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Assistant: Title: How is this My Life? 2
        Author: FMPtrumpets FMPtrumpets 
        Chapter: 10/18 
        Summary: Harry and the group continue with the reading of Harry's life, and boy is it a year! The adults aren't sure who they want to strangle first, Harry for getting into situations like this, or the adults that let it happen! So much for Sirius wanting a nice, quiet year...
        Contents: Chapter 10: The Writing on the Wall
    

    


      
        
          Those from the past with an older self. Everybody else.ParselmouthSign language/telepathySadly neither Harry Potter, nor any of his friends and companions belong to me. I really wish it were different, but it is not and likely never will be.
      
  

  
  
    
    
  
    "How could you have enjoyed that?" Ginny demanded, still pale.
  

  
    "It wasn't Mrs. Norris being up there that was exciting... to be honest it was the thought that Potter would get in trouble for it, maybe even expelled." Draco admitted. "I didn't care about the cat." He wasn't going to admit that he actually found the cat hanging there to be... unsettling. He rather liked animals, after all.
  

  
    "Wow, thanks." Harry said dryly.
  

  
    "That was the end of the chapter." Filius said after a moment.
  

  
    "One more chapter, then dinner." Molly announced, reminding everybody. They nodded, and Filius recast the charm to continue.
  

  
    Chapter nine: the Writing on the Wall
  

  "Is that talking about the message?" Neville muttered.

  "Most likely." Harry shrugged, not really knowing or caring about that part.

  ("What's going... by Malfoy's shout,)

  "Or the large gathering of students." Harry shrugged.

  "Either way this can't be good."

  "Depends on who it is and what their immediate conclusion is." Remus assured Sirius.

  (Argus Filch)

  "Ok, this isn't going to end well." Remus deflated. Especially since Mrs. Norris was the victim.

  "It didn't." Minerva confirmed darkly. "I thought we were going to have to pull him off Harry." She admitted.

  "I thought he was going to kill me." Harry said bluntly. He'd been more scared in that moment than he was on a typical day at the Dursley house.

  The four Dursley parents perked up at that thought, making Moody eye them suspiciously. They'd been too quiet recently, even though he'd caught them whispering to each other with... Looks on their faces.

  (came shouldering... he shrieked.)

  "That's a very good question." Sirius muttered, frowning. If she'd come across the Basilisk, then she should be dead, right? But the kids talked about her like she was still around.

  "She was still there the next year." Remus frowned, too. "So she didn't look it in the eyes..."

  (And his... fell on Harry.)

  "Uh-oh." 

  "That's not good." 

  The bad thing was that everybody in this room knew how Hogwarts really worked. Even those who had never been to Hogwarts knew by now. Once the accusation was made, no matter how many other rumors flew, and no matter what the teachers said otherwise, the students would whole-heartedly believe that initial accusation. 

  Of course, it didn't help any that the rumor mill was so fast, and that they were a crowd of magical teenagers whose teachers never told them anything. By the time any of the teachers ever deigned to tell the students anything, if they deigned to tell them anything, the rumors were by then so ingrained and accepted as fact, no matter how outlandish, that they might as well have spread the rumors themselves.

  ("You!" he screeched... I'll kill you! I'll-")

  Sirius and Remus almost exploded upon hearing the threat to their pups life.

  "Such an awful man." Molly said in shocked horror.

  "I trust that he was at least disciplined for that." Sirius gritted out, enraged that a member of the Hogwarts staff just threatened to actually kill a student. He knew the teachers didn't bother to temper his behavior otherwise, but this was stepping over a completely different line.

  Minerva snorted. "Of course he wasn't." She scoffed. She'd tried to slap him with a suspension for threatening a students life, but Dumbledore stepped in and said that it was just grief, that he hadn't really meant it.

  "He just threatened to 
  
    kill 
  
  somebody!" Remus exclaimed. "He never even went that far with us!"

  "I'm sure that is his grief speaking. He would never really harm a student." Dumbledore finally said.

  "Oh, yes he would, without hesitation." Nearly all the students said at once. They wholeheartedly believed it, too, especially those who saw how eager he was with Umbridge there, 
  
    especially 
  
  when she gave him permission to whip students.

  ("Argus!"

  Dumbledore had... Weasley, Miss Granger.")

  "Whoa, why are they going with you? They didn't do anything!" Sirius protested immediately.

  "I imagine it is because they were the first to find her." Albus said thoughtfully.

  "The other students are going to see this as you suspecting them." Remus warned.

  Harry snorted bitterly while Ron and Hermione winced. "Not us, just Harry." Hermione said quietly.

  "Like usual." Ron muttered, rolling his eyes. They were always turning on his best mate at every opportunity. He was ashamed to say he wasn't much better sometimes, especially during fourth year and during the Hunt.

  (Lockhart stepped forward eagerly.)

  "He was enjoying this far too much." Pomona muttered darkly.

  "Of course, it gave him a chance to step into the spotlight and be 'helpful'." Harry provided, shrugging.

  ("My office is... please feel free-")

  "At least he made sense that time." Severus muttered. It was the truth, his office was closest, even if he'd hated inflating the mans ego even more in this moment of accepting his aid.

  The rest of his 'helpful' suggestions throughout the year were just annoying, unrealistic, and made him want to relive his Death Eater days (in the time when he actually enjoyed it). 

  ("Thank you, Gilderoy,"... let them pass.)

  "Don't just leave it at that, say something to them!" Arabella groaned. This was not going to end well for Harry, she knew that much at least. This was a crowd of teenagers who only had a small bit of information, and accusations had already been thrown about. 

  Harry snorted. "That would be a first." He muttered. He sometimes wondered if his later years, mostly fourth and fifth, wouldn't have been easier if the professors had stood up for him during this year. After all, the Gryffindor's may have gotten away with it during his first year after the thing with the points, but this was the year the 
  
    entire 
  
  school learned they could treat him badly and the professor's would just sit back and watch. 

  (Lockhart, looking... hair in rollers.)

  There were snorts. "Seriously?" Sirius muttered, smirking. 

  "Could his ego be any bigger?" Somebody muttered. Even his portraits! 

  "Oh, it gets better." Harry rolled his eyes.

  (The real Lockhart... not to smile.)

  "Severus!" Minerva slapped his shoulder, glaring.

  "Not at Mrs. Norris, or about Filch!" He protested immediately, not saying that that was actually part of it. What could he say? That man had caused enough trouble for him as a student, and that cat of his was always following him around, a lot like it did Hagrid. Of course, he hadn't known until just a few days ago that Lily gave him that cat... "I was picturing ways I could shut Lockhart up." He tilted his head to the side. That blonde idiots prattling had been getting on his nerves.

  She eyed him suspiciously, but turned back to the book.

  (And Lockhart was... Transmogrifian Torture-)

  "That's not even a curse." Severus deadpanned. He must not have been paying any attention at the time.

  "Oh, good. I was thinking it was something created in the last ten years." Sirius muttered. He didn't recognize it, either. "It sounds like it would be horrible, though, if it was real."

  "It sounds like he threw a few words together." Minerva muttered, rolling her eyes. She hadn't been paying him any attention, too focused on Mrs. Norris.

  (I've seen it... have saved her...")

  "Hmm-mm. I'm sure." Sirius muttered patronizingly. He rolled his eyes.

  "Sirius, he's a professor, as loosely as that title can be used with him... And we all know he's a fraud. We're going to be reading about him a lot. Can you try and tone it down?" Remus asked. He didn't want to deal with the comments every single time Lockhart opened his mouth in these books.

  Sirius made a face, but quieted down. Remus still eyed him in concern, though, wondering if he needed another Calming Draught, or if it would be safe to give him another one.

  (Lockhart's comments... racking sobs.)

  "Oh, that poor man." Arabella muttered, sighing sadly.

  The future, current (sort of), and past students glanced at each other, uncomfortable. Filch made their Hogwarts years miserable at times, and there was a reason why the students hated him. But right now they couldn't help but feel bad for him.

  Even Petunia looked mildly uncomfortable with it, but she shook it off easily enough.

  "But how? You all have talked like she's still around." Dudley muttered, frowning. Remus and Sirius were the only ones to catch it, and their heads snapped to him.

  (He was slumped in... bit sorry for him,)

  "Anybody would, even the most cold-hearted person." Poppy muttered. "Well..." She amended slightly, looking at Severus in question. He didn't look very phased, after all. 

  He rolled his eyes. "Even I felt a small amount of pity." He admitted grudgingly. Privately, he didn't say that there were some that most certainly would 
  
    not 
  
  have felt any kind of pity, the Dark Lord and Bellatrix came to mind first. 

  (though not nearly... expelled for sure.)

  "He knew you didn't do it." Minerva sighed, shaking her head. "You were never in danger of being expelled." 

  "He's doing it, again." Hermione said flatly to Ron. 

  "Yeah. I thought we'd been working on that." He complained. Harry remained stubbornly silent. 

  "What's wrong?" Sirius asked, eyeing his godson, worried. 

  "Thinking the worse. First of all... he's the Boy-Who-Lived. Nobody in their right minds is going to expel him on the word of a Squib, even if they claim they aren't blood purist." Hermione said, glaring at Harry pointedly. 

  "And second of all, Filch is a grieving person who made wild accusations against the first person he happened to lay eyes on. Not only that, but he has a history of being bitter and angry towards students, using any excuse to get them in trouble." Ron snorted. 

  "Harry just has a bad habit of leaping to the worst conclusions for the smallest of matters, especially when it comes to adults believing him or not, or whether they will punish him for something and how severely." Neville sighed, glaring at the Dursleys. He blamed them for Harry's attitude. His glare swung towards the teachers, who had certainly enforced the Dursley's conditioning over the years.

  (Dumbledore was... recently stuffed.)

  "That's an apt enough description." Minerva snorted. It had been eerie to see, considering she ran around the school with Mrs. Norris in her cat form all the time. 

  ("...I remember... in Ouagadogou,")

  "... Is that even a real place?" Neville asked, blinking.

  "Yes, in Africa. It's the capital city of one of the... western countries." Sirius said after a moment, thinking back. He'd enjoyed geography when he was younger, and studied a lot of maps.

  "
  
    Just how many people did he find and Obliviate
  
  ?" Hermione signed. He'd clearly traveled a lot.

  "
  
    Probably too many
  
  ." Harry signed back.

  (said Lockhart, "A... up at once...")

  "Uh-huh." Sirius said blankly. "Amulets for what, exactly? And how could the matter be cleared up without the attacker being caught?" Because if it was for the Killing Curse, which the only thing he could really think of off the top of his head for Mrs. Norris right now to be dead without a mark on her, no amulet was going to defend against that. And it wouldn't be hard for any attacker to find a way past those amulets, anyway. And Dudley was right, the others 
  
    had 
  
  been talking about her like she was still around, not like she'd died that year.

  "You know... the book never really went into detail of just how the people were being attacked." She tilted her head to the side, mentally speed-reading through that section of the book.

  "I don't think he's ever actually been to Ouagadogou." Remus said suddenly. "You said it was a capital city? He's making it sound like it's some small town or village."

  "He most likely tracked down the wizard, pumped him for information, and then Obliviated him." Harry muttered. Lockhart's books didn't really sell outside the UK, after all, so how would the people who were actually helped know any better?

