Chapter 08
Preparations and meetings

Harry's POV

I fear for what will come in my future when it comes to going back to Privet Drive and facing my family again, knowing that the destruction of his living room is probably the last straw my uncle can take and decide not to think of it, mostly because Sirius is my real blood family and so, living with him, will activate real blood wards.
This makes me smile as that is the only reason Dumbledore constantly forces me back there and then I turn to the Phoenix that has settled itself on my lap after I woke from my Dreamless Sleep potion induced sleep and whisper: "Ready to help me, Fawkes?" And at the confirming thrill of the beautiful creature do I stand up.
Remus stands up with me, the werewolf obviously determined to show his support, but I grab his arm and say: "Time has gone to run over again. Go and help the Aurors take down Skeeter and keep an eye on Crouch." The man wants to object, but I whisper: "You can't come along, Remus. I'm the only one who can go in."
The man sighs, his fear for what I could go and face showing in the scars on his face and his closed eyes and then he says: "Come on, Snuffles, let's go find that little bug and keep her from ruining your cousin's future any further." My godfather, luckily enough, nods and walks off with the werewolf and the Aurors.
The doors to the Great Hall open and when I see them able to walk on, I know time has indeed been restored to turning normally again for two full days. I get out of my seat and walk over to the stand to address the students one last time. Everyone looks at me, but this time I see no one glancing up at my scar. And so I say with a smile:

"Listen everyone, the book's over and so we have a total of two days where we won't be stuck to only the Great Hall and the antechamber, but in two days at exactly 9.54, we will all and I mean all have to be back here in this room. Then the doors will again close and time will again freeze until we have ended the first book.
So let's all enjoy the time we have outside, use what we have to prepare for the Third Task and get ready for the next book." Everyone nods and as I leave the Great Hall, I feel Fawkes leave my shoulder. I look at him as the bird had softly pinched my shoulder with his talons before flying off and wonder what he's planning.
Following his direction of flight, I see him heading over to where the teachers are putting the Head Table back on its place and he flies over to Professor Snape, making me smile as I had always wanted to sell the Basilisk and its parts to Professor Snape, in exchange for information as to why he seems to hate me so much.

I then say: "Professor, I would like for you to come with me. I think you'll be happily surprised as to where I'm going, not to mention what we'll find there." The man looks at me calculatingly for a short while and then nods and moves away, making Professor Flitwick wince as he suddenly has a lot more weight to lift with his wand.
I shake my head at this with a small smile, but try not to let the man see this as Fawkes returns to my shoulder and I leave up for the second floor bathroom, where I know Moaning Myrtle haunts. I knock with the back of a single finger, if only to see if the annoying, voyeuristic ghost is currently present and then enter the room.

I see Snape looking at me with a look as if he wonders whether or not I've lost it and while this makes me know that Dumbledore has not shared the information I gave him with his teachers, do I say: "If there is one thing I know of Slytherins, Professor, it's that they hide things at locations you would never expect – or even think of."
The man nods, a glint in his eyes that tells me he respects me for my words and then I turn back to the snake engraved on one of the taps at the sink and luckily again, just like those two years ago when Ron and I were getting ready to go and save Ginny, the light in the bathroom makes it look as if the snake's moving.
I focus closely on its imagined movement, trying not to think of what actually happened to me down there last time and then hiss the word Open in Parsletongue, the hissing sounding only vague in my ears as the Snake reacts to its code language and the pipe reappears, the long, wide pipe that hides the Chamber of Secrets.

