Disclaimer: I don't own HP, I only own Evan and Iris.
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3-6-2023
Chapter Six
The Chamber is Opened
As October arrived, the Gryffindor Quiddditch team became Pepper-Up addicts, due to Oliver's determination to practice in all forms of weather, even lashing rain. Aludra really had spiked his juice a few times, when her homework started to pile up or she was just too tired to practice at five thirty in the morning. The whole team (save Oliver, who blamed the twins and tried to curse them) appreciated it, and it wasn't as if they weren't practicing thrice as much as the other teams combined, anyway.
Speaking of the other teams, Sirius had reacted exactly as Aludra expected him to. He was not prepared to fork out several thousand Galleons for the Slytherins to have fancy brooms, having been told the money was for a charity event, and he'd confiscated all but Draco's, as a single Nimbus 2001 cost 500 Galleons and so was within the Malfoys' approved budget. Apparently it was the sole reason Draco hadn't been kicked off the team. His teammates weren't particularly happy with him for giving them the best broom currently for sale, only for them to be confiscated because it wasn't a legal purchase. The rest of the Slytherins weren't too happy with him either.
The Gryffindors held a party to celebrate, and part of Aludra felt it was a bit mean. Not all Slytherins were bad. She got on well with Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis, after all. Their families were allies in the Wizengamot. Aunt Meda was a Slytherin too, and she was amazing.
But the Slytherins had deserved it for trying to essentially cheat, and Malfoy definitely deserved a reminder that his family was in vassalage to the Blacks and he needed to stop forgetting his place.
Time flew by, and before any of them knew it, Halloween had arrived. Poor Evan had been conned into going to Sir Nicholas' Deathday party, and Ron had agreed to go with him, but Aludra, Neville and Susan swiftly refused. They knew what a Deathday party involved and it was nothing they wanted to see or hear. Or, given how ghosts 'ate', smell. So, when dinnertime arrived, the two boys split off from their little group and headed for the dungeons while the girls and Neville went to the feast.
They had a grand old time, joking and laughing with each other and the rest of their year. The headmaster had hired a trope of dancing skeletons, and it was hilarious to watch. The Gryffindor second year girls agreed that they would have a girls' night next weekend and do each other's hair and nails and everything, and Dean tried to convince people to join him for a game of football, the muggle sport Uncle Ted enjoyed so much. The twins created an amazing light show and earned themselves fifteen points from the headmaster despite Snape's complaints, and Aludra and Susan wrapped up some dinner and dessert for the boys, who would no doubt be starving when they were finished with the Deathday party.
They left the Great Hall after filling up on the delicious feast, and began heading for the Tower. They were pretty exhausted by that point, and ready for sleep. Then Aludra heard it.
A low, hissing voice, whispering about reaping death. "...rip...tear...kill..."
"Do you guys hear that?" She asked her best friends shakily.
"Hear what?" Neville asked her in confusion. The voice repeated itself.
"That voice!" Aludra shuddered and hastened her step. "It says it's going to kill somebody!" She hissed at her friends in fear. They looked alarmed, and that was when they heard the commotion, and came to a corridor jam-packed with bodies.
"What's happening?" Susan wondered, craning her neck to see what was going on as they pushed their way to the front.
There, Evan and Ron stood, shaken up and shocked. Mrs. Norris, Filch's demonic cat, hung from a torch bracket, deathly still, her eyes staring blankly at some invisible horror. Beside her, written on the wall in what Aludra prayed was red paint, was the words 'THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS IS OPEN. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE.'
Nobody moved or did anything. Then someone did.
"Enemies of the Heir beware! You'll be next, mudbloods!" Malfoy shouted, and Aludra spun, yanking out her wand and planting it under his pointed chin.
"You listen to me and you listen well, Draco Malfoy!" She snarled at him. "Your family is sworn to my own, and if you don't shut your mouth and keep your head down, I'll use the family magic to have you dropping to your knees in obeisance every time you see anyone with muggle blood in them! I'll get my father to take every last Galleon your family is borrowing from mine away, until you have to sell that damn manor of yours. Then I'll buy it and sell the land to muggles to soil your oh so precious heritage, as if your family didn't start eight generations ago with a mudblood!" She spat the word like it tasted foul in her mouth, which it did.
