Chapter 2.
A/N: Thank you for the reviews, I appreciate them. Anyone who can provide information on Azarath or who has played warcraft and is willing to give information please let me know. As I said I am blind so can't play the game, so have to go from information I pick up off of the web.
Harry sat up in his bed the following morning and watched as Professor Snape entered with a large collection of vials in a box and went into the office of Madame Pomfrey. Harry was excited to have his best friend back. He hadn't seen Ron since the previous evening when he had been treated for his scraped hands. Harry could only assume he was out spouting off about the adventure he had been in with Harry. Harry could only assume if this was true that Ron was also inflating his amount of participation in the adventure as really all he had done was to follow Harry down into the chamber and get stuck behind a rock fall which he had been attempting to remove when Harry had been transported through by Fawkes after he had defeated the basilisk and Voldemort. Shrugging mentally, Harry thought Ron was welcome to any fame he gained from this as Harry really didn't particularly care about it. He had gone in there for one reason; to make the person who had done this and the monster pay for ever coming near his best friend. This he had done and therefore he was satisfied. The bonus now was the book he still had hidden under his pillow. Although he knew from reading in the book that the enchantments would make sure the book was returned to him, he did not want to take the chance that someone would try to confiscate it, such as Snape, the miserable git.
At this point in is thoughts, Madame Pomfrey and Professor Snape exited her office and began attending to the victims of the petrification. They began with the first victim, Mrs Norris. The process seemed to be that they first applied some of the potion to the victims lips so they became un petrified so then they could open their lips to pour the rest of the mixture into their mouth. This then un-petrified the mouth and spread down to the throat, enabling them to swallow, which was completed through a spell cast on the patient. From that point the potion worked over a period of about ten minutes and spread out from the cured areas, causing the body to relax from the position it had been in at the time of the petrification. The victim remained unconscious during this time until all function had been restored, upon which they then regained consciousness. Mr Filch was there for the resuscitation of his familiar and Harry could not help but feel sorry for the man as he knew how he would have felt if Hedwig was a victim of such an attack and had been out of action for nearly an entire year. He watched as the cantankerous old man picked up his cat and hugged her tightly to his chest, weeping in relief the whole time and thanking the medi-witch and Professor profusely. Poppy smiled at her fellow staff member and told him he was welcome, while Snape just nodded silently at the thanks.
They then proceeded then around the room, administering the potion in a similar fashion to that of Mrs Norris. Slowly each person was returned to a living, breathing form upon which they then gained consciousness and were told what had happened and how long they had been in the hospital wing for. Hermione and Penelope were the last patients to be restored and Harry watched with excitement as his friend went through the process. Her body first relaxed into a prone position on the bed and the colour slowly returned to her skin. Her eyes then closed and she began breathing. Her eyes then snapped open and she bolted upright. Harry, who had come over to see his friend restored, laid a hand on her shoulder and said
"Easy Hermione. It's okay. You are safe now." Hermione's eyes snapped to Harry and she launched herself into his arms and began to cry. Harry held her to him and rubbed her back while murmuring in her ear that she was okay. She clung to him fiercely as she sobbed out the fright she had felt when she realised what the creature actually was and the terror at the last second as she saw the giant snake through the mirror just down the hallway. Harry sat on the bed next to her and held her tightly to him, comforting her the whole time until she calmed down somewhat. Finally she lifted her head from his chest where she had buried it and asked
"How long have I been in the hospital wing Harry?" Harry shrugged and answered
"About three weeks." Hermione's eyes then widened as she realised something and she looked at her hands and said quickly to harry
"Harry we have to let the teachers know. There is a basilisk in the castle!" Harry smiled and hugged her again, saying
"Don't worry Hermione. I took care of it." She stopped in the middle of her panic and just looked at him for a moment and asked
"What do you mean you took care of it?" Harry, not really knowing enough about women to identify the warning signs just continued to talk
"Well I found that page you tore out of the book. However as soon as I found it another message had been written on the wall outside of the second floor bathroom. Apparently Ginny Weasley had been kidnapped and taken into the chamber. I then concluded that most of the attacks had occurred quite close to the bathroom and thought that perhaps the person who had been killed the first time the chamber had been open had never left. So Ron and I went to talk to moaning Myrtle. It turned out she was killed by the basilisk when she had been crying in the toilet and had seen it as it came out of the entrance. After looking at the set of taps in front of her toilet cubicle, I found a tap that had an engraving of a snake on it. Ron and I then went and got Professor Lockhart to help us with the chamber. He was more interested in leaving and saving his own hide though, so we err, encouraged him to come with us at wand point. We forced him to go down the pipe that uncovered when I opened the chamber. When Ron and I landed, Ron let Lockhart get hold of his wand. Lockhart then attempted to obliviate us, which is apparently what he had done to all the people who had actually done the things he claimed in his books. Problem for him though was that he was using a broken wand, which backfired and obliviated himself." Hermione was wide-eyed at this point and seemed not to be able to believe her ears, so Harry continued
"When he obliviated himself, Lockhart caused a cave-in where I got separated from Ron and Lockhart. I saw really no other choice but to go on. I entered through another parceltongue controlled door and found Ginny lying at the foot of a giant statue of Salazar Slytherin unconscious. While I was trying to revive her, Tom Riddle came up behind me and told me she wouldn't wake up." Hermione gasped at this as she knew who Tom Riddle was.
