I was probably overdue for the same type of trials and tribulations that everyone else seems to have, but I wasn't expecting it when my main computer had a total meltdown. I freaked out when it wasn't just the fried power supply and putting a new one in didn't help. Needless to say, I was quite relieved when I found that a connector had been knocked loose when I was replacing the power supply. ;^)
You know how everybody knows that you should keep backups of any important files? Yeah, the next chapters for three or four in-progress stories here and half a dozen completed or nearly completed novels that I didn't have the most recent (or any) copies of anywhere else, not to mention all my emails. I'm really glad that I managed to resurrect the computer.
Writing the last chapter, something occurred to me. According to what was apparently leaked from Pottermore, the Gaunts were descended from one of Salazar Slytherin's sisters, so Tom Riddle wasn't the heir of Salazar Slytherin at all! The Slytherin family, perhaps, but not Salazar Slytherin.
BTW: I've got a slightly different version of squibs and Muggleborns going here, in that for the most part, two dormant squib lines will have magical children, but they can keep on for many generations without magic if they don't find a partner with latent magic.
NB: There's a rather unpleasant patch towards the end that has been marked if people want to skip it. You can just infer what's what from the other text.
Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.
As Harry started running, he heard the Hat say. "Put me on lad, I'll direct you!" and as that was by far the best option he had on offer, he reached up and pulled it on, tugging it down to cover his eyes as it had when he was sorted last September. From then on, he could hear the Hat in his head, and for over ten minutes it seemed to be barking 'left', 'right', 'stop', 'go', 'down', 'back' or 'Run!' at him every five to ten seconds.
Then something changed, because the hissing he was hearing from the basilisk changed, and as a parselmouth he could gauge the emotions he was hearing, even though it wasn't saying anything. First it was pain as the hissing rose to shriek, then rage, and then fear. Riddle either couldn't read the emotions like he could, or he didn't care, because he just kept shouting at the basilisk to get him!
When the basilisk started hissing furiously, the Hat let Harry stop and catch his breath, so something had obviously changed to make it safer. Harry waited until he'd gotten his breath back to ask what was happening (forgetting that talking in your head doesn't require you to get your breath), and when he did the Hat said. "It should be safe to look now."
When he did, he saw that the basilisk was snapping furiously at Fawkes, or at least where it thought she was, because its eyes were ruined, taking away its most dangerous weapon. Fawkes was still attacking its eyes, swooping in to drive her talons into the eyes and ripping great chunks out of them. The danger wasn't over though, because its massive body and tail were whipping about all over place as it thrashed about in pain and rage, but now that it was safe to look (hopefully), Harry could dodge it more easily. He managed to get it across to Fred that it was safe to open his eyes as well, so Fred crept closer to try and help.
Unfortunately, the respite was all too brief because Riddle started shouting at the basilisk on parseltongue. 'No! Forget the bird! They are right there, find them by scent! I command you! Kill them!"
As the basilisk's head came around at that, searching for him, Harry scrabbled back with an exclamation of "Shite!" Fawkes kept attacking it but it seemed compelled to obey Riddle.
Suspicious about that, Harry quickly case an detection spell on it and swore again, because someone had cast a strong compulsion charm over the beast using parseltongue magic, and he didn't need two guesses to know who. That took their best option away because Harry had been hoping that there may be a chance to get through to the basilisk, but that was out now.
That meant that they had to try and fight the monster directly, and as it was over twice the size and bulk of a dragon, Harry didn't give too much for their chances. When he and Fred started hurling cutting and piecing spells at the basilisk, their situation just got worse, because they discovered that basilisk skin is highly resistant to magic and the strongest spells they threw at it just bounced off with no effect, other than angering it. Their attacks also gave the basilisk a better idea of where Harry and Fred were, and its strikes were getting closer and harder to evade.
Harry was terrified, and certain that they were going to die, and Millicent as well. He muttered to the Hat, part in frustration and part in goodbye. "Not to be ungrateful or anything Merlin, but something to help fight this bloody thing with would have been more use than you right now!" At that moment, something hard conked him on the head and he grabbed the Hat off of his head and looked in it. Seeing a sword hilt with a large emerald in the pommel, he grabbed it and pulled the gleaming sword out of the Hat.
Fred's eyes widened in shock at the sight of Harry pulling a bloody great sword out of the Hat and he asked, half jokingly. "Wouldn't be another one of those in there for me would there?" Harry felt something hard forming through the Hat and looked again, to see another sword hilt, with a ruby in the pommel this time. Knowing instinctively that he couldn't take this sword, and he didn't have a free hand anyway, he hissed. "Fred!" and showed him what was in the Hat when he looked at him.
Eyes widening in shock and hope. Fred dashed over to grab the sword hilt and pull the sword from the Hat, only to have to leap away as the basilisk struck again. Hope gleamed in his eye, in both their eyes, because while they were still two boys against a deadly age old monster that was many, many times their size, someone had answered their call for help and they were at least armed against the beast now.
They quickly realised that the swords in their hands, while obviously magical and able to wound the beast, would not automatically kill it. The basilisk recoiled in confusion, pain and anger when they stabbed it with the swords, but it kept coming back at them and its strikes were growing closer.
Harry had the Hat back on his head now, and it was whispering advice to him. As the basilisk appeared in front of him and struck at him with unerring accuracy, the Hat spat out. "The brain! It's the only thing you can reach to kill it!"
