4

The Chamber of Secrets

Six Weeks Earlier…

Harry Potter woke suddenly in a cold sweat, with the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end, and his skin covered in goose bumps. He turned to his left, and in the dark he could just make out the small shape of Ginny Weasley, curled up next to him on the bed. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully for the first night in a long time; Harry had noticed her waking up in the middle of the night, usually after thrashing around fitfully in the throes of a nightmare. He hadn't spoken to her about her dreams, not yet. She would come to him about it when she was ready. Harry leaned over and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead, before scrabbling around for his glasses, and picking up his wand from underneath his pillow. He pulled on a pair of jeans and a shirt that lay strewn across their bedroom floor, amongst a pile of clothes that had been hastily removed earlier that night. Harry inched his way forward towards the bedroom door, trying to dismiss the nerves writhing in the pit of his stomach. When he had moved into the hall, he gazed out of the window that looked out onto the street below, and almost immediately spotted the cause of his fear. Someone was watching their house.

He was torn away from the window by the sounds of Ginny waking up from her slumber. "There's someone watching the house," he whispered to her, pointing out of the window, "over there." Ginny snapped into action, whipping on a layer of clothes and appearing at his side, wand drawn, hair tied back, ready for action. But Harry could tell straight away that what she really wanted was to avoid conflict.

"We don't have to confront them," she said quietly, a hint of pleading in her voice, "we can send a message to Kingsley, have an Auror come round and take them away."

"I'm not bothering the Aurors at this time of night for one man in a hood," Harry replied, "It's probably Ron's idea of a joke; throw on an old Death Eater costume and give us a bit of a fright." Harry was lying, knowing full well that Ron would never do anything of the sort, but trying to reassure his girlfriend all the same. He made his way down the stairs, trying to appear confident, with his wand drawn, and his stride steady. Throwing open the front door of their cottage, Harry waded out onto the lawn, and held his wand to the hooded figure across the street. "Hey you, over there, take down your hood!" He called out into the night, expecting the hooded figure to draw a wand. Instead, the figure raised its hands, palms open, and to Harry's surprise reached up to remove its hood. Harry wasn't sure what he expected, but it certainly wasn't the sight before him now. The dark hood dropped to reveal a golden mask, in the shape of a skull, covered with intricate carvings, and eyes that glowed an eerie blue. Harry only had seconds to react as a high voice rang out into the night, seemingly speaking inside everyone's minds; take him!

Harry had only a split second to react as more hooded figures appeared from the sky, sitting astride broomsticks, their wands drawn. He turned to the house, and threw a knockback jinx at Ginny, forcing her back inside the house, and then froze her in place with Petrificus Totalus, before wordlessly locking the door to their house. Ginny was safe, that was what mattered the most. Turning back to his assailants, Harry threw up a large shield charm as the wizards around him tried to pelt him with curses. Harry tried to fire back curses of his own, but it was all he could do to keep his shield charm intact. As the curses rained down, battering his weakening shield, a black fog rolled across the lawn, and swept over his shield charm, encasing him in a dome of smoky darkness, lit only by the curses that still fired into his shield charm. Harry could sense that the effectiveness of his shield was waning, and he tried to formulate a plan of action for the inevitable moment when it finally broke.

Suddenly, a sharp crack sounded to his left, and Harry barely had time to register the arrival of a large, bearded man in green robes as his shield charm finally gave way. The man lunged forward and grabbed Harry's arm as a knockback jinx forced his wand from his hand and sent it spinning away into the grass. Harry felt the familiar, nauseating squeeze of side-along apparation, as he spun away from his front lawn and into the unknown. This apparation seemed to take much longer than usual, as Harry was aware that he and his unknown companion were flying through some sort of portal, or space, where time slowed down, and it made it feel as though they were apparating forever. Harry could make out a bright rainbow of colours, and in between the colours, different scenes seemed to flash by, like a ghostly mirage. Harry could make out a curtain that seemed to be made entirely of stars, an island full of grey sand, another starry curtain, and finally a large castle that loomed over the edge of a cliff top. Finally, with a loud pop, Harry felt himself drop onto hard concrete, throwing his hands out to stop him from landing headfirst onto a cold stone floor. Instinctively, he turned to the man behind him, and threw his hands up protectively. No curse or jinx came his way, and Harry took a moment to look at his rescuer properly.

The man was very tall, but thin and wiry. He had a grey beard that tapered to a sharp point just below his chest, and his eyes seemed to be devoid of any colour. Harry made to thank the man, but a sudden fear overtook him. "Ginny!" he shouted, his voice shaking with fear, "I left Ginny behind, she's still in the house! We need to go back! We need…"

"Miss Weasley is fine, boy."

"You don't know that!" Harry shouted, "We just left her there! Take me back now!"

"Be quiet," the man said softly. Harry's jaws clamped shut, and he found that he could no longer make a sound. "Miss Weasley is safe. As I'm sure you noticed on the way here, we did not make a normal disapparation. We have, in fact, jumped forward through time." The words hit Harry like a ton of bricks, seeming like such an impossible load of nonsense, but at the same time, seeming perfectly true.

"You can't apparate through time." Harry said sourly, his voice finally returning to him.