"Apparently Ginny had been writing in his diary since the shopping trip in Diagon Alley. This caused the diary to start absorbing her life force and enabled him to eventually take over her body, which led initially to the roosters being killed and then the chamber of secrets being opened. While he was telling me all of this I noticed that his form wasn't completely corporeal and that when the process was complete, Ginny would die. He then told me that he was actually the younger version of lord Voldemort and that his name was an anagram. I didn't really care at this point and basically provoked him to releasing the basilisk. While doing this I apparently summoned the headmaster's phoenix, who brought the sorting hat along with him. I grabbed the hat and ran for it as I had no idea how to fight the basilisk. Fawkes helped out though by clawing out the snake's eyes. I then had a brain-wave and put on the sorting hat and the sword of Gryffindor fell out, almost breaking my skull in the process." Hermione looked at Harry sharply and asked
"Please don't tell me you fought a thousand year old basilisk with a bloody sword?" Harry nodded and Hermione just shook her head in disbelief. Harry continued on with the story
"I managed to run the sword through the top of the basilisk's mouth when it tried to bite me, killing it. However it bit me." He then showed Hermione his arm with the scar. She gently traced the scar and asked
"How did you survive?" Harry smiled and said
"The phoenix again. He cried tears into the wound once I removed the broken off fang. It healed right up. Luckily he also had dropped the diary next to me and I stabbed it with the fang, killing Voldemort and destroying the diary." Hermione pondered all of the information and shook her head, smiling slightly and said
"Only you Harry." Harry tried to look injured, but was too happy that his friend was back to hold back his smile for long. She smiled back and took his hand in hers.
"So what else happened?" She asked him, knowing there must be more.
"Well apparently while Ron and I were gone, Professor Dumbledore had been reinstated and Ron and I found him in Professor McGonagall's office comforting the Weasley parents. We had already dropped Ginny off at the hospital wing as I didn't know the long-term effects of a possession for so long so I kept her unconscious and brought her straight o Madame Pomfrey. I then explained to them what happened and got an award for services to the school and 200 points along with Ron. I then found Lucius Malfoy on my way to the hospital wing and managed to convince him to release Dobby the house elf. I then bonded Dobby as my friend and sent him off to do some things for me, including sending a letter to the Minister of Magic to have Hagrid released, as apparently Dumbledore forgot about him." Harry said this with some heat, as Dumbledore often seemed to forget the individuals when it came to this sort of thing. Hermione just squeezed his hand as she agreed with him.
Harry then looked around and made sure no one else was around, which they were not as everyone else had left and Madame Pomfrey had returned to her office. He then turned to Hermione and said
"Before I left the chamber I actually found the office of Salazar Slytherin." Hermione's eyebrows rose at this as she could tell he had not told anyone else about this.
"I actually found quite an interesting book which I want to share with you." He continued. Hermione's eyes lit up at the knowledge of such an old book and Harry led her over to his bed and sat her down next to him. Reaching under the pillow he pulled out the book and holding Hermione's hand on the book, he intoned
"I Harry Potter, grant access to this book for Hermione Jane Granger, so mote it be." Hermione gasped as she felt a small prick as a drop of blood was drawn from her hand and there was a muted flash. Knowing this was the book releasing to her, Harry showed Hermione the front cover of the book and opened it to the first page and began to explain what he had discovered so far. Hermione was excited to find out the book was an entire compendium of magic and all it contained. She agreed with Harry that it was an opportunity they should take advantage of.
