Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor would I ever claim to.
Time After Time
Annie falls down the rabbit hole...
December
Annie held on tightly securing herself on her broom as she competed for the snitch with Harry in a nosedive. The wind pushed back Harry's already windswept hair making it even messier than before, and whipped Annie's ponytail so much it hit her in the face repeatedly. Her cheeks were stained a rosy pink from the sharp wind and there was this fleeting yet determined and focused look on her face, Harry didn't realize it now and he wouldn't for many years, but someday he would look back on this moment as the moment his feelings really changed...How they changed we would later find out. The turbulence had threatened to lift both off of their brooms many times but both clung on in hopes of winning. It was unexplainable, the rush of emotions and the natural high that flying gave the both of them. Annie, for as long as Harry could remember, was his only real competition when it came to quidditch. She was usually the only person who had a chance at beating him fair and square. The ground came nearer and nearer, Harry took his focus off the ground and looked at Annie, she had a slight spark of madness and intensity in her eyes that would've intimidated anyone that didn't know her. She wasn't pulling out of the dive so why should he? The seekers continued to plummet toward the earth, putting their own lives in jeopardy, hearing cries of worried spectators and faculty above them, but that didn't stop them, it seemed to encourage them to go faster and harder to seek the snitch. As they came inches away from the ground Annie started to feel her feet fly out from under her, and Harry noticed.
"Annie, pull out!" Harry yelled out.
"No, you pull out." Annie called back quite stubbornly.
The snitch had other ideas in mind then being caught and touched the ground before darting straight up into the sky and out of sight. Annie seemed to notice this a split second faster than Harry. But unfortunately her already unsecure position on her broom was made worse when she went from diving directly downward to bulleting up. Her feet flew completely over her head leaving the Ravenclaw seeker dangling from her broom, hanging on by one arm. She saw blazes of red and blue fly by her in a flash, and saw an unmistakable mane of red hair in that had to be Lily, which also meant her father and James were there... Taking a deep breath she swung her leg up once, but not with enough power and the broom lowered slightly. She felt thousands of eyes boring into the back of her head and hushed tones coming from the stands. She swung her leg one more time and felt her leg hit the broom stick, pulling her along with it in one sweeping motion and she was back on top of the broom. She glanced around, blocking out all surrounding noise and looked for one person, one person specifically. Harry Potter was up above her at least three hundred feet, sure at this point he had the advantage, but letting him win, well that wasn't something she was willing to let him do. Letting out a slight squeal she flew straight up at a ninety degree angle and began to tail Harry. He weaved in and out as to make it harder for Annie to catch up with him. The thing she noticed was he wasn't chasing anything, he was leading her on. She decided to make it seem like she was falling for it and sped up catching up to Harry.
Annie could vaguely hear Lee Jordan's voice saying, "Ten points to Gryffindor."
"You just had to throw yourself off your broom." Harry chided as they made a lap high above the pitch.
"Excuse me, this comes from the guy who says 'Oh why don't I just get chased by a rogue bludger,' at your last game."
"Have you seen the snitch yet?" He yelled back, the wind was picking up and Harry was sure his hands were frozen to the broom.
"Isn't that why I'm supposed to be following you? Yeah I know you're just trying to fake me out." She replied with a smirk and abruptly stopped in front of Harry, causing him to ram into her, throwing his speed. "But in about three seconds, I'm going to fly over there and catch that pretty gold glimmer in the sky." Harry had seen the exact same thing when they stopped but wondered if she had picked up on it. They both flew off at exactly the same time clinging close to their brooms gaining any extra speed they could and fetched the snitch at...exactly the same time. Gryffindor beat Ravenclaw one hundred-ten to ninety.
Harry was engulfed in a sea of red hair as his mother squeezed him in a death-clench sort of hug. His ribs felt as though they were about to crack and he tried to speak but all that came out was air.
"Lils, air honey, air." James said to save his son from a young death, but Lily wouldn't listen.
"You two could've been killed do you realize that? You almost crashed into the ground, and then Annie almost falling off your broom at two hundred feet. Was that really necessary?" Lily kept her voice down but you could tell by the look in her emerald green eyes that she was upset. After profusely apologizing to Lily for their "careless and hasty" broom riding, they bid goodbye to their parents and separated into different locker rooms so they could change out of their snow covered, wet uniforms that were hopefully not frozen to them. This was quite honestly Harry's most hated time of year and Annie's favorite, he hated the cold and snow, while she hated the hot summer months. Harry took comfort in the Gryffindor common room that evening while Annie cozied up to the fireplace in the Ravenclaw common room and read A Study of Recent Developments of Wizardry.
Lady Ravenclaw's common room was located in Ravenclaw Tower on the west side of Hogwarts. The circular room was guarded by a door that asked the person wishing to enter a question before allowing them entrance. The room was a complete circle with cathedral height ceilings that seemed to go one forever. The walls were covered in a light blue with cream pattern and crisp white floor boards in contrast to the dark paneled wood floor. There were white twill covered arm chairs with pillows and ottomans that matched the blue wall coverings. The chairs also had the softest blue blankets imaginable draped over the back of them. The chairs faced toward a magnificent fireplace that was surrounded by floor to ceiling bookcases, that had an attached ladder to reach the highest book. The grand staircase spiraled in one corner of the room up to the girls and boys dormitories which were decorated in similar Ravenclaw blue hues. While the Gryffindor common room had this instant feeling of comfort and warmth and love as soon as you walked into it, the Ravenclaw common room was more formal and intellectual. It wasn't the formality that really bugged Annie, it was the coldness of her house, but the hat put her there for a reason, she just could't see what it was.
