Chapter 22

DRIVEN BY THE CURSE

The Horcrux ring troubled me for many days after the finding. When I had planned the creation of my Horcrux network, I had given special thought to the items that would have the honour of being my anchors to immortality. Four items from the four Founders of Hogwarts had been obvious choices due to their connection to the place I considered my one and only home. The Locket, the Sword, the Diadem, and the Cup were all famous artefacts of which it had been easy to find information. I had added my diary to the list, not because it was remarkable (it was, after all, a Muggle product), but because the purpose from the very beginning had been to use it to open the Chamber of Secrets again. But what was the ring and why had Voldemort chosen it as one of his Horcruxes?

The simplest solution to the mystery was that the ring had been an heirloom of the Gaunt family and that Voldemort had stolen it from the last Gaunt the day he had visited our families. Hiding an heirloom in the ancestral home made sense.

What was important about this speculation was that the ring was probably the second Horcrux Voldemort had created. That meant it would be much safer for me to try to force the ring into submission than doing the same to the Diadem.

The soul fragment within was most likely a few months younger than I currently was, and it had not had the opportunity to prepare for the confrontation. However, after pondering the situation for many days, I still postponed the moment I dealt with the ring. The battle of souls might leave me exhausted, and if that happened during the school term, it would be noticed.

Instead I focused on the Animagus project. It had become a matter of self-respect to me: if a wizard as inept as Peter Pettigrew had managed to master the skill in his fifth Hogwarts year, I simply had to succeed before my sixth one ended. And so, following the incoherent teachings of the rat-man who lounged in my house slurping milkshake, I finally unlocked the animal within me.

As was fitting for the Heir of Slytherin, my Animagus form was that of a snake, but not just any snake. It was one of those rare magical creations which combined the deadly properties of both venomous and constriction snakes. (It also had eyelids.) I felt triumphant as I marvelled the senses that snakes had; turning back into a human was accompanied by a feeling of loss as many of the stimuli ceased reaching my mind. As a snake I felt myself strong and agile, but at first I could not move at all. Being so used to moving by using my legs, it took time to get used to moving by using my stomach.

Inspired by the senses of a snake, I began a new Spell-Crafting project: to modify the Supersensory Charm so that it did not only make all senses sharper, but that it also made humans capable of sensing such stimuli that they usually could not. The Disillusionment Charm (and, presumably, Invisibility Cloaks as well) hid not only the wavelengths of visible light, but also thermal radiation, and possibly all kinds of electromagnetic radiation; this I learned when experimenting as a snake. However, even invisible people warmed the air around them, and that could be seen with my new Infrared Seeing Charm. Unfortunately, using it in everyday life was quite disconcerting as it made bare skin glow with a strange colour. I could not describe the colour at all, because humans (with the exception of some Animagi) had never seen it. "It looks warm" and "Redder than red, you know, like red compared to orange" were not very illustrative descriptions.

To my relief, the Quidditch league ended, allowing everyone to concentrate on more important matters. Harry all but forced me to come to the pitch to watch the confrontation between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff teams. It seemed so important to him that I decided to comply with his request in order not to damage our friendship. Fortunately the weather was nice that day, but still the pointless, unexciting, dull, tensionless, lame, consequence-free, tiring, athletically idiotic mayhem stretched my patience almost to the breaking point. Gryffindor claimed victory, and was awarded the Quidditch Cup even though they had lost one of their games while the Slytherin team had won each one of theirs. Apparently the throwing of the Quaffle was not totally meaningless after all. However, for the first time I could feel some sympathy towards Marcus Flint whose prize was stolen from him. He had become a much more tolerable person after I had subjugated him, and I no longer held any grudge against him.

The good thing about the undeserved Gryffindor victory was that Harry finally managed to produce a corporeal Patronus: a stag glowing with silver radiance. Lupin told him that it was James Potter's Animagus form, and the Patronus began to glow even brighter. (I had once brought up some of the things Pettigrew had told me, and Lupin had admitted various school time adventures he had had with his friends; but not his lycanthropy, of course.)