"What I propose we do is learn as much of the magic while we are at school and then learn all we can theoretically and what doesn't require wand magic during the holidays, that way we use out time most effectively." Harry explained to Hermione. Hermione squealed in excitement and hugged Harry again, saying
"This will be great Harry. We can use the knight bus to meet up and we can learn together all summer. This will be great!" Harry looked at her a little puzzled and asked
"The knight bus?" Hermione looked at him a little weirdly for a moment and then remembered something
"Sorry Harry. I keep forgetting you didn't receive any of the muggleborn…" Harry then interrupted her, saying
"New blood." Hermione looked at him questioningly and he explained
"Muggleborn is like saying nigger to a black person. If you must refer to them call them new blood." Hermione thought about this and then nodded and continued
"I forgot that you didn't receive any of the new blood guides to the wizarding world. In one of the booklets it explains about the knight bus. You hold out your wand and this bus appears and will take you anywhere within the British Isles. Apparently it is a popular transport device for underage wizards and witches." Harry smiled and nodded in excitement, seeing that his summer holidays were going to be a lot more pleasant this year.
The two of them sat there side by side in Harry's bed reading through the introduction of the book. Hermione agreed she would also take the vow once they were both out of the hospital wing, meaning Harry had been released, especially when Harry explained the benefits he had received from his own vow. They both found it fascinating to read about Salazar's life and his many travels throughout the world. Soon enough lunch came and Madame Pomfrey, after doing a scan of Hermione released her to go to lunch, while Harry was forced to stay and eat an enormous lunch, which he did not really mind. After the year he had, he really needed the rest mentally, if not physically. After he finished his meal, Harry lay back against the head-board of his bed and thought about his next year. He had chosen to do all subjects the same as Hermione, even though professor McGonagall had expressed her concern at him taking on such a load. This was when he had carefully explained the reason for his mediocre performance during his classes for the last two years. It had started off as a defence mechanism while he was a non-magical school. This was because if he came home with a report card better than Dudley, he would be accused of cheating or using his freakishness to beat their son, when in reality a bear with a head cold could show up their son. Therefore to avoid the unpleasantness and an extended stay in his cupboard, he had contrived to do just a little worse than his cousin. Of course he did the work correctly, but then fudged the answers just enough to get worse marks. This had just then continued on into Hogwarts without him realising and had just replaced Dudley with Ron. Professor McGonagall had accepted his choices for his electives with the stipulation that from now on he do his best. He had apologised and promised that this would now be the case.
Hermione arrived shortly after lunch and once more they took up their positions in the bed and read through what essentially was a history of the times of the founders combined with an autobiography of Salazar Slytherin. They did not realise the passage of time until Madame Pomfrey reminded them of the feast which was to take place in 15 minutes time. Harry quickly dressed in his robes and hand in hand, he and Hermione headed down to the feast. When they entered the great hall, everyone went quiet when they saw Harry for the first time in a few days and quickly the buzzing began throughout the room and everyone discussed the latest rumours surrounding him and no doubt the story that Ron had been telling anyone who would listen about their adventure down in the chamber. He and Hermione went and sat down next to Neville who was sitting near the twins and the three chasers Alicia, Katie and Angelina. They all greeted Harry and Hermione warmly and the three chasers told Hermione they were glad she was back up and around as Harry had been down in the dumps ever since she had been petrified, causing Harry to lower his head and blush and Hermione to smile at him fondly. Unlike everyone else in the hall though, his friends surrounding him did not question him about the events that had taken place but instead let him enjoy the feast with his best friend. They knew there was plenty of time to find out the real story, as not one of them believed Ron's tale, or at least what he claimed to have done in his recitation. There were still a couple of weeks left of school so there was plenty of time to pick the truth from Harry.
At the end of the feast, Professor Dumbledore got to his feet and gave a speech, but Harry zoned his voice out as he really didn't want to hear the headmasters inane waffling. He also knew that Hermione would tell him any pertinent facts if there were any. After the speech was done they were dismissed and Hermione accompanied harry back to the infirmary upon which she wished him a good night and after giving him another hug, returned back to Gryffindor tower. Madame Pomfrey, who had arrived during his wishing Hermione a good night, waited until he had changed back into pyjamas and then ran her diagnostic spells on him again to check his progress. He mentioned that his eyes had seemed to have healed as he no longer wore his glasses and she nodded, making a note on his file. She concluded the spells and examined the results for a moment. Turning to him, she said with a smile
"Everything appears to be fine Harry. Your system has stabilised and you are eating more than an adequate diet to compensate for the healing. I will release you tomorrow providing you continue to eat large meals, alright?" Harry nodded happily at this and promised to do as the healer requested. He went to sleep that night, happy his friend was back and fine and that his own condition was good enough that he would be released on the morning.
