Important Notice! I'm going away on holiday soon, so I've decided to hold off on posting Year Four until October when I'm back.


August 4th, 1992 - Two Weeks Ago

Sirius and Harry munched on their breakfasts in ponderous silence. After all that transpired the night before, both seemed at a loss at how to make casual conversation, and reasonably so.

"So…" Sirius' tongue clicked, bringing in an awkward pause. "Anything else I should know about?"

"About the book?" Harry asked.

"The Book, Slytherin, other weird and rare abilities you haven't mentioned before." Sirius commented idly, then paused to take a bite of toast.

"Well…" Now it was Harry's turn for an awkward pause. "I might have found the Chamber of Secrets?"

The toast fell to the plate.

"And made friends with the basilisk living in it?" Harry winced with the confession.

Sirius' mouth hung open wide, though he had to force himself to swallow quickly in order to reply. "You- you found the- I'm sorry, did you just say a basilisk?!"

Harry nodded. "Her name's Caireen. She's really nice."

"A basilisk?! At Hogwarts?!"

"Right, I realize how that sounds-"

"Harry!" Sirius cut the boy off completely. "This isn't some owl or, blast it, even a troll! This is a monster- Slytherin's monster! He hid a basilisk under the castle this whole time?!" At that last sentence Sirius wasn't even looking at Harry anymore. He had begun to pace the kitchen as the information dawned on his mind. "Merlin's balls, I never thought -couldn't imagine it-" He turned about face to Harry. "You made friends with it?"

"I told you. She's very nice." Harry replied.

"Pup, this is Slytherin's Monster we're talking about. The creature he charged to hunt and kill muggleborns."

"That's not true-"

"-You have friends that are muggleborn, Harry, it's not safe to-"

"-Melly's warming up to her." Harry cut in. It seemed to stop Sirius' panicked rambling, giving Harry a moment to speak in earnest. "And, besides, Caireen told me that she only hunts muggles, and only if they were to attack Hogwarts. Slytherin never made her hunt muggleborns. He was worried some of them might work with their muggle families to hunt witches, sure, but he didn't hate them like everyone thinks he did."

Sirius blinked dumbly at his godson. His mind whirling through that information in an agonizingly slow minute. "So… he didn't…"

"Right."

"Then the monster is…"

"Not evil. Certainly not a monster."

"...Right…" Slowly, Sirius slipped back into his seat, eyes gazing into nothing. Finally, he seemed to wake from his trance and look back at Harry. "Hang on, how did you even find the Chamber of Secrets? No one's found it in decades. Not even Dumbledore! And he- wait, a student died! My mother told us about it when we were kids!"

The mention caused Harry to flinch. Sadly, it wasn't new information for him. "I know. Caireen, she- she was just leaving the Chamber when it happened. She didn't know a student was in the room until it was too late." Harry's eyes fell to his lap at the reveal. "The boy who released her from the Chamber claimed that some muggles had broken into the school, but she could never find any. When that girl died, though, she was ashamed of herself and what she'd done; and refused to listen to the boy again, even though he was the Heir of Slytherin.

"I've actually been trying to change her mind." He admitted. "I've been thinking of turning the Chamber into a clubhouse. Salazar's book mentions that there are rooms hidden inside with his old potions lab, a library, and some others; and I'm teaching some friends parseltongue, so they can visit, too -but Caireen is worried she might hurt someone again and thinks it's a bad idea."

Harry took a breath and looked up to meet his godfather's eye, but all words halted at Sirius' incredulous expression. "I'm sorry, there's a lot I need to say about that. Beyond the fact that you just casually mentioned that you're somehow teaching other children parseltongue; which is supposed to be impossible, by the way-" Sirius broke out into a peculiar chuckle. His head rubbed against his propped up hand in exasperation. "Oh, pup, you really are something else."

He paused in his mutterings. Harry, too, stayed silent. Sirius turned his head as it rested on his palm. His expression was one of both exasperation and caring as he looked back at Harry. "You've achieved the impossible, you realize? Finding that place, teaching parseltongue, befriending a monster-" The man chuckled. "Gods, Harry, you really are something! Ha!" He leaned against the back of his chair, his voice shifted in fatherly awe. "I just realized, you've carried on the tradition. You found a part of Hogwarts that not even us Marauders found. James would be proud- after being horrified, that is." He chuckled lightly at the thought.

Harry, meanwhile, hoped to use this as a segue. "You looked for hidden parts of Hogwarts?"

"We did." Sirius smiled. "Any secret room or hidden passage, we explored and found them! We even mapped it out. It was a tricky bit of charms work, but we made a map that connected with Hogwarts itself. Any time a room changes or a staircase shifts, it all keys into the map. It even shows where people are inside of Hogwarts!"

"Really?" Harry perked up. "That's incredible! Do you still have it?"

