Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul
By: Krystal Lily Potter
Chapter Twenty Five: The Secrets Held Within
Rating: T
Summary: Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.
Warning: There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.
Harry, Ron and Hermione walked together through the crowded halls of Hogwarts, ignoring the surprised looks they got from the students as they past. No one said anything to them, but they could hear the whispers as they walked by. Harry was sure that some were talking about the attack on Hogsmead, some where no doubt gossiping about their more rugged and tired appearances, but most seemed to be wondering the same thing that many people in the wizarding world were: where had Harry Potter and his friends vanished to for nearly a year.
The early May sun was shining in brightly through the windows, adding misery to the students because they couldn't go outside. Harry knew that it was still bitter cold out, and the mists that hung around most of Britain would be fast approaching, blocking the happiness from Hogwarts.
Fortunately, the teachers were able to scrounge up enough wards to keep unwanted witches and wizards out, but it did nothing for the muggles who were approaching. When they came near the castle Hagrid would often go outside, and if they weren't frightened by the giant man, then they would be frightened away by one of the creatures he had with him. It was a dangerous move, and risked revealing a lot, but it was better then the muggles breaking into the school, only to find hundreds of witches and wizards.
Harry shook those thoughts out of his head and concentrated on the task at hand. They had a mission to do, a place to get to, and even though the place was a dark and eerie place, Harry would live down there for the rest of his life rather then take one step into the Riddle house ever again.
"And Miss. Granger won the prize in second year for figuring out that the basilisk was moving round in the pipes," he said suddenly. "Allowing us to locate the Chamber and to save everyone."
A light blush appeared on Hermione's face as she swatted his arm before saying, "Honestly, you figured it out."
"With no help from Hagrid," Ron muttered quietly. "Follow the spiders! That was the worst advice ever!"
"You'd rather have it follow the butterflies, right mate?"
"Stuff it Harry."
Hermione rolled her eyes at the boys. It appeared that stepped into Hogwarts, the place where they had what little of a childhood they could remember, had brought out their immaturity. Perhaps, she thought, I'm being too harsh on them. Maybe this is the way that teenagers are actually supposed to act.
They walked through the second floor, where Professor Flitwick's classroom was. Harry noticed for a fleeting second, that a few of the students in the class stared at them as they walked by, but he didn't care.
"Goodness. I just had to see if the rumors were true."
"Hey Nick," Ron said while looking over at the ghost that had appeared. "You look…er…good?"
"I cannot say the same for you my young comrades, you look ghostly," Nick said with a smirk as his head wobbled slightly.
Ron snorted lightly before Harry said, "It's good to see you again Nick, but we really have to get going. We have a lot to do."
"Alright then, but I do hope you stay in the castle for now on Harry Potter," Nearly-Headless Nick said. "You brought hope back to the students when you showed up today." He quickly vanished up through the ceiling.
Harry stared at the spot where Nick had been with surprise. Hermione nudged him and said, "Come on, you can think about what he said later. We have a flute to find."
"Excited to get your hands on the flute Hermione?"
"Ronald!"
Harry laughed at his two friends, and winced slightly when he heard Hermione slap Ron, but not nearly hard enough for Ron to think that she was really angry with him.
Once the hallway was completely empty, aside from the three of them, Harry pushed open the door to the unused girl's bathroom and led the way in. It looked the same as the last time Harry had seen it, just as dark and damp, with an abandoned feel to it.
"It's hard to believe," Hermione said. "That we were twelve when we made that Polyjuice potion in here. That was five years ago!"
"Time flies when you're having fun, and fighting dark lords," Ron joked.
Harry walked towards the sinks, and found the one with the Snake engraved into it. He was about to try and speak parseltongue when a shriek filled the air.
"Ooooh Harry! It's good to see you."
"Hi Myrtle," he said dryly, not bothering to look around at her. He didn't care if he hurt the ghost's feelings right now; he was concentrating on trying to make the snake look life like.
She made an annoyed sound and said, "I've missed you here. Although, it was nasty of you to hurt that nice Draco Malfoy the last time you were here."
