Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 16 – Legend of the Chamber
Harry sighed and repeated what he'd just told Ron and Hermione. Snape appeared unphased at first and Harry felt the need to plead his case.
"Sir, I swear, I didn't do anything to Mrs. Norris. Or leave the message on the wall."
"I never thought you did, Potter." He answered after a moment, moving to take a seat on a nearby desk. "Such magic is difficult to full-grown wizards, a second year could not hope to even try it."
"Professor, what can you tell us about the Chamber of Secrets?" Hermione then asked. "Hogwarts: A History mentions it briefly as a legend, but there's little else on it." Snape saw that he had their undivided attention, which wasn't uncommon, given that he always commanded his students' full attention, but rarely did they show as much interest.
"It is said that the Chamber of Secrets was built by Salazar Slytherin before he left the school. As its name suggests, the Chamber was a secret, and its whereabouts within the castle, and whether or not it even truly existed, was unknown to the other founders." This didn't surprise them and they could surmise as much from the short passage Hermione had mentioned. However, they knew it wasn't the whole story.
"The Chamber has been opened before, hasn't it?" Harry asked, Dobby's warning flashing in his mind. Snape nodded.
"Fifty years ago, while Professor Dumbledore was still only the Transfiguration teacher here, a similar message appeared claiming that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened. There were several attacks with the same results as you saw tonight with Mrs. Norris."
"And these attacks…" Hermione refused to meet anyone's eye as she spoke. "They were all against muggleborns, weren't they?" Ron reached over and wrapped a comforting arm around Hermione, who's head snapped up to look at him. Both blushed and Ron quickly retracted his arm.
"You are correct, Miss Granger." Said Snape. "Salazar Slytherin was a blood purest of the highest order and believed that only purebloods deserved to study magic. According to legend, Slytherin sealed his hidden chamber shortly before departing, and it would remain sealed until his own true heir returned to the school. The heir alone would be able to open the Chamber and unleash the horror within, and by so doing purge the school of all those who, in Slytherin's view, were unworthy to study magic."
"But that's rubbish!" Ron said angrily. "Purging the school of anyone who's not a pureblood? There'd only be a handful of students left!"
"Indeed, Mr. Weasley." Snape was unimpressed with his outburst. "As you can imagine, the castle has been searched many times over the centuries, but no hidden chamber has been found."
"Professor, what is the horror you mentioned? The one inside the Chamber?" Hermione asked.
"No one knows." He replied. "It is said that the Chamber is home to a monster that only the heir of Slytherin can control."
"And I'm guessing no one's spotted a monster roaming the castle either, have they?" Harry muttered rhetorically, though his next question was anything but. "Sir, what happened when the Chamber was opened fifty years ago? The attacks clearly stopped, and the Chamber was closed, but how?"
"In the end, a student was killed." He said. "And Hagrid, who was a student here at the time, was blamed for the attacks."
"Hagrid?!" That seemed highly unlikely.
"Yes. Hagrid was expelled and his wand was snapped; however, aside from the attacks stopping once he was caught there was no evidence that he had harmed anyone, and so he was not taken to Azkaban. Dumbledore never believed Hagrid was guilty and convinced the then Headmaster Dippet to hire him as gamekeeper, and although Hagrid has remained at the school, there has been not even a whisper of the Chamber of Secrets…until today."
"I can't believe Hagrid had anything to do with this." Harry was adamant. Regardless of his still mixed feelings for the gamekeeper, he was certain that Hagrid was anything but a murderer.
"It does seem unlikely." Snape agreed before fixing Harry was his piercing gaze. "Now, on to more pressing matters…this voice you heard. It is worrisome." Hermione completely agreed.
"You hear a voice, a voice only you can hear saying that it's going to kill, and then Mrs. Norris ends of petrified. That can't be a coincidence."
"She's right, mate. And with the message on the wall too, it is pretty safe to assume that it has something to do with this Chamber of Secrets." Added Ron. "Whatever is in the Chamber must have been what attacked Mrs. Norris." Snape tried not to look impressed. It wasn't often that Weasley was so perceptive, no matter how obvious the statement.
"Which means that you are likely hearing the monster." Harry looked up at his professor.
"But what is the monster? And why am I the only one who can hear it?"
-H/G-
Harry went to bed that night with a million questions floating around in his head. It wasn't a very restful sleep, even before he was woken up by two house-elves wrestling on his bed.
"What…?" Reaching for his glasses Harry sad up, narrowly avoiding an elbow to the face. "Stop it, both of you!" Misty and Dobby both did as they were told, though they continued to glare at each other.
"Misty is sorry, master Harry." The Fudge elf was the first to speak. "Misty tried to stop Dobby from bothering you, but he escaped!"
"Dobby must warn Harry Potter!" The other elf insisted. "Now that Harry Potter knows of the danger, Harry Potter must go home!" Although they appeared to be talking to him, neither elf had taken their eyes off each other. Harry sighed and resigned himself to no more sleep tonight.
"Alright, sit down both of you. And no crying, Dobby!" He added, remembering the elf's reaction the last time he had been asked to sit down. "Now, Dobby can you give me any more information about what's going on? What the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is?" Dobby's ears drooped at the first question, but he perked up at the second.
"Dobby doesn't know what the monster is!" He said happily and Harry knew it was because he could finally answer one of Harry's questions, even if it didn't actually help him.
