The Last Heir of Merlin

They were all curious as to what it could mean. "Enemies of the Heir, Beware?" Jake asked aloud.

"Wh-What's that thing - h-hanging underneath?" Ron asked, stuttering a little bit.

As they all edged nearer to get a look because of how dark it was, Harry almost slipped. There was a large puddle of water on the floor; thankfully Jake had grabbed him, otherwise Harry would've fallen forward onto his face. They carefully inched closer to the message, eyes fixed on a dark shadow beneath it. All four of them realized what it was at once, and leapt backward with a splash.

Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring.

For a few seconds, they didn't move. They were unsure of how to proceed, "Let's get out of here, quickly," Ron said.

"Shouldn't we try and - I dunno, help?" Harry asked awkwardly.

"Trust me, we don't want to be found here," Ron said urgently.

Suddenly a rumble, as though of distant thunder, told them the feast had just ended. Students would be piling in any second.

"Come on, if we hurry we can get out of here," Ron tried to urge them away from there.

"It won't matter now," Jake said, "if we are seen running from this corridor, it'll only be worse for us..."

He was, unfortunately, right. From either end of the corridor where they stood came the sound of hundreds of feet climbing the stairs, and the loud, happy talk of well-fed people; next moment, students were crashing into the corridor from both ends.

The chatter, the bustle, the noise died suddenly as the people in front spotted the hanging cat. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Jake stood alone in the middle of the corridor, as silence fell among the mass of students pressing forward to see the grisly sight.

Then a familiar and hated voice shouted through the quiet, "Enemies of the Heir, Beware!" Shouted Draco Malfoy as he stepped forward and smirked, "You'll be next, mudbloods."

Jake went for his wand immediately. He was halfway through pulling it from its holster when Hermione stopped him, "If you attack him now," she whispered into his ear, "it'll only look worse for you."

He knew she was right, and he pushed his wand back into its holster. They all stared at Malfoy, his cold eyes and usually bloodless face flushed with color, as he grinned at the sight of the hanging, immobile cat.

"What's going on here?" Came the voice of the caretaker himself, "What's going on here?" He shouldered his way through the crowd, falling backwards into the crowd upon seeing his cat, clutching his face in horror, "My Cat! My Cat! What happened to Mrs. Norris!?" He shrieked in pain. He scanned the crowd and his eyes fell upon Harry, " You !" He screeched, glaring hatefully at Harry, " You ! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you-"

" Argus !" Came the voice of Dumbledore as students parted to pet him forward. Several other teachers were behind him. In seconds, he had swept past Harry, Ron, Jake, and Hermione and detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket. "Come with me Argus. You too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger," he paused looking at Jake, "Mr. Fernandes."

Lockhart stepped forward eagerly, "My office is nearest, Headmaster- just upstairs - please feel free-"

"Thank you, Gilderoy," Dumbledore said and swept past him as well, on his way to Lockhart's office with the quartet trailing behind him. Lockhart, looking excited and important, followed along as well, with McGonagall and Snape also close behind.

As they entered Lockhart's darkened office, there was a flurry of movement across the walls; Jake saw several of the Lockhart's in the pictures on his wall dodge out of sight, their hair filled with rollers. He scoffed at the sight. The real Lockhart lit some candles on his desk and stepped back. Dumbledore laid Mrs. Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her. Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged tense looks, but when they looked at Jake, he was looking closely at Mrs. Norris as well, but he was unmoved from his spot. They sank into some nearby chairs outside the pool of candlelight, watching.

The tip of Dumbledore's long, crooked nose was barely an inch from her fur. He was looking at her closely through his half-moon spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking. Professor McGonagall was bent over, almost as close and her eyes narrowed. Professor Snape loomed somewhere behind them, half in the shadows, wearing a most peculiar expression. It was as though he was trying his best to not smile or smirk at the situation. Lockhart, on the other hand, was hovering around them all, making ridiculous suggestions.

"It was definitely a curse that killed her - probably the Transmogrifian Torture - I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very counter-curse that would have saved her," he said smirking.

"Says the man who couldn't even handle Cornish Pixies," Jake said without changing expression, looking over at Lockhart with cold eyes. "Besides, she's not dead, she's merely petrified-"

"Sounds like a confession to me!" Argus Filch said angrily.

"I do believe I know what I'm talking about, since I am the professional here-" Lockhart started to say.

