Author's Note: I do not nor have I ever pretended to own the Harry Potter series. Well, maybe pretended but you can't sue me for that.

Chapter 6 Breaking the Rules

The weeks after the attack left the castle in a state of shock. Filch was very upset with the fact that no one was punished for what happened. He started taking his anger out on the students by trying to give out random detentions.

Alex, Hermione, Ron, and Harry were coming back from dinner when they happened to come to the second floor corridor where the attack happened.

"Let's have a look around, see if we can find anything," said Alex setting down her bag and walking over to the wall. No matter how much Filch scrubbed, the grim message remained.

"Hey guys, look at this," said Hermione from a nearby window. Alex and Harry walked over and saw a line of spiders crawling out the window.

"I've never seen spiders do that before, have you Ron? Ron?" Harry asked, turning around to see Ron across the corridor, not looking at the window.

"I don't like spiders," said Ron uncomfortably.

"Really, I didn't know that. Why?" asked Hermione, smiling.

"When I was younger, I had a teddy bear. Fred and George were mad at me because I broke their toy broomstick so they decided to turn my teddy bear into a spider while I was holding it." He shuttered slightly and muttered, "All those legs."

After Harry, Hermione, and Alex stopped laughing, they continued their search. Suddenly, Alex remembered something. There had been water on the floor that night.

"Where do you think all that water came from the night of the attack?" she asked the others.

"Dunno," said Ron as he went to open a door, but backed away.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked with a grin, "More spiders?"

"That's a girl's bathroom, I can't go inside," he said with a very red face.

"No one goes in there anyway, Ron. That's Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Come on," said Hermione, "This is probably where the water came from."

They entered the dismal bathroom and looked around. All Alex could find were lots of spiders (Ron was not very happy with this) and water on the floor.

"Myrtle likes to run the taps when she's depressed," whispered Hermione.

"That must be pretty often," said Alex.

They were on their way out when someone shouted, "Ron, what in Merlin's name are you doing in a girl's bathroom?" Percy was striding over to them, looking shocked. Ron turned bright red.

"We're just looking for clues about the attack," he muttered.

"Well stop, I don't want to find my younger brother in a girl's bathroom," Percy said.

"Why, it'll ruin your chance of getting Head Boy?" yelled Ron, "We're just trying to help!"

"Five points from Gryffindor! You better watch yourself Ron or I'll take more points. Dumbledore said everything was going to be fine so stop playing detective and get back to the common room. If I catch you here again, I'm going to write to Mum. As for the rest of you, if I catch you here I'll give you a detention. Now go back to the common room."

Ron turned on his heel and left. When they reached the common room, Ron was in a mood.

"He thinks just because he's a Prefect, he can tell me what to do!" Ron cried as he sat in a chair.

Alex decided not to tell Ron that a Prefect's job is to tell others what to do. He was already angry. She looked around and saw Ginny sitting by herself. She went over and sat down next to the young Gryffindor.

"Hey Ginny," she said, smiling warmly.

"Oh, hi Alex," Ginny said, rubbing her face tiredly, "What's the matter with Ron?"

"We were looking around on the second floor corridor, where the attack occurred, and Percy got into an argument with Ron. He took away five points because Ron yelled at him," said Alex.

"You four aren't going to get expelled, right?" asked Ginny with worry evident in her voice.

"No, of course not!" said Alex surprised. "Dumbledore believes no second year could have done that to Mrs. Norris. It took really dark magic for that to happen."

Ginny nodded, but didn't seem convinced. She went up to her dormitory without saying good-bye and Alex watched her go, wondering what was going on with the youngest of the Weasley clan.

…...

The main question on everyone's mind at Hogwarts was what was the Chamber of Secrets? Alex wanted to look in the library but all the books about it were checked out. It seemed Hermione was thinking along the lines of Alex because she returned one morning from the library slightly annoyed.

"Honestly, the one time people use the library is when they think they can learn about some myth," she muttered darkly, "How are we supposed to learn about the Chamber of Secrets now?" Alex shrugged and led her friend to their next class, History of Magic.

Alex was doodling on her notes while Professor Binns droned about wars that happened over five hundred years ago. Professor Binns was the only ghost teacher and he taught History of Magic, the most boring class in all of Hogwarts. He would talk in a monotone about past happenings while the entire class, save Hermione who was able to pay attention, either fell asleep or did homework for the next class. Alex looked over at Hermione to ask her a question and was surprised to see Hermione had her hand in the air.

"What are you doing?" Alex whispered.

"Trying to find out about the Chamber of Secrets," Hermione whispered back.

"And then, there was the…yes Miss…"

"Granger, sir," said Hermione when addressed by the ghost.

