June 1943

As Professor Merrythought walked them slowly up the two flights of stairs to her office, having to cling onto the banister to keep herself steady, Minerva's mind was occupied with who they might be meeting in the Professor's Office. It was only when she saw Harvey Dale and Peggy Gilbert walking past them on the sixth floor corridor that she began to get an idea, as the two Ravenclaws had spent the past four months petrified in the Hospital Wing. She refused to let herself get too excited though in case her suspicious turned out to be incorrect, merely following Professor Merrythought into her office and sitting in one of the armchairs by the fire.

On a blackboard propped up against the wall were reams and reams of notes in shaky handwriting that was very different from Professor Merrythought's usual curled style, complete with the odd diagram here and there. From where Minerva was sitting she could see names of different creatures, some crossed out and some underlined, but what really caught her eye were the words written in capital letters near the bottom of the board surrounded by question marks:

'CHAMBER OF SECRETS?'

"Professor Merrythought?" Ro asked as she sat down on the chair to Minerva's left, "What's the Chamber of Secrets?"

"I'll explain in a moment dear," Professor Merrythought said, shutting the door behind them, "I'm sure you'll want to see who I've got here for you to meet first."

Ro and Minerva both nodded; Irma, who was sat on Minerva's other side, still looked as though she was lost in thought entirely. Making a mental reminder to ask her what the matter was once it had been revealed who this mysterious person was, Minerva turned her attention back to Professor Merrythought. She handed Minerva, Ro and Irma a cup of tea each, placed another on the floor in front of the free chair on the other side of Ro and kept the last cup to herself as she sat down next to Irma. She grinned at each of the girls before calling "You can come out now!"

There was movement behind Professor Merrythought's coat stand, and Minerva gasped sharply when from behind it stepped-

"Poppy!" Ro shouted, dropping her full cup onto the floor with a smash as she jumped over the arm of her chair. She wrapped her arms around Poppy and squeezed so hard that it made Poppy squeak in surprise, her own arms bound to her sides from the force of Ro's grip.

When Ro finally released Poppy, Minerva got up and hugged her much more gently. "It's so good to see you again." She breathed, so unbelievably happy that her suspicion had been correct.

The sound of chinking china caught her attention, and she looked up to see Professor Merrythought repaired Ro's broken teacup with a flick of her wand. "The Mandrake Draught arrived late last night," she explained as she started to remove the tea from the rug, "Madame Quinine only released me from the Hospital Wing this morning, so I thought it might make a nice surprise if I waited for Poppy to be up and awake before I came to find you."

Her words reminded Minerva that she hadn't seen the Professor for over two weeks since their run-in with the creature, her gaze drawn instantly to her left arm. It was still bandaged beneath the sleeve of her robe, and held to her chest in a sling. "Is your wrist better now?" she asked.

Professor Merrythought shrugged with a distasteful expression. "I suppose so. It's not going to get any better if that's what you mean, I just have to keep it covered for a while. I've already filled Poppy in on what happened, by the way," she added as Ro turned to Poppy and looked as though she was about to explain their ordeal.

"That's good, because I wasn't there for part of it!" Ro said, letting out a short laugh.

"You went for help, didn't you? I think Minerva and I owe you our lives." Professor Merrythought said, and Minerva couldn't help agreeing with her. She was surprised though when Professor Merrythought turned to her and asked "I don't suppose you happened to see what actually attacked us that night?"

Minerva shook her head with a restrained sigh; she'd lost count of how many times she'd been asked that question in the time since the attack. "My glasses fell off, all I saw was a dark shadow."

"Pity," Professor Merrythought sighed, turning to look at the blackboard covered in creature names, "I could do with some more clues. While I was in the Hospital Wing I looked through every book Professor Kettleburn suggested, and I'm still not getting very close."

"So you don't think it was Hagrid's Acromantula either?" Ro asked, sounding very relieved.

"Not even a little. You see, despite everything Professor Dippet and the Minister said about Acromantulas being venomous with a phoenix tear antidote, there's one factor that rules out even the slightest possibility." Professor Merrythought turned to look at them all before continuing bluntly "Acromantulas can't petrify."

Ro's mouth fell open, and Minerva felt rage boiling inside her. "And they still think Hagrid's to blame!"

Professor Merrythought nodded. "Though I do understand Professor Dippet's predicament. If a culprit was not put forward and punished, we may have lost our school."

"So he saved himself at Hagrid's expense." Irma muttered.

"Yes, although it's not all bad news." Professor Merrythought countered. "Professor Dumbledore has convinced all involved that he can remain part of the school, but as Ogg's apprentice rather than a student wizard."

There was quiet for a few moments before Minerva nodded. "He'll make a good Gamekeeper." She said, and murmurs of agreement came from everyone else in the room. "I think he'll certainly enjoy it."

"But that still doesn't solve the problem of what actually attacked us." Professor Merrythought drew their attention back to the blackboard. "There are a few magical creatures that can cause petrification by looking at the victim, most of them when direct eye contact isn't made."

"I saw its eyes when I looked into the case of my quill." Poppy pointed out.

"Exactly. And those creatures are the Gorgon, the Basilisk, and some variants of Chimaera. There is debate over whether Manticores cause petrification too," she pointed to the word that had been crossed out, "but as they are capable of human speech we would have heard words rather than roars when in that corridor. Basilisks can be ruled out as they've been extinct in Britain for the past 400 years, and legend says that a Gorgon will physically turn you into a statue if they look at you. So right now my best lead is the Chimaera."

"But they're enormous!" Ro objected, "how would someone keep one of them in the castle without it getting noticed!"

Professor Merrythought smiled knowingly. "This is where I answer your earlier question, Rolanda," she said as she tapped the words 'CHAMBER OF SECRETS" with wand.

