Lena disregarded the stares and whispers behind her back, but she drew the line at stepping in her path when all she wanted was to get breakfast. Staring blankly at the older Hufflepuff boy in her way, she licked her lips slightly. "Please move."

"You're not going to sink this school to madness and terror, Farland! If you dare to touch any of the students-"

"If you are already blaming me for this based on absolutely no proof then this school has already sunk to madness. Now, if you would step out of my way, I would like to get my breakfast without a fight."

The boy sneered, getting closer to her, his taller figure looming over her. "Where do you get off on this Farland? Seeing everyone else so distraught while you don't even have a hair out of place?"

She gave him a thin smile. "Glad you like my hair this morning. Daphne Greengrass did it for me." Then with a small put-out sigh when the boy just glowered, she slipped around him. "Guess I'll go around you then, as I'm about out of patience."

A hand grabbed her wrist, the place where his skin touched her feeling like itchy wool being wrapped too tight around her, and she had her wand to his throat in an instant.

His frame stilled.

"Do not. Touch me. Ever again." As soon as the boy released her she was stalking away from him into the Great Hall, using every step to the Slytherin table to reforge her ice-cold demeanor and iron grip on her emotions.

Thankfully, a mug of hot chocolate was waiting for her when she sat down.

God bless house-elves.

"Woke up on the wrong side of the armchair? Or is it the headache?" Theo, Blaise, Marcus, and Daphne sat down around her, eyes all watching her closely. Marcus smiled thinly. "Though you did put that fool in his place, I think the school might be even more terrified of you."

"I should just skip this year." Her voice was a low mutter.

Theo made a noise as if personally offended. "No! You can't let this- this nonsense drive you from Hogwarts!"

"And you did promise to help us with exams." Daphne sniffed. "You can't leave now or Theo would fail Defence." Theo and the girl glared at each other.

Blaise nodded. "Though if you do... Mother has already proposed the idea of just adopting you."

Lena snorted, giving into the idea of staying at the school and just riding this wave of mayhem out, as it was still a hundred times better than St. Judes.

Though she found herself regretting it when during Transfiguration, one of the Gryffindors purposefully asked about the Chamber of Secrets while the others glared at where she was trying to read.

McGonagall seemed to realize what was going on but just cleared her throat. "You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and... Salazar Slytherin." The woman's distaste for the founder of the house of snakes was obvious and it made Lena's hands clench on the table. "Now, three of the founders coexisted quite harmoniously. One did not."

"Three guesses who." The youngest male Weasley muttered sarcastically, glancing at her with narrowed eyes.

She put down her book, her concentration well and ruined, and just resigned herself to listening to the Professor speak.

"Salazar Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. In other words, Purebloods."

Lena snorted softly. "Yes, because it was also during the time when Muggles were burning wizards and witches at the stake and it was dangerous to tell anyone- much less those born to muggles- that there were more magic users and exactly where to find them!"

McGonagall pursed her lips. "Well… that was the time, but to agree with that mentality is to condemn all those who are not born to magical families to death."

"The muggles were burning anyone that was at all remotely 'strange'." Lena shook her head. "Should the people already living in fear decide to put themselves and their families at risk for a few magical children that were basically born into their death?"

"Miss Farland!" The woman frowned deeply at her. "Enough!"

Clenching her jaw, she turned her head to look out the window next to her, trying to control her temper by taking Blaise's hand and squeezing it tightly.

The Professor seemed to do much the same thing with the edge of her desk, before continuing. "As the story goes- Unable to sway the others, Slytherin decided to leave the school. Now according to legend, he had built a hidden chamber in this castle known as the Chamber of Secrets, though shortly before departing, he sealed it until that time when his 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."

Lena could feel the eyes on her, one of the girls chiming in with a soft, "Muggle-borns."

"Well, naturally, the school has been searched many times... No such chamber has been found." But McGonagall's voice was tight as if she too held the same type of disdain and fear for the chamber as Dumbledore did.

"Professor?" It was Theo who spoke up in a carefully neutral tone, but when she looked at him, his eyes were curious. "What exactly does legend tell us lies within the Chamber?"

The woman leaned back against her desk, looking at the boy over her glasses. "The Chamber is said to be home to something that only the Heir of Slytherin can control. It is said to be the home… of a monster."

