The following days were horrible for Harry. All the students seemed to have decided to avoid him at any cost, including many Gryffindors. Whispers haunted Harry everywhere he went; in the Gryffindor common room, in the classrooms, in the corridors, in the great hall, and even in the library.

However, he was taking it in a very mature way. He kept pretending he didn't hear people talk about him, and that it didn't affect him at all.

But his friends knew it was affecting him.

One afternoon before Christmas break, the four of them were sitting in the library, doing their homework. Ginny Weasley was sitting at the same table as them, but as far as possible.

Ron was trying to convince Hermione into letting him copy her answers of their History of Magic homework, but the girl refused, so Ben slid his finished scroll to the other side of the table.

The redhead was glowing in happiness, "Thanks Ben!"

"You know he's supposed to do his homework himself, right?" asked Hermione rhetorically. "How is he going to learn if you let him copy your work?"

"History consists of memorising things that happened," said Ben, tracing the silhouette of a moon shining behind a forest on a dirty piece of parchment. "Some people do that by writing down whatever they have to remember. It's a very useful method."

"Yeah, I like that method," nodded Ron, glancing from Ben's scroll to his own.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Harry, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly closed his book. "I'll see you back in the common room."

Ron and Hermione nodded, and went back to their homework. Ben watched as Harry left, with everyone's eyes fixed on him.

From the other side of the library, Audrey was picking her stuff and fixing her hair before getting up. She had finished doing her homework, and Ben knew it was his only chance of speaking to her, so he approached her before she could leave.

"Hello," he muttered.

She down up at him, introducing her last book into her bag. "What?"

"I wanted to... ask you something."

"Come on, then, I'm busy." Audrey put her bag back on the table, and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I was wondering if you know anything about Alycia," he said nervously, picking on his finger.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I sort of- wrote her a couple of letters. And she hasn't answered any," Ben decreased his volume. "And it's not just that. You know, this summer... she barely spoke to me."

Audrey gave him a careless look. "And what do you want me to do about this?"

"I just want to know if you have any idea of what's happening."

"Why should there be anything going on?" she shrugged. "Maybe she just got tired of you, like the rest of us."

And she left, leaving a confused and hurt Ben without the chance to speak.

He didn't want to admit it, but what Audrey said was an actual possibility.

Perhaps the time apart had made Alycia realise that Ben wasn't someone very special, that her life hadn't changed much while he was away.  Maybe the girl had noticed that everything was calmer and easier without someone who caused problems and arguments in his path.

What if Alycia had realised he wasn't as cool as she thought he was? Perhaps she had stopped looking at him with a look full of admiration, and she had begun to see him in the same way that he saw himself.

Maybe she had stopped loving him, like Audrey did a long time ago.

A strong pressure in his chest, like it was being crushed, invaded him at the mere thought of it. Salty tears welled up in his eyes, and Ben had to hurry back to the table where Hermione and Ron were still doing homework to grab all of his stuff before said tears fell.

"What's going on, Ben?" asked Ron, sounding very worried.

"Nothing, I just need to go," he said softly, not daring to speak louder in case his voice broke.

He came out of the room as fast as he could without it being considered running, and was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't realise he had walked past Harry.

It wasn't like he would've noticed if he wasn't thinking about anything, because his eyes were filled with tears that didn't let him see much.

"Hey," he heard someone's voice snapping him out of his thoughts. He suddenly realised he had stopped, and that the reason for that was Harry grabbing his arm.

"Oh, hi," Ben made an effort to smile at him, pretending nothing at all had happened. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you."

"Are you okay?"

"Of course," he chuckled, sniffling. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Because you've got tears in your eyes."

Ben scoffed. "I don't."

"You do."

"I don't!" he exclaimed, and regretted it less than a second later. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you."

Harry was looking at him with a strange look, a suspicious one. But it wasn't a bad suspicious look, like the ones he kept getting from everyone who thought he was the Heir of Slytherin. It was one that showed that Harry knew something was worrying Ben, and that he knew he was hiding it. Either way, he was glad he didn't seem mad at him at all when he said, "It's fine, don't worry."

———————————————

Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick were petrified, and everyone had gone all crazy. The students were acting like Harry was some kind of awful murderer, and didn't even try to be discreet while avoiding him.

Mostly every single person had decided to go back home during the Christmas break, there had almost been a stampede to get seats on the Hogwarts Express.

That had worried Ben quite a lot, he was afraid he wouldn't manage to book a place and his parents would get mad at him, until he received a letter saying that he wasn't required at home for their annual Christmas dinner.

It was probably because of what happened the year before, when he got into an argument with his grandfather. He shivered at the memory of what had happened after that.

