Lucius Malfoy and the Chamber of Secrets

by unlikely2

From a far, desperate future, Lucius Malfoy will be sent back to change the past. Helped by Narcissa and Severus, and henched by Britain's sneakiest house elf, he's about to begin his hero's journey. Of course, he doesn't know that yet.

2. In which our hero isn't quite himself

In which our hero isn't quite himself.

It was with an increasing sense of disorientation that Lucius made his way through the castle Where were all the children?

He remembered, what seemed an incredibly long time ago, sneaking the diary in amongst the Weasley girl's books with every expectation of it causing trouble for Dumbledore and her family once the salient facts emerged but, for the first time, he almost wished he hadn't.

The quiet school felt . . . wrong and it bothered him more than he would have thought possible. He concentrated on letting the 'Felix Felices' he had inadvertently ingested locate Severus and eventually found him in rather fraught discussion with the Acting Headmistress. 'What's happening?' he enquired.

'Ginny Weasley is missing,' McGonagall replied. Lucius had never thought to see her look so defeated. She gestured and he took in the dripping, red letters on the wall.

Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever.

Intellectually, Lucius felt irritated.

This was the posturing of a spiteful brat. He hadn't time for such ignorant and, frankly, boring histrionics. At the same time he felt, deep within himself, something unfolding and solidifying and then pressure building to the point of fracture until an explosion of previously unrecognised rage and determination flooded through him carrying away the broken pieces. 'Search for her,' he found himself growling. 'Use everything you have. Ghosts. Portraits. Get the house elves looking for her. Cupboards. Attics. The grounds. The child is somewhere.

They were staring at him.

'The last time this happened, a girl died?'

Yes,' said McGonagall quietly, 'Myrtle . . ..'

Moaning Myrtle?' McGonagall nodded. 'What did she say?

'Well, I . . .'

'Fine. I'll speak to her.'

Lucius Malfoy strode down the corridor, his mind a passenger in his body, but by now, entirely unconcerned. This dream wasn't remotely as awful as the last one he'd had although clearly it had that potential. After all, Draco was here. Merlin but what had he been thinking. Had he been thinking at all? He needed to rescue the girl and dispose of the incriminating diary.

Not necessarily in that order.

'Lucius?' Severus was beside him, looking uncertain.

For a moment, something like the ghost of a small child's breathing seemed to brush against his cheek. 'We'll find her.' Lucius slammed through the door into the girls' toilet and stopped dead.

In front of him, he had no doubt at all, lay the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

From the gap between the sinks emerged a voice that, as they listened, proposed abandoning the child and destroying the minds of his witnesses, all to further Lockhart's literary career.

While Lucius was still trying to process the sheer ineptitude of what his disbelieving ears were telling him, Snape had heard enough. He turned and dropped through the hole, disillusioning himself as he went, his shoes already silenced by default.

A short time later there came a crunching sound, 'like a body falling onto many tiny skeletons,' thought Lucius, just before an unexpected tug launched him head first into the gap. Given the state of the tunnel down which he found himself sliding, he could only be grateful that he was as quick as he was with a shield charm.

'Professor Snape?' It might have been the acoustics but the boys weren't sounding all that relieved to be rescued.

'I believe,' Severus could be heard saying. 'that amongst the abyssal plains of wilful, student idiocy, you have succeeded, finally, in plumbing new and unsuspected depths.'

Lucius cleared the pipe and decelerated though the ancient midden of the floor. Severus ignored him in favour of snarling 'Why did you not inform a teacher?' at Potter and Weasley.

The incoming wizard got to his (thankfully booted) feet. 'That was entirely unnecessary,' he said. 'I would have come down without your summoning me.

'We did tell a teacher.' Ronald Weasley indicated something in pastel coloured robes, breathing gently, amid the accumulated detritus.

Snape hit Lockhart with another stunner. 'A teacher, not . . ..'

'We need to find my sister, sir!

'Right.' The Potions Professor put Lucius in mind of a small thundercloud. 'You and Potter stay here . . ..'

'You need Harry to open doors. And I don't fancy being left here on my own with a basilisk roaming around!'

'A basilisk?' inquired Lucius, delicately.

Weasley swung to face him. 'Harry kept hearing something talking in the walls. He's a Parselmouth, so that suggested some sort of snake and a Basilisk petrifies its prey. Hermione worked it out weeks ago. We only just found her note.'

