Author's Note: Rotten Writer, checking in with another update for Soul Scars. This one moves fast, with everything coming to a head by the end of the chapter. Next chapter is going to be the wrap up and explanations abound.

I am not a fan of warnings, I get the point to some of them but I dislike how they can break up the flow of a chapter and I don't want to ruin the surprise by telling people something is coming ahead of time.

BUT in case anyone has actual issues or really is uncomfortable I'm warning you now, Daphne is going to be revealing some of her past in this chapter. It's not graphic, it's not detailed, but if anyone has trouble with such things you have been warned. It's located right after the first scene break when Daphne enters the Hospital Wing.

All right, moving on!

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything. This makes me sad.

Soul Scars Part Two

Darkness Within

By,

Rtnwriter

It was late in the evening when the portrait to the Gryffindor common room swung open, seemingly for no reason. A few minutes after it swung shut again there was a shimmer in the air and three figures became visible as the boy with messy black hair stuffed his invisibility cloak into his pocket.

Together, he and the two girls with him shakily made their way over to their usual seats by the fireplace and dropped heavily into them.

"'Follow the spiders'," Harry muttered darkly. "Follow the bloody spiders, he says. God dammit! Nothing! Nothing but nearly getting ourselves eaten!" He growled and scrubbed his hands angrily back through his hair.

Aragog had been less than useful when they were brought before him by some of his many children after foolishly taking Hagrid's advice and following a line of spiders deep into the forbidden forest. They hadn't even learned anything new about the Beast of Slytherin. All they'd learned was that a Reductor worked just as well, if with messier results, against a giant spider as it did against targets and dummies. Harry hadn't liked the sparks that had shot out from his wand though when he started pushing his magic through the length of wood to overpower his attacks. That was definitely worrying him but he wasn't sure there was much of anything he could do about it at the moment.

"How could they just arrest Hagrid like that?" Susan asked, equally incensed, though for different reasons. Growing up with Amelia Bones had given Susan a greater than usual respect for the law and as far as she could tell the Ministers and Aurors actions hadn't exactly been legal.

"You heard Fudge," Daphne offered with a disgusted sneer. "'Got to be seen to be doing something'. Disgusting little ponce."

All three sighed in a mixture of frustration and exhaustion. The last two weeks since Hermione and Neville had been petrified had been extremely difficult for the three of them. The pain they felt had not lessened one bit, and it was taking a toll on them. Classes hadn't gotten any easier, Malfoy had taken to making insulting comments about Hermione and Neville to his friends where Harry could hear, but he never directed any of those comments toward Harry directly. Daphne and Susan had been forced to stop Harry from attacking the blond Slytherin in a rage on several different occasions already and Malfoy showed no signs of slowing down or stopping his behavior.

The one bright spot they could find was that, aside from a few of the more hateful students, no one believed him to be the Heir of Slytherin anymore, especially after Dumbledore's announcement regarding their bond, something all three were quite happy to have missed due to spending an extra night in the Hospital Wing after they woke from the result of Hermione's petrification.

Ernie MacMillan had even approached Harry in Herbology the week before and offered his apologies.

"There's no way you would ever attack Granger, even before we were told about this bond, and with your oath to Lord Longbottom… well, you'd be dead already if you'd had anything to do with it."

Now though, with Dumbledore forced out of the castle by Malfoy Senior and the incompetent fool of a Minister ordering the Aurors that had patrolled the halls for the last two weeks back to the Ministry, they three bond mates felt certain that it was only a matter of time before things got worse again.

"It's not going to get better, is it?" Susan whispered, echoing Harry's thoughts with a frightening degree of accuracy.

"I don't know," he admitted helplessly as Daphne slid closer to the other girl and wrapped her arms around her. He wanted to crack a joke, something to make her laugh or something, anything, to help her feel even a little better, but he couldn't think of anything he could possibly do.

He and Daphne shared a worried look while Susan pressed against the blond. Susan was not handling the fracture in their bond well at all. The pain was exhausting, a constant steady thing that sapped their strength and left them struggling with some of the simple day to day things. She barely slept or ate. She looked haggard and worn, her normally vibrant hair and eyes both looking dull and lifeless and she'd already lost a noticeable amount of weight.

Harry stood and moved over to their sofa, sliding into the space on Susan's other side. He gathered her into his arms and pulled, gently, until she was leaning against his side with her head resting on his shoulder.

"Sleep," he told her. "You're exhausted and you need to rest."

She mumbled a half hearted protest but didn't move from his arms as Daphne moved even closer, rubbing one hand gently up and down Susan's arm and within minutes her breath evened out as sleep overtook her.

"She's going to end up in the Hospital Wing if she keeps going on like this," Daphne muttered, eyeing Susan worriedly.

"Maybe… maybe she should be?" he wondered. "I mean, at least there Madam Pomfrey could get her some nutrient potions to help with her not eating, maybe calming draughts to help her sleep a little more often?"

"Maybe," Daphne admitted, never taking her eyes from Susan's sleeping face, tense and filled with pain even in her slumber as she continued to gently stroke the other girls arm with one hand. "How would we convince her to go, though?"

Harry considered that for a few moments before an idea occurred to him that he didn't particularly care for. "I don't like going behind her back, but we could ask Amelia," he said. "She is her guardian. She could request Madam Pomfrey treat her, or, maybe she could come visit her and see how Susan is doing for herself?"

"It's not going behind her back, Harry, not really. I mean, you eventually understood Madam Pomfrey contacting Child Services and Amelia's offices for you, right?"

He nodded at that.

"Well, it's a similar situation here. She needs help. And we both care about her, she can be mad all she wants later if that's what she wants, but I refuse to apologize for wanting her to be healthy and safe."

"All right, Daphne, you've made your case. We'll contact Amelia about it."

"Good," she said with a weak grin. "Floo or owl?"

He barely stopped himself from shrugging and instead shook his head. "I don't really know. Floo would be faster, wouldn't it? Unless we could send out a letter tonight, in that case the letter might reach her about the same time as we'd be able to request access to a Floo capable fireplace tomorrow."

"It's after curfew," she pointed out.

"I could sneak up to the owlrey with my cloak, but…"

"It's dangerous and there's no guarantee that Hedwig or Archimedes won't be out hunting," Daphne finished.

They lapsed into silence, both of them considering the situation when they heard a tapping coming from one of the windows across the common room. Harry attempted to shift Susan so he could go check on the noise but Susan whined piteously in her sleep and Daphne reached out to stop him, pressing him gently back against the sofa.

"Just stay there," she gently admonished him. "She needs you right where you are, right now." There was a slight melancholy tone to her voice, and something he couldn't quite name flitted across their broken bond but it was gone as fast as he'd noticed it and so was she, quickly striding around the sofa and away to the far side of the room behind him.

Nervous apprehension filled him, as it had since they woke, whenever one of the girls was out of his sight. He knew he shouldn't still feel guilty over Hermione's and Neville's attack, but he couldn't quite help himself. Eventually, he heard Daphne's voice, murmuring quietly, then her soft footfalls coming back toward them and when she came into view around the sofa her right arm was raised with a large, snowy white bird perched proudly on her raised forearm.

"Hedwig." He greeted the beautiful owl in a hushed voice despite his joy at seeing the brilliant bird. "Did you know we needed you?" he asked and she nodded, bobbing her head up and down for a moment before she threw herself into the air and came around to perch on the back of the sofa close to Susan. Hedwig leaned down and gently brushed the side of her head against the sleeping girls cheek before she straightened and looked at Harry, letting out a mournful sounding cry that he didn't think he'd ever heard from his beautiful familiar.

"You're worried about her too, eh?" he asked and Hedwig nodded again.

"Hedwig, do you think you could take a letter to Susan's Aunt for us? It's very important that it gets to her as fast as you can possibly fly."

Hedwig puffed out her chest and her feathers, making herself look larger and imposing as she fixed the blond with a fierce, determined stare as if saying, 'just try and stop me', and Daphne chuckled quietly, reaching out to stroke the owls head.

