“Professor Burbage, can you tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets?” Hermione had wasted no time in asking.
“Which one?” Professor Burbage was presently writing down important dates in history on a blackboard.
“Which one? The one referenced by the writing.”
“Oh that.” She turned around to face the class. “Afraid I’m going to disappoint you. I deal in facts, not rumor or conjecture.”
“But don’t rumor and conjecture have some basis in fact?”
“Not always. However, in this case, there is some underlying truth. As I’m sure you are all aware Hogwarts was founded by four of the greatest wizards of their time. Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and of course everyone’s favorite, Salazar Slytherin.”
“Favorite?” Ron scoffed.
“It is his name that seems to be on everyone's lips, is it not? Scuttlebutt has it that the Chamber of Secrets is somehow connected to him, is it not? Let me tell you that according to the documented history, the four founders worked in harmony when the school was established. However, a rift grew between Slytherin and the other founders. Salazar Slytherin wanted to be more selective about who was allowed into the school. It was at this time they agreed to establish the four houses and create the enchanted Book of Admittance. He got his wish, and the other founders continued to recruit anyone who had enough magic in them to meet their standards. And yes, this meant bringing in students from outside the community. Students from nonmagical households. Salazar tried to put his foot down after a very serious incident when one of the new students turned out to be a religious zealot. A young man set his dormitory on fire and barricaded the door from the outside. The fire was quickly put out and the door unlocked. That young man realizing his mistake took off and it was several days before they could catch him. Fortunately, Hogwarts was remote enough that he hadn’t managed to contact any of the muggle authorities.
“Salazar was livid, but the other founders insisted that the incident had been an aberration. Salazar Slytherin split with the other founders and started up a new school somewhere else. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on one’s point of view, his school did not long survive him.
“As for the Chamber of Secrets, it is speculated that all four founders created secret chambers. We do have documentation that Percival Rackham, Charles Rookwood, Niamh Fitzgerald, and San Bakar had access to extensive chambers under the school early in the school’s history. And do not attempt to find those chambers. Few are they who return and no one will go down there to find you.
“There is one caveat to the history of Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets. Truth is, the term never appears in any historical record until June nineteen forty-three when someone started playing the same sort of inappropriate pranks. That’s also when Myrtle Warren died. Resident ghost in the second-floor girl’s toilets. And please don’t be pestering her. Her death was blamed on a pet young Hagrid had smuggled into the school.”
“I get the feeling you might be skeptical,” Aerie suggested.
“Well, if I were to speculate, and given what we now know concerning a certain individual, I’d point the finger for all of it squarely at Tom Riddle. He was a Prefect back then, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he was the one who’d terrorized the school as some sort of warm-up. But then again, we should never speculate.
“Now. This is a history class. Here we deal with verifiable facts.” Professor Burbage wished to speak no more on the matter and began her planned lecture.
“We should ask Myrtle,” Hermione stated shortly after the class.
“Already did, it was Riddle,” Aurora informed her.
“Let’s not go bothering her. Just try to remember to say hi to her if you see her,” Aerie offered. Hermione gave her a dirty look. “What? We only recently got her to open up to us.”
“Alright, fine. But you did have your suspicions though, didn’t you?”
“Well, of course I did. I wouldn't be much of a detective if I didn’t. Just think about it, she’s the only relatively recent ghost in Hogwarts. I’d asked Dobby to keep an eye on her.”
“Dobby, that House elf you were so horrid to?” Hermione accused.
“Professor Dumbledore hired him on with a salary and everything. I’d say he’s happy.”
“Better off here than working for Malfoy,” Ron quipped.
“Hiya, Aerie!”
“Cheese… Hello, Colin,” Aerie replied. She’d completely forgotten about the boy. “Say, did you get any good pictures,” She called as he was walking away.
“I pinned some pictures onto the Gryffindor bulletin board,” He called back. “There’s a really good one of Isolde slapping Nott. Aerie, listen, a boy in my class has been saying that you’re…” Whatever it was he had to say was drowned out by the throng of students pushing him onto the great hall. “See ya, Aerie!” he called out and was gone.
“What?” Hermione said as she watched Colin vanish.
“That I’m Slytherin’s heir, more than likely,” Aerie said with a tone of disgust.
“People will believe anything,” Ron added. “If they knew… but they can’t know, can they.”
“Whoever it is they are bound to give themselves away sooner or later.”
“So why do you think Dobby hasn’t said anything?” Aurora asked.
“Probably doesn’t have anything.”
“So, do you think there’s really a Chamber of Secrets?” Ron asked.
“No way to know,” Hermione replied. “It’s like Professor Burbage said, the place is likely loaded with secret chambers. Even as she spoke they came upon the location where the incident had happened. There was a chair by the wall along with a bucket of soapy water where a scrub brush floated. Someone had been trying to scrub the writing off but to no avail.”
“So how would you go about removing the writing,” Aurora asked Aerie.
“Blast it.”
“Blast it?” Ron asked. “You’re joking, right?”
“One never knows with her,” Aurora replied with a lilt to her head, the group coming to a stop. “Aerie?”
Aerie had gotten it into her head to have a closer look.
“Ah, yes of course.”
“Aerie?” Hermione asked.
“The stone has been transfigured. The writing isn’t on the wall. It’s part of the wall.”