"Brilliant work, Harry," I said. "Literally."

"It feels right," Harry breathed as the stag walked loftily around the classroom. "I see now why I couldn't do it earlier. It's not just the happy memory. It's more like a general positive attitude towards life…"

I felt a lump in my throat.

"Each Patronus is different," Lupin said, smiling broadly. "You can't just follow the instructions given to you. Every wizard must find the Patronus from within in his own way." He turned to look at me. "And that's why you should never give up trying. Perhaps you can find something really important to you that can help, like winning the Quidditch Cup is to Harry."

So, that was my problem? I never really rejoiced even my triumphs. After every goal I reached, the next one was within sight, and I just carried on.

The rest of the term seemed to pass in a blur as I tried to finish my various projects that required me to be at Hogwarts. One of them was convincing the seventh-year Slytherin students of my leadership. I asked Ethan Jugson to arrange a meeting with those Slytherins who had graduated during the last few years. I had decided that they would have the honour of being the first backbone of my future powerbase. Otherwise they would probably gather around Voldemort once he returned from hiding.

Before I noticed, it was the 29th of May, the first anniversary of my return to life. (Well, it was unclear whether or not it had happened before or after midnight.) I invited Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny for a small celebration in the Room of Requirement which took the form of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. It was a pleasant evening of reminiscing the past year and all that we had experienced and learned. I played the violin, Harry showed his Patronus, Hermione demonstrated some clever things she had learned in Arithmancy, and Ron cast the Shield Charm he had perfected quickly after Sirius Black's attack had given him the motivation to learn. Ginny did not demonstrate anything as directly, but she was not awkwardly silent in Harry's presence anymore, which was considerable progress.

As my sixth year at Hogwarts was nearing end, I had many reasons to be satisfied with what I had accomplished. But there was one huge annoyance that deserved to be dealt with.

The potion I was brewing suddenly boiled over and then turned into a gluey blob.

"Pathetic, Valedro," Snape drawled without being able to suppress his malevolent smirk completely. "I'm beginning to suspect you bribed the Wizarding Examinations Authority to give you an Outstanding grade. Your performance in my classes has been less than satisfactory."

I was so used to him ruining my potions out of spite that I had planned my answer in advance.

"Well, certainly something has changed since my departure from New Zealand," I said with fake seriousness. "But I did remember to stir the potion as I'm supposed to in the Northern Hemisphere. I can't rule out the possibility that my suddenly poor performance has less to do with me and more with the school I'm studying at. Geez, I thought Hogwarts was the best school in the world!"

Snape's eye twitched. I was careful enough not to blame him directly, and it infuriated him greatly.

At first Snape's childish tricks had just amused me. I was going to get an Outstanding grade in my Potions NEWT regardless of how many of my classroom assignments he tampered with wrong ingredients, and a grown man acting in such a ridiculous way was entertainment in itself. (Everyone in the NEWT level Potions class knew who was responsible for the failure of my potions, and all the other students sympathized with me strongly.) However, after suffering the same joke for months now, I had had enough.

It was time to visit the Chamber of Secrets and find out if it was possible to change the curse of the Defence professorship to apply to the Potions professorship. Lupin, werewolf or not, deserved to stay at Hogwarts much more than Snape.


"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four!"

The Basilisk woke up from its hibernation and came to greet its master.

"I want to meddle with a curse that appears to affect this castle with invariable regularity. I am quite sure the physical anchor of the curse is in this Chamber. Do you know anything about it?"

"Your ancestor Salazar Slytherin did many things in here," the Basilisk hissed. "Most of them I know nothing about. I cannot wield a wizard's magic, and therefore it is mostly unknown to me."

"It is possible this curse is created by Salazar. However, it was my… brother who activated it. Did you advise him how to do it?"

