Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine…and sadly, it never will be…
Chapter 4: The Chamber of Secrets' Secret
Harry gazed at the room around him. It was the most magnificent room he had ever seen, and he had lived in Hogwarts for four years. The room was as big as the Great Hall, and it had a warm feel to it. Harry never would've guessed he was hundreds of feet below the ground. Harry looked up and gasped when he saw the same type of enchanted ceiling. Harry now knew which of the founding four made that enchantment.
Harry still sat on the floor as he took in every inch of the gigantic room. He had completely forgotten Dumbledore was standing next to him as he looked around. Harry looked in the corner to find a library, about the same size as the Hogwarts library above him. It was lit brightly and looked like a wonderful place to read.
Harry looked some more, and found next to the library was the only area that didn't look like a beautiful room in a palace. The area had a translucent blue dome about 20 meters in diameter; inside was a dueling area with terrain to make it more interesting. Harry goggled at the dueling area wondering what the dome was. He thought it must be a protective shield to keep spells from harming the rest of the room.
Harry continued looking around the room to find a living area at the opposite end. There was a very large bed and a kitchen as well as a room which Harry assumed to be the restroom. Harry gasped as he saw, next to the couch and on the coffee table, a pensieve that looked similar to Dumbledore's but had a thinner base and larger bowl. Harry was amazed at the complete living room with a fireplace in the corner.
On the other side of the library was a small circle with a purple light covering the circumference of it. It looked like the dueling arena shrunk down. The light went up straight to the ceiling rather than being shaped like a dome.
There was a potions lab set up on the wall, with countless ingredients covering the shelves. A large cauldron was to the side where one could brew a good amount of potion. There was even a crystal ball on a table next to the potions lab. This room had it all.
When Dumbledore felt Harry had had enough time to take in his surroundings, he said, "It is a magnificent place Slytherin built. It is now clear how Tom Riddle got so far ahead of his classmates. Having powerful magic does not explain how advanced he was. He needed to have a place to practice, and based on this room…the young man had plenty of practice."
"What are all of these things…I assume that is a dueling arena, and obviously that is a library, and that is a potions lab. However, I can't think of what that smaller circle would be." Harry didn't know what to think of the place.
"That is a smaller 'arena' as you call it. You can practice spells that are too powerful to be in the dueling area. The protective charm around it allows magic in, but no magic out. Let's see how it works." Dumbledore pulled out his wand and conjured a block of gold in the circle. He then muttered a rather long incantation and his wand emitted a bright orange light that traveled in a double helix toward the metal. On contact, the entire meter wide block of gold melted down to a puddle. The spell continued on past the gold and hit the faint purple light and stopped.
"As you can see, my spell had no problems with the gold, but could not even bend the shield around the circle."
"Professor, did you know this was here the whole time?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore sighed and looked up at Harry. He told him to come to the living area. They sat on the couch, and Harry waited for Dumbledore to start. "Harry, I need you to trust me for just a little bit longer. It is late…it may even be early in the morning now. I would like you to go back to the Burrow until I can think about this new finding. I will, however, tell you that I did not expect this to be here. I'm sure you will find out soon enough what I thought it would be."
Harry sighed. He knew his headmaster knew what was best for him even if he didn't think it was. He was sure Dumbledore would tell him everything in good time. "Ok, sir. How do I get back?"
Dumbledore smiled with the twinkle ever present as he said, "That is some great news for us Harry. As the Ministry has no history of there being a fireplace here, we can secretly floo without them knowing."
Harry grinned at his headmaster's breaking of the rules. It was nice to know he did it just like Harry. Dumbledore said, "Just one moment." He walked over to the fireplace and muttered several words waving his wand.
He stood up and said, "It appears to be safe, and I now know what we need to say to floo in here. I will keep that secret for now." He finished looking truly sorry that he had to keep secrets. Harry could feel his sincerity radiate off of the wise man, and so he let it go with a shrug.
"You are an amazing wizard and young man Harry. Because of this, you will be trusted much quicker than others." Dumbledore looked proudly at Harry like a grandfather would to his grandson, which made Harry feel great inside. He now had one more person he was close to and could maybe even love.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Harry watched in horror as the pensieve shook off of the table and fell. Harry knew that pensieves must be extremely rare because he had only seen one, and it belonged to Dumbledore himself. Harry cried out in his mind for it not to fall and it stopped in midair. Harry looked over at Dumbledore expecting his wand to be out and be floating the pensieve back to the table. Instead, he saw Dumbledore's eyes twinkling madly at Harry. "We must work on that wandless magic of yours Harry. It could cause some serious damage. Although, that was some quick thinking by stopping the fall. You know there are few pensieves in the whole world; it would be a pity to lose one to a simple fall."