Huffing softly under her breath, she turned back to the window.

Maybe then… she would fit right in with such a creature.

Having skipped the Quidditch game, as she was not about to lose her temper over a silly game on brooms when she'd been keeping her cool fairly well so far, she looked up from a Runes essay with a grin when the Quidditch team came barrelling in with loud exuberant recounts of what she'd missed.

After a full-length rendition of the way that Malfoy had dove into the depths of the pitch to catch the snitch while out-flying Diggory (as Potter was, for some reason, not playing this season) and how great the beaters were at messing up the Hufflepuff chasers, she smiled and stood. "It sounds like a wonderful game. I will go tomorrow to see if the Hufflepuffs will accept my apologies for not being there, but as for now I think we should celebrate and think of this as a win for the mighty house of Slytherin!"

The room cheered, kids moving to shed their cloaks and sitting around the room comfortably.

"Go shower." She eyes the windswept and sweaty Quidditch team with a small grin. "The party will still be here when you come back."

"It better be!" Marcus grinned, bounding for the stairs.

She chuckled, meeting Theo, Blaise, and Daphne with fond half-smiles as they took chairs around the fire. Sitting down, she wrote out a small note and when it disappeared, watched plates of food and mugs of hot chocolate and pumpkin juice appear around the room.

"Miss Farland."

Looking to the entrance to the Common Room where Snape stood beside a man she knew was Draco's father, both of their faces careful masks, she tilted her head. "Professor. Unusual to see you in the Common Room at this time. Usually, you are taunting some poor teacher about the fact our team won."

The man's lips pulled up just the tiniest bit. "Yes, well I would rather not be eaten by Pomona's rarer plants, as well as my old friend Lucius Malfoy happened to be here for the game and wanted to see what has changed with his former house."

"Ah… I see." Lena could tell a few of the students were hiding the muggle books around the room, standing up and taking the center of attention to give them more cover. "If you would like to sit or have something to eat with us, you may."

Snape's eyes caught some of the movement, but Mr. Malfoy seemed to be watching her closely instead, holding out a pale hand. "My son talks highly of you, Miss Farland."

"As he does of you, Mr. Malfoy." She didn't offer up her name like was normal courtesy but did take his slightly cold hand in her smaller and warmer one, giving a small quizzical smile. "Do you really keep albino peacocks on the grounds of your Manor?"

He was like ice against her skin, a cold chill creeping through her veins.

She knew Blaise was grinning, as he had been the one to tell her about that.

Mr. Malfoy's lips pulled into a strained smile. "We do, as it is a tradition in my family… I seem to be at a disadvantage here," the man's gaze drifted to where she assumed Draco had just come back in, "as you seem to know more about me than I do you."

"Sometimes a bit of a challenge is good for building character." Patting his hand and noticing Snape try to smother a smile, she turned to greet the Quidditch team once more, gesturing to the food and drink. "Another win for the House of Slytherin! Celebrate! Eat! Drink! For today, you are all princes and princesses!"

The team dispersing to their friends, she padded back to her chair, snorting softly when Blaise moved to perch on the armrest to her side legs like some guardian angel. Draco moved their way, silently asking to take a seat next to Theo and at her nod, sat down. "You should have been there Lena. It was a brilliant game and the look on Diggory's face when I cut him off to steal the snitch was priceless! And the brooms were like a dream! I'd let you borrow mine this weekend if you wanted to-"

"Draco." Lucius moved to hover at his son's shoulder, the boy stilling. "I think that maybe you should think about who are the best options to share your broom with… right?"

She ignored the man, nodding to the boy as if Malfoy Sr. hadn't spoken at all. "I would probably just give your broom some curse or something with my bad flying and the team needs its seeker to have an un-cursed broom. Plus, seeing you fly the tryouts and do all those fancy moves was enough excitement just watching, though I am sorry that I was not there today."

The man peered at his son. "You had to try out?"

"It's house rules, Mr. Malfoy. Surely as a Slytherin, you know that."

"And what house is this?" The man sneered at her deeply, stepping forward to stand over her chair, the house fell silent around them and she curled her hand around Blaise's ankle to stop him from doing anything rash.

"Maybe you're growing old and have a hard time hearing. This is the House of Slytherin."

