Here's another update, and it is my longest chapter ever!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does. Also, if you see something that you did in one of your stories, it was not intentionally copied.

Thank you to my Beta, Teufel1987.

Twin Trios

Chapter Eleven

Since the duelling club, everybody was now a firm believer that Percy Potter was the one that was attacking all the Muggleborns. Of course, you could tell that there were those, like Malfoy, who didn't think that the Gryffindor was actually the heir but liked making fun of him in front of everybody. Saying things like "Make way for the heir of Slytherin," or "Who are you gonna attack next, oh great Lord Slytherin," were two examples. Both were said with no small amount of sarcasm.

Of course, if anyone had really thought of it, they would have realised that Percy's mother was Muggleborn, so why would he attack Muggleborns? But in their fear, nobody realised that.

James Potter had been spotted storming up to Hogwarts the day after the duelling club. Percy hadn't shown up that day for lunch, and though he showed up for dinner, he looked angry and disgusted. Harry couldn't help but feel slight pity for his twin. He knew how much his father loved people who could talk to snakes, even if they were family. The rumour had circulated shortly throughout the school been that his father had threatened to disown Percy if he ever used that gift again.

Both Harry and Daphne were pleased with how their little meetings affected their skills at the duelling club. Daphne had won her duel easily though that didn't say much since she had an easily opponent while Harry had certainly held his own against someone a little more competent, at least until the snake bit.

"How about this spell?" Harry asked Daphne during their first meeting after the duelling club, looking up from a book that he had taken out of the library. "The incantation is Reducto. It can be used to damage solid objects" He looked at her and grinned. Daphne nodded in response. Harry had talked to some house elves, and arranged to have chairs and cushions for the spells that weren't safe to practice on each other.

He went over and aimed his wand.

"Reducto," he called out softly. A little flash and a quiet bang erupted from his wand, but the chair that he was trying to hurt stayed the same. He tried again and got the same result. After ten more tries, he stopped trying and looked over to Daphne. She had a little smirk on her face, and her chair was lying in pieces.

"Need a little help?" She asked him with her eyebrows raised in a mocking way. Harry glared at her and went back to trying to mimic her success. After another ten tries, he had had enough and swallowed down his pride enough to request her aid. It was very rare that they had to help each other. Normally they studied together in case one of them got hurt or to practise their duelling skills. Actually, Harry just wanted to spend time with her so he could speak to her, which he now could. She walked over to him slowly.

"You need to make sure your spin on your wand is quick, yes like that, but you're going to wrong way Harry," She noticed. Harry looked back at the book to find out that she was right. He had been going in a clockwise direction while the book said counter-clockwise. He corrected his mistake, and soon enough his chair was similar to Daphne's.

"So how about we try to learn Reparo now?" Daphne suggested. "If we know how to ruin things, it'd be a good idea to know how to repair them too." Harry agreed with her logic, so they set upon learning Reparo.

After thirty minutes of attempting the spell, they both could get it around half the time they tried to cast it.

"We'll have to keep working on that one," Harry stated. Daphne nodded.

"I think we're done for today," she said. Harry agreed with her, since they had been working for nearly an hour. She picked up her bag and Harry picked up the books that they had been working from and they ended their meeting.

!#$%^&*

Harry was sitting in the common room with Ron and Hermione. Ron was doing some of the homework that professor Flitwick had given them while Hermione had her nose in the book on Transfiguration that Harry had brought back from the Chamber. He had told Hermione that she had better read the book, since he had spent a lot of energy translating it for her. And it was only one book. Harry was also reading a book on some duelling magic to practice with Daphne.

"Hey listen to this," Hermione called out. "Did who know that according to Salazar Slytherin, the most important thing when you're doing transfiguration is to remember each detail of object you're trying to transfigure, and then imagine each thing moulding together?" She looked at them, expecting an answer. Ron nodded absentmindedly while Harry murmured "Interesting. " She huffed in annoyance and went back to reading her book. A few minutes of silence passed before Harry spoke again.

"So what are you two doing for the holidays?" Hermione looked up once again, while Ron scribbled another sentence down before joining the conversation.

"I'm going home," she told them. "Mum and dad want us to go skiing again. I think I may be able to convince them to just stay at home though," She added with a shiver.

"I'm going to stay at Hogwarts," Ron mumbled. "I overheard from Fred that my parents are going to Romania like they were supposed to have last year. Unfortunately that means that all the Gryffindor Weasleys are staying at Hogwarts too. Didn't bother to let me know that they were going away though, did they? After all, they are even bringing Ginny along with them!" Ron said bitterly. Hermione suddenly perked up let she remembered something.

"Guess who else isn't going home?" She asked, half gleeful and half apprehensive. When she got questioning looks from both the boys, she continued. "Gabriel."

Harry was startled, as Hermione had told them before that her parents and Gabriel had a good relationship.

"How do you know that?" Ron asked.

"Her name wasn't on the list outside Professor McGonagall's office. That's where the Gryffindors sign up." Hermione explained.

"So do you know why she isn't?" He asked his friend. Hermione shrugged.

"I have no clue. They haven't had a fight about anything that I've heard of. Of course, it's not like I talk to her on a daily basis, so I wouldn't know if they had. But don't you find that slightly suspicious? It's almost like she's up to something, and I bet you that both of your twins are doing it with her." Ron nodded.

