Chapter 108: Nobody remembers?

I closed the map after I'd gotten what I wanted since I didn't want Dumbledore to notice the notice-me-not spell.

I now know the culprit. The diary is with Micheal Corner. That's all I need for now. Well, it's also good to know that the name of the fearsome gigantic Basilisk is 'Truci'.

I once again made sure all my friends were in the Hall. And I also checked the muggleborns who are not present here right now. I'd rather no one gets Petrified tonight.

***

General POV:

"THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR... BEWARE."

A big crowd of students had started gathering around the wall that had the above lines written in blood red colour. What was more surprising was the body lying right underneath it. It was the school's caretaker, Argus Filch. He was lying on the wet floor, his eyes were wide open and his mop laid forgotten beside him, soaked in water. It seems like he was in here to clean the flooded bathroom.

Then an irritating high pitched childish voice sounded, "Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

It was Draco Malfoy. He had pushed to the front of the crowd, his cold eyes alive, his usually bloodless face flushed, as he grinned at the sight of the body of the immobile caretaker.

"Serves him right. The squib got what what he deserves!" Malfoy laughed, along with a few Slytherins, but even most of the Slytherins currently had grim and serious expressions in this situation.

"MEEEOOOWW!!!"

And of course, the most distracting thing was the cat which was wailing constantly besides the caretaker's body. It was Miss Noris, his pet cat.

Harry, Neville, and Hermione, who were still unaware that they were spared from being suspected was doing this were also among the crowd of students. Currently, all the other professors were gathered around Filch's body while Dumbledore was examining Filch.

"Oh, we shouldn't have been talking bad about him this morning!" cried Hermione, who also, like others, thought that Filch had been done in already.

"Who is the Heir?" Wondered Harry. And it was the question of everyone here.

"Who knows..." said a voice from beside them. Chris Martin had appeared beside them at some point, his expression also quite grave. "But I'm sure about one thing." he said seriously.

"What is it?" asked Hermione urgently and Harry and Neville also listened attentively.

Chris put his thumb and finger on his chin.l, adopting the pose of an expert. "That Harry won't have to do his detention now."

"...." x3

Well, they couldn't deny it, but still,

Hermione didn't like it, "Can you not make jokes in this situation?!" she whispered harshly. "For Merlin's sake, someone was just 'murdered' right in Hogwarts!"

Chris raised a single eye brow, looking quite unimpressed by her outburst, "Oh he's dead? Hermione, get rid of that muggle thinking already. He'd still be in the same position if just casted a 'Petrificus Totalus' on him. It could just be someone playing a prank."

"Oh..." Hermione looked back at Filch, and realized that she'd indeed been thinking too much due to the dramatic atmosphere. She got embarrassed for her earlier outburst and couldn't meet eyes Chris after that, "But...he could still be dead, right?" she said weakly.

"It was definitely a curse that killed him — probably the Transmogrifian Torture — I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very countercurse that would have saved her. . . ." While Dumbledore was examining Filch's body, Lockhart was couldn't help himself from showing off.

Hearing that, the students began making a commotion while the other teachers glared angrily at Lockhart, telling him to shut the f*ck up.

Hermione's head snapped back to look at Chris with a See-I-told-you! expression. Like Lockhart's words were the law. Like the sun itself shines from his self-f*cked *ss.

Chris didn't even dignify her with a glance in her direction let alone a response. He just stood casually with his hands in his pockets as he paid attention to the spells Dumbledore was using in his examination of Filch's body.

Dumbledore was now muttering strange words under his breath and tapping Filch with his wand, but nothing happened: He continued to look as though he had been recently stuffed.

". . . I remember something very similar happening in Ouagadogou," said Lockhart, "a series of attacks, the full story's in my autobiography, I was able to provide the townsfolk with various amulets, which cleared the matter up at once. . . ." The man seemed to have no end to no control over his bragging mouth.

Right then, Headmaster Dumbledore, who was crouched while examining Filth's body stood up, gathering everyone's attention. As Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak, everyone paid attention, unlike earlier when more than half the students were straight up ignoring what Lockhart was saying.

"He's still alive. Only Petrified, though I can't say why. . .." said Dumbledore, and Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the number of murders he had prevented. Hermione this time went beet red as she got embarrassed for the second time.

And Chris still didn't dignify her with even a glance. He just had a little smirk at the corner of his mouth that seemed to say, 'Take that, b*tch.' It was unknown whether it was for Lockhart or Hermione.

"Albus, who could have done this?!" McGonagall asked him worriedly.

"I don't know, Minerva, but we will be able to cure Argus," said Dumbledore patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mr. Filch."

"I'll make it," Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep —"

"That'll definitely kill Filch!" someone from the crowd yelled, and the students burst into laughter.

"Excuse me," said Snape as he also sneered at Lockhart who was currently quite embarrassed. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school. said Snape as many students continued to laugh at the speechless Lockhart.

"You all may go to your dorrmitories now." Dumbledore said with twinkling eyes to the crowd and the students quieted down and reluctantly started dispersing as they all discussed today's events among themselves.

Dumbledore then turned to McGonagall. "And Minerva, could you please handle Miss Noris in Filch's absence? You can also leave her to Hagrid."

