A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews and thanks to Sue for beta reading :)

Hermione and Draco are going back to school and Hermione

„So, what did we miss over the weekend?" Draco asked his godfather as soon as they stepped out of the fireplace in his office.

"Chaos and disarray, as expected."

"Very informative, thank you Severus."

Snape sighed heavily and put aside the book. "McGonagall is completely shocked about what Dumbledore did, as is most of the staff, but she is trying to deal with the fallout of Friday's event. I think she would love to get rid of Moody, but she has so much on her plate right now that looking for a new teacher when school has already started is a little too much to ask. She will, however, at least this once continue the lovely little tradition of getting rid of a Defence teacher after a year and find a new one for next year. She also made it very clear to everyone that no one is at fault for their parentage and any attack against you due to your father will have serious consequences. However, try not to sing his praise too loudly for now. The reaction of your peers varies from being shocked about the Unbreakable Vow, being outraged about going to school with the daughter of Voldemort and some people are just going on with their lives. I hate to admit it, but I witnessed Potter and Weasley having a bright moment when they defended you in against some of their fellow Gryffindors."

"Harry and Ron are alright." Hermione's little interruption was skilfully ignored.

"Longbottom may not be so friendly towards you anymore, though. Not so much because of Tom, but because of Cyrelia. Remember, he thinks she was part of the group who tortured his parents."

Hermione was slightly ashamed for not having thought of that. When she had decided to come clear about her parentage, she had known that many people would judge her for her father, but her mother was relatively unknown. Not to Neville, though, of course not.

"Anyway, Curse-Breakers are currently trying to get into the headmaster office because after picking up his bloody Phoenix under the watchful eyes of two Ministry officials, Dumbledore left his office and no one has been able to open it since. The window is also sealed."

"What?" Hermione frowned. "How is that possible?"

"Probably some safety precaution he has set in place years before. I'm sure he was hiding something in there and while he can't get in anymore to retrieve it, no one else can either. Right now, he's nowhere to be found and just sent a written statement that he has no idea what's going on with the office and it was not his doing."

"Isn't the Sorting Hat in there, too?"

"Yes, Draco, obviously." He thought for a moment. "I think that's pretty much it. The new password to my office is Cruciatus." Hermione and Draco grinned at each other. "As Lucius probably informed you, you will be allowed to floo to Malfoy Manor either on Friday after classes or on Saturday morning. You have to be back on Sunday before curfew. I'm not sitting around waiting for you to come to use my floo."

"Thank you, Sir."

They turned to the door, but then Snape spoke once more.

"I almost forgot. Miss Riddle, you will be required to meet the other champions and headmasters in the room by the staff table after dinner tomorrow. You will then receive the instructions that should have been given to you all on Friday."

"Alright. Thank you, Sir. Has Madame Maxime calmed down?

"Igor wanted to talk to her. You'll have to ask him. He's housing on the ship with his students. I'm sure you're always welcome to pay a visit."

With that he gave them a clear dismissal by returning to his reading.

"He's in a great mood," Hermione commented after the office door was safely closed behind them.

"Yeah, it was probably a pretty stressful weekend here."

Hermione looked at her watch. Still one and a half hours before curfew and she really had to know! "I need to go up to the first floor and check something out. I'll meet you in the common room."

"Check what out?"

"I don't know." She started walking and of course Draco followed.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Remember when your grandfather mentioned … his friend's little pet at school?"

"Yes, now that you mention it."

"I asked him about it and he told me how to access some kind of tunnel, but also said I should go alone for the first time. The tunnel can be accessed through the girls' bathroom on the first floor, you can wait in front of the door, if you prefer that to going to the common room."

"Ok, now I really want to know."

She grinned. "Me too."

They met a few students on their way, but although everyone looked at her, no one said anything.

She left Draco in front of the bathroom and went in. A group of older Ravenclaw girls were there and as she went into one of the stalls to wait for them to leave, she heard them whisper something that included the phrase 'You-Know-Who'. When she heard the door open and close, she left the stall and stepped in front of the wash basin. "Open."

It moved aside and gave way to a tunnel. Before anyone else could come in, she entered and the entrance closed behind her. She didn't need her wand to lighten her way, as the chamber she stepped into was dimly lit by a greenish glow. Snakes decorated the walls and the pillars that supported the ceiling were entwined with more carved snakes. Before she started descending the stairs in front of her, she opened her bag and Noodles slithered out.

"I wonder where it goes," she said to her companion as she slowly made her way far down below the school. She wasn't afraid. It was probably something potentially dangerous or her father would not have told her not to bring her friends the first time, but he would also not have sent her here without a proper warning, if it was dangerous to her.

