Hey y'all! How's everyone doing? Sorry for the late update. I wanted to get it out sooner than the updates for my other stories but a personal matter came up and it got me caught in a real emotional rollercoaster so I wasn't able to focus on this update as much as I wanted to. Anyways, this chapter will feature some turmoil between Seth and the others as well as the events leading up to the first attack. Also, some of the stuff that happens will be shifted around to better fit the progression of events that I had in my mind. Now I'm just let y'all jump into the chapter and I hope you enjoy it!
Like always, I enjoy any comments, except for those that are just full of negativity and not constructive at all. Just give me something to work with instead of just "It's bad." I also appreciate any positive constructive criticism since I'm always looking to improve my writing and storytelling capabilities.
Thanks for reading this story! Virtual hugs and cuddles to y'all.
Disclaimer: I still do not own anything except any OC's that may come up, any world building that has not yet been officially stated by the books or movies, and any plot points/structures that have not been used in the books or movies.
Warning: No beta, we die like Stingbulbs.
Chapter 8: Enemies of the Heir Beware
XXXXXX
In the days following that fateful History of Magic class, investigation switched to speculation about the truth of the Chamber of Secrets and its heir. The focus turned to verifying the validity of Professor Binns' unplanned lecture and boy did the results surprise everyone.
There were indeed books upon books of detailed accounts that put Salazar Slytherin in such a negative manner it was almost comical to read and bewildering to think that people actually bought what was being sold. The few books that didn't depict Slytherin in such a heinous light were factual, unbiased descriptions of his achievements and the famous wizards and witches that were part of his house before pureblood supremacy became its defining trait.
Once again, the general attitude towards the Slytherin house was shifting, though with more volatility than before. The entire student body, and even the staff, couldn't help but mutter and murmur amongst themselves, which was understandable. After all, it wasn't every day you learned that the entire concept of pureblood supremacy and prejudice against Slytherins was likely the cause of a slanderous rumor. How all this information didn't come out sooner, well, it wasn't like anyone wanted to learn anything about Slytherin beyond it being the house of blood purists and death eaters. There was also no reason to as well, at least, not until the Chamber of Secrets business anyways.
Of course, that didn't mean attitudes towards the Slytherins changed once the information came to light. Hundreds of years of a set way of thinking were not that easily swayed. Many were torn between being open towards the idea of not shoving all Slytherins into the same box while many others thought the whole thing was just an elaborate ploy to make an irredeemable house seem sympathetic. It was also unfortunate that the Heir of Slytherin business was swaying most opinions to the latter option.
However, even the focus on that soon died down with the upcoming Quidditch season beginning and midterms looming in the distant horizon.
Unfortunately, there were still some who weren't so willing to let go of the idea of finding the truth about the Chamber of Secrets. Professor Lockhart was one such person considering how he always spent a good portion of his class boasting about how he was going to write a tell all memoir featuring him finding the chamber and slaying the beast within before the school year was up.
Hermione was another, much to the detriment of the quartet's friendship.
XXXXXX
The quartet gathered in a secluded corner of the common room. It was at a later hour in the evening so not many students were still hanging around. Hermione was reading yet another book meant to supplement her investigation. Harry and Ron were mindlessly throwing bits of torn parchment at each other while Seth looked as if he was about to fall asleep at any moment.
"So what should we do now?" Harry suddenly asked.
"About what?" Seth listlessly asked in turn.
"You know, what we learned about the Chamber of Secrets," Harry clarified.
Seth shrugged. "Well what is there to do? No one knows if it's real or not so why should we bother?"
"I'm with Seth on that," Ron agreed, "Mum always says not to go looking for trouble if it hasn't found you yet and I for one, would like to not get detention this year."
Harry looked unsure though and was about to say something when Hermione closed the book she was reading with a quiet thud.
"I think we need to investigate the validity of the Chamber of Secrets," she declared resolutely.
Seth sighed heavily from exhaustion, whether from his fatigue or at the subject was unclear. "Again, why?"
She gave him a look as if she couldn't believe he would dare ask such a question. "Well I'm not the one who told Percy we were investigating the girl's bathroom because we were nosy and other students expected us to solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets now was I?"
He snorted in amusement. "Touché. But still, like Ron said, why go looking for trouble when it hasn't found us yet?"
Hermione looked like she was about to blow a gasket on him when Harry intervened. "What if we just treat this like a hypothetical? Like instead of actually going to look for the chamber to see if it exists, we pretend it already does."
The others nodded along skeptically, hesitant to agree for their own individual reasons. But given they were simply hanging around in the common room doing nothing, they might as well kill some time with hypotheticals.
"Alright then, I'll start," Seth said, reluctantly moving from his comfortable position to sit up properly, "If the Chamber of Secrets exists, then it's probably in some really old place in the castle that's long been covered up by expansions and such. Binns basically said as much."
Hermione frowned at the reminder of the fact she was wrong on that specific matter. "Yes, he did. And while I suppose I can buy that, how does the heir come into play? Would they already know where it is? Are they the only one able to open the chamber? If so, how? And more importantly, who would they be?"
"They'd have to be a Slytherin, right?" Ron guessed, "Cause there's no way Salazar Slytherin's descendant would be anything but a Slytherin."
Seth hummed in disagreement. "I don't know about that. Isn't there a history of Hogwarts students that people expected to be in one house but then ended up in another? Personality isn't as solid and defining as people assume it to be."
"That's true," Hermione nodded along in thought, "I believed I would be in Ravenclaw given how much stock I put in knowledge but the Sorting Hat believed otherwise."