The following morning found Harry sitting on the edge of his bed while Madame Pomfrey ran through her final diagnostics. As she was finishing up, Hermione came through the infirmary doors and smiled in greeting to Harry, who returned the smile.
"Well Mr Potter, everything seems fine. Keep up with the increased calories and everything should be fine." Madame Pomfrey admonished Harry. He nodded in acceptance and with her dismissal; he rose from the bed and met Hermione at the entrance to the hospital wing. Taking each other's hand, they turned and went downstairs to the great hall for breakfast. Harry had the book hidden in an inside pocket of his robes, which he told Hermione as they ventured downstairs. They made it to the great hall without being disturbed by anyone as it was still quite early. Harry and Hermione selected places next to each other on the Gryffindor table and once they sat down, they proceeded to load their plates up. Hermione noticed that while the amount of food that harry was eating was substantially more, she also noticed that it was substantially healthier then the breakfast foods most people tended to eat. She commented on this and harry explained
"Well when Madame Pomfrey said I needed to eat more, she had the house elves get me a meal then and there. I noticed that while the foods that I had on the plate were foods that were often available at the great hall, they were usually the more healthy options. I therefore took the selection as an example of the foods that Madame Pomfrey wanted me to eat and it seems that is so as every meal I have had in the infirmary since then had the same healthy element to it. That is why I chose the porridge along with fruit and toast along with scrambled eggs." Hermione listened and admitted to herself that she was impressed by his deductive reasoning. Most boys Harry's age are only concerned with there being food in front of them and lots of it, not whether the food is healthy or not. She knew that magic tended to make people a lot healthier who had it and therefore they tended not to suffer many of the medical conditions that non-magicals did; however not having your magic work so hard on your health would surely mean you have more available to then cast. Hermione would have to look into this at some point.
They continued on with their conversation throughout their breakfast, ignoring the majority of the school as they all filtered into the hall to eat their own breakfast. Both Harry and Hermione had come to the conclusion that most of them were sheep and not worth bothering about, so therefore were not important in the scheme of things. Finishing their breakfast, they rose and exited the hall, just as Ron entered, intent on his own breakfast. In fact he was so intent; he ignored Harry and Hermione completely, something for which they were both grateful. Harry, taking Hermione's hand once more, led her through the hallways and up to the second floor bathroom. They both entered and noticed that Myrtle wasn't there and so walked to the sink in front of her cubicle. Harry pointed out the snake engraving and then hissed out
"Open!"
With a grinding noise the sink slowly lowered out of sight, exposing the opening of the pipe. Hermione, looking at the entrance for a moment, said
"You know, I just do not see Salazar Slytherin sliding down a pipe in order to get to his secret chamber." Harry looked at Hermione in surprise and realisation and said
"So you think there is another command perhaps or another entrance?" Thinking for a moment, Hermione said
"It is more likely that there is another command, maybe something for stairs rather than there being another entrance. Perhaps try asking for stairs?" Harry nodded at this and looking at the entrance and imagining the face of the basilisk, hissed
"Stairs!"
There was a clicking noise as the bricks surrounding the entrance moved kind of like the bricks at the entrance to diagon alley, folding out to form stairs, with each layer repeating this action right down the pipe. Holding hands once more, Harry and Hermione went down the stairs, lighting their wands as they went. Halfway down, harry turned back around and hissed out
"Close!" and with another grinding noise the sink rose back up, blocking the entrance. They then continued down until he reached the bottom of the stairs.
They soon reached the cave-in and after consulting with Hermione, they both agreed which spell they should cast and decided if they did it together that it should provide enough power. They both raised their wands at the same time and waving them in the prescribed motion, cast their spell. The rocks and debris flower together and formed a low-handing archway through the rock fall that also supported the remaining rocks and the ceiling above it, ensuring that there would be no further collapses. Grinning at each other due to their success, they then walked through the archway and along the hallway and up to the large circular door. Harry hissed
"Open!"
