The start of the winter term was an exceptionally flurry one for Harry. On their first day back, Professor Torrero-Ramirez announced a big competition, and everyone was keen to find a group in time for sign-ups on the 14th. His plan was to ask Ron and Neville to team up with him, only for Kevin to have gone ahead and asked Neville and Hermione to work together, while Ron was planning to work with Dean and Seamus. Stuck between both invitations, he ended up sticking with the former.

The odd thing was that Harry was also getting invitations from upper year groups to join their team. The same thing was happening to Justin from people wanting to capitalize on his "Heir of Slytherin" reputation. For Harry it was easy enough to decline offers, and he ended up adding a grateful Justin to their group as the other boy started to panic over the misled offers.

Over the next two weeks people arranged and rearranged their group dynamics. It was a good thing that their professor had given them until the 14th to decide, otherwise groups would have devolved into chaos months before the contest could even start!

The night of the sign-up, their group convened for their first meeting outside of Myrtle's bathroom - to the confusion of Neville and Hermione.

"A bathroom is hardly a good place to prepare!" Hermione huffed. "Not to mention you four can get in trouble for being here."

"Don't worry, we won't be staying here for long," Harry promised. "Justin, care to do the honours?"

The other boy looked very much not honoured with this plan. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"I warned her ahead of time. Plus, after everything that's happened, I'm sure they'll be alright with it."

Justin gave a reluctant sigh. "If you say so. Open."

The Gryffindors jumped back as the sink moved to reveal a large pipe. Then, hesitantly, Hermione and Neville approached the pipe, looking warily into the darkness. "Is this…?"

"The way to the Chamber of Secrets," Kevin answered. The Gryffindors were (understandably) alarmed with the idea, yet Kevin placated them. "It's fine. I've been down there a few times myself. I've even met Slytherin's Monster."

"And it didn't hurt you?"

Harry cut in, "She's the one that saved us last year. Trust me, you'll both be safe down there."

The pair were mildly assured by that explanation, though they still were jumpy the entire way down the Chamber-proper. It seemed silly, in Harry's opinion. Over the past year Harry and his friends have made improvements to the Chamber. Bones were removed, dust and grime was cleared away, and they fixed up the lighting inside. Compared to how it was before, the Chamber was actually now a pleasant place to visit (aside from the ominous stone carvings and the chill from being this far underground, but that's hardly something anyone can control.)

They opened up the inner doors and walked inside - and had to jump immediately to avoid incoming spellfire. Their screams mingled with shouts of casted spells, the sounds cancelling each other out in their surprise. In that silence, ten faces regarded each other in their shock.

"Melly, what the buggering hell are you doing here?!"

Her mouth opened to answer, only to pause and tilt her head to the side. "...Did you just swear?"

"You nearly hit us! What-" he looked around, finding Diggory, MacFusty, Hawkworth, and Orpington with wands out in all directions, "-what are you all even doing here?!"

"Um, training for the contest?"

"Here? In the Chamber!"

The witch scrunched into a shrug, "Seemed as good an idea as any."

"No different that you five are planning, I imagine," Orpington added.

"This place has a duelling arena for a reason, Melly!"

"But it's so formal," Melly whined. "We need dynamic terrain to really get ready."

His expression fell flat. "Unbelievable."

Justin's voice piped in with confusion, "And you're okay with trusting everyone here?"

"Hmm?" Melly hummed, a sound which Harry could almost hear as saying 'Trust?' "Don't you worry, Lord Heir. I got everyone to make a vow of secrecy before coming down here. Your secret's safe."

"...Right."

Something about his answer seemed to register with her, as Melly suddenly took on a look of concern. "You did make sure these two took a vow of secrecy before coming here, right?"

Everyone looked over at Neville and Hermione, the sole Gryffindors looking nervous at the sudden attention. "You- you can't force us to make a vow, Bennett!"

"No," she answered, "but you don't want to worry your friend into thinking you'll betray him, right?"

"I'd never-!"

"She has a point," Neville winced as he interrupted Hermione. "It wouldn't hurt. For Justin's sake."

A silent staring contest went about with Hermione versus the rest of the third years. As seconds passed, the girl gave a large huff, "Oh, alright! But I'm making a vow to my friends, no one else!"

"Fine by me," Melly muttered. She guided the pair through the process, allowing the magic to take hold and their promise to solidify.

When all parties were satisfied, the teams broke apart. The fifth years remained where they were, while the third years were guided into the duelling arena. There they brainstormed strategies and did a bit of practice. Afterwards, when the fifth years had cleared the space, Hermione practically insisted on taking a tour through the Chamber. She was both delighted and disappointed to find the hidden library filled with ancient languages ("These will take ages to translate!"); and, overall, the group adjusted to using the space. That was good for Harry, as having a private space like this will be perfect for preparing for the contest!