"That nice Draco Malfoy let the Death Eaters into the castle," Ron replied. "He's the reason that Dumbledore's dead. What do you think of that, Myrtle?
Myrtle ignored him and focused on Harry again while saying, "I do hope that you'll drop by more often now that you're back. I would enjoy another time like when you were in fourth year."
"What? Fourth year? Don't you mean second?" Harry asked with confusion, turning his attention from the sink to the ghost.
"No, fourth year. Remember, you were in the prefects bathroom and I helped you solve the egg?" Myrtle said with a flirtatious grin.
A mortified look appeared on Harry's face when the memory came back to him. Ron tried to hold back his laughter with little success, and Hermione glared at Myrtle for a moment before giggling.
"Do you have somewhere else to be Myrtle?" Harry asked, ignoring the burning, embarrassed blush on his cheeks as best as he could.
"No," she replied sweetly.
"So you enjoy being around living people, even though you can't eat, or even breathe like that can?"
Myrtle gave him an upset, disgusted look before turning and flying into one of the stalls and a splash told them that she had dived into her U-bend.
"That was horrible Harry," Hermione scolded him. Harry shrugged and moved towards the sinks again. He stared at the snake for a moment before glancing at his friends.
"Go for it," Ron encouraged.
"Open," he whispered.
"English mate," Ron said while shaking his hand.
"Open," Harry said again, and judging from the looks on his friend's faces he definitely did not speak English this time.
Hermione gasped as the sink began to sink into the floor, she had been petrified the last time Harry and Ron made their way down into the chamber of secrets and hadn't known what to expect. She gripped Harry's hand tightly, but there was no fear on her face.
"Ready?" Ron asked as he began to approach the hole in the floor. Harry quickly stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder. Ron shot him a curious look and waited for him to get out what he wanted to say.
"Let me go first," Harry said after a moment. "It's been five years since we've been down there, we don't know how it's changed, or if anything else has moved in since the basilisk died."
Ron stared at him for a moment before nodding and saying, "Alright."
Hermione squeezed Harry's hand, but then let go as he approached the opening in the ground and grabbed Ron's instead.
"See you soon," Harry said to them before leaping into the hole.
Hermione whimpered slightly, squeezing Ron's hand tightly before saying, "Let me go next."
"Don't worry, Harry will be at the bottom when you get there," Ron said while patting her shoulder lightly.
She gave him a weak smile before jumping into the hole.
Ron took a deep breath as he watched her vanish into the darkness. He hadn't been in the main part of the Chamber, but it was still the last place he wanted to visit. Second last, he thought after a moment, I'd rather avoid the Riddle house beyond anything else.
Taking a deep breath and putting a confident look on his face Ron Weasley leapt into the opening in the ground and vanished into the darkness.
"Pray tell, why are we letting the three of them go down there on their own?" Tonks asked as she leaned forward in her chair slightly. Her bright purple eyes moved from the portrait to McGonagall and back again.
"They have been there before," Dumbledore replied happily. "And with the basilisk dead the danger is gone."
"When was the last time you were in the Chamber?" Remus asked skeptically.
"Never my good man," Dumbledore said while stroking Fawkes.
McGonagall sighed and said, "You'll have to excuse him. His portrait is much more…quirky than the Albus we had known."
"Alas, there is very little I can really do for the war at this point of time. There is only so much more advice I can give to Harry, as he is the one destined to defeat Voldemort, not I. Unless a war starts amongst the portraits of Hogwarts I remain in a world of peace," Dumbledore said serenely. His twinkling blue eyes turned to Sirius and he said, "You've been quite quiet Mr. Black, there's something on your mind." It wasn't a question, but a statement, one that didn't startle Sirius in the least.
Looking up at the portrait he said, "When I…returned from beyond the veil, Kingsley, Hestia and a few Unspeakables were there. They said that Fawkes had flown into the veil just before I returned, and that words of fire glowed on the arch itself."
