There's silence for a moment, and then Daphne clears her throat.
"Alright- what do we know so far?" Daphne asks, tapping the quill against her parchment.
"Pipes," Theo says.
Daphne nods and writes that down.
Oliver is suddenly sitting up boltright, grabbing Percy's arm.
"That must be why Myrtle died where she did- the bathroom must have a place where the pipes let out."
"Myrtle?" Harry asks. "What does-"
"She's the student that died last time," Percy says.
Harry, Ron, Daphne, Blaise, Theo, Neville, Ginny, and Tom all stare at the two.
"How-"
"We asked," Percy says, rolling his eyes.
Harry notices Tom nod, looking appreciative. Then something strikes him.
"It doesn't, though," Harry says, thinking about the bathroom. "Have a place where the pipes let out, I mean."
"Must be a secret passage," Tom muses, then turns to face Percy and Oliver. "What did Myrtle say about how she died?"
"She doesn't remember most of it," Percy says.
"Just that someone, a boy, said something in a weird coded language, and that there was a big yellow circle," Oliver says.
Tom grimaces, likely realizing that he must have been that boy.
Harry sends him a sympathetic look. Tom ignores it, and Harry frowns- is he annoyed at Harry?
"Coded language?" Daphne says, brow furrowed.
"Ah shit," Neville says.
Everyone turns to look at him as one.
He hardly even notices, too busy looking up at the ceiling in despair.
"We are so, so stupid," he says.
"What?" Blaise asks.
Harry would also like to know what- this is pretty out of character for Neville. Neville buries his hands in his face, then sits up straight. He runs a hand through his hair, and sighs.
"Harry- when Merlin talks to you, what does it sound like?"
Harry blinks. "It just sounds like English. But why-"
Harry sits up straight, abruptly realizing what Neville is getting at.
"It's a snake," Neville continues. "Slytherin's monster is a snake, because of c-course it's a snake."
There's silence for a long, long moment. Tom, Percy, Oliver, and Ginny are watching Harry and his friends, looking bemused.
"How did we miss that?" Daphne finally asks.
Harry is asking himself the same question.
"Because," Ron says, head in his hands, "it never occurred to us that Harry wasn't also hearing hissing- for all we knew, he was just somehow able to understand it."
"One conversation," Theo says. "One conversation where it came up that Harry doesn't hear hissing, he just hears English, and maybe Hermione-"
"Oh my god," Harry says, sinking into his chair as his heart is simultaneously sinking into his stomach. "Oh my god. Hermione. She must have-"
"She must have heard it right before you showed up," Ron says, realization dawning on his face. "Assuming the voice was saying the same sort of thing it's been saying, she would've recognized it- Merlin is pretty violent, right?"
"Right," Harry and Merlin say at the same time.
"And then," Theo says, sounding uncharacteristically furious, "she ran off after it. Because she's the most idiotic genius ever."
"Fucking hell," Ron says, burying his face in his hands.
"I don't think she ran after it," Percy cuts in, shaking his head. "They were found in the library. She must have been trying to find a book on snake monsters, and ran into Penelope on the way there."
Harry's about to ask who Penelope is when he realizes she must be the other petrified person.
"Why did she have a mirror, though?" Oliver asks, brow furrowed.
"Looking around corners," Ginny decides. "I mean, assuming the monster- the snake was slithering around the library, you wouldn't be able to see it around those shelves. Better to lose a hand then a head, right?"
Harry and the others exchange queasy looks. Hermione being petrified is awful, but not nearly as bad as a headless Hermione.
"Well," Blaise says. "What sort of snake petrifies people?"
No one seems to have an answer.
"If Hermione didn't know off the top of her head then none of us are going to either," Ron says.
Theo nods in agreement.
"Any ideas?" Harry asks, turning to Merlin.
Merlin flickers her tongue and shakes her head. "I just can't believe I haven't heard it yet."
Harry frowns. That's a good point.
"Merlin hasn't heard the voice," Harry says.
The room falls quiet again as everyone thinks.
"Well, either it's not a snake at all," Tom says, "or Merlin's just been in the wrong place at the wrong time all year. Has she been with you at all when you heard the voice?"
Harry thinks back.
"Once, I think," he says, "but she was asleep in her satchel."
"There you have it," Tom says, waving a dismissive hand towards Harry. "Probably just bad luck. We should continue operating under the assumption that it's a snake for now, unless someone thinks of something better."
"So is the entrance to the Chamber-" Oliver starts.
