"Students should be directed to their corresponding Houses immediately!" The Sonorus spell helped magnify the frail voice of Armando Dippet over bustling students in the corridors, "Prefects should be on hand to direct students to their proper common rooms…and please do so in a calm and organized manner!" As if the last appendage would be abided by despite the urgent command. The uproar of the curious students made it increasingly difficult for Evelyn to find anyone in her own house, as she seemed to be surrounded by a plethora of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students. Pushing frighten-eyed first and second years aside, she tried to glimpse a thread of green, or a conceited demeanor—anything that might alert her of someone from her own house.
"This way, Westwood," the dark but commanding voice belonged to none other than Tom Riddle, who grabbed her by the arm and plucked her out of the exasperated crowd.
"Let go of me," Evelyn hissed making quite as scene as she tried to wrench herself free, attracting a few curious glances but they were quickly forgotten as the current situation at hand dominated everyone else's senses.
"I'll let go of you when I want to," he leaned in closely and whispered in her ear. She craned her neck, and cupping her hand against his face, whispered back, "Then reverse that horrible spell!" He felt cemented to the spot as he thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of her hot breath blowing into his ear but received a very unexpected surprise when it was replaced with the soft texture of her tongue, lightly tracing the shell of his ear, eliciting shocks of electricity-like feelings through his body, "See…I don't even have to use magic…" she finished in a low voice, her pink lips curved in a slight grin.
Tom quickly recovered, "I was only doing you a favor…the last time I witnessed it, you seemed to very much enjoy my ministrations."
Her face crumbled under a blush as she tried desperately to suppress it, her mask changing to one of anger, "Well…you're wrong!" was all she could manage as the current look of amusement reflecting in his eyes that seemed to impede any wit left within her.
"Oh…so your writhing demonstration in Potions was one of pain?" He raised an eyebrow and a musical laugh escaped his succulent lips and the subtle gleaming of his pallid teeth peeked out from under them. He seemed to be in an uncommonly good mood despite the current chaos reigning over all of Hogwarts.
"You damn well know it wasn't," she titled her head downward and murmured in a deadly serious tone, "and if you had any decency left in you, you would take it off of me."
"There are many things that I would like to take off of you, the spell not being one of them, and as for decency, it's never been my strong suit I'm afraid," he answered so casually that it made her stomach churn.
"It better become one of your strong suits or—
"Or just what my dear?" he asked, his face now merely centimeters from hers, staring out from daring eyes that were half hidden by the sable locks of hair that fell elegantly into them.
"Or…" Evelyn suddenly felt like a small child and began to shrink away.
Tom laughed again at her childish manner and her eyebrows dropped in annoyance of his treatment of her, "I thought as much…maybe if you play your cards right…" he looked pensive as if planning something, "Meet me in front of the swiveling staircase at twelve sharp and I'll see what can be done." She gasped at the familiar feeling of something long and hard sliding between her thighs, the spell seemed to be flaring up again as she was in close proximity of the caster. Tom once again exulted at her embarrassment and with his shoulders slightly shaking from laughter, he turned and strode in the opposite direction. She quietly cursed at his retreating figure, but turned as well, following the rest of her house mates to the dungeons.
Tom's laughter quickly faded as he now focused on the task at hand—following the valiant band of Professors who took it upon themselves to search for the Ravenclaw girl who had "gone missing" since yesterday. He knew exactly where she was, the only question is, is how long would it take them to find her? He desperately wished to move her away from the entrance of the Chamber but couldn't risk touching her in fear of someone finding evidence of him being there. How could he have been so careless as not to check all of the stalls before opening it? If he had ignored his eagerness to see it again, he could've forgone this whole pointless episode.
Her death was really a mistake. He didn't feel remorse for her getting in the way, but more so of what this meant in the grand scheme of things. This incident would surely close the school if no culprit was found and that would mean his chances of staying here over the summer were absolutely out of the question. He would now have to find a way out of the hole he had found himself in, quick enough for them to still consider it and before anyone realizes he had anything to do with the girl's death—as if they could. No one would be clever enough to connect him to the murder since he had not killed her with his own wand.
He thought of all of this as he climbed through one of the secret passage ways leading up to the second floor. He discovered many of these passages during his search for the Chamber and they proved quite useful in maneuvering around the castle when he needed to be unseen. Quietly stepping out from behind a tapestry, he slid into an alcove behind one of the many suits of armor and continued his careful observations of the troupe of Professors who were now gathered around the girl's bathroom door. They were so close now.
Tom clearly remembered the screech of horror from the girl as she died. He imagined the last thing she saw were the red flashing eyes of the beast before it killed her. He remembered standing over her body and staring down upon her lifeless limbs, her glasses askew and her hair splayed carelessly across the stone floor and he curiously wondered about what became of her soul…
Tom was shaken from his reverie by the sound of them pushing against the door, which must have been jarred shut. They held their wands at the ready and he almost chuckled as he imagined that they must think the killer would just pop out from behind the door. Some of the younger professors threw their weight against the entry and it was only a matter of time until it gave. They all dispersed into the bathroom, looking about wildly for anyone or anything as they descended further inside.
