Disclaimer – The world of Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling and various publishing houses. The films are owned by Warner Brother's Studios. I do not in writing this claim ownership over any properties associated with the works of J.K. Rowling. I am merely playing in her backyard while I get these ideas out of my head.
Authors Notes – I wanted to start this off with a few notes of interest. First this work can be found both on this site and hpfanficarchive. I post under the name DalkonCledwin at both sites.
Some people will notice that I have listed this story under the Harry/Hermione pairing on hpfanficarchive. This is indeed the pairing that the story will likely end up with, however I have no skill at writing Limes or Lemons, so don't get your hopes up for that kind of content.
I have come to a decision in regards to how Marriage works in the Wizarding World, for those of you who are interested in the topic I suggest you look up the concept of "Coverture" as it was practiced around the time of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Founders Lines have some special priveleges in this regard, but otherwise it is basically that.
Please note that the fall semester of College has started for me. So my posting speeds may slow down significantly.
It was the beautiful afternoon of Wednesday, the fourth of September, the day that the first year students of Hogwarts were set to have their first flying lessons. Harry and Hermione had been among the first of them to reach the field where the lessons would take place. Now while Hermione had in the original timeline been a bit acrophobic, her fear of heights was more or less eliminated entirely during the Horcrux Hunt during that damnable flight on the back of a blind Dragon. Compared to that, a 30 year old broom seemed to be the absolute safest way to travel.
Once the other first years made it out to the pitch, both Harry and Hermione looked over the first years, and they didn't like what they saw. Ron Weasley was a bit too smug for their liking. Draco Malfoy was looking just a little too full of himself. But it was Neville Longbottom that caught their attention, he was extremely pale, and shaking nearly uncontrollably.
In unspoken agreement, Harry made his way over to the nervous first year, "Hey there, I'm Harry. Your name is Neville right?"
Neville nodded in affirmative but didn't say anything, so Harry continued and said "You probably are going to want to calm down as much as you are able. If you don't the Broom will sense your anxiety and like a Horse would with a nervous rider, it will react to that anxiety, and probably not in a good way. Tell you what, if you want, I will stay by your side throughout the lesson and try to help you as much as possible. How's that sound?"
Neville smiled to Harry, and visibly relaxed a bit, not much, but he wasn't shaking nearly so badly anymore. By this point Madam Hooch had arrived and she began the lesson, which pretty much went the way that Harry and Hermione remembered it except for a few notable differences. Thanks to Harry's one on one attention to Neville, he didn't have the accident that would send him to the Hospital Wing. Draco didn't have the opportunity to steel the Rememberall. And most amazingly of all, Hermione was better at flying than both Ronald Weasley and Draco Malfoy. This of course incensed Ronald, who unlike Draco Malfoy had not been told by his father not to stick his foot in his mouth in relation to Hermione, and Ronald decided to say something…
"Hey Granger, where did a Muggle-born like you learn to fly? I didn't think Muggles had brooms."
Hermione huffed, "Honestly Weasley, did it ever occur to you that I might be a natural at flying Brooms?"
"Er…" Ron said dumbly.
"Of course it didn't. Well as it happens I have never been on a broom before this day," Hermione said though her mind was thinking 'I have never been on a broom before this day in the other timeline, so not technically a lie, but not the full truth either.'
Harry added to the conversation by snorting at Hermione's most recent comment, to which the girl shot him a baleful glare.
"So you're better at everything than those of us who were born into magic? How is that fair?" Ron said, obviously he wasn't going to just accept this.
"I am not better at everything." Hermione said.
"Oh yeah? Prove it; show us one person who is better at something than you are." Ron groused.
Hermione harrumphed again, "Harry be a dear and show me one of your Wronsky Feints."
Harry glared at Hermione, "But you said."
"I know what I said, now ignore what I said and just do what I am telling you to do." The bushy haired girl was saying.
