Chapter 11
Harry made his way up to the library and sat himself down in the back corner of the library near the more complicated arithmancy books were lined up on the shelves, an area that would be left untouched until a few NEWT level students would clean it out right before their exams. Harry would be left alone there. Plus, arithmancy was not remotely dark and no one could start a rumor about me training to be Lord Voldemorts apprentice by sitting near the arithmancy books, Harry thought bitterly. But people would still see him here. If he were in his classroom, surely everyone would think he was out in the Forbidden forest with a snake practicing dark magic while some giant spiders or something cheered him on.
And granted, Harry did spend most of his time with a bunch of snakes practicing dark magic, but he wasn't practicing it to hurt anyone. The idea that everyone thought that Harry would ever truly want to hurt anyone bothered him. Harry had wanted to be viewed as powerful, someone that shouldn't be messed with. But he had never really wanted to hurt anyone.
But yet, he had. He had killed Quirrell after all. But Quirrell had insulted him; Quirrell was going to kill Harry because he was some pathetic first year who had interfered in his plans. And when that happened, Harry had snapped. Harry was worth more than that, he was not going to pushed around, be underestimated anymore. He had not been working so hard all his life, spent the time all the other kids spent playing exploding snaps training in secret to die that night because someone thought that he wasn't worth anything because he was a powerless first year, because as far as first years went, he was particularly unassuming.
Harry shook his head in frustration. He knew where his mind was going and he didn't want to think about it anymore. He had told himself so many times that he couldn't dwell on those things anymore. Nothing would matter if he didn't keep moving forward.
Harry opened his school bag and decided to turn his attention back to the diary he had found in the girls bathroom. Harry opened it once again and flipped through, examining each page carefully. There was no writing anywhere, but Harry knew that the diary had to contain something. He could feel it.
Harry took out a quill and began to write.
My name is Harry Potter.
Harry carefully scrawled on the crisp page of the diary. Harry couldn't help but gasp as ink began to appear on the page under his introduction.
My name is Tom Riddle.
Harry gasped again. He knew that name. Not many people knew that name, but Harry knew that name. Dumbledore had used it over the summer at an Order meeting during a particularly passionate speech about how Tom Riddle would finally have to face trial for the crimes he had committed. Of course, at this point the trial was more metaphorical, as Voldemort would fight to the death before relinquishing his power. But when Dumbledore revealed something about Harry's past, he was fascinated, and he had asked Dumbledore to tell him more about Voldemorts past. Of course Dumbledore didn't tell Harry more than that Tom Riddle had gone to Hogwarts, but that was already more information on the wizard than most people knew
For some reason, the information of Voldemorts past, that he went to Hogwarts and that he was once human and has not always been some sort of infallible god as the Dark Lord would like everyone to believe was a heavily guarded secret. The name Tom Riddle appeared in very few books, and those that it did appear in were kept in the ministry's library and not available to the general public, as had been explained to Harry by Dumbledore when he asked him why this piece of information was not known.
Apparently, those with allegiance to Voldemort that have power within the ministry have worked hard since the Dark Lord became anyone noteworthy to keep any information about his past out of books. Authors who tried to write books on Voldemort often abandoned their projects or turned up dead. Those books that did manage to get to publication with the name Tom Riddle in them were buried. Anyone that new the name Tom Riddle rarely felt the need to share it, out of fear that they would be violently silenced and did not see a point to sharing the name anyway. Voldemort was Voldemort now, not Tom Riddle, and Voldemort's past hardly seemed to matter at this point in the war.
Hello Tom, what are you doing in a diary?
I'm a memory.
Harry got an idea then, as this was clearly too good of an opportunity to pass up. When else was he going to get audience with Voldemort, even if this was only a piece of the Dark Lords former self?
What can you tell me about the Chamber of Secrets?
Harry wrote carefully. There was hardly any more information on the chamber of secrets than there was on who Tom Riddle was. All Harry knew was that it had been opened about fifty years ago and a girl had died. But if the estimation as to Voldemorts age was right and Harry was doing the subtraction correctly, Tom Riddle must of had something to do with its first opening.
I cannot tell you what I know about the Chamber. The writing stopped, and Harry began to plan his wording to try to get Tom to confess. However, before he could put quill to page, words appeared again.
