HARRY POTTER AND THE SECRET ENEM
Harry Potter and all associated characters and situations are the property of J.K. Rowling. I make no claim to ownership.
CHAPTER 42: Revelations in a Disused Lavatory
The Staff Room
3:15 p.m.
Harry slid to a stop near the door to the Staff Room so suddenly that Amy and Ginny nearly fell into him. Without even looking, he held up an arm to silence them. Then, after a moment's thought, he turned and whispered to the girls.
"Do either of you have a mirror on you?"
Ginny gave him a "Duh! Of course!" look and then fished a compact mirror out of her robe. He took it and dropped to one knee before slowly edging the mirror in front of the open door less than a foot above the floor. He wasn't sure whether seeing the reflection of Slytherin's Basilisk was safe or not, but he assumed it would be safer to see the reflection of its trunk rather than the eyes. It was a moot point, though, as there was no sign of the Basilisk – just a score of petrified wizards and witches, professors and students alike. Marcus and Emily in their half embrace. A petrified cat laying on its side. Neville crouched defensively in front of Hermione who was kneeling next to the six-inch wide hole she'd transfigured in the floor. Harry shook his head ruefully. Another twenty seconds or so, and she'd have made it! Harry and the girls entered the room silently, edging carefully around the petrified form of Blaise Zabini which nearly barred the entryway. On the far side of the room, Harry's mother was standing petrified with her wand outstretched while unsuccessfully shielding several students with her body. Harry closed his eyes and took a moment to lock down his emotions. Nearly every friend he had in the world was petrified in this room, along with the more likeable of his two parents, but he couldn't do any of them any good if he broke down now and cried or lost himself to a screaming rage.
"What in Merlin's name...?" exclaimed Fred Weasley from the doorway as he took in the frozen tableau in shock. Seconds later, other students appeared in the hallway behind him. Some gasped while a few others outright screamed upon realizing that the entire faculty was petrified, along with a number of students. Still others ran off to share the awful news with the rest of the school. Harry's eyes lighted on Theo Nott who stood frozen in the corner. He leaned over to Ginny and Amy.
"I need a distraction," he whispered. Without giving any sign that she'd even heard him, Ginny darted over to Fred, flung herself into his arms, and began to cry.
"Oh, Fred! It's awful! And to think if you'd gotten here a few minutes earlier, you'd have been petrified too!" As she wept, she maneuvered Fred around so that his back was to Harry and the view of the students out in the hallway was obstructed. Amy stepped out to talk to those students, providing a further misdirection. As they did, Harry moved over to Theo and, after taking a quick glance around, slid the Notice-Me-Not ring off the boy's finger and onto his own hand.
"I'll get this back to you as soon as I can, buddy," he whispered sadly as he brushed the other boy's bangs out of his frozen eyes. "But I suspect I might need it before this mess is over – for all our sake." Then, he looked around once room before deciding on a course of action. He strode over to the faculty fireplace and picked up a scoop of Floo powder.
"Potter, what's going on here?!" barked an angry voice from behind him. It was Miranda Bonnavie, with a couple of other Slytherins behind her.
"Oh, good," said Harry sarcastically. "Someone in a position of authority has arrived, even if it's not somebody useful." Without further acknowledgment of the obnoxious Pureblood, he threw the Floo powder into the fireplace and called out. "DMLE! James Potter!"
Seconds later, his father's face appeared in the green flames. "Harry?! What's going on? Wait – is that the Staff Room?"
"Dad, listen! The whole faculty's been petrified, along with all the Seventh Year Prefects and ... well, several of my friends. Can you send some aurors to the school?"
"All of the faculty has been petrified?!" James exclaimed, dumbfounded. Then his eyes widened even further. "Your mother...?" he continued in a shaky voice.
Harry nodded. "I'm afraid so. I don't see Mr. Hagrid, Mr. Filch, or Madam Pomfrey here, but every other faculty member is here and petrified. Dad, I know what's causing this. Back in the earliest days of the school, Salazar Slytherin made a basilisk."
James was nonplussed by that statement. "A basilisk? Harry, basilisks kill. They don't petrify."
"Dad, trust me. This one petrifies. It was specially engineered by Slytherin as an anti-siege weapon that could only be controlled with Parseltongue."
James looked even more distressed at that, as if he was wondering if the bad news would ever stop. "Parseltongue? Is ... is Jim among the petrified students?"
"No. No one's seen Jim all day. Can you send help?"
The man shook his head. "No, son. As bad as things are, no one's been..." he paused and swallowed. "No one's ... died yet, and until somebody does, the aurors can't enter the school without the Headmaster opening it for us."
Harry nodded. "And we don't have a Headmaster right now. Or even a Deputy Headmaster. Can the students evacuate on their own?"
James shook his head grimly. "We're ... not sure how the wards would handle that. We suspect that if a large enough percentage of the student body left at once, it would trigger the school's closure procedures. So you'd have to evacuate everyone at once and transport all the petrified people with you or they'd be stuck there for years and no one would be able to go in and get them. And of course, it's possible that an evacuation while the Headmaster was incapacitated might have some other negative effects. I've got some warding specialists looking into it right now." He rubbed his chin. "How can a basilisk even get around the school without being seen?" he asked.
"It can transport itself through any part of the school's plumbing system. It's magic, but beyond that, I don't know."
"How did you figure all this out, Harry?"
The boy held up the pages he'd copied from the ancient history book while preparing an evasive answer that would leave out his conversation with Lockhart.
"The Headmaster and everyone else had always assumed that whatever was causing the petrifications was something new, either a spell or a dark object, that was brought in for the first time back in 1943. But with the way it could get around the castle so easily and the legends of Slytherin's Monster, I though that it might be something old instead but which had simply been rediscovered. Something so old that it had been left out of more recent history books. I got access to a first edition copy of Hogwarts: A History in the Restricted Section and there it was right in the Table of Contents – Slytherin's Basilisk."
"That's brilliant, Harry!. Anything there on how to kill it? Or at least put it back to sleep?"
Harry hesitated. "Well, that depends. Do you have any idea on where to find either the Sword of Gryffindor or the Diadem of Ravenclaw? The book says that they're both useful against it."
