The Heiress of Slytherin

Ominous Warnings and Confusing Boys

There was nothing she could do with the information she had now, and if she heard it again then she'd deal with it at that time. Until then, she was looking forward to a nice, peaceful day off of classes and then a trip to see Tiamat and Galatea after. With this thought, she slid happily into a deep sleep.

The next morning reminded Ivy that at Hogwarts, there was no such thing as a nice, peaceful day. The whole school was in an uproar. Apparently, Ivy and Draco had missed the singularly most eventful dinner they could have.

Pansy and Selina told the story to Ivy, so full of interruptions and corrections that it all became rather messy. Despite this, in the end, Ivy felt she had a good grasp on the preceding night's events. And she did not like them at all.

Pansy and Selina said that they had just been leaving supper when they'd rounded a corner and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione standing in a pool of water, looking at a petrified Mrs Norris and a foreboding message written in blood on the wall.

As Ivy was turning the phrase "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware." over in her head, another thought snuck into her mind.

Poor Mr Filch had had his cat petrified. Sure, he was a grouchy old crank who shouldn't have been working with children, but nobody deserved something like that happening to them.

Ivy resolved to figure out something nice she could do for him, then returned to the most pressing matter. What the bloody hell was the Chamber of Secrets, who was the heir, and who were their enemies?

Her brain was spinning a mile a minute and the events of last night got tucked far, far away in the back. She had to talk to Harry, Ron and Hermione; she had one perspective, now she needed another.

Determined to find them, she sat down in the hall outside of the fat lady's portrait and waited. An hour passed of her sitting there, painfully bored, practising spells and chatting with the portraits. The fat lady was refusing to talk to her, but Ivy persisted anyways.

After a little while, she frowned thoughtfully. "What's your actual name?" she thought the nickname "the fat lady" was rather disrespectful and rude but didn't want to verbalise that in case it was the portrait's preference.

After a moment of looking at her sternly, the portrait spoke for the first time. "Elizabeth Spriggs is my true name." Ivy beamed ad nodded, taking this response as some territory gained in what she had determined she'd make a great friendship.

It would have to do for today, at least, because almost immediately after the portrait swung open to reveal Neville climbing out of the small doorway behind it. Ivy promptly sent him back in to retrieve the three she was looking for, and he twisted around, hollering their names.

They popped their heads out of the portrait hall and upon seeing Ivy waiting for them, clambered out one by one.

Before they could even ask why she needed them, Ivy was pulling them away from the prying eyes and ears of the people around them to their alcove looking out on the lake.

When they were all sitting Ivy waited for them to talk, but they just looked at her oddly. Finally, Ron cleared his throat. "Not that it's not lovely to be dragged through the castle to see you, but why are we here?"

Harry and Hermione's faces mirrored the same confusion and Ivy laughed disbelievingly. "Oh I don't know, does anything about a petrified cat, a warning written in blood and you three standing in the middle of it all ring a bell?"