Crossroads

'So, you're going to tell us you needed a walk again?' Harry heard as soon as he entered Gryffindor's Common Room.

Hermione was waiting for him, her arms crossed on her chest. Ron was standing besides her a bit embarrassed, but he had the same look of accusation as her. The silence fell on the room as the students realised what was happening.

'Who wouldn't?' He replied on the most casual tone as possible.

Hermione rolled her eyes and pulled him in a corner away from unwanted ears.

'We know you've been going Merlin knows where since November, Harry,' she whispered with an irritated tone.

'Yeah, so?' Asked Harry a bit angry. 'Am I being watched?'

'Don't take it like this, mate,' tried Ron to appease him. 'Hermione and I, we worry about you. You've been so distant lately we don't know how to help you anymore.'

'I am fine,' replied Harry with an acid tone. He really disliked being cornered, and the idea that his best friends had spied on him was highly irritating.

'Harry,' said Hermione with a timid voice. 'We don't know what's going on inside your head and we can't imagine how hard it is for you. But… you've changed. And… Look we want to be there for you, we really do. But you don't let us anymore.'

'What's she's trying to say,' said Ron as Hermione's voice was fading away, 'is that we miss you.'

The irritation that had been growing inside Harry fell suddenly. Hermione looked distraught and those words… Harry would have never expected Ron to pronounce them to his intention one day. But here they were. Harry let his schoolbag fell on the floor and rubbed his eyes with one hand.

'I really wish I could tell you,' he said eventually. 'But if I do, I'll put you in danger. The more I care about people, the more they end up wounded or worse.' He looked at his best friends. 'I am sorry but not this time. This time it is something I need to do on my own.'

He heard Hermione call him as he was heading towards his dorm. She tried to follow him, but Ron caught her by her shoulder.

'Are we loosing him?' she whispered as Harry was disappearing through the stairs.

'He thinks he is protecting us,' replied Ron with a worried tone. 'Harry wouldn't hurt us on purpose, you know it.'

'You believe him?'

'Well, don't you?'

Hermione turned her head toward the window. A tear was rolling on her cheek, and she didn't want the other students to see it. Ron felt the urge of caressing her cheek to wipe it away but refrained from doing so. He just stayed near the window with her, his hand still on her shoulder, pressing it lightly.

Harry's heart was heavy. It had never been his intention to harm the people he loved the most. But they didn't know. They didn't know he would have to die in the end. He could have decided to wait. Wait and see if help would finally come. Wait and see if Dumbledore would come up with a plan to save him. But he couldn't. He had decided to take the decision and not put his Fate in the hands of others. And to protect as many people as he could, he would have to act alone.

Well… he wasn't alone. He had… he really needed to find a name for his basilisk. But he had him and Tom.

When Ron arrived, he feigned to sleep. The morning after, he woke up before everyone and didn't wait for his friends.

He wrote on his parchment the topic of the essay due for next week and put another piece of parchment he had been working on all day delicately in his bag. He had taken the time to think about his discussion with Ron and Hermione. He wouldn't go back on his decision. But he wouldn't abandon them. During today's class, Charms, he had looked around watching the students practice an enchantment that had no secrets for him anymore. And he had realised that, should war come at Hogwarts, none of them would be able to defend themselves. It would be a slaughter.

He was letting them have Dumbledore, but he decided he would leave them more than that. This parchment was his legacy that, he hoped, would give the students who wished it, enough knowledge to defend themselves for the day they'll need it.

He still had some amendments to make but he had some time. He still had to find the Room of Requirements and the lost diadem of Ravenclaw.

There were five Horcruxes left. The diadem was at Hogwarts. The Hufflepuff Cup, which had been placed under Bellatrix's Lestrange protection. Harry had then guessed that Nagini was a Horcrux too. In his opinion this is why he had been able to witness the attack on Mr. Weasley through the snake's eyes. Then there was the ring and… Harry.

But first things first. Harry decided to spend his afternoon looking for the Room. He headed towards the wall on the seventh floor that Tom had indicated to him.

