Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor am I attempting to make any personal gain from this story.
Harry Slithers-in; Chamber of Secrets: Chapter 5: The Legend of the Chamber of Secrets
Since he was no longer on the Quidditch team when Harry woke up Saturday morning he lay in bed thinking about what had happened. Yes; he was annoyed with Draco but he had to admit he couldn't prove conclusively Draco had ordered the family's servant to steal Harry's mail. It seemed unlikely Draco knew about the letter from Marcus Flint but even so Harry couldn't rule out entirely the possibility that the mail theft wasn't part of a greater scheme.
After breakfast Harry joined Theo and a few others in the library. He planned on finishing his homework and then going to visit Hagrid. While there, however, a group of Gryffindors including Hermione Granger came in. Hermione was upset about something and Harry was curious but before he could ask Ron Weasley said. "Oh, look, the gits are here. Just so you know, when we get our hands on Malfoy he will regret the day he bought his way onto the Slytherin Quidditch team."
"What happened?" Harry asked.
"Malfoy called Hermione a mud-blood when she asked why Malfoy was on the team," Ron explained.
"In that case be my guest when you catch him. I won't stop you," Harry replied.
"I doubt anyone here would help him," Blaise added. "Just don't tell him what we just told you, though. We Slytherins are supposed to stick together." Theo, Daphne and Tracey all agreed.
After finishing their assignments the group headed to the Great Hall for lunch. As they approached the Great Hall they met Hagrid who was carrying a dead rooster. "Hello Hagrid. What's that?" Harry asked.
"I found it outside the chicken coop jus' now. Looks like someone killed it on purpose," Hagrid replied.
"Who'd want to kill a rooster?" Blaise asked. The others agreed.
"Dunno," Hagrid replied. "I was goin' to see the Headmaster about gettin' some better spells around the coop so it doesn't happen again."
Hagrid left for Dumbledore's office while the students continued on to lunch.
It was as they were leaving the Hall after lunch that Harry heard something. It sounded like a voice but there was nobody in sight. He stopped to listen and this caught the others' attention.
"Harry? Is something wrong?" Tracey asked.
"I can hear a voice. It sounds cold and heartless, like it's threatening someone," Harry replied.
"What voice?" Theo asked. The others also seemed confused.
Harry looked at them. "Can't any of you hear that?"
"No," Theo finally said.
Harry continued listening but the voice was getting fainter. He thought it might be moving toward the upper floors of the castle. "I can definitely hear something. It is getting fainter, like it's moving away."
"I still can't hear anything," Tracey said, sounding worried. "Harry, are you feeling ok?"
'I feel fine," he replied. "It's gone, I can't hear it anymore."
Slowly Harry started walking towards the Common Room along with the other students. He couldn't understand why nobody else could hear it since, to him. It had been quite plain. As they walked along the corridor to the Common Room Tracey said, "Look at those spiders."
"What about them?" Theo asked.
Tracey pointed to a long line of spiders all crawling towards a small crack in a window high above their heads. The spiders all seemed to be in a hurry and looked as if they were trying to push each-other out of the way so they could escape.
"That is strange," Theo commented. "Maybe a rat or something died up there and they are all hurrying to lay eggs in the body?"
"I guess so. Let's go," Harry said.
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Harry settled into his normal routine over the next couple of months. He hadn't heard any more of the mysterious voice and had now decided he must have imagined it. The fact that nobody else had heard it re-enforced this belief. With that out of the way things quickly returned to normal.
On a number of occasions Harry had gone to watch the Slytherin Quidditch team practicing. He had to admit that Draco was a good flyer and that maybe he had actually earned his place on the team with some genuine skill, although the circumstances of his selection still riled Harry. On a couple of occasions he had noticed the Weasley twins spying on the Slytherin team and had attempted to catch them but they always managed to sneak away. He told Marcus Flint of this and Flint asked him to spy on the Gryffindor trainings in return. Harry agreed.
In fact he didn't learn much about the Gryffindors during these spy missions. It seemed their tactics were much the same as last year although they had clearly refined their skills and speed. He passed this information onto Flint who then set him the task of spying on the Hufflepuff team since they would be Slytherin's first opponent.
As it turned out spying on the Hufflepuffs was easy. Their training sessions were basically open with no real attempt to stop students from other houses watching them. Since there was next to nothing to report he told Flint there was no need to spy on them anymore.
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Halloween was approaching. One day shortly before the holiday Harry was sitting with Tracey in the Common Room when she asked, "Do you have any plans for commemorating your parents this year?"
"Not really," he replied. "Last year was special, it was the first time I actually knew the truth about how they died and it was the 10th anniversary so it was something special but this year is just another Halloween. It doesn't have any particular significance."
Halloween itself was the usual feast with decorations all around the Hall. Harry had less contact with students from other houses this year but he still noticed a number of absentees at the Gryffindor table. Ron and Ginny Weasley, along with Hermione Granger, were absent but he didn't think much of it. There was a rumour that Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor house ghost, was having a party to celebrate his 500th Death-day, the 500th anniversary of his death, so it wasn't all that surprising that some Gryffindors were absent.
