Slytherin
Saturday morning arrived all too soon along with Harry's usual pre-match bout of nausea which no amount of cajoling and encouragement from Hermione could overcome.
"I don't blame you mate," Ron clearly had no such stomach related issues as he piled his plate high with a generous helping of bacon and eggs, "I mean according to Quidditch Weekly the Nimbus 2001 rates top of the field in turning speed and acceleration… Not that any of that will matter with a clumsy twit like Malfoy on it, he probably won't be able to fly in a straight line," he added hastily.
"You're not helping Ron," Hermione scowled across the table at him.
"I might just go down to the pitch early and psych myself up a bit," Harry abruptly left the table.
"Ron!" Hermione's bushy hair was practically quivering in indignation as she rounded on the redhead. "That was just a tad insensitive don't you think? Harry's worried enough about today what with everything that's been going on and all the pressure Wood's been putting on him, he doesn't need reminding that the Slytherins have better brooms."
"Oh I don't think that'll be a problem," the airy voice belonged to Ginny Weasley whom Alice was beginning to think was genetically programmed to appear every time Hermione was in a foul mood and Harry was mentioned. "I mean it's not just about the standard of broom you have it's about skill, and Harry is a brilliant flier. He'll be fine. If you knew anything about Quidditch…" Alice wasn't sure if she let the sentence hang as a deliberate slight or because she realised she may have said the wrong thing. She wanted to think it was the latter but she wasn't sure. Whichever it was Hermione's cheeks turned a delicate pink and she concentrated on spreading her toast with a hand that shook slightly.
"I don't know," Neville leaned over to whisper quietly to Alice, "the rest of the team don't look too happy either," he nodded discreetly to the other end of the Gryffindor table where six people all dressed in flaming scarlet and gold were morosely chewing food which didn't seem to be disappearing very quickly. Even the twins looked pale faced and tight lipped.
As eleven o'clock neared they all joined the growing stream of students plodding diligently through the fog, which was steadily becoming a thin film of rain, to the Quidditch pitches. As they found seats for themselves Alice couldn't help but be caught up in the excitement brought on by the match. The moment before a match started was always charged, there was the potential for anything to happen, and being a magical sport it usually did.
"Here they come," Ginny Weasley had managed to follow them to their seats. She was right however as Alice spotted fourteen figures carrying brooms all stride out onto the pitch as the crowd around them erupted. Madame Hooch's whistle gave a short shrill blast and the game was on. Players went shooting in all directions and as Harry corkscrewed skywards with Malfoy hard on his tail they came within earshot of the stands where Alice was sitting with her friends.
"Bought yourself a new pair of shoes yet Potter?" Harry ignored him as he scanned around for the snitch. "Or are you saving up to buy yourself a real broom?"
Rolling her eyes at his childishness Alice concentrated on the game and she too began searching for the elusive speck of gold. As she was doing so she spotted a Bludger pelting towards Harry out of nowhere and had to suppress the cry of warning that sprang to her lips. Just in time she saw one of Ron's brothers streaking to intercept it.
"That was close," Alice turned to see Ginny whose eyes were alight with excitement as she watched the match with avid attention. As Ginny's eyes flicked towards her momentarily Alice smiled, there was no point being unfriendly after all, and was mildly surprised when she received a grin in return. Clearly Quidditch improved the younger redhead's mood.
Ron's sudden shout drew her attention swiftly back to the game. "Hey, what's going on?"
It didn't take Alice long to spot what the problem was, anyone who concentrated on Harry for longer than three seconds could see that one of the Bludgers had become overly fascinated with him.
"Can he never just play in a normal match," Hermione groaned as she watched the Weasley twins repeated attempts to divert the rogue cannon ball. Within minutes time-out had been called and the five Gryffindors along with every other person in the stands watched with varying degrees of curiosity and concern as the players sped to ground where a heated debate took place amongst the Gryffindor team.
"Do you think they'll stop the match?" Neville sounded concerned.
"It doesn't look as if they are." True enough everyone seemed to be getting back on their brooms as Oliver Wood nodded to Madam Hooch to signal that they were ready.
"Are they mad?!" Alice couldn't help but agree with Hermione's incredulous half-whisper. The Bludger had clearly been bewitched in some way and Alice couldn't help but be reminded of last time enchantments had been directed at Harry during a Quidditch match. Quickly she suppressed the worry this thought elicited.