I take a deep breath of fresh air, knowing how little of it was actually down there as the air was quite polluted with the smell of rotten corpses and the shed snake skin and then, while trying to think only of the newly added dead body that I will find down there, do I look back down the same tunnel I looked down on 2 years ago.
I see a wand being aimed over my shoulder and look at it, as Snape's voice sounds and says: "Scourgify!" And I see most of the moss and other forms of dirt disappearing, making me wish I had thought of that two years ago. I pull my own wand and cast the same charm, before jumping down the now, much fresher pipe.
The same sharp turns, the same endless pipe and the same feeling as if I would be sliding down the pipe forever goes through me as I see exactly where Snape and my spell end and the dirt grows back, but this time I prepare myself and quickly roll onto my feet once I fall out of the pipe, closely followed by professor Snape.
The man casts several more Scourgify spells, getting rid of more moss, leaking water and skeletons and I cast the spell to freshen the air a little, not to mention clean the back of our robes as they still got dirty sliding down the last half of the pipe before using my wand to light up the road ahead and start to walk the next, endless tunnel.

For minutes we walk and most of the time I just look at my wand, trying to see if I can hear or feel Fawkes through the feather within it. The idea that Dumbledore's Phoenix has the same feathers as the one in my wand still astounds me. Then, as I twirl it, I feel a wave of magic that has the same warmth as when Fawkes sings and I smile,
Before turning the, to me, significant corner and facing the caved in tunnel, small incision within the fallen rocks that Ron made to help me through and a very small part of the 20 foot long shed Basilisk skin that lies under it all. Unfortunately is it the head that is visible and I suppress a heavy shudder as I see those empty gum holes.

Snape raises an elegant eyebrow and I decide to be polite as the man seems to be completely in the dark as to what happened two years ago and answer: "We took Lockheart here when we went to save Ginny. He tried to use Ron's wand to wipe our memories, like he did with those that really did what he says he did.
But Ron's wand was broken – it actually had been since the start of the year – and so the spell backfired and hit him, but he hit the cave wall and it caused this cave in." The man nods and I aim for the incision, saying: "Ron made that, while I went on. I should still be able to get through, seeing I only grew a few inches."

But then Snape aims his wand at the incision and lets some of the rocks disappear, causing a greater hole and I shrug and say: "Or we do that." And for a second I believe to see a small flicker of amusement and remembrance shine in the man's eyes, as if he's heard my humor before, but as the flicker is only there for a second, I wave it off.
We climb up the small cliff to the now slightly larger hole and while I still have to hold onto the rocks of the cave in to make sure I don't slip, step onto any loose stones and crawl through the hole, is climbing through a lot easier. And when we reach the other part, Snape draws an audible gasp at seeing the amazing shed skin.
I shrug, trying to give myself confidence with the gesture and mutter: "And then think how long that monster really was." The man flicks his head my way and I say: "We can pick some of this up on the way back. I need some fangs." But then the wood of my wand, which I still held in my hand, warms up as if trying to tell me something.
I look at the item as we walk on around a few more corners, trying to understand what my wand is trying to tell me and as I twirl it again, I can only feel the heat and wood, but not the core within and that makes me understand in a second and while I try to formulate the plan I made before around this new development, do I say:

"And scales." The man looks at me and I decide to be a little lenient – as the books will probably reveal the rest – and say: "I might not be a Potions Expert, but I know Basilisk hide is impossible to penetrate, unless you do it from inside the Basilisk itself, like its mouth. So if I can get my own lengths and sizes, I can make a suit –."
But then I stop and turn to the man, walking only a step behind me and to the side and I say: "That's why Fawkes wanted you to come with me. Not because he knew what I would willingly do with the Basilisk parts, but because he – he, not I – wanted you to make me an armor of Basilisk scales that could protect me during the Third Task."
The man nods, his eyes slightly doubtful when I mentioned what Fawkes wanted and asks: "And all other ingredients will be mine to take and use as I please?" I nod and say: "All, except two or three Basilisk fangs. I'll need those to take down Voldemort." The man shudders at the name, but nods and we walk on.