  (The photographs... his hair net.)

  "Seriously? Even the pictures of him."

  "How pathetic."

  (At last Dumbledore... he said softly.)

  "What?" Sirius asked, frowning at the confirmation. Then... but she must not have looked the Basilisk in the eye then, something else happened...? Maybe that girl that had been speaking attacked the cat first.

  "How..." Remus muttered, trying to figure this out.

  The Trio glanced at each other. "We'll let you work that out. If you can't, we figured it out, so it'll be in the books." Harry said, confident that his realization was a big enough deal that it would be in the book.

  (Lockhart stopped... he had prevented.)

  "Ha!" Sirius barked out. "What was his face? Did he look shocked, horrified?" Remus rolled his eyes, but hoped that Sirius would heed his 'request'. 

  "He looked very shocked and confused." Harry confirmed. After all, he'd just spent the last few minutes going on about how she had most certainly died, without even looking at her he might add, only for it to be announced that she wasn't dead! 

  ("Not dead?" choked... been Petrified,")

  "And however it was done, it's not something a Finite Incantantum is going to reverse, is it?" Sirius mumbled, eyes narrowed. That must have been what Dumbledore was doing with his wand before announcing that she lived. 

  "Indeed. Most perplexing." Albus agreed. 

  (said Dumbledore... said Lockhart).)

  "Ah-huh. I'm sure." Luna said sarcastically, shocking several people while Harry had to hide his amusement. It wasn't often he saw her like that, after all. 

  He still much preferred her normal self to the serious-Luna she'd had to become under the reign of the two Death Eaters posing as professors. 

  Everyone else rolled their eyes. "Does he not stop to think that people will see right through the Hippogryph- er, 
  
    dung
  
   he spouts?" Sirius asked, shaking his head. He barely remembered to curb his language at Molly's sudden death-glare and the younger ears in the room. 

  "This is <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON> we're talking about, Siri." Remus sighed. "Please don't say something 
  
    everytime 
  
  he opens his big mouth." He pleaded again, quietly. Sirius sighed, but nodded his agreement to try and hold his tongue.

  ("But how, I cannot say...")

  "Hmm..." Albus hummed, brain racing with everything he knew about this situation, including everything Sirius said about it being a Basilisk. 

  ("Ask him!" shrieked... have done this,")

  Those few who were aware of Ginny's involvement glanced at each other. 

  "I wouldn't be so sure of that." Ron muttered while gathering his sister back into his arms when she paled some more. 

  (said Dumbledore... most advanced-")

  "Not necessarily." Harry muttered. 

  Well, it did take extremely Dark Magic considering a Horcrux was involved, but it wasn't Dark Magic that did this to Mrs. Norris. Unless... he narrowed his eyes at Dumbledore. He'd said he had suspicions for years, both of Tom Riddle's real involvement the first time the Chamber was opened, and in how he'd survived his initial attack on Harry. Did he guess even then what was really going on? And choose to do nothing? 

  ("He did it, he... Squib!" he finished.)

  "What's the big deal about that?" Dudley asked, confused. Yeah, he'd been told what a Squib was already, but the way Filch just said it, it made it sound bad for some reason. 

  "For most people, it's worse then being a Muggle." Draco informed him. "We already know, mostly, but we mostly ignore it. The Slytherin students in particular would make life 
  
    very 
  
  difficult if it was brought up." It was because it was never mentioned that they were able to ignore it, or rather forget about it for the most part. 

  ("I never touched... a Squib is.")

  "I'd never even heard of that word before he said it." Harry confirmed with a shrug.

  "You'd been there for a year, and you never heard about that?" Dudley asked. He could understand not having heard the word 'mudblood' before that, it was apparently an insult and Harry wouldn't hang around people like that. But Squib? Although apparently that was even worse. 

  "Squib's aren't talked about in polite society." Draco sighed and explained, glancing at Arabella. "They're seen as stains on the family... it's only recently that most families take the time and effort to at least set the Squib child up in a good Muggle school, with a good family. They used to either just kill them outright, or dump them in the streets." He said, slightly uncomfortable with the topic. Like he said, Squibs weren't something to be discussed in polite society, most people preferred to pretend Squibs didn't exist at all, let alone that they probably had some in their family somewhere.

  Arabella didn't look at anything, she just glared at the wall with her jaw clenched while her godfather wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

  She was one of the lucky ones, she was set up in a good school with a good foster family, and her birth family kept in contact, they didn't just outright cut her off. Well, that might have been her godfather's influence more then anything else, the letters and visits from her parents had been rather stilted, after all. But still.

  "You said most families. Most families take the effort to get them set up in the Muggle community." Dudley said slowly, having caught that. It seemed that his older self forcing him to use his head and think while here was already doing some good. 

  "Some families still kill any Squib children they have." Arabella said quietly. Draco nodded grimly.

  "That's horrible." 
  
    Hermione 
  
  said, staring between Draco and Arabella.

  ("Rubbish!" snarled... Kwikspell letter!")

  "Did I know what it was?" Harry asked sarcastically. "No." Why did people always have to assume that he knew what things were? It's not like he was raised a wizard, or anything. Everybody assuming all this stuff about him was very annoying, too.

  Even Ron and Hermione did it sometimes.

  ("If I might speak... him any good.)

  "It never does." Harry deadpanned. Snape enjoyed it when he got in trouble, especially when he was able to decide the punishment.

  Severus raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything about it.

  ("Potter and his... time," he said,)

  "Did you just... defend them?" Neville blurted out, shocked.

  Severus curled his lip in disgust. "Of course not, Longbottom." He sneered. He wasn't going to admit that his Oath had urged him to do that, he hadn't wanted Filch to somehow convince Dumbledore to let him punish them, or to give Filch an avenue to still explore so he could make up a reason to get them in detention. Especially Harry.

  (a slight sneer... Halloween feast?")

  "You should have probably let Minerva know you weren't going to be there." Remus said, frowning in thought.

  "After what happened the year before, that probably would have been wise." Minerva sighed.

  "We didn't think we would need to, we were at a party with other adults... technically." Ron frowned at that, glancing at Harry and Hermione, who shrugged.

  "They may not have been able to do anything if something did attack, but they could have gotten a teacher or made efforts to distract any attacker." Harry listed out what the ghosts could have done. "And if the Basilisk had come in, well, there were plenty of ghosts around for us to not die." He muttered, more quietly.

  (Harry, Ron and... to that corridor?")

  "Why did the rest of the students go up that corridor?" 
  
    Harry 
  
  piped up. "To get to their Common rooms or the library."

  The rest of the room chuckled. "He's got a point there." Sirius smirked.

  "Maybe, but without stopping by the Great Hall for food?" Severus deadpanned. Although he supposed that if the feast was just ending...

  (Ron and Hermione... because -" Harry said,)

  "Harry!" The Twins groaned.

  "I thought you were better then that!" Sirius scolded.

  "You three have strange priorities." Molly muttered, rolling her eyes. Harry just sighed.

  (his heart thumping... bed," he said.)

  "Which was mostly true." Harry pointed out. He had been tired and just wanted to find his bed. He could admit to being hungry, too, but it wasn't that bad for him since he was used to going hungry. Although being at Hogwarts for even a few months had changed that for him a bit.

  "Yes, but you have Ron Weasley with you, he's not going to buy you three going to bed without food." Bill pointed out, amused. Harry shrugged.

  Thankfully nobody was trying to lecture him about not telling the teachers about the voice. They all seemed to not find that important at the moment, or they agreed that it would be a little unbelievable.

  ("Without any supper?"... at their parties.")

  "They don't." Ron grumbled. That was the first night he'd ever missed dinner that he remembered, and he'd thought he was starving then. Then he went on the run with Harry... they were lucky if they could scrounge up something for two meals a day.

  ("We weren't hungry,"... a huge rumble.)

  "Maybe you should have stayed quiet, let Harry handle it." Remus advised, an amused smile on his face.

  Ron grumbled, but didn't argue. His face was very red, though.

  "I was about to point out that the feast was ending as we left the Death Day party, therefore there wasn't anything left for us to eat, anyway, and we didn't know where the kitchens were." Harry sighed.

  "... I would have believed that." Severus said. He'd never been to a Death Day party himself, but he'd heard enough rumors. Well, he would have believed that if it weren't for the boys stuttering at the beginning.

  (Snape's nasty smile... to be honest.")

  "Oh?" Sirius asked, a slow smile coiling around his lips. "Afraid your going to lose, are you?" He took that suggestion as the highest form of praise for his godson's skill on a broom.

  Severus froze for a split second, and only slamming down his Occlumency shields kept his face from turning red. "My suggestion had nothing to do with our chances of winning a game against him." He denied smoothly, with no hint of a lie anywhere... except for that minute freeze.

  Sirius was a Black, though, and he caught it, judging by the wide Cheshire grin on his face. He wasn't the only one, either. Most of the Gryffindor's were grinning in amusement or vindication as this was pointed out, and immediately stopped protesting the punishment. Draco actually looked slightly betrayed.

  ("Really, Severus,"... with a broomstick.)

  "And even if she was, there would be no proving who was the one to do it. Most of the students have a broom, even if they aren't on a House team, and the school has at least thirty for students to use." Hermione pointed out. Even most of the Muggleborn students had a broom, just because they couldn't really use it during the summer holidays didn't mean they couldn't have one to use at school, either just to go for a fly on something that was safe, or for a pick-up game once in a while. 

  Severus glared at nothing. 

  (There is no... anything wrong.")

  "There never is." Harry muttered, rolling his eyes. 

  (Dumbledore was... being X-rayed.)

  "X-rayed?" Arthur asked, excited about the clearly Muggle term. The other Purebloods looked interested, too, especially after everything they'd gotten Hermione to teach them over the three day break about Muggles, assisted by the Room's ability to seemingly provide anything they asked for, including all the Muggle science or 'how-to' books they could possibly need. They didn't remember hearing that term, though.

  Hermione sighed. "It's a method used by Muggle doctors to see inside their patients' bodies to see what is wrong, especially when determining if anything is broken. Add it to the list and I'll explain in more detail later." She promised after giving the over-simplified explanation. 

  Sirius frowned at the description of the Muggle device, and eyed the Headmaster suspiciously.

  ("Innocent until... he said firmly.)

  "If only the rest of the students followed that philosophy." Harry muttered darkly. They all seemed to believe he was guilty until proven guilty. 

  "It didn't help that none of the teachers stepped in and stopped it." Neville countered, shooting said teachers' dark looks. 

  (Snape looked furious... some punishment!")

  "You can't just punish students just because they were the first ones to find her!" Arabella protested. Now really, he gave Squibs a bad name to every child in Wizarding Britain! 

  "There was no punishment." Harry assured his neighbor, who nodded her understanding. 

  ("We will be able... some Mandrakes.)

  "That's going to take months for them to mature." Remus said slowly. 

  "It did." Pomona confirmed. 

  "Good thing it's not a student, then." Sirius muttered, frowning. Dumbledore didn't even mention buying one already brewed, or purchasing an already matured Mandrake or two. 

  (As soon as they... Lockhart butted in.)

  "Not if you want her poisoned." Severus muttered dryly.

  "Did he just offer that with you in the room?" Sirius asked. Well, say what you like about Lockhart, he had guts.