"I don't even want to know what they're doing," he mumbled. "We already have enough troubles with the chamber and such." Harry and Hermione nonverbally agreed with him.

"What about you Harry?" Hermione inquired.

"I'm staying here," was the answer she got. Harry had never even considered going home and spending extra time with his loving father. He then frowned. "If… if Gabriel is staying at Hogwarts over Christmas… and Ray is too… then do you think Percy is also?"

Ron and Hermione didn't answer. Much to his dismay, the next time Harry was outside the deputy headmistress's office, his brother's name was not there on the list of students going home.

!#$%^&*

"Stupefy, Stupefy, Expelliarmus," Harry called out while attempting to hit the dummies that he was practising on. Harry was in the chamber, practising his duelling in the duelling room for the first time. He had it on the easy difficulty, and he was glad. His ancestor must've been some dueller if this was easy.

He had all of the environmental settings off, deciding to just flip on the wands and the easy switches. Once he was able to beat the easy difficulty easily, he would probably try to notch it up a bit.

One of Harry's spells hit a dummy and his mark on the scoreboard went up. The scoreboard had appeared after Harry had hit his first dummy, at the end of the platform with the number one. Only after defeating another two dummies had Harry finally figured out what it was. His current score was sixteen.

One of the dummies that he had missed in his spell chain raised its wand and shot out a jet of scarlet light. Harry dodged, but only just. He had started to tire after his tenth hit, though it was probably better then it would've been if he hadn't been running for a few months. He retaliated with a stunning spell, which found its mark.

The score went up by another point. Harry briefly wondered if there was a limit on how many dummies he would be allowed to hit before the programme shut down. He guessed that it would never happen, but you never know. Another three dummies had appeared and were coming at him. They each shot a spell at the same time. Harry ducked, but could still feel the wind from the spells above his head. He tried to straighten up to retaliate, but before he could he was hit with a spell from behind, knocking him onto the floor.

When Harry came to he was laying on his back, gazing at the ceiling of the Chamber of Secrets. The dummies that he had been duelling with had disappeared back to where ever they come from, but his score was still up. Pulling himself to a sitting position, Harry looked at his score.

Seventeen wasn't bad for his first time, he guessed. Below his score, however, was the high score. Feeling slightly inferior to the person who managed to get two hundred and eleven on the level that he couldn't even get twenty, Harry got up and started to leave the room after looking at his petrified familiar for the last time until his next visit. Looking at his watch, he had been down there for an hour. He cheered up when he realised that he still had half an hour left.

Harry walked into the library and headed over to section that told the life of the great founder.

Last week, we changed our minds about sorting the students next year. The students were getting into too many fights in the dormitories because of different opinions, so we officially split the students into four groups. I picked mine after observing the students in my class. Some were those who excelled in my class, the others I picked because they a sharp look in their eye. Godric also took most of the ones that excelled in his class (those students were also well known to rush into attacks during duelling practice, like himself), while Helga mostly got the people that were average or slightly above average in nearly every class, since she valued hard work. Rowena got the ones that were very good at a few subjects, particularly at the theory work.

Already I can sense a conflict between Godric's students and my students. I fear it is because of the belief that dark magic is evil and light magic is good. These fools don't understand that there is no good and evil magic, but those too weak to achieve greatness.

Harry flipped to another page until he found an entry that signalled the start of the second school year of Hogwarts.

Tonight the fifteen new students that we had found were sorted, not by us, but by the enchanted hat that Rowena created with Helga. It can go into a student's mind and read their personality, so that it may choose which out of the four of us the student is most compatible with. There was only one mistake, where it called out Slytherdor for a student, but other than that it worked smoothly.

Among one of the new Slytherins, is one birthed by non-magic users called Wendel White. I found him just as his parents were about to gather the villagers to burn him for the same reason that they did to my parents. I knocked his parents out, but unfortunately in my anger I had put too much power into my curse. They flew up into the air and hit their own house, snapping their necks. The boy was in too much shock to be angry at me afterwards, but what about now?

Harry turned the page to the next entry and started to read again.

Mr. White is a quiet boy. He's studies quietly in the class and listen to instructions easily. But there's the look in his eyes, one that show that if he put his mind to it, he could be quite a cunning fellow. Perhaps pretending to be quiet and observant is his unique style of cunning that I haven't seen before.

In other news, a fight broke out today between Godric's students and my own. I scolded them for not controlling their anger better than that, and then proceeded to inquire as to what the petty fight had been about. Apparently, some of the Gryffindors, or "Gryffindorks" as some of my students call them, had insulted me and the subject I taught. I am not as gullible as I let them believe, though I do not doubt that there was some truth in their lies.

I will talk to Godric about it tomorrow.

Harry turned another page. Quickly glancing at his watch, he saw that he only had another ten minutes before he had to go up. Deciding to read another page or two, Harry looked back at his book. He was dismayed to see that Slytherin's writing was nearly scribbles, but Harry was still able to make out most of the text.

How dare he? That no good… I called him my friend! I talked to… he laughed… he was encouraging it himself… made fun of me and my subject… he'll pay.

Harry was a bit confused about that entry. His ancestor was probably talking about Gryffindor, and the incident that had occurred the other day? Harry was about to turn the page when something happened.

