"Class dismissed!"
The rumble of chairs and the sound of passing footsteps brought Harry out of his very deep and confused thoughts. They were currently in Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs, and when Professor McGonagall called for them to leave, she sounded most displeased. Harry confirmed what he had been dreading from the start of class when he heard Professor McGonagall say, "Potter, Weasley, Granger, you will remain in your seats!" The tone of her voice suggested that she had very little patience.
Some of the students who were leaving, mostly the Gryffindors, were giggling at the trio, and basically all of the Hufflepuffs were scowling and giving all three of them looks of utter loathing.
It was the day after their discovery of the secret room and things were still very strange. Hermione had only been half-right in saying that Ron would be better in the morning. He was no longer singing and dancing non-stop, nor did he look as though he had lost his brain somewhere, but he was still acting stranger than what was normal for him. For most of the class, Ron would occasionally make farting noises behind McGonagall's back, only to silence himself when she turned around in an attempt to catch the culprit. He had been successful in keeping his innocence until he let out one particularly long and loud fart that caused Hermione to scream with laughter and send the rest of the Gryffindors, with the exception of Harry, into an appreciative round of applause. McGonagall had whipped around so fast that her glasses flew off and smacked Hannah Abbott hard in the face. This of course made Ron and Hermione -- along with every single Gryffindor in the classroom -- laugh hysterically. Even Harry couldn't suppress a grin this time.
McGonagall had retrieved her glasses, apologized to Hannah who was rubbing her bruised cheek, and then sent the hysterical Gryffindors one of her meanest looks to date. Everyone upon seeing her face had been silenced almost immediately, except for Ron, whom Harry had to smack on the back of the head to stop him.
When the class had cleared out, McGonagall put away the parrots that they had been transfiguring into … um … high heels and then walked over to the trio as her mouth curled into a frown. She stared at them with a disappointed face for a while before speaking, her eyes lingering the longest on Hermione, because she was supposed to be the model student.
"I hope you three realize that you are in serious trouble and that you will all be serving detention for the rest of the week!"
"But Professor," Harry shouted. "I wasn't doing … "
"Save it, Potter. I saw you smirking back there." Harry was looking scandalized by the injustice of it all. He was the only one that hadn't been laughing. This unfair punishment was something that Snape would have given.
"Now," said McGonagall in a voice of forced calm. "I want to know exactly what you three thought you were doing acting up in MY class!"
None of them answered right away. Ron sat there not paying any attention to McGonagall but was currently engaged in conversation with his own hand. Hermione was asleep on her desk, where her cheek rested in a pool of ink that she had spilled when she passed out. When she exhaled she blew spots of ink all over Harry's sleeve.
McGonagall let out a frustrated sigh and tapped Hermione on her shoulder.
"Miss Granger. Miss Granger will you please wake up and lis … "
"Who? What?" Hermione jumped out of her seat launching the inkbottle right at McGonagall, and it smacked her in her forehead.
Ron ceased his conversation with his hand to laugh as the large inkblot on her head ran down her nose and over her lips and chin.
"Mr. Weasley! Will you please stop laughing!?" she shouted, slamming her hand onto the desk and wiping her head with the other.
"I demand that one of you tell me why you are behaving like small children!" She looked positively furious now, no longer trying to appear calm.
"It was Malfoy's fault, Professor," Hermione suddenly said with a glassy-eyed expression. "If he hadn't put on that bunny suit, then we wouldn't have been doing the Electric Slide."
They all stared at her. Even Ron was looking at her with a puzzled expression. She however was acting like she had given the most logical explanation ever. After a painfully long silence and an awkward stare, McGonagall managed to say, "W … What?"
Harry decided to set things straight and tell the truth. The awkwardness was getting to him. "Listen Professor, we found this room, you see, and … well … everyone who goes in comes out kind of … crazy."
"And where exactly is this room, Potter?" She looked thoroughly unconvinced that he was telling the truth.
"Inside the Slytherin common room."
McGonagall put her hand over her mouth in shock and her eyes bulged slightly as she let out a muffled gasp. "Oh no." She said finally still wide-eyed. "It cannot be possible."
"What can't be possible, Professor?" Asked Harry, bewildered by her behavior. Hermione and Ron were staring at her as well.
She stood there silent for a while as if thinking something over very thoroughly.
"Are you absolutely sure of this?" she said, looking at Harry desperately.
"Um … " Harry pointed to Ron, who was now talking to his quill, and Hermione, who was petting it.
"OK, OK, I believe you, Potter. This is serious." She was silent for a few more minutes. "We have to see the headmaster. This isn't the first time this has happened. Come on, the three of you." She beckoned them out of the room and Harry had to move Hermione and Ron away from the quill, for they were both now taking turns kissing it.
Ron and Hermione left the room in front of Harry and behind McGonagall but they quickly passed her when they started to skip down the hall hand-in-hand humming the chicken dance song. McGonagall shot a worried glance at the two of them and then looked back at Harry.
