Chapter Twelve: Answers and Mysteries

"What are we doing here?" Rose asked her cousin. Al just smiled and walked past the wall in the seventh floor corridor. As he took his fifth step a strange creaking noise echoed in the high ceilinged hall. SS's jaw dropped and Rose's eyes widened as they saw an old creaky door appear on the wall. Hope walked forward and placed her hand on the rusty door handle.

"What is it?" she whispered. Al grinned, placed his hand on hers, and pushed the door open.

The room seemed to be even worse than when Al had found it. Cobwebs grew on the ceiling and walls and boards in the floor had rotted away. The only thing that was the same was the section of wall Al had fixed.

As the group entered the broken room and same sign grew out of the floor boards. Rose stared at it, circled it, and observed it from all angles. SS's hand traced a burn mark on the wall while Hope hung back in the entryway.

"You came back!" the chalk wrote on the sign. Rose jumped back.

"Al, is this the Room of Requirement?" she asked slowly.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Al wondered, amazed by how fast she realized it.

"The burn marks and the location," Rose explained. "How did you find it? I thought it hadn't been opened for years?"

"It just opened when I walked by. And look, I fixed a section of the wall!" Al admitted.

"What? Why did it open to you? And how did you fix some of it?" Rose demanded, confusion and fear circling her mind.

"Maybe it just likes him," SS suggested.

"You can ask it," Al told his cousin. Rose looked at him like he was nuts. "Excuse me, spirit of the Room of Requirement, why did you open to me?"

"I thought you were my mistress, Helga Hufflepuff," the chalk answered. SS's brow rose in surprise while Rose turned extremely pale as she read the sign.

"You thought that he was Helga Hufflepuff?" she repeated very slowly. Al looked at her in confusion, hoping for an explanation for her worry. But none was given.

"An easy mistake to make. And you wouldn't happen to be Rowena Ravenclaw, would you?" the sign wondered. Rose sucked in a sharp breath and turned around. She grabbed both boys and dragged them out of the room, shoving Hope along. Then she slammed the doors shut and took a deep breath.

"Rose, are you okay?" Al asked his cousin. She slowly lowered her golden brown eyes from the ceiling and looked at her green eyed cousin. She took another deep breath.

"I'm going to go talk to Professor Venus and Professor Higglebottom. Al, I would stay out of that room if I were you. It seems dangerous," Rose told him.

"I thought it seemed sad and lonely," SS protested. Al nodded in agreement. Rose's gaze turned sharp and menacing.

"Don't go back in there," she snapped. "It's dangerous." Then she stormed away, angry steps echoing in the hall. Hope mumbled something and followed her. Al sighed and placed his hand on the fading door of the Room of Requirement.

"Do it," SS told him in a low excited whisper.

"What?" Al sputtered, drawing his hand away as if it had been stung.

"Go fix the room. I know you want. Do it," SS insisted.

"But Rose said it might be dangerous," Al protested, although the longing to reenter the room leaked into his voice.

"Come on," SS groaned and leaned against the wall in despair. "What's life if you don't live a little? And besides, did that place feel dangerous? Rose is probably wrong."

"Rose is never wrong," Al replied instantly. SS just rolled his gray eyes and gave his best friend a look. Al chewed his lip nervously, his gaze drifting back to the door. SS began to bounce on the balls of his feet with excitement as he realized Al's defense was crumbling.

"Do it, do it, do it, do it," SS chanted in a whisper. Al laughed softly and sighed.

"You're a horrible influence," Al told his friend and pulled the door back open. SS cheered and dashed in after his friend.

"Let's make some magic happen!" SS yelled to the burnt room and Al whipped out his wand, enjoying the thrill of not listening to his cousin.

"Okay, what was that about?" Hope asked her friend as she fell into step with a storming Rose. The red head shrugged.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Rose replied briskly. Hope rolled her dark eyes.

"Why'd you freak out when the sign asked if you were Rowena Ravenclaw?" Hope continued.

"I didn't," Rose snapped at her friend. Hope sighed.

"You're nervous about something. What about?" she persisted. Rose didn't answer and turned sharply to the left. "Do you think the sign knows something we don't?"

"Would you just stop? I have to figure something out!" Rose cried out in exasperation.

"Sorry. I'm just trying to help," Hope spat out, angry. Rose had done the same thing last year, pushed all her friends away. Hope thought she was past that but apparently she wasn't. Hope turned to go.

"Hope, wait," Rose called out to her. The dark haired girl turned around, hands on hips. "I'm working on something and I'm really worried about what it means. I'm hoping Professor Higglebottom will have some answers."

