CHAPTER 15
An Eventful Halloween...And A Reconciliation
"Oh no, I didn't." said Moaning Myrtle. "You see, I was sitting in my toilet's u-bend last night and some one flushed me right into the lake. Everyone does that to poor Myrtle. So I decided to visit the squid and tell him about my woes. Usually he's a good listener but last night-"
"Myrtle," Dumbledore said, "Did you return to this bathroom and see anything strange?"
Myrtle seemed to tick off her fingers and say, "Let's see...snappy squid, stupid merpeople, grumpy grind-"
"Myrtle!" McGonagall said in exasperation.
Myrtle looked up at her in annoyance, "Oh alright, I saw the door open, but no one..." she trailed off as recognition seemed to flit through her face, "Oh it's you! You're the girl who never had any patience or sympathy for me! And age hasn't changed you. Just wait and see, when you die, I'm not sharing this toilet with you! And don't you dare occupy any of the stalls in this bathroom. It's mine. You hear."
"Oh shut it ye little clown!" McGonagall said thoroughly annoyed, "When I die will do my best to get away from this realm if it means being away from you!"
Myrtle let out a pitiful wail and dove into her toilet sending water everywhere. Severus was lucky to have put up a shield just in time.
McGonagall huffed and said, "Snooty girl! Never liked her. We're done in here, aren't we?"
Dumbledore chuckled and said, "Yes, yes, but I think it's best if we have a house-elf watch the entrance to this toilet every night without being seen. And I think we should let it spring out a trap to keep the perpetrator until their identity is known.
"Take off all the charms you've placed in that bathroom, Severus. It looks like the person we're against can detect the most subtle spells...I do wish, I've been praying and hoping the whole night actually, that this is merely a childish prank. It may make the five of us appear as fools, but... what's a little embarrassment in comparison to a murder?
"Now lets head over to the kitchens for a snack. We could attract two nifflers with one galleon."
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Dear Dee,
It's been just last week that I wrote to you, but I had the time. Something's happening to Harry. He said that he could hear terrible voices that no one else could. It happened just once, but there is no way, he says, that he could have imagined that.
He's become very jumpy lately and Lockhart isn't making things easier. I'm just glad Draco's around to help him out. It should have been the other way around actually.
Neville and I have spoken to Professor Snape, and he says something is going on in the school, but whoever's responsible is probably waiting for things to die down before he does anything else.
I'm starting to think Lockhart isn't everything he seems to be. I think he's behind this entire thing for some reason. But we're keeping him busy while we can. We've put glue in his shoes one day and he required Flitwick's help to get them off three days later! Blaire and I were responsible for many other things involving worms and a giggling potion we invented down in the room Harry was captured in last year and Lockhart was quite a spectatcle. He suspects poor Harry, but doesn't have the guts to accuse him anymore.
We had Quidditch tryouts yesterday evening and Cedric Diggory, the captain asked me to try out as chaser. I declined. I knew I'd be selected, but that would lead to more practice and I'd have lesser time to spend with my paintings. Blaire declined too. She said she hated getting all 'messy', but I think she prefers spending time with her books.
Her little competition with Hermione Granger has begun again and so far she's come out on top. I don't think Hermione ever was so determined last year than she is now. Anyway, I'm not bothered, though I'd hate to see her smug smirk if she ever beat Blaire.
Harry's decided to give Quidditch a shot and Blaire and I both think the distraction will be good for him. I heard Flint and Pucey say they'll really beat Tilly's team this year and some wonderful person has gifted him a Nimbus 2001, unlike Tilly who's got a 2000...
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The elves reported nothing, until the middle of the Halloween feast. Dobby himself appeared besides Severus, and crouching there, hidden behind the staff table, told him and Minerva that someone had entered the bathroom and that the elves had locked the person inside the bathroom.
Immediately, Severus and Minerva left the feast and headed to the bathroom. On the way Severus was met by five second years that he'd come to call as the Swarm, given their busy, frisky nature. Harry was pale and as soon as he caught sight of Severus, he said, "I heard the voice again!"
"I guessed as much." Severus said. "I don't have much time at the moment, but I want the five of you to head straight to my quarters and stay there. There'll be some food in the kitchenette."
He gave them no chance for argument and they ran off towards the dungeons.
Severus and Minerva continued their track to the bathroom, and once they got there, they laid in wait for signs that would tell them the door was going to be opened from the other side. Today there was water seeping from under the bathroom's door and Severus could only theorize...was that tap designed to drown the school? Or was this the result of one of Myrtle's meaningless tantrums?
The tap was known not to give out water...but...when one hadn't fully discovered it's working...