Harry looked at him questioningly. How could I have levitated that? I didn't even say an incantation. He then said to Dumbledore, "I know, I know, all in good time." Dumbledore once again beamed at the student.
"Let's hurry and get you back to the Burrow before Molly throws a fit. It may be to late. Just say the Burrow Harry, you don't even need floo powder for this fire."
Harry grinned and took one last look at the amazing room he would hope to see again. Before he yelled out the Burrow, Dumbledore told him to expect him shortly.
Harry fell out of the Burrow's fireplace a little more gracefully. He was met by a shriek, and he was picked up and hugged very tightly by Mrs. Weasley. "Oh I was so frightened, are you ok, dear?"
Harry had to stifle a laugh at Dumbledore's prediction. "I'm fine Mrs. Weasley…I was just out…" Harry stopped, wondering if he was supposed to tell her what was going on. "…Well," Harry smiled, "all will be told in good time, Mrs. Weasley."
She frowned at Harry, but a calm swept over her as Harry spoke, and she let it drop saying she was glad he was ok. Harry didn't feel tired at all for some reason, so he went outside for a run. Harry ran for a good while before doing some pushups and sit-ups. He was determined to be in good fighting shape for whatever was going to happen.
After going to a pond and jumping in, he saw a broom flying his way. He felt his stomach flip when he saw Ginny come down and get off. "Morning, Harry! You get up too early for me."
"Actually I never went to sleep." Harry laughed at her expression. "Come join me, its nice and cool this morning."
"I didn't bring my swimming suit, and I don't think skinny dipping is appropriate." She said this with a grin.
Harry laughed at this. He really liked Ginny, she was perfect. He pointed at her clothes to tell her she could jump in with those on, and when he did, her clothes turned into a modest swimming suit.
Harry was shocked at both his magic as well as how good Ginny looked. "Harry!" Ginny yelled. "Close your mouth, and don't ever change my clothes again!"
"I'm…sorry, Gin. I had no idea I was going to do that. But hey, at least you don't have an excuse not to join me now!" Harry recovered quickly. He then sent a splash that was magically enhanced somehow and got Ginny drenched.
"You're dead now Potter!" Ginny jumped in splashing Harry as much as possible. They continued getting closer as the splashed and met in a kiss. Once again, Ron showed up before anything got serious. He cannon balled into the pond splashing both of them.
"Hermione just wrote…she said she was already coming this week." Ron could not keep some excitement out of his voice. Harry knew Ron had a liking in that way for Hermione; he was just too dense to see it, probably like Harry was too dense to notice Ginny before now.
Harry and Ginny looked at each other and stifled laughter. "Well, Ron, that is great news. As long as you two don't keep fighting, I can't wait for her to get here."
Ginny was excited for her friend to get there so they could talk. Hermione was her only close female friend. She couldn't help but wonder whether Ron would get up the nerve to ask her out.
They swam for a bit longer before deciding to go back in. Ginny suit turned back to normal as soon as she got out, and Ron wondered what was going on. They just shrugged it off and went in to have some breakfast.
As they approached the Burrow, they heard voices coming from inside. "…is too young. It's not fair on him. I don't understand why he has to go."
Harry heard Sirius' voice next, "I don't like it any more than you do, Molly, but you need to trust us. Harry needs to come with us for a while."
Dumbledore's voice then came out, "All will be revealed in good time, Molly."
"That's exactly what Harry said this morning. I don't understand, but I trust you all, and Harry made me feel calm." Mrs. Weasley was calming down.
"Did he now?" Harry could almost hear the twinkling of Dumbledore's eyes in his voice. "Now, we need to stop this conversation, because we have been eavesdropped on for some time."
The door opened and Mrs. Weasley had tears in her eyes and grabbed Harry in another hug. Harry didn't know what to think. Am I going to my deathbed or something? Mrs. Weasley is probably just overreacting, Harry thought.
