A/N Starter note, is anyone else getting annoyed by a user named SamanthaTig1995 sending them what is clearly a way to implant a virus multiple times?
Also, I'm so sorry this is later than usual, real life just came in and while I had a little time to write, I just felt like watching YouTube instead. Thinking is hard.
Also, I just didn't want to burn myself out. I've started projects before, been really motivated, gotten pretty far in, and then stopped. So I'll do these short breaks every once in awhile. I want to get my stories finished.
Harry was annoyed.
The first night back at Hogwarts a house-elf had popped into the Gryffindor second-year girl's dorm, scaring the crap out of everyone in the room. He then introduced himself as Dobby and told Calypso she needed to leave. When Calypso was understandably very confused he just told her she was in grave danger and then left.
Calypso told Dumbledore and her family and Dumbledore did a little investigating. He first confirmed that Dobby was not a Hogwarts house-elf. He then tried to determine who Dobby was bound to but didn't find any leads. James and Lily had freaked out a bit but a few Calming Charms and a promise to keep a close eye on anything unusual and Dumbledore was able to get them to chill and return to Potter Manor. The four other Gryffindor second-year girls spread the story around and within twenty-four hours everyone in the castle knew what had happened.
And two days later that left Harry feeling frustrated in the library. Not so much by the grave danger part; that worried him but wasn't an immediate problem or could be nothing, but how Dobby was able to go through Hogwarts's wards. He knew that elves had their own branch of magic but had no idea it was that powerful. When he asked Dumbledore or any of his teachers about it, they didn't tell him anything he didn't already know.
An elf that wasn't bound to work at Hogwarts had gotten through the most powerful wards in northwestern Europe like it was nothing and all Harry wanted to know was if that was its limit or not. It wasn't that hard!
By that point he had resorted to looking through the library, but that problem was there weren't many books on house-elves. Most people either saw them as beneath attention or didn't think there was really much to explain. Harry eventually found his answer by comparing a standard book on house-elves written for muggle-borns with a book on wards.
The only wards that house-elves couldn't cross on whim without permission were ritual wards like the Fidelius. While the Fidelius was considered the strongest ward available to wizard-kind (minus some really dark things that book only mentioned) it had one major flaw; the secret-keeper. So the ancient wards around places like Hogwarts were considered stronger. But a house-elf couldn't cross a Fidelius with their brand of magic because it can't take advantage of the major flaw, which is a person. It was actually quite fascinating to compare wizard magic to house-elf magic.
Besides researching about house-elves, Harry also spent his time dealing with his fellow Housemates. Nott decided it would be a good idea to insult Harry's dad for ending the Potter pureblood line. The next morning, he woke up laying in bed under a full Body-Bind. The curtains of his four-poster were shut so nobody could see him, and the spell was powerful enough he only got a few bites of breakfast. The assailant was never caught.
The other odd event at the beginning of the term was the first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Harry had been looking forward to the class; which was his Thursday afternoon class, despite the fact that it was being taught by Professor Lockhart. Partly because he only got the class one day a week, and partly because he wanted to see how Lockhart would act around him and his sister. The beloved pretty boy had actually taken a few shots from the press after he tried to drag a clearly unwilling Calypso from her family, and Harry wanted to make sure he wouldn't make any more trouble to save some face.
By the end of the class everyone with half a brain was wondering how in the name of Merlin's balls Lockhart convinced Dumbledore to hire him.
The class started with two types of people in it; the ones who were just staring dreamily at Lockhart's face (mostly girls), and those that were annoyed by the first half (mostly boys). Harry was relieved to see Calypso, Daphne, and Tracey were all in the second group, while pretty much the entire class was shocked to see Hermione in the first.
After that Lockhart tried to act all chummy with Harry and Calypso while they just glared at him and didn't say anything.
And then the first class ended with Lockhart doing a pre-test to see if anyone had read the curriculum ahead of time. Now, this would be a pretty good teaching strategy if it wasn't really just a way for Lockhart to get his ego stroked. After all, your instructor's favorite color isn't something that students need to know to repel the Dark Arts.
"I cannot believe that man." Harry was fuming as both is Gryffindor and Slytherin friend groups walked out of class together. "That was a complete waste of a class."