I see Snape keeping an eye on the shed skin and shake my head, but silently, I perfectly understand how he feels and I say: "I know how it feels." The man turns to me and while cursing myself as I only want to lift a tip of the veil and not the entire truth, do I quickly say: "Aunt Petunia always made me work in her garden.
Don't ask me how, but in some way I was always able to change a pair of ordinary hyacinths in the most exotic plants and flowers and it got her the first place of Best Garden of the Neighborhood contest. So I understand perfectly how you feel seeing this shed skin. It's to you what those exotic plants were to me."
The man nods and I see a flicker of respect showing in his eyes that, like before, vanishes within a second, just when we reach the door the Chamber. I take a deep breath, remembering how many emotions I felt while in there and then look at the snakes, entwined with each other and their eyes still shining with the same emerald color as my own.
I see Snape looking at the eyes with something I can't place as it's not awe for the beauty of them or pride over the fact that they're snakes and then focus back on them myself, the eyes now reminding me of the punctured eyes of the Basilisk. I gulp and say the same word as before, the hissing quite clear to my ears.

The same action as all those years ago – when all I could think of was to save Ginny and – hopefully – make it out alive myself – happens; the snakes parting, the walls parting and sliding out of sight and the sight again causes me to get a dry throat, but this time because of what entering this chamber will mean for later today;
The fact I will be armored against Voldemort's curses and the monsters in the Maze and – most importantly – that my plan will come to fruition and might even be able to really kill Voldemort if I plan this right. I then realize a hitch in my plan and say: "You just go down, professor, I have tweak my plan for when I touch the Cup a little."
The man looks at me shortly, before he nods and walks into the dark and in my eyes slightly sinister room. I myself stay at the start of the pathway, walking across the width of the path and back, pacing and trying to find a way to get the Basilisk poison into Voldemort's Potion, so that it will be embedded into his body.
I then look at the Basilisk, lying dead, but shockingly enough looking no different from when I left it 2 years ago, making me suspect this room to have a preserving spell on it and then I think: "When I stabbed that monster through the mouth, the sword even went through the scales. So the inside is the weak point of those scales.

But that might have a mirror effect, meaning –." And then a brilliant idea hits my mind and I think: "Meaning the outside is even resistant to the poison of its owner." I look at the creature, which Snape is carefully and with quite a bit of amazement examining, walking around it from head to toe and I say: "Professor Snape!"
The man turns to me, no malice shown in his eyes as he is too amazed by the creature before him and I run over, saying: "I need to raise the number of fangs I want for myself." The man raises an eyebrow and I quickly say: "I just want two more, five in total and I would like to borrow two of your test tubes or vials."
The man seems to understand that I want to perform some kind of experiment and says: "As long as I get to keep the results of your experiment, Mr. Potter, you can have all the fangs you need." I nod and take the vials the man hands me, before pulling two fangs out of the mouth of the monster, being careful not to let another tooth puncture my flesh.

I then put a cork on one of the vials and push the fang into the top of the cork, like I sometimes saw zoo keepers do with snakes when Dudley had the Animal network on the tv, the poison leaving the fang and filling the entire vial, even slightly reaching in between the vial and cork before the dripping of the fluid stops.
I nod and then, with one eye, measure the length of the next vial and use my wand and a very careful cutting hex to bring a small incision in the midst of the vial, halfway up to the tip. I cork this vial as well and stab it with another tooth, but when the dripping reaches the incision I pull it back out and the dripping stops.
I then raise the second vial to the Potions teacher and say: "We'll split the poison. Half of it goes first in these vials and then will be embedded and the other half stays in the fangs and is yours." The man looks at me for a second and I decide to be honest with him as he is the only one who can help me get my plan to succeed and so I say:

"I can't depend on Pettigrew to stab my arm, even if everything goes like the book described Voldemort's plan to go, so I need the armor to transport the Basilisk poison into Voldemort's cauldron. So if we make sure the upper side of the Basilisk armor is the outside of my armor, we can embed that with the poison.
That will make sure that the poison won't touch me and will also make sure that whoever touches the armor, like with Pettigrew's knife or one of the monsters in the Maze, will be poisoned. The knife will then be covered in Basilisk poison, but the armor will prevent my arm – or whatever other part of my body he plans to stab – to be cut."

