Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets

Halloween was a holiday, and most students would normally choose to spend the day playing around the school or resting properly in their dormitories.

But on the morning of November 1st that year, the Hufflepuff common room was packed with students.

There were barely enough seats.

They whispered among themselves, chattering as they discussed the matter.

"What exactly is the Chamber of Secrets? I heard it's been opened before?"

"I think I heard my father mention the Chamber of Secrets before. I thought he was just trying to scare me into going to sleep early!"

"I heard the curse on Mrs. Norris is extremely powerful Dark magic. Even Professor Dumbledore is helpless against it."

"Who told you that? How could Professor Dumbledore ever be helpless!"

"The Weasley twins from Gryffindor. Their youngest brother went with Professor Dumbledore to check on Mrs. Norris."

"I think that Ron Weasley is very suspicious... And Potter and Granger too. Why were those three Gryffindor students at the Dungeon entrance? Besides, all three of them have always had a terrible relationship with Mr. Filch."

"Yeah, didn't Mr. Filch give Ron Weasley detention back in September?"

"Potter had an argument with Mr. Filch too..."

From first-year newcomers to seventh-year veterans, everyone was voicing their own opinions.

Though the discussion seemed to be drifting further and further off topic.

Suddenly, there was a sound from the arched entrance, and then a plump witch climbed in.

"Professor..." The students hurriedly surrounded her. "Professor Sprout..."

"What exactly is the Chamber of Secrets?" Hannah Abbott asked impatiently.

"How is Mrs. Norris?" Cedric Diggory asked with concern.

"Um... Professor... what exactly is a Squib?" Justin Finch-Fletchley scratched his head foolishly.

"It's all right... Let me answer your questions one at a time!" Pomona Sprout's eyes were bloodshot, as though she had not slept all night... Yet after examining the petrified Mrs. Norris and returning to the Greenhouse to tend to the Mandrakes, she had still chosen to come straight to the Hufflepuff common room to reassure her students.

"Mrs. Norris is not in any danger. She's merely been petrified!" Professor Sprout said. "Mandrakes can cure her easily... And as it happens, we have a batch of Mandrakes growing in our Greenhouse!"

The students erupted into cheers.

"Then what about the Chamber of Secrets, Professor?" a sixth-year girl hurriedly asked. "It's just a prank, right? A prank by Potter or Weasley?"

"The Chamber of Secrets!" Professor Sprout's voice grew low. "That is no prank..."

"There is a legend—only a legend, of course... Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin, the four greatest wizards of their age, built Hogwarts together..."

"For the first few years, the founders worked together harmoniously, seeking out young people who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle for proper training... But gradually, disagreements arose between them. Slytherin believed that magical education should be restricted to pure-blood magical families. He was unwilling to accept children born to Muggles, believing them untrustworthy. So they had a fierce quarrel, and in the end, Slytherin left the school."

"And so there is a strange legend about the Chamber of Secrets... The story says that Slytherin built a secret room within the castle, one the other founders knew nothing about. Slytherin sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that no one could open it until his true heir came to the school. Only that heir could open the Chamber of Secrets and release the terrifying thing within, allowing it to purge the school and rid it of all those unworthy of studying magic!"

"In other words, Muggle-born wizards and Squibs."

As she spoke, Professor Sprout curled her lip.

"This... is only a legend, right?" Eloise Midgen said tremblingly.

"We all used to think it was only a legend..." Professor Sprout said gravely. "But later... fifty years ago, when I was still a second-year Hufflepuff student, the Chamber of Secrets was opened once!"

"What!" Many of the girls recoiled several steps in fright.

"A Ravenclaw student died. It was terrifying Dark magic; no one knew what had caused her death... Later, Armando Dippet found the 'real culprit,' and we all thought it was over..."

"Ah..." Susan Bones suddenly let out a shriek, as if she had seen something horrifying, then ran forward several steps in terror.

Several girls beside her also screamed and fled, thinking that the terrifying monster from the Chamber of Secrets had emerged and come to the Hufflepuff common room.

Professor Sprout frowned. She quickly discovered the culprits... Drawing her Wand, she called out almost lazily:

"Full Body-Bind Curse!"

The two little creatures racing across the floor, preparing to flee the Hufflepuff common room, were caught by her.

"I'm sorry, Professor!" Jon Hart rushed over, clutching a glass cage.

"Jon, letting your pets loose to frighten your classmates is not proper behavior!" She placed the two South African Red Spiders into the glass cage. Her voice carried a trace of reproach, but she was not stern.

"I'm sorry, Professor..." Jon hurriedly explained. "But I really didn't do it on purpose... They escaped!"

"I gave them Professor Kettleburn's calming potion earlier, and they had been very quiet... But starting last night, they suddenly became restless again. Even more calming potion didn't work. Just now, I accidentally opened a gap in the cage, and the two of them jumped out... They almost got away!"

"Is that so?" After hearing this, Professor Sprout's expression gradually turned grave.

Half an hour later, Jon went to the Owlery again.

For nineteen Galleons and seven Sickles, he bought five ounces of powdered Unicorn horn and an entire African tree snake skin.

Potions really were a money-burning business. Just those two ingredients had nearly emptied him out.

Fortunately, at Hogwarts, there was nothing one particularly needed to spend money on. It did not matter even if he did not have a single Knut on him.

When he returned to the castle and entered the Dungeon, he passed the place where Mrs. Norris had been attacked. Those words still gleamed brightly upon the stone wall.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened."

"Enemies of the Heir, beware!"

Jon gave a cold snort and touched the Rooster Alarm Clock hidden beneath his robes... Without lingering, he strode away.

Thanks to Trooper1770 for the tip...