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Chapter 17 ~ Secrets Revealed
"Ew," Becky muttered. "Ew. Ew. Ew. Ewewewewewewewewewew."
"All right," Doug hissed at her. "I get the point, okay? Yeah, this is really, really gross. Shut up about it."
The two were standing in the girls' bathroom with Moaning Myrtle standing nearby, her eyes red, as was her nose, which sniffled from time to time, but she was still looking at them with a look of amusement. There was a large, black hole in front of them, and Doug and Becky could feel the cool air on their faces as they stood there. Becky looked again at the walls of slime and said another "Ew," partially in spite of Doug.
"Look," Doug said firmly. "They went down there. We followed- I mean, came here for nothing if we don't go."
Becky's expression went from grossed out to indignation, then suddenly to acceptance. Well, she had followed the others here. Apparently she hadn't hidden the fact from Doug as well as she had hoped. She took a deep breath and released it shakily.
Nodding slightly, Doug grabbed her hand, "1... 2... 3!"
They jumped.
* * *
James sat against the wall and shrugged. He and Lily had been speaking through the pipe for the past hour, it seemed. It had probably been longer. Neither of them had a watch that was in tact- Lily's had broken at some point since Voldemort had attacked her in the hallway.
"So that's it," Lily said sadly. "My great plan wasn't so great."
James shrugged again. "It was a good plan," he told her, trying in vain to comfort her. "I never would have thought of it."
"That's because you're an idiot."
James stared at her, his jaw hanging from his face as if it weren't even a part of him at all. Then it dawned on him that Lily had been joking- It was sibling rivalry. He grinned. "At least I look good."
The look Lily gave him- one clearly saying that he was crazy- made him grab without a hope for a better insult. "At least I don't have friends with eight legs."
"At least my friends don't crawl around on their stomachs!" Lily retorted.
"SHUT UP!" a man yelled at them as he walked towards the two. Lily gasped. This was the first time she had actually seen Voldemort. He didn't look nearly as bad as she had imagined. He was about sixteen years old, and he had neatly combed jet-black hair. As if reading her mind, Voldemort grinned and said, "I wanted to look good for when I met your father again. I wanted to be someone he would recognize."
Lily bit her lip, trying to think.
Voldemort laughed. A malicious laugh. "I don't think so, Little Lily. I don't think any of you are going to get away from me this time. No, not this time," he said more to himself than to anyone else.
"I beg to differ," came a calm voice from behind them.
Lily turned around to look. "Dad!" she shouted, half in joy, half in fear.
"Dad?" James asked. "Did I miss something?"
* * *
"Don't you have some comment to make about hygiene or something?" Malfoy had sneered as he picked his way around a pile of slime.
Hermione had raised her head and looked down her nose at him. "Why? You're a wizard. Take care of your own health."
"Ouch."
Harry and Ron looked at each other. Ron kissed the air and fluttered his eyelids. Harry nodded in agreement.
"Just what are you two doing?" Hermione nearly shouted, seeing Ron. Nick tried to shush her by putting his hand over her mouth and merely managed to almost send her into shock with his freezing cold hand.
Once she had recovered, Ron said innocently, "Oh, nothing. You know, it has no relation to what we're doing, really." Harry chuckled.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione warned, rubbing her wand with an evil glint in her eye.
"That isn't nice, Hermione. We're friends, remember? It would be really lovely if you didn't make threats like that."
"You want to see a threat?" Hermione asked sweetly.
Harry tuned them out, listening for any sounds. The Yellow Lady and Nick had somehow fallen behind them, and Harry couldn't help but hear the Lady giggle a bit now and then, and Nick's low laugh. Finally, up ahead, he heard something, ever so faintly in the distance, "I don't think so, Little Lily. I don't think any of you are going to get away from me this time. No, not this time."
"I beg to differ," Harry said evenly, wary yet still trying to seem brave.
"We'll continue this later," Hermione snapped at Ron.
"Did I miss something?" James had just finished asking.
Voldemort turned around. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Robin Hood himself. I see you left your tights behind you." He pointed his wand at Harry, ready to fire with a curse.
"Oh, gee. Lookit, mister! He's shaking!" said a new voice. Everyone looked behind the new arrivals. "Oops," Becky said from the shadows. "I guess I said that out loud, didn't I?"
Doug swallowed and nodded. "Ladies first," he said, shoving her into view. "She did it!" he told the other adults- carefully not talking to or looking at Voldemort. "You know me. I'm just a young impressionable kid, and she- OW!"
Becky had hit him as hard as she could across the face with her wand. "My fault? You're the guy! You're supposed to take charge!" James nudged Lily. They started creeping along the wall towards the others. "I mean, I'm just a little, young, scared girl, and you're stronger than me!- Yeah, yeah, that's it! You scared me into making you come!"
The Lady snorted and quickly covered her mouth. She started giggling again.
