It has been a good summer. Ellie did a bit better than Anathema in picking up the Occlumency, though she mostly relies on her to pick their 'fun' activity. Along with her books for Ancient Runes, Old English, and Cultures of the World, she got a day planner, so she's feeling well-prepared to take on the year.

Here's hoping the train goes as well as it did last time.

Anathema is terrible at meditating, even when Professor Reynolds exhausts her first, or encourages her to meditate while stimming or even moving - she can kind of meditate while doing yoga, actually, once Professor Reynolds runs through enough options trying to get her to calm her body and mind, and she makes a few friends in the class she ends up taking. She actively enjoys the philosophical exercises, though, giving her a bit of a sideways edge with protecting her mind.

She ends up hesitating a lot over her electives, actually - and takes Ancient Egyptian and Arithmancy, instead of going with Ellie's picks. Still, they'll have their core classes, Art, and Cultures together.

Getting on a bit early lets them claim a compartment for themselves - though it seems the train's filling up a bit more than it did last year, and they end up with two first years who don't really seem interested in talking to either girl joining them. The train ride's long but peaceful, mostly, and gets to Hogwarts as the sun's setting.

Well that's fine.

She supposes they won't be taking the boats to the castle this year.

Nah. Apparently they're supposed to go over to a path to the right, where a whole bunch of carriages are lined up - moving forward as each one takes off, full of students, the line stretching back murkily towards the Forbidden Forest.

They're dark, lanterns hanging outside their doors and illuminating the insides, and - they're not pulled by horses, but by - 

Smudges, maybe. Dark intimations of shadow, wisps drawing out a shape almost like a horse, almost like wings rustling to the sides. Almost like pale flickers of eyes, watching the students as the smudges in reality shift around, quiet. 

A couple of the other second years, especially the muggleborns, are talking with some interest about the carriages as if nothing's drawing them.

Six students can fit in a carriage, so they're going to have to sit with other people for the ride up, too.

Right so Ellie is just going to try to mostly ignore these uh horse smudges. If she doesn't look directly at them it's like they're not even there, right? Right.

Anathema does glance at them briefly, brow furrowed a bit, but climbs into the carriage without acting like anything's weird. 

This is fine.

Anathema glances over at Ellie. And, since no one else is in the carriage yet: "You okay?"

"...Did you see the- horses?"

"There were some hard to see shapes in front of the carriages? Which I guess are probably a kind of horse, since they're pulling a carriage..."

"They're creepy."

She shrugs. "Don't seem too weird to me... But we can ask Professor Reynolds about them?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

Other students climb in the carriage, and it sets off, moving smoothly.

Here comes another year.

Fun!

A few of their friends from last year find them at the dining table - it does seem food won't arrive until the first years are sorted, and that the process of all of Hogwarts' upper years filing into the Great Hall takes just long enough for the first years (with some mild delay) to arrive from the boats.

There's no names they really recognize being sorted, except one kid who's maybe the younger brother of one of Anathema's friends in Hufflepuff. There's a lot more first years this time than there were last year - or at least it feels like that, sitting and waiting for the Hat to make its proclamations on a long procession of fidgeting eleven year olds.

Professor Dumbledore reiterates the school rules after the Sorting, introduces their Potions professor - Professor Cleary is in fact staying on - and their new History professor, Professor Lockhart, who looks kind of annoyingly smug.

Still, the food's good, there's a lot of gossip to catch up with, and that's what matters as far as Anathema's concerned.

Yes, clearly the hot goss is the most important thing. As long as it's not about them.

Gossip's pretty much about the professors - Professor Lockhart's apparently mostly known for publishing travel memoirs, which someone who's actually already skimmed through all the books thinks the 'textbooks' actually all are? That seems weird - sure, some of the elective professors published their own textbooks, but those're fields that change a lot and also the professors are experts, and also those textbooks aren't stories? Though maybe having History framed through the stories of different locations the author's traveling to is actually kinda cool? ("We have a different History professor every year," an upper year says from down the table. "Professor Dumbledore might've run out of people who're, like, actual historians.")

Also Professor Cleary had said she wasn't staying on, so why's she staying on - also this other muggleborn had assumed she was Professor McGonagall's sister in law since her actual last name's McGonagall, but their usual Professor McGonagall apparently doesn't have a brother??? Or a husband with a brother??? ("People can just have the same last name, you know," another muggleborn points out. The pureblood Ravenclaws are staring at this conversation like everyone's grown a second head, which also has a concussion.)

There's some less gossipy stuff about everyone's summers, though sometimes talking about everyone's summers gets into gossip. There was an actual fist fight at a professional Quidditch match in July, apparently.

Ellie is among the skeptical regarding Lockheart's actual credentials as a teacher of history. The books all seem to be... rather modern. Professor Cleary staying on is good, she liked her.

Was the fist fight between players or spectators?

Spectators, this time, though there was a player fist fight two years ago - usually it's other sports that get player fist fights, though, Quidditch doesn't have you in arm's reach of each other really often.

And yeah Anathema thinks Professor Lockhart's possibly a good, like, author? But he's teaching History not Creative Writing. ("A writing class would actually be cool," another student says. "We just read books and write essays about them in Literature. But, yeah, that's different than History, even if you could be a creative writer who also has a history degree I guess.")

"We'll have to see," Anathema says, "And plot our rebellion if he is a bad teacher."

