When the next morning (Sunday) came around, Y/N found himself stuck in bed. Well, not actually stuck, but he was rather determined to stay in bed for near far, and wider, considerable future.

Yet he realised that today would be the day that he and Hermione would get to work on The Polyjuice Potion which would certainly be fun, for them anyway.

Y/N got changed and dressed into his Gryffindor robes and fashioned himself up. Afterwards he marched down to the common rooms to find that Ron and Hermione were already there waiting.

"Hey guys." Y/N waved over to the two of them and Hermione.

"Y/N!" Hermione exclaimed, as the two rushed over to meet him.

"Hi." Ron said awkwardly as the two met in the centre of the room. "Hermione was just telling me what 'you guys' got up to last night." He said while using air quotes which made Hermione roll her eyes.

"Oh... Yeah?" Y/N smiled sarcastically at the boy. "What do you think?"

"I think you're both crazy!" Ron exclaimed louder than usually which made the two best friends shush him up.

"What?" Hermione said defensively. "What were we supposed to do, go drag you out of bed? You said before you hate it when we do that." Y/N could only shake his head.

"Well you could've at least told me." Ron huffed and crossed his arms over. Y/N and Hermione both rolled their eyes at how petty he was being.

Y/N sighed. "We're telling you now, aren't we?"

"Well... yeah." Ron said, feeling slightly defeated.

Y/N and Hermione began telling Ron what happened the night before. How Y/N had found Midnight acting strangely and the note she had. When him and Hermione went to the library and discovered the Descendants book, it's mysterious qualities and of course... Colin Creevey, how he had been attacked by whatever haunted The Chamber Of Secrets.

"Blimey." Ron gasped, his jaw open and wide. "Did you see what got him?" He asked them to which they shook their heads.

"Whatever it was, it was gone by the time we found Colin." Hermione explained, "Though, I'm glad we didn't stumble upon it, gods know what would've happened." She shuddered at the thought.

"Yeah." Y/N agreed, squeezing Hermione's shoulder to comfort her, which helped. She sadly smiled back.

"You probably would've turned out like Colin and Mrs. Norris." Ron theorised.

"Let's not think about that." Hermione dismissed, not liking the idea of thinking of what would've happened, all they could do now was stop Malfoy, if he actually was the heir to Slytherin. Which to be fair, Y/N was having a hard time believing, Malfoy was a coward. He wasn't fit for the role.

The three of them left the common room and made their way to Moaning Myrtle resting place. The girls toilets. If a few years ago someone would say Y/N would be going into a school girl's toilets on a Sunday morning then he would call them crazy, among other things.

It didn't take too long to get there, following along the changing stairs which still baffled them to this day. The three finally made it to the corridor that housed the toilets and waited around for a few minutes, hoping to get in while nobody sees them, luckily for them and especially Ron, Percy was not around that morning.

When the coast was clear the three of them rushed in and shut the door in a quick succession. Y/N sighed in relief, Hermione had the Moste Potente Potions book, while Y/N and Hermione had discreetly transferred the ingredients needed the day before.

Y/N and Hermione got to work straight away, the two of them setting up a caldron and other equipment while Ron handed out ingredients. After twenty minutes of preparation and adding of items, a sudden loud noise was heard outside the toilet's stall. It made Ron yelp slight and slid across the wet floor, in the process... splashing, what Y/N could only assume was toilet water.

"It's me!" A voice called out, so Hermione peaked outside the key hole in the stall to reveal Harry.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed as she slung open the stall door and the three of them got out to great him. "You gave us such a fright - come in." Harry squeezed into the stall with the rest of them.

"How's your arm?" Y/N asked him with concern, he hoped he was doing better, especially after what Lockhart did to him... goddamn him.

"Fine," Harry replied, he noticed cauldron was perched on the toilet, and a crackling from under the rim, a lit fire. Apparently conjuring up portable, waterproof fires was a speciality of Hermione's.

"We'd've come to meet you, but we decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion," Ron explained as Harry, locked the stall. "We've decided this is the safest place to hide it."

Harry started to tell them about Colin, but Y/N interrupted.

"We saw it happen." Y/N simply told him and Harry's eyes went as wide as a pair of saucers. "Well... Me and Hermione did."

"You saw it?" Harry questioned, disbelief written on his face. The two friends shook their heads.

"We saw Colin passed out on the floor, but we didn't get a glimpse at whatever attacked him. It was gone before we got there." Hermione explained to Harry, as he listened intently.