Harry looked up at his godfather and headmaster. They were smiling, and Dumbledore had that twinkle that made Harry relax knowing everything would be ok. Dumbledore spoke, "Ok Harry, the time for you to learn has come. If you would say goodbye to your friends, we will be leaving for a while."
Harry didn't understand. He loved the past few days at the Burrow, and he didn't want to leave, but he knew he had to go. Ginny spoke up, "Where are you going? How long will you be gone? Harry, what's going on?"
"It's alright, Gin. I just need to leave for a while. I'm sure I'll be back soon enough." He hugged her, and she relaxed in his arms. He turned to Ron, "I'll see you later. Tell Hermione hi for mi if I'm not back."
Ron was confused and worried for his friend. After all, for Dumbledore to come and pick Harry up personally, there must be something going on. However, he relaxed with Harry's confidence that everything was ok. "Ok, mate. I'll see you later then."
Harry kissed Ginny goodbye, hugged Mrs. Weasley, and turned to the older men. Dumbledore spoke, "Now, if you could all go upstairs, so we can be on our way, without you following us."
They went upstairs looking confused. Dumbledore turned to Harry, "Ok Harry, we will be returning to the Chamber of Secrets. In the floo, say 'IT COST 8.30.' I figure it to be short for In The Chamber Of Secrets, Time-8:30. If it were 10:00, we would say 'IT COST 10.00.' So, you go first."
Harry stepped into the fire after throwing the floo powder in, looked at his watch, and said, "IT COST 8.32."
Harry spun around and appeared in the spacious room once more. He stepped out and was joined by Sirius, and then Dumbledore. Sirius stared at the room, "Wow! This is an auror's paradise."
"Let's move over to the pensieve please." Dumbledore said, "I need you two to see something."
They walked over and sat down on the couch. Dumbledore put his wand to his head and drew out something silvery. He held it over the bowl, and it fell in, swishing around. "Harry, I think you are ready to hear this. And though I hate to show this to you, you have a right to see it. Remember in your third year before Wormtail escaped, Professor Trelawney made a prediction? I told you it was her second real prophecy. Her first was also about Voldemort, but it was also about you."
"So there is a prophecy about me as well as Voldemort?"
"Sadly, yes. I will show it to you now." He waved his wand over the bowl, and Harry watched as his divination teacher appeared in the pensieve. She looked younger, but had the exact same features as when she made the prophecy Harry had seen.
Her voice was unlike that of her dreamy, foggy nature. She spoke the words, "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…and the Dark Lord will mark him as an equal…and he shall possess a power the Dark Lord knows not…and either must die for the other to live…"
Harry sat stunned. Not all of the prophecy made sense, but he got the gist of it. His whole world changed. He was no longer a large part in this new war about to take place…he was the guy to end the war, or to lose and send the entire world at Voldemort's feet.
Harry hadn't realized Sirius was gripping his arm until he lost circulation to his arm. "Sirius, you can let go now."
Sirius looked down at his hand, "Sorry, Harry." He paused for a while, "Are you ok, Harry?"
"No, I'm not ok. That prophesy means I can't have a life unless I kill him. I can't live while he survives." Harry decided he didn't want to take divination again.
"No Harry…I'm afraid you think this prophesy has decided your destiny. In reality, it has just given you confidence. Can you honestly tell me you didn't plan on fighting him again…maybe even finishing him for good?" His twinkle came back as Harry shook his head to tell him no. "Then, Harry, this prophecy just told you that you have the power to vanquish him, to rid this world of his evil."
"So this prophecy is merely stating what would've come to pass, whether the prophecy was made or not?" Harry asked.
"Yes, you have a choice to run away and not fulfill this prophecy, but the fact is: you won't. You have a choice, but we all know what your choice will be," Dumbledore said.
"Does Voldemort know about the prophecy?" Sirius asked.
"It is ironic really…Voldemort heard only the first half of the prophecy. He knew the one having the power to kill him would come in July, to those who had thrice defied him. The Potter boy and the Longbottom boy. He went up to you first, Harry, and marked you as his equal."
It could've been Neville. Harry thought, why couldn't it be Neville? He scolded himself for wishing his life on someone else. He couldn't do that.
Dumbledore looked at Harry, and Harry felt as though he were looking through his eyes. "Now, Harry, your powers are emerging. You may be wondering why I took you from the Burrow…I was debating whether to or not, but your powers are growing at an unsteady level. I fear you could harm someone without proper training for a while."
