A/N- Okay well given extreme writers block it's been a while since I've written anything, hopefully this chapter will fly by now that I'm applying myself...and have a nice bowl of ice cream ) cough anyway, with a little help from a wonderful reviewer (lordwhatucallit) I've realised that...aside from the central sort of stuff every chapter could be part of a different story. I hope to remedy this situation, i think it'll be better for everyone if things start making more sense. So once again, I'm going to put more thought into the plot and where it could go which will hopefully improve the flow of it all. And once again (if I've said it before) thank you to everyone who's reading my little story, i greatly appreciate it) Oh, and by the way...i have no idea how a Hogwarts class schedule would run, so I'm just throwing classes out there...in no real order...so if it doesn't make sense...that's why.
Chapter 7-
Breakfast had always been Harry's favourite meal of the day. You could have something sweet or sour, rich or light pretty much anything could be considered breakfast food . Breakfast was especially delicious that morning for Harry for many reasons. First of all, it came after a very good rest, it seems all it took for Harry to start sleeping again was some action on the part of Albus Dumbledore. Another reason was his relief that a new generation of witches and wizards might actually now know how to protect themselves when they left the safety of Hogwarts' walls. There was also that the sun was shining particularly bright, and the air seemed fresher, and a whole bunch of other fairly inconsequential things that make a day delightful.
It also could probably have been blamed on the two rather attractive young women sitting beside Harry Potter at that moment. He had noticed that Ron was being forced more and more to sit with Dean and Seamus since he was completely ignored by Hermione and Ginny while Harry was present. At first he felt some pity for Ron, but figured in the end it was probably better that way, with the amount Ginny flirted with him, as subtle as it could be, the on-guard brother couldn't miss it all, and would most likely throw himself at Harry when he finally noticed.
"Double transfiguration, oh joy." muttered Ginny from Harry's right, staring at her timetable. They were working on basic inanimate-animate transfigurations. A huge part of NEWT curriculum. Harry just shrugged smiling over at the girl.
"Think of it this way...you could have Snape or Umbridge for a couple hours."
Her face scrunched up into pure disgust, acting sickened by the mere mention of their names.
"Ugh, gross, thanks for ruining my appetite jerk." Harry merely chuckled at the girl. Her and Hermione provided great contrast in personality. Where Ginny was enthusiastic and fun loving Hermione was a bit more reserved and preferred to have her head buried in a book most of the time. For someone as complex as Harry he needed contrasting personalities around him to keep him entertained and keep things from getting boring or routine. Still smiling he lifted his bag onto his shoulder and flanked by the two girls headed off to Transfiguration.
0o0o
Harry sauntered down one of the castles many corridors oddly alone and lost in his own thoughts. He was passing one of the many girls bathrooms when he heard a very insistent 'Let me out!' Harry whirled around flattening himself against the wall, a wand in either hand quickly muttering the incantations to reveal any invisible persons or animagus in the area. Nothing. It came again, louder this time and much to his surprise, in parseltongue. It became louder the closer to the bathroom he became, prying the door open soundlessly he entered, wand first. An empty and rather dingy bathroom is where Harry found himself. Slowly he moved around the room inspecting everything, licking his lips nervously. He knew of only one other person that could speak parseltongue and no snake he'd ever met could talk at that volume. The idea of facing Lord Voldemort in a girls loo was not the magnificent end he'd hoped for himself.
Something on one of the sinks caught his eye and he bent forward to examine it. There was a small serpent carved onto the pipes of a sink. 'Worth a try' he figured to himself then, raising himself up both wands pointed at the toilet he said clearly 'Open'. To anyone else all they would have heard would have been a deep hiss, then a shudder of the floor as the sink moved away to show a slimy tunnel leading deep into the bowels of the school. An eyebrow quirked Harry Potter jumped into the black opening his robes billowing around him.
0o0o
Tom Riddle, or more commonly, Lord Voldemort sat languidly on a throne of the blackest obsidian. It was covered in designs of serpents, the most prominent being the great basilisk carved around the seat and headrest. With a usually unknown tenderness he caressed the ridged scales of the basilisk in the obsidian his thoughts moving unbidden back to the great serpent he had found and tamed deep beneath the halls of Hogwarts. It had been a great beast, his only regret was that he couldn't invade the school and once again have the King of Serpents at his side. Tom Riddle sighed remembering the day he discovered the entrance to the Chamber in the girls loo. He had been walking along on his prefect rounds, his usual partner was sick so he was alone. And a voice startled him out of his thoughts. It took several moments before he understood that someone was speaking to him in parseltongue. He followed the wonderful fluid voice into the loo where it showed him how to unlock the chamber. His only explanation was that an enchantment from long ago, performed by Salazar Slytherin himself was triggered by the presence of someone who could understand the language of serpents.