Then she and Seth engaged in a back and forth debate about the validity of the Sorting Hat's decisions that Ron listened half-heartedly too. Harry, though, was strangely quiet for the duration of that particular conversation. But only Ron noticed his silence as Seth was too fatigued to care enough about his surroundings and Hermione was too engaged in the conversation to notice either.
"Lets just say for the sake of argument that the heir is a Slytherin, who would it be?" Hermione eventually posed the question.
There was a moment of silence as everyone thought their answer over.
"It'd have to be Malfoy, wouldn't it?" Harry said with such certainty as someone stating that grass was green, "He's the walking definition of what a Slytherin is after all."
Hermione was quick to agree with his opinion but Seth certainly wasn't. He was honestly pretty annoyed by the fact that they were trying to make a very serious and unfounded accusation against a kid as old as they were.
Ron was also, surprisingly, not in favor of that particular opinion. "I dunno Harry. Malfoy's actually a solid bloke despite all the pureblood supremacy rot he grew up with. I mean, yeah, he still thinks he's better than muggleborns but at least he's not being a git about it now."
"I agree," Seth said, "And you can't forget about what happened at the bookstore at Diagon Alley. I'd never seen a kid so embarrassed by their parents before. I honestly thought he'd drag his dad out of there himself if that fight hadn't broken out."
"But he's the only Slytherin who could fit," Harry argued, standing surprisingly firm on the matter, "He's from an elite pureblood family and you remember how much of a bully and spoiled prat he acted like last year."
"I have to side with Harry on this. The heir really could only be Malfoy," Hermione agreed.
"It could just as easily be Flint or any of the Slytherins on the Quidditch team. A bunch of them are slimy enough to want to scare muggleborns," Ron countered.
"And again, the heir could just as easily be someone who isn't from Slytherin. The whole thing could just be a red herring to make people look in the wrong direction, ever think about that?" Seth added onto Ron's counter-argument.
But Harry and Hermione remained unconvinced.
"That seems about as likely as Dumbledore being Voldemort though," Harry remarked.
Seth frowned and was about to retort when Hermione interrupted him.
"Honestly Seth, why can't you take this more seriously," she said with a frustrated sigh and shake of her head, "You're constantly trying to brush this whole issue off as just a prank or not something a Slytherin would do."
His annoyance grew at her dismissive attitude and he scowled. "I'm the one not taking this seriously? I think you're the one taking it entirely too seriously."
She scoffed and rolled her eyes at him. "Well someone has to since you don't seem to want to."
Seth barked out a harsh laugh that made them flinch at the sound. "Oh trust me, I'm taking this very seriously. So seriously in fact, because as I will remind you, the last time we stuck our noses into business we shouldn't have, we were all almost killed and then I got into trouble with my family and everything devolved into such a shit show with them so I don't need them getting all up in my business and giving me shit for something that wasn't even my fault again."
Then he stood up and huffed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go to bed now. I'm tired of this conversation and I'm tired of all of you."
He stormed off leaving Hermione, Harry, and Ron shocked at what just happened. The other students that were still hanging around the common room were quick to whisper amongst each other once he was gone, glancing in concern between the left behind trio and where Seth had disappeared up the stairs.
XXXXXX
In the days following that conversation, a rift had grown between Seth and the others. He began to actively avoid the trio, citing not wanting to get caught in their shenanigans because he didn't need that kind of stress in his life. He was just here to learn magic and explore a magical castle, no life or death mysteries wanted since he could find enough of those just doing preserve business.
To stick to his newfound resolve, he began to hang out with other people instead.
He studied with the Ravenclaws and began an interesting friendship with Luna that stemmed from conversations about magical creatures. Each time the two of them talked, the more Seth's suspicion about Luna being blessed grew.
"Nargles are mischievous little creatures that love to steal everyday objects and are known to infest mistletoe," Luna explained.
"And they're supposed to be warded off with that cork necklace you have?" Seth asked, curious and intrigued.
"Yes. A friend from home made it for me so my shoes would stop going missing all the time."
"This friend wouldn't also happen to have repaired those same shoes for you, would they?" He carefully prodded.
"Oh no, that was another friend."
"Is that so…"
She smiled at him like she knew something he didn't. "Quite. Now have you ever heard of the Blibbering Humdinger or the Crumpled Horn Snorklack?"
"Not at all but I'd be happy to hear more!"
Whenever he needed to relax, he'd search for the Hufflepuffs, especially after that one time he came across them while exhausted. They took one look at how tired he was before swarming him with fuzzy blankets and warm food.
Cedric Diggory gasped loudly when he saw Seth as the second year shuffled by the Hufflepuffs hanging out in the courtyard.
Seth turned to him in question at the sound, only to grow confused by the many Hufflepuffs now staring at him with wide eyes and dropped jaws. "What's up?"
But his question wasn't answered as Cedric swiftly packed his things and said, "Code Yellow! I repeat, we have a Code Yellow!"
Immediately, the Hufflepuffs swarmed Seth who shouted in protest as he was herded away by them. The other students in the courtyard only shook their heads in sympathy as another poor soul was found and dragged away to be coddled by a ferocious pack of badgers.
Before Seth knew it, he was somehow in the kitchens where he was swiftly wrapped up into a fuzzy blanket burrito and a mug of hot chocolate was shoved into his somehow still free hands. He was completely bewildered as the Hufflepuffs fretted over him before settling into what could only be a gossiping circle with their own fuzzy blankets and snacks.
The cozy atmosphere made him sleepy and eventually, he dozed away while nonsensical conversation droned in the background. He was completely unaware of the Hufflepuffs sharing quiet high fives at yet another younger student being successfully coddled.
Whenever he had downtime, he would split it between scheming with the Slytherins and goofing around with other Gryffindors.