"Do you have a question about the lesson Miss Granger?" Professor Binns asked in his monotone.

"Not exactly sir, I was wondering if you could tell us about the Chamber of Secrets?" said Hermione in her sweetest voice.

Everyone in the class was awake now. Professor Binns looked at the students who were listening with rapt attention and sighed.

"Very well Miss Graner." Alex snickered at the mispronounced name while Hermione rolled her eyes. "Remember, this is only legend, not actual truth. As you all know, there were four founders of this school: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. Three of them got along famously, but one kept to himself."

"Three guesses who," Alex heard Ron whisper.

"Slytherin felt that only those with all-wizard backgrounds should be allowed to enter Hogwarts. Legend has it he had a monster in his secret chamber that would remove all those who he thought were incapable of studying magic. Before he left, Slytherin sealed the chamber and only his heir would be able to open it."

The classroom was silent. Alex raised her hand.

"Yes Miss…"

"Ratcliff, sir. What exactly is inside the chamber?" asked Alex.

"No one really knows. All legend tells us is that only the heir of Slytherin can control it," said Professor Binns. He looked around at the class. "Naturally, the school has been searched many times and no chamber has been found. Therefore, it is just a legend and there is nothing to fear."

The class went into sleep mode and Alex returned to her doodling. She kept thinking about what Binns had told her. Was there really a Chamber of Secrets? If not, what attacked Mrs. Norris that Dumbledore couldn't cure? The ringing of the bell made Alex jump and she started packing her books.

"Hermione, do you think there really is a Chamber of Secrets?" asked Alex as they left the classroom and to the dormitories.

"I don't know," she said thoughtfully, "The fact that Dumbledore couldn't do anything for Mrs. Norris has me worried."

"But it said 'Enemies of the heir beware'. Who's the heir of Slytherin?" asked Harry as he and Ron caught up to the girls.

"Hmm, let's think, who do we know who thinks all Muggle-borns are scum?" said Ron sarcastically.

Alex thought that could apply to any Slytherin, but knew the one Ron was thinking of.

"Malfoy, the heir of Slytherin?" said Hermione skeptically.

"Think about it Hermione," said Ron, "His whole family has been in Slytherin for ages and they all hate Muggle-borns."

"But how can we be sure?" asked Alex, "We can't just go up to him and say, 'Hey Malfoy, are you by any chance the heir of Slytherin who is here to kill all Muggle-borns in the name of you how-many-great grandfather?' That'll be real subtle."

"Well, there is a way," said Hermione nervously. She looked around to see if anyone was around and whispered so quietly they all had to lean in close, "The Polyjuice Potion."

"Of course!" cried Alex, "That makes perfect sense!"

"It does?" said the boys together.

"The Polyjuice Potions allows the drinker to change into another human for one hour," said Alex quickly, "We could turn ourselves into Slytherins and ask Malfoy questions without being suspected."

"But how do we make it?" asked Ron.

"It's really complicated," said Alex, "I don't even know all the ingredients, let alone how to make it."

"It's probably in the restricted section of the library," said Hermione, "You need a note from a teacher to go in there."

"Who's going to sign a note for us?" asked Ron.

"Only a numbskull," said Alex and her mischievous smile appeared on her face.

…...

"All right class, for tonight's homework, I would like a parable based on one of my success stories. Good-bye!"

As the rest of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class filed out, Hermione, Alex, Harry, and Ron waited until everyone was gone. Hermione approached the desk, shaking.

"Excuse me Professor," she said nervously, "I was wondering if you would sign this form so I could go into the Restricted Section. I wanted to do some more research about your experiences in your autobiography."

"Of course my dear, I wouldn't want to deny my favorite student a chance to get ahead!" he said winking.

He pulled out a long peacock feather pen and signed Hermione's paper. After Alex left the classroom, she erupted into a fit of giggles.

"I can't believe our luck!" she said. "And did you see his pen?"

Ron started having a coughing fit, and Alex was sure she caught the words "fairy" and "priss" in between coughs. They reached the library and Hermione handed her note to Madam Pince, the librarian. She looked at the note carefully and even sniffed it. It passed her test and she showed them to the section. Alex looked around while the others kept watch for any teachers. She ran her fingers over the spine of the books until she found what she was looking for.

"Over here guys!" she whispered. She looked in the index and turned through the pages quickly while trying not to rip anything. "Here, the Polyjuice Potion. I haven't seen anything like this before." Her eyes were shining with excitement. "Look at these ingredients! Moonstone, I've never heard of that one before."

"How long does it take to brew?" asked Hermione.

