A/N Hi guys thank you for your reviews please keep them coming I love reading your comments.
As always big thank you to my beta Fairquuen2
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Harry was sitting on the sofa in his room staring into the fire. Ginny was cradled in his arms; she had fallen asleep some time ago.
After agreeing to be his girlfriend they had spent quite some time talking, with a bit of kissing mixed in as well. She had left for an hour to have a bath while Harry finished some homework. When she had come out she was dressed in her pyjamas looking very cute and her hair was still slightly damp. When Harry had finished his homework they had sat back on the sofa just holding each other.
She had eventually fallen asleep in his arms, and Harry was enjoying holding her too much to wake her up. Every now and then he would kiss the top of her head that was resting on his shoulder. Her hand was on his chest covering where his heart was.
"You look happy, son." James said from his portrait.
"I am." Harry replied without taking his eyes away from the dancing flames of the fire.
"I had no idea she felt that way," Lily said as she wiped a tear away from her eye, "like she wasn't worthy of someone's love."
"It's understandable I suppose, after the way her so-called family treated her and with everything that's happened to her. But I won't let her feel like that anymore, she has a new family now. Sirius dotes on her; you should have heard Aunt Amelia telling Ginny about how much Sirius talks about her. Remus thinks she's wonderful, Dora is over the moon to have a little sister and finally another girl in the family, Nana and Grandpa, well they love having a granddaughter, and she got on well with Susan earlier. And with Uncle Sev, I think he's warming to both me and Ginny. It was strange seeing him and Sirius talking civilly last night." Harry said.
"It will take time but she'll get there. Love is a powerful thing, enough of it can heal the most broken of hearts." Lily said.
"She pointed out all the things about her that she thought where bad but she never mentioned any of the things I love about her, when her true-self shows. She's strong; she must be to have gone through what she has, and to still get up every morning and face what the day brings. You have to have a great amount of strength to be able to do that. I think most people would have given up, but she kept on fighting. She's energetic and lively, she's funny and sweet. She has a fiery temper when she's angry, she looks amazing, her eyes seem to glow, and with her red hair..." Harry shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. "She's powerful too, and God the girl can fly. When we spent the weekend at Potter Manor we went flying for a while and I'm telling you, she could give me a run for my money."
James chuckled. "You've got it bad, son."
"I know," Harry admitted, "but she's it, Dad. I'll never want anyone else. I'm going to marry this girl someday." Harry looked down at Ginny's sleeping form and placed another kiss on her head.
"Is it wrong, that we've only really known each other for a couple of months and I know I want to spend the rest of my life with her?" Harry asked softly.
"No, son, it's not wrong. I knew the moment I saw your mother that I was going to marry her one day." James replied.
"I think you are going to be very good for each other, Harry." Lily said.
Harry smiled at his mother. "Thanks, Mum."
"Okay, now, it's very late and you have an early start tomorrow so I think you should get to bed. Watch out for Ginny tomorrow dear, it's going to be hard for her to go back to the chamber." Lily instructed.
"I know. I wanted her to stay here but I understand why she feels the need to see the place again." Harry said.
"Harry?" said Salazar from his portrait.
Harry looked up at his uncle. "When you open the entrance, say 'stairs' in Parseltongue and make sure you close the entrance behind you so nobody can follow you." Salazar said.
"Why didn't I think of that last time?" Harry asked himself.
"I have no idea; I mean honestly, it's well known that I made the chamber, who in their right mind would think that I would use that dirty pipe to enter it?" Salazar asked, frustrated that people would think he really was that stupid.
Harry chuckled. "I don't know, Uncle Sal, but I'll be sure to use the stairs tomorrow."
"How are you going to harvest that snake tomorrow?" asked James.
"I'm going to ask the house elves from home to help. They'll be able to do it with their magic quickly with no risk of anyone getting hurt. I'm going to talk to Uncle Sev about getting Sirius and Remus there as well. Remus would know the right people to talk to about selling what we harvest and don't want. And you know Sirius; he doesn't like to be left out. He'd never forgive me if I didn't get him, plus he might know someone who can make coats for us out of the skin." Harry replied.