Among other things.

The cauldron bubbled on as Harry prepared to add the next ingredient to the potion. When ready, he moved to drop the measured powder inside, feeling a twinge of death hovering over his shoulder as he did so.

"Heyy, Houdini."

Harry gave a slight huff of a laugh as the powder was added. "It's Houdini, now, is it?"

"You tell me. You're the one making a secret potion in a secret chamber." She peered further over his shoulder, observing the light pink concoction slowly turn green with his stirring. "So, what'chu making?"

"A hair-colour changing potion."

A long pause followed. No doubt the same jokes as Draco thought of ran through her head. "...We're talking about rainbow-shifting patterns right? Because, otherwise, that's just hair dye with extra steps."

"Huh. That's a good point. I wonder if that's why it didn't work before…"

"What happened last time?"

Harry went red. "I kind of… lost all my hair."

"You WHAT?!"

"I got better!"

"No shit, you got better; but- pfft- that's hysterical! HAHAHA!"

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up! Oh, shit, how many stirs was that?!" Harry moved quickly back to his work. Once the stirring finished, the potion grew darker. With that, Harry sat back in relief. "Okay, twenty minutes left to simmer and it'll be done."

Melly hummed vaguely at the pronouncement. "So what makes you think this'll work and not give you another bout of magical alopecia?"

"Last time I used my own hair as an ingredient. This time I have some of Tonks' to use."

Another pause followed. It ended as she muttered, "Man, magic is weird." Her voice grew louder for conversation. "Speaking of Tonks, how's all that drama going? Is Remus still AWOL?"

"How do you even-" Harry groaned, "why do I bother. Of course you must've known all along." He gave a deep, dramatic sigh. "Well, after a second trip to St. Mungo's, plus a few talks from Uncle Sirius, Remus has finally apologized to Tonks and asked for her forgiveness."

"Wait- trip? Why was he in St Mungo's?!"

"Andromeda."

Her mouth fell open and into her palm. "Oh, that poor bastard! Wait! Wrong choice of words!" A snort of laugh didn't match the apology. "So, are we expecting a shotgun wedding, or what?"

The drama of it all weighed on his mind. "I'm not sure. Sounds like there's a lot of potential problems with her still being a trainee. She's able to hide the pregnancy for the most part, thanks to her metamorphmagus abilities,"

"-but getting married now would be suspicious," Melly surmised.

"Exactly. Especially to a werewolf."

"Right," she bobbed her head into nods.

After a thought, he snorted a laugh at a reminder. "Sirius is trying to convince him into doing a double wedding with him and Chiara." He stopped talking, distracted as Melly suddenly looked offended. "What's wrong?"

"I- I can't even-" She grimaced into a facepalm before staring off into the middle distance. "The man is a walking disaster! I can't tell if he's trying to have the Tonks' arrange a wedding for him to be lazy, or if he just wants to piss everybody off." She caught onto Harry's confused expression. "You do realize that, if Remus does get married, both couples are getting married to fix mistakes, right? Adding that kind of drama on top of regular wedding drama is a fight just begging to happen!"

The thought gave him pause. Back when Chiara arrived, they did joke about announcing a divorce during the reception, didn't they?

"...I see what you mean." He clicked his tongue. "I'll mention that when I write back to him."

"Good idea," she said with exaggerated slowness. The conversation stilted with it. In that gap of silence, Melly looked over at the simmering potion. "You've got a few minutes left to wait, right? Think you can convince Caireen to come out for a bit?"

The question made Harry immediately suspicious. "Why?"

"Nothing nefarious," she said casually. She pulled out a wide, metallic cylinder, with what appeared to be rubber in place of a lid. "I'm just gonna milk off some of her venom."

Eyes wide, Harry nearly shouted, "Milk her venom?! That's suicide!"

"Relax, it's not so bad," she said reassuringly. "All she's gotta do is bite onto this lid. It's totally basilisk venom-proof. Won't melt at all! And I'm sure she's smart enough to manage it on her own." Melly paused. "Problem is, she still doesn't come out for anyone but you, so, yeah, I was kinda hoping you'd be able to talk her into it?"

"Melody," his tone came warningly, "why do you want basilisk venom?"

"Hmm? Oh, right. Did you know that goblin metal has transient properties?" she asked casually. "Let it absorb some basilisk venom and, Bob's your uncle, you've got yourself your very own portable horcrux-killer!"

"And…?"

"And I found some goblin-forged weapons in the Room of Requirement," she gave a shrug. "Seems like as good an opportunity as any, so…"

His life is way too weird for this. "Just how many horcruxes are there?! Haven't we destroyed the lot?"

