Screaming.

Cassandra dropped her books as she ran into the bathroom to find Ginny staring at the wall.  She looked at what was making the girl scream.  A gasp escaped her throat.  It was the wall, painted in blood.

The chamber of secrets has been opened.

"Merlin's sake!" Ginny gasped.  "That scared the crap out of me."

"What on earth?" Cassandra sputtered.  "Surely this isn't real blood.  Is it?"

"What a terrible prank." Ginny frowned.

"We should report this to Dumbledore," Cassandra said as she pulled the younger Gryffindor out of the bathroom.  To her surprised, there was a small crowd standing outside the bathroom.  Probably had been drawn by the scream, but wasn't certain if they should enter.

"What's wrong?" Rapunzel managed to squeeze through the students in order to get to her friends.

"The wall.  Someone wrote a message on it with blood," Cassandra answered bluntly.

"Blood!" Rapunzel looked horrified at the thought.  "Why and who would do that?"

"It was probably a prank.  One that sucks, but means nothing," Cassandra replied.

"Are we sure it's blood?"

"Well, it certainly looks like it," Ginny said.

The group of students muttered, some entering to see the bloody message.  Cassandra called after them.  "Don't touch it so the authorities can handle it properly."

"What's going on over here? Aren't you all supposed to be heading to classes?"

The three turned to owner of the voice.  Ginny grinned upon seeing who it was.  "Percy!  Perfect timing!  We have a situation in the bathroom."

Her older brother raised a brow.  "Do I want to know?"

"Someone wrote a cryptic message on the wall, and if that was enough for them, they decided to write it in blood.  Frankly, it's rather disturbing," Cassandra explained.

"In blood? Show me." Percy's voice grew serious.  He followed as the three girls showed him into the bathroom.  Then he ordered the other students that were spectating to return to their classes, which they all reluctantly obeyed.  Except for the three trying to explain the situation.

"So who found this?" Percy inquired as she studied the wall.

"I did," Ginny said.  "I was really drowsy and I honestly don't really remember what happened all this morning.  But when I saw the wall, I screamed, and, well, I'm awake now."

"Is it blood?" Rapunzel asked.

"Yes. That is definitely blood.  Who's blood is the bigger picture.  The Ministry will handle it and we'll get to the bottom of this," Percy promised.

"What's the chamber of secrets?" Cassandra rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

"Well," Percy began as he traced his finger on the wall, looking for something that he might have missed.  "It was a rumor that there were secret chambers hidden in Hogwarts.  Hence being names the Chamber secrets.  Had something to do with Riddle, but it was only stories.  If the chamber of secrets was real, Fred and George would have found it through all their crazy high jinx."

"I suppose," Ginny said slowly.

"You three can run to class.  I'll handle this from here.  No need to worry about it."

The girls nodded and left as they were told.  "No offense to either of you, but I don't trust the Ministry to take care of anything," Cassandra muttered.

"Oh, no, I feel the same way, Cass," Ginny replied.  "But this is Percy.  He'll actually get things done.  The Ministry might sometimes delay him, but if he said he'll have it handled, he'll handle it."

"I'll take you're word for it.  Although, I'm forever curious how a Weasley ended up in the Ministry.  I was sure you guys detested them."

"We do, but not everyone is entitled to the same opinions... My family is very stubborn.  There was a lot of fighting.  Honestly, I'm mad that he left, but this past year I've been working on coming to terms with it.  I'm slowly beginning to understand why he left.  He just didn't get along with any of us anymore.  Except for Charlie.  Everyone gets along with Charlie.  I probably said a few comments myself that upset him.  Weasely's are sensitive."

"Oh... Sorry that happened. Families break ups aren't easy," Rapunzel said.

Ginny passed them a smile.  "Well, we split here.  I gotta go to my DADA."

"See you at lunch then, I guess," Cassandra said.

Rapunzel waved and the three went their separate ways.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Varian sat down in Potions class, letting out a small sigh.  He pulled out his quill and notebook as the other students did.  He noticed a shadow looming over him, so he looked up to find Snape standing over him.

"Professor."

"Child," the man returned.   "You weren't in class yesterday."

"Yes, did Pomfrey not send a note?" Varian inquired.

"She did." Without another word, the man set papers in front of Varian.  Suddenly, he understood.  It was homework he had missed.  Lovely.  "It's due Friday." Snape turned and went back to the black board.

To most students (more accurately, anyone not in the Slytherin House), Severus Snape was petrifying.  To many first year Slytherins, they were often terrified as well and Varian had once been one of them.

When Varian had first started going to Hogwarts, he hadn't realized that his goggles were not exactly acceptable for dress code.  So Snape took them.  Being a distressed eleven year old, he has taken Draco Malfoy's advice and wrote to his mother about it.  In which his mother responded with howler to Dumbledore which had accidentally opened in the middle of lunch.

Varian was then given the greenlight to wear his headgear, but at the price of his extreme embarrassment.  After that, he learned not to vocalize any discomforts and if there was a problem, he would owl his father.  He also apologized to Dumbledore a month or so after when he gathered up the the courage to speak to the Headmaster and to his surprise, the man merely laughed.