Madam Hooch had been watching this conversation with a wary eye, but as soon as the Ravenclaw girl said something about a Wronsky Feint she began making her way over to the student in question, "I will not abide by you performing this act."
"Madam Hooch, I am on the Board of Governors, as such what I am saying supersedes your authority. Harry will perform the Wronsky Feint. He is in absolutely no danger from doing so, aside from a slight risk of his broom giving out. But I will make sure there is an appropriate cushioning charm on the ground beneath him in case it does. Now get on with it Harry." Hermione said as she began to layer cushioning charms on the ground beneath where Harry was now floating.
With a sudden whooshing sound Harry ascended to about 100 feet in the air. He then proceeded to rapidly descend until he was about 5 feet from the ground at which point he proceeded to level his broom out causing his feet to skim the ground. The feint was successful.
To say Ron Weasley was gobsmacked was an understatement. Hermione had been good no doubt about that. Harry however had been absolutely phenomenal. Draco was also looking pensive if Harry was this good already, then his chances of getting on the Quidditch Team were pretty much guaranteed.
Rolanda Hooch had been over-ruled in her own class, by a student no less. She knew that members of the Hogwarts Board of Governors had absolute authority at the school. But she had no idea that Harry was that good. She would have to bring the boy to Filius' attention, if he was this good now, imagine how good he would be with proper training. He would be perfect for the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team. Hermione was no slouch either; she might do well on the Quidditch Team as well. If only it wasn't for that damnable rule that First Years couldn't be on the House Teams. Maybe that rule could be changed, Harry was the Boy Who Lived after all.
"Well then, Class is dismissed I suppose." Rolanda said to her students. And with that people began milling away.
Harry and Hermione walked together and Harry cast the Muffliato spell on the two of them "Hermione you realize that you have probably just caused events to play out in such a way that I will end up on the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team this time around, right?"
Hermione looked at Harry in an unrepentant manner, "Yes, I realize that. I also realized just then something that the two of us had forgotten up until that point. Cho Chang and her little friends are largely responsible for all the torment that Luna went through in the last timeline. I see absolutely no reason to pander to Chang in this timeline knowing that, do you?"
Harry thought about it for a few minutes. "No, I suppose not. I admit, I had forgotten that detail. Still I always liked the Gryffindor Team that I played with for most of my time here in the previous timeline. It will be so hard for me to play against them. I don't know if I will be capable of doing it."
"Look at it this way Harry. All you will be doing is catching the Snitch. You won't actually be interacting with any other members of the team, except possibly the Weasley Twins and whoever ends up being their Seeker until next year." Hermione said.
"What do you mean 'until next year'" Harry asked.
"It's obvious isn't it? Ginny Weasley will be default Seeker as soon as she gets here. The Weasley Twins will vouch for her as soon as they find out that no one in Gryffindor BUT her has nearly enough skill to compete with you. Even if they didn't vouch for her, I would. If she doesn't show up to tryouts next year, I will be personally having words with McGonagall," explained Hermione before she dispelled the Muffliato charm as they entered the school building.
Rita Skeeter had been waiting for this day to come, like many people she wanted to get the inside scoop on Miss Hermione Granger, the heiress of Ravenclaw. Unfortunately there was so much the people didn't know. So here she was in the entry hall of Hogwarts, waiting for Minerva McGonagall to fetch the individual of the hour. Oh how exciting this was.
After a few minutes the doors of the Great Hall opened and Minerva McGonagall and a young girl with bushy brown hair walked out of the room to meet Rita. "Professor, is it all right if we take our meeting up to your Office? I don't want to inconvenience you, but it would be more private than having our meeting just about anywhere else."
"Of course Miss Granger, if you would follow me and I will lead you both there."
A few minutes later Rita and Hermione were seated in McGonagall's office. Said professor had just left, and Rita pulled out a sickly green looking quill and asked "You don't mind if I use a Quick Quotes Quill do you?"
