Chapter Twelve: Valentines and Quidditch Complications
Raiden grinned at his friends when he woke up on Valentines Day. He had talked with Daphne about the little "accident" in the common room the day before the truth about his relationship with Voldemort was revealed and they had mutually decided not to do anything about it, although Daphne had taken to sitting closer to Raiden than she had before. Raiden didn't mind this, although he wouldn't allow anything more than an occasional friendly hug from his friend, which he returned. He didn't want to complicate his life at this early stage with a relationship, when they were both too young anyway.
When he walked into the Great Hall, Raiden seriously considered going back to bed. The hall was decorated in hot pink of all colours and Gilderoy Lockhart was sitting in his chair at the teacher's table smiling like he owned the universe. The other staff members were scowling fiercely at any student who dared to laugh at the decorations.
Once all the students were seated Lockhart got up to make an announcement. "As everyone can see the house elves kindly acceded to my request for decorations on this day of romance. I'm sure that if you girls have your eye on a certain boy, Professor Snape could be prevailed upon for a love potion, while Professor Flitwick is no slouch at the charms you might wish to employ as well. Also, I have arranged for my little card carrying cupids to be running round the school today delivering messages for you all. Have fun today. Thank you."
He sat down to glares from the male half of the student body while the girls were sighing happily. Snape looked as though anyone to ask him for a love potion would find themselves as potions ingredients in short order while Flitwick muttered to himself for the rest of breakfast and looked most unhappy. Raiden glared at Daphne when she rummaged round for parchment and quill and began composing a message.
"That had better not be for me," he warned.
Daphne looked up and smiled. "Of course it's not, Raiden. I'm trying to come up with a suitably nasty Valentine for that pompous git up there. Potions is going to be terrible because of him you realize. Professor Snape is in the foulest mood I've ever seen."
Raiden sighed. "Can you please call me Harry, I don't want my other name being made public for a while yet and can I help with the Valentine?"
Daphne looked sheepish for a moment; Raiden had requested that his friends continue to call him Harry until he was ready to make his public debut as Lord Raiden, a request which Daphne had forgotten.
"Of course Harry, sorry about that. Here's what I've got so far." She handed over the parchment and Raiden snorted as she saw what she'd written. His snort drew the attention of Blaise and Draco and soon all four were bent over the parchment, discussing wording and discarding useless stuff. Raiden was adamant that the last line be "Love, the Heir of Slytherin" as the whole Heir of Slytherin bit had made the rounds of the school grapevine as fear enveloped the school.
The Slytherin quartet had made little to no progress on finding who had the diary and hadn't found the entrance to the Chamber either. Raiden had asked Voldemort where it was and had been firmly told to mind his own business. When he'd pressed the matter, Voldemort had activated the bit of the link between them that caused Raiden's scar to hurt, and had then drifted closer to his apprentice, placing one finger on the scar. It didn't take long for Raiden to collapse in pain and after that the apprentice had wisely not questioned Voldemort about the Chamber again, except to tell him of their non-progress, a fact that pleased the Dark Lord greatly. Despite his desire to introduce Raiden to the Slytherin legacy as it were, Voldemort was not going to take any chances with his apprentice. He did not want Raiden being petrified, or worse, killed by the snake that some unknown enemy was setting loose.
The petrifications had continued, and even the Slytherins were starting to feel worried. Hermione seemed determined to find out the answer to the mystery and Raiden hadn't had the heart to tell her that they already knew. Shaking his head, Raiden hurried off to class, aware of the dwarf behind him that wanted him to stop. Finally being cornered by the persistent cupid, Raiden rolled his eyes and decided it was best to let the valentine be sung and then he wouldn't be bothered again.
The dwarf smirked as his subject finally stopped, apparently giving into the inevitable. Walking up he stopped, cleared his throat and then began to sing, in the worst tune that Raiden had ever heard,
"His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad
His hair is as dark as a blackboard
I wish he was mine, he's really divine
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord."
Raiden growled as the students within earshot exploded in laughter. Spotting Blaise in the crowd he made his way over and hissed in his ear, "That Valentine for Lockhart had better be suitably humiliating. This is the worst day ever and it's all thanks to that GIT!"
Blaise chuckled and herded Raiden into class, not wanting his friend to explode in the corridor. Once inside they met the rest of their quartet who had heard the Valentine but didn't dare laugh once they saw Raiden's face. Shrugging they sat down and waited for the lesson, which was Charms, to begin.