"Ahh," Dumbledore said while nodding to himself. He looked at Fawkes, who perched on the painted stand by him. "Yes, I was wondering when you'd ask me that. The veil is a curiosity to the Ministry, and it was given the title Veil of Death or Veil of Darkness years ago from its foreboding looks, as well as the whispers that could be heard from behind it. There were some books written about it years ago, before my time, but most of them had been destroyed, except for one. The owner of the book was my mentor, but unfortunately it was lost years before I met him. He still knew about the veil, and told me that it would definitely lead the guilty to an untimely, yet worthy death. It was a less gruesome way of ridden the world of the terrible people who could not be redeemed. However, it was known when the veil was created, that there was a possibility that an innocent person could fall through it. In order to keep those unworthy of returning inside the darkness they could not remove the spells from it, so instead, the long dead creator created a ritual that would bring back an innocent person from beyond the veil."
"And I was an innocent person?" Sirius asked, a look of skepticism on his face, earning a chuckling from McGonagall.
"In the eyes of the veil, yes Sirius, you are. You had done nothing really wrong in your life, and you were accidentally thrown through the veil. With that you also still had a duty to perform in the land of the living, and destiny does not like when its plans do not come to pass. The ritual was a simple one, so simple that if it was written in a book and passed out to every home in the wizarding world most people would simply throw it out. It was my mentor, Nicolas Flammel, who told me the ritual in the first place. Nicolas certainly had a disposition for knowing what information a person would need later on in life, but he had lived hundreds of years already by this time. In order for the ritual to work the person thrown into the veil must be innocent in death, and an innocent, pure soul must willing trade their life for the one behind the veil."
"Fawkes was the pure soul," Remus whispered.
"What is more pure than a phoenix?" Dumbledore asked. "Not even a unicorn holds the purity of a phoenix does, but they are incredibly rare so there is relatively little known about them. I knew, from the time you fell into the depths on the veil that you would return one day with the help of Fawkes. A pure soul trades its life for an innocent person, there also had to be something ready and waiting for the returning person on the outside of the veil, in order to ground them to the world of the living and help them out of the darkness."
"Hedwig was there," Sirius said with confusion. "Why Hedwig?"
"I had told Fawkes of the ritual as soon as he was fully grown again. He understood the ritual, and agreed, when the time came, to perform it. He needed an accomplice though, and I had foreseen Harry being particularly busy this year, so I found the one creature with an incredibly close bond to Harry and told her the plan. Hedwig is a very bright out, smarter then most, and she knew what to do when the time came. She is bonded very close to Harry, who wanted to alive more then words can say. Because you needed to come back to help protect him, your want to do so, and his need to have a parent still, those are the real reasons you returned. Hedwig felt his need to have you alive, and she was able to help pull you through the veil."
"so the reason he was able to come back so easily, is because he still had a job to do?" Tonks asked.
"Quite right Nymphadora," the portrait said, ignoring the scowl on her pretty face.
"Does that only work for people thrown beyond the veil? Or for someone who died in general?" Remus asked.
Dumbledore sighed and said, "The dead will remain dead. Those who are thrown beyond are alive for a long period of time, before they finally die from exhaustion, dehydration and starvation. It takes a very long time for that to happen to an innocent though. So yes, only those thrown into the veil can return because they are technically not yet dead."
Sirius looked down at the floor for a moment before looking up the ask Dumbledore another question. He couldn't though, the portrait was suddenly empty.
"He does that more often then not," McGonagall said with a sigh, throwing a wary look at the empty frame.
Hermione screamed as she slid out of the tunnel, and right onto Harry, who had been getting up. He groaned as he hit the floor again, and foreseeing what was about to happen, he quickly moved himself and Hermione out of the way as Ron appeared next to them a moment later.
"Bloody hell," he groaned angrily. He opened his eyes and said, "Ahh hell! I forgot about the bones! You'd think that they would have turned to dust by now."
Hermione let out a light squeak before jumping off of Harry, giving the floor a disgusted look. He quickly stood up beside her and said, "Must be newer animals stuck down here."