"You are such a clever girl, Hedwig, I don't know where we'd be without you. Let me grab some parchment and quill and I'll be right back," she added to Harry before she stood and hurried away toward the stairs leading up to the girls dormitories.

In less than two minutes she was back, looking slightly flushed, with a roll of parchment in one hand and a quill and bottle of ink in the other.

"I think I'll write the letter," she said, eyeing Harry where he was still trapped against the sofa. She set her materials down on the table, dipped her quill, and carefully began to write.

Amelia-

Harry and I are quite worried about Susan. This issue with our bond is having a much harsher effect on her than it is on either Harry or myself, or maybe we're just better at handling it than she is, I cannot be certain. Either way, she is not doing well at all, and we have begun to think that she might need to be in the Hospital Wing where Madam Pomfrey can care for her.

We don't want to go behind her back in this, but we are very worried about her and are willing to risk her anger if it means helping her. We thought that perhaps you could contact Madam Pomfrey, or perhaps you might come to the school and see her for yourself.

Daphne went on to describe Susan's appearance and weight loss and her poor sleep and how little she'd been eating of late and when she finished she handed the letter to Harry who skimmed it over quickly before handing it back with a nod of his head.

Daphne quickly signed both her name and Harry's at the bottom of the letter before she carefully rolled it into a tight cylinder and tied it to Hedwig's proffered leg. Carrying the large bird across the common room on her right forearm, she pushed open the window and then spent a few moments staring deep into her expressive golden eyes while she gently stroked the feathers on Hedwig's breast with her left hand.

"As swiftly as you can, Hedwig," she whispered and Hedwig nipped gently at her fingers before she spread her broad wings and launched herself out into the cool April evening, vanishing quickly toward the hidden horizon.

By the time Daphne closed the window and returned to the sofa she found that Harry had succumbed to his own exhaustion and was fast asleep, her head tilted to the left, resting atop Susan's where she slumbered against his shoulder. The need for sleep clawed at the back of her mind, but instead of joining them on the sofa, or retiring to her own bed, she pulled up Harry's chair and slumped into it, without her usual grace and poise.

At that height, and with Harry's head tilted the way it was, she was able to see the scar behind his jaw that he used to stroke with the fingers of his right hand when he was nervous or thinking hard about something. He still did, at times, but not nearly as often as he had the year before.

In the light from the fireplace it seemed to shine brightly against the more tanned skin of his face and neck, a crescent shaped slash nearly an inch long that followed around the hinge of his jaw. Absently, her right hand came up and she traced the scar on her own skin with her index finger and thought of the night she received it.

She let her hand drop and heaved out a long, tired breath. She was so tired, but restless, anxious. The last two weeks had been difficult for so many reasons, not the least of which being the memory of the conversation with her mother the night they'd woken in the Hospital Wing after the attack. The truth she'd tried to deny, tried to ignore, that was now staring her in the face, unavoidable and unchanging.

She stood and started to pace, much like Harry frequently did, back and forth in front of the fire. Each time she turned her eyes tracked her sleeping bond mates, noting the pained expressions and stiff postures, even in their sleep. Her eyes lingered on Susan's face for a time, following the soft curve of her cheek, the slender slope of her neck and the waves of silken red hair, so dull and lifeless in comparison to how the beautiful red head usually looked.

She stopped, suddenly, as a thought, an idea, popped, almost unbidden in her mind and for a moment, she hesitated. Then she was moving across the short space that separated her from the two sleeping on the sofa. Carefully, she removed Harry's invisibility cloak from where he'd stuffed it into one of his robe pockets, grateful that it wasn't in the pocket underneath Susan. Once that was removed she ran up to their dorm and pulled the comforter off of her bed, bringing it back to tuck it around the two of them, making sure they would be warm through the night.

She turned, and picked up the silvery cloak, letting the cool, liquid like material slide through her fingers for a moment before she took a deep breath and threw it over her shoulders. Pulling up the hood a moment later, Daphne Greengrass vanished.

#####

The doors to the Hospital Wing slowly opened, just a foot or so before they closed again, silently. A few moments later the privacy screen surrounding one of the beds shifted, for seemingly no reason, then fell still.

Behind the screens, Daphne removed the cloak from around her shoulders and raised her wand, casting a silencing charm around the bed so that no one would hear her, particularly not Madam Pomfrey. She could only imagine the woman's reaction if she discovered her there in the middle of the night.

With her cold blue eyes fixed on the frozen form of her bond mate, Daphne slowly dropped into a chair, studying Hermione's petrified expression for what felt like the thousandth time since the attack.

"Madam Pomfrey tells us that the petrified victims can't hear or see, that none of you are aware of where you are or what's going on around you. To you, when the Restorative Draught is complete and the unpetrify you, it'll be as if no time at all has passed. I think… I think that's why I'm here." She snorted derisively a moment later.

"No… I'm here, because I'm a coward. Mother tells me that I need to talk to you three, to let you in. So did the sorting hat. In fact, I tell myself that, frequently. But I'm so scared. I have secrets, I've lied to all of you, lies of omission and outright falsities. I have more secrets, I think, than even Harry does and I don't think I'll ever have the courage to tell you about them. But… I need to say it. I considered speaking to Harry and Susan just a few minutes ago, they're both sound asleep on the sofa in the common room. But I was afraid they might wake up, or hear me.

"So here I am, to talk to you, who can't hear me, just so I can say all of this aloud and get it off my mind, for a time." She trailed off, studying the girl lying in the bed before her for a moment longer before she took a deep, fortifying breath, and began to speak.

"I told Harry, that night that he and I talked, that my Father isn't really a good man, not the way I claimed he was our very first night at this school. That was an understatement, to be honest. He is a horrible, cruel man that cares only for his own wealth and power and I have been nothing but a disappointment to him. No sons as heirs, he has made certain my entire life to make his displeasure with my gender known. The only thing I'm good for is to marry me off to a family willing to pay a good Bride Price for my hand.

"He was… disturbingly thrilled when he learned that my bonded was the Boy-Who-Lived. He wants me to convince Harry to offer a Betrothal Contract to my father. He may or may not believe that the bond will see us married no matter what, eventually. I don't know what he truly thinks. But his only concern is the money, the wealth that he can possibly pry from the Potter Fortune in return for his permission for Harry to marry me. That's all I am to him. A bargaining chip. A resource. I have never been a daughter, never a beloved child. But he's made certain that I have been properly trained to be a good, subservient wife to my future husband.

"My lessons… training to be a proper pureblood lady was not normal," she said, leaning forward so her arms rested on the edge of the bed, taking Hermione's stiff hand in hers. "Normally, it is the mother who teaches the daughter all the lessons we need to know. Father, however, is very strict and he did not trust my mother to teach me to his standards while he was busy with his business, so he hired tutors. Tutors to teach me everything I would need to know to be a Lady of the House.

"What I wanted didn't matter. I had lessons in posture, how to sit, how to walk, how to talk, how to dress. Politics, business, instructions on the various Houses and their levels of power and influence both political and financial. I told Harry that night, if I learned well, they ignored me. I received no praise or compliments. If I did poorly, or if I did not learn my lessons quickly enough for their tastes, I was punished.

"The only rule they had to obey was they could not damage me. No marks or scars to add to my ever growing collection. But there are other ways to hurt someone than the physical. For the first six months I was often deprived of sleep. I was forced to stand and recite my lessons for days on end as exhaustion turned my mind to mush.

"Then they started to use fear. There are spells that will lock a persons mind within an illusion, trapping the victim inside their own head. That is why I have such difficulty with medical related things. The illusion my tutor chose to use were his own memories of hour upon hour of muggle doctors performing surgeries on accident victims. I couldn't close my eyes. I couldn't look away. I could only watch as men, women, and children were cut apart over and over again. I was seven years old when that started."

