The Gaunt family — a bloodline that had vanished for decades — the last descendants of Salazar Slytherin. From the very beginning of her investigation into the Chamber of Secrets, Eda had set her sights on this family.
However, her investigation had not gone very deep, as the trail had gone cold.
Now, finding new records about the Gaunt family once again could be considered reconnecting that broken thread.
Eda might be able to discover clues about the Chamber's location within the Gaunt family's history.
This ancient family was the final branch of Slytherin's lineage. However, due to their habit of marrying close relatives in order to preserve the purity of their bloodline, each generation became increasingly irritable, unstable, and violent.
Eda even suspected that the Gaunt family members all had some kind of mental problem — their behavior could hardly be called normal anymore.
Most pure-blood families left behind astonishing wealth, and the Gaunts were no exception. They had once been extremely rich — even wealthier than the Malfoys.
They were obsessed with grandeur and luxury, yet every single one of them turned out to be a spendthrift, utterly lacking in rationality. The result of living off their inheritance was that they grew poorer and poorer, until all of the family fortune had been squandered away.
All they had left was their stubborn pride in their so-called pure-blood honor — nothing else. Well, that wasn't entirely true; they still had a house, if one could even call that thing a house.
By the time of Marvolo Gaunt, they were utterly destitute — even poorer than Eda had been when she first arrived at Hogwarts.
All of this information Eda had previously found in books about wizarding genealogies, but The Origin of the Gaunts revealed another side of the Gaunt family.
In this book, aside from Salazar Slytherin, the Gaunt family's lineage could also be traced back to the Peverell brothers — they were the descendants of Cadmus Peverell.
The most famous children's tale in the wizarding world, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, includes a story called The Tale of the Three Brothers. The inspiration for that story came from the Peverell brothers themselves.
According to legend, the three brothers were the original owners of the Deathly Hallows. Whoever possessed all three Hallows would be able to conquer death.
Some regarded the story of the three brothers as nothing more than a fairy tale or a fable; others treated it as mere legend — a story that was only a story. Yet there were also those who devoted their entire lives to desperately searching for the Deathly Hallows left behind by the brothers.
The concept of the Deathly Hallows — grand and awe-inspiring just by its name — had fascinated many, including some of the most powerful wizards, such as Gellert Grindelwald.
The first Dark Lord had not only spent years searching for the Hallows but had also adopted their symbol as his own. Eda had once seen that same mark in the fortress of Nurmengard.
Even now, one could still find the Deathly Hallows symbol Grindelwald left behind carved into a wall at Durmstrang Institute.
The Gaunt family's ancestor, Cadmus Peverell, was said to be the second brother in the legend — the one who possessed the Resurrection Stone. If the Peverell brothers and the Deathly Hallows truly existed, then the stone that could bring the dead back to life was very likely to have remained within the Gaunt family.
Of course, it was also entirely possible that those worthless, wasteful descendants had sold the Resurrection Stone for money.
Besides their connection to the Peverells, Eda also found in The Origin of the Gaunts a record of the family's link to the Chamber of Secrets — the Gaunts knew where the Chamber was located, and it was even possible that they had once opened it themselves!
The legend of the Chamber of Secrets had first begun as a tale passed down within the Gaunt family itself. They would sometimes share this secret with those they deemed worthy of knowing.
However, most people dismissed the Gaunt family's claims as mere boasting — after all, no one had ever heard the basilisk that was said to dwell hidden within the castle. As a result, few believed the story.
Even so, the legend of the Chamber persisted through the centuries, spreading far and wide and gradually evolving into many different versions.
During the long process of retelling, for reasons unknown, all traces of the Gaunt family's involvement were slowly erased. In time, almost no one knew of the connection between the Chamber of Secrets and the Gaunts.
That erasure only made Slytherin's Chamber — and the serpent lurking within — even more mysterious.
The author of The Origin of the Gaunts firmly believed in the legend. It was possible that he personally knew members of the Gaunt family — or perhaps he was one himself. He argued that the Chamber had been opened multiple times throughout the years since its construction, and attributed several of the attacks that had taken place in the castle to it.
The final record in the book concerning the Chamber dated back to the eighteenth century and was linked to a man named Corvinus Gaunt.
