Severus and Peter sat down at an empty table in the library. He wordlessly undid the featherweight charm on Peter's bag, before handing it to him. He then cast a soundless Muffliato.
"I used a spell I invented. It fills the ears of anyone nearby with an unidentifiable buzzing. We can talk out loud without anyone hearing us, and the librarian won't chase us out."
Severus took out his books. "Again, if you need help, just ask."
Peter nodded.
Severus got started on his homework.
20 min later
"I don't get this." Peter exclaimed again. "well,"- They got interrupted by Lily, Remus, and Marlene. Severus undid the Muffliato spell.
"Sit down." He gestured to the table. He then cast a soundless Muffliato again.
"I used a spell I invented. It fills the ears of anyone nearby with an unidentifiable buzzing. We can talk out loud without anyone hearing us, and the librarian won't chase us out." He explained again.
"Wow, that's great Sev! Now we don't have to worry about talking too loud!" Lily enthusiastically exclaimed. The others followed her.
"Yes, well- as long as you agree to seriously study."- The others agreed. -"We can agree to meet up every day after class, to study."
"Like a study group? Remus asked." -"Essentially." -"That would be great!" Remus exclaimed. -"Sign me up." Marlene said. Lily and Peter nodded.
"I think it's important that we help each other out when needed. I was helping Peter with his homework before you came in. If anyone else needs help, just ask." The rest agreed, and got out their materials.
Severus resumed helping Peter. He noticed where a lot of Peter's uncertainty stemmed from. He soon got the indication that he would have to work from scratch. If Peter was behind other students, it would make it harder to catch up with his grades later on. Time to nip this in the bud now. "It's not that hard to write an essay, Peter. Basically, you write everything about the subject down in a way that makes it understandable. Try writing it for yourself." - "But what if I do it wrong?" - "Doesn't matter. We'll spend the whole weekend in the library, if need be." Severus said loudly. The others looked up.
"You-you mean you would help me out for the whole weekend?" Peter clearly looked both relieved and distraught at that prospect.
'Yes, whatever it takes for you to not go down the wrong path.' Severus thought.'
"That's where this group is for, isn't it? Should I demonstrate to you how serious I am by waiting at the Gryffindor entrance all weekend? I will tell everyone who asks that I'm waiting for Peter Pettigrew."
Peter's face turned an interesting shade of red. "No, no, I believe you! You won't need to come to the Gryffindor entrance! I, I mean"-
"Then just try, Peter. You're certainly not the only person having problems with their essays." Peter quickly resumed writing his essay.
"I will check that." Peter bowed his head deeper over the paper.
Remus decided to take pity on Peter. "Ehm, would anyone like to take a look at my paper?"
Severus walked to where Remus was sitting. "Let me see."- "Err, all right."
"This, this and this, I would change. Then I would"- Severus started correcting the paper. He took another piece of paper to write more things down. "Here." He presented the final product, full of marked down advise.
"Eh, thank you, Severus." Remus looked questioningly at the paper. Severus sighed. "Here, let me tell you what I mean." He started explaining what to change on his paper. After that, Remus face brightened. "Thank you, Severus!"
"You're welcome. Do you have something else you need help with?"- "Well, actually..." Remus said.
After helping Remus and Peter, he also helped out the girls. Until Lily asked: "Severus, thank you for helping out, but... Don't you have your own homework that needs to be done?
Which Severus answered with: "Yes I will, but since I have already understood the material, I wanted to help out others first." Lilly looked touched. " I think you helped us out a lot, but shouldn't you finish your own homework now, before you forget?" She insisted.
"I'm going to finish the rest of my homework, then." Severus finally resumed with writing his homework.
When he was finished, it was almost time for dinner. "Shall we resume tomorrow after classes?" Severus asked. Everyone agreed.
"One more thing. It's important. I've already told Peter. When you need help in finding the way when you're alone, ask the portraits. Portraits can move from portrait to portrait, and they are all around the castle. When you need help, because you're injured or someone attacks you, or you see someone get attacked, ask the portraits to notify the closest person that can help you. Ask for them to notify McGonnagal or Dumbledore when it gets really bad. Do you all understand?" Everyone nodded. Some said "Yes."- "Good, goodnight everyone."
When everyone else had left, Severus proceeded to 'look' for the kitchens, walking down the staircase leading to the Hufflepuff basement.
He waved at some portraits along the way. He knew all too well that they where essentially spy's for Dumbledore. When he reached the portrait of the bowl of fruit , he 'hesitatingly' tickled the huge green pear. He stepped into an enormous, high-ceilinged room, large as the Great Hall above it, with mounds of glittering brass pots and pans heaped around the stone walls, and a great brick fireplace at the other end.