Back up in the air the rest of the team left Harry to deal with the Bludger which he did by ducking and weaving and generally doing everything except look for the Snitch; much to the amusement of the assembled Slytherins. She watched with bated breath as he narrowly avoided being smashed to pieces by the demented Bludger before speeding off in the opposite direction. Then abruptly he turned back and paused.
"What is he doing?" Neville echoed all their thoughts.
WHAM
Alice was nearly defended as twin screams echoed from the girls on either side of her and she winced in sympathy as she saw Harry slip sideways on his broom with his arm held at an unnatural angle. It was clearly broken. Never one to be put off by mere injury to his person though he righted himself almost immediately, swerved to avoid the Bludger a second time, and then propelled himself downwards towards Malfoy who, despite her concern, Alice was rather amused to see suddenly looked as though he was about to wet himself. After that everything happened too fast for Alice to see very clearly, but suddenly she was aware that Harry was grasping for the Snitch before he began plummeting uncontrollably towards the ground. She barely saw him land or the fact that he had passed out as along with Ron, Neville and a very pale Hermione she began pushing her way through the crowd towards the nearest staircase.
As fast as they could the second years charged down the stairs with Hermione in front of her keeping up a constant chant. "Come on, come on, come on!" As their feet hit the ground they began streaking across the pitch towards the spot where the Gryffindor team and several teachers had already gathered. Alice pushed her shorter legs to keep up with her friends and prayed that Harry was alright. Nearing him she heard a groan go up from the assembled group and felt her stomach drop; although that could just have been because at the same moment she caught sight of a familiar blonde perm leaning over him.
"What is it? What's happened? Harry!" Hermione, who was pushing through the crowd in front of her, sounded panicked. "Oh!" She ground to a halt and Alice was forced to peer over her shoulder on tiptoe to see what she was staring at. Catching sight of Harry's arm Alice's stomach gave another unpleasant lurch but this time she had to force down the feeling of nausea as she saw Harry's deflated arm dangle uselessly at his side. There was something unnaturally disquieting about its boneless appearance.
"Mate," Ron whistled in sympathy.
"Professor," Hermione sounded almost accusing, "what did you -"
"Ah." Behind his beaming smile Lockhart's eyes looked slightly horror struck. "That can sometimes happen. But at least it's not broken anymore." He rolled back his sleeves slightly. "If I just -"
"Professor!" The words were out of Alice's mouth before she could stop them and she felt her face flush a similar colour to Harry's robes as every head in the vicinity swivelled to stare at her. "Maybe we should take him to the Hospital Wing?"
"Ah perhaps… perhaps you may be right Miss… ah… Evans." He got quickly to his feet brushing away the dirt he had picked up on his robes. "If you would be so kind?"
Hermione needed no other encouragement; within a second she was on the ground beside Harry fussing over him and holding what had been his arm up for inspection. As she continued to chatter at him incessantly Ron and Alice helped him to his feet and supported him as the crowd parted to let them through whilst behind them Neville scooped up Harry's broom and followed.
Standing in the Hospital Wing ten minutes later Alice, Hermione and Neville waited patiently for Ron to help Harry into his pyjamas as they tried to avoid the furious glares of Madame Pomfrey who seemed to hold them somehow responsible for events.
"I mean it was just so irresponsible," Hermione huffed indignantly, "to perform a spell like that if you can't do it properly." All traces of her former admiration for Lockhart seemed to have thoroughly vanished now that it had resulted in harm to Harry. Alice watched with amusement tempering her concern as Hermione had to hold in her rant whilst Madame Pomfrey returned to administer the Skele-Gro. "Is it very sore?" She asked once the matron had gone again.
"Not really, it doesn't feel of anything - it's weird." He plucked impatiently at his arm which was hanging like a deflated balloon on top of the bedcovers.
"Tell you what though," Ron grinned mischievously, "did you see Malfoy's face when you made that dive? Then when he realised you'd caught the Snitch! Brilliant!"
"It definitely ties with trying to swallow the snitch last year as being one of your better catches," Alice was pleased to note a weak grin from Harry as she said this.
"Why do you reckon that Bludger went mental though?" Standing clutching Harry's broom at the end of the bed Neville looked worried. "Do you think it was Malfoy, part of his plan?"
"It might have been, after what happened the other day in potions I wouldn't put it past him."
"Well if it was I bet he's not too pleased about it now. It didn't help him win the match did it?"