She stopped and took several deep breaths, focusing her Occlumency, more developed than her bond mates, to push back the rising memories before she continued.

"Of course, they made sure to break up those punishments, making sure that I would not become desensitized to them. More forced sleep deprivation and just after my eighth birthday they started giving me illusions of pain. My mind would be tricked into believing that I was on fire, frozen, beaten, cut, even being exposed to the Cruciatus."

She trailed off, shivering and rubbed her arm with her free hand. Reaching out she grabbed the ever present water cup off of the small end table next to the bed and took a small sup, soothing her dry mouth and throat before setting it back and focusing her attention back on her story.

"Only one time did I defy my father during all of this. It was when I was nine and I expressed how much I hated these lessons, hated how I was treated and he told me that he would release me from the lessons if I wanted. He would sell me in a marriage contract to someone out of the country and send me away, then he would start training Astoria. He said he would have them do to her what they'd been doing to me. I… I flew into a rage and I tried to attack him." She let out another self deprecating snort as she stroked the scar behind her jaw. "I was a fool, of course. I had no wand, no training, and he was so much bigger than me. He backhanded me and left me this scar when his House Ring dug into my skin.

"That was the one and only time my father has ever struck me. I made certain to never disobey him ever again, and I hid myself behind the Ice Queen so he wouldn't know how I felt." She blew out a long breath and let her hand fall as she considered the next part of her story.

"It was this past summer that Father finally became aware of something that Mother has apparently known for some time, something about me that I have only recently begun to understand, myself. When the scars started, and we realized I was bonded to someone, Mother had to take some time to teach me a very important lesson that, at the time, I did not truly understand.

"When she first explained to me what being bonded meant I was only five years old but I was very excited and I asked her, 'what do you think she will be like?'. It took Mother a week to teach me that I needed to say 'he' and not 'she' whenever I spoke of my bond mate, particularly around Father."

She wiped tears from her eyes even as her breath hitched and her throat felt tight.

"And that is my true fear. That, I think, is what has been keeping me back from our bond. The fear that I will truly come to love all three of you, but that I will forever be apart from you all. Married to a man that I cannot feel a true attraction to, and married to two, beautiful women, that will never be attracted to me." She let out a self deprecating laugh at that.

"Mother says that this bond would not have happened if we couldn't all truly love each other, but I cannot quite bring myself to believe her. Not yet. I… I hope she is right, but I couldn't bear it if I told you how I felt and found that you wanted nothing to do with me after that."

Her voice had dropped to a whisper by then, and Daphne finally fell silent as she studied Hermione's face. "I don't know that I'll ever get such an opportunity again," she murmured after several long minutes of thought. "I'm still a coward," she whispered. "I could never do this while you're awake. I'm taking advantage of you, now, I know that, and I'm so sorry. But if Mother is wrong, and you and Susan won't ever really be able to feel for me what I am beginning to feel for you… I have to be selfish, and at least take this one thing for myself…"

She trailed off and stood, leaning forward over the bed until her hair fell around her face in long honey blond curtains. Dropping down she hesitated for just a moment, the tip of her tongue darting out to wet her lips before she closed the last inch of distance.

Daphne pressed her lips, briefly, to those of her frozen bond mate in a chaste, but emotion filled kiss before she pulled back and sank into her seat, her face crumpling into despair. It was not the experience she had hoped for, longed for. Instead of warm and responsive, Hermione's lips were cold and stiff, like kissing a statue. More tears blurred her vision and she laid her head down on her crossed arms where she rested them on the side of the bed, one hand still tightly clasping Hermione's as her body heaved with great, wracking sobs.

After an unknowable amount of time, she finally cried herself to sleep, and in her grief she never noticed the tears streaming from Hermione's wide, unseeing eyes.

#####

She had floated for days, weeks, months, it seemed like in a sea of darkness so complete, that she couldn't honestly even say if she had a body or not. The only thing that told Hermione Granger that she was even still living, was the pain.

It was a rolling, unending tidal wave of agony that offered no sign of surcease in its endless crushing progression. As a voice filtered into her awareness, she found that focusing on it offered a slight distraction from the pain she felt.

"Hermione isn't safe!"

Harry?

"This hurts. You can't begin to understand how much it hurts with her like this. We have each other to lean on, but she's in there, alone, with nothing but the pain!"

Harry! I'm here! Daphne! Susan! Please, please, hear me…

If she could have wept she would have. Alone, trapped inside a prison of her own body. She listened intently as Amelia tore into the Headmaster and as they talked Harry out of his spiraling, and unfounded, guilt.

Eventually, the voices faded and she was left with only the pain again. When next she heard their voices, it appeared that some time had passed.

"Tonks is one of the Aurors on-duty," she heard Daphne say in a quiet tone. "I ran into her this morning and she asked me to tell you how sorry she is."

"Not her fault," came Harry's mutter and Hermione would have frowned, if she could have.

"Well, of course it isn't Harry. She's just offering her sympathies…."

Things quickly settled into a rhythm. Periods of pain filled darkness, broken by brief periods when one of more of her bond mates was there with her. When they were present, the pain receded, just enough that she could hear them and those around them.

At her best guess, at least two weeks passed this way. Her bond mates appeared to visit her for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as between classes whenever possible. When she found herself with an unexpected visit, based on her estimate of the passage of time, she focused all her attention on the words spoken to her.

At first, when Daphne began speaking, she was intrigued. She knew of the night in question, but neither Harry or Daphne had ever given details of their conversation and she and Susan hadn't asked. Intrigue quickly gave way to horror, which then morphed into a white hot, blinding rage.

Rage faded to shock at Daphne's next admission.

"And that is my true fear…"

Hermione hovered somewhere between shock and stunned realization.

Do I think of them that way? Can I? Oh, gods, Daphne, why haven't you said anything?

For the first time since becoming aware after the attack, the constant pain was forgotten, buried beneath an avalanche of heart breaking grief for the gorgeous, stubborn, broken Daphne Greengrass.

#####

When Hedwig swooped into the kitchen at The Boneyard during breakfast, Amelia couldn't honestly say that she was surprised to see the gorgeous owl. She flew in and landed on the table, right in front of the red haired witches breakfast plate, letting out a mournful cry even as she extended her let without any preamble.

"How are they doing, Hedwig?" she asked as she untied the letter.

Hedwig's eyes were sad and she shook her head.

"I expected as much, honestly," Amelia sighed, unrolling the letter as a small bowl of water and another willed with owl treats appeared on the table, courtesy of Binky.

As Amelia read, her heart ached, and her stomach twisted into knots, making the half of her breakfast that she'd already consumed sit like balls of lead in her gut. She pushed away her plate and glanced at her watch before standing, her chair scraping loudly across the floor as it slid back from the table.

"No response, Hedwig," she told the bird. "I'm going over there, myself, right now. You are welcome to rest here before you start back, if you like."

Hedwig barked at her and shook her head before spreading her wings and launching herself into the air. She flew a quick circuit around the room before she came in and landed carefully on Amelia's shoulder.

"All right," she murmured, a tight smile tugging at her lips as she reached up and gently stroked Hedwig's feathers. "We'll both go." She turned and strode from the room, moving quickly down the hall to the Floo Access Room. A moment later a quiet pop echoed through the downstairs of the large home as bird and woman vanished.

#####

"Thank bloody Merlin!"

Daphne jerked up, groaning in pain as he neck and back protested her sudden movement. Stark terror filled her for a moment but it was already quickly bleeding away to relief. She looked around, bleary eyed as she realized she wasn't the one feeling those emotions to find Harry and Susan standing a few feet away, both of them panting harshly, their brows beaded with sweat.

"Wha-"

She cut off and let out a squeak when Harry stepped forward and suddenly grabbed her arms, jerking her to her feet as his own arms wrapped tightly around her.

