Disclaimer: Nothing is mine; everything is J K Rowling's.

Next chapter is up!

This is the last one I completely wrote in Tanzania and, in case anyone is curious, I wrote it just before midnight and the ascent under moonlight from 4600m all the way to Uhuru point at just under 5900m; which is the top of Kilimanjaro.

Chapter 17

Sirius' letter was carefully folded under the edge of his plate. His godfather had not been able to contact him until recently, but the moment he had Harry had received a letter as long as his forearm.

Most of it was no longer relevant, but a few snippets were very enlightening. His father's invisibility cloak was apparently a very old family heirloom and the Marauders had discovered it resisted summoning charms, the revealing spell and many other spells besides. Sirius thought it possible that it might have been able to hide him from the age line.

If that was true it would explain why Dumbledore had genuinely seemed to be disappointed with him when it had seemed impossible for Harry to enter.

In addition to his knowledge of the invisibility cloak came a warning to be wary of Igor Karkaroff, a former Death Eater, Alastor Moody, whose descent into paranoia and madness was well known, and Snape, because his godfather still hated the man.

Harry had followed their actions on the map, but had seen nothing untoward in their actions. Neither had strayed from their normal routines and Harry had been forced to conclude that they were not responsible.

His suspects were Lucius Malfoy, who had planted the diary in this second year, and Peter Pettigrew. He had seen the latter on the Marauders' Map from time to time, lurking by the quidditch pitch.

Most importantly to Harry was Sirius' choice of words. At no point in the letter did he even imply that Harry had entered himself. His godfather had known he had not without a word from Harry himself.

His reply has been brief, but honest. A thank you for not asking whether he had entered and a short relation of events up until this point. He has only excluded the Chamber of Secrets and Salazar from his recounting. Sirius would understand that he had to grow stronger and would know that Harry wasn't going to misuse any of what he learned, supposedly dark, or not.

'Harrikins.' The twins slid themselves on to the bench across from him. The Great Hall was the only place anyone had been able to find him; it was also somewhere he couldn't avoid.

'We should probably stop calling him that, Fred.' Harry tucked the letter out of sight while they were distracted.

'I suppose,' the other, possibly George, agreed. 'He did survive the dragon.'

'Shouldn't the two of you be over there?' Harry asked, nodding in the direction of Angelina, Alicia and Katie.

'No,' they announced together.

'They're coming over here,' George told him cheerfully. 'We told you this wouldn't last long if we could help it.'

'Although it was Katie that did most of the persuading,' Fred added.

Harry watched the three Gryffindor girls approach with mixed emotions. On one hand he wanted to play seeker next year, but on the other was the fact that both Angelina and Alicia had turned their backs on him.

'Angelina, Alicia, Katie,' he greeted them coolly, his tone only thawing when he addressed Katie who squirmed a little upon getting a more favourable introduction.

'I was assured that you would hear me out, despite the rumours that you wouldn't accept apologies from anyone in Gryffindor.'

'I promised somebody that I would at least listen to you,' Harry responded. 'I keep my promises.'

'Then I shall apologise for acting as I have,' Angelina said quietly, but confidently. 'You have represented both Gryffindor and Hogwarts as well as I could have, regardless of whether you used an invisibility cloak to put your name into the goblet.'

'So you do not believe me, but have moved past your jealousy at not being chosen yourself,' Harry summarised bluntly. He assumed Ron or Hermione was to blame for the rumour about his cloak, but he doubted his cloak would have let him bypass the line, family heirloom or not. The age line had been made by Albus Dumbledore, the greatest living wizard.

There was a long silence in which everyone turned to look at Angelina.

'I suppose that is a fair description,' the quidditch captain admitted.

'Then I will tell you what I told the few others who have come to speak to me. I don't forgive you and I won't forget what you did, but I do understand why you did it well enough not to hold a grudge and perpetuate this affair. We are no longer friends, Angelina, Alicia, from the next time we met it will be as if we had never met before.'

