Chapter 41

Harry's Point of View

The Gryffindor common room couldn't be more different from the Slytherin one. The colours were obvious – red and gold rather than silver and green – the people were very different as well. We'd never noticed it that much before, as we mainly had only visited during the day when put in a partnership with some Gryffindor for homework but the evening was a lively time in Gryffindor. Not to say that it wasn't in Slytherin, but we had different unspoken rules. Each year had their own place in the common room usually, and we kept to quieter activities – chess or reading or homework – while the Lions seemed to be all about exploding snap and loud card games. Ron and Charles were having a loud game of chess that seemed to involve Ron winning and Charles swearing. The Weasley twins were plotting something at a table in a shading corner with their friend Lee Jordan. The Quidditch team – excluding Charles – were gathered round a board, presumably talking tactics.

"Harry! Percy!" Charles called, catching sight off us. We smiled, walking over to him. We cast our gaze over the board, noticing it was Charles' turn. We quickly moved one of his knights for him, deftly ruining Ron's strategy.

Ron glared at us. "Hey!"

"What? Just levelling the field a bit."

"Where have you been anyway?" Hermione demanded from where she was sitting writing a potions essay.

We shrugged. "Swimming in the lake. King Irvin wanted to speak to us, but Myrtle interrupted him so we'll have to go back at some other time."

"King Irvin?" Charles shook his head. "I really wonder what you're talking about sometimes."

Hermione frowned at us. "King Irvin is a myth. A pretty tale about the King of the mermaids."

"Oh?" We raised an eyebrow at her. "Feel free to tell him that sometime then. Does the myths talk of his daughter Nerissa to?"

"Nerissa?" Hermione shook her head. "You've talking nonsense now."

"Are we though?" We laughed. "Besides, that's rich coming from the girl who believes in the Chamber of Secrets."

Hermione twitched. "So what? There seems to be more fact about that right now than there is than mystical mermaid kings exist."

Ron giggled. "Mermaids? Is that some Muggle superstition? Not all the merfolk are maidens you know. Or female!"

Hermione scowled. "Yes, thank you for your input Ronald!"

We shook our head, then lost our playful teasing. "We don't know what you're up do, and to be honest we don't want to, but you three are messing with polyjuice potion. And believe us that is dangerous at best when you know what you're doing."

The golden trio gave us wide eyed looks of panic, looking round shakily to check if anyone else overheard. Charles gave us a pleading look. "Harry, Percy… don't tell anyone please! We just want to find out who this Heir is."

"Using polyjuice?" I raised an eyebrow. "What are you planning on doing, seeking into the Slytherin common room to try and find answers?"

The three looked at us blankly and we slapped our forehead. Ron glowered at us.

"Why should you care anyway? You're a snake like the rest of them! Going to rat us out or something?" He sneered. "Besides, how did you find out anyway – spying on us?"

We stared down at our brother's hot headed friend with despair. 'Does he every shut up about house rivalries and prejudices?'

Hermione hit the back of Ron's head and gave him a look, pointing her wand in his face. "Ronald Weasley! I warned you to be civil, if not because it is the right thing, then for Charles' sake. Percy is a Gryffindor and Harry most certainly isn't evil! Now, be polite or I will curse you."

Ron paled, and nodded keeping his mouth securely shut so not to further anger the bushy haired girl. We offered Hermione a nod of thanks, which she returned with a small smile.

"Ron does have a point though," Charles said, "how did you find out about the Polyjuice?"

We sighed. "You were stupid and tripped Uncle Severus' alarm on his cupboard. Due to our similar aura's, his spells detected you as us, and so confronted us upon the matter earlier. He accepted that it wasn't us eventually and asked us to stop you otherwise he might have to intervene, and the things would get messy for everyone. Severus doesn't have any proof, so there is nothing he can currently do about it. Besides, if he did then we'd have to explain why he thought you were us, and you'd be in trouble for brewing a dangerous potion and Severus might get in trouble for not reporting it earlier. So, please stop."

Charles looked guilty. "Harry… we can't."

I glanced down, noting our green tie and sighed. "Try. For us. Please."

We headed up to our dorm room after that, leaving Charles to ponder over our parting words. A quick spell sent to our bed proved it to be spell free, so we changed for bed quickly and fell into it with a heavy sigh. Sleep was quick to claim us, much to our relief. We really needed a good night's rest.

We dreamed of the chamber that night. The same chamber as before. This time we took more notice to the details. More than just the large coiling snakes poised to strike, we looked at the snakes on the large doors, the patterns on the floors and the life-force that seemed to hum in the walls. It didn't seem malevolent, just… dark. Like some dark orientated creature dwelled here.

As stood before the large statue of the man's face at the end of the main chamber we noticed a flickering figure hovering in one corner. It was a boy, no older that sixteen, dressed in Slytherin robes. We blinked at the sight of him and sighed.

"Who are you?" We called.

The boy looked up and around, but it appeared that he couldn't see us.

"Who's there?" He demanded, but we gave no reply and he flickered into nothing, leaving only shadow's in his place.

