Chapter 21: Reactions

Gryffindor common room

"Ron, you're being ridiculous!"

"Am I really, Hermione? Really?"

"YES! What do you think, Neville?"

Neville looked pretty upset at being put on the spot. The crowd in the common room who had been watching the argument were now all staring at him, and he did not like it.

"Um, I don't really know" He muttered.

"Listen, Hermione. Heir of Slytherin. What was Slytherin so famous for? Being a Parselmouth. Who's a Parselmouth at Hogwarts right now? Oh right, it's the guy who had a detention with Filch two weeks ago. This same guy's best friend, at the scene of the attack, threatens Mudbloods and blood traitors, and you really think I'm being ridiculous when I say I think he's the Heir?"

"Well, firstly he was at the feast with all of us and-"

"Were you watching him? Do you know he was there the whole time?"

"Don't interrupt me, Ronald! I listened while you spoke, you can at least show me the same courtesy!" Hermione's voice rose as she said this, and red blotches were beginning to appear on her cheeks.

"As I was saying, he was at the feast. Also, most of the school has a grudge against Filch. Just last week you were complaining about Mrs. Norris. Maybe you're the heir!"

Ron's ears started to redden as he angrily responded "I'm not a Parselmouth. He is!"

"That's true, but he's also twelve years old! If no one throughout history has ever found the Chamber of Secrets, why do you think a twelve-year-old would be able to? If Dumbledore's never been able to-"

Ron had had a stumped look in his eyes at the beginning of Hermione's sentence, but by the end, his eyes lit up and he interrupted her again.

"Maybe only the Heir can find it?"

Hermione stopped dead, and her eyes took on a faraway look.

"Maybe," she said slowly, "But I still don't think it's likely that a twelve-year-old would know how to find it. Besides, didn't you say his father was in Gryffindor?"

"That's right" Neville chimed in, "My parents were friends with them"

Ron was quiet for a few minutes.

"Still, he's a Parselmouth" he finally said, a bit weakly.

"Yes. But still, he's never been anti-muggles"

"But Malfoy is, and they're always together"

"Tell you what Ron, if this thing keeps going on, and it still points to him, we'll figure it out then"

Ron shook his head. "Fine, but I'm telling you now he's involved"

Hufflepuff common room

Gabriel Truman and Candice Lister, the seventh year prefects stood in front of the assembled Hufflepuffs. There was a feeling of tension and fear in the air.

"Guys, we don't want anyone freaking out or anything. This will most probably turn out to be nothing more than a Halloween prank in bad taste, and whoever did it will be caught and punished in no time" Gabriel began, exuding confidence and warmth. Candice took over at this point. She had a more stern voice, but it was modulated with kindness, and the younger students began to calm down, just from her tone.

"Nevertheless, we want to be careful. After speaking with Professor Sprout, we think it's fair to ask that everyone keeps in pairs for the next few weeks. Until things become clearer, we don't want to take any chances. Like Gabriel said, it will probably turn out to be nothing serious. Until we know that for sure though, we're going to do whatever we can to keep safe"

"It shouldn't be too difficult. Just pick a buddy who takes the same classes as you, and when you're going from class to class, make sure you're together. Be careful about curfew, we're going to be enforcing it far stricter. If someone isn't accounted for within a few minutes of curfew or class, we will be looking for them. If we all keep to these rules, nothing will go wrong"

The students immediately started speaking to another, making pairs who would be looking after one another. The younger years all seemed to be much less worried, but the calm hadn't spread to the older ones as much.

Ravenclaw common room

"The existence of the Chamber of Secrets has never been proven!"

"Surely current matters should act of proof?"

"It could just as much be someone using an old legend to cause havoc"

"You honestly believe that anyone would risk suspension or expulsion simply to cause havoc?"

"Fabius, have you never met the Weasley twins?"

"Yes I have, but you clearly didn't notice their expressions tonight! Besides, they're still in so much trouble from the last stunt they pulled, I don't think they would risk something like this now. That's not even mentioning how this type of prank doesn't really fall into their idiom"

"I didn't mean it was actually them, I was merely using them as an example to point out that yes, sometimes, students here do stupid things for the fun of it"

"Your problem, Emily, is that you refuse to think of any other possibility once you have your mind made. Do you not agree, that it is at least possible that Salazar Slytherin made a hidden room in this castle, and that he kept a dangerous beast in it?"

A new voice sliced through the argument. Slightly dreamy, this voice didn't contain any of the heat of those previously speaking.

"Slytherin definitely hid a room. After all, Helga Hufflepuff did, so why wouldn't he?"

