“...petrified. At least it was only Ms. Norris, I couldn’t think of a better cat to get it,” Ron said.
“But that message. ‘The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemy of the heirs beware’. I heard it was painted in blood above where Ms. Norris had been frozen. Whoever did it was sending a message that there would be more attacks,” Neville said.
“Well, I think there’s only one obvious suspect for who it was. Who do we know was plotting something and who has a son that goes to Hogwarts?” Hermione said.
“Draco Malfoy,” Ron said, “I thought we were done with that slimy git for good after last year. But no way is he the heir of Slytherin. He would be shouting it from the rooftops if there was even a chance that was true with how he throws the Malfoy family name around.”
Hermione shook her head, “That’s just it, though. I’ve been thinking, and what if its some artifact, like a key to open the chamber? He might not have to be Slytherin’s real heir to open it and control the monster if he had something like that. It is the only thing that makes sense, otherwise how would Lucius plan on the Chamber opening this year? Why not wait until Draco is older and could handle things easier?”
“But how would we figure that out if its him?” Neville said.
“We should follow him,” Hermione said, “And see if he goes anywhere strange. We might catch him going into the chamber. I’ll see if we can learn some good spying spells to track him.”
“Like what?” Neville asked, “Are we even allowed to learn those?”
Hermione shrugged, “It was in the library, so I don’t see why not. They even let me take some books including the one with all those spells with me over the summer after I signed a couple of forms. So its not that bad.”
“What kind of spells are they?” Ron asked.
“Well, I think the best one is to attach to someone’s clothing and record where they go. After a set time the charm is done and it presses the exact path onto a map that you link it to.”
“Doesn’t that sound complicated? How hard is this spell?” Neville asked.
“Well, I don’t actually know. I haven’t actually tried casting it yet…”
After some investigation later, all of the spying spells in the book were far too hard for Hermione or the boys to learn. So that was a bust. They all kept watch out for Draco, but none of them were able to follow him at all times, so there were huge chunks of time where he could have been running off to the chamber.
It had been a week, and they and the rest of the castle were no closer to finding who the heir was. Although the rumors had made the Slytherins bounce back to their normal hateful selves. Pansy's two month suspension from Hogwarts after their duel had caused all the Slytherins to be more subdued than usual over the last month or so since it happened.
The three of them were in the library, doing more homework. Hermione was amazed at how much they had to do. Even if she was on top of the material it still took a lot of time for her to physically write everything down for the assignments in all her classes.
Hermione looked up as she overheard Ginny’s voice on the other side of the room.
“...question about transfiguration?”
Across from her stood a boy with a puffed out chest that looked rather full of himself. Justin Finch-Fletchley, one of the second year Hufflepuffs. “Certainly! I’ll try to say it simply so you can understand. So this circuit goes round like a whirlpool, and the offshoots here take the flow…”
Hermione saw Ginny’s face flash in annoyance at the boy’s condescending tone. But Hermione thought that the boy overall was giving a good explanation even if she could see why Ginny didn’t like it very much. He finished his explanation and stared at Ginny expectantly, “Well, did you understand or would you like for me to explain again?”
“...No, I got it. Thank you, Justin,” Ginny said softly before turning and walking off, not seeming to notice Hermione on the other side of the room.
— — —
“Good, good, Hermione. You are doing well, the next addition to the Resistentia Arcana spell structure is quite tricky. There is no shame in struggling a little,” The headmaster said warmly.
Hermione huffed in frustration as she lowered her wand. Now that she had mastered the blocking portion of the spell, she had to learn the part that would enhance and support the person inside using the resulting energy. Just learning to cast it was far more difficult than the original part had been, especially since she had to do it in addition to casting the normal spell every time so it could build off of that.
She had been working on it for weeks in her lessons with the Headmaster and had never managed to cast it correctly once. But the headmaster assured her she was getting closer. Hermione wondered what the Headmaster would do when they finished with this spell. This was the last part, then Dumbledore said the spell would be complete. Would he end their lessons or start teaching her something completely new?
“Let’s try again. Focus on the ending flick of your wand, I notice it is trailing behind when you finish your motions…” Dumbledore said encouragingly.
“Yes, Sir,” Hermione said, raising her wand toward the dummy again. She would get it eventually.
— — —
“Justin Finch-Fletchley and the ghost Nearly Headless Nick were petrified last night! We’ve got to stop Draco before he does anything else!” Ron said, “How can someone even petrify a ghost? Whatever the monster was must have gotten both of them at once.”
“What- what about polyjuice potion?” Neville asked, “You know what that that fake Auror used it to get close to Harry that one time. We can sneak into the Slytherin common rooms as someone else and search through Draco’s things to find the key to the Chamber.”
Hermione shook her head, “That book will be in the restricted section, how would we check it out? We need a teacher's signature for it.”
“What about Lockhart? He seems oblivious enough. Just put any piece of paper under his nose and I’m sure he’ll sign it for you,” Ron said.
