I Beg Your Pardon, Potter?

Chapter 40

Ron, thankfully, turned out to be just as bad at Occlumency as Harry was when he first started, which made Harry feel much better about himself. Though he was quickly shown up as Ron began to master it much faster than he had.

"Your Patronus analogy helped a lot," he said to Harry as they left Snape's classroom after their third Occlumency lesson with him. They had all, to varying degrees, been able to keep Snape out of their minds and he was quietly pleased with their progress. Or at least Harry assumed he was as he didn't insult them all before they left and may have even thrown in a 'good work' as the door closed behind them.

"When do we start our Potter training?" Blaise asked. They had taken to calling it this, much to Harry's chagrin.

"Well, Ron and I have Quidditch practice tomorrow night," Harry said. Pansy rolled her eyes, but Draco nudged her.

"And I have Quidditch practice on Wednesday night," he said.

"What is the point of Quidditch when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is out there?" she asked.

"Well," Hermione started to say, but Pansy waved off her explanation.

"I don't actually want to know, Granger. It was rhetorical."

"So Thursday then?" Blaise suggested.

"I think that should work," Harry said. "We can use the Room of Requirement." Pansy caught Ron's eye and smirked. "Not like that."

"It's an oddly useful room," Draco mused. "I wonder how it came into existence?" Harry shrugged.

"I imagine it was Helga Hufflepuff's creation," Hermione said. "According to Hogwarts: A History, each of the founders added their own touches to the castle."

"Salazar Slytherin added the Chamber of Secrets," Blaise said, picking up Hermione's train of thought. "Godric Gryffindor added the lake and the Sorting Hat."

"But thanks to misogynistic historians, we don't know what either Helga Hufflepuff or Rowena Ravenclaw's specific contributions were," Hermione finished.

"The Chamber of Secrets isn't real though, is it?" Pansy asked. Harry and Ron stopped walking and turned to stare at her.

"What? How can you say that?" Ron asked, flabbergasted. "Don't you remember second year, when Harry and I-"

"-Sure, Dumbledore said you rescued your sister from the Chamber of Secrets, but what's to say that really happened. I always thought that was a cover story that Dumbledore used to convince everyone that whoever had pretended to open the Chamber had been apprehended and there would be no more attacks on students."

"What, and he just gave us four hundred house points for fun?" Harry asked. Pansy shrugged.

"That's what he did the year before," she muttered.

"Yes, because we'd stopped Voldemort from getting the Philosopher's Stone," Harry said. They had all stopped walking now and were just standing in a circle in the middle of the dungeon corridor. Pansy was twisting the sleeve of her jumper in her hands.

"I thought that was a rumor too," she said. Now even Hermione was looking askance at her. "What? We were first years. I didn't know whether I should take the rumors or Dumbledore seriously or not. He has ended speeches with Nitwit, Oddment, Blubber and Tweak before. Plus, you were awarded points for things like winning chess games and being logical." She crossed her arms in front of her chest and hunched up her shoulders.

"Well, the Chamber is real," Harry said. "I can show it to you if you want." Now even Draco looked impressed.

"You can?" he asked.