"Oh come on, Blaise, you know you want to," Seth said, insistently poking the Slytherin into giving in.
But Blaise refused to. "I have better things to do with my time than pull pranks, Seth."
"Theo, buddy, help me out here," Seth asked, looking to Theo for support.
Theo only smiled apologetically at him. "Sorry, you know how Blaise is. If he finds something to be an inefficient use of his time, he's not gonna do it."
"But how is pulling pranks a waste of time?" Seth asked, genuinely curious and affronted that such people who thought that way could exist.
Blaise just gave him a look and turned back to his textbook on business policies in wizarding society. Theo just shrugged when Seth threw him a pleading look.
"Why don't you go ask Tracy?" Theo suggested, "She may not look like it but she enjoys pranks as much as the Weasley twins do."
Blaise snorted. "A bit too much if you ask me."
But given he couldn't convince the two to join him, Seth followed their suggestion and tracked down Tracy who gave him an unimpressed look.
"Took you long enough to come to me."
Seth was bewildered by that response. "What do you mean?"
She scoffed at him. "You honestly can't be this slow, not if the Weasley twins consider you their partner."
That was when he had a moment of realization. "No way," he breathed out in disbelief, "Don't tell me you're the secret Slytherin partner!"
She rolled her eyes. "I'm only a secret because I don't want the professors to know that I help the twins and in exchange, I help them stay out of hot water if need be."
"How very Slytherin of you," Seth complimented, very impressed.
Tracy smiled with a tilt of her head. "Thank you. Now what sort of prank are you looking to pull this time?" She pulled out a notebook and opened it, revealing pages upon pages of detailed notes. "I've got plenty of ideas I've been wanting to try."
He grinned brilliantly at her. "You know Tracy, I think this is the start of a beautiful partnership."
Nearby, some of the second year Gryffindors shivered at the sight of the two smiling and snickering together.
"That can't be good, right?" Neville nervously asked.
Seamus groaned and palmed at his face. "We're gonna have to sleep with one eye open for a while, aren't we?"
"Forget a while, try until graduation," Dean dryly stated.
"Well I think it's sweet that Tracy's made another friend," Parvati said, nodding in approval, "She needs more of them honestly."
"I agree she's so sweet for a Slytherin," Lavender remarked.
The boys shared a look as if to collectively agree that girls were definitely the scariest and bravest of them all.
And every single night, without fail, Seth would talk with Tom, finding solace in the diary's metaphorical arms but still not quite spilling everything onto its pages just yet.
'I just don't know what to do Tom. Am I being illogical about all this?'
'I think you should give it some time. You are all still young after all. Logic doesn't quite apply to children the same way it does to adults since you all still have a lot of growing up to do.'
'I guess…'
'Anyways, I believe that your friends will no doubt see the error of their ways and will come around soon enough with an apology. But if they do not, then they didn't deserve to be your friends in the first place.'
'Yeah. You're right. Thanks Tom!'
'I always try my best to be. Now back to this whole ordeal with the man called the Sphinx…'
All in all, even without the trio, he was still a busy and very in demand guy. He definitely wasn't trying to ignore his issues and keep bottling up his emotions as he'd been doing since the school year started since there was no way they wouldn't burst forth at an inconvenient moment. No sire, definitely not.
And he definitely won't explode because of a certain excitable first year with a camera. Which was of course, exactly how the volcano that was Seth's repressed emotions ended up exploding anyways.
Because even though Seth was no longer hanging with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, he was still accosted by Colin who was one of the few still focused on the Chamber of Secrets. He believed that Seth's separation from the others was because he was conducting his own investigation to cover more ground.
No matter how many times Seth tried to dissuade him of the idea, Colin only latched on harder like Seth's denial was a misdirection so he just focused on ignoring the first year's incessant questions as best as he could.
However, it wasn't until he snapped a picture of Seth as he was studying with the bright flash nearly blinding him that the straw finally broke across the camel's back.
After blinking the spots out of eyes, the emotions Seth had been bottling up since the start of the year finally broke out in a flood. He stood up from his chair and angrily snatched the camera out of Colin's hands. "You try this one more time and I'll break your camera, you hear me?"
Colin paled and nodded vigorously.
Seth scowled as he roughly shoved the camera back to Colin. "Great. Now scram!"
Colin did so, booking it out of the Great Hall so fast he left a dust trail in his wake. The other second year Gryffindors who bore witness to the whole thing were absolutely stunned.
"Sheesh Seth, I know Colin can be a bit on the annoying side but did ya have to blow up on the poor lad like that?" Seamus asked with complete bewilderment.
Lavender nodded with wide-eyed agreement. "Yeah, that was completely unnecessary."
Seth blinked and all the anger and annoyance drained out of him like water being flushed down the toilet. He was stunned as well by the way he acted. The others looked at him in concern.
"Are you still not sleeping well?" Neville hesitantly asked.
"Not really?" Seth said, confused as his mind raced to understand how he could lose his composure like that.
"You should probably go and apologize to Colin now," Parvati suggested.
"But won't he think Seth's chasing after him to break his camera if he goes now?" Seamus asked.
She frowned. "Then would you rather he avoid Seth for the rest of the year so he won't even be able to properly apologize?"
"Fair enough," he conceded.
Dean helpfully nudged Seth who snapped out of his thoughts and nodded in agreement. "Oh right, yeah, I'll go find him and apologize."
Then he was also booking it out of the Great Hall, leaving behind his very concerned friends.
"I think we really gotta get him to go see Madam Pomfrey," Dean said.
Seamus nodded. "Yeah, he's been sleeping a lot but that doesn't seem to be doing any good if he's snapping like that. Don't people start to go mad if they're not sleeping well for a long period of time?"