"Don't do that," he snapped. "Susan and I woke up and we couldn't find you and… gods I thought maybe you'd been attacked too…"

Crap, Daphne thought as Harry's frightened ramblings percolated their way through her sleep addled brain and finally registered.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, wrapping her arms gently around him even as se felt Susan envelope them both from the side. "I didn't mean to worry you. You two were asleep last night and… I was restless. I didn't want to move you, and I didn't want to go to bed, so I came to sit with Hermione. I hate leaving her alone."

"You could have been caught, or hurt," Susan whimpered and Daphne winced.

"I used Harry's cloak, and I didn't even see anyone on the way here. No prefects, or teachers, no one." She fell silent and the three of them just stood for a few minutes, wrapped in each other while Harry and Susan slowly got themselves under control.

When they finally pulled apart and set about pulling up extra chairs so they could all sit around Hermione's bed, Susan was wiping her eyes and cheeks free of tears and Harry's hands were trembling.

"I feel like I owe the three of you one hell of an apology," Harry muttered some minutes later to questioning looks from the two conscious girls in the room. "I haven't seen things from this side of the situation before, when I go tearing off after something and you three are left worrying about me…" he trailed off, his hands clenched into fists and a muscle in his jaw ticking as he ground his teeth. "I really, really didn't like that feeling."

Any response from the girls fell away as the sound of footsteps approached them and they looked up to see an exasperated Mediwitch approaching them.

"You three are not going to be doing yourselves any favors by spending all of your time here," she told them, gently. "I can't begin to understand how hard this is for you but you can't just put the rest of your lives on hold."

"We're not, Madam Pomfrey, I promise. We're still doing our homework and going to classes and everything." He shot a nervous glance in Susan's direction. She still didn't look good, but she appeared far more rested than she had the night before. Their sleep on the sofa had been long and uninterrupted by nightmares for a change and it appeared to have done Susan a lot of good but he still didn't like his listless she appeared. The fire and energy she'd shown when they were making their mad dash through the castle searching for their missing bond mate appeared to have dissipated, leaving her slouched in her seat, staring at Hermione's petrified form in the bed as if trying to burn the image into her memory.

"Ensure that you keep that up, Harry," Madam Pomfrey whispered to him as she approached and leaned down by his ear. "I have to say, of all my patients, I've grown rather fond of the four of you and would not like to see your health suffering." She squeezed his shoulder and moved forward, already brandishing her wand through the now familiar motions and the long, muttered incantation and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the silver glow around their frozen bond mate.

"My word."

He looked up at Madam Pomfrey's awed exclamation and froze at the sight before him. Hermione's silver aura rolled and wavered like an aurora and around her heart a single orb of auburn light rotated around a tangled mass of gold and gentle green veins that spread out from the mass of energy centered just over her heart.

His head whipped around and he took in Susan's and Daphne's dumbfounded expressions as they stared at the evidence before them in shock.

"Daphne?" he asked. "What happened?"

The blond shook her head, her eyes never moving even as a tear rolled down her cheek. Through the bond he could feel awe, relief, and stark terror rolling off of Daphne and he couldn't begin to think what might cause that particular combination of emotions.

"I… I came in last night…" she whispered, trailing off for a moment as she wiped her damp cheek. "I was feeling so restless and I… I just started talking to her." She seemed to be struggling to recount what she was so Harry focused on pushing as much soothing emotions as he could across the bond to her and a small smile tugged at her lips in response before she continued, a little stronger. "I feel like a coward, honestly. When you and Susan fell asleep last night… I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to- to tell you both everything I haven't been able to say.

"I couldn't though," she whispered, her head dropping to stare at her shoes. "I just… I couldn't risk one of you waking up, and Madam Pomfrey said that the petrified couldn't hear us right now, so… I told Hermione."

She fell silent again and Harry leaned over from his seat to her right and pulled her, gently, into a hug, his chin resting on her shoulder.

"Eventually, we'll both be able to share everything we need to," he whispered. "There's no rush. When you're ready and when I'm ready."

"Susan?"

Harry released Daphne and the three of hem turned at the sound of the familiar voice to find Amelia Bones standing behind them, Hedwig perched on her shoulder and looking at the three of them with a critical eye.

They stayed in the hospital wing that Sunday morning until lunch time and when the students left it was without Susan Bones in their company.

"That was not fun," Harry muttered to Daphne as she walked beside him through the halls toward the Great Hall. They'd wanted to stay for lunch, as they had been, but Madam Pomfrey had been very clear that they needed to spend a little less time in the Hospital Wing. Susan had already been dosed with a Dreamless Sleep potion as well as nutrient potions and would be resting as comfortably as possible.

The yelling had been expected, but it hadn't been any easier to deal with. Eventually, though, Susan had understood their concern. She might not be happy with them, or her Aunt, but she did understand and complied with the Mediwitch's orders without too much sulking.

"It needed to be done, though." Daphne shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. "I just want Hermione back and for this year to be over already," she whispered.

Harry nodded. He turned to her and a flash of movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. His eyes widened, but before he had a chance to move the spell slammed into his back and a moment later both he, and Daphne had collapsed, unconscious to the stone floor.

#####

Emerald green eyes opened and Harry found himself lying face down on a cold stone floor, his head pounding like an inebriated troll was rattling around in his skull.

"Holy crap," he groaned and rolled over onto his back. "What the hell happened?"

He sat up, slowly, and looked around, seeing no sign of Daphne but a glance at the wall beside him sent a shiver down his spine that he couldn't have suppressed even if he'd had the awareness to try as he read the foot high, gleaming red letters scrawled on the wall.

HER SKELETON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER.

Frantically, he shot to his feet, wavering slightly as a wave of dizziness hit him. "No, no, no, no," he muttered as he searched the hall for any sign of Daphne. He closed his eyes, struggling to control his suddenly panicked breathing, and focused as hard as he could on the bond.

Hermione was still barely there, a mere whisper of a presence in his mind. Susan was a much stronger presence, filling him with warmth and comfort and he could tell by the sensation that she was still under the effects of the Dreamless Sleep potion that Madam Pomfrey had poured into her.

A flood of relief filled him when he found Daphne. She was muted, like Susan, indicating that she was most likely unconscious but she didn't feel as if she was hurt. His eyes opened and for a few moments he wavered in indecision. Amelia had left before they even left the Hospital Wing and who knew how long he'd been out? Dumbledore was gone. Professor McGonagall had taken over as interim Headmaster during Dumbledore's forced absence from the castle but he wasn't sure where she was. Neville, Hermione, and Susan were unavailable to him and he didn't even know where the Slytherin common rooms were if he wanted to ask Tracey or Blaise for help.

His thoughts spun wildly and he shoved his hands into his pockets to stop them trembling while he tried to decide what to do. The feeling of parchment against his right hand startled him for a moment and derailed his train of thought as he pulled it out and glanced at it.

The note was short, written in a hand he didn't recognize, but what it said had his eyes hardening into emerald chips as a cold fury replaced the fear and worry.

Potter-

I have petrified your mudblood. Your friends and allies are missing or driven from this castle. You are alone. The entrance to the Chamber is located in the second floor girls loo. The sink with the broken taps. I will expect you, alone, before sunset or all you love will die.

#####

When the portrait to the Gryffindor common room slammed open, screams erupted from more than one student in their surprise. Every head turned, every eye fixed on the dark, menacing figure that prowled through the short tunnel leading out into the corridors.

Fred and George Weasley had heard stories from their father and their oldest brothers over the years. Stories of dragons and ancient tombs and magics. Stories of cursed, charmed, and enchanted artifacts that caused hundreds of effects, some interesting, some benign, some horrifying.

Nothing they'd ever heard prepared them for the sight of an enraged Harry Potter as his eyes, lit as if with an emerald fire, swept across the room. A very real terror gripped them when those eyes landed on them and he strode forward directly to them. They didn't think they'd done anything to piss the second year off, but both found themselves frantically searching their memories for anything they might have done, any prank they might have set up and possibly forgotten about, that might have caused such a reaction from the terrifying figure striding toward them.