"Mr. Fernandes is right. She is petrified, Argus, not dead," Dumbledore said, cutting off Lockhart.

"It still sounds like a confession of guilt! He knew it, I say he did it! Potter probably put him up to it, he knows I-" Argus stopped yelling a moment, "He knows I'm a Squib!"

"I cannot say how she became Petrified, though," Dumbledore explained.

"Ask any of them!" Filch yelled, pointing at the four students.

"No Second Year student could have done this," Dumbledore said sternly.

"That's not entirely true, Headmaster, remember that Fernandes is-" Snape started to reveal confidential information that Dumbledore didn't want Lockhart to know.

"Enough, Severus!" Dumbledore spoke in the loudest voice they'd heard since this time last year. All of the Lockhart portraits dove out of the way expecting something dangerous to befall them.

Snape snarled his nose, "Then if I may speak about something else... the four of them may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time..." he said, his sneer curling around his face, doubting the very words he just spoke, "but we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why were they in the Upstairs Corridor at all? Why were they not at the Halloween Feast?"

All but Jake launched into an explanation about the Death Day party, "- there were hundreds of Ghosts there, they'll tell you we were there-"

"But why not join the feast afterwards?" His black eyes glittering in the candlelight, "Why go up to that corridor?"

"Because - because-" Harry seemed to be having trouble finding an excuse. "Because we were tired and wanted to go to bed."

"Without any supper?" Snape asked, a triumphant flicker of a smile on his face, "I didn't think Ghosts provided food for the living at their parties."

"We weren't hungry," Ron said loudly as his stomach growled just as loud.

Jake facepalmed.

Snape's nasty smile widened sickeningly, "I suggest, Headmaster, that they aren't being entirely truthful. It might be a good idea if Potter was deprived of certain... privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he should be taken off of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team until he is ready to be honest."

"And how would that benefit you, Severus?" McGonagall asked him, "Potter is not the only Seeker Gryffindor has now. Taking him away would only put Fernandes in the action. So really, what would that prove? Besides, there is no evidence that Potter has done anything wrong at all."

Dumbledore eyed Harry, like he was looking right into his soul, "Innocent until proven guilty, Severus."

Snape snarled angrily, looking furious. Filch looked equally so, "My Cat has been petrified!" He shrieked, "I want to see some punishment !"

"We will be able to cure her, Argus," Dumbledore said, having extreme patience with Filch, "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure a sizable amount of Mandrakes, and once they have fully matured, she will be able to make a Potion for Mrs. Norris that will revive her."

"I'll make it," Lockhart said, reminding everyone of his presence, "I must've done it a hundred times. I can whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep-"

"Excuse me," Snape said icily, "I do believe that I am the Potions Master at this school."

There was an awkward pause.

Dumbledore looked at the four of them, "You may go."

They all hurried out of there without breaking into a run. When they were up a floor from Lockhart's office, Harry ushered them all into an empty classroom, "D'you think I should've told them about that voice I heard?"

"No," Ron said without hesitation, "hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the Wizarding World."

Harry suddenly asked, "You do believe me, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Ron said, almost too quickly, "but you gotta admit, it is weird..."

"I know it's weird, the whole thing's weird!" Harry was a little frustrated. "What was that writing on the wall about? 'The Chamber Has Been Opened'...What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know, it rings a sort of bell..." Ron said slowly, "I think someone told me a story about a secret chamber at Hogwarts once... might've been Bill..."

"And I remember Neville saying something about this last year at the start of term banquet after everyone had been sorted, but what's a Squib exactly? I never figured out what it meant," Harry told them.

"A squib is a person born into a Wizarding family that has no magical properties at all," Jake explained while Ron stifled a snicker, "If Filch is a Squib, then it explains why he detests students, he's bitter about us being able to use magic."

"I actually feel a little bad for him, now..." Hermione said.

A clock suddenly chimed somewhere, "Midnight," Harry said, "we'd better get to bed before Snape comes along and tries to frame us for something else."

*******

For a few days, the Hogwarts students could talk of little else aside from the attack on Mrs. Norris. Filch made sure to keep it fresh in everyone's minds by pacing the spot where she had been attacked, as though he thought the attacker might come back. Jake had noticed that he'd been trying to scrub the message on the wall with Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but to no effect; the words still gleamed as brightly as ever on the stone. When Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red-eyed through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for stupid reasons like 'breathing loudly' or 'looking happy' and it was getting on Jake's nerve. As a pet owner himself, he'd be absolutely devastated if something like this happened to (P/N), but he wouldn't lash out at anyone and everyone without probable cause.