  "Yes. I thought I was going to have to get between them!" Minerva snorted, eyes dancing with her amusement.

  Severus rolled his eyes. "I'm no Gryffindor." He said simply. He wasn't going to just attack somebody like that, no. If he had been inclined to get Lockhart for that comment, then nobody but Lockhart would have known it happened, or that it was him.

  ("I must have... in my sleep-")

  "Forgetting the part where it takes the better part of a week to brew, and the Mandrakes he would have needed had only just begun to leave infancy." Severus drawled. Not that it was complicated, just time-consuming, and the Mandrakes had to be added fresh or the whole thing was useless. 

  "You couldn't have gotten a mature Mandrake from a Greenhouse? The Longbottom Greenhouses supply most of the Potion ingredient needs in the UK, don't they?" Sirius asked, confused. Surely there were mature Mandrakes 
  
    somewhere 
  
  in the UK, even if they had to go to France. It wasn't like they were seasonal or could only grow under certain conditions. "I realize that she's not exactly a student, but..."

  "Er, we do." Neville cut in, answering Sirius' second question. "I didn't have much to do with the business while I was at school, though." Or anything to do with it at all, really. It wasn't until the beginning of his sixth year (right after the Ministry Battle...) that his Gran 'realized' that she'd completely neglected to show him the in's and out's of his own family business, although he was quite good at the Herbology side of it without her input. 

  "Ok, well..." Sirius looked at the teachers, confused. 

  Minerva pursed her lips. "It wasn't urgent when Mrs. Norris was attacked, like you said, she's not exactly a student, or even human. And then later on the Board refused the funds to buy the already mature Mandrakes needed. I don't know why a request wasn't made to St. Mungoes." She glanced at Poppy. 

  "I tried, I was informed that it 'wasn't needed'." She said bitterly. In other words, Albus Dumbledore was keeping information contained, even at the expense of student safety and their education.

  ("Excuse me," said... Ron, and Hermione.)

  "Bet that was an interesting discussion." Bill said, slightly sympathetic with how uncomfortable that might have been for the Trio, especially at the sight of their teachers about to start fighting.

  "Oh, it was colorful alright." Minerva smirked, there was no humor to it, though.

  (They went, as... empty classroom)

  "They turned into a classroom and pulled me in after them." Harry corrected how that was worded in the book, rolling his eyes. 

  "We needed to talk to you." Hermione said simply. 

  (and closed the... that voice I heard?")

  "Yes/no." Half the people in the room said at once.

  The Professors raised eyebrows at those who denied it, silently demanding answers. "Would any of you have believed him?" Neville asked, staring drolly at them.

  They glanced at each other, but could admit that they probably wouldn't have believed him like they should have. 

  ("No," said Ron... wizarding world.")

  "With the possibilities for what those voices could be, certainly not." Sirius said, shaking his head. 

  "Ghosts, poltergeists, shades, even another wizard using compulsions or the Imperious... there is all manner of things that could whisper in your ear and influence your thoughts." Moody said gravely.

  (Something in... me, don't you?")

  "Course!" Ron and Hermione both said at once. 

  "If nothing else, the way we raced after it and found Mrs. Norris ensured it was true." Ron snorted. 

  "We still need to discuss that one." Remus grumbled, glaring at the three of them. 

  ("Course I do,"... admit it's weird...")

  "What about that situation wasn't weird?" Neville asked rhetorically. 

  "Not much." Harry muttered anyway.

  ("I know it's weird,"... supposed to mean?")

  "Nothing good." Most of the wizards muttered together. 

  "This is why we need a new History professor, when not even something so integral to the history of Hogwarts is not even told." Remus informed the other professor's dryly.

  Hermione coughed, while the other two and Neville looked amused. 

  "I'd hold my breath on that one, Remus." Harry muttered. 

  ("You know, it... might've been Bill...")

  "It was me, actually." Charlie rolled his eyes. "What?" He asked when he saw the look on Bill's face.

  "I didn't say anything." Bill tried and failed to hide his amusement.

  "You were thinking it." Charlie accused. "The legend says that there's some kind of creature in there, of course I'm interested!" He defended himself. "What if it had been a dragon!"

  "I don't think Hogwarts would have stayed standing if it decided it wanted out." Neville muttered, amused.

  ("And what on... stifled a snigger.)

  "Ronald!" Molly snapped, glaring darkly. It was not funny!

  Ron winced. "I know, I know. It's just... it's Filch!" He whined.

  "I don't care who it is, you do not laugh at them just because they are a Squib!" Molly of course was one of the ones Arabella preferred in small doses, because she tended to pity those that were born without magic, but in a magic family. Arabella hated that pity, as they looked at her like she was a small child that did something wrong. 

  ("Well- it's not... are quite unusual.)

  "But are becoming more and more common in Pureblood families." Hermione raised an eyebrow at Draco, who frowned, thinking of everything he'd read on the subject. 

  (If Filch's trying... a satisfied smile.)

  "And what is that smile for Ronald Weasley?" Molly demanded, narrowing her eyes at her son. She'd raised him better then to laugh at others misfortunes. Granted he received some leeway because of his age (and when a Malfoy was the target), but there was no excuse to be enjoying Argus Filch's status as a Squib. 

  "Er... I was happy to know why he hated us so much?" Ron tried, shrinking back. 

  "Hm-mm. That better stay your story or so help me..." She threatened. 

  "Molly, dear, this was years ago." Arthur reminded her.

  ("He's bitter.")

  "Wouldn't you be?" Arabella asked dryly. Granted, that was no excuse for his attitude towards children, he was only making things harder on both himself and Squibs everywhere.

  But it was understandable that he was bitter, especially with what his family did.

  (A clock chimed... for something else.")

  "I'm surprised that nobody escorted you back to the tower. It was rather close to curfew when the feast ended, and then you three were kept afterward for quite a while." Remus commented, looking at the teachers in question. 

  The Four Heads of House looked at him before blinking at each other. Minerva groaned, feeling like an idiot. They should have sent one of them off with the three students, not the least because Mrs. Norris had just been attacked and they didn't know who or what the attacker was, or if they were still around! But no, they were so busy arguing amongst themselves they didn't even think of letting three students wander the castle so late at night! 

  "They were too busy arguing, I think." Harry only said what all four Heads were thinking. 

  (For a few days... might come back.)

  Ginny grumbled slightly, but didn't say anything. If anything else, she was relieved. She may have been blacked-out most of the time, but she imagined Tom didn't want to draw attention to her, and by extension, himself. Filch being there might have been what kept the attacks from happening as often as Tom probably would have liked. 

  "It was a good thing he was there." Harry said, biting his lip. 

  "But what if he'd decided to just get rid of Filch?" Hermione asked, having just thought of that.

  "It would have drawn too much attention before he was ready." Ron answered, putting his strategic mind to it. "He hadn't even really started anything yet, a death would have started a long investigation from outside Hogwarts." Something that neither Riddle nor Dumbledore would have wanted, he was fairly certain that the students' things would have been searched if that was the case, the diary might have been found. 

  Ginny didn't say anything, but the rest of the ignorant crowd were confused about who 'he' was. 

  (Harry had seen... ever on the stone.)

  "What the- that's not paint or something, is it?" Bill asked, dreading the answer. Of course... there was the Basilisk's comment when Harry was following it about smelling blood... 

  "It was rooster blood." Minerva supplied. "Combined with some kind of curse that ensured it could not be removed." The House-elves hadn't been able to spell it away, even, so it was a powerful bit of magic. Albus hadn't recognized it, either, but he hadn't really looked very hard, either, as he claimed to have bigger things to worry about. Like whatever it was that petrified Mrs. Norris. 

  (When Filch wasn'... and "looking happy.")

  "Oh dear. Perhaps he should have been given time off." Pomona said, feeling for the man, but also not agreeing with how he was treating the students.

  "Eh, that was nothing new. He was just more fanatic about it because of Mrs. Norris." Harry dismissed.

  "That man has no business being anywhere near children." Molly proclaimed again, no matter how much she pitied him for his lack of magic.

  (Ginny Weasley... great cat lover.)

  "That wasn't the only reason I was bothered by it." Ginny said quietly. That was the day she'd blacked out and woken up covered in what she rather hoped was paint. Her older brothers that weren't there and didn't know about this year looked at her, concerned. She and Ron were still sitting in the middle of the huddle they'd formed, and her older brothers were very concerned.

  "Your comments didn't help, either." Harry mentioned to Ron, who grimaced.

  "How was I supposed to know!" He protested, holding onto his sister tighter.

  "That was still a tactless comment, even without knowing everything." Hermione shrugged. Ron shot her a quick glare.

  ("But you haven't... off without her.")

  "Ronald! That's an awful thing to say!" Molly scolded.

  "Sorry, mom." He mumbled, ears red.

  (Ginny's lip trembled... Ron assured her.)

  "Well..." Harry started. 

  "Only since you started school." Ron shrugged. Not that he blamed Harry in the slightest. It wasn't his fault, after all, that a homicidal maniac fixated on him because of something a drunk old woman said. 

  "I wonder what a normal year at Hogwarts is like..." Harry pondered. Every time he'd thought he would get it, something always happened to send him scrambling, and his two best friends with him since they wouldn't leave him. 

  ("They'll catch the... Ginny blanched.)

  "Fail." Sirius and Remus deadpanned at the same time. 

  "Even if she wasn't involved, that wasn't the best thing to tell her." Hermione muttered to Harry, who grimaced and nodded. 

  "Maybe leave that part out about Filch, little brother." Bill grimaced, eyeing his sister in worry. Her reactions to the Chamber being open were worrying him, and so were the looks being shared between his parents. What happened to his baby sister, and why did nobody tell him? 

  (The attack had... she was up to,)

  "Which is typical." Neville claimed. 

  "What?" Hermione asked, confused. 

  "'Mione, when you go on a research frenzy, nothing else will get your attention except for classes and homework until you figure out what you wanted to know." Harry informed her bluntly. "And even then, you only manage to get to class because you set an alarm with barely any time." He and Ron had needed to bring her food on more then one occasion during one of her frenzies, especially in their third year before she and Ron stopped talking to each other. 

  (and not until the... off the desks.)

  "Why?" Sirius asked, confused about why he was singled out for that. If a student made a mess, why weren't they forced to stay and clean up after themselves, why Harry?

  "It was the desks used by the Slytherin's, and I think he was still angry over me not being punished for Mrs. Norris." Harry shrugged, used to Snape's petty revenges when something didn't go his way.

  "Talk about petty." Remus muttered, eyeing the man who he never would have thought would sink to such low standards. He hadn't seen it much when he taught, but then, most of Severus' attention was directed towards him instead of Harry probably.

  (After a hurried lunch... opposite direction.)

  "That was odd..." Dudley muttered, confused.

  Sirius snorted sourly. "Not really. Dumbledore here singled those three out, they were the first ones to find Mrs. Norris, and of the three, Harry is the only one who is already famous for something." He listed out.

  "They're really going to turn on him because he was the one to find the cat?" 
  
    Dudley 
  
  asked, just as confused.

  "It didn't help that the professors didn't say anything." Fred sighed.

  "Not that we thought Harrikins had anything to do with it, of course." George said hastily.