Hermione gazed pensively out of the windows which were now being lashed with the rain which had finally broken. "If there was a way we could trick the truth out of him; a spell or a potion perhaps. I'll have a look in the library once -"
"Out of the question!" Madame Pomfrey's voice made them all jump and look around guiltily. The source of her displeasure was not them however, but the crowd of jubilant Gryffindors who were thronging the doorway to the Hospital Wing and seemed to be pleading with her for visitation rights. "No! This patient needs rest; he's had quite enough excitement for one day already. He's got an armful of bones to re-grow and he'll get on much better with that if you leave him in peace." She rounded on the four of them clustered at Harry's bedside. "And that goes for you lot too. Come on, out."
As it seemed Hermione was inclined to argue and not wanting to become embroiled in an argument with the matron, who was known to become ferocious where her patients were concerned, Ron and Alice took her by the arms and swiftly escorted her from the room.
"Wouldn't do to upset her," was Ron's response to her outraged look.
The next morning Hermione was practically tearing her hair out as she waited for Ron to finish his breakfast.
"Oh come on Ron!" The anguish in her tone was almost comical and Alice was sure he was taking an inordinate length of time to eat his second helping of porridge just to wind her up. "There," Hermione grabbed the spoon from him as he went to scrape his bowl clean, "you've finished. Can we go and see how Harry is now?"
Ron tried to hide his grin and failed. "I suppose. I'm sure he's fine though Hermione."
"Fine?! How would you like to have to re-grow thirty three bones overnight? I doubt he got a wink of sleep." And with this pronouncement she turned on her heel and strode off in the direction of the Hospital Wing with Alice and Ron following obediently in her wake; although truth be told they were as anxious to see Harry as she was.
They hadn't gotten far however before the object of their concerns came sprinting along in the opposite direction, his arm clearly hale and healthy and evidently bursting with news. Cutting short Hermione's exclamations of delight at his recovery he pulled them into a corner of the corridor and relayed to them all the events of the previous night.
"Poor Colin," Alice whispered once he had finished.
"Never mind the photographing freak - well okay he's not a freak and it's a shame," Ron corrected himself quickly before Alice had a chance to hit him, "- What about the mental house-elf?"
"Yeah it was really weird," Harry had already told them about Dobby's visit over the summer. "At least we know what happened yesterday though, and why we couldn't get on the train."
"Yeah, you're collecting nut-job stalkers." Ron smirked.
It was another part of Harry's tale which Hermione seemed to have latched onto however. "Again? The Chamber's been opened before?" She paused as they all considered the implications of this. "It sounds as though Dumbledore knows who this heir is though, from what you said Harry."
"But surely if he knew that he could put a stop to it." Frustration was clear on her friend's face.
"Not necessarily," Alice reasoned, "or maybe he's biding his time waiting for the heir to lead him to the Chamber or something."
"Well I think he's waited long enough don't you," Hermione evidently thought little of that scenario, "I mean two people have been attacked now, well three if you count the cat, and any one of them could have been killed."
"If it is Malfoy," Ron began, but paused as the girls groaned in unison. "No hang on, hear me out. If it is Malfoy then his Dad could have opened the Chamber when he was at Hogwarts and now he's told slime-ball junior how to do it… I know, I know we can't really prove it, but I still think it's him."
"Look," Harry became businesslike, "what we need is to establish once and for all if Malfoy is the heir of Slytherin, and if he isn't how much he knows about it."
"Yeah and that's all well and good," Ron pulled at his hair in annoyance so that it stuck up in a series of flaming peaks and made him look as though his head had caught fire. "But how exactly are we going to do that? We can't just waltz up to him and ask, he'd never tell us anything even slightly helpful."
"Yeah and I don't suppose he'd wander around with a key in his pocket marked "Chamber of Secrets" either." Alice gave a slight smile at the thought.
"That's it!" Harry's sudden jubilation caught them all off guard, none more so than Hermione who had been quietly pondering the possibilities and jumped in surprise at his raised voice. "Alice you're brilliant."
"I am?" She was dumbfounded.
"Yes, Malfoy is bound to have some way of getting in and out of the Chamber -"
"If he's the heir."
Harry waved a hand dismissively, too caught up in the brilliance of his plan to stop for such trivial details. "- something like a key, and he would probably keep it in his room wouldn't he? So all we need to do is sneak into the Slytherin dormitories and find it!"
His three friends stood and stared at him for several seconds, Hermione's mouth opening and closing again several times as she searched for something to say but couldn't. None of them could find any real flaw in what he was suggesting. Finally Hermione, as she was apt to do, broke the silence.
"And if you don't find anything?"