"About what?" Hope drawled, lips pursed.

"Something Albany said to me last year," Rose admitted. "Why don't you come with me? It'll be easier and faster if I explain it to you and Professor Higglebottom at once."

"You haven't told her?" Hope inquired, stunned. The two of them had already spoken about how much they needed to trust the two professors. Rose sighed and started to walk towards the North Tower.

"I wasn't sure if I should share this information. It's dangerous," Rose continued. Hope trotted after her friend.

"All right. Let's go!" she exclaimed.

"Professor Higglebottom!" Rose called as she entered the Divination class room. Hope closed the door in the floor once she too had entered. The room was draped with silks and filled with cushions instead of chairs. Herbal tea was brewing over the fire and the open windows let in a small breeze which made the wind chimes sing.

"Rose," a voice replied from behind a door that led to a separate room. "I was wondering when you would arrive."

"I hate it when she does that," Hope muttered to her friend.

"Professor, I would like to speak to you about something. It's about my ancestry," Rose began and stood straight but Hope could sense the tension rolling off her friend. Professor Higglebottom pushed open the heavy wooden door and entered her classroom. Her fizzy hair was frizzier than normal due to the humid air. Her eyes were wide with worry but also pride.

"What about your ancestry?" the teacher asked, eyebrow raised.

"I am the descendant of Rowena Ravenclaw," Rose stated with no emotion in her voice. But her trembling hands gave her away.

"What?" Hope gasped in shock. Professor Higglebottom didn't move. She just stared at the frizzy haired Ravenclaw.

"I am, aren't I?" Rose demanded, stepping closer to the skinny seer. Silence. "Answer me!"

"I'm sorry, what's going on?" Hope mumbled, shaking her head, trying to take it all in.

"Professor?" Rose yelled, her voice shaking the eardrums of her teacher.

"How did you come to that conclusion?" Professor Higglebottom whispered.

"Albany said some things last year. I traced my family trees. I found out the truth," Rose explained.

"Well done," Professor Higglebottom said with a smile.

"You knew, didn't you?" Rose continued, eyebrow raised, flames in her golden eyes.

"Of course I did. You have a very ancient, very powerful magic. Through your mother's line runs the blood of Rowena Ravenclaw," the teacher answered. Rose nodded, her eyes staring into space, her mind going at light speed.

"Wait, what does that mean?" Hope interrupted. Professor Higglebottom turned to the dark haired girl.

"It means that Albany will stop at nothing to kill her. It also means that she has the power to defeat Albany," the professor replied.

"She'll stop at nothing?" Hope repeated in fear. She glanced at Rose but she looked a million miles away. The professor nodded and Rose seemed to come back to earth.

"Al. He found the Room of Requirement and he can fix it. The room thought he was Helga Hufflepuff," Rose muttered, as if trying to connect the dots in her mind. "Al's the descendant of Helga Hufflepuff."

"Yes. The Potters are descended from her. Why do think your uncle Harry was so caring and loyal to his friends?" Professor Higglebottom sighed as sank onto one of her poufs.

"So, me and him are descended from two of the founders of Hogwarts?" Rose murmured.

"Yes," the frizzy haired teacher answered.

"And that's why Albany hates us so much," the frizzy haired student added. Professor Higglebottom nodded.

"That's what you've been researching. Your family trees, trying to find ties to Rowena," Hope suddenly gasped, finally understanding.

"Albany mentioned that I was the Daughter of Wisdom and the Gray Lady mentioned that there was a possibility that Rowena could have had descendants. I've been researching it since I got to Hogwarts," Rose explained and looked at the jingling wind chimes. Their sound seemed to sooth her.

"And what about me and SS? Albany tried to kill us too," Hope put in.

"I'm not sure," Rose sighed. She hated not knowing so she turned to her Head of House. "Professor Higglebottom? What do you think?"

"I think you need to figure out the answers on your own. That is the only way to gain the wisdom you will need," Professor Higglebottom said and stood. "I will see you girls later." Then she turned and walked back into her personal quarters, leaving Hope and Rose staring after her.

"Well that was a load of crap!" Hope cried out in anger. Rose just stared at the wind chimes. "'Yes, I clearly know things. No, I'm not going to tell you anything. Have a nice life!'"

"'A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate the depth of his ignorance,'" Rose quoted. "Searching for the answer builds wisdom, something we're going to need if we're going to fight Albany and Asphodel."

"Why do we have to fight them? Why not some Aurors?" Hope whined and sunk onto a pouf that sparkled in the fading sunlight. A clock dinged in the distance Dinner was fast approaching.

