One afternoon in mid-December, Blaise, Anja and I came into the Slytherin Common Room to see a large group of students gathered around the notice board.

We walked over to have a closer look and saw a piece of parchment that said the school was starting a Duelling Club. The first meeting was going to be at 8:00 tonight.

“Wow, a Duelling Club!” Anja exclaimed with interest. “Wonder who’s running it?”

I laughed darkly. “It better not be Lockhart.”

We entered the Great Hall to see none other than Gilderoy Lockhart walk onto the stage. I groaned.

“Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has given me permission to start this little Duelling Club, to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions – for full details, see my published works. Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape,” he said, indicating my father, who was now walking up to the stage. “He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about duelling himself and had sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don’t want any of you youngsters to worry – you’ll still have your Potions master when I’m through with him, never fear!”

I hoped we wouldn’t have our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher when Father was finished with him.

They then demonstrated how to duel.

Apparently, we had to bow, raise our wands, and then cast our spells.

Father used the Disarming Charm and Lockhart was thrown backwards off the stage.

Lockhart then began rambling on and on about how he knew what Father was going to do.

Finally, he decided to put us into pairs.

I was put with Blaise and Anja with Evangeline, who was standing nearby.

Lockhart told us to Disarm our opponents only. “One…two…three…”

“Expelliarmus!” I shouted, and Blaise’s wand flew out of his hand.

“How did you do that?” he asked in amazement as I picked his wand off the floor and gave it back to him.

But then we were distracted by Harry and Draco at the other end of the Hall.

“Tarantallegra!” Draco shouted and Harry’s legs began jerking around.

Father quickly fixed him and Lockhart said he would tell us how to block spells.

I suspected it wasn’t going to go well.

Father suggested Draco and Harry for a demonstration. Lockhart agreed.

“Three – two – one – go!”

“Serpentsortia!” Draco yelled, and a long black snake shot out of his wand.

Lockhart shouted an indistinct spell and the snake flew ten feet into the air. When it landed on the ground again, it was furious and slithered over to Justin Finch-Fletchley, a Hufflepuff.

I was about to step forward and tell the snake to leave Justin alone, when Harry stepped forward.

“Leave him!” he shouted, but the words came out in a kind of hiss and I realised he was speaking Parseltongue.

The snake obeyed Harry and moved away.

I frowned. “Harry’s a Parselmouth?”

Next to me, Blaise nodded. “This isn’t good. People are going to suspect him of being the Heir of Slytherin, especially after him being right next to Mrs Norris when she was discovered.”

Justin seemed to be one of those people, because he looked at Harry and shouted, “What do you think you’re playing at?” before storming out of the Hall followed by Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones and Ernie Macmillan.

Everyone around us started muttering and I heard the words ‘Parselmouth’, ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Heir of Slytherin’ being passed around the room.

Harry then left the room with Ron and Hermione.

“Ah, that’ll be the end of this meeting!” Lockhart told us, his smile fading slightly. “You are dismissed!”

I left the Hall quickly. I had to talk to Harry.

“Harry!” I called after him.

He turned around, looking confused. “What?”

“I need to talk to you!”

He sighed. Turning to Ron and Hermione, he said, “You two go on ahead without me.”

They went off up the stairs to what I figured was the Gryffindor Common Room.

“What is it?” he asked me.

“You can talk to snakes!” I said.

He frowned. “Yeah, and why does that matter to you?”

“Because,” I explained patiently, “I can too!”

He raised his eyebrows. “Right. I’m sure that’s really common here, though.”

I shook my head. “Nope. Only descendants of Salazar Slytherin can talk to snakes. We’re both descendants of Slytherin, you see.”

“Right,” he replied sarcastically. “How do you know who I’m descended from?”

I sighed. “How thick can you get? In case you hadn’t noticed, Harry, we have the same mother! And our mother is descended from Salazar Slytherin!”

Harry finally got the message. “So…I’m the Heir of Slytherin?”

“No,” I told him firmly. “You’re a Gryffindor.”

Then I walked away.

***

The next morning, it had begun snowing. We had Charms with the Ravenclaws first.

The lesson was exceptionally ordinary.

I envied the other two houses somewhat as they had been given a free period. But halfway through class, I heard the voice.

“Come to the Chamber…the Chamber of Secrets…”

I turned to the others at my desk – Anja, Blaise and Alex – and told them I had to go. I didn’t say where, but I think they all worked it out from my expression.

I walked up to Professor Flitwick. “May I go to the bathroom, Professor?”

He nodded. “Of course! Have you succeeded in the spell we were learning?” I nodded. “Wonderful!”

I left the classroom. I wasn’t lying about having to go to the bathroom.

After all, I was going to Myrtle’s bathroom.

I entered and Myrtle glanced up at me. She was standing in front ofone of the cubicles, looking slightly puzzled.

“What is it, Myrtle?” I asked.

“Oh, those three, Harry, Ron and Hermione, I think their names were, came in here. They’re brewing some strange potion on the toilet seat!”

Cautiously, I pushed open the door. There was a huge cauldron, bubbling away.

I decided not to disturb it.

I left Myrtle muttering potions under her breath, and went into the Chamber.

As soon as Tom-Ginny saw me, she told me, “I’ve decided that we need to move a bit quicker. So we’re going to do two attacks today. I’ll call the basilisk. Come…Slytherin’s monster…come…attack Muggle-borns in the school.”

With a start, I realised that if Tom Riddle was still able to possess Ginny, she must still have the diary. I made a mental note to remind her to get rid of it.

From then, my time in the Chamber went as normal. The basilisk slid off and I made my usual excuse to leave.

I knew by now that there was nothing I could do to stop the basilisk and so I just had to hope that whoever the poor victims were, they would only be Petrified.

I dashed up the staircases, letting my feet take me wherever they wanted.

I ended up at the end of a dark corridor. I heard a faint hissing noise that subsided quickly.

The basilisk?

But before I could take another step, Peeves came whizzing past me.

“ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!” he screamed.

I walked further down the corridor as doors around me began opening.

And there they were – Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, and Justin Finch-Fletchley. Harry Potter was standing between them.

Somebody really needed to teach Harry that he shouldn’t be around when trouble was happening, because he was always nearby.

Ernie Macmillan stepped around from behind me and yelled, “Caught in the act!”

“Don’t be silly, Ernie,” I muttered. “Harry didn’t do anything.”

He glared at me. “How come he’s always around then? How come he’s a Parselmouth?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I know for certain that he can’t be the Heir of Slytherin.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s a Gryffindor! Be logical!” I exclaimed.

Ernie glared at me and stormed off.

So now I had someone else to add to my list of enemies.

Wonderful.

McGonagall appeared and escorted Harry to Dumbledore’s office. I knew neither Dumbledore nor McGonagall thought he was guilty.

But I knew who the guilty one was.

Me.