James snorted. "Might as well ask for Excalibur and the Holy Grail."
"Well, except for those two built-in weaknesses, we're basically talking about a basilisk with troll regeneration and magic resistant dragon scales, among other defenses."
"Merlin," James whispered in horror before getting hold of himself. "Are there any prefects left?"
Harry turned and looked back. Bonneville had been joined by Titus Mitchell of Slytherin and Bobby Lattimer of Hufflepuff.
"Hey, Lattimer! Mitchell! My dad wants to talk to you!"
"Us?" Bobby said with a gulp. "Why?"
"You're prefects and you're not Bonnevie," he said. Miranda glared back at him coldly.
Nervously, Lattimer and Mitchell approached and received orders from the Senior Auror. All students were to be gathered in the Great Hall because there was no plumbing that led directly there. Students would be grouped by House with a headcount performed immediately thereafter. The prefects would then bar and ward the doors, and the students would wait there until they got the all-clear, which would be delivered by James Potter's Patronus. As soon as the ward experts said it was okay, they would then oversee an orderly evacuation to Hogsmeade.
"Oh," James finally said with a certain amount of hesitation. "If you can do so without endangering yourself or anyone else, please find my son Jim."
Both prefects nodded earnestly. Then, the fire went out. Immediately, they (with the grumbling assistance of Miranda Bonnevie) led the other students away from the Staff Room to the Great Hall. Unfortunately, they were met along the way by a number of upset Gryffindors led by a bruised and angry Percy Weasley.
"Where's Potter!?" the eldest Weasley asked furiously.
"Um, present?" said Harry.
"Not you, Harry. Your lunatic brother. He attacked me, tied me up, and locked me in my study room!"
"What?" said Fred. "When? You came to see us in the infirmary not half an hour ago! You were the one who told us to go to the faculty staff meeting where everyone got petrified! Harry and I were late and that's the only reason we didn't get stiffed like everybody else!"
"It wasn't Percy, Fred," said Oliver Wood. "I heard him ten minutes ago banging on the door to his study with his feet while he was still tied up on the floor. It took me until just now to break down the ward keeping his door locked."
"The Polyjuice Potion that was stolen!" exclaimed Susan Bones. "Jim must have stolen some of your hair to disguise himself as you after knocking you out!"
"Or, speaking purely hypothetically," said Harry in a calm voice, "somebody else Polyjuiced to look like Jim attacked Percy before copying his form as well. Lockhart did get out of here with gallons of the stuff, after all."
"Merlin, why do you Slytherins have to make everything so complicated?" said Fred irritably.
"Besides," said Titus Mitchell. "You said that the monster that's petrifying everyone is some kind of basilisk, right? Well, Potter's the only Parselmouth in the school. Who else could control it?"
Harry frowned but didn't respond, while many other students began muttering in frightened tones at the mention of a basilisk. Angrily, Percy shook his head.
"WHOEVER IT WAS...!" the Gryffindor paused, closed his eyes, and collected himself before proceeding more calmly. "Whoever it was, he indicated that he's done something with Ron. Has anyone seen him today?" There was a soft murmuring from the assembled students that was broken by an anguished cry.
"The Heir of Slytherin has him!" It was Seamus Finnegan running down the stairs looking completely distraught. Dean was just behind him. "We've just come from our room. Ron's stuff has been messed up like there's been a struggle, and ... and there's another message on the wall." Seamus hesitated at the sight of Percy. He swallowed. "It said 'Weasley's Skeleton Will Lie In The Chamber Forever.'"
The crowd went deathly quiet at that. Fred and Ginny both went ashen, while Percy's face crumpled for a second before being overtaken by a righteous fury.
"Right!" he said. "Anyone who's ready to put an end to this rubbish, get your wands out and follow me! We'll break up into groups of five and search this castle from top to bottom!"
"Percy!" said Bobby Lattimer. "I've already spoken with James Potter at the DMLE. He wants the students to barricade ourselves in the Great Hall until it's safe to come out."
"I'm not hiding out where it's SAFE when my little brother is missing!" Percy snarled.
"For once, I agree with the Gryffindors," said Titus Mitchell. "This so-called 'Heir of Slytherin' doesn't care who he hurts. He's hit Professors Snape and Sinestra, both our Seventh Year prefects, and several other Slytherin students." Mitchell turned towards Percy. "Everyone at Hogwarts has a mutual enemy, it seems." Percy returned Titus's gaze and then nodded, while dozens of members of all four Houses registered their approval.
Bobby Lattimer bit his lip in frustration and then shook his head. "Weasley, if you insist on this ... Gryffindoring then on your own head be it. But I insist that the younger students stay here. Everyone Third Year or below will get in the Great Hall now. Weasley, as you and your ... posse, I suppose, make your way through the castle, direct any students you encounter down here." He hesitated. "Good luck," he finally said with sincerity.
Ginny leaned in to Harry. "I think that's our cue to leave, don't you think?" She reached out and grasped Harry's robe, while on the other side, Amy did the same.
"Yeah, Harry. Be a dear and twist that ring on the count of three." Startled, Harry was surprised when Wilkes started counting. Belatedly, he gasped in as much air as he could and twisted Theo's ring. Ten seconds later, the three of them were several corridors away, gasping.
"How did you know what the ring did?" Harry asked Ginny suspiciously.
"Amy told me," she said simply. He turned to the other girl who simply shrugged.
"Uncle Gregory has one just like it. I think it was standard issue for the wealthier Death Eaters."
At that, Harry glanced down at Theo's ring with sudden distaste, as if checking to see if it had bloodstains on it. He'd assumed all this time that it was just a Nott family heirloom.
"So, what's the plan?" asked Ginny.
"Plan?" he replied almost irritably. "Why would you assume I have a plan? You just grabbed me and bullied me into using the ring I'd stolen off of a petrified friend to escape unnoticed before we could get herded into the only safe place in this whole wretched school."
"Safety is kind of a relative term around here, as you know good and well. And I'm pretty sure you always have a plan."
Harry grimaced and looked back and forth between the two girls, one of whom he'd sworn to protect from harm, and yet here she was ... Gryffindoring as Bobby Lattimer had so eloquently put it. He sighed in frustration and pulled out the pages from Hogwarts: A History to review once again.
