Tom watched her and shook his head. "No," he said, "I'm sorry, I don't know. I thought at first that Hagrid was the one that had unleashed the monster. But knowing that the person that opened it, might be the heir of Slytherin, makes me severely doubt that Hagrid was the one to have let the creature out. I'll admit, after Hagrid was kept out of Azkaban and after I was given that trophy, it was when I found the Chamber of Secrets. And after I found the Chamber of Secrets and I realized that the stories about the chamber, were true? I realized that it was very unlikely Hagrid."

Hermione nodded. She admittedly, had been wondering about that. Wondering if Tom had found the chamber, then why he still had believed that Hagrid was responsible. Because who would ever think Hagrid to be the heir of Slytherin?

But if Tom found the chamber after Hagrid had been released and after Tom had gotten the trophy, then Tom probably could be excused for assuming that about Hagrid before then.

Still, dread began to spread throughout her chest.

If she was the heir of Slytherin, and there was another heir of Slytherin back during Tom's time, what did that mean?

The person that had attacked students…the boy that Myrtle had heard speaking to a yellow-eyed creature in the girls' bathroom, had that boy been Hermione's grandfather?

"I…," Hermione's words were rough as she said, "I think I need to check my blood, to see if I'm really a muggle-born or what or something. There are people at the Ministry of Magic that can check, correct?"

Alarmed, Tom frowned, but nodded. "Yes," he said, "I know, because Abraxas Malfoy, in his and my second year together, went to the Ministry to get his blood checked. It wasn't that he doubted that he was a pureblood. He didn't. It was just that he was hoping that he was descended from Salazar Slytherin."

"Was he?" Hermione asked. Oh, Merlin, please tell her that she wasn't Abraxas Malfoy's granddaughter. Someone please tell her that she wasn't Draco Malfoy's cousin.

She'd take almost anything except that.

Tom chuckled, shaking his head. "No," he said, "I was with him when he went. As I said, he felt like he was lowering himself to 'take me under his wing,' and when he went and checked his blood, as it turns out, he was in no way descended from Salazar."

Hermione breathed out in relief. Oh, thank goodness.

"Did you get your blood checked?" Hermione asked Tom, unable to help her curiosity.

Tom scoffed. "Me?" He asked, "Hermione, I'm a half-blood."

"Yeah," Hermione grumbled, "And I'm a muggle-born. And yet, that basilisk obeyed me. Your father might have been a muggle. But your mother was a full-blooded witch, wasn't she?"

"She was," Tom said, nodding, "I know her name and her family and that's it. But because her family abandoned me and tossed me into an orphanage as soon as I was born, I wanted nothing to do with them. So, I saw no reason to get my blood tested. In the very unlikely possibility that I might in any way be related to Salazar Slytherin, I certainly wouldn't know about it."

Hermione nodded again. "Okay," she said, "I need to get my blood tested, is all I'm saying."

"Alright," Tom answered, "And what happens if it turns out that you are in fact, the heir of Slytherin?"

"I don't know, alright?!" Hermione yelled, staring at Tom, "I don't know. I'll…figure it out when I find out."

Tom sighed, "Hermione, isn't the basilisk's reaction to you, proof enough that you are in fact, the heir of Slytherin? And what if you ask to have a blood test done? What will happen then? You think that's something the Ministry will keep secret? You're already in Slytherin. Think of what the Ministry will think, if they find a blood test proving that you are the heir of Slytherin."

As ridiculous as this situation was? It was that reasoning that gave Hermione pause.

If people realized that she was descended from Salazar Slytherin, then what would happen?

How distrusting of her, would the rest of the students at Hogwarts, and teachers be of her, when word got out?

Her friends might even be distrusting.

The rest of Slytherin might just be impressed, but it didn't change that it would cast a great deal of distrust her way.