"Yes, headmaster." McGonagall picked up the still wailing cat as Flitwick levitated Filch to take him to the hospital wing.

Standing alone, Dumbledore looked at the rows of spiders fleeing with his twinkling eyes.

***

MC POV:

The next day, the Chamber of Secrets had become the hot topic of Hogwarts as everyone talked about what had happened yesterday.

I was sitting at the Ravenclaw table for breakfast as my friends also discussed about yesterday.

"Did you guys see Lockhart's expression when Dumbledore said that Filch is dead?" asked Terry as chuckled. "That was one tight slap right in front of everyone!"

"I'll Never believe a word he says again." said Lisa Turpin angrily. it seems like she got deceived when Lockhart said that Filch had actually died.

"I never believed him ever in the first place" said Padma as she scoffed and everyone nodded.

"I won't even go to the dueling club he's organizing." said Sue Li. "He can't teach us anything. Oh, how I hope Flitwick takes over!"

Everyone agreed to that one.

"Anyways, what's the Chamber of Secrets?" asked Anthony as he squinted as if trying to remember. "I think I've about read it somewhere."

Everyone thought about it. "It was in Hogwarts: A History." replied Terry Boots, "But even I can't remember exactly what it is...Hmm, that's weird." He shrugged.

I frowned. "Does no one here remembers it?" I asked as looked around the table at my friends.

"...."

No one seemed to remember, and now everyone found this fishy.

"Guys, I suppose everyone here has read Hogwarts: A History?" I asked as I looked around.

Everyone nodded with a 'Duh, we're Ravenclaw!' expression.

"Then, how in the bollocks did everyone forget about the Chamber of Secrets?!" I asked.

"Oh I remember it." said Luna casually as she took her seat beside me. "Salazar Slytherin made it and hid a magical creature there." She said with a dreamy expression, "I've been trying to find it since the first day! I want to see the creature. . ."

"....."

*Gasp!*

"Oh! I remember it now. . ."

"Merlin's beard that's weird."

"Why did I forget?"

All of them suddenly remembered after Luna told them about it.

"That IS weird." I agreed.

'Is this something similar to a Fidelius?' I thought inwardly. Come to think of it, Chamber of secrets is place where everyone seems to forget about. Even Hermione the bookworm had forgotten about it. She had to borrow the Hogwarts: A History from the library to know about it, and all the copies had been borrowed by that time. She had to ask Professor Bins in the end.

And, in fifth year, the trio had to wait for Dobby to tell Harry about the 'Come and Go room' for secret meetings. They didn't even consider the secret Chamber which only the three of them knew about. I mean, they could have managed to do the meetings there, if they got it cleaned by Dobby and put some flying broomsticks there for easy travel. They only remembered it when they really need to go there, for the Basilisk venom.

'Hmm... that's quite sus.' While I was thinking this I suddenly saw someone leaving the Hall and I remember that I had a thing I need to do. Throwing out an excuse to my friends, I followed the person out of the hall.

I tracked down my target who was walking alone in an empty corridor to the next class. Concentrating for some time, I activated Super Trigger blue.

Low chirping of many birds started sounding in my ears due to the electric blue magic flowing through out my body.

"Oi, Michael!" I called out as I kept walking. Michael Corner, the fake Heir in front of me stopped in his tracks and turned back to look back.

I used undetectable Legilimency on him as I looked at his recent memories. I saw him bumping into Lucius Malfoy in the Diagon Alley. Then I saw him writing in the Diary at what seemed like his home. Then I saw the Diary writing back in Tom Riddle's neat handwriting, his words very persuasive and manipulative.

Skipping over a few months, I saw him glaring at me as everyone paid attention to me and ignored him. Skipping some more, I saw him— it was Tom Riddle possessing him — opening the Chamber of Secrets...

Then I finally saw it! Dark green scales scales as big as a person's head, a body as wide as a meter in Diameter and over sixty feet in length. I didn't see it's eyes but I heard Tom Riddle speaking to the snake. . .

$"Sssseytha-hathehhh-haaaaaah-tsseyaa-seethaaa-ssse-hasseey-aayaa-seyythaa"$

$"HISSSS"$

Riddle said something to the snake, and then he looked directly at the snake!

And I got the front view of the basilisk. Two big sharp fangs protruding down from it's upper jaw which looked like they could tear into anything. But the snake's eyes seemed... lidded. Maybe that's why Riddle can look at it in the eyes.

$"hatheeey-seethaaa-aayaa-hass-seethaaa aayaa-sssseytha"$

$"HISISSHISSS"$ Riddle must have asked the snake something, because the snake shook it's head as it hissed back.

$"seyythaa-ayaeeh-tsseyaa tsseyaa-hasseey-esseytha-ssse" $

$"HISSSSHISS"$

I couldn't understand a word they were saying, but I still used my occlumency to memorize it. After I was done, only a few seconds had passed due to my Super Trigger.

"What is it?" asked Michael as he looked at me with an arrogant expression. Like he finally had something that I didn't have.

"...Nothing." There was nothing left to say. He was already too far gone. I brushed past him to my next class as I planned my next actions.

***

A.N.: How would he deal with this situation? What has he planned? just keep reading and giving POWERSTONES and find out!

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