Chapter 30 is here... Enjoy!

"d4," said John.

"Knight to f6," replied Jane.

"c4"

"Pawn to g6," replied Jane.

"Knight to c3," said John grinning.

"d5," said Jane.

"Oh, the Grunfeld? Well... then... bishop to d2," said John. It had been a few years since they played a game of chess. When they were younger, they played chess all the time. Jane was the more methodical and technical player while John was impulsive, rash, but came up with beautiful sequences.

"Bishop to g7," replied Jane.

"Pawn captures on d5," said John.

"Knight takes d5," replied Jane immediately. "Go on, take my Knight," taunted Jane.

"You would want that, wouldn't you? Free development of your Queen. Sorry, but I'm going to kick your Knight away by playing e4," said John in response.

"Knight... captures on c3," said Jane after a few seconds.

"Taking my Knight? Interesting choice, I'll take with my Bishop," replied John.

"c5," said Jane immediately.

"Striking in the centre, how typical... Pawn to d5," said John.

"Bishop captures on c3," replied Jane.

"Pawn captures Bishop on c3," replied John.

That's when Jane decided to take a long think. And finally, after a minute, she said, "Queen to d6"

"Queen to d2," said John after taking a few seconds to think.

"I'll castle," replied Jane.

"f4," said John immediately.

"You're playing aggressively... those pawn pushes are going to come back to haunt you," said Jane smiling.

"We'll see who's haunted," retorted John.

"e6," said Jane. John went back into a long think after Jane played her move. If anyone could transform into a fly and be on one of the walls watching the pair of them play chess, they'd definitely think that the twins had gone mad. Because they were really good players of the game, they rarely needed a board to actually play. Often, just like they were doing now, they'd start a game of chess without a board and just visualize the whole play unfurl.

"Knight to f3," replied John.

"Pawn captures on d5," said Jane.

"Bishop to c4," replied John immediately.

"Bishop to e6," said Jane after a few moments.

"I'll go short castle," said John.

"d4," said Jane. "Brother dear, are you sure you are in your top game? You look rattled," taunted Jane again

After a good 4 to 5 minutes, John said, "f5" and smiled showing his teeth.

"f5? What? Are you sure? You're giving up a piece? Just like that?" asked Jane. John remained silent and serious-faced.

"Bishop captures on c4," said Jane with a satisfied look. She knew that the victory was hers.

"e5," said John instantly after Jane played her move and started jumping excitedly.

Jane tried to ignore him but it only took her a minute to go from the satisfied look to one of pure horror.

"Wait... stop jumping JOHN!" she shouted. "That can't be it... How did I miss that?" grunted Jane.

"I set that up perfectly. You were basically lost the moment you played d4," said John laughing. "d4, f5, Bishop goes anywhere or captures c4, e5... If you move the queen, I'll play f6 and that's it. Checkmate incoming," he added proudly.

"I feel like I have seen something similar before. I basically walked into it, didn't I?" sighed Jane disappointed.

"Yeah, I believe we saw something similar when we were younger," replied John.

The twins had spent most of the Christmas holidays with each other. Apart from the odd discussion about the chamber, Ginny or Lucius Malfoy, they had managed to stay away from the madness of the outside world. But the holidays were about to end soon.

The following day, all the students who had gone home for vacation returned. Harry in particular looked cheerful.

"What's up, Harry?" asked John as he sat down beside Ron. Harry and Hermione were seated on the other side of Ron.

"Nothing, why do you ask?" replied Harry.

"You look cheerful. There's this glow on your face," said John.

"He's been glowing like this all day," added Ron.

"I'm just happy," replied Harry.

"It's okay if you don't want to tell," remarked John laughing.

"It's nothing like that. I just really enjoyed these couple of weeks, you know? So much has already happened this year. I just wanted that break badly. Going back home was just the thing I needed, I guess," replied Harry, tucking into his pie.

"I know what you mean. The last couple of weeks were really refreshing," added John. "How was your holiday, Ron?" he asked.

"Lot of fun," replied Ron but gave a pause for his mouth was too full to talk. "Our visit to Egypt was a lot of fun. Bill's a curse breaker for Gringotts," he added.

The kids enjoyed their first few days post being back from the holidays talking about the wonderful gifts they received, exciting things they did and the delicious food they devoured. But like all good things, their moods started to turn sour once they started receiving truckloads of homework. Every professor emphasized studies that much more compared to earlier. Harry and Ron especially started to feel they were better off back home.

Argus Filch hated the students of Hogwarts. They always caused trouble and he had to clean up the mess they left behind, quite literally. He also hated that despite being in a wizarding school, he never got to learn magic. He hated all the students that wasted their time away playing stupid tricks. If he got to spend even half the time these lot got to study magic, he'd accomplish so much more. Just as he spent his time brooding, he saw a little girl run towards him crying. He saw her go inside the bathroom. He then heard a loud thump and a moment later the girl came running out and left. And a moment later he heard the sobs of the ghost that lived in that bathroom, Moaning Myrtle. He watched the whole scene play out with utter disgust on his face. But his expression got worse when he saw a great flood of water rush out of the bathroom and wet the just mopped floor of the corridor.