"Your brother? It is difficult for me to tell you humans apart."

"He looks like me. Exactly like me."

"I do not know how you look like," the Basilisk hissed in a way that I interpreted as amused. "You have always told me to keep my eyes closed."

"Oh… well, he smells like me. Does that help?"

"Humans smell mostly the same… like prey. You brought here six male humans some time ago. Then there was the young female who often had strange smelling water on…"

"I mean the one who ordered you to look in the eyes of the girl up in the water room. Did he come back after that, before the girl with strange smelling water?"

"So, that one is your brother?" The Basilisk licked the air, almost touching me with its tongue. "Yes, now I recognize your smell. He did come back after I had been hibernating for a long time. He was angry, he spoke of revenge. I guided him to a magic stone left by Salazar."

"Take me to it as well."

The Basilisk slithered out of the main hall, leading me to one of the many cavernous parts, similar to the one where I had found the anchor stone of the wards. The Basilisk stopped to smell a few times (I wondered if it could smell magic), until it pointed me to a dead end. A single stone was lying on the floor, unremarkable just like the anchor stone, but my diagnostic charm told me that Dark magic was constantly flowing through it.

"Your brother was busy with it for a long time," the Basilisk said. "It did not concern me; I do not know what it was that he did with it."

"If the curse was originally created by Salazar, it is certainly meant to be used by an Heir," I said and sat down next to the stone. "Let me concentrate."

I touched the stone with the tip of my wand and closed my eyes. There was nothing to be seen, almost nothing to be heard, there were few smells in that part of the Chamber… as I shut all other senses from my mind, there was room for the faint feeling of magic, the sixth sense. It was always difficult to grasp, but once I succeeded, it was rewarding. Magic was beautiful. It flowed like water, but there was also the unnatural harmony that felt quite similar to the art of playing the violin.

"Perhaps it helped your brother that he was angry," the Basilisk's voice whipped brusquely through my meditation. "Wielding Dark magic requires the raw power of hostile emotions."

"You disturb me!" I hissed. "Get lost! Do you not have any snake business to attend to?"

"That is better," it whispered in amusement. "I will leave you and flex my muscles a little bit."

"Do not go out into the castle. The Heir of Slytherin is officially away, so you should be hibernating."

"As you will, master."

With that, the Basilisk left me alone.

I delved into the curse again, trying to sense the malicious currents of magic that permeated the very foundations of Hogwarts castle. Slowly, very slowly I let the feeling of magic fill my mind. With my wand touching the anchor stone, I tried to connect my magic to the other one, becoming one with it and thus mastering it. But instead of the tranquil flow that I had experienced when experimenting with various normal magical items, I felt a chaotic vortex where conflicting powers clashed and tried to dominate one another.

It was beyond confusing, and I could only infer that Voldemort had not actually used the magic of Salazar's design, but somehow repurposed it to function as a curse that removed the Defence professor once a year. Salazar had used so strange methods of Spell-Crafting that I could not tell what the original design of the curse had been. Perhaps he had not managed to finish it? A curse would have been a much better way of removing all Muggle-borns than the Basilisk was. Anyway, Voldemort had understood enough about the ancient design that he had managed to use it as the groundwork of his curse. But the amalgamation of at least two different spells was so unfathomable, so labyrinthine, that I quickly lost all hope of understanding it fully. I needed probably a decade's worth of more studies in Runes and Arithmancy.

But just like I had not needed to understand the Supersensory Charm fully in order to use its design to craft the Infrared Seeing Charm, understanding the mess of Salazar and Voldemort's work might not be necessary. I stopped analyzing it, just letting my sixth sense follow the current of magic. I felt leaving my body, travelling up into the castle. Then I strained my magic and tried to change the course of Voldemort's magic with intuition.

I saw Professor Lupin, looking pale in his room as he looked out of the window. Clouds were sailing in the sky, the full moon was soon revealed.

