Standing Up to Slytherin
Summary: During a re-read of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, I came across a little moment that I could not help but ponder upon. After finding Mrs Norris petrified beneath the message warning of the reopening of the Chamber, Snape all but accuses Harry of being behind it. He is an alternate take on what could have happened…
Warnings: Like the vast majority of my stories, this one is not for Snape lovers. Deal with it. Also has Harry using his brain.
[Bold section is from the Chamber of Secrets Book]
Snape's nasty smile widened.
"I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthful," he said. "It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch Team until he is ready to be honest."
At this point, Harry found himself speaking up "Hang on. Before I get kicked off of any Quidditch Team, I want to know just what the "Chamber of Secrets" is. After all, I am being accused of opening this Chamber and using something I found within it to petrify Mrs Norris."
"According to legend," began Professor McGonagall "When Hogwarts was being constructed by the founders, Salazar Slytherin built a hidden Chamber within the castle known as "The Chamber of Secrets." Slytherin felt that magical learning should be kept only to all magical families. He fell out with the other three founders over the issue and eventually left the school, but not before sealing the entrance to the Chamber. The Chamber was to remain sealed until such a time that a true heir of Salazar Slytherin returned to the school. The heir, alone would be able to open the Chamber and unleash the horror that dwelt within in order to purge the school of those who Slytherin felt had no place at the school."
"What horror?" asked Harry.
"A monster of some description," replied McGonagall. "One that only an heir of Slytherin could possibly hope to control."
"Interesting," said Harry, thoughtfully.
"What are you thinking Harry?" asked Hermione.
"Just trying to come up with an explanation for things," said Harry.
"Care to enlighten the rest of us, Harry?" asked Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling.
"Well, from my point of view, there are two explanations," said Harry. "The first is that there is no Chamber of Secrets and this whole thing is a setup to try and get me into trouble."
"What do you mean?" asked McGonagall.
"Look at the events so far this year," said Harry. "First, Snape here –"
"Professor Snape, Harry," corrected Dumbledore.
"Fine," said Harry. "Professor Snape here allows one Draco Malfoy to buy his way onto the Slytherin House Quidditch Team –"
"He did not buy his way onto the team!" snapped Snape.
"Oh, please!" scoffed Harry. "We've all seen the brooms. Did you really think that Malfoy and Flint would be able to resist bragging about where they came from?"
Snape was seething but for the moment he said no more.
"As I was saying," said Harry. "First Draco Malfoy obtains the position of Seeker on the Slytherin Quidditch Team thanks to his daddy buying the whole team brand new Nimbus 2001 brooms. Next Snape –"
"Professor Snape," corrected Dumbledore, again.
"Yeah, him. Anyway, he then abuses his authority to cancel the Gryffindor Team's training session so that the Slytherins could begin training Draco. Then, exactly one week before the Gryffindor vs Slytherin Quidditch match, a strange message and a petrified cat appear in a corridor that I just happen to be walking along and near enough the first words out of Snape's mouth are "I personally feel that he should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch Team." Add in the fact that Draco himself was one of the first ones on the scene after Ron, Hermione and myself found the cat and it all seems pretty suspicious to me."
"How dare you-?" began Snape, who was shaking with rage.
"Severus," said Dumbledore, warningly, before turning his attention back to Harry. "And how would they have known that you would be in that corridor at that time?"
"Nearly Headless Nick told just about everyone he could that I was going to attend his Death Day party," explained Harry. "Snape himself just said that ghost's don't serve food fit for humans at their parties, implying that he knows that ghosts have rotten food at their parties. It would not be too much of a stretch to assume that after that I would not feel like eating anything after seeing that. I also had to go by the Great Hall in order to get back to Gryffindor Tower. It would have been easy enough to have a few Slytherins keeping an eye on the door just in case I happen to go by. Then the trap would be sprung."
He looked around at them all and admitted "It's a bit of a stretch, I know, but Snape's accusation of me was based on less evidence."
"Indeed," said McGonagall. "And your second theory…?"
"That there really is a Chamber of Secrets and that I really was in the wrong place at the wrong time," replied Harry.
"I believe that we had already established that much," said Dumbledore.
"Yes, but I have a suggestion as to where the finger of blame should be pointed."
"Do enlighten us," said McGonagall.
"It should be pretty obvious," said Harry before beginning to count on his fingers. "First we have the Chamber of Slytherin, which can only be opened by Slytherin's Heir. Second we have Slytherin's Monster, which can only be controlled by Slytherin's Heir. And third, we have the fact that Slytherin wanted to his heir to use this monster to purse the school of those who Slytherin thought had no place here."
"From all this, it is obvious that the search for Slytherin's Heir much begin within Slytherin House itself. I personally feel that we should start with those known to look down upon students with muggle-born status. In fact, I know exactly whom to start with. After all, the first words out of his mouth when he arrived at the scene of Mrs Norris' petrification were "Enemies of the Heir beware… You'll be next, Mudbloods."
"Aha!" exclaimed Lockhart, seemingly eager to draw attention back onto himself. "A clear confession of guilt if I ever heard one. Harry, who was it who made that statement?"
"Draco Malfoy," replied Harry. "I suggest you all talk to him on this matter, and if he refuses to tell the truth, then I suggest that he be banned from the Slytherin Quidditch Team until such a time that he decides to co-operate."
Snape sneered at him, not at all pleased at having his suggested punishment for Harry thrown back in his face.
Harry continued "And in the event that it proves to not be Draco, then I suggest disbanding the entire Slytherin Quidditch Team and suspending the awarding of House Points to Slytherin until such a time as the heir comes forward."