"Alright, then Dobby, I think you should go back home."
"But Dobby must warn-"
"I've heard your warning." Harry interrupted. "I've heard it, and I'm taking it seriously, but I'm not leaving Hogwarts." Dobby's eyes shined with tears and Harry couldn't help feel sorry for the little guy.
"Dobby just wants to save Harry Potter." Harry smiled sadly and placed a hand on top of the elf's head.
"Thank you, Dobby. You did great to warn me and I'm very grateful. But now you've told me all you can and I don't want you to get in trouble for being here."
"Harry Potter is indeed a great wizard to care for Dobby!" It was said with such awe that it made Harry quite uncomfortable, though he tried not to show it.
"Take care of yourself, Dobby. Maybe one day we'll see each other again." The elf smiled eagerly and with a snap of his fingers he disappeared. Harry then turned to the remaining elf.
"Did you find out anything?" Misty nodded.
"Master Harry isn't going to like it." She warned, and Harry steeled himself. "Dobby's family is the Malfoys!" Harry wasn't sure why that surprised him. He knew that the Malfoys were followers of Voldemort, but given how deep Lucius Malfoy was into his act of being a paragon of the wizarding world, he hadn't thought they'd become a problem until Voldemort returned.
"And did you find out anything else?" Misty's ears drooped and she shook her head.
"No, sir. Misty was able to follow Dobby home undetected, but couldn't stay long at all or the other elves would detect Misty."
"And while Dobby may not have cared about you sneaking around the manor since his loyalty to the Malfoys is gone, the same can't be said about the other elves." Misty nodded. "Well, at least we know who's behind this, or at least involved, that's something." He smiled and thanked the elf who disappeared as Dobby had a few minutes ago. Harry didn't go back to sleep and he was waiting for Ron and Hermione when they descended the stairs from the dormitories two hours later. They took the long route to the Great Hall for breakfast allowing Harry time to fill them in.
"It makes sense." Said Ron. "The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin for generations, and you heard him 'you'll be next mudbloods.' "
"I heard him, but Malfoy, the heir of Slytherin?" Hermione wasn't as convinced, and Harry tended to agree with her.
"Malfoy's nothing if not boastful. Both Draco and his father. If they were descended from Salazar Slytherin the entire wizarding world would know it." Harry was quite certain of that much. "It's more likely they know who the heir is and are working with them, or at least Lucius is."
"You don't think Malfoy junior would be helping dear old dad to attack muggleborns?" Ron asked with a disbelieving grimace.
"Oh he would if he could, but I don't think Draco's been told anything." Said Harry. "I've known him a long time, and his reaction to seeing the message on the wall, and Mrs. Norris, was too genuine. He was as shocked as the rest of us, he wasn't expecting it at all." That Ron could buy, that Lucius hadn't involved his son in the plot, whether to protect him – a disturbing thought, a Malfoy actually being capable of loving their child – or because he deemed Draco useless. Ron was much more inclined to believe the latter. Whatever the reason the trio entered the Great Hall for breakfast and went about their day. The days following the attack on Mrs. Norris were the most tense Harry had spent in the castle. Everyone was on edge and the staff were being extra cautious. There were more teachers present in the hallways as students moved from class to class, if one of them had to leave class for any reason they were no longer allowed to go alone, and curfew breakers were dealt with much more harshly, as Fred and George discovered when instead of being docked ten points and getting a stern talking to, they were given a weeks worth of detentions and lost Gryffindor fifty points each – by McGonagall no less – when they were caught sneaking out to set up one of their pranks. However, as the days turned into weeks and there were no more signs of any attacks, people began to forget and the sense of dread began to lift. It was then that the heir of Slytherin struck again.
Harry was spending the night in the hospital wing after having had all the bones in his arm vanished. It had been a simple break – acquired during the latest Gryffindor vs. Slytherin quidditch game – that Madam Pomfrey could have fixed in a heartbeat; however, Lockhart had gotten involved and had made everything worse. He was woken as the doors banged open, the intruders unheeding of the injured student within, but lay still when he realized the Headmaster was among them, for Dumbledore would no doubt put up a silencing charm if he knew Harry was awake.
"What's happened?" He heard Madam Pomfrey ask.
"There's been another attack." That was Dumbledore.
"I think he's been petrified, Poppy." McGonagall was there too. "He was found not far from here. Perhaps he managed to take a picture of his attacker." Harry knew then who it was. Colin Creevey was a first year Gryffindor who came from an entirely muggle family and had brought a camera with him to Hogwarts to take pictures of everything to send back to his family. Harry was one of his favourite subjects to photograph. Having embraced the wizarding world so thoroughly upon learning all the weird stuff he could do was magic, Colin had also embraced the story of the Boy-Who-Lived and was one of Harry's greatest fans. The fact that Colin had snuck out of Gryffindor tower and was found near the hospital wing meant he was likely trying to visit Harry. Dumbledore pried the camera from Colin's stiff hands, Harry could see through the slits of his eyes that Colin had been taking a picture when he was attacked. He opened the back of the camera and a puff of smoke appeared; whatever had attacked Colin had destroyed the film within the camera. "What can this mean, Albus?" McGonagall asked.
"It means that our students are in great danger."
"What should I tell the staff?"
"The truth. Tell them Hogwarts is no longer safe. It is as we feared, Minerva. The Chamber of Secrets has indeed been opened again."
A/N - Review please!