Chapter 13: The Chamber of Pain.
Draco or rather Tom Riddle was looking for Astoria. Draco had not gotten over the girl, and Riddle as a natural opportunist encouraged Draco to take his revenge.
Of course, Draco would have to catch her first.
While the girl did attend class, she was a literal ghost on the compound. Even Ronald Weasley and the others were difficult to find. Riddle had wanted to kill Ronald since the duel, and while he did find the trio a couple of times, they were always surrounded by too many people. And worse, they were all fifth and seventh years. Now Draco and Riddle understood what Crabbe and Goyle had meant. As he asked for other Slytherin students to pose at lookouts, even they were left confused. Riddle was aware that Ronald knew his true identity – and he wondered if he was responsible for destroying his Horcrux.
"If I cannot get her, another will suffice. Hannah Abbott seems clueless enough. I could perhaps get back at Susan Bones too. She is Susan's best friend. I want her to know that it was me…yes, she will work."
Invictus who was responsible for Draco's surveillance passed the information along. Hannah Abbott was monitored as necessary as she liked to visit the kitchen regularly for snacks. Harry and Hermione began to unwind the Arithmancy equations that described an entirely new plethora of high-energy physics.
"This is the most challenging math I have ever done Harry. What about you, any luck with your magic itself giving you a clue?" Hermione asked.
"Nope. The Peverells were not so far along, so I am on my own. I realised that my growth spurts are tied to the House Magic. I can tell that I have become more powerful, but I haven't had a magical maturity. I need to figure this out. I have to figure out the mechanisms, and you need to do all the mathematics…."
"Yes, I know. This is an equation for negative mass. Like what am I supposed to do with this?" Hemione laughed as they realised that they were both in, far over their heads.
"Maybe we can leave this for a bit. We are supposed to almost be done with Raphael's prosthetics. We can finish that instead?" Harry suggested.
"Yeah, I am stuck. How about we play catch with Daffodil, Harry?" Hermione suggested.
Twenty minutes later, Harry and Hermione were tossing quaffles at Dafodill who was a little bigger than a pony. She enjoyed chasing the objects down as she aimed to fly as fast as possible. As the dragon flapped about, Harry wondered about a far more controversial project that he could secretly try on himself, as he read into Cassie's notes about Animagus and Metamorphagii capabilities.
A couple of days later, Harry and Hermione were now at the Hogsmeade apartment and he was discussing the possible plan for dealing with Riddle.
"So what are we doing with this chipmunk?" Neville asked.
"You and the other two will confront him, allow him to gloat and then wait until he executes the final spell to birth the Basilisks. When he wonders what is wrong, you can crack a joke to annoy him. I will position behind him very quietly, as the armour movement is silenced.
Then I will kick Draco in his fucking nuts.
Then we will teleport Hannah out of the Chamber. Not that he knows that he murdered my parents, but this? Oh, I am going to enjoy it. Then we will beat the snot out of Riddle and Draco, make him confess under pain, and then put Fiendfyre bolts in his little diary. Maybe we might change the plan, we will see how it happens. We will wing it as we go." Harry suggested.
"Can I go instead of Luna? I want to be Hannah's saviour. You know…it would help me with..charming her…?" Tracey suggested before everyone laughed.
"Hey, we can work with that! How about something dramatic? We can ennervate her, give her a show and then when we reveal ourselves we can pretend to teleport you out! You better prepare the sweet talk in advance?" Hermione laughed.
"That isn't a bad idea. Anybody who can see the evidence will be useful later on to mobilise the students at the castle? No this will be good. She and Susan might get all the Hufflepuffs in action!" Harry snickered, as he rubbed his palms together.
"Do you think Riddle might be up to using the Avada Kedavra?" Neville asked.
"I don't think he can even summon the spell even if he wanted to – we looked back at the combat footage from Christmas and even last year. Hosting Riddle on a long term basis in your body wears down the tissue and makes you weak. Draco has been struggling with his spells, recently. The signature scan from the drones indicates that Draco probably has been developmentally stunted. Too bad for him. As far as I am concerned, kill the little fucker." Hermione suggested.
Later that week, Harry's brain was buzzing and he could not sleep - not even after he had taken a shower. For a long while, he had not made any discoveries. What he and Hermione had done was work with assemblies and components, for most of their recent projects. He remembered fondly the evening he had made his initial discovery about how wand cores worked. His magic was buzzing him, as he wondered about his next experiment. He sat up in the bed and asked Dippity to bring him a sandwich.
"Can't sleep Harry?" the elf asked.
"Having one of those days, where the idea has to come out of my head, or I will go mad. I just made a new wand a couple of weeks ago, but now I am looking to create something a bit more….ambitious?" Harry replied.
"Perhaps you need some silence. I will tell the rest not to disturb you until you climb out of your bat cave? I can remember when you made your initial set of discoveries in the Null-box. Being left alone was important. You do the thinking, and I will do everything else until Tipsy takes the next shift?" the elf suggested.
"Thanks, Dippity. And thanks for the sandwich, I am going to take your advice!" Harry replied, as he ate the snack and he leaned back on his bed.
A little bit later, Harry wondered to himself:
What if he could shape his bones into the necessary structures to create a wand in his arm? What if surgery wasn't even necessary? Hermione had transfigured Harry into a chicken one afternoon as a joke, so what was the big deal to grow the necessary structures? Sirius had no problem becoming a dog when he wanted to chase Daffodil. Harry thought about the blood filtering fiasco during the first Christmas operation on his godbrother's parents, and decided that "he was making his own damned tube"
"No, I can do better than a plastic tube, and a surgical needle. I can manipulate nanoscale materials!" Harry whispered to himself as he grabbed some components from the workshop and laid it out on his bed.
He took some Graphene and began to direct the nanosized material through his extracellular matrix. The small graphene fragments were gently shuffled around as they formed tunnels, around the cell membranes. As his mind became accustomed to interpreting the biological structures, he finetuned the creation of the nanotube tunnels. Whatever cells were damaged in the process were immediately broken down. Harry carried these tubes directly down to his bones as he dodged all of the tissue in his way and he kept everything inside a protego based field he improvised from a old vambrace.
