Disclaimer: I don't own them, I am borrowing them. They will be returned to JKR once I finish with them. No characters were harmed in the making of this fanfic.
I'm back! :) I had an AWESOME time in North Carolina. It was sooooo much fun!! :) But now I'm back, and I've got a few new ideas! Watch out! :)
15,235 HITS! You guys rock! I love you!! :)
To my fabulous reviewers (thank you ever so much!) :
emmy1124-- ;) lol! I really do love you. Your reviews always make me smile and laugh. :)
DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan-- mwa ha ha ha haaaa... you think too much, darling. I love happy endings, this one will have one, I promise. There may be some bumps along the way, but it will all be a happy ending.
murgy31-- thanks! And thank you sooooo much for beta-ing for me, it really does help me a TON. :)
HappeeGoLuckee-- it's in this chapter, I promise. I tried as hard as I could to make it measure up to the standard Harry and Ginny set, but I'm not sure it made it... it still made me laugh, though... lol :) And you are very welcome. It was my pleasure, believe me.
me, anonymous reviewer-- aww, thanks!
jimmy-barnes-13-- I absolutely LOVED writing that Christmas scene. It made me feel happy, and wish it really was Christmas. :) I liked that, too. It just seemed like something Draco would do. Lol. :)
cyiusblack-- the much awaited chapter is here! :) lol thanks for reviewing!
Tabbycat1220-- thank you! I try.
Ulifan-- you make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :) lol thanks for reviewing!
LoireLoa-- if only, huh? Oh well. ;)
Arica, Princess of Rivendell-- here you go! :)
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The Queen of Confusion-- thanks! and I love your penname, by the way. And hey! You stole my little sister's name! And you even spell it the same way she does! :) lol thank you for reviewing!
Kate Andromeda-- I think it will work. I've got a few tricks up my sleeve. :)
Okay, who saw Camp Rock? BEST DISNEY MOVIE EVER!! If you haven't seen it yet, shame on you! It was FABULOUS!! :) lol
Breakthrough is from the Cheetah Girls... it was also my routine music a couple of years ago, come to think of it... :) haha lol anyways, without further ado, Chapter 11!
Chapter Eleven: Breakthrough
"Defense!" Hermione called out cheerfully as she, Ron, and Harry left the Great Hall after breakfast.
"Not so loud," Ron complained. "Who wants to go see the greasy git this early in the morning?" Hermione shook her head, gave a small smile, and led the way to the dungeons.
"Today, we will be working on-- do you have something to share, Potter?" Snape asked silkily as he glided to the front of the class seconds after the bell rang.
"No, sir," Harry answered, giving his father a quizzical look.
"Clearly your hair does," he smirked. The whole class was suddenly roaring with laughter, Gryffindors and Slytherins alike.
"Sir?" he questioned tentatively.
"Harry, look," Hermione said between laughter, her shoulders shaking. She handed him a mirror, which he took and held up to his face.
"Oh, for Merlin's sake," Harry huffed. His hair was spiked all over his head, and the tall spikes changed color every few seconds, from red, to blue, to lime green, and everything in between. "Slytherin Rules" was written across the front most spikes.
"Oh, hilarious," Harry said sarcastically. Everyone in the room just laughed harder.
Cute, Dad. Real cute, Harry thought to his father.
I try, the professor responded cheekily. We're even. Harry narrowed his eyes at the man, who sneered back.
"Do try to control your hair, Potter," Snape snapped.
"Yes, Professor," he repeated.
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"That was really funny," Harry said sarcastically as he entered his father's office later that day.
"An eye for an eye," Snape replied, not looking up from the papers he was grading. "Consider us even. I, for one, thought it was amazingly funny."
"You would," Harry smirked.
"That was rather funny," Draco volunteered as he entered the office.
"I'm glad I could entertain you," Harry replied. He turned to his father. "Now, could you please return my hair to its original state?"
"What's the fun in that?" Snape asked. "No, I think it will wear off. My purple skin wore off, and your lovely spikes will, too."
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"Come in, come in, Harry," Dumbledore invited as Harry knocked on his door that evening. "Interesting hair style," the headmaster commented as the teenager let himself in.
