AUTHOR'S NOTE: Posting in response to readers at AO3 who have left many kind notes (both here and there) and requested that I continue on this platform. I appreciate your readership and support!
I've added all completed chapters to get the story up to date. This is the last for now, so on with the story.
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Harry woke up at home.
He knew he was home by the smell: the smoky fireplace, the richness of his mother's cooking, even the faint citrus of St. Mungo's disinfectant that clung to his dad's scrubs after every shift, no matter how many cleaning charms he cast.
Mimi slept in her favourite window seat. The sunlight streaming in looked strangely pale, the leaves translucent green.
Harry tried to remember exactly what she'd said in the dream-world. There was dark magic in his scar, magic like black worms, and it had taken her a very long time to heal …
Andromeda walked in, gliding from kitchen to sitting room with a laden tea-tray. When she saw Harry, she did not drop it – a lady is always graceful, Druella's daughters learned that truism as soon as they could walk – but set it flat on the floor before rushing to his side.
"Oh Harry, son! Thank Morgana, thank Merlin!"
She hugged and fussed over him for several minutes, until Mimi stirred and leapt straight from the window onto his chest.
"I'm fine," Harry insisted, patting his familiar and trying to convey to his mother how well he felt by sitting up. The room blurred and swam.
"I have to floo Ted, Nymphadora's with him today –"
"She's not at Hogwarts?" He tried shaking his head, but the room continued to spin.
His mother attempted to smooth his hair. "Sweetheart, Hogwarts is closed. Let me get you something to eat, or help you to the lav –"
"What month is it?" He took a deep breath, suddenly remembering. "What year?"
"You've been asleep for a long time, darling. Months and months. It's spring of your second year, May of … of 1993, you missed your twelfth birthday. Your sister is training to be an Auror, but today she's shadowing your father. The recruits learn a few healing spells, of course, but Nymphadora insisted –"
"When can I go back? To school, I mean." He felt heartsick, thinking of his friends. He'd be stuck almost two years behind …
"I don't want you to worry yourself," Andromeda said sternly. "School can wait."
Harry forced his eyes to focus. Mimi stirred beneath his hand.
"What happened, Mum?"
Her mouth trembled. "Darling, I'm so sorry. Hogwarts closed in February."
As he sat there, stunned to silence, Andromeda went on: "There was a hidden lair beneath the school, a secret place of Slytherin's. The Chamber of Secrets was opened and – several students disappeared. Two teachers, as well."
"Who?" he asked quietly.
"Professor Snape. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Miss – I can't recall her family name, but she and Severus … it doesn't matter. Four second-years and a first-year girl."
He looked at her, waiting. Mimikyu made a soft sound of distress.
"Your friend Hermione," Andromeda said. "Your friend Daphne. Your cousin, Draco Malfoy, and his familiar. Ron Weasley and his sister, Ginevra. A ghost saw them go into that place and they never came out. Vanished, all of them, not a button left behind."
Harry closed his eyes.
"Your sister's working with Alastor Moody, I swear they're at Hogwarts six days a week. Talking to portraits, Peeves, all the ghosts – the Grey Lady led them to a treasure lost for centuries. Mimikyu destroyed its curse, but no amount of wisdom has helped to find them. Albus Dumbledore is in disgrace, cast out from the Wizengamot and Hogwarts alike." She laughed bitterly. "He was already on the outs with Severus, after that day in the infirmary. He's fortunate my brother-in-law hasn't hunted him down. He and Cissy are beside themselves. Whatever their faults, they love their son …"
Her arms tightened around him. "I feel almost ashamed of my happiness. So many parents are mourning, and you've come back to us."
She went to call St. Mungo's. A specialist, Healer Amma, stepped through the Floo with Ted and Nymphadora, who hugged him until he gasped for air. Her hair was dull brown.
Healer Amma looked Harry over, proclaiming that the nutrient potions had done their job and Harry's parents had clearly kept up with his physical therapy.
All seemed well until she placed a stethoscope-like instrument on Harry's sternum. When she moved it to the center of his forehead, avoiding the lightning scar, Ted – his arm wrapped around Harry, propping him up – went dead still.
"We knew this was a possibility," the Healer said, her voice warm and reassuring. "His magic has been restoring itself, some atrophy is natural … Harry, please cast Lumos for me."
Andromeda handed him the holly wand. To his relief, it still felt familiar and friendly in his hand. He focused and cast.
Nothing happened.
"That's not what I would have preferred to see," Healer Amma said. "But at your age, Harry, the chance you've sustained permanent magical damage is slim to none. Practice first-year spells, nothing higher, one hour per day. Otherwise, stay physically active, build your strength, and carry on."
She prescribed two supplement potions and left, congratulating Harry on his return to the land of the living.
The evening passed in a blur. They ate together, Harry sticking to his nutrient potions and porridge until he felt more confident about swallowing and getting himself to the loo.
Dora thanked their mother for breaking the bad news to Harry. She confessed that she and even Moody had felt guiltily grateful that he, Harry, was comatose and not in mortal danger (again) at Hogwarts.
He waited until after supper to drop the bomb.
"I have to visit the Chamber of Secrets. I'll take Mimikyu with me, and Dora and Mad- … Auror Moody can take us there, but I have to see it."
"Over my stone-dead body," Ted said instantly.
"I can go with Mimi and Dora and Auror Moody, or Mimi can sneak me in as soon as I'm well enough."