Jake noticed that Hermione had been spending a lot more time in the Library than usual, probably looking for the same thing everyone else was. He was sitting in the Library one evening with Harry and Ron while Hermione looked in another part of the Library for Hogwarts: A History . Not that anyone would find it, Jake has read the book cover to cover a dozen times since he bought it, and nothing about the Chamber of Secrets was in there. He was currently reading through Greatest Wizards in History for the third time since Hermione had gotten it for him for Christmas. She really believed he could one day be in the book itself, and after she found out about his relation to Merlin, she only reaffirmed her stance on it.

Ron and Harry were both busy writing their History of Magic Homework. Professor Binns asked for a three foot-long composition on, 'The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards,' and Ron was frustrated, "I don't believe it... I'm still Eight inches short..." He dropped his parchment and it sprang back into a roll, "Hermione has Four feet Seven inches... Jake got an even Five feet... and their writing was tiny !" He said to Harry and sighed, he looked over at him, "Jake, could I-"

"No," he responded without letting Ron finish his question. He didn't even take his eyes off the book.

"You don't even know what-"

"You were going to ask me if you could read my Composition, and my answer is no. You've had ten days to work on this, Hermione and I got ours done on Day Three. You have no one to blame but yourself," Jake said matter-of-factly.

"It can't hurt to ask her, though," Ron said.

"If you even try to bother her with your own shortcomings, I'm torching your paper," Jake said, finally looking up at him. Ron went wide-eyed and dared not ask Hermione in the slightest.

Hermione showed up a moment later, exasperated, " All the copies of Hogwarts: A History have been taken out, and there's a two week waiting list..." she sighed, sitting down next to Jake. She looked over and smiled when she saw what he was reading.

"Why don't you just read yours?" Ron asked without looking up, trying to finish his paper.

"I left mine at home because I couldn't fit it in with all of Lockhart's books... what a waste of space those are now..."

"Why do you want it?" Harry asked her.

"The same reason as everyone else wants it," she said to him, "to read up on the Legend of the Chamber of Secrets."

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"That's just it, I can't remember," Hermione said, biting her lip, "and I can't find the story anywhere else..."

"You could've asked me to borrow mine," Jake chimed in.

"What are you - you had your copy the whole time!?" She asked in a loud voice, causing her to be shushed by Madam Pince. "Why didn't you tell me!?" She asked in a much quieter tone.

"You never asked," he said and received a slap across the shoulder. He feigned pain for a few minutes.

The bell eventually rang and Hermione led the way from being a little frustrated with Jake, so she power walked her way to History of Magic.

She was seated when the three boys walked in and Jake sat beside her, setting the most sought after book down in front of her, "You won't find what you're looking for, though, it mentions nothing of the Chamber of Secrets."

"Really?" She asked in a disheartened voice.

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Hermione," he apologized as Professor Binns floated into class through the chalkboard.

History of Magic was easily the dullest subject on the schedule, and possibly the entire school. Professor Binns, being the only Ghost Professor in the whole school, had a droning voice that easily put one to sleep. Ancient and shriveled, many people said he hadn't noticed he was dead, and he probably still wasn't aware. One day, after a fire in the staff room, he simply got up to teach one day and left his body behind. His routine has not changed in the slightest since.

Today was as boring as ever, but Jake managed to stay awake in every class, despite his desire to close his eyes with every word Binns spoke. There were only two students among the entire Second Year able to stay awake and have pages full of notes, and they were Jake Fernandes and Hermione Granger, but they both agreed that it was still boring the way Binns spoke.

In his entire routine, for several hundred years, it had always been the same, until that day, when Hermione Granger raised her hand.

Professor Binns, glancing up every now and then from his notes, had to do a double take upon seeing a student with their hand up, abruptly stopping his lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289. His face looked as though he was actually seeing his students for the first time in centuries, "Yes Miss - er-"

"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets?" She asked in a clear voice.

Students all over the classroom broke out of trances and stupors. Professor Binns blinked, "My Subject is History of Magic," he said in his dry, wheezing voice, "I deal with facts , not Myths and Legends." He cleared his throat with a noise like chalk snapping and continued his lecture, "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian Sorcerers-"

He stuttered to a halt as Hermione's hand waved in the air again.

