Chapter 6: Prettier than my Daughters
"Open" Harry hissed at the snake tap in the second-floor bathroom. Luckily, he had managed to dodge Myrtle showing up and ruining his plan to go unnoticed. With a free period in the morning Harry had time to check out the Chamber again to see if it was suitable for magic practice. Also, he was curious to see if there were any more secrets to be uncovered down there besides a large bloody snake.
In a dazzling display of forethought, Harry pulled out his broom that he had shrunk down for the very purpose of getting in and out of the chamber and mounted it before descending the slide. Once he had reached the bottom, he shrunk it again and pocketed it before making his way to the cave in. Levitating the rubble away Harry approached the open chamber door with slight trepidation. 'Who knows what else could be lurking down here, maybe a boggart has made itself at home' he thought warily. Entering the chamber, Harry noticed that the basilisk hadn't decomposed in the slightest and, were he not sure that he had killed it, Harry would be tempted to say that it was asleep. Ignoring the basilisk for now Harry started to comb the walls for secret doors or passageways, periodically speaking in parseltongue to prompt a reaction. Not finding anything obvious Harry returned to the centre of the chamber and looked up at the giant head statue of Salazar Slytherin.
'Damn this guy clearly didn't have an ego problem. That's probably where Tommy boy gets it from, he was certainly an arrogant teenager. Crazy to think I've met two Voldemort's and the the theatrics were basically on par, "speak to me Slytherin greatest of the Hogwarts four" what a load of cr… hang on'
In a loud voice Harry proclaimed, "Speak to me Slytherin greatest of the Hogwarts four!" whilst focusing on the idea of secret passages and right in front of him a staircase opened descending further into the earth than the chamber itself.
"I love magic"
Taking the stairs down, Harry came face to face with a wooden door. "What is the point of a door now? Oh no they found my secret chamber, what will I use to keep them at bay? A wooden fucking door" he muttered to himself as he opened it. The room was dark, but Harry could make out shelves and a desk and maybe a fireplace?
"I couldn't stand the damn whining of Thula, I could at least spell the door so that no noise could get in" a silky smooth male voice said from behind some of the shelves.
"Who's there?" questioned a startled Harry
"Get some light in here and you'll find out won't you boy?" It replied.
Not liking the disadvantage of being in the dark Harry cast a silent incendio at the fireplace at the back of the room. The room instantly came alight as candles and torches flared to life, seemingly linked to the fireplace. Above the mantle Harry discovered who he had been talking to moments ago. There was a portrait of a bald man with a pointy beard and deep green robes, wrapped around the man's shoulders was a snake of some kind and he held a staff in one of his hands. That man was Salazar Slytherin.
"Are you the spawn of Riddle then? He won his little war, I take it. Not surprised he had a kid either, that boy was prettier than my daughters" he said casually.
Collecting himself and trying to remove the mental image of Voldemort having sex with someone, Harry worked up the courage to respond. "Wrong on both accounts actually, I killed Tom and he lost his war. Although he's back now so yeah, it's a bit confusing."
"He did it then, made himself immortal?"
"I wouldn't call it that, just some freaky ancient magic from both my mother and him presumably"
"And who exactly was your mother? A powerful witch she must have been to stop Tom"
"Lily Potter, the brightest and bravest witch of her time"
"Didn't have Potter's in my time. Although I guess my line becomes them eventually, considering you're here." Salazar pondered
"Also not correct, it's a long story I'm happy to explain" Harry offered, seeing that he still had half an hour till defence.
"Go on then"
And so Harry explained the first rise of Voldemort and his family's role in defeating him. He also explained his recent encounters with Tom Riddle right up until…
"YOU KILLED THULA!"
"She was going to kill me! You're the psycho who put a killer snake in your creepy dungeon"
"Mark my words boy. If I were alive, I'd resurrect my poor sweet baby Thula and have you eaten by her reanimated corpse.
"What a lovely image, may I continue?"
"Hmph"
The tournament and the resurrection of Tom Riddle in the graveyard had Salazar looking slightly worried. Harry questioned him on that and Salazar replied gravely.
"In time you will find all the answers you seek right here in this very room; I am forbidden to help you on this matter beyond offering you my resources left behind for my heirs."
On that note Harry decided he'd had enough of Slytherin hospitality for one day. He said his goodbyes and left up the stairs. 'The chamber will do nicely for spell casting and the mini library down in the office ought to have something special although Tom would probably know it. Salazar is an odd character, but he could prove useful if he's not as bigoted as history suggests' he thought as he mounted his broom once again and flew out the chamber, ready to attend his first defence class.
"Good afternoon class" Professor Umbridge spoke cheerily. The sickly-sweet smile that followed unnerved Harry and he could see that he wasn't the only one. The less enthusiastic and mumbled 'good mornings' from the class clearly didn't satisfy Umbridge as she tutted and said "Now, now that won't do, when I say good afternoon, I expect a response. So, good afternoon class" with an expectant look on her face.
"Good morning, Professor" half the class responded. The exchanged looks of distaste between the students either went wholly ignored by Umbridge or she just didn't care.