The snakes moved in a circular motion around the door and the door opened, allowing them entrance into the chamber. Harry noticed that the room was dark and thinking about what Hermione had said earlier, He hissed
"Lights!"
With a whooshing noise the torches around the chamber lit up, showing the chamber and more important, showed the corpse of the basilisk. Hermione shrieked when she saw the size of the creature and hugged Harry desperately, to ensure that he was indeed, alright. Harry returned the hug as he had a slight flashback to the terror he had felt while fighting the monster.
After calming down, they skirted around the large reptile and climbed through the hole in the statue's head and moved through to the office. Once inside, Harry showed her the phoenix ash he had used and Hermione repeated the same ritual circle and the runes she needed to use, mixing the ash with her own blood to form the paste needed to draw with. She too was done in roughly half an hour, upon which she took the book that Harry had been holding and recited the same pledge that Harry had done a few days before. Harry noticed as soon as the pledge was finished that the circle and the runes flowed a bright white and he almost saw the physical wave of magic that went through Hermione. The first thing he noticed was that her hair, rather than being bushy ad actually smoothed out and was now more wavy with some ringlets. Hermione also appeared to grow only slightly taller, but Harry thought this was probably because she had always had quite good nutrition growing up with loving parents, so there wasn't much that the ritual needed to correct, unlike with his own body. The ritual then finished as the circle glowed golden. It was only once this had happened and Hermione had turned to him with a smile that he realised what else had changed.
"Hermione, your teeth!" Harry said in surprise. Hermione's hand flew to her mouth and she first felt her front teeth in disbelief and the in joy. Her front teeth had been corrected. They were now in proportion to the rest of her teeth and her mouth. She beamed a happy grin at Harry, who returned it.
Hermione flung her arms around Harry's neck and exuberantly kissed him, she was so happy. Harry was shocked at this action by his best friend, although after a moment's though, he decided he didn't mind it at all. In fact it felt quite pleasant. Hermione had frozen once she had realised what she had done and was terrified of Harry's reaction. When he cupped the side of her face and tilted it slightly and continued the kiss, Hermione relaxed and melted into the kiss while melting inside. After roughly half a minute, they broke apart and moved their heads back slightly so they could look into each other's eyes.
"So is this your way of asking me out?" Harry asked Hermione with a cheeky grin on his face. Hermione blushed and hit his arm playfully and said
"You better be my boyfriend Mr Potter. I don't go around kissing boys who aren't my boyfriend!" Harry just chuckled and nodded in agreement, which caused Hermione to give him another brilliant smile in response. They kissed once more, this time a little more confidently and with a little more exploration of their feelings. When they parted, they took each other's hand and made their way out of the chamber, making sure to close the door to the chamber behind them once more. Hermione mentioned that she thought that since Harry had killed the basilisk that it was his by right of conquest. Harry suggested they take a trip to the library to look up the relevant information and perhaps consult the book, which Hermione happily agreed to. Harry then opened the entrance and to their relief, Myrtle was still not around, so they quickly exited and Harry shut the chamber once more. Hermione exited the bathroom first to make sure no one would see Harry exiting a girl's bathroom and then once she signalled that it was safe, he came out and they both made their way to the library for a morning of studying and quiet conversation.
After a few hours of diligent perusal of the rules according to the ministry of magic as well as a perusal of Hogwarts a history as well as the Hogwarts Charter, the two teens concluded that there did not seem to be any law regarding the killing of a dangerous animal on Hogwarts grounds, so that meant that the existing law regarding the conquest of dangerous creatures applied. Harry determined that it was probably best to deal with the goblins in regards to this as he did not know anyone personally who could render down such an animal. If he did his studying on goblin customs and business negotiation he may even get a good price for the services. Harry had also read that a creature such as a basilisk who is an inherently magical creature just like a dragon, did not begin to decay until long after the death of the animal due to the inherent magic keeping the creature preserved, so he would have plenty of time to deal with the goblins over summer, although he determined to do the business negotiations as soon as possible so it was out of the way so he and Hermione could concentrate on learning for the book as well as their new relationship. Looking at Hermione who was perusing another tome on magical creatures, Harry could not believe they had gone from best friends to boyfriend and girlfriend within a few days. Certainly he did not deny that he felt strongly for Hermione. She was the most important person in his life, which was kind of scary considering he hadn't known her for that long, but it was also comforting that he knew she would always be there just like he would also be there always for her. If the book helped in this, then so much the better.