He had wandered around the passages under the school for an hour or more before he came to what he would later name 'The Hall of Kings' where dwelt the pride of Slytherin. The Basilisk. Little was known about the basilisk except that parts of it were needed for some of the greatest and most difficult potions in the world. Slowly, over weeks Tom Riddle would sneak down into the Chamber of Secrets, now His chamber, and force his will upon the basilisk. It was a slow process but eventually it was completely under his control. Then, he set it upon the school. His work had just begun when the fools had threatened to close the school if something wasn't done. He couldn't have that, he still had so much work to do. Reluctantly Tom Riddle left the basilisk in the chamber and sealed it until he could come back and reclaim his beast. Over fifty years had passed since Riddle had closed the chamber and he still wasn't able to overthrow the fool Dumbledore and take what he really wanted. Hogwarts, he would make it his home, and use it to train those who truly deserved to be taught. Only one house would remain, Slytherin the wise, Slytherin the cunning, Slytherin the patient. That is why he waited. The time would be right soon.
Lord Voldemort snapped out of his reverie realising what had happened. It had been years since he'd thought that much about the Chamber, about anything as a matter of fact. Only one thing could explain it. Potter. The boy must have found it. Sometimes when the boy did things that he had done in his life the thoughts would be passed through their link and he would slip into the memory. A cry of pure rage rang through the halls of Voldemort's stronghold. Death Eaters cowered at their masters anger praying that they wouldn't be punished again.
0o0o
Nymphadora Tonks sighed and massaged her temples with one hand. It was the beginning of an OWL level DADA class, and she wasn't sure how much more of this she could handle. It was painful watching some of the spell work the kids in this class were doing. She asked for a demonstration of a simple stunning spell. Three people were able to manage it, and only one came close to her target. After demanding why the quality was so poor the girl who had done the best just shrugged her shoulders and muttered softly "It was our first time" This floored Tonks who thought that they'd have at least cast it a few times. But no, even their end of term exams hadn't had a practical portion. She just prayed that she possessed inhuman amounts of patience or else her room would be littered with empty bottles of Ogden's best.
By the end of the class she had covered all of what you'd learn in first year and part of second. This was going to be an exhausting term. She glanced at the clock hoping that the afternoon with the NEWT year would be a little more productive. A smile worked itself onto her lips almost hoping that she could dual Harry, it would certainly liven the day up.
0o0o
As Tonks sat contemplating how a dual with the young man would go, he was entering Riddles 'Chamber of Kings' it was a fairly large room, maybe half a quidditch pitch made of marble and obsidian with illustrations of serpents covering almost every inch. Harry strode across the chamber his eyes narrowed with both wands out. A huge hulking shape was visible at the end of the chamber coiled around the leg of a rather large statue of Salazar Slytherin himself. Hearing the clacking of heels on the smooth stone floor and the smell of human the great basilisk raised its head focussing on the young man moving quickly towards him. Not being very bright the basilisk slowly uncoiled itself moving slowly not considering the small warm blood a threat. The reductor curse that chipped off several of the beasts great hard scales made it reconsider that and rear up high hissing a challenge.
Harry refocused on the serpents head high in the air as it shrieked an incomprehensible challenge. Unlike other serpents the basilisk could only understand parseltongue, it couldn't actually speak it. Harry knew why, it was the same reason he was killing the beast. It was an abomination, a serpentine scourge. It was as much a serpent as a ghoul was a man. It was a perversion, against the very order itself. Slytherin hadn't found the basilisk he had created it. It was a long and difficult process requiring potions, spells, and plenty of blood sacrifices. No one but a parseltongue could create a basilisk, which was one of the reasons there were so few, the other was that only a handful of the wizards who had the ability to speak parseltongue were evil enough to bond themselves to such a creature. It lived for nothing but the kill.
Harry through a wand upwards towards the great scaly head with another silent 'Reducto' snapping the beasts head upwards, it merely curled backwards and shot it's head forward mouth agape, trying to swallow him whole. Harry launched himself to the side curling his body up to avoid the great jaws and sent two cutting curses backwards to slash at its eyes. One sank deeply into the flesh of its skull, the other went a little high. The basilisk let out a cry and brought its tail around to crush the young man. Cursing he sent two streams of energy muttering 'Depulsis' two waves of energy struck the ground below him at the same time shooting him about ten feet into the air, avoiding the tail. Twirling his left hand wand he shouted out 'Muto Gladius' in a few seconds the thin piece of wood turned into a long shining silver sword as he came crashing down onto the floor to charge straight at the beast shooting off curse after curse at the eyes of the beast. It raised its head protecting its valuable eyesight and let out another shriek. Grinning in triumph the young man launched himself straight into the mouth of the serpent pushing with all his might upwards with the sword through the roof of the mouth into the small brain. It stiffened then slowly sagged falling with a huge crash onto the floor. Sadly harry hadn't thought before acting and staggered out of the beasts mouth with ripped robes, covered in basilisk blood and a broken leg. Panting he fell to the floor looking down at his leg and clothes.
"Shit, I knew I should have been paying attention when cleaning spells were being explained. What was it...Scourgify'? A little bit of blood disappeared off his robe. "Damnit, I'll probably be in the hospital wing for the first DADA lesson."
