Rose was lying on her bed and staring at the ceiling when she heard a pop come from inside her clothes closet. Surprised, she raised her head to glance at the closet door as a knock sounded from inside of the closet. She grinned and set her head back down on the pillow. "I wasn't being serious when I suggested apparating into my closet," she called out.
The closet door opened to reveal Leo. "Yeah, well, I'm sick of having to stare down your father and dodge your mother," he said.
Rose smiled. "What happens if they discover you up here but don't remember you being invited into the house?"
Leo smirked. "We'll tell them that John let me in. He's always quick on the draw and good for corroboration in a tight spot. Besides, I'm keyed into the wards."
"It's probably just as well you came up here, anyway. The headmaster is downstairs talking with my parents," Rose said. She was silent for a little while as she continued to stare at the ceiling and ponder. Leo said nothing in reply, and finally, Rose opted to fill in the gaps. "He wanted me to have a vision and reveal the Black heir."
"Yeah, and it wasn't that easy, I know," Leo said, pulling out a chair from Rose's small desk. He set it next to the bed.
"Logically, the only solution I see is that whoever inherited from Orion must have inherited immediately after his death," Rose told Leo. "But that doesn't explain why they haven't come forward, been noticed, or been exposed since then."
"Whoever it was took out my grandmother," Leo offered.
"Yeah, but we don't necessarily know that the person who did that is the prophesied one," Rose rebutted. "Besides, Dumbledore still seems to think that you're the one. He doesn't believe my vision that you're not the Black heir, and I doubt he suspects you of offing your grannie."
"I heard that he and my father are trying to send letters to the mysterious master of Kreacher," Leo told Rose. "He must be keeping his options somewhat open."
"How's that going for the Order?"
"What? Sending the letters or keeping the options open?"
"Don't be dense," Rose sighed, sitting up and swinging her legs over so that she was sitting on her bed and facing Leo.
Leo grinned. "Kreacher delivers the letters, but no reply has been returned. It's driving my dad nuts. I asked him if they were actually giving this mysterious person good reason to reply, but he acted like I was being silly."
"Probably because he knows you're right," Rose mused, standing up and walking to the window and looking out onto the dusk-lit street below. "Your father has interesting ways of coping with failure and disappointment."
"Uh, right," said Leo, wrinkling his noise. "Anyway, maybe we could send a letter ourselves and offer a bribe."
Rose snickered. "'If you reply, we'll give you a Honeydukes gift certificate.'"
"'And a box of dungbombs,'" Leo finished, laughing heartily.
"No seriously, though," Rose said, suddenly becoming very sober.
"All right."
"If this person controls Kreacher, then he must be Lord Black," Rose theorized.
"Check."
"This person probably inherited the Black title and rights very soon after your grandfather died."
"Check."
"If opposed to Voldemort, this person could very well be the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets and killed the basilisk."
"Huh?" Leo grunted.
Rose quirked an eyebrow at Leo and walked over to the desk where she grabbed a piece of parchment. "Boiling down Dumbledore's statements about the Chamber, it's pretty clear that it was Lord Voldemort who opened the Chamber and killed Moaning Myrtle."
"Check," Leo nodded, even though he was not really following Rose's train of thought.
"The person not only had to know about the Chamber from prior knowledge, but he had to be equal in power to Voldemort in order to open the Chamber," Rose declared, getting somewhat excited as she found herself verbally working toward a solution.
"Uh, we opened the Chamber, too," Leo reminded Rose. "And where does being equal in power come in?"
"You're forgetting what Myrtle told us once we told her we already knew the basilisk was dead," Rose said. "She said this person opened it, but then later arranged for it to be easy to open without Slytherin's special powers." Then, remembering that Dumbledore had shared the complete prophecy with her in confidence, Rose added, "As for equal in power, forget I said it."
"All right," Leo said. "What does it matter?"
"The person might know about the diary," Rose said, opening a desk drawer and withdrawing a quill and bottle of ink. "If they had enough knowledge about the Chamber to seek it out, they could know about the diary."
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