It's been almost two weeks since Harry began his plotting.
So far, Dobby has located the whereabouts of the goblet and nicked the diary from Dumbledore's office leaving him a single brightly colored woolly sock. There was a bit of a mishap trying to access the office, but with the help of Harry's cloak, they've managed to bypass any detection wards and remove the diary under the eyes of the ever vigilant portraits. With luck, it would be a long while before Dumbledore noticed the missing diary.
With the help of Dobby, he was able to pass on a letter to Sirius requesting for his help in conducting mayhem.
Dobby came back with a two-way mirror that allowed them to talk face to face.
Sirius was in the midst of packing and preparing for his return to Scotland so he could be nearby in case Harry needed any help in the tournament. Luckily, Harry was able to dissuade him of the notion and instead nudged him into becoming his partner in crime. Sirius mentioned an ancestral home in London, that he would be gaining access to in the coming weeks, and from there he would have the resources to back up Harry's operation. Despite his initial reluctance in returning to his ancestral home, the idea of wreaking havoc was of the highest priority in Sirius's mind. Well, that and making sure Harry was safe.
Bringing himself back to the present, Harry was walking alongside Colin to the Wand Weighing ceremony. He was pulled out of his potions class in the middle of Snape's tirade. His puce-coloured visage and subsequent billowing of his cloak as he turned and ignored him was of great amusement to Harry.
The entire ordeal took two hours before he was able to abscond from the room. There was a lot of pomp and ceremony going in, but Harry was dreadfully bored. He had an unpleasant encounter with a Ms. Rita Skeeter, and a lot of jostling around when the champions had their pictures taken.
Finally escaping the clutches of the media circus, Harry snuck down into the second floor girls' lavatory.
He planned on using the basilisk's blood as a sacrifice for the goblet, but he would have to check the condition of the snake. The basilisk was highly magical and with its sheer size, it would meet the requirements for the empowering ritual. Considering that the carcass has been lying down in the chamber for over a year, if it has started to decompose, then he would have to look for other alternatives. Hagrid's invitation for a late night stroll in the forest has revealed the presence of four gigantic flame spewing monstrosities and he was doubting his chances of slaying a dragon to empower the goblet.
Gathering his robes around him, Harry slid down the open mouth for a long ride down. He heard the entrance close far above him and braced himself for the landing in a pile of small bones and grime.
Ugh. He didn't remember the ride down being so slimy.
Pulling his wand out, Harry casted a quick evanesco on his robes and glasses. The vanishing spell was a fifth year Transfiguration spell, but Harry has been studying ahead for the tournament. His talent in the practical aspect of spellcasting shone through during his study sessions, having blazed through most of the fourth year curriculum.
A silent lumos brightened up Harry's surroundings as he navigated the labyrinth of pipes and tunnels. The tunnel was as he remembered it. Less eerie but that was knowing the great monster living in its depth has been slain.
The sight of numerous shed skin lying on the ground gave Harry an idea.
"Dobby!"
Pop.
"Yes, great master Harry Potter sir?" Dobby asked mid-bow.
"Do you think the skins are still worth anything? Some of them are probably centuries old." Harry was inspecting one of the older skins, probably thirty-five feet in length. The sheen was still bright and looks to be in pristine condition.
"Oh yes, master. The great snake's skin is worth a lot and they don't decay because of magic."
"Can you gather the skins and make armor out of them before the first task begins?"
"Yes, great master Harry Potter sir. Dobby knows of shop that can make armors out of snake skins in the Knockturn Alley. Bad master used to go there a lot." Dobby was nodding his head in an exaggerated motion.
"Well, I'll need your help gathering all the skins around here. I want a vest, boots, and a holster made from the skin. The extra can go into my vault in Gringotts."
Leaving Dobby to his task, Harry moved on deeper into the tunnel. He arrived at where the tunnel collapsed during their brief duel with Lockhart and cleared off the remaining debris. Two quick hisses later, and he was back in the chamber where the giant snake lay sprawled in a pool of murky water. A cursory glance told him the corpse was still fresh, despite nature and science.
'Maybe magic is protecting the carcass. Or the venom,' Harry thought.
It looks like the blood can still be used as a sacrifice. Now, I just have to get the goblet down here for the ritual.
One of the minor roadblocks that Harry ran into was his lack of understanding in ancient runes and arithmancy formulas. In his fortnight of studying, Harry had yet to unravel the ritual made of complex runes and circles. Sirius mentioned ancient runes and arithmancy playing a vital role in rituals.
"Damn, should have taken the useful courses," Harry lamented.
Sirius had chuckled and said, "The pure-blood families are well aware of the importance of those two classes, as they set the basis for a lot of the ancient magic passed down along the family. Rituals and warding are two of the most useful branches of magic that are powered by runes. You can't just wave a wand and cast a spell to set up a ward or ritual. Most pure-blood heirs pick the two electives unless they have a specific job in mind like working with magical creatures. Lily was one of the smartest in our generation and she didn't fall into the pitfall of taking easy classes. Of course, she took all the electives besides Muggle Studies. Probably could have taught us Muggle Studies herself. She was the one who introduced us to the wonderful world of motorcycles. I got my baby right after graduating Hogwarts."
Harry groaned in response and slumped down into his arms.