So, in the end, it was just the Weasleys, Hermione, Harry, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle who were staying at Hogwarts. It was a bad thing in a way, because they would have to deal with Malfoy all Christmas, but it also made Harry feel better, because he would get a break from people whispering, muttering, hissing and pointing at him when he walked around.

Fred and George found the whole situation very funny. They went out of their way to march ahead of Harry down the corridors, shouting, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through..."

Percy was deeply disapproving of this behaviour. "It is not a laughing matter," he stated coldly.

But the twins didn't care. "Oh, get out of the way, Percy," said Fred. "Harry's in a hurry."

"Yeah, he's off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant," chortled George.

Ginny Weasley wasn't amused by it either. "Oh, don't," she wailed every time Fred asked Harry loudly who he was planning to attack next, or when George pretended to ward Harry off with a large clove of garlic when they met. 

Ron said it was because she was quite sensitive, and was affected by all of it. It was understandable. Those were real people who had been attacked, and nobody really knew if they were in danger, or if their loved ones were.

Ben wasn't worried about himself. After all, and no matter how much he mentally complained about it, he was a Walker, and his family had been wizards for hundreds of years. There wasn't any muggle blood flowing through his veins.

Until one night he realised that, for all they knew, Malfoy was the Heir of Slytherin. And Draco happened to hate him quite a lot. He knew that Ben was technically considered a blood traitor to his family, so perhaps he decided to attack him too.

Was the Slytherin heir restricted to attacking only muggleborns, or did he also attack half-blood wizards, or purebloods who hung out with them?

He had no clue, but he refused to worry about it. They had a plan to discover if Malfoy was behind all the attacks. When they found out the truth, they just had to tell Professor Dumbledore, everyone would finally know that Harry wasn't guilty, and they would stop being rude to him.

The Polyjuice Potion was about to be ready, and Hermione had told them her plan. Harry and Ron had to get some of Crabbe and Goyle's hair, following the girl's instructions. Meanwhile, Hermione and Ben, who already had hair from the person they would turn into, would go finish the potion and get Slytherin robes from the laundry.

When Ron and Harry were back, the potion looked like thick, dark mud, and it was bubbling sluggishly. "That looks disgusting," opined Ron.

"We're going to have to drink that?" asked Harry.

Hermione nodded. "Once we've drunk it, we'll have exactly an hour before we change back into ourselves." 

"So we need to be quick with Malfoy," said Ben, coming out of the bathroom, already wearing Slytherin robes.

He now looked like his parents would've liked him to; like a Slytherin.

"Okay, now what do we do?" asked Ron in a hushed voice.

"We separate it and add the hairs." She said, pouring the potion into four different glasses, and distributing them. "Come on."

Ben took Theodore Nott's hair from a small bottle in which he had kept it, and introduced it into the glass.

"Ew," gagged Ron. "Essence of Crabbe."

Harry and Ben let out a chuckle.

"Merlin, I just remembered there's Leeches in here," groaned Ben, closing his eyes in disgust. He decided not to think about it any more, and drank the potion all at once, to avoid becoming more overwhelmed by what it contained.

When he opened his eyes, his friends were staring at him wide-eyed, waiting for a reaction.

"So..." began Ron, but was interrupted by Ben running into one of the stalls and closing the door behind him.

There was a confusing and weird sensation all over his body. His head was spinning nonstop, and his insides were twisting. He leaned against the door, closing his eyes tightly as a burning sensation spread from his stomach to every part of his body. And then came an even stranger sensation, like his body was melting.

Ben snapped his eyes open, fearing he was literally melting. But he luckily wasn't. He realised that he was viewing the bathroom from even higher up than before. He spread his hands out in front of him, and let out a surprised gasp as they were considerably larger than his own.

Ben touched his hair, expecting to come into contact with his curls, but instead found out it was wavy and soft. "Wow!"

He opened the door and ran out to look at himself in the mirror next to the sinks. It was so weird to see Theodore Nott's reflection instead of his, but it meant the potion had worked, and their plan was going well.

Steps were heard from the other side of the sinks, and a bespectacled Goyle walked in. Ben turned to look at him, "It worked!"

He nodded happily as Ron- well, Crabbe- came out of the stall and joined the two boys next to the mirror. He looked disgusted, yet fascinated while examining his new image.

"Bloody hell!" he mumbled.

"We've got a problem," frowned Harry. "We still sound like ourselves."

Ron tried to speak with a deeper voice this time, "Bloody hell!"

"Excellent," Harry turned to Ben. "And about you..."

"About me..." he repeated, trying to take a bit of emotion out of his voice.

"Hey, that sounded quite similar," Ron raised his eyebrows.

"We'd better get going, then," said Harry. "We've still got to find out where the Slytherin common room is. I only hope we can find someone to follow..."

"I know how to go," spoke Ben as he watched his arm, fascinated. It hadn't been so injury-free since he was five. "I went there to talk to my sister last year."

