"Hey, how much money do you have?"
"69 cents."
"You know what that means."
"I don't have enough to buy the rights to Harry Potter."
Dark Magic
The month of September came and went and Hogwarts students were currently in their third week of October. And with only a few more days until the other two schools came to Hogwarts! Most of the students were excitedly chatting about the tournament coming up, who they thought was going to be the Hogwarts champion, what they thought the tasks would be, etc. While the staff was busy trying to make sure that all of the arrangements were set in place. There was a lot riding on the Triwizard Tournament, and the staff didn't want anything going wrong.
However Harry, Ron, and Hermione seemed to be the only ones in the castle that didn't care much about the upcoming spectacle. It wasn't like they hated the idea that two other schools would be coming into their territory, possibly bringing a disruption to their already established schedule, and bringing any number of possible dangers into the school… oh wait they DID hate that idea. But it's not like they had much of a say in stopping it, so they ultimately decided to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. However there was one problem.
How do you prepare for the worst if you have no earthly idea of what it could be?
Saturday
Abandoned Charms Classroom
4:56 P.M.
"Stupefy!"
"Silencio!"
Harry watched on from the sidelines as Ron and Hermione dodged the the spells they had cast at each other.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron shouted aiming at Hermione's leg.
Hermione spun out of the way and pointed her wand towards the floor. "Aguamenti! Glacius!" She said freezing the floor where Ron was standing.
Harry watched the two of them fight it out from the sidelines. Trying to figure out what the two of them needed to improve on. It was actually kind of interesting, at least in Harry's opinion, how his two best friends fought. Hermione knew more spells then Ron and himself. However her perfectionist tendencies made her spells take longer to cast. Giving her opponent time to prepare for the oncoming spell.
Ron on the other hand had a better strategic mind. His opening moves always tested how his opponent would react. And he would use that knowledge to predict what spell his opponent would cast before they fired. But he also put a lot of stock in his predictions. And if he turned out to be incorrect he would falter. Giving his opponent an upper hand, if only for a few seconds.
And then there was Harry. He had a natural fighting style. He relied solely on instinct and adrenaline and that was enough to let him win every single mock duel he had gone into. (Except for the one duel where it was himself vs Ron and Hermione, they had been the victors that day, but only by the skin of their teeth.) However, he was not without fault. His biggest weakness was that he went into a duel without a plan of attack. He just reacted. Which was fine for the mock duels, but he knew that if he wanted to survive an attack against Voldemort, he would need more than luck and instincts to win.
"Expelliarmus!" Ron said, while Hermione went into rolling somersault to avoid the spell.
"Expecto Patronum!" A bright silvery- white otter burst out of Hermione's wand a bolted straight towards Ron. And even though that charm had no effect on humans, Ron, on instinct,moved out of the way of the flying animal coming towards him. Hermione used his slight panic to her advantage.
"Expelliarmus!" Ron was immediately wandless, making Hermione the victor. Harry found that rather odd. Normally duels between and Hermione and Ron lasted, at minimum five minutes… and Hermione had won in less than ninety seconds… something was off.
"Ron… are you okay?" Hermione asked. Realizing the same thing as Harry.
"Fine." Ron answered in a neutral voice. "Why?"
"It's just…" Hermione was at a loss for words.
"It's just you've been pretty out of it today." Harry finished. It wasn't the first time Harry had seen that look on his best friend's face. In fact the pensive look seemed to have been appearing more and more frequently this week. "Is there something on your mind?"
Ron stayed silent for a few seconds before letting out a sigh. " I've… been thinking."
"About?" Hermione prodded.
"...Do you think we're doing enough- I mean I know we've been working our asses off since summer but… I don't know. I just feel like it's not enough."
" How so?" Hermione asked.
"It's just, I've been talking to Kahramen-
" He's the chess club captain, right?" Harry asked.
Ron nodded.
"What about him?" Hermione asked.
" The two of us aren't friends by any means… but we do respect each other… he's given me some advice on how to play better."
" Okay?" Harry said sharing a look with Hermione. Both equally confused on why chess advice was causing their friend to act like this. " What's his advice."
" … The only way to take down your opponent is to know everything they know."
At first Harry didn't understand why Ron sounded so hesitant to say this. But realization dawned on him a few moments later. And assuming by Hermione's sudden gasp, she had pieced it together too.
" You... you want us to learn… Dark magic?" Hermione managed to choke out.
"...'Want' isn't the word I would use."
Harry suddenly had a flashback to when he went to Gringotts and was given his parents old school books and journals… as well as the dark book his account manager had given him.
"I mean… it makes sense." Hermione said. " If we understood the kind of Dark magic V-V-Voldemort uses then we could, in theory, be better prepared to fight against it."