Hermione got a sly grin on her face as she said "Actually I do. I know all about those types of Quills. I also know all about the fact that you are an unregistered Beetle Animagus. Now, this information is all set to be leaked to the Ministry in an hours-time unless you agree to my demands."
Rita's face immediately paled as Hermione said this. "How do you know this?"
"My dear Rita, when you have the kind of resources that I have at my disposal, very little can remain hidden from me. That said, if you report what I have to say honestly, and you do a few favors for me, then you have absolutely nothing to fear from me. If however you ever besmirch my reputation, or that of Harry James Potter, then your secrets will be sent to the Ministry, followed by being sent to every single person you have ever written an article about." Hermione explained for the woman's benefit.
"Very well, what is it you want then?" Rita asked.
"Quite simply, I want you to write a thoroughly researched book about one Albus Dumbledore. I want this to be a biography. I want it to detail all of his secrets, his manipulations, and everything he has done to combat the forces of darkness, especially things that are questionable as far as the letter of the law is concerned." Hermione said.
Rita's smile and color came back as she realized exactly what she was being offered here "Will I be getting paid to do this?"
"You will be given full rights to the book, and I will make arrangements for it to be published through the Goblins. I also want this to be done as secretly as possible, which is why I am asking you in particular, given your special capabilities in these regards. Will you take the job?" Hermione asked.
"Do I have a choice? Yes, I will take the job. I will also enjoy doing this. Always wanted to apply my skills to the old man, should be fun to see what I learn."
"Very good, and with that settled, I believe I owe you an interview."
Rita nodded, placed the green quill back in her satchel before pulling out a brown one. "Miss Granger, the public wants to know, when did you discover that you were in fact the Heiress of Rowena Ravenclaw?"
"Well, a year ago this past September the tenth I received my Hogwarts Letter; that Saturday Professor McGonagall stopped by my family's house, and introduced herself as the Professor of Transfiguration for Hogwarts. She showed us a few magic tricks, and took us to Diagon Alley. All of this is standard procedure for a young Witch or Wizard who happens to be a Muggle Born, of course."
"Of course," agreed Rita.
"Well while we were in Diagon Alley we went to the Bookstore there. I spent a bit of time reading. I didn't get to do the full amount of reading that I wanted to do, because there just wasn't enough time that day to do so. So after Professor McGonagall returned us back to our house, I convinced my parents to take us back to Diagon Alley the following weekend. While there that weekend I noticed a peculiar book, 'Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy' well I purchased this book and read it at my leisure." Hermione said by way of explanation.
"And what did you discover?" Rita asked, absolutely curious about this line of discourse.
"Well, I discovered that the Gryffindor Line is pretty well documented up until about a century or so ago. The Hufflepuff Line is also pretty well documented, though the last known heir of that line was one Hepzibah Smith who died apparently without children around the year 1946, though I think there might be some sort of relationship between her and one of my classmates, one Zacharias Smith, but I can't be one hundred percent sure of that matter. There are after all an awful lot of Smith's out there." Hermione said to Rita.
"Uh huh, that is an interesting theory, and certainly something worth looking into." Rita contemplated with a smile on her face.
Hermione smirked; Zacharias deserved whatever Rita could dish out to him after the stunts he pulled towards Harry in the previous timeline. "Anyways, as far as the Slytherin Line was concerned, their line was considered extinct in the male lineage since about the 1300's. It is uncertain who the current 'Heir' would be, if there even is one. But thanks to extensive research that I did, I found some rumors that suggest Lord Voldemort…" Hermione waited while Rita recovered from her visible flinching at the name… "Had in fact claimed to be the last surviving Heir of Slytherin, but since he is apparently dead now, then the line must be extinct, mustn't it?"
Rita nodded her head in agreement. Hermione for her part was glad she only said that he was apparently dead. That would work to her advantage when Harry and she had to prove that Voldemort was still alive. She could simply point out that she never said he was actually dead, only that he was apparently dead.