This time, as the basilisk struck with its jaws agape and sabre like fangs glistening, Harry twisted, desperately trying to avoid the fangs as he drove the sword in his hand up through the roof of its mouth into its brain. The sword was ripped from his hand as the basilisk reared back, dying, and crashed to the floor of the chamber in its death throes, almost crushing Fred before he leapt out of the way.
Their triumph was fleeting though, because Harry hadn't managed to evade the basilisk's fangs. One fang had pieced his left arm, high up near the shoulder, and everything was rapidly growing black as the venom coursed through his veins. He fell to his knees, muttering. "Fred, get…. Millie out…. Tell everyone that I love them…. Please…."
Fred had tears in his eyes when he knelt before him, dropping the sword to embrace Harry. "I will Harry, I promise! I'll tell them, we love you too!.." At that moment, he fell back in fear as Fawkes struck him, seemingly attacking him, but she ignored him as she landed beside where Harry had fallen when he'd dropped him, crying as she bent over his arm.
Riddle was standing over them, cackling in triumph, taunting the boy who'd apparently pushed him out of existence twice now but he'd now vanquished. He ignored the other one because he knew that as soon as he'd drained the girl's life and magic, he would eliminate him like a gnat. "You're dying Harry Potter. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Can't you see him Potter? He's crying."
Harry looked blearily down at Fawkes. Thick, pearly tears were trickling down the feathers on phoenix's face.
"I'm going to enjoy watching you die because of the trouble you've caused me Potter. Take your time, let me savour it, I'm in no hurry."
Harry still felt far away, but strangely the encroaching blackness seemed to be receding now and the agony of the basilisk venom rampaging through his body was fading.
"So here ends the famous Harry Potter." he heard Riddle's distant gloating voice. "Abandoned by nearly all of his friends, defeated by the Dark Lord he so foolishly challenged. You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Potter... She may have bought you ten years of borrowed time ... but I defeated you in the end, you must have known it was inevitable . . . ."
Harry only half heard the crap that Riddle was spouting, he seemed to be trying to tell him about his greatness and point out that Harry could have been great too if he hadn't crossed him, as he apparently shared some of the talents of the great Lord Voldemort, but Harry wasn't interested in that, because he realised that things in the Chamber seemed to be coming back into focus. He shook his head and saw Fawkes, still bent over his arm. Fawkes' pearly tears were shining all around the wound in his arm where the basilisk's fang had pierced him, except that there no longer was a wound there?
Riddle suddenly stopped gloating and shouted in fear and desperation. "Stop! Get away from him you ruddy bird!"
He raised Millicent's wand and shot a spell at Fawkes. It hit her, but whatever it was meant to do, it apparently failed, because she merely flew off in a whirl of red and gold feathers.
Riddle looked after her, muttering. "Phoenix tears, of course! How did I forget about their healing powers?….."
He shook his head, and raised the wand at Harry. "But he can't save you Potter, it's time for you to die!"
A flash of red and gold made Riddle duck as Fawkes swooped in, dropping the diary that had been on the floor beside Millicent next to Harry.
Harry and Riddle both stared at the diary laying open on the floor in bemusement, but Harry recovered first and putting his hand over it he shouted "Emundo!", incanting the spell that the goblins had created to destroy the soul fragment that was embedded in the mark on his forehead.
This ripped piercing, soul shattering screams that shook the very chamber from both Riddle and the diary and something black and unwholesome oozed from the diary.
Riddle was writhing in apparent agony on the floor nearby, until he faded away with the screams. All that was left of them when the echoes of the screams faded was the diary with its rapidly dissipating foul residue, and Millicent's wand.
Harry forced himself upright and pulled his wand from its holster, casting a detection spell over the diary. The faintest trace of dark magic remained, but it was no more than you would encounter in day to day activities, nothing like the foul presence that been anchored in it before. Once he'd confirmed that it was clean of that taint, he picked up the diary and slipped it into the pocket of his robes, as they were probably going to need answers from it later.
Fred helped him to his feet carefully and they limped to the basilisk, because while the phoenix tears may have saved Harry from the basilisk venom and he could feel himself healing, they were both bruised and battered from being struck by the basilisk and thrown into the columns or walls.
When they reached the basilisk, Harry carefully reached between the fangs to grab the sword hilt and wrench it out. He admired the beautiful weapon, but he decided that as it had come from the Hat, it should be returned to the Hat, so he went to feed it back into it when the Hat cried out in his mind. "Stop, wipe the blood off on me before you put the sword back into me lad."
Harry nodded and did as he was told, both alarmed and amused by the exclamations of the Hat as he did so. "Ah, ooh, that feels so good..." When he'd cleaned off and returned the sword that had come to him, Harry handed the Hat to Fred and he did the same. The hat made less comments when Fred wiped the blood off his sword onto it, but when he handed the Hat back to Harry, Harry could feel that there was notably more energy in the Hat, so the basilisk blood must have revitalised it somehow
Fawkes swooped down and perched on one of the basilisk's horns. Harry smiled at her and stroked her head. "Thanks Fawkes, you were brilliant!" Holding up the Hat to her, he added. "And thanks for bringing us the Hat, we would have been done for without its help and those swords!" She took the Hat in her talons and preened, trilling happily at Harry before she rubbed her head against his face and took off.
