Chapter Text
During class, Ms. Granger raised her hand. There was nothing odd about this action in of itself, but paired with the fact that he'd been in the middle of a lecture, it was surprising.
"Yes, Ms. Granger?"
"I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets?"
Merlin sighed. "How about this—if everybody is quiet for the rest of class, I'll spend the last ten minutes explaining what I know about it."
"That'd be wonderful, Professor. Thank you." Hermione leaned back, looking satisfied.
A bit later, Merlin finished talking about Nicholas Flamel's creation of the Philosopher's Stone. He was fairly certain that when Hermione glanced at Harry and Ron, the three of them looked outraged that this was in the curriculum this year and not last.
"So, what do you want to know about the Chamber of Secrets?"
"What exactly is it, sir?"
"There's a myth based around the fact that when the founders of the school were, well, founding the school, Salazar Slytherin wanted the school to be exclusively for all-magic families. After a while, Salazar and Godric Gryffindor got into an argument about this. Salazar left the school. This is all well-documented, and I believe that this information is all in Hogwarts, a History , but I could be mistaken. I'm not sure how accurate any of this is, as I was in France at the time."
Hermione frowned at him, but the rest of the class laughed at his "joke".
"Nobody knows for sure about whether the Chamber of Secrets is real or not, as Salazar is dead and the only people he would have told have had their family tree all but destroyed, but it's probably real. I doubt anybody would risk getting in trouble from doing this stuff without actually having the chamber open."
The laughter died out and Seamus Finnigan raised his hand. "You really think that it's real?" His face was suddenly pale, and he glanced at his friends who came from non-magical families in panic.
"Not sure," Merlin said. "Lots of weird things go on at this school. Just last year, one of the teachers tried to resurrect Voldemort. The Shrieking Shack popped up sometime around twenty years ago. I'm pretty sure it existed before then, but it wasn't considered to be haunted. And in a world where ghosts are real—" A crashing noise sounded from the corridor, and Merlin sighed. "—In a world where ghosts and poltergeists are real, why would somebody fear a haunted house? Shouldn't they know that they could just talk to the ghost?"
Murmurs of assent.
"Fifty years ago, a girl was murdered here."
Gasps of horror.
"Weird stuff happens," Merlin continued.
The entire class had their eyes peeled open and were watching him. "According to legend, Salazar created a secret chamber within the castle."
Ron snickered, breaking the tension in the room. "It can't be too secret if everybody's heard of it."
Merlin smiled. "That may be true, but, even though many great wizards have searched the school, there has been no trace of the secret chamber. Apparently, Salazar sealed the chamber so that the only people who could open it were his descendants. His heir alone, supposedly, has the ability to open the chamber and release a monster upon the school and purge the school of those who he deemed unworthy to study here."
The class was silent, then everybody started talking at once. Hermione raised her hand. "Professor, do you have any idea what the monster is?"
" If there is a monster, then I have no clue what they are. They would have to be able to petrify cats—and most likely humans—and sneak around the school without being noticed by hundreds of students. I can't think of anything that would be able to do that."
The class fell silent. What could, indeed, sneak around the school without being noticed but still be dangerous?