"You're gonna develop a reputation. The professors will start telling scary stories about you in the staff room."

She giggles. "I'll be the cautionary tale for all the new hires."

"Start a new style of pedagogy. Anathemaism."

"Maybe they'll let me be the History professor some time."

"Put your application in for next year."

Giggle. "I think I'll probably have to be at least fourth year before I can teach History, though."

Sniff. "If you feel you must."

"I don't want to do a subpar job, but I might jump ahead though if Professor Lockhart's bad enough."

Giggle.

Heee.

(It sounds like class won't start until the next Monday, again - they have classes all five weekdays. Captain Hayes stops by to let them know Quidditch restarts next Saturday.)

They'll be there.

Yeah.

She's missed Quidditch.

It's really not the same with two (or even three).

Yeah! And racing and exploring are all a different kind of fun than a full game.

It's nice to be back at school.

Yeah.

Anathema settles back in just fine - and it does in fact seem like everyone's pretty much forgotten about last year's misadventure by now. They have plenty of time before classes to rediscover all their favorite hang out locations, see how Scarlet's doing, skim through the textbooks... (The History textbooks in fact don't seem to talk about history in depth a lot.)

They don't have History class until Wednesday, this time, and there's disconcerting grumbles before then among some of the older students - especially the Ravenclaws doing a History NEWT - about Professor Lockhart's ability to stay on topic. ("Why are our History professors always either evil or incompetent?" one seventh year grouches a bit too loudly.)

That's an encouraging sign.

Yeah...

Anathema is honestly not sure what she'd rather have between 'incompetent' and 'evil.'

'Incompetent' at least they can do outside reading to make up for.

True. Though Anathema'd rather be evil, herself.

Given a choice between the two, sure.

Hopefully it'll never come up.

Hard to imagine circumstances in which it would, really.

There might be a super evil ritual that increases your competence, you never know.

One that's very forgiving about how exactly it gets done?

That might be necessary if something horrible makes her lose her competence first, yeah.

Ellie will keep an eye out for something like that.

That's why she's the best.

Yep.

Lean.

They'll be ready for Lockhart. Even if he's really dumb.

Nothing can keep them down.

Heee.

Yeah.

And Wednesday evening - and their first History class - rolls around.

Here goes. Ellie has the "text"books, notebook, note paper, pencil, and quill. (Hopefully fewer headaches this year.)

No headache as of Professor Lockhart walking in the room!

She might have a frustration headache by the end of class, though.

For one: he has pictures of himself, mostly in various exotic locales, decorating the history classroom. A stark contrast to Professor Quirrel, who'd had images, copies, or even examples of various historic artifacts, artwork, and documents.

For two: he introduces himself with a list of all his accomplishments and rewards - "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award — but I don’t talk about that," with a sly smile.

For three: he gives them a quiz to determine if they read his books... Which is entirely about himself and his own adventures, rather than about history.

What the fuck.

Their class is looking increasingly rebellious over the course of the lesson.

After, in which they've learned nothing, Anathema wonders, as the students are filing out and they're just out of the professor's earshot: "Wonder what it'll take to get him fired..."

There's scattered laughter.

"Probably the fifth years failing their OWLs."

"Eesh, yeah. Wouldn't want to be them," one of their roommates says.

"Maybe he won't notice if we put cardboard cutouts of ourselves in our seats, as long as they look impressed enough," another says.

Anathema giggles. "What can he do if we just don't attend class, anyways?"

The students all exchange glances - "Uh, give us all detention, take away House points? And if we avoid detention - take away more House points. Also give us all failing grades, which... Matters for going to third year History, I think?" someone says. "But I don't think it really gets on our record if next year's History professor lets us in anyways..."

From Sophie - the Hufflepuff who organized the complaints against Snape last year - "Well if everyone avoids his classes, that'll even out... We'll just be competing for which House has the least negative points."

"I think we should try to compete for the most negative," Anathema says, laughing more.

"That doesn't help with learning the material."

"Yeah. We can study a bit on our own I guess? But having an actual teacher really helps..."

"Are there TAs for this year?"

"Like, one," one of the Hufflepuffs says. "He's the same one as last year, actually. I don't know he can take over the whole class really well, though."

"Better than nothing," a Ravenclaw says.

One of the muggleborns groans. "Man, my primary school sometimes had bad teachers but I dunno ever this bad. Why's it so different with wizards."

"Well, there's a different professor every year apparently? So I guess Headmaster Dumbledore's just running out of people to hire at all... And mom said you shouldn't go into history in muggle university, because there's a lot more history majors than history jobs, so they've probably got tons of extra people to hire hanging around... Bet that lets you be pickier."

"Professor Dumbledore should hire some of them, then."

"...Can muggles even see Hogwarts?"

"He can invent another use for dragon's blood. Making muggles able to see Hogwarts."

She giggles. "We should suggest that to him, then."

"Wonder if he'd be any happier about this petition."

"Maybe he's just as annoyed by Lockhart as we are."

"He doesn't have to sit through his class," she grumbles.

"Probably has to listen to him in staff meetings, though."

"I think that's a little different."

"Might be a different kind of annoying."

"Yeah."

"I don't think getting him thrown out's an emergency... Still, we should let Professor Reynolds know we don't like him."

"And put together an actual reading list."

She laughs. "Yeah. And see if we can get a refund on his books."