The man seems genuinely surprised and impressed and he says: "So that's what you're planning?" I nod, while dearly hoping this won't screw the plan up and say: "But I need another fang to stab Nagini with and with my own Parsletongue I can hiss the words destroy all of the soul, which will make all those soul parts be destroyed.
I will then summon the Cup, having made sure I won't be tied down in the first place and get back to the Tournament, untouched and with Voldemort dying of his own Snake's poison and mortality thanks to the soul containers destroyed." The man smirks and says: "Seems some people do speak the truth of you having a brain, Mr. Potter."

But while these words make me want to defend myself – or rather yet ask why he hates me so much – do his next words shock me senseless as he says: "Just like your mother." I shake my head, having never expected anyone – let alone this angry, Gryffindor-hating man – to know my mother and ask: "You – you knew my mother?"
The man sighs, making me wonder what could have happened as the sigh seems to hide a lot of heartfelt pain and while he grabs a shrunken bag, probably used to collect ingredients, he says: "We used to live in the same neighborhood. My mother was a witch, so I knew all about magic and the world we lived in.
I – I told her everything I knew and in return – she offered me friendship and a shelter for –." The man seems unable to go on, his knife stuck behind a small strip of Basilisk scales and I nod, images of what my Uncle did last summer flashing through my mind and making a shudder run down my spine as well as I say: "I understand, Professor."

The man looks at me – a small flicker of shock at hearing me address him like that – and I say: "I don't know what you've been told of my home life, but it's not the golden life of a famous hero. My re – I mean – the Dursleys are against anything abnormal and consider the fact they have wizards in the family the worst curse that ever befell them.
So having me there, constantly around them, constantly reminding them that Magic is real, agitates them to no end and all that's been happening over the last four summers – well, the book sure didn't exaggerate when it wrote how scared I am of going back." And again my uncle's mad gleaming eyes appear before my own.

I try not to wince, remembering all the pain that man caused me whenever he had that gleam and apparently succeed as Snape sighs and asks: "Ever been abused, Potter? Felt like you were worthless? That you only lived for your friends and your – never mind." But to this I nod and ask: "Ever wanted to kill yourself as a child, sir?"
The man turns to me so quickly he actually pushes his knife even deeper into the Basilisk and asks: "Say what, Potter?" I look down, hating how I actually revealed this to someone who was – only yesterday – my enemy and say: "I'm sure the first book will mention it. If not, I'll reveal this before I enter Hogwarts."

The man nods, his eyes boaring into my skull, but I keep my head down and away from him and finally he says: "I see you're done with your work, so why don't you wait at the entrance?" To this I shake my head and say: "I actually always felt it weird that this is all there is to such a mystical and ancient room.
I mean, I know Slytherin build it before he left Hogwarts but –." I then motion for the large mouth, still open, high above the ground and- while shooting a quick glance at the dead corpse – do I say: "The Basilisk came from there when Riddle summoned it. Maybe – I don't know – maybe the real Chamber is hidden up there."
The man looks at the mouth with a raised eyebrow and asks: "And how do you suppose you come up there, Potter?" I look around the chamber again, wishing to find something that I can kill the time with until the Third Task starts and then suddenly notice something I didn't even want to see last time I was down here.

One of the stone pillars engraved with small slithering snakes doesn't stand down as sturdy as the other pillars and isn't even attached to the ceiling. I look closer and then see that the snakes are standing out quite a bit, as if they're pasted on it instead of engraved into the stone and their pattern of slithering is – like a set of stairs.
I look at it with wide eyes, my expression one of pure disbelief and I mutter: "Slytherin must have either used an enlargement charm or he had really small feet." The man looks at me, now having released and laid down a strip of scales large and width enough to fit me almost twice and I aim for the pillar with my wand.
I cast a levitation charm, but the pillar won't move and I realize what Slytherin did. I shake my head with my eyes closed and an impressed smile on my face before I hiss: "Come, my sweet." And the snakes on the pillar slither a little before the pillar easily slides over the floor and stays still in front of the statue.

