Chapter Four: Damsel in distress. Or "Who wants a barbecue?
Gradually, days in Hogwarts were becoming a routine for Harry – every day there were lessons, both standard and extracurricular, eating, sleeping and a few moments to spend with his friends. Nevertheless friendship between him, Draco and Ron was becoming stronger with every passed hour.
September slowly but surely ceased, passing the reins of control to his colder and wetter brother October, who quickly showed everyone who's the boss by making the wind, which was already cool and strong, almost intolerably cold. It froze the ass of any fool which thought that it was still warm enough to wear summer robes.
But October too ended quickly – it gave its last burst in form of Halloween, like a dying male animal that spills its seed the last time in a desperate try to leave a mark on the world.
The teaching staff did extremely good work in decorating the Great Hall. Huge pumpkins, which were generously provided by Hagrid, were lit magically from inside by 'Cold Flame', and scowled evilly at the people who sat at the long tables. Thousands of thousands magical candles, that were lighting the Hall usually, were removed temporarily, thus, the atmosphere in the vast room was dark and gloomy, well, as much as it could be on such great day, - perfect for the Halloween.
The speech by Dumledore was short and simple – he wished good appetite to everyone and finished it with some nonsense again.
The house elves of Hogwarts literally put their souls into the food of the Feast, making sure that even the most grumpy git, e.g. Snape, would be satisfied with all edible things on the tables.
Harry was planning to enjoy the nice food and already brought his fork with a piece of roasted chicken pinned on it to his mouth, when their Defence professor rushed into the hall, panic written all over his face. He got the whole attention of the student body and Staff.
"Troll! Troll in the dungeons! Thought you should know." The man with idiotic turban on his head announced and fainted, falling on his face.
"Ouch! That must hurt like hell, mates. I wonder why this hit didn't return him back to consciousness." Ron commented, making all the Slytherin table burst in laugher.
Panic spreaded throughout the most of the students like fire in the forest, and, when some exceptionally creative and proactive members of the Hogwarts society tried to run to their dorms, the massive double doors shut and wouldn't open under any machinations.
Dumbledore pointed his wand upwards and a loud booming sound reverberated in the walls of the Great Hall and everyone's heads.
"Silence! I ask all the student to collect themselves. Prefects, escort your housemates to the dorms." he instructed, his voice magnified by the Sonorus Charm.
"But Slytherin one is in the dungeons!" Blaise shouted, his House and, Hufflepuffs upholding his statement. When the snakes looked strangely at puffs, their boy prefect answered for all of them.
"Our dorm is in the Dungeon too, thought in another part, but professor Quirrell haven't specified in which the troll is."
It was the kind of event that happened only once a century if not even less frequently.
Snape and Sprout were participating in the staring contest - theyobviously were not going to be best buddies any time soon.
"All the students must remain in the Great Hall then. Minerva, Severus – please come with me. The rest of the teaching staff – for as long as we deal with the troll you must make ensure that nothing happens to our students." Albus ordered.
It was absolutely unusual for the pupils to see their old jovial headmaster so deadly serious.
The trio of professors left, with Dumbledore at the front.
They searched for the troll throughout all the first three levels of dungeons but didn't find it. Fortunately, as much as it could be so, they caught the trail of smell which reminded the professors of some kind of mix between rotten eggs, shit and piss, rich with acetone – definitely the mountain troll.
They followed the trail, eventually approaching the doors of the women lavatory. The horrible stench turned into the sickeningly luscious smell of burnt flesh. They prepared themselves to face some terrible enemy already and swiftly entered the room, with wands at the ready.
What they saw there made their eyebrows collectively rise up in surprise: a half-burnt corpse of the troll was sprawled on the floor and no other than Hermione Granger stood by it with her wand at the side. Its tip still smoked a little so it was clearly obvious who cooked the monster.
She was smiling in a disturbing way and seemed to not notice the newcomers.
Albus, seeing Minerva and Severus simultaneously opening their mouths to excoriate the little girl, held up his right hand in a stopping gesture.