"There's probably loads," Ron says. "The pipes are all connected- you'd just need to get into one, and you could find your way around just about the whole school."
"So what now," Ginny says, folding her arms. "We find an entrance, get Harry to say the magic words-"
"That I don't know," Harry reminds everyone.
"And then kill the monster?" Ginny continues, ignoring Harry.
"No," Tom, Percy, and Oliver all say at the same time.
"We still don't know what it is or why it's active again," Tom continues.
"And might I remind you that you are eleven," Percy says, glaring.
Ginny matches his glare with her own, but she backs down after a second.
"This doesn't change anything," Blaise says. "We're still telling Dumbledore, and then he is going to take care of it."
"Or die trying," Daphne says, raising an eyebrow.
"If the monster takes Dumbledore out, then the school really should be closed down at that point," Percy says, frowning.
"What do we tell Dumbledore?" Harry asks.
"Everything," Oliver, Percy, and Ginny say.
The others aren't so quick to agree, but eventually they decide that that's for the best.
They all spend the next several hours researching- with Ginny and Neville going off to grab everyone food when the dinner bell rings. They don't have any major breakthroughs though, and decide to call it a day around seven. Percy assures them that he'll escort everyone back to their respective dorms.
Harry elects to stay behind to talk to Tom. The older boy has seemed annoyed at Harry all day. Percy seems uncomfortable with this idea, but Harry reassures him by telling him that he'll just sleep in the Room- no escorting required.
"You need to let me handle myself," Tom says after everyone leaves.
Harry doesn't know what he's talking about, until he remembers the scene he, Neville, Ginny, and Merlin had walked in on.
"Well, you need to let me handle Theo," Harry counters.
"If you let me remind him of his place just once, he won't be a problem anymore. Let me handle myself."
Harry stares at Tom, temper flaring. "What did you just say?"
Tom's red eyes are flashing with rage and he looks like he's struggling to calm down. Harry can wait, though- he knows Tom well enough by now that Harry knows how to handle the occasional bout of anger. Exactly as Harry had anticipated, eventually Tom lets out a sigh and slumps down in his seat.
"I apologize. I had gotten used to speaking 'old pureblood' when I was in Slytherin back in the forties and fell back into that. I forgot that Theo is your friend, and not your follower."
"Don't forget again," Harry says. "We're all equals here."
Tom looks like he wants to argue some more, but restrains himself. Harry nods firmly and stands up to leave.
"Are you just going to stay here for the night?"
"Yes," Tom says, rather shortly.
Harry sighs and goes to open the door to leave, and then immediately wishes he hadn't.
"I see you've discovered the marvels of the Come-And-Go-Room," Dumbledore says lightly. "Hogwarts truly is a wonder, yes?"
As Harry grabs tightly to his magic he idly wonders how much trouble he'd get into for slamming a door on the Headmaster's face. A lot, right?
Harry is so focused on keeping hold of his magic that he doesn't put up even a modicum of a fight as Dumbledore pushes past him and into the room beyond. Tom is standing up, looking relaxed as ever. Harry doesn't buy it for a second, and he doesn't think Dumbledore does, either.
"Hello, Mister Riddle," Dumbledore says. "Would you mind coming to my office? We need to have another conversation." He frames it as a request but only a fool would believe it's anything other than a command.
"Of course," Tom says.
"I'm coming too," Harry says.
Dumbledore turns to him. "My boy, I'm sure you can understand that this is not a conversation you need to sit in on."
"It's fine, Harry," Tom says.
Harry looks at Dumbledore, ignoring his brother. "No, I don't understand. This is about the attack, right? Well, I think that you need both of us there. We might be able to figure out what's going on."
Dumbledore looks like he's about to tell Harry to go back to his dorm, so he pulls out his last resort: "in fact, maybe we should even call Remus! Right? This is serious-sounding, I think the whole family should be around."
Harry can see Dumbledore switching gears. "I see you won't be swayed. Very well, you may sit in. Assuming it's alright with Mister Riddle?"
Tom hesitates for a fraction of a second before he nods.
"Shall we be off? Lead the way, Headmaster," Tom says as he walks over to where Harry and Merlin are.
As the walk, Harry holds tightly to Merlin, who periodically licks his cheek comfortingly.
"Is Tom going to be expelled?" Merlin hisses.
"I don't know," Harry responds. "I hope not. But if he is, we'll get it overturned when we catch the monster and the person releasing it on people."
