Author's Note: I do not own Harry Potter
His heart was lighter than it had ever been, and it showed.
The crowd did not see Harry Potter right then. They saw an artist using the broom as his paintbrush.
None of them knew what had happened between him and Dumbledore, but when Harry sat down on the long sofa before the fireplace, there was something different about him that they could not quite put a finger on.
He was still the same person, but they had all noticed the difference he exuded.
"We had a talk," was all he would say about it.
Even Katie could not get the words out of him, stating that what transpired that night was something he just could not explain.
'How could I?' he reflected. 'How could they understand what that was?'
Dumbledore had given him a thorough background to a Phoenix and their workings. Harry would have immediately refuted the words spoken if he had not experienced the tranquillity of the Phoenix song.
"Sir, can anyone get a Phoenix, or is there something stopping them?"
"There are very few enclaves left I'm afraid, Harry. The story of how Fawkes and I partnered is a long and complex one, and cannot be truly understood, unless experienced."
Harry had not fully comprehended the majesty of some of the creatures that inhabited the magical world until that moment. Dumbledore had simply smiled at the boy.
"If you would like my opinion, Harry, then I would suggest choosing Care of Magical Creatures as an elective for next year. Though there will be no Phoenix's involved, there are a vast amount of creatures in this world that you may enjoy just as much."
He had kept the memory of that night in his heart and mind, carrying him forward through the rough times ahead. The weeks sailed by, and all of them were missing their friend. But Harry, who instead of being the one they expected to have to comfort and care for the most, had instead turned the tables on all their expectations.
Each one of them had his attention at some point or another, even Fay and Neville, who were not as close to Alicia as he or the others were, still gained some measure of comfort. Everyone had noticed the changes, and all of them agreed that it was not confidence per se that he had developed, but almost like a sense of carpe diem.
And now, he was dancing to his own tune across the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch. The Ravenclaw Seeker could not hope to keep up with him before, and now she had no way to do such a thing. It was never a hope to best Harry; the other teams had decided that it was almost impossible to do so. It was now a source of pride, between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw at least, to see how well they could possibly do against him, even with a reserve Chaser taking Alicia's space.
It was of no one's surprise when Harry caught the Snitch and the Cup was once more placed into Oliver Wood's arms.
She had seen it afterwards. She had noticed how different he was acting and it set her heart aflutter. When she told Tom that there was something about him that she could just sense, he had returned with diatribes of his purity and innocence.
My dear Ginny he had written. Someone has corrupted him. If your Harry is not acting himself, and the way he is acting proves this, then I do believe that it is possible someone has got to him.
But who Tom? She was near frantic with worry. She had to help him.
Oh, dearest. My poor, poor girl. You must look amongst his closest. Only then will you find the culprit.
She had. She kept an eye out and an ear to the ground. If her destined was in trouble, then it would be down to her to find out a way to help him.
It all came to a head after the victory against Ravenclaw. She had tried to search the stands for who may be the one cursing him, and she knew that Neville and Fay were close to him – his best friends, she understood.
Neville was too weak magically to do something, which was good. The boy was sweet and kind. Not as much as her Harry of course, but enough for her to not wish harm upon him. Tom had agreed. He had said that someone so pure should not be harmed.
The girl she frowned at. Though she seemed like half a boy as Ginny sometimes, she never tried to do anything to get closer to her Harry. No, the girl was not the issue.
Her brothers? She was happier to watch the team as they flew, for it meant that she could stare at Harry's perfection for longer. Tom would always agree that Harry was the one to watch.
He is important Ginny. So very, very important. He must be looked after, and I know that you will be the one to do it. Trust me, Ginny, you need to be the one for him. You must.
She was glad she had Tom. He was helping her so much. But no, her brothers were stupid. Even if they harboured issue with her Harry they could not do anything to harm him. It did not matter anyway. She had her target. She knew exactly who was to blame.
The team was leaving the field as Ginny Weasley saw it happen. The embrace was long and loving. That should have been her down there, holding him to her breast. She knew the evil, sinful thoughts of the girl. She was pretty, she would give her that, but she had another thing coming if the smile on Harry's face was because of her. No, it was the curse. It had to be.
The veins on her forehead bulged as her eyes sharpened and the whites became cracked with the lightning of bursting blood vessels. She would make the girl pay. She will be the success story.
The crowd had all but vanished, and none saw the blood dripping out her nostril as her obsession consumed her. 'When Tom? Now? Yes, Tom. Now.'
She whispered the spell, splitting the girl's bag as she walked up the grand staircase. Then the next phase began. She began to wail, making it believable. Tom always praised her acting. Harry would love your acting, he would say. He would be as proud of you as I am.