"Thank you, Headmaster," Harry smiled. "It seems I am the butt of somebody's joke."
"We all find ourselves there at one point or another!" the aging wizard mused. "Shall we go visit the Mirror of Erised?"
"Lead the way, Headmaster," Harry answered.
"The Mirror is kept in my private quarters now," Dumbledore explained. "Follow me." Harry nodded and followed the old wizard into a door he hadn't previously noticed in the headmaster's office. They came upon a second door, to which the wizard muttered a lengthy incantation. The door swung open, and he beckoned the teenager inside.
The headmaster's quarters seemed to be just like any other teacher's private quarters, except this was a bit more extravagant. Everything, from tables to chairs to flooring, was made of mahogany. Couches and cushions were dressed in dark navy fabrics. Portraits of the founders lined the walls.
"The Mirror is this way," Dumbledore interrupted the boy's thoughts. He led the way through a door to a room barely big enough to be a closet where, standing in the middle of the room, was the Mirror of Erised.
"I will be in my sitting room," the headmaster informed him. "Come out whenever you are ready to discuss our course of action."
"Of course, Headmaster," Harry replied. The door closed softly behind the powerful wizard, and Harry turned to the Mirror.
"All right, Mirror," Harry muttered, "let's see what you have for me this time." He gazed at the Mirror.
Suddenly, Harry was standing inside the Mirror. He was surrounded by his father, Draco, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the Weasleys, with Voldemort's body at his feet. His Mirror-self was grinning, and his father and friends were smiling and laughing proudly. Harry noticed his Mirror-self held some type of sword. He focused on it. It looked goblin-made. The words "Original Sabre of Salazar Slytherin" were carved into it.
"Professor," Harry began, exiting the small room, "I know what the tool is."
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"It was called the Original Sabre of Salazar Slytherin, Harry?" Dumbledore asked, his brow furrowing.
"Yes, sir," Harry replied. "It looked goblin-made."
"I want you to go to the library and do some research on the Original Sabre of Salazar Slytherin, then come back to me and we can discuss it," the headmaster told him. Harry nodded.
"Have a good evening, Harry," the old wizard replied. Considering himself dismissed, Harry nodded and left the office.
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"Have you guys ever heard of the Original Sabre of Salazar Slytherin?" Harry asked his friends the next day during their free period.
"I read about it once!" Hermione replied excitedly while Ron shook his head. "Does this have something to do with your lessons with Professor Dumbledore?"
"I have reason to believe that is how I'm going to defeat Voldemort," Harry replied quietly, so as not to attract attention.
"Let's go to the library," the witch suggested. "There'll be tons of books on him, since he is one of the Founders."
"Here we go again," Ron grumbled.
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"Have you found anything?" Ron asked as he joined Harry in the Biography section of the school's library.
"Nothing," Harry replied. Hermione waltzed up to them, carrying a huge stack of books.
"Figures," Ron mumbled under his breath.
"These are all the books I could find that mention the sabre," the brown-haired girl informed them. "The only flaw is that these books may merely mention the sabre, not discuss it." Harry nodded his thanks and grabbed a book, searching the pages for any mention of the Original Sabre of Salazar Slytherin.
"This one mentions he bought it after an argument with Godric Gryffindor," Ron piped up after looking through his third book.
"This one says it's goblin-made," Harry added, holding up his sixth book.
"These only say that he had a sabre," Hermione replied, pointing to the stack of books beside her. "Sorry, Harry."
"Hey, we tried," Harry shrugged. "Maybe I can get a pass to the Restricted Section and look there." She nodded and smiled weakly.
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Nearly a week later, Harry entered the library around eight o'clock, Invisibility Cloak and Marauder's Map pocketed. He planned to stay until Madam Pince closed up the library, then go hunt through the Restricted Section.
"Has everyone left?" Madam Pince called as she looked up and down the aisles almost two hours afterward. Harry, hidden by his Invisibility Cloak, tried to keep silent.