The movement caused a flurry of gold sparks to shoot out of the tip, which were dispersed quickly as she waved the wand again and hit it a couple of times against the blackboard. "That's the second time that's happened today," Professor Merrythought said wistfully, looking at the wand for a couple of moments before tucking it back into the pocket of her robes. "I was left-handed, you see, so it's proving a quite difficult to master these wand movements with the other hand. I feel like a first-year again, and that's in no offence to you four. But I'm afraid that your DADA lessons may just be theory based until the end of term!"

There were groans all around, though Minerva couldn't help feeling sorry for Professor Merrythought.

"Is it annoying?" Ro asked, looking pointedly at her bandaged arm.

"I keep forgetting, more than anything." Professor Merrythought smiled sadly. "I keep going to pick up my wand or quill, or even a piece of chalk for writing on the blackboard, and then having to switch to the other hand. It's no surprise that my handwriting has suddenly got so bad. And I keep looking down to touch my wedding ring, but then remembering it's in the belly of the beast in the basement!" She laughed dryly at her last statement.

"I didn't know you were married." Poppy commented, voicing Minerva's own curiosity.

Professor Merrythought nodded. "I was, but that's a story for another day my dear. The Chamber of Secrets is rumoured to exist somewhere in Hogwarts, built by one of the founders Salazar Slytherin. Legend tells that Slytherin didn't feel that Muggleborns deserved to learn magic, but when the other founders disagreed with him he build a chamber in which he housed a monster. This monster would be unleashed by the Heir of Slytherin himself, and they alone could control it to purge the school of whoever they deemed unworthy."

Silence greeted her words. Minerva looked over at Irma, worried how she would react to knowing that the accusations directed at Slytherin House could have some ground to them, but to her relief she only looked thoughtful.

"That would make sense, since it was only Muggleborns and no Slytherins that were petrified," Ro pointed out, "but who could this Heir be?"

A sudden thought appeared in Minerva's mind. "On the night we were attacked and Myrtle was killed, I saw someone at the end of the corridor." She recalled slowly, "It was all blurred without my glasses, but I'm sure I saw them talk to the creature. Maybe that could be the Heir?"

"You could very well be right, but I just don't think any student or staff here would want to do such a thing." Professor Merrythought mused aloud.

"Well all the other Slytherins seem eager enough to hate anyone who doesn't share their pureblood supremacy views." Irma muttered angrily, glaring down at the floor.

Minerva saw Ro hesitate for a moment before slowly asking "Irma, what did Druella mean when she called you a traitor to the House of Black?"

Irma didn't answer immediately, and Minerva thought for a moment that she was going to ignore the question. Eventually she started to speak, a troubled look on her face. "My mother is Lycoris Black, making me the cousin of Orion in third-year and Lucretia in fifth. She went against her family views by marrying a Muggleborn wizard, the Arithmancer Franklin Vector, and as punishment they disowned her. After that she regretted marrying him- I don't remember them ever loving each other properly."

She paused briefly and swallowed hard before continuing "That's why I hate all the other Slytherins, why I always talk to you three or Septima and Millicent. They always talk about how they hate mudbloods and blood traitors when I've got one of each as a parent, not to mention two Muggleborns and a blood traitor as friends."

Minerva wasn't sure what to say and Ro looked incredibly guilty; Minerva realised that as a pureblood who had no problem with Muggleborns she'd be considered a blood traitor too. But Poppy slid out of her chair and walked over to stand in front of Irma with a shy smile on her face. "I'm glad you're not like the other Slytherins, and I'm glad that you're my friend."

Irma's cold exterior seemed to crack as Poppy hugged her, and for possibly the first time that Minerva could remember, her face was lit with a warm and genuine smile.

The remaining three weeks of term seemed to pass by in a blur. Hogwarts had turned back to normal- well, as normal as it ever was. Herbology was still filled with Professor Ainsley's rambling, History of Magic still came close to sending them all to sleep, and DADA did indeed consist mainly of theory but they were all too glad to have their Professor back to complain too much. All too quickly they found themselves at Hogsmeade Station, watching as the Hogwarts Express puffed its way into the station.

"It's strange to be leaving, isn't it?" Septima commented, "I mean, we haven't left for 10 months and now we're actually going home."

"We'll have to write to each other, it's going to be lonely back in London on my own." Poppy said pleadingly, looking around at her friends for signs of agreement.

Ro put an arm around Poppy's shoulder. "But it's only for six weeks." She pointed out as Irma nodded her agreement. "Not that long when you think about it."

Minerva stayed quiet as they talked; despite the fact that she was looking forward to seeing her parents and her brother again, she knew she would miss the magical world more than anything. Six weeks with her wand locked away alongside her mother's old wand was going to feel like forever.

"We'll be back before we know it." She smiled as the carriage door slid open and they all clambered aboard.

Author's Note:

I apologise if this isn't quite up to my usual standards, it was a little rushed as I wanted to leave you guys with something as I'm away for the next few days. The next chapter will probably be posted in a little under a week's time, so I thank you in advance for your patience.

I took a lot of liberties when it came to listing types of creatures who can petrify, according to canon the only two are gorgons and basilisks. Chimaera can vary a lot in terms of what animal parts they're made up according to Greek legend so that's what I was going for when I referred to different types.

Irma's family story here is 100% of my own invention. Lycoris Black is a canonical character who never married or had children, do I thought she would be an ideal candidate for Irma's and Septima's mum. As for Professor Merrythought's story, it isn't of any significance to the plot but it will be told in full later on.

Well here we are at the end of first year! Thank you to everyone who's reviewed, favourited and followed- I never thought this story would be so well received and I'm really grateful for all you're support. Here's for an equal enjoyable second year!