"Hello?" came the voice. Ginny wailed louder, more hysterical, just to add flavour. "Hello? Are you okay?"
She hated that voice. She wanted it to end. It had to end. To be silenced. Such a beautiful voice, almost like a song. A song that corrupted her chosen. He was her Chosen One! Not this jackal! This Whore!
She cackled as she summoned it. The beast's eye shone out of the crevice in the wall. No need to bring it out where everyone could see it of course. The body hit the floor, splashing in to the water coating it. 'No! Not again! Why can I not get it right?'
She was terrified. Tom would be so angry with her. She couldn't stand the girl before her and knowing how angry Tom would be made her angry too. Her foot raised high and came down. Red met clear as the water became diluted of its sheen. The liquid gained a thickness to it as the vicious sound gained in tempo. Ginny let out a scream as she took in her handiwork. The smirk was not of her own design. It was not one she had ever performed in front of another. But here, as she saw the girl below her. She could relish in it.
She cackled madly once more and ran to see her Harry. He would be free now. He would need her.
The party was raging in the Gryffindor common room. Harry giggling wildly as he was raised on top of Fred and George's shoulders. Wood was practically drowning the Cup in his tears as he rocked back and forth.
Neville and Fay, both with red and gold stripes painted on their cheeks, were right next to them screaming themselves hoarse as they congratulated him profusely.
He could even see Ron and Hermione get involved displaying their House unity as they celebrated alongside everyone else.
"Where's Katie?" he called down to Angelina, who shrugged her shoulders. He was positive that he saw her trailing along. She had taken a Bludger to the ankle and had to hobble along on it slowly. He would have waited for her but she had all but demanded that he allow Neville and Fay to drive him forward ahead of the adoring fans.
The minutes ticked on by, and with each passing second his worry grew. The wireless was at full blast and the drinks were flowing. The butterbeer cupped in both his hands was shaking as his eyes darted around the room. He was about to suggest starting to look for her when the portrait opened.
He relaxed for but a moment. It was McGonagall. She looked haunted. The wind bitten face from enduring the high breeze earlier no longer burned red. She locked on to him as the noise began to die down.
She took one step. Then another. And another. And another. And he wanted to run. She was mouthing the words but no noise came out. His ears were ringing. One long, high pitch tone droning uncontrollably refusing to subside.
He saw Angelina collapse to the ground, George and Neville holding on to her. Fay was holding his hands, crouched down before him.
He stood and he ran. The girl coming through the portrait hole tried to say something but he bowled her over. He kept running, sprinting to his goal.
The doors burst open. He saw them. Dumbledore standing tall and strong, with Pomfrey staring at the bed holding the new patient. He was like a bullet. Snape's form took over his periphery, a sneer directed his way; Dumbledore's glare was unnoticed by Harry as he fell to his knees before her.
Madam Pomfrey ushered the others away, sadness saturating her form as she took in the sight before her. "Come now, Mr Potter," she whispered to him kindly. "We'll get you a bed and move it next to hers. Just for tonight."
Harry stared. She had always been a ray of beautiful light, yet this look of true terror was not a sight he wanted to see on her face. He remembered the smiles, the laughter. The grins of joy and the soft, caring visage he had come to need so desperately.
Her face was near caved in. It would be explained later that the attacker had appeared to repeatedly stomp on her face. It was brutal and horrific to see, but Harry knew. She was still so beautiful because he knew her heart. He wanted to rage, to destroy everything around him, but he couldn't.
Pomfrey guided him to a summoned bed gently. She moved it with her wand so it connected to Katie's bed and he slid over wordlessly. His hand reached out gingerly to touch what was left of her face. He could barely hear the nurse say that the petrification saved her life and that the injuries would have killed her if not for the harsh magic involved.
He could hear noises but wanted nothing to do with it. He saw a flash of gold and glimmering white appear briefly before it was shoved roughly away.
And he wept. He wept while someone watched from the outside. And two hearts broke as one.
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The Tornado's were completely understanding of his refusal to play in their latest match. "We understand, Mr Potter. We have a far enough lead thanks to you that I believe we can go a match without you."
Breakes was correct; Tutshill lost, but only by 90 points, which for a team on the cusp of complete failure prior to Harry's joining, was near incredible.
This meant nothing to Harry, however. If it were up to him, he would have not removed his person from Katie's side. Anything else that could affect his life was near inconsequential right then. The professors had to physically remove him from the hospital wing in order to get him to lessons, as well as eat and sleep.
