Y/N was walking down the corridors alone, trying to return to her dormitory, when she abruptly stopped in her tracks after hearing an eerie voice.

"...rip....tear....kill..."

She could hear a faint murderous voice muttering in her ears, but when she looked around, she saw nobody was with her.

"...so hungry....for so long..."

She heard it again— maybe through the walls. The voice seemed to slither away, too, as it was moving.

"...kill....time to kill...."

"HECK NO– not on my watch!" Said Y/N, running in the voice's direction.

She dashed through the corridors, making sharp turns on every corner, and ran down the staircase to the entrance hall when she unexpectedly bumped into Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"Harry!" Y/N shouted in surprise, a bit hoarse from running. "What are you– what are you–" trying to catch her breath.

"...I smell blood...I SMELL BLOOD!"

Y/N and Harry were the only two who looked pale from hearing the mysterious voice.

"It's going to kill someone!" Harry shouted.

"I heard it too," Y/N joined.

"You did?" Harry looked incredulous.

She nodded, " 'I smell blood' it said."

"So I'm not going crazy," Harry said and was a bit relieved.

"No, Harry, you were never crazy. If you were, then we both are," Y/N assured. "We better catch up with it—"

The quartet hurled around the whole of the second floor, not stopping until they turned into the last, deserted passage.

They panted as they made a stop.

"How come only you two could hear it?" Ron asked, wiping the sweat off his face. "Hermione and I couldn't hear anything..."

Hermione suddenly gasped, pointing at something.

"Look!"

Something was written on the wall, dripping with red ink that looked too similar to blood.

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

"What's that thing hanging underneath?" Said Ron, a slight quiver in his voice.

Y/N gasped at the gruesome sight of Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, hanging by her tail from the torch bracket.

She knew this scene would happen, both in the movie and the book, but it just felt different in real life when she knew everything was real, the pain was real.

While the books were mere words and the movies were mere acting, no harm was done to anyone.

But this was Y/N's reality now.

All the pain the characters felt was now real to her and it affected her just like everyone else's, in fact, probably more so.

The quartet was about to leave the scene, but it was too late as a sea of students came bustling in from either end of the corridor where they stood.

Silence fell among the mass of students pressing forward to see the grisly sight.

"Enemies of the heir, beware!" Draco broke the silence. "You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

The teachers saw the bloody scene and the quartet was immediately brought into questioning at Lockhart's office.

However, since there was no solid evidence that they did it, they were let go without being punished. Professor Snape and Filch didn't seem too happy that no one was punished for it.

For a few days, life went on as normally as it could. The school could talk of little else but the attack of Mrs. Norris. Thus, the Quartet was isolated and avoided by others for a while, but they had bigger things to worry about: The Chamber of Secrets.

The Golden Trio had a new obsession now as all they could concern themselves with were WHERE and WHAT the Chamber of Secrets; what could be inside it; and who opened it?

They instinctively assumed Draco Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin and opened the Chamber of Secrets as he fitted the bill perfectly. Just look at his family; he was a pure-blood, filthy rich kid who boasted about his status like a prince and hated Muggles more than anything.

Draco had every intention to open the Chamber of Secrets.

TIME SKIPPED

In the third week of December, a lot had happened but the group was mostly focused on brewing some Polyjuice Potion and ultimately getting a confession out of Malfoy.

But a piece of parchment on the wall had caught their attention one day, saying a Dueling Club would take place that night at eight o'clock in the Great Hall.

"Could be useful," said Ron to Harry, Hermoine, and Y/N as they went to dinner. "Shall we go?" He suggested.

"Sure, I'd love to see Harry duel with..." Y/N trailed off.

"With who?"

"Nothing, let's just go!"

So that night at eight sharp, they returned to the Great Hall for dueling lessons. The long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared, lit by a thousand candles floating overhead.

"Gather around, gather around! Can everyone see me? Can you hear me? Excellent!" Said Lockhart, silencing the crowd.