"According to this, there's an artifact called the Ewer of Hufflepuff that can cure the petrifications, but if it still exists, it's in the Chamber of Secrets and no one knows where that is. As much as it pains me to say this, we need my brother. It's obvious that the Heir has gone to great lengths to frame him for some reason. Maybe it's because his Parseltongue really can be used to gain control of the Basilisk. In theory, any Parselmouth can command it, but there's a weakness built into it that allows anyone who possesses the Diadem of Ravenclaw to overcome the control of any ordinary Parselmouth. If the Heir doesn't have the Diadem, we may have a chance."
"And frankly, Little Brother," Harry thought to himself. "I'd rather you be the one to publicly use Parseltongue on the Basilisk rather than having to blow my own cover."
"And if the Heir does have this Diadem thingy?" asked Amy.
"Oh, well in that case, we're screwed. Totally and utterly." Harry looked around. "Come on. Let's find my idiot brother."
Meanwhile in Gryffindor Tower ...
It had taken Jim almost half an hour to wriggle free from his bonds and another five to shoulder his way through the broom closet door. He was angry but above all frightened, both for Ron and for the rest of the school. Whoever Tom Riddle was and however he was acting through the Diary, he was now in control of Ron, and the fact that he felt the need to lock Jim up was a sign that he had something big planned. Jim had been locked in a seventh floor closet and had to run all the way down, grateful that he'd kept up his exercise.
It wasn't until he got down to the third floor that he saw his first sign of life. Unfortunately, it was one of his least favorite Gryffindors – Cormac McLaggen. Even more unfortunately, the obnoxious jackass had his wand out and immediately pointed it at him.
"Stop right there, Potter! Don't even try to reach for your wand!"
"I don't have a wand, McLaggen! It was stolen by the same person who locked me in a closet for the last six hours!"
"Don't try to lie to me, Potter. Everyone's on to you. Everyone knows you blew up the Mandrake crop and then beat up Percy Weasley and stole his hair!"
"I ... Mandrake ... hair?! What are you talking about?!"
"Save it, Potter!" Cormac laughed. "Heh. They'll probably give me a Special Services plaque for capturing you! STUPIFY!"
Instantly, Jim dropped to one knee and rolled out of the way of the spell. His roll carried him next to a small side table with a flower vase on it. He lashed out with an open palm and flung the vase towards the startled McLaggen who threw up his arms reflexively to bat it away. Immediately, Jim was running towards him. When he was a few feet away, he jumped up and kicked McLaggen's wand out of his hand. Then, as he landed, he grabbed the boy by the shoulders, fell backwards, and through Cormac over him and headfirst into the stone wall. The boy dropped to the ground, stunned. Jim froze for a second, still breathing hard. He'd been studying Taekwando for years, though only recently with true dedication, and this was the very real first fight he'd been in. The adrenaline rush almost made him dizzy. He examined McLaggen to make sure he was alright and then picked up the other boy's wand. A single lonely spark popped out and fizzled.
"Figures," he said dejectedly. He dropped the wand and then continued on down the stairs, this time more cautiously. Obviously, someone (probably Possessed Ron) had been busy for the last several hours and had somehow managed to frame him for a number of crimes. And the Mandrakes were destroyed?! How would they ever revive Dumbledore now? As he drew near the Common Room, he heard voices up ahead. He definitely could pick out Percy's uncharacteristically loud voice as he (even more uncharacteristically) threatened to do something anatomically dangerous with Jim's wand once he found the boy. Jim took a deep breath and then ran. Immediately, several of his House-mates yelled out and fired off curses at him. He dodged two, and then shoulder-blocked Seamus, knocking him to the ground. Jim continued running straight towards an overstuffed chair that stood between him and the exit, ducking and dodging spellfire as he did. Then, he jumped onto the back of the chair, knocking it over and letting his momentum carry him forward into a roll straight out the door.
Once outside, he took off down the nearest side corridor as fast as he could while trying to take an indirect path towards his destination. Jim had spent a lot of time thinking about what he'd learned from Tom Riddle's false memories while he struggled to get free. And now, he thought he knew where the answers lay.
Unfortunately, getting there required Jim to run a gauntlet through the school, and in a Third Floor corridor, his luck finally ran out. He was almost to a T-junction when his pursuers, a quintet of male upperclassmen, caught up to him, and one of them nailed him from behind with an Incarcerous. It was Angus McLaggen (Cormac's second cousin) from Gryffindor who'd taken him down. The others included Bole and Derrick from Slytherin and two other Fifth Years, one each from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Cursing, Jim hit the ground painfully as ropes appeared to wrap around him.
"Ha! Good one, McLaggen!" said Bole. "Time to make this bastard pay for what he's done!" The others laughed in agreement and then stopped ... as Harry Potter stepped confidently around the corridor and moved in front of his prone brother.
"That's quite enough," he said calmly. Behind him, Ginny and Amy peaked around the corner nervously.
"Oh look," sneered Peregrine Derrick. "It's the other one!" He fired off another Incarcerous spell which Harry casually batted off to one side with a lazy swipe of his wand. Harry fought back the urge to mock the boy – Derrick's form was quite poor, and after months working with Team Counterstrike, parrying the older boy's attack was like going from ping pong to children's badminton.
The older boys looked at one another nervously, now reminded of Harry's dueling skills. Then, Bole yelled out. "All at once, then! He can't parry all of us!"
Harry raised his chin defiantly, even though he himself was not optimistic about parrying five spells at once. The five boys cast simultaneously. Harry blinked ... and dilated. Everything went to a crawl as he felt his eerily slow heartbeat within his chest. Thump ... Thump. He carefully studied the wand movements of his attackers, and after a few subjective seconds, he'd identified their spells: two stunners, one Jelly-Legs Jinx, one Incontinence Jinx (from McLaggen, the wanker!), and surprisingly, one Lacero that could cause some serious damage. Even more surprisingly, it came from a Hufflepuff who Harry didn't know but who obviously had an unusually mean streak for a Badger.