"But is that really all we can do to help him?" Parvati asked in concern.
The others could only shrug helplessly amongst themselves as the other students still in the hall muttered and murmured amongst themselves about what just happened. Meanwhile, Seth was racing down the halls after a rabbiting Colin.
"Colin! Wait up! Colin!"
Finally, Seth managed to catch up as they both turned a corner and he grabbed Colin by the arm. Colin flinched, making Seth release his hold immediately and raise his hands up in a 'mean no harm' manner.
"Yes?" Colin stammered fearfully.
Seth winced and cleared his throat awkwardly. "I, um, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to get angry with you and shout like that. And I also shouldn't have threatened to break your camera either."
Colin calmed down when he saw how genuine Seth was as he apologized and fidgeted with his camera a bit. "It's okay. I shouldn't have taken a photo of you like that either."
"Still, there's no excuse for my behavior towards you," Seth continued, "I haven't been sleeping all that well and shouldn't have taken it out on you like that."
Colin shook his head. "It's okay Seth, really. I've probably been annoying you a lot with my questions about the chamber. It's just, I was really excited. Coming to Hogwarts was like a dream and now getting to be part of solving a mystery? Absolutely unbelievable!"
"No, no, I totally get it. Magic is pretty amazing right?" Seth easily agreed, "And there's always so much to learn about Hogwarts, something new just waiting to be discovered, and you can't help but want to document it just to prove you saw it all happen with your own eyes."
Colin nodded eagerly with Seth's understanding.
"Then you don't need to apologize for that," Seth said, "Just, maybe don't go flashing that camera in other people's faces without asking first okay?" He smiled in such a charming manner that all of Colin's lingering wariness vanished.
"Alright. Thanks Seth!" Colin cheerfully chirped.
Seth shook his head and grinned. "No need to thank me, just be careful with that camera alright? And as a part of my apology, let me tell you how to get to the kitchens."
Colin listened eagerly as Seth told him the exact instructions on how to get to the location of the coveted kitchen but leaving out the exact way to get in. Once he was done, Colin thanked Seth profusely before leaving with the declaration that he would get something from the kitchens later in the week to show he was successful on getting in without anyone's help.
Seth waved as the first year skipped away and sighed in relief at the averted crisis.
"That was quite impressive."
Seth turned around to see Luna smiling airily at him as she approached.
"Well I had to apologize for accidentally terrorizing him," he explained, "Otherwise, what kind of person would that make me?"
She hummed and fixed upon him a gaze that seemed to peer deep into his soul. "You should be more careful, Seth. There have been many wrackspurts hovering around you recently."
"Wrackspurts?"
She nodded. "Mhm. Quite troublesome these wrackspurts are. They're invisible creatures that float into your ears and make your brain go all fuzzy." She gave him a sharp and pointed look completely unlike the dazed and airy one she usually sported. "And yours has been more fuzzy than it should be recently."
He frowned as she batted at the air around him. When he managed to make eye contact with her again, he couldn't help but ask, "Say Luna, would you be willing to answer a question?"
"Depends on the question but go ahead."
"...Are you blessed?"
Luna paused in her batting but didn't look at all surprised. She hummed in confirmation. "Not in the same way you are, shadow charmer."
Seth gaped at her, shocked that she knew exactly what he was. "There's a lovely little hobgoblin who lives in the backyard at home," she explained before he could ask her, "He was kind enough to give the gift of sight to help me fulfill my dream of discovering all the hidden magical creatures of the world and writing a book about them."
"A hobgoblin? Now it all makes sense," he said, nodding in understanding.
"Yes. Now that you know that I know what I know, what do you plan to do now with what you know?"
"I…don't know…"
"Perhaps your brain will become less muddled if you had someone else who is in the know to talk to," she carefully suggested.
Seth smiled in appreciation at her offer and opened his mouth to say as much when something seemed to stop him. He frowned, now thinking everything over. While Luna's offer was initially appealing, he already had someone to talk to about what he usually couldn't and so far, Tom hadn't let him down so why should he change that now?
Eventually, he shook his head. "Sorry Luna. That's a nice offer and all but I'll have to pass on it," he said, placating, "At least for now. Thanks again though and see ya later!"
He turned and walked away while Luna watched him go with a concerned frown as the amount of wrackspurts she saw around him continued to increase.
XXXXXX
Partway into November, on a Saturday morning at Eleven O'clock on the dot, the whole school made its way down to the Quidditch Stadium for the first match of the Quidditch season.
It was a rather humid day with a hint of thunder in the air, not that Seth really noticed since he was holed up in his bed still, refusing to move an inch. For some reason, he'd been so tired when he woke up, like the kind of tired that came from pulling multiple all-nighters just to find that one treasure in the middle of freaking nowhere that was guarded by who knew what so you had to comb through all available books and tomes and scraps of intel just to make sure you weren't torn to shreds or cursed the moment you stepped foot within the treasure's domain.
"Tough luck, mate," Seamus said sympathetically, "The first match is always the most excitin', especially since its us against the Slytherins."
"We'll let you know how the match went though," Dean reassured.
"A-And we'll bring back some lunch and a pepper up potion to help you feel better," Neville helpfully added.
Seth smiled tiredly at them. "Thanks guys."
"It's no trouble, really," Neville said.
Seamus nodded. "Yeah. You're a good friend and good friends help each other out."
Dean patted Seth on his blanketed back. "Now rest up and we'll be back before you know it."
Seth hummed in response and closed his eyes as the others left. And it seemed like Dean was right because before he knew it, the boys were stumbling back into the dorm high on excitement and with plates of food in hand.
Seth woke up both because of the commotion and the smell of food reminding him that he had yet to eat. He slowly pushed himself up and opened his curtains to blink blearily at the chattering boys. "What's up with you guys?"