"Well then at least we'll have looked, I know you can't prove he's innocent this way but…"
Alice had more than a sneaking suspicion that this didn't bother him too much.
"So we use the cloak?"
"Yeah, I reckon we can't all go if we want to be quiet though not if -"
"It'll need a lot of planning though," Hermione had jumped into plotting mode. "We need to find out where the Slytherin common room is for a start and then we'll need to know what the password is. This all has to be thought through properly." She began to walk along the corridor continuing to reel off a list of the factors they would need to consider.
"If we're going to be plotting," Ron whispered to Harry and Alice as they all made to follow her, "can I go back for some more breakfast?"
They spent the entire day sitting in the common room debating the best way to carry out Harry's plan and occasionally picking up snippets of rumour about Colin's attack as the news filtered through the school.
"Normally I'd say we should leave it to the Christmas holidays when the dormitories will be almost empty, but if the monster could attack again at any moment I don't reckon we should wait that long do you?" Hermione had taken charge again.
"So how do we make sure that we won't be tripping over Slytherins left right and centre then?"
Suddenly Alice had a brain wave. "I think what we need is a diversion." She nodded discreetly in the direction of the Weasley twins who were over by the fire surrounded by a small crowd and clearly doing an impression of the monster.
"What get them to set off a trick or something?"
"Yeah," Alice warmed to her idea as she spoke, "get them to set it off in the Great Hall at dinner or something. Whilst everyone is preoccupied with that we can sneak into the Slytherin common room and have a look about."
"Well we need to find out where the common room is first; as soon as possible really."
"Well," Harry sprang up from his seat with renewed excitement, "there's no time like the present." And with that he disappeared up the spiral staircase to his room.
Half an hour later Alice was beginning to suspect that their plan wasn't as well thought out as they had believed it to be. She and Harry were crouched under the Invisibility Cloak behind one of the statues in the Entrance Hall waiting for any Slytherins to come out after dinner. The problem was, Alice's legs were beginning to stiffen up and she was getting pins and needles in her feet. Glancing across at Ron and Hermione, who were sitting in plain view on the staircase and acting as lookout, she hoped that dinner wouldn't be much longer.
Thankfully she didn't have long to wait as within minutes a band of Slytherins exited the Hall and began to make their way towards the dungeons.
"Come on," Harry hissed grabbing her hand.
With only two of them under the cloak it was much easier to creep about the castle unnoticed, especially since neither of them was very tall. It also helped that the Slytherins they were following were making enough noise to wake the dead. As they descended a flight of stairs into the dungeons their raucous laughter echoed disturbingly around the dank and gloomy corridor sending a chill along Alice's spine. As they shuffled slowly after the group Alice promised herself that she would never complain about how many stairs they had to take to get to the Gryffindor common room ever again, anything was better than having to go through the dungeons.
It seemed they had been walking forever and she was just beginning to wonder if they were even going towards the common room when suddenly the group in front stopped abruptly in the middle of the corridor and she had to grab Harry's arm to stop him walking straight into the back of a particularly menacing looking fifth year. There seemed to be nothing remarkable about the area to suggest that it might be the entrance to anything but nevertheless she strained to hear anything that might be a password and judging by the intense concentration on Harry's face he was doing the same. Unfortunately the Slytherins were still making too much noise for anything important to be discernible, but someone must have uttered something because suddenly what had previously appeared to be no more than a particularly damp patch of wall became the outline of a stone doorway. As they watched this slid back and the Slytherins piled through into the darkness beyond and the corridor was plunged into silence as it closed again with a dull thud.
"We'll need to wait here," Harry whispered in her ear, "until someone else comes along and uses the password. Then we can get back to the others."
A good ten minutes passed during which nothing notable occurred other than the fact that Alice got steadily colder and her teeth began chattering slightly.
"Shh."
She raised a sceptical eyebrow at Harry's request. "I can't help it I'm freezing!"
"I know, I'm sorry, but someone is going to hear you."
Alice rolled her eyes and tried to clamp her jaw more firmly shut to prevent its traitorous tendencies. Just when she was beginning to get cramp in her cheeks from trying so hard she found their efforts rewarded when none other than Pansy Parkinson rounded the corner and stopped in front of the entrance.
"Pureblood." She said it with such self righteous authority that Alice was torn between her sudden excitement that they had succeeded in getting the password and the desire to slap her smug Slytherin face.
Once the doorway had resealed itself Harry didn't waste an instant. "Come on let's get out of here."
Alice had no qualms in obeying.
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