I apologise for such a big gap between the last chapter and this one. I was on a mini-vacation and to my disappointment, the release plan I had got squashed due to poor internet.

But, no worries. I'm back with Chapter 29 and it's decent-sized... Enjoy!

"Ron, what happened?" asked Harry as he resisted the urge to jerk his hand away from the hard grip of Ron's hand.

"Harry, you are a parselmouth. And you have no idea what that means?" asked Ron and let go of Harry's arm after walking away from everyone's earshot.

"I don't even know what that means," replied Harry desperately.

"You can talk to snakes," said Ron.

"Yeah, so? I bet loads here can," replied Harry.

"No, Harry, speaking to snakes is rare. Salazar Slytherin was a parselmouth. Very few people have the ability. You're probably the one in Hogwarts who can," said Hermione.

"Salazar Slytherin could speak to snakes?" asked Harry worried, a million thoughts running through his mind.

"Yeah, have you done it before? I mean talk to snakes," asked Hermione.

"Yeah... once, before I came to Hogwarts. It was actually a funny experience," began Harry but stopped as Hermione and Ron didn't look in the mood for a joke.

"And why did you egg the snake on towards Justin?" asked Ron.

"What are you talking about? I did the opposite in fact. I told the snake to stop moving. Why would you think something like that? You heard what I said," replied Harry, slightly offended by the suspicious tone of Ron.

"I heard you speak parseltongue," replied Ron.

"What?" asked Harry, shocked.

"Yes Harry, you spoke a different language," said Hermione calmly.

"I spoke English... at least I thought I did... How can I speak a language without even knowing it," replied Harry faintly.

"This is bad," sighed Hermione.

"Yeah, the whole school's going to think you're the heir," added Ron.

The next morning, Harry woke up with conviction. He was going to apologise to Justin during their Herbology class, and he'd explain everything that happened the previous day. But to his great disappointment, the class got cancelled owing to a blizzard. Hence, Harry decided to go searching for Justin. He walked past classrooms where classes were going on, through dark passages in the chilly climate. He decided to look for Justin in the library. The moment Harry entered the library, he saw John walk past him, who didn't even seem to notice Harry walking in. Harry could see a group of Hufflepuff students. Hoping to find Justin with the group, he walked towards them. The group of students were talking about the incident of the previous night, and how Harry was the heir of Slytherin.

"Justin should be careful around him," said Ernie.

"Are you sure it's him? I mean, he's always around Granger, isn't he?" asked Hannah.

"He could be playing the long game, you never know," replied Ernie.

"He seems like a nice guy though. He's the boy-who-lived, he helped destroy You-Know-Who," replied Hannah.

"And how did he survive You-Know-Who? He was just a baby. Maybe You-Know-Who knew what Harry was," replied Ernie.

"And what's that Ernie? Heir of Salazar Slytherin?" asked Harry as he interrupted the conversation. Everyone turned back, saw Harry behind them and gave a squeal. Harry had even given a couple of them a jump scare.

"Wh... what are you doing here, Harry?" asked Hannah.

"Hi, Hannah... how are you? Hope you're doing fine. Please tell me where I can find Justin," said Harry in his best sassy voice.

"Why... why do you want to know where Justin is?" asked Hannah.

"Just a wanted a chat, you know how it is," replied Harry.

"We will never tell you," Intervened Ernie.

"Look, I want to apologise for what happened yesterday. I would like to clear my misunderstanding with Justin," said Harry.

"Yeah, like we will fall for that," replied Ernie.

"I grew up a muggle mate. My best friend is a muggle. I love and miss all my muggle school friends. My best friend here is a muggle-born. I had no idea till yesterday what a parselmouth was, or that I was one. I'm not the enemy here," said Harry trying to sound as convincing as he could.

"If all you want to do is apologise, we can do that for you. If you're who you say you are, you wouldn't mind that, would you?" retorted Ernie.

"No... I wouldn't," replied Harry. "See you all," he added and walked away. He hadn't even walked a few steps when the loud screams of Peeves, the poltergeist started coming their way.

"ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK! THERE'S BEEN ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

By the time Harry and the Hufflepuff students got to the scene, a large number of students had already gathered along with Professor McGonagall and Professor Jane. It only took them about a minute to realise that the victims this time were Justin and the ghost of Nearly Headless Nick. Soon the crowd was cleared from the place.

"I'm sorry," said Harry looking at the devastated faces of Ernie, Hannah and other Hufflepuff students that he had just talked to and left for Gryffindor common room.

The weeks leading up to the Christmas break was gloomy at Hogwarts. The attack on Justin had increased the fear in students, especially the muggle-borns. Hardly anybody travelled alone anywhere. A small silver lining in Harry's life was the lack of talk of him being the heir. What the attack had inadvertently done was to remove the "heir of Slytherin" tag from Harry as soon as it had arrived. Ernie even apologised to Harry days after the attack on Justin.

"You should be careful, Hermione," said Harry.

"I'm not afraid of the Slytherin monster, whatever it is. I know I should be, but somehow I'm not," replied Hermione.