"Seth! Glad you're awake mate. You missed the most insane match ever!" Seamus exclaimed.
"There was a bludger that kept targeting Harry no matter how many times Fred and George beat it back and it also kept ignoring the other players who were closer targets. It's like it was cursed or something," Dean explained.
"Gryffindor won by the way," Neville added, "Harry managed to catch the snitch at the end."
"And it was the most insane thing I'd ever seen! He dove down to the ground and leveled out before that stupid bludger could do him in and then he reached out for the snitch with his only good hand off the broom cause the bludger broke one of his arms earlier and then he grabbed the snitch right before he fell onto the pitch!" Seamus excitedly rambled, "You had to see it to believe it!"
Seth blinked as he took in the information and shook his head in exasperation. "Sheesh. Harry sure has the worst first game luck ever. First it was that whole thing last year where his broom tried to throw him off and he accidentally swallowed the snitch and now this?"
"Poor bloke can't seem to catch a break," Dean wholeheartedly agreed.
"So was that it? Is he in the hospital wing getting his arm fixed?" Seth asked.
The other three boys shared a look.
"Fixed is…one way to put it, I guess," Neville tentatively said.
"That match wasn't the only insane thing to happen," Seamus said, shaking his head as if he still couldn't believe it himself.
"Lockhart was the other," Dean clarified for the confused Seth who immediately clued in on what they were getting at.
"Oh, please don't tell me he tried to fix Harry's arm himself or something."
They all gave him a look that answered his question.
"You have got to be kidding me."
"Wish we were," Dean said with a sigh, "Lockhart kept insisting on fixing Harry's arm, guess for the attention it would bring."
Seamus huffed angrily. "The bloke's a bloody peacock. Of course it was for the attention."
"So what happened?" Seth asked, morbidly curious now.
"He managed to make Harry's bones disappear. His whole arm deflated like a balloon," Neville responded.
"No. You're kidding?" Seth said, completely shocked that someone could mess up that badly.
Neville shook his head. "Unfortunately not. Colin took a picture of it if you want to see it later."
"You should've seen McGonagall's face afterward," Dean said, "She looked ready to hex him to oblivion."
"Honestly wish she did," Seamus sullenly said, "Maybe that would teach the dunderhead a lesson on not butting in where he's not wanted. Now how's about we keep ragging on Lockhart over food, eh?"
The others nodded eagerly as their rumbling stomachs reminded them to fill it with food.
"Right, let's dig in and talk shit!" Seth exclaimed eagerly.
The four of them proceeded to spend the rest of lunchtime together eating good food and talking shit about Lockhart. Seth even managed to muster up enough energy to go down to the common room to hang out thanks to the pepper up potion Neville grabbed for him.
When Colin returned to the common room, Seth waved him over to ask to see the photo and he eagerly said he'd show it to him after it was developed.
The common room was soon filled with hubbub and commotion as everyone steadily returned and eagerly spoke about the match and its aftermath.
XXXXXX
Meanwhile in the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey was absolutely enraged by the whole incident after McGonagall explained the situation to her. But she reassured Harry that they would be able to regrow his bone. It'll just be a rather painful experience.
"I hope you're not going to stick up for Lockhart after all that Hermione," Ron sourly grumbled, "If Harry wanted a deboning, he would've asked."
Hermione pursed her lips and ignored him, instead focusing on Harry. "It doesn't hurt anymore, does it?" She asked in concern.
"No, but it doesn't do anything else either," Harry glumly responded.
"But what happened?" Ron asked, "Everyone could see that the bludger was targeting you only."
Harry shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."
"Maybe it has something to do with the Chamber of Secrets?" Hermione tentatively suggested.
"But Harry's not a muggleborn," Ron pointed out.
"And everything we found out about the chamber was from Professor Binns in the middle of class," Harry reminded her, "Why would I be targeted specifically instead of the other second year Gryffindors?"
"I don't know but maybe we should look into it once you're out of the hospital wing," she said with a frown.
"Guess so," Harry agreed, "Connected or not, it could be worth investigating."
Then Hermione groaned in frustration. "Oh! I wish Seth were here to give his thoughts on this. He's good at thinking out of the box and seeing the bigger picture."
"Yeah, he is, isn't he?" Harry nodded in agreement.
"Maybe you two should apologize to him for what happened already," Ron pointedly suggested.
"And why aren't you included in that apology?" Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow.
He rolled his eyes and gave her a dry look. "Because I wasn't trying to jump down his throat and say he was wrong just because I didn't agree with his thoughts. Remember how he turned out to be right about Quirrell last year?"
Harry at least had the decency to look sheepish when reminded about his role in pushing his friend away. "I suppose we were really hard on him."
Hermione palmed her face with a heavy sigh. "And I already told myself and promised him I'd be a better friend but I just can't stop trying to be right for two seconds."
"Mum always said the first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one," Ron helpfully remarked.
Hermione nodded to herself with a determined expression. "Alright then, first thing tomorrow after Harry is discharged, we will go apologize to Seth and hope he's willing to be forgiving enough to be friends again."
The boys nodded as Madam Pomfrey came over to shoo Hermione and Ron out in order to give Harry a skele-gro potion.
"See you tomorrow then, Harry," Hermione said with a wave.
"Good luck on re-growing those bones," Ron said with a comforting pat on Harry's shoulder.
"Thanks. See you guys later," Harry said before swallowing down his potion and grimacing at the taste. Then he settled into the hospital bed in preparation for a long and uncomfortable night.
XXXXXX
Later that night, Seth slept fitfully as he dreamed another lucid dream. In it, he was walking down the hallways of the castle again.
