Bab 101: Chapter 101: Impostor Syndrome
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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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3 December 1992, Hogwarts
Before making a scene, it was better to be absolutely sure, "Sure, Milly. How are you doing with that spell I taught you? Are you still having problems with it?"
Well, Harry knew for a fact that Millicent hated the nickname Milly since Pansy always kept calling her Silly Milly whenever she messed up something. And well, she and Harry barely interacted with one another, and since she started joining Malfoy's group, she would have been in deep trouble if he heard that Harry was teaching her anything, really.
So, when she didn't grit her teeth and didn't deny her being with Harry, in front of the people who were essentially Malfoy's enforcers, Harry knew immediately that she was an imposter and so were Crabbe and Goyle.
She nodded, "Yeah, I think I'm getting it, but I really need to ask you a few questions."
The Potter scion repressed the urge of rolling his eyes at her pathetic attempt at changing the subject. Hermione really wasn't cut out for the whole deception thing, was she?
Harry really should just expose them, and he definitely would. But doing so would earn him the enmity of the Golden Trio. They barely even spoke to Harry this year, and he wanted to keep it that way. So, why involve himself when he could pin it on someone that they already hate, like Malfoy, who was glaring at the trio, probably thinking that they were betraying him or something? He might as well also lead them on a bit, especially since they were doing this because they're probably thinking that Harry is the heir of Slytherin or something similarly absurd.
So, instead of yelling out that there were intruders in the house, he smiled at them, "I'm always available to help my housemates. What do you need help with?"
Crabbe was the one who asked that time, "The Chamber of Secrets."
Well, that was easy, "Yeah, Slytherin's infamous chamber. It's a shame people are using it to spread fear the way they did. I'm not sure, of course, but my guess it would be the fact that Slytherin tricked the other founders and hid his magic in the chamber to do it."
This was honestly the theory Harry had come up with, and he didn't mind sharing it."
"Wait, what? I thought he made it to house the beast that killed muggleborns. I mean, Mudbloods, sorry," Goyle exclaimed.
"Goyle, did you forget? You can't say that word in here. It's against the rules. Malfoy might get away with it because of his father's influence, but I don't think you can do it. Even then, he's been reprimanded a lot of time in private and the prefects have even contacted his mother."
Yeah, the way their eyes widened amused the Potter scion but instead of answering the questions and revealing house secrets, he continued, "As for your question, the whole blood purity thing started appearing after the Statute of Secrecy was put in place as a way to preserve nobility in a world that was full of wizards. Before then, there were only nobles and peasants, whether they are magical or not. Slytherin wanted to ban peasants from entering the school. I can see his point to be honest."
Millicent looked aghast, "What? How could you say that?"
Damn, Hermione really wasn't subtle, "Well, it's not about them being lesser, it's about them being uneducated. A thousand years ago, peasants didn't know how to read, how to write, how to behave. They were farmers, and workers, that only thought about how to survive the following winter. Just bringing them up to speed to learn any magic was too time-consuming and Slytherin wanted to bar them from entry. However, the other founders refused since that meant that any sign of accidental magic started a witch hunt at the time, and a lot of muggleborns burned to death back then. So, instead, they came to a compromise, to have a basic exam before starting a magical education, which is available for everyone, but if they failed it, they would have to attend basic classes before they could start learning. If they failed these, they were expelled. No one was happy about it, but it was the only compromise that they could reach."
"I never read that in any books," Millicent replied.
Harry grinned, "Because you're probably reading in the public history section. If you take a look at the research books in the back, especially the ones from before the statute of secrecy, you will see it. For some reason, people have made it very hard to find out about the founders."
Seeing Millicent wanting to argue back, Crabbe interjected, "And the Chamber?"
"Oh, right. I got a bit overwhelmed. It's a bit of a theory of mine, but I think that Slytherin tricked the other founders. The main selling point of Hogwarts was the library. The four founders sacrificed their family spells and their research to build the foundation of the libraries. The founders shed their family names and created the fake ones that we know. Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, these aren't real names, and the real ones were scrubbed from all texts, probably with a spell of some sort. And since nobles greedily wanted the knowledge, they enrolled their heirs, which is how Hogwarts started. What I think happened is that Slytherin only shared a portion of his family legacy and hid the rest in the chamber for his heir to access. He essentially swindled the other founders of their family legacy for a fraction of his own. It does fit his character. The whole monster thing could just be some kind of protection for anything attacking the castle, but not the students. Definitely not the students."
Goyle was gritting his teeth, probably insulting Salazar Slytherin under his breath. So, that must be Weasley then, "So, the monster. What do you know about it?"
"Well, everything, really. It's pretty obvious when you know where to look."
"You got that from just two attacks?" Millicent interjected.
"No, you only have to look back on the events where the chamber was opened the last time, around fifty years ago."
"What?" the three impersonators exclaimed.
"Well, yeah. People don't want it to be spread, but around fifty years ago, the chamber was opened. Over a dozen muggleborns were petrified, but the attacks stopped when one died, and the school almost closed. They put the entire thing on a troublesome student and expelled him, even if the beast he had didn't match the pattern. I think it was an Acromantula or something. They should have been expelled anyway, but they just put it all on him so that the school wouldn't close. And since the attacks stopped, they all put it out of its mind. But since that information is documented, it's easy to find a clear pattern, and adding in the current clues, the nature of the beast is easy to figure out."
"So, what is it?" Crabbe asked excitedly.