"That's what I was thinking. But the problem is where do we even find that kind of information. " Ron said.
"I actually already have a book on the stuff-"
"What!?"
"When I went to Gringotts over the summer," Harry explained. " My account manager, he packed up, what I at first thought was just textbooks and journals from my parents, but then I saw that he placed an old book about… well to my understanding it's an introductory book for Dark magic."
" What? That doesn't make any sense."Ron said.
"Why would he give you that?" Hermione asked.
Harry then went on to explain what he neglected to tell Ron and Hermione all those months ago.
" Harry, why didn't you tell us?" Ron said, while Hermione was lost in thought. "We wouldn't have been upset because your mom had read-"
" That wasn't why I didn't tell you guys. When Hermione and I had walked in, something felt off. And when I was alone in my vault… I wasn't fearful but I was on edge. I felt like… I don't know. I was being judged or something."
"Yeah," Hermione said, much to Harry's surprise. "I didn't want to tell you this , because you looked stressed out already, but I also noticed some strange behavior from the goblins. I thought it was just my mind over-analyzing the situation but it seemed like the goblins kept looking over in my direction and that they were talking about me."
"Did you hear what they were saying?"
"No, they were too far away for me to hear."
"Okay," Harry said. " So something is going on with the goblins, but the fact remains that we have access to a dark book. Are we going to use it?"
Nobody answered for a minute.
"Look," Ron said. "It's not like we'll become evil by reading through a book, right? I say we read through it and then decide what we should do with the information."
"That seems reasonable to me." Hermione said, still looking somewhat uncomfortable with the situation. " But what are we going to do about the goblins? I'm not sure if I'm simply overreacting or not, but the fact remains that the goblins gave you a Dark book that, in essence, belonged to your mother. They wanted you to read it, Harry. The only question is why."
Harry nodded to what Hermione was saying. " I'll go back during the Yule break, try to see if I can weasel any information out of them. Do you think anyone will find it suspicious if I go?"
"No, no one will care if you go to Gringotts, and if they do, for whatever reason, just tell them that your learning about your Lordship. No one will question that."
"True," Harry said. "Okay so next Saturday we should probably bring the book here and we can study it together. It's our safest bet, we can't get caught with a Dark book."
"Okay, that sounds like a plan, but is it really the best idea to put all of our eggs in one basket?"
"What?" Both boys asked.
"We have come to some sort of conclusion that in order to defeat the Dark arts, we need to have a better understanding of them. But say that we decide, as a group, that we to continue to research and understand the Dark arts. Do we really want to rely on the goblins, who may or may not have an ulterior motive, to provide us with the information we want to research?"
"You want us to find another source?" Ron said.
" Yes."
"How? We can't exactly go to the library and ask for some Dark books."
Harry started to tone out Hermine and Ron's discussion while his mind went into overdrive. He knew that they would most likely want to read more on the Dark magic, as much as that thought hurt, it was in the best interest to be prepared. And Hermione was right, they had to find another outlet for information, not only because he didn't trust the goblins at the moment, but because he wasn't sure he could wait until December to go. So where to go? Library was out, they couldn't risk getting caught. Although he did have an invisible cloak and the Marauder's Map... No, Dumbledore knew about the cloak… and possibly the map. No, they weren't going to risk being caught by Dumbledore, so what was outside his control?
They could go to Knockturn alley? No. Bad idea. A muggleborn, a blood traitor, and the Boy-Who- Lived… they wouldn't two minutes.
His vaults might have something, but that was goblin territory… Sirius came from a dark family. He would probably know what to do. But he was also on the run, Harry didn't want to burden him even more.
Damn, there HAS to be some way to get this information! Seriously! With their research they had discovered that Voldemort- well Tom Riddle- was born and raised in the muggle world, and he had managed to find a resource that allowed himself to create a memory of himself in an object by age sixteen, not to mention the fact that he also found the Chamber of ... oh there was an idea.
"We can't go to Knockturn alley, Ron!"
"But what if we were under the polyjuice potion."
"Do you even hear yourself, there are so many ways that could go wrong!"
"Guys," Harry said, interrupting his bickering friends. "I know where we can find Dark information." Harry took a deep breath. " We go to the same place that Riddle probably learned it all: The Chamber of Secrets.
"Harry you can be ser-"
" I'm being serious, Hermione. While I was in the chamber, I fought against a- a shade of a sixteen year a young Voldemort. He was still in school, guys. Where do you think he learned how to create a shade that could take over somebody's mind, the library? He had to have learned it somewhere, right?Besides, it seems a little weird for Salazar Slytherin to create a massive secret chamber and only put a basilisk in it. And it's also called the Chamber of Secrets, plural on secret-"
"Harry, after everything that happened, you want to go back down to the Chamber again?" Ron asked.