Harry watched the reactions of each of the sixth years. The twins seemed to accept it, Harry suspected they had already guessed what he was going to say from speaking with Ginny, and Angelina and Alicia seemed resigned, even a little relieved, by his decision. Hermione's rumour mongering, intentional, misguided, or otherwise, had clearly spread far. Katie was smiling. It was a wide, bright, beaming grin that brought a twitch of a smile to Harry's own lips. She was a glitter of white teeth between pale, pink lips, with mahogany eyes glimmering with the same swell of joy and framed by messy hair that scattered past her ears in loose strands. Katie always wore her emotions in her eyes and on her face in an endearing, earnest manner.

'Thank you,' Angelina said. ' I assume you excluded Katie because she spent so much time trying to convince us we were wrong?'

'She was the one who convinced me to listen to you,' Harry replied simply.

'I'm not very surprised that Katie didn't go along with the attempt to ostracise you,' Alicia smirked, eliciting a faint blush from her fellow chaser.

The four departed leaving Harry with a nervous looking Katie.

'Thank you for listening to them,' she said, tugging anxiously at her little finger.

'I said I would,' Harry responded, scrunching his toes within his shoes. Katie's nervousness was beginning to put him on edge. She had never acted like this around him before, it reminded him faintly of how Ginny had been, but he had no idea what she wanted.

'Do you want to go to Hogsmeade at the weekend?' She blurted suddenly, then bit her lip in embarrassment.

'Who's going?' Harry asked, oblivious to the rising blush on Katie's cheeks.

'Me,' Katie said in a very small voice.

It took Harry a second to realise what had just happened.

A date with Katie.

He had no idea how he was supposed to reply, or even if he wanted go on a date. Harry would have been happy to wander round Hogsmeade with her, but she'd asked too officially for it to be anything but a date. Katie was nice, he supposed, Harry could be himself around her, they had shared interests and she was hardly unattractive. In fact, as she stared up at him with wide, anxious eyes, it was rather hard to miss just how cute she really was and Harry couldn't see why he had never seen it before.

'If you don't want to go it's ok,' she told him, just as quietly, looking down at the floor.

'What time?' Harry asked. He'd made up his mind. There were really no reasons for him not to go once he ignored his own nervousness and inexperience of what exactly a date was meant to be.

Katie burst into the same bright smile as before, only this time it was accentuated by a full rosy blush. 'Eleven,' she decided. 'I'm not much of a planner. We can figure out what to do when we get there.'

'That sounds perfect.' Harry flashed her a smile of his own to cover his growing anxiety. Katie's blush bypassed all the remaining intermediate shades of red and skipped straight to crimson. Glancing to either side of her she released a small squeak of joy and jumped forward to hug him tightly.

It wasn't as uncomfortable as Harry normally found such closeness. She was warm, very soft, and pressed in against him in a way that seemed quite natural. He had never realised the feeling of having another person so closely moulded to the contours of his body would be so pleasant.

There was only a moments delay before he wrapped his arms around her and pressed her closer still, bending down slightly and inhaling the fragrance of her hair. Katie smelt like grass and broom polish. It was a smooth, sporty, but still natural scent that rather suited her.

She didn't let go for a long time, even when people nearby started to stare and whisper, and it was only when Harry reminded her that lunch was almost over and she hadn't eaten anything yet that she released him and stepped back, still blushing madly.

'I'm sorry,' she apologised. 'I've never asked anyone on a date before and I sort of expected you to say no.' She was speaking very fast, the words rushing over each other in a happy tumble. ' I need to get some food, and go find Angelina and Alicia and…' Katie's words blurred together into an ecstatic, but unintelligible burble.

For a second she looked torn and Harry half-expected another hug, then she gave him a wave and a smile before skipping happily away after her friends.

'Hogsmeade with Katie Bell,' Ginny spoke up from a few places down the table.

How long has she been there?

Harry had not even noticed her. He felt a little guilty about that.

'Yes,' he responded, the guilt doubling as he remembered their last conversation.

'I was going to ask you if you'd take me to the Yule Ball,' Ginny continued in an unsettlingly happy tone, 'but if you're going on dates with Katie then you'll be going with her.'

Harry honestly had no idea what the Yule Ball was or what it entailed. He could guess from the name it was both at Christmas and involved dancing in the style of the Jane Austen novels his aunt was so fond of.