But I can show you.
Harry seemed to be sucked into the diary found himself inside what appeared to be Hogwarts, except everything had a strange vintage tinge to it. He figured it was all part of Voldemort's love for theatrics, and not that fifty years ago the world was actually seen in sepia.
In what Harry had decided was a memory, he was watched as the body of the girl who died was taken out of the chamber and a younger version of the gigantic hairy groundskeeper that Harry usually avoided, Hagrid, was blamed for her death. But one look at the solemnly smirking Tom Riddle as he accused Hagrid, Harry thought that only a moron couldn't see that clearly the future dark lord had committed the crime, not the gentle giant with an affinity for large and toothy magical creatures.
Harry came out of the memory that Tom showed him and digested the information that he had just been presented with. None of it was very helpful.
Where is the chamber?
Why would I tell you when I've already gotten someone else to do my bidding?
They clearly aren't serving you anymore.
They've done enough for now. They will come back to me anyway.
How would you know?
I know all about them. They've told me everything. They've even told me about you. Harry.
What have they told you about me?
I promised them that I would keep their secrets.
As if you've ever kept a promise.
I think I've already told you more than enough, Harry.
Tom. Harry tried to make a plea, but the writing on the page vanished and Harry was left staring at the crisp, white, parchment of the diary which showed no traces of the conversation that he had just had.
Sighing, Harry sat back to think about the information that he had just been given.
Harry now knew that Voldemort had opened the Chamber the first time and had now opened it again, however this time with the help of someone else. That someone else had to be easily impressionable, Harry deduced. They had to be someone who trusted easily and would be willing to write their secrets down in a diary. So that narrowed it down the virtually every girl at Hogwarts and most of the Hufflepuff and probably a few Gryffindor boys, Harry decided and sighed as he realized he was probably no closer to stopping that attacks and keeping the students at Hogwarts safe.
Harry continued to think, desperately trying to make sense of the mystery.
A Slytherin would probably make the most sense. Voldemort would be most willing to trust a Slytherin. However, if opening the chamber was dangerous, he probably wouldn't want to risk a pureblood. Harry knew that the girl who had died last time was muggle-born. Opening the chamber was clearly an attack on muggle-borns.
Would Voldemort appreciate the irony of a muggle born opening the chamber to kill their own 'kind'? Probably. That seemed like a very Voldemort thing to do, if any of the things that he had read or heard about Voldemort were true.
Things were coming together in Harry's mind and it was all beginning to make sense.
This was obviously Voldemort's first big play in a long time, his first big poke at the sanctity of Hogwarts and blatant attack on muggle-borns. This was actually rather huge, and the second The Daily Prophet put together if Voldemort succeeded in attacking a student, it would be front page news.
However, there were still some big pieces missing that put a damper on their newspaper article, none the less the ability for the students of Hogwarts to be kept safe. The first big mystery was who had Tom gotten to open the chamber for him. But more importantly there was the great unknown as to what exactly had been let out of the chamber that would kill people. There had not been another attack since Mrs. Norris had been paralyzed, and while that was a good thing, it was hard to determine the nature or her attacker.
Harry tried to wrack his brain for some sort of creature that paralyzed people. Although magical creatures were not Harry's favorite topic, he read several books on them. And he could not remember reading about a single one that paralyzed things. None the less would go after a cat along with being able to be sent specifically after muggle-borns.
Harry knew he would have to start spending more time in the library trying to identify the creature, which was not something he looked forward too.
But Harry was not too worried about the hunt for determining the species of the creature. He already knew several very important things about the creature. First that it paralyzed people and that it probably had to have a rather long lifespan to live in the chamber for fifty years between attacks. There could not be too many creature out there that lived for such a long time and had the ability to paralyze and kill people. But really, neither of those were the most important bits of information Harry had about the creature anyway.
Harry could hear the creature when no one else could. Which meant the creature must have been some sort of snake.
Harry grinned. Harry could not imagine spending more than an hour in the restricted section to uncover the mystery.
Harry put the diary back into his bag and began to make his way back to the dungeons. The mystery could wait for now. Harry was tired and he had to go make sure that the snakes he had left on his bed had not killed each other over the course of the past few hours.