"What were you doing out at that time anyway?" Harry asked, more like demanding to which Y/N and Hermione flustered under his pointed gaze.

Y/N went onto explain what happened the night before. By the time he was finished, Harry was left feeling a bit shocked.

"Where did she get the parchment?" Harry asked, referring to the note that had the written Z-25 on. 'Good question.'

"Maybe she found it?" Hermione thought out loud. Cats, even in the muggle world were supposed to be super intelligent. "It would explain why she was so protective of it."

"She nearly scratched my finger off." Y/N said dramatically, to which Hermione playfully rolled her eyes. "But I don't know, what, you say she just magically stumbled upon it. Not to mention something really loud woke me up last night, before I found it."

"I didn't hear anything." Ron said, eyeing Y/N confusingly.

"What!" Y/N exclaimed as he turned around slowly to face Ron.

"I said I didn't hear anything-" Ron started but Y/N interrupted him.

"No I heard you, I'm just trying to comprehend it." Y/N said shrilly . "Okay, A sound only I can hear, a book only I can open and now..." he sighed. "What else...?"

"Again, lets not think about that." Hermione said as she placed her hand atop of Y/N's shoulder, the boy's shoulders tensed at the sudden move but relaxed seconds later.

"Do you think..." Ron dragged on, turning away from the three others.

"Do you think what?" Harry asked him, his eyes narrowing in confusion.

"What if somebody gave Midnight the note." Ron thought out loud, turning back to face the others which only proved to be a bad idea.

Y/N looked stressful at the mention of someone having a play in what ever weird stuff was happening to him. "Great that's all we need, a nut job interfering with my life, well one more anyway." They were about to question him about 'one more.' But he turned back to face Harry and asked. "What else were you going to tell us?"

Harry told them everything Dobby had told him. Y/N, Hermione and Ron listened with their mouths wide open.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?" Hermione questioned, her mind going places to see if she had heard of anything  but to no avail.

"This settles it," said Ron in a triumphant voice. "Lucius Malfoy must've opened the Chamber when he was at school here and now he's told dear old Draco how to do it. It's obvious."

"I still think it's too obvious. I mean come on! Malfoy? I could think of a dozen Hufflepuths who'd fit the heir Slytherin than him." Y/N sighed dramatically, he really didn't think Malfoy was capable of becoming such a thing.

"Why are you defending him?" Ron asked, though it wasn't hostile, more curios than anything else.

"Oh believe me, I'm not defending him, especially after what he said to-" Y/N stopped mid-sentence as he watched Hermione carefully and decided not to say it. "But come on, you gotta admit, it sounds sketchy as hell."

Ron only nodded in understanding while Harry was coming more around to his way of thinking, Hermione looked indifferent either way.

"Well, it doesn't matter. We'll know soon enough." Hermione concluded to which the three boys nodded in agreement. It was true, either way they would find out.

"Though," Ron started. "Wish Dobby'd told you what kind of monster's in there, though. I want to know how come nobody's noticed it sneaking around the school."

"Maybe it can make itself invisible," said Hermione, prodding leeches to the bottom of the cauldron. "Or maybe it can disguise itself - pretend to be a suit of armor or something - I've read about Chameleon Ghouls--"

"You read too much, Hermione," Ron said as he watched Y/N pour the dead lacewings on top of the leeches.

"You don't read enough." Y/N told his friend seriously as he placed away the bag that contained the lacewings. Hermione nodded and Harry snickered.

Ron rolled his eyes and turned to Harry. "So Dobby stopped us from getting on the train and broke your arm." He shook his head. "You know what, Harry? If he doesn't stop trying to save your life, he's going to kill you."

—

The news that Colin Creevey had been attacked and was now lying as though dead in the hospital wing had spread through the entire school by Monday morning. Though in other news, Y/N had heard nothing of Ronnie, though he believed that the guy would be feeling quite upset as he had recently lost his friend to whatever beast had took him away. Y/N found it in himself to console the boy and after awhile, he had to admit that he quite enjoyed his time with him, well that was when he wasn't spouting nonsense.

In the second week of December Professor McGonagall came around as usual, collecting names of those who would be staying at school for Christmas. Y/N, Harry, Ron, and Hermione signed her list; they had heard that Malfoy was staying, which struck them as very suspicious. The holidays would be the perfect time to use the Polyjuice Potion and try to worm a confession out of him.

Unfortunately, the potion was only half finished. They still needed the bicorn horn and the boomslang skin, and the only place they were going to get them was from Snape's private stores.