Christmas holidays were fatly approaching and there was a buzz in the air that only the prospects of no school for two or so weeks could bring. But as the year went on and weeks passed, more and more students began to suspect Harry as the cause of the many petrified students. But Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annie had a hunch of who was really behind the attacks, and as the polyjuice potion brewed, the more they thought their guess was correct. Annie noticed that Ginny didn't look much like herself lately, and every time she went to see if her redheaded friend was alright, Ginny would turn the corner and walk away.
Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Annie had devised a plan as to how the three Gryffindors would stay at Hogwarts in order to be able to use the polyjuice without being suspected of mischief by their parents... mainly by Sirius, James, and Lily, who could detect trouble as if they could smell it. Of course, James and Sirius would typically approve of most rule bending that their children partook in, but something told Harry and Annie that they wouldn't quite approve of solving the deadly mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. The plan was for Annie to return home by herself on the train home for Christmas and meet James, Lily, Sirius, and Mrs. Weasley at Kings Cross, who would all expect Harry and Ron to be with her,then she would make up some excuse as to why they were staying at school and how there was no time to write a letter to tell them...
Annie hauled her trunk through the aisle of the Hogwarts Express looking in each compartment window for an empty or somewhat empty train compartment. She saw Ginny alone in a compartment and knocked softly on the frame of the door, startling the redhead.
"Hey Gin, do you mind if I join you." Annie spoke hopefully.
"No, go ahead," Ginny closed her book and looked up at Annie. Ginny looked tired and troubled, in all their years of knowing each other, Annie had never seen Ginny so pale and weak looking. Annie shoved her trunk into the overhead storage and sat across from her companion.
"Are you alright?" Annie tried to say as casually as possible. After a long pause, Ginny finally spoke what Annie knew was a lie...
"Yeah I'm fine."
Harry looked at the vile concoction of potion with discontent and downed it as quickly as possible, noticing Ron and Hermione had done the same thing... He couldn't quite describe the feeling of transforming into someone else other than it was like having bones too big for your skin, which was slowly and painfully stretching and contorting itself to fit the body that had become it. The three Gryffindors dropped their glasses of potion creating a powerful crash of breaking glass and ran to the bathroom stalls as if they were going to be sick. Once the urge to puke subsided, Harry and Ron both changed into Slytherin robes and waited a few moments for Hermione to step out of her stall. Except, Hermione had undergone a very different transformation than the boys did.
"Hermione...?" Ron called after moments of waiting...
They heard a brief sniffle, "You'll have to go without me... something's gone terribly wrong..." Hermione said from the stall.
"Are you sure..." Harry made to push open the door but stopped when Hermione spoke.
"Yes, go! You're wasting time!"
Annie stepped off the bright red train as it gave a puff of steam. She walked forward lugging her trunk and Lloyd in his cage along with her and spotted her father and her godparents, she took a deep breath and walked toward them. The three adults looked quite confused as the blue-eyed Ravenclaw walked alone in their direction. As she neared, her father held his arms out and she dropped all her belongings at her feet and ran toward him, giving him a hug that lifted her off her feet a bit.
"There's my Pup." Sirius said as he let his daughter go. Lily peered over heads of the crowed that were huddled on the platform seeing no signs of her son and eyed Annie suspiciously.
"Annie," She paused, "Where is Harry?" James noticed the suspicous look in his wife's fiery eyes and realized that his son was not with them...
Annie paled slightly, "Hermione asked Harry and Ron to stay back and study with her, they've got a rather large test coming up and it made her feel better to have someone to stay at Hogwarts with. He would've written you, but she didn't ask the boys until just today." She tucked a piece of her curly blackish-brown hair behind her ear and let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Lily seemed to accept the answer warily and they continued on down the platform to the outside world.
James looked over at his goddaughter who was slightly peaky looking, "Are you feeling alright sweetheart..." he had a bit of a soft spot for Sirius's daughter, often thinking of her as his own.
"Fine, just winded from the trip is all..."
"Mione...?" Ron called from outside the bathroom stall they had been at merely an hour ago...
"It's terrible... just wait til' you see..." Moaning Myrtle spoke somewhat maliciously. There are moments in your life, when you have to strongly fight the urge to laugh, and seeing Hermione Granger in cat form was one of them. Out of respect for their friend the boys took their friend to the hospital wing without a snicker, and told her of their experience in the Gryffindor common room. The heir of Slytherin wasn't Draco, so they were unfortunately back to square one.
"Anne Elyse!" Annie heard Sirius bellow her name from downstairs at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. She carefully marked her spot in her book and made her way down the winding stairs of the Ancient House of Black. He had used her full name, which quite frankly was never a good sign when it came to parents. She swore that parents gave their kids middle names to give them enough reaction time when they knew they were in trouble. She made her way into the kitchen and spotted her Uncle James and her dad at the kitchen table, only one lamp lit above their heads, interrogation style...She sat down cautiously at the table...
"How may I help you?" Annie said, knowing speaking first would at least put the ball in her court.
"What is Harry really doing?" James spoke bluntly looking her square in the eye.
Annie met his blunt look and said respectively,"Exactly what I said he was doing, studying with Ron and Hermione." As she said it again it sounded so utterly like a lie...technically they were brewing polyjuice potion, so there was some education to it.
"Are you sure...?" Sirius asked giving her leeway time to change her mind. "Because we wouldn't be mad at all really..."
"Well if you really want to know, they figured out that Professor Dumbledore wears monkey printed underpants and wanted to sneak into his living quarters in the middle of the night, confiscate the monkey pants and hang them from the astronomy tower..."
James and Sirius looked proud at this thought..."Really?"