"So I have my needle. Built of far better materials. Directly controllable, and I am sanitised with the jury-rigged containment…." he whispered to himself as he began to sweat from the effort. There was a buzzing sensation, and at that moment, Harry realised that the Peverell Magic wanted him to see all matter whether it was biological or non-biological as something to be shaped and manipulated. Harry began to breathe loudly as he forced himself to keep track of the biological systems that were alive and scurrying about as he continued with his goal. There were hundreds of thousands of "needles", and all of them were one hundred nanometres across. They were far too small for even bacteria and other cells to enter. The graphene flakes had no problem, whatsoever. When the material had arrived at his bones, he merely created and weaved the nanotubes within the bone structure. He even remembered Hemmione's stellar performance during the first operation – He began to work like a tailor, as he 'sew' the nanotubes into the bones while trying to dodge all the nerves. He was waiting for the excruciating pain, but there was none. Rather, there was an odd scratching and tickling sensation.
"Well, maybe I do have an actual funnybone now!" Harry sniggered to himself.
After exiting the occulumentic trace, he took a short trip to the workshop. He acquired some of the specialised material that had been left over from Noémie's prosthetic retrofit. He brought the canister and other necessary materials to the bedroom and submerged his hands into the liquid. After some molecular grade, sanitisations, he selectively guided the materials down his nanoscopic tunnels before he weaved the coated gold and copper threads into his nervous system.
Finally, Harry transported nanoscopic clumps of superconducting material and some ruby powder into his bones, and he commanded his body to build far denser bone structures to encapsulate the material, during long-term growth. While his body could not manifest the proposed changes to his skeleton immediately, there was a dim acknowledgement from his body - if he could eat more and increase his iron uptake, he could enrich his marrow and build the right type of bone granules. Now he was readjusting the Peverell magic and he summoned what he called the "doping configuration." As he entangled the nanotubes to conduct the M-field as he called it, he realised that he was along the right path. His 'wand' honestly felt somewhat like an internal organ. As he exited his trance, he knew he was done for now, and he was anxious.
"Well, the moment of truth. The cores are entangled, my magical core is accessing the false-nerve matrix and…." Harry whispered as he felt the item come alive. It felt like his wand, but far more intimate and sensitive.
Harry threw a small lightning bolt and was surprised when a fist sized lightning bolt erupted and blew out the door. As he examined his arm under his Mage sight, he saw that there were no biological issues that he could detect. As he outstretched his hand and he could feel the magic in the wards, in the walls and even in himself. He conjured some small well known offensive spells, and he did not need any verbalisations. The feeling of the emitter matrix as it directly tied into his nervous system gave him a type of intimate feedback that was almost like running and jumping.
Harry then conjured a small flame and began to make it dance. Then he carefully trickled a small amount of energy into his hand as he summoned all of his spells, including his custom fiendfyre. The spells were not shaped like a beam but resembled a swirling mass that was easier to shape. He often found that he could somewhat bend spells when his hand was outstretched and he conjured the magic. He could even guide them after they left his hand.
"How is this possible?" Harry wondered before the revelation hit him like a ton of bricks about an hour later.
The shape of the magical instrument mattered. Long pointy objects were good at producing long pointy spells. Flat objects were better for shields. His emitter matrix was embedded in his entire right forearm, and it was evenly distributed. And while his wrist to his elbow was a mere twelve inches, he had included his finger and wrist bones and had distributed all of the material throughout the radius and the Ulna. It was an impressive amount of surface area and volume.
"So the energy manifested in an organic, fluid way. So that is why Uagadou teaches wandless magic with the use of hand motions. The shape of the casting structure is important too. Well…shit…" Harry wondered to himself, before he went down to the workshop, and explained to Invictus his new piece of lore. Harry insisted that this was not wand crafting lore, but "magical focus" lore as he called it. He also took some of the water out of his cup and began to swirl it around in far more complex shapes.
"Are you telling the rest?" Invictus asked.
"Not yet. Mum and Hermione would be quite angry that I did something this risky. I am going to take my time and attune my flow and control of the magic every day, and hope that we get no inflammation."
"What do you feel, when you touch your magic?" Invictus asked Harry.
"That the implants have taken well, but I will have to make some adjustments to my diet. I wanted denser bones and my body sort of…..told me I could cross-brace the hollow of my bones, but my marrow would have to work overtime, to continue to maintain my blood at its current level. Might have to eat more chicken livers?"
"Magic is sentient. Talk to it. Use your intuition. I think you will be fine. Besides, your mother can fix anything. She rebuilt you piece by piece."
"Well Gramps, I was counting on that as the last resort. I am going to explore the shop now that I can sense magic. The wand also acts like an antenna!"
"A bug can often become a feature! I love that joke! Are you going to do the other parts of the body?" Invictus laughed.
"Just what I need. If I modify too much, I will have a problem with my marrow replenishing my blood cells. I know I can compensate for what I have done today?"
"That is a sensible choice grandson. Magic always has a cost. I believe that your new internal magical focus will demand a diet alteration, and far more meditative exercises. Let me think on it, some more."
The green-eyed boy spent the rest of the early morning just walking around and examining many of his items. Suddenly, he could feel what were some of the better optimised pathways that magic could take, and now his mage sight began to filter into the information coming from his arm. Many of the alchemic principles he had read, began to make sense.
Harry then wondered how the new complex magic that he was manipulating would express itself as equations and spell patterns. He accessed an Arithmancy Module and synced it up to his arm. As he cast any number of wandless spells and he observed the equations that were popping up on the holographic emitter. After some experimentation, he was able to program a new spell pattern by shuffling around some of the variables. He had an entirely new magical power at his disposal, that looked like a narrow, directional shockwave. He had copied an intent modified Potter spell into the Arithmancy module and had changed some of the parameters to reflect his existing stomp. Invictus clarified the new ability as Harry began to shape the lightning in a rough mass of energy around his fist – he found that he had far more finesse.
"So you can shape magic more freely, and you could share the spell pattern with somebody else?" Invictus asked.
"I would need Hermione to take the implant. Then we can test such a thing. I also wonder if I could put some smaller emitters in other parts of my body for auxiliary purposes. But yes, it should work…in theory. I want a lefty implant for shields."
"Sounds like you have a personal power loadout now, providing there are no magical or health issues?" Invictus laughed.
"Sure gramps. Hey, maybe I should practice the force choke! If I can choke multiple people at the same time, that would be extremely cool! Look, everybody wants to be Darth Vader, and say his ominous lines!"
"Ah, the best part of being your great-grandfather is that after we make a serious earthshattering discovery then we use it to do immature things. You have no idea how much of a Peverell you are! I used to juggle small pebbles wandlessly for birthday parties! Children loved it. I say go for the force choke, indeed!" Invictus laughed.