"What? Pfft! No," she scoffed. "There's like… four? No, three left. A cup and a couple animals. The cup looks like it's somewhere locked up tight, and Voldieshorts has made the animals magic-resistant, so spells won't work; but they are stab-able with the right kind of materials. Hence, basilisk venom." She gave a wide gesture. "So, are you gonna help me out or not?"

His response came exasperated, "...I guess." Mindful of the time constraint, they left the potions lab towards Caireen's nest. "Have you at least told someone about these new visions?"

The question seemed to annoy her. "I already write stuff down in that stupid journal Trelawney makes me use."

"Melody."

"Alright! Fine! I'll let Professor Torrero-Ramirez know about it." Grumbling, she added, "God forbid we just kill off the horcruxes ourselves."

A wry smile rose on Harry's lips. "To think, when we were kids I was the one who wanted to be a superhero. Now look at you, wanting to save the day yourself."

"Shut up, Harry, you know what I mean." She shook her head with an exasperated smile. "Besides, out of the two of us, you're more the hero. I'm more like the anti-hero with the murky morals or the side character who gets drunk on power and turns evil for a season."

That second trope gave him pause. Then again, she did go to prison for demon association, so the comparison has some merit. Even so, Harry opted to not mention the obvious fact. "Does that mean you still won't wear a cape with me?"

"No, and no capes for you either!"

Harry laughed. "Are you ever going to tell me why?"

She altered her voice and answered dramatically. "It's a fashion disaster waiting to happen, darling. I can't have you gallivanting in the sky only to have your cape sucked into a propeller."

"What?! That'll happen?!"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic, darling," she purred. "We're discussing fashionable accidents in film, not with real life wizards. Of course, the note still has merit in its morals. No capes!"

Well that was certainly a relief. ...Still doesn't fully answer the question, though.

He let the topic drop. Arriving in front of the nest entrance, he called out to Caireen. It took a small exchange, but she acquiesced to deliver her "gift" of venom into the container. The teens left her to that task, and returned to the potions lab. A few minutes later the hair-colour changing potion was complete, and Harry spooned a portion of it into a flask.

"Care to do the honours?"

Melly laughed as she answered, "And turn into a naked mole rat? No thank you!"

"Pfft! Scaredy cat."

"Better a scaredy cat than a sphinx cat." She grabbed his pair of dragon-hide gloves and transfigured a comb. "Here, I'll work it into your hair."

With a shrug, Harry sat back and lent Melly the flask. His head tingled as the potion was carefully poured onto his hair. It seemed more thorough than necessary, in his opinion, especially when he felt a thumb pressed onto his face.

"What are you doing?!"

"Making sure your eyebrows match," she said. "Now stop fidgeting. I'm almost done!"

The tingling was on his face now. It was hard not to twitch, but at least it was over after a couple more minutes. From the way she had combed it, he couldn't see his hair; but a slight shake confirmed that none of it had fallen out this time. "So, how do I look?"

There was a pause.

He looked up at her. There was an odd smile on her face.

"Is it bad?"

"No, no, it's nice," the answer came strained. "You look like a pretty anime girl. Especially with the green eyes. All you need left is a mallet and you're good to go."

"I don't even want to know what that means." His words were met with a dark smile, so he quickly added, "I still want to see how I look, though!"

"Suit yourself!"

A mirror was conjured up and handed to him. On the other side of the reflection was wide, green eyes staring at a shock of bubblegum pink.

Behind him, Melly started to crack up. "Yeah, you really should have had Tonks turn to a more normal colour before she sent you her hair. That clearly made a difference."

"Clearly," Harry snickered slightly. "I wonder, though… If that's all it takes, she and I could make custom shades for people."

"Oh! That's a good idea!" Melly started to mumble aloud. "Certainly a better investment than muggle hair dye if it's a specific shade. Maybe charge extra for metamorphmagus headshots to find the best colour? Could work. She's going to have to go on leave anyways after the baby. Oh-! Can we use the rest of that potion?!"

"You want to dye yours, too?"

"Not me! Although, maybe another shade," he could see her devious smile from the reflection, "but I was actually thinking we could take a trip to Gryffindor or Ravenclaw for a bit of fun?"

His own smile rose to match hers. "Sounds like a good idea, to me!"

A broom sped out from Ravenclaw Tower, the retreating intruders hidden beyond two pairs of feet protruding from underneath an invisibility cloak.

"GET BACK HERE, YOU SNEAKS!"

"DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!"

A group of spotted-dyed teenagers fired spells at the escaping broom. Others ran about for their wands, trying hard to spell away the effects. On a lone, comfy armchair, Luna and Nigel watched the spectacle with amusement as Luna ran her fingers through her hair.

"I hope it stays. This is a lovely colour!"