Harry tries not to think about how hard it is to get an expulsion overturned. When Tom had told Harry about how the diary had framed Hagrid; Harry had excitedly dragged the boy down to Hagrid's hut, made his brother apologize, reintroduced the two, and then tried to get Hagrid to file some sort of complaint with the ministry.
Hagrid (who was a bit overwhelmed at that point and inexplicably holding a couple dead roosters) told Harry that he didn't actually want to get un-expelled, but even if he did he didn't think it was possible.
At that point a disappointed Harry had sulked, while Tom asked politely about the chickens. Apparently Hogwarts is having a real fox problem this year.
Harry is broken out of his reverie as Dumbledore stops in front of the gargoyle statue and gives it the password. It's still Lemon Drop. Harry thinks they really ought to change it once in a while- or maybe it's a yearly thing?
Harry, Merlin, Tom, and Dumbledore all walk in silence into the office. With a wave of his wand, Dumbledore conjures a new chair and gestures for the two to sit as he takes his own seat behind his desk.
Fawkes is at his perch, and looks resplendent- it's the first time Harry is seeing the phoenix as an adult; as when Harry and Tom had broken into the office to get Tom sorted, Fawkes had been nowhere to be found.
Harry tears his eyes away from the bird as Dumbledore clears his throat.
"As I'm sure you are well aware," he starts. "There has somehow been another attack- despite your assurance that there would be no more."
"Yes," Tom says. "I am as stumped as you are as to how."
"Forgive me if I find that hard to believe," Dumbledore says.
"I'd be willing to submit to veritaserum again," Tom says easily.
"Wait, again?" Harry asks, turning to Tom. "You had to do it too?"
Harry sees Tom's fists clench and unclench a couple times under the desk. His face stays otherwise warm and open, however as he inclines his head in an affirmative.
Dumbledore inclines his head as he goes to open a drawer in his desk. "Very well. It just so happens that I have some here, as well as its antidote."
Harry could be imagining it, but he thinks that Tom's expression goes a bit wooden. Harry tugs his magic closer to his chest. Tom had seemed alright enough with what's happening, but- well, Harry gets it. The only reason he'd been comfortable with the potion at all is because Snape was administering it.
But Dumbledore wouldn't give Tom a potion he didn't agree to taking, right? Not with Harry right here. Harry swallows- logically he gets that, but his stomach is flipping over and over again. He doesn't want this to be happening- but he doesn't think he can stop it.
Tom seems to pick up on Harry's rising panic, because he turns to Harry. "It's going to be alright," Tom says.
Harry nods, clutching Merlin close to him.
Dumbledore pauses in preparing the potion, an odd look on his face. Then he resumes, withdrawing what seems to be three drops from the potion using a pipette.
"Mister Riddle," Dumbledore says, holding the pipette up.
"Hang on," Harry says. "What are you going to ask him?"
Dumbledore goes to respond, but Tom says, "I have nothing to fear from the potion. Let's just get this over with."
After that, Harry can only sit and watch as Dumbledore gives Tom the potion, and Tom's expression goes lax.
"What is your name?" Dumbledore asks, hands clasped in front of him on his desk and expression grave.
"Tom Marvolo Riddle," Tom says in a monotone voice. Harry has to suppress a shudder, as well as push his magic even further down in his chest.
There's a pause. Then, Dumbledore asks, "have you opened the Chamber once more?"
"No," Tom says.
"Did you have anything to do with the attack behind Miss Granger and Miss Clearwater's petrification?"
"No," Tom says.
"Are you in any way fighting the potion?"
"No," Tom says. Dumbledore's eyes narrow.
"What are you hi-"
The Floo chimes, cutting Dumbledore off. Harry and Dumbledore turn to look at it as one, Harry feeling suddenly so relieved he thinks he could cry.
"Now's your chance," Merlin hisses, sounding furious. "Light him on fire."
Harry ignores her, although it takes more effort than he thought it would to not do exactly that. It'd practically be self-defense at this point, right?
The Headmaster gets up to peer into the flames. "Yes?" He asks.
"Hello Albus," says a nasally voice. Harry doesn't recognize it. "So sorry to disturb you at this late hour, but we, ah, have some things to discuss. May I come through?"
"Of course, Minister," Dumbledore says politely. "Give me one moment, please."
"Take your time," the voice says.
Dumbledore turns back to Harry and Tom. He seems to war with himself a moment before waving his hand and levitating the antidote over to Tom, administering it. Tom blinks, then clears his throat.
"Go back to your dorms," Dumbledore says. "We'll go over what you think you know about the monster tomorrow."