Alex skimmed down the page and frowned. "At least a month, if we do it right."

"A month!" the boys cried and Alex shushed them.

"By then all the Muggle-borns in the school will be gone!" whispered Ron angrily.

"This is our only chance to find the truth, Ron," said Hermione. She sat next to Alex, looking at the ingredients. "Most of these we can find in the Potion storage room."

"First you want to brew a potion in the Restricted Section, now you want to steal from Snape?" said Harry.

"Fine, if you two are too cowardly to do it, we won't. I just wanted to find the heir of Slytherin," said Hermione, her eyes full of tears.

Alex realized why Hermione wanted to go to such lengths to find the heir: she was scared. She didn't want to face whatever creature that was in the Chamber. She looked at Harry and Ron.

"Hermione, we want to find them too," said Ron, sitting next to Hermione, "And we'll do whatever it takes."

"Come on, the sooner we start brewing this, the sooner we'll be able to drink it," said Alex excitedly, "I just love a challenge!"

…...

Alex was sitting in Myrtle's bathroom over a steaming cauldron. Hermione came into the room holding some leafy substances.

"Barely made it out," she panted, stuffing the necklace Alex gave her in her shirt.

Alex was given two necklaces from her mother, one was her mother's and the other was her aunt's. According to Uncle Monty, there were only three made in the world. The other one had belonged to her great step-grandmother, who was the one who made the necklaces. What Alex loved about them was they made the wearer invisible. All the wearer had to do was turn the knob on the side to the right and they would be invisible. Alex also liked that they were lockets, so she would always have a picture of her mum and dad with her.

"Bring the taproot leaves over here," said Alex.

Ron and Harry were chopping spider legs for the potion. Ron was quite enjoying chopping the legs off, he even forgot about being caught in a girl's bathroom.

"We're doing great here, we just need to wait for a full moon for the moonstone to start working. The only problem is," Alex said looking at a moon chart, "The next full moon is in three weeks. And we need to get our samples of the person we're going to change into."

"What do you mean by samples?" asked Harry.

"It says, 'a piece of who we're changing into', so we need DNA."

"I'm not getting any Slytherin toenails," said Harry.

"You don't need to, Harry. Just grab some hairs," said Hermione.

They had decided that Ron and Harry would be Crabbe and Goyle. Hermione would be Millicent Bullstrode and Alex would be Pansy Parkinson. None were happy with the arrangements, but as Alex pointed out, "All the Slytherins are bad so why not be the worst?" so they didn't complain.

Hogwarts was preparing for the first match of the season, Slytherin versus Gryffindor. The rival houses were starting to get violent against the opposing players. Wood started to have people follow Harry to make sure no one tried to knock Harry out of the game. On the day of the match, Alex was happy to see Malfoy looking pale and not eating his breakfast.

"Looks like a world-class broom doesn't stop the rider from getting first game jitters," said Alex smiling.

"Hi Harry!" said Collin, coming over with his camera, "I'm so excited for my first Quidditch match! I'm going to take pictures for my dad. He's a milkman. He doesn't know that brooms can be used to fly with!"

"That's great Collin," said Harry in a hollow voice, "I'll see you guys after the match," he said to the others.

Alex, Ron, and Hermione wolfed down their breakfasts so they could get good seats. They reached the Quidditch field and Alex started getting an adrenaline rush. She loved the feeling of being in the crowd during a match. Although, she was sure that playing the game would be even more enjoyable. Ron managed to get good seats by pushing his way through the crowd. Alex had just sat down when the two teams came out of the locker rooms.

"AND HERE ARE THE GRYFFINDORS! WOOD, JOHNSON, BELLE, SPINNET, WEASLEY, WEASLEY, AND POTTER!" shouted Lee Jordon, his voice magically magnified as he commentated the game.

Alex cheered loudly when Harry came out. She watched as the captains shook hands and the teams mounted their brooms.

"AND THERE OFF, JOHNSON PASSES TO BELLE, BELLE BACK TO JOHNSON, OH NO, MONTAGUE STEALS THE QUAFFLE!"

The Gryffindors booed at the captain of the Slytherin team. Alex watched as Harry searched for the Snitch.

"MONTAGUE IS FLYING TO THE GOALPOST, COME ON WOOD…YES! HE SAVES IT!"

Alex clapped loudly after Wood made a miraculous save. WHAM! The Slytherin beater hit a Bludger at Wood, sending him to the ground. Madame Hooch blew her whistle.

"Foul! You never hit a Keeper unless the Quaffle is in the scoring area!" she shouted.