Harry and Fred both thought that her departure had had an air of purpose, of things needing to be done, and then they suddenly remembered the girl they'd come here to save. Exclaiming. "Millie!", they turned and hurried as well as their battered bodies could to her, stopping only to scoop her wand up from the floor.
Millie was trying to sit up when they reached her, and looked at them in fear as they hurried up to her. "Potter, Weasley? What are you doing here? What am I…." Her eyes widened as she could now remember what had been blocked from her before.
"Oh no! It's all my fault! I opened the chamber, let that snake out and wrote those messages, but I couldn't help it, Tom..." She stopped and looked around in fear. "Where's Tom? I remember him coming out of the diary, but while he was getting stronger, I kept getting weaker and weaker….."
Harry cut her off. "Millie! It's OK! Riddle's dead, for now anyway, the basilisk too."
Millie flinched when Harry put his arms around her, but then she collapsed into them, sobbing into his shoulder. "I couldn't stop him, he was controlling me!"
Harry just kept telling her that it was alright and gently rubbing her back. When she'd calmed down, he gently wiped away her tears and asked if she was going to be OK?
She nodded hesitantly and he hugged her again, noticing that she didn't flinch this time.
Fred helped both of them to their feet and handed Millie her wand. The way she clenched the wand said that it made her feel a little safer with it in her hand.
Harry thought for a moment about how they were going to get out of there and called for Dommy. He had no trouble coming to Harry, so that was the major part of the problem out of the way anyway. He had another thought and sent his patronus with a message to Angela to say that they were OK, and to call for Dommy if they hadn't gotten through the downfall yet.
Dommy popped away when Angela got the message, returning with her seconds later. Harry was immediately swept up into a hug. He only just managed to get the request out to Dommy to bring the rest of them in between Angela crying, satisfying herself that he was OK and ranting at him for not waiting for them.
Dommy had all of the others there by the time she'd wound down a little, but what snapped her out of the state she was in was George's exclamation. "What the fuck is that?" when he saw the basilisk carcass.
Angie and the girls screamed, and so did half of the guys, when they saw the monster. They may have been mentally prepared for something a little bigger than the skin they found in the tunnel, but they certainly weren't prepared for something over three times that size!
Harry hastened to assure them that it was dead, and Angela quickly confirmed that Fred was OK before she turned to Millie. She didn't miss the flinch as she approached her, or the looks of fear that she was directing at Fred, George, Sirius and Kingsley, something terrible had happened to this girl and it wasn't just being dragged down here by a madman….
She stopped at that and asked. "Where's the Heir of Slytherin?"
Millie explained that she had been possessed by the shade of Tom Riddle when she wrote in the diary and that he had forced her to open the chamber, release the basilisk and write those signs on the wall in the dungeon. She also told them how she had been given the diary by her father and told to use it, Angela could see from the look in her eyes that there was obviously a lot more to it than that, but silently agreed to wait for the explanation.
Sirius was staring at the basilisk carcass and had to ask. "How in Merlin's name did you manage to kill something like that thing Pup?"
"Well we found that attacking a basilisk with magic only pisses it off, but Fawkes brought us the Sorting Hat, and we got the swords we used out of the hat."
When Sirius looked confused at that, Harry pointed up at Fawkes, just as she swooped down to drop the Sorting Hat into Harry's hands again. Harry reached in and drew out the sword he'd used, holding the Hat out to Fred to draw out the other sword.
Sirius was fascinated by the sword Harry drew out of the Hat, but his eyes went wide as he saw the sword that Fred was holding. "That's the Sword of Gryffindor! Godric Gryffindor's sword!
They realised that he was correct when they examined the sword, but they knew that the sword was the rightful property of the Goblin Nation, so Fred fed it back into the Hat until it disappeared, and Harry did the same with the other one. Then Harry held the Hat high, saying "Thanks Fawkes!" as she swooped down to grab the Hat.
She trilled happily as she swept up and flamed out of the chamber when she was clear of them.
They looked at each other and agreed that it was time to head back to Hogwarts, so they slowly headed out through the doors of the chamber (Harry, Fred and Millie were all a little fragile). The doors began to close as soon as Harry crossed the portal, so they turned and watched as they closed and then the snakes slithered back into place to seal them. The shudders from the others said that they agreed that the lifelike snakes were creepy.
While they wanted to just pop back to the tower and get Harry, Fred and Millie into restorative baths, they agreed that they'd have to come back out the same way they went in, so Dommy popped them all back to the other side of the collapse in the tunnel. Looking at the skin, Harry asked Dommy if he could move it into the chamber and Dommy nodded, saying that he'd get other Potter elves here to help him.
With that, they levitated the bodies of Lockhart and Pike, who had both been killed when the ceiling of the tunnel came down on them, and headed back to the pipe down from Hogwarts. They tried to keep their eyes and ears open for anything that shouldn't be there, but they were too tired to worry much and they were pretty certain that they were the only things in the tunnel anyway.
When they reached the pipe, Severus cast a Sonorus charm on himself and called up the pipe. "Did anyone work out a way to get us out of here?"
A few minutes later, the reply came back. "Yes, Madam Hooch will be there soon."