"Miss Grant?"

"Granger," Jake said, annoyed that he got it wrong.

"Please, sir, don't Legends always have a basis in fact?" She asked him.

Professor Binns looked on in amazement. It was as though no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead.

"Well..." he said slowly, "yes, one could argue that, I suppose. However, the Legend of which you speak is such a very sensational , even ludicrous tale-" he paused, noticing that every student, for the first time in probably ever, was hanging onto his every word, "Oh, very well," he said slowly, "Let me see... the Chamber of Secrets...

"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded a little over a thousand years ago - the precise date is uncertain - by the four greatest Witches and Wizards of that Age. Merlin is regarded as the greatest Wizard of all time, but that's not relevant to the Chamber. Anyway, the Four School Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle away from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when Magic was feared by common people, and Witches and Wizards suffered much persecution."

He paused to take a glance around the room, noticing they were still hanging onto his every word and continued.

"For a few 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 them, specifically Slytherin and the other three. He wished to be more selective of the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, be it one or both parents, 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."

Binns paused again, but he looked unsure of himself. He pursed his ghostly lips, looking like a wrinkled old tortoise.

"Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said, continuing on, "but these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that 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 until his own true Heir arrived at the school. The Heir alone would be able to unsealed the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."

There was a silence that fell upon the class as he finished telling the story. It wasn't the usual, sleepy silence that filled his classes. There was unease in the air as everyone continued to watch him, hoping for more. This caused Professor Binns to look faintly annoyed.

"The whole thing is arranged nonsense, of course," he said, trying to dissuade them into believing it, "Naturally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a Chamber, many times, by the most talented Witches and Wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible."

"Sir-" Hermione's hand was back in the air, "- What exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the chamber?"

"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control," he said in his dry, reedy voice.

The class, however, exchanged nervous looks.

"I tell you, the thing does not exist!" He said, aggravatedly shuffling papers around on his desk, "There is no Chamber, and no Monster."

Jake leaned back in his chair, ignoring everything else said, because it was clear that Professor Binns could not be moved on his stance. Just because no evidence was ever found, didn't mean it doesn't exist. It just means that no one knows what to look for, or where to start looking. He didn't even bother copying down anymore names or dates, and he wouldn't get the chance to because the Bell rang when it was supposed to, signaling the end of class.

*******

"I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loony," Ron said to the three of them as they fought their way through the teeming corridors to Gryffindor Tower to drop off their bags before dinner. "Although, I never knew it was him who started all this pure-blood stuff. I wouldn't be in his House if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I'd have got the train straight back home."

Hermione was nodding fervently, but Jake gave it some real thought, "If you take the Sorting Hat's words about Slytherin from First Year, it mentions nothing about that Blood Purity nonsense. From what I've seen, most of Slytherin House now barely fits the description the Hat gave them. Are any of them Cunning? Sure a lot of them are ambitious, but none of them show leadership skills and maybe a handful are resourceful. Slytherin House is supposed to value those traits, but so few of them actually possess half of what I just listed. And look at Crabbe and Goyle, both are the two biggest idiots in our Year, and Snape passed them into Second Year, they aren't Cunning, Ambitious, Resourceful, nor do they exhibit leadership skills, so it makes no sense why they are in Slytherin House at all."

"When you put it that way, it does make little sense," Hermione agreed with him.

Harry, however, looked like he was going to be sick, "You okay, Harry?" Jake asked him.

He looked up, "Yeah, I-I'll be alright..."

"Hiya, Harry!" They all heard the voice of Colin Creevey.

"Hullo, Colin," Harry said as his automatic response.

They were busy moving along with the crowd, and Colin, because of how small he was, was having a hard time reaching Harry, "Harry - Harry - a boy in my class has been saying you're-" his voice was drowned out by the buffer of many students hurrying him along back the other direction from where he was coming from, "See you, Harry!" They heard him squeak before he was gone from sight.

"I wonder what a boy in his class is saying about you?" Hermione wondered aloud.

"That I'm the Heir of Slytherin, I expect," Harry said, looking even more uneasy.

"People here'll believe anything," Ron said in disgust.

The crowd started to thin, allowing them to climb the next staircase without difficulty. Jake ever so briefly thought about how easy it would be to just force everyone aside with wandless magic, assuming he would be able to. He's noticed so far that he's only been able to do it when his eyes glowed red, according to Hermione, and that only seemed to happen when he was angry. He didn't want to be angry all the time, but when someone like Draco Malfoy liked to taunt him and insult Hermione, it wasn't easy to remain calm, especially from the latter.