"Invent a spell to turn them back into trees."

"That'd be fun! We could reforest places."

"Entire nations, even."

Giggle. "Maybe a small one; I'm not sure they're that popular."

"Doesn't mean he hasn't had a lot printed."

"Maybe he just mails them to random people. So they'll be enlightened."

"I would not be surprised."

Heh.

History was their last class of the day; onward to dinner?

A palate cleanser, as it were.

Pfft.

If only they had one for their brains.

Their other classes are interesting, at least.

Yeah.

Anathema really likes that they'll be getting into actual dueling this year in Defense, not just the kiddy safety stuff from last year.

Shouldn't forget the safety stuff, though. Otherwise Professor Reynolds will have Words for her.

Wouldn't want to disappoint Professor Reynolds.

Definitely not.

Dueling is gonna be fun.

Extremely.

(Anathema is very gleeful about the prospect of hexing their classmates.)

Most of the ones Ellie wants to hex are in Slytherin. And also in the upper years, she really doesn't like the Slytherin Beaters.

She giggles for a few minutes.

"Maybe we can challenge them to a duel."

"Depends how good we get. I wouldn't want to lose."

She nods, seriously. "We might have to resort to ambush."

"I think that's more of a fight tactic than a dueling tactic."

"Well, we'd get to hex them either way."

"Might get in trouble for that, though."

"Hm... Good point. Guess we'd have to be sneaky."

"I'll see how things go in the first game. See if they actually deserve that much effort."

"Fair. They might just be beneath us."

"Indeed."

She laughs, leaning against Ellie a bit.

"Wanna go find Professor Reynolds?"

"Sure."

Off, then!

Professor Reynolds opens her door when they knock, letting them in. "Good evening. How've your classes been going?"

"Mostly all right."

"Lockhart's obnoxious, though."

"He set us a quiz, and all the questions were things like 'what's my favorite color' and 'how many times have I won Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile award'. Which is five. He brought this fact up eight separate times. Nothing that happened before the twenty-fourth of January 1964 was mentioned for the entire class."

She sighs, rubbing at her forehead. "Ugh. I - apologize. I regret to report he's even more obnoxious in staff meetings."

"Oh. Do you think it would be inappropriate for us to try to get a teacher fired in the first week of the school year again?"

She laughs. "Sadly, I don't think he's done anything he could be fired for..." Laughing a bit more, then: "Headmaster Dumbledore doesn't like him, either - but he was literally the only applicant for the History position this year. Even after the Headmaster owled a few contacts of his looking for more..."

"That explains that, then."

"Unfortunately so. I don't think we'll keep him on longer than a year - that usually doesn't work, anyways - but right now we don't have anyone to replace him with..."

"The main problem is that no one is going to be learning any history."

She nods. "We can try to patch that, some - but it's a hard issue, and any students who struggle with self teaching are going to fall farthest behind..."

"Could start a club, maybe."

She nods. "That'd be doable - the problem would be getting every student into it."

"And finding someone with the time to run it."

"The expertise, as well - even the NEWT History students don't know as much as we prefer professors do."

"I was figuring that if expertise was available, we wouldn't have to be thinking about this."

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Ellie said Dumbledore should just hire a muggle. They've got lots of history teachers."

She smiles, again. "A rather excellent idea... Though currently, the Ministry makes it illegal to reveal the truth of magic to muggles except in some circumstances - such as being the immediate family of a muggleborn - and makes it illegal to hire muggles as employees..."

"So we'd have to do a bunch of political agitation to make that happen."

"Quite a bit of work, but it'd be long overdue."

Hum. "Not sure how feasible it would be to juggle that, self-studying History, other classes, and Quidditch... Maybe for a summer project."

"It's important to pace yourself."

"Exactly."

"Your education this year is important, though, and a more short term issue..."

"Yeah..."

She sighs, rubbing at her forehead a bit. "I'll talk to the other Professors. We might be able to put something together... Or at least stage an intervention with Lockhart."

"Thanks Professor."

"You're welcome. I'm sorry your education's having so many disruptions."

"Well I do have a pair of sticks that let me rewrite reality at my whim, so it's not all bad."

She smiles, fondly. "Indeed it isn't."

"Overall, I wouldn't go back."

"I'm glad - at least that magic's been good for you."

"Yeah."

"It won't help all the students - but I could lead a club to teach History once or even twice a week... Though I'd want to heavily prioritize fifth and seventh years. It's - significantly easier, to make up substandard early education."

"That makes sense."

"Other professors might be interested in running something similar - but right now we're often running a thin margin on 'overwork', and it'd be probably impractical for all of us to replace our free period with another class unrelated to what we usually teach, even if we decided to have all the professors teach one History segment instead of having a single History professor..." She rubs her forehead.

Commiserating shoulder pat?

Small smile. "We'll do what we can, at least."

"I believe in you," she says solemnly.

"That means a lot to me."

She's not quite as good at 'solemn' as Ellie.

Hee.

She laughs.

"For today, I can give you two a recommended reading list - though I'd need to actually look up the usual curriculum for something more tailored to what you'll need for the OWLs..."

"Recommended reading would help."

She makes a list of books for them, then, including 'old History textbooks' with chapter recommendations, but also including a few more narrow focus history books.

Professor Reynolds is great.

"If you two have questions about anything in the books, I might also be able to help..."

"We'll keep that in mind."

"Yeah."