“Is it?” Hermione asked and then decided to take a closer look herself. “So it is.”
“Professor Lockhart had been tasked with cleaning it up,” Aurora pointed out.
“It was bugging me because I couldn't sense any dark magic,” Aerie offered.
“What? No dark magic? Nonsense,” Lockhart proclaimed from a few feet away.
“Sir, I think Aerie’s right. It’s not painted on, it’s just a rather crude transfiguration,” Hermione offered.
“Just a bad prank,” Aerie said as she stepped away from the wall. “Let’s just let the Professor deal with it. After all, he knows far better than we do.”
“Transfigured, you say,” Lockhart muttered as Aerie stepped away from the wall. He stepped up to the wall and pointed his wand at a section of a letter. A moment later the letter went from blood red to chartreuse.
“It’s gone bright yellow,” Ron exclaimed as a smile formed on Lockhart’s face.
“Ha, I overestimated my opponent!” Lockhart exclaimed and then burst out laughing.
“Astute observation, Miss Potter,” Lockhart offered a moment later. “This won’t take but a moment. I’ll just clone the color and texture, and it’ll be gone in a jiffy.”
“Good for you sir,” Aerie offered. “Come on, it’s nearly time for dinner.”
“Oh, and Aerie…”
“Sir?”
“Ten points for Gryffindor. Just keep it quiet, and we’ll make it a surprise.”
“Yes sir,” Aerie replied and then quickly walked away followed by the others.
“Would you believe that, he can do magic,” Ron whispered after they were far enough away he’d no fear of being overheard.
“He is a graduate of Hogwarts,” Hermione said defensively.
“Aerie, did you see him, that is did you know he was there?” Aurora asked.
“I did. I figured he was bound to be able to do a simple color swap. Let him take the credit. Maybe he’ll forget about meeting my mom.”
“But how did you know?” Hermione asked.
“It was the background aura of the writing. It showed signs of magic having been used, but nothing remarkable. Cursed things just suck in all the warmth and goodness around them. Had it been done with dark magic it would have looked dark to me. That is, without my glasses.”
“You know, you haven't really explained that. That you can see auras,” Hermione pressed.
“It’s a magical malady. I’ve been like that most of my life.”
“You’re not using that to make it easier to spot the Snitch are you?”
“Why Hermione, I’m surprised at you. I do wear my glasses to play Quidditch after all.”
“Sorry.”
“Incidentally, I saw that you were looking up Polyjuice potion.”
“You aren’t going to tell me no, are you?”
“I can tell you that Nott’s belongings have been searched for anything suspicious. Professor Snape did a search after he got caught out of dorm after curfew. My Moonie has searched the Slytherin dorm. Hoshiko has searched the Ravenclaw dorm, Justin searched the boys' dorm in the Hufflepuff dorm, and that leaves the Hufflepuff girls and our own dorm… Ron, any chance you searched the boys' dorm?”
“Um… I, ah… hang on, I think Percy has already done a search. Come to think of it he had all the first second and third years turn out their belongings.”
“Not too subtle is he,” Aurora commented.
“We’ve checked the first-year and second-year girls' belongings on our side,” Aerie stated. “Hermione, if you really want to try using a polyjuice potion, I can’t help but think that slipping into the Hufflepuff dorm might be your best bet.”
“You don’t think it’s a Slytherin, then?” Hermione asked.
“If you want to try the Slytherin girls dorm go right ahead. I just figured that Mr Malfoy isn’t likely to target someone from a Slytherin family. Just make sure you don’t mistake pet hair for human.”
“I’m pretty sure I can tell the difference,” Hermione stated defensibly, but dared not say anything more as they entered the Great Hall.
A short time later Lockhart entered and bombastically announced that he’d expunged the writing on the wall. “Afraid our prankster underestimated me,” he stated as he walked up to the head table.
“Professor, how did you, that is, you’ve really removed the writing?” McGonagall asked as he sat down.
He leaned over and whispered, “In truth I overestimated them. On closer inspection I discovered that absolutely nothing had been fixed to the wall, the wall had been transfigured. I should have seen through it from the start given it’s a prank often played while I was here at school.”
“Writing on the wall?”
“Changing the color of each other’s trunks to be exact. Focusing the beam from the wand to write something isn’t really all that different.”
“Professor, the writing is gone,” Professor Dumbledore stated as he approached the head table.
“All in a day's work. I fear the fault was in our assuming it had been done with dark magic.”
“And it wasn’t?”
“Just a simple color transfiguration. I must say that this will make an interesting anecdote for the new book I’m working on.”
“Well, I’ll be...”
Professor Snape had just sat down. His hair was purple.
“Professor Snape, your hair?”
“Mishap in potions. Let’s just say that I now understand the phrase 'like watching a train wreck'. Miss Shutter’s bird came into the lab, and a pin feather fell off and dropped into one of the potions. The resulting cloud seems to have had a bleaching effect on anyone who came into contact with it. Black colors turned purple like we’d all been left out in the sun.” As he was saying this the first-year Gryffindor and Slytherin students entered the room. Black hair was purple, brown hair blond, red hair pink, blond hair platinum, and the Gryffindor girls sported purple robes. Because why change your robe when it looks cute and you can get away with it? “And I’ve got this strange hankering for a frilly drink called a Piña colada. I don’t even know what a Piña colada is and yet I want one.”