James and Lily were fifteen feet away and gaining.
"As much as I would like to view the little comedy of errors," Voldemort drawled tiredly, "I'm afraid I have business to attend to."
"Your business is walking away!" shouted a new voice hysterically. Everyone once again turned to see who it was, except for Voldemort, who made James and Lily stop where they were by pointing his wand at them.
Standing by an ancient basilisk body, now slowly decaying, was Hannah, Doug's mother.
"What is this!" Malfoy shouted. "A party or something?"
"A party? And I wasn't invited?" There was a small wail and a sniffle. "Well, I'm coming anyway. I'm up for a party- as long as no one makes fun of me."
"Uh-oh," Ron said slowly. He looked to Harry and Hermione. All of them were shaking their heads.
"Where's the party?" asked the ghost, now coming into sight. She wasn't the prettiest girl, but nor was the ugliest. She looked perfectly normal, except for her slightly red nose and red and puffy eyes, magnified slightly by her glasses. Moaning Myrtle stopped dead (suddenly), when she saw Voldemort. "YOU!" she shouted.
Voldemort rolled his eyes.
"You were mean to me!" Myrtle shouted, bursting into renewed tears.
"Oh, geez!" Ron shouted frustrated.
The Lady moved towards Myrtle and spoke to her. Myrtle nodded and slowly composed herself again.
Hannah stepped towards Voldemort, carefully trying to keep from tripping in her skirt, dress shirt, and high heels. "Think you could let me know with a bit more notice next time?" she said grouchily. "I was in the middle of a conference."
"There won't be a next time," Voldemort assured her.
Hannah was careful not to say anything back.
"Mom?" Doug asked, his voice halfway caught in his throat. It came out as a quick squeak.
"Oh, honey. Hey. I, uh, didn't know you'd, uh, be here," Hannah said with a meaningful look at Voldemort. He shrugged. "I hope you're going to get older," Hannah told Voldemort softly, seeing his mere sixteen-year-old complexion and thinking of her own forty-something complexion.
"I'll make you younger," Voldemort promised.
Hannah brightened considerably.
James and Lily looked at each other, hopeless. Suddenly, they heard something.
Honestly, girl. I told you would get stuck in your own web one day. Lily's eyes lit up and she mouthed the word "Brownie" to James. Her brother nodded and put a finger to his lips.
Jamesss, Jamesss, Jamesss. You found the old hangout, we sssee. This was not, however, Poison's voice.
Harry noticed that Voldemort was listening now also; he had heard the Parseltongue too. He signaled to Ron and Hermione, who were watching the two men and the boy curiously.
Where's Poison? James asked.
I'm here, Poison called. I had to go to the Forbidden Foressst and get help. Got all the sssnakesss I could find. Couldn't have done it without Aragog'sss help.
"Aragog?" Voldemort muttered.
Harry covered his mouth in awe. The snakes were sided with the spiders? But that meant that all the spiders- No, the basilisk was dead. They weren't afraid of this place anymore. That meant the spiders...
"Goodness," Harry said.
"The entire population from Hogwarts, surrounding towns, and the Forest," Lily mouthed to him.
Harry wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead and told the others who were with him.
"Who's Aragog?" Voldemort mumbled to himself.
"Aragog?" Hannah repeated. "Aragog. Aragog. Why do I know that name?"
"Because you've heard it before, perhaps?" inquired a deep, wheezy voice. Out of the darkness behind Harry and his "party", a long, furred leg appeared. Seven more attached to a slightly grey body followed, not even having to stretch to stand above the adults' heads.
Malfoy cursed loudly, jumping up and down uncontrollably. It wasn't until Myrtle started laughing at him that he even tried to control himself again. Ron, looking up and recognizing the spider, went a ghastly white shade and desperately tried to keep his knees from knocking.
"You speak English?" Voldemort asked, thinking deeply.
"Yes. Hagrid taught me."
The claw reached for Doug's mother. Doug closed his eyes and held onto Becky while Hannah screamed loudly enough to wake the dead.
"If that doesn't wake my mother up," Nick said optimistically, "I don't know what will."
"Would you like to work for me?" Voldemort asked Aragog calmly.
"How DARE you?!" Lily shouted at him, aghast that someone would try to hire a spider. James holding her back was the only thing that kept her from charging.
Voldemort laughed. So did Aragog.
"The human knows much more than you," the large spider said. Voldemort's grin faded a little. "Never try to control or even suggest it to a spider," Aragog informed the wizard. "A thing like that could get you killed. NOW!" he shouted.
NOW! James and Harry joined in.
Immediately, swarms and hordes of spiders and snakes flew into the great underground cavern like a sea. Harry started running to Voldemort, yelling at James and Lily to get away from there as fast as possible. Ron and Hermione, not to mention Malfoy, charged Voldemort.
"And that's for making my family lose over half their riches!" Malfoy shouted as he gave Voldemort a neat punch.