'Again, Potter?'said Snape. 'You heard voices in the walls and didn't think to tell anyone responsible?'

Weasley answered for him. 'Bad enough everyone thinking he's the Heir of Slytherin without them deciding he's nutters too.'

'Well,' said Lucius. 'I very much doubt that there is anything capable of creeping up on your Potions Professor so I will ask him to bring up the rear. I will go ahead and you two will stay close and stay quiet. And pay attention. Understood?'

They were both nodding so he set off.

The door Potter opened revealed the famed and long sought after Chamber of Secrets and Lucius was congratulating himself on the opulence, scale, taste and detail of his dream's creation when Snape crept past him. With its carved stone, statues and pools of water, it was a pity but the actual Chamber was unlikely to be anything like as magnificent. He turned to the two boys. 'I want you two to remain here and stay out of sight,' he told them. 'Agreed?'

Weasley clearly didn't agree and was opening his mouth to say so when Potter grabbed him. 'Just say yes. There isn't time to ague.' Weasley was shoved into the wall. 'Now.'

'Ok,' muttered the boy, unhappily.

Lucius entered the chamber. At the far end he could see two figures: a red haired girl, curled up on the ground, and an older boy, standing idly over her. Disillusioned and stealthy, he had almost reached the pair, when he heard the approaching scream. 'Giiiiiinnyyy!'

Lucius was obliged to skip smartly aside as Ronald came hurtling by. Sliding to his knees, wand falling carelessly to the ground and bouncing away, the boy cradled his little sister in his arms.

The stranger, immediately bent and retrieved the wand. Smirking, he looked around, then his face fell. 'Where's Potter?' he demanded.

The Weasley boy ignored the question. 'What's wrong with her? Where's the basilisk?'

'It won't come until it's called.'

'What?'

'It won't come until I call it. Honestly,' the older boy considered the wand and then its owner, clearly impressed by neither. 'a sprat to catch a sprat.' He pointed the wand to a spot between its owners eyes which widened suddenly.

'Who are you?' quavered Ronald. 'What do you want?

My name is Tom Marvolo Riddle and I want, and I am going, to kill you.'

'I don't understand.'

The stranger let his wand hand drop. 'That is because you are not very bright. Let me explain. Your dear sister found a diary among her textbooks. My diary. Apparently unused. So, poor, lonely little Ginny started writing in it. And the diary wrote back to her.'

'No. She knows better . . ..

'' . . . than to trust anything when you don't know where it keeps its brain?' Apparently not. She's been doing exactly what I want for a while now. Not that she remembered. "Oh Tom, I'm so scared." And the more scared she became, the more time she spent with my diary and the stronger I became. And none of you ever noticed. What a shame. Too busy with Quiddich and pranks and important things to worry that your sweet little sister was going out of her mind. '

'Ginny.' The boy's head bent. Tears sparkled in the girl's red hair. Lucius realised that the diary was gone from its place beside her. Bloody Snape!

'Better say goodbye to her, Ronald, said Tom. 'She hasn't too much time left. Of course, neither do you. I, however, have all the time in the world. You should be honoured you know.' The boy raised the wand and wrote 'TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE' in letters of fire in the air. Riddle smiled as, at a gesture, the letters began rearranging themselves.

'I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.'

Ron looked up at the older boy. 'Riddle's not a Pure-blood name,' he said as Lucius yelled: 'Destroy the diary! Kill it!'

Riddle rocked back, grimacing, and raised the wand. 'Avada . . .,' he began. Lucius felt himself knocked aside, turning back he found his target screened by Potter; Riddle smiled, his stolen wand swung round to steady on the boy sprinting towards him, ' . . . Kedavra! With a green flash, the wand exploded and Riddle, who had until then appeared quite real, broke up and ceased to be and Harry Potter stopped running and fell.

'Cast nothing.' Snape, visible again, was turning Potter onto his back, fingers searching for something at the boy's throat. Then he placed one hand over the other on Potter's sternum and began a series of rapid compressions of the boy's chest. Blood welled from the child's forehead, masking the famous scar.

