Chapter 11: Looking for Answers
Time Skip – Four Months
Harry went straight to the library.
It didn't matter that there was another two lessons before dinner, it had been two weeks after the first attack and the start of the whispers, and he needed answers.
There was definitely a connection between the voices he had heard and Justin's petrification, he was sure of it. There was also a 'Chamber', apparently. There wasn't much that made sense, but he was going to clear that up as soon as possible.
Ginny had been distraught over what happened to Justin, despite Harry pointing out it wasn't her fault. She had run off towards Astoria the minute she caught sight of the girl. The younger Greengrass had shot Harry a confused look but kept her attention on her Housemate.
Now, one thing Harry was cursing himself for doing was during the Duelling Club. Lockhart, in his infinite wisdom, had paired him up with Draco for a mock duel. Harry had knocked him over with Expelliarmus of all spells. Some people – definitely Daphne and Ronald – had laughed at this. Draco, insensed, and summoned a snake. It had hissed at Tracy when Harry, not knowing what came over him, ordered it to stop. Then it turned and looked at him. Itlistened to him. It responded that it was hungry, and that it just wanted a mouthful. Harry, caught up in this scene, told it that Tracy was not dinner, and to find dinner someone else. The snake had hissed in displeasure, but obediently slithered away from Tracy, off the table and down the halls, heedless to the screaming students. Harry had then looked around to see a lot of people staring at him, some with looks of suspicion and dislike. He had been confused by this until Daphne told him that he had just spoken in Parseltongue – the language of snakes. And there was one particular person who was famous for talking to snakes – Salazar Slytherin.
Later that evening, in the most unhelpful coincidence Harry could remember, Mrs. Norris and Ron Weasley were both found petrified in the hallways. There was a message written in blood on the walls – the Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the Heir, beware.
It was clear to Harry that this was the Heir Dobby had warned him about.
Weeks went on and the attacks continued. Hermione Granger was one of the victims, as was a Ravenclaw girl named Cho Chang. Terry Boot had been hit an hour before dinner.
Frankly, Harry was surprised the school wasn't being closed down. A muggle school would have been on lockdown after the first attack, and shut down for inspection after the second.
Why Hogwarts was still open with nearly eight students having been attacked amazed him.
Naturally, everyone was running around like headless chickens trying to figure out what was going on, rather than put some actual thought into how the attacks were being carried out.
The teachers, for instance, were simply carrying on their normal duties like absolutely nothing was wrong. In fact, they clarified that students would still be expected to do their exams, even though there was a mysterious monster breathing down on their necks that had already attacked several of their fellow students. Harry had seen no extensive attempts to search for the snake.
Some of the students promptly came to the conclusion that he was an evil dark wizard who had attacked Justin, Mrs. Norris and Ron. He heard it whispered in the hallways, saw it in the looks that some people gave him, in the way that Prefects followed him from class to class. He had it shouted at him by some of Justin's classmates.
Ernie Macmilliain was of the opinion that the reason the Dark Lord had gone after Harry when he was a baby was because he didn't want any competition. Harry heard him talking about it with Hannah Abott when he had walked into the library.
"Think about it," Ernie had said. "Slytherin was a Parseltongue too...and you know what he was like. Potter must be his descendant...he'd have powers the rest of us don't. It's a family trait, Parseltongue. Where else would he have got it?"
"I don't know, Ernie," Hannah said uncertainly, "Harry isn't much of a conversationalist, but he risked his life to save Tracy when her broom broke in first year."
"Are you kidding? She's a pureblood, remember?" Ernie said. "She's one of the elite 'worthy of magic'. And you know who he was often seen hanging out with? Daphne and Astoria Greengrass, and Blaise Zabini, Slytherins and purebloods."
"He talks to Dean," Hannah pointed out. "And I saw him help Neville with a spell a week ago. You never hear him say words like 'mudblood', unlike Malfoy."
"Well he can't make it too obvious, can he? He needs just enough clout to stay under the Professor's radar...you know, I heard that he engages in criminal behaviour regularly at his muggle home, has been at it since he was little!"
"That's just a rumour."
"No-one knows how he survived his encounter with You-Know-Who...I mean, he was a fifteen month old baby, he should have been blasted into little pieces. But he survived, and the darkest wizard in years didn't. That must be the reason, right? Because no one knows how he did it, not even Dumbledore..."
Harry had gotten fed up at this point, and had walked into the room. It had almost been amusing to see how fast Ernie's face drained of colour until he was whiter than paper.
As much as it angered him to think about what the Hufflepuff had said, those comments had raised a few questions that had been nagging at him for some time now. How had he survived Voldemort's attempt on his life, when so many experienced witches and wizards hadn't? What kind of magic had occurred that fateful night to protect him, and given him the scar on his forehead?
This was yet another reason Harry was in the library. The other one was because he needed to get away from all the people staring at him.
It made his insides burn. How they could have come to that conclusion was beyond him, he didn't even know Justin, why would he attack him? More than that, how would he be capable of it in the first place, and even then why would he stick around the crime scene after he'd done it?
None of these questions seemed to matter to the Hufflepuffs, or some of the Gryffindors for that matter. They were all making a point of avoiding him, some people even ran away from him when he went to sit down for lunch. People avoided him. The only ones who approached him without blinking or acting strangely around him were the ones who had survived the Cerberus attack back in their first year. Not exactly comforting.
It stung. It really did. He was finally in a place with other people like him, and they were turning on him over mere hearsay? Did none of them believe that it was possible to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Harry was used to being thought of as a troublemaker. He was used to people acting like this around him. It hadn't bothered him when it was his 'family' and their snobby friends, because the hatred was mutual. But here?
He forced the unhappiness of this deep down inside him. He dropped the moderated behaviour he had been putting on for this school, for having wanted to fit in. No, he was back to his old self at this point. No more rule-obeying. He was doing things his way.
Harry went to the library intent on getting some answers for all these questions.
He walked into the library and began scanning the shelves. He went past Potions textbooks and Charms lists, Quidditch books, and other assorted things. His fingers traced the spines of the books he passed. There were many things to look at, but none that he needed...
His fingers hit Deadliest Creatures Alive. Harry grabbed it off the shelf and opened it. On the inside cover it said for those who tamed these creatures, see Bloodlines and Ancient Families. It had obviously been scribbled there by another student.
Harry obligingly closed the cover and turned his attention back to the shelves. He continued his search, collecting other books as he walked. These included Unusual Abilities in Young Wizards, Known Family Traits, and Destructive Blood Feuds. After a while, he now had a sizable book collection under his arm, but couldn't find the Bloodlines book. So, he put the books down on a table, got out his invisibility cloak and ducked into the Restricted Section. There, he proved to have a little more luck – He found Bloodlines and its sequel, Blood Magic and Magical Connections between Family Members. There were some other interesting books there, likely containing dark curses and other unpleasant things. Well, it was good to study the opponent, so he grabbed Darkest of Magics and headed back to his original stack.
Now there was the question of where to go. Harry didn't want to be interrupted. Eventually he decided on the girl's bathroom that was haunted by notoriously grumpy ghost Moaning Myrtle. She was the reason no one went in there anymore.
Putting a levitation charm he'd learned over the summer on the stack of books, Harry hurried down the hallway and towards the bathroom.
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Harry sat against the wall, reading through the books. Bloodlines had confirmed what many people had suspected – he had Slytherin ancestry. It certainly explained his ability to speak Parseltongue.