Thump ... Thump. Harry next examined the surroundings, and his attention was drawn to the large tapestry hanging on the wall next to his attackers. He also figured out the expected flight paths of the incoming spells while he planned out his defensive moves. Thump ... Thump. He took a third heartbeat just to confirm the paths the spells would travel before releasing his dilation. Instantly, time snapped back to its normal rate, and Harry was a blur of motion. He parried the first two spells and then jumped to the right. He let the Incontinence Jinx fly past him before parrying the Cutting Curse with a powerful forehand even though it was in no danger of hitting him. He also gave the parry a bit of spin that sent the Cutting Curse up and over so that it sliced through the ties holding the tapestry to the wall, causing it to drop. Then, he parried the last hex in such a way that the parry also formed the first move of the Levitation Charm. "WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" In response to his wand movements, the tapestry fell down and over all five boys. Finally, Harry fired off an Incarcerous of his own that wrapped around the boys from outside the tapestry, tying them up together within a heavy woven cocoon.
The fight was over as quickly as it began, and now that it was done, Harry Potter was suddenly amazed to realize that he'd taken down five older students singlehandedly in less than three seconds. He looked down at his wand in wonder, while behind him, Ginny and Amy just stared slackjawed. Jim was equally astonished.
"What ... you ... what ... HOW?!" Jim's babbling cut through Harry's mild fugue, and as he turned to face his brother, Harry's face assumed a mask of serene self-confidence, as if he'd never thought for one second that fighting 5-on-1 might be a problem.
"Articulate and well-spoken as ever, Little Brother," he said drily before casting a Finite on the ropes and helping Jim to his feet. Jim grumbled at Harry's sarcasm, but he didn't turn down the proffered hand.
"As ... undeniably cool as that was, we need to keep moving. I know how to find the Chamber of Secrets! Come on!" With that, and without even looking to see if Harry was following, Jim ran off down the corridor. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Gryffindors," he thought as he followed Jim around the corridor, with Amy and Ginny close behind. Then, just a few seconds later, Harry poked his head back around the corner and pointed his wand at the mass of upperclassmen still struggling and yelling out muffled expletives from inside the tapestry. Five quick Incontinence Jinxes later, the sound of muffled profanity grew even louder as Harry ran off snickering.
"Sauce for the goose, McLaggen," he thought mischievously to himself.
Unfortunately, the brief duel was also a noisy one that attracted quite a bit of attention. Within seconds, the four children were being harried by a dozen or more students in hot pursuit. A few were firing hexes which were easily dodged but most just yelled for the Potters to stop and surrender. Undaunted, Jim led the others down a flight of stairs and straight through the door of the second floor girls' lavatory.
"I don't have a wand!" Jim yelled while trying to bar the door shut with his body. "Anybody know a locking charm?!"
Harry narrowed his eyes in annoyance. Had Jim actually led them into a dead end before considering whether there was any way to lock the door behind them? Harry whipped out his wand. "COLLOPORTUS TRIMENDIUM." The door flashed brightly and locked itself thoroughly.
"Right. It took a squad of aurors several minutes to break through that ward, so I'd be surprised if the average Hogwarts student could do it any time soon. Now, would you kindly explain what in Merlin's name we're doing in a girls' toilet!"
Relaxing finally, Jim took a deep breath and then explained his thinking to the others.
"Okay, pay attention. It turns out that these petrifications have happened before, back in 1943. Only that time, a girl actually died! And what's more, her ghost is haunting this very toilet!"
Harry stared at Jim in consternation. "Really," he finally said in a deadpan voice.
"It's true! They call her Moaning Myrtle, and she can probably tell us everything we need to know about the Chamber of Secrets!"
Harry stared at Jim in a mounting fury that his Occlumency did nothing to curtail. Right now, he wished that his gaze had petrifying properties. "You ... git!" he finally spat.
"What?" Jim replied as if offended.
"I KNEW ABOUT MOANING MYRTLE OVER SIX MONTHS AGO!" Harry bellowed at his brother. "SHE REMEMBERS 'BIG YELLOW EYES' AND NOTHING ELSE!"
Ginny put her hand on his arm. "Harry, calm down."
"Don't tell me to calm down! All the teachers are petrified! The aurors can't get in to help us! The Mad Petrifier, whoever it is, is running amok! There's a mob of angry students after us! And I'm trapped in a disused lavatory because Jim has only just now learned a clue that I knew back in November!"
"All the teachers?" Jim said in a quiet voice. "Including ... Mum?" Harry nodded, calming down a bit at the devastated look on his brother's face. He rubbed his eyes in frustration and stalked off to the opposite corner of the room. Ginny tried to assess the situation.
"Okay, so Myrtle is a dead end. Do you at least have any idea where Ron is? No one's seen him all day. Is he alright?"
Jim barked out a laugh. "Alright? Oh Ron's doing great! He's the bad guy!"
Harry's head jerked around. "What?!" he exclaimed while an angry Ginny stepped up and poked her finger into Jim's chest menacingly.
"You take that back!" she shouted while Jim put his hands up as if surrendering.
"Take it easy, Ginny. It wasn't Ron's fault. It was the Diary!"
At that, Harry and Amy moved back over to the arguing duo. "What diary?" Amy asked.
Jim looked back and forth among the three Slytherins. "All year long, Ron's been taking class notes in a black leather-bound diary. And I found out just this morning that it's a cursed dark object that somebody must have slipped him. It can affect minds and even possess people outright. And it's haunted – or something like haunted, anyway – by the spirit of the guy who framed Hagrid for being the Heir of Slytherin in 1943. A guy named Tom Riddle!"
"Tom Riddle!" both Harry and Ginny exclaimed simultaneously before looking at each other in confusion.
"Oh," Jim said sarcastically. "Heard of him, have you? What, is he on Slytherin's 'Top Dark Wizards of the 20th Century' list or something?"
Harry opened his mouth and then clamped it shut quickly. Depending on how one looked at it, the list of Princes mounted on the Lair's wall could be construed as that very thing. He started over.
"Tom Riddle was the Fifth Year Slytherin prefect at the time of the original Heir of Slytherin affair. He later became Head Boy. Dumbledore apparently remembers him fondly. And he's been my Number One suspect for months now. My theory was that Lockhart was actually Tom Riddle teaching here under a fake name for some nefarious purpose, but if he can actually possess a student through a dark object..."