Snape looks shocked, his eyes showing his amazement at the magic that has been done down here and I push myself against the pillar and slowly, step by step, I walk up the pillar, every time again and again putting one of my feet firmly down on one of the snakes and making sure I stand secure before I set my next step.
For almost half an hour I climb the pillar, the turning around making me slightly dizzy and I quickly move my arm up, raising my head to check my watch, before I remember that this one's been broken since I dived into the Black Lake with it on. This makes me groan as I should have asked for a new one before coming down here.
I then ask: "Professor, what time is it?" The man holds silent for a few minutes and just when I'm starting to feel like an idiot for asking and starting to believe that he's back to mocking me, does he say: "A quarter to ten, Potter." I shake my head, knowing he purposely waited and then – after another half an hour – finally reach the open mouth.
I climb in carefully and then lean against the inside of the mouth slightly tired, trying not to think of how ridiculous this looks – me sitting inside a giant stone mouth of a man that lived over a thousand years ago and that actually build this entire chamber as an act of vengeance – but then a glimmer of something hits my eye.

I look out of the mouth, confused as to where the glimmer came from and see that the ceiling at the head of the statue is slightly bend down and that there is a small cave carved into the bend ceiling, in which lie a small letter and a golden locket with glittering green stones, carved into the gold in such a way they form a serpentine S.

I look at the cave with my head tilted and my eyes curious, but wary, when Snape shouts: "Potter, I have the armor you requested. You found anything yet?" I aim at the cave and say: "There's a locket there. It's lying in a small cave right there, together with a letter. You should be able to see the cave as well, professor."
The man walks and after I stop hearing his footsteps for over a minute, do I hear his voice as he says: "Yes, I do. Can you get it?" I look down at my own standing ground and say: "No, the pillar stands too far away from it. But maybe." And this time, without grabbing my wand, I reach out my hand and say: "Come here, my sweet."
And the letter and locket fly over. I catch them and say: "It was Parseltongue spelled. A simple summoning spell would have been useless. And seeing how fresh the parchment still looks – even if it is slightly ruffled at the edges, I'd say Riddle laid it there." The man nods and I quickly put both items into my pocket.

I then look at the pillar again and think: "No way would Slytherin climb all the way up and down that pillar. He was an ambitious and cunning man. He'd make it hard to get to his treasures, but not hard to escape." And then I see that, at the top of the pillar, there is a small circle carved into the stone and realize what I have to do.
I stand onto the pillar, trying not to feel as if I am hosting Slytherin's ghost or something, exactly in the midst of the circle and in Parsletongue, I hiss: "Down." The circle glows and a small platform rises out of the top of the pillar. I stay standing stone still to make sure I don't fall off and the platform lands down next to the pillar.
I step off, the platform raises back to its original place, before the pillar does the same and stands back on its old hiding place, looking like just another pillar holding up the ceiling. I shake my head, wondering how such a brilliant man could have such a murderous beast for an heir and then hand the two items to Snape.

The man takes the items, his eyes shining with awe as he looks at the locket, which makes me wonder as to what's so special before I remember that Riddle was the one putting it here, but then he opens the letter and curses badly enough I actually find myself starting to blush. The man then spats: "It's an ancient language. I can't read it."
I take the letter, but while the signs written on the paper confuse me, do I still somehow see words in them and I say: "It's not an ancient language, professor. It's Parseltongue." The man looks at me, his eyes not just showing how much he wished he could read it, but also demanding me to do it and I read out loud:

Dear successor,
If you can read this, you are a Parsletongue and most probably one of my powerful heirs.
You have found the Chamber of Secrets, but I am sure by now its creature lurking inside is of no more use to you.
I am Tom Marvolo Riddle, but by the time you read this I am sure I am by all of our world known under only one name; Lord Voldemort.
The locket you have found with this letter is very special and not just because it's the last heirloom left by our ancient ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. It contains a small part of my soul and is the original locket as I made a fake and put some more of my soul in that,
But this Horcrux will make sure that – if not my soul – my magic and its effects will stay alive forever. The soul part is small enough that you too can put some of your soul in it and with that you too can live forever, as that has been my goal since I killed Myrtle Alesandry and used her death to create a Horcrux out of my diary.
Now make me proud and reign terror and keep the noble hand of Salazar Slytherin above all those unworthy of you and your bloodline – M – here I stop and change the word – Muggleborns, halfbreeds and whoever thinks they can oppose you.
Your ancestor,

Lord Voldemort

I look shocked at the contents of the letter become known to me and I think: "In the story, Nagini slithered away once Voldemort and I started dueling. If I keep this locket on me, I can stab it when I want to destroy the Horcruxes – if that's what they're called – and get out of Voldemort's clutches even quicker."
This makes me smirk and I quickly explain my plan to Snape, as he keeps measuring me, my arms, torso and legs, height and width and the man nods and hands me the Locket, his eyes showing his actual reluctance in doing this. I quickly put it in my pocket, not wanting to wear it now that I know what it contains.

I then look up, hating how this thing with Riddle stopped me from my actual goal and mutter: "Guess I'll have to check what's up there another time." And Snape mutters: "Then you better change the passageway entrance password, Potter, because you might just lose your Parsletongue ability once the – Voldemort is gone."
I nod and mutter: "Guess the Marauders won't mind hiding such an ancient location." The man looks at me confused, but I refuse to say a thing before we reach the start of the tunnel and we walk out of the chamber, mostly because I feel that I already revealed enough information and because the Chamber is freaking me out.

Once we reach the shed skin, Snape quickly moves and rips about one fifth of the skin, rolling it up and putting it in the bag he for some reason refuses to shrink back. He sees me looking and says: "Basilisk ingredients lose their magical quality if you magically mess with them, like shrinking them or their container."
I nod, quickly storing this up inside my mind like I do with all the studying I do secretly and then we reach the entrance and the gigantic pipe leading us here. Snape sighs, but I only smile at Fawkes who decided to stay waiting here as he flew off my shoulder once we started walking and ask: "Care to give us a lift, Fawkes?"
The bird chirps, his melodious voice lifting my spirits and given me new hope for my plan to succeed as he flies up, floating in front of me and I reach out with my hand for the professor. Snape takes my hand, I grab Fawkes' tail with my other hand and the same, amazing feeling as last time takes over me as I fly up the pipe.
Snape gasps as he realizes what's happening and I see him almost letting go of his bag, but at the last moment he grabs onto it with the tip of his middle finger, before pulling it back into his hand and I can't help but wonder if he has ever played Seeker, seeing his reflexes, but then realize you need the same reflexes for delicate potions.

Then we leave the pipe and before the pipe can close itself off again, do I quickly grab my wand out of my inner robe pocket and while tapping the returning sink, do I hiss: "Change password and language." The snake engraved on the faucet starts slithering, its eyes glinting for a second and I quickly whisper: "Marauders treasure pranks."
I smile as the snake seems to let out a soft hiss, which – together with the eye lighting up for another quick second, I take as acceptance of the new password and then nod at Snape, who nods back and then – with some obvious reluctance – says: "You would have done well in my House, Potter. Better than I first thought."
I then, mostly because the man laid out his secret past to me, decide to lie out some of my secrets and say: "That's what the Sorting hat said as well, professor. He said I would do well in Slytherin, but I had heard nothing but bad about the House and was a gullible 1st year, so I wanted nothing to do with the House at the time."
The man looks shocked, but then he nods, his eyes showing that he understands and we both walk out of the Girls' bathroom over to the Entrance Hall, where Snape promises me to have the poison embedded armor ready by lunch. I thank the man and reenter the Great Hall. Wondering how the Weasley Family meeting is doing.