Chapter 21

Waiting in Myrtle's bathroom Ginny seemed incredibly nervous yet fiercely determined to confront the memories of her first year and to overcome her fear. Hermione appeared torn between academic curiosity and apprehension to enter a hostile environment. After all, the chamber was known to have been built as a tool to kill off muggleborns such as her, in order to remove them from Hogwarts. Neville looked nervous as well but a calm loyalty and trust towards Harry shone in his eyes. Harry smiled gratefully at his friends.

Then the door swung open and Greengrass and Zabini swept in. It seemed they had dressed up for the occasion. Greengrass had even swept up her mousy hair in an orderly nest of curls and tendrils on the top of her head. Their eyes shone with excitement. Harry smiled at the new additions to their group and after a round of greetings Harry approached the sink with the snake carving.

"Open," he hissed and the sink shifted to reveal the entrance to the chamber. Due to the frequent use it moved almost soundlessly by now, only a hint of grinding stones could be heard. Harry went first, in order to prove to the others that the place was indeed safe.

"Come on down!" he called, when he had landed in the entrance hall of the chamber. Neville arrived next.

"This is amazing," he exclaimed awed, "Who would have thought that this was hidden under the school!"

Ginny and Zabini slid down next, landing in a tangled heap on the floor.

"Omph," Ginny rubbed her knee, while Zabini subtly massaged his stomach, where Ginny had apparently hit him with her elbow. Then he swiftly pulled himself up and extended his hand to Ginny. Ginny looked around uneasily. She seemed tense, as if she expected an attack any moment now. Greengrass landed with a thud on the polished floor. Neville rushed to help her up. With a smile she took his hand.

"Thanks,"

Then finally Hermione came down as well. She barely noticed that she had landed rather undignified on her bottom, as she curiously looked around to take in her surroundings.

"Welcome to the Chamber of Secrets," Harry said as he helped her up, "So ready for a tour?" Ginny had yet to release Zabini's hand and moved to anxiously clutch his whole arm rather tightly.

"Sure, show us around." Ginny's too loud voice echoed in the large entrance hall. Hermione had gone to examine a part of the dark green carvings on the walls.

"How intriguing!" she exclaimed. "I imagine this has been lost for some time now." Zabini looked at the runes and guided Ginny over to have a look at what had Hermione so excited. As of yet Harry had not given the carvings any further attention, as to him they were but tasteful, very magical decorations. He could not interpret them anyway, since he had not taken ancient runes. Instead he had taken what he had considered the easiest subject at the time and had ended up with that fraud Trelawney. Instead of learning anything useful or even anything at all, he had gotten a course that was a waste of time and of no use to him at all."What is it?" Harry asked. "It tells the story of the pre Merlin magical community, when other magical beings still inhabited our world along side humans. I'll need some time to translate this!" Hermione smiled broadly and Zabini's eyes glowed.

"This find alone will put you into a position of power among our world!" he smirked at Harry. Hermione was frantically rummaging through her robes, obviously looking for parchment.

"You can come back later on. This is only the entrance hall, remember?" Harry cut in before she had immersed herself too deeply into her studies. With one last regretful look Hermione followed Harry to the snake carving leading to the main chamber.

"I thought we could do our training here!" Harry said, as they stopped in the middle of the main chamber.

"This is most impressive, Potter," drawled Zabini, whose eyes were glued to the ceiling, while Hermione's eyes swept over the long walls adorned with yet more runes.

"Thank you, Harry," Ginny said quietly as she took in the silvery glow of the walls, "This is really a different place from my first year!" Harry nodded.

"I don't think Voldemort was aware that the main treasure of the chamber was not the basilik. Only after I had Dobby clean and renew the place did I become aware of its beauty. The carvings have not even been visible before. I wonder, whether Voldemort can even appreciate beauty."

"Judging from his own appearance I doubt it." Ginny snorted.

"Anyway, let's get started. I want you to pair up. One of you is to hit the other with tickling charms and stinging hexes. Cast them as quickly as you can. The only defence is to dodge. Once you are hit you switch roles immediately. Being hit wont harm you, but keep in mind that you might as well be dodging an Unforgivable."