Both of the fourth year students turned to look at the first year who had so naively chosen to disturb them.

"No one cares about your stupid theories, Luna," Emily said, with a scorn laden tone, "What, you probably assume he hid Blibbering Humdingers in there as well, don't you?"

"No. They wouldn't be too happy with taking orders or with causing serious trouble. A Heliopath though, that could be"

The girl trailed off and wandered away. Emily and Fabius looked at each other, the wind quite taken out of the sails of their argument.

"Maybe we should wait until Professor Flitwick tells us more?" Fabius said cautiously.

"Agreed" Emily responded, with a flick of her hair.

Slytherin common room

Unlike that of the other houses, the atmosphere in the Slytherin common room was totally relaxed. In fact, it was rather upbeat.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" Harry angrily hissed at Draco. "You don't think it made you look just a teensy bit suspicious, your whole 'enemies of the Heir beware' thing?"

Draco actually looked quite amused by this tirade. When he spoke, it came in quite a condescending manner.

"Harry, everyone can think whatever they want. I'm not the Heir, and I think Father would react quite strongly if I was accused of such a thing"

"I'm not talking about you getting a detention, I'm talking about someone attacking you. You know, like what happened to me last year!"

"I'm a Malfoy. No-one would dare-"

"Really? No-one? None of the Gryffindors, who don't care who your father is? How could you just be so stupid?"

"I wasn't thinking, ok?" Draco said angrily, near shouting. "It just sounded cool, and I thought if the Chamber really has been opened, then it's time for those fools to learn their places-"

"You didn't think. Draco, people probably already think I'm the Heir, your little act is just going to cement that in their minds. Because you didn't think"

Draco turned and stormed out of the room, and into their bedroom. Harry watched him go, face stoic for a moment before it crumpled into a rictus of anguish and fear.

"Fuck" he muttered to himself.

Ministry of Magic, floor 1, Boardroom 5

Lucius Malfoy left the meeting of the Hogwarts Governors with a spring in his step. It had been most enlightening. Emergency meetings were rare enough, and an emergency meeting that had the honor of hosting the Headmaster and the Minister for Magic himself was near unheard of.

Dumbledore had informed them all that it was next to impossible that this attack was a simple prank. Lucius had been extremely glad for his practice in controlling his expression, he had wanted nothing more than to burst out laughing in the old man's face. Still, he had played his part well, in pushing for Aurors not to be sent to Hogwarts unless the situation would worsen.

' And worsen it shall. Perhaps this may prove to be the chance to unseat Dumbledore' . He smiled to himself at the thought.

' And when the Aurors do finally investigate, who will be found guilty other than our own muggle-loving fools' daughter. And what, I wonder, will be with his silly laws then'

He nodded to the security wizard as he left the ministry, and prepared to apparate home.

' I must write to Draco. He must keep quiet during all this. I don't want unnecessary attention being paid to him at this point'

The Headmasters office, Hogwarts

Severus Snape looked at the people crowding Dumbledore's office. Heads of House, Poppy, Kettleburn. Everyone who had been summoned to this meeting was there, except Dumbledore.

' Can he come already? I'm eagerly anticipating the bashing of the house under my care to begin'

To be fair, Severus knew that Slytherin did deserve part of its bad reputation. After all, most of the Death Eaters who had been in Hogwarts had been Slytherins. He knew, that if you had to take ten students who believed in blood purity and who held similar, non-politically correct opinions, eight of them would be Slytherins. Nevertheless, the accusations still rankled him. Did they not realize, that by alienating the Slytherins they pushed them towards people who held those views? That when the only people who accepted you wanted you to hurt others, you would gladly do that? Do it, and enjoy every second of it.

He wasn't a stupid man though, and that is why he had done some investigating. Every one of his charges had been accounted for at the feast. He had made particularly sure to get a chance to look into Harry's eyes before coming to this meeting. It had hurt, as it always did to see Lily's eyes in James' face, but it had confirmed something for him. Harry had nothing to do with the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, and he had no idea who did.

He marveled at the current state of affairs. There he was, preparing himself to defend James Potter's son against accusations that could easily lead to expulsion. The thing was, the boy was the type of student a teacher dreamed of. No trouble, with a desire to learn and grow.

' And looking at his eyes, I can almost pretend Lily is alive for an instant'

The problem with proving the innocence of all his Slytherins was that now he was left with no possible leads. It would make sense that a Slytherin was responsible, but from what he knew so far, none of them were.

The last time the Chamber had been opened, it had been done by a man Severus once called master.