The house-elves came running up to him. "Hello esteemed house-elves of Hogwarts. My name is Severus Prince. Would it be possible to eat my food here?"
"Topsy is happy to give you food!" One house-elf exclaimed.
That night, he sat down for dinner in the kitchens. The trick was, to come around dinner, and they would leave you to eat at peace.
"It was delicious, thank you Topsy. Can I take some food with me?"
He ended up stuffing snacks in his expandable backpack(which he had used an Undetectable Extension Charm on, and many protection charms, as well as a magical tracker).
When he got out of the kitchens, he went to his Common room, packed his things, swapped them with fake replica's, put a protection charm on them, closed his curtains, and guarded his bed as well.
He walked to the bathroom, and put his invisibility cloak on. He then proceeded to the seventh floor left corridor, to the Room of Requirement. He asked for the room of hidden things, and he specifically asked the room to be made unavailable to those who supported Voldemort.
This summer, he would try to buy the Vanishing Cabinet to put it in his heavily warded trunk( that was a replica of sorts of Alastor Moody's trunk), which could also be locked from the inside. If he put the trunk in his dorm room, he would be able to go through the vanishing cabinet to the Room of Requirement(where he would prefer to sleep) and back.
And, since Graham Montague was able to apparate into Hogwarts despite the protection spells of the school normally preventing such an action, it would seem possible to quickly apparate to where he needed to be, from the vanishing cabinet in his dorm room.
Or apparate back from the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement. This would be a good setup for unnoticed Horcrux-hunting.
First step, killing a basilisk.
He would need the venom to destroy the horcruxes. Even though he could master Fiendfyre, but the inherently dangerous, uncontrollable nature of the spell made it more dangerous then a basilisk. He would just need a rooster.
He looked through the room for a diadem, while going through a list in his head.
His list of horcruxes where, from easiest to hardest to get to:
1 Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem. In the Room of Requirement. The easiest.
2 Marvolo Gaunt's Ring. Hidden in the Gaunt's shack. Poisonous.
3 Tom Riddle's Diary. Hidden with Lucius Malfoy.
4 Helga Hufflepuff's Cup. Possibly hidden within the Lestrange's vault at Gringotts.
5 Salazar Slytherin's Locket. Hidden within the cave by the sea, where a young Tom tortured other orphan children, and stored inside a cursed basin in the middle of an Inferius-infested lagoon. He knew he borrowed Kreacher from Regulus and placed the locket horcrux in the cave in the year 1979. This meant Severus would have to be extremely cautious in destroying the rest of the horcruxes until then.
It was also the year Peter Pettigrew began passing information to Voldemort. Which he had to prevent. If he couldn't get rid of Peter's cowardice, he would have to show him that there was someone stronger and scarier then Voldemort. Or maybe it would be even more crucial to reward Peter for good behavior. Peter had always seemed quite eager for rewards. No, a combination would probably work best.
The best thing to do was to handle Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem first. Then he had to take care of the other four horcruxes in the quickest succession possible.
Then he needed to make replica's. Four of them.
Lucius hasn't even graduated yet. When would he get the book?
It could also be that Bella hadn't put Helga Hufflepuff's cup in her vault yet.
Only if Helga Hufflepuff's cup was already in the Lestrange's vault would it might be the hardest horcrux to take care of. He would then need to break into Gringots. From Hermione he learned that having a good invisibility cloak would help this endeavor. Plus some polyjuice, a hair of Bella, and an imperius. Oh, and of course being prepared to ride away on a dragon. Definitely the last Horcrux to get in case it was at Gringots then, in terms of being found out.
Both Lucius and Bella, wouldn't yet have gotten a horcrux until they were more trusted, maybe no later then 1979.
When the time was right, would he be able to get the two horcruxes that where with Lucius and Bella without Voldemort knowing?
Maybe Lucius and Bella would not dare to tell their master that they lost the items.
He had to figure out when in the year 1979 Regulus would find out about the horcrux. He had to save him. Salazar Slytherin's Locket was the hardest to get to, because of this complication, and the cursed basin in the middle of an Inferius-infested lagoon.
...
Maybe he needed a sip of his own improved version of the liquid luck for finding everyone of the horcruxes, as well as the killing of the basilisk. He hadn't yet used it in this lifetime... He had a supply ready, you never knew... He spotted the diadem. He grabbed it with a thick piece of cloth, and tossed it in a container. He closed the lid, put the container in his backpack, threw his invisibility cloak on and walked out of the room.
