From a Serpent to a Lioness: Year Two

After that disastrous lesson, Hermione, Ron and I are starting our homework in the courtyard, making the most of the fresh air while Mini frolics around, chasing insects and eating any she catches, as I look up to see the Gryffindor Quidditch team exiting on their way to the pitch. Then… the SLYTHERIN team emerges from another entrance, dressed for practice. Quidditch Captain Oliver Wood confronts them.

“Where d’you think you’re going, Flint? I booked the pitch for Gryffindor today.”

Marcus Flint sneers unpleasantly.

“Easy, Wood. I’ve got a note.” He hands over a small scroll.

Ron looks up, and frowns. “Uh-oh. I smell trouble.”

I nod, and we get up and start walking over, as Oliver unrolls the note and reads it.

“I, Professor Severus Snape, do hereby give the Slytherin team permission to practice today, owing to the need to train their new Seeker.”

He looks up. “YOU’VE got a new Seeker? Who?”

From the middle of the huddle, in emerald robes, his pale hair slicked back, struts…

“Malfoy?” Harry looks poleaxed, and then, I notice something else. The Slytherin team are all boasting brand-new brooms!

Malfoy grins nastily.

“That’s right. And that’s not all that’s new this year!”

Ron cottons on to what I’ve spotted, and gasps in outrage.

“Those are Nimbus 2001s! How’d you get those?!”

Marcus Flint smugly announces, “A gift from Draco’s father. He was sooooo pleased when his son made the team!”

Malfoy preens. “You see, Weasley, unlike some, my father can afford the best!”

Hermione snaps, “At least no-one on the Gryffindor team had to BUY their way in. THEY got in on pure talent.”

I choke back a giggle at that, and Malfoy’s face twists from smug and irritating to enraged.

“No-one asked your opinion. You filthy little Mudblood!”

I gasp, eyes wide. I almost go for my wand right then and there. Ron has no such compunctions, drawing his wand. “You’ll pay for that one, Malfoy.” He snarls, and I decide valour wins out over common sense and draw my own. If I can, I want to at least rearrange that pretentious tosser’s face.

Before Ron can use his busted wand, I point mine at Malfoy and snap, “Eat slugs, you self-righteous little vulture!”

Malfoy’s sneer suddenly gets wiped off his face as he looks sick. He begins to retch, and then… pukes up a huge, writhing slug. Then another. I fold my arms over my chest as Flint looks fit to burst. And, with that, I turn to the Gryffindor captain. “Well, look at that. It looks like the pitch just became free. You’d better go and practice!”

I saunter away, my ponytail swishing behind me as Ron and Hermione follow me in the direction of Hagrid’s hut, with Harry catching up later, stating that Wood had called it off, not wanting to risk Snape’s ire more than it will already be roused.  Ron’s staring at me with awe and a hint of fear in his eyes. “Girls are scary…” he mutters, and I smile.

“Why, thank you, Ron! But only to those who deserve the scary!”

 

In Hagrid’s hut, I put an arm around Hermione and hug her. “Sorry about that, I couldn’t hold back after what he said…”

Hagrid, in the middle of making huge mugs of tea for us, frowns. “What?”

I explain that I’d just hexed Malfoy for saying something utterly unforgivable.

“He called Hermione… a Mudblood...” I say softly, not liking how the word tastes in my mouth.

“’E did NOT!” Hagrid looks stunned, and more than a little outraged.

Harry looks both angry, but confused. I fill him in. “A Mudblood is a very derogatory term used to describe witches and wizards with one magical parent and one Muggle parent. It means… that your blood isn’t pure. Dirty blood. It’s sick, nasty rhetoric, and they use it because it’s hateful, cruel, and a very stupid thing to say. There are many pure-blooded witches and wizards who are completely inept with magic, and many Muggle-borns with far more talent and power than them. They just use it as a weapon…”

Hagrid nods. “And there’s some, like the Malfoy family, who think they’re better than everybody else because they’re what folks call pure-blood.”

 

Harry, not fully informed, looks PISSED.

“That’s horrible!”

Ron nods, looking furious. “It’s disgusting…”

Hagrid adds, “An’ it’s codswallop t’boot.  Dirty blood…  why, there’s barely a single wizard alive today who’s not half-blood or less. More t’ the point, they’ve yet to think of a spell that our Hermione can’t do! I’d like t’see Malfoy copy what she can do with a wand!”

Hermione starts to smile a little. Hagrid reaches out and takes one of her hands, patting it with both of his.

“Don’t you think on it, Hermione, don’t you think on it for one minute. Hey?”

She starts to smile more, and Harry and Ron then groan. “ugh, we’ve gotta go, Harry… detention time!”

 

That night, when Harry gets back to the Common room, her looks both exhausted and freaked-out. I turn my page, slipping a bookmark in, and sit up a little straighter, tugging my dressing gown closed a bit more. Mini yawns, looks towards Harry from where she’s been dozing on my lap, and lets out an “err-ow!”

 

“What’s wrong, Harry?”

“Well… I was helping Professor Lockhart answer his fan-mail, and I heard a voice… it said, “come….come to me… come to me…”, but, I was the only one who could hear it! It was… weird. Really creepy…”

I blink. Voices that no-one else can hear… I mean, there are spells that can do things like that, but no-one was casting any on Harry. But, just hearing a voice wouldn’t freak Harry out THIS much. There’s more.

 

I listen, as Harry continues, and my eyes widen, my mouth hanging open.

“then, I was walking back from detention, and… well… it gets worse. I heard the voice again, and it said, “Blood… I smell blood… let me rip you…let me kill you… kill… kill… kill!” and it got louder and louder. When I went round the corner, I saw Hermione and Ron, and they didn’t hear the voice either. And, then it came back. “It’s time….” But it was quieter, as though it was moving away from me. I followed it, because I had a really bad feeling, and then the corridor outside the girls’ bathrooms was flooded. Like, properly flooded. And we saw this line of spiders, all crawling out of the window. Like they were trying to get away from something. then we saw that someone had painted on the wall, “The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies if the Heir… beware!” and it… it was written in blood.”

I shiver. This is way too creepy for the first week back at Hogwarts!

 

Harry continues, his voice soft and a little shaky, “and, hanging from her tail, right beside it… was Filch’s cat, Mrs Norris… and a whole bunch of first years and second years came round with a Prefect in tow, so they think I’m the one who did it… like, Malfoy and his goons, Seamus, Lee Jordan,  Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell…  Malfoy was as much of an arse as usual, saying that “you’ll be next, Mudbloods!” and then the teachers arrived and Filch almost strangled me because he refused to believe I didn’t do anything to his awful cat… Thank Merlin that Professor Dumbledore arrived and settled things down enough that I could go to bed…”

I bite my lip. “Harry… what do you think’s going on? This is… honestly creeping me out, and I wasn’t even there!”

“Yeah… Dumbledore said that Mrs Norris was just petrified, so she wasn’t dead. Didn’t stop Filch from blaming me, but Lockhart waffled on about how he would’ve been able to use a countercurse to save her, the giant berk. And Snape actually suggested that we were simply in ‘the wrong place at the wrong time’, which was weirdly… nice of him. But then he immediately started making me look suspicious, saying about how he didn’t see me at dinner, which was entirely because I was in detention with Lockhart!”

 

I shudder. Well, enough spooky stuff for one day.

“Goodnight, Harry. I think we should get some sleep and think about this in the morning, okay?”

However, I don’t go to sleep. Instead, I think about what I can do for my friends, to help them. There’s one thing I can do very easily, and I slip out to the Owlery, writing a letter, and sending it with one of the school owls, used by those, like me, who don’t have a familiar that can fly.

 

 

 A few days pass, before the Item I’d ordered arrives, and I stash it securely in the girls’ dorm. The Polyjuice potion still doesn’t taste of anything, but the freedom of having my body the way it should be is worth the chore.  My coinpouch is definitely lighter thanks to my purchase, but it’ll be worth it when the time comes.

Finally, thanks to being second-years, we’re starting to learn the next level of Transfiguration spell from Professor McGonagall, and I bounce a little in my seat, excited. If I can master this type of magic, then I won’t need Polyjuice potion! I’ll be able to make it a permanent change! Eeeee! If there’s only one class I pay attention in, it’s gonna be this one!

 

Professor McGonagall has provided a rat for everyone who doesn’t possess a rodent familiar, and I have to make sure Mini doesn’t try to eat them. She’s very grumpy about it until I bribe her with a few crickets, which she accepts as sufficient bribery enough to sit on my lap and watch the proceedings without trying to snack on my rat, or anyone else’s, for that matter.

Ron’s using his familiar, a rat named Scabbers, for this lesson, and I can only hope his wand cooperates a little more. It’s been misfiring a lot, almost every single time.

“Could I have your attention, please? Today, we will be transforming animals into water goblets. Like so.”

She gestures to a large bird on a perch next to her, as if fixes a beady eye on the class. She taps it with her wand three times. “Vera verto.”

In a brief twist of motion, the bird transforms into a gleaming silver goblet, adorned with the Hogwarts crest.

“Now, your turn. Who would like to go first…? Ah, Miss Darcy. ”

I focus on my rat. It twitches its nose at me. One tap, two taps, three… “Vera verto!”

Right before my eyes, my rat shifts and warps, becoming a crystalline goblet, just like the ones I have at home.  I sigh in relief. Perfect.

“Well done, Miss Darcy. Ten points to Gryffindor!”

I turn my attention to Malfoy, whose rat is making a spirited attempt to escape, or, failing that, bite him, and snicker softly, before looking in Ron’s direction. He nervously pokes Scabbers three times. “Vera verto?” Scabbers squeaks, turning into… a hairy goblet with a tail. It’s still squeaking.

Professor McGonagall sighs. “That wand needs replacing, Mr Weasley. Yes, Miss Granger?” she moves off to see what Hermione’s hand is in the air for, as Ron starts to sulk, poking his rat-goblet.

“Professor, I was wondering if you could tell us… about the Chamber of Secrets.”

Silence falls, and I shoot a nervous look at Harry. Maybe she’s still thinking about that scumbag Malfoy and his detestable comments…

 

Professor McGonagall watches as we all turn to stare at her. Finally, she succumbs to the pressure, and clears her throat.

“Very well. Well, you all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. Now, three of the four founders coexisted quite harmoniously. One did not.”

Ron mutters, “Three guesses who.”

Professor McGonagall continued, “Salazar Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. In other words, purebloods. Unable to sway the others, he decided to leave the school. Now, according to legend, Slytherin had built a hidden chamber within this castle, known as the Chamber of Secrets. Well, shortly before departing, he sealed it, until that time when his own true heir returned to Hogwarts. The heir alone would be able to open the chamber, and unleash the horror within, and by so doing, purge the school of all those who, in Slytherin’s eyes, were unworthy to study magic.”

Hermione murmurs, “Muggle-borns…”