"Miss Granger, what happened here and why are you here and not on the feast?" Dumbledore questioned, pulling the girl out of her entranced state.
"Uh?" Hermione asked uncomprehendingly. She dumbly stared at the trio of professors for several seconds, finally returning into her senses. Her eyes opened wide in shock. "Professors? I didn't do anything wrong, I swear! My housemates, orchestrated by the twins, were teasing me again until I started to cry, so I ran away and hid there for the whole day. Then it appeared from nowhere and tried to smash me with its club. I know a few fire spells so I neutralized the troll with them."
McGonagall and Snape looked at each other for a second, apparently not believing such a poor-made tale.
Albus, on the other hand, knew that this girl was extremely talented and determined witch, capable to learn very advanced spells quickly because of her systematically working mind.
"My dear, the mountain troll is one of the most spell-resistant creatures in the world, only one kind of magic fire can burn their flesh effectively. So, my question is – how and where did you learn it?" the old wizard said.
Hermione got the first-hand experience of 'Un-grandfatherlized' Dumbledore. His blue eyes studied her coldly. She tried only once to look at them, but it freaked her out after a few seconds. She knew that she was in big trouble currently and the best way to minimize the damage was to spill the truth so she started to talk.
"I was always a pariah back in my muggle school, because I can consume the knowledge much faster than the others and was generally more erudite. But it wasn't the only reason. The second is my love of fire – I can watch it burn something for hours, it excites me, it warms me. When I once played with a muggle lighter, burning some wooden stick, my ex-classmate, Acacia Pearson, approached me and started to tease."
"Apparently I somehow set her skirt on fire with my accidental magic, fortunately for her, the members of staff quickly extinguished it, but I did earn my portion of infamy. This ensured my bond with this element. When I found out about the Library here, in Hogwarts, I immediately started searching for some powerful magic kind of flame. I eventually read the 'Purifying Warmth' by some anonymous wizard or witch, taking it from the Restricted Section. Why wasn't I caught? I studied the pattern in which our caretaker is patrolling the grounds during the week and sneaked there in the night."
She finished her explanation, looking down at her boots, in shame.
The professors stared at her, completely astonished by her story.
Of course the head of the Slytherin was the first to collect himself.
The man brought his heavy artillery.
"50 points from Gryffindor, for sneaking into the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library and taking the Dark Magic book from there. Albus I demand that this student is expelled from our school!"
"As much as it pains me to admit it, I must agree with you, Severus. We can not allow our students to study Dark Magic – especially first years!"
Hermione was looking like a little kitten that was abandoned on some street during the rain. Dumbledore just couldn't expel the poor girl – she was young and foolish, and couldn't understand the whole concept of Dark Magic. His exterior changed, becoming considerably more positive and friendly.
"While I agree with Minerva and Severus that the Dark Magic is dangerous, I don't think that you have to be punished, Ms Granger. And one hundred points to Gryffindor for your accomplishment of the exceptional feat – most of adult wizards can't harm the mountain troll, but you killed one, removing the possibility of it hurting not only you, but many other students too! Now go to the Great Hall – we will take care of the body." he said, smiling kindly, if a little bit weakly.
Hermione left the girl lavatory in instant, smiling brilliantly.
"Albus, sometimes I think that you are too crazy to be the headmaster. A hundred points for this! She should be expelled from the school, not encouraged to learn more Dark Magic by a reward." Severus retorted.
Minerva nodded in agreement.
"Ahh, you two are too harsh towards the young lady. However dark the fiendfyre is, she used it for doing a right thing and self-defence. Now let us dispose of the corpse. It stinks so horribly!" Dumbledore cut them both.
Harry, Draco and Ron were sitting in their common room on the soft large seats by the fireplace. They were having an interesting discussion.
"Have you heard it? That annoying muggleborn girl (What's her name? Ah yes), Granger, cooked a mountain troll with fiendfyre in the girl's toilets!" Draco said excitedly.