Harry heard a crashing noise, causing him to look up. He was just quick enough to look up and see the back of someone's shoe disappearing into the basilisk chamber. He dropped the book without a thought, took out his wand and gave chase. He entered the chamber and looked around.

It was empty. Slowing down to a cautious walk, Harry looked around carefully. Almost everything was the same, except for some water that was spread out a bit forming a pool. He almost relaxed until he felt a spell that he didn't recognize miss his head by inches. The purple spell hit the wall in front him, causing a bit of the stone to break off.

Harry whirled around, wand raised to attack the person. But he saw nothing. 'Probably a disillusionment charm,' though Harry. His theory was pretty much confirmed when another spell came flying from his side from seemingly nowhere. He dodged it, but was not expecting the second one that followed. It hit him right in the stomach. Harry went flying and lost a grip on his wand. He faintly heard it clatter away.

He also heard a person mocking him. Whoever his attacker was, he was just whistling like he was on a nice stroll during the afternoon. Harry felt a surge of anger and felt around for his wand. It was closer than he had thought. He snatched it up and shouted viciously.

"Expelliarmus!"

The red light erupted from his wand. A crunch let Harry know that it had made contact, and the sound of a wand dropping onto the floor a few feet to the left of him made it all that more satisfactory. He bent down to pick it up, but before he could it was summoned from the attacker.

'Wandless magic!' thought Harry. He was worried now. He had found that wandless magic had been easier when he was little than now, and if this person could do it…

'No Harry,' he thought while giving himself a mental shake to tell him to snap out of it. He probably just has a spare wand. He wasn't given any more time for thought as the attacker was back on the offence. Harry was able to dodge both his spells this time and even managed to cast the stunning spell. It didn't make contact with anything until it reached the wall, which it hit.

The sound of running footsteps alerted Harry. They were heading towards the exit. He attempted to stun the person but missed. The footsteps started to fade. Realizing that he could lose whomever it was attacking the students if he didn't give chase, Harry ran after him. He entered the library just in time to see a mane of red hair disappear around the corner. The same colour that he was fascinated by during his runs in the Room of Requirement.

This made Harry freeze in disbelief. The attacker, who Harry now knew to be Ginny, didn't stop. Her footsteps continued and less than thirty seconds later Harry was alone in the chamber once again.

'How can Ginny Weasley be the heir of Slytherin?' Harry wondered. 'Her family has been in Gryffindor for generations, except for her brother and herself. Did the hat sense her heritage? Is that why she was put into Slytherin instead of Gryffindor?'But that couldn't be right... Harry was almost certain... no, he was certain from memory that there weren't any Weasleys on the tree in the tree room... but he couldn't deny what he had just seen.

Harry shook his head, still confused about what had just happened. Looking at his watch, he realised that he was now thirty minutes over the time he had told Ron and Hermione he would be down in the Chamber. Still confused about what had just transpired, he left his ancestor's secret Chamber for the day.

!#$%^&*

Harry was down in the common room, waiting for a certain redhead for the morning run. He wasn't sure if how you should treat her now that he knew she was the heir. Should he tell the school? Should he somehow attack her, or get someone else to, and get her expelled when she retaliates? Or what if he told his head of house?

Harry dismissed the last one. Professor Snape had been colder to him recently, and Harry could guess that if he told the potions master, the message would only be relayed onto the headmaster, who Harry didn't trust. That fact also eliminated the first option.

What about the middle choice? Harry didn't really want to attack his friend, even if he was sure she was the heir of Slytherin. Besides, he had to admit it was slightly more fun to run now that he had someone else to do it with (Ron and Hermione still hadn't caught on.)

A little voice was nagging in the back on Harry's mind. Why wouldn't she be bragging to our house if she was the one? It asked. Maybe it's because Ginevra Weasley isn't really the heir. Harry mentally told it to shut up.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by a movement from the staircase. He tensed up when he looked up and saw it to be the same redhead that had been occupying his thoughts so much recently.

"Good morning Harry," she said sadly. Her eyes showed signs that they had been crying while she had bags under her eyes, showing that her roommates hadn't been very hospitable last night. 'At least, that's what she wants me to think,' Harry thought. 'It's probably really because she was out celebrating the success of her recent attack.

And it was true. At dinner after the battle in the Chamber, Harry had found out that a sixth year Ravenclaw had been attacked and was now in the hospital wing.

Harry mumbled a weak hello. The two friends started to walk to the room where they would be exercising. After a few minutes of silence, Harry asked her a question that had been on his mind. "So Ginny, are you going home for Christmas?" he asked her. He was surprised when she nodded her head.

"Yes, I am," she said. "Mum and dad want me to spend quality time with them and my brother, who we're going to visit." She dropped the volume of his voice. "Personally, I think they probably think I'm going dark because of my Slytherin sorting and this is them trying to show me the light."

Both of them rolled their eyes at the typical reaction to someone going into Slytherin. They fell back into a silence before Ginny decided to break it.

"So who do you think is the heir of Slytherin Harry?" she asked him. It took all Harry had not to goggle at her. She had the nerve to ask him who he believed the heir was when they both knew that it was her.

"I… I'm not sure," Harry answered after a while. "It's most likely someone in Slytherin, though you can't discount the other houses." Ginny looked thoughtful.

