Chapter 9
"It's either him or her! You saw what was written on the wall!" Filch was wailing. "They both know I'm a squib!"
"I never touched Mrs Norris and I only learnt what a squib is thanks to Eli!" protested the green eyed teen.
"Then it's her! She pretended to be nice only to better betray me like all slytherins do!"
"Excuse me!?" Angela spluttered, shocked to be accused of being responsible.
"If I may, Headmaster." stepped in Severus. "I think Angela, Potter and their friends were at the wrong place at the wrong time and that they are innocent even if the fact that they weren't at the Halloween feast is suspicious. Why were they in that corridor at this hour?"
Harry was about to answer but Angela shook her head and answered instead. "We were at Nick's death day party, you can ask the ghosts. We got tired so I offered to walk Ry', Ron and Hermy back to their dormitory but on the way we found Mrs Norris and the writing so I sent Morte to fetch you, cousin Severus."
"Without eating?" He raised an eyebrow, not impressed.
"We weren't hungry." she replied with a smile that fell as Ron's stomach let himself be known.
"Angela Elizabeth Schiffer, you know better than to hide the truth. Do not lie to me if you do not wish to be punished. That works for the other three of you as well." Severus gave her a pointed look but she made a show to not answer, defying him stubbornly.
"Here, here Severus. Innocent until proven guilty." cut Dumbledore understanding that they wouldn't have any more information at that moment.
"My cat was petrified, I want punishment!" insisted Filch angrily as Snape looked furious.
"We will heal her Argus." replied calmly Dumbledore. "Professor Sprout is raising mandrakes, as soon as they are mature we will brew the draught that will bring Mrs Norris back to life."
"I will do it, I did it a hundred times. I could brew a mandrake restorative draught in my sleep." exclaimed Lockhart only for Angela to snort.
"Cousin Severus is the potion master here, maybe you should let him do his job."
"Angela! 5 points from Slytherin for attitude! Although she is right." sneered Severus.
"You can go." Dumbledore released them but before Angela could go through the door, Severus caught her arm.
"You and I are going to have a nice talk later, young lady. This is not over."
She nodded meekly and he let her go.
The four teenagers found an empty classroom that she warded for privacy.
"Don't you think we should have told them about the voice I heard?" asked Harry.
"No Ry'. Hearing voices isn't exactly normal and considering what is happening they wouldn't have believed us anyway."
"You know what that voice was." It wasn't a question and she nodded before grimacing.
"Once again I can't tell you outright but I can help, maybe give you an idea. The Chamber of Secret was built by Salazar Slytherin and is said to house his monster. So what you heard was the monster. However we couldn't hear the monster because we can't communicate with it but you can. You have a rare skill that we do not have and that would classify you as the heir of Slytherin if anyone knew."
"Are you saying Harry is a parselmouth and that the monster might be a sort of snake?" asked Hermione.
"Wait Parselmouth?" Harry looked confused.
"The ability to speak to snakes, it's said that only the descendant from Slytherin have that skill." explained Hermione.
"I thought everyone could talk to snakes." said Harry even more confused, making Angela chuckle.
"In Britain we have only two known parselmouths, you and Moldyshort. In India they have more people who can talk with snakes but here it's pretty rare." clarified Angela. "Hermy you are really too smart for your own good. I think you'll figure out what the monster is before Christmas with the information you already have."
The bushy haired girl blushed and Harry looked pensive for a moment.
"You know who opened the Chamber as well."
"I do. I'm trying to find a way to neutralize him before he can hurt students but I can't say more yet. I promise to tell you everything as soon as I can! I just think I can solve this without hurting anyone but if he gets suspicious that people know about him then my job will get harder… "
"Eli, you don't have to do everything on your own, you can rely on us!"
"How about we make a deal? If I can't do it by myself before the New Year, I'll ask you guys for help."
"Deal." replied the three in unison.
"We should go to sleep, it's almost midnight, we'll be in trouble if we get caught."
The following days Hermione dived into book after book in the library, trying to find what kind of snake the monster could be. The students had taken to avoiding Angela and Harry, suspecting one of the two to be the heir, especially Angela after the memorable slap she gave Draco in front of the whole student body and because she was in Slytherin and a pureblood.
oOoOo
In the room of requirement, Angela was sitting on a bean bag, facing the sofa where Ron and Hermione were sitting, Harry on another bean bag next to them. The slytherin girl was reading a book on charms when Hermione started speaking.
"I wonder who wants to rid the castle of all squibs and muggleborns…"
"Yeah, I wonder who thinks muggleborns are worthless." sneered Ron before giving Hermione a look.
"If you're talking about Malfoy…"
"You two are ridiculous, it's not Dray. Just let me take care of it." said Angela, closing her book.