At the bottom of the stairs there was another chamber, huge unlike the small one at the top of the stairs. At the far end was a cave next to which stood a statue of Salazar Slytherin on each side. Other than the stairs and the rest of the chamber the cave wasn't lit, but Hermione could have sworn she could see something move in there and then a snake slithered out. Not a normal snake. Its body was as thick as a tree trunk and when it was fully out of the cave, Hermione guessed that it had to be at least ten to twelve metres long, although it was hard to tell. Anyway, it was safe to say that it was huge. The scales where of a rich green, the head was large and its form reminded Hermione of an anaconda. Its eyes were golden.

That had to be a Basilisk! Also called the King of Serpents, an extremely rare Magical Creature, especially since its breeding was strictly prohibited in all of Europe and it did not occur in nature.

Noodles' coils tightened around her throat.

"Hey, I need to breathe! Relax."

"Sorry," Noodles whispered, let go only a little, but his eyes never left the Basilisk.

As it heard her speak Parsel, the creature moved forward in a quick and smooth motion and its head came to a halt next to her, golden eye with its slit pupil looking at her. The head was almost as big as Hermione's whole body.

Her breath caught in her throat. The eyes of a Basilisk could kill, but she didn't die. The long tongue flickered out of its mouth, tasting the air.

"You are a descendant of Salazar." It wasn't a question.

She nodded. "I am. My name is Hermione. My father sent me. I think you know him. Tom Riddle."

"Yes, Tom used to visit me often," the Basilisk, a female, confirmed. "No one came after him. Salazar's descendants used to come all the time, at least one in each generation, but Tom was the last. It's nice to meet you, Hermione. My name is Ferelith."

"It's nice to meet you, too, Ferelith. Do you live here?"

"It's the Chamber of Secrets. Only those of Salazar's blood can open it. Yes, I live here, and should the school ever be threatened, I will protect it, as I promised Salazar long ago. Until then I will remain hidden. That is why I am here."

When the Basilisk turned her head, Hermione put a gentle hand on her snout. "You are a Basilisk, aren't you? Shouldn't it kill me to look into your eyes?"

"No, my eyes only bring death, if I want them to. Don't worry, I would never harm Salazar's family."

"And if I brought my friends with me?"

"Your friends have nothing to fear from me either."

When Hermione came back up, it was ten minutes before curfew and she didn't expect Draco to still wait in front of the bathroom door, but he did.

"What took you so long?" She wasn't sure whether he was miffed because he had waited so long – not that she had asked him to - or because he'd been worried. "I looked in 20 minutes ago and you weren't there and there was no tunnel and a Gryffindor girl caught me and called me a pervert."

She giggled. "Not here, come on! Boys' dorm, I can't wait to tell you and the others!"

They entered the Slytherin common room just before curfew and were greeted by their friends who had only received some basic information from their house teacher and couldn't wait to learn more.

However, they didn't directly make it to the boys' dormitory. A few people addressed Hermione on her change of name, her parentage and the Tournament. It wasn't overly surprising that there was no enmity over the fact that her father was Tom Riddle. Many of her housemates' parents were probably Death Eaters and the parents of some of the others had at least known what had really been going on during the war. Besides, with the exception of Marcus Flint, who had graduated the year before, and to a much lesser degree Millicent, who was probably in the dorm because Hermione couldn't see her anywhere, she had never had any problems here. That didn't seem to have changed, the questions were curious or concerned when it came to the Tournament, not malicious.

She was still glad when they could finally take their leave and close the dorm room behind them.

"What did Lucius and Tom say? Is there a way out of the Tournament for you?" Vincent asked with a worried look on his face.

"No, I'll have to participate. But Draco and I will spend the weekends at Malfoy Manor and I'll get extra training. And there will probably be some more from Snape and Karkaroff."

"Sounds like a busy schedule." Pansy didn't sound exactly envious. Hermione didn't mind, though. Training with her father and Lucius for the year was something she was looking forward to a lot. She would certainly learn more from them than what she learned in Defence Against the Dark Arts, even if Moody was, objectively speaking not the worst teacher they had ever had. He certainly knew what he was talking about, she just didn't like him. And she could only profit from additional lessons with Snape and Karkaroff. Considering Durmstrang was teaching the Dark Arts, she was curious to see how open Karkaroff would be to teach her some of that, even if she wouldn't be able to use it for the tasks.

"What was in the girls' bathroom?" Draco changed the topic to a much more recent event and Hermione grinned excitedly.