  "The other students, on the other hand..." Fred shrugged helplessly.

  (Harry found Ron... of European Wizards.")

  "And yet he lectured on Goblin wars." Neville deadpanned.

  "I think the homework list is from when he was still alive, while he himself is set on the Goblin wars." Hermione said thoughtfully. "I asked around, when he died his fourth year class was just starting the unit on Goblin rebellions and wars. They were the first class that morning after he died."

  "He's stuck in a loop? Like a broken record?" Harry asked, leaning back. She nodded. "Makes sense." Harry said after a moment's thought.

  Minerva blinked before face-palming... 
  
    hard
  
  . That was it, Cuthbert Binns was not teaching another class if she could help it. She'd never even considered that!

  ("I don't believe... her writing's tiny.")

  All the teachers grimaced or groaned in disgust. "Do you have any idea how difficult it is to read when you do that?" Severus sneered at her. There was a reason why he marked her down for that. "We have better things to do then try to decipher minute handwriting." 

  "Dear, when we ask for a specific length, that length is really the maximum we want. It's not a suggestion, either. We ask for three feet, we want three feet. Not four, not five, 
  
    three
  
  ." Pomona started to explain to 
  
    Hermione 
  
  sternly. "A sentence or two over is acceptable if you are finishing up your conclusion. Beyond that, none of us have time to be reading it. We have other homework to grade, we have other paperwork to finish, and some of us have plants to take care of or potions to brew." 

  "I have my deputy duties on top of having homework to grade." Minerva muttered. Honestly, she wished that she'd said something to the girl after the first couple of assignments back in her first year. 

  "But..." 
  
    Hermione 
  
  started to argue. 

  Remus grimaced. "Hermione, teachers appreciate effort. They do. But there is a point where it becomes over-achieving, and all that does is annoy us. Besides, when you go over the limit like that, it shows us that you don't truly understand the content. You know all the facts, but do you truly understand it? Can you put it in your own words succinctly and clearly? When you write so much information, it's just extra information that's not important." He tried to explain to the stubborn girl. 

  "It shows that you can't pick out the important information of a topic." Filius agreed. "And, like they said. It creates extra work for us that we really don't need." 

  Hermione stared at them, stricken. Had she really been making their lives more difficult then needed? 
  
    Hermione 
  
  just frowned and looked at the ground thoughtfully. 

  ("Where is she?"... before Christmas.")

  "I was not." Hermione rolled her eyes, face red. 

  "It seemed like it, you were even more engrossed in the books then normal." Harry shrugged. 

  (Harry told Ron... why you care.)

  "Um, because one minute Justin was friendly with us, the next he's running away from me as if I'm going to attack him any second?" Harry asked, rhetorically because this happened years ago. 

  "... That's true." Ron admitted. That was a good reason to care, especially considering what happened with Mrs. Norris.

  (I thought he was a bit of an idiot,")

  "Ronald!" Molly started, exasperated. 

  "What? He was! Didn't you hear all that stuff he was saying about Lockhart?" And in Ron's opinion Justin hadn't gotten any better over the years. 

  "He got better... he was a lot better to be around when he wasn't with Smith or Ernie." Neville defended Justin. "Those two can be..." Neville trailed off and cleared his throat when he saw the look on Pomona's face. She did not appreciate the way he was talking about two of her Badger's. 

  "Tell me about it." Ron muttered. He had not liked the way they talked to Harry at that first meeting for the DA, or how Ernie treated Harry during the Chamber events. 

  (said Ron, scribbling... large as possible.)

  "That's not how you write an essay, either. That just shows how unprepared you were and how little you tried." Minerva commented, rolling her eyes. "As long as all the information is there and it's well written, you can be short a few inches." She informed the students. "What we ask for is the 
  
    maximum 
  
  length, remember?" 

  "Huh." Harry muttered, eyeing his professors. "Maybe one of the professors should tell us, then, what they expect with our essays, instead of just assigning them and expecting us to know that." He suggested. He and Hermione may have gone over writing papers in English class before Hogwarts, but the Purebloods didn't. Some of the Half-bloods wouldn't have, too. 

  His tone got him dirty looks, but Minerva was thoughtful before scribbling it down. 

  ("All that junk... to talk to them.)

  "Didn't find what you were looking for?" Neville asked. 

  "Of course not. Everybody else wanted the same thing." Luna informed him. She'd seen Hermione in there searching. Of course, the Ravenclaw's had been the first ones to get the books, creating the waiting list in the first place. There had even been a rash of book-thefts in the Tower when some people got inpatient and stole another student's copy. Flitwick had not been happy about it. On the plus side, it had resulted in her 'misplaced' things to be returned when he mass-summoned all the 'stolen' articles to him. 

  "How do you know she didn't find what she was looking for?" Draco asked, curious. 

  "Because she was in the library and irritated." Nearly every Gryffindor that shared a Common Room with her said at once. Hermione turned a brilliant shade of red. 

  ("All the copies... been taken out,")

  "I thought you owned that book." Neville pointed out, confused. She'd quoted it in their first year often enough, even at the Welcoming Feast!

  "There wasn't any room in my trunk." She deadpanned.

  "The book-list was a little longer then usual for second year." Remus reminded the room. And considering Hermione's love for reading, he highly doubted that the textbooks were the only books she'd brought along with her.

  "You didn't get a trunk with expansion charms on the inside?" Draco asked, a little surprised.

  "No... we just got the standard student trunk." Hermione looked at Minerva in question. She'd gotten feather-light charms on it, but that was it. And of course she'd already investigated the trunk Bill made for her during the break, and she was going to spend the evening separating her's, Ron's, and Harry's books and everything else out. She wanted to start setting up her new library, even though Bill had already put quite a few books inside.

  "Your parents didn't want to spend too much money on a trunk." Minerva said slowly. "When I mentioned that you would be able to fit more books, you had already proven your thirst for knowledge and books, your mother said that was a good thing. She thought that you might be forced to socialize more if you only had the library. Some of those books cannot be taken out because we only have so many of them and they are in higher demand depending on the essay required."

  Hermione's jaw dropped while everybody else snickered.

  (she said, sitting... week waiting list.)

  Dudley whistled. "Sounds like a high-demand book." He said, eyeing the other wizards his age. The way they'd been talking, it didn't seem like a popular book at all.

  "Everybody wanted to know about the Chamber of Secrets and figured it would be in there." Harry rolled his eyes. It got an extremely small mention, and that was it. It was so small that it was very easy to miss.

  (I wish I hadn't... it?" said Harry.)

  "Why does Hermione ever want a book?" Ginny asked, amused. She was starting to shake off whatever was worrying her, to her brother's relief, but they still didn't know what caused that in the first place.

  "True." Harry shrugged, and then yelped when Hermione smacked him on the arm. "What?" He asked innocently. She just rolled her eyes.

  ("The same reason... Chamber of Secrets.")

  "That version of 
  
    Hogwarts, A History 
  
  doesn't say anything about the Chamber of Secrets." Hermione informed the room sourly, it just got a tiny mention. "The first edition does, though!" She'd spent some time during the break reading the copies she'd gotten through the Room.

  "Really?" Harry asked, trying to goad her into telling them.

  "Well, it's not outright mentioned as the Chamber of Secrets, it's mentioned as the chamber Salazar Slytherin used as his Familiar's home, and would often use to teach Parselmagic to his students who spoke Parsel." She clarified.

  "Huh." Remus wondered why the chamber would have fallen into legend if it was written about in such a book. Then again, he didn't think more then maybe three copies of the first edition existed anymore.

  ("What's that?" said... can't remember,")

  "
  
    You 
  
  can't remember something you read in a book?" Neville asked, shocked.

  Hermione turned red. "It was such a small mention, barely even a sentence, somewhere in the middle of the chapter on Salazar Slytherin. To top it off, he gets one small chapter, while the other Founders get at least two decent length ones each." She explained. "But I was reading the First Edition I got the other day, and all the Founders get equal mention, with an entire chapter on the Chamber he built. It was described in great detail, including why he built it."

  "Whoever wrote one of the next editions either didn't find it important, or they were told to leave it out." Remus summarized, leaning back. He was very interested, though, and was going to love having those books.

  (said Hermione... anywhere else-")

  "Because it had fallen into such myth that nobody wrote about it at all." She said in frustration.

  "Hey. We never looked up the old newspapers, did we?" Ron asked suddenly.

  "Newspapers?" Harry asked, confused.

  "Of course!" Hermione exclaimed. "I'm so stupid!" She collapsed in her seat angrily, muttering to herself.

  Remus chuckled at Harry's confusion. "The Hogwarts library keeps copies of old 
  
    Daily Prophets
  
  , 
  
    Witch Weekly's, 
  
  and a few international newspapers." He explained.

  "After Colin was attacked, we could have used that to look for more information on what had already happened." Harry realized. "We would have known to talk to Myrtle sooner!" Now it was his turn to collapse in his seat and start muttering to himself, in both English and Parsel.

  The adults weren't sure they wanted to know.

  ("Hermione, let me... checking his watch.)

  "Oh, no you don't!" All the teachers and Molly said at once, glaring at him while his siblings (except Percy who looked just as disapproving) snickered.

  "If it's due that day, then it should already be done, it's your own fault if it isn't." Minerva continued before Molly could start her tirade. Ron just shrank back in his seat, face red.

  ("No, I won't,"... to finish it-")

  "Ten days? And you're just now doing it?" Molly demanded. "What were you doing in those ten days?" She glared. 

  Rom mumbled something that she didn't quite catch, but Arthur interrupted before she could demand he speak up. 

  "Molly, dear. This was years ago. The assignment is over, done, and turned in already. There is no point in berating or punishing for something that can't be changed and was so long ago." He said with a small hint of steel in his voice, surprising his sons. But he was tired of her scolding for stuff that happened so long ago the person who did it probably forgot it even happened. 

  She fumed for a moment before turning on 
  
    Ron
  
  . "You had better do a better job at doing your homework efficiently, young man. Don't think I don't know he was probably more interested in his chess board then he was in his homework." She said it to him, but she directed it at both of them. 
  
    Ron
  
   turned white and nodded his agreement frantically while the rest of his siblings did their best not to draw her attention to themselves. 

  The teachers were perfectly content to let her say everything they wanted to say. 

  ("I only need... through the blackboard.)

  "Which is only exciting the first few times before it gets old." Neville deadpanned. He'd seen people go into that class with pillows and blankets, and start their naps as soon as they sit down, not even waiting for Binns to arrive. As long as their assignment was on their desk to be collected, he didn't even notice. If it weren't for the rare few that could keep themselves awake, or who spent the class time gossiping or doing other work, nobody would know what the assignments were.

  "True." Everyone agreed.

  (Ancient and shriveled... slightest since.)

  "It's a mystery if he 
  
    still 
  
  hasn't noticed." Pomona muttered, rolling her eyes.

  "He was an excellent teacher when he was alive." Albus reminded his staff.

  "And ever since then he puts students to sleep while not lecturing on what he's supposed to be." Minerva informed him dryly. He sighed, knowing that she was right.

  "How do you not notice you've died?" Dudley asked, confused.

  "With Binns, I'm not surprised." Severus informed the room.