After a hyper productive couple of hours, Harry collapsed on his bed approximately at eight o clock the next morning and did not wake until well into the evening. As soon as he woke up, he found himself able to snap his fingers and make his bed. Mipsy was surprised, and she began to laugh.
Her wizard was good entertainment.
"Nice!" Mipsy replied as Harry decided that perhaps the best application of his wandless magic and the new 'combat amp' would be to make his favourite fried rice for everyone, completely wandlessly. Soon enough, Harry was in the kitchen, as he summoned protego based knives and diced and sliced vegetables. He found this immensely satisfying because he was terrible at the process, and the ingredients looked like an angry beaver that had gone on a rampage to conquer the world, but had given up halfway after having a philosophical crisis.
"Not too bad Harry, not too bad. Although doing it wandlessly, is a great achievement?" Mipsy replied as she looked on.
"Not really wandless. I built a magical amplifier into my forearm bones. It is a wand but it helps amplify my wandless capability. It doesn't do the spell as a thick energy beam. More like a….big angry beehive sort of thing?" Harry explained.
"That is impressive. I suppose you haven't told the rest yet? A secret project?"
"Sure Mipsy. You know how I love those! I have to make sure my body doesn't reject the implants. It was risky but the magic feels solid and sure."
"I dropped by to tell you that I will take your advice – you had suggested that I could spy on people while they cook, or ask another magical family to show me their recipes, while abroad. Tipsy and I are starting our tour from Thailand and we will ping you on the communicators. Whootsy and Bootsy will hold on for us, at Hogwarts."
"Excellent. I was supposed to carry you with Grace, but I would have never catered for developing the transporter." Harry replied.
"No. It is quite handy. You have to work towards the war effort. We will manage. See you later!" Mipsy replied before she left. Invictus was laughing and Harry was sweating bullets, as he continued with the cooking.
"The vegetables are challenging, but I am getting there!" Harry panted.
"I think this is good! Do all your household chores by yourself. No elves. All wandlessly?" Invictus suggested, as Harry then grabbed a broom and got to work, sweeping what had fallen on the floor. The group at the apartment suspected nothing when the rice and chicken arrived later that night. Hermione was quite observant, however.
"Why are the vegetables all different sizes? Had a rough day?" Hermione asked.
"I did most of this wandlessly. It was a challenge? The fine control was ridiculous. Made me sweat bullets. Aunty Molly running multiple spells wandlessly and just refreshing the intent? That woman is absolutely…dangerous! " Harry laughed.
"Ah hell, now it makes sense. But I like that. People think that because she chose to be a housewife and have a large family that there is some type of disgrace in that. Molly could wipe the floor against any of Voldy's supporters, just let them piss her off. Maybe we should practice that while sharing a battle link. See if we can coordinate like professional chefs. A good exercise to help us with our magic?" Hermione suggested.
"Definitely. Maybe we can learn how to make large quantities of Pizza? Get the whole group involved. No talking, and we will do everything wandlessly were possible. Good for really taxing us." Harry suggested.
"And Pasta. I want to be one-woman factory Pasta factory!" Hermione laughed.
It was the 8th of June.
The OWL exams were starting in two days. For the group, the exams would only last a week as they were writing only three subjects. Harry decided to take the group out for a treat.
The group had visited Germany and had purchased the infamous Currywurst. Tracey who was a fan of anything fried or meaty had brought enough to have multiple potions. Fred and George were already plotting to purchase German snacks and food items, to augment their contraband offerings. The twins had no problem just teleporting to random countries and purchasing joke items and anything that caught their fancy. There were at least three basements full of snacks from all over the world at their apartment. Now the entire excursion group were back at the apartment. Mixed up in the currywurst were a couple of döner kebabs and Ronald and Neville were also trying the Albes Hähnchen.
"Where next?" Harry asked.
"Let us find out what makes the Japanese Ramen so special. Or we can try that infamous Omurice. Time to learn some overnight Japanese!" Daphne suggested, as the resident language polyglot.
"That sounds like a good idea. After there, we have a couple of those Jewish Sandwich places I want to visit in America!" Harry laughed. The rest of the afternoon was spent as Harry and Hermione looked over the training schedules and tested the group on the heavy areas of their NEWT exams.
"Alright. All of you are looking good. Go out and slay those exams!" Hermione laughed.
"Never would I have thought that I would be concerned about grades? I guess you two rubbed off on all of us. I hope that dimwit does not use exam time to carry out his plot?" Neville wondered.
"Hey, Draco is leaving the castle. Speak of the devil and he shall appear!" Astoria joked.
"So a Saturday evening eh? Good thing we got some food in – now we can work it out on the moron?" Harry asked.
"Tracey, Neville and Ronald, get armed up!" Harry replied as he tapped a rune on his bracelet, along with Hermione. Suddenly two large cases appeared from the workshop and Harry and Hermione went to the bathroom and took off their jeans and other items of clothing. When they walked out there were only in their speedos, which were covered with some ultra-thin sensor plates and runes. They grabbed their muscle weaves and slipped them on before the opening was reconnected via magic. Then they moved around and made sure that they were properly synced.
"So you guys wear those undergarments the time? And then, you have to slip on the muscle weave?" Fred asked.
"For now yes. We have an idea on how to miniaturise the weave but we have to do some thinking. As for the small plates on the speedos, they have the biosensor package. Also, they serve to keep us somewhat decent. No….imprints if you get what we mean…" Harry replied.
"Oh, that is clever! Too bad the Wizarding public could not see the imprints. I know the boys at Hogwarts would love to see those jewels on Hermione's chest!" Tracey laughed. Everybody got uncomfortable, but Hermione was not upset at all, which was shocking. Rather, she merely laughed and shook her head in a manner where she acknowledged that she was not bothered about it. Harry observed as Tracey wiggled her eyebrows at Ronald - he figured that the real jab was at the fellow redhead, but Ronald continued to be calm and not flustered. The redhead had his game face on, and he did not consider this evening to be just a casual stroll. He was prepared for anything. Harry appreciated that Ronald brought reliability to the trio.
The rest of the people in the apartment were surprised when the cases opened, and the hexagons flew toward Harry and Hermione and slowly built the underlayer of the suit. A much bigger piece with the spinal interface then snapped into their backs. Some of the other hexagon pieces floated around their neck, as the gun and melee pieces positioned themselves across their body. Neville, Ronald, Tracey, Fred and George's jaws dropped when the last of the titanium pieces flew into position, but the helmet remained unattached. Daphne and Luna who had helped with the new design were laughing.