"So this is the Chamber of Secrets?" Hermione asked with an almost disappointed tone.
"This is the entrance to it," Harry said. "We've got to go this way."
"I image that we'll have to get rid of the rest of the rockslide that was there," Ron said as they started walking down the long, dark tunnel. "You and G-Ginny barely fit through there when you were younger."
"You were also doing a rubbish job moving those rocks," Harry replied.
"My wand was broken! It wasn't even my wand, it was a hand-me-down!"
"Still rubbish."
"Now boys," Hermione said sweetly. "You'll both just have to shut up or I'll never help you with anything ever again."
"Sorry Princess," Ron said sarcastically. "Is there anything we can do to make it up to you?"
"Why you could carry me through these bones," Hermione joked to them.
Harry and Ron shared a glance before saying, "I'd rather not." Hermione hit both of them over the head as they drew closer to the entrance. Finally they came upon the landslide that Lockhart had caused when his memory charm backfired. Without even waiting for Harry and Ron to pull out their wands Hermione's was out and she was silently moving all of the boulders. Within a minute the passage was completely cleared.
"I wish she was with us the first time," Ron said with a sigh.
"You and me both," Harry agreed as they continued on down the cave. The walls were starting to drip with water, and the cave was becoming cooler.
"I think," Hermione said slowly. "That we're under the lake."
"But we started out in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!" Ron said with surprise.
"Yes, but that was a long pipe we slid down," she explained. "And it curved enough for us to go under the lake."
"It would certainly explain why no one was ever able to find it," Harry agreed.
The three of them continued to walk in silence until Hermione let out a gasp. Harry had been looking at the floor, not really paying attention to where he was going. At her noise he looked up and found himself staring into the eyes of two large stone snakes, with glittering emerald for eyes.
Before Ron or Hermione could ask how to get past them he whispered, "Open." The stone snakes seemed to come alive, moving out of the way of the passage. Quickly Harry took the lead and walked through the opening.
"Bloody hell!" Ron yelled in surprise, his blue eyes darting around as he got his first glimpse of the Chamber of Secrets.
To Harry it looked the exact same as it did five years ago: dark, damp, and very Slytherin.
"You killed that thing?" Hermione said in a shrill voice. The two boys followed her gaze and their eyes landed on the large, slowly decaying corpse of a baslisk.
"Yeah," Harry said after a moment. "Ron, if you're not careful you'll catch some flies."
Ron closed his mouth, which had opened in shock, before saying, "I thought you were exaggerating when you said how big the snake was!"
Harry shook his head, and a frown appeared on his face as he said, "Shouldn't it be completely decomposed by now? And why doesn't it smell bad in here."
"A baslisk rots very slowly," Hermione said, sounding like a recorded textbook. "And it's a very magical creature, so I imagine that helps as well. As for no smell, I'm not sure exactly."
"I'm not complaining," Ron muttered. "Though if I had to chose I'd rather smell that thing dying rather than see it living."
Harry chuckled and clapped Ron's shoulder before walking past him and towards the large statue of Slytherin. There were still blood stains everywhere, causing Hermione to whimper at the sight of it. Harry's eyes lingered for a moment at the ink on the floor, but he quickly looked up at his friends instead.
"Where would a horcrux be in here?" Ron asked.
Harry shrugged and said, "You're guess is as good as mine."
Hermione left the two boys and began to look around at all the snake statues and said, "Well, we might as well get to work then."
The three of them split up, searching the chamber for any clues as to where the flute might be hidden.
"Harry! Hermione!" Ron yelled suddenly, and both his friends rushed over to where he was standing.
"What? Did you find something?" Hermione asked excitedly.
"Well I didn't find the flute, but isn't that the writing in that ancient book?" Ron asked while pointing at the wall.
Hermione stared at it for a moment before her eyes lit up and she said, "Yes it is! I felt so silly about bringing those books with me, but I knew that we could need them."