'I need a Room to hide something,' he thought while pacing in front of the wall. 'And I need this object to be lost so that no one finds it.'

On his third pass in front of the wall, a door materialized on it. Harry approached slowly, glanced around him, and turned the doorknob. The place he found was a huge room the size of a cathedral. High windows were letting a strange soft gleam which was lighting up towers of hidden objects. Harry was mesmerized. After a few minutes, when his senses came back to him, he focused.

He needed to reach for the Horcrux, but he should proceed carefully as he didn't want to wake the fragment of soul up. He sat on the floor and closed his eyes. He casted his mind in the room, trying to trigger the emotions he knew he was sharing with Tom.

At first it was a moan. Like an echo from another time. And then it grew louder, becoming a cry of pain. Harry opened his eyes just in time. He stood up and headed toward the third tower on the left. There, on a sewing mannequin, was laying a bright diadem with refined features and clear jewels. Like diamonds but purer. Harry grabbed it delicately and contemplated it under the magical gleam of the windows. Its purity was a trap as under the surface of the stones, Harry could see the typical shadows. He hid the diadem in his wizard's robe and left the Room.

As he was climbing down the stairs, an idea rose in his mind. He would write about the Room in his parchment. If it was able to materialize in what people were needing, it could become quite useful if students wanted to find a secret place to, for example, train against the dark arts.

'Remember He will feed on your every doubt,' said Tom as Harry was laying the diadem on the Chamber's ground. 'Don't let him in. Close your mind.'

Harry breathed deeply.

'It's going to be fine,' encouraged Tom. 'Onward Gryffindor!'

Harry could have smiled if he hadn't been that nervous.

He asserted his grip on the fang he was holding and fixated the jewel.

'On three,' he thought. 'One, two, thr…' He struck the diadem with everything he had. He fell the shadow rise again to try to trap his soul, but he was ready. He pressed the fang inside the rift he had created in the main stone. The voice became louder, trying to get to him. But his mind was closed. No one would pass tonight. He wasn't a weak boy anymore. He was the young man that had been trained by Salazar Slytherin.

When he lowered his hand, he was breathless. But this time he didn't fell.

'Well, that was…,' Frightening, impressive… brutal. Many words came to Tom's mind. 'Highly efficient.' He finally said. His tone was admirative. He had never seen anyone in such a frenzy state before.

'A Slytherin strikes once and right,' replied Harry with a smile.

Tom nodded and smiled back.

'For a Gryffindor you know a great deal about Slytherin.'

'I had a good teacher.'

They contemplated the fragments of the diadem on the ground.

'Well, only four remains,' finally said Tom.

'I will need to leave Hogwarts for them.'

'So, it's settled then?' Asked Tom a bit surprised by Harry's resolve. 'You sure you don't want to wait until summer?'

'I'm not sure we have until summer,' said Harry while rubbing his scar.

He turned toward his basilisk.

'I don't know yet when I'll leave, but it will be soon,' he said. 'I still have to put some of my affairs in order but when the time comes, I'd like you to come with me. Do you accept?'

'Breaking rules again, are we?' Hissed the snake with satisfaction. 'Where is your bag?'

Harry handed it to the basilisk who installed himself at the bottom of it with pleasure. Harry had made some arrangements to make it more comfortable for him. Magic was truly wonderful.

He then turned toward Tom and picked the ring up.

'So, I can't wear it, is that right?' Asked Harry again while contemplating the stone. He still couldn't tell its origin, though he had looked for it at the library, but it was mesmerizing.

'No,' replied Tom. 'I suggest however you keep it on yourself at all times.'

When Harry raised his eyes to look at Tom, he was no where to be seen. He looked at the ring again and put it on a inside pocket he had magically designed following Tom's advice. Apart from him, no one could reach it.

He watched the Chamber close behind him and sighed. When he had witnessed its opening for the first time three years ago, he remembered he had been filled with apprehension and had hoped to make it out alive. But now his only hope was to see it open again some day.