"Of course not!" Annie spoke back. "Trust Harry, and the fact that whatever he's doing is a good thing, even if you don't approve of the dangerous rule breaking, it will always be for a good reason. Goodnight, I am going to bed, and do you really think if that was truly the case that I would miss out on it? As if you didn't know me at all..." With a flourish of her dressing robe she walked off to bed and left her father and godfather confuddled and a little proud, at least they had raised their kids with a sense of loyalty.
"Malfoy isn't the heir is he?" Annie said as she reached Hermione's hospital bed which Ron and Harry were also at. They wore looks of dissapointment on their faces... "Sorry..."
"How were my parents...?" Harry added hoping for a good answer.
"Yeah about that... they totally know you're up to something." Annie put it casually.
"That's good," Harry sat down in the chair next to Hermione's bed. Then Harry saw something strange at the window of the hospital wing, spiders... Annie caught his eye and noticed the same thing.
"What are you two looking at? AHHHH!" Ron jumped up from where he was sitting, Hermione rolled her eyes and said,"They're just spiders Ronald." It all sort of came together in her head and in Annie's...
"Annie what are you doing tomorrow?" Hermione tried to put as nonchalantly as possible.
"Nothing why?"
"We're going to the library." It was more of a statement then a question.
That evening Annie walked through the corridors of Hogwarts on her way to Professor Dumbledore's office, she had a "lesson" so to speak this evening and was already a minute or so late. The halls seemed crowded with students in a frenzy who like herself had just gotten back from break. There was always a constant hustle and bustle at Hogwarts that she had grown accustomed to over the past months. Her lessons with Dumbledore were successful, as she could now conjure and control items with her hands and eyes which were previously spasmodic at best.
After hours and hours of practice, Annie could mentally move and swap the headmasters paintings in Dumbledore's office, needless to say the portraits were not happy with the constant commotion as they were wanting to sleep. Albus sat behind his mahogany desk watching with his hands clasped together and a familiar twinkle in his eyes.
"Very good Miss Black, very good indeed." He said in his raspy grandfather like voice. Annie had never had a grandfather, but she imagined that was what one sounded like, raspy, old, and warm. She looked around his office, his curtains were in three different places, the portraits were on opposite ends of the room from where they originally were, and the books were no longer in alphabetical order as they previously were, she had somewhat ruined his office, but to him it was very good indeed.
"Thank you sir."
"I believe that will be all for this evening."
"Goodnight." Annie called from the door, but stopped with her hand on the doorknob. Professor Dumbledore seemed to notice this.
"Yes, Miss Black."
She turned around hesitantly, "It's just, do you really think a student is causing all of this Chamber of Secrets stuff to happen." she asked incredulously.
The headmaster paused, his gaze redirecting upward as if he was trying to figure out what to say, "No, I don't believe so."
"Well that was really all I was wondering, goodnight sir."
"Yes, goodnight Miss Black."
"We need a book," Hermione slammed down a stack of books three feet high on the long wooden library tables that Harry, Ron, and Annie were doing homework on.
"Is it just me or isn't that what she has in her hands," Ron muttered to Harry. "She's gone mental," he whispered. "Hermione have you gone mental?" Ron said in a mocked concerned voice.
"What I mean is, we need a book, that isn't available to us. We need one from the restricted section."
"Well that shouldn't be too hard should it, I mean with the cloak and all..." Annie and Hermione both looked at Harry with 'pretty please' faces.
Harry caught on, "No, no way am I doing that again. Madam Pince already has it out for me." The four students looked to Irma Pince. She wasn't exactly an attractive woman, her support hose had a fair amount of runs in them and her girdle stuck out of her skirt and she had a constant scowl on her face.
"Fine, I don't blame you I guess." Hermione took another look at Madam Pince, "I'll just have to find another book that'll do."
Spring (June) 1993
The long and painful winter brought the advent of a bittersweet spring. The frost on the trees had thawed bringing warm weather and the hopes of summer. On the average afternoon students lounged beneath trees, swam in the lake with the giant squid, and read in the archways of walls where the light hit perfectly. It would've been the perfect way to end the year except for the mass amounts of petrified students and fear lurking along every corridor. Hermione had been unfortunate enough to be one of the students attacked by the unknown attacker. Harry, Ron, and Annie sat with her every spare moment they could, choosing their friend over the enticing prospect of a warm spring's day. It wasn't until an evening in June, had Harry realized why Hermione had been petrified in the library.
Harry sat at his friend's bedside that night with a new realization. Hermione had a look of contentment, almost peace on her face, a smirk of knowledge, whereas the rest of the attacked students wore a face of shock and surprise. "Hermione knew that whatever attacked her was coming."
Annie and Ron looked up from their blank stares off into the distance and saw Harry's face, like a light bulb had suddenly just lit above his head.
Annie furrowed her brow, "What...?" She, too focused her attention on Hermione's face and Ron was soon to follow. Harry grabbed the mirror that Hermione had clasped in her hand in the library, the mirror that previously had no significance. He grabbed Annie's hand and drug her to one side of the room and pulled Ron to a corner near Hermione's head. He stood in the middle of both of them with the mirror angled a specific way. If he angled it correctly he could see Ron and if he shifted it the other way he could see Annie, even if they moved about the room he could still see them.
Annie moved cautiously across the room as something caught her eye, a piece of crumpled paper in Hermione's hand, she hadn't noticed it before. She carefully pulled it out of her hand and uncrumpled it.
"She got around using mirrors so she would know who was coming behind her." Harry spoke as both him and Ron crossed the room to join her. They saw the headline Basilisk before they heard the voice of Professor McGonagall. Annie stuffed the paper in her pocket hurriedly, Harry put the mirror back, and Ron fell into a chair.