'3…2…1'—
"She's in here!"
The students filed into the Great Hall of Hogwarts to be greeted not by the banners of the preceding year's House Cup winners, but by long black ones that reached to the floor and dominated the room, blocking out most of the candles' light, which made the hall appear darker. Headmaster Dippet somberly informed them of Myrtle's mysterious death and not a sound could be heard as he announced his next plea, "We urge you, if you have any knowledge, or witnessed anything concerning the unfortunate events of yesterday, please speak to either myself or any of your professors. It is absolutely essential to the future of the school that we find the culprit and any clues of any sort could prove substantial in understanding how this tragedy could have happened. That is all I wish to say," he sat down, joining the quiet Professors' table who sat in front of the even quieter student body.
After dinner Evelyn quickly caught up with Margaret, eagerly awaiting to hear what she knew, "Did you know her?" she asked, hurrying along the corridor, but slowing down so that they didn't reach the stair cases too soon, where Evelyn would take the descending one and Margaret the ascending.
"Did you know her?" Evelyn asked.
"Not very well—I mean, she was in my house, but I never really spoke to her. She was a very morbid girl—tragic really. Did you?"
"A little…" Evelyn answered in a troubled voice as she had felt sorry that she never even told the girl her real name.
"Have you…?" Evelyn felt as if her question had a false start, she was about to blurt something out and hadn't even thought of how to approach it, but decided to plow on anyway, "Have you ever heard of the Chamber of Secrets?"
Margaret completely stopped in the middle of the hallway, other students pushing past her, and stared at her long-time friend, "Why is aSlytherin asking a Ravenclaw about the Chamber of Secrets?"
"Some students at our house table were whispering about it during dinner," she answered in a small voice, feeling thoroughly dense, courtesy of her best friend, "Besides, you know this Slytherin never pays attention in History of Magic and she knows a Ravenclaw that did."
"You mean your parents didn't read to you The History of Slytherin and The Chamber of Secrets when you were little?" Margaret jokingly referenced Evelyn's dark heritage.
"No, they favored Dark Witches and Wizards of the Ages as a wholesome bedtime story."
"Then I'm still surprised that you haven't heard about Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets," she slanted an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Salazar wasn't a dark wizard, he was just misunderstood," Evelyn replied.
Margaret irritably ignored her joke, "Anyway, I don't remember everything,but I do know the basics of it. Something about when Salazar created the House of Slytherin, he built a secret chamber within Hogwarts, hence the name 'Chamber of Secrets', where he kept this beast, though no one knows for sure what it looks like or exactly what kind of beast it is."
"Do you…do you think maybe that's what attacked you?"
Margaret's laugh was high and shrill as she usually didn't get the chance to laugh at Evelyn much, or at least tried to stifle it when she did.
"Evelyn, really…I mean, no one knows for sure, but it's sort of understood that the Chamber of Secrets is just a legend, mainly because of the fact that there is no real evidence that supports it's existence because no one has ever seen it. Slytherins just like to taunt uneducated half-bloods and muggleborns, saying that they're going to sic the beast of Slytherin on them, even though they know good and well that it doesn't exist."
"Wait—how do you know that?" Evelyn wrinkled her face at the thought of it,
"Because when I was a second year, an older Slytherin student threatened me with it after I refused to carry her books for her. So I went and researched it to prove that they couldn't sic their imaginary beast on me."
"But why only muggleborns and half-bloods?"
"Evelyn! I can't believe you! You really are a sorry excuse for a Slytherin, even by my standards. I assumed every Slytherin knew about Salazar's hatred for witches and wizards that aren't pure blood. Look around your own house, how many aren't pureblood?"
"Well, there are a few, but not many," she admitted.
"Exactly," she answered, using her best know-it-all voice, "There are considerably less there than in any other house because Salazar created the house of Slytherin with the intent not to admit anyone that isn't pureblood, of course it is infiltrated," she spoke sarcastically, "with a few non purebloods…I'm sure there's more to it though—about the Chamber of Secrets, but that's all that I can really remember. If you were really interested, you would do your own research in the library."
"Or you could do it…" she hinted, hoping that her studious friend would take her up on it.
"No…you can do it Evelyn, besides, it'd do you some good to become versed in the sordid history of your own house."
"Oh lay off Slytherin. Ok, it may not be all good and righteous like your beloved Ravenclaw, but there are some good witches and wizards that came out of my house!"
"Name one," Margaret responded automatically.
"That's not the point…the point is…Slytherin isn't all bad! I mean…look at me…anyway, I gotta go," Evelyn glanced around, as if looking for something.
