A month had passed between the first attack and the second attack. It was the end of October and Halloween was here. Sitting in the Great Hall trying to eat food, when he was interrupted by Colin, was Harry. He wasn't in the best of moods as it was, and so he had very little patience for the kid.
"Hiya Harry, why are you upset?"
"Go away Colin! How many times do I have to tell you we are not friends." Harry snapped back, but the boy acted as if he didn't hear Harry.
"Is it because of You-Know-Who and your parents?" He whispered the last word, which angered Harry even more.
"Fine then, Colin. If you won't leave I will," Harry finally snapped and rose to leave. Colin followed him after thirty seconds. Upon noticing the boy following him, Harry sped up and even started running as he got away from the Great Hall. So quickly did Harry run that Colin couldn't find him when he rounded the corner. Or at least that's what Colin thought, as after he had rounded the corner Harry had pulled on his Invisibility Cloak. He saw Colin rise up to the first floor, then the second, before he vanished from sight and Harry could head down to the common room. As he entered the dungeons he saw Blaise, sitting alone, looking miserable and as the saying goes, misery loves company, so when he saw Harry approach he asked
"You also finding the festivities a bit too much?" Blaise sounded miserable and not at all hostile, so Harry decided to sit down with him.
"Yeah, listening to people celebrating my parent's death is a good way to make a day feel pretty shitty." They both laughed a dark laugh and sat there talking until dinner was over and they went their separate ways.
When everyone returned from dinner they were all panicked. There had been another attack, this one on Colin Creevey, with a message written in blood.
"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. All enemies to the Heir of Slytherin will be purged from the school," Dudley quoted. Harry looked at his friends to see they were all looking at him.
"You guys don't think I did this, do you?"
"You're the Heir of Slytherin, either you're doing it or someone is doing it in your name," Draco answered.
"But nobody knows that I'm Slytherin's Heir, save you guys, and you know I'm not behind these attacks," Harry argued, feeling like he was being blamed for strange things happening again.
"Everyone saw you leave the Great Hall and then Colin followed you. We're not saying we think you're guilty, but we can see how it looks," Dudley reassured his cousin.
"I'm going to get to the bottom of this," Harry declared.
Harry was annoyed, very annoyed. Dudley had decided it would be great fun for them all to go flying and play a game of Quidditch. So, after much complaining, Harry was flying with Dudley, Draco, Theo, Ron, Neville, Crabbe, and Goyle. Hermione didn't want to join, but Neville surprised everyone by revealing that he and Theo had been flying together over the summer and he was now pretty confident. Harry was playing Seeker and doing pretty well, he was currently chasing the Golden Snitch, when it happened. As Theo and Neville were celebrating scoring a point, Theo was proud of his friend for getting it past Ron, a bludger came from the other end of the field to hit Dudley straight off his broom. Immediately he was falling, faster and faster. In that same moment Harry's perception of time slowed down to a near stop, as he angled his broom down and flew for his cousin.
Down he went, falling, falling. He would hurt himself if he didn't pull up soon, Harry found himself thinking as he caught up to Dudley, pulled him close to him as he wrapped his arms around Harry. Unfortunately Harry pulled up a moment too soon and turned their fall from near fatal to just serious injuries. As they lay there on the floor Harry rose his head to see a very large crowd had amassed to watch the game. Among the crowd were Professors Snape and McGonagall. As they helped the pair and the crowd dispersed, Professor Snape started talking quietly to Harry.
"Loathe as I am to admit it, you actually did a good job out there. Which is why I'm appointing you as Slytherin's Seeker. No objections," he added as Harry started to protest.
They were taken to the Hospital Wing to spend the night healing.
After the third attack of the year it was deemed prudent to teach the students how to duel. So on the second of November the school assembled for Professors Snape, Flitwick, and Lockhart's duelling lesson. On the same corridor as the music classroom, on the fifth floor, sat a previously abandoned duelling room. It was set up for all styles of duelling, having a few long rectangular arenas, as well as some circular arenas for different styles of duelling. Today they were on the rectangular arenas and Professor Flitwick was giving his introductory speech.
"Greetings, students, to what I hope will be the first of many duelling lessons. I have with me Professors Snape and Lockhart to help me with demonstrating and instructing. Now get-"
"Thank you so very much for that wonderful introduction. As you all know I am Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin and one of the most accomplished wizards of the day," he boasted proudly. "Now the three of us will begin our demonstration. Professor Flitwick with me and Snape will be our opponent. Doesn't that sound great." Lockhart's every movement was with a flourish and his words full of pride. That was until Professor Flitwick suggested a change of plans.
"Ah Gilderoy, as you are so learned in the magical arts it would be unfair to either Professor Snape or myself to go against you alone. So I propose that it be you against us. To really help us stand a chance." In direct contrast to Flitwick's cheerful voice was Lockhart's now miserable face. A large number of students cheered for this idea and so Lockhart was forced to agree.
They went over the rules and established a first to three win condition. Then set to opposite sides of the platform, bowing and then beginning.
"Rictusempra" Lockhart exclaimed immediately, only for his spell to be sent back to him by Professor Flitwick at the same time as an "Expelliarmus" from Professor Snape. This sent Lockhart careening across the room, giggling, until he hit the wall hard and slid down.