I slammed my magic into the curse, trying to wrench it off course.

Snape! I cried in my mind. I want Snape! Strike him! Drive him away for good!

The vision of Lupin disappeared and was replaced with the ugly, large-nosed figure of Snape. He had a potion with him. Good, a potion accident could happen to anyone.

Now! I yelled and slammed my magic so that the curse dashed against Snape. He tripped and fell, the potion spilling. As I laughed, the sense of my own body returned, and suddenly I lost control of the curse. I was sitting on the cold floor of the cavern, laughter echoing from the walls. I hoped all kinds of misery to Snape.

Getting on my feet again was difficult; my legs had become numb when sitting. I felt so tired that I realized I had been there all evening and well into the night. Sometimes magic was so fascinating that I lost the track of time.

The Basilisk returned to the main Chamber when I wobbled to the door.

"Were you successful, master?"

"I think so," I replied. "I felt something happening. You did not enter the castle, yes?"

"I obeyed you. I just explored the pipes."

There was total silence in the hallways of Hogwarts as I stepped out of the bathroom. I was not sure whether or not the curse had activated right then or if I had just set a future occurrence in motion. It had been quite an exhausting affair so I was only interested in going to bed. I would wait until morning for any possible news.


I slept late the next morning due to spending half of the night awake. When I arrived at the Great Hall, there was an unusual amount of nervous conversation.

"What's going on?" I yawned. "Did someone spill potion on himself?"

"Professor Lupin has resigned," Draco said excitedly. "He's a werewolf, can you believe that? Dumbledore actually hired a werewolf to work with children!"

My attempt to take a swig of pumpkin juice stopped halfway.

"What? Lupin… he resigned?"

I looked to the High Table. Lupin was absent, but Snape was present, grinning as smugly as I had ever seen him. Something had gone terribly wrong with my tampering of the curse.

"I can't say I'm surprised," Draco said, oblivious to my being totally distracted. "This was bound to happen, and since he's a werewolf, last night was the last opening this term. It was the night of full moon, the next one will be in July."

My second attempt to take a swig of pumpkin juice stopped halfway as well. I had a very bad feeling about the situation. Was it just a coincidence that I had tried to save Lupin from the curse the very night it had the opportunity to reveal his secret? Coincidences were much rarer in the wizarding world than in the Muggle world.

"If my father was still in the board of governors, Dumbledore would not get away with this," Draco continued, but I had much more important things to think about.

I had breakfast in haste and hurried out of the Great Hall. In the Entrance Hall I was immediately cornered by a very distressed Harry.

"Tom, the Chamber of Secrets is open again!"

"What?" I actually had trouble forming coherent thoughts.

"I heard the Basilisk again last night!" Harry shouted. "It was going through the pipes and speaking in Parseltongue! I went running to warn Dumbledore, but then I bumped right into Snape who was coming around a corner. He dropped the goblet he was carrying, and the potion was spilled to the floor."

I stared at him. I could envision his story a bit too accurately, because I had, in a way, seen it as a vision while causing it.

"He was starting to yell about expulsion, but I told him the monster was loose, and he suddenly turned happy. Then it turned out that Professor Lupin is a werewolf, and Snape's potion was supposed to make him less dangerous. Without the potion, Lupin became feral and started to run around the castle!"

Apparently, my attempt to delve into the curse had accidentally activated it and caused an unlikely chain of events that had ended with Lupin being forced to resign! In retrospect, that was what usually happened with magic when you tried to do something without proper knowledge. However, what was much more worrisome was that I had not just failed to control the curse. On the contrary, it had controlled me! Had my decision to shoo the Basilisk actually come from the curse, setting all of this in motion?