Harry pondered as he slowly got to his feet. "No, I'll go after, I don't want to disappoint dear Nymphadora. Incarcerous." Sighing he rolled his eyes "You owe me Nymph, Desino Dolens." Tossing his robes over his bound leg he started hobbling out of the chamber muttering over and over the cleaning curse getting as much blood off as possible.
0o0o
Nymphadora watched harry hobble into class and take a seat at the back stretching his leg out. A small frown appeared on her lips. He wouldn't be much fun if he was in pain and surly, and he'd obviously done something to his leg. What was is about men and getting themselves hurt, could none of them take care of themselves? No one else had arrived yet so she slowly closed the door and hopped onto the desk he was sitting at raising an eyebrow at his leg.
"Don't tell me the famous Harry Potter slipped in the shower and broke his leg, that would crush peoples dreams of you being some fabulous immortal who doesn't require the daily needs of the masses."
Harry shot her a wry grin
"Well, I would hate to crush peoples dreams, maybe next time you can be there to catch me."
Flirting was a very underappreciated art, and harry was doing a pretty good job of it. Tonks wasn't one for the subtle gentlemanly type of flirting. A lot of her time in the Auror Academy was spent around men, and as most men, they were pretty crass and blatant. It reminded her of good times to hear someone to flirt like that, especially someone as handsome as this young man.
"Oh very funny Mr. Potter, and a very tempting offer, but I won't be one of the women caught sneaking out of your bed in the morning. Now, back to the leg, I assume that it won't affect how you perform in class will it?"
He gave her a salute with an air of seriousness.
"Not in any way Ma'am, I'm fit as a fiddle and will give you one hundred and ten percent all class in any area you ask me to."
Tonks gave a laugh and smiled fondly at the charming young man as the bell rang and she moved off to open the door and let the rest of the class in. As usual Hermione and Ginny sat on either side of him and Tonks gave him a look glancing at the two girls causing Harry to burst out laughing for no apparent reason.
The two girls gave him an odd look before focussing on the teacher who closed the door, getting the classes attention. She took a seat on the edge of the desk and surveyed the class with interest.
"Welcome to your real Defence Against the Dark Arts class. I am professor Tonks. I've seen how much the OWL year, and I suspect you lot aren't much better. As far as I know, only one of the people in this room can do anything resembling good spellwork. For that reason Mr. Potter, you probably won't be learning much in this class, but I will be calling on you at times to help teach. Can you handle that?"
Harry slowly nodded, he hadn't expected this. Tonks returned his nod and perched herself on the edge of the large wooden desk.
"Who can tell me what a wizards dual is?"
The entire class slowly raised their hands glancing at each other. Tonks looked from face to face before settling her gaze on Hermione Granger.
"Miss Granger, could you please tell us what a wizards dual is."
"A wizards dual is when two wizards or witches cast curses, jinxes and hexes at each other with the intent to harm or immobilise."
Tonks nodded again drumming her fingernails against the table.
"A rather complex explanation but correct none the less. Another way to define a wizards dual is simply two people sending spells at each other. Would you agree Mr. Potter?"
Harry shrugged but nodded "I guess so, my problem with Hermione's explanation is the word 'two' rarely are duals that fair. Also you can use things other than curses, jinxes and hexes, but I have a feeling that dualing tactics were not a big part of the curriculum."
"Quite right, but for the sake of simplicity we'll start with merely curses, jinxes and hexes because rarely do Death Eaters use anything but those."
Hermione's arm raised tentatively into the air and Tonks gave her a nod to speak her mind.
"Professor...does that mean that you'll be teaching us how to really fight? To fight Death Eaters? Like in the last war?"
"Precisely Miss Granger. The ministry might not want you all and your family's to know that the Dark Lord is back but I have no such qualms. In this class you will be learning about the horrors that happened in the last war so that you might be able to prevent them from happening again in this one. Any more questions?"
No hands were raised.
"Very good, I want you all to partner up and demonstrate everything you know that would count for anything in a dual. But be careful and don't be stupid, unless they're basic ones that a third year should know ask me before casting. Begin. Mr. Potter, come here a moment please."
Harry pushed his seat back and wandered up to the front as everyone partnered up and started shooting minor curses at each other most of them flying far wide. Leaning against the desk beside her Harry looked over at his professor and then back at the class.
"We have a lot to do to make these children ready to fight Harry."
Harry sighed and nodded watching as Neville's disarming hex hit someone about three pairs over.
"It's going to take the entire year just to make it to OWL level. And that's with everyone catching onto everything almost right away and I can't see that happening."
Tonks sighed and waved her wand idly shooting a thin stream of water to douse a fire someone curse had started.
"I had an idea after my OWL class that I'll need your help with, I'm going to be running it past Dumbledore this evening, feel like coming along? You might have a few things to add."
Harry shrugged and nodded "Sure, why not I was planning on having a chat with Brian this evening anyway."
She smiled slightly at the student speaking so informally of his headmaster then turned her attention back to the class.
A/N- Well, there's chapter seven, damn that took a long time. As always, reviews, comments, criticisms, it's all fine so throw one at me. Oh, and questions, there's always a chance i didn't explain something enough for those outside my own head.