Lucius stared, his mind so over full of thoughts attempting to happen as to be almost blank. He watched until Snape rolled Potter, coughing weakly, onto his side. 'CPR. Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation: a Muggle technique to keep the blood oxygenated and moving,' the Potions Master explained, as he stood and turned towards the Weasley children. 'As long as the body remains viable, life can return to it. If its way isn't blocked by foreign magic.' As Ginny began to sob quietly, Severus cast a series of diagnostic charms. 'You are exhausted Miss Weasley. I believe that Madame Pomfrey will want to see you.'

Malfoy instincts kicked in. Lucius began to look around for the diary and found it, in one of the pools, bleeding ink from a hole created by the Goblin forged knife stuck through it: the same knife he had given his potions prodigy protégée on the occasion of his seventeenth birthday. He 'leviosa'd them both onto a dry area and pinning the injured book with his boot, retrieved the knife and pocketed it.

Diagnostic charms revealed a mass of broken spell work and ensured that the diary was no longer the danger it had been it had been as well as, entirely coincidentally, hiding any earlier magical traces personally identifiable to Lucius Malfoy. He pocketed the book and went to hand Severus back his knife.

Ginny Weasley drew in a sharp breath.

She was staring at something over Lucius shoulder as was her brother. Tall shadows gave a fairly clear indication of what they were staring at and yet the children were still moving, the boy's arms tightening around his sister as he tried to pull her to her feet. There was hissing but also, to Lucius astonishment, understanding.

'It's alright, I won't hurt you. I control it. I don't eat rocks, you know.'

'It's saying . . .,' began Potter, in Parseltongue.

'She,' said the Basilisk. 'I am named Beatrix. Also, you should speak in English.'

Potter got up and turned to face the reptile. Lucius found himself, through no intent of his own, turning to do the same. As he kept his mouth firmly shut, his chin rose higher and higher.

Potter hissed, focussed for a moment on his friends and, gazing at the floor, tried again. 'What about Myrtle?'

'Riddle tricked me. He told me I obeyed him because, as Salazar's heir, he'd the right to command me. It felt nice. I didn't know it was "Imperius".'

Potter glanced at the Weasley boy before realising that seeking clarification from someone who wasn't a Parselmouth was pointless. The boy's hand, dragged over his face and came away bloody. 'A moment Potter..' Snape splashed something onto a clean handkerchief and placed it over the bleeding scar.

'Thanks.' Potter's bloody hand rose to hold the cloth in place.

'He told me there was an enemy and I believed him and then discovered that I'd killed a child,' the snake continued miserably. 'I'm here to protect the school, to protect the children. He laughed at me and sent me back to the Chamber. I couldn't get at him and it wasn't as if I could tell anyone. When I got back here, I found I was trapped. Fifty years I've waited, all alone, betrayed and so very hungry, knowing that he would return and hoping I would be the one to kill him.

'And then he did return but in the body of an innocent. Not quite all there. And not nearly strong enough to control me. He was careful but I knew that eventually, in arrogance or anger, he'd slip and I would have my chance. Or so I believed.'

'That's why everyone was only petrified?'

The basilisk laid her great length down upon the floor until her eyes were level with Potter's. 'Even the cat,' she said. 'Since Riddle blocked off the passage to the forest, fifty years ago, so I couldn't get out, I've been starving. I need to hunt. The tunnel must be repaired.' She swung her face towards Lucius. 'Who's he?'

'She wants to know who you are . . . sir,' said Potter.

'I am Lucius Malfoy and I am Chairman of the Board of Governors.'

'And that ones a teacher?' hissed Beatrix, indicating Severus. Potter nodded. 'Excellent. Crone, Mother and Maiden. Hogwarts will help: a simple "Reparo," should do it, if you three cast together.'

Potter blinked, and blinked again.'So you don't want to attack Muggleborns?' he asked.

'Of course not! You've got it all wrong. You have to remember that, for Muggleborns, life was pretty grim back then but, even when they did understand what was being offered, which usually they didn't, often they didn't want to abandon their parents.

'Salazar liked Muggles. Respected them. Would never have agreed to just taking their children away, even if they would have been much better off here. All of the Founders were convinced that they were doing the right thing so it got pretty nasty. I don't know who's idea it was. They agreed that Muggleborns would be given a choice, but Salazar would leave. They all thought he'd be back within the year.

'Salazar never came back. No one knows why.'

'But what about . . ..'

'Potter, is it?'

'Harry.'