So on Thursday evening Y/N and Hermione hatched a plan to get what they needed. They went down there hours later, they had to distract Snape which luckily he was the only one in there at the time.

So Y/N did what he did best. He had entered Snape's classroom with the intention with asking Snape for help on his homework (which was a lie) which surprisingly worked, however Snape had still been wary, giving the boy judging eyes as they talked. At one point Y/N had set himself down at Snape's desk to show him his work from his text book, and asked if the man could observe it... Big mistake for Snape.

Y/N had noticed a cauldron on the teacher's desk so he decided to set his note book down besides it, while Snape wasn't looking Y/N got a glimpse inside and saw what was to be unicorn blood, entrails and some wolfsbane, whatever he was cooking up, it smelt horrible.

So when Snape had sat down at his desk, hunched over looking at Y/N's textbook, Y/N plan came... more like improvised, into action.

"Well, everything seems to be in orde- AGH!."

Yeah things didn't end well for Snape, although you could say things didn't start well for him either.

"Sorry..."

Y/N had to avert his eyes away from Snape or fear of laughing too hard at the scene before him, it was a sight to be behold.

"AGH! YOU FOOLISH INSIGNIFICANT HALFWIT!" Snape roared, trying to wipe away the stains of a failed potion off himself... Looking as if his self pride was undoubtedly damaged after such an ordeal, which it probably was.

Y/N frowned, his brows reaching a new peak. "That's a bit harsh isn't it?"

But no more words were exchanged. Snape left in a hurry, leaving behind curses as he ran out of the room with whatever dignity he had left, the unicorn blood dripping off both his face; black robes and onto the floor. When he had finally left Y/N bursted out laughing, tears of joy down his cheeks and holding his side in, it wasn't until Hermione came quietly through the door that he stopped.

The two spent minutes going through the store-room cupboard, (which was at the back of the room) going over the ingredients they needed, but alas, they managed to find everything. Although some were hard to handle and find, they did it, if someone like Ron or Harry, someone who wasn't well versed in its field of potions then they'd have a hard time telling what was what.

They didn't see much of Snape after that, the man had reportedly rushed to the nearest teacher's toilets and it was fair to say, many students had their share of laughs and giggles when Snape rushed down the halls with wolfsbanes and unicorn blood sticking to him like glue. Of course, Hermione had criticised him for that, she wasn't exactly approving of such things yet she couldn't complain about the results.

After gathering up what they needed, the two of them went to their potion lesson with Snape, unfortunately they had him later on in the day. When the four of them had entered, Snape had a icy look on his face and was sneering at Y/N but said nothing else.

The class went by smoothly and productively, although Malfoy was looking pretty snuggly but that wasn't nothing new. When the class finished the Golden Quartet hurried off to Myrtle's bathroom.

Hermione and Y/N threw the new ingredients into the cauldron and began to stir feverishly.

"It'll be ready in two weeks," Hermione said happily as cauldron began to sizzle even more now.

—

A week later, Y/N, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were walking across the entrance hall when they saw a small knot of people gathered around the notice board, reading a piece of parchment that had just been pinned up. Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas beckoned them over, looking excited.

"They're starting a Dueling Club!" said Seamus. "First meeting tonight! I wouldn't mind dueling lessons; they might come in handy one of these days..."

"What, you reckon Slytherin's monster can duel?" said Ron, but he, too, read the sign with interest.

"Not very likely." Y/N muttered as he too eyed the sign. 'I wonder who will be teaching that?'

"Could be useful," Y/N said to Harry and Hermione, agreeing with Ron as they went into dinner. "Shall we go?"

At eight o'clock that evening they hurried back to the Great Hall. The long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared along one wall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead. The ceiling was velvety black once more and most of the school eemed to be packed beneath it, all carrying their wands and looking excited.

"I wonder who'll be teaching us?" said Hermione as they edged into the chattering crowd. "Someone told me Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young - maybe it'll be him."

"Knowing our luck it'll be Lockhart." Y/N rolled his eyes at the thought of Lockhart teaching students how to duel, pathetic.

"Lets hope not-" Harry began but he ended on a groan: Gilderoy Lockhart was walking onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum and accompanied by none other than Snape, wearing his usual black.

"I fucking hate being right." Y/N groaned with a desperate sigh, but stopped when Hermione shushed him.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me?"

"For once in my life, I wish I was deaf and blind." Y/N commented as the four of them neared the stage.

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions - for full details, see my published works."

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry - you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"Ooooh what's worse than having to pick between two evils?" Y/N rolled his eyes, Harry sniggered.

"Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?" Y/N heard Ron mutter in Harry's ear.