However, Varian realized that he did often cause problems for his Head of House, but only because Snape happened to be the potions teacher.  It also just so happened that Varian had a habit of blowing up said potions.  He may be the smartest kid in the school, but that didn't mean he was without his flaws.  At least, that's what Dumbledore had told him his second year.

"For this class, find a partner," Snape said in his monotone voice.

Varian didn't have to look.  He and Draco always automatically partnered.  Mainly because no one wanted to be partners with Malfoy, but Varian was willing to be his partner.  In fact, he preferred to be Draco's partner.  It meant less interaction with the other students.

Without a word.  He stood up and just slipped into a seat next to Draco.  The Malfoy didn't move to show that he noticed.  He seemed more preoccupied with the dirt in his nails.  Technically, it was only a habit fidget that Draco did when he was bored.  However, Varian never told him that he had noticed, because he figured Draco probably didn't even notice it about himself.

They set up their pot and Varian spread out the ingredients.

"Draco."

The two looked over at Snape.  "Yes, Professor?"

"You put all the ingredients in the potion."

Draco nodded, understanding why he was left in charge of handling them.  After all, Varian had a history of blowing up potions.  One of them blowing in his own face.  Varian blushed, but didn't argue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Varian went into the library to find books for his homework.  More specifically, for his DADA class.  He wasn't certain if he trusted the new textbooks, which happened to also be written by St. Croix.  He was never a reliable source.

The sixth year pulled out a book.  He paused upon seeing a familiar face on the other side.  It was none other than the Weasley girl.  Why, in Merlin's name, did he keep bumping into her?

"Oh, hey."

Rats.  She saw him too.  She bent down a little to peek through the hole.

"Are you feeling any better?"

"I'm fine."

"That's good," she grinned.

"Are you following me?"

The red head raised a brow.  "What makes you say that?"

"We've barely passed each other unless Draco sought Harry out.  Now, suddenly, I can't go anywhere without you being there," he retorted.

"Hmmm.  Have you thought that maybe it's because it's a new year and our classes happen to cross paths a lot.  Or maybe they always have, you just didn't notice or care."

Varian snorted.  "I would have noticed."

"Would you?  You barely notice you're being left behind by your own Slytherin Prince."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You always have a nose crammed in a book.  You don't pay attention to your surroundings, and when Draco's done jerking with Harry, you don't notice that he's walking around."

"It's not like I do that every time."

"Draco automatically calls your name for your attention without looking.  It happens often enough." She smirked.

Varian rolled his eyes and pushed the book back in the hole to block her vision.

"Hey-" she sounded offended, but Varian felt his own smirk play on his face.

He turned to leave, yet only managed to make it to the end of the bookcase before Ginny appeared in front of him.  She placed her hands on her hips as she took a wide stance with a straight back.  Varian remembered that she often used it when defending Harry against Malfoy.

"I don't get you," she said.

Varian raised his brow.  "I don't get many people, so makes sense that you wouldn't get me. But why would you care to begin with?"

"Since my first day here, you've been standing in Draco's shadow.  For a long time, I thought you were nothing more than one of his dumb henchmen."

"I beg your pardon-" Varian began, but Ginny didn't let him continue.

"And when I ran into you with a broom, I treated you as if you were Malfoy.  To be fair, you always stood by whenever Malfoy would bully Harry, or Hermione, or my brother.  But you're not Malfoy."

"Nice to know you realize our lack of relation," be retorted sarcastically.

"You fixed my locket, despite knowing full well that I was a Weasley.  What possessed you to do that?"

"I happen to have a tinkering hobby."

"But you would do that behind Malfoy's back?"

Suddenly, Varian understood what she was getting at.  "Listen, hot head.  Despite what you may think, Draco is not a dictator over the Slytherins.  He doesn't give a dime what we do or don't do in our own spare time.  I don't do anything behind his back because I'm allowed to make my own choices.  He may be my best friend, but that doesn't mean I do what he tells me to or even agree with him." He wasn't going to mention that Draco was technically the only person he really talked to.  "And against popular opinion, Draco prefers that he isn't surrounded by mindless drones like you're making us out to be.  So of that's your reasons to dislike me or-"

"To be fair, I do have actual reasons to dislike you," Ginny cut in. "As I said before.  You did nothing about what Draco has done to Harry and has always sided with Draco."

Varian had to admit, she did.  After all, he really just didn't care about what Draco did. "Yeah, well, you always seemed to have yourself handled. But if you truly disliked me, why aren't you leaving me alone?"

"I never said I disliked you."

"You just said-"

"I said I have reason to," she corrected.

"Are all the Weasleys like you?"

"No.  I'm the only daughter."

"Yes.  That answered my question," he muttered under his breath sarcastically.  "Listen, what's the point of this conversation? Are you telling me you don't like me or that you do?"

She suddenly burst out laughing. "Sorry.  No, I was trying to figure out.  I was saying you're not as bad as I thought."

"So you went in a roundabout way to say I'm not half bad?"

"Yeah.  Suppose you could put it that way."

"Well, you have complete confused me if that was your goal.  If you'll excuse me.  I'm on my way to study." Varian walked past her and she stepped aside.  He honestly didn't understand what just happened.