' Could Dumbledore be right? Could the Dark Lord somehow still live?'

As always happened when he thought of his former leader, Severus felt a mixture of emotions and desires churning within him.

He missed it, missed giving in to his rage and hate and desire, and simply doing whatever he wanted and felt like. He missed the feeling of absolute power he had when taking a life. He missed the tingling pleasure that had ran through his body in waves as he held the Cruciatus on some poor soul. He missed the jealous looks his companions had given him as his Lord complimented him. But as all those thoughts went through his mind, three simple words ran into them from the other direction and stopped them dead in their tracks.

' He killed Lily'

He had finally begun the process of moving on from Lily. He thought he was nearly ready to try to start a relationship again. But moving on did not mean forgetting, and it surely did not mean forgiving. Some things could never be forgiven.

A flash of golden fire lit up the room, and Dumbledore's sudden appearance broke Severus' train of thought. He rolled his eyes at the sight of the most powerful living wizard holding a phoenix's tail.

"Excellent" Dumbledore said, taking his seat, "Everyone's here"

"After meeting with the Governor's and the Minister, we have decided, that if this situation becomes much worse, Aurors will be summoned to Hogwarts"

The room was silent to this news. It wasn't any more, or less, than what they had been expecting.

"In the meanwhile, we shall begin our investigation. I will recap what we know so far, to ensure that we are all on the same page"

Dumbledore cleared his throat and began to talk.

"The tests that Minerva, Filius, Severus, Poppy and I have conducted show no signs of spell damage whatsoever. Furthermore, Severus believes there is no sign of potion use, and I concur. I have written to Horace Slughorn, as well as the Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers for second opinions, but I believe they will find as we have"

"So you believe it is truly the Chamber of Secrets?" Filius said, voice lower than his usual squeak.

Dumbledore merely nodded, looking serious.

"Well then", Minerva said looking at Severus, "We at least have some indication of where the perpetrator is"

' There it is. I thought higher of you Minerva'

"I have proof of the innocence of my house members, Minerva"

"Even the Parselmouth?" Silvanus Kettleburn said.

"Especially him," Severus said icily, "I was not so remiss in my duties as to not investigate such an obvious suspect"

"Well, I wish you would let me borrow him. If he could translate for me, I could learn so much and-"

"Silvanus, please," Dumbledore said, raising a hand to cut through the man's talk. "Will you share with us the outcome of your investigation, please?"

"Ah, yes. Hagrid, Grubbly-Plank and I examined the cat. I believe I have narrowed down the list of creatures that could have possibly caused this to a mere three"

"A mere three. Imagine that" Severus said

"Once we removed all the other possible creatures and hybrids that could do it, yes, three is a fantastic amount to have to work through"

"Silvanus, please just tell us your conclusions," Dumbledore said tiredly.

"The culprit is either a Gorgon, a Catoblepas, or a Basilisk. If it is a basilisk, the only way the cat even survived is that she saw its gaze in a reflection, and not directly. Nevertheless, I believe a basilisk to be the most likely cause"

"Why?"

"Multiple reasons. The association between Salazar Slytherin and snakes, for one. The fact that basilisks are so long-lived, particularly if it has been hibernating. The fact that the animal, basilisk or not, was clearly being controlled, and Gorgons and Catoblepas' do not lend themselves well to being anyone's tool. At least with a basilisk, a Parselmouth would be able to control it. And lastly, and most damningly, Hagrid's roosters were killed last week. He suspected foxes, but it points towards a basilisk"

"How certain are you of Harry's innocence, Severus?" Dumbledore asked, looking sickened.

"One hundred percent certain. I investigated myself" He said, looking Dumbledore in the eyes. He knew Dumbledore would understand what method he had used to investigate and indeed, Dumbledore closed his eyes and nodded, looking slightly grateful.

"Silvanus. Get us more roosters. I am not going to merely leave it up to that. I know of charms that could circumvent the threat of the cock's crow, and we must assume that whoever is controlling this basilisk does as well"

"Pomona. How long until the mandrakes are ready for the draught to be prepared?"

"Hard to say, exactly. Depends on how long they spend in the different stages. Could be anything from six to nine months, maybe even ten"

"We will have to guard them. I'll set a rotation. Poppy, you have everything you would need, in case we have to deal with other cases?"

Poppy shuddered but spoke in a clear voice "Of course. The hospital wing is very well stocked"

"Good. Everyone, we must look into this, and find it. We have a near impossible task before us. We must find the Chamber of Secrets. Remember how it ended, last time it was opened"