"But Eli, between what he said and the fact that Malfoy's all went to Slytherin… plus his father is evil enough to be the heir."
"They must pass on the key from father to son for generations!" exclaimed Ron.
"Yeah but how to prove it?"
"There is nothing to prove, Dray is a prat but he's not the Heir!" scowled Angela.
"There is a way, a dangerous, very dangerous way. We'd be breaking around fifty school rules… but with Angie's help it would be easier…"
"Don't count on it, I'm not helping you break school rules over something so ridiculous." Angela crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly.
"What's the plan Mione?" Asked Ron, ignoring Angela completely.
"If we use Polyjuice we could take the appearance of some of Malfoy's friends and interrogate him."
Angela stood up and glared at them, her hair a dark blue color. "Don't any of you bloody trust me? If Dray knew anything he would be claiming it for everyone to hear! If the Malfoy were related to Slytherin, the whole wizarding world would know of it already!"
"You are just lying, trying to protect the slimy git! We should have known better than to trust someone related to the greasy bastard, once a snake always a snake!" Ron retorted, standing up to face her.
Suddenly Ron was bent, howling in pain with both hands on his crotch as Angela's right foot went back to the ground.
"Do not insult my family. Now if that is really what you think about me then fine, do whatever you want! Just don't come crying when you realize I was right from the start!
"Eli, wait!"
Angela ignored Harry's call after her and left, slamming the door shut behind her, furious and hurt by her friends refusing to believe her.
Following that argument she refused to talk to any of them even when Harry tried to send her a letter. Morte had been sent to them to tell them that unless they started trusting her she didn't care. She stayed with Draco most of the time or holed up in Severus's laboratory brewing potions.
When the quidditch match came and the rogue bludger went after Harry, she couldn't stand still. She heard the sickening crack of Harry's broken arm as she ran to him on the pitch, wand drawn.
"Finite!" she yelled at the bludger, blowing it up in her fury.
She barely had the time to deal with the bludger that she saw Lockhart hovering over Harry's form, ready to try and mend his arm and that made her growl.
"Oh no you don't! Expelliarmus!" She deftly caught his wand before running to Harry, rummaging through her bag before taking out a bottle filled with a green potion. "Wiggenweld potion for the pain, bottom up."
Harry drank the potion before looking at her with confusion on his face.
"You're an idiot and I'm angry but you're still my brother. Now let's get you to the Hospital Wing."
Angela lost 20 points from Slytherin for disarming a teacher but didn't get detention considering the circumstances and Harry's arm was mended right away by Madam Pomphrey. However the green-eyed teen was kept in the Hospital wing for the night, just in case.
During that night Harry discovered Dobby's involvement with the rogue bludger. The poor house elf was crying about the great Harry Potter lying to him and ignoring his advice although Dobby had only been trying to save the great Harry Potter. Before Harry could get in trouble, Dobby left him as Dumbledore and McGonagall entered the hospital wing with the petrified body of Colin Creevey.
oOoOo
It was the first session of the dueling club and all the students were laughing at Lockhart's expense after he was sent flying by Severus's expelliarmus. Came the practical part, Angela pairing up with Blaise Zabini. The poor boy soon went hanging from his ankle at the ceiling. It was chaos all around even if the most spectacular was Hermione and Millicent fighting like muggles.
"I think I should teach you how to neutralize spells first…" chuckled Lockhart awkwardly. "Let's take a pair for demonstration, Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley."
"Very bad idea, professor. Longbottom is a walking disaster when it comes to spell, I am afraid there would not be anything left of poor Finch-Fletchley. How about Potter and Malfoy?" interrupted Severus, ignoring Angela's look.
Lockhart called Harry to him and tried to demonstrate some elaborate looking wand movement before he dropped his wand, confusing the gryffindor.
"Scared, Potter?" provoked Draco.
"You wish." He retorted.
Lockhart counted "Three, two, one, begin!"
"Serpensortia!" casted Draco, conjuring a huge black snake to the horror of most students.
"Do not move Potter, I will get rid of it.." started Severus only to be pushed by the other professor.
"I'll take care of it."
Lockhart casted something at the snake that made an explosion, projecting the snake toward where Justin was standing, terrified. The snake raised, ready to strike the boy when Angela bellowed "Vipera Evanesca!" with her wand out, making the snake disappear in a cloud of black smoke.
"What were you thinking, Draconis Lucius Malfoy!? Someone could have gotten seriously injured!"
"Ange, it was just a little joke to scare Potter!"
"A joke is supposed to be funny, not potentially lethal you idiot!"
"Angela, enough. 10 points to Slytherin for saving a fellow student." Snape stepped in, his hand on her shoulder.
