Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Harry Potter belongs to J.K.Rowling. The Slytherin Code of Conduct belongs to Vmorticia. If I stole anyone's idea I'm very sorry. Please don't sue.
Chapter 10 (hurray! I'm into double digits!)
On Saturday afternoon, while most students were outside relaxing, Harry was in his dormitory practising his karate. Harry reasoned that hardly any wizards were good at physical fighting. That meant that if he was disarmed in duel, he still had a chance of winning. It also helped to keep him fit. Therefore every couple of days he would practise, with Isis hissing 'helpful' comments at him.
No! No! All wrong. Try again. Ussselessss. You humansss are sso uncoordinated. she hissed, scornfully.
I'm trying my best here! What do you know anyway, snakes can't do Karate. replied Harry, a bit miffed that anyone should criticise him.
You forget I went to your lessssonss with you. replied Isis.
Before they could continue bickering Blaise walked into the room.
"Harry, I'm going to the third floor corridor and you're coming with me," stated Blaise.
"Blaise, you're not supposed to be in here, it's the boys dormitory. And the third floor is out of bounds, remember?" said Harry.
"Exactly, that's why I want to go. Ever since we came here it's been bugging me. I need to know what's behind it. Why we would "die a painful death" if we go near the place. It's intriguing."
"Let me get this straight, you want to go there because we could be killed?" asked Harry, bewildered by this logic.
"Aww, come on, please? I really, really want to go," pouted Blaise.
"Fine, but Draco has to come too," said Harry resignedly.
"Yay! Come on, we have to start planning!" yelled Blaise, jumping up and down hyperactively. "This is going to be so fun. It's not everyday you get to battle with an unknown danger. I feel so privileged."
Rolling his eyes Harry followed his friends down the stairs, Nemesis round his neck.
You know Harry? Sssometimess I quessstion your choicsse of friendss. I don't think they're completely ssssane. remarked Isis.
Tell me about it. replied Harry, who had been thinking that himself.
This was how, three hours later, Harry came to be creeping along the third floor corridor, with Blaise and Draco beside him. They'd bribed Peeves with some new water balloons to make him create havoc in the opposite side of the castle. Therefore drawing away Filch, leaving the way relatively safe. A few tiptoed steps later, they found themselves outside the door leading to the corridor. Pulling out his wand, Harry performed the unlocking charm.
"Now, who wants to go in first?" he asked.
"Definitely not me," said Draco, hurriedly. "Since it was Blaise's idea, I think she should be the one."
"Why thanks Draco," replied Blaise, sincerely. She opened the door and strode in leaving the other two hanging around outside. "Come on you two, It's perfectly safe," she called.
Once they stepped inside, Harry's heart stopped beating.
"Um, Blaise, did I miss something or is there a sleeping giant three headed dog in the room?" he asked, in shock.
"Yeah that's right. Look, It's lying on a trap door. Help me lift him off it," said Blaise, unconcernedly walking towards it.
"Blaise, shouldn't we be walking away from a massive, man-eating dog?" said Draco. Harry suspected the only reason he hadn't run away yet, was that he was too petrified to move.
"Come on, it's asleep. And I doubt it's man-eating. Now help," said Blaise. Unfortunately, while she had been trying to lift the monster's paw off the trap door, it had begun to wake up. Blinking blearily around, it caught sight of the three Slytherins and leapt to its feet. Growling fiercely, it bared its teeth, revealing giant fangs. All in all, it looked dangerous and bloodthirsty. As one, Harry and Draco grabbed hold of Blaise, who was staring at the monster in fascination, and pulled her out of the room, slamming the door behind them.
"Hey guys, what did you do that for, it was harmless!" protested Blaise as ferocious growls were heard from inside the room.
"It would have ripped us into shreds!" exclaimed Harry.
"Yeah, I for one want all by body pieces intact," seconded Draco, looking slightly green.
"Okay, fine, how about we come back when it's sleeping again," said Blaise, hopefully.
"Count me out," said Harry.
"Aww, you guys are such cowards. It's just a giant dog with three heads. What's so bad about that…Guys? Hey! Where are you going? Guys?"
Hearing her voice, the two boys doubled their pace as they sprinted back to their common room.
"Remind me to never, ever agree to any hair-brained scheme of hers again," panted Harry.
"Tell me about it," replied Draco. "Come on, let's go to dinner, that way she won't be able to drag us back. Honestly, what is Dumbledore thinking, keeping a thing like that at school."
"It must have been guarding something. And whatever it is, it's probably really valuable," said Harry.
"Well, I don't see anyway of finding out what it is," drawled Draco.
"I think I might already know," said Harry. "When I went to Gringotts with Professor Snape, he picked up something on Dumbledore's orders. It seemed really important and top secret. It was a small package, around the size of my fist."