"Back to your dormitories you three and don't leave." McGonagall spoke curtly but showed a great amount of care in her eyes.The three got up silently and walked out with a fast pace and gave each other looks of confusion as they passed the great clock outside the infirmary.
"What was that about?" Ron asked in a skeptical voice.
"Something to do with the Chamber probably." Annie said decisively, "Well I'm this way, but if you two find something out and leave me out of it god help me I will hex you until the end of time."
"I promise, first word of anything we'll let you know..." Harry spoke with true confidence.
"Of course getting to you, poses a slight problem." Ron scratched his head.
"Right..." Annie walked down a corridor that Ron and Harry assumed lead to the Ravenclaw dorms and walked down their own familiar halls to the Gryffindor common room, but on the way there they overheard something they were certain they weren't supposed to hear and saw something they should've never gazed upon.
Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever
Ron and Harry ducked around a corridor to hear what the group of teachers they saw convening were talking about.
"A student had been taken by the monster directly into the Chamber of Secrets." Professor McGonagall told the gob smacked group of professors. Flitwick let out a cry of distress, Professor Sprout nearly fainted, and Snape seemed to grip the side of his robe tightly in his hand and spoke, "Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall who seemed to get ghostly white. Harry could feel Ron choke up beside him. "The end of Hogwarts has come I'm afraid."
Lockhart came running down the hallway, with what seemed to be fake exasperation playing across his usually cheerful face. "Sorry, what have I missed." You didn't have to be a genius to see that almost all of the teachers hated Gilderoy, they possibly hated him even more than the students. They just gazed at him with a remarkable sense of hatred that Harry had only ever seen when his father talked about Voldemort, the Minister of Magic, and Bulgarian Quidditch. Snape stepped forward.
"Just the man, the very man. A girl has been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart. You shining moment has come at last, the moment to prove your glory."
"I uh, I well, uh..." Gilderoy sputtered.
"We shall leave her rescue to you then Gilderoy. Tonight will be a most excellent time to do it, with all of the students out of your way. Well off you go, a free reign at last." McGonagall spoke.
"Very, er well then. I'll just be in my er.. office, urhm... getting some things." Gilderoy hurried off as McGonagall shook her head and said, "Now that he's out from under our feet, Heads of Houses inform the students to pack their things. The rest of you patrol the corridors and please make sure no students have left their dormitories." Ron and Harry dashed back to the Gryffindor common room before they were noticed missing. George and Fred wore looks of grief on their faces as Harry and Ron sat next to them. Harry pulled Ron aside.
"I think it's an excellent time to get out my Dad's old cloak." Harry spoke as thankfulness spread across Ron's face. "We have to get to Annie and tell Lockhart what we know." The boys slipped the cloak and made sure it completely covered them and made their way down the corridor Annie set off on as they parted ways earlier in the day. They came across many a portraits that didn't seem to be and entrance to Ravenclaw tower until they came across an eagle encrusted door knocker. The did the only logical thing, which was to knock on the door and they heard a voice.
"Who was the one of the most infamous Goblin serial killers in Wizarding history?" The door seemed to ask in a cool tone.
"How are we supposed to know," Ron turned to Harry under the cloak.
"I don't know, what can you remember about Goblins in Binns' class?" Harry asked in an unhopeful tone.
"That's the class I typically count sheep in if you catch my drift." Ron stated.
"Fine, we'll just have to wait for someone to come out." As if someone answered a prayer, Flitwick walked out of Ravenclaw Common Room and Harry kicked out his foot to stop the door from closing completely.
"Thank you, you tiny tiny man..." Harry muttered under his breath.
Annie was sitting on a chair pretending to read a book as she actually read over the page Hermione must have ripped out of a book about the Basilisk.
Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the king of Serpents. This snake which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from it's deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk had a murderous stare,and all who are fixed with the beam of it's eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it. (HPChSc pg.290)
All of the facts began to come together in her mind, but was promptly interrupted by some invisible force pulling on her ankle which resulted in her falling off of her chair. She suddenly saw Ron and Harry's feet and knew what had happened.
"You pulled me, off a chair!?"
"Shhhhhhh!" The boys shushed her immediately and began to pull her toward the door.
"Wait how did you even get in here?" Annie looked at them skeptically.
"Er... Flitwick...might have let us in," Harry muttered under his breath. "By the way who is the most infamous Goblin serial killer of all time?"
"Yadley Platts born 1446 deceased 1557," Annie rambled off.
"Who remembers that? Sometimes you can be such a fre..."
Annie made her way to hit Ron but Harry pulled the two away, it was a miracle they hadn't been seen yet."Fine, I'm going I'm going." The three carefully made it out of Ravenclaw tower without being caught and began to walk down the corridor to Lockhart's office. They stopped for a moment and took the cloak off to read Hermione's ripped piece of paper.
"So I could hear the voices because all this time the attacker was a snake and Hermione's mirror, well she knew that if she looked the Basilisk in the eye she would die so she carried the mirror to look around corners..." Harry began.
"And Collin had his camera, and Nick was a ghost so he was already dead, and the Ravenclaw girl must've been warned by Mione." Annie finished.
"But what about Mrs. Norris? She obviously didn't have a camera or a mirror." Ron reasoned.
Harry and Annie looked at each other for a brief moment, "The bathroom," Harry blurted out.
"The water..." Annie raised an eyebrow.
"The tree, the pie... see I can do it too," Ron spoke sardonically not seeing the greater meaning.
"Mrs. Norris, saw the reflection of the Basilisk in the water, Ronald." Annie said irritably.
"But how did a Basilisk, a huge snake that is, get around and have no one ever notice or see it?"
"Don't you see!" The boys looked at Annie in a confused manner "Well if water was at almost every place a student was petrified, it'd have to be getting around through the pipes!"