"Snape called the Aurors, the Aurors summoned the Dementors, there was a huge chaos, I saw the Grim again, Dumbledore Stupefied Lupin before the Aurors or the Dementors caught him, and then he banished the Dementors with his Patronus." Harry was almost breathless. "Now everyone thinks the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a werewolf, and someone said that Lupin is the Heir of Slytherin! But more important is that the Basilisk is awake again! That means Voldemort is here at Hogwarts, again!"

"Calm yourself!" I said after having suddenly found my voice. "Surely the Basilisk moves by itself from time to time."

"Oh," Harry said, his agitation deflating. "Oh, I guess you're right…"

"I must speak to Lupin," I said, running up the marble staircase. "I hope he hasn't left yet."

We found Lupin in his room, packing his things with an air of finality. He smiled sadly as we entered.

"I put the entire school to danger last night," he said, disregarding Harry's pleas to stay. "There is a reason why werewolves are not wanted around children."

"It's my fault," Harry said miserably. "I knocked Snape over, making him spill the potion."

I shifted uncomfortably.

"Don't blame yourself, Harry," Lupin said. "As far as we know, you were just driven by the curse."

I shifted very uncomfortably.

"Actually, I consider myself lucky. The two previous holders of this office died, and I was close last night. In this situation I prefer resigning over being fired because of the uproar this will create among the parents. This way I can at least show that I've got integrity." Lupin sighed heavily. "It is difficult for a werewolf like me to find a job. Even more difficult if I didn't seem to be concerned about the safety of children."

"You've been the best Defence Professor I've had," Harry said. "Besides, you knew my parents. I've never had much contact with people like you. I hate to lose you."

Harry's words sealed my decision. Once again I remembered Salazar Slytherin's wise words: Anything can be an opportunity.

"Professor Lupin, many things indicate that we're heading towards darker times," I said. "This curse has caused a decline in the Defence Against the Dark Arts skills of British wizards. Losing you at this point of time is a serious loss to us. That's why I've got a proposition for you."

"A proposition?" Lupin asked, sounding mildly curious.

"You may not be able to continue teaching at Hogwarts, but not all learning happens within these walls. I'm willing to employ you as a private tutor for all who want further tuition. I've already invited Harry to stay in my house in Diagon Alley during the summer holidays. You can join us and share your expertise with him and his friends."

"Tom, that's a great idea!" Harry exclaimed.

"I would like it a lot," Lupin said, smiling broadly. "May I ask why you are willing to do this for me?"

"Why not?" I shrugged. "I can afford it, and anyway, when it comes to preparing for Voldemort's imminent return, I'm not cutting corners."

"I gladly accept your proposition," Lupin said. "I'm your professor no longer, so I ask you to call me Remus from now on."

"Here's my address," I said, offering him a piece of parchment. "Come to visit me on the first day of the holidays. There's a very special person I'm sure you're interested to meet. He will be there that day."

"Oh, exciting," Remus said. "You're already offering me a mystery. Am I supposed to make guesses?"

"This one may be hard to guess," I said. "But I assure you, you knew him well years ago."

"I'm looking forward to meeting him," Remus said. He had finished packing, and after shaking our hands he left, looking much merrier than when we had arrived. We watched from a window as he stepped out of the castle, boarded a carriage pulled by a Thestral, and left Hogwarts looking wistfully behind. So departed a very remarkable werewolf.

"Who is this mystery person?" Harry asked.

"If I said Scabbers, would you believe me?"

"No, I wouldn't!" Harry said and laughed.

"Ha, if you think I'd lie to you, I'm not telling you anything."

"All right, keep your secret. But thank you very much, Tom. You're doing a great favour for Remus and me, too. Funny how you managed to turn the misfortune of the curse this way."

"Yes, the curse," I mumbled. "I have to think about it seriously."

This debacle was a reminder that I should never underestimate Salazar Slytherin or Voldemort. Somehow their combined arts had bypassed all my Occlumency defences and turned me into a pawn. I decided never to let it happen again.


Published on the 18th of February, 2020.