Harry was walking along the halls to the Halloween feast when he heard a strange noise coming around him. "What is that?" Harry said because it sounded like someone was talking, but that they were inside the walls.
The voice seemed to be moving away from him and he picked up the pace, at this point he was running just to not fall behind. He went to go around a corner when his foot slid on some water and he lost his balance, falling to the floor with a thud. Groaning he picked himself up and he found that the voice was no longer around. He spent a few more minutes going up and down the corridor but he'd lost whatever it was. "Maybe it was just Peeves planning a prank. Maybe that was the prank, he probably put the water down to trip whoever chased him," Harry guessed as he had nothing else to go on and he was already going to be late for the feast as it was.
So far this was already a less eventful halloween than his first year since the new defense professor wasn't running in screaming about a troll. At least, that's what Harry thought right up until they were on their way back upstairs and the crowd of students found Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat strung up on a lantern with bloody writing scrawled on the wall.
The students worried about the message that warned against enemies of the heir, but it was Arlene Filch pushing through the professors to scream at him that was his cause of confusion. "It was him, he was the last one in the Great Hall," Arlene accused as the professors were trying to get the students to head back to their dorms, but the caretaker's loud cursing was just drawing more attention to the scene.
"Now now Arlene," Professor Dumbledore said calmly as he came through the crowd that parted around him. "I'm sure we'll get Mrs. Norris back to normal without a need for this much commotion. But even so, I would like for everyone to return to their dormitories, except for you Mr. Potter."
None of the students were going to disobey the headmaster and quickly left Harry alone with all the other adults. "I didn't do it professor, I swear. I never touched Mrs. Norris."
"Oh rubbish, he's a troublemaker that one," Arlene snarled at the boy, she now very much wished that he'd gotten his due last year for breaking the rules. "He just wanted to get back at me for catching him and that trollop last year and he killed my cat."
"Mrs. Norris is not dead, Arlene," Albus stated to assuage the woman's worries. "Merely petrified, some powerful dark magic, not something that could be done by a second year student. But Mr. Potter, I would like to ask why you arrived so late to the feast?"
"I had just finished practicing some spells and was on my way to the feast when I heard a noise," Harry answered and then pointed at a wall. "I thought I heard someone talking inside the walls and followed it."
Then he turned and pointed down the hall. "I slipped on some water over there and lost track of whoever it was. I think Peeves was just playing a prank, maybe he petrified Mrs. Norris."
Albus looked at Harry curiously before having his staff take Mrs. Norris and Arlene to another room. "Sir, um if I might ask, what is the Chamber of Secrets and who is the heir?"
"That I think is a story for another time, for now though we will assume that someone has played a prank in poor taste," the headmaster stated as he released Harry to go back to the Gryffindor dormitory for the night.
Tensions had risen in the castle over the next few days as the blood stains on the wall were still up so anyone who walked through that particular corridor was reminded of it, which turned into many students taking alternate routes to avoid it.
Of course some of the more studious students had taken an interest in trying to discern as much as possible about the incident, the chamber and the heir but the information regarding it was very murky.
It happened that during History of Magic, Hermione had raised her hand to ask about the chamber.
Professor Binns floated to a stop and looked curiously at the students, as questions were rarely asked in his class and they were not about anything but what he taught. So it seemed to break the ghost out of whatever script he had fallen into.
"Ah that Chamber of Secrets, a fable from when even I was a student here," Binns chortled. "Yes yes, there were all sorts of rumors. But the best historical texts say that the four founders of Hogwarts had a disagreement of sorts, some say it came to a duel, others no more than shouting and vague threats."
"What the disagreement was," Binns nodded his head, before seemingly coming to a decision. "It was about letting Hogwarts open to those of, well let us just say, less pure families."
"Do you mean muggleborns?" Hermione asked for clarification.
"That would be a part of the problem as you have to all remember back then we did not have Morganna's Curse. It was not just normal but expected that a singular witch and wizard would produce offspring, and those were at the time referred to as purebloods, which is very different from the current definition. But it would seem Salazar did not want Halfbloods, or the child of a witch or wizard with a muggle for a parent to attend Hogwarts either."
This statement caused a mixture of gasps and laughter at the notion, as it stood Hogwarts would have maybe all of three students if they only allowed for purebloods to attend, no magical school in the world would remain open under those conditions. "Yes I can see you all find that a bit silly, but those were different times."
"Anyway it was rumored that Salazar bred a monster in secret, in his own words to protect the school when the 'open minded fools' have welcomed doom for the magical world with open arms," Binns continued his speech undaunted by the children. "It sounds quite offensive now, but even in my time only three hundred years ago there were witch burnings. So in some regards we were becoming too lackadaisical and that had some consequences which necessitated the Statute of Secrecy and rules about muggle snatching."
This was drawing in the witches a bit more, even Harry was listening intently. Seeing an opportunity to learn more about the magical world Harry raised his hand. "Sir, why would they burn witches, that seems…" trailing off because he wasn't rightly sure how to finish that sentence.