"Even more work for me! Mopping all night, like I haven't got enough to do. I hate everybody here," he shouted in anguish and started to mop the floor again. When he was finally done mopping the floor dry about an hour later, he noticed that the ghost hadn't stopped sobbing. Irritated by her sound, he went inside the bathroom. But before he could say anything, he saw a diary lying on the wet floor. He picked up the diary and to his great surprise, it wasn't wet. It was completely dry. He walked out of the bathroom holding the diary in his hand. But to his great dismay, his curiosity about the diary got disrupted by another flood of water rushing out of the bathroom.

"When will they listen to me? This is outrageous I tell ya," he screamed and started mopping once again.

It was their potions class going on in the usual style. Severus Snape had just completed explaining how the temperature and time to spent brewing any potion was just as important as the ingredients and their proportion of the recipe.

"Today's class might as well be given by Mr Obvious," whispered John and chuckled. Harry and Ron gave a small chuckle as well. But they were caught instantly by Snape.

"10 points from Gryffindor for laughing in between class. Would Mr Potter and Mr Weasley care to tell the class the joke?" asked Snape in his characteristically low and cold voice. Harry and Ron went silent immediately and pretended to be reading a line of text in their books.

"Just wondering the point of this class," said John to himself. But he didn't get away with that.

"What was that Mr Smith?"

"Nothing, Professor," replied John boldly.

"If you think you know everything, why don't you show the class how to brew the girding potion?" retorted Snape.

"You are a better teacher than me," replied John smiling.

"10 more points from Gryffindor for interrupting my class. And detention, Mr Smith! You still haven't learned how to talk to your professors," snapped Snape.

"This is ridiculous," sighed John, but the damage was done. Snape was in a sour mood for the rest of the class.

Once the class got over, Hermione walked up to John.

"You really have to watch what you say in Snape's class," she said.

"He was just salty today. I have done much worse and gotten away with it," replied John nonchalantly.

"You deserve this," retorted Hermione and got a glare from John. "Ok, sorry, you don't deserve this. But you should be careful in his class. He has already taken so many points from us this year," she added.

By the end of their last class of the day, John received a note telling him that his detention would be with Argus Filch, to help him clean trophies in the trophy room.

"How many trophies do they have? I can't believe this," sighed John.

"Don't overexert yourself trying to polish them hard. My hands hurt for 3 days last time," said Ron.

"Thanks, Ron," replied John and gave a smile.

Meanwhile, Harry and Hermione were seated at the opposite table whispering constantly.

"Harry, I asked Professor McGonagall as well as Professor Jane. Both of them refused my request," she said in a low voice.

"Hermione... you have to be kidding me. We can't use the cloak for something like that," whispered back Harry.

"Please?"

"Hermione..." sighed Harry.

"Just this once, I promise," whispered Hermione.

"Okay, but just this once. What's the plan?" asked Harry.

"We'll go to the restricted section and grab the book I want. I already know the name. Searching it shouldn't take long. We'll spend about 20 minutes there. I'll get what I want and we'll return. That's all," whispered Hermione.

Harry shook his head in disagreement but replied, "Okay, let's do it."

Hermione flung herself at Harry and hugged him and whispered, "Thank you" in his ear.

"What's up guys?" asked John diverted by the hug between Harry and Hermione. But before they could answer, they all heard the annoying voice of Draco Malfoy approaching them.

"Potter and the Mudblood, what a surprise?" smirked Draco. Hermione's face went red with embarrassment

"Piss off, Malfoy," snapped Ron. John remained silent this time.

"Leave us alone, Malfoy," snapped Harry a moment later.

"You don't have anything to say this time?" taunted Draco looking at John.

"I didn't have to," replied John smiling and the golden trio gave a chuckle.

"I always wondered why you were so pompous. But now that I know your secret, it all makes sense," sniggered Draco. Harry and Hermione glanced at each other alarmed. John however remained calm.

"What secret?" asked John.

"Even Longbottom there would say whatever he wants if his aunt was a teacher in the school," replied Draco. The truth hit John like a brick.

"What are you talking about?" snapped Ron.

"I'm surprised you didn't know, Weasley. I thought he'd have told you all. Professor Jane is John's aunt. That's why he's always talkative. He knows that he can get away with it," replied Draco.

Ron glanced at John and immediately realised that it was the truth. Harry and Hermione looked at John shocked.

"You would know all about that, wouldn't you Draco? You have to be one to know one," snapped John and walked away. The smile on Draco's face wiped away instantly and he walked away.

"Professor Jane is John's aunt? Malfoy has gone mental," sighed Ron. He glanced at Harry and Hermione hoping he'd get a response, but he didn't. "He wasn't lying, was he?" he asked a moment later. Harry and Hermione remained silent, not knowing what to say.