Finally satisfied, Madam Pince left the library after a ten minute inspection. Harry stayed under the Invisibility Cloak for a few minutes more, but took it off when he got to the Restricted Section. He looked through several books about the Founder, but none said anything Harry didn't know. After nearly three hours of searching, when Harry was almost ready to give up, he came upon an old, worn, red book.
"Salazar Slytherin: Everything You Never Knew," Harry read from the cover. Perfect, he thought. He sat in a chair in the Restricted Section and flipped through several pages before finding a passage that caught his eye:
Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor, it has been noted, were friends from the time they were young children. As they became older, they got closer as friends, to the point where people considered them brothers. Gryffindor approached Slytherin Manor one evening with the intent to show Slytherin his new sword, the goblin-made Sword of Godric Gryffindor, to find his girlfriend laughing and talking happily with Slytherin. He promised revenge for stealing his girlfriend, and left the Manor a very angry man. Slytherin, feeling threatened, bought a goblin-made sabre himself, which became known as the Original Sabre of Salazar Slytherin. One evening, Gryffindor sought revenge on Slytherin. Both perished during the fight.
The Original Sabre of Salazar Slytherin has not been found since that fateful night. Some say it was buried with Slytherin; others say it lingers within the Manor. Its properties are unknown; however, sources close to Slytherin say he wrote its properties in his journals.
"All we have to do is find Slytherin's journals," Harry mused to himself. "Where would he keep his journals..."
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It was nearly one o'clock in the morning when Harry bolted upright in his bed, a victorious looking dictating his features. He had found the information about the Original Sabre of Salazar Slytherin nearly three days earlier, and all he could think about was finding the journals.
"If I was Slytherin, I would hide them where no one else could find them," Harry said aloud after casting a Muffliato spell. "If I was Slytherin, I would be a Parselmouth, but nobody else would." He groped around in his chest and found James's Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map.
"Chamber of Secrets, here I come," he whispered as he left the dormitory.
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"Open," Harry hissed in the language of snakes. The sinks rearranged themselves to reveal the passage to the Chamber. He slid down and landed unceremoniously in the same position he had the week before Christmas.
"Lumos," he whispered. His wand lit up the entire Chamber.
"Open," he hissed again at the next door. The door swung open, and Harry walked into it. He stuffed his Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map into his pocket, keeping his wand out.
"Open," he hissed once again at a door he hadn't previously opened.
"Who are you?" a snake in the portrait hissed back.
"I am Harry Potter, and I wish to find the secrets of the Original Sabre of Salazar Slytherin," Harry replied.
"For what purpose?" the snake persisted.
"I think I can use the Original Sabre of Salazar Slytherin to defeat Tom Riddle, Slytherin's Heir," Harry answered.
"Tom Riddle, Slytherin's Heir? What a joke," the snake scoffed. "Tom Riddle is no more Slytherin's Heir than that rat that just crawled across the floor."
"What do you mean?" Harry questioned.
"Riddle is the great great great grandson of Salazar Slytherin's niece," the snake explained. "He is not the Heir of Slytherin."
"Well, then, who is?" Harry asked.
"Why, you are, Mr. Potter," the snake replied, and retreated ominously into its snake den. The door swung open, and Harry entered the room, still pondering what the snake had said.
Sitting on multiple tables were about thirty journals, all with worn, brown covers. On the cover of each was written The Private Journal of Salazar S. Slytherin. Harry sighed, and, keeping an eye on the time with a Tempus charm, flipped through twenty-four journals before finding one that even mentioned the sabre.
"I have bought a sabre from the goblins," Harry read, "with which I am going to defend myself should Godric decide to make a house call at Slytherin Manor. I have instilled several protections into my sabre, which will protect me if my opponent strikes near me; attack spells, which include torture, battle, and, if necessary, killing; and healing spells, which can heal nearly any ailment." A picture of the sabre was neatly drawn beneath this explanation, and a list of the magic in the sabre rested on the next few pages. Harry read the long list and let out a long, low whistle. This was quite the list, Harry realized. The healing spells included not only common spells, but ancient magic as well. Every element of the sabre incorporated ancient magic, Harry noticed. He made a copy of the journal entry and the list of embedded magic, intending to take it with him to his next lesson with the headmaster.
