Chapter 2
The Questions Lay Inside the Secret Chamber
The light coming from the lake shone on Harry's face, he blinked and stood up, it had already dawned and the sun's rays were all over the bed. He got up and took on new robes, and left the room, luckily there was no one in the hall to see where he came from. He went through the common room and left the dungeon. Harry walked through the tunnels as he remembered them, in a few minutes the Great Hall was in sight. The Front Hall was ablaze with torches and echoing with footsteps as the students crossed the flagged stone floor for the double doors to the right, leading to the Great Hall to get some breakfast. He had to admit to himself that even if it felt strange wearing the enemies colors, it also felt normal somehow.
Harry gulps seeing the tables, hoping that it was as he remembered. The students were talking eagerly, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at friends from other houses, eyeing one another's new haircuts and robes. There were faces he never saw or at least didn't remembered at all. Again, Harry noticed people putting their heads together to whisper as he passed; he gritted his teeth and tried to act as though he neither noticed nor cared. He made his way to the Slytherin table and sat next to Daphne Greengrass. Both Draco's were missing this morning and he couldn't put things together to know what was going on. He stood calm and waited for things to unfold.
Daphne Greengrass was moving a lot in her sit compared to Ron, Hermione, and Neville who found seats together about halfway down the table between Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor house ghost, and Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, the last two of whom gave Harry oddly, overly-madly greetings that made him quite sure they had stopped talking about him a split second before. Ron was the one with crossed eyebrows looking at him, it was hate, the same hate Ron gave the Malfoy's each time he saw them on his timeline. But why? Hermione was a little more unbiased at the moment. As expected. Harry scanned the staff table, Hagrid was missing again, and for his size, it was hard to miss.
"She wasn't feeling hungry this morning," said Daphne, sounding slightly happy. "Did you two had a fight last night?"
"Of course not, we're friends," said Harry firmly lying. He didn't know what to say. Getting that relationship, well, his only relationship at the moment screw up would be the last of his worries.
"You don't think she's... pregnant, do you?" said Daphne uneasily.
"Oh, God. What are you-" said Harry at once.
"It isn't a secret that you two are sleeping together, Harry. The whole school knows." she smiled to which he chocked up with his pumpkin juice worriedly about his reputation.
There was a pause, and Harry stopped very quietly, so the Slytherin students that passed by them couldn't hear their conversation, "There she is." said Daphne pointing at Draconian Malfoy who had arrived at the Great Hall. Draco waved at him and smiled but when Harry didn't react to her she seemed down. Harry felt pain in his right ribs, Daphne had elbowed him.
"What was that for?" Harry asked not amused.
"If you make her cry, I'm gonna Jinx you." Daphne had a dark tone when she got up and left the table.
"Don't be harsh on him... he has amnesia," said Draco, sounding reassured, but Daphne bit her lip, looking up and down at her as though hoping for some conclusive explanation of to why she wasn't dumping him anything soon.
"Are you going to sit there or are you going?" asked Draco.
Frustrated Daphne left the Great Hall. Draco took her seat next to Harry smiling at him. Harry nervously said, "And where's your brother?"
"He doesn't study at Hogwarts, he does not study anywhere either; he spends most of his time creating new strategies and investigating the Dark Lord's plans." Harry looked at both sides of the table wondering how could she talk about this when people were looking at them and maybe hearing them. Most of their parents were followers of the Dark Lord and could report him of it.
"Do not worry." she cheered. But his confidence did not change. She sighed.
Draco looked on the table to where Tracey Davis and Pansy Parkinson were sitting at. "Hey, you lot! What do you think of the Dark Lord?"
"He can blow me," said Tracey, and Pansy responded at once, "He can go take it up his arse."
"And what do you think of Harry Potter?" she asked smiling.
"The rightful Heir of Slytherin." was Pansy's response, and Tracy asked with a raised eyebrows, "The next Dark Lord?"
"See, Potter. Everyone here in Slytherin respects you for who you really are," she said, but Harry could only gulp once more, that was the problem, he didn't know who he was.
"This is not reassuring," he said calmly.
"Oy, Nott!" She threw him a ball of tissue paper. He looked at them, "Where does your loyalty lays?"
"With the Malfoy and Potter houses, of course. Why ask?"