It was not long before Flitwick and Sprout joined them and they disillusioned themselves.
The four Professors were startled out of their wits when the door opened not fifteen minutes later and Mrs. Norris walked out very calmly, too calm to describe as normal, it was almost as though she was imperiused. Severus hardly had time to process this, for the moment she stopped and turned to inspect the leaking water, she froze and fell to the floor as though dead. Severus heard his colleagues gasp.
Then before any of them could gather their wits, the cat was lifted up and made to hang from one of the lamps. It was a grotesque seen. It wasn't enough for the culprit though. Something seemed to appear on the walls, letter by letter.
Severus felt Sprout's fingers grab hold of his arm as they read, 'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware.'
"Look!" Minerva hissed and Severus had to tear his eyes from the still cat to see his colleagues pointing to white footprints that seemed to appear out of nowhere and disappear down the bend.
"I placed a variation of the tracking charm on the person." Filius said."Let's follow them."
So very careful and very quietly - after placing a powerful glamour on the wall, hiding the writing as well as the cat - they followed the footprints, right up to the seventh floor and back down to the now empty Great Hall. Now joined by Dumbledore, whom they informed about the fate of the cat. The old man insisted on inspecting the cat first before joining them and when he did, they were moving with caution towards the Astronomy tower.
All the while, Severus's mind roamed around the single fact: that very tap led to Salazar Slytherin's chamber of secrets. That ruddy old tap led straight to the rumoured monster residing there. This wasn't a childish prank at all... They were up against a murderer. A murderer who was most likely trying to do something drastic up the Astronomy Tower.
As they began to reach the top, faint whimpers and sobs, that could have been mistake for the passing wind above, made their way into Severus's ears and he could only hope for something a little less ugly than what he saw earlier. Tough and strong minded and steady as he was, he was human and he'd seen just about enough for that night.
They reached the top, their wands at the ready, the sobs were still muffled, but much distinguishable than before. They cautiously surrounded a pillar behind which the sounds came from, their wand arms almost shaking in anticipation. But how ready were they required to be in order to defeat this, this...child?
It was a redheaded girl!... Small enough to be a first year!... Small enough to fit the discription of Miss Ginny Weasley!
"Miss Weasley, what is the matter? What are you doing here?" Dumbledore said quietly, he's wand still trained at her.
The girl who was sitting on the floor with her arms around herself was crying too bitterly to hear.
"Miss Weasley!" Minerva tried her luck and the child startled badly. Still crying she looked around and at the sight of her teachers looking down at her, she state with a fresh bout of weeping.
Sprout put away her wand, knelt down and put an arm around the girl. "Ginny," she said gently. "We cannot help you if you don't tell us what is wrong."
"I-I d-d-don't know h-how I got here!" she sobbed.
"What do you mean?" Sprout said with wide eyes.
"I r-remember sitting in the c-common room g-g-getting ready to leave for the feast a-a-and then I-I'm sitting on the floor in the Astronomy Tower with p-paint down my front!" And true enough she was covered in paint, the same colour as the writing on that wall!
"Th-this is the second time it's happening! I don't know what to do!" she wailed.
"You could have approached a teacher for a start." Minerva said gently.
"Thank you, Professors." Dumbledore said addressing them all. "But I will handle it from here. I believe, I know the cause. Miss Weasley, if you will follow me? You are not in trouble, my dear. It certainly isn't your fault. I believe you could blame it all on Lucius Malfoy."
"Lucius Malfoy?" Minerva repeated dumbfounded.
"I believe he left young Miss Weasley a little token in the form of a diary?" He looked down at the startled girl.
"B-but it was in my transfiguration text book." Then her eyes widened. "He had lifted my book from the cauldron in Diagon Alley!"
Dumbledore nodded, "What happened once you opened the diary, Miss Weasley?"
"I wrote in it...and it wrote back!"
"Was his name Tom Riddle?"
"Yes sir. I'm - how did you know?"
Dumbledore chuckled sadly.
"Miss Weasley, if you interchange the letters in Tom Marvolo Riddle and you take out an I, A and M, you get Lord Voldemort."
Ginny Weasley, McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick gasped and shuddered. The girl took out the diary from her pocket and handed it to Dumbledore who held it with thinly veiled disgust.
"I believe, he left this article in Lucius's possession for safekeeping. The man, decided it was time to get rid of it and who would be a better option but Arthur Weasley's daughter? I therefore advise you, dear girl, to never trust any object that can think for itself unless you know how and where it's functions result from. This particular one could have sucked your life out of you. You are lucky we caught you in time."
The girl now almost white with shock nodded dumbly.