"I agree," Calypso said.
"That was worse than History of Magic," Ron agreed.
"Honestly you guys. Professor Lockhart is one of the most renowned Dart Arts fighters in Europe. I'm sure there was a reason for that class."
The only person on the group that didn't roll their eyes at that was Neville, probably because he didn't want to make Hermione upset. The boy had such a low level of self esteem that he probably believed without her he would flunk out of half his classes. Calypso did just as well in school as Hermione, but got tired of always helping others. But due Hermione's personality she was always happy to correct other's papers to prove she was academically superior to them.
That made Hermione seem worse than she was. It was simply that she was a muggle-born and felt she had something to prove.
"You know," Harry said as they kept walking to the library. "I was surprised to see that you were one of Lockhart's fangirls Hermione. But then I realized that he was a Professor and writes lots of books. And since those are like your two biggest turn-ons it actually makes a lot of sense."
Tracey chuckled as Hermione turned bright red. She gave Harry and mortified look and then ran off, probably to find a secluded spot in the library she could hide in.
"Harry." Calypso looked pretty upset at her twin. "Can you go one meeting with Hermione without embarrassing her in front of a bunch of people."
"I support Harry here," Daphne said. She had her usual bland look but Harry had spent enough time around her to tell that she was pretty amused. Her eyes turned a lighter blue when she was happy or amused and they were a light blue then. And no, he didn't stare at her eyes that often. And he only went to the library to research wizarding eye genetics for academic purposes.
But in case anyone was wondering it was a Greengrass genetic thing from two centuries prior when the Greengrass heir at the time was working as a spell creator in his early twenties and a mood-detector spell blew up in his face, affecting his eyes and his genetics.
"Oh c'mon Daphne," Calypso protested. "You have to admit that was rude."
"It was true. If somebody is embarrassed by part of their personality then they should either man up to it or change themselves," she said with a shrug. That was a very Daphne thing to say. In her mind, people should just do what is best for them and their family and let everyone else deal with their own problems. Now this didn't mean she believed somebody should stage a coup and set themselves up as a military dictator of the country. But instead of saying that it was wrong because people would be killed, her answer would be because it would destabilize the country, their could be an uprising, and ultimately most likely make things worse. Basically, people should do their part to keep society together for the good of the race and other than that do their own thing. So she saw nothing wrong with Harry's statement.
Calypso knew better than trying to argue with Daphne at this point and didn't press the matter.
After Harry finished his assigned homework he left the group to work on his Charms. Clearly he didn't need to keep advancing his lead in Transfiguration. His wand and style of magic was perfectly suited for it. After all, Transfiguration was just making a bunch of little changes to something to make it something else. Charms was trickier for him. And working on his Charms would have the added bonus of helping with Defense Against the Dark Arts. Standard Defense was basically just Charms applied to combat. There was battle-Transfiguration but that was trickier and not taught until fifth to sixth-year. And so he spent an hour working on the Engorgement and Shrinking Charms.
He spent an hour and by the end had gotten a sort of handle over the late second-year charms. He could only shrink something down to about half its original size. And doing the Engorgement Charm afterwards always was a little tricky. The problem with doing a counter for anything was that the caster had to not only cast the counter correctly but there was always residue of the original spell fighting to keep the magic of that spell. So when he made something bigger after shrinking it (or vis versa) he was not only growing the item but also fighting the magic of his Shrinking Charm.
Over the next week Harry realized something. He was no longer always second when he walked into a room with his sister. One day a group of third years even invited him to do homework with them in the library. And while he wasn't stupid enough to be tricked into just doing homework for a group of strangers it was flattering. A few days later he realized something else. He really liked it.
The second Monday of school McGonagall informed Harry that he would completing the third-year Transfiguration exam at the end of the second term. Harry wasn't surprised so he just accepted the list of spells and walked out after thanking her.
On top of that, Harry's over a hundred hours of meditating were paying off. Two weeks into school he was able to get his first tendril of magical energy into the diamond. It wasn't even enough to cast the dimmest lumos but it was still a huge step forwards. However, Harry still had no idea how to get the gem into the hilt of the dagger, and it's not like he could ask a teacher. 'Professor, I need your help making a knife a magical weapon. No, I don't plan on using it, this is just for fun.' Like they would believe him.