"You are such a rumour's bitch, blondie. Do you really believe such a piece of rubbish?" Ron replied
"My father sent me a letter with very specific instructions to be extremely careful with this girl. Apparently, he got the news from my godfather."
"And just who is your godfather, Draco?" Harry asked.
"Head of our House."
"Aha! That's why he is so nice with you, ponce!" Ron exclaimed.
"Yes, piece of anomaly."
Harry snorted at the epithets they called each other.
"Now you can't bully her, Ron, although you would be quite nice big piece of roasted weasel." He joked.
"True. Leave me alone I need some time to cry over this." Weasley replied, faking the saddest face he could, which in reality looked comically.
Harry's friends both left Hogwarts, going to their respective homes, for Christmas. Draco and Ron both invited him, but he declined, telling them that the holidays were the perfect opportunity to learn from Dumbledore and Snape almost non-stop.
He was taught by Alus for five hours a day, learning offensive and defensive spells alike and practising silent casting, and other three by Snape, becoming able to shrug off his mental attacks on Severus' half strength.
The boy received gifts from his friends – a dragon hide wand holster from Draco, a little animated replica of Norwegian Ridgeback from Ron and his father's invisibility cloak from his uncle.
"Cool! This will help me greatly in exploring the castle!" Harry thought.
He gifted a pair of warm red wool socks to Dumbledore and two copies of 'A thousand and one way to insult someone you dislike' book to Malfoy and Weasley.
When he once was reading 'Hogwarts a history', he found a mention of Slytherin creating some sort of secret hall underground before he left the school. He asked his uncle about it and was told a story about the death of one little girl in an abandoned girl's toilet, whose body was never found.
One day he put on his father's cloak and went there. The lavatory was a wet mess, inhabited by a ghost, who as she told him was called by everyone Moaning Myrtle.
"So you know my name, what's yours?" she asked.
"Harry Potter. I wanted to ask you about the day you died and the way it happened." Harry replied, hoping that he didn't offend her by his straightforwardness.
Fortunately, he didn't – the ghost of a girl became excited and started telling him everything she remembered.
"..Olive Hornby teased me all the day, so I went there and cried in one of the cabins. I don't know how long I had been crying, but suddenly I saw something that had a huge pair of yellow eyes. When I looked at them I died in an instant. Once it was the time to make a choice, I decided to stay in this world and make Olive's time in Hogwarts as close to hell as it's possible."
Myrtle was getting a pure pleasure out of revealing the secret of her unfortunate death.
"Oh. I see." Harry said, disturbed by the words of weird ghost. The boy started to look for something different.
Here it was - one of the water taps on the sinks resembled snake's head with tiny emerald eyes.
"Yeah. Maybe Salazar Slytherin was one of the greatest wizards ever living, but he truly suffered from complete lack of imagination and creativity.." Harry thought.
"Hi there, little one!" he said to the tap jocosely. He was shocked, realising that his words weren't English, but then he hardly suppressed a silly urge to start dancing in triumph. Still, he was literally bathing in his own awesomeness.
"I am a Parselmouth! Yay! Open"
All of the sinks went aside, opening a large hole, whose bottom he didn't see.
"Myrtle, please inform the headmaster that I went down to explore the Chamber of Secrets." Harry told the ghost and started levitating himself trough the passage.
The way was long and utterly boring. When the boy reached the bottom he was half-asleep.
Something crunched under his feet, immediately waking him up.
He cancelled the levitation
'Lumos'
The floor was carpeted with animal bones and a huge chunk of some serpent's skin laid closely.
"What a heck?" Harry exclaimed, his jaw on the floor.
"A basilisk here? I'm not moving any further until uncle comes here.."
He just thought that when Dumbledore emerged from the spectacular burst of flame, his familiar, Fawkes, on his right shoulder. He seemed to be worried, but breathed in relief once he saw his pupil.
"Harry, what are you doing here?"
"Hi, uncle. I discovered the Chamber of Secrets and was waiting for you, to find what it holds together."