  (Today was as... in a deep stupor,)

  "That is not how you teach." Remus grumbled, glaring. The rest of the teachers grumbled. 

  Not even Molly could protest against her children possibly falling asleep in this class. She did the same thing, after all. 

  (occasionally coming... happened before.)

  "Oh, is this when..." Neville started, remembering back. 

  The Trio nodded. 

  "That was the most lively history class ever, I think." He mumbled, and refused to say anything to those who had no idea what he was talking about. The Twins were frowning, and clearly trying to think back to see if they remembered hearing anything about this, but they couldn't. 

  (Hermione put up her hand.)

  "In 
  
    history
  
  ?" The Twins asked, shocked. 

  "I know. We were shocked, too." Ron agreed.

  (Professor Binns... looked amazed.)

  "That's just sad." Remus muttered while the others grumbled about that. For a teacher to be 
  
    amazed 
  
  when a student put their hand up because they have a question... It made them wonder how he ran his classes when he was still alive. 

  "And Umbridge marked 
  
    him 
  
  as a suitable teacher?" Minerva muttered to Severus, disgusted. In fact, he was one of the few that Umbridge had approved of, although she'd given out detentions to most of the students in the classes she'd inspected for sleeping. Severus hummed in agreement.

  ("Miss - er -?"... in a clear voice.)

  "Ah... good idea." Bill said, satisfied. "The history teacher should know about it." 

  "You would think, wouldn't you?" Hermione grumbled. Admittedly, he had known a bit about it, but he was so dismissive about it being real, that he wasn't at all as helpful as she'd thought he would be.

  "Hey." Harry suddenly said. "We should have asked the other ghosts." 

  "Or Godric's portrait!" Ron groaned. 

  Percy snorted. "I tried. He refused to say anything about it." He informed the rest of the room dryly. The rest of the room glanced at each other, perplexed.

  (Dean Thomas, who... off his desk.)

  "Somebody spoke. It was so clear and... 
  
    different
  
  ." Neville said, still amazed she'd done that. The others just snorted in amusement at the other students' reactions. 

  "That's just sad." Arabella muttered. 

  (Professor Binns... myths and legends.")

  "All myths and legends have their basis in fact." Remus said. "They are just severely distorted by time. You have to dig deep if you want to learn where they came from. "

  "Weren't you getting your Mastery in history?" Sirius suddenly remembered. "How did that go?"

  "I got it. I also got my Defense Mastery." Remus raised an eyebrow. Binns was absolutely no help for his History Mastery, either. He only passed his OWLs and NEWTs because he self-studied a lot. 

  "Try telling Binns about that." Hermione muttered sourly. She had not liked how he blew her off just because he was close minded.

  "Remus, how would you like to come back to Hogwarts? You can choose which you would like to teach, Defense or History." Minerva proposed suddenly. She already knew he was a good teacher. He'd already taught Defense and he had his Mastery in History as well. History masters were so hard to find these days... Especially in Britain with Binns teaching for so long. 

  "I would love to." Remus said, shocked. She nodded with a satisfied smile.

  (He cleared his...

  the air again.)

  "You're persistent, that's for sure." Sirius laughed, liking that about Harry's friend.

  "Tell us about it." Harry muttered, rolling his eyes fondly.

  "Stubborn is another word for it." Ron deadpanned. Hermione huffed and glared, but they could all see the smile playing around her lips.

  ("Miss Grant?")

  "Really? She 
  
    just 
  
  told him her name."

  "He's apparently bad with names." Harry answered. This was the first time a student had ever spoken with Binns that they knew of, so this was news to everybody here.

  "Hmm... there was a Caroline Grant in my year." Albus mused. Cuthbert Binns had died half-way through his sixth year, after all. Perhaps this was just more proof that Binns should no longer be teaching.

  ("Please, sir, don't... basis in fact?")

  "Yes, they do." Remus gave her a proud smile while she turned a slight red at having repeated Remus, although technically she said it first.

  (Professor Binns was... alive or dead.)

  "Which is just sad."

  "We had quite rousing discussions during my time as a student, before his death." Albus defended the ghost. And even for the rest of his schooling, although he could admit that the lessons had become more and more dull over the last year and a half he was a student.

  "That was a long time ago. He changed when he died, and not for the better as a teacher." Harry countered. He didn't know enough about Binns' personality to say how he was as a person... er, ghost.

  ("Well," said Professor... properly before.)

  "It's probably been at least a century since he has." 
  
    Ron 
  
  muttered.

  "Are you calling me old, young man?" Albus asked, eyes twinkling madly, which those who knew him best took to mean amusement.

  "Er... No?" 
  
    Ron 
  
  tried, glaring at his brothers when they started laughing.

  ("However, the legend... ludicrous tale-")

  "Sensational, maybe. Ludicrous... only in how much the tale has been distorted by time." Sirius countered, rolling his eyes.

  "Maybe we could do something after this to fix that." Minerva muttered. With those early editions and the journals Sirius was working on translating, she was sure that they had a good chance.

  "We'll have to wait for everything to settle down, first." Severus cautioned quietly. He could see the Dark Lord flying into a rage at everything they were coming out with, and all the 'lies' they were spewing about his ancestor. She nodded in agreement, but didn't say anything.

  Going by what the older Harry Potter had said, though, it might be a long time before things settled down. They were going to have to question the others that came to check on them to find out how the Ministry handled the 'end' of the way, maybe they could do things differently, and ensure that the Death Eaters were taken out once and for all.

  (But the whole... Chamber of Secrets...)

  Almost everyone who hadn't been in that classroom leaned forward slightly, curious about what Binns would have to say about the Chamber, especially since he was determined that the Chamber couldn't possibly be real.

  They didn't hold much hope that this would be an interesting history lesson, though. This was still Binns they were talking about, here. 

  ("You all know... left the school.")

  "That's not quite what happened according to Salazar's journal... but otherwise that's pretty accurate. It leaves out the part where his wife was Muggleborn, however, and his distrust came from a Muggleborn student of his leading her family in the hunt for said wife, resulting in the wife's brutal murder." Sirius revealed where the distrust came from. "Also according to his journal, Rowena shared his distrust, but felt that they would be more dangerous if they 
  
    weren't 
  
  taught how to control their magic." 

  "None of that is ever shared in history." 

  "Time distorts or forgets about events." Remus said simply, which was true enough. 

  "What else did Binns leave out?" Severus asked, curious. 

  "That the arguments between the two men were normal. One or both of them usually stormed out of the castle every other month to cool off before coming back and talking or dueling things out. I don't know what happened after Salazar left that time, though, because it seems he left his journal behind when he left, so he didn't chronicle his days or weeks away."

  "And he fell off the historical map completely after that argument." Remus realized. "Nobody knows what happened to him after that." 

  Beyond that, everyone was pretty surprised with how interesting this lesson by Binns was, he was actually engaging. 

  (Professor Binns... old tortoise.)

  The students (and slightly older) burst into laughter while the adults tried to hide their amusement, with varying degrees of success.

  "What is with you and animal likenesses?" Sirius asked, exasperated. Although it was quite amusing.

  "They look like animals..." Harry shrugged.

  Remus cleared his throat quietly, studying Harry. "He may have been too young to remember, but what if..." He whispered in Sirius' ear, giving him a significant look.

  "You think he remembers Padfoot and Prongs on some level?" Sirius asked, frowning.

  Remus shrugged. "You two transformed around him a lot. He played with Padfoot a lot, fell asleep on Padfoot. You two transformed in front of him all the time. So did Minerva."

  "He was at that age..." Minerva cut in from across the room, earning the three of them curious looks that they all waved off. "It's a thought."

  ("Reliable historical... of Secrets.)

  "He doesn't even stop to think that the Chamber might be real! And he calls himself a historian!" Remus scoffed, disgusted. You never dismiss things like that out of hand, you always take such accounts with a grain of salt, yes, but like they'd said. All legends and myths have a basis in reality. They had to start somewhere. 

  (The story goes... knew nothing.)

  "Oh, they knew about it." Sirius cut in, rolling his eyes. "They helped him build it." 

  "He would conduct classes down there, he and Godric would experiment with potions or spell-creation, they were often kicked down there when Helga and Rowena got tired of dealing with their antics." Harry added. He looked up. "What? I was helping translate the journals." He shrugged at their surprised looks. Just because he was letting Sirius do the talking before now...

  ("Slytherin, according... at the school.)

  "Or he sealed it so none of the idiot dunderheaded students could get down there to disturb his familiar while he was away from the castle, but when he didn't return, it stayed sealed until a member of his family came along and opened it back up again." Severus muttered, eyes narrowed as he started to piece together how this legend began. 

  (The heir alone... to study magic.")

  "Ok, that part is probably solely the work of a blood-supremacist descendant." Sirius rolled his eyes. 

  "I thought blood-supremacy wasn't really around until Grindlewald." Hermione said slowly, glancing between Draco and Sirius.

  "No... blood-supremacy has always been around to an extent, and certainly among certain families. Grindlewald just made it more wide-spread and encouraged those families to be more outspoken. It wasn't nearly as wide-spread as it is now before Grindlewald, but it was still there." Draco corrected.

  (There was silence... faintly annoyed.)

  "He really doesn't like this topic, does he?" Luna asked, tilting her head to the side.

  "No he didn't."

  "To him, this is a fairy tale that people are taking seriously, it's an insult to him." Remus frowned.

  "Yeah, well, it's only an insult because he's so small-minded." Hermione muttered. Even she had given the Chamber's existence the benefit of the doubt.

  ("The whole thing... back in the air.)

  "Of course it was." Remus said, almost fondly.

  "He wasn't telling me everything I wanted to know!" Hermione defended herself. "And I wasn't the only one who wanted to know."

  ("Sir - what exactly... the Chamber?")

  "Good question." Somebody muttered, although Sirius had already informed them of what the 'horror' was, so it wasn't much of a mystery anymore.

  ("That is believed... and no monster.")

  "Well, there was clearly 
  
    something
  
  , because a cat was petrified while the message was left behind." Moody scoffed, not pleased with the possibility being dismissed out of hand like this. 

  "Did he even know anything happened, or did he think she'd come across the term and wanted to know more?" Remus wondered out loud. 

  "Surely he knew something, the chamber had been opened fifty years before this." Minerva retorted. 

  "Maybe not, he's still teaching lesson plans from when he died, and calling his students by names that are long since graduated." Remus reminded her. 

  ("But, sir," said... it, would they?")

  "That's true." Minerva said. 

  "It doesn't have to be an Heir, just anybody who knows Parseltongue." Sirius corrected. And anybody who was willing to put the time into exploring, of course. Which was most of the reason they made the Marauder's Map, of course, but he and James never found it. 

  ("Nonsense, O'Flaherty,")

  "I think there was an O'Flaherty, too." Albus mused absently. 

  (said Professor... found the thing-")

  "None of them could speak Parsel, I bet." Bill said, leaning back thoughtfully. 

  "There was a Black Headmaster, what about him?" Harry asked his godfather.

  "No, according to family records and his own portrait, he wasn't a Parseltongue." Sirius shook his head. 

  ("But, Professor,"... to open it-")

  "Saying 'open' works just fine, too." Harry said, amused. As if a language could be 'dark' or 'evil'.