"That is enough!" A familiar male voice boomed uncharacteristically stern. Her grandmother's hand landed on her shoulder and pulled her away from the despicable, arrogant boy. She lowered her wand, hands trembling with panic. Granddad, with a severe expression, stepped forward and examined Mrs. Norris in silence.
Aludra had never felt so shaken up or afraid, even when she'd faced down Voldemort. She'd been too full of adrenaline to be terrified then. But there was no adrenaline to shield herself from her emotions today. She'd heard a voice that no one else could hear. Was this it? Was she finally giving into the Black Madness? It would destroy her father and uncle if that were true. There was no real cure for insanity, only potions to treat it, and that depended on the type of madness.
But still, this scene proved the voice was real, didn't it? But how could Mrs. Norris be killed like this without anyone discovering it? She shook her head at her own foolishness. Because, of course, everyone was at the feast. But there wasn't a mark on her, could it be the Killing Curse? That seemed impossible. Surely not in Hogwarts. It was considered the safest place in Britain for a reason.
Although last year it hadn't been very safe, Aludra thought darkly. She clenched her hands into fists.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, Miss Black," her granddad told her sternly. "Now, who was first on the scene?"
That was when Filch arrived. Aludra didn't like the horrid man, but she felt bad for him at the wail of grief he released at the sight of his pet's body. Then his eyes landed on Evan, and his features twisted into rage, lunging for him.
"You! You killed her! I'll kill you, I'll-!"
"Mr. Filch! Argus!" Granddad said sharply. "That's enough. Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, please come with us. Everyone else, to your common rooms."
Aludra, despite her own alarm, cast what she hoped was a comforting look towards the boys as the crowd began pushing her forward towards the Tower.
They settled in their favourite spot by the fire and waited tensely for the return of the boys, listening to people gossip and wonder about the Chamber of Secrets. Aludra knew what it was already, from story time with Uncle Remus, but she waited for the boys before explaining. Evan looked drained and Ron shaken when they arrived, coming over to slump down on their respective armchairs. Ron's stomach growled and Neville silently passed the pair the food they'd saved from the feast. It felt like a lifetime ago, not an hour and a half. The boys muttered their thanks and dug in eagerly.
"What happened?" Susan asked. Aludra was twisting her robe in her hands and staring at her lap hard, wondering if she should call her father and tell him, or if that was too dramatic a reaction. It was only a cat, after all. The Aurors didn't deal with animal murders. But the lack of injury was so like the Killing Curse, and that was unsettling, to say the least. The prospect that someone in the castle had the capacity to cast an Unforgiveable was...
And she didn't want to admit that she'd heard a voice right before hand, which she'd have to if she spoke to her father. What if she really was going crazy? It would break his heart. But then again, the words did seem to correlate to Mrs. Norris' dead body.
"Mrs. Norris isn't dead, she's petrified," Evan explained tiredly. Aludra slumped in relief. Not the Killing Curse, then. Though, Petrification took strong Dark Magic. It was almost as bad.
"Snape accused us, or more specifically me, and wanted to have me kicked off the team. Dumbledore refused and scolded him about childhood grudges. Asked us what we saw, if we heard anything. We explained that we hadn't seen anything, and he sent us back to the Tower. That's everything really."
"What about you, Ally?" Susan said, turning to her. Aludra started, turning to stare blankly at her best friend. "What happened while we were heading upstairs?"
Aludra hesitated, then reluctantly spoke. "You lot have to promise not to say anything, to anyone. Okay?"
With varying degrees of wariness, they agreed. "I heard a voice, as we headed upstairs, saying it was going to kill. I don't know how, or who. I've never heard it before, I'm certain of it."
"You should tell your dad," Neville and Susan both said instantly, Evan echoing them a moment later.
Ron was more dubious. "Hearing voices is not a good thing, guys," he reminded them. "I don't think she should tell anyone."
"And I'm not going to," Aludra declared, overruling her friends' protests. "Daddy has enough to worry about without worrying that I'm succumbing to the Black Family Madness. Don't any of you even think about telling him either. You promised, remember?" She reminded them. "It must have just been my imagination. Anyways, don't you want to hear about the Chamber of Secrets?"
That, thankfully, did the trick in distracting them.
"You know what it is?" Evan asked eagerly. She nodded.