He had looked at his family tree, which was ripped above three generations back. Harry was extremely irritated at this and didn't doubt that it was done on purpose. Now how was he going to find out about his family?
There was scant information regarding any possible ways he could have survived the Dark Lord's assault when his highly trained parents hadn't. There were some things, but it was mostly speculation.
The only thing that seemed to relate to his case was the power of 'love', which apart from making Harry feel like a male Sailor Moon was such a vague and inconsistent 'power' that Harry wasn't sure that it was a power at all.
Oh, he was under no illusions of what people in love could do, but he didn't see how it would vaporize dark lords or help people survive curses. The 'Blood Protection' wards that the Restricted book talked about would only protect him from the man who'd directly cast a curse at him, not from his followers, or from a jet turbine that he could drop on the house. And it could have dire repercussions for the ones tied to it if they broke their oaths or weren't careful.
Also, the person involved had to love the person they were setting up the protections for, otherwise the caster was wasting his or her time. It stated that very clearly, in large letters and red ink at the bottom of the page.
Yeah, there was no way that was how Harry had survived Voldemort's curse.
Besides, what did he know about love? His only living relatives hated him, and while he had his dear friends Carrie, Pierce and Miranda, he didn't have the kind of love for him that this book described. No, Harry was starved of any kind of familial or romantic love; under his criminal persona he was a very lonely orphan, no different from the next.
That was a dead end, but not all his questions were. He was getting a strong suspicion of what was petrifying students, although he wasn't certain yet. There were a handful of creatures that were capable of turning people to stone the way the other students were ending up, including the Cockatrice and the Basilisk. What didn't make sense, however, was how either of those creatures could get around in the school without being noticed - the Basilisk, for instance, was over sixty feet long.
"I thought we might find you in here."
Harry looked up to see Daphne and Tracy standing in front of him. Her blonde hair was hanging around her face like a curtain, but her eyes were sharp and focused on him.
He'd been reciting the speech he figured he'd have to give her ever since this mess started; he didn't like people getting hurt on his behalf. "You know, girls, it'd probably be better for you if you didn't hang out with me," Harry started, but he was cut off before he could get far.
"I couldn't give less of a damn what any of them thought," Daphne snapped, causing him to start. "You're my friend. And I stand by my friends. End of story." She glared down at him. "And no amount of arguing will make me change my mind, so don't bother."
Harry blinked a few times and, almost despite himself, smiled a bit. "Nice to know that. I have to ask – do you think I'm attacking the other kids?"
Daphne scoffed. "Hardly. Astoria and I agree on this, by the way. I know you – you're definitely a troublemaker, but you're no Dark Wizard. She would be here too, but she's in Potions now, and you know how Professor Snape can get."
"A Dark Wizard? The boy-who-lived? I wonder if any of these people ever listen to themselves talk. If they did, they should know how ridiculous they sound." Tracy agreed wholeheartedly.
Harry did smile at this. Their words created a warm feeling in his stomach, something he was unfamiliar with – affection. The thought of someone looking out for him was an unfamiliar one, and after the month he'd been having it was more than welcome.
Daphne walked across the room and sat down next to him. "Any luck?" She asked.
Harry turned his eyes back to the book he'd been reading. "I've found out more about my ability to talk to snakes – I do have Slytherin ancestry. I thought about going into Slytherin," He added, "But I didn't like the personalities in there. Barring you," He said quickly when Daphne's eyebrows rose.
The Slytherin ice princess chuckled. "Good save, Potter. Anything on what's Petrifying the students?"
"There's a few creatures that are capable of this, but I don't see how any of them could be getting around the school unnoticed." Harry said. "They're really big – there's no way you'd miss them."
Daphne frowned and looked at the page describing the Basilisk. "Well, maybe they aren't using the hallways," She responded seriously.
"Pipes?" Tracy said, shocked.
Both Harry and Daphne looked at her. "The pipes in Hogwarts are big," Tracy said nervously, her eyes shooting around the bathroom. "Maybe its be able to fit through them. But where would it come from?"
Daphne's mouth made an 'O' of understanding. "The Chamber. Remember, Tracy? All the myths say that Slytherin left a monster only he could control in the Chamber. Harry's been hearing voices – voices only he can here, late at night, usually right before there's an attack."
"Basilisk." Harry muttered. Adrenalin, fear, excitement and a host of other emotions washed over him.
"Astoria said that she heard Professor Snape talking to Professor Dumbledore." Daphne went on. "She was out in the halls last night."
Tracy gaped. "She was? But we're supposed to be on lockdown! She could have gotten hurt!"
Daphne rolled her eyes. "Like that's ever stopped her before. According to Astoria, the Chamber of Secrets has been opened before. Apparently, one of the students died while several others were petrified. It only stopped after someone was accused and expelled."
The three students stared at each other for a long minute. Then Harry dug through his stack of books and pulled out "Hogwarts – A History.' He turned to the end section and read aloud,
"The Chamber of Secrets, a secret base rumoured to have been built by Salazar Slytherin soon after the school was created, has long been thought a myth. However, during the time when Albus Dumbledore was Deputy Headmaster, there was a series of attacks on the school. There were several petrifications of muggleborn students until finally, a third year named Mrytle McGrew was killed in the bathroom by the monster of the Chamber. At long last, the culprit, Rubeus Hagrid, was found associating with the monstrous spider and was expelled from the school. There were no further attacks."
There was a short pause after Harry finished reading this.
Harry took a deep breath, closed the book, and then said very clearly, "That's bullshit!"
"Harry!"
"No, seriously! Hagrid, the heir of Slytheirn? SLYTHERIN? You've got to be kidding me! What kind of idiotic old sod could possibly come to a conclusion so asinine and full of holes? Remind me, what's Slytherin's supposed obsession that put him at odds with the other Founders? The thing that all the people who believe it preach to everyone else? Pure blood! What's the problem here? Hagrid's a bloody half giant! If that's true than Slytherin would have died rather than associate with Hagrid, much less have him for his heir! There is no way in hell he could possibly be Slytherin's heir! What kind of ridiculous thought process went into that trail? Do these people not bother to put any investigation or thought into any of the accusations they throw around? Do they-"
"Harry! Harry, we get it," Daphne said seriously. Harry broke off his rant and ran his fingers through his hair, a little sheepish from loosing his temper in front of her.
"Definitely, Hagrid couldn't be the one who let the monster loose. There aren't any kinds of spiders that turn people to stone." Tracy sighed. "All they would have had to do was look for bite marks and boom!, Hagrid would have been cleared."
"What kind of justice system does that?" Harry said. Then he raised a hand and said, "Wait, no, don't answer that. I've gone through the system many times and you don't want the answer to that question! Believe me."
"Well, since it's obviously not him, then who did open the Chamber?" Daphne asked, pulling the conversation back to the main problem.
"Malfoy, maybe?" Tracy suggested. "His family's been in Slytherin for years, and he's not subtle about his hatred of muggleborns and half bloods. He's been bragging about it for weeks now."
Harry rolled his eyes. "No way. If Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin, he'd have gotten himself caught now. He's way too obvious. I think someone with actual Slytherin aptitudes would be much more careful then that idiot's being."
"Harry's right. It's not Malfoy." Daphne agreed.
"That doesn't leave us very much to go on," Harry sighed. "The Headmaster's obviously bloody useless, so we can't ask him anything about that time. This book doesn't names the students who were just Petrified, and even if we could track them down it's not very likely that they'll know who set the monster on them, or even what the monster itself was."