If Madam Hooch was coming, they were fairly certain of how they'd be getting out of there, by broom. Sure enough, they heard her robes flapping and her laughter as she swooped down the pipe. Angela cast the ball of light in the bend and cushioning charm on the wall across from the opening like Harry had done for the rest of them, but they needn't have worried, Madam Hooch knew her way around a broom and she shot out of the pipe and swept around to stop without touching the wall.
Her laughter as she stepped off the broom and starting pulling brooms out of her bag to return them to full size was choked off when she saw the bodies, but she wasn't prepared for the angry reactions when she asked whether the monster had killed them. Angela bit out. "A monster killed them alright, Lockhart! The coward decided to kill us and come back with a story of how we'd all tragically died, so he tricked Pike and stole his wand and tried to blast us, but Sev managed to hit him first. The problem was that then, the Bombarda Maxima he tried to use on us went into the ceiling of the tunnel and brought it down. Pike was right next to him, so he was flattened with Lockhart."
Madam Hooch's expression was one of disgust as she thought about Lockhart's actions while she was handing out the brooms. Angela told her to start sending the others up, but to leave an extra broom with Rackclaw, Ragnar and the bodies. Madam Hooch did as she was asked, but stayed with Rackclaw and Ragnar as Angela, Sirius, Harry and Severus headed back down the tunnel on two brooms.
What they were doing was fairly obvious, and that was confirmed when the string of explosions was heard, coming closer down as they progressed. From the sound of it, they'd collapsed the ceiling all the way down the tunnel, so no-one would be getting into the Chamber of secrets now!
Sirius and Madam Hooch took Rackclaw and Ragnar as passengers, with the goblins levitating the bodies behind them. Severus didn't use brooms, as he shared the power of flight with Voldemort, so he went up first. He was followed by Angela, then Madam Hooch, Sirius, and Harry bringing up the rear as they expected the opening to close after him like the doors to the chamber had.
When they reached the top, they were met by the ones they'd left there, along with Poppy, and Dumbledore, who'd apparently appeared just after they went down into the tunnels. Amelia looked ready to kill something because she'd already heard what happened to Pike, and why.
Dumbledore tried to insist that they all come to his office to give their reports to him at once, but Angela put her foot down and sent Millie off with Poppy, after quietly asking Poppy to check her over very carefully. Poppy wasn't happy about the impression she was getting from her, but agreed readily, if she was right the poor girl needed help. Two of the goblins went with them, levitating the two bodies.
The rest of them went to Dumbledore's office and told him a bare bones modified version of the story, saying that only he was in the chamber, adding that the sword he got was the sword that used to be up on the wall there...
When Dumbledore questioned how Millie had come to be possessed, Harry explained that it was Riddle's diary from when he was a sixteen year old student at Hogwarts.
Dumbledore nodded "Brilliant." he said softly. "Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen." He went on when those in the room were looking bewildered (and dubious, as there was little question that Hermione was the most brilliant student that Hogwarts had had).
"Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, here at Hogwarts. Tom disappeared after leaving the school ... travelling far and wide to search for answers ... but he succumbed to the Dark Arts. He fell in with the very worst of our kind and they corrupted him. He underwent so many dark and dangerous transformations that when he returned as Lord Voldemort, he was hardly recognisable as the clever, handsome boy who had once been Head Boy here."
Harry cut off his reminiscing, because the gleam in his eye as he talked about what a handsome boy Riddle had been was unsettling. "Riddle actually told me that he was Voldemort to his inner circle before he left Hogwarts, when he was sixteen obviously as otherwise the version of himself he left in the diary wouldn't have known."
Dumbledore obviously wanted to contradict him, unhappy that Harry didn't go along with his story, but the grim faces in the room said that he'd get little mileage with any of them, so he changed his tack.
"I must thank you Harry." said Dumbledore, eyes twinkling again. "You must have shown me true loyalty down in the Secret Chamber. Only that could have called Fawkes to you."
Harry had to cover a smile at that, because while he had no doubt that Dumbledore took Fawkes' squawk as agreement, he knew it was outrage. His very real anger at Dumbledore using his given name when he'd repeatedly been told not to helped the cover up.
Dumbledore looked thoughtfully at Harry. "I imagine that Mister Riddle was quite interested in you Harry?"
Carefully keeping his anger off his face, Harry said. "Yes. He said some things that didn't make sense to me, like how we shared many talents and I could have been great if I went along with him…."
Dumbledore thought he had him, so he went with it.
"Yes, you can speak Parseltongue, Harry." he stated solemnly. "Because you got that talent from Lord Voldemort….who in turn can because he is the last remaining descendant of Salazar Slytherin. Unless I am mistaken, he transferred some of his powers to you on the night your parents were killed. Not intentionally, I'm sure but..."
"Are you saying that Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" Harry cut in, playing shocked.
"It certainly seems so, yes."
"Why didn't the Sorting Hat put me in Slytherin then?" The Hat had a few things to say about that in his head, but Harry kept up the act of concentrating on Dumbledore.
"Where did the Hat say you would be most suited Harry?"
"It said that I could have fitted into any of the houses, but put me into Ravenclaw as the best fit for me." The Hat was enjoying reminding him of who it was chose Ravenclaw in his head.
"I see, alas, I believe that this shows that The Hat made an error with you, but then, it is nothing more than a simple construct with no true knowledge or intelligence…."
Harry shouted. "Stop, don't say anything! We need to see what his game is!" at The Hat in his head before it could shout at him, as Dumbledore went on.