'What do you do when there isn't enough of something and you want more than your share?'

'I don't know.'

'Think, Harry.'

'You persuade others that they don't want any?'

'And Salazar wasn't here,' said the basilisk, 'so it was easy. They intended it as a sort of prank, I suspect. Years passed. Nobody knows what happened to Salazar but he never did return, and a stupid joke that he hated Muggleborns, became 'the truth'. If any of your friends are Slytherin, you might want to be careful how you tell them.'

Nonsense of course, thought Lucius, What a weird dream. Still his mind was busy processing information. Harry Potter. Severus Snape. Albus Dumbledore. Tom Riddle. Dammit! Nymphadora Tonks. All extraordinary.

All Half-bloods.

This required further investigation. A thought broke free of the tangled mass occupying most of Lucius intellectual capacity. Snape destroyed the Dark Lord's Horcrux.

Then: I told him to.

Potter was staring at his own shoes. 'She didn't intend to kill Myrtle,' he explained. 'Riddle tricked her and she's very upset about it. She's been trying to find a way to stop him but didn't want to hurt Ginny. That's why no-one died this time. She hasn't been able to hunt because Riddle blocked off the passage to the forest and she's starving. She wants us to fix the damage. She says 'Reparo,' should do it, if we cast together because Hogwarts will help.'

The Potions Professor, while looking dubious wasn't saying anything; understandably, given the louring presence of Beatrix.

'She's welcome to those spiders,' said Ron.

'Spiders?' queried Severus, softly.

'Acromantula. In the Forbidden Forest.' Self preservation woke up. 'So I heard.'

'Or, on Hagrid's advice,' suggested Lucius, 'you followed the spiders. Doubtless, he intended well but you are neither half giants, nor yet adults. Those of us responsible for your well being would be obliged if you would remember this. Also, I thought we agreed that you would wait outside.'

'We agreed that you wanted us to wait outside,' said Weasley. Potter turned pink.

Lucius sighed. 'Mr. Weasley, wait here with your sister.' He turned to Harry, Which way?'

Trudging through the gloom after Potter, Lucius murmured: 'You destroyed the Dark Lord's Diary.'

'You told me to,' objected Snape.

'Because you're so bloody obedient! I don't think. Lucius turned, 'Severus, you can't trust Dumbledore.

'I should trust you?

'Right now I'm not sure that I trust me.' Snape looked at him. 'Things have been a bit strange recently.'

Ahead of them, Potter stopped walking. They had reached the blockage. 'Ready?' said Lucius.

'Reparo!' Three spells hit the sloping mass of mud and broken stone which wobbled like an unappealing jelly before shooting upwards with a rumbling and a whump! in a reversed explosion. Weird how real the magic felt.

In the silence, distant daylight shone and water began to drip from the restored ceiling. 'Thank you,' sighed the snake before taking off in a blur of fast moving leather.

Swaying, still clutching the bloody cloth to his head, Harry Potter smiled a very young child's smile of simple delight and Lucius remembering, belatedly that the boy's heart had been restarted only a few minutes before, reached out to steady him. Potter flinched out of the way.

Anger flared. Hadn't they come down here to rescue the brat? Yet, despite this, as the child staggered off to join his friends, Lucius found himself saying quietly, and to his own surprise: 'Severus. What do you know of Potter's home life?'

'He's Griffindor's golden boy.'

'Indeed. What happened at the end of last year?'

'I'm sorry, Lucius, you'll have to explain.'

'With the philosopher's stone.'

Snape merely gave him a look of aggravated patience.

'So many points for Griffindor,' murmured Lucius. 'And both Weasley and Potter laid up in the hospital wing. And now another adventure this year. Once may be happen-stance . . ..'

'Potter doesn't have the faintest idea how to stay out of trouble.'

'So why not? Why does he so desperately need to play the hero? How is it that he has been, twice in as many years, indulged? Curious, wouldn't you say?'

Severus sneered but went after the boy. More diagnostic charms followed. 'Potter,' said Severus, 'You'll be seeing Madame Pomfrey along with Miss Weasley. On you go.' As the children trooped off he turned to Lucius and waited.

'Malnutrition,' murmured Severus. 'Not all that severe but long standing. It could be that he's a fussy eater. Some injuries, but, for an active child, especially one as lacking in foresight as Potter . . ..'