"I guess it could be someone from another house. Do you think that Percy's the heir of Slytherin?" Ginny asked him. "I mean, he's the only known Parselmouth in the school, so who else could it be?"

"I'm not sure," Harry said as sarcastically as he could. "Maybe someone smart enough to actually hide the fact that they can speak to serpents, not advertise the fact like my brother did." He gave Ginny a little look that she appeared not to have noticed. Abruptly, her face lit up in sudden realisation.

"Harry, if your brother can speak Parseltongue, and it's something that you almost always have to inherit, does that mean that you can talk to snakes too?" Harry's insides froze and he felt himself become conscious of how warm it had become.

"I'm not sure," he told her, trying to sound sincere. "I've never tried to talk to a snake before." What a total lie.

He wasn't sure if Ginny totally bought it. She frowned but didn't press him further.

"So who's older out of the two of you? All the books that my family have bought that have your brother in them don't even mention him have a brother, let alone if he was the younger one or the older one" She asked him. Mildly suspicious of the change of subject, Harry answered.

"I'm older then he is," Harry answered. He was slightly fearful when Ginny's face transformed into one of triumph.

"So if he, the younger one, has the gift, then you must have it." Backed into a corner, Harry was confused.

"Okay fine. I can speak to snakes, happy? Only Ron and Hermione know, and what a good thing too. You see all the bad things people are saying about Percy?" At Ginny's nod, he continued. "If that's what they did to the saviour of the wizarding world, imagine what they would do to me, especially since I'm actually in Slytherin, unlike him."

Ginny was silent for a moment then asked another question.

"So does that mean you're the person that's been attacking people?"

"No," Harry said sharply while both admiring and being annoyed at the nerve Ginny had to ask that when he knew she was the heir.

"Do you know where the Chamber of Secrets is?" She also asked him. Harry didn't know what to do. He knew that he had seen a person with red hair that was long and… well pretty, like Ginny's in the Chamber yesterday. So it must've been her. But if it was… why would she be asking all these questions?

"No, I honestly have no idea where it is," Harry said as best as he could without sounding like he was lying. Ginny looked at him, and he could see in her eyes that she believed him.

Ginny looked at him one last time before going into the Room of Requirement. They had arrived at the room a while ago, but hadn't been able to think about the room that they wanted due to the conversation that had been having. Harry quickly followed.

"And Harry," Ginny added. He turned around to face her. "You really need to work on your lying. I could totally tell that you weren't telling the truth about the Parseltongue."

Harry smiled. "Thanks for the tip."

As he ran, Harry couldn't help but smile when he remembered that she hadn't been able to tell when he had been lying about the Chamber.

!#$%^&*

"I think we're ready to duel each other," Harry stated to Daphne. Daphne lazily hummed consent before opening her mouth and speaking.

"I think we should put a limit on the spells we can use," was what came out. Harry was slightly confused.

"But why? If we do real duels, then our opponents and us aren't going to sit down to discuss legal and illegal spells before we start fighting."

"Yes, but we don't want to hurt each other too badly. We taught ourselves how to revive people, but we can't afford to break things. If we do that, we would have to go to see the school nurse… who would ask questions…" Daphne trailed off at this point. One of the things that Harry liked best about Daphne was the fact that she had pretty good arguments. The stupid voice of reason that you knew was right, but you didn't want it to be right.

"Okay," Harry agreed with a sigh. "What spells do you think we should be allowed to use." Daphne already had her answer ready.

"I was thinking we can disarm, stun, and use any charms that won't harm us. Shields are allowed, but no transfiguration. Not that we can really do any harm to each other by transfiguring things since we don't really know enough to use it in comba-" Harry lifted his index finger and rested it on his mouth. Daphne blushed.

"So disarming, stunning and shields plus some charms, as long as it doesn't harm. Correct?" Harry asked her, amused at her rambling. Daphne nodded.

Harry started to walk towards the left side of the room while Daphne went the opposite way. They did a short bow, and then waited for the other person to make a move. They had discussed and had both come to the conclusion that starting a duel with a countdown was a really dumb idea.

Harry ended up making the first move. He quickly slashed his wand towards her chest area while murmuring the incantation 'Stupefy' quietly so Daphne couldn't hear him, not that it would make much difference with the rules that they had made. Daphne took a step to the left and before the spell had even passed her, she cast something in retaliation. Her spell was aimed around Harry's waist, so he also went to the left.

"Expelliarmus, Expelliarmus, stupefy," Harry cast a quick chain, attempting to catch her off guard. It worked - somewhat. Daphne's eyes widened slightly before she narrowed them in concentration. She then proceeded to weave through the three spells. The last one almost hit her, but she managed to dodge it. She shot back some spells.

The duel continued like that for five minutes until things started to heat up. They were now throwing spells at the same time instead of the little turns that they had been doing before. Neither of them could get a hit on the other. All of a sudden, after dodging Harry's most recent attempt to defeat her, Daphne turned her wand onto herself.

To Harry's surprise, all of her hair disappeared. Due to shock, Harry unconsciously relaxed. That was all Daphne needed, not wasting any time, she trained her wand on Harry.

"Stupefy."

Harry tried to dodge the spell but was too slow. The next thing he remembered is a smirking Daphne holding out her hand to help him up. Her smooth, black hair was back.

"How'd you do that?" Harry asked her.

