Harry gasped as he was thrown back on the chair he was sitting. The silence of his quarters' emptiness surrounded him once more as he looked at the diary he was inside a few moments ago. He now knew what he needed as he looked at the time. It was three in the morning and classes would begin in the next five hours.

Getting up from the chair he walked over to his trunk from which he pulled out the marauders' map. Opening it revealed the entire demographical information of the castle. Except for a few faculties who were on their hourly nightly exertions around the castle everyone was asleep. Dumbledore hadn't returned yet. There was no telling when he will come back. No one knew where he was.

For Harry that was a good thing as he would get more time on his hands without worrying about the old man. He had scanned every inch of his quarters using magic and mundane means. He had found three trinkets that were foreign to his quarters and six of the furniture charmed with layers of spying and mild mind control magic spells. He cancelled them all and for the trinkets he let them be as they were. It was to keep the old man in deceive just so he wouldn't get alerted of Harry's knowhow.

Folding back the map he kept it inside his robe as he cast a mild warming charm around him as it was a bit cold outside. Grabbing his invisibility cloak that belonged to his father he wrapped it around himself walked out of his quarters. Ten minutes later he was in the abandoned bathroom on their unused floor famous for being haunted by Moaning Myrtle, the first ever girl to have died out of unknown causes inside Hogwarts and Tom's first sacrifice for his first Horcrux.

He pushed open the door whose creaking sound echoed throughout the silent corridor. Harry clenched his teeth when he heard that sound before checking if anyone was near the vicinity to have heard it. fortunately there was no one around. The map showed Logan, Sprout and McGonagall who each were on the bottom floors finishing their nightly check around the castle for the night.

Getting inside he locked the door with a charm and applied layers of privacy spells just in case. He looked around and could easily come to know why this bathroom was famous. It looked haunted, too. He knew about Myrtle. From what Bart had told him Myrtle had a bad case of screaming at anyone who came into this bathroom mostly because she wanted to be left alone and students loved teasing and bullying her, the later which Harry thought was a bit ridiculous as he walked around looking at the ginormous built of this place. Who would need a bathroom this big, he thought as he scanned the entire place using his magic. His map which also showed the location of ghosts had already told him that Myrtle wasn't in the bathroom right now. Like all ghosts she was bound to the bottom floors after one in the night. It was the magic of the wards around the castle to ensure some students don't get a sudden scare and die out of fear as it had happened during the early years of Hogwarts' establishment.

Finally after spending more than an hour inside the bathroom he found what he was looking for. It could've been because this bathroom was in the Slytherin tower whose basement housed the Slytherin dungeons but the taps above the basins around the huge center pillar were carved and the carvings were that of snakes. This had to be it and it made sense as this bathroom was directly above the Slytherin dungeons.

Stepping back he took out the rune stone that Bart had given him when Harry was leaving for this term. The runes drawn on the stone allowed it to act like a recorder. It was a spying rune stone which already had what Harry would need for this job as he placed the stone on the cold tile floor and stepped back before magically activating the stone's runes.

A hissing sound echoed throughout the empty bathroom before everything went silent. Harry wondered where Bart got the recordings of parseltongue but he could always ask questions later as the entire bathroom was filled with a low rumbling sound and Harry could feel the light vibration beneath his feet when he noticed the taps above the basins were shaking. Soon enough the center pillar started to part away until it was three times wider than its own circumference and then the part of the pillar which was facing Harry went underground and a path opened for him to enter.

Harry carefully walked closer as he picked up the stone and peeked inside the huge hole. He couldn't see the end so he cast a lumos spell and threw it down the hole. It disappeared after a minute.

The hole was deep.

He knew it couldn't be this easy. Even though the depth of this hole wasn't apparently known to him as it seemed infinite Harry was sure this thing had a bottom as it housed a thousand year old basilisk. Also there couldn't just be this door. There probably were a number of doors securing that snake from becoming a tool of purging the entire castle.