"You could ask the elves to do that." Lily said. "They are fantastic at tailoring plus they would do it for a lot less than if you asked someone else to do it."
"You know, I never thought about asking the elves if they could do it." Harry said. "I'll speak to Tilly about it tomorrow. You're right, we should get to bed."
Harry shifted slightly so that he could pick Ginny up without disturbing her. Standing up he walked over to Ginny's bed and pulled the covers back. He placed her carefully in the bed and covered her up, tucking the sheets around her and under her chin. He then went back and collected Sal from the arm of the chair and placed him on Ginny's pillow. He leaned over and kissed her cheek whispering, "Night, my Slytherin Angel." before making his way to the bathroom to change for bed.
The next morning after breakfast, Harry, Ginny, and Rama made their way to Snape's office. After they had exchanged greetings, Harry mentioned about bringing in Sirius and Remus and about having the house elves help with harvesting the carcass to which Severus agreed was a good idea.
Harry also told Severus that he had contacted the goblins that morning and had received a reply saying that when they were ready, to send Pura to get Griphook, who was Harry's account manager. Griphook would take a look at the meat and give them a price for it. Using goblin magic he would also be able to take the meat away with him if they agreed on a price. The money from the sale would automatically be put into his account.
Once finished with their conversation, the three of them, along with Rama, made their way to the chamber's entrance that was hidden behind a set of sinks in the second-floor girls' bathroom.
When they entered the bathroom, a ghost of a girl named Myrtle, more commonly known as Moaning Myrtle, was floating in front of one of the stalls watching the two teens, professor ,and wolf with suspicion.
Harry walked over to a sink that had an engraving of a snake on the tap. "Open," he commanded in Parseltongue.
When the entrance was opened, it revealed the long, dark pipe that lead to the chamber. Harry commanded, "Stairs," in Parseltongue again. When the stairs appeared, the group proceeded down them, lighting their wands with Harry making sure to close the entrance as they went.
At the bottom of the stairs and far under the school, they found maze-like tunnels. Harry lead the way to the chamber going on nothing but his memory from four years ago. When they at last encountered the wall with stone snakes on it, Harry once more commanded in Parseltongue, "Open", reveling the Chamber of Secrets.
The chamber was flanked with towering pillars entwined with carved wood, and a tall statue of Salazar Slytherin at the far end. The carcass of the basilisk was sprawled across the floor to one side of the chamber.
As they entered the chamber, Rama went off exploring straight away. Ginny, who had been silent the whole journey and staying close to Harry, took hold of Harry's hand in a death grip. Harry looked down at the girl who was pale but wore a determined expression and squeezed her hand gently, reassuring her that he was there and he wouldn't let anything happen to her.
Ginny looked up at him and smiled a little, she relaxed her grip but didn't let go of his hand. Harry bent his head and kissed her cheek. Entwining their fingers, he gently squeezed her hand once more before they continued into the chamber. Severus led the way towards the giant snake's corpse.
"I forgot how big that thing was." Harry said. "Okay, I think we should get the others here before we do anything."
At his companions' nods of approval, Harry called for Tilly who appeared in front of him with a 'pop'. "Master Harry, it's good to be seeing you. What can Tilly be doing for you, Sir?" asked the elf.
"Tilly, could you let Sirius and Remus know I will be sending Pura over to collect them? If Dora is home tell her she can come too. Then could you ask all the elves at Potter Manor to come here, please? We would like you to harvest that snake." Harry finished pointing to the basilisk.
Tilly looked towards where Harry was pointing. When she got her first look at the sixty-foot monster, she let out a startled squeak. "Master Harry, Sir, what is be happening down here? Are you hurt? Is everybody being okay? Mistress Ginny, are you being okay? Is you hurt anywhere. Let me be having a look at you." Tilly fussed.
"Tilly, calm down. The snake has been dead for some years now; it is the snake that I killed when I was twelve. Nobody is hurt. We came down here to harvest the carcass and we would like your and the other elves help." Harry said trying to calm the panicked elf.