"If only there was a witness left over," Daphne agreed with a sigh.
The group looked at each other. "You said the girl who died was in the bathroom when it happened." Tracy repeated. "But...what if she never left?
"No!" Harry nearly jumped out of his skin when a young girl's voice suddenly came from one of the toilets. A moment later, a ghost appeared from one of the stalls. She was a student judging by her size, with glasses and pigtails. "I'm Moaning Myrtle, and I was too upset to move on. I had been crying in the bathroom when I heard a noise outside. I opened the door to tell who it was to buzz off...and boom! I was dead!" The ghost screeched. "I swore I wouldn't leave this bathroom until everyone was as upset as I was!"
Harry bit into his bottom lip, fairly certain that if he didn't he'd start laughing. It wasn't a funny situation, but the ghost's tone was so close to a baby whine he couldn't help it.
"Hello Myrtle." Daphne said, politely ignoring the explosion. "Do you remember anything about the thing that killed you?"
Myrtle blinked rapidly, as though deep in thought. "...The last thing I remember, is a pair of big, yellow, eyes, over by that sink."
Harry, Daphne and Tracy immediately ran over to the sink Myrtle was pointing too. It was one of several, but there was a snake inscribed on the side of the faucet. Harry ran his fingers over it and felt a cold thrill tingle on his skin.
"This must be the entrance." He breathed. "We've found the Chamber!"
"Now what?" Tracy whispered. "There's a hundred-foot long snake down there that will kill us if we look at it!"
"Well, we can't very well leave it there, or it will keep attacking students." Daphne said. "We have to find some way of stopping it."
"Well, unless you feel like jamming all the pipes – which, I assure you, will get us kicked out of school faster than any snake would," Harry began, and then snickered at Daphne and Tracy's revolted expressions, "our other option is to kill it."
Daphne frowned. "Kill it? Harry, this is one of the most dangerous creature's alive. How are you expecting to kill it? Wouldn't it be more prudent to go tell Headmaster Dumbledore about it?"
Harry rolled his eyes, "And do what, let him totally mishandle the whole thing, again, and leave it down there to keep attacking people? I bet I'd be the one tossed out of school this time – I'm an easy target, what with the way everyone's been talking about me."
Tracy was looking at the facet, "I've heard there's a kind of glasses that you can wear that offer you temporary protection from the Basilisk's eyes, but their unfathomably expensive." She turned on all the taps. "If you only see its reflection, you get petrified. It might be safer if there's more reflective surfaces." She explained.
Daphne turned on her heels, "Good thing it's Friday. Come on guys, Harry don't forget those books. I've got to go get in touch with Knockturn Alley and put in an order."
"Knockturn-?" Tracy started with a squeak as they walked out of the bathroom at a rapid pace.
Daphne nodded and said, "I'm going to do something slightly illegal, if the two of you would kindly look in the other direction for a little. It should get us what we need, hopefully without my parents even noticing – they gave me my own vault key the day I entered Hogwarts."
"Have you and Astoria switched heads?" Tracy asked wonderingly. "Usually you're encouraging her not to do anything rash."
Daphne scowled at her, "No, I'm just more discreet about my opinions. It never hurts to be careful, especially when you're a pureblood girl. Harry, find out more about the Basilisk and its weak spots. Tracy, don't let anyone know what we're up to."
At this, Tracy looked indigent. "I wasn't about to give you away! For Merlin's sake Greengrass, we're friends!"
"Then use my first name, please." Daphne said with a smirk.
"All right. Yes, Daphne," Tracy and Harry both said. Harry smirked at Daphne, who instead of blushing and looking away just met his eyes steadily, a flash of something there that wasn't there before.
Maybe it was the look in her eyes, but it seemed to be the first time Harry registered that Daphne was just as pretty as her sister. And with that thought came a tightness in his chest that he couldn't explain.
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"Hi Ash, how's you're day?" Daphne asked distractedly from where she was filling out an official form to send to a dealer in Knockturn. It was a dodgy place, but it had what she needed at a lower price due to the fact her family was old.
"It could be better – Daphne, have you seen Ginny Weasley anywhere?" Astoria asked.
"Ginny? Uh, no, not since yesterday." Daphne said. "I think she likes to have some space, since not everyone's been receptive of her Sorting."
Astoria snorted. "Understatement. You know why I was in trouble with McGonagall soon after school started?"
"Why?"
"I punched her brother Ron in the face when he called her 'a slimy snake, nothing but trouble'. I don't think it hurt as much as he made it out to."
Daphne winced. She knew from experience that Astoria's punches were painful.
"But that's not the point. She's acting weird. Maya Jones – our new prefect, remember? - says that she's been sneaking off to some hiding place constantly, and whenever she came back to the dorm she looked like she'd been run through the mill."
Daphne paused her writing and considered that. She hadn't seen very much of Ginny, since the first years had largely different classes, but when she thought about it the redhead had looked pretty battered as of recently.
"And I seriously doubt she's usually as meek as she's been acting." Astoria went on. "Me and Rushman have been trying to keep track of her, but she disappeared after dinner yesterday and I haven't seen her in any of my classes."
Daphne finished her letter and handed it to Hedwig. "There's something in this school that's attacking students," she said. "Do you think it caught her?"
Astoria's eyes widened, and worry began to fill her. "But I checked all the usual places, and I haven't seen her body."
"That's probably a good sign." Daphne said. "Harry has an inkling of what's in the Chamber, but we'll need serious equipment if we're going after it." Hedwig flew out the window.
"What's that?" Astoria asked, walking over to the window.
"Nothing good," Daphne said seriously. She then turned to her sister and handed her a package. "You better hold onto this. Use it whenever your in the hallways, check around corners, everything."
Astoria opened it. "A mirror fragment?" She turned to her sister. "You don't think the monster's a Cockatrice?"
"No," Daphne said grimly, "We think it's a basilisk."
Astoria's eyes widened again, and she said several words that would have had her mother deliver an hour long lecture on how that sort of language was unbecoming of a girl of her standing. "Okay, where did you learn those words?" Daphne demanded.
"I have to go somewhere when I get out of the house." Astoria muttered. "And it's refreshing after having to be so polite all the time. You should try it."
Daphne resisted the urge to smack her sister, thinking about how disappointed her parents would be in her if she didn't act like the beautiful, upright ice queen that she was raised to be. Harry's friendship with her wasn't just affecting him. "Try to take this seriously. This is dangerous."
"I am taking it seriously!" Astoria protested, looking very put out. "Basilisks are serious, as a rule. I'm just worried about my dorm mate. She could be anywhere, and that creature's sneaking around right under the teacher's noses. And they don't seem to be very worried about it!"
Daphne looked sharply at her sister. "Ash, have you been telling other people this?"
"No," Astoria scowled and recited her mother's favorite phrase, "As the benefits of a good Slytherin girl, I know when not to talk."
"Good. I don't know how well Harry's concern is founded, but he doesn't have a good feeling about Headmaster Dumbledore."
"Doesn't? Why? Isn't he, what, one of the greatest wizards of all time?"
"There's just something off about him. Something wrong. Something fake. And sometimes I get that feeling too – there is no way how he twinkles his eyes at people is natural."
"So you're going to deal with the basilisk?" Astoria asked. When Daphne nodded, she said, "I want in."
"No way." Daphne said hotly. "I'm not putting you in danger!"
"But you're my sister! And you'll be in danger." Astoria said stubbornly. "I have to go with you!"
Daphne groaned. This was going to be a long argument.