Distrust that she just couldn't afford, when she was trying to protect her mother, trying to keep it a secret that she had the Sorcerer's Stone in her custody, and was trying to keep a low profile so that Voldemort and his followers, and Cromwell and his cronies, didn't come after her and her mother.

Not to mention, it was bad enough that that wand seller, Mr. Garrick Ollivander, had told her that the wand she had in her possession, shared a core with the wand that Voldemort had bought all those years ago, when he had first attended Hogwarts.

If anyone found that out? Well, that already would cause a great deal of distrust against her.

And Merlin knew, the Gryffindors, save for Neville and possibly Harry, already disliked her enough as it was.

Hermione offered up a broken chuckle. Tom was right, of course. She couldn't let this get out. Ever.

And should word get out, outside of herself and her friends, that she was a parselmouth? Well, that certainly would make things more difficult. Wouldn't it?

And she might not like it, but she had to be quiet about this. For pragmatic reasons.

"You're right," Hermione sighed, looking at Tom, "I can't let anyone know about this."

That did bring Hermione to the question of her friends. Daphne, Astoria, Millicent and Pansy.

Should she tell them about this?

Despite her distrust, she knew the answer. They already knew about her being a parselmouth. And that she had killed. They knew about her encounter with Voldemort and Quirrell.

So, they already knew a bit. And besides, Hermione knew the truth. If Tom was right and she was the heir of Slytherin? She needed allies.

Because should anyone find out? There would be a lot of backlash against her.

She would need her friends. More than ever.

Hermione sighed, "Except for Daphne, Astoria, Millicent and Pansy. I need to tell them."

Looking at Tom, she watched as he nodded.

"That probably would be a good idea," he agreed, "The basilisk should stay where it is, if the stories are true, and it will only obey the heir of Slytherin."

Hermione hoped that was true. That the big snake would stay exactly where it was.

"Okay," Hermione said, looking at Tom, "I need to go back up to the school. I don't want people wondering where I am. And now that I know what's down here? There's no way I'm going to stick Pettigrew down here. I'm not going to risk him getting eaten or killed just by being looked at by that gigantic snake."

Tom nodded. "Alright," he said, "Do you know how to get out of here?"

"Yeah, I hope so," Hermione said, "I can levitate out of the entrance. What I'm interested in, is how do I close everything up?"

"Oh, that," Tom said, "Just close the door of the chamber. It will lock automatically. The sink that will close up and cover the hole you jumped in to get here, you'll have to use parseltongue to lock it all closed."

Hermione huffed and nodded, getting up, trying to keep her dread in check. "Alright," she said, "Let's go."

She went down the hall, to the ladder up to the doorway of the chamber. She climbed up the ladder, through the door and when she and Tom both were out of the chamber, Hermione grabbed the door and pushed it closed. As soon as the door closed, she heard a clicking noise, and the metal snakes slithered forward again, the locks going into place again.

Hermione moved through the tunnels again, and got to the bottom of the entrance she had come in through.

She looked at Tom as she said, "I need to close the diary up, to get up to the entrance."

Tom nodded. "It's alright," he said, "Go ahead."

Hermione closed the diary and Tom disappeared. As soon as he did, Hermione put the book back into her robes, and aimed her wand at her feet and used the levitation spell. She floated up off of the floor up away from the ground, in the direction of the entrance.

She reached the top of the entrance and dropped onto the floor of the entrance, and walked from it, between the sinks.

She whirled around and spoke parselmouth again.

She heard the loud, tumbling sound of stone, metal and porcelain again, and the sinks began to slide back together.

There was a harsh, cracking noise, indicating that the sink was all back together again, and the basins floated back into place and Hermione breathed out in relief, she then went to the door, unlocked it, then left, closing the door quickly, glad that no one had seen her. She hadn't seen any sign of Moaning Myrtle.

She moved down the hall and quickly went to her next class.

She had avoided being late in her other class, thanks to the time turner, and now she would be on time for her other class. It just happened that there was a past version of her currently in McGonagall's class.