Harry stepped back, placing the stone back on the floor and activating it. The parseltongue echoed again and the entrance closed in a minute. He could understand why his parents, Sirius and Remus couldn't put in the Chamber into the map. This place was apparently not known by many people.

Returning back to his quarters Harry quickly wrote a letter to Bart and then used the floo to get out of the castle's wards and into one of the public floos of Hogsmead and then picking up a pebble from the street turned it into a portkey with his blood mark on it to make sure it entered through his place's wards then sent the letter to Bart. He would get it once he would return back.

Once Harry had made sure that the letter had been sent to his place he used the public floo again to get back into his quarters and went to get some sleep.

00000

"Why are you staring at it?" Voldemort asked. "Haven't you seen a horcrux before?"

"As a matter of fact I haven't," she said looking closely at the closed vial which contained a live slimy horcrux dancing around. "Not many are foolish enough to make one, you know?"

"Ensuring your survival is foolish you say?" Voldemort said.

"Ensuring you live a cursed and halved life is foolish," she said. "Not to mention it taints your soul – the parting of it. I still don't know why it attached on to your death eater friend and not that boy you spoke about."

"Wormtail was never my friend," Voldemort hissed. "As for how my horcrux attached itself to him I have no idea. It should've been gone over to that boy because he was the only living person near to me when the explosion took place."

"Broken souls don't have much energy themselves so this confuses me, too," she said.

"But we have my horcrux so let's move ahead with the plan," Voldemort said. "I will have my followers bring the rest once you've merged me with that."

She nodded putting the vial down as the wooden logs underneath the huge clay cauldron lighted up bursting out fire and the potion inside it started to boil vigorously. She then turned to face Voldemort who looked at the boiling hot potion with a bit of worry. She smiled. "Scared of a little heat, Tommy?" Voldemort snarled as he took off his clothes going completely naked. He ignored her eyes wandering down between his legs as she flicked her tongue seductively before looking back in his eyes, a new shine in her eyes as Voldemort tentatively walked towards the cauldron. He touched it but felt no heat coming off from the outside walls of the huge pot. She must've applied some charms to it, he thought as he tried to touch the hot boiling liquid. He instantly pulled back his finger which no longer had live skin around it to the part where he had dipped it inside the potion. He looked with wide eyes towards her. "What do you expect?" she said. "Physically you are no stronger than a new born baby. What do you think would've happened to your physical body if you'd forced it to live for periods longer than what's it meant for?"

"This isn't my original body," he said.

"But your soul is and you are feeding off too much from this host even right now," she said. "Now stop being a baby and go inside." Before Voldemort could say anything he felt himself being lifted up from the ground and dropped into the boiling hot potion. A few splashes before he went completely silent. A horrible stench covered the entirety of the place making it bearable for any mortal to breath in the air but there were no mortals in that vicinity at the moment. She stood calmly looking at the cauldron where the liquid boiled vigorously when a hand splashed out of it, its skin completely gone and bones peeking through the remaining muscles. A moment later Voldemort came out of the cauldron barely able to stand as she waved her hand and a shadowy black robe surrounded and then covered Voldemort's naked and skinned out completely burned body. He immediately fell on the ground, unable to breath due to the immense pain he was feeling at the moment. He looked helplessly at her as she stood looking back at him without any expressions on her face.

"He…Hel…p," he barely managed to speak.

"The healing would have to be from your own core," she said. "Don't worry. It will happen soon. Any addition of outside material be it potions or magic will ruin this process. You will have to just bear it. After all, it is your own soul."

Voldemort looked as if he was glaring at her but it was hard to tell as he had no eyelids left or any brows. His eyeballs bulged out dangerously and looked as if they will pop out any moment as he looked down and even in that state his anger overtook him as he punched the ground hard with his heavily incapacitated hand, regretting it later.