"That is so fucking cool. So it can be summoned and the blocks connect to themselves?" Tracey asked.
"Yes, this is one of the better optimisations we made. We want to be able to suit up quickly. If we are really in a hurry, thirty seconds flat, and it can occur while we are funning. We are aiming to be ready in less than ten seconds for the next improvement." Harry laughed. Neville's curiosity got the better of him as he asked:
"So wait how do the guns work? Where are they?"
Harry grabbed his handle and the others saw as the pieces of the Assault rifle flew in, and assembled themselves. Then he switched to the DMR, and the rest observed as merely the barrel was swapped. Then Harry switched to a shotgun, added an underslung cannon launcher and even switched out to a pistol. Finally, he demonstrated the halberd, which also assembled itself as long he commanded the hilt to come to his hand. Unlike a traditional weapon, there was not a solid single pole. The pile was broken into many smaller pieces and they all floated in line with each other, to disassemble into the armour unobtrusively. To finish the demonstration, he held one of the smaller handles and swapped out the rest of the components to build his sword. Ronald who was observing the system, nodded at Luna as he realised that some of the more outlandish ideas he had for his war mace were very much a possibility.
"Alright you lot, stop gawking. Go and get changed. Let me get Percy to keep an eye on Draco," Harry suggested as he pinged the oldest redhead. Percy and Penny came over five minutes later, and the redhead got situated in the topmost lab, in the apartment complex. Penny loitered around as she had many questions.
"How do you sit in all that armour?" Penny asked as she looked at the pair's new war gear. Hermione demonstrated how the armour could disassemble itself selectively.
"Ohh…fancy! Although it makes sense?" Penny commented.
"If you think that is cool….." Hermione replied before she walked up to Penny and gingerly took a potato chip from her bag. As the glove disassembled, Penny's eyebrows were now raised in utter surprise.
Hermione smirked, "See, snacks are important…"
Percy began with the commentary:
"Right so…Draco has stolen a rooster and has…oh dear he is cutting his head off…..and draining the blood into a Hogwarts Pumpkin Juice Goblet. He is making his way back to the castle. That was really ghastly. Let us see where he is going. Oh, he is dodging the students now and…"
The group waited for thirty minutes as Draco sneaked around students and teachers very carefully. In the meanwhile, Luna secured Neville's armour. Daphne secured Tracey, and Hermione offered to fix Ronald's armour.
"There you go, Ron. Looking good!" Hermione replied.
"Not as fancy as you, but thanks Mione" he joked. Daphne who was out of sight, winked at Ronald as Hermione seemed to fuss over him. Percy who was tracking Malfoy from the Marauder's map combined with the surveillance cameras and sensors explained, "So he is moving towards the kitchen…and…."
"Probably going to grab Hannah?" Tracey suggested, as Penny pinged the Marauder's map and saw that Hannah was taking a small walk towards the kitchen.
"She visits the kitchen for a snack around this time, according to the logs. So he has been stalking her for a while. And his wand is out and…." Penny trailed off.
"Stupefy!" was heard as the girl collapsed before the portrait of the fruit bowl.
Draco-Riddle then levitated the girl and disillusioned himself and his victim. He then made his way to the spot where the initial message had been scribbled on the wall. Regular application of the Homenum Revelio spell insured that he was not discovered. Draco then siphoned the blood out of the cup and wrote:
"Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever"
"What an edge lord. Poor fella, he doesn't know that the joke is on him." Fred replied
"After the git gets out of the hospital, we can unleash the red shell on him?" George suggested.
"Maybe his father might come by. We can set up somewhere in the courtyard and ensure Lucius takes a nice brisk run. It might do him some good?" George whispered behind privacy wards, as Harry and Hermione discussed the plan. The group observed as Draco took another twenty five minutes, to make his way across the castle. Now he was at the second floor girl's lavatory, and he approached the centre face basin arrangement. As he hissed in parseltongue at a specific tap, everything disassembled itself and Draco merely sent the girl's limp, unconscious body down the tunnel. The various face basins were now spread apart, and the top of the entire structure was freely floating.
"How did the Chamber get connected to modern plumbing?" Ronald wondered.
"Some taps in Hogwarts just run an Aguamenti through the pipe. Maybe the water drips down the iron grill, right there on the floor. The plumbers probably thought it was a random drainage tunnel. Hogwarts doesn't have PVC for carrying away wastewater, so that makes sense…" Harry suggested as they continued to observe Hannah's limp body.
"Well, he plans to kill Hannah, so no big deal if she gets scuffed up on the way down?" Ronald wondered as Draco arrived at the Chamber hatch and the metal snakes retracted. He then walked down the cold gloomy stone pathway, as he floated the body of the unconscious girl. He took a nondescript pebble from the ground and transfigured it into a chair, before binding the girl. When the girl was well secured, Draco opened his knapsack and took out a fairly old piece of parchment that had been ripped out of a book. He began the incantation in Latin, as he drew a pentagram and carved some runes into the stone floor with his blood. Draco fainted and there was a sudden black mass that exited from the diary as it fed on Draco's energy.
The ghostly image of a sixteen year old Tom Riddle came into being.
"This is fascinating. Direct energy to mass transmutation. Come on, let us transport to Salazar's head and have a seat and watch the entire thing. The rest of you will pop into the area in front of the chair after I create a distraction," Harry instructed.
Harry and Hermione were now sitting on the same spot, where Remus had taken the shot at the Basilisk. They were examining the situation with Harry's mage sight, with the battle link. When Harry pointed to Riddle, Hermione saw Harry's right arm, through their shared eyesight because of the battle link. Now, he had been discovered.
"What did you do with your arm, Harry? It looks…..beautiful!" Hermione asked through the mind link.
"I….er….built a trial wand into my hand. Or more correctly, a magical amp….and it fucking works!" Harry bragged, with a lopsided grin.
"But…how did you do that?" Hermione asked, genuinely curious.
"Transfigured nanoscopic tubes, and delivered the material to my bones before weaving it into the holes in the bone matrix. Was also able to weave the nano-wires around my nerves. Hardly any pain and very compatible. I can feel that my body likes it."
Now the armour pieces had completely disassembled and Hermione took her hand and felt the condition of the implant through the muscle weave, as she probed Harry's hand with her house magic and then some of Priya's spells.
"No inflammation, no swelling, nothing. The materials are fused into the skeleton. Really good integration. How long now? Any side effects?" Hermione asked.
