Chapter 5 ~ The Chamber of Secrets
-separater-
Darkness was all I could see. It enveloped me, becoming a part of me. It was oppressive, but not unpleasant.
Lights bounced off of my eyelids and then torches were lit. I could see the same chamber as before, with its stone walls and that same boy. The only difference this time was that there was writing on the walls. It was a series of squiggling lines and straight llines, but I found I could read it. Where was this place?
The boy came toward me and whispered:
/This Harry, is where you shall find me./
I shivered, not knowing why that voice made me so … What? Aroused? Curious?
/Where is here?/ I managed to ask after a few moments. He stroked my face, his eyes traveling down to my groin.
/I think you will be able to locate this place quite easily. What is the place that most cannot find?/
/I … there are a few places in the castle that are believed to be legendary. Places that have only been written about in books …/
/Very good Harry. I shall see you then,/ he said, fading away into the darker parts of the room.
/Wait./ I hissed, but he was already gone.
-separaster-
Harry woke covered in sweat. It had been the first time he could see enough of the room to guess its location. A place like that … it could only belong to a parselmouth. The best known parselmouth in Hogwarts was Salazar Slytherin, but that couldn't have been the founder. What use would he have for contacting a student?
He got up and stretched. Draco was lying face down on his bed and snoring lightly.
"Draco?"
"Yes Harry?" the blonde asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"I think I might know where that chamber is."
"Chamber? Oh the one you keep dreaming about?" the other boy asked.
Harry had told the Malfoy about his dreams, but only what he felt he would need to know. It would be unsettling to hear that the 'boy savior' was infatuated with both Voldemort and the boy from his dreams. Not only did he not know who the boy was, but he had no idea why he aroused him so. Why tell someone about that if he couldn't answer that question for himself?
"Are you alright Potter?" asked the Malfoy, coming over to touch the other boy's shoulder.
"I'll be fine Draco. I want to check something out." Said Harry. It was a Saturday, and thus they had no classes.
"Do you want company? I wish to shower first." Asked the blonde.
"That would be great. I don't want a repeat of the Chamber message. If something like that is found once mor, it would be nice to have someone else there." Said Harry. The Malfoy smiled, knowing that was the closest he would get to a compliment this early in the morning.
After they had both showered and dressed they left the common room.
"Where are we going?" asked Draco.
"I have a few places I would like to check out. I found out something new in my dreams last night." Said Harry.
"What's that?" asked the Malfoy.
"I know that the walls are covered in Parsel writing. If I can find out where that is I am sure I would have found the place."
"So you still think it exists?" asked the blonde. Harry just nodded and started to walk away from the Slytherin dorms.
-separater-
First he went outside into the snow. It was March, and the snow was falling softly onto the frigid ground.
"Couldn't you have told me we were coming out here?" complained the blonde as he cast a warming charm on himself.
"I kind of just wandered out here without thinking. I kind of forgot you were there for a second." Said Harry. He had been so deep in thought that he barely noticed the difference in temperature. Ever since the 'level test' he found that icy temperatures didn't bother him much anymore. A blizzard might bother him though.
"Alright … do you want to stay out here for a while?" asked Draco.
"Sure … I would like a little time to think." Said Harry, making his way through the snow drifts.
The Malfoy followed, wondering what was up with his friend. The Potter boy had been acting weird as of late. Ever since discovering the boy's hybrid creature status Draco had noticed weird things happening. It was subtle, but being a part Veila himself he could catch things that others could not. Like for instance … Why was the Potter barely noticing the snow? It looked like he could walk across it without even fearing falling. Draco would have to look into this further at a later time.
"Draco?" asked Harry, turning around to face the Malfoy. Draco shook his head and caught up to his friend.
"Sorry … just thinking." Replied the boy.
"We can think by the lake, I want to be farther away from the castle right now." Said Harry.
"Why?" asked Draco.
"… want to be away from Dumbledore …" muttered Harry as he picked up speed on his way to the lake.
Once they arrived Harry sat down on a raised section of snow. Draco sat beside him and a comfortable silence washed over them. Harry broke it nearly half an hour later, standing up and pointing his wand at a frozen looking Draco.
"Incendio," he said, letting just a bit of the fire brush Draco's skin. He manipulated the fire, so that it made a sort of heat shield around the Malfoy. Draco nodded gratefully and stood up himself.
"How did you do that?" he asked.
"I don't really know. It's just the intent behind the magic I guess …" said Harry scratching his neck.
"… that's very advanced magic." Said draco, reaching out to touch the shield. It sparked slightly but did not burn him.