  "Really? There's no password or anything?" Remus asked, surprised. He was just surprised that Parvati was so close-minded about 'dark' and 'light'. He knew that India found Britain's views on that subject to be ridiculous, and her parents were the ambassador's from India.

  "I think speaking Parsel 
  
    is
  
   the password." Harry shrugged.

  "Either that or a later descendant of Slytherin's changed it." Hermione reasoned. Nobody else had any idea.

  ("Just because a... Miss Pennyfeather,")

  "There was a Pennyfeather, as well." Albus snorted. How did he miss how disconnected with the times Binns was? 

  (snapped Professor Binns... secret broom cupboard!)

  "Because it wasn't built secretly and all the books about it were somehow lost or destroyed." Remus said with a frown, thinking fast. 

  "Could that have been on purpose? The books would be extremely valuable now, and yet there hasn't been a single copy surface in... decades at least." Sirius said, frowning. "My family doesn't even have copies of them." All mention of the Chamber of Secrets in the Black library came from personal family journals.

  "Probably because of some Gryffindor fanatic or something who didn't like that the real story contradicted his beliefs." Draco pointed out. 

  "Hey now, it didn't have to have been a Gryffindor." Sirius protested, glaring at his younger cousin. 

  (I regret telling... verifiable fact!")

  "That's only the case if you know all sides of the story." Remus refuted, rolling his eyes. There were always two sides to every single story, after all. And the victor's of every conflict tended to write the story in their view, no matter what really happened. 

  (And within five... its usual torpor.)

  "That almost takes skill." Dudley said, impressed. "I have a teacher like that, but he teaches us something, at least." It didn't sound like this guy taught them much of anything. 

  "A skill that's not good for a teacher." Remus deadpanned, remembering his own years in Binns' class. There were some days he'd only managed to stay awake by taking Invigoration Draughts or other potions to stay awake. 

  ("I always knew... twisted old loony,")

  "Ronald!" Molly warned. Even though she was the one that probably gave him that idea with her occasional Slytherin rants when he was growing up. 

  "What? With everything going on right now, I think I was slightly justified." He defended himself. "And I didn't know all that other stuff about him yet." 

  That didn't lessen the glares towards him that the Slytherin's in the room sent him.

  (Ron told Harry... pure-blood stuff.)

  "Time distorts everything." Remus muttered again. From everything they'd learned over the last few days, he knew that was true.

  "If anybody started it, it would more likely have been a Black." Sirius scoffed, rolling his eyes. Although, he knew that the Black's weren't always like that.

  (I wouldn't be in... straight back home...")

  "We're not that bad." Draco deadpanned.

  "Try telling that to everybody else that you torment in the hallways." Neville said dryly.

  "Or who's potions you sabotage in class." Harry added. Draco didn't say anything else, just shifted uncomfortably while Severus glared about the ‘sabotaged potions’ comment. 

  (Hermione nodded fervently... him in Slytherin.)

  "Which only means that you can be cunning and ambitious. There is nothing wrong with that." Remus rolled his eyes, giving Sirius a Look.

  "Yeah." He said simply, glancing at Harry and not wanting to say anything that might be taken the wrong way. Who knew how his older self had acted, after all. Besides, most of his problem with Slytherin was down to his family, anyway.

  (He could remember... doubt about that...)

  "That may be, but it would also have not been safe for you there." Severus reminded the room. "Too many of them belong to families that supported the Dark Lord." 

  "I didn't know that then, I just knew what Hagrid and Ron told me." Harry shrugged. 

  "Not to mention the first impression Draco made on you." Ron muttered, rolling his eyes. 

  "It wanted us in Slytherin." Fred shrugged, while George nodded in agreement. 

  "Really?" Bill asked, blinking in surprise. "Well... I suppose that's not such a shock." He admitted after a moment. The two of them were very devious, after all. 

  (But Harry, who... been saying you're-")

  "Even Colin?" Dudley asked in shock. He wouldn't have thought that kid would turn on Harry, too, not with how eager he was.

  "Nah. Colin's a good kid. He's smart, knows how to think for himself. No, he was just going to let me know what everyone was saying, probably ask me if it was true himself instead of just listening to rumors." Harry smiled fondly when he remembered how the Creevy brothers tried to change those badges Draco made to support Harry instead during the Tournament.

  (But Colin was so... heir, I expect,")

  "You just now made the connection?" 

  "I hadn't thought about it until just then?" Harry defended himself. 

  (said Harry, his... Ron in disgust.)

  "Especially if it's bad and it's about me." Harry said, not at all happy about it.

  Minerva pursed her lips, knowing full well that her inactions had not helped. She could have stepped in and spoken with the students. It may not have stopped the rumors, but it would have helped.

  (The crowd thinned... she said, frowning.)

  "Oh?" Sirius asked, curious.

  "I couldn't find anything in the library about it. Binns wouldn't tell us anything except that it was a fairy tale. But somebody wrote that message, and something happened to Mrs. Norris." She shrugged. She honestly hadn't known what to think.

  ("Dumbledore couldn't... well- human.")

  "Sound reasoning, however even if her attacker had been human, the only cure for her petrification would have been Mandrake Draught." Severus drawled. 

  "... I suppose that's true." Hermione muttered.

  (As she spoke... stopped and looked.)

  "Uh-oh." Neville muttered suddenly.

  "Uh-oh? What is 'uh-oh?" Sirius asked cautiously, not sure if he really wanted to know.

  "They're going to start investigating now." Ginny said airily, trying to act like she wasn't still deathly pale and fighting back memories. "And then probably start getting in trouble." Most of the adults nodded their understanding while the Trio grumbled in protest.

  (The scene was... Ron muttered.)

  "He's lucky they didn't come back while he was there." Bill muttered to Charlie, who nodded in complete agreement. He doubted that an old Squib caretaker was going to be enough to stop whoever was willing to set a Basilisk loose on a school full of children.

  "But there are plenty of times when Filch wasn't there, either at night or because he had to eat." Neville pointed out.

  "Or there was something for him to clean somewhere else." Draco added. Neville nodded that he had a point there. Ginny didn't say anything, there wasn't anything 
  
    to 
  
  say. She barely remembered the times she was possessed, the memories that had come back to her over the years were fuzzy at best, and disconnected. She honestly couldn't say if she (Tom) had ever gone back to find Filch there or not, or what happened if she (Tom) had.

  (They looked at... a poke around,")

  "Oh, it most certainly can." Sirius retorted. "What if whoever is controlling the Basilisk comes back while you're there?" He demanded.

  "Er..." Harry looked around at the other two, who blinked. They hadn't even considered that.

  "Or others see you hanging around that spot? The rumors about you being the Heir were bad enough, and the students were being bad enough about it." Neville said quietly.

  "There was talk in Ravenclaw about 'dealing' with you." Luna said softly, to Harry's- well, to everybodies shock.

  (said Harry, dropping... marks!" he said.)

  "Wait, what?" Remus demanded, confused now. That couldn't have been from the Basilisk, could it?

  "I don't recall seeing anything of the sort." Minerva said with a frown.

  "Perhaps I was trying to find the entrance again." Albus suggested. He'd always thought the entrance was in that general area, because that was where young Myrtle was killed, but he'd never found it.

  "Not to our knowledge." Severus said, gesturing amongst the four Heads of House. Albus frowned, wondering himself now.

  ("Here- and here-"... a small crack.)

  "What the-" Dudley started, confused. He'd never heard of spiders acting like that. Judging by the adults' perplexed looks, they hadn't, either. 

  "The basilisk." Sirius muttered. "In all the books, spiders are said to truly fear the basilisk. I wonder why they're still there, though. It's been a couple of weeks, hasn't it?" Wouldn't they have already left by now? 

  "The basilisk must have been moving at that moment." Remus suggested. 

  "It was just another clue towards what was going on." Harry sighed. One that they hadn't seen until it was almost too late. 

  (A long, silvery... Hermione wonderingly.)

  Sirius nodded at the further proof (beyond the journals saying what it was) that it was a Basilisk.

  "No, but it's never a good sign to see animals fleeing like that." Remus said grimly. At the questioning looks, he sighed. "It generally means danger is nearby, or at least a predator."

  ("No," said Harry... impulse to run.)

  "Oh, that's right." The Weasley boys winced at the reminder, while 
  
    Ron 
  
  was pale and green-tinged at the thought. He looked to be in full agreement with his older self, although he was also mildly impressed that his older self was still standing there at all. 

  "You’re afraid of spiders?" Neville asked, surprised. 

  "Big time." Harry said quietly, giving him a look. Ron just nodded, glancing at Draco and silently daring him to say anything about it. Draco, surprisingly, kept his mouth shut. 

  ("What's up?" said... said Ron tensely.)

  "That's an understatement." Harry muttered, slightly amused but doing his best to hide it.

  "And for good reason!" Ron retorted, shuddering. First his teddy bear, and then Aragog!

  "I never said it wasn't." Harry reassured him.

  ("I never knew ... loads of times...")

  "Ah." Sirius started, raising a finger in the air. "But there is a difference between a 
  
    live 
  
  spider, and a 
  
    dead 
  
  one." He said sagely. 

  Remus rolled his eyes and slapped his arm, grumbling about something. 

  ("I don't mind them dead,")

  "See?" 

  "Shut up, Sirius!"

  (said Ron, who was... his toy broomstick...)

  "Which was an accident." Ron glared at his brother.

  "So was the bear!" Fred protested again. He was five at the time, and his favorite toy had just been broken, what did they expect?

  "Boys!" Arthur warned, rolling his eyes. 

  (You wouldn't like... many legs and...")

  "For a three year old, that's traumatizing!" Ron protested when a few people snickered. 

  "Hey, now. We don't laugh about your fears." Molly warned, glaring around the room at all those who laughed at her son and his fear.

  Surprisingly, to some, the Twins weren't among those laughing. 

  (He broke off... not to laugh.)

  "Not at your fear! Or that you're still so affected by it." Hermione hurried to defend herself. 

  "Then what were you laughing at?" Bill asked, frowning. 

  "I don't even remember anymore. But I know it wasn't at his fear! My dad is just as scared of spiders." She admitted. "I know it's nothing to laugh at." 

  (Feeling they had... that come from?)

  "Hey, yeah..." Sirius said slowly, thinking about it. Luckily the puzzle this was offering was keeping him occupied enough to stave off the Dementor's effects for now, or he would be an emotional mess again.

  (Someone's mopped it... he'd been burned.)

  "Oh, yeah... it was right outside that bathroom, wasn't it?" Fred remembered, smirking at his brother. 

  Sirius and Remus looked at him curiously, while George echoed his twins' smirk. 

  ("What's the matter?"... a girls' toilet.")

  "I love how that used to be a problem." Ron grumbled. An entire month had been spent in that bathroom, after all.

  "Do I want to know?" Molly asked warily.

  "Nope."

  "But you're going to, anyway." Harry muttered, eyeing her.

  ("Oh, Ron, there... have a look.")

  "That bathroom is always out of order." Minerva sighed. 

  "It's easier to just keep that sign up and let her do what she wants." Pomona agreed. Instead of getting it repaired every other week. Nobody liked using it, anyway, because of her. 

  "Wouldn't it be easier to move her somewhere else?" Dudley muttered, blinking. 

  (And ignoring the... of chipped sinks.)