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It was the dead of night, but Harry wasn't even the slightest bit tired. He barely felt it, not with the whispers in the hall and the knowledge of what was in the basement. There was little doubt that sleep would only come when the monster was defeated.
Basilisk skin was, for the most part, spell resistant. Fire was very irritating, but couldn't kill it, and it would take dozens of cutting curses to get past its scales. Its venom could kill a fully-grown troll easily, and it was fast-acting. There were precious few things that it was vulnerable too, but thankfully there was something inside this school that could help him. Unfortunately, it would be a bit difficult to snatch.
Hogwarts – A History had been kind enough to inform him that the Sword of Gryffindor had goblin enchantments on it, and its silver could kill the monster in question. Unfortunately, it was in the Headmaster's office, and it said that it would come only to one with 'true Gryffindor qualities'.
Well, Harry thought, it's probably noble, daring and chivalrous to go stop the evil snake that's petrifying all the students. So unless Professor Dumbledore has changed the password since the last time, I can still get inside.
He grabbed his invisibility cloak, put it on and hurried down the stairwell. He approached the gargoyle that concealed the entrance to the Headmaster's office when suddenly, Dumbledore and McGonagall both emerged from it, McGonagall looking frantic, and they both disappeared down the hallway.
That was convenient. Harry's stomach suddenly went cold. Too convenient. Someone else has been attacked. I have to hurry.
Now with more speed behind him, he went up to the gargoyle, "Sherbert Lemon!"
The door swung open and he ran inside. Dumbledore's phoenix made a curious noise as Harry scrambled inside, looking around wildly. "Sword, sword...where the hell is it?" He muttered.
"Looking for this?"
The voice was so unexpected Harry nearly gave himself whiplash turning around. The hat that had sorted him last year was perched on the edge of a shelf. And from within him, there was a glittering ruby handle.
"Go," The hat whispered. "And quickly. Their lives are on the line."
Harry didn't need any more prompting. He grabbed the handle and unsheathed the gleaming silver sword, before turning and running back outside.
It didn't take him too long to find the scene – and what a scene it was.
The teachers were gathered around another bloody message on the wall. McGonagall sounded dispairing, Snape actually looked worried and slightly stricken, and standing at the corner just out of sight was -
"Astoria?"
The blonde spun around, clutching a brown package as if her life depended on it, tears of anger flooding down her cheeks. "It's got them, Harry!" She whispered, although she couldn't see them. "It's got Ginny and my sister!"
Their skeletons will lie in the chamber forever.
Chapter 12: Tom Riddle
Harry waited several painful minutes for the teachers to talk about what to do, and then for them to tell that Lockhart idiot to go into the chamber to save Ginny and Daphne.
Bloody Lockhart? They were kidding, right? They were going to depend on someone to go and save those girls and they asked Lockhart? The guy who couldn't handle a cage full of pixies. The guy who got knocked backwards by a single spell. The guy who did nothing but talk about how amazing he was and had the most overinflated ego Harry had ever seen. The guy who had done nothing to back up any of the amazing things he'd claimed to do in his books in school. The guy who's most pressing concern was weather or not he was winning the Most Charming Smile award. That was their idea of a saviour.
The...the idiocy...the complete and utter incompetence on the half of the staff...bloody hell, did they want Ginny and Daphne to die? Because if it was up to Lockhart, they would! There was no way under the sun that guy could take care of a Basilisk!
Harry was beginning to wonder if he should be transferring to a school where people were less likely to die, and the teachers actually gave a damn about the students they were supposed to be looking after! To quote the oh so elegant Carrie, this was bullshit!
He waited a single second for the teachers to disperse, and then bolted down the hallway into the girl's bathroom, Astoria and Tracy right on his heels. He didn't tell either of them to let him do it alone, there just wasn't time and help was always useful. Fear dissipated and left anger and power behind; the children who entered the bathroom were soldiers, not students. It shouldn't have been them; it should have been an adult, but no one who could help would, and it was someone they were close to on the line.
He skidded to a halt in front of the sink that he was sure was the entrance. Astoria and Tracy nearly ran into him. "How does it open?" Tracy hissed, glancing about the sink as though she was expecting to see a magic lever of some sort.
Without thinking, Harry barked, "Open!", not even noticing that he had slipped into Parseltongue. An unnatural hissing noise left his throat. It didn't matter. He was on a mission, and they were running out of time.
Obediently, the sink gave way to a long, dark tunnel. Harry glanced over his shoulder at Astoria and Tracy, who were looking determined and angry. He shared the sentiment. It was their friend and sister on the line. The teachers wouldn't save them so they would.
He jumped down into the hole, the girls right behind him. They hit the ground, or more rather the dozens and dozens of skulls that were littering the floor of the chamber. Tracy let out a squeak of disgust and pushed herself to her feet.
The room gave out to a tunnel, which twisted further down underneath the school. There was some water on the floor, which made Harry think that it ran under the lake. It looked like he had
Astoria stood up straight, and said, "Do we have a plan?"
Harry held up the sword he had retrieved by the handle.
"Where'd you get that?" Tracy asked, startled. "That hasn't been seen around the castle in centuries. The last person who used it was Gryffindor's late champion, William Bennett."
"I went to the Headmaster's office right before he ran off." Harry replied. "This can kill the Basilisk. Not a lot gets past its scales but fire is painful for it, it hates it. Daphne said she was going to get something that protected our eyes for a little while, but I don't know-"
"I got it," Astoria said. Harry turned his head and saw her tearing the package open, before pulling out three pairs of what resembled sunglasses. "She dropped them...before-" She stopped talking and stared down the hallway. Under the anger was a very real fear for her sister's safety.
"She's going to be fine. They're going to be fine," Harry said, taking his pair of glasses. The flash of Daphne's challenging stare burned into his memory. His heart clenched. She was one of his first real (magical) friends, and he wasn't going to loose her.
"Tell us about the Basilisk." Tracy whispered, wand in hand.
"It's over sixty feet long, a strike from the tail could kill you. Keen sense of hearing and scent as well as sight. Don't get bitten, its venom is fast-acting and lethal." Harry reeled off. He'd read up on the monster before heading down. "First plan would be to put out its eyes, as a precaution, and then somehow hit its heart. Or it's skull, but that would require going through the mouth, not the most inspired idea when dealing with a Basilisk, but it's possible."
"That is such a Gryffindor thing to suggest." Astoria muttered. "It'll also be likely to get you killed, you know."
"Possibly. I live dangerously."
"Paralysing charms probably won't work well on something that big," Tracy said cautiously as they began to make their way forward. "Maybe we could force it into the water and freeze it. It would slow it down."
"Keep that in mind," Astoria muttered.
There were more skulls the further down they walked, though thankfully they were animal bones, as far as any of them could tell. It wasn't long before they reached an enormous snake skin.
"I didn't know Basilisks shed," Astoria whispered, stepping over the tail part.
"It's huge," Tracy muttered.
Harry didn't comment. "Come on. I think there's an entrance over there." He said in a soft voice. They all put their glasses on and hurried forward.
"Open," Harry ordered again. The massive door swung open, and after a hesitant second all three students walked inside.
It was a big place, with long trenches of water going down each side. The light seemed to be tainted green, hanging over them with a heavy air. There was a massive, Medusa-like statue and the end of the hall, and right in front of it...
Astoria let out a cry like a small child and bolted across the hall. The source of her distress was clear – Daphne was lying on the floor, completely motionless and pale as death. A few feet away from her was Ginny, also motionless and limp, an expression of pain and fear etched onto her unconscious face.