"Nope. I will tell you the rest when we get back home. Three days now. Really feels natural."
Harry's armour reassembled, and now the pair were watching Riddle as he poked himself and seemed satisfied. Now he was yelling loudly as his voice echoed off the wall. The pair began to wonder if Voldemort or Tom Riddle had megalomaniacal vibes since his teenage days.
"Let us see if Neville Longbottom will come. No, it must be him who discovered the Chamber of Secrets! He is the most powerful wizard at Hogwarts! Did he destroy my Horcrux? Did he destroy the Basilisk?
Or was it Ronald Weasley – he knows my secrets! I have not been able to find him for many months No, he will come today! We will see!
I killed Harry Potter. I will kill Neville Longbottom and Ronald Weasley too! And I will kill all their friends!"
Draco was almost to the point of frothing as he paced up and down. For the next fifteen minutes, Riddle continued with small enchantments and rituals as he slowly became more solid. Harry was now bored and he pinged the entire squad.
"This is like watching paint dry. I don't have all evening. I am going to toss a stone on the side there and we will distract Riddle. When he walks off, you and the rest can drop in!" Harry explained to the trio who were waiting for deployment.
"How about a Bombarda grenade? Set the power to about ten per cent. That should prevent a cave in. Manual trigger?" Hermione suggested.
"One nade' coming right up?" Harry replied as he took the item off his belt and reprogrammed the explosion power before tossing it away from Riddle. Suddenly the spectre of the six-year Slytherin heard a clinking sound as the metal from the grenade reverberated against the stone hard floor, far behind him. Riddle took Hannah's wand and began to trace the source of the object, as he walked off to the side. He gingerly took the grenade up and looked at it.
"Whoever you are, show yourself! Face me!" Riddle yelled in the gloomy cavern.
Harry whispered to himself, "Fine by me" before he detonated the device.
KABOOM!
Riddle was pitched fifteen feet into the air. He landed with an unceremonious thump, and he was flat out on the floor. More fascinating, was that he was bleeding from his nose.
"Is he...bleeding?" Hermione asked.
"He is probably made of flesh and blood for this little jaunt this evening. I was planning to kick Draco in the nuts, and I was disappointed when Riddle suddenly appeared. But if he is solid, I might enjoy this even more!" Harry joked.
"You get to deal with the man himself then?" Hermione asked.
"Indeed. Let us have a closer look, and we can see how he is manifesting himself?" Harry replied to Hermione before he instructed his students, "My lovelies…it is…showtime! Apparate around Hannah, let the entertainment begin!" Harry replied.
Neville and the rest apparated into the chamber. Tracey was now standing on the left of Hannah and Ronald had taken up the other side, with Neville leading the formation. Riddle dusted off himself as Harry and Hermione under the cloak, stooped down and examined the enchantment from the Horcrux. Riddle shook himself, as he had been pitched some distance down the stone pathway.
"Well good evening Tom Riddle. I thought we could make a….explosive entrance!" Neville replied.
"I knew it was you! You Ronald Weasley, you discovered my plot. And you told your friend. How heroic!" Riddle replied as he drew nearer to the group.
"I am a Gryffindor, isn't that what I am supposed to do? If anything your plotting hasn't been up to standard?" Neville laughed.
"And you? A Slytherin? You would consort against Salazar Slytherin's noble work! I knew you and Daphne were traitors!" Riddle blurted out, in an accusing tone of voice.
"Buddy, you don't know jackshit about Salazar Slytherin. This dagger on my waist? It is his. And I have his fishing pole and his accounts. So far the translations have been illuminating! He had a non-magical wife? Was a mild goth who lived in a basement. Ambition was more important than where you came from?" Tracey replied as she recounted some of the translations that Percy had managed with the assistance of the Goblins.
"Lies!" Riddle replied as the panic manifested in his voice. His research had indicated that Salazar was a mild person, but he had promised that he would carry that information to his grave. How would he rouse his followers without Salazar's authority? As he looked at the dagger that the girl waved around, he realised that the legends that he had read were true and somebody else had control of the narrative. He looked on curiously, as Tracey taunted him:
"His personal quarters aren't too far off from here. I mean how does an entire basilisk disappear? As potions ingredients, of course! I think we know more about this place than you?" Tracey replied.
"I am going to kill all of you!" Riddle replied as he realised that even the knowledge of Salazar's life could cause the entire Pure-blooded tradition to collapse.
"I doubt you have enough power to summon unforgivables. You generally tend to lead with Crucio. It is a stale set of tactics. Is Draco's weak little body strong enough?" Neville asked curiously. Riddle was looking at the group, and suddenly he began to feel something he had not felt in a long time.
He began to feel genuine fear – they knew too much.
"Look who is talking about lies? Isn't that your department? Making Horcruxes, with your half-blood ass, and telling people you are pureblood? Pfft!" Ronald teased, as he revealed the information Lorna had dug up.
"Have you not seen the two hundred eggs on the ground, in the water? I can summon an entire army of basilisks! They will stalk their prey and poison the entire student population!" Riddle replied confidently, even though he was nervous. Did they know about his multiple Horcruxes? How?
"Go right ahead? We were already here to deal with the basilisk. You honestly think we would let you hatch an entire army of them?" Neville joked. Riddle then took an egg and cast certain spells on it.
"Nothing is wrong with my eggs, you are stalling!" Riddle replied.
"Oh you foolish donkey, crack the egg!" Tracey replied. Riddle then cracked the egg and did not find any creature inside. He found shining dust, a small piece of plastic and then a piece of paper that said:
"WHOOP-DE-FUCKIN-DO!"
As he exploded all the eggs he soon saw that all of them were just full of glitter. He ascertained that the small object had somehow emulated the magical signature of the basilisk. And that alone was worrying – it was an advanced piece of magic. They had help. Who was helping them? And where did they appear from? It was impossible to apparate into the Chamber of Secrets! It was protected by the Hogwarts ward.
"I am going to curse the lot of you. Painfully!" Riddle yelled as he used the wand to make some small repairs to himself - it looked like he had broken some bones and he was setting them into place.
While the entertaining trade of insults was happening, Hermione had taken one of the Grenades and extracted the powercell from it. She had placed the small device on the diary, and Riddle's essence had detected the energy and began to feed on it. Voldermort's essence was not interested in silver haired boy anymore, as it began to consume the energy from the device.