After that moment, rumors went even more crazy than before, Angela's knowledge and lack of fear when confronted to the snake overshadowed the fact that she had saved Justin's life. Students couldn't agree on who was the Heir between Harry and Angela and thus ran away from both and made sure to avoid them as much as possible.
oOoOo
After Justin was found, Angela was surprised to see Fawkes appear in front of her, a note in his beak.
Join me in my office as soon as you can. I enjoy lemon sherbet.
Albus Dumbledore.
She was a bit confused so she sent Morte to Severus with a note indicating that she had been summoned by the headmaster before going to the office.
"Sherbet lemon."
The gargoyle moved and revealed the staircase that she climbed before knocking on the door. She entered the office and saw that Harry and professor McGonagall were already inside. Fawkes flew from her shoulder back to his perch where he burst into flame and fell into a pile of ashes from where he was rebirthed.
"You called for me, Headmaster?"
"Ah Angela, perfect come here, take a seat."
She sat down on the empty chair and crossed her legs, waiting for an explanation as to why she was here.
"There has been another student petrified Angela, we need your information."
"No. I won't risk changing the timeline when one misstep could replace the next petrification by a death."
"At least tell us what is attacking the students." demanded Dumbledore, twinkle gone from his eyes.
"A basilisk. Indirect eye contact results in petrification instead of death." she replied, arms crossed over her chest. "I'm working on the culprit and can guarantee that by Valentine's day at the latest, I will have the issue solved for good."
"Is there nothing else that you can tell us?"
"Except that Harry is innocent, no professor." she denied, shaking her head.
"I see, you can go, both of you."
Due to Harry being the one who found Justin, the students focused more on him and started being less afraid of Angela even if they were still wary, knowing she had been summoned to the headmaster's office right after the incident.
oOoOo
Angela was sitting in front of the fire in the Slytherin common room when she saw Draco followed by Crabbe and Goyle. She knew immediately they were not who they pretended to be so she kept an eye on them.
"Wait for me here, I'm going to get it, my father just sent it to me." said the blond, pointing the other two to two ornate armchairs near Angela.
He disappeared and came back a few seconds later with a paper cut from the Daily Prophet about Arthur Weasley. He mocked the red haired family before pausing, confused by Crabbe's face.
"What's wrong with you, Crabbe?" he asked curtly.
"Stomach ache" groaned Ron in reply.
"Then go to the Hospital wing and give a kick to the mudbloods for me." replied Draco, proceeding to mock Colin. "Potter, can I take your picture, Potter? Can I have an autograph? Can I lick your shoes please, Potter?"
Confused by the lack of laughter from his two acolytes he turned to them and they both let out a forced laugh making Angela cringe from where she was reading.
"Saint Potter, the Mudblood's friend. Another one who doesn't act like a true wizard. Else he wouldn't be hanging out with Hermione Granger. A true mudblood this one! To think, some people believe Potter to be the Heir! Ah what a joke! At least Ange would make a suitable Heir, pureblood and Slytherin."
"If I hear one more comment on 'mudbloods' you won't be able to have children ever, Dray." drawled the girl from where she was making the blond pale.
"Whatever Ange. If only I knew who the Heir is, I could help them!" sighed Draco making Harry and Ron look at him as if he had sprouted a second head.
"You surely have an idea of who it is?" asked Harry/Goyle.
"You know that no, how many times must I repeat it! And my father refuses to tell me anything about the last time the Chamber was opened. Of course it was fifty years ago so before his time in Hogwarts but he knows the whole story. He fears that I will be suspicious if I know too much about it. All I know is that the last time a Mudb…" A cough. "A muggleborn died. There might be a death soon, I hope it will be Granger!"
"If someone dies, Hogwarts will close, Dray." intervened Angela.
"So what? We'll go to Durmstrang, I heard that they teach the dark arts there." he retorted.
"And not be a proud Slytherin anymore?" she asked with a smile and an eyebrow raised. "Whatever, I'm feeling a bit hungry, Crabbe, Goyle come with me to the kitchens and let's see what the house elves have for us."
She dragged both boys out of the common room and stopped in the corridor once far enough.
"Did you hear enough? Will you trust me now?"
"What are you talking about?" asked Crabbe.
"Do not think I'm an idiot to be fooled, Ronald Weasley! Plus your hair is starting to regain its orange and Goyle's eyes are a very distinctive green. That's why I got you out before anyone else could notice." She put her hands on her hips.
"Thank you Eli and sorry for doubting you…"
"You better be ready to grovel! Now let's get Hermione to the Hospital Wing, she needs it."
"What? Why? What do you know?" asked the two boys.
"She didn't get a human hair but a cat hair, polyjuice is not meant to be used with animal hair and that's why she didn't come with you." explained simply Angela before leading them toward the second floor to get Hermione.