"Hi!" I said silently as I could , while looking at them with an innocent expression on my face.
"Christine Elisabeth Snape! What in the world are you doing here?!" My father shouted at the top of his lungs . He was so furious that tiny veins could be seen on his forehead.
"I ….I'' his shouting made me lose all my words. He newer called me by my full name. I didn't even know what I could say to get out of this situation unpunished.
"Calm down Severus." Dumbledore put his hand on my father's shoulder in order to calm him down. "She didn't do anything wrong."
He shook of his hand. "You could have gotten hurt, or worse!" he was still shouting, ignoring Dumbledore. His anger was increasing every passing second.
"I am sorry, but what was I supposed to do?" I said calmly, trying not to make him more angry than he already was.
"You should have stayed in your room like you have been told to!" Everyone in the room were silent except him. No one dared to say or do anything while he was scolding me.
"I just wanted to know what was happening." I felt like I was smaller than a poppy seed, still sitting on the stone floor. I didn't dared to look up and I kept staring into my legs.
I could hear a loud sigh coming from my father. "What am I going to do with you?" He smiled and when I lifted my head I could see that the other people in the room were relieved when he calmed down.
"Come on, stand up! We were in the middle of a discussion, and since you heard most of it we will just explain to you what is happening," Professor McGonagall said kindly, helping me up.
"I suppose that you are already familiar with the story of four founders of Hogwarts," Dumbledore spoke up as everyone went silent. "Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin," He was talking so slowly that even after just one sentence I lost myself in his words and I just kept nodding my head. "Three of them worked quite fine, but Salazar Slytherin wanted to be more selective when it came to children who were supposed to come and learn at Hogwarts... In other words, he thought that purebloods were the only one worthy enough to study magic. When he failed to sway the others he left the school." While talking he kept walking up and down the office, one moment he was looking at the pictures as if he was talking to them not me, and the other he would suddenly change his attention to one of the books, and after a small pause, he would start speaking again, as if he just remembered what he was doing just a moments ago. "According to the legend Salazar had built a hidden chamber in this castle known as a Chamber of Secrets and before leaving he sealed it until his one true heir return to the school again and unleash the monster that lies within, and purge the school of all those who are in Slytherin's view, are unworthy to study magic." Dumbledore finished in what felt like hours and I could fell that my mouth was half-opened.
"That is the most absurd thing I have ever heard!" I managed to say after all that. "I mean why would muggle-borns be less worthy of studying magic?"
"Unfortunately, we still have some purebloods families that think that way, and it is truly sad that young wizards and witches grow up believing in something that is not right." Dumbledore shook his head and sighed.
"It is believed that the chamber was opened fifty years ago, and that monster that lies within murdered one muggle-born student in the girls' bathroom on the second floor," McGonagall said in a sad voice so silent that I barely heard it.
I thought for a moment and suddenly I remembered one ghost that I spent hours talking when the classes were cancelled and I wasn't allowed to wander down the hallways. "Moaning Myrtle?'' I whispered thinking how I never asked her what happened. I somehow thought that I would turn out to be rude.
"Yes, she was the first and the last victim of the opening of Salazar's chamber," Dumbledore answered, and I could feel my heart sting, she was just a few years older than me when she died.
After a long silence, I could feel the tension rising it was like they were remembering the incident.
''And now, the chamber has been opened again," Professor Sprout, who until now was silent, suddenly said and everyone just nodded. "I just hope that there won't be any more incidents."
"We all can just wait and see what is going to happen," Dumbledore said in his usual calm voice.
"Can't we at least try and find the chamber? I mean the castle was probably searched, but maybe we can try again?" I said, trying to think of anything I would be able to help with.
"The castle has been searched many times and so far nothing has been found. The only thing you could do is to keep close to your friends and stay safe." Dumbledore ruffled my curly hair and made it even more tangled.
"Now off to bed, it is already late and you have classes early in the morning!" He said practically pushing me out of his office.
My father escorted me to my dormitory and after that, he too went to sleep. When I arrived everyone was already in their rooms and the common room was completely empty.
*****
A few days passed since the incident with Mrs Norris, and I still couldn't get out of my head the thing professors told me about the monster in the chamber. 'Who in their right mind put the monster in a school full of children?'
We were now in the classroom for DADA, and in the middle of the room was a giant table-like stage. On top of it stood Lockhart, this time without that stupid coat of his, and some girls commented on how ''good'' he looked, and I just couldn't control myself and rolled my eyes.
"Gather round!" Lockhart shouted. "Can everybody see me? Can you all see me?" He kept talking louder and louder. And I really don't know what he tried to accomplish.
"In light of the dark events of recent weeks, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourself..."
"As if he will be able to teach us anything " I whispered to Draco who was standing beside me frowning through Lockhart whole speech, and he just smirked at my remark.
"For full details, see my published works." He added somewhere in the middle of the speech. He then took off his cape, if I can call that hideous thing cape, and throw it to a group of girls who started fighting among themselves, which one of them is going to take it.
''Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape "Everyone looked at the other side of the stage and I found myself leaning onto the stage in order to see my father.
''He has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry. You'll still have your potions master when I am through with him. Never fear." He finished, and I just wanted to jump on him and rip all the hair from his head. 'Who is he to dare to insult my father like that!"
" I think, Professor, that you are the one who we have to fear for. Professor Snape is going to be just fine!" I said as loud as I could, so every single person heard me, and those who agreed with me laughed but those who didn't just looked at me as if I was crazy.
"And what is your name dear?" Lockhart could only smile, not knowing how to talk back on me.
"I don't think that is important sir!" I smiled sweetly playing innocent child. And his smile dropped.
"That is enough Miss Moore, but thank you for your kind statement !" He sent me a tiny smile that only I would be able to see.
They then went into duelling position and Lockhart started counting and when he reached number three my father cast an Expelliarmus spell. And Lockhart was sent flying a few meters away. He quickly stood up and cleaned his clothes.
I laughed and somewhere in the crowd I could hear Hermione asking if he was okay, and the Weasley answering with' Who cares ?' And that was the first time that I agreed with him.
'' Excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind me saying, it was pretty obvious what you were about to do, and if I wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy." Lockhart tried to get away with being clearly defeated by saying some really stupid stuff.
"Perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, professor." My father said and I could see his smirk across the table.
"Excellent suggestion Professor Snape!" Can he get more stupid than this? Seriously?
For a moment I stopped listening and start thinking when the class is going to get over, and I didn't realized that they choose two students to duel. And those two students happened to be Draco and Potter.
"Draco show him who is better!" I said when they were in the first position, one in front of the other.
He mouthed 'I will,' and went to the left side of the stage. When he found his place beside my father Lockhart started counting, and Draco didn't even wait for him to finish when he cast Everte Statum and Potter was sent spinning few times before falling onto the ground.
I couldn't contain my smile, this was just too amusing. Then the whole concept of throwing spells back and forth came to an end when Draco summoned a snake on the stage. My father was ready to fix things, but Lockhart just had to jump in and make things even worse, with sending the poor snake flying. And after all this charade Potter 'the hero' started talking to it? The weird part was that he could speak with the snake. Since when he can talk with snakes, and another crazy thing was that I could actually understand what they were talking about. I mean, ever since I could remember I was able to speak with animals but for that to happen I first need to touch them, and I know that I have never touched this snake in my life.
"Leave him alone !" Potters voice could be heard loud and clear, but the snake just looked from him to some weird looking Hufflepuff kid.
"Why ?" Snake hissed and once again looked at Potter.
"Just leave him alone!" He said again, but snake ignored him and she just kept crawling closer and closer to the boy.
This time Potter was quiet, he probably didn't know what to say to calm her down, so I jumped in front of the boy.
"Please don't hurt him, he didn't do anything wrong!" Every person in the room looked at me. And I felt like they were stabbing me with knives. That probably was because I stood up for someone. Weird I know! But this was no time for stupid thinks like he is from Hufflepuff and I was a Slytherin and stuff like that. People are weird sometimes.
Snake than turned to face me looking rather surprised." Another one?! Weird !"She said between the hissing.
"Another what?" I asked but the snake didn't manage to answer me because my father cast a counter-spell and the snake vanished with a loud hissing that made my hair on the back of my head stand up.
Everyone kept staring at me and Potter and I just turned towards this boy, while ignoring everyone else. "Are you okay?" I asked.
He looked dumbfounded at me for a good ten seconds before answering. "I...I am ...thanks!" he tried to smile but I could see that he was far from comfortable while talking with me. But that didn't bother me since I was from Slytherin after all.
"Okay !"Lockhart broke the awkward silence. "Who wants to be next?" He clapped and smiled trying to ease everyone, but he failed miserably. Everyone were quiet and all could thing about it was the thing that Potter was a Parselmouth. How in the world was that possible?
I shot my hand up. "I would like to try sir!" I smiled sweetly. I really wanted to get that out of my head, and the best way for that was to throw some spells.
Lockhart was not happy with me being the only one who wanted to try, and I could see that he definitely didn't like me at all, which suited me just fine.
"Anyone else?" He asked again smiling. All that smiling was starting to be really annoying. 'You have amazingly white teeth, okay we get it!' I thought while making my way on the stage.
Then my father selected my pair for this duel. And my pair was no one other than Pansy Parkinson. It turned out that my father actually listened to my constant complaining, and how I didn't like her at all. Funny thing was that she didn't like me either, which made our friendship from first-year long forgotten.
The duel ended quickly with me being the winner, of course. I made sure not to use complicated spells that we were supposed to learn in higher grades, so I don't blow my cover.
After class, my father called me over in his office, and I assumed that he probably wanted to talk about Potter or something, but it turned out to be something totally different.