00000

When Bart saw the trinket shake he was worried immediately. He immediately cast some spells on it to reveal a sort of map to him to which he looked very carefully, his lips moving from time to time as if he was reading off of it. He then backed away, a look of worry on his face as he saw the wall in front of him. "Who helped you, Tom?" he said to himself. "Was it her? This is too soon!"

00000

Harry cast layers of privacy charms and wards around his bed as he sat back comfortably and tore open the envelop. Bart's letter had finally came back this morning. Opening it and reading its content he didn't find much help. He had written the same things he had already told Harry during the summer. Guess it was no help. Harry wondered thought how he would get his hands on that Gryffindor sword that Dumbledore had in his office. It wasn't that Dumbledore would be there. Dumbledore was still away from Hogwarts but his office would be locked. only McGonagall would have access to it as she was currently serving as the head of this castle in Dumbledore's absence and she wouldn't just give Harry the password. That meant that Harry would have to figure out another sharp or deadly weapon that would be able to kill that basilisk.

The Gryffindor sword would've been easy to use as it was also forged with magic and not just metal. The lacerations that it would've made on the basilisk would also make that beast vulnerable to spells after the physical attacks. That wouldn't be the case with any other physical weapon. In that case Harry would only have to rely on that weapon's attacks to bring down the beast as none of his spells would work on it. Not even the killing curse. No wonder why basilisks went extinct so long ago. The armors made from their skin protected even from the killing curse. The only problem was that they decayed very quickly as no preserving charms would work on them.

He sat there and thought…thought for over an hour when an idea came into his head. Perhaps getting his emancipation was a good thing. He immediately took some parchments and a quill to write a letter of absence to McGonagall explaining to her in that letter that he wouldn't be able to attend tomorrow's class because of some 'personal' house business. As per the regulations no authority of Hogwarts could stop him from leaving but it was mandatory to notify the head of the castle of his absence and so he was. Besides, McGonagall wasn't like Dumbledore. Her only problem was that she followed him blindly like many others despite being an intelligent and fair witch.

The next afternoon Harry was standing outside the house of a man he knew had contacts with Bart since a long time. It wasn't thought that he was here because of that. He was here because he needed this man's help and that Bart's connection with him would help Harry. He knocked again and the door clicked open revealing an old man. "Yes?" he asked looking at the young boy outside his house.

"You are Benjamin Woghorn," Harry said.

"Do I know you?" the old man asked.

"You don't," Harry said, "But you know our mutual friend Bartholomew Byron." The man's eyes widened. "I was wondering if I could talk to you about your family's old business."

"I don't want to go back on those dark days," the man said. "Tell Bart I said hi, though."

Harry used his magic to stop the door from moving from its place while simply standing there without moving a muscle. The man looked at him curiously. "Please, sir. I know it is hard for you to talk about those things but I wouldn't have come to you if I didn't need your help."

The man looked at him for a minute before stepping aside and letting him in. "Would you like some tea?" he asked.

"No, thank you," Harry said. "I would like some information."

"The way you spoke about my family tells me that you know what they did," Benjamin said. "To think that you know about them and that you are this young tells me that either you are Bart's apprentice or someone very close to him."

"Harry James Potter," Harry said, extending his hand. "Emancipated last heir and scion of the ancient and noble houses of Potter, Gryffindor and Peverell. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Benjamin looked at him for a minute before shaking his hand. "So you are aware of the world at this tender age, huh?" he said. "Must be hard coming to grasp of things without your parents."

"I had Bart," Harry said.

"What do you want to know?" Benjamin asked.

"I came to an interesting discovery," Harry said. "Do you know about the legend of the secret chamber that is said to be somewhere in Hogwarts' castle?"

"I do" Benjamin said nodding his head. "They say that Salazar Slytherin built an off-the-record magical secret chamber for his personal use which upset the other founders and so they parted with him once the caste's construction was complete."

"Then you must also know that it is being said that there was a monster…a beloved that Salazar had said to leave in that chamber before his depart form the castle," Harry said.

