90 Chapter 90: The Thin Red Line 

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3 November 1992, Gryffindor Common Room, Hogwarts

In the Gryffindor Common Room that evening, Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom were struggling over their Potions assignment. They were in a very bad mood, having had to attend detention with Professor Severus Snape in the afternoon. Yeah, melting their cauldron, getting a week of detention, and losing ten points each for Gryffindor did not help matters.

The youngest male Weasley was especially angry since he had gotten a second howler from his mother for breaking his wand and not telling anyone about it. That ponce, Lockhart, ended up complaining to Professor McGonagall, who sent an owl to his mother. Neville would secretly admit to himself that the woman had a point. A wizard was useless without his wand, and well, having a broken one affected Ron in all his classes. His teachers had obviously noticed but assumed that it was a lack of skill or control.

Hermione, on the other hand, was busy doing the following week's Transfiguration homework that McGonagall had just announced. Honestly, Neville thought it was too much, but the muggleborn seemed to enjoy it for some strange reason, so who was he to judge? Although, she had been acting a little more relaxed recently, even if she tended to want more time to herself. She did still help him and Ron with their homework, though, and Neville was grateful for that; that potions assignment was a nightmare.

Honestly, Neville just loathed the class. Ron seemed to share his opinion, and even Hermione didn't really look forward to it. The theory lessons with the incompetent Junior professor, and the nightmarish practical sessions with Snape, just made the entire class a living nightmare. The greasy bat hated Neville with a passion, and he was even a former Death Eater. Why Dumbledore is letting him teach and spread his reign of terror was a mystery to the boy who lived. Neville's dislike of the magical field showed in his grade, which tended to iterate between 'Poor' and 'Dreadful'.

The Longbottom scion would admit that he didn't really put much effort into his classes anymore. A little of it was to spite Snape, but it was mainly because the entire class was so boring. Neville was always restless, ready for action, and just sitting down brewing a potion for hours, or writing an essay on the properties of Murtlap Essence, was just so dull. There were so many better things to do, like playing Quidditch, exploring the castle, or, most of all, figuring out who is opening the Chamber of Secrets.

Deciding to distract himself from the mind-numbing essay he was writing, he looked at Hermione, "Any luck with your research about the Chamber of Secrets?"

The bushy-haired girl shook her head, "No. I couldn't find any mention of it outside of 'Hogwarts, a History'. If there was, it's probably gone already. Everyone has been curious as well, so any book would probably be taken out by now."

Ron stiffened when he heard of it, "What did it say again?"

"Seriously, Ron. It's like you have the memory capabilities of a goldfish…" Hermione muttered, then continued out loud, "Well, as you probably know, Hogwarts was built by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They hid the castle with very powerful wards to protect the students since back then, the Statute of Secrecy didn't exist, so everyone knew about it, and wizards and witches tended to be hunted down in sight. The older ones were safe, of course, since they could easily use their magic to protect themselves. Some even made a sport out of escaping witch burnings, the issue was the children. So, for years the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."

"Greasy git," Ron commented.

Hermione ignored him and continued, "This is something that's been confirmed by historians so far. The legend of the Chamber of Secrets states that Salazar Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing. Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic. They theorize that it's some kind of magical monster that only the true Heir of Slytherin could command."

"So, it has to be a Slytherin then," Neville thought out loud.

Hermione shook her head, "It might just be a cruel prank that went wrong. The attacker definitely didn't plan for Mrs Norris to die since she was suffocated by a petrified Filch. And I looked anywhere, monsters that petrify are rare, and not that long lived. For example, the Cockatrice can barely live more than a decade without dying of old age. The closest thing I could find was the Gorgon Curse that was put on Medusa, who turned whoever looked at her into stone. But that was permanent, some kind of forced transfiguration, not a temporary one like Dumbledore said. A real shame about Mrs Norris though, she was a cute cat."

"That thing was a demon in disguise," Ron protested, and Neville agreed with him. That cat had chased them down many times after curfew when they wanted to explore the castle at night. But the animal did not deserve this, suffocating to death by its own petrified owner. It was just horrible. Sometimes Ron could be a little insensitive, and Hermione seemed to take offence at his careless words. It was nothing new, the two of them tended to argue a lot.

Choosing not to let the situation escalate, Neville spoke up, "What if it was true? What if the chamber was really open? You saw how worried Dumbledore looked. He couldn't even heal Filch. I don't think there's a student that can do something that Dumbledore couldn't reverse. A legendary monster though, could do the trick."

Hermione looked hesitant, "Maybe. But who can it be, though? I have researched most of the founder lines out of curiosity. The line of Slytherin ended with the Gaunts, who all died out over fifty years ago. There's the branch that escaped to America and became the Sayre line and founded their own school there. But a Sayre coming to Hogwarts would be scandalous enough for the news to take notice."

"It's fairly obvious I think." Said Ron in feigned surprise. "Who do we know who wants all the Squibs and Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts?"

The youngest son of Arthur Weasley looked at Neville, seeking his approbation. The Longbottom scion looked back, seemingly unconvinced, "If you're talking about Malfoy..."

"Of course, I am!" Said, Ron. "You heard him: 'You'll be next, Mudbloods!' Come on, you've only got to look at his foul rat face to know it's him..."

Neville shook his head, "Malfoy, the heir of Slytherin? Don't get me wrong, I hate the git, but I don't think he has it in his to do something like this."

"Look at his family," Ron exclaimed vividly, "They've all been in Slytherin for centuries. They could easily be secret descendants of Salazar Slytherin, handing down instructions about the chamber of secrets from father to son, for generations."

"Ron, your entire family was in Gryffindor. So was mine, to be honest. Does that mean that I'm the descendant of Gryffindor," Neville protested.

"Yeah, but while everyone was horrified, Malfoy was very happy with the attack, like he's getting some attention," Ron continued, "And it can even be Potter too. He's certainly sneaky enough to pull off something like this."

That brought Neville short. Harry Potter just didn't come to him for some reason. He didn't even think about his godbrother ever since summer vacation. Potter just stopped showing off in class. He just did the work and kept writing in this new notebook of his all the time. No one knew what he was doing, and when Seamus tried to get a peak, he said it looked like gibberish to him. It even had some protection that stung anyone but its owner from touching it. To be perfectly honest, it was interesting for a week before everyone just gave up. It was probably some sort of study notes, knowing the boy.

There were a few rumours about him fighting Flitwick in the duelling club. Neville didn't really doubt them; he remembered Potter fighting the wraith of what he now knows is Lord Voldemort, as a first year, in the forbidden forest. The boy was just on another level, and Neville could only hope to catch up one day. Yes, Potter had the capability to do this. He has been acting a bit differently this year, a mix of distraction, and pure dismissal of Neville entirely. Before, there was this aura of condescension that he emanated. Now, it was like he didn't even notice that Neville was there. This change of character could mean that he's the heir of Slytherin.

But then, the boy who lived remembered the boy pulling him away from a killing curse and rethought his theory.

He just shook his head, "No, it's not Potter."

Hermione continued, "Yeah, that's not like Harry at all."

"As you would know," Ron argued, "You haven't spoken to him for months. People change."

Seeing another fight coming, Neville spoke up, "All of this is just speculation. It could be anyone in Slytherin, really."

Ron stiffened, "What we need is proof. If only we could pretend to be Slytherins and ask questions."

Neville stiffened, "There is, actually. It's some kind of potion. I heard my grandmother talk about it once. I think it's called Poly something… I don't really remember but it can transform you into another person."

Hermione stiffened, "You mean Polyjuice potion?"

"Yeah, that's it," he exclaimed.

"Neville, that takes over a month to brew. And the ingredients are expensive," the muggleborn protested.

"I can get the ingredients easily enough. And we can afford to wait a month. It would also give us enough time to see if the perpetrator attacks again. Do you think you could brew it?"

Hermione nodded, "I'm not sure. I need the recipe first. It's in a book called Most Potent Potions in the Restricted Section of the library."

Neville nodded, "I'll try to convince Lockhart to give us a permission slip. He seems to like me for some reason."

Ron seemed to grumble at this, "It's because you're a celebrity, mate. You're his ticket up in the world."

"Whatever," Neville said, ignoring Ron's little outburst, "I'll handle the permission slip and the ingredients. Hermione will brew the potion. And Ron, keep a lookout for anything suspicious or any other suspects."

They all agreed and decided to continue their homework and a few hours later, all thoughts of the Chamber of Secrets had disappeared. After all, the match against Slytherin was in a few days and Neville wanted to be ready. He wanted to show Malfoy and the entire world, that it didn't matter how much money he threw at everything. Neville would still be the superior seeker. Oliver Wood and the rest of the Quidditch team were putting their faith in him, and he will not disappoint them. He had trained day and night for this. What could go wrong?

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