"Albany attacked us. She made this personal. And Al and I are descended from two of the founders of Hogwarts. We have the power," Rose spoke, as if in a daze.

"What about SS and me? We're just supposed to support and follow you guys even though we aren't special or powerful?" Hope demanded angrily. She was used to being treated differently because she was a Slytherin. But she was now seriously annoyed. Professor Higglebottom and Rose just expected her and SS to blindly jump into danger even though they didn't have powerful ancient magic. And now Rose was just staring into space, totally enwrapped in herself. Rose blinked, as if waking up.

"But you are special. I can tell. Albany attacked you too. I just have to find out why," Rose told her.

"Fine. Let me know when you finally find out why I'm special!" Hope yelled and climbed back down the silver ladder that led to the classroom.

Rose was in shock for a moment before she followed her friend down the ladder. But Hope was gone. Run off to somewhere else, full of anger towards Rose. And now Rose was filled with guilt. She had been so scared, and maybe even a little proud about her newfound ancestry. But in her awe, she had pushed her best friend away again. But she knew Hope would calm down. She was logical and reasonable. They would talk when Hope had calmed down. They would be fine. Or at least Rose hoped so.

Fine. She wasn't special. Hope could accept that. But the way Rose looked, as if she had always known she was better than Hope. That made her mad. Then there was that ingrate of a teacher. The one Rose agreed with. They needed answers! Not just loose phrases and the instructions to go on a wild goose chase! Albany and Asphodel could attack at any moment. And they wouldn't be any more prepared than they had been last time.

Hope stormed into one of the girl's bathroom and splashed water on her face. Heat was coursing through her veins. She hadn't felt this mad since Rose had froze her out last year. She didn't want that again, although it was becoming very obvious that Al and SS had a budding bro-mance and would be leaving her with Rose. But that wouldn't work if Rose was freezing her out. She'd end up alone. And even though she had her Slytherin friends, it just wasn't the same. Sure, the Slytherins shared her beliefs and interests, but Al, SS, Rose, and her had all survived near-death experiences together. They thought differently than her and challenged her. Hope didn't want to admit it but she needed them.

"Oh, it's you," a voice grumped from behind her. Hope turned around, expecting a fellow student, but instead found a pearly transparent ghost of a fifteen-year-old girl.

"I'm sorry," Hope replied and shrugged. "Who did you think I was?"

"A very nice boy has been coming into my bathroom but I think you scared him off," the ghost moaned, her wide eyes behind her glasses filling with tears. Realization began to dawn on Hope.

"You wouldn't happen to be Myrtle, would you?" Hope suggested. The ghost tilted her head and studied the living girl.

"You didn't use my full title," Myrtle noted. Hope quirked an eyebrow. "Most people call me Moaning Myrtle."

"Why?" Hope asked, confused.

"Because people are mean!" Myrtle wailed and dove into a toilet, splashing water along the cracked tile. Hope laughed lightly.

"Tell me about it," she sighed. "Why are you haunting a bathroom?"

"This is where I died. I came back to haunt a mean girl who teased me about my glasses but she got the Ministry involved and I was banished back to my bathroom," Myrtle moaned as she came out of the toilet and seemed to lean on the stall door.

"That sucks," Hope remarked. "How did you die in a bathroom?"

"I've been told that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is in here. Tom Riddle was calling his snake and I was crying in a stall because Olive Hornby teased me about my glasses. When I opened the stall to tell him to go away I died!" Myrtle cried out dramatically, reenacting her death as she spoke. Hope was beginning to grin. She had heard storied about Moaning Myrtle before but they had her all wrong. She was hilarious.

"Wow, that's really cool," Hope said after the ghost had finished with her story. Myrtle beamed.

"Thank you! So rare that someone appreciates my death story!" she replied with a smile. Hope glanced at the sink that had never worked.

"Is this really the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets?" she asked with hesitant excitement.

"Mmhm. You know, you're the second person this year to ask about it," Myrtle remarked as she drifted back into her toilet.

"Really?" Hope murmured, not really listening, and examined the sink. A carving of a small snake was scratched onto the faucet. In the flickering candle light, it almost looked like it was moving. Hope's dark eyes stared at it and began to imagine it opening and revealing a place that only she could enter. A haven for abandon Slytherins, a tool to get back at enemies. A yearning to enter the Chamber over took Hope and she traced the snake scratch with longing. "I wish you would open up."