"Well, that would be telling. Honestly, I was hesitant until Longbottom started to speak in Parseltongue."
"You think he's the heir of Slytherin?" Millicent asked.
"Merlin, no!" Harry responded, "Whoever is doing it is smart enough to evade me. Longbottom doesn't have a subtle bone in his body."
"Then do you think that he's a descendant of Slytherin or something?" Crabbe asked.
"Probably not. The only reason I jumped immediately at him being a Parselmouth was because the Dark Lord was a Parselmouth. Not much is known about how Longbottom escaped the killing curse and while there are many theories, a lot of wild and raw magic was expelled that night, at least according to the Unspeakable report that was leaked to the public. It is possible that somehow the Dark Lord's magic made an imprint of sorts with Longbottom, giving him the ability to speak Parseltongue. It's far more likely than him having a magical ancestry that was hidden for centuries, while it could have been providing a lot of prestige for the family. You have to remember that before Voldemort, Parseltongue was mostly known for its rumoured healing abilities, not the weapon of terror that the Dark Lord used to his advantage."
"Yeah, but is the fact that Longbottom can speak Parseltongue mean anything when it comes to the Chamber of Secrets?" Millicent asked.
Harry shrugged, "Of course, it does, the fact that Longbottom is speaking Parseltongue correlates with the fact that I heard a few paintings say that he was following a voice to Filch's body, one that no one else could hear. Slytherin was a proud and poetic being, he would only have some kind of snake as his ultimate weapon. So, I theorized that Longbottom was a parselmouth. So, that narrowed the list of beasts into reptiles that are extremely long-lived. Looking at how the petrified bodies looked, the behavioural pattern of spiders recently, and a lot of little things, finding the beast's nature is elementary. Of course, Slytherin could have just created an entire creature just to become his ultimate weapon, but the clues are too much."
"So, what is it?" Goyle asked with an annoyed voice.
"Now, that would be me stopping you from the sense of accomplishment of finding it yourselves. Consider it a test of sorts," Harry answered with an infuriating smile on his face.
They were all obviously angry at Harry's dismissal, so he continued, "I have to admit that I can see why Dumbledore is keeping this quiet. I can see the school closing down, and him being fired if it was revealed to the public, especially since he knew about it for decades and did nothing to stop it. I can't say I would be disappointed, he's objectively the worst headmaster this school has ever had."
"You're wrong!" Crabbe exclaimed.
Damn, those kids were too easy. The Potter scion simply shrugged, "Political agenda aside, Dumbledore took out the most books from the library. Ever since his appointment, over five magical courses, were removed, over a dozen clubs were cancelled, and magical research became at an all-time low. Hogwarts graduates literally need retraining whenever they get into any kind of technical apprenticeship and a few guilds literally just reject applicants from the school automatically since our curriculum is too limited. He also has two other full-time positions on top of being headmaster, so that takes up a lot of his time."
The three imposters looked at each other hesitantly, "But he's the most powerful wizard in the world."
"I don't care about who he is. I care about the school and my education. In the unlikely event, he doesn't know what the beast is, then people would have severely overestimated his intelligence and extensive magical knowledge, but, well, that's absurd. Because if a student with less than two years of magical education can find out what it is, then he should know. So, that means that he has to know. I can only hope that he actually starts taking action against the heir, because if the monster is what I think it is, then we could all die with a single attack. The only reason this hasn't made national news is because it's just normal petrification, which can be easily remedied with a Mandrake Draught. If it was a curse or something unknown, the ministry would have been all over this."
Crabbe leaned it, "So, do you have an idea who is responsible for all of this?"
"The question is not who," Harry said, "The question is how… The key to this mystery lies in the past. To know who is responsible for the attacks today, you need to find out who was responsible the last time the chamber was opened, fifty years ago."
Crabbe's eyes widened when Harry essentially quoted Dumbledore from the stories. Longbottom must have heard it as Harry's counterpart did in the books. Deciding to excuse himself, the Potter scion spoke up, "Well, I'm kinda sweaty and need a shower. I spent two hours sparring with Daphne, you see. It's nice to see you, Milly, Greg, and Vince. Don't hesitate to come back if you have any other questions."
Well, that was fun, but everything must come to an end. He had to say that his little mission was somewhat successful. He had diverted the trio's attention with a lecture that they didn't need about the founders, taught them a lesson about the fact that Slytherin wasn't some racist asshole, and shook their faith in Dumbledore's leadership since he knew what the beast was for decades, and didn't do anything about it.
But that wasn't the cherry on top. What was the fact that the moment the three impostors turned to speak with Malfoy, Harry sneakily cast a modified revealing charm that would only work after he activates it manually? It was easy to use arithmancy to incorporate a feature like that was extracted in many curses.
This was going to cause trouble for Dumbledore immensely. There are wards around all the common rooms. Only someone sorted in Slytherin could enter the Slytherin common room. They would need to permission of the head of house or the headmaster otherwise. Dumbledore must have disabled the wards or given them access without anyone knowing, and the heads of houses were going to ask him a lot of questions about it.
Harry, then, pretended to walk up the stairs and put on his cloak of invisibility to watch the fallout and waited until they looked like they were going to leave and activated the curse. A few seconds later, while the three Gryffindors were talking to Malfoy, their features immediately reverted back to normal.
The common room stood silent before it exploded into noise. In a fraction of a second, the golden trio were unconscious on the ground and Professor Snape was called by one of the prefects.
Well, that was fun.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
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