Lucius Malfoy snorted. "Slytherin? I think not. Slytherins are not so kind or open as you children are foolishly being! In my day there were no muggle-borns or blood traitors - no, we were learning to survive by being ruthless to get what we wanted! We would have hexed even our so-called 'friends' for the best grade or a few galleons! This is no House of Slytherin ."

Staring at the man, she stood slowly, looking up at him with a blank and slightly pitying expression. "Then I have nothing to offer you but pity for your childhood and disgust for what you fools mistook the house of Slytherin to be. Cunning does not have to mean evil. Ambitious does not have to equate to stabbing someone else in the back, just as resourceful is not always burning someone else's bridge to cross your own. And intelligence should never be based in fear and neither should childhood... Even Salazar Slytherin knew that, as he had to raise his son a single parent after his wife died and would never have encouraged a child to be harmed or afraid."

"You're spouting nonsense!"

Lena just tilted her head. "Am I? Or are you just too blind to understand my truth?" Then with a shrug, she lifted her hand and clenched it tight, smiling all too toothily. "It does not matter either way. You are not allowed in this room anymore, as you are upsetting my snakes. Leave."

The man, she could tell, went to lift his cane… but the muscles in his arm only twitched slightly.

Looking at her, his body twitching as he tried to move, the man gaped. "What- what are you- You can't-"

"Oh. But I just did." Then with a smile, she took a hold of the strings of her magic controlling the man with her other hand, pulling her right hand towards her. The man's right leg lifted, jerking forward. Ignoring his blabbering of nonsense, she hummed 'Ring Around the Rosie' to herself as she made the man's body turn and walk like some terrifying living mannequin out of the common room. When the wall closed, still holding the metaphorical 'reigns', she looked to Marcus. "Change the password, won't you?"

Slowly, the boy nodded. "Uh- yeah. Sure." He held up his wand to his Prefect badge. "The new Slytherin Common Room password is 'Wisteria'."

Lena let go of her magic, smirking briefly when she heard a thump outside the door. Sitting, she looked at Draco. "Sorry about that. He was annoying me."

"Miss Farland. What..." Snape stood still, watching her as if she was some sort of being of olde come to wreak destruction and death on everything she could see as if she was the most horrible thing he'd ever laid eyes on at that moment. Then a blank mask slammed down across his emotions. "Have you done such a thing before?"

Moving slowly forward, the man twitched as if he wanted to step away from her but his pride wouldn't let himself. "What would you say should I answer that? That I am cruel? Because Malfoy reached for his wand and I didn't do anything but remove him from this space. Maybe that I am horrible? But would you not be too if someone was threatening your family in your own home? Or… would you tell the Headmaster that I was an abnormality? A monster, for lack of more horrifying and dangerous words..." Stopping at his side, their shoulders aligned with each other, each facing a different direction, she didn't look up at him and instead stared straight ahead. "Because don't you know? Dumbledore suspected exactly what beast he was trying to tame when he gave me that bracelet. It's too bad he took it away…"

Walking away, she wondered why the feeling of disappointment lingered in her chest.

:Kill! Blood! Kill!... KILL!:

"Yeah… no." Ignoring the voice, she went to change into pajamas, hoping when she went back that Snape was gone.

She'd rather not deal with a stupid snake nor a Basilisk at the moment.

It didn't matter if she wasn't even awake when Collin Creevy was petrified and had her whole house as an Alibi, she was still suspect #1 among the students.

Not even bothering to go to the classes she had with the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, as the lions hated her for possibly petrifying one of theirs and the badgers had outright sided with the lions (she suspected they were salty about losing to Slytherin in Quidditch), she found herself spending more than a bit of time in the same classroom that last year had been host to the mirror and stone.

Sometimes the older students joined her, teaching her the more simple cleaning spells and color-changing charms they knew in trade for help with things like summoning animals or asking her to read one of her books.

Lena, however, made use of her time to plan. Having Theo get her multiple mandrake leaves during Herbology to store in the potions storage in the trunk, she ventured into the Forbidden Forest to collect dew unseen by the sun and unbothered by footsteps as well as a chrysalis of a death's-head hawk moth. She practiced her Occlumency religiously, testing her legilimency on whatever rats or insects dared to venture into her space.