"Well Miss Granger, that tells us about the other three founders, but what did you discover about Ravenclaw House?"
"Only that the last known Heir of Ravenclaw House was a Squib that lived in the 1500's. Now normally the laws that govern the Wizarding World require that the vaults of a Wizarding Family be sealed when a non-magical heir is born; and further if a non-magical heir cannot be produced within five generations then the vaults contents are normally seized by the Ministry of Magic. However due to the status of the Ravenclaw Family as Friends of the Goblin Nation, they were granted certain privileges by Gringotts, one of which is that their Vaults are in the Goblin Sector of Gringotts. This means that in order for the Ministry to lay claim on the Ravenclaw Vaults, they would have to declare War on Gringotts itself. Now while there have been numerous Goblin Rebellions, the Ministry would be stupid to declare War over one vault, and they probably realized this, especially since a Treaty between Gringotts and four Founders has been set up that in an instance that the Ministry tries to seize any one of the Founders Vaults for any reason, than the Goblins are free to use the money in those Vaults to finance a counter offensive." Hermione explained to the best of her ability why it would be a bad idea for the Wizarding World to try to steal money from her.
"So then, it would be in everyone's best interests to leave your finances alone then wouldn't it?" Rita asked.
"Oh most definitely, It was once I learned that information, and because I was curious about what would happen that my parents and I went to Gringotts and I asked for a Test of Ancestry, just for the heck of it. The Goblins informed me that I had to have the consent of my parent or guardian. I asked my parents, they consented and we got the test. We learned that I am descended from Rowena via her second daughter, Beatrice. And that is really all there is to tell on that matter. Other than that we discovered that I have a hereditary seat on both the Hogwarts Board of Governors, and the Wizengamot. But other than that it hasn't been all that big a deal." Hermione concluded.
"Fascinating, and of course I will print this story to the best of my ability. I have your permission to follow up on that story regarding the Smith family?" Rita asked.
"Oh, well only if it is legal to do so. He is still a minor after all." Hermione commented offhandedly.
"Of course, of course," Rita waved Hermione's concern away as if it were nothing.
And with that the Interview was concluded. Hermione excused herself to go back to her common room, and Rita decided it would be best to go and get this story printed in the Evening Prophet. This was going to be big.
Rita's Article had the exact impact that Hermione wanted it to have. Though she did get a few letters asking her random questions but nothing unnecessarily hostile came from it. Thanks to that interview Hermione was able to consolidate a large percentage of the neutral and light families and get them to back her efforts. Heck, even some of the traditionally dark families were backing her efforts because they had no one better to back at this point.
Anyways, the date is Sunday, October the twentieth, and it is today that Harry and Hermione decided would be the most opportune moment to deal with the largest problem that currently resides in the school. They chose this day because there were no classes and because this was the first opportunity that Harry had to make his way down to the School Kitchens and ask the House Elves if he could have about fifty tea towels brought to the girl's lavatory on the first floor. The Elves always wanting to be of service to the students of the school readily agreed to his request.
Hermione on the other hand had managed to procure 3 blocks of wood, and was in the process of transfiguring them into three sets of heavily shielded welding helmets. Hopefully this would prevent Harry and her from seeing the Basilisk while wearing them but would be something that would allow them to function at least somewhat effectively while down there.
Once their preparations were complete Harry went to Professor Snape's classroom and knocked on the door. The door opened to show Snape behind it, "What do you want Potter?"
"Professor, I was curious, would you be interested in partaking in a business venture that could make the two of us very rich men?" Harry asked.
Snape furrowed his brow; he had no idea what Potter could be up to. Admittedly the young man was doing exceptionally well in his potions class, but he honestly had no idea what Potter could possibly offer him that would make him rich. "What are you proposing?"
"I assume you have heard of Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets?" Harry asked the professor.
