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.
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