"It was a wise move to call me before proceeding any further, Harry. Put on your cloak and follow me." old wizard said, casting Lumos, while Harry Nox'ed his.
They approached a huge double doors with two serpents engraved on them – their heads were facing each other and their bodies were coiled around. Dumbledore tried every opening spell he knew on it. When Albus reached his sixteenth one, Harry began to wonder how many his mentor knew.
"Uncle, that's enough. I know what I should do. Open" he hissed the last part in parseltongue.
Dumbledore was surprised.
"Harry, my boy, you are a parselmouth! Why did you never tell me?" he asked the boy, a little bit hurt that the boy didn't trust him completely.
"I found it out ten minutes ago, uncle, making the main entrance in girls' lavatory open."
"Oh well, we can talk about it later today. For now, let us proceed further."
Harry took off his cloak and followed his uncle.
They entered the huge hall. Two parallel rows of pillars stood, each near one of the side walls, large stone snakes with huge intimidating emerald eyes were coiling around them. In the far end of the hall stood a large stone impression of Salazar Slytherin himself, which looked a little bit like a monkey.
"Wow, he was quite a looker." Harry said quizzically.
"Indeed he was" the headmaster played along "Do you see that the lower part of his face is actually movable? I think his mouth opens if some condition is met."
"Being such a self-loving brat, he would just require me to say something stupid like: 'Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four!' " Harry said sarcastically.
When the mouth indeed opened, his face abruptly got rid of bored expression.
Something big hissed and started to slither out of the opened passage: a snake, about seventy feet long and 8 feet in girth, slowly but surely was approaching them.
Dumbledore eyes opened wide for a moment – he was really surprised by its size, but then the steel of determination returned back into them.
"Find some cover, Harry, and don't try to play a hero – heroes do not have the happily ever after. I will take care of the basilisk." He instructed the boy.
The old wizard sharply pointed his wand at the right wall and made a pulling gesture, ripping a huge chunk of stone and earth from it. He transfigured some of the debris into iron beams, enforcing the considerable tunnel he made thus eliminating the chance of a landslide.
Albus transformed the rest of wreck into a true monstrosity: it had a general resemblance to humanoid, with long hands with fists the size of a fully-grown man, thick legs with massive feet, heavy torso, and very short neck that connected the rest of the body with head with two eye-sockets in which violet flame was burning. The huge stone abomination roared deafeningly and engaged the snake into fight.
Once it reached the basilisk, Dumbledore's creation grabbed the monster of Chamber under its head, suffocating it.
The basilisk somehow escaped the grip and tried to coil around the golem, apparently in hope of immobilizing the construct – it would be the right choice if not one serious problem.
It was much stronger than the snake.
The stone giant caught the lower jaw of the huge animal with its left hand, and did the same with its right hand and upper jaw of the basilisk.
It started slowly pulling the jaws to the opposite sides, making king of snakes wail in excruciating agony.
Finally the construct tore the snake's lower jaw and a chunk of its throat away, throwing it on the floor.
Dark blood started pumping outside from the artery in a fountain, spilling quickly thickening liquid on the cold stone of the Chamber of Secrets.
Golem hit the floor repeatedly with the remaining head of the monster, turning it into bloody mess.. or mash.
The monster snake's body convulsed on the floor for a minute and abruptly laid still.
The stone servant was dismissed by its master, its eyes loosing the flame in its eye-sockets and body crumbling in pieces.
Dumbledore cast a diagnostic charm on the huge serpent, which responded with green glowing aura.
"It is dead for sure. Come out of your hiding spot, my boy".
The third axiom in the magical world. Never become an enemy of the wizard as powerful and skilled as Albus Dumbledore. If you would like to live a long cheerful life.
Harry Potter's jaw was on the floor the second time in half an hour. He had a burning desire inside of him – he wanted to be as good, as his uncle, or even better.
Albus chuckled, seeing Harry's awed face
"One day you will be much better wizard than me, Harry, taking my place in this world. For now, let us see what lies beyond the statue's mouth. After me, my boy."