"Gred? Forge?" They shivered at the icy cold rage in his voice but squared their shoulders. If he was using their nicknames it wasn't likely that he was angry at them.

"Uh… yeah, Harry? What can we do for you?"

"I need you to track down Professor McGonagall, and I need you to get in contact with Amelia Bones."

"What's going on?"

Harry raised one trembling fist to show a piece of parchment sticking out from between his fingers which slowly uncurled until one of the twins was able to extract the note. Their eyes flicked rapidly over it, the freckles smattered across their faces standing out sharply as their complexions paled dramatically.

"I don't have anyone that I can count on right now," he whispered. "Neville and Hermione and Susan are all in the Hospital Wing and Daphne… this fucking bastard took Daphne. Knocked us both out in the Charms Corridor and when I woke up she was gone, and this note was in my pocket." He glanced out one of the many windows that ran around Gryffindor Tower, noting that the sun was already halfway below the edge of the distant mountains.

"Fuck that, we'll come with you Harry," Twin two said, shooting up from his seat as his brother nodded and quickly joined him.

"NO!" They flinched at the bellowed word. "No, I'm sorry but you can't. I don't have time for this. I promised Amelia I wouldn't do something like with the stone last year without asking for help. I promised the girls I wouldn't try to do everything by myself anymore but I can't risk Daphne's life by taking anyone with me. I can't. And I don't have time to find the professor or get ahold of Amelia myself."

"Harry, you know this is probably a trap of some kind, right?" Twin one asked, carefully.

Harry nodded, anger the only thing keeping away the terror that wanted to well up inside him.

"I know, guys. But I can't take that risk. That's why I need you two to move, as fast as you can."

They opened their mouths, but before they could say anything Professor McGonagall's voice came, magically amplified and echoing throughout the school.

"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staffroom. Immediately, please."

Harry cursed under his breath and the twins eyed him for a moment as Ron and their little sister Ginny sidled up to them. Ginny was staring, wide eyed at Harry as the air around him, already thick with power, grew even heavier.

"They must have found the message the Heir painted on the wall where he attacked me and Daphne."

"What message?" Ron asked and he paled to match his brothers when Harry told him. He'd come to like Daphne, to a degree, over the limited time that he'd spent with them since their reconciliation over his behavior in their first year and hearing she was in danger did not sit well with him.

"Look, go you two," Harry said as he turned back toward the entrance to the common room where several students had started streaming in to join those already present. "I've got to move."

Before anyone could say anything else he sprinted out of the room, his school robes flapping around him as he ran and students scattered out of his path.

Fred and George were moving before their siblings could react. "Staffroom," Twin one muttered. "We've got to tell McGonagall what's going on. George? Why don't you head to the Hospital Wing? Madam Pomfrey will probably let you use her Floo to contact the DMLE."

"Got it, Fred."

In moments they'd left the tower, leaving a room filled with students to whisper and mutter as they stared after them while Ron and Ginny slowly returned to whatever they'd been doing before Harry had come into the tower, unsure of what else they could possibly do.

#####

Harry ran through the halls, doing his best to avoid anyone but he didn't have to try very hard. The corridors were empty for most of his journey with only brief glimpses of students down different corridors making their way to the common rooms. His mind spun and whirled.

I still don't know what's doing this. What was petrifying the students in the first place? It's obviously a creature of some kind, but one the Heir is controlling? A snake? If he's doing it maybe I can talk to the thing?

He reached the loo in record time and burst into the room, ignoring Myrtles startled screech as he streaked for the sinks, rapidly turning taps until he found one that didn't work.

"That one's never worked," Myrtle said from behind him. "Not even when I was a student here."

"It's supposed to be the entrance to the Chamber," Harry said. "Do you know how it opens?"

"No idea. That girl just hisses at it and it opens. Creepiest thing I've heard since I died."

"Hisses?" Harry blinked and turned his attention back to the sink, his breath coming fast from his run and he wipe a sheen of sweat from his forehead with his sleeve as he carefully inspected every inch of the sink, looking for anything out of place.

Finally, he noticed a tiny carving of a snake on one of the taps, so small that one really had to be looking for it in order to notice it.

"Hissing. Snake. Gotta need Parsletongue to open it. Hell, no wonder no one's found the damn thing in a thousand years if you have to be a Parslemouth. Open!" he tried and waited expectantly but nothing happened.

"Why are you telling the sink to open?"

"I'm trying to use Parsletongue," Harry snapped, spinning to glare at the somewhat homely ghost who looked rather affronted by his tone.

"You don't need to snap at me," she snapped, irritably. "I was just asking a question."

Harry took a deep breath and held it for a moment before blowing it out.

"I'm sorry, Myrtle. My friend is in danger and I'm just a bit stressed. I didn't mean to snap at you." He gave her a small smile but quickly turned back and stared at the little carving of the snake, squinting his eyes as he tried to imagine it to be a real, living snake.

§Open,§ he hissed, and that time he heard it as the sibilant sounds slipped past his lips. A low grinding noise echoed through the room as the sink slid back into the wall and the pipe lowered to floor level even as it expanded into a large tunnel easily three feet wide that descended straight down into darkness.

"Myrtle?" he asked as he sat down on the floor and slid forward until his legs were hanging over the edge into the tunnel. "Please, if a Professor, or especially a red haired witch wearing a monocle come in here, let them know that I'm down there and I'm trying to rescue Daphne Greengrass." He didn't wait for an answer. He simply pushed forward and slid down into the hole, dropping immediately out of view.

#####

Daphne's eyes shot open and she found herself lying face down on a cold stone floor in a half inch deep puddle of rancid smelling water. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked around at the dank, massive cavern that she found herself in. A quick check showed that her wand was missing and she tensed, fear gripping her as she continued to look around.

Not far from her was a figure, lying sprawled out on the floor wearing the robes of a Hogwarts student, but the figure that strode from the shadows nearby quickly took up most of her attention.

"Daphne Greengrass," he said, a cruel smile on his otherwise handsome features. He had dark brown hair and was similarly dressed in a Hogwarts uniform but of an older looking cut and style. The green and silver striped tie around his neck and the green piping on his robes easily gave away his house. What was stranger, was the somewhat translucent look to him, as if he wasn't entirely solid.

"Tom Riddle, I presume?" she asked, doing her best to keep her voice level.

His answering smile reminded her of the cold, lifeless expression on a snake. "In the flesh, well… not quite, not yet, at least."

"What's going on?"

"Someone found my diary, someone… very special. A little girl. She wrote in it all year long, pouring out her secrets to me, sharing her pain and misery. Alone, friendless, abandoned by people she thought might actually be friends to her… you should be so ashamed of yourself, Miss Greengrass, you and your bond mates."

"How do you know about that?" she asked as she slowly rose to her feet, never taking her eyes off of him as she noticed he held her wand in his left hand and another, unfamiliar wand in his right.

He started twirling the wand in his right hand between long, spindly fingers. "Well, she told me about it, of course. She realized when she first met you all. She's a talented little thing, you see, able to see things that others can't. It's a very rare ability. And when she told me the story, told me about the supposed Boy-Who-Lived… well, I just had to know more."

"You're the one that's been attacking the students."

He gave her a mocking bow. "Of course. I stopped after a time, though. Eventually, something far more interesting came up. I've wondered for many months, now, how it is that a baby, a mere child, was able to defeat the greatest sorcerer the world has ever known?"

Daphne felt as if she was losing her mind. What the hell was wrong with this guy? What was he? And that diary? A flicker of her eyes showed the book, lying closed next to the girl on the floor but she quickly pulled her gaze back to Riddle as he stared at her with a knowing look in his eyes.

"What are you talking about?"

"I am talking about Harry Potter!" he roared, his face suddenly twisting in rage as he took two long strides toward her, now only ten feet away. "The Dark Lord was defeated by a child. Why? How? Was it because of this bond the little chit wrote about? Tell me!"