"Professor McGonagall, perhaps you could take Miss Weasley to the infirmary for a check up...and please see to it that she's given some dinner and perhaps a huge mug of hot chocolate along with it."
Once the pair had moved down the staircase, Dumbledore turned to the rest.
"Severus, the cat isn't dead...merely petrified. if you could brew the Mandrake restorative drought, I believe they sell the mature root, all ready for cutting, in Hogsmeade. Argus need not know of anything at the moment. Let's lead him to believe his cat has gone to visit a cousin for a few hours.
"Filius, Pomona, try to take off that paint from the wall and if you can please look over that tap carefully. Perhaps you could be sympathetic to the ghost residing there and ask her for an account on her death, if you will, please?"
The three nodded and headed down.
The Apothecary in Hogsmeade did indeed have a huge variety of rarely used potion ingredients. One merely had to look for it in the right place. There was indeed a narrow path, unseen by anyone but potion enthusiasts and those in terrible need, just to the right of the Shrieking Shack. This path lead to a twenty-four seven stall which stored anything and everything, right from a stirring rod to a fully matured Mandrake.
Severus hurried down to his quarters and was greeted by five anxious children.
Before they could say anything however, he said, "Have you eaten?"
"Yes, Prof." Blaire said. It had been a long time argument between him and children regarding the way they addressed him, but they insisted on keeping it Professor. Apparently, much to his disagreement, they believed it made their relationship somewhat unique. But it was finally decided to shorten it to Prof. Maybe, someday, Severus hoped, they'd turn it to Sev. But now wasn't the time to think about it.
"Right."
"There will not be any more voices heard... hopefully. Don't ask what it was, because I myself don't know exactly what made those sounds, but we seem to have intercepted something before matters worsened.
"I would have liked to send you to the Alcove to spend the night there without alerting any of the residents of Privet Drive. But, I won't." He transfigured his couch into a single bed and said, 'Blaire, you may sleep here for the night. Ethan, Harry, Neville Draco may pair up and use my bed and the one in the guest room. Decide who's going to use what, for I'll be leaving the castle to get some ingredients and I do not wish to see any of you awake until tomorrow morning. I will be up all night tonight to create an urgently needed potion.
"Whatever you don't leave my quarters without my express permission. I know the danger has passed, but I dare not let my guard down. Draco, the bathroom is down the corridor, and in the cabinet there are your spare toiletries. Good night."
Severus flooed straight to Nata's Apothecary and was approached by the owner. Pete Nata was a balding man with a very jolly attitude that was sometimes too jolly for Severus's liking. Anyway before the man could say anything, he said, "Good evening, Pete. Emergency. And I'd like you to-"
"-not disclose the purchases you make?" the man said cutting him off.
Severus nodded curtly.
"What's so secret about it?" Pete asked.
Severus growled and said, "A prank was played on the caretakers cat. I'd rather not talk about it. I want a mature mandrake root."
"For a cat?"
"You better believe it."
Pete shrugged and handed Severus a sound proof glass chamber, in which resided a very restless mandrake, as well as a pair of earmuffs. Severus paid a heavy amount for his purchase, placed the chamber and the earmuffs into a featherlight bag and flooed back to his quarters only to find his goddaughter staring at him from her bed with wide green eyes, Venn was sitting contentedly by her side.
Severus sighed tiredly and said, "Sleep, Blaire." and headed through a door that led to his potions lab. Carefully, he put on his earmuffs and put up silencing wards around his quarters.
Then he opened the chamber and put in his hand. The mandrake held on to it willingly, almost as though it was ready to sacrifice itself...for the sake of an obnoxious cat. This was the part Severus hated. Carefully, he laid the mandrake on a clean, sterilised cutting board and neatly chopped off its head.
He pulled off his earmuffs two minutes later and continued the cutting.
Dumbledore visited him in the middle of the night and brought in the cat. He left without a word. By seven in the morning, Severus had the potion ready. Setting the cat on the floor, he administered it with the drought and the moment it woke up, he shooed her off.
Then wanting to do nothing more in his lab for the rest of the day, he opened it and saw the Swarm sitting at at his table with a lot of coffee, eggs, porridge and fruit.
Severus nodded at them and sat tiredly at the table and after the usual preliminaries, he said, "Lucius Malfoy left a certain artifact in the hands of a certain first year, resulting in enchanting the said first year. Luckily this occurance took place only twice and it wasn't a human who suffered from it.
"This first year was possessed and was made to do terrible things they don't even remember. The last thing they know is that they are in the common room and the next time they come into awareness, they are up the Astronomy Tower.
"I don't want to frighten you, but I want you to be cautious. Don't trust objects that can think for themselves. Bring anything in your possession that you find suspicious to me...for the sake of your safety and for the sake of my conscience. Please."