"Ah yes, sometime in the mid to late sixteenth century the population shift in our community due in part to Morganna's curse started to become far more potent, as the birthrates of wizards noticeably declined. Previously having one or even two witches to a wizard was steadily becoming rarer, it was now more common to see three witches in a coven," Binns stated as during his time he had two wives of his own and even that was no longer the norm. "So, as many witches started getting older, they did not wish for their family lines to die out and with so few wizards to choose from, they started to attract muggle men."
Most girls began to nod their heads as none of them had a wizard for a father, but it was Harry and those who had two muggle parents that still seemed a tad confused. "Why would they burn witches for wanting to marry muggle men?"
"No, my boy, not marry," Binns chuckled at the notion that this was about marriage. Even some girls snickered because it sounded funny to them. "No this was to continue their bloodlines, they would take a few muggle men that they found appealing or with traits that they valued and you could have a witch living with four or more men, I even recall a story of one witch who had thirty-seven muggle men all enthralled and waiting on her hand and foot."
"This was the cause of many issues as they were less subtle about their actions and it drew the ire of nearby towns and villages who were losing their fathers, sons and brothers to witches who would come in and lure them away," Binns cringed as he tried to avoid some of the nastier details, like how the muggle men who produced witches were more sought after by other witches, and they could be quite convincing. Heaven forbid that they produced a wizard, it wasn't entirely unheard of for the muggle wife to meet an untimely end just to secure that man for themselves. But that wasn't something he should cause the children to fret about.
Harry nodded his head in understanding, this lined up with what Mrs. Tonks had told him, muggle men to witches were simply a means of keeping the bloodlines going, marriage was something for witches and a wizard to do. And if the witches didn't value marrying the muggle men who provided them with children, then it stood to reason that they would not value the marriage between a muggle man and his wife. It made him wonder what would have happened to his own father had his parents not been killed.
"Anyway, I've been sidetracked enough," Binns stated as he wanted to return to the lesson on the goblin rebellions.
"Just one more question," Hermione quickly shot out of her seat because the professor had given her quite a lot of information that shone a new light on what she saw happening at home, but there was still the identity of Salazar's Heir that had not been touched on.
Binns body motioned in the way one would when taking a calming breath before he turned to the bushy haired girl. "Yes?"
"If Salazar Slytherin was the one who created the Chamber of Secrets then the heir is someone in his bloodline, are there any known members of his family even still around?" Hermione asked in the hopes of getting more information that she could begin to research. She already had a number of things she needed to learn just from what Binns had told her regarding witches and muggle relationships.
"It is unknown if any of the founders still have active family lines, but there was a student about a century ago who was rumored to have found some of the secrets Salazar had built into the school, Ominis Gaunt, of course I know not of any member of the Gaunt family attending Hogwarts since then or even if those rumors were true," Binns shrugged, he'd be the first to admit that since his death many of his students started to blend together so he wouldn't really be able to help in that regard. "But we must continue with the lesson."
That was enough to satisfy many students' curiosity, but it still left many questions unanswered and unasked.
Answers that Harry was hoping to find in the library. Sitting around a pile of books this time focusing more on the history of the school, Harry was looking through a large one that detailed more about the students that had come through the halls, so as to maybe find out who this Gaunt family was and if they had any descendants when he heard the turning of pages.
Sticking his head over the stack to his left, Harry saw a little blonde girl at the far end of the table reading a magazine. The same one that he'd picked up a couple of weeks ago and had no luck in finding out who it belonged to. Apparently The Quibbler had a poor reputation on par with a muggle tabloid. Since this was the first person he'd seen in the castle reading one he quickly retrieved the copy from his bag and went over to her.
"Hello there," Harry greeted and tried to give a soft smile, nothing too overbearing as to scare off the first-year girl.
Seemingly startled by being approached at all, the girl let out a squeak of surprise before looking up. Her large doeish eyes stared at him unblinkingly. Realizing that coming up to her so unprompted might have taken from her the ability to speak as he remembered happening in his last year if he talked to a girl suddenly, Harry pointed to the article in her hands.
"I was just wondering if you happened to know who this belonged to," extending out the copy of The Quibbler he had kept.
"Oh I wondered where that had gone," the girl said with a smile as she took it out of his hand. "Thank you Harry Potter."
"It's not a problem, I didn't catch your name though," Harry said because while he suspected that for the rest of his life he'd never have to introduce himself, the same could not be said about every other witch he met with.
The girl blinked a few times. "Right, I forgot, my name is Luna Lovegood, but all the other girls call me Loony."
Harry tilted his head in confusion because that didn't sound all that endearing to him. "Why do they do that?" asking as he took a seat across from her at the table. It was something he wanted to learn more about, the way that witches interacted with each other. They were always polite with him almost to an uncomfortable degree. But outside of seeing girls, like those on his quidditch team or in class interact, there wasn't much that he could go off of.
The girl sat quietly for a moment, clearly trying to think of an answer. "I don't know," she finally said. "I don't know why they don't like me."