Fred and George had become his permanent shadows; finally listening to their teacher's instructions without complaint as they teamed up to get him to at least function correctly. Neville and Fay had tried their hardest but were reluctant to be forceful with their best friend in the same 'tough-love' way the Weasley twins were able to be.
There were red cloaked men and women in the castle now, focusing on who the attacker could be. According to some older students, they had put off entering the castle before now on the assumption that there was no proof that a sole person was responsible for deliberate acts of assault; the petrifications could have been performed accidentally, or there could have been some latent magic within Hogwarts that had not yet been discovered. But with the deliberate violence against Katie, there was no possible way that an individual was not involved.
Harry had been questioned, like most others connected with the victims, and had only sympathies expressed by those around him. He could see the guilt in students' faces when he walked passed them – everyone knew of his connection to Katie and its overwhelming strength.
The only consolation that Harry had, was that Katie was alive and being monitored. The authorities had decided to place a permanent guard on the victims in case of any further retribution against them. There was also some relief in that Madam Pomfrey had easily restored Katie's face to how it was originally, with no apparent side effects of the brutal attack.
"Mr Potter, I swear if you do not get out of this hospital right now, I will bar your entry here for the rest of the year! Do you understand me?"
He had listened, but only taken her words into consideration. For every night he would come back, even for just a little while, under the cover of his Invisibility Cloak, where he would hold her hand and lament what had happened.
But time carries on, and he would join Neville alongside Professor Sprout as they and the Gardening Club helped to nurture the growing Mandrake's needed as the key ingredient to cure those petrified. It was a struggle to get this far, but with constant pressure from all sides, he was throwing himself into everything he could so as to try to distract his mind from the thought of Katie lying there unmoving.
This is what eventually led Harry to sitting silently within Hagrid's hut, the jovial man bending over backwards to make his smaller friend feel even the smallest quantity of enjoyment out of his time.
Harry sat on the worn chair, Neville by his side, with a strong mug of tea wrapped in his hands. Fang had laid his head upon his lap, looking up at him with big, beady eyes and a gentle whine, while Rubeus Hagrid pottered about his hut, a deliberate ignorance in his tone as his kindly countenance shone through.
"Y'all be alrigh' Harry. Jus' you see. Everythin'll work itself ou'." Harry did appreciate his friends' attempt at making things okay but still found everything so grey. "Snape's good a' wha' he does. Ya may no' like the man, bu' he'll get them back to snuff."
The Potions Master had been less insufferable since the attack. Harry could tell that the man was holding himself back from acting how he really wanted to, but whether Dumbledore was forcing him to play nice, or if there was another factor in play was up for debate. It would not matter anyway, considering how numb he felt in the circumstances that surrounded him.
There was a knock on the door, and a frowning Hagrid went to open it. "Professor Dumbledore, sir. And Mr Fudge. C'min, c'min. Cup a tea?"
The two men walked into his hut, followed by, to the two boys' surprise, Draco Malfoy's father.
"Ah, Harry, Neville, I'm afraid we will have to cut this time short, I'm afraid," spoke a slightly sheepish Dumbledore.
"Come now, Professor," Malfoy Senior's voice was as slimy as Lockhart's in Harry's opinion. "Two students down here, one being Harry Potter himself? Well, we may have just saved their lives."
"Ah, Harry, my boy, a true pleasure to meet you for the first time. I am Cornelius Fudge," his hand was left in the air, untouched. This did not deter the man from his speech, "I am afraid that Lucius is correct. I'm very sorry, Hagrid, but the Ministry is losing faith. We need to do something and after that girl..."
Harry and Neville had stood by this point, confused at the events occurring before them, but possessing enough clarity to understand that their friend was being taken away.
Dumbledore placed a hand delicately upon a shoulder of each boy, grip growing firm in order to tell them to cease any action they may have attempted to take. "And the Ministry knows my stance on this order. I may not be able to..."
"Have you not heard?" Malfoy's chuckle had a tint of sarcasm laced within. "I'm... sorry, Albus, but your time is up, temporarily, at Hogwarts. Too many attacks, and the last one. A Pureblood? Things are spiralling out of control."
"Katie," whispered Harry. "Her name is Katie." Though only Dumbledore's tightening hold assured him he was heard.
The die was cast, and at the end of the night, Harry had lost all faith in the system of justice that was involved in Wizarding Britain. Where money and propaganda were the key players and those who truly sought to influence pure justice were thrown to the side-lines. Harry and the Circle needed this justice to be brought down on those who had forced this to happen, and now they had even less of a chance with Albus Dumbledore gone from the school.