“Ron! Don’t disrespect Professor Lockhart like that!” Hermione protested, “I mean, his lessons are a little, well, he’s not the best teacher. But that doesn’t mean he won’t teach us things if we ask him the right questions. He knows it all, he just doesn’t know how to dumb it down to our level.”
“I’m telling you, Hermione. That guy’s a fraud. His lessons have been nothing but him bragging so far, and he hasn’t even taught us a single spell.”
“That’s because he’s teaching us how he reacted to real situations rather than the things in the textbook. What else would he talk about except his own experiences? I think you’re just not looking at it right,” Hermione said.
“Well, Hermione, could you try getting his signature? You are his big fan, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if it was you asking,” Neville interrupted.
Much to Hermione’s surprise, it was indeed that easy. After getting the permission slip from the library she just walked up to Professor Lockhart after class. After telling him some of her favorite scenes from his books to butter him up, he was more than happy to sign the note. Somehow she thought that it would be harder. But she was a good student, why would Lockhart refuse anyway? It was good he wanted students learning all that they could about magic!
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
After getting the book and reading the recipe, Hermione realized that the brewing took over a month and a half where the potion had to be constantly monitored and stirred at specific intervals. This would be such a pain to make…
It would have to wait until after the winter holidays much to their disappointment. None of them wanted to leave Draco free for more attacks for the whole month of December. So they decided to always try to keep someone watching him, even if their coverage wasn’t perfect. Hopefully that would keep him from sneaking off and releasing the creature again.
Hermione was worried about Ginny, the girl had been withdrawn and looked vaguely sick all the time. When Hermione asked if she was okay, Ginny practically jumped out of her chair and ran off after assuring Hermione that she was fine. Hermione vaguely missed Ginny coming to her with her questions. She hoped Ginny was getting some good use out of Hermione's journal at least.
— — —
There were no more attacks during December, and winter break was relaxing at home. Although they did have one new addition around their Christmas tree. Her parents had invited Dobby to join them since he had no one else to celebrate with. He cried for a little while after that, but eventually accepted the offer. Hermione got him a bowler hat with two holes cut out for his long ears. Dobby put it on and it was a good look for him. He liked the gift a lot and wore it almost all the time for a few days after Christmas, before he returned to his job as a store clerk.
Hermione was happy for him that he had managed to get the job he wanted and Dobby seemed happy there from what she had heard. The shop sold enchanted objects like broomsticks and other smaller enchanted objects from what Hermione could understand, and Dobby ran the counter. She would have to go inside and see what was there the next time she was in Diagon Alley.
— — —
After returning from break, it was time to get started on the polyjuice potion. Hermione snuck after hours to steal the ingredients from Professor Snape’s stock. There were some wards over the closet, but her wandless magic helped her sense them. If she willed it she could send her magic in front of her like a wave and feel the wards like tiny strings in the air around the door. There were big holes in the wards, and once Hermione had mapped it out she guided her magic through the gaps to unlock the door from the inside.
Once she did so the wards disappeared, and she was clear to go inside and collect all the ingredients she needed, locked the door again behind her, and left. The wards activated again automatically once she relocked the door. Snape probably didn’t want to bother with casting them all again every time he locked up at the end of the day.
— — —
“So why are we in the second floor girl’s bathroom again?” Ron asked as Hermione laid out all the ingredients.
“This is the perfect place. No one ever comes in here because of Moaning Myrtle, and we need someone to be with the potion almost all the time to make sure it brews correctly,” Hermione replied as she laid out the recipe for the polyjuice potion on the other side of her.
“Moaning Myrtle? Who’s that?” Neville asked.
“I’m Moaning Myrtle. Poor, poor, Moaning Myrtle," Said a ghost that floated up out of the floor, "No one likes me, so they all avoid coming in here. Stupid girl even thinks she can even brew a potion here with no one interrupting her for a month…”
The ghost was a see through girl with thick glasses and a gloomy face peering down at them from above. Her expression looked like she was about to cry at any moment.
Hermione started putting in the ingredients in order and ignored the ghost. Who knew what would set her off?
“Why do they call you Moaning Myrtle?” Neville asked, and Hermione almost groaned. No, Neville, why?!
“M-moaning Myrtle because they’re bullies that want to hurt my feelings!”
“They- They-,” Moaning Myrtle continued, “WAAAAAHHHHHHHHH”
Hermione tried to ignore the ghost as she continued crying as the two boys watched on the ghosts emotional breakdown in confusion and slight concern. Eventually seeing she was being largely ignored by the group, Moaning Myrtle finally shut up after about twenty minutes and floated downwards through the floor again. Good riddance.
Hermione started instructing Ron and Neville on what to do and what ingredients to hand her. This first section should take an hour or two then it was just sitting and letting it brew for that for a month and a half. There were a few ingredients you added later on, but only two or three in comparison to the fifteen used in this initial part.