"I'll do whatever I need to, sir," Harry said. "If I need to face Voldemort…I want to be ready."
With the twinkle strong once more, Dumbledore said, "Great! We will use Tom's own training facility and you will live here until you feel you can control your powers."
"Will Sirius be staying here?"
Sirius answered, "I'll be dropping in quite often, but I won't live here much."
Dumbledore began, "Harry, I would like to come every morning and help you control that wandless magic of yours. It seems the biggest problem. After I leave, you will study, and study hard. You may not like potions…but I fear potions have an incredible power behind them. You must be able to brew and to identify potions and most importantly, be able to identify when one is being used so you can counter it or fight accordingly.
"You must work on divination to see if you possess any inner eye…I do not like it, but it can be useful. You will study transfiguration, charms, and defense like your life depends on it, because your life does depend on it. You have a long few weeks ahead of you Harry…but I think you will love every minute of it. Sirius will come in the evenings, sometimes stay the night, but he will duel with you…and if I am not mistaken, he will teach you how to become and animagus. I allow you to do this, but I must warn you to be careful…it is dangerous and could go completely wrong.
"Lastly, you are one of the most incredible wizards I have ever seen. I have faith that you will grow and become stronger than the evil around us. You are a true Gryffindor and the bravest person I have ever met. In addition to magically growing, you are coming into the age where your body will grow stronger and you will need to train yourself in that area as well. I have looked over the library and found nothing you shouldn't know."
Harry was confused at his emotion…he was excited. He was not sad that he couldn't be with Ginny, though he would miss her. He wasn't angry that he had to work over the summer. He wasn't distraught over the prophecy. If anything he was relieved he could actually fight back against Voldemort. He was excited to be an animagus and learn incredible amounts of knowledge in just a short time.
"Professor, I am excited to do this, but Slytherin made this place…don't you think it has dark magic all around?"
"Harry, I wondered the same thing as I read through the books here. They are not dark magic, I believe Slytherin was just a man who thought he was better because of his lineage, and he thought others were not worthy. Not all people who discriminate are evil, just mislead and maybe have bad intentions. Voldemort is one who is evil. Slytherin was one who was blinded."
Harry thought about this. It was true, but he had always thought of Slytherin as an evil man. I guess people aren't always what you expect, Harry thought.
"Now Harry, I expect you to use the rest of this day to familiarize yourself with this room. You didn't get any sleep last night, so I want you to rest up, because we will start early in the morning. This ceiling is in perfect time with the day, so you will be able to tell what time it is by the sun and stars."
Dumbledore went to the fireplace and vanished to his office. Harry turned to Sirius and grinned. Sirius was relieved, he was worried Harry had just been putting on a brave face for Dumbledore, but he knew Harry was happy at the moment.
"Excited, huh? Just wait until you can transform with me. I wonder what animal you will be." Sirius wondered if he would also be a stag like his father.
"How does it all work? I thought I got to choose the animal I wanted to be…" Harry didn't know very much about animagi.
"Well, we aren't supposed to start training until tomorrow, so I will just tell you that the animal you turn into is inside of you already. Being an animagus is different from transfiguring yourself into an animal. You take over the instincts and abilities of the animal when you are an animagus."
"So how do I find my animal?" Harry was eager to find out.
"All in good time, my boy." Sirius was amazed at the similarities between James and his godson. He beamed down at Harry missing James and Lily. He looked over at the pensieve and told Harry to go look in again.
Dumbledore had already taken his memory back, and Sirius pulled out the silver out of his head and put it in the bowl. "Go ahead and jump in this time, Harry. Don't just watch from out here."
Harry pushed his face into the bowl and swirled around until he was sitting next to a much younger Sirius Black. The older Sirius never joined him, so Harry decided to look around. He saw his father and the traitorous Peter Pettigrew standing with his godfather..
They were all in a trance, then instantly they all broke out of it. "Wow!" Harry's father said, "That was amazing."
Peter looked a little disappointed and said, "I'm a rat."
Sirius said, "Well of course you are Pete! I'm a phoenix." Peter gasped and looked at Sirius with big eyes.
James rolled his eyes, "And I'm a dragon…come on Peter…you can't seriously believe him! We all know it's never been done before." Peter coughed and pretended like he knew it was a joke the whole time. "I'm a stag…I was quite beautiful if I do say so myself."