"Thanks, Professor."

"You're both welcome."

Smile.

The conversation drifts elsewhere, after that - though Ellie and Anathema will eventually have to go back to their dorm and back to the grind of classes.

Such is student life.

Student life, sadly, continues dominating their lives over the next month and a half. They don't get Lockhart fired, or even a really systemic solution to History education set up - a couple of Professors work together to get the fifth through seventh years enough classes to not flounder too much, but the lower years are left to their own initiative pretty much. Professor Reynolds ends up helping supervise a mixed years club to learn at least some history. Professor McGonagall apparently gets annoyed at Lockhart enough to start offsetting every single time he rewards or takes away points, which makes the requirements to attend his class or serve detention with him basically toothless.

And then, on October Thirty First - a Saturday, so the first day of Samhain week, full of feasts and stories and laughter and their magical culture roommates setting up altars for the dead, curfews entirely suspended for the entire week -

Late in the evening of October Thirty First, as Ellie and Anathema are walking down the hall -

Ellie hears a voice.

Kill.

It repeats itself, soft, susurrating, rising and falling like a hiss of sand on stone.

"-Do you hear that?"

"The voice? It's soft, but... I think it's saying - 'kill.'"

"Oh good, I'm not going mad. We should go tell Professor Reynolds."

"Yeah."

"Probably there's a ghost messing with us but 'cause it's Samhain it could be something weirder and messing with people like that is bad on Samhain."

"Never had a ghost mess like that before."

"Yeah. Peeves isn't this subtle." She glances around, unsure, trying to figure out the best way to Professor Reynolds' quarters from here.

"This way, I think." Ellie sets off.

The voice recedes, vanishing.

And - in the direction they're going, nearby -

Someone screams.

Oh that had better be a ghost prank-

Ellie summons a house elf. "Can you find Professor Reynolds and tell her that we might need help in this area, please?"

The house elf nods, solemnly, and vanishes with a pop.

"Should we - wait?"

"I think we should go see what that was."

She nods, setting off at a careful run.

Ellie trots after, wand in hand.

There's a Hufflepuff third year, sitting down like she was back pedaling and tripped - a second, pressed against a wall, hands over her mouth, expression horrified -

They're both looking at the same thing.

A wall, lit by torches - words scrawled in wet blood, The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. No enemy of the Heir of Slytherin will be suffered to live.

A puddle, under it, a small shape collapsed half into the water.

Oh no.

Anathema darts forward, kneeling by the shape - screaming herself, more angrily, almost - devastated - standing, wand in her hand, looking around with wild eyes.

Ellie almost stumbles over next to her.

The shape is - Scarlet, body stiff and grey, eyes discolored, pupils blown wide.

No.

And Professor Reynolds appears - followed within a breath by Headmaster Dumbledore -

Professor Reynolds' breath hitches, as her eyes catch on Scarlet -

And then she sets to helping Dumbledore secure the scene, directing house elves to take Scarlet and all four students to the Hospital Wing.

This must be hard for her.

Anathema starts crying as the medi-witch checks the students for any injuries, directing the two shaking girls to sit down on beds and drink some water. Scarlet's laid out on a third bed by the house elf who brought them in.

"Is Scarlet- going to be okay?"

The medi-witch sighs, turning to run her wand over Scarlet's prone form. "They seem to be petrified - alive, but frozen like stone. There's cures, though I'll need to learn more about what kind is needed, and call out... Petrification is a rare problem, and we don't have any reversal potions in stock."

Nod.

"It's lucky none of you got hurt, though."

"We don't even know what happened."

She nods, sighing. "Hopefully Headmaster Dumbledore will figure it out. Things like this are usually some student playing a prank, though."

"Better not be," she mumbles.

"They'll be straightened out, whoever they are," the medi-witch says, voice firm. "Now, why don't you take a seat, dear?"

All right.

Professor Reynolds takes a while to arrive - walking in, and then speaking with Madam Pomfrey briefly.

She comes over to Anathema and Ellie after that, pulling the still quietly crying Anathema into a hug, looking over to Ellie. "Are you alright?" she asks, voice soft.

"Yeah. We didn't- we heard a voice in the walls and were coming to get you and then we heard a scream."

"A voice?"

"Saying 'Kill'. Over and over."

She frowns. "Do you remember where exactly you heard it?"

"Near where- where you found us. I think I could show you."

She nods. "We're fairly sure the location's safe. Are you alright going now?"

"Yes. Better than sitting here."

"I wanna go too," Anathema mumbles.

Professor Reynolds nods. "Alright." She stands, supporting Anathema briefly, then leads them back out of the Hospital Wing, letting Ellie guide them as they get closer to the scene.

Ellie takes them back to where they heard the voice.

She frowns, casting a few spells. "I can't find any traces of what it was..."

"...Oh."

"Headmaster Dumbledore might be able to find out more, though." She taps the wall with her wand. "I'll let him know to have a look."

"Okay."

"How long did you hear it for?"

"Not long. It was like it was moving."

She nods. "And it didn't sound familiar?"

Ellie shakes her head.

"Alright. Thank you for showing me where it was. We'll keep investigating."

Nod.

"Do you- need anything?"

She pauses and sighs, expression going distant. "Just - to know you guys are okay. That you'll stay okay."

"We will, Professor."

She nods, still not looking happy.