— — —
“Alright, done,” Hermione said with a sigh of relief looking at the bubbling cauldron filled with the brewing potion, “One of us will have to come by and do some things at least twice a day for it to work. If we miss even one then the whole batch can be ruined.”
“Man, this is going to be a pain,” Ron complained. Hermione looked at the potion. She was kind of glad it was so hard to make. Imagine if everyone had easy access to it…
There were no further attacks in the month and a half while the potion brewed and Draco didn’t do anything overly suspicious or sneak away to the chamber while they were following him.
The mandrakes were maturing, and by the end of the school year they would be old enough to be used in the potion to cure the victims of the petrification.
— — —
*Flash!* Everyone flinched, “Colin Creevey, for the last time,” Hermione said, “I don’t want to be a celebrity either. Just please go bother someone else.”
“But you totally thrashed that Slytherin girl in the dueling club! Everyone can’t stop talking about how you did it even now,” Colin said, “Just bam bam bam, and she was down. And how you attacked her after…”
“Colin, I swear the next time you take a picture of me or Neville I’m hexing you. I don’t even care that you're in your first year anymore. I’ll still do it,” Hermione replied in annoyance.
“Well, alright. I just don’t get it, who wouldn’t want to be famous?” Colin said.
“Shove off, Colin! Didn’t you hear her the first five times?!” Ron snarled. They were all truly fed up with Colin by now, and having him constantly taking pictures of Hermione or Neville all the time was incredibly annoying.
The boy finally ran off reluctantly and they all let out a sigh of relief as the other people in the Gryffindor common room looked away from the confrontation and went back to their own business.
— — —
“Colin Creevey was found petrified last night! Why was there another attack after so long…” Neville said.
“I don’t know, I can’t believe it was that little git of all people who was the one who was attacked next…” Ron said.
“We shouldn’t talk about him like that when he’s hurt,” Hermione admonished Ron.
“I’ll talk about him the same either way. Just because he’s hurt doesn’t mean I have to like him any more than before,” Ron said.
“Don’t worry Hermione,” Neville said, “We're almost done with brewing the potion. We’ll find the key and stop all of this then.”
“I guess so, but what if it is not Draco after all of this? We’d really have no leads if this falls through,” Hermione replied.
“Well it’s at least one of the Slytherins,” Ron said, “Not like anyone but the snakes in that house would want to open the Chamber. We have that at least.”
“I suppose…” Hermione said uncertainly, "That still doesn't narrow it down very much..."
— — —
“Do you know what the monster in the chamber is, Headmaster?” Hermione asked in between casts of the Resistentia Arcana spell.
“Hmmm. Not precisely, Hermione,” Dumbledore replied, “There are many beasts that have petrifying gazes. The most prevalent theory is that it is a basilisk. But not only is there no record of such a creature ever being at Hogwarts, but their petrification can kill even the strongest wizards. The students of the school would not have survived its gaze if it were the beast in the chamber.”
“What is a Basilisk, Headmaster?”
“A Basilisk appears like a large snake. They grow continuously with age, with the longest recorded at over forty meters long. A newborn from Salazar Slytherin’s time would be one of the oldest specimens ever recorded if it indeed survived since then. But as I said, the gazes of Basilisks are imbued with a strange magic in that anyone that meets their eyes is petrified and in most cases killed. Despite all of this, the Basilisk die instantly when they hear the morning song of a rooster. Perhaps a trade off for the impressive power of their petrifying vision, to also be given such a critical weakness.”
“The staff of this school including me are doing all we can in our power to track down the culprit,” The headmaster continued, “The school has been searched many times over the years and such a Chamber of Secrets has never been found so far. Wherever it is, if it exists at all, it is well protected. Now, as interesting a diversion as this is, perhaps we should get back to our lesson, Hmmm?”
“Yes, Headmaster,” Hermione replied and turned to trying to cast the spell again. She was still making progress but hadn’t been able to fully cast the spell correctly yet in this whole time. A Basilisk…
— — —
It was late January and Hermione was washing up after going to the bathroom. There was a loud clunk of metal behind her and she turned around. She frowned when the room was still except for the shaking of the pipe. Those old pipes were always making strange noises, it was probably nothing. Hermione turned back to the sink. In the mirror above it she noticed movement in one of the grates near the ceiling.
She peered closer at the movement, frowning. Suddenly her muscles locked up as through the grate she saw a giant yellow eye peering at her through the slats. Hermione’s magic tried to pulse and fight off the magical effect, but it was no use. The golden eye with a vertical pupil filled her vision until it was all she could see. Hermione’s body stiffened as she gripped the edge of the sink. She could feel herself completely unable to move as the eye continued to bore into her as she stared into the mirror. The paralysis moved from her fingers and toes and moved inwards, freezing every part it touched as stiff as a board. The wave of magic reached her head and Hermione felt herself begin to lose consciousness.
The last thing Hermione heard was the Basilisk slithering away through the large pipes, its job done.