The ran to Gilderoy's office and found the door locked shut. Why would the man who was supposed to be saving Ginny lock the door so no one could get in? They turned the door knob and still had no luck.
"Alohamora!" Harry busted open Gilderoy's door and there stood a very guilty looking Gilderoy Lockhart. He seemed to be packing his things and looked strangely intimidated by the trio standing at his doorway. Harry had on a look of menace, Annie raised an eyebrow and had one hand on her hip, and Ron wore a face of disgust.
"You bloody coward!" Annie blurted out angrily and Ron and Harry looked at her in surprise. "Sorry," she mumbled.
"Why aren't you in the Chamber saving my sister?" Ron asked.
"Urgent call, really most unfortunate about your sister really..." Lockhart tried to collect his things as quickly as possible. He took drawers and dumped them into his luggage haphazardly.
"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher! You can't just leave now!" Harry exclaimed.
"Not with all this Dark mumbo jumbo happening..." Annie tried to reason and Ron and Harry looked at her strangely. "Well what else am I supposed to call it...?"
"So all of the things you wrote about in your books, they were all lies?" Harry said.
"Well, not lies per say.. just bendings of the truth..."
"Well color me surprised," Annie spoke sarcastically. "And all this time I thought you were the real thing...I am just so hurt."
"Awfully sorry boys...and er girl..." Lockhart cowered away from a scowling Annie, "I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. I can't have you spreading my secrets all over London, now can I. My fans would go into outrage, there'd be a real uprising on my hands..."
Harry reached for his wand before Lockhart had even had a chance to blink, Harry bellowed, "Expelliarmus!" Gilderoy flew backward and fell onto the hard stone floor. His wand sailed through the air and Ron caught it and promptly broke it in two and then allowed Annie to step on it. Gilderoy cringed at the sound of his precious wand being broken into a million pieces.
"Guess I did learn something from Snape this year after all..." Harry grimaced a bit at the thought. He remained still with his wand pointed at the phony DADA teacher and walked toward him.
"What do you want from me?" Gilderoy squealed as Annie, Ron, and Harry swarmed around him making no way for him to escape. "I don't know where the entrance to the Chamber is..."
"Luckily... we think we do. And I also think we have a pretty good idea of what's inside it. Get up!" Harry ordered. They led Gilderoy out of his office and toward the girls bathroom that only one person, or should we say ghost, ever went in. Myrtle came out of her regular toilet as soon as Harry, Ron, Annie, and Lockhart walked in.
"Oh, it's you," Myrtle batted her ghostly eyelashes at Harry. When Annie saw this she rolled her eyes. "What do you want," Myrtle took a more hostile tone toward Annie.
"Actually, I want to know the story of how you died Myrtle..." Annie said. "Every detail, not an ounce left out..."
"I died right here, in this very stall. I'd hidden because a girl, horrid girl, named Olive had been taunting me endlessly about my glasses. I was crying and heard something funny," She paused, "A hissing noise that is, a boy was speaking. I told him to go away, to leave and find his own bathroom. Then I died."
"How?" Harry asked confused.
"There's the funny part, I don't really know how. Just a pair of big, strange, yellow eyes staring back at me is all I remember."
"Where did you see the eyes?" Annie asked.
"Somewhere over there..." Myrtle pointed to a series of sinks in front of her. The trio ran toward the sinks while Gilderoy stepped many feet back. Annie walked toward him, her wand pointing at him so he had no way to escape.
Harry and Ron searched the sink fervently until they came across a tap with a serpent engraved on it with an emerald eye. Harry ran his hand across it. "The tap that's never worked," they could hear Myrtle whisper from across the bathroom.
"Say something, in parstletongue," Ron said a little out of breath.
"Er...Open Up..." Harry spoke and Ron shook his head disappointedly.
"Still English..." Ron said. Harry looked up and saw Annie. She gave him a sad, yet hopeful smile and gave him a simple nod of the head that merely said to him, you can do this. Soon Annie and Ron heard a hissing noise emit from Harry and the sink made a clanging noise and all of the sinks parted ways and a large pipe came into view.
"I've got to go down there," Harry decided at once, leaving Ginny alone to die down in the Chamber just wasn't an option.
"Me too..." Ron said.
"Well you two don't seen to be needing me, I'll just leave it in your capable hands." Gilderoy whimpered as Annie stuck her wand hard into his back.
"No need to leave so soon, you can go first." Annie pushed him all the way to the pipe and glared at him until he finally slid his legs into the slime covered pipe. He halted, but Ron and Harry gave him a good shove and he slid into the darkness. Harry went next, he lowered himself to the ground over the pipe and quickly let go. A rush of adrenaline filled within him with each twist and turn of the pipe. It seemed to be endless until he fell with a thud onto the ground. He heard Ron thudding behind him and he also landed on the ground. Lockhart was brushing slime off of his dress robes and they heard Annie talk herself into going down the pipe.
"It's just a slide, like a slide, a big slimey straight drop slide, you can do it, and it's for Ginny, and you can't leave her to die, because that would be bad...okay..." The pipe was literally a straight down 90 degree angle until you hit the midway point, so you were essentially free falling most of the way down. The boys also heard her scream the entire way down. She came whizzing out of the pipe and landed flat on her back. She looked around and wiped the slime off her forehead.
"Where are we...?" She said more in awe than as a question.
"We've got to be miles under the school..." Harry said.
"Slytherin was insane wasn't he?" Ron said as he saw the space they were in.
"Remember, any sign of movement we close our eyes..." Harry said.
"Alright..." Annie and Ron said at the same time.