"D'you really think there's a Chamber of Secrets?" Ron asked Hermione.

"I don't know..." she said, frowning as she did, "Dumbledore couldn't cure Mrs. Norris... and that makes me think that whatever attacked her might not be... w-well..."

"Human," Jake finished for her.

"Yes... human..."

As they turned a corner, they found themselves at the end of the very corridor where the attack happened. They stopped and looked around; the scene was just as it had been that night, except there was no stiff cat hanging from the torch bracket, and an empty chair stood against the wall that bore the message, 'The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened.'

"That's where Filch has been keeping guard," Ron muttered.

"I don't blame him for being angry because of what happened to his cat, but he needs to calm down," Jake said.

They all looked at each other and shrugged, "Can't hurt to have a poke around," Harry said. The corridor was deserted, after all. He dropped his bag and got onto his hands and knees so that he could crawl along, searching for clues. "Scorch marks! Here - and here!"

"Come and look at this," Hermione said, letting out a quick chuckle, "This is funny."

Jake walked over to her and Harry was there a second later. Hermione was pointing at the topmost window pane, where around twenty spiders were scuttling, apparently fighting to get through a small crack. A long, silvery thread was dangling like a rope, as though they had all climbed it in their hurry to get outside.

"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" Hermione asked them.

"No," was Jake's simple response.

"No, me either," Harry said, "have you, Ron?"

No response.

"Ron?" He asked again and they all looked over to see Ron standing roughly twenty feet back, looking as though he was fighting the impulse to run for the hills.

"What's up?" Jake asked him.

"I - don't - like - spiders," he said tensely.

"I never knew that," Hermione said, looking at Ron in surprise, "You've used spiders in Potions loads of time before now."

"I don't mind them dead," Ron said, who was carefully, but quite obviously, looking anywhere but at the window. "I-I just... I don't like the way they move..."

Hermione let out a series of giggles.

Ron, however, didn't appreciate that, "It's not funny!" He was shaking slightly with anger, but mainly fear, "If you must know... when I was three, Fred turned my - my teddy bear turned into a great big filthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick... You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and it suddenly had too many legs and... a-and..."

He broke off, shuddering at the mere thought it seemed. Jake noticed Hermione was trying her absolute hardest to not laugh. Harry came to his rescue, "Remember all that water on the floor? Where did that come from? Someone's mopped it up."

"It was about here," Jake said, "probably came from that bathroom." He looked up and saw a sign that read 'Out of Order' so he reached for the Brass doorknob.

"Can't go in there!" Ron said quickly.

"Why not?" Harry asked.

"That's a girls' toilet, Harry."

"Oh, Ron, there won't be anyone in there," Hermione said, walking past Jake and turning the knob, "It's Out of Order, plus, this is where Moaning Myrtle resides. Come on, let's have a look."

"Uh..." Jake started, "M-M-Maybe, maybe I should wait out here... you know... for... reasons," he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Hermione was quick to grab his arm and drag him inside, "You made quite the impression on her, if you're here, maybe she won't be so moody," she said quietly to him.

It was the gloomiest, most depressing looking bathroom any of the boys had ever laid their eyes on or set foot in. Under a large, cracked, and spotted mirror were a row of chipped sinks. The floor was damp and reflected the dull light given off by the stubs of a few candles, burning low in their holders; the wooden doors to the stalls were flaking and scratched and one of them was dangling off its hinges, "I can see why it's Out of Order," Jake whispered.

Hermione placed a finger to her lips to tell them to shut up and set off towards the end stall. When she reached it, she stopped, turned to face inside it and said, "Hello, Myrtle, how are you?"

The three boys went to look. Myrtle was floating above the tank of the toilet, looking miserable as ever, "This is the girls ' bathroom," she said in an almost embarrassed voice, " They're not gir-" she stopped herself when she saw Jake, "Oh, J-J-Jake... I-I didn't know you were stopping by, I-I'd have made myself a bit more presentable," she said with a ghostly giggle as she turned away, bashful all of a sudden.

"Maybe you should do the talking," Hermione whispered to him.

"What are you whispering for?" Myrtle asked, staring at her.