"I'm - worried about you two being targeted," she says, voice soft. "I don't know if reasonably so."

"Given the events of last year..."

Soft nod.

Hug?

Hug!

"You two look after each other, okay?"

"We will."

"Thanks."

Pat pat.

She ruffles Ellie's hair. "You're good kids."

"Thanks Professor."

"Let us know if you do need anything."

"I will."

"Thank you."

Anathema darts in to join the hug.

And then - it's late, and Professor Reynolds escorts them to Ravenclaw Tower. There's no particular high alert, and at breakfast the next day Headmaster Dumbledore announces that someone played a 'horrid prank,' describes Scarlet's petrification, assures the students the professors are working to catch the perpetrator, and asks people to come forward if they have any information. (He also says that if the culprit turns themselves in, they will be shown more leniency about this than if someone else turns them in.)

There's a lot of gossip, of course, about what happened, students forming in little shifting knots as they leave breakfast.

So either he didn't believe them about the voice or doesn't want to panic people. Could go either way, really.

Serpens is in one of the knots they pass by - as one of the other students relays more or less what had been written on the wall, trying for a dramatic whisper and failing at the 'quiet' part.

Serpens scowls and turns away, spotting Ellie and Anathema.

She's the one who hates Death Eaters and her family, right? Wonder what her deal is.

She breaks away from her friends, walking over to Ellie and Anathema.

"Malfoy."

"Potter. Canta."

"You two seem less," she waves her hand vaguely, "Gossipy. Mind if I tag along for a bit?"

"You don't want to add your two Knuts' worth?"

Frown. "Not something this stupidly overblown. The Chamber of Secrets is the sort of conspiracy theory nonsense people's weird great-uncles get into."

"Somebody thinks it's serious enough."

"Or thinks it'll cause a panic."

"Mm."

She shrugs. "Whatever."

"I guess you can walk with us."

Anathema nods. "Yeah. I don't mind."

"Okay. Cool."

She sets off beside them, mostly chattering only a little with Anathema about their History not-classes.

The History not-class is rather terrible.

The clubs have been kind of irregular, too...

Hopefully they can make it up next year.

Yeah, definitely. 

Serpens Malfoy splits off after a bit, heading down to the dungeon with a wave at Anathema.

"Bit weird that she'd rather ignore the gossip than take it over."

"Yeah. She's kinda weird in general, though."

"Yeah..."

Shrug. "She might've just been fighting with her friends."

"Could be, yeah."

"I'll keep an eye to see if she keeps doing weird stuff, I guess."

Nod.

Onward with the holiday, then.

Anathema's down about Scarlet - and they find Professor Reynolds in the Hospital Wing sitting by them a lot. But other than some brief gossip the school as a whole doesn't seem really affected by what happened; people have pretty much decided it's just a prank from someone trying to be edgy. Poor cat, but most people don't really care.

That's because they don't know Scarlet.

Yeah.

But - the investigation doesn't get anywhere quickly. There's no leads. None of the portraits saw anyone at all enter the area while Scarlet was there, or before without leaving after. The writing was in conjured chicken blood, and they're not sure where from. The petrification on Scarlet is strange enough that Saint Mungo's doesn't have a specific remedy in stock, and they're going to need to brew something (and the ingredients themselves need to be fresh, but are out of season) or reach out to other, probably international, partners... Which there isn't much momentum to do, for a kneazle. No one can get a trace of what beings passed through that catches anyone not known to have been there.

Anathema's unhappy for a lot of it. Professor Reynolds seems frequently stressed. But, as November wears on, everyone but them seems to forget just about...

Until, midway through November, caretaker Filch stumbles across a fourth year student in the middle of the night, petrified just as Scarlet had been, expression terrified. She'd been frozen standing, leaning against a wall and looking out a window. No writing anywhere near her. No calling cards. Ellie and Anathema hadn't heard any voices, but they also hadn't been near the scene of the crime.

The gossip rather explodes after that.

Typical. There's probably still no actual information, though.

Not really. People are less sure it was a prank, now, but no one has any leads. The professors are investigating a lot more in depth, but they don't seem to have much to go on.

People do start taking the rumors of the Chamber of Secrets more seriously. It's still not something people know a lot about, but a few students start looking into the library -

And in their next class after, Professor Reynolds says they'll be pausing before covering what was on the schedule last time.

"I know you all have a lot of questions about the Chamber of Secrets and what's happened," she says, leaning against her desk and looking exhausted. "I can answer some of them, I hope."

"What is the Chamber of Secrets, Professor?"

"The myth is that it is a section of the castle that Salazar Slytherin built and sealed off from the rest of Hogwarts. No one really agrees on why, or if it even exists. The rumors about it were fairly sparse for the first eight hundred years after Hogwarts was built. Back then it was usually called 'The Serpent Chamber,' and not really considered very interesting, since most supposed it was just one of many of Hogwarts' secret rooms and passages, even assuming it wasn't a misinterpretation of Ravenclaw's letters, which spoke of Slytherin spending a lot of time in 'his chamber.' A rumor grew in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that it was part of the defensive network the Founders created around Hogwarts' grounds. However, Headmasters usually have access to Hogwarts' defensive measures - and they couldn't find this one."

"The rumors turned in the nineteenth century to claims Slytherin had built the Chamber with the specific goal that his heir would someday open it, purging either Hogwarts or all of the British Isles of 'Slytherin's enemies.' That claim was mostly pushed by the Gaunts, the only family who claimed provable decent from Slytherin himself."