He felt the presence from before as it hung off his shoulder like a comfortable weight. There was another presence that seemed to slither through the walls but he ignored it in favor of the peace and quiet the dream brought. Here he didn't need to worry about anything - not his family who still had yet to communicate with him, not Hermione who was being strangely insistent with her need to be knowledgeable and right all the time, and not the insecurities that resurfaced now that he was forced to go through puberty again.
In this dream, everything that troubled him was shed like an old coat he had no need for anymore and it was the most at peace he'd ever felt in a long while.
However, that peace and quiet was soon broken by the flash and click of a camera. He felt anger well up within him and his vision darkened with rage when he turned around to see an all too familiar camera that was really getting on his last nerves.
His mouth formed unfamiliar sounds and the presence in the walls slithered over to where the camera was as the presence on his shoulder squeezed it as if to express approval. A high-pitched yelp followed shortly after as the sound of a camera shutter clicked again.
Then silence. Sweet and blissful silence that calmed his burning rage.
With a content hum, he turned away from the still and quiet camera and walked off. The slithering presence rejoined him with a reluctance that was accentuated by the disappointment the presence on his shoulder gave off. But he ignored them both in favor of basking in the peace of silence once again.
XXXXXX
It was well into the night when Harry was abruptly woken from his slumber. He immediately yelped in pain upon realizing that his arm felt like it was full of large splinters trying to piece itself back together into complete bones. For a moment, he thought that was what woke him up until he realized that someone was sponging his forehead and it most certainly was not Madam Pomfrey.
"Get off!" He shouted.
That someone tumbled off the bed with a loud yelp that drew a groan out of Draco who was passed out on a bed nearby, having been kept overnight for observation due to the severe concussion he sustained during the Quidditch match.
Harry and the mysterious figure immediately quieted as Draco came to with another groan. The mysterious figure scrambled to hide underneath the bed as Harry grabbed for his glasses and put them on.
"What's all the commotion for?" Draco sleepily grumbled as he slowly pushed himself up and saw Harry who was now sitting up and wide awake. He groaned. "Potter, I should've known. Can't you go even one night without causing trouble?"
"Hey! Everything that's happened this year so far isn't even my fault!" Harry quietly protested with great indignation at such an accusation.
Draco scoffed with a glare. "Well I don't care. I have a concussion if you can't tell, and that means I need peace and quiet to rest so I can leave as soon as possible so if you could stop making so much bloody noise that would be great."
Then he shuffled about to get comfortable again. The quiet settled back in the room only to be broken by a scuffing sound coming from the figure under Harry's bed.
Draco groaned. "Potter!"
"It's not me!"
"I don't care! Stop making noise!"
Silence filled the hospital wing once again only to be broken a moment after by Draco himself.
"I need to ask you something, Potter."
"If it's about giving you peace and quiet, I was just doing that," Harry sarcastically retorted.
"No it's…" Draco sighed, "Have you noticed anything…strange about Sorenson lately?"
Harry was taken aback by the unexpected question. "Huh?"
Draco groaned in embarrassment. "Never mind. Forget I said anything."
Harry quickly snapped out of his surprised state before Draco could settle back into bed. "Wait, so you noticed too? How strange Seth's been acting?"
Draco scoffed, embarrassment quickly forgotten in favor of judging Harry for asking a stupid question. "Of course I have. Sorenson is usually a witty and energetic pain in my arse but the way he's been acting, snapping at everyone who gets on his nerves, looking as if he hasn't had a decent night's rest in ages, who wouldn't notice?"
"That's what Ron, Hermione, and I thought. Even the others in Gryffindor noticed but he keeps brushing it off as not getting enough sleep even though he's always in bed before the rest of us even feel tired!"
Draco hummed in thought. "Well do you know what may have caused it?"
Harry shrugged helplessly. "He said something about family troubles but we never got the chance to ask him about it." Then he stopped, suddenly suspicious about Draco's intentions. "Wait, why do you even care?"
Draco sputtered like a dying car. "What? I don't care! It's not like I'm worried about Sorenson or anything. I only want him to return to normal since this constant pendulum of snappish to charming git is starting to get on my nerves is all."
Harry stared at Draco with wide-eyed disbelief and had to clap a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud. Unfortunately, the arm he moved was his healing arm, which caused him to yelp in pain.
"Oi! What's wrong with you Potter?" Draco squinted in curiosity, "Why are you even here for a broken arm?"
"Weren't you there when it happened?" Harry asked in confusion.
Draco shook his head. "No. I was already on the way to the hospital wing. Then I passed out because of a potion before you even got here."
"Oh, right, well Lockhart happened and now I'm re-growing the bones in my arm."
"...I would ask how that peacock messed up so royally but then I remember it's Lockhart we're talking about and only wonder how he didn't screw up even more by making your entire arm vanish."
Harry shuddered at the thought. "Don't even joke about that."
Draco rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Anyways, I'm going to go back to sleep so be quiet."
"But that wasn't even my fault!"
Draco fixed Harry with a dry stare. "Potter. Do I look like I care whose fault it was?"
"Well no, but really, it wasn't my fault," Harry kept defending himself, "Some house else named Dobby just-"
Draco sat back up in a snap. "What did you just say?"
Harry looked at him in confusion. "Uh, a house elf named Dobby just-"
"Are you kidding me?" Draco cut him off with a groan.
"No? Hey, what's wrong with you now?"
But Draco was no longer paying attention to him. "Dobby! Get out here this instant!" He snapped impatiently.
Harry was completely bewildered as he heard Dobby whimper under his bed.
"Dobby! I know you're there. I can hear you! Get out this instant or else mother will hear about this!"