Angelina took the penalty shot and made it. A Bludger nearly missed Harry and he dived to avoid it. The Bludger came around and tried to hit Harry again. Harry flew around the field, but the Bludger was still following.

"What's going on up there?" shouted Alex over the noise of the stands.

"It's a rogue Bludger, someone's tampered with it to follow Harry!" cried Ron.

"It's always something in Quidditch, isn't it?" asked Hermione exasperatedly.

Wood called a time-out. As Harry dove down, the Bludger followed. Fred and George grabbed it as it fought to hit Harry.

"Stop the game for Merlin's sake!" said Hermione.

"They can't without a forfeit and Harry wouldn't want them to stop the game because of him," said Alex with worry.

Alex was right, the game continued and Harry spent the time dodging the attacks of the Bludger. Alex saw a glimmer of gold and saw something by Malfoy's head. Harry saw it too and he sped towards it. Malfoy followed and started catching up. Alex was screaming herself hoarse, trying to coax Harry along.

"IT'S POTTER VERSUS MALFOY, COME ON HARRY, PUT THE PETAL TO THE METAL!" shouted Lee Jordan.

Harry reached his arm out and Alex saw the Bludger coming. CRACK! The Bludger hit Harry in the arm. He pulled it in and kept flying, hanging on by his legs.

"Come on Harry…YES!" screamed Alex.

Harry held up his hand and there was the Snitch. He flew to the ground, the Bludger still following him. Harry rolled off his broom and fell to the ground. Madame Hooch pulled out her wand and the Bludger exploded in a shower of sparks. Alex ran over and climbed down to the field, Hermione and Ron following.

"Harry, your arm!" Alex said at the sight of Harry's arm. It stuck out at an odd angle. "We need to get you to Madame Pomfrey."

"No need to worry folks, I am here!" said Lockhart. He bent over and looked at Harry's arm.

"Oh no, not you," groaned Harry.

"The boy's delirious!" said Lockhart to the crowd. He pointed his wand at Harry's arm. "Brakearm Imendo!" he said.

Alex watched as Harry's arm deflated. Lockhart held out Harry's arm and it drooped. The crowd gasped.

"What did you do?" cried Alex in fury, "He has no bones in his arm!"

"Well, at least it's not broken," said Lockhart defensively.

Ron, Hermione, and Alex grabbed Harry and took him to Madame Pomfrey.

When Madame Pomfrey saw Harry, she sighed and directed him to a bed.

"What's the matter this time Potter?" she asked in a bored voice. Harry held out his arm, which flopped to one side, and Madame Pomfrey gasped. She quickly dropped her bored manner and became annoyed. "What happened to you? No, I probably don't want to know," she said as she went to a cupboard and grabbed a bottle.

"He was hit by a rogue Bludger," said Alex. "Professor Lockhart tried to fix his arm but…"

"Say no more," said Pomfrey, "He should've come straight to me, I can mend bones in a heartbeat, but growing them back…"

"You can though, right?" asked Hermione.

"Oh of course I can, but it will be a long night, Potter," Pomfrey said as she handed Harry a cup of the liquid from the bottle. He took a sip and spat it back out. "Well, what were you expecting, pumpkin juice? Skele-O-Grow tastes terrible, but it works. Now, I must ask you three to leave. You can visit Potter in the morning."

After saying good-bye to Harry, Alex, Ron and Hermione went back to the common room. When they walked in, all the Gryffindors were sitting around, looking scared.

"How's Harry?" asked Wood.

"He's in the Hospital Wing, Madame Pomfrey said he'll be fine by morning."

"Thank Merlin!" cried Wood looking relieved.

"What did Lockhart do to him?" asked Angelina.

"He removed all of the bones in Harry's arm," said Hermione, frowning.

"What?" cried Fred and George together.

"Can I go see Harry?" asked Collin.

"You going to have to wait until morning Collin," said Alex kindly, "Madame Pomfrey won't let anyone see him now."

Collin looked sad and went up the stairs. Alex, Hermione, and Ron said good-bye and went up to their dormitories.

"Hey Hermione," asked Alex as she slipped on her pajamas, "Do you think Harry's going to be all right?"

"Of course! Madame Pomfrey can fix anything," said Hermione as she pulled the curtains around her bed.

Alex slept fitfully, dreaming of a Bludger chasing her.

Author's Note: Wow, this is a pretty jam-packed chapter. I think this is my longest one for this story. Anyway, I have my Winter Formal dance this Saturday so I'll try to post that morning before I'm running around like a crazy person trying to get ready but if I can't, the next chapter will be up on Sunday. Thank you to all my reviewers and please leave all comments by pressing the review button below. It's extremely well trained and will only bite if you write a flame. ;)