"You have to teach me how to do this sometime." He said as he shook himself. Harry nodded and started back toward the castle.
Once there he made his way toward Lockheart's room. He knocked on the door and the superstar grinned back at him.
"Harry, what brings you here?" asked Gilderoy.
"I would like to ask you something professor." Said Harry, glancing around the corridor.
"And why are you here Mr. Malfoy?" asked the teacher, just noticing the blonde.
"He is with me." Harry said simply as the professor stepped aside to admit the students into his office.
It was as Harry remembered it from his detention five months previously. He watched with amusement as draco's annoyed gaze fell on every picture of Lockheart that hung on the walls.
"What did you want to ask me Harry?"
"I was wondering if you had heard anyone talking during my detention in October?" asked Harry.
"… not that I know of. Why do you ask?" the professor said, rubbing his chin.
"I thought I did. You weren't listening to a wizarding wireless or anything?" asked Harry. That was a stupid way to get answers, but this was Lockheart.
"No … are you alright Harry?"
"I'm fine. I was just wondering." Said Harry, hoping that the professor didn't see him as suspicious. Knowing the self centered blonde man, probably not.
"Is that all Harry?" Gilderoy asked.
"Yes," said the boy. Harry gestured to Draco and nodded. The Malfoy had been glaring at a portrait of the professor, something Harry might have found amusing under other circumstances. But right now all he wanted was to get away from the infuriating man and his stupid portraits. He opened the door and left with draco trailing not too far behind him.
"Where to now Harry?"
"We might as well go take a look at the place where Mrs. Norris was found." Said Harry. There had been a few other petrified people found. Most of them had been mudbloods, but it was curious that the Gryffindor ghost had been petrified as well. Well not petrified exactly, but he was frozen.
"I hope you know what you're doing Potter. If we're caught there …"
The blonde didn't need to finish the sentence.
"We will be fine." Said Harry. They climbed down staircases until they came to the woman's lu. There was water on the floor again and Harry could smell the distinct scent of copper. He let his eyes trail along the wall, not seeing much out of place. His eyes widened as another message caught his eyes. It was clearly written in blood, and it was definitely different from last time.
"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. The body of the child shall rot in the chamber forever. Her bones shall feed ..." Harry red, walking closer to the wall. He touched the letters, noticing that the blood didn't smell like that of a human.
"This isn't human blood. I wonder why?" he asked, not expecting an answer.
"it could be almost anything Potter. I would bet that it's not magical creature blood though. I would know." Said Draco, coming to stand next to his friend.
"Then what else would it be?" asked Harry.
"… I think it's chicken blood." Said Draco.
Chicken blood? Why did that sound familiar?
Since the attacks had started Harry had been researching what could have spoken on Halloween. What creature could speak through walls that only he could hear? He hadn't found much, but now that draco mentioned chicken blood, that did ring a bell.
"Rooster blood?" he asked. Draco nodded and stepped back.
"I can only think of one or two reasons anyone would use that." Said Harry, moving over to the lu's door.
"Are there any other Slytherins that can understand snakes Draco?" asked the dark haired boy.
"Not that I know of." Said Draco. Harry opened the door and nearly gagged. There was so much water on the floor, and it didn't smell that great.
He spelled the floor clean and stepped inside.
"We shouldn't be in here." Said Draco.
"Who's going to find us? No one uses this bathroom anymore." Said Harry.
"I guess … If it's always flooded why would anyone want to use it?" Draco said, giving the floor a disgusted look.
Harry's eyes roamed over the dingy tiles of the out of order lu. There was nothing extraordinary about it, just having the stalls, sinks, mirrors, and toilets that any other lu possessed. Then his eyes landed on a dark object on the floor in the last stall. He started toward it, the blonde reluctantly following.
He picked up the object, noticing right away that it was a book. He flipped it open, hoping to find something useful on the pages. What met his eyes was old yellowing pages, and they were all blank. He quickly scanned the book, finding no words. Then he spied something embossed into the inside of the back cover.
"T.M.R." he read, wondering what that meant.
Draco looked over his shoulder and sniggered.
"So it's an old book?" he asked.
"I think it might be some kind of diary actually." Said Harry.
"Diary? What gave you that idea?" asked the Malfoy heir. Harry shook his head and left the stall. He leaned against one of the sinks and ug in his robes for the quill he always kept there.
He extracted the quill along with an ink well. He sighed and turned to the first page. He dipped the quill into the ink and let it hover above the page. The ink disappeared, leaving a slightly confused Potter to stare at the page.