She rushed back to where she had set it bag, which was full of healing potions and anti-venoms, just in case. She pulled out the diary and said, "The basic translation is in here."
Harry and Ron didn't say anything as she brought out a muggle pencil, and a sheet of white paper, and went to work translating what the wall was saying.
"She's mental," Ron muttered while staring at her.
"True, but she's still brilliant," Harry said with a grin.
"I know. Hey Harry, I have a question that has nothing to do with the horcrux, the chamber, spells or anything else magical for that matter."
"Hmm?"
"Do you—"
"Got it!" Hermione said happily.
Whatever Ron was about to ask didn't seem important anymore as both of them knelt down on either side of her.
"Damn that was fast," Ron said.
"That's our Hermione," Harry joked while patting her shoulder.
She gave both of them a glowing smile before saying, "Listen to this, it's about why the founders chose this place for Hogwarts, and specifically why this place was chosen for the Chamber of Secrets. Not because it was well hidden, Slytherin could have securely hid it anywhere inside of the castle, but under the lake was the ideal place because of the magic going through it."
"The magic going through it?" Harry asked with confusion.
"Yes, haven't you heard of those lines that are supposed to be powerful, or hold magic, or something like that? They say one runs through Stone Hedge," Hermione said with a frown. "I can't remember what they're called, but that's not the point. It says that powerful line of magic runs right through Hogwarts and the lake, that's why the school was put here. It makes tapping into magic a lot easier!"
"So," Harry said after a moment. "What your saying is, that when we're in these magical lines or whatever they are, we're more powerful?"
"Yes," she replied. "Because it's easier to tap into magic. When we return home we don't notice the difference because we're so used to using magic that it doesn't make a difference to us."
"So we've been training like mad outside of magic," Ron said. "Does that mean if we tried it in here, it would work better?"
"Assumingly," she informed them. "But the line doesn't run exactly through Hogwarts, it runs beside it, the founders apparently thought that if the line went exactly through the castle that children would be hurt from an overdose of magic. Slytherin didn't agree, and so this chamber was created right on the line."
"Let's test it out," Ron said with a grin.
Harry smirked at Ron, walked a little bit away from them (just in case) and quickly, and silently, waved his hand to see how his wandless magic would react in here. The spell was only supposed to be a light reducto spell, but instead there was a huge explosion, and dust flew everywhere.
"Harry!" Ron and Hermione yelled, but he wasn't hurt, he was staring at the object that had blown up: the statue of Slytherin.
"Are you alright?" Hermione asked as she grabbed his arm and quickly looked him over for any obvious injuries. "Harry?'
His eyes were glued on the hole he made in the statue. He shrugged Hermione off and made his way towards the opening. Harry carefully walked into where Slytherin's mouth once was )where the basilisk had been hidden), and knelt down.
"Harry mate?" Ron asked as he walked up behind him.
Harry quickly stood up and said, "That was the best, stupid thing I've ever done."
"What?"
He turned around, grinning at his friends, and they gasped at what they saw: in Harry's hands was the Flute of Ravenclaw.
Author's Note
So they have all the horcrux that they can find now, and I explained more about how Sirius came back. Woot! I've also finally figured out what I'm going to do with the horcrux! Just wait and see. Normally I'd say if there were any suggestions, but by the time you're reading this I'll probably have the story finished, as I finished writing this just after I posted chapter 19.
I also have like four other ideas for stories, three I'd like to work on, and no, that does not include a sequel to Scars of Time, I did start one but that was just a bad idea, as I had no clue where I was going with it.
There isn't much I want to point out, but we will be finding out exactly why Harry survived and just because I have the chapter written doesn't mean I'll updating any faster than before.
So thank you to: thunder, pupdawg66, SiriusLeeBlack09, Demonically Angelic Neko88, Freedomstar, JDZ, Harry Potter Girll, holimontski, Isadora120, miligurl08.
I really appreciated the reviews! You guys are the best! The next update might not be for a week or so because I have two essays, a power point, and another huge project due…all within the same time frame so yeah…school comes first!
Krystal Lily Potter