But that boy… we'd seen him before. Somewhere… somewhere…

The sound of grating stone caught our attention, and spun around to see a pair of large yellow eyes in the gloom…

We woke with a start, our hands glowing as our magic started to lash out before we pulled it back under control. We shivered, and sat up.

'Percy.' I murmured. 'Percy, do you remember that dream we had while at camp.'

'The one of the boy… And Myrtle's bathroom.'

'And that snake with those sulphuric yellow eyes…'

We shivered again, thinking back to the dream…

We were sitting in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, though the ghost was no-where in sight. From one of the cubicles we could hear a girl sobbing, and the shifting of her feet on the floor. The door opened and a tall boy walked in, looking about the age of sixteen. He had fine facial features, with the same aristocratic look about him that the Malfoys had. His hair was dark and neat, much like his uniform. Clear green eyes flittered round the room curiously. They skipped over us before resting on the locked cubicle door. Shrugging, the boy turned to the sink.

$Open.$ The boy hissed in a familiar language, apparently to the sink.

The cubical door creaked open an inch behind us, but we ignored it, watching in shock as the sinks slowly moved apart, the top floating off it. A large snake waited inside, it's hide a sickly green and its eyes… they looked an almost sulphuric yellow, and had a freezing power. I felt positively sure that, had this not have been a dream, we would have dropped dead after looking into that gaze. We shivered.

A sickly thud echoed round the room, originating from the cubical behind us, where the crying girl had been. A triumphant smirk lit up the other boy's face, and we shivered, forcing ourselves to look round.

We saw the pale hand first. Limp, as if she was unconscious. They we saw the rest of her, from where she had fallen out of the cubical. Her messy black hair covered her face, but I had a strange sense of certainty that she wore glasses, and her round face was patterned with freckles. Myrtle. Moaning Myrtle.

'That feeling we had about Myrtle dying due to the chamber being opened… That wasn't just a feeling, was it?' Percy muttered, not really wanting an answer.

I shook our head. 'No Perce, I don't think it was.'

We sat there a while longer, until a shifting in the curtains surrounding our bed caught our attention. We stiffened as they moved aside, but relaxed when Charles' concerned face came into view.

"Hey. Are you alright? You've been twitching a lot for the past hour and then I saw the light and…"

I shook our head. "Bad dream."

Charles offered us a sympathetic look. "Do you want some company? I find it chases them away faster."

We nodded, suddenly feeling much younger than we really were, and moved aside to make room for our brother to slip under the covers next to us. Charles wrapped his arms around us, holding us comfortingly, and mumbled nonsense in our ears until we fell asleep, the feeling of warmth and comfort easing our passage into Hypnos' kingdom.

When I woke again, Ron was staring down at us in surprise, and Charles was still asleep next to us. The blur of colourful thoughts from Percy told me he wasn't going to be awake anytime soon either. Ron tilted his head at us.

"Bad night?"

I nodded, our brow creasing in confusion of how he had guessed that. Ron noticed and offered me a small smile that was almost gentle.

"Bill and Charlie used to let me sleep with them if I had a bad dream. I guess it's a sibling thing."

I nodded and rubbed our eyes, sliding out of bed gently so not to wake Charles.

"How long till classes start?" I asked, searching for a clock in the room that simply didn't exist.

Ron rubbed the back of his neck. "About 45 minutes."

I nodded, absentmindedly shoving all our homework and books in our bag for the day, then doing the same for Charles, and leaving his bag at the bottom of his bed. I quickly showered and dressed before breezing out the room and down to breakfast, barely taking in Ron's confused expression as he watched us float about getting ready, as if we weren't what he expected us to be.

Out of habit, I almost headed over to the Slytherin table, but changed course at the last minute, sitting at the same end of the table we had the day before, and mulling over our dream silently in my mind as I pushed a piece of toast round my plate. The Gryffindor first years send me odd looks, sneering at my green Slytherin tie, but not seeming to want to actually confront us about it.

Charles brushed a hand over our back as he passed on the way to his seat, giving me a smile when I looked up. I smiled back, before turning back to turn sullenly back to my cold toast.

Draco looked concerned when he tapped our shoulder to remind us we had lessons. He stared deep into our eyes after I had stood up.

"Harry are you alright? I'm guessing you had another bad dream? Percy tends to sleep after you've had them. But I've never seen you this bad, Harry. Honest to Merlin, are you okay? You haven't eaten and you always eat." Draco was saying things but I had to keep refocusing my attention on them. I slapped our cheeks and shook our head.

"Sorry, Draco. Bad night… We woke us at some point, but Charles found us. He… he helped us back to sleep. But the dream… It… I don't know. We dreamt of a chamber full of snakes, and a Slytherin boy and bright yellow eyes… We need to check this out but… Draco. Draco I think we dreamt of the Chamber of Secrets. I… I think we might know where it is too but…"

Draco stared at us.

"It was just a dream, Harry. Don't let them get to you like this, yeah? We've got lessons now. If it's still bothering you after class I'll help you but… Father taught be not to put a lot of stock in dreams. Some people plant them deliberately to fool you."

I nodded, but sighed all the same. Draco could think what he wanted. But our dreams about camp had been real, so I had almost convinced these ones must be as well.