Just as Harry had begun to think that the whispers accusing him of being the heir of Slytherin every time he came into the great hall could not get any louder, they were suddenly silenced.
After Colin Creevy had been paralyzed, followed by Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick, Harry thought that some hero Gryffindor was going to try to attack Harry to try to prevent anyone else from being hurt. Harry was sure that the only thing that stopped them was that the only Gryffindor Harry could think of who would want to lead that kind of initiative was Ron, who thankfully had believed Harry when he had assured the boy that it wasn't him opening the Chamber. It also helped that all of the other non Slytherin houses, while being terrified of him because of the power he had shown, had thoroughly enjoyed seeing the much hated potions master nearly strangled.
However, all of the whispers stopped when the much loved grounds keeper Hagrid had been arrested in regard to his previous connection to the opening of the Chamber of Secrets. Most of the Gryffindors felt a deep sense of betrayal, and Harry had quickly been forgotten in the intense emotion of it all.
Although Hagrid was not Harry's favorite person, the large oaf meant well and wore his heart on his sleeve. And while that made him a bit to overbearing for Harry's tastes; Harry knew the man was innocent and he certainly did not deserve to be sent to Azkaban.
But what upset Harry the most was not that the man was falsely accused, or even the fact that the man's arrest despite Dumbledore's statements as to the man's innocence showed how much power Voldemort had over the ministry, but that everyone, with the exception of Ron, Hermione, and Neville, all of who Harry had decided to clue into Hagrid innocence and Voldemorts connection, although refusing to admit how he knew, seemed so ready to believe that the kind hearted oaf had released the monster from the chamber.
Everyone had claimed that because Hagrid had had his wand snapped at the last opening, as had become a well known fact after the arrest, Hagrid must have been harboring contempt towards Hogwarts for all these years. They had all decided that he could not live like a muggle any longer, and that not having his wand had become so unbearable that he had snapped and attacked Hogwarts once again in revenge.
No one seemed to care that Hagrid most certainly did not have any Slytherin blood in him and could not open the chamber of Salazar Slytherin. They all seemed perfectly willing to rationalize that Hagrid did have an affinity for dangerous creatures, and so it would make sense that Hagrid had lost control of one so many years ago, even if perhaps by accident, and was now getting his revenge against those who had taken away his magic, who had reduced him to nothing more than a powerless servant of Dumbledore who lived in squalor on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest.
But there was one bit of light in the darkness, at least from Harry's point of view.
Harry had figured out what the creature was.
Although perhaps that wasn't a very bright light after all.
It had taken Harry longer than he had expected it to and he had lost some time in a particularly social Christmas holiday, but Harry had figured out the identity of the creature, and had felt rather stupid for not figuring it out sooner.
After realizing exactly what the creature was he spent time researching it. He had even tried responding to it when he heard it whispering one day. But no matter what Harry tried to do, he could not seem to do anything productive towards stopping the creature from continuing his attacks.
So it a last-ditch effort, Harry had decided to do something that he hated doing: He asked for help.
Harry called Ron, Hermione, Neville, Draco, Oliver Wood, and Roger Davies into his classroom one raining Sunday afternoon in late February. After realizing what the creature was, and realizing that Dumbledore probably knew but hadn't managed to do anything about it, Harry had taken it upon himself to protect the student body, but he had finally admitted that he did not know how to on his own. So he called upon everyone he knew that might be willing to listen to him, and that might be willing to help.
He almost wished he hadn't of figured out what the creature was so he didn't have to sate his conscious by doing what he was about to do.
"As you are very much aware, something has been attacking Hogwarts student. There have been some rumors that I may be responsible for this creature based off of my Parseltongue abilities. There are other ministry sponsored rumors that Hagrid is responsible for the opening of the chamber. Both of these rumors are just that: Rumors." Harry said as he looked around at the small crowd that he had summoned.
"Over the past several months I have searched, trying to uncover the mysteries of these events, and I believe that I have finally come across most of an answer. I have called you hear so we can work to protect the students of Hogwarts from the creature that has been released. I believe Dumbledore is aware of the identity of the creature, but has taken his own plan of action against it, one that involves secrecy as to the threat that Hogwarts and its students are facing. While I do not know exactly what our headmaster has in mind, it does not seem to be enough to keep the students of Hogwarts safe, particularly with the recent attacks.