"Glamour charm," was the answer he received. "My mother was very big on how a proper lady should do her hair, so the first thing she taught me to do once I got my own wand was glamour charms on the hair. I thought it might surprise you to see my hair like that… and it did!" Harry rolled his eyes.

"Okay, fine. You won that duel. Best two out of three?" he asked with a hopeful expression on his face. Daphne laughed.

!#$%^&*

Much to Harry's dismay, Quidditch practice ran right up until the last day of school before the Christmas holidays. He knew he couldn't afford to miss a lot, if any, so he was forced more and more to put his homework on hold and finish it later then he would've liked to.

Another thing that Harry didn't like was the fact that his brother was staying for the holidays too. Harry wasn't exactly sure why, but he was. Of course, he had talked about it with Ron and Hermione, but it wasn't the same as seeing him when, in Harry's opinion, it should be a brother free time of the school year.

After seeing Hermione off on the train, Harry and Ron headed back to the nearly empty Slytherin dorm. Last year every single Slytherin save Harry had gone home for the holidays. This year, there were a few more studious fifth years this year and they had opted to stay so they could study for O.W.L.s.

"So what do you want to do during the holidays Harry?" Ron asked Harry. Harry thought about it for a moment. He remembered what he had done last year. Since no one in the house had been in the dormitory, he had practiced some more advanced magic then was normal. He had stopped trying to do that though, since he realised there would be plenty of time for the advanced things when he was older.

"I dunno," Harry answered. He came up with something totally not original, but still fun just off the top of his head. "We could have a snowball fight!" Ron's eyes lit up.

"Right now?" Ron asked, surprised. Harry didn't answer, but instead checked to make sure he had his wand. Once he knew he did, he smiled at his friend and nodded. Without any more words, Harry picked up a lump of snow, crushed it in his hands then threw it as hard as he could at his friend. It skinned his jacket, as Ron had noticed what he was doing and attempted to dodge.

An hour later, the two boys were tired, wet and hungry (Ron had complained loudly that Harry had cheated by using his wand). They entered the castle, hoping that Filch wasn't lurking just inside the doors like he sometimes did during the Quidditch season. For once, it seemed like luck was with Harry, since the caretaker was occupied elsewhere. The Slytherins went down to the common room and emerged ten minutes later, now dry.

To Harry, it seemed like lady luck had decided at that moment to abandon them, because just as they walked up the staircase from the dungeons, they spotted Percy, Ray and Gabriel. Harry nudged Ron to look in the Gryffindors direction, which he did. As soon as he had also spotted them, they put their heads down and sped up, attempting to escape a confrontation. It was not to be.

"Hey snake," Percy called out. "How are you and the nest of the snakes doing? After all, there's no shame in losing to such a great house in Quidditch." It took Harry a moment to realize what his brother was talking about. Harry was surprised when his brother hadn't gloated to him earlier than this.

"What great house?" Harry asked, acting confused, "Do you mean those lucky dorfs that beat Slytherin in the season opener? Nah, between you and me, that match was all luck." Percy's eyes narrowed.

"Oh scarhead," he said with a sigh. "Some people, like me, have natural talent at things like Quidditch while some people, like you, have natural talent at backstabbing and betraying. Does the game where you cheated last year ring a bell?" Ron's twin decided that it would be a good time to add something else to that.

"Yeah, you'll never even be close to Percy." Since it was his twin, Ron spoke up.

"Close to Percy in what," he said, trying to sound as innocent as possible. "He'll never be close to the cockiness and stupidity level of him, you're right." All Ray seemed to get from that was 'you're right," but then the rest of the words caught up with him.

"You little snake!" Ray pulled out his wand and shouted "Stupefy!" The red light came out of his wand and headed towards the two Slytherins. Not taking the chance that Ron could actually dodge, Harry pushed Ron out of the wand and drew his wand quickly to retaliate.

"Expelliarmus," he casted the disarming charm three times. The other two Gryffindors had drawn their wands and attempted to stun him. Harry was starting to think that that was the only spell they could cast in combat. It was the only one that he had ever seen them do, anyway.

His disarming charm made contact with the Weasley part of the trio, knocking his wand out of his hand and towards Harry. Harry raised his hand to catch it, but before he could he was forced to sidestep so he wouldn't be hit by one of his brother's spells.

Harry could sense that Ron had drawn his wand and was also starting to fight back, though Harry noticed that the only thing that he could really do was the disarming charm. That's all Harry was using, because he didn't want to get in trouble for fighting with Dumbledore's golden boy.

Harry was finally able to catch Percy with one of the spells. His brother's wand went flying out of his hand, causing Gabriel, the last Gryffindor standing, to glance over to confirm he had been disarmed. Taking advantage of her moment of weakness, Ron disarmed her.

"What's going on here?" yelled out an angry voice. They turned to see four people who had just walked down the stairs. It was the headmaster, the head of Slytherin house and Harry's parents.

"Professor Dumbledore sir," Percy started to babble. "The two Slytherins over there just came up from the dungeons when my friends and I were walking to dinner. They just started to fire random spells at us. Some of them were probably even green!"

Dumbledore ate it all up, his eyes twinkling the entire time he listened to what many called his favourite student. Finally it seemed like even Dumbledore had had enough of the golden boy's rambling and cut him off.