Hermione, who had caught harry looking at her from the corner of her eye as she read, smiled to herself as she reached over with her left hand and took his hand in hers and brought it to her lap where she continued to hold it. She was overjoyed at the new relationship as she had had a crush on Harry ever since he had saved her from the troll in their first year. She had seen from the very beginning that he was uncomfortable with the way that Ron bullied and belittled her, but saw he was unsure what to do in regards to it. Finding out later on that Ron had been his first friend had gone a long way to explaining why he didn't know what to do as he was afraid to do something to drive his first friend away. Just as she had made this observation, it also didn't take her much time to realise that Harry had probably dragged Ron along when Harry had realised she was not at the feast and did not know about the troll. Thinking on it later on after the terror had subsided, her heart had melted at the bravery Harry had shown when he had jumped on the back of that troll. She had also been relieved when Harry had come through the encounter unhurt. Although from that time, as far as Hermione Granger was concerned, Harry's fate was sealed, he just didn't know it yet. He was now the property of Hermione Granger.
She had been subsequently over the moon when he had drawn her aside at the start of the year to explain the whole flying car incident. It had touched her that her opinion had meant so much to him. She had melted inside again when Harry had expressed to her how much she meant to him and that she was really his best friend. She had wanted to squish him in a big hug there and then and admitted in the recesses of her own mind that she also wanted to snog him senseless, but there was a reason why it was in the corner of her mind, as she did not feel ready for that yet.
She too had noticed when Ronald had started to drift away when Harry began to come under suspicion for the chamber of secrets and even more so when it was revealed he was a parceltongue. In a way while she was angry, she was also exultant as it meant she got to spend all the more time with Harry by themselves. It was at this point when Hermione realised that Harry had been holding back in his classes. It took a while for her to get the story out of him but eventually he told her about how the Dursley family was responsible as he was severely punished if he did better than his cousin. The habit just continued on when he came to Hogwarts, especially as he was insecure about his friendship with Ron. Hermione did not berate him and did not lecture him. She knew it was something he could not help, but was determined to help Harry to overcome it by encouraging him. In fact the disappearance of Ron from their group more and more often helped this greatly as Harry no longer had to compare himself to Ron. Instead he was next to a girl who wanted him to try and do his best. She had seen the look of shock on his face when she had congratulated him when he had achieved the spell in transfiguration ahead of her.
When Professor McGonagall had cottoned on to something being different and has asked about it, Harry's admission to her had seemed to be a little easier, as if letting Hermione know previously had enabled him to more easily open up. Professor McGonagall had also been understanding and had told both of them if they ever needed any help or advice, that her door was always open. Both of them had been surprised at this but Hermione had later determined that the Professor had probably been feeling bad about not having listened to them at the end of their first year when they had come to her about the Philosopher's Stone. Both of them had felt touched at her offer and had promised to come to her if they felt in need. Hermione had felt closer and closer to Harry throughout the remaining time they had before the event that she regretted the most. She had gone off to the library with an idea in her head and did not consider at all her own safety and was so excited at the leap her logic had made that she forgot to tell Harry her suspicions as well. She was supremely lucky that Penelope Clearwater had been in the library at the same time and had provided the compact mirror when she had shown her the page about the basilisk and had explained her conclusions, something which had impressed the sixth year prefect. Moments before she had been petrified and everything went grey, the only thought in her head was that she had failed Harry and how would he solve the mystery now.
She had been so proud of Harry when she had found out how he had come to solve the mystery behind the chamber and the monster, how he had found the parchment in her hand and deduced that Myrtle had been the previous victim. She had been terrified for him, but also incredibly proud and impressed by his bravery when he told of entering the chamber by himself after the cave-in caused by the defence professor. Finding out that there was a magical tome of knowledge that was over a thousand years old and self-updating that had been created by Salazar Slytherin was akin to finding the Holy Grail in Hermione's mind and she could tell that Harry was nearly as excited as she was by the prospect. Hermione was also very proud of how Harry had managed to free Dobby and to bond him as a friend rather than a servant. She was a little irked though when he told her that there were some surprises in store as he had made a few requests of Dobby which he would reveal once they had left Hogwarts.