"I'd rather not, but Trelawney made a prediction about Pettigrew escaping and him helping Voldemort rise once again, then I had a dream with the two of them over the summer. We need all the help we can get. An attack could happen at any moment."
"I know but-"
" Why are you acting like this? You're the one who brought up learning Dark magic!"
" Well maybe I don't want to go down to the hellhole that plagues my sister's nightmares-"
"Boys stop!" Hermione said, trying to prevent a fight between them. "Okay, I think we can all agree that Slytherin's Chamber is a place none of us WANT to go, however it is our best chance to find information we couldn't find anywhere else. Personally, I am… willing to go down to check it out. Who knows what Voldemort possibly could have learned down there. We need to be ready."
"So am I." Harry added. Leading the pair of them looking at their redheaded companion. Ron was silent for a moment, looking like he was weighing his options. He sighed and slumped over, clearly coming to a decision that he didn't like.
" I'll go with you. Strength in numbers and what not." Ron squared his shoulders. "However, if something freaky happens down there, we leave. Hypothetically learning more about Dark magic and Voldemort isn't worth our lives. Agreed?
Harry could understand where Ron was coming from, he nearly lost his little sister down there and he clearly didn't want to risk anyone else.
"Sounds fair." Harry said.
"I can agree to that." Hermione said. " So when should we plan on going?"
"Tonight," Ron said, taking control of the conversation. "The teachers are busy trying to make sure the Hogwarts is ready for the other schools."
Harry paused, Ron surprised him. First he doesn't want to go, then he does a one- eighty and wants to go tonight?
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking." Harry said. " And Sunday won't work for us anyway, Lavender and Parvati both want to teach me more about the relationships and rivalries of all the Noble Houses in Britain at ten in the morning tomorrow. Hermione has tutoring all afternoon, and Ron has a Chess meeting in the evening. And I'd rather not cancel, we don't know what the consequences could be."
"Why can't we just go down there next Saturday?" Hermione asked.
"Because we don't need to worry about the other schools AND what's in the Chamber." Harry said.
"Yeah, better to just get it out of the way." Ron said in agreement.
"Okay, I suppose that gives us some time to prepare,"Hermione said with a tone Harry couldn't decipher . Probably had something to do with Ron's sudden change of heart. "What time are we leaving?"
"Around midnight." Harry replied. "Most people should be in their dorms asleep."
"What if we don't get back before they wake up."
Ron snorted. " Please, we're the early birds in the tower, they'll just assume that we got up before them."
"Okay, I suppose we have a semblance of a plan. Come on, we should have dinner now so we can have more time to prep for tonight."
"Actually Hermione, you go on ahead, Harry and I will clean up the room first, we'll meet you down there."
It was a blatant lie. First of all, they didn't leave a mess in the room. Second, nobody ever came into the classroom so it didn't matter if it was messy.
Hermione opened her mouth, only to shut it immediately. She looked at both of them before replying " Alright, I'll see you down there shortly." With that being said, Hermione left the room, leaving the two boys alone.
"Ron-"
"The Chamber of Secrets! Are you fucking kidding me! Ron yelled at him. " You must be bloody insane!." Ron started pacing "Ginny almost died down there! YOU almost fucking died down there! Now you want to go back-"
"If you're so against it why did you not only agree to it, but suggest we go tonight?"
"Because I know you. I knew that you would have gone tonight and I knew you would have gone with or without me."
"That's not true." Harry lied.
"Don't lie to me."
"Look,you're the one who mentioned that we should learn more about dark magic-"
"I meant that we should start with the basics-"
"The basics won't be enough to save our lives!"
"And trying to go beyond our capabilities might get us killed!"
They both went quiet. Neither knew what to say. So they both just tried to take deep breaths and calm down.
"Merlin, when did you become the responsible one?" Harry asked trying to lighten the mood.
Ron groaned. "No idea… Harry listen,
"No don't. I understand why you didn't want us to go down there. I mean after what happened with me and Ginny…"
"Yeah."
"...You know I won't force you to go."
"I know that, but I can't just stay behind while you and Hermione go. Besides, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the basilisk was the only dangerous thing down there."
"Here's to hoping…"
"Yeah."
There was a somewhat awkward silence between the two boys as they left. Both unsure how tonight was going to unfold.
Author's notes:
I'm not dead! And also not gonna lie, not feeling this chapter. Not sure if it's because it's taken me so long to write and I'm bitter about it, or if it's because it's not that good. But here it is anyway. Hope you like it.
And hopefully I'll finish the next chapter before July ( parts of it are already written because it was supposed to be apart of this chapter. I just wanted to put something because you guys have been waiting for so long)
I also wanted to thank everyone who has followed and favorited this story in the last five months I've been away! Hopefully I won't have another long abstinence again.
Until next time.