"That doesn't make any sense at all, Hermione," replied Harry laughing.

"Look at it this way. I'm hardly ever alone. You are always with me, so is Ron. And not to forget him," she said pointing at John with her eyes, who was sitting a few seats across them.

"If You-Know-Who is behind these attacks, not even he can protect you," replied Harry faintly.

"Well, I'm lucky then to have the one and only... boy-who-lived with me then," replied Hermione grinning.

"This is not funny, Hermione," said Harry not finding Hermione's behaviour amusing.

"Harry... it's almost Christmas... I don't want to spend my days here thinking about sad and gloomy things," said Hermione. Harry nodded in agreement and that conversation dropped dead.

"Talking of Christmas, what's your plan?" asked Hermione.

"I'm going home," replied Harry. "I'll have a few extremely angry people to handle if I don't," he added smiling.

"I'm going back as well. Cousins are visiting us this Christmas," said Hermione.

"That's nice," said Harry. "Do they know you're a witch?" asked Harry.

"Of course not, Harry!" said Hermione. Harry didn't know what was obvious about that, but he didn't want to prod further.

"Ron's going with his parents to visit Bill, Fred and George are going too, I think," said Harry.

"I thought Ginny was staying here," replied Hermione. Harry shrugged his shoulders in response.

John had deep dived into the collections of the library, especially books on serpents, ever since he found out that Harry was a parselmouth. In fact, he was on his way to the lake, from the library when he found Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. But, before he could alert anyone, Peeves had done his job for him by shouting at the top of his voice on every floor of every building in the castle. There was another thing that bugged him and even distracted him... his fight with Jane. For the first few days after his fight, he was extremely angry at what had happened. He kept a mean face whenever he ran into Jane or was in her class, but the only reason he had done that was to make Jane feel as guilty as she possibly could. But as the days went by, and the more he saw how dull Jane looked, he started to realise that being angry wasn't the solution. If truth be told, he knew in his heart that the mistake was partly his. His first instinct after being back from Iceland had been to go into a shell. A hole even, that he dug for himself, a deep dark hole. And Jane knew what he was doing to himself and tried to help. So, he decided to make amends with her. That evening he made his way to Jane's office and casually walked in.

"John... Hi," said Jane the moment she saw him and got up from her seat.

"Hey," said John faintly.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in a low voice, her expression screamed out sadness.

"Just wanted to have a chat," replied John.

"Is it about the chamber? Have you found something?" she asked nervously. There was a shiver in her tone.

"No... not the chamber. I'm not here about the chamber," replied John.

"I'm sorry," they said together after a few seconds of silence. John gave a chuckle at continued, "It should be me apologising. I have been an arse ever since I have been back. You didn't deserve that," he said.

"John... it's okay. I should have never pitted you against those other students. I thought I was doing something clever, but never once thought what the repercussions could be," replied Jane. John went and sat on the couch and Jane sat beside him.

"I have been an idiot these past few months. First, I lashed out at you during our vacation. Then I lost control of my magic. Then I lost control of myself. And to top it all off, I made an enemy out of the only person who has been with me throughout my life. You have been the backbone of my life. I don't know what's up with me," he sighed.

"Hey... there's nothing wrong with you. We are both lucky to have each other. We've both been through some shit. And when one of us is down, the other is always there to pull us back up," replied Jane putting an arm around John's shoulder.

They sat there in silence, revelling at the moment. After a few minutes, Jane couldn't resist anymore. She had to ask him. "John... what happened to you?" she asked hesitating with every word she uttered.

"Jane... let's not do this now. I promise to you, I'll tell you one day. But I need some time to myself before I can do that," replied John calmly.

"Should I be worried?" asked Jane faintly. John could see that her eyes were glistening.

"Jane... come here," he said and hugged his sister tightly. "I'm not dying. But I'll never be the same again. That's all," he whispered.

"What do you mean?" whispered Jane back as they remained embraced.

"My transformation had its toll. By transforming, I bent the natural laws. And nature always has a funny way of retaliating. The reason I couldn't control my magic was that I was growing weaker," replied John. The twins pulled apart slowly.

"John... are you saying what I think you're saying?" she asked, worried she might be correct.

"I'm afraid so... Dr Kristin gave me a choice. I could either live normally, without treatment. But I could die at any moment because my body couldn't continue to handle the transformation. Or, I could choose to make me... well, for a lack of a better word, my miniature state, a permanent thing. I'll be considerably less powerful. But I'll live. The strain on my body would no longer be there. Guess what I chose?" replied John smiling. Jane knew this smile. It's the one John put on, whenever he wanted to mask his pain.

"Oh my God, John... why didn't you tell me this earlier? We could have consulted someone else," replied Jane, devastated by what she had just heard.

"Jane... we knew the risk when we made the plan. We knew something like this could happen. We just didn't what that something would be. Well, there's a silver lining if you think about it," replied John.

"What silver lining?" asked Jane.

"We don't have to lie anymore. Technically, I'm 12 now. I just happen to have memories of over 2 decades. But, physically? I'm 12. I'll grow just like all the others in my class will. We couldn't have asked for a better cover," he replied smiling, this time genuinely.

