𝔪𝔢𝔱𝔞𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔭𝔥𝔬𝔰𝔦𝔰
vingt-et-un. — the chamber of secrets!

Persephone yawned for what seemed like the hundredth time that hour as snores filled the air. She was sat in Professor Binns History of Magic class. Also known as the dullest class in the entirety of Hogwarts. Professor Binns was an older professor, nobody was quite sure of his age but he looked like he would drop down dead any day, and he had a monotone voice that sent all his students to sleep. Not that he noticed — the old man seemingly existing in a trapped cycle of repeating his days over and over in a bubble.

Even Persephone who had a deep thirst for all knowledge, a need to know all she could about everything could not concentrate in his lessons. She found herself interested in the topics they covered and researched them in her free time — but Binns' voice seemed to put all of his students in a trance like state of utter boredom.

She had her head leaning on her palm, having given up concentrating long ago. Her friends were scattered on the desks around her in similar states, Druella had her head slumped in her arms asleep, Walburga resting her head on the other girls arm as she too drifted off. Costia and Lestrange were sat together at the back of the room — swapping saliva as usual — Abraxas seemed focused on trying to light his work on fire with a nonverbal spell. She wasn't too worried about as so far he hadn't managed to create so much as a spark. Tom was the only student in the class who ever paid attention, but it appeared he was done taking notes and had began once again writing secretively in his diary.

Her lips quirked into a small smile as she watched Fleamont Potter continuously throw scrunched up pieces of parchment at the oblivious teacher. The rest of the Gryffindor's they shared the class with either asleep or cussing some kind of mischief. Normally arguments would spill out between the two houses in classes, but nobody had the effort during History of Magic — it was their unofficial nap time.

When they were finally released from Binns torment, all the students were lethargic and glad that they had lunch next, walking down the corridor beside Abraxas Persephone laughed at his pouting face, "I almost had it! I swear I saw sparks!"

"I'm sure you did," Persephone nodded sympathetically as she patted him on the back, "I've got to go see Dumbledore now."

"Why?"

"He's sending me on a secret mission to assassinate the Minster for Magic." Persephone told him with a straight face before strolling off in the other direction.

"Sometimes I really can't tell when she's joking," Abraxas mumbled as Walburga pulled him along, he glared at Walburga who was holding his arm as he huffed, "I'm still mad at you!"

"Brax, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry for calling you ugly." She pinched his cheek mockingly, "I thought you already knew."

Persephone turned the corner, her lips pulling into a large smile as she heard the two starting to fire spells at each other — Abraxas finally mastering the Incendio charm non-verbally by the sounds of it.

Good for him.

Her steps were light and slow as she strolled down the corridors at a leisurely pace, dreading the meeting she was about to have that the Professor tried to disguise as 'tea and a catch up'. However she knew the older man just wanted to keep an eye on her, it was clear as day that any faith he had in her was waning as his suspicions of her grew. She knew he thought all of his looks and squinted eyes went unnoticed by her, but she had a good eye. It upset her truly, he was the first face she knew — but the moment she had been put in Slytherin he had been wary, it was a slippery slope from there.

"Professor Dumbledore?" She called from the open doorway as she watched the man sat behind his desk grading papers.

"Ah! Persephone come in please!" He gestured to the comfortable looking scarlet chair he had transfigured across from his desk. Throwing herself down gracefully, she watched the man shuffle the papers in front of him and put them aside, "You would think that after six years my students would remember to put their names on their essay's — alas there's always a few."

"Don't get me started, the amount of times I have had to remind Nott to put his name on the top of his essay's."

"Ah yes, Mr Nott," Dumbledore laughed fondly, "luckily he has quite distinctive handwriting — it's not too hard to tell which work is his." Persephone found her mind peeking back to Nott's chicken scratch writing with a wince as the Professor gestured to the bowl on his desk, "Lemon drop?"

Smiling politely she picked up the wrapped sweet, "Thank you Professor." Popping the sweet into her mouth, she found she quite like the sour flavour of it.

"I will admit sweets are somewhat an addiction of mine," he said in a friendly tone, "no matter how hard I try to break their grip on me, I keep coming back for more."

"Well at least it's not an addiction that's too harmful," somehow she knew, this conversation on addiction was not just about sweets. Persephone however could not figure out what his hidden meaning was just yet, "though you might find yourself with a few cavities if you aren't careful."

He nodded in a somber way before unwrapping another tooth — seemingly resigned to his fate, "And how are you feeling about your upcoming OWL's?"

"Prepared," she smoothed down her skirt in an absentminded manner, "I know I was extremely behind at this beginning of this year, but I feel that I have learned so much already in such a short time and I simply cannot wait to learn more."