"This is insane!" Zabini muttered and Greengrass seemed to agree with him, Hermione's gaze kept longingly glued to the walls, while Neville and Ginny looked quite eager to get started.

"Allow me to help you ease some of your pent up frustration at having to get physical," Harry smirked at Zabini, as he stepped away from the group, "you get a free shot at hexing me; only stinging hexes and tickling charms, of course." Zabini smirked and began to throw stinging hexes in earnest.

Harry had learnt at an early age how to dodge. Avoiding Dudley's kicks and punches had trained his reflexes to an unusually high level. As Zabini kept firing hexes, Harry put his past experiences to good use, he ducked, moved to the side, jumped and rolled on the ground. A lot of Zabini's spells even went astray. Harry was still quite small for his age and he took great care to present as small a target as possible. His wiry frame was quite easy to miss.

It had been some time since he had had any physical exercise. He had not done anything remotely physical since the summer and it showed as after three minutes he felt small beads of sweat on his forehead. His concentration wavered and another minute later he was hit.

Greengrass looked thoughtfully at him.

"It should be impossible for a human being to move that fast."

"That is a direct result of practise, although I haven't done this in a long time." Harry shook his head, "It is why we are doing this." Hermione frowned.

"I don't think even a well trained muggle could react as quickly as you did. Your movements seemed to be magically enhanced."

"You think?" Harry blinked and thought back to his pre Hogwarts encounters with Dudley and his gang. Quite often it had been five against one and yet more often than not he had come out remarkably unscratched. While incredibly dumb, Dudley alone was physically stronger so he should have been able to over power Harry with his weight alone. Then there was this one time when he had been cornered and he could no longer dodge, he had found himself on the roof of the school.

"You might be in on something there," Harry said slowly and told them how he had been chased around by his fat muggle cousin and his gang. Contempt for his cousin and a hint of the desperation he had felt at the time shone in his eyes. Greengrass stared grimly at him, Ginny was growling lowly under her breath; her hair seemed to be actually crackling.

"How you have not become a follower of the Dark Lord is completely beyond me," Zabini shook his head,

"But I'm glad," he added.

"And nobody has come up and helped you – ever?" Hermione sounded outraged, but not at all disbelieving, which somehow confirmed Harry's suspicions that her life before Hogwarts had been difficult as well.

Had he really always been so self absorbed that never, in all those years of friendship, had at least once asked her about her life before Hogwarts, how her environment had reacted to her bouts of accidental magic? He had been wallowing in self pity and thinking that none of his friends could possibly understand what he had been through. What a prat he had been.

Neville just looked at Harry in sympathy. Understanding shone in his eyes as well. Of course, Neville would know what it felt like to be belittled, ridiculed by those stronger than himself. Once again Harry was hit quite forcefully with the fact that he was not alone. He had loyal friends at his side. He could rely on his friends and they could and would rely on him.

While Harry was lost in his own thoughts, Hermione's expression had switched from compassion to academic interest.

"You needed to develop your reflexes and flexibility out of necessity. Those must have been extremely emotionally charged moments in your childhood. Strong emotions are the usual cause of accidental magic. Maybe you automatically channel your magic into those movements by now, even when the situation is not that desperate."

"So dodging like this will drain me magically as well?" Harry frowned disappointedly. Greengrass shook her head.

"Actually I don't think so. As it is an unconscious use of magic on your part, I doubt that you spend a lot of magic on this. Your body is probably used to this."

"The magic only enhances your natural abilities. It should not require a lot of magic." Hermione added, "although the more physically fit you are the less magic would be required and the longer you can go on."

"Besides it would still be useful, even if it would drain you magically." Neville said.

"As it seems to trigger your magic to flow freely through your body, it might indeed increase your magical abilities," Zabini said thoughtfully.

"So will you give it a try?" Harry asked the others, "This is also a good practise for the caster to improve their aim and the speed of their spell casting.