"Right. So Draco won't die from magical exhaustion. You do know, we could kill him right now?" Hermione suggested.
"Yeah, I get that you hate Draco. So do I. I want him and Lucius to continue to feed Voldy the wrong information. That will hamper their efforts even more exponentially. No, we leave him be for the while. Perhaps Voldy will kill him for failure?" Harry replied.
"That would be funny. Draco thinks that Voldemort will love him like a parent. Well Harry, let us get behind Riddle and prepare to send his scrotum into orbit. Kick em' in the nutsack is how we open up any show!" Hermione laughed.
"Let Riddle trade some spells with Neville. I want to see how good he is…How much skill did Voldy have as a year six? I don't want to think it is as much as our students. The worse he could do is the killing spell, but they all have the armour on, under the robes. He would have to throw at least sixty killing spells to ablate the armour completely?"
"Oh yeah. We can keep an eye out. If they get in trouble, we can get involved. I want a magical amp this evening, soon!?" Hermione joked.
"Sure. You can help me with the Arithmancy. We can look at some basic power loadouts?" Harry suggested before he broadcasted to the trio:
"Neville, give Riddle some one on one attention. Tracey wake up Hannah, let her see some of the action!"
Neville took up the point position and openly challenged Riddle.
Tracey immediately ennervated Hannah and the girl was now confused.
"Where am I?" Hannah asked.
"Tom Marvolo Riddle! I challenge you to a one on one duel! I want to test the famed skill of Lord Voldemort's memory in his sixth year! Was he to be feared with a wand? Or was he good in a society where mediocrity was the norm? Come…let me see what you have, descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and descendant of Merope Gaunt! My blood is purer than yours, according to your definition. Perhaps I will win, in any case!" Neville yelled. Riddle's veins in his head were throbbing, and now he was livid – the claim was true, after all. They knew everything. Now he could not deny his heirtage – they already knew his Mother's name.
Lorna had gone digging in old government records for Wool's orphanage. Luis had officially requested these from the British Government through I.C.W arrangements and was able to backtrace details while leveraging all of the captured pureblood genealogy records Riddle had hidden in the Room of Requirement. Along with old report cards and other notes that the staff had made, everything had been hanging around in some decrepit boxes. The orphanage had changed its name, but it was still present.
Riddle took his position with his wand and kept it pointed at Neville. For some reason he felt strong - perhaps Draco was healthy and he was a powerful wizard? The energy felt pure and full of fire. No, he could use unforgiveables! The ritual was working! Riddle was curious as to Neville's capability and decided he would play along before he got serious. Harry and Hermione stood at the side of Hannah completely cloaked, as Tracey explained the situation.
"Remember that book that Susan had?" Tracey asked.
"Yes? The Dark Artefact?" Hannah replied, groggily.
"Draco got a hold of it. It contained a memory of Lord Voldemort in it. He stored his sixth year self with some dark magic. Draco kidnapped you to kill you, under Voldemort's influence, and we came to save you."
"What? That is Lord Voldemort?" Hannah asked as the jinxes were traded. Neville just seemed to be casually blocking the other person's spells. Hannah looked on as Neville seemed to grin. His wandwork was so quick you could not see the tip.
"Oh yes. He was handsome in his Hogwarts years. Good looking fella. He downgraded as the years went by. After we are done with him, we are getting you out. Yes, I am friends with Neville. It will be alright." Tracey replied.
Riddle was now casting some of the more common jinxes and curses and Neville continued to hold the line with Harry's modified protego. Riddle's magic was silent, but his tip movements were clear. Neville for kicks and giggles started calling out the name of every spell before he even finished it. Riddle began to pick up speed, but his wand movements hampered him as he needed to complete the flicks and swishes to cast the spell. Neville who had trained with stun cannons eventually got frustrated
"At least make me work for it. Were you ever talented, Tommy boy!" Neville teased. Riddle who had enough, then did the most predictable thing. And naturally, the severe slashing motion of the wand had tipped off everyone. Neville was already taking action to surprise Tom Riddle.
"Crucio!"
Before the spell had finished, Neville had fired off a Bombarda. It cleaved a snake's head off, before he tossed the rock into the pathway of the spell. He continued to hold it there, as Riddle screamed, "Avada Kedavra! Avada KEDAVRA! AVADA KEDAVRA! AVADA KEDAVRA! AVADA KEDAVRA!"
All he had managed to do was to chip the rock as he shattered pieces off the snake's head. Neville then conjured Harry's custom fiendfyre spell and drilled a hole through the rock, which exploded the snake's head but not before putting a hole in Riddle's leg. As the hot plasma burned through the skin and cauterised the tissue, Riddle screamed. Apparently, the spell had even chipped off a fair bit of his bone, and the smoke from the wound could be seen.
"Arrrghhh…rhhhhh….ghhh! ahhhh! Ahhhhhhh!" he screamed, as he attempted to dull the pain. Now the rock splinters were smoking, and Riddle's face was white with fear. Riddle realised that he was severely outmatched. Hannah had been freed from the chair, and she was standing next to Tracey, as the pixie-headed girl made all the actions you would associate with an overly protective boyfriend, and Hannah was flattered and surprised.
"Susan said that you and Daphne were cool. You are friends with Neville aren't you?" Hannah asked.
"Sure," Tracey replied.
"Is that really him? He doesn't seem too intimidating. Neville….has him screaming?" Hannah asked.
"Well, the Dark Lord learnt most of his magic in his later years. But in terms of him being a Hogwarts student, we are much further ahead. Neville is teaching him, his manners."
"Neville is amazing. So you came to save me? This is the second time that you did this!" Hannah blushed. Ronald smirked as Tracey continued to lay down the sweet talk. Riddle had dragged some of the distance on the floor. He decided to try to reason with Neville, like any Slytherin.
"You are powerful. Far more talented than even me. Join me and I will teach you Dark Magic. I will teach you to be the most powerful wizard in the world! I am immortal? I became Lord Voldemort and I conquered death in my later years. We could rule them?" Riddle suggested.
"Muggles went to the moon, and built an entirely new class of weapons that could destroy the planet. Nuclear bombs. The mundane world population is now six billion. We cant even rule ourselves, and you want us to rule them? Are you fucking silly? What type of Kool-Aid you have been drinking?" Neville asked.
"Why do you seem to like them?" Riddle asked.
"They are us. Humans existed before magic. Mundanes who are significantly advanced in their bodies will one day manifest magic. We should be helping them to culture the gift, not force them to kill us you donkey!" Neville explained.