Daphne leaving with a pout, as she'd tried to get Lena to go to some ridiculous 'dueling' event led by Lockhart, a ghost drifted through the wall to smirk at her. "Snakeling."

"Baron. Do you have time for me to pick your memories of some questions?"

The ghost nodded and drifted closer, eyes curious. "And what is it you wish to know?"

"Fifty years ago." Watching the spirit closely, she tilted her head. "Who was the person that opened the Chamber of Secrets... and why do they seem to scare both Dumbledore and McGonagall?"

"Ah... I don't remember the boy's name, but I can tell you this: It is not so much the person scares them, but the Chamber itself." The ghost chuckled softly. "The last time the Chamber was opened by an heir, a girl was killed. Dumbledore is worried about his students and McGonagall… well, she was a student when it was last terrorizing this school."

Lena nodded slowly. Then, of course, the woman would be feeling paranoid right about now. "So neither of them know about the Basilisk?"

A wide smile slid across his face slowly and suddenly the Baron's cold laughter rang out across the stone walls, but it seemed more surprised than anything. Calming down from his surprise, he studied her with a grin. "So you have found the nature of the beast already… does this mean you seek it out? And what could a mere snakeling like you do to a beast like that?"

"Can anyone read your mind?" When he shook his head, she grinned toothily and slipped into the tongue of the snakes. :What do you think of me now, Baron? I am not what you thought, am I?:

Staring at her with wide dark eyes, the ghost shook his head. "You are full of surprises, snakeling… and hiding secrets."

She just smiled simply. "Secrets are a girl's best friend, are they not?"

The Baron's chilling laughter followed him as he drifted through the wall, away from her space.

"Another sleepless night?"

Smiling up at Ginny, Lena nodded. "Hot chocolate like usual?"

The girl nodded. "you didn't answer my question."

"Can I not deflect without catching your keen gaze? You are turning out to be more Slytherin than I thought, Miss Ginny." When the girl stared at her pointedly, she closed her book on Ancient Runes and sighed. "I'm not exactly sure why I stay, to be honest. I told myself that I would decide on whether to stay with the magical world when I learned everything I could… but now I am thinking that I should know better, as Jack's first lesson to me as a girl was to know when to leave a situation I can't fix. I don't know that the wizarding world will ever accept me."

The girl's smile was almost understanding. "But don't you always talk about change? Why don't you just make it accept you? Or is it more than that? Are you able to let anyone see you as acceptable because you cannot see yourself that way?"

Lena took a long drink of her hot chocolate, smiling at the girl in a way that was fonder than she would ever acknowledge. "Why is it when you can't sleep, we end up talking about me?"

"Because you aren't sleeping either."

Snorting and standing up, she brushed a strand of the girl's hair behind her ear in a gesture of affection that she blamed on the comfortable companionship they'd made over countless late nights of conversation. "Hold down the fort for me then, redhead. I might just prove you wrong yet."

Smirking when the girl blew a kiss to her, she took her book and made for her room.

Dumbledore stared at her and her at him, neither speaking and waiting for the other to say something. Finally, the old man sat back in his chair with a sigh. "Two more have been petrified. The same boy you threatened outside the Great Hall just weeks ago and the ghost of Gryffindor, whose house you are rumored to dislike."

"Circumstantial. Correlation doesn't equal causation."

"But, Miss Farland, it does garner suspicion." The man looked over his glasses at her. "Kids get scared, and when that happens is they go to their parents… Quite a few parents have owled asking why I have not just expelled you."

Lena raised an eyebrow. "And? Why haven't you?"

The man blinked. "Because I think you are capable of redemption."

She snorted loudly, almost laughing at the sheer idiocy of the man. "You-" Pursing her lips and ducking her head to muffle a giggle, she shook her head and sent the man a sort of lopsided smile. "Sorry- but- you sound a bit too much like the clergymen at the church Matron used to make us all go to on Saturdays. They kept saying things like that right up until I was told never to come back."

"And why were you told something like that, dear girl?" Dumbledore almost looked concerned for her.

Chuckling, Lena leaned back in her chair. "I kept asking about the Devil and God. About why the devil should be punished for asking questions and saying things like how god sounded like some shitty dictator. The pastor told me that I had the spirit of the Devil in me when he shoved me out the door... I took it as a compliment."