Harry was shocked. What kind of things as he had done in this timeline to had followers? What were his overall goals? Why were they not afraid of Voldemort? To many question were unanswered.
"Thanks, Nott," Harry answered feeling with waves of nausea.
"Do you want me to ask Zabini?" she came close to him.
"No, thanks. I get it." Harry raised from his chair and left for the Great Hall entrance dealing with all this thoughts of "What if" that didn't least to any response.
"Were are you going, Heir of Slytherin?" George and Fred asked skeptically. They were blocking the entrance. "Oi, Fred asked you a question mate."
Harry did not look at the twins. His face felt hot; he deliberately tried to leave but was push back by them. His theory must have been right. He hasn't seen Ginny at all.
"You killed our sister, Potter," said Fred. George picked him up by the neckline, "Got anything to say for yourself?"
Some of the Slytherin students rose to their feet looking at them.
He heard Fred say overhead, "You better stay away from us, or next time you would be the one missing." They left angrily arguing and cursing.
Harry was left confused and to his own accord angry as well. Not angry at them, but to himself.
How could he not? It was Lucius Malfoy who killed her when he put that diary in her cauldron. Now he was dating his daughter. He had to confront him. He had to know why? And where was Tom Riddle right now? The spirit of the diary was to take form once she died. Were there two Voldemorts in this timeline?
Draco came outside and put her delicate hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"
"Listen, Draconian. I have to speak to your brother. Where is he? How did he gets in and out of the castle?"
She frowned for an instant, "Brother, what brother?" She felt a slight headache. "Sorry, I'm not feeling well."
"What do you mean? Your twin brother, I spoke with him last night."
"I'm sorry, Harry. But I don't have a brother. I'm an only child. We'll speak later." she yawned and made her way to the dungeons, Harry, on the other hand, was having the worse day ever. Who or what was that Draco Malfoy that appeared before? Was she lying? Taking him for a fool? A joke perhaps because he didn't remember? Or was she Jinxed by another person using a Polyjuice potion? What was happening? The only way to get answers was to go down there himself, to the Chamber of Secrets.
...
As he climbed the stairs he thought about the many things that seemed different to him in this alternative world, Harry thought about getting to the bottom of all this but first, he needed answers to which questions seemed endless. His stepfather was Severus Snape, and his mother was alive. His father died, but he was still the son of James Potter. That's at least what he knew so far about his family. He smiled. That meant he never lived with the Dursley's. But what was his previous personality? He couldn't piece things together just yet. He was sorted in Slytherin. Draconian was a friend, now Girlfriend. And the other Draco was not Draco, but who?
If Draconian didn't remember having a brother that means she may be the Draco from his world. It was a meaningful conclusion, but it made sense to him, at least for now. He had to be careful around him. He sighed as he walked the hallways towards the second-floor girls' bathroom.
He turned the corner and passed by some Ravenclaws, kept walking and grabbing more questions than necessary. None of it made sense, some students hail him as the true Heir of Slytherin, the Voldemort may have resurrected and Ginny was possibly dead. He finally reached the bathroom.
"Myrtle?" he called, but there was no answered.
He saw all the sinks in the bathroom arranged in a column. He stood close and spoke with hissing words, Parseltongue. The columns separated and the snake-engraved sink descends into the ground to create a passage. He took out his wand and took a deep breath. If things went differently the Basilisk may still be down there somewhere. But he had confidence that it wasn't, otherwise, the school would have closed by now. What did happen? He wondered.
"I see you already decided." said a male voice.
"Draco!" He turned to confront him, he was on the wall with an apple in his hand.
"Do not forget, Potter, if the diary is still down there, bring it to me." Harry looked at him with cross eyebrows, he did not want to tell him the truth, at least not yet. Ruining his cover could wait. He needed to discover what was really happening.
"I remember so little. What did happen?" he asked expecting answers.
"Two years ago, Ginny Weasley went missing. She was the last student to be taken and never seen again. Rumors say her bones lay down on the Chamber of Secrets."
Harry swallowed at the news, if no one knew the location of the chamber, there was no way to tell if she had any chance of still been alive.
"The Blood traitors finally got their punishment, don't you agree?" Draco smiled waiting for an answered. Harry, on the other hand, clenched his fist he wanted to hit him again, throw him deep in the chamber and leave him there. No one would know. But he put on a mask. The mask of a Slytherin.