Harry and Tracy were catching up with her, hearing Astoria mutter, "Daph, Daph wake up! Don't be dead. Look at me!" was almost physically painful. Seeing his friends like this made Harry angrier than ever before, he dropped to his knees to check on Ginny.
The girl's skin was cold to the touch. Harry checked for a pulse and felt a very weak one. He nodded to Tracy before turning his attention to Daphne. Astoria was hanging over her sister, tears spilling down her cheeks,
"Wake up, Daph...wake up..." She lifted her sister's upper body and shook it; Daphne didn't respond, her head lolling from the shakes it was getting.
"She won't wake." A strange male voice said from somewhere behind them. All three students turned around to see a raven-haired boy in a Hogwarts uniform standing near the Medusa statue, watching them closely. He was blurry around the edges, as if he were something not fully formed.
Tracy immediately got her wand out and pointed it at him, "Who are you?" She demanded.
"Riddle. Tom Riddle." The boy responded, taking a few silent steps towards the gaggle of students. "I wasn't expecting you to know...I put a lot of effort into distancing myself from this old name."
Harry got to his feet and leveled a cold glare at the boy, "What did you do to them?"
"Me?" The boy raised an eyebrow as if he couldn't understand why Harry would ask him such a question. "I merely asked that Miss Ginerva keep writing to me. I wasn't expecting Greengrass to follow her down here...House loyalty was not something I was familiar with, you see."
Astoria put her sister down. Her slender fingers picked up a small black book that had fallen in between the two comatose girls.
She raised her eyes to Riddle, which were burning hotly through her tears. "What's this?"
"A diary," Tom responded airily. "My old diary, to be exact."
"Most diaries don't knock people out," Harry said. He shot both Tracy and Astoria a meaningful look; if there was one thing an overconfident criminal loved to do, it was to tell you exactly how he got away with it when he thought he was safe.
Such was the fragility of genius – it always needed an audience.
"I worked old magic on this particular book a long time ago," Tom said. "It has...special properties, if you will. Little Ginny has been writing in it for a few months now. Pouring her little heart into it, she did. Telling me all these ridiculous worries – about how she was scared something bad would happen to her because she got Sorted into Slytherin, that there might be something wrong with her, that no one would like her, that she would be in trouble for taking a car to Hogwarts."
He rolled his eyes. "Listening, and pretending to be sympathetic to the woes of a teenager is exceptionally irritating...but I was patient, I was kind. I helped her hold herself like a natural Slytherin while I drained her life out of her. I was patient, kind. She loved it, she was so lonely and frightened..."
He smirked at Harry's revolted expression and Tracy's horrified one and continued, "She killed Hagrid's chickens and painted the messages on the wall. Why? Because I asked her too. You'll find, I think, that I am very persuasive when I need to be."
There was a pause before he said, "You know, I was surprised that Hagrid was back at Hogwarts, after I blamed the first opening of the Chamber on him."
"I knew it," Harry growled. "You know, that was easily the dumbest choice of victims you could have gone for. That was your best choice? I'm amazed that anyone believed that a half-giant was the heir of the purity-obsessed Slytherin!"
"Harry!" Tracy whispered uneasily, but Harry kept his eyes on Tom. He wanted to make him angry, because angry people always made dangerous mistakes. It worked on Dudley and his gang and it would work on Riddle.
Sure enough, Tom glared at him, before saying, "You'd be surprised by what people will do when they're not willing to accept a possibility, Potter. Hagrid was an easy target – he was half-giant, as you said, and he was in a habit of keeping giant, monstrous pets. There was no way anyone would believe his word over mine, an upstanding member of high society."
He then said, "Eventually, Ginny figured out what was going on around her – I suppose there would have to be reason she was in Slytherin – and she went to the library to find out more about what I had done to my book. She came close...uncomfortably close to figuring out exactly what I had used to create it. Of course, I couldn't have that, because she would have gone straight to her muggle-loving father and that old meddler of a headmaster. I had to eliminate her. Unfortunately, my rushed response got more attention then I wanted."
He scowled in Daphne's direction.
"Ginny's dorm mates were starting to notice what was wrong with her, and you, Astoria Greengrass, told your sister. Daphne went out looking for her and came across me when I materialized from the book. I was forced to drag her into the Chamber along with Ginny lest I be discovered. It took much more energy than I would have liked to force her to write in the diary until she, too, fell silent."
He glanced at Astoria. "Do you know what your sister's greatest fear is?" He smiled maliciously. "It is that you, with your political mind and determination and hatred of pureblood custom, would abandon her. She wants, more than anything, to please her parents, to be the princess they want her to be, but she loves you as well, and knew that accepting her parents wishes could mean breaking ties with you – permanently.
And that, dear Ash, was the thought that put her in my power."
Astoria had stood up, swallowing hard, her hands shaking with the force of her anger. "You bastard." She spat, whipping out her wand.
"It would have been frustrating, but a minor setback to have two deaths instead of one. But the three of you followed her into my Chamber, and now things have gotten a little out of hand." Tom concluded, scowling once again.
He swept his eyes around the students. Harry was watching him with a cold expression, wand in hand. Tracy had hers pointed at him, ready to respond at any second. Astoria was seconds away from firing a curse.
"So if we destroy this diary, they'll turn back?" Astoria eyed the black book with narrowed eyes.
"I wouldn't recommend that." Tom's voice had grown sharp, like a whip-crack. "If you value everything you hold dear."
"You're threatening what we hold dear right now," Harry informed him icily. "What could a little more threat do to us?"
Tom's eyes narrowed. "I think you would be wise to heed my warnings!" With that, he waved a hand, causing the words Tom Marvalo Riddle to appear in the air. With another wave, they re-arranged themselves into the words I Am Lord Voldemort.
Tracy squeaked in horror and shock. Harry merely glowered. He had been harbouring suspicions that the attacks were connected to him, due to Voldemort being a Slytherin when he was in school and his snake motif. Now he was facing the man who had killed his parents.
"You see? I was already using this name when I was in school, among my most intimate of companions only, of course. You didn't think I was going to use my filthy muggle name forever, did you? I, in who's veins courses the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's family, tie myself through blood to the worthless muggle father who abandoned me to cold and death because he found out my mother was a witch? No, children, I fashioned a new name for myself, under which I would become the greatest sorcerer of all time!"
Harry merely listened to this monologue until it was over, and then said, in a tone of incredulity, "...You made an anagram ofyour name? Are you kidding me? Were you five when you came up with that?" He snickered, and then started laughing, putting his face in one hand.
Tracy gave him a look that clearly said she thought he had lost his sanity. Tom's superior expression had warped into something ugly.
"Seriously!" Harry chuckled, before looking up again and fixing Riddle with an insolent look. "You know who I hear doing that kind of thing? Teenage muggle criminals who are trying to act more clever then they really are." He paused. "But that was what you were back then, weren't you? A petty teenage criminal."
"Shut up!" Riddle snapped harshly.
"You said you had a 'filthy muggle' for a father," Harry went on, tapping his wand to the side of his head in feigned deep contemplation. "Is that why you decided all muggleborns had to die? You were throwing a tantrum over the fact that daddy never wanted you? That's not scary. That's pathetic!"
"Enough! I wouldn't expect a pampered little hero brat like you to understand!" Riddle snarled.
