Author's Note: I am really, really, really sorry that I haven't updated this fic in ages. I lost interest in it as I was focusing on my fic Nightwind School of Magic, and was debating how I wanted second year to turn out in this. A part of me also wanted to skip second and third year entirely and move on to fourth-year, since the Triwizard Tournament happens in it and I knew how I wanted the year to turn out out. I apologize again for not updating this fic in over a year and I promise to do my best to update this more frequently.
Word soon got out about the Slytherin team's new brooms, which was the cause of quite a bit of grumbling from the other three houses. The grumbling ended a week later, when Sirius, somehow having heard about this, came to Hogwarts at breakfast time and dropped a pile of tiny packages to the floor. He then took out his wand and unshrunk the packages, revealing them to all be broom-shaped. "Good morning, everyone!" he said loudly, in order to be heard over the curious whispers from the students. "It has come to my attention that a Slytherin alum has donated brooms to his house team. You all know about the rivalry that Slytherin and Gryffindor have, and as I am a Gryffindor alum, I decided the even things out. And in the interest of fairness, I decided to include Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff in this. So, I am donating twenty-one Nimbus Two Thousand Ones to the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams. Could the members of the teams please step forward and take your brooms?"
Excited murmurs from three-quarters of the school broke out as twenty-one team members got up and went to get their brooms. The remaining one-quarter, which were Slytherins, did not look pleased to have their broom advantage taken away, and many of them muttered angrily. Sirius winked at Alex as he picked up one of the packages and smiled and waved away the thanks that the Quidditch players expressed before returning to their seats. "It was a pleasure to make this donation. Now, I have other matters to attend to today, so I must leave. Just show your gratitude by making good use of the brooms and kicking Slytherin's arse in your matches against them."
"Mr. Black!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall, looking scandalized. "You know better than to say something like that!"
Sirius merely grinned cheekily at her. "Oh come on, Minnie, you know that you want Gryffindor to beat Slytherin and win the Quidditch Cup. You made that clear when I was a student and a Beater on the Gryffindor team, and I know you haven't changed since then."
"My name is Minerva, not 'Minnie'," said Professor McGonagall sternly, though her lips twitched slightly. "If you were still my student, Sirius Black, I'd give you a detention."
"Well, I'm not, and thank Merlin for that. The detentions you assigned me were awful." Sirius then waved to Professor Dumbledore and the other Heads of House, who all returned the wave, except for Professor Snape, who looked very surly and simply gave a curt nod of acknowledgement. Sirius did not look perturbed by this, and merely grinned and waved to the entire student body before sweeping out the Great Hall.
The next day, at lunchtime, there was a disturbance at the Ravenclaw table. Outside of the Ravenclaw quintet, none of the other Ravenclaw first-years were accepting of Luna, and they, along with some of the older students, still made fun of Luna. Attempts to report them to Vera or Professor Flitwick only resulted in the entire quintet being targeted, not just Luna, and they always made sure not to do it in front of the staff or the prefects. Fred and George had stepped in with some pranks, but it hadn't stopped the teasing or bullying, and only resulted in the targets of the pranks insulting Ginny, and reporting the twins to Professor McGonagall, who had given them detention for the pranks and taken points from Ravenclaw for the bullying.
At the moment, Vera had an angry look on her face and appeared to be arguing with a sandy-haired boy in her year. Beth recognized the boy as the one that her cousin was currently dating. It soon became clear that Vera was upset with Larry Spencer over the fact that he hadn't tried to put a stop to the teasing of the Ravenclaw quintet earlier that morning. The argument soon escalated to Vera shouting, "How can you call Luna that!? She's a perfectly nice girl, even if she does have some strange beliefs! Her friends all like her, and I know her and like her too!"
"There's a reason over half of Ravenclaw calls her Loony Lovegood," retorted Larry. "She weird and crazy and I don't know how anyone can be her friend. She believes the rubbish that her father prints in The Quibbler and says the oddest things. I don't see why you bother standing up for her."
"How dare you!" screeched Vera, as both Professors Flitwick and McGonagall got up from the staff table. "I thought you were nice, Larry Spencer, but clearly I was wrong about you! We're through! I don't ever want to talk to you again!" With that, she got up, apologized to the two professors for her outburst, and stalked out the Great Hall, leaving the rest of the student body to gape at her or whisper about the fight. Percy, looking extremely concerned, got up from the Gryffindor table and ran after his best friend, no doubt to try to calm her down and comfort her. His girlfriend, Penelope, looked up from the Ravenclaw table and frowned at this.
Later that day, on the way to dinner, Alex ran into Percy and Penelope, who were arguing. They took no notice of him as Percy tried to explain that Vera had been his best friend since they were toddlers and that it was natural that he'd want to console her, while Penelope argued that it made it look as if her boyfriend cared more about another girl. Alex sighed and continued on the Great Hall, as he noted Percy adding that Larry Spencer had been completely wrong for Vera and he just wanted to make sure that his friend would get over the break-up. Alex had no idea what was said after that, as the two sat together at the Ravenclaw table during dinner, but judging by the fact that they got up and left the Great Hall holding hands and smiling at each other, they had made up.
After the disastrous first class, Lockhart had taken to reading passages from his books, and sometimes reenacted the more dramatic bits, calling on students to pretend to be a scared villager or the vampire or other dark being/creature he fought. As it was clear that they weren't going to be learning anything of use in Defense class, the Gryffindor quintet resumed learning proper Defense on their own in the Room of Requirement and coaching the Ravenclaw quintet, who often joined them in the sessions.
September passed into October, and soon it was Halloween. Alex woke before his dormmates and spent a few minutes thinking over the stories Remus, Sirius, and Professor Snape had told him about his biological parents. He dug out the photo album Remus had given him for Christmas last year, which was filled with pictures of his parents. Most had been donated by Remus and Professor Snape, but after Sirius had been released and informed about Alex's true identity, he had dug out photos he had of the Marauders and Lily and added them to the album. Alex flipped through the album and silently mourned for his biological parents. After awhile, he heard one of his dormmates stirring, so he got up to put the album away, thinking that he was grateful to his parents for their sacrifice and wishing that he could have gotten to know them, even though his life was good now.
On the way to the Halloween feast, Alex thought he heard a hissing voice say something about 'rip' and 'kill', but when he looked around, he couldn't find the source of the voice, and Beth and their friends all said that they hadn't heard anything. He dismissed it as his imagination and focused his attention on enjoying the feast.
However, after the feast, something happened to put a damper on the night's festivities. Mrs. Norris was found Petrified (though Filch had assumed his beloved cat to be dead until Professor Dumbledore examined her and pronounced otherwise), and above her on the wall, written in what seemed to be blood, were the words "THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE."
This caused a flurry of speculation as Professor Dumbledore assured Filch that Professor Snape would be able to brew a draught to restore Mrs. Norris once the mandrakes that Professor Sprout was raising had matured and Professor McGonagall ordered the students to their respective common rooms. The Gryffindor quintet knew from Hogwarts, a History (though only Beth, Alex, and Hermione had actually read the entire book), that Salazar Slytherin had supposedly built a secret chamber at Hogwarts. Only he and his descendants had ever known the location of this secret chamber, if it even existed, and there supposedly was some sort of monster that Salazar Slytherin had left in it as guard.
The five gathered in a corner of the Gryffindor common room and discussed the incident in hushed whispers, wondering how Mrs. Norris had been Petrified and if the Chamber of Secrets really existed, and if so, who opened it and how.