  "That place has gotten worse." Sirius said conversationally. 

  "Do I want to know?" Minerva grumbled. 

  "Probably not." Remus groaned, hiding his eyes with a wolf-like whine. 

  (The floor was... off its hinges.)

  "Sounds like something straight out of a horror movie." Dudley said, frowning. 

  "Uh-huh." 
  
    Dudley 
  
  agreed. 

  "Horror movie?" Arthur asked, curious. 

  "Eh... we'll have to figure out how to watch a few later." Hermione promised with a grimace, not sure if it would be a good idea, but suggesting it, anyway. They would either deal with bored Purebloods who didn't see the point, or nightmares from Purebloods who got the wrong idea about Muggles from them. 

  (Hermione put her... how are you?")

  "Being polite actually makes her think you're mocking her." Harry said, frowning. "Which makes me wonder just how badly she was bullied." He sighed, leaning back in thought. 

  "Bullied?" Filius asked. Only Albus was there at the time of her death, after all. 

  "You didn't think she was in that bathroom smelling roses, did you?" Harry scoffed. "Or that she spent so long haunting Olive Hornby just for the fun of it?" He glared at Dumbledore, knowing that she was only one of a long line of bullied students who nothing was done for. 

  (Harry and Ron... "They're not girls.")

  "Well spotted." Neville muttered, amused. 

  "I should hope not." Ron muttered, shuddering. He didn't think he could survive being a girl, being best friends with a girl for so many years and watching her discomfort and mood swings once a month had been enough to convince him of that. Even though Hermione was good at hiding it, much better then Ginny was, anyway. 

  "Which is why you should leave that room, now." Molly said, not hearing what the two boys said, but understanding Myrtle's complaint.

  ("No," Hermione agreed... it is in here.")

  "Nice? Right." Dudley drawled, eyeing Hermione.

  "I was trying to be polite." Hermione huffed.

  "Next time, try to make it more believable." Remus advised.

  (She waved vaguely... mouthed at Hermione.)

  "Stupid move!" Harry groaned at himself. 

  "She's very suspicious." Ron agreed. 

  "Why was that..." Neville started to ask. 

  "Now she's going to think I was saying something to make fun of her, and she's not going to believe anything we say." Harry explained. 

  "Like Ron said, she was very suspicious." Hermione agreed. 

  "Which is why I wonder just how badly she was bullied at school, or how much she blew everything out of proportion." Harry said again. 

  ("What are you... staring at him.)

  "See?" The Trio said in unison, gesturing towards the book like it just validated everything they'd ever said. 

  "Wow. She really is suspicious, isn't she?" 

  "You have no idea."

  ("Nothing," said... behind my back!")

  "Most people in that school don't even know she exists. So I don't know what she's talking about there." Harry cut in. 

  "The girls all do. We're warned about that bathroom as first years." Hermione countered. 

  "But the boys don't know about it, and we make up the majority of the student body." Ron reminded her. And it was true. In some years, there was a fairly even split between girls and boys, but other years seemed to be male dominated for some reason. There was only one year that was female dominated, and that had been Percy's year. 

  "True." 

  Neville and Draco glanced at each other, but didn't say why that was. There were still a few 'traditional' houses that saw their daughters as nothing more then baby-makers. They didn't send their daughters to school, they kept them home to educate them on everything a girl needed to know, which extended to home-making and child-rearing. So, there were more boys then girls at school because of that. Most of the female student population were actually Muggleborn or half-blood for a reason, with the exception of those Pureblood houses that sent their daughters to school. 

  (said Myrtle, in... if I am dead-")

  "Which is something many people forget. Even the Ghosts and portraits have feelings." Albus said wisely. 

  "I think they forget that about other Beings, too." Harry commented, thinking about the way Goblins, Centaur's, or any of the other races he'd come across were treated. Especially by the Purebloods. 

  ("Myrtle, no one... ruining my death!")

  "I wonder how much of that she brings on herself." Ron grumbled. 

  "Ronald!" Hermione snapped, frowning at him. 

  "Obviously not all of it! And it was wrong of what's-her-name to bully her like that, but how much did she bring on herself with her suspicion and stuff?" He said quickly. 

  "True..." She grumbled. 

  ("We wanted to... night?" said Harry.)

  "Besides us, of course." Harry muttered absently, drawing again. 

  ("I wasn't paying... to kill myself.)

  "She could, actually." Albus said, lecturing a bit. "All ghosts could 'move on' at any time. They would simply have to release their 'anchor' on this world." 

  "Anchor?" Dudley asked, curious. 

  "Ghosts' remain when they have something keeping them here. Whether that be a sin they feel they must put to rights, or somebody to watch over, or simply unfinished business with somebody. They may or may not move on when that business is complete unless they want to." He explained. 

  Harry stilled, then forced himself to keep drawing. If that was true, then why hadn't either of his parents wanted to stay for him? 

  (Then, of course... said Ron helpfully.)

  "Absolutely no tact." Hermione sighed, exasperatedly glaring at Ron.

  "Actually, she loves to talk about it. I think she gets offended when people don't ask." Harry supplied helpfully.

  "It's all in how you speak with her, not in what you say." Remus agreed.

  "She could 'kill herself', so to speak, if she decided to move on." Albus said thoughtfully. "Ghosts are anchored here, but they can 'remove' that anchor at any time." 

  (Myrtle gave a tragic sob,)

  "She also has a flair for the dramatic." Harry pitched in. 

  "How do you know so much about her?" Hermione asked, confused. She didn't remember Harry spending much time with her, after all. 

  "You were petrified, and she helped me out in fourth year." Harry said, shifting uncomfortably at the thought of her help.

  (rose up in the... in the U-bend.)

  "Ok..." Dudley gave Harry a look. 

  "That's her favorite spot when she's not in the men's bathroom." Harry said dryly. 

  "What?" All the boys demanded at once, disturbed. 

  "Oh, yeah." Harry nodded.

  "I'm going to have to look into that." Albus said with a frown. 

  (Harry and Ron... cheerful for Myrtle...)

  "
  
    That 
  
  was cheerful?" Neville asked. 

  "You have no idea." Draco said. He'd been quiet until now, but he felt it was safe to say that he knew Myrtle almost as good as Harry did by this point. 

  (Come on, let's go."... of them jump.

  "RON!")

  "Busted." All the Weasley boys said at once while Percy turned slightly red, but didn't say anything. He felt like he'd said everything that needed to be said at the time.

  Knowing what he knew now didn't change any of that.

  (Percy Weasley)

  "Oh! That's even worse!" Bill laughed.

  "If it were some stranger..." Charlie agreed.

  "But your own brother!"

  Percy rolled his eyes. "Haha." He said dryly.

  (had stopped dead... shock on his face.)

  "That was the last place I expected them to be." Percy shrugged. "Not only was it where Mrs. Norris had been attacked, something the majority of students were blaming Harry for, but they'd just come out of the 
  
    girl's 
  
  bathroom." Hermione got enough looks from the Purebloods for hanging out almost exclusively with two boys, not just for being Muggleborn. They didn't consider it proper, but at least they were mostly in public when they were together. 

  ("That's a girls... of Mrs. Weasley.)

  "Hey!" Percy complained quietly, not wanting to draw his mother's attention like that. 

  "Well, some of it had to rub off on one of us." Charlie shrugged, grinning at his mother. Percy glared heatlessly. 

  ("Get- away- from... this looks like?)

  "Especially with everybody already blaming Harry for the attack on Mrs. Norris." Percy said quietly. He'd almost panicked when he saw his brother coming out of that bathroom.

  "... I hadn't even thought of that." Hermione said, looking at the other two in their Trio in shock, which echoed on their faces.

  "Nobody is even around, though. Everybody is probably at dinner." Bill pointed out. 

  "That doesn't matter, anybody could have been walking around like I was." Percy disputed immediately. Bill shrugged. 

  (Coming back... at dinner-")

  "When the entire school already thinks Harry did it, at that." Percy finished what he had been going to say before Ron interrupted him.

  "Guess it's a good thing we're so good at hiding what we're doing." Ron muttered, thinking about how bad things had already been for his friend, especially after Colin and then the Dueling Club.

  ("Why shouldn't we... to be expelled,)

  "Not them being expelled..." Percy said slowly, realizing just what she'd really been scared of. She'd already started to think that maybe she was doing it.

  Ginny sniffed, still pale from earlier (she probably wouldn't regain any of her color until this book was over), and nodded. Ever since she'd woken up in an abandoned part of the castle with blood all over her, she'd been terrified that it was her that attacked Mrs. Norris. And then for Ron to say that they would catch the lunatic and expel them...

  Percy sighed. "Ronald..." He groaned.

  "I didn't know! I was trying to be helpful!" Bill and Charlie were looking between their younger siblings, starting to get a really bad feeling about their baby sisters involvement in events this year.

  (I've never seen... by this business-")

  "At that point, they were. All that had happened so far was a cat being attacked, and a message that could have been construed as a very poor Halloween prank." Percy pointed out at the disbelieving looks he was getting. 

  "Only if Mrs. Norris hadn't been attacked." Sirius commented, leaning back and considering the third oldest Weasley son. 

  "They were scared." Harry finally said. "And with good reason." He said, eyes fixed on Draco, who turned red. He'd made sure to run his mouth every chance he got, especially around those that he knew to be Muggleborn. 

  ("You don't care about Ginny,")

  "I do too!" Percy retorted hotly, face just as red as it had been that day. 

  His younger siblings all privately thought that he'd had a funny way of showing it during the school year. Sure, he took care of the younger students like he was supposed to as a Prefect, but he wasn't exactly a very good or understanding brother. 

  (said Ron, whose... write to Mum!")

  "Ah, come on! Why would you do that?" The Twins whined in disgust. 

  "You know, that's why they treat you the way they do half the time, right?" Bill asked his younger brother, who just sighed. 

  "Five points? That's not much of a lesson when they lose double that just going to Potions class." Neville said, confused. 

  Percy sighed. "That's the maximum amount of points a Prefect can take." He explained. 

  Ron and Hermione nodded in agreement, although privately they thought that Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad threw that out the window. 

  (And he strode... as Ron's ears.)

  "The curse of being a red-head." Sirius chuckled. 

  "Lily was the same way, although she wasn't 'ginger' red, she was more a fiery red." Remus said fondly. Severus snorted, thinking that Remus had no idea. 

  All the red-heads proved his point by turning red. 

  (Harry, Ron, and... the parchment.)

  "That is getting more and more dangerous." Ollivander noted, frowning. That wand was already on it's last legs, but now it was being destructive rather then just annoying. 

  "Is that why that assignment had scorch marks all over it?" Filius wondered absently.

  (Fuming almost as... Hermione followed suit.)

  "Whoa..." Most of the Gryffindor's who were at school with her said, amazed. 

  "Were you feeling alright, Hermione?" Percy asked, concerned. She was one of the most studious next to him, after all. 

  "I was fine." Hermione rolled her eyes. She'd just had too much on her mind with everything about the Chamber. 

  ("Who can it be... just been having.)

  "Which happens way too often." Neville complained. 

  "It can be confusing to keep up with them." Luna admitted. 

  "Can not!" The Trio protested. 

  "Yes it is." The other trio said at once, with Ginny giving her brother a deadpanned look. 