'I guess I will be,' he realised. It would be a bit strange if Katie wanted to go on dates with him and not accompany him to this Yule Ball.

'I suppose I've missed my chance then,' Ginny said, rather too cheerfully for Harry's liking. Her happiness about something that should have definitely upset her was ominous. Harry felt there was a whole storm of unspoken words waiting to break from her lips.

'Sorry,' he began, but Ginny cut him off.

'I can go with Dean, or with Michael,' she smiled. 'I'll enjoy myself with either of them.'

'Don't make any decisions with me in the back of your mind,' Harry told her, finally understanding the reason for her odd cheer. She would not provoke the jealousy or regret from his that she hoped for. Ginny was no longer Ron's little sister to him, but she would never be anything more than a friend. There was no feeling between them like Harry felt with Katie.

'Ah,' Ginny's happiness vanished abruptly and left a very sad, small smile in its place. 'I hope you enjoy going with Katie.' She sounded surprisingly genuine. There was a note of bitterness when she said Katie's name and her eyes were looking a lot more liquid than normal, but she managed a smile as she turned to walk away.

I'm sorry, he wanted to say, but the words died in his throat. He was sorry that she was unhappy, but nothing more, and he didn't want to give her false hope. It would be far better for Ginny's feelings to fade away completely than survive and fester.

Harry decided, as he watched Ginny's back recede away, one sleeve pressed to her face, that the Yule Ball, whatever it turned out to be, was going to cause a great deal of trouble for him and many others. He really wanted no part of it. The Yule Ball would be loud, close and everything that Harry hated, were it not for Katie it might be unbearable.

A thousand possible scenarios for the Ball paraded through his head, each more uncomfortable than the last until he finally decided that thinking on it was only making things worse.

Katie will make it bearable.

The Chamber of Secrets was far removed from this newly unfolding drama and Harry could not be more eager to return there. Salazar was very unlikely to cry, ask him on a date, or invite him to a ball.

He made it halfway across the hall, walking along the length of the Gryffindor table, before Ron rose from his seat to block his path.

'What did you say to my sister?' he demanded furiously.

Harry noted that Dean was similarly incensed. He must have already asked Ginny and just worked out her delay was to see if Harry would go with her before falling back on Dean if he would not. It was no wonder Dean was angry.

'I told her something she knew I would, but hoped I wouldn't,' Harry answered vaguely. Hopefully Ron would let him pass and vanish before he worked it out.

'Was she not good enough for you?' Dean said loudly, setting his goblet down with a bang.

'I could not say yes in good faith,' Harry defended.

'So you just crush her and walk away like it was nothing?' Ron had finally caught up.

'Better she understands now and gets on with her life,' Harry told him coolly. It was nice of Ron to be protective of his younger sister, but he hadn't really thought things through.

'If you've hurt her,' Ron began.

'You'll do what?' Harry asked coldly. 'It is not your place to decide things for Ginny, but if you wish to be the protective older brother you can start by asking Dean what his intentions were in asking her to the Yule Ball.'

Ron swivelled to stare at Dean in disbelief.

'I was going to tell you if she said yes,' Dean admitted, 'but she wanted time to think about it, obviously because she wanted to go with him.' He levelled a hateful stare at Harry as if he hoped that if he desired it enough Harry might burst into flames.

'It's alright,' Ron said, after a long, hesitant moment. 'I trust you, Dean, but if you do upset her you'll have me and all her older brothers to answer too and we won't be merciful to anyone who harms our baby sister.' He turned to glare at Harry. 'You've already hurt her, you utterly arrogant prat, and we'll make you pay for it.'

'Threatening me, Ron, is not a good idea, and you know it,' Harry responded icily. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that Ron would not stand a chance against him in a fight. Magically he was more knowledgeable and more powerful and while they were of similar physical size Harry had developed a high tolerance for pain over his years at the school. He wasn't afraid of Ron or any of the other students in his year or below.

His former best friend considered saying or doing something more, but a lot of the Great Hall was watching now and under their curious stares he backed down.

Harry didn't even look at him when he walked past.

'Did you read all the books?' Salazar asked him when Harry lifted him off the wall to carry him outside.