"Percy my dear boy, why don't you go and eat dinner? I'll deal with it straight away." Percy nodded to his hero and left with his friends. Dumbledore turned his gaze onto Harry and Ron. Despite his total lack of respect for the elder wizard, Harry still felt himself intimidated. Perhaps he should give him a little respect … He did defeat a dark lord after all.

"What do you two have to say for yourselves?" He asked them. "Endangering students lives like that…"

Harry sighed and tried to play the respectful card. He knew from experience that trying to tell the headmaster the truth was like talking to a brick wall. "But sir, it was only meant for fun. Making sure the boy who's going to save us from" Harry dropped his voice. "You-Know-Who is in top condition." Of course, the headmaster brought what Percy had told him, but none of what Harry had.

"It pains me to do so, Mr. Potter, but I'm afraid I have no choice other than to give you detention with Professor Snape next Saturday at… I believe Professor Snape is available at eight?"At the professor's nod he continued. "As for you, Mr Weasley, you will be serving with Filch when the term begins," Ron started to open his mouth to argue, but Harry put his hand on his shoulder, warning him not to. Ron didn't say anything, but he was still tense.

"Oh yes. Along with fifty points from Slytherin for attacking students with their back turned." Harry tried not to show it, but that one was new and surprised him. Without another word, the headmaster walked into the door, followed by Snape who had a classic sneer on his face. Harry's father sent him a glare that was supposed to be really vicious, but ended up making him look like a weird sort of Hippogriff.

His mother on the other hand was humming a tune while she walked by, the last one of the four to go. After glancing to make sure that no one in the great hall was watching, she took something out of her pocket and dropped it on the floor. With a wink to her son, she walked into the great hall.

Harry took a couple steps forward, bent down and picked it up. The thing that his mother had dropped him was most likely a book, judging by its size and weight. It was wrapped lightly in brown paper. He slipped it into his pocket and then stood up again. Ron was waiting for him at the door. Harry joined him and they went to eat their first dinner of the holidays.

!#$%^&*

Harry left the common room the Saturday after the fight with his brother at ten to eight to serve his unjust detention with his head of house. He got there without running into anyone and knocked on the door. He smiled slightly as he recalled the pats on the back that the older ones had given him for beating the smug Gryffindor that was his brother. They told him that it was worth the loss of points and they would vouch for him if other Slytherins got angry at him.

"Enter," a curt voice called softly from the interior of the room. Professor Snape was sitting at his desk, probably grading papers if the parchments on his desk were anything to go by. There was no sign that Harry was serving a detention; no cloths that he had heard that people used to clean cauldrons without magic. Harry entered the room and walked to where the head of house sat. "Sit." Harry obeyed.

And then he waited. The clock ticked by silently for five minutes while Professor Snape finished grading his students work. Finally he finished. The Slytherin head of house put away the quill that he had been using to grade and looked up at Harry.

"How are you this evening, Mr. Potter?" He asked. Harry was taken aback and immediately suspicious. He knew that his head of house really didn't care about how he was doing.

"I'm perfectly fine sir," Harry answered calmly. And then silence reigned once more for another few minutes.

"Mr. Potter, do you recall last year when you sold me some basilisk venom?"

Harry stiffened at the reminder. He very well remembered that day where his professor had drugged him with a mild compulsion drought then tried to find out how well he could duel. He had never attempted to sell him any more venom.

"Yes I do. Sir," Harry added as an afterthought. Professor Snape continued on. Harry still wasn't sure where this was going, but he could tell he wasn't going to like it.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, Mr. Potter."

"Yes sir," Harry said after the professor stopped talking. He bit back a snarky comment.

"It was known to be the secret Chamber of Salazar Slytherin, who could talk to snakes. Am I correct?"

"Yes, sir. I believe you are correct."

"A basilisk is a snake, is it not?"

"Yes sir."

"There is supposed to be a monster in the Chamber of Secrets, isn't that right?"

"Excuse me, sir, but why are you telling me all this?"

"Because," Professor Snape started. "The headmaster and I agree that it is very possible that the monster is a snake, and basilisks are a very powerful species of snake. One glance at its eyes can… kill you. The headmaster and I both… agree that seeing it indirectly could possibly petrify the unfortunate victim."

"You got basilisk venom, an extremely rare substance, Mr. Potter," his head of house continued. Harry was pretty sure that he knew where this was going now. "Where. Did. You. Get it?"

"I… uh... found it, sir," was the only thing Harry could think of on the spot. He briefly wondered if the fight with Percy was set up, or perhaps the four adults had stood and watched for an opportunity to give Harry a detention for this interrogation.

Snape raised his eyebrows. "You say you… found it?" He asked him.

"Yeah," Harry tried to sound confident. "I found it the forest near home. Mum has always talked about you and your skills at potion making, so I thought you could use it." He could tell that his attempt at sucking up had worked slightly. He thought he had seen a smile on his professor's lips before he got back in control and did his normal sneer.

"Perhaps that lie would've worked if you hadn't also sold some to the Apothecary. Tell me the truth." He said the last sentence a bit normal then he normally would, startling Harry a bit. The Parselmouth had no clue on what to do.

"I found a lot of the venom, sir," was the best that he could come up with. Much to his dismay, the potions professor's lip curled.

"So where is the rest of it?" he inquired, still using that smooth voice that always seemed like it could cut Hufflepuffs in two.