She would need to wait till tonight to tell her friends what had happened. But she'd tell them.

Right now, she just needed to get to the next class. She passed by a window, then, glancing out, and stopping, walking backwards so that she could peer through the window again.

She saw Hagrid walking belong along the ground, dressed in a rather uncharacteristic attire.

It was a very broad, and borderline bursting suit he was wearing. And even from the distance that Hagrid was at, Hermione saw that the big man was raising his hand so that the back of his hand was rubbing away at tears on his face.

Hermione frowned.

While she didn't doubt that Hagrid probably was an emotional person, Hagrid's odd reaction and the garbs he was wearing, made her suspicious.

She knew that she'd get into trouble now, but decided on her next course of action, and went down the stairs, and out of the castle and ran into the yard, where Hagrid was, following him to the river.

When Hagrid stopped by the river, leaning down and picking up large stones and throwing them at the river, Hermione stopped a few feet behind him.

"Hagrid?" She asked, causing the large man to turn to her, "Are…are you okay?"

Hagrid chuckled grimly, "Thank you, Ms. Granger. But now," he shook his head sadly, picking up another stone, "I'm not. The worst happened. There was a meeting about what to do about what happened to Malfoy."

Hermione's stomach clenched. Right. In all this insanity, she'd forgotten about what Buckbeak had done when Malfoy had pissed the poor hippogriff off.

"What happened?" Hermione asked, even if she was sure that the best she could do was just let it go.

"Well," Hagrid said, "I told Cornelius Fudge, that Buckbeak's always been a good hippogriff. Always tame and good as long as people are respectful. But then Malfoy's father showed up and started talking, and well, I'm sure you can imagine what he had to say."

Hermione grimaced. Uh-oh. Yeah, she had a good idea of what some of the things were Lucius Malfoy would have to say about Hagrid and Buckbeak.

"Don't tell me they sacked you, Hagrid," Hermione said, though that probably was the least of the horrible possibilities.

"No," Hagrid chuckled, "I'm not sacked." He then threw the rock down at his feet sniffling as he said louder, pain in his voice, "Buckbeak's been sentenced to death!"

Hermione winced. Shit. She had thought that that might be the case.

She had hoped it wouldn't be.

But considering how harsh the Malfoy family was, how it was their way or no way, she couldn't say that she hadn't suspected that that might be the outcome.

"Hagrid," she said, "I'm so sorry."

She slowly left as Hagrid brooded, because what else could she do at that time?

Hermione stewed in her disgust for the Malfoys. She knew one thing for sure; she hated them.

She quickly rushed to class after that. Thankfully, Remus wasn't annoyed, as she suspected he wouldn't be.

Later on, when night came, Hermione knew she would need to speak to the others.

At dinner, she told them she needed to speak with them privately at the Slytherin common room. That the Great Hall was too public. She needed to speak with them privately.

Occasionally, she would look down the length of the table and stare with hatred at Draco Malfoy, who noticed her glares and would shrink back, confused by her rage.

Later on, that night, Hermione went to the Slytherin common room and waited for the other girls. As she did, she checked around her to make sure no one was nearby, pulled out the diary and opened it up.

Tom came emerging from the diary's pages, floating there in front of her, next to the fireplace.

"Hermione," he said, smiling, "How did things go? Did you tell your friends?"

Hermione shook her head, placing the diary down on the table next to her, "Not yet. I just…I just wanted to talk."

"Of course," Tom said, nodding, "What is it?"

Hermione breathed out slowly as she asked, "Just tell me, what does being the heir of Slytherin entail? I mean, you've heard the stories of the Chamber of Secrets, right? Back when you first went here. So, what would it mean?"

Tom looked at Hermione curiously, as he said, "Well, depends, I suppose, on what version of the story you believe. Some say being the heir of Slytherin, means you have vaults and vaults of gold. More accurate stories, I think, say that when one is the heir of Slytherin? They are the purest of the purebloods."