Ron nodded, and banged on Hermione's door. "C'mon, we need to go."

"I-I don't think I'm going to come after all. You go on without me," the girl spoke in a very high-pitched voice.

"Why?"

"Look, Hermione, we all know Millicent's not exactly the prettiest girl ever," Ron tried to reason with her calmly. "But it's fine, nobody's going to know it's you."

"It's not that!" she shrieked. "Just- go! You're wasting your time!"

She was right, they had already lost five minutes of their precious hour.

"Hermione, is everything okay?" asked Harry, leaning closer to the door.

"Yes, I'm fine, now leave..."

"We'll meet you back here, alright?" he said, and the three boys left the bathroom, checking if someone was around.

"Okay, how do we get to the Slytherin common room?"

"It's in the dungeons, follow me," answered Ben, and they made their way through the school, very carefully in case someone caught them. It took them a little longer than expected, because the stairs decided to change direction just as they were going to go down them, but they managed to reach the corridor that led to the common room after all.

"Excuse me!" said a voice from the end of the hallway, and they stopped immediately. It was Percy Weasley.

"What are you doing dow-?" asked Ron, forgetting he wasn't Ron anymore, but Harry nudged him gently, and the boy changed his voice. "I mean- What are you doing down here?"

Percy looked shocked by that. "I happen to be a school prefect," he raised his left eyebrow. "You, on the other hand, have no business wandering around the corridors at this time."

They nodded apologetically. "What were your names again?"

Harry began stuttering, causing the redhead to eye them suspiciously. But then a voice suddenly echoed behind the four boys.

"Crabbe, Goyle, Nott! Where have you three been?" Draco Malfoy was strolling toward them. "Have you two been pigging out in the Great Hall all this time? Why didn't you tell them to come back, Nott? I've been looking for you; I want to show you something really funny."

The blond suddenly realised Harry was still wearing his glasses. Ben mentally cursed himself for not noticing before.

"Why are you wearing glasses?"

"Er-" he stuttered, visibly struggling to find an excuse. "Um... Reading."

"Reading?" repeated Malfoy in disbelief. "I didn't know you could read."

If it wasn't for the fact that it was Malfoy who said it, Ben would've laughed.

Draco then turned to Percy, and took a step forward, witheringly looking at him as he spat, "And what're you doing down here, Weasley?"

Percy looked outraged. "You want to show a bit more respect to a school prefect!" he exclaimed. "I don't like your attitude!"

Malfoy sneered, and turned around, motioning for Harry, Ben and Ron to follow him, which they did. "I've noticed that Peter Weasley-"

"Percy," corrected Ron.

"Whatever," said Malfoy carelessly. "He's been sneaking around a lot lately."

"Do you think he's up to something?" asked Ben.

"I think he's trying to catch Slytherin's heir on his own," he gave a short laugh before pausing by a stretch of bare, damp stone wall and turned to Ben with a frown that made him nervous. "What was the new password again?"

"I'm not su-"

"Oh, yes- Pureblood," he said, ignoring him. A stone door hidden in the wall opened. Malfoy went through it, and they followed him after sharing glances.

The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several Slytherins were silhouetted around it in high-backed chairs.

It was splendid, though Ben prefered the Gryffindor one.

"Wait here," said Malfoy, motioning them to the sofa in front of the fire. "I'll go and get it, my father's just sent it to me-"

Draco left, and they sat down, trying to make it seem like they had been there many times before. Once he had made sure Malfoy wouldn't hear them, Ben leaned towards his friends,

"Remember, we're supposed to be them, so we have to go along with anything Malfoy says, no matter what it is," he said, receiving nods from Harry and Ron. "And that doesn't mean we agree."

Malfoy came back a minute later, holding what looked like a newspaper clipping. He thrust it under Ron's nose. "That'll give you a laugh!"

Harry and Ben, who were on either side of the boy, approached him to look at the newspaper.

INQUIRY AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC

Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, was today fined fifty Galleons for bewitching a Muggle car.

Mr. Lucius Malfoy, a governor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the enchanted car crashed earlier this year, called today for Mr. Weasley's resignation. "Weasley has brought the Ministry into disrepute," Mr. Malfoy told our reporter. "He is clearly unfit to draw up our laws and his ridiculous Muggle Protection Act should be scrapped immediately."

Mr. Weasley was unavailable for comment, although his wife told reporters to clear off or she'd set the family ghoul on them

"Well?" said Malfoy impatiently as Harry handed the clipping back to him. "Don't you think it's funny?" 

"Hah!" shouted Ron. It was the most obviously fake laugh Ben had ever heard. The fact that Malfoy didn't even notice was so funny to him that he didn't even need to fake his laughter.