His familiar tilted her head, painted smile shining in the firelight.
"My friends are down there," Harry said, speaking painfully around the lump in his throat. "They're down there, trapped in the dark …"
She tucked herself against his side, resting a smoky claw on top of his hand.
There was far more discussion, and a fair bit of bargaining, but the end result was never in doubt.
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Hogwarts loomed stark and cold without its students. A cold mist haunted the grounds as Harry and Mimikyu, escorted by his sister, his mother, and Mad-Eye Moody, were admitted by the caretaker and his cat.
Minerva McGonagall and Harry's Head of House, Professor Flitwick, were waiting in the foyer.
"I would never allow this, had I not personally scoured that horrible place," Professor McGonagall told Andromeda. "There's nothing to find, but Auror Moody and Trainee Auror Tonks have access at will and I only need your signature to allow Harry – excuse me, Mr. Potter-Black – and yourself to descend into the Chamber."
While his mother signed magical forms ensuring that their horrific injuries and/or deaths could not be blamed on the school or its representatives, Harry and Mimi were briefed by the Aurors.
"Touch nothing, speak up at the first sign of anything odd, only myself and Trainee Auror Tonks will have wands drawn," Auror Moody instructed. "Mimikyu, your sole purpose here is to protect Mr. Potter-Black. The quicker we go, the quicker we return."
He stomped down the hall and just around a corner, pausing to allow Harry, Andromeda and Mimikyu to catch up before bellowing "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Tonks laughed until her mother shot Stinging Hexes at her feet, forcing her to dance away.
The entrance to the Chamber was a toothless maw, foul with rot and damp.
"You'll want these," Tonks said, unshrinking several brooms and handing them round.
In the Chamber they went single-file behind Moody, Tonks bringing up the rear. Mimikyu stayed close to Harry. Andromeda exclaimed as she slipped on a dank, slimy patch.
"No living thing was found?" she asked. "The rumour that Slytherin hid some sort of blood-purist beast or monster was untrue, then. Bella would be devastated."
"There was a snakeskin," Moody said grimly. "A whole one, shed within the past year. Size of the Knight Bus."
Andromeda sighed. "Those poor children. Poor Severus, too."
"And Griselda," Tonks said.
"I'd forgotten her name. Poor Griselda."
"Pity the Weasleys most," Moody said. "Arthur's on leave from the Ministry, and I saw Molly when she lost Gideon and Fabian, rest their souls. This may just break her."
Harry's desire to help weighed on him. Mimi kept his left wrist wrapped in one tendril as he searched the Chamber. There was a gigantic, rather hideous statue that reminded him of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
"If this were a movie, the statue would move," he told Mimi. "There'd be a magic cup or a dragon hoard, all sorts of traps …"
She tilted her entire body, gazing up at the stone monstrosity. Feel the draft? There's air seeping in from somewhere.
Her eyes glowed bright as topaz in the gloom, and a small amorphous cloud drifted toward the statue.
Moody shouted something, but Harry watched the cloud. The front of it flattened visibly as a very faint wind blew it back upon itself.
"The statue's hiding a cave or something," he called back. "Look, there's a breeze …"
The old Auror swore so colourfully that Dora's hair streaked blue in response.
Andromeda wrinkled her nose, looking for a rare moment like the aristocrat she was. "There's a sewer pipe back there."
"Snakes can swim," Tonks said. "I saw it on a nature show. All of them can, Muggle or magical."
"Damn thing slithered through the pipes," Moody said. "The whole school's plumbed. The Chamber's entrance is in a girls' bathroom, and there's a ghost from the –"
A shadow zigzagged across the filthy stone floor, barely touching the statue. It retreated just as quickly.
I can see a light, Mimi told Harry. Through the crack in the stone – a bright green light.
He repeated her words for the group. Moody raised his wand instantly, Dora falling back to cover them.
"Physical barriers only," he growled. "Find a shield, Auror Tonks."
There was a deep rumble. The stone squealed and ground against the floor, sending up puffs of gritty dust and dried scales like plate-sized flakes of skin. Andromeda covered her nose and mouth, groaning in disgust.
Mimi floated just ahead. A large fold of her dress doubled up as a filter for Harry's nose and mouth. The smell was overpowering now, sewage and snake and standing water.
"What the hell …" Moody began.
"Is it a spell, sir?" Dora panted. "It looks like an opening to – something big, maybe a portal …?"
But Moody didn't reply, or not so Harry could hear. The green light swelled as the statue finished its quarter-turn. Harry closed his eyes and could still see it. He could almost remember it, that terrible green, but something was different. The cloth was suddenly torn from his face.
Harry, don't let it take me! I don't want to leeeave!
The light pulled Mimi like a tractor beam, so quickly Harry almost lost her. Instead he lunged, fingertips barely brushing her claw, and she grabbed his arm with all her strength. Harry's feet left the ground as he and Mimkyu were hauled in together.
"Harry!" his mother screamed. His sister fired off spell after spell, blue and crimson and blinding yellow, and so did Moody, but the light kept dragging them toward the crack in the wall like a waiting mouth.
His ears popped as the pressure changed and the light grew even brighter. The terrible smells disappeared.
They were rolling down a smooth dark slope. The mouth of the tunnel spat them out, and Harry and Mimikyu sprawled in the moonlight on a white-sand beach.
In the distance, a mad wolf howled.