"I… I sold it all to you and the Apothecary. None left," he knew he was getting by with almost no space, and that was even if he was able to convince Professor Snape that he didn't have any left.

"I see." He gave Harry one last look. He then proceeded to point at the closet. "You are to clean the cauldrons in there. No magic, the supplies are there. You're staying here until they're completed."

Harry got to work, uneasy. He knew that Professor Snape was neither dumb nor gullible. After all, he didn't get to be the head of Slytherin house for no reason. By eleven, he had finished the ten cauldrons that had been set up for his punishment and went back to the Slytherin common room.

!#$%^&*

Later that night saw a man with greasy hair walking up to a statue, cloak bellowing behind him. He muttered whatever sweet that was the password at the current time. The statue leapt aside, and without breaking stride the man walked into the opening. He only stopped at the bottom stairs as they carried him up to the office door. After waiting for half a minute for the statue to get to the top, he continued until he reached the door. Hearing a voice, he opened the door.

"What did you learn?" asked the man with a long white beard inquired.

"Almost nothing we knew. He claimed that he found it one night in the forest near his home," replied the man with greasy hair. "It was a total lie and we both knew it. I couldn't say anymore about it since we didn't have any proof."

"Indeed, we cannot," the other man murmured. Silence fell in the room, both lost in their own thoughts about where Harry Potter had 'found' basilisk venom, and (for one of them) would this mysterious boy interfere with his plans?

Of course, the black haired man, also known as Professor Snape had to wonder why he was unable to do magic for a month afterwards, though he hid it so well that no one noticed. It was then that he remembered an oath that he had sworn not to tell about the basilisk venom with a certain second year Slytherin...

!#$%^&*

"Wake up Harry, wake up," Ron shouted at six in the morning. Harry had just been starting to wake up and was not prepared for a hyper friend to come and shake him awake. Especially on a day that he knew Harry loved to sleep in. "It's Christmas!"

"Okay, I'm up!" Harry replied, trying to shake the ginger off. After managing to pry his friend off, he removed the covers and continued. "Let me get dressed before we go to open the presents." Ron sighed in a dramatic, annoyed way, but nodded.

After getting dressed, Harry looked over to see his friend already ripping into his presents. His and Ron's piles were about the same size. Without any more thought, Harry started to dig into his own gifts.

He got some sweets from Ron, mainly chocolate frogs while Hermione had gotten him a book on Quidditch tactics. Harry was slightly miffed about that. Thought he needed to improve his tactics did she? 'Or maybe she knew you would enjoy it?' A little voice in Harry head said. That froze Harry. He decided that that was the reason he had been given that gift.

He found his present from Ginny next. She had given him a pair on Muggle running shoes. He found a note inside one of the shoes.

To Harry,

I do hope you like the running shoes. I don't know how, but I was able to convince dad to take me shopping for them. Well, actually that part was easy with him and his love just to go out among the Muggles and stare at everything.

It was slightly harder to convince him to buy two pairs, but I told him that it was just a gift for a friend and he didn't pry at more then that.

And then when we got back to the Burrow (this was before we left for Romania) I persuaded him to charm them so they would change the fit different people's feet. When he told why I told him that my feet were still growing and we don't want to have to go out and spend extra money on a new pair of shoes. Don't worry about whether they're legal or not. Dad was the one that wrote the laws in charming Muggle things, so he knows then better than anyone.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year,

Ginny

Harry looked at the light shoes in his hand again. They were a plain white with blue stripes going vertically going down the side. He smiled and hoped that Ginny liked his gift as much as he liked hers.

He went back to his fourth and final present. It was the present that he was pretty sure was a book from his mother. He had decided not to open it before Christmas, and since Christmas was finally here so he had no guilt in opening it.

The present slipped out of the package and Harry saw that he was correct in his assumption. It was a book. Harry picked it up and looked at the title. It was The Real Chamber of Secrets, by Lily Evans. Harry turned to Ron and held out the book.

"What does that say?" he asked him. Ron turned and looked at the book, then shook his head.

"I can't read it. It must be Parseltongue Harry, since that's the same writing that I remember seeing in the Chamber library."

Harry nodded slowly. His mother had written a book on the Chamber of Secrets and in Parseltongue for what reason? It wasn't like anyone else would be able to read it, and to publish it she would have to acknowledge the fact that she's the heir of Slytherin… something that he was sure would make his father kick her out of the house.

He opened it and read the introduction.

$ Hello, my name is Lily Evans and I am a seventh year student at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am a Parselmouth, and so are you if you're able to read this. Being a Parselmouth is something that is most common among people who are a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of my school. So you might want to check up on your ancestry before you continue to read this.

Done now? Good. Salazar Slytherin was banished from Hogwarts after a disagreement about dark magic and light magic. Don't let the rumours fool you: Slytherin didn't have anything against Muggleborns, but he did have something against the Muggles. That, though, is not what caused Godric Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff to kick him out.

But before he left, he had constructed a secret Chamber in the castle. It still stands there until this day; I've even been there. I won't tell you where it is. If you're worthy of the secret then you'll be able to figure it out on your own with this clue: It's on the second floor. When you know where the Chamber is, come back to read all I found in the Chamber of Secrets. $

Harry was impressed and shocked at his mother's boldness of writing all this down. He quickly skimmed through her pages and pages of notes about the things she had found in the Chamber. Just as he was about to put it down, a little note from his mother slipped out of the books.