"No, sadly. Filch confiscated it years ago. Probably burned it, for all I know." Sirius shrugged. "Too bad, really. Maybe if he still has it you can use it? Add Slytherin's Chamber and its secrets to it, too. Keep the legacy going."

The thought made Harry smile. "That would be nice." Though he will likely have to check with Caireen, first, to make sure the Chamber is safe enough to be added into the map.

"Absolutely. Though-" Sirius quirked his head. "Maybe don't tell your friends about it. What you said about a clubhouse… I feel like getting Draco involved, or even Amelia's kid, might be trouble waiting to happen."

Harry frowned at the thought. "You think so?"

"Well, Amelia would have a fit if she found out about a dark creature hiding in the school -good intentions or not." He added. "As for Draco… I know he's your friend; but if Lucius was to get wind of this…"

"I understand." Harry assured. "I need to talk to Caireen more, anyways, before I bring others to check it out."

The reply satisfied his godfather. With it, the conversation mostly ended. Instead they polished off the rest of their meal and prepped for their weekly visit to the mind healer. As he readied himself for the day, though, Harry couldn't keep his mind off of the Draco part of the conversation. From what this morning's paper said, Mister Malfoy wasn't one of those arrested for possession of dark artifacts. That said, the man does work for Voldemort, so he's still a threat. He likes Draco, really, the boy has grown on him over the course of the year; and, for goodness sake, he helped him when Harry went after Quirrell! Still, thoughts on the Chamber and Draco had him worried. He will need to investigate further to know if that worry is justified.


August 20th, 1992 - Today

Harry arrived through the Hopkins' floo with a hop to his step and a gift at the ready. "Hi, Wayne! Happy birthday!"

"Thanks, Harry!" Wayne grinning with cheer as he accepted the gift. Then, once Sirius arrived, Wayne turned to the four people standing behind him. "These are my parents, Philip and Eleanor, you already know Carl, and this is my little sister, Lilian."

"Jenny." The girl corrected, flashing a glare at her brother.

The parents immediately reddened at the outburst. The patriarch immediately gave a warning tone at the girl. "Lilian-"

"There are six Lilys and Lilians in my class." The girl whined. "Can't I just be Jenny? You understand, don't you?" She directed that last question to Harry. His own face coloured once he realized why the girl would ask him that.

Philip Hopkins loudly cleared his throat at the girl's question. "No matter. Come, Wayne, I'm sure you'd like to give your friend a tour while we wait for our next guest."

"Yes, father." Wayne quickly led Harry and Sirius out the door. The two guests quietly mulled over the strange introduction. "Sorry about that. Lilian's, well, she's not wrong. There are a lot of kids younger than us who are, well, you know..."

"Really?" Harry asked with a grimace.

"Yeah." Wayne admitted with a groan. "Get ready for third year. The sorting is going to have loads of Harrys, Harrisons, Jameses, Jimmys, Lilys, and the like. Just you wait."

"I'd rather not." Harry confessed with a mild shudder.

Wayne dropped them off to the party room, then headed back to his family. From there the two guests broke off to join their respective cohorts. Harry was happy to see most of his fellow Puffs already here, along with Sally-Anne Perks and Stephen Cornfoot from the art club. Though Harry found himself surprised to see Draco and Blaise Zabini among the attendees. He started mingling with the other partygoers, catching up on summer stories and the like. At one point, Harry found himself checking over the adults in the room. Lucius Malfoy was nowhere in sight. Truth be told, Harry wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.

Eventually Harry managed to grab a topic about parents to segue the innocent query "Are your parents here?" at Draco.

"My mother went to walk the gardens with some of the other ladies, but Mother advised Father to stay home after having an… altercation yesterday."

Beside him, Zabini snorted. "Is that what you'd call it?"

Draco coloured at the question. Harry, though, felt his suspicions tighten. "Why? What happened?"

"Weasley's dad decked him in the middle of Flourish and Blotts!"

Draco reddened to burst. "My father gave him just as good, though! Would have dealt with him entirely if that oaf hadn't gotten in the way!"

"They had a fight in the middle of Flourish and Blotts?" Stephen exclaimed.

"That's rather undignified." Lily Moon commented. "Surely Messrs. Malfoy and Weasley are above using their fists?"

"Well-" Draco grimaced at the point taken. "Weasley started it, and you know how that family can be. Goodness knows even the Ministry has had to keep an eye on them since that whole Pettigrew fiasco."

"That was hardly his fault, though." Harry rebutted.

"I disagree." Draco shook his head. "Ten years he stayed as a rat and no one noticed? Especially Percy Weasley. You would think someone smart enough to be a prefect would notice something off about the rat."

"Come on, Draco. Percy thought he had a lazy pet rat. It's not like he opened up the Chamber of Secrets or something."