"Do you hear that?" Lockhart said and Harry, Annie, and Ron moved forward to explore it. Lockhart snuck up behind Ron and took his wand out of his hand and attempted to use it against them all and Annie felt it.
"Harry! Ron! Duck!" Annie shouted and pulled them down as a stream of light was about to hit them. Her own force field went up and the walls around them seemed to crumble as Lockhart's spell rebounded on himself.
"What are you?" Lockhart asked to Annie as the spell began to take effect...
"Complicated," Annie answered breathlessly.
"And who am I?" Lockhart asked again.
"Who you truly are? I have no idea, and I doubt even you did when you had your memory." Annie said as she sat down exhausted. It took a moment for Annie to realize, but she noticed that Harry seemed to be no where in sight. And now there was a wall of debris from the spell Lockhart casted.
"Harry?!" Ron called out on his and Annie's side of the wall.
"Ron, Annie!?" Harry shouted, "Are you alright?"
"We're fine! This worthless git isn't though, got hit by his own spell." Ron called."What now? It'll take ages to get through all of this!" The ceiling of the cave like dungeon was cracking and splitting every which way and unfortunately moving the wall of rocks (the ceiling's only support) might cause the entire ceiling and all of Hogwarts to cave in.
"Ow!" Harry heard from the other side of the rock wall.
"You alright?" He called.
"Yeah! Just tripped is all!" Annie said and sounded like she was miles away.
"Wait there," Harry called to Annie and Ron, "Just wait with Lockhart, I'll keep going and find Ginny, If I'm not back within and hour..." Harry's voice faltered a bit.
"I'll try and shift some of the rock, just enough for you and Ginny to get back through, the ceiling looks like it's going to cave in." Ron spoke bravely.
"See you in a while..." Harry set off along the giant serpent skin that was strewn across the floor of the Chamber. His feet splashed in the water on the floor and the rhythm of his breathing began to get faster and faster as he walked alone, deeper into the Chamber of Secrets
"Do you think he'll be okay?" Annie asked as she feebly got up and went to help Ron.
"I hope so..." Ron said.
"Yeah me too..." Annie looked down for a minute and heard Lockhart mumble something or other. She looked at him, "What was that?"
"Hope allows me to make my way through the passing night, for in the dark it is Hope that permits me to dream that I shall see your face again..."
"You know I think I could've liked him if he was just himself and not whatever he chose to be..." Annie thought aloud.
"Not me, still would've hated him." Ron said as they moved the rocks.
Harry walked down a corridor leading to a solid, stone wall where serpents intertwined and joined together to cover a circular door without a way of opening it. Harry spoke Parstletongue to open the wall, but had no need to imagine snakes for the serpents in front of him were eerily real with their glimmering eyes. "Open," Harry said in a whispered hiss that chilled his spine. The serpents separated and the hatch opened to reveal a damp room that Harry stepped inside. The room which he could only assume was the Chamber of Secrets was damp and poorly lit with water and green moss splashed across the stone floor. So many questions roamed through his mind; Where was the Basilisk? Where was Ginny? Would he be able to handle whatever was coming? Regardless he walked onward.
Ron and Annie gripped opposite ends of a large boulder that was roughly the size of three Hogwarts trunks packed with thousands of books and rocks. They were able to lift it about three inches from it's resting surface until they both dropped it in exhaustion. Annie sat on a pile of debris that fell in a heap on the floor and Ron joined her.
"It's impossible," Ron huffed.
"It's not impossible, it's just, not going to be easy." Annie replied. Ron sat and stared at the rubble on the floor and reflected on the day for a few moments and an idea hit him.
"Wait a minute," He looked at Annie, "You can move things by just looking at them can't you? I mean that's the reason you've been taking lessons with Dumbledore."
"Yes, but it's not that simple, I can move books, portraits, a cup of tea, I've never even thought of moving something that weighs that much. I mean if something went wrong, and that fell on us, it could kill us." Annie said.
"I guess you'll never know if you don't try..." Ron said and urged Annie up. She stood toward the center of the walled in space and shoved aside the rubble and created a flat space to get her footing in.
"You seriously want me to do this?" Annie asked nervously.
"It's for my sister, Annie, otherwise do you think I'd ask?"
"Just...give me a minute." She took a deep breath, and hummed under her breath so only she could hear... "Du na na na na na end of the world as we know it..."
"Are you ready?" Ron asked.
"Yeah... I think so."
Harry saw on the Chamber floor a small figure with flaming red hair draped across her face. He sprinted forward toward her, the water on the floor splashing beneath him. He knelt down to be level with her and felt her skin, which was colder than ice. He shook her hard and called her name but she didn't answer, only Tom did.
After many failed attempts, Annie focused yet again as hard as she could at the rock in front of her. She thought to herself that was the one thing she wanted in the world, was that rock to move from where it was to where she was. She kept saying over and over in her head "I want the rock, I want the rock..." as the mantra played effortlessly in her head the rock moved easily toward her, and then as she shifted her focus to the wall on the side of her, it moved there and stopped, dropping to the ground just as she wanted it to. She moved as much rock and debris as she could until the wall that divided the three of them from Harry was no longer there.
"She's alive," Tom said in a soft spoken voice, "But only barely."
"Tom what are you?" Harry spoke to a sixteen year old image of Tom Riddle.
"A memory, preserved only by a lonely girl in a silly diary." Tom spoke quietly. Harry didn't understand much of what was happening, but he knew that if the Basilisk was coming, they would die exactly where they were standing and not a soul would live to tell the tale. They had to leave.