"Very few wizards can apparate into the Time Between the Times," the man replied in a booming voice that seemed a complete mismatch with his wiry frame, "but I am one of the few who can. My name is Quintius Breckenridge, and I have brought you forward in time by six weeks because the Wizarding world must think that you are dead."

"They need to believe that I'm dead?"

"Yes. You are, I've come to believe, aware of the great prophecy that was told at the end of your final year?" Harry nodded, thinking back to when Professor Trelawney had walked out into the courtyard and in a haunting, possessed voice proclaimed to the entire school that a wicked sorceress would return and wreak havoc, or something along those lines. Harry dragged up the lines of the prophecy, buried deep within his memory.

The Tapestry of Chaos is almost woven,

And the Eve of Her Rising approaches.

Legends of old shall awaken,

And ancient furies shall be unleashed from the Vault.

The Twelve Knights re-born,

Shall sit again, around the table.

But the wrong one will lead them to battle,

And one shall fall victim to the Sorceress.

Misery will crush all hope,

Only the happiest thoughts can pave the way.

But good fortune cannot win this battle,

When grief becomes her power.

In the moment of reckoning,

Only the Worthiest of Twelve

Can wield the Ancient Blade,

And do battle with the Warrior in Black.

Only the Eleven can turn back the Loom,

And bring peace to the Kingdom.

For steel must pierce stone,

To repair King Arthur's Throne.

"The Prophecy states that one must fall victim to the sorceress. In causing you to disappear, I have fooled her servants into thinking that they have fulfilled one part of the prophecy ahead of schedule, and as such, I have safeguarded the rest of the Twelve Knights for the time being. I also believe that, with you gone, the Wizards United Liberation Front will grow in confidence, and as such, shall make many, many mistakes, leading to their eventual capture." Quintius Breckenridge seemed incredibly sure of himself, a little too sure of himself for Harry's liking.

"You seem to be incredibly prepared for a man who wasn't even there to hear the prophecy being made." Harry countered, making sure to leave a trace of venom in his tone.

"I have witnessed the Great Prophecy reach its conclusion before. As I'm sure at least one of you has already been told, the prophecy is continually repeated, it's history stretching back through the centuries. This time, I have decided to seek out the Twelve Knights myself, guide them if I can, and perhaps try to upset the prophecy entirely."

"So you think you have found the Twelve Knights?" Harry asked, still finding his whole scenario entirely bizarre. He still hadn't even worked out where he was. He could see a strange, oval-shaped window off to his left, and another one further along the wall. The room he had been left in was muggy, and seemed to have been sculpted into an underground cavern; it was a strange oblong shape, with curved walls and an uneven floor.

"Miss Weasley and Miss Delacour have already been identified as two of the twelve by their trip to the Council Chamber, hidden deep within the depths of Hogwarts; only a knight may enter. Given your relationship with Miss Weasley, and your defeat of Lord Voldemort, it would be a relatively safe assumption that you are the third knight. I believe I may have identified a fourth, and I also believe that the Tournament of Champions will reveal the remaining eight." Harry was about to answer, but something caught his eye as he glanced out of the window; there was a statue of a serpent's head. Harry padded over to look out of the window. He saw a great marble walkway, with vast pools of water on either side. The walkway was flanked on both sides by several of the serpent statues, and at the very foot of the building Harry was standing in lay a long skeleton, now missing its head, but the shape of the dead Basilisk was unmistakable. Harry was not looking out of a window; he was looking out of Salazar Slytherin's eye, he was standing, once again, in the Chamber of Secrets.

"How could you bring me back here?" Harry snapped, suddenly filled with a rage unlike any he had felt since Sirius had been murdered, "and how do you know about the Tournament?"

"Dear boy, I know everything that one could possibly know about Hogwarts," Quintius sneered gleefully, "I am the Headmaster." Harry was stunned into silence, processing the information that had just been bestowed upon him. "Now, unfortunately, you will be staying here for some time, but I shall try to make your stay more comfortable." Quintius waved a crooked arm around the small room and instantly it was transformed. The concrete beneath Harry's feet began to turn warm, and he realised he was now standing in a thick carpet. The walls of the room lost their greenish tinge, and became a blinding shade of white marble. A four poster bed sprang up from the floor, and a small fireplace appeared in the space between Slytherin's eyes.

"I don't want to stay here." Harry stated bluntly.

"I doubt that, without your wand, you have much of a choice in the matter." For the first time since arriving in the Chamber of Secrets, Harry remembered that his wand had been knocked from his hand during their escape, and he suddenly felt a desperate pang of fear and despair at just how complicated his situation had become. "'I shall return within a few days Mr. Potter, until then…" and without even finishing his sentence, the new Headmaster disappeared with a crack, leaving Harry to scream at the thin air where he had once stood. After pacing the small room for what was surely an hour, Harry flopped down onto the bed, hoping that he would wake in the morning to find it had all been a cruel nightmare, but even sleep would not come for the Boy Who Lived.

Author's Notes

Hi everyone!

I hope you've enjoyed chapter 4, especially being that we finally see what has happened to Harry. Of course, not everything is revealed in this one chapter, but I hope it keeps you intrigued! I admit that I was a little disappointed to see nobody answering the questions at the end of my last chapter, but I hope that you still enjoyed reading it nonetheless.

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet, but if you would like to ask me more about the story you can do so by going to my profile and clicking on the link to my new forum!

Thanks,

IronManRidingaNimbus.