Hermione snapped at Malfoy and called him something that would have made the wizarding and muggle worlds both blush with shame. "You take his wand away first, you idiot!" With that, she grabbed Voldemort's wand away while he was still shocked from the punch and snapped it in half. Ron got out James and Lily's wands from Voldemort's robes and deposited them in his own.
Malfoy got in a few more punches before Harry joined in with the worst curses he could think of- as did Ron and Hermione.
The two ghosts, Nick and the Lady, and Woodrow Nadim, the astrology teacher, went after Hannah as she ran away blindly, screaming for fear of the snakes and spiders. Moaning Myrtle ran along side, "Boo"-ing the living woman at each step. Hannah tripped, crying.
Professor Nadim fell on her and backed up as he held his wand at the ready, preparing to do a spell.
"NO!" Hannah cried out. "Tom Marvolo Riddle!" Instantly, there was a blinding white light that set many snakes into fits of cursing and a burst of smoke which did not help the reptiles. The spiders started laughing at their legless friends- neither the sudden change of light or the change in the air affected them that much.
An owl appeared, flying from the could of smoke. It's face was a milky-white disk, set with two dark, wise yet fearful eyes.
"Hannah!" Voldemort cried weakly. "Come back!"
The owl shrieked and flew back down a hallway.
"Mom!" Doug shouted after it. The owl didn't even screech.
"Doug! Becky!" Lily shouted joyfully as she hugged them. "You made it! Voldemort's gone! And we found a cure! And James is back to normal! And everything's just great!" She paused and saw the look on Doug's face, realizing what she had said. She hugged him tighter. "I'm sorry," she said.
"Don't be," said a voice from behind them. They turned to see Professor Nadim.
Doug didn't say anything.
Professor Nadim sat down next to him on the ground. "I must admit, you are quite a stupid wizard."
"Stupid?" Doug asked in shock. He'd never been called stupid by a teacher before.
Nadim nodded. "Your mother was not born a witch," he said slowly. "I think Voldemort gave her whatever powers she had to serve him."
"What do you know about my mother?" Doug asked testily.
"You said Voldemort's name," Becky said in shock. What was wrong with people around here? They all said You-Know-Who's name as if it were like any other!
Nadim nodded. "Your mother had to learn it from somewhere."
The children looked at one another, confused.
Nadim sighed. "I introduced her to the wizarding world years ago- many years before any of you were born. She didn't seem too disturbed by it. Indeed, she seemed to like having a wizard as a husband. I never dreamed she would meet Voldemort and-" he swallowed- "work with him."
Doug's jaw dropped after a few silent minutes. "Are you saying you're my father?"
"Oops. I guess I should have said that straight out."
The other adults had joined them by now, dragging an unconscious Voldemort between them. Hermione had apparently bewitched him somehow.
"That means, Doug," Harry said calmly, "that unless you want to go live with someone else, you can live with your father at Hogwarts."
"Are you serious?" Doug asked.
The adults, all except for Voldemort, nodded.
"All right!" Doug shouted, jumping up.
"And James," Hermione said, "I don't think you heard the news, but you and Lily are moving in with Harry tonight. Or this morning. I tend to lose track of time down here."
"I'm here too!" Becky shouted in delight. "I'll have kids my own age to play- I mean, talk- with! And better yet, you guys!" She grinned and grabbed Doug's hands. They spun around in circles, laughing, while Lily and James simply stood there, watching them and smiling slightly.
"Too many kids," Malfoy muttered.
"You behave," Hermione ordered sharply.
"Yeah, Malfoy. Hermione would, uh, love- I mean, hate"- he fluttered his eyelashes at this point- "for you to be bad."
Harry burst out laughing.
"YOU!" Hermione shouted. She took out her wand.
Ron, his face red from laughing, stopped laughing when he saw her wand pointed at him. "Uh-oh."
"Better run, Ron," Harry warned.
"I'll say," Malfoy agreed, taking out his own wand and smiling with evil glee.
Ron took the advice and sprinted out of sight.
"Lily," Hermione said solemnly.
"Yes, Hermione?"
"I'm going to need to ask the spiders- a lot of spiders- to do me a few favors."
After a few minutes, Lily and James were finally alone with Harry as they walked slowly towards the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. James was still speechless. Apparently, he had been too troubled with Voldemort to even notice Harry that much.
"One thing I want to ask you," Lily said.
"What is it?"
"Who is our mother? I've done a lot of reading, but nothing ever mentions her."
"Oh, that. Well, that's because- Well, your mother is- OW!" He rubbed a hand through his hair and groaned as it came away with slimy muck on it. He looked around to catch the culprit.
"PARTY!" Moaning Myrtle shouted happily as she chucked another ball at Malfoy. Seeing that it had hit him square in the face, Myrtle said happily, with her hands on her hips, "And that's for being so mean!"
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