"Where?"
"The library," she answered as if it should be perfectly obvious and began dashing off in the wrong direction.
"She doesn't even know where it is!" Margaret grumbled to herself at the very outrage that there could be any sixth year at Hogwarts who didn't know where the library was located, "The other way Evelyn!"
"…Right!" She turned back and rushed in the other direction.
"Oh—and Hogwarts, A History might be a good place to start…" Margaret shouted one last piece of advice at her disappearing figure.
The candelabras had already lit up by the time Evelyn reached the library and quietly snuck inside before the librarian could scold her for not showing up in a group, as was the new rule around Hogwarts since the mysterious happenings. The library was relatively empty and terribly quiet that late in the afternoon. She immediately headed to the back, knowing that the further back she went, the books' dates corresponded.
'Hogwarts…Hogwarts—History of Magic—,' she thought to herself and traced her finger across the cryptic bindings, 'here we go…Hogwarts, A History,' she pulled out the book and it's weight almost fell out of her hands. Dragging it to a table, she let it slap the table top and opened it to the back.
"No index?" she thought allowed, "What kind of book is this?" she whined at the thought of having to leaf through the thin pages of this volume. She flipped to the contents pages, searching for something that might lead her in the right direction, "Atlas of Hogwarts…Houses of Hogwarts…Ah—this might be it: Founders of Hogwarts—page 450," she quickly flipped through the pages until she arrived at the particularly thumbed marked page entitled The Founders of Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. She quickly scanned the following pages for any mention of Slytherin. She spent the next hour and a half pouring over the dusty texts and covering her mouth to yawn every so often, searching for any information concerning the chamber until she found an article that caught her attention:
There arose an argument between the founders of the houses of Slytherin and Gryffindor. Godric Gyffindor, a great benefactor of non-purebloods, believed that Hogwarts should be accessible to all witches and wizards that wish to learn the art of witchcraft, whereas Salazar Slytherin had planned for the institution to be more selective in which students were granted admittance. When an agreement could not be reached, Salazar built a hidden chamber within the walls of Hogwarts for which he intended his heir to open upon returning to Hogwarts. He stored a great beast in the chamber which would be unleashed by the heir to wreak havoc upon the non-pureblood students of Hogwarts. This chamber has yet to be found and there is much speculation about the verity of it's existence. Upon the completion of one such chamber, Salazar Slytherin fled the school forthwith, never to be seen upon the school grounds again…
"That's it?" she blurted and then frantically scanned the page for more information, knowing that there must have been something she had missed. Evelyn rubbed her temples and continued looking for more vital clues. She laid her head on the book, hoping that by osmosis the information she needed would seep into her brain. Her eyelids slowly closed over and she fell into a deep sleep.
Evelyn was running through the hallway, grasping the hand of someone whom she could not see for the darkness surrounding them. She didn't think to ask their name, she just mindlessly followed, the full moon's light roamed across her body as it poured through the high windows. She quickly recognized the second floor by the rows of armored suits lining the walls and they came to a stop in front of the girl's bathroom. Evelyn ran into the person she was following from the abrupt stop, "Tom?" She thought she recognized the profile of his face projecting in the moon light. He did not answer, but instead pushed the door open to the now avoided bathroom. Tom immediately went to the sink but she did not pay attention as hers was turned to the task of scratching the offending feeling of something on her face.
Evelyn jumped awake and out of the corner of her eye she saw something move across her face, "AAAHHHHH!" She screeched in horror and leaped backwards out of her chair, knocking it over and falling against the book case behind her. A neat line of spiders scrambled over the desk, over the plane of Hogwarts, A History and down the table leg, until they disappeared somewhere in the darker part of the library.
"What is going on…?" she looked on in horror at all of the spiders crawling around her feet. Grabbing her robes from the back of her chair, she shook them in fear of any spiders hiding out in them and quickly slipped out of the library before any more of them could crawl on her.
Upon leaving the library she realized that it must have gotten extremely late, as the full moon was already very high in the sky. "Oh! Riddle—I forgot!" Evelyn quickly made her way to the end of the fourth floor and traipsed down two floors to the end of the swiveling stair case on the second. She made sure to have her hand in her pocket, grasping her wand in case this was all a trap of some sort.
Tom's head tilted upwards at the sound of her light foot falls coming down the stairs. Evelyn was over taken by an odd inclination to run to him and throw herself into his arms by the way he was staring at her and then she remembered the specific reason she was there.
"I was beginning to think you must've really enjoyed my little spell."
A/N: Okay, so I'm really sorry for this delay. I had the earliest scheduled exams, but I had to work right after I finished this semester. Anyway, I had this chapter planned to be a lot longer, but I'm gonna have to break it up, so, I'm really sorry if it doesn't seem like much happens... Anyway, please review and I'll try to work on the next one as soon as possible! Thanks.