Unity

“Second year was the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets.” said Hermione. Only the oldest members of the Order, including Dumbledore, recognised what it was. “For those who don’t know, there is a legend about the Chamber of Secrets. As it goes, before Salazar Slytherin left the school, he built a Secret Chamber in Hogwarts that only he or his heir could open. The Chamber is said to be the host of a monster that was allegedly put there to help purge the school of all muggleborns. Now, that year we didn’t know anything about the Chamber, at least at first. Previous to that, it was pretty much a normal school year.”

“As normal as it could be for us at least.” added Harry. “On Halloween of that year, Hermione, Ronald Weasley and myself went to Nearly Headless Nick’s five-hundredth Deathday Party. It wasn’t great for a non-ghost so we left early. While we were walking toward the Great Hall, I started to hear a voice from the walls. Neither Hermione nor Ron could hear it so I followed the voice. We ended up just around the corner of Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom and found a message on the wall.”

“The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware.” recited Hermione.

“That’s not ominous at all...” muttered Layla sarcastically.

Hermione continued. “Mrs. Norris, Argus Filch’s cat had also been petrified. Every student at school started talking about the Chamber of Secrets and it was seen as some type of mystery by some students, including us. It took a turn for the worse when one student, Colin Creevey, was petrified as well in the middle of the night. That’s pretty much when people realised that there was a real danger around the school.”

“People started to fear the Heir of Slytherin as nobody knew who it was. At least until something happened during the Duelling Club hosted by Gilderoy Lockhart and Severus Snape.” said Harry.

“Wait, Gilderoy Lockhart? Isn’t he the Ravenclaw bloke that was a few years under us?” asked Remus to his former classmates. “You know, the one that put a giant signature of his name on the Quidditch Pitch?”

“Lockhart was a Ravenclaw? I would never have guessed...” said Harry. “Putting his signature on the Quidditch Pitch however isn't surprising.” he snickered. “Anyway, something happened during the Duelling Club that made the student population believe that they had found the Heir of Slytherin. They all believed it was me.”

Harry saw that Fleamont and Euphemia looked at Harry with confusion. They knew that the Potters weren’t related to Salazar Slytherin. Lily however palled, something that both Harry and Hermione noticed. “They believed that I was the Heir of Slytherin because I spoke Parseltongue.”

Similarly, to when Harry had been questioned under Veritaserum, the younger Potter couple heard a lot of shocked gasps before an explosion of surprised, questioning or angry shouts shook the room.

“SILENCE!” shouted Harry. “Now, before you accuse me of being evil...”

“But Parselmouths are evil!” shouted one angry woman from the other side of the table.

“No, they aren’t you stupid, bigoted fuck!” shouted back an angry Hermione to everyone else’s shock. “The only reason people believe that nonsense is because the most infamous Parselmouths are Herpo the Foul, Salazar Slytherin and Lord Voldemort. They are three Dark Wizards on the few hundreds of Parselmouths that lived in the last millennium. Are you really surprised that any good witch or wizard that speak Parseltongue keep their ability secret when the rest of the wizarding population believes that it automatically makes you a Dark Wizard? It’s an ability you are born with! It’s like saying that someone is evil because their skin is black or because they are homosexual!” he finished. Hermione and Harry sent an angry glare toward the everyone in the Order, including those who hadn’t said anything.

Fleamont cleared his throat. “I’m wondering, how are you a Parselmouth? Not that I believe that there is anything wrong with it, but I know that the Potters aren’t Parselmouths.”

“Interesting question Granddad. Our original theory was that the night Voldemort failed to kill me, he accidentally transferred some of his powers to me such as the ability of speaking Parseltongue. I won’t go into details of how exactly that happened yet but just take note that the way it did, I should have lost the ability when Voldemort died. The problem is that I never did. Hermione and I have another theory but we won’t voice it as it is neither the time nor the place.” he answered. When he finished, he briefly glanced toward his mother Lily. Lily was the only one to notice that and realised that their theory was that Harry got it from her. It was true, Lily was a Parselmouth but she had always kept her ability a close guarded secret and had only told James. She was glad that Harry didn’t bring up their theory in front of everyone else but she was even happier that her father-in-law had said that there was nothing wrong with being a Parselmouth. It had always been a fear of her that James’ parents would reject her because of something like that. She would have to tell them once they were in private.

“Anyway, back to the story. During the school year, more and more people were getting petrified. I think they were Justin Finch-Fletchley, Nearly Headless Nick, Penelope Clearwater and... and Hermione Granger.” finished Harry with a long, sad sigh. Many people looked horrified at Hermione.

“You were petrified?” asked Euphemia with a trembling voice. Hermione nodded. “Just before I was however, I managed to gather enough clues to discover where the Chamber was located and what the monster within was. While I was running out of the library back to Harry and Ron, I was petrified. I woke up two months later where I learned that Harry had taken care of the problem.”

“What was the monster?” asked Alice.

“A Basilisk. And the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is hidden under a sink in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom.” answered Harry.

“Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom?” muttered a few people in confusion.

“Yes. There is a reason that this bathroom is hunted. During the 1942-1943 school year, the Chamber of Secrets was opened. A few students were petrified but the last attack resulted in one death. A fourth-year muggleborn Ravenclaw student by the name of Myrtle Warren. The ghost known as Moaning Myrtle is her spirit. She was killed because she hid in that bathroom just before the Heir of Slytherin opened the Chamber. She heard the Heir and realised that the Heir’s voice was male so she opened the door of her cubicle to tell him that it was a girl’s bathroom. She met the eyes of the Basilisk and instantly died.” explained Harry.

“So Moaning Myrtle was actually killed by Slytherin’s monster?” asked James.

“Yes.”

“Who is the Heir of Slytherin?”

“Tom Marvolo Riddle.” answered Harry.

“I know him.” said someone at the other end of the table. He looked old. “He was the Slytherin Head Boy when I was a third-year. Hold on, he was known to have stopped the one who opened the Chamber. Was he really the Heir of Slytherin?”

“Yes.”

“What happened to him?” asked that same person. “The last I heard from him was when he was working at Borgin & Burkes.” A few people of the same age group nodded in confirmation.

“It’s not true that it was the last time you heard of him...” said Harry. He raised up on his feet and turned away from the table before withdrawing his wand. Like Tom’s Horcrux Diary had once done to him, Harry wrote TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE in big letters before arranging them in a new order. I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.

“Lord Voldemort, born as Tom Marvolo Riddle from a pureblood witch of the Gaunt Family named Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle Senior, a Muggle.” he said while the man that had previously spoke and everyone else who once knew Tom Riddle gasped. “Turns out that I had already somehow met Tom Riddle around the Christmas Holidays. Around that time, I found a diary that once belonged to Tom. It had been thrown in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. I grabbed it and eventually figured out that you could write in it and Tom would write back. Since the book had been owned by a former Hogwarts student and looked like it was from the 40s, I asked if he knew about what had happened to the Chamber. Tom told me about how he was a prefect back then and after Myrtle’s death, he investigated and found that Hagrid was harbouring a monster within a closet. Hagrid got expelled and Tom received a Special Award.”

“At the end of the year,” continued Hermione, “the Heir attacked again. At that point, the school was on a state of emergency. Students couldn’t walk in the corridors without being escorted by a teacher, students like Harry couldn’t visit someone at the Hospital Wing since they feared that the Heir would attack them again and there were talks about closing the school once the year was over. And then a message appeared on a wall. ‘Her Skeleton will lie in the chamber forever.’