"I am sure now, as I was then, that you were meant to be in Gryffindor. The Sword of Gryffindor coming to you is proof of that, as only a true Gryffindor could have called Godric's sword to him."
He glanced at the wall where the encased sword had resided for centuries and decided to try and get something over those damned goblins.
"That leads me to another question, do you know what happened to the sword after you killed the basilisk with it?"
Harry looked confused. "I put it back into the Hat and I thought that Fawkes brought it back here."
Dumbledore looked mournful. "Alas, it has not returned and the hat was empty, it would be a great loss if Gryffindor's sword were to disappear, as legend has it that it was a magical sword like its brother, Excalibur. I have asked the Hat where Gryffindor's sword went and it will only say that it has gone back to where it belongs. I wonder if I might ask you to try again Harry? If the Hat relinquished the sword to you once, it may again?"
Harry said. "Of course Headmaster." and stood to walk over to the Hat, reminding the Hat in his head that both swords should remain wherever they were as he did so. The Hat was affronted that Harry would think that he needed reminding, and they were still debating that when Harry picked up the Hat and put his hand inside. He smiled apologetically to Dumbledore and said "Sorry Headmaster."
As he put the hat down, he heard its voice in his head again. "You both just have to call for the swords when you need them My Lord. And I believe that that probably applies to me as well. You and your friends need to have formal inheritance tests done, because if I'm reading what I'm seeing right, the fates are gathering the old families for a major confrontation and you will need to know what you can claim."
Harry agreed in his head, but he was fighting to keep the confusion at the announcement off his face. Angela caught that and drew Dumbledore's attention to her by asking if that was all because she wanted to get her charges back to the tower so that they could be checked over properly.
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, all for now Duchess Black, however I will require young Harry's assistance tomorrow to give me access to the Chamber of Secrets."
The look Angela gave him froze him. "You forget yourself Headmaster! You have been advised repeatedly that Duke Potter is to be addressed and referred to by his proper title. I allowed your slips in the heat of the previous discussions but I will allow it no more! From this point you will only refer to Duke Potter by his proper title! Do you understand me?"
Dumbledore looked at her sourly. "Yes Duchess Black, I understand you!"
"Good, now as for your… I will give you the benefit of the doubt and call it a request. Duke Potter is not available for such an endeavour, and it would be a wasted effort anyway, as the tunnel is sealed."
"I really must insist! The basilisk must be harvested before it is wasted and Merlin knows what other treasures may be in there!"
Angela turned to Sirius, Amelia and Minerva. "Duke Black, Regent Bones, Deputy Headmistress McGonagall, we must call for an immediate meeting of the Hogwarts Board to select a new Headmaster, Mister Dumbledore has obviously lost his facilities if he believes that he can insist anything and expect two Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses to bow to his wishes!"
Dumbledore went white when he realised what his eagerness to get his hands on the riches that were waiting in the chamber had gotten him into. "Duchess Black! I sincerely apologise! The word was but a slip of the tongue, I meant nothing by it, but surely you can see that we cannot allow something like the basilisk go to waste?"
Angela looked at the other two for about half a minute and then nodded regally. "Very well Mister Dumbledore, we will accept your explanation this time, however the next time will be your last! As I said, it is a moot point as the tunnel is sealed."
Dumbledore waved that away. "I understand that there was a cave in in the tunnel, but I will get the house elves to shore up the where you dug through properly."
"Is your deafness a medical condition, or arrogance Mister Dumbledore? For the last time, the tunnel is sealed! We hardly managed to keep a hole open long enough to get Duke Potter and Heiress Bulstrode out, and afterwards we collapsed the rest of the tunnel to ensure that if there are any other creatures in the chamber, they will be sealed in there, to protect our charges and the other students in Hogwarts."
"What? You had no right to do that! There's a fortune in that chamber and it rightfully belongs to m… it rightfully belongs to Hogwarts..."
Amelia cut him off. "Watch your tone Mister Dumbledore! You are skating perilously close to using up that last chance that Duchess Black so graciously gave you! However, I am interested in hearing your reasoning as to why…..Hogwarts has any rights to what is in Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. Enlighten me!"
Dumbledore kicked himself for forgetting that the Potter Regent wasn't the only danger in the room. "Well I would have thought that it was obvious Madam Bones. The Chamber is at Hogwarts and was created by one of the Founders of Hogwarts, so therefore it is obviously part of Hogwarts!"
Amelia glanced at the others and then looked back. "Hmmm, it appears that your memory as well as your hearing and… other things may be failing Mister Dumbledore. As we were taught by Professor Binns, here at Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets was a private project of his, one that he kept separate from Hogwarts and secret from the other Founders, so it is most definitely not 'part of Hogwarts'. Quite aside from that, we have confirmed the contention of the many searchers over the past thousand years that the Chamber is not inside Hogwarts, and in fact it is somewhere under Black Lake, which puts it outside the boundaries of Hogwarts itself. So there is no case to be presented for Hogwarts to have any claim over the contents of the chamber itself, and even if it did, you are obviously forgetting the fact that the one who has the rightful claim to the basilisk itself is the one who killed it, Duke Potter."
"But he wouldn't have managed it unless my phoenix brought him the Sword of Gryffindor..."
Fawkes squawked indignantly again at that.