"Master Harry, are you sure nobody be being hurt?" Tilly asked.
"I'm sure, Tilly. Honestly, everybody is fine. Now, do you think you could let Sirius and Remus know and get the other elves?" Harry asked.
"Of course, Master Harry, Tilly be doing it right now." Tilly said before she left with a 'pop'.
"Little bit excitable that elf of yours." Severus commented.
"She does tend to get herself worked up but only because she cares." Harry agreed.
"I think it's really sweet how worried she got about us." said Ginny.
Harry smiled at her and gave her hand a squeeze while Severus rolled his eyes at her comment. Harry then whistled holding out his arm for Pura as she flashed in and landed on it.
"Pura, could you get Sirius and Remus please? Dora can come if she wants to as well." Harry asked the phoenix.
Pura bobbed her head and flamed away. While they were waiting for the others to arrive, the three of them started to wander around the chamber.
"You know, this would be a great place to practice spells if it was cleaner." Ginny said.
"You know you're right, Gin. This would be the perfect place for us to practice." replied Harry. "How are you getting on with your Occlumency?"
"I'm doing okay. Sal can't get a reading on me anymore, but Aurea said that the headmaster and Uncle Sev would still be able to break through my shields without too much trouble. I work on it most nights before I go to sleep." Ginny replied.
"Is that seriously going to be how you refer to me now?" Severus asked after hearing Ginny calling him 'Uncle Sev' again.
"Don't you like it?" Ginny asked a bit worried that maybe she had upset the man.
"I don't know really, I suppose I'm just used to being referred to as Severus or Snape." Severus replied.
"Well, your family now." stated Harry. "If you would prefer we could call you Uncle Severus or Uncle Snape?"
"No, Uncle Sev is fine when we are alone. But for the love of Merlin do not call me that in class!" Severus said.
The teens laughed at that but readily agreed to call him professor in class.
There was a flash of flame and Pura with Sirius, Remus, and Dora appeared.
"Harry!" Sirius yelled. "Would you care to explain why I just got a tongue lashing from an irate house-elf?"
"What?" Harry asked clearly perplexed.
"Tilly just popped into the kitchen and started having a fit at me for sending my daughter and godson to a school with monsters where they could get hurt. She called me irresponsible and a bad parent for putting my children in danger." Sirius told them still upset over being called a bad parent.
"Ah, well, she may have freaked out a bit when I pointed out the snake that I wanted her and the other house-elves to harvest." Harry said pointing to the snake.
"Merlin!" yelped Sirius when he spotted the basilisk. "Why are we in a chamber with a bloody great dead snake in the first place?"
"This, Sirius, is the Chamber of Secrets, and that," Harry said nodding towards the basilisk, "is the basilisk I killed while rescuing Ginny."
"But why are we here?" asked Dora.
"Because Uncle Sev brought up a good point last night; as I killed it, the carcass belongs to me so we are going to have the house-elves harvest it and what we don't want we are going to sell." Harry declared.
"Uncle Sev?" asked Dora, trying hard not to laugh at the name.
"It's a long story." replied Harry
"What do you want to keep and what do you want to sell, Harry?" asked Remus.
"Well, I want to keep the skin; I was going to ask if you or Sirius knew anyone that could use it to make us coats, but Mum said to ask the elves to do it. The meat I thought we could keep some but sell the majority of it to the goblins, Griphook will be here later to give us a price for it. If we accept the price he will take it away with him. The venom we'll keep half and sell half. The skeleton we'll sell and the fangs we'll keep two and sell the other four." Harry listed.
"It has six fangs?" Dora asked in disbelief to which Harry nodded in reply.
"Okay, so what do you want us to do?" asked Sirius.
"Well I was hoping you or Uncle Remus would know who we could sell the things we don't want to and take what we're keeping back to the manor." Harry replied.
"I think I might know who we can sell the skeleton to, I'll have to look into where to sell the fangs and venom." Remus replied.
"I think I might know who we can sell the venom to, I'll contact him later tonight." Severus said.
"I know someone who will definitely take the fangs." said Sirius.