The second Thursday of the school year Harry started to get pretty pissed at Lockhart. For the second, he had hyped up the danger of the lesson and talking about how safe everyone was with him around. This left Harry both actually excited to see what was covered in the cage on the front desk and wanting to hex his Defense Professor.
Finally, Lockhart took the cover off the cage to reveal... cornish pixies. Most of the class was understandably confused, with Seamus Finnegan even going as far as to straight up say that they aren't very dangerous. Lockhart cautioned the class not to underestimate them, before opening the door. The pixies instantaneously got out of control and after attempting some charm Harry didn't even recognize, he fled the room telling the class to get them under control. Harry rolled his eyes and cast a Freezing Charm on most of the pixies. A few got outside of the spell's range but were quickly brought down by Hermione and Blaise. Harry chuckled when he saw Malfoy hiding behind Crabbe and Goyle. Nudging Daphne's shoulder he pointed the sight out to her, who's eyes lightened in amusement.
Malfoy scowled when he saw the pair silently laughing at him and pushed Crabbe and Goyle away. It was common knowledge among the lower-year Slytherins that Malfoy thought that Daphne was beautiful and wanted her to eventually marry him, despite her obvious loathing of him. It irked Daphne, along with Tracey and Harry. He had to admit that Daphne looked quite nice as well but at least he didn't making a seeming habit of walking just behind her. They were only twelve for Merlin's sake and Malfoy was already ogling Daphne's rear!
But suffice to say that even with Malfoy providing entertainment Harry was peeved about his Defense class. However, there was good news on other fronts. Harry's extra attention to Charms had been paying off. Flitwick had told him he noticed an increase in confidence when casting his spells in class. He was always confident of his abilities, but since Charms always came second to Transfiguration for him he always had some doubts when he first tried a spell in class in front of other people, and it showed. His wand might shake a bit or the timing of the incantation a little off and it always meant that he had decreased power the first few times. And while that problem still existed, it was small enough to be largely irrelevant. And as getting natural magical energy into his wand started to become second nature the time between when he cast his charms decreased as well.
Harry was also working on the knife more as well. He accepted defeat in getting the gem into the hilt for the moment, but had another idea as what to do with it. Grabbing his book on enchanting he had received as a present he reviewed the first parts of the book. After all, it would be pretty cool to have a knife that is resistant to heat and spells and things like that.
It was hard to find time, because he was paranoid that somebody would find him hiding in the library casting spells on a knife which wouldn't be ideal. He might even be asked to return the knife to his house. Unlikely, but possible.
But despite small annoyances, the first part of the school year passed smoothly. Things started going sideways when the first petrification was discovered. Really sideways.
Calypso, Ron and Hermione were discovered around the scene of a petrified Mrs. Norris on the second floor. Filch wanted to flog them but thankfully Dumbledore was able to talk some sense (forbid) into Filch. Of course the first thoughts of everyone in Harry and Calypso's groups was Dobby's warning. Calypso talked to McGonagall and Harry talked to Snape, who said that they would pass on the message to the Headmaster, but he didn't contact the Potter twins.
But when Dobby appeared again, telling Calypso she needed to leave the castle, their parents freaked.
They owled Harry and Calypso that they were going to have a talk with Dumbledore once they heard the news. That evening, McGonagall and Snape told the Potter of their respective House that both would be staying at school for the time being. Harry wasn't one hundred percent sure about Calypso, but he for one was relieved. Harry loved learning, he knew that many people said he was better suited for Ravenclaw. But it went deeper than just a love of learning for Harry. He loved the power that being so advanced gave him. He was feared in his House by the lower years for what he could do with a wand. He didn't attack his class mates often, but they learned to step around him and his friends with caution. Insult one, and they might find their wand doesn't work in class like Malfoy, or jinxes and hexes hitting them when they weren't looking. He was never caught, but that didn't mean he wasn't heavily suspected. Leaving Hogwarts would be devastating for him.
