Slytherin's Legacy Behind-the-Scenes

There are only a few big events in this chapter (the next one is the first half of the climax!), so I'd like to go over them here:

• conversation with Dumbledore (glasses & Prudentia)
• removal of Hagrid and Dumbledore
• follow the spiders?????
• split up and search
• time turner
• Myrtle & abduction

Somewhere in there, I need to throw in a reminder about Dobby. Also! There's a small timeskip between the Dumbledore conversation and his removal as headmaster, so try to make that as seamless as possible.

So... let's structure the Dumbledore scene. Delphi first must confess to Snape, but we'll deal with those specifics later. For now, beats:

•  start with the glasses; Delphi explains how they work and how Percy got his hands on them, then mention her theory about Hogwarts begin protected magically (Dumbledore neither confirms nor denies -- and I've had a brainwave on this re: the exploration plotline in HtA)
• repeat that Delphi and Tom are very different (discuss fallout of friends finding out)
  • why didn't Dumbledore tell Harry, Ron, and Neville himself? (she deserved to be able to make that choice for herself)
  • why did/does she think her parentage was/is unforgivable? (because she was raised to believe and has still internalized that parentage/ancestry is of the utmost importance)
  • a few words regarding/acknowledging special treatment (the tournament, lessons with Snape, Prudentia)
  • do they trust each other now? (keeping secrets is learned behavior, not instinct; she didn't get it from her dad)
• Dumbledore insists that she patents the glasses (she needs to start thinking about her financial future, considering she may soon be disowned and definitely doesn't want to end up at the mercy of her family)
• it's the phrase "the mercy of her family" that prompts her to double-down on Dobby research in her downtime

Then I guess it should be mentioned during the timeskip that:

• Delphi is making prototype glasses and Hermione is organizing distribution*
• the gang is searching the school from top to bottom for the diary or the Chamber or literally any other clues whenever they have free time (Hermione has drawn schedules up for the lot of them)

*Actually, an amendment to what I just said here: make this an actual scene, not a mention. Dumbledore gives Delphi the paperwork to patent her glasses, and she's about to go to Hermione for help and moral support when she realizes that there's actually an even better option: she goes to Fred and George, explains the situation, and gets herself a couple of amateur business partners. She shows them how to build the glasses, they work together on production, and the twins handle distribution (because people probably wouldn't trust anti-basilisk magitech coming from an Heir suspect herself).

Next scene should be an after-hours lesson with Snape a month later. Delphi's got her nose in a book when she arrives for her lesson, and Snape is surprised to find out what exactly she's reading: house elf history. There's all kinds of conflicting info, almost all of which is probably propaganda, but she's trying to find something to actually help Dobby (because she still hasn't caught on to his hints). Snape snaps at her to put it away so they can begin, but then Fawkes bursts in. Except it's not actually Fawkes; it's Dumbledore's patronus with an urgent message for Snape. Snape sends her away while he deals with it, and Delphi finds out the next morning that Hagrid's been arrested by Fudge and Dumbledore's been sacked on Lucius Malfoy's authority.

Speaking of schedules, they all picked classes out for next year during the timeskip. Hermione insisted on taking everything available, but the rest all went for divination and care of magical creatures. (Hermione had tried very hard to get Delphi to join her in muggle studies, but Delphi just hadn't had the courage to go through with it.) Snape, however, calls her aside after class and demands that she sign up for arithmancy and muggle studies after all, feeding her some bullshit about not letting her neglect her academic potential (especially when Hermione's trying to take everything -- and probably won't be able to unless another student signs up for everything, too). Delphi agrees to it on Hermione's account and doesn't realize what Snape's really doing: calling McGonagall's bluff about giving a time turner to a third year. (Joke's on him, though, because [redacted].)

(And I've decided to skip "follow the spiders" after all. How many times did I waffle on that one? Three?)

And at last, the beginning of the climax: the gang splits up Scooby-Doo style once again. Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to poke around Hagrid's empty hut to look for clues, and Delphi, Lilly, and Neville go to check on Moaning Myrtle to see if she's found anything out. She hasn't, but what's worse is who else joins them: Ginny is possessed by Tom, who stuns all three of them and [redacted].