"That's good, we have an idea who we can sell each item to." said Harry. "So, I was thinking, whatever we get for the meat, we'll give two percent to each of the house-elves for helping to harvest the carcass as payment for making the coats, what's left will be split between Ginny and me. Whatever we get for the rest of the stuff we'll split equally between the six of us here."
"Why would you split the money from the meat with me?" asked Ginny.
"Think of it as compensation for your first year." said Harry pulling her into a hug and kissing the top of her head.
"But..."
"No buts, Ginny, that's what we're going to do." Harry declared.
"Okay." Ginny said. Honestly he was the most stubborn person she knew. When he decided on something there was no changing his mind.
"That's my girl." Harry said with a grin.
Ginny rolled her eyes, going on tiptoes to give him a peck on the lips.
"Hey! When did this happen?" exclaimed Dora at the display of affection.
Ginny blushed as Harry pulled her into his side and put his arm around shoulder with a smile that went from ear to ear.
"Last night." Harry declared.
"Okay, gentlemen, us girls will leave you to talk snake while I go have a girl talk with my sister." Dora announced walking over to Ginny, grabbing her hand, and pulling her to a corner of the chamber out of hearing range of the men, but still where they could be seen.
Harry shook his head at Dora's antics and turned back to the others. Severus was walking around the snake, Remus was smiling at him knowingly, and Sirius had a blank expression that surprised Harry. He thought Sirius would be happy for him.
"Sirius?" he asked.
"That's my daughter, Harry. If you hurt her in any way, if you treat her with anything less than the total respect she deserves, I don't care how powerful you are, I will knock your block off. Do you hear me?" Sirius said coldly.
Harry looked at Sirius in shock and feeling a little hurt. How could he think he would do anything to hurt Ginny or treat her with anything but respect?
"I don't understand, I thought you'd be happy for us? You know how much I like and care for her. I mean Merlin; you spent four years listening to me go on about wanting to find her! And you should know that I would never do anything to hurt her! And tell me, when have I ever treated those I care about with any disrespect?" he finished getting a little angry at the thought that Sirius would think so little of him.
Sirius dropped his cold look and grinned at his godson. "I'm happy for you, Harry, but I'm her father now. It's my job to threaten you as her boyfriend about treating her right."
"Good Godric, Sirius, don't do that to me! I felt sick at the thought you didn't trust me with her." Harry said relaxing a little.
"I wouldn't trust anyone but you with her, Harry." Sirius replied.
"Congratulations, cub, I know how much you wanted this." Remus said.
"Thanks, Uncle Remus." Harry replied.
Just then, six house elves turned up with Tilly, the leader of the group, marched up to the three men.
"Master Harry, Sir, we's be coming to help you with that monster. Me, Bobby, Libby, Archie, and Alfie will bes doing the harvesting. Toby will bes going around the school and making sure there is being no more monsters that could hurt Master or Mistress." she said, glaring at Sirius like he had put the snake in the school himself.
"Thank you, Tilly, if you feel that would be best, that's fine." said Harry.
Tilly nodded and walked away looking over her shoulder to give a final glare to Sirius.
"You know, she reminds me of your mum, Harry, with how protective of you she is." said Remus as he laughed at Sirius for being stared down by a house-elf.
"You wouldn't think something so small could be so scary." Sirius said.
For the rest of the morning, the house-elves harvested the basilisk; the men conjured boxes and packed what had been harvested, while the girls continued to talk about Merlin knows what. Toby had come back and spent almost half an hour assuring Tilly there were no further monsters in the castle.
When all that was left of the snake was the skeleton and everything had been boxed up, Harry sent Pura to get Griphook. The group had decided that they would only keep two-hundred kilos of the meat, leaving around six-thousand three-hundred kilos to sell to the goblins.
While Pura was getting Griphook, Sirius, Remus, and Severus had left with the house-elves to contact the people they thought would be interested in the different parts of the snake they wanted to sell. Ginny and Dora were still off talking, and Rama was having a field day running around the chamber.