  "You will start random conversations in the middle of nowhere, mid-conversation, without any context that anybody knows of, even yourselves half the time, and you all seem to know what you're talking about without thought." Remus deadpanned, even he knew that, and he was only their teacher for a year and didn't interact with them much after that. 

  ("Who'd want to... Muggle-borns are scum?")

  "Almost anybody in Slytherin House. A few others in Ravenclaw and Gryffindor... they're just quieter about it." Draco said matter-of-factly.

  "I've never had problems with other Gryffindor's over my being Muggleborn." Hermione gave him an odd look.

  "Like I said. They're quieter about it. Coming from a Slytherin, it's almost expected. Coming from a Raven or a Lion, well..." He shrugged.

  "Maybe, but you were the most vocal about it that year." Harry sighed. 

  "Which should have been the first clue. Remember what happened the year before?" Sirius asked pointedly. 

  Harry blinked at him before the entire Trio groaned. "We hadn't even considered that." Hermione sighed. The year before, Professor Snape had obviously been the would-be thief, and yet in the end it ended up being the one that they thought was one of his victim's.

  (He looked at... talking about Malfoy-")

  "Who else would you be talking about? Aside from the couple of hundred other students in Slytherin, not to mention the other three houses." Draco grumbled. 

  "You three are thinking with your emotions, not your heads." Remus told the three. 

  ("Of course I am!"... to know it's him-")

  "Ronald!" Molly cried, glaring at her son. Arthur was suspiciously quiet, but even he looked disapproving of what his youngest son was saying, even against a Malfoy. 

  "Sorry, Draco." Ron muttered, face red and not looking at anybody. Draco just nodded stiffly. He knew he hadn't made himself very popular. 

  
    Draco 
  
  just looked down, forlorn while 
  
    Ron 
  
  seemed unsure.

  ("Malfoy, the Heir... Hermione skeptically.)

  "He may have talked a big talk, but I've never guessed he could actually do it." She said simply. She felt vindicated knowing how reluctant he had been to actually take the Mark and carry out his mission. 

  "I never actually wanted to hurt anybody." Draco sighed. 

  ("Look at his family,"... been in Slytherin;)

  "That doesn't mean anything!" Moody scoffed. 

  "I know. Now." Harry muttered. "I was twelve." He countered, and went back to his drawing. 

  (he's always boasting... definitely evil enough.")

  "The Malfoy's are from France." Draco deadpanned. "They've only been in Britain for five generations." He didn't say anything about the slur against his father, though, especially not after the last few years. 

  "Oh..." 

  "I didn't even think of that." Hermione groaned. And she spoke French! "Malfoy... Bad faith!" She kept grumbling to herself, berating herself. 

  "I have a feeling there's a story there." Harry muttered. 

  "Oh, and it's a story, alright." Sirius snorted. He was still surprised a contract was created between the Black's and Malfoys. "If anybody could have been the one to pass down 'Slytherin family secrets', it's Narcissa." He informed the room. She'd had plenty of time in the Black family library, after all. Certainly more than he'd had, in fact he'd tried to avoid the library half the time. Certainly the sections that she spent the most time in. He didn't say anything else about the Black families connection with Slytherin.

  ("They could've had... said Harry darkly.)

  "You don't. You let the teacher's handle it and stay away from large, insane snakes that can kill you with a look." Sirius immediately said. 

  "Yeah... well. The teachers weren't handling it that we could tell." Harry mumbled. Sirius pursed his lips and gave 
  
    Harry 
  
  a side hug while Remus clapped a hand on Harry's shoulder. They didn't say anything else, though, merely eyed the professors in question. 

  ("There might be... room at Percy.)

  "I already don't like this plan." Molly said. "Don't you dare do whatever it is you are thinking of." She warned them. 

  "Molly, dear. This already happened." Arthur reminded her again. 

  "I can dream, can't I?" She huffed quietly, to his amusement.

  ("Of course, it... very dangerous.)

  "I agree with Molly. Don't do it." Sirius said, even though he knew full well that they did it. 

  "It was probably one of the safest things we did that year, actually." Harry shrugged, looking apologetically at his godfather. Well, the brewing maybe not because it was such a complex potion, but 

  (We'd be breaking... rules, I expect-")

  "Whoa." Neville said, staring at Hermione in open-mouthed shock. Everyone else was staring at the usual rule-abiding girl in equal shock. 

  "You two were horrible influences on her." Minerva said immediately, glowering at Ron and Harry.

  "We don't think so." Harry shrugged. He was rather proud of how far she'd come. 

  Hermione rolled her eyes. "There are some things that are more important then school rules." She said simply. She'd come to realize that over the years, especially after everything they'd gone through at the school. 

  ("If, in a month... said Ron irritably.)

  "What's that about?" Draco asked, surprised. 

  "She'll go off on mental tangents without giving us any hints. Sometimes she'll run off to the library and we won't see her for hours. When she returns, she'll have the answers. But she'll leave us waiting for hours! Sometimes days!" Ron whined. 

  Hermione rolled her eyes. "Be glad I give you the answers at all." She snipped. 

  "Guys." Harry sighed. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. Ron just had no patience.

  ("All right," said... realizing it's us.")

  "Ha! Good luck with that! You would have to find us, first!" Draco scoffed, but his mind was swirling with suspicion. 

  "It's not hard to find." Harry deadpanned. "Especially when you're on good terms with those two." He jerked his thumb at the Twins, who beamed. 

  "We should have asked them first." Ron muttered, scowling. It would have saved them some time.

  '
  
    But then they would have known we were up to something.' 
  
  Hermione signed, frowning. 

  
    'Nah, I could have convinced them that we were just curious.'
  
   Harry waved it off while Severus frowned at the two of them, and their conversation. 

  ("But that's... Ron laughed.)

  "You just said..." Bill started, smirking.

  "I was talking about the 'not realizing it's us' bit. Not the getting inside Slytherin bit." Harry rolled his eyes.

  "That would have to be quite the disguise." Draco commented, narrowing his eyes. 

  ("No, it's not,"... Polyjuice Potion.")

  "No, absolutely not." Molly immediately said.

  "I was right." Severus purred, smirking at the Trio. Who promptly paled as they remembered just 
  
    how 
  
  they'd gotten those ingredients.

  Draco's mouth dropped open as he stared at the Trio, brain rapidly making connections. "That was you that night? I thought Crabbe and Goyle were acting odd, but... that was you? I told you about, I..." Draco paled as he remembered everything that was said that night. 
  
    He'd 
  
  been the one to tell Arthur Weasley about the secret room, Ron must have gone straight to the owlery with a letter home after that conversation... And everything he'd said about wanting Granger dead...

  "Draco?" Severus asked, touching his godson's shoulder in concern.

  "I said some stuff to them. I thought they were Crabbe and Goyle..." He said quietly, his tone and facial expression telling his godfather just how bad it was going to be.

  ("What's that?" said... Snape?" muttered Ron.)

  "I would hope that you do." Molly snapped, glaring now. 

  "I pay attention! It's just difficult to do around keeping unwanted items out of my potions or ignoring his barbs and insults every few words." Harry shrugged. 

  "Hmm..." Sirius hummed, shooting Severus a small glare at the reminder of how the man used to treat his Pup, even if he was making progress in making up for it right now, especially with the lessons he'd been giving both boys, and not just in Potions. He'd started them both on Occlumency, properly this time. 

  ("It transforms you into somebody else.)

  "Only for an hour." Severus warned. "And at your ages, that's not a good idea. It puts a strain on your body and magic. There is a reason why it's recommended that you be of-age before using it." There was a reason why they only took of-age, or close to it, when they went to pick up Harry before his seventeenth. 

  "Oh." Hermione said, surprised. "I didn't know that. You never said anything about that in class, and it didn't say anything about that in the book." 

  "
  
    Moste Potente Potions
  
  ?" Severus asked knowingly. When she nodded, he sighed. "That book is older then the studies about how safe it is for younger people." He explained. "A newer edition would have that information, but Hogwarts does not have that edition in it's library, and you could only find a book like that in places like Borgin and Burke's. It's considered a restricted item by the Ministry." Hermione frowned, but didn't say anything else.

  (Think about it... know it was us.)

  "We do now." Severus said darkly. 

  "I'm 
  
    really 
  
  starting to hate these books." Hermione muttered. 

  "Just now? I've been hating them." Harry snorted.

  (Malfoy would probably... could hear him.")

  "Actually, I was probably busy with homework." Draco pointed out. Either that or avoiding a few of the girls who appreciated his family name a 
  
    little 
  
  too much, and the money that came with it. They didn't even care that he'd been twelve at the time! And neither Crabbe nor Goyle were very good conversationalists. 

  ("This Polyjuice... Slytherins forever?")

  "Only if brewed improperly, and if it by some miracle doesn't explode on you before that." Severus drawled, still watching Draco carefully. Unfortunately, Hermione was good enough (at least at following the recipe to the letter) at that age to probably brew it properly, especially if they were precise on their timing. Or, well, that was mostly fortunate, since it meant the trio were still here, alive. Not even with the safety concerns for minors was it a possibility for the three to get stuck like that.

  "And if anything other than human hair is used." Hermione muttered under her breath, still annoyed with herself for making such a huge mistake.

  Poppy was sitting close enough to overhear, but she merely nodded to herself as a theory was confirmed.

  ("It wears off... from a teacher.)

  "Which are generally only given out to fifth years and older for special projects." Minerva said stiffly, eyeing them sternly. 

  "Well, at least they aren't trying to sneak in this time." Remus sighed, thinking back to the disastrous attempt during the winter holidays in Harry's first year. 

  "No teacher in their right mind is going to sign that note for you." Pomona claimed, shaking her head and wondering how they pulled it off. 

  "Then it's a good thing there was a teacher there that year who wasn't in his right mind!" Ron murmured to Ginny, who giggled lightly. 

  ("Hard to see... of the potions.")

  "There is always a theoretical application or research project. You don't have to make something to know everything about it." Severus pointed out. He knew plenty of recipes that he'd never actually made, and everything about plenty of ingredients that he'd never actually had a chance to use before. And he'd been able to base plenty of theories around those recipes and ingredients despite never using them before. Some of his theories had since been proven or disproven by others who were free to research as much as they wanted.

  There was a reason why Potions Masters, especially ones as young as him, never went into teaching. At least, not before they'd had a long and productive career researching and inventing. 

  ("I think," said... be really thick...")

  The Trio snorted in amusement. "That's an understatement." Ron muttered, eyeing his mother warily.

  "I think I know who you used." Neville grinned in anticipation. Pomona groaned when she realized who they were talking about. Well, she did say 'in their right mind', didn't she? Besides, she didn't even count him as a teacher. 

  "Of course, who else?" Harry asked, snorting.

  Molly sighed, looking up at the ceiling as if she could find the patience not to start yelling again up there. "I'm going to go start dinner." She announced after a moment, and got up.

  "I'll help!" 
  
    Harry 
  
  offered immediately. It was strange for him not to be cooking all the meals, but it didn't feel so strange if he at least helped.

  "Thank you, dear." She smiled, and followed him out the room, unable to resist the urge to turn and glare at her youngest son and his two best friends. Ron shrank down in his seat, gulping.'
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