"What're you-"
But before Harry could finish his question, Dobby scrambled out from under his bed and ran over to Draco's bed. The house elf climbed onto the bed with tears running down his face like a leaky faucet.
"No! Anything but that! Mistress won't allow Dobby to make the tea she likes if she finds out Dobby has been bad!"
Draco quickly grabbed Dobby's hands before the house elf could injure himself as a punishment. "Don't do that. You know I don't like it when you hurt yourself as punishment. I'm not father!"
Dobby sobbed. "Dobby is sorry, Master Draco, so so sorry!"
"If you're truly sorry, then tell me why you're here," Draco demanded.
Harry sputtered and flailed his good arm about in confusion. "Wait, wait, hold on, what is going on?! You're Dobby's master?"
"Yes and no," Draco answered, "Dobby serves my family so I am a master, not the master."
"Did you tell him to not let me go to school?" Harry angrily asked.
Draco pulled a face, feeling indignant at the accusation. "Excuse me? Why would I ever do that?"
Harry hesitantly said, "Uh, well, I just thought…"
"What? Because of that spectacle my father pulled at the bookstore that means I have it out for you?" Draco snapped irritably.
"I mean, if you think about what happened last year…"
Draco turned red with embarrassment at the reminder. "That doesn't matter. I wouldn't go so low as to try to use a house elf to stop someone who I am known to dislike from going to school. Do you not know how obvious that would be?"
Now Harry was the one turning red from embarrassment. "Oh, uh, now that I think about it, I guess you're right…"
Draco scoffed. "Of course I am. Now," he turned to Dobby and fixed him with a stern glare, "Dobby, I'm going to let you go and you're going to tell me why you're here. Is that understood?"
Dobby nodded so vigorously he looked like a wide-eyed bobble head. Satisfied by his response, Draco let go of his hands. Immediately, Dobby grabbed the edges of the cabinet beside the bed and was about to bash his head in until Draco grabbed him again despite his cries of protest at being stopped.
"Dobby stop! I order you to stop hurting yourself and tell us why you're here!"
Dobby sobbed as Draco let him go warily but the house elf obeyed nonetheless. "Dobby, Dobby didn't want Harry Potter to come back to school, young master. Dobby warned and warned Harry Potter but he didn't heed Dobby."
Draco looked to Harry who was dumbfounded by Dobby's confession. "What do you mean by that Dobby? How did you warn Potter?"
Dobby sniffed and explained, "Dobby took all of Harry Potter's mail so he would be discouraged. Then Dobby tried to get Harry Potter in trouble with his relatives so he wouldn't be able to leave the house. Then when none of those worked, Dobby wanted to stop Harry Potter from getting on the train but there was no good opportunity to do so."
Harry's eyes widened in realization. "I thought that barrier felt a little funny when I passed through. That was you?"
Dobby nodded his head vigorously. "But Dobby wasn't able to seal the gateway because of Mister Weasley following behind you."
Harry grew angry and was about to shout at him when Dobby blew his nose on a corner of the filthy pillowcase he was wearing, looking so pathetic that the anger ebbed away in spite of himself.
"Why does he wear that?" Harry asked Draco, "That pillowcase is obviously filthy and ragged."
Draco frowned. "It's the mark of a house elf's servitude. House elves can only be freed if their masters present them with clothes but my father is very careful to not allow anyone to pass him even a single sock or else he'd be free to leave our house forever."
"Not that Dobby would want to ever leave your house, young master," Dobby reassured in a flustered panic, "The mistress lets Dobby cook whatever Dobby feels like and the young master never bothers Dobby for anything at all."
Harry frowned, looking at Draco who remained silent but with a conflicted expression.
Dobby mopped his teary eyes. "Harry Potter must go home. Dobby thought the bludger would be enough to make him leave."
Harry's earlier pity immediately vanished in favor of anger. "The bludger? That was you?! You tried to kill me with that bloody bludger!"
"No sir! Not kill you, never kill you!" Dobby denied, waving his hands about in a panic, "Dobby wants to save Harry Potter's life! Better sent home grievously injured than remain here sir. Dobby only wanted Harry Potter hurt enough to be sent home."
"Oh was that all?" Harry asked sarcastically.
"And what about me? I got hit hard enough to get a concussion because of that bludger," Draco pointed out with a scowl.
Dobby pulled on his ears and whimpered. "Dobby didn't mean to get the young master caught in all this. Dobby had a really good reason, yes, a really good reason."
"Well quit beating around the bush and tell us already," Draco growled impatiently.
Harry nodded eagerly in agreement. "Yeah. I would really like to know why you thought sending me home in pieces was such a good idea."
Dobby groaned as more tears dripped onto his ragged pillowcase. "Harry Potter means so much to us, the lowly, the enslaved, we dregs of the magical world. Dobby remembers what it was like when He Who Must Not Be Named was at the height of his power. We house elves were treated like vermin. Of course, Dobby is still treated like that by Dobby's master," he admitted while drying his face for the umpteenth time, "But mostly life has improved for my kind since you triumphed over He Who Must Not Be Named. Harry Potter survived and the Dark lord's power was broken and it was a new dawn, sir. And Harry Potter shone like a beacon of hope for those of us who thought the dark days would never end, sir. And now at Hogwarts, terrible things are to happen, are perhaps happening already, and Dobby cannot let Harry Potter stay here now that history is to repeat itself with the Chamber of Secrets open once more."
Then Dobby froze, horror struck by what he just said while Harry and Draco gaped at him in shock. Dobby went to grab the water jug by Draco's bedside and Draco was too stunned to stop him from cracking it over his head. He fell off the bed and a few moments later, crawled back onto it, cross-eyed and muttering, "Bad Dobby. Very bad Dobby."