"A monster, they said," Benjamin said before he realized it. "You don't mean…"

"I see you've connected the dots," Harry said.

"It is still alive?" Benjamin asked.

"You should know better," Harry said. "A basilisk is basically immortal unless it is killed."

"But then that would make it as old as the castle itself!" Benjamin said. "And if that's true and if it is still alive then it must be huge!"

"And a danger to the occupants…the students inside the castle," Harry said. "Going out with this information would be a foolish move as the ministry will claim it for itself and we all know that any use of a basilisk's part or parts has been banned and is made illegal because of the dangers that it possess. Dumbledore is too blind to acknowledge its presence within the castle and so Bart and I have come up with a plan to take it out but we need your help."

Benjamin looked at him.

"Your ancestors were hunters," Harry said, "hunters of magical creatures…dragons, trolls, werewolves…basilisks. You surely have some idea as to how they did it all those years ago. With its skin being impenetrable from any of the magic it can only be hurt physically and for that they used a weapon. They also had some means to stay protected from that snake's death glare which is our topmost concern. I…we want to know anything that can help us with this one and you are the only one who can help."

"You mean the only one about whom the ministry doesn't know and is still isn't in Azkaban," Benjamin said. "And that gives you leverage over me…the leverage of blackmail."

"I have no intention of that but should it come to it then I think anyone can conclude that forcing it out of you would be the appropriate thing to do," Harry said with a calm yet controlled voice. "It is you versus all of Hogwarts and if that snake escapes the castle than may more. The judgment would be very quick and swift. So, what will it be? Will you tell me or will I have to use my leverage against you?"

He looked at Harry for a moment before sighing. "Any weapon with a long reach would work if you intend to go alone," he said. "For the glare my ancestors used a glass made from a mineral called hecatolite. Findings showed that a basilisk's glare acted more like the rays of the moon during a full moon night or during an eclipse. Hecatolite has properties of reflecting back those rays…in simple words it should prevent you from a basilisk's glare for some time but it depends on certain conditions."

"Conditions?" Harry asked.

"If you know about a basilisk and its basic immortal growth then you must also know that with age it only gets stronger," Benjamin said. "Using the mineral to avoid its death glare wouldn't be that efficient if a basilisk is rally old. No one knows what the limit is for that mineral but no one has also tested it against a thousand year old basilisk either. My conclusion is you will have no more than a minute if you are lucky. Thickness of the glass made form hecatolite results in nothing if you talk about increasing its effect from saving you from the glare. It is like what muggles call radiation. after a certain time the glare will penetrate through the mineral and then everything will be over."

"So all I have to do is carry some extra," Harry said.

"That is up to you to decide how much you can carry," Benjamin said. "Like I said, with age a basilisk's power increases and this basilisk is as old as that castle so there is no telling that the hecatolite mineral will even work. There is nothing else other than that which I know can be used as a substitute because when facing such a creature you don't have time to experiment be that creature a small child or a grown one."

"You said weapons with long reach," Harry said.

"I said that in contrast to the fact that you might possibly going with Bart at least," Benjamin said. "The less number of people the more safe it is to use a long range weapon. Also there is the rooster property which works better than anything."

"We have a plan for that," Harry said. "So, nothing else?"

Benjamin looked at Harry before standing up and walking towards his cupboard. He opened it and took out a rusty old axe. It was huge and it still had dried blood on it. "I will only give this to you if you promise to bring this back," Benjamin said. "This is a sort of family heirloom which is the only thing I have to remember my family as I cannot keep their pictures because the ministry and the aurors will know. Although this axe has lost its sharpness but I assume that wouldn't be much of a problem. My only request is if and when you bring down that basilisk please coat this axe's edge with its venom. A basilisk's venom is a great preservative."

Harry nodded as he took that axe from Benjamin and took his leave a few minutes later. All he had to do was write a letter to Bart about this hecatolite mineral and see what they could come up with.

00000

A/N: Thanks for reading…