A/n: Sorry for late update. Don't have stable interenet connection right now so please don't mind the spelling errors.
It led to a fucking deadend.
That had to be one of the most underwhelming things that Harry had ever found/saw and to say that he was pissed was an understatement.
First, there was no fucking Room of Requirement and now that there was a statue with nothing hidden inside or which didn't lead to anywhere.
The only other option he could think of was that maybe the some secret hatch somewhere that would surely reveal interesting, and though he had the time to cast a detection spell, he had other things to- oh fuck it!
He immediately casted a Detection spell after cancelling Lumos. He watched with bated breath as the spell enveloped the cavern like room.
It stayed the same boring grey colour and Harry felt a moment's disappointment before his eyes zeroed on a sliver of blue peeking out of a very tiny hole in the wall to his left.
He wasted no time in moving closer, pointing his Wand directly at the hole, he began channeling his Magic inside, hoping that it opened similar to that of the Kelpie statue.
And within seconds, he immediately noticed a change. The once barren enclove slowly but surely began transforming right in front of Harry's eyes.
Where there was once only dirt was now being occupied by green. Green began growing everywhere. Grass, shrubs, flowers, everything. It was getting a bit overwhelming for Harry who could only look on in awe as trees sprouted up as tall as the eye could see and as soon as he blinked, there was now a lake in the cavern and it seemed to have enlarged.
From there, it didn't take long before it seemed as if the sudden growth was finished. There were birds flying overhead and if Harry didn't know any better, he would think that he was somewhere else.
'Was this the true power of Magic?' he couldn't help thinking as he eyed the lake which was now occupied with fishes and Circe knew what else.
And as he observed his surroundings, his eyes landed on two trees supporting a hammock and already growing curious since the room started changing, he began to approach the trees when out of nowhere, he heard laughter behind him.
Just as he was about to turn and see who it was, he saw a figure rush past him out of the corner of his eyes and his eyes widened at her beauty.
She was one of the most stunning persons he had ever seen. She was dressed in clothing Harry had never seen before, but it looked outdated.
That still didn't take away from her beauty.
And just as he was about to call out to her, another figure brushed past him and his frowned thoughtfully.
He knew him… Atleast he thought he did. The man cut a rather improsing figure and if Harry had met him before he would surely remember him but he could swear that he looked familiar.
"You should be careful or you'll scare away the animals, dear!" He called out, smiling warmly at the woman who continued giggling.
The woman then waved him off. "Oh, you worry too much, Sal! Come, let's relax while Ro and Ric continue with their designs. We haven't had time to ourselves for a while so we should take advantage." She then potinedly sat down on the hammock, looking right at the man.
And Harry frowned at the fact that they were both ignoring him and after clearing his throat twice, he scowled and marched up to the man. "Hey! Have some manne- ahh!" He fell forward when he went to push the man only for his hand yo go through him.
"Oof!" He grunted then carefully got up, intending to brush the crushed grass off his sweater when he realised that the grass remained untouched. "Huh?"
His eyebrows knitted into a grown and just to see what would happen, he go up and walked towards a butterfly which had landed on a leaf. Stretching his hand out, he tried to touch the butterfly only for his hand to go through it.
"What the hell?!" his head shot up and turned to look at the man and the woman who were both now seated on the hammock, softly. talking to each other. "Where the heck am I?" he couldn't help but mutter as he brushed his hands off.
If he couldn't touch anything then why were his hands coated with sand?
He sighed and approached the man and the woman who seemed to be quite familiar with each other.
They must be lovers or something, but Harry couldn't figure out why such a stunning woman would be with someone this… not quite so handsome? 'Ugh. That just made it sound even worse.'
The man wasn't as goodlooking but he shouldnt be so quick to dismiss because it wasn't exactly morally right to judge someone based off of their looks.
But still, he would've never envisioned these two being together.
"-nd I keep telling you that I will be in charge of building the Greenhouses considering that I will be teaching the subject. I assure you that I can provide you with the proper ingredients for your Potions or don't you believe me?" she asked vehemently, narrowing her eyes at the still smiling man.
"Calm down, my dear. I didn't not mean it in an offensive way. I was simply suggesting that you acquire help because it seems to be a lot of work for just one person."
She snorted and rolled her eyes at him, sniffing indignantly. "Well I assure you that I am quite capable of taking full control over the construction of the Greenhouses so I would grateful if you would stop bringing it up." She then stuck her tongue out at him. "Besides, you didn't have anyone help you when you were building your Chamber."
The man coughed and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well that is quite different as I don't intend on having anyone but my Ancestors inside."
The woman just huffed. "Hmm."
Harry looked at them both oddly; he felt like he knew both of them. Not on a personal level or anything but it was weird.
He had never seen the woman before but he felt like he knew her while he believed that he had seen the man before but didn't remember him.
This was getting too damn weird.
"But enough of that," the man began. "What route should we take when dealing with the mundanes? Our kind are quickly being discovered and we haven't even finished the school yet. I fear for the continued survival of our people."
Sighing softly, the woman rested her hand on the man's leg in comfort. "There's nothing we can do but hope that we'd be finished in time. We can't ask anyone else for help and we're already doing all we can to speed along the construction process but we are just four people, Sal. Four people against thousands of Mundanes."
The man, Sal sighed in aggravation but he didn't take it out on the woman. He instead pulled his hand from under hers and wrapped it around her shoulder. "Once again, you are correct, my dear Helga."