"Yes, Prof." they said as one.
So after their breakfast, Severus took them to their respective lessons and went back to his chambers. Knowing he didn't have the first two lectures of the day, he chose to lie down. The essays he'd planned on correcting during this time could be used as fuel for his fire for all he cared that morning.
It was only next morning that Severus allowed Dumbledore and the other Heads of house to approach him with the topic.
They opted for a meeting just after dinner.
Dumbledore appeared grave when they entered and as they all sat, he said, "Severus, Minerva, I don't believe you've heard, but before Myrtle died, she was crying in the very same stall she now haunts. She heard someone talking a funny language and knew the voice belonged to a boy. The girl opened the door of her stall tell him off...and she died."
"She just died?" Severus said.
"How?" Minerva asked.
"The last thing she saw before her death, my dear Professors, were two large yellow eyes."
"And?" Severus said.
"That's that, Severus."
Dumbledore picked up an open book from the corner of his desk and turned it around so the four could read a passage that he marked in pencil.
Flitwick being the closest, read it aloud:
"Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the B-Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size, and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death."
"Oh my goodness!" Sprout said wide eyed, a hand on her chest. "Slytherin planted a Basilisk at Hogwarts!"
McGonagall half shouted, "We have a Basilisk roaming around freely in this school! A school for children!"
Severus was a little sceptical.
"And how," he said, "would a Basilisk succeed in roaming around a school? What exactly happened to that stupid cat wasn't death."
"The cat, Severus, didn't look directly into the eyes of the Basilisk. I am willing to bet you all my lemon drops that she looked at the reflection of the eyes in the water, which saved her life. I believe the entire thing was planned. The cat had been kept hostage before she was petrified...a mild warning.
"Severus, Hogwarts has a wide and complex plumbing system...huge enough to let a gigantic Basilisk roam freely."
"But what are we going to do?" Flitwick said.
"What can we do, Filius?" Dumbledore said gravely. "We do not know how the chamber is structured. We don't know if we have any escape route down there. Of course, we could take a rooster down there to do the job, but we do not even know how to get to the chamber, aside from the snake you saw carved on that tap, there is nothing that can help us out."
"Snake..." Severus whispered as a realisation and a dreadful horror began dawning onto him, chilling his blood painfully. "That boy was speaking Parseltongue!"
"That was Lord Voldemort, Severus." Dumbledore said matter-of-factly.
Severus gasped for air.
"Oh my God!" he said, losing himself infront of his fellow staff. "Harry could hear voices everytime that Weasley girl was possessed! He could hear the Basilisk! Harry! Harry's a Parselmouth too!"
Dumbledore nodded gravely.
"How?" Severus whispered.
Dumbledore took in a deep breath and said, "We do not know if Harry truly is a parselmouth, but if it is, we can blame it on his scar."
"His scar?" McGonagall said.
"Yes." Dumbledore said. "That was the place Voldemort could have unintentionally transferred some of his powers into when the curse rebounded."
Severus groaned in despair. He was going to have to bring the topic up amongst those children and they were going to keep silent over the entire matter, lest the entire school decide to call him evil. Just because he wasn't completely at odds with his fellow Slytherins did not mean he was their best friend.
Severus groaned again. He'd tell the boy, but only after his first Quidditch match, there was no use in upsetting him before. That gave him time to start going through the Black and Lestrange vaults at Gringotts with Narcissista...He'd have to speak to her first...and he'd need a closer look at both the locket and the cup before he did anything else. Maybe Dumbledore would show him a painting of the four founders with their beloved artifacts...or maybe he could find one somewhere.
That meant another night of work for him. Only this time he'd have to spend his time in the library.
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While growing up, Narcissa Malfoy had not known much affection or love or even kindness, that didn't mean that she wasn't treated well. Quite the opposite actually, she could have considered herself to be a queen. Her life, however, had no meaning or purpose other than doing things because they were 'supposed' to be done. Traditions were followed because she was told repeatedly how the name of their family depended on it.
The only love, affection and kindness she received was from her sister Andromeda. And she was so attached to her that she secretly kept in contact with even after her family disowned her. Andromeda was a role model, and while she knew she didn't have the courage to face her family's wrath like Andy and Sirius, she wanted to marry for love.
When she came across Lucius Malfoy, the affection and attention he showed and gave her... only her... seemed to be the her life's sunshine. She'd fallen for him blindly and the fact that he was a pureblood made her family pleased. She was praised. She accepted everything he did, and did everything he asked, because of the affectionate endearments and kisses that came along with it.