Amelia gave her a sympathetic look before she continued. "How long has Fawkes been with you Mister Dumbledore?"
Dumbledore snapped "About sixty or seventy years." In a tone that asked. 'What does that have to do with anything?'
"And in all that time, you have never bothered learning about phoenixes? A phoenix is not a pet, it does not belong to someone, it is a companion to the fortunate and supposedly worthy few! If you persist in treating Fawkes like your pet, I expect that you will be on your last chance in more than one subject today. Also, on the Sword of Gryffindor, have you forgotten that it never belonged to Hogwarts, that the Goblin Nation reclaimed it along with numerous other heirlooms that they were sent here to recover on behalf of their rightful owners? As you have been told more than once Headmaster, Hogwarts has no rightful claim over anything in Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, and as you have also been told by Duchess Black, the tunnel by which it is accessed has now been sealed, so this discussion is all moot."
Dumbledore was struggling to contain his rage at being talked to like that! How dare she lecture him about what rights he, or Hogwarts, had over what was in the chamber, and inform him that he knew nothing about phoenixes? He was the one who had had a phoenix for twice as long as she'd even been alive…. His eyes gleamed as he suddenly remembered something then, and he hastily apologised to them all, citing stress and worry for the students involved.
They saw through his ploy of course, but they were tired of dealing with him and wanted to check on Millie and discuss what really happened in the chamber anyway, so they left him with a last warning.
As soon as he'd gotten rid of them, Dumbledore locked the door, then turned and hurried across to Fawkes' perch. "Fawkes, you have been to the Chamber of Secrets, take me there now!"
There was no way to mistake the refusal in Fawkes' response and this pushed Dumbeldore to shouting. "I am your master, you must obey me!"
Fawkes refused again, and then looked him in the eye as she burst into flames, but unlike all the previous times she had had a burning day (which wasn't due anyway), no newborn phoenix chick poked its head up through the ashes that fell to the floor under the perch. Dumbledore dropped to his knees and started frantically searching through the ashes, but there was nothing there. Albus Dumbledore had been both rejected and abandoned by his phoenix, and that was a very damning statement about Albus Dumbledore.
The group went straight to the infirmary from Dumbledore's office. Poppy had confirmed Angela's fears about Millie, while technically a virgin she had suffered serious abuse since she'd started at Hogwarts, and Poppy had discovered evidence of serious abuse prior to that as well. Another thing that Poppy was upset about was that someone had been healing the signs of abuse while the girl was at Hogwarts, so someone on the staff knew about it and had been covering it up.
As none of them believed that she'd be safe there, they woke Millie up and got her agreement to take her to Corvus Tower, where no-one could get to her. When she was safe in Corvus Tower, they found that Millicent Bulstrode was made of steel, because she sat there and told Angela and Amelia everything that had happened to her. They wanted to kill her father and numerous others, but they all agreed that it would be better to destroy them instead, so Amelia began to prepare the case against them by getting her most trusted people to start collecting the evidence.
*** Unpleasantness starts ***
There was one who they would not allow to come out of this alive, Augustus Bulstrode, Millie's father. The Bulstrode family had forced the union with their son onto a Muggleborn witch who was the heiress to a sizable fortune in the Muggle world to shore up the crumbling finances of the House of Bulstrode towards the end of the first war with Voldemort, because they'd spent much of their fortune financing their master's campaign. The Mudblood wife was supposed to die quickly and leave the fortune to her husband's family, but her family's solicitors had ensured that if she died, the Bulstrodes would get nothing, so that plan had to be scrapped. Another complication came along when she became pregnant and subsequently had a daughter. That daughter was born into a hell that no child should ever have to experience, because Augustus and his friends liked playing with children (especially those with Muggle blood who were therefore good for nothing else) and had no morals.
The only two rules were applied to what they were allowed to do to Millicent were that they could not do anything to permanently damage or mark her anywhere that would show, and she had to remain a virgin, technically at least, because as the Heiress to a Noble and Ancient family, she would command a good bride price, so nothing was allowed to endanger that. When she started at Hogwarts, it was unfortunately the plans Millicent had in her head to deal with those who had hurt her that placed her in Slytherin, because Augustus was still using his daughter as the coinage to buy his way back into good standing in the senior Death Eater ranks after having the committed the crime against nature of not only marrying a Mudblood, but actually breeding with it!
As she was no longer available as a plaything for his friends when she started school, Millicent was offered up to their sons at Hogwarts under the same rules as they fathers had used her, so long as she was not permanently damaged or marked and technically remained a virgin, they could do what they wanted with her. Her abuse had been an almost nightly occurrence, and if they were too exuberant, well their head of house would just heal her and slip her a potion to make her forget what had happened. He took a little in trade sometimes, because the restriction on virginity was no problem for him as he didn't like girls anyway.
*** Unpleasantness ends ***
There was another item that cropped up when they arrived in Corvus Tower, the newborn phoenix chick on Harry's bed that the two devil-birds were watching over. Harry felt Fawkes as soon as he was inside their wards and rushed to see her. The others watched them looking at each other without making a sound, and knew that they were communicating over something like a familiar bond. When they saw Harry stroke her head and tell her to rest, they knew that she was there to stay.
