"Hiss—!"
The moment Professor McGonagall's voice fell, a collective gasp echoed through the classroom. Faces across the room turned pale with dread—many of the Hogwarts students were visibly shaken.
As the bell signaled the end of class, Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way toward the door. They had barely walked a few steps when Draco caught up with them.
The four gathered together. Harry was the first to speak.
"Any idea what kind of monster Professor McGonagall was talking about?"
The mention of the Chamber and the monster once again sent an uneasy silence over the group. No one spoke for a moment, until Draco broke the quiet with a rare note of reassurance.
"Don't worry, Harry. You've got nothing to fear—you're a Potter, a member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, a true pure-blood wizard. You'll be fine."
Harry shook his head, clearly distracted.
"I'm not worried about myself."
As he spoke, Harry's eyes drifted toward Hermione. Ron, too, turned to her with a look of concern.
Seeing this, Draco fell silent.
Of the four, three hailed from pure-blood wizarding families—the Sacred Twenty-Eight—and thus had little to fear from the rumors surrounding the Chamber of Secrets. But Hermione, the only Muggle-born among them, remained silent. Harry and Ron wanted to offer comfort, but neither knew quite what to say.
Though Hermione shared their anxiety, she also knew she couldn't just sit and wait for danger to come.
Oddly enough, in this moment of fear—when death seemed not just possible, but imminent—her mind drifted to that strange group from the other night: the Secret Order.
Maybe… if she'd accepted their offer back then, perhaps she could've asked them about the Chamber. Maybe they could even offer protection.
Hermione quickly shook the thought from her head.
No! That group—no matter how mysterious or powerful they seemed—reeked of danger. There had to be another way. There must be another way, she told herself firmly.
Just then, Harry suddenly grabbed her arm, jolting her out of her thoughts.
"I've got it!" he said, excitement creeping into his voice. "There's someone we can go to—someone who might actually know the truth about the Chamber. And if he wants to, he can protect you too."
At this, Draco scoffed, bored.
"Let me guess—Professor Dumbledore? Don't hold your breath. There are too many Muggle-borns at Hogwarts for Dumbledore to protect them all."
Harry didn't answer. He kept his eyes on Hermione.
After a brief pause, Hermione's expression suddenly shifted—something had clicked. She and Harry spoke in perfect unison:
"Wentworth."
The name shocked both Draco and Ron.
Draco hesitated.
"Wentworth is impressive, sure... but he's still just a student at Hogwarts. Do you really think he could take on whatever monster Salazar Slytherin left behind?"
Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance but didn't answer.
Draco and Ron hadn't been involved in the Forbidden Forest battle at the end of last term, and thus had no idea who Wentworth truly was. But Harry and Hermione knew.
Over the summer, they had spent a great deal of time poring over old records and rumors about the Alliance. The more they learned, the more they were astounded by its history.
If there was anyone at Hogwarts besides Dumbledore they could trust, it was Wentworth Grindelwald, the current leader of the Alliance.
At that moment, Wentworth stepped out of the Hogwarts library, arms full of books. As he pushed open the door, the first thing he saw was Harry standing a few feet away.
Harry immediately waved enthusiastically.
But Wentworth had absolutely no interest in engaging with the so-called "Boy Who Lived." He was far too busy for that.
Between his obsession with ancient magical runes and the looming grand opening of the Central Bank of the Wizarding World, Wentworth had more responsibilities than ever. On top of that, he was constantly exchanging letters with Auston, instructing him on how to run the bank using modern Muggle systems of finance and management.
And that wasn't all. Since the start of the year, Rosier and Abernathy had been deliberately assigning internal matters of the Alliance to Wentworth—training him to handle the responsibilities of leadership.
Needless to say, chit-chatting with Harry Potter was the last thing on his mind.
So the moment he saw Harry, Wentworth pretended as though he'd forgotten something and turned to head back into the library.
But before he could even take a step, Hermione was suddenly standing in front of him, blocking his path.
Wentworth sighed internally. He knew then—this wasn't just a casual run-in. They wanted something from him. And the thought made him all the more reluctant to engage.
His path to the left? Blocked—Draco was approaching. His path to the right? Ron was already there.
He was surrounded. Unless he wanted to curse his way through, there was no avoiding them.
With a weary sigh, Wentworth said:
"All right. What do you want?"
The four let out a breath of relief. The fact that Wentworth hadn't simply walked away—or hexed them—meant he at least cared a little about their feelings. They all knew: if Wentworth had really wanted to leave, there'd be no stopping him.
Harry stepped forward eagerly.
"Wentworth, I wanted to ask—do you know what the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is?"
Wentworth frowned.
"The Chamber? Monster? What are you talking about?"
His reaction left them staring at one another in confusion. In the end, it was Draco who explained everything that had happened recently.
As it turned out, Wentworth had been so preoccupied with his work, he hadn't noticed the growing crisis unfolding around him. It wasn't until now—face-to-face with Harry and the others—that he suddenly remembered: this term's storyline was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Cassandra and the others had known what was going on, of course. But as the heir to the Grindelwald family, Wentworth wasn't considered a target by those who wished to "cleanse" the school, and thus, no one had bothered to inform him.
Which led to this moment—Harry and company standing before him—when Wentworth finally realized: the story had already begun.
He looked at their expectant faces and sighed again.
"If I tell you what the monster in the Chamber is... will you let me go?"
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