"Fine. Perhaps a smaller kingdom. We can rule the magicals! All the wealth you can imagine?" Riddle suggested.
"Sorry to burst your bubble but the Quidditch broadcasts? I own twenty five percent of that business. I made three million galleons in the last eighteen months. That is more than then Draco's father. And Ronald owns the other twenty five percent."
Riddle's face took on a look of utter surprise, and even Hannah was staring at Ronald as he nodded.
"I offer you power. Magical power like nobody else!" Riddle replied as he began to grasp for straws. He had now managed to stand, as he had patched his leg with some type of dark spell. He had no idea what to say at this point – that type of wealth was unimaginable for Riddle. And he made that in only eighteen months? Riddle was holding his wand, and Harry and Hermione silently materialised behind Riddle. Hannah gulped as she saw the armour with the full "bling" on display. The Priestess had folded her arms like she was bored and the Storm Lord seemed to be preparing his leg to…..kick the aggressor. He seemed to be working out the trajectory like a cartoon character, as he nodded to the Storm-Priestess.
"I have magical power too. I beat you in the duel. But I think I do know somebody who is more powerful than you, in any case…" Neville replied.
"And who is that?" Riddle asked.
"The two people behind you?" Neville replied.
"You just want me to look backwards. I am not falling for that!" Riddle insisted.
"Suit yourself?" Neville replied before Harry yelled:
"SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER! DEEEEEZ NUUUUUTS!" through the vocoder.
All the four students saw was when an armoured boot collided with Riddle's crotch and he travelled a couple of centimetres. He began to howl in a high-pitched scream. Riddle's body was in so much pain, that his throat had constricted. He was almost like a balloon emptying air into an annoying children's whistle. He clutched his chest as his breath became ragged. Now he was nothing but a human millipede. Hermione then walked up to the group and introduced herself.
"Good afternoon. Excellent work. We were here since the beginning but we wanted to see Neville teach him a lesson." Hermione replied.
"I think he performed quite well, Rune-Priestess?" Ronald smirked.
"He did Mr Weasley. All of you performed admirably. Ms Hannah Abbott, sorry for the hambug. Draco under the influence of that stupid little book kidnapped you. And yes, that is Lord Voldemort. Well the teenage version of him, just your casual edge lord." Hermione replied.
"You are real! Did you save us during the broom accident? Did you kill the Death Eaters in Diagon Alley?" she asked excitedly.
"We did. But we would not have been able to save everyone during the broom accident. We thank these three for assisting us. Anyway, the Dark Lord did a piece of magic that guarantees that he will return one day. He isn't dead. But we do plan to have something nice, waiting for him…" Harry explained.
"Isn't he really dangerous?" Hannah wondered.
"Oh, he is very dangerous. Not this piece of him. The older version of him should be about fifty four years old. Plenty of time to learn Dark magic from all over the world. I am going to transport all of you close to the hospital wing, and then we will have a word with Mr Riddle."
"Can we join your squad? That armour is really sweet!" Tracey cheekily commented.
"Perhaps. If the circumstances demand it, we will see. War is coming to magical England in the next couple of years. Your job is to prepare. Study hard Hannah. We have seen much talent in you. We are aware that Mr Longbottom is teaching defence. We have a bet going on – my brother thinks Neville will have the highest known instructor scores for the students he thought. We are betting one thousand pounds."
"Are you purebloods?" Hannah asked.
"No. My brother is half-blood and I am muggleborn. We are adopted. Such things matter not. Hard work is important. You will carry this lesson with you. Consider it a gift from us….." Hermione replied, as Harry took Hannah's wand up from the floor and brought it to the girl wandlessly, with his head fully on fire.
"Easy Ms Abbott, we do not bite. This is yours, I believe. I will not demand a magical oath. I expect merely your courtesy, and then we won't have to discuss life debts?" Harry replied.
Riddle began to recover somewhat – and he was surprised when he found that he could not access his magic and that he was in handcuffs. As he looked upon the Storm Lord and the Rune Priestess, he began to struggle as he realised that his Horcrux was going to die. Now it was clear to him – the students were working for them! They were the people who knew everything, and they were far more powerful. They looked like armoured Gods of War. He tried to fight the pain off, but Riddle was a soft person – he had a very low tolerance for pain. He could not ever have dreamed that there was something worse than the Crucio. But then Muggles could be trusted to be barbaric and underhanded. And they had kicked him like a muggle.
"I won't say anything to anyone, I promise. Can I have your autograph?" Hannah asked, she seemed too excited. The girl almost felt like she was meeting celebrities. Hermione took a marker out from her armour compartment and surprised Hannah by drawing a dotted nose and a set of cat whiskers on her cheeks.
"Excellent. I can't write my name, but that will do. Susan met us, and you have permission to discuss what happened with her. We are trusting you to be responsible. And if you keep our secrets, we promise that we will give you as many snacks as you want. Snickers, Mars Bars, whatever you want. To sweeten the deal." Hermione replied.
"I promise I will stay quiet for the rest of my life!" Hannah beamed, as Hermione expanded the envelope on one of the cloaked drones, as it dropped the rest off to a side passage, close to the Hospital wing.
"I can't believe it! They are real! Susan met them and she didn't say anything!" Hannah exclaimed.
"I know. They are so damned cool! Did you see their armour and their cloaks? Their helmets? They have guns too! They must be centuries ahead of everyone else. Anyway, let us see if Shirley Temple has survived?"
"You mean Malfoy, right?" Hannah asked.
"Yes. His hair is just like Shirley Temple. She is a muggle actor from the earlier part of the century. Let us get rid of this mini-death eater and we can eat something from the kitchen?" Ronald suggested.
"That is where I was going, and I got jumped! I was going for ice cream! Can I see my face?" Hannah asked. When she looked at her face with Tracey's pocket mirror she laughed.
"She is so funny! I am not taking this off until I take enough pictures with Suzie!"
"What have you done to me?" Riddle asked, in a strained gasping breath.
"Sabotaged every one of your plans. I find it strange that you have memories. Your mind is poorly defended. I suppose you did not learn the Mind Arts as a year six student. That happened much later on?" Harry suggested.
"Mind Arts?" Riddle asked, completely confused.
"Oh, you poor thing. After having a look, you are not aware of what I did to your other Horcrux. It means that while you do have several pieces, they are not linked. Fascinating. Always wondered if I could link all of them with an enchantment and just kill you. But then that might also allow you to get updated information. Hmm, being alone this evening might be better."