Everyone knew where Millie was but no-one dared say anything, including Dumbledore. Not that Dumbledore was saying anything to anyone, he was mostly staying in his chambers and ignoring everyone. Minerva saw Slughorn go to say something to her on a number of occasions, only to change his mind and scurry away. Minerva didn't know of Slughorn's part in what had been done to Millie as Angela and Amelia hadn't wanted to force her to have to cover up her reaction to him every time she saw him.
Millie split her time between Corvus Tower and Potter Manor. She was working with healers, in particular mind healers, every day to help her deal what had been done to her since she was a little girl. One thing that had to be addressed on the physical side though was her weight. She'd been overeating for years to make herself less appealing to those who preyed on her. Now that she was free of that, the extra weight was a danger to her health and they wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Severus supplied a potion that would help burn the weight off and convert it to muscle mass quickly, and she went into a concentrated physical training regime.
Aside from the healers and physical training, Millie was also studying hard. The library and learning had been her sanctuary for years now and she was an exceedingly bright girl, so much so that she had actually been on par with Daphne as the top student in Slytherin and one of the top students in her year. On her own, she had gotten herself to the point where she had a good chance of getting through the Second year end of year exams OK, so they gave her a little tutoring on her weak spots in First and Second years and had her do the exams, while she dove into the Third year subjects. She might not be doing the Third year end of year exams with the others before school finished, but if she and the tutors believed that she was ready, she would be doing them then or before the end of the summer holidays, and going into Fourth year with the rest of them.
Another problem came out of Millie being rescued from her torment though, Daphne's friend Tracey Davis became a target. At the start of the year, there had just been four First year girls in Slytherin, Daphne, Millie, Tracey, and Pansy Parkinson. No-one had wanted to go up against the Greengrass family, so there had been little change when Daphne joined their group, Tracey had still been largely left alone because many of the Death Eaters' families relied on her father's business acumen to maintain the lifestyles that they wanted, and they had carte blanch on Millie and Pansy (Pansy was like Millie's mother and her own, even at that age she was experienced and willing). The problem came when the over-privileged deviants from the Death Eaters' families no longer had Millie to play with, as Pansy and the other willing tarts weren't enough to go around so they decided that they could get away with playing around with the Davis girl a little.
The family had been worried about something like that happening, so they'd had the elves watching Tracey. When a group of sixth year boys dragged her into an empty classroom, Dommy threw the equivalent of a starburst charm into the middle of them, grabbed Tracey and popped her out of there. Dommy then popped into Tracey's dorm room and collected all of her things, taking them back to the tower, as she would not be going back to the Slytherin dormitories.
While all of that was going on, they followed the Hat's advice and took the formal inheritance tests, and wasn't that a surprise? Half of them only showed what was expected, Draco was now Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black (Sirius had changed it, but he would probably go back to second heir again if Sirius and Angela had any children). Neville was Heir to the Noble and Ancient House of Longbottom. Susan was Heiress to the Noble and Ancient House of Bones. Padma was heiress to the equivalent of a couple of Noble Houses in India and Angelina, Katie and Lee's test showed them as heiress or heir to their family's Minor Houses as well.
The others, well they were a surprise. Daphne was Heiress to the Noble and Ancient House of Greengrass, but she was also named as Head of the Most Ancient House of Bodhmall, one of the original Druid guiding families. Millicent was Heiress to the Noble and Ancient House of Bulstrode (while it existed), but she was also named as Head of the Most Ancient House of Biróg. Luna was Heiress to the Minor House of Lovegood, but she was also named as Head of the Most Ancient House of Dornoll. Hermione was named as Head of the Most Ancient House of Cathbad, as she was the true heir through her father. The line of Cathbad hadn't appeared to show magic until it was crossed with her mother's Squib line of a later Druidess.
Fred and George were apparently the true heirs of a line that went back to the union of the children of Godric Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff. As Fred had already been accepted by the Sword of Gryffindor, he was named as Earl Gryffindor, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Gryffindor, while George was named as Earl Hufflepuff, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Hufflepuff.
Harry was the one who shocked everyone though. Being Duke and Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter had already been confirmed, but he was also named as the true heir of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Peverell on his father's side, while his mother had apparently been a similar story to Hermione, because on her father's side, the line was traced back to a union between Helena Ravenclaw and Septimus Slytherin, the children of Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin, while on her mother's side, she was the true heir of the Most Ancient House of Myrddin, also known as Merlin. Thus Harry became Duke Potter-Peverell, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell, Earl Ravenclaw-Slytherin, Head the Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Ravenclaw and Slytherin, Head of the Most Ancient House of Myrddin, and Baron Flamel, Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Flamel.
Obviously Merlin, the Sorting Hat, was correct in that the fates were moving to set the pieces for a major confrontation. They had brought back ten of the original dozen ruling houses of Magical Britain (where the Hogwarts board came from) back for the first time in nearly nine hundred years. The Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses were back to three, they'd re-instated the four Noble and Most Ancient Houses, and also re-instated the five Most Ancient Druid Houses.
Gringott, Angela, Augusta, Amelia, Narcissa and Andromeda had feral grins plastered over their faces when they saw the results of the inheritance tests, because they knew that many of those who were sitting on the Wizengamot would be shitting themselves when they saw that the ten Most Ancient Houses had been claimed, and that five of them represented the highest titles and biggest holdings in Magical Britain.