Snape raised one of his eyebrows, of course he had heard of the Chamber of Secrets, but it was just a myth wasn't it? Oh of course there were rumors that it had been opened about 50 years ago, but those were just rumors. "What of it?"
"Well Hermione and I know where it is. We also are pretty confident about what is inside of it as well. We think it is a Basilisk. I also may have the means to get down into the Chamber. As such we have made preparations that should allow us to kill said Basilisk. All we need is someone skilled enough to harvest the Basilisk for its potions ingredients. Hermione only wants about 10 liters of Basilisk Venom. For my part I was thinking we could split the rest of the ingredients about 30% to 70% your favor. What do you say?" Harry proposed to Snape.
Snape was speechless, 70% of a Basilisk's Potions ingredients, especially one that is that old would be no small price. The fact that Basilisks were practically hunted to extinction several centuries ago and the further breeding of them is illegal in all ICW countries makes these ingredients even more valuable. "Very well Potter, I suppose you have yourself a deal. Lead the way," Snape said while exiting his office and locking the door behind him.
Harry led Professor Snape up to the first floor and to Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom. "This is where the entrance is." Harry said.
"In a girl's lavatory; why am I unsurprised?" Snape said in a bemused voice.
Harry and Snape entered to find fifty tea towels, three welding masks, one despondent female Ghost, and Hermione all sitting in the room together. "Oh hello Harry!" the despondent Ghost said upon their entrance.
"Harry, Professor, are you both ready? If so please each take one of these masks." Hermione told the two of them. She handed them each a mask while she then began a mass levitation charm on the tea towels.
Harry meanwhile walked over to the sinks and looking for the one that had the serpent on it he said "Now or never, let's hope this works, I never did test it out, though I have my suspicions that it will work." Finding the snake he hissed **Open**
Hermione for her part wrinkled her face up and said "Harry, I need to talk to you later," while the sinks began to move out of the way of the passage into the Chamber of Secrets. Snape for his part was surprised to hear Harry speak Parseltongue. That was something he was going to have to mention to the Headmaster after this. Then again, maybe I would be in his best interest to keep this entire incident to himself.
"Miss Granger, Mister Potter, hold on a moment while I analyze the wards on this entrance. It would take a while to harvest all of the ingredients from a Basilisk of this age, and I would like to be able to get back into this place without needing to have Mister Potter present when I do so. Plus it might be in everyone's best interest if Parseltongue as it is apparently not as rare a language as I had previously believed." Snape said to his two companions. Harry and Hermione nodded their ascent, and Snape began casting some diagnostic spells on the portal. Once he had determined the nature of the locking mechanism a simple alteration of the password was effected.
"The new password for the Chamber is 'Khōlā' which is Bengali, a language that is rarely used in Hogwarts. None of you, not even you Myrtle, are permitted to tell anyone, not even the Headmaster the Password to this chamber as it falls under the dominion of the Head of Slytherin House as this was the Chamber of Salazar Slytherin. Is that understood?" Snape explained to everyone present.
"Yes Professor." Myrtle said before diving into a U-bend.
"Yes Sir." Both Harry and Hermione conceded.
"Now then how about you ask for some stairs or something Mister Potter? I certainly don't want to slide down that pipe. And according to my diagnostics there is a way to get some stairs to appear." Snape asked Harry.
"Er, okay…" Harry said and then thought 'that never even occurred to me,' while saying **Stairs** in Parseltongue. To his amazement a flight of stairs began molding themselves out of the stonework pipe.
"After you Miss Granger," Snape said with a smile on his face.
Hermione gulped and started climbing down the stairs, with the tea towels floating in after her, and Harry following behind her. Snape took up the rear.
Once they had descended down into the ante-chamber the three of them made their way to the main chamber itself. Harry and Hermione both idly noticed the lack of a 50 foot snake skin in the tunnel leading to the main chamber, but they did not comment about it.
Upon arriving at the door to the main chamber Harry spoke again **Open** in Parseltongue.