"I must have killed someone close to you. Look what it did for you. It made you powerful!" Riddle gasped.
PUNCH!
Riddle was now bleeding from his nose. Harry had fractured his jaw.
"I was made powerful by the kindness of strangers. Do not speak of that which you do not know about. Oh this is going to be fascinating. I am going to rip every memory out of your head, and study you systematically, and track all of your pieces down."
"Why can't I access my magic? You did something to me!" Riddle asked.
"Oh, Bellatrix? Your loyal servant? She damaged many people during the war. We looked at her favourite poison from the Black Grimoire and refined it. Now, it can just suppress the magic in a person's body. You are essentially a muggle. Oh, you are what you hate…." Hermione laughed, condescendingly.
"No! That is not possible! It cannot be! What are you doing with my diary you harpy!" Riddle yelled at Hermione.
"Taking an extended analysis of it. This is the first Horcrux that we have encountered by itself. Now that we know your magical signature, we will use our magical radar to hunt your other Horcruxes across the entire country?" she calmly replied.
"Do your worst then! Kill me!" Riddle challenged.
"No. Not until I make you feel some pain. And no Crucios. The muggle way. The Chamber of Secrets has become the burial ground for Lord Voldemort. From here, we killed the Basilisk and uncovered evidence that Salazar was a cool dude who liked fishing. Now, this place will become the Chamber of Pain!" Harry replied ominously before he started to deliver punches to Riddle's face.
Harry was aware that as long as the magic was flowing, Riddle would eventually regenerate. While such a thing was preferable for Riddle, he had not done any of the rituals to allow him to suppress pain. He was still a teenage boy, and Harry's armoured fist bloodied his face. While Harry gave him a properly painful workout, he slowly ripped out every single memory from Riddle's mind and stored it in a crystal.
After Riddle was thrown on the floor, Harry stamped on his chest and his face as he broke his ribcage, his arms and his legs. Riddle was now a living corpse as he screamed half muffled from the pain and the blood that caused him to gargle.
"Mercy! MERCY! KILL ME! KILL ME!"
"NO! You killed my mother! You killed my father. You will suffer the way I suffered in the cupboard. No help is coming. You were going to kill me that night, again! I am going to take everything from you and your followers the way you took everything from me!" Harry thundered as he kicked him in his stomach.
Harry was now breathing heavily and he continued for twenty minutes with a type of brutality, that he didn't know that he had in him. And to make it personal, Harry had switched off most of the muscle weave – Riddle was being pounded under purely Harry's strength, and the green-eyed boy loved every moment of it. It was payback for the Dursleys, payback for his dead parents, payback for Sirius not being in his life as a child, payback for the darkness of the cupboard, payback for the hunger, for the lack of toys? Suddenly he paused as he realised that he was getting out of control, and Hermione acknowledged that through the battle link.
"Got your rage issues sorted?" she asked, mentally.
"No. He…He has devolved me into an animal! I was a beast for the last half hour. But this….is not me. I don't ever play with my prey. You should have stopped me." Harry answered while Riddle moaned in pain, like an animal on the edge of death.
"No, it is not up to me to interfere, Harry. I did not suffer the way that you did. I have only tried to patch you up, no differently from how you gave me the bother that I needed. If you wanted to burn the whole world down, I would not ask a single question.
My loyalty is to you. Whatever you want. Do you want the world and everything in it? Fine by me, if you wanted to conquer all of them. But if you wanted to be righteous? I am there too."
"Thanks. You are the best sister a guy can ask for you. No, both my mothers would not be pleased with what happened here. This is the darkness, calling to me. We have other important things to do tonight. I should be concerned with our projects, not this caricature of a person. We have bigger global problems to solve."
"Good Harry. Much better. You were supposed to show me some fancy magic, but you got occupied with beating him like how Grandma makes those parathas?"
Harry and Hermione paused before there was a full-on giggle, and Harry's darkness receded as he laughed. He took his helmet off, and Hermione followed before he wiped his face with his hands. Riddle had blood in his eyes, but he could see as the armour disassembled itself. When he looked upon their artefacts, he realised that they were far beyond him.
"Maybe some humour might be good. Observe….spinning wheel Riddle!" Harry replied, as he levitated Riddle and began to spin him as if his navel was bolted to an axle. He spent the next ten minutes, summoning the water as he made all sorts of rude dildo shapes and hit Riddle all over his face and his abdomen. What Harry was doing was showing off his capability to shape and bend magic with the new combat amp.
"Much better. Funny Harry is much better." Hermione replied as she tossed the Horcrux in front of Riddle who didn't care to exist anymore.
"This was an evening of catharsis, Mr Riddle. Goodbye!" Harry commented as he grabbed his halberd. It assembled on the way down as the blade pierced the diary. Then Harry dissipated the containment field and as the book was burnt. The fiendfyre plasma spilt out and it made a large hold in the middle. Riddle dematerialised into a dark inky smoke as he screamed and turned into dust.
"Good. We are drinking some good booze this evening. It was good that you let loose. We cannot afford for you to be like that on the battlefield. But this was okay, you needed it…" Hermione replied as she hugged him. Then, she took up the diary, and then both of them transported to the Peverell workshop.
"Well, that is the yearly death trap all done. He really put a proper beat down on that git. Harry made him scream for a half hour! I could not honestly watch." Fred replied.
"Can you blame him? That cupboard was…too much. Just imagine being nasty, hungry, cold and alone. Thank Hecate Ms Singh and the rest was good to him. He might have been worse if he went all dark. Far worse?" George wondered.
"Can we really judge him? He lost everything. Harry would have been better off as a young guy just chasing birds and having fun. He never had a childhood or teenage years. He does this so that we might have a good time?" Daphne sadly answered.
"We know. He had to kill when we were just playing as children. And Hermione had to kill so my mum and sister would be safe. Hermione was….scary. She would never question Harry, no matter what it was…" Ronald replied as he passed his hand over his face.
"As long as we are their friends, they can never do wrong. We will give them a reason to laugh. Harry and Hermione have been parenting us, but it looks like we will have to be a little more proactive, in terms of dragging them out of the lab. We need to do nice things for them, too?" Neville asked. There was a nod among all who were assembled. No, they had to prevent Harry and Hermione from becoming detached. Suddenly Daphne had a plan to get Harry's attention. Did he like humour?
She would crack savage but funny jokes from now on. And maybe that would help some of the darker aspects of his personality to fade away.