( Deputy Headmistress' Office – Friday Night. )
Hearing the firm knock on her office door, she looked up from the homework she was marking, wondering if she had forgotten a meeting with another professor, or if she had an assigned detention with a student. "Enter," she barked, whilst adjusting her glasses.
As soon as the door opened she immediately noticed several students had gathered, flowing into her office like running water, the only house missing was her own Gryffindor house. Harry Potter led the pack, their uniforms all perfect, like they had all just been cleaned and ironed.
She mentally groaned and asked, 'What now?' wondering if her lions had done something to alienate this well-respected group of students, already having the feeling that something big was going to happen as she noticed several of them carrying parchment and books. 'Did I mark an essay wrong?' she asked herself as Miss Clearwater and Miss Tonks entered... what are those two doing here?'
"Professor, do you mind if we sit down? We have much to discuss with you in your official role as Deputy Headmistress this evening, as the headmaster isn't here." Lily's son asked formally, her mind jumped back to the end of last year and the following meeting at Gringotts Bank the previous summer. 'Severus had better not have caused another scandal.'
"Of course," she answered firmly, watching as the group arranged themselves in front of her like a court hearing at the ministry, with her unfortunately being the defendant, 'Am I on trial?' She noticed how Daphne Greengrass sat on Harry's left side with Padma Patil on Harry's right with Blaise Zabini sitting next to Daphne.
Tracy Davis was sitting next to Blaise on the end, with the two older girls sitting directly behind Harry like bonded vassals. He was in the center, the focus and leader of the group. Whether this was a conscious positioning or not, she didn't know. "What is the nature of this discussion?" wanting to get some idea of what she was dealing with before hearing them out.
"The Chamber of Secrets," Miss Greengrass answered for the group. "Between our collective efforts we believe we have successfully located it. And have found evidence needed to clear Hagrid's name and who actually murdered Moaning Myrtle," the Slytherin answered easily, catching her interest. "We would like our respective heads of house here for this discussion."
"Do you believe that is necessary?" she asked, wanting to keep Severus away from this since his good judgment was often impaired around the young Potter.
"Yes, everyone here should be recognised for their part in this," Harry voiced on the group's behalf, as the rest of them nodded in agreement. She decided that she had no choice but to call for Severus since there was a trio of Slytherins involved.
"Give me a couple minutes to get a hold of them," she expressed whilst getting out of her chair, before walking over to her fireplace and calling the other heads of house. "They will be a couple of minutes," she offered back as she retook her chair, immediately noticing that the group's own chairs had been transfigured into different, complex designs whilst she was out of the room.
Harry's was an imposing chair, similar to the headmaster's own, but darker and more elegant somehow, with his family's Coat of Arms engraved proudly in the dark wood. Padma and Penny's chair was something similar, but had the Ravenclaw crest and looked a bit more padded, similar to the ones in the Ravenclaw dorm rooms that she had seen.
The Slytherin trio had similar elegant leather designs, but with their respective emblems. Tonks' chair was similar to Hufflepuff's own, but had the Black family crest proudly displayed in the woodwork. 'What the devil?' she mentally asked herself, wondering if this was some type of prank, before noticing a smile so similar to James Potter's own on Harry's face.
She very much wanted to ask the group when they had learned such advanced transfiguration skills; however, just before she could ask, the first of the professors arrived.
...
( An Hour Later )
"Tom M. Riddle you say?" she asked again, looking over the file that they had presented her with, finding its information rather startling, as well as impressive that a group of students could track down such detailed information on a long-forgotten student. And how in the hell had they managed to get Auror reports? She passed the file onto Severus who had been awfully quiet while sitting in the background, observing the whole affair, giving the impression that he already knew some of it.
"Indeed, everything fits," Harry said firmly.
However, before she could ask her next question, Severus spoke up, causing her to mentally groan. "Potter," he spat. "Are you aware of just who Tom Marvolo Riddle actually is? Or the name he was truly known as?" the potion master probed, as Harry's eyes locked with the professor, before simply saying "No."
Shaking his head, "For someone so talented you missed something so obviously right in front of you," before flicking his wand in the air, the words Tom Marvolo Riddle forming in a puff of smoke, before waving his wand again, rearranging the letters one at a time.
I am Lord Voldemort, the ghostly words hanging in the air, stunning the whole group, and herself into dead silence. "Tom Marvolo Riddle is Lord Voldemort," the gloomy potions master said firmly, before Harry smiled, like this was the answer to a question which had long been on his mind.
"Well, that explains it," Harry answered cheerfully, as he looked over the group.
...
Pulling his heavy winter coat closer to his body, the exotic bear furs insulated him from the cold morning air as the Gryffindor chasers shot past him towards the Hufflepuff goal posts starting their counterattack.
More than once he wished he had just stayed in bed, rather than venturing out to the Quidditch stands to watch the match. Despite the intensity of the unfolding game between the two houses, his mind was elsewhere, considering a matter of far greater importance which could have implications for perhaps the rest of his hopefully long, long life.
Once again he was thinking about the suspected basilisk lurking deep beneath the school. Well, he thought it was a basilisk, like he had told the staff; after all, it did fit all the information he had available. And now that the staff knew that there was a basilisk beneath the school they would actively seek to remove it and the danger it represented.
After all, a basilisk simply couldn't be allowed to remain beneath the school; it was simply far too dangerous to keep such a deadly creature in such close proximity to a school full of curious children. Even if the staff didn't demand its removal, as soon as the information inevitably leaked out that the monster in the Chamber was a basilisk, parents and politicians would also want it removed.
He had no issue with this objectively; it was a perfectly reasonable expectation under the circumstances, as he agreed that you simply couldn't allow such a deadly creature to exist in such close proximity to a school full of kids. In all seriousness, the school had been awfully lucky so far that no one had died due to the recent attacks.
But as a parselmouth it rubbed him the wrong way that the creature had to be destroyed, when it could be so useful in the correct hands, rather than how it was currently being used for pitiful acts of terrorism... 'Terrorism' seemed the best term he could come up with to describe his collective feelings towards the chamber being opened, since the whole school was frightened of it.
"Gryffindor scores! 70 - 40," the announcer shouted as the lions' ranks rejoiced at their expanding lead for the Cup. Personally he didn't understand why they were celebrating like they were this early in the game. Physical exhaustion would start to kick in soon and the effects of minor injuries, making a thirty-point difference a minor lead at best, which could easily be recovered in a couple minutes of play, especially when the snitch was worth 150 points by itself and could both end and win the game in an instant.
Turning his thoughts back to the massive snake under the school, he let his mind wander, seriously debating the merits of claiming the basilisk for himself, as it would be extremely useful as both a guardian and an economic asset.
A basilisk was a highly magical creature, thought virtually extinct in the world. Who knows what kind of rare potions could be completed with its many parts, aged close to a thousand years... or potent ritual components? However, there was one big problem, the heiress was still at large and likely in control of the creature.
Then there was the problem of getting past the now ever-watchful staff and accessing the chamber again...
...
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