'I did,' Harry replied, staggering across the bridge. His post-ritual body was stronger, but only by a little. His baby fat melting away and the first signs of late puberty appearing were little help in carrying the heavy, hardwood-framed portrait.

'Then you know about all the different examples of blood magic that have been used and recorded. Did you understand them?' Slytherin asked as Harry set him down on the floor.

'I understand the principles, but not how you would decide on an appropriate sacrifice.'

'That knowledge comes from understanding yourself, your desires and your principles,' the portrait answered. 'Was there anything in the books that caught your eye?'

'Yes,' Harry answered. 'In the Secrets of the Darkest arts I found over a hundred pieces of parchment that must have belonged to Tom Riddle. I found it curious that he had devoted so much effort to the subject, but had other things on my mind.'

The founder shifted within his frame, the subject of Tom Riddle, his errant heir, made Salazar uncomfortable.

Harry tapped the tome. 'Do you know what a Horcrux is?'

Salazar peered at him very seriously. 'It is a branch of soul magic,' he replied. 'I know very little about it other than it involves separating a piece of a person's soul to anchor ten to the world when they should die.'

I was less than the meanest ghost, but I was alive.

Harry recalled some of the first words that Tom Riddle had ever said to him and knew instantly how he had survived his reflected Killing Curse.

'Tom Riddle created one,' he told the painting.

'To think I aided him and named him my heir,' Salazar shook his head in disgust. 'Whatever he made into a horcrux is anchoring him here. It would have to be destroyed before Riddle can be killed.'

'How can I find it?' Harry asked.

'Casting the person revealing charm might locate it once you were close enough. The charm is derived from soul magic and may well identify a fragment of a person's soul as well as the whole thing.' Slytherin raised a hand to stroke the head of his snake as he thought. 'These items will be very dangerous,' he warned. 'A soul fragment, if brought into close proximity, could theoretically affect those around it.'

A very nasty thought occurred to Harry. 'Could it possess someone?'

'I believe it could in the right circumstances,' Salazar replied slowly, 'but I know little about the secrets of soul magic. Why?'

'When I slew your basilisk it had been unleashed on the school by a girl possessed by a shade of Tom Riddle. The shade was connected to a diary and was only destroyed when I stabbed it with a basilisk fang.' Harry spoke each word with a growing dread and suspicion.

'That may very well have been a horcrux,' the founder nodded. 'What else did the diary do?'

'It wrote back if you wrote in it, it showed me his memories and it tried to drain the life from Ginny to become real again.'

'Horcrux or not that was no ordinary enchanted book,' Slytherin told him gravely. 'It is possible Tom Riddle created something different with similar effects, but it sounds like the diary contained a soul fragment.'

'I have to tell Professor Dumbledore,' Harry declared. 'I gave him the book after leaving the chamber, what if it is not completely destroyed?'

'Basilisk venom is potent enough to destroy whatever that diary was, horcrux or not,' Salazar reassured him. 'This Professor Dumbledore, he is the same one that taught Tom Riddle and defeated Grindelwald, a powerful dark wizard?'

'Yes,' Harry replied. 'He is recognised as the most powerful living wizard.'

'If he is as powerful and knowledgeable as Tom Riddle feared and you believe, then I have little doubt that he knows exactly what the diary is,' Salazar declared.

'He would have told me, or someone, so that people could be warned about Voldemort,' Harry defended the headmaster.

'Perhaps,' the portrait replied sceptically, 'but it seems he hasn't and I can't help but wonder why he would not. There is too much that we do not know.'

'He might not have realised,' Harry considered slowly, not really believing his own words. Professor Dumbledore always knew. In his third year he had suggested, very subtly, the time-turner be used to save Sirius and Buckbeak, Fawkes had come to him when Harry needed help against the basilisk Tom Riddle twisted into his service, and the headmaster had found him before the Mirror of Erised in his first year.

I wonder what the mirror would show me now?

Harry was not the same child he had been then. His parents and his hope for a family would be within the reflection without a doubt, Sirius might have joined them, but he had new dreams to go with his maturing old ones. He needed to be strong, to have enough power to stop Tom Riddle and people like Peter Pettigrew from hurting anyone, especially those he cared about, even if that list of people had dwindled of late.