Why not now? He thought, and drank the liquid luck. A happy feeling followed.
He decided to go to the entrance of chamber of secrets. There he transfigured some roosters. He used parseltongue to open the passage, and got in.
After letting himself in, he let the rooster loose, and put a spell on them to continuously crow on command. He then summoned the basilisk with parseltongue. He used the command. When he heard the basilisk fall down, something told him the basilisk was dead, and he transfigured the roosters back.
He approached the body to get some of it's teeth wrapped up and safely stored. One of it's teeth he used on the diadem. Only four more to go.
He decided to go to Dumbledore. He told the gargoyle that he wanted to speak with the Headmaster. When he was given permission, he ascended the stairs to the Headmasters office.
When Severus entered, he saw Felix sitting on his perch.
He sat down. "Lemon drop?" Severus felt the urge to roll his eyes, even while under the effect of the taken potion. "No thank you sir. Chocolate frog?"
Severus held out his hand, a chocolate frog in it. Dumbledore had a moment of surprise on his face. "Yes, I would like one." Dumbledore took on his offer, and Severus placed the chocolate frog in Dumbledore's hand.
"What can I help you with, Mr Prince?" He felt that Dumbledore was not that suspicious, despite him being a Slytherin, most likely because of having received the news of him being able to produce a patronus, plus what he heard from teachers and portraits. Good to know his plans worked. He smiled.
"I wanted to talk to you. Professor." Severus said quickly. "I have located the chamber of secrets, sir."
Dumbledore seemed to need to process this. So Severus continued.
"It's easy to find out, really. Myrtle Warren was the only victim that had died, or so I heard. I also heard where she was, so I decided to get some information from her."
Severus paused, he looked at Dumbledore, who seemed quite eager to hear the rest.
"I only had to talk with her and she led me to the sinks in the girl's bathroom where she died. There was a snake on one of the sinks. I managed to open it, but not before getting some roosters with me. I then killed the basilisk. Can I sell the basilisk parts, sir? Since I was the one to get rid of it?"
Severus had fun seeing Dumbledore's expression getting more and more out of order. Dumbledore gave him a swift, searching look. He felt a push of Legilimency. He showed memories of this afternoon, where he was helping others with their homework and him hugging and saying goodbye to the Evans couple, followed by the memory of the dead Basilisk. Dumbledore looked appeased.
"Can you lead me to this place, Mr Prince?"
"Of course, professor." Dumbledore took the Phoenix with him.
Severus showed Dumbledore the snake. "And to open it, you only have to say "open."" Pretending he didn't know of this skill, he demonstrated it using parseltongue. Dumbledore looked shocked. "This is the passageway." Severus jumped through. Dumbledore followed.
Severus showed him the body. "I see..." Dumbledore was thoughtful.
"So can I sell the basilisk parts or not, sir? I'd like to have an answer as soon as possible. It's almost curfew."
"Why don't you come into my office first, Mr Prince. I would like to talk to you about some things."
Felix flew them back up.
"You may or may not now, about parseltongue, Mr prince?"
"Parseltongue is the language of serpents, right?"
"That's correct."
"But what does have to do with this, professor?"
"When you opened the chamber, you used this ability."
Severus pretended to look shocked. (The Felix Felicis made him use the idea of Umbridge becoming the next Minister of Magic.)
"I want you to remember that Parseltongue is considered an attribute of a Dark Wizard. Most people are prejudiced to the ability to speak it."
"Most of my house will probably be ecstatic, professor."
"Yes, but the rest of the houses may not be so positive. And most of the wizarding community."
"I understand professor. I will only tell Slytherins."
Dumbledore looked at him for a moment, and shook his head. Severus stood up, and walked to Felix. "Can I pet him, sir?"
"Only if he agrees." Severus started gently stroking the Phoenix. It seemed to let Dumbledore decide on something.
"I trust we can keep the chamber of secrets and the existence of the basilisk a secret, if I promise you the remains of the Basilisk?"
"Yes professor."
"What if I get someone to sell the basilisk anonymously, and give you the resulting money?"
"I'll accept that as well, professor."
"Good, then that's what we'll do. You'll get your money's worth in a months time."
Severus smiled.
"You can go now, Mr Prince. I think you will be right on time for curfew."
"I think so too, professor." Severus walked to the door.
"Good night, Mr Prince."
"Good night, professor."
He did make it back in time for curfew.
He freshened up and put wards on his closed curtains. 'Let's wait with further planning until 1978. And experience the rest of my Hogwarts time without any worries this time around', he promised himself.
'When did the potion ran out, again?' He wondered before he fell in a peaceful sleep.