"Let see if we can find her down there," he replied with a bitter smile. "but how are we gonna get back?"
"I'm not going, Potter." he walked towards the door, "Use your broom. Remember, the gift from my sister?"
Harry frowned, Draco was fucking around with her mind and his. He saw him leave and he took his wand out. "Accio, broom!"
He waited and before long it appeared, the broom itself was black and silver with revolving stirrups. A Nimbus 2001. He looked at the giant hole in the floor and took another deep breath. He threw himself through the tunnels, which remained the same as he remembered them. He got off the broom when he reached the ground and crushed the bones beneath his feet. He placed the broom on the wall to his right and moved forward down the cave.
Harry saw a human decomposed body on the floors of the corridor of secrets that lead into the main chamber. It was an adult and half of the body was missing. It didn't take him long enough, "Lockhart?" he said. By the look of it, the Basilisk had killed him in this world. He passed by the corpse and went through the open door to the chamber. He finally passed the giant snake statues and arrived at the main chamber. The mouth of the Statue of Slytherin was open, but the Basilisk was nowhere to be seen.
Then he realized, Tom Riddle's diary was floating in the water. He thought about it several times before proceeding, knowing that the Basilisk could fit completely inside the water around the Salazar's statue.
"Accio, Diary!" he said, but it didn't come to him, "Accio, Tom Riddle's Diary!" nothing happened again.
He swallowed hard, and slowly entered the water. The Diary was at the far end. He swam with ease and grabbed the diary. Opening it, he noticed something was written in it. Before Harry could read the first letter, something grabbed his leg and dipped under the water. Everything was dark, and he could not decipher what it was. The book fell out of his hands and he tried to take off of what had hold of him, but his hands slipped, whatever it was had a cold and slippery skin. He waved his wand causing a great flash of light under the water. Casting a Lumos charmed. He managed to see what it was, a snake twenty-five feet or so, but what made his heart skip a beat was that there was not just one but several Basilisk.
"Vipera Evanesca Maxima!" Harry shouted under the water, swallowing some water, and the spell sent a huge fireball to the nest, which proceeded to incinerate the place, leaving behind a scroll of smoke. Harry now free picked up the diary from the bottom. "Ascendio!" He screamed and was pushed to the surface, landing on the ground, spouting the water from his body. He gasped for air. The basilisk came out suddenly almost biting his leg, he waved his wand and burned it like the others. He lay down with his back to the ground breathing hard.
He froze. His whole world came down when he saw two Gryffindors standing above him with angry looks in their faces.
"We finally got you, Potter!" said Ron Weasley grabbing him by the rags, and Hermione Granger picked the book from the floor. Harry remembered that they were made prefects of the Gryffindor house this year. They must have followed him, how more stupid could he be, of course, he left the door to the entrance open and knowing Hermione she would also be using the bathroom as a secret place to make the potions in this alternative world.
"What is this place? And this book?" Hermione asked.
"This is the Chamber of Secrets, and that's Voldemort's Diary," he said, forgetting that this two were no his friends in this timeline. He had so much confidence in them that he screwed up and spoke without thinking. "Son of a bitch!" Ron exclaimed and hit Harry in the face throwing him to the ground, "I knew you were on the side of the Dark Lord and you killed my sister!" he climbed on top of him, "Fucking, Death Eather!" and kept on punching him until he bled, "Ron, stop!" Hermione shouted, pulling him off.
Harry wiped his face and picked up the diary which Hermione had dropped. "Let me explain," he looked for his glasses, "I want to know what happened to Ginny like everyone else in the castle. I'd nothing to do with this. Believe me." As hard as it was Ron and Hermione didn't trust him at all, Harry deduced that much from their looks and how they still pointed their wands at him.
"This will explain everything." he opened the diary, "Do you have ink and a quill?" Harry asked knowing that she always carried a beaded handbag with her.
She hesitated. Looking at Ron she proceed to look in her purse to which Ron responded, "Are you mad?"
"Here." she handle it to him, and they had that what-the-heck-is-he-doing kind of look on them.
Harry wrote on the diary, "Can you show us what happened May 29 of 1993 in the Chamber of Secrets?" as Ron read in disbelief, "Is this a joke?"
He swallowed his words when the letters disappeared.
A simple word appeared instead.
Yes.