"Oh yeah, that gives us a lot of new information. It's secret, it's important and Dumbledore knows about it. Sorry but that doesn't really help. And even if we did know what it was, we couldn't steal it, because there's probably more than just that manic dog guarding it," said Draco.
"Steal it?" asked Harry.
"Well, yeah, what else should we do with it. Remember the code of conduct, 'If an opportunity for something you want presents itself…take it-duh.' We wouldn't be Slytherins if we didn't steal occasionally."
"I guess you're right. I at least want to find out what it is, and the only way to do that is to actually find it. But I, for one, never want to go anywhere near that dog again, so we should try and look up maps of the castle and see if there's any other way of getting down there," said Harry.
"Go to the library? Are you crazy? No way am I ever going to willingly spend time in that place," said Draco, firmly.
"But just think," said Harry, softly in his most persuasive tone. "We would be getting the better of Dumbledore. We would get something that could give us power and fame, or, if it turns out not to be something we want, we could always sell it. I'm sure someone would want it, seeing as Dumbledore is set on protecting it. It's a chance to show our true worth as Slytherins."
"Okay fine. But only if you make Blaise do it too."
"Deal, lets go find her," said Harry with a satisfied smirk.
For the next week or so, the trio spent their time in the library, poring over maps of the castle. During that time they learnt a lot on how the school was built. It turned out that it wasn't as random as people thought. The staircases all moved according to lunar cycles and positions of the stars and the other enchantments were all there for a reason. The three Slytherins found loads of secret passageways and hints of others. Because of this they began to explore the castle in search of more. They'd already found nine new passageways and four hidden rooms. Harry had also discovered a passageway that could only be opened by parseltongue. This passageway branched off into dozens of corridors that lead all around the castle. One corridor lead deep underground to a training area, with a swimming pool, potions lab, library, fencing area and duelling arena. The three friends spent hours there, always finding new things to do. Draco spent most of the time in the pool, working on his tan, which was nonexistent (there was a spell on the room to make sunlight fill it, even during the winter) while Blaise alternated between the potions lab and the duelling arena. Harry spent most of his time in the library. All the books were written in parseltongue so the other two couldn't read them. Many were spell books, and Harry had learnt dozens of new spells already. According to the books, parseltongue spells were much more powerful than ordinary spells and none of them required a wand. They were also more exact. There weren't any general spells like a levitating charm. Instead there was a charm to levitate a book, another to levitate a table, and so on. This made it more complicated, but it was worth it. A parseltongue spell was almost impossible to block. It could be done, of course, but it required a lot of raw power, something most wizards didn't have. Harry began to use the spells when he practised duelling with Draco and Blaise. They'd quickly learnt to duck any parseltongue spell sent their way, as they just couldn't fight them.
After a long while of being distracted by the new things they'd found, Harry, Draco and Blaise finally got what they were searching for. They knew there were six rooms below the trap door. They had put together a map of the castle, adding in all the passages they knew about. They then saw that one of the parselmouth corridors led into the last of the six rooms. When they explored it, they found that the room was completely empty except for a mirror standing in the middle of the room. It was as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. The words "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafry oyt on wohsi" were inscribed around the top. The first time he'd looked into it, Harry had seen himself reflected back with at least ten other people standing around him. He had yelled in fright and spun round, drawing his wand. But there was no one there. Confused, he had turned back and had seen what he had not noticed before. All the people standing around him seemed familiar. They all looked similar, sharing the same coloured eyes or hair or stature. It gradually dawned on him that these people must be his family.
"Mum? Dad?" he whispered.
"Oh move over!" said Draco, elbowing him aside. "You've been staring at yourself for at least 5 minutes. You're not that good looking, I on the hand…"
Harry glared at Draco, then stopped as he realised he wasn't paying any attention. Draco was staring into the mirror, a smirk on his face, looking amazingly pleased about something.
"Wow, this is so cool. I'm Minister of Magic, and I'm ordering Weasley around and he has to do as I say. I can insult Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors all day long and no one can do anything about it," said Draco. His voice sounded far away, as if he wasn't really there at all.
"Draco, stop. Lets just leave okay, there doesn't seem to be anything else here, and we can't possibly steal the mirror. Come on, lets go back and tell Blaise," said Harry, who was getting a bit freaked out. Draco, however, refused to budge, so Harry had to resort to dragging him away forcefully.
"Aww, come on, just five more minutes. I'd just started on the really good insults. Weasley was practically in tears. Let go of me."
"No way. We don't know anything about that mirror. We're going to go back and see if we can find anything about it in the library," stated Harry, firmly.
"Fine, ruin my fun why don't you," said Draco, pouting. They continued walking back to the common room, arguing all the way.
A/N Another chapter posted! I know that it is completely different form the book but I thought it would be more interesting this way. Anyhoo, please review. I really want to know what you think. All you need to do is press the little button at the bottom of the screen. If you have any questions or problems with my stories, feel free to let me know. Bye!