Harry trailed off as he considered the implications. "Which leads me to my next question: How do you know about Tom Riddle?" he said turning towards Ginny. The girl simply looked back and forth between the Potter brothers with a stricken look on her face.
"This is all my fault," she said in a horrified whisper.
About nine months ago
The Weasley Burrow
"Dammit!" Ron exclaimed before stepping out of his room. Ginny heard him and called out.
"What's wrong, Ron?"
"After Dad punched Mr. Malfoy in the face, I got so excited that I totally forgot to ask Mum to buy some loose parchment. I've got enough for assignments, but I don't have anything to take notes with. Do you have any extra?"
"No way!" Ginny exclaimed. "I'm just starting at Hogwarts, and I'm not getting into trouble for being unprepared because I had to give you school supplies that you forgot to buy yourself."
"Aw come on, Ginny! Help your brother out!"
She sighed in mock exasperation. Then, she went over to the cauldron containing all her books and removed a thin black leather book which she handed to Ron. "Here. You can use this for notes."
He turned it over and read the cover. "Tom Marvolo Riddle. Who's he?"
Ginny shrugged. "It was in my cauldron with my other books when we got home. I told Mum last month that I needed a new diary. I guess she forgot that Harry got me one as a gift when he was staying with us, and she bought me a new one. Well, by 'new,' I mean an old one she fished out of the used book bin. There's not even a price tag on it. Anyway, you can have it. I don't think I'd like writing my personal thoughts down in somebody else's diary. Feels kinda creepy."
Ron flipped through the empty book. "Thanks, sis. You're the best."
She laughed. "Glad to see you mature enough to admit it, Ron."
He laughed as well before returning to his own room and setting down at his small writing desk with his new notebook. Taking out a quill and some ink, he quickly wrote on the inside cover. "Property of Ron Weasley." Then, to his surprise, the ink slowly faded away. For a second, he wondered if the Twins had replaced his inkwell with disappearing ink again. Then, new words appeared on the first page of the diary.
"Hello, Ron. My name is Tom."
Ron eyes widened in surprise. Immediately, he thought back to discussions he'd had with his father before he first went off to Hogwarts, specifically about how recognize dark objects. "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't tell where it keeps its brain," was one of Arthur Weasley's more amusing recommendations that Ron had never anticipated needing to recall. Then, Ron heard a very soft hiss, and suddenly, all of his father's words of advice were completely forgotten, and other ideas popped into his head in their place.
*** Be calm. You are not afraid but curious.***
***You want to know more about me before you tell your parents. ***
*** They'll be especially proud of you if you know all about the book before you speak to them.***
Ron touched his quill to the paper and wrote a response.
"Who are you, Tom?"
As the ink faded away, more information passed from Ron to the Diary. He was an earnest but insecure child with vague dreams of earning his parents' respect by becoming Head Boy someday, even though he had no idea how to achieve such a goal with his lackluster academic skills. And also, something about a "Boy-Who-Lived" who Ron had promised to aid in defeating a dark wizard known as ... Voldemort. The Diary silently assessed its understanding of Ron's psyche. Emotional stratagems that had been devised to use against the girl who had held the Diary previously were discarded and new approaches for manipulation were devised.
"I am not actually a person, Ron. I am TOM – Thaumaturgical Organizing Matrix. My creator, Tom Marvolo Riddle, enchanted me long ago to serve as a study aid. With my assistance, Tom Riddle eventually became Head Boy before he graduated."
Ron's eyes widened. "Head Boy?! How?!"
"If you write all your notes within my pages, I can organize them for you and allow you to restructure the information however you wish. If you write a first draft of a paper or essay within me, I can edit it for you for both grammar and content. As exams approach, I can quiz you on topics that your teachers have discussed most frequently. There are many other things I can do to help you to become a better student and a better wizard."
Ron smiled eagerly ... and in doing so was lost.
Now ...
"It's okay, Ginny," said Harry. "It wasn't your fault. You didn't write in the book and couldn't have known what it was."
"Yeah," said Jim. "I mean, I've had Occlumency training and it almost affected me." Harry gave his brother a look, and Jim responded testily. "Of course, Harry here would have been completely unaffected since he's 'Master of the Mental Arts' or whatever. But my point is, neither you nor Ron is at fault here. Ron's the victim and you're not responsible for what happened to him."
Then, Jim glanced over at Amy with a thoughtful expression. "In fact, the diary was what caused Ron to turn against me after he found out I was a Parselmouth. I wonder if Ron somehow manipulated those other Gryffindors into jumping me before Christmas."
Amy suddenly looked a bit queasy, and Harry noticed. "What?" he demanded. Amy looked over at Ginny.
"Might as well tell him," Ginny said. "We're trapped in a bathroom. This is no time for secrets, I guess."
Amy turned back to Jim and swallowed hard. "It, um, wasn't Gryffindors who jumped you that night. It was Derrick and Bole pretending to be Gryffindors. It was part of Cassius Warrington's plan to ... well, I'm still not sure what his plan was beyond getting you to like Slytherins and maybe eventually becoming a dark wizard or something. It was kind of vague on his part." She hesitated. "He's not very bright."
"I can vouch for that," said Harry. Jim, meanwhile, was confused and, strangely, hurt.
"And you were in on it? Letting them attack me and then pretending to come to my aid?! I've been walking around afraid of my own House ever since that night!"
"Oh, leave her alone, Jim," said Ginny. "It was my idea."
Jim sputtered angrily at that, while Harry smiled at the girl. "Why Miss Weasley!" he said. "Have you been scheming something? I'm impressed."
"Thanks," she said sarcastically. "Jim, I may have had a bit of a crush on you when I was just a little girl, but family is family. I was convinced from the start that Warrington was really the one behind the prank that got Fred expelled. I talked it over with Amy and she agreed to go undercover with Warrington's clique to get proof."
"I thought Lockhart confessed to that prank," said Jim.