"How long ago did you discover it?" she asked.
"Just yesterday. There must have been at least a hundred people in there. Do you know anything about this room?" Harry asked as he tried to keep up with her.
"Yes." She said this rather quickly and she didn't seem to want to talk about it. "You can ask the headmaster questions. He knows more about this than I do."
When Harry and McGonagall arrived at the Dumbledore's office door, they found Hermione asleep on the floor. Ron had removed her shoe and was now cradling it like a baby. McGonagall woke Hermione up and snatched her shoe from Ron. As the dazed Hermione put her shoe back on, McGonagall muttered the password.
"High heel."
As the door swung open and as he thought about the password, Harry was struck with a strange thought. Is that the reason Dumbledore is as crazy as he is? Luna, Fred and George as well?
They ascended the stairwell and entered his office, where he sat at his desk and looked up with a puzzled expression as they entered. Fawkes was perched behind his desk and was also staring at the four of them as they approached Dumbledore's desk.
"Is there a problem, Minerva?" he said in a misty, faraway voice.
"Yes, headmaster, we have a rather large problem on our hands. Mr. Potter has just informed me that he has recently been inside the Secret Room."
He looked at her over his half-moon spectacles and waited for her to say more.
"In the Slytherin common room," she said rather impatiently.
"Ah. That secret room." His initial reaction was very calm as opposed to McGonagall's. "This is bad news. That room is not meant for everyone, I'm afraid."
"As you can see from these two," she waved a finger at Hermione and Ron who were both silently staring at her shoe with wide eyes. "This is definitely a problem that must be cleared up immediately."
"Speaking of their odd behavior," Harry interrupted; he really wanted an explanation. "Why are they acting stupid and I'm not?"
Dumbledore surveyed Harry for a long time and then said, "It's quite a long story, Harry, are you sure you want to hear it?"
"Try me."
"Alright," sighed Dumbledore. "Sit down."
McGonagall let out another frustrated sigh and sat in one of the two chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk as Harry claimed the other. Hermione and Ron were off in their own world and were clearly not paying him any attention.
"It all starts with the four founders of the school. You know the whole story about Salazar Slytherin not wanting any half bloods or muggleborns in Hogwarts. Well, according to legend, before he left he created a room that could accommodate hundreds of people for parties, get togethers and so on. Now, the trick to this room was that he cast a spell upon it that caused all of the people who entered it to become, shall I say, nitwits."
Harry was listening intently; Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued.
"The spell however was meant to affect everyone except for the Slytherins. It was a very genius plan: Make all of the other houses become stupid so that they would fail out and not be permitted back to Hogwarts and therefore the only students that would be left would be the pureblooded Slytherins. So in the end he would get what he dreamed and none of the other founders would ever find out why or how it was happening."
"But, I saw Professor Snape acting like a … well … nitwit and he was in Slytherin." Harry had nearly one-hundred questions on his mind.
"Ah, but that's where the little story gets interesting," said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "It is said that during the performance of the spell, he made a mistake causing it to go terribly wrong. He didn't realize his mistake until the next day after he had told the Slytherins about his plan. He noticed that the Slytherins were acting like nitwits as well. He went over it again the following day and realized that he had cast a spell that would affect everyone that was not a parselmouth instead of everyone who wasn't a Slytherin. That should answer your previous question, Harry."
Harry nodded, but he was still very confused. Dumbledore went on.
"Since this is a very, very rare gift, he realized that everybody at school would become idiots except for himself. What was even worse was that now all of the Slytherins, who were currently crazy, would start telling teachers about it and this would lead to suspicions."
"That was the real reason that Salazar Slytherin left the school," McGonagall had suddenly spoken up. She had been listening intently for the past half hour. "He was ashamed of his mistake and fled like a coward. Slytherin was never known for his bravery."
There was a long pause in which Harry took all of the information in and formed questions in his mind. Dumbledore was silently watching him.
"So that is how everyone around here who is crazy became crazy?" Harry asked.
"Yes," said Dumbledore matter-of-factly. "I've noticed that you're friends Luna, Fred, and George have worked very hard to get those VIP badges. I've been trying hard to receive one myself but I don't have as much free time."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing, Harry, nothing."
Harry heard McGonagall snort from beside him.
"Oh … um … well, if people have been entering it all this time, why are you just now getting upset about it?" Harry asked quizzically.
Dumbledore stared at him for the longest time and said, "Because Harry, there are other secrets that lay inside that room. Secrets that have to do with you."
"Like what?" Harry was dying for more information.
"Maybe later, Harry. Right now I need to go potty." Dumbledore stood up and walked into a separate room without so much as a backward glance. Harry and McGonagall exchanged silent glances of confusion.
"Ha!" Ron suddenly piped up. "He said potty." He and Hermione collapsed with laughter onto the floor.