And so, the Basilisk remained hidden, hopefully forever. Albus Dumbledore couldn't get into the chamber and kill it, but Tom seemed to change afterwards and had no desire to reopen the chamber. That is until now. Honestly, if it wasn't for the reports, he had gotten about Voldemort being in Albania, he would have assumed he had possessed someone else. Alas, he couldn't find the logic of him doing it instead of getting a body of his own. Perhaps, he had a secret son or a daughter he was using to do this?
It didn't matter. Hogwarts was Dumbledore's place of power; he wouldn't let some scared parents close it down. He needed to stop the attacks, but they were just so random, and only two of them happened so far, not enough to find out what happened. He had tried to find the bathroom once more for the mark, but the snake carving was gone. He didn't understand what that meant, to be honest, only that the entrance of the chamber wasn't in Myrtle's bathroom anymore.
But it was worrying that Harry Potter had figured all of this out. Very worrying indeed. Perhaps, the boy would need to be discouraged. Although, he had the good sense not to tell everyone about it and spread fear.
The aged Headmaster sighed heavily, "I'm afraid that young Harry is correct in his conclusion. Quite the smart lad, isn't he? I do know what the monster is, and it is why I wish to handle the issue discreetly. It is a very dangerous monster but if we close down the school, the monster will remain here forever, meaning that Hogwarts would be gone, with no replacement in sight. Only the heir can open the chamber, hence why I couldn't do it. Salazar Slytherin was a very impressive wizard, after all. Believe me, I will do my best to stop this monster from continuing, but I need your word that you will not speak of this to another person about any of this."
The two boys nodded, and Dumbledore continued, "Now, back to your punishment. I'm afraid that with your repeated offence this semester, I have no choice but to suspend you until the end of the winter holidays. I will contact your guardians with the details as well, but this is the lightest punishment I could give you, especially since I am breaking my promise, I made earlier in the year that you would be expelled if you do something as egregious as the manner that which you arrived to school in September."
The two baffled looks on the boys' faces were priceless. Served the brats right for giving him so much work. Now, he only needed to meet up with Harry Potter to make sure that brat wouldn't talk.
And he also will need to speak to Severus and Minerva and explain to them why he had allowed Neville, Ron, and Hermione, immunity from the wards in all common rooms. He could tell that it wasn't going to be a nice conversation.
5 December 1992, Hogwarts
It took two days of intense days of deals and explanations for Dumbledore to make the entire thing go away. And even then, he had to make a lot of concessions and offer a few favours, and the best result he had gone with is the fact that the boy who lived wasn't going to be arrested, nor is he going to be expelled. To be completely honest, Albus didn't really care about the Weasley boy and would have let him deal with the consequences of his actions. Alas, he needed young Neville to be close, and he couldn't really let him off while leaving his friend to the wolves. That would scream of favouritism. That boy really was a headache sometimes.
But that didn't compare to the headache he had when he explained the situation to the boys' guardians. The Granger girl was a simple matter of sending a letter saying that she had an official warning after breaking the rules and using an illegal potion and that she would be serving detention until the end of the semester.
However, since the two boys were the ones in deeper trouble, he preferred to explain to them the situation in person and well, the Weasley Matriarch started screaming halfway through, and barely let him talk while she kept yelling at her son, telling him that his brothers were never this stupid and that he was ruining his life. No wonder the boy had an inferiority complex the size of Mount Olympus.
The Longbottom Matriarch, on the other hand, just gave her grandson a withering look filled with disappointment that made him droop into his seat with shame. Soon after explaining the situation, he dismissed them, telling them that he would try to help them privately. Afterwards, he summoned the Crabbe, Goyle, and Bulstrode family heads, who had been informed about what happened from their children.
Albus didn't want to make this a public scandal, at least not as much as it already was, but after some negotiations, the Crabbe and Goyle family heads were appeased with some monetary compensation, which Augusta Longbottom was more than willing to pay, however, the Bulstrode family had just asked for a favour from him to be claimed at another date since they didn't think a muggleborn could offer them much politically. This was by far the worst concession so far. Promising a favour to a family in Lucius Malfoy's pocket, now that was something that pained him to do. What has the world come to, when he, Albus Dumbledore, the champion of light, promised a boon to a family that followed a Dark Lord? He only hoped that the Longbottom boy was worth all this mess because Albus was really close to just killing the boy and using the breaking of the prophecy in a ritual or another.
Augusta Longbottom seemed satisfied with his efforts, enough that she promised to pay the Weasley's side of things as well since the family's finances were in a very bad state. They definitely didn't have enough to pay five thousand galleons to avoid their son going to Azkaban. So, long story short, Albus managed to get the aggrieved families to not press any charges in the ministry or talk about it in public.
So, with that done, the impersonation aspect of the Gryffindors' crimes was removed and adding in the fact that any trace of Polyjuice was removed, all it came back to, is just breaking into another common room, which is strictly under the school's purview.
Now, the only hurdle in his efforts was the fact that Rita Skeeter had somehow managed to find out about it, probably from a letter sent by a Slytherin student, and the public was in an uproar. It didn't help that young Neville had publicly broken the law when came to school with a flying car. Albus needed to call in a few favours to make sure that the article wouldn't be too damaging, and that no other would follow it. He wanted to remove the article altogether, but the information was out there, and Albus didn't want to look too heavy handed with his involvement.
And maybe that was a good thing, in the long run. The article itself actually praised Dumbledore's impartial actions in suspending the boy who lived despite his celebrity status and was more talking about the reckless actions of the boy himself, and how he easily disregarded the laws of the nation. Perhaps the public's opinion could pressure young Neville at doing better and thinking before doing something like this again.
And Albus had already lost a lot of goodwill with the Daily Prophet by telling them not to publish the petrifications and the chamber of secrets being opened. He didn't need to make an issue He would deal with it later, but the main issue he had to deal with was the cold glares his staff were giving him.
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