She pauses, and another student says they heard the Chamber was opened before. Professor Reynolds nods, sighing. "Or at least someone pretending to have opened it."

"In the 1940s there were a rash of petrifications of muggleborns linked to someone claiming to be the Heir of Slytherin. There were a large number of suspects at the time, which eventually started narrowing down to one student, Tom Riddle, a fifth year. No one could actually find any evidence, though, and the Ministry of the time had far more stringent standards for criminal trials than our current one."

"In the midst of that, a student named Myrtle Lowe was murdered. The Ministry investigators concluded her murderer had used the Killing Curse. There was disagreement about whether this was linked to the petrifications directly, or someone else just being opportunistic."

"Riddle, in the furor after Lowe's death, accused another student, Rubeus Hagrid. He claimed Hagrid had bred an acromantula to petrify its victims, rather than paralyze them. Riddle did not actually report this to the authorities until after he had decided to do a citizen's arrest of Hagrid, causing the acromantula in question to escape. Hagrid's roommates confirmed that Hagrid had at the time been raising an acromantula, but that he had found it as a child, rather than breeding it, and that it was more inclined to hide than to attack."

"The Ministry charged Hagrid with illegal possession of a restricted creature, which at his age just amounted to a warning, but the government felt the evidence that Hagrid had been involved in the attacks was effectively nonexistent, especially since he had reliable alibis for most. They did not bring any additional charges, though some of the dark-aligned media at the time latched onto Hagrid as the perpetrator. Hagrid's mother removed him from the school to homeschool him in the face of harassment."

"No one actually was charged with any of it - all of the students' and professors' wands were checked, and none of them had ever cast the Killing Curse. None of the suspects had used unknown spells or spells associated with petrification while they were being monitored and while the petrifications were ongoing. And, when the petrified students were cured, none of them remembered seeing anyone or anything except 'a flash of yellow.'"

"The petrifications stopped after Lowe's death, though, and the castle was swept top to bottom. No one found any evidence of unknown secret passages, or of existing danger, and none of the Aurors were targeted. The school was cautiously reopened, and the attacks didn't start back up."

Ellie notes down the key points.

There's a few more questions, but not a lot of new information about the Chamber. They just don't know a lot. 

They're planning to take a fairly proactive approach about safety, though - they're already recommending people travel in pairs or groups when feasible, and that people try to stay in parts of the castle overseen by portraits. Headmaster Dumbledore is spreading out their current portraits to cover as much of the castle as possible, and the house elves are keeping closer eyes on the students. They haven't settled everything they'll do if petrifications continue. Headmaster Dumbledore is looking into a secondary location for schooling, in case they conclude the threat is something within the school itself, rather than a student. 

Well. That's something, at least.

People still seem worried, but a bit less so now.

People are crazy. The threat has gotten worse, not better.

Professor Reynolds seems to agree. She's certainly not getting any less stressed.

And she impresses on them very, very heavily the importance of taking this seriously. Of keeping curfew, and traveling with others, and letting people know where you're going and when you expect to be back. She runs them through thought exercises, a sort of verbal drill - dangers they could encounter, which actions would or would not help, how to make sure help could be coming.

At least Professor Reynolds is taking this seriously.

She's a good teacher.

Hopefully it'll be enough. Anathema doesn't really want to get moved to somewhere not Hogwarts to learn...

Yeah. Ellie likes it here. The castle has... character.

Yeah.

Maybe they can help the investigations some...

As long as they're going around in groups of two or more.

"Me and you are a group."

"A pretty effective one at that."

"The absolute best."

"Where do you think we should start?"

"Myrtle Lowe. She's the big unsolved thread from the last one."

"Yeah. Maybe the library has records about past students or something?"

"Yeah. And we can dig up old newspapers too."

Nod. "Obituaries often have stuff about the dead person, right?"

"Yep."

To the library, then?

Library time.

The library does in fact have old photos and old newspapers. Myrtle is in a few class photographs. She was a fifth year Hufflepuff, who looks uncomfortable and unhappy in all her pictures, often withdrawing away from her classmates. She doesn't appear in any newspapers or newsletters before her obituary, which describes her as 'studious' and 'well remembered.' She was apparently a muggleborn, and her obituaries completely fail to mention her family or what part of the British Isles she was from. She doesn't seem to have been a member of any clubs. Myrtle herself seems to be pretty quickly forgotten, even as the papers continue churning over the case. The ones that mention her death at all in connection to the accusations and threats of trial don't even give her name.

How extraordinarily helpful. Sigh.

"If she had left a ghost, we could just ask her instead of dealing with... this."

"If she did, she'd be a Hogwarts ghost I bet."

"Is there a list of Hogwarts ghosts?"

"Dunno. The librarian might know who the ghosts are or where a list is, though."

Time to ask.

No one's entirely positive who all the ghosts are, though they at least know of all of them. There's surveys of them, but the most recent one's from the seventies, and you sometimes get new ghosts popping up. Are they looking for a specific ghost?

A Myrtle Lowe.

"Ah, yes. She's a known ghost. She usually haunts the location of her death - one of the old girl's bathrooms on the second floor, though it's closed now. Some of the students call her Moaning Myrtle, though she gets upset if she hears that. She's been increasingly reclusive over the last decade; I imagine most students might not even know she's there."