Ron and Annie cleared the last few bits of rough, crumbled rock that was in the way and stepped back and looked at what they had achieved. The duo looked worse for wear, as Ron had dirt stains on his face and his robes were tattered and torn while Annie looked worn out and sickly and had a single little cut above her left eyebrow and a one drop of blood that had dripped down her left cheek. She was exhausted from the magic she had performed that day and wanted nothing more than to get into a nice warm bed and sleep.
"You did it..." Ron said weakly.
"No, we did..." She place her loose curls behind her ears. "How long has Harry been gone?"
"Has to have been more then an hour..." Ron said.
"I have to go after him..." Annie stated and began to walk toward the other side of where the wall once was.
"Annie! You can't do that, we don't know where he is, what's happened..."
"Ron, there's a reason people go on expeditions and adventures in groups of threes, one to go off and fight evil, one to save him when he's in trouble, and one to live to tell the tale. So either you can go, or I can go, but one of us is going!"
"You made that up didn't' you?" Ron said after some thought.
"Yes, yes I did..." Annie said mock-defeated. "But does it make any difference as long as Harry and Ginny come out alive?"
Harry sank to the ground next to Ginny and felt a strike of pain begin to spread through his body. He wrenched the long fang that was poisoning his body out of his arm and gritted his teeth as he felt ripping in his arm. All around him things began to turn hazy, but he heard the splashing of stomped on water and felt someone kneel beside him and saw it was Annie. If this was what dying was, it didn't feel terribly bad, Harry thought. All of his pain had gone away... Then he saw Fawkes beside him, crying milky tears into his wounds.
"Phoenix tears have healing powers," Annie muttered to herself as Riddle looked utterly confused for a moment, and then remembered it himself.
"All the better, now I can finally kill Harry Potter at my own hands, just you and me," Riddle spoke and then looked at Annie,"But then there is you, but of course you can be taken care of..." But he spoke to late, Harry picked the Basilisk fang that lie on the cold wet floor and drove it through the very heart of the book and deep red blood began to seep from the pages as Riddle, or the memory of young Voldemort screamed in pain and slowly disappeared.
"You did brilliantly Fawkes..." Harry petted the top of the Phoenix's head. Soon he was almost hugged to death and suffocated in a sea of black curly hair. He choked out, "Annie... air..."
"Are you alright?" Annie looked at his arm and a cut on his face. Harry explained his entire ordeal...
"So that leaves us with Tom Riddle is actually Tom Marvolo Riddle who is actually Lord Voldemort..."
"Nice." Annie said.
A faint moan came from beneath them and Ginny began to sit up.
"Harry? Annie?" And she began to cry herself a river of tears, talking nonsense through her sobs. She was terrified and mortified that Riddle was going to come back. Annie placed a consoling hand on her back.
"Riddle's gone Ginny and the Basilisk. See, right there. He's gone, it's all over. Merely a memory now, I promise." Harry spoke kindly. Harry and Annie helped Ginny to her feet and each put one of her arms around their shoulders to help her walk and the slowly made their way out of the dimly lit Chamber of Secrets. They each limped their way away from the darkness of the day.
"What's my mum going to say?" Ginny asked worriedly.
"Trust me, it won't be anything compared to what my mum has to say..." Harry spoke gravely.
"We're doomed..." Annie said in a mock-dramatic voice and their laughter echoed off the walls of the Chamber. "Laughter," Louis Untermeyer said, "Shall drown the raucous shout; and, thou these shelt'ring walls are thin, may they be strong to keep hate out, and hold love in." Love, something so pure and sweet drove all the pain away. They reached the clearing where the wall once was and Harry looked at it a little struck seeing that the entire wall was gone.
"You two did all of this?" He asked Annie and Ron.
Annie looked down at the ground and Ron said, "Well, Annie did most of it actually, with her..."
Annie looked back up, "I moved it with my super freak powers, that's all, no need to dwell really..." she wrote it off as nothing. Ginny looked at her utterly confused. "I'll tell you on the train, Gin."
Harry looked around the cave and saw Lockhart sprawled across the floor. "What happened to Lockhart?" Ron looked down with guilt on his face.
"Ron you didn't!" Annie said seeing the medium sized rock by his head.
"What? You would've done the same thing, he wouldn't shut up... he's only unconscious anyway."
Lockhart didn't wake up until they were soaring back through the pipe that led them to the Chamber in the first place and didn't remember a single thing about himself, but complained about a notch and a pain in his head. Fawkes safely led them back to the abandoned girls bathroom and as the group came through the opening of the pipe, they saw Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore waiting for them on the other side.
Ron, Harry, Annie, and Ginny went through the entire story with both McGonagall and Dumbledore. While Dumbledore was impressed, McGonagall was furious that they took such risks. In this timeline Harry was again able to save Dobby from the clutch of Lucius Malfoy and get him a job at Hogwarts. Lily and James didn't come down too hard on Harry as far as punishment went, which he was extremely thankful for and only Ginny and Annie were kept in the hospital wing, both for exhaustion. Everything turned out well enough, but things were about to get far worse. Terrible things were about to happen, and no one saw it coming.
James and Lily Potter walked quickly into the hospital of Hogwarts school and found their son sitting next to their goddaughter who sat up awake in bed laughing about something or other. She had always been a happy baby and child, so it seemed a shame to ruin a piece of her childhood right then and there. They walked up to her bed and asked Harry if they could speak to her alone. They sat at her bedside, Lily on one side, James on the other. Annie could tell something was wrong, for there was a certain sadness in each of their eyes.
So, she asked the only question that made sense, "Where's my dad?"
There was a pregnant pause in the air, as no one seemed to answer the desired question. Lily looked at James with a bit of apprehension before she began.
"Annie, do you remember a man named Peter Pettigrew?" Lily asked softly.
"Yes, he was the one who gave away where you and Harry, and Uncle James were living." Annie answered since it was a well known fact she had been told ever since she could ask about the night Voldemort tried to kill Harry.