The ever perceptive Snape noticed that the hissing that issued from Harry's Mouth was the same as when he first opened the entrance to the chamber, but not the same as when he called for stairs. He was thus mildly surprised when this door too opened. "Potter, please tell me that the password for this door was not the same as the one as in the bathroom?"
Harry shrugged and said "Sorry Professor but I won't lie to you."
Snape grumbled under his breath about 'Slytherin not being worthy of his own name' and proceeded to cast diagnostic charms and wards to place a new password on the door. "There, the new password for this door is 'Malfermita' a word from the Esperanto language, another rarely used in Hogwarts. Again I ask that you not tell anyone this password."
"Yes Professor," the two students said, as they both grinned. And with that the three of them plus tea towels entered the Chamber of Secrets.
"Bloody Hell," Severus said upon seeing the gigantic statue of Slytherin that dominated the room. "There goes the last bit of respect I had for that man."
Harry grinned and said "Oh it's worse than you think. The password to call for the Basilisk is 'Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four. But it has to be spoken in Parseltongue."
Snape looked between Harry and the statue and then back to Harry, "Please tell me you are joking? I really didn't think that Slytherin could have had that big of an Ego. The whole point of Slytherin house is to be cunning, clever, and determined. While ambition is valued, egotism just for the sake of being egotistical is just plain contrary to the point of being cunning."
Harry just shrugged. All while they were talking about this Hermione had been casting transfiguration charms on the tea towels to turn them into roosters. At this point they had all been transfigured. Hermione looked around satisfied and said "Professor, would you mind casting a Sonorous Charm on Harry? Then the three of us will need to retreat to behind one of these snake statues. Once we have done that both you and I will need to don our masks while Harry calls for the Basilisk. Once he has done that, he will need to don his mask as well, hopefully once that is done everything will work out as planned."
Snape nodded and cast the spell on Harry. Then everyone did their parts. Once everyone was safely behind the statue and Snape and Hermione had their masks on their faces, Harry spoke in Parseltongue **Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four!** once he had done that he quickly shot a stinging hex at the nearest rooster, and promptly put his mask on.
The rooster that had been hit by the stinging hex started crowing in surprise. This set off all the other roosters. It was to this cacophony of noise that the three humans heard the stone upon stone that heralded the Basilisk entering the chamber. There was a loud splashing sound followed by an agonizing roar, and then there was silence aside from the still crowing roosters.
Harry, Hermione, and Snape waited several more minutes. When no further noise was heard Hermione cautiously removed her mask and looked around the stone snake. What she saw was the dead basilisk. Its eyes were opened, but glazed over in the repose of death. One thing she had been sure to check before coming here was if a Basilisks eyes were still lethal after it had died. Fortunately they were not. So Hermione spoke to the others "it's safe." She then began casting multiple finite's on the roosters who were still crowing.
Snape removed his mask and walked over to the Basilisk. Conjuring some implements he set about milking the basilisk of its venom. Once he had ten liters he handed it to Hermione, "Miss Granger, I suggest you transfer these into more permanent diamond flasks. Diamond is the only substance that is strong enough to hold basilisk venom for an extended period of time. You can find the required containers if you do not have some in the Seventh Year Student Cabinets. You have my permission to retrieve enough for your purposes."
"Thank you Professor," Hermione said as she retrieved the Venom.
"Now if you two will excuse me, I have a Basilisk to begin Harvesting." Snape said dismissing Hermione and Harry.
Hermione banished the Tea Towels back to the kitchen so that the Hogwarts Elves could clean them. Then Harry and Hermione retreated back to the entrance to the Chamber. Harry made sure that the stairs would stay present for Snapes return, and then the students began their assent to Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom.
Once there they both decided the best course of action was for Harry to go retrieve the flasks that Snape mentioned, while Hermione headed for the Room of Requirement.
Once they both had gathered at the Room of Requirement, Hermione said "You have more experience with this room, why don't you call for it?"