"We were just wondering if you'd seen anything out of the ordinary lately?" Jake quickly diverted her attention back to him.

She smiled at him, "You're going to have to be a bit more specific, Jake."

In the back of his mind, he was hating ever being nice to her, "On Halloween night, a cat was attacked and petrified right outside your door over there," he pointed to the entrance of the bathroom, making sure she knew what door he was talking about.

"I wasn't paying attention," she suddenly said in a dramatic tone, "Peeves upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then, of course, I remembered that I'm - that I'm-"

"Already dead," Ron said, trying to be helpful.

All it earned him was Jake hitting him painfully on the shoulder and Myrtle letting out a tragic sob. She rose into the air, turned over, and dove headfirst into the toilet, splashing water all over them and vanishing from sight, although from the direction of her muffled sobs, she had come to rest somewhere in the U-bend, "Thanks a lot, Weasley," Jake said, frustrated with Ron. He only ever called Ron or Harry by their last names now if he was angry or frustrated with them.

They all sighed and exited the bathroom. The door had barely closed when a loud voice rang out, startling all four of them, "RON!" Percy Weasley had stopped dead at the head of the stairs, Prefect badge agleam, an expression of complete shock on his face, "That's a girls ' bathroom!" He gaped at his brother, "What were you -"

"Just having a look around," Ron answered without thinking, "Clues, you know-"

"Get - away - from - there!" Percy yelled, looking flustered for even catching his brother in the act of leaving the girls' bathroom. He started to bustle them along to the Great Hall to eat dinner, "Don't you care what this looks like? Coming back here while everyone else is at Dinner-"

"Why shouldn't we be here?" Ron asked hotly, stopping short and glaring at his brother, "Listen, we never laid a finger on that cat!"

"That's what I told Ginny!" Percy said fiercely, "but she still seems to think you're going to be expelled, I've never seen her so upset, crying her eyes out, you might think of her , all the first years are thoroughly over-excited by this business-"

" You don't care about Ginny!" Yelled Ron, whose ears were now reddening. " You're just worried I'm going to mess up your chances of being Head Boy-"

"Five Points from Gryffindor!" Percy yelled in the most frustrated and angered tone Jake had seen thus far from the eldest Weasley still at Hogwarts. Percy was fingering his Prefect Badge, "And I hope it teaches you a lesson! No more detective work , or I'll write to Mum!"

Percy strode off angrily. The back of Ron's neck was as red as his ears. Jake waited until Percy was out of sight, "I try to never use foul language, but I fucking hate your Brother, Ron."

*******

Jake, Hermione, Ron, and Harry chose to sit as far away from Percy Weasley as possible that night in the Common Room after dinner. Ron himself was still quite obviously in a very bad tempered mood and kept blotting his Charms homework. When he reached absent-mindedly for his wand to remove the smudges, it ignited the paper. Fuming almost as much as his homework, Ron slammed The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 shut. Hermione shut hers almost immediately afterwards. Jake glanced at her homework and saw that she was done, 'How coincidental,' he thought to himself. He was almost finished with the Grade 3 book, but decided to close his as well, since it seemed like a conversation was going to start, and he felt like he'd have to give his own input.

"Who can it be, though?" Hermione asked in a quiet voice, as though continuing a conversation they'd just been having. "Who'd want to frighten all the Squibs and Muggleborns out of Hogwarts?"

"Let's think," Ron said in mock puzzlement. Jake crossed his arms, wondering where this was going, "Who do we know who thinks Muggleborns are scum?"

He looked at Hermione, and Hermione looked back, unconvinced, "If you're talking about Malfoy-"

"Of course I am!" He almost yelled, "You heard him - ' You'll be next, Mudbloods! ' - come on, you've only got to look at his foul rat face to know it's him-"

"Malfoy, the Heir of Slytherin?" Hermione asked skeptically.

"Look at his family," Harry said, closing his books as well, "The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin; he's always boasting about it. They could easily be Slytherin's descendants. His father's definitely evil enough."

"They could've had the key to the Chamber of Secrets for centuries!" Ron said, "Handing it down, father to son..."

"That's completely absurd," Jake said, causing them all to look at him, waiting for him to continue, "come off it. Draco Malfoy? He'd be boasting about it, probably none too quietly neither, and do you really think he wouldn't have already let this monster out to attack everyone? Not just Muggleborns, but anyone he disagrees with. Based on the Legend, he wouldn't be carrying out Salazar Slytherin's will, would he?"