That was the full honest truth. Persephone found that she loved all branches and types of magic. All unique and purposeful in their own ways. She adored the feeling of magic rushing through her bloodstream, and the satisfaction of finally mastering a particularly difficult spell such as the patronus charm — it had taken her weeks to finally find the right memory, one that was strong enough.

"Yes, I applaud your interest in your academics — you very much remind me of myself in my youth. Though with a tad less facial hair and rambunctious," his lips pursed into a thin smile as he spoke the next words, "I had heard you have been spending an awful lot of time in the restricted section, my dear?"

It took all of her willpower not to grit her teeth and hiss back that he wouldn't care if it was anyone but a Slytherin with an interest in the restricted section, "That is correct, I have made it my mission to try and read every single book in the library before the end of my seventh year," she grinned at the thought of all that knowledge, "even the books deemed 'dark' and 'unsuitable' by those Ministry bastards." She briefly paused to mutter an apology for her language — the Professor simply raising an eyebrow in response, if they had any common ground it was that the Ministry was in fact full of bastards, "Did you know a lot of books in that section are simply their because they question the way the British government handles magic and the teaching of it? It's like their trying to censor our leaning. Don't even get me started on the things they consider to be dark."

"You make a very interesting point, Persephone," for once she could tell he was being honest — his blue eyes twinkling
behind his spectacles, 'however you should be more careful what you say and who you say it around, the walls have ears and this is not a conversation you want the wrong person to hear."

"I will take that into consideration, sir."

—————

Wandering out of Dumbledore's office, Persephone let out a relived breath, lunch would be over soon but if she was lucky then she would catch the end of it and be able to grab a hot chocolate before her next class.

The corridors were barren, deserted — just how she liked them. Persephone could almost get lost in her daydreams that Hogwarts was all hers, her home, her safe haven. Each and every inch from the daunting and spooky Forbidden Forest which she ached to explore, right down to the cozy library that she lived in more than her dormitory.

She froze in her tracks when a strange hissing voice echoed through the walls, "Come... Come to me... let me rip you... let me tear you..."

The voice froze her in place. It was so cold and venomous she could almost taste it in her mouth. Frowning she placed her ear against the cold stone wall, walking slowly along it following the voice, "...kill... time to kill..."

Persephone took a shuddering breath. That voice. It was so inhuman, so wrong. And she found herself even more worried by the words she could hear slithering from its mouth.

Her feet moved faster than her mind as she raced up countless stairs. Coming to stop in a secluded corridor, Persephone first found herself face to face with her own pale complexion, the floor length mirror in the hall coming into view. Next she saw a boy, no older than thirteen laying on his back, his body completely still and stiff as though he had been left out in the snow for too long. She couldn't see if his chest was moving, so she crouched down beside him, flinching in shock when she touched his skin only to feel a marble texture to it.

Persephone swallowed harshly as she stared into the boys seemingly dead blue eyes, panic overtaking her as she mustered up the strength to use her voice, "Help! Somebody help!"

However the most disturbing factor was painted on the stone walls across from them, the violent red shocking against the grey stone as it dripped ominously onto the floor like macabre teardrops, 'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir... beware.'

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED ENEMIES OF THE HEIR... BEWARE.

Her brows furrowed as she read the words over and over again trying to make sense of them, and what they had to do with the young Gryffindor boy laying like a statue on the ground. The boy's features were a mask of terror and she briefly recognised him as a second year Gryffindor who had picked fights with a lot of Slytherin's that year — he had a strong opinion on the house of snakes and believed every single one of them to be evil,

It hadn't bothered Persephone, he was an ignorant child. With a lot of misplaced courage, even going as far to try and start something with Persephone and Abraxas when they had been in the library. He was a ferocious little cub with an attitude, but she wondered who he had managed to anger so badly he ended up in this state.

The pitter patter of feet came suddenly as her calls were finally answered. People stopping in shock at the sight before them, terror plastered onto their faces as they stared up at the writing on the wall.

Tom walked calmly over to her from the crowd, grasping her elbow he pulled her up from the stone floor that had surly left bruises on her knees he pulled her back from the body just as Dumbledore and Merrythought arrived on the scene — the entire hallway descending into an eerie silence that was so thick it left some physically shaking.

Suddenly the halls of Hogwarts seemed much darker.

AUTHORS NOTE!
Apologies for this trash chapter. Honestly I've been in a tiny slump atm, I have a LOT of stories that I want to be writing and I just can't write any of them because I want to write all of them. It's confusing and annoying and I just found that my writing wasn't flowing like it usually does when I was writing this,

Hopefully the next chapter will be a bit more on track lmaoo,

Also Seph has authority issues and I just think that's very sexy of her.

Stay safe! Remember to vote, comment and or share please if you enjoyed <333

Unedited
-summer