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells." Lockhart explained.

"Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

At the mention non-lethal spells, he rolled his eyes. "Okay now I've lost interest." Y/N murmured, causing Hermione to smack his ear.

"Listen!" She urged, her tone of voice sounding more like a scolding of a parent.

"One - two - three--"

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape cried: "Expelliarmus!" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

Malfoy and some of the other Slytherins cheered. Hermione was dancing on tiptoes. "Do you think he's all right?" she squealed through her fingers.

"Who cares?" said Y/N, Harry and Ron together.

Lockhart was getting unsteadily to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end.

"Well, there you have it!" He said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm - as you see, I've lost my wand - ah, thank you, Miss Brown - yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy - however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see..."

Snape was looking murderous. Possibly Lockhart had noticed, because he said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me--"

They moved through the crowd, matching up partners. Lockhart teamed Neville with Justin Finch-Fletchley, but Snape reached Harry and Y/N first.

"Time to split up the dream team, I think," he sneered. "Weasley, you can partner L/N. Potter--"

Harry tried to walk away.

"I don't think so," said Snape, smiling coldly. "Mr. Malfoy, come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Potter. And you, Miss Granger - you can partner Miss Bulstrode."

Malfoy strutted over, smirking. Behind him walked a Slytherin girl. She was large and square and her heavy jaw jutted aggressively. Hermione gave her a weak smile that she did not return.

Y/N looked over at Hermione who was casting a wary smile, as was Y/N himself. He grabbed ahold of her hand and gave it a squeeze of reassurance, she blushed and smiled back.

"Face your partners!" called Lockhart, back on the platform. "And bow!"

Y/N stood face still across from Ron as the two casted each other wary glances and hesitantly bowed.

Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart. "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents - only to disarm them - we don't want any accidents - one ... two ... three--"

Y/N raised his wand up high pointed it towards Ron who was looking nervous.

"Expelliarmus!" Y/N roared and a jet of red light launched out of the wand directing at Ron but unfortunately Ron had already casted his spell as well and.... it didn't end well for either of them. Ron went flying back as the spell hit him, landing on the floor in a giant heap. While Y/N was struck even worse, whatever was wrong with with Ron's wand needed fixing. A streak of pale dimmed green light hit Y/N in the head and sent him flying, it hit like a wave nausea, a big ol' headache.

He groaned, clutching his head groggily as he opened his eyes to see Ron standing over him just seconds later, he held out his hand and
Y/N grabbed it, bolstering himself up. Y/N looked up to see Harry and Malfoy in similar situations, with them being on the floor. What he saw next annoyed him and both angered him to a certain degree. The same lingering hatred in himself spiking.

Hermione and Millicent Bulstrode were still moving; Millicent had Hermione in a headlock and Hermione was whimpering in pain; both their wands laid forgotten on the floor. Y/N leapt to his feet immediately and charged over there, avoiding the dulling pain in his head. He marched up to them and grabbed ahold of the back of the scruff of Millicent's robes and harshly dragged her away, forcing the girl to let go of Hermione. But before he could say anything threatening to her, Lockhart interrupted.

"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," said Lockhart, standing flustered in the midst of the hall. He glanced at Snape, whose black eyes glinted, and looked quickly away. "Let's have a volunteer pair - Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you--"

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," said Snape, gliding over like a large and malevolent bat. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox." Neville's round, pink face went pinker. "How about Malfoy and Potter?" said Snape with a twisted smile.

"Excellent idea!" said Lockhart, gesturing Harry and Malfoy into the middle of the hall as the crowd backed away to give them room.

While the scene unfolded, Y/N rushed over to check on Hermione who looked shaken but steadily on her feet. "Are you alright?" Y/N asked her, his eyes wide and full of concern. Hermione flustered at the fact that he was concerned for her greatly.

"Yes, I'm alright." Hermione replied, feeling a small smile grace her lips after her heart beat stopped beating like crazy, it was either because of her struggle against Millicent's or the fact that Y/N was dangerously close to her face, she could practically feel his breath against her already heating up neck.

The two returned to watch the show continue and it didn't go as they thought it would. Harry and Malfoy prepared to duel again but Malfoy had a better idea. Malfoy raised his wand quickly and bellowed, " Serpensortia!"

The end of his wand exploded. The two of them watched, as a long black snake shot out of it. Falling heavily onto the floor between Malfoy and a Harry and raised itself, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor.

"Don't move, Potter," said Snape lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of Harry standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. "I'll get rid of it..."

"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart. He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack.

Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.

But before it could something completely unexpected happened.

—

Hermione watched as the snake shot straight at Justin Finch-Fletchley, she covered her face up with her hands, waiting for the screams... yet they never came. She had felt a whoosh of air spring past her and removed her hands to see Y/N pull away the boy who was about to get hit and stand in his place to protect him, but before the snake had chance to divert its course, Harry had called out.

"Leave him alone!" And miraculously - inexplicably - the snake slumped to the floor, its eyes now on Harry. But the look on the snake's face looked agitated, like it was feeling threatened by something. The snake snarled slightly and looked as if it was about to strike something but another voice called out to it, one Hermione new too well.

"No! Stop!" Y/N bellowed as he rushed up, it caused the snake to snatch its view away from Harry and face Y/N.... only for it to get even worse. The snake got the sight of Y/N, staring straight into the boy's and it lurched back frantically, almost afraid like. Unexpectedly, the snake recoiled violently, it's tongue making a slivering loud hiss. It shocked many of them in the room including Y/N, he gasped, taking a few clumsily steps backwards. But before anyone could question what had happened...

Snape stepped forward, waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. Snape, was looking at Harry and Y/N in an unexpected way: It was a shrewd and calculating look, and Hermione decided she didn't like that look. He was also dimly aware of an ominous muttering all around the walls.

Hermione rushed up to Y/N and took ahold of his robe's sleeve, yet he didn't budge, he was still looking at the place where the snake had been previously, his face pale and confused. After another tug, Y/N bounced right back and realised where he was, he turned to see Hermione. "Come on." She urged him and he followed, Harry and Ron close behind.

Hermione guided them out of the room. As they went through the doors, the people on either side drew away as though they were frightened of catching something. Neither Ron nor Hermione explained anything until they had dragged them both all the way up to the empty Gryffindor common room.

Then Ron pushed Harry into an armchair while Y/N was shoved along to stand awkwardly by him, "You're a Parselmouth." Looking between the two of them. "Why didn't you tell us?" Ron exclaimed.

"I'm a what?" said Harry.

"A Parselmouth!" said Ron. "You can talk to snakes!"

Harry explained what had happened before he came to Hogwarts, how he had freed a snake from the inside of a zoo. Saying he had talked to it.

"A boa constrictor told you it had never seen Brazil?" Ron repeated faintly.

"So?" said Harry. "I bet loads of people here can do it."

"Oh, no they can't," said Ron. "It's not a very common gift. Harry, this is bad."

"What's bad?" said Harry, starting to feel quite angry. "What's wrong with everyone? Listen, if I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin--"

"Oh, that's what you said to it?"

"What d'you mean? You were there - you heard me--"

"I heard you both speaking Parseltongue," said Ron. "Snake language. You could have been saying anything - no wonder Justin panicked, you sounded like you were egging the snake on or something - it was creepy, you know--"

"I spoke a different language? But - I didn't realize - how can I speak a language without knowing I can speak it?"

Ron shook his head. Both he and Hermione were looking as though someone had died.

"D'you want to tell me what's wrong with stopping a massive snake biting off Justin's head?" He said. "What does it matter how I did it as long as Justin doesn't have to join the Headless Hunt?"

"It matters," said Hermione, speaking at last in a hushed voice, "because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent."

"Exactly," said Ron. "And now the whole school's going to think you're his great-great-great-great-grandson or something--"

"But I'm not," said Harry, with a panic he couldn't quite explain.

"You'll find that hard to prove," said Hermione. "He lived about a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be."

Ron and Hermione turned away from Harry and looked at Y/N, who surprisingly, had not said a single word since the duel.

"I-" Y/N choked up, he didn't know what to say. "I.... I didn't know." He whispered, his averted his eyes and stared out a nearby window.

"Whatever Y/N did, the snake went absolutely mental." Ron exclaimed once more. "Did you see what it did-" But stopped when Hermione elbowed him in the ribs. The three of them looked at Y/N who seemed to be slightly out of it.

"It said something." Y/N whispered. "The snake said something." He muttered more loudly now. He almost sounded... frightened? No, troubled more like it, whatever it was Hermione was greatly concerned.

"What did it say?" Hermione asked softly, her eyes searching Y/N's for any distress. Harry didn't say anything, he merely bobbed his head down and avoided their gazes, feeling it not best to speak.

"It said..." Y/N took a deep breath before turning to Hermione and Ron; looking them straight in the eyes. And said in the most hoarse voice they had ever heard him use.

"It said... "He is here... Run. Leave..."