'Hello?'
Hello. Who am I speaking with?
'My name is Harry.'
Harry? You wouldn't happen to be Harry Potter would you?
'Maybe … Why does it matter?'
After this had gone on for a while he snapped the book closed. Every line of text he had written would disappear, and then another message would appear. Apparently the person he was writing to was Tom Riddle. Who the hell was Tom Riddle?
Draco kept giving him curious looks throughout the entire ordeal.
"Are you done being fascinated by a bloody book Potter?" he asked. Harry glared at him and hugged the small black book to his chest.
"It's not just a book Draco. I am curious to why the ink disappears. I think I shall study this." The dark haired boy said. Draco sighed and followed the other boy out of the lu.
-separater-
It was now April, and the snow had begun to melt. The students of Hogwarts were basking in the warmer weather near the lake. Ron and Hermione stood near each other, not wanting to talk much. Lately they had been fighting over Harry. Was the boy Dark, or was he just angry about something?
"I still think he's just angry." Said Ron, trying to break the silence that always annoyed him.
"He has become a dark wizard. How many times do I have to tell you that Ronald?" retorted the bushy haired girl.
"Lockheart obviously annoys him. I don't know how you and that slimy slytherin girl can stand him."
"There is nothing wrong with Professor Lockheart Ron." Said Hermione, always the first to defend their defense professor.
"Sure," said Ron, staring anywhere but at the girl next to him.
"I only wish I could have become friends with him last year." Said Ron, after there had been a period of silence between the two.
"I think he should have been in Ravenclaw. I have never seen anyone read that much, not even myself." Said the girl, her eyes alight with the passion only given to studying.
"But he always hangs around with that Malfoy. I think he belongs in the house of the slimy snakes." Said Ron.
"Just because someone is in a house you don't like doesn't mean you have to make fun of them." Said Hermione leveling Ron with a glare.
He shrugged and turned back to the lake.
"I'm only sayin' that he is one of them." He muttered.
"He does seem to get along well with Malfoy, but I haven't really seen him with many others." Said Hermione. Ron shook his head and stared at her.
"Do you think he has anything to do with the attacks?" he asked the question he had been wondering about since the first message had appeared on the wall. The second one had unnerved him, making him fear for the student who was down there.
"I don't know. It did look suspicious the first time the message appeared … There is no way that he could have written it though. He was with Lock-"
"I am well aware of how it looked." Said Harry, glaring at both of them. When had he appeared, and how had he snuck up on them?
"Harry …" said Hermione, trhying to meet the boy's gaze. The avada kedavra eyes shone brightly in the early morning.
"I would advise you to hold your tongues. It could be you who makes it down into the chamber." He said, smirking at their appaled expressions.
"…"
"Just remember that things aren't always as they seem." The black haired boy said over his shoulder as he left them.
-separater-
It was five days into April when the diary went missing. Harry searched for it frantically, but never found it. Another person had been attacked while he was searching. This one was Hermione Granger, the mudblood he had told off not a week before.
He had gone to see her in the Hospital Wing, figuring he might find something. She was always reading, and she really should have been in Ravenclaw. He looked down at her as he came into the Hospital Wing, seeing something in her petrified hands.
"Sinks … pipes … Basilisk …" he read as he scanned the paper she had been clutching.
So a Basilisk? That would explain a lot. If he was the only resident Parselmoth at Hogwarts a snake would be the answer to why no one else heard it. If it was traveling in the pipes, no one would see it either. He had to give the mudblood credit, she knew how to study well when it counted.
He rose from the chair next to her bed and made his way back to the Slytherin common room. On the way there he saw something that made him stop. There, next to a pile of water in the second corridor was another message written in blood.
"The child shall never see the light of day. Her corpse will rot in the chamber …"
He turned as Snape came into the corridor.
"I did not write this." He said.
"I know you didn't Mr. Potter. I saw it here a few minutes ago. The Chamber of Secrets I am guessing …" the professor said.
Chamber of Secrets?
"Sir …"
"I am not sure if that's where she is for sure. It does sound like it. The Chamber was something only told of in books when I went to school here." Said Snape, reading and re-reading the message on the wall.
"The Chamber … so that's where she is …" said Harry.
"Where is the Chamber?" Harry asked his professor.
"No one knows for sure where it is. There are those who say it doesn't even exist. It's something that was created by Salazar Slytherin." Said Snape. Harry nodded, making his way back to the Slytherin common room.