"I still don't understand what Lockhart was up to," said Amy, "but Warrington and Miranda Bonnevie admitted to me that Warrington was really the one responsible. They made me promise not to share it with Derrick and Bole, since they were both victims of the prank, but they didn't make me swear not to reveal it to anyone else, so ... here we are."
"Wait," said Harry suddenly. "Miranda Bonnevie was part of a conspiracy to physically assault the Boy-Who-Lived?! That's ... delicious!"
"Anyway," said Ginny after shooting Harry a dirty look, "that's not the important bit. Tell them about 'the friend,' Amy."
Amy nodded. "The members of Warrington's clique include him, Bonnevie, Bole, Derrick ... and Warrington's secret accomplice." Then, she nodded, as if that answered everything.
Harry frowned. "And? Sorry, but it's not really a shocking revelation to say that Warrington has another accomplice but you don't have any idea who it is."
"You don't understand, Harry," said Amy. "I don't mean Warrington has a secret accomplice and I don't know who it is. I mean Warrington has a secret accomplice and he doesn't know who it is. Just some mysterious 'friend' who leaves him letters in envelopes with advice on how to perform pranks against his enemies. Letters that just sort of appear out of nowhere when he's not looking. Letters that the friend can even deliver to his dorm room in the middle of the night, and he's certain it's not a roommate."
Harry inhaled sharply. "The cloak," he said softly.
"What?" said Jim. "What about the cloak?" Harry waved off his questions and closed his eyes to think. When his thoughts wouldn't move fast enough, he dilated and contemplated the facts so deeply that he almost forgot himself and dilated too long. On the sixth heartbeat, he let go and opened his eyes in shock.
"It's all connected!"
"What is?" asked Ginny.
"Everything! Ron's been behind nearly everything that's happened this year. Well, I mean, probably not the stuff involving crazy killer house elves, but who knows, maybe that too in some roundabout way." Harry turned towards Jim.
"Someone plays a prank on you involving that Leprechaun crown and leads you to think it was me, right?" Jim nodded. "So you try to plant dungbombs in the Slytherin dorm. Did Ron help you with that?"
Jim's eyes widened. "Yeah, he got them for me from the Twins."
"But then, no one in Slytherin retaliated, so Ron must have played the hair-changing prank on you both and blamed it on us. That prank was the same one that the Twins tried to play on me last year. Ron could have easily gotten it from them. Then, you retaliate with the boggart prank. Did Ron help with that?"
"It was his idea," Jim said faintly, as the level of Tom Riddle's manipulations finally started to become clear.
"Naturally. Then the next thing to happen was the first petrification." Harry paused thoughtfully. "Only I don't understand why anyone would petrify a cat."
"McGonagall said that Mrs. Norris could detect me even if I was under the cloak," Jim said. "And I remember telling Ron that right after McGonagall told me!"
Harry nodded at that. "The cloak that was stolen that very night, right after a guardian animal that can see through it is petrified. And he leaves a note implicating me that causes you to attack me the next morning. And then, a week later, he plays a prank on the Weasley Twins and uses it as cover to steal their map."
"What map?" Jim asked in confusion. Harry waved off the question as unimportant, as he was thinking of other things.
"That weekend, he must have ordered the snakes not to speak to any Parselmouths in the school. That's what Ka the Cobra meant in the Lair the other day! Tom Riddle as Prince-Emeritus would outrank me since I'm not Prince yet, but the Hydra was divided on whether to recognize a spiritual remnant of Tom who was possessing a child who wasn't even a Slytherin!"
"So after that point," Harry said aloud, "Ron and Tom Riddle have the cloak and the map and with them the ability to travel almost unimpeded through the school."
"But they searched the whole school for the cloak and didn't find it," said Ginny.
Harry shrugged. "If Ron's really under the control of Tom Riddle, he would know where the Chamber of Secrets is located. He could have hidden the cloak there until the heat died down. He probably left them there until Winter Term started, at which point the petrifications start in earnest."
"But why go after Cormac?" asked Jim. "Just to make me look bad?"
Harry rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "A test run. He petrifies the cat, and no one revives it, but the Headmaster might just not want to spend an expensive potion on a cat. So later, he petrifies a student, and Cormac gets revived after a week. Then, he petrifies Colin ... and Colin stays petrified. But maybe that's just because he's Muggleborn from a poor family and the school won't pay the expense for the Mandrake potion. So then, Riddle petrifies Draco and Justin, both of whom are from extremely wealthy families that would pay anything to cure them. And yet, neither of them gets revived either, thus proving that there's literally no Mandrake potion to be had."
Ginny's eyes widened as she finally figured it out as well. "And once Riddle knows that there's no extra potions to be had, he goes after Professor Dumbledore."
Harry nodded. "Followed soon after by the rest of the staff, but only after he destroys the Mandrakes growing in Greenhouse #3 to delay revival even further. He takes out the whole faculty and the student leadership, plus he takes out most of my close friends and would have taken out me if I'd shown up at the meeting on time. Everyone would have assumed that you were responsible for the petrifications due to sibling rivalry."
"So what was his plan, beyond screwing with me all year?" Jim asked.
"Wheels within wheels," Harry said grimly. "Riddle has a multi-layered strategy with lots of possible goals to shoot for. And he adapts quickly to changing circumstances. But yeah, it's obvious that two of his major goals are wrecking your reputation and taking Dumbledore off the board for months ... or longer. I talked to James earlier. He has ward specialists trying to figure out how to evacuate the school safely, but he was worried that if a sufficiently large number of students panic and flee the school all at once, it might cause Hogwarts itself to trigger the school closure process. And if Dumbledore or any of the other petrification victims are still here when that happens, they could remain petrified for years just because no one will be able to get to them and wake them up!"
The other students were horrified. "We've got to do something!" Ginny said.
"Like what? We're stuck in a toilet, remember?" Harry replied in irritation.
Amy spoke up. "Yeah, Moaning Myrtle's toilet. And when you talked to her, you're sure she didn't say anything other than 'big yellow eyes'?"
Harry shrugged. "That's what Hermione and Padma said. They were the ones who interviewed her."
"Oh, well, that's your problem!" Amy said. "You sent a Gryffindor and a Ravenclaw to do your work for you!"
"Oi!" said Jim angrily, but Amy ignored him as she walked over to one of the stalls and knocked on it gently.