The castle had stood for many centuries, and naturally required renovations — even the underground plumbing needed reconstruction. The Chamber had grown unsafe and risked being discovered at any moment.
To preserve its secrecy, Corvinus and his associates built a bathroom over the hidden entrance and left behind a concealed passage that only they could access.
By the time she reached this part, the book was effectively finished as far as Eda was concerned. She had no interest in learning more about that antisocial, borderline deranged family's later history.
Although it was a bit disappointing that the book didn't mention the exact location of the Chamber of Secrets, Eda had at least obtained a crucial clue — the concealed entrance to the Chamber was hidden inside a bathroom. If she could find that bathroom, she would be only one step away from the Chamber itself.
Her investigation into the Chamber had finally taken a promising turn — but with that came new problems. There were so many bathrooms in Hogwarts… which one was the right one?
And this was already the 1990s — after so many years, did that bathroom even still exist?
The castle had been renovated several times over the past two centuries; was it possible that the bathroom in question had been rebuilt or altered beyond recognition?
One question after another made Eda's head start aching again. She regretted not taking a look around Knockturn Alley when she'd been wandering near Charing Cross Road — maybe she'd have found some clue there.
What she really needed right now was a wizard version of Sherlock Holmes to help her solve this puzzle — not the two big Weasley idiots whose only talent was teasing Harry!
…Well, to be fair, those two big idiots weren't so bad. She'd better not draw circles on the floor to curse them, after all.
Just as Eda was sulking in a corner and reflecting on her situation, the two Weasley idiots appeared in the Room of Requirement — each holding some food. There was no need to guess who the cakes were meant for.
"After dinner, those little dwarfs left the school," Fred said. "You won't have to worry about them blocking you anymore."
"Hungry?" George handed the cake to Eda and continued, "Here, take these and have a bit."
Eda, who had been drawing circles on the floor, suddenly got a little moody. Not only did she refuse to take the cake, but she even shifted herself to the other side of the room.
"Not hungry! I'm not eating!" she said stubbornly.
But her stomach betrayed her completely. The moment she smelled the sweet scent of cake, it let out a loud gurgle~~~.
Fred and George grinned mischievously behind her. George paused for dramatic effect, then said,
"Mmm, it's delicious, Fred, you've got to try it! So creamy, soft, melts in your mouth—absolutely perfect."
Eda covered her ears, trying not to listen to George's exaggerated chewing noises. She refused to give in to temptation.
Merlin, if I've committed a sin, just take me away now! she thought miserably. Don't let these two idiots torment me anymore!
"Really? Let me try some!" Fred said loudly, pretending to be interested. "Wow, it's actually amazing! Did the house-elves invent a new recipe? How come I've never tasted this before?"
The sweet aroma of cake grew stronger and stronger, curling into Eda's nose, while her empty stomach rumbled again in protest.
She secretly turned her head to sneak a peek—only to find the twins both grinning at her wickedly. They hadn't eaten the cakes at all; instead, they'd broken them in half and were now holding them just behind her head.
"You've already turned around," Fred teased. "Are you sure you don't want a bite? No need to make things hard on yourself!"
Eda took the cake George handed her and nibbled just a tiny bite — she swore it really was only a tiny bite.
Perhaps she was genuinely hungry, or perhaps the cake was simply too delicious. Either way, she ate it heartily, completely forgetting her earlier promise of "just a tiny bite."
"Come on, tell us — what are you sulking about this time?" George asked. "Don't say it's because of someone confessing to you!"
"Exactly! You should be happy about it," Fred chimed in, tempting fate again. "Think about it — before, every Valentine's Day, not a single person even dared to confess to you. People avoided you like you were a fire-breathing dragon."
Eda, stuffing her face like a little hamster, shot Fred a blank, annoyed look. She never had any sense of dignity in front of the twins.
"And do you know what this means, George?" Fred said, ignoring Eda's glaring eyes and directing the question to his brother.
George played along smoothly. "Means what?"
"It means Eda has grown up," Fred said, grinning from ear to ear. "Finally, all those silly boys outside have realized she's a girl!"
He said it laughing, completely oblivious to Eda's small, vengeful hand creeping toward him.
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