Chapter One: Enter Draco Malfoy—No, Draco don't do that!
Harish Blake jumped out of bed one summer morning eagerly. Today was the day that his father had agreed to let his friends, Draco Malfoy, Fred, and George Weasley, to spend the night. Harish and the Weasley twins were going into their second year at Hogwarts and Draco was two years younger. With his father being Voldemort, Harish saw Draco and Lucius often.
Early that summer, he had met with Draco and explained that his two friends were Weasleys. Harish convinced the younger boy that Fred and George were quite cool, and that they did not approve of their family's blood-traitor status. Luckily Draco was still at an impressionable age, only being just under ten, and agreed to give the twins a chance—as long as he still got to make fun of their younger brother Ron. Both the twins and Harish readily agreed, for Ron wasn't exactly on their good side anyway.
The soon-to-be-second-year quickly changed, picked up his room, and ate breakfast. Then, he inhaled lunch and waited the last hour by the fireplace. Just before two o'clock, the flames turned green and a blonde headed boy emerged through the fireplace, falling promptly on his face. He sat up wincing and scowled as Harish began to laugh.
"I will manage to floo properly soon!" the boy whined defensively.
"I am just messing with you, Draco," Harish clarified, forcing himself to stop laughing.
"So where are these other friends of yours?" Draco asked eyeing the fireplace. "It is just like a Weasley to be late."
"They are not late yet," Harish replied. "You came too early." He prodded the younger boy playfully.
Draco sniffed in disdain. "Well, I find it better to be early than late."
"They are not late!"
Just then the flames burned green again and two redheads walked out. Draco scowled again, this time at the fact that a Weasley flooed better than him.
"Draco, these two are Fred and George Weasley. Twins, this is Draco Malfoy."
The three eyed each other, trying to evaluate whether they were worth the time or not. Draco continued to glower.
Harish huffed. "Draco, don't do that!"
The young Malfoy realized he was being rude and put on a smile for his friend. "Please forgive me," he said shaking each boy's hand. "I got ash in my eyes." Harish half snorted at that pitiful excuse and half sighed as the tension had passed.
"Did everyone bring their brooms?" Harish asked.
Draco nodded and pulled out his Comet 260 while Fred and George pulled out Shooting Stars. Draco bit down a comment about cheap brooms when he saw them and instead asked, "How are we going to pair off?"
"Well," Harish said, "We can't really play a real game because there's only four of us, so we'll play Mock-Quidditch. Since the twins both look like they can be beaters we'll split them up. So how about me and George verses Draco and Fred?" the others nodded. "Both Draco and I will stand in as chasers."
With that the four boys ran out back to the enormous lawn with two hoops charmed to stay up in the air as goals. Harish and the others kicked off and began to fly around the field. Harish grinned as the wind rushed past his ears. After a few minutes of flying they touched back down so that Harish could grab the Quaffle. He tossed it up in the air and as it began to come back down, the four boys began their game. Immediately Draco grabbed the Quaffle and began racing for the goal. George realized this and booked it around the goal and headed straight for Draco. George turned to face to the left and his shoulder stopped Draco from getting any further, causing the blonde boy to drop the ball. Harish, who had flown up underneath them, grabbed it and scored a goal. The game went on and on until they reached their time limit of three hours. They ended with a tie because their teams had been so evenly matched. When they finished, they landed with a bump to put up the Quaffle.
"Good game, guys," Harish said as they went inside.
"So, what're we—"
"Gonna do now?" the twins asked. Draco looked at them funny before raising an eyebrow at Harish. The boy in question laughed and made a "it's a twin thing" face.
"Come on," Harish said, leading them up the grand staircase to his bedroom. "I have something to tell you guys."
"What is it?" Draco asked as they pulled up chairs in a circle and sat down.
"Well, you know the Chamber of Secrets?" he asked, receiving three nods.
"It's a legend," Draco said as if it explained everything. "Everyone knows about it."
"Well it is not just a legend," Harish replied.
"What do you mean?"
"It's real, and we are going to find it."
"How?" the twins chorused.
"I don't know. My dad told me about it and said that it took him six years to find it. He says that if we find it before our sixth year, he'll give us a reward."
"What kind of reward?" Draco queried, perking up.
"The kind that we get to choose what we get."
All three boys grinned and said together, "I'm in." Then after a second, Draco slouched and began to pout.
"What's the matter, Draco?" Harish asked.
"How am I supposed to help you if I'm not even going to be at Hogwarts?"
"You could always ask your dad if he knows anything about the Chamber," Harish replied reasonably. "I'm sure he'd love to find that you're taking an interest in it."
Draco grinned and said, mocking his father's voice, "Oh Draco! I am so proud you have come asking me about your heritage! I always knew you weren't blood-traitor!"
The two boys sniggered at their inside joke, leaving a very confused Fred and George behind.
Then Harish sobered. "You know this means that you'll have to actually write me this year. As I recall, you didn't send me a single thing all year long!"
"Sorry," Draco replied bashfully.
