Secrets of the Founders
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: What if Voldemort had been prompted to protect and booby trap his horcruxes, including a certain diary, a bit more thoroughly? What if the chamber of secrets contained secrets other than those we have discovered so far? Very much Harry/Ginny (although not until a bit later on…)
Rating: PG for now, although it will most definitely go higher later on in the story…
Ships: H/G is the only one I'll guarantee… The rest will be whatever my muse tells me they should be. He's very demanding about these sorts of things.
A/N: Hello all, and thank you for reading my story! Presenting chapter two--Thanks so much for the reviews I've received so far! Sorry for the delay--chapter three should be up much more quickly than chapter two--although with proper incentive it should come up even more quickly (meaning….please, please, please review!) Thanks! (Once again--I didn't take the time to beta it very thoroughly, so feel free to point out my mistakes as well…My muse is such a lazy bum.)
Chapter Two
Harry groaned and tried to turn his head to see if Ginny was okay beside him, but before he could a great many people were screaming and shouting and suddenly both he and Ginny found themselves bound from head to toe in thick ropes and a wizard in crimson robes was stalking towards them, wand raised menacingly.
"Who are you?" he demanded. "Who are you, and how on earth did you apparate into Hogwarts?"
Harry tensed up, struggling automatically against the ropes that bound him, but his arms were bound so tightly to his sides that he was unable to even shift them. The sword he had taken from the sorting hat was out of reach, even if he hadn't been tied up, and Ginny still had his wand, though he doubted she was in any better of a position to reach it than he was.
Meanwhile, the menacing looking wizard in the red robes was still waiting for an answer. "Well?" he barked. "How did you manage to apparate past the wards? Speak, or I'll be forced to resort to harsher measures to force answers out of you."
By this point Harry was going into full panic mode. He had just finished destroying a basilisk, defeated an evil Dark Lord's sixteen-year-old memory, survived an earthquake and massive cave-in, been hurled through some kind of crazy slide, and now a mad wizard he had never seen before was threatening him in the middle of the Hogwarts great hall. The hall began to spin around him, the blurred red robe was shouting something, his voice an ominous sort of rumble, when suddenly, it all became too much and Harry slumped to the ground, unconscious.
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Ginny was just wondering whether it might be a good idea to join Harry in his unconscious state, (the ground was beginning to look rather inviting,) when she was distracted by the arrival of a rather short witch in bright yellow robes covered in ruffles and a squashy yellow witch's hat. The witch made to go to Harry, but the wizard in red flung out an arm, holding her back. "Wait," he hissed at her. " He's probably faking--remember, these two just apparated right through your wards, Helga!"
The witch, Helga, looked up at him and rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Godric, look at them--they're only children!" she exclaimed. With a sigh of exasperation she pushed passed the taller wizard and knelt down next to Harry placing a hand on his forehead. Muttering a spell over him, the ropes binding him burst open, then disappeared. Ignoring Godric's exclamation at this act, she continued to move her wand up and down Harry's body, watching as it emitted several softly glowing lights, then with a whispered word, she extinguished it again.
Ginny was watching anxiously, something that Helga noticed as she was standing up, brushing the dust off of her canary colored robes. She gave her a gentle smile. We'd best get your friend up to the healing rooms," she told her. Noticing Ginny's look of panic, she continued. "He'll be just fine, I'm sure. I'd just like to reexamine him in a more comfortable setting." With another swish of her wand, the ropes binding Ginny fell to the ground around her ankles, then disappeared entirely. Godric made another strangled noise, which Helga ignored. With a swish and a flick of her wand, Harry was levitated slowly into the air. "Come along, child," said Helga to Ginny with a small smile. She then turned to Godric with a scowl. "You maintain order here, then after lunch you can stop by the infirmary if you promise to be civil." Godric's glare, which had been focused on a trembling Ginny turned itself onto Helga. She seemed unfazed by it. "And eat your turnips!" she added. "Don't think I haven't noticed the way you tried to bury them under your potatoes." Then, head held high, she turned and marched out of the great hall, Harry floating gently along behind her. Not wanting to be left alone with Godric and the still gaping students, Ginny stooped down to collect Harry's sword then limped hurriedly after Helga and Harry.