The blond now seemed satisfied. "Arthur Weasley loves Muggles so much he should snap his wand in half and go and join them," said Malfoy scornfully. "You'd never know the Weasleys were pure-bloods, the way they behave."

Ben and Harry nodded, like Nott and Goyle would've done. Ron however, was struggling to stop himself from yelling at Malfoy. His ears were read, and his face was contorting in anger.

That didn't go unnoticed by the Slytherin. "What's up with you, Crabbe?"

"Stomachache," he grunted.

"Well, go up to the hospital wing and give all those Mudbloods a kick from me," Malfoy snickered. Ben forced himself to laugh too, feeling disgusted with himself. "You know, I'm surprised the Daily Prophet hasn't reported all these attacks yet. I suppose Dumbledore's trying to hush it all up. He'll be sacked if it doesn't stop soon. Father's always said old Dumbledore's the worst thing that's ever happened to this place."

"You're wrong," suddenly yelled Harry.

Wonderful.

Malfoy got up from the sofa slowly, approaching him with an intimidating look. "What?" he snapped. "You think there's someone here worse than Dumbledore?" Harry hesitated, as Ron and Ben shook their heads quickly. "Well, do you?"

Yes, you.

"Harry Potter?"

Draco stared at Harry for a couple of seconds, and an approving smirk appeared on his face. "Good one, Goyle, you're absolutely right." He went back to the sofa. "I still don't understand why Walker thinks Potter's better than me."

Ben tensed at the mention of his name.

"What do you mean?" asked Ron with a frown.

"We used to be friends, Crabbe," replied Malfoy, rolling his eyes like he had already told the boy a million times. "You know, last year, his parents told mine that he had changed. My parents decided to give him a second chance, and then I found out he's friends with Weasley and Potter."

Ben was biting his lip to stop himself from speaking, so hard it started bleeding. His heart was beating very fast, and felt a rush of anger run through his veins, telling him to defend himself.

He wanted to say that what happened between them hadn't been his fault, he needed to say it. But he couldn't, because only Malfoy, Ben, and their families knew about it. It would blow up their cover, and all their efforts would have been useless.

"Saint Potter, the Mudbloods' friend," scoffed Malfoy, like the simple mention of Harry made him angry. "He's another one with no proper wizard feeling, or he wouldn't go around with that jumped up Granger Mudblood. And people think he's Slytherin's heir!"

There it was, what they wanted to hear. Harry, Ron and Ben shared quick glances, taking a deep breath and sitting up straight, ready to hear what Malfoy was going to say.

"I wish I knew who it is," grumbled Malfoy petulantly. "I could help them."

Ron's jaw dropped. All their hopes vanished with the boy's words. If Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin, he would've told them, but he had no idea.

"But then you must have some idea of who's behind it all," said Harry in an attempt to make him talk.

"You know I haven't, Goyle, how many times do I have to tell you?" snapped Malfoy. "And Father won't tell me anything about the last time the Chamber was opened either. Of course, it was fifty years ago, so it was before his time, but he knows all about it, and he says that it was all kept quiet and it'll look suspicious if I know too much about it. But I know one thing... last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a Mudblood died."

"Oh, I've heard about that too," commented Ben, eyebrows raised. "I don't know who it was, though."

"Me neither," shrugged Malfoy. "But I bet it's a matter of time before another one of them's killed this time..." he smirked devilishly. "I hope it's Granger."

Ron clenched Crabbe's gigantic fists, preparing himself to punch Draco, but

Harry quickly gave him a warning look as Ben cleared his throat loudly, attracting Malfoy's attention so he wouldn't notice.

"D'you know if the person who opened the Chamber last time was caught?" asked Harry once Ron had calmed down.

"Oh, yeah... whoever it was was expelled," said Malfoy, opening a small box from the desk beside them. "I think he was sent to Azkaban."

"Azkaban?"

"Azkaban- the wizard prison, Goyle," sneered Malfoy, looking at him in disbelief. "Honestly, if you were any slower, you'd be going backward."

"Ho!" shouted Ron, all of a sudden.

"R- Crabbe, I know it's Christmas and all..." frowned Ben. "But that Santa Claus performance was out of nowhere."

Ron blushed. But his cheeks weren't the only thing turning red; his hair was, too. Ben turned to Harry, and noticed his eyes were becoming green again, while his scar was beginning to be visible.

Their hour was up.

"Freckles," Harry mouthed, raising an eyebrow at him. He quickly covered his nose as the three boys got up instantly.

"What's going on?" asked Malfoy, standing up too. "Why are you three acting so weird?"

"We're gonna get medicine for Crabbe's stomach!" exclaimed Ben.

During the ruckus they were making, a jar fell off the desk with a loud noise, which caused Malfoy to turn around. When he looked back, Harry, Ron and Ben were already gone.