Harry cocked his head and said, "Oh, I understand perfectly, Riddle. Of course, I didn't know my parents because you murdered them-" his expression grew dangerous at that, "I spent my life living with my aunt and uncle Dursley. Want to know something? They despise magic. I can't count the number of times I was thrown in a cupboard, hit with a frying pan or denied food for days over any little bit of accidental magic. They might as well have dumped me in Azkaban, because the effect they had on me was just the same. I was never happy. I was always afraid and angry. I preferred living in a children's prison to their house,Tommy."
Both Astoria and Tracy took a second out of this deadly situation to stare at Harry in blank shock and horror when he said this.
"It had a bad effect on me. I lied. I stole. I cheated. But you know what? I'm not going around murdering people! So you became a mass-murderer because he didn't acknowledge you?"
He paused meaningfully and then went in for the kill. "Gee, if his approval meant that much to you, I think there were more likely ways to earn it than murdering him, you know."
That did it. Riddle exploded, "I WANTED NOTHING FROM THAT WOTHLESS WASTE OF LIFE! NOT PRIDE! NOT AFFECTION! NOT COMFORT! I DIDN'T NEED HIM, AND I'M GLAD THAT I KILLED HIM!"
"But you just said that you became a mass-murderer because he never loved you," Harry pointed out sarcastically. "Wasn't that what you meant?"
Evidently, the whole situation was a little too much for Tracy, because she broke down laughing. She laughed so hard that tears of mirth fell down her face.
Riddle really did look like he was going to explode; his spectral form shuddered violently. "You'll die for this insult, Potter, you and your friends!" He spun around to face the Medusa statue.
Harry immediately pulled Astoria and Tracy closer to him. They adjusted their glasses and raised their wands while Harry drew the sword of Gryffindor. "Avoid looking at it if you can," He said. "Focus on the body. And remember, get out of the way if it gets close."
"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four," Riddle snarled.
The mouth of Medusa opened, and a massive form slid out of the darkness, curling up in the water trench. Two hateful, malevolent yellow eyes fixed on the trio. It was just as huge as the book had said; its tail could probably pulverize every bone in their bodies.
Their glasses started to smoke. As if they had one mind, they shouted, "Blizziga!"
The water froze over, trapping the snake inside, giving them a clear view of its head.
"Reducto!" Astoria and Tracy shouted. The snake uttered a cutting scream as the curses struck its eyes; the noise threatened to send Harry to his knees, but he kept his eyes on the prize. Raising the sword of Gryffindor, he darted past Ginny and Daphne and Riddle and right onto the snake's back.
He swore as the creature broke loose of its frigid confines, throwing its head back while it was at it. Only his death grip on its horns kept him from being flung into the back wall.
Astoria and Tracy immediately backed up, casting Incendio on either side of the basilisk, circling it, not letting it pick a target. Harry shuffled his weight, trying to balance long enough to drive the Sword into the creature's head, some of the blood from its eye wounds being splashed against his face.
Riddle screamed up at the creature, "You can smell them! Pick one and stick with it!"
"Girls!" Harry yelled, "I need it to open its mouth!"
Astoria's eyes widened behind her shades, and she nodded, yelling, "Hey! Snake-face! Over here!" before firing another Incendio at the basilisk. The monster swung its head in her direction and lowered down, intending to snap her up. Astoria was backing up, but not fast, she glared defiantly at the creature, not moving an inch despite it being almost on top of her –
Harry somersaulted off the creature's head as soon as it was low enough. His shoulder screamed in protest when it slammed into the stone floor, but he ignored it, spinning around and then coming right up with all the strength in his young body.
The target hit dead centre. Warm blood gushed down on Harry, but there was a piercing agony in one of his arms. He ripped the blade out – it had gone straight through the basilisk's head – and looked at his arm. A single basilisk fang was buried in it.
The basilisk gave a single scream of pain when finally, after a thousand years, Slytherin's creature fell down dead.
Harry hissed in pain, grabbing the part of his arm that was injured. Both his blood and the blood of the basilisk was all over him, and made him feel quite sticky, but currently he was focused on the pain. It bit him. Damn it, he had meant to avoid that – now all he could do was pray that Poppy would have a remedy for that inadvisable move...
"Harry!" Astoria saw it too; her mouth had dropped open in fear. "Harry, damn it, that's bad, I told you that was a stupid move-"
Harry nodded before wincing. The pain in his arm threatened to get steadily worse. Both girls were standing on either side of him. "Not now – there's something we have to deal with."
Ignoring the pain, he struggled over to Voldemort's catty little diary and looked down at it for a second. Then he looked up at Riddle, who was staring at the three of them in utter disbelief.
Harry stared at him for a second before, in a calm, false casual tone, waved the sword of Gryffindor around. "Hum. Useful, this things is, isn't it? A letter-opener and a basilisk-killing machine." His eyes narrowed. "I wonder what else it can do."
Riddle paled – well, more than he already was – and shouted, "NO!" But it was too late, Harry raised the Sword and drove it into the diary with all his remaining force.
The Sword tore right through it and hit the stone floor of the Chamber. Ink gushed out of it and poured all over the floor, as though Harry had just rammed it through someone's heart. Riddle gave a scream much like the basilisk and exploded into a shimmer of light.
Harry dropped to his knees. The pain in his arm was getting steadily worse, but both the monster and the diary were destroyed. He'd done what he had come down here to do, and despite his wound he felt a smirk crossing his face.
Both Ginny and Daphne groaned simultaneously and pushed themselves into sitting positions. Surprisingly, it was Ginny who found her voice first, turning her head to see Harry kneeling in front of her.
"Harry? Merlin, you have to believe me, there's this guy named Riddle and he was using the diary to make me open the door to the chamber-" She broke off abruptly when she saw his arm. "Harry! Your arm!"
Pushing her own nightmarish ordeal to the side, Ginny scrambled over to Harry's side. Daphne, shaking her head to organize her thoughts, joined her a second later when she realized what was going on. Ginny reached out and tugged the fang loose, anxiously examining the scar.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no..." She whispered.
Harry just had time to register a musical cry and the blurry image of a red-and-gold phoenix before the world went dark.
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"...rry. ...arry. Harry. Harry!"
Harry blinked several times. His eyelids felt heavy, like he hadn't slept in an entire week. Slowly, he raised a hand and ran it through his perpetually messy hair, trying to make sense out of last night. God, why was everything so confusing? Why did his arm feel tender?
His hand slid down his chest and touched a bone. He blinked again, pushed himself into a sitting position, saw the fang dangling from the string -
-and he remembered everything, the basilisk, Riddle, Daphne and Ginny-
"Harry!" Suddenly he was wrapped in a double embrace; both the Greengrass sisters had hugged him.
"Ow! Gently," Harry protested. Astoria and Daphne, who was now looking much more healthy than she had the last time he had seen her, blushed sheepishly and released him. He took a deep breath and looked around. He was in the hospital wing, but all the students who had been petrified were gone from the beds they had occupied.
"How long was I out?"
"Almost a full day," Tracy supplied, before shoving a potion under his nose. "Take this Pepper-Up potion. Doctor's orders."
Harry nodded, his fingers fumbling with the vial as he tipped it back and drained it dry. Everything became clear and focused, and wakefulness came to him. He glanced down at the place where the fang had dug into his skin – the wound had completely closed over, the only indication that it had been there at all was a thin scar.
"We thought you might want to keep the fang as a trophy." Daphne said. "So we put it on a chain for you."
"Thanks," Harry said, fingering the fang that had almost killed him. "So, what did I miss?"