-separater-
Ginny had been feeling fine on Monday. Then she found herself mouthing "open" in the out of order woman's lu on the second floor. What did Tom want her to do again? She could hardly think straight now, blindly following his orders. He was always right, and that's what made her keep following him.
He had promised to give her Harry, and she was determined to have him. If she did what Tom said he had promised him to her. That was all that she wanted; for him to be hers, and no one else's.
-separater-
Harry got up and heard whispering in the common room the next day. Students were waiting around the fire place, seemingly for some kind of announcement.
"What's going on?" he whispered to Draco as he sat down next to the blonde.
"Dumbledore is supposed to talk to us." The boy said, glaring at the portrait hole.
"he better get here soon." The blonde added.
The headmaster strolled in a few minutes later, wearing a brilliant orange set of robes.
"I have been asked to inform you to stay in your dorms today. A child has been taken into the Chamber of Secrets and until that girl is found no one is to leave their common rooms." He announced. There was an uproar, none of the students wanting to be confined to their common room.
"Silence! There is no negotiating this. You shall all stay here until the child is found." Said the professor.
Harry's angry gaze met the headmaster's.
"Is the school going to be closed?" he asked. It had only been a rumor, but he was sure other Slytherins would like to hear an answer as well.
"Yes. If the culprit is not found today the school will be closed." Dumbles said. There was some outraged shouting as the Headmaster left the Slytherin Common Room.
-sseparater-
Harry growled and disillusioned Draco, who was beside him. They had snuck out of their room and were now trying to leave the Slytherin common room.
"Do you think they'll find out we're gone?" asked Draco, smirking.
"If they do who cares. I am not going back to the home of my muggle relatives again." Said Harry, making sure the spell he had cast on Draco was working. He then disillusioned himself and they both left the common room.
Lockheart had said that he 'knew' where the Chamber of Secrets was a few days ago. That's where they were now heading, and they weren't going to take no for an answer. Harry knocked on the door to the professor's office, and canceld the spells concealing himself and Draco as it opened. Lockheart grinned at Harry and scowled at Draco.
"Come in," he said.
There were boxes and trunks lining the walls of the office.
"You going somewhere?" asked Harry.
"I am leaving. Finding kidnapped girls is not part of my job description." Replied the professor.
"So you're running away?" sneered Draco.
"… I am preserving my life." Said Lockheart. Both boys snorted and begun to drag Lockheart out of the office.
"Where're we going?" Lockheart asked rather loudly.
Harry smirked and silenced the professor with a spell. He led the quieted man to the woman's lu. He had seen a serpent's head carved into one of the faucets, and thought it might lead to the Chamber. There was no way to be sure, but he wanted to have Lockheart there so he could take the blame if it wasn't.
He canceled the spell that kept the professor silent and started to search for the engraved snake on the sinks. Draco kept guard at the door, so that the professor couldn't escape.
"Let me out of here. I don't know where the Chamber is." The blonde man said, a bit of a whine in his voice.
"So it was all to make yourself look good?" asked Harry, venom dripping from his words. Lockheart nodded slightly, looking at Harry.
His eyes widened in fear as he looked into avada kedavra eyes lined with red.
"Harry …" said Draco, noticing the drop in the boy's glamour. Harry shook his head and continued on his search for the serpent's head. When he found it he grinned, loving how Lockheart seemed to become more and more scared of him as he watched.
/Open./ he hissed, and there was an unbelievably loud grinding noise.
The thestral hybrid and the part viela covered their ears from the loud noise. The human superstar seemed not to have noticed the noise. He gaped as a pipe appeared out of nowhere.
"Where does that go?" he asked. Harry shrugged and pushed Lockheart toward the pipe.
"It probably leads to the Chamber. You first Professor."
"I think I'll pass." Said Lockheart.
Draco and harry smirked at each other and then turned to the blonde –pink-haired- man.
"No Professor, I insist." Said Harry.
"This is the time to redeem your poor teaching career." Said Draco. Before the teacher could reply they had pushed him into the pipe. They snickered and then went in after him.
-separater-
A/N:
I know people might be annoyed with me. I am stopping it here for a reason. I still have to figure out exactly what to do with this.
In the next chapter Harry, Draco, and Lockheart will find Ginny and the diary version of Tom Riddle. I am probably going to keep the interaction with Harry and Tom somewhat canon. Like I said before, Harry fights voldemort [no matter which version of him] because he is attacked first. It is more an act of self defense than the desire to kill the dark lord.
Please R and R
I shall still dedicate a chapter to the person who can guess what the dream in the last chapter meant.