The woman, Hel- wait! Wait!
Giggling in reply, she just leaned up and planted a kiss against his cheek. "Of course I am, Salazar. I always am."
Eh?! Salazar?! Helga?!
Harry was gaping like a fish out of water and before he could yell out, it was as if everything disappeared and within seconds, he was back in the barren cavern with no sight of the what he had just seen.
"What the fuck?!"
…
As the statue closed behind him, Harry still couldn't wrap his head around what he had seen and heard.
He had seen Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin.
Now he knew why they seemed familiar to him but what was that talk about Mundanes, was it? About Mundanes causing them to go extinct? If Mundane was another term for Muggles then did that mean that they had known about the existence of Wizards back in that time?
It wasn't that far-fetched considering the Salem Witch Trials.
He couldn't help but sigh and massaged his forehead. When he had gone in search of adventure, he didn't expect to stumble upon a cavern filled with what looked like flashbacks of a time when the Founders were alive.
He wondered what would happen if he went back. Would he see the same Flashback or another one?
Fuck. This was so confusing.
Sighing once more, he decided to put the events on the back burner until he had enough time to properly analyse it.
So it was with a clear mind that he decided on going back to the Library. This time, he would run up to his room for the Invisibility Cloak before trying for the Restricted section.
But then again…
He stood walking, a frown appearing on his forehead.
"Maybe I should go see Riddle instead," he muttered lowly.
He was a bit indecisive about going to see the man, but after experiencing what he did in that cavern, he wasn't sure that trying to do some research would be of any help to him.
So with that thought in mind, he decided to do the lesser of two evils for the sake of his mind and go to see Tom instead.
It was about time that he had answers and if his explanation wasn't understandable then Harry wanted nothing to do with Tom, much less Barty Crouch Jr who the man was courting.
Steeling his resolve, he turned around and began heading in the direction Tom's office was using the Point Me spell.
He deserved answers even though he no longer needed Tom's help. The man was still his uncle and above all else, he should've been the one to have custody of Harry.
And no matter what the man tried to say, Harry would never believe that someone as powerful, smart and manipulative as Tom Riddle would ever allow Dumbledore to best him.
Because unlike the Voldemort in his world, this version retained every ounce of humanity and is able to use his skill and power to rise above others without fear or outrage.
For Circe's sake, the man was Deputy Headmaster for crying out loud. If that didn't drive home how resilient and intelligent the man was then Harry didn't know what.
So not wasting anymore time, he quickened his pace because not knowing Tom's reasons for leaving him with the Dursleys would continue to eat away at him and he was in no position to let his guard now.
He had to be on alert 24/7 because he could trust no one but himself yet.
And this time around, he wasn't planning on having any close friends like Ron and Hermione had been to him. They had been too close and because of that, they had tried ruling his life.
Not to mention, Harry couldn't even bask in the fact that he had money so that he could buy whatever he wanted without Ron getting jealous.
Last time Harry checked, he wasn't the one responsible for having that many kids knowing that he wouldn't have the money to properly support them all.
Sure, money wasn't everything and Harry would give everything to experience familial love like that of the Weasleys' but by the end of the day, he wasn't the reason for them being in the position that they were.
Ron could bugger off for all he cares because there was such a thing as working hard to become successful and who worked harder than Harry just to be able to get a chance to live?
Hermione on the other hand depended too much on authority figures and yeah, Harry would give props to her that she was smart, but by the end of the day, books couldn't make up for first hand experience.
Harry hated that she had shoved her intelligence down his throat and embarrassed him at times because he wasn't able to reach the same conclusion as her in a matter of seconds.
Hell, even Ron couldn't stand her in the beginning and if it wasn't for the fact that they had stuck together for all these years with Harry being the mitigator, he doubted that they would've even been friends.
Ron was lazy and easily jealous while Hermione was pushy and rather aggressive at times.
Yeah… Harry didn't fancy going through all that again.
He couldn't even keep his secrets to himself without them bugging him about it and not to mention, Mrs. Wesley allowing Ginny her fantasy of being Mrs. Potter.
That was just plain weird and creepy.
It sure as hell didn't help that he became friends with Ron. It just served to fuel Ginny's fantasy even more.
And as her brother, Ron should've gone mental at the thought of his best friend being with his little sister but nothing. It was like it was expected of Harry to be with Ginny, so you could imagine their surprise when he came out as Bisexual and even dropped a few hints about already being in a relationship with a guy.
And looking back, he was just relieved that he had told no one about him being with Blaise or he would've probably went on a killing spree if any of them had dared to place a finger on his Beloved.
He was acting positively mad but that's what happens when you're in love. You would do anything to make certain that no one and nothing can ever harm your loved ones.
Harry could say that he knew about that firsthand as he had killed Voldemort to protect his loved ones.
That backfired but it was neither here nor there.
But still, once he found out just who this Dark Lord was, he was just going to sit back and relax without interfering.
He had already vanquished one Dark Lord too many in his opinion and he didn't need to add another one to the list.
So it was with great conviction that he decided to keep out of it regardless of the mayhem and destruction. The Aurors should do their damn work instead of relying on a child.
But even so, if the Dark Lord ever made the mistake of attacking him or his, he would not show any mercy.
All he wanted to do was to lead a semi-boring life but he shouldn't count on that.
He was Harry Potter after all.