The two second year students put their books away once they had discovered the information they needed about the creature laws and spent the rest of the day talking with their year mates, particularly Neville Longbottom and Faye Dunbar, who seemed to be perfectly agreeable people although they were a little quiet but soon opened up after Harry and Hermione made friendly overtures to the pair. They then spent a fun evening playing gob-stones and exploding snap.
The two spent the next week reading through the introductory chapters of the book. The book first instructed that in order to learn all they could from the book, first they had to protect their minds and enhance their bodies to be able to take the training. Apparently occlumency, which is the art most used in modern times to protect the mind, is a pale shadow compared to the mind defences taught within the book. As the defences taught are so much more in depth and complexity, they will take much longer to learn, but their minds will be protected at an early stage with extra defences and details being added once the initial defences were up. The couple read that psychic powers, which a lot of non-magicals claimed to have, can actually be fuelled by magic, meaning that once their mind is sufficiently trained, they will be gods within their own minds and able to do nearly miraculous feats within their minds. They therefore began the long process of organising their minds and memories in preparation for laying the groundwork for their defences. It was convenient that they had no classes during this time, which meant they were away from those who could detect the changes within their minds such as Snape and Dumbledore. By the time they returned from their holidays, their minds would be protected and unable to be penetrated by a mere legilimency attack.
Enhancing the body was also a long process that involved a particular aspect of magic which was considered obscure and most of which was also classified as dark by the ministry of magic, according to the book. This was because the majority of the enhancements were done using rituals and most particularly sacrificial rituals. However, after reading the prerequisites for most rituals and seeing a list of the ones that Salazar recommended from his own studies, they determined that the most required from them would be the sacrifice of some animals. This to them was a lot more acceptable compared to some of the darker rituals that were detailed in the book, such as the taking of a virgin's lifeblood while being deflowered; something which they both agreed they would never partake in. As the wards of Hogwarts would be able to detect such spikes in magic as when a sacrificial ritual being performed would make, the couple decided to wait until they reached their homes as Harry lived close to an undeveloped forested area and they hoped they could find a clearing which they could them make use of.
They found though that during the last couple of weeks that they had tasks to perform for the rituals they would do. This was because while the rituals often contained sacrifices such as blood or the life of an animal, it also required either the consumption of a potion, a potion to be used to drawn runes, or the burning of certain herbs and plants. This meant that a lot of their time was spent making their way along the edges of the forbidden forest, harvesting plants and herbs for their rituals, storing them in jars that had runes etched for preservation on them in order to keep the ingredients within fresh. Once or twice, the two went into the forest in order to gather certain plants they knew they had no chance of getting unless they purchased them from an apothecary and why should they spend good money when they had a fresh and more importantly free supply available? They therefore gathered moss from the ancient trees as well as certain types of mushrooms and toadstools and other plants and lichens that were abundant within the forest. By the time the end of term came, both teens were sure that they had the majority of the ingredients needed for their rituals except for the animals as well as some other ingredients they would need to get from an apothecary as they are simply too rare to be able to gather themselves. Dobby proved to be a great help during this time as they needed more room than they had in their trunks to store all of the ingredients they needed. As Harry's bonded elf, Dobby had access to Harry's vault and therefore was able to procure a potions masters trunk, complete with all the implements and jars needed to gather potions ingredients. There was also a rendering kit for rendering down animal parts, but Harry would rather leave the basilisk to an expert as the carcass from what he learned was simply too valuable to try and do it himself.
It also helped that Hermione agreed with his decision about hiring the goblins. He had decided to keep all of the money himself as he had risked his life to kill the animal. Those who missed out on their schooling during the year should really be handled by the school as it wasn't Harry's responsibility to supply such help. He had, after all, removed the threat that petrified them in the first place. Hermione supported this decision as well, particularly when she had first gotten a proper look at the monster and realised exactly how much danger Harry had been in and how close he had been to dying from the basilisk bite. They both silently agreed never to mention to Ron exactly how much Harry would make from the basilisk as Ron would either get jealous that Harry was now even richer or would demand where his part of the proceeds were, never minding the fact that he was never in danger and did not help to kill the creature. They finished packing their belongings later that night before the feast and made sure all of their items were safely stowed away. Harry's trunk now looked a lot different as his new trunk was a five compartment model with a large amount of storage in the last compartment which he used to store all of the items he and Hermione would need to use during the summer. Deciding they were both done and Harry's trunk was secure from prying eyes and fingers (Ron), the couple made their way, hand-in-hand down to the great hall to enjoy the leaving feast for their second year.