A Very Dangerous Mother
The next day, Harry noticed that several students were looking at him strangely as he walked through the castle.
It wasn't just him.
They were looking at Percy too.
Even Tyson seemed to be affected by it. Before, everyone in Hufflepuff had seemed to adore him and constantly offer him snacks. Now they appeared to avoid the three of them ever so slightly.
Not completely, since they still handed Tyson a few snacks now and then.
But they'd quickly walk away afterward with somewhat forced smiles, like Justin Finch-Fletchley, who hurried off whenever he saw Tyson talking with Harry and Percy.
"Don't worry about them, Tyson," Percy said immediately, concerned that the little giant might feel bad about it.
But Tyson didn't seem to care in the slightest.
"They're still nice. Not like the sphinxes," Tyson said with an easy smile, making it impossible not to wonder what sphinxes had to do with any of this.
Percy never got the chance to ask, because the magical two-way mirror inside Harry's bag suddenly started being tapped.
A call from home.
Normally, Harry would've answered right there in the Great Hall without thinking much of it.
But now, with everyone seemingly watching them, he simply stood up, followed by Percy and Tyson, and headed into a quiet corner of the corridor before taking it out.
They'd expected Sally.
Instead, Sirius's face appeared in the mirror, greeting them with a grin.
"What? Don't tell me you're snooping through Mom's bag again," Percy said the moment he saw the familiar face.
"What? No!... Well... yes... but only because I wanted to talk to you, and owl mail takes forever," Sirius defended himself quickly, though his explanation didn't exactly help his case.
Harry and Percy gave him the same sideways look.
"Right, I don't have much time before the others get back," Sirius said quickly, glancing toward the door. "I heard about the latest mess at the castle. I know I asked you to come up with an excuse to get me into Hogwarts, but... did you really go and open the Chamber of Secrets? That seems a little excessive, even for you two. Then again, I'm not surprised. James and I spent a while looking for it ourselves. That's how we ended up making the Marauder's Map, which—"
Before Sirius could keep rambling, Harry cut him off.
"We didn't do it," Harry said immediately, his tone turning serious, clearly irritated.
"Oh? You didn't?" Sirius replied, though the way he said it made it obvious he was joking.
"Wait. You know about the Chamber of Secrets?" Percy asked at once.
"Well, a little. It's an old legend that's been around since Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago. According to the story, one of the founders had very different ideas from the others. He believed in the purity of magical blood. Care to guess who?" Sirius asked with a mocking grin.
Harry didn't even need to think about it.
"Salazar Slytherin," he said, frowning.
"Who else?" Sirius replied. "The story goes that when he couldn't convince the other founders to admit only pure-blood witches and wizards instead of also accepting Muggle-borns and half-bloods, he left Hogwarts in a rage after fighting with Godric Gryffindor. But before leaving, he supposedly created a hidden chamber somewhere inside the castle—the Chamber of Secrets. According to the legend, he hid something there. Something dangerous enough... a monster, meant to be released by his heir, the one who opens the Chamber. And only that heir would be able to control it, using it to purge the school of everyone Slytherin believed didn't deserve magic," Sirius said, his voice growing slightly darker.
As Sirius spoke, the boys grew increasingly serious.
"Pffft." Sirius blew air through his lips. "But don't pay it too much attention. It's just a story that's been passed down for generations. Who even knows if it's true? After all these years, not a single Headmaster has ever managed to find it. Like I said, we even tried ourselves. Odds are some idiot from Snake House stumbled across the legend and decided it'd be funny to scare everyone. We saw that sort of thing all the time back when we were students. What kind of idiot goes around announcing he's the Heir of Slytherin and has opened the Chamber of Secrets?" he said dismissively. He clearly hadn't believed it for even a second.
"How can you be so sure?" Percy asked more seriously.
"Well, I'm not one hundred percent sure. But... don't you have someone you could ask about it?" Sirius replied calmly.
That made Harry and Percy think of the exact same person at the exact same time.
"Aunt Mor," they both said in unison.
"Thanks, Sirius. That actually helped. And remember to put the mirror back in Mom's bag. Also, you really should stop going through it. Mark got an earful the last time he did," Percy said immediately.
