𝟏.| ✬ 𝒟ℯ𝒶𝓇 ℬ𝒾𝓁𝓁, ✬ {ℬ. 𝒲ℯ𝒶𝓈𝓁ℯ𝓎}

\𝒻ℴ𝓊𝓇𝓉ℯℯ𝓃\

~

The next day after Potions, Eleanora stopped to talk to Snape. He'd tried on several occasions to figure out why she needed to know such a specific type of poison, but Eleanora refused to give him any information. Instead, she changed the subject. "Have you figured out who's been stealing from your supply cupboard yet?" she asked, folding a piece of parchment into an airplane. Snape frowned.

"No... and if you have any information on the matter, you'll do well to tell me immediately."

"I don't. I was just wondering," she said softly.

Snape eyed her suspiciously. She knew he suspected her, which she found unfair. She knew that if she really needed ingredients from the private store cupboard, she could just ask. To be entirely honest, she had no idea who was doing the stealing. Snape wouldn't tell her what ingredients were stolen, either, so she had no clues to help her.

After her talk with Snape, Eleanora hurried to the greenhouse where she had Herbology class with the Hufflepuffs. She handed Professor Sprout her pass from Snape and slipped into her seat next to Cedric, who silently passed her his notes to copy. They were studying self-fertilizing shrubs, which proved to be extremely boring. Cedric reached over and wrote on her notebook, Hear about the latest attack? The first year boy?

She pulled the notebook closer, writing, Who hasn't? Found out some stuff about chamber. And pushed the notebook back to Cedric.

What about it?

Tell you after class.

They took notes in silence until the bell rang, and then gathered up their things and started walking up to the castle side by side. "So, what did you find out?" Cedric asked, taking Eleanora's books from her as if it was second nature. Eleanora pulled out the letter from Bill, now looking worn from the number of times she'd read it. She had circled the parts in which he'd talked about the Chamber.

"You only have to read the circled parts" she said, handing it to him.

"Oooh, Bill? Secret lover?" Cedric laughed.

Eleanora pushed him lightly. "Fred and George's older brother, now read."

Cedric did, his eyes scanning quickly down the letter. When he finally re-folded it and handed it back to Eleanora, he gave her a skeptical look. "Seems a bit far-fetched to me." She looked at him dubiously. "What?" he asked after a moment.

"So, you believe in werewolves, vampires, and ghouls, you go to a wizarding school in a castle, one of your teachers is a ghost- but you think a secret chamber sounds 'far-fetched."

"Oh I'm sure there's a secret chamber, I'll bet there's a hundred in this school. It's the whole 'unspeakable beast' thing inside of it that I think is far-fetched. And if it was real, wouldn't we have learned about it in History of Magic? You'd think it would be more well known if it was such a big deal."

Eleanora shrugged, taking the letter back. "I dunno, Cedric. But something odd is happening and that seems like the only explanation."

They parted ways, Eleanora going up to Gryffindor tower and Cedric heading to the library. When she opened the portrait hole, she noticed a small crowd around the notice board. Finding Fred, George, and Lee in it, she approached them. "What's going on?" she asked, shouldering her way through.

"Someone's put up a notice for a dueling club tonight at eight," said Fred. "Want to go?"

"Sure," she said, always ready to jump on the opportunity to get better at fighting spells. "Who's teaching it?"

"No idea," said George. "It doesn't say."

At a little before eight o'clock, they all hurried down to the Great Hall with what seemed to be the rest of the entire school and waited for whoever the instructor was to show up. Lee kept looking over at Alicia Spinnet hopefully.

"Lee, if you want to ask her out just go do it," said Eleanora.

Fred heard this and laughed. "Yeah, Lee, for the love of all things holy, go ask her out already."

Lee shifted from foot to foot. "Ahhh, not now. I'll wait." And with that, he backed away to talk to George and Oliver about quidditch. Eleanora and Fred looked at each other, smiling and shaking their heads in mock disappointment.

Just as the clock struck eight, they saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione snaking their way through the crowd towards them. "Nice turn out," Ron said, choosing a spot to stand in front of the twins and Eleanora.