"That's helpful, thanks."

"Did anyone ever ask her who killed her?" Anathema says.

The librarian sighs. "Yes, though by the time she manifested enough to be interacted with it'd already been several years, and she started wailing anytime someone asked her. At first, she was also mostly interested in haunting another student, Olive Hornby, and she'd refuse to answer any questions at all, usually just angrily yelling at her target. Miss Hornby was cleared of suspicions around Miss Lowe's death, but did admit to having been 'sometimes mean' to her. Miss Lowe was confined to Hogwarts after several incidents during her haunting."

"I see."

Anathema nods and thanks the librarian.

"Think it's worth finding her?"

"I dunno we have many other leads."

"Yeah. So. Second-floor bathroom?"

"Yeah. We'll wanna be cautious about curfew though, I guess."

"Maybe tomorrow, then."

She nods. "We've got a big block in the middle of the day, too. So that works well."

"Right."

So the next day at the appointed time, it's off to the disused second floor girls' bathroom.

The bathroom seems empty at first. It's not really run down or grimy like you'd expect 'abandoned ghost-haunted bathroom' to be; it seems the house elves clean up here, too.

Helpful of them.

"Hello?" she calls.

"Who's there?" a girl's voice calls, warily.

"Ellie Potter and Anathema Canta."

"Don't know who you are," she mumbles. "Are you here to make fun of me?"

"No, we're here to ask about what happened when you died."

"Oh..." she says, sounding distant. "Why? Just that old nonsense? You don't want to talk to me?"

Anathema tilts her head. "I like hearing ghosts say how they died," she says, cheerfully. "It's interesting."

A spectral girl floats out of one of the stalls, examining them. "Well," she says, considering. "It was quite horrid, really..."

She proceeds to spin a possibly somewhat overdramaticized tale of how she was hiding in the bathroom from 'that Hornby,' when she heard a boy talking in a weird foreign language. She left her stall to tell him off, because he was in the girl's bathroom... And then (dramatic pause) all she saw were two eyes, large and yellow -

And the next thing she knew, she finishes with morbid glee, she was floating above her body - watching Hornby discover her dead hours later.

Anathema makes appreciative noises thoroughout, nodding along and asking Myrtle a few leading questions. 

Anathema: pretty good at talking to people actually? Signs point to yes.

Yellow eyes though could match up with some of the stories from the petrification victims. Which is kind of weird, because Myrtle wasn't petrified...

"Did you recognize the boy's voice?" Anathema asks after a bit.

Myrtle frowns, deeply. "Not really? It was - weird. I don't remember the words at all, just that I didn't understand them... He sounded older, though, not like one of the first years or something, but not really old, I don't think he was a professor or anything. And I didn't see him when I left my stall, and he was gone by the next time I was aware..."

"Huh..." Anathema frowns. "What were the eyes like? I mean, like, human eyes, cat eyes, goat eyes..."

Myrtle's expression goes different. "I don't - I just remember the eyes... Not what sort of face they were in... But I don't think they were - set like a human's? Kind of - each of them were tilted off to the side. And really, really big, and shiny... A lot like a cat's eyes, really, just... The face wasn't a cat's. It was - dark, completely, except those eyes."

"Definitely not an acromantula."

"Yeah, ick. I'd still be screaming if it was a spider."

"So the boy probably had something to do with it."

"Probably? Since he was right there... And he didn't move my body or tell anyone I'd died or anything."

"...Bets on it actually being Tom Riddle?"

"I wouldn't be surprised..." Anathema says.

Myrtle, though, looks a bit surprised. "That boy? He was in my year, over in Slytherin. He was a bully, but everyone else thought he was just nice. I don't... Think that voice was his? But..." She frowns.

"It has been fifty years. It's okay if you don't know."

She nods, slowly. "I don't think I do."

"It's still more than we had before we talked with you."

Anathema nods. "Yeah. Thanks!"

Myrtle smiles, slightly. "Alright. Will you - come back?"

Anathema's smile doesn't waver. "We're gonna be busy for a bit, but I walk pretty near here after one of my classes and can say hi then."

Myrtle nods. "Okay. I'll let you know if I think of something else, then..."

"Aw, thanks!" Anathema says, grinning. "You're a really big help."

And off.

Off!

They should make sure Professor Reynolds knows about this...

Good idea.

And they need to get lunch at some point too.

Maybe they can get the house elves to bring them all lunch in Professor Reynolds' rooms.

That sounds excellent.

Yeah.

Professor Reynolds is available for that, too.

Then they can share a meal and catch her up on what they learned from the ghost of Myrtle Lowe.

She hums, frowning. "It's good you two could get her to talk... I don't know of any spells that make their victims see eyes that aren't there, before dying without a mark, though if the victims hadn't left ghosts before we just might have never known..."

She leans back a bit, brow furrowed. "Which suggests she might've actually seen physical eyes, perhaps ones with a strange effect. There's a number of magical creatures that can work magic through their gazes, but not a prohibitive amount to investigate."

"Of course, she might've also been under an illusion or had her memory altered - though there would've been no real reason to do that before her death, and it's supposed to be impossible to alter a ghost's memories."

"When we were going through the old newspapers, there were a couple other accounts that reported a flash of yellow."

"...Exceptionally odd."

"It's not too strange the events would be linked, but... I'm not sure there's as many creatures that could do both petrification and death... It'll narrow a search down, at least."