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Sweat was poring down Ron's face and his fingers were bloodied beyond recognition by the time he realized that this new cave-in hadn't caused just another barrier to the tunnel beyond, it had filled the whole chamber with rocks. Sliding silently to the wall, he allowed himself to give way to the tears that had been threatening to pour forth for the past several hours now. A much younger looking Fawkes, who had abandoned all attempts to carry him to safety as he tried repeatedly to shoo the bird away, gave a soft trill of comfort, and perched himself on Ron's shoulder. When Ron didn't resist, Fawkes took wing, and gripping Ron's robes with one talon, and Lockhart's with the other, he flew them both back up through the grimy tunnel to the safety of Myrtle's bathroom. In his state of misery, Ron didn't notice the gleeful shouting of his addled professor, or even the giggling questions of Myrtle. He allowed himself to be guide by the phoenix to Professor Dumbledore's office with a heavy heart.
The Gargoyle sprang aside at one trill from Fawkes, and Ron, who normally would have been quite awed at the moving spiral staircase beyond, found himself stepping onto it methodically without really noticing it. When he reached the heavy wooden door at the top he entered without bothering to knock.
The minute the door swung open, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall, as well as his brother Percy, and his father, holding a barely conscious Mrs. Weasley, all sprang to their feet. "Ron!" cried Percy. He hurried to him and gave a great hug, then pushed to him to the side, and peered down the staircase behind him. "But where's Ginny?" he asked.
"And Harry, where's Harry?" asked Professor McGonagall in the same half panicked tone.
"I don't--" began Ron. "The rocks, and the chamber, and the basilisk-- Harry went, but I couldn't, because of the rocks, and then more rocks…" his voice trailed off. Percy led him to a nearby chair, and he collapsed into it, panting. Mr. Weasley placed an arm around his shoulders while Mrs. Weasley wrapped her arms around him fiercely and buried her face in the crook of his neck.
"Mr. Weasley," said Professor Dumbledore. "I know this is very difficult for you, but you must tell us everything you know."
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It took a great deal of time, and as well as several calming and cheering charms to get the whole story from Ron, beginning with finding the crumpled piece of paper in Hermione's tightly clenched fist, and ending with Professor Dumbledore requesting that Fawkes take himself, Ron and Arthur Weasley back to the Chamber of Secrets to inspect the disaster that had occurred there, but eventually the whole story came tumbling out. Now Ron reexamined his surroundings in a state of shock as Professor Dumbledore and Arthur magically levitated piles of rocks from one point to another. After several long hours, the group had cleared through the rocks of the entrance tunnel to the chamber itself, only to discover that the ceiling of the chamber had completely collapsed. They continued searching through the debris for some time, but deep down, all three of them knew the truth--nothing inside that chamber could have possibly survived.
Professor Dumbledore if possible, was in even more of a state of shock than the other two. Not only had he lost two of his dearest students, but Harry's death, well, it should have been impossible. The only reason the Professor had allowed Harry to face such dangerous challenges in his first year, and this year as well--though he hadn't been present when Harry had entered the chamber, he had suspected that it might be up to Harry to set things right as the year had distinctly reminded him of a year he had been through fifty years earlier--the only reason, was because he was quite certain that the boy would pull through triumphantly. There was a prophecy concerning Harry, which should have guaranteed that he would live to face Voldemort once again. Unless--unless somehow a confrontation had occurred here, today….
It was with a heavy heart and a troubled soul that Professor Dumbledore and the two Weasleys left the Chamber of Secrets (luckily the entrance had remained open) to return to the headmaster's office and break the news to the others.
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Ginny awoke a few hours later to find herself lying in a yellow bed staring at a yellow ceiling. Turning her head slightly, she could see Harry lying on the yellow bed beside her, and the witch Helga in her yellow robes sitting in a chair beside him, sipping a cup of tea, with her feet propped up on Harry's bed. With her feet propped so high Ginny could see some very rufflely ankle length yellow bloomers underneath the robes, and she glanced away, embarrassed.