The crowd watched as Snape and Lockhart demonstrated a simple disarming charm that left Lockhart tumbling a few steps backward and losing his grip on his wand. He was obviously flustered but covered it with his words and pearly-white smile.

He kept narrating everything while trying too hard to look amazing which annoyed Y/N slightly. Snape seemed just as irritated by Lockhart as he looked at him murderous.

Lockhart seemed to sense this and quickly said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me—"

The two professors moved through the crowd, matching up partners. Snape reached The Quartet first before Lockhart did as if he had his eyes on the group from the start.

"Granger, you go with Willow. Potter–"

Harry moved automatically towards Ron.

"I don't think so," said Snape, smiling coldly, "Mr. Malfoy come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Potter... Mr. Weasley, you go with Mr. Fannigan—"

Malfoy strutted over, smirking.

"Face your partner! And bow!" Lockhart called, back on the platform.

"Wands at ready!" Shouted Lockhart.  "When I count to three, cast your charms to Disarm your opponent– ONLY to disarm them. We don't want any accidents. One... Two... Three—"

"Expelliarmus!" Hermione shouted and Y/N's wand flew out her hand.

"Well done, Hermione," Y/N praised, looking impressed while picking her wand off the floor.

Hermione gleamed proudly, "Thank you."

"My turn," Y/N pointed her wand at her, "Expelliarmus!"

It wasn't just Hermione's wand that got knocked back but also herself. Her wand flew about 10 meters across the room while she panted from the impact.

"Impressive..." said Hermione huskily.

"Are you alright, Hermione?" Y/N asked, worried she might have gone overboard.

"I'm fine," she replied and went to retrieve her wand.

It hadn't even been a minute when Lockhart was shouting at everyone to stop. Only then did Hermione and Y/N realize the chaos that had ensued in the Great Hall.

Malfoy was on the floor, laughing uncontrollably from getting hit by a Tickling Charm whereas he had cast a Dancing Jinx on Harry. Now his legs jerked around in the air like an uncontrolled dance.

Ron was apologizing for whatever his broken wand had done to Seamus whose face was covered with ash. Some students had their arms the size of a club, and others were in a headlock.

"Finite Incantatem!" Snape shouted and all students went back to normal. Well, except for the headlock one.

"Dear, dear," Lockhart looked at the aftermath of the duel. "I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells. Let's have a volunteer pair– Longbottom and Finch-Fletchery, how about you?"

"Bad idea, Professor Lockhart. How about Malfoy and Potter?" Said Snape with a twisted smile.

"Excellent idea!" Said Lockhart, gesturing the two into the middle of the Hall.

Each Professor whispered something in their students' ears; Lockhart advised Harry on some defenses and Snape whispered something into Draco's ear, which made the boy smirk wickedly.

No one knew what they were talking about. No one but Y/N knew what it was.

"Three– two– one!" Lockhart shouted.

Malfoy raised his wand quickly and bellowed, "Serpensortia!" The end of his wand exploded.

Y/N looked shocked but not surprised upon seeing a long black snake shoot out of it, fall heavily on the floor, and try to raise itself.

"Don't move, Potter," Snape said lazily, "I'll get rid of it..."

"Allow me!" Shouted Lockhart. He pointed his wand at the snake and shot a spell that flew it ten feet in the air.

Instead of vanishing, the snake fell back on the floor with a loud thud, unscathed and angrier. It hissed furiously and slithered towards Justin Finch-Fletchery and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.

"No, don't do it!" Y/N cried seeing the snake about to bite the boy.

"Leave him!" Harry shouted at it, too.

And as if the snake understood the two, it held back and slumped to the floor. Harry and Y/N knew the snake wouldn't attack anymore now, though how they knew it, couldn't be explained.

"What do you two think you're playing at?" Justin shouted angrily at them, and before Harry could say anything, Justin turned and stormed out of the Hall.