'It does not yet matter,' the founder decided. 'We have no real proof he ever created one, just a stack of notes on the subject in his writing. Read through them and perhaps we will learn something that might shed light on things. Albus Dumbledore will have his reasons for keeping this a secret. It is possible he intends to quietly destroy the other anchor and wishes to ensure Riddle does not suspect anything, that way it will be undefended.'

'There has to be another anchoring horcrux,' Harry pronounced. 'The diary, horcrux or not, was destroyed by the basilisk venom, so there has to be another one somewhere.'

'The horcrux will be well hidden and probably dangerously warded,' Salazar confirmed. 'Tom Riddle will not want it found or harmed.'

'I am surprised he left the notes here,' Harry voiced.

'Tom Riddle was the last of his family,' Salazar explained. 'He would not have believed it possible for another to enter the Chamber of Secrets, but if they did, his secret was guarded by a basilisk and hidden within my study.'

The painting frowned and shook its head in bemusement. 'Tom Riddle's hubris was born in this room and it grew to consume him. He would have never believed I might find a more suitable heir than him and so expects my Chamber of Secrets to be his for as long as he lives.'

'Dumbledore must be searching for the other horcrux,' Harry decided. The headmaster would not needlessly leave him, or the wizarding world, in the dark if it was not necessary.

It was likely that the announcement of Lord Voldemort's survival would cause not only panic, but the recommencing of the war that Harry had unknowingly ended. He suspected that the headmaster wanted to quietly eliminate the anchor and thus Tom Riddle before anyone was wiser. Dumbledore did not seem like the type to endanger anyone if it was not necessary, far from it.

'Or,' the painting suggested thoughtfully, 'he has already found the anchor and is searching for a way to destroy it and confirmation it is the only one. It is unlikely there are more than a few, the side effects of soul magic are not something to risk lightly.'

'What kind of effects?' Harry could vividly remember the appearance of Voldemort's spirit, crimson-eyed, black as smoke, with slit nostrils and unnaturally pale skin.

'The soul is a reflection of many things,' Slytherin stated simply. 'I have only dabbled in the art briefly, an attempt to find a way to reverse the sacrifice I made by creating an artefact such as the one my daughter and I searched for. I swiftly gave up when I realised it was a feat far beyond me.'

The snake around his neck gave off a melancholy hiss and slithered tighter around the shoulders of the founder.

'From what you have told me of your previous meetings with Tom Riddle, or Voldemort, as he has left behind his original name completely, it appears he has permanently damaged his soul. Whether that is a result of you reflecting his Killing Curse, or just the effect of his deeds upon himself I do not know.'

'Is his soul weaker?'

'A soul does not have strength in such a simple way. It is the essence of yourself. Your body has strength, your magic has power, your mind has its intellect and will, but the soul is little more than a reflection. You die if your soul's link to your body is severed, and souls can be used as the basis of magic, but their action is passive. A soul exists and changes, nothing more. The magics of the soul are separated into two branches: the larger, spells such as the revealing spell which make use of the existence of the soul but do not interact with it, and the smaller, true soul magic such as the Killing Curse, horcruxes; that which actually touches the essence of yourself.'

Harry understood most of what Salazar was trying to say. Soul magic was even more vague and abstract than blood magic. Its existence was used passively in many spells, but spells actually affecting the soul were rare and seemingly very dangerous. All magic came with a price, casting a spell drained that magic from the magical core of a wizard or witch, casting blood magic required sacrifice equal and casting soul magic was no exception. The Killing Curse, which tore the soul from the body of the victim, put such strain on the soul of the caster that it fractured. Harry did not know if that strain came from the caster having the desire and intent necessary to cast the spell or the actual action of the magic itself, but he wasn't eager to find out.

AN: Please read and review! Thanks to everyone who has or does.

P.S. Out of fear that my readers are all H/F addicts and about to pre-emptively abandon ship I'll semi-officially announce this is H/F, agonisingly slow as it may be (Everyone pretty much knows that already, but just in case anyone starts getting concerned).