The others nodded and they paired up, Zabini with Ginny and Neville with Greengrass, which left Harry with Hermione.

"You cast first," Hermione offered and they began. Already Harry's third spell hit home and Hermione was giggling uncontrollably from the tickling charm.

They switched and it was Hermione's turn to cast. Her aim was quite good but she cast at a slower pace than Zabini had and Harry was able to avoid being hexed for seven minutes. Beads of sweat were running down his forehead, as he restarted throwing hexes at Hermione, who was caught unaware and only crouched down in the last moment, almost getting hexed. She was still hesitant to move a lot. It was that hesitation that caused her to be hit a minute later. Frustrated she immediately turned the tables on Harry, casting voicelessly now, which enabled her to cast spell after spell in quick succession, no longer needing to pronounce each syllable of the respective spell carefully. After only five minutes Harry was hit by a powerful stinging hex. From his still crouching position Harry cast the first spell, which only barely missed Hermione. Harry jumped up and switched to casting voicelessly as well. Hermione was gasping, as she ducked, leapt to the side, crouched low and rolled. However, this time she lasted almost three minutes.

"Ok, lets stop for now. Lets have a look at how the others are doing," Harry suggested, still breathless.
Zabini and Ginny and Greengrass and Neville were conducting themselves in a much tamer manner than Harry and Hermione had. Zabini moved stiffly and seemed reluctant to actually aim at Ginny, while both Neville and Greengrass appeared too calm spirited in nature to properly hex each other.

"I think we should switch partners for a bit. Hermione why don't you pair up with Zabini. Neville, care to pair up with me?" Harry called. Hermione had already walked up to Zabini and Neville came over to Harry, which left Ginny with Greengrass.

Zabini allowed Hermione to cast first, so she could catch her breath. Hermione began casting voicelessly at once, again without holding back, the way she had done with Harry before. Zabini barely succeeded to avoid the second hex by leaping to the side and by the fourth he was hit. He scowled. Obviously, it did not sit well with him to be bested by a muggleborn and a female at that. As he smoothly turned the tables on Hermione, spell after spell flew out of his wand, as Hermione successfully avoided being hit, till she hesitated a moment too long, attempting to catch her breath after five minutes of constant movement. Her face was red, her hair a tangled mess and her breath was coming in short pants. That did not prevent her from immediately turning the tables on Zabini however. Zabini looked fiercely determined to prove that he could do as well as Hermione and quite obviously pushed himself to his limits. He lasted three minutes, at the end of which he was panting. However, he did not seem discouraged by his meagre success, but even more determined to get the hang of it.

"Ok, now that we have warmed up a little, let's try to hit each other with stinging hexes, no shield charms," Harry said. Like this they had to combine dodging and casting, which seemed a good exercise for endurance as well as aim. After twenty minutes all of them were out of breath and it became exceedingly harder to concentrate.

"Let's have a break and discuss what spells we want to learn," Harry suggested. The others nodded.

"Let us retreat to Slytherin's study," he suggested and the others gaped at him, as Harry moved in front of the snake carving.

"Open," he hissed. The others gaped at the doorway that had revealed itself to them.
Finally they were all seated around the black marble coffee table.

"Dobby," Harry called and a moment later Dobby popped in.

"Harry Potter," Dobby beamed brightly.

"Dobby, Get us some refreshments, please?" Harry asked.

"Right away, Harry Potter, right away," the elf squealed and popped away.

"So lets first sketch out a training plan. Any ideas?" Harry asked, when Dobby came back with large plates of sandwiches and pastries, a huge bowl of pumpkin juice and dishes floating around him.

"This is Slytherin's study? I've never heard rumours that a study was located inside the chamber," Greengrass said curiously. "Well, it has not been easy to find. Only after Dobby had renewed the main chamber did the carvings become visible.

"Oh Dobby, you've done a marvellous job," exclaimed Hermione and Dobby swelled with pride.