"I don't know how Harry beat him, or if Harry beat him. No one does," she said in a tremulous voice, her heart battering at her rib cage as it pounded in her chest. "The sorting hat told us that the killing curse that hit Harry was what tore his soul apart and that's why we bonded. The pieces needed to go somewhere, so they found us."

"Hmmm…" Riddle hummed quietly, looking thoughtful as he digested that bit of information.

"Why does it matter to you, anyway?" she asked. "Voldemort was long after your time."

"Oh, my dear, sweet, stupid little girl." A stab of anger shot through her at that but she did her best not to show it. "Lord Voldemort is my past, present, and future."

With that he turned and his right hand raised, wand slashing letters of fire in the air which he let her read before they rearranged themselves into a well known sentence.

"Yes, even as a student here I had begun building my persona. A half blood, living in the house of the snakes, I had to be especially ruthless to ensure my house mates did not learn of my… unfortunate ancestry. Given my muggle fathers name by my mother…" he shuddered in disgust and she took a hesitant step back at the maddened expression that stole across his otherwise handsome features.

"Why am I here?" she asked. "Why are we down here at all?"

"Why, we are waiting, my dear," he said, seemingly surprised by her question. "Waiting for Potter. I wish to see this… uninspiring child with my own eyes. I want to determine how he could possibly have bested me in my prime."

Daphne wrapped her arms around herself, cold in the large room and with her clothes soaked in rancid water and just let the apparition that was Tom Riddle ramble on, cataloguing everything he said and doing her best to commit it to memory.

"Harry won't be here," she said, suddenly, interrupting his rant. "He doesn't know where the entrance to the Chamber is."

"Ah, but when I had the little chit attack the two of you in the hall, I also had her leave a note in his pocket, telling him where to search to find the entrance. Only he, out of everyone in this school will be able to open it, and when he does, we will have our reckoning."

At that Daphne wasn't really sure how to feel. A part of her felt hope, hope that Harry was coming to help, but another part was terrified that this would be one foe that Harry might not be prepared to face.

#####

"What a pretentious ass," Harry muttered, staring up at the large, vault like door with i's many snakes decorating the circular disk. When he'd landed at the bottom of the long, filthy slide, Harry had his wand in his hand and didn't even bother attempting to clean his robes. He'd moved as quickly and quietly as he could through the tunnels, idly wondering once again just how far beneath the school he was.

"How is it we keep ending up so far underground?" he'd mused as he carefully crept his way along. The snake skin he'd found had sent an icy sliver of fear through his chest, at least twenty feet long he only hoped it didn't belong to the beast that was responsible for the attacks.

All told, it took him less than twenty minutes to get from the slide to where he stood staring at what had to be the entrance into the Chamber itself and he stood as straight as he could, squaring his shoulders and readying his wand before he looked at the glittering emerald eyes of one of the nearest snakes and hissed, §Open.§

It started moving around the edge of the door and each snake it passed retreated in toward the center with a series of loud clanks. Moments later the massive door slowly swung out toward him and as soon as there was enough room he slipped through and into the massive chamber beyond.

"Harry Potter!" a voice called from deep within the chamber. Looking across he could make out three figures standing near the far wall next to a massive and truly hideous statue of, what he assumed to be, Salazar Slytherin. One of the two standing figures had long, honey blond hair and he felt an instant flood of relief seeing her standing, staring defiantly at the taller figure before her and the wand he held in his left hand pointing directly at her face. "Please, come join us, we have much to discuss."

Harry strode forward, his wand held out before him, warily until he was close enough to recognize the figure, despite its less than solid appearance.

"Riddle?" he blurted out. "How are you here?"

Riddle waved his right hand to the crumpled figure lying on the floor and Harry's eyes widened as he noted the missing shoes and near white blond hair. "Luna!"

"Yes, Miss Lovegood was most helpful," Riddle sneered as Harry came to a stop fifteen feet away from them. "The poor girl, she poured her heart and her soul into my diary, confessing all her worries and doubts. I was so nice, so sympathetic. I was her only friend."

"We're her friends!" Harry roared angrily.

"Are you?" Riddle asked, almost sounding curious to know the answer. "You've spoken to her only a few times all year. Did you notice how her housemates have bullied her? How they've taken her belongings? Her clothes? Her shoes?" He snorted derisively. "Some friends you are. Too wrapped up in your own petty concerns to even notice a 'friend' in need of your help."

Harry felt stricken. He had noticed. He'd noticed but he'd never bothered to try to talk to her about it. "Oh, Luna, I'm so sorry," he muttered.

"She can't hear you, and she won't wake," Riddle told them. "She's dying, and as she does, I grow stronger. Soon I will live again and I will take up where I left off, starting with destroying you and proving I am the greatest sorcerer this world has ever seen!"

"Harry, he's Voldemort. Riddle is Voldemort," Daphne called out.

"Reducto!"

The curse left Harry's wand with blinding speed, streaking across the space between them to pass harmlessly through the vaporous figure and crash against the wall next to the statue, gouging out a chunk of stone a foot deep.

"That won't work, Potter," Riddle hissed. "My pet will kill you and your little bitch here and once I am alive I will unleash her on the rest of this school and clean out all the rabble that have infected my proud ancestors legacy."

"You're just as insane as you were last year," Harry snarled, his mind whirling, searching for a solution. Dammit, if he couldn't curse Riddle, what could he do?

"What was that?"

"I saw you, the current you, last year," Harry told him, hoping that by keeping Riddle talking he could stall for the Professors or Amelia to arrive and help. "You're nothing more than a parasite, a wraith hitching a ride on real wizards just to stay alive. You're not powerful. You're not scary. You're nothing."

"I AM LORD VOLDEM-"

"NO ONE GIVES A SHIT!" Harry cut him off, roaring back at the incensed wraith. "God, you're just a memory in a diary. A wraith, less than a ghost, really, floating around somewhere, helpless. A bunch of first year students stopped you stealing the Sorcerers Stone last year and you haven't managed to actually kill anyone this year despite five students and one cat getting petrified."

"They were lucky. The Basilisk's gaze is deadly when looked at directly, but they all saw only a reflection, hence why they were only petrified," Riddle hissed angrily. "Trust me, the others will not be so lucky, and I will be certain to kill your friends in the hospital wing myself."

"You aren't going to touch them," Harry scoffed, far more confidently than he actually felt. "You keep going on about how powerful you are and 'greatest sorcerer' this and 'greatest sorcerer' that. I might hate his guts, but there's no denying that Dumbledore was and is a more powerful sorcerer than you ever were. It's always said how he was the only one that Voldemort was ever afraid of."

Daphne suddenly found herself banished against the wall and she hit with a grunt and a pained cry as her head bounced off the unforgiving stones. She didn't fall to the ground though, and realized that Riddle had stuck her there with a sticking charm, leaving her unable to move but still able to watch as he faced off against Harry, both wands held before him.

"Dumbledore was driven from this castle by the very memory of me!" he roared.

"No, he was pulled away by idiots that shouldn't be in charge of a kneazle much less a school full of children!" Harry roared back. "Stupid, inbred, fear filled idiots pushed Dumbledore out, not you."

"Enough of this." Riddle stood straight and turned, hissing at the large statue. §Speak to me, Slytherin. Greatest of the Hogwarts four,§ he hissed and their came a grinding of stone against stone as the mouth opened, revealing a dark tunnel. Harry could vaguely see something moving deep within it and he back away, rapidly, his feet sliding across the stone to make sure he didn't slip or lose his footing on the damp surface.

Shite, he though as a truly massive snake slithered from the opening and before it turned its head in his direction he spun and ran to the side, putting as much distance between himself and it as he could. Blindly he cast a series of blasting and exploding hexes in the general direction of the creature. He heard several impacts and an enraged hissing but didn't think he'd done much damage.

Riddle hissed out a word and Harry dove behind one of the many pillars lining the chamber as a sickly yellow light passed over him and impacted another pillar behind him, showering the ground with stone chips. Harry rolled and waved his wand, causing the chips to grow to the size of baseballs and with a flick of his wand he banished them toward the beast.