"Everyone wants to know how to fight off the scary monster in the Chamber," said Fred.

"It's not funny, Fred-" Eleanora started to say, but was cut off. Gilderoy Lockhart had just strode onto the stage in the most ridiculous plum colored robes, followed by Snape. "Oh no," she groaned.

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!"

Fred leaned down to whisper in Eleanora's ear, "We could leave now, you know."

She shook her head, a small smile creeping onto her face. "I want to watch this" she said.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry- you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!" Eleanora heard Fred and George suppress snorts of laughter.

They listened to Lockharts instruction as the two professors got ready. "One-" Lockhart counted down. "Two- three-"

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape cried; "Expelliarmus!" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet. He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor. Eleanora almost joined in cheering with the Slytherins.

She could hardly hear Lockhart's pitiful excuses over Fred, George, and Lee's laughter. Lockhart decided to change course and put them into partners. Eleanora was placed with Lee.
"Face your partners!" called Lockhart, back on the platform. "And bow!" Eleanora faced Lee, and they both bowed, trying hard not to laugh. "Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart. "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents- only to disarm them- we don't want any accidents- one... two... three-"

Lee and Eleanora shot their disarming spells at the same time. Eleanora dodged, but Lee was hit square in the chest, flying backwards a good few feet. She hurried to help him up and they viewed the wreckage. Most partners had gotten angry and kept fighting, some spells had gone terribly wrong.

"I could've- dodged," Lee said, dusting himself off. "I let you win, you know."

Eleanora grinned and patted him on the shoulder. "Keep telling yourself that, Jordan."

When they focused to the front again, Lockhart and Snape had Harry and Malfoy in the middle of the hall for a demonstration. "Bad idea," Ron muttered. "Very bad idea."

"Three- two- one- go!" Lockhart shouted.

"Serpensortia!" Malfoy shouted, and a long black snake shot out of his wand and fell heavily on the floor between the boys. Eleanora back up with everyone else, watching in horror.

"Don't move, Potter," said Snape lazily, clearly enjoying himself. Eleanora felt a stabbing of hatred for him. Why was it that he favored her but was this horrible to a twelve year old kid?

"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart, but before he could do anything, the snake was barring down on a Hufflepuff second year. Just then, Harry stepped forward and made some odd hissing noise at it.

"What was that?" Eleanora whispered to Percy after a hush fell over the hall.

"Par- parseltongue I think," Percy stammered. "But Harry- well I didn't know-" He fell into a confused silence. An ominous muttering filled the hall and Ron stepped forward to escort Harry out of the hall. The "Dueling Club" dispersed quickly after that. Eleanora followed the twins up to their dormitory and they all spread out on the beds.

"Didn't know Harry was a parselmouth," Fred said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"You don't think he's- you know." For once, neither Fred nor Eleanora knew what George was talking about. He explained himself, his words all coming out in a rush. "You don't think he's the heir of Slytherin, do you? I mean most parselmouths are related to him and-" He broke off when he saw the looks on Fred and Eleanora's faces.

"There's no way," Eleanora said at last. "First of all, he's in Gryffindor, and besides, Bill said no second year would be able to open the chamber. It takes complex dark magic."

"When did you talk to Bill?" Fred asked, distracted.

Eleanora shrugged. "We've been writing to each other all year, I told him about the message on the wall. It's not Harry." The twins nodded and that was the end of that.

The next day, Eleanora sat in transfiguration class, listening to McGonagall talk about O.W.L. exams. "And you're my own house, so I expect your scores to be the very best they can be-" she was saying, when they heard the screams.

"ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAAACK!"

McGonagall looked around wildly, and then said, "Stay here," before striding out into the hallway. The moment she'd gone, the fifth years packed up their books and ran to the door, hesitating for a moment.

"There's only fifteen seconds left in the period and she can't punish all of us!" Bea yelled over the commotion. "Run!" They poured into the corridor, only adding to the chaos and commotion. As soon as they got there, McGonagall set off a loud bang with her wand and ordered them all back to class. It was only then that Eleanora spotted the Hufflepuff boy who the snake had gone after at the dueling club.

He was laying on the ground next to Nearly Headless Nick, both petrified.