"Myrtle, honey? Could you come out for a minute? We'd like to talk to you."
After a few seconds, the ghost of a mousy Third Year Ravenclaw with pigtails and horn-rim glasses floated through the stall door. She looked angrily at Jim and Harry.
"Boys aren't supposed to be in here!" she shrieked.
"It's alright, Myrtle," Amy said soothingly. "We just would like to ask you some questions ... about how you ... died, if that's okay."
"I know," the ghost replied peevishly. "I heard you all shouting about it. Well, I've already told the other two. I was in the bathroom when I heard some hissing and then a funny grinding noise. Then, I walked out of the stall ... and died. That's all I remember."
"Well," said Ginny. "Can you tell us what you remember about Tom Riddle?"
She smiled warmly at the mention of Riddle's name. "Tom was wonderful. He was the kindest, smartest, and most handsome boy in the whole school."
"Not to mention most evil," Jim grumbled.
"You take that back!" Myrtle shouted. "Tom was my friend!"
"Tom was the one who killed you!" Jim shouted back.
"That's a LIE!"
"Myrtle, I'm sorry," said Harry as kindly as he could manage, "but it's true. Tom was the one behind the petrifications that led to your death."
"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" A silence lasting several seconds fell over the room in response to Myrtle's angry scream as everybody absorbed what she'd said. Then, suddenly, Harry face-palmed himself and groaned.
"It's like every five minutes, I'm reminded that I'm an idiot!" he exclaimed. "I knew Tom Riddle was behind a scheme to improve the status of Muggleborns by petrifying them and framing Pureblooded Slytherin bigots as being responsible. But it never occurred to me that all of the Muggleborns who got petrified were in on it! Did Hagrid know?"
She shook her head. "No. Hagrid was sweet, but we all knew he couldn't keep a secret."
"Myrtle, please," Harry said in his most earnest voice. "Lives are in danger. We need to know what happened to you?"
The ghost sighed despondently. "It was Nobby's idea. He suggested that the Halfbloods might get on our side if it looked like the Slytherins were actually endangering the Muggleborns instead of just treating us so horribly. Then, Tom suggested petrification. He couldn't tell us how he was doing it, but he could leave us petrified for a few weeks and then frame Abraxas Malfoy for being the Heir of Slytherin. And it was working! All the other Houses were treating us better and the Slytherins worse! Until ..." She stopped abruptly.
"Until you fell over after being petrified, hit your head, and died," Harry finished.
She shook her head sadly. "It was my own fault. I was supposed to meet Tom upstairs at nine o'clock to get petrified. But Olive Hornsby had made fun of me, and I wanted to fix my makeup. I didn't want to get petrified for months and look like I'd been crying the whole time, so I came in here first. But then, since I was already in here, I decided to use the facilities. While I was in the stall, I heard this funny grinding sound and then some loud hissing. I stepped out to see who it was and saw Tom ... and I fell."
Harry's eyes flashed with excitement. "Myrtle, this is very important. Did you ever hear Tom enter this room through the door before you heard the grinding and the hissing?" She shook her head no. "Thank you," he said.
"If you do find Tom somehow, tell him... tell him that it wasn't his fault. I made all the others promise never to reveal what we'd been doing. But he never came to see me after that day even though we had ... I mean, he ... changed so much after that. I just ..." With that, the ghostly girl burst into tears and then flew back into her toilet, disappearing with a splash.
Harry looked around the room as if searching for something.
"What?" asked Ginny. "You've thought of something."
"Maybe. The assumption was always that the Heir of Slytherin targeted Myrtle while she was here in the girls' lavatory. But it was actually just bad luck that they met up here. She said that she heard a grinding sound. And she also said that Tom just appeared here without coming in through the door. I think the actual physical entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might actually be somewhere here in this very room!"
"Salazar Slytherin put the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in a girls' bathroom?!" Amy asked incredulously.
Harry shrugged. "Maybe it wasn't a bathroom back then. There was an 800-year-gap between 1943 and the last time before that when the Chamber had been opened. And during that time, the whole country became obsessed with denigrating Slytherin's memory. Maybe they converted his office into a lavatory as some kind of insult without even realizing the entry way to the Chamber was here. Makes as much sense as anything else in this crazy school."
"Perfect!" exclaimed Jim. "So let's find the entrance, go down and get Ron, and deal with Riddle and the Basilisk for good."
Harry stared at Jim and fought down the impulse to bite his brother's head off for such a stupid suggestion. "That's ... one option," he said with strained diplomacy. "Another is we confirm that the entrance is here and then we unseal the door and persuade some Sixth Year prefects to go down there, since the odds of us taking down a dark wizard aided by an unstoppable petrifying relic of Salazar Slytherin are pretty slim."
"We can't wait! Ron needs our help!" Ginny said urgently
"He needs help from people who can actually help him, Ginny," Harry said reasonably before turning back to his brother. "Not jumped up Gryffindors with delusions of grandeur!"
"FINE! Just find the entrance and I'll go by myself if you're too much of a COWARD!"
Harry's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Coward?" he said in a quiet voice. "You're calling me a coward, Jim? Really? Tell me something, Little Brother. Just between the four of us – how old were you the first time you talked to a snake?"
Jim paled. "What?"
"I saw your reactions to that snake we accidentally conjured at the dueling club meeting. You were pretty surprised by the snake's appearance, yet strangely not surprised at all by the fact that you could talk to it. And your response in the aftermath was not to deny that you were a Parselmouth but to beg Ron not to turn on you over it. I think you've known for some time that you could talk to snakes but were afraid to let anyone know. So how old were you the first time?"
Jim bit his lip nervously. "I was six, okay? I was six years old and I talked to a snake out in our parents' garden. And then Mum told me what it meant to be a Parselmouth and how I shouldn't let anyone know because they'd ... they'd act pretty much like everyone in this school has this year."
"Yeah, because you concealed something about yourself that you found frightening so that when it finally came out, everyone else found it frightening too. Very brave of you!"
"Shut up! Are you going to help me or not?!"