They levitated themselves inside the stone impression.
The entrance room was quite large. Large and with huge piles of snakes faeces on its floor.
Albus cast the Bubblehead charm on both of them.
There was another door. Beyond it was a room which for sure was the private quarters of Salazar Slytherin: there was a fireplace that was not lit for a lo-o-ong time for sure, comfortable chair stood by it, a few shelves on the walls full of books, and a large bed coloured, evidently, in green and silver.
While the words written on book covers were some mumbo-jumbo for Dumbledore, for Harry they were readable.
"They are written in Parseltongue, uncle. May I take them?" Harry asked with puppy eyes which Albus ignored.
At least, he tried to ignore.
"I'm not sure, my boy. Aren't they little bit dangerous for you?"
"I'll be very careful."
"Let me check them for the curses first."
He cast a diagnostic spell on them, making them glow neutral white
"They are safe, or, it's better to say, not cursed. Just don't let Salazar's ideas get into your young head."
"I won't, uncle. I promise." Harry said and shrank all the books with a charm, putting them in his pocket happily - his mind started itching to read them already.
"Fawkes!"
The great phoenix appeared on headmaster's shoulder
"Take us to my office, my friend"
The bird trilled happily and made them all disappear in a bright flash of fiery flame, leaving the lonely room behind.
Harry read the diary of Slytherin, finding no last made confessions or some similar nonsense. It told him about one of the four school founders' life – the first notes being entered in it when Salazar was just a young man about fourteen years old.
Salazar described how he once met other three founders in his dwellings. After a decade of adventuring together and becoming accomplished wizards, which names were famous in all the magical world, and rich, they found a school, so becoming known as the Hogwarts Four.
The last notes were some wild flow of crazy ranting that tried to prove the pureblood supremacy. But Harry knew who proved otherwise to Slytherin.
With the help of highly enchanted magical sword. Or, actually, a slash of one.
By reading the 'Parseltongue and its uses' book, he found out that he could, instead of usual words, use 'parseltongued' ones, making it difficult for 99.999 percent, or something close, of magical people to predict his moves in combat.
Other books were describing Salazar's research of the soul vessels and private collection of spells described for his heir. And while Harry wasn't sure he was related to Slytherin, he was sure that he will learn every one of them.
He also took a note to not forget telling his uncle about this 'soul vessels'.
Albus looked grieved when he heard that.
"Harry, the news you bring are most grief. Now, I think, there is no point in not showing you the Prophecy, my boy. The Dark Lord knows only the first half of it. But I, being the witness of its appearance, have the memory of it."
He approached one of the cabinets and took a strange bowl, which was made of coarse stone.
He touched his right temple with the tip of his wand, looking totally concentrated. Harry's eyes opened wide when Albus pulled out a silvery strand that was waving lazily out of feeble flow of the air in the office.
"What is it, uncle?" Harry asked.
"This useful tool is called a Pensieve, young man. It allows you to see memories you put inside of it. Now come here. I'll show you my memory of the day when the prophecy was made."
'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ...'
The-boy-who-knew-he-was-screwed looked pale.
"I'm the only one that can kill Voldemort, uncle? But how?" the boy asked his old mentor desperately.
"Harry, don't let emotions take control over you – it is the most definite feature of a weak man. In a few more years, I'll teach you everything absolutely vital for you to at least successfully hold him off for a long enough time to escape. I will start to search for this 'soul vessels' during the summer – do not try to do it by yourself. And Harry, it is of utmost importance that you begin to learn not only from me and Severus, but on your own at any possible opportunity." the old said seriously.
"I know, uncle Albus. I won't let you and my parents down", Harry said, a bright steel of determination flashed in his emerald-green eyes for the first time ever in his eleven-years-long life.
AN(02.10.2011): Eww.. completely redone half of this chapter. Tell me if you like it more or don't give a damn, because you, like most normal people, don't read prologues =). Five more chapters revised, and I drop the bomb (I'm sure you'll love it!) which I promised on your heads.