"Exactly," James took over, "He was our Secret Keeper, the only person that knew our actual hiding place. Many people thought the Secret Keeper was your dad, and he originally was for some time," He paused, "But we felt it was rather obivous for Padfoot to be our Secret Keeper, seeing as he was and is still our most trusted friend. He would've been a target for Voldemort, and we couldn't put that burden on him. But, Peter, well, it was more unexpected to put Peter as a Secret Keeper because everyone saw Peter as an outcast..." James drifted off.
"So Peter gave you away and...?" Annie asked, she was clearly missing something.
Lily explained, "And he dissappeared, many people thought that Sirius was the one that gave our secret to Voldemort because they all believed he was still our Secret Keeper. Without Peter's account of the story, many people believed Sirius to be a traitor." Annie looked at them both as though they still hadn't really answered her question.
Lily put a comforting hand on Annie's as James looked his goddaughter in the eye and told her the truth, "Your dad is in Azkaban. Peter Pettigrew reportedly came forth last night to the Minister of Magic himself and told him that Padfoot was the murderer and traitor, not him." James spoke bitterly.
"And people believed it? You believed it?" Annie asked incredulously.
Lily soothed Annie, "Of course we don't, but unfortunately, some people are ignorant enough to."
"So even though we know Pettigrew's lying, there's nothing anyone can do?" Annie said.
"They refuse to give him trial by veritiserum, they refuse to give him a trial at all." James said dissaprovingly of the Ministry. "It's not right, fair, or even legal for that matter but until someone can prove without a trial that he's innoccent, then there is nothing we can do."
"No one can question Pettigrew more?"
"Being the coward that he is," James began and Lily looked at him warning him to be careful of his word choice, "Let's just say that Peter isn't a very brave man, that said, he ran away right after he gave his version of the truth to Fudge."
After much silence Lily asked the only thing she thought to ask, "How are you taking this...?"
Annie said in a level and distant voice, "I was just told that my father, the only parent I have, was wrongly taken to a place where he's likely to be killed. I'm not exactly sure how I'm supposed to react to that."
Later that warm, almost summer's evening, Lily and James met with Dumbledore in his office.
"And where will Miss Black be staying this summer?" Dumbldore knew the answer to that one really...
"With us of course," Lily said immediately. "We're her godparents afterall."
"Then as her official legal guardians, you should know that Miss Black excelled academically this term and has the opportunity to advance a grade level if she would like to. I don't see this happen very often in students, all she would have to do is take a placement examination before the next school year begins."
"Yeah, we'll think about it."
James and Lily walked silently down the spiraling stairs that led to Dumbeldore's office. Lily stopped James by placing her hand on his chest in the corridor outside the gargoyle and looked at him skeptically.
"Did you see that coming?" Lily said in regards to Annie's academics.
"Yeah, but I was hoping she was expelled or sneaking off into the night to plan dangerous and potentially harmful pratical jokes on people. That I could handle, this, this is your area."
It a few weeks later brought the end of term, everyone was spending their last few days at Hogwarts either relaxing outside and by the lake or cramming for end of the year exams. Harry was on his way outside to meet Ron and Hermione when he spotted a familiar person.
"Hey Annie,"
"Hey..." Annie didn't seem herself lately for obvious reasons.
"Are you alright?"
"Harry, have you ever had the feeling that a thousand eyes are burrowing into the back of your head as you walk by?"
"Yes, actually almost everyday." Harry said.
"Well, I'm sorry, because quite honestly, it sucks." Annie said. "Listen I have to go to Professor Dumbledore's office for something, I'll see you later."
Annie had another lesson with Professor Dumbledore, but it seemed worthless. She was getting no where and was finding it increasingly hard to concentrate on what she was doing. She ended up dropping the sorting hat in mid-air directly on Dumbledore's head, which she had to admit was pretty funny, but not exactly what she intended to do. As another conjuring seemed to dissapate from her mind she huffed annoyed and burried her head in her hands.
Professor Dumbledore's voice seemed to cut through the chaos, "It is understandable to be frustrated and even distracted by the recent events that have taken place. If you have to cry, scream, throw things, no one will see you as weak." How was it that he knew exactly what she was thinking. That night in the Chamber she felt strong, but now she felt like a withering wall flower. But she wouldn't cry, she would not scream, or lash out because she wasn't weak...
Annie looked up at the Headmaster who was distracted by something else. Through his open window had flown a bumble bee, not an ugly hornet, or a painful wasp, but an innoccent and meak bumble bee.
"Most people don't know that aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly." He gathered an almost joyous and wise tone in his voice, "But the bumble bee doesn't know that, so it goes on flying anyway."
"Because it has hope..." Annie said warmly as she gazed out the open window.
"Exactly," Dumbldore paused, "Because it has hope."
Author's Note: The Basilisk info is from Chamber of Secrets, I don't own it, JKR wrote it not me. Dumbledore says one of my favorite quotes in this chapter and it is by Mary Kay Ash "Aerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway." The chapter title is a reference to going on an adventure and coming out a different person or with something affecting you so your not the same (like alice in alice in wonderland). This chapter had a ton of info and just stuff in it, so sorry if it's all a bit much. I'm slowly mapping out year three right now so it might be a little while until there's an actual update, but I'm going to put in some fun fillers until then (Ever wonder what Harry, Ron, and Annie put on their Gilderoy Lockhart tests?) If there are any questions or anything you want answered throughout year three, put it in the review and I will try to incorporate it into the story. Thanks and hope to see you at the next chapter.
Thanks to all who review, favorite, C2, and put this story on their alerts. It means alot to me.