Harry, it read.

I hope you enjoy the book that I composed at the age of seventeen about my findings. Hopefully with this, you won't waste time discovering the same things but instead finding new things that you can tell me.

I do not have any idea how the Chamber is being used to attack people or who is doing it. It could be Tom Marvolo Riddle… but I've never met him as far as I know. As long as you and the person who's currently attacking students don't try to control the basilisk at the same time, it should obey both of you… but if there's a conflict, don't take any chances. We come from the squib line, and therefore have just a little less claim to the basilisk, so it may follow the other's orders.

Love,

Mum

!#$%^&*

Later on Christmas day, Harry and Ron had just had dinner and were heading back to the common room when they found a strange sight.

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were sulking around the dungeons, looking confused. That was definitely not a strange sight. No, the strange sight was that Draco Malfoy was just as confused.

"You three," Harry called out. "What are you doing back for Christmas? I thought you went home to mummy and daddy," He said the last part in a slightly mocking voice. Not to his surprise, Malfoy's fists clenched.

"My dad," he said with even more arrogance than usual. "Has business to attend to with the Headmaster. We were just coming to make sure everything was nice and clean in the common room." Harry and Ron both looked around at their location in amusement. After half a minute, Ron spoke to them again.

"I knew that Crabbe and Goyle wouldn't be able to find their own arms with they weren't attached, let alone the common room, but you Malfoy should know where it is. We aren't even close to it."

Crabbe stiffened and opened his mouth. Harry shot him a questioning glare. Crabbe almost never opened his mouth to defend himself. He'd rather do it physically.

"What's our password?" he inquired. Harry, almost feeling like something was wrong, deflected the question.

"It hasn't changed from before the break. Malfoy, tell your lackey what the password is."

But before the blond aristocrat could open his mouth to say something, Crabbe did something very un-Crabbe like. "I am not his lackey!" He almost shouted, and then looked regretful. Harry and Ron were both looking at him really strangely. 'Something's not right,' Harry thought. He continued anyway.

"So what's the password again Malfoy?" Harry asked. He had a feeling that the blond wouldn't know, but he had to confirm.

"It's umm… mudblood," he choked while trying to say the word, another thing that was very unlike the group of three. Normally he would say it loud and proud. Ron caught on to what Harry was trying to do and helped him.

"So how've your holidays been Malfoy?" he asked innocently. Harry knew that if the real Malfoy had been asked that he would've snorted and called Ron a filthy blood traitor.

"They've been fine so far," he said in a casual tone that sounded like an attempt at being nice. The arrogance still showed though. Even more weird was that he abruptly changed the subject.

"Potter, I mean Harry," Malfoy never called him by his first name. "Do you know who's the opening the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry answered carefully.

"I'm pretty sure that before the break you were certain it was Percy Potter, weren't you?" The imposter tried to cover what he had said, but Harry was starting to get bored with the game.

"Well, yes, I know it's him but I just wanted your second opinion," Malfoy waited, eagerness showing on not only his face but on Crabbe and Goyle's as well. Harry answered by stuffing his hand in his pocket and taking out his wand. He then proceeded to point it at the three. He saw in his peripheral vision that Ron did the same.

"Who are you?" he asked with narrow eyes. The imposters all froze with panicked looks on their faces. Despite that, they had the nerve to still try and bluff their way through it.

"Come on, Harry. It's me, Draco Malfoy, with Crabbe and Goyle." Harry raised his eyebrows. He was going to take a guess here, but he knew only one other person whose arrogance could top Draco Malfoy's.

"First of all, Percy," When Harry said that name to Malfoy, the blond flinched. Knowing that his guess was accurate, he continued. "Draco Malfoy says father, not dad. Second of all, he does not call me Harry."

Luckily, they had not reached the common room. They had actually passed the common room during the interrogation. Harry hadn't said anything, so Ron had followed suit. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle all didn't notice (or more likely didn't know) so they had just kept walking.

That was when the Golden trio of Hogwarts did something very Slytherin like when losing a lost battle. They turned around and ran out of there as fast as they could. After they had disappeared from sight, Ron turned to Harry.

"Did they seriously just try to break into our common room?" he asked. Harry, who was still staring at the corner they had disappeared around, nodded. "How did they do that?" Harry shook his head then answered.

"I'm guessing some sort of potion. That would be the easiest thing to do, though the only potion that I can think of that will change someone's appearance like that is Polyjuice, which is an O.W.L potion in theory and N. E.W.T. practically. They probably wouldn't have been able to do that by themselves." The two friends fell into silence until Ron broke it by voicing the question that was on both of their minds.

"So who helped them?"

And there's chapter eleven of Twin Trios! I hope you enjoyed it. There were a lot of 'fighting' scenes in this chapter. Tell me what you guys thought of them!

I was surprised at how many reviews my pairing question got. Right now, Harry/Ginny is winning not only on the poll, but also in tons of reviews (by a lot) so if you want to have it Harry/Daphne you better vote (a lot). A few people have suggested Harry/Ginny/Daphne. Just… no.

Also, a huge thanks to Miz636. Without her, the problem that I, like many, had with posting wouldn't have been resolved as quickly.