Hermione chuckled. "Ironic, considering I'm a muggle-born," she said.

Tom chuckled, "I suppose so."

Hermione looked to the fire in the fireplace as she said, "Aside from the obvious, 'this is really, really bad,' should I worry about any Death Eaters finding out?"

"Unlikely," Tom said, unless any of the family members of Death Eaters find out. But I'd like to point out that even if the Death Eaters actually do find out? It's unlikely that they'd try to hurt you. If anything, even if they didn't like it, I imagine that they would come to you and ask for you to become the next dark lord."

Hermione guffawed, looking at Tom, expecting to find him smirking at the idea too, but she lost her grin when she saw he was not smiling. "Wait," she said, "You're serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Tom asked, "The Death Eaters, they are from pureblood families. Pureblood families who are filled with hypocrites. I think if they knew that you were the descendant of Slytherin, they wouldn't care that you were muggle-born. They wouldn't like it, but I suspect that they might take exception, knowing about you being a descendant of Slytherin."

Hermione shivered, looking back to the fire. She found that idea preposterous. But since it was Tom telling her this? Tom, who's words she valued most, only after her mother and her four best friends' words?

Would the Death Eaters really do that?

It sounded comical.

And of course, was unacceptable.

This, if anything, was even more of a reason to make sure this never got out.

"What would you do if you were in my position?" Hermione asked, still staring at the flickering flames.

Tom floated closer as he said, "What would I do? Most likely what you're doing. Considering what the best course of action would be. And if it turned out that I had much to gain by controlling the Death Eaters? I just might do it. I wouldn't like it, but perhaps it would feel good to have the fanatics that mistreat me and people like me, obeying my every whim."

Hermione chuckled.

Well, yeah, that would be tempting.

Hermione lifted her head when she heard the portrait that was the entrance, moving. She glanced to Tom, worried.

Tom nodded to her as she closed up the diary and he disappeared.

Hermione turned to the entrance, breathing out in relief when she saw Pansy and Astoria coming through.

"Hey," she greeted, smiling, "Where are Millicent and Daphne?"

"They're coming," Pansy said, "Daphne and Millicent are just checking on Pettigrew, making sure he's where we left him and applying more of the sleeping spell."

Hermione nodded. That was good.

When the portrait closed up, Astoria and Pansy went to Hermione and sat down on the couch next to her.

Millicent and Daphne arrived soon afterwards and after they checked to make sure no one else was nearby, they sat down and faced Hermione.

"What did you want to talk about, Mione?" Daphne asked, her eyes jumping to the diary in Hermione's hands and at the troubled look on Daphne's face, Hermione quickly stuffed the diary back into her robes.

Hermione said hurriedly to all four other girls, "What I'm about to tell you, doesn't leave this room, understand? No one outside of us is to know, alright?"

All four other girls nodded. "Alright," Millicent said.

"Yeah, of course," Astoria said.

"Got it, nothing gets out," Pansy said.

"Nothing will leave this room," Daphne said, at full attention, having the idea that she was about to hear something that Hermione normally wouldn't allow other people to hear.

Hermione checked around the dorm one last time, before taking a deep breath and exhaling and beginning to tell her friends everything about the chamber of secrets. And about the basilisk's reaction to her and about what Tom believed that that meant.

Author's note

So, I'm sure absolutely no one's surprised about the "reveal" that Hermione is the heir of Slytherin. I'm sure absolutely everyone saw that one coming.

As you may have noticed, the chapter was a bit sloppy. I wrote this chapter fast-I'm sure a lot of people can tell. But to answer anyone's question, yes, Hermione's still a muggle-born. It just happens that Salazar Slytherin was her great-great-great-great something great-grandfather.

And before anyone asks, no, Hermione is NOT Tom's daughter or granddaughter. So, if you have that idea, please discard that idea. At the most, they are very, very distant cousins.