"Now since you're all in your fifth year we should all be focused on your O.W.L's. Your prescribed text Dark Arts Defence - Basics for Beginners will provide you with the suitab…." Harry zoned her out at that point, he had read the textbook before the school year and had found it to be ironically lacking in defence and the dark arts. Much of the book was about conflict avoidance and ministry protocols in handling dark magic. It was clear to Harry that the ministry had started interfering at Hogwarts, likely because of what Sirius told him at Number 12. Keep the people defenceless so they can't be a threat to the ministry or some other such rubbish. Sirius' warning of keeping his head down had just become more relevant very quickly. 'If Umbridge catches me with the Grimoire or practising any parselmagic then it's game over, I'll have aurors storming the chamber before I can do anything to stop it' he thought.
"Isn't that right Mr Potter?"
'Oh, shit what have I missed' looking around, Harry saw Ron standing up with his fists clenched and Hermione glaring angrily at our new Professor.
"Sorry Professor I didn't catch that last part, do you mind repeating yourself? He said feigning respect but inside he was ready to attack this bitch for making his friends mad.
"That's quite alright, I said that the malicious rumour that a certain dark lord is back is just that, a rumour, and people perpetuating it are liars bent on causing chaos hehe" she responded with that damn overly cheery voice and giggle.
The rage burning inside of Harry was difficult to control but control it he did. 'I have priorities now, this stupid bint's delusions are of no consequence to me. Let her believe that Voldemort is dead, when he returns, she's probably going to shit herself anyway.'
"If that is the opinion of the ministry then I believe the matter is settled" he neglected to say that if it was the opinion of the ministry then it was obviously the furthest thing possible from the truth. Relishing the shocked looks on both his friend's and Umbridge's face Harry lent back in his chair and smirked a little. 'Nice try Umbridge but I'm not so easily provoked anymore. An obese woman with a fetish for pink is a little low on the list of things I'm thinking about' he thought satisfied with himself for keeping his cool
"Yes well, I believe the matter is definitely settled. Mr Weasley - detention for being out of your seat without permission, 7:00pm tonight. Now back to chapter one, the best way to defend yourself is to not be in any danger in the first place, that's why chapter one is about conflict avoidance…"
Returning to the chamber after his day of classes Harry transfigured some of the rubble into a desk for the grimoire to sit on. Harry wanted to practice a spell which allowed him to convert his eyesight into a thermal-like vision in line with what some pythons and vipers can do at night time.
Extinguishing all of the lights, Harry walked to the centre of the room and transfigured a rock into a rat and let it start scurrying around. Closing his eyes, Harry hissed 'sedisebris' and took a deep breath before opening his eyes. His vision was assaulted with a serious amount of blue which took some adjusting to, by continuously blinking he was able to get used to the new sensation. A small squeak reminded him of his yet to be completed test. Turning to the origin of the sound Harry could see a red form in the shape of a rat, which scurried off towards one of the pipes leading to the school drainage system. Transfiguring another rat from rubble, Harry cast the disillusionment charm over the rat and for a second, he thought the spell had failed; however, when he cancelled the parsel-charm and couldn't see the rat he realised the disguise couldn't cancel heat signatures. Harry had one final thing to test, turning on the torches with a few well-placed incendios Harry was assaulted with a lot of red light which began to overload his senses. Cancelling the charm with a hissed "finite" Harry thought about the spell's effectiveness.
'This gives me an undeniable advantage in the dark and against disillusioned enemies but I'm not so sure how effective it will be in daytime or well-lit areas. I could probably use something like fumos to create a smoke screen then pick off the people caught in it with my thermal vision. However, a flame spell or overpowered lumos could put me out of the fight for too long. It's unlikely that someone would figure out how I can see them but a lucky shot or someone who favours fire spells could just fluke it and then I'd be dead to some random pyromancer. Maybe that's my fate, flambéed before I can face Voldemort again. Heh, I've gotten morbid.'
Harry then began to start working on his spell chains and combinations. Much like in swordplay and martial arts, some techniques work well with others and in tandem they can be truly devastating. One particular chain that he was working on was a creative way to immobilise someone. First, he would start off by purposefully missing some spells and one of them being a blasting hex. Then little by little he would transfigure rubble from the ripped up ground into needles sticking upwards. He had found transfiguring things into needles was a great way to create physical objects that could inflict some real damage easily as they were such a simple object to visualise.
Another spell chain he was working on was a shield breaker chain. He would start with a simple stunner which would prompt a shield so that he could follow it up with 'corcido' a dark curse from the Black Grimoire that would spew out a line of acid that magically erodes shields. He would then follow up with a confringo to force the opponent to either drop their shield and move or take the powerful spell while their shield corrodes in front of them.
The reality that he was using dark curses was not something that had bothered Harry in the slightest surprisingly. He hadn't been brought up with the same prejudice as Ron when it came to the dark arts but what he had discovered was that blood magic was considered fairly dark if the black grimoire was anything to believe. He also had a hunch that his mother had created a ritual through blood magic to keep him alive, if she sacrificed herself. So, with that in mind, dark magic had already saved his life, why not do it again?
Working himself until he felt exhausted Harry chucked in the towel when he could no longer stand the thought of casting anymore. It was a sweaty and dead on his feet Harry that ascended the castle to the Gryffindor common room so that he could get some much needed rest.