There! Harry watched as Draco's eyes immediately widened at the rebuke. His skin, once red, suddenly paled as though in fright. "I mean- of course- obviously that's worse-"

"What's the Chamber of Secrets?" Stephen queried at the two of them.

Harry refused to answer, though. He wanted to hear what Draco had to say on the matter. Draco, for his part, seemed nervous to be asked. That said, he did eventually stumble to answer. "It's something my father told me about. Back when the founders were still at Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin made a secret chamber and hid a monster inside. It's said that the monster lies in wait for Slytherin's Heirs to summon it and expel any of those unworthy to be at Hogwarts."

Now listening to the story, Kevin and Justin narrowed their eyes at Draco. "Unworthy, meaning…?"

Draco bit his lower lip and the circle of eyes around him. "Well… you know what people say about Slytherin. ...That, and... well, a few years ago the Chamber was opened, and a student died!"

The group gasped at that detail. A legend was one thing, sure, but someone died?! Harry was the one exception to the shock. He had been busy watching Draco as the boy unfurled the story. Maybe this was just him hoping for the best, but Draco seemed to be telling the story as if he believed it to be a legend. A believable one, sure, but it didn't have the right grip to it as if he knew more to the story. So, while everyone in the circle tensed at the frightening story, Harry found himself relaxing at the explanation.

"Uncle Sirius said the same thing." Harry nodded. "Though I read one book that says Slytherin used the monster against invading muggles, not muggleborns."

"But a student died, though." Kevin emphasized.

"Well, everyone believes Slytherin hated muggleborns, so maybe his Heir had that belief and misused the monster to chase after students instead of invaders?"

"It's not a bad theory." Stephen shrugged. "But it could have always been both."

"Either way, that was years ago. The monster can't still be alive." Justin assured the group.

Harry and Draco met each other's eyes at that statement. Draco showed a flash of fear and apprehension. Harry probably had similar apprehension. Neither boy wanted to confirm or deny the muggleborn's hopes on the subject. As if in agreement, neither made a comment to Justin's concerns. Instead, they let the others take over the conversation and let talks of monsters and secret chambers fall to the wayside.


As more people arrived at the party, Wayne, Harry, and a few others decided to race off to the gardens for a short-hand game of quidditch. Knowing they were both vying for their respective house teams, Draco and Harry played seeker against each other. It was a fun exercise overall. Both gave each other a good run, though Harry had to admit he would likely have the advantage back at school once he's on his own broom. In the end, it came down to a skyward race, with Harry grabbing the snitch an arms length above Draco. Below them, the partygoers cheered loudly for the win.

"Good game." Draco grumbled.

Harry looked over to the boy's sulking expression. Flying at his side, Harry extended a hand. "Rematch back at Hogwarts?"

The thought brightened Draco's mood a little. He offered Harry a twinge of a smile and shook his hand. "I'll hold you to it. Won't be any fun if I end up on the team while you're stuck on the sidelines."

Harry met that tease with a cheeky smirk. "You sure about that? I'm the one with the Nimbus 2001, after all."

Draco's expression matched his. "Oh, I don't know about that..."

"Oh?" At once, he realized the implication. "In that case, it will be the best man to win!"

"I know I will." Draco answered with a haughty expression, followed immediately by both boys snickering.

"Oh, I wanted to ask earlier… Yesterday, what were your dads fighting about?"

A moment of wind and silence passed between them. "...Promise you won't be upset?"

"...I'll try."

"Granger was there with her parents for Gilderoy Lockhart's book signing. Mister Weasley had been talking to her parents, asking questions about muggle life, when we walked by them. He… My father and Mister Weasley don't get along, you see. They antagonise each other, even at the Ministry, so it's par for the course that they exchange barbs when they see each other. Usually about money and work …but during the exchange, my father made a comment about... reducing oneself to associate with muggles. That's when Mister Weasley attacked him."

Silence followed. It was hard to keep his promise. That said, Harry did what he could to swallow his anger. "Well, no different than I'd expect from him, I suppose."

Draco visibly flinched at the comment. "I know, but..." Draco stopped, catching Harry's expression. It was as if the boy was daring him to continue with that sentence. Meeting that barrier, Draco released a loud breath, and shifted his gaze away from Harry. "He shouldn't have said that. Like Moon said, it was undignified. ...I'm sorry about that."

Harry watched the scene unfold. Draco seemed to be at war with himself during the entire conversation. A mix of emotions Harry could only guess at. It bothered him that a war would even be needed. That said, Harry knew deep down it would be better to not push his friend too hard. That in mind, he shook his head at Draco. "Your father's words are his own." A quiet moment passed between them. It was a conversation that will lead to nowhere. "Come on, let's bring back the brooms. Looks like Mrs. Hopkins is bringing everyone back inside."

Draco's shoulder sagged in relief at the change in topic. With a nod, both boys flew down to the ground, letting themselves be distracted by the rest of the party.