"Yeah, he did," Harry agreed, "Lets not get sidetracked though. Last year we

repeated the basic defence spells in the DA and then moved on to the Patronus Charm," he explained for Zabini and Greengrass, "Would you like to do some of that?" Can you cast a Patronus? I guess, some practise would do all of us good."

"We've never tried," the two Slytherins said cautiously.

"So we'll definitely work on our Patronuses," Harry nodded. "Ok what else?"

"Shield charms," suggested Greengrass.

"Offensive jinxes," added Ginny.

"Definitely, although the battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort got me thinking. They were employing transfiguration in battle. We all are still young and don't have a lot of magic at our disposal, yet. I think, we should explore creative uses of less powerful spells." Harry said.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"Using Mum's pruning charms in battle might get interesting results," Ginny said, "She uses them to sculpture the garden hedges. A lot of her everyday household charms might be frightfully effective as well." Harry scribbled down everything into his note book.

"Yes things like that!" he said excitedly. Hermione had a greenish tinge to her cheeks.

"Do any of you know any healing charms?" inquired Greengrass with a raised eyebrow.

"Episky," Hermione said.

"Well, that's a start, but wouldn't it be just as important to patch ourselves up as to harm our opponents?"

"Of course," Hermione exclaimed, "I'll look up and sort through useful healing spells to learn."

"You might as well just ask Daphne to teach all of us. She's really good at them." Zabini said, his jaw firmly set, as he stared Hermione down.

"That would be great! How come you know so many healing spells?" Harry asked her intrigued.

"I've always dreamt of becoming a healer," Greengrass said with a tiny smile, "I wouldn't mind doing some research after I've brought you up to par."

"Well, I'm sure healers will be on high demand once Voldemort gains strength," Harry said.

"I don't think this dream is likely to come true," Greengrass said sadly.

"Why?" asked Hermione astonished, "If you get the marks..."

"She'll marry before she can start an apprenticeship and how likely is it her husband's family would agree to have a wife that works as a healer? It's not a profession that holds a lot of power"

"That's... that's..." Hermione stuttered wide eyed.

"... the way it is." Greengrass said sadly.

"Well, I think healers are very valuable," Neville said and blushed. Zabini gave him a long calculating look and Greengrass offered one of her tiny smiles.

"Trust the noble Gyffindors to jump into battle without a proper idea about healing," Zabini shook his head. Harry looked at him. Healing spells would be useful. It seemed the Slytherins were much more pragmatic about this. They foremost wanted to ensure their own survival, which was very sensible, of course. However, it was not the typical heroic Gryffindor concept.

"Well, then it's good that we have some cunning Slytherins on our side that are out to save their own skin," Harry smiled at Zabini and Greengrass.

"That's a good thing?" Hermione mumbled doubtfully, obviously pondering whether or not Zabini and Greengrass would abandon them immediately to save themselves when they got into a tight spot.

"What good would it do, if we don't last long enough to make a difference. Besides, I am quite determined to live myself." Harry retorted. He thought it was very likely for the two Slytherins to switch sides and save their own skin at the last moment, but he figured they would also stay true to their aims and would attempt to undermine Voldemort's forces from within. It was not necessarily the most clever thing or even the right thing to die along side your allies, if your death made no difference at all.

Zabini gave a curt nod and Greengrass clasped her hands.

"So healing charms," she said, "I shall prepare something for our next meeting then."

"That would be great," Harry smiled in response.

"I'd like to introduce you to someone, by the way," Harry stood up and moved in front of the portrait of Slytherin, "May I introduce you to Salazar Slytherin?" Hermione squeaked in fright, her eyes darting wildly to the exit.

"Sir, this is Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass, members of your house. Ginnevra Weasley, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom from Gryffindor." Slytherin's eyes pierced each of them as they were introduced.

"It's an honour," Greengrass curtsied and Zabini bowed low, both of them seemed to work hard to contain their excitement.

"Nice to make your acquaintance," Neville said with a respectfully measured bow. Hermione and Ginny curtsied clumsily. Clearly they had never done so before in their entire life and they did not feel comfortable at all.