Suddenly, the sink began to move. It sunk into the floor and out of view, revealing a pipe large enough for a very fat man to slide into. Myrtle peeked over the wall over stall and watched. Hope slowly climbed into the pipe and sat on the precipice of the slide. She didn't exactly want to go in, she just wanted to sit on the edge of something powerful and wonder how she had opened it. A footstep sounded behind her and Hope began to turn around. But just before she saw the new person in the bathroom, two hands roughly pushed her down the pipe.

Hope screamed and twisted, trying to get a good look at whoever had shoved her, but she saw no one. Now she was at the mercy of the giant metal slide that was so steep it felt like she was just free falling. Hope screamed until her voice was hoarse. Then, thankfully, the pipe leveled out and she was shot onto a patch of moist mold and moss. She swore and stood up, hating the feeling of water soaking through her shoes.

"Great. Now what?" Hope asked the silence. She knew she should have looked for a way out but now she had an opportunity to explore and her curiosity was pulling her forward. So she pulled her wand out of her pocket and turned towards the long hallway. "LUMOS!"

Hope walked cautiously down a long hallway that led to a grand door. Snakes adorned it, their gem eyes glinting in the wand light. Hope stared at them for a moment.

"Are you going to open?" she wondered. The snakes suddenly began to move and screech. The door swung open and Hope entered the chamber.

She spun around, taking it all in. Pillars in the shape of snakes towered high above her head, disappearing into the shadows, giving the room a greenish hue. A silver box sat at the end of the chamber simple and boring. And a huge white marble statue stood at the end, at least twenty feet tall. The face was the same face carved onto the bust back in her common room. Salazar Slytherin.

Filled with awe, Hope walked forward and examined the statue. He had a rippling beard but no hair. His face was regal and he seemed to be smirking. Salazar held his hands out, as if summoning all the forces of nature. It was quite a fear-inducing statue. But something struck Hope as peculiar. Unless she was mistaken, Hope and Salazar had very similar noses. And, unless the sculptor had been a terrible artist, they both had abnormally long fingers.

Hope's eyebrows scrunched as she thought. How had she opened the entrance to the chamber? The legend said that only the heir of Slytherin could open it and it had to be opened with parseltounge. Hope had wished the snake to open up but had she spoken the language of snakes? That was absurd! She couldn't talk to snakes. However, Hope suddenly remembered, a snake had once talked to her when she was young. Could she speak parseltounge?

And if she could, wasn't that ability only passed on down the line of Salazar Slytherin? And the only last known descendant of Slytherin was Voldemort. Hope's gears in her head began to spin themselves into a frenzy as pieces of a puzzle began to form a picture.

Her mother living alone, separate from all of civilization, even muggles. Her strange ability to talk to snakes. The certainty of the hat when it sorted her. The snake that had leaped out of her wand the first time she held it. The fact that she had no idea who her father was. Albany had ordered her to be attacked and always called her 'little snake.' Everything seemed to fit. Rose was the descendant of Rowena Ravenclaw. Al was the descendant of Helga Hufflepuff. Why couldn't she be the descendant of Salazar Slytheirn, the daughter of Voldemort?

Hope sat down with shock. Everything worked. But why would her mother never tell her? And why was she so young? Voldemort had died 20 years ago and she was only twelve. But despite this fact, certainty settled into her bones. This had to be true. It was the only thing that made sense, logically. But Hope still couldn't wrap her head around the possibility, despite the certainty staring her right in the face.

Suddenly the chamber seemed cold and cruel, a place where people had died. Hope stood up and ran back to the pipe slide that was the entrance. But she realized her problem as soon as she reached it. How was she going to get out? Hope ran her hands all over the pipe and the walls nearby but she found nothing that could help her. She had only one thing that could help. Her wand.

Hope pulled out the thin stick and mentally recited all the spells she knew, trying to find one that would help her. There was nothing. Nothing she knew could make her fly. Hope sighed and began to think of spells she had never done, but had heard of. Suddenly, an idea struck her. Hope crawled into the pipe and climbed as far into it as she could. When she reached the slant she planted her feet, took a deep breath, and focused.

"ASCENDIO!" Hope yelled and pointed her wand at her feet. White light fired from its tip and she was blasted upward like a rocket, banging against the pipe. She screamed form exhilaration and fear as she acquired more bruises then she could count. Finally, she was shot out of the pipe, into the bathroom and painfully flew into one of the stalls. Hope's head smacked the marble toilet and the last thing she remembered was Myrtle's pearly white eyes staring at her with worry. Then everything went black.

"Thank you so much!" the chalk wrote on the podium. Al smiled with pride as he took in the finally fixed Room of Requirement. The walls were now a smooth brown and unburned. The mahogany floors sparkled under the candles. Not a speck of dust was in the room and everything had been polished until it shown. And Al was exhausted. He had been focusing his entire being through his wand into, fixing this room. It had taken three whole hours but he had finally done it. He had fixed the Room of Requirement.