Once Charms had finished, the Slytherins had headed off to Transfiguration which they had with the Ravenclaws. Hermione managed to derail the lesson at one point by asking about the Chamber of Secrets and Professor McGonagall gave them the history that the Slytherins already knew. She ended by saying that the school had been searched many times and that no evidence had ever been found. The Slytherin quartet shrugged, they knew, thanks to Voldemort that the Chamber existed, and what was in it. Now they just had to find who was opening it.
After the morning classes, the Slytherin Quartet met in the Great Hall and huddled round the end of the Slytherin table, working on their special Valentine for Lockhart. Once they had it worked out they got the attention of one of the cupid dwarfs and handed it to him, with instructions to give it to Lockhart in front of everyone. The dwarf took one look at their faces and an answering smirk came over his face before he walked off to gather the rest of his friends and give the pompous git the payback he deserved.
Just before dinner, when the Hall was full, the entire complement of dwarfs came walking into the hall, each carrying a copy of the Slytherin Quartet's Valentine. They lined themselves up in a row and then broke into song.
"He struts round like a peacock, only twice as vain
His magic skills are non-existent, much to his shame
To cover this up he uses his fraudulent fame
The great hero is a façade to hide the coward within
Oh Gilderoy Lockhart how I loathe you
Love the Heir of Slytherin."
The students looked at each other, then at the flustered Lockhart, and burst into laughter. Some were laughing so hard they fell off their chairs; others could hardly breathe as every time they looked up at the teachers table, the expression on Lockhart's face would set them off again.
The teachers themselves were hard pressed to not follow the students' lead on the matter. Dumbledore was twinkling away; McGonagall was slowly losing the battle which was evidenced by the snickers escaping her at odd intervals. Snape was smirking and his eyes were bright with amusement and malice at Lockhart's Valentine. He knew exactly who had sent it, the Heir of Slytherin bit gave it away at once, and looking down at his House table he saw the quartet looking back at him.
They exchanged smirks, and then a choking sound from McGonagall drew the Potions Master's attention. Unable to hide her mirth anymore, McGonagall had changed into her cat form and was having very strange convulsions as she laughed hysterically at the Valentine.
Just then, dinner arrived and distracted the laughing student population from the very embarrassed Lockhart. They dug into the food, talking about the Valentine around mouthfuls, while Lockhart ate only half of his plate and then vanished from the room.
The next weekend was the Quidditch match between Slytherin and Gryffindor. Flint had been working the Slytherin team hard, determined to beat Gryffindor. They had had a really fun practice after kicking the Gryffindor team off the pitch one day. Ron Weasley had been trying to curse Raiden with a curse that would make him burp up slugs for a week. Raiden had hissed a reversal spell in Parseltongue which caused the spell to shoot out the wrong end of Ron's wand, giving the redhead a nasty case of slimy stomachache.
The Slytherin team exploded in laughter, and Flint said with a nasty smile, "Got a wand problem there Weasley. Better go and see Pomfrey, she's good at sorting those out."
Oliver Wood turned an unattractive shade of red at the comment and yelled, "Don't be a pervert, Flint."
Flint turned to the Slytherin team in mock surprise. "Get your mind out of the gutter Wood, I meant that Pomfrey is good at fixing accidental curse damage from spells. I didn't mean what you thought I meant."
Wood snarled but led the Gryffindor team off the pitch, allowing the Slytherin team to practice in peace. Now, the two teams were on the pitch, facing each other, with the rest of the school sitting in the stands. Slytherin and Gryffindor were cheering their respective houses while Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were evenly split. Madam Hooch was officiating, and she glared at Wood and Flint when she said she wanted a clean game.
The quartet smirked, the chance of Slytherin and Gryffindor ever having a "nice clean game" was almost non existent. The two teams shot into the air and the game began.
The game was fast and brutal. The Slytherin Chasers, led by Draco made mincemeat of the Gryffindor Chasers, while Raiden ran distraction as often as he was able. Fred and George Weasley, the Gryffindor Beaters, did their best to take Raiden out of the sky but he was too fast and too adept at sensing danger nearby. The Slytherin Beaters returned fire, and succeeded in breaking up the Gryffindor Chaser formation allowing Blaise to steal the Quaffle and take it up to the Gryffindor hoops. With Draco and Daphne distracting Wood he was able to score easily, making the score two hundred and ninety to ten.
Raiden searched for the Snitch while keeping an eye on the Gryffindor seeker. The seeker was a fifth year, but he kept looking at the game, rather than for the Snitch. Raiden smirked and then took off for one corner of the pitch. The Gryffindor shadowed him closely and only realized the danger when Raiden pulled up sharply and turned away towards the centre of the field.
The Gryffindor seeker plowed into the goal hoops of his team at top speed. There was a crunching sound and the boy fell onto the sand, unconscious. Raiden ascended, free to look for the Snitch at his leisure, while his opposite number was being treated by Pomfrey.