"The girls' bathroom?" Daphne asked, clearly puzzled.

"Yeah, Tom said something to her, which she immediately had to check out when we got back and I waited in front of the girls' bathroom on the first floor for an hour or so."

"No one asked you to. You could have waited here."

"I wasn't going to let you roam the school alone when we don't even know yet how people will react to you now, Miss Riddle."

Oh, so he had been worried. Her voice got a bit softer. "Thank you, Draco, but I can take care of myself."

"I'm not saying you can't. But there will probably be some nasty reactions. So, what was in the bathroom?"

She grinned. "Has any of you heard anything about the Chamber of Secrets?"

"The chamber under the castle that Salazar Slytherin supposedly built to hide his monster?" Theo looked at her sceptically.

Hermione snorted. "I guess that's it. Father told me to go to the bathroom on the first floor and say 'Open' in Parsel in front of one of the sinks. He also told me to go alone the first time, which is why Draco couldn't come in. When I did that, it opened up and there are stairs which go pretty deep under the castle, deeper than the dungeons. And it ends in the Chamber of Secrets." Her grin grew broader. "And Slytherins supposed monster is a Basilisk."

Everyone stared at her. "You're kidding," Blaise finally said.

"No! I swear she's there! And she's gorgeous!"

"Enormous fits her better," Noodles, whose head was hanging out of her bag, commented.

Hermione stroked over his head."Noodles was a bit scared at first."

"I wasn't scared! Just cautious. That would do you some good, too."

"Don't you die when you look a Basilisk in the eyes?" Greg asked.

"Only if the Basilisk wants you to. I looked into her eyes and was perfectly fine. I asked her, if I could bring you and she said yes." She grinned at Draco. "But father said that Lucius shouldn't find out because he may throw him out."

Draco laughed. "He may just do that."

The next morning when they went to the Great Hall for breakfast, everyone's eyes was, as expected, on Hermione.

She did her best to completely ignore it and just continued chatting with her friends.

"Hey, Riddle, since you were so eager to take your daddy's name, I guess you're proud of him? What do you like best? The murdering madman part or the looks?"

She turned to see a sixth or seventh year Hufflepuff whose friends laughed as if he'd just said the funniest thing they ever heard.

Pansy next to her snorted. "I can get on board with the looks."

Hermione couldn't help but laugh and some of her other friends joined in.

"So you are into noseless men, Parkinson? Are you going to lose your nose at some point, too, Riddle?"

She gave him the sweetest smile she could must. "Wait and see. I'm sure it would be highly entertaining for you, but I fear you may be disappointed."

She turned back around and they continued their way towards the Great Hall, but the guy wasn't done. "Are you already into the dark magic stuff, Riddle?"

At this, Draco turned around. "Listen, you brat, …"

"15 points from Hufflepuff. And you better stop talking now, Mr Parker, or next it will be 50 and detention."

Everyone turned to the staircase where the headmistress descended, together with Professor Flitwick.

The group of Hufflepuffs, with an angry look towards Hermione, because obviously it was her fault that they had lost points, finally went on their way.

"Miss Riddle, do you have a moment before breakfast, please?"

"Of course, Headmistress." She turned to her friends. "I'll be right there."

Without protest, they went towards the Great Halll and Hermione joined McGonagall and Flitwick in an empty classroom.

"First of all, please come to me or your house teacher, if there is any serious trouble. Professor Snape dedicated his weekend to stalking the castle and taking points from everyone who was talking about you in a way he deemed offensive. You may find that Slytherin is quite far ahead of the other houses now." Other than Dumbledore she did not seem resentful about that, and even gave her a small smile. Then she grew serious. "Regarding the Tournament, I fear you will have to go through with it like the other champions, but Lord Malfoy was one of the most magically skilled students I ever taught and Lady Malfoy is not far behind, so I hope that with their help you can get through this unharmed."

"I believe I can, Headmistress. Thank you for allowing me to go home over the weekends for training."

"Of course. It's the least I can do after what Albus …" She took a deep breath and Hermione felt sorry for her. She had believed Dumbledore a friend. "The way he talked after you were gone … I think he did put your name into the Goblet. I don't know how it would have gotten in there otherwise. The Goblet was obviously manipulated to choose you in addition to the other Hogwarts champion. Even if you had managed to get across the Age Line and put it there yourself, there is absolutely no way you could have done that."

Hermione had not been wrong about her teacher, she was a smart woman. No one had thought to consider that little part. "I assure you, I had no intention of putting my name in there."