Reaching out because Harry was all too familiar with having people who disliked him without him knowing why, he rested his hand on hers and saw her freeze. "That's alright Luna, I think you're a likable person." She had been just as polite as any of the other witches in the castle. And even the ones that were a bit pushier than most, like Dracaena, he still liked them far more than the people he knew in the muggle world.
Her lip quivered at that and she quickly pulled away, shoving her magazines into her bag as she ran out of the room.
"Dammit Potter you just… had to…" Harry muttered the chastisements to himself for clearly crossing a line with the girl somewhere.
However if there was anything in the castle capable of taking the student's attention off of the Chamber of Secret business, it was Quidditch, the first match of the year and like last, it was going to be Gryffindor versus Slytherin.
Even the pouring rain wasn't going to be enough to bring everyone down. Harry was excited though to get back out onto the field, this time he wouldn't have to worry about his broom being cursed so this would be a good match to begin with.
Taking to the air with the rest of his team, Harry flew a few laps around the field to disrupt the Slytherin team when he heard the garbled screeching of a bludger coming up from behind him. Rolling out of the way he exhaled as Oliver looked down at him and told him to get his head in the game, and that was when Harry saw the bludger was coming right back towards them. "Wood look out!" Harry shouted as the keeper pulled back and that saved his cranium at the cost of the end of his broomstick getting shattered by the bludger.
Whipping around Harry raced away from the bludger which was in hot pursuit of him. He'd nearly had his head taken off a couple of times before Frieda and Georgina flew in to knock the iron ball back but it was never more than allowing Harry some space before it kept getting on his tail.
Letting out a sigh, Harry flew around in a spiral and told the beaters that they had to leave him since the Slytherin team was taking advantage of them babysitting him to go after the chasers and put a lot of pressure on Oliver to score extra points.
Now instead of looking for the snitch Harry was spending his time just trying to not get splattered by a rogue bludger that was never more than a few seconds behind him.
Weaving around the stands the bludger finally gave up on following and instead began crashing through them. Which closed the gap even more since the bludger would always choose the most direct path through to get at him. Harry let out a groan because he couldn't go around the stands anymore, it would put the witches in the crowd at risk of getting hurt.
Pulling on his broom to flip around, the bludger missed him and Harry was left panting because it was taking all of his attention and quick reflexes to not get hit when Dracaena came over to gloat. "At least you're putting on a good show for us with all your dancing. Maybe you'd like to get off the broom and shake things on the grass?"
Harry snorted because Dracaena's trash talk wasn't all that scathing, it sounded more like she was trying to hit on him but also demean him at the same time. He noticed a flicker behind her air and it was likely only because of the rain that she couldn't hear it but the crash of wood told Harry that the bludger was coming right for him, rocketing off because if the snitch was caught that would put an end to the match.
Dracaena yelped when the wizard charged her. She glared at Harry before noticing he was on the trail of the snitch so she had to go after him. Her broom being faster allowed her to catch up and start to overtake Harry when the snitch dropped into the pit surrounding the pitch.
Gulping because she'd never flown through this before during practice, the stadium's wooden support beams were fast approaching obstacles and it was getting too risky to stay down there for much longer. The young witch pushed forward to reach for the snitch when an explosion of splinters went off in front of her as the bludger punched straight through a wooden beam to get at them. The female seeker let out a scream and peeled out of the trench but clipped the edge as she rose and that resulted in her dismount onto the grass.
Harry flew from the pit and was reaching out for the snitch when the bludger hit his extended arm and he both felt and heard the bone snap, pulling that limb back to guard it. He tightened the grip he had on his broom between his legs and wrapped his fingers around the snitch, which imbalanced him enough to turn over and drag his back on the grass, coming to a stop in the sand and Leela happily announced the end of the match.
His chest heaved as he took deep breaths thinking that his most intense game was at an end but his eyes widened seeing the bludger fly overhead before coming straight down. Rolling in the sand, which put more pressure on his broken arm and the bludger impacted leaving a deep groove into the sand, showing its lethal intention.
He knew that he'd never outrun a bludger on foot, and without his wand to defend himself with, Harry figured he'd be killed by this bludger. Thankfully Frieda and Georgina, now that the other bludger had become inert, could focus entirely on the rogue implement and kept batting it away until Madam Hooch could tag it with a spell that would pull the bludger to the ground. Wearily Harry tried to stand up as others came onto the field to help him.
It was Gilderoy Lockhart who was the first to arrive at his side. "Don't worry, I know just the spell to right this wrong," Lockhart announced as he held out his wand. "Bracium amendo."
A soft white glow at the tip and Harry did feel the pain had stopped in his arm, lifting it up to get a good look, he realized why the bone wasn't hurting anymore, it was gone.
"Oh," Harry muttered as everyone else retched at the floppy noodle arm.
Harry didn't even register that the wizard next to him was making excuses for the resulting loss of bones but he was hurried back into the castle to be placed in a bed with Madam Pomfrey bustling around.
It was disorienting but she gave him a potion that tasted like rancid milk but she assured him would regrow the bones in his arm. It took a lot of work for the nurse to get all the other witches out of the hospital wing so Harry could get some rest.