The man looked at her with a soft smile. "Many Slytherins have come forward to say you wouldn't do such a thing like this, as many Ravenclaws have been pointing out to my staff your blood status and the way you have changed the Slytherin's base beliefs about muggle-borns." The man paused, looking at her with furrowed eyebrows. "But I have to ask… Is there anything you wish to tell me? Anything at all?"

"Only that Blaise thinks your wardrobe needs to be burned." She stood with a small grin. "I would watch out. He might just get up the courage yet to update your fashion sense from the dark ages to the 20th century." Winking, she set a peppermint down on the desk and then took a lemon drop and left without waiting to be dismissed.

As soon as the lake froze over with a thick layer of ice, the winter months coming in quickly, she snuck out of the castle to sit by the side of the water and transfigure her boots into ice skates. Casting a feather-light charm on herself just in case, she made a floating ball of light that would follow her and light a good ten-foot area around her, before slowly inching out to the middle of the lake.

Wrapped in the heavy winter cloak Janus had sent back for her because he was worried (honestly, he acted like her older brother sometimes), she tried to get the hang of the blades, as she'd never ice skated before but always wanted to.

Every night she was out late on the ice, falling as many times as she needed until she could do loops around the lake and even sometimes switch directions.

The light danced along with her, following her like a spotlight, she would let the cold chill of the air and the wind in her face soothe the hole that had been left behind from the sudden isolation from the rest of the school- excluding her snakes.

Three days before the break, Angela Johnson was found petrified and chaos broke out.

The purebloods were all shaken, as Angela was from two wizard parents that weren't very well known, but were considered to be purebloods- and that meant that no one was considered safe.

Slytherin came together to have at least a couple of people up at a time and though the house was wholly against her being outside alone at night, she just made sure to leave behind more chocolate than usual and talk to whoever wrote in her notebook. Just because she was taking the night for her own interests didn't mean she wasn't working for the good of the House's interests.

The night before the castle emptied for the break, she went out to the lake right after dinner.

The ice seemed different in the light of the setting sun and when she got to the center of the lake, she just sat down and watched the sunset, twirling her wand in her hand.

"...Do you think that it would save them, should I fire a blasting curse at the ice below me? Let the cold depths take me back to hell where I belong?" Her voice was soft, feeling the presence behind her.

Dumbledore walked on the ice without slipping, moving to her side and clasping his hands behind his back as he looked at the setting sun. "My rooms have a window to this lake and for the last month, I have been able to watch a light whirl around the lake every night as if some sprite had decided to dance in the cover of night. It has been quite beautiful."

Lena looked up at him. "Do you think I did this?"

"I hope you did not, but I cannot pass further judgment, for fear I am wrong." The wizened man held out his hand, a silver bracelet in it.

She blinked. "That is quite a show of trust for someone who cannot pass judgment."

Dumbledore smiled gently. "It has the temporary feature of telling me where you are in the castle. I think if you have nothing to prove, you will take it back as I know you want… Plus, it would keep Slytherin for losing points, less someone finds out the dancing ice sprite has a name."

"Good point." Taking the bracelet, she felt it shrink to her wrist and stood with an inquisitive smile. "Since you are out here, would you do a few loops with me? I am afraid I haven't had the pleasure of ice skating with another person before."

"Of course." The man transfigured his own skates easily, smiling at her. "It has been a while since I have had the pleasure as well, but I fear that this might be the last time we will talk for a while, as I think soon enough the people who find my methods… old-fashioned will be coming to suspend me because of the attacks."

Looking away and processing this, she nodded slowly. "Thank you for telling me. I admit that this news is not… favorable."

The man just smiled at her softly. "Ah, well, shall we?" And with a smile, he seemed to glide away as if it was effortless.

Rolling her eyes, she started to skate after him.

Lena slipped a few times and even the old man had a few close calls, both laughing at the ridiculous pair they made. The sun finally set and she followed the Headmaster back to the castle without much argument. As they got to the main entryway, she held out a peppermint. "Thank you for your trust."

"Thank you," Dumbledore took the peppermint and replaced it with a lemon drop, "for your patience."

Smiling at each other, they split for the night.