Chapter 62 – Ghost Professor
Lucifer was sitting in the Library one evening, with Harry and Ron sitting across, while Hermione looked in another part of the Library for Hogwarts: A History.
Not that anyone would find it, Lucifer has read the book cover to cover a dozen times since he bought it, and nothing about the Chamber of Secrets was in there.
He was currently reading through Greatest Wizards in History for the third time since Hermione had gotten it for him for Christmas.
She really believed he could one day be in the book itself, and after she found out about his relation to Merlin, she only reaffirmed her stance on it.
Ron and Harry were both busy writing their History of Magic Homework.
Professor Binns asked for a three foot-long composition on, 'The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards,' and Ron was frustrated, "I don't believe it... I'm still Eight inches short..." He dropped his parchment and it sprang back into a roll.
"Hermione has Four feet Seven inches... Lucifer got an even Five feet... and their writing was tiny !" He complained to Harry and sighed.
After that, Ron tried to look over at him, “Lucifer, could I-"
"No," he responded without letting Ron finish his question. He didn't even take his eyes off the book.
“You don't even know what-"
"You were going to ask me if you could read my Composition, and my answer is no. You've had ten days to work on this, Hermione and I got ours done on Day Three. You have no one to blame but yourself,” Lucifer said matter-of-factly.
"It can't hurt to ask her, though," Ron said.
"If you even try to bother her with your own shortcomings, I'm torching that paper,” Lucifer said, finally looking up at him.
Ron went wide-eyed and dared not ask Hermione in the slightest.
But, she did show up a moment later, exasperated, “All the copies of Hogwarts: A History have been taken out, and there's a two week waiting list..." Hermione sighed, sitting down next to Lucifer.
She looked over and smiled when she realised, what he was reading.
"Why don't you just read yours?” Ron asked without looking up, trying to finish his paper.
“I left mine at home because I had to fit all of Occlumeny, plus Standard Grade 2 with Lockhart's books... what a waste of space those are....”
“Occlu-wh-”
"Why do you want it?" Harry rudely interrupted Ron's question, with one if his own.
“The same reason as everyone else wants it," she said to him, "to read up on the Legend of the Chamber of Secrets!”
"What's that?" Harry asked.
"That's just it, I can't remember," Hermione said, biting her lip, “and I can't find the story anywhere else...”
"You could've just asked to borrow mine,” Lucifer chimed in.
“What are you - you had your copy the whole time!?" Hermione asked in a loud voice, causing her to be shushed by Madam Pince.
“Why didn't you tell me, before?!” She asked in a much quieter tone.
"You never asked...” Lucifer said, trying to make Hermione a fool, it caused him to receive a slap across the shoulder.
He even feigned pain for a few minutes.
The bell eventually rang and Hermione led the way from being a little frustrated with Lucifer, so she power walked her way to History of Magic.
She was seated when the three boys walked in and Lucifer sat beside her, setting the most sought after book down in front of her, "You won't find what you're looking for, though, it mentions nothing of the Chamber of Secrets....”
"Really?" She asked in a disheartened voice.
“Yeah....” Lucifer just shrugged, as Professor Binns floated into class through the chalkboard.
History of Magic was easily the dullest subject on the schedule, and possibly the entire school.
Binns, being the only Ghost Professor in the whole school, had a droning voice that easily put one to sleep.
Ancient and shriveled, many people said he hadn't noticed he was dead, and probably still wasn't aware.
One day, after a fire in the staff room, he simply got up to teach one day and left his body behind.
His routine has not changed in the slightest since.
Today was as boring as ever, but Lucifer managed to stay awake in every class, despite his desire to close his eyes with every word Binns spoke.
There were only two students among the entire Second Year able to stay awake and have pages full of notes, and they were Lucifer Morningstar and Hermione Granger, but they both agreed that it was still boring the way Binns spoke.
Only, the reason for Lucifer's notes being complete is very different from the bushy-haired girl's, using a Auto-mated quill like in his 1st year.
Which Hermione really wanted to break, from deep inside her heart.
Talking about, Professor Binn's entire routine, for several hundred years, it had always been the same, until that day, when Hermione Granger raised her hand.
Professor Binns, glancing up every now and then from his notes, had to do a double take upon seeing a girl with their hand up, abruptly stopping his lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289.
His face looked as though he was actually seeing his students for the first time in centuries, "Yes Miss - er-"
“Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets?" Hermione asked in a pretty clear voice, making sure this ghost heard.
It causes, Students all over the room to break out of trances and stupors.
Professor Binns blinked, "My Subject is History of Magic," he said in his dry, wheezing voice, "I deal with facts , not Myths and Legends.”
He cleared his throat with a noise like chalk snapping and continued his lecture, "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian Sorcerers-"
Binns stuttered to a halt as Hermione's hand waved in the air for the 2nd time.
"Miss Grant?" he asked, with a confused face.
It made Hermione think, if Ghosts gets amnesia? She was really doubting this question.
“Please, sir, don't Legends always have a basis in fact?" She asked him.
Professor Binns looked on in amazement.
It was as though no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead.
"Well..." he said slowly, "yes, one could argue that, I suppose. However, the Legend of which you speak is such a very sensational , even ludicrous tale-" he paused, noticing that every student, for the first time in probably ever, was hanging onto his every word, "Oh, very well," he said slowly, "Let me see... the Chamber of Secrets...
"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded a little over a thousand years ago - the precise date is uncertain - by the four greatest Witches and Wizards of that Age.”
“Merlin is regarded as the greatest Wizard of all time, but that's not relevant to the Chamber. Anyway, the Four School Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle away from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when Magic was feared by common people, and Witches and Wizards suffered much persecution."
He paused to take a glance around the room, noticing they were still hanging onto his every word and continued.
"For a few years, the Founders worked in Harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of Magic and bringing them to the Castle to be educated. But then... disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between them, specifically Slytherin and the other three.
“He wished to be more selective of the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, be it one or both parents, believing them to be untrustworthy.
After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and then Slytherin just left the school.”
Binns paused again, but he looked unsure of himself.
He pursed his ghostly lips, looking like a wrinkled old tortoise.
"Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said, continuing on, "but these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other Founders knew nothing.”
"Slytherin, according to the Legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open until his own true Heir arrived at the school.
The Heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic!”
There was a silence that fell upon the class as he finished telling the story.
It wasn't the usual, sleepy silence that filled his classes.
There was unease in the air as everyone continued to watch him, hoping for more.
This caused Professor Binns to look faintly annoyed.
"The whole thing is arranged nonsense, of course," he said, trying to dissuade them into believing it, "Naturally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a Chamber, many times, by the most talented Witches and Wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible!”
“Sir-” But, Hermione wasn't really having it today, raising her hand back in the air, “- What exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the chamber?”
"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control," he said in his dry, reedy voice.
The class, however, exchanged nervous looks.
“I tell you, the thing does not exist!" He said, aggravatedly shuffling papers around on his desk, "There is no Chamber, and no Monster!”
Lucifer leaned back in his chair, ignoring everything else said, because it was clear that Professor Binns could not be moved on his stance.
Just because no evidence was found, does not mean it never exists.
Only, no one knows what to look for, or where to start looking.
Lucifer even stopped his quill for not even bothering to copy down anymore names or dates.
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Author's Note
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