"You do say so yourself, James," Sirius joked. "I'm a rather large black dog. Someone could mistake me for the Grim actually. Remus should have fun with me right? Wolf on dog!"
"So what do we do now?" Peter asked.
"Well, Wormtail…how do you like my nickname for him, Sirius? I suppose we will now try to actually become our animal. I have no idea how to do that. I guess we should go to the restricted section tonight."
Harry swirled out again and landed next to Sirius. "Wow! That was great. So how long did it take you to figure out how to transform? How did you know what to transform into?"
Sirius laughed, "All in good…ah you know. For now, I must leave you to enjoy the next 15 hours. Dumbledore starts early." With that, he walked to the fireplace and shouted, "The Burrow." He was probably going to give a vague description of what was going on to the Weasley's. They had a right to know some of it at least.
Harry looked at his new home for a while. He might get claustrophobic after a while in this one room. He looked around the rest of the room. He observed the potions lab more closely. He saw that the shelves had ingredients he had only heard of, and everything was labeled perfectly. He looked at the crystal ball and saw how nice it was. He didn't feel much like looking into it yet, so he continued around.
The carpeted ground was very comfortable and it went well with the paint on the walls. Harry saw several amazing painting and thought of the painting to the kitchens and decided he would have to find some secret passages.
He walked to the dueling dome and walked in. The area reminded him of his first task against the dragon the previous year. It was not like the dueling club in his second year, but more how he imagined a real duel would be…similar to the one a few weeks ago…
Harry shook his head and left the dome. He walked along the wall and found a snake carved into the wall. "Open," he hissed. Immediately the whole wall, which was the only wall without things up against it, shifted back and slid down until it disappeared underground.
"Wow…"
Harry looked past where the wall had been and saw where the basilisk had lived for hundreds of years. The room was covered in wonderful items of great worth. Galleons littered the room, but the room was accentuated by beautiful diamonds, amethysts, emeralds, rubies, and every other thing one could think of. The light reflected off of all the jewels and the beauty was astonishing.
Harry saw an outline of where the basilisk traveled through the gorgeous room. Harry had just uncovered more money than was in the Malfoy inheritance. If Harry kept this to himself, he would be one of the richest people in the world. Slytherin must have been a king to have all of this, Harry thought.
Harry took a closer look at the room and saw there were more than just gems in the room. Harry walked deeper into the room to find a deep hole where the basilisk must have slithered through to go throughout the school. Harry was sure there were other ways to get here from the castle. Maybe he would use the Marauder's Map and find a close pipe to get to from Gryffindor tower.
He continued through the space to find a large closet. When he opened the door, he was greeted by the imposter Mad-Eye Moody's office. There were dozens of little trinkets as well as some larger one's. Harry recognized a foe glass and a sneakoscope. He glanced around the spacious closet and found a box in the corner.
Harry opened the box and found four paintings. He lifted the first out and gasped when he saw a painting of Godric Gryffindor. The painting smiled at him before speaking, "Ah, someone at last…we haven't seen anyone here in a good fifty years. Slytherin got to get out of this old box, but the boy kept the rest of us in here."
Harry leaned him against the wall and pulled out the three other founders. Slytherin spoke next, "How did you get here?"
Harry smiled before answering, "I found it and killed your basilisk…It hurt one of my friends you see. I couldn't have that happen again."
Gryffindor spoke again, "Ah, you must be in Gryffindor then!"
Harry nodded at him. "Where would you guys like to be hung?"
Slytherin said he would rather stay in his chamber, but the other three wanted to go to the headmaster's office. Harry told them he would talk to the headmaster the next day. "Hey Slytherin, you wouldn't mind telling me about this wonderful training room would you?"
Slytherin blushed at the first compliment he had received in hundreds of years before answering, "I built it to train my heir…he wasn't exactly what I had hoped for. He seemed a bit too extreme. He was on about ruling the world. I just wanted some dirty mudbloods out of this wonderful school. Seeing as how you are here, feel free to use it, and you will be surprised at how many secrets there are within this Chamber of Secrets."
With that, they all dosed off to sleep. Harry moved them out into the main room, and as he crossed where the wall had been, it popped back up into place. Harry decided he would show Dumbledore the treasures of the room the first thing in the morning.
Harry was getting very tired, so he went to bed. He fell asleep very quickly with thoughts of how the next couple weeks would play out.