"The Chamber of Secrets is real?" "The Chamber of Secrets was opened before?" Harry and Draco respectively said at the same time.
The two boys shared a look of surprise and suspicion before returning their attention to Dobby when he whimpered and grabbed at his ears again.
"Bad Dobby. Very bad Dobby."
Draco grabbed the house elf's bony wrist. "Dobby. I order you to tell me everything you know right now or else."
"How about starting with how I can be in danger when I'm not even a muggleborn," Harry helpfully chimed in.
"Ask no more, ask no more, young master, Harry Potter," Dobby stammered in response, "Dark dark deeds are being planned. But Harry Potter must not be here when they happen. Go home Harry Potter, go home. And young master must not meddle in this, tis too dangerous."
"I can decide for myself if something is dangerous," Draco rebuked with a frown.
"And I can't go home," Harry vehemently protested, "Two of my friends are muggleborn and they'll be first in line if the chamber really has been opened."
Dobby moaned as if in pain. "Dobby can't, Dobby can't, Dobby mustn't tell…"
Suddenly, Dobby froze, his large floppy ears quivering. Harry and Draco could hear it too. Footsteps were rushing down the hallway outside.
"Dobby must go," Dobby breathed out, terrified. With a loud snap and a crack, he disappeared.
Harry and Draco quickly settled into their beds just as the door to the hospital wing opened. Both boys peered through the darkness and saw Dumbledore come marching in with McGonagall following right after and levitating what looked to be a statue inside.
"I will get Madam Pomfrey," Dumbledore whispered. He rushed down to the other end of the hospital wing as McGonagall settled the statue on a bed.
The boys pretended to be asleep and heard urgent voices. Then Dumbledore swept back into view closely followed by Madam Pomfrey who was pulling a cardigan on over her nightdress. They both heard a sharp intake of breath.
"What happened?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"Another attack. Minerva found him on the stairs," Dumbledore responded.
"There were a handful of snacks next to him. We believe he might've been caught in the middle of a late night trip from the kitchens," McGonagall explained further.
Harry's stomach lurched horribly as an uncomfortable thought came to mind. He and Draco slowly and carefully raised themselves a bit so they could see the statue on the bed. The dim candlelight illuminated its staring face.
The statue was a petrified Colin Creevey. His eyes were wide and his hands were stuck up in front of him, holding his camera.
"He's been petrified!" Madam Pomfrey quietly exclaimed.
McGonagall nodded gravely. "Yes. I shudder to think what might have happened if Albus hadn't been on the way downstairs for hot chocolate."
McGonagall and Pomfrey watched as Dumbledore carefully pulled the camera out of Colin's rigid grip.
"Maybe he managed to get a picture of his attacker?" McGonagall eagerly asked.
Dumbledore didn't answer and opened the back of the camera. A jet of steam hissed out of the camera and the hospital wing was filled with the smell of burnt plastic.
"Good gracious!" Madam Pomfrey gasped.
"Melted, all melted," McGonagall breathed out, astonished.
"What does this mean, Albus?" Madam Pomfrey fearfully asked.
"It means that the Chamber of Secrets is indeed open again," Dumbledore solemnly declared.
Madam Pomfrey clapped a hand over her mouth. McGonagall stared at Dumbledore. "But who?"
"The question is not who," Dumbledore said, his eyes carefully examining Colin's petrified state, "But how?"
Harry could see that McGonagall didn't understand what Dumbledore was saying. He glanced over to where Draco was and saw how pale he looked. The Slytherin broke eye contact and quickly turned away, pulling the sheets up tight around him.
Harry had no choice but to settle back in as well as he closed his eyes for an uneasy sleep.
And scene! Hope you guys enjoyed that little cliffhanger. As you can tell, I made a lot of changes in this chapter. The sequences of events has been re-worked so the polyjuice potion comes after the attack and not before the Quidditch game because I honestly thought that the way it went in canon was just kinda dumb. Like why would the trio want to immediately question Draco about the chamber when there hasn't even been evidence to prove that the message and petrification of Mrs. Norris was anything but a horrible prank by that point? By having the attack on Colin occur first, the sense of urgency for investigation is upped because it proves that it's no longer just a prank.
The other change I did was having Draco be in the hospital wing during the whole Dobby and Colin debacle because I have plans for him getting unintentionally involved in the shenanigans of the Golden Quartet in future installments. Plus, again, I never really liked the whole "Slytherins are evil and that's it" narrative of canon and believe that the Draco character arc/redemption came too little, too late. So here is me, changing Draco's character arc literally in the second installment instead of waiting until the sixth.
Also, for anyone who might be confused as to why Hermione and Harry dog piled on Seth, don't forget that they're all twelve years old (though Seth is not mentally twelve, his body still is so he's having great fun with puberty again) and thus will act like stubborn little shits. Like they didn't like this in the first year because they were still getting used to the new environment they were thrust into. Now that they're in the second year, they each want to establish their own little niche. Hermione always wants to be the right one, Harry doesn't want attention and would rather hyper fixate on one or two people as always being the cause of his troubles, and Ron is stuck playing the middleman (though I honestly just wanted him to be the guy who's actually pretty wise because of growing up with five older brothers and his mum's endless amounts of sound advice). Then we throw in Seth to add in someone who's got experience but is now re-experiencing the roller coaster of hormones and emotions from having to grow up again. TLDR: no one's having a fun time because school and puberty sucks, magic or not, and nothing's gonna settle until at least the third or fourth installment.
Anyways, thanks for coming to my TED talk and I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Look forward to the next one because we're finally going to be focusing on the brewing of the polyjuice potion and the Dueling Club incident. Until then!