"So," Fred said. "How do we find—"
"This Chamber? Where do we—"
"Even start?"
Harish considered this for a moment. "I guess we should start in the Slytherin dorms, then look through all the dungeons, and then search any other part of the castle."
The twins nodded, pondering this. Then Draco put in, "I think that I will also look through the library back at Malfoy Manor, as well as interrogate my father."
"That sounds good," Harish agreed. "I will look through the library at school since these two bums won't set foot in there."
"What can we say, mate?" the twins asked in unison.
"The library is horrible," Fred said.
"Verified cause of death," George added.
"How do you die from a library?" Draco asked incredulously.
"Ok," George said, looking like he was about to rehearse a well-planned court case. "Say it's exam time."
"And the library is packed with people—" Fred added.
"So packed in fact, that—"
"It nearly makes you suffocate. And you're in there studying—"
"Really hard! And there are three options—"
"A: You die from overheating."
"B: You die from suffocation."
"Or C: You die from starvation because you wouldn't take breaks from studying so much," the twins ended in unison.
Harish half laughed and half shook his head in exasperation. He had heard this theory several times. Draco though, frowned in confusion. Apparently there were several things they had said that utterly confused the nine-going-on-ten-year-old boy.
"But…how would you die from overheating?" he finally blurted out.
"Come on, think!" Fred exclaimed.
"Wouldn't you get a little hot,"
"If you were in a library absolutely packed with,"
"Frantic, sweaty people?"
"Plus," Harish cut in because it was quite funny. "Exams are in the late spring. Even with the windows open it would be stifling hot."
"Exactly," the twins agreed.
Draco nodded as if this made perfect sense and the two red-heads smirked. Harish simply shook his head. Sometimes, the two of them were really ridiculous.
"Okay," Harish finally said, steering his friends back to their previous conversation. "So after today, maybe I could go over to Draco's and help him start looking through the Malfoy Manor's library. I could stay with him for a week and then spend the last two weeks over at the Burrow?"
Draco nodded. "I know my father will be fine with it as long as yours is."
The twins nodded as well, replying with something along the same lines, "We'll ask Mum when we get back. I'm sure she'll say yes."
"Well then!" Harish said clapping his hands together and hopping up. "That's all settled then!" He led the others to his father's office and he knocked gently on the door before heading in. "Father?" he asked addressing the tall, pale man that sat in his high leather-bound chair. "We were wondering if I could arrange to stay with Draco for the next week and then the last two at the twins' house?"
Lord Voldemort seemed to consider this for a moment before replying, "That seems completely reasonable."
Harish grinned. From his father, that meant yes. He watched eagerly as the Dark Lord walked gracefully over to the great fireplace and threw floo powder into it.
"Lucius Malfoy," he stated, sticking his head in. "My son wants to know if he can stay a week at your manor. Yes. I'll tell him that." He pulled his head out and turned to Harish. "Mr. Malfoy said, 'Don't forget to bring your broom.'"
Harish and Draco grinned at each other. "Thanks dad!" Harish exclaimed. "I will owl you Mrs. Weasley's reply!"
With that the four boys ran up to play a game of Exploding Snap. The next morning, as planned, the twins flooed back to the Burrow while Harish loaded up his trunk for school and the rest of summer. They intended to visit Diagon Alley with the Weasleys and the end of the summer. Then he and Draco flooed over to Malfoy Manor.
BACK-TO-THE-SLYTHERIN-LAIR—YAY!
"Father?" Draco asked, peeking his head around Lucius' office door. "I was wondering if you would help me with something?"
"Yes, what is it Draco?" Lucius asked distractedly, flicking a page of his newspaper with a wave of his wand.
"What do you know about the Chamber of Secrets?"
Now this got Lucius' attention. He laid his newspaper down gently and sat up to peer down his nose at his son, his eyes looking less cold.
"Ah," he said dramatically. "I always knew this day would be coming! Nice to see you are already looking into the Slytherin House's past. You will be a Slytherin for sure! Yes, I do know about the Chamber though. It was opened when my father was in sixth year. They say that there was a dispute between Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor. Slytherin believed that the other founders should be more precise in who they let into their school. Gryffindor, however did not agree. So, according to legend, Slytherin created a Chamber that could be opened by his heir alone. It was said to be the home of a horrible monster. No such Chamber has been found of course."
"You said it opened?"
"Yes. About fifty or so years ago. The school was put into a state of panic. Nearly shut down."
"Where could the Chamber possibly be?" Draco asked.
"Wanting to find it for yourself, eh?" Lucius joking with a hint of a jeer in his voice.
"I was only wondering where it could be if no one has found it yet. It must be in the least likely place."
"Thoughts of a true Slytherin," Lucius said before returning to his newspaper as if indicating that their conversation was done.
Draco nodded thinking hard and returned to the library, where he found Harish sitting on the floor with huge mounds of books all around him.
"Draco!" the older boy exclaimed, smiling. "I think I've figured out how to locate the general area of the Chamber!"