"Wow. That was amazing," SS told Al. He had watched his black haired friend run around the room, running himself dry. "Do you want to grab something to eat? Dinner has probably started already."

"Maybe...later," Al muttered sleepily and slumped to the floor, eyes closed as he began to snore. SS rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Can you do bedroom mode?" he asked the room.

"Of course," the chalk wrote and the room began to change. The walls turned a faded yellow and the floor was covered in a black fuzzy carpet. A comfy king size bed stood in the middle of the room. A fan on the ceiling spun lazily, sending a soft breeze throughout the room. Violins could be heard playing from somewhere. It was perfect.

"Thanks!" SS called to the room and dragged Al into the bed. Then he wrote a note and stuck it on the wall, explaining to Al where he had gone, and left the room.

He strolled down the hall and down the many flights of stairs to the library, in search of Rose. He pushed open the door and nodded at Madame Heydt who frowned in his direction. She was probably remembering the many overdue library books he'd had. SS walked past the many stacks of books, to their typical table in the back. Rose was staring at an open book, but her eyes weren't moving. She looked lost in thought, as if she'd just received some shocking news.

"Hey Rose. Are you okay?" SS called to her, his voice soft so as not to startle her. Rose shook her head, as if trying to shake of a thought, before her eyes focused on him.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," Rose responded, her voice dreamy.

"Is something wrong? You're acting like something's wrong," SS continued. Rose shook her head, more firmly this time.

"I'm fine," she repeated, voice clearer. "I'm really tired. I'm going to go back to my common room. I'll see you later." She stood to leave.

"Rose, if you ever want to tell me what's wrong, I'm here," SS blurted out. "Our friends too. They're here for you."

"That's nice," Rose muttered and walked out of the library. Her steps were light, her body swayed. She almost looked as if she was sleep walking. Sighing with worry, SS left the library as well, intent on grabbing some dinner from the Great Hall then retreating to his dorm room.

"SS!" someone yell as he closed the library's heavy doors. SS turned and saw Emily, his fellow Quidditch chaser, running towards him, her tan face pinched with worry.

"Emily. What's wrong? Did something happen to the team?" SS asked, feeling a wave a worry take him under.

"No. Healer Fallax told me to find you. Hope's in the Hospital Wing," she explained and dread made SS's shoulders slump. He spun on his heel and ran off towards that area of the castle.

"Thank you!" he called over his shoulder to Emily as he sprinted away.

"You're okay," Rose gasped when she ran into the Hospital wing. Hope was glowering on the bed closest to the door. SS was sitting on her left and Al was sitting on her right. He had woken up a little bit ago and found out where his friend was. It didn't take him very long to get to her. SS had been there for an hour, waiting for Hope to wake up, then trying to get her to explain what had happened. Emmet had just informed Rose of the location of Hope moments ago and she'd rushed to the Hospital Wing.

"Surprised to see you here at all," Hope muttered and reached over to the plate of cookies sitting on the bed. Al had brought them to cheer her up.

"Why wouldn't I come?" Rose wondered. Hope just shrugged and bit into a baked good.

"Hope, how did you get hurt?" Al asked her cautiously. She didn't answer.

"Healer Fallax told us that Moaning Myrtle was wailing until someone came and found you passed out in one of the bathroom stalls, your head bleeding onto the floor," SS exclaimed, growing frustrated. She hadn't told him anything.

"I went to the bathroom, talked with Myrtle, practiced a bit of magic and it backfired," Hope replied. She wasn't eager to share about her experience down below the school. If it meant what she thought, then she didn't want them to know.

"What kind of magic? Out of control magic or normal magic?" Rose demanded, leaning forward.

"A combination. I tried a fourth year spell and it didn't work out as planned," Hope explained.

"What spell?" Rose continued.

"I don't remember," Hope snapped. "I just busted my head open on a ceramic toilet."

"Sorry," Rose muttered and sank back into her chair.

"Uh, so, we're leaving for Christmas break tomorrow, and I was wondering if you, Hope, and SS would like to come to our family's party?" Al suggested. Hope smiled softly in gratitude.

"Maybe," she told him. "I'll talk to mother. Where is it this year?"

"My house," Rose put in, tone sharp.

"Maybe Libby, the house elf, can take me while Mum and Dad get ready for their gala," SS said to his friend. The black haired boy smiled.

"Then we can do our gift exchange then," he told them happily. No one else said anything but you could see the tension rippling through the air.