"So I am here to tell you what I know. The creature that was released from the chamber has is a Basilisk. I believe that the chamber was opened by a student who has been being controlled by a diary that has been cursed in some way. The diary belongs to Voldemort and the opening of the chamber is a very clever attack on Hogwarts by Voldemort. Whoever he has been controlling is still very much under his control." Harry stated, with a rare level of concern in his voice that others hardly got to hear.
Just as Tom had claimed, the diary had gone missing shortly after Christmas, and Harry assumed that it had been stolen back by its previous owner. Although Harry did wish he had gotten another opportunity to try to talk to Tom, partially out of his own curiosity and partially to make a further inquiry as to the location of the chamber. However, Harry had gotten enough information for now and had been more concerned that the diary owner was back under Tom's control and was causing attacks again, not that the diary had left his possession.
"I also believe that it was also Voldemort who opened the chamber the first time and framed Hagrid because of some sort of dangerous creature that Hagrid was keeping as a pet at the time.
"And so, I'm enlisting your help. We need to be on the lookout for any student who is in possession of an old looking diary and/or has been behaving unusually. We also need to warn students, particularly the muggle-born ones to the threat that they face, as I believe that is the Basilisks target. Encourage them to travel in groups, not leave their dorms, the great hall, or the library when outside of classes if they can help it as much as possible. It would also be advisable that students carry mirrors in the situation that they happen to end up alone in the hallways, so they can look around corners.
"The reason why the Basilisk has not succeeded in killing yet is because no one has looked straight at it. Mrs. Norris saw its reflection in a puddle, Creevy saw it through his camera, and Justin saw it through Nick, and Nick is already dead and could not die again. This way, if a student does have a run in with a Basilisk they can be cured from the paralysis that will plague them, but they will not die." Harry concluded and looked around at the solemn faces in front of him.
"Shouldn't you tell a teacher then? Tell McGonagall or someone." Oliver sputtered after a moment, clearly still trying to process the information.
"Dumbledore already knows the extent of the situation and has not taken any recognizable action. If you would like to tell McGonagall you are welcome to. However, unfortunately this is the kind of situation that adults seem to like to tell students that it is not their responsibility to be concerned about such issues. So while McGonagall may take this information to the light and try pestering Dumbledore into taking greater action, Dumbledore will ensure everyone that whatever he is doing to resolve the issue is for the best and nothing will change until someone has died." Harry explained, stating his usual rationalization as to why he didn't really trust Dumbledore or adults in general.
"But Harry, I'm sure if you explained," Hermione tried, but Harry cut her off.
"No Hermione, I'm not sure. But that is why you are here. If you feel that telling professors will help, then fine. You're welcome to try. Maybe I'm wrong and Dumbledore wasn't able to figure out what a twelve year old was. Maybe in the past day since the last time I've heard the Basilisk he has gotten rid of the creature. But I don't believe that.
"And so in the case that a better solution does not arise, I need your help in trying to keep everyone safe. So are you willing to help?"
"I'm going to talk to McGonagall first." Oliver stated resolutely.
"Fine." Harry snapped in frustration. "But after you've done that will you try to spread the word about the threat?"
"But won't students write home to their parents and have their parents pull them out of school, particularly any muggle-born ones whose parents understand the that their children are being threatened?" Hermione asked.
"All for the better." Draco muttered.
"Draco, don't make me regret asking you here." Harry stated as he sent the other Slytherin a glare. Although the Basilisk has been ordered by Voldemort to target muggle-borns doesn't mean that even a pureblood could accidently look the basilisk in the eyes. And if your allegiance to your dark lord is too strong or you are too afraid to interfere with his plans, you do not have to do anything. You can tell your father, tell your dark lord directly for all I are, that someone, that I'm, that Dumbledore, is on to his plans. But I was under the impression that you wished to be the kind of person that I would allow to be privy to this kind of information. If that has changed feel free to leave." Harry finished coldly, watching as Draco to momentarily dawn an expression of shame that very few people would have thought a Malfoy possible of wearing, before he turned to Hermione to answer her question.