They followed after the children, the Chamber door closing behind them.

'Not all abuse is physical,' said Lucius and then he shook his head. 'I'm probably imagining it. I've not been sleeping well. Anyway, Professor McGonagall would . . ..' He stopped. He did not mention that she hadn't noticed what was happening to Ginny Weasley. 'Oh, and there's this.' He took Narcissa's letter from his pocket and handed it over.

'Ridiculous,' said Severus, handing it back.

'She got the diary from somewhere. Absurd as such a suggestion may seem, perhaps we should make sure that the Weasleys do not, in fact, have a rat animagus for a pet..'

'Lockhart's gone sir!'

'We can worry about him later,' said Severus.

Lucius drew his wand. After being hit by Snape's stunners there was no way he'd simply wandered off. 'So how do we get back up?'

'You have to ask for steps.'

Lucius turned to the girl. 'You remember?'

'Bits. I thought I was dreaming.'

She'd strangled roosters, Lucius recalled, feeling faintly ill, and written in their blood, including the horrible message he'd seen earlier.

'We need steps,' hissed Potter.

A single step appeared; Lucius put both feet on it and was borne upwards, others forming below and behind it. As the pipe steepened, the stairs shifted sideways and extended further from the tunnel wall before spiralling up the last, vertical section. He arrived at the opening through the sinks and stepped off. The Headmistress was waiting in the bathroom. 'The elves reported . . .,' she began and stopped. 'Is she . . .?'

Lucius smiled at her. 'We were lucky.' The Weasley children stumbled into the bathroom with their arms locked around each other. Shortly after, Potter followed. Once Severus had emerged, the sink rearranged itself, closing off the entrance. 'That suggests that Lockhart is no longer down there,' said Lucius.

'Professor Lockhart? What was he . . ..'

'He was going to abandon Ginny in the Chamber and obliviate us and say that we lost our minds when we saw her body,' interrupted Ronald.

McGonagall stared at him.

Lucius opened the door to the corridor. 'Lockhart will be found and dealt with,' he reassured the children. 'Right now, I am concerned that you, Miss Weasley and you, Mr. Potter be seen by Madame Pomfrey as soon as possible.'

'Yes, of course,' agreed McGonagall. 'On you go, children.'

Lucius let go of the door, fell into step beside the Headmistress and handed her the letter.

'Ridiculous,' said McGonagall..

'Miss Weasley was the victim of a cursed object that she found amongst her things. I'm sure that her parents will be interested in determining just how she came by it. So, if only to rule out such a suggestion . . ..'

'Very well,' said McGonagall. 'Mr. Weasley, you have a pet rat with a toe missing?'

Ronald dropped back. 'Yeah. Scabbers.'

'How long have you had it?'

'Since I started Hogwarts.'

McGonagall gave Lucius a look. 'It's not any special sort of rat is it?' she inquired.

'Naa. He's just a rat. Really quite boring.'

Running footsteps heralded the arrival of three more Weasleys and the group stopped. 'What happened to staying in your common room,' demanded McGonagall. 'Never mind. As you can see, your sister is safe.'

Lucius wasn't letting go. 'Where did you get the rat from, Mr. Weasley?' he asked.

'He used to belong to Percy.'

'So, how long has your family had Scabbers?'

'Dunno. We've always had him.'

'Percy,' said McGonagall. How long has your family had Scabbers?'

'Must be around ten years.' The oldest boy looked slightly embarrassed. 'He's just a rat. He's quite boring.' Snape stiffened almost imperceptibly and McGonagall's eyes narrowed.

'Where did you get him from?'

'I found him in the garden.'

'And your parents let you keep him?'

Mum didn't want to at first so I hid him in Dad's shed. When Dad saw I could take care of Scabbers he must have had a word with her. She changed her mind.'

Or had her mind changed for her, thought Lucius.

'I see,' said McGonagall. Percy, your parents are expected. I'd like you to go down to the gates and meet them. Fred and George, escort your sister and Mr. Potter to the hospital wing and wait there. Tell Madame Pomfrey that I want her to examine both of them. Ronald, where is Scabbers now?'

'In the dorm. Probably sleeping.'

'I'd like to take a look at him. Now, if you don't mind.'

'Of course not.' Ronald sounded puzzled. 'He's just a rat, though.'