"Okay" Harry said as he began pacing in front of the entry to the Room of Requirement thinking 'I need a room with Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem' over and over again.
Miraculously the door to the Room of Requirement appeared upon his third passing. Harry opened the door and looked in. The room was a small chamber, with a table in the middle of it, sitting upon the table was a bust, and upon the bust sat Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem.
Harry called over his shoulder to Hermione "It worked." And the two of them entered the room together.
After exchanging the Venom into the Diamond Flasks, Hermione used a conjured Diamond eyedropper to place a small amount of Basilisk Venom onto the Diadem.
The ensuing scream of agony that issued from the diadem proved to the two students that the Diadem was no longer a Horcrux. They both grinned at each other and said "One down, half a dozen left to go."
With that done Harry conjured up some chairs for the two of them to sit and talk. "Hermione you said something about talking to me later back in Myrtle's Bathroom, what did you want?"
"Oh Harry, I realized something when you opened the Chamber. You remember how back during the Battle of Hogwarts Ron and I disappeared for a while, and when we came back we had Basilisk Fangs?" Hermione rushed to say.
Harry got nervous about this "Yeah, what about it?"
"Well it's just that Ron was the one to open the Chamber. At the time I didn't think anything of it. He said something about hearing you speak Parseltongue often enough in your sleep that he thought he could imitate it. But after hearing the sounds you made today, and comparing them to what he was doing back then… it wasn't even close." Hermione said.
Harry didn't even know what to say, this was problematic. Harry and Hermione took a big gamble today by trusting Severus with the knowledge of the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. But that was something that Harry was willing to do now that he knew that Snape had been in love with his mother. Originally Hermione wanted to get Snape off the falculty, but Harry realized shortly after their discussion the morning of his first potions lesson that getting Snape off the falculty would be a bad idea. With Snape they had someone whom Voldemort considered an ally. And because Snape loved Harry's mother, Snape's loyalty was never really with Voldemort.
The goal that Harry had when he enlightened Snape on the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets was to gain an ally. Hopefully gain Snape's respect in the process. He was also hoping that if he could sever the hold that Dumbledore had over Snape and put Snape's loyalty behind himself instead, then they could possibly have an in within the Order of the Phoenix as well as the Death Eaters. This would be a huge benefit to the two students that they just couldn't undervalue. So Harry had proposed his business arrangement, and so far Snape seems to be honoring the arrangement.
But if what Hermione is saying is true, then it means that someone along the line in the previous timeline went in and altered the password to the Chamber of the Secrets so that any sort of hissing would open it, regardless of if it was Parseltongue or not. The only person that Harry could think of who would be that stupid was Albus Bloody Dumbledore.
"I seriously hope that Dumbledore never finds out about the Chamber of Secrets, otherwise we will have a serious problem." Harry said to Hermione.
"Based on Severus' actions, I don't think he intends to tell the Headmaster. Hopefully his order to Myrtle will be heeded. But still, at least the Basilisk is dead. That solves at least one problem that will arise next year." Hermione agreed.
"Yeah, all we have to worry about now is that bloody diary." Harry mused, and then he said "Let's get back to the Tower; we will need our rest for the rest of the week. If I remember correctly, there is a Troll that will be finding its way into the School this week, isn't there?"
"Ugh, don't remind me! Hopefully Ron can avoid being a prat this time around." Hermione exclaimed.
"Doubtful. Though I think we can make better use of our time than moping around in bathrooms even if he does make a prat of himself, don't you?" Harry mused.
"Yes, most certainly; this will be an opportune time to deal with one of this year's major problems. Let's let the teachers handle the troll this time around. We have more important issues to deal with." Hermione agreed.
And with that the two students went off to their tower for some rest and recuperation.
A/N: please check out the following site: / forum / DalkonCledwin-A-Look-Behind-the-Curtain / 159071 /
all spaces removed and by a period.