Suddenly his danger sense activated and Raiden did a barrel roll in mid air, feeling a current of air pass over him as the Bludger shot over his broom. Righting himself, Raiden watched in disbelief as the Bludger changed direction and headed straight for him again, with no interference from any of the four Beaters. Raiden took off with the Bludger following him like a dangerous and potentially lethal shadow.
Raiden pulled all the tricks he knew to shake off the ball that was dogging his heels. As he rocketed by Flint he yelled "Call a time out, this blasted ball's bewitched or something!" The game practically stopped as everyone watched the Bludger chase the wizarding world's savior.
Getting desperate Raiden flew past the teacher's box, with the Bludger in hot pursuit. Snape looked shocked as he watched the spectacle taking place. Suddenly, Raiden had an idea. He shot down into the structural area of the stands, flying around the beams holding the stands in place. The Bludger followed, but where Raiden swerved up and over, or down and under the supports, the Bludger smashed right through them.
Finally Raiden spotted an exit, and shot out, still with his black shadow, and then he saw it. The Snitch chose that moment to appear directly in front of him. Never one to miss an opportunity, Raiden snatched the Snitch out of the air, and headed for the ground. When he was almost there, the Bludger caught up with him.
Raiden winced as he felt the Bludger smash into his arm. Fortunately he wasn't far from the ground and he could topple from the broom onto the sand. The Bludger then tried to go after him again, but was stopped when a jet of light hit it and blew it to pieces.
Looking up from the sand, where he was sitting in a cross legged position, cradling his arm, Raiden saw Snape tucking his wand away. Raiden nodded his thanks to his Head of House and Snape returned the nod before crouching down beside him.
The rest of the team landed and formed a circle round their seeker. Snape gently took hold of Raiden's arm, examining it with gentle touches. Snape then stood and pulled Raiden to his feet by his uninjured arm, and began to walk him towards Madam Pomfrey. Before they got there though, Gilderoy Lockhart decided to step in.
"Broken arm is it? Not to worry, I know the perfect spell to set everything to rights. Now.."
"Don't touch me!" Raiden snapped.
At the same time, Snape growled, "You will not touch my student Lockhart; you are not a qualified mediwizard."
Lockhart looked flustered before he noticed a small wince of pain from Raiden as he stumbled and accidentally moved his arm. He decided to help him and had his wand pointed at Raiden's arm and the spell cast before Snape could do anything.
Students and staff alike watched in fascinated horror as the spell made Raiden's arm bulge and then the broken bone emerged from the skin, at an angle that made even Poppy Pomfrey wince in sympathy. Raiden's howl of pain could be heard clean across the pitch as the incompetent Defence Professor attempted to fix his mistake and made the bones move even further out of the remains of his forearm. Thankfully several Stupefy's from several different directions knocked the git out cold before he could do any more damage and another Stupefy, this time from Pomfrey, knocked Raiden out so he didn't suffer any more than he had already on his trip up to the castle infirmary.
When Raiden came to, he found himself lying in one of the infirmary beds, with his team surrounding him. Snape was standing beside him, holding a goblet of some potion which smelled worse than most medicinal potions. Raiden wrinkled his nose, he would bet all the gold in his Gringotts vault that it tasted worse than it smelled.
"What's that stuff?" he asked suspiciously.
Snape smirked but his eyes showed sympathy for his student's plight. "Skele-Grow, Mr Potter. The damage to your arm that that incompetent buffoon did was so severe that Madam Pomfrey had to vanish the bones in your forearm, and wrist in order to have any chance of healing you fully. Now that you're awake we can proceed with the last step which is to have you drink this potion which will re-grow your wrist and forearm bones. It will be painful but it is the only way to get your arm back to normal."
Raiden looked at his floppy arm in disgust before holding out his hand. "Give it to me," he said, drinking the potion down in one go, and making a face at the end of it. Before he went to sleep, he asked, "What happened to Lockhart?"
He was rather disturbed at the evil smile on Snape's face when the man replied, "He has been…dealt with…and he won't be making this particular mistake again.
Raiden went to sleep, woken only by the entrance of Dumbledore, McGonagall and Pomfrey during the night as they carried the Petrified body of Colin Creevey to a bed near Raiden. The whispered conversation and the black smoke pouring from the boy's ruined camera left Raiden more determined than ever to find the Chamber and stop the attacks. He couldn't let the school be closed, nor could he take the chance that his friends might be hurt. Turning over in the bed, he went back to sleep, pondering the mystery of the whereabouts of the Chamber of Secrets.