"Uncle Remus told me the story," she explained. "He loves myths, especially myths about the Founders." She straightened her back and began to recite the old legend. "A thousand years ago, Hogwarts was founded by the four most powerful and intelligent wixen of the age. Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin. At the time, witch hunts abounded. Some historians believe that Slytherin lost someone he loved, his parents, or his wife or child, to them, and that's why he hated and distrusted them so much. But we cannot be sure, because too little knowledge of that time remains.
At any rate, the Founders began to argue shortly after opening the school. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw sought to open the school to all, including muggleborns. Slytherin, meanwhile, felt it too dangerous to let muggleborns in. What if their parents used their children's knowledge of Hogwarts to allow witch hunters to attack the school? At the very least, he believed, they ought to remove the muggleborn children from their parents' care, altering the muggles' memory to make them believe their child was dead so as to better protect the wixen world.
But the others felt this too cruel to even consider. The group argued, and Slytherin and Gryffindor drew wands against one another. Slytherin left the school after the confrontation. All of that is historical fact."
"But what does the Chamber have to do with it?" Evan interjected impatiently.
"I'm getting there," Aludra said patiently. "Let me finish, please. This is where fact becomes legend. According to the myth, before he left, Slytherin's fears drove him to create a hidden chamber in the school, in which he hid a fearsome beast, which would attack and kill all muggleborns it found. There have been many searches for the Chamber, but none of them were successful. Supposedly it was opened before, and a muggleborn girl died, but I don't know when or who." She finished the tale and looked at her friends expectantly, aware that this was big.
"Someone died?" Evan asked softly.
Aludra nodded solemnly.
"We can't let that happen again," Ron said. Aludra felt her heart sink at the looks in his, Evan's and even Susan's eyes. At least Neville looked like he was on her side.
"No, we need to leave this to the adults," she argued. "I promised my dad, no adventures. Not this year."
"We can just look into it, see if we can figure out who might be opening it," Evan argued.
"So can the adults," Neville pointed out, Aludra sighing softly in relief at his support. "They'd have a better idea of what to look for anyway. We'd probably just get in their way. Besides, this could all be some twisted prank."
"Petrification involves advanced Dark Magic, Neville, you know that," Susan insisted, and Aludra nearly groaned at her friend. Susan wasn't usually so reckless, but she had her moments, and they were nearly impossible to talk her out of. "We can at least look."
Aludra and Neville exchanged helpless glances, knowing that there was no way this was going to end well.
The next few days seemed to crawl by as everyone gossiped and speculated about the Chamber. Aludra had been overheard telling the story, and found herself becoming the resident storyteller of Hogwarts, students coming up to her all hours of the day and asking her to recite the tale of the Chamber. Filch stormed around the castle, spreading his misery and trying to hand out detentions for 'smiling' or 'laughing' at 'such a tragic time'. Of course, the Heads of House all intervened and cancelled those detentions, which only made him angrier, causing him to resort to yelling abuse at anyone who crossed his path. Aludra planned to bring it up the next time she spoke to her grandfather, because it wasn't acceptable behaviour for a staff member. Meanwhile, Evan, Ron and Susan were all investigating the Chamber, going to the blocked off corridor as often as possible to examine the scene.
One day, Aludra and Neville found themselves guarding the door to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom as the other three tried to get information from the belligerent ghost. Percy Weasley soon stumbled upon them, frowning unhappily at them as he crossed his arms.
"What do you think you're doing here?" He demanded. "This corridor is blocked off! Are you trying to investigate too? I expected better from you, Aludra! You know this is best left to the adults!"
Aludra fixed the prefect with an insulted expression. "Oh, Percy, I thought you knew me better than that!" She exclaimed indignantly. "You should know I would never be so stupid! Susan needed the bathroom urgently and this one was closest. It's her cycle. That's all." She felt horrible lying to him, but what else could she do? Throw her friends under the carriage? Never, it simply wasn't in her nature. She'd been raised to be loyal until the last straw, and she was nowhere near it yet.
"Ah," Percy's face flushed in embarrassment. "Well, next time try and get to a different bathroom. This corridor is off limits."
"Yes, Percy," the two heirs drawled. The redhead nodded then hurried off to terrorize some other poor troublemakers, whilst the other members of their little group stuck their heads out of the bathroom.
"Is he gone?" Evan hissed.
Aludra fixed him with a stern glare that made him wince. "This is the last time I'm covering for you, do you understand me?" She hissed at him. "No more. If you want to figure this out, leave me out of it!"