Even the teachers took notice of Harry's tendency to extract revenge. When Lockhart had the class practice Tickling Charms on each other (not that many could since Lockhart didn't actually demonstrate the spell) Harry was paired randomly with Millicent Bulstrode. Millicent had a reputation to be a bit of a bully and had spread a few rumors over the prior month about Tracey being a half-blood whore. While the lower year Slytherins did fear Harry to an extant, and the upper years respected him, that didn't mean that they liked him and by extension his friends. Harry kept Millicent under the Charm for so long that Lockhart had to order him to stop and she spent a full minute sitting on the ground trying to catch her breath back. It didn't help that afterwards Harry just stood with a smug grin on his face as Millicent failed to cast the charm on him.
However, despite his desire to stay at Hogwarts, this didn't mean that Harry wasn't at least a little worried. He could tell Calypso was freaking out a little and took it upon himself to spend even more time with her. Usually this meant that he ended up teaching her spells in the library. It did mean that Harry didn't get as much time to work ahead, but it didn't really matter. In the classes he really put extra effort in he was at least a few months ahead of the curve.
In early November, Gryffindor beat Slytherin again in Quidditch, putting Calypso's record at 4-0. Honestly, Harry didn't mind. He got to cheer for his sister (quietly, he didn't want to get beat up in the stands) and Malfoy was pissed. He got the Seeker position; probably due to his father getting the entire team Nimbus 2001's, and had been bragging how he was going to crush Calypso. Harry had honestly really been hoping that he would lose, especially when he heard how Malfoy called Hermione a Mudblood. Harry had felt almost as sorry for Ron though when he heard the story. He tried to curse Malfoy but his busted wand backfired and Ron ended up puking slugs for an hour. Harry had sent a good Stinging Hex to Malfoy's rear the next breakfast for that.
It was soon after the Quidditch game that chaos stuck again.
Harry had been walking with Daphne and Tracey after dinner. Tracey had forgot a book at the library and the trio was circling back so she could grab it.
"And Defense is just the worst," Tracey was saying. "It's basically Charms with extra thinking involved. And Lockhart? Looks great on the eyes, but a useless teacher. Honestly Harry, you should say something to Dumbledore, I bet he'd listen to you."
Harry grumbled. Lockhart was really getting on his nerves as well. "Yeah I might. If the class is still useless after the winter break I'll see if I can say something."
"Well we're better of than most," Tracey said, latching onto Harry's arm as they walked. "We have you to teach us instead." Harry didn't even blink when Tracey grabbed onto him. She was just naturally a little clingy in private. Around people she was pretty formal, if fairly outspoken. Probably a side effect of spending so much of her childhood around the extremely proper Daphne. However, if it was just the trio she seemed to really like human contact. Harry noticed one of her favorite things to do was make Daphne grumble by giving her a hug in the corridors. Harry saw her rolling her eyes just at walking arm-in-arm with Harry. She just didn't get any form of PDA (the "p" could stand for either public or private).
"Yes, you have been quite useful Harry," Daphne agreed.
"Well it's nice to be appreciated," Harry said with a grin as he tried to link his arm with Daphne's. She avoided him and swatted him on the back of the head.
"Don't get handsy," she said with the tone of a warning. Harry's grin didn't fade. Getting Daphne annoyed was just to easy.
Suddenly the grin faded. The trio stopped and Harry had his wand out as he looked around for any threats. The girls quickly followed suit. Ahead of them was a person, facing away from them. While that wasn't strange, the fact that the person wasn't moving at all was. They carefully crept around until they could see the frozen kid's face. It was a first-year Gryffindor. Harry couldn't remember his name. Connor? Coleson? "Get Snape," Harry ordered. The girls gave Harry a surprised look. He had never ordered them around before.
"Don't give me an order Harry," Daphne said. She much preferred to be the one giving the orders.
Harry just pointed to the wall behind the girls. They turned around. Written on the wall in was seemed to be blood were the words 'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir... beware.'
"Get Snape," Harry repeated. They didn't argue again.
Harry kept his wand out as he walked towards the wall. Touching the letters he looked at the substance on his hand. Definitely blood.
A few minutes later a quartet of older students with Hufflepuff robes found Harry and the petrified student. One pulled his wand at Harry. "What did you do?" she demanded.
Harry put his wand away to show he wasn't a threat. "I found him here."
The Hufflepuff looked at the student. "Who is it?"
Harry shrugged. "Some first-year Gryffindor."