"That won't do you any good, Potter!" Riddle called.

He's right, Harry thought. He remembered reading about Basilisks when they were searching the library, trying to figure out what the beast of Slytherin might be. Dammit, 'Spiders flee before it' why didn't I remember that? The Basilisk was even more resistant to magic than the troll from the year before, there was little chance he would be able to damage it with the way he usually cast. He needed something big if he hoped to have any chance to hurt it.

A shadow slid across the floor in front of him and he scrambled around the pillar just as the beast's head came around the pillar, fangs slamming down just behind him.

"HARRY!" Daphne screamed, but he ignored her for the moment and focused, pushing everything he had into a single desperate attack.

To Harry's eyes, as his mind raced, time seemed to slow and he reached deep as his right foot struck the ground, pushing him up from a crawling position. He reached deeper, hauling as hard as he could on that well of power that he could always feel, like the presence of his bond mates in his mind, hovering just out of sight. His left foot came up and struck the stones, pushing him forward as thought after thought flitted through his mind.

Hermione.

Neville.

Susan.

Daphne.

Amelia.

Fred and George.

Hannah, Tracey, and Blaise.

The wand in his hand warmed rapidly, so fast that he thought he could hear a sizzling of his flesh where he grasped the smooth handle.

His right foot came down again, propelling him forward around the pillar until he could see a wall of deep green scales higher than he was tall just six feet in front of him.

His wand started to vibrate so powerfully that his hand became numb from the sensation and only his vice like grip kept him from dropping it entirely as multicolored sparks danced along the shaft, smoke rising from the tip of the length of holly.

"I do not want to kill anyone, if I could help it. But I have people that care about me, and that I care about, and anyone that threatens them will learn that I will use every means at my disposal to defend them, even if it meant my own life"

The words he spoke to Rangok echoed in his mind as his arm came up and he pushed every last bit of power he could down his arm into the brightly glowing and smoking wand in his hand as his mouth opened and a single word was ripped from his lungs.

"REDUCTO!"

#####

In the Headmasters office, empty save for a colorful bird sitting on an ornate, golden perch, and the constant spinning, twirling, and puffing of the various artifacts and knickknacks dotting the tables and shelves, a sudden burst of music trilled through the air. A beautiful, inspiring, uplifting tune.

Fawkes rose into the air, large wings propelling the magnificent creature up, up, until it swooped down like a bird of prey toward a shelf along the far wall near the window. His talons snatched up a dingy, wrinkled old hat and with a burst of eldritch fire both bird and sorting hat vanished, leaving the office in silence once again.

#####

The blinding orb of red light that shot from Harry's wand was easily three feet across. A concussive wave of force rippled outward as the wand in his hand disintegrated and he was blown backwards, flipping over to land with a crunch on the cold stones as the reductor slammed into the side of the enormous snake with all the force of a locomotive. A massive explosion of sound ripped through the Chamber and the beast was lifted from the ground, flying thirty feet through the air as it roared out its pain for all to hear.

Harry's ears rang and he slowly, painfully, pushed himself up to his knees. His chest hurt, his head was pounding, and he gasped in agony when he put his right hand down to steady himself on the stones. Squinting his eyes open he took in the mangled look of his hand, splinters of wood sticking out from his wrist and forearm as blood ran from underneath the holster strapped to his arm.

"My wand," he muttered uncomprehendingly.

A burst of fire erupted above him and the most magnificent bird he'd ever seen appeared in a ball of flames, clutching something in its talons. It dropped whatever it was holding on the stones in front of him and came in to land next to his hand. Tilting its head, great pearly tears seeped from its eyes and started dripping onto his mangled flesh, hissing as each one dripped onto an open wound.

"Put me on, Potter!"

Harry looked up, still dazed to realize the something the bird (Fawkes, some part of his mind supplied, remembering his visit to the headmasters office after Finch-Fletchley was petrified) had dropped onto the stones was the sorting hat. The rip in the hat's brim that served as its mouth was pointed toward him and he reached out with his good hand to grasp it and pulled the hat onto his head.

"You certainly have been busy, Mister Potter, haven't you?" the hat whispered in his mind. Dimply he felt the pain in his hand receding and he could just hear the roaring of the basilisk as Fawkes flew off and away from him.

"I haven't been trying to."

"Be that as it may, Mister Potter, I must say that Godric himself would be quite impressed with your actions since you started at this school."

"That's good and all, but I'm kind of in a battle to the death, here."

"And I am here to help, so don't be so impertinent," the hat snapped irritably.

"Sorry."

"Hmph. Your wand has been destroyed, Mister Potter. I might be able to help you, but you'll need to offer something in return."

"What? And what do I need to offer?" Harry asked, desperately. "I have to kill it. I have to stop him and protect them."

"This School has become a shadow of its former self. Something the Founders would be ashamed to see from the once proud edifice they created. Hogwarts was meant to be a beacon, a bastion of magical learning and has since become a cesspool, a breeding ground for bigots and maniacs."

"And what am I supposed to do about that?"

"Whatever you can. I ask for no guarantees, just a promise that you will do the best you can to see this school returned to its former glory."

The request didn't even require ay thought on Harry's part. If that's what he needed to do, that's what he would do. "I can do that. I swear, I'll do whatever I can."

"Very good, then, Mister Potter. You might want to check in with the Goblins, when you get a chance. Watch your head."

Before Harry could question either of the final statements something heavy struck the top of his head and stars flared before his eyes. He wrenched the hat off his head and something clattered onto the ground in front of him as he opened his eyes again and saw a beautiful sword lying on the ground in front of him. The blade gleamed in the torch light and a series of rubies set into the hilt shone as if lit with an inner fire all their own.

It wasn't a wand, but it'd have to do. He scrambled to his feet, snatching up the sword in his right hand and pressed his back against the pillar, carefully peering around it.

Riddle still stood near where Daphne was stuck to the wall, tears streaming down her cheeks as he yelled at the Basilisk. §Kill him!§ he shrieked. §You can still smell him. Find him and kill him!§

He moved, sliding more around the pillar and glanced toward the beast. Fawkes was in the air, swooping and diving, screaming out a battle cry that filled Harry with warmth and courage, a swelling from deep within his gut that he couldn't explain but welcomed, nonetheless. He chanced a look and realized what Riddle meant. The Basilisk was blind. Two gaping holes, streaming blood and gore showed where its eyes had once been and Harry felt a glimmer of hope at that.

He had a better chance if he could actually see what he was trying to fight.

He took several deep, shaky breaths, pushing down the fear coursing through him and focusing on the feelings brought out by Fawkes song as the bird continued to harry the enraged Basilisk. He thought again of the people counting on him, his bond mates waiting for him, his friends, his family.

With those thoughts firmly in mind he rushed out from behind the pillar and did the Gryffindor thing. Charged in head first.

"AAAHHHHH!" he screamed as he ran and the beast's head whipped in his direction. It hissed, mouth opening to reveal fangs as long as his leg and sharp as any sword as it lunged forward.

Harry dove to his left, swinging with the sword in his right hand as he did. A shock ran up his arm and he knew he'd at least scored a glancing blow as he rolled and came quickly to his feet. His entire body ached with a bone deep weariness, both from the frenzied activity and the magical exhaustion he knew was creeping in. As he stood, blood dripped from the sword in his hand and another surge of confidence swept through him.

He could hurt it!

If he could hurt it, he could kill it.

His eyes flicked up and widened dramatically as a gaping maw filled with teeth dominated his vision. Fuck! He thought, and desperately thrust forward with the sword.

The scream that ripped from his lungs was louder than any he'd ever uttered as a line of fire lanced across his chest and his right bicep exploded in pain. Acid flowed through his veins, and the edges of his vision blackened for a moment before he stubbornly shoved it all aside.