She turned on her heel and stalked away. Neville rushed after her, and Susan immediately followed. She wanted to figure this mystery out, sure, but not enough to risk damaging a friendship that had lasted since she was five years old. Ron and Evan looked at each other and sighed. They'd found nothing so far, and they didn't want another rift between them all. Well, Evan didn't want a rift between them all. Ron just didn't want to lose Evan as his best friend. They chased after the others too, quickly catching up.
"We'll leave the corridor be," Evan promised Aludra when they'd caught up to the others. "For now, anyways," he muttered quietly.
Aludra eyed him suspiciously, not quite having caught whatever he'd said under his breath, but she'd heard enough. She gave a curt nod.
"Come on," Susan urged them, checking her watch. "If we don't hurry we'll be late for History, and Professor Burke will give us detention."
It was hard to concentrate on homework that evening. Evan and Ron, although they'd agreed to leave the corridor alone, were still determined to figure out this mystery.
They just didn't understand that this could be life or death. It wasn't like playing Uncle Ted's Cluedo game that he'd adapted for the magical world. Whoever was behind this had used powerful, dangerous Dark Magic. The type of Dark Magic in the books she wasn't allowed to read (not that said rule had stopped her once she figured out how to get into her father's office where he kept them. She regretted it later when they gave her nightmares and her father grounded her, beginning to have Millie pre-read her books to ensure they were appropriate for a girl her age). Even Aludra's granddad was worried. She'd seen it in his eyes when she'd met him and Grandma Min for tea in his office a few days ago.
Still, Aludra was worried about the boys. They were so obsessed with figuring out who was behind the Chamber opening that their grades were already beginning to slip, just two weeks later! Grandma Min would pick up on it soon and she would make sure that they'd quickly regret their fixation on the blasted Chamber.
"But who could it be?" Evan whispered to Ron as the rest of them worked on their Charms homework. "Who would want to terrorize the muggleborns like this?"
"Let's think," Ron replied sarcastically. "Who do we know who thinks muggleborns and their families are scum?"
The rest of them looked up at that.
"If you're talking about Malfoy-" Susan began.
"Well, who else could it be?" Ron demanded aggressively.
"Not him," Aludra denied. "Believe me Ron, I don't like Malfoy any more than you do. He's a typical bully, he picks on those he perceives as weaker than him. But if he was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, he'd be shouting it from the rafters. Besides, he's not a-"
She froze as a thought occurred to her. She jumped to her feet and rushed up to her dormitory where she yanked out the communication mirror. "Sirius Black!" She hissed into the reflective surface.
Her father's face shimmered into being, looking worried. "Ally? What is it, are you alright?"
The whole thing tumbled out of her mouth so fast she worried Sirius wouldn't understand her. A stupid fear. Her father understood her better than anyone else.
"And I was the only one who heard the voice and everyone knows that Slytherin was a Parseltongue so it would make sense if the creature was a snake of some sort, I just don't know which or how one would be getting around the school without anyone noticing-"
"Ally! Aludra Scarlet Black, breathe!"
She paused in her recital of the facts and inhaled and exhaled deeply, blinking at her father, who looked stern. "You should've called me the moment this happened, but too late now," he stated. She winced and glanced down guiltily. "I'm going to grab my team and come straight there, though the scene is no doubt completely contaminated by now. I suspect that you're right about the snake, I'll get Remus on researching which one it could be. For now, I want you and your friends to stay out of it. Do you understand me, young lady?"
"I have been!" Aludra defended herself. "Honestly Daddy, I've had nothing to do with investigating this. It's Evan and Susan and Ron who've been sticking their nose into things."
"Keep them out of it," Sirius replied sternly.
"Can I get them to look into creatures that could petrify?" Aludra asked hopefully. "Busy work, to distract them and make them think they're helping. Who knows, maybe we'll figure out what it is."
"Fine," her father agreed after a moment's thought. "But under no circumstances are you to mention that. Understood?"
"Understood," Aludra promised. She knew better than to speak to anyone about that particular 'talent' of hers. Even her aunts and uncles and grandparents didn't know. Only her father and Uncle Moony.
Sirius' expression softened. "You did the right thing telling me this," he told her. "I'm proud of you. I love you."
"Love you too, Daddy," she answered easily.
That was something that had never, and would never, change.