Nod.

She sighs. "And there's that voice you two heard, too... It seems likely to be connected, though I think once you narrow everything we know to 'magical creatures that can talk' you hit 'none we know of.'"

"Myrtle said she heard talking right before she died, too."

She nods. "Though she didn't recognize the voice, right?"

"Not positively."

"It's more leads than we had, though. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"I'll see what I can find for possible creatures."

"Okay. Let us know if you need more help."

"I could use some help skimming through bestiaries, actually - there's not really an index that's useful for this, so a large part of the work that isn't 'mailing experts' will be just reading through books to list out everything that meets some of the requirements or just seems plausible."

"We can definitely do that."

"So the Fantastic Beasts book?"

"That, and a few others with different focuses that the library should have. I'll make a list of titles, as well as keywords I'd recommend looking for, though you should also use your own judgement on whether something that doesn't exactly fit the descriptions might be relevant - magical creatures sometimes have odd variants, and we might not have the entire picture, here."

"Right."

"Thanks."

She pulls out a piece of parchment, writing several things down.

Time for more sandwich. Extra horseradish.

Professor Reynolds finishes her list and sets to eating as well.

She hands the paper off to both girls before they leave.

They will see what they can make of it.

Yeah.

They still have their afternoon class... But they can get the books from the library before that, and start going through them tonight, maybe?

She'll have to verify that with the day planner. This investigation is throwing off her schedules.

Yeah... They've been staying caught up on homework and studying, though, even with History being harder to do on their own.

Probably one night won't hurt.

Nod.

Though there's a lot of these books, so it might take a bit to get through all of them... Probably they'll have to break it up over multiple days.

She'll work on fitting extra sessions in.

Ellie's always the most organized.

Otherwise she'd never get anything done! There's just Too Much.

Very sensible.

Too Much Sense!

Laugh.

No such thing, at least not when Ellie's doing it.

Ellie does it right.

She does everything right, really.

Her talents are indeed multifarious.

Yeah.

Anathema figures they should probably skim through the Fantastic Beasts book, first? It seems to have the most information and the best indexes out of all of these, and it's the only one that's really an overview of well known or common magical creatures...

Also seems to be the most accessibly-written.

Probably why it's their textbook and not the others - they also each have a copy of it, too, so they can split it in half to skim through.

Sounds like a plan.

To the books!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them doesn't actually describe many things that can petrify people, with or without gazes being involved, or that can kill with a glance. The Gorgons are the most notable of these, being a race apparently entirely composed of women (judging by their voices, and their shapes under full-body coverings). Even just seeing one turns most other creatures, including humans, to stone - they can keep the company of each other, the blind, and a few immune creatures alone. They're reclusive, having in the past fought with human mages, though Newt Scamander managed an interview with one enclave (location undisclosed), which was accomplished with safety by virtue of a screen between them, the Gorgon veiled, and Newt blind folded. The Gorgons are believed to have bred the first basilisks, which weren't documented until the early A.D. in Roman writings after some escaped. Gorgon-type basilisks were never longer than three feet, but (apparently to the surprise of the Gorgons) they killed everything not Gorgon-made that they touched or that met their gaze. No one's exactly sure how the Gorgon-type basilisks are bred, but humans, being humans, quickly tried to recreate the system. The earliest human-made basilisks were created in early medieval times, usually through witch-like traditions, and they have a tremendous variety of traits depending on how exactly they were made. They definitionally share a few traits - they cannot speak, are not beings, are reptilian, are immensely venomous, and have lethal gazes. Anyone creating a basilisk is usually its first victim, though one Swiss city was for a time protected by basilisks created by a local wizard. They're varyingly difficult to kill - one method innovated in English witchcraft starting in the 800s produced basilisks that could grow to dozens of feet long and had spell-turning hides like a dragon. These are the classic image of 'a basilisk' in English thought - an enormous snake, often with a crimson plume on its head. None have been documented in England since the 16th century, and none in the world since the 17th, and all methods of making them (save perhaps for the Gorgons, who wouldn't answer Newt Scamander about whether they still keep basilisks as pets) are believed lost.

There's also the bandersnatch, a reclusive and vicious creature believed to be native to the British Isles which has since spread throughout woodlands at the same latitudes. Its gaze usually just causes dizziness and confusion, though there's rumors of old, powerful ones causing death with just a glance. No one's sure if they can speak or use magic, or how intelligent they are (Newt Scamander believed them to be exceptionally cunning but not at all social).

Anathema also finds a few creatures that can turn others to stone with methods other than a gaze - venom or touch, usually - and a bunch that can cause fear or confusion or madness if looked at. Only one of the non-gaze petrifying creatures speaks, and it is described as having a smooth, deep voice, usually living in secluded marshlands, though no one's sure what they look like. Newt Scamander's notes include musings about whether it's linked to less well documented creatures known to petrify their victims (which aren't discussed in the book). There's also a bunch that cause paralysis, through gaze, touch, or venom, though the paralysis described is really different from what the victims they're concerned with suffered.

...It's a start, anyway. They do seem to be collecting those. Ellie's leaning towards the thing being something native to the British Isles, given Slytherin's political leanings.

Or some kind of snake - he was a known Parselmouth, and he used a lot of snakes in his heraldry and stuff.

Assuming it was even made by Slytherin, and not imported by someone else...