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"Mate, where were you last night?" Ron yawned at breakfast the next morning.
"What are you talking about? I was sleeping," Harry replied, his heart beating fast.
"Not at two, you weren't," Ron replied, helping himself to some bacon. "I woke up at two, and your bed was empty. Where were you, the Restricted Section?"
"You were out of bed past curfew again, Harry?" Hermione asked sharply.
"Well, yeah, but--" Harry admitted, but Hermione interrupted him.
"No buts! You shouldn't be out past curfew!" Hermione scolded him. Harry put up the Muffliato spell.
"But I found Slytherin's journals," Harry said quietly. "Remember, the book I found in the Restricted Section?"
"Merlin," Hermione breathed. "Where were they?"
"Where else would Slytherin, a Parselmouth, hide anything?" Harry replied.
"The Chamber of Secrets," Ron realized.
"What did you find?" Hermione asked eagerly.
"I found Slytherin's journals, and there was an entry that explained the sabre," Harry replied, thankful to the Half-Blood Prince for the privacy spell.
"Did you make a copy of it?" Ron asked.
"Yeah, here are Slytherin's notes," Harry responded, taking out the three pieces of parchment. Hermione and Ron glanced at the sheets of parchment, then at each other.
"Mate, this is all just scribbles," Ron told him hesitantly.
"What are you talking about?" Harry questioned, flipping through the pages. "I can read this."
"This must be written in Parseltongue," Hermione said. "Harry, can you tell me what it says?"
"I have bought a sabre from the goblins," Harry read. He looked up at Hermione, who shook her head.
"That was Parseltongue," she informed him. "Try to read it in Parseltongue and speak it in English." Harry concentrated on the passage.
"I have bought a sabre from the goblins," Harry tried. He glanced to his friends, who nodded encouragingly.
"Keep going," Ron ordered. Over the next forty-five minutes, Harry translated the entire journal entry, which Hermione carefully recorded.
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"Headmaster?" Harry called. He entered the office to find his father sitting there alone.
"Potter," Snape answered coolly. "Clearly I am not the headmaster of this confounded institution."
"Where is the headmaster, sir?" Harry replied.
"If I knew, would I be here?" Snape countered icily. Harry shrugged and started to leave.
"Potter!" Snape barked. Harry turned around.
"Sir?" he questioned.
"Detention, tonight, do not be late," Snape reminded him coldly. Harry nodded and left the office.
"Did you see Dumbledore?" Ron asked as Harry reentered the Tower. Harry shook his head.
"No, but I saw Snape," Harry replied. "He so graciously reminded me of a detention I'm serving with him tonight."
"Tough luck," Ron grimaced. Harry gave a weak smile.
"You'd better leave soon, then," Hermione added, checking the time.
"See you guys after," Harry called as he left through the portrait hole.
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"What were you doing in the headmaster's office this evening?" Snape asked his son smoothly.
"We have business to discuss," Harry replied vague. "It's about our lessons; he wanted me to report back to him once I'd done my 'homework'."
"I see," Snape answered silkily. "And what was this homework?"
"You should ask Professor Dumbledore these questions," Harry told his father. "Why are you giving me the third degree? He's been giving me lessons all year, you know that."
"Yes, but I could tell you had a specific purpose for seeing the headmaster tonight," Snape replied.
"If you'd like to know, then go ask him yourself," Harry told him defiantly. And with that, the teenager left.
"Potter! Get back here!" Snape bellowed. Harry ignored him.
Harold James, get your butt back here or there will be serious consequences! Snape's voice commanded sharply. Harry disregarded the man's voice in his head and continued on his trek to Gryffindor Tower.
Oh, Harry, what have you done? You've made your daddy all angry with you. :) Let me know what you think!! :) I hope I delivered with the retaliation prank. It was hard to get Snape to match Harry and Ginny's prank!
I know the whole Harry-is-a-descendant-of-a-Founder deal is sooooo cliché, but it won't be like all the others, I promise. When have you ever known me to be cliché? :)
REVIEW PLEASE! I like reviews. They make me happy, and they have this odd way of making me write faster. So please review!