Hagrid's last words had had some effect on Harry's memory, however. "Follow the Spiders." What did that mean?
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He bit the bullet. He had to ask.
"Hermione, may I talk to you for a minute?"
Said girl was a bit more than surprised at the interruption, even more so when she saw that it was Harry Potter who was talking to her. "Er, yes?"
"Hypothetically, would you think that there is a creature out there that influences spiders?" Harry asked.
Hermione Granger did not get confused easily, however, this was one of those days where things just seemed to get turned on their head. "There... may be? Why? Is this some kind of trick? No, a clue. It's a clue isn't it." He now had her full attention, and Harry shot backwards as her face came too close to his for comfort. "Chamber of Secrets?"
It was no secret in itself that Ron and Hermione had taken it upon themselves to 'save' Gryffindor House from Slytherin's monster, and Harry was aware that the girl was most certainly the greatest dedicated in their year when it came to research. Hence why Harry came out of his comfort zone and decided that two heads were better than one.
"Hermione, I just want Katie to be okay, and Hagrid told me something about following the spiders after he was arrested for being the attacker."
Harry needed this. He had to find the largest distraction he could so he would not be spending every night and day with his throat tight and gut churning. If he could solve the mystery, or even get close, then that may be the remedy.
And so, began an unlikely partnership into the attempted solving of what exactly was petrifying the students. The halls were warming and the end of the year nearing when they came to their conclusion.
Harry and Hermione placed their notes on the table before them, with Ron, Neville, and Fay sitting on the opposite side.
"You found it?" Fay was bouncing in her seat.
"Most probably," Hermione replied. "We both came to the obvious conclusion that the 'Monster' was a snake of some description. Considering that Salazar Slytherin was the one who apparently built the Chamber of Secrets, as well as being the most famous Parselmouth in history, it was bound to be a serpent of some kind."
Harry nodded, then hesitantly took over. "As you know, we had to locate the Chamber, as well as determine what the snake was." The two, for their research, had run the other three ragged in unearthing various books on all manner of topics. "Thanks to something Neville reminded us about, we decided that it was a Basilisk"
"Wait, how?"
Hermione stood up; finger raised into the air. "Mandrake's cries are weaker when they are young. You mentioned that as you were revising for the upcoming Herbology exam. So, we thought, what if something had weakened a stronger power. Luckily, Harry was reading about Basilisk's at the time, and the two of us recognised that this could be the case."
"Hang on," Ron interrupted, "But a Basilisk kills by looking, not petrifying." He began to panic, "Does this mean that there's a baby Basilisk in the castle." He jumped from his seat, head darting about.
"Honestly Ronald," Hermione shook her head as her eyes rolled. "Mrs Norris and Katie must have seen it's reflection in the water that was on the floor. Remember, it's by Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, so there is always a flooding there."
"Colin saw it through his camera, while Justin must have seen it in the reflection on the window. Alicia was apparently trying to perfect a Sheening Charm on a suit of armour, so that would explain how she saw it and didn't..." Harry choked up slightly, thankful when Fay leaned over to run her thumb over the back of his hand.
"Then Hagrid's clue," continued Hermione, "'Follow the spiders'. It seems as though spiders are the worst enemies of the Basilisk."
"Okay," Neville said slowly. "But... what about where it is? Where is the Chamber?"
Harry shook his head. "The entrance must be near some sort of piping. It's the only way that it could move about the school undetected. So, as ridiculous as it sounds, it is most likely in a bathroom somewhere, or at least a sewer."
A book fell unheard, masked by the rows of books encasing them. Brown eyes with flecks of red widened, and a sneer went undetected. Ginny, my sweet. It's time.
Author's Notes
So, next chapter's a bit of a small one, I guess. Shows the goodness mirrored in the horror.
I'd really like to know what you think of the other character's perspectives too. If it gets some good responses, I'll definitely do more of them. I think it adds a different take on Harry's life and how others respond to him as a person. I also think that it shows more perspectives on how Harry develops and allows the plot to flow more fluid. Or not. I may just be talking out my arse. Either way, I like it.
You may also wonder where Aragog is. I was originally going to put him in this chapter, but then I realised that any sane child would never willingly follow a trail of spiders into the 'FORBIDDEN FOREST'. Therefore, I concluded that Harry would just do the smart thing and ask for help. How they came to the correct answer? I mentioned it in the Book 1 part: wizard's don't have much common sense. It takes 2 people raised in a more logical society away from magic to do what magicals don't do – look outside the box. This is a key power that Harry possesses.
Next Chapter: The Chamber's Secret