"I'll go get Sprout," one of the Hufflepuffs said.
"People already left a few minutes ago to get Snape."
The first Hufflepuff read the words on the wall. "Any idea what that means?'
"Seems pretty self-explanatory to me. Either a myth is about to be proved real or somebody is playing a heck of a prank." The Hufflepuff nodded and didn't say anything else.
A few more people stumbled upon the scene. A Gryffindor identified the petrified kid as Colin Creevey. About fifteen minutes after they left, Daphne and Tracey arrived back with Snape, followed by Dumbledore and McGonagall.
"Sweet Merlin," McGonagall breathed when she saw Colin and the writing on the wall.
Dumbledore walked up to the wall to inspect the words before turning around. "I want all students to return to their dorms," he ordered.
"What about us?" Harry asked.
"Has the scene changed at all since you arrived?" Harry shook his head. "Then I believe you must return to your dorms as well with Ms. Greengrass and Ms. Davis."
"How do we know they didn't do it?" a Gryffindor at the scene accused. "They're Slytherins!" Harry's eyes got flat.
"How dare you accuse my students so baselessly! That-"
"Severus!" Dumbledore interrupted Snape's tirade. He turned to the Gryffindor. "I do not believe that the responsible party is here."
"Beside," Harry added. "You're forgetting who my sister and my family are." The Gryffindor paled slightly at realizing he just accused the twin brother of the Girl-Who-Lived of petrifying a student and writing to the wall in blood.
The next evening Harry and Calypso each received a litter that one more petrification and both would be pulled from Hogwarts until the culprit was caught.
Things soon got even worse. Lockhart opened a Dueling Club to teach students to defend themselves in the wake of the mass panic that was beginning to grip the castle. Harry convinced Daphne, Tracey, Calypso, and Ron to go just so they could get a few laughs at Lockhart.
Sure enough, Lockhart displayed his ineptitude right off the bat. Him and Snape started with a duel and before it even started Harry could see where Lockhart was going wrong. He was wearing an outfit that while looking fancy and impressive would only billow out and restrict his movements. And his stance was even worse. Again, looked good but was just for show. Snape's stance on the other hand had his wand right in front of him for more efficiency when casting.
After Lockhart was knocked onto his butt before even casting a spell he tried to pass it off as letting Snape win.
"Oh, I'm sure," Calypso whispered sarcastically to Harry.
Then Snape had the idea of letting a pair of students duel. Lockhart quickly agreed and called for Calypso and Ron to take the dueling platform. Snape intervened, suggesting one of his instead. Lockhart then tried to get a sibling duel, but Snape argued they might hold back with each other, and suggested Malfoy instead. Lockhart eventually agreed, and Malfoy climbed up opposite of Calypso, smirking. He locked eyes with Harry for a second and the grin faltered for the smallest increment of time. Harry's face promised payback of Malfoy seriously hurt his sister.
"C'mon Calypso," Tracey whispered. "Wipe that ponce off the floor."
The duel started and both opponents basically took turns knocking each other to the floor. Harry was annoyed. One, he thought he had taught his sister better than that. Two, it would have been much better to have two seventh-years demonstrate, instead of a pair of little kids with only a handful of spells in their arsenal.
After they had each traded a few spells, Draco tried something different. He Conjured a snake; which was actually impressive for their year, and waited, hoping to see Calypso freak most likely. Instead, Lockhart intervened but instead of getting rid of the snake just managed to piss it off. It slithered over to Justin Finch-Fletchley. Snape raised his wand when hissing sounds rolled out across the room. Everyone stared in shock as the snake turned towards Calypso, who spoke in parseltongue again. Snape vanished the snake as it was distracted.
Everyone stared at Calypso as she realized what she had just done.
Harry cornered his sister and dragged her into an alcove after the club was dismissed. "What the bloody hell Calypso!" he hissed.
Calypso looked truly frightened. "I'm sorry Harry! I'm not a Dark Witch, I swear!"
Harry was just confused now. "What? No-I. I know that, c'mon give me some credit! But why didn't you tell me you are a parseltongue! I don't have any secrets that big from you. Do Mom and Dad know? What about Dumbledore?"
"What-no. I didn't even know Harry, I'm as surprised as you are."