"I guess when put that way, it makes sense..." Hermione said slowly, "but... what else do we really have to go on?"

Jake sighed, realizing they had no other lead.

"So... how do we prove it? That it's Malfoy?" Harry asked darkly.

"There is a way..." Hermione said.

"We'd be breaking roughly fifty school rules," Jake said even quieter than usual, glancing over at Emperor Palpatine. That's who Percy reminded him of at least, from the movies he'd seen.

"And it's difficult and dangerous... very dangerous..." Hermione continued off his words.

"If, in a month or so, you both feel like explaining, you will let us know, won't you?" Ron asked irritably.

Jake glared at him, "All right," Hermione said coldly, glaring at him icily, "What we'd need to do is get inside the Slytherin Common room and ask Malfoy a few questions without him realizing it's us."

"But that's impossible," Harry said as Ron laughed.

"Honestly... Do you both even pay attention to Snape?" Jake asked them.

They didn't get to answer, as Hermione spoke up, "It's not impossible. All we'd need would be some Polyjuice Potion."

"What's that," the other two asked at the same time.

Jake pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head, "Snape said it a few weeks ago in class..."

"D'you think we've got nothing better to do in Potions than listen to Snape?" Ron muttered.

"I swear, if it weren't for Hermione and I, you both would still be in First Year," Jake was getting fed up with them.

Hermione placed a hand on his shoulder, and his breathing became lighter because of it. She smiled at having been able to calm him down again. She looked back to them, "It transforms you into somebody else. Think about it! We could change into four of the Slytherins. No one would know it was us. Malfoy would probably tell us anything. He's probably boasting about it in the Slytherin Common as we speak, if only we could hear him."

"This Polyjuice stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me," Ron said, frowning and looking concerned, "What if we were stuck looking like four of the Slytherins forever?"

"It wears off after a while," Hermione said, waving her hand impatiently, "But getting hold of the recipe will be very difficult. Snape said it was in a book called Moste Potente Potions and it's bound to be in the Restricted Section of the Library."

"You know... I actually saw that book back in Diagon Alley, in the far back of Flourish and Blotts... had I known we'd need it, I'd have bought it," Jake said with a heavy sigh.

"It's alright, you didn't know," Hermione smiled at him sympathetically.

There was only one way to get a book from the Restricted Section for non-Prefect students: You needed a signed note of permission from a teacher, "Hard to see why we'd want the book, really," Ron said, "if we weren't going to try and make one of the potions."

"I think..." Hermione said slowly, "I think that if we made it sound as though we were just interested in the theory... we might stand a chance..."

"Oh, come on, no teacher's going to fall for that," Ron said, not entirely wrong, "They'd have to be really thick..."

After their talk about the Polyjuice Potion, Harry and Ron retired to bed for the night. Hermione and Jake were still awake in the Common Room, "You know... I skimmed through the book back in Flourish and Blotts, and I remember looking at the Polyjuice Potion, but I can't remember what the ingredients were..." he sighed, leaning back into the armchair he was occupying. Hermione had joined him in it after asking if she could sit next to him, "I can see them in my mind, but I can't make out any words..."

"It's alright, like I said, you didn't know..." Hermione tilted her head and looked at him, noticing how much longer his bangs had gotten since school started.

"Still... it would save us a lot of trouble," he looked at her with a pained expression.

"How about you go to bed? You look tired and could probably use some extra sleep," Hermione suggested.

"Fine, I will, but only if you go up to your room and sleep as well. Just because I'm going to bed now, doesn't mean you get to stay awake," he offered.

"Alright, but only because it's you who asked," she said and he smiled. They stood up, and Hermione almost hugged him before stopping and pulling back. She suddenly found herself engulfed in his own embrace.

"Goodnight, Hermione," he whispered.

"Goodnight, Jake," she whispered back and he let go, going up to his dorm room. Hermione went up to hers, but didn't go to sleep straight away. She pulled out something from underneath her pillow and looked at it on her lap. It was a Diary she'd gotten over the summer and had immediately filled it up with all of the adventures of First Year. She flipped through what she'd already written and saw that every time she had mentioned Jake, she put a heart or two somewhere near his name, but she only started that after realizing her feelings for him.

She flipped to a new page, pulled out the Muggle Pen her parents had given to her over the summer, and got to writing about the past few days, smiling softly every time she mentioned Jake.