Glancing down at herself, she realized that she also seemed to be wearing a rather ruffled yellow night gown. "Hey!" Ginny abruptly sat up in the bed turning back towards Helga. "What am I doing in bed? I didn't pass out….did I?"
"Oh no, dear, nothing like that," replied Helga with a merrily tinkling laugh. "I charmed you with a very mild sleeping charm. You seemed like you could do with a nap."
Ginny looked at her groggily. "Who are you, anyway?" she asked.
Helga gave another one of her tinkling laughs. "My name is Professor Hufflepuff. And what may I call you?"
"Ginny," said Ginny. "And that's Harry," she added nodding towards the other bed.
"How do you do, Ginny?" said Professor Hufflepuff. "Now, if you wouldn't mind telling me, I'm quite curious about how it is that you two have arrived here at Hogwarts."
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Harry recognized that he was in the Hogwarts infirmary right off the bat upon waking up, of course, but he couldn't figure out what was so different about the place. Then he realized that he was in the wrong bed. Madam Pomfrey always put him in the bed on the right, closest to the wall, and now he was in the bed next to it. A moment later he realized that the infirmary also happened to be bright yellow. Sitting up slightly, he glanced around taking in the rest of the yellow furnishings, before his eyes landed on Ginny, red hair contrasting vividly with all the yellow, sitting up in the bed next to his chatting amiably with a witch who was sitting in a chair between the two beds. His body relaxed slightly. Ginny was okay, she was here, she wasn't lying motionless at the feet of a great statue deep in the chamber of secrets. He turned towards her slightly, to better hear what she was saying.
"And then," continued Ginny, "we just sort of fell right into this big hole in the ground…we didn't see it there. Actually I don't know if it was there before we fell into it. It just kind of appeared where our feet were. Only it wasn't just a hole, it was this crazy tunnel type slide thingy. And there were all these lights, and flashes of people and places. I think I knew some of them, and I felt like I knew the others, only I don't think I did, and everything was swirling all around us faster and faster, and then it just sort of--stopped, and we fell out of the air, and we landed in the great hall, only you all were there instead of our friends, and Professor Dumbledore, and everyone." She took a deep breath. "And that's it," she said.
"I see," said Professor Hufflepuff thoughtfully. "Most unusual. Quite so. Harry, does this description of events agree with your recollection of things up until the present moment as well?"
Harry started as the witch addressed him. "Er…" he said, "Well, I didn't hear it all, but yeah, that tunnel thingy sounds about right." He pulled himself into a sitting position.
The witch in yellow beamed at him. "I'm so glad you're feeling better, dear," she said. "Basilisk venom in the blood, well, it can take it's toll on a person. Even when counteracted with phoenix tears."
"Who are you?" Harry asked. "What's going on here? Where's Ron and Hermione, and Madame Pomfrey and everyone?"
"I am Professor Hufflepuff," said Professor Hufflepuff. "And I think I may have a theory on all of that. Ginny dear, when's your birthday?"
"Hufflepuff like the house?" asked Harry.
"Yes, exactly," said the professor. "Ginny?"
"August," said Ginny. "August eleventh." Harry stared at them both confusedly.
"August eleventh of what year, my dear?"
"August eleventh, nineteen-eighty-one," said Ginny.
Professor Hufflepuff blinked twice, then twice more very rapidly. "Hummmmm," she said. It sounded almost musical, and suddenly she seemed quite delighted and quite crest-fallen at the same time. "Hum. Ho-hum. One thousand, nine hundred and eighty one, you say? The Roman calendar? Anno Domini, I suppose?" Neither Harry nor Ginny answered, but she continued on just the same. "But of course it would be, since you came from Hogwarts--so Hogwarts must be there. Still. It's still there--imagine that! Is Hogwarts very old where you come from then?"
"Of course," said Harry. "More than a thousand years old. Look, Ma'am--Professor, that is--what's going on?"
"What's going on my dears," said Professor Hufflepuff, "is that it seems you two have somehow managed to travel quite a ways to pay us a little visit. No, not a ways, in distance from one place to another," she continued answering their questioning looks preemptively, "but rather a great distance in time. You see my dears, you are still at Hogwarts, but the year is nine hundred and eighty-eight AD."
Ginny fell off the bed.