Harry was still confused. "How do you not know you have one of the rarest abilities in the wizarding world?"
"Well it's not like I go around trying to talk to snakes!" Calypso defended herself. "I have some memories from when we're like five but I thought it was just my child imagination."
"Ok." Harry thought about that and it actually made sense. "But you and I are going to go to the library tomorrow and see what you can do."
"Huh?"
"We're going to see if there is any magic related to being a parselmouth!" Harry was actually getting as close to giddy as he did thinking about it. This was a chance 99.9% of people never got to get. Who knows what they might discover?
"No." Harry was once again confused. Calypso was really good at doing that to him.
"Why not?"
"I don't want to."
"C'mon Calypso. This is a unique opportunity! Why would you want to miss it?"
"I'm not practicing dark magic Harry!" Her brother finally noticed the fear in her eyes. "I'm not a Dark Witch!" Harry knew his twin better than anyone and could tell she was talking to herself more than him.
"Of course not Calypso." Harry pulled her into a hug and she crying into his shoulder.
"Did you see the way they looked at me," she said in between sobs. "They all think I'm dark and dangerous!"
Harry scoffed. "Don't worry about the idiots. If they think the Girl-Who-Lived is the heir of Salazar Slytherin and his famous Chamber then they aren't worth paying attention to."
"Easy for you to say."
"Like I said, I'll be fine, just don't pay attention to them." Harry didn't see what the big issue was. One thing he had learned in Slytherin was not to worry about those beneath you unless it is necessary. And if anyone was stupid enough to think that his sister was a Dark Witch than they were beneath him.
"Thanks Harry."
"Anytime."
It turned out that Calypso was right. Rumors spread and everyone went from revering Calypso to sneering at her in the hallway. At least her friends didn't believe all the rumors about her.
"Out of curiosity, why?" Harry asked Daphne and Tracey. He was wondering if he could use their reasoning convince the rest of the school. "Cause I know the first thing about her," Daphne answered. Harry had to admit that made sense. None of the teachers were throwing accusations Calypso's way, and neither were her friends. It was just the people that didn't actually know her.
Harry was a little surprised that the House that believed Calypso the most was Slytherin, though they didn't show it outside of the Slytherin rooms. It was pretty easy to figure out that none of them wanted to believe that Salazar Slytherin's heir could be in any House but their own.
Harry caught a decent amount of flak as well for being Calypso's twin. When a Seamus Finnigan came up to both of them before Charms saying loudly that Harry was conspiring with Calypso to kill all the muggleborns and enslave all the half-bloods in the castle, Harry just rolled his eyes. Honestly, could he be any dumber.
"For starters," Harry said. "We all know you are going to cheer for Calypso just as loudly on the Quidditch pitch as before so I don't know why you are getting in her face now. Two," and here he raised his voice, "we are half-bloods nitwit! Use your brain!"
"Who are you calling a nitwit!" Seamus said, stepping into Harry's face.
"You!" he shot back.
Calypso tugged on Harry's arm. "Harry please. You aren't helping."
Flitwick entered the classroom anyways so there wasn't a chance for the argument to continue.
Harry didn't like backing down when somebody insulted his sister right to her face but he didn't really have a choice so he sat down in his seat.
"What are you doing?" Daphne whispered from his right as Flitwick started talking. "Losing your temper isn't going to get you anywhere in life. You have to control yourself."
"I know, I know." Harry was annoyed with himself as well. He didn't care what people said about him. But when people insulted his sister it was a different story. This was harder than he thought.
But he shook himself out of his thoughts and started paying attention. The end-of-the-term exams were approaching and he wanted to beat his previous Charms score of one-hudrended fourteen percent.
A/N Again guys, sorry for the wait. I just needed a break to avoid burning out.
Also, you might be complaining that I am going through the second year way to fast. It's just that it really isn't that important to the story. Third year, as I've said before, is where things get much more important. So I'm kind of speedrunning this year. It'll be over in a few chapters cause I don't want more filler like all those first-year chapters.
One other thing. You may have noticed that instead of the words being where Ms. Norris was, they were with Colin Creevey. I changed that cause this is my story and it is AU. I have my reasons for changing something.
Hope you enjoyed this, glad to finally get it out.