He was doing self-study at this point using the introductory materials he was able to find in the library but it was slow going. Sirius was guiding him through the ritual and teaching Harry as they work using the mirror he sent. At least they aren't in a hurry with the tournament in progress. They have until the end of the year to set up the whole thing.
After Harry had confirmed the state of the basilisk's corpse, he began exploring the chamber. His fight or flight response during the basilisk fight and Tom Riddle's evil monologue left anything beyond his sword point a blurry mess. Heck, he had his head down and eyes closed for most of the confrontation.
Seeing nothing but splotches of ink and blood, Harry began examining the gigantic statue of Salazar Slytherin's head.
Open! Harry hissed.
A slight tremor later, the statue's mouth gaped open.
"Well, that answers my question," Harry deadpanned.
Voldemort was really into his villain monologue to have come up with that elaborate sequence. There was arm waving and praises to his long dead ancestor and more, all at the age of seventeen. Perhaps he was bored, stuck inside a diary for decades on end. Ginny was probably the first chance he had someone to talk to in a while. Maybe that's where all the melodrama is coming from.
Shaking his head, Harry proceeded to enter the statue's mouth.
'Into the rabbit hole we go!' Harry thought wryly.
At the base of the mouth was the start of a staircase spiralling upwards towards another room. Stepping on, the stairs began moving similar to the stairs to the headmaster's office.
Upon reaching the next landing, Harry spied an archway leading towards a moderately sized study and a bedroom on the other end.
'Is this Slytherin's private study and bedroom?' Harry marveled. 'Voldemort probably had access to all the books in here during his Hogwarts years.'
Entering the study, Harry ran his finger down the titles lining the bookshelves. Archaic. Thankfully he didn't have to deal with scrolls. But there's a good number of more modern titles further down the shelves. Newer additions.
On a whim, Harry pulled out a random book and skimmed through the contents. It was filled with annotations in an elegant script, reminding Harry of Tom Riddle's writing when he had unthinkingly written in the diary during his second year. The book was an introduction to rituals.
Closing the book, Harry was in a good mood.
This would help speed up his studies a lot quicker. The notes were clear, concise, and easy to understand. Tom Riddle was clearly a genius and now Harry can reap the benefits of Tom's hard work. The archaic language most of the books were written in has been translated by Tom and the drivel has been rewritten so that Harry can actually understand.
Harry was thinking of setting up the chamber as his new base of operations. All his planning, studying, and practicing will be conducted here. The less questionable materials can be accessed in the library, to tone down any questions on where he has been hiding and what he was doing.
It will be his private hideout with complete privacy.
There's a lot of work to be done to put the place back into shape, but with Dobby's assistance, hopefully it won't take more than a week. He will start working on it after the first task.
Sighing, Harry sunk down into a nearby armchair.
Ron and Hermione had ignored him for the past two weeks. He was angry at them, but the loneliness was a painful reminder of his past.
Ron had stuck to his accusations of Harry being a cheat and has taken a lot of pleasure in leading the rest of the fourth year Gryffindor boys to exclude Harry from their activities.
Hermione, on the other hand, was reprimanding him for breaking rules and not showing any remorse for his actions that has painted Hogwarts in a negative light in the front of foreign dignitaries. Apparently, she has a lot of pride in being a Hogwarts student. Adding on her proclivity to seek approval from authority figures, it just sums up as a boatload of headaches for Harry.
Running through some of his plans for getting back at the student body, Harry had narrowed down a few individuals that he would be giving a special treatment.
Malfoy for one.
Ron would make it two.
Hermione brings it to a total three.
Harry is still pondering if he should add most of the Hufflepuff students onto his special treatment list. They had been especially obnoxious during his second year and ever since his name came out of the goblet.
After several moments' consideration, he decided against it. He would just target them a bit more frequently. If a couple unnamed individuals happened to suffer more than the others, it was definitely not him.
Nope. No sir!
Bloody Hufflepuffs.
After spending some more time indulging in his mental cussing, Harry was beginning to feel the day's events catch up to him.
'Ah well. Might as well go grab some dinner from the kitchen.' He does not want to face the student body right now after dealing with the reporters.
Harry trudged back up the tunnels and a quiet command for stairs soon had him sneaking out of the girls' lavatory.
The next morning,
Harry was seated near the end of the Gryffindor table working through his breakfast. A commotion further up the table jarred him out of his inattentive state as they begin to whisper and point at him. Seeing them holding the Daily Prophet, Harry promptly grabbed a copy laying nearby.
RITA SKEETER INTERVIEWS HARRY POTTER
…
I suppose I get my strength from my parents. I know they'd be very proud of me if they could see me now... Yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them, I'm not ashamed to admit it... I know nothing will hurt me during the tournament, because they're watching over me..." (excerpt from Goblet of Fire)
Harry just stared at the paper blankly for a couple seconds.
The students sat near him started edging away as they could hear Harry's molars grinding in anger.
Rita Skeeter!
Harry crumpled up the paper and threw it back on the table. He took a sip of his pumpkin juice before standing up and stalking out of the Great Hall. Harry ignored all the students still whispering around him. The professors obviously aren't going to be making any moves to protect him from the scrutiny and harassment.
'One more for the special treatment list. Extra special.' Harry determined.