Tom nods and stands up, grabbing Harry by the arm and pulling Harry up with him. "Of course," he says smoothly.
"And Mister Riddle," Dumbledore starts.
Tom looks over at him, eyebrow raised. "Yes?"
"I apologize once again for doubting you," Dumbledore says.
Harry feels a rush of rage, but pushes both it and his magic down. He's beginning to think that Dumbledore doesn't believe in 'innocent until proven guilty' at all.
"Apology accepted," Tom says graciously, then starts subtly pushing Harry towards the staircase.
"Harry," Tom whispers under his breath as they move. "Do you have your cloak?"
Harry nods slightly, pulling it out of his satchel but taking care to keep it in front of him so Dumbledore won't be able to see it.
Tom grabs it from him as they descend and in one motion shakes it out and covers the two of them (plus Merlin). He then ushers Harry forward, prompting the gargoyle statue to open up. Instead of leaving, though, they step backwards and creep back up the stairs. Tom puts a finger in front of his lips and Harry nods fervently, heart pounding. What are they doing?
Tom tugs Harry over to one side; in between a stone basin with some odd silvery liquid in it, and a spinning globe depicting the earth in magnificent detail.
"To what do I owe the pleasure, Minister?" Dumbledore asks as a sweaty looking gray-haired man walks through the fireplace and into the office.
He's wearing a purple pinstripe suit, pointed boots, and a lime-green bowler hat. Harry mimes gagging and Tom gently elbows him.
"Terrible business, Albus. One attack was bad enough- now we're up to what, four? Something has got to be done."
Dumbledore gestures for the man- the Minister- to sit, and he does. Dumbledore sits as well.
"What do you propose, Cornelius?" Dumbledore asks. "I can assure you that we are taking the utmost precautions."
Cornelius takes his hat off and sets it on his lap. "Well, they obviously aren't working. I was happy to let you handle this, Albus, but enough is enough. The Ministry is stepping in."
"Surely you aren't suggesting we shut the school down?" Dumbledore asks, raising an eyebrow. He says it like the man had suggested killing the muggle born students himself.
"No, no- nothing so drastic as all that," Cornelius assures Dumbledore. The man licks his lips nervously, but forges on. "I'm sure you understand- the people are demanding justice-"
"Get on with it, Cornelius," Dumbledore says tiredly.
"The groundskeeper- the giant? We're taking him in. Just- Just until the matter is resolved!"
Harry's heart plummets. He shoots a pleading look at Tom, but the older boy is staring straight ahead, narrow eyed at the two men.
Dumbledore all of a sudden looks old, and tired. "It wasn't him, Minister. Don't do this."
"It's precautionary," Cornelius says, pulling at his neckline. "And the matter has already been put to a vote. He can come with me quietly, or we can send the Aurors. Let's not make this harder than it already is."
Dumbledore nods after a moment and goes to stand up. "No reason to draw this out. If you'll follow me?"
Cornelius nods fervently and stands as well.
Harry holds his breath as the two men walk past them, letting it out only after the men have descended the stairs and exciting the office.
"Tom," Harry says, turning again to the older boy. "We have to do something- they can't take Hagrid!"
Tom's jaw is clenched, but he shakes his head. "They can and they will. There's nothing we can do. If Dumbledore can't keep Hagrid out of Azkaban, no one can."
"Azkaban?" Harry chokes out. Tom winces. "Who said anything about Azkaban?"
"Harry," Tom says. "That's where they're going to take him."
"Don't they have, have holding cells?" Harry asks.
Tom shakes his head grimly. "Hagrid is a half-giant. The ministry won't want him anywhere near the public, not when they think he might be dangerous."
Harry crouches down, hands clutching his stomach.
"Harry?" Tom asks, following Harry down. "What- are you okay?"
"We can't- Tom, we can't let this happen!"
Tom sighs, then puts a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Harry. There is nothing we can do. But when we catch the culprit, they'll release Hagrid. You saw Dumbledore- he doesn't want Hagrid in Azkaban any more than either of us do."
Harry doesn't feel better. It must show, because Tom sighs again. "Come on. Let's get going- we don't want to be here when they get back."
Harry stands up, but the relief on Tom's face is quickly replaced with one of suspicion. "You're going down to the hut, aren't you."
Harry nods resolutely.
Tom pinches the bridge of his nose. "You might be more trouble than you're worth, you know that?"
Harry cracks a smile. Tom does not. But he does let Harry lead the way down to the grounds, where they're just in time to see Lucius Malfoy officially suspend Dumbledore from the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts.