Spells and Visions; A Harry Potter story

Chapter 5: Searching for Signs

The next couple of days, all anyone could speak off, was the incident with mrs Norris and the Chamber of Secrets. Just like everyone, Hermione had been searching for information on the Chamber of Secrets in the library. But apparently all the copies of Hogwarts: A History were gone, and Hermione had left her's at home. Suspicious that they were all gone when everyone was looking for them...

We had History of Magic, which was being taught by the only ghost teacher, Professor Binns. It was the most boring class. Even Potions was more exiting. And that was taught by Snape. The lesson started, and Binns started to read in the most dull tone ever. I laid my head on my arms so maybe I could catch the sleep I dearly needed. After about half an hour I felt Neville's elbow slip and fall against mine which woke me up. Apparently Hermione had raised her hand and asked about the Chamber of Secrets. It was Histroy class after all. Stupid I hadn't thought about that.
"My subject is History of Magic," Binns answered her. "Not myths and legends." He continued with his lecture, when Hermione raised her hand again.
"Please sir, don't legends always have a basis in facts?"
"Well, you have a point there," he answered slowly as we all understood he agreed to talk about it. I sat right up and most of the students followed.

"Very well, let me think... the Chamber of Secrets." He told us about the founding of Hogwarts, and that the four houses were named after Godric Gryffindor, Helena Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin.
"For a few years, they worked in harmony to seek youngsters who showed signs of magic and sought to be educated. But then a gap began to grow between Slytherin and the others. He wished to be more selective about the chosen students. He believed only so called pure-blood students were to be allowed to be taught proper magic. He disliked Muggle families and found them untrustworthy. Gryffindor argued with Slytherin about it, and Slytherin left the school."
Professor Binns paused a while.

"This is everything we know from reliable sources. About the Chamber of Secrets, however, we don't know much and we certainly don't know if it is true. According to the legend, Slytherin built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other knew nothing. Slytherin sealed the chamber so no one could open it until his own heir arrived at the school. The heir would then be able to open the chamber and release the horror within, and then purge the school of the unworthy students to be taught magic."
There was a silence in the class, but this time everyone was wide awake.

"Of course the school has been searching several times, but nothing has been found."
Hermione raised her hand again.
"Professor," she said. "What do you mean with 'the horror within'?"
"It is said to be a sort of monster that only the heir of Slytherin can control. But I tell you, it is nonsense. There is no chamber and no monster."
Then the questions started. It was no longer silent in the class. But Professor Binns had enough and shut everyone up. He then continued the boring lecture.

On our way through the corridors, Colin walked past us and I heard him say something to Harry.
"Harry, a boy in my class has been saying you're-" But his voice died away because he got pushed by the crowd.
"What do you think he tried to say?" I asked.
"Probably that I'm the heir of Slytherin," Harry said in disappointment.
"People here will believe anything," Ron said.
We turned and came at the corridor where the incident had happened. The cat didn't hang there anymore, but the words were still there.
"Can't hurt to look around," Harry said, dropping his bags and getting on the floor.

Neville tapped me on the shoulder.
"J, I have a bad feeling about this. We should get back."
I was a Gryffindor, of course I was way to curious to leave without searching a bit for signs.
"Go back if you want to, I don't blame you," I said. "I'll stay here a while."
"Okay," my brother answered with a worried face. "Just... stay out of trouble."
"I will," I smiled, although I had no idea if I could keep that promise.
Neville walked away, and the four of us started searching for, well, anything that could lead to the person that had done this.

"Look," Harry said. "Scorch marks!"
"Come and look at this," Hermione said. She pointed at the window. There were several little spiders crawling to get outside. There was a sliverlike thread hanging from the window, as if they had just climbed their way up.
"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" Hermione asked.
"No," said both Harry and I.
"Ron?"
Ron stood a bit back, and on his face was an uncomfortable expression. He almost seemed as if he wanted to run.
"Come on, Ron," I said. "It's just spiders. They won't harm you."
"You don't know that. I-I don't like spiders."
"But you've used them lots of times in potions," Hermione noted.
"I don't mind them dead," Ron said, still in fear. "I don't like the way they move."
Hermione giggled, but Ron didn't find it funny.
"When I was three, I broke Fred's broomstick, so he turned my teddybear into a big spider," he said with a face of digust at the memory.

"Look, the water that was here earlier has been mopped up. Where did that come from anyway?"
"It was about here," Ron said, pointing at a door.
'Out of order', I read on the door. It was a girl's toilet, but I'd never been here to use it.
Hermione wanted to go in, but Ron stepped back.
"We can't go in there," he said. "It's for girls."
"Oh, don't worry," Hermione said. "It's not been used all year. It's Moaning Myrtle's place."
"Who's Moaning Myrtle?" I asked.
"A ghost who has been haunting this toilet," Hermione answered. She reached to open the door, but turned to me first.
"Please mind your words, she's a bit sensitive about... everything you say to her."
I nodded and followed her inside. Harry and Ron both looked a bit uncomfortable entering a girl's bathroom.

It was a rather depressimg bathroom. There was a row with chipped sinks, and a few burning candles that kept it a little bit light.
"Hello Myrtle," Hermione said carefully. "How are you?"
Myrtle came out of a cubicle and looked suspiciously at Harry and Ron.
"This is a girl's bathroom," she said. "They are not girls."
"No," Hermione said. "I just wanted to show them how... nice it is here."
I saw Harry mouth something to Hermione, but Myrtle saw it too.
"What are you whispering?" Myrtle asked. Harry started to answer, but Myrtle interrupted him.
"I wish people stopped talking behind my back," she said in tears. "I do have feelings, even if I am dead."
"We wanted to ask you if you've seen anything funny lately," Hermione said quickly.
"Yeah, a cat was attacked outside your door, did you see anyone near here at Halloween?" I asked.
"I don't know," Myrtle said. "I wasn't paying attention because Peeves had upset me, so I tried to kill myself, when I remembered I already was-"
"Dead," Ron helped.
Myrtle flew up and divided into a toilet where she started to sob.

We left her and when we closed the door behind us, we all were startled by Percy.
"Ron!" he said with shock. "That's a girl's bathroom! What were you-"
Ron seemed completely chill about it.
"Just looking around for clues, you know."
They got into an argument and I kept myself out of it. Percy then took five points from Gryffindor and walked away.

That night, in the common room, we discussed again about who it could be that wanted all the Squibs and Muggle-borns gone.
"Well, who do we know that thinks all Muggle-borns are scum?" Ron asked a bit sarcastically.
"If you mean Malfoy-" I said.
"Well of course I mean Malfoy!" Ron said.
"Well," Harry began. "If you look at his family, they've all been in Slytherin, they won't stop talking about it. They could very much be descendants of Slytherin. Malfoy's father is definitely evil."
"I mean, it could be possible," Hermione said. "But how do we prove it?"

"What's going on?" Neville asked as he sat down next to me.
"We think the heir of Slytherin could be Malfoy," I whispered.
"Now that you mention it, I'm almost pretty sure it's him," he replied. "Who else could be so mean to Muggle-borns and be in Slytherin house?"
"But we have no way to prove it," I said.
"We do, actually," Hermione said, a bit offended.
The four of us turned to her.
"It would be difficult. We would probably be breaking fifty school rules..."
Ron got a little irritated, so Hermione started explaining.
"We have to get into the Slytherin common room and ask Malfoy what we need to know without him knowing it's us."
"But that's impossible," Harry said.
"No, it's not," Hermione said. "We would only need some Polyjuice Potion."
"Well, that's going to take a while," I sighed.
"What is it?" Neville asked.
"It allows you to transform into someone else," Hermione said. "Some of us could tranform into Slytherins, without anyone knowing it's us. Malfoy will tell us anything."
"It's sounds like a smart plan," I said.
"But what if we're stuck inside the body of Slytherins forever?" Ron said worried.
"It wears off after a while," I said. "What we need to worry about, if we're going through with this plan, is how to get all the ingredients."
"Exactly," Hermione said. "Snape mentioned the recipe was in a book called Moste Potente Potions, but it's only in the Restricted Section of the library." That meant we had to get a signed note from a teacher to allow us to get the book. And that was going to be easier than we thought.