"I believe you. And I believe when Albus found out or at least believed to know who your father was, he was blinded by that." She looked at her for a moment. "I should have known, too. You look a bit like him and you have his talent."

"You knew him?"

"Knew him would be too much to say. He was two years above me at Hogwarts, everyone knew who he was." She gave a somewhat sad smile. "All the girls had a crush on him, as you would say today. But what you said about Dumbledore framing him and your mother as criminals … Miss Riddle, I understand that this is something you want to believe and maybe it is even something that your guardians told you. I'm not saying they're trying to manipulate you. When I talked to Lord Malfoy on Friday, I had the impression that he sincerely cares about you and your safety. But sometimes it is better to deal with the truth than a pretty lie. There was a war and many people died and it was your father who started it."

Hermione couldn't even be angry. That was what most people believed.

"That doesn't have anything to do with you; you weren't even born then. And the wrong choices your parents made do not define you."

She took a deep breath and looked at both of her teachers. She kept her voice respectful and polite as she spoke. "I appreciate you saying that, Headmistress, and I assure you, I certainly have no intention of becoming a crazy mass murderer. However, maybe you could consider rethinking what you think you know about the war. If we only take recent events into consideration, we know that Dumbledore is a man who is willing to throw a 14-year-old into a competition that will, in his mind, likely kill her, just because he thought he knew who her father was. He didn't even have a way of knowing for sure. What else is that man capable of? And to pick up what Mr Parker so eloquently brought up: Do you think the man every girl had a crush on at school became noseless, hairless and monster-like because of what? The use of the Dark Arts? Grindelwald also used the Dark Arts extensively, but from what I saw – in photos, not drawings – he was still pretty good-looking when he was thrown into Azkaban."

"Father?"

It took a moment and Hermione already thought that he may be busy, but then he appeared in the mirror. His hair looked somewhat ruffled. Maybe he had been training with Lucius or something, he usually looked so impeccable.

"Hello Hermione. Anything new?"

"Yes, the champions were informed today that the First Task will take place on 24 November. The only information we got is that we will be allowed to take our wands, but nothing else. We'll receive information about the Second Task when the first is over."

"That's precious little. But at least we will have some more time for training."

"Yes. Also, the interviews will take place in two days." That was good, because she would be 15 in a few days and she would be able to still play the I'm-still-14-card while being interviewed.

"Good. Did you have any trouble with your new name?"

"Nothing big. A few stupid jokes about whether I'd lose my nose soon." They both had to laugh at that. "Nothing I can't handle. And there has been no trouble at all in Slytherin house. Even Millicent is now more polite." She really didn't care about that. The fact that her dorm mate saw her differently now only because she knew she wasn't Muggle-born didn't sit right with her. "The teachers are taking high amounts of points every time they hear something. For now, that still makes an impression." She smiled. "And I talked to the headmistress this morning. She's smarter than most, really. She gets that Dumbledore would have been the only one who could have put my name into the Goblet and I think I managed to give her a little more to think about."

She thought she heard a muffled laugh coming from next to her father and she could have sworn he gave wry side glance.

Could Draco have been right? And if so, how did she feel about that? She knew that her father and her mother had only been friends … well, with some benefits, obviously, and he never lost a bad word about her. When he did speak about her, it was always with respect and maybe even fondness. He had known Abraxas Malfoy long before her mother had even been born and … well, if they still had feelings for each other, even if it was just the occasional satisfaction of natural urges, she found she didn't mind at all.

"Trying to manipulate people, Hermione?" He smirked at her.

"Professor McGonagall is an influential woman and an Order of the Phoenix member. If she starts doubting Dumbledore …"

"That could be a great asset."

"Exactly."

"Some people are of the opinion that I should give you more credit instead of trying to keep you out of … the whole situation as much as I can."

That was certainly interesting. She didn't belief he was talking about Lucius and Narcissa or Cassius and Maeve. "Maybe you should listen to … some people?" She suggested with a small smile. "I'm not stupid, I promise I won't be reckless, but I believe we should all be working together and if I can make a difference, why not?"

He chuckled. "Yes, why not? Alright, I know you're far from stupid and I trust you to make the right decisions. But I want you to keep me informed about everything that is going on. No half-truths, no lies. I promise to be honest with you in return."

She smiled brightly at that. "I promise."

"Good."

"I won't disappoint you. Oh, and by the way, Ferelith says hi." She grinned. "Thank you for bringing that up, Abraxas. I need to get to the dorm, it's almost curfew. Goodnight!"

She quickly closed the mirror, let Noodles slither back into the bag and left the Room of Requirement with a small smile on her face.

~tbc~