"How are you so... I don't know... calm about this?" asked Jane after staring at John for a few seconds.

"Trust me when I tell you, I wasn't calm when I found out. And have I looked calm all these days?" replied John.

"What made you change?"

"Hermione... and Harry, to be fair. I was sitting a few seats away in the library when I overheard them talking about Christmas, being with family, positivity etc... And the only person I could think of was you of course. I had made up my mind to come and apologise right there and then. Telling you the whole thing was just an instinctive decision," replied John.

"I'm glad you told me..." replied Jane, smiling.

"Well, enough about me. I come bearing other information too," said John.

"Found something?" asked Jane.

"A few things, I would have told you earlier, but... well you know how I was pissed at you and all that. First things first, the house-elf that visited Harry, was the one that closed the gate in platform 9 ¾, also the one that tampered with the bludger. And guess who the house-elf belongs to? The Malfoys" replied John.

"The house-elf did all that? And it belongs to the Malfoys? Wow, that is some news. So, I'm guessing the house-elf found out that Harry was in danger from Lucius Malfoy. Which begs the question, what is Lucius planning? Could he be behind the Chamber? The heir of Slytherin?" wondered Jane aloud.

"But we already know who the last known heir of Slytherin was, Voldemort," replied John.

"Right! Is it possible he has a kid, who's studying here, now?" asked Jane.

"A kid? Well, I don't know if he has a kid. It fits, but how are we ever going to find that out?"

"Dumbledore would know," replied Jane.

"Ok! So, that's that! But, even if there is a kid, and the kid is orchestrating these things, how did Lucius come to know about it? Voldemort isn't back. Even if the death-eaters believe he's out there, he doesn't have a body. If he did, he wouldn't have been after the Philosopher's stone," said John. "And why did the house-elf warn Harry? What's with that? Isn't that against their code or something?" he asked.

"Argh! My head hurts with all this gobbledygook," sighed Jane.

"Let's Park it and move on to the next thing. The Snake! Or what I think is the Slytherin monster in the chamber. If you think about it, it hasn't killed anyone. It has only petrified 2 students and a cat. Why not kill?" asked John.

"Maybe it can't?" retorted Jane.

"Possible, but highly unlikely. I did some reading, but I can't find anything that connects the facts we have. And there's another inconsistency. Harry heard voices way before the first attack. He heard the voices just moments before the attack on Mrs Norris. But he didn't hear anything after that. Not when Colin was attacked, not when Justin was attacked. What's with that?" asked John.

"He would have been asleep during Colin's attack," replied Jane.

"He was talking to the house-elf in the middle of the night. And was awake for a good amount of time after that. But, fine... let's say he was asleep. What about Justin? He was talking to the Hufflepuff students in the library," replied John back.

"Is it possible, he didn't hear it? Due to distance, maybe? Attack on the 5th floor and library is off the corridor on the 1st floor," said Jane.

"And there's the big question. How on earth is a snake moving about without being seen by a single person? It can't be invisible," replied John.

"John... you're hurting me with these questions. Please... I can't think anymore," said Jane after a few minutes of silence, but she had a smile on her face.

"You're just lazy," retorted John.

"Have care how you speak... you're talking to someone a decade and a half older than you," shot back Jane laughing.

"Ouch... Wow! Are you even my sister anymore? I should start calling you Aunt Jane, doesn't have a nice ring though," said John.

"I'll kill you with my bare hands if you call me Aunt," said Jane.

"Well, you started it," replied John laughing.

"Argh... I missed you... I missed this..." sighed Jane.

"So did I," replied John.

"We should go back home, for Christmas. Or we could travel somewhere nice," said Jane.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Moreover, we should be on Ginny duty," replied John.

"Isn't she going home with her brothers?" asked Jane.

"It seems not! They're going, but she's staying back. I asked her about it, she said she has friends here that she'll be with," replied John.

"But it's Christmas... are you sure she didn't lie to you or something?" asked Jane surprised.

"I'm positive, I even heard Hermione and Harry talk about it. I found out it especially weird considering the way she has been behaving recently. Ever since the attack on Filch's cat, she seems jumpy. Whenever someone mentions the chamber, or the heir, or death or anything of the kind, she gets upset, worried, her face goes pale, etc... I chalked it off as a normal thing. But... I don't know, something seems off," replied John.

"It's not out of the ordinary. She is in her first year after all... I wouldn't worry about it too much," said Jane. "But, if you want to stay here, I'm okay with that. Anyways we'll have all the time in the world here, with barely any students staying back," she added.

"That's settled then," sighed John. The twins spent hours talking to each other that night. The holidays arrived and the students went back home happily. As for Harry, Hermione, Ron, John and Jane, horrors lie ahead but it'd wait till Christmas was over.

PS - Shhhh... This has to be a secret between us... Year 2 will end with Chapter 35. And guess what? If everything goes to plan, 01/01/2022 will be the day Chapter 35 will be published.
Let's go evvvverrryyyyyonnnnneeeeee... ❤️❤️❤️

A bit much? Lol