"He wasn't lying," said Hermione after a few seconds.

"You guys knew this?" asked Ron, a little hurt.

"John told me on the train," replied Hermione.

"Why didn't you all tell me?" asked Ron.

"He wanted to keep it a secret," replied Hermione.

"I don't know what he was so afraid of anyway. This has happened a lot of times in the past. There have been so many teachers who have had some relation studying in school," remarked Ron. The silence that filled the void remained. After a few minutes, Ron walked away talking to Seamus and Neville.

"How did Malfoy know?" asked Harry.

"Don't ask me," replied Hermione.

"Do you think he knows about the other thing?" he asked. But the silence told them both that they were afraid of the same thing.

John had joined Filch in the trophy room to help him clean the trophies. He had immediately buried himself in the work. Even though he was physically present in that room, he was mentally absent.

All he could think was, "How did Malfoy find out about him and Jane?"

The only logical reason he could think of was that Draco found out from his father. And how Lucius came to know was an entirely different question that was bugging John. He had spent close to a couple of hours when his thoughts were interrupted by Filch.

Filch didn't say anything but kept muttering something to himself.

"What happened Mr Filch?" asked John.

"Nobody here cares about Mr Filch or his cat. It's been so long since Mrs Norris was petrified. Yet no one here is bothered," said Filch.

"I'm sorry," said John.

"What for?" retorted Filch.

"You hate us all, don't you? I know what it feels like," said John.

"What are you talking about kid?" asked Filch.

"I'm sorry that you're a squib," said John and started polishing the trophies again. Filch remained silent for a few minutes. He didn't know what to say.

"How could you possibly know? You're studying here, aren't you?" said Filch.

John didn't respond and continued with his cleaning duty. When he was finally done an hour later, he got up from the floor and made his way to Filch's office, where Filch had left for earlier. That's when his eye caught the list of Head Boys and Girls Hogwarts had historically. As he scanned the names, he came across Lily Evans and James Potter. He gave a smile reading their names and walked out.

When John went to Filch's office, he wasn't there. Annoyed at his absence, he left the office. But just as he turned back, a peculiar name on a diary caught his attention.

"T M Riddle," it said on the diary's cover. John grabbed that diary from Filch's desk and left before anyone came back.

The following evening, John decided to examine the diary that he found at Filch's office. He carefully opened the diary, and to his surprise, there was nothing written on any of the pages. But before he could go further into his investigation, he saw Harry come running towards him, accompanied by Ron.

"John... my invisibility cloak... it's gone," said Harry.

"Oh..." replied John absent-mindedly. Hermione came walking towards the boys.

"What happened, Harry?" she asked.

"My cloak is gone. I don't know where or who took it. I decided to take the cloak out from my trunk. So that I didn't have to search for it at night. I have searched it thoroughly, twice... and I can't find my cloak," replied Harry desperately.

"What?" asked John surprised. "Your cloak's gone? Are you sure you didn't misplace it?" he added.

"No... I haven't taken it out ever since I used it last year. I even remember seeing my cloak at the start of the year. But after that, I don't remember seeing it," replied Harry.

"Maybe you kept it in your house when you went back during Christmas?" asked Hermione hopefully.

"No, Hermione! I didn't do any of that," replied Harry.

"Someone knew about Harry's invisibility cloak and stole it when he was away," said Ron faintly. "The question is, how did someone get into our common room?" he added.

"Unless it was taken by someone from our house. They'd know the password," replied Hermione.

"Hermione... what if the person behind the attacks is using Harry's cloak? Maybe that's why he hasn't been caught," replied Ron in a low voice so that no one else could hear him.

"Ron... that'd mean..." replied Hermione but didn't finish the sentence.

"That'd mean the heir of Slytherin could be someone from Gryffindor," replied Harry.

Meanwhile, outside the Hogwarts castle, many a mile away, Lucius Malfoy was having a conversation with a Ministry official.

"Mrs Davies, that is not possible," said Lucius Malfoy.

"Mr Malfoy... I know about your possessions. But I'm sure a respectable member of the magical society like you wouldn't want everyone to find out about them, would you?" remarked Emily.

"Are you threatening me?" snapped Lucius.

"Threatening is such an ugly word. I'll proceed with the investigation regardless of your help. With your help, it'll progress quickly. And after all, this is an investigation into the deaths of Mr Crabbe, Mr Goyle and 2 other members who were once death-eaters. Wouldn't you want justice for them and their families," replied Emily.

Lucius remained silent for a few moments. He finally replied, "I'll help you"

So, did you like this chapter?

The beginning of this chapter, or should I say, the first 1/3rd of this chapter is something that quite a lot of you may have had a tough time understanding. I love Chess and I took this chapter's opportunity to create a proper scene involving the game.

I apologise to all those who couldn't make head or tail of what was going on. And if you liked what you read, do share your thoughts.

PS - Chapter 31 is on the way. Monday is probably when I'll publish it... Bye!