Harry stepped right up to Jim's face. "I'll help you. I'll go down into the Chamber of Secrets with you and help you fight a basilisk and save Ron Weasley. But I want something in return. Something only you can give me."
Jim snorted. "Just like last year with Hagrid's dragon, huh? Well I don't happen to have an invisibility cloak to loan to you right now."
"I don't want your cloak, Jim. If I do this and we both survive, I want you to talk to the Daily Prophet, Teen Witch Weekly, the Wizarding Wireless and every other media outlet you can think of and tell them that you're a Parselmouth and there's nothing wrong with it! I want you to tell Wizarding Britain that you have a special ability but it doesn't make you evil or dark or anything like that. That you're still the Boy-Who-Lived. You're just also the Boy-Who-Talks-to-Snakes and that's fine. And above all, I want you to tell our bigoted narrow-minded father to accept us both for what we are and to stop being such a prat!"
By that point, Jim had gone so pale he looked nearly sick. "I ... I..."
"Spit it out, Little Brother."
"I ... can't," Jim said in a soft broken voice.
"Harry?" Ginny said nervously. Harry turned to her with a smile.
"It's quite alright, Ginny. Despite what I said, I have every intention of helping to save Ron." He turned back towards Jim with a look of contempt. "I just wanted to see for myself the full measure of Gryffindor courage." Then, he turned away again and sauntered towards the middle of the room, popping out his wand as he did.
"SCRUTIMINIUS SECRET PASSAGE!" he intoned. Nothing happened. He sighed and started rubbing his forehead with the tip of his wand. "No, of course not. It couldn't possibly have been that easy." He thought for a moment and then raised his wand again. "SCRUTIMINIUS SNAKE!" With that, the tip of his wand lit up, and he heard the distinctive hum of the Detection Charm. He let the wand lead him to a sink on the other side of the room, and after examining it for a few seconds, he noticed that there was an odd engraving on the tap – one that resembled a small snake.
"Yo! Heir of Slytherin! You're up!" Harry called in the direction of his brother. With an angry grimace, Jim walked over to the sink, examined the engraving, and then hissed the Parseltongue word for "Open," though only Harry could have known what he'd said. There was a grinding sound, and the sink slid away to reveal a hole in the floor.
"Well done, Little Brother," Harry said condescendingly. "Okay, Ginny and Amy, you'll stay here and wait for help while Jim and I..." Before he could get any farther, Ginny snorted loudly.
"That'll be the day," she said before jumping feet first down the hole before Harry could stop her.
"Ginny!" Jim exclaimed before jumping down the hole after her. Harry had to dash to grab Amy before she could follow suit, and he had to physically pick her up and drag her away from the entrance.
"Let me go!"
"No way! You've done enough Gryffindoring for one day, Miss Wilkes. Besides, I made a promise to keep you out of trouble, and I've been far too lax about that recently."
"What?! A promise to who?"
"To someone who cares about you a great deal," he said simply, yet that was enough to make Amy Wilkes stop struggling and look up at him in shock as she absorbed what he'd said. Then, she shook her head stubbornly.
"Whatever. Ginny is my friend and needs my help. And you can't stop me from going down there after her!"
"Fine," Harry said. "But can I at least say one more thing in an attempt to persuade you?"
"What?" she asked.
"DUROS." he said with a smile, holding his wand up as he did. Instantly, a thin but durable wall materialized between the two. It didn't quite reach to the ceiling, but it was high enough to separate Amy from that part of the room where the opening was located.
"DAMMIT HARRY!" she yelled furiously before kicking the wall and then yelling in pain.
"Careful, Wilkes. You'll break a toe or something." Harry had pulled himself up to the top of the wall to poke his head over it. "This wall is pretty sturdy if not quite as tall as I'd wanted. Now once I've gone down, deactivate the ward I put on the door. It's strong from the other side, but from inside where we are, it can be brought down with a simple Finite. Then, tell the prefects what's happened and find out if the aurors are on their way."
"I thought the aurors couldn't get in," Amy said in a sulking voice.
"Well, maybe they've had ... some ... luck," Harry said, his voice trailing off as he looked towards Myrtle's stall. Then, he cursed loudly. "Dammit. It's been five minutes. Guess it's time for me to reveal what an idiot I've been again! No wonder the Ashwinder doesn't like me."
"What?"
"Never mind! Okay, new plan. Contact my father and tell him everything we've learned about Myrtle and Tom Riddle. Ask him to see if that's enough new evidence to reopen the investigation into Myrtle's death. That should give them enough of a pretext to enter the castle, and then they can come help us."
"And what makes you think your father or anyone else will listen to me?" she asked.
Harry fixed her with the same look of serene confidence he'd given Draco at the Slytherin-Gryffindor Quidditch match. "You'll find a way to make it happen," he said. "I have complete confidence in you."
And Amy Wilkes's eyes widened slightly as she realized it was true. He believed that she could get it done. She nodded at him seriously, as if accepting an assignment from a trusted superior. Then, Harry dropped back down and turned back towards the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. He almost stepped off into the opening as Ginny and Jim had done, but then, he caught himself and stared at the opening for a few seconds before breaking out in a grin. He scooped up his robes in his free hand, crouched, and jumped up into the air. "PROTEGO ORBIS." The shield wrapped itself around Harry in mid-air, and he fell for just a second. Then, the orb stopped before lowering itself down the hole at a controlled but determined pace.
"Never let it be said," the Slytherin thought to himself, "that Harry Potter doesn't travel in style."
The next chapter will be posted sometime between May 2 and May 4, 2016. "The Chamber of Secrets."
AN 1: WHEW! I got this in under the wire if only just. I apologize to everyone whose been waiting and especially the kind people who messaged me to see if I was okay. I'm fine. It's just been a hideously stressful week. Let me put it to you this way: Since the last chapter was posted, I've written over 50,000 words, not counting this chapter. All time-pressured work-related stuff. Which, alas, meant that HP&TSE got pushed to the bottom of the barrel.
AN 2: I wanted to give a shout-out to the reviewer who said "why doesn't James just reopen the investigation into Myrtle Warren's death?" (because it was a solution that honestly hadn't occurred to me) but I forgot to write down who it was. Message me and all post your name next week so that all can praise your cleverness. :)