The thing was, most of those titles and holdings hadn't sat there, waiting, while the Houses were dormant, they'd been claimed by other houses through the Druids' Council or Wizengamot. Now that the rightful holders had been magically accepted though, all of the titles and holdings that had been claimed would be magically returned to them, so a lot of houses were about to lose much of what they had had for centuries. The five Druid Houses only had equivalent holdings to Noble Houses, but Peverell, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff all had very substantial holdings associated with them and the ones who'd claimed them wouldn't want to give them up.
When they were discussing this in Gringott's office, Gringott asked Harry and Fred to call for the swords again. He confirmed that Fred's sword was the Sword of Gryffindor, but he was more interested in the sword that came to Harry. That was explained when he told them the story of the sword.
The legend that Dumbledore had mentioned were true, there were two fabled magical goblin swords that went back beyond the sixth century, one was best known as Excalibur, the other as the Sword of Gryffindor. When Hogwarts was being built, the two swords were reset for Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin. Godric's sword had a large ruby in the pommel, while Salazar's had a large emerald in its pommel to match their house colours. Gringott finished by saying that as the swords had accepted them, the Goblin Nation formally acknowledged their right to hold the swords, and he handed the swords back to them.
Harry was still trying to put this together. "Wait a minute! Are you saying?…."
Gringott gave a ghastly goblin grin. "Yes Harry, your sword is the famous Excalibur."
They went to the vaults to get the house rings for their new houses. Harry and Fred were also looking for the scabbards for their swords, but there was nothing like that in the vaults. Both vaults did have items that were both similar and strange though, eight inch long dragon fangs which hung on chains from what looked like belt loops, and which had narrow slots cut through them. Harry was looking at the one in the Slytherin vault for a minute, and on a whim tried sliding the sword into it. The sword seated perfectly in the fang, but the moment he released the hilt, it disappeared. In a panic he wished for the sword, and he almost dropped it when it appeared in his hand again. He tried it a couple of times more and when happy with it, he threaded Excalibur into the fang to send it wherever it went and threaded his belt through the belt loop before going to tell Fred about what the fangs were for.
Back in Gringott's office, they were going through what they would need to do to formally accept their houses when Fred and George suddenly burst out laughing. When Excalibur appeared in Harry's hand, George made the effort to control himself enough to explain. "We're sorry Harry, but we suddenly realised that, that, those idiots at Hogwarts were right, you really are….."
Harry's eyes went wide as he realised what they were saying and he blurted out. "Oh fuck no!"
Just before the twins chorused. "The Heir of Slytherin!"
All of them who held seats on the Wizengamot were called to a special session to discuss these houses that had suddenly reappeared out of nowhere. Dumbledore appeared to preside as the Chief Warlock, but he was quite subdued, he didn't even note that separate boxes for the dozen original houses had been added.
They let those who wanted to argue that these couldn't be legitimate claims go on for a while, then called in Fred and George to start the show. Even when their Head of House rings were magically accepted, the houses who were losing the most tried to argue, until Fred called the Sword of Gryffindor to him and shouted. "Enough! Any further questions in regard to our right to claim these titles, holdings and seats will be answered in trial by combat, by the sword!" As none of them wanted to face a legendary sword like the Sword of Gryffindor, their accusers shut up.
Then it was Harry's turn, and as expected, he had even more arguments than Fred and George put together, because he was reclaiming more titles and holdings than them put together. His patience was running out, so he made the same call about trial by the sword a lot more quickly than Fred had. A few looked tempted to try, after all taking his holdings would make them the richest and most powerful wizards in Magical Britain, but their friends pulled them down and they all gave in to whatever arguments were presented.
Harry stayed where he was when they called the girls in, and Fred came down as well. The message as they both stood there with their swords resting on their shoulders was clear, any questioning of these four Druid Houses would be met by the sword. It apparently worked, as there were no contests to their acceptance.
When all the titles and houses had been accepted, the clerk began calling out the titles and votes held by each seat, starting with the original twelve Most Ancient Houses. Then he went through the Noble and Ancient, Noble and Minor Houses, some of these had been degraded to Noble or Minor Houses when they lost their ancient or other titles, and others had been ejected altogether due to losing most or all of their titles and holdings through them being reclaimed by reclaimed by Harry, Fred, George or the girls. It cascaded from there. After the ten original seats had been reinstated for the Most Ancient Houses, there were another four seats that had been vacated that the factions began to haggle over.
What the haggling factions were too tied up to realise was that the Aurors weren't letting anyone leave the chamber, or at least they didn't realise that until the noise of the people demanding to be let out drew their attention. When the Wizengamot members started demanding to know what was going on, Madam Bones announced that there was another item on the agenda for this session, a trial which directly effected key members of the Wizengamot.
Dumbledore was still feeling too sorry for himself to object, so he just opened the matter as per her instructions, and the single accused chair suddenly became over a dozen chairs, which were automatically filled by Wizengamot members, and the benches behind the accused chairs were filled with a dozen more Wizengamot members in chains as well.
As Amelia read out the list of charges, Aurors brought in over twenty more accused, but most of these were teenagers. The time of reckoning had come for those who had abused Millie.
NB: Yes, the 'that feels so good' line was from the knocker in Labyrinth. Took me a while to remember where I'd heard it. ;^)
BTW: Given that the four Founders supposedly made their lives around Hogwarts, I believe that having their children growing up around each other would make it conceivable that they would end up pairing off.