Griphook appeared with Pura and after greetings were exchanged, he followed Harry over to the trunks holding the meat.
"I must tell you that Ragnok has told me that if I'm happy with the meat, then I'm to offer you seven-hundred and twenty gallons per kilo or seven-hundred and twenty-thousand gallons per ton." Griphook said.
"We have six point three tons of meat for sale." Harry said.
Griphook took a good look at the meat as well as tasting it.
"This is very good meat, Mr. Potter." he said.
"I'm glad it is to your liking, Griphook." Harry replied.
"Indeed, I would be happy to purchase the meat on behalf of the goblins. So for all of it, I will give you four-million-five-hundred and thirty-six galleons. Would you like the money to be transferred to your account, Mr. Potter?" Griphook asked.
"Actually, Griphook, could you put two percent of that amount into each of the Potter house-elves' vaults please and then evenly split what is left into Miss Ginevra Black's and my vaults please?" Harry asked.
"Of course, Mr. Potter, that will be done for you as soon as I get back to Gringotts." the goblin replied.
"Thank you, Griphook. Please send my regards to Ragnok." Harry said.
By the later part of the evening they had managed to sell everything they wanted to and the group of six had earned themselves the tidy sum of over two point five million each. This didn't include the money Harry and Ginny had received for the meat.
The house-elves had agreed to make the coats Harry had asked them about and told him they should be ready by Christmas. They had also agreed to clean the chamber up a little so that it could be used as somewhere for the two teens to practice spells. They would be starting the clean up the next morning.
It had been a very productive day and the chamber was now empty of any signs of the basilisk. Anything that Harry was keeping had been sent back to Potter Manor and was being stored in the potions lab there until Severus was able to sort it out.
So it was a cheerful group that left the chamber by different means returning to their homes, office, or dorm.
When back in their room, Rama went and lay on the rug while Harry went to have a bath. Ginny, noticing that Hedwig had returned from her visit to the Flamel's, went to close the window.
After closing the window, Ginny made her way over to her bed where she noticed a letter addressed to her lying near her pillow. An owl had obviously dropped it off while they had been in the chamber. Picking up Sal, she climbed onto her bed and reached for the letter. As soon as she got a good look at the hand writing her name was written in, she knew who the letter was from.
Not knowing what to expect, she took a deep breath and opened it. All she knew was that this letter couldn't be anything good.
Dear Ginny,
Your mother, all your brothers and I stayed with the headmaster for quite some time after our meeting yesterday. A lot of things were discussed, especially the events that have transpired over the years concerning yourself. We spent many hours discussing the things that you had told us. I must say, I was shocked at what I learned from you about the things that had happened, and I will admit that I regret a lot of my actions as does your mother. We spoke at length about what we should do now that we have the facts. I understand that things could have been a lot different if we had acted differently after your first year and taken the time to ask you what had really gone on regarding the diary and the chamber. We should have also asked you what had really happened last year instead of acting upon information that was not accurate.
After speaking with the rest of the family and the headmaster we have all agreed that we were wrong and treated you very badly, which I apologize for.
Your mother and I have decided that we will invite you back into the family and you can come home for Christmas. We have a lot to talk about, changing your name back for one.
After speaking about the problems you have been having at school since you started there, the headmaster informed us of your current living arrangements. I will admit your mother was very vocal about her objections to that arrangement. However, the headmaster assured us that it was purely for your own protection and you stay in separate beds. He explained about your things being burned on the first night back at school.
The other thing we discussed with the headmaster was what would be best for you considering the problems you've had at school. The headmaster has informed us that it is very possible that the Malfoy boy will be returning to the school after Christmas.
Because of this, and the problems you have had in the past with the boy, he advised that the best thing for us to do would be to withdraw you from the school and transfer you to Beauxbatons in France, where you will be safe.
The headmaster has kindly offered to talk to the headmistress of the school on our behalf, but he sees no reason why there would be any problems.
So after the Christmas holidays, you will be leaving via portkey to attend your new school.
I hope that you are well and that you are as happy as we are, knowing you will be becoming a part of our family again.
Kindest Regards,
Your Father.