"It's a possibility. But since no one seems to be interested in evacuating the school, as should be done, it's all for the better. We can quietly tell teachers and hope that the situation resolves itself, or we can make everyone know exactly the extent of the threat being posed so we can keep everyone safe. We need to make sure everyone knows the dangers they face. It's the only way. No one is going to die if I have anything to say about it. Not at the hands of Voldemort, no matter how indirectly. Not if I can do anything to prevent it."
"When did you decide to become the hero instead of the villain? You should have been in Gryffindor." Ron mumbled. Harry sighed and pursed his lips. He saw Neville grinning slightly out of the corner of his eyes at Ron's comment.
"I was never the villain. But I'm still not the hero. People have already died because of my choices, and I'm not going to be responsible for anyone else's death, not matter how inadvertently."
Everyone gaped at Harry's admission, Ron, Hermione and Draco especially. Although the two older boys seemed curiously horrified, they had no clue what Harry was talking about. Harry's presence in the stone's chamber was heavily guarded secret, and outside from the order, the only people who had any clue about Harry's potential involvement in the chamber were the Weasley children, Hermione, Neville, and Draco. However, they had all decided that Harry probably made his way into the chamber but found the Quirrell dead or was quickly rescued by Dumbledore.
And although they all really knew that it was a distinct possibility that Harry might have had a hand in the professor's death, none of them had really wanted to admit it. Harry was already scary enough sometimes with his power and general cold attitude, but knowing that Harry had actually killed, at eleven years old none the less, was too much for any of them.
Harry looked at Hermione, Ron, Neville, and Draco. Neville didn't actually look too surprised or horrified, but Harry didn't find that too surprising. Harry and Neville had reached an understanding years ago, and although you wouldn't know it from their relationship, Neville understood Harry and knew him better than anyone else.
However, Ron and Hermione looked truly horrified and Draco had an odd expression on his face, one that Harry imagined would resemble the face of a muggle who just struck gold, but instantaneously had their pick axe taken from them and was about to be struck with it.
"So have we reached an understanding?" Harry asked and everyone eventually began to slowly nod without further comment.
"Good. If you uncover any information that you feel is pertinent to the safety of Hogwarts, feel free to tell me. Otherwise I'll see you all around." Harry said before he turned and exited his classroom, leaving his not friends behind to try to sort through all of the information that they had been given.
Well, at least I've probably re-instilled some fear of me into them again. Harry thought as he made his way down to the dungeons.
A/N: You did get to see Tom, finally. Sorry if it wasn't terribly exciting. This chapter as a whole wasn't my most exciting, and I know it. But it's all important, and I've dropped a lot of hints as to Harry's motivations in this chapter.
Anyway, I think I've made up my mind. Harry and Voldemort's relationship will not go beyond mentor. My Harry will actually probably end up being pretty asexual within this story. Lots of different characters may develop varying degrees of feelings for him, but Harry will really not care or be completely oblivious to it. Those kinds of things aren't important to Harry, and there are several reasons why, some of which have already been revealed to varying extents and some of which have not yet. And as far as fanfiction goes, an unpaired Harry is a little on the less common side (not that even that hasn't been done plenty) so I think it would be interesting to explore a little bit. Plus, the story will end before Harry turns 18… so even if he is not paired within my story doesn't mean he never falls in love and it doesn't mean that Harry will be a sociopath who never feels anything.
Korolo: I was planning on just putting Lupin with Tonks, because that is like the only canon pairing that doesn't kind of suck, in my eyes anyway. But I've never thought about Snape and Lupin, so I'll consider it. I think it could be interesting as they both are such damaged characters and they could probably relate really well to each other. And I could put Tonks with Bill or Charlie or someone as an aside and everyone will be perfectly happy. (And don't worry about that review. Perhaps if it made more sense or was better written I might have cared, but that bizarre excuse for an insult that didn't even really apply to my story or my life didn't get under my skin.) And you're just fine with all the reviews by the way. I really appreciate them, and clearly I talk so much that I'd be a hypocrite to judge you :)
So much for not having long A/N's. After this really, I swear, no more.
Oh, I almost forgot...
Up Next: Chamber stuff, if it wasn't obvious enough. There are only two chapters left this year, so that stuff is all about to go down.
