Knowing Too Much

Chapter Two:

"Damn it," Alia muttered under her breath.

"I told you so," said Tom solemnly, earning a glare. "Never mind," he muttered, fighting back a laugh.

The rain had made the rocky path slippery, and the steep incline of the hill that the path was set on wasn't helping much either.

Tom and Alia walked, ignoring the rain, laughing at themselves, talking, and reminiscing over the day's adventure of making fun of the Gryffindors.

Suddenly, Alia slipped, and went tumbling down the hill, bouncing off rocks and boulders as she went down. Tom cringed as she came to a abrupt stop by the mouth of a cave. He hurried down the hill, avoiding rocks along the way.

"Are you alright?" he asked her worriedly.

Alia nodded, grimacing. "Yeah, fine," She pulled back the sleeve of her robes, and they both saw that the flesh had been torn, and there was a deep gash in her arm.

"That doesn't look fine," Tom said, searching his robes for his wands. A rapid increase in the rain and a loud blast of thunder pushed them back to reality. "Come on, we should get out of here," Alia nodded, but she fell back down when she tried to stand up.

Taking a second look, Tom could see her ankle was sprained and swelling.

"That doesn't look good, Ali," he said, glancing around. He saw the cave beside them. "Come on, in here," He squeezed through the narrow fissure in the rock, and pulled Alia in after him.

The cave inside was surprisingly large for its small opening.

"Let's have another look at that arm, eh?" he nodded towards her arm, and she pulled back the sleeve of her robes once more. Tom winced for her. "That doesn't look good. Er..." his medical training stretched about as far as knowing how to put on a band-aid.

He conjured a linen bandage, and wrapped it around her arm. "I guess that's the best we can do for now," he caught a glimpse of the weather outside. "And we'll probably be in here for a while," he frowned slightly. "Wish we had an umbrella,"

Then he turned his attention to her sprained ankle. "I guess ice would be the best for that..." he thought for a minute, before doing some charm that froze some of the rain outside, then wrapping it in a cloth for her.

"Thanks," Alia smiled at him, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Tom felt himself flush, but dismissed it.

Alia leaned her head against his shoulder, and they watched the rain falling outside in silence, each thinking their own separate thoughts.

***

Alia walked back from the hospital wing, arm and ankle healed. She sighed contentedly, but was distracted by a figure disappearing into the dungeons.

She followed, considering that she could just use the excuse of heading towards her common room if caught.

At the foot of the dungeon stairs, she paused, and peered around the corner.

She recognized the person sneaking around.

"Tom?" she whispered to herself, forgetting that her voice would echo in the stone corridor.

He turned, and glanced around suspiciously. Alia shrunk into a corner doing her best to seem invisible.

Tom turned back down the corridor, and Alia followed. After what seemed like an eternity of twists turns and secret passages, they came to a solid wall, with a portrait of a snake on it. Alia strained to hear what Tom said to it, but all she heard was a faint hiss - but the snake in the portrait hadn't moved.

The painting in the frame melted away to nothing, and Tom stepped through it, and headed up a flight of stairs. Alia squeezed into the small circular room with the spiral staircase in the center that Tom was now climbing. She waited until his footsteps faded, and then she followed, careful not to make any noise.

The stairs led to another room of this sort. She peered over the landing, and saw another snake portrait. It had swung forward, revealing a long stone corridor lit by torches lining the walls.

She jumped forward before it swung shut, and saw Tom's shadowy form moving towards a faint green light at the end of the corridor. Nervously, she followed him.

The light grew stronger, and Alia saw it was a type of stained glass window, all the pieces different shades of green. Tom took out his wand, and tapped a certain pane. The whole window vanished, revealing what looked like an ordinary bathroom.

Alia curiously followed, and recognized this as the abandoned girls' bathroom on the second floor. The one that a girl had been found in murdered. Alia shivered, the realization of what this all could mean trying to force itself into her mind as she pushed it away.

Tom turned the corner, going towards the sinks. Not daring to leave the passage, Alia peered around the corner of the frame of the stained glass window. Tom was examining one of the taps on the sinks.

He opened his mouth, and let out a low hiss, much like that of earlier before the Snake portrait. The tap glowed a blinding white and began to whirl around at a great speed. The next second, the sink sank out of sight.

Alia gaped, as a large pipe, large enough for a man to slide through, was revealed, and Tom slid down it and out of sight.

It all happened so suddenly; the stained glass window reappeared, trapping Alia in the passage. The last thing she saw of the bathroom was the sink reappearing and the pipe that Tom had disappeared down vanishing from sight.

***

She was knocked back onto the cold stone floor, bumping her head, but managing to hold onto consciousness.

Getting to her feet, swaying slightly, she steadied herself against the wall, and took several deep breaths to clear her head.

For all the good it did, she might as well having been banging her head against the wall like a misbehaving house elf. The thoughts swirled in her head... Tom is the one opening the chamber of Secrets... He's a parslemouth... probably related to Salazar Slytherin because of it... He's the one attacking muggleborns... He's been lying to me from the start...

The last phrase made tears well up in her eyes. She slid down to the floor, hugging her knees to her chest, trying hard not to cry.

She didn't succeed. The tears came, sliding down her cheeks, as her sobs echoed off the passage walls.

After she'd cried all she needed to or could, she wiped her tears away, and concentrated on getting out of the passage.

She started back down the way she had come. She headed out of the first portrait, down the spiral stairs, and past the second.

She reached the main passage, and felt utterly lost, not knowing where to turn, where to go. She tried to remember what passages they'd taken, but she found no answer inside her jumbled brain.

With a sigh, she chose a passage at random. She didn't recognize where she was going, but she kept at it. With a frightening suddenness, the passage floor dipped into an almost vertical incline.

She half walked, half fell down it, and was shocked to find herself looking around the Slytherin common room... No one seemed to have noticed her rather awkward arrival, and she had a funny feeling that they couldn't see her at all.

Another startling recognition hit her - this was where Tom had appeared from the night before when she'd called him.

Alia glanced back towards where she'd come from, but now a tapestry hung before it. Cautiously, she pushed it aside, trying to remain inconspicuous. A solid wall greeted her.

What appeared to be a solid wall, at any rate.

She tested it, by putting her hand to the stone. She felt nothing, realizing that her hand could go through the wall entirely.

She glanced back. No one had noticed her yet.

She took a step away from the tapestry and suddenly, what had been the silent common room seconds before was filled with it's usual chatter and din. Glancing back, she noticed that the tapestry had vanished, along with the corner that she'd been standing in, replaced now by another solid wall.