"Nice to make your acquaintance," responded Slytherin, his eyes still roaming expressionlessly over his guests, "You have finally brought me the company you promised." This was directed at Harry.

The Gryffindors eyed the supposedly dark Founder suspiciously. Hermione was hugging her arms and had raised her chin defiantly. Her whole posture stood in stark contrast to the Purebloods, who held their arms losely in front of themselves, keeping them visibly wandless and therefore indicating peaceful intentions. Hermione's very stance screamed muggle, while even Ginny had automatically gone along with the traditional pureblood etiquette.

"You must be Mr Potter's muggleborn friend." Slytherin had immediately puzzled it out. Hermione gulped nervously.

"Yes Sir,"

"Mr Potter tells me you're really knowledgeable and a very skilled witch," Slytherin quoted Harry, all the while watching Hermione carefully.

"That's kind of him," Hermione's voice quivered.

"Indeed, well now that all of you are here, you can give me an overview of the most recent developments in our world. Mr. Potter is always so busy."

"It would a pleasure," Greengrass smiled.

"The pleasure is all mine. It's been a while since a have last spoken to a lady," Slytherin answered.

"If you'd excuse me, I'd like to have a closer look at the carvings in the main chamber," Hermione said, obviously too nervous to remain in Slytherin's presence for much longer. Zabini followed her reluctantly.

"I am sure we will find the opportunity to talk later on," Slytherin inclined his head to both of them.
Neville and Ginny stayed with Greengrass to converse with the portrait, or as Harry suspected to eavesdrop on Greengrass and Slytherin.

Harry seated himself on the couch and watched them for a couple of moments. Everything was speeding up so fast. At the moment his most urgent concern seemed a safe house. As long as Narcissa Malfoy was not safely hidden, he could not be sure of her son's loyalty.

Inspiration stuck. This idea had been buzzing at the edges of his mind for quite a while now but it had always slipped away whenever he tried to get a hold of it to examine it further and then he had always been preoccupied with one thing or another.

"Dobby," Harry called for the second time that day. As Dobby popped in Harry cast a privacy charm around them.

"Can you tell me more about house elf magic? Could you for example create a hiding place or several of them?"

"Dobby could!" exclaimed the elf happily and Harry beamed right back at him.

"That would be brilliant. Only I don't have a lot of land to built on as far as I know."

"Dobby knows!" The elf exclaimed, "it matters not. Dobby creates a place inside very little space."

"You can?" Harry was delighted. This might be the answer to a lot of his problems. "I knew house elves have very powerful magic at their disposal but I had no idea you could possibly do that."

"It is but imagination and an order for focus," Dobby looked excited at the prospect of such a demanding task. "House elves have once created Diagon Alley, inside a small space inside a wall."

"You could do that?" Harry was amazed.

"No," Dobby's ears dropped sadly. "It's long ago, house elves could do that. House elves losts strength since then. It has too many details. But Dobby could fit a nice house inside a matchbox."

"Who knows house elves can do that?" Harry asked. He had to seriously restrain himself, so that he would not start jumping up and down. Looking for that house would almost literally be like, looking for a needle in a haystack, especially, if nobody but him and Dobby knew the house actually was located inside a matchbox.

"It is no secret. Wizards don't want powerful house elves. They don't talk about it. We is their house elves." Harry took that to mean that wizards and witches were so busy feeling superior that they were blind to any but wizarding magic.

"How good are wizards at countering house elf magic?"

"It can usually be countered by a couple of powerful wizards. Wizards are not on the lookout for house elf magic.

"It simply slips their notice?" Harry was amazed. He remembered reading only recently that magic always left a trace, which made magically concealing a hiding place so very difficult.

"A good house elf is not to be seen," Dobby quoted and dropped his head, apparently ashamed with himself. Harry could only guess that Dobby had remembered that having a pleasant chat with a wizard was generally considered improper behaviour for a house elf. Wizards went out of their way to ignore the presence of their house elves who served them on a daily basis. So most wizards tended to generally filter out house elf magic.

"Could you keep an ear out, so I can call you during the Yule holidays at the latest?"