When he finally got up, he looked worried about losing face in front of his "adoring crowd" and so he went back to the arena and the second round began. Lockhart actually managed to avoid the initial spell fire and managed to hit Professor Snape with an "Expelliarmus" that sent him into Professor Flitwick, knocking them both out of the ring. Now Lockhart was strutting around like a peacock, smug as ever into the third round.
Professor Flitwick immediately shot off a "Densaugeo" which connected with Professor Lockhart and stopped him from being able to speak, due to his teeth growing rapidly out of control. This wouldn't normally be as big an issue for a decently skilled wizard, or even a weaker than average wizard. However this was Gilderoy Lockhart here, and losing his voice and perfect teeth in a single instant really demoralised him as he got sent out of the ring. Resulting in a score of two to one.
Before the fourth round could begin Professor Flitwick cast the counter-curse and Lockhart's teeth returned to normal. However even greater than his humiliation and loss of pride was his anger at being humiliated. So when it came to the fourth round he was done playing games.
"Serpensortia Appugno, Stupify!" Professor Lockhart screamed out and managed to knock the Charms Professor out while a gigantic reticulated Python shot out of Lockhart's wand.
It immediately set its sights on Ron and in that moment Dudley heard a hissing from besides him.
It all happened in an instant, the snake appeared and his friend was in danger. This was all Harry knew before he started speaking to the snake.
"Stop, this is not your prey. You're a long way from home." The snake stopped moving at that and its attention turned to Harry, as did the attention of the entire school.
"A speaker, never did this one think I would meet a speaker. I shall not hurt him, if that is your wish." The snake moved over to Harry and all his surrounding peers backed off. It was at that moment that Harry realised everyone was staring at him. Some looked on in fear and others in awe. A voice in him said to claim his defeat over Voldemort was why he could speak to snakes. It was at that point that Blaise Zabini interjected.
"The Right of Conquest, it hasn't been invoked in a very, very long time." He shrugged his shoulders when people turned to look at him.
Some of the students were immediately relieved by this news, but some of the others still feared he was the Dark Lord reincarnated.
"This is going to be uncomfortable," Harry thought before leaving the hall.
Ever since the incident at the duelling lesson everyone was looking at Harry everywhere he went. Even Professor Dumbledore was keeping his eyes on him all the time. It was starting to grate on Harry's nerves.
He'd had enough of the staring for the day and decided to avoid dinner. He went off to his preferred classroom on the fourth floor and fetched one of the calming draughts he had brewed privately at night. He had started drinking one every time he felt his anger bubbling over. Sometimes he would have to drink one and cast a Patronus to even calm himself down. They were becoming less and less effective and so Harry had decided he was going to brew cheerfulness potions to go along with his calming ones.
Later that night Harry went to the Potions classroom and was nearly finished brewing the potions, the Calming Draught he was already fairly familiar with. The cheerfulness potion was a bit more complex, but nothing beyond him. Just as he had taken the last steps in brewing he heard a voice behind him.
"So very like a Potter to steal. What on earth could have encouraged you to do such a thing?" Snape already knew what two potions were being brewed, but wanted to hear it from Harry. "I know you're not just here to improve your brewing, so please, tell me why I shouldn't just punish you."
Harry contemplated telling him the truth, after all Professor Snape could be a great help. After some deliberation he settled on telling the truth, first drinking one of his Calming Draughts.
"Ever since meeting Quirrell I've had this unnatural anger building up. It started to get worse after my confrontation with him at the end of last year. I've been drinking two of these a day at minimum and also doing… other things to keep my calm." When Snape asked him to elaborate he took a minute before drawing out his wand and intoning.
"Expecto Patronum."
To Snape's amazement a fully corporeal Patronus burst out of the end of Harry's wand. Something that Snape found to be even more amazing was that he and the boy had the same Patronus.
"Lily," Snape whispered out almost silently.
Harry didn't comment and carried on as if he didn't hear a thing.
"I'm worried that I'm becoming too dependent on my Patronus. I've cast it several times a day now. I only drink the potions when I don't have the time to go somewhere to cast the Patronus. They're the only things that help to smother the fire of rage when others would seek to stoke it."
"Others? Could you explain what you mean, Mr Potter?" Snape asked, somewhat concerned now.
"I sometimes hear the anger as a voice. It's dormant now due to my casting of the Patronus and drinking the Potion. I don't normally use them together, but I feel the clearest I've felt in a long time." Harry sighed and continued, sounding more depressed. "They're becoming less effective at helping me and I'm running out of options."
At hearing the desperation in Harry's voice the Potions Professor made a decision in that moment.
"I might be able to help you, it will be difficult, but if you can manage a Corporeal Patronus then you can possibly manage this. I'm going to instruct you in the arts of Occlumency and Legilimency. If practised properly you will be able to control your mind and thoughts well beyond that of a normal wizard. Your current path of consuming potions daily will lead to addiction and following that they will become lethal to you. First draining your magic and then your life."
"Thank you, Professor," Harry simply replied and left the Potions laboratory, his Patronus still following him though he didn't even notice anymore.