"Oh, honestly," said Hermione. "If the Heir of Slytherin really is in Slytherin House, do you really think that they would own up to it just because their house can't play Quidditch or earn points?"
"Maybe not," said Harry. "But if the rest of Slytherin is anything like its Quidditch Team then the Heir is bound to have bragged about it to someone. We don't have to make the heir come forward, just one of his friends."
"Is that likely?" asked Ron.
"There's only one way to find out," replied Harry. "Think of how unpleasant they'll find it when Gryffindor are getting closer and closer to claiming the House Cup and the Quidditch Trophy?"
"Well, you have certainly given us a lot to think about Harry," said Dumbledore, somewhat dismissively. "Now perhaps you, Mr Weasley and Miss Granger should return to the Gryffindor Common Room? I must discuss our next move with the Professors."
Harry, Ron and Hermione left.
"Do you really think it was Draco, mate?" asked Ron.
"No idea," said Harry. "But the chances are that if it isn't him then he, at least, will know something."
"You know that things will be bad when we get back to the Common Room," said Hermione.
"Most likely," said Harry. "But I know how to turn it around."
"How?" asked Ron.
"Simple. I'll just tell them all my first theory, that it was all a plan to get me booted of the Quidditch Team. Anyway, Nearly Headless Nick can back up my claim that I was at his Death Day Party."
And that is exactly what Harry did tell everyone in Gryffindor Tower. The Gryffindors' usual ill will towards the Slytherins had only been bolstered by Draco buying his way onto the Slytherin Team and once Harry explained what the Chamber of Secrets actually was, they were all prepared to accept that Harry had nothing to do with the incident.
By the end of breakfast, some of the Gryffindors had informed their friends in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw about what had transpired and by lunch everyone in the school knew the story that Harry had put out.
Needless to say, Snape's constant favouritism of his own house, his bullying of the rest and Draco buying his way onto the Slytherin Team made it so that people were prepared to believe an awful lot about the house of snakes.
By dinner Draco and the rest of the Quidditch Team were being shunned by about half of their own house. It was quite a wake-up call for Draco to learn that a fair few of his housemates did not think that his constant bullying of Potter and his relying on his Father and Snape for protection were all that cunning or ambitious.
Naturally he wrote him to complain to his father before knocking on Snape's door.
At breakfast the next morning, Dumbledore announced that the story going around was only a rumour that had yet to be verified and that Draco would remain on the Slytherin Team.
This news was not well received by the majority of the school and a riot was only narrowly avoided.
Both Snape and Dumbledore were presented with a petition signed by many Slytherins who wanted Draco removed from the Slytherin Team as they did not want their house to be represented by him.
The petition was ignored.
By Saturday morning, tensions within the castle were sky high. The entire school turned out to watch the Gryffindor vs Slytherin matchup, even the most studious of Ravenclaws who usually only went to the matches that their own House was playing in out of loyalty.
Truthfully the match was being viewed as "Potter vs Malfoy" and everyone knew it.
Madam Hooch tried to ease the tension by making the seekers shake hands as well as the captains. Draco tried to follow Flint's lead in attempting to crush his opponent's hand, but Harry was the stronger of the two, resulting in a rather effeminate yelp from the Slytherin Seeker.
The match began and it was obvious right away who the better seeker was.
Then the rogue bludger put in an appearance.
A perfect bit of flying by Harry caused the bludger to smash into Draco's side right as Harry himself caught the snitch.
Harry had avoided injury, but Madam Hooch was beside herself in anger. While there was no actual evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the Slytherin Team, she had seen enough to order that the team be disbanded.
Dumbledore tried to overrule her, but the incident with the bludger, coupled with everything else, was something he could not argue against, especially when Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout took Madam Hooch's side.
The party in the Gryffindor Common Room that night was a raucous affair as everyone celebrated not only Gryffindor's victory but also the downfall of the Slytherin Team. The Slytherins were still allowed a team, of course, but it none of those who had played that day were allowed on it.
Fred and George Weasley snuck in some butter beer and all sorts of sweets, as well as some fire-whiskey for the older students.
They even set off a bunch of fireworks which rocketed around the common room, sending showers of multi-coloured sparks in all directions.
One even slammed into Ginny Weasley's diary so hard that it buried its point right into the black leather cover. The youngest Weasley yelped in surprise and threw both the diary and the rocket out of a window that Percy had just opened in order to get rid of some of the smoke that hung in the air.
Halfway to the ground the rocket exploded, destroying the diary and resolving the entire "Chamber of Secrets" issue as it did so.
Of course, no one knew that.
The next day Lucius Malfoy turned up, demanding to meet with Dumbledore, Snape and Hooch. No one knew what went on in Dumbledore's office, but before the day was out, Draco had been withdrawn from Hogwarts to be sent to some foreign school called Durmstrang.
Draco's removal from the school, coupled with the fact that nothing else was heard about The Chamber of Secrets for the rest of the year convinced everyone that convinced everyone that the boy had been involved in the whole fiasco in one way of another and were quite satisfied with that story.
Even Dumbledore was left to wonder if Draco really had been behind the whole thing after all… But he dismissed it and popped another sherbet lemon in his mouth.
A/N: And that's that. Not the best, I know, but there you go. Originally this was only Harry calling Snape out on his crap, but then I realised that I needed some kind of fallout, and once I had that I needed to get rid of the Diary.
As for how the Diary was destroyed by the firework, let's just assume that, as it was actually intended to ensnare someone, it had fewer protections and enchantments on it than the other Horcruxes – after all, Harry does not fell any sort of maliciousness coming from the diary like he does the locket, the cup and the diadem.