Y/N looked just as confused as Harry did. All they said to the snake was to leave the boy alone and now everyone was looking at them like some caveman seeing fire for the first time.

Snape stepped forward, waved his wand and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. Snape, too, was looking at the two in an unexpected way; as did Malfoy; practically everyone in the hall did.

"Did I say something wrong?" Y/N muttered to Hermione and she just returned a grave look.

"Come on—" said Ron to Harry and the two girls.

They dragged them out of the hall, and people on either side drew away from them like some disease, frightened of catching something. Ron didn't say anything until they left the hall to a secluded area.

"You two are Parselmouth. Why didn't you tell us?"

"A what?" Harry asked confusedly.

"I am??" Y/N looked shocked.

"A Parselmouth!" Ron repeated to Harry. "You can talk to snakes!"

"I know," said Harry. "I mean, that's only the second time I've ever done it. I accidentally set a boa constrictor on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once– long story– but it was telling me it had never seen Brazil and I sort of set it free without meaning to. That was before I knew I was a wizard..."

"A boa constrictor told you it had never seen Brazil?" Ron repeated faintly.

"So?" said Harry, "I bet lots of people here can do it."

"Oh, no they can't, it's not a very common gift. Harry, this is bad..."

"What's bad?" said Harry, starting to feel quite angry. "What's wrong with everyone? Listen, if I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin-"

"Oh, that's what you said?"

"What do you mean? You were there... You heard me."

"I hear you speak Parseltongue," said Ron, "snake language."

"No, I heard Harry speak perfect English..." Y/N narrowed her eyes. "He told the snake to leave Justin alone–"

"Right?" Harry gleamed. "See, even she heard me."

"That's because she's a Parselmouth, too! Of course you'd understand each other."

"But how could that be? Aren't people who are Parselmouth usually descendants of Salazar Slytherin?" Y/N asked.

She knew Parseltongue could only be inherited, with Harry being an exception. But why the hell could she speak the language?

"They are," said Hermione, speaking at last in a hushed tone, "That was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin house is a serpent."

"And now the whole school's going to think you two are his great-great-great-great-grandchildren or something..." said Ron.

"But I'm not," said Harry with a panic he couldn't quite explain.

"You'll find that hard to prove," said Hermione. "He lived about a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be."

"No," Y/N said firmly, knowing the truth. "He's not, He can't be. I, on the other hand, might just be..."

"You're related to Salazar Slytherin!?"

"I don't know for sure," Y/N spoke again in a hushed tone. "The truth is... I'm adopted."

"Oh– well, that's no mystery," Ron said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Hermione nudged him hard, causing him to yelp. Y/N chuckled amusedly at his comment because even she knew it was plain to see.

She continued, "One thing for certain, the Willows aren't my real parents." 

The only people Y/N had ever considered her parents were from her past life, which now that she thought about it, must be wondering where their daughter was. Did they mourn for her? Do they still remember her?

Y/N missed her parents dearly and was saddened that she could never see them again in this life.

"Then who is?" Hermione reluctantly asked.

Y/N just shrugged somberly, " I don't know... But my real parents died a long time ago..."

Her parents aren't actually dead but it's not like Y/N could see them ever again. She thought it was as good as being dead, right?

Her words tugged on Harry's heartstrings as it hit too close to home. Having the impression that she was an orphan like him, Harry knew exactly how it felt to have both their parents dead, he understood that more than anyone else.

"I'm sorry..." Harry muttered. Slowly, he embraced Y/N, giving her a hug he wished others had given him. 

Y/N didn't realize how much she needed that hug until she did, her tears just started flowing as years of pent-up emotion burst out through her eyes.

"I miss them... I miss them so much..." Y/N cried, buried her face on Harry's shoulder, and embraced him.

"I know, I miss mine, too..." Harry muttered longingly.

Hermione was in awe seeing her friends in tears as she joined in and hugged them both, followed by Ron as the four of them bundled in a comforting embrace.