As a result of her wanting to fullfill his requests, she secretly began following the Dark Lord and attended parties with his followers wives and she stopped contacting Andromeda. All for the sake of the love she was shown in plentiful abundance. She even gave Lucius a son.
Sadly, her dreams ended not twelve years later when she finally opened her eyes and realised what her husband truly was. It took the cries of her son to realise the difference...and she had no one to turn to.
Fate was merciful to her and directed her to kindness and a family to which she would always be grateful. She didn't care about blood. It really didn't matter. Why would it? If a pureblood could hurt another pureblood, and yet it was the Muggle who cared, what was the use of maintaining the trend?
Narcissa was grateful to the Evans'. She was very grateful to Severus and the Potter triplets as well. She tried to repay their kindness in every way she could think of, but everytime she tried, she would end up more dependent on them than before.
However, in the beginning of November, when Severus asked her for help she willingly gave it, even if it meant letting him look through the Black and Lestrange Vaults. She didn't need anything from there after all. But when he asked her if she'd like anything in return for her favour, she timidly asked him if he would accompany her the Tonks'.
"I will grovel if I have to." she told him. "But I want to apologize to Andy."
...
The goblin assigned to accompany them at Gringotts was an impatient little twit and by the end of two hours, they had gone through only three vaults, Bellatrix's Black vault, Sirius's and the main Black vault, none of which contained whatever, Severus was looking for.
The goblin was too irritable...Barbnook was his name. She'd have to make sure to demand another escort when they came to visit again to the rest of the vaults. She certainly wasn't going to go back there at least for a couple of days.
Now out off Gringotts with a very powerful glamour that kept her from Lucius Malfoy's scrutiny (though she'd heard he was now having an affair with another woman), or that of any of his spies.
She and Severus apparated half a mile from the Tonks' residence and they walked the remaining distance out, mainly because she needed more time to prepare herself for the worst.
Severus walked silently by her side. Narcissa found herself getting more nervous with each step and by the time they reached the gate of the Tonks' home, she was so sure Andromeda would shut the door on her face, she was all set to run back to Privet Drive. Severus apparently knew what was going on in her mind for he turned around and said threateningly, "Turn back and I shall knock on her door and bring her to you."
Narcissa sighed and slowly walked up to the door leaving Severus at the gate.
She looked back at him and he nodded encouragingly. She took a deep breath and turned around and knocked on the door.
To her it felt like ages before she heard approaching footsteps and she took off her glamour just as the door opened to reveal Andromeda herself.
"Cissy?" she said in surprise when she recognised her visitor.
"A-Andy." Narcissa stuttered nervously. "I-I I came to... Andy, I...oh, I'm sorry Andy. I just came to say that. I-I don't know if you can ever forgive me for breaking ties. I'm really very sorry."
Her sister looked so stunned, Narcissa felt terrible. She turned around before tears started falling off her face. She'd truly lost her sister.
A hand on her shoulder, prevented her from taking a step off the porch. Startled, she turned around to see her sister looking at her with sad eyes.
"Oh, Cissy," she said, pulling Narcissa into a hug. "Don't cry, darling. I am not... I never was angry with you, dear. Those little letters of yours helped me so much, you have no idea. It helped me get over everything Mother, Father and Bella kept saying to me in their letters. But I knew they would stop one day. I wasn't angry at all."
Narcissa was sobbing, "I was so stupid! I thought he loved me just as I loved him! I thought by doing everything he said, he'd just love me more. I could have never been more wrong, Andy! And my son had to pay for it as well."
Andromeda pulled back.
"He hurt you?" she asked in concern.
"Oh, just once, but it was bad." Narcissa confessed. "I didn't expect to wake up alive though. But Severus Snape and his family saved us."
"But Malfoy got away." Andy said indignantly.
"Yes, but as long as Draco and I remain in hiding, he cannot harm us." Narcissa said. "I really don't care if he gets away with it, Andy. I just want Draco safe. He's a Black now, by the way."
"So I've heard." Andy murmured. "So what safety measures have you been taking, Cissy. I am going to guess that walking around in the open was simply one of your impetuous moves."
Narcissa laughed nervously, "Of course not, Andy! I came here disguised. I just took it off when I heard you opening the door. I live at a very secret location, though. I'm not sure if I can tell you the address, but if you don't mind, I'd love to come a visit."
"Anytime you wish dear...And that young man out there... is he your bodyguard?" she asked looking over her shoulder.
Narcissa chuckled. "In a way. That's Severus, Andy. He saved my life. And his family has been housing us ever since!"
Andromeda smiled.
"Don't leave him out there, Cissy. Call him in, let's all talk over a hot cup of tea."
tbc...