He found himself lying on his left side on the floor, the Basilisk right in front of him and a glimmering in its mouth told him the sword was shoved up, through the top pallet and into the creatures brain. He rolled onto his back, groaning painfully and saw a foot long piece of broken fang had pierced his right arm, clean through. The front of his robes and uniform were torn and a wide slash, starting near the outside of his left collar bone ran down across his chest until the bleeding wound stopped just above his navel.

"Oh, gods," he groaned and pushed himself into a sitting position. Stumbling to his feet he turned and staggered toward Riddle's wide eyed form. The, much more solid looking, sixteen-year-old figure was gaping at him in astonishment. Coming to a stop a foot away from Riddle Harry coughed painfully and turned his head, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the stones.

"So much for the Beast of Slytherin," he growled out in a hoarse voice.

"Harry," Daphne whimpered, staring at him in dismay. "Merlin, Harry…" she trailed off, unable to speak.

"So much for…" Riddle trailed off, his shock morphing into glee before he threw his head back and roared with laughter. "You fool!" he bellowed as Harry suddenly staggered and slumped to his left, falling heavily to the stone floor right next to Luna. "Basilisk Venom is one of the most deadly substances in the world! You may have killed the beast, but you are still dead, Harry Potter."

Crap. Harry shook his head, feeling slowly leaving his body. Rolling onto his back again he reached over, limbs feeling like lead and grasped the fang stuck through his arm with his left hand. With a pained grunt he wrenched it free, grasping the tooth firmly as he started to crawl toward Luna.

"There is no escape, Potter!" Riddle crowed. "Crawl all you like. Crawl like the vermin you are. You are still going to die."

"That's the difference… between me… and you…" Harry huffed, struggling to remain conscious. "You're afraid to die. You're… you're terrified… of it… But I'm not… I'm not afraid to die… not… if it means… protecting the people… that I care about."

His arms gave out and he found himself lying on his face once again, the cold stones pressed against his cheek. Rolling onto his side, he switched the fang to his right hand and glared at Riddle who was standing there, gleefully watching him before his eyes flicked over to Daphne.

"I'm sorry," he whispered and he looked back at Riddle one last time. When he spoke, the loathing in his voice was unmistakable. "Die, you son of a bitch."

"NO!"

Harry lifted his arm, holding the fang tightly, and drove it down into the glossy cover of the diary where it lay on the stone right beside him. From the diary a high pitched shrieking cry rose as the fang pierced the cover and ink, like blood, flowed out from around the fang. He pulled back and stabbed down again, and again, and again, each time drawing more and more ink from the vile artifact.

The shrieking dimmed, becoming quieter, even as an explosion ripped through the room. Just before consciousness left him and the cold blackness of oblivion embraced him, Harry felt his body being moved and a pair of ice blue eyes stared pleadingly into his.

Then, he knew nothing more.

#####

"I don't know how to get through to this kid! I swear if he's dead I'm going to kill him!"

Kingsley ignored his boss as she sped through the halls of Hogwarts beside him on their way to the second floor girls loo. It still boggled him that the entrance to the fabled Chamber of Secrets was in a girls restroom. He shook that aside though and focused on Amelia Bones as she continued to rant and scream about one Harry James Potter. Kingsley had to say, if whatever was down there didn't kill him, he might actually feel sorry for the kid after Amelia got her hands on him.

It hadn't been half an hour since Madam Pomfrey, the on duty Mediwitch at Hogwarts, had appeared in the fireplace in his bosses office, screaming about a kidnapping and Harry Potter. It took a bit of time, but eventually Amelia had gathered him, Rufus, Auror Cadet Tonks, and Senior Auror Gawain Robards in her office and they'd all stepped through the Floo to find the entire Hogwarts staff, including that blowhard Lockhart, and a pair of redheaded twin boys standing there, all of them arguing amongst themselves.

The four of them, along with Madam Pomfrey, Headmistress McGonagall, and a handful of other professors were striding through the school not long after they arrived and Amelia hadn't stopped ranting since they left the Staffroom.

"Amelia," he murmured, cutting through her rant as the door to the loo loomed ahead of them. "Stow it for now, let's worry about rescuing the kids, first."

Her jaw clamped shut she growled through her nose as she threw open the door. The ghost floating in the room above a large, open pipe let out a surprised shriek and shot up through the ceiling for a moment before coming back down.

"Harry Potter went down-" She cut herself off as, without breaking stride, Amelia approached the hole and jumped in, her lit wand pointing down as she disappeared into the blackness. Kingsley stood by and motioned the others through one at a time and before he jumped down he turned to address the ghost.

"Thank you, Miss," he told her. "Sorry to run, but we're in a hurry."

The ride took nearly a minute, and just as he was starting to wonder when it was going to end the pipe leveled out and he shot out of the end, landing on a cushioning charm amidst a mass of old and broken animal bones. Scrambling to his feet he took off after the others who had already moved on down the rough hewn tunnel in the only direction offered and within moments caught up to them.

The entire group strode quickly, largely in silence, save for Amelia's dark mutterings until they reached the massive door leading into an enormous open cavern with a series of deep pools on each side and two rows of large pillars running the length. Wands drawn and with Madam Pomfrey at the back they rushed into the room, the Aurors fanning out into a frequently used combat formation.

As one they came to a stuttering halt, mouths dropping open.

"Circes saggy tits," Rufus breathed staring wide eyed at the scene before them.

Lying across the left side of the room was the singularly, most terrifying creature any of them had ever seen. Six feet high, easily sixty-five or seventy feet in length. A solid mass of bone, muscle, and magic resistant scales. Kingsley could only gape at the, obviously dead, fucking Basilisk lying in the chamber in front of them.

A quiet sobbing finally caught their attention and the group started to move, carefully edging past the corpse of the great beast and toward the far end of the room where three bedraggled figures huddled against the wall. One of them, a tiny blond waif that he didn't recognize sat apart from the other two, curled into a ball against the wall with a haunted look on her face and tears streaming from her too-large silvery blue eyes. Next, his gaze moved to the right and he took in the recognizable form of Daphne Greengrass, sitting up with her back against the wall with a tattered, blood covered form pulled across her lap.

"Poppy!" he bellowed and felt more than saw the Mediwitch rush past him to almost slide to her knees next to the broken form of Harry Potter, her wand already dancing over him. Absently, he noted a large bird, with beautiful red, gold, and blue plumage sitting next to Daphne's leg, but he didn't think much of it as he stepped closer and looked Potter over.

His eyes were closed, but his face was set in a grimace of pain. Through a tear in his right sleeve he could see a gaping would that was slowly closing before his eyes and a large slash across his chest, easily a foot and a half in length. Scrapes and bruises marred nearly every inch of visible skin and he was filthy and soaked through with grime and water.

Daphne was hunched over him, the tips of her fingers gently caressing his cheeks, seemingly attempting to smooth away the pained expression on his face.

"Miss Greengrass?" he asked, his deep voice echoing off the stone wall beside them, and she lifted her head, staring at him with tear filled eyes. "Miss Greengrass, are you hurt?" he desperately wanted to ask what happened, but decided that, unless Amelia objected, it could wait until they were all back at the Hospital Wing.

Distantly she shook her head and he let out a sigh of relief. The other girl appeared to be uninjured, and if they were both fine, medical efforts could be focused on Potter. In the back of his mind he couldn't help but think that at least it looked like the kid was alive, this time.

It took another ten minutes of Poppy waving her wand and administering some of the potions she'd brought with her in her bag, but eventually, she pronounced Potter safe to move. Amelia floated the kid off the floor while Daphne walked beside her and Tonks gently coaxed the other girl to her feet, leading her from the room as the remaining Aurors swept up everything they could find to bring with them.

Kingsley shook his head as he wrenched a sword, of all things, from the beasts mouth and, with Rufus carrying the destroyed book they'd found, a foot long fang from the Basilisk, and the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, they all made their way out of the room, the massive door closing silently behind them. One thing was for sure, Kingsley knew that this was going to be one hell of a story.