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"Good evening, headmaster," Lucius Malfoy said scornfully. He allowed himself a brief smirk in the direction of the sobbing Weasleys, but turned on his heel and left Albus Dumbledore's office before he allowed that smirk to stretch into a full grinch-like smile. He had had a long wait in the headmaster's office after he had arrived that afternoon, and the Weasley woman's incessant bawling had grated heavily on his nerves, but all of the waiting and wondering had been worth it. Calling to his somewhat hysterical house-elf to hurry along, he strode briskly through the halls of Hogwarts, out the front doors, and through the front gates. "Home, Dobby," he snapped, then, raising his cane and whirling his cloak about him, he was gone with a soft pop.
He arrived in a wooded area hidden deep within the grounds of Malfoy Manner, and started back towards the mansion where his master was waiting to hear what had happened at Hogwarts. Lucius walked leisurely, savoring his triumph, but as he entered the main door of the house, he picked up his pace, for the Dark Lord could certainly sense him from here. Hurrying into the drawing room, he through a pinch of green powder into the fire then stepped into the fireplace and whispered the secret password that only he and a few trusted others knew that would take him to the top tower of Malfoy mansion--now accessible only by floo powder, and only from this fireplace. It would not do for any visitor to Malfoy manner to stumble across the Dark Lord's quarters after all, accidentally or not.
Lucius stopped twirling, and stepped gracefully from the Dark Lord's fireplace, (he had spent many hours practicing flooing from one room in the house to the other in order to achieve that grace, though of course he would never admit that to anyone else,) and stood silently, waiting for the Dark Lord to acknowledge him. Voldemort was sitting in a high backed chair with its back to Lucius, but Lucius knew that his Lord knew that he had arrived, and so he stood silently and waited. The room was dark, with just a few candles burning from their holders along the walls, and long velvet curtains drawn across all of the windows. The only pieces of furniture were the chair his lord sat in and a small table close beside it. (Though there were of course, several more comfortably furnished rooms through the doorway off to the right, including a bedroom, bathroom, dining area, and a small library, Lucius knew.)
After several long moments of silence, a hand, pale as bone, appeared over the side of one of the armrests, and a long finger beckoned him forward.
Lucius walked silently to the other side of the room and around the tall chair until he faced the man in the chair. Kneeling he kissed the hem of his lord's inky black robes, then retreated.
"Well, Lucius," said Voldemort. "You have returned. Tell me."
"My Lord," said Lucius, "the plan was a success. Potter and the Weasley girl are most certainly dead--buried beneath the rubble of a massive earthquake, a mile below the school itself. Dumbledore has been reinstated at Hogwarts, but he certainly won't last long--not with a scandal like this on him."
Voldemort smiled and uttered a high, cold laugh. "Certainly he will not last long," he replied. "Much less long, this time around, I think, though I suppose your son is too young for the job. It will have to be Snape this time as well," he said.
"My Lord?" asked Lucius.
"Nothing, Lucius, nothing at all. But is it certain, absolutely certain that Potter and his little girlfriend are dead?"
"Oh yes," said Lucius. "Dumbledore, the Weasleys, the whole school is in a state of uproar. An entire unknown system of tunnels, buried far beneath the school, now completely collapsed. Nothing could have possibly survived."
"Excellent," said Voldemort. "And what of the diary? Give it to me."
"My Lord," replied Lucius, "I--I'm afraid I don't have--"
"You don't have the diary?" hissed Voldemort furiously.
"I--I don't know--" stuttered Lucius.
Voldemort seemed to calm just a bit. "Or course," he said thoughtfully. "You must have gotten it from Potter last time…or even the girl. It would still be in the chamber now. I had hoped to have it returned to me," he mused. "But I suppose it's a fitting burial. The Chamber of Secrets is a fitting resting place for it. A return to the womb, as it were…" Voldemort looked almost dreamy at the prospect. Lucius allowed himself to relax slightly. "Still, you have been quite careless with my diary, twice now, Lucius," said the dark lord. "Crucio!"
In his state of agonizing pain, Lucius was unable to tell what the little gold thing was that his master had pulled from the front of his own robes and begun to admire.
End of Chapter Two--please review!