"Nonsense, my dear boy, we can more than handle the increased workload, even if it comes at the cost of a few nights of sleep. The only occurrence you need to be apologetic for is the most recent one pertaining to Polyjuice Potion. It is very illegal to be caught in possession of that particular potion. Normally, we would have been required to inform the Department of magical law enforcement about it, but for some reason, it appears that we couldn't find any traces of the potion anywhere, so we must assume that you used some kind of illusion spell that helped you impersonate other students to break into the Slytherin common room, and illusion spells are not illegal, are they?"
It took a little while for the boy to understand where he was getting at. The Weasley boy still looked confused. Seriously, did Molly Weasley drop him as a child or something? Severus, who was standing behind the boys, gritted his teeth and nodded. He wasn't happy, but he was willing to play along and dispose of the Polyjuice for now.
Young Neville finally understood what they were going for, "Yes, sir. Of course, sir, we used an illusion spell."
Alright, with that settled, they avoided the Aurors' interference, at least. Now, onto the rest, of this mess, "Now, to make sure that he wouldn't be able to confess to ingredients being stolen from his cupboard, Professor Snape will make a list of missing ingredients that you will have to reimburse for borrowing and losing them."
The Weasley boy started to protest, "You can't…"
"You'll find that I very much can, Mr. Weasley. Theft is not authorized in Hogwarts. I will personally contact your guardians with the final amount, and the circumstances of this mess. I believe that it will be a considerable amount, especially considering that a few of the ingredients were quite rare. I also believe that impersonating the children of magical families can have very steep consequences, so I will leave your families to deal with the reparations themselves."
The two children's faces paled in fear of their guardians finding out, and at the amount of gold they will probably have to pay. Young Neville was due for a very terrifying scolding session. Augusta Longbottom will probably severely punish the boy enough for him to at least keep his head down this year.
"Now, before we proceed with your punishment, and believe me, you will be punished, I need to understand why you did what you did."
The redhead exploded first, "We only wanted to catch the heir of Slytherin."
"Ron, shut up," young Neville interjected, "we wanted to clear my name by finding out who was petrifying the other students. Ever since people found out I was a Parselmouth, everyone looked at me like I was on second away from attacking them."
And wasn't that a reveal that flipped the entire board? Albus never had the chance of studying Parseltongue enough to understand how worked, or how it was transmitted. It couldn't be through blood, but honestly, the headmaster didn't know exactly what had happened on the night Neville Longbottom survived the killing curse.
He didn't even understand the ritual that he had given to Alice Longbottom. The Light had guided him in its creation, but its details were obviously beyond him. The premise was supposed to be simple. A life for a life. After all, only death may pay for life. And then it happened, an unstoppable force in the form of the killing curse, met an indestructible object, who according to the ritual is supposed to be protected, and well, that caused an explosion of raw magic. It became a blind spot for everything, and by the time the residue cleared up, there was nothing, but a destroyed room filled with ash and an unconscious boy with a scar on his forehead. Young Neville's scar was still protected by the magical event, and well, Augusta Longbottom didn't let him study the scar afterwards, and the headmaster didn't feel like it mattered enough for him to press her about it. Now, he would need to do it. The next time the boy finds himself in the infirmary, Albus was going to keep him asleep and study whatever was going on in this scar. His theories so far were worrying, especially considering the method he theorized Voldemort used to live on past his death.
Instead of saying any of that, Albus stayed composed, "And you thought that breaking into the Slytherin common room would help you how?"
The Longbottom scion looked down, embarrassed, "We thought that the Slytherins would know more than the rest of the school."
Severus then snorted, "Of course you did. What an imbecilic response! I am glad that your idiocy is not contagious Longbottom, or I would fear for the next generation of wizards and witches in this country."
"Hey! We were right," the redhead protested, "Potter knew stuff about the Chamber of Secrets. He said that he figured out what the monster was."
The two professors stiffened but that little exclamation made Dumbledore freeze, "Explain!"
His tone wasn't the gentle one he used earlier, and the Longbottoms scion stiffened, "He started up with a lecture on the Chamber of Secrets, like how it was older than the whole blood purity thing, that it was probably a place that Salazar Slytherin used to swindle the other founders of their magic while hiding his own for his heirs. It was kinda interesting but it was hard to pay attention because of how nervous we all were."
"What about the monster?" Albus pressed.
"Well, he said it was obvious, but didn't say what it was. Only that me being a Parselmouth confirmed it. He said it had to be a long-lived reptile that could petrify people. That it was obvious that you knew what it was but didn't say anything since that would close down the school. He said that you knew for a long time from when it was opened fifty years ago and that you said nothing because the school would have been declared unsafe and would have closed down permanently."
Albus had tried to figure out the secret of the chamber of secrets and tracked it down to the bathroom young Myrtle died in, probably accidentally. He had found nothing but a snake carving on one of the sinks, but he could not get it to open. He tore down the bathroom, but nothing was underneath. Even the Elder Wand could not get inside.
Tom had been very clever back then, a far cry from the sadistic man he became late in life. He had an Alibi for every attack, and he struck seemingly randomly to push as much terror as possible at him. Dippet was pushing Dumbledore towards solving this mystery, being the greatest mind of his generation and whatnot. He hated to admit it, but Voldemort had been very close to getting him kicked out if he hadn't stopped after Myrtle Warren had died, and just framed Hagrid at the threat of the school closing.
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