About two-thirds of the way through the feast Ron and Hermione returned and, when Harry looked around, he realised Ginny was there too. The guessed he must have missed her in the crowd earlier; she was quite short even by 1st year standards so it was possible.
As they were leaving the Slytherins noticed a large group of students clustered around the top of the Grand Staircase that led to the Castle's upper levels. Curious, they climbed the stairs. As they made their way up several startled shouts and screams were heard. Malfoy pushed his way to the front of the crowd, his usually pale face flushed with excitement. "Enemies of the Heir beware. You'll be next mud-bloods," Malfoy shouted.
Harry could now see there were huge, shining letters written on the wall. They read, 'The Chamber of secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir beware.'
Just then Argus Filch, the Caretaker, shoved his way into the middle of the students. "What's all this?" he demanded. Suddenly he stopped, staring at something immediately below the writing. Harry gasped. Hung on a torch bracket, like some horrific symbol of evil, was Mrs. Norris; Filch's pet cat.
Next to him, he heard Daphne and Tracey muttering quietly. They were clearly shocked by what they could see. Harry didn't know what to do.
Filch looked madly around the students. "Who did this?" he demanded, sounding almost hysterical. "Who killed my cat? I demand justice!"
"Argus." Professor Dumbledore had arrived, along with most of the other staff. He, along with Professors McGonagall, Snape and Lockhart moved to the front of the group surrounding Filch and Mrs. Norris.
"Everybody, please return to your dormatories. Quickly. Nobody is to leave the Common Rooms before breakfast tomorrow," Dumbledore said. Harry noted even Dumbledore seemed worried.
In the Common Room everybody was talking about what had happened. Most people seemed to think Harry was responsible but Harry himself was as confused as worried as Dumbledore seemed.
"Potter," Theo began. "I'm surprised you attacked Filch's cat. Still, I guess you have to start somewhere."
"I didn't do it," Harry replied.
"Come off it Potter," Malfoy put in. "We all know you are the Heir of Slytherin. Can you show us where the chamber is?"
"What chamber?" Harry asked.
"You mean you don't know about the Chamber of Secrets?" Malfoy asked.
"No. What is it?"
Malfoy sat on a couch and invited Harry to sit. Harry joined him on the couch while dozens of other students crowded around. Malfoy seemed pleased to have such a large audience.
"When Hogwarts was founded around a thousand years ago each of the four founders had their own ideas about how magical children should be educated," Malfoy began. "One thing they all agreed on was that witches and wizards needed to be protected from muggles who might try to harm or even kill them. So they built Hogwarts in an out-of-the-way location where there were no muggle villages. This allowed them more freedom to teach young witches and wizards without the threat from muggles than they would have otherwise had.
"Once that was done they set about identifying children with the potential to learn magic. One thing that was obvious even at that time was that wizards tended to have wizarding children. Because of this the founder of our house, Salazar Slytherin, decided that only the children of witches and wizards should be allowed to learn magic. It was simply a matter of protecting the power to prevent it falling into the hands of people who could be a danger to us.
"He was, of course, completely right in his decision but the other three founders disagreed. This led to a series of disputes and finally there was a big argument between Slytherin and Gryffindor. Even though Slytherin was right the other two founders sided with Gryffindor and our Great Founder was forced from the castle. Before leaving, however, Slytherin built a secret chamber that only his true Heir would be able to open. In this chamber is the beast of Slytherin, a creature that only his true Heir can control. Potter, if you are the true Heir of Slytherin then it's your duty to take control of this beast and finish Salazar Slytherin's illustrious duty; to rid Hogwarts of the unworthy."
Once Draco had finished there was silence as people took in what had been said. Harry knew he hadn't unleashed a monster but clearly someone had and, as a result, his status as the Heir of Slytherin was being challenged. In the year since he had found out that his ability to talk to snakes meant people thought he was the Heir he had been able to use his status to improve inter-house relations and had even managed to get at least some Slytherins to respect muggleborns for what they were; witches and wizards in training just like the purebloods.
"I am the Heir of Slytherin," Harry said. "I did not release a beast from the chamber and now I want to know who the pretender to my throne is. Is anyone here willing to help me?"
"This might be interesting, I'm in," Theo said.
"Of course I'll help you, Harry," Tracey said.
"Davis is just trying to protect her status as the girlfriend of the Heir of Slytherin," Pansy said, in a condescending voice.
"So what if I am?" Tracey growled. "I know Harry wouldn't attack a cat just because nobody likes it."
"So that's Theo and Tracey," Harry interrupted before an argument could start. "Anyone else?"
"Sign me up," Daphne said. Blaise also nodded his agreement.
"First thing tomorrow we need to start research. Firstly we need to know more about the Chamber itself as well as what is in it. Malfoy? I don't suppose you have any more information on it do you?"
"I know the last time it was opened a mud-blood died, and that it was opened 50 or so years ago," Draco replied, the sneer still obvious.
"Well that's a start, and we know it must be something related to Slytherin, probably a serpent of some sort," Theo said.
"So we need to find out about what types of snakes can do that, especially the hanging it from a torch bracket thing. That does seem especially nasty," Harry said.
"Tomorrow then," Theo said. "For now, let's get some sleep."