The Last Slytherin - Chapter 37

Neal, Dumbledore, Prof. McGonagall, Snape, Lockhart, and Filch, all of them went to Lockhart’s office. Then, Dumbledore asked him in a hurry, “now, tell me. What do you mean by there is no monster in the chamber?”.

Neal replied, “I found the entrance to the chamber of secrets, on the night Harry went off to fight Prof. Quirell. It’s in Myrtle’s bathroom”. Hearing it, Prof. McGonagall snapped, “you went to a Girls bathroom in the middle of the night?”.

Neal replied, “It’s not like anyone would go there, anyway. And it isn’t my fault that the entrance was built there. Don’t ask me how I know about it. Everyone has their, own ways and secrets.

Anyway, I opened the chamber and went inside to see an empty hall with a big Salazar Slytherin’s statue there. There wasn’t any monster like how it was mentioned in the legends. If you don’t believe me, I can take you there now”.

Lockhart replied, “I knew it. It was exactly there in the right spot. I held myself to open the chamber and fight the monster because I thought it won’t be good to enter the girl’s bathroom. Well, she’s a ghost, but still a girl. Too bad there wasn’t anything. I always wanted to fight against the Basilisk”.

But no one is paying attention to his ramblings while Dumbledore asked, “can you take me to the place?”.

Neal nodded, “sure. Let’s go, now. I also want to catch the real killer who not only committed a crime but also framed me with it”.

Later in the afternoon transfiguration classes, everyone was whispering about Harry and Ron who became the Prime suspects as they were always known to be rule-breakers and hates Filch and Neal.

Then in the middle of a class, Hermoine raised her hand and asked, “Professor, I wonder if you could tell us about the Chamber of secrets”.

Everyone stopped talking and looked at the Professor as she replied, “before Salazar Slytherin left the school, he built a chamber which houses a monster of Slytherin. It is said that only a true heir would be able to open the chamber and clear the muggle-borns from the school who Salazar Slytherin deemed to be unworthy to study magic”.

As everyone looked at Neal for once as he’s the true heir, Prof. McGonagall continued, “however, in the morning, Mr. Neal Slytherin, who is the true heir opened the chamber for us to clear suspicions on him and just as he claimed, there is no monster present as claimed in the legends”.

Neal interrupted her and said, “wouldn’t that mean what I’ve said in the last year’s debate is likely to be true? Salazar Slytherin never hated Muggle-borns. Because he probably knew that the Muggle-born magical children are the descendants of the Squibs who married Muggles. That’s why he never put a monster in the chamber”.

While his statement shocked Hermoine and the rest of the class, especially muggle-borns, Prof. McGonagall replied, “I bet you read that book in the restricted section. There’s only one book which mentions it”.

Neal then continued, “Although there’s no conclusive evidence, it might be true that muggle-born magic children might be the descendants of Squibs who married muggles and lived in muggle society.

It’s the only way that can explain how a muggle-born can even possess magic. They just possess the magic that their ancestor, a Squib was supposed to have”.

Prof. McGonagall nodded, “Mr. Slytherin, it is important to talk about facts rather than unproven theories. Nobody was able to prove it until now even after five centuries. Now, let us stop talking about it and continue writing the notes”.

Later in the evening, Neal requested Bloody Baron, Slytherin’s ghost to ask the rest of the ghosts to spread the news of his innocence. Even though the suspicions on him died down and suspicions on Harry and Ron being the culprits spread out by Malfoy in secret, to his surprise, many people even cheered for Ron and Harry for doing the right thing as everyone hates Filch.

It made Filch haunt Harry over and over whenever he encounters him. Ron, on the other hand, was uncomfortable and was pissed at Neal who threw the suspicions from his head towards theirs. Soon after a week has passed, everyone just forgot about the incident except Filch.

In the last week of November, Slytherin won against Hufflepuff with a gigantic score 330-30 with Neal scoring 11 goals and then the last match against Ravenclaw was also won by Slytherin with 200-180. Ravenclaws were hugely disappointed as they lost the match even though Cho Chang caught the snitch. The main star here is once again Neal who scored 12 goals and brought Slytherin to finals against Gryffindor.

In one of the Gryffindor training sessions before the Finals, Wood gathered everyone, “Harry, you must catch the snitch at all cost. And we have to make sure to stop Neal’s special moves. From the other two matches, I’ve analyzed his trick.

Neal has the talent to make the broomstick accelerate to its limit. It’s a short burst which will a lot of drain energy. I’ve seen that technique used by players in the Quidditch World cup. As for his trick, when he has a defender before him, he will choose one side, left, right or bottom on the spot and make a sharp cut at the exact moment he reaches you which made him seem to disappear right under your eyes as you will be slightly distracted of collision.

It will become more dangerous if multiple people are defending before him as he will have more options as we have seen in the Hufflepuff match. Although it will drain his energy faster. Since most players get intimidated by his continuous goals, they will have a slight lack of concentration which makes his job done even easier.

At last, considering the goals he has scored so far, after scoring 7 or 8 goals, he starts to get tired and will get more ȧssists from his team who are reserving their energy while he’s burning our his and our entire team’s energy with his trick. Then after doing it for 6 or 7 times, his energy will be drained completely and the rest will take over the match.

And according to the counting, he used that skill 21 times against the Hufflepuff game and 27 times against Ravenclaw. So, it’s safe to ȧssume that 25 to 30 is his limit. We just need to make sure he will do at least 20 times over the match without scoring.

Finally, everyone should remember this one thing. No matter what never let Neal into the scoring area. I can’t stop his goals with his burst trick

As the Gryffindors were planning how to take care of Neal, meanwhile, Ginny threw the diary in a toilet in Myrtle’s bathroom mumbling, “it’s better to get rid of this magical diary now. Ever since I’m having a conversation with Tom Riddle in the diary, I keep having memory losses from time to time, feeling weak for no reason, Not to mention, that blood back then…”

After throwing it away, Ginny returned to her room in a hurry and sat down on her bed while sighing with relief, “finally got rid of it. But Tom Riddle helped me so much with my studies. Is it really okay to just dump it just because I’m suspicious?

Maybe it isn’t because of the diary at all. Should I go back? No, better be safe and just wait for a week or so. If I suffer a memory loss again, I’ll just go and take back the diary, then I will go to the hospital wing for a check-up”.

A couple of weeks passed quickly and Ginny didn’t look for the diary again as she wasn’t suffering from memory losses anymore and thought that the diary must be the reason. But her fears weren’t stopped as she kept on thinking what if someone finds it and Riddle in the diary will tell them her biggest secret that she has a crush on Harry and he will listen about it from someone.

One more week later, just before Christmas vacation starts, she snuck out in the night to go to Myrtle’s bathroom and checked all of the toilets. As she didn’t find the diary, she asked Myrtle about the diary. Myrtle became angry upon hearing Ginny was the one who unintentionally threw the diary at her. So, she just replied in a fury, “I don’t know. Some boy took it”.

Ginny returned with panic as it exactly happened as she feared. Meanwhile, in his room, Neal sat on his bed while looking at an empty diary figuring it out if the letters were hidden or not. As Isle hissed, Neal asked, “do you really think something wrong with this diary, Isle? What is it?”. Isle shook her head and hissed, “I don’t know”.