Astoria whistled. "A whole lot. It was nothing short of total anarchy when we emerged from the Chamber – there were parents and aurors running around everywhere, dozens of Howlers were going off at the same time, Rita Skeeter was there for Merlin's sake!, and this funny Auror named Tonks had to stop my mum and dad from murdering the Headmaster. Apparently the fact that there was a giant snake going around petrifying students hadn't been public knowledge until Daphne and Ginny got dragged into the chamber, and the parents were flipping out. Especially dad; I have never seen him scream like that, he's always so in control-"
"-The Minister was there, Skeeter was there because she's putting the whole thing into the Prophet. I'm really angry about that, you know! She acts like you were the only hero and we were all helpless damsels who didn't do anything," Tracy said in annoyance.
"What?" Harry asked, irritated, "I can't see how I could have defeated that monster without your help."
"Yeah, thanks – well the minister was there because Dumbledore has to face an enquiry of how all these attacks went on under his nose, and how a bunch of students were the ones who a) figured out what the monster was and b) were the ones who killed it, when he knew perfectly well where they were because after they defeated the monster, he sent his phoenix to get them out."
"Wait," Harry's dazed mind took a second to process this, "You mean he knew we were in the Chamber? He just let us face the 1000-year-old monster without even a sliver of support and sent help after it nearly killed us?"
Astoria nodded vehemently, "That's all I heard, dad was all but dragging Dumbledore out the front door, I lost them there."
"That son of a bitch!" Harry shouted. "We could have died! He could have gone down and gotten Daphne and Ginny, but he just sat there!"
It was at this moment that he realized someone was missing. "Speaking of whom, where is Ginny? Shouldn't she be in the infirmary, she was exposed to Riddle's soul-sucking diary for at least a couple months."
At this, all three girls became quiet. Astoria's expression went from one of triumph to homicidal anger. "Minster Fudge deserves to get ripped apart by Centaurs." She ground out, "and Lucius Malfoy should die in a fire."
Harry's heart jumped. That wasn't good. "What happened?"
"Our Minister, in his infinant wisdom, decided that Ginny was the Heir of Slytherin." Tracy replied stonily.
"WHAT? !" Harry swung his legs over the side and got out of bed, eyes blazing. "Ginny, heir of Slytherin? Didn't you tell him what happened in the Chamber?"
Astoria's nostrils flared, "Oh yeah, we sure did! But then Malfoy Sr said that she was obviously using disillusionment magic to hide her identity under a fifty-year-old student in an attempt to avoid capture! He said that his son had been reporting her so-called student attacks and threatening behaviour for the last three weeks! Said she was showing signs of 'dark magic' because she was furious with her placement, because she was among respectable purebloods when she was a mere blood traitor."
"He claimed," Daphne growled, "that his house elf had recognized her as the Heir and was trying to block her from getting to Hogwarts, but she got there by a stolen muggle artifact."
"We told Dumbledore too, but he just said that there was no way it could be Riddle, because reviving a memory the way we described takes a branch of magic that doesn't exist." Tracy snarled. "So he just merrily handed Ginny over to the Minister, who's going to throw her in prison!"
"Prison!" Harry repeated in disbelief. "They're sending her to Juvie for something she didn't do?"
"No. Not the youth detention centres that you say the muggles have." Daphne's eyes were mere slits at this point. "They're doing something much more insidious – something completely unforgivable."
"Wizarding Britain has only one jail, Harry." Tracy said. "They're sending her to Azkaban."
A total, stony silence hung in the air. Harry stared at the girls, hoping one of them would discount this information as an exaggeration or misinformation. When none of them did, the lamp on his table exploded into a million pieces.
"Of course, they aren't saying that officially," Astoria ground out. "They say there just putting her in a Ministry holding cell, but that's a bloody lie – Malfoy has a blood feud against the Weasleys, has had one ever since he was in school with them. They thwarted lots of his restrictions against Muggleborns and stopped one of his Death Eater raids. Nothing would make him happier than throwing one of their children into a living hell, as punishment for getting in his way. He manipulates Fudge like a marionette, so he agreed to it."
Harry shook his head slowly.
They were going to throw an eleven-year-old girl into Azkaban to be tormented by Dementors?
They were. With this realization came both a burning fury and the same sharp clarity that Daphne being taken to the Chamber did. "Where's the port that leads to Azkaban? Where's the closest muggle settlement?"
"It's near the west end of London." Daphne said. "I can show you the town on a map – Harry, what are we going to do?"
Harry had a house elf give him his backpack before saying, "Right now, we're cutting school. I'm going to grab the car and go out until I get cell phone reception. Then I'm going to make a few calls. Ginny Weasley will not set a foot inside Azkaban if I have anything to say about it." He headed for the halls.
"Who are you contacting?" Daphne asked.
"I know a few people in low places." Harry said, "It'll never occur to them, since a lot of wizards seem to think it's below them to have actual muggle contacts. And they have just the kind the help we'll be needing. I don't do this very often, but this time I have exactly what they'll ask of me."
The girls ran to keep step with him. "Just a warning, Harry," Tracy said, "if someone was to actually escape from Azkaban, the response would be to put a 'kiss on sight' order on that person."
"I couldn't give less of a damn, Tracy. I didn't survive ten years at the Dursleys by playing by the rules, and I'm never going to leave a friend to the Dementors." Harry retorted simply. Tracy nodded in acceptance of this and they continued their race down the hallway.
They were about to turn a corner that usually lead out to Hagrid's hut when they saw Dumbledore talking to some of the board of governors. He looked over, and when he saw them he gestured for them to wait before walking towards them.
"Harry, my boy. It's good to see you're out of bed, but shouldn't you remain in the hospital for a while?" The man said, his eyes twinkling a bit.
Harry didn't look at him. "Sir, I can't simply lie down and stare at the ceiling when one of my friends is being thrown in a prison for something I know she's innocent of."
"My boy, the evidence is against Miss Weasley." The man said in what was meant to be a placating tone, but just came across as condescending. "I understand you were confused -"
"I'm not confused about anything." Harry retorted. "And I find it difficult to believe that a first year would be able to preform a concealment charm of that power capacity. Any again, let me reiterate – I am not leaving a friend to rot in jail."
"Perhaps you should speak with Mr. Weasley and his family, then. They're going to put for a defensive petition to get her out of trouble."
That would be nice. There were a least a dozen compulsion charms that fell through when Harry befriended Greengrass instead of Ron Weasley on the train, and the relationship he had intended for him to have between the boy and Miss Granger also failed when the boy refused to tolerate her rule-abiding nature. It was frustrating because now he had no idea what the boy was up to on a regular basis, and he was far too reckless and free-form for Dumbledore's comfort. He wanted to get the boy under his thumb as quickly as possible.
"No," Harry said. "I'm going to to speak to Hagrid. He was, after all, the last guy who got expelled and nearly thrown in prison because the people involved couldn't be bothered to investigate his case even a little bit."
Dumbledore scowled. He wished the boy would just look him in the eye; he wanted to see what was going on inside his head. "I'm afraid I must insist you stay inside, Harry."
"Sir, the threat has passed," Daphne Greengrass pointed out. "It's safe to go outside now. And this is a matter of importance to all of us."
"Children, I act as 'a loco parentis' while you are at school, and I do not think this decision is in your best interests."
"Why?" Harry raised an eyebrow challengingly, looking Dumbledore in the face for the first time. "I'm just going to have a chat with the gamekeeper. So unless there's something -really- serious that you don't seem to want me to know, there should be no reason I can't go."