Tyson raised a hand to wave goodbye while Harry slipped the two-way mirror back into the bag without even remembering to say goodbye to his godfather.
"Wha— Wait—"
The call ended before Sirius could finish.
...
On the other side, Sirius was sitting in his office, part of the magical laboratory assigned to the wizards working for the Order. He stared at the mirror, which now reflected only his own face after the call had been cut off.
Sally's bag was still sitting beside him, while several of the things inside had been completely scattered across his desk.
"Those kids are way too impatient," he muttered, not having gotten to the reason he'd called them in the first place.
Running a hand through his hair, he prepared to tap the mirror again so Harry would answer.
"What are you doing?"
The sudden voice made the veteran wizard jump slightly before he immediately turned around.
Without him noticing, someone had walked right up to him and was now staring at him with complete disdain, as though his very existence was the most unpleasant thing imaginable.
Gray eyes slowly scanned Sirius from head to toe before shifting toward the desk and the familiar bag resting on it.
A mocking smile spread across the man's face.
"Well... to think that such a great so-called pure-blood wizard spends his time stealing. I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed in what the magical world has become," he said mockingly, speaking as though he were looking at a stray dog.
"Oh. It's you," Sirius said as he looked at the unmistakable figure of Merlin's supposed descendant, Mark, another of the Order's members... or perhaps the one who had been working for it the longest.
Judging by Sirius's expression, he didn't seem to appreciate his coworker very much.
Judging by Mark's expression, the feeling was entirely mutual.
"It seems Azkaban didn't do much for you. Perhaps, just like that foolish wizard... what was his name? Malfoy? We should send you to a Muggle prison so you can experience what he did. Maybe then you'll finally break that habit," Mark added.
"And who's going to lock me up? You?" Sirius shot back. "You can't even leave a room without carrying half a pantry's worth of potions with you. And you're supposed to be Merlin's great descendant. I'm starting to think Merlin solved everything with a cauldron instead of magic."
"That's because I prefer excelling at what I'm actually good at. Unlike you, who'd rather wave a little stick around like an overexcited ape," Mark replied in the exact same tone. "And, by the way... who do you think brewed the potion that's keeping your friend from turning every knight in this place into mangy dogs? Although..." He paused briefly as he looked Sirius up and down. "I think I might've been a little late in your case."
The two of them stared at each other for several long moments, as though a fight could break out at any second.
Eventually, Mark clicked his tongue in annoyance before walking over to the desk and beginning to put Sally's belongings back into her bag.
"You have no respect for anything," he said with open disapproval.
Behind him, Sirius mimicked his gestures like a child, completely ignoring him while getting ready to tap the mirror again and call Harry back.
At that exact moment, the laboratory door opened.
Both men turned their heads at the same time.
Sally stepped inside carrying several materials, wearing a gentle smile.
She stopped dead in her tracks.
Her gaze slowly lowered toward her bag, sitting on the desk while Mark had one hand inside it, frozen in place.
Then she looked at Sirius...
...who was still holding her two-way mirror in one hand.
He froze as well.
Silence filled the room.
Neither of them dared move a finger.
Sally's smile didn't disappear.
If anything, it grew just a little wider.
Her eyes...
Didn't.
"Well..." Sally murmured. "It turns out my twelve-year-old sons have better manners than two grown men."
She paused briefly.
"I suppose I did at least one thing right while raising them," she added in the same sarcastic, venomous tone both of her sons had inherited.
Sirius slowly raised a hand.
"I can explain..." he tried to say while looking at Sally's smiling face, a smile that was very different from her usual one.
"So can I," Mark immediately added.
But Sally cut off both excuses.
"Lately, Mor has been teaching me a rather interesting spell," Sally said calmly as she set her materials down on a nearby table. "It turns people into guinea pigs."
Sirius and Mark froze completely.
"I didn't think I'd ever have a chance to try it, since it doesn't seem particularly useful. Although Mor says there's a certain sorceress who's strangely fascinated with using it on men."
A brief silence followed.
Sally smiled kindly.
"I think I'm starting to understand exactly why," she said.
Both men felt a cold chill run down their spines.