Without waiting for a response, he shouldered past Dumbledore and ran double-time down the hall and outside, Daphne and Tracy on his heels.
Dumbledore was shaken. Somehow, Harry knew that he had lied about there being no magic that could allow Riddle to store part of him in his diary. He didn't know the specifics, but now he knew that under the boy's shirt he was carrying a basilisk fang.
No, he couldn't have that information falling into the wrong hands. It pained him to hand Ginny over to the Ministry; he was under no delusions that Malfoy would merely put her in a ministry holding cell.
But he couldn't have the knowledge of the Horcruxes falling out of his hands, so he wouldn't let any of them believe that Ginny was telling the truth about the diary. There was already a huge debackle after his head because of all the attacks, Daniel Greengrass had demanded he be removed from office. It had taken many favours to hold onto his position, and he wasn't out of the woods yet. The Skeeter woman was already writing about
To defeat Voldemort, the information needed to lie with someone who was willing to make sacrifices for the Greater Good. He'd have to set up a way to get into the boy's confidence as soon as possible. Perhaps he could pay off the Davis girl; he would keep that in mind.
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Astoria was following on Harry's heels as they went back to where they had hidden Arthur Weasley's car months before. Mercifully, it was still there and hadn't been hauled for evidence. Rapidly Harry activated it and the girls piled inside.
Harry immediately put it in gear and they drove off, onto the tracks and then up into the air. Astoria hit the invisibility gear when people turned to look at it.
"I think they might have seen us," She said.
"They saw the car, they didn't see us," Daphne responded. "Harry, we can direct you there, just listen to everything I say..."
It took hours, but eventually the cat touched down in a rain-soaked street late afternoon, near a series of docks that lay against the lake. If you squinted a bit, you could see a tiny island in the distance with something rising out of it.
Harry opened his phone, punched in a few numbers and waited.
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In a darkened bedroom, a phone started going off. A young, tanned hand grabbed it and held it above his face, squinting at the numbers, muttering in irritation over having been interrupted.
"Mmm, Raleigh." A girl sighed, "you aren't actually going to answer that, are you?"
"Dear, it could be business, just – just give me a sec, and you've got my full attention," The young man promised. His partner gave a sultry giggle and lay down again, the blankets wrapped around her nimble figure.
Raleigh hit the 'talk' button and said, "You've reached Raleigh Pentacost." He ran his free hand through his messy blonde hair. Hopefully this wasn't a snitch; he'd had to shut up at least four police officers over the course of the last year. Thankfully, only two of those had had messy results. He preferred not to slaughter people unless the situation truly called for it.
There was a short pause as a boy's voice came across the connection. A familiar young voice; a boy with black hair and green eyes flashed in front of his eyes. "Potter? I admit, I'm surprised to be hearing from you. I thought you didn't want to join up," He said.
There was another pause, and the boy's agitated voice sounded again. "Hum? A female friend? Wrongful incarceration? You want my help?"
A confirmation. Raleigh leaned back; despite his occupation he liked children and wouldn't mind bailing one out. However, money didn't grow on trees. "You know that doesn't come cheap."
There was a pause as Potter replied, and after a second Raleigh shot straight up. "Are you kidding? Solid gold? You better not be making this up." More chatter. "You're having me, aren't you?" Vehement denial. "Okay, you've got my attention. What do you need?"
There was another long pause. "Right. Gotcha; my men will be over there by dinner. Send it anonymously to this address. And mind you – I will be checking it."
A cheerful confirmation. "Right. Good luck." Raleigh cut the connection and dialled again. "Hey, Marcus? I've got a job for you tonight. Get your stun wards and go to these docks. You're helping Potter extract a girl." There was a pause, and then Raleigh chuckled. "Hilarious. He's twelve, remember?" He chuckled, "Yeah, I suppose it couldn't hurt to get her off the market early. Anyway, make sure your there no later than the given time; your window is small. Call me when your done."
He shut off the phone and then lay down again. His partner giggled and ran her fingers over his bare chest. "What was that about?" She asked sweetly.
He smirked at her, "That, darling, is a job worth ten pounds in gold." She squealed as he pulled her on top of him.
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Auror Dawlish, one of the six Aurors leading Ginny to the docks, had no idea what hit him.
One minute, they were just waiting for the boat. The next, they were assaulted by dozens upon dozens of young men in black coats with masks. In the chaos, Dawlish's wand was knocked out of his hand and stepped on. Then there was a loud crack and the world went black.
When he eventually regained consciousness, their attackers had faded into the shadows as suddenly as they had appeared. Their charge, the apparent Heir of Slytherin, was gone. His head was ringing painfully. They were surrounded by muggle emergency vehicles.
He had demanded to know what had just happened. The muggle closest to his stretcher had explained that they had crossed the Blood Knight gang, who must have taken offence to their presence around the young girl.
Dawlish let his head hit the ground. He'd been cornered by muggles, who had the nerve to snap his wand,and now he was going to be saved by them. How was he supposed to show his face at work now? He'd be a laughing stock.
The obliviator team, when it finally got there, was working overtime to erase the muggle's memories of the place, since it was far to close to Azkaban for them to keep their memories of it. After they were finally done, they swept the area for the young suspect, but she had vanished without a trace.
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Ginny wasn't sure exactly how she felt.
Oh, she was definitely overjoyed that she had been rescued; her father had been to Azkaban once and said it was the worst experience of his life.
But apart from that, she was angry. How could Professor Dumbledore blame her for the attacks? They had all given him Pensive memories just like Mr. Greengrass and Mrs. Bones had said, and he still didn't believe them? He was okay with her just being dumped in Azkaban? Hadn't anyone protested? She was a good girl! She hadn't meant to hurt anyone. She didn't do it!
At this point, Ginny decided that if she ever saw Dumbledore again, it would be too soon.
They were sitting in the car while Harry ducked into Gringotts. Astoria had put the invisibility cloak over her, and she currently had Maria sitting on her lap, comforting her. She didn't ask why she was here; the distraction was welcome.
It was still raining as it got later, which she supposed complimented her mood. Harry finally emerged from inside the building, looking pleased.
"What was he doing?" Ginny asked.
"Paying the guys who helped us bust you out." Tracy explained.
Harry was halfway to the car when someone called out to him. Ginny couldn't hear very well, but she recognized the woman who walked up next to Harry and saying something to him. "Isn't that Rita Skeeter? What does she want?" Astoria wondered, following her gaze.
Harry turned on his heels and said something to Rita, who looked very pleased all of a sudden. Their conversation continued for a little, though none of the girls could hear it. Harry was gesturing animatedly and then pointed to the car. Rita nodded and raised a hand skyward. Harry nodded again and then walked towards the car, while Rita hurried off in another direction.
Harry swung in and shut the door, looking pleased. "Hey girls, feeling up to an interview?" He asked, smirking.
Ginny blinked twice – and then understood. "Oh yes, I think I would like that very much."
Astoria leaned over and pecked Harry on the cheek. "Just make sure she's actually writing what you're saying; sometimes she likes to 'change a few lines' for the sake of a story."
"Oh, don't worry," Harry chuckled, putting the car in gear. "She's going to love this."
End Chapter
Yes. Harry Potter, Golden Gryffindor has Mob Contacts. Then again, he isn't so golden here, is he? The next chapter deals with more of the Chamber fallout, Rita's articles, and more fun for anyone who doesn't like Dumbledore.